fruits, impervious to
the sun, and unshaken by the winds of every storm; where Bacchus, the
reveller, ever roams attending his divine nurses.

"_Antistrophe_.--And ever day by day the narcissus, with its beauteous
clusters, bursts into bloom by heaven's dew, the ancient coronet of the
mighty goddesses, and the saffron with golden ray; nor do the sleepless
founts of Cephisus that wander through the fields fail, but ever each
day it rushes o'er the plains with its limpid wave, fertilizing the
bosom of the earth; nor have the choirs of the muses loathed this
clime; nor Venus, too, of the golden reign.

"_Strophe_.--And there is a tree, such as I hear not to have ever
sprung in the land of Asia, nor in the mighty Doric island of Pelops, a
tree unplanted by hand, of spontaneous growth, terror of the hostile
spear, which flourishes chiefly in this region, the leaf of the pale
gray olive that nourishes our young. This shall neither any one in
youth nor in old age, marking for destruction, and having laid it waste
with his hand, bring to nought; for the eye that never closes of Morian
Jove regards it, and the blue-eyed Minerva.

"_Antistrophe_.--And I have other praise for this mother-city to tell,
the noblest gift of the mighty divinity, the highest vaunt, that she is
the great of chivalry, renowned for the steed and famous on the main;
for thou, O sovereign Neptune, son of Saturn, hast raised her to this
glory, having first, in these fields, founded the bit to tame the
horse; and the well-rowed boat, dashed forth by the hand, bounds
marvellously through the brine, tracking on the hundred-footed
daughters of Nereus."

The first strophe is begun by one choir in unison after a short but
graceful introduction which is repeated at the end of the strophe in
another form, and then the second choir begins the antistrophe, set to
the same beautiful melody. At its close the music changes in character
and grows vigorous and excited as the first choir sings the second
strophe, with which shortly the second choir joins in splendid eight-part
harmony. The latter takes up the strain again in the second antistrophe,
singing the praise of "the mother-city," and the number closes with the
united invocation to Neptune,--an effect which has hardly been excelled
in choral music. The fourth chorus, which is very dramatic in its effect,
tells of the assault of Creon upon Oedipus, and the fifth,