And then shall Zeus to words
Unseemly be exposed,
Having the heifer's offspring put to shame, 160
Whom he himself begat,
And now his face averting from our prayers:
Ah, may he hear on high,
Yea, pitying look and hear propitiously!
By thine ire, Zeus, 'gainst Io virulent,
The Gods' wrath seeks us out,
And I know well the woe
Comes from thy queen, who reigns in heaven victorious;
For after stormy wind 170
The tempest needs must rage.
_Danaos._ My children, we need wisdom; lo! ye came
With me, your father wise and old and true,
As guardian of your voyage. Now ashore,
With forethought true I bid you keep my words,
As in a tablet-book recording them:
I see a dust, an army's voiceless herald,
Nor are the axles silent as they turn;
And I descry a host that bear the shield,
And those that hurl the javelin, marching on
With horses and with curvèd battle-cars.
Perchance they are the princes of this land, 180
Come on the watch, as having news of us;
But whether one in kindly mood, or hot
With anger fierce, leads on this great array,
It is, my children, best on all accounts
To take your stand hard by this hill of Gods
Who rule o'er conflicts.[220] Better far than towers
Are altars, yea, a shield impenetrable.
But with all speed approach the shrine of Zeus,
The God of mercy, in your left hand holding
The suppliants' boughs wool-wreathed, in solemn guise,[221]
And greet our hosts as it is meet for us, 190
Coming as strangers, with all duteous words
Kindly and holy, telling them your tale
Of this your flight, unstained by guilt of blood;
And with your speech, let mood not overbold,
Nor vain nor wanton, shine from modest brow
And calm, clear eye. And be not prompt to speak,
Nor full of words; the race that dwelleth here
Of this is very jealous:[222] and be mindful
Much to concede; a fugitive thou art,
A stranger and in want, and 'tis not meet
That those in low estate high words should speak.
_Chor._ My father, to the prudent prudently 200
Thou speakest, and my task shall be to keep
Thy goodly precepts. Zeus, our sire, look on us!
_Dan._ Yea, may He look with favourable eye!
_Chor._ I fain would take my seat not far from thee.
[_Chorus moves to the altar not far from_
DANAOS
_Dan._ Delay not then; success go with your plan.
_Chor._ Zeus, pity us with sorrow all but crushed!
_Dan._ If He be willing, all shall turn out well.
_Chor._ . . . . .
_Dan._ Invoke ye now the mighty bird of Zeus.[223]
_Chor._ We call the sun's bright rays to succour us.
_Dan._ Apollo too, the holy, in that He, 210
A God, has tasted exile from high heaven.[224]
_Chor._ Knowing that fate, He well may feel for men.
_Dan._ So may He feel, and look on us benignly!
_Chor._ Whom of the Gods shall I besides invoke?
_Dan._ I see this trident here, a God's great symbol.[225]
_Chor._ Well hath He brought us, well may He receive!
_Dan._ Here too is Hermes,[226] as the Hellenes know him.
_Chor._ To us, as free, let Him good herald prove.
_Dan._ Yea, and the common shrine of all these Gods
Adore ye, and in holy precincts sit,
Like swarms of doves in fear of kites your kinsmen, 220
Foes of our blood, polluters of our race.
How can bird prey on bird and yet be pure?
And how can he be pure who seeks in marriage
Unwilling bride from father too unwilling?
Nay, not in Hades' self, shall he, vain fool,
Though dead, 'scape sentence, doing deeds like this;
For there, as men relate, a second Zeus[227]
Judges men's evil deeds, and to the dead
Assigns their last great penalties. Look up,
And take your station here, that this your cause
May win its way to a victorious end.
_Enter the_ KING _on his chariot, followed by_ Attendants
_King._ Whence comes this crowd, this non-Hellenic band, 230
In robes and raiment of barbaric fashion
So gorgeously attired, whom now we speak to?
This woman's dress is not of Argive mode,
Nor from the climes of Hellas. How ye dared,
Without a herald even or protector,
Yea, and devoid of guides too, to come hither
Thus boldly, is to me most wonderful.
And yet these boughs, as is the suppliant's wont,
Are set by you before the Gods of conflicts:
By this alone will Hellas guess aright.
Much more indeed we might have else conjectured, 240
Were there no voice to tell me on the spot.
