— the man who, they say, carries about with him the gods of his country, and took up on his
shoulders
his old worn-out father !
Universal Anthology - v03
On one side the cities of the Gaetulians, a race invincible in war, and the Numidians environ you, unbridled as their steeds, and the inhospitable Syrtis ; on another, a region unpeopled by drought, and the widespread barbarism of the nation of Barce.
What need to talk of the war cloud threatening from Tyre, and the menaces of our brother?
It is under Heaven's auspices, I deem, and by Juno's blessing, that the vessels of Ilion have made this voyage hither.
What a city, my sister, will ours become before your eyes !
what an empire will grow out of a marriage like this!
With the arms of the Teucrians at its back, to what a height will the glory of Carthage soar !
Only be it yours to implore the favor of Heaven, and having won its acceptance, give free course to hospitality and weave a chain of pleas for delay, while the tempest is raging its full on the sea, and Orion, the star of rain, while his ships are still bat tered, and the rigor of the sky still unyielding.
" By these words she added fresh fuel to the fire of love, gave confidence to her wavering mind, and loosed the ties of woman's honor.
First they approach the temples and inquire for pardon from altar to altar; duly they slaughter chosen sheep to Ceres the lawgiver, to Phoebus, and to father Lyaeus — above all to Juno, who makes marriage bonds her care. Dido herself, in all her beauty, takes a goblet in her hand, and pours it out full between the horns of a heifer of gleaming white, or moves majestic in the presence of the gods towards the richly laden altars, and solemnizes the day with offerings, and gazing greedily on the victims' opened breasts, consults the entrails yet quivering with life. Alas ! how blind are the eyes of seers ! What can
QUEEN DIDO'S LOVE AND FATE. 79
vows, what can temples do for the madness of love ? All the while a flame is preying on the very marrow of her bones, and deep in her breast a wound keeps noiselessly alive. She is on fire, the ill-fated Dido, and in her madness ranges the whole city through, like a doe from an arrow shot, whom, unguarded in the thick of the Cretan woods, a shepherd, chasing her with his darts, has pierced from a distance, and left the flying steel in the wound, unknowing of his prize ; she at full speed scours the forests and lawns of Dicte ; the deadly reed still sticks in her side. Now she leads JSneas with her through the heart of the town, and displays the wealth of Sidon, and the city built to dwell in. She begins to speak, and stops midway in the utterance. Now, as the day fades, she seeks again the banquet of yesterday, and once more in frenzy asks to hear of the agonies of Troy, and hangs once more on his lips as he tells the tale. Afterwards, when the guests are gone, and the dim moon in turn is hiding her light, and the setting stars invite to slumber, alone she mourns in the empty hall, and presses the couch he has just left ; him far away she sees and hears, herself far away ; or holds Ascanius long in her lap, spellbound by his father's image, to cheat, if she can, her ungovernable passion. The towers that were rising rise no longer ; the youth cease to prac tice arms, or to make ready havens and bulwarks for safety in war ; the works are broken and suspended, the giant frowning of the walls, and the engine level with the sky.
******
Meantime the sky begins to be convulsed with a mighty
turmoil ; a stormcloud follows of mingled rain and hail. Tyrian train, all in confusion, and the chivalry of Troy, and the hope of Dardania, Venus' grandson, have sought shelter in their terror up and down the country, some here, some there. The streams run in torrents down the hills. Dido and the Trojan chief find themselves in the same cave. Earth, the mother of all, and Juno give the sign.
Lightnings blaze, and heaven flashes in sympathy with the bridal ; and from mountain tops the nymphs give the nuptial shout. That day was the birthday of death, the birthday of woe. Henceforth she has no thought for the common eye, or the common tongue ; it is not a stolen passion that Dido has now in her mind — no, she calls it marriage ; that name is the screen of her sin.
The
80 QUEEN DIDO'S LOVE AND FATE.
[Jove commands Mercury to visit iEneas and bear him the divine injunction, according to the decree of the Fates, to leave Carthage and fulfill his destiny — of founding through his descendants the great city in Latium. ]
tEneas deserts his Queen.
Soon as his winged feet alit among the huts of Carthage, he sees -5£neas founding towers and making houses new. A sword was at his side, starred with yellow jaspers, and a mantle drooped from his shoulders, ablaze with Tyrian purple — a costly gift which Dido had made, varying the web with threads of gold. Instantly he assails him: "And are you at a time like this laying the foundations of stately Carthage, and build ing, like a fond husband, your wife's goodly city, forgetting, alas ! your own kingdom and the cares that should be yours? It is no less than the ruler of the gods who sends me down to you from his bright Olympus — he whose nod sways heaven and earth; it is he that bids me carry his commands through the flying air. What are you building ? what do you look to in squandering your leisure in Libyan land ? If you are fired by no spark of ambition for the greatness in your view, and will not rear a toilsome fabric for your own praise, think of Ascanius rising into youth, think of lulus, your heir and your hope, to whom you owe the crown of Italy and the realm of Rome. " With these words Cyllene's god quitted mortal sight ere he had well ceased to speak, and vanished away from the eye into unsubstantial air.
The sight left . <Eneas dumb and aghast indeed ; his hair stood shudderingly erect; his speech clave to his throat. He burns to take flight and leave the land of pleasure, as his ears ring with the thunder of Heaven's imperious warning. What — ah ! what is he to do? with what address can he now dare to ap proach the impassioned queen? what first advances can he employ ? And thus he dispatches his rapid thought hither and thither, hurrying it east and west, and sweeping every corner of the field. So balancing, at last he thought this judgment the best. He calls Mnestheus and Sergestus and brave Seres- tus ; bids them quietly get ready the fleet, muster the crews on the shore, with their arms in their hands, hiding the reason for so sudden a change. Meantime he, while Dido, kindest of friends, is in ignorance, deeming love's chain too strong to be snapped, will feel his way, and find what are the happiest
QUEEN DIDO'S LOVE AND FATE. 81
moments for speech, what the right hold to take of circum stance. At once all gladly obey his command, and are busy on the tasks enjoined.
But the queen (who can cheat a lover's senses ? ) scented the plot, and caught the first sound of the coming stir, alive to fear in the midst of safety. Fame, as before, the same baleful fiend, whispered in her frenzied ear that the fleet was being equipped and the voyage got ready. She storms in impotence of soul, and, all on fire, goes raving through the city, like a Maenad starting up at the rattle of the sacred emblems, when the tri ennial orgies lash her with the cry of Bacchus, and Cithaeron's yell calls her into the night. At length she thus bespeaks j3£neas, unaddressed by him : —
" To hide, yes, hide your enormous crime, perfidious wretch, did you hope that might be done — to steal away in silence from my realm? Has our love no power to keep you ? has our troth, once plighted, none, nor she whom you doom to a cruel death, your Dido ? Nay, are you fitting out your fleet with winter's sky overhead, and hastening to cross the deep in the face of all the northern winds, hard-hearted as you are? Why, suppose you were not seeking a strange clime and a home you know not — suppose old Troy were still standing — would even Troy draw you to seek her across a billowy sea ? Flying, and from me ! By the tears I shed, and by your plighted hand, since my own act, alas! has left me naught else to plead — by our union — by the nuptial rites thus prefaced — if I have ever deserved well of you, or aught of mine ever gave you pleasure — have pity on a falling house, and strip off, I conjure you, if prayer be not too late, the mind that clothes you. It is owing to you that the Libyan tribes and the Nomad chiefs hate me, that my own Tyrians are estranged; owing to you, yes, you, that my woman's honor has been put out, and that which was my one passport to immortality, my former fame. To whom are you abandoning a dying woman, my guest? — since the name of husband has dwindled to that. Why do I live any longer? — to give my brother Pygmalion time to batter down my walls, or Iarbas the Moor to carry me away captive ? Had I but borne any offspring of you before your flight, were there some tiny iEneas to play in my hall, and remind me of you, though"but in look, I should not then feel utterly captive and forlorn.
She ceased. He all the while, at Jove's command, was keep
ing his eyes unmoved, and shutting up in his heart his great Tot. in. — 9
82 QUEEN DIDO'S LOVE AND FATE.
love. At length he answers in brief: "Fair queen, name all the claims to gratitude you can. I shall never gainsay one, nor will the thought of Elissa ever be unwelcome while memory lasts, while breath animates this frame. A few words I will say, as the case admits. I never counted — do not dream it — on stealthily concealing my flight. I never came with a bride groom's torch in my hand, nor was this the alliance to which I agreed. For me, were the Fates to suffer me to live under a star of my own choosing, and to make with care the terms I would, the city of Troy, first of all the dear remains of what was mine, would claim my tendance. Priam's tall rooftree would still be standing, and my hand would have built a restored Pergamus, to solace the vanquished. But now to princely Italy Grynean Apollo, to Italy his Lycian oracles, bid me repair. There is my heart, there my fatherland. If you are riveted here by the sight of your stately Carthage, a daughter of Phoenicia by a Libyan town, why, I would ask, should jealousy forbid Teucrians to settle in Ausonian land? We, like you, have the right of looking for a foreign realm. There is my father Anchises, oft as night's dewy shades invest the earth, oft as the fiery stars arise, warning me in dreams and appalling me by his troubled presence. There is my son Ascanius, and the wrongs heaped on his dear head every day that I rob him of the crown of Hesperia, and of the land that fate makes his. Now, too, the messenger of the gods, sent down from Jove himself (I swear by both our lives) has brought me orders through the flying air. With my own eyes I saw the god in clear daylight entering the walls, and took in his words with the ears that hear you now. Cease then to harrow up both our souls by your reproaches : my quest of Italy is not of my own motion. "
Long ere he had done this speech she was glaring at him askance, rolling her eyes this way and that, and scanning the whole man with her silent glances, and thus she bursts forth all ablaze: "No goddess was mother of yours, no Dardanus the head of your line, perfidious wretch! — no, your parent was Caucasus, rugged and craggy, and Hyrcanian tigresses put their breasts to your lips. For why should I suppress aught? or for what worse evil hold myself in reserve ? Did he groan when I wept? did he move those hard eyes? did he yield and shed tears, or pity her that loved him? What first? what last? Now, neither Juno, queen of all, nor Jove, the almighty Father,
QUEEN DIDO'S LOVE AND FATE. 83
eyes us with impartial regard. Nowhere is there aught to trust — nowhere. A shipwrecked beggar, I welcomed him, and madly gave him a share of my realm ; his lost fleet, his crews, I brought back from death's door. Ah ! Fury sets me on fire, and whirls me round ! Now, prophet Apollo, now the Lycian oracles. Now the messenger of the gods, sent down by Jove himself, bears his grim bidding through the air! Aye, of course, that is the employment of the powers above, those the cares that break their repose! I retain not your person, nor refute your talk. Go, chase Italy with the winds at your back ; look for realms with the whole sea between you. I have hope that on the rocks midway, if the gods are as powerful as they are good, you will drain the cup of punishment, with Dido's name ever on your lips. I will follow you with murky fires when I am far away ; and when cold death shall have parted soul and body, my shade shall haunt you everywhere. Yes, wretch, you shall suffer. I shall hear it — the news will reach me down among the dead. " So saying, she snaps short her speech, and flies with loathing from the daylight, and breaks and rushes from his sight, leaving him hesitating, and fearing, and thinking of a thousand things to say. Her maidens sup port her, and carry her sinking frame into her marble chamber, and lay her on her bed.
