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Front Page  Titles (by Subject) THE EUMENIDES - The Lyrical Dramas of Aeschylus
THE EUMENIDES - Aeschylus, The Lyrical Dramas of Aeschylus [1906]Edition used:The Lyrical Dramas of Aeschylus, translated into English Verse by John Stuart Blackie (London: J.M. Dent, 1906).
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THE EUMENIDES
Scene.—In front of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi.
The Pythoness.
- Old Earth, primeval prophetess, I first
- With these my prayers invoke; and Themis1 next,
- Who doth her mother’s throne and temple both
- Inherit, as the legend runs; and third
- In lot’s due course, another Earth-born maid
- The unforced homage of the land received,
- Titanian Phœbe; she in natal gift
- With her own name her hoary right bequeathed
- To Phœbus: he from rocky Delos’ lake2
- To Attica’s ship-cruised bays was wafted, whence
- He in Parnassus fixed his sure abode.
- Hither with pious escort they attend him:
- The Sons of Vulcan pioneer his path,3
- Smoothing the rugged desert where he comes:
- The thronging people own him, and king Delphos,
- The land’s high helmsman, flings his portals wide.
- Jove with divinest skill his heart inspires,
- And now the fourth on this dread seat enthroned
- Sits Loxias, prophet of his father Jove.4
- These be the gods, whom chiefly I invoke:
- But thee, likewise, who ’fore this temple dwellest,5
- Pallas, I pray, and you, ye Nymphs that love
- The hollow Corycian rock,6 the frequent haunt
- Of pleasant birds, the home of awful gods.
- Thee, Bromius, too, I worship,7 not unweeting
- How, led by thee, the furious Thyads rushed
- To seize the godless Pentheus,8 ev’n as a hare
- Is dogged to death. And you, the fountains pure
- Of Pleistus, and Poseidon’s mighty power9
- I pray, and Jove most high, that crowns all things
- With consummation. These the gods that lead me
- To the prophetic seat, and may they grant me
- Best-omened entrance; may consulting Greeks,
- If any be, by custom’d lot approach;
- For as the gods my bosom stir, I pour
- The fateful answer.
[She goes into the Temple, but suddenly returns.
- O horrid tale to tell! O sight to see
- Most horrible! that drives me from the halls
- Of Loxias, so that I nor stand nor run,
- But, like a beast fourfooted stumble on,
- Losing the gait and station of my kind,
- A gray-haired woman, weaker than a child!10
- Up to the garlanded recess I walked,
- And on the navel-stone behold! a man
- With crime polluted to the altar clinging,
- And in his bloody hand he held a sword
- Dripping with recent murder, and a branch
- Of breezy olive, with flocks of fleecy wool
- All nicely tipt. Even thus I saw the man;
- And stretched before him an unearthly host
- Of strangest women, on the sacred seats
- Sleeping—not women, but a Gorgon brood,
- And worse than Gorgons, or the ravenous crew
- That filched the feast of Phineus11 (such I’ve seen
- In painted terror); but these are wingless, black,
- Incarnate horrors, and with breathings dire
- Snort unapproachable, and from their eyes
- Pestiferous beads of poison they distil.
- Such uncouth sisterhood, apparel’d so,12
- From all affinity of gods or men
- Divorced, from me and from the gods be far,
- And from all human homes! Nor can the land,
- That lends these unblest hags a home, remain
- Uncursed by fearful scourges. But the god,
- Thrice-potent Loxias himself will ward
- His holiest shrine from lawless outrage. Him
- Physician, prophet, soothsayer, we call,
- Cleansing from guilt the blood-polluted hall.
[Exit.
The interior of the Delphic Temple is now presented to view.Orestesis seen clinging to the navel-stone; theEumenideslie sleeping on the seats around. In the backgroundHermesbesideOrestes.EnterApollo.
Apollo[to Orestes].- Trust me, I’ll not betray thee. Far or near,
- Thy guardian I, and to thine every foe
- No gentle god. Thy madded persecutors
- Sleep-captured lie: the hideous host is bound.
- Primeval virgins, hoary maids, with whom
- Nor god, nor man, nor beast hath known communion.
- For evil’s sake they are: in evil depth
- Of rayless Tartarus, underneath the ground,
- They dwell, of men and of Olympian gods
- Abhorred. But hence! nor faint thy heart, though they
- Are mighty to pursue from land to land
- O’er measureless tracks, from rolling sea to sea,
- And sea-swept cities. A bitter pasture truly
- Was thine from Fate;13 but bear all stoutly. Hie thee
- Away to Pallas’ city, and embrace
- Her ancient image14 with close-clinging arms.
- Just Judges there we will appoint to judge
- Thy cause, and with soft-soothing pleas will pluck
- The sting from thy offence, and free thee quite
- From all thy troubles. Thou know’st that I, the god,
- When thou didst strike, myself the blow directed.
Orest.- Liege lord Apollo, justice to the gods
- Belongs; in justice, O remember me.
- Thy power divine assurance gives that thou
- Can’st make thy will a deed.
Apollo.
- Fear nought. Trust me.
- [To Hermes] And thou, true brother’s blood, true father’s son,
- Hermes, attend, and to this mission gird thee.
- Fulfil the happy omen of thy name,
- The Guide, and guide this suppliant on his way.
- For Jove respects thy function and thy pride,
- The prosperous convoy, and the faithful guide.
[ExitHermes,leadingOrestes. Apolloretires.
Enterthe Shade of Clytemnestra.
Clytem.
- Sleeping? All sleeping! Ho! What need of sleepers?
- While I roam restless, of my fellow-dead
- Dishonoured and reproached, by fault of you,
- That when I slew swift vengeance overtook me.
- But being slain myself, my avengers sleep
- And leave my cause to drift! Hear me, sleepers!
- Such taunts I bear, such contumelious gibes,
- Yet not one god is touched with wrath to avenge
- My death, who died by matricidal hands.
- Behold these wounds!15 look through thy sleep, and see!
- Read with thy heart; some things the soul may scan
- More clearly, when the sensuous lid hath dropt,
- Nor garish day confounds.16 Full oft have ye
- Of my libations sipped the wineless streams,
- The soothings of my sober sacrifice,
- The silent supper from the solemn altar,
- At midnight hour when only ye are worshipped.
- But now all this beneath your feet lies trampled.
- The man is gone; fled like a hind! he snaps
- The meshes of your toils, and makes—O shame!
- Your Deity a mark for scoffers’ eyes
- To wink at! Hear me, ye infernal hags,
- Unhoused from hell! For my soul’s peace I plead,
- Once Clytemnestra famous, now a dream.17
[TheChorusmoans.
- Ye moan! the while the man hath fled, and seeks
- For help from those that are no friends to me.18
[TheChorusmoans again.
- Sleep-bound art thou. Hast thou no bowels for me?
- My Furies sleep, and let my murderer flee.
[TheChorusgroans.
- Groaning and sleeping! Up! What work hast thou
- To do, but thine own work of sorrow? Rouse thee!
[TheChorusgroans again.
- Sleep and fatigue have sworn a league to bind
- The fearful dragon with strong mastery.
Chorus[with redoubled groans and shrill cries]. Hold! seize him! seize him! seize there! there! there! hold!
Clytem.- Thy dream scents blood, and, like a dog that doth
- In dreams pursue the chase, even so dost thou
- At phantasms bark and howl. To work! to work!
- Let not fatigue o’ermaster thus thy strength,
- Nor slumber soothe the sense of sharpest wrong.
- Torture thy liver with reproachful thoughts;
- Reproaches are the pricks that goad the wise.
- Up! blow a blast of bloody breath behind him!
- Dry up his marrow with the fiery vengeance!
- Follow! give chase! pursue him to the death!
Chorus,19starting up in hurry and confusion.
Voice 1.Awake! awake! rouse her as I rouse thee!
