CHORUS (entering). 
    Keep watch!  Who is it?  Look! 1
Where is he?  Vanished!  Gone!  Oh where? 
    Most uncontrolled of men! 
    Look well, inquire him out,
    Search keenly in every nook! 
    —­Some wanderer is the aged wight,
    A wanderer surely, not a native here. 
    Else never had he gone within
    The untrodden grove
Of these—­unmarried, unapproachable in might,
    —­Whose name we dare not breathe,
    But pass their shrine
    Without a look, without a word,
Uttering the unheard voice of reverential thought. 
    But now, one comes, they tell, devoid of awe,
    Whom, peering all around this grove
    I find not, where he abideth.

OED. (behind). 
Behold me!  For I ‘see by sound,’
As mortals say.

CH.  Oh, Oh! 
With horror I see him, with horror hear him speak.

OED. Pray you, regard me not as a transgressor!

CH.  Defend us, Zeus!  Who is that aged wight?

OED. Not one of happiest fate,
Or enviable, O guardians of this land! 
’Tis manifest; else had I not come hither
Led by another’s eyes, not moored my bark
On such a slender stay.

CH.  Alas!  And are thine eyes 2
Sightless?  O full of misery,
    As thou look’st full of years! 
    But not, if I prevail,
    Shalt thou bring down this curse. 
    Thou art trespassing.  Yet keep thy foot
    From stumbling in that verdant, voiceless dell,
    Where running water as it fills
    The hallowed bowl,
Mingles with draughts[1] of honey.  Stranger, hapless one! 
    Avoid that with all care. 
    Away!  Remove! 
    Distance impedes the sound.  Dost hear,
Woe-burdened wanderer?  If aught thou carest to bring
    Before our council, leave forbidden ground,
    And there, where all have liberty,
    Speak,—­but till then, avaunt thee!

OED. Daughter, what must I think, or do?

ANT.  My sire! 
We must conform us to the people’s will,
Yielding ere they compel.

OED. Give me thy hand.

ANT.  Thou hast it.

OED. —­Strangers, let me not
Be wronged, when I have trusted you
And come from where I stood!

CH.  Assure thee, from this seat
No man shall drag thee off against thy will.

OED. Farther?

CH.  Advance thy foot.

OED. Yet more?

CH.  Assist him onward
Maiden, thou hast thy sight.

ANT.  Come, follow, this way follow with thy darkened steps,
Father, the way I am leading thee.

CH.  Content thee, sojourning in a strange land,
O man of woe! 
To eschew whate’er the city holds in hate,
And honour what she loves!