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URGHERS of Cadmos, timely words beseem

Him at the stern who guards the city's weal,

Guiding the helm with lids unsoothed by sleep;

For, if we prosper, God alone is praised,

But if, which Heaven forefend, mischance befall,

One man, Eteocles, through all the town,

In noiseful rhymes and wailings manifold

Would by the folk be chanted; which may Zeus,

True to his sacred name, Averter, turn

From our Cadmeian city; you meanwhile

It now behoveth—him alike who fails

Of youth's fair prime, and him whose bloom is past,

Yet nursing still his body's stalwart strength,

And each one grown to manhood, as befits—

The State to aid and shrines of native gods,

That ne'er their honours be erased; to aid

Your children too, and this your mother earth,

Beloved nurse, who, while your childish limbs

Crept on her friendly plain, all nurture-toil

Full kindly entertained, and fostered you

Her denizens to be, in strait like this

Shield-bearing champions, trusty in her cause.