And the ivy arching its bowers around him,
With the fairy chains of its greenness bound him,
To the babe with its sudden tendrils clinging,
Overmantling with shadow the Blessing-laden,
For a theme of the Bacchanal dance unto maiden
Of Thebes, and to matron evoë-singing.
There on the hallowed fountain's border
Was the dragon of Ares, a ruthless warder;
And the glare of his eyeballs fearful-flashing
Wandered in restless-roving keenness
O'er the brimming runnels, the mirrored greenness:660
Then came to the spring for the lustral washing
Kadmus, and hurled at the monster, and slew it;
For he snatched a boulder, his strong arm threw it
Down on the head of the slaughterer crashing.
Then, of Pallas, the motherless Goddess, bidden,
O'er the deep-furrowed earth, in her breast to be hidden,
He scattered the teeth from the grim jaws parted.
And the travailing glebe flung up bright blossom670
Of mail-clad warriors over the bosom
Of the earth: but slaughter the iron-hearted
Again with the earth their mother blent them,
And drenched with their blood the breast which had sent them
Forth, when to sun-quickened air they upstarted.[1]
- ↑ Kadmus, after slaying the dragon-warder of the fountain of Dirkê, sowed its teeth, from which a crop of armed men at once arose. He cast a stone amongst them, and they straightway attacked each other, and fought till five only were left. These followed Kadmus, and became the fathers of the indigenous Thebans, the "Sown Men," as they styled themselves.
