MEPHISTOPHELES. Things one was used to, they still haunt the mind;
Paradise is what one has left behind.
But tell me, what is in that cavern there,
In the dim light, a crouching shape, threefold?
THE DRYAD. The Phorcyads; approach them if you dare;
Speak to them, if your blood does not run cold.
MEPHISTOPHELES. Why not?—I see: now this is most bizarre.
In all humility I must avow
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I’ve never met creatures like this till now.
They’re worse than mandrake-roots… How are
Even the blackest, oldest human sins
Still to seem ugly, if comparison begins
With this unholy trinity?
Even our most odious hells are places
Where we’d not let them show their faces.
How, in the very land of beauty, can this freak
Grow and be reverenced as antique?…
They stir, they seem to sense my presence; how
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They squeak! Like vampire bats they’re gibbering now.
A PHORCYAD. Sisters, give me the eye, and it shall see
Who dares approach our temple-sanctuary.
MEPHISTOPHELES. Most honoured ladies, by your leave
I’m here,
To seek your threefold blessing I appear;
I come a stranger still, but I could show you
That ramifying kinship binds me to you.
I have seen gods most ancient and most proud,
To Ops and Rhea deeply I have bowed,
The Fates themselves, sisters of Chaos, your
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Sisters indeed, I saw a day ago or more—
But on your like I never yet have gazed:
Words fail me now, I am delighted and amazed.
THE PHORCYADS. This spirit seems to be intelligent.
MEPHISTOPHELES. Yet no bard sings your praises!
Wonderment
Fills me: how can this be? And I have never
Seen any likeness of you: sculptors should endeavour
To carve your venerable shapes, and not
Juno, Athene, Venus, and that lot.
THE PHORCYADS. Sunk in deep solitude, in still night pondering,
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We three have never thought of such a thing!
MEPHISTOPHELES. Indeed, why should you! Hidden from the world
You dwell, beholding none, by none beheld.
By rights you should live in some courtly place
Where wealth and art shed equal light and grace,
Where blocks of marble, hurrying to display
Themselves, rush into life as heroes every day;
Where—
THE PHORCYADS. Do not tempt us! Speak no more of this;
How would it help us, knowing what we miss?
Night-born, akin to darkest night alone,
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Known scarcely to ourselves, and by no others known.
MEPHISTOPHELES. That doesn’t matter greatly, even so;
One can transfer to other selves, you know.
Your one eye and one tooth suffice for three:
Would it not then be good mythology
To squeeze your triune essence into two,
And lend the image of the third of you,
Briefly, to me?
ONE OF THE THREE. Well, sisters, shall we try?
THE OTHERS. Yes, let’s; but keep the tooth and keep the eye!
MEPHISTOPHELES. But with those vital features disconnected,
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How can a perfect likeness be effected?
ONE OF THE THREE. You must just shut one eye, no problem there;
And one of your side-fangs you can lay bare.
Your profile will at once accomplish thus
A sisterly similitude with us.
MEPHISTOPHELES. TOO great an honour; well, so be it!
THE PHORCYADS. Done!
MEPHISTOPHELES [with a Phorcyad’sprofile].
So here I stand, Chaos’s well-beloved son!
THE PHORCYADS. We are her daughters, by undoubted right!
MEPHISTOPHELES. And to my shame, I’m a hermaphrodite.
THE PHORCYADS. Sisters, how beautiful! We’re a new three,
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Two eyes now and two teeth for you and me!
MEPHISTOPHELES. No eye must see me now, I must hide well:
I’ll dive right down and scare the fiends in hell.
10d. ROCKY INLETS OF THE AEGEAN SEA.
The moon stands motionless at its zenith]
THE SIRENS [reclining here and there on the cliffs, playing on flutes and singing].
Once, in Thessaly’s deep night,
By their wicked magic’s might,
Witches charmed you to the ground:
Now from your dark orbit gaze
Calmly on the tremulous
Sea, where glittering radiance plays,
Swarming, scattering brightness round.
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Lady, shine upon your slaves
Leaping, tumbling from the waves:
Moon, look graciously on us!
NEREIDS AND TRITONS [as marine prodigies].
Let a shriller note resound
Through the seas with piercing sound:
People of the deep, appear!
From the storm’s dark gulfs in dread
To these havens we have fled;
Your sweet singing draws us here.
Golden chains so rich and bright,
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See, we wear them with delight:
Crowns and gems adorn us too,
Bracelets, girdles—all these you
Gave us: for such treasures lay
Swallowed here in wrecks of ships
Lured to ruin by your lips,
You, the demons of our bay!
THE SIRENS. Well we know where fish are gliding,
Through cool waters twisting, sliding,
Happy, swimming where they wish.
