_ First proffering gain to me, do not then
withhold
it.
Thoreau - Excursions and Poems
_ None, surely, till I may be released from bonds.
_Io. _ Who, then, is to release thee, Zeus unwilling?
_Pr. _ He must be some one of thy descendants.
_Io. _ How sayest thou? that my child will deliver thee from ills?
_Pr. _ Third of thy race after ten other births.
_Io. _ This oracle is not yet easy to be guessed.
_Pr. _ But do not seek to understand thy sufferings.
_Io.
_ First proffering gain to me, do not then withhold it.
_Pr. _ I'll grant thee one of two relations.
_Io. _ What two propose, and give to me my choice.
_Pr. _ I give; choose whether thy remaining troubles
I shall tell thee clearly, or him that will release me.
_Ch. _ Consent to do her the one favor,
Me the other, nor deem us undeserving of thy words;
To her indeed tell what remains of wandering,
And to me, who will release; for I desire this.
_Pr. _ Since ye are earnest, I will not resist
To tell the whole, as much as ye ask for.
To thee first, Io, vexatious wandering I will tell,
Which engrave on the remembering tablets of the mind.
When thou hast passed the flood boundary of continents,
Towards the flaming orient sun-traveled . . .
Passing through the tumult of the sea, until you reach
The Gorgonian plains of Cisthene, where
The Phorcides dwell, old virgins,
Three, swan-shaped, having a common eye,
One-toothed, whom neither the sun looks on
With his beams, nor nightly moon ever.
_Io. _ Who, then, is to release thee, Zeus unwilling?
_Pr. _ He must be some one of thy descendants.
_Io. _ How sayest thou? that my child will deliver thee from ills?
_Pr. _ Third of thy race after ten other births.
_Io. _ This oracle is not yet easy to be guessed.
_Pr. _ But do not seek to understand thy sufferings.
_Io.
_ First proffering gain to me, do not then withhold it.
_Pr. _ I'll grant thee one of two relations.
_Io. _ What two propose, and give to me my choice.
_Pr. _ I give; choose whether thy remaining troubles
I shall tell thee clearly, or him that will release me.
_Ch. _ Consent to do her the one favor,
Me the other, nor deem us undeserving of thy words;
To her indeed tell what remains of wandering,
And to me, who will release; for I desire this.
_Pr. _ Since ye are earnest, I will not resist
To tell the whole, as much as ye ask for.
To thee first, Io, vexatious wandering I will tell,
Which engrave on the remembering tablets of the mind.
When thou hast passed the flood boundary of continents,
Towards the flaming orient sun-traveled . . .
Passing through the tumult of the sea, until you reach
The Gorgonian plains of Cisthene, where
The Phorcides dwell, old virgins,
Three, swan-shaped, having a common eye,
One-toothed, whom neither the sun looks on
With his beams, nor nightly moon ever.
