Togail na Tebe = The Thebiad of Statius : the Irish text

—THE THEBAIDthat fury and madness inflamed her against the people of thewhole isle. Not joyous and happy was it for hosts at night withthe people of that island, but as it were anger and disunion,until it came into the mind of the full-proud hero-folk to goand sack the land of Thrace ; and though their sons and theirpeople were detaining them they did not remain with them.The women, moreover, were sad at the departure of those menfrom them. And I myself was young and inexperienced at thattime," said Hypsipyle, " and no sadness lay upon my mind.The other women moreover used, each of them, to strengthenthe other, as they gazed away to Thrace, where their peoplewere waging war. And once when we remained there," said themaiden, " at midday we heard four sudden cracks of doom inthe air above our heads, so that the caves of the isle of Lemnosshook, and the sea was as if it were a wind that roughened it,and that was a foreboding of dire evil. For then arose the noblewife of Charope, one of the women of the isle of Lemnos, andfury and madness seized her, so that she continued flutteringabout as she threw the town into confusion, tearing her face withher nails. And she assembled the tawn at one house which wasat the top of the town, and she said: ' Bo^^r^cMs^trengtheneé,and yours be a manly aggressive nature, and slay all your mensons, brothers, fathers : and remember the hatred your men haveshown you for the space of three years now.And, O ye wretchedones,' said she, ' have ye not heard that Procne, wife of Tereus,killed her own son, to wit Itys, and gave him to his father inthe guise of other flesh, because of violence which Tereus offeredto her own sister, to wit, Philomela her name. And he cut awaythe point of her tongue lest she should tell against him. Andshe wrote that in her kerchief with the blood of her tongue,and showed it to her sister afterwards, so on that accountProcne slew her son. And what ails you,' said Polyxo, ' that yewill not slay your sons and your men ? As for me, indeed,I shall slay my son and my man, since Venus,' said she, ' istelling us to slay them all, and she will give us somethingbetter than they are.' And the women of the isle of all Lemnoswere of one mind as to following that counsel of Polyxo, andthey resolved to kill alltheir men both young and old.119