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Now we watch your festive motion:
Show us, creatures of the ocean,
Show us you are more than fish!
THE NEREIDS AND TRITONS.
We intended this before
We approached your rocky shore.
Sisters, brothers, come! To prove
We are more than fish, we’ll move
Swiftly to the proper place,
Instantly to Samothrace.
[They depart.]
THE SIRENS. And vanishing so,
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Carried off by a fair breeze,
To that island they go
Where the lofty Cabiri* dwell;
What shall they accomplish then?
The Cabiri! Strange gods are these:
They beget themselves ever again,
But what they are they cannot tell.
Sweet Moon, stay graciously
Exalted, stationary!
Let night linger, let day
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Not drive us away!
THALES [on the shore, to THE HOMUNCULUS].
I’d gladly visit Nereus with you,
And the old fellow’s cave’s quite near here too;
But he’s a real curmudgeon, a thick-head
And a sour-puss, it must be said.
He’s never pleased, he seems to find
Fault with the whole race of mankind.
Yet he has second sight, and so
Everyone treats him with respect: they come
To do him homage, and to some
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He has done good services, I know.
THE HOMUNCULUS. Give him a knock, let’s try it anyway!
My glass and flame can stand it, I dare say.
NEREUS. DO I hear human voices? ’Pon my word,
What rage they put me in! What an absurd
Creature man is, striving to reach divinity,
Yet stuck in hi
s own image till infinity!
I could have lived in blessed peace, and all
Those years I felt the need to serve great men;
But when they did their deeds, you’d have thought then
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I’d never given them advice at all.
THALES. And yet men trust you, Old Man of the Sea;
We need your wisdom, do not spurn us! See,
This flame—in human likeness, it is true—
Turns for advice devotedly to you.
NEREUS. Advice! When did men ever heed it? Wise
Words merely freeze to death in ears of stone.
Deeds self-discredited as soon as done
Still teach the headstrong nothing. When his eyes
Roved lustfully to Helen, Paris heard
8110
My fatherly warning. Boldly there he stood
On the Greek shore; I told him what I could,
For I foresaw it: fire and smoke upstirred,
Bloodying the air, roof-timbers all aglow,
Slaughter and carnage down below;
Troy’s ordeal, captured in a poet’s spell*
That binds three thousand years with dread and joy.
An old man’s words amused that insolent boy:
He yielded to his whim, and Ilium fell—
A giant’s corpse, great as the pains it bore;
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Its stiff flesh now wild birds of Pindus tore.
Ulysses too—did I not prophesy
Circe’s deceits, the monster with one eye,
The folly of his men, his long-delayed
Return, and all the rest of it? It made
No difference, till the tossing sea upcast
Him on a hospitable shore at last.
THALES. As a wise man such folly gives you pain,
But let your kind heart bid you try again:
The pleasure of an ounce of thanks outweighs
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The dull weight of a hundred thankless days.
For our request’s no trifle: this young creature
Seeks wisely to acquire a bodily nature.
NEREUS. My mood was cheerful; must you spoil it for me?
I had seen a quite different day before me:
I have told the Graces of the sea, my daughters
The Dorids, all to assemble in these waters.
Neither Olympus bears, nor your dry land,
Such lovely moving shapes, gracefully and
Enchantingly from the sea-dragon leaping,
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Mounting the sea-god’s horses; gently thus
The element takes them into its keeping,
Even on the foam they ride victorious.
Venus’s rainbow-coloured chariot
Of shell now brings the loveliest of the lot,
Galatea: for since the Cyprian left us, she
Too is revered at Paphos equally.
As Aphrodite’s heiress, chariot-throne
And temple-city now are both her own.
Away! A father’s joy must fill this hour;
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My heart must not be hard, nor my tongue sour.
Ask Proteus! He has much strange information,
He’ll tell you about birth and transformation.
[He moves away towards the sea.]
THALES. That didn’t help; even if we had him here,
Proteus would just dissolve and disappear;
And even if one can hold him, all he’ll say
Is merely meant to puzzle and mislead
The questioner. But, since it seems you need
Some such advice, come, let’s be on our way!
[Exeunt.]
THE SIRENS [on the rocks above].
What’s this towards us riding,
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Through the wave-kingdom gliding?
A wind-borne company,
White sails they seem to be:
Mermaids that shine so bright,
Transfigured with strange light.
Let us descend: you hear
Their voices drawing near.
THE NEREIDS AND TRITONS.
Look! In our hands we bring
You all a joyful thing!
In this great turtle-shell
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Are gods: now praise them well!
See how their stern forms shine,
Scattering light divine!
THE SIRENS. Tiny of stature,
Mighty in power,
Wrecked seamen’s refuge,
Gods of an ancient age!