Voice 2.- Dost sleep? arise! dash drowsy sleep away!
- Brave dreams be prelude to brave deed! Ho, sisters!
STROPHE I.Voice 1.- Shame, sisters, shame!
- Insult and injury!
- Shame, O shame!
Voice 2.Shame on me, too: a bootless, fruitless shame!
Voice 1.- Insult and injury,
- Sorrow and shame!
- Burden unbearable,
- Shame! O shame!
Voice 2.The snare hath sprung: flown is the goodly game.
Voice 3.- I slept, and when sleeping
- He sprang from my keeping;
- Shame, O shame!
ANTISTROPHE I.Voice 1.- O son of Jove, in sooth,
- If thou wilt hear the truth,
- Robber’s thy name!
Voice 2.Thou being young dost overleap the old.20
Voice 1.- A suppliant, godless,
- And bloodstained, I see,
- And bitter to parents,
- Harboured by thee.
Voice 2.Apollo’s shrine a mother-murderer’s hold!
Voice 3.- Apollo rewardeth
- Whom Justice discardeth,
- And robber’s his name!
STROPHE II.Voice 1.- A voice of reproach
- Came through my sleeping,
- Like a charioteer
- With his swift lash sweeping.
Voice 2.- Thorough my heart,
- Thorough my liver,
- Keen as the cold ice
- Shot through the river.
Voice 3.- Harsh as the headsman,
- Ruthless exacter,
- When tearless he scourges
- The doomed malefactor.
ANTISTROPHE II.Voice 1.- All blushless and bold
- The gods that are younger
- Would rule o’er the old,
- With the right of the stronger.
Voice 2.- The Earth’s navel-stone
- So holy reputed,
- All gouted with blood,
- With fresh murder polluted,
- Behold, O behold!
Voice 3.- By the fault of the younger,
- The holiest holy
- Is holy no longer.
STROPHE III.Voice 1.- Thyself thy hearth with this pollution stained
- Thyself, a prophet, free and unconstrained
Voice 2.- O’er the laws of the gods
- Thou hast recklessly ridden,
- Dispensing to men
- Gifts to mortals forbidden;
Voice 3.- Us thou hast reft
- Of our name and our glory,
- Us and the Fates,
- The primeval, the hoary.
ANTISTROPHE III.Voice 1.- I hate the god. Though underneath the ground
- He hide my prey, there, too, he shall be found.
Voice 2.- I at each shrine
- Where the mortal shall bend him,
- Will jealously watch,
- That no god may defend him.
Voice 3.- Go where he will,
- A blood-guilty ranger,
- Hotly will hound him still
- I, the Avenger!
Apollo.- Begone! I charge thee, leave these sacred halls!
- From this prophetic cell avaunt! lest thou
- A feathered serpent in thy breast receive,
- Shot from my golden bow; and, inly pained,
- Thou vomit forth black froth of murdered men,
- Belching the clotted slaughter by thy maw
- Insatiate sucked. These halls suit not for thee;
- But where beheading, eye-out-digging dooms,21
- Abortions, butcheries, barrenness abound,
- Where mutilations, flayings, torturings,
- Make wretches groan, on pointed stakes impaled,
- There fix your seats; there hold the horrid feasts,
- In which your savage hearts exultant revel,
- Of gods abominate—maids whose features foul
- Speak your foul tempers plainly. Find a home
- In some grim lion’s den sanguinolent, not
- In holy temples which your breath pollutes.
- Depart, ye sheep unshepherded, whom none
- Of all the gods may own!
Chorus.- Liege lord, Apollo,
- Ours now to speak, and thine to hear: thyself
- Not aided only, but the single cause
- Wert thou of all thou blamest.
Apollo.How so? Speak!
Chorus.Thine was the voice that bade him kill his mother.
Apollo.Mine was the voice bade him avenge his father.
Chorus.All reeking red with gore thou didst receive him.
Apollo.Not uninvited to these halls he came.
Chorus.- And we come with him. Wheresoe’er he goes,
- His convoy we. Our function is to follow.
Apollo.- Follow! but from this holy threshold keep
- Unholy feet.
Chorus.- We, where we must go, go
- By virtue of our office.
Apollo.- A goodly vaunt!
- Your office what?
Chorus.- From hearth and home we chase
- All mother-murderers.
Apollo.- She was murdered here,
- That murdered first her husband.22
Chorus.- Yet should she
- By her own body’s fruitage have been slain?
Apollo.- Thus speaking, ye mispraise the sacred rites
- Of matrimonial Hera23 and of Jove,
- Unvalued make fair Aphrodite’s grace,
- Whence dearest joys to mortal man descend.
- The nuptial bed, to man and woman fated,24
- Hath obligation stronger than an oath,
- And Justice guards it. Ye who watch our crimes,
- If that loose reins to nuptial sins ye yield,
- Offend, and grossly. If the murtherous wife
- Escape your sharp-set vengeance, how can ye
- Pursue Orestes justly? I can read
- No even judgment in your partial scales,
- In this more wrathful, and in that more mild.
- She who is wise shall judge between us, Pallas.
Chorus.The man is mine already. I will keep him.
Apollo.He’s gone; and thou’lt but waste thy toil to follow.
Chorus.Thy words shall not be swords, to cut my honors.
Apollo.Crowned with such honors, I would tear them from me!
Chorus.- A mighty god beside thy father’s throne
- Art thou, Apollo. Me this mother’s blood
- Goads on to hound this culprit to his doom.
Apollo.- And I will help this man, champion and save him,
- My suppliant, my client; should I not,
- Both gods and men would brand the treachery.
The scene changes to the Temple of Pallas in Athens. A considerable interval of time is supposed to have elapsed between the two parts of the Play.
EnterOrestes.
Orest.- Athena queen, at Loxias’ hest I come.
- Receive the suppliant with propitious grace.
- Not now polluted, nor unwashed from guilt
- I cling to the first altar; time hath mellowed
- My hue of crime, and friendly men receive
- The curse-beladen wanderer to their homes.
- True to the god’s oracular command,
- O’er land and sea with weary foot I fare,
- To find thy shrine, O goddess, and clasp thine image;
- And now redemption from thy doom I wait.
EnterChorus.
Chorus.- ’Tis well. The man is here. His track I know.
- The sure advisal of our voiceless guide
- Follow; as hound a wounded stag pursues,
- We track the blood, and snuff the coming death.
- Soothly we pant, with life-outwearying toils
- Sore overburdened! O’er the wide sea far
- I came, and with my wingless flight outstripped
- The couriers of the deep. Here he must lie,
- In some pent corner skulking. In my nostrils
- The scent of mortal blood doth laugh me welcome.
Chorus.25Voice 1.Look, sisters, look!
Voice 2.- On the right, on the left, and round about,
- Search every nook!
Voice 3.- Warily watch him,
- The blood-guilty ranger,
- That Fraud may not snatch him,
- From me the Avenger!
Voice 1.- At the shrine of the goddess,
- He bendeth him lowly,
- Embracing her image,
- The ancient the holy.
Voice 2.- With hands crimson-reeking,
- He clingeth profanely,
- A free pardon seeking
- From Pallas—how vainly!
Voice 3.- For blood, when it floweth,
- For once and for ever
- It sinks, and it knoweth
- To mount again never.
Voice 1.- Thou shalt pay me with pain;
- From thy heart, from thy liver
- I will suck, I will drain
- Thy life’s crimson river.
Voice 2.- The cup from thy veins
- I will quaff it, how rarely!
- I will wither thy brains,
- Thou shalt pine late and early.
Voice 3.- I will drag thee alive,
- For thy guilt matricidal,
- To the dens of the damned,
- For thy lasting abidal.
EPODE.Tutti.- There imprisoned thou shalt see
- All who living sinned with thee,
- ’Gainst the gods whom men revere,
- ’Gainst honoured guest, or parents dear;
- All the guilty who inherited
- Woe, even as their guilt had merited.
