 | Lays and Legends of Ancient Greece, with Other Poems |  |
110
AESCHYLUS.
The occupation of watching the vineyards, in which the father of tragedy is here represented as engaged, when the first inspiration came to his soul by the Epiphany of the patron god of the “goat song,” is often alluded to by ancient writers. See Song of Solomon, i. 6. The works of the poet alluded to in the ballad, are the Agamemnon, the Choephorœ, the Furies, the Seven against Thebes, and the Prometheus Bound, being five out of the seven extant. The allusion to Homer, in p. 112, is with reference to a well known saying of the bard, reported by Athenæus (viii. p. 348), that his numerous tragedies were only “slices from the great banquet of Homeric dainties.”
“εφη δε Αισχυλος μειρακιον ων καθευδειν εν αγρω φυλασσων σταφυλας, και οι Διονυσον επισταντα κελευσαι
τραγωδιαν ποιειν: ως δε ην ημερα (πειθεσθαι γαρ εθελειν)
ραστα ηδη πειρωμενος ποιειν.”—Pausanias.
By the sacred-winding way,
Where the pomp was yearly marshalled
On Demeter's festal day,
Sate a youth, the vineyard watching,
'Neath the moony welkin fair,
'Mid the rich and leafy greenness,
Gazing mutely through the air;
Sate and mused, high-vaulting fancies
Taming with devoutest fear;
Mingling thoughts of far adventure
With the peaceful goddess near.
111
Thus his lonely watch he kept,
O'er each dim conception brooding,
Till the musing watchman slept.
Through his soft sleep's dreamy rapture,
Festive notes in tinkling war
Thrilled his ear; his eye bright Bromius,
High-borne in a tiger-car,
Smote with wonder. Soft-limbed beauty
Shone in him divinely fair,
Swam his eye, in wavy gambol,
Floated free his sun-bright hair;
Crimson-mantled health, not faintly,
O'er his rounded cheeks was spread,
Coolest ivy bound his temples,
Horns of strength rayed from his head.
Thus the blooming vine-god beauteous
Lighted on the grassy sod,
And, with keen-felt presence glowingly,
To the mortal spake the god.
“Son of Euphorion, from Olympus
Sent, I come with haste to thee
Not unworthy; thou my singer
And Apollo's bard shalt be.
112
The strong love that stirs thy soul;
Thou shalt run, divinely strengthened,
To the glory-glittering goal.
Where the stable-banded chorus
Voices Dionysus' praise,
Thou shalt lead their songs in triumph,
Through the curious-measured maze.
From the cloudy dim tradition
Thou shalt call the heroes old;
To thy great conception imaged,
Kings and gods thine art shall mould.
Thou from Homer's banquet various
Shalt nicely cull the dainty feast;
And the king of men victorious,
From Hades' iron hold released,
At thy call shall march to Argos,
At thy word retrace his path
Back to the home where Clytemnestra
Stabs him in the treacherous bath.
Thou the son shalt arm with vengeance,
Till the blood-stained mother die;
At thy call the hell-hounds furious,
With a sense-confounding cry,
113
O'er the land and o'er the sea,
Wan and weary, worn and wasted,
Till a god shall speak him free.
Thou with spears the welkin maddening,
And with fierce steeds snorting war,
To Thebes shalt guide a host white-shielded,
In the dust-enveloped car.
Thou the haughty-hearted Titan,
That with bitter words did rail
'Gainst the Thunderer, to the storm-swept
Ice-ribbed, snow-capt crag shalt nail.”
Thus with words of lofty promise,
To the mortal spake the god;
Thrilled him with his keen-felt presence,
Touched him with his pine-tipt rod,
And waked the dreamer. He, upstarting
From his sweet entrancement, saw
In thin air the god evanishing,
And he worshipped him with awe.
And he vowed to be his singer,
And he sang full many a lay,
With religious power deep-throated,
From that consecrating day.
114
To his ward with reverent care;
And voiced a fearless inspiration,
That men felt a god was there;
Till, with ivy crowned victorious,
He was hailed by Attic throngs:
Time their high approval glorious
Through far-sounding halls prolongs.
| Lays and Legends of Ancient Greece, with Other Poems | |