THE SHIELD OF HERCULES. 97

wrath by building him at Pagasae an altar of the horns of captured beasts ; but the god loved his shrine too well to compound matters so easily, and instead of doing so, appears to have commissioned Hercules to exact reparation from the robber. The poem opens with the approach of the hero, with his charioteer and kinsman, lolaus, to the robber's haunt : " There in the grove of the far-darting god He found him, and, insatiable of war, Ares, his sire, beside. Both bright in arms, Bright in the sheen of burning flame they stood On their high chariot, and the horses fleet Trampled the ground with rending hoofs ; around In parted circle smoked the cloudy dust, Up-dashed beneath the trampling hoofs, and cars Of complicated frame. The well-framed cars Rattled aloud ; loud clashed the wheels, while wrapt In their full speed the horses flew. Rejoiced The noble Cycnus ; for the hope was his Jove's warlike offspring and his charioteer To slay, and strip them of their gorgeous mail. But to his vaunts the prophet god of day Turned a deaf ear : for he himself set on The assault of Heracles." E. 81-97. R"one but Hercules, we are told, could have faced the unearthly light with which the sheen of the war- god's armour and the glare of his fire-flashing eyes lit up the sacred enclosure and its environs. He, how- ever, is equal to the occasion. Probably, if we had the poem as it was written, the hero would not be repre- sented as in the text, employing this critical moment in irrelevant speeches to his charioteer to the effect A. C. vol. XV. G