Epeisodion 2
HERALD.
And Zeus, the country’s lord, and king the Puthian
From bow no longer urging at us arrows!
Enough, beside Skamandros, cam’st thou adverse:
510
Now, contrary, be saviour thou and healer,
O king Apollon! And gods conquest-granting,
All — I invoke too, and my tutelary
Hermes, dear herald, heralds’ veneration, —
And Heroes our forthsenders, — friendly, once more
515
The army to receive, the war-spear’s leavings!
Ha, mansions of my monarchs, roofs beloved,
And awful seats, and deities sun-fronting —
Receive with pomp your monarch, long time absent!
For he comes bringing light in night-time to you,
520
In common with all these — king Agamemnon.
But kindly greet him — for clear shows your duty —
Who has dug under Troia with the mattock
Of Zeus the Avenger, whereby plains are out-ploughed,
Altars unrecognizable, and gods’ shrines,
525
And the whole land’s seed thoroughly has perished.
And such a yoke-strap having cast round Troia,
