"Exceptus gladio parvulus impio,
Dum currit patrium natus ad osculum,
Immatura focis victima concidit."
"The little Pelops, met by the impious sword, while he was running to receive his father's kiss, fell a premature victim on the hearth."
Claudian, Rapt. Proserp. III. 173., has another:
"Hæc post cunabula dulci
Ferre sinu, summoque Jovi deducere parvam
Sueverat, et genibus ludentem aptare paternis."
"She was accustomed to bear the little infant, after it had slept in its cradle, in her fragrant bosom, to present it to almighty Jove, and to place it sporting on its father's knees."
But the best adaptations and expansions of the thought have been among the writers of our own country. The earliest allusion to it, I believe, occurs in Thomson's description of the traveller lost in the snow: