Ye daughters of Cadmus, Semelé that dwellest beside the Olympian gods, and Ino Leucothea, that sharest the chamber of the Nereid sea-nymphs, come with the nobly born mother of Heracles to the presence of Melia! Come to the inmost treasure-house of the golden tripods, the treasure-house which Loxias honoured supremely and named the Ismenian shrine, the seat of truthful oracles. Come, ye children of Harmonia, where Loxias biddeth the host of heroines assemble to visit the shrine, that so at nightfall ye may sing the praises of holy Themis and Pytho and the centre of the world that judgeth rightly, in honour of seven-gated Thebes and the contest at Cirrha, in which Thrasydaeus caused his ancestral home to be remembered by flinging over it a third wreath, as victor in the rich fields of Pylades, the friend of Laconian Orestes. Orestes, in sooth, at the slaying of his father, was received by his nurse Arsinoé from the strong hands of Clytaemnéstra and from her direful treachery,
what time that ruthless woman with gray blade of bronze, sped Cassandra, the Dardan daughter of Priam. Together with the soul of Agamemnon, to the shadowy shore of Acheron. Was it haply the slaughter of Iphigeneia at the Euripus, far from her fatherland, that goaded her to the arousal of heavy-handed wrath? or was it that nightly couching® led her astray, when seduced by her union to another lord ?—a sin for newly wedded wives, most hateful and impossible to dissemble by reason of alien tongues; and even fellow-townsmen are apt to speak evil. For prosperity is envied to its full height, while the man of humble aspirations murmureth unobserved. The heroic son of Atreus, on his return after long absence, was himself slain in famous Amyclae, and he caused the destruction of the prophetic maiden, when he bereft of luxury the halls of the Trojans, who were visited by fire for the sake of Helen; while Orestes, the young child, safely reached Strophius, the aged friend of the house, who dwelt at the foot of Parnassus—Orestes, who, with the tardy help of Ares, slew his mother, and laid Aegisthus low in gore. Verily, my friends, have I been in a whirl of confusion at the point where one road changeth into two,
although, aforetime, I was keeping to the right track ; or, haply, some breeze hath cast me out of my course, as though it had caught a skiff upon the sea. But, as thou, my Muse, didst bind thyself to lend thy tongue for fee of silver, thou must needs suffer it to flit, now one way, now another,—now to the father, who was victor at Pytho, now to his son, Thrasydaeus. For their glory and their good cheer shineth as one, with lustre new. Some prizes did they win of old, as famous victors in the chariot-race, when, from the noble contests at Olympia, they gat them glory for speed with their horses ; and again, at Pytho, when they went down into the lists of the stripped runners, they put to shame the Hellenic host by reason of their swiftness of foot. May the gods inspire my love for things fair, while, in the bloom of my life, I am eager only for that which is within my power. For of all the orders in the State, I find that the middle rank flourisheth with a more enduring prosperity, and I condemn the lot of tyrannies. I am eager for those virtues that serve the folk, but envious mischief-makers are warded off, if anyone, who hath won the highest place and
dwelleth in peace, avoideth fell insolence. Such a man would march to the utmost verge of dark death, —death that is all the fairer because he hath left to his dearest offspring the grace of a good name, the best of all treasures. Such is the grace that spreadeth- abroad the fame of Iolaüs, son of Iphiclés, who is hymned in story, aye and of the mighty Castor, and of thee, king Polydeucés, ye sons of the gods—ye that dwell, for one day, in the homes of Therapné, and, for the other, within the halls of Olympus.
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