Songtext von Demophoön

Fair-tressed Demeter Immortal disguised as an old maid In sorrow at her daughter's abduction Is approached by several girls By a fountain A growing son is being reared in the mansion To deep-girded Metaneira Late in her life but much desired If you should bring him up to reach puberty Such rewards she will give you for rearing him The goddess walked behind them Brooding in her dark heart She refused their wine And instead requested a drink Of barley-meal mixed with pennyroyal I will nurture him Nothing will harm him For my multitude of remedies And antidotes Thus Demophoön grew up like a God Not eating food Nor nursing at his mother's breast Demeter anointed him With psychotropic ambrosia At night she secretly hid him In the blazing Fire She introduced him to deadly venoms To the parents it was a miracle how he blossomed She would have made him ageless and immortal Had not the mother Metaneira Thinking foolishly Kept watch by night She raised a cry and struck her thighs In fear for the child Demeter in terrible anger removed her disguise Revealing her identity Ignorant humans, lacking discernment You were blinded by your foolishness I would have made your son immortal But now he cannot escape the fate of Death