THEBES by PINDAR

IN whom, O Thebes, of all the host,
In antique days renowned,
That trod thy sacred ground,
Hath thy blest spirit joyed the most?
Whether when first thou gav'st to light
Him, who his seat possesses
Next timbreled Ceres in those regions bright,
Bacchus of wide-clustering tresses?
Or at the night's mid hour,
When in a golden shower
The mightiest of the gods receiving,
Thou brought'st him to Amphitryon's bower,
With that fair bride the Herculean germin leaving?
Or in the ample mind
Of thy Tiresias? or the might
Of Iolaus, warrior knight?
Or theirs, who from the furrows rose,
Clashing their spears in hostile rows?
Or when thou sentest from the stormy fight
Adrastus home to Argian fields again,
Leaving on the battle plain
His myriad friends behind?
Or when that Dorian colony
Thou on their firm-fixed base
Didst in Laconia place;
And Pytho's oracle,
In Amyclaean turrets, gave to dwell
The sons of AEgeus, sprung from thee?

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