Chorus.

God of Heaven! We praise thee, Zeus most high, To whom by eternal Fate was given The range and rule of the sky; When thy lot, first of three Leapt out, as sages tell, And won Olympus for thee, Therein for ever to dwell: But the next with the barren sea To grave Poseidôn fell, And left fierce Hades his doom, to be The lord and terror of hell. (2) Thou sittest for aye Encircled in azure bright, Regarding the path of the sun by day, And the changeful moon by night: Attending with tireless ears To the song of adoring love, With which the separate spheres Are voicèd that turn above: And all that is hidden under The clouds thy footing has furl'd Fears the hand that holdeth the thunder, The eye that looks on the world.

Semichorus of youths.

Of all the isles of the sea Is Crete most famed in story: Above all mountains famous to me Is Ida and crowned with glory. There guarded of Heaven and Earth Came Rhea at fall of night To hide a wondrous birth From the Sire's unfathering sight. The halls of Cronos rang With omens of coming ill, And the mad Curêtes danced and sang Adown the slopes of the hill.

Then all the peaks of Gnossus kindled red Beckoning afar unto the sinking sun, he thro' the vaporous west plunged to his bed, Sunk, and the day was done. But they, though he was fled, Such light still held, as oft Hanging in air aloft, At eve from shadowed ship The Egyptian sailor sees: Or like the twofold tip That o'er the topmost trees Flares on Parnassus, and the Theban dames Quake at the ghostly flames.

Then friendly night arose To succour Earth, and spread Her mantle o'er the snows And quenched their rosy red; But in the east upsprings Another light on them, Selêné with white wings And hueless diadem. Little could she befriend Her father's house and state, Nor her weak beams defend Hyperion from his fate. Only where'er she shines, In terror looking forth, She sees the wailing pines Stoop to the bitter North: Or searching twice or thrice Along the rocky walls, She marks the columned ice Of frozen waterfalls: But still the darkened cave Grew darker as she shone, Wherein was Rhea gone Her child to bear and save.

[They dance.

Then danced the Dactyls and Curêtes wild, And drowned with yells the cries of mother and child; Big-armed Damnámeneus gan prance and shout: And burly Acmon struck the echoes out: And Kermis leaped and howled: and Titias pranced And broad Cyllenus tore the air and danced: While deep within the shadowed cave at rest Lay Rhea, with her babe upon her breast.