Stroph. I.[1]
Chor. Of all the land far famed for goodly steeds,
Thou com'st, Ο stranger, to the noblest spot,
Colonos, glistening bright,670
Where evermore, in thickets freshly green,
The clear-voiced nightingale
Still haunts, and pours her song,
By purpling ivy hid,
And the thick leafage sacred to the God,[2]
With all its myriad fruits,
By mortal's foot untouched,
By sun's hot ray unscathed,
Sheltered from every blast;
There wanders Dionysos evermore,
In full, wild revelry,
And waits upon the Nymphs who nursed his youth.680
Antistroph. I.
And there, beneath the gentle dews of heaven,
The fair narcissus with its clustered bells
Blooms ever, day by day,
Of old the wreath of mightiest Goddesses;[3]
And crocus golden-eyed;
And still unslumbering flow
- ↑ For the traditions which connect this Choral Ode with the poet's life, see Introduction, p. lxiv.
- ↑ The God to whom the ivy was sacred, is first indicated by this attribute, then named as Dionysos. The Nymphs are those of Nysa, who first nursed him in his childhood, and then accompanied him in his wanderings.
- ↑ The poet, himself initiated in the mysteries of Eleusis, between which and the worship of Dionysos, there was a close connexion, naturally sings of them. The "great Goddesses" are Demeter and Persephone. The narcissus and the crocus growing on the rocks were connected with the story of the capture of Persephone by Aidoneus, (Pluto,) who was said to have seized her as she was gathering these flowers, and therefore she and Demeter wore garlands of the ears of corn instead of wreaths of their blossoms.
