IDYL XIII.

HYLAS.

ARGUMENT.

The poet describes the abduction of Hylas by the fountainnymphs. The youth attended Hercules, who was one of the worthies that accompanied Jason, when he sailed in the good ship Argo in quest of the golden fleece. When the vessel arrived at the territory of the Cianians, who dwelt on the shore of the Propontis; the band of heroes went ashore, and are described as messing there in pairs. Hylas was sent to bring water from a neighbouring fountain for Hercules and his messmate Telamon; but the nymphs of the fountain, becoming enamoured of him, drew him into it. The distraction of Hercules at his loss is described; and the other heroes at last sail away without him, stigmatising him as a ship-deserter.

IDYL XIII.

HYLAS.

FRIEND! not for us alone was love designed,
Whoe'er his parent of immortal kind;
Nor first to us fair seemeth fair to be,
Who mortal are, nor can the morrow see.
But e'en Amphitryon's brazen-hearted son,
Who stood the lion's rage, did dote upon
The curled and lovely Hylas - made his joy
To train him as a father would his boy,
And taught him all whereby himself became
A minstrel-praised inheritor of fame ;

Nor left him when the sun was in mid-air,

Or Morn to Jove's court drove her milk-white pair; Or when the twittering chickens were betaking

Themselves to rest, her wings their mother shaking,

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Perched on the smoky beam; that, trained to go
In the right track, he might a true man grow.

When Jason sailed to find the golden fleece,
And in his train the choicest youth of Greece;
Then with the worthies from the cities round,
Came Hercules, for patient toil renowned,
And Hylas with him: from Iölcos they,

In the good Argo ploughed the watery way.
Touched not the ship the dark Cyanean rocks,
That justled evermore with crashing shocks,

But bounded through, and shot the swell o' the flood,
Like to an eagle, and in Phasis stood:
Thence either ridgy rock in station lies.

But at what times the Pleiades arise:
When to the lamb the borders of the field
(The spring to summer turning) herbage yield;
The flower of heroes minded then their sailing;
And the third day, a steady south prevailing,
They reached the Hellespont; and in the bay
Of long Propontis hollow Argo lay:

Their oxen for Cianians dwelling there

The ploughshare in the broadening furrow wear.