Page:Tragedies of Euripides (Way 1898) v3.djvu/75

Rh From the dragon of crimson crest that battened on beasts of the wold

A race of the seed of his teeth, to be Thebes' reproach and her glory.

To Harmonia's bridal descended of yore

The children of Heaven; and Thebes' walls rose to the harp's voice singing,

When the spell of Amphion's lyre fashioned towers for her brows' enringing,

In the space 'twixt the rivers twain that pour

Out of Dirkê, whose dews drift greenness, shedding

Life o'er the plain by Ismenus spreading.

And our ancestress Io of hornèd brows

Was mother of kings unto Kadmus' house.

Lo, how hath this city, through line on line

Of blessings unnumbered, attained to the height

Where the War-god's crowns of victory-might

Shine!

Enter Teiresias led by his daughter, with Menoikeus.

Lead on, my daughter: to my sightless feet

As eyes art thou, as star to mariners.

Hither, on even ground, plant thou my steps.

Guide, lest I stumble: strengthless is thy sire.

Guard in thy maiden hand the augury-lots

Which, when I marked the bodings of the birds,

In the holy seat I took, where I divine.

Thou child Menoikeus, son of Kreon, tell

How much remaineth of the townward way