- For Hades, in his halls of gloom,
- With a justly portioned doom,26
- Binds them down securely:
- All the crimes of human kind,
- In the tablet of his mind,
- He hath graven surely.
Orest.- By manifold ills I have been taught to know
- All expiations; and the time to speak
- I know, and to be silent. In this matter
- As a wise master taught me, so my tongue
- Shapes utterance. The curse that bound me sleeps,
- My harsh-grained guilt is finer worn, the deep
- Ensanguined stain washed to a softer hue;
- Still reeking fresh with gore, on Phœbus’ hearth,
- The blood of swine hath now wrought my lustration,
- And I have held communings with my kind
- Once and again unharming. Time, that smooths
- All things, hath smoothed the front of my offence.
- With unpolluted lips I now implore
- Thy aid, Athena, of this land the queen.
- Myself, a firm ally, I pledge to thee,
- Myself, the Argive people, and their land,
- Thy bloodless prize. And whether distant far
- On Libyan plains beside Tritonian pools,
- Thy natal flood, with forward foot firm planted,
- Erect, or with decorous stole high-seated,27
- Thy friends thou aidest, or with practised eye
- The ordered battle on Phlegrean fields
- Thou musterest28 —come!—for gods can hear from far—
- And from these woes complete deliverance send!
Chorus.- Not all Apollo’s, all Athena’s power
- Shall aid thee. Thou, of gods and men forsook,
- Shalt pine and dwindle, stranger to the name
- Of joy, a wasted shadow, bloodless sucked
- To fatten wrathful gods. Thou dost not speak,
- But, as a thing devoted, standest dumb,
- My prey, even mine! my living banquet thou,
- My fireless victim. List, and thou shalt hear
- My song, that binds thee with its viewless chain.
Chorus.
- Deftly, deftly weave the dance!
- Sisters lift the dismal strain!
- Sing the Furies, justly dealing
- Dooms deserved to guilty mortals;
- Deftly, deftly lift the strain!
- Whoso lifted hands untainted
- Him no Furies’ wrath shall follow,
- He shall live unharmed by me;
- But who sinned, as this offender,
- Hiding foul ensanguined hands,
- We with him are present, bearing
- Unhired witness for the dead;
- We will tread his heels, exacting
- Blood for blood, even to the end.
- CHORAL HYMN.29
STROPHE I.
-
- Mother Night that bore me,
- A scourge, to go before thee,
- To scourge, with stripes delightless,
- The seeing and the sightless,30
- Hear me, I implore thee,
- O Mother Night!
- Mother Night that bore me,
- The son of Leto o’er me
- Rough rides, in thy despite.
- From me, the just pursuer,
- He shields the evil-doer,
- The son to me devoted,
- For mother-murder noted,
- He claims against the right.
-
- Where the victim lies,
- Let the death-hymn rise!
- Lift ye the hymn of the Furies amain!
- The gleeless song, and the lyreless strain,31
- That bindeth the heart with a viewless chain,
- With notes of distraction and maddening sorrow,
- Blighting the brain, and burning the marrow!
- Where the victim lies,
- Let the death-hymn rise,
- The hymn that binds with a viewless chain!
- ANTISTROPHE I.
-
- Mother Night that bore me,
- The Fate that was before me,
- This portion gave me surely,
- This lot for mine securely,
- To bear the scourge before thee,
- O Mother Night!
- And, in embrace untender
- To hold the red offender,
- That sinned in gods’ despite,
- And wheresoe’er he wend him,
- His keepers close we tend him.
- In living or in dying,
- From us there is no flying,
- The daughters of the Night.
-
- Where the victim lies,
- Let the death-hymn rise!
- Lift ye the hymn of the Furies amain!
- The gleeless song, and the lyreless strain,
- That bindeth the heart with a viewless chain,
- With notes of distraction and maddening sorrow,
- Blighting the brain, and burning the marrow!
- Where the victim lies,
- Let the death-hymn rise,
- The hymn that binds with a viewless chain!
- STROPHE II.
-
- From primal ages hoary,
- This lot, our pride and glory,
- Appointed was to us,
- To Hades’ gloomy portal,
- To chase the guilty mortal,
- But from Olympians, reigning
- In lucid seats, abstaining,
- Their nectared feasts we taste not,
- Their sun-white robes invest not
- The maids of Erebus.
-
- But, with scourge and with ban,
- We prostrate the man,
- Who with smooth-woven wile,
- And a fair-faced smile,
- Hath planted a snare for his friend;
- Though fleet, we shall find him,
- Though strong, we shall bind him,
- Who planted a snare for his friend.
- ANTISTROPHE II.
-
- This work of labour earnest,32
- This task severest, sternest,
- Let none remove from us.
- To all their due we render,
- Each deeply-marked offender
- Our searching eye reproveth,
- Though blissful Jove removeth,
- From his Olympian glory,
- Abhorr’d of all and gory,
- The maids of Erebus.
-
- But, swift as the wind,
- We follow and find,
- Till he stumbles apace,
- Who had hoped in the race,
- To escape from the grasp of the Furies!
- And we trample him low,
- Till he writhe in his woe,
- Who had fled from the chase of the Furies.
- STROPHE III.
- The thoughts heaven-scaling
- Of men haughty-hearted,
- At our breath, unavailing
- Like smoke they departed.
- Our jealous foot hearing,
- They stumble before us,
- And bite the ground, fearing
- Our dark-vested chorus.
- ANTISTROPHE III.
- They fall, and perceive not
- The foe that hath found them;
- They are blind and believe not,
- Thick darkness hath bound them.
- From the halls of the fated,
- A many-voiced wailing
- Of sorrow unsated
- Ascends unavailing.
- STROPHE IV.
- For the Furies work readily
- Vengeance unsparing,
- Surely and steadily
- Ruin preparing.
- Dark crimes strictly noted,
- Sure-memoried they store them;
- And, judgment once voted,
- Prayers vainly implore them.
- For they know no communion
- With the bright-throned union
- Of the gods of the day;
- Where the living appear not,
- Where the pale Shades near not,
- In regions delightless,
- All sunless and sightless,
- They dwell far away.
- ANTISTROPHE IV.
- What mortal reveres not
- Our deity awful?
- When he names us, who fears not
- To work deeds unlawful?
- From times hoary-dated,
- This statute for ever
- Divinely was fated;
- Time takes from it never.
- For dishonour we bear not,
- Though the bright thrones we share not
- With the gods of the day.
- Our right hoary-dated
- We claim unabated,
- Though we dwell, where delightless
- No sun cheers the sightless,
- ’Neath the ground far away.
EnterAthena.
Athena.- The cry that called me from Scamander’s banks33
- I heard afar, even as I hied to claim
- The land for mine which the Achæan chiefs
- Assigned me, root and branch, my portion fair
- Of the conquered roods, a goodly heritage
- To Theseus’ sons. Thence, with unwearied foot,
- I journeyed here by these high-mettled steeds
- Car-borne, my wingless ægis in the gale
- Full-bosomed whirring. And now, who are ye,
- A strange assembly, though I fear you not,
- Here gathered at my gates? I speak to both,
- To thee the stranger, that with suppliant arms
- Enclasps my statue—Whence art thou? And you,
- Like to no generation seed-begotten,
- Like to no goddess ever known of gods,
- Like to no breathing forms of mortal kind;
- But to reproach with contumelious phrase
- Who wrong not us, nor courtesy allows,
- Nor Themis wills. Whence are ye?
Chorus.- Daughter of Jove,
- ’Tis shortly said: of the most ancient Night
- The tristful daughters we, and our dread name,
- Even from the fearful Curse we bear, we borrow.
Athena.I know you, and the dreaded name ye bear.
Chorus.Our sacred office, too—
Athena.That I would hear.
