CHORUS
Ay, and that Hera that embrace surmised.
How issued then this strife of those on
high?
CHORUS
By Hera’s will, a heifer she became.
Held Zeus aloof then from the horned beast?
CHORUS
’Tis said, he loved, in semblance
of a bull.
And his stern consort, did she aught thereon?
CHORUS
One myriad-eyed she set, the heifer’s
guard.
How namest thou this herdsman many-eyed?
CHORUS
Argus, the child of Earth, whom Hermes
slew.
Still did the goddess vex the beast ill-starred?
CHORUS
She wrought a gadfly with a goading sting.
Thus drave she Io hence, to roam afar?
CHORUS
Yea—this thy word coheres exact
with mine.
Then to Canopus and to Memphis came she?
CHORUS
And by Zeus’ hand was touched, and
bare a child.
Who vaunts him the Zeus-mated creature’s
son?
CHORUS
Epaphus, named rightly from the saving
touch.
And whom in turn did Epaphus beget?[4]
[Footnote: 4: Here one verse at least
has been lost. The conjecture of Bothe seems
to be verified, as far as substance is concerned, by
the next line, and has consequently been adopted.]
Libya, with name of a wide land endowed.
THE KING OF ARGOS
And who from her was born unto the race?
Belus: from him two sons, my father
one.
THE KING OF ARGOS
Speak now to me his name, this greybeard
wise.
Revere the gods thus crowned, who steer
the State.
THE KING OF ARGOS
Awe thrills me, seeing these shrines with
leafage crowned.
