O solemn night,
How slow thy coursers trace,
Amid the holy Heaven star-bedight,
Their pathway through the deeps of space!
At each pause in her song comes the voice of Echo repeating the sad syllables, till Andromeda is joined by the maidens who form the chorus. The lyric dialogue concluded, it seems[795] that the father and mother, Cepheus and Cassiopeia, enter and that there is some talk of attacking the monster; Phineus, brother of the king and the affianced of Andromeda, shrinks from the risk. But now comes unlooked-for aid. Perseus, fresh from his slaughter of the Gorgon, arrives, borne through the air on his winged sandals. Though Zeus is his father, in this play he figures as the lowly hero familiar in our own fairy-tales. Certainly he appears to be contrasted with the rich but cowardly Phineus, and the helpless despairing king. His first words have been preserved:—
Gods! To what alien kingdom am I come
On sandals swift, between the earth and Heaven
Journeying homewards on these wingèd feet?...
But soft! what crag is that by tossing foam
Surrounded? Lo, the statue of a maid