Chorus.The guilty murderer from his home we hunt.
Athena.And the hot chase, where ends it?
Chorus.- There, where joy
- Is never named.
Athena.- And is this man the quarry,
- That, with hoarse-throated whoop, thou now pursuest?
Chorus.He slew his mother—dared the worst of crimes.
Athena.- What mightier fear, what strong necessity
- Spurred him to this?
Chorus.- What fear so strong that it
- Should prompt a mother’s murder?
Athena.There are two parties. Only one hath spoken.
Chorus.He’ll neither swear himself, nor take my oath.34
Athena.- The show of justice, not fair Justice self,
- Thou lovest.
Chorus.How? Speak—thou so rich in wisdom.
Athena.Oaths are no proof, to make the wrong the right.
Chorus.Prove thou. A true and righteous judgment judge.
Athena.- I shall be judge, betwixt this man and thee
- To speak the doom.
Chorus.- Even thou. Thy worthy deeds
- Give thee the worth in this high strife to judge.
Athena.- Now, stranger, ’tis thy part to speak. Whence come,
- Thy lineage what, and what thy fortunes, say,
- And then refute this charge against thee brought.
- For well I note the sacredness about thee,
- That marks the suppliant who atonement seeks,
- In old Ixíon’s guise;35 and thou hast fled
- For refuge, to my holy altar clinging.
- Answer me this, and plainly tell thy tale.
Orest.- Sovran Athena, first from these last words
- A cause of much concernment be removed.
- I seek for no atonement; no pollution
- Cleaves to thy sacred image from my touch.
- Of this receive a proof. Thou know’st a murderer
- Being unatoned a voiceless penance bears,
- Till, from the hand of friendly man, the blood
- Of a young beast from lusty veins hath sprent him,
- Cleansing from guiltiness. These sacred rites
- Have been performed: the blood of beasts hath sprent me,
- The lucent lymph hath purged the filthy stain.
- For this enough. As for my race, I am
- An Argive born: and for my father, he
- Was Agamemnon, king of men, by whom
- The chosen admiral of the masted fleet,
- The ancient city of famous Priam thou
- Didst sheer uncity.36 Sad was his return;
- For, with dark-bosomed guile, my mother killed him,
- Snared in the meshes of a tangled net,
- And of the bloody deed the bath was witness.
- I then, returning to my father’s house
- After long exile—I confess the deed—
- Slew her who bore me, a dear father’s murder
- With murder quitting. The blame—what blame may be—
- I share with Loxias, who fore-augured griefs
- To goad my heart if, by my fault, such guilt
- Should go unpunished. I have spoken. Thou
- What I have done, if justly or unjustly,
- Decide. Thy doom, howe’er it fall, contents me.
Athena.
- In this high cause to judge, no mortal man
- May venture; nor may I divide the law
- Of right and wrong, in such keen strife of blood.
- For thee, in that thou comest to my halls,37
- In holy preparation perfected,
- A pure and harmless suppliant, I, as pledged
- Already thy protector, may not judge thee.
- For these, ’tis no light thing to slight their office.
- For, should I send them hence uncrowned with triumph,
- Dripping fell poison from their wrathful breasts,
- They’d leave a noisome pestilence in the land
- Behind them. Thus both ways I’m sore perplexed;
- Absent or present, they do bring a curse.
- But since this business needs a swift decision,
- Sworn judges I’ll appoint, and they shall judge
- Of blood in every age. Your testimonies
- And proofs meanwhile, and all that clears the truth,
- Provide. Myself, to try this weighty cause,
- My choicest citizens will choose, and bind them
- By solemn oath to judge a righteous judgment.
- CHORAL HYMN.38
STROPHE I.
- Ancient rights and hoary uses
- Now shall yield to young abuses,
- Right and wrong together chime,
- If the vote
- Fail to note
- Mother-murder for a crime.
- Murder now, made nimble-handed,
- Wide shall rage without control;
- Sons against their parents banded
- Deeds abhorred
- With the sword
- Now shall work, while ages roll.
- ANTISTROPHE I.
- Now no more, o’er deeds unlawful,
- Shall the sleeping Mænads awful
- Watch, with jealous eyes to scan;
- Free and chainless,
- Wild and reinless,
- Stalks o’er Earth each murtherous plan.
- Friend to friend his loss deploreth,
- Lawless rapine, treacherous wound,
- But in vain his plaint he poureth;
- To his bruises
- Earth refuses
- Balm; no balm on Earth is found.
- STROPHE II.
- Now no more, from grief’s prostration,
- Cries and groans
- Heaven shall scale with invocation—
- “Justice hear my supplication,
- Hear me, Furies, from your thrones!”
- From the recent sorrow bleeding,
- Father thus or mother calls,
- Vainly with a piteous pleading,
- For the House of Justice falls.
- ANTISTROPHE II.
- Blest the man in whose heart reigneth
- Holy Fear;
- Fear his heart severely traineth;
- Blest, from troublous woe who gaineth
- Ripest fruits of wisdom clear;
- But who sports, a careless liver,39
- In the sunshine’s flaunting show,
- Holy Justice, he shall never
- Thy severest virtue know.
- STROPHE III.
- Lordless life, or despot-ridden,
- Be they both from me forbidden.
- To the wise mean strength is given,40
- Thus the gods have ruled in heaven;
- Gods, that gently or severely
- Judge, discerning all things clearly.
- Mark my word, I tell thee truly,
- Pride, that lifts itself unduly,41
- Had a godless heart for sire.
- Healthy-minded moderation
- Wins the wealthy consummation,
- Every heart’s desire.
- ANTISTROPHE III.
- Yet, again, I tell thee truly,
- At Justice’ altar bend thee duly.
- Wean thine eye from lawless yearning
- After gain; with godless spurning
- Smite not thou that shrine most holy.
- Punishment, that travels slowly,
- Comes at last, when least thou fearest.
- Yet, once more; with truth sincerest,
- Love thy parents and revere,
- And the guest, that to protect him,
- Claims thy guardian roof, respect him,
- With an holy fear.
- STROPHE IV.
- Whoso, with no forced endeavour,
- Sin-eschewing liveth,
- Him to hopeless ruin never
- Jove the Saviour giveth.
- But whose hand, with greed rapacious,
- Draggeth all things for his prey,
- He shall strike his flag audacious,
- When the god-sent storm shall bray,
- Winged with fate at last;
- When the stayless sail is flapping,
- When the sail-yard swings, and, snapping,
- Crashes to the blast.
- ANTISTROPHE IV.
- He shall call, but none shall hear him,
- When dark ocean surges;
- None with saving hand shall near him,
- When his prayer he urges.
- Laughs the god, to see him vainly
- Grasping at the crested rock;
- Fool, who boasted once profanely
- Firm to stand in Fortune’s shock;
- Who so great had been
- His freighted wealth with fearful crashing,
- On the rock of Justice dashing,
- Dies, unwept, unseen.
EnterAthena,behind a Herald.
Athena.- Herald, proclaim the diet, and command
- The people to attention; with strong breath
- Give the air-shattering Tyrrhene trump free voice,42
- To speak shrill-throated to the assembled throngs;
- And, while the judges take their solemn seats,
- In hushed submission, let the city hear
- My laws that shall endure for aye; and these,
- In hushed submission, wait the righteous doom.
EnterApollo.43
Chorus.- Sovran Apollo, rule where thou art lord;
- But here what business brings the prophet? Speak.
Apollo.- I come a witness of the truth; this man
- Is suppliant to me, he on my hearth
- Found refuge, him I purified from blood.
- I, too, am patron of his cause, I share
- The blame, if blame there be, in that he slew
- His mother. Pallas, order thou the trial.
Athena [to the Furies].- Speak ye the first, ’tis wiseliest ordered thus,
- That, who complains, his plaint set forth in order,
- Point after point, articulately clear.
