UC-NRLF 
 
 
 ALCMAEON »* 
 HYPERMESTRA 
 
 CAENEUS -* 
 
 E. P. WARREN, M.A. 
 
 OXFORD 
 
 BLACKWELL 
 
BY THE SAME AUTHOR 
 
 CLASSICAL and AMERICAN 
 EDUCATION 
 
 1/6 Net 
 
 "An important contribution to the 
 present discussion on educational re- 
 construction." 
 
 The Contemporary Review. 
 
 "A sprightly paper, almost too out- 
 spoken."— The Times. 
 
 OXFORD J* B. H. BLACKWELL 
 
ALCMAEON, HYPERMESTRA, 
 CAENEUS. 
 
flew l^orfc 
 
 LONGMANS, GREEN & CO. 
 FOURTH AVENUE AND 30TH STREET 
 
ALCMAEON J J 
 HYPERMESTRA j* 
 CAENEUS Jfi S 
 
 BY 
 
 E. P. WARREN, M.A. 
 
 Honorary Fellow of Corpus Christ! College, Oxford 
 
 OXFORD 
 
 B f H. BLACKWELL, BROAD STREET 
 
 1919 
 

 
 PRINTED BY 
 
 HAZELL, WATSON AND VINEY, LD., 
 
 LONDON AND AYLESBURY. 
 
 (Sretk 6a.f4ith 
 
V 
 
 TO 
 
 MASTER T. WARREN 
 
 517678 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2007 with funding from 
 
 Microsoft Corporation 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/alcmaeonhypermesOOwarrrich 
 
PREFATORY NOTE 
 
 THE legends in this book are treated freely 
 and the author has not attempted 
 archaeological or topographical exacti- 
 tude* The description of Atalanta's cave is from 
 Aelian. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 L Alcmaeon ii 
 
 IL Hypermestra 83 
 
 IIL Gaeneus 99 
 
 IQ 
 
ALCMAEON 
 
 Xcu'pcov 8« Kal atirbs 
 'A\K|idva <TT€<j>dvouri pdXXw. 
 
 Pindar. P. viii. 
 
 II 
 
NOTE 
 
 SINCE the story of Alcmaeon is compli- 
 cated by the number of personages of 
 several genera tions, the following notes 
 are added for reference* 
 
 Talaos, the father of Adrastos and of Eriphyle, 
 was driven out of Argos and killed by Amphiaraos* 
 Adrastos and Eriphyle retreated to Sicyon, then 
 called Aegialeia* 
 
 Afterward Adrastos returned to reign over Argos 
 jointly with Amphiaraos, who married Eriphyle* 
 
 Alcmaeon and Amphilochos were sons of 
 Amphiaraos and Eriphyle* 
 
 Adrastos had two sons, Aegialeus and, later, 
 Cyanippos, and two daughters, Argeia and Deipyle* 
 
 Tydeus married Deipyle and Polynices Argeia, 
 by whom he had a son, Thersandros* 
 
 Polynices had been deprived by his brother 
 E teocles of his joint right in the kingdom of Thebes* 
 Together with Adrastos and other chiefs he made 
 the attack of the " Seven against Thebes*" The 
 second attack was made by the sons of the Seven, 
 known as the Epigoni, on Laodamas, the son of 
 E teocles* 
 
 The family of Atreus, which had succeeded 
 Eurystheus at Mycenae, took no part in these wars* 
 
 12, 
 
ALCMAEON 
 
 THERE was a great storm ♦ The rain 
 poured from the roofs and along the 
 gutters of the streets* Alcmaeon slept 
 till, past midnight, a flash of lightning, followed 
 by a crackling peal of thunder, wakened him* He 
 was a stout boy and not afraid* He lay and 
 listened to heavy balls rolling on the floor of 
 heaven* But a wail was heard from the neigh- 
 bouring room* Aegialeus, only four years old, 
 was frightened* Alcmaeon groped across the 
 passage and sat on the edge of his bed to soothe 
 him : the child was always happy with Alcmaeon* 
 The rumbling ceased, and there was only the 
 downpour of the rain* Aegialeus grew quiet 
 and pulled the pillow under his head, begging 
 Alcmaeon nevertheless to stay with him* Alc- 
 maeon, though chilly, waited, hoping that he would 
 fall asleep* There were now other sounds than 
 the rain — down the passage by the great door, or 
 perhaps outside it in the porch, men's voices, 
 
 13 
 
ALCMAEON * 
 
 quarrelsome and loud* The door opened, letting 
 a gust of wind down the passage ; then it shut* 
 The voices were quieter, but nearer* From the 
 street no sound of footsteps* It must be late* 
 Aegialeus was now sleeping, with one hand out of 
 the bed-clothes* 
 
 Alcmaeon crept toward the entrance in the dark* 
 Who could have come at this time ? Suddenly a 
 light was struck and he shrieked, for he saw before 
 him two monsters, a man with a lion's head and 
 a man with a boar's head* His mother, Eriphyle, 
 would have taken him to bed ; but his uncle 
 said : 
 
 " The child will not sleep till he sees what these 
 are* 
 
 Therefore Polynices threw back the lion's scalp 
 from his hair and showed his human head to the 
 boy, who began to laugh and asked whether the 
 boar-man could also turn into a real man* Tydeus, 
 less graciously, laid the boar-skin aside* Alcmaeon *s 
 fears were quieted, and he was led away* 
 
 Yet his mother sat by him, as he had sat by 
 Aegialeus, for he was wakeful, as if he had wit- 
 nessed some great event* She must explain to 
 him whence the strangers came and what might 
 be their errand* Eriphyle told him of the hunt 
 in Calydon and of the slaughter of the boar 
 whose skin hung from the head of Tydeus ; and 
 of Polynices she told how he had been driven 
 forth by his brother from the kingdom that should 
 now have been his, and of the greatness of that 
 
 14 
 
ALCMAEON * 
 
 kingdom and its castle, grander than the castle of 
 Mycenae, and of the lion and the boar who had 
 dragged the chariot of Harmonia, the first queen, 
 when Zeus and the other gods came to her wedding, 
 how she had then received from Hephaestos the 
 necklace of glory and the robe of dominion, which 
 now belonged to Polynices* To Argos he had 
 come for help to obtain his right, the throne of 
 Thebes* 
 
 Alcmaeon listened wide-eyed ; but by degrees 
 his mother's voice began to sound like a fountain 
 playing in the darkness ; and she saw that he was 
 asleep ♦ 
 
 Nevertheless she did not move ; and her 
 thoughts continued the tale ; for the prophecy 
 uttered by her husband, Amphiaraos, that wild 
 saying which had seemed like madness, came 
 back to her now ; and she saw its meaning* 
 
 Her brother, Adrastos, had two daughters, 
 Argeia and Deipyle* Of these Amphiaraos had 
 prophesied that one would be married by a lion 
 and the other by a boar* What could have been 
 thus foreshadowed but the arrival of these two 
 princes craving alliance ? Truly the gods were 
 now taking part in the fortunes of the house of 
 Talaos; and for how long had those fortunes 
 been doubtful ? Since her very childhood, when 
 he was king of Argos and Amphiaraos too young 
 to assert his equal claim* The youth had sought 
 her in marriage and her hand was promised* 
 Reasons of state indeed dictated union between 
 
 15 
 
ALCMAEON * 
 
 the two royal houses : Amphiaraos, the head of 
 the priesthood by right of descent from Melampus, 
 would bring with him the support of a body, 
 always dreaded and sometimes mistrusted, which 
 endangered the royal control ; but when he 
 demanded his full birthright as equal with Talaos 
 in reign, a quarrel arose between the two, and 
 Talaos was driven out and slain in batde by 
 Amphiaraos* His children, Adrastos and Eriphyle, 
 took refuge in the neighbouring kingdom of 
 Aegialeia, which passed into their possession ; and 
 there Eriphyle had grown into womanhood with 
 a sense of injury and exile* There she had first 
 seen Polynices, a courtly lad destined with his 
 brother to inherit the throne of Oedipus then in 
 his glory ; and with him had come a temptation, 
 for it lay in her power by a few words to become 
 his wife and to escape from humiliation to Thebes, 
 which commanded the North as Argos aspired 
 to command the South ; but her dignity, as a 
 few years older, and her allegiance to her father's 
 house had silenced her* 
 
 By her counsel Adrastos made himself strong in 
 Aegialeia* It was ever in her mind that some 
 day they should return to Argos; and tidings 
 from Argos nourished the thought* For Am- 
 phiaraos, now master by the loss of her who had 
 been his chief desire, was no longer the same ; 
 and, if she had understood him, she would have 
 known that he had never been the hot, ambitious 
 youth which he had seemed* Kingship was 
 
 16 
 
ALCMAEON * 
 
 nothing to him ; and he would have resigned it 
 but for the needs of the people and the tyranny of 
 Talaos* His revolt had been the sacrifice of his 
 choice, a life in the temple* Now, in his loneli- 
 ness, he devoted himself more and more to priestly 
 functions* The mantic nature of his race surged 
 within him, overflowing his mind when he should 
 have been occupied with the martial needs of a 
 city surrounded by jealousies* To Eriphyle the 
 way of conquest seemed open from Aegialeia. 
 
 Nevertheless, when he proposed a reconciliation 
 to be sealed by marriage, she consented ; and 
 the terms of agreement set forth by Adrastos were 
 devised by her* Instead of a hostile advance, 
 there was a peaceful return ; and Adrastos became 
 in fact, though not in name, the sole king of 
 Argos* She stood at his side. Between him .and 
 her husband her decisions prevailed, and indeed 
 she could, by the compact of reconciliation, claim 
 that they should prevail, if the kings differed ; 
 but more than the compact her steady preoccupa- 
 tion with affairs of state and the submission of 
 her brother and the lassitude of her husband gave 
 her control, lassitude produced by disappoint- 
 ment* During the years of separation Amphiaraos 
 had continued to think of her as she was before 
 her exile, a girl strong and confident, yet still 
 girlish and yielding* Her confidence in him 
 must, he knew, have been broken by the family 
 feud ; but her marriage was forgiveness to be 
 met by gentleness* He knew not the woman who 
 b 17 
 
ALCMAEON * 
 
 returned from Aegialeia strengthened by mis- 
 fortune* She would indeed have yielded, but to 
 a rougher hand and a frank mastery — to the warrior 
 who had overcome her father; the augur she 
 despised* 
 
 Yet, as she sat beside the bed, she feared him* 
 The fulfilment of his prophecy showed that his 
 counsels, so lightly daffed aside, embodied in fact 
 a foresight not given to her* If he should stand 
 against the invasion of Boeotia, she could hardly 
 support it* But, if the prophecy was true, why 
 not the omens ? What, if the boar and lion 
 betokened the passing of Harmonia's power from 
 Thebes to Argos ? What, if the necklace of glory 
 and the robe of dominion were to pass with them ? 
 What, if succession were decreed to the house of 
 Talaos and not to that of Polynices ? Then the 
 long patience at Aegialeia and the hated marriage 
 would be fully rewarded* As the gates of Argos 
 had opened before her, so now the way seemed to 
 lie clear to Thebes, that the isle of Pelops and the 
 mainland might be united* She lost herself in 
 the vision and hardly heard the breathing of the 
 sleeper* 
 
 II 
 
 In the morning Amphiaraos was not to be 
 found* He had left the temple at evening, greatly 
 grieved and distressed by sacrifices which he had 
 
 18 
 
ALCMAEON * 
 
 performed alone. He had said nothing of their 
 purport and had not spoken of a journey* Though 
 withdrawn from affairs of state, he was necessary 
 to decision in so great a matter* Eriphyle sus- 
 pected whither he had betaken himself, but she 
 held her peace, believing that he had hidden 
 with a purpose* His forecast of the event must 
 have been unfavourable* Without him nothing 
 could be done* The strangers might tire of 
 waiting and seek other allies ; if he were brought 
 to face them, he might fail to persuade them or 
 Adrastos that they were rushing on ruin, and 
 then he would be bound by the compact to leave 
 the decision to Eriphyle* Undiscovered, he frus- 
 trated the scheme ; and this she divined to be his 
 purpose* Discovery was useless, unless she was 
 willing to gainsay him and to enlist him against 
 his will* And for this, seeing the wisdom of his 
 prophecy, she was not ready* 
 
 She came from the temple deep in thought ; 
 but Alcmaeon was unceasing in his questionings 
 about the guests and about Thebes and the 
 chariot and why they had killed the boar, 
 which he confused with the boar of Calydon, 
 and whether his mother would not get a boar 
 and a lion to put into her chariot to drive to 
 Thebes* His little brother, Amphilochos, and 
 his cousin, Aegialeus, now echoed these questions 
 and wanted the whole story, which Alcmaeon 
 knew, told to them also* She could have handed 
 them to the nurse; but her close affection for 
 
 19 
 
ALCMAEON * 
 
 Alcmaeon, whom she thought more like Talaos, 
 whereas Amphilochos was more like Amphiaraos, 
 kept her patient till he was put to bed* There 
 she left him to fall asleep by himself , that she 
 might at last determine her action* 
 
 III 
 
 And he did not fall asleep* The door had been 
 left open* and in the dark he heard heavy steps* 
 A figure passed, bearing in its hand a loop of 
 light* Mistaking the door* it paused for a mo- 
 ment ; and* by the light from the loop* Alcmaeon 
 recognized the lion-man* Then there was a 
 sound of words from his mother's room which he 
 could hear but could not understand, and* after 
 these* the heavy steps again down the corridor, 
 but no light* 
 
 Those words which he could not catch were 
 Alcmaeon's fate* Polynices, with the shadow of 
 injury on his handsome brow, stood before Eriphyle 
 seated, and pleaded with her, speaking as she had 
 spoken to him at Aegialeia of the death of her 
 father, but with that strong self-confidence, then 
 ungrown in her, which she most admired in men 
 and missed in the gentleness of Amphiaraos* For 
 wrongs she cared little (else she could not have 
 married him), but much for undefeated energy 
 and for that stubbornness and insistence on recon- 
 quest which gave Polynices his assurance* And 
 
 2,0 
 
ALCMAEON * 
 
 in his hand he held the assurance of the gods, the 
 necklace of glory now to be her possession. As 
 he unfolded his plans, telling the number of his 
 supporters, the ways of advance, the villages 
 whose chiefs were ready to rise against Eteocles, 
 the certainty of success, and the fame and power 
 which would ensue to Argos, as he bent over her 
 with gallant deference and soft impetrant eyes, 
 she was released from the long strain of alternate 
 discouragement and determination, the long 
 patience in the endeavour to quicken Adrastos 
 or persuade Amphiaraos, the double labour of 
 accomplishing through them what she would 
 have done and what Polynices would have done 
 without a word from her. She needed help more 
 than her help was needed ; and, when the prince, 
 thanking her for her promise, left her with a 
 stately salute, she threw herself on her bed and 
 sobbed in thankfulness for that there was such a 
 man and that he was gone, since she would have 
 forgotten her queenliness for him. Then she 
 lifted her eyes and the circlet sparkled through 
 her tears as a wreath of victory. 
 
 IV 
 
 At dawn she stood by Alcmaeon's bed. 
 M You are to come with me/' she said. 
 Two mules were ready, and slowly they climbed 
 up tracks which were more like torrent-beds, and 
 
 21 
 
ALCMAEON * 
 
 were in fact torrents in the rainy season* No 
 muleteers accompanied them* Eriphyle led the 
 way to a stone hut, which Alcmaeon remembered : 
 he had been there once with his father* Mother 
 and son dismounted to eat bread and cakes, and 
 meanwhile she roused his memory* Whither had 
 he followed his father beyond the hut ? 
 
 " To a big rock*" 
 
 Could he find the way again ? 
 
