Page:The Plays of Euripides Vol. 1- Edward P. Coleridge (1910).djvu/298

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270
EURIPIDES.
[L. 201—259

3rd Cho. Oh! but look at this! a man[1] mounted on a winged horse, killing a fire-breathing monster with three bodies.

1st Cho. I am turning my eyes in every direction. Behold the rout of the giants carved on these walls of stone.

4th Cho. Yes, yes, good friends, I am looking.

5th Cho. Dost see her standing over Enceladus brandishing her shield with the Gorgon's head?

6th Cho. I see Pallas, my own goddess.

7th Cho. Again, dost see the massy thunderbolt all aflame in the far-darting hands of Zeus?

8th Cho. I do; 'tis blasting with its flame Mimas, that deadly foe.

9th Cho. Bromius too, the god of revelry, is slaying another of the sons of Earth with his thyrsus of ivy, never meant for battle.

1st Cho. Thou that art stationed by this fane, to thee I do address me, may we pass the threshold of these vaults, with our fair white feet?[2]

Ion. Nay, ye must not, stranger ladies.

10th Cho. May I ask thee about something I have heard?

Ion. What wouldst thou ask?

11th Cho. Is it really true that the temple of Phœbus stands upon the centre of the world?

Ion. Aye, there it stands with garlands decked and gorgeous all around.

12th Cho. E'en so the legend saith.

Ion. If ye have offered a sacrificial cake before the shrine and have aught ye wish to ask Phœbus, approach the altar; but enter not the inmost sanctuary, save ye have sacrificed sheep.

  1. Bellerophon and the Chimæra.
  2. After ποδι something is wanting; Dindorf supplies βαλὸν (=threshold) which had also occurred to Hermann, and is adopted in Nauck's text.