Page:House of Atreus 2nd ed (1889).djvu/60

24 And now all hail, O earth, and hail to thee,

New-risen sun! and hail our country's God,

High-ruling Zeus, and thou, the Pythian lord,

Whose arrows smote us once—smite thou no more!

Was not thy wrath wreaked full upon our heads,

O king Apollo, by Scamander's side?

Turn thou, be turned, be saviour, healer, now!

And hail, all gods who rule the street and mart,

And Hermes hail! my patron and my pride,

Herald of heaven, and lord of heralds here!

And Heroes, ye who sped us on our way—

To one and all I cry Receive again

With grace such Argives as the spear has spared.

Ah home of royalty, belovèd halls,

And solemn shrines, and gods that front the morn!

Benign as erst, with sun-flushed aspect greet

The king returning after many days.

For as from night flash out the beams of day,

So out of darkness dawns a light, a king,

On you, on Argos—Agamemnon comes.

Then hail and greet him well! such meed befits

Him whose right hand hewed down the towers of Troy

With the great axe of Zeus who righteth wrong—

And smote the plain, smote down to nothingness

Each altar, every shrine; and far and wide

Dies from the whole land's face its offspring fair.

Such mighty yoke of fate he set on Troy—

Our lord and monarch, Atreus' elder son,

And comes at last with blissful honour home;

Highest of all who walk on earth to-day—

Not Paris nor the city's self that paid

Sin's price with him, can boast Whatever befal,

The guerdon we have won outweighs it all.