i. 10), it represents a faint approximation to a truer, more

monotheistic creed than that of the popular mythology.

Footnote 283:

The two mighty ones who have passed away are Uranos and Cronos, the representatives in Greek mythology of the earlier stages of the world's history, (1) mere material creation, (2) an ideal period of harmony, a golden, Saturnian age, preceding the present order of divine government with its mingled good and evil. Comp. Hesiod. _Theogon._, 459.

Footnote 284:

The Chorus returns, after its deeper speculative thoughts, to its interrupted narrative.

Footnote 285:

The seer saw his augury fulfilled. When he uttered the name of Artemis it was pregnant with all the woe which he had foreboded at the outset.

Footnote 286:

So that the blood may fall upon the altar, as the knife was drawn across the throat.

Footnote 287:

The whole passage should be compared with the magnificent description in Lucretius i. 84-101.

Footnote 288:

Beautiful as a picture, and as motionless and silent also. The art, young as it was, had already reached the stage when it supplied to the poet an ideal standard of perfection. Other allusions to it are found in vv. 774, 1300.

Footnote 289:

The words point to the ritual of Greek feasts, which assigned the first libation to Zeus and the Olympian Gods, the second to the Heroes, the third to Zeus in his special character as Saviour and Preserver; the last was commonly accompanied by a pæan, hymn of praise. The life of Agamemnon is described as one which had good cause to offer many such libations. Iphigeneia had sung many such pæans.

Footnote 290:

The mythical explanation of this title for the Argive territory is found in the _Suppl._ v. 256, and its real meaning is discussed in a note to that passage.

Footnote 291:

To speak of Morning as the child of Night was, we may well believe, among the earliest parables of nature. In its mythical form it appears in Hesiod (_Theogon._ 123), but its traces are found wherever, as among Hebrews, Athenians, Germans, men reckoned by nights rather than by days, and spoke of “the evening and the morning” rather than of “day and night.”

Footnote 292:

The God thought of is, as in v. 272, Hephæstos, as being Lord of the Fire, that had brought the tidings.

Footnote 293:

It is not without significance that Clytæmnestra scorns the channel of divine instruction of which the Chorus had spoken with such reverence. The dramatist puts into her mouth the language of those who scoffed at the notion that truth might come to the soul in “visions of the night,” when “deep sleep falleth upon men.” So Sophocles puts like thoughts into the mouth of Jocasta (_Œd. King_, vv. 709, 858).

Footnote 294:

Omens came from the flight of birds. An omen which was not trustworthy, or belonged to some lower form of divination, might therefore be spoken of as “wingless.” But the word may possibly be intensive, not negative, “swift-winged,” and then refer generically to that form of divination.

Footnote 295:

The description that follows, over and above its general interest, had, probably, for an Athenian audience, that of representing the actual succession of beacon-stations, by which they, in the course of the wars, under Pericles, had actually received intelligence from the coasts of Asia. A glance at the map will show the fitness of the places named—Ida, Lemnos, Athos, Makistos (a mountain in Eubœa), Messapion (on the coast of Bœotia), over the plains of the Asôpos to Kithæron, in the south of the same province, then over Gorgopis, a bay of the Corinthian Gulf, to Ægiplanctos in Megaris, then across to a headland overlooking the Saronic Gulf, to the Arachnæan hill in Argolis. The word “_courier_-fire” connects itself also with the system of posts or messengers, which the Persian kings seem to have been the first to organise, and which impressed the minds both of Hebrews (Esth. viii. 14) and Greeks (Herod. viii. 98) by their regular transmission of the king's edicts, or of special news.

Footnote 296:

Our ignorance of the details of the _Lampadephoria_, or “torch-race games,” in honour of the fire-God, Prometheus, makes the allusion to them somewhat obscure. As described by Pausanias (I. xxx. 2), the runners started with lighted torches from the altar of Prometheus in the Academeia and ran towards the city. The first who reached the goal with his torch still burning became the winner. If all the torches were extinguished, then all were losers. As so described, however, there is no succession, no taking the torch from one and passing it on to another, like that described here and in the well-known line of Lucretius (ii. 78),

“Et quasi cursores vitaï lampada tradunt.” (And they, as runners, pass the torch of life.)

On the other hand, there are descriptions which show that such a transfer was the chief element of the game. This is, indeed, implied both in this passage and in the comparison between the game and the Persian courier-system in Herod. viii. 98. The two views may be reconciled by supposing (1) that there were sets of runners, vying with each other as such, rather than individually, or (2) that a runner whose speed failed him though his torch kept burning, was allowed to hand it on to another who was more likely to win the race, but whose torch was out. The next line seems meant to indicate where the comparison failed. In the torch-race which Clytæmnestra describes there had been no contest. One and the self-same fire (the idea of succession passing into that of continuity) had started and had reached the goal, and so had won the prize. An alternative rendering would be,—

“He wins who is first in, though starting last.”

Footnote 297:

The complete foot-race was always to the column which marked the end of the course, round it, and back again. In getting to Troïa, therefore, but half the race was done.

Footnote 298:

Dramatically the words refer to the practical impiety of evildoers like Paris, with, perhaps, a half-latent allusion to that of Clytæmnestra. But it can hardly be doubted that for the Athenian audience it would have a more special significance, as a protest against the growing scepticism, what in a later age would have been called the Epicureanism, of the age of Pericles. It is the assertion of the belief of Æschylos in the moral government of the world. The very vagueness of the singular, “One there was,” would lead the hearers to think of some teacher like Anaxagoras, whom they suspected of Atheism.

Footnote 299:

The Chorus sees in the overthrow of Troïa, an instance of this righteous retribution. The audience were, perhaps, intended to think also of the punishment which had fallen on the Persians for the sacrilegious acts of their fathers. The “things inviolable” are the sanctities of the ties of marriage and hospitality, both of which Paris had set at nought.

Footnote 300:

Here, and again in v. 612, we have a similitude drawn from the metallurgy of Greek artists. Good bronze, made of copper and tin, takes the green rust which collectors prize, but when rubbed, the brightness reappears. If zinc be substituted for tin, as in our brass, or mixed largely with it, the surface loses its polish, oxidizes and becomes black. It is, however, doubtful whether this combination of metals was at the time in use, and the words may simply refer to different degrees of excellence in bronze properly so called.

Footnote 301:

In a corrupt passage like this, the text of which has been so variously restored and rendered, it may be well to give at least one alternative version:

“There stands she silent, with no honour met, Nor yet with words of scorn, Sweetest to see of all that he has lost.”

The words, as so taken, refer to the vision of Helen, described in the lines that follow. Another, for the line “In deepest woe,” &c., ... would give,

“Believing not he sees the lost one there.”

Footnote 302:

The art of Pheidias had already made it natural at Athens to speak of kings as decorating their palaces with the life-size busts or statues of those they loved.

Footnote 303:

Here again one may note a protest against the aggressive policy of Pericles, an assertion of the principle that a nation should be content with independence, without aiming at supremacy.

Footnote 304:

Perhaps passively, “Soon suffers trespassers.”

Footnote 305:

As the play opens on the morning of the day on which Troïa was taken, and now we have the arrivals, first, of the herald, and then of Agamemnon, after the capture has been completed, and the spoil divided, and the fleet escaped a storm, an interval of some days must be supposed between the two parts of the play, the imaginary law of the unities notwithstanding.

Footnote 306:

The customary adornment of heralds who brought good news. Comp. Sophocles, _Œd. K._ v. 83. The custom prevailed for many centuries, and is recognised by Dante, _Purg._ ii. 70, as usual in his time in Italy.

Footnote 307:

So in the _Seven against Thebes_ (v. 494), smoke is called “the sister of fire.”

Footnote 308:

A probable reference, not only to the story, but to the actual words of Homer, _Il._ i. 45-52.

Footnote 309:

Specially the Dioscuri, Castor and Polydeukes.

Footnote 310:

Such a position (especially in the case of Zeus or Apollo) was common in the temples both of Greece and Rome, and had a very obvious signification. As the play was performed, the actual hour of the day probably coincided with that required by the dramatic sequence of events, and the statues of the Gods were so placed on the stage as to catch the rays of the morning sun when the herald entered. Hence the allusion to the bright “cheerful glances” would have a visible as well as ethical fitness.

Footnote 311:

It formed part of the guilt of Paris, that, besides his seduction of Helena, he had carried off part of the treasures of Menelaos.

Footnote 312:

The idea of a payment twofold the amount of the wrong done, as a complete satisfaction to the sufferer, was common in the early jurisprudence both of Greeks and Hebrews (Exod. xxii. 4-7). In some cases it was even more, as in the four or fivefold restitution of Exod. xxii. 1. In the grand opening of Isaiah's message of glad tidings the fact that Jerusalem has received “double for all her sins” is made the ground on the strength of which she may now hope for pardon. Comp. also Isa. lxi. 7; Zech. ix. 12.

Footnote 313:

Perhaps—

“Full hardly, and the close and crowded decks.”

Footnote 314:

So stress is laid upon this form of hardship, as rising from the climate of Troïa, by Sophocles, _Aias_, 1206.

Footnote 315:

One may conjecture that here also, as with the passage describing the succession of beacon fires (vv. 281-314), the description would have for an Athenian audience the interest of recalling personal reminiscences of some recent campaign in Thrakè, or on the coasts of Asia.

Footnote 316:

We may, perhaps, think of the herald, as he speaks, placing some representative trophy upon the pegs on the pedestals of the statues of the great Gods of Hellas, whom he had invoked on his entrance.

Footnote 317:

Or,

“So that to this bright morn our sons may boast, As they o'er land and ocean take their flight, 'The Argive host of old, who captured Troïa, These spoils of battle to the Gods of Hellas, Hung on their pegs, a trophy of old days.'”

Footnote 318:

The husband, on his departure, sealed up his special treasures. It was the glory of the faithful wife or the trusty steward to keep these seals unbroken.

Footnote 319:

There is an ambiguity, possibly an intentional one, in the comparison which Clytæmnestra uses. If there was no such art as that of “staining bronze” (or copper) known at the time, the words would be a natural phrase enough to describe what was represented as an impossibility. Later on in the history of art, however, as in the time of Plutarch, a process so described (perhaps analogous to enamelling) is mentioned (_De Pyth. Orac_. § 2) as common. If we suppose the art to have been a mystery known to the few, but not to the many, in the time of Æschylos, then the words would have for the hearers the point of a _double entendre_. She seems to the mass to disclaim what yet, to those in the secret she acknowledges.

Another rendering refers “bronze” to the “sword,” and makes the stains those of blood; as though she said, “I am as guiltless of adultery as of murder,” while yet she knew that she had committed the one, and meant to commit the other. The possibility of such a meaning is certainly in the words, and with a sharp-witted audience catching at ænigmas and dark sayings may have added to their suggestiveness. The ambiguous comment of the Chorus shows that they read, as between the lines, the shameful secret which they knew, but of which the Herald was ignorant.

Footnote 320:

The last two lines are by some editors assigned to the Herald.

Footnote 321:

It need hardly be said that it is as difficult to render a _paronomasia_ of this kind as it is to reproduce those, more or less analogous, which we find in the prophets of the Old Testament (comp. especially Micah i.); but it seems better to substitute something which approaches, however imperfectly, to an equivalent than to obscure the reference to the _nomen et omen_ by abandoning the attempt to translate it. “Hell of men, and hell of ships, and hell of towers,” has been the rendering adopted by many previous translators. The Greek fondness for this play on names is seen in Sophocles, _Aias_, v. 401.

Footnote 322:

Zephyros, Boreas, and the other great winds were represented in the _Theogony_ of Hesiod (v. 134) as the offspring of Astræos and Eôs, and Astræos was a Titan. The west wind was, of course, favourable to Paris as he went with Helen from Greece to Troïa.

Footnote 323:

Here again the translator has to meet the difficulty of a pun. As an alternative we might take—

“To Ilion brought, well-named, A marriage marring all.”

Footnote 324:

The sons of Priam are thought of as taking part in the celebration of Helen's marriage with Paris, and as, therefore, involving themselves in the guilt and the penalty of his crime.

Footnote 325:

Here, too, it may be well to give an alternative rendering—

“A mischief in his house, A man reared, not on milk.”

