Complete Works of William Morris, page 690
Tail-foremost dragged he to his den, turning their way-marks back; 210
And so he hid them all away amid that stonydark,
Nor toward the cave might he that sought find any four-foot mark.
“Meanwhile, his beasts all satiate, from fold Amphitryon’s son
Now gets them ready for the road, and busks him to be gone;
When lo, the herd falls bellowing, and with its sorrow fills
The woodland as it goes away, and lowing leaves the hills.
Therewith a cow gave back the sound, and in the cavern hid
Lowed out, and in despite his heed all Cacus’ hope undid.
Then verily Alcides’ ire and gall of heart outbroke
In fury, and his arms he caught and weight of knotty oak, 220
And running, sought the hill aloft that thrusteth toward the skies.
Then first our folk saw Cacus scared and trouble in his eyes,
And in a twinkling did he flee, no eastern wind as fleet,
Seeking his den, and very fear gave wings unto his feet;
But scarcely was he shut therein, and, breaking down the chains,
Had dropped the monstrous rock that erst his crafty father’s pains
Hung there with iron; scarce had he blocked the doorway with the same,
When lo, the man of Tiryns there, who with his heart aflame
Eyed all the entries, here and there turning about his face,
Gnashing his teeth: afire with wrath, thrice all that hilly place 230
Of Aventine he eyeth o’er, thrice tries without avail
The rocky door, thrice sits him down awearied in the dale.
“There was a peakèd rock of flint with ragged edges dight,
Which at the cave’s back rose aloft exceeding high to sight,
A dwelling meet for evil fowl amidst their nests to bide;
This, that hung o’er the brow above the river’s leftward side,
Hard from the right he beareth on, and shakes, and from its roots
Wrencheth it loose, and suddenly adown the bent side shoots.
Then ringeth all the mighty heaven with thunder of its wrack,
The banks are rent, the frighted stream its waters casteth back; 240
But Cacus’ den and kingly house showed all uncovered there,
The inmost of the shadowy cave was laid undoored and bare:
As if the inner parts of earth ‘neath mighty stroke should gape,
Unlocking all the house of hell, showing that country’s shape,
The wan land all forlorn of God: there shows the unmeasured pit,
And ghosts aquake with light of day shot through the depths of it.
“But Cacus, caught unwares by day whereof he had no doubt,
Imprisoned in the hollow rock, in strange voice bellowing out,
Alcides fell on from above, calling all arms to aid,
And plenteous cast of boughs and stones upon the monster laid; 250
While he, since now no flight availed to ‘scape that peril’s hold,
Pours from his mouth a mighty smoke, O wondrous to be told!
Enwrapping all the house about with blinding misty shroud,
Snatching the sight from eyes of men, and rolling on the cloud,
A reeking night with heart of fire and utter blackness blent.
Alcides’ spirit bore it nought; his body swift he sent
With headlong leap amid the fire where thickest rolled the wave
Of smoke, and with its pitchy mist was flooding all the cave;
Cacus he catcheth in the dark spueing out fire in vain,
And knitteth him in knot about, and, strangling him, doth strain 260
The starting eyes from out of him, and throat that blood doth lack:
Then the mirk house is opened wide; the doors are torn aback;
The stolen kine, that prey his oath foreswore to heaven are shown,
And by the feet is dragged today the body hideous grown;
Nor may men satiate their hearts by gazing on the thing;
His fearful eyes, the face of him, the man-beast’s fashioning
Of bristled breast; those jaws of his, whence faded is the flame.
“Hence is this honour celebrate, and they that after came
Still kept the day all joyfully; Potitius wrought it first,
This feast of mighty Hercules; the house Pinarian nursed, 270
The altar of the grove he reared, which Mightiest yet we call,
And ever more, in very sooth, shall mightiest be of all.
So come, O youths, these glorious deeds I bid you glorify:
Wreathe round your hair, put forth your hands and raise the cup on high!
Call on the God whom all we love, and give the wine full fain!”
He spake: the leaf of Hercules, the poplar coloured twain,
Shaded his hair; the leaves entwined hung down aback his head;
The holy beaker filled his hand: then merry all men sped,
And on the table poured their gift, and called the Gods to hear.
Meanwhile unto the slopes of heaven the Western Star drew near, 280
And then the priests, and chief thereof, Potitius, thither came,
All clad in skins, as due it was, and bearing forth the flame.
New feast they dight, and gifts beloved of second service bring,
And on the altar pile again the plates of offering.
The Salii then to singing-tide heart-kindled go around
The altars; every brow of them with poplar leafage bound:
And here the youths, the elders there, set up the song of praise,
And sing the deeds of Hercules: How, on his first of days,
The monsters twain his stepdame sent, the snakes, he crushed in hand;
And how in war he overthrew great cities of the land, 290
Troy and Oechalia: how he won through thousand toils o’ergreat,
That King Eurystheus laid on him by bitter Juno’s fate.
