Page:Hesiod, and Theognis.djvu/47

state nearer to that of the gold and silver races. Of their lives and acts Hesiod tells us that—

"These dread battle hastened to their end;
Some when the sevenfold gates of Thebes ascend,
The Cadinian realm, where they with savage might
Strove for the flocks of Œdipus in fight:
Some war in navies led to Troy's far shore,
O'er the great space of sea their course they bore,
For sake of Helen with the golden hair,
And death for Helen's sake o'erwhelmed them there."
—E. 211-218.

Their rest is in the Isles of the Blest, and in

"A life, a seat, distinct from human kind,
Beside the deepening whirlpools of the main,
In those black isles where Cronos holds his reign,
Apart from heaven's immortals; calm they share
A rest unsullied by the clouds of care.
And yearly, thrice with sweet luxuriance crowned,
Springs the ripe harvest from the teeming ground."
—E. 220-226.

Who does not recognise the same regions beyond circling ocean, of which Horace long after says in his sixteenth Epode,—

"The rich and happy isles,
Where Ceres year by year crowns all the untilled land with sheaves,
And the vine with purple clusters droops, unpruned of all her leaves.
•••••••
Nor are the swelling seeds burnt up within the thirsty clods,
So kindly blends the seasons there the king of all the gods.