John Reade - Antigone lyrics

If Homer ne'er had sung; if Socrates Had never lived in virtue's cause to die; If the wild chorus of the circling seas Had never echoed back poor Sappho's sigh; If Sparta had not, with the purest blood, Traced on all time the name "Thermopylæ"; If Greece, united through the surging flood Of Persian pride, had not arisen free; If nought of great, or wise, or brave, or good Had proved thee, Hellas, what thou wast to be; Save that thou didst create "Antigone"-- Thou still had'st in the van of nations stood. Fallen are thy noblest temples, but above Them all still stands thy shrine of Woman's Love.