am here, having seen the piteous death his foes have dealt my darling son. Yet shall the crafty Odysseus, that slew him, one day hereafter pay a fitting penalty. O my son, thy mother's grief, I mourn for thee in self-taught strains of woe! What a journey thou didst make to Troy, a very path of woe and sorrow! starting, spite of all my warnings and thy father’s earnest prayers, in defiance of us. Woe is me for thee, my dear, dear son! Ah, woe! my son, my son!
Cho. I, too, bewail and mourn thy son, as far as one can who hath no common tie of kin.
The Muse. Curses on the son[1] of Œneus! Curses on Laertes' child! who hath reft me of my fair son and made me childless! and on that woman, too, that left her home in Hellas, and sailed hither with her Phrygian paramour, bringing death to thee, my dearest son, 'neath Ilium’s walls, and stripping countless cities of their heroes brave. Deep, deep the wounds, son[2] of Philammon, hast thou inflicted on my heart, in life, nor less in Hades' halls. Yea, for 'twas thy pride, thy own undoing, and thy rivalry with us Muses that made me mother of this poor son of mine. For as I crossed the river's streams I came too nigh to Strymon's fruitful couch, that day we Muses came unto the brow of Mount Pangæus with its soil of gold, with all our music furnished forth for one great trial of minstrel skill with that clever Thracian bard, and him we reft of sight, even Thamyris, the man who oft reviled our craft. Anon, when I gave birth to thee, because I felt shame of my sisters and my maiden years, I sent thee to the swirling stream of thy sire, the water-god; and Strymon did not entrust thy nurture to mortal hands, but to the fountain nymphs. There wert thou
- ↑ Tydeus, father of Diomedes, was son of Œneus, king of Calydon.
- ↑ Thamyris, the son of Philammon, challenged the Muses to a musical contest; he was defeated and his eyes put out by them. One result of the Muses' visit was the marriage of Strymon, the river-god, to one of the Muses, followed by the birth of Rhesus.
