New evils from this blind man's misery,
This stranger to our home;
Unless it be that Destiny has brought
What shall at last prevail;
For lo! I dare not say that any thought
Of the high Gods shall fail.
Time ever sees these things, beholds them all,
Bringing full round his wheel,
Upraising in a day the things that fall:—
Ο Zeus! that thunder-peal!
1463–1471.
Antistrophe.
Lo! the loud thunder sweeps,
Heaven-sent and dread;
And panic terror through each white hair creeps
That crowns my aged head;
I shudder in my soul, for yet again
The flashing lightning gleams.
What shall I say? What issue will it gain?
Fear fills my waking dreams;
For not in vain do all these portents rise,
Nor void of end foreknown;
O flashing fire that blazest through the skies!
Ο Zeus, the Almighty One!
1477–1485.
Strophe.
Ah me! ah me! again
Resounds the crash that pierces in its might:
Be pitiful, be pitiful, Ο God!
If aught thou bringest black and dark as night,
To this our mother earth:
Yea, may I still find favour in thy sight
