AND the glorious son of Hippolochus answered him: Great-hearted son of Tydeus, wherefore dost thou ask of my lineage? even as is the generation of leaves, such is that of men. The leaves -- a wind streweth them on the ground, and the forest flourisheth and produceth others, when the hour of spring descendeth; so one generation of men produceth, and another ceaseth altogether. Yet if thou wouldst also learn of me these things, hearken, that thou mayst know my lineage: many a man there is that knoweth it. There is a city of Ephyra, in a nook of horse-pastured Argos; and there dwelt Sisyphus who was of all men the shrewdest; Sisyphus, the son of AEolus, and he begat a son, even Glaucus; and Glaucus begat the princely Bellerophon. And the gods bestowed on him the beauty of fair manhood, but Proetus imagined evil in his heart against him; he drave him forth from among his people, since Proetus was strongest among the Argives; for Zeus had subdued them unto his sceptre. Now the fair Anteia, the wife of Proetus, maddened to mingle with him privily in love's embracement; but in no way could she prevail over the noble nature and wise heart of Bellerophon. And she with lying words spake unto King Proetus: 'Mayst thou die, Proetus, or mayst thou slay Bellerophon who would mingle in love's embracement with me altho' I would not.' So she said, and wrath possessed the king when he heard thereof; yet he was loth to slay him, for his soul felt awe at the doing of it; so he sent him to Lycia, and gave him devices of doom, marking on a folded tablet many a deathful symbol. And he bad him show them to his father-in-law, in hope that he might perish; but he went to Lycia under the gods' good guidance. And when he had come to Lycia, and to the river Xanthus, the king of broad Lycia honoured him with all graciousness; nine days he entertained him, and nine bulls he sacrificed. Yet when on the tenth day the rosy dawn appeared, then he questioned him, and asked to see the token; that which he had brought for his own behoof from Proetus his son-in-law. Now after he had received that evil token of his son-in-law, then indeed he first bad him slay the unconquerable Chimaera, which was of birth divine, not mortal; in front a lion, and behind a dragon, and a wild goat in the middle and breathing out the dreadful might of burning fire; and obeying the signs from heaven, he slew her. Next he fought with the glorious solymi -- of a truth the fiercest fight, he said, he ever underwent with warriors; and thirdly he smote down the manlike Amazons. And another plot full of cunning the king wove for him returning -- he chose from out broad Lycia the men that were bravest, and set an ambush; but those no more came homeward; for princely Bellerophon smote them all to the death. So when now the king was aware that he was the strong offspring of a god, he kept him there with himself, and gave him to wife his own daughter, and bestowed on him half of all his kingly honours. And the Lycians meted out unto him a richer portion of land than unto all the others; fair with tilth for corn and with plantations, so that he might dwell therein. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...TWO SONGS OF A FOOL: 1 by WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS ASTROPHEL AND STELLA: 109 by PHILIP SIDNEY LOST ART by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH TO THE MEMORY OF SAMUEL WHITBREAD by BERNARD BARTON I KNOW A BROOK by JOHN GARDINER CALKINS BRAINARD SONNET TO A LADY ON THE DEATH OF MRS. --. by JOHN GARDINER CALKINS BRAINARD CLIFF DWELLER LYRICS: THE HALL BOYS by BERTON BRALEY |