‘And this legend do thou write, that I will scratch on thy walls,— _This man Love slew_! _Wayfarer_, _pass not heedless by_, _But stand_, _and say_, “_he had a cruel darling_.”’ Therewith he seized a stone, and laid it against the wall, as high as the middle of the doorposts, a dreadful stone, and from the lintel he fastened the slender halter, and cast the noose about his neck, and kicked away the support from under his foot, and there was he hanged dead. But the beloved opened the door, and saw the dead man hanging there in the court, unmoved of heart, and tearless for the strange, woful death; but on the dead man were all the garments of youth defiled. Then forth went the beloved to the contests of the wrestlers, and there was heart-set on the delightful bathing-places, and even thereby encountered the very God dishonoured, for Love stood on a pedestal of stone above the waters. {124} And lo, the statue leaped, and slew that cruel one, and the water was red with blood, but the voice of the slain kept floating to the brim. _Rejoice_, _ye lovers_, _for he that hated is slain_. _Love_, _all ye beloved_, _for the God knoweth how to deal righteous judgment_. IDYL XXIV THE INFANT HERACLES _This poem describes the earliest feat of Heracles_, _the slaying of the snakes sent against him by Hera_, _and gives an account of the hero’s training_. _The vivacity and tenderness of the pictures of domestic life_, _and the minute knowledge of expiatory ceremonies seem to stamp this idyl as the work of Theocritus_. _As the following poem also deals with an adventure of Heracles_, _it seems not impossible that Theocritus wrote_, _or contemplated writing_, _a Heraclean epic_, _in a series of idyls_. * * * * * WHEN Heracles was but ten months old, the lady of Midea, even Alcmena, took him, on a time, and Iphicles his brother, younger by one night, and gave them both their bath, and their fill of milk, then laid them down in the buckler of bronze, that goodly piece whereof Amphitryon had strippen the fallen Pterelaus. And then the lady stroked her children’s heads, and spoke, saying:— ‘Sleep, my little ones, a light delicious sleep; sleep, soul of mine, two brothers, babes unharmed; blessed be your sleep, and blessed may ye come to the dawn.’ So speaking she rocked the huge shield, and in a moment sleep laid hold on them.