Classic Poem

And all the while that Iole told this,
tearful in sorrow for her sister's fate,
Alcmena weeping, tried to comfort her.
But as they wept together, suddenly
a wonderful event astonished them;
for, standing in the doorway, they beheld
the old man Iolaus, known to them,
but now transformed from age to youth, he seemed
almost a boy, with light down on his cheeks:
for Juno's daughter Hebe, had renewed
his years to please her husband, Hercules.
Just at the time when ready to make oath,
she would not grant such gifts to other men —
Themis had happily prevented her.
" For even now, " she said, " a civil strife
is almost ready to break forth in Thebes,
and Capaneus shall be invincible
to all save the strong hand of Jove himself;
and there two hostile brothers shall engage
in bloody conflict; and Amphiaraus
shall see his own ghost, deep in yawning earth.
" His own son, dutiful to him, shall be
both just and unjust in a single deed;
for he, in vengeance for his father's death,
shall slay his mother, and confounded lose
both home and reason, — persecuted both
by the grim Furies and the awful ghost
of his own murdered mother; this until
his wife, deluded, shall request of him
the fatal golden necklace, and until
the sword of Phegeus drains his kinsman's blood.

" And then at last his wife Callirhoe
shall supplicate the mighty Jupiter
to grant her infant sons the added years
of youthful manhood. Then shall Jupiter
let Hebe, guardian of ungathered days,
grant from the future to Callirhoe's sons,
the strength of manhood in their infancy.
Do not let their victorious father's death
be unavenged a long while. Jove prevailed
upon, will claim beforehand all the gifts
of Hebe, who is his known daughter-in-law,
and his step-daughter, and with one act change
Callirhoe's beardless boys to men of size. "

When Themis, prophesying future days,
had said these words, the Gods of Heaven complained
because they also could not grant the gift
of youth to many others in this way.
Aurora wept because her husband had
white hair; and Ceres then bewailed the age
of her Iasion, grey and stricken old;
and Mulciber demanded with new life
his Erichthonius might again appear;
and Venus, thinking upon future days,
said old Anchises' years must be restored.
And every god preferred some favorite,
until vexed with the clamor, Jupiter
implored, " If you can have regard for me,
consider the strange blessings you desire:
does any one of you believe he can
prevail against the settled will of Fate?
As Iolaus has returned by fate,
to those years spent by him; so by the Fates
Callirhoe's sons from infancy must grow
to manhood with no struggle on their part,
or force of their ambition. And you should
endure your fortune with contented minds:
I, also, must give all control to Fate.
" If I had power to change the course of Fate
I would not let advancing age break down
my own son Aeacus, nor bend his back
with weight of year; and Rhadamanthus should
retain an everlasting flower of youth,
together with my own son Minos, who
is now despised because of his great age,
so that his scepter has lost dignity. "
Such words of Jupiter controlled the Gods,
and none continued to complain, when they
saw Aeacus and Rhadamanthus old,
and Minos also, weary of his age.
And they remembered Minos in his prime,
had warred against great nations, till his name
if mentioned was a certain cause of fear.
But now, enfeebled by great age, he feared
Miletus, Deione's son, because
of his exultant youth and strength derived
from his great father Phoebus. And although
he well perceived Miletus' eye was fixed
upon his throne, he did not dare to drive
him from his kingdom.

But although not forced,
Miletus of his own accord did fly,
by swift ship, over to the Asian shore,
across the Aegean water, where he built
the city of his name.