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Part II
Part II
[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.
Follow, seek him - round and round
Scent and snuff and scan the ground,
Lest unharmed he slip away,
He who did his mother slay!
Hist - he is there! See him his arms entwine
Around the image of the maid divine -
Thus aided, for the deed he wrought
Unto the judgment wills he to be brought.
It may not be! a mother`s blood, poured forth
Upon the stained earth,
None gathers up: it lies - bear witness, Hell! -
For aye indelible!
And thou who sheddest it shalt give thine own
That shedding to atone!
Yea, from thy living limbs I suck it out,
Red, clotted, gout by gout, -
A draught abhorred of men and gods; but I
Will drain it, suck thee dry;
Yea, I will waste thee living, nerve and vein;
Yea, for thy mother slain,
Will drag thee downward, there where thou shalt dree
The weird of agony!
And thou and whatsoe`er of men hath sinned -
Hath wronged or God, or friend,
Or parent, - learn ye how to all and each
The arm of doom can reach!
Sternly requiteth, in the world beneath,
The judgment - seat of Death;
Yea, Death, beholding every man`s endeavour,
Recordeth it for ever.
Orestes
I, schooled in many miseries, have learnt
How many refuges of cleansing shrines
There be; I know when law alloweth speech
And when imposeth silence. Lo, I stand
Fixed now to speak, for he whose word is wise
Commands the same. Look, how the stain of blood
Is dull upon mine hand and wastes away,
And laved and lost therewith is the deep curse
Of matricide; for while the guilt was new,
`Twas banished from me at Apollo`s hearth,
Atoned and purified by death of swine.
Long were my word if I should sum the tale,
How oft since then among my fellow - men
I stood and brought no curse. Time cleanses all -
Time, the coeval of all things that are.
Now from pure lips, in words of omen fair,
I call Athena, lady of this land,
To come, my champion: so, in aftertime,
She shall not fail of love and service leal,
Not won by war, from me and from my land
And all the folk of Argos, vowed to her.
Now, be she far away in Libyan land
Where flows from Triton`s lake her natal wave, -
Stand she with planted feet, or in some hour
Of rest conceal them, champion of her friends
Where`er she be, - or whether o`er the plain
Phlegraean she look forth, as warrior bold -
I cry to her to come, where`er she be
(And she, as goddess, from afar can hear),
And aid and free me, set among my foes.
Chorus
Thee not Apollo nor Athena`s strength
Can save from perishing, a castaway
Amid the Lost, where no delight shall meet
Thy soul - a bloodless prey of nether powers,
A shadow among shadows. Answerest thou
Nothing? dost cast away my words with scorn,
Thou, prey prepared and dedicate to me?
Not as a victim slain upon the shrine,
But living shalt thou see thy flesh my food.
Hear now the binding chant that makes thee mine.
Weave the weird dance, - behold the hour
To utter forth the chant of hell,
Our sway among mankind to tell,
The guidance of our power.
Of Justice are we ministers,
And whosoe`er of men may stand
Lifting a pure unsullied hand,
That man no doom of ours incurs,
And walks thro` all his mortal path
Untouched by woe, unharmed by wrath.
But if, as yonder man, he hath
Blood on the hands he strives to hide,
We stand avengers at his side,
Decreeing, Thou hast wronged the dead:
We are doom`s witnesses to thee.
The price of blood his hands have shed,
We wring from him; in life, in death,
Hard at his side are we!
Night, Mother Night, who brought me forth, a torment
To living men and dead,
Hear me, O hear! by Leto`s stripling son
I am dishonoured:
He hath ta`en from me him who cowers in refuge,
To me made consecrate, -
A rightful victim, him who slew his mother,
Given o`er to me and Fate.
Hear the hymn of hell,
O`er the victim sounding, -
Chant of frenzy, chant of ill,
Sense and will confounding!
Round the soul entwining
Without lute or lyre -
Soul in madness pining,
Wasting as with fire!
Fate, all - pervading Fate, this service spun, commanding
That I should bide therein:
Whosoe`er of mortals, made perverse and lawless,
Is stained with blood of kin,
By his side are we, and hunt him ever onward,
Till to the Silent Land,
The realm of death, he cometh; neither yonder
In freedom shall he stand.
Hear the hymn of hell,
O`er the victim sounding, -
Chant of frenzy, chant of ill,
Sense and will confounding!
Round the soul entwining
Without lute or lyre -
Soul in madness pining,
Wasting as with fire!
When from womb of Night we sprang, on us this labour
Was laid and shall abide.
Gods immortal are ye, yet beware ye touch not
That which is our pride!
None may come beside us gathered round the blood feast -
For us no garments white
Gleam on a festal day; for us a darker fate is,
Another darker rite.
That is mine hour when falls an ancient line -
When in the household`s heart
The god of blood doth slay by kindred hands, -
Then do we bear our part:
On him who slays we sweep with chasing cry:
Though he be triply strong,
We wear and waste him; blood atones for blood,
New pain for ancient wrong.
I hold this task - `tis mine, and not another`s.
The very gods on high,
Though they can silence and annul the prayers
Of those who on us cry,
They may not strive with us who stand apart,
A race by Zeus abhorred,
Blood - boltered, held unworthy of the council
And converse of heaven`s lord.
Therefore the more I leap upon my prey;
Upon their head I bound;
My foot is hard; as one that trips a runner
I cast them to the ground;
Yea, to the depth of doom intolerable;
And they who erst were great,
And upon earth held high their pride and glory,
Are brought to low estate,
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 thereon,
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.
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;
The, 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 I, returning from an exiled youth,
Slew her, my mother - lo, it stands avowed!
With blood for blood avenging my loved sire;
And in this deed doth Loxias bear part,
Decreeing agonies, to goad my will,
Unless by me the guilty found their doom.
Do thou decide if right or wrong were done -
Thy dooming, whatsoe`er it be, contents me.
Athena
Too mighty is this matter, whatsoe`er
Of mortals claims to judge hereof aright.
Yea, me, even me, eternal Right forbids
To judge the issues of blood - guilt, and wrath
That follows swift behind. This too gives pause,
That thou as one with all due rites performed
Dost come unsinning, pure, unto my shrine.
Whate`er thou art, in this my city`s name,
As uncondemned, I take thee to my side. -
Yet have these foes of thine such dues by fate,
I may not banish them: and if they fail,
O`erthrown in judgment of the cause, forthwith
Their anger`s poison shall infect the land -
A dropping plague - spot of eternal ill.
Thus stand we with a woe on either hand:
Stay they, or go at my commandment forth,
Perplexity or pain must needs befal.
Yet, as on me Fate hath imposed the cause,
I choose unto me judges that shall be
An ordinance for ever, set to rule
The dues of blood - guilt, upon oath declared.
But ye, call forth your witness and your proof,
Words strong for justice, fortified by oath;
And I, whoe`er are truest in my town,
Them will I choose and bring, and straitly charge,
Look on this cause, discriminating well,
And pledge your oath to utter nought of wrong.
[Exit Athena.
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