CYNEGETICA, III. 228-2i7 



hast turned the child to nothingness and hast made 

 all his body blind. Wretched and unhappy I in my 

 untimely motherhood, and altogether -WTetched thou, 

 my child, in thy most sinful father. Wretched I, 

 thrice miserable, who have travailed in vain, and 

 wTCtched thou, marred not by the claws of Lions, 

 but by the cruel lion jaws of thy sire." Thus one 

 would say the unhappy mother speaks over her 

 infant son, Avhile the unheeding father with bloody 

 jaws makes mirthless banquet of his child. O father 

 Zeus, how fierce a heart hath Jealousy ! Him hast 

 thou made, O lord, mightier than nature to behold 

 and hast given him the bitter force of fire, and in his 

 right hand hast vouchsafed to him to wear a sword 

 of adamant. He preserves not. when he comes, 

 dear children to their loving parents, he knows nor 

 comrade nor kin nor cousin, when he intervenes 

 grievous and unspeakable. He also in former times 

 arrayed against their own children heroes them- 

 selves and noble heroines — Theseus," son of Aegeus, 

 and Athamas,* son of Aeolus, and Attic Procne " 

 and Thracian** Philomela and Colchian Medea* and 



The Roman writers usually invert the story, making Procne 

 the Swallow {e.g. Ov. F. ii. 855), Philomela the Nightingale 

 {e.ff. Verg. G. iv. 511, but the Greek version E. vi. 79), and 

 this has become traditional in English poetry. 



'' To the Greek poets the Swallow is typically the Thracian 

 bird and its twittering the type of barbaric speech. Aristoph. 

 Hun. 679 S. K\fO(puivTos €<p' ov drj x^^^^'^^" o.n<pi\d\ois Setvbv 

 ixi^pefieTai QprjKia XcXiSuiv, ivi ^ap^apov i^onevt) jr^raXov ; 

 Aesch. ^ff. 1050 x^XiSwos Sikiiv dyvCrra <()u>vr)v ^ap^apov 

 KfKTr]/j.€VT) ; R. Browning, Warin</ vi. 32 " As |X)urs some 

 pigeon, from the rayrrhy lands | Rapt by the whirlwind to 

 fierce Scythian strands j Where breed the swallows, her 

 melodious cry | Amid their barbarous twitter." 



• Daughter of Aietes, killed her children by Jason 

 through jealousy of Glauce, daughter of king of Corinth. 



183 



