CHORUS
What spur can rightly goad to matricide?
What spur can rightly goad to matricide?
Aeschylus
Who are ye?
of all I ask,
And of this stranger to my statue clinging.
But ye--your shape is like no human form,
Like to no goddess whom the gods behold,
Like to no shape which mortal women wear.
Yet to stand by and chide a monstrous form
Is all unjust--from such words Right revolts.
CHORUS
O child of Zeus, one word shall tell thee all.
We are the children of eternal Night,
And Furies in the underworld are called.
ATHENA
I know your lineage now and eke your name.
CHORUS
Yea, and eftsoons indeed my rights shalt know.
ATHENA
Fain would I learn them; speak them clearly forth.
CHORUS
We chase from home the murderers of men.
ATHENA
And where at last can he that slew make pause?
CHORUS
Where this is law--_All joy abandon here. _
ATHENA
Say, do ye bay this man to such a flight?
CHORUS
Yea, for of choice he did his mother slay.
ATHENA
Urged by no fear of other wrath and doom?
CHORUS
What spur can rightly goad to matricide?
ATHENA
Two stand to plead--one only have I heard.
CHORUS
He will not swear nor challenge us to oath.
ATHENA
The form of justice, not its deed, thou willest.
CHORUS
Prove thou that word; thou art not scant of skill.
ATHENA
I say that oaths shall not enforce the wrong.
CHORUS
Then test the cause, judge and award the right.
ATHENA
Will ye to me then this decision trust?
CHORUS
Yea, reverencing true child of worthy sire.
ATHENA (_to Orestes_)
O man unknown, make thou thy plea in turn
Speak forth thy land, thy lineage, and thy woes;
Then, if thou canst, avert this bitter blame--
If, as I deem, in confidence of right
Thou sittest hard beside my holy place,
Clasping this statue, as Ixion sat,
A sacred suppliant for Zeus to cleanse,--
To all this answer me in words made plain.
ORESTES
O queen Athena, first from thy last words
Will I a great solicitude remove.
Not one blood-guilty am I; no foul stain
Clings to thine image from my clinging hand;
Whereof one potent proof I have to tell.
Lo, the law stands--_The slayer shall not plead,
Till by the hand of him who cleanses blood
A suckling creature's blood besprinkle him_.
Long since have I this expiation done--
In many a home, slain beasts and running streams
Have cleansed me. Thus I speak away that fear.
Next, of my lineage quickly thou shalt learn:
An Argive am I, and right well thou know'st
My sire, that Agamemnon who arrayed
The fleet and them that went therein to war--
That chief with whom thy hand combined to crush
To an uncitied heap what once was Troy;
That Agamemnon, when he homeward came,
Was brought unto no honourable death,
Slain by the dark-souled wife who brought me forth
To him,--enwound and slain in wily nets,
Blazoned with blood that in the laver ran.
And of this stranger to my statue clinging.
But ye--your shape is like no human form,
Like to no goddess whom the gods behold,
Like to no shape which mortal women wear.
Yet to stand by and chide a monstrous form
Is all unjust--from such words Right revolts.
CHORUS
O child of Zeus, one word shall tell thee all.
We are the children of eternal Night,
And Furies in the underworld are called.
ATHENA
I know your lineage now and eke your name.
CHORUS
Yea, and eftsoons indeed my rights shalt know.
ATHENA
Fain would I learn them; speak them clearly forth.
CHORUS
We chase from home the murderers of men.
ATHENA
And where at last can he that slew make pause?
CHORUS
Where this is law--_All joy abandon here. _
ATHENA
Say, do ye bay this man to such a flight?
CHORUS
Yea, for of choice he did his mother slay.
ATHENA
Urged by no fear of other wrath and doom?
CHORUS
What spur can rightly goad to matricide?
ATHENA
Two stand to plead--one only have I heard.
CHORUS
He will not swear nor challenge us to oath.
ATHENA
The form of justice, not its deed, thou willest.
CHORUS
Prove thou that word; thou art not scant of skill.
ATHENA
I say that oaths shall not enforce the wrong.
CHORUS
Then test the cause, judge and award the right.
ATHENA
Will ye to me then this decision trust?
CHORUS
Yea, reverencing true child of worthy sire.
ATHENA (_to Orestes_)
O man unknown, make thou thy plea in turn
Speak forth thy land, thy lineage, and thy woes;
Then, if thou canst, avert this bitter blame--
If, as I deem, in confidence of right
Thou sittest hard beside my holy place,
Clasping this statue, as Ixion sat,
A sacred suppliant for Zeus to cleanse,--
To all this answer me in words made plain.
ORESTES
O queen Athena, first from thy last words
Will I a great solicitude remove.
Not one blood-guilty am I; no foul stain
Clings to thine image from my clinging hand;
Whereof one potent proof I have to tell.
Lo, the law stands--_The slayer shall not plead,
Till by the hand of him who cleanses blood
A suckling creature's blood besprinkle him_.
Long since have I this expiation done--
In many a home, slain beasts and running streams
Have cleansed me. Thus I speak away that fear.
Next, of my lineage quickly thou shalt learn:
An Argive am I, and right well thou know'st
My sire, that Agamemnon who arrayed
The fleet and them that went therein to war--
That chief with whom thy hand combined to crush
To an uncitied heap what once was Troy;
That Agamemnon, when he homeward came,
Was brought unto no honourable death,
Slain by the dark-souled wife who brought me forth
To him,--enwound and slain in wily nets,
Blazoned with blood that in the laver ran.
