robe she had made for him, leads to her acceptance of Orestes on his
  own discovery of himself. To this it has been objected, by Euripides
  in the first instance (_Electra_, vv. 462-500), that the evidence of
  the colour of the hair is weak, that a young man's foot must have been
  larger than a maiden's, and that he could not have worn as a man the
  garment she had made for him as a child. It might be replied, perhaps,
  that there are such things as hereditary resemblances extending to the
  colour of the hair and the arch of the instep, and that the robe may
  either have been shown instead of worn, or, being worn, have been
  adapted for the larger growth. (2) In the _Electra_ of Sophocles the
  lock of hair alone convinces Chrysothemis that her brother is near at
  hand (v. 900), while Electra herself requires the further evidence of
  Agamemnon's seal (v. 1223). In Euripides (v. 527), all proof fails
  till Orestes shows a scar on his brow, which his sister remembers.

Footnote 413:

  The saying is probably one of the widespread proverbs which imply
  parables. The idea is obviously that with which we are familiar in the
  Gospel “grain of mustard seed.” Here, as in the “kicking against the
  pricks” of Acts ix. 5, xxvi. 14, and _Agam._ v. 1604, we are carried
  back to a period which lies beyond the range of history as that in
  which men took note of the analogies and embodied them in forms like
  this.

Footnote 414:

  So in the _Odyssey_ (xix. 228), Odysseus appears as wearing a woollen
  cloak, on which are embroidered the figures of a fawn and a dog.

Footnote 415:

  An obvious reproduction of the words of Andromache (_Il._ vi. 429).

Footnote 416:

  The words seem to imply that burning alive was known among the Greeks
  as a punishment for the most atrocious crimes. The “oozing pitch,” if
  we adopt that rendering, apparently describes something like the
  “_tunica molesta_” of Juvenal. (_Sat._ viii. 235.) Hesychios (s. v.
  Κωνῆσαι) mentions the practice as alluded to in a lost play of
  Æschylos.

Footnote 417:

  The words are both doubtful and obscure. Taking the reading which I
  have adopted, they seem to mean that while men in general had means of
  propitiating the Erinnyes and other Powers for the guilt of unavenged
  bloodshed, Orestes and Electra had no such way of escape open to them.
  If they, the next of kin, failed to do their work, they would be
  exposed to the full storm of wrath. But a conjectural emendation of
  one word gives us,

                “For making known to men the earth-born ills
                That come from wrathful Powers.”

Footnote 418:

  Either that old age would come prematurely, or that the hair itself
  would share the leprous whiteness of the flesh.

Footnote 419:

  The words, as taken in the text, refer to Orestes seeing even in sleep
  the spectral forms of the Erinnyes. By some editors the verse is
  placed after v. 276, and the lines then read thus:—

          “And that he calls fresh onsets of the Erinnyes
          As brought to issue from a father's blood,
          Seeing clearly, though he move his brow in darkness.”

  So taken, the last line refers to Agamemnon, who, though in the
  darkness of Hades, sees the penalties which will fail upon his son
  should he neglect to take vengeance on his father's murderers.

Footnote 420:

  Stress is laid here, as in _Agam._ 1224, on the effeminacy of the
  adulterer.

Footnote 421:

  The great law of retribution is repeated from _Agam._ 1564. As one of
  the earliest utterances of man's moral sense, it was referred
  popularly among the Greeks to Rhadamanthos, who with Minos judged the
  souls of the dead in Hades. Comp. Aristot. _Ethic. Nicom._, v. 8.

Footnote 422:

  The funeral pyre, which consumes the body, leaves the life and power
  of the man untouched. The spirit survives, and calls on the Gods that
  dwell in darkness to avenge him. The very cry of wailing tends, as a
  prayer to them, to the exposure of the murderer.

Footnote 423:

  The Lykians, of whom Glaucos and Sarpedon are the representative
  heroes in the _Iliad_, are named as the chief allies of the Troïans.

Footnote 424:

  The words embody the widespread feeling that the absence of funereal
  honours affected the spirit of the dead, and that the souls with whom
  he dwelt held him in high or low esteem according as they had been
  given or withheld.

Footnote 425:

  Pindar (_Pyth._ x. 47), the contemporary of Æschylos, had made the
  name of these Hyperborei well known to all Greeks. The vague dreams of
  men, before the earth had been searched out, pictured a happy land as
  lying beyond their reach. There were Islands of the Blest in the far
  West; Æthiopians, peaceful and long-lived, in the South; and far away,
  beyond the cold North, a people exempt from the common evils of
  humanity. The latter have been connected with the old Aryan belief in
  the paradise of Mount Meru. Comp. also Herod. iv. 421; _Prom._ 812.

Footnote 426:

  _Sc._, the beating of both hands upon the breast, as the Chorus
  uttered their lamentations.

Footnote 427:

  Perhaps, simply “the sharp and bitter cry.” But the rendering in the
  text seems justified as repeating the wish already expressed (v. 260),
  that the murderers may die by this form of death.

Footnote 428:

  The Chorus at this point renew their words and cries of lamentation,
  smiting on their breasts. By some critics this speech and Antistrophe
  VII. are assigned to Electra, Antistrophe VIII. to the Chorus, with a
  corresponding change in the pronouns “my” and “thy.” The Chorus, as
  consisting of Troïan captives, is represented as adopting the more
  vehement Asiatic forms of wailing. Among these the Arians, Kissians,
  and Mariandynians (_Pers._ 920) seem to have been most conspicuous for
  their skill in lamentation, and, as such, were in request where hired
  mourners were wanted. Compare the opening chorus, v. 22.

Footnote 429:

  The practice of mutilating the corpse of a murdered man by cutting off
  his hands and feet and fastening them round his waist, seems to have
  been looked on as rendering him powerless to seek for vengeance. Comp.
  Soph. _Elect._ v. 437. This kind of mutilation, and not mere wanton
  outrage, is what the Chorus refer to.

Footnote 430:

  As in v. 351 the loss of honour among the dead was represented as one
  consequence of the absence of funereal rites from those who loved the
  dead, so here the restoration of the children to their rights appears
  as the condition without which that dishonour must continue. If they
  succeed, then, and then only, can they offer funereal banquets, year
  by year, as was the custom. There may be a special reference to an
  Argive custom mentioned by Plutarch (_Quæst. Græc._, c. 24) of
  sacrificing immediately after the death of a relative to Apollo, and
  thirty days later to Hermes.

Footnote 431:

  Another reference to the third cup of undiluted wine which men drank
  to the honour of Zeus the Preserver. Comp. _Agam._ v. 245.

Footnote 432:

  Possibly the pronoun refers to Pylades.

Footnote 433:

  The story of Althæa has perhaps been made most familiar to English
  readers by Mr. Swinburne's _Atalanta in Calydon_. More briefly told,
  the legend ran that she, being the wife of Œneus, bare a son, who was
  believed to be the child of Ares—that the Fates came to her when the
  boy, who was named Meleagros, was seven days old, and told her that
  his life should last until the firebrand then burning on the earth
  should be consumed. She took the firebrand and quenched it, and laid
  it by in a chest; but when Meleagros grew up, he joined in the chase
  of the great boar of Calydon, and when he had slain it, gave the skin
  as a trophy to Atalanta, and when his mother's brothers, the sons of
  Thestios, claimed it as their right, he waxed wroth with them and slew
  them. And then Althæa, in her grief, caring more for her brothers than
  her son, took the brand from the chest, and threw it into the fire,
  and so Meleagros died. Phrynichos is said to have made the myth the
  subject of a drama. In Homer (_Il._ x. 566), Althæa brings about her
  son's death by her curses.

Footnote 434:

  Skylla (not to be confounded with the sea-monster of Messina) was the
  daughter of Nisos, king of Megaris, who had on his head a lock of
  purple hair, which was a charm that preserved his life from all
  danger. And the Cretans under Minos attacked Nisos, and besieged him
  in his city; and Minos won the love of Skylla, and tempted her with
  gifts, and she cut off her father's lock of hair, and so he perished.
  But Minos, scorning her for her deed, bound her by the feet to the
  stern of his ship and drowned her.

Footnote 435:

  Hermes, _i.e._, in his office as the escort of the souls of the dead
  to Hades.

Footnote 436:

  The Chorus apparently is represented as on the point of completing its
  catalogue of crimes committed by women with the story of
  Clytæmnestra's guilt. Something leads them to check themselves, and
  they are contented with a dark and vague allusion.

Footnote 437:

  The story of the Lemnian women is told by Herodotos (vi. 138). They
  rose up against their husbands and put them all to death; and the deed
  passed into a proverb, so that all great crimes were spoken of as
  Lemnian. This guilt is that alluded to in Strophe III.

Footnote 438:

  In every case of which the Chorus had spoken guilt had been followed
  by retribution. So, it is implied, it will be in that which is present
  to their thoughts.

Footnote 439:

  _Sc._, is not forgotten or overlooked, but will assuredly meet with
  its due punishment.

Footnote 440:

  So in Homer (_Il._ xxii. 444), the warm bath is prepared by Andromache
  for Hector on his return from the battle in which he fell.

Footnote 441:

  As in her speeches in the _Agamemnon_ (vv. 595, 884), Clytæmestra's
  words here also are full of significant ambiguity. The “things that
  befit the house,” the proposed conference with Ægisthos, her
  separation of Orestes from his companions, are all indications of
  suspicion already half aroused. The last three lines were probably
  spoken as an “aside.”

Footnote 442:

  Suasion is personified, and invoked to come and win Clytæmnestra to
  trust herself in the power of the two avengers.

Footnote 443:

  An alternative rendering is,

              “Nay, say not that to him with show of hate.”

Footnote 444:

  Apollo in the shrine at Delphi.

Footnote 445:

  Hermes invoked once more, as at once the patron of craft and the
  escort of the dead.

Footnote 446:

  Or “before our eyes.”

Footnote 447:

  The “treasured score” is explained by the words that follow to mean
  the cry of exultation which the Chorus will raise when the deed of
  vengeance is accomplished; or, possibly (as Mr. Paley suggests), the
  funereal wail over the bodies of Ægisthos and Clytæmnestra, which the
  Chorus would raise to avert the guilt of the murder from Orestes.

Footnote 448:

  As Perseus could only overcome the Gorgon, Medusa, by turning away his
  eyes, lest looking on her he should turn to stone, so Orestes was to
  avoid meeting his mother's glance, lest that should unman him and
  blunt his purpose.

Footnote 449:

  Ægisthos had suffered enough, he says, for his share in Agamemnon's
  death. He has no wish that fresh odium should fall on him, as being
  implicated also in the death of Orestes, of which he has just heard.

Footnote 450:

  The word (_ephedros_) was applied technically to one who sat by during
  a conflict between two athletes, prepared to challenge the victor to a
  fresh encounter. Orestes is such a combatant, taking the place of
  Agamemnon.

Footnote 451:

  So, in Homer (_Il._ xxii. 79), Hecuba, when the entreaties of Priam
  had been in vain, makes this last appeal—

             “Then to the front his mother rushed, in tears,
             Her bosom bare, with either hand her breast
             Sustaining, and with tears addressed him thus,
             'Hector, my son, thy mother's breast revere.'”

Footnote 452:

  The reader will note this as the only speech put into the lips of
  Pylades, though he is present as accompanying Orestes throughout great
  part of the drama.

Footnote 453:

  The different ethical standard applied to the guilt of the husband and
  the wife was, we may well believe, that which prevailed among the
  Athenians generally. It has only too close a parallel in the ballads
  and romances of our own early literature.

Footnote 454:

  The line is memorable as prophetic of the whole plot of the
  _Eumenides._

Footnote 455:

  The phrase “wail as to a tomb” seems to have been a by-word for
  fruitless entreaty and lamentation.

Footnote 456:

  Clytæmnestra sees now the important of the dream referred to in vv.
  518-522.

Footnote 457:

  The words must be left in their obscurity. Commentators have
  conjectured Orestes and Pylades, or the deaths of Agamemnon and
  Iphigeneia, or those of Ægisthos and Clytæmnestra, as the “two lions,”
  spoken of. The first seems most in harmony with the context.

Footnote 458:

  The Eternal Justice which orders all things is mightier than any
  arbitrary will, such as men attribute to the Gods. That will, even if
  we dare to think of it as changeable or evil, is held in restraint. It
  cannot, even if it would, protect the evildoers.

Footnote 459:

  The Chorus feel that they have been too long silent; now, at last,
  they can speak. As slaves dreading punishment they had been gagged
  before; now the gag is removed.

Footnote 460:

  Or, “Once more for those who wail.”

Footnote 461:

  It is not clear with what form of animal life the _myræna_ is to be
  identified. The ideal implied is that of some sea-monster whose touch
  was poisonous, but this does not hold good of the “lamprey.”

Footnote 462:

  As the text stands, Orestes says that at last he can speak of the
  murder over which he had long brooded in silence. Another reading
  makes him speak of the oscillations in his own mind—

              “Now do I praise myself, now wail and blame.”

Footnote 463:

  Comp. vv. 270-288.

Footnote 464:

  Delphi was to the Greek (as Jerusalem was to mediæval Christendom) the
  centre at once of his religious life and of the material earth. Its
  rock was the _omphalos_ of the world. Consecrated widows watched over
  the sacred and perpetual fire. Once only up to the time of Æschylos,
  when the Temple itself was desecrated by the Persians, had it ceased
  to burn.

Footnote 465:

  Once again we have the thought of the third cup offered as a libation
  to Zeus as saviour and deliverer. The Chorus asks whether this third
  deed of blood will be true to that idea and work out deliverance.

