Page:Statius (Mozley 1928) v2.djvu/39

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THEBAID, V. 316–341

raiment, and sadly do I stand by the blazing welter of the pyre with blood-stained sword, and lament the feigned deed and empty funeral in fear, should they perchance accuse me, and pray that the omen may be void of harm towards my sire and that so my doubting fears of death may come to nought.[1] For these deserts—since the ruse of my pretended crime wins credence—the throne and kingdom of my father are given me—punishment indeed! Was I to deny their urgent pressure? I submitted, having oft called heaven to witness my innocence and to give protection; I succeed—ah! ghastly sovereignty—to power’s pale image and to a Lemnos sad without its chief. And now ever more and more do they writhe in wakeful anguish, now openly lament, and little by little grow to hate Polyxo; now is it permitted to remember the crime, and to set altars to the dead and adjure with many prayers their buried ashes. Even so when the frightened heifers behold in horror their leader and sire of the stall, to whom belonged the pastures and the glory of the grown herd, lying mangled beneath the Massylian foe,[2] leaderless and dejected goes the herd, and the very fields and rivers with the mute cattle mourn the monarch slain.

“But lo! dividing the waters with brazen prow the Pelian pinewood bark draws nigh, stranger to that wide unadventured sea: the Minyae are her crew; the twofold splashing wave runs white along her towering sides: one would think Ortygia moved uprooted or a sundered mountain sailed upon the deep. But when the oars stayed poised in air and the waters fell silent, there came from the vessel’s midst a voice sweeter than dying swans or quill of

  1. ↑ She weeps from fear lest they suspect the fraud, and prays that it may not be an evil omen to her father, and that she may escape death.
  2. ↑ i.e., a lion, often called Massylian, i.e., African.

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