But good . <Eneas, though yearning to solace and soothe her agonized spirit, and by his words to check the onset of sorrow, with many a groan, his whole soul upheaved by the force of love, goes nevertheless about the commands of Heaven, and repairs to his fleet. The Teucrians redouble their efforts, and along the whole range of the shore drag their tall ships down. The keels are careened and floated. They carry oars with their leaves still on, and timber unfashioned as it stood in the woods, so strong their eagerness to fly. You may see them all in motion, streaming from every part of the city. Even as ants when they are sacking a huge heap of wheat, provident of winter days, and laying up the plunder in their stores ; a black column is seen moving through the plain, and they convey their booty along the grass in a narrow path : some are putting their shoulders to the big grains, and pushing them along; others are rallying the force and punishing the stragglers ; the whole track is in a glow of work.
84 QUEEN DIDO'S LOVE AND FATE.
Death of Dido.
What were your feelings then, poor Dido, at a sight like this! How deep the groans you heaved, when you looked out from your lofty tower on a beach all seething and swarming, and saw the whole sea before you deafened with that hubbub of voices ! Tyrant love ! what force dost thou not put on human hearts? Again she has to condescend to tears, again to use the weapons of entreaty, and bow her spirit in suppliance under love's yoke, lest she should have left aught untried, and be rushing on a needless death.
" Anna, you see there is hurrying all over the shore — they are met from every side ; the canvas is already wooing the gale, and the joyful sailors have wreathed the sterns. If I have had the foresight to anticipate so heavy a blow, I shall have the power to bear it too, my sister. Yet, Anna, in my misery, perform me this one service. . You, and you only, the per fidious man was wont to make his friend — aye, even to trust you with his secret thoughts. You, and you only, know the subtle approaches to his heart, and the times of essaying them. Go, then, my sister, and supplicate our haughty foe. Tell him I was no party to the Danaan league at Aulis to destroy the Trojan nation; I sent no ships to Pergamus; I never disin terred his father Anchises, his dust or his spirit. Why will he not let my words sink down into his obdurate ears ? Whither is he hurrying? Let him grant this last boon to her who loves him so wildly ; let him wait till the way is smoothed for his flight, and there are winds to waft him. I am not asking him now to renew our old vows which he has forsworn. I am not asking him to forego his fair Latium, and resign his crown. I entreat but a few vacant hours, a respite and breathing space for my passion, till my fortune shall have taught baffled love how to grieve. This is my last request of you. Oh, pity your poor sister ! — a request which when granted shall be returned with interest in death. "
Such was her appeal — such the wailing which her afflicted sister bears to him, and bears again; but no wailing moves him, no words find him a gentle listener. Fate bars the way, and Heaven closes the hero's relenting ears. Even as an aged oak, still hale and strong, which Alpine winds, blowing now here, now there, strive emulously to uproot — a loud noise is heard, and, as the stem rocks, heaps of leaves pile the ground; but
QUEEN DIDO'S LOVE AND FATE. 86
the tree cleaves firmly to the cliff; high as its head strikes into the air, so deep its root strikes down to the abyss — even thus the hero is assailed on all sides by a storm of words : his mighty breast thrills through and through with agony; but his mind is unshaken, and tears are showered in vain.
Then at last, maddened by her destiny, poor Dido prays for death: heaven's vault is a weariness to look on. To confirm her in pursuing her intent, and closing her eyes on the sun, she saw, as she was laying her offerings on the incense-steaming altars — horrible to tell — the sacred liquor turn black, and the streams of wine curdle into loathly gore. This appearance she told to none, not even to her sister. Moreover, there was in her palace a marble chapel to her former husband, to which she used to pay singular honors, wreathing it with snowy fillets and festal boughs ; from it she thought she heard a voice, the accents of the dead man calling her, when the darkness of night was shrouding the earth ; and on the roof a lonely owl in funereal tones kept complaining again and again, and drawing out wail- ingly its protracted notes ; and a thousand predictions of seers of other days come back on her, terrifying her with their awful warnings. When she dreams, there is -(Eneas himself driving her in furious chase : she seems always being left alone to her self, always pacing companionless on a never-ending road, and looking for her Tyrians in a realm without inhabitants — like Pentheus, when in frenzy he sees troops of Furies, and two sons, and a double Thebes rising round him ; or Agamemnon's Orestes rushing over the stage, as he flies from his mother, who is armed with torches and deadly snakes, while the aveng ing fiends sit couched on the threshold. . . .
Meanwhile iEneas, resolved on his journey, was slumbering in his vessel's tall stern, all being now in readiness. To him a vision of the god appearing again with the same countenance, presented itself as he slept, and seemed to give this second warning — the perfect picture of Mercury, his voice, his bloom ing hue, his yellow locks, and the youthful grace of his frame : "Goddess-born, at a crisis like this can you slumber on? Do you not see the wall of danger which is fast rising round you, infatuate that you are, nor hear the favoring whisper of the western gale ? She is revolving in her bosom thoughts of craft and cruelty, resolved on death, and surging with a change ful tempest of passion. Will you not haste away while haste is in your power? You will look on a sea convulsed with
86 QUEEN DIDO'S LOVE AND FATE.
ships, an array of fierce torch fires, a coast glowing with flame, if the dawn goddess shall have found you loitering here on land. Quick! — burst through delay. A thing of moods and changes is woman ever. " He said, and was lost in the dark ness of night.
At once JSneas, scared by the sudden apparition, springs up from sleep, and rouses his comrades. "Wake in a moment, my friends, and seat you on the benches. Unfurl the sails with all speed. See ! here is a god sent down from heaven on high, urging us again to hasten our flight, and cut the twisted cables. Yes ! sacred power, we follow thee, whoever thou art, and a second time with joy obey thy behest. Be thou with us, and graciously aid us, and let propitious stars be ascendant in the sky. " So saying, he snatches from the scabbard his flash ing sword, and with the drawn blade cuts the hawsers. The spark flies from man to man; they scour, they scud, they have left the shore behind; you cannot see the water for ships. With strong strokes they dash the foam, and sweep the blue.
And now Aurora was beginning to sprinkle the earth with fresh light, rising from Tithonus' saffron couch. Soon as the queen from her watchtower saw the gray dawn brighten, and the fleet moving on with even canvas, and coast and haven for saken, with never an oar left, thrice and again smiting her beauteous breast with her hands, and rending her golden locks, "Great Jupiter! " cries she, "shall he go? Shall a chance comer boast of having flouted our realm ? Will they not get their arms at once, and give chase from all the town, and pull, some of them, the ships from the docks? Away! bring fire;
quick ! get darts, ply oars ! What am I saying ? Where am I
? What madness turns my brain? Wretched Dido! do your sins sting you now? They should have done so then, when you were giving your crown away. What truth ! what fealty !
— the man who, they say, carries about with him the gods of his country, and took up on his shoulders his old worn-out father !
Might I not have caught and torn him piecemeal, and scattered him to the waves? — destroyed his friends, aye, and his own Ascanius, and served up the boy for his father's meal ? But the chance of a battle would have been doubtful. Let it have been. I was to die, and whom had I to fear? I would have flung torches into his camp, filled his decks with flame, con sumed son and sire and the whole line, and leapt myself upon the pile. Sun, whose torch shows thee all that is done on earth,
QUEEN DIDO'S LOVE AND FATE. 87
and thou, Juno, revealer and witness of these stirrings of the heart, and Hecate, whose name is yelled in civic crossways by night, avenging fiends, and gods of dying Elissa, listen to this! Let your power stoop to ills that call for it, and hear what I
If it must needs be that the accursed wretch gain
now pray ! —
the haven and float to shore
destiny, such the fixed goal — yet grant that, harassed by the sword and battle of a warlike nation, a wanderer from his own confines, torn from his lulus' arms, he may pray for succor, and see his friends dying miserably round him ! Nor when he has yielded to the terms of an unjust peace, may he enjoy his crown, or the life he loves ; but may he fall before his time, and lie unburied in the midst of the plain ! This is my prayer — these the last accents that flow from me with my lifeblood. And you, my Tyrians, let your hatred persecute the race and people for all time to come. Be this the offering you send down to my ashes : never be there love or league between nation and nation. Arise from my bones, my unknown avenger, destined with fire and sword to pursue the Dardanian settlers, now or in after days, whenever strength shall be given ! Let coast be at war with coast, water with wave, army with army; fight they, and their sons, and their sons' sons ! "
Thus she said, as she whirled her thought to this side and that, seeking at once to cut short the life she now abhorred. Then briefly she spoke to Barce, Sychaeus' nurse, for her own was left in her old country, in the black ashes of the grave: "Fetch me here, dear nurse, my sister Anna. Bid her hasten to sprinkle herself with water from the stream, and bring with her the cattle and the atoning offerings prescribed. Let her come with these ; and do you cover your brow with the holy fillet. The sacrifice to Stygian Jove, which I have duly com menced and made ready, I wish now to accomplish, and with it the end of my sorrows, giving to the flame the pile that pillows the Dardan head! " She said: the nurse began to quicken her pace with an old wife's zeal.