                               EUMENIDES

                            DRAMATIS PERSONÆ

                 PYTHIAN PRIESTESS
                 APOLLO
                 ATHENA
                 _Ghost of Clytæmnestra_
                 ORESTES
                 HERMES
                 _Chorus of the Erinnyes_
                 _Athenian Citizens, Women, and Girls_

_ARGUMENT.—The Erinnyes who appeared to Orestes after the murder of
Clytæmnestra made his life miserable, and drove him without rest from
land to land. And he, seeking to escape them, had recourse to the Oracle
of Apollo at Delphi, believing that he who had sent him to do the work
of vengeance would also help to free him from this wretchedness. But the
Erinnyes followed him there also, and took their places even within the
holy shrine of the Oracle, and while Orestes knelt on the central hearth
as a suppliant, they sat upon the seats there, and for very weariness
fell asleep._

                               EUMENIDES

   SCENE.—_The Outer Court of the Oracle at_ Delphi. _Inner shrine in
              the background, with doors leading into it_

                     _Enter the_ PYTHIAN PRIESTESS

 _Pyth._ First, with this prayer, of all the Gods I honour
 The primal seeress Earth, and Themis next,[466]
 Who in due order filled her mother's place,
 (So runs the tale,) and in the third lot named,
 With her good-will and doing wrong to none,
 Another of the Titans' offspring sat,
 Earth's daughter Phœbe, and as birthday gift
 She gives it up to Phœbos,[467] and he takes
 His name from Phœbe. And he, leaving then
 The pool[468] and rocks of Delos, having steered
 To the ship-traversed shores that Pallas owns,                       10
 Came to this land and to Parnassos' seat:
 And with great reverence they escort him on,
 Hephæstos' sons, road-makers,[469] turning thus
 The wilderness to land no longer wild;
 And when he comes the people honour him,
 And Delphos too,[470] chief pilot of this land.
 And him Zeus sets, his mind with skill inspired,
 As the fourth seer upon these sacred seats;
 And Loxias is his father Zeus's prophet.
 These Gods in prologue of my prayer I worship;                       20
 Pallas Pronaia[471] too claims highest praise;
 The Nymphs adore I too where stands the rock
 Korykian,[472] hollow, loved of birds and haunt
 Of Gods. [And Bromios[473] also claims this place,
 Nor can I now forget it, since the time
 When he, a God, with help of Bacchants warred,
 And planned a death for Pentheus, like a hare's.[474]
 Invoking Pleistos'[475] founts, Poseidon's might,
 And Zeus most High, supreme Accomplisher,
 I in due order sit upon this seat
 As seeress, and I pray them that they grant
 To find than all my former divinations                               30
 One better still. If Hellas pilgrims sends,
 Let them approach by lot, as is our law;
 For as the God guides I give oracles.[476]

                            [_She passes through the door to the adytum,
                                and after a pause returns trembling and
                                crouching with fear, supporting herself
                                with her hands against the walls and
                                columns. The door remains open, and
                                Orestes and the Erinnyes are seen in the
                                inner sanctuary_

 Dread things to tell, and dread for eyes to see,
 Have sent me back again from Loxias' shrine,
 *So that strength fails, nor can I nimbly move,
 But run with help of hands, not speed of foot;
 A woman old and terrified is nought,
 A very child. Lo! into yon recess
 With garlands hung I go, and there I see
 Upon the central stone[477] a God-loathed man,                       40
 Sitting as suppliant, and with hands that dripped
 Blood-drops, and holding sword but newly drawn,
 And branch of olive from the topmost growth,
 With amplest tufts of white wool meetly wreathed;
 For this I will say clearly.[478] And a troop
 Of women strange to look at sleepeth there,
 Before this wanderer, seated on their stools;
 Not women they, but Gorgons[479] I must call them;
 Nor yet can I to Gorgon forms compare them:
 I have seen painted shapes that bear away                            50
 The feast of Phineus.[480] Wingless, though, are these,
 And swarth, and every way abominable.
 *They snort with breath that none may dare approach,
 And from their eyes a loathsome humour pours,
 And such their garb as neither to the shrine
 Of Gods is meet to bring, nor mortal roof.
 Ne'er have I seen a race that owns this tribe,
 Nor is there land can boast it rears such brood,
 Unhurt and free from sorrow for its pains.
 Henceforth be it the lot of Loxias,                                  60
 Our mighty lord, himself to deal with them:
 True prophet-healer he, and portent-seer,
 And for all others cleanser of their homes.

            _Enter_ APOLLO _from the inner adytum, attended
                               by_ HERMES

 _Apol._ [_To_ ORESTES.] Nay, I'll not fail thee, but as close at hand
 Will guard thee to the end, or though far off,
 Will not prove yielding to thine adversaries;
 And now thou see'st these fierce ones captive ta'en,
 These loathly maidens fallen fast in sleep.
 Hoary and ancient virgins they, with whom
 Nor God, nor man, nor beast, holds intercourse.                      70
 They owe their birth to evils; for they dwell
 In evil darkness, yea in Tartaros
 Beneath the earth, and are the hate and dread
 Of all mankind, and of Olympian Gods.
 Yet fly thou, fly, and be not faint of heart;
 For they will chase thee over mainland wide,
 As thou dost tread the soil by wanderers tracked,
 And o'er the ocean, and by sea-girt towns;
 And fail thou not before the time, as brooding
 O'er this great toil. But go to Pallas' city,
 And sit, and clasp her ancient image[481] there;                     80
 And there with judges of these things, and words
 Strong to appease, will we a means devise
 To free thee from these ills for evermore;
 For I urged thee to take thy mother's life.

 _Orest._ Thou know'st, O king Apollo, not to wrong;
 And since thou know'st, learn also not to slight:
 Thy strength gives full security for act.

 _Apol._ Remember, let no fear o'ercome thy soul;
 And [_To_ HERMES] thou, my brother, of one father born,
 My Hermes, guard him; true to that thy name,
 Be thou his Guide, true shepherd of this man,
 Who comes to me as suppliant: Zeus himself                           90
 *Reveres this reverence e'en to outcasts due,
 When it to mortals comes with guidance good.[482]

                       [_Exit_ ORESTES _led by_ HERMES. APOLLO _retires
                           within the adytum. The Ghost of_ CLYTÆMNESTRA
                           _rises from the ground_

 _Clytæm._ What ho! Sleep on! What need of sleepers now?
 And I am put by you to foul disgrace
 Among the other dead, nor fails reproach
 Among the shades that I a murderess am;
 And so in shame I wander, and I tell you
 That at their hands I bear worst form of blame.
 And much as I have borne from nearest kin,                          100
 Yet not one God is stirred to wrath for me,
 Though done to death by matricidal hands.
 See ye these heart-wounds, whence and how they came?
 Yea, when it sleeps, the mind is bright with eyes;[483]
 But in the day it is man's lot to lack
 All true discernment. Many a gift of mine
 Have ye lapped up, libations pure from wine,[484]
 And soothing rites that shut out drunken mirth;
 And I dread banquets of the night would offer
 On altar-hearth, at hour no God might share.
 And lo! all this is trampled under foot.                            110
 He is escaped, and flees, like fawn, away;
 And even from the midst of all your toils
 Has nimbly slipped, and draws wide mouth at you.
 Hear ye; for I have spoken for my life:
 Give heed, ye dark, earth-dwelling Goddesses,
 I, Clytæmnestra's phantom, call on you.

                                     [_The Erinnyes moan in their sleep_

 Moan on, the man is gone, and flees far off:
 My kindred find protectors; I find none.

                                                       [_Moan as before_

 Too sleep-oppressed art thou, nor pitiest me:
 Orestes, murderer of his mother, 'scapes.                           120

                                                      [_Noises repeated_

 Dost snort? Dost drowse? Wilt thou not rise and speed?
 What have ye ever done but work out ill?

                                                     [_Noises as before_

 Yea, sleep and toil, supreme conspirators,
 Have withered up the dreaded dragon's strength.

 _Chor._ [_starting up suddenly with a yell._] Seize him, seize, seize,
    yea, seize: look well to it.

 _Clytæm._ Thou, phantom-like,[485] dost hunt thy prey, and criest,
 Like hound that never rests from care of toil.
 What dost thou? (_to one Erinnys._) Rise and let not toil o'ercome
    thee,
 Nor, lulled to sleep, lose all thy sense of loss.
 Let thy soul (_to another_) feel the pain of just reproach:  130
 The wise of heart find that their goad and spur.
 And thou (_to a third_), breathe on him with thy blood-flecked breath,
 And with thy vapour, thy maw's fire, consume him;
 Chase him, and wither with a fresh pursuit.

 _Leader of the Chor._ Wake, wake, I say; wake her, as I wake thee.
 Dost slumber? Rise, I say, and shake off sleep.
 Let's see if this our prelude be in vain.

                               STROPHE I

 Pah! pah! Oh me! we suffered, O my friends....
 Yea, many mine own sufferings undeserved....
 We suffered a great sorrow, full of woe,                            140
         An evil hard to bear.
 Out of the nets he's slipped, our prey is gone:
 O'ercome by sleep I have my quarry lost.

                             ANTISTROPHE I

 Ah, son of Zeus, a very robber thou,
 Though young, thou didst old Goddesses ride down,[486]
 Honouring thy suppliant, godless though he be,
         One whom his parents loathe:
 Thou, though a God, a matricide hast freed:
 Of which of these acts can one speak as just?

                               STROPHE II

 Yea, this reproach that came to me in dreams                        150
         Smote me, as charioteer
 Smites with a goad he in the middle grasps,
         Beneath my breast, my heart;
 'Tis ours to feel the keen, the o'er keen smart,
 As by the public scourger fiercely lashed.

                             ANTISTROPHE II

 Such are the doings of these younger Gods,
         Beyond all bounds of right
 Stretching their power.... A clot of blood besmeared
         Upon the base, the head,...
 Earth's central shrine itself we now may see                        160
 Take to itself pollution terrible.

                              STROPHE III

 And thou, a seer, with guilt that stains thy hearth
 Hast fouled thy shrine, self-prompted, self-impelled,
 Against God's laws a mortal honouring,
         And bringing low the Fates
         Born in the hoary past.

                            ANTISTROPHE III

 Me he may vex, but shall not rescue him;
 Though 'neath the earth he flee, he is not freed
 For he, blood-stained, shall find upon his head
         Another after me,
         Destroyer foul and dread.

                         [APOLLO _advances from the adytum and confronts
                             them_

 _Apol._ Out, out, I bid you, quickly from this temple;
 Go forth, and leave this shrine oracular,                           170
 Lest, smitten with a serpent winged and bright,
 Forth darted from my bow-string golden-wrought,
 Thou in sore pain bring up dark foam, and vomit
 The clots of blood thou suck'dst from human veins.
 This is no house where ye may meetly come,
 But there where heads upon the scaffold lie,[487]
 And eyes are gouged, and throats of men are cut,
 *And mutilation mars the bloom of youth,
 Where men are maimed and stoned to death, and groan
 With bitter wailing, 'neath the spine impaled;                      180
 Hear ye what feast ye love, and so become
 Loathed of the Gods? Yes, all your figure's fashion
 Points clearly to it. Such as ye should dwell
 In cave of lion battening upon blood,
 Nor tarry in these sacred precincts here,
 Working defilement. Go, and roam afield
 Without a shepherd, for to flock like this
 Not one of all the Gods is friendly found.

 _Chor._ O king Apollo, hear us in our turn:
 No mere accomplice art thou of these things,                        190
 But guilty art in full as principal.

 _Apol._ How then? Prolong thy speech to tell me this.

 _Chor._ Thou bad'st this stranger be a matricide.

 _Apol._ I bade him to avenge his sire. Why not?

 _Chor._ Then thou did'st welcome here the blood just shed.

 _Apol._ I bade him seek this shrine as suppliant.

 _Chor._ Yet us who were his escort thou revilest.

 _Apol._ It is not meet that ye come nigh this house.

 _Chor._ Yet is this self-same task appointed us.

 _Apol._ What function's this? Boast thou of nobler task?     200

 _Chor._ We drive from home the murderers of their mothers.

 _Apol._ What? Those who kill a wife that slays her spouse?

 _Chor._ That deed brings not the guilt of blood of kin.[488]

 _Apol._ *Truly thou mak'st dishonoured, and as nought,
 The marriage-vows of Zeus and Hera great;
 And by this reasoning Kypris too is shamed,
 From whom men gain the ties of closest love.
 For still to man and woman marriage bed,
 Assigned by Fate and guided by the Right,
 Is more than any oath. If thou then deal
 So gently, when the one the other slays,                            210
 And dost not even look on them with wrath,
 I say thou dost not justly chase Orestes;
 For thou, in the one case, I know, dost rage;
 I' the other, clearly tak'st it easily:
 The Goddess Pallas shall our quarrel judge.

 _Chor._ That man I ne'er will leave for evermore.

 _Apol._ Chase him then, chase, and gain yet more of toil.

 _Chor._ Curtail thou not my functions by thy speech.

 _Apol._ Ne'er by my choice would I thy functions own.

 _Chor._ True; great thy name among the thrones of Zeus:      220
 But I, his mother's blood constraining me,
 Will this man chase, and track him like a hound.

 _Apol._ And I will help him and my suppliant free;
 For dreadful among Gods and mortals too
 The suppliant's curse, should I abandon him.

                                                               [_Exeunt_

_Scene changes to_ Athens, _in front of the Temple of Athena Polias, on
the Acropolis_[489]

                            _Enter_ ORESTES

 _Orest._ [_clasping the statue of the Goddess._] O Queen Athena, I at
    Loxias' hest
 Am come: do thou receive me graciously,
 Sin-stained though I have been: no guilt of blood
 Is on my soul, nor is my hand unclean,
 But now with stain toned down and worn away,
 In other homes and journeyings among men,[490]                      230
 O'er land and water travelling alike,
 Keeping great Loxias' charge oracular,
 I come, O Goddess, to thy shrine and statue:
 Here will I stay and wait the trial's issue.

                    _Enter the Erinnyes in pursuit_

 _Chor._ Lo! here are clearest traces of the man:
 Follow thou up that dumb informer's[491] hints;
 For as the hound pursues a wounded fawn,
 So by red blood and oozing gore track we.
 My lungs are panting with full many a toil,
 Wearing man's strength down. Every spot of earth                    240
 Have I now searched, and o'er the sea in flight
 Wingless I came pursuing, swift as ship;
 And now full sure he's crouching somewhere here:
 The smell of human blood wafts joy to me.
 See, see again, look round ye every way,
 Lest he, the murderer, slip away unscathed.
 He, it is true, in full security,
 Clasping the statue of the deathless goddess,
 Would fain now take his trial at our hands.                         250
 This may not be; a mother's blood out-poured
 (Pah! pah!) can never be raised up again,
 The life-blood shed is pourèd out and gone,
 But thou must give to us to suck the blood
 Red from thy living members; yea, from thee,
 May I gain meal of drink undrinkable!
 And, having dried thee up, I'll drag thee down
 Alive to bear the doom of matricide.
 There thou shalt see if any other man
 Has sinned in not revering God or guest,
 Or parents dear, that each receiveth there                          260
 The recompense of sin that Vengeance claims.
 For Hades is a mighty arbiter
 Of those that dwell below, and with a mind
 That writes true record all man's deeds surveys.

