Page:Writings of Henry David Thoreau (1906) v5.djvu/430

388 Men. But to Amphiaraus

Zeus rent the deep-bosomed earth

With his mighty thunderbolt,

And buried him with his horses,

Ere, being struck in the back

By the spear of Periclymenus, his warlike

Spirit was disgraced.

For in dæmonic fears

Flee even the sons of gods.

Pollux, son of Zeus, shared his immortality with his brother Castor, son of Tyndarus, and while one was in heaven, the other remained in the infernal regions, and they alternately lived and died every day, or, as some say, every six months. While Castor lies mortally wounded by Idas, Pollux prays to Zeus, either to restore his brother to life, or permit him to die with him, to which the god answers,—

Nevertheless, I give thee

Thy choice of these: if, indeed, fleeing

Death and odious age,

You wish to dwell on Olympus,

With Athene and black-speared Mars,

Thou hast this lot;

But if thou thinkest to fight

For thy brother, and share

All things with him,

Half the time thou mayest breathe, being beneath the earth,