_Chor._ Not yet though; grant me share of pleasure too. Let us first ask the tale of her great woe, 650 While she unfolds her life's consuming chances; Her future sufferings let her learn from thee. _Prom._ 'Tis thy work, Io, to grant these their wish, On other grounds and as thy father's kin:[173] For to bewail and moan one's evil chance, Here where one trusts to gain a pitying tear From those who hear,—this is not labour lost. _Io._ I know not how to disobey your wish; So ye shall learn the whole that ye desire In speech full clear. And yet I blush to tell 660 The storm that came from God, and brought the loss Of maiden face, what way it seized on me. For nightly visions coming evermore Into my virgin bower, sought to woo me With glozing words. “O virgin greatly blest, Why art thou still a virgin when thou might'st Attain to highest wedlock? For with dart Of passion for thee Zeus doth glow, and fain Would make thee his. And thou, O child, spurn not The bed of Zeus, but go to Lerna's field, 670 Where feed thy father's flocks and herds, That so the eye of Zeus may find repose From this his craving.” With such visions I Was haunted every evening, till I dared To tell my father all these dreams of night, And he to Pytho and Dodona sent Full many to consult the Gods, that he, Might learn what deeds and words would please Heaven's lords. And they came bringing speech of oracles Shot with dark sayings, dim and hard to know. 680 At last a clear word came to Inachos Charging him plainly, and commanding him To thrust me from my country and my home, To stray at large[174] to utmost bounds of earth; And, should he gainsay, that the fiery bolt Of Zeus should come and sweep away his race. And he, by Loxias' oracles induced, Thrust me, against his will, against mine too, And drove me from my home; but spite of all, The curb of Zeus constrained him this to do. 690 And then forthwith my face and mind were changed; And hornèd, as ye see me, stung to the quick By biting gadfly, I with maddened leap Rushed to Kerchneia's fair and limpid stream, And fount of Lerna.[175] And a giant herdsman, Argos, full rough of temper, followed me, With many an eye beholding, on my track: And him a sudden and unlooked-for doom Deprived of life. And I, by gadfly stung, By scourge from Heaven am driven from land to land. 700 What has been done thou hearest. And if thou Can'st tell what yet remains of woe, declare it; Nor in thy pity soothe me with false words; For hollow words, I deem, are worst of ills.