 _Orest._ I, taught by troubles, know full many a form
 Of cleansing rites,—to speak, when that is meet,
 And when 'tis not, keep silence, and in this
 I by wise teacher was enjoined to speak;
 For the blood fails and fades from off my hands;
 The guilt of matricide is washed away.                              270
 For when 'twas fresh, it then was all dispelled,
 At Phœbos' shrine, by spells of slaughtered swine.
 Long would the story be, if told complete,
 Of all I joined in harmless fellowship.
 Time waxing old, too, cleanses all alike:
 And now with pure lips, I in words devout,
 Call Athenæa, whom this land owns queen,
 To come and help me: So without a war
 Shall she gain me, my land, my Argive people,                       280
 Full faithful friends, allies for evermore;[492]
 But whether in the climes of Libyan land,
 Hard by her birth-stream's foam, Tritonian named,[493]
 She stands upright, or sits with feet enwrapt,
 Helping her friends, or o'er Phlegræan plains,
 Like a bold chieftain, she keeps watchful guard,[494]
 Oh, may she come! (far off a God can hear,)
 And work for me redemption from these ills!

 _Chor._ Nay, nor Apollo, nor Athena's might
 Can save thee from the doom of perishing,                           290
 Outcast, not knowing where to look for joy,
 The bloodless food of demons, a mere shade.
 Wilt thou not answer? Scornest thou my words,
 A victim reared and consecrate to me?
 Alive thou'lt feed me, not at altar slain;
 And thou shalt hear our hymn as spell to bind thee.

_The Erinnyes, as they sing the ode that follows, move round and round
in solemn and weird measure_

         Come, then, let us form our chorus;
         Since 'tis now our will to utter
         Melody or song most hateful,
         Telling how our band assigneth
         All the lots that fall to mortals;                          300
         And we boast that we are righteous:
         Not on one who pure hands lifteth
         Falleth from us any anger,
         But his life he passeth scatheless;
         But to him who sins like this man,
         And his blood-stained hands concealeth,
         Witnesses of those who perish,
         Coming to exact blood-forfeit,
         We appear to work completeness.                             310

                               STROPHE I

 O mother who did'st bear me, mother Night,
 A terror of the living and the dead,
         Hear me, oh hear!
 The son of Leto puts me to disgrace
         And robs me of my spoil,
 This crouching victim for a mother's blood:
         And over him as slain,
 We raise this chant of madness, frenzy-working,[495]
         The hymn the Erinnyes love,
 A spell upon the soul, a lyreless strain
         That withers up men's strength.

                             ANTISTROPHE I

 This lot the all-pervading Destiny                                  320
 Hath spun to hold its ground for evermore,
         That we should still attend
 On him on whom there rests the guilt of blood
         Of kin shed causelessly,
 Till earth lie o'er him; nor shall death set free.
         And over him as slain,
 We raise this chant of madness, frenzy-working,
         The hymn the Erinnyes love,
 A spell upon the soul, a lyreless strain
         That withers up men's strength.

                               STROPHE II

 Such lot was then assigned us at our birth:
 From us the Undying Ones must hold aloof:                           330
         Nor is there one who shares
         The banquet-meal with us;
 In garments white I have nor part nor lot;[496]
 My choice was made for overthrow of homes,
 Where home-bred slaughter works a loved one's death:
         Ha! hunting after him,
         Strong though he be, 'tis ours
 *To wear the newness of his young blood down.[497]

                             ANTISTROPHE II

 *Since 'tis our work another's task to take,[498]        340
 *The Gods indeed may bar the force of prayers
         Men offer unto me,
         But may not clash in strife;
 For Zeus doth cast us from his fellowship,
 “Blood-dropping, worthy of his utmost hate.”...
 For leaping down as from the topmost height,
         I on my victim bring
         The crushing force of feet,
 Limbs that o'erthrow e'en those that swiftly run,
         An Atè hard to bear.                                        350

                              STROPHE III

 And fame of men, though very lofty now
         Beneath the clear, bright sky,
 Below the earth grows dim and fades away
 Before the attack of us, the black-robed ones,
         And these our dancings wild,
         Which all men loathe and hate.

                            ANTISTROPHE III

 Falling in frenzied guilt, he knows it not;
         So thick the blinding cloud
 *That o'er him floats; and Rumour widely spread
 With many a sigh reports the dreary doom,
         A mist that o'er the house
         In gathering darkness broods.

                               STROPHE IV

 Fixed is the law, no lack of means find we;                         360
         We work out all our will,
 We, the dread Powers, the registrars of crime,
         Whom mortals fail to soothe,
 Fulfilling tasks dishonoured, unrevered,
         Apart from all the Gods,
         *In foul and sunless gloom,[499]
 Driving o'er rough steep road both those that see,
         And those whose eyes are dark.

                             ANTISTROPHE IV

 What mortal man then doth not bow in awe
         And fear before all this,
 Hearing from me the destined ordinance
         Assigned me by the Gods?                                    370
 This task of mine is one of ancient days;
         Nor meet I here with scorn,
         Though 'neath the earth I dwell,
 And live there in the darkness thick and dense,
         Where never sunbeam falls.

      _Enter_ ATHENA, _appearing in her chariot, and then alights_

 _Athena._ I heard far off the cry of thine entreaty
 E'en from Scamandros,[500] claiming there mine own,
 The land which all Achaia's foremost leaders,
 As portion chief from out the spoils of war,
 Gave to me, trees and all, for evermore,
 A special gift for Theseus' progeny.                                380
 Thence came I plying foot that never tires,
 Flapping my ægis-folds, no need of wings,
 My chariot drawn by young and vigorous steeds:
 And seeing this new presence in the land,
 I have no fear, though wonder fills mine eyes;
 Who, pray, are ye? To all of you I speak,
 And to this stranger at my statue suppliant.
 And as for you, like none of Nature's births,
 Nor seen by Gods among the Goddess-forms,
 Nor yet in likeness of a mortal shape....                           390
 But to speak ill of neighbours blameless found
 Is far from just, and Right holds back from it.

 _Chor._ Daughter of Zeus, thou shalt learn all in brief;
 Children are we of everlasting Night;
 [At home, beneath the earth, they call us Curses.]

 _Athena._ Your race I know, and whence ye take your name.

 _Chor._ Thou shalt soon know then what mine office is.

 _Athena._ Then could I know, if ye clear speech would speak.

 _Chor._ We from their home drive forth all murderers.

 _Athena._ Where doth the slayer find the goal of flight?     400

 _Chor._ Where to find joy in nought is still his wont.

 _Athena._ And whirrest thou such flight on this man here?

 _Chor._ Yea, for he thought it meet to slay his mother.

 _Athena._ Was there no other power whose wrath he feared?

 _Chor._ What impulse, then, should prick to matricide?

 _Athena._ Two sides are here, and I but half have heard.

 _Chor._ But he nor takes nor tenders us an oath.[501]

 _Athena._ Thou lov'st the show of Justice more than act.

 _Chor._ How so? Inform me. Skill thou dost not lack!

 _Athena._ 'Tis not by oaths a cause unjust shall win.[502]   410

 _Chor._ Search out the cause, then, and right judgment judge.

 _Athena._ And would ye trust to me to end the cause?[503]

 _Chor._ How else? Thy worth, and worthy stock we honour.

 _Athena._ What dost thou wish, O stranger, to reply?
 Tell thou thy land, thy race, thy life's strange chance,
 And then ward off this censure aimed at thee,
 Since thou sitt'st trusting in thy right, and hold'st
 This mine own image, near mine altar hearth,
 A suppliant, like Ixion,[504] honourable.
 Answer all this in speech intelligible.                             420

 _Orest._ O Queen Athena, from thy last words starting,
 I first will free thee from a weighty care:
 I am not now defiled: no curse abides
 Upon the hand that on thy statue rests;
 And I will give thee proof full strong of this.
 The law is fixed the murderer shall be dumb,
 Till at the hand of one who frees from blood,
 The purple stream from yeanling swine run o'er him;[505]
 Long since at other houses these dread rites[506]
 We have gone through, slain victims, flowing streams:
 This care, then, I can speak of now as gone.                        430
 And how my lineage stands thou soon shalt know:
 An Argive I, my sire well known to thee,
 Chief ruler of the seamen, Agamemnon,
 With whom thou madest Troïa, Ilion's city,
 To be no city. He, when he came home,
 Died without honour; and my dark-souled mother
 Enwrapt and slew him with her broidered toils,
 Which bore their witness of the murder wrought
 There in the bath; and I, on my return,                             440
 (Till then an exile,) did my mother kill,
 (That deed I'll not deny,) in forfeit due
 Of blood for blood of father best beloved;
 And Loxias, too, is found accomplice here,
 Foretelling woes that pricked my heart to act,
 If I did nought to those accomplices
 In that same crime. But thou, judge thou my cause,
 If what I did were right or wrong, and I,
 Whate'er the issue, will be well content.

 _Athena._ Too great this matter, if a mortal man
 Think to decide it. Nor is't meet for me
 To judge a cause of murder stirred by wrath;                        450
 *And all the more since thou with contrite soul
 Hast come to this my house a suppliant,
 Harmless and pure. I now, in spite of all,
 Take thee as one my city need not blame;[507]
 But these hold office that forbids dismissal,
 And should they fail of victory in this cause,
 Hereafter from their passionate mood will poison[508]
 Fall on the land, disease intolerable,
 And lasting for all time. E'en thus it stands;
 And both alike, their staying or dismissal,
 Are unto me perplexing and disastrous.
 But since the matter thus hath come on me,
 I will appoint as judges of this murder
 Men bound by oath, a law for evermore;[509]
 And ye, call ye your proofs and witnesses,
 Sworn pledges given to help the cause of right.
 And I, selecting of my citizens
 Those who are best, will come again that they
 May judge this matter truly, taking oaths
 To utter nought against the law of right.        [_Exit_

                               STROPHE I

 _Chor._ Now will there be an outbreak of new laws:
         If victory shall rest
 Upon the wrong right of this matricide,                             470
         This deed will prompt forthwith
 All mortal men to callous recklessness.
         And many deaths, I trow,
 At children's hands their parents now await
         Through all the time to come.

                             ANTISTROPHE I

 For since no wrath on evil deeds will creep
         Henceforth from those who watch
 With wild, fierce souls the evil deeds of men,
         I will let loose all crime;
 *And each from each shall seek in eager quest,           480
         *Speaking of neighbour's ills,
 *For pause and lull of woes;[510] yet wretched man,
         He speaks of cures that fail.

                               STROPHE II

         Henceforth let none call us,
         When smitten by mischance,
         Uttering this cry of prayer,
 “O Justice, and O ye, Erinnyes' thrones!”
 Such wail, perchance, a father then shall utter,
         Or mother newly slain,
 Since, fallen low, the shrine of Justice now
         Lies prostrate in the dust.                                 490

                             ANTISTROPHE II

         There are with whom 'tis well
         That awe should still abide,
         As watchman o'er their souls.
 Calm wisdom gained by sorrow profits much:
 For who that in the gladness of his heart,
         Or man or commonwealth,
 Has nought of this, would bow before the Right
         Humbly as heretofore?[511]

                              STROPHE III

         Praise not the lawless life,                                500
 Nor that which owns a despot's sovereignty;
 To the true mean in all God gives success,[512]
         And with far other mood,
         On other course looks on;
 And I will say, with this in harmony,
 That Pride is truly child of Godlessness;
         While from the soul's true health
 Comes the fair fortune, loved of all mankind,
         And aim of many a prayer.

                            ANTISTROPHE III

         And now, I say, in sum,                                     510
 Revere the altar reared to Justice high,
 Nor, thine eye set on gain, with godless foot
         Treat it contemptuously:
         For wrath shall surely come;
 The appointed end abideth still for all.
 Therefore let each be found full honour giving
         To parents, and to those,
 The honoured guests that gather in his house,
         Let him due reverence show.

                               STROPHE IV

 And one who of his own free will is just,                           520
         Not by enforced constraint,
         He shall not be unblest,
 Nor can he e'er be utterly o'erthrown;
 But he that dareth, and transgresseth all,
         In wild, confusèd deeds,
         Where Justice is not seen,
 I say that he perforce, as time wears on,
         Will have to take in sail,
 When trouble makes him hers, and each yard-arm
         Is shivered by the blast.

                             ANTISTROPHE IV

 And then he calls on those who hear him not,
         And struggles all in vain,
         In the fierce waves' mid-whirl;
 And God still mocks the man of fevered mood,                        530
 When he sees him who bragged it ne'er would come,
         With woes inextricable
         Worn out, and failing still
 To weather round the perilous promontory;
         And for all time to come,
 Wrecking on reefs of Vengeance bliss once high,
         He dies unwept, unseen.

_The scene changes to the Areopagos._ _Enter_ ATHENA, _followed by
Herald and twelve Athenian citizens_

 _Athena._ Cry out, O herald; the great host hold back;
 Then let Tyrrhenian trumpet,[513] piercing heaven,
 Filled with man's breath, to all that host send forth
 The full-toned notes, for while this council-hall                   540
 Is filling, it is meet men hold their peace.

                                             [_Herald blows his trumpet_

 And let the city for all time to come
 Learn these my laws, and this accused one too,
 That so the trial may be rightly judged.[514]

                                  [_As_ ATHENA _speaks_, APOLLO _enters_

 _Chor._ O King Apollo, rule thou o'er thine own;
 But what hast thou to do with this our cause?

 _Apol._ I am come both as witness,—for this man
 Is here as suppliant, that on my hearth sat,
 And I his cleanser am from guilt of blood,—
 And to plead for him as his advocate:
 I bear the blame of that his mother's death.
 But thou, whoe'er dost act as president,
 Open the suit in way well known to thee.[515]                       550

 _Athena._ [_to the Erinnyes._] 'Tis yours to speak; I thus the
    pleadings open,
 For so the accuser, speaking first, shall have,
 Of right, the task to state the case to us.

 _Chor._ Many are we, but briefly will we speak;
 And answer thou [_to_ ORESTES], in thy turn, word for word;
 First tell us this, did'st thou thy mother slay?

 _Orest._ I slew her: of that fact is no denial.

 _Chor._ Here, then, is one of our three bouts[516] decided.

