Page:Suppliant Maidens (Morshead) 1883.djvu/57

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Swift to the vessel of the double prow,

Go quickly! let none linger, else this hand

Ruthless will hale you by your tresses hence.

Alack, O father! from the shrine

Not aid but agony is mine.

As a spider he creeps and he clutches his prey,

And he hales me away.

A spectre of darkness, of darkness. Alas and alas! well-a-day!

O Earth, O my mother! O Zeus, thou king of the earth, and her child!

Turn back, we pray thee, from us his clamour and threatenings wild!

Peace! I fear not this country's deities.

They fostered not my childhood nor mine age.

Like a snake that is human he comes, he shudders and crawls to my side:

As an adder that biteth the foot, his clutch on my flesh doth abide.

O Earth, O my mother! O Zeus, thou king of the earth, and her child!

Turn back, we pray thee, from us his clamour and threatenings wild!