Chorus:
chanting
Hail to you all! hail yet again,
All who love Athens, gods and men,
Adoring her as Pallas' home!
And while ye reverence what ye grant-
My sacred shrine and hidden haunt-
Blameless and blissful be your doom!
Athena:
Once more I praise the promise of your vows,
And now I bid the golden torches' glow
Pass down before you to the hidden depth
Of earth, by mine own sacred servants borne,
My loyal guards of statue and of shrine.
Come forth, O flower of Attic land,
O glorious band of children and of wives,
And ye, O train of matrons crowned with eld!
Deck you with festal robes of scarlet dye
In honour of this day: O gleaming torch,
Lead onward, that these gracious powers of earth
Henceforth be seen to bless the life of men.
Athena leads the procession downwards into the Cave of the Furies, now
Eumenides, under the Areopagus: as they go, the escort of women and children
chant aloud
Studies