“O thou Unconquered, thou whose hand beat down the cloud-born two,
Pholeus, Hylæus, twin-wrought things, and Cretan monsters slew:
O thou who slew’st the lion huge ‘neath that Nemean steep,
The Stygian mere hath quaked at thee, the ward of Orcus deep
Quaked in his den above his bed of half-gnawed bones and blood.
At nothing fashioned wert thou feared; not when Typhoeus stood
Aloft in arms: nor from thine heart fell any rede away
When round thee headed-manifold the Worm of Lerna lay. 300
O very child of Jupiter, O Heaven’s new glory, hail!
Fail not thy feast with friendly foot, nor us, thy lovers, fail!”
With such-like song they sing the praise, and add to all the worth
The cave of Cacus, and the beast that breathed the wildfire forth.
The woods sing with them as they sing; the hills are light with song.
So, all the holy things fulfilled, they wend their ways along
Unto the city: the old king afoot was with them there,
And bade Æneas and his son close to his side to fare,
And as he went made light the way with talk of many a thing.
Æneas wonders, and his eyes go lightly wandering 310
O’er all; but here and there they stay, as, joyful of his ways,
He asks and hears of tokens left by men of earlier days.
Then spake the King Evander, he who built up Rome of old:
“These woods the earth-born Fauns and Nymphs in time agone did hold,
And men from out the tree-trunk born and very heart of oak;
No fashion of the tilth they knew, nor how the bulls to yoke,
Nor how to win them store of wealth, or spare what they had got;
The tree-boughs only cherished them and rugged chase and hot.
Then from Olympus of the heavens first Saturn came adown,
Fleeing the war of Jupiter and kingdom overthrown: 320
He laid in peace the rugged folk amid the mountains steep
Scattered about, and gave them laws, and willed them well to keep
The name of Latium, since he lay safe hidden on that shore.
They call the days the Golden Days that ‘neath that king outwore,
Amid such happiness of peace o’er men-folk did he reign.
But worsened time as on it wore, and gathered many a stain;
And then the battle-rage was born, and lust of gain outbroke:
Then came the host Ausonian; then came Sicanian folk;
And oft and o’er again the land of Saturn cast its name. 329
Then kings there were, and Thybris fierce, of monstrous body came,
From whom the Tiber flood is named by us of Italy,
Its old true name of Albula being perished and gone by.
Me, driven from my land, and strayed about the ocean’s ends,
Almighty Fortune and the Fate no struggling ever bends
Set in these steads; my mother’s word well worshipped hither drave,
The nymph Carmentis; and a god, Apollo, wayfare gave.”
Now, as he spake, hard thereunto the altar-stead doth show,
And gate that by Carmentis’ name the Roman people know;
An honour of the olden time to nymph Carmentis, she,
The faithful seer, who first foretold what mighty men should be 340
Æneas’ sons; how great a name from Pallanteum should come.
Then the great grove that Romulus hallowed the fleer’s home
He showeth, and Lupercal set beneath the cliff acold,
Called of Lycæan Pan in wise Parrhasia used of old.
Thereafter Argiletum’s grove he shows and bids it tell,
A very witness, where and how the guesting Argus fell.
Next, then, to the Tarpeian stead and Capitol they went,
All golden now, but wild of yore with thickets’ tanglement:
E’en then at its dread holiness the folk afield would quake
And tremble sore to look upon its cliff-besetting brake. 350
“This grove,” saith he, “this hill thou seest with thicket-covered brow,
Some godhead haunts, we know not who: indeed Arcadians trow
That very Jove they there have seen, when he his blackening shield
Hath shaken whiles and stirred the storm amidst the heavenly field.
Look therewithal on those two burgs with broken walls foredone!
There thou beholdest tokens left by folk of long agone:
For one did Father Janus old, and one did Saturn raise,
Janiculum, Saturnia, they hight in ancient days.”
Amid such talk they reach the roofs whereunder did abide
Unrich Evander; and they see the herd-beasts feeding wide 360
And lowing through the Roman Courts amid Carinæ’s shine.
But when they came unto the house, “Beneath these doors of mine
Conquering Alcides went,” he said; “this king’s house took him in.
Have heart to scorn world’s wealth, O guest, and strive thou too to win
A godhead’s worth: take thou no scorn of our unrich estate.”
He spake, and ‘neath the narrow roof Æneas’ body great
He led withal, and set him down; and such a bed was there
As ’twas of leaves, and overlaid with skin of Libyan bear.
Night falleth, and its dusky wings spreads o’er the face of earth,
When Venus, fearful in her soul (nor less than fear ’twas worth), 370
Sore troubled by Laurentine threats and all the tumult dread,
Bespeaketh Vulcan, as she lay upon his golden bed,
And holiness of very love amidst her words she bore:
“When Argive kings were wasting Troy predestined with their war,
Were wracking towers foredoomed to fall mid flames of hating men,
No help of thine for hapless ones, no arms I asked for then,
Wrought by thy craft and mastery: nor would I have thee spend
Thy labour, O beloved spouse, to win no happy end;
Though many things to Priam’s house meseemeth did I owe,
And oftentimes I needs must weep Æneas’ pain and woe. 380
But now that he by Jove’s command Rutulian shores hath won,
I am thy suppliant, asking arms, a mother for her son,
Praying thy godhead’s holiness: time was when Nereus’ seed,
Tithonus’ wife, with many tears could bend thee to thy need.
