Book 9
Not killed; and Cerberus at Orpheus' song
1
Ceased from his hissing, and Alcides saw
The Hydra ere he slew. This monster born
Brought horror with her birth upon her sire
Phorcus, in second order God of Waves,
And upon Ceto and the Gorgon brood,Phorcus and Ceto were the parents of the Gorgons—Stheno, Euryale, and Medusa, of whom the latter alone was mortal. (Hesiod. Theog., 276.) Phorcus was a son of Pontus and Gaia, ibid. 287.
Her sisters. She could treat the sea and sky
With deadly calm unknown, and from the world
Bid cease the soil. Borne down by instant weight
Fowls fell from air, and beasts were fixed in stone.
Whole Ethiop tribes who tilled the neighbouring lands
Rigid in marble stood. The Gorgon sight
No creature bore and even her serpents turned
Back from her visage. Atlas in his place
Beside the Western columns, by her look
Was turned to granite; and when Phlegra's brood
Gigantic, serpent-tailed, were feared of heaven,
She made them mountains, and the Gorgon head
Borne on Athena's bosom closed the war.
Here born of Danae and the golden shower,
Floating on wings Parrhasian, by the god
Arcadian given, author of the lyre
And wrestling art, came Perseus, swooping down
From heaven. Cyllenian Harpe The scimitar lent by Hermes to Perseus for the purpose; with which had been slain Argus, the guardian of Io (Conf. 'Prometheus Vinctus,' 579.) Hermes was born in a cave in Mount Cyllene in Arcadia. did he bear
Still crimson from another monster slain,
The guardian of the heifer loved by Jove.
This to her winged brother Pallas lent
Price of the monster's head: by her command
He sought the limits of the Libyan land,
Poised o'er Medusa's realm, with head averse
Towards the rising sun: a burnished shield
Of yellow brass upon his other arm,
Her gift, her bore: in which she bade him see
The fatal face unscathed. Nor yet in sleep
Lay all the monster, for such total rest
To her were death-so fated: serpent locks
In vigilant watch, some reaching forth defend
Her head, while others lay upon her face
And slumbering eyes. Then hero Perseus shook
Though turned averse; trembled his dexter hand:
