Page:Statius (Mozley 1928) v2.djvu/93

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THEBAID, VI. 261–287

crowds, while the fields were still rosy in the dawn, the warrior company took their seats; there the heroes delight to reckon the number of the motley multitude, and scan the faces and the dress of their fellows, and they feel the glad confidence of a mighty host. hither they drag a hundred black bulls, the strength of the herd, slow-paced and straining; as many cows of similar hue, and bullocks with foreheads not yet crescent-crowned.[1]

Then the ancient line of great-hearted sires is borne along, in images marvellously fashioned to a living likeness. First the Tirynthian crushes the gasping lion against the strong pressure of his breast and breaks it upon his own bones; him the Inachidae behold not without terror, though he be in bronze and their own famous hero. Next in order is seen father Inachus reclining leftward on the mound of a reedy bank and letting the streaming urn flow free. Io, already prone[2] and the sorrow of her sire, sees behind her back Argus starred with eyes that know no setting. But kindlier Jupiter had raised her erect in the Pharian fields, and already was Aurora[3] giving her gracious welcome. Then father Tantalus, not he who hangs above the deceiving waters and snatches the empty wind of the elusive branch, but the great Thunderer’s god-fearing guest is borne along. Elsewhere triumphant in his car Pelops handles the reins of Neptune,[4] and Myrtilos the charioteer grasps at the bounding wheels, as the swift axle leaves him far and farther behind. Grave Acrisius too and the dread likeness of Coroebus and Danaë’s guilty bosom, and Amymone[5] in sadness

  1. ↑ i.e., with horns.
  2. ↑ i.e., on all fours. Statius appears to mean that there were two representations of Io, one of her as a heifer, and one of her in Egypt, when Jupiter “had raised her erect again.”
  3. ↑ i.e., the East.
  4. ↑ Pelops was a favourite of Poseidon, cf. Pindar, Ol. i. 39.
  5. ↑ A daughter of Danaus, to whom Poseidon showed a spring at Lerna in time of drought, and ravished her there.

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