 _Orest._ Thou boastest this o'er one not yet thrown down.    560

 _Chor._ This thou at least must tell, how thou did'st slay her.

 _Orest._ E'en so; her throat I cut with hand sword-armed.

 _Chor._ By whom persuaded, and with whose advice?

 _Orest._ [_Pointing to_ APOLLO.] By His divine command: He bears me
    witness.

 _Chor._ The prophet-God prompt thee to matricide!

 _Orest._ Yea, and till now I do not blame my lot.

 _Chor._ Nay, when found guilty, soon thou'lt change thy tone.

 _Orest._ I trust my sire will send help from the tomb.

 _Chor._ Trust in the dead, thou murderer of thy mother!

 _Orest._ Yes; for in her two great pollutions met.           570

 _Chor._ How so, I pray? Inform the court of this.

 _Orest._ She both her husband and my father slew.

 _Chor._ Nay then, thou liv'st, and she gets quit by death.

 _Orest._ Why, while she lived, did'st thou to chase her fail?

 _Chor._ The man she slew was not one of blood with her.[517]

 _Orest._ And does my mother's blood then flow in me?

 _Chor._ E'en so; how else, O murderer, reared she thee
 Within her womb? Disown'st thou mother's blood?

 _Orest._ [_Turning to_ APOLLO.] Now bear thou witness, and declare to
    me,
 Apollo, if I slew her righteously;                                  580
 For I the deed, as fact, will not deny.
 But whether right or wrong this deed of blood
 Seem in thine eyes, judge thou that these may hear.

 _Apol._ I will to you, Athena's solemn council,
 Speak truly, and as prophet will not lie.
 Ne'er have I spoken on prophetic throne,
 Of man, or woman, or of commonwealth,
 But as great Zeus, Olympian Father, bade;
 And that ye learn how much this plea avails,
 I bid you [_turning to the court of jurymen_] follow out my Father's
    will;590
 No oath can be of greater might than Zeus.[518]

 _Chor._ Zeus, then, thou say'st, did prompt the oracle
 That this Orestes here, his father's blood
 Avenging, should his mother's rights o'erthrow?

 _Apol._ 'Tis a quite other thing for hero-chief,
 Bearing the honour of Zeus-given sceptre,
 To die, and at a woman's hands, not e'en
 By swift, strong dart, from Amazonian bow,[519]
 But as thou, Pallas, now shalt hear, and those
 Who sit to give their judgment in this cause;                       600
 For when he came successful from the trade
 Of war with largest gains, receiving him
 With kindly words of praise, she spread a robe
 Over the bath, yes, even o'er its edge,
 As he was bathing, and entangling him
 In endless folds of cloak of cunning work,
 She strikes her lord down. Thus the tale is told
 Of her lord's murder, chief whom all did honour,
 The ships' great captain. So I tell it out,
 E'en as it was, to thrill the people's hearts,
 Who now are set to give their verdict here.

 _Chor._ Zeus then a father's death, as thou dost say,        610
 Of highest moment holds, yet He himself
 Bound fast in chains his aged father, Cronos;[520]
 Are not thy words at variance with the facts?
 I call on you [_to the Court_] to witness what he says.

 _Apol._ O hateful creatures, loathèd of the Gods,
 Those chains may be undone, that wrong be cured,
 And many a means of rescue may be found:
 But when the dust has drunk the blood of men,
 No resurrection comes for one that's dead:
 No charm for these things hath my sire devised;
 But all things else he turneth up or down,                          620
 And orders without toil or weariness.[521]

 _Chor._ Take heed how thou help this man to escape;
 Shall he who stained earth with his mother's blood
 Then dwell in Argos in his father's house?
 What public altars can he visit now?
 What lustral rite of clan or tribe admit him?[522]

 _Apol._ This too I'll say; judge thou if I speak right:
 The mother is not parent of the child
 That is called hers, but nurse of embryo sown.
 He that begets is parent:[523] she, as stranger,                    630
 For stranger rears the scion, if God mar not;
 And of this fact I'll give thee proof full sure.
 A father there may be without a mother:
 Here nigh at hand, as witness, is the child
 Of high Olympian Zeus, for she not e'en
 Was nurtured in the darkness of the womb,[524]
 Yet such a scion may no God beget.
 I, both in all else, Pallas, as I know,
 Will make thy city and thy people great,
 And now this man have sent as suppliant
 Upon thy hearth, that he may faithful prove                         640
 Now and for ever, and that thou, O Goddess,
 May'st gain him as ally, and all his race,
 And that it last as law for evermore,
 That these men's progeny our treaties own.

 _Athena._ [_To jurors._] I bid you give, according to your conscience,
 A verdict just; enough has now been said.

 _Chor._ We have shot forth our every weapon now:
 I wait to hear what way the strife is judged.

 _Athena._ [_To Chorus._] How shall I order this, unblamed by you?

 _Chor._ [_To jurors._] Ye heard what things ye heard, and in your
    hearts
 Reverence your oaths, and give your votes, O friends.               650

 _Athena._ Hear ye my order, O ye Attic people,
 In act to judge your first great murder-cause.
 And henceforth shall the host of Ægeus' race[525]
 For ever own this council-hall of judges:
 And for this Ares' hill, the Amazons' seat
 And camp when they, enraged with Theseus, came[526]
 In hostile march, and built as counterwork
 This citadel high-reared, a city new,
 And sacrificed to Ares, whence 'tis named
 As Ares' hill and fortress: in this, I say,                         660
 The reverent awe its citizens shall own,
 And fear, awe's kindred, shall restrain from wrong
 By day, nor less by night, so long as they,
 The burghers, alter not themselves their laws:
 But if with drain of filth and tainted soil
 Clear river thou pollute, no drink thou'lt find.[527]
 I give my counsel to you, citizens,
 To reverence and guard well that form of state
 Which is not lawless, nor tyrannical,
 And not to cast all fear from out the city;[528]
 For what man lives devoid of fear and just?
 But rightly shrinking, owning awe like this,                        670
 Ye then would have a bulwark of your land,
 A safeguard for your city, such as none
 Boast or in Skythia's[529] or in Pelops' clime.
 This council I establish pure from bribe,
 Reverend, and keen to act, for those that sleep[530]
 An ever-watchful sentry of the land.
 This charge of mine I thus have lengthened out
 For you, my people, for all time to come.
 And now 'tis meet ye rise, and take your ballots,[531]
 And so decide the cause, maintaining still
 Your reverence for your oath. My speech is said.                    680

 _Chor._ And I advise you not to treat with scorn
 A troop that can sit heavy on your land.

 _Apol._ And I do bid you dread my oracles,
 And those of Zeus, nor rob them of their fruit.

 _Chor._ Uncalled thou com'st to take a murderer's part;
 No longer pure the oracles thou'lt speak.

 _Apol._ And did my father then in purpose err,
 Then the first murderer he received, Ixion?[532]

 _Chor._ Thou talk'st, but should I fail in this my cause,
 I will again dwell here and vex this land.

 _Apol._ Alike among the new Gods and the old                 690
 Art thou dishonoured: I shall win the day.

 _Chor._ This did'st thou also in the house of Pheres,[533]
 Winning the Fates to make a man immortal.

 _Apol._ Was it not just a worshipper to bless
 In any case,—then most, when he's in want?

 _Chor._ Thou did'st o'erthrow, yea, thou, laws hoar with age,
 And drug with wine the ancient Goddesses.[534]

 _Apol._ Nay, thou, non-suited in this cause of thine,
 Shall venom spit that nothing hurts thy foes.                       700

 _Chor._ Since thou, though young, dost ride me down, though old,
 I wait to hear the issue of the cause,
 Still wavering in my wrath against this city.

 _Athena._ 'Tis now my task to close proceedings here;
 And this my vote I to Orestes add;
 For I no mother own that brought me forth,
 And saving that I wed not, I prefer
 The male with all my heart, and make mine own
 The father's cause, nor will above it place
 A woman's death, who slew her own true lord,
 The guardian of her house. Orestes wins,                            710
 E'en though the votes be equal. Cast ye forth
 With all your speed the lots from out the urns,
 Ye jurors unto whom that office falls.

 _Orest._ Phœbos Apollo! what will be the judgment?

 _Chor._ Dark Night, my mother! dost thou look on this?

 _Orest._ My goal is now the noose, or full, clear day.

 _Chor._ Ours too to come to nought, or work on still.

                      [_A pause. The jurors take out the voting tablets
                          from the two urns (one of bronze, the other of
                          wood) for acquittal or condemnation_

 _Apol._ Now count ye up the votes thrown out, O friends,
 And be ye honest, as ye reckon them;
 One sentence lacking, sorrow great may come,                        720
 And one vote given hath ofttimes saved a house.

                        [_A pause, during which the urns are emptied and
                            the votes are counted_

 _Athena._ The accused is found “not guilty” of the murder:
 For lo! the numbers of the votes are equal.[535]

 _Orest._ O Pallas, thou who hast redeemed my house,
 Thou, thou hast brought me back when I had been
 Bereaved of fatherland, and Hellenes now
 Will say, “The man's an Argive once again,
 And dwells upon his father's heritage,
 Because of Pallas and of Loxias,
 And Zeus, the true third Saviour, all o'erruling,
 Who, touched with pity for my father's fate,                        730
 Saves me, beholding these my mother's pleaders.”
 And I will now wend homeward, giving pledge
 To this thy country and its valiant host,
 To stand as firm for henceforth and for ever,
 That no man henceforth, chief of Argive land,
 Shall bring against it spearmen well equipped:
 For we ourselves, though in our sepulchres,
 On those who shall transgress these oaths of ours,
 Will with inextricable evils work,
 Making their paths disheartening, and their ways                    740
 Ill-omened, that they may their toil repent.
 But if these oaths be kept, to those who honour
 This city of great Pallas, our ally,
 Then we to them are more propitious yet.
 Farewell then, Thou, and these who guard thy city.
 Mayst thou so wrestle that thy foes escape not,
 And so win victory and deliverance!

                                STROPHE

 _Chor._ Ah! ah! ye younger God!
 Ye have ridden down the laws of ancient days,
         And robbed me of my prey.
 But I, dishonoured, wretched, full of wrath,                        750
         Upon this land, ha! ha!
 Will venom, venom from my heart let fall,
         In vengeance for my grief,
         A dropping which shall smite
         The earth with barrenness!
 And thence shall come, (O Vengeance!) on the plain
 Down swooping, blight of leaves and murrain dire
 That o'er the land flings taint of pestilence.                      760
         Shall I then wail and groan?
         Or what else shall I do?
 Shall I become a woe intolerable
 Unto these men for wrongs I have endured?
         Great, very great are they,
 Ye virgin daughters of dim Night, ill-doomed,
         Born both to shame and woe!

 _Athena._ Nay, list to me, and be not over-grieved;
 Ye have not been defeated, but the cause
 Came fairly to a tie, no shame to thee.
 But the clear evidence of Zeus was given,
 And he who spake it bare his witness too
 That, doing this, Orestes should not suffer.
 Hurl ye not then fierce rage on this my land;
 Nor be ye wroth, nor work ye barrenness,
 *By letting fall the drops of evil Powers,[536]
 The baleful influence that consumes all seed.                       770
 For lo! I promise, promise faithfully,
 That, seated on your hearths with shining thrones,
 Ye shall find cavern homes in righteous land,
 Honoured and worshipped by these citizens.

                              ANTISTROPHE

 _Chor._ Ah ah! ye younger Gods!
 Ye have ridden down the laws of ancient days,
         And robbed me of my prey.
 And I, dishonoured, wretched, full of wrath,
         Upon this land, ha! ha!
 Will venom, venom from my heart let fall,
         In vengeance for my grief,
         A dropping which shall smite                                780
         The earth with barrenness!
 And thence shall come, (O Vengeance!) on the plain
 Down-swooping, blight of leaves and murrain dire
 That o'er the land flings taint of pestilence.
         Shall I then wail and groan?
         Or what else shall I do?
 Shall I become a woe intolerable
 Unto these men for wrongs I have endured?
         Great, very great are they,
 Ye virgin daughters of dim Night, ill-doomed,
         Born both to shame and woe!

 _Athena._ Ye are not left unhonoured; be not hot
 In wrath, ye Goddesses, to mar man's land,
 I too, yes I, trust Zeus. Need I say more?                          790
 I only of the high Gods know the keys
 Of chambers where the sealed-up thunder lies;
 But that I have no need of. List to me,
 Nor cast upon the earth thy rash tongue's fruit,
 That brings to all things failure and distress;
 Lull thou the bitter storm of that dark surge,
 As dwelling with me, honoured and revered;
 And thou with first-fruits of this wide champaign,
 Offerings for children's birth and wedlock-rites,
 Shall praise these words of mine for evermore.                      800

 _Chor._ That I should suffer this, fie on it! fie!
 That I, with thoughts of hoar antiquity,[537]
         Should now in this land dwell,
         Dishonoured, deemed a plague!
 I breathe out rage, and every form of wrath.
         Oh, Earth! fie on it! fie!
 What pang is this that thrills through all my breast?
         Hear thou, O mother Night,
         Hear thou my vehement wrath!
 For lo! deceits that none can wrestle with
 Have thrust me out from honours old of Gods,
         And made a thing of nought.

 _Athena._ Thy wrath I'll bear, for thou the elder art,       810
 [And wiser too in that respect than I;]
 Yet to me too Zeus gave no wisdom poor;
 And ye, if ye an alien country seek,
 Shall yearn in love for this land. This I tell you;
 For to this people Time, as it runs on,
 Shall come with fuller honours, and if thou
 Hast honoured seat hard by Erechtheus' home,
 Thou shalt from men and women reap such gifts
 As thou would'st never gain from other mortals;
 But in these fields of mine be slow to cast                         820
 Whetstones of murder's knife, to young hearts bale,
 Frenzied with maddened passion, not of wine;
 Nor, as transplanting hearts of fighting-cocks,[538]
 Make Ares inmate with my citizens,
 In evil discord, and intestine broils;
 Let them have war without, not scantily,
 For him who feels the passionate thirst of fame:
 Battle of home-bred birds ... I name it not;
 This it is thine to choose as gift from me;
 Well-doing, well-entreated, and well-honoured,                      830
 To share the land best loved of all the Gods.

