Fulfilling thus an equal fate;
Since Pollux, scorning to remain, 115
For ever with the heavenly train,
Sharing his much-loved Castor's state,
Redeem'd his life in battle slain. 111
Him for his lost herds furious made,
Idas transfix'd with deadly stroke, 120
Aim'd by his spear of brazen head,
Whom, seated on a trunk of oak,
He from Taïgetus survey'd, whose ken
In lynx-eyed sharpness conquer'd mortal men.
Then straight, devising deeds of might, 125
Approach'd with rapid step and light
The sons of Aphareus, whom heaven's high sire
Chastised with hands that sent afflictions dire;
For Leda's offspring swift in flight pursued,
While near their father's tomb the brothers stood;
And, snatching thence a polish'd stone [1] 131
With Pluto's effigy impress'd,
They aim'd the massy fragment, thrown
- ↑ This stone, which the sons of Aphareus hurl with such impotent force against the breast of Pollux, was perhaps part of the decoration of a stony sepulchre, not a statue, for this was prior to the age of statuary. Sudorius, in his metrical paraphrase, calls It a funereal or deadly stone:—
"Immane saxum funereum manu
Audace vibravere duri
In stomachum medium Laconis."Theocritus, who relates the same story in his twenty-second idyllium, calls the stone σταλαν.
The passage describing the vain and impious attack of Idas is thus translated by Polwhele:—
"Vindictive of his brother's doom,
He tore a column from Aphareus' tomb,
Aiming its massy vengeance at the foe,
With wild uplifted arm, in act to throw;
Heaven's sovereign lord elanced a flaming brand
That dash'd the shatter'd marble from his hand!"
