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

THE THEBAIDdwelt Laius, in an unsettled joyless place upon the brink of theriver Styx, and Laius went with Mercury after the wand hadbeen laid upon him, and they came forward through the chillvery hideous, very deep, shades of hell, and through the blackdark huge intolerable clouds, and through deaf foul mists ofconfusion that were there, until they arrived at Taenaros, hell'swoeful dreadful door, and when the fierce horrible open-jawedfurious bravely fighting strong-headed dog, Cerberus, dog ofOrcus, perceived those men approaching him, he opened themuzzle of the quivering hollow jaws which he had in order torend and to gnaw and swallow those men, for he was thedevilish merciless doorkeeper of hell. And Mercury lifted uphis hand, and laid a stroke of the lethal end of the wand thatwas in his hand upon that dog, so that he remained in a soundand lasting slumber. And after that they, to wit, Mercury andLaius, passed out beyond hell's door.BOOK IIAnd, moreover, Mercury came forward intothe well-knownbright paths along the stormy troubled upper air to Jove'ssmooth, very beautiful, very windy places.Laius, however, cameforward through the very smooth easily traversed roads ofmount Cirrha, and through Phocis, the visible fair-foundedcity—a place in which he himself had been killed and hadperished—and he arrived at Thebes. He feared and dreaded toenter the city owing to its valour and sinfulness. And thuswere the chiefsof the city at that time, drunk and enfeebledafter they had offered sacrifices to Bacchus, the god of wine.Then he assumed, the fearful, horrified, woeful old man Laiushimself assumed the form and shape of a certain Theban prophetand seer, Tiresias his name.And Laius assumed that form forthe reason that he might be the more believed, for visions,39