SEMI-CHORUS.
Yea, and her child is Desire: in the train of his mother he goeth—
Yea and Persuasion soft-lipped, whom none can deny or repel:
Cometh Harmonia too, on whom Aphrodite bestoweth
The whispering parley, the paths of the rapture that lovers love well.
SEMI-CHORUS.
Ah, but I tremble and quake lest again they should sail to reclaim!
Alas for the sorrow to come, the blood and the carnage of war.
Ah, by whose will was it done that o’er the wide ocean they came,
Guided by favouring winds, and wafted by sail and by oar?
SEMI-CHORUS.
Peace! for what Fate hath ordained will surely not tarry but come;
Wide is the counsel of Zeus, by no man escaped or withstood:
Only I pray that whate’er, in the end, of this wedlock he doom,
We as many a maiden of old, may win from the ill to the good.[[7]]
SEMI-CHORUS.
Great Zeus, this wedlock turn from me—
Me from the kinsman bridegroom guard!
SEMI-CHORUS.
Come what come may, ’tis Fate’s decree.
SEMI-CHORUS.
Soft is thy word—the doom is hard.
SEMI-CHORUS.
Thou know’st not what the Fates provide.
SEMI-CHORUS.
How should I scan Zeus’ mighty will,
The depth of counsel undescried?
SEMI-CHORUS.
Pray thou no word of omen ill.
SEMI-CHORUS.
What timely warning wouldst thou teach?