folded depths of the great Hill,
While Hermes and
Apollo reverent stood
Before Jove's throne, the indestructible
Immortals rushed in mighty multitude; _430 And whilst their seats in
order due they fill,
The lofty Thunderer in a careless mood
To
Phoebus said:--'Whence drive you this sweet prey,
This herald-baby,
born but yesterday?--
56.
'A most important subject, trifler, this _435 To lay before the
Gods!'--'Nay, Father, nay,
When you have understood the business,
Say not that I alone am fond of prey.
I found this little boy in a recess
Under Cyllene's mountains far away-- _440 A manifest and most
apparent thief,
A scandalmonger beyond all belief.
57.
'I never saw his like either in Heaven
Or upon earth for knavery
or craft:--
Out of the field my cattle yester-even, _445 By the low
shore on which the loud sea laughed,
He right down to the river-ford
had driven;
And mere astonishment would make you daft
To see
the double kind of footsteps strange
He has impressed wherever he
did range. _450
58.
'The cattle's track on the black dust, full well
Is evident, as if
they went towards
The place from which they came--that asphodel
Meadow, in which I feed my many herds,--
HIS steps were most
incomprehensible-- _455 I know not how I can describe in words
Those tracks--he could have gone along the sands
Neither upon his
feet nor on his hands;--
59.
'He must have had some other stranger mode
Of moving on:
those vestiges immense, _460 Far as I traced them on the sandy road,
Seemed like the trail of oak-toppings:--but thence
No mark nor track
denoting where they trod
The hard ground gave:--but, working at his
fence,
A mortal hedger saw him as he passed _465 To Pylos, with the
cows, in fiery haste.
60.
'I found that in the dark he quietly
Had sacrificed some cows,
and before light
Had thrown the ashes all dispersedly
About the
road--then, still as gloomy night, _470 Had crept into his cradle, either
eye
Rubbing, and cogitating some new sleight.
No eagle could have
seen him as he lay
Hid in his cavern from the peering day.
61.
'I taxed him with the fact, when he averred _475 Most solemnly
that he did neither see
Nor even had in any manner heard
Of my
lost cows, whatever things cows be;
Nor could he tell, though offered
a reward,
Not even who could tell of them to me.' _480 So speaking,
Phoebus sate; and Hermes then
Addressed the Supreme Lord of Gods
and Men:--
62.
'Great Father, you know clearly beforehand
That all which I
shall say to you is sooth;
I am a most veracious person, and _485
Totally unacquainted with untruth.
At sunrise Phoebus came, but with
no band
Of Gods to bear him witness, in great wrath,
To my abode,
seeking his heifers there,
And saying that I must show him where
they are, _490
63.
'Or he would hurl me down the dark abyss.
I know that every
Apollonian limb
Is clothed with speed and might and manliness,
As
a green bank with flowers--but unlike him
I was born yesterday, and
you may guess _495 He well knew this when he indulged the whim
Of bullying a poor little new-born thing
That slept, and never thought
of cow-driving.
64.
'Am I like a strong fellow who steals kine?
Believe me, dearest
Father--such you are-- _500 This driving of the herds is none of mine;
Across my threshold did I wander ne'er,
So may I thrive! I
reverence the divine
Sun and the Gods, and I love you, and care
Even for this hard accuser--who must know _505 I am as innocent as
they or you.
65.
'I swear by these most gloriously-wrought portals
(It is, you will
allow, an oath of might)
Through which the multitude of the
Immortals
Pass and repass forever, day and night, _510 Devising
schemes for the affairs of mortals--
I am guiltless; and I will requite,
Although mine enemy be great and strong,
His cruel threat--do
thou defend the young!'
66.
So speaking, the Cyllenian Argiphont _515 Winked, as if now his
adversary was fitted:--
And Jupiter, according to his wont,
Laughed
heartily to hear the subtle-witted
Infant give such a plausible account,
And every word a lie. But he remitted _520 Judgement at
present--and his exhortation
Was, to compose the affair by
arbitration.
67.
And they by mighty Jupiter were bidden
To go forth with a
single purpose both,
Neither the other chiding nor yet chidden: _525
And Mercury with innocence and truth
To lead the way, and show
where he had hidden
The mighty heifers.--Hermes, nothing loth,
Obeyed the Aegis-bearer's will--for he
Is able to persuade all easily.
_530
68.
These lovely children of Heaven's highest Lord
Hastened to
Pylos and the pastures wide
And lofty stalls by the Alphean ford,
Where wealth in the mute night is multiplied
With silent growth.
Whilst Hermes drove the herd _535 Out of the stony cavern, Phoebus
spied
The hides of those the little babe had slain,
Stretched on the
precipice above the plain.
69.
'How was it possible,' then Phoebus said,
'That you, a little child,
born yesterday, _540 A thing on mother's milk and kisses fed,
Could
two prodigious heifers ever flay?
Even I myself may well hereafter
dread
Your prowess, offspring of Cyllenian May,
When you grow
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