Pod Insights Let's Talk About Myths, Baby! | Greek Mythology & the Ancient Mediterranean Liv Reads Statius: The Thebaid (Part 9) About this episode Liv reads Book 9 of Statius' Thebaid, translated by JH Mozley. The battle between the Argives and Thebans, aka between the brother Polyneices and Eteocles, continues... and it's pretty dramatic. Submit to the quarterly Q&A at mythsbaby.com/questions http://mythsbaby.com/questions and get ad-free episodes and so, so much more, by subscribing to the Oracle Edition at patreon.com/mythsbaby http://patreon.com/mythsbaby
CW/TW: far too many Greek myths involve assault. I try to provide direct warnings when there is reference to anything with overtly traumatic themes but be aware that Greek mythology regularly features assault, death, and many other potentially triggering events.
This is not a standard narrative story episode, it's a reading of an ancient source, audiobook style. For regular episodes look for any that don't have "Liv Reads..." in the title! For a list of Roman/Latin names and who they generally refer to in the Greek, visit:mythsbaby.com/names http://mythsbaby.com/names
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Transcript 11,570 words · 8 speakers
Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.
0:00 Liv Albert? Hey nerds, really quick note from me. I want to tell you that we now have the applications open for the next set of listener group trips. This is us going back to the original, the trips that we have held in the past that have been so much fun, so successful, and pretty affordable in terms of wandering around Greece with a bunch of nerds. So check out the details and get your applications in at mythsbaby.com/groups.
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2:11 Liv Albert? Hello, this is Let's Talk About Myths, baby, and I am your host, Liv, here with another reading episode because I want to read the Thebaidur, and you all want to hear it, which is a delight, and thus, it's what we're doing. Now, last time, I mean, honest, I've been really enjoying reading these, but we're getting into like some pretty wild levels of ancient warfare slash specifically mythologically ancient warfare. This is where it's clearly trying to pull in these Iliad-type vibes, or maybe a pre-existing epic that is lost for us, but either way, we're getting like all of that absolute
2:55 Liv Albert? like wacky horror, you know, which is kind of nice, because like, slightly less horrifying. And so last we left off, the Argives, who are of course, working on the side of Polymikes, have gone to war with Thebes, which is being led by Atiocles. These dudes are brothers, they're the sons of Oedipus, I'm not going to cut out that gap where my brain blipped, Oedipus and Jocasta, and this is all happening in the aftermath of this big old curse, because you're not supposed to have children with your son. Spoilers.
3:35 Liv Albert? And remember, Antigone and Ismeni, they are the sisters who are peripherally involved, mostly because last time Attis, who was the, was supposed to marry Ismeni, died.
3:49 Liv Albert? And so, you know, these, these girls are involved, even if everything is happening kind of just around and for them, but we really have no idea how they feel. Regardless, that's where we're at. And Tydeus, the big, big hero for the Argives, who was kind of on par with Polynices, but we get the idea that he was like, he was better at, he was better at being a warrior, I think. Tydeus is kind of like peak. And at the end of last episode, he did kill this big Theban hero Melanippus, but in the process, he also took a mortal wound. And so the Argives and Polynices have lost
4:32 Liv Albert? Tydeus and were continuing on with this war against Thebes, this war of brothers.
4:42 Liv Albert? It's almost like they could have just, I don't know, not. But then, isn't that always the case with unnecessary violence and bloodshed? Couldn't we just not?
5:23 Liv Albert? This is The Thebaid, by Statius, Book Nine, translated by J. H. Mosley.
5:34 Liv Albert? "The news of the mad fury of bloodstained Tydeus exasperates the Ionians. Even the Anacadai themselves grieve but little for the fallen warrior and blame him, complaining that he has transgressed the lawful bounds of hatred. Nay, you two, O Ares, most violent of gods, though at that time the furious work of slaughter did most occupy you. You two were offended, as they relate, by such hardihood, nor turned they their own gaze thereon, but drove another way your affronted steeds. Therefore the Cadmean youth rise up to avenge the shameful profanation of Melanippus's corpse."
6:18 Liv Albert? As much inflamed as though their fathers' bones had been disturbed from their sepulchers and their urns flung a prey to cruel monsters, the king himself infuriates them still further. Who any more is merciful or humane to the Palazgans? Why, with hooked fangs they rend our limbs! Shame on such madness! Have we then so glutted their weapons? Do you not think you are making war on Hircanian tigers or facing angry Libyan lions? And now he lies, oh noble solace of death, his jaws fastened in his enemy's head, and meets his unhallowed end in welcome gore.
7:00 Liv Albert? Our weapons are ruthless steel and brands of fire, but theirs is naked hate and savagery that needs no arms. May they continue in their frenzy and enjoy a renown so glorious do you but look upon it, oh father supreme! But they complained, that the battlefield gaped and they marvel that the earth fled. Would even their own soil bear such as them? So speaking, he led his men forward in a fierce onset, shouting loud and all alike furious to seize the corpse of hated Tideus and to gain his spoils. Not otherwise do swarms of obscene birds avail the stars when the breezes have told them afar of tainted air and bodies left unburied.
7:43 Liv Albert? There in clamorous greed they hasten, the lofty sky is loud with flapping wings and lesser foul withdraw from heaven. Fame, travelling in swift rumours about the Ionian plain, is spread from troop to troop, a more rapid messenger than of want when her tidings are evil, until she glides into the affrighted ears of Polynices, to whom her tale brings most grievous news of loss. The youth stiffened with horror, his ready tears stood congealed, and slow was he to give credence, for Onides' well-known valour now prompts and now forbids him to believe his death.
8:24 Liv Albert? But when the disaster was confirmed on undoubted warrant, his mind and vision are whelmed in night, his blood stands still. Together in arms, together his limbs sink down, his lofty helm is already moist with tears, and his greaves caught the shield as it fell. Sadly he goes, dragging faint knees and trailing spear, as though burdened by a thousand wounds and maimed in every limb. His comrades shrink from him and point to him with groans. At length he throws away the armour he scarce has power to carry, and, falling naked on the now lifeless body of his peerless friend, speaks thus with streaming tears:
9:06 Liv Albert? "Tideus, last hope of my enterprise, is this my gratitude? Is this my due reward and recompense to you, that you should lie bare on Cadmus's hated earth and I be unharmed? Now, forever am I in exile and forever banished, since my other, ah, yes, and truer brother, has alas been taken from me. No more do I seek the old decrees of lot or the perjured diadem of a guilty throne. To what purpose are joys so dearly bought or a sceptre that your hand will not place in mine? Depart from me, you warriors, and leave me to face my cruel kinsman alone; naught avails it to try further battle and be wasteful of deaths.
