Aeschylus

“ Could only crouch and cower and yield himself.
Scared was I by that sight, and eke to you
No less a terror must it be to hear!
For mark this well—if Xerxes have prevailed,
He shall come back the wonder of the world:
If not, still none can call him to account—
So he but live, he liveth Persia’s King!
CHORUS.
Queen, it stands not with my purpose to abet these fears of thine,
Nor to speak with glazing comfort! nay, betake thee to the shrine!
If thy dream foretold disaster, sue to gods to bar its way,
And, for thyself, son, state, and friends, to bring fair fate to-day. ”

“ Fulfil my prayer, grant me thine halls to sway.
Electra:
To me, too, grant this boon-dark death to deal
Unto Aegisthus, and to 'scape my doom.
Orestes:
So shall the rightful feasts that mortals pay
Be set for thee; else, not for thee shall rise
The scented reek of altars fed with flesh,
But thou shalt lie dishonoured: hear thou me!
Electra:
I too, from my full heritage restored,
Will pour the lustral streams, what time I pass
Forth as a bride from these paternal halls,
And honour first, beyond all graves, thy tomb.
Orestes:
Earth, send my sire to fend me in the fight! ”

“ Since thou, young god, o'erridest my hoar age,
The issue I await with list'ning ear,
And doubtful stay my wrath against the town.
[After the twelfth Areopagite has dropped his pebble into the urn, Athena takes one from the altar, and holds it in her hand.]
Athena.
With me it rests to give the casting vote,
And to Orestes I my suffrage pledge.
For to no mother do I owe my birth;
In all, save wedlock, I approve the male,
And am, with all my soul, my father's child.
Nor care I to avenge a woman's death
Who slew her husband, guardian of the house. ”

“ Speak! for man is born to sorrow; yea, the proverb sayeth sooth!
'Tis the doom of mortal beings, if they live to see old age,
To suffer bale, by land and sea, through war and tempest's rage.
Atossa
O thou whose blissful fate on earth all mortal weal excelled—
Who, while the sunlight touched thine eyes, the lord of all wert held!
A god to Persian men thou wert, in bliss and pride and fame—
I hold thee blest too in thy death, or e'er the ruin came!
Alas, Darius! one brief word must tell thee all the tale—
The Persian power is in the dust, gone down in blood and bale! ”

“ For not forgetful is the high gods' doom
⁠Against the sons of carnage: all too long
Seems the unjust to prosper and be strong,
⁠Till the dark Furies come,
And smite with stern reversal all his home,
⁠Down into dim obstruction—he is gone,
And help and hope among the lost is none.
O'er him who vaunteth an exceeding fame,
⁠Impends a woe condign;
The vengeful bolt upon his eyes doth flame,
⁠Sped from the hand divine.
This bliss be mine, ungrudged of god, to feel—
⁠To tread no city to the dust,
⁠Nor see my own life thrust
Down to a slave's estate beneath another's heel! ”

“ CHORUS
I, I dishonoured in this earth to dwell,—
Ancient of days and wisdom! I breathe forth
Poison and breath of frenzied ire. O Earth,
Woe, woe for thee, for me!
From side to side what pains be these that thrill?
Hearken, O mother Night, my wrath, mine agony!
Whom from mine ancient rights the gods have thrust,
And brought me to the dust—
Woe, woe is me!—with craft invincible.
ATHENA
I will not weary of soft words to thee,
That never mayst thou say, Behold me spurned,
An elder by a younger deity,
And from this land rejected and forlorn,
Unhonoured by the men who dwell therein. ”

“ Prometheus
Ay—Zeus shall wear more painful bonds than mine.
Chorus
Darest thou speak such taunts and tremble not?
Prometheus
Why should I fear, who am immortal too?
Chorus
Yet he might doom thee to worse agony.
Prometheus
Out on his dooming! I foreknow it all.
Chorus
Yet do the wise revere Necessity.
Prometheus
Ay, ay—do reverence, cringe and crouch to power
Whene'er, where'er thou see it! But, for me,
I reck of Zeus as something less than nought.
Let him put forth his power, attest his sway,
Howe'er he will—a momentary show,
A little brief authority in heaven! ”

“ Hast thou made flower-forth, red
With the blood no rains disperse,
That which was then in the House—
Strife all-subduing, the woe of a spouse.
KLUTAIMNESTRA.
Nowise, of death the fate—
Burdened by these things—supplicate!
Nor on Helena turn thy wrath
As the man-destroyer, as "she who hath,
Being but one,
Many and many a soul undone
Of the men, the Danaoi"—
And wrought immense annoy!
KLUTAIMNESTRA.
Daimon, who fallest
Upon this household and the double-raced
Tantalidai, a rule, minded like theirs displaced,
Thou rulest me with, now,
Whose heart thou gallest! ”

