Pallas, and thou my father's holiest head,

A living well of life nor stanched nor stained,

O God Cephisus, thee too charge I next,

Be to me judge and witness; nor thine ear

Shall now my tongue invoke not, thou to me

430

Most hateful of things holy, mournfullest

Of all old sacred streams that wash the world,

Ilissus, on whose marge at flowery play

A whirlwind-footed bridegroom found my child

And rapt her northward where mine elder-born

Keeps now the Thracian bride-bed of a God

Intolerable to seamen, but this land

[Pg 26]

Finds him in hope for her sake favourable,

A gracious son by wedlock; hear me then

Thou likewise, if with no faint heart or false

440

The word I say be said, the gift be given,

Which might I choose I had rather die than give

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