de, hounds, cunning in the chase,
run in the track of horned goats or deer, and as they strain a little
behind gnash their teeth upon the edge of their jaws in vain; so Zetes
and Calais rushing very near just grazed the Harpies in vain with their
finger-tips. And assuredly they would have torn them to pieces, despite
heaven's will, when they had overtaken them far off at the Floating
Islands, had not swift Iris seen them and leapt down from the sky from
heaven above, and cheeked them with these words:

(ll. 288-290) "It is not lawful, O sons of Boreas, to strike with your
swords the Harpies, the hounds of mighty Zeus; but I myself will give
you a pledge, that hereafter they shall not draw near to Phineus."

(ll. 291-300) With these words she took an oath by the waters of Styx,
which to all the gods is most dread and most awful, that the Harpies
would never thereafter again approach the home of Phineus, son of
Agenor, for so it was fated. And the heroes yielding to the oath, turned
back their flight to the ship. And on account of this men call them
the Islands of Turning though aforetime they called them the Floating
Islands. And the Harpies and Iris parted. They entered their den in
Minoan Crete; but she sped up to Olympus, soaring aloft on her swift
wings.

(ll. 301-310) Meanwhile the chiefs carefully cleansed the old man's
squalid skin and with due selection sacrificed sheep which they had
borne away from the spoil of Amycus. And when they had laid a huge
supper in the hall, they sat down and feasted, and with them feasted
Phineus ravenously, delighting his soul, as in a dream. And there, when
they had taken their fill of food and drink, they kept awake all night
waiting for the sons of Boreas. And the aged sire himself sat in the
midst, near the hearth, telling of the end of their voyage and the
completion of their journey:

(ll. 311-315) "Listen then. Not everything is it lawful for you to
know clearly; but whatever is heaven's will, I will not hide. I was
infatuated aforetime, when in my folly I declared the will of Zeus
in order and to the end. For he himself wishes to deliver to men the
utterances of the prophetic art incomplete, in order that they may still
have some need to know the will of heaven."

(ll. 316-340) "First of all, after leaving me, ye will see the twin
Cyanean rocks where the two seas meet. No one, I ween, has won his
escape between them. For they are not firmly fixed with roots beneath,
bu