ἔνθα μητέρ’ ὠδίνων ἐμὴν
ἔλυσεν Εἰλείθυια
καὶ τὰ ἑξῆς τούτοις παραπλήσια.
ἐκ δὲ τῆς μελικῆς τὰ Σιμωνίδεια ταῦτα· γέγραπται δὲ
κατὰ διαστολὰς οὐχ ὧν Ἀριστοφάνης ἢ ἄλλος τις κατεσκεύασε 5
κώλων ἀλλ’ ὧν ὁ πεζὸς λόγος ἀπαιτεῖ. πρόσεχε δὴ τῷ μέλει
καὶ ἀναγίνωσκε κατὰ διαστολάς, καὶ εὖ ἴσθ’ ὅτι λήσεταί σε ὁ
ῥυθμὸς τῆς ᾠδῆς καὶ οὐχ ἕξεις συμβαλεῖν οὔτε στροφὴν οὔτε
ἀντίστροφον οὔτ’ ἐπῳδόν, ἀλλὰ φανήσεταί σοι λόγος εἷς
εἰρόμενος. ἔστι δὲ ἡ διὰ πελάγους φερομένη Δανάη τὰς 10
ἑαυτῆς ἀποδυρομένη τύχας·
ὅτε λάρνακι ἐν δαιδαλέᾳ
ἄνεμός τε μιν πνέων ‹ἐφόρει›
κινηθεῖσά τε λίμνα,
δείματι ἤριπεν οὐκ ἀδιάντοισι παρειαῖς 15
ἀμφί τε Περσέϊ βάλλε φίλαν χέρα
where the Travail-queen
From birth-pangs set my mother free.[196]
And similarly with the lines which follow these.
From lyric poetry the subjoined lines of Simonides may be taken. They are written according to divisions: not into those clauses for which Aristophanes or some other metrist laid down his canons, but into those which are required by prose. Please read the piece carefully by divisions: you may rest assured that the rhythmical arrangement of the ode will escape you, and you will be unable to guess which is the strophe or which the antistrophe or which the epode, but you will think it all one continuous piece of prose. The subject is Danaë, borne across the sea lamenting her fate:—
And when, in the carved ark lying,
She felt it through darkness drifting
Before the drear wind’s sighing
And the great sea-ridges lifting,
She shuddered with terror, she brake into weeping,
And she folded her arms round Perseus sleeping;