CHORUS
CHORUS .
676
In fable I have heard,
675
Though sight hath ne’er confirmed the word,
675
How he who attempted once the couch supreme,
To a whirling wheel by Zeus the all-ruler bound,
Tied head and heel, careering ever round,
Atones his impious unsubstantial dream.
Of no man else, through eye or ear,
Have I discerned a fate more full of fear
680
Than yonder sufferer’s of the cureless wound:
Who did no violence, defrauded none:—
A just man, had he dwelt among the just
Unworthily behold him thrust
Alone to hear the billows roar
That break around a rugged shore!
685
How could he live, whose life was thus consumed with moan?
691
Where neighbour there was none:
No arm to stay him wandering lone,
Unevenly, with stumbling steps and sore;
No friend in need, no kind inhabitant,
To minister to his importunate want,
690
No heart whereto his pangs he might deplore.
None who, whene’er the gory flow
Was rushing hot, might healing herbs bestow,
Or cull from teeming Earth some genial plant
To allay the anguish of malignant pain
And soothe the sharpness of his poignant woe.
695
Like infant whom the nurse lets go,
695
With tottering movement here and there,
He crawled for comfort, whensoe’er
His soul-devouring plague relaxed its cruel strain.
707
Not fed with foison of all-teeming Earth
Whence we sustain us, ever-toiling men,
But only now and then
700
With wingèd things, by his wing’d shafts brought low,
He stayed his hunger from his bow.
Poor soul, that never through ten years of dearth
Had pleasure from the fruitage of the vine,
But seeking to some standing pool,
Foul water heaved to head for lack of heartening wine.
718
But now, consorted with the hero’s child,
He winneth greatness and a joyful change;
Borne by a friendly bark beneath the range
Of Oeta, where Spercheius fills
710
Wide channels winding among lovely hills
Haunted of Melian nymphs, till he espies
The roof-tree of his father’s hall,
Shines the bronze shield of him, whose home is in the skies.
