Page:Tragedies of Sophocles (Plumptre 1878).djvu/197

Rh Where onset fierce of men

Arrayed for fight shall join

In brazen-throated war;

Or at the Pythian fane,

Or by the torch-lit shores,

Where awful Powers still watch,

O'er solemn rites for men of mortal race;

Whose golden key is set upon the lips

Of priests, Eumolpidæ, who tend their shrine.

There, so I deem, will meet

Our Theseus, brave in fight,

And those two sisters, proof

Against all toil and pain,

Will meet on this our land,

With cry, that uttereth all their hearts' desire.

Or else, perchance, they cross

The side that westward slopes

Of yonder snow-crowned height,

On to Œatis' lawns,

Speeding on goodly steeds,

Or race of chariots swift;

Yes, they will take their prey,

For terrible our townsmen's strength for war,

And terrible the might of Theseus's sons.

For every horse's curb is gleaming bright,