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Aeschylus - A Prayer For Artemis
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STROPHE IV

     Though Zeus plan all things right,
       Yet is his heart`s desire full hard to trace;
         Nathless in every place
       Brightly it gleameth, e`en in darkest night,
     Fraught with black fate to man`s speech-gifted race.

          ANTISTROPHE IV

       Steadfast, ne`er thrown in fight,
     The deed in brow of Zeus to ripeness brought;
         For wrapt in shadowy night,
       Tangled, unscanned by mortal sight,
     Extend the pathways of his secret thought.

          STROPHE V

     From towering hopes mortals he hurleth prone
         To utter doom; but for their fall
         No force arrayeth he; for all
       That gods devise is without effort wrought.
     A mindful Spirit aloft on holy throne
       By inborn energy achieves his thought.

          ANTISTROPHE V

     But let him mortal insolence behold:--
         How with proud contumacy rife,
         Wantons the stem in lusty life
     My marriage craving;--frenzy over-bold,
     Spur ever-pricking, goads them on to fate,
     By ruin taught their folly all too late.

          STROPHE VI

       Thus I complain, in piteous strain,
       Grief-laden, tear-evoking, shrill;
         Ah woe is me! woe! woe!
       Dirge-like it sounds; mine own death-trill
       I pour, yet breathing vital air.
       Hear, hill-crowned Apia, hear my prayer!
         Full well, O land,
     My voice barbaric thou canst understand;
         While oft with rendings I assail
     My byssine vesture and Sidonian veil.

          ANTISTROPHE VI

       My nuptial right in Heaven`s pure sight
       Pollution were, death-laden, rude;
         Ah woe is me! woe! woe!
       Alas for sorrow`s murky brood!
       Where will this billow hurl me? Where?
       Hear, hill-crowned Apia, hear my prayer;
         Full well, O land,
     My voice barbaric thou canst understand,
         While oft with rendings I assail
     My byssine vesture and Sidonian veil.

          STROPHE VII

     The oar indeed and home with sails
     Flax-tissued, swelled with favoring gales,
     Staunch to the wave, from spear-storm free,
     Have to this shore escorted me,
     Nor so far blame I destiny.
     But may the all-seeing Father send
     In fitting time propitious end;
     So our dread Mother`s mighty brood,
     The lordly couch may `scape, ah me,
       Unwedded, unsubdued!

          ANTISTROPHE VII

     Meeting my will with will divine,
     Daughter of Zeus, who here dost hold
       Steadfast thy sacred shrine,--
     Me, Artemis unstained, behold,
     Do thou, who sovereign might dost wield,
     Virgin thyself, a virgin shield;

     So our dread Mother`s mighty brood
     The lordly couch may `scape, ah me,
       Unwedded, unsubdued!
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