Which laid him low in death
With vilest contumely.
Antistroph.
And She shall also come,
Dread form, with many a foot, and many a hand,
Erinnyes shod with brass,{{pline|490|r}
Who lieth still in ambush terrible;
For there has come to those
For whom it was not right,
The hot embrace of marriage steeped in blood,
Of evil omen, bed and bride alike;
But, above all, this thought
Fills heart and soul, that ne'er
The boding sign will come unblamed to those
Who did the deed, or shared;
Lo! men can find no prophecies in dreams,500
Nor yet in words divine,
Unless it gain its goal,
This vision of the night.
Epode.
Ah, in the olden time,
Thou chariot race of Pelops, perilous,
How did'st thou come to this our father-land
In long-enduring gloom?
For since he slept beneath the waters deep,
Poor Myrtilos,[1] who fell,
Cast headlong from the chariot bright with gold,510
- ↑ Here, as in the case of "Itys, Itys," (l. 148,) we have a reference to myths, which Sophocles had taken as the subjects of his own dramas. The story of Myrtilos was briefly, that he enabled Pelops to win the chariot-race against Œnomaos, and so to gain his daughter Hippodameia and become king of Pisa; that then Pelops, unwilling to give him his reward, or suspecting him of loving Hippodameia, threw him headlong from Cape Geræstos. Myrtilos, as he died, uttered a curse on Pelops, and this was the starting point of all the evils of his house.
