Theseus, meanwhile, acquitting well his share
In the bold chase, confed’rate like a war,
To Athens’ lofty towers his march ordain’d,
By Pallas loved, and where Erectheus reign’d;
But Achelous stopp’d him on the way,
By rains a deluge, and constrain’d his stay.
“O famed for glorious deeds, and great by blood,
Rest here,” says he, “nor trust the rapid flood;
It solid oaks has from its margin tore,
And rocky fragments down its current bore,
The murmur hoarse, and terrible the roar.
Oft have I seen herds, with their shelt’ring fold,
Forced from the banks, and in the torrent roll’d;
Nor strength the bulky steer from ruin freed,
Nor matchless swiftness saved the racing steed;
In cataracts, when the dissolving snow
Falls from the hills and floods the plains below,
Tossed by the eddies, with a giddy round,
Strong youths are in the sucking whirlpools drown’d:
’Tis best with me in safety to abide,
Till usual bounds restrain the ebbing tide,
And the low waters in their channel glide.”
Theseus, persuaded, in compliance bow’d:
“So kind an offer, and advice so good,
O Achelous! cannot be refused;
I’ll use them both,” said he; and both he used
The grot he enter’d; pumice built the hall,
And tophi made the rustic of the wall;
The floor, soft moss a humid carpet spread,
And various shells the checker’d roof inlaid:
’Twas now the hour when the declining sun
Two thirds had of his daily journey run;
At the spread table Theseus took his place,
Next his companions in the daring chase;
Pirithous here, there elder Lelex lay,
His locks betraying age with sprinkled gray:
Acharnia’s river-god disposed the rest,
Graced with the equal honour of the feast,
Elate with joy, and proud of such a guest.
The nymphs were waiters, and, with naked feet,
In order served the courses of the meat.
The banquet done, delicious wine they brought,
Of one transparent gem the cup was wrought.
Then the great hero of this gallant train,
Surveying far the prospect of the main,
“What is that land,” says he, “the waves embrace?”
(And with his finger pointed at the place:)
“Is it one parted isle, which stands alone?
How named? and yet, methinks, it seems not one.”
To whom the watery god made this reply:
“ ’Tis not one isle, but five; distinct they lie:
’Tis distance which deceives the cheated eye:
But, that Diana’s act may seem less strange,
These once proud Naiads were, before their change.
’Twas on a day more solemn than the rest,
Ten bullocks slain, a sacrificial feast:
The rural gods of all the regions near
They bid to dance and taste the hallow’d cheer:
Me they forgot; affronted with the slight,
My rage and stream swell’d to the greatest height;
And with the torrent of my flooding store,
Large woods from woods, and fields from fields, I tore:
The guilty nymphs, O, then rememb’ring me,
I, with their country, wash’d into the sea;
And joining waters with the social main,
Rent the gross land, and split the firm champaign:
Since, the Echinades, remote from shore,
Are view’d as many isles as nymphs before.”