gore. This monster’s father was Vulcan: Vulcan’s were
the murky fires that he disgorged from his mouth as he
towered along in enormous bulk. To us also at length 5
in our yearning need time brought the arrival of a divine
helper. For the mightiest of avengers, Alcides, triumphing
in the slaughter and the spoils of the triple Geryon,[253]
was in our land, and was driving by this road as a conqueror
those giant oxen, and the cattle were filling valley 10
and river-side. But Cacus, infatuated by fiendish frenzy,
not to leave aught of crime or craft undared or unessayed,