The House of Atreus Part 30

CHORUS

O cursed with murder's guilt, how else wert thou The burden of her womb? Dost thou forswear Thy mother's kinship, closest bond of love?

ORESTES

It is thine hour, Apollo--speak the law, Averring if this deed were justly done; For done it is, and clear and undenied.

But if to thee this murder's cause seem right Or wrongful, speak--that I to these may tell.

APOLLO

To you, Athena's mighty council-court, Justly for justice will I plead, even I, The prophet-G.o.d, nor cheat you by one word.

For never spake I from my prophet-seat One word, of man, of woman, or of state, Save what the Father of Olympian G.o.ds Commanded unto me. I rede you then, Bethink you of my plea, how strong it stands, And follow the decree of Zeus our sire,-- For oaths prevail not over Zeus' command.

CHORUS

Go to; thou sayest that from Zeus befel The oracle that this Orestes bade With vengeance quit the slaying of his sire, And hold as nought his mother's right of kin!

APOLLO

Yea, for it stands not with a common death, That he should die, a chieftain and a king Decked with the sceptre which high heaven confers-- Die, and by female hands, not smitten down By a far-shooting bow, held stalwartly By some strong Amazon. Another doom Was his: O Pallas, hear, and ye who sit In judgment, to discern this thing aright!-- She with a specious voice of welcome true Hailed him, returning from the mighty mart Where war for life gives fame, triumphant home; Then o'er the laver, as he bathed himself, She spread from head to foot a covering net, And in the endless mesh of cunning robes Enwound and trapped her lord, and smote him down.

Lo, ye have heard what doom this chieftain met, The majesty of Greece, the fleet's high lord: Such as I tell it, let it gall your ears, Who stand as judges to decide this cause.

CHORUS

Zeus, as thou sayest, holds a father's death As first of crimes,--yet he of his own act Cast into chains his father, Cronos old: How suits that deed with that which now ye tell?

O ye who judge, I bid ye mark my words!

APOLLO

O monsters loathed of all, O scorn of G.o.ds, He that hath bound may loose: a cure there is, Yea, many a plan that can unbind the chain.

But when the thirsty dust sucks up man's blood Once shed in death, he shall arise no more.

No chant nor charm for this my Sire hath wrought.

All else there is, he moulds and shifts at will, Not scant of strength nor breath, whate'er he do.

CHORUS

Think yet, for what acquittal thou dost plead: He who hath shed a mother's kindred blood, Shall he in Argos dwell, where dwelt his sire?

How shall he stand before the city's shrines, How share the clansmen's holy l.u.s.tral bowl?

APOLLO

This too I answer; mark a soothfast word, Not the true parent is the woman's womb That bears the child; she doth but nurse the seed New-sown: the male is parent; she for him, As stranger for a stranger, h.o.a.rds the germ Of life; unless the G.o.d its promise blight.

And proof hereof before you will I set.

Birth may from fathers, without mothers, be: See at your side a witness of the same, Athena, daughter of Olympian Zeus, Never within the darkness of the womb Fostered nor fashioned, but a bud more bright Than any G.o.ddess in her breast might bear.

And I, O Pallas, howsoe'er I may, Henceforth will glorify thy town, thy clan, And for this end have sent my suppliant here Unto thy shrine; that he from this time forth Be loyal unto thee for evermore, O G.o.ddess-queen, and thou unto thy side Mayst win and hold him faithful, and his line, And that for aye this pledge and troth remain To children's children of Athenian seed.

ATHENA

Enough is said; I bid the judges now With pure intent deliver just award.

CHORUS

We too have shot our every shaft of speech, And now abide to hear the doom of law.

ATHENA (_to Apollo and Orestes_)

Say, how ordaining shall I 'scape your blame?

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 a.s.sailed 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 Pa.s.s 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 l.u.s.t 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.

[_The twelve judges come forward, one by one, to the urns of decision; the first votes; as each of the others follows, the Chorus and Apollo speak alternately._

CHORUS

I rede ye well, beware! nor put to shame, In aught, this grievous company of h.e.l.l.

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