The following lines between the Semi-Choruses are chanted responsively.
First Semi-Chorus
Unhappy mothers of those hapless chiefs! How wildly in my heart pale fear stirs up alarm!
Second Semi-Chorus
[600]
What is this new cry you utter?
First Semi-Chorus
I fear the issue of the strife, where the hosts of Pallas march.
Second Semi-Chorus
Do you speak of issues of the sword, or interchange of words?
First Semi-Chorus
That last would be gain indeed; but if the carnage of battle, fighting,
[605]
and the noise of beaten breasts again shall be heard in the land, what, alas! will be said of me, who am the cause of it?