l short
"The horse's portion: beauteous for a beast.
"A neck and head supply'd, a steed were form'd,
"Of Castor worthy: so was for the seat
"Fitted his back; so full outstood his chest:
"His coat all blacker than the darkest pitch;
"Save his white legs, and ample flowing tail.
"Crowds of his race him lov'd; but one alone,
"Hylonome, could charm him; fairest nymph
"Of all the two-form'd race that roam'd the groves.
"She sole enraptur'd Cyllarus, with words
"Of blandishment; beloved, and her love
"For him confessing. Grace in all her limbs
"And dress, for him was studied; smooth her hair
"For him was comb'd; with rosemary now bound;
"Now with the violet; with fresh roses now;
"And oft the snow-white lily wore she; twice
"Daily she bath'd her features in the stream,
"That from Pagasis' woody summit falls;
"Twice daily in the current lav'd her limbs.
"Nor cloth'd she e'er her shoulders, or her side,
"Save with the chosen spoils of beasts which best
"Her form became. Most equal was their love:
"As one they o'er the mountains stray'd; as one
"The caves they sought; and both together then
"The Lapithaean roof had enter'd; both
"Now wag'd the furious war. By whom unknown,
"From the left side a javelin came, and pierc'd
"Thee deep, O Cyllarus! 'neath where thy chest
"Joins to thy neck. Drawn from the small-form'd wound,
"The weapon,--with the mangled heart, the limbs
"Grew rigid all. Hylonome supports
"His dying body, and her aiding hand
"Presses against the wound; leans face to face,
"And tries his fleeting life awhile to stay.
"When fled she saw it, with laments which noise
"Drown'd ere my ears they reach'd, full on the dart
"Which through him stuck she fell; and clasp'd in death
"Her dear-lov'd husband's form. Before my eyes
"Still stands Phaeoecomes, whom, closely-join'd,
"Six lions' hides protected; man and horse
"Equal the covering shar'd. Phonoleus' son
"Fierce on the skull he smote, with stump immense,
"Huge as four oxen might with labor move.
"Crush'd was the rounding broadness of the head;
"And the soft brain gush'd forth at both his ears;
"His mouth, his hollow nostrils, and his eyes.
"So through the straining oaken twigs appears,
"Coagulated milk: so liquid flows
"Through the fine sieve, by supercumbent weights
"Prest down, the thick curd at the small-form'd holes.
"Deep in his lowest flank the foe I pi