Chorus.- Though we be many, yet our words are few.
- Answer thou singly, as we singly ask;
- This first—art thou the murderer of thy mother?
Orest.I did the deed. This fact hath no denial.
Chorus.Once worsted! With three fits I gain the trial.
Orest.Boast, when thou seest me fall. As yet I stand.
Chorus.This answer now—how didst thou do the deed.
Orest.- Thus; with my pointed dagger, in the neck
- I smote her.
Chorus.Who the bloody deed advised?
Orest.The god of oracles. Here he stands to witness.
Chorus.Commanding murder with prophetic nod?
Orest.Ay! and even now I do not blame the god.
Chorus.- Soon, soon, thou’lt blame him, when the pebble drops
- Into the urn of justice with thy doom.
Orest.My murdered sire will aid me from the tomb.
Chorus.Trust in the dead; in thy dead mother trust.
Orest.She died, with two foul blots well marked for vengeance.
Chorus.How so? This let the judges understand
Orest.The hand that killed her husband killed my father.
Chorus.If she for her crimes died, why livest thou?
Orest.If her thou didst not vex, why vex me now?
Chorus.She slew a man, but not of kindred blood.
Orest.- Is the son’s blood all to the mother kin,
- None to the father?
Chorus.- Peace, thou sin-stained monster!
- Dost thou abjure the dearest blood, the mother’s
- That bore thee ’neath her zone?
Orest. [to Apollo].- Be witness thou.
- Apollo, speak for me, if by the rule
- Of Justice she was murdered. That the deed
- Was done, and by these hands, I not deny;
- If justly or unjustly blood was spilt,
- Thou knowest. Teach me how to make reply.
Apollo.- I speak to you, Athena’s mighty council;
- And what I speak is truth: the prophet lies not.
- From my oracular seat was published never
- To man, to woman, or to city aught
- By my Olympian sire unfathered Ye
- How Justice sways the scale will wisely weigh;
- But this remember—what my father wills
- Is law. Jove’s will is stronger than an oath.
Chorus.- Jove, say’st thou, touched thy tongue with inspiration,
- To teach Orestes that he might avenge
- A father’s death by murdering a mother?
Apollo.- His was no common father—Agamemnon,
- Honoured the kingly sceptre god-bestowed
- To bear—he slain by a weak woman, not
- By furious Amazon with far-darting bow,
- But in such wise as I shall now set forth
- To thee, Athena, and to these that sit
- On this grave bench of judgment. Him returning
- All prosperous from the wars, with fairest welcome
- She hailed her lord, and in the freshening bath
- Bestowed him; there, ev’n while he laved, she came
- Spreading death’s mantle out, and, in a web
- Of curious craft entangled, stabbed him. Such
- Was the sad fate of this most kingly man,
- Of all revered, the fleet’s high admiral.
- A tale it is to prick your heart with pity,
- Even yours that seal the judgment.
Chorus.- Jove, thou sayest,
- Prefers the father: yet himself did bind
- With bonds his hoary-dated father Kronos.44
- Make this with that to square, and thou art wise.
- Ye judges, mark me, if I reason well.
Apollo.- O odious monsters, of all gods abhorred!
- A chain made fast may be untied again.
- This ill hath many cures; but, when the dust
- Hath once drunk blood, no power can raise it. Jove
- Himself doth know no charm to disenchant
- Death; other things he turns both up and down,
- At his good pleasure, fainting not in strength.
Chorus.- Consider well whereto thy words will lead thee.
- How shall this man, who spilt his mother’s blood,
- Dwell in his father’s halls at Argos? How
- Devoutly kneel at the public altar? How
- With any clanship share lustration?45
Apollo.- This
- Likewise I’ll answer. Mark me! whom we call
- The mother begets not;46 she is but the nurse,
- Whose fostering breast the new-sown seed receives.
- The father truly gets; the dam but cherishes
- A stranger-bud, that, if the gods be kind,
- May blossom soon, and bear. Behold a proof!
- Without a mother may a child be born,
- Not so without a father. Which to witness
- Here is this daughter of Olympian Jove,
- Not nursed in darkness, in the womb, and yet
- She stands a goddess, heavenly mother ne’er
- Bore greater. Pallas, here I plight my faith
- To magnify thy city and thy people;
- And I this suppliant to thy hearth hath sent,
- Thy faithful ally ever. May the league
- Here sworn to-day their children’s children bind!
AthenaNow judges, as your judgment is, I charge you, So vote the doom. Words we have had enough.
Chorus.Our quiver’s emptied. We await the doom.
AthenaHow should the sentence fall to keep me free Of your displeasure?
Chorus.- What we said we said.
- Even as your heart informs you, nothing fearing,
- So judges justly vote, the oath revering.
Athena.- Now, hear my ordinance, Athenians!47 Ye,
- In this first strife of blood, umpires elect,
- While age on age shall roll, the sons of Aegeus
- This Council shall revere. Here, on this hill,
- The embattled Amazons pitched their tents of yore,48
- What time with Theseus striving, they their tents
- Against these high-towered infant walls uptowered.
- To Mars they sacrificed, and, to this day,
- This Mars’ Hill speaks their story. Here, Athenians,
- Shall reverence of the gods, and holy fear,
- That shrinks from wrong, both night and day possess.
- A place apart, so long as fickle change
- Your ancient laws disturbs not; but, if this
- Pure fount with muddy streams ye trouble, ye
- Shall draw the draught in vain From anarchy
- And slavish masterdom alike my ordinance
- Preserve my people! Cast not from your walls
- All high authority; for where no fear
- Awful remains, what mortal will be just?
- This holy reverence use, and ye possess
- A bulwark, and a safeguard of the land,
- Such as no race of mortals vaunteth, far
- In Borean Scythia, or the land of Pelops.
- This council I appoint intact to stand
- From gain, a venerated conclave, quick
- In pointed indignation, when all sleep
- A sleepless watch These words of warning hear,
- My citizens for ever. Now ye judges
- Rise, take your pebbles, and by vote decide,
- The sacred oath revering. I have spoken.
TheAeropagitesadvance; and, as each puts his pebble into the urn, theChorusandApolloalternately address them as follows:
Chorus.- I warn ye well: the sisterhood beware,
- Whose wrath hangs heavier than the land may bear.
Apollo.- I warn ye well: Jove is my father; fear
- To turn to nought the words of me, his seer.
Chorus.- If thou dost plead, where thou hast no vocation,
- For blood, will men respect thy divination?
Apollo.- Must then my father share thy condemnation,
- When first he heard Ixion’s supplication?
Chorus.- Thou say’st.49 But I, if justice be denied me,
- Will sorely smite the land that so defied me.
Apollo.- Among the gods the elder, and the younger,
- Thou hast no favour; I shall prove the stronger.
Chorus.- Such were thy deeds in Pheres’ house,50 deceiving
- The Fates, and mortal men from death reprieving.
Apollo.- Was it a crime to help a host? to lend
- A friendly hand to raise a sinking friend?
Chorus.- Thou the primeval Power didst undermine,
- Mocking the hoary goddesses with wine.
Apollo.- Soon, very soon, when I the cause shall gain,
- Thou’lt spit thy venom on the ground in vain.
Chorus.- Thou being young, dost jeer my ancient years
- With youthful insolence; till the doom appears,
- I’ll patient wait; my hot-spurred wrath I’ll stay,
- And even-poised betwixt two tempers sway.
Athena.- My part remains; and I this crowning pebble
- Drop to Orestes; for I never knew
- The mother’s womb that bore me. I give honor,
- Save in my virgin nature, to the male
- In all things; all my father lives in me.51
- Not blameless be the wife, who dared to slay
- Her husband, lord and ruler of her home.
- My voice is for Orestes; though the votes
- Fall equal from the urn, my voice shall save him.
- Now shake the urn, to whom this duty falls,
- And tell the votes.
