DANAUS re-enters. A troop of soldiers accompanies him.
DANAUS

High thanks, my children, unto Argos con, 
And to this folk, as to Olympian gods, 
Give offerings meet of sacrifice and wine; 
For saviours are they in good sooth to you. 
From me they heard, and bitter was their wrath, 
How those your kinsmen strove to work you wrong, 
And how of us were thwarted: then to me 
This company of spearmen did they grant, 
That honoured I might walk, nor unaware 
Die by some secret thrust and on this land 
Bring down the curse of death, that dieth not. 
Such boons they gave me: it behoves me pay 
A deeper reverence from a soul sincere. 
Ye, to the many words of wariness 
Spoken by me your father, add this word, 
That, tried by time, our unknown company 
Be held for honest: over-swift are tongues 
To slander strangers, over-light is speech 
To bring pollution on a stranger’s name. 
Therefore I rede you, bring no shame on me 
Now when man’s eye beholds your maiden prime. 
Lovely is beauty’s ripening harvest-field, 
But ill to guard; and men and beasts, I wot, 
And birds and creeping things make prey of it. 
And when the fruit is ripe for love, the voice 
Of Aphrodite bruiteth it abroad, 
The while she guards the yet unripened growth. 
On the fair richness of a maiden’s bloom 
Each passer looks, o’ercome with strong desire, 
With eyes that waft the wistful dart of love. 
Then be not such our hap, whose livelong toil 
Did make our pinnace plough the mighty main: 
Nor bring we shame upon ourselves, and joy 
Unto my foes. Behold, a twofold home- 
One of the king’s and one the people’s gift- 
Unbought, ’tis yours to hold,-a gracious boon. 
Go-but remember ye your sire’s behest, 
And hold your life less dear than chastity.

LEADER OF THE CHORUS

The gods above grant that all else be well. 
But fear not thou, O sire, lest aught befal 
Of ill unto our ripened maidenhood. 
So long as Heaven have no new ill devised, 
From its chaste path my spirit shall not swerve.

The members of the CHORUS divide into two groups, to sing the final choral lyric responsively.
SEMI-CHORUS

strophe 1

Pass and adore ye the Blessed, the gods of the city who dwell 
Around Erasinus, the gush of the swift immemorial tide.

SEMI-CHORUS

Chant ye, O maidens; aloud let the praise of Pelasgia swell; 
Hymn we no longer the shores where Nilus to ocean doth glide.

SEMI-CHORUS
antistrophe 1

Sing we the bounteous streams that ripple and gush through the city; 
Quickening flow they and fertile, the soft new life of the plain.

SEMI-CHORUS

Artemis, maiden most pure, look on us with grace and with pity- 
Save us from forced embraces: such love hath no crown but a pain.

SEMI-CHORUS
strophe 2

Yet not in scorn we chant, but in honour of Aphrodite; 
She truly and Hera alone have power with Zeus and control. 
Holy the deeds of her rite, her craft is secret and mighty, 
And high is her honour on earth, and subtle her sway of the soul.

SEMI-CHORUS

Yea, and her child is Desire: in the train of his mother he goeth- 
Yea and Persuasion soft-lipped, whom none can deny or repel: 
Cometh Harmonia too, on whom Aphrodite bestoweth 
The whispering parley, the paths of the rapture that lovers love well.

SEMI-CHORUS
antistrophe 2

Ah, but I tremble and quake lest again they should sail to reclaim! 
Alas for the sorrow to come, the blood and the carnage of war. 
Ah, by whose will was it done that o’er the wide ocean they came, 
Guided by favouring winds, and wafted by sail and by oar?

SEMI-CHORUS

Peace! for what Fate hath ordained will surely not tarry but come; 
Wide is the counsel of Zeus, by no man escaped or withstood: 
Only I pray that whate’er, in the end, of this wedlock he doom, 
We, as many a maiden of old, may win from the ill to the good.

SEMI-CHORUS
strophe 3

Great Zeus, this wedlock turn from me- 
Me from the kinsman bridegroom guard!

SEMI-CHORUS
Come what come may, ’tis Fate’s decree.
SEMI-CHORUS
Soft is thy word-the doom is hard.
SEMI-CHORUS
Thou know’st not what the Fates provide.
SEMI-CHORUS
antistrophe 3

How should I scan Zeus’ mighty will, 
The depth of counsel undescried?

SEMI-CHORUS
Pray thou no word of omen ill.
SEMI-CHORUS
What timely warning wouldst thou teach?
SEMI-CHORUS
Beware, nor slight the gods in speech.
SEMI-CHORUS
strophe 4

Zeus, hold from my body the wedlock detested, the bridegroom abhorred! 
It was thou, it was thou didst release 
Mine ancestress Io from sorrow: thine healing it was that restored, 
The touch of thine hand gave her peace.

SEMI-CHORUS
antistrophe 4

Be thy will for the cause of the maidens! of two ills, the lesser 
I pray- 
The exile that leaveth me pure. 
May thy justice have heed to my cause, my prayers to thy mercy find way! 
For the hands of thy saving are sure.

THE END
 
sourced from: https://classics.mit.edu/Aeschylus/suppliant.html