Lest the mother-slayer flee,
And awhile unpunished be.
Here he finds help, and twining round
Athena's Image would submit
To trial for the murder done.
In vain the blood is on the ground!
Once shed, who can recover it?
The red dew, once outpoured, is gone.
Come! for thy marrow and thy blood
Must be our odious draught and food.
Come, impious victim! hither, hither!
The red foam from thy limbs we drink;
Come with us while thy pith we wither;
Then to the nether torment sink,
The due retribution paying
For thy impious mother-slaying.
And thou shalt see, if any other,
To god or stranger, sire or mother,
Hath done despiteous wrong, how he
Must pay the penalty-like thee.
For Hades underneath the ground
A strict Examiner is found,
And all deeds of mortal kind
Sees, and writes them in his mind.
Ores. Instructed in misfortunes, I have learned
In my experience many cleansing rites,
And know where to be silent, where to speak;
Wise teacher in this matter taught me words.
The blood, that was upon my hand, now sleeps,
My mother's blood-the stain, washed out, is gone;
It was removed, while fresh, at Phoebus' hearth,
By purifying blood of slaughtered swine.
'Twere long for me to tell how many hosts
I have approached with harmless intercourse;
Time, growing old with them, wears all things out.
Athena, of this land Queen paramount,
With accents of clean lips I now invoke
To come my Helper; so shall she obtain,
And without war, as firm allies for ever,
Myself, my country, and the Argive race.
Whether in Libya by her natal stream,
The stream of Triton, combating on foot,
Or in the battle-car, she aids her friends,
Or else, like a field-marshal, she surveys
The old Phlegræan plain-though far away,
By virtue of her godship still she hears
Oh may she come to free me from these plagues!
Leader of the Chorus. Neither Apollo, nor Athena's might
Shall set thee free, but must abandon thee
To perish, knowing not one thought of joy,
Our food till thou art shadow without blood.
Thou dost not answer me, scorning my words,
Devoted victim! set apart for us;
While living thou shalt feed us, nor be slain
At any altar: hear our binding hymn.
Chor. Come, sisters! let us hand in hand
Now chaunt the weird and mournful song,
Recounting how our awful band
Performs what doth to us belong,
Just judges in th' affairs of man.
No wrath to him whose hands are clean!
He goes through life without a ban:
But who has great transgressor been,
Like this lost wretch, and strives to hide
His bloody hands, shall by his side
Find us, to witness for the dead,
And for the blood that he hath shed,
Exactors, to the slayer's cost,
Of vengeance to the uttermost.
Night! mother Night! from whom we had our being
To punish quick and dead, the blind and seeing,
Hear us! Latona's Imp hath ta'en away
With scorn and bold contempt, our cowering prey,
The victim vowed, who with his own
Should for his mother's blood atone.
Over the victim chaunt the strain,
Distraction, Frenzy's feverous fire,
Hymn that never is sung in vain,
And never sung to dainty lyre,
With power to shrivel and to bind
The spirit of the blasted mind.
For all-pervading Fate did spin of old
This very lot for us to have and hold,
That whosoever shall his hands imbrue
In kindred blood, we must the wretch pursue,
Till he go down-dead though he be,
He shall not find himself too free.
Over the victim chaunt the strain,
Distraction, Frenzy's feverous fire,
Hymn that's never sung to dainty lyre,
With power to shrivel and to bind
The spirit of the blasted mind.
This lot to us at birth was ratified,
But to forbear Immortals: side by side
No fellow-feaster e'er have we,
Nor lot nor part in garments white.
Houses to ruin utterly
We chose when Mars, grown tame to sight,
In social life shall slay a friend,
Then we pursue him to his end,
And hunt him down, though he be stout,
Nor leave him till we blot him out.
From these our cares we would the gods exclude,
Nor have them on our privilege intrude,
Nor question our accusing plea.
To deal with the blood-dripping race
High Zeus abhors; while ever we
Leap on the wretches from our place,
And with the heavy-falling heel
We dash on them-to those who reel,
And drag their tripping limbs and slow,
Wo! wo! intolerable wo!
The high renown of men, in life august,
Melts under ground, decaying in the dust,
And drops away as we advance
In solemn black with hostile dance.
Nor he that falls his wretched plight discovers, Vain, senseless fool! such darkness o'er him hovers; While through the house, with many groans, A sad and misty Rumour moans.
For we are skilful to devise,
And to effect whate'er we plan,
Of ill deeds awful memories,
And hard to be appeased by man.
Our office, heaped with scorn and slight,
We minister by sunless light,
From gods apart, and rough we be
To those who see, and cannot see.
Is there a living man can hear
Our charge by fate and gods assigned,
And not within his inmost mind
Our office and commission fear?
An honourable lot we hold,
The ancient lot we held of old,
Though it fall to us under ground
In the dark, sunless, drear profound.
[ATHENA appears in a chariot and alight.
And who art thou, that sittest by my statue?
