Thrills with ceaseless fears my breast.

Hark I in hurrying throngs careering

Rude they beat our Theban towers,

And a rain of rock-torn fragments

On the roofs of Cadmus showers!

Save us, gods that keep the city,

Save us, Jove-begotten Powers!

ANTISTROPHE I.

Say what region shall receive ye,

When the Theban soil is waste?