{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/wikisource_Orion_Book_I_Canto_II/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/wikisource_Orion_Book_I_Canto_II","id":"wikisource_Orion_Book_I_Canto_II","license":"Public Domain / CC-BY-SA (see source)","rights_basis":"wikisource_site_inclusion_policy","source":"wikisource","source_url":"https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Orion/Book_I/Canto_II","summary":null,"tags":["Subpages"],"text":"ORION.\n\nCanto the Second.\n\nMidst ponderous substance had Orion's life\nDawned, and his acts were massive as his form.\nThose his companions of the forest owned\nLike corporal forces, but their several minds\nAnd aims were not as his. The Worker he,\nThe builder-up of things, and of himself:\nHis wood-friends were Rhexergon, of descent\nRoyal, heroic\u2014breaker-down of things\u2014\nA coaster, skilled in fishing and in ships;\u2014\nAutarces, arch-backed like the forest boar,\nShort-haired, harsh-voiced, of fierce and wayward will;\u2014\nHarpax, with large loose mouth, and restless hand,\nSon of the God of Folly by a maid\nWho cursed him\u2014and the child, an idiot else,\nGrew keen, in rapine taking great delight;\u2014\nForceful Biastor;\u2014smooth Encolyon,\nThe son of Hermes, yet in all things slow,\nWith sight oblique and forehead slanting high,\nThe dull retarder, chainer of the wheel;\u2014\nAnd Akinetos\u2014who, since first the dawn\nSat on his marble forehead, ne'er had gazed\nOnward with purpose of activity,\nNor felled a tree, nor hollowed out a cave,\nNor built a roof, nor aided any work,\nNor heaved a sigh, nor cared for anything\nSave contemplation of the eternal scheme\u2014\nThe Great Unmoved\u2014a giant much revered.\n\nForgotten by their sires in other loves,\nHere had they chiefly dwelt, and in these caves,\nSave two, Encolyon and the Great Unmoved,\nWho came from Ithaca. The islanders\nHad driven them thence; and this the idle cause.\nThe barren stony land had ne'er produced\nEnough of grain for food; but by the skill\nOf their artificers in iron and brass,\nAnd by their herds of goats and cloud-woolled sheep,\nWith other isles the Ithacans exchanged,\nAnd each was well supplied. Encolyon's brain\nSome goddess\u2014and 't was Discord, as results\nMade plain\u2014one night inspired with sage alarms,\nAnd straight the King of Ithaca he sought,\nImploring him, \"if that he duly prized\nA heaven-blest crown and subjects all content,\nTo drive the ships, sent from the neighbouring isles,\nForth from his port, or sink the grain they brought:\nElse would his people, over-fed, grow slothful,\nRude, and importunate with new conceits,\nAnd soon degenerating in their race,\nNeglect their proper island, and their King.\nBut, on its own resources nobly forced,\nThen would the stony Ithaca become\nGreat in herself by self-dependent power.\"\n\nTo this the King gave ear, and on the shore\nHe, with Encolyon, for an omen prayed;\nAnd soon along the horizontal line\nRising, they saw a threatening rack of clouds,\nBlack as the fleet from Aulis 'gainst doomed Troy,\u2014\nIn after-time well known. Encolyon cried\n\"Behold propitious anger on the isle,\nFor its wrong doings!\" Wherefore all the grain\nFrom friendly islands they, with scorn, sent back.\nA famine soon in Ithaca spread wide,\nAnd hungry people prowled about at night,\nThen clamoured, and took arms\u2014their war-cry \"bread!\"\nThus was the dormant evil of their hearts\nAttested, and the King his people knew,\nAnd bitterly their want of reverence felt.\n\nEncolyon, in his stature tall confiding,\nThough Akinetos warned him not to move,\nWent gravely forth the rebel throngs to meet.\nThe politic giant's staid demeanour awed\nThe angry mass at first, and with their eyes\nThey seemed to listen, doubtful of their ears,\nSo puzzling was his speech. He to the King\nAnd his chief heroes then discoursed apart,\nConvincing them that all the wheels went well.\nWith head bent sideways from the light, he looked\nLike to some statesman of consummate mind\nWorking an ancient problem; and then spake\nIn language critical, final, stolid, astute,\nConcluding with affectionate appeal\nTo common sense, and all we hold most dear.\n\"Keep down\u2014put back\u2014prevent! O Gods prevent!\"\nThis was his famous saying. Now the King\nLed out his patriot army\u2014but ere long\nThe army hungered too\u2014the King was slain\u2014\nEncolyon fled, and hid within a ship.\n\nForthwith a crowd to Akinetos thronged,\nCrying, \"What say'st thou, giant who art wise?\nWhat shall we do?\" And Akinetos said,\n\"Great hunger is a single thing\u2014one want:\nSatisfy that, and strength will be acquired\nTo multiply desire\u2014wants without end!\nTherefore be patient: leave all else to fate.