_Chor._ Rejoice, rejoice once more, ye habitants! 970 I say it yet again, Ye Gods, and mortals too, Who dwell in Pallas' city. Should ye treat With reverence us who dwell As sojourners among you, ye shall find No cause to blame your lot. _Athena._ I praise these words of yours, the prayers ye offer, And with the light of torches flashing fire, Will I escort you to your dark abode,[545] Low down beneath the earth, with my attendants, Who with due honour guard my statue here, For now shall issue forth the goodly eye Of all the land of Theseus; fair-famed troop 980 Of girls and women, band of matrons too, In upper vestments purple-dyed arrayed: *Now then advance ye; and the blaze of fire, Let it go forth, that so this company Stand forth propitious, henceforth and for aye, In rearing race of noblest citizens, _Enter an array of women, young and old, in procession, leading the Erinnyes—now, as propitiated, the Eumenides or Gentle Ones—to their shrines_ _Chorus of Athenian women_ STROPHE I Go to your home, ye great and jealous Ones, Children of Night, and yet no children ye;[546] With escort of good-will, Shout, shout, ye townsmen, shout. ANTISTROPHE I There in the dark and gloomy caves of earth, With worthy gifts and many a sacrifice 990 Consumèd in the fire— Shout, shout ye, one and all. STROPHE II Come, come, with thought benign Propitious to our land, Ye dreaded Ones, yea, come, While on your progress onward ye rejoice, In the bright light of fire-devourèd torch; Shout, shout ye to our songs. ANTISTROPHE II Let the drink-offerings come, In order meet behind, While torches fling their light; *Zeus the All-seeing thus hath joined in league *With Destiny for Pallas' citizens; Shout, shout ye to our songs. [_The procession winds its way_, ATHENA _at its head, then the Eumenides, then the women, round the Areopagos towards the ravine in which the dread Goddesses were to find their sanctuary._ ----- Footnote 466: The succession is, in part, accordant with that in the _Theogonia_ of Hesiod (vv. 116-136), but the special characteristic of the Æschylean form of the legend is that each change is a step in a due, rightful succession, as by free gift, not accomplished (as in other narratives of the same transition) by violence and wrong. Footnote 467: