In the Temple of Poseidon.
Cireas.  

CIREAS

I am done with thee, Poseidon Ennosigaios, man-slayer, ship-breaker, earth-shaker, lord of the waters! Never was faithful service so dirtily rewarded. In all these years not a drachma, not an obolus, not even a false coin for solace. And. when thou hadst mocked me with hope, when a Prince had promised me all my findings, puttest thou me off with two pauperized merchants of Babylon? What, thou takest thy loud ravenous glut of the treasures that should have been mine and roarest. derision at me with thy hundred-voiced laughters? Am I a sponge to suck up these insults? No! I am only moderately porous. I will break thy treasury, Poseidon, and I will run. Think not either to send thy sea-griffins after me. For I will live on the top of Lebanon, and thy monsters, when they come for me, shall snort and grin and gasp for breath and return to thee baffled and asthmatic. 

As he talks Iolaus and Perseus enter.

IOLAUS

What, Cireas, wilt thou run? I'll give thee gold
To wing thy shoes, if thou wilt do my bidding.

CIREAS

I am overheard! I am undone! I am crucified! I am disembowelled! .

IOLAUS

Be tranquil, Cireas, fool, I come to help thee.

CIREAS

Do you indeed! I see, they have made you a god, for you know men's minds. But could old father Zeus find your newborn

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godhead no better work than to help thieves and give wings to runaways? Will you indeed help me, god Iolaus? I can steal then under thy welcome protection? I can borrow Poseidon's savings and run?

IOLAUS

Steal not: thou shalt have gold enough to buy
Thy liberty and farms and slaves and cattle.

CIREAS

Prince, art thou under a vow of liberality? or being about to die, wilt thou distribute thy goods and chattels to deserving dishonesty? Do not mock me, for if thou raise hopes again in me and break them, I can only hang myself.

IOLAUS

I mock thee not, thou shalt have glut of riches.

CIREAS

What must I do? I'ld give thee nose and ears
For farms and freedom.

PERSEUS

Wherefore dost thou bribe
This slave to undo a bond my sword unties?

IOLAUS

I shrink from violence in the grim god's temple.

CIREAS

Zeus, art thou there with thy feathers and phosphorus? I pray thee, my good bright darling Zeus, do not come in the way of my earnings. Do not be so cantankerously virtuous, do not be so damnably economical. Good Zeus, I adjure thee by thy foot-plumes.

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IOLAUS

Cireas, wilt thou bring forth the wretched captives 

Who wait the butcher Polydaon's knife

With groanings? we would talk with them. Wilt thou?

CIREAS

Will I ? Will I ? I would do any bad turn to that scanty-hearted rampageous old ship-swallower there. I would do it for nothing,
and for so much gold will I not?

IOLAUS .

And thou must shut thine eyes.

CIREAS

Eyes! I will shut mouth and nose and ears too, nor ask for one penny extra.

IOLAUS

Dost thou not fear?

CIREAS

Oh, the blue-haired old bogy there? I have lived eighteen years in this temple and seen nothing of him but ivory and sapphires. I begin to think he cannot breathe out of water; no doubt, he is some kind of fish and walks on the point of his tail.

PERSEUS

Enough, bring forth the Babylonian captives.

CIREAS

I run, Zeus, I run: but keep thy phosphorus lit and handy against Polydaon's return unasked for and untrumpeted.

He runs out.

PERSEUS

O thou grim calmness imaged like a man

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That frown'st above the altar! dire Poseidon!
Art thou that god indeed who smooths the sea
With one finger, and when it is thy will,
Rufflest the oceans with thy casual breathing?
Art thou not rather, lord, some murderous
And red imagination of this people,
The shadow of a soul that dreamed of blood
And took this dimness ? If thou art Poseidon,
The son of Cronos, I am Cronos' grandchild,
Perseus, and in my soul Athene moves
With lightnings.

IOLAUS

I hear the sound of dragging chains.

Cireas returns with Tyrnaus and Smerdas.

PERSEUS

Smerdas and thou, Tyrnaus, once again
We meet.

SMERDAS

Save me, yet save me.

PERSEUS

If thou art worth it,

I may.

SMERDAS

Thou shalt have gold. I am well worth it.
I'll empty Babylonia of its riches
Into thy wallet.

PERSEUS

Has terror made thee mad?
Refrain from speech! Thine eyes are calm, Tyrnaus.

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TYRNAUS

I have composed my soul to my sad fortunes.

Yet wherefore sad? Fate has dealt largely with me.

I have been thrice shipwrecked, twice misled in deserts,

Wounded six times in battle with wild men

For life and treasure. I have outspent kings:

I have lost fortunes and amassed them: princes

Have been my debtors, kingdoms lost and won

By lack or having of a petty fraction

Of my rich incomings: and now Fate gives me

This tragic, not inglorious death: I am

The banquet of a god. It fits, it fits,

And I repine not.

PERSEUS

But will these help, Tyrnaus,
To pass the chill eternity of Hades ?
This memory of glorious breathing life,
Will it alleviate the endless silence?

