Page:The poetical works of Matthew Arnold, 1897.djvu/337

Rh MEROPE.

LAIAS.ÆPYTUS.

LAIAS.

of Cresphontes, we have reach'd the goal

Of our night-journey, and thou seest thy home.

Behold thy heritage, thy father's realm!

This is that fruitful, famed Messenian land,

Wealthy in corn and flocks, which, when at last

The late-relenting Gods with victory brought

The Heracleidæ back to Pelops' isle,

Fell to thy father's lot, the second prize.

Before thy feet this recent city spreads

Of Stenyclaros, which he built, and made

Of his fresh-conquer'd realm the royal seat,

Degrading Pylos from its ancient rule.

There stands the temple of thine ancestor,

Great Heracles; and, in that public place,

Zeus hath his altar, where thy father fell.

Southward and west, behold those snowy peaks,

Taygetus, Laconia's border-wall;

And, on this side, those confluent streams which make

Pamisus watering the Messenian plain;

Then to the north, Lycæus and the hills

Of pastoral Arcadia, where, a babe

Snatch'd from the slaughter of thy father's house,

Thy mother's kin received thee, and rear'd up.—

Our journey is well made, the work remains

Which to perform we made it; means for that

Let us consult, before this palace sends

Its inmates on their daily tasks abroad.

Haste and advise, for day comes on apace.