But Dido, wildered and maddened by her enormous resolve, rolling her bloodshot eye, her quivering cheeks stained with fiery streaks, and pale with the shadow of death, bursts the door of the inner palace, and frantically climbs the tall pile, and unsheathes the Dardan sword, a gift procured for a far different end. Then, after surveying the Trojan garments and the bed, too well known, and pausing awhile to weep and
if such the requirement of Jove's
88 QUEEN DIDO'S LOVE AND FATE.
think, she pressed her bosom to the couch, and uttered her last words: —
" Relics, once darlings of mine, while Fate and Heaven gave leave, receive this my soul, and release me from these my sor rows. I have lived my life — the course assigned me by For tune is run, and now the august phantom of Dido shall pass
I have built a splendid city. I have seen my walls completed. In vengeance for a husband, I have punished a brother that hated me — blest, ah ! blest beyond human" bliss, if only Dardan ships had never touched coasts of ours ! She
underground.
spoke — and kissing the couch: "Is it to be death without revenge? But be it death," she cries — "this, this is the road by which I love to pass to the shades. Let the heartless Dar- danian's eyes drink in this flame from the deep, and let him carry with him the presage of my death. "
She spoke, and even while she was yet speaking, her attend ants see her fallen on the sword, the blade spouting blood, and her hands dabbled in it. Their shrieks rise to the lofty roof; Fame runs wild through the convulsed city. With wail ing and groaning, and screams of women, the palace rings ; the sky resounds with mighty cries and beating of breasts — even as if the foe were to burst the gates and topple down Carthage or ancient Tyre, and the infuriate flame were leaping from roof to roof among the dwellings of men and gods.
Her sister heard it. Breathless and frantic, with wild speed, disfiguring her cheeks with her nails, her bosom with her fists, she bursts through the press, and calls by name on the dying queen: "Was this your secret, sister? Were you plotting to cheat me ? Was this what your pile was preparing for me, your fires, and your altars ? What should a lone heart grieve for first? Did you disdain your sister's company in death? You should have called me to share your fate — the same keen sword pang, the same hour, should have been the end of both. And did these hands build the pile, this voice call on the gods of our house, that you might lie there, while I, hard-hearted wretch, was away? Yes, sister, you have destroyed yourself and me, the people and the elders of Sidon, and your own fair city. Let in the water to the wounds ; let me cleanse them, and if any remains of breath be still flickering, catch them in my mouth ! " As she thus spoke, she was at the top of the lofty steps, and was embracing and fondling in her bosom her dying sister, and stanching with her robe the black streams of
ZEND-AVESTA. 89
blood. Dido strives to raise her heavy eyes, and sinks down again ; the deep stab gurgles in her breast. Thrice, with an effort, she lifted and reared herself up on her elbow ; thrice she fell back on the couch, and with helpless wandering eyes aloft in the sky, sought for the light and groaned when she found it.
Then Juno almighty, in compassion for her lengthened agony and her trouble in dying, sent down Iris from Olympus to part the struggling soul and its prison of flesh. For, as she was dying, not in the course of fate, nor for any crime of hers, but in mere misery, before her time, the victim of sudden frenzy, not yet had Proserpine carried off a lock of her yellow hair, and thus doomed her head to Styx and the place of death. So then Iris glides down the sky with saffron wings dew-besprent, trailing a thousand various colors in the face of the sun, and alights above her head. " This I am bidden to bear away as an offering to Pluto, and hereby set you free from the body. " So saying, she stretches her hand and cuts the lock : at once all heat parts from the frame, and the life has passed into air.
Precepts, Praters, and Hymns from the ZEND-AVESTA.
(Translated by James Darmesteter and L. H. Mills. )
[The Avesta (Zend means commentary ; the name has also been given to the old Persian language of the most antique portion) is the collection of sacred books — chiefly liturgy — of the ancient Persians, and of the modern Parsee sect, their descendants who have not become Mohammedans. The portion called the Gathas is represented to be the utterances of Zoroaster or Zarathushtra himself, the lawgiver and religious founder whose existence is still a hopeless problem : even of the associated translators above, Professor Darmesteter decisively pro nounces him mythical ; Mr. Mills with equal confidence holds him historical and the Gathas substantially authentic. He assigns him to a period probably not earlier than b. c. 1500, or later than 900. " Let the Zendist study the Gathas well," he says, " and then let him turn to the Yatts or the Vendtdad : he will go from the land of reality to the land of fable. He leaves in the one a toiling prophet, to meet in the other a phantastic demi-god. "]
Keeping Contracts and Oaths.
Ip men of the same faith, either friends or brothers, come to an agreement together, that one may obtain from the other either goods, or a wife, or knowledge, let him who wants to
90 ZEND-AVESTA.
have goods have them delivered to him; let him who wants to have a wife receive and wed her; let him who wants to have knowledge be taught the holy word.
He shall learn on, during the first part of the day and the last, during the first part of the night and the last, that his mind may be increased in knowledge and wax strong in holi ness ; so shall he sit up, giving thanks and praying to the gods, that he may be increased in knowledge; he shall rest during the middle part of the day, during the middle part of the night, and thus shall he continue until he can say all the words which former Aethrapaitis (teaching priests) have said.
Before the water and the blazing fire, O Spitama Zarathu*- tra! let no one make bold to deny having received from his neighbor the ox or the garment.
Verily I say it unto thee, O Spitama Zarathu*tra! the man who has a wife is far above him who begets no sons; he who keeps a house is far above him who has none; he who has children is far above the childless man; he who has riches is far above him who has none.
And of two men, he who fills himself with meat is filled with the good spirit much more than he who does not do so: the latter is all but dead; the former is above him by the worth of an asperena (dirhem, dime), by the worth of a sheep, by the worth of an ox, by the worth of a man.
It is this man that can strive against the onsets of Asto- Vidhotu; that can strive against the self-moving arrow; that can strive against the winter fiend, with thinnest garment on; that can strive against the wicked tyrant and smite him on the head; it is this man that can strive against the ungodly Ashe- maogha who does not eat.
The Holiness op Husbandry.
(Ahura Mazda said:) "Unhappy is the land that has long lain unsown with the seed of the sower and wants a good hus bandman, like a well-shapen maiden who has long gone child less and wants a good husband.
"He who would till the earth, O Spitama Zarathustra! with the left arm and the right, with the right arm and the left, unto him will she bring forth plenty like a loving bride on her bed, unto her beloved; the bride will bring forth children, the earth will bring forth plenty of fruit.
Ahura Mazda answered : again, O Spitama Zarathustra !
ZEND-AVESTA.
91
" He who would till the earth, O Spitama Zarathustra ! with the left arm and the right, with the right arm and the left, unto him thus says the Earth : ' O thou man ! who dost till me with the left arm and the right, with the right arm and the left, hither shall people ever come and beg for bread ; here shall I ever go on bearing, bringing forth all manner of food, bringing forth profusion of corn. '
" He who does not till the earth, O Spitama Zarathustra ! with the left arm and the right, with the right arm and the left, unto him thus says the Earth : ' O thou man ! who dost not till me with the left arm and the right, with the right arm and the left, ever shalt thou stand at the door of the stranger, among those who beg for bread ; ever shalt thou wait there for the refuse that is brought unto thee, brought by those who have profusion of wealth. ' "
"It is sowing corn again and
" When barley is coming forth, the Daevas start up ; when the corn is growing rank, then faint the Daevas' hearts ; when the corn is being bound, the Daevas groan ; when wheat is coming forth, the Daevas are destroyed. In that house they can no longer stay, from that house they are beaten away, wherein wheat is thus coming forth. It is as though red-hot iron were turned about in their throats, when there is plenty of corn.
O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One ! What is the food that fills the law of Mazda?
" He who sows corn, soweth holiness ; he makes the law of Mazda grow higher and higher ; he makes the law of Mazda as fat as he can with a hundred acts of adoration, a thousand oblations, ten thousand sacrifices.
"Then let the priest teach people this saying: 'No one who does not eat has strength to do works of holiness, strength to do works of husbandry, strength to beget children. By eating, every material creature lives; by not eating it dies away. '" . . .
" He who, tilling the earth, O Spitama Zarathustra ! would not kindly and piously give to one of the faithful, he shall fall down into the darkness of Spewta Armaiti (the earth), down into the world of woe, the dismal realm, down into the house of hell. "
92 ZEND-AVESTA.
To THE Strs.
Unto the undying, shining, swift-horsed Sun;
Be propitiation, with sacrifice, prayer, propitiation, and glorification.
We sacrifice unto the undying, shining, swift-horsed Sun.
When the light of the sun waxes warmer, when the bright ness of the Sun waxes warmer, then up stand the heavenly Yazatas, by hundreds and thousands ; they gather together its Glory, they make its Glory pass down, they pour its Glory upon the earth, made by Ahura, for the increase of the world of holi ness, for the increase of the creatures of holiness, for the in crease of the undying, shining, swift-horsed Sun.
And when the Sun rises up, then the earth, made by Ahura, becomes clean ; the running waters become clean, the waters of the wells become clean, the waters of the Sea become clean; the standing waters become clean ; all the holy creatures, the creatures of the Good Spirit, become clean.
Should not the Sun rise up, then the Daevas would destroy all the things that are in the Seven Karshvares, nor would the heavenly Yazatas find any way of withstanding or repelling them in the material world.
He who offers up a sacrifice unto the undying, shining, swift-horsed Sun — to withstand darkness, to withstand the Daevas born of darkness, to withstand the robbers and bandits, to withstand the Yatus and Pairikas, to withstand death that creeps in unseen — offers it up to Ahura Mazda, offers it up to the Amesha-Speratas, offers it up to his own soul. He rejoices all the heavenly and worldly Yazatas, who offers up a sacrifice unto the undying, shining, swift-horsed Sun.
