Page:Tragedies of Euripides (Way 1894) v1.djvu/230

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194

EURIPIDES.

Theseus.

O bounds of Athens, Pallas' glorious realm,
What hero have ye lost! Ah, woe is me! 1460
Kypris, how oft shall I recall thy wrong!

Chorus.

On the city hath lighted a stroke without warning,
On all hearts desolation.
Rain down, O ye fast-falling tears of our mourning!
When the mighty are fallen, their burial-oblation 1465
Is the wail of a nation.^[1]

[Exeunt Omnes.

↑ 1462–66 allude to the death of Pericles, which happened shortly before the representation of this play. The poet in fact changed, to meet the occasion, the original ending, which ran thus:—
O blest one, what honours have fallen to thee,
O hero, because of thy chastity!
Never shall aught be more of worth
Than virtue unto the sous of earth;
For soon or late on the fear of God
Goodly reward shall be bestowed.
[Stobæus, Florilegium.]

[1] 1462–66 allude to the death of Pericles, which happened shortly before the representation of this play. The poet in fact changed, to meet the occasion, the original ending, which ran thus:—
O blest one, what honours have fallen to thee,
O hero, because of thy chastity!
Never shall aught be more of worth
Than virtue unto the sous of earth;
For soon or late on the fear of God
Goodly reward shall be bestowed.
[Stobæus, Florilegium.]

[1]