 The boy, pleased with the adventure and with 
 his own importance as guide, bethought himself* 
 The path (he remembered) led straight from the 
 door of the hut ; they had stopped to pick hazel- 
 nuts ; beyond the hazel bushes there was a great 
 dark pine wood, and beyond the wood the rock* 
 
 They left the mules and followed the path to 
 the hazel-bushes* Thence they could see the 
 pine wood, but far away, so that Alcmaeon was 
 tired when they reached it* Nevertheless his 
 mother pushed on* In the wood they lost their 
 way ; there was no track over the needles ; but 
 Eriphyle hoped to catch sight of the rock when 
 they should be again in the open* She was 
 disappointed* They came out on a high pasture, 
 tinkling with goat-bells ; nothing beyond but 
 tree-tops and hills* They might have discovered 
 the goat-herd and asked him; but Eriphyle 
 would not ; she skirted the pasture and so came 
 round about upon another path* Alcmaeon 
 seemed to remember this or at least a brook and 
 a bridge to which it might lead, for it led down 
 
 22 
 
ALCMAEON * 
 
 hill. The brook and the bridge were indeed there, 
 but, on the other side, three paths. They sat 
 by the brook not knowing what to do, Alcmaeon 
 crying to go home ; but she checked him, and he 
 knew her wilL It was a lonely place and quiet ; 
 even the sound of the goat-bells could no longer 
 be heard ; but, through the silence, a deep and 
 solemn cry, faint by reason of distance, reached 
 them, a voice like that of Amphiaraos, but more 
 like a wounded beast. Guided by the sound, 
 they threaded the forest to an open sward spread 
 before a rock crowned with ivy. From within 
 the rock proceeded the voice. 
 
 Alcmaeon remembered vaguely in after-years an 
 agony of supplication and no more. His father 
 returned with them. 
 
 During the nine years of preparation for the 
 attack on Thebes, Alcmaeon passed from childhood 
 to youth, from his seventh to his sixteenth year. 
 The first half of that time was controlled by his 
 mother. He lived in her rooms with his younger 
 playmates, Amphilochos and Aegialeus, and was 
 taken out by her or by a slave, whom she had 
 brought from Aegialeia. These women told him 
 tales of castles and knights and of the great vessel 
 in which Talaos had travelled over the sea to the 
 strange land of the Sun-god's child, how Jason, 
 
 23 
 
ALCMAEON * 
 
 exiled like Polynices, had sown in the desolate 
 East the teeth of the dragon slain by Cadmos in 
 Thebes, and how a crop of armed men had sprung 
 from these seeds in Colchis as in the home of 
 Polynices ; for Polynices was descended from one 
 of these earth-born warriors, the offspring of his 
 own land ; and, when a son, Thersandros, was 
 born to him of Argeia and on the babe's arm 
 appeared the birth-mark of a lance as on all of the 
 dragon's descent, Alcmaeon was shamed because 
 his own body bore no such sign of honour* When 
 he heard of the high Cadmeian palace, which he 
 imagined glittering with gold and outshining the 
 silvery heights of Parnassus across the plain, he 
 envied the nursling his inheritance and was con- 
 soled only by his mother's assurance that the lion- 
 man and the boar-man were to bring the Argives 
 into Thebes and to win dominion and glory for 
 the house of Talaos* In comparison with Thebes, 
 all that he saw around him and all that he heard 
 of his uncle's former kingdom of Aegialeia seemed 
 slight* His uncle had passed from a lesser realm 
 to Argos ; from Argos he should pass to Thebes ; 
 for Alcmaeon did not doubt that, wherever he 
 was, he would occupy the throne by a natural 
 precedence, whatever rights might otherwise be- 
 long to the sons of the land* Eriphyle had not 
 shrunk from relating to him the conflict wherein 
 his father had slain her father* To Alcmaeon 
 batde and slaughter were not then terrible ; he 
 had never seen death, and wondered, with some 
 
 24 
 
ALCMAEON * 
 
 disappointment, that Polynices and his men were 
 not wounded when they returned from their 
 exercises and marches* Talaos had fought with 
 Amphiaraos and had been conquered ; but, in 
 the end, his son, Adrastos, had returned in triumph 
 to share the throne of Amphiaraos* So Jason, 
 dispossessed of Iolcos, might have established 
 himself at Corinth but for the machinations of 
 Medea* She, who had betrayed her father to 
 win a lover, at last betrayed the hero himself, 
 not preferring his honour and the kingdom offered 
 to him, which would have rewarded his prowess 
 and atoned for his exile, but considering only 
 how she might keep him to herself* She was a 
 witch and a barbarian. Like her, Stheneboea had 
 betrayed Bellerophon ; but this was to be ex- 
 pected from that strange family of Tiryns, which 
 even now was jealous of his uncle's rule* Far 
 different was his mother, so loyal to men, almost 
 a man herself* Among women Atalanta was his 
 favourite ; and often would he ask to hear of her* 
 Her father had left her on the mountains when 
 she was born, because he desired sons, not 
 daughters* A she-bear, whose cubs had been 
 killed by huntsmen, found her and suckled her, 
 and, when she was weaned, the huntsmen took 
 her and cared for her ; but after a time she left 
 them, and they saw her rarely, speeding like a 
 shooting star over the hill-side and vanishing in 
 the bushes ; for she was so swift that none could 
 escape her and that she could herself escape from 
 
 25 
 
ALCMAEON * 
 
 all* She lived in a cave in the midst of a cliff. 
 Hardly could you reach it along a narrow shelf ; 
 but before it there was a broad space, whereon 
 grew flowers and fruit watered by a brook which 
 ran from the cave and fell over the edge to the 
 chasm below* She wore little and was browned 
 to a man's colour by the sun ; she slept on the 
 hides of wild beasts, and her yellow hair mixed 
 with their tawny fur* She would endure no man 
 and was feared of every man* Only the centaurs, 
 Hyllaeus and Rhoecus, dared to approach her as 
 suitors ; but she saw them from her height, and 
 shot them afar* Yet she had a son of unknown 
 fatherhood or fatherless, like her only, and most 
 like in his freedom, for he escaped from her to 
 live his own life, and to join the band against 
 Thebes* 
 
 He was the youngest of the seven chiefs, the 
 flower of their pride, the glint of their armour* 
 None could exceed him in swiftness of foot nor 
 in sureness of eye and hand* When his shaft 
 lodged in a distant mark, a shout went up from 
 the army; and its report, reaching Atalanta in 
 her wilds, told her with whom she would have 
 to combat to recover him* Yet he was good to 
 Alcmaeon, just emerged from his mother's arms 
 to join the exercises of the youngest lads, high- 
 spirited, but unpractised ; him he would teach 
 to ride, to wrestle, and to box, and even take him 
 in the chariot of Adrastos to scud over the plain 
 behind the horse, Arion, which till then none 
 
 a6 
 
ALCMAEON * 
 
 but Adrastos could control, tossing his golden 
 mane like the waves of his father Poseidon, gentle 
 to a delicate hand, but wild, if held amiss* There 
 was nothing that Parthenopaeos could not do, 
 and to him Alcmaeon turned at every moment of 
 the day ; of him were his last thoughts at night* 
 Aegialeus and Amphilochos were forgotten* 
 Alcmaeon was abroad from dawn to evening* 
 His mother and the children saw him only from 
 the banks of the running-ground ; yet Eriphyle 
 rejoiced* 
 
 VI 
 
 Nevertheless in all this there was a shadow* 
 Amphiaraos moved about sadly, avoiding his home* 
 When he came, he exchanged but few words with 
 his wife* His son did not admire him, but looked 
 on him as a living shade* Dark eyes, heavy hair, 
 a full beard, and the dress of an augur, what had 
 this to compare with Parthenopaeos ? When he 
 passed the field, Alcmaeon's eyes turned to seek 
 out a spot of blue, his mother's colour, often to 
 be seen between two spots of orange, under a 
 distant tree, and his heart lightened ; but some- 
 times there was but one orange spot ; and then 
 Alcmaeon knew that he was safe from the dark 
 look ; for Amphilochos now followed the augur 
 to his woodland shrines, slept in caves, and listened 
 if he might understand the birds* This ghostly 
 
 27 
 
ALCMAEON * 
 
 life was. nothing to the worshipper of Par then- 
 opaeos; and Eriphyle fostered his revulsion by 
 her words. They were few ; but it was enough 
 to tell him that the priests condemned the gather- 
 ing of the chiefs against Thebes to kindle in him 
 a contrary desire : that his friends should by deeds 
 approve their cause against the discouragement 
 of sinister omens* Yet he knew that his place 
 was by his father's side, and, on the last day, he 
 could not disobey the command to be present at 
 the secret sacrifice performed by Amphiaraos after 
 the public propitiation. Then it was that the 
 high-priest should learn whether the gods were 
 appeased. 
 
 The people streamed out of the temple. Father 
 and son were left alone. Alcmaeon held the 
 spits and the brazen basket of meal ; Amphiaraos 
 the hatchet. But, as if arrested by a call, he laid 
 it on the altar and turned about, standing upright 
 and looking straight before him over his son's 
 head, his face like the face of the dead. Alcmaeon 
 saw that the spirit of prophecy was upon him, 
 that he was aware of nought save what the gods 
 revealed to his mind. Clouds and shadows chased 
 over his features, and then the great eyes would 
 lighten with love and loyalty to fate and to the 
 great purpose of Zeus. At last, with solemn 
 agitation and difficult self-control, he spoke these 
 words to his eldest-born : 
 
 " It is useless. Nought can avert our ruin. 
 When thou art called to avenge my death on the 
 
 28 
 
ALCMAEON * 
 
 sons of the Thebans, come to me and I will tell 
 thee of another vengeance/' 
 
 VII 
 
 A year passed and all was changed at Argos* 
 Amphiaraos had been received alive into the 
 earth at Harma ; the body of Tydeus lay by the 
 Chalcidian road ; Polynices with Eteocles before 
 the gate where they fought and fell ; Hippomedon 
 under the mound heaped for the rest, and with 
 them the fair head of Parthenopaeos ; only 
 Adrastos had returned and he in flight, saved by 
 Arion* A grim quiet and exhaustion pervaded 
 the city* 
 
 Alcmaeon was now the eldest prince of the 
 Argive family, second only to Adrastos and 
 destined to be king by whatever right his father 
 might not in his piety nave resigned* He was only 
 sixteen, but seemed to himself far older, and, with 
 this sense of a maturity gained, he lost his early 
 scorn of the immaturity of Aegialeus, now looking 
 to him as he had looked to Parthenopaeos* Soon 
 the elder was to discover what Parthenopaeos had 
 discovered before him, the wisdom of the younger* 
 Meanwhile he discovered it in Amphilochos* 
 
 Amphilochos at the age of fourteen had passed, 
 not into the running-ground, but into the temples, 
 consecrating himself for life to the office which 
 his father had held before him* He was not 
 
 29 
 
ALCMAEON * 
 
 admitted thereto without reason* He had been 
 found asleep one morning in a wood, and, when 
 he awoke, babbled in strange language of strange 
 lands and of the doings of distant men* He said 
 that he had not been asleep at all, that serpents 
 had been about him, licking the hollows of his 
 ears delicately with their slender, rough tongues, 
 and that, when they were gone, the birds sang, 
 and he understood the speech of these far travellers 
 in the air* After a time his reports were con- 
 firmed by sailors and merchantmen, surprised to 
 find their tidings already known ; and then the 
 augurs doubted not that the gift of Melampus 
 had descended to the fourth generation, and 
 they trusted Amphilochos not only for things 
 human, but also for the secrets of such gods as 
 passed through the air in converse heard only of 
 birds* It remained for him to learn to read the 
 entrails of dying beasts and the rules of purgation 
 and of sacrifices* Nevertheless this could be left 
 to others, while he was sent forth to discover what 
 none other could hear in haunts of which his 
 fellows knew not* By divine impulse he found 
 the rock beneath the ivy, where Dionysos, his 
 father's god, revealed to the son the destinies of 
 Thebes, not clearly at first, but overshadowing his 
 boy-priest and transforming his mind into his 
 own likeness* And with Dionysos came rarely 
 an awful shadow, which spoke not, for he had 
 uttered to his first-born so much as youth could 
 bear, and should speak a second time more plainly 
 
 30 
 
ALCMAEON * 
 
 but only to him ; yet he would behold Amphi- 
 lochos. 
 
 With his brother Alcmaeon lived in a super- 
 natural world, not less sombre than this, more 
 terrible indeed, amid the smell of sacrificial blood 
 and the appeasement of angered deities and of 
 heroes slain, but grander in power, and superior 
 to the arrogance of a Niobe or of a Tityos, a 
 world which mortals could not touch, but whose 
 resentment they might provoke to descend in 
 vengeance alike on the guilty and on the innocent, 
 on Eteocles and on Polynices, on Capaneus and on 
 Parthenopaeos. 
 
 Alcmaeon had awakened from his early dreams ; 
 the kingdom of Thebes had not been won ; the 
 glory of arms was overlaid with silence and the 
 dust of the dead* He had lost many of his friends. 
 The disappointment of survivors, the memory of 
 his father's prophecy, the daily life amid the ruin 
 which his father had foreseen — all this drove him 
 to question the simple faith which he had hitherto 
 held in the victory of manhood ; it should yield 
 to knowledge of the higher purpose of the gods, 
 to his father's faith, to the mantic distrust of men. 
 For Amphiaraos the earth had opened, struck by 
 the lightning of Zeus that he might not suffer 
 death ; and, standing upright, he had driven his 
 horses into Hades ; now, at Oropos in the land 
 of Psophis, his oracle was revered as that of a 
 holy god. Surely in the dark look was divine 
 counsel, and in the confidence of Eriphyle a snare. 
 
 31 
 
ALCMAEON * 
 
 The proof of divinity was indisputable; it cast 
 a doubt over daylight; sunshine was the less 
 clear and mountains were the less sure since the 
 depths had spoken* But to the youth of Alcmaeon 
 they did not speak with the voice of discourage- 
 ment* In him the mind of Amphiaraos was mixed 
 with the high spirit inherited from Eriphyle* He 
 listened to Amphilochos ; but his task was other : 
 he was to be king* 
 
 VIII 
 
 He was now within a year of his accession, and 
 Eriphyle began to prepare him for his office, 
 teaching him, so far as she might, the business 
 which would be his when of age* She took 
 him with her on her progress through the 
 villages which belonged to the house of Melampus, 
 acquainted him with their crops and contribu- 
 tions and with the men who collected her dues, 
 which were to become her son's* Hitherto Alc- 
 maeon had lived in Argos with the few nobles 
 away from the peasants ; now he saw the humblest 
 life and whence the wealth of the family was 
 drawn* The villagers paid in kind ; and many of 
 them could not now pay because their men-folk 
 had been killed in the war* These never suffered 
 at the hands of Eriphyle* Consequently the 
 returns were slight and insistence greater in other 
 cases* 
 
 32 
 
ALCMAEON * 
 
 One sunny afternoon their jolting wagon (more 
 splendidly figured than those of the country-folk, 
 but otherwise like, since such only could pass the 
 lanes, narrow, crooked, and stony) stopped before 
 a cottage at the foot of a vineyard , A burly, 
 shock-haired, puzsle-faced youth answered their 
 call, but was soon set aside by an old woman, who, 
 emerging from the door, directed him to attend 
 to the mule* She conducted Eriphyle into the 
 room ; and Alcmaeon was left to a young girl who 
 had been eyeing him with a look of admiration 
 and fear* He asked to see the vineyard and the 
 wine-press* 
 
 ** We have no wine-press/' she said* " That is 
 the trouble* We have to go to Symmachos ; he 
 has a wine-press* We have to bring the grapes 
 to him and take the wine which he gives us* He 
 can give us what he likes* We can keep it better 
 than he, for we have the old tomb* He some- 
 times gives us his to keep*" 
 
 Alcmaeon desired to see the butts* She showed 
 him the entrance, but refused to follow him* 
 
 " Not down there ; not down there," she said, 
 with a look of fear* Was she afraid of the dead 
 in the lofty chamber dimly lighted from the top ? 
 
