And charge ye Teucros, should he come, to care
For me, and show a kindly heart to you.
For now I go the journey I must take;690
And ye, do what I bid you, and perchance
Ye soon may hear of me, though now my fate
Is evil, as delivered from all ill.[Exit.
Stroph.
Chor. I thrill with eager desire, I leap for gladness of heart,
Io, Io, Ο Pan![1]
Ο Pan! Ο Pan! Ο Pan!
Pan that walketh the waves,
Come from the snow-beaten heights
From Kyllene's mountainous ridge.
Come, Ο my king, that leadest the dance of the Gods,
That thou with me may'st thread
The dance of windings wild,
Nysian, or Knossian named;[2]700
For now I needs must dance for very joy.
And King Apollo, o'er Icarian waves,
Coming, the Delian God,
In presence manifest,
May He be with me gracious evermore.
Antistroph.
And Ares, too, hath loosed the dark calamitous spell
- ↑ The hymn of the Chorus is addressed, first, to Pan as the God of impetuous, exulting joy, and, afterwards, to Apollo as the giver of a calmer and more spiritual gladness. Another reason for their choice is found in the fact that the island Psyttaleia, between Salamis and the mainland, was sacred to him. Thence, in legends which were fresh in men's memories when Sophocles wrote, he had come forth to help the Athenians at Marathon and Salamis. Kyllene, in Arcadia, was the special home of Pan-worship.
- ↑ Nysian, like the dances of the Thiasos at Nysa, the birthplace of Dionysos; Knossian, like those at Knossos in Crete, in honour of the bride of Dionysos, Ariadne.
