Читать книгу Modern Greek Folklore and Ancient Greek Religion: A Study in Survivals онлайн

172 страница из 204

Neglect of any of the due preparations for the visit of the Fates may excite their wrath and cause them to decree an evil lot for the child. This idea is the motif of many fables current in Greece. A typical example is furnished by the following extract from a popular poem in which a man whose life has brought him nothing but misery sees in a vision one of the Fates and appeals to her thus:

‘I beg and pray of thee, O Fate, to tell me now, my lady,

Then when my mother brought me forth, what passèd at my bearing?’

And she makes answer:

‘Then when thy mother brought thee forth, ’twas deep and bitter winter,

Eleven days o’ the year had run when anguish came upon her.

Thereon[287] I robed me and did on this raiment that thou seëst,

And had it in my heart to cry “Long life to thee and riches.”

Ah, but the night was deep and dark, yea wrappèd thick in darkness,

And hail and snow were driving hard, and angry rain was lashing;

From mire to mud, from mud to mire, so lay my road before me,

And as I went,—a murrain on’t,—against your well I stumbled;