Chorus
STROPHE I.
And ghastly, Earth doth rear;-
With direful monsters teems encircling Ocean;
Meteors, with threatening sheen,
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Hang heaven and earth between ;—
The tempest's wrath still raves with wild commotion;
These, and dire wingèd things, and things that crawl,
Thou mayst describe them all.
ANTISTROPHE I.
But man's audacious might
What words can paint aright,
Or woman's daring spirit who may tell?
Her passion's frenzied throes,
For love unlovely, when its evil spell
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'Mong brutes or men the feebler sex befools,
Conjugial bands o'errules.
STROPHE II.
Let him confirm the truth I sing,
Whose thoughts soar not on Folly's wing,
Knowing full well what Thestios' daughter planned
*
;—
Her fiery plot, child-murdering;
Wretched, who burnt her son's coeval brand.
Born with him when he cried
First from the mother's womb;-
Like-aged with him it died,
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When dawned his day of doom.
ANTISTROPHE II.
Needs must we loathe another dame,
The bloody Scylla, known to fame,
*
Who lured by Minos' gifts of fine-wrought gold,
Neck-gear from Crete,-devoid of shame,
Nisos her sire, a friend to foemen, sold.
Deep-breathing, free from care,
Ruthless she cut th' immortal hair :
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And Hermes seized his prey.
STROPHE III.
But since these direful woes have burst,
Be the foul wedlock too accursed,
That doth this palace wrong.—
And cursed be the plot that snared
(By woman's brain devised,)
The armed chief who foemen scared,
Whom faithful lieges prized.
Dear is to me the unstained hearth, and dear
In woman's hand the unaudacious spear.
ANTISTROPHE III.
But first of woes in every clime,
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The Lemnian is deplored ;—
*
And still the most detested crime
Branded with infamy by men,
For whom the righteous gods condemn,
The lore which thus we chant in choral strain,
Say ye, doth Reason at her bar arraign?
STROPHE IV.
Right through the lungs doth Justice' hand
Drive home the bitter steel;
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†For all must perish who withstand
Her mandates, and with reckless heel,
Trample high Jove's command.
ANTISTROPHE IV.
Firm based is Justice; Fate of yore
Forged weapon for the blow;
Deep-souled Erinys doth restore
Th' avenger to his home, and, lo!
He pays the bloody score.
