Lives of Alcyone

FORTY-SEVENTH LIFE 267
enthusiastic disciples—his own son the disputatious Capri, and his
nephews, the eager, earnest Polaris and Capella, the impulsive and
blundering Gemini, and the ever smiling Adrona. The latter was,
however, drawn away from him by the arguments of a wonder-
working brahman, Cetus, who had been acting as chief-priest at the
court of another Raja, Orpheus, whose daughter Herakles had
married. An entire breaking up of the religious arrangements of that
little State followed, for, after Adrona had pledged himself
irrevocably to Cetus. Herakles succeeded in converting King
Orpheus and his sons Siwa and Myna. Cetus was very angry about
this, and eventually he had Adrona left the country with a small band
of followers, and took up their abode in a neighbouring State, which
they tried unsuccessfully to stir up into war against Orpheus. The
first and closest follower of Herakles was his nephew. Ivy, with
whom he had always a peculiarly strong sympathy, born of intimate
relationship in the far-off past.
King Orpheus himself would have followed the Lord, but that
the latter told him that he had a primary duty towards his Kingdom,
and that he must hold it on His behalf. The two kings, Mars and
Orpheus had an agreement between them that their children should
intermarry, and they carried this out as far as possible, as will be
seen from the accompanying chart. In this combined royal family it
was not only Herakles who was so deeply affected; his brother
Rama and his sister Naga were moved as profoundly, and both
desired to offer to the Lord as followers not only themselves but their
entire families—all their sons and daughters. Rama’ s wife Diana
heartily agreed with him in this, but Naga’ s husband Myna hung
back and was unwilling to make so great a sacrifice. Eventually the