BOOK XXXI

bathed a bloodstained hand in that viperish dew ; then as Medusa was slain, the neck was delivered of its twin birth, the Horse and the Boy with the golden breast, and she belched spleen against Perseus and Dionysos ; and she purposed to enchant the eyes and heart of Cronides in deceitful love, under the wing of sweet sleep that is brought on after the bed, that while Zeus yet slumbered she might find some cunning trick to crush Lyaios.?’ Away she went to the gloomy all-welcoming court of Hades; there she found Persephone, and told her a crafty tale : from the gods! You have not seen Semele at home in Olympos. I fear I may yet see Dionysos, one born of a mortal womb, master of the lightning after Zagreus, or lifting the thunderbolt in earthborn hands. Cornbringer, you have been robbed! Beside the Nile with his harvests they hold festival for another, instead of your sheafbearing mother Demeter; they tell of a spurious bountiful Deo, heavenly womb, my own son, was shackled tight inglorious in earthly fetters in a jar,? where Ephialtes had hidden him. Nor did heavenly Zeus my husband help him—but he rescued Semele’s son from the flaming fire, he saved Bacchos from the thunderbolt, while still a baby brat, his bastard son half-finished !

whom Greek mythologists equated with lo. But Zagreus the heavenly Dionysos he would not defend, when he was cut up with knives! gave the starry heaven to Semele for a bridegift,—and Tartaros to Persephoneia! Heaven is reserved for Apollo, Hermes lives in heaven—and you have this abode full of gloom! What good was it that he put on the deceiving shape of a serpent, and ravished the girdle of your inviolate maidenhead, if after the bed he was to destroy your babe ? has given the briny sea to his brother the water king for his prerogative ; he has given the cloudy house of darkness to your consort. Come now, arm your Furies against wineface Bacchos, that I may not see a bastard and a mortal king of Olympos. Pity the wife of Zeus who prays to you, pity Deo, pity praying Themis the immaculate, that the Indians may have a little space to breathe while Dionysos is shaken. Be the avenger of my sorrow, because Cronion has given nectar to Bacchos and the blood of battle to Ares! Let not Athens sing hymns to a new Dionysos, let him not have equal honour with Eleusinian Dionysos, let him not take over the rites of Iacchos who was there before him, let not his vintage dishonour Demeter’s basket!” while she spoke, babbling deceit as the false tears bedewed her cheeks. Goddess bowed assent to goddess, and gave her Megaira to go with her, that with her evil eye she might fulfil the desire of Hera’s jealous Eleusinian deities, was not the same as Dionysos, though early identified with him.

three strides she made, and the fourth brought her to Ganges. She pointed out to unsmiling Megaira the crowd of dead Indians, the sweat of the army and the prowess of Dionysos. When the Fury beheld the deathdealing feats of Lyaios, her jealous heart was furious even more than heavenly Hera. Then Hera was glad ; and with a grim laugh she addressed the snakyhaired goddess in despondent voice : See how the bastards of Zeus ply the spear! Zeus has been delivered of one son from Semele, that he may destroy all the Indians in a mass, the gentle innocents! Let Zeus the lawbreaker learn, and Bacchos, how great is the strength of Megaira! For shame—what a lawless mind has Zeus ruling on high! He never attacks the lawbreaking Tyrsenians, because they learn thieves’ laws of violence, and sail the Sicilian Sea in their unfriendly ships, and rob other men of their own. He slew not the impious tribe of Dryopes, where life is sharp steel and murder ; but he did slay the Indians whose heart is set on piety, whom famous Themis herself, I think, nursed at her breast. For shame—what a lawless mind he has!

