his hands, a sad report from his belly, an impudent messenger. And quickly after it he sneezed.[1] But Apollo heard it, and cast glorious Mercury from his hands upon the ground. (But he[2] sat down before [him], although hastening on his way,) reproaching Mercury, and addressed him in words:
"Be of good courage, thou enswaddled son of Jove and Maia; I will hereafter find my stout heads of heifers by these omens, but well shalt thou hereafter be leader of the way."
Thus he spake, but Cyllenian Mercury again leaped up quickly, going in haste. But with his hands he pulled the swaddlings, with which he was enwrapped[3] as to his shoulders, around his ears also, and spoke thus:
"Whether bearest thou me, O Far-Darter, most powerful of all the gods? Surely thou art thus teasing[4] me, enraged on account of these heifers. O gods! may the race of cows perish! For I did not steal your cows, nor saw I another, whoever these cows are, for I hear the report alone. But give and receive[5] justice[6] in presence of Saturnian Jove."
But after vagrant Mercury and the glorious son of Latona had said these things openly, having their mind in different ways, for the latter indeed demanded a true confession,[7] not satisfaction for the cows, from renowned Mercury, but he of Cyllene by wiles and cunning speeches wished to deceive him of the silver bow. But when he, being cunning in counsel, met with one of many devices, then quickly he walked through the sand before, but the son of Jove at Latona behind. And soon they came to the heights of incense-fraught Olympus, to the Saturnian sire, they the beauteous children of Jove, (for
- ↑ See Hermann's explanation of these amusing omens.
- ↑ Mercury. I have put the line in an enclosure. Cf. vs. 304.
- ↑ Hermann reads ἐελμένος from cod. Moscov, observing, "quo expeditior incederet Mercurius, fascias, quibus humeri erant constricti, sursum versus aures trudebat."
- ↑ See Blomf. gloss. on Æsch. Pers. 10.
- ↑ See Ernesti.
- ↑ " as for Phœbus, he
Sought not revenge; but only information,
And Hermes tried with lies and roguery
To cheat Apollo.—But when no evasion
Served—for the cunning one his match had found—
He paced on first over the sandy ground."Shelley. - ↑ But Hermann more correctly reads φωνεῖν, "jure," inquit, "Apollo comprehenderat propter boves Mercurium, is ut vera diceret." I am not satisfied with the text as it stands.