Home-reared lions seem to have been common as pets, both among Greeks and Latins (Arist., _Hist. Anim._ ix. 31; Plutarch, _de Cohib. irâ_, § 14, p. 822), sometimes, as in Martial's Epigram, ii. 25, with fatal consequences. The text shows the practice to have been common enough in the time of Pericles to supply a similitude.

Footnote 326:

There may, possibly, be a half allusion here to the passage in the _Iliad_ (vv. 154-160), which describes the fascination which the beauty of Helen exercised on the Troïan elders.

Footnote 327:

The poet becomes a prophet, and asserts what it has been given him to know of the righteous government of God. The dominant creed of Greece at the time was, that the Gods were envious of man's prosperity, that this alone, apart from moral evil, was enough to draw down their wrath, and bring a curse upon the prosperous house. So, _e.g._, Amasis tells Polycrates (Herod. iii. 40) that the unseen Divinity that rules the world is envious, that power and glory are inevitably the precursors of destruction. Comp. also the speech of Artabanos (Herod. vii. 10, 46). Against this, in the tone of one who speaks singlehanded for the truth, Æschylos, through the Chorus, enters his protest.

Footnote 328:

_Sc._, Agamemnon, by the sacrifice of Iphigeneia, had induced his troops to persevere in an expedition from which, in their inmost hearts, they shrank back with strong dislike. A conjectural reading gives,

“By the sacrifice he offered Giving death-doomed men false boldness.”

Footnote 329:

The tone of ambiguous irony mingles, it will be seen, even here, with the praises of the Chorus.

Footnote 330:

Possibly an allusion to Pandora's box. Here, too, Hope alone was left, but it only came up to where the curve of the rim began, not to its top. The imagery is drawn from the older method of voting, in which (as in _Eumenides_, v. 678) the votes for condemnation and acquittal were cast into separate urns.

Footnote 331:

The lion, as the symbol of the house of Atreus, still seen in the sculptures of Mykenæ; the horse, in allusion to the stratagem by which Troïa had been taken.

Footnote 332:

At the end of autumn, and therefore at a season when a storm like that described by the herald would be a probable incident enough.

Footnote 333:

So in Sophocles, Philoctetes (v. 1025) taunts Odysseus:—

“And yet thou sailedst with them by constraint, By tricks fast bound.”

Footnote 334:

Geryon appears in the myth of Hercules as a monster with three heads and three bodies, ruling over the island Erytheia, in the far West, beyond Hesperia. To destroy him and seize his cattle was one of the “twelve labours,” with which Hesiod (_Theogon._ vv. 287-294) had already made men familiar.

Footnote 335:

When a man is buried, there is earth above and earth below him. Clytæmnestra having used the words “coverlet,” pauses to make her language accurate to the very letter. She is speaking only of the earth which would have been laid over her husband's corpse, had he died as often as he was reported to have done. She will not utter anything so ominous as an allusion to the depths below him stretching down to Hades.

Footnote 336:

Or—

“Weeping because the torches in thy house No more were lighted as they were of yore.”

Footnote 337:

The words touch upon the psychological fact that in dreams, as in other abnormal states of the mind, the usual measures of time disappear, and we seem to pass through the experiences of many years in the slumber of a few minutes.

Footnote 338:

The rhetoric of the passage, with all its multiplied similitudes, fine as it is in itself, receives its dramatic significance by being put into the lips of Clytæmnestra. She “doth protest too much.” A true wife would have been content with fewer words.

Footnote 339:

The last three lines of the speech are of course intentionally ambiguous, carrying one meaning to the ear of Agamemnon, and another to that of the audience.

Footnote 340:

There is obviously a side-thrust, such as an Athenian audience would catch at, at the token of homage which the Persian kings required of their subjects, the prostration at their feet, the earth spread over with costly robes. Of the latter custom we have examples in the history of Jehu (2 Kings ix. 13), in our Lord's entry into Jerusalem (Mark xi. 8), in the usages of modern Persian kings (Malcolm's _Persia_, i. 580); perhaps also in the true rendering of Ps. xlv. 14. “She shall be brought unto the king _on_ raiment of needle-work.” In the march of Xerxes across the Hellespont myrtle-boughs strown on the bridge of boats took the place of robes (Herod. vii. 54). To the Greek character, with its strong love of independence, such customs were hateful. The case of Pausanias, who offended the national feeling by assuming the outward state of the Persian kings, must have been recalled to the minds of the Athenians, intentionally or otherwise, by such a passage as this.e bridge of boats took the place of robes (Herod. vii. 54). To

Footnote 341:

The “old saying, famed of many men,” which we find in the _Trachiniæ_ of Sophocles (v. 1), and in the counsel of Solon to Crœsos (Herod. i. 32).

Footnote 342:

He who had suffered so much from the wrath of Artemis at Aulis knew what it was to rouse the wrath and jealousy of the Gods.

Footnote 343:

An echo of a line in Hesiod (_Works and Days_, 763)—

“No whispered rumours which the many spread Can ever wholly perish.”

Footnote 344:

Here, too, we may trace a reference to the Oriental custom of recognising the sanctity of a consecrated place by taking the shoes from off the feet, as in Exod. iii. 5, in the services of the Tabernacle and Temple, through all their history (Juven., _Sat._ vi. 159), in all mosques to the present day. Agamemnon, yielding to the temptress, seeks to make a compromise with his conscience. He will walk upon the tapestry, but will treat it as if it, of right, belonged to the Gods, and were a consecrated thing. It is probably in connection with this incident that Æschylos was said to have been the first to bring actors on the stage in these boots or buskins (Suidas. s. v. άρβύλη).

Footnote 345:

The words of Isaiah (xviii. 5), “when the sour grape is ripening in the flower,” present an almost verbal parallel.

Footnote 346:

The ever-recurring ambiguity of Clytæmnestra's language is again traceable, as is also her fondness for rhetorical similitudes.

Footnote 347:

The Chorus speaks in perplexity. In cannot get rid of its forebodings, and yet it would seem as if the time for the fulfilment of the dark words of Calchas must have passed long since. It actually sees the safe return of the leader of the host, yet still its fears haunt it.

Footnote 348:

Asclepios, whom Zeus smote with his thunderbolt for having restored Hippolytos to life.

Footnote 349:

The Chorus, in spite of their suspicions and forebodings, have given the king no warning. They excuse themselves by the plea of necessity, the sovereign decree of Zeus overruling all man's attempts to withstand it.

Footnote 350:

Cassandra is summoned to an act of worship. The household is gathered, the altar to Zeus Ktesios (the God of the family property, slaves included), standing in the servants' hall, is ready. The new slave must come in and take her place with the others.

Footnote 351:

As in the story which forms the groundwork of the _Trachiniæ_ of Sophocles, vv. 250-280, that Heracles had been sold to Omphale as a slave, in penalty for the murder of Iphitos.

Footnote 352:

Political as well as dramatic. The Eupatrid poet appeals to public opinion against the _nouveaux riches_, the tanners and lamp-makers, who were already beginning to push themselves forward towards prominence and power. The way was thus prepared in the first play of the Trilogy for what is known to have been the main object of the last. Comp. Arist., _Rhet._ ii. 32.

Footnote 353:

Here again the translator has the task of finding an English _paronomasia_ which approximates to that of the Greek, between Apollo and ἀπόλλων _the destroyer_. To Apollo, as the God of paths (_Aguieus_), an altar stood, column-fashion, before the street-door of every house, and to such an altar, placed by the door of Agamemnon's palace, Cassandra turns, with the twofold play upon the name.

Footnote 354:

This refers, probably, to the death of Hippodameia, the wife of Pelops, who killed herself, in remorse for the death of Chrysippos, or fear of her husband's anger. The horrors of the royal house of Argos pass, one by one, before the vision of the prophetess, and this leads the procession, followed by the spectres of the murdered children of Thyestes.

Footnote 355:

The Chorus, as in their last ode, had made up their minds, though foreboding ill, to let destiny take its course. They do not wish that policy of non-interference to be changed by any too clear vision of the future.

Footnote 356:

The Chorus understands the vision of the _clairvoyante_ as regards the past tragedy of the house of Atreus, but not that which seems to portend another actually imminent.

Footnote 357:

Fresh visions come before the eyes of the seeress. She beholds the company of Erinnyes hovering over the accursed house, and calls on them to continue their work till the new crime has met with its due punishment. The murder which she sees as if already wrought, demands death by stoning.

Footnote 358:

The “yellow” look of fear is thought of as being caused by an actual change in the colour of the blood as it flows through the veins to the heart.

Footnote 359:

Here there is prevision as well as clairvoyance. The deed is not yet done. The sacrifice and the feast are still going on, yet she sees the crime in all its circumstances.

Footnote 360:

As before (v. 115) the black eagle had been the symbol of the warrior-chief, so here the black-horned bull, that being one of the notes of the best breed of cattle. A various reading gives “with _her_ swarthy horn.”

Footnote 361:

What the Chorus had just said as to the fruitlessness of prophetic insight tallied all too well with her own bitter experience.

Footnote 362:

The ecstasy of horror interrupts the tenor of her speech, and the second “thou” is addressed not to the Chorus, but to Agamemnon, whose death Cassandra has just witnessed in her vision.

Footnote 363:

The song of the nightingale, represented by these sounds, was connected with a long legend, specially Attic in its origin. Philomela, daughter of Pandion, king of Attica, suffered outrage at the hands of Tereus, who was married to her sister Procne, and was then changed into a nightingale, destined ever to lament over the fate of Itys her sister's son. The earliest form of the story appears in the _Odyssey_ (xix. 518). Comp. Sophocles, _Electr._ v. 148.

Footnote 364:

In the marriage-rites of the Greeks of the time of Æschylos, the bride for three days after the wedding wore her veil; then, as now no longer shrinking from her matron life, she laid it aside and looked on her husband with unveiled face.

Footnote 365:

The picture might be drawn by any artist of power, but we may, perhaps, trace a reproduction of one of the grandest passages in the _Iliad_ (iv. 422-426).

Footnote 366:

So in the _Eumenides_ (v. 293), the Erinnyes appear as vampires, drinking the blood of their victims.

Footnote 367:

The death of Myrtilos as the first crime in the long history of the house of Pelops. Comp. Soth. _Electr._ v. 470. The “defiler” is Thyestes, who seduced Aerope, the wife of Atreus.

Footnote 368:

The horror of the Thyestes banquet again haunts her as the source of all the evils that followed, of the deaths both of Iphigenia and Agamemnon. The “stay-at-home” is Ægisthos.

Footnote 369:

Both words point to the Sindbad-like stories of distant marvels brought back by Greek sailors. The Amphisbæna (double-goer), wriggling itself backward and forward, believed to have a head at each extremity, was looked upon as at once the most subtle and the most venomous of serpents. Skylla, already famous in its mythical form from the story in the _Odyssey_ (xii. 85-100), was probably a “development” of the monstrous cuttle-fish of the straits of Messina.

Footnote 370:

As in Homer (_Il._ i. 14) so here, the servant of Apollo bears the wand of augury, and fillets or wreaths round head and arms. The divining garments, in like manner, were of white linen.

Footnote 371:

If we adopt this reading, we must think of Cassandra as identifying herself with the woe (Atè) which makes up her life, just as afterwards Clytæmnestra speaks of herself as one with the avenging Demon (Alastor) of the house of Atreus (1473). The alternative reading gives—

“Make rich in woe another in my place.”

Footnote 372:

Perhaps, “in home not mine.”

Footnote 373:

When the victim, instead of shrinking and struggling, went, as with good courage, to the altar, it was noted as a sign of divine impulse. Such a strange, new courage the Chorus notices in Cassandra.

Footnote 374:

Possibly,

“My one escape, my friends, is but delay.”

Footnote 375:

The implied thoughts of the words is that Priam and his sons, though they had died nobly, were yet miserable, and not happy.

Footnote 376:

The Syrian ritual had, it would seem, become proverbial for its lavish use of frankincense and other spices.

Footnote 377:

The close parallel of Shakespeare's _Henry VI._, Act. v. sc. 6, is worth quoting—

“The bird that hath been limed in a bush, With trembling eyes misdoubteth every bush”

Footnote 378:

The older reading gives—

“A shadow might o'erturn it.”

Footnote 379:

Her own doom, hard as it was, touches her less than the common lot of human suffering and mutability.

