d who was
happily won by an heroic deed. Mark the interest of those
listeners, Arete and Nausicaa, mother and daughter in this tale.
Thus the two women, Epicaste and Chloris, have opposite destinies,
and show the sharp contrasts of life.

In the third group are two mothers who have a double honor; each
has borne twins and heroic ones at that; moreover the Gods again
enter the domestic relation of mortals. Leda's sons are "Castor the
horseman, and Pollux the boxer," the first being mortal, the second
immortal, and reputed son of Zeus, who permitted the immortal
brother to share his immortality with his mortal brother; hence
"every other day they both are alive, and every other day they both
are dead." Again the divine gives itself to the human in the spirit
of true brotherhood; the son of Zeus takes on the ills of mortality
through fraternal love. The second mother of this group is
Iphidameia, who declares Neptune to be the father of Otus and
Ephialtes, of her monstrous twins, "who at the age of nine years
threatened war upon the Gods," and proposed to storm heaven by
piling Mount Ossa upon Olympus and Pelion on top of that. Such is
the contrast: one set of sons is noble, worthy, and "receive honor
like unto Gods;" the other set is defiant, assailing the divine
order, and are slain by the arrows of Apollo "ere the down
blossomed beneath their temples, and covered their chins with
tender furze."

_c._ Such, then, is the account of the mothers, the women who have
borne children famous in legend. They have taken up nearly the
whole of the present catalogue; the wives and maidens now come in
for brief mention, forming two groups, three persons to the group.
The poet is impartial, he introduces the faithful woman, Ariadne,
and the faithless woman, Eriphyle; in the one case man is the
betrayer of woman, and in the other case woman is the betrayer of
man. Possibly in Ariadne may be a little hint for Nausicaa, saying,
Beware.

But the singer is tired and sleepy; moreover has he not told the
essence of the matter in this portion of his song? He at once
dismisses any further account of famous women, "wives and daughters
of Heroes," whom he saw in Hades. Nausicaa and Arete have had their
share, wonderful has been their interest in the struggles and
sufferings of their sex; they