 | Silenus |  |
“Ye murderers,” cried he, “degraded slaves,
Doing the bidding of a brutish King
Who knows nor cares for either right or wrong;
Forbidding you the treasure we had brought
Of riches, peace, and laws to govern you!
We offer you the wisdom and the fruit
Thousands have bent their toiling lives to find
Thro' generations aided by the Gods,
Which ye refuse, and welcome us with death!
Doing the bidding of a brutish King
Who knows nor cares for either right or wrong;
Forbidding you the treasure we had brought
Of riches, peace, and laws to govern you!
We offer you the wisdom and the fruit
Thousands have bent their toiling lives to find
Thro' generations aided by the Gods,
Which ye refuse, and welcome us with death!
123
“Oh Dryantiades, what a fate is thine!
Fell, grisly son of wrath and vengeance thou!
Flesh-tearing wolf in human form! The wolves,
Thy kin, await the feast of mangled limbs
Wild horses on Pangaeum's mount shall wrench
Asunder from thy carcase shuddering,
When they, these murderers, know thy crime has lain
Stark barrenness accursed upon their land!
Fell, grisly son of wrath and vengeance thou!
Flesh-tearing wolf in human form! The wolves,
Thy kin, await the feast of mangled limbs
Wild horses on Pangaeum's mount shall wrench
Asunder from thy carcase shuddering,
When they, these murderers, know thy crime has lain
Stark barrenness accursed upon their land!
“That day thy fetters, forged of brightest gold
And silver melted from the mountain-side,
Shall mock the trailing glories of the rose
Blossoming there on thy death-spot, O King!
And silver melted from the mountain-side,
Shall mock the trailing glories of the rose
Blossoming there on thy death-spot, O King!
“Thine is a fate so horrible that death
In ghastliest imaginable shape
Shall seem a blessed boon beyond thy hope!
Mad shalt thou be! And maddened by the vine!
Thy lifelong horror shall around thee cling
So close its leaves shall taint thine every meal,
And canopy thy dreams; until the world
Shall seem to thee but one grape-bearing stem,
Which 'tis thy burdened duty evermore
To hack at and to hew. And thou shalt find
That, fast as thou mayst cut, the dream-vine grows
Yet faster. Thou unable to descry
Man's form from that of trees, shalt hack and hew
The limbs of Dryas, thine own son, and slay
Him who by thee of all was best beloved!
In ghastliest imaginable shape
Shall seem a blessed boon beyond thy hope!
Mad shalt thou be! And maddened by the vine!
Thy lifelong horror shall around thee cling
So close its leaves shall taint thine every meal,
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Shall seem to thee but one grape-bearing stem,
Which 'tis thy burdened duty evermore
To hack at and to hew. And thou shalt find
That, fast as thou mayst cut, the dream-vine grows
Yet faster. Thou unable to descry
Man's form from that of trees, shalt hack and hew
The limbs of Dryas, thine own son, and slay
Him who by thee of all was best beloved!
“But hark; the thunder! Speaks the voice of Zeus!”
| Silenus | |