 Alcmaeon, who had no purpose in the explora- 
 tion, returned soon* He found her seated on the 
 wall of the approach to the tomb, her hair fallen 
 over her cheeks* He could not help saying : 
 " Are you sad ? " with that honest simplicity of 
 boyhood which breaks down the barriers of reserve* 
 
 c 33 
 
ALCMAEON * 
 
 " Father died before the war/' she said* " My 
 brother cannot fend for us as he did* The vine- 
 yard runs wild ; and it used to be the best* We 
 are in the hands of Symmachos, who wants it and 
 us* The queen was persuaded to leave us another 
 year ; but the year is past, and things are no 
 better* She will give it to Symmachos now for 
 all my mother can say ; and what shall I do ? n 
 
 She began to cry ; and Alcmaeon put his arms 
 around her to comfort her ; but she sprang like 
 a frightened deer away from him and ran into the 
 house* 
 
 Eriphyle was calling from the wagon* Alcmaeon 
 mounted it and took the reins* 
 
 " Those people are fools/' said she* " Gnathon 
 is not like his father* Symmachos had better 
 manage for them* I have told them so* and 
 that they must leave, if they will not have him* 
 The land runs to waste*" 
 
 Alcmaeon would not speak* Inwardly he re- 
 solved to come again alone to enquire further* 
 Eriphyle continued : 
 
 " I suppose that you liked Chryso and that she 
 has fooled you*" 
 
 He had been seen, then, from the cottage* He 
 bridled but answered nothing* 
 
 IX 
 
 The cottage was far from Argos ; but Alcmaeon 
 crept forth one morning early and on his pony 
 
 34 
 
ALCMAEON * 
 
 accomplished the journey by noon* He felt that 
 first flush of gallantry which brings beauty to 
 every countryside, and was sure of his welcome* 
 Then he must see Symmachos and understand 
 the matter beyond a peradventure* But at the 
 cottage he met a rebuff* The surly son would 
 not admit him* 
 
 " Not though you are prince of Argos shall 
 you meddle with my sister* I know the reason 
 of your coming*" 
 
 Of what use to see Symmachos ? The boy 
 returned weary* leading a weary pony* 
 
 Now he must do what he would not ; there was 
 no other way* 
 
 He spoke to his mother* 
 
 She would not listen* 
 
 " Of course you care for the girl* It is natural 
 at your age*" 
 
 Shortly news came that Symmachos was dead. 
 Thereupon the truth became known to all* For 
 long he had been seeking possession of Chryso, 
 and had threatened to drive out the family* if 
 she would not yield* He had lured her once into 
 the tomb* but she had escaped* After the queen's 
 visit the mother had consented* and Symmachos, 
 emboldened, had tried force ; but the sullen and 
 suspicious brother, on the watch, had clubbed 
 hinu 
 
 The memory of this sank deep into Alcmaeon's 
 mind as if it had been due to some failure of his 
 own* 
 
 35 
 
ALCMAEON * 
 
 X 
 
 His accession brought him fuller knowledge of 
 his kingdom* He seemed to have lived in a dark 
 hut before and now to have thrust out his arms 
 and struck its walls down* He would not take 
 his mother when he made a progress, lest people 
 should not speak to him freely* They feared him 
 even alone* His build was the commanding build 
 of Talaos,whom they remembered, his port majestic 
 like his mothers, the lines of his face stern, and 
 his eyes piercing save when they melted to a 
 liquid softness never seen even in the eyes of 
 Polynices* 
 
 He found confirmation of his anxieties, con- 
 firmation so abundant that he returned from his 
 journeys sick at heart* Everywhere men like 
 Symmachos held possession of the people* Them- 
 selves escaping the levies, and covering over the 
 matter with false returns, they had pleased the 
 queen with gifts* They had then lent of their 
 store to the people, who, unable to repay till 
 harvest and often not then, became their bonds- 
 men* Their exactions nearly exceeded the sup- 
 plies ; and little was left even to those who tilled 
 the richest land* 
 
 Alcmaeon visited Cruni, a poor hamlet under 
 the Heraeum* A boy looked up from the gutter 
 where he was playing* He was squint-eyed ; and 
 there was a sore on his eyebrow* Old women 
 
 3 6 ' 
 
ALCMAEON *> 
 
 stopped his horse with an appeal for abatement of 
 dues* Along a wall sheltered from the wind 
 ragged men were seated in a row endeavouring 
 to get what warmth they could from a winter 
 sum These were too prudent to protest, lest the 
 extortioner should fall on them for more labour, 
 but they rose respectfully and bared the scars which 
 they had received during the war* A girl's eyes 
 seemed to say : 
 
 " You have everything and I nothing/' 
 When the Symmachos of the place had made his 
 report of tributes, false, Alcmaeon was sure, for 
 it contained much from himself, he placed before 
 the king a golden cup as his own free gift* A 
 golden cup from this place where the people 
 could only contrive to live in wretchedness ! 
 Alcmaeon refused it* 
 
 " It is for the queen," was the answer* 
 Alcmaeon took the cup and ascended to the 
 temple* Many followed him, and, when he was 
 within, they murmured, gathering about the 
 door* 
 
 ** What do they say ? H he asked* 
 " They say that you have come to filch from the 
 treasure and that the anger of the goddess will fall 
 upon them*" 
 
 Alcmaeon came to the steps, holding the cup 
 in his hands* 
 
 They fell back ; but one shouted : 
 M We will not have the son of Polynices to 
 reign over us*" 
 
 37 
 
ALCMAEON * 
 
 Alcmaeon's cheeks coloured with the insult; 
 but what must be their misery to dare him ! 
 
 " My people," he said, ** I come to take nothing 
 from you ; there shall be no levy* I take nothing 
 from the goddess, but bring this cup to her* To 
 you I restore the rule of Amphiaraos, my father/' 
 
 XI 
 
 This, then, was the glory of the Talaionids (so 
 he pondered on his homeward journey), this his 
 mother's pride ; her golden vessels and soft 
 raiment were given to her by the poor wretches 
 who bore the wounds of her ambition ; she was 
 a beggar at their doors ; her splendour shrunk to 
 poverty ; her soul shrivelled to their likeness ; 
 she left a track of death and disease on her royal 
 way* 
 
 At the door of the palace he passed a young 
 man leaving it whose face was unknown to him. 
 It would never have occurred to him before to 
 enquire the name of a stranger save from his 
 mother, but now he hesitated in the doorway 
 after the formal salute* The young man, in 
 answer to his look, explained that he was Bycelos, 
 the son of Symmachos* 
 
 ** I came to thank the queen* She has done 
 me justice and confirmed me in the possession of 
 the vineyards*" 
 
 38 
 
ALCMAEON * 
 
 " Do Gnathon and Chryso remain in their 
 cottage ? " 
 
 99 Gnathon ? Do you not know ? I revenged 
 my father's death on him/' 
 
 " He is dead ? " 
 
 94 He is dead, my lord/' 
 
 For the moment Alcmaeon could not grasp the 
 fact* He seemed still to see the puszle-headed boy 
 alive on the threshold of his hut, rough-spoken, 
 violent, unable to defend his sister save in the 
 simplest way. In confusion he bowed and passed 
 into his mother's chamber* 
 
 She was lifting the folds of a costly silk, blue 
 with a fine border of gold, such as used to delight 
 him in his innocence* 
 
 " It is the gift of Bycelos," he said* 
 
 94 Yes," she replied, looking up in surprise at his 
 sharp certainty* 
 
 94 To atone for bloodshed*" 
 
 Her eyes flashed with anger* 
 
 " He avenged his father. I hope that you would 
 have done the same." This with a trace of scorn, 
 as if Alcmaeon might not be man enough* 
 
 94 And Chryso ? " 
 
 " I do not know what has happened to her. 
 It is your affair*" 
 
 Alcmaeon left the room* 
 
 His pony could bear no more* He made his 
 way through the night on a slow mule — not too 
 slow, since he must not arrive before morning. 
 The country was dangerous, for darkness unleashed 
 
 39 
 
ALCMAEON * 
 
 all secret purposes over the land ; but others had 
 more to fear than he* Figures of men became 
 silent, as he approached, or hid by the wayside* 
 Outside the villages there were whispers and loose 
 garments fluttering by the walL 
 
 At dawn he reached the vineyards* 
 
 Women were carrying their tall two-handled 
 water-vessels on their heads to the town well to 
 fetch water for the day. The shutters of the 
 cottage were closed* He waited for them to 
 open* Standing there, he saw Chryso coming 
 from the well* Her steps were directed to the 
 neighbouring house* Alcmaeon barred her way* 
 
 M Do you live there ? With Bycelos ? " 
 
 ** I had to* There was no other place for me 
 without Gnathon*" 
 
 Alcmaeon understood* 
 
 M Will you forgive us ? H he said* 
 
 " It is not you* I knew that it was never you* 
 It was — it was she, the queen*" 
 
 Alcmaeon did not speak to his mother of the 
 lot of Chryso* She might not care (had she not 
 endured the like ?) and, if she did care, naught 
 could be done by her that could not now be 
 done by himself* He disliked to speak to her — 
 to confide his own thoughts to her on any 
 matter* It irked him that he must consult her 
 so much on affairs of state ; but she only could 
 persuade Adrastos ; and, if he were not persuaded 
 to Alcmaeon's opinion, Alcmaeon must yield to 
 his ; for, without such concessions, division would, 
 
ALCMAEON * 
 
 in the end, become rupture and civil strife* If 
 Eriphyle were in disagreement with Alcmaeon, 
 she could counter him as effectually as if she were 
 possessed of power of arbitrament between him 
 and Adrastos* It distressed him to come to her, 
 — that he could not otherwise govern the city; 
 for he must hide his mind when it was not hers, 
 watching her when she helped him, mistrustful 
 when she trusted him. To her stateliness all 
 questions were affairs of state ; to him they were 
 not* Yet she had been versed in them from 
 youth ; she was waywise ; and often, instead of 
 asking her to persuade Adrastos, he was persuaded 
 by her judgment* 
 
 XII 
 
 The second attack on Thebes was to take place 
 when Thersandros, the son of Polynices, should 
 reach his eighteenth year, the age at which he 
 could claim his kingdom against Laodamas, the 
 son of Eteocles* In Thersandros the sense of 
 wrong which had graced the dark eyes of Poly- 
 nices showed as a sullen hostility and rancour* 
 Reverence for his father became a blind deter- 
 mination and intolerance of opposition* The 
 second attack should be made whatever the 
 auguries* The augurs had prophesied truly con- 
 cerning the failure of the first, but had they not 
 controlled the event ? Was not Amphiaraos a 
 cousin of the Theban prophet, Tiresias ? Was 
 
 4* 
 
ALCMAEON ft 
 
 he not a servant of the Theban god, Dionysos ? 
 Perhaps he had communicated with the enemy, 
 using the birds for his messengers ; had he not 
 fled unwounded before Periclymenos and so given 
 the signal of flight to the host ? And, if his 
 prophecy had been fulfilled, was it not by chance ? 
 Argos had failed ; it was the fortune of war ; but 
 had Amphiaraos really foreseen the event ? and 
 were we now to be led by his son ? was the cloudy 
 lore of a dreamy stripling to prevail ? was he, by 
 the arguments of quivering entrails and the 
 strange cries of wildfowl, to override the just 
 judgment of men concerning favourable times 
 and seasons, to hamstring their vigour and to 
 rule the state ? did justice count for naught with 
 Zeus, or the blood of Argeia with Argives ? 
 
 Thersandros was seconded by Eriphyle, to whom 
 the defeat of her husband and of her brother was 
 an intolerable insult and their flight a shame to 
 be removed only by victory* Adrastos was bound 
 thereby to the sons of the Seven in vengeance* 
 Alcmaeon was expected to espouse their cause* 
 He began to hate the clamant youth* 
 
 On a sad afternoon of autumn, warm but cloudy, 
 he came across Aegialeus and Thersandros in 
 rapid conversation, Aegialeus with his arm on the 
 neck of Thersandros* He did not hear what 
 they were saying ; but the sight made him angry* 
 With the authority of an elder he separated them 
 and took Aegialeus with him, Thersandros darting 
 a sharp glance at their backs* Thereafter Aegialeus 
 
 43 
 
ALCMAEON * 
 
 broke with Thersandros and accompanied 
 Alcmaeon wherever he went, eating with cottagers 
 and deserting his fellows for the common people. 
 Thus he became acquainted with them and with 
 their needs according to the desire of Alcmaeon, 
 but also thereby the leadership of both was in- 
 creased : if they went to war, the people would 
 follow; if not, they would not follow Adrastos, 
 but would rise against him* 
 
 Aegialeus was a quiet lad, not eager, not martial, 
 almost submissive ; yet in his few words there 
 lurked assurance of claims not asserted but as- 
 sumed, as if with royal blood he had inherited a 
 right judgment* Alcmaeon, to whom he listened, 
 listened yet more to him, finding in his boyish 
 sayings proofs of natural wisdom and prudence* 
 Was it fancy or was it truth that the elements of 
 the last decision lay in the soul of this lad ? The 
 following years vouched for its truth. Into that 
 mind were cast, as into a balance, all such facts 
 and knowledge, human and divine, as lay to hand ; 
 and quietly his thought marked the right values. 
 This quietness was wonderful in Alcmaeon's eyes. 
 He loved Aegialeus as better than himself because 
 free from the restlessness of speculation or of 
 action, and as having his stay and centre in him- 
 self. He enfolded the boy with passionate yearn- 
 ing. Should he accomplish nothing in his own 
 life, he would yet have seen that wise and be- 
 nignant sanity; and could he accomplish aught 
 for Aegialeus, it were much, though he still looked 
 
 43 
 
ALCMAEON * 
 
 beyond — to heights and ventures unknown* In 
 truth Aegialeus did well to listen to Alcmaeon, who 
 was superior, not only in years, but in stretch and 
 sweep of ambition, a high-flying falcon, breasting 
 all the gusts of air, though happiest when called 
 home* 
 
 XIII 
 
 Sometimes the two friends would don the dress 
 of peasants and sit unknown in the corners of inns 
 or under a tree where the villagers assembled to 
 make merry, hearing much that would not have 
 been told to them in their proper persons* 
 
 Talaos had been hated for his relentless exac- 
 tions, Amphiaraos loved for his expulsion of Talaos* 
 If only he had retained control ! The return of 
 Adrastos had been unwelcome ; the queen was 
 an evil genius propitiated by the gifts of those 
 who, to secure them, despoiled the people ; 
 the disastrous war had been her doing ; she had 
 been warned by her husband, but she cared no 
 more for him than for the poor ; a goat-herd had 
 tracked her to a rock in the mountains, where she 
 had discovered Amphiaraos and brought him to 
 his death ; she had not sorrowed for him nor con- 
 tinued long in mourning, but soon appeared in 
 splendour, wearing the necklace that glowed in 
 the dark, booty perhaps obtained by sacrilege 
 from some Boeotian temple* Some said that it 
 
 44 
 
ALCMAEON * 
 
 was the necklace which Harmonia had worn on 
 her wedding-day and that Polynices had given it 
 to the queen as the price of her husband's blood* 
 Proudly she disregarded all blame as she had 
 disregarded all forecasts ; she would sacrifice all 
 men to the victory of her house ; it was strange 
 that Aegialeus was alive, for had she not a son, 
 Alcmaeon ? He was a noble youth, but likely 
 to be led by his mother as Aegialeus by his father ; 
 and the father was led by the queen. Without 
 her the two princes would have protected the 
 land ; for the king alone could not have resisted 
 them. 
 
 The two lads listened with open ears ; but 
 Alcmaeon with deeper understanding, for memories 
 came back to him, his visit to the rock, the loop 
 of light passing along the corridor, his father's 
 command ; and these memories fell in with the 
 suspicions of the people. He had not put these 
 things together before. His mother's pride, the 
 necklace, had been only part of her customary 
 grandeur, part of his pride in her, that she was 
 not as common women, but ever stately in dress 
 as in all else, in her regal manner, in her unfailing 
 calm. Now all combined in one accusation ; but 
 he would not admit it to himself, and Aegialeus 
 said nothing. 
 
