Page:Four Plays of Aeschylus (Cookson).djvu/107

Rh The dark oblation of the Dorian spear.

High as are heaped the sands their carcases

Shall be hereafter, even to sons' sons,

A silent witness for whoso hath eyes,

That proud thoughts are not for the worm called man;

For pride in blossom, like an ear of corn,

Swells and grows ripe with ruin reaped in tears.

Ye, when ye see these things and think thereon,

Remember Athens and remember Hellas!

Let none of you, that fortune, which is yours

And which God gave, disdaining, set your hearts

On what ye have not, neither in getting more

Pour out like water vast prosperity.

Zeus is a chastener of froward wills

And he correcteth with a heavy hand.

Wherefore be ye instructors of your lord,

And with well-reasoned admonitions teach him

To have a humbler heart and cast away

The sin of pride, for it offendeth God.

And, Xerxes' dear and venerable Mother,

Return to the palace; bring forth fitting raiment

And go therewith to meet thy son: for all

About him, torn by grief, in tatters hangs

The ravelment of his rich-embroidered robe.

Moreover comfort him with gentle words;

Thee only will he hearken. I go hence

Descending through the darkness of the earth.

Farewell, grave elders; in adversity

Find out the soul's true solace day by day;

Where dead men lie wealth nothing profiteth.

[The of descends into the tomb.