THE NEREIDS AND TRITONS. Now the Cabiri rule
This peaceful festival,
The wild waves they can bind
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And Neptune will be kind.
THE SIRENS. You are the stronger:
When the sea’s anger
Wrecks ships, the crew
Is saved by you.
THE NEREIDS AND TRITONS.
We’ve brought you three of them;
The fourth refused to come,
He said he was the best
Who thinks for all the rest.
THE SIRENS. One god may well deride
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Another; beware such pride!
Ever fearing to fall,
You should revere them all.
THE NEREIDS AND TRITONS.
Seven they should really be.
THE SIRENS. Where are the other three?
THE NEREIDS AND TRITONS.
We’ve still not worked that out;
In Olympus they’d know, no doubt.
And the eighth subsists there somehow
He’s not been thought of till now.
They are favourably disposed,
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But none is yet fully composed.
They are peerless beings, each
By an onward urge obsessed,
Hungry with a strange unrest
For a goal beyond their reach.
THE SIRENS. Let all reverence be done
To the moon, to the sun,
And where else it is due:
This we think best to do.
THE NEREIDS AND TRITONS.
How high now our fame flowers,
8210
Who bring this festive pleasure!
THE SIRENS. The heroes of ancient story
Fell short of such glory,
Though their high fame endures.
The Golden Fleece was their treasure:
The Cabiri are yours!
[Repeated in chorus.]
The Golden Fleece was their treasure:
The cabin are{ours yours
[THE NEREIDS and TRITONS pass by.]
THE HOMUNCULUS. Misshapen things! They look to me
Like dreary pots of clay.
8220
But pundits probe this mystery
With their blunt noddles to this day.
THALES. Old pots are what they want! An old coin must
Gain extra value from its rust.
PROTEUS [unseen].
I like that! As an old romancer,
I always find nonsense the soundest answer.
THALES. Where are you, Proteus?
PROTEUS [speaking like a ventriloquist, nearby and then from adistance].
Here! and here!
THALES. By all means play your old trick; but, my dear
Friend, spare me idle words! I know
You speak from where you’re not.
PROTEUS [as if from a long way off]. Hullo! Goodbye!
8230
THALES. He’s very close. Now shine your light!
He’s as inquisitive as a fish;
He’s stuck now in some shape-shift, but a bright
Flame will entice him where you wish.
THE HOMUNCULUS.
My glass shall give its maximum radiation;
But gently, to avoid disintegration.
PROTEUS [in the shape of a giant turtle].
What’s
this that shines so prettily?
THALES [covering up THE HOMUNCULUS].
Good! Take a closer look! You’ll be
Rewarded for your trifling pains. But you
Must come, please, on two human feet; then we’ll
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Gladly, but on our terms, reveal
This treasure hidden from your view.
PROTEUS [appearing in a noble form].
You’ve not forgotten your old worldly arts.
THALES. You’re still, I see, a man of many parts.
[He has uncovered, THE HOMUNCULUS.]
PROTEUS [astonished].
A shining midget! This I’ve never seen.
THALES. He wants advice; he’s only been
Half born, it seems, in a most curious fashion.
To be born fully, that’s now his great passion.
His intellectual qualities are many,
But earthly solid life he has hardly any.
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This glass retort’s still all that gives him weight;
His wish now’s to become incorporate.
PROTEUS. A case of true parthenogenesis!
Before he should be, he already is.
THALES [sotto voce].
And there’s another thing that’s critical:
He seems to me to be hermaphroditical.
PROTEUS. So much the better: he arrives
In this world with a choice of lives!
But here’s no need for much discourse:
In the wide sea you must begin your course!
8260
At first one’s small, but with great pleasure
One swallows creatures of still tinier measure;
Gradually one will thus augment
And shape oneself for high accomplishment.
THE HOMUNCULUS. How soft and fresh the air! This smell
Of moist fertility contents me well.
PROTEUS. That I can well believe, dear boy!
And further on there’s still more to enjoy.
This narrow salient of the sandy shore—
It has an atmosphere still more
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Ineffable. And there we’ll get the best
Sight of the pageant as it floats in view.
So come with me!
THALES. Ill join you too.
THE HOMUNCULUS. March on then, our great threefold spirit-quest!
[TELCHINES from Rhodes, on hippocampi and sea-dragons, brandishing Neptune’s trident.]
CHORUS. The trident of Neptune, that rules the wild ocean:
We forged it, we made it! When densest commotion
Of storm-clouds unfolds in the Thunder-god’s hour,
Then Neptune responds to his terrible power.
From heaven the lightnings flash jaggedly down,
But skywards the spray leaps as waves are upthrown;
8280
Seafarers in terror are tossed to and fro,
Till the deep overwhelms them and sucks them below.
And so he has lent us his sceptre today,
And calm is the sea as we hover and play.
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