University of Virginia Library

Dead ferns were on the hill: a hunter there
Stood in bright garments and with shining hair,
Wistfully looking on the wood below:
The wood, which o'er the slopes went rolling slow,
And stretched at large along the mighty plain.
There was a river wandering to the main,
Seeking his way by many a laggard twist,
And still companioned by the grey-winged mist.
The pale sea lay beyond, and had gone back
O'er many a fathom of his daily track,
And still was ebbing; when a touch of flame
From the sun-shrouding cloud escaped and came,
And raised that watcher's face to the mild sky.
But back upon the wood he turned his eye;
And presently, as one forgetting hope,
Turned nightwards down Hymettus' eastern slope.

It was unhappy Cephalus, who slew
His jealous Procris, when he seemed to woo
Another mistress, as the poets tell.
“Come, gentle gale,” he cried in forest dell,
“Come Aura,” when with toils foredone he sank
After the chase upon yon forest bank.
And she, who loved him best, crept nigh to see
What mortal maid or forest deity
He called to him by name; and this the more
Because Aurora stole his love before:
And, when she heard him, with great eagerness
Forth through the rustling branches she did press;
And the next moment came the crushing spear,
And pinned her down: and after it anear
Leaped Cephalus, who had cast it at the sound,
Deeming a wild beast there: alas, he found
No forest creature, but his dying love.
Whom then he left at last, and went above,
Mounting the Attic hill in agony:
And thenceforth wandered over land and sea.

But in the wood lay Procris slain: her breast
Transfixed, and her half-naked limbs at rest.
And first there stole a little satyr out,
Aware of death and beauty, who about
Limped on his elvish hooves: anon, anon
Behold another, who came creeping on
With doggish look: but when each saw his mate,
At distance from the beauteous corpse they sate,
And waited quivering: then was begun
A talk betwixt that and the other one.

Said First, “Go thou, and tell old Erechtheus
That in the wood his daughter lieth thus.”
Said Second, “Go thou, tell her sister dear,
Orithyia, that Procris lieth here.”
Said First, “One messenger may both achieve.”
Said Second, “Go thou, and on guard me leave.”
Said First, “Orithyia since Boreas sped,
She and her father stay not in one sted.”
Said Second, “One child fled, and one now slain,
Shall I bid that old king have double pain?”

And they had wrangled more: but with a blaze
Came Artemis from out the cloud-spread rays
Sudden upon the green: great Artemis,
Who gave at first the spear that could not miss,
And by her gift had wrought this piteous deed.
Then ran they fast away, and leaped with speed
Into the bush: but to the body straight
In her brave buskins walked the goddess great:
And with her bugle called her nymphs; who came
By the wood paths, and stood around the dame.

Then Artemis: “Girls, her who here lies slain
Oft have ye seen on mountain and on plain
At mortal huntings bear away the spoils.
Such gifts I gave: a dog, into the toils
Who still for her should drive the herding deer:
And none escaped my other gift, the spear.
I gave them that she might her love reclaim
From false Aurora: but she thought no shame
Perversely with a a man my gifts to part,
And from his arm received the deadly dart.
Take warning hence: with lovers never share
The dreadful arms which by my gift ye bear.
Oft false Aurora tempted Cephalus,
Saying that his poor wife was traitorous,
That she might win him to herself: and he
At last to make this trial did agree—
He went away long time: and came at last
Disguised like one by tempest thither cast:
Aod tempted her with gold and vestures rare
To make her to himself her faith forswear.
Fool! She despite his vestures and his gold
Faith to his present absence long did hold:
Yet lastly, so like Cephalus he seemed,
So bright of cheer, that sin she scarce it deemed,
Since Cephalus must sure be dead, to yield.
Then, in her yielding hour, he stood revealed,
And shame thence drove her into woody Crete.
Now, next in turn, she used the same deceit:
For, giving her my dog and spear, I laid
A charm on her to seem a stranger maid,
And bore her back to the Athenian shore.
There at the hunts the prize she ever bore:
Till Cephalus, (whom now Aurora held,)
Begged for the dog and spear: which she withheld,
Vnless he promised love to her alone:
Which promised, in that moment she was known,
And Cephalus ashamed—But now ye see
The sad conclusion of this history.
Wherefore take up the body: and our care
Shall bury her: nor need we to prepare
The pourings which the mortal give the dead:
Nor after burning shall there need be shed
The honied milk, nor purple froth of wine,
Nor first-cut hair: for she shall be divine,
Not sinking to the weary ghosts beneath:
Because that by my gifts she met her death.”

She said, and from a cloud which swept the ground
Her chariot half appeared; whose back was bound
With studs of brass: the mighty wheels appeared:
And from within the large white cloud was heard
The neighing of the horses. The soft weight
Of Procris to the car was lifted straight,
And all passed thence, ascending heavenward,
Leaving the trees, which eyed the blood-bent sward.

Thenceforth sad Cephalus in many lands
Won fame enough: for still fell to his hands
The monsters, by the heroes hunted then,
Which devastated the fair works of men.
But joyless was his might: and still he mourned
The gift by which, wherever he sojourned,
Glory was won, the never-erring spear.
At length in his long travel he drew near
The shrine of Loxias, the Delphic rock:
Where, while a sleep divine his sense did lock,
The Brother of great Artemis stood plain,
Bidding him go far as the western main
To find deliverance: and he rose, and bent
His steps across the boundless continent
O'er the Etolian hills: until he stood
On the Leucadian cliff above the flood.
But the great Bather in the sea was there
Before him: all the west was in a flare
Of liquid fire from the down-rushing day:
A hasty joy of death upon him lay;
And, even whenas the sun first touched the sea,
He went to Procris, fading utterly.