Light-hearted from honour and sceptre; as spake that prophecy grim,
The warning whereof he heard from his father the Sun erewhile,
Bidding him, ‘See thou beware of thine offspring’s secret guile,
And the plots of thy seed, and the curse of their crafty iniquity;’ {600}
For which cause also he sent them, even as they craved, oversea,
By their father’s behest, to Achaia a long way:—yet there came
On his soul no shadow of fear of his daughters, lest these should frame
Treason: no fear of his son Absyrtus his heart had chilled;
But he said, ‘In the children of Chalkiopê shall the curse be fulfilled.’
And bodings of awful revenge on the strangers foamed on his lip