Page:Prometheus Bound (Webster 1866).djvu/49

 For ever nightly visions haunted me

In my maiden chambers, seeking to beguile

With speeches smooth. "Oh! highly favoured maid,

Why so long live a virgin, when there waits

So high a marriage for thee? For a dart

Of love-desire for thee has fevered Zeus,

And he longs with thee to bear the yoke of Cypris.

And thou, oh damsel, do not spurn the bed

Of Zeus, but go to the lush meadow-land

Of Lerna, to thy fathers herds and byres,

That so the eye of Zeus be freed from longing."

And by such visions was I companied

And troubled night by night; until at last

I plucked up heart to give my father word

Of the dusk-brought phantoms. Then did he send out

To Pytho and towards Dodona trains

Of frequent messengers, to learn for him

What should be done or said to please the gods.

But they came back with riddling oracles

Vague in their import and perplexed in phrase.

At length plain answer came to Inachus,

Clearly commanding and instructing him

To drive me from my home and fatherland,