Lives of Alcyone

After some years a daughter, Rigel, was born, and then a
second son Hector; and soon after that her husband died, and her
hopes therefore much diminished. From the outer-world point of
view this practically made the fulfilment of the forecast impossible,
but she still cherished in her heart the feeling that somehow the
Gods would carry out their decree, and so she tried to train her
handsome son in riding and swordsmanship, and everything that
would make him a striking and suitable figure in the popular eye.
Presently the old Raja, Cetus, who had seemed likely to live
on indefinitely died suddenly, and the son, Cancer, who succeeded
him proved to be weak and inefficient ruler. His wife, Alastor, the
new Queen, was a scheming and ambitious person, and having no
son herself, she looked with an evil eye on Alcyone’ s handsome
boy as a possible claimant in the future. Alcyone had to keep very
quiet, for Alastor was suspicious and unscrupulous, and only sought
for some pretext to harm her. Her hopes, however, had again risen;
for although at any time the present Raja, who was still a young
man, might have a son, he seemed no stronger in health than he
was in will, and neither he nor the Queen was popular; so she
thought that, in some turn of the strange kaleidoscope of an Indian
court, some opening for her own boy might presently appear.
When her son was eighteen, however, all these hopes were
dashed to the ground in an entirely unexpected manner. She was a
religious woman, and when Herakles, a holy man of great reputation
in the country, was passing through the town, she eagerly offered
herself for the privilege of entertaining him. He stayed with her for
some weeks, and she felt deep affection and reverence for him; and
the nobility of his life and the beauty of his teaching appealed so