Part 25

APOLLO I spake, ye heard; enough. O stranger men, Heed well your oath as ye decide the cause.

ATHENA O men of Athens, ye who first do judge The law of bloodshed, hear me now ordain. Here to all time for Aegeus’ Attic host Shall stand this council-court of judges sworn, Here the tribunal, set on Ares’ Hill Where camped of old the tented Amazons, What time in hate of Theseus they assailed Athens, and set against her citadel A counterwork of new sky-pointing towers, And there to Ares held their sacrifice, Where now the rock hath name, even Ares’ Hill. And hence shall Reverence and her kinsman Fear Pass to each free man’s heart, by day and night Enjoining, Thou shalt do no unjust thing, So long as law stands as it stood of old Unmarred by civic change. Look you, the spring Is pure; but foul it once with influx vile And muddy clay, and none can drink thereof. Therefore, O citizens, I bid ye bow In awe to this command, Let no man live Uncurbed by law nor curbed by tyranny; Nor banish ye the monarchy of Awe Beyond the walls; untouched by fear divine, No man doth justice in the world of men. Therefore in purity and holy dread Stand and revere; so shall ye have and hold A saving bulwark of the state and land, Such as no man hath ever elsewhere known, Nor in far Scythia, nor in Pelops’ realm. Thus I ordain it now, a council-court Pure and unsullied by the lust of gain, Sacred and swift to vengeance, wakeful ever To champion men who sleep, the country’s guard. Thus have I spoken, thus to mine own clan Commended it for ever. Ye who judge, Arise, take each his vote, mete out the right, Your oath revering. Lo, my word is said.

CHORUS I rede ye well, beware! nor put to shame, In aught, this grievous company of hell.

APOLLO I too would warn you, fear mine oracles— From Zeus they are,—nor make them void of fruit.

CHORUS Presumptuous is thy claim, blood-guilt to judge, And false henceforth thine oracles shall be.

APOLLO Failed then the counsels of my sire, when turned Ixion, first of slayers, to his side?

CHORUS These are but words; but I, if justice fail me, Will haunt this land in grim and deadly deed.

APOLLO Scorn of the younger and the elder gods Art thou: ’tis I that shall prevail anon.

CHORUS Thus didst thou too of old in Pheres’ halls, O’erreaching Fate to make a mortal deathless.

APOLLO Was it not well, my worshipper to aid, Then most of all when hardest was the need?

CHORUS I say thou didst annul the lots of life, Cheating with wine the deities of eld.

APOLLO I say thou shalt anon, thy pleadings foiled, Spit venom vainly on thine enemies.

CHORUS Since this young god o’errides mine ancient right, I tarry but to claim your law, not knowing If wrath of mine shall blast your state or spare

ATHENA Mine is the right to add the final vote, And I award it to Orestes’ cause. For me no mother bore within her womb, And, save for wedlock evermore eschewed, I vouch myself the champion of the man, Not of the woman, yea, with all my soul,— In heart, as birth, a father’s child alone. Thus will I not too heinously regard A woman’s death who did her husband slay, The guardian of her home; and if the votes Equal do fall, Orestes shall prevail. Ye of the judges who are named thereto, Swiftly shake forth the lots from either urn.

ORESTES O bright Apollo, what shall be the end?

CHORUS O Night, dark mother mine, dost mark these things?

OSESTES Now shall my doom be life, or strangling cords.

CHORUS And mine, lost honour or a wider sway.

APOLLO O stranger judges, sum aright the count Of votes cast forth, and, parting them, take heed Ye err not in decision. The default Of one vote only bringeth ruin deep, One, cast aright, doth stablish house and home.

ATHENA Behold, this man is free from guilt of blood, For half the votes condemn him, half set free!

ORESTES O Pallas, light and safety of my home, Thou, thou hast given me back to dwell once more In that my fatherland, amerced of which I wandered; now shall Grecian lips say this, The man is Argive once again, and dwells Again within his father’s wealthy hall, By Pallas saved, by Loxias, and by Him, The great third saviour, Zeus omnipotent— Who thus in pity for my father’s fate Doth pluck me from my doom, beholding these, Confederates of my mother. Lo, I pass To mine own home, but proffering this vow Unto thy land and people: Nevermore, Thro’ all the manifold years of Time to be, Shall any chieftain of mine Argive land Bear hitherward his spears for fight arrayed. For we, though lapped in earth we then shall lie, By thwart adversities will work our will On them who shall transgress this oath of mine, Paths of despair and journeyings ill-starred For them ordaining, till their task they rue. But if this oath be rightly kept, to them Will we the dead be full of grace, the while With loyal league they honour Pallas’ town. And now farewell, thou and thy city’s folk— Firm be thine arm’s grasp, closing with thy foes, And, strong to save, bring victory to thy spear.

CHORUS Woe on you, younger gods! the ancient right Ye have o’erridden, rent it from my hands.

I am dishonoured of you, thrust to scorn! But heavily my wrath Shall on this land fling forth the drops that blast and burn Venom of vengeance, that shall work such scathe As I have suffered; where that dew shall fall, Shall leafless blight arise, Wasting Earth’s offspring,—Justice, hear my call!— And thorough all the land in deadly wise Shall scatter venom, to exude again In pestilence on men. What cry avails me now, what deed of blood, Unto this land what dark despite? Alack, alack, forlorn Are we, a bitter injury have borne! Alack, O sisters, O dishonoured brood Of mother Night!

ATHENA Nay, bow ye to my words, chafe not nor moan: Ye are not worsted nor disgraced; behold, With balanced vote the cause had issue fair, Nor in the end did aught dishonour thee. But thus the will of Zeus shone clearly forth, And his own prophet-god avouched the same, Orestes slew: his slaying is atoned. Therefore I pray you, not upon this land Shoot forth the dart of vengeance; be appeased, Nor blast the land with blight, nor loose thereon Drops of eternal venom, direful darts Wasting and marring nature’s seed of growth.

For I, the queen of Athens’ sacred right, Do pledge to you a holy sanctuary Deep in the heart of this my land, made just By your indwelling presence, while ye sit Hard by your sacred shrines that gleam with oil Of sacrifice, and by this folk adored.

CHORUS Woe on you, younger gods! the ancient right Ye have o’erridden, rent it from my hands.

I am dishonoured of you, thrust to scorn! But heavily my wrath Shall on his land fling forth the drops that blast and burn. Venom of vengeance, that shall work such scathe As I have suffered; where that dew shall fall, Shall leafless blight arise, Wasting Earth’s offspring,—Justice, hear my call!— And thorough all the land in deadly wise Shall scatter venom, to exude again In pestilence of men. What cry avails me now, what deed of blood, Unto this land what dark despite? Alack, alack, forlorn Are we, a bitter injury have borne! Alack, O sisters, O dishonoured brood Of mother Night!

ATHENA Dishonoured are ye not; turn not, I pray. As goddesses your swelling wrath on men, Nor make the friendly earth despiteful to them. I too have Zeus for champion—’tis enough— I only of all goddesses do know. To ope the chamber where his thunderbolts Lie stored and sealed; but here is no such need. Nay, be appeased, nor cast upon the ground The malice of thy tongue, to blast the world; Calm thou thy bitter wrath’s black inward surge, For high shall be thine honour, set beside me For ever in this land, whose fertile lap Shall pour its teeming firstfruits unto you, Gifts for fair childbirth and for wedlock’s crown: Thus honoured, praise my spoken pledge for aye.