You must come home with me and be my guest; You will give joy to me, and I will do All that is in my power to honour you. VI. "Better to be at home than out of door;— So come with me, and though it has been said That you alive defend from magic power, I know you will sing sweetly when you're dead." Thus having spoken, the quaint infant bore, Lifting it from the grass on which it fed, And grasping it in his delighted hold, VII. Then scooping with a chisel of grey steel, He bored the life and soul out of the beast Not swifter a swift thought of woe or weal Out of the dizzy eyes-than Maia's son VIII. And through the tortoise's, hard stony skin At proper distances small holes he made, And fastened the cut stems of reeds within, And with a piece of leather overlaid The open space and fixed the cubits in, Fitting the bridge to both, and stretched o'er all Symphonious cords of sheep-gut rhythmical. 1 So in the MS., but strong in Mrs. Shelley's editions. IX. When he had wrought the lovely instrument, Joyous and wild and wanton-such you may X. He sung how Jove and May of the bright sandal And his own birth, still scoffing at the scandal, His mother's cave and servant maids he planned all But singing, he conceived another plan. XI. Seized with a sudden fancy for fresh meat, He in his sacred crib deposited The hollow lyre, and from the cavern sweet Of thievish craft, such as a swindler might XII. Lo! the great Sun under the ocean's bed has Driven steeds and chariot-the child meanwhile strode O'er the Pierian mountains clothed in shadows, Where the immortal oxen of the God Are pastured in the flowering unmown meadows, The archer Argicide, elate and proud, XIII. He drove them wandering o'er the sandy way, So that the tracks which seemed before, were aft; Of tamarisk, and tamarisk-like sprigs, XIV. And on his feet he tied these sandals light, But an old man perceived the infant pass XV. The old man stood dressing his sunny vine: As you would 'scape what might appal a bolder— Seeing, see not-and hearing, hear not-and If you have understanding-understand." 1 Piera's in the Posthumous Poems in this case. XVI. So saying, Hermes roused the oxen vast; Till the black night divine, which favouring fell XVII. Now to Alpheus he had driven all The broad-foreheaded oxen of the Sun; They came unwearied to the lofty stall And to the water troughs which ever run Through the fresh fields-and when with rushgrass tall, Had pastured been, the great God made them move XVIII. A mighty pile of wood the God then heaped, And the divine child saw delightedly Mercury first found out for human weal ΧΙΧ. And fine dry logs and roots innumerous He gathered in a delve upon the ground And kindled them-and instantaneous The strength of the fierce flame was breathed around: And whilst the might of glorious Vulcan thus Wrapt the great pile with glare and roaring sound, Hermes dragged forth two heifers, lowing loud, Close to the fire-such might was in the God. ΧΧ. And on the earth upon their backs he threw Toasting their flesh and ribs, and all the gore XXI. We mortals let an ox grow old, and then Drew the fat spoils to the more open station Of the twelve Gods, his mind became aware XXII. For the sweet savour of the roasted meat Though what it cost him words can scarce express, And every wish to put such morsels sweet Down his most sacred throat, he did repress; But soon within the lofty portalled stall He placed the fat and flesh and bones and all. |