The opening of their new supplication is striking. They appeal to Zeus by his old love for Io, their mother:—
Strophe.
"O King of kings, and blest
Above all blessed ones,
And power most mighty of the mightiest!
O Zeus, of high estate!
Hear thou and grant our prayer!
Drive thou far off the wantonness of men,
The pride thou hatest sore,
And in the pool of darkling purple hue
Plunge thou the woe that comes in swarthy barque."
Antistrophe.
"Look on the women's cause;
Recall the ancient tale
Of one whom thou didst love in time of old,
The mother of our race:
Remember it, O thou
Who didst on Io lay thy mystic touch.
We boast that we are come
Of consecrated land the habitants,
And from this land by lineage high descended."
There follows a description of Io's life and wanderings, with the same fulness of geographical learning which we have noticed before, and the same revelling in euphonious and romantic names. The origin of the Egyptian settlement is told again; and the ode ends with another solemn acknowledgment of the greatness of Zeus, such as might almost come from the Book of Psalms itself:—
