_Prom._ Since ye are eager, I will not refuse To utter fully all that ye desire. Thee, Io, first I'll tell thy wanderings wild, Thou, write it in the tablets of thy mind. When thou shalt cross the straits, of continents The boundary,[186] take thou the onward path On to the fiery-hued and sun-tracked East. 810 [And first of all, to frozen Northern blasts Thou'lt come, and there beware the rushing whirl, Lest it should come upon thee suddenly, And sweep thee onward with the cloud-rack wild;][187] Crossing the sea-surf till thou come at last Unto Kisthene's Gorgoneian plains, Where dwell the grey-haired virgin Phorkides,[188] Three, swan-shaped, with one eye between them all And but one tooth; whom nor the sun beholds With radiant beams, nor yet the moon by night: And near them are their wingèd sisters three, The Gorgons, serpent-tressed, and hating men, Whom mortal wight may not behold and live. 820 *Such is one ill I bid thee guard against; Now hear another monstrous sight: Beware The sharp-beaked hounds of Zeus that never bark,[189] The Gryphons, and the one-eyed, mounted host Of Arimaspians, who around the stream That flows o'er gold, the ford of Pluto, dwell:[190] Draw not thou nigh to them. But distant land Thou shalt approach, the swarthy tribes who dwell By the sun's fountain,[191] Æthiopia's stream: By its banks wend thy way until thou come To that great fall where from the Bybline hills 830 The Neilos pours its pure and holy flood; And it shall guide thee to Neilotic land, Three-angled, where, O Io, 'tis decreed For thee and for thy progeny to found A far-off colony. And if of this Aught seem to thee as stammering speech obscure, Ask yet again and learn it thoroughly: Far more of leisure have I than I like. _Chor._ If thou hast aught to add, aught left untold Of her sore-wasting wanderings, speak it out; 840 But if thou hast said all, then grant to us The boon we asked. Thou dost not, sure, forget it.