ess
of Hermione for betraying the woman beneath the mien of the goddess?

But now the march drew to an end. The procession halted, reformed,
commenced the rugged way upward. Suddenly from the bastion of the
Acropolis above wafted new music. Low, melancholy at first, as the pipers
and harpers played in the dreamy Lydian mode, till, strengthening into the
bolder AEolic, the strains floated down, inviting, "Come up hither," then
stronger still it pealed in the imperious crash of the Doric as the
procession mounted steadily. Now could be seen great Lamprus, Orpheus's
peer, the master musician, standing on the balcony above the gate, beating
time for the loud choral.

A chorus amongst the marchers and a second chorus in the citadel joined
together, till the red crags shook,--singing the old hymn of the Homeridae
to Athena, homely, rude, yet dear with the memory of ages:--

"Pallas Athena, gray-eyed queen of wisdom,
Thy praise I sing!
Steadfast, all holy, sure ward of our city,
Triton-born rule whom High Zeus doth bring
Forth from his forehead.
Thou springest forth valiant;
The clangour swells far as thy direful arms ring.

"All the Immortals in awed hush are bending,
Beautiful, terrible, thy light thou'rt sending
Flashed from thine eyes and thy pitiless spear.
Under thy presence Olympus is groaning,
Earth heaves in terrors, the blue deeps are moaning;
'Wisdom, the All-Seeing Goddess is here!'

"Now the sea motionless freezes before thee;
Helios, th' Sun-Lord, draws rein to adore thee;
Whilst thou, O Queen, puttest on divine might.
Zeus, the deep-councillor, gladly greets thee!
Hail, Holy Virgin--our loud paean meets thee,
PALLAS, CHASTE WISDOM, DISPELLER OF NIGHT!"

Up the face of the Rock, up the long, statue-lined way, till through the
gate the vision burst,--the innumerable fanes and altars, the assembly of
singers and priests, the great temple in its pride of glittering marble.
Clearer, stronger sounded the choral, shot up through the limpid azure;
swaying, burning, throbbing, sobs and shouting, tears and transports, so
mounted new strains of the mighty chorus, lit through with the flames of
Homeric verse. Then stronger yet was the mingling of voices, earth, sky,
deep, beasts' cry and gods' cry, all voiced, as chorus answered to chorus.
Now the peplus was wafted on a wave of song toward the temple's
dawn-facing portal, when from beneath the columns, as