The Argonautica

She dreamed that her parents despised their promise and set it aside,

since they had not set the task of yoking the bulls for their daughter,

but for the stranger himself; and then a doubtful quarrel arose

between her father and strangers; both parties entrusted to her

that everything follow whatever her heart and understanding directed.

Then suddenly she chose the stranger, spurning both her parents.

Grief beyond healing seized them; in anger they lifted a cry,

and at their outcry sleep released and suddenly awakened the maiden.

She leapt from the bed, quivering wildly with fear, and around her

stared at the walls of the room; with pain she collected her spirit

back in her breast as before, then lifted her voice in a wail:

Poor wretch, how heavily these dreams have terrified my spirit!

I fear this voyage of heroes may carry some terrible evil.

My thoughts toss and flutter, unsettled round the stranger.

Let him court an Achaean girl far off in his own country;

for us let maidenhood matter, and life in our parents' household.

Still, having put on a shameless heart, no longer apart

from my own sister shall I make trial; perhaps she will ask me

to give aid in the trial, mourning for her own children;

that would quench the fierce pain burning deep within my heart.

So she spoke; rising upright, she opened the doors of the chamber,

barefoot, dressed in one robe; and she yearned now to journey

toward her own sister, and crossed the threshold enclosing the courtyard.

Long in that very spot she stayed, the forehall of her chamber,