filled their streets. Pindar seems to imply that these figures were actually locomotive automata. But he is careful to defend the artificers from the imputation of magical practices. Theirs was legitimate skill, marvellous indeed, yet no encroachment upon the prerogative of Deity—the right of granting life to such things only as seems good to it. Lastly, Pindar tells of a day, ere yet the gods had portioned among themselves the new-created earth,—a day when not as yet
"Towered the Rhodian isle conspicuous over Ocean's waves, but still
Deep it lay beneath the whelming brine."
One deity alone was accidentally absent from the allotment. It was the Sun-god Helios:—
"None was there to claim a portion for the absent God of Light.
Him, the pure and holy one, they left disfranchised of his lot."
The oversight was unintended, and Zeus would have cast the lots again. But the Sun-god declined the offer. He saw, he said, a land rising from the depths of ocean—
"Rich in sustenance for man and plenteous pasturage for sheep."
And then, addressing the Goddess of Pate who presided over the allotment, he invoked her to lift her hands and swear that, when such country appeared, it should be assigned to him. The promise was given,