 They had wandered far. Yet Alcmaeon pro- 
 posed that they should climb to the Pontine 
 castle of Demophon overlooking Lerna, Aegialeus 
 was surprised. He had heard much of this cousin 
 
 45 
 
ALCMAEON * 
 
 as a moody lord visited by few, but had seen him 
 little in Argos* 
 
 M Are you afraid to appear at his house in these 
 clothes ? " said Alcmaeon* 
 
 " He will receive me/' said Aegialeus* 
 
 The tone and the mention of himself only 
 were characteristic of the quiet, solitary dignity 
 of the boy* Alcmaeon answered : 
 
 ** Perhaps he will receive me too/' 
 
 XIV 
 
 They led their horses up the steep, and, passing 
 through the megaron, found Demophon on a 
 small terrace, which overlooked the vale* Demo- 
 phon, sad and independent since the death of his 
 father, Hippomedon, at Thebes, felt the com- 
 pliment of the visit of the princes and pleasure 
 in the sight of two strong lads, his kinsmen, fresh- 
 hearted and open-minded, likely perhaps to be 
 his helpers in the restoration of Argos sorely tried 
 by the war* Alcmaeon had not come without a 
 purpose* He knew that Hippomedon had sided 
 with Amphiaraos and that the son of Hippomedon, 
 who showed himself so rarely in the neighbour- 
 hood of Adrastos, had inherited the difference* 
 He would have heard much of the beginning of 
 hostilities, and, caring nought for the palace 
 tradition, so jealously guarded by Eriphyle, might 
 
 46 
 
ALCMAEON * 
 
 speak his mind as freely as the people, but with 
 more justice* 
 
 Demophon related the story ♦ His father had 
 numbered himself with the Seven for loyalty's 
 sake, but without hope. He would not be counted 
 with Agamemnon and Menelaos, those clever 
 dastards, who foresaw the end and that they had 
 nothing to gain, 
 
 " My father went because Amphiaraos went, 
 and, like Amphiaraos, he blamed — but I must not 
 speak thus to you/' he broke off, 
 
 M Speak," said Alcmaeon, " He blamed my 
 mother for the war," 
 
 " Yes," said Demophon, " She had the power 
 of arbitrament," 
 
 " But how could she have power against my 
 father and my uncle ? " said Aegialeus, " A 
 woman's will should not hold against two kings," 
 
 44 Your father," replied Demophon, M desired 
 the war, or else he was decided by the queen, 
 according to his habit. She had the power of 
 arbitrament between her brother and her hus- 
 band because Amphiaraos gave it to her when she 
 returned to him from Aegialeia," 
 
 44 I have heard this," said Alcmaeon, " but why 
 was it given ? " 
 
 44 You see the castle of those mad people across 
 the bay, for Melampus cured only the great- 
 aunts ; there is madness in the blood ; Capaneus 
 was mad ; they are all mad ; by the water the 
 castie of Nauplios, who can close the harbour and 
 
 47 
 
ALCMAEON % 
 
 shut us off from the sea ; over yonder the tower 
 of the refugees from Pisa, held by the cowardly 
 schemers who would not join the Seven* That 
 family succeeds by marriage* So Pelops began ; 
 so his sons got Mycenae* sending out Eurystheus 
 to fight and retaining the kingdom* You will see 
 — one of them will be a suitor for Helen of Sparta* 
 They threaten the approach from Isthmos* 
 Adrastos had grown strong in Aegialeia, and* if he 
 advanced* could have raised all these chiefs of 
 Argolis against your city, except my father* 
 Amphiaraos asked him for counsel ; and he told 
 me what passed* He found your father oldened* 
 His auguries had weakened his desires* My father 
 said that he spoke of the tomb of Proetos and 
 Acrisios down there in the plain* how those 
 brothers had quarrelled from the womb* though 
 only to possess the same little plot of ground in 
 death* I thought of it when I heard how the 
 smoke from the pyre of Eteocles and Polynices 
 parted and went up to heaven in two columns* 
 So it has ever been in this land* I live here and 
 mix with no one ; and my people are content*" 
 
 He paused and forgot his hearers* leaning on his 
 elbows and gazing over the gulf* 
 
 44 But this strange agreement/' said Alcmaeon* 
 44 Your father had no quarrel with Adrastos* 
 He had always loved your mother* She offered 
 to blot out the memory of her father's death and 
 to seal the peace with the gift of herself* if only, 
 when the kings should be divided in counsel, the 
 
 48 
 
ALCMAEON * 
 
 voice of the dead might speak through her* 
 You know that she has ever thought herself the 
 only proper child of Talaos ; and, if my father was 
 right, she is* He counselled the pact, knowing 
 our neighbours and the danger ♦ Your father, I 
 suppose, trusted Eriphyle*" 
 
 " He was wrong/' said Aegialeus after they had 
 left the castle* And Alcmaeon did not defend 
 his mother* 
 
 XV 
 
 He found her for the first time disquieted* 
 Some bad news must have reached her* She was 
 fretful, and welcomed him with a tenderness to 
 which he was not accustomed ; for, since he had 
 become a man and destined commander of the 
 host, it had pleased her to treat him with distant 
 reverence even when advising him* She no 
 longer enquired of his doings ; his absences she 
 attributed to pleasures of youth, his reserve to 
 preoccupations of state ; she liked an impatient 
 authority which he sometimes exercised, and did 
 not discern therein the revolt of his mind* Men 
 should be thus ; her father had been thus, and 
 Amphiaraos had not been thus* She had dreaded 
 her husband's gravity ; she trusted her son's 
 spirit* To him, now the head of the family, all 
 matters to which he would listen should be 
 brought, and to him only could she confide what 
 d 49 
 
ALCMAEON * 
 
 troubled her, — troubled her so much that she 
 could not keep it to herself ♦ She did not know 
 his mood and the thoughts which preoccupied 
 him. In the twilight she had not seen his face, 
 the face of a watchman peering through gloom 
 for an enemy ♦ She unburdened herself without 
 a suspicion of discord ; she let slip over him the 
 confusion of her vexations* Alcmaeon had but 
 to listen and to disentangle the mesh* At first 
 she spoke of what had passed in his absence, of 
 quarrels between the chiefs, of the weakness of 
 Adrastos, of delayed orders, contrary and in- 
 effectual determinations* Then she broke out* 
 
 Would this never come to an end ? Adrastos 
 had lost all power of decision, all authority, all 
 control* For this she had sacrificed herself : that 
 the kingdom of her father should pass into her 
 brother's hands ; for this she had married : that 
 brother and husband might flee from the Thebans* 
 Yet, since the thunderbolt of Zeus, which had 
 struck Capaneus headlong from the wall of 
 Thebes, had scattered a divine panic in all hearts, 
 the Argives would still have been ruled by the 
 only king left to them, if he could rule* This 
 had been his opportunity ; but he was feeble ; 
 there was no hope* If only the crown were to 
 pass at his death to Alcmaeon ! but it would be- 
 long equally to that puny Aegialeus, who, with his 
 ridiculous mock majesty, was no better than his 
 father* And now, as if Aegialeus were not enough, 
 a second son had that day been born to Adrastos* 
 
 50 
 
ALCMAEON * 
 
 Alcmaeon would serve others, or be thwarted by 
 others, all the days of his life* It was better when 
 she could hope that either he or Aegialeus would 
 die before Thebes, for the augurs had said that 
 one of the seven chiefs would die* Then her son 
 would be sole king, or, at least, would not have 
 lived to be coupled with Aegialeus* But now there 
 was a second bar to the monarchy, the new-born 
 Cyanippos* She had struggled her life long for 
 the descent of Talaos, had given up all that a 
 woman could desire to reinstate his blood* She 
 had been wrong* There was none in his family 
 to take his place ; there was none, and there 
 would be none, fit to succeed him* " We who 
 are older consider these things royally, not to 
 whom they happen* You are my son, but not 
 for that would I see you king* I have failed in 
 my brother ; I might have succeeded in you ; 
 but now you must abase yourself either before 
 Aegialeus or the babe* Would that I had never 
 borne you to see you thus set aside ! I fear the 
 sons of Atreus ; I fear Demophon and Nauplios. 
 My husband surrendered to my brother* Who 
 knows to whom Argos will be surrendered by my 
 brother's children ? 
 
 And now this war* You are to be made com- 
 mander in a few days, if you will* You are to toil 
 for three years till the attack shall be ready* 
 Then you are perhaps to die that Thersandros 
 may reign at Thebes and Aegialeus and Cyanippos 
 here* You are dispossessed in advance* Refuse 
 
 5i 
 
ALCMAEON * 
 
 the command ♦ We strive to no purpose* We 
 are not acknowledged , All that I have done for 
 this people has earned me only hate* Men are 
 weaker than women/' 
 
 Alcmaeon listened ; and his thoughts were 
 tossed from side to side, as pebbles in a torrent, 
 by her words and by the words of Demophon, by 
 her foiled ambition, by his peace and despair* 
 
 XVI 
 
 One thing was clear. He must see Amphilochos. 
 She had said that one of the chiefs was to fall 
 before Thebes. Could it be Aegialeus ? 
 
 He climbed the stony hill beyond the last 
 cottages. As he approached the temple, its light 
 was extinguished. Amphilochos was closing the 
 door. He said that he had given the prediction 
 to Adrastos. If the attack were made, one of the 
 chiefs would fall before Thebes ; he knew not 
 which, save that it was not to be Alcmaeon ; 
 victory was assured, if Alcmaeon should lead ; 
 otherwise all was uncertain ; " but," he added, 
 " I told him nothing of yourself, not that your 
 life was safe, not that victory was in your hands. 
 These truths are for yourself or for those to whom 
 you may impart them, that you may be master. 
 This command I received in the rock under 
 witness of the dead whom Zeus loveth." 
 
 52 
 
ALCMAEON * 
 
 XVII 
 
 Alcmaeon returned to his room to ponder ♦ 
 
 That he might be master : this was his fathers 
 message ; this was his mother's desire ; but there 
 was a world between them* 
 
 His mother centred her hope in him ; she 
 believed in him ; she confided in him* He had 
 doubted this of late ; Thersandros was so much 
 about her* He had taken Alcmaeon's place, 
 doing the many services which Alcmaeon in his 
 youth had performed with joy and devotion ; 
 the son could hardly be alone with his mother ; 
 he found himself forestalled, welcomed against 
 his will by two* He had not been wholly dis- 
 pleased, dreading his own confidences, the words 
 which might have escaped his lips, the thoughts 
 which his mother should not know; if Ther- 
 sandros was before him, he had an excuse for re- 
 tirement after he had listened for a while, saying 
 little* But he was jealous of the influence of 
 Thersandros* As he suspected the mind of Eri- 
 phyle in the speech of Adrastos, so he suspected 
 the mind of Thersandros in the speech of Eriphyle* 
 The youth was such as she loved* Of what use 
 to deliberate for the best, if he was to be met 
 by this forward, insistent, unbridled will ? 
 
 Yet now she was ready to desert Thersandros 
 for her son* This ambitious mother abandoned 
 all for which she had lived, unless it should make 
 him great* But what was the drift of her thought ? 
 
 53 
 
ALCMAEON * 
 
 that, if the whole family of her brother were to 
 perish, it were no loss; that the loss would be 
 great to Argos if her son were not sole king, as 
 he could not be without the death of all ; this 
 was the royal road to which the dead hand of 
 Talaos pointed* Aegialeus lay across her path ; 
 his death would not matter save as a lucky chance 
 in the game which she played with Fate* The 
 birth of Cyanippos loaded the dice against her* 
 This was her thought ; this was what she had 
 said* Hence her solicitude for her son, really 
 only a solicitude for his victory* If she had 
 known that he was to conquer in the fight, she 
 would not have dissuaded him from the enter- 
 prise, but would have been dazzled by the 
 prospect ; it was well that she did not know, for 
 behind that victory lay uncertainty and terror. 
 If he took his place at the head of the army, his 
 father's call to him could not be evaded* He 
 must then learn at Oropos of that other vengeance ; 
 against whom but his mother could his father 
 exact vengeance ? She had sent him to his grave. 
 Why ? to requite him for her father's death ? 
 But then the reconciliation was hypocrisy, her 
 marriage a deceit* No ; she could not have 
 lived thus* That Talaos might triumph in his 
 seed she had pardoned the death of Talaos* The 
 glory of the race — this was all to her ; persons 
 were nothing ; she had said it* 
 
 Peace was still possible, and with peace there 
 was no call from his father; why else was the 
 
 54 
 
ALCMAEON * 
 
 call delayed but that he might rule Argos with 
 clean hands ? Peace was the only remedy ; and 
 now she desired it* If she had not, Alcmaeon 
 knew that the decision lay with him, that he was 
 master, that the greater part of the people would 
 rise at his word, against Thebes or against Adrastos* 
 And his father was with him, not as his mother, 
 urgent or dissuasive, but confident in his own seed, 
 in the nature which was not that of Talaos, re- 
 signing mastery to his son* u This command I 
 received in the rock under witness of the dead 
 whom Zeus loveth." 
 
 XVIII 
 
 There were steps in the passage* Some one 
 was entering his mother's room* He could hear 
 conversation, excited conversation, but could not 
 make out the words nor the voice of the visitor ; 
 it was lower than that of Thersandros* Then 
 the steps came down the corridor* Alcmaeon 
 would have opened the door ; but the moon- 
 light fell on it and would show only himself, if 
 he opened it ; moreover, the latch would click. 
 He went to the window, hiding himself in the 
 shade of the shutter* The street was still ; but 
 a figure moved in the darkness under the opposite 
 houses* Was it Thersandros ? The voice might 
 have been the voice of Thersandros — hushed* 
 If it were Thersandros, there would be no reason 
 for suspicion ; he came often at that time ; but 
 
 55 
 
ALCMAEON * 
 
 the thought that it might not be Thersandros 
 let loose a flood of suspicions, and these fell on 
 Thersandros, for, if it was he, he had trodden 
 lightly, he had spoken low* It could be no other ; 
 for who else would come at that hour ? Why 
 had he come ? To persuade Eriphyle ? for he 
 would have known her change of mind ; he knew 
 more of her mind than Alcmaeon* What plot 
 was in hand ? What danger was to be divined ? 
 Alcmaeon longed for the counsel of Aegialeus, 
 but feared to be heard opening the door and 
 crossing the passage ; and conversation might be 
 heard* If there was a plot, he must not give 
 notice that he suspected it* Reluctantly he 
 threw off his clothes and laid himself in his bed ; 
 but he could not sleep* An hour passed* He 
 rose impatient, not knowing what to do, without 
 a purpose ; but his hand wandered to the latch. 
 Slowly — slowly, that there might be no sound, 
 he lifted it. Yes ; it was clear ; the door opened 
 in silence* He crept to the bedside of Aegialeus* 
 He was asleep, his hand out of the coverlet and 
 curling over* There was nothing to do ; he must 
 not be wakened ; let him take counsel of sleep 
 before he gave it* Alcmaeon watched the lad's 
 face, no quieter in sleep than in waking* Ah, if 
 only the auguries had predicted his own death I 
 For this youth he would have died willingly and 
 triumphed in the thought that he should rule 
 Argos ; but to live himself, if Aegialeus should 
 di^ I that Aegialeus should die to establish Ther- 
 
 56 
 
ALCMAEON * 
 
 sandros ! Better a thousand times that Polynices 
 should lie by the Theban gate unavenged 1 Why 
 had he ever come, bringing only disaster to Argos ? 
 Alcmaeon's mind went back to that night* From 
 this room he had heard his voice as he was sitting 
 by Aegialeus* He had crept down the passage 
 and had been frightened by the scalp of the lion* 
 He retraced the story ; he remembered the lion- 
 man passing the door, the light from the necklace* 
 This night another had' passed, perhaps his son, 
 but the door was closed — the door was closed — 
 Alcmaeon could see nothing — it was dark 
 
 When Aegialeus awoke, he was sleeping in the 
 chair ; his lids were heavy ; he looked old ; he 
 stretched himself, wakened by the involuntary 
 exclamation of surprise from the bed* 
 
 The two spoke to one another* Alcmaeon 
 related all* 
 
 It was Thersandros, Aegialeus said ; of course 
 it was Thersandros ; it was his hour ; but why 
 imagine a meaning in his visit ? or in Eriphyle's 
 change of mind ? It was a fit of temper, feminine ; 
 she v/ould never abandon the war of revenge* 
 
 He judged aright, for, when Alcmaeon saw her 
 again, she besought him to disregard all that she 
 had said* 
 
 M Glory and dominion will be ours* They are 
 ours already, if I could tell you* Go forth, my 
 son, to conquer ♦" 
 
 Yet Amphilochos had not spoken to her* With 
 him that morning the two friends took counsel* 
 
 57 
 
ALCMAEON * 
 
 A message had come from Adrastos, who, nothing 
 doubting, only said that Alcmaeon was to take 
 command on the morrow* Alcmaeon could have 
 delayed, but to what purpose, unless he was to 
 decline ? 
 
