To watch that eye of thine
For thine especial need; but tell, I pray,
What kind of home is his,
And in what spot he now may chance to be.
'Tis not unmeet to know,
Lest he should fall upon me unawares.
What place, what seat has he,
What path, or near, or far, does he now tread?
Neop. Thou see'st this dwelling with its double door,
Its chamber in the rock.160
Chor. And where is that poor sufferer absent now?
Neop. To me it is plain that he treads
This path near, hunting for food.
For this is the fashion of life,
So rumour runs, that he leads,
With swift darts shooting the game,
Wretched, and wretchedly fed,
And that here none wendeth his way,
As friend and healer of ills.
Stroph. II.
Chor. I pity him, for one,
Thinking how he, with none to care for him,170
Seeing no face of friend,
Ever, poor wretch, in dreary loneliness,
Suffers from sore disease,
And wanders on in sore perplexity
At every urgent need.
Oh, how, yea, how can he his sorrows bear?
*O handiwork of Gods!
Ο wretched men, who miss their life's true mean?
Antistroph. II.
He, born of ancient house,