 _Chor._ That I should suffer this, fie on it! fie!
 That I, with thoughts of hoar antiquity,
           Should now in this land dwell,
           Dishonoured, deemed a plague,
 I breathe out rage, and every form of wrath;
           Ah, Earth! fie on it! fie!
 What pang is this that thrills through all my breast?
           Hear thou, O mother Night,
           Hear thou my vehement wrath!
 For lo! deceits that none can wrestle with
 Have thrust me out from honours old of Gods,
 And made a thing of nought.                                         840

 _Athena._ I will not weary, telling thee of good,
 That thou may'st never say that thou, being old,
 Wert at the hands of me, a younger Goddess,
 And those of men who in my city dwell,
 Driven in dishonour, exiled from this plain.
 But if the might of Suasion thou count holy,
 And my tongue's blandishments have power to soothe,
 Then thou wilt stay; but if thou wilt not stay,
 Not justly would'st thou bring upon this city,
 Or wrath, or grudge, or mischief for its host.
 It rests with thee, as dweller in this spot,[539]                   850
 To meet with all due honour evermore.

 _Chor._ Athena, Queen, what seat assign'st thou me?

 _Athena._ One void of touch of evil; take thou it.

 _Chor._ Say I accept. What honour then is mine?

 _Athena._ That no one house apart from thee shall prosper.

 _Chor._ And wilt thou work that I such might may have?

 _Athena._ His lot who worships thee we'll guide aright.

 _Chor._ And wilt thou give thy warrant for all time?

 _Athena._ What I work not I might refrain from speaking.

 _Chor._ It seems thou sooth'st me: I relax my wrath.         860

 _Athena._ In this land dwelling thou new friends shalt gain.

 _Chor._ What hymn then for this land dost bid me raise?

 _Athena._ Such as is meet for no ill-victory.[540]
        ·       ·       ·       ·       ·
 And pray that blessings upon men be sent.
 And that, too, both from earth, and ocean's spray,
 And out of heaven; and that the breezy winds,
 In sunshine blowing, sweep upon the land,
 And that o'erflowing fruit of field and flock
 May never fail my citizens to bless,
 Nor safe deliverance for the seed of men.
 But for the godless, rather root them out:                          870
 For I, like gardener shepherding his plants,
 This race of just men freed from sorrow love.
 So much for thee: and I will never fail
 To give this city honour among men,
 Victorious in the noble games of war.

                               STROPHE I

 _Chor._ I will accept this offered home with Pallas,
       Nor will the city scorn,
       Which e'en All-ruling Zeus
 And Ares give as fortress of the Gods,
 The altar-guarding pride of Gods of Hellas;                         880
       And I upon her call,
       With kindly auguries,
 That so the glorious splendour of the sun
 May cause life's fairest portion in thick growth
       *To burgeon from the earth.

 _Athena._ Yea, I work with kindliest feeling
     For these my townsmen, having settled
     Powers great, and hard to soothe among them:
     Unto them the lot is given,
     All things human still to order;                                890
     He who hath not felt their pressure
     Knows not whence life's scourges smite him:
     For the sin of generations
     Past and gone;—a dumb destroyer,—
     Leads him on into their presence,
     And with mood of foe low bringeth
     Him whose lips are speaking proudly.

                             ANTISTROPHE I

 _Chor._ Let no tree-blighting canker breathe on them,
       (I tell of boon I give,)
       Nor blaze of scorching heat,
 That mars the budding eyes of nursling plants,                      900
 And checks their spreading o'er their narrow bounds;
       And may no dark, drear plague
       Smite it with barrenness.
 But may Earth feed fair flock in season due,
 Blest with twin births, and earth's rich produce pay
         To the high heavenly Powers,
         Its gift for treasure found.[541]

 _Athena._ Hear ye then, ye city's guardians,
         What she offers? Dread and mighty                           910
         With the Undying is Erinnys;
         And with Those beneath the earth too,
         And full clearly and completely
         Work they all things out for mortals,
         Giving these the songs of gladness,
         Those a life bedimmed with weeping.

                               STROPHE II

 _Chor._ Avaunt, all evil chance
 That brings men low in death before their time!
 And for the maidens lovely and beloved,
         Give, ye whose work it is,
         Life with a husband true,
 And ye, O Powers of self-same mother born,                          920
         Ye Fates who rule aright,
         Partners in every house,
         Awe-striking through all time,
 With presence full of righteousness and truth,
         Through all the universe
         Most honoured of the Gods!

 _Athena._ Much I joy that thus ye promise
         These boons to my land in kindness;
         And I love the glance of Suasion,
         That she guides my speech and accent
         Unto these who gainsaid stoutly.                            930
         But the victory is won by
         Zeus, the agora's protector;
       And our rivalry in blessings
       Is the conqueror evermore.

                             ANTISTROPHE II

       _Chor._ For this too I will pray,
 That Discord, never satiate with ill,
 May never ravine in this commonwealth,
       Nor dust that drinks dark blood
       From veins of citizens,
 Through eager thirst for vengeance, from the State
       Snatch woes as penalty
       For deeds of murderous guilt.
       But may they give instead
 With friendly purpose acts of kind intent,                          940
       And if need be, may hate
       With minds of one accord;
 For this is healing found to mortal men
       Of many a grievous woe.

 _Athena._ Are they not then waxing wiser,
       And at last the path discerning
       Of a speech more good and gentle?
       Now from these strange forms and fearful,
       See I to my townsmen coming,
       E'en to these, great meed of profit;
       For if ye, with kindly welcome,
       Honour these as kind protectors,
       Then shall ye be famed as keeping,
       Just and upright in all dealings,
       Land and city evermore.

                              STROPHE III

 _Chor._ Rejoice, rejoice ye in abounding wealth,
         Rejoice, ye citizens,
         Dwelling near Zeus himself,[542]                            950
 Loved of the virgin Goddess whom ye loved,
         In due time wise of heart,
 You, 'neath the wings of Pallas ever staying,[543]
         The Father honoureth.

 _Athena._ Rejoice ye also, but before you
         I must march to show your chambers,
         By your escorts' torches holy;
         Go, and with these dread oblations                          960
         Passing to the crypt cavernous,
         Keep all harm from this our country,
         Send all gain upon our city,
         Cause it o'er its foes to triumph.
         Lead ye on, ye sons of Cranaos,[544]
         Lead, ye dwellers in the city,
         Those who come to sojourn with you,
         And may good gifts work good purpose
         In my townsmen evermore!

                            ANTISTROPHE III

 _Chor._ Rejoice, rejoice once more, ye habitants!            970
         I say it yet again,
         Ye Gods, and mortals too,
 Who dwell in Pallas' city. Should ye treat
         With reverence us who dwell
 As sojourners among you, ye shall find
         No cause to blame your lot.

 _Athena._ I praise these words of yours, the prayers ye offer,
 And with the light of torches flashing fire,
 Will I escort you to your dark abode,[545]
 Low down beneath the earth, with my attendants,
 Who with due honour guard my statue here,
 For now shall issue forth the goodly eye
 Of all the land of Theseus; fair-famed troop                        980
 Of girls and women, band of matrons too,
 In upper vestments purple-dyed arrayed:
 *Now then advance ye; and the blaze of fire,
 Let it go forth, that so this company
 Stand forth propitious, henceforth and for aye,
 In rearing race of noblest citizens,

  _Enter an array of women, young and old, in procession, leading the
        Erinnyes—now, as propitiated, the Eumenides or Gentle Ones—to
        their shrines_

                       _Chorus of Athenian women_

                               STROPHE I

 Go to your home, ye great and jealous Ones,
 Children of Night, and yet no children ye;[546]
         With escort of good-will,
         Shout, shout, ye townsmen, shout.

                             ANTISTROPHE I

 There in the dark and gloomy caves of earth,
 With worthy gifts and many a sacrifice                              990
         Consumèd in the fire—
         Shout, shout ye, one and all.

                               STROPHE II

         Come, come, with thought benign
         Propitious to our land,
         Ye dreaded Ones, yea, come,
 While on your progress onward ye rejoice,
 In the bright light of fire-devourèd torch;
         Shout, shout ye to our songs.

                             ANTISTROPHE II

         Let the drink-offerings come,
         In order meet behind,
         While torches fling their light;
 *Zeus the All-seeing thus hath joined in league
 *With Destiny for Pallas' citizens;
         Shout, shout ye to our songs.

              [_The procession winds its way_, ATHENA _at its head, then
                  the Eumenides, then the women, round the Areopagos
                  towards the ravine in which the dread Goddesses were
                  to find their sanctuary._

-----

Footnote 466:

  The succession is, in part, accordant with that in the _Theogonia_ of
  Hesiod (vv. 116-136), but the special characteristic of the Æschylean
  form of the legend is that each change is a step in a due, rightful
  succession, as by free gift, not accomplished (as in other narratives
  of the same transition) by violence and wrong.

Footnote 467:

  Phœbe, in the _Theogonia_, marries Coios, and becomes the mother of
  Leto, or Latona, and so the grandmother of Apollo. The “birthday gift”
  was commonly presented on the eighth day after birth, when the child
  was named. The oracle is spoken of as such a gift to Apollo, as
  bearing the name of Phœbos.

Footnote 468:

  The sacred circular pool of Delos is the crater of an extinct volcano.
  There Apollo was born, and thence he passed through Attica to
  Parnassos, to take possession of the oracle, according to one form of
  the myth, depriving Themis of it and slaying the dragon Python that
  kept guard over it.

Footnote 469:

  The people of Attica are thus named either as being mythically
  descended from Erichthonios the son of Hephæstos, or as artificers,
  who own him as their father. The words refer to the supposed origin of
  the Sacred Road from Athens to Delphi, passing through Bœotia and
  Phokis. When the Athenians sent envoys to consult the oracle they were
  preceded by men bearing axes, in remembrance of the original
  pioneering work which had been done for Apollo. The first work of
  active civilisation was thus connected with the worship of the giver
  of Light and Wisdom.

Footnote 470:

  Delphos, the hero _Eponymos_ (name-giving) of Delphi, was honoured as
  the son of Poseidon. Hence the Priestess invokes the latter as one of
  the guardian deities of the shrine.

Footnote 471:

  Pronaia, as having her shrine or statue in front of the temple of
  Apollo.

Footnote 472:

  The Korykian rock in Parnassos, as in Soph., _Antig._, v. 1128; known
  also as the “Nymphs' cavern.”

Footnote 473:

  Bromios, a name of Dionysos, embodying the special attributes of loud,
  half-frenzied revelry.

Footnote 474:

  In the legend which Euripides follows, Kithæron, not Parnassos, is the
  scene of the death of Pentheus. He, it was said, opposed the wild or
  frantic worship of the Pelasgic Bacchos, concealed himself that he
  might behold the mysteries of the Mœnads, and was torn to pieces by
  his mother and two others, on whose eyes the God had cast such glamour
  that they took him for a wild beast. English readers may be referred
  to Dean Milman's translation of the _Bacchanals_ of Euripides.

Footnote 475:

  Pleistos, topographically, a river flowing through the vale of Delphi,
  mythically the father of the nymphs of Korykos.

Footnote 476:

  At one time the Oracle had been open to questioners once in the year
  only, afterwards once a month. The pilgrims, after they had made their
  offerings, cast lots, and the doors were opened to him to whom the lot
  had fallen. Plutarch, _Qu. Græc._, p. 292.

Footnote 477:

  The altar of the adytum, on the very centre, as men deemed, of the
  whole earth. Zeus, it was said, had sent forth two eagles at the same
  moment; one from the East and the other from the West, and here it was
  that they had met. The stone was of white marble, and the two eagles
  were sculptured on it. Strabo, ix. 3.

Footnote 478:

  The priestess dwells upon the outward tokens, which showed that the
  suppliant came as one whose need was specially urgent. On the ritual
  of supplication generally comp. _Suppl._, vv. 22, 348, 641, Soph.,
  _Œd. King_, v. 3; _Œd. Col._, vv. 469-489.

Footnote 479:

  Æschylos apparently follows the _Theogonia_ of Hesiod, (l. 278), who
  describes the Gorgons as three in number, daughters of Phorkys and
  Keto, and bearing the names of Stheno, Euryale, and Medusa. The last
  enters into the Perseus cycle of myths, as one of the monsters whom he
  conquered, with a face once beautiful, but with her hair turned to
  serpents by the wrath of Athena, and so dreadful to look upon that
  those who gazed on her were turned to stone. When Perseus had slain
  her, Athena placed her head in her ægis, and thus became the terror of
  all who were foes to herself or her people. A wild legendary account
  of them meets us in the _Prom. Bound_, v. 812. As works of art, the
  Gorgon images are traceable to the earliest or Kyclopian period.

Footnote 480:

  Here also we have a reference to a familiar subject of early Greek
  art, probably to some painting familiar to an Athenian audience. The
  name of Phineus indicates that the monstrous forms spoken of are those
  of the Harpies, birds with women's faces, or women with birds' wings,
  who were sent to vex the blind seer for his cruelty to the children of
  his first marriage. Comp. Soph. _Antig._, v. 973. In the _Æneid_ they
  appear (iii. 225) as dwelling in the Strophades, and harassing Æneas
  and his companions.

Footnote 481:

  The old image of Pallas, carved in olive-wood, as distinguished from
  later sculpture.

Footnote 482:

  The early code of hospitality bound the host, who as such had once
  received a guest under the shelter of his roof, not to desert him,
  even though he might discover afterwards that he had been guilty of
  great crimes, but to escort him safely to the boundary of his
  territory. Thus Apollo, as the host with whom Orestes had taken
  refuge, sends Hermes, the escort God, to guide and defend him on his
  way to Athens.

Footnote 483:

  The thought that the highest wisdom came to men rather in “visions of
  the night, when deep sleep falleth on men,” than through the waking
  senses, which we have already met with in _Agam._, v. 173, is
  traceable to the mysticism of Pythagoras, more distinctly perhaps to
  that of Epimenides.

Footnote 484:

  Wine, as in Soph. _Œd. Col._, vv. 100, 481, was rigidly excluded from
  the _cultus_ of the Eumenides, and to them only as daughters of Night
  were midnight sacrifices offered. We must not lose sight of the
  thought thus implied, that Clytæmnestra had herself lived, after her
  deed of guilt, in perpetual terror of the Erinnyes, seeking to soothe
  them by her sacrifices.

