Which she gave, when for Argo’s building the keel-props first she dight,
And taught him with rule of the shipwright to measure her timbers aright.
More easy it were in sooth on the sun at his rising to gaze
Than to fasten thine eyes on the flush of its glory, its splendour-blaze.
For the fashion thereof in the midst was fiery crimson glow,
And the top was of purple throughout; and above on the marge and below
Picture by picture did many a broidered marvel show.
For therein were the Cyclopes bowed o’er their work that perisheth not,
Forging the levin of Zeus the King, and so far was it wrought
In its fiery splendour, that yet of its flashes there lacked but one:
And the giant smiths with their sledges of iron were smiting thereon;
While forth of it spurts as of flaming breath ever leapt and anon.
And there were the sons of Asôpus’ daughter Antiopê set,
Amphion and Zethus: and Thêbê, with towers ungirded as yet,
Stood nigh them; and lo, the foundations thereof were they laying but now
In fierce haste. Zethus had heaved a craggy mountain’s brow
On his shoulders: as one hard straining in toil did the image appear.
And Amphion the while to his golden lyre sang loud and clear,
On-pacing; and twice so great was the rock that followed anear.
And next Kythereia with tresses heavily drooping was shown;
And the buckler of onset of Arês she bare: from her shoulder the zone
Of her tunic over her left arm fell with a careless grace
Low over her breast; and ever she seemed on the shield to gaze,
On the face that out of its brazen mirror smiled to her face.
And therein was a herd of shaggy kine; for the winning thereof
Elektryon’s sons and Teleboan raiders in battle strove:
For these were defending their own; but the Taphian rovers were fain
To rob them; and drenched was the dewy meadow with that red rain.
But with that overmastering host were the herdmen striving in vain.
And therein had been fashioned chariots twain in the race that sped.
And Pelops was guiding the car that afront in the contest fled;
And Hippodameia beside him rode that fateful race.
And rushing behind him Myrtilus scourging his steeds gave chase;
And Oinomaus with him had couched his lance with a murderous face.
But, as snapt at the nave the axle, aslant was he falling in dust,
Even as at Pelops’ back he was aiming the treacherous thrust.
And therein was Phoebus Apollo, a slender stripling yet,
Shooting at him who the ravisher’s hand to the veil had set
Of his mother, at Tityos the giant, whom Elarê bare; but the Earth
Nursed him, and hid in her womb, and gave to him second birth.
And Phrixus the Minyan was there; and it seemed that unto the ram
He verily hearkened; it seemed that a voice from the gold-fleeced came.
Thou wert hushed to behold them—wouldst cheat thy soul with the hope that perchance
Forth of the lifeless lips would break the utterance
Of speech—ay, long wouldst thou gaze in expectation’s trance.
Such was the gift of Athênê, the Goddess Itonian’s toil.
And a lance far-leaping he grasped in his right hand, given erewhile
Of the maid Atalanta on Mainalus’ height for the pledge of a friend.
Gladly she met him, for sorely her soul desired to wend
On the Quest: howbeit the hero himself withheld the maid,
For the peril of bitter strife for her love’s sake made him afraid.
So he hied him to go to the town, as the radiant star to behold
Which a maid, as she draweth her newly-woven curtain’s fold,
Beholdeth, as over her dwelling upward it floateth fair;
And it charmeth her eyes, flashing out of the depths of the darkling air
Flushed with a crimson glory: the maid’s heart leapeth then
Lovesick for the youth who is far away amid alien men,
Her betrothed, unto whom her parents shall wed her on some glad day:
So as a star was the hero treading the cityward way.
So when he had passed through the gates, and within the city he came,
The women thereof thronged after, and wafted him blithe acclaim,
Having joy of the stranger: but earthward ever his eyes he cast,
Pacing unfaltering on till he came to the palace at last
Of Hypsipylê: then at the hero’s appearing the maids flung wide
The gates and the fair-fashioned boards of the leaves on either side.
Then through the beautiful hall did Iphinoê lead on
Swiftly, and caused him to sit on a tinsel-glittering throne
Facing the Queen; and Hypsipylê turned her eyes away,
For the maiden blood flushed hot in her cheek. But her shame that day
Tied not her tongue, and with crafty-winsome words did she say:
“Stranger, wherefore so long have ye tarried without our towers?
Forasmuch as no man dwelleth within this city of ours;
But these have betaken them hence to dwell on the Thracian shore,
And there are they ploughing the wheat-bearing lands. I will tell thee o’er
The evil tale, to the end ye also may understand.
In the days when Thoas my father was king o’er the folk of the land,
My people in ships from Lemnos over the sea-ridges rode,
And harried the homes of the Thracians that overagainst us abode;
And with booty untold they returned, and with many a captive maid.
But the curse of a baneful Goddess upon them now was laid;
For the Cyprian caused on their souls heart-ruining blindness to fall,
That they hated their lawful wives, and forth from bower and hall
At the beck of their folly they drove the Lemnian matrons away,
And beside those spear-won thralls in the bed of love they lay—
Cruel ones! Sooth, long time we endured it, if haply again,
Though late, their hearts might be turned; but our wrong and our bitter pain
Waxed evermore twofold; and the children of true-born blood
In our halls were dishonoured, and grew up amidst us a bastard brood.
Yea, and our maids unwedded, and widowed wives thereto,
Uncared for about our city wandered to and fro.
No father had heeded, no, never so little, his daughter’s plight,
Not though before his eyes he beheld her slain outright
By a tyrannous stepdame’s hands: and sons would defend no more
A mother from outrage and shame, as they wont in the days of yore.
No love for a sister