\"\n\nStubborn the people as their own dry rocks\u2014\nEnraged as the wild winds\u2014to reason deaf\u2014\nAnd also wanting food\u2014cursed his calm thought\u2014\nCast stones upon him, and had surely slain\nBut that without resistance he bore all,\nAnd without word; so they, being tired, relented,\nAnd bore him to the ship, where, in the hold,\nEncolyon lay at length with in-drawn breath.\nTo Chios sailed the ship. The Ithacans\nChose a new king, and traded with the isles.\n\nIn this companionship Orion's bent\nOf nature had not merged; his working spirit\nSought from the fallen trunks and rocks to frame\nRude image of his fancies, till at length\nHe won Heph\u00e6aestos' love, from whom he learnt\nThe god's own solid art. But this attained,\nAnd proved by mastery, a restless dream\nDawned on his soul which he desired to shape,\nYet knew not how, nor saw its like around,\nBut vaguely felt at times, and thought he saw\nIn shadows. Wherefore through the forest depths,\nThrough vales and over hills, a hunter fleet\nHe chased his unknown hopes; and when the stag,\nOr goat, or ounce, he overtook and seized,\nEver he set them free, and e'en the bear\nAnd raging boar his spear refrained to strike,\nSave by its shadow, as they roaring fled.\nThe bodily thing became to him as nought\nWhen gained; nor satisfied with efforts passed.\n\nNow from a Goddess did he quickly learn\nThe mystery of his mood, and saw how vain\nHis early life had been, and felt new roots\nQuicken within him, branches new that sprung\nAloft, and with expanding energies\nTingled, and for immortal fruit prepared.\n\nShe met him in her beauty. Oft when dawn\nWith a grave red looked through the ash-pale woods,\nAnd quick dews singing fell, while with a pulse\nAs quick, Orion stood beneath the trees,\nAnd gazed upon the uncertain scene,\u2014his heart\nForewarned his senses with a rapturous thrill.\nHe turned, and from the misty green afar,\nIn silence did the Goddess' train appear\nRounding a thicket. Slow the crowding hounds\nTript circling onward; Nymphs with quivered backs,\nAnd clear elastic limbs of nut-brown hue,\nOr like tanned wall-fruit, ripening and compact;\nAnd short-horned Fauns down gazing on their pipes;\nAnd Oceanides with tresses green\nPlaited in order, or by golden nets\nIn various device confined, each bearing\nShell lyres and pearl-mouthed trumpets of the sea;\nDryads and Oreads decked with oak-leaf crowns\nAnd heath-bells, dancing in the fragrant air;\nAnd Sylvans, who, half Faun, half shepherd, lead\nA grassy life, with cymbals in each hand\nPressed cross-wise on the breast, waiting the sign;\u2014\nAttendant round a pale gold chariot moved:\nBy two large-antlered milk-white stags 't was drawn,\nTheir sleek hides 'neath the fine dews quivering,\nIn delicate delight. Above them rose\nThe fair-haired Goddess, onward softly gliding,\nAs though erect she stood on wafted clouds.\nShe smiled not; but the crescent on her brow\nGleamed with a tender light. He knew 't was love.\n\nGiddy with happiness Orion's spirit\nNow danced in air;\u2014his heart tumultuous beat\nToo high a measure and too wild, to taste\nThe fullness that he dreamed encompassed him,\nBut he could not encompass, nor scarce dare\nClearly to recognize. And Artemis smiled\nUpon him with a radiance silver sweet,\nAnd o'er his forehead oft her hand she waved,\nTill visions of the purity of love\nAbove him floated, and his being filled.\n\nLanguage of Gods she taught him; and displayed,\nFar as 't was fitting, and from all gross acts\nRefined, their several wondrous histories:\nBut chief of all, in accents nobly sad,\nShe told of kindness by Poseidon done,\nHis ocean sire, when swan-necked Leto bearing\nTwins of bright destiny and heirs of heaven\u2014\nHerself and Phoibos\u2014cruelly was driven\nThrough the bleak ways of earth, and found no rest,\nPursued by serpent jealousy, for Zeus\nHad loved fair Leto; how Orion's sire\nA floating isle that sometimes 'neath the waves\nDrifted unseen, sometimes shewed watery rocks,\nSmote with his trident, and majestical\nDelos arose\u2014stood fast\u2014and gave a home\nTo fainting Leto,\u2014and a place of birth\nFor deities\u2014the Sun, and his loved Orb.\nThe mysteries, worship, and the sacrifice\nOf her Ephesian Temple, she displayed\nBefore his wondering thought, and oft he knelt\nIn solitude, when of its hundred columns,\nEach reared by kingly hands, wakeful he dreamed,\nAnd felt his Goddess love too high removed.\nThe ocean realm below, and all its caves\nAnd bristling vegetation, plant and flower,\nAnd forests in their dense petrific shade\nWhere the tides moan for sleep which never comes;\nAll this she taught him, and continually\nKnowledge of human life made clear to him\nThrough facts and fables. He the intricate web\nOf nature, gradually of himself began\nTo unwind, and see that gods and men were one\u2014\nBorn of one element, imperfect both,\nYet aspirant, and with perfection's germ\nSomewhere within. He brooded o'er these things.