“I pray thee, Pæan, may she never send.”
In the original Ιήἴον παιᾶνα, a well-known epithet of Apollo, as in the opening chorus of the Œdipus Tyrannos, Ιήϊέ Δάλιε παιάν, containing an invocation of the Delphic god, quoted by Peile. From the practice of frequently invoking the name of the gods in the public hymns, as in the modern Litanies, the name of the divine person passed over to the song that voiced his praises—(Iliad I. 473)—and thence became the appellation—as in the modern word pæan—for a hymn generally—(Proclus Chrestom. Gaisford. Hephaest., p. 419)—or at least a hymn of jubilee, sadness and sorrow of every kind being naturally abhorrent from the worship of the beneficent sun god ([p. 72], above).
“Stern-purposed waits the child-avenging wrath.”
This passage is obscure in the original, and, no doubt, purposely so, as became the prophetic style. I do not, therefore, think we are bound, with Sym., to give the
Child-avenging wrath
a special and distinctly pronounced reference to Clytemnestra, displeased with Agamemnon for allowing the sacrifice of Iphigenia—
“Homeward returning see her go,
And sit alone in sullen woe;