when a mortal man has set on fire immortal Hydaspes, so noble and so great, a mortal man has set on fire him whose father was heavenly Zeus ! ” Caucasian cliff, Megaira cast off the terrible serpent shape, and waited there in the form of an owl until she should see great Zeus fast asleep, for that was waters of Chremetes® in the west, where that the whirling heavens ; and she sought out the wife of jealous Zephyros,” Iris, the messenger of Zeus when he is in a hurry—for she wished to send her swift as the wind from heaven with a message for shadowy Sleep. She called Iris then, and coaxed her with friendly words : Zephyros, happy mother of Love! Hasten with stormshod foot to the home of gloomy Sleep in the west. Seek also about seagirt Lemnos, and if you find him tell him to charm the eyes of Zeus uncharmable for one day, that I may help the Indians. But change your shape, take the ugly form of Sleep’s mother the blackgirdled goddess Night ; take a false name and become darkness, since I also change my limbs into the aspect of Themis, of Cythereia, of Artemis when need compels. Promise him Pasithea for his bride, and let him do my need from desire of her beauty. I need not tell you that one lovesick will do anything for hope.” peering through the air. To Paphos, to the land of Cyprus she directed her unwavering eye ; most of all she gazed above Byblos, on the wedding water of Assyrian Adonis,4 seeking the wandering track of vagrant Sleep. She found him on the slopes of positive obsession to Nonnos.

thin Chariice being the goddesses of ἐόν... nuptial Orchomenos ; for there he delayed again and trailed his distracted foot, a frequent visitor at the door of his beloved Pasithea. put on the look of dark Night unrecognizable. She came near to Sleep, weaving guile; and in his mother’s guise uttered her deceitful speech in cajoling Is it not enough that Phaéthon does me violence, that Morning shoots me, and Dawn pursues me? Zeus has got a bastard son, just to confound my dear Sleep! One mortal by himself insults me and my son: all night long Bacchos destroys me, and provokes you, by keeping wide awake and kindling his blazing torch with mystic sparks. Why are you named Allvanquisher, Sleep? No longer you charm wakeful men, now that the spurious gleam of earthborn Lyaios has conquered my revels—for he hides the flames of my stars by brighter torches of his own. One mortal by himself insults me, a new Lightbringer who covers the beams of my Moon great as they are. I am shamed before Day when she mocks at darkness, because I have a false brightness in the night: for a foreign unnatural Sun makes me shine as if night were day. O my dear son! you must resent this on two counts—resist the mystical Satyrs, resist Dionysos the sleepless! Grant this boon to your sorrowful mother, grant this boon to Hera, and charm the charmproof eye of Zeus in the Highest, just for one day, that she may help the Indians whom the Satyrs scatter in rout and still Bacchos harries.

If it be your pleasure, pray turn your eye, and you miracle, of thrice the length. shall perceive Cronion wakeful once again through the night in sevengate Thebes. Make an end of the wantonness of Zeus Lawbreaker ἢ Amphitryon is far from his bridal chamber, steelclad and in the battle ; Zeus makes himself at home by the side of Alemena, enjoying insatiate three moons of bridal darkness ! Let me not see Zeus yet wakeful for a fourth night.4 him not have more darkness, nine full circles more! Remember Mnemosyne ὃ in the old time before us ; eyes ever wakeful, full of passion for many children in that unresting bridal. Another allvanquishing god, winged like Sleep, little Love, conquered Cronides with a tiny dart. Indians! Grant this boon—for they have the same colour as your mother—save the black ones, O Blackwing! Do not provoke Earth, my father’s agemate,° from whom alone we are all sprung, we who dwell in Olympos. Tremble not before Zeus, when his consort Hera is favourable : tremble not before Semele, whom her own bedfellow burnt up. No fiery lightning can equal you, no loud thunderclaps from the bursting clouds: do but flap me your wings, and Zeus lies immovable on unshaken bed, so long as you command him, Sleep! I have heard that you want one of the Graces; then if you have in your heart an itch for her bedchamber, have a eare! Do not provoke Pasithea’s mother, Hera the handmaid of wedded love! And if you dwell with the first of beings, see Hesiod, Theog. 116-123.

