Yet to stand by and chide a
monstrous
form
Is all unjust--from such words Right revolts.
Is all unjust--from such words Right revolts.
Aeschylus
In underworld they waste and are diminished,
The while around them fleet
Dark wavings of my robes, and, subtly woven,
The paces of my feet.
Who falls infatuate, he sees not, neither knows he
That we are at his side;
So closely round about him, darkly flitting,
The cloud of guilt doth glide.
Heavily 'tis uttered, how around his hearthstone
The mirk of hell doth rise.
Stern and fixed the law is; we have hands t'achieve it,
Cunning to devise.
Queens are we and mindful of our solemn vengeance.
Not by tear or prayer
Shall a man avert it. In unhonoured darkness,
Far from gods, we fare,
Lit unto our task with torch of sunless regions,
And o'er a deadly way--
Deadly to the living as to those who see not
Life and light of day--
Hunt we and press onward. Who of mortals hearing
Doth not quake for awe,
Hearing all that Fate thro' hand of God hath given us
For ordinance and law?
Yea, this right to us, in dark abysm and backward
Of ages it befel:
None shall wrong mine office, tho' in nether regions
And sunless dark I dwell.
[_Enter Athena from above_
ATHENA
Far off I heard the clamour of your cry,
As by Scamander's side I set my foot
Asserting right upon the land given o'er
To me by those who o'er Achaia's host
Held sway and leadership: no scanty part
Of all they won by spear and sword, to me
They gave it, land and all that grew theron,
As chosen heirloom for my Theseus' clan.
Thence summoned, sped I with a tireless foot,--
Hummed on the wind, instead of wings, the fold
Of this mine aegis, by my feet propelled,
As, linked to mettled horses, speeds a car.
And now, beholding here Earth's nether brood,
I fear it nought, yet are mine eyes amazed
With wonder. 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.