And the plain, and of Kalpê’s deep-flowing waters they caught the gleam
For a moment, and passed it by, and still, when the daylight waned,
’Neath the stars of the windless night at the tireless oars they strained.
And even as ploughing oxen cleaving the rain-soaked soil
Labour the furrows adown, and abundant sweat of their toil
Streameth from flank and from neck, and aye from beneath the yoke
Are the tired beasts turning their eyes askance; and as furnace-smoke
In hot gasps snort they the breath from their mouths; and, deep in the clay
Thrusting their hoofs, at the plough they tug through the livelong day;
So toiled those heroes tugging the oars through the brine alway.
When the dawn divine not yet hath arisen, nor utter night
Reigneth, but over the darkness stealeth a faint grey light—
The twilight-tide is it named of slumber-stinted men—
Into a desolate Thynian island’s haven then
They ran, and with weary toil sore-spent won they to the strand.
And to them lo, Lêto’s son, coming up from the Libyan land,
As he fared to the countless folk of the Hyperborean race,
Appeared; and his tresses golden-gleaming about his face,
Ever, as onward he moved, in the breezes floated and swung.
In his left hand held he the silver bow, and his quiver slung
From his shoulders was gleaming adown his back: and the isle all o’er
Quaked ’neath his feet, and surged the billow high on the shore.
Then fell on them ’wildered fear as they looked: was none dared turn
His face to gaze with his eyes on the God’s eyes lovely and stern.
But with heads bowed down to the earth they stood: and onward he passed
Faring afar through the air to the sea. Then Orpheus at last
After long hush spake, and he cried to the hero-chieftains all:
“Come now, an ye will, this island the Sacred Isle let us call
Of Apollo the Dawn-god, seeing at dawning revealed to our eyes
O’er the isle he hath passed. Such things as we have let us sacrifice,
On the shore upbuilding an altar: and if in the days to come
To Haimonia-land he vouchsafe us return, safe-speeding us home,
Then with the thighs of hornèd goats will we pay our vow.
But with sacrifice-steam and libation I bid you propitiate now
The God. Be gracious, O King manifested!—be gracious thou!”
So did he counsel: an altar with speed ’gan these uppile
Of shingle, and those through the island wandered, seeking the while
If they haply might light on a fawn, or the wild goat’s restless brood
That in multitudes seek their pasturage far in the depths of the wood.
And Lêto’s son unto these gave booty; and carving out
The thighs, on the altar they laid them with fat-folds wrapped about:
And they burnt them, hailing Apollo the Lord of the Fair Dayspring.
And around the blaze they stood in a wide encompassing ring:
“All hail, fair Healer Apollo! Hail, thou Healer of Bane!”
They sang: and amidst them Oeagrius’ goodly son hath ta’en
The Bistonian lyre, and uplifted his voice in the clear-ringing lay,
Singing how on the rocky flanks of Parnassus once on a day
Delphinê the monster the young God slew with his arrow-flight,
When he yet was a beardless youth, rejoicing in locks of light:—
“Be gracious!” he sang, “Unshorn, O King, be thy tresses aye,
Ever unravaged, as Heaven’s will is! One only may lay
Love-lingering hands thereupon, even Lêto Kôeus’ child.”
And the daughters of Pleistus oft, the Korykian Nymphs of the wild,
Caught up the refrain—“Hail, Healer!” their gladdening echoes ring.
So born was the lovely hymn that to Phoebus yet men sing.
Then, when with the dance and the song they had honoured the God, they swore,
By the holy libations taking the oath, that evermore
They would stand each one by his fellow, and help in unity.
On the victims laid they their hands as they spake; and yet may ye see
A temple to gracious Unity there, which their own hands reared
In the day that they took for their wayfaring-fellow the Goddess revered.
And now when the dawn of the third day came, a fresh strong wind
From the west upsprang, and they left the island-cliffs behind.
Overagainst the mouth of the river Sangarius then,
And the land exceeding rich of the Mariandynian men,
The streams of Lykus, the mere of Anthemoïsia—these
They sighted, and ran thereby, and ever the sheets in the breeze
Quivered, and all the tackling, as onward they sped their flight.
But at dawn—forasmuch as the wind had fallen asleep in the night—
Gladly the haven they won of the Acherusian Head.
Upward it soareth to heaven with cliffs no foot may tread,
Fronting the sea Bithynian; below it the craggy rocks
Ever lashed by the brine stand rooted: around them with thunder-shocks
Ever crashes the wallowing surge; and above the turmoil on high
Wide-spreading planes on the brow of the mountain rest on the sky.
And aback of the headland, and sloped therefrom away from the shore
Is a glen in a hollow: therein is a cave, even Hades’ Door,
With forest and rocks overroofed, and thereout an icy breath,
Chill-blowing unceasingly up from unfathomed abysses of death,
Freezeth the dews evermore, neither melteth the glistering rime
From the leaves, till the hour when the sun to his noonday height doth climb.
And o’er that headland grim doth silence never brood,
But it murmureth ever with sound confused of the booming flood
And of leaves that shiver in blasts from the mountain-clefts that blow.
There also the outfall is of the river Acheron’s flow:
Through the heart of the headland bursting it hurleth its flood to the sea
Eastward, through yawning chasms plunging suddenly.
But “Saviour of Sailors” in days thereafter called they its name,
Even Megaran folk of Nisaia, when seeking a home they came
In the Mariandynian land; for deliverance from peril it gave
Unto them and their ships from the stress of stormy wind and wave.
Through the gorge of the cape Acherusian ran the heroes their prow,
And seaward-facing abode; for the wind had lulled but now.
Nor long unmarked of Lykus, the lord of the selfsame land,
And the Mariandynian folk, they came, that hero-band,
The slayers of Amykus, seeing their rumour before them had run:
So a league with the wanderers made they because of the great deed done.
And, for Prince Polydeukes, they hailed him as though of the Gods he were,
Thither flocking
