Deian. And how the stranger maiden fares, thou know'st,
[Seeing that warm welcome I received her with.]
Lichas. So much so, that my heart leapt up for joy.
Deian. Why should'st thou tell aught else? for much I fear630
Lest thou should'st tell my longing love for him,
Before we know if he doth long for us.
into her house.
Stroph. I.
Chor. Ο ye that dwell along the harbour's shore,
Or by the rock's hot streams,[1]
And Œta's mountain slopes,
Or the mid Melian lake,
Or by Her shore who owns the golden darts,
Where the high courts of all the Hellenes meet,
From Pylæ named of old.
Antistroph. I.
Soon will the clear-voiced flute return to you640
With no unfitting strain.
But like a lyre with hymn
And song the Gods approve;[2]
For, lo! the hero whom Zeus owns as son,
Of fair Alcmena born, hastes home to us,
With trophies of high worth.
Stroph. II.
Him we, (for twelve long months,
- ↑ The rock's hot streams are those between the mountains and the coast which gave a name to the narrow pass of Thermopylæ. The Melian lake is strictly a gulf. The goddess of the golden darts is Artemis, the guardian of all the havens of Thessaly. The "high courts of the Hellenes" are the Amphictyonic assemblies that held their sessions near Thermopylæ.
- ↑ Ordinarily the "flute" was the accompaniment of wild ecstatic songs and dances. "Now," the Chorus says, "it shall be subdued into a calm, serene music like that of the lyre at festivals of the Gods."
