A Book of Myths, by Jean Lang - Umnet

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had reached the river Lycormas did the angry father own that his pursuit had been in vain. Over the swift-flowing stream flew the chariot driven by Idas, but Evenos knew that his horses, flecked with white foam, pumping each breath from hearts that were strained to breaking-point, no longer could go on with the chase. The passage of that deep stream would destroy them. The fierce water would sweep the wearied beasts down in its impelling current, and he with them. A shamed man would he be forever. Not for a moment did he hesitate, but drew his sharp sword from his belt and plunged it into the breast of one steed and then of the other who had been so willing and who yet had failed him in the end. And then, as they, still in their traces, neighed shrilly aloud, and then fell over and died where they lay, Evenos, with a great cry, leaped into the river. Over his head closed the eddies of the peat-brown water. Once only did he throw up his arms to ask the gods for mercy; then did his body drift down with the stream, and his soul hastened downwards to the Shades. And from that day the river Lycormas no more was known by that name, but was called the river Evenos forever. Onwards, triumphantly, drove Idas, but soon he knew that a greater than Evenos had entered in the chase, and that the jealous sun-god's chariot was in pursuit of the winged car of Neptune. Quickly it gained on him--soon it would have swept down on him--a hawk indeed, this time, striking surely its helpless prey--but even as Apollo saw the white face of Marpessa and knew that he was the victor, a mighty thunderbolt that made the mountains shake, and rolled its echoes through the lonely fastnesses of a thousand hills, was sent to earth by Jupiter. While the echoes still re-echoed, there came from Olympus the voice of Zeus himself. "Let her decide!" he said. Apollo, like a white flame blown backward by the wind, withheld his hands that would have seized from Idas the woman who was his heart's desire. And then he spoke, and while his burning gaze was fixed upon her, and his face, in beautiful fury, was more perfect than any exquisite picture
of her dreams, his voice was as the voice of the sea as it calls to the shore in the moonlit hours, as the bird that sings in the darkness of a tropic night to its longing mate. "Marpessa!" he cried, "Marpessa! wilt thou not come to me? No woe nor trouble, never any pain can touch me. Yet woe indeed was mine when first I saw thy fairest face. For even now dost thou hasten to sorrow, to darkness, to the dark-shadowed tomb. Thou art but mortal! thy beauty is short-lived. Thy love for mortal man shall quickly fade and die. Come to me, Marpessa, and my kisses on your lips shall make thee immortal! Together we shall bring the sunbeams to a cold, dark land! Together shall we coax the spring flowers from the still, dead earth! Together we shall bring to men the golden harvest, and deck the trees of autumn in our liveries of red and gold. I love thee, Marpessa--not as mere mortal loves do I love thee. Come to me, Marpessa--my Love--my Desire!" When his voice was silent, it seemed as if the very earth itself with all its thousand echoes still breathed his words: "Marpessa--my Love--my Desire." Abashed before the god's entreaties stood Idas. And the heart of Marpessa was torn as she heard the burning words of the beautiful Apollo still ringing through her head, and saw her mortal lover, silent, white-lipped, gazing first at the god and then into her own pale face. At length he spoke: "After such argument what can I plead? Or what pale promise make? Yet since it is In woman to pity rather than to aspire, A little I will speak. I love thee then Not only for thy body packed with sweet Of all this world, that cup of brimming June, That jar of violet wine set in the air, That palest rose sweet in the night of life; Nor for that stirring bosom all besieged By drowsing lovers, or thy perilous hair; Nor for that face that might indeed provoke Invasion of old cities; no, nor all Thy freshness stealing on me like strange sleep. Nor for this only do I love thee, but Because Infinity upon thee broods; And thou art full of whispers and of shadows. Thou meanest what the sea has striven to say So long, and yearned up the cliffs to tell; Thou art what all the winds
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A Book of Myths, by Jean Lang The P
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and lost its beauty, there yet rema
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in any language. The writer will fe
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PYGMALION 11 PHAETON 16 ENDYMION 26
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Thus did Psyche lose her fear, and
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that was to be his heritage. Promet
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(Afterthought). For Epimethus it wa
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endure the torment of having a foul
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most perfect semblance of men and o
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had made sacred to Galatea. On the
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But at last she said to him, "Naugh
Page 23 and 24: From the courtyard of the Palace th
Page 25 and 26: wrought. That blazing chariot of th
Page 27 and 28: suburban garden. That unlettered sp
Page 29 and 30: [Illustration: SHE CHECKED HER HOUN
Page 31 and 32: deep, hidden meaning in each part o
Page 33 and 34: permission he sought, but solemnly
Page 35 and 36: night, but as that of evening when
Page 37 and 38: When the quest of the Argonauts was
Page 39 and 40: But as the first fierce storm that
Page 41 and 42: Once upon a time, so goes the tale,
Page 43 and 44: which the fame of the fair Psyche h
Page 45 and 46: arren rocks, the utter forsakenness
Page 47 and 48: deny anything to Psyche, and on the
Page 49 and 50: As a martyr walks to death, so did
Page 51 and 52: sprang from the high cliff on which
Page 53 and 54: And again the reeds murmured, "Bewa
Page 55 and 56: "Oh, foolish one," it said, "why do
Page 57 and 58: its ugly tomb in the dark soil, and
Page 59 and 60: and found, amazed, a fearless, whit
Page 61 and 62: "Aimed on the left side his well-ha
Page 63 and 64: ATALANTA Atalanta, daughter of the
Page 65 and 66: thou dost race with me, the goal is
Page 67 and 68: To Pallas Athené, goddess of craft
Page 69 and 70: them with pictures such as no skill
Page 71 and 72: shall fall--for oft by weathers tha
Page 73: dallying with Idas in the shadowy w
Page 77 and 78: were life to one whose beauty had w
Page 79 and 80: overshadowed by the past, and even
Page 81 and 82: "And now from their fountains In En
Page 83 and 84: daily had to face, sailed the seas
Page 85 and 86: came empty-handed, and as he stood
Page 87 and 88: But Athené said Nay, at his mother
Page 89 and 90: "but no mortal can obtain it, for o
Page 91 and 92: living as that of a flower in sprin
Page 93 and 94: wife. No marriage feast so splendid
Page 95 and 96: "Surely this stranger comes from Ol
Page 97 and 98: sons, and each son is more than the
Page 99 and 100: But the gods laughed. Like a harsh
Page 101 and 102: Zephyrus, god of the South Wind, ha
Page 103 and 104: This is the story of Midas, one of
Page 105 and 106: But when Midas, with the healthy ap
Page 107 and 108: First of all Pan took his fragile r
Page 109 and 110: hiding-place. The trees and shrubs
