Page:Statius (Mozley 1928) v1.djvu/603

to be held shameful, nought too mean in such a pass as ours. Thee now in place of the Winds and rainy Jupiter do we supplicate, do thou restore our ebbing might and fill again our spiritless hearts; so may thy charge grow under suspicious stars! Only let Jupiter grant us to return, what high-piled booty of war shalt thou be given! With the blood of numerous herds of Dirce will I recompense thee, O goddess, and a mighty altar shall mark this grove.” He spoke, but a fevered gasping makes havoc of his words even in mid-utterance, and with the rush of breath his dry tongue stutters; a like pallor holds all his warriors, and like panting of the hollow xheeks. With downcast eyes the Lemnian makes answer: “No goddess indeed am I, to help you, though of heaven be my descent; would that my griefs were not more than mortal! ’Tis an entrusted pledge you behold me nursing, and a nurse herself bereaved. But whether my sons found any lap or breasts to suckle them, heaven knoweth,—and yet I had once a kingdom and a mighty father. But why do I speak thus, and stay you in your weariness from the waters ye desire? Come now with me, perchance Langia’s stream yet runs unfailing; for even beneath the path of the furious Crab ’tis ever wont to flow, yea, though the shaggy hide of the Icarian star^[1] be blazing.” Forthwith, lest she prove a tardy guide to the Pelasgians, she sets down the clinging infant—alas! poor child!—on the grass near by—so willed the Fates—and when he would not be put down consoled his pretty tears with flowers heaped around and coaxing murmurs: like the Berecyntian mother, while she bids the Curetes