Part 21 (1/2)

None shall with him compare, howe'er war-doughty a hero, Whenas the Phrygian rills flow deep with bloodshed of Teucer, And beleaguering the walls of Troy with longest of warfare 345 He shall the works lay low, third heir of Pelops the perjured.

Speed ye, the well-spun woof out-drawing, speed ye, O Spindles.

6.

His be the derring-do and deeds of valour egregious, Often mothers shall own at funeral-rites of their children, What time their h.o.a.ry hairs from head in ashes are loosened, 350 And wi' their hands infirm they smite their bosoms loose dugged.

Speed ye, the well-spun woof out-drawing, speed ye, O Spindles.

7.

For as the toiling hind bestrewing denseness of corn-stalks Under the broiling sun mows grain-fields yellow to harvest, So shall his baneful brand strew earth with corpses of Troy-born. 355 Speed ye, the well-spun woof out-drawing, speed ye, O Spindles.

8.

Aye to his valorous worth attest shall wave of Scamander Which unto h.e.l.le-Sea fast flowing ever dischargeth, Straiter whose course shall grow by up-heaped barrage of corpses, While in his depths runs warm his stream with slaughter commingled. 360 Speed ye, the well-spun woof out-drawing, speed ye, O Spindles.

9.

Witness in fine shall be the victim rendered to death-stroke, Whenas the earthern tomb on lofty tumulus builded Shall of the stricken maid receive limbs white as the snow-flake.

Speed ye, the well-spun woof out-drawing, speed ye, O Spindles. 365

10.

For when at last shall Fors to weary Achaians her fiat Deal, of Darda.n.u.s-town to burst Neptunian fetters, Then shall the high-reared tomb stand bathed with Polyxena's life-blood, Who, as the victim doomed to fall by the double-edged falchion, Forward wi' hams relaxt shall smite a body beheaded. 370 Speed ye, the well-spun woof out-drawing, speed ye, O Spindles.

11.

Wherefore arise, ye pair, conjoin loves ardently longed-for, Now doth the groom receive with happiest omen his G.o.ddess, Now let the bride at length to her yearning spouse be delivered.

Speed ye, the well-spun woof out-drawing, speed ye, O Spindles. 375

12.

Neither the nurse who comes at dawn to visit her nursling E'er shall avail her neck to begird with yesterday's ribband.

[Speed ye, the well-spun woof out-drawing, speed ye, O spindles.]

Nor shall the mother's soul for ill-matcht daughter a-grieving Lose by a parted couch all hopes of favourite grandsons. 380 Speed ye, the well-spun woof out-drawing, speed ye, O Spindles.

Thus in the bygone day Peleus' fate foretelling Chaunted from b.r.e.a.s.t.s divine prophetic verse the Parcae.

For that the pure chaste homes of heroes to visit in person Oft-tide the G.o.ds, and themselves to display where mortals were gathered, 385 Wont were the Heavenlies while none human piety spurned.

Often the Deities' Sire, in fulgent temple a-dwelling, Whenas in festal days received he his annual wors.h.i.+p, Looked upon hundreds of bulls felled p.r.o.ne on pavement before him.

Full oft Liber who roamed from topmost peak of Parna.s.sus 390 Hunted his howling host, his Thyiads with tresses dishevelled.

Then with contending troops from all their city outflocking Gladly the Delphians hailed their G.o.d with smoking of altars.

Often in death-full war and bravest of battle, or Mavors Or rapid Triton's Queen or eke the Virgin Rhamnusian, 395 Bevies of weaponed men exhorting, proved their presence.

But from the time when earth was stained with unspeakable scandals And forth fro' greeding b.r.e.a.s.t.s of all men justice departed, Then did the brother drench his hands in brotherly bloodshed, Stinted the son in heart to mourn decease of his parents, 400 Longed the sire to sight his first-born's funeral convoy So more freely the flower of step-dame-maiden to rifle; After that impious Queen her guiltless son underlying, Impious, the household G.o.ds with crime ne'er dreading to sully-- All things fair and nefand being mixt in fury of evil 405 Turned from ourselves avert the great goodwill of the G.o.dheads.

Wherefor they nowise deign our human a.s.semblies to visit, Nor do they suffer themselves be met in light of the day-tide.

Pines aforetimes sprung from Pelion peak floated, so 'tis said, through liquid billows of Neptune to the flowing Phasis and the confines Aeetaean, when the picked youth, the vigour of Argive manhood seeking to carry away the Golden Fleece from Colchis, dared to skim o'er salt seas in a swift-sailing s.h.i.+p, sweeping caerulean ocean with paddles shapen from fir-wood. That G.o.ddess who guards the castles in topmost parts of the towns herself fas.h.i.+oned the car, scudding with lightest of winds, uniting the interweaved pines unto the curving keel. That same first instructed untaught Amphitrite with sailing. Scarce had it split with its stem the windy waves, and the billow vext with oars had whitened into foam, when arose from the abyss of the h.o.a.ry eddies the faces of sea-dwelling Nereids wondering at the marvel. And then on that propitious day mortal eyes gazed on sea-nymphs with naked bodies bare to the b.r.e.a.s.t.s outstanding from the foamy abyss. Then 'tis said Peleus burned with desire for Thetis, then Thetis contemned not mortal hymenaeals, then Thetis' sire himself sanctioned her joining to Peleus. O born in the time of joyfuller ages, heroes, hail! sprung from the G.o.ds, good progeny of mothers, hail! and favourably be ye inclined. You oft in my song I'll address, thee too I'll approach, Peleus, pillar of Thessaly, so increased in importance by thy fortunate wedding-torches, to whom Jupiter himself, the sire of the G.o.ds himself, yielded up his beloved. Did not Thetis embrace thee, she most winsome of Nereids born? Did not Tethys consent that thou should'st lead home her grandchild, and Ocea.n.u.s eke, whose waters girdle the total globe?

When in full course of time the longed-for day had dawned, all Thessaly a.s.sembled throngs his home, a gladsome company o'erspreading the halls: they bear gifts to the fore, and their joy in their faces they shew. Scyros desert remains, they leave Phthiotic Tempe, Crannon's homes, and the fortressed walls of Larissa; to Pharsalia they hie, 'neath Pharsalian roofs they gather. None tills the soil, the heifers' necks grow softened, the trailing vine is not cleansed by the curved rake-p.r.o.ngs, nor does the sickle prune the shade of the spreading tree-branches, nor does the bullock up-tear the glebe with the p.r.o.ne-bending ploughshare; squalid rust steals o'er the neglected ploughs.