Book IV, Elegy 9

What time Amphitryon's son drove the oxen from thy stalls, O Erythea, he came to that hill untamed by man, the sheep-grazed Palatine, and there, himself aweary, halted his weary kine, where the Velabrum spread its stagnant stream and the mariner sailed over waters in the city's midst. But the kine remained not safe, since Cacus proved a disloyal host, and outraged Jove with theft. Cacus was a dweller in the place, a robber issuing from his dreaded cave, who spake with threefold utterance from three several mouths. He, that there might be no sure token to betray his theft, dragged the cattle tail foremost to his cave. But the god beheld him: the lowing steers revealed the thief, and wrath beat down the thief's cruel doors.

Cacus lay low, thrice smitten on the brow with the Maenalian club, and thus spake Alcides: "Go, ye oxen, go, oxen of Hercules, the last labour of my club. Twice, oxen, did I seek ye, and twice ye were my prey. Go ye and with your long-drawn lowing hallow the Place of Oxen; your pasture shall in times to come be the far-famed Forum of Rome." He spake, and thirst tortured his parched palate, while teeming earth supplied no water.

But far off he heard the laughter of cloistered maids, where a sacred grove made a dark encircling wood, the secret place of the Goddess of Women, with holy fountains and rites ne'er revealed to men save to their cost. Wreaths of purple veiled its portals far-withdrawn and a ruinous hovel shone with sweet fire of incense. A poplar decked the shrine with its long leaves, and its deep foliage shielded singing birds.

Hither he rushed, the dust thick-clotted on his parched beard, and before the portal spake wild words unworthy of a god. "Ye, that make merry in the sacred dells of the grove, I pray you, open your hospitable shrine to a weary man. Athirst for water I wander, while all the place is loud with the sound of streams. Enough for me were a draught of the running brook caught in the hollow of my hand. Have ye heard of one that bore the globe on his back? I am he; the world I carried calls me Alcides. Who has not heard of the mighty deeds of Hercules' club, and of those shafts that ne'er were spent in vain on ravening beasts? Who has not heard how for me alone of mortals the darkness of Hell was not dark? Receive me; this land is all but closed to me and I am aweary. Nay, though ye were sacrificing to Juno, that is my bane, even my stepdame had not closed her waters to me. But if some one of you be frighted by my visage and the lion's mane and my locks burnt by the Libyan sun, I also have performed servile tasks, clad in Sidonian cloak, and wrought the day's tale of wool with Lydian distaff. My shaggy breast was girt by the soft breast-band, and though my hands were horny I proved a nimble girl."

So spake Alcides; but thus replied the kindly priestess, her white hair bound in a purple band: "Forbear to gaze, O stranger, and leave this dreaded grove. Come, leave it, depart from its threshold and seek safety in flight. The altar that guards its sanctity in this secret hut is forbidden to men, and dire is the doom that avenges its pollution. At great cost did the seer Tiresias behold Pallas, while she bathed her mighty limbs, the Gorgon breastplate laid aside. The gods give thee other fountains! This one stream flows for maidens only in secret channel far from the paths of men." So spake the aged dame. He with his shoulders shattered the doorposts that barred his sight, nor could the closed gate endure the fury of his thirst.

But after he had quenched his burning and drained the stream to naught, with lips scarce dry he pronounced this stern decree: "This corner of the world hath now received me as I drag out my doom: weary though I be this land is all but closed to me. May that Mightiest of Altars dedicated for the finding of my flocks, this altar made Mightiest by mine hands, never be open to women's worship, that the thirst of Hercules be avenged to all eternity."

Hail, Holy Sire, on whom now cruel Juno smiles. Holy one, I pray thee to take thy place in my book with blessing. This hero of old, for that he had cleansed the world with his hands and made it holy, Tatian Cures established in his temple as the Holy one.