 Aegialeus was clear and firm* The enterprise 
 could not be given up without civil strife* They 
 must choose between war against Thebes and war 
 in Argos* 
 
 94 If you command us, we shall win* If not, 
 Adrastos will prepare to lead the host without 
 you* Your followers will rebel* We shall turn 
 on each other, divided into two camps, headed 
 by two kings* You and my father will fight, as 
 your father with Talaos* You will lead the people, 
 he the chiefs with their forces* Our neighbours 
 will seize the chance of alliance with one or other, 
 hoping to dispossess both* Who knows what will 
 befall us ? After victory over Thebes, they will 
 not dare* Argos will be safe* This is certainty ; 
 all else is uncertain*" 
 
 Alcmaeon knew that, with a word about his 
 father's call to Oropus, he could have shaken 
 Aegialeus, now strong in the confidence that his 
 friend would live to rule Argos ; had he foreseen 
 what Alcmaeon feared — had he known the com- 
 mand given by Amphiaraos, he might have wavered* 
 The word was not spoken* Alcmaeon would not 
 bring forebodings of his own danger to bear on 
 the decision* He only begged Aegialeus not to 
 come with him, if he should go* 
 
 58 
 
ALCMAEON * 
 
 " Where should I be, if not with my people ? " 
 answered Aegialeus* 
 
 Amphilochos frowned* Alcmaeon turned to 
 him as to a last refuge* 
 
 The young priest sat with his hands crossed on 
 his lap, imperturbable, sad* 
 
 11 I know nothing/' he said, M but what I have 
 told you — save this : that there is a curse upon 
 our house and that expiation must be made for 
 sin*" 
 
 On the morrow Alcmaeon rode forth to the 
 running-ground in full panoply and took command* 
 
 XIX 
 
 Morning broke over the conquered city of 
 Thebes* Laodamas lay dead, pierced by the 
 sword-thrust of Alcmaeon, the first to enter the 
 walls ; but the conquest brought him only grief : 
 no victory could atone for the death of Aegialeus, 
 slain by Laodamas* The Theban pyres were 
 lighted ; the feast of the victors was being made 
 ready* Alcmaeon would not await it, but went 
 forth with a bodyguard* At parting he begged 
 Adrastos not to bury Aegialeus in the realm of 
 Thersandros, and to meet him at Megara, whither 
 he would come from Oropus* 
 
 At the gate of the precinct he left his men* His 
 name was not announced ; yet the priests fell aside 
 in two ranks as for a bidden guest* The chief 
 
 59 
 
ALCMAEON * 
 
 augur administered the lustrations in silence, 
 sacrificed the ram, and spread its fleece for a bed ; 
 then he departed* 
 
 Alone in the darkness Alcmaeon sobbed for 
 Aegialeus and for fear of the father whom he had 
 never loved and who was now to pronounce 
 sentence over him* He lay as in death ; was not 
 his life ended, all that could be called life ? 
 
 At midnight a figure arose from a well in the 
 courtyard, mounted the steps of the temple and 
 passed through the unopened door* It stood 
 beside Alcmaeon and spoke to him* 
 
 44 My son " (he remembered the voice from 
 far-off years ; and slowly and clearly words which 
 he should never forget followed one another), 
 " she sent me to my death for a bribe ; for a bribe 
 she sent thee forth, not knowing that I should 
 preserve thee unto her own death ; she will slay 
 the child, if thou suffer her to live — for the robe 
 of dominion and the jewels of glory, the gifts of 
 the stranger and of his son* In her the evil seed 
 of Talaos is perfect* Thou knowest thy task*" 
 
 Alcmaeon strove in speechless agony to plead 
 with the shade standing over him* His tongue 
 was tied* 
 
 " Condemn me not, my father " — this was all 
 that he could utter* 
 
 The voice spoke again : 
 
 44 Thou shalt find no rest save where the sun 
 hath never shone, but among the dead shalt thou 
 have honour*" 
 
 60 
 
ALCMAEON * 
 
 The dead man was gone* Alcmaeon lay in a 
 swoon* 
 
 XX 
 
 A stern rider on horseback rode at dawn over 
 the hills into Attica* His men dared not speak 
 to him* He halted ; and then they halted with- 
 out command ; when he rode on* they rode on* 
 They passed like a funeral procession through the 
 pines of Deceleia* across the plain* avoiding the 
 citadel of Cecrops* then by the pools and Eleusis 
 along the bay* The mountains lay in the sun ; 
 and the straits below them were like a burnished 
 shield ; but Alcmaeon looked straight onward* 
 riding to his fate* At the third nightfall they 
 neared Megara. Outside the walls there was a 
 glare of fire* the burning of the body of Adrastos, 
 dead of grief* 
 
 Then* seeing the host and that there was none 
 but himself* Alcmaeon spoke* but only to give 
 orders* quiet* brief* peremptory. 
 
 So it had happened. His mother's wish had 
 been fulfilled* Naught could threaten his rule, 
 save* after many years* Cyanippos* The wedding 
 glory of Harmonia had brought this power to 
 her house ; he could see it in the eyes of all* 
 
 He possessed the kingdom and could give it to 
 whom he would* to Cyanippos or to a son of his 
 own* He could command the nobles and the 
 
 61 
 
ALCMAEON * 
 
 people* Mycenae would not dare to stir, nor 
 Nauplia* Sthenelos and Demophon were his 
 liegemen, Thersandros his vassal* 
 
 But all this was his for one day only, since it had 
 been bought by his ruin ; with his ruin Ther- 
 sandros had bought Thebes ; to Thersandros he 
 had been sold ; for Thersandros Aegialeus had 
 laid down his life ; for Thersandros Adrastos had 
 perished* The arms of Argos, the wealth and 
 strength of Argos had been purchased for a bribe 
 by Thersandros, who now sat in wassail on the 
 Cadmeian height, glorying in the triumph won 
 for him by Argos* The thought enraged Alc- 
 maeon* Of his mother he did not think till the 
 sight in the distance of the city that had once been 
 his home (now he was to be homeless) brought her 
 to mind ; but even then his anger did not turn 
 on her, and his mind concerning her was cold and 
 clear* The days when he had been her child 
 nestling in her warm silks, the days when he had 
 been her proud and trustful son, the days of 
 suspicion and doubt, were now old and forgotten* 
 She was a woman, endeavouring to judge as only 
 a man should judge, deceived as only a woman 
 could be deceived, a blind force, a danger unaware 
 of its end* 
 
 At the gate he dismounted* The soldiers were 
 to be disbanded in the market-place* He left 
 them to Demophon and turned to the palace* 
 He must not see Amphilochos, lest brother should 
 be implicated with brother* There was none 
 
 63 
 
ALCMAEON * 
 
 other to whom he would say farewell. Yes, one. 
 He stole across the court to a sunny room. There 
 in his cradle amid his toys lay Cyanippos, well 
 wrapped about and asleep. One little hand had 
 found its way outward and lay beside his head, 
 curled over, like the hand of Aegialeus. Alcmaeon 
 bent over the child. Here was the only hope. 
 He did not mean to waken him, but his shield 
 clashed against his corslet. The child opened his 
 eyes and crowed with delight. Then in half-shapen 
 sentences he gave Alcmaeon to understand that 
 his nurse would not take him to see the soldiers, 
 but that Alcmaeon must take him at once. 
 
 94 I cannot/' said Alcmaeon. What could he 
 do for the child, now or ever ? 
 
 Eriphyle was not in her room. The curtains 
 were drawn, as she drew them for her toilet ; a 
 vague scent of her garments lingered in the air. 
 Alcmaeon pried about her chamber, setting shame 
 aside, for he must find proof of his father's words, 
 however needless to his own heart. The touch of 
 her dresses was like the touch of her, the blue dress 
 with the golden band. 
 
 An old chest stood at the end of the room. He 
 had never seen it open ; now he sought for the 
 key — on the beam under the eaves where dainties 
 used to be stored for him above his reach — and 
 among her private things : he must not flinch. 
 Then he saw that the key was in the lock. She 
 must have left it there in haste to meet him in the 
 market-place : the army had hardly been an- 
 
 6 3 
 
ALCMAEON * 
 
 nounced when it arrived* Alcmaeon lifted the 
 lid* There was a glimmer of light through some 
 pattern woven in a coarse canvas ; he raised the 
 covering and unfolded the robe for full assurance* 
 The room was flooded with a soft* golden glow* 
 warming the brown rafters, touching to life the 
 colours of the cushions* shining on the armour of 
 Talaos and on the griffins' heads of the brazier; 
 the atmosphere was heady as with sunny wine* 
 but gende, an Elysian glory and peace* For a 
 moment he looked ; then* in fear lest he should 
 be overcome, he folded the garment* laid it 
 away* closed the chest* and retreated to his 
 room* 
 
 He sat by the window in shadow, looking along 
 the street toward the market-place* His soldiers 
 passed him, returning to their homes, speaking of 
 the victory and of himself, the favoured of the 
 gods* Familiar voices smote him, the voices of 
 tried men whom he could trust, who trusted him 
 and now looked upon him and Argos and peace 
 as one thing, an enduring safety* Outside there 
 was plain daylight, none in his heart ; in the room 
 of Aegialeus there would be vacancy and silence* 
 He listened for a sound in the passage, that passage 
 by which Thersandros and Polynices had brought 
 their gifts in the night, the bribes of dominion and 
 glory, the passage down which he had crept to see 
 the fatal boar and lion which had ravaged his 
 home* There had been doubt and perplexity 
 from the time when Parthenopaeos had left him ; 
 
 6 4 
 
ALCMAEON * 
 
 now he saw the plot of his life, simply devised by 
 strangers for their advantage ; he saw their 
 cunning and the failure before them of the loyal 
 and wise. Moments passed long as hours, the 
 last of his life as a whole man, the last in which 
 he could at least face his undoing with a clear 
 mind, the last in this room where his confident 
 youth had been deluded, in this home which was 
 a trap. For him henceforth there was no earthly 
 existence ; his father had taken his soul* 
 
 He heard the step of his mother along the passage, 
 the third of the three, he thought, and the last* 
 She passed into her chamber ♦ He knocked and 
 entered* 
 
 Her proud glance met him* 
 
 u My son, my hero*" 
 
 She placed him where she herself had always 
 sat, and took, instead of her seat, the footstool 
 that had been his* Alcmaeon permitted this ; he 
 had but one thought ; all else had no meaning* 
 She spoke of his victory, of the kingdom that now 
 was his alone, of his spirit and counsel, greater 
 than that of Adrastos and Aegialeus — no word of 
 their death* He sat like a judge, hearing not 
 speaking, admiring this woman, wondering at 
 her steadfastness of purpose, chill, while she 
 worshipped at his feet : 
 
 " Henceforth whatever you do is my act ; 
 wherever you go I follow*" 
 
 His thought travelled swiftly : one proof was 
 wanting. 
 
 E 65 
 
ALCMAEON * 
 
 " It were better/' he said, u that Cyanippos did 
 not live/' 
 
 She looked at him, then rose and stood before 
 him, feeling that this was the supreme moment of 
 her life, that at last she faced a king worthy of the 
 power of life and death* 
 
 " The task is mine/' she answered, " but I 
 needed not your word/' 
 
 Alcmaeon drew his sword and slew her* 
 
 XXI 
 
 Where the torrent of the Aroanios discharges into 
 the river Erymanthos there rises a hill topped by 
 the look-outs and bastions of Phegea, which guard 
 the three valleys and the poor village clinging to 
 the slope betwixt the streams* If you come down 
 the glen of the Aroanios, a long narrow path rises 
 before you, leading to a window in the wall by 
 the north-western gate* Here dwelt the village- 
 chief, Phegeus, an old man, worn by the labour of 
 life-long penury, but now resting on the virtue of 
 his two sons, Pronoos, the shifty, and Agenor, the 
 valiant, bearded rustics with lowering, suspicious 
 eyes, fearful of every chance that might threaten 
 their slender and insecure subsistence* These 
 kept the neighbouring folk from rapine ; with 
 prompt vengeance they chastised thefts of crops 
 and cattle ; the distant pastures and ploughlands 
 were safe* From the hill the villagers descended 
 at morn with their burdened mules in a long line ; 
 
 66 
 
 
ALCMAEON * 
 
 at nightfall they left the fields and toiled up the 
 slope to sup and sleep within the walls* The 
 young chiefs would linger, posting their spies, or 
 themselves lying in ambush for marauders in the 
 night* 
 
 Phegeus had one daughter, Arsinoe, a maiden 
 unlike her brothers, and, as it seemed, above them, 
 faithful in her tasks, but plying them with an 
 absent mind, a girl of few words and no complaints* 
 To her it had never mattered that her father and 
 brothers, whom she served, were not men after 
 her heart ; she had not troubled to think what they 
 might have been ; her place was with them — 
 unless some day the great blessing should come to 
 her, one noble and gentle ; yet she set the thought 
 aside, for her business was not with herself* 
 
 Sitting without the gate she saw a man unknown 
 to her, laden with a pack and climbing the hilL 
 He paused beside her and enquired for the house 
 of Phegeus* By the pious rules of the land hos- 
 pitality must not be denied ; but, while he awaited 
 Phegeus, she watched him from the next room, 
 for her father would trust her eyes and according 
 to her observation either harbour him or dismiss 
 him with the bare necessities. He was a young 
 man, strong and lusty, but wild-eyed, with the 
 bearing of a prince, but the fearsomeness of a 
 caitiff* She passed him on some housewifely 
 pretext to see whether he would speak as other 
 travellers had spoken, familiarly and boldly, some- 
 times with evil in their hearts. 
 
 6 7 
 
ALCMAEON * 
 
 " Come not near me/* he said, "for I may do 
 you harm ; " yet he did not say it to threaten her ; 
 this was plain from his voice* 
 
 She paused* 
 
 " I am not afraid of you/* she answered* 
 
 ** Danger comes to those who are not afraid*" 
 
 " But it becomes men not to fear danger — and 
 women too*" 
 
 44 It becomes all to fear the gods*" 
 
 She wondered what he meant and looked at him 
 steadfastly* 
 
 44 But you are no god." 
 
 44 A poor mortal*" 
 
 44 And you need help and you fear the gods* 
 Why should I be afraid of you ? " 
 
 44 I do indeed need help," he said* and returned 
 her look* She was gentle ; where had he seen 
 such desire to help ? 
 
 An old man entered the room* 
 
 44 My father," she said* 
 
 Alcmaeon made himself known to Phegeus, 
 whose turn it was to fear him, whether as a great 
 prince or as a refugee under curse for a deed of 
 blood* Should he break bread with him ? 
 
 Arsinoe spoke a word* The chieftain led the 
 suppliant to the crude, timber temple, decorated 
 with the skulls of oxen slain in sacrifice, and there 
 purified him, that the house and the village might 
 not be polluted* Alcmaeon saw before him, not 
 the sceptre of Hera, but the flower of Aphrodite* 
 The rite having been performed, he was admitted 
 
 68 
 
ALCMAEON % 
 
 as guest ; and, when the sons of Phegeus returned, 
 they commended their father's action ; for who 
 could avoid slaughter ? Pronoos hoped great 
 things from the guest-friendship thus established, 
 for how should Cyanippos rule Argos ? but he 
 said only that the matter now lay with the gods, 
 who would not recompense their good will with 
 eviL 
 
 Arsinoe thereafter heard the story from Alc- 
 maeon again, with more concerning his mother 
 and his boyhood. To her he could speak ; for 
 she followed his thought, often in silence, some- 
 times with a word which showed that her silence 
 was agreement or with surprise that a wife could 
 be such as Eriphyle — simple words covered with 
 hones ty* 
 
 At first Alcmaeon was manned by the thought 
 of the deed accomplished, the duty done* Then, 
 with peace, the memory became more abhorrent, 
 the action seemed, not his own, but that of some 
 righteous fury, which had possessed him ; with 
 Arsinoe beside him he became himself again, gentle, 
 obedient, as he was in his youth and would ever 
 have been ; not such as in those moments of his 
 life when he had dared — what he dared not 
 remember . To escape the remembrance he stayed 
 by Arsinoe more willingly than he went with her 
 brothers, though with them he lay in the fields 
 and guarded the possessions of the peasants ♦ 
 These, however, eyed him askance ; they knew his 
 crime and feared for themselves* 
 
 69 
 
ALCMAEON A 
 
 After a time Alcmaeon asked Phegeus for the 
 hand of his daughter, mistrustfully, since his fate 
 was that no land should receive him, but hoping 
 in the protection of Aphrodite. Phegeus was 
 doubtful ; the purification might not avail with 
 the goddess nor the goddess against the Alastores 
 predicted by Amphiaraos ; evil might befall the 
 country. Arsinoe entreated him. Her heart was 
 with Alcmaeon, his sad face, his clear eyes. No 
 harm, she said, could come to the house with such 
 a man. Agenor thought otherwise. They had 
 done enough for the stranger and now awaited 
 the judgment of heaven. Pronoos was urgent 
 against the marriage. He knew that Euryalos, 
 the nephew of Adrastos, was ruling Argos as 
 guardian of Cyanippos, and said that the divine 
 anger was already visiting Alcmaeon, — that his 
 mind was troubled and his conduct strange. 
 
