With these words, she contrived a makeshift kirtle with the leaves, and modestly covered the circle of her breast with this green girdle, pressing thigh upon thigh. The other seeing her so downcast, answered thus:
I feel the fear inborn in a maiden, because I was born of a laurel, and I am pursued like Daphne, But where I shall flee? Shall I hide under a rock ? No, thunderbolts have burnt to ashes the mountains hurled at Olympos ; and I tremble at your lustful Pan, who will persecute me like Pitys, like Syrinx— I shall be chased myself until become another Echo to scour the hills and second another’s speech. will haunt these clusters no longer: I will leave my tree and live in the mountains which are still half to be seen’ where Artemis also hunts, and she loves a maiden. —Yet Cronion won the bed of Callisto by taking the form of Artemis ! I will plunge into the briny deep—what Is marriage to me ’—Yet in the sea, Earthshaker chased Asterie in the madness of his passion. O that I had wings to fly! I will traverse the heights, and take the road which the winds of the air do travel But perhaps racing wings are also useless Typhoeus reaches the with high-clambering hands But if he will force me by violence, I will change my shape, I will mingle with the birds; flitting as Philomela, I will be the swallow dear to Zephyros in spring-time, harbinger of roses and flowery dew, prattling bird that sings a sweet song under the tiles, dashing about her nest with dancing wings. And, you, Procne, after your bitter sufferings, you may weep for your son with mourning notes, and I will groan for my bridal.— Lord Zeus I make me no swallow, or angry Tereus on the wing may chase me, like Typhoeus Air, mountain, sea, I may tread none of them : I will hide me deep I in the earth. No the water-snakes of the monsters viperish feet crawl into the caverns underground, spitting potion I May be a fountain of water in the country, like Comaitho, mingling her newly flowing water with her father Cydnos— no, not to suit the story, because I shall then have to join my virgin water with the out-gushings of a lovesick maid. I But where I shall flee Shall mingle with Typhon Then shall bear a son like the father—an alien, multiform ! Let me be another tree, and pass from tree to tree keeping the name of a virtuous maid ; may I never, instead of laurel, be called that unhallowed plant which gave its name to Myrrha Yes, I beseech thee let me be one of the Heliades beside the stream of mourning Eridanos : often will drop amber from my eyelids ; I will spread my leaves to entwine with the dirgedoving clusters of my neighbouring poplar, bewailing my maidenhood with abundant tears—for Phaethon will not be my lament, Forgive me, my laurel ; I shrink from being another tree after the tree of my former wood. I also will A be a stone, like Niobe, that way farces may pity me : too, a groaning stone.— But why be the shape of one with that ill-omened tongue? Be gracious, Leto! Perish the god-defiant name of a nymph unhappy to be a mother of While she spoke, Phaethon had left the rounded sky, and turned his car towards setting : silent Night leapt up from earth into the air like a high-stretching cone, and wrapped heaven about in a starry robe spangling the welkin, The immortals moved about the cloudless Nile, but Zeus Cronides on the brows of Tauros awaited the light of toil-awakening Dawn,
It was night. Sentinels stood in line around Olympos and the seven zones, and as it were from the summit of towers came their nightly alarms ; the calls of the stars in many tongues were carried ; all abroad, and the moon’s turning-mark received the creaking echo from Saturn’s starting-point. Now the Seasons, guardians of the upper air, handmaids of Phaethon, had fortified the sky with a long string ; of covering clouds like a coronal The stars had: closed the Atlantean bar of the inviolable gates, lest some stealthy troop should enter the heavens while the Blessed ones were away : instead of the noise of pipes and the familiar flute,’ the breezes whistled a tune with their wings through the night Old Oxherd was on guard with unsleeping eyes, in company with the heavenly Serpent of the Arcadian Bear, looking out from on high for some nightly assault of Typhon: the Morning Star watched the east, the Evening Star the west, and Cepheus, leaving the southern gates to the Archer, himself patrolled the rainy gates of the north,
Watchfires were all around : for the blazing flames of the stars, and the nightly lamp of unresting Selene, sparkled like torches. Often the shoot stars, leaping through the heights of Olympos with windswept whirl from the ether, scored the air with flame on Cronion’s right hand ; often the lightning danced, twisting about like a tumbler, and tearing the clouds as it shot through, the uncertain brilliance which runs to and fro, now hidden, now shining, in alternating swing ; and the comet twined in clusters the long strands of his woven fame, and made a ragged light with his hairy fire. Stray meteors were also shining, like long rafters stretching across the sky, shooting their long fires as allies of Zeus ; and the rain’s comrade, the bow of Iris, wove his many colours into a rounded track, and shone bent under the light-shafts of Phaethon opposite, mingling pale in with dark, and light with rosy,
We Zeus was alone, when Victory came to comfort him, scoring the high paths of the air with her shoe, She had the form of Leto; and while she armed her father, she made him a speech full of reproaches, with guileful lips :
He Lord Zeus stand up as champion of your own children! Let me never see Athena mingled with Typhon, she who knows not the way of a man with maid! Make not a mother of the unmothered Fight, brandish your lightning, the fiery spear of Olympos Gather once more your clouds, lord of the rain! For the foundations of the steadfast universe are already shaking under Typhon’s hands : the four blended elements are melted! Deo has renounced her harvests, Hebe has left her cup, Ares has thrown down his spear, Hermes has dropped his staff, Apollo has cast away his harp, and taken a swan’s form, and flown off on the wing, leaving his winged arrows behind Aphrodite, the goddess who brings wedlock to pass, has gone a-wandering, and the universe is without seed. The bonds indissoluble of harmony are dissolved : for bold Eros has flown in panic, leaving behind his generative arrows, he the adorner of brides, he the all- mastering, the unmastered And your fiery Hephaistos has left his favourite Lemnos, and dragging unruly knees, look how slow he keeps his unsteady course” See a great miracle—I pity your Hera, though she hates me sure enough ! What—is your begetter to come back into the assembly of the stars May that never be, Ye pray! Even if I am called a Titaness, I wish to see no Titans lords of Olympos, but you and your children. Take your lordly thunderbolt and champion chaste Artemis. What—do I keep my maiden a or a bridegroom who offers no gifts but only violence What—is the dispenser of childbirth to see childbirth of her own? Will she stretch out her hands to me, and then what gracious Eileithyia shall I call for the Archeress, of Eileithyia herself is in childbed ?
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