Tired of reading? Add this page to your Bookmarks or Favorites and finish it later.
|
|
'Let them try,' said Perseus; and drawing, Herpe from his
thigh, he cut through the brass as if it had been flax.
'Now,' he said, 'you belong to me, and not to these sea-Gods,
whosoever they may be!' But she only called the more on her
mother.
'Why call on your mother? She can be no mother to have left
you here. If a bird is dropped out of the nest, it belongs
to the man who picks it up. If a jewel is cast by the
wayside, it is his who dare win it and wear it, as I will win
you and will wear you. I know now why Pallas Athene sent me
hither. She sent me to gain a prize worth all my toil and
more.'
And he clasped her in his arms, and cried, 'Where are these
sea-Gods, cruel and unjust, who doom fair maids to death? I
carry the weapons of Immortals. Let them measure their
strength against mine! But tell me, maiden, who you are, and
what dark fate brought you here.'
And she answered, weeping -
"I am the daughter of Cepheus, King of Iopa, and my mother is
Cassiopoeia of the beautiful tresses, and they called me
Andromeda, as long as life was mine. And I stand bound here,
hapless that I am, for the sea-monster's food, to atone for
my mother's sin. For she boasted of me once that I was
fairer than Atergatis, Queen of the Fishes; so she in her
wrath sent the sea-floods, and her brother the Fire King sent
the earthquakes, and wasted all the land, and after the
floods a monster bred of the slime, who devours all living
things. And now he must devour me, guiltless though I am -
me who never harmed a living thing, nor saw a fish upon the
shore but I gave it life, and threw it back into the sea; for
in our land we eat no fish, for fear of Atergatis their
queen. Yet the priests say that nothing but my blood can
atone for a sin which I never committed.'
|