Footnote 380:

So far the dialogue has been sustained by the Coryphæos, or leader of the Chorus. Now each member of it speaks and gives his counsel.

Footnote 381:

The Coryphæos again takes up his part, sums up, and pronounces his decision.

Footnote 382:

_i.e._, He had had his triumph over her when, forgetful of her mother's feelings, he had sacrificed Iphigeneia. She has now repaid him to the full.

Footnote 383:

The third libation at all feasts was to Zeus, as the Preserver or Guardian Deity. Clytæmnestra boasts that her third blow was as an offering to a God of other kind, to Him who had in his keeping not the living, but the dead.

Footnote 384:

So in the _Choëphori_ (vv. 351, 476), the custom of pouring libations on the burial-place of the dead is recognised as an element of their blessedness or shame in Hades, and Agamemnon is represented as lacking the honour which comes from them till he receives it at the hand of Orestes.

Footnote 385:

Incense was placed on the head of the victim. The Chorus tell Clytæmnestra that she has brought upon her own head the incense, not of praise and admiration, but of hatred and wrath, as though some poison had driven her mad.

Footnote 386:

The species of swan referred to is said to be the _Cygnus Musicus_. Aristotle (_Hist. Anim._ ix. 12) describes swans of some kind as having been heard by sailors near the coast of Libya, “singing with a lamentable cry.” Mrs. Somerville (_Phys. Geog._, c. xxxiii. 3) describes their note as “like that of a violin.” The same fact is reported of the swans of Iceland and other regions of the far North. The strange, tender beauty of the passage in the _Phædo_ of Plato (p. 85, a), which speaks of them as singing when at the point of death, has done more than anything else to make the illustration one of the commonplaces of rhetoric and poetry.

Footnote 387:

The structure of the lyrical dialogue that follows is rather complicated, and different editors have adopted different arrangements. I have followed Paley's.

Footnote 388:

Several lines seem to have dropped out by some accident of transcription.

Footnote 389:

Agamemnon and Menelaos, as descended from Tantalos, the father of Pelops.

Footnote 390:

In each case women, Helen and Clytæmnestra, had been the unconscious instruments of the divine Nemesis, to which the Chorus traces the ruin of the house of Atreus.

Footnote 391:

Or, with another reading,—

“He (_sc._ the avenging Demon) boasteth in his pride of heart.”

Footnote 392:

It is characteristic of the teaching of Æschylos that the Chorus passes from the thought of the agency of any lower Power to the supreme will of Zeus.

Footnote 393:

Or, “Dying, as dies a slave.”

Footnote 394:

Clytæmnestra still harps (though in ambiguous words, which may refer also to the murder of the children of Thyestes) upon the death of Iphigeneia as the crime which it had been her work to avenge.

Footnote 395:

Perhaps, “And that, too, not a slave's.”

Footnote 396:

Here the genealogy is carried one step further to Pleisthenes, the father of Tantalos.

Footnote 397:

Ægisthos, in his version of the story, suppresses the adultery of Thyestes with the wife of Atreus, which led the latter to his horrible revenge.

Footnote 398:

The image is taken from the trireme with its three benches full of rowers. The Chorus is compared to the men on the lowest, Ægisthos and Clytæmnestra to those on the uppermost bench.

Footnote 399:

The earliest occurrence of the proverb with which we are familiar through the history of St. Paul's conversion, Acts ix. 5, xxvi. 14.

Footnote 400:

The trace-horse, as not under the pressure of the collar, was taken as the type of free, those that wore the yoke, of enforced submission.

THE LIBATION-POURERS

DRAMATIS PERSONÆ

ORESTES CLYTÆMNESTRA PYLADES ELECTRA ÆGISTHOS _Nurse_ _Servant_ _Chorus of Captive Women_

_ARGUMENT.—It came to pass, after Agamemnon had been slain, that Clytæmnestra and Ægisthos ruled in Argos, and all things seemed to go well with them. Orestes, who was heir to Agamemnon, they had sent away to the care of Strophios of Phokis, and there he abode. Electra, his sister, mourned in secret over her father's death, and prayed for vengeance, but no avenger came. And when Orestes grew up to man's estate, he went to ask counsel of the God at Delphi, and the Gods straitly charged him to take vengeance on his father's murderers; and so he started on his journey with his trusty friend Pylades, and arrived at Argos. And it chanced that a little while before he came, the Gods sent Clytæmnestra a fearful dream, that troubled her soul greatly; and in her terror she bade Electra go with her handmaids to pour libations on the tomb of Agamemnon, that so she might appease his soul, and propitiate the Powers that rule over the dark world of the dead._

THE LIBATION-POURERS

SCENE.—Argos, _in front of the palace of the Atreidæ. The tomb of_ AGAMEMNON _(a raised mound of earth) is seen in the background._

_Enter_ ORESTES _and_ PYLADES _from the left;_ ORESTES _advances to the mound, and, as he speaks, lays on it a lock of his hair._

_Orest._ O Hermes of the darkness 'neath the earth, Who hast the charge of all thy Father's[401] sway, To me who pray deliverer, helper be; For I to this land come, from exile come, And on the raised mound of this monument I bid my father hear and list. One tress, Thank-offering for the gifts that fed my youth, To Inachos I consecrate, and this The second as the token of my grief;[402] For mine it was not, father, being by, Over thy death to groan, nor yet to stretch My hand forth for the burial of thy corpse.

[_As he speaks_, ELECTRA, _followed by a train of captive women in black garments, bearing libations, wailing and tearing their clothes, comes forth from the palace_

What see I now? What company of women Is this that comes in mourning garb attired? What chance shall I conjecture as its cause? 10 Does a new sorrow fall upon this house? Or am I right in guessing that they bring Libations to my father, soothing gifts To those beneath? It cannot but be so. I think Electra, mine own sister, comes, By wailing grief conspicuous. Thou, O Zeus, Grant me full vengeance for my father's death, And of thine own good will my helper be! Come, Pylades, and let us stand aside, That I may clearly learn what means this train Of women offering prayers. 20

STROPHE I

_Chor._ Sent from the house I come, With quick, sharp beatings of the hands in grief, To pour libations here; *And see, my cheeks with bloody marks are tracked,[403] The new-cut furrows which my nails have made, And evermore my heart is fed with groans; And folds of mantles tied Across the breast are rent To shreds and rags in grief, *Marring the grace of linen vestments fair, *Since we by woes that shut out smiles are smitten. 30

ANTISTROPHE I

*Full clear a spectre came That made each single hair to stand on end, Dream-prophet of this house, That e'en in sleep breathes out avenging wrath; And from the secret chamber cried in fear A cry that broke the silence of the night, There, where the women dwell, Falling with heaviest weight; And those who judge such dreams Told, calling God to witness, that the souls Below were wroth and vexed with those that slew them. 40

STROPHE II

On such a graceless deed of grace, as charm To ward off ill, (O Earth! O mother kind!) A godless woman now Sends me with eager heart; And yet I dread to utter that same prayer; What ransom has been found For blood on earth once poured? Oh! hearth all miserable! Oh! utter overthrow of house and home! Yea, mists of darkness, sunless, loathed of men, 50 Cover both home and house With its lords' bloody deaths.

ANTISTROPHE II

Yea, all the majesty that awed of old, Unchecked, unconquered, irresistible, Thrilling the people's heart As well as ears, is gone; There are, may be, that fear;[404] but now Success Is man's sole God and more; Yet stroke of Vengeance swift Smites some in life's clear day, For some who tarry long their sorrows wait In twilight dim, on darkness' borderland, *And some an endless night Of nothingness holds fast.

STROPHE III

Because of blood that mother earth has drunk, The guilt of slaughter that will vengeance work Is fixed indelibly; And Atè, working grief, 60 Permits awhile the guilty one to wait, That so he may be full and overflow *With all-devouring ill.

ANTISTROPHE III

For him whose foul touch stains the marriage bed[405] No remedy avails; and water-streams, Though all as from one source Should pour to cleanse the guilt *Of murder that the sin-stained hand defiles, *Would yet flow all in vain *That guilt to purify.

EPODE

But now to me, since the high Gods have sent A doom of bondage round my city's walls, (For from my father's home They have brought on me fate of slavery,) Deeds right and wrong alike Have been as things 'twas meet I should accept, 70 Since this slave-life began, Where deeds are done by violence and force,— And I must needs suppress *The bitter loathing of my inmost heart, *And now beneath my cloak I weep and wail *For all the frustrate fortunes of my lords,[406] Chilled through with secret grief.

_Elect._ Ye handmaids, ye who deftly tend this house, Since ye are here companions in my task As suppliants, give me your advice in this, What shall I say as these funereal gifts I pour? How shall I speak acceptably? 80 How to my father pray? What? Shall I say “I bring from loving wife to husband loved Gifts”—from my mother? No, I am not bold Enough for that, nor know I what to speak, Pouring this chrism on my father's tomb,[407] Or shall I say this prayer, as men are wont, “Good recompense make thou to those who bring These garlands,” yea, a gift full well deserved By deeds of ill? Or dumb, with ignominy Like that with which he perished, shall I pour Libations on the earth, and like a man That flings away the lustral filth, shall I Throw down the urn and walk with eyes not turned?[408] 90 Be sharers in my counsels, O my friends; A common hate we cherish in the house; Hide nothing in your heart through fear of man. Fate's doom firm-fixed awaits alike the free, And those in bondage to another's hand. Speak, if thou can'st a better counsel give. 100

_Chor._ [_laying their hands on Agamemnon's tomb._] Thy father's tomb as altar honouring, I, as thou bidd'st, will speak my heart-thoughts out!

_Elect._ Speak, then, as thou my father's tomb dost honour,

_Chor._ Say, as thou pour'st, good words for those that love,

_Elect._ Which of my friends shall I address as such!

_Chor._ First then thyself, and whoso hates Ægisthos.

_Elect._ Shall I for thee, as for myself, pray thus?

_Chor._ Now that thou'rt learning, judge of that thyself.

_Elect._ Whom shall I add then to this company?

_Chor._ Far though Orestes be, forget him not.

_Elect._ Right well is this: thou teachest admirably.

_Chor._ Then, for the blood-stained ones remembering say....

_Elect._ What then? Explain, and teach my ignorance.[409] 110

_Chor._ That there may come to them some God or man....

_Elect._ Shall I “as judge” or as “avenger” say?

_Chor._ Say it out plain! “to give them death for death.”...

_Elect._ May prayers like these consist with piety?

_Chor._ Why not,—a foe with evils to requite?

_Elect._ [_moving to the tomb, and pouring libations as she speaks._] *O mightiest herald of the Gods on high And those below, O Hermes of the dark, Call thou the Powers beneath, and bid them hear The prayers that look towards my father's house; And Earth herself, who all things bringeth forth, 120 And rears them and again receives their fruit. And I to human souls libations pouring, Say, calling on my father, “Pity me; How shall we bring our dear Orestes home?” For now as sold to ill by her who bore us, We poor ones wander. She as husband gained Ægisthos, who was partner in thy death; And I am as a slave, and from his wealth Orestes now is banished, and they wax Full haughty in the wealth thy toil had gained. 130 And that Orestes hither with good luck May come, I pray. Hear thou that prayer, my father! And to myself grant thou that I may be Than that my mother wiser far of heart, Holier in act. For us this prayer I pour; And for our foes, my father, this I pray, That Justice may as thine avenger come, And that thy murderers perish. Thus I place Midway in prayer for good that now I speak, My prayer 'gainst them for evil. Be thou then The escort[410] of these good things that I ask, 140 With help of Gods, and Earth, and conquering Justice. With prayers like these my votive gifts I pour; And as for you [_turning to the Chorus_] 'tis meet with cries to crown The pæan ye utter, wailing for the dead.

STROPHE

_Chor._ *Pour ye the pattering tear, *Falling for fallen lord, *Here by the tomb that shuts out good and ill,— Here, where the full libations have been poured That turn aside the curse men deprecate, Hear me, O Thou my Dread, 150 Hear thou, O Sire, the words my dark mind speaks!

ANTISTROPHE

Oh, woe is me, woe, woe! Woe, woe, and woe is me! *What warrior strong of spear Shall come the house to free, Or Ares with his Skythian bow[411] in hand, Shaking its pliant strength in deeds of war, *Or guiding in encounter closer yet The weapons made with hilts?

