Page:Tragedies of Euripides (Way 1896) v2.djvu/440

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

384

EURIPIDES.

Gone is the tyrant, the upstart craven,
And enthroned is the ancient line
Re-arisen from Hades' drear ghost-haven: 770
Hope springs from despair.
(Ant. 5)
The Gods, O the Gods now are sealing unrighteousness' doom, and revealing
The right, their eternal design.
But Gold and Fair-fortune, with Power the victorious
Harnessed beside them, in folly vainglorious
Hurry man to his doom:—
Law he outpaceth, and Lawlessness lasheth
To speed; nor his heart doth incline
To take heed to the end—lo, his car sudden-crasheth
Shattered in gloom!^[1] 780
(Str. 6)
Deck thee with garlands, Ismenus, and ye
Break forth into dancing.
Streets stately with Thebes' fair masonry,
And Dirkê bright-glancing:

Come, Maids of Asopus, to us, from the spring
Come ye of your father;
Of Herakles' glorious triumph to sing,
Nymph-chorus, O gather,

Pythian forest-peak, Helicon's steep 790
Of the Song-queens haunted,

↑ The presumptuous wrong-doer is compared to a reckless charioteer in a race, in which he tries to outstrip the rival chariot of Law. His four horses are. Gold and Prosperity as yoke-horses, with Power and Lawlessness for trace-horses. In turning the goal-post, the driver had to rein in the horses nearest it, lashing meanwhile the outer ones to speed, just shaving the post with the nave of his wheel. Any carelessness or miscalculation entailed a catastrophe.

[1] The presumptuous wrong-doer is compared to a reckless charioteer in a race, in which he tries to outstrip the rival chariot of Law. His four horses are. Gold and Prosperity as yoke-horses, with Power and Lawlessness for trace-horses. In turning the goal-post, the driver had to rein in the horses nearest it, lashing meanwhile the outer ones to speed, just shaving the post with the nave of his wheel. Any carelessness or miscalculation entailed a catastrophe.

[1]