THE RAPE OF HELEN 



side the streams of the mountain torrent he tended 

 his herds, numbering apart the herd of thronging 

 bulls, apart measuring the droves of feeding flocks. 

 And behind him hung floating the hide of a moun- 

 tain goat, that reached right to his thighs. But his 

 herdsman's crook, driver of kine, was laid aside : for 

 so, walking mincingly in his accustomed ways, he 

 pursued the shrill minstrelsy of his pipe's rustic 

 reeds. Often as he sang in his shepherd's shieling 

 he would forget his bulls and heed no more his 

 sheep. Hence with his pipe, in the fair haunts of 

 shepherds, he was making dear music to Pan and to 

 Hermaon. The dogs bayed not, and the bull did 

 not bellow. Only windy Echo" with her untutored 

 cr\', answered Ins voice from Ida's hills ; and the 

 bulls ujK)n the green grass, when they had eaten 

 their fill, lay down and rested on their heavy flanks. 



So as he made shrill music under the high-roofed 

 canopy of trees, he beheld from afar the messenger 

 Hermaon. And in fear he leapt up and sought to shun 

 the eye of the gods. He leaned against an oak his 

 choir of musical reeds and checked his lay that had 

 not yet laboured much. And to him in his fear 

 wondrous Hermes spake thus : 



" Fling away thy milking-pail and leave thy fair 

 flocks and come hither and give decision as judge of 

 the goddesses of heaven. Come hither and decide 

 M-hich is the more excellent beauty of face, and to 

 the fairer give this apple's lovely fruit" 



So he cried. And Paris bent a gentle eye and 

 quietly essayed to judge the beauty of each. He 

 looked at the light of their grey eyes, he looked on 

 the neck arrayed with gold, he marked the bravery 



■ Nymph beloved of Pan (Mosch. 6, Long. 3. 23). 



551 



