The lover's attitude of suspense, waiting at nightfall on the beach for Hero's lamp to burn, is so strongly emphasized in the following lines that we are made to feel how anxiously and yearningly the hours of daylight had been spent by him. No sooner does the spark shine forth than Leander darts forward to the waves, and, having prayed to Love, leaps lively in:
ὣς εἰπὼν μελέων ἐρατῶν ἀπεδύσατο πέπλον
ἀμφοτέραις παλάμῃσιν, ἑῷ δ' ἔσφιγξε καρήνῳ,
ἠϊόνος δ' ἐξῶρτο, δέμας δ' ἔρριψε θαλάσσῃ,
λαμπομένου δ' ἔσπευδεν ἀεὶ κατεναντία λύχνου
αὐτὸς ἐὼν ἐρέτης αὐτόστολος αὐτόματος νῆυς.[268]
Hero meanwhile is on the watch, and when her bridegroom gains the shore, breathless and panting, he finds himself within her arms:
ἐκ δὲ θυράων
νυμφίον ἀσθμαίνοντα περιπτύξασα σιωπῇ
ἀφροκόμους ῥαθάμιγγας ἔτι στάζοντα θαλάσσης
ἤγαγε νυμφοκόμοιο μυχοὺς ἐπὶ παρθενεῶνος.[269]
There she washes the stain and saltness of the sea from his body, and anoints him with perfumed oil, and leads him with tender words of welcome to the marriage-bed. The classic poet feels no need of apologizing for the situation, nor does he care to emphasize it. The whole is narrated with Homeric directness, contrasting curiously with the romantic handling of the same incident by Marlowe. Yet the point and pathos of clandestine marriage had to be expressed; and to a Greek the characteristic circumstance was the absence of customary ritual. This defect, while it isolated the lovers from domestic sympathies and troops of friends, attracted attention to themselves, and gave occasion to some of the best verses in the poem:
ἦν γάμος ἀλλ' ἀχόρευτος· ἔην λέχος ἀλλ' ἄτερ ὕμνων·
οὐ Ζυγίην Ἥρην τις ἐπευφήμησεν ἀοιδός·
οὐ δαΐδων ἤστραπτε σέλας θαλαμηπόλον εὐνήν·
οὐδὲ πολυσκάρθμῳ τις ἐπεσκίρτησε χορείῃ,
οὐχ ὑμέναιον ἄεισε πατὴρ καὶ πότνια μήτηρ·
ἀλλὰ λέχος στορέσασα τελεσσιγάμοισιν ἐν ὥραις
σιγὴ παστὸν ἔπηξεν, ἐνυμφοκόμησε δ' ὀμίχλη,
καὶ γάμος ἦν ἀπάνευθεν ἀειδομένων ὑπεμαίων.
νὺξ μὲν ἔην κείνοισι γαμοστόλος, οὐδέ ποτ' ἠὼς
νύμφιον εἶδε Λεάνδρον ἀριγνώτοις ἐνὶ λέκτροις·
νήχετο δ' ἀντιπόροιο πάλιν ποτὶ δῆμον Ἀβύδου
ἐννυχίων ἀκόρητος ἔτι πνείων ὑμεναίων.
Ἡρὼ δ' ἑλκεσίπεπλος, ἑοὺς λήθουσα τοκῆας,
παρθένος ἡματίη νυχίη γυνή. Ἀμφότεροι δὲ
πολλάκις ἠρήσαντο κατελθέμεν ἐς δύσιν ἠώ.[270]
So the night passed, and through many summer nights they tasted the sweets of love, χλοεροῖσιν ἰαινόμενοι μελέεσσιν. But soon came winter, and with winter the sea grew stormy, and ships were drawn up on the beach, and the winds battled with each other in the Hellespontine Straits; and now Hero should have refrained from lighting her lamp, μινυώριον ἀστέρα λέκτρων: but love and fate compelled her, and the night of tempest and of destiny arrived. Manfully Leander wrestled with the waves; yet the storm grew stronger; his strength ebbed away, an envious gust blew out the guiding lamp; and so he perished in the waters. The picture of his death-struggle is painted with brief incisive touches. The last two lines have a strange unconscious pathos in them, as though the life and love of a man were no better than a candle:
καὶ δὴ λύχνον ἄπιστον ἀπέσβεσε πικρὸς ἀήτης
καὶ ψυχὴν καὶ ἔρωτα πολυτλήτοιο Λεάνδρου.[271]
What remains to be told is but little. The cold gray dawn went forth upon the sea; how gray and comfortless they know who, after lonely watching through night hours, have seen discolored breakers beat upon a rainy shore. Hero from her turret gazed through the twilight; and there at her feet lay dead Leander, bruised by the rocks and buffeted by slapping waves. She uttered no cry; but tore the embroidered raiment on her breast, and flung herself, face downward, from the lofty tower. In their death, says the poet after his own fashion, they were not divided:
ἀλλήλων δ' ἀπόναντο καὶ ἐν πυμάτῳ περ ὀλέθρῳ.[272]