Tethys by the Leucadian Rock, do help Deriades the son of Indian Hydaspes: be true to a neighbour, for resounding Ocean your loud-voiced neighbour was an ancestor of Deriades.”’ Sleep as one obeying a mother started up, and swore to charm the eyes of unresting Zeus even until the third dawn should come; but Iris begged him to fasten Cronion with slumber for the course of one day only. There Sleep remained, awaiting the happy season of marriage. and hastened to deliver her welcome message to her sole, and wove another plan, to visit Zeus carrying the cestus, that mindcharming girdle of desire. She sought for the Paphian; and found Assyrian Aphrodite seated in a solitary spot upon Libanos, alone, for the Graces, those dancers of Orchomenos, had been sent away to gather the various flowers of spring in the gardens—one to gather Cilician crocus, one eager to bring balsam and sprouts of the Indian reed, another for the fragrant petals of the rose.

of Zeus leapt up from her seat, when she saw the consort of Zeus in sorrow; and the wily creature pale! Why are your eyes downcast, my queen? Can it be that Rainy Zeus has once more become a shower of deceit ? Has he become a bull again, a drenched wayfarer in the waters? What second ised as a must have merge raphe: in some lost poem, for it is mentioned by Ovid, Met. vi. 110, as well as here. Europa is disturbing you? Is there another Antiope ἃ in the hairy embrace of a sham Satyr, although Nycteus her father forbids? Is there a new horse ὃ with a mind in him hasting to another bridal, while he lets out a false whinny between mimicking lips ? Has he wooed another Semele with birthdelivering brand, and cast his lightning to show the way for love? Does he dance to the bed of some prettyhorned heifer ὁ while he utters a loving moo? Well, if you like, you can find up another cowkeeper to spy upon Zeus, a herdsman Argos, tattooed with unsleeping eyes! Answer my questions, and I will Olympos for mortals. Zeus has brought to Olympos Semele the mother of Bacchos, and he will bring Dionysos himself to heaven. What mansion will ashamed lest I behold Semele, the usurping queen of Olympos. I fear he may take me and drive me out of Olympos like Cronos, and I may have to see the dark house of Iapetos.? I fear he may shame the nectar, and bring from earth what they call the vine, to plant it in heaven even among the Blessed.

be! May he never bring its twigs to heaven! that I should speak of the Viny Sky instead of the Starry Sky, in honour of the grape! that I should Olympos! I fear to see warlike Athena drunken, shaking her spear against Ares and Cythereia—the stars wineshotten and maddened against each other, arousing reckless battle in heaven with the staggering drops of mindshaking Dionysos—all that dwell that I see the Trojan boy cup-lackey to Zeus, disgracing heaven and Hebe cupbearer of Zeus, when he ladles sweet nectar with human hands? Yes, I will leave, the home of Semele! Let heaven be common home for those two, Perseus and Dionysos. I will retire to my Argos, to the glorious city of Mycene, and I will settle on earth. With his unhappy mother will go Ares himself, your bridegroom. Come yourself too, and set foot in your Sparta, and let Sparta receive corseleted Aphrodite in her anger along with brazen Ares. father’s Avenger demands bloodprice from me for violence done to a father, because Hera the Titan’s daughter took strong part in the war against Cronos her father and helped Zeus in his fight. A fine thing for me to see Dionysos sitting in the midst of Olympos beside Eros, at the same table as the Foamborn,’ bearing the aegis once borne by Cronides and Athena. Help me, goddess, I pray! Lend me to aid my need your cestus band, your allcharming belt, just for one day—that I may charm the eyes of Zeus, and while Zeus slumbers I may help my Indians.

I am twice your goodmother, for you have been bride of my Hephaistos and Ares both. Grant this boon at last ; for the blackskin Indians have always hospitably entertained Erythraian Aphrodite, and these Indians Dionysos has assailed in his fury, on these Indians Zeus has wreaked his anger—Zeus the womanmad, the heartless, Zeus the bearer of children, he has battled for Dionysos and cast his lightnings upon them! Lend me your cestus band to help, with which alone you charm all in one! I am worthy to wear it, patroness of wedlock and fellowhelper of the Loves.”’ titles, as marriage-goddess, the Latin Iuno Iugaria.