There is a sea, there is a boundless sea, And in its depths is gendered purple dye Of costliest kind for vestments numberless. Of this, the gods be thanked, our palace holds Abundance, want or stint is there unknown. Purple enow would I have gladly given To trample in the mire, had oracles Enjoined to pay such ransom for thy life. With thee unto the leafless trunk has come A leafy shelter from the dog-star's heat; Since thy return to thy beloved hearth, Our wintry frost shall yield to summer's sun, And coolness, in the heat that turns the grape, Reign in the house whose head is there once more. Zeus, father in whose hands all issues are, Give issue to thy counsels and my prayer. * * * * * _CASSANDRA'S PROPHECY._ LINES 1149-1391. CASSANDRA. Now shall my oracle no more peer forth As from her virgin veil a bashful bride; It shall grow clearer as the sky is cleared By the brisk wind, and like a sunlit wave Shall mount the billows of calamity. No more in riddles will I prophesy. Follow and bear me witness as I hunt, Upon the trail of immemorial crime. Within this house a company abides, Singing in unison no mirthful strain, A band of revellers that, to fire its heart, Hath quaffed, not wine, but blood of murdered men, The Furies that shall never quit these gates. A hymn they sing, within the haunted hall, Of the primeval curse, and tell in turn What loathly vengeance paid a brother's shame. [Footnote: Alluding to the banquet of Thyestes.] Say, does my arrow miss or hit the mark? Am I a begging, babbling soothsayer? Bear witness on thy oath how well I know, Untaught, the sinful record of this house. CHORUS. What virtue hath an oath's solemnity To make wrong right? Amazement fills my soul To hear a stranger from beyond the sea Thus hit the truth as though thou hadst been here. CASSANDRA. Apollo bade me be a prophetess. CHORUS. Was the god smitten with a mortal love? CASSANDRA. Shame ever to this hour hath sealed my lips. CHORUS. Prosperity is always delicate. CASSANDRA. A wooer he who well could touch my heart. CHORUS. Were children then begotten of your love? CASSANDRA. I broke my plighted troth to Loxias. CHORUS. When thou already hadst received the gift? CASSANDRA. Yea; I foretold my country all its woes. CHORUS. How was it Loxias failed to punish thee? CASSANDRA. My punishment was ne'er to be believed. CHORUS. To us what thou foreshow'st seems all too true. CASSANDRA.