hearts' desire. Thereupon having well feasted they turned
themselves to rest, some near the ship's hawsers, others in groups
throughout the mansion. And at dawn the Etesian winds blew strongly,
which by the command of Zeus blow over every land equally.

(ll. 500-527) Cyrene, the tale goes, once tended sheep along the
marsh-meadow of Peneus among men of old time; for dear to her were
maidenhood and a couch unstained. But, as she guarded her flock by the
river, Apollo carried her off far from Haemonia and placed her among the
nymphs of the land, who dwelt in Libya near the Myrtosian height.
And here to Phoebus she bore Aristaeus whom the Haemonians, rich in
corn-land, call "Hunter" and "Shepherd". Her, of his love, the god made
a nymph there, of long life and a huntress, and his son he brought while
still an infant to be nurtured in the cave of Cheiron. And to him when
he grew to manhood the Muses gave a bride, and taught him the arts of
healing and of prophecy; and they made him the keeper of their sheep,
of all that grazed on the Athamantian plain of Phthia and round steep
Othrys and the sacred stream of the river Apidanus. But when from heaven
Sirius scorched the Minoan Isles, and for long there was no respite for
the inhabitants, then by the injunction of the Far-Darter they summoned
Aristaeus to ward off the pestilence. And by his father's command
he left Phthia and made his home in Ceos, and gathered together the
Parrhasian people who are of the lineage of Lycaon, and he built a great
altar to Zeus Icmaeus, and duly offered sacrifices upon the mountains to
that star Sirius, and to Zeus son of Cronos himself. And on this account
it is that Etesian winds from Zeus cool the land for forty days, and
in Ceos even now the priests offer sacrifices before the rising of the
Dog-star.

(ll. 528-536) So the tale is told, but the chieftains stayed there by
constraint, and every day the Thynians, doing pleasure to Phineus, sent
them gifts beyond measure. And afterwards they raised an altar to the
blessed twelve on the sea-beach opposite and laid offerings thereon and
then entered their swift ship to row, nor did they forget to bear with
them a trembling dove; but Euphemus seized her and brought her all
quivering with fear, and they loosed the twin hawsers from the land.

(ll. 537-548) Nor did they start unmarked by Athena, but straightway
swiftly she set her feel on a light cloud, which would waft her on,
mighty though she was