Stesichorus of Himera

Palinode to Helen (West p. 89)

This tale they tell's not true:

you did not sail in those benched ships

or come to the towers of Troy.

Oresteia (West p. 91)

Join me, Muse, in rejecting stories of battle,

and celebrate weddings of gods and banquets of men

and feasts of the blessed.

The Song of Geryon (West pp. 88-89)

"...my unhappy motherhood, unhappy fate.

Now I beg you, Geryones,

if ever I gave you my nipple..."

[She drew apart her fragr]ant robe...

(Heracles' arrow) bearing on its head

a charge of horrid death,

being besmeared with blood and...gall,

the torments of the deadly Hydra's darting heads.

In silent stealth he drove it in his brow,

cleaving the flesh and bones

by fortune's dispensation.

Straight through to his skull-top the shaft kept course,

and spoiled with crimson blood

his cuirass and his gory limbs.

Geryones bent his neck aslant

even as a poppy whose delicate structure

decays, and its petals soon fall.

Updated 2-10-08, bolmarcich[at]mail.utexas.edu