Lemnos

But neither Juno nor Hymen, but cruel Erinys, bore in procession the inauspicious torch.

What concern had I with the Argonauts? What with the ship of Pallas? What did your pilot Tiphys think of touching at this coast? Here was no ram to entice you by his golden spoils, nor had Aeetes his royal palace at Lemnos.

I had determined, but my unhappy destiny overruled me, to expel the strangers with a female band.

The Lemnian ladies have too glaringly shown themselves an overmatch for man.

If nobility and great names move you, I boast a descent from Thoas, the grandson of Minos.

I have Bacchus for my grandfather, whose spouse, adorned with a radiant crown, eclipses the inferior lights by her more refulgent rays.

Lemnos is my dowry, a fertile land that crowns the labor of the cultivator, and I myself am not to be overlooked amidst so many noble gifts.

I am also a mother, and bore the load with pleasure for the father's sake.

Possibly it was owing to the ill feeling shown to Galen, that, on the outbreak of an epidemic a year afterwards, he left the imperial city and proceeded to Brindisi, and embarked for Greece.

It was his intention to devote his time to the study of natural history, and for this purpose he visited Cyprus, Palestine, and Lemnos.

While at the last named place, however, he was suddenly summoned to Aquileia to meet the emperors Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus.

He travelled through Thrace and Macedonia on foot, met the imperial personages, and prepared for them a medicine, for which he seems to have been famous, and which is spoken of as the Theriac.

All mountain peaks and high headlands of lofty hills and rivers flowing out to the deep, and beaches sloping seawards, and havens of the sea are your delight.

shall i sing how at the first leto bare you to be the joy of men as she rested against mount cynthus in that rocky isle in sea-girt delos while on either hand a dark wave rolled on landwards driven by shrill winds whence arising you rule over all mortal men Among those who are in Crete, and in the township of Athens, and in the isle of Aegina and Euboea, famous for ships, in Aege and Iresae and Paparethus near the sea, in Thracian Athos and Pelion's towering heights, and Thracian Samos, and the shady hills of Ida, in Syros, and Phocaea, and the high hill of Ottocene, and fair-lying Imbros, and smouldering Lemnos, and rich Lesbos, home of Machar, the son of Aeolus, and Chios, brightest of all the isles that lie in the sea, and craggy Mimas, and the heights of Coricus, and gleaming Claros, and the sheer hill of Isagia, and watered Samos, and the steep heights of mycale in miletus and cos the city of meropian men and steep nidos and windy carpathos in naxos and paros and rocky so far roamed leto in travail with the god who shoots afar to see if any land would be willing to make a dwelling for her son but they greatly trembled and feared and none not even the richest of them dared receive phoebus until queenly leto set foot on delos and uttered winged words and asked her Delos, if you would be willing to be the abode of my son, Phoebus Apollo, and make him a rich temple, for no other will touch you as you will find, and I think you will never be rich in oxen and sheep, nor bear vintage, nor yet produce plants abundantly.

But if you have the temple of far-shooting Apollo, all men will bring you hecatombs and gather here.

an incessant savour of rich sacrifice will always arise and you will feed those who dwell in you from the hand of strangers for truly your own soil is not rich so spake leto and delos rejoiced and answered and said leto most glorious daughter of great joyfully would i receive your child the far-shooting lord for it is all too true that i am ill-spoken of among men whereas thus i should become very greatly honoured but this saying i fear and i will not hide it from you they say that apollo will be one that is very haughty and will greatly lord it among the gods and men all over the fruitful earth therefore i greatly fear in heart and spirit that as soon as he sees the light of the sun he will scorn this island for truly i have but a hard rocky soil and overturn me and thrust me down with his feet in the depths of the sea then will the great ocean wash deep above my head for ever and he will go to another land such as will please him there to make his temple in wooded groves so many-footed creatures of the sea will make their lairs in me and black seals their dwellings undisturbed because i lack people yet if you will but dare to swear a great oath goddess that here first he will build a glorious temple to be an oracle for men then let him afterwards make temples and wooded groves amongst all men for surely he will be greatly renowned so said delos and leto swear the great oath of the gods now hear this earth and wide heaven above and dropping water of sticks This is the strongest and most awful oath for the blessed gods.

Homily, from where they were able to look on Ossa and holy Olympus.

Lemnos, the island that they were to return to.

The unnamed country where the earth-born men abide, each having six arms, two growing from his shoulders and four fitting close to his terrible sides.

And then the mountain of the bears, where they climbed to make sacrifice there to Rhea, the mighty mother of the gods.

End of section 7 Section 8 of The Golden Fleece and the Heroes Who Lived Before Achilles This is a LibriVox recording.

All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.

For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Elizabeth Klett The Golden Fleece and the Heroes Who Lived Before Achilles By Pauric Colum Part 1 Chapter 8 King Phineus's Council The Landing in Lemnos They came into King Phineus's hall, their bright swords in their hands.

The Argonauts crowded around them, and King Phineus raised his head and stretched out his thin hands to them.

Homily, from where they were able to look on Ossa and holy Olympus.

Lemnos, the island that they were to return to.

The unnamed country where the earth-born men abide, each having six arms, two growing from his shoulders and four fitting close to his terrible sides.

And then the mountain of the bears, where they climbed to make sacrifice there to Rhea, the mighty mother of the gods.

For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Elizabeth Klett.

The Golden Fleece and the Heroes Who Lived Before Achilles by Pauric Colum.

Part one, chapter eight, King Phineus' Council, The Landing in Lemnos.

They came into King Phineus' hall, their bright swords in their hands.

For the two cities were waging their war for the possession of Prien, and the Samians were getting the better of it, and when the Athenians ordered them to stop the contest and submit the case to arbitration at Athens, they would not obey.

So Pericles set sail and broke up the oligarchical government which Samos had, and then took fifty of the foremost men of the state, with as many of their children as hostages, and sent them off to Lemnos.

And yet they say that every one of these hostages offered him a talent on his own account, and that the opponents of democracy in the city offered him many talents besides.

And still further, Pesouthnes, the Persian satrap, who had much good will towards the Samians, sent him ten thousand gold staters, and interceded for the city.

However, Pericles took none of these bribes, but treated the Samians just as he had determined, set up a democracy, and sailed back to Athens.

Then the Samians at once revolted, after Pesouthnes had stolen away their hostages from Lemnos for them, and in other ways equipped them for the war.

Once more, therefore, Pericles set sail against them.

They were not victims of sloth, nor yet of abject terror, but full of exceeding zeal in their determination to contest the supremacy of the sea.