Part III

Chrysaor with Callirhöe, blending love,
Nymph of sonorous ocean, Geryon rose,
Three headed form: him the strong Hercules
Despoil’d of life among his hoof-cloven herds
On Erythia, girdled by the wave:
What time those oxen ample-brow’d he drove
To sacred Tyrinth, the broad ocean frith
Once past: and Orthrus, the grim herd-dog, stretch’d
Lifeless; and in their murky den beyond
The billows of the long-resounding deep,
The keeper of those herds, Eurytion, slain.

Another monster Ceto bare anon
In the deep-hollow’d cavern of a rock:
Stupendous nor in shape resembling aught
Of human or of heavenly; the divine
Echidna, the untameable of soul:
Above, a nymph with beauty-blooming cheeks,
And eyes of jetty lustre; but below,
A speckled serpent horrible and huge,
Gorged with blood-banquets, monstrous, hid in caves
Of sacred earth. There in the uttermost depth
Her cavern is, within a vaulted rock:
Alike from mortals and immortals deep
Remote: the gods have there decreed her place
In mansions known to fame. So pent beneath
The rocks of Arima Echidna dwelt
Hideous: a nymph immortal, and in youth
Unchanged for evermore. But legends tell,
That with the jet-eyed nymph Typhaon mix’d
His fierce embrace: a whirlwind rude and wild:
She, fill’d with love, conceived a progeny
Of strain undaunted. Geryon’s dog of herds,
Orthrus, the first arose: the second birth,
Unutterable, was the dog of hell:
Blood-fed and brazen-voiced, and bold and strong,
The fifty-headed Cerberus; and third
Upsprang the Hydra, pest of Lerna’s lake:
Whom Juno, white-arm’d goddess, fostering rear’d
With deep resentment fill’d, insatiable,
’Gainst Hercules: but he, the son of Jove,
Named of Amphytrion, in the dragon’s gore
Bathed his unpitying steel: by warlike aid
Of Iolaus, and the counsels high
Of Pallas the Despoiler. Last came forth
Chimæra, breathing fire unquenchable:
A monster grim and huge, and swift and strong:
Her’s were three heads: a glaring lion’s one:
One of a goat: a mighty snake’s the third:
In front the lion threatened, and behind
The serpent, and the goat was in the midst,
Exhaling fierce the strength of burning flame.
But the wing’d Pegasus his rider bore,
The brave Bellerophon, and laid her dead.

She, grasp’d by forced embrace of Orthrus, gave
Depopulating Sphinx, the mortal plague
Of Cadmian nations: and the lion bare
Named of Nemæa. Him Jove’s glorious spouse
To fierceness rear’d: and placed his secret lair
Among Nemæa’s hills, the pest of men.
There lurking in his haunts he long ensnared
The roving tribes of man, and held stern sway
O’er cavern’d Tretum: o’er the mountain heights
Of Apesantus, and Nemæa’s wilds:
Till strong Alcides quell’d his gasping strength.

Now Ceto, in embrace with Phorcys, bare
Her youngest born: the dreadful snake, that couch’d
In the dark earth’s abyss, his wide domain,
Holds o’er the golden apples wakeful guard.
Tethys to Ocean brought the rivers forth,
In whirlpool waters roll’d: Eridanus
Deep-eddied, and Alpheus, and the Nile:
Fair-flowing Ister, Strymon, and Meander,
Phasis and Rhesus: Achelous bright
With silver-circled tides: Heptaporus,
And Nessus: Haliacmon and Rhodíus:
Granícus and the heavenly Simois:
Æsapus, Hermus, and Sangarius vast:
Penéus, and Caicus smoothly flowing:
And Ladon, and Parthenius, and Evenus:
Ardescus, and Scamander the divine.

Then bore she a blest race of Naiad nymphs,
Who with the rivers and the king of day
O’er the wide earth claim the shorn locks of youth:
Their portion this and privilege from Jove.
Admete, Pitho, Doris and Ianthe:
Urania heavenly-fair: and Clymene:
Prymno, Electra, and Calliröe:
Rhodía, Hippo, and Pasithöe:
Plexaure, Clytie, and Melobosis:
Idya, Thöe, Xeuxo, Galaxaure:
And amiable Dione, and Circeis
Of nature soft, and Polydora fair;
And Ploto, with the bright dilated eyes:
Perseis, Ianira, and Acaste:
Xanthe, the sweet Petræa, saffron-robed
Telestho, Metis, and Eurynome:
And Crisie, and Menestho, and Europa:
Lovely Calypso, Amphiro, Eudora:
Asia, and Tyche, and Ocyröe:
And Styx, the chief of oceanic streams.