Speak! ye wild forms, like no begotten kind,
Nor goddesses observed of the gods,
Nor human shapes. But without cause of blame
Ill words 'gainst others are without excuse,
Uttered unjustly: Themis likes it not.
Chor. Daughter of Zeus! in one word hear the whole ;
We are the daughters of the gloomy Night,
Called "Imprecations" in our homes below.
Ath. I know your race and titles.
Where ends their banishment?
Chor. Where joy is evermore a thing unknown.
Ath. Chase ye this man to such a banishment:
Chor. He slew his mother.
Ath.
Was he not compelled
By other terror, if he did it not?
Chor. What should compel a man to such a deed?
Ath. Two parties here I've only heard one side.
Chor. He will not take an oath that we propose,
To swear his innocence, nor offer one
For us to swear his guilt by.
Ye prefer,
It seems, the show of justice to the thing.
Chor. Since thou art wise, make this appear to us.
Ath. What is not just should not prevail by oaths.
Chor. Decide then by straightforward course of law.
Ath. Will ye submit your case to my direction?
Chor. Since we respect thy worth on worthy grounds,
How should we not?
Speak, stranger! in thy turn,
And answer for thyself; thy country, race,
And fortunes tell; and then rebate this charge,
If confident in thy own cause as just,
Thou watchest here my statue by my hearth,
Ixion-like, a suppliant purified:
Answer distinctly to these several points.
Ores. First, Queen Athena! to the last I speak,
And thy concern on that point will remove.
The blood-stain is no longer on my hand,
Nor is thy statue by my touch defiled.
Let this be proof: the law expressly says,
Those under ban of their blood-guiltiness
Must never speak, till they be purified
With blood of sucklings sprinkled over them.
Near other temples was I long since cleansed
By means of victims and of running streams.
This point is answered. With respect to kin,
I am an Argive, son-thou knew'st my sire-
Of Agamemnon, glorious Emperor
Of the sea-host, with whom thou didst expunge
The city of Ilion, destroying Troy.
Returning from the war, in his own house
He perished foully in a fraudful net
My dark-souled mother snared and murdered him :
The bathing-room was witness to the deed.
And I, returning home from banishment,
An exile all the intermediate time,
Slew her who bore me-I deny it not
Exacting blood for blood, her's for my sire's.
Apollo was the mover of my act,
Forewarning me of woes, heart-piercing stings,
Should I sit still and leave the guilty free.
The deed was done, judge whether well or ill;
To thy decision I submit myself.
Ath. The matter is too great, if
Think to adjudge it; nor befits it me
To give a judgment in a case of blood.
But I receive thee, and especially
(Thy other claims allowed to my protection),
As suppliant purified by cleansing rites,
To whom my city can attach no blame.
Nor may these awful ministers of Fate
Be lightly sent away; should they not gain
The victory, they'll drop down on the soil
Their venomous distilment, plague and death;
Yet to dismiss them is impossible.
But since this bolt hath hitherward been shot,
I will appoint and institute a court,
To try blood-pleas, an ordinance for all time.
Mean while collect your proofs and witnesses,
The means of coming to a just conclusion.
The worthiest of my people will I choose,
And come with them, who shall decide this cause,
Transgressing not their oath in thought or act.
Chor. Now for the fall of ancient laws,
Should victory crown the cause
Of the wretch that slew his mother.
Since it is easy thing to do,
All sorts of death among the nations.
Then while their troubles grow profuse,
Wave upon wave,
Men shall tell what deeds unkind,
What wrongs they suffer from relations ;
And help, they vainly hope to have,
Look for but not find.
In misfortune's desolation
Let none make this invocation :
"Alas! oh Justice! oh ye thrones
Of the Avengers!" Thus with groans
It may be some father calls,
Or some mother newly-bleeding,
In her dying anguish pleading,
Since the house of Justice falls.
Sometimes shall a wholesome Terror,
Thought-inspector, keep from error
Him that respects it. For 'tis good
When Wisdom comes in Sorrow's hood.
But when license is begun,
And the pampered heart elate,
Who then, whether man or state,
Who will worship Justice? None!
The life that owns no wholesome check,
Nor that which to a master's beck
Looks evermore, thou shalt not praise.
By God's decree the mean is best.
And different things in different ways
He still inspects to truth confest
My word agrees-for Insolence
Is own child to Irreverence;
And from the sound mind springs no less
All-loved, all-wished-for happiness.
By all means, furthermore I say,
Due reverence to Justice pay;
Nor trample with a godless foot
Her altar with an eye to gain,
For punishment shall come to boot:
Th' appointed end doth still remain.
And therefore let a man respect
The awe of parents, nor neglect,
As host, the hospitable dues,
Nor, as a guest, hearth-claims abuse.
The man without compulsion just,
Who by these rules preserves his trust,
Unprosperous shall never be,
At least ne'er ruined utterly.
But the bold trafficker, that only cares
To stow his contraband, promiscuous wares,
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