Zeus and Leto. Swiftly they came to the crests of fragrant Olympus, to
father Cronion they came, these goodly sons of Zeus, for there were set
for them the balances of doom. Quiet was snowy Olympus, but they who
know not decay or death were gathering after gold-throned Dawn. Then
stood Hermes and Apollo of the Silver Bow before the knees of Zeus, the
Thunderer, who inquired of his glorious Son, saying:

"Phoebus, whence drivest thou such mighty spoil, a new-born babe like a
Herald? A mighty matter this, to come before the gathering of the Gods!"

Then answered him the Prince, Apollo the Far-darter:

"Father, anon shalt thou hear no empty tale; tauntest thou me, as though
I were the only lover of booty? This boy have I found, a finished
reiver, in the hills of Cyllene, a long way to wander; so fine a knave as
I know not among Gods or men, of all robbers on earth. My kine he stole
from the meadows, and went driving them at eventide along the loud sea
shores, straight to Pylos. Wondrous were the tracks, a thing to marvel
on, work of a glorious god. For the black dust showed the tracks of the
kine making backward to the mead of asphodel; but this child intractable
fared neither on hands nor feet, through the sandy land, but this other
strange craft had he, to tread the paths as if shod on with oaken shoots.
{153} While he drove the kine through a land of sand, right plain to
discern were all the tracks in the dust, but when he had crossed the
great tract of sand, straightway on hard ground his traces and those of
the kine were ill to discern. But a mortal man beheld him, driving
straight to Pylos the cattle broad of brow. Now when he had stalled the
kine in quiet, and confused his tracks on either side the way, he lay
dark as night in his cradle, in the dusk of a shadowy cave. The keenest
eagle could not have spied him, and much he rubbed his eyes, with crafty