One must not rear a lion’s whelp in the State [best of all not to rear a lion in the State]; but if one be reared to his full growth, we must humour his ways.
Nobly to die were better than to save one’s life.
For, of a truth, the doer is bound to suffer.
With our lives in the clasp of the waves
Possessing as their allotted share all Cyprus and Paphos
Set God apart from mortal men, and deem not that he, like them, is fashioned out of flesh. Thou knowest him not; now he appeareth as fire, unapproachable in his onset, now as water, now as gloom; and he, even himself, is dimly seen in the likeness of wild beasts, of wind, of cloud, of lightning, thunder, and of rain. Ministers unto him are sea, and rocks, and every spring, and gathered floods; before him tremble mountains and earth and the vast abyss of the sea and the lofty pinnacles of the mountains, whensoever the flashing eye of their lord looketh on them. For all power hath he; lo, this is the glory of the Most High God.
This is the mark of men just and wise as well—even in calamity not to cherish anger against the gods.
O Demeter, thou that didst nourish my soul, grant that I be worthy of thy Mysteries!
Having won a glorious victory in battle
May Hades, whose portion is the earth, seize and fetter thee!
Walled Tiryns, the Cyclopes’ seat
Shameful is it that the fly, with courageous might, should leap upon men’s bodies to glut itself with blood, yet men-at-arms should dread the foeman’s spear.
When a storm bloweth, sent of the gods, we needs must endure it, toiling without complaint.
ALC. Thou art near akin to a woman that brought death upon her husband.
ADR. And thou, with thine own hand, didst slay the mother that bare thee.
Cursed boy! What word is this that thou hast uttered?
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