9:51 Liv Albert? Depart, I pray you, what greater thing can you give me now? I have squandered Tideus; by what death can I atone for that? O father of my bride, O Argos, and that first night's honest quarrel, and our mutual blows, and that short wrath that was the pledge of long affection! Ah, why was I not then slain by your sword, great Tideus? You were able on the threshold of our host Adrastus? No more, on my account you did go to Thebes and willingly enter my brother's impious palace, whence none other would have returned, as though to win a sceptre and honours for yourself alone. Already of devoted Telamon, already of Theseus's fame,
10:33 Liv Albert? ceased to tell, and lo, in what plight you lie here! Which wounds shall I first marvel at? Which is your blood and which your foes? What troops, what countless bands overthrew you? No, the father himself, and I mistake not, envied you, and Mars smote you with all the force of his spear." So he speaks, and weeping cleanses with his tears the hero's face that still runs blood, and composes it with his own hand. Did you then hate my foes thus far, and do I outlive you? In his blind passion he had pulled the sword from its sheath and was pointing it for death, his friend restrained him, and his father-in-law rebukes him, and calling to his mind the
11:15 Liv Albert? chances of war and the will of fate consoles his swelling heart. And from that dear body whence comes his grief and eager will for death. Little by little he drags him far away, and amid his converse silently puts back the weapon. He is led, like the bull that is having lost the partner of his toils, deserts in numb despair, the furrow he has begun among all the acres round, and on his drooping neck drags part of the unsightly yoke while part the weeping plowman bears. But see, rallying to the cry of Attiaclus, a chosen band of warriors advances, who neither
11:55 Liv Albert? Tritonia would have despised in the fray, nor Mavors in the encounter with the lance, against them, when he had set his protecting shield before his breast, and thrust forth his long spear tall Hippomedon, stands his ground. Even as a rock that fronts the waves and has no fear from heaven, and the waters are broken and give way before it, firm it stands, unmoved by threats. The very sea flees from its stark face, and from afar the troubled barks recognize it. Then first the Ionian choosing withal a stalwart spear. Have you no shame in the presence of the gods, and with heaven as witness to guard this ghost, this corpse that defames our warfare?
12:40 Liv Albert? Surely it is a glorious task, and a memorable exploit to compass burial for this wild beast. In fear he goes not to Argos to win his mead of tears and obsequies, nor on the soft bier spew out his cursed gore. Dismiss your care him, no birds nor foul monsters will devour, not even the sacred fire itself were we to grant it.
13:04 Liv Albert? No more, he spoke, but hurled a huge javelin that, checked by the hard bronze yet passing through, is stayed in the second layer of the shield. Then Pharis aims in vigorous Lycus, but the dart of Pharis falls vainly to earth, while Lycus cleaves the casque with its terrible streaming plume. Torn by the lance-point, the crest is scattered far and lays bare the inglorious helm. He himself never retires nor leaps out to attack the foemen, but ever turning in his own ground to every side, now advances and now draws back, nor ever for long gives his right arm play, but in all his movements keeps nigh the body, keeps body in view, hovering
13:47 Liv Albert? over and around it. Not so jealously does its mother shield and protect a helpless calf, her firstborn, when a wolf is threatening, and wheel round in perplexity with lowered horns. For herself she has no fear, but forgetful of her weaker sex, foams at the mouth and, female as she is, imitates mighty bulls. At last the cloud of darts grew less, and they could hurl weapons back again. And by now Alcon of Sicion had come in succor, and the Pisian squadron of fleet Ida's arrives, and they reinforce the phalanx. Rejoicing thereat, he flings a Lernaean shaft against the foe, it flies with all an arrow's
14:29 Liv Albert? speed, and tarrying not a whit, pierces Politis through the middle, and still persistent passes through the shield of Mopsus, his close comrade. Then he transfixes Caidon, the Phocian, and Philanthus of Tenagra and Eric's. The latter, as he turns rearward in search of weapons with no thought of death, through the long tresses of his head. The other expiring marvels that he has received the lance, not in his face but in his hollow throat, and therewith the blood gushes forth, full of his dying wail. And the teeth of the spear-point has dislodged. Leontius lurking behind the Battle of the Heroes stealthily dared to put forth
15:11 Liv Albert? his right hand and pulled at the prostrate corpse, seizing its hair. Hippomedon spied him, though faced by many a threat on every side, and with his grim blade lopped off the impudent hand, taunting him withal. "It is Tideus, Tideus himself, who robs you of it! Have fear of heroes even when they are slain, and touch not, miserable man, the mighty dead!" Thrice did the Cadmium Phalanx pull away the dreadful corpse, thrice did the Danians drag it back again, just as an anxious vessel strays in a lawless tumult of the Sicilian Sea, despite the helmsman's fruitless efforts, and then returns on her path with canvas backward blown.
15:55 Liv Albert? No Sidonian forces would there have availed to drive Hippomedon from his purpose, no engine-hurled missiles were like to move his stout resistance, and the blows that proud battlements dreaded had fallen baffled from the buckler they assailed. But mindful of the Elysian monarch, and recounting the crimes of Tideus, impious Tisiphony craftily draws nigh to the middle of the field. The armies felt her presence, and horses and men alike were seized by a sudden sweat, although, laying aside her own aspect, she counterfeited Halus, the Anachian. Absent was the unhallowed torch and the scourge while her locks at her command held their peace.
16:40 Liv Albert? As warrior and with flattering looks and voice she comes near to fierce Hippomedon, yet he feared her countenance as she spoke and marvelled at his fear. "Weeping, she says, in vain, o man of renown, you guard your dead comrades and the unburied bodies of the Greeks. Is that then our fear? Do we yet care for a sepulcher? Lo, Adrastus is being dragged along the captive Eterian band, and to you, before all else, to you, he cries and beckons. Alas, in what plight I saw him slip and fall in blood, his diadem torn and the white locks streaming free! Nor far from here look, where all that cloud of dust is, all that mass of man!"
17:23 Liv Albert? While the hero stood perplexed, balancing his fears, the ruthless maid urges him: "Why do you hesitate? Shall we go forward, or does this dead body keep us back? And is he more worthless? Who survives?" To his comrades he entrusted the forlorn task and the fight that should be his, and strides away, deserting his loyal friend, yet looking behind him, and ready, should they perchance to recall him. Then following the impetuous footsteps of the relentless goddess, he rushes here and there in aimless, pathless course, till the wicked fury, casting her shield behind her, vanishes darkly from his sight, and snakes innumerable break forth from her helmet.
18:06 Liv Albert? The cloud disperses, and the unhappy man beholds the Anacadi, unperturbed, and Adrastus in his chariot, fearing not. And now the Tyrians possess the body, and by loud cries attest their joy, the triumphant shout steals upon the ear and strikes the heart with secret dismay. He is dragged on hostile soul, alas, fate's cruel power, that very Tydeus, for whom of late a mighty space on either hand was left, as he pursued the ranks of Thebes, whether on foot, or shaking out his chariot reins, never still are hands, or weapons, or any savagery of man, they delight to wound with impunity, those features rigid in death,
18:49 Liv Albert? and that visage that they feared. This is their passion; by this deed they survive, both brave and cowards, to gain ennoblement, and they keep the blood-stained weapons to display to their young children and their wives. So when weary troops of shepherds have warred down a lion that has long devastated Moorish fields, and caused flocks to be penned up, and guardians to be watchful, the countryside exults. The husbandman comes down with loud cries of joy, and pluck at the mane, and open the mighty jaws, and tell of all their losses, whether he now keeps vigil, nailed up beneath the roof, or hangs the glory of some ancient grove.
