13
Thou firmament of God, and swift-wing'd winds,
Ye springs of rivers, and of ocean waves
That smile innumerous! Mother of us all,
O Earth, and Sun's all-seeing eye, behold,
I pray, what I a God from Gods endure.
Aeschylus: _Prometheus_ 88 [Plumptre].
14
_A Sacred Spot_
This spot is holy, one may clearly tell,
Full as it is of laurel, olive, vine.
And many a nightingale within sings sweetly.
Rest my limbs here upon this rough-hewn rock.
Sophocles: _Oedipus at Colonus_ 16.
15
_A Grove of the Furies_
Rush not on
Through voiceless, grass-grown grove,
Where blends with rivulet of honey'd stream
The cup of water clear.
Do. 156.
16
_A Meadow of Artemis_
Thee, goddess, to adorn I bring this crown
Inwoven with the various flowers that deck
The unshorn mead, where never shepherd dared
To feed his flock, and the scythe never came,
But o'er its vernal sweets unshorn the bee
Ranges at will, and hush'd in reverence glides
Th' irriguous streamlet: garish art hath there
No place; of these the modest still may cull
At pleasure, interdicted to th' impure.
Euripides: _Hippolytus_ 81.
17
_The Nile_
These are the streams of Nile, the joy of nymphs,
Glowing with beauty's radiance; he his floods
Swell'd with the melted snow o'er Egypt's plain
Irriguous pours, to fertilize her fields,
Th' ethereal rain supplying.
Euripides: _Helena_ 1.
18
_The Nightingale_
On thee, high-nested in the museful shade
By close-inwoven branches made,
Thee, sweetest bird, most musical
Of all that warble their melodious song
The charmed woods among,
Thee, tearful nightingale, I call:
O come, and from thy dark-plumed throat
Swell sadly-sweet thy melancholy note.
Euripides: _Helena_ 1191.
19
_Flight of Cranes_
O might we through the liquid sky
Wing'd like the birds of Lybia fly;
Birds, which the change of seasons know,
And, left the wintry storms and snow,
Their leader's well-known call obey.
O'er many a desert dry and cultured plain
He guides the marshall'd train,
And cheers with jocund notes their way.
Ye birds that through th' aerial height
Your course with clouds light-sailing share,
Your flight amidst the Pleiads hold,
And where Orion nightly flames in gold;
Then on Eurota's banks alight,
And this glad message bear:
"Your king from Troy shall reach once more,
With conquest crown'd, his native shore."
Euripides: _Helena_ 1603.
20
_A Storm_
So is it as a wave
Of ocean's billowing surge
(Where Thrakian storm-winds rave,
And floods of darkness from the depths emerge,)
Rolls the black sand from out the lowest deep,
And shores re-echoing wail, as rough blasts o'er them sweep.
Sophocles: _Antigone_ 586 [Plumptre].
21
Steering their rough course o'er this boisterous main,
Form'd in a ring beneath whose waves
The Nereid train in high-arch'd caves
Weave the light dance, and raise the sprightly song,
Whilst whisp'ring in their swelling sails
Soft Zephyrs breathe, or southern gales
Piping amidst their tackling play,
As their bark ploughs its wat'ry way
Those hoary cliffs, the haunts of birds, among,
To that wild strand, the rapid race
Where once Achilles deigned to grace.
Euripides: _Iphigenia among the Tauri_ 492.
(Specimens of Gnomic Verses)
22
Amongst barbarians all are slaves, save one.
_Helena_ 311.
23
He is no lover who not always loves.
_Daughters of Troy_ 1148.
24
What our necessities demand, becomes
Of greater moment than to conquer Troy.
_Andromache_ 427.
25
'Tis not the counsel, but the speaker's worth,
That gives persuasion to his eloquence.
_Hecuba_ 266.
26
Skilful leech
Mutters no spell o'er sore that needs the knife.
_Ajax_ 581.
27
It is through God that man or laughs or mourns.
_Ajax_ 385.
28
No mortal man
May therefore be call'd happy, till you see
The last of all his days, and how, that pass'd,
He to the realms of Pluto shall descend.
_Andromache_ 114.
29
All human things
A day lays low, a day lifts up again;
But still the gods love those of order'd soul.
_Ajax_ 130.