Tyndareus will I raise a lofty temple on the Acherusian height,
which all sailors shall mark far across the sea and shall reverence; and
hereafter for them will I set apart outside the city, as for gods, some
fertile fields of the well-tilled plain."
(ll. 811-814) Thus all day long they revelled at the banquet. But at
dawn they hied down to the ship in haste; and with them went Lycus
himself, when he had given them countless gifts to bear away; and with
them he sent forth his son from his home.
(ll. 815-834) And here his destined fate smote Idmon, son of Abas,
skilled in soothsaying; but not at all did his soothsaying save him, for
necessity drew him on to death. For in the mead of the reedy river there
lay, cooling his flanks and huge belly in the mud, a white-tusked boar,
a deadly monster, whom even the nymphs of the marsh dreaded, and no man
knew it; but all alone he was feeding in the wide fell. But the son of
Abas was passing along the raised banks of the muddy river, and the boar
from some unseen lair leapt out of the reed-bed, and charging gashed his
thigh and severed in twain the sinews and the bone. And with a sharp cry
the hero fell to the ground; and as he was struck his comrades flocked
together with answering cry. And quickly Peleus with his hunting spear
aimed at the murderous boar as he fled back into the fen; and again
he turned and charged; but Idas wounded him, and with a roar he fell
impaled upon the sharp spear. And the boar they left on the ground just
as he had fallen there; but Idmon, now at the last gasp, his comrades
bore to the ship in sorrow of heart, and he died in his comrades' arms.
(ll. 835-850) And here they stayed from taking thought for their
voyaging and abode in grief for the burial of their dead friend. And
for three whole days they lamented; and on the next they buried him with
full honours, and the people and King Lycus himself took part in the
funeral rites; and, as is the due of the departed, they slaughtered
countless sheep at his tomb. And so a barrow to this hero was raised in
that land, and there stands a token for men of later days to see,
the trunk of a wild olive tree, such as ships are built of; and it
flourishes with its green leaves a little below the Acherusian headland.
And if at the bidding of the Muses I must tell this tale outright,
Phoebus strictly commanded the Boeotians and Nisaeans to worship him as
guardian of their city, and to build their city round the
|