Page:Eumenides (Murray 1925).djvu/67

vv. 949–971

Ye Guardians, hear the word she hath said,

And shall fulfil! Most potent hands

Hath great Erînys, in the lands

Where dwell the deathless and the dead.

And all this world of men declares

Her visible act on right and wrong;

How one man's life she makes a song,

Another's a long mist of tears.

Let manhood's glory by no doom

Of death untimely be defiled;

Let life to maidens in their bloom

Bring each a lover and a child.

O whatsoever Gods have power,

And Fates eternal, grant this dower!

Ye Fates, our Mother's Sisterhood,

Assigners true to all that be,

To every house its ill and good,

To every hour its potency.

Righteous participants through all,

Of Gods the most majestical.

With joy I hear their prescient song

Touching my land; and much in pride

I praise Persuasion gentle-eyed,

Who guarded well my lips and tongue,