The Suppliants.
403
Of her who browsed the flowery lea,
Ancestral mother of our line
Through breath and touch of Zeus. For time,
When to full plenitude it came,
Brought Epaphos to light, whose name
Showed forth the touch sublime.
Antistrophe I.
His name rehearsing, where of old
His mother trod the grassy wold,— 50
Recalling now her ancient toil,
I to the holders of this soil
Sure tokens of my birth will show;
Ay, of my words shall proofs appear
In season due, unlooked-for, clear,
That all their truth may know.
Strophe II.
And should there chance to linger near
Some native augur, on his ear
When falls our plaintive wail;
Will he not deem the anguished note
Of Tereus' bride[1] around doth float,
The hawk-chased nightingale? 60
- ↑ Reference is here made to the story of Procne, daughter of Pandion, king of Attica, who, married to Tereus, king of Thrace, became by him the mother of Itys. Hearing of the outrage which her sister Philomela had suffered from Tereus, Procne slew her child, and, being pursued by her husband, was changed into a nightingale, and he into a hawk. There are other versions of the story of Procne.