Footnote 485:

  The common rendering “in a dream” gives a sufficient meaning, and is,
  of course, tenable enough. But there is a force in the repetition of
  the same word, as in v. 116, which is thus lost, and which I have
  endeavoured to preserve. The Erinnyes, thus impotent in their rage,
  are as much mere dreamlike spectres as is the ghost of Clytæmnestra.

Footnote 486:

  Here, as throughout Æschylos, the Olympian divinities are thought of
  as new comers, thrusting from their thrones the whole Chthonian and
  Titanic dynasty, Gods of the conquering Hellenes superseding those of
  the Pelasgi.

Footnote 487:

  The accumulation of horrid forms of cruelty had, probably, a special
  significance for the Athenians. These punishments belonged to their
  enemies, the Persians, not to the Hellenic race, and the poet's
  purpose was to rekindle patriotic feeling by dwelling on their
  barbarity, as in _Agam._, v. 894, he points in like manner to their
  haughtiness and luxury.

Footnote 488:

  The argument of the Erinnyes is, to some extent, like that of the
  Antigone of Sophocles (_Antig._, 909-913), and the wife of Intaphernes
  (Herod. iii. 119). The tie which binds the husband to the wife is less
  sacred than that between the mother and the son. This, therefore,
  brings on the slayer the guilt of blood of kin, while murder in the
  other case is reduced to simple homicide. Orestes therefore was not
  justified in perpetrating the greater crime as a retribution for the
  less. Apollo, in meeting this plea, asserts the sacredness of the
  marriage bond as standing on the same level as that of consanguinity.

Footnote 489:

  The ideal interval of time between the two parts of the drama is left
  undefined, but it would seem from vv. 230, 274-6, and 429, to have
  been long enough to have allowed of many wanderings to sacred places,
  Orestes does not go straight from Delphi to Athens. He appears now,
  not as before dripping and besmeared with blood, but with hands and
  garments purified.

Footnote 490:

  The story of Adrastos and Crœsos in Herod. i. 35, illustrates the
  gradual purification of which Orestes speaks. The penitent who has the
  stain of blood-guiltiness upon him comes to the king, and the king, as
  his host, performs the lustral rites for him. Here Orestes urges that
  he has been received at many homes, and gone through many such
  lustrations. He has been cleansed from the pollution of sin: what he
  now seeks, to use the terminology of a later system, is a forensic
  justification.

Footnote 491:

  _Sc._, the scent of blood, which, though no longer visible to the eyes
  of men, still lingers round him and is perceptible to his pursuers.

Footnote 492:

  Here, too, we trace the political bearing of the play. In the year
  when it was produced (B.C. 458) an alliance with Argos was the
  favourite measure of the more conservative party at Athens.

Footnote 493:

  The names Triton and Tritonis, wherever found in classical geography
  (Libya, Crete, Thessaly, Bœotia), are always connected with the legend
  that Athena was born there. Probably both name and legend were carried
  from Greece to Libya, and then amalgamated with the indigenous local
  worship of a warlike goddess. Hesiod (iv. 180, 188) connects the
  Libyan lake with the legend of Jason and Argonauts.

Footnote 494:

  In the war with the giants fought in the Phlegræan plains (the
  volcanic district of Campania) Athena had helped her father Zeus by
  her wise counsel, and was honoured there as keeping in check the
  destructive Titanic forces which had been so subdued, burying
  Enkelados, _e.g._, in Sicily. The “friends” are her Libyan
  worshippers. The passage is interesting, as showing the extent of
  Æschylos's acquaintance with the African and Italian coasts of the
  Mediterranean.

Footnote 495:

  The Choral ode here is brought in as an incantation. This weapon is to
  succeed where others have failed, and this too, the frenzy which
  seizes the soul in the remembrance of its past transgression, is
  soothed and banished by Athena.

Footnote 496:

  White, as the special colour of festal joy, was not used in the
  worship of the Erinnyes.

Footnote 497:

  Another rendering gives—

             “To dim the bright hue of the fresh-shed blood.”

Footnote 498:

  The thought which underlies the obscurity of a corrupt passage seems
  to be that, as they relieve the Gods from the task of being avengers
  of blood, all that the Gods on their side can legitimately do against
  them is to render powerless the prayers for vengeance offered by the
  kindred of the slain. Their very isolation, as Chthonian deities, from
  the Gods of Olympos should protect them from open conflict. But an
  alternative rendering of the second line gives, perhaps, a better
  meaning—

                  “And by the prayers men offer unto me
                  Work freedom for the Gods;”

  _i.e._, by being the appointed receivers of such prayers for
  vengeance, they leave the Gods free for a higher and serener life.

Footnote 499:

  Perhaps, “With torch of sunless gloom.”

Footnote 500:

  The words contain an allusion to the dispute between Athens and
  Mitylene in the time of Peisistratos, as to the possession of Sigeion.
  Athena asserts that it had been given to her by the whole body of
  Achæans at the time when they had taken Troïa. Comp. Herod. vv. 94,
  95. It probably entered into the political purposes of the play to
  excite the Athenians to a war in this direction, so as to draw them
  off from the constitutional changes proposed by Pericles and
  Ephialtes.

Footnote 501:

  Here, and throughout the trial, we have to bear in mind the
  technicalities of Athenian judicial procedure. The prosecutor, in the
  first instance, tendered to the accused an oath that he was not
  guilty. This he might accept or refuse. In the latter case, the course
  of the trial was at least stopped, and judgment might be recorded
  against him. If he could bring himself to accept it, he was acquitted
  of the special charge of which he was accused, but he was liable to a
  prosecution afterwards for that perjury. If, on the other hand, he
  tendered an oath affirming his guilt to the prosecutor, he placed
  himself in his hands. Orestes, not being able to deny the fact, will
  not declare on oath that he is “not guilty,” but neither will he place
  himself in the power of his accusers. The peculiarities of this use of
  oaths were: (1) That they were taken by the parties to the suit, not
  by the witnesses. (2) That if both parties agreed to that mode of
  decision, the oath was either way decisive. An allusion to the latter
  practice is found in Heb. vi. 16, and traces of it are found in the
  law-proceedings of Scotland. If either party refused, the cause had to
  be tried in the usual way, and witnesses were called.

Footnote 502:

  Æschylos seems here to attach himself to the principles of those who
  were seeking to reform the practice described in the previous note as
  being at once cumbrous and unjust, throwing its weight into the scale
  of the least scrupulous conscience, and to urge a simpler, more
  straightforward trial. The same objection is noticed by Aristotle in
  his discussion of the subject. (_Rhet._ i. 15.)

Footnote 503:

  Athena offers herself, not as arbitrator or sovereign judge, but as
  presiding over the court of jurors whom she proceeds to appoint.

Footnote 504:

  Ixion appeared in the mythical history of Greece as the prototype of
  all suppliants for purification. When he had murdered Deioneus, Zeus
  had had compassion to him, received him as a guest, cleansed him from
  his guilt. His ingratitude for this service was the special guilt of
  his attempted outrage upon Hera. The case is mentioned again in v.
  687.

Footnote 505:

  In heathen, as in Jewish sacrifices, the blood was the very instrument
  of purification. It was sprinkled or poured upon men, and they became
  clean. But this could not be done by the criminal himself, nor by any
  chance person. The service had to be rendered by a friend, who of very
  love gave himself to this mediatorial work.

Footnote 506:

  In the legend related by Pausanias (_Corinth._, c. 3), Trœzen was the
  first place where Orestes was thus received, and in his time the
  descendants of those who had thus helped held periodical feasts in
  commemoration of it.

Footnote 507:

  The course which Athena takes is: (1) to receive Orestes as a settler
  with the rights which attached to such persons on Athenian soil, not a
  criminal fugitive to be simply surrendered; (2) to offer to the
  Erinnyes, as being too important to be put out of court, a fair and
  open trial; (3) to acknowledge that he and they are equally
  “blameless,” as far as she is concerned. She has no complaint to make
  of them.

Footnote 508:

  The red blight of vines and wheat was looked on as caused by drops of
  blood which the Erinnyes had let fall.

Footnote 509:

  Stress is laid on the fact that the judges of the Areopagos, in
  contrast with those of the inferior tribunes of Athens, discharged
  their duty under the sanction of an oath.

Footnote 510:

  Perhaps

            “And each from each shall learn, as he predicts
            His neighbour's ills, that he
            Shares in the same and harbours them, and speaks,
            Poor wretch, of cures that fail.”

Footnote 511:

  At a more advanced period of human thought, Cicero (_Orat. pro
  Roscio_, c. 24) could point to the “thoughts that accuse each other,”
  the horror and remorse of the criminal, as the true Erinnyes, the
  “assiduæ domesticæque Furiæ.” Æschylos clings to the mythical
  symbolism as indispensable for the preservation of the truth which it
  shadowed forth.

Footnote 512:

  Once again we have the poet of constitutional conservatism keeping the
  _via media_ between Peisistratos and Pericles.

Footnote 513:

  The Tyrrhenian trumpet, with its bent and twisted tube, retained its
  proverbial pre-eminence from the days of Æschylos and Sophocles
  (_Aias_, 17) to those of Virgil (_Æn._, viii. 526).

Footnote 514:

  The fondness of the Athenians for litigation, and the large share
  which every citizen took in the administration of justice, would
  probably make the scene which follows, with all its technicalities,
  the part of the play into which they would most enter.

Footnote 515:

  It was necessary that some one, sitting as President of the Court,
  should formally open the pleadings, by calling on this side or that to
  begin. Here Athena takes that office on herself, and calls on the
  Erinnyes.

Footnote 516:

  The technicalities of the Areopagos are still kept up. The three
  points on which the Erinnyes, as prosecutors, lay stress are: (1) the
  fact of the murder; (2) the mode; (3) the motive. “Three bouts,” as
  referring to the rule of the arena, that three struggles for the
  mastery should be decisive.

Footnote 517:

  The pleas put in by the Erinnyes as prosecutors are: (1) That
  Clytæmnestra had been adequately punished by her death, while Orestes
  was still alive; and (2) when asked why they had not intervened to
  bring about that punishment, that the relationship between husband and
  wife was less close than that between mother and son. They drew, in
  other words, a distinction between consanguinity and affinity, and
  upon this the rest of the discussion turns. Orestes, and Apollo as his
  counsel, on the other hand, meet this with the rejoinder, that there
  is no blood-relationship between the mother and her offspring.

Footnote 518:

  _Sc._ Their oath to give a verdict according to the evidence must
  yield to the higher obligation of following the Divine will rather
  than the letter of the law.

Footnote 519:

  To have died in health by the arrows of a woman-warrior might have
  been borne. To be slain by a wife treacherously in his bath was to
  endure a far worse outrage.

Footnote 520:

  In this new argument, and the answer to it, we may trace, as in the
  _Prometheus_ and the _Agamemnon_, the struggles of the questioning
  intellect against the more startling elements of the popular religious
  belief. Zeus is worshipped as the supreme Lord, yet His dominion seems
  founded on might as opposed to goodness, on the unrighteous expulsion
  of another. Here, in Apollo's answer, there is a glimmer of a possible
  reconciliation. The old and the new, the sovereignty of Cronos and
  that of Zeus may be reconciled, and one supreme God be “all in all.”

Footnote 521:

  Comp. the thought and language of the _Suppliants_, v. 93.

Footnote 522:

  The last argument is, that the acquittal can be, at the best, partial
  only, not complete; formal, not real. There would remain for ever the
  pollution which would exclude Orestes from the _Phratria_, the
  clan-brotherhood, by which, as by a sacramental bond, all the members
  were held together.

Footnote 523:

  The question seems to have been one of those which occupied men's
  minds in their first gropings towards the mysteries of man's physical
  life, and both popular metaphors and primary impressions were in
  favour of the hypothesis here maintained. Euripides (_Orest._, v. 534)
  puts the same argument into the mouth of Orestes.

Footnote 524:

  The story of Athena's birth, full-grown, from the head of Zeus, is
  next referred to as the leading case bearing on the point at issue.

Footnote 525:

  Here, of course, the political interest of the whole drama reached its
  highest point. What seems comparatively flat to us must, to the
  thousands who sat as spectators, have been fraught with the most
  intense excitement, showing itself in shouts of applause, or audible
  tokens of clamorous dissent. The rivalry of Whigs and Tories over
  Addison's _Cato_, the sensation produced in times of Papal aggression
  by the king's answer to Pandulph in _King John_, presents analogies
  which are worth remembering.

Footnote 526:

  The story ran that the tribe of women warriors from the Caucasos, or
  the Thermodon, known by this name, had invaded Attica under Oreithyia,
  when Theseus was king, to revenge the wrongs he had done them, and to
  recover her sister Hippolyta. Ares, the God of Thrakians, Skythians,
  and nearly all the wilder barbaric tribes, was their special deity;
  and when they occupied the hill which rose over against the Acropolis,
  they sacrificed to him, and so it gained the name of the _Areopagos_,
  or “hill of Ares.”

Footnote 527:

  As in the _Agamemnon_ (v. 1010), so here we find the aristocratic
  conservative poet showing his colours, protesting against the
  admission to the Archonship, and therefore to the Areopagos, of men of
  low birth or in undignified employments.

Footnote 528:

  The words, like all political clap-trap, are somewhat vague; but, as
  understood at the time, the “lawless” policy alluded to was that of
  Pericles and Ephialtes, who sought to deface and to diminish the
  jurisdiction of the Areopagos, and the “tyrannical,” that which had
  crushed the independence of Athens under Peisistratos. Between the two
  was the conservative party, of which Kimon had been the leader.

Footnote 529:

  The Skythians may be named simply as representing all barbarous,
  non-Hellenic races; but they appear, about this time, wild and nomadic
  as their life was, to have impressed the minds of the Greeks somewhat
  in the same way as the Germans did the minds of the Romans in the time
  of Tacitus. Tales floated from travellers' lips of their wisdom and
  their happiness—of sages like Zamolxis and Aristarchos, who rivalled
  those of Hellas—of the Hyperborei, in the far north, who enjoyed a
  perpetual and unequalled blessedness.—Comp. _Libation-Pourers_, v.
  366.

Footnote 530:

  Two topics of praise are briefly touched on: (1) the lower, popular
  courts of justice at Athens might be open to the suspicion of
  corruption, but no breath of slander had ever tainted the fame of the
  Areopagos; (2) it met by night, keeping its watch, that the citizens
  might sleep in peace.

