o man beside the bowl and the
blazing sacrifice. They wreathed their fair brows with the bay that grew
by the shore, whereto their hawsers were bound, and chanted a song to
the lyre of Orpheus in sweet harmony; and the windless shore was charmed
by their song; and they celebrated the Therapnaean son of Zeus.[1]

[Footnote 1: i.e. Polydeuces.]

But when the sun rising from far lands lighted up the dewy hills and
wakened the shepherds, then they loosed their hawsers from the stem of
the bay-tree and put on board all the spoil they had need to take; and
with a favouring wind they steered through the eddying Bosporus.
Hereupon a wave like a steep mountain rose aloft in front as though
rushing upon them, ever upheaved above the clouds; nor would you say
that they could escape grim death, for in its fury it hangs over the
middle of the ship, like a cloud, yet it sinks away into calm if it
meets with a skilful helmsman. So they by the steering-craft of Tiphys
escaped, unhurt but sore dismayed. And on the next day they fastened the
hawsers to the coast opposite the Bithynian land.

There Phineus, son of Agenor, had his home by the sea, Phineus who above
all men endured most bitter woes because of the gift of prophecy which
Leto's son had granted him aforetime. And he reverenced not a whit even
Zeus himself, for he foretold unerringly to men his sacred will.
Wherefore Zeus sent upon him a lingering old age, and took from his eyes
the pleasant light, and suffered him not to have joy of the dainties
untold that the dwellers around ever brought to his house, when they
came to enquire the will of heaven. But on a sudden, swooping through
the clouds, the Harpies with their crooked beaks incessantly snatched
the food away from his mouth and hands. And at times not a morsel of
food was left, at others but a little, in order that he might live and
be tormented. And they poured forth over all a loathsome stench; and no
one dared not merely to carry food to his mouth but even to stand at a
distance; so foully reeked the remnants of the meal. But straightway
when he heard the voice and the tramp of the band he knew that they were
the men passing by, at whose coming Zeus' oracle had declared to him
that he should have joy of his food. And he rose from his couch, like a
lifeless dream, bowed over his staff, and crept to the door on his
withered feet, feeling the walls; and as he moved, his limbs trembled
for weakness and age; and his parch