living Ionians, why has the trumpet lately sounded a war-note from its bell of bronze ?
Is the leader of a hostile army besetting the borders of our land? Or are robbers, devisers of evil, driving off our flocks of sheep perforce, in despite of the shepherds? Or what is the care that gnaws thy heart? Speak; for thou, methinks, if any mortal, hast the aid of valiant youth at hand, O son of Pandion and Creusa.
AEGEUS. A herald has lately come, whose feet have traversed the long road from the Isthmus; and he tells of prodigious deeds by a man of might.
That man has slain the tremendous Sinis, who was foremost of mortals in strength, offspring of the Earth-shaker, the Lytaean
He has closed the wrestling-school of Cercyon. The mighty hammer of Polypemon has dropped from the hand of the Maimer, who has met with a stronger than himself. I fear how these things are to end.
CH. And who and whence is this man said to be, and how equipped? Is he leading a great host in warlike array? Or travelling with his servants only, like a wayfarer who wanders
In the long course of time all things find their end.
AEG. Only two men attend him, says the herald. He has a sword, with ivory hilt, slung from his bright shoulders: he carries in his hands a couple of polished javelins; a well-wrought Laconian bonnet covers his ruddy locks; around his breast he wears a purple tunic and a thick Thessalian mantle. A fiery light, as of the Lemnian flame, flashes from his eyes: a youth he is
in earliest manhood, intent on the pastimes of Ares,—on warfare and the clangour of battle ; and he seeks brilliant Athens.
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