Footnote 531:

  The first of the twelve jurymen rises and drops his voting-ballot into
  one of the urns, and is followed by another at the end of each of the
  short two-line speeches in the dialogue that follows. The two urns of
  acquittal and condemnation stand in front of them. The plan of voting
  with different coloured balls (black and white) in the same urn, was a
  later usage.

Footnote 532:

  Compare note on v. 419.

Footnote 533:

  In the legend of Admetos son of Pheres, and king of Pheræ in
  Thessalia, Apollo is represented as having first given wine to the
  Destinies, and then persuaded them to allow Admetos, whenever the hour
  of death should come, to be redeemed from Hades, if father, or mother,
  or wife were willing to die for him. The self-surrender of his wife,
  Alkestis, for this purpose, forms the subject of the noblest of the
  tragedies of Euripides.

Footnote 534:

  Partly as setting at nought the power of Erinnyes and the Destinies,
  partly as giving wine to those whose libations were wineless.—Comp.
  Sophocles, _Œd. Col._ v. 100.

Footnote 535:

  The practice of the Areopagos is accurately reproduced. When the votes
  of the judges were equal a casting vote was given in favour of the
  accused, and was known as that of Athena.

Footnote 536:

  Another reading gives—

            “By spurting from your throats those venom drops.”

Footnote 537:

  The conservative poet enters his protest through the Erinnyes against
  the innovating spirit that looked with contempt upon the principles of
  a past age.

Footnote 538:

  Cock-fighting took its place among the recognised sports of the
  Athenians. Once a year there was a public performance in the theatre.

Footnote 539:

  The Temple of the Eumenides or Semnæ (“venerable ones”) stood near the
  Areopagos.

Footnote 540:

  Some two or three lines have probably been lost here.

Footnote 541:

  Probably an allusion to the silver-mine at Laureion, which about the
  time formed a large element of the revenues of Athens, and of which a
  tithe was consecrated to Athena.

Footnote 542:

  Reference is made to another local sanctuary, the temple on the
  Areopagos dedicated to the Olympian Zeus.

Footnote 543:

  The figure of Athena, as identical with Victory, and so the tutelary
  Goddess of Athens, was sculptured with out-spread wings.

Footnote 544:

  Cranaos, the son of Kecrops, the mythical founder of Athens.

Footnote 545:

  The sanctuaries of the Eumenides were crypt-like chapels, where they
  were worshipped by the light of lamps or torches.

Footnote 546:

  Perhaps, “Children of Night, yourselves all childless left.”

                               FRAGMENTS

                                   38
                          APHRODITE _loquitur_

 The pure, bright heaven still yearns to blend with earth,
 And earth is filled with love for marriage-rites,
 And from the kindly sky the rain-shower falls
 And fertilises earth, and earth for men
 Yields grass for sheep, and corn, Demêter's gift;
 And from its wedlock with the South the fruit
 Is ripened in its season; and of this,
 All this, I am the cause accessory.

                                  123

 So, in the Libyan fables, it is told
 That once an eagle, stricken with a dart,
 Said, when he saw the fashion of the shaft,
 “With our own feathers, not by others' hands,
 Are we now smitten.”

                                  147

 Of all the Gods, Death only craves not gifts:
 Nor sacrifice, nor yet drink-offering poured
 Avails; no altars hath he, nor is soothed
 By hymns of praise. From him alone of all
 The powers of Heaven Persuasion holds aloof.

                                  151

 When 'tis God's will to bring an utter doom
 Upon a house, He first in mortal men
 Implants what works it out.

                                  162

 The words of Truth are ever simplest found.

                                  163

 What good is found in life that still brings pain?

                                  174

 To many mortals silence great gain brings.

                                  229

 O Death the Healer, scorn thou not, I pray,
 To come to me: of cureless ills thou art
 The one physician. Pain lays not its touch
 Upon a corpse.

                                  230

 When the wind
 Nor suffers us to leave the port, nor stay.

                                  243

 And if thou wish to benefit the dead,
 'Tis all as one as if thou injured'st them,
 And they nor sorrow nor delight can feel:
 Yet higher than we are is Nemesis,
 And Justice taketh vengeance for the dead.

                                  266

                   THETIS _on the death of Achilles_

 Life free from sickness, and of many years,
 And in a word a fortune like to theirs
 Whom the Gods love, all this He spake to me
 As pæan-hymn, and made my heart full glad:
 And I full fondly trusted Phœbos' lips
 As holy and from falsehood free, of art
 Oracular an ever-flowing spring,
 And He who sang this, He who at the feast
 Being present, spake these things,—yea, He it is
 That slew my son.

                                  267

 The man who does ill, ill must suffer too.

                                  268

 Evil on mortals comes full swift of foot,
 And guilt on him who doth the right transgress.

                                  269

 Thou see'st a vengeance voiceless and unseen
 For one who sleeps or walks or sits at ease:
 It takes its course obliquely, here to-day,
 And there to-morrow. Nor does night conceal
 Men's deeds of ill, but whatsoe'er thou dost,
 Think that some God beholds it.

                                  270

 “All have their chance:” good proverb for the rich.

                                  271

 Wise is the man who knows what profiteth,
 Not he who knoweth much.

                                  272

 Full grievous burden is a prosperous fool.

                                  272A

 From a just fraud God turneth not away.

                                  273

 There is a time when God doth falsehood prize.

                                  274

 The polished brass is mirror of the form,
 Wine of the soul.

                                  275

 Words are the parents of a causeless wrath.

                                  276

 Men credit gain for oaths, not oaths for them.

                                  277

 God ever works with those that work with will.

                                  278

 Wisdom to learn is e'en for old men good.

                                  281

 The base who prosper are intolerable.

                                  282

 The seed of mortals broods o'er passing things,
 And hath nought surer than the smoke-cloud's shadow.

                                  283

 Old age hath stronger sense of right than youth.

                                  286

 Yet though a man gets many wounds in breast,
 He dieth not, unless the appointed time,
 The limit of his life's span, coincide;
 Nor does the man who by the hearth at home
 Sits still, escape the doom that Fate decrees.

                                  287

 How far from just the hate men bear to death,
 Which comes as safeguard against many ills.

                                  288

                              _To_ FORTUNE

 Thou did'st beget me; thou too, as it seems,
 Wilt now destroy me.

                                  289

 The fire-moth's silly death is that I fear.

                                  290

 I by experience know the race full well
 That dwells in Æthiop land, where seven-mouthed Nile
 Rolls o'er the land with winds that bring the rain,
 What time the fiery sun upon the earth
 Pours its hot rays, and melts the snow till then
 Hard as the rocks; and all the fertile soil
 Of Egypt, filled with that pure-flowing stream,
 Brings forth Demêter's ears that feed our life.

                                  291

 This hoopoo, witness of its own dire ills,
 He hath in varied garb set forth, and shows
 In full array that bold bird of the rocks
 Which, when the spring first comes, unfurls a wing
 Like that of white-plumed kite; for on one breast
 It shows two forms, its own and eke its child's,
 And when the corn grows gold, in autumn's prime,
 A dappled plumage all its form will clothe;
 And ever in its hate of these 'twill go
 Far off to lonely thickets or bare rocks.

                                  292

 Still to the sufferer comes, as due from God,
 A glory that to suffering owes its birth.

                                  293

 The air is Zeus, Zeus earth, and Zeus the heaven,
 Zeus all that is, and what transcends them all.

                                  294

 Take courage; pain's extremity soon ends.

                                  298

 When Strength and Justice are true yoke-fellows,
 Where can be found a mightier pair than they?

                            RHYMED CHORUSES

                               AGAMEMNON

                             VERSES 40-248

     Nine weary years are gone and spent
     Since Menelaos' armament
     Sped forth, on work of vengeance bent,
             For Priam's guilty land;
     And with him Agamemnon there
     Throne, sceptre, army all did share;
     And so from Zeus the Atreidæ bear,
             Their twofold high command.
     They a fleet of thousand sail,
     Strong in battle to prevail,
     Led from out our Argive coast,
     Shouting war-cries to the host;
     E'en as vultures do that utter
     Shrillest screams as round they flutter,
     Grieving for their nestlings lost,
     Plying still their oary wings
     In many lonely wanderings,
     Robbed of all the sweet unrest
     That bound them to their young ones' nest.
     And One on high of solemn state,
     Apollo, Pan, or Zeus the great,
     When he hears that shrill wild cry
     Of his clients in the sky,
     On them, the godless who offend,
     Erinnys slow and sure doth send.
     So 'gainst Alexandros then
     The sons of Atreus, chiefs of men,
     Zeus sent to work his high behest,
     True guardian of the host and guest.
     He, for bride of many a groom,
     On Danai, Troïans sendeth doom,
     Many wrestlings, sinew-trying
     Of the knee in dust down-lying,
     Many a spear-shaft snapt asunder
     In the prelude of war's thunder.
     What shall be, shall, and still we see
     Fulfilled is destiny's decree.
     Nor by tears in secret shed,
     Nor by offerings o'er the dead,
     Will he soothe God's vengeful ire
     For altar hearths despoiled of fire.

     And we with age outworn and spent
     Are left behind that armament,
     With head upon our staff low bent.
     Weak our strength like that of boy;
     Youth's life-blood, in its bounding joy,
     For deeds of might is like to age,
     And knows not yet war's heritage:
     And the man whom many a year
     Hath bowed in withered age and sere,
     As with three feet creepeth on,
     Like phantom form of day-dream gone
     Not stronger than his infant son.

     And now, O Queen, who tak'st thy name
     From Tyndareus of ancient fame,
     Our Clytæmnestra whom we own
     As rightly sharing Argos' throne!
     What tidings joyous hast thou heard,
     Token true or flattering word,
     That thou send'st to every shrine
     Solemn pomp in stately line,—
     Shrines of Gods who reign in light,
     Or those who dwell in central night,
     Who in Heaven for aye abide,
     Or o'er the Agora preside.
     Lo, thy gifts on altars blaze,
     And here and there through heaven's wide ways
     The torches fling their fiery rays,
     Fed by soft and suasive spell
     Of the clear oil, flowing well
     From the royal treasure-cell.
     Telling what of this thou may,
     All that's meet to us to say,
     Do thou our haunting cares allay,
     Cares which now bring sore distress,
     While now bright hope, with power to bless,
     From out the sacrifice appears,
     And wardeth off our restless fears,
     The boding sense of coming fate,
     That makes the spirit desolate.

                               STROPHE I

         Yes, it is mine to tell
 What omens to our leaders then befell,
         Giving new strength for war,
         (For still though travelled far
 In life, by God's great gift to us belong
         The suasive powers of song,)
         To tell how those who bear
 O'er all Achæans sway in equal share,
         Ruling in one accord
 The youth of Hellas that own each as lord,
         Were sent with mighty host
 By mighty birds against the Troïan coast,
 Kings of the air to kings of men appearing
 Near to the palace, on the right hand veering;
         On spot seen far and near,
         They with their talons tear
 A pregnant hare with all her unborn young,
 All her life's course in death's deep darkness flung.
 Oh raise the bitter cry, the bitter wail;
         Yet pray that good prevail!

                             ANTISTROPHE I

         And then the host's wise seer
 Stood gazing on the Atreidæ standing near,
         Of diverse mood, and knew
         Those who the poor hare slew,
 And those who led the host with shield and spear,
         And spake his omens clear:
         “One day this host shall go,
 And Priam's city in the dust lay low,
         And all the kine and sheep
 Countless, which they before their high towers keep,
         Fate shall with might destroy:
 Only take heed that no curse mar your joy,
 Nor blunt the edge of curb that Troïa waiteth,
 Smitten too soon, for Artemis still hateth
         The wingèd hounds that own
         Her father on his throne,
 Who slay the mother with the young unborn,
 And looks upon the eagle's feast with scorn.
 Ah! raise the bitter cry, the bitter wail;
         Yet pray that good prevail.

                                 EPODE

 For she, the Fair One, though her mercy shields
   The lion's whelps, like dew-drops newly shed,
 And yeanling young of beasts that roam the fields,
   Yet prays her sire fulfil these omens dread,
         The good, the evil too.
 And now I call on him, our Healer true,
 Lest she upon the Danai send delays
 That keep our ships through many weary days,
         Urging a new strange rite,
 Unblest alike by man and God's high law,
 Evil close clinging, working sore despite,
         Marring a wife's true awe.
         For still there lies in wait,
         Fearful and ever new,
 Watching the hour its eager thirst to sate,
 Vengeance on those who helpless infants slew.”
 Such things, ill mixed with good, great Calchas spake,
 As destined by the birds' strange auguries;
 And we too now our echoing answer make
         In loud and woeful cries:
 Oh raise the bitter cry, the bitter wail;
         Yet pray that good prevail.

                               STROPHE II

         O Zeus, whoe'er Thou be,
         If that name please thee well,
         By that I call on Thee;
 For weighing all things else I fail to tell
         Of any name but Zeus;
         If once for all I seek
 Of all my haunting, troubled thoughts a truce,
         That name I still must speak.

                             ANTISTROPHE II

         For He who once was great,
         Full of the might to war,
         Hath lost his high estate;
 And He who followed now is driven afar,
         Meeting his Master too:
         But if one humbly pay
 With 'bated breath to Zeus his honour due,
         He walks in wisdom's way,—

                              STROPHE III

 To Zeus, who men in wisdom's path doth train,
         Who to our mortal race
 Hath given the fixèd law that pain is gain;
         For still through his high grace
 True counsel falleth on the heart like dew,
         In deep sleep of the night,
 The boding thoughts that out of ill deeds grew;
 This too They work who sit enthronèd in their might.

                            ANTISTROPHE III

 And then the elder leader of great fame
         Who ruled the Achæans' ships,
 Not bold enough a holy seer to blame
         With words from reckless lips,
 But tempered to the fate that on him fell;—
         And when the host was vexed
 With tarryings long, scant stores, and surging swell,
 Chalkis still far off seen, and baffled hopes perplexed;

                               STROPHE IV

 And stormy blasts that down from Strymon sweep,
 And breed sore famine with the long delay,
 Hurl forth our men upon the homeless deep
         On many a wandering way,
 Sparing nor ships, nor ropes, nor sailing gear,
 Doubling the weary months, and vexing still
         The Argive host with fear.
 Then when as mightier charm for that dread ill,
         Hard for our ships to bear,
 From the seer's lips did “Artemis” resound,
 The Atreidæ smote their staves upon the ground,
 And with no power to check, shed many a bitter tear.

