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The Homeric hymns, tr. into Engl. prose by J. Edgar
The Homeric hymns tr into Engl prose by J Edgar Author:Homerus Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: me shall be yours, an ample store. Do ye guard my temple, and welcome the kindreds of men as they gather hither, and above all, respect my purpose. But if th... more »ere be any rashness of word or deed, or any presumption, such as is common to mortals, then other men shall be your leaders, by whom you will be held perforce in thraldom for ever. All is spoken. Do you keep it in your heart. Farewell to thee now, O Son of Zeus and Leto. But I shall remember thee and another lay." III. TO HERMES. Sing, O Muse of Hermes, the Son of Zeus and Maia, Lord of Cyllene, and pastoral Arcadia, Herald of Heaven, and Bringer of Luck. Maia, the fair-haired damsel, the debonair bare him to the caresses of Zeus. From the gathering of the Blessed Gods she held aloof, abiding in a dusky cave, where at the dead of night that sweet slumber might be fettering white-armed Hera, Cronion wooed the fair-haired damsel without the ken of the deathless gods or mortal men. Now when the purpose of mighty Zeus was fulfilling (and her tenth moon stood in the sky, she brought a child to the light, and notable deeds were done). In that hour she gave birth to ason, subtle of wit and wile, a robber, a reiver of cattle, a captain of thieves, a prowler of the night, a pilferer at gates, who was ere long to make known fine doings among the immortal gods. (At dawn was he born, at mid-day he was playing on the lute, in the evening he stole the oxen of Far Darting Apollo, on that fourth day of the month whereon the Queenly Maia bore him.) And the child, when he had leapt from his mother's womb divine, did not long lie idling in the sacred cradle, but up he sprang and crossed the threshold of the lofty cave, seeking the oxen of Apollo. There he found a tortoise -- a prize, a countless treasure. (Out of the tortoise, Her...« less