I will sacrifice unto Mithra, the lord of wide pastures, who has a thousand ears, ten thousand eyes.
I will sacrifice unto the club of Mithra, the lord of wide pastures, well struck down upon the skulls of the Daevas.
I will sacrifice unto that friendship, the best of all friend ships, that reigns between the moon and the sun.
For his brightness and glory, I will offer unto him a sacri fice worth being heard, namely, unto the undying, shining, swift-horsed Sun. Unto the undying, shining, swift-horsed Sun we offer up the libations, the Haoma and meat, the bar- esma, the wisdom of the tongue, the holy spells, the speech, the deeds, the libations, and the rightly spoken words.
ZEND-AVESTA. 93
TO MltHBA.
We sacrifice unto Mithra, the lord of wide pastures, sleep less, and ever awake.
To whom Ahura Mazda offered up a sacrifice in the shining
Garo-nmana (Paradise).
With his arms lifted up towards Immortality, Mithra, the
lord of wide pastures, drives forward from the shining Garo- nmana, in a beautiful chariot that drives on, ever-swift, adorned with all sorts of ornaments, and made of gold.
At his right hand drives Rashnu Razista, the most benefi cent and well-shapen.
At his left hand drives the most upright JHsta, the holy one, bearing libations in her hands, clothed with white clothes, and white herself; and the cursing thought of the Law of Mazda.
Close by him drives the strong cursing thought of the wise man, opposing foes in the shape of a boar, a sharp-toothed he- boar, a sharp-jawed boar, that kills at one stroke, pursuing, wrathful, with a dripping face, strong and swift to run, and rushing all around.
Behind him drives Atar (the Genius of Fire), all in a blaze, and the awful kingly Glory.
On a side of the chariot of Mithra, the lord of wide pastures, stand a thousand bows well made, with a string of cowgut; they go through the heavenly space, they fall through the heavenly space upon the skulls of the Daevas.
On a side of the chariot of Mithra, the lord of wide pastures, stand a thousand vulture-feathered arrows, with a golden mouth, with a horn shaft, with a brass tail, and well made. They go through the heavenly space, they fall through the heavenly space upon the skulls of the Daevas.
On a side of the chariot of Mithra, the lord of wide pastures, stand a thousand spears, well made and sharp-piercing. They
go through the heavenly space, they fall through the heavenly space upon the skulls of the Daevas.
On a side of the chariot of Mithra, the lord of wide pas tures, stand a thousand steel hammers, two-edged, well made. They go through the heavenly space, they fall through the heavenly space upon the skulls of the Daevas.
On a side of the chariot of Mithra, the lord of wide pas tures, stand a thousand swords, two-edged and well made.
94 ZEND-AVESTA.
They go through the heavenly space, they fall through the heavenly space upon the skulls of the Daevas.
On a side of the chariot of Mithra, the lord of wide pas
tures, stand a thousand maces of iron, well made.
through the heavenly space, they fall through the heavenly space upon the skulls of the Daevas.
On a side of the chariot of Mithra, the lord of wide pas tures, stands a beautiful well-falling club, with a hundred knots, a hundred edges, that rushes forward and fells men down ; a club cast out of red brass, of strong, golden brass ; the strong est of all weapons, the most victorious of all weapons. It goes through the heavenly space, it falls through the heavenly space upon the skulls of the Daevas.
After he has smitten the Daevas, after he has smitten down the man who lied unto Mithra, Mithra, the lord of wide pas tures, drives forward. . . .
Angra Mainyu (Ahriman), who is all death, flees away in fear ; Aeshma, the evil-doing Peshotanu, flees away in fear ; the long-handed Boshyaster flees away in fear ; all the Daevas unseen and the Varenya fiends flee away in fear.
Oh ! May we never fall across the rush of Mithra, the lord of wide pastures, when in anger ! May Mithra, the lord of wide pastures, never smite us in his anger ; he who stands up upon this earth as the strongest of all gods, the most valiant of all gods, the most energetic of all gods, the swiftest of all gods, the most fiend-smiting of all gods, he, Mithra, the lord of wide pastures.
Gatha-Dualism of Good and Evtl.
The primeval spirits as a pair, each independent in his action, have been famed. A better thing, and a worse, they two, as to thought, as to word, and as to deed. And between these two let the wisely acting choose aright. Choose ye not as the evil-doers !
When the two spirits came together at the first to make life, and life's absence, and to determine how the world at last shall be ordered, for the wicked the worst life (Hell), for the holy the Best Mental State (Heaven).
He who was the evil of them both chose the evil, thereby making the worst of possible results ; but the more bounteous spirit chose the Divine Righteousness.
They go
TANTALUS AND THE OLYMPIC GAMES. 95
And between these two spirits the Demon-Gods and their worshipers can make no righteous choice, since we have be guiled them. As they were questioning and debating in their council, the worst mind approached them that he might be chosen. And thereupon they rushed together unto the Demon of Fury, that they might pollute the lives of mortals.
Upon this Aramaiti (Saints' Piety) approached, and with her came the Sovereign Power, the Good Mind, and the Right eous Order. And Aramaiti gave a body (to the spiritual crea tions of good and evil).
And when vengeance shall have come upon these wretches (Devil-worshipers), then, O Mazda ! the kingdom shall have been gained by thee by thy Good Mind within thy Folk.
And may we be such as those who bring on this great renovation, and make this world progressive. The Ahuras of Mazda may we be in helpful readiness to meet thy people, pre senting benefits in union with the Righteous Order.
LEGEND OF TANTALUS AND THE OLYMPIC GAMES.
By PINDAR. (Translated by Ernest Myers. )
[Pindab, one of the greatest lyric artists of the world, was born about b. c. 622, near Thebes. Though sought as a court star by the greatest princes of his age, he refused to give up independence or Thehan citizenship. He died prob ably in 443. His life work was writing odes to be sung in honor of victories in athletic contests at the great Greek religious festivals. These he made vehicles for the legendary lore of old Greece, at first so lavishly that the elder poetess Corinna told him " one should sow with the hand and not the sack. "]
Fibst Olympian Ode : for Hieron of Syracuse, Winner in the Horse Race.
Best is Water of all, and Gold as a flaming fire in the night shineth eminent amid lordly wealth; but if of prizes in the games thou art fain, O my soul, to tell, then, as for no bright star more quickening than the sun must thou search in the void firmament by day, so neither shall we find any games greater
96 TANTALUS AND THE OLYMPIC GAMES.
than the Olympic whereof to utter our voice : for hence cometh the glorious hymn and entereth into the minds of the skilled in song, so that they celebrate the son of Kronos [Zeus], when to the rich and happy hearth of Hieron they are come ; for he wieldeth the scepter of justice in Sicily of many flocks, culling the choice fruits of all kinds of excellence : and with the flower of music is he made splendid, even such strains as we sing blithely at the table of a friend.
Take from the peg the Dorian lute, if in anywise the glory of Pherenikos [the winning horse] at Pisa hath swayed thy soul unto glad thoughts, when by the banks of Alpheos he ran, and gave his body ungoaded in the course, and brought victory to his master, the Syracusans' king, who delighteth in horses.
Bright is his fame in Lydian Pelops' colony [Peloponnesos], inhabited of a goodly race, whose founder mighty earth-enfold ing Poseidon loved, what time from the vessel of purifying Klotho took him with the bright ivory furnishment of his
shoulder [i. e. at birth].
Verily many things are wondrous, and haply tales decked out
with cunning fables beyond the truth make false men's speech concerning them. For Charis [goddess of Grace or Beauty], who maketh all sweet things for mortal men, by lending honor unto such maketh oft the unbelievable thing to be believed ; but the days that follow after are the wisest witnesses.
Meet is it for a man that concerning gods he speak honor ably ; for the reproach is less. Of thee, son of Tantalos, I will speak contrariwise to them who have gone before me, and I will tell how when thy father had bidden thee to that most seemly feast at his beloved Sipylos, repaying to the gods their banquet, then did he of the Bright Trident [Poseidon], his heart vanquished by love, snatch thee and bear thee behind bis golden steeds to the house of august Zeus in the highest, whither again on a like errand came Ganymede in the after time.
But when thou hadst vanished, and the men who sought thee long brought thee not to thy mother, some one of the envious neighbors said secretly that over water heated to boil ing they had hewn asunder with a knife thy limbs, and at the tables had shared among them and eaten sodden fragments of thy flesh. But to me it is impossible to call one of the blessed gods
I keep aloof ; in telling ill tales is often little gain. Tantalos was that man ; but his high fortune he could not digest,
cannibal ;
Now if any man ever had honor of the guardians of Olympus,
TANTALUS AND THE OLYMPIC GAMES. 97
and by excess thereof won him an overwhelming woe, in that the Father hath hung above him a mighty stone that he would fain ward from his head, and therewithal he is fallen from joy.
This hopeless life of endless misery he endureth with other three [Sisyphos, Ixion, and Tityos], for that he stole from the immortals and gave to his fellows at a feast the nectar and ambrosia, whereby the gods had made him incorruptible. But if a man thinketh that in doing aught he shall be hidden from God, he erreth.
Therefore also the immortals sent back again his son to be once more counted with the short-lived race of men. And he, when toward the bloom of his sweet youth the down began to shade his darkening cheek, took counsel with himself speedily to take to him for his wife the noble Hippodameia from her Pisan father's hand.
And he came and stood upon the margin of the hoary sea, alone in the darkness of the night, and called aloud on the deep- voiced Wielder of the Trident ; and he appeared unto him nigh at his foot. "
Lo now, O Poseidon, if the kind gifts of the Cyprian goddess are anywise pleasant in thine eyes, restrain Oinomaos' bronze spear, and send me unto Elis upon
a chariot exceeding swift, and give the victory to my hands. Thirteen lovers already hath Oinomaos slain, and still delayeth to give his daughter in marriage. Now a great peril alloweth not of a coward : and forasmuch as men must die, wherefore should one sit vainly in the dark through a dull and nameless age, and without lot in noble deeds ? Not so, but I will dare this strife : do thou give the issue I desire. "
Thus spake he, nor were his words in vain 5 for the god made him a glorious gift of a golden car and winged, untiring steeds : so he overcame Oinomaos and won the maiden for his bride.