19:32 Liv Albert? But fierce Hippomedon, although he sees now his help is of no avail and he is too late to fight for the stolen corpse, nevertheless goes on and blindly whirls his relentless sword, scarce knowing friend from foe, so that not delay his advance, but the ground now slippery with recent slaughter, and arms and dying men and shattered chariots impede him, and his left thigh which the spear-point of the Aeconian monarch pierced, but in his fury he had dissembled the wound or know not of it. At length he sees Hoplia sorrowing, he, the trusty comrade of great Tideus, and lately
20:12 Liv Albert? but all in vain his squire, was holding the winged-footed steed, who, with bowed neck, and ignorant of his master's fate, was impatient only of his idleness, and because his lord was more adventurous in the fray of infantry. Him, though, he scorns a new weight on his proud back, for since his taming he knew but one hand only. The hero seizes and thus speaks: "Why do you refuse this destiny, unhappy charger? Nevermore for you is the burden of your haughty lord, nor more shall you sate your hunger on the Eutolian meads, or shake free your exultant mane about the streams of Achylus.
20:55 Liv Albert? This remains for you; go, and at least avenge your dear master's death, or come with me, lest you too in captivity vex his vanished shade, and after Tideus bear some boastful rider." One would have said he heard and was enkindled, so violently does he whirl him away in wild career resenting the less similar reins.
21:21 Liv Albert? Even so, the half-brute centaur leaps down into the vale from the airy height of Ossa, at himself the lofty forest quake in fear, at the horse the plain shakes. Alarmed and breathless, the sons of Labdaca's flock together. On them Hippomedon bears down, and shearing with the sword their unwitting necks leaves behind their falling trunks.
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23:51 Liv Albert? They had reached the river. With channel fuller than a want, Ismenus was running then in mighty spate, an omen of disaster. There, a short respite was given. There, the columns urged their weary flight in terror from the fields. The waves, their refuge from the fray, are spellbound at the warriors and are lit up by the bright sheen of armor. Into the water they leapt, and with a great crash the bank gave way, and the opposite shores lay hid in dust. He, too, with mightier leap plunges through the hostile stream against the astonished foe. Just as he was, no time for dismounting, only his javelins, fixed in the green turf, he intrusts for a while to a poplar tree.
24:37 Liv Albert? Then, indeed, in deadly terror of their own accord, they fling their weapons on the waves that carry them away, some doff their helmets and lie basely hid, so long as they can maintain their lives beneath the waters. Many tried to swim the river, but their fastenings grip them, the belts impede their breathing, and the soaked corselets weigh down their bodies. Even as beneath the swelling flood, the dark-blue fishes are afraid, whensoever they see a dolphin probing the secret layers of the deep. The whole swarm flees to the lowest pools and huddles frightened in the green seaweed. Nor come they forth till through the surface waves he darts his curving body, and prefers to race the ships that meet his sight.
25:23 Liv Albert? Even so, the hero drives them pell-mell before him, and amid-stream, both guides the reins, and aims the shaft upheld by his swimming horse, whose nimble hoof accustomed to the plain now treads the wave, and seeks the deep-sunk sands. Chromus lays ye on low, antiphos Chromus, and Hypsius antiphos. Hypsius, ulstruestiagis, and Leonus, who is about to leave the river and flee away, were it not that the fates forbid, and early in his life's thread, he is doomed to watery death. Hippomedon presses hard the ranks of Thebes, Aesopian Hypsius throws the Danians into confusion.
26:04 Liv Albert? On either side the river is affrighted, each stains the water thick with blood. From that stream each is faded, never to return. And now mangled limbs are rolled down on the flowing current, and heads and severed arms rejoin their bodies, and now the wave bears lances, and light targies, and slackened bows, and plumes suffer not their cask to sink. Far and wide the surface of the stream is strewn with floating weapons, and its depths with men. Their bodies wrestle with death, and the confronting stream chokes back their forth issuing breath.
26:43 Liv Albert? The lad Argippus had grasped a riverside elm-tree in the rushing flood. Savage Mennechius with his sword sheers through those comely shoulders. He, as he falls, still striving, gazes a trunk at his own arms on the high boughs. The spear of Hypsius sank taggies with a mighty wound. He remains at the bottom, and in place of his body his blood returns. To rescue his brother, Agonor leapt down from the bank and grasped him. Alas, poor wretch! But the wounded man weighs him down in his embrace, and he tries to lift him. Agonor could have freed himself and come forth from the water, but liked not to return without his brother.
27:26 Liv Albert? Capitus rises to his right and threatens a blow, but is sucked down by the entangling eddies of the rapid current. Now his face goes under, now his hair, now his right arm is gone, last of all, his sword sinks beneath the headlong waters. One death in a thousand shapes of dying torment the wretches. A Mycaelician spear-point sheaves itself in Agortes's back. He looks round, but there was none who hurled it. Urged by the torrent's flow, the spear had sped and found his blood. The Eutolian charger, too, is pierced in his strong shoulders, and at the deadly shock rears up and prances, beating the air.
28:10 Liv Albert? Yet the chief is no white, upset by the plunge, but pities the horse, and groaning pulls the dart from the deep wound with his own hand, and of his own accord lets go the reins. Then he rejoins the fray afoot, sureer both in step and hand, and, one after the other, slays tardy Nomius and valiant Mimus and Lycaus of Thebes and Licatus of Antadon, and Thespiides, one of twin brothers. To Panamas, begging like a like fate, he cries, "Live on!", and to wall, to the walls of accursed Thebes depart alone. No more to deceive your unhappy parents.
28:50 Liv Albert? Thanks be to heaven that Bologna's gory hand has driven the fight into the rapid stream. The wave sweeps away the cowards on their native flood, and the naked ghost of unburied Titias shall not moan and shriek around your pyres. You shall go down to feed the cruel monsters of the deep, but him the earth does carry and shall resolve into her own elements. So harries he the foe, and with taunts adds bitterness to his blows, and now he rages with the sword, now snatches up floating javelins and flings them back. Thereon he slays the friend of chaste Diana, and Gias dweller in the country, and wave-wandering
29:35 Liv Albert? Erginus, and unshorn Hercyse, and Cretheus, condemnedor of the deep, who often in a tiny craft had weathered Cephalius's stormy promontory, and the Evian squalls. Behold, the power of fate, a lance pierces his breath, and he is carried on the stream! Alas, on what waters shipwrecked! You two, Pharsalus, crossing the river in your lofty care to join your companions, the Doric spear-point overturns the slays, the horses, the violence of the angry flood engulfs them, and the ill-starred union of the yoke.