The daughters these of Tethys and of Ocean,
The eldest-born: for more untold remain:
Three-thousand graceful Oceanides
Long-stepping tread the earth: or far and wide
Dispersed, they haunt the glassy depth of lakes,
A glorious sisterhood of goddess birth.
As many rivers also, yet untold,
Rushing with hollow-dashing echoes, rose
From awful Tethys: but their every name
Is not for mortal man to memorate,
Arduous; yet known to all the borderers round.

Now Thia, yielding to Hyperion’s arms,
Bare the great Sun and the refulgent Moon:
And Morn, that scatters wide the rosy light
To men that walk the earth, and deathless gods
Whose mansion is yon ample firmament.

Eurybia, noble goddess, blending love
With Crius, gave the great Astræus birth,
Pallas the god, and Perses, wise in lore.

The Morning to Astræus bare the Winds
Of spirit untamed: East, West, and South, and North
Cleaving his rapid course: a goddess thus
Embracing with a god. Last, Lucifer
Sprang radiant from the dawn-appearing Morn:
And all the glittering stars that gird the heaven.

Styx, ocean-nymph, with Pallas mingling love,
Bare Victory, whose feet are beautiful
In palaces: and Zeal, and Strength, and Force,
Illustrious children. Not apart from Jove
Their mansion is: nor is there seat, or way,
But he before them in his glory sits
Or passes forth: and where the Thunderer is,
Their place is found for ever. So devised
The nymph of Ocean, the eternal Styx:
What time the Lightning-sender call’d from heaven,
And summon’d all th’ immortal deities
To broad Olympus’ top: then thus he spake:
“Hear all ye gods! That god who wars with me
Against the Titans, shall retain the gifts
Which Saturn gave, and honours heretofore
His portion midst th’ immortals: and whoe’er
Unhonour’d and ungifted has repined
Under Saturnian sway, the same shall rise,
“As just it is, to honours and rewards.”

Then first of every power eternal Styx,
Sway’d by the careful counsels of her sire,
Stood on Olympus, and her sons beside:
Her Jove received with honour, and endow’d
With goodly gifts: ordain’d her the great oath
Of deities: her sons for evermore
Indwellers with himself. Alike to all,
Even as he pledged that sacred word, the god
Perform’d; so reigns he, strong in power and might.

Now Phœbe sought the love-delighting couch
Of Cœus: so within a god’s embrace
Conceived the goddess. Then arose to life
The azure-robed Latona: ever mild:
Gracious to man and to immortal gods:
Mild from the first beginning of the world:
Gentlest of all within th’ Olympian courts.

Anon she bare Asteria, blest in fame:
Whom Perses to his spacious palace led,
That he might call her spouse: and she conceived
With Hecaté. Her o’er all others Jove
Hath honour’d, and endow’d with splendid gifts:
With power on earth and o’er the untill’d sea:
Nor less her glory from the starry heaven,
Chief honour’d by immortals: and if one
Of earthly men performing the due rite
Of victim divination, would appease
The gods above, he calls on Hecaté:
To him, whose prayer the goddess gracious hears,
High honour comes spontaneous, and to him
She yields all affluence; for the power is hers.
Whatever gods, the sons of heaven and earth,
Shared honour at the hands of Jove, o’er all
Her wide allotment stands: nor whatsoe’er
Of rank she held, midst the old Titan gods,
Has Saturn’s son invaded or deprived;
As was the ancient heritage of power
So hers remains: e’en from the first of things.
Nor is her solitary birth reproach:
Nor less, though singly born, her rank and power
In heaven and earth and main, but higher meed
Of glory, since her honour is from Jove.
She, in the greatness of her power, is nigh
With aid to whom she lists: whoe’er she wills
O’er the great council of the people shines:
And when the mailed men arise to wage
Destroying battle, she to whom she lists
Is present, yielding victory and fame;
And on the judgment-seat with awful kings
She sits; and when in the gymnastic strife
Men struggle, the propitious goddess comes
Present with aid: then easily the man,
Conqueror in hardiment and strength, obtains
The graceful wreath, and glad-triumphing sheds
A gleam of glory o’er his parents’ days.
She, as she lists, is nigh to charioteers
Who strive with steeds: and voyagers who cleave
Through the blue watery vast th’ untractable way.
They call upon the name of Hecaté
With vows: and his, loud-sounding god of waves,
Earth-shaker Neptune. Easily at will
The glorious goddess yields the woodland prey
Abundant: easily, while scarce they start
On the mock’d vision, snatches them in flight.
She too with Hermes is propitious found
To herd and fold: and bids increase the droves
Innumerable of goats and woolly flocks,
And swells their numbers or their numbers thins.
And thus, although her mother’s lonely child,
She midst th’ immortals shares all attributes.
Her Jove appointed nursing-mother bland
Of babes, who after her to morn’s broad light
Should lift the tender lid: so from the first
The foster-nurse of babes: her honours these.