Classic Poem

Hear, O thou Daughter of Zeus the Deliverer, Fortune the Saver
From peril! Keep watch and ward, I implore,
Over Himera, burg of the far-stretching might; for 'tis by thy favour
That ships be steered to their haven-shore
Over the sea; and torrent-like wars, and council-decisions
Be guided on land. Tossed high, whelmed low
Be the hopes of men, as over a sea of delusive visions
Cleaving the treacherous waves they go.

But through all the years never any of men on the earth abiding
Hath found sure tokens from God to reveal
How he shall fare in the days to come, but in darkness hiding
Are the future's warnings of woe or weal.
Many chances to men have befallen, yea, past all expectation:
Some plunge from joy into sorrow's abyss;
And some, who have battled with troublous surges, by sudden mutation
Their anguish have changed for the height of bliss.

O son of Philanor, verily even thy swift feet's glory
Had as dead leaves faded, unmarked, uncrowned,
There by the hearth of thy fathers: thy name had been heard not in story;
As a home-fighting cock hadst thou been unrenowned,
Had contention in Knossus of burgher with burgher in conflict gory
In the homeland not left thee no foot of ground.
But now at Olympia, Ergoteles, winning a victory-garland
And at Isthmus, at Pytho, twain—by these
Thou exaltest to honour the steaming Baths of the Nymphs in a far land,
On thine own lands dwelling in stormless peace.