time; take thy bright plumes elsewhere; the lyre that Phœbus tuneth to thy song shall never save thee from the bow; so fly away, and settle at the Delian mere, for[1] if thou wilt not hearken, thy blood shall choke the utterance of thy fair melody.
Ha! what new bird comes now? Does it mean to lodge a nest of dry straw for its brood beneath the gables? Soon shall my twanging bow drive thee away. Dost not hear me? Away and rear thy young amid the streams of swirling Alpheus, or get thee to the woody Isthmian glen, that Phœbus' offerings and his shrine may take no hurt. I am loth to slay ye, ye messengers to mortal man of messages from heaven; still must I serve Phœbus, to whose tasks I am devoted, nor will I cease to minister to those that give me food.
1st Cho.[2] It is not in holy Athens only that there are courts of the gods with fine colonnades, and the worship of Apollo, guardian of highways; but here, too, at the shrine of Loxias, son of Latona, shines the lovely eye of day on faces twain.[3]
2nd Cho. Just look at this! here is the son[4] of Zeus killing with his scimitar of gold the watersnake of Lerna. Do look at him, my friend!
1st Cho. Yes, I see. And close to him stands another with a blazing torch uplifted; who is he? Can this be the warrior Iolaus whose story is told on my broidery, who shares with the son of Zeus his labours and helps him in the moil?
- ↑ Kirchhoff's ingenious suggestion is αἱμάξω σ᾽ εἰ μὴ παύσεις, κ.τ.λ.
- ↑ Hermann's arrangement is followed, as in Paley's text, in the distribution of lines amongst the several members of the chorus.
- ↑ It is doubtful what is here intended, statues or pictures. Paley suggests that the sun and moon, symbols of Apollo and Latona, are indicated; or possibly a temple with two fronts covered with frescoes is to be understood.
- ↑ Heracles.