TYRNAUS

But there are lives beyond, and we meanwhile
Move delicately amid aerial things
Until the green earth wants us.

PERSEUS (shearing his chains with a touch of his sword)

Yet awhile
Of the green earth take all thy frank desire,
Merchant: the sunlight would be loth to lose thee.

SMERDAS

O radiant helpful youth! O son of splendour!
I live again.

PERSEUS

Thou livest, but in chains,
Smerdas.

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SMERDAS

But thy good sword will quickly shear them.

PERSEUS

Thou wilt give me all Babylonia holds
Of riches for reward?

SMERDAS

More, more, much more!

PERSEUS

But thou must go to Babylon to fetch it.
Then what security have I of payment?

SMERDAS

Keep good Tyrnaus here, my almost brother.
I will come back and give thee gold, much gold.

PERSEUS

You'ld leave him here ? in danger ? with the knife
Searching for him and grim Poseidon angry?

SMERDAS

What danger, when he is with thee, O youth,
Strong radiant youth?

PERSEUS

Yourself then stay with me,
And he shall bring the ransom from Chaldea.

SMERDAS

Here? here? Oh God! they'll seize me yet again
And cut my heart out. Let me go, dear youth,
Oh, let me go; I'll give thee double gold.

PERSEUS

Thou sordid treacherous thing of fears, I'll not

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Venture for such small gain as the poor soul
Thou boldest, nor drive with danger losing bargains.

SMERDAS

Oh, do not jest! it is not good to jest
With death and horror.

PERSEUS

I jest not.

SMERDAS

Oh God! thou dost.

DIOMEDE (without)

Cireas!

CIREAS (jumping)

Who? who? who?

IOLAUS

Is't not a woman's voice?
Withdraw into the shadow: let our swords
Be out against surprise. Hither, Tyrnaus.

DIOMEDE

Cireas! where are you, Cireas ? It is I.

CIREAS

It is the little palace scamp, Diomede.
Plague take her! How she fluttered the heart in me!

IOLAUS

Say nothing of us, merchant, or thou diest.

Iolaus, Perseus and Tyrnaus withdraw into the dimness

 of the Temple. Andromeda and Diomede enter.  

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CIREAS

Princess Andromeda!

PERSEUS (apart)

Andromeda!
Iolaus' rosy sister! O child goddess
Dropped recently from heaven! Its light is still
Upon thy face, thou marvel!

IOLAUS

My little sister
In these grim precincts, who so feared their shadows!

ANDROMEDA

Cireas, my servant Diomede means
To tell you of some bargain. Will you walk yonder?

Cireas and Diomede walk apart talking.
Art thou, as these chains say, the mournful victim
Our savage billows spared and men would murder?
But was there not another ? Have they brought thee
From thy sad prison to the shrine alone ?

SMERDAS

He,—he,—

ANDROMEDA

Has terror so possessed thy tongue,
It cannot do its office ? Oh, be comforted.
Although red horror has its grasp on thee,
I dare to tell thee there is hope.

SMERDAS

What hope?
Ah heaven! what hope! I feel the knife even now
Hacking my bosom. If thou bring'st me hope,
I'll know thee for a goddess and adore thee.  

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ANDROMEDA

Be comforted: I bring thee more than hope,
Cireas!

CIREAS

You'll give me chains ? you'll give me jewels ?

ANDROMEDA

All of my own that I can steal for you.

CIREAS

Steal boldly, O honey-sweet image of a thief, steal and fear
not. I rose for good luck after all this excellent morning! O i
Poseidon, had I known there was more to be pocketed in thy dis-
service than in thy service, would I have misspent these eighteen
barren years?

ANDROMEDA

Undo this miserable captive's bonds.

SMERDAS

What! I shall be allowed to live! Is't true?

ANDROMEDA

No, I'll undo them, Cireas; I shall feel
I freed him. Is there so much then to unlink?
O ingenuity of men to hurt
And bind and slay their brothers!

SMERDAS

'Tis not a dream,
The horror was the dream. She smiles on me
A wonderful glad smile of joy and kindness,
Making a sunshine. Oh, be quicker, quicker.
Let me escape this hell where I have eaten
And drunk of terror and have slept with death.  

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ANDROMEDA

Are you so careless of the friend who shared
The tears and danger? Where is he? Cireas!

TYRNAUS (coming forward)

O thou young goddess with the smile! Behold him,
Tyrnaus the Chaldean.

ANDROMEDA (dropping the chain which binds Smerdas)

Already free!
Who has forestalled me ?

TYRNAUS

Maiden, art thou vexed
To see me unbound ?

ANDROMEDA

I grudge your rescuer the happy task

Heaven meant for me of loosening your chains.

It would have been such joy to feel the cold

Hard irons drop apart between my fingers!

Who freed you?

TYRNAUS

A god as radiant as thyself,
Thou merciful sweetness.

ANDROMEDA

Had he not a look
Like the Olympian's ? Was he not bright like Hermes
Or Phoebus?

TYRNAUS

He was indeed. Thou know'st him then?

ANDROMEDA

In dreams I have met him. He was here but now?  