\n\nOne day, at noontide, when the chase was done,\nWhich with unresting speed since dawn had.held,\nThe woods were all with golden fire alive,\nAnd heavy limbs tingled with glowing heat.\nSylvans and Fauns at full length cast them down,\nAnd cooled their flame-red faces in the grass,\nOr o'er a streamlet bent, and dipped their heads\nDeep as the top hair of their pointed ears;\nWhile Nymphs and Oceanides retired\nTo grots and sacred groves, with loitering steps,\nAnd bosoms swelled and throbbing, like a bird's\nHeld between human hands. The hounds with tongues,\nCrimson, and lolling hot upon the green,\nAnd outstretched noses, flatly crouched; their skins\nClouded or spotted, like the field-bean's flower,\nOr tiger-lily, painted the wide lawns.\n\nOrion wandered deep into a vale\nAlone; from all the rest his steps he bent,\nThoughtful, yet with no object in his mind;\nLanguid, yet restless. Near a hazel copse,\nWhose ripe nuts hung in clusters twined with grapes,\nHe paused, down gazing, 'till upon his sense\nA fragrance stole, as of ambrosia wafted\nThrough the warm shades by some divinity\nAmid the woods. With gradual step he moved\nOnward, and soon the poppied entrance found\nOf a secluded bower. He entered straight,\nUnconsciously attracted, and beheld\nHis Goddess love, who slept\u2014her robe cast off,\nHer sandals, bow and quiver, thrown aside,\nYet with her hair still braided, and her brow\nDecked with her crescent light. Awed and alarmed\nBy loving reverence\u2014which dreads offence\nE'en though the wrong were never known, and feels\nIts heart's religion for religion's self,\nBesides its object's claim\u2014swift he retired.\n\nThe entrance gained, what thoughts, what visions his!\nWhat danger had he 'scaped, what innocent crime,\nWhich Artemis might yet have felt so deep!\nHe blest the God of Sleep who thus had held\nHer senses! Yet, what loveliness had glanced\nBefore his mind\u2014scarce seen! Might it not be\nIllusion?\u2014some bright shadow of a hope\nFirst dawning? Would not sleep's God still exert\nSafe influence, if that he once more stole back\nAnd gazed an instant? 'T were not well to do,\nAnd would o'erstain with doubt the accident\nWhich first had led him there. He dare not risk\nThe chance 't were not illusion\u2014oh, if true!\nWhile thus he murmured hesitating, slow,\nAs slow and hesitating he returned\nInstinctively, and on the Goddess gazed!\n\nWith adoration and delicious fear,\nLingering he stood; then pace by pace retired,\n'Till in the hazel copse sighing he paused,\nAnd with most earnest face and vacant eye,\nAnd brow perplexed, stared at a tree. His hands\nWere clenched; his feet pressed down the soil,\nAnd changed their place. Suddenly lie turned round,\nAnd made his way direct into the bower.\n\nThere was a slumbrous silence in the air,\nBy noon-tide's sultry murmurs from without\nMade more oblivious. Not a pipe was heard\nFrom field or wood; but the grave beetle's drone\nPassed near the entrance: once the cuckoo called\nO'er distant meads, and once a horn began\nMelodious plaint, then died away. A sound\nOf murmurous music yet was in the breeze,\nFor silver gnats that harp on glassy strings,\nAnd rise and fall in sparkling clouds, sustained\nTheir dizzy dances o'er the seething meads.\nWith brain as dizzy stood Orion now\nI' the quivering bower. There rapturous he beheld,\nAs in a trance, not conscious of himself,\nThe perfect sculpture of that naked form,\nWhose Parian whiteness and clear outline gleamed\nIn its own hue, nor from the foliage took\nOne tint, nor from his ample frame one shade.\nHer lovely hair hung drooping, half unbound,\u2014\nFair silken braids, fawn-tinted delicately,\nThat on one shoulder lodged their opening coil.\nHer large round arms of dazzling beauty lay\nIn matchless symmetry and inviolate grace\nAlong the mossy floor. At length he dropped\nSoftly upon his knees, his clasped hands raised\nAbove his head, 'till by resistless impulse\nHis arms descending, were expanded wide\u2014\u2014\u2014\nSwift as a flash, erect the Goddess rose!\n\nHer eyes shot through Orion, and he felt\nWithin his breast an icy dart. Confronted,\nMutely they stood, but all the bower was filled\nWith rising mist that chilled him to the bone,\nColder, as more obscure the space became;\nAnd ere the last collected shape he saw\nOf Artemis, dispersing fast amid\nDense vapoury clouds, the aching wintriness\nHad risen to his teeth, and fixed his eyes,\nLike glistening stones in the congealing air.","title":"Orion/Book I/Canto II","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":2244}