Page:Four Plays of Aeschylus (Cookson).djvu/211

Rh Do thou pass on, until before thee lies

The Gorgonean plain, Kisthene called,

Where dwell the gray-haired three, the Phorcides,

Old, mumbling maids, swan-shaped, having one eye

Betwixt the three, and but a single tooth.

On them the sun with his bright beams ne'er glanceth

Nor moon that lamps the night. Not far from them

The sisters three, the Gorgons, have their haunt;

Winged forms, with snaky locks, hateful to man,

Whom nothing mortal looking on can live.

Thus much that thou may'st have a care of these.

Now of another portent thou shalt hear.

Beware the dogs of Zeus that ne'er give tongue,

The sharp-beaked gryphons, and the one-eyed horde

Of Arimaspians, riding upon horses,

Who dwell around the river rolling gold,

The ferry and the frith of Pluto's port.

Go not thou nigh them. After thou shalt come

To a far land,—a dark skinned race, that dwell

Beside the fountains of the sun, whence flows

The river Æthiops: follow its banks

Until thou comest to the steep-down slope

Where from the Bibline mountains Nilus old

Pours the sweet waters of his holy stream.

And thou, the river guiding thee, shalt come

To the three-sided, wedge-shaped land of Nile,

Where for thyself, Io, and for thy children

Long sojourn is appointed. If in aught

My story seems to stammer and to err

From indirectness, ask and ask again

Till all be manifest. I do not lack

For leisure, having more than well contents me!