Page:Pindar and Anacreon.djvu/247

Rh They loved to train the generous steeds,

While brazen Mars approved their deeds.

But in the course of one short day

The rough and sanguine cloud of war

Four heroes had impell'd away

From their deserted hearth afar:

And now, the wintry darkness o'er,

Soon as the vernal months succeed,

Serene they flourish as before;

Thus crimson roses cover o'er,

At Heaven's behest, the altered mead.

While he, the earth-disturbing god,

Who makes Onchestus his abode,

And the sea bridge that bids the tide

From Corinth's walls at distance glide—

Granting this hymn their noble race

With wondrous potency to grace,

Sings their high deeds, whose loud acclaim

Wakes from her couch primeval fame.

Aroused, her fair form glows with splendour bright,

As mid the other stars shines Phosphor's nobler light.

She who in Athens' verdant field

Proclaim'd the triumphs of his car,

And bade the bards of Sicyon wield

Their vocal lyres, to tell afar

What wreaths the Adrastean contests yield.