In the third, look for the much-wandering ship of Cadmos, the palace of Electra and the - hospitality of her table.
The struggle was finished by the end of winter, Orion rose, displaying with his cloudless baldric the glittering surface of his sword. No longer were the frozen footsteps of the setting Bull washed under - the circling mere. No longer in the region of the “thirsty Bear, mother of rains, was the petrified water traversed by unwetted feet. No longer the Massagetan scored watery furrows on the frozen Istros, whipping up his migratory house, and travelling across the river with his track of wooden wheels For already the teeming Season, fore-courier of Zephyros, had inebriated the dewy breezes from the bursting flower-cups ; the full-voiced herald, spring’s A welcome fellow-guest, the chattering twittering swallow, had just shown herself to rob mankind of their morning sleep ; the flower, clear of its fragrant sheath, laughed, Bathed in the life-giving dew of springtime, Early in the morning, when Dawn had cleft the gloom, Cadmos came down from the horned peaks of lofty Tauros along the saffron glens of Cilicia.
was now in season, Cadmos was in haste ; they hauled up the ship’s bridling-hawsers off the land. The mast lifting its head on high struck the upper air standing firmly. A light breeze gently rippling the sea with the breath of the morning hummed All aboard!” Soon it curved the fickle waves with its gusts, and stopt the watery dance of the dolphin, that tumbler of the quiet calm. The intertwined ;
whistled with a shrill hiss, the forestays hummed in the freshening wind, the sail grew big-bellied, enforced by the forthright gale. The restless flood was cleft, then fell back to its place; the water swelled and foamed, the ship sped over the deep, while the keel struck the boisterous waves with a resounding splash, and the end of the steering-oar scored the white-crested billows where the ship’s - wake divided the curving back of the sea. with the tips of their oars and ran her up under shelter of the harbour. A hole drilled through a rocky claw received the hawsers of the ships, and held them immovable, and the curving teeth of the ship’s bridles were wedged tight into the wet sand deep under the water, by the time that the sun went down, On shore, after the evening meal, the men spread their pallets on the sand without bedding ; the poor fellows’ eyes were heavy, and wandering sleep came on them with silent step,
But when along the wing of red fiery Euros, Dawn scraping the peaks of rugged Teucrian Ida from below spilled away the morning twilight, and showed herself to survey the harbour, illuminating the black swell of the opposite sea, then Cypris spread out a back of silent calm where no ship could sail, for she meant to unite Harmonia to her mate, Already the bird of morning was cutting the air with loud cries: already the helmeted bands of desert- haunting Corybants were beating on their shields in the Cnossian dance, and leaping with rhythmic steps, and the oxhides thudded under the blows of the iron as they whirled them about in rivalry, while the double pipe made music, and quickened the dancers) with its rollicking tune in time to the bounding steps, Aye, and the trees whispered, the rocks boomed, ” the forests held jubilee with their intelligent movings and shakings, and the Dryads did sing. Packs of bears joined the dance, skipping and wheeling face to face; lions with a roar from emulous throats mimicked the triumphant cry of the priests of the Cabeiroi, sane in their madness ; the revelling pipes I rang out a tune in honour of Hecate, divine friend of dogs, those single pipes, which the horn-polisher’s art invented in Cronos’s days,
The noisy Corybants with their ringingin awoke Cadmos early in the morning ; the Sidonian seamen also with one accord, hearing the never-silent oxhide at dawn, rose from their rattling pebbly pallets and left the brine-beaten back of the shore, their bed. Cadmos: left the ship to his companions, and set out on foot for a quick walk to find the city. As he was going towards Harmonia’s house, he was met by Peitho Lady of the bride-chamber. She had the form of a mortal woman, and like a household drudge, she carried a weight pressed against her bosom by her arm, ” a rounded silver jug which she had filled with drink from the spring : a presage of things to come, since they drench the bridegroom by time-honoured custom with life-giving water in the bath before the marriage. He was now close by the city, where in hollow pits bundles on bundles of soiled clothing are trodden by, the women’s bounding feet, trodden in emulation.? Peitho covered Cadmos with a dark mist from heels to head, and led him through the unseeing city in search of the king’s hospitable hall, guiding his way by the Paphian’s command. There some bird “perched under the delicate shadow of a gray olive- tree, —it was a crow, she opened her loud beak inSpireds and reproached the young man for a laggard, that the bridegroom walked to his bride Harmonia with dawdling foot. She flapt her wings and rallied him soundly :
So Cadmos is a baby, or only a novice in love! Eros is a quick one, and knows nothing of slow bride-
Forgive me, Peitho—your Cadmos dallies, ; Aphrodite is in haste! Hot Eros calls you, bridegroom—you plod along like a laggard, and why ? You are a nice neighbour for charming Adonis! You are a nice fellow-countryman for the girls of Byblos No, I am wrong : you never saw the river of Adonis ; you never set eyes on the soil of Byblos, where the: Graces have their home, where Assyrian Cythereia dances, and an Athena who is not coy ! Peitho is your guide, not Artemis, Peitho the friend of marriage, the nurse of the baby Loves. Cease your toiling and “moiling, enjoy Harmonia and leave Europa to her bull! Make haste, and Electra will welcome you ; from her hands sure enough you will be laden with a cargo of wedded love, if you leave the business part of the delights to Aphrodite. She is the Cyprian’s daughter, guarded for your bride-chamber, another Cypris for you to receive. You will thank the crow, and you will call me the bird of marriage, the prophet of the Loves ! No, I am wrong, Cypris inspired me ; the Paphian made me foretell your nuptials, although I am Athena’s bird With these words, she sealed up her talkative beak, a silent witness now,
Cadmos walked along the winding highroad ; and if when the king’s allhospitable court came into view, far-seen upon its lofty pillars, Peitho pointed a finger to indicate the corresponding words in her mind, and by this voiceless herald showed the house of shining artistry : then the divinity in another shape rose into the sky, shooting through it with winged shoe,
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