Richibi’s Weblog

     Statue of Hermes (Vatican Museums)

                     ___________________

though Io might still have been “not

out of the woods”, when last we saw 

her, there remained nevertheless 

her original suitor, Jove, god of gods

                 Now Jove no longer cou’d her suff’rings bear;
                 But call’d in haste his airy messenger,
                 The son of Maia, with severe decree
                 To kill the keeper, and to set her free.   

The son of Maia, Hermes, messenger

of the gods

 

Maia, one of the Pleiades, playmates

of Artemis, goddess of the Hunt,

daughters, also, of Atlas, famously 

condemned, he, to hold up the

heavens for eternity

                 With all his harness soon the God was sped,  

Hermes, no sooner equipped,

[w]ith all his harness, livery,

attire, was sped, got under

way

                 His flying hat was fastned on his head,
                 Wings on his heels were hung, and in his hand
                 He holds the vertue of the snaky wand.  

vertue, virtue, but having retained, 

still in 1717, its root, vertu, French 

for virtue, benefit 

 

Hermes is usually shown wearing

[h]is flying hat, [w]ings on his heels,

a snaky wand, identifying accessories

 

snaky wand, his caduceus

see above

                 The liquid air his moving pinions wound, 

 

pinions, the feathers of a bird’s wing

 

wound, to injure, but also to wrap 

around, according to its two 

differing pronunciations

                 And, in the moment, shoot him on the ground.

 

to rhyme with wound, note

 

Hermes has landed, but apparently

uncomfortably

                 Before he came in sight, the crafty God
                 His wings dismiss’d, but still retain’d his rod: 

 

dismiss’d, put aside, made invisible,

[h]is wings

                 That sleep-procuring wand wise Hermes took,
                 But made it seem to sight a sherpherd’s hook. 

 

though Hermes kept his rod, he made

it look, seem to sight, like a shepherd’s 

staff, hook

 

                 With this, he did a herd of goats controul;  

 

controul, control

                 Which by the way he met, and slily stole. 

 

by the way, as he walked along

 

slily stole, deities make up their

own rules

                 Clad like a country swain, he pip’d, and sung;
                 And playing, drove his jolly troop along. 

 

swain, young man

                 With pleasure, Argus the musician heeds; 

 

Argus heeds the musician, again

an inverted sentence, in order to 

rhyme with

                 But wonders much at those new vocal reeds. 

 

vocal reeds suggests Pan pipes

here, a wind instrument consisting 

of several tubes of increasing length 

placed side by side, where the piper 

creates the melody by moving his 

lips, her lips, from embouchure to 

embouchure, the openings through 

which to blow

               And whosoe’er thou art, my friend, said he,
               Up hither drive thy goats, and play by me: 

 

Argus asks Hermes to stay, drive thy 

goats away, [u]p hither, he directs, 

and play thy instrument, keep him 

company

                 This hill has browz for them, and shade for thee. 

 

browz, browse, matter, twigs, shoots,

upon which goats might graze

                 The God, who was with ease induc’d to climb,  

 

to climb, [u]p hither, in order to drive

the goats