(4.1393-1421) Then, like raging hounds, they rushed to search for a spring; for besides their suffering and anguish, a parching thirst lay upon them, and not in vain did they wander; but they came to the sacred plain where Ladon, the serpent of the land, till yesterday kept watch over the golden apples in the garden of Atlas; and all around the nymphs, the Hesperides, were busied, chanting their lovely song. But at that time, stricken by Heracles, he lay fallen by the trunk of the apple-tree; only the tip of his tail was still writhing; but from his head down his dark spine he lay lifeless; and where the arrows had left in his blood the bitter gall of the Lernaean hydra, flies withered and died over the festering wounds. And close at hand the Hesperides, their white arms flung over their golden heads, lamented shrilly; and the heroes drew near suddenly; but the maidens, at their quick approach, at once became dust and earth where they stood. Orpheus marked the divine portent, and for his comrades addressed them in prayer: "O divine ones, fair and kind, be gracious, O queens, whether ye be numbered among the heavenly goddesses, or those beneath the earth, or be called the Solitary nymphs; come, O nymphs, sacred race of Oceanus, appear manifest to our longing eyes and show us some spring of water from the rock or some sacred flow gushing from the earth, goddesses, wherewith we may quench the thirst that burns us unceasingly. And if ever again we return in our voyaging to the Achaean land, then to you among the first of goddesses with willing hearts will we bring countless gifts, libations and banquets."
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1393 Λυσσαλέοις δἤπειτ' ἴκελοι κυσὶν ἀίσσοντες
1394 πίδακα μαστεύεσκον: ἐπὶ ξηρὴ γὰρ ἔκειτο
1395 δίψα δυηπαθίῃ τε καὶ ἄλγεσιν, οὐδ' ἐμάτησαν
1396 πλαζόμενοι: ἷξον δ' ἱερὸν πέδον, ᾧ ἔνι Λάδων
1397 εἰσέτι που χθιζὸν παγχρύσεα ῥύετο μῆλα
1398 χώρῳ ἐν Ἄτλαντος, χθόνιος ὄφις: ἀμφὶ δὲ νύμφαι
1399 Ἑσπερίδες ποίπνυον, ἐφίμερον ἀείδουσαι.
1400 δὴ τότε δ' ἤδη τῆμος ὑφ' Ἡρακλῆι δαϊχθεὶς
1401 μήλειον βέβλητο ποτὶ στύπος: οἰόθι δ' ἄκρῃ
1402 οὐρῇ ἔτι σκαίρεσκεν: ἀπὸ κρατὸς δὲ κελαινὴν
1403 ἄχρις ἐπ' ἄκνηστιν κεῖτ' ἄπνοος: ἐκ δὲ λιπόντων
1404 ὕδρης Λερναίης χόλον αἵματι πικρὸν ὀιστῶν
1405 μυῖαι πυθομένοισιν ἐφ' ἕλκεσι τερσαίνοντο.
1406 ἀγχοῦ δ' Ἑσπερίδες κεφαλαῖς ἔπι χεῖρας ἔχουσαι
1407 ἀργυφέας ξανθῇσι λίγ' ἔστενον: οἱ δ' ἐπέλασσαν
1408 ἄφνω ὁμοῦ: ταὶ δ' αἶψα κόνις καὶ γαῖα, κιόντων
1409 ἐσσυμένως, ἐγένοντο καταυτόθι. νώσατο δ' Ὀρφεὺς
1410 θεῖα τέρα, τὰς δέ σφι παρηγορέεσκε λιτῇσιν:
1411 "Δαίμονες ὦ καλαὶ καὶ ἐύφρονες, ἵλατ', ἄνασσαι,
1412 εἴτ' οὖν οὐρανίαις ἐναρίθμιοί ἐστε θεῇσιν,
1413 εἴτε καταχθονίαις, εἴτ' οἰοπόλοι καλέεσθε
1414 νύμφαι: ἴτ' ὦ νύμφαι, ἱερὸν γένος Ὠκεανοῖο,
1415 δείξατ' ἐελδομένοισιν ἐνωπαδὶς ἄμμι φανεῖσαι
1416 ἤ τινα πετραίην χύσιν ὕδατος, ἤ τινα γαίης
1417 ἱερὸν ἐκβλύοντα, θεαί, ῥόον, ᾧ ἀπὸ δίψαν
1418 αἰθομένην ἄμοτον λωφήσομεν. εἰ δέ κεν αὖτις
1419 δή ποτ' Ἀχαιίδα γαῖαν ἱκώμεθα ναυτιλίῃσιν,
1420 δὴ τότε μυρία δῶρα μετὰ πρώτῃσι θεάων
1421 λοιβάς τ' εἰλαπίνας τε παρέξομεν εὐμενέοντες."
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