Statius: Thebaid, Vol. 2 & Achilleid

Straightway from Lemnos fled the tender Loves, mute was Hymen and his torches turned, and cold the care of the lawful couch! No nights return to joy, no slumber is in the embrace, bitter Hatred is everywhere, and Frenzy, and Discord rests in the midst of the bed. The men had a perverse desire to overthrow the swelling Thracians on their shores and to crush that savage nation by warfare. And though their homes stood over against them, and their children on the shore, it was sweeter to endure the Edonian winters and the pressing North, or at last, after the battles, to hear in the silent night the sudden ruin of crashing torrents. But those others, sad—for at that time maidenhood and my tender years shielded me from cares—languishing in constant tears day and night, mingled consoling conversation, or gazed across the seas at savage Thrace. The sun, in the midst of his labors, was poising his shining horses on the summit of Olympus, as if he stood still; four times he thundered from a serene sky, four times the caverns of the smoking god bared their panting peaks, and Aegon, though the winds were absent, was stirred and struck the shores with a mighty sea: when suddenly Polyxo, ripe in years, is lifted into horrendous furies and, unaccustomed, flies from her abandoned chambers. Just as a Teumesian Thyiad, snatched by the god, when the sacred rites call and the boxwood pipe of Ida persuades and Euhan is heard from the highest mountains: so, with head erect and eyes suffused with trembling blood, she rouses the deserted city with rabid clamors, and beating upon closed houses and thresholds