[_During the choral ode_ ELECTRA, _after going to the mound, and pouring the libations on it, returns holding in her hands the lock of hair which_ ORESTES _had left there_

_Elect._ The gifts the earth hath drunk, my father hath them: Now this new wonder come and share with me.

_Chor._ Speak on, my heart goes pit-a-pat with fear.

_Elect._ There on the tomb I see this lock cut off. 160

_Chor._ What man or maid low-girdled can it claim?

_Elect._ Full easy this for any one to guess.

_Chor._ Old as I am, may I from younger learn?

_Elect._ None but myself could cut off lock like this.

_Chor._ Yea, foes are they that should with grief-locks mourn.

_Elect._ Yes, surely, 'tis indeed the self-same hair....

_Chor._ But as what tresses? This I seek to know.

_Elect._ And of a truth 'tis very like to ours....

_Chor._ Did then Orestes send this secret gift?[412]

_Elect._ It is most like those flowing locks of his. 170

_Chor._ Yet how had he adventured to come hither?

_Elect._ He to his father sent the lock as gift.

_Chor._ Not less regretful than before, thy words, If on this soil his foot shall never tread.

_Elect._ Yea, on me too there rushed heart-surge of gall And I was smitten as with dart that pierced; And from mine eyes there fell the thirsty drops That pour unchecked, of this full bitter flood, As I this lock beheld. How can I think That any other townsman owns this hair? 180 Nay, she who slew ... she did not cut it off, My mother ... who towards her children shows A godless mood that little suits the name; And yet that I should this assert outright, The precious gift is his whom most of men I love, Orestes.... Nay, hope flatters me. Alas! alas! Would, herald-like, it had a kindly voice! So should I not turn to and fro in doubt; But either it had told me with all clearness To loathe this tress, if cut from hated head; 190 Or, being of kin, had sought to share my grief, To deck the tomb and do my father honour.

_Chor._ Well, on the Gods we call, on those who know In what storms we, like sailors, now are tossed: But if deliverance may indeed be ours, From a small seed a mighty trunk may grow.[413]

_Elect._ Here too are foot-prints as a second proof, Just like ... yea, close resembling those of mine. For here are outlines of two separate feet, His own and those of fellow-traveller, 200 And all the heels and impress of the feet, When measured, fit well with my footsteps here.... Pangs come on me, and sore bewilderment.

[_As she ceases speaking_ ORESTES _comes forward from his concealment_

_Orest._ Pray, uttering to the Gods no fruitless prayer, For good success in what is yet to come.

_Elect._ What profits now to me the Gods' good will?

_Orest._ Thou see'st those here whom most thou did'st desire.

_Elect._ Whom called I on, that thou hast knowledge of?

_Orest._ Right well I know how thou dost prize Orestes.

_Elect._ In what then find I now my prayers fulfilled? 210

_Orest._ Behold me! Seek no dearer friend than I!

_Elect._ Nay, stranger, dost thou weave a snare for me?

_Orest._ Then do I plot my schemes against myself.

_Elect._ Thou seekest to make merry with my grief.

_Orest._ With mine then also, if at all with thine.

_Elect._ Art thou indeed Orestes that I speak to?

_Orest._ Though thou see'st him, thou'rt slow to learn 'tis I; Yet when thou saw'st this lock of mourner's hair, And did'st the foot-prints track my feet had made, Agreeing with thine own, as brother's true, Then did'st thou deem in hope thou looked'st on me. 220 Fit then this lock where it was cut, and see; See too this woven robe, thine own hands' work, The shuttle's stroke, and forms of beasts[414] of chase.

[ELECTRA _starts, as if about to cry aloud for joy_

Restrain thyself, nor lose thy head for joy: Our nearest kin, I know, are foes to us.

_Elect._ [_embracing_ ORESTES] Thou whom thy father's house most loves, most prays for, Our one sole hope, bewept with many a tear, Of issue that shall work deliverance! Thine own might trusting, thou thy father's house Shall soon win back. O pleasant fourfold name! 230 I needs must speak to thee as father dear;[415] The love I owe my mother turns to thee, (She with full right to me is hateful now,) My sister's too, who ruthlessly was slain; And thou wast ever faithful brother found, And one whom I revered. May Might and Right, And sovran Zeus as third, my helpers be!

_Orest._ Zeus! Zeus! be Thou a witness of our troubles, See the lorn brood that calls an eagle sire, Eagle that perished in the coils and folds 240 Of a fell viper. Now on them bereaved Presses gaunt famine. Not as yet full-grown Are they to bring their father's booty home. Thus it is thine to see in me and her, (I mean Electra) children fatherless, Both suffering the same exile from our home.

_Elect._ And should'st Thou havoc make of brood of sire Who at thine altar greatly honoured Thee, Whence wilt Thou get a festive offering From hand as free? Nor, should'st Thou bring to nought The eagle's nestlings, would'st thou have at hand 250 A messenger to bear thy will to man In signs persuasive; nor when withered up This royal stock shall be, will it again Wait on thine altars at high festivals: Oh, bring it back, and then Thou too wilt raise From low estate a lofty house, which now Seems to have fallen, fallen utterly.

_Chor._ Ah, children! saviours of your father's house, Hush, hush, lest some one hear you, children dear, And for mere talking's sake report all this To those that rule. Ah, would I might behold them Lie dead 'midst oozing fir-pyre blazing high![416] 260

_Orest._ Nay, nay, I tell you, Loxias' oracle, In strength excelling, will not fail us now, That bade me on this enterprise to start, And with clear voice spake often, warning me Of chilling pain-throes at the fevered heart, Unless my father's murderers I should chase, Bidding me kill them in the self-same fashion, Stirred by the wrongs that pauperise my life, And said that I with many a mischief ill Should pay for that fault with mine own dear life. For making known to men the charms earth-born 270 *That soothe the wrathful powers,[417] he spake for us Of ills as follows, leprous sores that creep All o'er the flesh, and as with cruel jaws Eat out its ancient nature, and white hairs[418] On that foul ill to supervene: and still He spake of other onsets of the Erinnyes, As brought to issue from a father's blood; For the dark weapon of the Gods below Winged by our kindred that lie low in death, And beg for vengeance, yea, and madness too, And vague, dim fears at night disturb and haunt me, *Seeing full clearly, though I move my brow[419] 280 In the thick darkness ... and that then my frame, Thus tortured, should be driven from the city With brass-knobbed scourge: and that for such as I It was not given to share the wine-cup's taste, Nor votive stream in pure libation poured; And that my father's wrath invisible Would drive me from all altars, and that none Should take me in, or lodge with me; at last, That, loathed of all and friendless, I should die, A wretched mummy, all my strength consumed. Must I not trust such oracles as these? Yea, though I trust not, must the deed be done; 290 For many motives now in one converge,— The God's command, great sorrow for my father; My lack of fortune, this, too, urges me Never to leave our noble citizens, With noblest courage Troïa's conquerors, To be the subjects to two women thus; Yea, his soul is as woman's:[420] an' it be not, He soon shall know the issue.

_Chor._ Grant ye from Zeus, O mighty Destinies! That so our work may end As Justice wills, who takes our side at last; 300 Now for the tongue of bitter hate let tongue Of bitter hate be given. Loud and long The voice of Vengeance claiming now her debt; And for the murderous blow Let him who slew with murderous blow repay. “That the wrong-doer bear the wrong he did,” Thrice-ancient saying of a far-off time,[421] This speaketh as we speak.

STROPHE I

_Orest._ O father, sire ill-starred, What deed or word could I Waft from afar to thee, Where thy couch holds thee now, 310 *To be a light with dark commensurate? Alike, in either case, The wail that tells their praise is welcome gift To those Atreidæ, guardians of our house.

STROPHE II

_Chor._ My child, my child, the mighty jaws of fire[422] Bind not the mood and spirit of the dead! But e'en when that is past he shows his wrath. When he that dies is wailed, The murderer stands revealed: 320 The righteous cry for parents that begat, To fullest utterance roused, Searches the whole truth out.

ANTISTROPHE I

_Elect._ Hear then, O father, now Our tearful griefs in turn; From us thy children twain The funeral wail ascends; And we, as suppliants and as exiles too, Find shelter at thy tomb. What of all this is good, what void of ills? 330 Is not this now a woe invincible?

_Chor._ Yet, even yet, from evils such as these, God, if He will, may bring more pleasant strains: And for the dirge we utter by the tomb, A pæan in the royal house may raise Welcome to new-found friend.

STROPHE III

_Orest._ Had'st thou beneath the walls Of Ilion, O my sire, Been slain by Lykian foe,[423] Pierced through and through with spear, Leaving high fame at home, 340 And laying strong and sure *Thy children's paths in life, Then had'st thou had as thine Far off across the sea A mound of earth heaped high, To all thy kith and kin endurable.

ANTISTROPHE II

_Chor._ Yea, and as friend with friends That nobly died, he then Had dwelt in high estate A sovereign ruler, held Of all in reverence, High in their train who rule Supreme in that dark world; 350 For he, too, while he lived, As monarch ruled o'er those Whose hands the sceptre held That mortal men obey.[424]

ANTISTROPHE III

_Elect._ Not even 'neath the walls Of Troïa, O my sire, With those the spear hath slain, Would I have had thee lie By fair Scamandros' stream: No, this my prayer shall be That those who slew thee fall, *By their own kin struck down, 360 That one might hear far off, Untried by woes like this, The fate that brings inevitable death.

_Chor._ Of blessings more than golden, O my child, Greater than greatest fortune, or the bliss Of those beyond the North[425] thou speakest now; For this is in thy grasp; But hold; e'en now this thud of double scourge[426] Finds its way on to him; Already these find helpers 'neath the earth, But of those rulers whom we loathe and hate Unholy are the hands: 370 And children gain the day.

STROPHE IV

_Elect._ Ah! this, like arrow, pierces through the ear! O Zeus! O Zeus! who sendest from below A woe of tardy doom Upon the bold and subtle hands of men.... Nay, though they parents be, Yet all shall be fulfilled.

STROPHE V

_Chor._ May it be mine to chant o'er funeral pyre *Cry well accordant with the pine-fed blaze,[427] When first the man is slain, And his wife perisheth! 380 Why should I hide what flutters round my heart? On my heart's prow a blast blows mightily, Keen wrath and loathing fierce.

ANTISTROPHE IV

_Orest._ And when shall Zeus, the orphan's guardian true, Lay to his hand and smite the guilty heads? So may our land learn faith! Vengeance I claim from those who did the wrong. 390 Hear me, O Earth, and ye, *Powers held in awe below!

_Chor._ Yea, the law saith that gory drops once shed Upon the ground for yet more blood should crave; *For lo! fell slaughter on Erinnys calls, To come from those that perished long ago, And on one sorrow other sorrow bring.

STROPHE VI

_Elect._ *Ah, ah, O Earth, and Lords of those below! Behold, ye mighty Curses of the slain, Behold the remnant of the Atreidæ's house Brought to extremest strait, 400 Bereaved of house and home! Whither, O Zeus, can any turn for help?

ANTISTROPHE V

_Chor._ Ah, my fond heart is quivering in dismay, *Hearing this loud lament most lamentable: Now have I little cheer, And blackened is my heart, *Hearing that speech; but then again when hope *On strength uplifts me, far it drives my grief, *Propitious seen at last.

ANTISTROPHE VI

_Orest._ What could we speak more fitly than the woes 410 We suffer, yea, and from a parent's hands? Well, she may fawn; our mood remains unsoothed; For like a wolf untamed, We from our mother take A wrathful soul that to no fawning yields.

STROPHE VII

_Chor._ *I strike an Arian stroke, and in the strain Of Kissian mourner skilled,[428] Ye might have seen the stretching forth of hands, With rendings of the hair, and random blows, In quick succession given, Dealt from above with arm at fullest length, And with the beating still my head is stunned, 420 Battered and full of woe.

_Elect._ O mother, hostile found, and daring all! With burial as of foe Thou had'st the heart a ruler to inter, His citizens not there, A spouse unwept, with no lamentings loud.