Page 111 and 112: For the air was full of the clamoro
Page 113 and 114: around the cave lurked the long dar
Page 115 and 116: like a ship driven on by the long o
Page 117 and 118: In the fragrance of the blossom of
Page 119 and 120: Wind and the North Wind wrestle tog
Page 121 and 122: For, from the carcase of one of the
Page 123 and 124: so fair. She had only tasted the jo
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she held most dear. "Give me back m
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LATONA AND THE RUSTICS Through the
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defiled." As she spoke, a change, s
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smiling at the remembrance of her m
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Grief had slain the body of Echo. O
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Fourteen years only have passed sin
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at length they looked like the pini
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higher, higher still, and when he s
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and give stare for stare to golden-
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voice sang snatches of song of his
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shall not hide him, nor shall his d
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whose white arms against the greenw
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fashioned for himself an instrument
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spear-wound through it. With terrib
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as she spoke, her tears and his blo
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the river), 'The only way, since go
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at length she stood on the edge of
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and so, by the hands of his river,
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Milton. Pan was dead, and the gods
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unutterable woe upon any of the son
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Near St. Goar, there rises out of t
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[7] Archilochus of Paros. [8] Fiona
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to come was possessed by Beowulf. I
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And Odin, seeing himself outwitted
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oath from anything in all nature, a
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Thus Loki, taking upon himself the
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Matthew Arnold. Gladly Hermoder mad
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were fit to receive him, and peace
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took place those things that are to
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lack marshes, unknowing that in the
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swiftly know whence ye have hither
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Grendel's scaly hide. Up and down t
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win, while he may, warlike fame in
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homeland and had told his kinsman t
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forth scorchingly, and its great mo
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FOOTNOTES: [9] Shakespeare (Julius
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would be allowed to retain his king
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"No one sent me," he said. "My moth
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"I had taken thee for another man,
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Leaving them behind with twenty tho
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comrades whose eyes never more woul
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humbly confessing his sins and begg
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King of Heaven! * * * * * May thy f
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Charlemagne then returned to Aix, a
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their love. To them in course of ti
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what her servants had scorned to do
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he stood, and greeted him in the gl
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the shattered victims of the destro
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Then said her brothers: "In Him we
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And Kemoc answered: "It is truth."
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In many ancient manuscripts we get
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"You will have a little grave apart
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questions about Naoise, she met a s
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delivered his message, and when he
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e alive. We will go with her to ano
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ut on Loch Awe and Loch Fyne, Loch
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But Deirdrê said, very quickly: "N
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the pure sand. O that I might not d
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heart of the king. For when Lavarca
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And Ainle also craved that death mi
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[18] Inistrynich. [19] Dun Sween. [
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133, 139, 140, 141, 142, 145, 164,
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Belvidere, Apollo, 11 Ben Cruachan,
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Cerberus, 34 Ceyx, 144, 145, 146, 1
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Dædalus, 181, 182, 183, 184, 185,
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Dun Sween, 324 Durendala, 276, 284,
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Fergus, 321, 322, 323, 325, 326, 32
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Greece, 26, 71, 72, 74, 154, 192, 1
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Ibycus, 192, 194, 195, 196 Icarus,
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Lebynthos, 186 Leinster, Book of, 3
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Meleager, 69, 70, 72, 74, 75, 76, 7
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North Cape, 260 North Sea, 244 Norw
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Persephone, 80, 161, 164, 165, 167
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280, 281, 282, 283, 284, 285, 286,
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Sleipnir, 236 Socrates, 153 Somnus,
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Tyrian, 86 Uffizi Palace, 124 Ulste
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The author also used alternative sp
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ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.
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This eBook is for the use of anyone
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eceipt of the work. - You comply wi
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harmless from all liability, costs
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