Perseus the Deliverer

The Ocean in tumult, and the sky in storm: Pallas Athene appears in the heavens with lightnings playing over her head and under her feet.

 

ATHENE

 

Error of waters rustling through the world,

 

Vast Ocean, call thy ravenous waves that march

 

With blue fierce nostrils quivering for prey,

 

Back to thy feet. Hush thy impatient surges

 

At my divine command and do my will.

 

VOICES OF THE SEA

 

Who art thou layest thy serene command

 

Upon the untamed waters?

 

ATHENE

 

I am Pallas,

 

Daughter of the Omnipotent.

 

VOICES

 

What wouldst thou?

 

For we cannot resist thee; our clamorous hearts

 

Are hushed in terror at thy marble feet.

 

ATHENE

 

Awake your dread Poseidon. Bid him rise

 

And come before me.

 

VOICES

 

Let thy compelling voice

 

Awake him; for the sea is hushed.

 

ATHENE

 

Arise,

 

Illimitable Poseidon! let thy blue

 

And streaming tresses mingle with the foam

 

Emerging into light.

 

Poseidon appears upon the waters.

 

POSEIDON

 

What quite voice

 

Compels me from my rocky pillow piled

 

Upon the floor of the enormous deep?

 

VOICES

 

A whiteness and a strength is in the skies.

 

POSEIDON

 

How art thou white and beautiful and calm,

 

Yet clothed in tumult! Heaven above thee shakes

 

Wounded with lightning, goddess, and the sea

 

Flees from thy dreadful tranquil feet. Thy calm

 

Troubles me: who art thou, dweller in the light?

 

ATHENE

 

I am Athene.

 

POSEIDON

 

Virgin formidable

 

In beauty, disturber of the ancient world!

 

Ever thou seekest to enslave to man

 

The eternal Universe, and our huge motions

 

That shake the mountains and upheave the seas

 

Wouldst with the glancing visions of thy brain

 

Coerce and bridle.

 

ATHENE

 

Me the Omnipotent

 

Made from His being to lean and discipline

 

The immortal spirit of man, till it attain

 

To order and magnificent mastery

 

Of all his outward world.

 

POSEIDON

 

What wouldst thou of me ?

 

ATHENE

 

The powers of the earth have kissed my feet

 

In deep submission, and they yield me tribute,

 

Olives and corn and all fruit-bearing trees,

 

And silver from the bowels of the hills,

 

Marble and iron ore. Fire is my servant.

 

But thou, Poseidon, with thy kindred gods

 

And the wild wings of air resist me. I come

 

To set my feet upon thy azure locks,

 

O shaker of the cliffs. Adore thy sovereign.

 

POSEIDON

 

The anarchy of the enormous seas

 

Is mine, O terrible Athene: I sway

 

Their billows with my nod. Man’s feeble feet

 

Leave there no traces, nor his destiny

 

Has any hold upon the shifting waves.

 

ATHENE

 

Thou severest him with thy unmeasured wastes

 

Whom I would weld in one. But I will lead him

 

Over thy waters, thou wild thunderer,

 

Spurning thy tops in hollowed fragile trees.

 

He shall be confident in me and dare

 

The immeasurable oceans till the West

 

Mingles with India, and reach the northern isles

 

That dwell beneath my dancing aegis bright,

 

Snow-weary. He shall, armed with clamorous fire,

 

Rush o’er the angry waters when the whale

 

Is stunned between two waves and slay his foe

 

Betwixt the thunders. Therefore I bid thee not,

 

O azure strong Poseidon, to abate

 

Thy savage tumults: rather his march oppose.

 

For through the shocks of difficulty and death

 

Man shall attain his godhead.

 

POSEIDON

 

What then desir’st thou, Athene?

 

ATHENE

 

On yonder inhospitable coast

 

Far-venturing merchants from the East, or those

 

Who put from Tyre towards Atlantic gains,

 

Are by thy trident fiercely shaken forth

 

Upon the jagged rocks, and who escape,

 

The gay and savage Syrians on their altars

 

Massacre hideously, thee to propitiate,

 

 

Moloch-Poseidon of the Syrian coasts,

 

Dagon of Gaza, lord of many names

 

And many natures, many forms of power

 

Who rulest from Philistia to the north,

 

A terror and woe. O iron king,

 

Desist from blood, be glad of kindlier gifts

 

And suffer men to live.

 

POSEIDON

 

Behold, Athene,

 

My waters! See them lift their foam-white tops

 

Charging from sky to sky in rapid tumult:

 

Admire their force, admire their thunderous speed.

 

With green hooves and white manes they trample onwards.

 

My mighty voices fill the world, Athene.

 

Shall I permit the grand anarchic seas

 

To be a road and the imperious Ocean

 

A means of merchandise? Shall the frail keels

 

Of they ephemeral mortals score its back

 

With servile furrows and petty souls of men

 

Triumphing tame the illimitable sea?

 

I am not of the mild and later gods,

 

But of that elder world; Lemuria

 

And old Atlantis raised me crimson altars,

 

And my huge nostrils keep that scent of blood

 

For which they quiver. Return into thy heavens,

 

Pallas Athene, I into my deep.

 

ATHENE

 

Dash then thy billows up against my aegis

 

In battle! Think not to hide in thy deep oceans;

 

For I will drive thy waters from the world

 

And leave thee naked to the light.

 

POSEIDON

 

Dread virgin!

 

I will not war with thee, armipotent.

 

ATHENE

 

Then send thy champion forth to meet my champion,

 

And let their conflict govern ours, Poseidon.

 

POSEIDON

 

Who is thy champion?

 

ATHENE

 

PERSEUS, THE Olympian’s son,

 

Whom Danaë in her strong brazen tower,

 

Acrisius’ daughter, bore, by heavenly gold

 

Lapped into slumber: for of that shining rain

 

He is the beautiful offspring.

 

POSEIDON

 

The parricide

 

That is to be? But my sea-monster’s fangs

 

And fiery breathings shall prevent that murder.

 

Farewell, Athene.

 

ATHENE

 

Farewell, until I press

 

My feet upon thy blue enormous mane

 

And add thy Ocean to my growing empire.

 

Poseidon disappears into the sea.

 

He dives into the deep and with a din

 

The thunderous divided waters meet

 

Above his grisly head. Thou wingest, Perseus,

 

From northern snows to this fair sunny land,

 

Not knowing in the night what way thou wendest;

 

But the dawn comes and over earth’s far rim

 

The round sun rises, as thyself shalt rise

 

On Syria and thy rosy Andromeda,

 

A thing of light. Rejoice, thou famous hero!

 

Be glad of love, be glad of life, whose bosom

 

Harbours the quiet strength of pure Athene.

 

She disappears into light.