Page:Pindar and Anacreon.djvu/156

148 Alcman on his refulgent shield

Whirling the dragon's varied form

Clearly I view, while in the field

Foremost at Cadmus' gates he bides the battle storm.

And he who in the former fray

Fatigued and vanquish'd urged his way,

Adrastus of heroic might

Now views a better omen's flight;

Howe'er in his domestic state

Vex'd by the storms of adverse fate.

To him alone of all the Grecian band

With his uninjured host by equal heaven,

His dead son's bones, collected through the land,

To bring to Abas' spacious streets 'tis given."

'Twas thus Amphiaraus said:

And I around Alcmæon's head

The verdant chaplet joy to place,

Sprinkled with hymns' mellifluous grace.

He, guarded by whose neighboring fane,

All my possessions safe remain,

To earth's prophetic centre as I went,

By his paternal art convey'd

The answer in night's gloomy shade,

Which to my charmed ear Apollo sent.

Far-darting god, whose glorious dome

Within the Pythian hollow stands,

Receiving from all distant lands

Whatever suppliants thither roam,