Furies: No storm-wind—so I speak my prize— Shall breathe the blight that poisoneth trees; No burning things that blind the eyes Of plants, shall pass her boundaries: The groaning pest shall come not nigh, Nor fruit upon the branches die.
The flocks shall browse in happy cheer, And Pan, the Shepherd, guard them true, With twofold increase, as the year Repays her seeds in season due; And deep-hid treasures of the ground Shall be in God’s due order found.
Athena: Ye Guardians, hear the word she hath said, And shall fulfill! Most potent hands Hath great Erinys, in the lands Where dwell the deathless and the dead.
And all this world of men declares Her visible act on right and wrong; How one man’s life she makes a song, Another’s a long mist of tears.
Furies: Let manhood’s glory by no doom Of death untimely be defiled; Let life to maidens in their bloom Bring each a lover and a child. O whatsoever Gods have power, And Fates eternal, grant this dower!
Ye Fates, our Mother’s Sisterhood, Assigners true to all that be, To every house its ill and good, To every hour its potency; Righteous participants through all, Of Gods the most majestical.
Athena: With joy I hear their prescient song Touching my land; and much in pride I praise Persuasion gentle-eyed, Who guarded well my lips and tongue,
When these were wrathful and denied; But Zeus, whose Word is in the Mart, Prevailed; and of our strife no part, Save strife in blessing, shall abide.
Furies: Let her who hungereth still for wrong, Faction, in Athens ne’er again Lift on the air her ravening song; Let not the dust of Pallas’ Plain Drink the dark blood of any son By fury of revenge fordone.
Rage not to smite the smiter, lest By rage the City’s heart be torn: Bless him that blesseth: in each breast So shall a single love be born, And ’gainst Her foes a single hate. This also maketh firm a state.
Athena: Wise are they and have found the way Of peace. And in each awful face I see for you, my People, grace: If ye are gentle, even as they,
And do them worship, this shall be Your work: to guide through ill, through good, Both land and town in that pure mood Of truth that shuns iniquity. The Judges and the concourse of Athenians have now formed into procession, to escort the Furies to their Cavern.
Chorus of Athenians: Rejoice, rejoice! And as ye go your ways In rich apportionment of blissful days, Farewell, farewell!
Furies: Ye folk within the wall, approved To neighbour Jove’s eternal eyes, Ye lovers of the Well-beloved, The Virgin Spirit, timely wise, The wings of Pallas fold above you, Therefore shall Zeus the Father love you.
Athena: Fare ye well also. I must go Before you, guiding, to make bright Your secret chambers with the light, The holy light, they dared not know.
Come, and when deep beneath the veil Of earth ye pass, ’mid offering high, Hold down the evil that shall die, Send up the good that shall prevail.
Ye sons of Cranaos, guide them, till These Wanderers rest within your doors: With them one City now is yours; Be one in working and in will!
Chorus of Athenians: Rejoice, rejoice! I raise my voice again, To speak that bliss that overtowereth pain. Farewell, farewell!
Furies: All things within the Wall that dwell, All gods and men, that are or were; All life from Pallas’ citadel Which draws its being, I am here: These Dwellers in your gates adore, And fear the tides of Life no more!
Athena: The prayers they have uttered o’er my land I praise; And speed them on, ’mid many a torch’s blaze, To that most deep and subterranean end Of wandering. Let these ministers, who tend Mine image, follow; righteous warders they. Let all the fullness of the land this day, Children, and wives and women bent with years, Come forth: do worship to these Wanderers Accepted in their robes of crimson dye. Let leap the flash of fire. This great Ally Shall be revealed and proven in the fate Of Athens, if her men be true and great.
Chorus of Athenians: Gather ye home; are ye great, do ye crave adoration, O childless Children of Night in the pride of your going? (Give good words, O Folk of the Fold!) Aeonian caverns of glory are yours, and oblation Of worship, and sacrifice high, and praise overflowing. (Give good words, O young men and old!) Come with the Law that can pardon, the Judgement that knoweth, O Semnai, Semnai, watchers o’er people and land; And joy be a-stream in your ways, as the fire that bloweth A-stream from beacon and brand. A cry of joy rises above the singing.
Outpour ye the Chalice of Peace where the torches are blending: In Pallas the place it is found and the task it is done. The Law that is Fate and the Father the All-Comprehending Are here met together as one. Again a cry of joy as the Procession passes out of sight.