Swifter than fastest steed to bend his flight;
For, in full armour clad,
Upon him darts, with fire
And lightning flash, the radiant Son of Zeus, 470
And with Him come in train
The dread and awful Powers,
The Destinies that fail not of their aim.
Antistroph. I.
For from Parnassos' heights, enwreathed with snow,
Gleaming, but now there shone
The oracle that bade us, one and all,
Track the unnamed, unknown;
For, lo! he wanders through the forest wild,
In caves and over rocks,
As strays the mountain bull,
In dreary loneliness with dreary tread,
Seeking in vain to shun
Dread words from central shrine;[1] 480
Yet they around him hover, full of life.
Stroph. II.
Fearfully, fearfully the augur moves me.
Nor answering, aye nor no!
And what to say I know not, but float on,
And hover still in hopes,
And fail to scan things present or to come.
For not of old, nor now,
Learnt I what cause of strife at variance set
The old Labdakid race 490
With him, the child and heir of Polybos,
Nor can I test the tale,
And take my stand against the well-earned fame
Of Œdipus, my lord,
- ↑ Delphi, thought of by the Greeks, as Jerusalem was in the middle ages, as the centre of the whole earth.
