Page:Four Plays of Aeschylus (Cookson).djvu/183

Rh And for thy fate my heart misgives me! I

Tremble to know when through the breakers' roar

Thy keel shall touch again the friendly shore;

For not by prayer to Zeus is access won;

An unpersuadable heart hath Cronos' son.

I know the heart of Zeus is hard, that he hath tied

Justice to his side;

But he shall be full gentle thus assuaged;

And, the implacable wroth wherewith he raged

Smoothed quite away, nor he nor I

Be loth to seal a bond of peace and amity.

All that thou hast to tell I pray unfold,

That we may hear at large upon what count

Zeus took thee and with bitter wrong affronts:

Instruct us, if the telling hurt thee not.

These things are sorrowful for me to speak,

Yet silence too is sorrow: all ways woe!

When first the Blessed Ones were filled with wrath

And there arose division in their midst,

These instant to hurl Cronos from his throne

That Zeus might be their king, and these, adverse,

Contending that he ne'er should rule the Gods.

Then I, wise counsel urging to persuade

The Titans, sons of Ouranos and Chthon,

Prevailed not: but, all indirect essays

Despising, they by the strong hand,—effortless,

Yet by main force,—supposed that they might seize

Supremacy. But me my mother Themis