Page:Four Plays of Aeschylus (1908) Morshead.djvu/234

204 I will recount her history of toil

Ere she came hither; let it stand for proof

Of what I told, my forecast of the end.

So, then—to sum in brief the weary tale—

I turn me to thine earlier exile's close.

When to Molossia's lowland thou hadst come,

Nigh to Dodona's cliff and ridge sublime,

(Where is the shrine oracular and seat

Of Zeus, Thesprotian styled, and that strange thing

And marvel past belief, the prophet-oaks

That syllable his speech), thou by their tongues,

With clear acclaim and unequivocal,

Wert thus saluted—Hail, O bride of Zeus

That art to be—hast memory thereof?

Thence, stung anew with frenzy, thou didst hie

Along the shoreward track, to Rhea's lap,

The mighty main; then, stormily distraught,

Backward again and eastward. To all time,

Be well assured, that inlet of the sea

All mortal men shall call Ionian,

In memory that Io fared thereby.

Take this for proof and witness that my mind

Hath more in ken than ever sense hath shown.

(To the )

That which remains, to you and her alike

I will relate, and, to my former words

Reverting, add this final prophecy.

(To )

There lieth, at the verge of land and sea,

Where Nilus issues thro' the silted sand,

A town, Canopus called: and there at length

Shall Zeus renew the reason in thy brain

With the mere touch and contact of his hand

Fraught now with fear no more: and thou shalt bear

A child, dark Epaphus—his very name