Page:Prometheus Bound (Bevan 1902).djvu/97

 Enjoining plainly and saying he should thrust me

Forth of the house, forth of the land, to wander

At large, a separate thing, even to the last

Confines of earth: and if he would not hearken,

Then should a thunder-stroke from Zeus, with flicker

Of flame, consume his house from under heaven.

Such were the prophecies of Loxias,

And such prevailed. He drave me forth, he shut

The doors behind me, groaning in his heart,

As I in mine that day: but force was on him,

The bridle of Zeus, to make him do this thing.

Then, in that instant, lo my bodily form

Was changed, and all my mind was gone awry,

And hornèd, as ye see, thrill'd by the sharp

Mouth of the pest, I rush'd, with furious leaping,

To drinking-pools of the Kerchneian stream,

The fount of Lerna. And there clave to me

A bitter herdsman, gall untemper'd, Argos,

Prodigious growth of the ground, fill'd full of eyes,

And dogg'd my goings. But him a sudden hand,