SWIFT AND OLD-GOLD l8l 



idle in their stalls, and knew neither bit nor lash 

 nor loud war-cry; and while their master grew 

 older and feebler with every change of the moon, 

 they remained always young and beautiful and 

 strong. 



By and by a son was born to Thetis and the 

 king, a fair-haired child who the soothsayers 

 declared would be greater than his father and yet 

 would die sooner than he. When the babe was 

 brought in the nurse's arms to Peleus, the old 

 man looked upon him fondly and said : 



" This is the hero who will drive the steeds 

 Balios and Xanthos in battle. He shall also have 

 the armor of well-wrought bronze which the gods 

 gave me on my wedding day, and the mighty 

 spear which Cheiron, my wise grandfather, 

 hewed out of the mountain-ash." 



But the babe, afraid of the gray locks and 

 wrinkled visage of its sire, cried; and Peleus, 

 turning away, said : " He is, after all, only a 

 little whiner ! " And they therefore called him 

 Ligyron, which means whining. 



When Ligyron was yet a very little child, his 

 father sent him to live with Cheiron, who had a 

 famous nursery and kindergarten of heroes at 

 his home on the wooded slopes of Mount Pelion. 



