Page:The poems of Edmund Clarence Stedman, 1908.djvu/260

POEMS OF GREECE Came from the wave, and O, so near he was, yet so distant!

And as a thick-maned lion, that hears a whimpering fawn cry

Far away,—some lion that munches flesh on the mountains,—

Speeds from his lair to a meal which surely waits for his coming,

So, through untrodden brambles, Héraklês, craving the dear youth,

Sped in tremor and scoured great reaches this way and that way.

Reckless are they who love! what ills he suffered while ranging

Cliffs and thickets! and light, beside this, seemed the quest of Jason.

Meanwhile the ship lay still, with her tackle hoisted above her,

And,—of those present,—the youth were clearing the sails at midnight,

Waiting for Héraklês: he, wherever his feet might lead him,

Wild went on, for a cruel god was tearing his heartstrings.

Fairest Hylas is numbered thus with the Happy Immortals:

Nathless the heroes were scoffing at Héraklês as a deserter,

Since he had fled from the ship of the thirty benches, from Argo.

Onward he trudged afoot to Colchis and welcomeless Phasis.

I. THE DEATH OF AGAMEMNON

FROM HOMER

[Odyssey, XI, 385-456]

ODYSSEUS IN HADES

, soon as the chaste Persephone hither and thither

Now had scattered afar the slender shades of the women, 230