The Yellow King

their long hair
tied up to the crest of their heads
like manes

Poseidon: always Earth-Shaker

I had been taught
it was the mark of a king
to receive homage with grace.

There is always
some small hitch
at Troizen;
we do not do these things
with the smoothness of Athens.

My grandfather felt the cleaver's edge;
he reared up like a tower,
feeling his death,
dragging the men
like children;
the scarlet cleft in the white throat,
the rank hot smell;
the ruin of beauty,
the fall of strength,
the ebb of valor.

Then it was that I heard
a sea-sound in my ears.

He paused in thought.
Moira? he said.
The finished shape
of our fate,
the line drawn round it.

When the work of the King Horse was done,
he was given to the god,
as you saw yesterday.
And in those days,
said my great-grandfather,
as with the King Horse,
so with the King.

That he chose short life with glory,
and to walk with the god,
rather than live long,
unknown like stall-fed ox.

Deixos, the Horse Master's son,
who feared nothing four-footed.

Deixos slipped,
and fell in
while the beast was watching.

Henceforth, he said,
you will know it again.
If it comes to you, run out of doors,
and call to the people that Poseidon
is angry.
Then they can save themselves,
before the houses fall.
Such warnings are a favor of the god.
Try to be worthy.

How far man is,
even at his height of fortune,
below the Immortals.

A half-grown boar,
whose tusks were showing,
in the Great Hall when the King of Tiryns
was dining there.

I had never before singled out Apollo for worship.

Do not be late tonight,
or you will miss the harper.

The Cretans had halved it with their hoists.

Then the stones rose up slowly,
and slid into the bed the Cretans made for them.
And they stood fast.

One does not ask a priestess
how she knows things.

They are of the seed of Hephaistos,
Lord of the Earth Fire.

Though he didn't stand by you,
he did the next best thing;
he gave you a son who will.

Poor boy, it's not your fault
you know nothing. 
Talk to your grandfather.
It is better from him than me.

The grain was small in the ear,
ad the grapes were like hedgerow berries;
the dust lay deep,
so that men's feet sank in it,
and nothing prospered but the flies.
And with the drought came a sickness,
which, sparing the old,
took children and maidens and young men.

Sometimes it thunders,
or one hears the lion.

To be a king, I thought,
what is it?
To do justice,
go to war for one's people,
make their peace with the gods?
Surely, it is this.

In the midst,
straight before me,
stood a stately woman,
with a slave holding a sunshade
over her head.
She was about seven and twenty;
her hair, which was crowned
with a diadem of purple
stitched with gold,
was as red as firelit copper.

I have grieved longer for a dog
than they did for him.

So the man had not even left
a name behind him.

The troops were led by Xanthos,
the queen's brother.

I was the King;
and I was still new enough in Eleusis
to suppose this meant something.

Every day the Queen held audience.

Fathers were nobody in Eleusis,
and could not choose wives
for their own sons.

The young Companions
were escorting me,
as they did everywhere.

Now I began to seek
for occupation. 
It is not in my nature
to do nothing.

Because of some oracle concerning me
which had been kept secret from the people.
I remembered the dead King's laughter;
but it told one nothing.

When a man lives like this,
a youth he can choose for himself,
who looks up to him
and copies him
and boasts of his friendship,
will give him more pride in himself
than the womenfolk at home.
I see no sense in looking down on this.

Even kings have names where I come from.
Mine is Theseus.

He calls us to a high place,
my father said,
and we leap down to him.
We go of ourselves.

He put his black hairy hands on Chryse
and ran them all over her.

Seeing Minos in his bull-mask,
of whom not one cried aloud.

The Cretan double ax,
the sacred Labrys.

The bull chooses the team,
not the other way.

Ways of divining:
with sands of pebbles,
with water-droppings
or with bees or slivers of ivory,
with birds, like the Hellenes,
or, as the Sauromantians do,
with lizards.

It was said that if a dancer lived three years,
the Goddess set him free.
No one could remember anyone
lasting half as long.

But I cannot keep from putting my hand
to what I find about me.

It was the look of those who had had bad auguries;
those who had been brought young from home,
and were growing out of their strength and speed.

Helike was bull-shy.

A team that gave no show
would be broken up
before next day was out,
even if no one died.

But she had trusted me,
because of our vow.
This was the first test of it.

That any good we do in the bull ring
will profit for that insolent swine?

His father was a bull-leaper.
The Bull Court was the only place
in the Labyrinth
where speech was free.

A great impiety!
She used to follow him
into the Bull Court,
she was so besotted,
and hide herself in the wooden bull.
My friend said that is only vulgar talk.
But she was made for him,
quite out of her head.

The child is the mother's.
So the King kept quiet
to save his face,
and let it pass for his.

We have craft laws in Attica.
And for the farmers, too.

Well, if the King of your country
ever lands here, Theseus,
he'll find plenty of us
to fight for him,
in return for laws like that.