From Iphigenia In Tauris.

ACT IV. SCENE 5.     SONG OF THE FATES.     Ye children of mortals     The deities dread!     The mastery hold they     In hands all-eternal,     And use them, unquestioned,     What manner they like.     Let him fear them doubly,     Whom they have uplifted!     On cliffs and on clouds, oh,     Round tables all-golden,     he seats are made ready.     When rises contention,     The guests are humid downwards     With shame and dishonor     To deep depths of midnight,     And vainly await they,     Bound fast in the darkness,     A just condemnation.     But they remain ever     In firmness unshaken     Round tables all-golden.     On stride they from mountain     To mountain far distant:     From out the abysses'     Dark jaws, the breath rises     Of torment-choked Titans     Up tow'rds them, like incense     In light clouds ascending.     The rulers immortal     Avert from whole peoples     Their blessing-fraught glances,     And shun, in the children,     To trace the once cherish'd,     Still, eloquent features     Their ancestors wore.     Thus chanted the Parae;     The old man, the banish'd,     In gloomy vault lying,     Their song overheareth,     Sons, grandsons remembereth,     And shaketh his head.