Ode 16 (Dithyramb 2)
[Heracles (or Deianeira?), for the Delphians]
... since Ourania on her lovely throne has sent me from
Pieria a golden freighter loaded with glorious songs
[5]
... by the flowery
Hebrus he takes delight in ... , or in a long-necked swan ... delighting his mind ... you come to seek the flowers of paeans,
[10]
Pythian Apollo, all those which choruses of Delphians loudly sing at your glorious temple.
Meanwhile we sing of how the son of Amphitryon, a bold-minded man, left
Oechalia devoured by fire,
[15]
and arrived at the headland with waves all around it; there he was going to sacrifice from his booty nine loud-bellowing bulls for Cenaean Zeus, lord of the wide-spread clouds, and two for the god who rouses the sea and subdues the earth,
[20]
and a high-horned unyoked ox for the virgin Athena, whose eyes flash with might. Then a god, useless to fight against, wove for Deianeira, to her great sorrow,
[25]
a clever scheme, when she heard the bitter news that the son of Zeus, fearless in battle, was sending white-armed Iole to his splendid house to be his bride.
[30]
Poor woman, ill-fated, what a plan she devised! Widely powerful envy destroyed her, and the dark veil which covered what was to come, when on the rosy banks of the Lycormas
[35]
she received from Nessus the fateful, monstrous gift.