Had met him, since he killed Apollo's kine, XXV. Right through the temple of the spacious cave XXVI. There he lay innocent as a new-born child, Knew all that he had done, being abroad; 66 XXVII. 'Apollo soon will pass within this gate, And bind your tender body in a chain Inextricably tight, and fast as fate, Unless you can delude the God again, Even when within his arms—ah, runagate! A pretty torment both for gods and men Your father made when he made you!"-" Dear mother," Replied sly Hermes, "wherefore scold and bother? XXVIII. "As if I were like other babes as old, I in my subtle brain a scheme have got, Which, whilst the sacred stars round Heaven are rolled, 66 XXIX. But we will leave this shadow-peopled cave, And live among the Gods, and pass each day In high communion, sharing what they have Of profuse wealth and unexhausted prey; And, from the portion which my father gave To Phœbus, I will snatch my share away, Which if my father will not-nathelesse I, Who am the king of robbers, can but try. 66 XXX. 'And, if Latona's son should find me out, Each golden cup and polished brazen pan, XXXI. Ethereal born, arose out of the flood Of flowing Ocean, bearing light to men. Apollo past toward the sacred wood, Which from the inmost depths of its green glen Echoes the voice of Neptune,-and there stood XXXII. Latona's glorious Son began:-"I pray Tell, ancient hedger of Onchestus green, Whether a drove of kine has past this way, All heifers with crooked horns? for they have been Stolen from the herd in high Pieria, Where a black bull was fed apart, between Two woody mountains in a neighbouring glen, And four fierce dogs watched there, unanimous as men. XXXIII. "And, what is strange, the author of this theft : Of their soft beds and their sweet food bereft Now tell me, man born ere the world begun, Have you seen any one pass with the cows?" To whom the man of overhanging brows,— XXXIV. 66 'My friend, it would require no common skill Justly to speak of everything I see; On various purposes of good or ill Many pass by my vineyard,—and to me 'Tis difficult to know the invisible Thoughts, which in all those many minds may XXXV. 66 And then I thought I saw, but dare not speak XXXVI. Apollo, hearing this, passed quicky on No winged omen could have shown more clear That the deceiver was his father's son. So the God wraps a purple atmosphere To famous Pylos, seeking his kine there, 66 XXXVII. Here are the footsteps of the horned herd 66 XXXVIII. That was most strange-but this is stranger still! " Sought high Cyllene's forest-cinctured hill, And where the ambrosial nymph with happy will Of the hill pastures, at his coming, flew. XXXIX. And Phoebus stooped under the craggy roof About the cows of which he had been beguiled, Of his ambrosial swaddling-clothes he piled— As among firebrands lies a burning spark Covered, beneath the ashes cold and dark. XL. There, like an infant who had sucked his fill, And gathered in a lump, hands, feet, and head, He grasped and held under his shoulder-blade; XLI. Lay swathed in his sly wiles. Round every crook Of the ample cavern, for his kine Apollo Looked sharp; and when he saw them not, he took The glittering key, and opened three great hollow Recesses in the rock-where many a nook Was filled with the sweet food immortals swallow, And mighty heaps of silver and of gold Were piled within-a wonder to behold! |