And lo! the murmurs which our country fill Are as a solemn curse, And boding anxious fear expecteth still To hear of evil worse. Not blind the Gods, but giving fullest heed To those who cause a nation's wounds to bleed; And the dark-robed Erinnyes in due time By adverse chance and change Plunge him who prospers though defiled by crime In deepest gloom, and through its formless range No gleams of help appear. O'er-vaunted glory is a perilous thing; For on it Zeus, whose glance fills all with fear, His thunderbolts doth fling. That fortune fair I praise That rouseth not the Gods to jealousy. May I ne'er tread the devastator's ways, Nor as a prisoner see My life wear out in drear captivity! EPODE And now at bidding of the courier-flame, Herald of great good news, A murmur swift through all the city came; But whether it with truth its course pursues, Who knows? or whether God who dwells on high, With it hath sent a lie? Who is so childish, or of sense bereft, As first to feel the glow That message of the herald fire has left, And then to sink down low, Because the rumour changes in its sound? It is a woman's mood To accept a boon before the truth is found: Too quickly she believes in tidings good, And so the line exact That marks the truth of fact Is over-passed, and with quick doom of death A rumour spread by woman perisheth. VERSES 665-782 STROPHE I Who was it named her with such foresight clear? Could it be One of might, In strange prevision of her work of fear, Guiding the tongue aright? Who gave that war-wed, strife-upstirring one The name of Helen, ominous of ill? For 'twas through her that Hellas was undone, That woes from Hell men, ships, and cities fill. Out from the curtains, gorgeous in their fold, Wafted by breeze of Zephyr, earth's strong child, She her swift way doth hold; And hosts of mighty men, as hunters bold That bear the spear and shield, Wait on the track of those who steered their way Unseen where Simois flows by leafy field, Urged by a strife that came with power to slay. ANTISTROPHE I