I the while, in bridal glee
Lift the glowing, glittering fire.
Hymen! Hymen! all to thee
Flames the torch and rings the lyre.
Bless, Hecatè, the rite;
Send thy soft and holy light
To the virgin's nuptial bed.
Lightly lift the airy tread!
Evan! Evan! dance along.
Holy are the dance and song;
Meetest they to celebrate
My father Priam's blissful fate.
Beauteous-vested maids of Troy,
Sing my song of nuptial joy!
Sing the fated husband led
To my virgin bridal bed."[1]
In another choral song, the rejoicing of Troy, at the very moment when the Greeks, coming out from their ambush in the wooden horse, were stealthily creeping to unbar the gates and admit the host from without, is described:—
"Shouted all the people loud
On the rock-built height that stood—
'Come,' they sang, as on they prest,
'Come, from all our toil released,
Lead the blest image to the shrine
Of her the Jove-born Trojan maid-divine.
******
O'er the toil, the triumph, spread
Silent night her curtained shade,
But Lybian fifes still sweetly rang.
- ↑ Dean Milman—"Fragments from the Greek Tragedians," from which volume the following translations are taken.