“ Spurned by Olympian gods, unto the gods below!
⁠Zeus, hear and save!
The searching, poisonous hate, that Io vexed and drave,
⁠Was of a goddess: well I know
⁠The bitter ire, the wrathful woe
⁠Of Hera, queen of heaven—
A storm, a storm her breath, whereby we yet are driven!
⁠Bethink thee, what dispraise
⁠Of Zeus himself mankind will raise,
If now he turn his face averted from our cries!
If now, dishonoured and alone,
The ox-horned maiden's race shall be undone,
Children of Epaphus, his own begotten son—
Zeus, listen from on high!—to thee our prayers arise.
⁠Zeus, hear and save! ”

“ Oh, most horrible day, most horrible night! the foul banquet! the dread forms of death he met with at their accursed hands, he who was my life!—Cho. But take care: excess of grief makes you utter what may bring you into trouble.—Elec. I know, but will never cease from uttering woe on woe: leave me, I am beyond soothing, and will never pause to count my tears.—Cho. It is with pure good will, as if a mother, I beg you not to heap ills on ills.—Elec. Is misery limited? is it noble to neglect the dead? if they escape without penalty fear of the Gods will be swept from the earth. ”

“ CHORUS.
Let me not fall, O nevermore,
A prey into the young men’s hand;
Rather than wed whom I abhor,
By pilot-stars I flee this land;
O king, take justice to thy side,
And with the righteous powers decide!
THE KING OF ARGOS.
Hard is the cause—make me not judge thereof.
Already I have vowed it, to do nought
Save after counsel with my people ta’en,
King though I be; that ne’er in after time,
If ill fate chance, my people then may say—
In aid of strangers thou the state hast slain.
CHORUS.
Zeus, lord of kinship, rules at will
The swaying balance, and surveys
Evil and good ”

“ Caitiff! Thy mother's blood wilt thou deny?
Orestes (overcome) .
I can no more. . . . Give witness, and reply,
Lord Phoebus, in my stead, if righteously
I slew. . . . I slew: denied it cannot be:
But rightly, or most foully—as thine own
Heart speaks, give judgement, and let all be known.
Apollo.
Ye judges of Athena's Court most high,
I come to speak before you faithfully,
Being God's prophet: therefore truth is mine.
Nor ever spake I from my throne divine
Of man nor woman, land nor city wall,
Save by command of Him who ruleth all,
Zeus, the Olympian Father. ”

“ Piercing my marrow with thy savage hymn
Of exultation.
ANTISTROPHE III.
Clytemnestra.
Nay, but now thou speakest wisely;
This thrice-potent god precisely
Works our woe, and weaves our sorrow.
He with madness stings the marrow,
And with greed that thirsts for blood;
Ere to-day’s is dry, the flood
Flows afresh to-morrow.
STROPHE IV.
Chorus.
Him, even him, this terrible god, to bear
These walls are fated;
From age to age he worketh wildly there
With wrath unsated.
Not without Jove, Jove cause and end of all,
Nor working vainly.
Comes no event but with high sway the gods
Have ruled it plainly. ”

“ Behold, the guilt of blood, the ghastly stain!
Woe upon thee, Apollo! uncontrolled,
Unbidden, hast thou, prophet-god, imbrued
The pure prophetic shrine with wrongful blood!
For thou too heinous a respect didst hold
Of man, too little heed of powers divine!
And us the Fates, the ancients of the earth,
Didst deem as nothing worth.
Scornful to me thou art, yet shalt not fend
My wrath from him; though unto hell he flee,
There too are we!
And he the blood defiled, should feel and rue,
Though I were not, fiend-wrath that shall not end,
Descending on his head who foully slew. ”

“ This attest
When for my death's revenge another dies,
A woman for a woman, and a man
Falls, for a man ill-wedded to his curse.
Grant me this boon—the last before I die.
Chorus.
Brave to the last! I mourn thy doom foreseen.
Cassandra.
Once more one utterance but not of wail,
Though for my death—and then I speak no more.
Sun! thou whose beam I shall not see again,
To thee I cry, Let those whom vengeance calls
To slay their kindred's slayers, quit withal
The death of me, the slave, the fenceless prey. [10]
Ah state of mortal man! in time of weal,
A line, a shadow! ”