Page:Four Plays of Aeschylus (Cookson).djvu/50

Is over strangers. He alone
Maintains the right 'gainst wrong and crime,
And confirms to each his own
By law and precept gray with time.

Everything that fruitful is
Spring anew from fecund earth,
And may arrowy Artemis
Bring the struggling babe to birth.

Havoc, come not to rive this land;
Nor bring no arms for Ares' hand,
Who loveth neither dance nor lyre;
Children he hath at his desire
But they are tears: nor the drawn knife
Whet for the dagger-hand of strife
And civil uproar: keep far hence,
Ye croaking flocks of pestilence;
And all young things in this fair ground
Be with thy love, Lycean, crowned.

Zeus make the earth to teem, and bless
With seasonable toll and cess
Of gathered fruit and corn in shocks:
And may the forward-feeding flocks
In her rich pastures multiply:
And all things have prosperity
By the Gods' favour flourishing:
Let minstrels round her altars sing
Sweet lauds; and while the lute leads on
Pure lips send up their orison.