Page:Tragedies of Sophocles (Plumptre 1878).djvu/231

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Enter Chorus of Theban Elders.

Stroph. I.

Chor. Ο light of yon bright sun,^[1]100
Fairest of all that ever shone on Thebes,
Thebes with her seven high gates,
Thou didst appear that day,
Eye of the golden dawn,
O'er Dirké's streams advancing,
Driving with quickened curb,
In haste of headlong flight,
The warrior^[2] who, in panoply of proof,
From Argos came, with shield of glittering white;
Whom Polyneikes brought,110
Roused by the strife of tongues
Against our fatherland,
As eagle shrieking shrill,
He hovered o'er our land,
With snow-white wing bedecked,
Begirt with myriad arms,
And flowing horsehair crests.

Antistroph. I.

He stood above our towers,
Encircling, with his spears all blood-bestained,
The portals of our gates;
He went, before he filled120
His jaws with blood of men,
Ere the pine-fed Hephæstos
Had seized our crown of towers.

1. The action of the drama begins at day-break, and this hymn is therefore sung to the sun at its rising.
2. The "warrior" is used collectively for the whole Argive army under Adrastos that had come to invade Thebes and support the cause of Polyneikes.