                             ANTISTROPHE IV

 And then the elder of the chiefs thus cried:
 “Great woe it is the Gods to disobey;
 Great woe if I my child, my home's fond pride,
         With my own hands must slay,
 Polluting with the streams of maiden's blood
 A father's hands, the holy altar near.
         Which course hath least of good?
 How can I loss of ships and comrades bear?
         Right well may men desire,
 With craving strong, the blood of maiden pure
 As charm to lull the winds and calm ensure;
 Ah, may there come the good to which our hopes aspire!”

                               STROPHE V

     Then, when he his spirit proud
     To the yoke of doom had bowed,
     While the blasts of altered mood
     O'er his soul swept like a flood,
     Reckless, godless and unblest;
     Thence new thoughts upon him pressed,
     Thoughts of evil, frenzied daring,
     (Still doth passion, base guile sharing,
     Mother of all evil, hold
     The power to make men bad and bold,)
     And he brought himself to slay
     His daughter, as on solemn day,
     Victim slain the ship to save,
     When for false wife fought the brave.

                             ANTISTROPHE V

     All her cries and loud acclaim,
     Calling on her father's name,—
     All her beauty fresh and fair,
     They heeded not in their despair,
     Their eager lust for conflict there.
     And her sire the attendants bade
     To lift her, when the prayer was said,
     Above the altar like a kid,
     Her face and form in thick veil hid;
     Yea, with ruthless heart and bold,
     O'er her gracious lips to hold
     Their watch, and with the gag's dumb pain
     From evil-boding words restrain.

                               STROPHE VI

         And then upon the ground
 Pouring the golden streams of saffron veil,
         She cast a glance around
         That told its piteous tale,
 At each of those who stood prepared to slay,
   Fair as the form by skilful artist drawn,
 And wishing, all in vain, her thoughts to say;
   For oft of old in maiden youth's first dawn,
         Within her father's hall,
         Her voice to song did call,
 To chant the praises of her sire's high state,
 His fame, thrice blest of Heaven, to celebrate.
         What then ensued mine eyes
 Saw not, nor may I tell, but not in vain
         The arts of Calchas wise;
         For justice sends again,
 The lesson “pain is gain” for them to learn:
   But for our piteous fate since help is none,
 With voice that bids “Good-bye,” we from it turn
   Ere yet it come, and this is all as one
         With weeping ere the hour,
         For soon will come in power
 To-morrow's dawn, and good luck with it come!
 So speaks the guardian of this Apian home.

                             VERSES 346-471

     O great and sovran Zeus, O Night,
     Great in glory, great in might,
     Who round Troïa's towers hast set,
     Enclosing all, thy close-meshed net,
     So that neither small nor great
     Can o'erleap the bondslave's fate,
     Or woe that maketh desolate;
     Zeus, the God of host and guest,
     Worker of all this confessed,
     He by me shall still be blest.
     Long since, 'gainst Alexandros He
     Took aim with bow that none may flee,
     That so his arrows onward driven,
     Nor miss their mark, nor pierce the heaven.

                               STROPHE I

         Yes, they lie smitten low,
 If so one dare to speak, by stroke of Zeus;
         Well one may trace the blow;
 The doom that He decreed their soul subdues.
         And though there be that say
 The Gods for mortal men care not at all,
 Though they with reckless feet tread holiest way,
         These none will godly call.
 Now is it to the children's children clear
         Of those who, overbold,
 More than was meet, breathed Discord's spirit drear;
 While yet their houses all rich store did hold
         Beyond the perfect mean.
 Ah! may my lot be free from all that harms,
         My soul may nothing wean
 From calm contentment with her tranquil charms;
         For nought is there in wealth
 That serves as bulwark 'gainst the subtle stealth
         Of Destiny and Doom,
 For one who, in the pride of wanton mood,
 Spurns the great altar of the Right and Good.

                             ANTISTROPHE I

         Yea, a strange impulse wild
 Urges him on, resistless in its might,
         Atè's far-scheming child.
 It knows no healing, is not hid in night,
         That mischief lurid, dark;
 Like bronze that will not stand the test of wear,
 A tarnished blackness in its hue we mark;
 And like a boy who doth a bird pursue
         Swift-floating on the wing,
 He to his country hopeless woe doth bring;
         And no God hears their prayer,
 But sendeth down the unrighteous to despair,
         Whose hands are stained with sin.
         So was it Paris came
 His entrance to the Atreidæ's home to win,
         And brought its queen to shame,
 To shame that brand indelible hath set
 Upon the board where host and guest were met.

                               STROPHE II

 And leaving to her countrymen to bear
 Wild whirl of ships of war and shield and spear,
         And bringing as her dower,
         Death's doom to Ilion's tower,
 She hath passed quickly through the palace gate,
         Daring what none should dare;
 And lo! the minstrel seers bewail the fate
         That home must henceforth share;
 “Woe for the kingly house and for its lord;
 Woe for the marriage-bed and paths which still
         A vanished love doth fill!
 There stands he, wronged, yet speaking not a word
         Of scorn from wrathful will,
 Seeing with utter woe that he is left,
         Of her fair form bereft;
         And in his yearning love
 For her who now is far beyond the sea,
 A phantom queen through all the house shall rove;
         And all the joy doth flee
 The sculptured forms of beauty once did give;
 And in the penury of eyes that live,
         All Aphroditè's grace
         Is lost in empty space.

                             ANTISTROPHE II

 And spectral forms in visions of the night
 Come, bringing sorrow with their vain delight:
         For vain it is when one
         Thinks that great joy is near,
 And, passing through his hands, the dream is gone
         On gliding wings, that bear
 The vision far away on paths of sleep.”
         Such woes were felt at home
 Upon the sacred altar of the hearth,
 And worse than these remain for those who roam
         From Hellas' parent earth:
 In every house, in number measureless,
         Is seen a sore distress:
         Yea, sorrows pierce the heart:
 For those who from his home he saw depart
         Each knoweth all too well;
 And now, instead of warrior's living frame,
 There cometh to the home where each did dwell
 The scanty ashes, relics of the flame,
         The urns of bronze that keep
         The dust of those that sleep.

                              STROPHE III

 For Ares, who from bodies of the slain
         Reapeth a golden gain,
 And holdeth, like a trafficker, his scales,
 E'en where the torrent rush of war prevails,
         From Ilion homeward sends
 But little dust, yet burden sore for friends,
 O'er which, smooth-lying in the brazen urn,
         They sadly weep and mourn,
 Now for this man as foremost in the strife,
 And now for that who in the battle fell,
         Slain for another's wife.
 And muttered curses some in secret tell,
         And jealous discontent
 Against the Atreidæ who as champions led
         The mighty armament;
 And some around the wall, the goodly dead,
 Have there in alien land their monument,
         And in the soil of foes
 Take in the sleep of death their last repose.

                            ANTISTROPHE III

 And lo! the murmurs which our country fill
         Are as a solemn curse,
 And boding anxious fear expecteth still
         To hear of evil worse.
 Not blind the Gods, but giving fullest heed
 To those who cause a nation's wounds to bleed;
 And the dark-robed Erinnyes in due time
         By adverse chance and change
 Plunge him who prospers though defiled by crime
 In deepest gloom, and through its formless range
         No gleams of help appear.
 O'er-vaunted glory is a perilous thing;
 For on it Zeus, whose glance fills all with fear,
         His thunderbolts doth fling.
         That fortune fair I praise
 That rouseth not the Gods to jealousy.
 May I ne'er tread the devastator's ways,
         Nor as a prisoner see
 My life wear out in drear captivity!

                                 EPODE

 And now at bidding of the courier-flame,
         Herald of great good news,
 A murmur swift through all the city came;
 But whether it with truth its course pursues,
 Who knows? or whether God who dwells on high,
         With it hath sent a lie?
 Who is so childish, or of sense bereft,
         As first to feel the glow
 That message of the herald fire has left,
         And then to sink down low,
 Because the rumour changes in its sound?
         It is a woman's mood
 To accept a boon before the truth is found:
 Too quickly she believes in tidings good,
         And so the line exact
         That marks the truth of fact
 Is over-passed, and with quick doom of death
 A rumour spread by woman perisheth.

                             VERSES 665-782

                               STROPHE I

 Who was it named her with such foresight clear?
         Could it be One of might,
 In strange prevision of her work of fear,
         Guiding the tongue aright?
 Who gave that war-wed, strife-upstirring one
         The name of Helen, ominous of ill?
 For 'twas through her that Hellas was undone,
         That woes from Hell men, ships, and cities fill.
 Out from the curtains, gorgeous in their fold,
 Wafted by breeze of Zephyr, earth's strong child,
         She her swift way doth hold;
 And hosts of mighty men, as hunters bold
         That bear the spear and shield,
 Wait on the track of those who steered their way
 Unseen where Simois flows by leafy field,
 Urged by a strife that came with power to slay.

                             ANTISTROPHE I

 And so the wrath which doth its work fulfil
         To Ilion brought, well-named,
 A marriage marring all, avenging still
         For friendship wronged and shamed,
 And outrage foul on Zeus, of host and guest
   The guardian God, from those who then did raise
 The bridal hymn of marriage-feast unblest
   Which called the bridegroom's kin to shouts of praise.
         But now by woe oppressed
 Priam's ancient city waileth very sore,
 And calls on Paris unto dark doom wed,
       Suffering yet more and more
 For all the blood of heroes vainly shed,
 And bearing through the long protracted years
 A life of wailing grief and bitter tears.

                               STROPHE II

         One was there who did rear
 A lion's whelp within his home to dwell,
         A monster waking fear,
 Weaned from the mother's milk it loved so well:
         Then in life's dawning light,
 Loved by the children, petted by the old,
         Oft in his arms clasped tight,
 As one an infant newly-born would hold,
 With eye that gleamed beneath the fondling hand,
 And fawning as at hunger's strong command.

                             ANTISTROPHE II

         But soon of age full grown,
 It showed the inbred nature of its sire,
         And wrought unasked, alone,
 A feast to be that fostering nurture's hire;
         Gorged full with slaughtered sheep,
 The house was stained with blood as with a curse
         No slaves away could keep,
 A murderous mischief waxing worse and worse,
 Sent as from God a priest from Atè fell,
 And reared within the man's own house to dwell.

                              STROPHE III

 So I would say to Ilion then there came
   Mood as of calm when every wind is still,
 The gentle pride and joy of noble fame,
 The eye's soft glance that all the soul doth thrill;
         Love's full-blown flower that brings
         The thorn that wounds and stings;
         And yet she turned aside,
 And of the marriage feast wrought bitter end,
 Coming to dwell where Priam's sons abide,
         Ill sojourner, ill friend,
 Sent by great Zeus, the God of host and guest,
 A true Erinnys, by all wives unblest.

                            ANTISTROPHE III

 There lives a saying framed of ancient days,
   And in men's minds imprinted firm and fast,
 That great good fortune never childless stays,
   But brings forth issue,—that on fame at last
         There rushes on apace
         Great woe for all the race;
         But I, apart, alone,
 Hold a far other and a worthier creed:
 The impious act is by ill issue known,
         Most like the parent deed;
 While still for all who love the Truth and Right,
 Good fortune prospers, fairer and more bright.

                               STROPHE IV

 But wanton Outrage done in days of old
   Another wanton Outrage still doth bear,
 And mocks at human woes with scorn o'erbold,
   Or soon or late as they their fortune share.
         That other in its turn
         Begets Satiety,
 And lawless Might that doth all hindrance spurn,
         And sacred right defy,
 Two Atès fell within their dwelling-place,
         Like to their parent race.

                             ANTISTROPHE IV

 Yet Justice still shines bright in dwellings murk
   And dim with smoke, and honours calm content;
 But gold-bespangled homes, where guilt doth lurk,
   She leaves with glance in horror backward bent,
         And draws with reverent fear
         To places holier far,
 And little recks the praise the prosperous hear,
         Whose glories tarnished are;
 But still towards its destined goal she brings
         The whole wide course of things.

       Say then, son of Atreus, thou
       Who com'st as Troïa's conqueror now,
 What form of welcome right and meet,
 What homage thy approach to greet,
 Shall I now use in measure true,
 Nor more nor less than that is due?
 Many men there are, I wis,
 Who in seeming place their bliss,
 Caring less for that which is.
 If one suffers, then their wail
 Loudly doth the ear assail;
 Yet have they nor lot nor part
 In the grief that stirs the heart;
 So too the joyous men will greet
 With smileless faces counterfeit:
 But shepherd who his own sheep knows
 Will scan the lips that fawn and gloze,
 Ready still to praise and bless
 With weak and watery kindliness.
 Thou when thou the host did'st guide
 For Helen—truth I will not hide—
 In mine eyes had'st features grim,
 Such as unskilled art doth limn,
 Not guiding well the helm of thought,
 And giving souls with grief o'erwrought
 False courage from fresh victims brought,
 But with nought of surface zeal,
 Now full glad of heart I feel,
 And hail thy acts as deeds well done:
 Thou too in time shall know each one,
 And learn who wrongly, who aright
 In house or city dwells in might.

                            VERSES 947-1001

                               STROPHE I

         Why thus continually
 Do ever-haunting phantoms hover nigh
         My hearth that bodeth ill?
 Why doth the prophet's strain unbidden still,
         Unbought, flow on and on?
         Why on my mind's dear throne
 Hath faith lost all her former power to fling
 That terror from me as an idle thing?
 Yet since the ropes were fastened in the sand
         That moored the ships to land,
 When the great naval host to Ilion went,
 Time hath passed on to feeble age and spent.

                             ANTISTROPHE I

         And now as face to face,
 Myself reporting to myself I trace
         Their safe return; and yet
 My mind, taught by itself, cannot forget
         Erinnys' dolorous cry,
         That lyreless melody,
   And hath no strength of wonted confidence.
   Not vain these pulses of the inward sense,
   As my heart beateth in its wild unrest,
           Within true-boding breast;
   And hoping against hope, I yet will pray
   My fears may all prove false and pass away.

                               STROPHE II

           Of high, o'erflowing health
   There is no limit found that satisfies;
         For soon by force or stealth,
   As foe 'gainst whom but one poor wall doth rise,
   Disease upon it presses, and the lot
   Of fair good fortune onward moves until
   It strikes on unseen reef where help is not.
           But should fear move their will
           For safety of their freight,