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TYRNAUS

He has withdrawn into the shadow, virgin.

SMERDAS

Why do you leave me bound, and talk, and talk,
As if Death had not still his fingers on me ?

ANDROMEDA (resuming her task)

Forgive me! Tyrnaus, did that radiant helper
Who clove thy chains, forget to help this poor
Pale trembling man?

TYRNAUS

Because he showed too much
The sordid fear that pities only itself,
He left him to his fate.

ANDROMEDA

Alas, poor human man!
Why, we have all so many sins to answer,
It would be hard to have cold justice dealt us.
We should be kindly to each other's faults
Remembering our own. Is't not enough
To see a face in tears and heal the sorrow,
Or must we weigh whether the face is fair
Or ugly ? I think that even a snake in pain
Would tempt me to its succour, though I knew
That afterwards 'twould bite me! But he is a god
Perhaps who did this and his spotless radiance
Abhors the tarnish of our frailer natures.

SMERDAS

Oh, I am free! I fall and kiss thy robe,
O goddess, O deliverer.

ANDROMEDA

You must  

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Go quickly from this place. There is a cave

Near to those unkind rocks where you were shipwrecked,

A stone-throw up the cliff. We found it there

Climbing and playing, reckless of our limbs

In the sweet joy of sunshine, breeze and movement,

When we were children, I and Diomede.

None else will dream of it. There have I stored

Enough of food and water. Closely lurk

Behind its curtains of fantastic stone:

Venture not forth, though your hearts pine for sunlight,
Or Death may take you back into his grip. ,
When hot pursuit and search have been tired out,
I'll find you golden wings will carry you
To your Chaldea.

SMERDAS

Can you not find out divers
Who'll rescue our merchandise from the sunk rocks
Where it is prisoned ?

TYRNAUS

You have escaped grim murder,
Yet dream of nothing but your paltry gems!
You will call back Heaven's anger on our heads.

SMERDAS

We cannot beg our way to far .Chaldea.

ANDROMEDA

Diving is dangerous there: I will not risk

Men's lives for money. I promised Cireas what I have,

And yet you shall not go unfurnished home.

I'll beg a sum from my brother lolaus

Will help you to Chaldea.

SMERDAS

O my dear riches!  

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Must you lie whelmed beneath the Syrian surge
Uncared for ?

ANDROMEDA (to Diomede)

Take them to the cave. Show Cireas
The hidden mouth. I'll loiter and expect you
Under the hill-side, where sweet water plashes
From the grey fountain's head, our fountain. Merchants, go;

Athene guard you!

TYRNAUS

Not before I kneel
And touch thy feet with reverent humble hands,
O human merciful divinity,
Who by thy own sweet spirit moved, unasked,
Not knowing us, cam'st from thy safe warm chamber
Here where Death broods grim-visaged in his home,
To save two unseen, unloved, alien strangers,
And being a woman feared not urgent death,
And being a child shook not before God's darkness
And that insistent horror of a world
O'ershadowing ours. O surely in these regions
Where thou wert born, pure-eyed Andromeda,
There shall be some divine epiphany
Of calm sweet-hearted pity for the world,
And harsher gods shall fade into their Hades.

SMERDAS

You prattle, and at any moment, comes
The dreadful priest with clutch upon my shoulder.
Come! come! you, slave-girl, lead the way, accursed!
You loiter?

ANDROMEDA

Chide not my servant, Babylonian.
Go, Diomede; darkness like a lid
Will soon shut down upon the rugged beach  

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And they may stumble as they walk. Go, Cireas.

Diomede and Cireas go out,

 followed by the merchants.
Alone I stand before thee, grim Poseidon,
Here in thy darkness, with thy altar near
That keeps fierce memory, of tortured groans
And human shrieks of victims, and, unforced,
I yet pollute my soul with thy bloody nearness
To tell thee that I hate, contemn, defy thee.
I am no more than a brief living woman,
Yet am I more divine than thou, for I
Can pity. I have torn thy destined prey
From thy red jaws. They say thou dost avenge
Fearfully insult. Avenge thyself, Poseidon.

She goes out: Perseus and lolaus come forward.

PERSEUS

Thou art the mate for me, Andromeda!
Now, now I know wherefore my eager sandals
Bore me resistlessly to thee and Syria.

IOLAUS

This was Andromeda and not Andromeda,
I never saw her woman till this hour.

PERSEUS

Knew you so ill the child you loved so well,
lolaus?

IOLAUS

Sometimes we know them least
Whom most we love and constantly consort with.

PERSEUS

How daintily she moved as if a hand

She loved were on her curls and she afraid

Of startling the sweet guest!  

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IOLAUS

O Perseus, Perseus!
She has defied a strong and dreadful god,
And dreadfully he will avenge himself.

PERSEUS

Iolaus, friend, I think not quite at random

Athene led me to these happy shores

That bore such beautiful twin heads for me

Sun-curled, Andromeda and lolaus,

That I might see their beauty marred with death

By cunning priests and blood-stained gods. Fear not

The event. I bear Athene's sword of sharpness.

They go out.

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