Page:The Iliad and Odyssey of Homer (IA iliadodysseyofho02home).pdf/265

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
Book XI.
HOMER's ODYSSEY.
257

Alcmena, next, wife of Amphitryon
I saw; she in the arms of sov'reign Jove
The lion-hearted Hercules conceiv'd,
And, after, bore to Creon brave in fight 320
His daughter Megara, by the noble son
Unconquer'd of Amphitryon espoused.
The beauteous [1]Epicaste saw I then,
Mother of Oedipus, who guilt incurr'd
Prodigious, wedded, unintentional, 325
To her own son; his father first he slew,
Then wedded her, which soon the Gods divulged.
He, under vengeance of offended heav'n,
In pleasant Thebes dwelt miserable, King
Of the Cadmean race; she to the gates 330
Of Ades brazen-barr'd despairing went,
Self-strangled by a cord fasten'd aloft
To her own palace-roof, and woes bequeath'd
(Such as the Fury sisters execute
Innumerable) to her guilty son. 335
There also saw I Chloris, loveliest fair,
Whom Neleus woo'd and won with spousal gifts
Inestimable, by her beauty charm'd
She youngest daughter was of Iasus' son,
Amphion, in old time a sov'reign prince 340
In Minuëian Orchomenus,
And King of Pylus. Three illustrious sons
She bore to Neleus, Nestor, Chromius,

  1. By the Tragedians called—Jocasta.

And