Page:Tragedies of Sophocles (Plumptre 1878).djvu/231

Rh

Chor. Ο light of yon bright sun,

Fairest of all that ever shone on Thebes,

Thebes with her seven high gates,

Thou didst appear that day,

Eye of the golden dawn,

O'er Dirké's streams advancing,

Driving with quickened curb,

In haste of headlong flight,

The warrior who, in panoply of proof,

From Argos came, with shield of glittering white;

Whom Polyneikes brought,

Roused by the strife of tongues

Against our fatherland,

As eagle shrieking shrill,

He hovered o'er our land,

With snow-white wing bedecked,

Begirt with myriad arms,

And flowing horsehair crests.

He stood above our towers,

Encircling, with his spears all blood-bestained,

The portals of our gates;

He went, before he filled

His jaws with blood of men,

Ere the pine-fed Hephæstos

Had seized our crown of towers.