There chanting of Artemis' bow all-golden,
And the brows with the frontlet of gold enfolden,
With the Delian maidens our voices blending?
Or in Pallas's Town to the car all-glorious
Shall I yoke the steeds on the saffron -glowing[1]
Veil of Athênê, where flush victorious
The garlands that cunningest fingers are throwing
In manifold hues on its folds wide-flowing,—470
Or the brood of the Titans whom lightnings, that fell
Flame-wrapt from Kronion, in long sleep quell?
Woe for our babes, for our fathers hoary!
Woe for our country, mid smoke and smoulder
Crashing to ruin, and all her glory
Spear-spoiled!—and an alien land shall behold her480
Bond who was free; for that Asia's shoulder
Is bowed under Europe's yoke, and I dwell,
An exile from home, in a dungeon of hell.
Enter Talthybius.
Talthybius.
Where shall I find her that of late was queen
Of Ilium, Hecuba, ye maids of Troy?485
Chorus.
Lo there, anigh thee, on the ground outstretched,
Talthybius, lies she muffled in her robes.
- ↑ i.e., Embroider thereon the chariot and horses of Athênê, bearing the Goddess to battle against the Giants. The allusion is to the great saffron-dyed mantle which was carried, outspread like a sail, in solemn procession through the streets of Athens to the temple on the Acropolis, every fourth year, at the Great Panathenaic Festival.
