Cast out all ruthlessly; 180
And wives and mothers, grey with hoary age,
Some here, some there, by every altar mourn,
With woe and sorrow crushed,
And chant their wailing plaint.
Clear thrills the sense their solemn Pæan cry,
And the sad anthem song;
Hear, golden child of Zeus,
And send us bright-eyed help.
Stroph. III.
And Ares the destroyer drive away![1]
Who now, though hushed the din 190
Of brazen shield and spear,
With fiercest battle-cry
Wars on me mightily.
Bid him go back in flight,
Retreat from this our land,
Or to the ocean bed,
Where Amphitrite sleeps,
Or to that haven of the homeless sea
Which sweeps the Thracian shore.[2]
*If waning night spares aught,
That doth the day assail:
Do thou, then. Sire almighty,
Wielding the lightning's strength, 200
Blast him with thy dread fiery thunderbolts.
Antistroph. III.
And thou, Lykeian king, the wolf's dread foe,
Fain would I see thy darts
- ↑ The Pestilence, previously (v. 27) personified, is now identified with Ares, the God of slaughter, and, as such, the foe of the more benign deities.
- ↑ The Chorus prays that the pestilence may be driven either to the far western ocean, beyond the pillars of Heracles, the couch of Amphitrite, the bride of Neptune, or to the northern coasts of the Euxine, where Ares was worshipped as the special God of the Thracians.
