The Poetical Works of Addison; Gay's Fables; and Somerville's Chase · Chapter 16The Transformation of Tiresias
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'Twas now, while these transactions passed on earth, And Bacchus thus procured a second birth, When Jove, disposed to lay aside the weight Of public empire and the cares of state, As to his queen in nectar bowls he quaffed, 'In troth,' says he, and as he spoke he laughed, 'The sense of pleasure in the male is far More dull and dead than what you females share.' Juno the truth of what was said denied; Tiresias therefore must the cause decide; _10 For he the pleasure of each sex had tried. It happened once, within a shady wood, Two twisted snakes he in conjunction viewed; When with his staff their slimy folds he broke, And lost his manhood at the fatal stroke. But, after seven revolving years, he viewed The self-same serpents in the self-same wood; 'And if,' says he, 'such virtue in you lie, That he who dares your slimy folds untie Must change his kind, a second stroke I'll try.' _20 Again he struck the snakes, and stood again New-sexed, and straight recovered into man. Him therefore both the deities create The sovereign umpire in their grand debate; And he declared for Jove; when Juno, fired More than so trivial an affair required, Deprived him, in her fury, of his sight, And left him groping round in sudden night. But Jove (for so it is in heaven decreed, That no one god repeal another's deed) _30 Irradiates all his soul with inward light, And with the prophet's art relieves the want of sight.