lord of the brazen car; yea and in glistening Naxos died ere now, they
say, the children of Iphimedeia, Otos and thou, bold king Ephialtes:
moreover Tityos was the quarry of Artemis' swift arrow sped from her
invincible quiver, warning men to touch only the loves within their
power.'

They answering each to each thus talked; but thereon with headlong
haste of mules and polished car came Pelias; and he was astonied when
he gazed on the plain sign of the single sandal on the right foot. But
he dissembled his fear within his heart and said unto him, 'What land,
O stranger, dost thou claim to be thy country, and who of earth-born
mortals bare thee of her womb out of due time[10]? Tell me thy race
and shame it not by hateful lies.'

And him with gentle words the other answered undismayed, 'I say to
thee that I bear with me the wisdom of Cheiron, for from Chariklo
and Philyra I come, from the cave where the Centaur's pure daughters
reared me up, and now have I fulfilled twenty years among them without
deceitful word or deed, and I am come home to seek the ancient honour
of my father, held now in rule unlawful, which of old Zeus gave to
the chief Aiolos and his children. For I hear that Pelias yielding
lawlessly to evil thoughts hath robbed it from my fathers whose right
it was from the beginning; for they, when first I looked upon the
light, fearing the violence of an injurious lord, made counterfeit
of a dark funeral in the house as though I were dead, and amid the
wailing of women sent me forth secretly in purple swathing-bands, when
none but Night might know the way we went, and gave me to Cheiron the
son of Kronos to be reared.

But of these things the chief ye know. Now therefore kind citizens