Delphic Hymn to Apollo

(B.C. 280)     Done into English I     Thee, the son of God most high,     Famed for harping song, will I     Proclaim, and the deathless oracular word     From the snow-topped rock that we gaze on heard,     Counsels of thy glorious giving     Manifest for all men living,     How thou madest the tripod of prophecy thine     Which the wrath of the dragon kept guard on, a shrine     Voiceless till thy shafts could smite     All his live coiled glittering might. II     Ye that hold of right alone     All deep woods on Helicon,     Fair daughters of thunder-girt God, with your bright     White arms uplift as to lighten the light,     Come to chant your brother's praise,     Gold-haired Phbus, loud in lays,     Even his, who afar up the twin-topped seat     Of the rock Parnassian whereon we meet     Risen with glorious Delphic maids     Seeks the soft spring-sweetened shades     Castalian, fain of the Delphian peak     Prophetic, sublime as the feet that seek.     Glorious Athens, highest of state,     Come, with praise and prayer elate,     O thou that art queen of the plain unscarred     That the warrior Tritonid hath alway in guard,     Where on many a sacred shrine     Young bulls' thigh-bones burn and shine     As the god that is fire overtakes them, and fast     The smoke of Arabia to heavenward is cast,     Scattering wide its balm: and shrill     Now with nimble notes that thrill     The flute strikes up for the song, and the harp of gold     Strikes up to the song sweet answer: and all behold,     All, aswarm as bees, give ear,     Who by birth hold Athens dear.