 And indeed Alcmaeon misdoubted his own 
 state. Whence was it that at times he saw blood- 
 spots on his hands which Arsinoe could not see ? 
 was he mad or was she covering the truth ? whence 
 this burning and need of water ? He could find 
 peace only by running brooks. The sons of 
 Phegeus would discover him with his hands plunged 
 in the current. 
 
 ** He knows his guilt/' they whispered to one 
 another. "He is possessed ; he does not see us, 
 else he would not betray himself." 
 
 Arsinoe, to whom he would tell all, considered 
 him a sick child : " He needs love ; it was bitter 
 
 70 
 
ALCMAEON * 
 
 to his nature to be made the instrument of his 
 father's wrath/' 
 
 The more he gave reason for suspicion, the more 
 she clove to him. She overbore her father ; and 
 her brothers could not resist the decision of 
 Phegeus. 
 
 XXII 
 
 Now, when a son, Clytios, was born to husband 
 and wife, a drought came upon Phegea ; the earth 
 was parched ; the grass withered ; the cattle were 
 lean ; should this endure, there would be no 
 harvest and no food* With the drought Alcmaeon 
 became worse ; his lips trembled ; he could not 
 form his words ; a fever came upon him ; he was 
 the prey of visions and terrors and spoke terrible 
 things. Arsinoe strove to soothe him, under- 
 standing what he meant and overlooking what he 
 said ; but, love mingling with fever, naught could 
 cool him ; he would escape from her at night to 
 lie in the river-bed at the meeting of the waters, 
 and return in the morning with dank body and 
 dripping hair. Afterward rain fell, but in floods, 
 washing away the planted soil and beating down 
 the vines. On this followed mist day after day ; 
 the scanty ears and grapes that had weathered the 
 storm mouldered in the dampness ; the fruits of 
 the trees were blighted, the nuts rotten in their 
 shells. The people accused Alcmaeon and be- 
 sought Phegeus that he might depart from them. 
 
ALCMAEON * 
 
 With the mist driving in his face Alcmaeon had 
 become himself* His judgment was clear, and 
 it was that of the people* From the beginning* 
 when the sun seemed to stand still in the sky to 
 fix the earth with his darts, he knew himself under 
 watch of heaven, and, when the fever was at its 
 height, straining the chords of his heart and 
 binding him for salvation from himself to Arsinoe, 
 in the tumult of his mind he had yet seen that 
 his was the fault : he had not obeyed his father* 
 Arsinoe had resisted him then ; now she believed 
 him when he said : 
 
 " I am a curse to you and to this land and shall 
 be a curse to my son ; and this is enough ; but 
 you, Arsinoe, are also a curse to me through our 
 love ; for nought that holds me to the warmth of 
 life but is denied me and a sin to seek ; this 
 burning assails me because I cannot quit you, my 
 last tie to earth and home* Perchance a god shall 
 cleanse me in deep waters when I reach the land 
 whereon the sun hath never shone* Till then I 
 am hers who follows me wherever I go, a blanched 
 face and terrible* Release me and save yourself 
 and my son ; for me you cannot save*" 
 
 And Arsinoe, filled with compassion, said to 
 him : 
 
 " Go, for I love you as you are* Seek your soul's 
 health, and blessed be she at whose hands you shall 
 receive it*" 
 
 For she doubted not that only from a woman 
 should healing come to him* 
 
 72 
 
ALCMAEON * 
 
 XXIII 
 
 In those days the father of rivers opened his 
 arms ; and there arose between them a low-lying 
 land, slippery with water-growths* And Alcmaeon 
 believed that either here or only beyond the river 
 of death should he find peace ; for, as Tlepolemos, 
 after bloodshed, had been forgiven in Rhodes 
 new-risen from the great sea, so this waste whereon 
 the sun had never shone might be the gift of the 
 gods to him for a resting-place. He therefore 
 followed Achelous to his fount from the caverns of 
 earth and was washed a second time with divine 
 rites and sped under water to the shingles. There 
 he arose cool and sane ; and the daughter of 
 Achelous came by night from the river-bed, and 
 her embrace was as water around him ; and as 
 water her hair fell on his face. The rushing of 
 water divided him from human homes ; and by 
 day he saw the sun and was not mad nor repented 
 of his deed ; but at twilight he was beset by visions, 
 and his mind was shaken till she came, and his 
 eyesight was dulled, and his ears closed to all save 
 the sound of the river, and he sank into sleep. 
 Of them were born two sons, Amphoteros and 
 Acarnan, for whom she prayed to Zeus, and they 
 grew twice seven years in one night, fresh lads with 
 liquid eyes and rippling hair, but warm with the 
 blood of their father. They were ever on the 
 banks of the river or in the stream, wet and shining, 
 a fair sight, and they slept on the surface of an 
 
 73 
 
ALCMAEON * 
 
 inlet, moored like boats ; but under the surface they 
 could not live, because they were not as the goddess, 
 their mother, but half of earth and half of water ♦ 
 But now Callirhoe said to Alcmaeon : " See 
 what I do for thee and thou doest naught for me* 
 Fetch me the robe and necklace of Harmonia, 
 which Arsinoe keepeth, that I may know if thou 
 lovest me/' For her nature was as that of water 
 which abide th not* And Alcmaeon answered : 
 14 For the robe and the necklace Arsinoe careth 
 no whit, for her mind is above mortal things ; 
 nevertheless this glory is for them who desire nor 
 earth nor water and shall not be thine/' When 
 she heard this she came no more to him by night ; 
 and by day he saw clear, and the rushing waters 
 soothed him, but at night, and all night till dawn, 
 the fury came upon him ; and he cried and groaned 
 aloud in repentance. Whereat Amphoteros and 
 Acarnan were grieved ; and Amphoteros said to 
 him : M Let me go to Delphi, that we may learn 
 from the god whether thou shouldest do for my 
 mother as she would/' And he went ; and 
 Apollo gave answer that the robe and necklace 
 must be brought to his temple* Then Callirhoe 
 came from the flood to hear the command of the 
 oracle ; but Amphoteros told her only : " My 
 father goeth to Phegea*" She, hearing this, 
 called to her privily the man Pheron and said : 
 M My husband, thou knowest, is mad* Go with 
 him lest, in his madness, he bring not to me 
 that which Arsinoe shall give him/' 
 
 74 
 
ALCMAEON * 
 
 XXIV 
 
 Alcmaeon, touching again the green shores of 
 earth, waked from a dream* The last of that 
 dream was the beckoning of his boys from the 
 island ; for thus they bade him farewell ; but, as 
 he turned his face eastward, he doubted whether 
 the boys and the island and Callirhoe were real ; 
 and the fragments of their speech which he re- 
 membered were strange to him* He saw the sweet 
 fields and cottages again, and men bearing faggots 
 and women lifting pails and boys sharpening their 
 knives on the thresholds of the doors and blue 
 smoke curling from the chimneys against the pines 
 and firs* And there was silence about him or 
 sounds distinct and intelligible* The chill com- 
 fort of his unearthly bride passed from him ; he 
 was a man with men and cheerful in their ways* 
 The old days came back to him again, the days 
 with Parthenopaeos, the days of Aegialeus — before 
 the burning of passion and madness had driven 
 him to the rivers. His early sympathies clutched 
 him* Would he could have remained among 
 them, not asking for more ! Had he ever asked 
 for more ? Had not all been laid on him ? by 
 his mother, by his father, by his birth* By these 
 he had been forced to outlaw himself* Then 
 Arsinoe had helped him ; but he had not needed 
 help before* She was as no other woman ; but 
 he had not needed woman* He had passed 
 
 75 
 
ALCMAEON * 
 
 through fire and water ; but before these was life 
 and love and fresh air, no dreams but miracles of 
 fact. Little things came back to him, the cap of 
 Aegialeus, the dislike of Parthenopaeos for warm 
 baths, the toys of Cyanippos, Why had he not 
 been content with boyhood ? Why had his am- 
 bition outstretched it ? Great deeds are our 
 undoing. No ; he had been right ; his boyhood 
 had been right ; and now with the eyes of boyhood 
 he could judge of his manhood; he had done 
 well ; the man had accomplished the tasks set him 
 by the boy. He had not chosen Aegialeus, but the 
 things which Aegialeus would have chosen ; so 
 doing he had lost all ; it was well. 
 
 The sun stood high and fell on his head ; he 
 was watched from heaven, but his upward glance 
 feared nothing. He saw all in one, heaven and 
 earth, his chamber in the palace and the dark 
 vault of Oropos, Parthenopaeos drawing his bow 
 and himself sitting in judgment on his mother, 
 the conquest of Thebes and sleep in the island. 
 Naught mattered till all was done ; then it should 
 be seen as it was, 
 
 A woodman passed him with a salute ; an old 
 woman offered him grapes and would not take 
 his money ; in a doorway he saw a child dandled 
 by its mother. These people lived in thoughts 
 of one another amid small things, as he had lived 
 during the first year with Arsinoe, taking happi- 
 ness for his aim. He could not live so now. Not 
 in vain had the waters passed over him, bathing 
 
 7 6 
 
ALCMAEON * 
 
 him in their divine uncertainties, chilling his 
 human sense . 
 
 Pheron overtook him* Alcmaeon turned on 
 the slave in. fury* " Who told you that I should 
 need you ? Begone and let me not see you again/' 
 
 Pheron bowed and turned homeward, but, 
 obedient to his mistress, he soon took a side-path 
 which would lead him by a longer road to the gulf 
 and to Phegea. 
 
 Alcmaeon went on alone, as he fancied ; but, 
 when Pheron turned from the highroad, two boys, 
 eager and active, were already on their way from 
 the island. As their father departed they con- 
 sulted hurriedly. Was he safe alone, with his 
 fits ? An adventure would delight them ; and 
 they might help. They took some sackfuls of 
 food — no clothes ; it was always too hot on land. 
 Soon they were after him, and they caught sight 
 of him after Pheron had left him. They followed 
 at a distance, since they had not been bidden to 
 come, out of sight, but peering around trees at 
 every turn of the road for assurance that he was 
 before them, scampering like young goats to make 
 up the plain stretches where, had he turned, he 
 might have seen them. At Naupactos they nearly 
 missed him, when he crossed the gulf, for their boat 
 was slow; and, when they gained track of him 
 again, it was because they were about to enquire at 
 a hut within which he was sitting. Away they ran 
 before he had seen them ; but they had seen him. 
 Afterward they were more cautious and fell behind. 
 
 77 
 
ALCMAEON * 
 
 44 If we had enquired which road he was to take, 
 we should not have needed to seek and hide from 
 him thus/' said Amphoteros* 
 
 " Yes ; but we did not know/' said Acarnan* 
 Alcmaeon went on before them* The track 
 left the plains and climbed the rugged clefts of 
 Erymanthos ; the rocks closed him in ; he topped 
 the pass and followed a brook which fell towards 
 the Aroanios* The cool of the island had deserted 
 him on his sunny journey* As a bird nearing the 
 earth he descended from his high vision* He was 
 a man with men and* feared the ways of men and 
 his home and the sons of Phegeus; but more 
 than men he feared the oncoming twilight and 
 the sights of the dark ; he would not yield to them* 
 The rocks parted and rose high and wide ; the 
 valley broadened ; the Aroanios rushed to his 
 side ; a little and he should see the long path 
 upward to the city* He recognised a village* 
 What was its name ? he strove to recollect it* but 
 it was blotted from his mind ; his mind was a 
 blot ; all was gone from him* all his apprehension 
 of facts ; the precious memories of the morning 
 were dim ; he struggled to abide by the beliefs 
 of daylight ; but he was alone amid darkness and 
 approaching fires* Suddenly he shrieked and fell 
 by the wayside helpless* People passed him ; he 
 could not speak to them* nor would they under- 
 stand his cry for help* " He is an enemy of the 
 gods/* they said* or " He is drunk." He saw them 
 as beings in a Paradise which he could not reach* 
 
 7 8 
 
ALCMAEON * 
 
 happy because they lived in the world which was 
 around them, the world from which he was torn 
 by invisible powers ; the Erinnyes were upon him. 
 He felt for his dagger ; with a thrust into his side 
 he could escape them* 
 
 Then Alcmaeon arose ; the determination of 
 madness shone in his eyes, the command of Apollo, 
 the one hope* To others the task might be given 
 in vain, not to him*. The window-light was ahead* 
 Trembling and tottering he knocked at the door 
 of Arsinoe* 
 
 XXV 
 
 Fastening his eyes on her and striving to speak 
 clearly, he related his errand* Her brothers were 
 with her ; but he might not be able to tell it 
 again* They murmured ; they were now lords 
 of Phegea, since Phegeus was dead ; they could 
 refuse the treasure ; but this wanderer — they 
 feared him and the light in his eyes, and the curse 
 of the god which he might bring, lest it should 
 pass his lips* Sullenly they gave their consent* 
 Arsinoe withdrew him to her chamber, for she 
 saw the signs of his face : a moment and the fit 
 would be upon him, and her brothers would be- 
 lieve naught* Once alone with her, his strength 
 failed him* He fell on the couch, raving of 
 Aegialeus lying asleep before the wheels of a 
 brazen chariot* 
 
 79 
 
ALCMAEON * 
 
 11 Waken him ; it will pass over him ; it will 
 kill him. The lion and the boar are dragging it 
 toward him, goaded by the queen my mother, who 
 stands over them in her flashing raiment* Waken 
 him ! he lies across the royal road ; they will kill 
 him/' 
 
 Arsinoe spoke to her husband, but she was not 
 heard ♦ Then she brought the child, Clytios, and 
 laid him in his father's arms. Alcmaeon sighed ; 
 his head sank ; he slept. 
 
 After a time Arsinoe wakened him. 
 
 94 Await not the morning," she said. " My 
 brothers are together. I trust them not. Go to 
 the wall under the window. I will drop the 
 treasure to you. Take it and flee." 
 
 Alcmaeon rose refreshed. He passed the surly 
 glance of the brothers. 
 
 " I do not sup with you," he said. 
 
 11 Nor would we sup with an outcast, accursed 
 of gods and men," they replied. " Sleep not in 
 the house, and begone to-morrow." 
 
 Behind him they closed the door. 
 
 Amphoteros and Acarnan were on the watch. 
 They saw what was done by the window in the 
 wall, and then ran over the hill in the darkness. 
 Once far from the town they might speak to their 
 father ; he could not but take them with him. 
 The joy of the surprise ! 
 
 As Alcmaeon made his way under the wall to- 
 ward the Erymanthos, Pheron entered Phegea by 
 the water-gate. He asked the brothersfor Alcmaeon. 
 