And he begat six sons, chieftains, whose thoughts were ever of brave deeds : and now hath he part in honor of blood-offer ings in his grave beside Alpheos' stream, and hath a frequented tomb, whereto many strangers resort : and from afar off he be- holdeth the glory of the Olympian games in the courses called of Pelops, where is striving of swift feet and of strong bodies brave to labor ; but he that overcometh hath for the sake of those games a sweet tranquillity throughout his life for ever more.
First they approach the temples and inquire for pardon from altar to altar; duly they slaughter chosen sheep to Ceres the lawgiver, to Phoebus, and to father Lyaeus — above all to Juno, who makes marriage bonds her care. Dido herself, in all her beauty, takes a goblet in her hand, and pours it out full between the horns of a heifer of gleaming white, or moves majestic in the presence of the gods towards the richly laden altars, and solemnizes the day with offerings, and gazing greedily on the victims' opened breasts, consults the entrails yet quivering with life. Alas ! how blind are the eyes of seers ! What can
QUEEN DIDO'S LOVE AND FATE. 79
vows, what can temples do for the madness of love ? All the while a flame is preying on the very marrow of her bones, and deep in her breast a wound keeps noiselessly alive. She is on fire, the ill-fated Dido, and in her madness ranges the whole city through, like a doe from an arrow shot, whom, unguarded in the thick of the Cretan woods, a shepherd, chasing her with his darts, has pierced from a distance, and left the flying steel in the wound, unknowing of his prize ; she at full speed scours the forests and lawns of Dicte ; the deadly reed still sticks in her side. Now she leads JSneas with her through the heart of the town, and displays the wealth of Sidon, and the city built to dwell in. She begins to speak, and stops midway in the utterance. Now, as the day fades, she seeks again the banquet of yesterday, and once more in frenzy asks to hear of the agonies of Troy, and hangs once more on his lips as he tells the tale. Afterwards, when the guests are gone, and the dim moon in turn is hiding her light, and the setting stars invite to slumber, alone she mourns in the empty hall, and presses the couch he has just left ; him far away she sees and hears, herself far away ; or holds Ascanius long in her lap, spellbound by his father's image, to cheat, if she can, her ungovernable passion. The towers that were rising rise no longer ; the youth cease to prac tice arms, or to make ready havens and bulwarks for safety in war ; the works are broken and suspended, the giant frowning of the walls, and the engine level with the sky.
******
Meantime the sky begins to be convulsed with a mighty
turmoil ; a stormcloud follows of mingled rain and hail. Tyrian train, all in confusion, and the chivalry of Troy, and the hope of Dardania, Venus' grandson, have sought shelter in their terror up and down the country, some here, some there. The streams run in torrents down the hills. Dido and the Trojan chief find themselves in the same cave. Earth, the mother of all, and Juno give the sign.
Lightnings blaze, and heaven flashes in sympathy with the bridal ; and from mountain tops the nymphs give the nuptial shout. That day was the birthday of death, the birthday of woe. Henceforth she has no thought for the common eye, or the common tongue ; it is not a stolen passion that Dido has now in her mind — no, she calls it marriage ; that name is the screen of her sin.
The
80 QUEEN DIDO'S LOVE AND FATE.
[Jove commands Mercury to visit iEneas and bear him the divine injunction, according to the decree of the Fates, to leave Carthage and fulfill his destiny — of founding through his descendants the great city in Latium. ]
tEneas deserts his Queen.
Soon as his winged feet alit among the huts of Carthage, he sees -5£neas founding towers and making houses new. A sword was at his side, starred with yellow jaspers, and a mantle drooped from his shoulders, ablaze with Tyrian purple — a costly gift which Dido had made, varying the web with threads of gold. Instantly he assails him: "And are you at a time like this laying the foundations of stately Carthage, and build ing, like a fond husband, your wife's goodly city, forgetting, alas ! your own kingdom and the cares that should be yours? It is no less than the ruler of the gods who sends me down to you from his bright Olympus — he whose nod sways heaven and earth; it is he that bids me carry his commands through the flying air. What are you building ? what do you look to in squandering your leisure in Libyan land ? If you are fired by no spark of ambition for the greatness in your view, and will not rear a toilsome fabric for your own praise, think of Ascanius rising into youth, think of lulus, your heir and your hope, to whom you owe the crown of Italy and the realm of Rome. " With these words Cyllene's god quitted mortal sight ere he had well ceased to speak, and vanished away from the eye into unsubstantial air.
The sight left . <Eneas dumb and aghast indeed ; his hair stood shudderingly erect; his speech clave to his throat. He burns to take flight and leave the land of pleasure, as his ears ring with the thunder of Heaven's imperious warning. What — ah ! what is he to do? with what address can he now dare to ap proach the impassioned queen? what first advances can he employ ? And thus he dispatches his rapid thought hither and thither, hurrying it east and west, and sweeping every corner of the field. So balancing, at last he thought this judgment the best. He calls Mnestheus and Sergestus and brave Seres- tus ; bids them quietly get ready the fleet, muster the crews on the shore, with their arms in their hands, hiding the reason for so sudden a change. Meantime he, while Dido, kindest of friends, is in ignorance, deeming love's chain too strong to be snapped, will feel his way, and find what are the happiest
QUEEN DIDO'S LOVE AND FATE. 81
moments for speech, what the right hold to take of circum stance. At once all gladly obey his command, and are busy on the tasks enjoined.
But the queen (who can cheat a lover's senses ? ) scented the plot, and caught the first sound of the coming stir, alive to fear in the midst of safety. Fame, as before, the same baleful fiend, whispered in her frenzied ear that the fleet was being equipped and the voyage got ready. She storms in impotence of soul, and, all on fire, goes raving through the city, like a Maenad starting up at the rattle of the sacred emblems, when the tri ennial orgies lash her with the cry of Bacchus, and Cithaeron's yell calls her into the night. At length she thus bespeaks j3£neas, unaddressed by him : —
" To hide, yes, hide your enormous crime, perfidious wretch, did you hope that might be done — to steal away in silence from my realm? Has our love no power to keep you ? has our troth, once plighted, none, nor she whom you doom to a cruel death, your Dido ? Nay, are you fitting out your fleet with winter's sky overhead, and hastening to cross the deep in the face of all the northern winds, hard-hearted as you are? Why, suppose you were not seeking a strange clime and a home you know not — suppose old Troy were still standing — would even Troy draw you to seek her across a billowy sea ? Flying, and from me ! By the tears I shed, and by your plighted hand, since my own act, alas! has left me naught else to plead — by our union — by the nuptial rites thus prefaced — if I have ever deserved well of you, or aught of mine ever gave you pleasure — have pity on a falling house, and strip off, I conjure you, if prayer be not too late, the mind that clothes you. It is owing to you that the Libyan tribes and the Nomad chiefs hate me, that my own Tyrians are estranged; owing to you, yes, you, that my woman's honor has been put out, and that which was my one passport to immortality, my former fame. To whom are you abandoning a dying woman, my guest? — since the name of husband has dwindled to that. Why do I live any longer? — to give my brother Pygmalion time to batter down my walls, or Iarbas the Moor to carry me away captive ? Had I but borne any offspring of you before your flight, were there some tiny iEneas to play in my hall, and remind me of you, though"but in look, I should not then feel utterly captive and forlorn.
She ceased. He all the while, at Jove's command, was keep
ing his eyes unmoved, and shutting up in his heart his great Tot. in. — 9
82 QUEEN DIDO'S LOVE AND FATE.
love. At length he answers in brief: "Fair queen, name all the claims to gratitude you can. I shall never gainsay one, nor will the thought of Elissa ever be unwelcome while memory lasts, while breath animates this frame. A few words I will say, as the case admits. I never counted — do not dream it — on stealthily concealing my flight. I never came with a bride groom's torch in my hand, nor was this the alliance to which I agreed. For me, were the Fates to suffer me to live under a star of my own choosing, and to make with care the terms I would, the city of Troy, first of all the dear remains of what was mine, would claim my tendance. Priam's tall rooftree would still be standing, and my hand would have built a restored Pergamus, to solace the vanquished. But now to princely Italy Grynean Apollo, to Italy his Lycian oracles, bid me repair. There is my heart, there my fatherland. If you are riveted here by the sight of your stately Carthage, a daughter of Phoenicia by a Libyan town, why, I would ask, should jealousy forbid Teucrians to settle in Ausonian land? We, like you, have the right of looking for a foreign realm. There is my father Anchises, oft as night's dewy shades invest the earth, oft as the fiery stars arise, warning me in dreams and appalling me by his troubled presence. There is my son Ascanius, and the wrongs heaped on his dear head every day that I rob him of the crown of Hesperia, and of the land that fate makes his. Now, too, the messenger of the gods, sent down from Jove himself (I swear by both our lives) has brought me orders through the flying air. With my own eyes I saw the god in clear daylight entering the walls, and took in his words with the ears that hear you now. Cease then to harrow up both our souls by your reproaches : my quest of Italy is not of my own motion. "
Long ere he had done this speech she was glaring at him askance, rolling her eyes this way and that, and scanning the whole man with her silent glances, and thus she bursts forth all ablaze: "No goddess was mother of yours, no Dardanus the head of your line, perfidious wretch! — no, your parent was Caucasus, rugged and craggy, and Hyrcanian tigresses put their breasts to your lips. For why should I suppress aught? or for what worse evil hold myself in reserve ? Did he groan when I wept? did he move those hard eyes? did he yield and shed tears, or pity her that loved him? What first? what last? Now, neither Juno, queen of all, nor Jove, the almighty Father,
QUEEN DIDO'S LOVE AND FATE. 83
eyes us with impartial regard. Nowhere is there aught to trust — nowhere. A shipwrecked beggar, I welcomed him, and madly gave him a share of my realm ; his lost fleet, his crews, I brought back from death's door. Ah ! Fury sets me on fire, and whirls me round ! Now, prophet Apollo, now the Lycian oracles. Now the messenger of the gods, sent down by Jove himself, bears his grim bidding through the air! Aye, of course, that is the employment of the powers above, those the cares that break their repose! I retain not your person, nor refute your talk. Go, chase Italy with the winds at your back ; look for realms with the whole sea between you. I have hope that on the rocks midway, if the gods are as powerful as they are good, you will drain the cup of punishment, with Dido's name ever on your lips. I will follow you with murky fires when I am far away ; and when cold death shall have parted soul and body, my shade shall haunt you everywhere. Yes, wretch, you shall suffer. I shall hear it — the news will reach me down among the dead. " So saying, she snaps short her speech, and flies with loathing from the daylight, and breaks and rushes from his sight, leaving him hesitating, and fearing, and thinking of a thousand things to say. Her maidens sup port her, and carry her sinking frame into her marble chamber, and lay her on her bed.
