Once upon a time there were two Princes who were twins. They lived
in a pleasant vale far away in Hellas. They had fruitful meadows and
vineyards, sheep and oxen, great herds of horses, and all that men
could need to make them blest. And yet they were wretched, because
they were jealous of each other.

From the moment they were born they began to quarrel, and when they
grew up, each tried to take away the other's share of the kingdom and
keep all for himself.

And there came a prophet to one of the hard-hearted Princes and said,
"Because you have risen up against your own family, your own family
shall rise up against you. Because you have sinned against your
kindred, by your kindred shall you be punished. Your daughter Danæ
shall bear a son, and by that son's hands you shall die. So the gods
have said, and it shall surely come to pass."

At that the hard-hearted Prince was very much afraid, but he did not
mend his ways. For when he became King, he shut up his fair daughter
Danæ in a cavern underground, lined with brass, that no one might come
near her. So he fancied himself more cunning than the gods.

Now it came to pass that in time Danæ bore a son, so beautiful a babe
that any but the King would have had pity on it. But he had no pity,
for he took Danæ and her babe down to the seashore, and put them into
a great chest and thrust them out to sea, that the winds and the waves
might carry them whithersoever they would.

And away and out to sea before the northwest wind floated the mother