the back of the stone-shelled tortoise. And around by his own skill he stretched the hide of a bull, and put the arms, and upon both he fixed the bridge. And he stretched out seven concordant strings[1] of sheep. But when he had formed it, bearing his pleasant plaything, with a quill he tried it note by note, and it sounded deeply beneath his hands, and the god sang beautifully beneath it, making an extemporaneous attempt, like as full-grown boys at feasts scoff at each other in turn. [He sang] of Jove the son of Saturn, and fair-slippered Maia, how they were formerly wont to dally in stealthy love, and his own birth, naming his renowned name. And he celebrated the attendants and the glorious gifts of the nymph, and the tripods and durable caldrons in the house. And these things indeed he sang, but he thought of others in his mind, and putting down his hollow lyre, which he bore in the sacred cradle, he, in quest of meat, ran from the sweet-scented dwelling to the mountain, devising a mighty stratagem in his mind, such an one as thieves are wont to plan at the season of dark night. The sun indeed was setting beneath the earth towards the ocean, with his horses and chariot, but Mercury came running to the shady mountains of Pieria, where the immortal cattle of the blessed gods possessed their stalls, pasturing on pure, pleasant meadows. From the flock of them then the watchful son of Maia, the slayer of Argus, cut off fifty loud-lowing heifers, and drove them, wandering, through the sandy country, having reversed their footsteps,[2] for he was not forgetful of his cunning art, having bent contrariwise the fore hoofs, backwards, and the back ones, forwards. And he himself walked backwards, and immediately cast his sandals upon the sands of the sea. He devised an unmentioned and unthought-of marvellous work, mingling together tamarisks and tamarisk-like boughs, of them he then bound together a small bundle of leafy wood, and [thus]
- ↑ Literally, "intestines." But Antigonus Caryst. § 7, seems to quote ἑπτὰ δὲ θηλυτέρων ὀΐων ἐτ.
- ↑ The same stratagem was afterwards pursued by Cacus. Virg. Æn. viii. 211.
"Atque hos, nequa forent pedibus vestigia rectis,
Cauda in speluncam tractos, versisque viarum
Indiciis raptos, saxo occultabat opaco,
Quærentem nulla ad speluncam signa ferebant."
