Page:Tragedies of Euripides (Way 1896) v2.djvu/441

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THE MADNESS OF HERAKLES.
385

To my town, to my walls, let the song-echoes leap
Of the strains loud-chanted—

To my town, whence the Dragon-seed rose to the day,
The warrior nation,
Whose sons guard the fathers' inheritance aye,
Thebes' light of salvation.
(Ant. 6)
Hail to the couch where the spousals divine
With the mortal were blended,
Where for love of the Lady of Perseus' line 800
Zeus' glory descended!

For thy bridal of old is my faith, Zeus, won,
Though I held it a story
Past credence: by time is the might of thy son
Revealed in its glory:

He hath burst from earth's dungeons, hath rifted the chain
Of Pluto's deep prison!
Thou art worthier to rule than the churl-king slain,
O my King re-arisen! 810

For now the usurper hath proved, when in fight
The sword-wielders have striven.
Whether yet, as in old time, the cause of the right
Is well-pleasing to heaven.
The forms of Iris and Madness appear above the palace.
Ha see! ha see!
On you, on me, doth this same panic fall?
Old friends, what phantom hovereth o'er the hall?
Ah flee! ah flee

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