The House of Atreus Part 26

These be no halls where such as you can prowl-- Go where men lay on men the doom of blood, Heads lopped from necks, eyes from their Sphere plucked out, Hacked flesh, the flower of youthful seed crushed or Feet hewn away, and hands, and death beneath The smiting stone, low moans and piteous Of men impaled--Hark, hear ye for what feast Ye hanker ever, and the loathing G.o.ds Do spit upon your craving? Lo, your shape Is all too fitted to your greed; the cave Where lurks some lion, lapping gore, were home More meet for you. Avaunt from sacred shrines, Nor bring pollution by your touch on all That nears you. Hence! and roam unshepherded-- No G.o.d there is to tend such herd as you.

CHORUS

O king Apollo, in our turn hear us'

Thou hast'not only part in these ill things, But art chief cause and doer of the same.

APOLLO

How? stretch thy speech to tell this, and have done.

CHORUS

Thine oracle bade this man slay his mother.

APOLLO

I bade him quit his sire's death,--wherefore not?

CHORUS

Then didst thou aid and guard red-handed crime.

APOLLO

Yea, and I bade him to this temple flee.

CHORUS

And yet forsooth dost chide us following him!

APOLLO

Ay--not for you it is, to near this fane.

CHORUS

Yet is such office ours, imposed by fate.

APOLLO

What office? vaunt the thing ye deem so fair.

CHORUS

From home to home we chase the matricide.

APOLLO

What? to avenge a wife who slays her lord?

CHORUS

That is not blood outpoured by kindred hands.

APOLLO

How darkly ye dishonour and annul The troth to which the high accomplishers, Hera and Zeus, do honour. Yea, and thus Is Aphrodite to dishonour cast, The queen of rapture unto mortal men.

Know, that above the marriage-bed ordained For man and woman standeth Right as guard, Enhancing sanct.i.ty of troth-plight sworn; Therefore, if thou art placable to those Who have their consort slain, nor will'st to turn On them the eye of wrath, unjust art thou In hounding to his doom the man who slew His mother. Lo, I know thee full of wrath Against one deed, but all too placable Unto the other, minis.h.i.+ng the crime.

But in this cause shall Pallas guard the right.

CHORUS

Deem not my quest shall ever quit that man.

APOLLO

Follow then, make thee double toil in vain!

CHORUS

Think not by speech mine office to curtail.

APOLLO

None hast thou, that I would accept of thee!

CHORUS

Yea, high thine honour by the throne of Zeus: But I, drawn on by scent of mother's blood, Seek vengeance on this man and hound him down.

APOLLO

But I will stand beside him; 'tis for me To guard my suppliant: G.o.ds and men alike Do dread the curse of such an one betrayed, And in me Fear and Will say _Leave him not_.

[_Exeunt omnes_

_The scene changes to Athens. In the foreground, the Temple of Athena on the Acropolis; her statue stands in the centre; Orestes is seen dinging to it._

ORESTES

Look on me, queen Athena; lo, I come By Loxias' behest; thou of thy grace Receive me, driven of avenging powers-- Not now a red-hand slayer unannealed, But with guilt fading, half-effaced, outworn On many homes and paths of mortal men.

For to the limit of each land, each sea, I roamed, obedient to Apollo's hest, And come at last, O G.o.ddess, to thy fane, And clinging to thine image, bide my doom.

[_Enter the Chorus of Furies, questing like hounds_

CHORUS

Ho! clear is here the trace of him we seek: Follow the track of blood, the silent sign!

Like to some hound that hunts a wounded fawn, We snuff along the scent of dripping gore, And inwardly we pant, for many a day Toiling in chase that shall fordo the man; For o'er and o'er the wide land have I ranged, And o'er the wide sea, flying without wings, Swift as a sail I pressed upon his track, Who now hard by is crouching, well I wot, For scent of mortal blood allures me here.