Page:Divine Comedy (Longfellow 1867) v1.djvu/73

Rh And he who well the handmaids of the Queen

Of everlasting lamentation knew,

Said unto me: "Behold the fierce Erinnys.

This is Megæra, on the left-hand side;

She who is weeping on the right, Alecto;

Tisiphone is between"; and then was silent.

Each one her breast was rending with her nails;

They beat them with their palms, and cried so loud,

That I for dread pressed close unto the Poet.

"Medusa come, so we to stone will change him!"

All shouted looking down; "in evil hour

Avenged we not on Theseus his assault!"

"Turn thyself round, and keep thine eyes close shut,

For if the Gorgon appear, and thou shouldst see it,

No more returning upward would there be."

Thus said the Master; and he turned me round

Himself, and trusted not unto my hands

So far as not to blind me with his own.

O ye who have undistempered intellects,

Observe the doctrine that conceals itself

Beneath the veil of the mysterious verses!

And now there came across the turbid waves

The clangor of a sound with terror fraught,

Because of which both of the margins trembled;