30:15 Liv Albert? Come now, you learned sisters, grant me to know what toil laid low Hippomidon in the heaving billows, and why Ismenes himself was roused to join the fray. For your task it is to search out the past, and let not fame grow old. Cronias, the youthful son of Fawnus and the nymph Ismenes, rejoiced to fight in his mother's waters. Cronias, who first saw the light in the trusted streams, and was cradled in the green banks of his native river. So thinking that there the Elysian sisters had no power, merrily, now from this bank, now from that, he crosses his caressing grandfather.
30:56 Liv Albert? The wave supports his footsteps, whether he goes down-stream or athwart the flood, nor when he goes counter does the river one whit delay him, but flows backward likewise. No more winningly does the sea cover the waist of the stranger from Amphidon, nor Triton rise higher from the summer waves, nor yet Pelaimon, when he hastens back to his darling mother's kisses and smites his tardy dolphin. Gay harness decks his shoulders, and his splendid buckler gleaming with gold is engraved in the ancient tale of the Aeonian race. Here the Sidonian maid rides on the white back of the enticing steer, now fears she
31:38 Liv Albert? not the sea, now clings not to the horns with tender hands. Around the margin of her feet the waves play sportively. One would think that the bull moved upon the shield and cleft the billows. The river waves of the same color as the sea assist belief. Then bold alike, with weapons and saucy speech, he challenges Hippomidon. "This is no poisonous Lerna, no Herculean hydras drink these waters. It is a sacred river that you are defiling, yes, sacred. So shall you find it to your cost, you wretch! And gods have been nourished by its streams."
32:19 Liv Albert? Not said the other, but advanced upon him, in a denser mass the flood resisted him and checked his hand. But yet he drove home the wound for all his hindering, and pierced utterly life's secret chambers. The river shuddered at the horrid deed, you woods on either shore lamented, and deeper groans resounded from the hollow banks. From his dying lips came the last cry, "Mother!" As he uttered it, the waters choked the poor lad's voice.
32:53 Liv Albert? But the river, his mother, amid her company of silvery gleaming sisters, leapt up, straightway from the sea-green valley at the shock of doom, frenzied, with loosened hair and in wild grief rent with many a blow her face and bosom and green robe. Fourth from the waves she burst, and with trembling voice again and again cries Cronias. Nowhere was he to be seen, but on the flood there floats his shield, a mark, alas, his unhappy parent must recognize too well, he himself lies far off, where on the bounds of mingling sea and river isminus suffers his last charge.
33:35 Liv Albert? Often thus does Alchion deserted make lament for her wave-wandering, spray-drenched home, when savage ouster and envious thetis have scattered her darlings in their shivering nests. Once more the bereaved mother sinks, and, hidden in the watery depths, she searches in vain, for her dead son by many a track. Where the path shines clear before her as she goes, searches, and yet bewails, oftentimes the bristling river checks her, and a bloody haze obscures her vision. Yet in mad haste she flings herself upon weapons and swords, and thrusts her hand into helmets
34:16 Liv Albert? and turns over prostrate corpses, nor drawing nigh the deep did she enter the bitter brine of Doris, until a band of nereids, pitying her, wafted his body, now in the keeping of the ocean billows, to his mother's breast. Embracing him on the sloping bank, and with soft tresses dries his wet face and cries amid loud lament. Is this the gift your divine half-parents and your immortal grandfather have given you? Is it thus you reign in our flood? Unhappy boy gentler was the discordant, alien earth, gentler the ocean wave, which brought
34:57 Liv Albert? back your body to the river and seemed to await your hapless mother's coming.
35:04 Liv Albert? Are these my lineaments? Are these the eyes of your fierce father? Are these your billowy grandfather's tresses? Once were you the pride and glory of a wave and woodland, and while you lived I was held a greater goddess and the queen of nymphs. Where, alas, is that late crowd of courtiers round your mother's halls? Where are the maidens of the glen, nepai, that prayed to serve you? Why do I now bring you home, Cronias, in my sad embrace, not for myself but for your burial, who had better remained there in the cruel deep?
35:47 Liv Albert? Hard-hearted father, have you no pity nor shame for such a death? What lake profound and inescapable has engulfed you in the river's depths? So that nor your grandson's cruel fate, nor my own weeping, can reach you there? Lo, Hippomidon rages and boasts himself the master in your flood, and banks and waves tremble before him. His was the stroke that made the water drink our blood. But you were sluggish and the fierce Pelasgians acquiescent slave. Come at last cruel father to the ashes, and last obsequies of your own, for it is not your grandson only whose pyre you shall kindle here.
36:29 Liv Albert? With her words she mingles wailing, and stains with blood her innocent bosom, while the Cerulean sisters re-echo her lament. So, men say, did Leucateia not yet a Nereid wail in Isthmus's haven, when her cold baby, with gasping breath spewed out upon his mother, the angry sea?
36:52 Liv Albert? But father Ismenus, reclining in that secret cavern, where winds and clouds do drink, and the rain-bringing bow is nourished, and whence comes a fuller harvest to the Tyrian fields, when from afar, spite of his own water's roar, he caught the sound of lamentations and his daughter's earliest groans, uplifted his moss-grown neck and his ice-weighted hair. The tall pine fell from his loosened grasp, and the urn dropped and rolled away. Along the banks, the woods, and lesser rivers marvel at him as he thrusts forth his face, encrusted with age-long mire.
37:34 Liv Albert? So majestically he rises from the flood, lifting his foamy head and his breast a stream with echoing fall of rivulets from his dark-blue beard. One of the nymphs meets her father and tests him of his daughter's tears and his grandson's fate, and shows him the blood-stained author of the deed, and seizes his right hand. High he stands in the river, deep, and smiting his face and horns entwined with green sedge, thus begin sore troubled with deep-mouthed utterance. "Is this your reward, oh ruler of the gods above? For that so often I played the accomplice friend to your adventures, and saw, I fear
38:18 Liv Albert? not to recall it, the shameless horns on your false visage. Then Phoebe, forbidden to unyoke her care, or the dowry gift of a funeral pyre, and the lightning's trickery? And would I have been nurtured the foremost of your sons? Do they too feel so mean a gratitude? Of a truth the Tyrrhenian crawled an infant by this river. With these waters I quenched your bromius, as he burned. See the carnage, the corpses I carry on my stream, choked utterly with weapons, as it is and hidden beneath unwanted heaps. Continuous warfare besets my channel, every wave breathes horror, and souls new slain
38:58 Liv Albert? wander above me and beneath, and join bank to bank in darkness. Yet I, that river invoked with holy cries, I, whose praise it is to lave in my pure fount, the soft wands and horns of Bacchus? And blocked with dead? And seek a difficult passage to the sea, so great a stream of gore fills not the impious mirrors of Streamon, and foaming hebrus reddens not so deeply when Ares is at war? Does not your fostering wave rebuke you and your violence, oh libere, who has long forgotten your parents?" Is eastern Hydaspes more easily subdued?
