Hymn to Athena

All you bath-pourers of Pallas, come forth, all of you, come forth. Just now I heard the sacred mares neighing, and the goddess is ready to set out. Hasten now, you fair-haired Pelasgian women, hasten.

Never did Athena wash her great arms before she had driven the dust from the flanks of her horses, not even when, bearing all her armour befouled with gore, she came back from the unjust earth-born giants; but first of all, loosing from the chariot the necks of her horses, she washed in the springs of Ocean the sweat and the spattered drops, and made bright again all the caked foam upon the bit-champing mouths.

O come, you Achaean women, and bring no perfumes nor alabaster-flasks (I hear the sound of the pipes from beneath the axle-naves)— no perfumes, bath-pourers, for Pallas, nor alabaster-flasks (for Athena loves not mingled ointments), nor bring a mirror: her eye is ever fair. Not even when the Phrygian judged the strife on Ida did the great goddess look into orichalc, or into the eddy of Simois showing her reflection clear; nor did Hera. But Cypris, taking the shining bronze, twice changed and reset the same lock of hair. But she, having run twice sixty laps of the course, like the stars by the Eurotas, the Lacedaemonian youths, took skilfully and rubbed on simple ointments, the produce of her own tree. And the blush ran up, O maidens, like the colour of the morning rose, or the seed of the pomegranate. Therefore now too bring only the manly oil, with which Castor anoints himself, and with which Heracles too; and bring her a comb all of gold, that she may comb her tresses, when she has dressed her glossy lock.

Come forth, Athena: a company is here to your heart's liking, the maiden daughters of the great sons of Acestor; and the shield of Diomedes is borne too, Athena, as Eumedes taught this rite, of older Argive custom— a priest acceptable to you; who once, learning that the people were preparing for him a counselled death, fled, carrying off your holy image, and went and settled on the Creion hill; the Creion hill; and you, goddess, he set among the sheer rocks, which now have the name Pallatides.

Come forth, Athena, sacker of cities, golden-helmed, delighting in the clash of horses and shields. Today, water-carriers, do not dip—today, Argos, drink from the fountains, not from the river; today, you handmaids, carry your pitchers either to Physadeia or to Amymone, daughter of Danaus. For indeed, mingling his waters with gold and with flowers, Inachus will come from the pasturing mountains, bringing the fair bath for Athena. But, Pelasgian, take heed lest unwilling you behold the queen. Whoever shall see Pallas, the guardian of the city, naked, shall look upon this Argos for the very last time.

Lady Athena, you go forth; and meanwhile I shall say something to these. The tale is not mine, but others'. Children, Athena once in Thebes loved one nymph, much, yea far beyond all her companions, the mother of Tiresias, and never were they apart; but whether she drove her horses toward ancient Thespiae, or to Coronea, or to Haliartus, crossing the lands of the Boeotians, or to Coronea, where her perfumed grove and altars are set beside the Coralian river, often did the goddess set her upon her car; nor were the converse of the nymphs nor the dances sweet, when Chariclo did not lead them. Yet even for her many tears still awaited, though she was a companion after Athena's heart. For once, loosing the clasps of their robes, beside the fair-flowing horse-spring on Helicon they bathed; and the noontide stillness held the hill. Both were bathing, and it was the noontide hour, and a deep stillness held that hill. But Tiresias alone, with his hounds, his cheek just then darkening with down, was wandering the holy place; and thirsting unspeakably he came to the stream of the spring, the wretch; and unwilling he saw what was not lawful. And though wroth, yet Athena addressed him: "What god, O son of Everes, led you on this hard road—you who shall never carry your eyes away again?" She spoke, and night seized the boy's eyes. And he stood speechless, for anguish glued his knees, and helplessness held his voice. But the nymph cried out: "What have you done to my boy, lady? Are you goddesses such friends as this? You have taken away the eyes of my child. O accursed son, you saw the breasts and flanks of Athena, but you shall not see the sun again. O wretched me, O mountain, O Helicon no longer to be trodden by me, truly great things you have exacted for small: losing some gazelles and not many fawns, you have my child's eyes."

Ah, and clasping her dear son in both her arms, the mother led on the grievous fate of the wailing nightingales, weeping heavily; and the goddess pitied her companion, and Athena spoke to her this word: "Divine woman, take back all that you said in your anger; for I have not made your child blind. For it is not sweet to Athena to snatch away the eyes of children; but the laws of Cronus thus declare: whoever shall behold any of the immortals, when the god himself does not choose it, shall behold them at a great price. Divine woman, the deed cannot now be recalled, since the threads of the Fates spun it so, when first you bore him; but now receive, O son of Everes, the debt that is owed. How many burnt offerings shall the daughter of Cadmus later burn, how many Aristaeus, praying to see their only son, untouched Actaeon, blind! And he too shall be a companion of great Artemis; but neither the chase nor the arrows shot in common upon the mountains shall save him at that time, when, all unwilling, he shall see the lovely bath of the goddess; but his own hounds shall then make a feast of their former master; and his bones the mother shall gather, ranging over all the thickets; and she shall call you most blessed and of happy fortune, who received from the mountains a son but blind. O companion, therefore do not lament; for to him, for your sake, many other honours shall remain from me. For I shall make him a seer to be sung of by those to come, yea, far more eminent than the rest. He shall know the birds, which are of good omen and which fly in vain, and of which the wings are not favourable. Many oracles to the Boeotians, many to Cadmus he shall give, and to the great Labdacids after. I shall give him too a great staff, which shall guide his feet aright; I shall give him too a long term of life. And alone, when he dies, conscious he shall range among the dead, honoured by the great Hagesilaus." So speaking, she nodded assent; and that is fulfilled to which Pallas nods, since to Athena alone of his daughters Zeus granted to bear all that is the father's, bath-pourers, and no mother gave birth to the goddess, but the head of Zeus. The head of Zeus does not nod to falsehoods, nor does the daughter of Zeus speak false.

Now in truth Athena comes; but receive the goddess, O maidens whose care this task is, with fair speech, with prayers, with cries of joy. Hail, goddess, and care for Inachian Argos. Hail as you drive forth, and as you drive your horses back again, and keep safe the whole inheritance of the Danaans.