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Then required they of us their sons, even what manchild soe’er

Had been left in the town, and returned unto Thrace; and to this day there

The Lemnian men on the snowy Thracian corn-lands dwell.

Then tarry ye sojourning here: and if haply it please thee well

To abide in the land, and it seem to thee good, of a surety thine

Shall be Thoas my father’s honour. I ween this land of mine

Thou shalt scorn not, for passing fruitful it is above all the rest{830}

Of the myriad isles that lie on the broad Aegean’s breast.

But come now, go to thy galley, and tell these words of ours

Unto thy comrades, nor longer tarry without our towers.’

She ended, with fair words veiling the deed of murder dread

Done on the men; and the hero answered the queen, and he said:

‘Hypsipylê, passing welcome this thy request shall be

Which thou tenderest us, whose desire withal is now unto thee.

Back through thy town will I come, when an end I have made to say

All this to my fellows in order: howbeit let all the sway

And the lordship be thine in the island. I make not in scorn my request,{840}