_Chor._ Not false this speech of thine about our garb;
But shall I greet thee as a citizen,
Or bearing Hermes' rod, or city ruling?[228]
_King._ Nay, for that matter, answer thou and speak
Without alarm. Palæchthon's son am I,
Earth-born, the king of this Pelasgic land;
And named from me, their king,[229] as well might be,
The race Pelasgic reaps our country's fruits;
*And all the land through which the Strymon pours 250
Its pure, clear waters to the West I rule;
And as the limits of my realm I mark
The land of the Perrhæbi, and the climes
Near the Pæonians, on the farther side
Of Pindos, and the Dodonæan heights;[230]
And the sea's waters form its bounds. O'er all
Within these coasts I govern; and this plain,
The Apian land, itself has gained its name
Long since from one who as a healer lived;[231]
For Apis, coming from Naupactian land
That lies beyond the straits, Apollo's son,
Prophet and healer, frees this land of ours 260
From man-destroying monsters, which the soil,
Polluted with the guilt of blood of old,
By anger of the Gods, brought forth,—fierce plagues,
The dragon-brood's dread, unblest company;
And Apis, having for this Argive land
Duly wrought out his saving surgery,
Gained his reward, remembered in our prayers;
And thou, this witness having at my hands,
May'st tell thy race at once, and further speak;
Yet lengthened speech our city loveth not.
_Chor._ Full short and clear our tale. We boast that we
Are Argives in descent, the children true 270
Of the fair, fruitful heifer. And all this
Will I by what I speak show firm and true.
_King._ Nay, strangers, what ye tell is past belief
For me to hear, that ye from Argos spring;
For ye to Libyan women are most like,[232]
And nowise to our native maidens here.
Such race might Neilos breed, and Kyprian mould,
Like yours, is stamped by skilled artificers
On women's features; and I hear that those
Of India travel upon camels borne, 280
Swift as the horse, yet trained as sumpter-mules,
E'en those who as the Æthiops' neighbours dwell.
And had ye borne the bow, I should have guessed,
Undoubting, ye were of th' Amâzon's tribe,
Man-hating, flesh-devouring. Taught by you,
I might the better know how this can be,
That your descent and birth from Argos come.
_Chor._ They tell of one who bore the temple-keys
Of Hera, Io, in this Argive land.
_King._ So was't indeed, and wide the fame prevails:
And was it said that Zeus a mortal loved? 290
_Chor._ And that embrace was not from Hera hid.
_King._ What end had then these strifes of sovereign Ones?
_Chor._ The Argive goddess made the maid a heifer.
_King._ Did Zeus that fair-horned heifer still approach?
_Chor._ So say they, fashioned like a wooing steer.
_King._ How acted then the mighty spouse of Zeus?
_Chor._ She o'er the heifer set a guard all-seeing.
_King._ What herdsman strange, all-seeing, speak'st thou of?
_Chor._ Argos, the earth-born, him whom Hermes slew. 300
_King._ What else then wrought she on the ill-starred heifer?
_Chor._ She sent a stinging gadfly to torment her.
[Those who near Neilos dwell an _æstros_ call it.]
_King._ Did she then drive her from her country far?
_Chor._ All that thou say'st agrees well with our tale.
_King._ And did she to Canôbos go, and Memphis?
_Chor._ Zeus with his touch, an offspring then begets.
_King._ What Zeus-born calf that heifer claims as mother?
_Chor._ *He from that touch which freed named Epaphos.310
_King._ [_What offspring then did Epaphos beget?_][233]
_Chor._ Libya, that gains her fame from greatest land.
_King._ What other offspring, born of her, dost tell of?
_Chor._ Sire of my sire here, Belos, with two sons.
_King._ Tell me then now the name of yonder sage.
_Chor._ Danaos, whose brother boasts of fifty sons.
_King._ Tell me his name, too, with ungrudging speech.
_Chor._ Ægyptos: knowing now our ancient stock,
Take heed thou bid thine Argive suppliants rise.
_King._ Ye seem, indeed, to make your ancient claim
To this our country good: but how came ye 320
To leave your father's house? What chance constrained you?
_Chor._ O king of the Pelasgi, manifold
Are ills of mortals, and thou could'st not find
The self-same form of evil anywhere.
Who would have said that this unlooked-for flight
Would bring to Argos race once native here,
Driving them forth in hate of wedlock's couch?
_King._ What seek'st thou then of these the Gods of conflicts,
Holding your wool-wreathed branches newly-plucked?
_Chor._ That I serve not Ægyptos' sons as slave.
_King._ Speak'st thou of some old feud, or breach of right? 330
_Chor._ Nay, who'd find fault with master that one loved?
_King._ Yet thus it is that mortals grow in strength.[234]
_Chor._ True; when men fail, 'tis easy to desert them.
_King._ How then to you may I act reverently?
_Chor._ Yield us not up unto Ægyptos' sons.
_King._ Hard boon thou ask'st, to wage so strange a war.
_Chor._ Nay, Justice champions those who fight with her.
_King._ Yes, if her hand was in it from the first.
_Chor._ Yet reverence thou the state-ship's stern thus wreathed.[235]
_King._ I tremble as I see these seats thus shadowed. 340