Dialogues of the Sea-gods:

Perseus Greek · Perseus Greek · 146 sections

11.1.3
Hephaestus. Oh, I am burned to cinders! oh, oh, oh, I boil!
11.1.4
What made him use his fire upon you?
11.1.5
Why, it was all that son of your Thetis. He was slaughtering the Phrygians; I tried entreaties, but he went raging on, damming my stream with their bodies; I was so sorry for the poor wretches, I poured down to see if I could make a flood and frighten him off them.
11.2.1
But Hephaestus happened to be about, and he must have collected every particle of fire he had in Etna or anywhere else; on he came at me, scorched my elms and tamarisks, baked the poor fishes and eels, made me boil over, and very nearly dried me up altogether. You see what a state I am in with the burns.
11.2.2
Indeed you are thick and hot, Xanthus, and no wonder; the dead men’s blood accounts for one, and the fire for the other, according to your story. Well, and serve you right; assaulting my grandson, indeed! paying no more respect to the son of a Nereid than that!
11.2.3
Was I not to take compassion on the Phrygians? they are my neighbours.
11.2.4
And was Hephaestus not to take compassion on Achilles? he is the son of Thetis.
12.1.1
Crying, dear?
12.1.2
Oh, Doris, I have just seen a lovely girl thrown into a chest by her father, and her little baby with her; and he gave the chest to some sailors, and told them, as soon as they were far enough from the shore, to drop it into the water; he meant them to be drowned, poor things.
12.1.3
Oh, sister, but why? What was it all about? Did you hear?
12.1.4
Her father, Acrisius, wanted to keep her from marrying. And, as she was so pretty, he shut her up in an iron room. And I don’t know whether it’s true—but they say that Zeus turned himself into gold, and came showering down through the roof, and she caught the gold in her lap,—and it was Zeus all the time. And then her father found out about it—he is a horrid, jealous old man—and he was furious, and thought she had been receiving a lover; and he put her into the chest, the moment the child was born.
12.2.1
And what did she do then?
12.2.2
She never said a word against her own sentence; she was ready to submit: but she pleaded hard for the child’s life, and cried, and held him up for his grandfather to see; and there was the sweet babe, that thought no harm, smiling at the waves. I am beginning again, at the mere remembrance of it.
12.2.3
You make me cry, too. And is it all over?
12.2.4
No; the chest has carried them safely so far; it is by Seriphus.
12.2.5
Then why should we not save them? We can put the chest into those fishermen’s nets, look; and then of course they will be hauled in, and come safe to shore.
12.2.6
The very thing. She shall not die; nor the child, sweet treasure!
14.1.1
Well, ladies: so the monster you sent against the daughter of Cepheus has got killed himself, and never done Andromeda any harm at all!”
14.1.2
Who did it? I suppose Cepheus was just using his daughter as a bait, and had a whole army waiting in ambush to kill him?
14.1.3
No, no.—Iphianassa, you remember Perseus, Danae’s boy?—they were both thrown into the sea by the boy’s grandfather, in that chest, you know, and you took pity on them.
14.1.4
I know; why, I suppose he is a fine handsome young fellow by now?
14.1.5
It was he who killed your monster.
14.1.6
But why? This was not the way to show his gratitude.
14.2.1
I'll tell you all about it. The king had sent him on this expedition against the Gorgons, and when he got to Libya—
14.2.2
How did he get there? all by himself? he must have had some one to help him?—it is a dangerous journey otherwise.
14.2.3
He flew,—Athene gave him wings.—Well, so when he got to where the Gorgons were living, he caught them napping, I suppose, cut off Medusa’s head, and flew away.
14.2.4
How could he see them? The Gorgons are a forbidden sight. Whoever looks at them will never look at any one else again.
14.2.5
Athene held up her shield—I heard him telling Andromeda and Cepheus about it afterwards—Athene showed him the reflection of the Gorgon in her shield, which is as bright as any mirror; so he took hold of her hair in his left hand, grasped his scimetar with the right, still looking at the reflection, cut off her head, and was off before her sisters woke up.
14.3.1
Lowering his flight as he reached the Ethiopian coast yonder, he caught sight of Andromeda, fettered to a jutting rock, her hair hanging loose about her shoulders; ye Gods, what loveliness was there exposed to view! And first pity of her hard fate prompted him to ask the cause of her doom: but Fate had decreed the maiden’s deliverance, and presently Love stole upon him, and he resolved to save her. The hideous monster now drew near, and would have swallowed her: but the youth, hovering above, smote him with the drawn scimetar in his right hand, and with his left uncovered the petrifying Gorgon’s head: in one moment the monster was lifeless; all of him that had met that gaze was turned to stone. Then Perseus released the maiden from her fetters, and supported her, as with timid steps she descended from the slippery rock.—And now he is to marry her in Cepheus’s palace, and take her home to Argos; so that where she looked for death, she has found an uncommonly good match.
14.3.2
I am not sorry to hear it. It is no fault of hers, if her mother has the vanity to set up for our rival.
14.3.3
Still, she is Andromeda’s mother; and we should have had our revenge on her through the daughter.
14.4.1
My dear, let bygones be bygones. What matter if a barbarian queen’s tongue runs away with her? She is sufficiently punished by the fright. So let us take this marriage in good part.
15.1.1
Such a splendid pageant I never saw on the waves, since the day I first blew. You were not there, Notus?
15.1.2
Pageant, Zephyr? what pageant? and whose?
15.1.3
You missed a most ravishing spectacle; such another chance you are not likely to have.
15.1.4
I was busy with the Red Sea; and I gave the Indian coasts a little airing too. So I don’t know what you are talking about.
15.1.5
Well, you know Agenor the Sidonian?
15.1.6
Europa’s father? what of him?
15.1.7
Europa it is that I am going to tell you about.
15.1.8
You need not tell me that Zeus has been in love with her this long while; that is stale news.
15.1.9
We can pass the love, then, and get on to the sequel.
15.2.1
Europa had come down for a frolic on the beach with her playfellows. Zeus transformed himself into a bull, and joined the game. A fine sight he was—spotless white skin, crumpled horns, and gentle eyes. He gambolled on the shore with them, bellowing most musically, till Europa took heart of grace and mounted him. No sooner had she done it than, with her on his back, Zeus made off at a run for the sea, plunged in, and began swimming; she was dreadfully frightened, but kept her seat by clinging to one of his horns with her left hand, while the right held her skirt down against the puffs of wind.
15.3.1
A lovely sight indeed, Zephyr, in every sense—Zeus swimming with his darling on his back.
15.3.2
Ay, but what followed was lovelier far. Every wave fell; the sea donned her robe of peace to speed them on their way; we winds made holiday and joined the train, all eyes; fluttering Loves skimmed the waves, just dipping now and again a heedless toe—in their hands lighted torches, on their lips the nuptial song; up floated Nereids—few but were prodigal of naked charms—and clapped their hands, and kept pace on dolphin steeds; the Triton company, with every seacreature that frights not the eye, tripped it around the maid; for Posidon on his car, with Amphitrite by him, led them in festal mood, ushering his brother through the waves. But, crowning all, a Triton pair bore Aphrodite, reclined on a shell, heaping the bride with all flowers that blow.
15.4.1
So went it from Phoenice even to Crete. But, when he set foot on the isle, behold, the bull was no more; ’twas Zeus that took Europa’s hand and led her to the Dictaean Cave—blushing and downward-eyed; for she knew now the end of her bringing. But we plunged this way and that, and roused the still seas anew.
15.4.2
Ah me, what sights of bliss! and I was looking at griffins, and elephants, and blackamoors!

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