Page:The Dramas of Aeschylus (Swanwick).djvu/254

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Ye city-guardians do ye hear aright

What thus she promises. For great the might

Erinys wields—dread brood of night—

Alike with Hades and the Olympian Powers;

O'er men confessed and absolute her reign,

To some she giveth song, and some she dowers

With life, tear-blinded, marred by pain.

Here may there fall no man-destroying blight!

And ye, great Powers, o'er marriage who preside,

In wedlock bands each lovely maid unite;—

Ye too, dread sisters, to ourselves allied,

Awful dispensers of the Right,

In every human home confessed,

In every age made manifest,

By righteous visitations;—aye revered,

And, everywhere, of deities most feared.

While thus ye ratify with friendly zeal

These blessings to my country, I rejoice,

And love Persuasion's eye, who moved my voice

To soothe these stern refusers, passion-stung.

But Zeus hath conquered, swayer of the tongue,

God of the Forum. Triumphs now for aye

In noble benefits our rivalry.