Orest.- O Phœbus, how shall end
- This doubtful issue?
Chorus.- O dark Night, my mother,
- Behold these things!
Orest.- One moment blinds me quite,
- Or to a blaze of glory opes my eyes.
Chorus.We sink to shame, or to more honor rise.
Apollo.52 - Judges, count well the pebbles as they fall,
- And with just jealousy divide them. One
- Being falsely counted works no simple harm.
- One little pebble saves a mighty house.
Athena.- Hear now the doom. This man from blood is free.
- The votes are equal; he escapes by me.
Orest.
- O Pallas, Saviour of my father’s house,
- Restorer of the exile’s hope, Athena,
- I praise thee! Now belike some Greek will say,
- The Argive man revisiteth the homes
- And fortunes of his father, by the aid
- Of Pallas, Loxias, and Jove the Saviour
- All-perfecting, who pled the father’s cause,
- Fronting the wrathful Furies of the mother!
- I now depart: and to this land I leave,
- And to this people, through all future time,
- An oath behind me, that no lord of Argos
- Shall ever brandish the well-pointed spear
- Against this friendly land. When, from the tomb,
- I shall perceive who disregards this oath
- Of my sons’ sons, I will perplex that man
- With sore perplexities inextricable;
- Ways of despair, and evil-birded paths
- Shall be his portion, cursing his own choice.
- But if my vows be duly kept, with those
- That in the closely-banded league shall aid
- Athena’s city, I am present ever.
- Then fare thee well, thou and thy people! Never
- May foe escape thy grasp! When thou dost struggle,
- Safety and victory attend thy spear!
[Exit.
Chorus.- Curse on your cause,
- Ye gods that are younger!
- O’er the time-hallowed laws
- Rough ye ride as the stronger.
- Of the prey that was ours
- Ye with rude hands bereave us,
- ’Mid the dark-dreaded Powers
- Shorn of honor ye leave us.
- Behold, on the ground
- From a heart of hostility,
- I sprinkle around
- Black gouts of sterility!
- A plague I will bring,
- With a dry lichen spreading;
- No green blade shall spring
- Where the Fury is treading.
- To abortion I turn
- The birth of the blooming,
- Where the plague-spot shall burn
- Of my wrath, life-consuming.
- I am mocked, but in vain
- They rejoice at my moaning;
- They shall pay for my pain,
- With a fearful atoning,
- Who seized on my right,
- And, with wrong unexampled,
- On the daughters of Night
- High scornfully trampled.
Athena- Be ruled by me your heavy-bosomed groans
- Refrain Not vanquished thou, but the fair vote
- Leapt equal from the urn, with no disgrace
- To thee. From Jove himself clear witness came;
- The oracular god that urged the deed, the same
- Stood here to vouch it, that Orestes might not
- Reap harm from his obedience. Soothe ye, therefore;
- Cast not your bolted vengeance on this land,
- Your gouts of wrath divine distil not, stings
- Of pointed venom, with keen corrosive power
- Eating life’s seeds, all barrenness and blight.
- A home within this land I pledge you, here
- A shrine, a refuge, and a hearth secure,
- Where ye on shining thrones shall sit, my city
- Yielding devoutest homage to your power.
Chorus.- Curse on your cause,
- Ye gods that are younger!
- O’er the time-hallowed laws
- Rough ye ride, as the stronger.
- Of the prey that was ours
- Ye with rude hands bereave us,
- ’Mid the dark-dreaded Powers
- Shorn of honor ye leave us.
- Behold, on the ground
- From a heart of hostility,
- I sprinkle around
- Black gouts of sterility!
- A plague I will bring
- With a dry lichen spreading;
- No green blade shall spring
- Where the Fury is treading.
- To abortion I turn
- The birth of the blooming,
- Where the plague-spot shall burn
- Of my wrath, life-consuming.
- I am mocked, but in vain
- They rejoice at my moaning;
- They shall pay for my pain,
- With a fearful atoning,
- Who seized on my right,
- And, with wrong unexampled,
- On the daughters of Night
- High scornfully trampled.
Athena.- Dishonoured are ye not: Spit not your rancour
- On this fair land remediless. Rests my trust
- On Jove, the mighty, I of all the gods
- Sharing alone the strong keys that unlock
- His thunder-halls:53 but this I name not here.
- Yield thou: cast not the seed of reckless speech
- To crop the land with woe Soothing the waves
- Of bitter anger darkling in thy breast,
- Dwell in this land, thy dreadful deity
- Sistered with me. When thronging worshippers .
- Henceforth shall cull choice firstlings for thine altars,
- Praying thy grace to bless the wedded rite,
- And the child-bearing womb—then honoured so,
- How wise my present counsel thou shalt know.
Chorus.Voice 1.- I to dwell ’neath the Earth
- All clipt of my glory,
- In the dark-chambered Earth,
- I, the ancient, the hoary!
Voice 2.- I breathe on thee curses,
- I cut through thy marrow,
- For the insult that pierces
- My heart like an arrow.
Voice 3.- Hear my cry, mother Night,
- ’Gainst the gods that deceived me!
- With their harsh-handed might
- Of my right they bereaved me.
Athena.- Thy anger I forgive; for thou’rt the elder
- But though thy years bring wisdom, to me also
- Jove gave a heart, not undiscerning. You—
- Mark well my words—if now some foreign land
- Ye choose, will rue your choice, and long for Athens.
- The years to be shall float more richly fraught
- With honor to my citizens; thou shalt hold
- An honoured seat beside Erectheus’ home,54
- Where men and women in marshalled pomp shall pay thee
- Such homage, as no land on Earth may render.
- But cast not ye on this my chosen land
- Whetstones of fury, teaching knives to drink
- The blood of tender bowels, madding the heart
- With wineless drunkenness, that men shall swell
- Like game cocks for the battle; save my city
- From brothered strife, and from domestic brawls.55
- Without the walls, and far from kindred hearths
- Rage war, where honor calls, and glory crowns.
- A bird of blood within the house I love not.
- Use thine election; wisely use it; give
- A blessing, and a blessing take; with me
- May this land dear to the gods be dear to thee!
Chorus.Voice 1.- I to dwell ’neath the Earth
- All clipt of my glory,
- In the dark-chambered Earth
- I, the ancient, the hoary!
Voice 2.- I breathe on thee curses,
- I cut through thy marrow,
- For the insult that pierces
- My heart like an arrow.
Voice 3.- Hear my cry, mother Night,
- ’Gainst the gods that deceived me!
- With their harsh-handed might
- Of my right they bereaved me.
Athena- To advise thee well I faint not. Never more
- Shalt thou, a hoary-dated power, complain
- That I, a younger, or my citizens,
- From our inhospitable gates expelled thee
- Of thy due honors shortened. If respect
- For sacred Peitho’s godhead, for the honey
- And charming of the tongue may move thee, stay;
- But, if ye will go, show of justice none
- Remains, with rancour, wrath, and scathe to smite
- This land and people. Stands your honoured lot
- With me for ever, so ye scorn it not.
Chorus.Sovran Athena, what sure home receives me?
Athena.A home from sorrow free. Receive it freely.
Chorus.And when received, what honors wait me then?
Athena.No house shall prosper where thy blessing fails.
Chorus.This by thy grace is sure?
Athena.- I will upbuild
- His house who honours thee.
Chorus.This pledged for ever?
Athena.I cannot promise what I not perform
Chorus.- Thy words have soothed me, and my wrath relents.
Athena.Here harboured thou wilt number many friends.
ChorusSay, then, how shall my hymn uprise to bless thee?
Athena- Hymn things that strike fair victory’s mark: from Earth,
- From the sea’s briny dew, and from the sky
- Bring blessings, the benignly-breathing gales
- On summer wings be wafted to this land,
- Let the Earth swell with the exuberant flow
- Of fruits and flowers, that want may be unknown.
