The hero Nausithous. There did he stablish his home, and was slain {550}
Defending his kine from the Mentors, the rovers of the main.
Now, Goddesses, tell how Argo’s wondrous ensign came
Without this sea, by Ausonia-land, and the isles men name
The ‘Long Row,’ lone sea-cradles that nurse a Ligurian seed—
How stood clear forth mid-sea—what strong constraint, what need
Thitherward led her, what breezes they were that wafted her speed.
’Twas, I ween, when Absyrtus had fallen in mighty overthrow,
That the wrath of Zeus, the King of the Gods, for their deed was aglow.
Yet he ordained the transgressors to cleanse them of murder’s stain