Page:Statius (Mozley 1928) v2.djvu/73

Far-travelling Rumour glides through the Danaan cities, and tells that the Inachidae are ordaining sacred rites for the new tomb, and games thereto, whereby their martial valour may be kindled and have foretaste of the sweat of war. Customary among the Greeks is such a festival: first^[1] did the dutiful Alcides contest this honour with Pelops in the fields of Pisa, and brush the dust of combat from his hair with the wild-olive spray; next is celebrated the freeing of Phocis from the serpent’s coils, the battle of the boy Apollo’s quiver; then the dark cult of Palaemon is solemnized about the gloomy altars, so oft as undaunted Leucothea renews her grief, and in the time of festival comes to the welcoming shores: from end to end Isthmos resounds with lamentation and Echionian Thebes makes answering wail. And now the peerless princes whose rearing links Argos with heaven, princes whose mighty names the Aonian^[2] land and Tyrian mothers utter with sighs, meet in rivalry and arouse their naked vigour to the fray: just as the two-banked galleys that must venture the unknown deep, whether they provoke the stormy Tyrrhenian or the calm Aegean sea, first prove on a smooth lake their tackling and rudder and nimble oars, and learn to face the real perils; but when their crews are