Page:The Odyssey of Homer, with the Hymns, Epigrams, and Battle of the Frogs and Mice (Buckley 1853).djvu/395

266—305. and many possessions within it. But if thou wilt be persuaded, (but thou art greater and braver, O king, than I am, and thy strength is mightiest,) erect for thyself [a temple] in Crissa, beneath the folds of Parnassus, where neither are the handsome chariots shaken along, nor will there be a noise of swift-footed steeds around thy well-built altar. And even thus the glorious tribes of men will bring offerings to Io-Pæan, and do thou, rejoicing in thy mind, receive the fair offerings of the neighbouring men.

Thus speaking, she persuaded the mind of the Far-Darter, that to Delphusa there should be her own renown o'er the earth, and not that of the Far-Darter. But from hence thou wentest onward, O far-darting Apollo, and thou camest into the city of the insolent Plegyan men, who, caring not for Jove, dwelt upon the earth in a beauteous dell, near the lake of Cephissus. From hence thou swiftly camest rushing to the rock, and thou didst reach Crissa, below snowy Parnassus, turned at its base towards the west, but above the rock is suspended aloft, and a rugged, hollow cave runs below. Here king Phœbus Apollo resolved to construct a pleasant temple, and thus he spoke: "Here indeed I design to build a very beautiful temple, to be a shrine of oracles for men, who shall always bring hither to me perfect hecatombs, ay, as many [men] as possess rich Peloponnesus, and as many as [dwell in] Europe and the sea-girt isles, coming in quest of oracles. But to them all will I declare unerring counsel, giving responses in my rich temple."

Thus having spoken, Phœbus Apollo began to lay down the foundations, wide, and very long in extent. And upon them Trophonius and Agamedes, the sons of Erginus, dear to the immortal gods, laid a stone threshold. But innumerable troops of men built the temple around with hewn stones, so that it should ever be a subject of song. And near it [is] the fair-flowing fountain, where the royal son of Jove, with his strong bow, slew the serpent, a stoutly-nourished, mighty, a savage portent, which did many ills to men upon the earth, many to themselves, and many to their long-footed sheep, since it was a blood-thirsty bane. †And once on a time hav-