But good . <Eneas, though yearning to solace and soothe her agonized spirit, and by his words to check the onset of sorrow, with many a groan, his whole soul upheaved by the force of love, goes nevertheless about the commands of Heaven, and repairs to his fleet. The Teucrians redouble their efforts, and along the whole range of the shore drag their tall ships down. The keels are careened and floated. They carry oars with their leaves still on, and timber unfashioned as it stood in the woods, so strong their eagerness to fly. You may see them all in motion, streaming from every part of the city. Even as ants when they are sacking a huge heap of wheat, provident of winter days, and laying up the plunder in their stores ; a black column is seen moving through the plain, and they convey their booty along the grass in a narrow path : some are putting their shoulders to the big grains, and pushing them along; others are rallying the force and punishing the stragglers ; the whole track is in a glow of work.
84 QUEEN DIDO'S LOVE AND FATE.
Death of Dido.
What were your feelings then, poor Dido, at a sight like this! How deep the groans you heaved, when you looked out from your lofty tower on a beach all seething and swarming, and saw the whole sea before you deafened with that hubbub of voices ! Tyrant love ! what force dost thou not put on human hearts? Again she has to condescend to tears, again to use the weapons of entreaty, and bow her spirit in suppliance under love's yoke, lest she should have left aught untried, and be rushing on a needless death.
" Anna, you see there is hurrying all over the shore — they are met from every side ; the canvas is already wooing the gale, and the joyful sailors have wreathed the sterns. If I have had the foresight to anticipate so heavy a blow, I shall have the power to bear it too, my sister. Yet, Anna, in my misery, perform me this one service. . You, and you only, the per fidious man was wont to make his friend — aye, even to trust you with his secret thoughts. You, and you only, know the subtle approaches to his heart, and the times of essaying them. Go, then, my sister, and supplicate our haughty foe. Tell him I was no party to the Danaan league at Aulis to destroy the Trojan nation; I sent no ships to Pergamus; I never disin terred his father Anchises, his dust or his spirit. Why will he not let my words sink down into his obdurate ears ? Whither is he hurrying? Let him grant this last boon to her who loves him so wildly ; let him wait till the way is smoothed for his flight, and there are winds to waft him. I am not asking him now to renew our old vows which he has forsworn. I am not asking him to forego his fair Latium, and resign his crown. I entreat but a few vacant hours, a respite and breathing space for my passion, till my fortune shall have taught baffled love how to grieve. This is my last request of you. Oh, pity your poor sister ! — a request which when granted shall be returned with interest in death. "
Such was her appeal — such the wailing which her afflicted sister bears to him, and bears again; but no wailing moves him, no words find him a gentle listener. Fate bars the way, and Heaven closes the hero's relenting ears. Even as an aged oak, still hale and strong, which Alpine winds, blowing now here, now there, strive emulously to uproot — a loud noise is heard, and, as the stem rocks, heaps of leaves pile the ground; but
QUEEN DIDO'S LOVE AND FATE. 86
the tree cleaves firmly to the cliff; high as its head strikes into the air, so deep its root strikes down to the abyss — even thus the hero is assailed on all sides by a storm of words : his mighty breast thrills through and through with agony; but his mind is unshaken, and tears are showered in vain.
Then at last, maddened by her destiny, poor Dido prays for death: heaven's vault is a weariness to look on. To confirm her in pursuing her intent, and closing her eyes on the sun, she saw, as she was laying her offerings on the incense-steaming altars — horrible to tell — the sacred liquor turn black, and the streams of wine curdle into loathly gore. This appearance she told to none, not even to her sister. Moreover, there was in her palace a marble chapel to her former husband, to which she used to pay singular honors, wreathing it with snowy fillets and festal boughs ; from it she thought she heard a voice, the accents of the dead man calling her, when the darkness of night was shrouding the earth ; and on the roof a lonely owl in funereal tones kept complaining again and again, and drawing out wail- ingly its protracted notes ; and a thousand predictions of seers of other days come back on her, terrifying her with their awful warnings. When she dreams, there is -(Eneas himself driving her in furious chase : she seems always being left alone to her self, always pacing companionless on a never-ending road, and looking for her Tyrians in a realm without inhabitants — like Pentheus, when in frenzy he sees troops of Furies, and two sons, and a double Thebes rising round him ; or Agamemnon's Orestes rushing over the stage, as he flies from his mother, who is armed with torches and deadly snakes, while the aveng ing fiends sit couched on the threshold. . . .
Meanwhile iEneas, resolved on his journey, was slumbering in his vessel's tall stern, all being now in readiness. To him a vision of the god appearing again with the same countenance, presented itself as he slept, and seemed to give this second warning — the perfect picture of Mercury, his voice, his bloom ing hue, his yellow locks, and the youthful grace of his frame : "Goddess-born, at a crisis like this can you slumber on? Do you not see the wall of danger which is fast rising round you, infatuate that you are, nor hear the favoring whisper of the western gale ? She is revolving in her bosom thoughts of craft and cruelty, resolved on death, and surging with a change ful tempest of passion. Will you not haste away while haste is in your power? You will look on a sea convulsed with
86 QUEEN DIDO'S LOVE AND FATE.
ships, an array of fierce torch fires, a coast glowing with flame, if the dawn goddess shall have found you loitering here on land. Quick! — burst through delay. A thing of moods and changes is woman ever. " He said, and was lost in the dark ness of night.
At once JSneas, scared by the sudden apparition, springs up from sleep, and rouses his comrades. "Wake in a moment, my friends, and seat you on the benches. Unfurl the sails with all speed. See ! here is a god sent down from heaven on high, urging us again to hasten our flight, and cut the twisted cables. Yes ! sacred power, we follow thee, whoever thou art, and a second time with joy obey thy behest. Be thou with us, and graciously aid us, and let propitious stars be ascendant in the sky. " So saying, he snatches from the scabbard his flash ing sword, and with the drawn blade cuts the hawsers. The spark flies from man to man; they scour, they scud, they have left the shore behind; you cannot see the water for ships. With strong strokes they dash the foam, and sweep the blue.
And now Aurora was beginning to sprinkle the earth with fresh light, rising from Tithonus' saffron couch. Soon as the queen from her watchtower saw the gray dawn brighten, and the fleet moving on with even canvas, and coast and haven for saken, with never an oar left, thrice and again smiting her beauteous breast with her hands, and rending her golden locks, "Great Jupiter! " cries she, "shall he go? Shall a chance comer boast of having flouted our realm ? Will they not get their arms at once, and give chase from all the town, and pull, some of them, the ships from the docks? Away! bring fire;
quick ! get darts, ply oars ! What am I saying ? Where am I
? What madness turns my brain? Wretched Dido! do your sins sting you now? They should have done so then, when you were giving your crown away. What truth ! what fealty !
— the man who, they say, carries about with him the gods of his country, and took up on his shoulders his old worn-out father !
Might I not have caught and torn him piecemeal, and scattered him to the waves? — destroyed his friends, aye, and his own Ascanius, and served up the boy for his father's meal ? But the chance of a battle would have been doubtful. Let it have been. I was to die, and whom had I to fear? I would have flung torches into his camp, filled his decks with flame, con sumed son and sire and the whole line, and leapt myself upon the pile. Sun, whose torch shows thee all that is done on earth,
QUEEN DIDO'S LOVE AND FATE. 87
and thou, Juno, revealer and witness of these stirrings of the heart, and Hecate, whose name is yelled in civic crossways by night, avenging fiends, and gods of dying Elissa, listen to this! Let your power stoop to ills that call for it, and hear what I
If it must needs be that the accursed wretch gain
now pray ! —
the haven and float to shore
destiny, such the fixed goal — yet grant that, harassed by the sword and battle of a warlike nation, a wanderer from his own confines, torn from his lulus' arms, he may pray for succor, and see his friends dying miserably round him ! Nor when he has yielded to the terms of an unjust peace, may he enjoy his crown, or the life he loves ; but may he fall before his time, and lie unburied in the midst of the plain ! This is my prayer — these the last accents that flow from me with my lifeblood. And you, my Tyrians, let your hatred persecute the race and people for all time to come. Be this the offering you send down to my ashes : never be there love or league between nation and nation. Arise from my bones, my unknown avenger, destined with fire and sword to pursue the Dardanian settlers, now or in after days, whenever strength shall be given ! Let coast be at war with coast, water with wave, army with army; fight they, and their sons, and their sons' sons ! "
Thus she said, as she whirled her thought to this side and that, seeking at once to cut short the life she now abhorred. Then briefly she spoke to Barce, Sychaeus' nurse, for her own was left in her old country, in the black ashes of the grave: "Fetch me here, dear nurse, my sister Anna. Bid her hasten to sprinkle herself with water from the stream, and bring with her the cattle and the atoning offerings prescribed. Let her come with these ; and do you cover your brow with the holy fillet. The sacrifice to Stygian Jove, which I have duly com menced and made ready, I wish now to accomplish, and with it the end of my sorrows, giving to the flame the pile that pillows the Dardan head! " She said: the nurse began to quicken her pace with an old wife's zeal.
