husband, whose spouse is Torone of Phlegra, even he to whom laughter and tears are alike abhorred and who is ignorant and reft of both; who once on a time crossed from Thrace unto the coastland which is furrowed by the outflow of Triton; crossed not by sailing ship but by an untrodden path, like some moldwarp, boring a secret passage in the cloven earth, made his ways beneath the sea, avoiding the stranger-slaying wrestling of his sons and sending to his sire prayers which were heard, even that he should set him with returning feet in his fatherland, whence he had come as a wanderer to Pallenia, nurse of the earth-born—he, like Guneus, a doer of justice and arbiter of the Sun’s daughter of Ichnae, shall assail thee with evil words and rob thee of thy bridal, casting thee forth in thy desire from thy wanton dove: thee who, regarding not the tombs of Lycus and Chimaereus, glorious in oracles, nor thy love of Antheus nor the pure salt of Aigaeon eaten by host and guest together, didst dare to sin, against the gods and to overstep justice, kicking the
table and overturning Themis, modelled in the ways of the she-bear that suckled thee.
Therefore in vain shalt thou twang the noisy bowstring, making melodies that bring nor food nor fee; and in sorrow shalt thou come to thy fatherland that was burnt of old, embracing in thine arms the wraith of the five-times-married frenzied descendant of Pleuron. For the lame daughters of the ancient Sea with triple thread have decreed that her bedfellows shall share their marriage-feast among five bridegrooms.
Two shall she see as ravening wolves, winged wanton eagles of sharp eyes; the third sprung from root of Plynos and Carian waters, a half-Cretan barbarian, an Epeian, no genuine Argive by birth: whose grandfather of old Ennaia Hercynna Erinys Thuria, the Sword-bearer, cut fleshless with her jaws and buried in her throat, devouring the gristle of his shoulder: his who came to youth again and
escaped the grievous raping desire of the Lord of Ships and was sent by Erechtheus to Letrina’s fields to grind the smooth rock of Molpis—whose body was served as sacrifice to Rainy Zeus—that he might overcome the wooer-slayer by the unholy device for slaying his father-in-law which the son of Cadmilus devised; who drinking his last cup dived into his tomb in Nereus—the tomb which bears his name—crying a blighting curse upon the race; even he who held the reins of swift-footed Psylla and Harpinna hoofed even as the Harpies.
The fourth again shall she see own brother of the swooping falcon; him whom they shall proclaim to have won the second prize among his brothers in the wrestling of war. And the fifth she shall cause to pine upon his bed, distracted by her phantom face in his dreams; the husband to be of the stranger-frenzied lady of Cyta; even him whom one day the exile from Oenone fathered, turning into men the six-footed host of ants,—the Pelasgian Typhon, out of seven sons consumed in the flame alone escaping the fiery ashes.
And he shall come upon his homeward path, raising the tawny wasps from their holes, even as a child disturbs their nest with smoke. And they in their turn shall come, sacrificing cruelly to the blustering winds the heifer that bare the war-named son, the mother that was brought to bed of the dragon of Scyrus; for whom her husband shall search within the Salmydesian Sea, where she cuts the throats of Greeks, and shall dwell for a long space in-the white-crested rock by the outflowing of the marshy waters of the Celtic stream; yearning for his wife whom at her slaying a hind shall rescue from the knife, offering her own throat instead.
And the deep waste within the wash of the waves upon the beach shall be called the Chase of the bridegroom, mourning his ruin and his empty seafaring and her that vanished and was changed to an old witch, beside the sacrificial vessels and the lustral water and the bowl of Hades bubbling from the depths with flame, whereon the dark lady will blow, potting the flesh of the dead as might a cook.
And he lamenting shall pace the Scythian land for some five years yearning for his bride. And they, beside the altar of the primal prophet, Cronus, who devours the callow young with their mother, binding themselves by the yoke of a second oath, shall take in their arms the strong oar, invoking him who saved them in their former woes, even
Bacchus, the Overthrower, to whom, the bull-god, one day in the shrine beside the cavern of Delphinius the Gainful god, the lord of a thousand ships, a city-sacking host, shall make secret sacrifice. And in unlooked-for requital of his offerings the god of Phigaleia, the lusty Torch-god, shall stay the lion from his banquet, entangling his foot in withes, so that he destroy not utterly the cornfield of men, nor lay it waste with tooth and devouring jaws.
Long since I see the coil of trailing woes dragging in the brine and hissing against my fatherland dread threats and fiery ruin.
Would that in sea-girt Issa Cadmus had never begotten thee to be the guide of the foemen, fourth in descent from unhappy Atlas, even thee, Prylis, who didst help to overthrow thine own kindred, prophet most sure of best fortune! And would that my father had not spurned the nightly terrors of the oracles of Aesacus and that for the sake of my fatherland he had made away with the two in one doom, ashing their bodies with Lemnian fire. So had not such a flood of woes overwhelmed the land.
And now Palaemon, to whom babes are slain,
beholds the hoary Titanid bride of Ogenus seething with the corded gulls.
And now two children are slain together with their father who is smitten on the collar-bone with the hard mill-stone, an omen of good beginning; those children which before escaped when cast-.out to death in an ark through the lying speech of the piper, to whom hearkened the sullen butcher of his children—he the gull-reared, captive of the nets of fishermen, friend of winkle and bandy sea-snail —and imprisoned his two children in a chest. And therewithal the wretch, who was not mindful to tell the bidding of the goddess mother but erred in forgetfulness, shall die upon his face, his breast pierced by the sword.
And now Myrina groans and the sea-shores awaiting the snorting of horses, when the fierce wolf shall leap the swift leap of his Pelasgian foot upon the last beach and cause the clear spring to gush from the sand, opening fountains that hitherto were hidden.
And now Ares, the dancer, fires the land, with his conch leading the chant of blood. And all the land lies ravaged before my eyes and, as it were fields of corn, bristle the fields of the gleaming spears.
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