University of Virginia Library


94

Butes

[_]

(Butes was one of the crew of the Argo. When the vessel neared the Isle of the Sirens, the youth leaped overboard to reach them. But Aphrodite, the Goddess of Love, rescued him.)

Aphrodite, goddess fair,
Sprang from her Idalian height,
Cleft the startled evening air,
Left a glittering trail of light;
Like a star with sudden glare
Sliding down the sky at night;
In her arms, divinely strong,
Bore to Lilybæum's steep
Butes, from all Siren wrong
Lapped in magic slumber deep!
There, the poets say in song,
She for love the youth doth keep;
With her lips, divinely fair,
Pressing oft his mortal cheek!
Ah! how little doth he care!
Ne'er to rouse him will she seek;
Still he slumbers, unaware,
High on Lilybæum's peak.