39:40 Liv Albert? But you who boastfully exulted in the spoils and slaughter of an innocent boy, you shall not return in triumph from this stream to mighty Anakis of fierce Mycenae, unless it be that I am mortal and you of heavenly race. So spoke he, gnashing his teeth, and gave the sign to his already raging waters. Cold Kitheron sends succor from the hills and bids his ancient snows and stores of frost be moving. To the flood his brother Asopus unites his secret stores and supplies streams from wide-open veins. He himself explores the hollow earth's recesses, and tries torpid lakes and pools and lazy
40:25 Liv Albert? fens, and lifting skyward his greedy countenance sucks down the moisture of the clouds and drains dry the air. Already he flowed with a tide that rose above either lofty bank. Already Hippomedon, who of late stood higher than mid-channel's depth, with unmoistened arms and shoulders, is marveling that the stream has grown above his stature. All round him the billows swell and the angry tempest rises high, like the sea when it drains the Pleiades or flings darkened Orion against trembling mariners. Not otherwise, the Tumessian river battler Hippomedon with its seething flood and ever
41:08 Liv Albert? is hurled back by the shield on his left arm, and anon the dark tide in its foaming onslaught surges over his buckler, pours back with shattered wave and returns in greater volume. Moreover, not content with the watery mass, it plucks at the trees that support the crumbling banks and whirls along aged boughs and stones torn from its bed. River and hero are locked in unequal combat, and furious grows the god, for the other retreats not, nor is weakened by any threats, but advancing, attacks the oncoming billows, and, holding out his shield, divides the stream. His feet stand firm, though the ground recedes, and with straining sinews he holds
41:53 Liv Albert? fast to slippery rocks; and by struggling and clinging with his knees he maintains the foothold that the treacherous mud undermines. And thus he taunts besides. From where, Ismenes, does this sudden wrath come? Or from what deep have you drawn these forces, slave of an unwarlike god, who knows not of blood save in women's revels, when the bacchic pipe is bleeding and frenzied matrons defile the three-yearly festival? He spoke, and on the instant the god assailed him, his visage a welter of rain and clouded by floating sand; nor was he fierce in speech, but with an oak trunk thrice and four times
42:37 Liv Albert? smote his adversary's breast with all the might of a god's wrath, rising to the blow. He at last turned his steps, the buckler stricken from his arm, and beat a slow retreat. The waters press after him, and the river follows in triumph as he gives ground. The Tyrians, too, vex him from above with stones and iron hail, and drive him back from either bank. What can he do, beset by flood and battle? No flight is there now for the unhappy man, no room for a glorious death. Rising from the grassy brim, there stood an ash-tree, on the doubtful verge of land and waters but more friendly to the waters, and held the stream in the dominion of its
43:21 Liv Albert? mighty shadow. The succor of this tree, for where could he attempt the land? He grasped with clutching fingers, nor did endure the strain, but, overcome by a weight too great for its hold, gave way, and, torn from the roots whereby it entered the river and gripped the thirsty ground, dropped from on high, and hurled itself and the bank together on the dismayed hero; nor, brooking him further, bridged and dammed the stream with sudden downfall. Here all the waves come surging, and an inescapable whirlpool of mud and hollow eddies rises and falls,
44:00 Liv Albert? and now the torturous flood surround the shoulders, now the neck of the warrior compelled at last to confess despair. He exclaims, "For shame, great Mars, will you drown this life of mine in a river? Must I then sink beneath sluggish lakes and mirrors like a shepherd, caught in the cruel waters of a sudden torrent? Have I not verily deserved to fall by the sword?" Moved by his prayers, Juno at length accosts the thunderer. "How long, glorious father of gods, how long will you press the hapless sons of Anakis? Already Athena holds Titias in detestation, already Delphi is silent, its prophet slain.
44:43 Liv Albert? Lo, my Hippomedon, whose home is Argos and Mycenae and the cradle of his race, who worships Juno before all the other gods! Is it thus I am faithful to my own? Shall my Hippomedon go to feed the cruel monsters of the deep? Surely you did once allow the conquered to have the last rites of the tomb? Where are the flames that followed the cacoprian fray? Where is Theseus's fire?" He spurns not his consort's righteous plea, but lightly glanced towards Cadmus's walls. The waters beheld his nod and sank to rest. The shoulders and breasts of the hero are revealed, those drained of blood, that pierced with wounds as when a stormy sea made mountainous by the winds abates.
45:27 Liv Albert? The rocks and the land the sailors sought for rise into view, and the waters subside from the threatening crags.
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47:40 Liv Albert? What avails it to have gained the bank? The Phoenician host presses him on every side with a storm of darts. His limbs are without covering, all exposed as he to death. Then his wounds stream, and the blood that was staunch'd beneath the waters flows in the open air and breaks the tender apertures of the veins, and the cold of the river makes him reel and stagger in his gait. He falls, even as on Gedech hymas, whether from Boreus's rage or its own strength's decay, an oak that blended its foliage with the sky falls forward and leaves a void in the wide air. As it totters, the forest and the very mountain tremble, for fear where it may fall, what stretch of woodland it may shatter.
48:24 Liv Albert? Yet none dares touch his sword, or helmet, scarce believe they their own eyes, but shudder at the monstrous corpse and approach it with drawn swords.
48:36 Liv Albert? At length Hypsius went near and wrenched the sword-hilt from his deathly grip and freed the grim face of its cask. Then he goes through the aeonian ranks, displaying the helmet balanced aloft on his glittering blade, and crying exultantly, "Behold, the fierce Hippomedon, behold, the dread avenger of impious Tydeus, and the subduer of the gory flood!
49:02 Liv Albert? Great-hearted Copanius, I knew him from afar, and mastered his rage, and poising a huge javelin with his arm thus praise. Help me now, right arm of mine, my only present aid in battle, and deity irresistible! On you I call, you only I adore, despising the gods above." So he speaks, and himself fulfils his own prayer. The quivering fur-shaft flies through shield and coarselets brazen mail, and finds out at last the life deep in the mighty breast. He falls, with the thunderous crash of a lofty tower, when pierced and shaken with
49:41 Liv Albert? innumerable blows, it sinks in ruin, and opens the breached city to the conquerors. Then, standing over him, "We deny you not," says the he. "Your death's renown, look there, it was I that dealt the wound. Depart in joy, and boast you far beyond the other shades."
