Part 7

Re-enter CLYTEMNESTRA Get thee within thou too, Cassandra, go! For Zeus to thee in gracious mercy grants To share the sprinklings of the lustral bowl, Beside the altar of his guardianship, Slave among many slaves. What, haughty still? Step from the car; Alcmena’s son, ’tis said, Was sold perforce and bore the yoke of old. Ay, hard it is, but, if such fate befall, ’Tis a fair chance to serve within a home Of ancient wealth and power. An upstart lord, To whom wealth’s harvest came beyond his hope, Is as a lion to his slaves, in all Exceeding fierce, immoderate in sway. Pass in: thou hearest what our ways will be.

CHORUS Clear unto thee, O maid, is her command, But thou—within the toils of Fate thou art— If such thy will, I urge thee to obey; Yet I misdoubt thou dost nor hear nor heed.

CLYTEMNESTRA I wot—unless like swallows she doth use Some strange barbarian tongue from oversea— My words must speak persuasion to her soul.

CHORUS Obey: there is no gentler way than this. Step from the car’s high seat and follow her.

CLYTEMNESTRA Truce to this bootless waiting here without! I will not stay: beside the central shrine The victims stand, prepared for knife and fire— Offerings from hearts beyond all hope made glad. Thou—if thou reckest aught of my command, ’Twere well done soon: but if thy sense be shut From these my words, let thy barbarian hand Fulfil by gesture the default of speech.

CHORUS No native is she, thus to read thy words Unaided: like some wild thing of the wood, New-trapped, behold! she shrinks and glares on thee.

CLYTEMNESTRA ’Tis madness and the rule of mind distraught, Since she beheld her city sink in fire, And hither comes, nor brooks the bit, until In foam and blood her wrath be champed away. See ye to her; unqueenly ’tis for me, Unheeded thus to cast away my words.

CHORUS But with me pity sits in anger’s place. Poor maiden, come thou from the car; no way There is but this—take up thy servitude.

CASSANDRA Woe, woe, alas! Earth, Mother Earth! and thou Apollo, Apollo!

CHORUS Peace! shriek not to the bright prophetic god, Who will not brook the suppliance of woe.

CASSANDRA Woe, woe, alas! Earth, Mother Earth! and thou Apollo, Apollo!

CHORUS Hark, with wild curse she calls anew on him, Who stands far off and loathes the voice of wail.

CASSANDRA Apollo, Apollo! God of all ways, but only Death’s to me, Once and again, O thou, Destroyer named, Thou hast destroyed me, thou, my love of old!

CHORUS She grows presageful of her woes to come, Slave tho’ she be, instinct with prophecy.

CASSANDRA Apollo, Apollo! God of all ways, but only Death’s to me, O thou Apollo, thou Destroyer named! What way hast led me, to what evil home?

CHORUS Know’st thou it not? The home of Atreus’ race: Take these my words for sooth and ask no more.

CASSANDRA Home cursed of God! Bear witness unto me, Ye visioned woes within— The blood-stained hands of them that smite their kin— The strangling noose, and, spattered o’er With human blood, the reeking floor!

CHORUS How like a sleuth-hound questing on the track, Keen-scented unto blood and death she hies!

CASSANDRA Ah! can the ghostly guidance fail, Whereby my prophet-soul is onwards led? Look! for their flesh the spectre-children wail, Their sodden limbs on which their father fed!

CHORUS Long since we knew of thy prophetic fame,— But for those deeds we seek no prophet’s tongue.

CASSANDRA God! ’tis another crime— Worse than the storied woe of olden time, Cureless, abhorred, that one is plotting here— A shaming death, for those that should be dear! Alas! and far away, in foreign land, He that should help doth stand!

CHORUS I knew th’ old tales, the city rings withal— But now thy speech is dark, beyond my ken.

CASSANDRA O wretch, O purpose fell! Thou for thy wedded lord The cleansing wave hast poured— A treacherous welcome! How the sequel tell? Too soon ’twill come, too soon, for now, even now, She smites him, blow on blow!

CHORUS Riddles beyond my rede—I peer in vain Thro’ the dim films that screen the prophecy.

CASSANDRA God! a new sight! a net, a snare of hell, Set by her hand—herself a snare more fell! A wedded wife, she slays her lord, Helped by another hand! Ye powers, whose hate Of Atreus’ home no blood can satiate, Raise the wild cry above the sacrifice abhorred!

CHORUS Why biddest thou some fiend, I know not whom, Shriek o’er the house? Thine is no cheering word. Back to my heart in frozen fear I feel My waning life-blood run— The blood that round the wounding steel Ebbs slow, as sinks life’s parting sun— Swift, swift and sure, some woe comes pressing on!

CASSANDRA Away, away—keep him away— The monarch of the herd, the pasture’s pride, Far from his mate! In treach’rous wrath, Muffling his swarthy horns, with secret scathe She gores his fenceless side! Hark! in the brimming bath, The heavy plash—the dying cry— Hark—in the laver—hark, he falls by treachery!

CHORUS I read amiss dark sayings such as thine, Yet something warns me that they tell of ill. O dark prophetic speech, Ill tidings dost thou teach Ever, to mortals here below! Ever some tale of awe and woe Thro’ all thy windings manifold Do we unriddle and unfold!