STROPHE VIII

_Orest._ Ah! thou hast told the whole full tale of shame; Shall she not pay then for that outrage dire Unto my father done, So far as Gods prevail, So far as my hands work? May it be mine to smite her and then die! 430

ANTISTROPHE VII

_Chor._ Yea, he was maimed![429] (that thou the tale may'st know) And as she slaughtered, so she buried him, Seeking to work a doom For thy young life all unendurable. Now thou dost hear the woes Thy father suffered, stained with foulest shame.

ANTISTROPHE VIII

_Elect._ Thou tellest of my father's death, but I Stood afar off, contemned, Counted as nought, and like a cursèd hound Shut up within, I poured the tide of tears (More ready they than smiles) Uttering in secret wail of weeping full. 440 Hear thou these things, and write them in my mind.

_Chor._ Let the tale pierce thine ears, While thy soul onward moves with tranquil step: So much, thou know'st, stands thus; Seek thou with all desire to know the rest; 'Tis meet to enter now Within the lists with mind inflexible.

STROPHE IX

_Orest._ I bid thee, O my father, help thy friends.

_Elect._ Bitterly weeping, these my tears I add.

_Chor._ With full accord so cries our company. Come then to light, and hear; 450 Be with us 'gainst our foes.

ANTISTROPHE IX

_Orest._ My Might their Might, my Right their Right must meet.

_Elect._ *Ye Gods, give righteous issue in our cause.

_Chor._ Fear creeps upon me as I hear your prayers. Long tarries destiny, But comes to those who pray.

STROPHE X

_Semi-Chor. A._ Oh, woe that haunts the race, And harsh, shrill stroke of Atè's bloody scourge! Woes sad and hard to bear, 460 Calling for wailing loud, Ah, woe is me, a grief immedicable.

ANTISTROPHE X

_Semi-Chor. B._ Yea, but as cure for this, And healing salve,'tis yours with your own hands, With no help from without, *To press your suit of blood; So runs our hymn to those great Gods below.

_Chor._ Yea, hearing now, ye blest Ones 'neath the earth, This prayer, send ye your children timely help That worketh victory.

_Orest._ O sire, who in no kingly fashion died'st, 470 Hear thou my prayer; grant victory o'er this house.

_Elect._ I, father, ask this prayer, that I may work *Ægisthos' death, and then acquittal gain.

_Orest._ Yea, thus the banquets that men give the dead Would for thee too be held, but otherwise *Dishonoured wilt thou lie 'mid those that feast,[430] Robbed of thy country's rich burnt-offerings.

_Elect._ I too from out my father's house will bring Libations from mine own inheritance, As marriage offerings. Chief and first of all, Will I do honour to this sepulchre.

_Orest._ Set free my sire, O Earth, to watch the battle. 480

_Elect._ O Persephassa, goodly victory grant!

_Orest._ Remember, sire, the bath in which they slew thee!

_Elect._ *Remember thou the net they handselled so!

_Orest._ In fetters not of brass wast thou snared, father.

_Elect._ Yea, basely with that mantle they devised.

_Orest._ Art thou not roused by these reproaches, father?

_Elect._ Dost thou not lift thine head for those thou lov'st?

_Orest._ Or send thou Vengeance to assist thy friends; Or let them get like grasp of those thy foes, If thou, o'ercome, dost wish to conquer them. 490

_Elect._ And hear thou this last prayer of mine, my father, Seeing us thy nestlings sitting at thy tomb, Have mercy on thy boy and on thy girl; Nor blot thou out the seed of Pelopids: So thou, though thou hast died, art yet not dead; For children are the voices that preserve Man's memory when he dies: so bear the net The corks that float the flax-mesh from the deep. Hear thou: This is our wailing cry for thee, And thou, our prayer regarding, sav'st thyself. 500

_Chor._ Unblamed have ye your utterance lengthened out, Amends for that his tomb's unwept-for lot. But as to what remains, since thou'rt resolved To act, act now; make trial of thy Fate.

_Orest._ So shall it be. Yet 'tis not out of course To ask why she libations sent, why thus Too late she cares for ill she cannot cure? Yea, to a dead man heeding not 'twas sent, A sorry offering. Why, I fail to guess: The gifts are far too little for the fault; 510 For should a man pour all he has to pay For one small drop of blood, the toil were vain: So runs the saying. But if thou dost know, Tell this to me as wishing much to learn.

_Chor._ I know, my child, for I was by. Stirred on By dreams and wandering terrors of the night, That godless woman these libations sent.

_Orest._ And have ye learnt the dream, to tell it right?

_Chor._ As she doth say, she thought she bare a snake.

_Orest._ How ends the tale, and what its outcome then?

_Chor._ She nursed it, like a child, in swaddling clothes. 520

_Orest._ What food did that young monster crave for then?

_Chor._ She in her dream her bosom gave to it.

_Orest._ How 'scaped her breast by that dread beast unhurt?

_Chor._ Nay, with the milk it sucked out clots of blood.

_Orest._ Ah, not in vain comes this dream from her lord.

_Chor._ She, roused from sleep, cries out all terrified, And many torches that were quenched in gloom Blazed for our mistress' sake within the house. Then these libations for the dead she sends, Hoping they'll prove good medicine of ills. 530

_Orest._ Now to Earth here and my sire's tomb I pray They leave not this strange vision unfulfilled. So I expound it that it all coheres; For if, the self-same spot that I left leaving, *The snake was then wrapt in my swaddling clothes, And sucked the very breast that nourished me, And mixed the sweet milk with a clot of blood, And she in terror wailed the strange event, So must she, as that monster dread she nourished, Die cruel death: and I, thus serpentised, 540 Am here to slay her, as this dream portends; I take thee as my dream-interpreter.

_Chor._ So be it; but in all else guide thy friends; *Bid some do this, some that, some nought at all.

_Orest._ Simple my orders, that she [_pointing to_ ELECTRA] go within; And you, I charge you, hide these plans of mine, That they who slew a noble soul by guile, By guile may die and in the self-same snare Be caught, as Loxias gave his oracle, The king Apollo, seer that never lied: 550 For like a stranger in full harness clad Will I draw near with this man, Pylades, To the great gates, a stranger I, and he, Ally in arms. And then we both will speak Parnassian speech, and imitate the tone Of Phokian tongue. And should no porter there Give us good welcome, on the ground that now The house with ills is haunted, there we'll stay, So that a man who passeth by the house Will guess, and thus will speak, “Why drives Ægisthos The suppliant from his gate, if he's at home And knows it?” But if I should pass the threshold 560 Of the great gate, and find him seated there Upon my father's throne, or if he comes And meets me, face to face, and lifts his eyes, And drops them, then be sure, before he says, “Whence is this stranger?”—I will lay him dead, With my swift-footed brazen weapon pierced; And then Erinnys, stinted not in slaughter, Shall drink her third draught of unmingled blood.[431] Thou, then, [_to_ ELECTRA] watch well what passes in the house, 570 So that these things may dovetail close and well: And you [_to the Chorus_] I bid to keep a tongue discreet, Silent, if need be, or the right word speaking, And Him[432] [_pointing to the statue of Apollo_] I call to look upon me here, Since he has set me on this strife of swords.

[_Exeunt_ ORESTES, PYLADES, _and_ ELECTRA

STROPHE I

_Chor._ Many dread forms of evils terrible Earth bears, and Ocean's bays With monsters wild and fierce *O'erflow, and through mid-air the meteor lights 580 Sweep by; and wingèd birds And creeping things can tell the vehement rage Of whirling storms of winds.

ANTISTROPHE I

But who man's temper overbold may tell, Or daring passionate loves Of women bold in heart, Passions close bound with men's calamities? Love that true love disowns, That sways the weaker sex in brutes and men, 590 Usurps o'er wedlock's ties.

STROPHE II

Whoso is not bird-witted, let him think What scheme she learnt to plan, Of subtle craft that wrought its will by fire, That wretched child of Thestios, who to slay Her son did set a-blaze The brand that glowed blood-red, Which had its birth when first from out the womb He came with infant's wail, And spanned the measure of its life with his, 600 On to the destined day.[433]

ANTISTROPHE II

Another, too, must we with loathing name, Skylla, with blood defiled.[434] Who for the sake of foes a dear one slew, Won by the gold-chased bracelets brought from Crete, The gifts that Minos gave, And knowing not the end, Robbed Nisos of his lock of deathless life, She with her dog-like heart 610 Surprising him deep-breathing in his sleep; But Hermes comes on her.[435]

STROPHE III

And since I tell the tale of ruthless woes....[436] Yet now 'tis not the time *To tell of evil marriage which this house Doth loathe and execrate, And of a woman's schemes and stratagems Against a warrior chief, *Chief whom his people honoured as was meet, I give my praise to hearth from hot broils free, And praise that woman's mood That dares no deed of ill.

ANTISTROPHE III

But of all crimes the Lemnian foremost stands[437] 620 *And the Earth mourns that woe As worthy of all loathing. Yes, this guilt One might have well compared With Lemnian ills; and now that race is gone, To lowest shame brought down By the foul guilt the Gods abominate: For no man honours what the Gods condemn, Which instance of all these Do I not rightly urge?[438]

STROPHE IV

And now the sword already at the heart, Sharp-pointed, strikes a blow that pierces through, While Vengeance guides the hand; 630 For lo! the lawlessness Of one who doth transgress all lawlessly The might and majesty of Zeus, lies not As trampled under foot.[439]

ANTISTROPHE IV

The anvil-block of Vengeance firm is set, And Fate, the swordsmith, hammers on the bronze Beforehand; and the child Is brought unto his home, And in due time the debt of guilt is paid By the dark-souled Erinnys, famed of old, For blood of former days.

ORESTES _and_ PYLADES _enter, disguised as Phokian travellers, go to the door of the palace, and knock loudly_

_Orest._ What ho, boy! hear us knocking at the gate. 640 Who is within, boy? who, boy?—hear, again; A third time now I give my summons here, If good Ægisthos' house be hospitable.

[_A_ SLAVE _opens the door_

_Slave._ Hold, hold; I hear. What stranger comes, and whence?

_Orest._ Tell thou thy lords who over this house rule, To whom I come and tidings new report; And make good speed, for now the dusky car Of night comes on apace, and it is time For travellers in hospitable homes To cast their anchor; and let some one come From out the house who hath authority; 650 The lady, if so be one ruleth here, But, seemlier far, her lord; for then no shame In converse makes our words obscure and dim; But man with man gains courage to speak out, And makes his mission manifest as day.

_Enter_ CLYTÆMNESTRA

_Clytæm._ If ye need aught, O strangers, speak; for here Is all that's fitting for a house like ours; Warm baths,[440] and bed that giveth rest from toil, And presence of right honest faces too; If there be aught that needeth counsel more, That is men's business, and to them we'll tell it. 660

_Orest._ A Daulian traveller, from Phokis come, Am I, and as I went on business bound, My baggage with me, unto Argos, I (Just as I set forth,) met a man I knew not, Who knew not me, and he then, having asked My way and told me his, the Phokian Strophios (For so I learnt in talking) said to me, “Since thou dost go, my friend, for Argos bound, In any case, tell those who gave him birth, Remembering it right well, Orestes' death; See thou forget it not, and whether plans 670 Prevail to fetch him home, or bury him There where he is, a stranger evermore, Bear back the message as thy freight for us; For now the ribbed sides of an urn of bronze The ashes hide of one whom men have wept.” So much I heard and now have told; and if I speak to kin that have a right in him I know not, but his father sure should know it.

_Clytæm._ Ah, thou hast told how utterly our ruin Is now complete! O Curse of this our house, Full hard to wrestle with! How many things, 680 Though lying out of reach, thou aimest at, And with well-darted arrows from afar Dost bring them low! And now thou strippest me, Most wretched one, of all that most I loved. A lucky throw Orestes now was making, Getting his feet from out destruction's slough; But now the hope of high, exulting joy, *Which this house had as healer, he scores down As present in this fashion that we see.

_Orest._ I could have wished to come to prosperous hosts, As known and welcomed for my tidings good; For who to hosts is friendlier than a guest? 690 But 'twould have been as impious in my thoughts Not to complete this matter for my friends, By promise bound and pledged as guest to host.

