Page:Tragedies of Euripides (Way 1896) v2.djvu/384

And a peal far-piercing the echoes bore
As clashed the Bacchanal's Castanet;
And beasts of the wold by her spells controlled 1310
'Neath the yoke of the Goddess's chariot met:
And with her for her child, by the ravisher parted
From the virgins' dances, on that wild quest
The storm-footed Maiden-goddesses darted,
Even Artemis Queen of the Bow, and pressed
At her side with her spear and her panoply
Stern-eyed Pallas^[1]:—but Zeus, throned high
In the heavens, looked down, and their purpose thwarted,
And ordered the issue as seemed him best.
(Ant. 1)
When ceased the Mother from weary faring
Of feet wide-wandering to and fro, 1320
Seeking the daughter whom hands ensnaring
Had ravished whitherward none might know,
Then over the watchtower peaks did she tread
Of the Nymphs of Ida, the snow's birth-bed,
And earthward flung her in grief's despairing
Mid the rocky thickets deep in snow:
And she caused that from herbless plains of earth
No blade should shoot for the tilth-land's fruit,
And she wasted the tribes of men with dearth:
And the cattle for tendril-sprays lush-trailing 1330
Looked yearning with famishing eyes in vain;
And from many and many the life was failing,
Nor the sacrifice-smoke made misty the fane;
Nor on altars were found meal-cakes to burn:
And she sealed the spray-dashed mountain-urn