Page:The Odyssey of Homer, with the Hymns, Epigrams, and Battle of the Frogs and Mice (Buckley 1853).djvu/431

261—294. ambrosial food, and the immortals raise up the beauteous quire. And with them the Sileni and the sharp scout, the slayer of Argus, were mingled in love, in a recess of the pleasant caves. But together with them at their birth were born either beech trees or high-crested oaks upon the bounteous earth, beauteous, standing exposed to the sun in lofty mountains, but they call them the groves of the immortals, which mortals never crop with the steel; but when the destiny of death is now at hand, the beauteous trees are first dried up upon the earth, and the bark perishes round them, and the boughs fall off, and at the same time their life quits the light of the sun. They indeed shall cherish my son, having him with them. And when pleasant youth first possesses him, the goddesses will lead him hither to thee, and show thy son. And unto thee—that I may pass over all these matters in my mind—I will come after five years, bringing thy son. But when thou shalt first behold this branch with thine eyes, thou wilt rejoice at the sight, for he will be very godlike, and thou wilt straightway lead him to wind-swept Thurii. But if any one of mortal men shall ask thee what mother conceived a dear son for thee beneath her girdle, to him be thou mindful to say, as I bid thee, [thus:] They say, that he is the offspring of the nymph Calycopis, who inhabit this mountain clad in wood. But if indeed thou shalt speak out and boast with foolish mind, that thou wast mingled in dalliance with well-crowned Cytherea, Jove, enraged, shall smite thee with the smouldering lightning. All is told to thee, but do thou, understanding in thy mind, restrain thyself, nor mention my name. But guard against the wrath of the gods."

Thus having spoken, she leaped forth towards the windy heaven. Hail, O goddess, ruling over well-built Cyprus, and I, beginning from thee, will pass on to another hymn.