50:03 Liv Albert? Then he seizes the sword and cask of Hypsius, and tears away the shield, and, holding them over the dead Hippomedon, says, "Receive, O mighty chief, he cries, your own and your enemy's spoils together. Your ashes shall have their glory, and your shade its rightful rank. Meanwhile, till we pay you the flame that is your due, Capanius, your avenger hides your limbs in this sepulchre." Thus, impartial mares in the cruel vicissitudes of war gave interchange of mutual slaughter, to Greeks and Sidonians alike. Here they mourn fierce Hippomedon, bear Hypsius,
50:44 Liv Albert? no slower to the fray, and each gain solace from their foes' distress.
50:51 Liv Albert? Meanwhile, the stern-eyed mother of the Tegian archer Lad, troubled in her sleep by gloomy dreams, with flying hair and feet duly unsandled, was going, before daybreak, to Ladon's chilly stream, that she might cleanse her tainted slumbers in its living waters. For, throughout many a distracted, care-worn night, she would often see spoils that she herself had dedicated, fallen from the shrines, and herself, a fugitive from the woodlands and chased away by Driad folk, wandering by unknown tombs, and often new-won triumphs of her son, brought home from the war, his armor, his well-known steed, his comrades, but himself never.
51:35 Liv Albert? Or again she would see her quiver fall from her shoulders and her own images and familiar likenesses aflame. But that night seemed to the unhappy woman to pretend surpassing terrors, and disturbed all her mother's heart. Well-known throughout the forests of Arcadia was an oak of fertile growth, which she herself had chosen from a multitude of groves, and made sacred to Diana, and by her worship, and due with power divine. Here she would lay by her bow and weary shafts, and fasten the curved weapons of boars, and the flayed skin of lions, and antlers huge as woodland boughs.
52:18 Liv Albert? Scarc'd have the branches room, so closely set is it with spoils of the countryside, And the sheen of steel mingles with the green shade. This oak-tree, when once she was returning from the uplands, tried with long chase, And carrying in proud triumph the head late severed of an Aramanthian bear. She beheld all hacked and torn with a mighty wound, its foliage fallen, And its branches dripping blood and dying on the ground. In answer to her question, a nymph told of the violence of cruel mainads and her foe, Laius. While she moaned and beat her breast with imaginary blows, her eyes cast off their darkness.
53:01 Liv Albert? From her sorrowing couch she leaps and searches over her cheeks for the phantom tears. So when, by dipping thrice her hair in the river, she had atoned the sacrilege, And added words that comfort a mother's troubled heart, She hastened to armed Diana's shrine while the morning dew was falling, And rejoiced to see the familiar woodland and the oak-tree all unharmed. Then, standing at the threshold of the goddess, she praised thus, to no avail: "Maiden, queen of the forests, whose ungentle standards and ruthless warfare I follow, Scorning my sex in no Grecian manner,
53:41 Liv Albert? Nor are the barbarous-fashion'd Colchians or troops of Amazons more truly your votaries. If I have never joined reveling bands or the wanton nightly sport, If, although stained by a hated union, I have nevertheless handled not the smooth wands, Nor the soft skeins, but even after wedlock remained in the rough wilds, A huntress still, and in my heart a virgin, If I took no thought to hide my fault in some secret cave, But showed my child and confessed and laid him trembling at your feet." No puny weakling was he, but straightway crawled to my bow, And as a babe he cried for arrows in his first tearful accents.
54:23 Liv Albert? For him I pray, ah, what means these nights of terror, these threatening dreams. For him, who now in confident hope, trusting overmuch, alas, in you, is gone to battle! Grant me to see him victorious in the war, or, if I ask too much, grant me just to see him. Here let him labor and bear your arms, make the dire signs of ill to cease! What power, O Diana of the woods, have Maenads and Theban deities in our glades? Woe is me, why in my own heart do I find a dreadful omen in the oak? But if sleep sends true prophecies to my unhappy mind, I beseech you,
55:07 Liv Albert? merciful dictina, by your mother's labor and your brother's splendor, pierce with all your arrows this unblest womb. Let him first hear of his wretched mother's death.
55:21 Liv Albert? She spoke, and beheld even cold Diana's marble moist with falling tears.
55:28 Liv Albert? The stern goddess leaves her still stretched upon the sacred doorway, and brushing the cold altar with her tresses, and with a bound crosses the leafy summit of Minalis in midair, and directs her steps to Cadmus's walls, where the inner path of heaven shines for gods alone, and high uplifted views all the earth together. And now, near halfway on her road, she was passing the forest-clad ridges of Parnassus, when in a glittering cloud she saw her brother, not as she was wont to see him, for he was returning sadly from the Echionian fray, mourning the death of the engulfed augur. The region of the sky glowed red as their rays mingled,
56:13 Liv Albert? and the divine conjunction the beams of each shone out; their bows met, and quiver rang to quiver. He first began: "I know, my sister, it is the Labdakian ranks you seek, and the Arcadian who dares to fight too valiantly for him. His faithful mother begs you, would that the fates might grant her prayer, lo, I myself have not availed, ah, for shame, but seen my votaries' arms and consecrated laurels go down to the void of Tartarus." And his face turned toward me as he went, nor did I check his car or close the chasm of the earth, heartless that I am and unworthy to be worshipped. You see how my caverns mourn, O sister,
56:58 Liv Albert? and the silence of my shrine, this is my sole recompense to my loyal friend. Nor do you continue to summon aid that can but fail, nor pursue your sad task in vain.
57:11 Liv Albert? The youth is near his end, its fate immutable, nor do your brother's oracles deceive you on a doubtful matter, but I may surely obtain glory for him at the last.
57:23 Liv Albert? The maiden, in dismay, replies, "And find a solace for his death, if indeed it so must be, nor shall that man escape unpunished, whoever shall impiously stain his guilty hand with the blood of an innocent boy, and may my shafts wreak dire revenge." With these words she moved upon her way, and, suffering her brother but a scant embrace, sought Thebes in a hostile mood.
57:51 Liv Albert? But on either side, after the slaying of the chiefs, the fight waxed fiercer, and the lust of vengeance aroused mutual rage. Here the squadrons of Hypseus shout, and the troop that has lost its leader; there with deeper roar the bereft cohort of the dead Hippomedon fiercely struggling, they expose their bodies to the sword, and with equal ardor drain the foe's blood and shed their own. Nor do they budge a step, the lines stand locked, column against column, and they yield their lives but will not turn their backs. To the cruel foe, when gliding through the air, the swift Latonian takes her stand on the Dercian height,
58:34 Liv Albert? the hills know her, and the forest trembles at the well-known goddess, where once bare-breasted with cruel arrows, she had slain Niobe and all her brood, out-wearying her bow.
58:48 Liv Albert? But the land, exultant now that the slaughter has begun, was darting between the lines, on a hunter's steed, untrained to war, and suffering then his earliest bridle. About him was cast a striped tiger-skin, and the gilded talons beat upon his shoulders; his knotted mane and controlled luxuriance lies close against his neck, and upon his breast tosses a crescent chain of snow-white tusks, tokens of the woodland.