Look round, what peoples gather now; what cities shut within
Their barrèd gates are whetting sword to slay me and my kin.”
She spake: with snowy arms of God she fondled him about,
And wound him in her soft embrace, while yet he hung in doubt:
Sudden the wonted fire struck home; unto his inmost drew
The old familiar heat, and all his melting bones ran through: 390
No otherwise than whiles it is when rolls the thunder loud,
And gleaming of the fiery rent breaks up the world of cloud.
In glory of her loveliness she felt her guile had gained.
Then spake the Father, overcome by Love that ne’er hath waned:
“Why fish thy reasons from the deep? where is thy trust in me,
I prithee, O my God and Love? Had such wish weighed on thee,
Then, also, had it been my part to arm the Teucrian hand,
Nor had the Almighty Sire nor Fate forbidden Troy to stand,
And Priam might have held it out another ten years yet.
And now if thou wouldst wage the war, if thus thy soul is set, 400
Thy longing shall have whatsoe’er this craft of mine may lend;
Whatever in iron may be done, or silver-golden blend;
Whatever wind and fire may do: I prithee pray no more,
But trust the glory of thy might.”
So when his words wore o’er
He gave the enfolding that she would, and shed upon her breast
He lay, and over all his limbs he drew the sleepy rest.
But when the midmost night was worn, and slumber, past its prime,
Had faded out, in sooth it was that woman’s rising-time,
Who needs must prop her life with rock and slender mastery 409
That Pallas gives: she wakes the ash and flames that smouldering lie,
And, adding night unto her toil, driveth her maids to win
Long task before its kindled light, that she may keep from sin
Her bride-bed; that her little ones well waxen-up may be.
Not otherwise that Might of Fire, no sluggard more than she,
To win his art and handicraft from that soft bed arose.
Upon the flank of Sicily there hangs an island close
To Lipari of Æolus, with shear-hewn smoky steep;
Beneath it thunder caves and dens Ætnæan, eaten deep
With forges of the Cyclops: thence men hear the anvils cry
‘Neath mighty strokes, and through the cave the hissing sparkles fly 420
From iron of the Chalybes, and pants the forge with flame.
The house is Vulcan’s, and the land Vulcania hath to name.
Thither the Master of the Fire went down from upper air,
Where Cyclop folk in mighty den were forging iron gear;
Pyracmon of the naked limbs, Brontes and Steropes.
A thunderbolt half-fashioned yet was in the hands of these,
Part-wrought, suchwise as many an one the Father casts on earth
From all the heaven, but otherwhere unfinished from the birth,
Three rays they wrought of writhen storm, three of the watery wrack;
Nor do the three of ruddy flame nor windy winging lack: 430
And now the work of fearful flash, and roar, and dread they won,
And blent amid their craftsmanship the flame that followeth on.
But otherwhere they dight the wain and wingèd wheels of Mars,
Wherewith the men and walls of men he waketh up to wars.
There angry Pallas’s arms they wrought and Ægis full of fear,
And set the gold and serpent scales, and did with mighty care
The knitted adders, and for breast of very God did deck
The Gorgon rolling eyen still above her severed neck.
“Do all away,” he said, “lay by the labour so far done;
Cyclops of Ætna, turn your minds to this one thing alone: 440
Arms for a great man must be wrought; betake ye to your might;
Betake ye to your nimble hands and all your mastery’s sleight,
And hurry tarrying into haste.”
No more he spake: all they
Fall swift to work and portion out the labour of the day:
The brazen rivers run about with metal of the gold,
And soft the Chalyb bane-master flows in the forges’ hold.
A mighty shield they set on foot to match all weapons held
By Latin men, and sevenfold ring on ring about it weld.
Meanwhile, in windy bellows’ womb some in the breezes take
And give them forth, some dip the brass all hissing in the lake, 450
And all the cavern is agroan with strokes on anvil laid.
There turn and turn about betwixt, with plenteous might to aid,
They rear their arms; with grip of tongs they turn the iron o’er.
But while the Lemnian Father thus speeds on the Æolean shore
The lovely light Evander stirs amid his lowly house,
And morning song of eave-dwellers from sleep the king doth rouse.
Riseth that ancient man of days and on his kirtle does,
And both his feet he binds about with bonds of Tyrrhene shoes;
Then Tegeæan sword he girds to shoulder and to side,
And on the left he flings aback the cloak of panther-hide. 460
Moreover, from the threshold step goes either watchful ward,
Two dogs to wit, that follow close the footsteps of their lord.
So to the chamber of his guest the hero goes his way,
Well mindful of his spoken word and that well-promised stay.
Nor less Æneas was afoot betimes that morning-tide,
And Pallas and Achates went each one their lord beside.
