WHEN Cypris saw Adonis, In death already lying With all his locks dishevelled, And cheeks turned wan and ghastly, She bade the Loves attendant To bring the boar before her. And lo, the winged ones, fleetly They scoured through all the wild wood; The wretched boar they tracked him, And bound and doubly bound him. One fixed on him a halter, And dragged him on, a captive, Another drave him onward, And smote him with his arrows. But terror-struck the beast came, For much he feared Cythere. To him spake Aphrodite,— ‘Of wild beasts all the vilest, This thigh, by thee was ’t wounded? Was ’t thou that smote my lover?’ To her the beast made answer— ‘I swear to thee, Cythere, By thee, and by thy lover, Yea, and by these my fetters, And them that do pursue me,— Thy lord, thy lovely lover I never willed to wound him; I saw him, like a statue, And could not bide the burning, Nay, for his thigh was naked, And mad was I to kiss it, And thus my tusk it harmed him. Take these my tusks, O Cypris, And break them, and chastise them, For wherefore should I wear them, These passionate defences? If this doth not suffice thee, Then cut my lips out also, Why dared they try to kiss him?’ Then Cypris had compassion; She bade the Loves attendant To loose the bonds that bound him. From that day her he follows, And flees not to the wild wood But joins the Loves, and always He bears Love’s flame unflinching. EPIGRAMS _The Epigrams of Theocritus are_, _for the most part_, _either inscriptions for tombs or cenotaphs_, _or for the pedestals of statues_, _or_ (_as the third epigram_) _are short occasional pieces_. _Several of them are but doubtfully ascribed to the poet of the Idyls_. _The Greek has little but brevity in common with the modern epigram_. I _For a rustic Altar_. THESE dew-drenched roses and that tufted thyme are offered to the ladies of Helicon. And the dark-leaved laurels are thine, O Pythian Paean, since the rock of Delphi bare this leafage to thine honour. The altar this white-horned goat shall stain with blood, this goat that browses on the tips of the terebinth boughs. II _For a Herdsman’s Offering_. DAPHNIS, the white-limbed Daphnis, that pipes on his fair flute the pastoral strains offered to Pan these gifts,—his pierced reed-pipes, his crook, a javelin keen, a fawn-skin, and the scrip wherein he was wont, on a time, to carry the apples of Love. III _For a Picture_. THOU sleepest on the leaf-strewn ground, O Daphnis, resting thy weary limbs, and the stakes of thy nets are newly fastened on the hills. But Pan is on thy track, and Priapus, with the golden ivy wreath twined round his winsome head,—both are leaping at one bound into thy cavern. Nay, flee them, flee, shake off thy slumber, shake off the heavy sleep that is falling upon thee. IV _Priapus_.