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Seeking a spring’s pure flow; for the feast of the eventide

To draw for him water against his return, and withal to prepare

With speed all things for the time when again his lord should be there.{1210}

For in suchlike service did Herakles nurture the lad and train

From the day when, a captive child, by the hero’s hand he was ta’en

From the home of his father Theodamas, slain in Dryopian land

Without ruth, when he dared for his ploughteam’s sake ’gainst the hero to stand.

For it fell, as Theodamas clave with the share the fallow field,

That mischief befell him; for Herakles came, and he bade him to yield

The heifer he ploughed withal unto him in his heart’s despite:

For against the Dryopian folk was he seeking occasion of fight,

For their bane, forasmuch as reckless of right in the land dwelt they:—

But the story thereof should lead me far from my song astray.{1220}

So in haste to the fountain he hied him, and Pegae hight that spring

Of the people that dwell in the field thereabout: and the dancing-ring