- Bless human seed with increase, but cast out
- The impious man; even as a gardener, I
- Would tend the flowers, the briars and the thorns
- Heaped for the burning. This thy province I
- In feats of Mars conspicuous will not fail
- To plant this city ’fore all eyes triumphant.
STROPHE I.Chorus.- Pallas, thy welcome so kindly compelling
- Hath moved me; I scorn not to mingle my dwelling
- With thine, and with Jove’s, the all-ruling, thy sire.
- The city I scorn not, where Mars guards the portals,
- The fortress of gods,56 the fair grace of Immortals.
- I bless thee prophetic; to work thy desire
- To the Sun, when he shines in his full-flooded splendour,
- Her tribute to thee may the swelling Earth render,
- And bounty with bounty conspire!
Athena.- Athens, no trifling gain I’ve won thee.
- With rich blessing thou shalt harbour,
- Through my grace, these much-prevailing
- Sternest-hearted Powers. For they
- Rule, o’er human fates appointed,
- With far-reaching sway.
- Woe to the wretch, by their wrath smitten!57
- With strokes he knows not whence descending,
- Not for his own, for guilt inherited,58
- They with silent-footed vengeance
- Shall o’ertake him: in the dust,
- Heaven with piercing cries imploring,
- Crushed the sinner lies.
ANTISTROPHE I.Chorus.- Far from thy dwelling, and far from thy border,
- By the grace of my godhead benignant I order
- The blight that may blacken the bloom of thy trees.
- Far from thy border, and far from thy dwelling
- Be the hot blast that shrivels the bud in its swelling,
- The seed-rotting taint, and the creeping disease!
- Thy flocks still be doubled, thy seasons be steady,
- And, when Hermes is near thee,59 thy hand still be ready
- The Heaven-dropt bounty to seize!
Athena.- Hear her words, my city’s warders,
- Fraught with blessing; she prevaileth
- With Olympians and Infernals,
- Dread Erinnys much revered.
- Mortal fates she guideth plainly
- To what goal she pleaseth, sending
- Songs to some, to others days
- With tearful sorrows dulled.
STROPHE II.Chorus.- Far from your dwelling
- Be death’s early knelling,
- When falls in his green strength the strong
- Your virgins, the fairest,
- To brave youths the rarest
- Be mated, glad life to prolong!
- Ye Fates, high-presiding,60
- The right well dividing,
- Dread powers darkly mothered with me;
- Our firm favour sharing,
- From judgment unsparing
- The homes of the just man be free!
- But the guilty shall fear them,
- When in terror shall near them
- The Fates, sternly sistered with me.
Athena.- Work your perfect will, dread maidens,
- O’er my land benignly watching!
- I rejoice. Blest be the eyes
- Of Peitho, that with strong persuasion
- Armed my tongue, to soothe the fierce
- Refusal of these awful maids.
- Jove, that rules the forum, nobly
- In the high debate hath conquered.61
- In the strife of blessing now,
- You with me shall vie for ever.
ANTISTROPHE II.Chorus- Far from thy border
- The lawless disorder,
- That sateless of evil shall reign!
- Far from thy dwelling
- The dear blood welling,
- That taints thy own hearth with the stain,
- When slaughter from slaughter
- Shall flow, like the water,
- And rancour from rancour shall grow!
- But joy with joy blending
- Live, each to all lending,
- And hating one-hearted the foe!
- When bliss hath departed,
- From will single-hearted,
- A fountain of healing shall flow.
Athena.- Wisely now the tongue of kindness
- Thou hast found, the way of love;
- And these terror-speaking faces
- Now look wealth to me and mine.
- Her so willing, ye more willing
- Now receive, this land and city,
- On ancient right securely throned,
- Shall shine for evermore
STROPHE IIIChorus.- Hail, and all hail! mighty people be greeted!
- On the sons of Athena shine sunshine the clearest!
- Blest people, near Jove the Olympian seated,
- And dear to the virgin his daughter the dearest.
- Timely wise ’neath the wings of the daughter ye gather;
- And mildly looks down on her children the father.
Athena.- Hail, all hail to you! but chiefly
- Me behoves it now to lead you
- To your fore-appointed homes.
- Go, with holy train attendant,
- With sacrifice, and torch resplendent.
- Underneath the ground.
- Go, and with your potent godhead
- Quell the ill that threats the city,
- Spur the good to victory’s goal.
- Lead the way ye sons of Cranaus,
- To these strangers, strange no more;
- Their kindly thoughts to you remember,
- Grateful evermore.
ANTISTROPHE III.Chorus.- Hail, yet again, with this last salutation,
- Ye sons of Athena, ye citizens all!
- On gods, and on mortals, in high congregation
- Assembled, my blessing not vainly shall fall.
- O city of Pallas, while thou shalt revere me,
- Thy walls hold the pledge that no harm shall come near thee.
Athena.- Well hymned. My heart chimes with you, and I send
- The beamy-twinkling torches to conduct you
- To your dark-vaulted chambers ’neath the ground.
- They who attend my shrine, with pious homage,
- Shall be your convoy. The fair eye of the land,
- The marshalled host of Theseus’ sons shall march
- In festive train with you, both man and woman,
- Matron and maid, green youth and hoary age.
- Honor the awful maids, clad with the grace
- Of purple-tinctured robes; and let the flame
- March ’fore their path bright-rayed; and, evermore,
- With populous wealth smile every Attic rood
- Blessed by this gracious-minded sisterhood.62
Convoy,conducting theEumenidesin festal pomp to their subterranean temple, with torches in their hands:
- STROPHE I.
- Go with honor crowned and glory,
- Of hoary Night the daughters hoary,
- To your destined hall.
- Where our sacred train is wending,
- Stand, ye pious throngs attending,
- Hushed in silence all.
- ANTISTROPHE I.
- Go to hallowed habitations,
- ’Neath Ogygian Earth’s foundations:
- In that darksome hall
- Sacrifice and supplication
- Shall not fail. In adoration
- Silent worship all.
- STROPHE II.
- Here, in caverned halls, abiding,
- High on awful thrones presiding,
- Gracious ye shall reign.
- March in torches’ glare rejoicing!
- Sing, ye throngs, their praises, voicing
- Loud the exultant strain!
- ANTISTROPHE II.
- Blazing torch, and pure libation
- From age to age this pious nation
- Shall not use in vain.
- Thus hath willed it Jove all-seeing,
- Thus the Fate. To their decreeing
- Shout the responsive strain!
NOTES TO THE EUMENIDES
- “Old earth, primeval prophetess, I first
- With these my prayers invoke; and Themis next.”
- “. . . rocky Delos’ lake.”
- “The Sons of Vulcan pioneer his path”
- “. . . Loxias, prophet of his father Jove.”
- “. . . thee, likewise, who ’fore this temple dwellest”
- “. . . ye Nymphs that love
- The hollow Corycian rock.”
- “Thee, Bromius, too, I worship.”
- “. . . the godless Pentheus.”
- “Poseidon’s mighty power.”
Next to Jove, Poseidon is the strongest of the gods, as the element which he rules demands; and this strength, in works of art, is generally indicated by the breadth of chest given to this god. So Homer, also, wishing to magnify Agamemnon, says—
- “Like to Jove that rules the thunder were his kingly head and eyes;
- Belted round the loins like Ares, like Poseidon was his breast.”
- Il. II. 478.
- “A gray-haired woman, weaker than a child.”
- “. . . the ravenous crew
- That filched the feast of Phineus.”
The Harpies; who, from the names given to them in Homer and Hesiod (and specially from Odyssey xx 66 and 77 compared) seem to have been impersonations of sudden and tempestuous gusts of wind; though, again, it is not impossible that these winds may be symbolical of the rapacious power of swift and sudden death—
- “Venit Mors velociter
- Rapit nos atrociter,”
- “Such uncouth sisterhood, apparel’d so”
- “ . . A bitter pasture truly
- Was thine from Fate.”
