As Lyaios came up, a man of the Pelasgian country thus called out to one of the servants of the god :
“You there with the grapes , you hybrid ! Argos has her Perseus, one worthy of Hera, and needs not Dionysos. I have another son of Zeus and I want no Bacchos. Dionysos treads the vintage with dancing feet ; my countryman cuts the air with high-travelling steps. Do not think ivy as good as the sickle, for Perseus with his sickle is better than Bacchos with his ivy ; if Bacchos destroyed the Indian host, I will announce an equal prize for Perseus Gorgonslayer and Dionysos Indianslayer. If Bacchos once in the western region of the rolling sea turned into stone a Tyrrhenian ship and fixt it in the sea, my Perseus turned into stone a whole huge monster of the deep. If your Dionysos saved Ariadne, sleeping on the sands beside an empty sea, Perseus on the wing loosed the chains of Andromeda and offered the stone seamonster as a worthy bridal gift. Not for the Paphian’s sake, not while she longed for Theseus did Perseus save Andromeda to be his bride ; a chaste wedding was his. No fiery lightnings burnt Danae to ashes, like Semele ; but the father of Perseus came to his wedding as a golden shower of love from heaven, not as a flaming bedfellow.
“I do not admire this hero at all. For what lusty spear of war does he hold ? Stay, Perseus, do not fight the woman’s ivy with your Gorgonslayer sickle, do not defile your hand with a woman’s buskins, do not shake the cap of Hades upon your brow against a wreath of vineleaves — but if you wish, arm Andromeda against unarmed Dionysos. Begone, Dionysos, I tell you ; leave Argos and its horses and madden once more the women of sevengate Thebes. Find another Pentheus to kill — what has Perseus to do with Dionysos ? Let be the swift stream of Inachos, and let the slow river of Aonian Thebes receive you. I need not remind you of heavy knee Asopos boiling still with the thunderbolt.”
So the man spoke, deriding Dionysos. Meanwhile Pelasgian Hera equipped her Argive army ; she took the shape of the seer Melampus, and angrily called to Perseus Gorgonslayer in martial words :
“Perseus Flashhelm, offspring of heavenly race ! Lift your sickle, and let not weak women lay waste your Argos with an unwarlike thyrsus. Tremble not before only one snake wreathed in the hair, when your monsterslaying sickle reaped such a harvest as the vipers of Medusa ! Attack the army of Bassarids ; remember the brazen vault which was Danae’s chamber, where Rainy Zeus poured in her bosom a shower of bridestealing gold — let not Danae after that bed, after the wedding of gold, bend a slavish knee to that nobody Dionysos. Show that you have in you the true blood of Cronion, show that you have the golden breed, proclaim the bed that received that snowstorm of heavenly riches. Make war on the Satyrs too : turn towards battling Lyaios the deadly eye of snakehair Medusa, and let me see a new Polydectes made stone after the hateful king of wavewashed Seriphos. By your side is Argive Hera in arms, allvanquishing, the stepmother of Bromios. Defend Mycene lift your sickle to save our city, that I may behold Ariadne captive of your spear following Perseus. Kill the array of bullhorned Satyrs, change with the Gorgon’s eye the human countenances of the Bassarids into like images selfmade ; with the beauty of the stone copies adorn your streets, and make statues like an artist for the Inachian market-places. Why do you tremble before Dionysos, no offspring of the bed of Zeus ? Tell me, what could he do to you ? When shall a foot-farer on the ground catch a winged traveller of the air ?
“So she encouraged him, and Perseus flew into the fray. The Pelasgian trumpet blared calling the people. They came, one lifting the spear of spearman Lynceus, one the spear of Phoroneus more ancient still, one that of Pelasgos, one carried on his arm the oxhide of Abas, and the ashplant of Proitos, another bore the quiver of Acrisios; this bold man stood up to fight holding the sword of Danaos, which once he raised naked when he armed his daughters for those husband-murdering bridals ; another again grasped the great axe which Inachos held to strike the bulls’ foreheads, when he stood as the inspired priest of Hera Cityholder.” The battlestirring host behind their prancing teams ran with Perseus to the field ; and he stood before them shouting the warcry with harsh voice, on foot himself, and shook back the rounded quiver over his shoulder, and fitted arrows to curving bow. Perseus of the sickle was champion of the Argives ; he fitted his feet into the flying shoes, and he lifted up the head of Medusa which no eyes may see.
“But Iobacchos marshalled his women with flowing locks, and Satyrs with horns. Wild for battle he was when he saw the winged champion coursing through the air. The thyrsus was held up in his hand, and to defend his face he carried a diamond, the gem made stone in the showers of Zeus which protects against the stony glare of Medusa, that the baleful light of that destroying face may do him no harm.
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