SHIELD OF HERACLES
which men sow in summer), when the crude grapes which Dionysus gave to men — a joy and a sorrow both — begin to colour in that season they fought and loud rose the clamour.
As two lions[1] on either side of a slain deer spring at one another in fury, and there is a fearful snarling and a clashing also of teeth —, like vultures with crooked talons and hooked beak that fight and scream aloud on a high rock over a mountain goat or fat wild-deer which some active man has shot with an arrow from the string, and himself has wandered away elsewhere, not knowing the place; but they quickly mark it and vehemently do keen battle about it —, like these they two rushed upon one another with a shout.
Then Cycnus, eager to kill the son of almighty Zeus, struck upon his shield with a brazen spear, but did not break the bronze; and the gift of the god saved his foe. But the son of Amphitryon, mighty Heracles, with his long spear struck Cycnus violently in the neck beneath the chin, where it was unguarded between helm and shield. And the deadly spear cut through the two sinews; for the hero's full strength lighted on his foe. And Cycnus fell as an oak falls or a lofty pine that is stricken by the lurid thunderbolt of Zeus; even so he fell, and his armour adorned with bronze clashed about him.
Then the stout hearted son of Zeus let him be, and himself watched for the onset of man-slaying Ares: fiercely he stared, like a lion who has come upon a
- ↑ The conception is similar to that of the sculptured group at Athens of Two Lions devouring a Bull (Dickens, Cat. of the Acropolis Museum, No. 3).