 80 
 
ALCMAEON * 
 
 " He is gone/' they said, " from the house," 
 
 "It matters not, if he went unburdened* I 
 was to bring the treasure, which is his gift to my 
 mistress, lest he should go mad and leave it by 
 the way/' 
 
 11 He carried nothing/' said the brothers ; M the 
 treasure is safe/' 
 
 But when they sought for it, it could not be 
 found ♦ 
 
 The brothers then saw the deceit, as they sup- 
 posed, of Alcmaeon. It was not for the god but 
 for Callirhoe that he had stolen the robe and 
 necklace, dishonouring Arsinoe and his word* 
 They ran down to the Aroanios. At the foot of 
 the path they met a peasant. No one, he said, 
 had passed that way* Then he must have 
 gone by the Erymanthos on the other side of the 
 city — to Delphi, not to Oeniadae. He had spoken 
 the truth. But they were enraged ; he had taken 
 their sister's dowry, their all. They followed 
 him over the hill. 
 
 An hour from Phegea the boys halted in a wood. 
 Here they would make themselves known to their 
 father. They listened for his approach, since they 
 could see nothing. There was a sound of voices 
 in the distance ; they ran toward it. Yes ; the 
 loud voice was their father's. Then there was a 
 light as of fire between the trees. The wrappings 
 of Alcmaeon's pack had fallen away and the sheen 
 of gold and jewels illumined the faces of three men. 
 The boys could see the sons of Phegeus grappling 
 F 81 
 
ALCMAEON * 
 
 their father* Alcmaeon, however, was stronger 
 than the two and laid them on the ground ♦ Am- 
 photeros called to his brother ♦ As Pronoos and 
 Agenor struggled to their feet two arrows hit 
 them ; and they fell dead ; but Alcmaeon swayed 
 from side to side* The sword of Agenor had 
 pierced him as he threw them off* He toppled 
 over on his back* His boys knelt beside him and 
 spoke to him ; he knew them, but could not 
 speak* He lay clenching a hand of each and 
 groaning terribly* Suddenly a shudder shook 
 his whole body ; he sat upright and then fell back* 
 His fingers loosened* He lay, a haggard man with 
 ragged beard, and blank eyes on the stars* 
 
 Amphoteros and Acarnan carried his body to a 
 hollow at the side of the road and sprinkled earth 
 upon it* They could do no more, fearing to re- 
 main* Then they shouldered the treasure and 
 journeyed toward Delphi* 
 
 When they were gone, a woman with a child 
 on her back hung by the hands from the window- 
 sill of the house of Phegeus and dropped to the 
 ground* She followed the Erymanthos till she 
 found the two bodies and, led by blood- tracks, 
 the third* She sat beside it and wept bitterly* 
 The infant wailed* She took it in her arms and 
 bore it to Tegea* 
 
 THE END 
 
 fo 
 
HYPERMESTRA 
 
 una de multis face nuptiali 
 digna periurum fuit in parentem 
 splendide mendax et in omne uirgo 
 nobilis aeuom. 
 
 Horat. Carm. III. 
 
 83 
 
HYPERMESTRA 
 
 TKE youth lingered a moment to explain 
 to the princess that he must lock the 
 room, not to imprison her but to protect 
 her, since none could be left on guard outside : 
 all must join the troop of her defenders already 
 arrayed under the two kings to resist the Egyptian 
 assault* In an unfavourable event the soldiers 
 would collect about the door* The words sounded 
 ominous : were not the walls strong, the defenders 
 sufficient ? Yes ; but every man was needed. 
 " And you among them ? " " Why not ? H he 
 answered with a smile. 
 
 She heard the bolts moving under the key and 
 was alone, sitting on the edge of the couch in a 
 daze of excitement. She had shown no weakness 
 all that day, and her fortitude and anger were 
 not spent. Her brave appeal had seconded her 
 father when he besought Pelasgos by ties of blood 
 to give refuge to suppliants. There, in the open 
 rustic peribolos, surrounded by rude figures of 
 the patron gods, this poor girl, who, till her 
 
 85 
 
HYPERMESTRA * 
 
 journey began, had hardly ever come forth from 
 the palace and courts where she was brought up, 
 had taken courage to speak against the barbarism of 
 her kin ; and each word had seemed to her an act 
 of defiance, (since few beseemed a woman and none 
 in public,) as each step over the rough country- 
 side had been an adventure in the world, so differ- 
 ent was all from the guarded life of the great 
 keep in Egypt on the city wall. Thence she could 
 look down on the outer sands and on the men and 
 beasts prowling below her, but she might leave 
 the windows unshuttered all night ; for none could 
 climb the even and unbroken masonry to her high 
 windows ♦ Within them quiet and feminine 
 labours continued ; day passed into night and night 
 into day in one stretch of time hardly broken by 
 the ceremonies which she attended in state, until 
 the summons reached her to follow her father 
 from Egypt to Greece* Danaus had been deprived 
 most unjustly of his realm by his brother Aegyptus, 
 whose sons, not content with this, pursued the 
 Danaids, wishing to confirm conquest by marriage. 
 Marriage, according to the law of the land, could 
 have been imposed on the maidens with the 
 consent of their father ; and he had not the power 
 to resist save by escape ; but he had always been 
 to his daughters well-nigh a god, and now bound 
 them to himself in gratitude as in duty. At 
 night he led them secretly to the waterside, where 
 a boat was waiting ; and before discovery they 
 were far out at sea Yet the sons of Aegyptus 
 
 86 
 
HYPERMESTRA * 
 
 would have overtaken them, had their course 
 been known, for the vessel of the pursuers was 
 swift and well-manned with oarsmen, whereas the 
 shallop which Danaus had been able to procure 
 by stealth floated at the mercy of the winds. At 
 some harbour, where they had been obliged to put 
 in, news must have reached the men, or passing 
 vessels may have carried it ; for, when the king 
 landed at Apobathmoi, his frightened covey of 
 daughters could already perceive the vermilion 
 sails of their cousins on the sky-line. In haste 
 they reached Lerna, whither a herald had sum- 
 moned King Pelasgos from Argos because he would 
 not admit them to the city without parley. The 
 parley had been long and doubtful ; the elders 
 were called, lest the town should not back the 
 royal decision. Finally, fear of Zeus Hikesios 
 and of Hermes and Artemis, the conductors of the 
 refugees, rather than the ancient bond of kin 
 through Io, had secured alliance between the two 
 kings and such protection as Argos could afford ; 
 its scattered citizens had been called by galloping 
 messengers from their farms ; and now the small 
 city, hardly more than a village, though walled, 
 was in state of defence, and the Danaids enclosed 
 in the long, low building which sufficed the 
 monarch of that humble land. 
 
 For Greece was at its beginnings, and the Pelo- 
 ponnesus an unknown corner of the world. The 
 lonely castle of the Atridae was not yet standing 
 on the foothill of the mountain toward the East ; 
 
 8 7 
 
HYPERMESTRA * 
 
 the Cyclopes had not yet built toward the sea the 
 long corridors of Tiryns ; knightly tradition had 
 not yet been implanted by the Heraclids* A race 
 of rustics akin to their neighbours, the simple 
 Arcadians, who descended from the times before 
 the moon, won its sustenance from the hard soil, 
 never dreaming of the fortified Acropolis which 
 was so soon to crown the little hill of Larisa* The 
 great world broke in on this retreat with the 
 Egyptian ship ; and its men surrounded the city 
 as wolves a pasture* That was the meaning per- 
 haps of a portent which the Argive augurs knew 
 not how to interpret* A stone's throw from the 
 city a wolf had pulled down a bull* The invader, 
 it seemed, was to conquer ; but was he Danaus 
 or the prince his nephew ? or was the victor no 
 invader but the symbol of the city ? the wolf of 
 Argos, overcoming masculine brutality* 
 
 Hypermestra listened, knowing that the supreme 
 moment which would give an answer to all her 
 fears had come, that the combat was already en- 
 gaged* What she did not know was that her 
 own herald within the city was plotting its betrayal, 
 hoping for a recompense of power in Egypt instead 
 of exile in Greece with his liege ladies. 
 
 The room was dimly lighted by a single lamp ; 
 darkness gathered and hung along the cornice* 
 When Hypermestra raised her bewildered eyes, 
 she saw only shadows, but in one of them, deeper 
 than the rest, two sparks like eyes* She rose in 
 fright ; and, as she moved, the beams died away* 
 
 88 
 
HYPERMESTRA * 
 
 Then the darkness began to form into a shape, a 
 robe falling in straight folds, a hand* She seemed 
 to be again in Egypt, in a temple, at one of the 
 nightly mysteries, and this a statue of her own 
 goddess and ancestress* The thought enlightened 
 her* It was a statue ; and the two lights were 
 the gems which formed the pupils of the eyes ; 
 but it was not Io ; it was Aphrodite, whom she 
 would have hated if she had dared, Aphrodite 
 with an impassive sweetness, caring nothing for 
 her fears, no saviour* Thus was she pursued, not 
 only by men, but by gods ; Artemis and Hermes 
 had guided her only to her enemy's feet. 
 
 The bars rang in their rings, and Danaus ap- 
 peared* He told her in haste that the town had 
 been betrayed and its citizens forced to surrender* 
 Could Pelasgos see his subjects slaughtered around 
 him ? 
 
 " But we ? Are we then to fall into the hands 
 of our insolent cousins ? M asked Hypermestra* 
 
 " These were the terms of surrender, if the 
 Argives were to be spared/' he answered ; " I 
 had to swear to them ** ; but he unfolded to her 
 his own plan unknown to Pelasgos* To each of 
 the ladies a dagger had been given* The suitors 
 were to come at night, after their feast and wine, 
 suspecting nothing* At the sound of a trumpet 
 all were to be slain* Her sisters had already sworn* 
 Would she swear and receive her dagger ? 
 
 For a moment she hesitated, not to do the 
 deed, for she had been driven back on her own 
 
 8 9 
 
HYPERMESTRA * 
 
 defence, but for her father* He, who had always 
 been her final law, was now ready to parry injustice 
 as alone it could be parried ; it was a man's act, 
 but full of danger* Despite her revolt she could 
 not quell her fear of that god to whom he had 
 himself appealed against Aegyptus. 
 
 11 Beware/' she said, as if she were a warning 
 Fate, ** of the vengeance of Horcos*" 
 
 " I swore to give the bodies of my daughters, 
 and I will not perform the oath* Would you 
 have me perform it ? " 
 
 A great indignation, the climax of all that she 
 had felt since she was cast forth from her home, 
 took possession of her* Unhelped, she would help 
 herself against earth and heaven* 
 
 " I swear/' she said. 
 
 II 
 
 IThe king departed* She had but one thought 
 now : to do the deed* As a beast that has found 
 its hiding-place whence it may spring on the passer- 
 by, she crouched and waited* 
 
 A servant came, bringing supper ; she waved 
 it away, but it was left beside her* The eyes 
 again sparkled as in anger* What cared she for 
 anger, human or divine ? She must be strong* 
 Then the remembrance that she would need 
 strength bade her rise and eat against her will and 
 
 90 
 
HYPERMESTRA * 
 
 drink of the thin wine* But food and exhaustion 
 worked together* As she faced this one thought 
 of vengeance, sleep overcame her* and for two 
 hours she lay beneath the sparkling eyes, which, 
 had she known it, covered her with a benignant 
 radiance* She awoke fancying herself again in 
 her Egyptian home, in quiet, and happy* She 
 sat up to call for her tirewoman* Then she saw 
 where she was and remembered what she was to 
 do ; but her overwrought nature was now un- 
 strung, slack from slumber ; she was ready to break 
 down and weep ; she approached the statue, 
 imploring the mercy of the goddess ; then, lest she 
 should be taken unawares, found the bed again 
 and withdrew the dagger from the coverlet where 
 she had hidden it, and slipped the point up her 
 sleeve* 
 
 She sat on a seat and thought of Lynceus, who 
 had been her suitor and was now to be her ravisher, 
 how she had rejected him, hoping that he might 
 press her ; but he had answered : " Very well ; 
 I shall find another*" Why had he followed her ? 
 he, who was thus indifferent* It was strange* 
 A careless youth, devoted to his pastimes, to his 
 horse, to his music, neglectful of the duties open 
 to him as a son of the king, moving hither and 
 thither without a purpose, his suit of her could be 
 but his customary levity* Why had he under- 
 taken this adventurous voyage unless for her 
 father's kingdom ? Yet he had seemed to care 
 for reign as little as for her* 
 
 9i 
 
HYPERMESTRA A 
 
 The door opened and he entered, clad in a long 
 f easting-robe* She rose to resist him, but turned 
 away gently, for she bethought herself that only 
 by stealth could she place the wound ; she must 
 affect bashfulness or submission* By chance she 
 had thus approached the statue* 
 
 " Still shy, my lady ? or is Aphrodite to witness 
 our vows ? 
 
 She was silent* 
 
 " We had a hard time of it* Those Argives, 
 they fought well, though you should have seen 
 them at table* Rough fellows ! I wonder that 
 you prefer them to us* Naturally they would 
 fight for you*" 
 
 " They fought for honour," said Hypermestra* 
 
 " Ah well, I dare say, but with an eye to chances* 
 They are satisfied to be done with it now and to 
 let you go*" 
 
 " To let us go ! " 
 
 " Yes ; what did they want — except your- 
 selves ? Did they need your father for a second 
 king ? and could not Pelasgos find another queen 
 beside my princess ? " 
 
 " Do you mean that I was to be his wife ? " 
 
 44 Unless mine*" 
 
 Hypermestra could hardly believe that she 
 heard aright* Was she thus to be bartered for a 
 new kingdom in the event of victory ? 
 
 " You damsels do not know what you are at* 
 It was good of us to follow you to bring you back 
 home*" 
 
 92 
 
HYPERMESTRA * 
 
 She turned toward him, 
 
 ** But I will not go with you/' The words 
 escaped her* She should have shown no defiance, 
 rather consent, an unwilling but still apparent 
 consent ♦ 
 
 " I don't mind/' said he ; M we have done our 
 part — uselessly; and you shall be left to your 
 Argives, I'm only sorry about Butes — you know, 
 the lad who locked you in/' 
 
 " Is he dead ? " 
 
 " Yes ; he had fire-light in his eyes which I 
 think that you put in them, I tried to avoid 
 him ; but he made for me, and I had to run him 
 through* It is the kind of harm that you women 
 do. Well, well. One one day and one another ; 
 we have all our time. But I am tired/' 
 
 Herewith he cast off his robe, under which was 
 only a slight crinkly shirt of white linen supported 
 by bands over the shoulders. This was the 
 moment, A thrust would have been enough, 
 and the weapon was in her hand. 
 
 But, with the thought of Butes dead, she could 
 not look on this other, no longer a prince in apparel 
 as she had always seen him, but only a young man 
 and tired. She drew her left forearm over her 
 eyes. Yet without seeing she could not aim ; she 
 must look. But when she uncovered her eyes he 
 was no longer before her. He had thrown himself 
 on the couch, and lay there like a child. 
 
 93 
 
HYPERMESTRA * 
 
 III 
 
 Soon he was fast asleep, his cheek resting on 
 one hand, H A better moment/' thought Hyper- 
 mestra ; but her father's words recurred to her : 
 u At the sound of the trumpet/' Yes ; it was 
 too soon ; had she killed the man when he stood 
 before her, she would have defeated the plot, for 
 he would have cried out and given the alarm to 
 his brothers. How weak she was ! calling on her 
 courage when she wanted judgment; and even 
 her courage had failed her ! 
 
 She sat by the bed and watched the sleeper, as 
 she had watched a slave-boy who used to sing to 
 her, accompanying himself on the trigonon* She 
 had asked to nurse him, when he was ill* But he 
 was only a woolly-headed child, brought up to do 
 her bidding; and this was a man who did not 
 regard her ; and she was watching, not to nurse 
 him, but to kill him — after Butes — was not one 
 enough to die for her ? was she worth both ? or 
 either ? What was this presumption which had 
 led her over land and sea ? Greater than theirs 
 who challenged death for her* Was not this 
 better than gentleness ? her gentleness, with the 
 poniard in her sleeve* She vied with men, but 
 not for them as they for her* Butes was dead ; 
 the man before her was to die* For what ? Be- 
 cause he followed her* Why should he follow 
 her ? Was it for the kingdom ? was it for love ? 
 
 94 
 
HYPERMESTRA * 
 
 And if it were not for love, yet he lay there help- 
 less, sleeping* She had never seen a man asleep ♦ 
 What was she to measure herself against that 
 helplessness ? 
 
