'Show me the way.' But Aphrodite said, 'That may'st thou find. Yet I will place thee whence A way there is: mortals have on it sped; Ay, and return'd thereby: so let us hence.' Then swift to earth her willing prey she bore, And left her on the wide Laconian shore, Alone, at midnight, in the darkness dense. 13 'Twas winter; and as shivering Psyche sat Waiting for morn, she question'd in her mind What place the goddess meant, arrived whereat She might descend to hell, or how should find The way which Gods to living men deny. 'No Orpheus, nay, nor Hercules am I,' Said she, 'to loosen where the great Gods bind.' 14 And when at length the long-delaying dawn Broke on the peaks of huge Taÿgetus, And Psyche through the skirts of dark withdrawn Look'd on that promontory mountainous, And saw high-crested Taleton in snow, Her heart sank, and she wept with head bent low The malice of her foe dispiteous. 15 And seeing near at hand an ancient tower, Deserted now, but once a hold of men, She came thereto, and, though 'twas all her power, Mounted its steep unbroken stair again. 'Surely,' she said, for now a second time She thought to die--'this little height I climb Will prove my shortest road to Pluto's den. 16 'Hence must I come to Tartarus; once there Turn as I may,' and straight to death had sprung; When in the mossy tower the imprison'd air Was shaken, and the hoary stones gave tongue, 'Stand firm! Stand firm!' that rugged voice outcried; 'Of such as choose despondency for guide Hast thou not heard what bitterest fate is sung? 17 'Hearken; for I the road and means can teach How thou may'st come to hell and yet escape. And first must thou, that upper gate to reach, Along these seagirt hills thy journey shape, To where the land in sea dips furthest South At Tænarus and Hades' earthly mouth, Hard by Poseidon's temple at the cape. 18 'Thereby may one descend: but they that make That passage down must go provided well. So take in either hand a honey-cake Of pearlèd barley mix'd with hydromel; And in thy mouth two doits, first having bound The pyx beneath thy robe enwrap'd around: Thus set thou forth; and mark what more I tell. 19 'When thou hast gone alone some half thy road Thou wilt o'ertake a lame outwearied ass; And one that beats him, tottering 'neath his load Of loosely bundl'd wood, will cry _Alas; Help me, kind friend, my faggots to adjust_! But thou that silly cripple's words mistrust; 'Tis planted for thy death. Note it and pass. 20