Another bed is strewn for beautiful Adonis, one bed Cypris keeps, and one the rosy-armed Adonis. A bridegroom of eighteen or nineteen years is he, his kisses are not rough, the golden down being yet upon his lips! And now, good-night to Cypris, in the arms of her lover! But lo, in the morning we will all of us gather with the dew, and carry him forth among the waves that break upon the beach, and with locks unloosed, and ungirt raiment falling to the ankles, and bosoms bare will we begin our shrill sweet song. Thou only, dear Adonis, so men tell, thou only of the demigods dost visit both this world and the stream of Acheron. For Agamemnon had no such lot, nor Aias, that mighty lord of the terrible anger, nor Hector, the eldest born of the twenty sons of Hecabe, nor Patroclus, nor Pyrrhus, that returned out of Troyland, nor the heroes of yet more ancient days, the Lapithae and Deucalion’s sons, nor the sons of Pelops, and the chiefs of Pelasgian Argus. Be gracious now, dear Adonis, and propitious even in the coming year. Dear to us has thine advent been, Adonis, and dear shall it be when thou comest again. _Gorgo_. Praxinoë, the woman is cleverer than we fancied! Happy woman to know so much, thrice happy to have so sweet a voice. Well, all the same, it is time to be making for home. Diocleides has not had his dinner, and the man is all vinegar,—don’t venture near him when he is kept waiting for dinner. Farewell, beloved Adonis, may you find us glad at your next coming! IDYL XVI _In_ 265 B.C. _Sicily was devastated by the Carthaginians_, _and by the companies of disciplined free-lances who called themselves Mamertines_, _or Mars’s men_. _The hopes of the Greek inhabitants of the island were centred in Hiero_, _son of Hierocles_, _who was about to besiege Messana_ (_then held by the Carthaginians_) _and who had revived the courage of the Syracusans_. _To him Theocritus addressed this idyl_, _in which he complains of the sordid indifference of the rich_, _rehearses the merits of song_, _dilates on the true nature of wealth_, _and of the happy lift_, _and finally expresses his hope that Hiero will rid the isle of the foreign foe_, _and will restore peace and pastoral joys_. _The idyl contains some allusions to Simonides_, _the old lyric poet_, _and to his relations with the famous Hiero tyrant of Syracuse_. * * * * *