Near here, lady Hera, we will celebrate
your treasured festival which the Atridai‡
themselves once established by a sacred vow,
illustrious kings,
after they had first suffered many ordeals
at Troy. Later they were beached here, on Lesbos,
for they could not find a path, could not complete
their own passage home
until they had given you their offerings
and to Zeus, suppliants’ god, and Thyone’s
entrancing son, Dionysus. Now we hold
those same rites of old,
sacred and [sublime]. And so [today] a throng
of young girls and married woman [have gathered]
around [your shrine …]
*****