Who are these, that from waters lovely-gleaming
By Eurotas' reeds, or from fountains streaming400
Of Dirkê the hallowed have come, have come,
To the shore where the stranger may find no home,
Where with crimson from human veins that raineth
The Daughter of Zeus her altars staineth[1]
And her pillared dome?
(Ant. 1)
Or with pine-oars rightward and leftward flinging
The surf, and the breeze in the tackle singing
Of the sea-wain, over the surge did they sweep,410
Sore-coveted wealth in their halls to heap?—
For winsome is hope unto men's undoing,
And unsatisfied ever they be with pursuing
The treasure up-piled for the which they roam
Unto alien cities o'er ridges of foam,
By a day-dream beguiled:—and one ne'er taketh
Fortune at flood, while her full tide breaketh
Unsought over some.420
(Str. 2)
How 'twixt the Death-crags' swing,
And by Phineus' beaches that ring
With voices of seas unsleeping,
Won they, by breakers leaping
O'er the Sea-queen's strand, as they passed
Through the crash of the surge flying fast,
And saw where in dance-rings sweeping
The fifty Nereids sing,—
When strained in the breeze the sail,430
When hissed, as the keel ran free,
- ↑ Or, reading κούρᾳ,
"Where raineth the crimson of human slaughter
On the altars of Zeus's Virgin Daughter."
