Page:The Dramas of Aeschylus (Swanwick).djvu/501

Rh

Not by division did the Argives vote,

But so as to make young mine aged heart.

For in full mote, with raised right-hands the air

Bristled, while this decree they ratified,

That we in Argive land might settle, free,

Not subject to arrest, inviolate;

That no one, native here or foreigner,

Should seize us;—but, should violence be used,

And any of these burghers fail to aid,

An outlaw should he be, to exile doomed.

Thus in our favour spake Pelasgia's king,

Persuasive, warning lest the mighty wrath

Of Zeus, the suppliant's god, in future time,

The city should weigh down, and two-fold wrong,

To us as strangers and as citizens,

Upon the state two-fold pollution bring,

Food of disaster irremediable.

Hearing such things the Argives, by their hands,

Confirmed, ere herald summoned, these decrees.

The orator's persuasive winding speech

Heard the Pelasgi, but Zeus wrought the end.

Come now for Argos' race

Chant we the gracious prayer

Requiting kindly grace.

May Zeus, the stranger's friend,

From strangers' lips regard with favour rare

The orisons, and crown with prosperous end.