So didst thou speak, and she gladly ceased from her grievous wandering and sat by the stream of Inopus, which the earth sends forth in deepest flood at the season when the Nile comes down in full torrent from the Aethiopian steep. And she loosed her girdle and leaned back her shoulders against the trunk of a palm-tree, oppressed by grievous distress, and the sweat poured over her flesh like rain. And she spake in her weakness: “Why, child, dost thou weigh down thy mother? There, dear child, is thine island floating on the sea. Be born, be born, my child, and gently issue from the womb.” O Spouse of Zeus, Lady of heavy anger, thou wert not to be for long without tidings thereof: so swift a messenger hastened to thee. And, still breathing heavily, she spake—and her speech was mingled with fear: “Honoured Hera, of goddesses most excellent far, thine am I, all things are thine, and thou sittest authentic queen of Olympus, and we fear no other female hand; and thou, O Queen, wilt know who is the cause of thine anger. Leto is undoing her girdle within an island. All the others spurned her and received her not; but Asteria called her by name as she was passing by—Asteria, that evil scum of the sea: thou knowest it thyself. But, dear Lady,—for thou canst—defend thy servants, who tread the earth at thy behest.”
So she spake and seated her beside the golden throne, even as a hunting hound of Artemis, which, when it hath ceased from the swift chase, sitteth by her feet, and its ears are erect, ever ready to receive the call of the goddess. Like thereto the daughter of Thaumas sat beside the throne. And she never forgetteth her seat, not even when sleep lays upon her his forgetful wing, but there by the edge of the great throne with head a little bent aslant she sleeps.
Never does she unloose her girdle or her swift hunting-boots lest her mistress give her some sudden command. And Hera was grievously angered and spake to her: “So now, O shameful creatures of Zeus, may ye all wed in secret and bring forth in darkness, not even where the poor mill-women bring forth in difficult labour, but where the seals of the sea bring forth, amid the desolate rocks. But against Asteria am I no wise angered for this sin, nor can I do to her so unkindly as I should—for very wrongly has she done a favour to Leto. Howbeit I honour her exceedingly for that she did not desecrate my bed, but instead of Zeus preferred the sea.”
She spake: and with music the swans, the gods’ own minstrels, left Maeonian Pactolus and circled seven times round Delos, and sang over the bed of child-birth, the Muses’ birds, most musical of all birds that fly. Hence that child in after days strung the lyre with just so many strings—seven strings, since seven times the swans sang over the pangs of birth. No eighth time sang they: ere that the child leapt forth and the nymphs of Delos, offspring of an ancient river, sang with far-sounding voice the holy chant of Eileithyia. And straightway the brazen sky echoed back the far-reaching chant and Hera grudged it not, because Zeus had taken away her anger. In that hour, O Delos, all thy foundations became of gold: with gold thy round lake flowed all day, and golden foliage thy natal olive-tree put forth and with gold flowed coiled Inopus in deep flood.
And thou thyself didst take up the child from the golden earth and lay him in thy lap and thou spakest saying: “O mighty and of many altars and many cities, bounteous Earth! rich continents and ye islands set around lo! I am as thou see’st—hard of tillage; yet from me shall Apollo be called ‘of Delos,’ and none other among all lands shall be so beloved by any other god: not Cerchnis so loved by Poseidon, Lord of Lechaeum, not Cyllene’s hill by Hermes, not Crete by Zeus, as I by Apollo; and I shall no more be a wandering isle.” Thus didst thou speak and the child drew the sweet breast.
Wherefore from that day thou art famed as the most holy of islands, nurse of Apollo’s youth. On thee treads not Enyo nor Hades nor the horses of Ares; but every year tithes of first-fruits are sent to thee: to thee all cities lead up choirs, both those cities which have cast their lots toward the East and those toward the West and those in the South, and the peoples which have their homes above the Northern shore, a very long-lived race. These first bring thee cornstalks and holy sheaves of corn-ears, which the Pelasgians of Dodona, who couch upon the ground, servants of the caldron which is never silent—far first receive, as these offerings enter their country from afar.
Next they come to the Holy town and mountains of the Malian land; and thence they sail across to the goodly Lelantian plain of the Abantes; and then not long is the voyage from Euboea, since thy havens are nigh thereto. The first to bring thee these offerings from the fair-haired Arimaspi were Upis and Loxo and happy Hecaerge, daughters of Boreas, and those who then were the best of the young men. And they returned not home again, but a happy fate was theirs, and they shall never be without their glory. Verily the girls of Delos, when the sweet-sounding marriage hymn affrights the maidens’ quarters, bring offerings of their maiden hair to the maidens, while the boys offer to the young men the first harvest of the down upon their cheeks.
Asteria, island of incense, around and about thee the isles have made a circle and set themselves about thee as a choir. Not silent art thou nor noiseless when Hesperus of the curling locks looks down on thee, but ringing evermore with sound. The men sing the song of the old man of Lycia—the very song which the seer Olen brought thee from Xanthos: the maidens of the choir beat with their feet the steadfast ground. Then, too, is the holy image laden with garlands, the famous image of ancient Cypris, whom of old Theseus with the youths established when he was sailing back from Crete.
Having escaped the cruel bellowing and the wild son of Pasiphaë and the coiled habitation of the crooked labyrinth, about thine altar, O lady, they raised the music of the lute and danced the round dance, and Theseus led the choir. Hence the ever-living offerings of the Pilgrim Ship do the sons of Cecrops send to Phoebus, the gear of that vessel.
Asteria of many altars and many prayers, what merchant mariner of the Aegean passes by thee with speeding ship? Never do such mighty winds as that blow upon him, but though need urges the swiftest voyage that may be, yet they speedily furl their sails and go not on board again, ere they have circled thy great altar buffeted with blows and bitten the sacred trunk of the olive, their hands tied behind their backs. These things did the nymph of Delos devise for sport and laughter to young Apollo.
O happy hearth of islands, hail to thyself! Hail also to Apollo and to her whom Leto bare!
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