I am not able to see what objection lies against the literal rendering of
- ὁρά δε πληγὰς τάσδε καρδίᾴ σέθεν,
as I read with Fr. and Linw. Pal and Schoe. take πληγὰς metaphorically to signify the contumelious language used by Clytemnestra to the Furies; but this is surely rather going out of the way. If there were any necessity for deserting the literal meaning, I would rather take Hermann’s way of turning it (Opusc VI. v. 2, p. 28), and read—
- ὁρα δε πληγὰς τάσδε καρδιάς δθεν.
- Siehe diese Wunden meines Herzens woher sie kommen!
- “Read with thy heart; some things the soul may scan
- More clearly, when the sensuous lid hath dropt,
- Nor garish day confounds”
- “Once Clytemnestra famous, now a dream.”
There is another translation of this passage—the old one in Stan —
- In somno enim vos nunc Clytemnestra voco,”
- “. . . and seeks
- For help from those that are no friends to me.”
- “Thou being young dost overleap the old.”
- “But where beheading, eye-out-digging dooms.”
- “She was murdered here,
- That murdered first her husband.”
- “. . . matrimonail Hera.”
- “The nuptial bed, to man and woman fated.”
- “On Libyan plains beside Tritonian pools.”
- “. . . with forward foot firm planted,
- Erect, or with decorous stole high-seated.”
I have not the slightest doubt that τίθησιν·ο̂ρθὸν πόδα in this passage can only mean to plant the foot down firmly and stand erect; if so, τίθησι κατηρεϕη̂ πόδα can only mean to sit, “the feet being covered by the robes while sitting”—Lin.; so also Pal. and Schoe. Sitting statues of the gods were very common in ancient times, as we see in the Egyptian statues, and in the common representations of the Greek and Roman Jupiter (see Thirlwall’s History of Greece, c. VI.). I am sorry that Hermann (p. 57) should have thrown out the idea that κατηρεϕη̂ς in this passage may mean “enveloped in clouds,” which has been taken up by Franz—
- “Sichtbar sic jezt herschreitet, oder Wolkumhüllt,”
- “The ordered battle on Phlegrean fields
- Thou musterest”
- “The seeing and the sightless”
αλαο̂ισι και δεδορκόσι, i.e. the living and the dead, an expression familiar to the Greeks, and characteristic of a people who delighted to live in the sun. βλέπειν ϕάος—to look on the light, is the most common phrase in the tragedians for to live; and wisely so—
- “Since light so necessary is to life,
- And almost life itself, if it be true
- That light is in the soul,
- The soul in every part.”
- —Milton
- “The gleeless song, and the lyreless strain.”
- “This work of labour earnest”
I have paraphrased, or rather interpolated, in this Antistrophe, a little, because I do not see much in it that is either translatable or worth translating. A meaning has been squeezed out of the two lines beginning σπευδόμενοι; but one cannot help feeling, after all, that there is something wrong, and saying with honest Wellauer, “certi nihil video.” The main idea, shimmering through the first three lines, is plain enough—that the Furies exercise a function, the legitimacy of which no one is entitled to question This the words, μηδ ες ἄγκρισιν ’ελθεɩ̂ν, plainly indicate; and it is upon this, and Schoe.’s conjectural emendation of the first line—
- σπευδομένος ἀπέχειν τινὰ τα̂σδε μερίμνας,
- “Diesem Geschäft das wir treiben verbleibe man ferne,”
that my paraphrase proceeds. With regard to the second part of this Strophe, beginning with Μάλα γὰρ δυν, I follow Well. and all the later editors, except Schoe., in retaining it for metrical reasons, in the place to which Heath transposed it. Schoe’s observations, however, are worthy of serious consideration, as it is manifest that, if these Pæonic lines be replaced to where they stand in all the old editions, viz.:—between ὀρχησμοɩ̂ς τ’ ε̂πιϕθόνοις ποδός and πιπτων δ’ουκ ὀιδεν, their connection with what precedes, and also with what follows, will be more obvious than what it is now. Fr.’s observation, however, in answer to this, is not to be kept out of view—that this second part of the Antistrophe takes up the idea, as it takes up the measure, with which the corresponding part of the Strophe, as now arranged, ends, viz.—διόμεναί κρατερὸν ὄνθ, which the reader will find clearly brought out in my version—the concluding lines of the Pæonic section of the Strophe—
- “Though fleet we shall find him,”
being taken up in the opening lines of the Pæonic section of the Antistrophe—
- “But swift as the wind,
- We follow and find.”
- “The cry that called me from Scamander’s banks.”
- “He’ll neither swear himself, nor take my oath.”
- “The ancient city of famous Priam thou
- Didst sheer uncity.”
- “For thee, in that thou comest to my halls.”
- “But who sports, a careless liver.”
’Tis impossible not to agree with Schoe. that these two lines are corrupt beyond the hope of emendation. He proposes to read—
- τίς δὲ μηδὲν ἐυσεβεɩ̂
- καρδίας ἄγᾳ τρεων.
A very ingenious restoration; and one which, as matters now stand, I should have little scruple in introducing into the text; but, for poetical purposes, I have not been willing to lose the image with which the present reading, ἐν ϕἀει, supplies me and Fr.—
- “Wer der nicht bei Wonneglanz
- Trauer auch im Herzen hegt,” etc.
- “To the wise mean strength is given,
- Thus the gods have ruled in heaven.”
This is one of those current common-places of ancient wisdom, which are now so cheap to the ear, but are still as remote from the general temper and the public heart as they were some thousands of years ago, when first promulgated by some prophetic Phemonoe of the Primeval Pelasgi. The great philosopher of common sense, Aristotle, seized this maxim, as the groundwork of practical ethics, some three hundred years before Christ—‘Φθείρεται γαρ, says he, ἡ σωϕροσύνη και ἡ ἀνδρεία ὑπὸ τη̂ς ὑπερβολη̂ς καὶ τη̂ς ’ελλειψεως, ὑπὸ δὲ τη̂ς μεσότητος σώζεται; and Horace, the poet of common sense, preachea many a quiet, tuneful sermon to the same ancient text—
- “Auream quisquis mediocritatem
- Diligit, tutus caret obsoleti
- Sordibus tecti, caret invidenda
- Sobrius aula.”
- “Pride, that lifts itself unduly”
- “Give the air-shattering Tyrrhene trump free voice.”
- “. . . himself did bind
- With bonds his hoary-dated father Kronos.”
- “. . . How
- With any clanship share lustration?”
- “. . . whom we call
- The mother begets not.”
- “Now, hear my ordinance, Athenians!”
- “. . . Here, on this hill,
- The embattled Amazons pitched their tents of yore.”
- “Such were thy deeds in Pheres’ house.”
- “. . . all my father lives in me.”
κάρτα δ’ειμι τονˆ πατρος; specially wisdom and energy.—So Milton—
- “All my father shines in me.”
- —Paradise Lost, VII.
- “Sharing alone the strong keys that unlock
- His thunder-halls.”
As Pallas possesses all her father’s characteristic qualities of wisdom and strength, so she is entitled to wield all his instruments, and even the thunder. Stan quotes—
- “Ipsa (Pallas) Jovis rapidum jaculata e nubibus ignem.”
- —Virgil, Æn I. 46
- “. . . thou shalt hold
- An honoured seat beside Erectheus’ home.”
- “. . . save my city
- From brothered strife, and from domestic brawls.”
- “Woe to the wretch, by their wrath smitten.”
- “Not for his own, for guilt inherited.”
- “And, when Hermes is near thee.”
- “Ye Fates, high-presiding.”
- “Jove, that rules the forum, nobly
- In the high debate hath conquered.”
- “Gracious-minded sisterhood.”
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