59:19 Liv Albert? The boy wore a cloak, twice steeped in ebalian dye, and a glittering, gold-imploitered tunic. Only this had his mother woven, gathered about his waist by a slender girdle and, burdened by a huge sword he had let drop his shield on the left shoulder of his horse. The golden buckle of the belt that hangs by his armed side delights him with its polished clasp, and he joys to hear the rattle of the scabbard and the chains that fall behind him from his crest. Sometimes he gaily tosses his flowing plume and his glancing jewel-studded cask, but when his panting helm grows hot in the fight, he frees him of the covering and appears bareheaded.
1:00:03 Liv Albert? Then sweetly shine his locks and his countenance, all a-quiver in the sunbeams and the cheeks, whose tardiness he himself laments, not yet changed by rosy down. Nor does he find pleasure in the praise of his own fairness, but puts on a harsh severity of look. Yet anger becomes him and preserves the beauty of his brow. Freely do the Theban warriors yield him place, remembering their own sons, and relax their straining bows, but he pursues and plies them with ruthless javelins for all their pity. Even the Sidonian nymphs along too messy ridges praise him as he fights, his very dust
1:00:42 Liv Albert? and sweat are in favor, and sighing they breathe unspoken prayers. Tender sorrow steals to the depths of Diana's heart, and she beholds this sight, and staining her cheeks with tears she cries: "What escape from approaching death can your faithful goddess find you now? Was it to battles such as these you hastened, fierce, ill-fated lad? Alas, your rash and untried spirit drove you, and the love of fame that prompts to a glorious death!"
1:01:14 Liv Albert? Too scant already! Foursouth was the Menalian forest for your impetuous years, and the paths that lay through layers of beasts scarce safe for you, child, without your mother, to whose bow and woodland spears impudent boy your strength was yet unequal. And she now is making loud and bitter complaint about my altars, and wearies the unhearing doors and thresholds. In the well-loved clarions and the battles outcry you are rejoicing. Happy you, when you shall die making but your mother wretched!
1:01:51 Liv Albert? Yet lest as he dies she fail to bring him her last honour, she advances into the midst of the array, hemmed about with dusky mist, and first stealing the light-shafts from the back of the bold lad, she fills his quiver with celestial arrows, whereof none falls unstained with blood. Then she sprinkles his limbs with ambrosial liquor, and his steed also lest their bodies be profaned by any wound before his death, and murmurs many a sacred charm and conscious spell, which she herself teaches the Colchian maids at night in secret caves, and as they search shows them cruel herbs. Then, indeed uncovering his bow,
1:02:35 Liv Albert? he darts in fiery course about the field, nor is controlled by caution, forgetful of his native land, his mother, and himself, and uses overmuch his heavenly weapons. Just as a lion whose Gaetulian dam brings him herself to in its infancy gory food, as soon as he feels his neck swell with muscles, and grimly looks at his new talons, scorns to be fed, and at last breaks forth to freedom, and loves the open plains, and can no more return to his cave? Whom now slays you ruthless boy with your Parassian horn? Caribus of Tanagra!
1:03:16 Liv Albert? Did your first shaft lay low sped on a narrow path between the lowest margin of the helm and the uppermost of the shield? The blood wells up into his throat, and his face glows red with the sacred fiery venom. More cruelly Eurytion falls, in the orb of whose left eye the cunning point buries itself with triple barb, pulling out the arrow that brings the melting eyeball with it. He dashes at his assailant but what cannot the brave weapons of the gods perform? A second wound in the other eye makes his darkness complete, yet he yields not but pursues the foe by memory's aid, until he trips and falls over prostrate idus.
1:04:01 Liv Albert? There, wretchedly he lies, gasping amid the victims of the cruel fight and entreats friend and foe to slay him. To these he adds the sons of Abyss, Argus of the noble lux, and Caidon, guiltily loved by his unhappy sister. Him did he pierce through both his temples with transverse flying shaft; from one temple the point protrudes, and at the other the feather's flight was stayed. From both the blood came flowing. None do his angry darts excuse from death; Lamas is not shielded by his beauty, nor Ligdus by his fillet, nor Aeolus by his budding manhood. Lamas is pierced in the face, Ligdus bewails a wounded groin; you, Aeolus, do bemoan
1:04:45 Liv Albert? the dart that transfixed your snow-white brow. You, rocky Evia bore, you, thizby shining white had sent, this warrior, green Aerithry, you will not receive again. No blow but tells no missile flies unfavored of heaven; his right hand rests not, and the next arrow's twang follows hard upon the last. Who could believe that one bow, one arm, was dealing death? Now aims he forward, now shifts from side to side, and bewildering change of attack, now flees when they assail, and turns not but his bow to face them. And now, in wonder and indignation, the sons of Labdacus were rallying, and first Amphion,
1:05:28 Liv Albert? of Jove's famous seed, ignorant still what deaths the lad was dealing on the battlefield, said, "How long shall you make, still make profit of deaths delaying, you boy, that shall be a sore loss to your goodly parents? No, even yet your spirit swells high and your rashness grows, while none deigns to meet your onset, and you are left as beneath their wrath. Go, return to your Arcadia, and mingling with your equals there, while fierce Mars exhausts his fury here, in the real dust of war. Play your soldier games at home. But if the melancholy glory of the tomb does more for you, we will grant you to die a hero's death."
1:06:13 Liv Albert? Long had the truculent son of Adelanta raged, with yet bitterer taunts against him, and ere yet the other had ended thus begins: "No, I am even late in making war on Thebes, is this all of your host? What boy so tender is to refuse to fight with such as these? No Theban offspring sees you here, but the warlike stalk of the Arcadian race. No Thiod mother, slave to Akionian lius, bore me in the silence of night, never have we put unsightly turbans on our heads, nor brandish dishonorable spears. From childhood I learned to crawl on frozen streams, and to enter the dread lairs of monsters, and, but why should I say more?
1:06:56 Liv Albert? My mother has ever the sword and bow, your father's beat hollow drums."
1:07:02 Liv Albert? Amphion brooked this knot, but hurled a mighty spear at his face while he spoke. But his charger, affrighted by the terrible gleam of the steel, swung round with his master to one side, and swerving, sent the greedy javelin flying wide of the mark. Amphion was attacking the youth with drawn sword the more fiercely, when the Latonian leapt down into mid-plane, and stood clear to see before the eyes of all: Diana.
