So he went, Blameless, beneath the guidance of the gods, And reached the eddying Xanthus. There the king Of wide-extending Lycia honoured him Nine days with feasting and with sacrifice. But when the tenth rose-fingered morn had come, He asked him for his message and the sign Whate’er he bore from Prœtus,--which he gave. And when he broke the evil-boding seal, He first enjoined him the Chimæra dire To slay,--of race divine and not of men, In front a lion, dragon in the rear, And goat between, whose breath was as the strength Of fiercely blazing fire. And this he slew, Trusting the portents of the gods. And next He conquered the wild, far-famed Solymi,-- The hardest battle fought with mortal men. The man-like Amazons he next subdued; And as he journed homeward, fearing nought, An ambuscade of Lycia’s bravest men, Attacked him, but he slew them one by one, And they returned no more. And so the king Seeing his race divine by noble deeds Well proven, made the Lycian realm his home, His beauteous daughter gave him for his wife, And made him partner in his royal power. And of the choicest land for corn and wine, The Lycians gave him to possess and till. HORACE. (_Book_ i. _Ode_ xi.) Seek not to know (for ’tis as wrong as vain) What term of life to thee or me The god may grant, Leuconoe, Nor with Chaldean numbers vex thy brain. But calmly take what comes of joy or pain, Whether Jove grant us many winters more, Or this complete our destiny Which makes the stormy Tuscan sea Weary its strength with angry shocks Against the hollow-echoing rocks. Be gently wise, my friend, and while you pour The ruddy wine, live long by living well. While we are speaking, hark! time’s envious knell! Let us enjoy to-day, nor borrow Vague grief by thinking of to-morrow. ORPHEUS AND EURYDICE. (_From_ VIRGIL--_Georgic_ IV. 457-527.) The fair, young bride of Orpheus, as she fled From Aristæus who designed her ill, With hasty feet, along the river bank Of Hebrus, found her death. For in her way There lurked a baleful serpent ’mid the grass. Full long the choir of Dryads mourned her fate, And set the mountains wailing with their woe. Pangæus answered back to Rhodope, and grief Held all the land of Rhesus, dear to Mars; And Hebrus, weeping, rolled to distant shores The story of the dead Eurydice.