"After him I saw huge Orion in a
meadow full of asphodel driving the ghosts of the wild beasts that he
had killed upon the mountains, and he had a great bronze club in his
hand, unbreakable for ever and ever.
"And I saw Tityus son of Gaia
stretched upon the plain and covering some nine acres of ground. Two
vultures on either side of him were digging their beaks into his
liver, and he kept on trying to beat them off with his hands, but
could not; for he had violated Zeus’ mistress Leto as she was
going through Panopeus on her way to Pytho.
"I saw also the dreadful fate of
Tantalus, who stood in a lake that reached his chin; he was dying to
quench his thirst, but could never reach the water, for whenever the
poor creature stooped to drink, it dried up and vanished, so that
there was nothing but dry ground - parched by a daimôn.
There were tall trees, moreover, that shed their fruit over his head
- pears, pomegranates, apples, sweet figs and juicy olives, but
whenever the poor creature stretched out his hand to take some, the
wind tossed the branches back again to the clouds.
"And I saw Sisyphus at his
endless task raising his prodigious stone with both his hands. With
hands and feet he tried to roll it up to the top of the hill, but
always, just before he could roll it over on to the other side, its
weight would be too much for him, and the pitiless stone would come
thundering down again on to the plain. Then he would begin trying to
push it up hill again, and the sweat ran off him and the steam rose
after him.
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