_Clytæm._ Thou shalt not meet with less than thou deserv'st; Nor wilt thou be to this house less a friend; Another would have brought news all the same: But since 'tis time that strangers who have made A long day's journey find the things they need, Lead him [_to her Slave, pointing to_ ORESTES] to these our hospitable halls, And these his fellow-travellers and servants: 700 There let them meet with what befits our house. I bid thee act as one who gives account; And we unto the masters of our house Will tell this news, and with no lack of friends Deliberate of this calamity.[441]

[_Exeunt_ CLYTÆMNESTRA, ORESTES, PYLADES, _and Attendants_

_Chor._ Come then, handmaids of the palace, When shall we with full-pitched voices Show our feeling for Orestes? O earth revered! thou height revered, too, Of the mound piled o'er the body Of our navy's kingly captain, 710 Oh, hear us now; oh, come and help us; For 'tis time for subtle Suasion[442] To go with them to the conflict, And that Hermes act as escort, He who dwells in earth's deep darkness, In the strife where swords work mischief.

_Enter_ KILISSA

_Chor._ The stranger seems about to work some ill; And here I see Orestes' nurse in tears. Where then, Kilissa, art thou bound, that thus Thou tread'st the palace-gates, and with thee comes Grief as a fellow-traveller unbidden? 720

_Kilis._ Our mistress bids me with all speed to call Ægisthos to the strangers, that he come And hear more clearly, as a man from man, This newly-brought report. Before her slaves, Under set eyes of melancholy cast, She hid her inner chuckle at the events That have been brought to pass—too well for her, But for this house and hearth most miserably,— As in the tale the strangers clearly told. He, when he hears and learns the story's gist, Will joy, I trow, in heart. Ah, wretched me! 730 How those old troubles, of all sorts made up, Most hard to bear, in Atreus' palace-halls Have made my heart full heavy in my breast! But never have I known a woe like this. For other ills I bore full patiently, But as for dear Orestes, my sweet charge, Whom from his mother I received and nursed.... And then the shrill cries rousing me o' nights. And many and unprofitable toils For me who bore them. For one needs must rear The heedless infant like an animal, 740 (How can it else be?) as his humour serves. For while a child is yet in swaddling clothes, *It speaketh not, if either hunger comes, Or passing thirst, or lower calls of need; And children's stomach works its own content. And I, though I foresaw this, call to mind How I was cheated, washing swaddling clothes, And nurse and laundress did the self-same work. I then with these my double handicrafts, Brought up Orestes for his father dear; And now, woe's me! I learn that he is dead, 750 And go to fetch the man that mars this house: And gladly will he hear these words of mine.

_Chor._ And how equipped then doth she bid him come?

_Nurse._ 'How?' Speak again that I may better learn.

_Chor._ By spearmen followed, or himself alone?

_Nurse._ She bids him bring his guards with lances armed.

_Chor._ Nay, say not that to him thy lord doth hate.[443] But bid him 'come alone,' (that so he hear Without alarm,) 'full speed, with joyous mind,' Since 'secret speech with messengers goes best.' 760

_Nurse._ And art thou of good cheer at this my tale?

_Chor._ But what if Zeus will turn the tide of ill?

_Nurse._ How so? Orestes, our one hope is gone.

_Chor._ Not yet; a sorry seer might know thus much.

_Nurse._ What say'st thou? Know'st thou aught besides my tale?

_Chor._ Go tell thy message; do thine errand well: The Gods for what they care for, care enough.

_Nurse._ I then will go, complying with thy words: May all, by God's gift, end most happily!

STROPHE I

_Chor._ Now to my prayer, O Father of the Gods 770 Of high Olympos, Zeus, Grant that their fortune may be blest indeed *Who long to look on goodness prospering well, Yea, with full right and truth I speak the word—O Zeus, preserve thou him!

STROPHE II

Yea, Zeus, set him whom now the palace holds, Set him above his foes; For if thou raise him high, Then shall thou have, to thy heart's full content, Payment of twofold, threefold recompense.

ANTISTROPHE I

Know that the son of one who loved thee well 780 *Like colt of sire bereaved, *Is to the chariot of great evils yoked, *And set thy limit to his weary path. *Ah, would that one might see *His panting footsteps, as he treads his course, *Keeping due measure through this plain of ours!

STROPHE III

And ye within the gate, Ye Gods, in purpose one, Who dwell in shrines enriched With all good things, come ye, And now with vengeance fresh Atone for murder foul Of those that fell long since: 790 *And let that blood of old, *When these are justly slain, Breed no more in our house.

MESODE

O Thou[444] that dwellest in the cavern vast, Adorned with goodly gifts, Grant our lord's house to look up yet once more, And that it now may glance, In free and glorious guise With loving kindly eyes, From out its veil of gloom. Let Maia's son[445] too give His righteous help, and waft Good end with prosperous gale.

ANTISTROPHE III

*And things that now are hid, 800 He, if he will, will bring As to the daylight clear; But when it pleases him Dark, hidden words to speak, As in thick night he bears Black gloom before his face;[446] Nor is he in the day One whit more manifest.

STROPHE IV

*And then our treasured store,[447] *The price as ransom paid To free the house from ill, A woman's gift on breath Of favouring breeze onborne, We then with clamorous cry, To sound of cithern sweet, Will in the city pour; And if this prospers well, *My gains, yea mine, 'twill swell, and Atè then From those I love stands far. 810

ANTISTROPHE II

But thou, take courage, when the time is come For action, and cry out, Shouting thy father's name, When she shall cry aloud the name of “son,” And work thou out a woe that none will blame.

ANTISTROPHE IV

And have thou in thy breast The heart that Perseus had,[448] And for thy friends beneath, And those on earth who dwell, Go thou and work the deed Acceptable to them, 820 Of bitter, wrathful mood, And consummate within *The loathly work of blood; [And bidding Vengeance come as thine ally,] Destroy the murderer.

_Enter_ ÆGISTHOS

_Ægis._ Not without summons came I, but by word Of courier fetched, and learn that travellers bring Their tale of tidings new, in no wise welcome. As for Orestes' death, with it to charge The house would be a burden dropping fear To one by that old bloodshed sorely stung.[449] How shall I count these things? As clear and true? Or are they vague reports of woman's fears, 830 That leap up high and die away to nought? What can'st thou say that will my mind inform?

_Chor._ We heard, 'tis true; but go thou in and ask Of these same strangers. Nought is found in words Of messengers like asking, man from man.

_Ægis._ I wish to see and probe the messenger, If he himself were present at the death, Or tells it hearing of a vague report: They shall not cheat a mind with eyes wide open.

[_Exit_

_Chor._ Zeus! Zeus! what words shall I 840 Now speak, whence start in prayer, *Invoking help of Gods? How with all wish for good Shall I speak fitting words? For now the sharp sword-points, Red with the blood of man, Will either work for aye The utter overthrow Of Agamemnon's house, Or, kindling fire and torch For freedom thus achieved, Will he the sceptre wield Of duly-ordered sway, His father's pride and state: 850 Such is the contest he, Orestes, godlike one, Now wages all alone, The one sole combatant,[450] In place of him who fell, Against those twain. May victory be his!

_Ægisth._ [_groaning within_] Ah! ah! Woe's me!

_Chor._ Hark! hark! How goes it now? What issue has been wrought within the house? Let us hold back while they the deed are doing, That we may seem as guiltless of these ills: For surely now the fight has reached its end.

_Enter_ Servant _from the chief door_

_Serv._ Alas! alas! my master perishes! 860 Alas! alas! a third time yet I call. Ægisthos is no more; but open now With all your speed, and loosen ye the bolts That bar the women's gates. A man's full strength Is needed; not indeed that that would help A man already slain.

[_Rushes to the gate of the woman's half of the palace_

Ho there! I say: I speak to the deaf; to those that sleep I utter In vain my useless cries. And where is she? Where's Clytæmnestra? What doth she do now? Her neck upon the razor's edge doth seem To fall, down-stricken by a vengeance just. 870

_Enter_ CLYTÆMNESTRA _from the side door_

_Clytæm._ What means all this? What cry is this thou mak'st?

_Serv._ I say the dead are killing one who lives.

_Clytæm._ Ah, me! I see the drift of thy dark speech; By guile we perish, as of old we slew: Let some one hand at once axe strong to slay; Let's see if we are conquered or can conquer, For to that point of evil am I come.

_Enter_ ORESTES _and_ PYLADES _from the other door_

_Orest._ 'Tis thou I seek: he there has had enough.

_Clytæm._ Ah me! my loved Ægisthos! Art thou dead?

_Orest._ Lov'st thou the man? Then in the self-same tomb 880 Shalt thou now lie, nor in his death desert him.

_Clytæm._ [_baring her bosom_] Hold, boy! Respect this breast of mine, my son,[451] Whence thou full oft, asleep, with toothless gums, Hast sucked the milk that sweetly fed thy life.

_Orest._ What shall I do, my Pylades? Shall I Through this respect forbear to slay my mother?

_Pyl._[452] Where, then, are Loxias' other oracles, The Pythian counsels, and the fast-sworn vows? Have all men hostile rather than the Gods.

_Orest._ My judgment goes with thine; thou speakest well: [_To_ CLYTÆMNESTRA] Follow: I mean to slay thee where he lies,890 For while he lived thou held'st him far above My father. Sleep thou with him in thy death, Since thou lov'st him, and whom thou should'st love hatest.

_Clytæm._ I reared thee, and would fain grow old with thee.

_Orest._ What! Thou live with me, who did'st slay my father?

_Clytæm._ Fate, O my son, must share the blame of that.

_Orest._ This fatal doom, then, it is Fate that sends.

_Clytæm._ Dost thou not fear a parent's curse, my son?

_Orest._ Thou, though my mother, did'st to ill chance cast me.

_Clytæm._ No outcast thou, so sent to house allied. 900

_Orest._ I was sold doubly, though of free sire born.

_Clytæm._ Where is the price, then, that I got for thee?

_Orest._ I shrink for shame from pressing that charge home.

_Clytæm._ Nay, tell thy father's wantonness as well.

_Orest._ Blame not the man who toils when thou'rt at ease.[453]

_Clytæm._ 'Tis hard, my son, for wives to miss their husband.

_Orest._ The husband's toil keeps her that sits at home.[453]

_Clytæm._ Thou seem'st, my son, about to slay thy mother.

_Orest._ It is not I that slay thee, but thyself.

_Clytæm._ Take heed, beware a mother's vengeful hounds.[454] 910

_Orest._ How, slighting this, shall I escape my father's?

_Clytæm._ I seem in life to wail as to a tomb.[455]

_Orest._ My father's fate ordains this doom for thee.

_Clytæm._ Ah me! the snake is here I bare and nursed.[456]

_Orest._ An o'er-true prophet was that dread dream-born; Thou slewest one thou never should'st have slain, Now suffer fate should never have been thine.

[_Exit_ ORESTES, _leading_ CLYTÆMNESTRA _into the palace, and followed by_ PYLADES

_Chor._ E'en of these two I wail the twin mischance; But since long line of murder culminates In poor Orestes, this we yet accept, That he, our one light, fall not utterly. 920

STROPHE I

Late came due vengeance on the sons of Priam, Just forfeit of sore woe;— Late came there too to Agamemnon's house, Twin lions, twofold Death.[457] The exile who obeyed the Pythian hest Hath gained his full desire, Sped on his way by counsel from the Gods.

STROPHE II

Shout ye, loud shout for the escape from ills Our master's house has seen, And from the wasting of his ancient wealth By that defilèd pair, 930 Ill fate intolerable.

ANTISTROPHE I

And so on one who loves the war of guile Revenge came subtle-souled; And in the strife of hands the child of Zeus In very deed gave help, (We mortals call her Vengeance, hitting well The meetest name for her,) Breathing destroying wrath against her foes.

STROPHE III

She, she it is whom Loxias summons now, 940 Who dwelleth in Parnassia's cavern vast, *Calling on her who still *Is guileful without guile, *Halting of foot and tarrying over-long: The will of Gods is strangely overruled; It may not help the vile;[458] 'Tis meet to adore the Power that rules in Heaven: At last we see the light.

ANTISTROPHE II

*Now is the bit that curbed the slaves ta'en off:[459] Arise, arise, O house: Too long, too long, all prostrate on the ground 950 Ye have been used to lie. · · · · ·

ANTISTROPHE III

Quickly all-working Time will bring a change Across the threshold of the palace old, When from the altar-hearth It shall drive all the guilt, With cleansing rites that chase away our woes; And Fortune's throws shall fall with gladsome cast, *Once more benign to see,[460] For new-come strangers settled in the house: At last we see the light.

