Page:The Dramas of Aeschylus (Swanwick).djvu/311

Rh But when in haste man presses on, the god still keeps beside him.

A fount of ills for all my friends seems now to be discovered;

All this my son through ignorance hath wrought and youthful daring,

Who Hellè's sacred tide, forsooth, as it had been his vassal,

And Bosporos, the stream of god, did hope to curb with fetters;

The current fashioned he anew, and hammer-beaten shackles

Casting around, for mighty host achieved a mighty causeway.

Though mortal, all the gods he thought, infatuate, to master,

Ay, e'en Poseidon; was not this sheer frenesy of spirit

That held my son? In fear I am lest all the ample treasure

My toil amassed, become to men the spoil of the first comer.

Converse with evil-minded men hath taught impetuous Xerxes

Such lessons; for thy spear, they say, won for thy sons vast riches,

While he, through cowardice of soul, his spear at home still wieldeth,

Thus adding nothing to the wealth bequeathed him by his father.