Page:Tragedies of Sophocles (Plumptre 1878).djvu/305

Rh His son who once led Hellas' glorious host,

The mighty Agamemnon. So far well.

But when a God will injure, none can 'scape,

Strong though he be. For lo! another day,

When, as the sun was rising, came the race

Swift-footed, of the chariot and the horse,

He entered there, with many charioteers;

One an Achæan, one from Sparta, two

From Libya, who with four-horsed chariots came,

And he with these, with swift Thessalian mares,

Came as the fifth; a sixth with bright bay colts

Came from Ætolia ; and the seventh was born

In far Magnesia; and the eighth, by race

An Ænian, with white horses; and the ninth

From Athens came, the city built of God;

Last, a Bœotian, tenth in order, came,

And made the list complete. And so they stood—

When the appointed umpires fixed by lot,

And placed the cars in order; and with sound

Of brazen trump they started. Cheering all

Their steeds at once, they shook the reins, and then

The course was filled with all the clash and din

Of rattling chariots, and the dust rose high;

And all commingled, sparing not the goad,

That each might pass his neighbour's axle-trees,

And horses' hot, hard breathings; for their backs

And chariot-wheels were white with foam, and still

The breath of horses smote them; and he, come