_Enter_ ORESTES, PYLADES, _and followers from the palace. His attendants bear the robe in which_ AGAMEMNON _had been murdered_

_Orest._ See ye this country's tyrant rulers twain, 960 My father's murderers, wasters of his house; Stately were they, seen sitting on their thrones, Friends too e'en now, to argue from their fate, Whose oaths are kept to every pledge they gave. Firmly they swore that they would slay my father, And die together. Well those oaths are kept: And ye who hear these ills, behold ye now Their foul device, as bonds for my poor father, Handcuffs, and fetters both his feet to bind. Come, stretch it out, and standing all around, 970 Show ye the snare that wrapt him o'er, that He May see, our Father,—not of mine I speak, But the great Sun that looks on all we do,— My mother's deeds, defilèd and impure, That He may be a witness in my cause, That I did justly bring this doom to pass Upon my mother.... Of Ægisthos' fate No word I speak. He bears the penalty, As runs the law, of an adulterer's guilt; But she who planned this crime against a man By whom she knew the weight of children borne Beneath her girdle, once a burden loved, But now, as it is proved, a grievous ill, 980 What seems she to you? Had she viper been, Or fell myræna,[461] she with touch alone, *Rather than bite, had made a festering sore With that bold daring of unrighteous mood. What shall I call it, using mildest speech? A wild beast's trap?—a pall that wraps a bier, And hides a dead man's feet?—A net, I trow, A snare, a robe entangling, one might call it. Such might be owned by one to plunder trained, Practised in duping travellers, and the life That robs men of their money; with this trap 990 Destroying many, many deeds of ill His fevered brain might hatch. May such as she Ne'er share my dwelling! May the hand of God Far rather smite me that I childless die!

_Chor._ [_looking on_ AGAMEMNON'S _robe._] Ah me! ah me! these deeds most miserable! By hateful murder thou wast done to death. Woe, woe is me! And evil buds and blooms for him that's left.

_Orest._ Was the deed hers or no? Lo! this same robe Bears witness how she dyed Ægisthos' sword, And the blood-stain helps Time's destroying work, 1000 Marring full many a tint of pattern fair: *Now name I it, now as eye-witness wail;[462] And calling on this robe that slew my father, Moan for all done and suffered, wail my race, Bearing the foul stains of this victory.

_Chor._ No mortal man shall live a life unharmed, *Stout-hearted and rejoicing evermore. Woe, woe is me! One trouble vexes now, another comes.

_Orest._ (_wildly, as one distraught._) Nay, know ye—for I know not how 'twill end;1010 Like chariot-driver with his steeds I'm dragged Out of my course; for passion's moods uncurbed Bear me their victim headlong. At my heart Stands terror ready or to sing or dance In burst of frenzy. While my reason stays, I tell my friends here that I slew my mother, Not without right, my father's murderess, Accursed, and hated of the Gods. And I As chiefest spell that made me dare this deed Count Loxias, Pythian prophet, warning me That doing this I should be free from blame, 1020 But slighting.... I pass o'er the penalty[463].... For none, aim as he will, such woes will hit. And now ye see me, in what guise equipped,

[_Putting on the suppliant's wreaths of wool, and taking an olive branch in his hand_

With this my bough and chaplet I will gain Earth's central shrine, the home where Loxias dwells, And the bright fire that is as deathless known,[464] Seeking to 'scape this guilt of kindred blood; And on no other hearth, so Loxias bade, May I seek shelter. And I charge you all, Ye Argives, bear ye witness in due time 1030 How these dark deeds of wretched ill were wrought: But I, a wanderer, exiled from my land, Shall live, and leaving these my prayers in death,...

_Chor._ Nay, thou hast prospered: burden not thy lips With evil speech, nor speak ill-boding words, When thou hast freed the Argive commonwealth, By good chance lopping those two serpents' heads.

[_The Erinnyes are seen in the background, visible to_ ORESTES _only, in black robes, and with snakes in their hair_

_Orest._ Ah! ah! ye handmaids: see, like Gorgons these, Dark-robed, and all their tresses hang entwined With many serpents. I can bear no more.

_Chor._ What phantoms vex thee, best beloved of sons 1040 By thy dear sire? Hold, fear not, victory's thine.

_Orest._ These are no phantom terrors that I see: Full clear they are my mother's vengeful hounds.

_Chor._ The blood fresh-shed is yet upon thy hands, And thence it is these troubles haunt thy soul.

_Orest._ O King Apollo! See, they swarm, they swarm, And from their eyes is dropping loathsome blood.

_Chor._ One way of cleansing is there; Loxias' form Clasp thou, and he will free thee from these ills.

_Orest._ These forms ye see not, but I see them there: They drive me on, and I can bear no more. [_Exit_

_Chor._ Well, may'st thou prosper; may the gracious God 1050 Watch o'er and guard thee with a chance well timed!

Here, then, upon this palace of our kings A third storm blows again; The blast that haunts the race has run its course. First came the wretched meal of children's flesh; Next what befell our king: Slain in the bath was he who ruled our host, Of all the Achæans lord; And now a third has come, we know not whence,[465] To save ... or shall I say, To work a doom of death? Where will it end? Where will it cease at last, The mighty Atè dread, Lulled into slumber deep?

Footnote 401:

Hermes is invoked, (1) as the watcher over the souls of the dead in Hades, and therefore the natural patron of the murdered Agamemnon; (2) as exercising an authority delegated by Zeus, and therefore capable of being, like Zeus himself, the deliverer and helper of suppliants. So Electra, further on, invokes Hermes in the same character. The line may, however, be rendered,

“Who stand'st as guardian of my father's house.”

The three opening lines are noticeable, as having been chosen by Aristophanes as the special object for his satirical criticism (_Frogs_, 1126-1176), abounding in a good score of ambiguities and tautologies.

Footnote 402:

The words point to the two symbolic aspects of one and the same practice. In both there are some points of analogy with the earlier and later forms of the Nazarite vow among the Jews. (1) As being part of the body, and yet separable from it without mutilation, it became the representative of the whole man, and as such was the sign of a votive dedication. As early as Homer, it was the custom of youths to keep one long, flowing lock as consecrated, and when they reached manhood, they cut it off, and offered it to the river-god of their country, throwing it into the stream, as that to which, directly and indirectly, they owed their nurture. Here the offering is made to Inachos, as the hero-founder of Argos, identified with the river that bore his name. (2) They shaved their head, wholly or in part, as a token as a token of grief, and then, because true grief for the dead was an acceptable and propitiatory offering, this became the natural offering for suppliants who offered their prayers at the tombs of the departed. So in the _Aias_ of Sophocles (v. 1174) Teucros calls on Eurysakes to approach the corpse of his father, holding in his hand locks of his own hair, his mother's, and that of Teucros. In the offering which Achilles makes over the grave of Patroclos of the hair which he had cherished for the river-god of his fatherland, Spercheios, we have the union of the two customs. Homer. _Il._ xxiii. 141-151.

Footnote 403:

After the widespread fashion of the East, the handmaids of Clytæmnestra (originally Troïan captives) had to rend their clothes, beat their breasts, and lacerate their faces till the blood came. The higher civilisation of Solon's laws had forbidden these wild, barbarous forms of grief at Athens. Plutarch, _Solon_, p. 164.

Footnote 404:

Purposely, perhaps, obscure. They seem to say that the old reverence for Agamemnon has passed away, and instead of it there is only a slavish fear for Ægisthos. For the more acute, however, they imply that those who have cause to fear are Ægisthos and Clytæmnestra themselves.

Footnote 405:

The words, in their generalising sententiousness, refer specially to the twofold crime of Ægisthos as an adulterer and murderer. Then, in the Epode, the Chorus justify themselves for their seeming inconsistency in thus abhorring the guilt, and yet acting as instruments of the guilty in their attempts to escape punishment.

Footnote 406:

The mourners speak, of course, of Agamemnon and Orestes, not of Ægisthos and Clytæmnestra.

Footnote 407:

A mixture of meal, honey, and oil formed the half-liquid substance commonly used for these funereal libations. The “garlands” may be wreaths of flowers or fillets, or the word may be used figuratively for the libation itself, as crowning the mound in which Agamemnon lay.

Footnote 408:

The words point to a strange Athenian custom. When a house was cleansed of that which defiled it, morally or physically, the filth was carried in an earthen vessel to a place where three ways met, and the worshipper flung the vessel behind him, and walked away without turning to look at it. To Electra's mind, the libation which her mother sends is equally unclean, and should be treated in the same way. So in Hom. _Il._ i. 314, the Argives purify themselves, and then cast the lustral water they have used into the sea. Lev. vi. 11, gives us an analogous usage. Comp. also Theocritos, _Idyll_ xxiv., vv. 22-97.

Footnote 409:

Partly it is the youth of Electra that seeks counsel from those who had more experience; partly she shrinks from the responsibility of being the first to utter the formula of execration.

Footnote 410:

The word “escort” has a special reference to the function of Hermes in the unseen world. As he was wont to act as guide to the souls of the dead in their downward journey, so now Electra prays that he may lead the blessings she asks for upward from the dark depths of Earth.

Footnote 411:

The Skythian bow, long and elastic, bending either way, like those of the Arabians (Herod. vii. 69). The connection of Ares with the wild, fierce tribes of Thrakia and Skythia meets us again and again in the literature of Greece. He was the only God to whom they built temples (_ibid._ iv. 59). They sacrificed human victims to an iron sword as his more appropriate symbol (iv. 62). The use of iron for weapons of war came to the Greeks from them (_Seven ag. Th._ 729; _Prom._ 714).

Footnote 412:

It may be worth while to compare the method adopted by the three dramatists of Greece in bringing about the recognition of the brother by the sister. (1) Here the lock of hair, in its peculiar colour and texture resembling her own, followed by the likeness of his footsteps to hers, prepares the way first for vague anticipations, and then the 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, With measured sling a part they sacrifice, And so avert their fate, Lest the whole house should sink no more to rise, O'erwhelmed with misery; Nor does the good ship perish utterly: So too abundant gift, From Zeus in double plenty, from the earth, Doth the worn soul from anxious care uplift, And turns the famished wail to bounding joy and mirth.

ANTISTROPHE II

But blood that once is shed In purple stream of death upon the ground, Who then, when life is fled, A charm to call it back again hath found? Else against him who raised the dead to life Zeus had not sternly warred, as warning given To all men; but if Fate were not at strife With Fate that brings from Heaven Help from the Gods, my heart, Out-stripping speech, had given thought free vent. But now in gloom apart It sits and moans in sullen discontent, And hath no hope that e'er It shall an issue seasonably fair From out the tangled skein Of life's strange course unravel straight and clear, While in the fever of continuing pain My soul doth burden sore of troublous anguish bear.

THE LIBATION-POURERS

VERSES 20-75

STROPHE I

Lo, from the palace door We wend our way to pour Gifts on the dead; And in our bitter woe, Our hands with many a blow Smite breast and head. On each fair cheek the nail Has ploughed full many a trail, And all to tatters torn The garments we have worn; The foldings of the vest O'er maiden's swelling breast Are roughly rent; For now on us the chance That shuts out joy and dance Our fate hath sent.

ANTISTROPHE I

A spectral vision clear Thrills every hair with fear, In haunted sleep, Breathing of dire distress, From innermost recess Its watch doth keep, Breaking with cry of fright The still deep hush of night: All through the queenly bower Sharp cry was heard that hour, And they to whom 'twas given To read decrees of Heaven, In dream o'er-true, By solemn pledges bound, Declared that underground The dead were wrathful found 'Gainst those that slew.

STROPHE II

And so the godless queen In eager haste is seen,— Sends me with gifts like this, Full graceless grace, I wis, As if (O mother Earth, To whom we owe our birth!) To banish dread. And I would fain delay This prayer of mine to pray: What ransom can men pay For blood once shed? Oh, hearth and home of woe! Oh, utter overthrow! Foul mists brood o'er our halls: No ray of sunlight falls; Thick darkness from the tomb Of heroes makes the gloom Yet more intense.

