Page:Statius (Mozley 1928) v1.djvu/443

savage whelps: even so stirred by rage the chieftain dreams of war against his absent brother.

And now Aurora rising from her Mygdonian^[1] resting-place had scattered the cold shadows from the high heaven, and shaking the dew-drops from her hair blushed deep in the sun’s pursuing beams; toward her through the clouds the rosy morning-star turns his late fires, and with slow steed leaves an alien world, until the fiery father’s orb be full replenished and he forbid his sister to usurp his rays. Then did the aged son of Talaus and with no long delay the heroes twain of Dirce and of Achelous^[2] rise swiftly from their couches. Upon them, wearied by blows and endurance of the storm, had Sleep poured all his horn’s bounty; but scant repose visited the breast of the Inachian monarch, while in his thoughts he broods upon heaven’s will and the new ties of friendship, and wonders what destinies he is admitting to his house in his new-found sons-in-law. They meet in the mid chambers of the palace, and draw nigh and grasp each other’s hand in turn, then seat themselves where they may best make interchange of secret counsel, and, the others hesitating, Adrastus thus begins: “Peerless youths, whom a propitious night has brought heaven-prompted to my realm, whose steps my own Apollo has guided even to my palace in spite of rain and lightning-flash and the Thunderer’s unseasonable sky, I cannot deem it unknown to you and the Pelasgian folk, how zealous a crowd of suitors seeks alliance with my house; for my two daughters, joyful pledge of grandchildren, are reaching equal years of full-grown maidenhood. How great their beauty and their modesty, trust not a father’s word, nay, ye could