... Even as clouds compelled by urgent push of the breezes Float from the brow uplift of a snow-envelopèd mountain, So from Theseus passed all prayer and behest of his father. Waited the sire meanwhile, looked out from his tower over ocean, Wasted his anxious eyes in futile labor of weeping, Waited expectant,--saw to the southward sails black-bellied-- Hurled him headlong down from the horrid steep to destruction,-- Weening hateful Fate had severed the fortune of Theseus. Theseus, then, as he paced that gloom of the home of his father, Insolent Theseus knew himself what manner of evil He with a careless heart had aforetime dealt Ariadne,-- Fixed Ariadne that still, still stared where the ship had receded,-- Wounded, revolving in heart her countless muster of sorrows. [Illustration: FIG. 144. THE REVELS OF BACCHUS AND ARIADNE] =178. Bacchus and Ariadne.= But for the deserted daughter of Minos a happier fate was yet reserved. This island, on which she had been abandoned, was Naxos, loved and especially haunted by Bacchus, where with his train of reeling devotees he was wont to hold high carnival. ... Sweeping over the shore, lo, beautiful, blooming Iacchus,-- Chorused of Satyrs in dance and of Nysian-born Sileni,-- Seeking fair Ariadne,--afire with flame of a lover! Lightly around him leaped Bacchantès, strenuous, frenzied, Nodding their heads, "Euhoe!" to the cry, "Euhoe, O Bacchus!" Some--enwreathèd spears of Iacchus madly were waving; Some--ensanguined limbs of the bullock, quivering, brandished; Some--were twining themselves with sinuous snakes that twisted; Some--with vessels of signs mysterious, passed in procession-- Symbols profound that in vain the profane may seek to decipher; Certain struck with the palms--with tapered fingers on timbrels, Others the tenuous clash of the rounded cymbals awakened;-- Brayed with a raucous roar through the turmoil many a trumpet, Many a stridulous fife went, shrill, barbarian, shrieking.[268] So the grieving, much-wronged Ariadne was consoled for the loss of her mortal spouse by an immortal lover. The blooming god of the vine wooed and won her. After her death, the golden crown that he had given her was transferred by him to the heavens. As it mounted the ethereal spaces, its gems, growing in brightness, became stars; and still it remains fixed, as a constellation, between the kneeling Hercules and the man that holds the serpent. =179. The Amazons.= As king of Athens, it is said that Theseus undertook an expedition against the Amazons. Assailing them before they had recovered from the attack of Hercules, he carried off their queen Antiope; but they in turn, invading the country of Athens, penetrated into the city itself; and there was fought the final battle in which Theseus overcame them.