A thousand paths of poesy divine are open to him who has received gifts from the Muses of Pieria, and whose songs have been clothed with worship by the dark-eyed Graces who bring the wreath.
Weave, then, some glorious lay in Athens, the lovely and the blest, thou Cean fantasy of fair renown. A choice strain should be thine, since Calliope has given thee a meed of signal honour.
There was a time when, by the counsels of wide-ruling Zeus
most high, the heifer precious in his sight,—the rosy-fingered maid born to Inachus,—was flying from Argos nurse of steeds: when Argus, looking every way with tireless eyes, had been charged by the great queen, Hera of golden robe, to keep unresting, sleepless ward o’er that creature with the goodly horns. Nor could Maia’s son elude him in the sun-lit days or in the holy nights.
Did it befall then that the
swift messenger of Zeus slew huge Argus, Earth’s fierce offspring, [in combat]? Or did the watcher’s unending cares [close his dread eyes ;] or was he lulled to rest from weary troubles by the sweet melody of the Pierian sisters ?
For me, at least, the surest path of song [is that which leads me to the end]; when Io, driven by the gadfly, reached the flowery banks of Nile,
bearing in her womb Epaphus, child of Zeus.
There she brought him forth, to be glorious lord of the linen-robed folk, a prince flourishing in transcendent honour; and there she founded the mightiest race among men. From that race sprang Cadmus, son of Agenor, who in Thebes of the seven gates became father of Semele. And her son was Dionysus, inspirer of Bacchants, [king of joyous revels] and of choruses that wear the wreath...
In spacious Sparta of yore the golden-haired maidens of Lacedaemon chanted such a song as this, when bold-hearted Idas was bringing home the fair maiden, Marpessa of the violet locks, after escaping the swift doom of death; when Poseidon, lord of the sea, had given him a chariot, with steeds swift as the wind, and had sped him on his way to well-built Pleuron, to the son of Ares with golden shield...
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