Stasimon 2
[Choral]
Come, who will be the first and who the next to him upon the list to grip the handle of the brand,
First Half-Chorus
and, thrusting it into the Cyclops’ eye, gouge out the light thereof?
485
Second Half-Chorus
Hush! hush! Behold the drunkard leaves his rocky home, trolling loud some hideous lay,
a clumsy tuneless clown, whom tears await. Come, let us give this boor a lesson in revelry. Ere long will he be blind at any rate.
490
[Choral 1]
Happy he who plays the Bacchanal amid the precious streams distilled from grapes, stretched at full length for a revel, his arm around the friend he loves,
495
First Half-Chorus
and some fair dainty damsel on his couch, his hair perfumed with nard and glossy, the while he calls, Oh! who will ope the door for me?
500
[Choral 2]
Ha! ha! full of wine and merry with the feast’s good cheerHerwerden’s ἥδει seems preferable to ἥβῃ which is probably corrupt. am I,
Cyclops
my hold freighted like a merchant-ship up to my belly’s very top. This turf graciously invites me to seek my brother Cyclopes for a revel in the spring-tide.
505
Come, stranger, bring the wine-skin hither and hand it over to me.
510
[Choral 3]
Forth from the house its fair lord comes, casting his fair glance round him. We have some one to befriend us.Hermann supplies the lacuna before φιλεῖ with φίλος ὣν, but there is so much corruption in this and the following few lines that little reliance can be placed on any emendation, nor is the sense very clear. A hostile brand is awaiting thee,
Second Half-Chorus
no tender bride in dewy grot. No single colour will those garlands have, that soon shall cling so close about thy brow.
515