The Idylliums of Theocritus :: :: University of Virginia Library

If the severity of critics will not allow this piece the title of a pastoral, yet as the actions of gods and heroes used to be sung by the antient herdsmen, we may venture to affirm that our author intended it as such. It contains a relation of the rape of Hylas by the Nymphs, when he went to fetch water for Hercules, and the wandering of that hero, and his extreme grief for the loss of him.

Love, gentle Nicias, of celestial kind,
For us alone sure never was design'd;
Nor do the charms of beauty only sway
Our mortal breasts, the beings of a day:

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Amphitryon's son was taught his power to feel,
Though arm'd with iron breast, and heart of steel,
Who slew the lion fell, lov'd Hylas fair,
Young Hylas graceful with his curling hair.
And, as a son by some wise parent taught,
The love of virtue in his breast he wrought,
By precept and example was his guide,
A faithful friend, for ever at his side;
Whether the morn return'd from Jove's high hall
On snow-white steeds, or noontide mark'd the wall,

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Or night the plaintive chickens warn'd to rest,
When careful mothers brood, and flutter o'er the nest:
That, fully form'd and finish'd to his plan,
Time soon might lead him to a perfect man.
But when bold Jason, with the sons of Greece,
Sail'd the salt seas to gain the golden fleece,
The valiant chiefs from every city came,
Renown'd for virtue, or heroic fame,
With these assembled, for the host's relief,
Alcmena's son, the toil-enduring chief.
Firm Argo bore him cross the yielding tide
With his lov'd friend, young Hylas, at his side;
Between Cyane's rocky isles she past,
Now safely fix'd on firm foundations fast,

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Thence as an eagle swift, with prosperous gales
She flew, and in deep Phasis furl'd her sails.

When first the pleasing Pleiades appear,
And grass-green meads pronounc'd the summer near,
Of chiefs a valiant band, the flower of Greece,
Had plann'd the emprise of the golden fleece,
In Argo lodg'd they spread their swelling sails,
And soon past Hellespont with southern gales,
And smooth Propontis, where the land appears
Turn'd in straight furrows by Cyanean steers.
With eve they land; some on the greensward spread
Their hasty meal; some raise the spacious bed
With plants and shrubs that in the meadows grow,
Sweet flowering rushes, and cyperus low.

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In brazen vase fair Hylas went to bring
Fresh fountain-water from the crystal spring
For Hercules, and Telamon his guest;
One board they spread, associates at the feast:
Fast by, in lowly dale, a well he found
Beset with plants, and various herbage round,
Cerulean celandine, bright maiden-hair,
And parsley green, and bindweed flourish'd there.
Deep in the flood the dance fair Naids led,
And kept strict vigils, to the rustic's dread,
Eunica, Malis form'd the festive ring,
And fair Nychéa, blooming as the spring:
When to the stream the hapless youth apply'd
His vase capacious to receive the tide,
The Naids seiz'd his hand with frantic joy,
All were enamour'd of the Grecian boy;

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He fell, he sunk; as from th'etherial plain
A flaming star falls headlong on the main;
The boatswain cries aloud, ‘Unfurl your sails,
And spread the canvass to the rising gales.’
In vain the Naids sooth'd the weeping boy,
And strove to lull him in their laps to joy.
But care and grief had mark'd Alcides' brow,
Fierce, as a Scythian chief, he grasp'd his bow,

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And his rough club, which well he could command,
The pride and terror of his red right hand:
On Hylas thrice he call'd with voice profound,
Thrice Hylas heard the unavailing sound;
From the deep well soft murmurs touch'd his ear,
The sound seem'd distant, though the voice was near.
As when the hungry lion hears a fawn
Distressful bleat on some far-distant lawn,
Fierce from his covert bolts the savage beast,
And speeds to riot on the ready feast.
Thus, anxious for the boy, Alcides takes
His weary way through woods and pathless brakes;

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Ah wretched they that pine away for love!
O'er hills he rang'd and many a devious grove.
The bold adventurers blam'd the hero's stay,
While long equipt the ready vessel lay;
With anxious hearts they spread their sails by night,
And wish'd his presence with the morning light:
But he with frantic speed regardless stray'd,
Love pierc'd his heart, and all the hero sway'd.
Thus Hylas, honour'd with Alcides' love,
Is number'd with the deities above,
While to Amphitryon's son the heroes give
This shameful term, ‘The Argo's fugitive:’
But soon on foot the chief to Colchos came,
With deeds heroic to redeem his fame.