Page:Tragedies of Euripides (Way 1898) v3.djvu/239

Rh Who are these, that from waters lovely-gleaming

By Eurotas' reeds, or from fountains streaming

Of Dirkê the hallowed have come, have come,

To the shore where the stranger may find no home,

Where with crimson from human veins that raineth

The Daughter of Zeus her altars staineth

And her pillared dome?

Or with pine-oars rightward and leftward flinging

The surf, and the breeze in the tackle singing

Of the sea-wain, over the surge did they sweep,

Sore-coveted wealth in their halls to heap?—

For winsome is hope unto men's undoing,

And unsatisfied ever they be with pursuing

The treasure up-piled for the which they roam

Unto alien cities o'er ridges of foam,

By a day-dream beguiled:—and one ne'er taketh

Fortune at flood, while her full tide breaketh

Unsought over some.

How 'twixt the Death-crags' swing,

And by Phineus' beaches that ring

With voices of seas unsleeping,

Won they, by breakers leaping

O'er the Sea-queen's strand, as they passed

Through the crash of the surge flying fast,

And saw where in dance-rings sweeping

The fifty Nereids sing,—

When strained in the breeze the sail,

When hissed, as the keel ran free,