5
None of mortal men
Escape unhurt by fortune, nor the gods,
Unless the stories of the bards be false.
Have they not formed connubial ties to which
No law assents? Have they not gall'd with chains
Their fathers through ambition? Yet they hold
Their mansions on Olympus, and their wrongs
With patience bear.
Euripides: _Hercules_ 1414.
6
These are your works, ye gods! these changes fraught
With horrible confusion, mingled thus
That we through ignorance might worship you.
Euripides: _Hecuba_ 943.
7
O supreme of heav'n,
What shall we say? that thy firm providence
Regards mankind? or vain the thoughts, which deem
That the just gods are rulers in the sky,
Since tyrant fortune lords it o'er the world?
Do. 470.
8
Mortal as I am
In virtue I exceed thee, though a god
Of mighty pow'r; for I have not betray'd
The sons of Hercules: well did'st thou know
To come by stealth unto my couch, t' invade
A bed not thine, nor leave obtain'd; to save
Thy friends thou dost not know; thou art a god
In wisdom or in justice little vers'd.
Euripides: _Hercules_ 385.
9
I deem not of the gods, as having form'd
Connubial ties to which no law assents,
Nor as oppressed with chains: disgraceful this
I hold, nor ever will believe that one
Lords it o'er others: of no foreign aid
The god, who is indeed a god, hath need:
These are the wretched fables of the bards.
Euripides: _Hercules_ 1444.
10
O Jove, who rulest the rolling of the earth,
And o'er it hast thy throne, whoe'er thou art,
The ruling mind, or the necessity
Of nature, I adore thee: dark thy ways,
And silent are thy steps; to mortal man
Yet thou with justice all things dost ordain.
Euripides: _Daughters of Troy_ 955.
Was this then human, or divine?
Did it a middle nature share?
What mortal shall declare?
Who shall the secret bounds define?
When the gods work we see their pow'r;
We see on their high bidding wait
The prosperous gales, the storms of fate:
But who their awful councils shall explore?
Euripides: _Helena_ 1235.
12
And those, the Ever-Virgin ones, I call,
Erinnyes dread that see all human deeds,
Swift-footed, that they mark how I am slain
By you Atreidae; may they seize on them.
Doers of evil, with all evil plagues
And uttermost destruction.
Sophocles: _Ajax_ 937 [Plumptre].