Page:Eumenides (Murray 1925).djvu/21

vv. 1–17

First of all Gods I worship in this prayer

Earth, the primeval prophet; after her

Themis, the Wise, who on her mother's throne—

So runs the tale—sat second; by whose own

Accepted will, with never strife nor stress,

Third reigned another earth-born Titaness,

Phoebê; from whom (for that he bears her name)

To Phoebus as a birthtide gift it came.

He left his isle, he left his Delian seas,

He passed Athena's wave-worn promontories,

In haste this great Parnassus to possess

And Delphi, thronèd in the wilderness.

And with him came, to escort him and revere,

A folk born of Hephaistos, pioneer

Of God's way, making sweet a bitter land.

And much this people and the King whose hand

Then steered them, Delphos, glorified his name,

Till Zeus into his heart put mystic flame