Page:Metamorphoses.djvu/393

 METAMORPHOSES BOOK VII drawing nourishment from the rich, rank soil, they gained power to hurt; and because they spring up and flourish on hard rocks, the country folk call them aconite.1 This poison, through the treachery of his wife, father Aegeus himself presented to his son as though to a stranger. Theseus had taken and raised the cup in his unwitting hand, when the father recognized the tokens of his own family on the ivorv hilt of the sword which Theseus wore, and he dashed the vile thing from his lips. But Medea escaped death in a dark whirlwind her witch songs raised. But the father, though he rejoiced at his son's deliverance, was still horror-struck that so monstrous an iniauitycould have been so nearly done. He kindled fires upon the altars, made generous gifts to the gods; his axes struck at the brawny necks of bulls with ribbons about their horns. It is said that no day ever dawned for the Athenians more glad than that. The elders and the common folk made merry together. Together they sang their songs, with wit inspired by wine: "You, O most mighty Theseus, Marathon extols for the blood of the Cretan bull; and that the farmer of Cromyon may till his fields without fear of the so.v is your gift and your deed. Through you the land of Epidaurus saw Vul- can's club-wielding son 2 laid low ; the banks of Cephi- sus saw the merciless Procrustes slain; Eleusis, the town of Ceres, beheld Cercyon's death. By your hand fell that Sinis of great strength turned to evil uses, who could bend the trunks of trees, and force down to earth the pine-tops to shoot men's bodies far out through the air. A way lies safe and open now to Alcathoë and the Lelegeian walls, now that Sciron is no more. To this robber's scattered bones both land i.e. "growing without soil.' 2 Periphetas.