1:07:31 Liv Albert? Dorchius of Minalis, bound by the ties of chaste affection, was keeping close to the lad's side. To him the queen had entrusted her son's rash youth, and her own fears, and all the chances of war. Disguised in his features, the goddess then addressed the boy. "Enough, Parthenopius, to have routed the Ogai-gian band so far, enough, now spare your unhappy mother, spare the gods who favor you." But he was unterrified. "Suffer me, faithless Dorchius, no more will I ask, to slay this man who bears weapons that rival mine, and boasts like apparel and resounding reins. These reins I will handle, the apparel shall hang on Trivia's lofty door, and his captured
1:08:14 Liv Albert? quiver shall be a present to my mother." Diana heard him and smiled amid her tears. Long time from a distant quarter of the sky had Venus, in the embrace of Mars, beheld her, and while she anxiously commended Thebes and Cadmus and her dear Harmonia's progeny to her lord, she stirred with timely utterance the grief that lay hidden in his silent breast. "Do you not see, Mars, that wanton maid who goes to and fro among the troops of warriors? And with what boldness she's ordering the lines and the martial standards! Lo, she even presents and offers to the slaughter all these men of her own race! Has she then valor?
1:08:58 Liv Albert? Has she seen the rage of battle? Not then remains for you but to hunt the woodland deer." Moved by these just complaints, the lord of war sprang down into the fight. As he sped through the paths of air, anger alone was his companion, the other madnesses were busy in the sweat of war. Without delay he stands by Leto's sorrowing daughter, and chides her with harsh reproof. "Not such battles as these does the father of the gods allow you! Leave forthwith the field of arms, you shameless girl, or you shall learn that not even Pallas is a match for this right hand." What can she do against him?
1:09:40 Liv Albert? On one side the spear of Mars threatens her, and on the other is your distaff, full already, yonder the stern countenance of Jove. So she departs, yielding to reverence alone.
1:09:55 Liv Albert? But father Mars looks round upon the Ogaiian ranks, and rouses up the terrible Drius, who had turbulent Orion as the author of his blood, and an inherited hatred of Diana's followers. Hence came his fury. Sword in hand, he leaps upon the disheartened Arcadians, and robs their leader of his arms. In long lines fall the folk that dwell in Kylini and shady Tegia, and the Epian chieftains and the Telfusian cohorts. Their prince himself he is confident to slay, though his arm is tired; nor does he husband his strength, for the other, already weary, was wheeling his squadrons here and there.
1:10:39 Liv Albert? A thousand presentiments of doom crowd on him, and the black clouds of death float before his eyes. And now the wretched lad could see but few companions and the true Dorcheus. Now he felt his force ebb little by little, and his shoulder lighten as the shafts diminished. Already less and less can he support his armor, and even to himself he seems now but a boy. When Drius blazed terribly before him with fiercely flashing shield, a sudden tremor shook the countenance and the frame of the Arcadian, and, just as when a white swan sees above him the bearer of the angry thunderbolt, he wishes that Streamon's bank would gape
1:11:23 Liv Albert? and gathers his trembling wings about his breast, so the youth, perceiving the great bulk of savage Drius, felt wrath no longer, but a thrill that heralded death. Yet he plies his weapons, pale-faced and praying vainly to Trivia and the gods, and makes ready the bow that will not answer. Already he is on the point to shoot, and with both elbows held aslant he is touching the bow with the arrow-head and his breast with the string, when mightily whirled the Aeonian chieftain's spear flies straight upon him, and cuts the slanted fastenings of the echoing bow-string. The shot is lost, his hands relax,
1:12:07 Liv Albert? and the arrow falls fruitless from the backward-falling bow.
1:12:12 Liv Albert? Then in confusion and distress, he drops both reins and weapons reckless of the wound that had pierced the harness and the soft skin of his right shoulder. Another javelin follows and checks the charger's flight, cutting the tendons of his leg. Then Drius himself falls, strange, nor even he knows who wounds him. One day the author of the deed and its cause will be revealed. But the lad is carried from the field in his comrade's arms, alas, for his tender years, and dying bewails his fallen steed. Relieved of the helm, his head sinks back, and a sickly charm plays about his quivering eyes.
1:12:52 Liv Albert? Thrice and four times, grasping his hair, they shake the neck that refuses to stay upright, and, a horror, whereat Thebes itself might weep, the purple blood came welling from the snow-white breast. At last he speaks, with sobs that break his utterance. "I am dying, Dorkius, go, solace my poor mother. Already, if care does bring true prissage, she has seen this calamity in a dream or omen; yet do you with loyal craft keep her fears in suspense and long deceive her, nor come upon her of a sudden, nor when she holds a weapon in her hand, and when at last you
1:13:33 Liv Albert? were forced to admit the truth, say this to her: 'Mother, I confess my fault.' Exact your unwilling punishment. I rush to arms, though merely a boy, nor you did hold me back. Would I be still, nor, despite your troubles, war once begun, did I spare you at the last. Live then, you, and be angry rather at my impetuous spirit, and now be done with tears.' In vain do you look forth anxiously from Lycaeus's hill, if perchance sound or dust of my cavalcade rises to you through the air from afar. Cold on the bare earth I lie, and you are nowhere near me to hold my face and catch my parting breath.
1:14:17 Liv Albert? Yet take distress, oh, mother, bereaved."
1:14:21 Liv Albert? And with his hand, he offered it to be cut. "Take this dress in place of my whole body. Once you were want to trim it in spite of my vain scorn. To it give burial. And amid the rites, remember to let none blunt my weapons with inexperienced hands or lead my beloved hounds to the hunting grounds anymore. But burn these ill-fated arms of my first warfare, or hand them up as a reproach to ungrateful Diana."
1:15:05 Liv Albert? Oh nerds, another great book in the Thebaid. I, I did, sometimes I wish, I mean, it is the nature of the ancient epic and the way they were told and written and also like just the ancient world and translations, but like, they don't use proper names enough. Like there's, and I'm trying not to, it's difficult, but anyway, I couldn't really easily make clear to you all that that young boy was Parthenopaeus, Atalanta's son until the very end because they were just calling her like a huntress. And it's like, oh, there's only one, but like, anyway. Um, that is one of the only other references to Atalanta that we have, like outside of the little myths about her.
1:15:50 Liv Albert? This is this idea that her son went to war and died there. It's not, it's not great, but we do love Atalanta representation and Diana Artemis going into war for her. Like, that's kind of nice, even if Ares Mars came in to like scold her for like being in a man's place. Anyway, otherwise delightful. This has been incredibly fun. I'm excited to get to the next, um, the next book. So stay tuned. And in the meantime, thank you all so damn much for listening. Um, Let's Talk MythBee is written and produced by me, Liv Albert. Michaela Panguish is the Hermes to my Olympians, my incredible producer. Select music by Luke Chaos. There's more to say, but I am utterly, utterly exhausted.
1:16:35 Liv Albert? So pretend I said the rest of my usual credits. There's lots coming soon. We got, we got so much, it's just, it's just like nearly done. Anyway, if you're looking for ad-free episodes, consider subscribing to the Oracle Edition, which is my Patreon and has ad-free episodes of everything, and also so much more. That's patreon.com/masstbaby. The link is in the episode's description. Also, send in more questions, because I want to do more Q and As while I work through the Odyssey stuff. Anything you can give me is utterly delightful. I am Liv, and I love this shit.
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