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Part III
Part III
Chorus
Now are they all undone, the ancient laws,
If here the slayer`s cause
Prevail; new wrong for ancient right shall be
If matricide go free.
Henceforth a deed like his by all shall stand,
Too ready to the hand:
Too oft shall parents in the aftertime
Rue and lament this crime, -
Taught, not in false imagining, to feel
Their children`s thrusting steel:
No more the wrath that erst on murder fell
From us, the queens of hell,
Shall fall, no more our watching gaze impend -
Death shall smite unrestrained.
Henceforth shall one unto another cry,
Lo, they are stricken, lo, they fall and die
Around me! and that other answers him,
O thou that lookest that thy woes should cease,
Behold, with dark increase
They throng and press upon thee; yea, and dim
Is all the cure, and every comfort vain!
Let none henceforth cry out, when falls the blow
Of sudden - smiting woe,
Cry out, in sad reiterated strain,
O Justice, aid! aid, O ye thrones of hell!
So though a father or a mother wail
New - smitten by a son, it shall no more avail,
Since, overthrown by wrong, the fane of Justice fell!
Know that a throne there is that may not pass away,
And one that sitteth on it - even Fear,
Searching with steadfast eyes man`s inner soul:
Wisdom is child of pain, and born with many a tear;
But who henceforth,
What man of mortal men, what nation upon earth,
That holdeth nought in awe nor in the light
Of inner reverence, shall worship Right
As in the older day?
Praise not, O man, the life beyond control,
Nor that which bows unto a tyrant`s sway.
Know that the middle way
Is dearest unto God, and they thereon who wend,
They shall achieve the end;
But they who wander or to left or right
Are sinners in his sight.
Take to thy heart this one, this soothfast word -
Of wantonness impiety is sire;
Only from calm control and sanity unstirred
Cometh true weal, the goal of every man`s desire.
Yea, whatsoe`er befal, hold thou this word of mine:
Bow down at Justice` shrine,
Turn thou thine eyes away from earthly lure,
Nor with a godless foot that altar spurn.
For as thou dost shall Fate do in return,
And the great doom is sure.
Therefore let each adore a parent`s trust,
And each with loyalty revere the guest
That in his halls doth rest.
For whoso uncompelled doth follow what is just,
He ne`er shall be unblest;
Yea, never to the gulf of doom
That man shall come.
But he whose will is set against the gods,
Who treads beyond the law with foot impure,
Till o`er the wreck of Right confusion broods, -
Know that for him, though now he sail secure,
The day of storm shall be; then shall he strive and fail
Down from the shivered yard to furl the sail,
And call on powers that heed him nought, to save,
And vainly wrestle with the whirling wave.
Hot was his heart with pride -
I shall not fall, he cried.
But him with watching scorn
The god beholds, forlorn,
Tangled in toils of Fate beyond escape,
Hopeless of haven safe beyond the cape -
Till all his wealth and bliss of bygone day
Upon the reef of Rightful Doom is hurled,
And he is rapt away
Unwept, for ever, to the dead forgotten world.
[Re - enter Athena, with twelve Athenian citizens.
Athena
O herald, make proclaim, bid all men come.
Then let the shrill blast of the Tyrrhene trump,
Fulfilled with mortal breath, thro` the wide air
Peal a loud summons, bidding all men heed.
For, till my judges fill this judgment - seat,
Silence behoves, - that this whole city learn
What for all time mine ordinance commands,
And these men, that the cause be judged aright.
[Apollo approaches.
Chorus
O king Apollo, rule what is thine own,
But in this thing what share pertains to thee?
Apollo
First, as a witness come I, for this man
Is suppliant of mine by sacred right,
Guest of my holy hearth and cleansed by me
Of blood - guilt: then, to set me at his side
And in his cause bear part, as part I bore
Erst in his deed, whereby his mother fell.
Let whoso knoweth now announce the cause.
Athena (to the Chorus)
"Tis I announce the cause - first speech be yours;
For rightfully shall they whose plaint is tried
Tell the tale first and set the matter clear.
Chorus
Though we be many, brief shall be our tale.
(To Orestes) Answer thou, setting word to match with word;
And first avow - hast thou thy mother slain?
Orestes
I slew her. I deny no word hereof.
Chorus
Three falls decide the wrestle - this is one.
Orestes
Thou vauntest thee - but o`er no final fall.
Chorus
Yet must thou tell the manner of thy deed.
Orestes
Drawn sword in hand, I gashed her neck, `Tis told.
Chorus
But by those word, whose craft, wert thou impelled?
Orestes
By oracles of him who here attests me.
Chorus
The prophet - god bade thee thy mother slay?
Orestes
Yea, and thro` him less ill I fared, till now.
Chorus
If the vote grip thee, thou shalt change that word.
Orestes
Strong is my hope; my buried sire shall aid.
Chorus
Go to now, trust the dead, a matricide!
Orestes
Yea, for in her combined two stains of sin.
Chorus
How? speak this clearly to the judges` mind.
Orestes
Slaying her husband, she did slay my sire.
Chorus
Therefore thou livest; death assoils her deed.
Orestes
Then while she lived why didst thou hunt her not?
Chorus
She was not kin by blood to him she slew.
Orestes
And I, am I by blood my mother`s kin?
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 - god, nor cheat you by one word.
For never spare I from my prohet - seat
One word, of man, of woman, or of state,
Save what the Father of Olympian gods
Commanded unto me. I rede you then,
Bethink you of my plea, how strong it stands,
And follow the decree of Zeus, or sire, -
For oaths prevail not over Zeus` command.
Chorus
Go to; thou sayest that from Zeus befal
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 fleets 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 by words!
Apollo
O monsters loathed of all, O scorn of gods,
He that hath bound my 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 lustral 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, hoards the germ
Of life, unless the god 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 goddess 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 goddess - 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 to 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 assailed
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
Pass 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 lust 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.
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