By the priests of the Deathless, the sons of Thêbê, Tritonis’ town. {260}
Not yet was the star-host, that whirl round heaven their chariots of fire:
Not yet of the sacred Danaan race, though a man should inquire,
Aught might he hear. Apidanian Arcadians alone on the earth
Dwelt—the Arcadians which lived, or ever the moon had birth,
Mid the mountains acorn-sustained, it is told. No sceptred hand
Of Deukalion’s glorious line ruled then the Pelasgian land,
In the days when men called Egypt, the fruitful land of corn,
The Morning-land, the mother of peoples elder-born.
And of Trito her fair-flowing river was named, of whom all the plain