ANTISTROPHE II

And awe that once we knew, Strong, mighty to subdue, Falling on every ear, Thrilling each soul with fear, Is gone far hence. There be that well may bow In craven terror now, For lo! Success enthroned As more than God is owned. But Vengeance will not fail Ere long to turn the scale. On some her strokes alight, While yet their day is bright; Some, as in twilight's gloom, O'erflow with gathering doom; Some endless night doth hold In realm of darkness old.

STROPHE III

And for the blood which Earth, To whom it owed its birth, Hath drunk, there still doth wait A stern avenging Fate; The stain of blood doth stay, And will not pass away, And nerves are thrilled with pain In soul that sets in train The plague that works amain Its evil great.

ANTISTROPHE III

All help from him hath fled Who with adulterous tread Denies another's bed. Though many streams should pour Their waters o'er and o'er, Those waters evermore Are poured in vain; They cannot cleanse the guilt Of blood that once is spilt, Man's hand to stain.

EPODE

But since to me by Heaven The exile's life is given, (Yea, far from home I know The bondslave's cup of woe,) I needs must yield assent To good or ill intent, Accepting their commands Who rule with sceptred hands,— Yea, I must hide my hate In this my evil fate, And under strong control Keep my rebellious soul; And now beneath my veil I weep my woes' full tale; For cares that vex and fret My cheeks with tears are wet.

VERSES 576-639

STROPHE I

Many dread forms of woe and fear the Earth Doth breed; and Ocean's deep Is full of foes men hate, of monstrous birth; And Air's high pathways keep Their flashing meteors; birds that wing their flight, And things on earth that creep; And one might tell the wrath of whirlwind's might, When tempests wildly sweep.

ANTISTROPHE I

But who can tell man's purpose overbold? Or woman's, prompt to dare? Or the strong loves that men in bondage hold, And bring woe everywhere? Or strange conjunctions of the hearth and home? But still the palm they bear, The loves unloved that women overcome, And hold dominion there.

STROPHE II

And one whose thoughts are not o'erswift of wing, May learn and ponder well What purpose Thestios' child to act did bring, Purpose most dire and fell, Her burning thought who did her own child slay, Kindling the torch of death That with her child's life kept its equal way, Since coming from his mother's womb he cried, To that predestined day on which at last he died.

ANTISTROPHE II

And yet another must I in my song Devote to hate and scorn, The murderess Skylla, who to deeds of wrong By Minos' gifts was borne, And for her foes' sake slew a man she loved For Cretan chains gold-wrought; She with dog's heart the deathless lock removed From him, in deep sleep sunk; yet Hermes' power She too was taught at last at her appointed hour.

STROPHE III

But since I tell my tale of loathly crime, And of ill-omened marriage out of time, Wedlock our house abhors, The schemes and plots of women steeped in guile Against a warrior chief, a chief erewhile The dread of foes in wars, The foremost place I give to altar-hearth Where no wrath burns and woman knows the worth Of mood from daring free.

ANTISTROPHE III

Yet of all ills the Lemnian first may stand, The cry of loathing rings through all the land, And still each crime of dread A man will liken to the Lemnian ill; And now by woe that comes from God's stern will The race is gone and fled, Of all men scorned, for no man looks with love On deeds that to the high Gods hateful prove; Is not this clear to see?

STROPHE IV

And lo! the sword sharp-pointed pierces deep, E'en to the heart, the sword which Vengeance wields; The lawless deed will not neglected sleep, When men tread down what fear of high heaven shields;

ANTISTROPHE IV

But still the block of Vengeance firm doth stand, And Fate, as swordsmith, hammers blow on blow; And then with thoughts that none can understand, Erinnys comes far known, though working slow, And to the old house brings the youthful heir, That deeds of blood wrought out of olden time May the due judgment bear For each polluting crime.

VERSES 769-820

STROPHE I

Oh, hear me, hear my prayer, thou mighty Lord! Sire of all Gods that on Olympos dwell, Hear Thou, and grant my longing heart's desire, That those who wise of heart would fain do well May see each prayer for right Fulfilled in holiest might; That prayer, O Zeus, I pray.

STROPHE II

Do Thou protect him, yea, O Zeus, and bring Before his foes on yonder secret way; For if thou raise him high, then Thou, O king, Shalt to thy heart's content Receive a twofold, threefold recompence, For that thine anger bent Against each old offence.

ANTISTROPHE I

Look on the son of one whom Thou did'st love, Like orphan colt fast bound to car of woes; Set Thou a mark that may as limit prove; Ah, might one watch his footsteps as he goes, In measured course and true, This his own country through!

STROPHE III

And ye who in our home Stand in the shrine with plenteous wealth full stored, Hear, O ye Gods, and come, Yea, come with one accord, Lead him on, wash away With vengeance new the blood of crime of old; Let not the old guilt stay To breed fresh offspring where our home we hold.

MESODE

But grant him good success, O Thou who dost within the great cave dwell! With upward glance of joy our chief's house bless, And that he too, full well, Freely and brightly with the dear, loved eyes, May look from out the veil of cloudy skies.

ANTISTROPHE III

And then may Maia's son Assist him, as is meet, in this his task! Through Him success is won, The boon that now we ask: And many secret things will He make clear, If that should be His will; But should He choose the truth should not appear, Before men's eyes He still Brings darkness and the blackness of the night, Nor is He clearer in the day's full light.

STROPHE IV

And then will we pour forth All that our house contains of costliest worth, Past evil to redeem, And through the city we will raise the strain Shrill-voiced of women's chant yet once again. All this as good I deem; This, this my gain increaseth more and more, And far from those I love is sorrow's bitter stour.

ANTISTROPHE II

But thou, take courage when the time is come, The time to act indeed, And when she calls thee “child,” do thou strike home, And let thy father's name for vengeance plead; Do thy dread taskwork to the uttermost.

ANTISTROPHE IV

Let Perseus' heart within thy bosom dwell, For thou dost work for each dear kindred ghost, And those on high, a bitter boon and fell, Completing there within The deed of blood and sin, And utterly destroying him whose hand That crime of murder planned.

EUMENIDES

VERSES 297-374

Come then, and let us dance in solemn strain; It is our will to chant our harsh refrain, And tell how this our band Works among men the tasks we take in hand. In righteous vengeance find we full delight; On him who putteth forth clean hands and pure No wrath from us doth light; Unhurt shall he through all his life endure; But whoso, as this man, hath evil wrought, And hides hands stained with blood, On him we come, with power prevailing fraught, True witnesses and good, For those whom he has slain, and bent to win Full forfeit-price for that his deed of sin.

STROPHE I

O Mother, Mother Night! Who did'st bear me a penalty and curse To those who see and those who see not light, Hear thou; for Leto's son, in mood perverse, Puts me to foulest shame, In that he robs me of my trembling prey, The victim whom we claim, That we his mother's blood may wash away; And over him as slain Sing we this dolorous, frenzied, maddening strain, The song that we, the Erinnyes, love so well, That binds the soul as with enchanter's spell, Without one note from out the sweet-voiced lyre, Withering the strength of men as with a blast of fire.

ANTISTROPHE I

For this our task hath Fate Spun without fail to last for ever sure, That we on man weighed down with deeds of hate Should follow till the earth his life immure. Nor when he dies can he Boast of being truly free; And over him as slain Sing we this dolorous, frenzied, maddening strain, The song that we, the Erinnyes, love so well, That binds the soul as with enchanter's spell, Without one note from out the sweet-voiced lyre, Withering the strength of men as with a blast of fire.

STROPHE II

Yea, at our birth this lot to us was given, And from the immortal Ones who dwell in Heaven We still must hold aloof; None sits with us at banquets of delight, Or shares a common roof, Nor part nor lot have I in garments white; My choice was made a race to overthrow, When murder, home-reared, lays a loved one low; Strong though he be, upon his track we tread, And drain his blood till all his strength is fled.

ANTISTROPHE II

Yea, 'tis our work to set another free From tasks like this, and by my service due To give the Gods their perfect liberty, Relieved from task of meting judgment true; For this our tribe from out his fellowship Zeus hath cast out as worthy of all hate, And from our limbs the purple blood-drops drip; So with a mighty leap and grievous weight My foot I bring upon my quivering prey, With power to make the swift and strong give way, An evil and intolerable fate.

STROPHE III

And all the glory and the pride of men, Though high exalted in the light of day, Wither and fade away, Of little honour then, When in the darkness of the grave they stay, By our attack brought low, The loathèd dance through which in raiment black we go:

ANTISTROPHE III

And through the ill that leaves him dazed and blind, He still is all unconscious that he falls, So thick a cloud enthrals The vision of his mind: And Rumour with a voice of wailing calls, And tells of gathering gloom That doth the ancient halls in darkness thick entomb.

STROPHE IV

So it abideth still; Ready and prompt are we to work our will, The dreaded Ones who bring The dire remembrance of each deed of ill, Whom mortals may not soothe with offering, Working a task with little honour fraught, Yea, all dishonoured, task the Gods detest, In sunless midnight wrought, By which alike are pressed Those who yet live, and those who lie in gloom unblest.

ANTISTROPHE IV

What mortal man then will not crouch in fear, As he my work shall hear, The task to me by destiny from Heaven As from the high Gods given? Yea, a time-honoured lot is mine I trow, No shame in it I see, Though deep beneath the earth my station be, In gloom that never feels the sunlight's quickening glow.

VERSES 468-537

STROPHE I

Now is there utter fall and overthrow, Which new-made laws begin; If he who struck the matricidal blow, His right—not so, his utter wrong shall win, This baseness will the minds of all men lead To wanton, reckless thought, And now for parents waits there woe, and deed Of parricidal guilt by children wrought.

ANTISTROPHE I

For then no more shall wrath from this our band, The Mænad troop that watch the deeds of men, Come for these crimes; but lo! on either hand I will let slip all evil fate, and then, Telling his neighbours' grief, Shall this man seek from that, and seek in vain, Remission and relief, Nor is there any certain cure for pain. And lo! the wretched man all fruitlessly For grace and help shall cry.

STROPHE II

Henceforth let no man in his anguish call, When he sore-smitten by ill-chance shall fall, Uttering with groan and moan, “O mighty Justice, O Erinnyes' throne!” So may a father or a mother wail, Struck by new woe, and tell their sorrow's tale; For low on earth doth lie The home where Justice once her dwelling had on high.

ANTISTROPHE II

Yea, there are times when reverent Awe should stay As guardian of the soul; It profits much to learn through suffering The bliss of self-control. Who that within the heart's full daylight bears No touch of holy awe, Be it or man or State that casts out fear, Will still own reverence for the might of law?

STROPHE III

Nor life that will no sovran rule obey, Nor one down-crushed beneath a despot's sway, Shalt thou approve; God still gives power and strength for victory To all that in the golden mean doth lie. All else, as they in diverse order move, He scans with watchful eye. With this I speak a word in harmony, That of irreverence still Outrage is offspring ill, While from the soul's true health Comes the much-loved, much-prayed-for joy and wealth.

ANTISTROPHE III

Yes, this I bid thee know; Bow thou before the altar of the Right, And let no wandering glance That looks at gain askance Lead thee with godless foot to scorn or slight. Know well the appointed penalty shall come; The doom remaineth sure and will at last strike home. Wherefore let each man pay the reverence due To those who call him son; By each to thronging guests let honour true In loyal faith be done.

STROPHE IV

But one who with no pressure of constraint Of his free will draws back from evil taint, He shall not be unblest, Nor ever sink by utter woe oppressed. But this I still aver, That he whose daring leads him to transgress, The chaos wild of evil deeds to stir, In sharp and sore distress, Against his will will slacken sail ere long, When, as his timbers crash before the blast, He feels the tempest strong.

ANTISTROPHE IV

Then in the midst of peril he at last Shall call on those who then will hear him not. Yea, God still laughs to scorn The man by evil tide of passions borne, Swayed by thoughts wild and hot, When he beholdeth one whose boast was high He ne'er should know it, sunk in misery, And all unable round the point to steer; And so his former pride of prosperous days He wrecks upon the reefs of Vengeance drear, And dies with none to weep him or to praise.

THE END

TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES

1. Added missing target for footnote on p. 17. 2. Silently corrected typographical errors. 3. Retained anachronistic and non-standard spellings as printed. 4. Enclosed italics font in _underscores_.

End of Project Gutenberg's Æschylos Tragedies and Fragments, by Æschylos