 A smile played on the lips of Aphrodite, and the 
 straight folds moved* On the warm air of the 
 summer night a scent of earth and trees was borne 
 about the room* 
 
 He stirred in his sleep* She drew the coverlet 
 over him, a wrong action (she thought as she did 
 it), for the heavy stuff would muffle the dagger, 
 and she had but little strength to drive it home, 
 little and every moment less* 
 
 He turned again and murmured in his sleep* 
 She would have caught his words but could not. 
 Of a sudden she heard the trumpet and immedi- 
 ately cries from the neighbouring rooms* 
 She fell on him, but not with the dagger* 
 94 Awake ! awake ! you will be murdered ♦" 
 He started and half opened his eyes* 
 " Awake ! awake ! All your brothers are mur- 
 dered* Hide yourself*" 
 " My brothers ? " he replied, starting up* 
 " Yes," she said* " Tis done* Hide yourself*" 
 " No ; I must go to them*" He rushed to the 
 door to open it* 
 
 Quick and deft came the woman's answer* " If 
 they find you, they will kill me*" 
 
 A shout was heard from the corridor* M Prin- 
 cess, princess, the deed is done*" 
 She had but time to drag him to the niche of 
 
 95 
 
HYPERMESTRA * 
 
 Aphrodite and to thrust him into the darkness 
 when the room was filled with blood-stained 
 creatures, shouting with the joy of victory* One 
 had brought her husband's head, a ghastly proof* 
 Danaus appeared on the threshold, and spoke to 
 her, but what he said could not be heard for the 
 tumult* 
 
 " And Lynceus ? where is Lynceus ? Show us 
 his body*" 
 
 " I have not killed him* He is gone. He did 
 not come," she added, contradicting herself* 
 
 11 He did come," they howled* " You have 
 suffered him to escape*" 
 
 M This was not so," said Danaus* " My 
 daughter would not so belie her blood*" 
 
 44 It was so," said Hypermestra* " He is some- 
 where about the city, unless he has climbed the 
 walls*" 
 
 44 He is here," said Lynceus, coming forward* 
 
 All turned on the young man standing beneath 
 the statue, himself a second statue, unless both 
 were living ; for now the hands of the goddess 
 were extended over him* The Danaids would 
 have slain him, but their father held them back* 
 
 " A suppliant, my children* Speak, Hyper- 
 mestra* How came you to spare the enemy ? 
 you who had given your word*" 
 
 Hypermestra glanced at him, and turned away* 
 
 " Women," said she, M if you be women, I 
 could not kill him* I had sworn and determined 
 to do so* I awaited him ; but, when he came 
 
 9 e 
 
HYPERMESTRA A 
 
 and laid aside his greatness and did not strive 
 with me — ah, if he had commanded or threatened, 
 my blood would have risen ; if he had embraced 
 me, I should have stabbed him; but he spoke 
 to me as if I were a child ; he left me to myself 
 and fell asleep ; and I became as a child, and I 
 longed to lay my head beside his* There is no 
 other reason* Do with me as you will/' 
 
 At this the women set upon her ; but Lynceus 
 rushed to her rescue* 
 
 Then strangely the daggers fell from their 
 hands ; there was an awful silence ; the marble 
 lips moved, and a voice the like of which is not 
 given to mortals possessed the room* 
 
 94 She hath done well* She hath been nobly 
 false* Mine eyes were upon her and I taught her 
 wisdom* As the rain falls from heaven and wounds 
 the earth, her heart was pierced ; wherefore no 
 useless task of unchecked maidenhood shall be 
 hers, but, as Lynceus* bride, shall she build me a 
 shrine in her kingdom of Argos, and she shall stand 
 beside me, honourable unto all time/' 
 
 THE END 
 
 97 
 
CAENEUS AND CAENIS 
 
 Iuuenis quondam nunc femina Caeneus 
 Rursus et in ueterem fato rauoluta figuram. 
 
 Vergil* Aen. VI. 44&-Q. 
 
 99 
 
CAENEUS AND CAENIS 
 
 i 
 
 ALL sat around the fire on the hard 
 earthen floor under the smoky rafters ; 
 and Eilatus desired of his son that he 
 would sing a song ; for Periphas was of the chofr- 
 lads and had sung alone at the Itonian feast, 
 leading the choir behind the long-robed minstrel ; 
 but now he took the phorminx himself from the 
 peg where it hung, and as he was stood before 
 them, his limbs gleaming in the fire-light, fair as 
 Achilles when in the cave he sang for Chiron* 
 And Caenis listened for a song like that sung by 
 Achilles of the grasp of Heracles on the neck of 
 the Argive lion or of Theseus grappling the Minoan 
 bull ; but vexed she was when Periphas, having 
 struck the chords, recounted the vain desires of 
 Coronis, who, though she bore within her the 
 unsullied seed of the god, yearned nevertheless 
 for a mortal, nor would she await the birth of her 
 child that she might be wedded to Ischys, but 
 mixed with him, whereat Artemis was angered and 
 shot her with the sure bolt, and, when the girl 
 was placed on the pyre, Apollo came, and the 
 
 IOI 
 

 CAENEUS AND CAENIS * 
 
 flames divided before him, and he rescued his son 
 from the womb of the dead, but her he brought 
 not to life* 
 
 Now Caenis knew that he could not, for it were 
 against the edict of Zeus ; yet the thought chafed 
 her that a woman might not choose her lot and 
 marry when she would ; for she thought rather 
 of the lot of Coronis, though Ischys was her own 
 brother* And indeed she hardly remembered 
 him ; he had died when she was a child, slain by 
 the thunder-bolt of Zeus for his presumption* 
 Eilatus, however, remembered bitterly and darted 
 a glance at his son that he should thus strike home 
 at his brother ; but Periphas answered him with 
 his brows ; and the father knew that there was 
 reason* Caenis also saw the look of Periphas, 
 and understood that her father yielded to him 
 now as always ; for Eilatus was old and busied 
 himself with sacrifices, nor would he thwart 
 Periphas, who thus, though a lad, was master in 
 the house* Caenis would have it so, loving none 
 more than him and caring little for the justice and 
 piety of her father ; yet it irked her to be ad- 
 monished by Periphas ; and she divined that the 
 song was chosen because Coronis had brought 
 death into the family by her wilfulness* Never- 
 theless, reverencing her brother, Caenis did not 
 speak her mind, but asked only in gentle words for 
 another song — of some huntress* For her am- 
 bition was to be like Periphas and to hunt with 
 him, whereas he ever told her that this sport was 
 
 102 
 
CAENEUS AND CAENIS * 
 
 not for maidens* She hoped therefore to remind 
 him of goddesses and huntresses not thus confined 
 to housewifely tasks, and to answer his reproof 
 by her request, since at least no such passion as 
 ruined Coronis lodged in her breast* Her fault 
 was other and such as befitted the hard stock 
 which had given to the Atracidae the lordship of 
 the Lapiths in Gyrton* In the dangerous country, 
 full of wild beasts and centaurs, she would wander 
 without fear, though barely sixteen* Periphas 
 had found her that day wading a strong torrent, 
 and had caught her, when it would have carried 
 her away and hurled her against the rocks* There- 
 upon he had spoken sharp words and needful* 
 She had followed him home in silence, but hot at 
 heart, cursing the chance that had made her a 
 woman, and Periphas because he used authority 
 as a man* She remembered the heroines and knew 
 herself like unto them and would have Periphas 
 remember them too, not such as Coronis, but 
 those who had lived in the woods and equalled 
 the deeds of heroes* He, seeing what was in her 
 mind, began a song of Cyrene : how her arrows 
 followed the deer and without weapons she 
 throttled the cubs of panthers, holding them to 
 her breast* But this song too came to an end 
 like the first ; for the same Apollo, though he slew 
 her not, dragged her from the forests of Pindus and 
 from her Lapith kinsmen and set her amid the 
 flat sands of Libya to be the mother of many, and 
 made her his wife* 
 
 103 
 
CAENEUS AND CAENIS * 
 
 Now Caenis would be the wife of none, neither 
 man nor god, and, looking at the slender body of 
 Periphas in the fire-light, she hated him for his 
 beauty and power and because he or another 
 man must control her outgoings and comings in. 
 
 II 
 
 So when all turned to rest, muffled in blankets 
 on the hard floor in a circle with their feet to the 
 dying embers, she could not sleep, but, when she 
 knew that they were all asleep, she sat up ; and 
 the dim light fell on her wild eyes and on her 
 hands clasped about her knees. For an hour she 
 sat there like a statue. Then stealthily she arose 
 and undid the latch of the door and placed a 
 stone against it, because she could not fasten it 
 from without, and went down to the sea-shore. 
 And, as she looked at the waves, a head, broad- 
 browed and long-haired, emerged from the water ; 
 and gentle and quiet eyes were fixed on her in 
 which there was divinity, for she could not with- 
 draw herself from their steady gaze, not even 
 when the whole figure rose from the sea and came 
 toward her. And she thought of Coronis and of 
 Cyrene and would have cried out ; but she knew 
 that in these eyes was no bale but bliss. He asked 
 wherefore she was come to him and what was her 
 desire. Now Caenis had but one desire : to escape 
 from womanhood and to become a man ; but for 
 
 104 
 
CAENEUS AND CAENIS * 
 
 a time she could say nothing, and cast down her 
 eyes, and they rested upon his shoulders. Then 
 she was seized with trembling ; for fear came upon 
 her lest she should change and desire to remain 
 a woman, since it seemed to her that nothing was 
 needful to her happiness, so he should stand before 
 her. She was ready to do his bidding and an- 
 swered : " What thou wilt," and therewith flushed 
 with shame. But he said : " What I will and 
 what thou wilt, for thou wouldst be a man/' 
 These words were to Caenis as a spar cast to one 
 drowning. She had but power to answer ** Yes." 
 And he said unto her : M Be thou, then, a woman." 
 And the brine of the sea covered her from foot to 
 head, and she heard words as in a dream, and 
 received the might of Poseidon. 
 
 Ill 
 
 When morning was come, her parents sought 
 for Caenis in vain, nor could they have found her, 
 had they sought the world over ; for there lay 
 instead on the shore a fair youth in the dress of a 
 girl. The long, level rays of the sun saluted him, 
 when he arose, his heart strong within him and 
 his limbs clothed with a glorious strength. He 
 cast from him his female garments, and gave thanks 
 to the sea-god; howbeit, remembering also his 
 girlhood and the latticed days of desire, he now 
 knew that manhood was other than she had 
 
 105 
 
CAENEUS AND CAENIS * 
 
 thought ; for his eyes had clear ed, and his mind 
 was sobered, and he knew what could be and what 
 could not be, and was nevertheless therewith 
 content* 
 
 Then he heard a sound of singing and beheld a 
 procession passing inland between the thickets* 
 The song was the old wedding-song of the country- 
 side, which Caenis could never bring herself to 
 sing ; but Caeneus followed gladly and, plucking 
 flowers, made himself a chaplet like the rest* And 
 when he was come to the board, the feasters 
 received him kindly, not asking his name, but 
 courteously waiting till he should have fed, and 
 admiring his strength and grace* And they 
 whispered one to another : " Is not this Hermes ? 
 for Meleager dwells afar in Calydon, and Hyacinth 
 was laid low by the quoit through the jealousy of 
 Zephyrus, and the son of Laomedon is in heaven " ; 
 for to none other could they liken him* With the 
 company was Periphas, till then the favourite of 
 the youths and the hope of the maidens ; but 
 they looked not on him, having their eyes fastened 
 upon Caeneus* Periphas also, not knowing who 
 the stranger was, saw none but him ; and Peri- 
 thous, the bridegroom, said to Hippodameia, the 
 bride : " You had not married me, had you seen 
 him first*" 
 
 Then the gods, who give peace to no mortals, 
 stirred the centaurs, an unruly rout, with the scent 
 of wine borne to them on the wind ; and they 
 were wroth because they had not been bidden to 
 
 1 06 
 
CAENEUS AND CAENIS * 
 
 the festival* Wherefore they came crashing down 
 the river-beds from Othrys and Pelion and Pholoe, 
 where once the great teacher lived, friendly to 
 man, but now the dwelling-place of savagery ♦ 
 They bore great branches torn from the trees and 
 broke in upon the company just rising to form for 
 dances* To the wine they went and seized the 
 great bowls wherein it was mixed for serving and 
 drank from them and thrust the Lapiths aside* 
 But these, when they perceived that they were 
 entreated unkindly and not as hosts, rose against 
 their unbidden guests and dashed the vessels from 
 their lips* Eurytus, the chief of the centaurs, 
 drunk with huge draughts, laid hands on the bride 
 and would have carried her off, but Theseus came 
 between ; and Latreus had taken a comely lad 
 in his arms, whom Periphas strove to rescue, when 
 Caeneus, catching up the lance which had been 
 struck from his brother's hand, drove it deep into 
 the monster's side* He fell to the ground and 
 breathed forth his life* Then all the centaurs 
 turned on Caeneus and attacked him with swords 
 and spears which they had wrested from the 
 Lapiths ; but none could pierce him nor make 
 him budge from his place* He did not evade the 
 unwieldy beasts as they rushed upon him, but 
 withstood them, immovable and impenetrable* 
 Seeing this, they placed a shield on his head and 
 thereupon a boulder which they hammered with 
 their boughs ; and Caeneus stood fast, but the 
 ground gave way and he went down whole and 
 
 107 
 
CAENEUS AND CAENIS * 
 
 upright into the earth* After this was done the 
 centaurs galloped off bleeding ; and the bridal 
 company assembled again and departed, saying 
 among themselves that, if this stranger had not 
 come and drawn upon him all the fury of the 
 centaurs, they would not have returned alive. 
 
 IV 
 
 By the earth which covered the head of Caeneus 
 the body of the centaur lay, a heavy mass like a 
 monument* And with him dead was one living, 
 Poseidon, who stood mourning* From his eyes 
 and locks water dripped on the grave ; and he 
 communed with himself, upbraiding his brother 
 by whose behest he might not bring the hero to 
 life* But sharp is the divine mind, and he matched 
 it with the decree of Zeus, neither resisting nor 
 abandoning the dead, and he said : " As thou wilt 
 and as I will ; if not Caeneus, then Caenis " ; and 
 he smote the ground that it fell asunder in two 
 banks ; and, as a figure is released, when it is 
 baken, from the split mould, the body of Caeneus, 
 which had stood upright, fell on its back against 
 one of the slopes* Whereat the god gazed in 
 wonder* It went to his heart that the lad should 
 be changed and his glory pass from him ; yet, seeing 
 that there was no help, but that he must remain 
 dead, unless the charm were undone and the boy 
 returned to girlhood, he smote the earth a second 
 
 108 
 
CAENEUS AND CAENIS * 
 
 time with his trident ; and above the body a 
 spring of sweet water gushed forth which covered 
 it from head to foot, and he turned over as in 
 sleep and as in a dream heard again the words 
 which had been said on the seashore, but now 
 said backward* And Poseidon could not abide 
 the sight of his limbs softening and rounding, but 
 went down to the beach and plunged in the gulf* 
 
 When he was gone, Caenis awoke; and the 
 strength of the god had departed from her ; and 
 the level rays of the sunset fell on her* She arose, 
 chill with water, and ran about to dry herself* 
 When she was dry, her nakedness troubled her, 
 and the air cooling* She sought the tree where 
 Caeneus had hung her clothes, and put them on 
 again* Then cheerily she went home and busied 
 herself in the kitchen against the return of Periphas* 
 He, when he came, told of the wedding and of the 
 stranger who had fought so well, and had been 
 driven fighting into the ground* u I could wish, 
 my sister, that you were a man, for you would have 
 been like him*" Caenis smiled, but she said 
 nothing, though for days her brother continued 
 loud in praise of the stranger, and enquired 
 concerning him in all the country around* No 
 one knew who he was save Caenis, and none till 
 she was old ever knew what Caenis knew, lest she 
 
 109 
 
CAENEUS AND CAENIS * 
 
 should cast on herself the shame of love ; but 
 within herself she was happy, knowing the good 
 and serving it, as when she was a man* And all 
 marvelled that she was now content and willing 
 to be the helpmeet of another, and to ask for no 
 more* 
 
 THE END 
 
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