The _Priestess's_ Prayer enumerates the Deities who have connection
with the Ancient Oracle, how Apollo is its main guardian, after it has
passed through many hands; other Deities have a share in it, even Zeus
the Supreme Accomplisher. Praying that her divinations that day may
excel even her past, she calls on the Pilgrims to come as the lot
permits. {28}
_Exit through the Main Gate into the Inner Shrine. In a moment she
returns, pale and disordered, flinging open the Central Gates, through
which can dimly be discerned dreadful forms in the Inner Shrine._
She can hardly stand for the terror of the sight she has seen; the
sacred shrine polluted by the presence of a man in suppliant garb,
bunch of olives and tufts of wool, his sword yet reeking with a recent
murder; and sitting round about him yet more dreaded beings.
A troop {46}
Of women strange to look at sleepeth there
Before this wanderer, seated on their stools;
Not women they, but Gorgons I must call them;
Nor yet can I to Gorgon forms compare them;
I have seen painted shapes that bear away
The feast of Phineus. 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,
Our mighty lord, himself to deal with them:
True prophet-healer he, and portent-seer,
And for all others cleanser of their homes. {63}
_At her word, in the entrance of the Inner Shrine appears Apollo with
Hermes, and they lead Orestes out._
_Apollo_ will never fail his suppliant; it is he who has sent sleep on
these loathly Beings, born out of evils, with whom neither Gods nor men
hold intercourse. They will still pursue, but he must fly to the
ancient City of Pallas and clasp her statue; there 'judges of these
things' and 'a means' will be found to rid him of his evils. _Orestes_
expresses confidence in Apollo's justice, who reiterates his pledge in
the name of Zeus and commits the wanderer to the charge of his own
brother Hermes, the Escort-God, to take him safe to Athens. {93}
_Apollo disappears into his shrine, and Hermes and Orestes leave by the
Left side or Distance-door. The stage being thus left vacant, the
machinery of the roller-stage brings the interior of the cave to the
front, showing the sleeping Furies scattered over the floor. The Ghost
of Clytaemnestra rises in front of the entrance to the Inner Shrine._
_Clytaem._ 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 forms 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;
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,
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.
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, Clytaemnestra'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.
[_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.
_Chorus of Furies, starting up suddenly with a yell._
Seize him, {125}
Seize, seize, yea, seize: look well to it.
_Clytaem._ Thou, phantom-like, 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:
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. {134}
_The Furies start up and (still on the roller-stage) perform a Fury
Dance for Prelude in three short Strophes and Antistrophes._
Our prey is gone! Apollo, ever known as a robber-god, has now
delivered a matricide from his due doom. Even in my dreams a feeling
of reproach stung me as a whip. Such are the doings of these 'younger
gods.' See Earth's Central Shrine is stained with blood, and Apollo
has taken sides with a mortal against a god; but though the god may vex
them, the culprit shall not escape. {169}
_Apollo, re-appearing from the Inner Shrine, threatens the Furies with
his bow_. He bids them leave his sacred precincts and seek scenes more
fitted to them.
There where heads upon the scaffold lie,
And eyes are gouged and throats of men are cut,
Where men are maimed and stoned to death, and groan
With bitter wailing 'neath the spine impaled.
A stichomuthic contest ensues; the Furies reproach Apollo with taking
the part of a matricide. He urges she had first slain her
husband--they retort that husband is not kin, to which Apollo pleads
the sanctity of the marriage tie; this authorized by the great example
of Zeus and Hera, with its special patroness Cypris, this "assigned by
Fate and guided by the Right is more than any oath." Neither party
will give way; Apollo appeals to Pallas as Umpire, the Furies declare
they will never desist from the pursuit. {225}