FIFTH CHORAL ODE

Chorus
O Earth, and the far shining
Ray of the Sun, look down, look down upon
This poor lost woman, look, before she raises
The hand of murder against her flesh and blood.
Yours was the golden birth from which
She sprang, and now I fear divine
Blood may be shed by men.
O heavenly light, hold back her hand,
Check her, and drive from out the house
The bloody Fury raised by fiends of Hell.

Vain waste, your care of children;
Was it in vain you bore the babes you loved,
After you passed the inhospitable straight
Between the dark blue rocks, Symplegades?
O wretched one, how has it come,
This heavy anger on your heart,
This cruel blood mind?
For God from mortals asks a stern
Price for the stain of kindred blood
In like disaster falling on their homes.

					(A cry from one of the children is heard.)

Chorus
Do you hear the cry, do you hear the children's cry?
O you hard heart, O woman fated for evil!

One of the children (from within)
What can I do and how escape my mother's hands?

Another child (from within)
O my dear brother, I cannot tell. We are lost.

Chorus
Shall I enter the house? Oh, surely I should
Defend the children from murder.

A child (from within)
O help us, in God's name, for now we need your help.
Now, now we are close to it. We are trapped by the sword.

Chorus
O your heart must have been made of rock or steel,
You who can kill
With your own hand the fruit of your own womb.
Of one alone I have heard, one woman alone
Of those of old who laid her hands on her children,
Ino, sent mad by heaven when the wife of Zeus
Drove her out from her home and made her wander;
And because of the wicked shedding of blood
Of her own children she threw
Herself, poor wretch, into the sea and stepped away
Over the sea-cliff to die with her two children.
What horror more can be? O women's love,
So full of trouble,
How many evils have you caused already?