But Dido, wildered and maddened by her enormous resolve, rolling her bloodshot eye, her quivering cheeks stained with fiery streaks, and pale with the shadow of death, bursts the door of the inner palace, and frantically climbs the tall pile, and unsheathes the Dardan sword, a gift procured for a far different end. Then, after surveying the Trojan garments and the bed, too well known, and pausing awhile to weep and
if such the requirement of Jove's
88 QUEEN DIDO'S LOVE AND FATE.
think, she pressed her bosom to the couch, and uttered her last words: —
" Relics, once darlings of mine, while Fate and Heaven gave leave, receive this my soul, and release me from these my sor rows. I have lived my life — the course assigned me by For tune is run, and now the august phantom of Dido shall pass
I have built a splendid city. I have seen my walls completed. In vengeance for a husband, I have punished a brother that hated me — blest, ah ! blest beyond human" bliss, if only Dardan ships had never touched coasts of ours ! She
underground.
spoke — and kissing the couch: "Is it to be death without revenge? But be it death," she cries — "this, this is the road by which I love to pass to the shades. Let the heartless Dar- danian's eyes drink in this flame from the deep, and let him carry with him the presage of my death. "
She spoke, and even while she was yet speaking, her attend ants see her fallen on the sword, the blade spouting blood, and her hands dabbled in it. Their shrieks rise to the lofty roof; Fame runs wild through the convulsed city. With wail ing and groaning, and screams of women, the palace rings ; the sky resounds with mighty cries and beating of breasts — even as if the foe were to burst the gates and topple down Carthage or ancient Tyre, and the infuriate flame were leaping from roof to roof among the dwellings of men and gods.
Her sister heard it. Breathless and frantic, with wild speed, disfiguring her cheeks with her nails, her bosom with her fists, she bursts through the press, and calls by name on the dying queen: "Was this your secret, sister? Were you plotting to cheat me ? Was this what your pile was preparing for me, your fires, and your altars ? What should a lone heart grieve for first? Did you disdain your sister's company in death? You should have called me to share your fate — the same keen sword pang, the same hour, should have been the end of both. And did these hands build the pile, this voice call on the gods of our house, that you might lie there, while I, hard-hearted wretch, was away? Yes, sister, you have destroyed yourself and me, the people and the elders of Sidon, and your own fair city. Let in the water to the wounds ; let me cleanse them, and if any remains of breath be still flickering, catch them in my mouth ! " As she thus spoke, she was at the top of the lofty steps, and was embracing and fondling in her bosom her dying sister, and stanching with her robe the black streams of
ZEND-AVESTA. 89
blood. Dido strives to raise her heavy eyes, and sinks down again ; the deep stab gurgles in her breast. Thrice, with an effort, she lifted and reared herself up on her elbow ; thrice she fell back on the couch, and with helpless wandering eyes aloft in the sky, sought for the light and groaned when she found it.
Then Juno almighty, in compassion for her lengthened agony and her trouble in dying, sent down Iris from Olympus to part the struggling soul and its prison of flesh. For, as she was dying, not in the course of fate, nor for any crime of hers, but in mere misery, before her time, the victim of sudden frenzy, not yet had Proserpine carried off a lock of her yellow hair, and thus doomed her head to Styx and the place of death. So then Iris glides down the sky with saffron wings dew-besprent, trailing a thousand various colors in the face of the sun, and alights above her head. " This I am bidden to bear away as an offering to Pluto, and hereby set you free from the body. " So saying, she stretches her hand and cuts the lock : at once all heat parts from the frame, and the life has passed into air.
Precepts, Praters, and Hymns from the ZEND-AVESTA.
(Translated by James Darmesteter and L. H. Mills. )
[The Avesta (Zend means commentary ; the name has also been given to the old Persian language of the most antique portion) is the collection of sacred books — chiefly liturgy — of the ancient Persians, and of the modern Parsee sect, their descendants who have not become Mohammedans. The portion called the Gathas is represented to be the utterances of Zoroaster or Zarathushtra himself, the lawgiver and religious founder whose existence is still a hopeless problem : even of the associated translators above, Professor Darmesteter decisively pro nounces him mythical ; Mr. Mills with equal confidence holds him historical and the Gathas substantially authentic. He assigns him to a period probably not earlier than b. c. 1500, or later than 900. " Let the Zendist study the Gathas well," he says, " and then let him turn to the Yatts or the Vendtdad : he will go from the land of reality to the land of fable. He leaves in the one a toiling prophet, to meet in the other a phantastic demi-god. "]
Keeping Contracts and Oaths.
Ip men of the same faith, either friends or brothers, come to an agreement together, that one may obtain from the other either goods, or a wife, or knowledge, let him who wants to
90 ZEND-AVESTA.
have goods have them delivered to him; let him who wants to have a wife receive and wed her; let him who wants to have knowledge be taught the holy word.
He shall learn on, during the first part of the day and the last, during the first part of the night and the last, that his mind may be increased in knowledge and wax strong in holi ness ; so shall he sit up, giving thanks and praying to the gods, that he may be increased in knowledge; he shall rest during the middle part of the day, during the middle part of the night, and thus shall he continue until he can say all the words which former Aethrapaitis (teaching priests) have said.
Before the water and the blazing fire, O Spitama Zarathu*- tra! let no one make bold to deny having received from his neighbor the ox or the garment.
Verily I say it unto thee, O Spitama Zarathu*tra! the man who has a wife is far above him who begets no sons; he who keeps a house is far above him who has none; he who has children is far above the childless man; he who has riches is far above him who has none.
And of two men, he who fills himself with meat is filled with the good spirit much more than he who does not do so: the latter is all but dead; the former is above him by the worth of an asperena (dirhem, dime), by the worth of a sheep, by the worth of an ox, by the worth of a man.
It is this man that can strive against the onsets of Asto- Vidhotu; that can strive against the self-moving arrow; that can strive against the winter fiend, with thinnest garment on; that can strive against the wicked tyrant and smite him on the head; it is this man that can strive against the ungodly Ashe- maogha who does not eat.
The Holiness op Husbandry.
(Ahura Mazda said:) "Unhappy is the land that has long lain unsown with the seed of the sower and wants a good hus bandman, like a well-shapen maiden who has long gone child less and wants a good husband.
"He who would till the earth, O Spitama Zarathustra! with the left arm and the right, with the right arm and the left, unto him will she bring forth plenty like a loving bride on her bed, unto her beloved; the bride will bring forth children, the earth will bring forth plenty of fruit.
Ahura Mazda answered : again, O Spitama Zarathustra !
ZEND-AVESTA.
91
" He who would till the earth, O Spitama Zarathustra ! with the left arm and the right, with the right arm and the left, unto him thus says the Earth : ' O thou man ! who dost till me with the left arm and the right, with the right arm and the left, hither shall people ever come and beg for bread ; here shall I ever go on bearing, bringing forth all manner of food, bringing forth profusion of corn. '
" He who does not till the earth, O Spitama Zarathustra ! with the left arm and the right, with the right arm and the left, unto him thus says the Earth : ' O thou man ! who dost not till me with the left arm and the right, with the right arm and the left, ever shalt thou stand at the door of the stranger, among those who beg for bread ; ever shalt thou wait there for the refuse that is brought unto thee, brought by those who have profusion of wealth. ' "
"It is sowing corn again and
" When barley is coming forth, the Daevas start up ; when the corn is growing rank, then faint the Daevas' hearts ; when the corn is being bound, the Daevas groan ; when wheat is coming forth, the Daevas are destroyed. In that house they can no longer stay, from that house they are beaten away, wherein wheat is thus coming forth. It is as though red-hot iron were turned about in their throats, when there is plenty of corn.
O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One ! What is the food that fills the law of Mazda?
" He who sows corn, soweth holiness ; he makes the law of Mazda grow higher and higher ; he makes the law of Mazda as fat as he can with a hundred acts of adoration, a thousand oblations, ten thousand sacrifices.
"Then let the priest teach people this saying: 'No one who does not eat has strength to do works of holiness, strength to do works of husbandry, strength to beget children. By eating, every material creature lives; by not eating it dies away. '" . . .
" He who, tilling the earth, O Spitama Zarathustra ! would not kindly and piously give to one of the faithful, he shall fall down into the darkness of Spewta Armaiti (the earth), down into the world of woe, the dismal realm, down into the house of hell. "
92 ZEND-AVESTA.
To THE Strs.
Unto the undying, shining, swift-horsed Sun;
Be propitiation, with sacrifice, prayer, propitiation, and glorification.
We sacrifice unto the undying, shining, swift-horsed Sun.
When the light of the sun waxes warmer, when the bright ness of the Sun waxes warmer, then up stand the heavenly Yazatas, by hundreds and thousands ; they gather together its Glory, they make its Glory pass down, they pour its Glory upon the earth, made by Ahura, for the increase of the world of holi ness, for the increase of the creatures of holiness, for the in crease of the undying, shining, swift-horsed Sun.
And when the Sun rises up, then the earth, made by Ahura, becomes clean ; the running waters become clean, the waters of the wells become clean, the waters of the Sea become clean; the standing waters become clean ; all the holy creatures, the creatures of the Good Spirit, become clean.
Should not the Sun rise up, then the Daevas would destroy all the things that are in the Seven Karshvares, nor would the heavenly Yazatas find any way of withstanding or repelling them in the material world.
He who offers up a sacrifice unto the undying, shining, swift-horsed Sun — to withstand darkness, to withstand the Daevas born of darkness, to withstand the robbers and bandits, to withstand the Yatus and Pairikas, to withstand death that creeps in unseen — offers it up to Ahura Mazda, offers it up to the Amesha-Speratas, offers it up to his own soul. He rejoices all the heavenly and worldly Yazatas, who offers up a sacrifice unto the undying, shining, swift-horsed Sun.
I will sacrifice unto Mithra, the lord of wide pastures, who has a thousand ears, ten thousand eyes.
I will sacrifice unto the club of Mithra, the lord of wide pastures, well struck down upon the skulls of the Daevas.
I will sacrifice unto that friendship, the best of all friend ships, that reigns between the moon and the sun.
For his brightness and glory, I will offer unto him a sacri fice worth being heard, namely, unto the undying, shining, swift-horsed Sun. Unto the undying, shining, swift-horsed Sun we offer up the libations, the Haoma and meat, the bar- esma, the wisdom of the tongue, the holy spells, the speech, the deeds, the libations, and the rightly spoken words.
