Yours is Cythera, yours the Cyprian towers,

The soft recesses, and the sacred bowers.

Why do you then these needless arms prepare,

And thus provoke a people prone to war?

Did I with fire the Trojan town deface,

Or hinder from return your exiled race?

Was I the cause of mischief, or the man,

Whose lawless lust the fatal war began?

Think on whose faith the adulterous youth relied;

Who promised, who procured, the Spartan bride?