1.O who by virtues great all highmost honours enhancest,Guard of Emáthia-land, most famous made by thine offspring,Take what the Sisters deign this gladsome day to disclose thee,Oracles soothfast told,—And ye, by Destiny followed,Speed ye, the well-spun woof out-drawing, speed ye, 0 Spindles.

2.Soon to thy sight shall rise, their fond hopes bringing to bridegrooms,Hesperus: soon shall come thy spouse with planet auspicious,Who shall thy mind enbathe with a love that softens the spirit,And as thyself shall prepare for sinking in languorous slumber,Under thy neck robust, soft arms dispreading as pillow.Speed ye, the well-spun woof out-drawing, speed ye, 0 Spindles.

3.Never a house like this such loves as these hath united,Never did love conjoin by such-like covenant lovers,As th'according tie Thetis deigned in concert wi' Peleus.Speed ye, the well-spun woof out-drawing, speed ye, 0 Spindles.

4.Born of yon twain shall come Achilles guiltless of fear-sense,Known by his forceful breast and ne'er by back to the foeman,Who shall at times full oft in doubtful contest of race-courseConquer the fleet-foot doe with slot-tracks smoking and burning.Speed ye, the well-spun woof out-drawing, speed ye, 0 Spindles.

5.None shall with him compare, howe'er war-doughty a hero,Whenas the Phrygian rills flow deep with bloodshed of Teucer,And beleaguering the walls of Troy with longest of warfareHe shall the works lay low, third heir of Pelops the perjured.Speed ye, the well-spun woof out-drawing, speed ye, 0 Spindles.

6.His be the derring-do and deeds of valour egregious,Often mothers shall own at funeral-rites of their children,What time their hoary hairs from head in ashes are loosened,And wi' their hands infirm thay smite their bosoms loose duggèd.Speed ye, the well-spun woof out-drawing, speed ye, 0 Spindles.

7.For as the toiling hind bestrewing denseness of corn-stalksUnder the broiling sun mows grain-fields yellow to harvest,So shall his baneful brand strew earth with corpses of Troy-born.Speed ye, the well-spun woof out-drawing, speed ye, 0 Spindles.

8.Aye to his valorous worth attest shall wave of ScamanderWhich unto Hellè-Sea fast flowing ever dischargeth,Straiter whose course shall grow by up-heaped barrage of corpses,While in his depths runs warm his stream with slaughter commingled.Speed ye, the well-spun woof out-drawing, speed ye, 0 Spindles.

9.Witness in fine shall be the victim rendered to death-stroke,Whenas the earthern tomb on lofty tumulus buildedShall of the stricken maid receive limbs white as the snow-flake.Speed ye, the well-spun woof out-drawing, speed ye, 0 Spindles.

10.For when at last shall Fors to weary Achaians her fiatDeal, of Dardanus-town to burst Neptunian fetters,Then shall the high-reared tomb stand bathed with Polyxena's life-blood,Who, as the victim doomed to fall by the double-edged falchion,Forward wi' hams relaxt shall smite a body beheaded.Speed ye, the well-spun woof out-drawing, speed ye, 0 Spindles.

11.Wherefore arise, ye pair, conjoin loves ardently longed-for,Now doth the groom receive with happiest omen his goddess,Now let the bride at length to her yearning spouse be delivered.Speed ye, the well-spun woof out-drawing, speed ye, 0 Spindles.

12.Neither the nurse who comes at dawn to visit her nurslingE'er shall avail her neck to begird with yesterday's ribband.[Speed ye, the well-spun woof out-drawing, speed ye, 0 spindles.]Nor shall the mother's soul for ill-matcht daughter a-grievingLose by a parted couch all hopes of favourite grandsons.Speed ye, the well-spun woof out-drawing, speed ye, 0 Spindles.Thus in the bygone day Peleus' fate foretellingChaunted from breasts divine prophetic verse the Parcae.For that the pure chaste homes of heroes to visit in personOft-tide the Gods, and themselves to display where mortals were gathered,Wont were the Heavenlies while none human piety spurned.Often the Deities' Sire, in fulgent temple a-dwelling,Whenas in festal days received he his annual worship,Looked upon hundreds of bulls felled prone on pavement before him.Full oft Liber who roamed from topmost peak of ParnassusHunted his howling host, his Thyiads with tresses dishevelled.Then with contending troops from all their city outflockingGladly the Delphians hailed their God with smoking of altars.Often in death-full war and bravest of battle, or MavorsOr rapid Triton's Queen or eke the Virgin Rhamnusian,Bevies of weaponed men exhorting, proved their presence.But from the time when earth was stained with unspeakable scandalsAnd forth fro' greeding breasts of all men justice departed,Then did the brother drench his hands in brotherly bloodshed,Stinted the son in heart to mourn decease of his parents,Longèd the sire to sight his first-born's funeral convoySo more freely the flower of step-dame-maiden to rifle;After that impious Queen her guiltless son underlying,Impious, the household gods with crime ne'er dreading to sully—