As a reed Beside a river in the rippling current Bends to and fro, she bows or lifts her head.
She gazes round about as if amazed; She is alive; she breathes, but yet she speaks not! (PANDORA descends from the pedestal.) CHORUS OF THE GRACES AGLAIA.
In the workshop of Hephaestus What is this I see?
Have the Gods to four increased us Who were only three?
Beautiful in form and feature, Lovely as the day, Can there be so fair a creature Formed of common clay?
THALIA.
O sweet, pale face! O lovely eyes of azure, Clear as the waters of a brook that run Limpid and laughing in the summer sun! O golden hair that like a miser's treasure In its abundance overflows the measure! O graceful form, that cloudlike floatest on With the soft, undulating gait of one Who moveth as if motion were a pleasure! By what name shall I call thee?
Nymph or Muse, Callirrhoe or Urania?
Some sweet name Whose every syllable is a caress Would best befit thee; but I cannot choose, Nor do I care to choose; for still the same, Nameless or named, will be thy loveliness.
EUPHROSYNE.
Dowered with all celestial gifts, Skilled in every art That ennobles and uplifts And delights the heart, Fair on earth shall be thy fame As thy face is fair, And Pandora be the name Thou henceforth shalt bear.
II OLYMPUS.
HERMES (putting on his sandals.) Much must he toil who serves the Immortal Gods, And I, who am their herald, most of all.
No rest have I, nor respite.

I no sooner Unclasp the winged sandals from my feet, Than I again must clasp them, and depart Upon some foolish errand.

But to-day The errand is not foolish.

Never yet With greater joy did I obey the summons That sends me earthward.

I will fly so swiftly That my caduceus in the whistling air Shall make a sound like the Pandaean pipes, Cheating the shepherds; for to-day I go, Commissioned by high-thundering Zeus, to lead A maiden to Prometheus, in his tower, And by my cunning arguments persuade him To marry her.