276 ST. MARK’S REST

Greek: and gave them the glories of Venetian art in true inheritance from the angels of that Athenian Rock, above which Ion spread his starry tapestry,* and under whose shadow his mother had gathered the crocus in the dew.

* I have myself learned more of the real meaning of Greek myths from Euripides than from any other Greek writer, except Pindar.¹ But I do not at present know of any English rhythm interpreting him rightly-these poor sapless measures must serve my turn (Wodhull’s: 1778):-

“The sacred tapestry

Then taking from the treasures of the God,

He cover’d o’er the whole, a wondrous sight

To all beholders: first he o’er the roofs

Threw robes, which Hercules, the son of Jove,

To Phœbus at his temple brought, the spoils

Of vanquished Amazons; a votive gift,

On which these pictures by the loom were wrought;

Heaven in its vast circumference all the stars

Assembling; there his courses too the Sun

Impetuous drove, till ceas’d his waning flame,

And with him drew in his resplendent train,

Vesper’s clean light; then clad in sable garb

Night hasten’d; hastening stars accompanied

Their Goddess; through mid-air the Pleiades,

And with his falchion arm’d, Orion mov’d....

But the sides he covered

With yet more tapestry, the Barbaric fleet

To that of Greece opposed, was there display’d;

Follow’d a monstrous brood, half horse, half man,

The Thracian monarch’s furious steeds subdu’d,

And lion of Nemæa.”

. . . . . .

“... Underneath those craggy rocks,

North of Minerva’s citadel (the kings

Of Athens call them Macra), ...

Thou cam’st, resplendent with thy golden hair,

As I the crocus gathered, in my robe

Each vivid flower assembling, to compose

Garlands of fragrance.”

The composition of fragrant garlands out of crocuses being however Mr. Michael Wodhull’s improvement on Euripides. Creusa’s words are literally, “Thou camest, thy hair flashing with gold, as I let fall the crocus petals, gleaming gold back again, into my robe at my bosom.” Into the folds of it across her breast; as an English girl would have let them fall into her lap.²

¹ [So in Modern Painters, Ruskin says that in Euripides he found the essence of Greek tragedy (Vol. VII. p. 273 n.). His constant reading and his admiration of Pindar appear in many places: see, for instance, Queen of the Air, §§ 9, 17, 47 (Vol. XIX. pp. 303, 309, 348); Aratra Pentelici, §§ 48, 86, 92 (Vol. XX. pp. 232, 257, 262); and Fors Clavigera, Letter 34, § 8.]

² [The first passage down to the first dots (here inserted) translates lines 1141-1153 of the Ion; the next, lines 1158-1162; the third, lines 11-13; and the fourth, lines 887-890.]

[Version 0.04: March 2008]