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