ZEND-AVESTA. 93
TO MltHBA.
We sacrifice unto Mithra, the lord of wide pastures, sleep less, and ever awake.
To whom Ahura Mazda offered up a sacrifice in the shining
Garo-nmana (Paradise).
With his arms lifted up towards Immortality, Mithra, the
lord of wide pastures, drives forward from the shining Garo- nmana, in a beautiful chariot that drives on, ever-swift, adorned with all sorts of ornaments, and made of gold.
At his right hand drives Rashnu Razista, the most benefi cent and well-shapen.
At his left hand drives the most upright JHsta, the holy one, bearing libations in her hands, clothed with white clothes, and white herself; and the cursing thought of the Law of Mazda.
Close by him drives the strong cursing thought of the wise man, opposing foes in the shape of a boar, a sharp-toothed he- boar, a sharp-jawed boar, that kills at one stroke, pursuing, wrathful, with a dripping face, strong and swift to run, and rushing all around.
Behind him drives Atar (the Genius of Fire), all in a blaze, and the awful kingly Glory.
On a side of the chariot of Mithra, the lord of wide pastures, stand a thousand bows well made, with a string of cowgut; they go through the heavenly space, they fall through the heavenly space upon the skulls of the Daevas.
On a side of the chariot of Mithra, the lord of wide pastures, stand a thousand vulture-feathered arrows, with a golden mouth, with a horn shaft, with a brass tail, and well made. They go through the heavenly space, they fall through the heavenly space upon the skulls of the Daevas.
On a side of the chariot of Mithra, the lord of wide pastures, stand a thousand spears, well made and sharp-piercing. They
go through the heavenly space, they fall through the heavenly space upon the skulls of the Daevas.
On a side of the chariot of Mithra, the lord of wide pas tures, stand a thousand steel hammers, two-edged, well made. They go through the heavenly space, they fall through the heavenly space upon the skulls of the Daevas.
On a side of the chariot of Mithra, the lord of wide pas tures, stand a thousand swords, two-edged and well made.
94 ZEND-AVESTA.
They go through the heavenly space, they fall through the heavenly space upon the skulls of the Daevas.
On a side of the chariot of Mithra, the lord of wide pas
tures, stand a thousand maces of iron, well made.
through the heavenly space, they fall through the heavenly space upon the skulls of the Daevas.
On a side of the chariot of Mithra, the lord of wide pas tures, stands a beautiful well-falling club, with a hundred knots, a hundred edges, that rushes forward and fells men down ; a club cast out of red brass, of strong, golden brass ; the strong est of all weapons, the most victorious of all weapons. It goes through the heavenly space, it falls through the heavenly space upon the skulls of the Daevas.
After he has smitten the Daevas, after he has smitten down the man who lied unto Mithra, Mithra, the lord of wide pas tures, drives forward. . . .
Angra Mainyu (Ahriman), who is all death, flees away in fear ; Aeshma, the evil-doing Peshotanu, flees away in fear ; the long-handed Boshyaster flees away in fear ; all the Daevas unseen and the Varenya fiends flee away in fear.
Oh ! May we never fall across the rush of Mithra, the lord of wide pastures, when in anger ! May Mithra, the lord of wide pastures, never smite us in his anger ; he who stands up upon this earth as the strongest of all gods, the most valiant of all gods, the most energetic of all gods, the swiftest of all gods, the most fiend-smiting of all gods, he, Mithra, the lord of wide pastures.
Gatha-Dualism of Good and Evtl.
The primeval spirits as a pair, each independent in his action, have been famed. A better thing, and a worse, they two, as to thought, as to word, and as to deed. And between these two let the wisely acting choose aright. Choose ye not as the evil-doers !
When the two spirits came together at the first to make life, and life's absence, and to determine how the world at last shall be ordered, for the wicked the worst life (Hell), for the holy the Best Mental State (Heaven).
He who was the evil of them both chose the evil, thereby making the worst of possible results ; but the more bounteous spirit chose the Divine Righteousness.
They go
TANTALUS AND THE OLYMPIC GAMES. 95
And between these two spirits the Demon-Gods and their worshipers can make no righteous choice, since we have be guiled them. As they were questioning and debating in their council, the worst mind approached them that he might be chosen. And thereupon they rushed together unto the Demon of Fury, that they might pollute the lives of mortals.
Upon this Aramaiti (Saints' Piety) approached, and with her came the Sovereign Power, the Good Mind, and the Right eous Order. And Aramaiti gave a body (to the spiritual crea tions of good and evil).
And when vengeance shall have come upon these wretches (Devil-worshipers), then, O Mazda ! the kingdom shall have been gained by thee by thy Good Mind within thy Folk.
And may we be such as those who bring on this great renovation, and make this world progressive. The Ahuras of Mazda may we be in helpful readiness to meet thy people, pre senting benefits in union with the Righteous Order.
LEGEND OF TANTALUS AND THE OLYMPIC GAMES.
By PINDAR. (Translated by Ernest Myers. )
[Pindab, one of the greatest lyric artists of the world, was born about b. c. 622, near Thebes. Though sought as a court star by the greatest princes of his age, he refused to give up independence or Thehan citizenship. He died prob ably in 443. His life work was writing odes to be sung in honor of victories in athletic contests at the great Greek religious festivals. These he made vehicles for the legendary lore of old Greece, at first so lavishly that the elder poetess Corinna told him " one should sow with the hand and not the sack. "]
Fibst Olympian Ode : for Hieron of Syracuse, Winner in the Horse Race.
Best is Water of all, and Gold as a flaming fire in the night shineth eminent amid lordly wealth; but if of prizes in the games thou art fain, O my soul, to tell, then, as for no bright star more quickening than the sun must thou search in the void firmament by day, so neither shall we find any games greater
96 TANTALUS AND THE OLYMPIC GAMES.
than the Olympic whereof to utter our voice : for hence cometh the glorious hymn and entereth into the minds of the skilled in song, so that they celebrate the son of Kronos [Zeus], when to the rich and happy hearth of Hieron they are come ; for he wieldeth the scepter of justice in Sicily of many flocks, culling the choice fruits of all kinds of excellence : and with the flower of music is he made splendid, even such strains as we sing blithely at the table of a friend.
Take from the peg the Dorian lute, if in anywise the glory of Pherenikos [the winning horse] at Pisa hath swayed thy soul unto glad thoughts, when by the banks of Alpheos he ran, and gave his body ungoaded in the course, and brought victory to his master, the Syracusans' king, who delighteth in horses.
Bright is his fame in Lydian Pelops' colony [Peloponnesos], inhabited of a goodly race, whose founder mighty earth-enfold ing Poseidon loved, what time from the vessel of purifying Klotho took him with the bright ivory furnishment of his
shoulder [i. e. at birth].
Verily many things are wondrous, and haply tales decked out
with cunning fables beyond the truth make false men's speech concerning them. For Charis [goddess of Grace or Beauty], who maketh all sweet things for mortal men, by lending honor unto such maketh oft the unbelievable thing to be believed ; but the days that follow after are the wisest witnesses.
Meet is it for a man that concerning gods he speak honor ably ; for the reproach is less. Of thee, son of Tantalos, I will speak contrariwise to them who have gone before me, and I will tell how when thy father had bidden thee to that most seemly feast at his beloved Sipylos, repaying to the gods their banquet, then did he of the Bright Trident [Poseidon], his heart vanquished by love, snatch thee and bear thee behind bis golden steeds to the house of august Zeus in the highest, whither again on a like errand came Ganymede in the after time.
But when thou hadst vanished, and the men who sought thee long brought thee not to thy mother, some one of the envious neighbors said secretly that over water heated to boil ing they had hewn asunder with a knife thy limbs, and at the tables had shared among them and eaten sodden fragments of thy flesh. But to me it is impossible to call one of the blessed gods
I keep aloof ; in telling ill tales is often little gain. Tantalos was that man ; but his high fortune he could not digest,
cannibal ;
Now if any man ever had honor of the guardians of Olympus,
TANTALUS AND THE OLYMPIC GAMES. 97
and by excess thereof won him an overwhelming woe, in that the Father hath hung above him a mighty stone that he would fain ward from his head, and therewithal he is fallen from joy.
This hopeless life of endless misery he endureth with other three [Sisyphos, Ixion, and Tityos], for that he stole from the immortals and gave to his fellows at a feast the nectar and ambrosia, whereby the gods had made him incorruptible. But if a man thinketh that in doing aught he shall be hidden from God, he erreth.
Therefore also the immortals sent back again his son to be once more counted with the short-lived race of men. And he, when toward the bloom of his sweet youth the down began to shade his darkening cheek, took counsel with himself speedily to take to him for his wife the noble Hippodameia from her Pisan father's hand.
And he came and stood upon the margin of the hoary sea, alone in the darkness of the night, and called aloud on the deep- voiced Wielder of the Trident ; and he appeared unto him nigh at his foot. "
Lo now, O Poseidon, if the kind gifts of the Cyprian goddess are anywise pleasant in thine eyes, restrain Oinomaos' bronze spear, and send me unto Elis upon
a chariot exceeding swift, and give the victory to my hands. Thirteen lovers already hath Oinomaos slain, and still delayeth to give his daughter in marriage. Now a great peril alloweth not of a coward : and forasmuch as men must die, wherefore should one sit vainly in the dark through a dull and nameless age, and without lot in noble deeds ? Not so, but I will dare this strife : do thou give the issue I desire. "
Thus spake he, nor were his words in vain 5 for the god made him a glorious gift of a golden car and winged, untiring steeds : so he overcame Oinomaos and won the maiden for his bride.
And he begat six sons, chieftains, whose thoughts were ever of brave deeds : and now hath he part in honor of blood-offer ings in his grave beside Alpheos' stream, and hath a frequented tomb, whereto many strangers resort : and from afar off he be- holdeth the glory of the Olympian games in the courses called of Pelops, where is striving of swift feet and of strong bodies brave to labor ; but he that overcometh hath for the sake of those games a sweet tranquillity throughout his life for ever more.
