“O Artemis, huntress queen!” he cried, “I ask but one boon of thee.  Let me ramble forever among these happy scenes!”

Artemis heard him, and answered his prayer.  For, as he spoke, a bright vision passed before him.  A sweet-faced maiden went tripping down the valley, culling the choicest flowers, and singing of hope and joy and the blessedness of a life pure and true.  It was Arethusa, the Arcadian nymph, by some supposed to be a daughter of old Nereus, the elder of the sea.

Then Alpheus heard no more the songs of the birds, or the music of the breeze; he saw no longer the blue sky above him, or the nodding flowers at his feet:  he was blind and deaf to all the world, save only the beautiful nymph.  Arethusa was the world to him.

He reached out his arms to catch her; but, swifter than a frightened deer, she fled down the valley, through deep ravines and grassy glades and rocky caverns underneath the hills, and out into the grassy meadows, and across the plains of Elis, to the sounding sea.  And Alpheus followed, forgetful of everything but the fleeing vision.  When, at length, he reached the sea, he looked back; and, lo! he was no longer a huntsman, but a river doomed to meander forever among the scenes, for love of which he had forgotten his wife and his babe and the duties of life.  It was thus that Artemis answered his prayer.

And men say that Arethusa, the nymph, was afterwards changed into a fountain; and that to this day, in the far-off island of Ortygia, that fountain gushes from the rocks in an unfailing, crystal stream.  But Orsilochus, the babe forgotten by his father, grew to manhood, and in course of time became the king of the seafaring people of Messene.

THE GOLDEN APPLE

Related by cheiron the Centaur[1]

“There is a cavern somewhere on Mount Pelion larger by far and a thousand times more beautiful than this; but its doorway is hidden to mortals, and but few men have ever stood beneath its vaulted roof.  In that cavern the ever-living ones who oversee the affairs of men, once held high carnival; for they had met there at the marriage feast of King Peleus, and the woods and rocks of mighty Pelion echoed with the sound of their merry-making.  But wherefore should the marriage feast of a mortal be held in such a place and with guests so noble and so great?  I will tell you.

“After Peleus had escaped from a plot which some wicked men had made for his destruction, he dwelt long time with me, who am his grandfather.  But the days seemed long to him, thus shut out from fellowship with men, and the sun seemed to move slowly in the heavens; and often he would walk around to the other side of the mountain, and sitting upon a great rock, he would gaze for long hours upon the purple waters of the sea.  One morning as thus he sat, he saw the sea nymph Thetis come up out of the waves and walk upon the shore beneath him.  Fairer than a dream was she—­more beautiful than any picture of nymph or goddess.  She was clad in a robe of green silk, woven by the sea maidens in their watery grottoes; and there was a chaplet of pearls upon her head, and sandals of sparkling silver were upon her feet.