Taking possession of the promised land,
(And so forestalled usurping foreigners),—

A choice part of the spoil which the prime men
Of the Achæans did assign to me,

A fief for ever for the sons of Theseus.

Whence, with unwearied speed, and without wings,
Making my ægis rustle, I have come,

This chariot having yoked to vigorous steeds.
But seeing in this place these visitants,

I fear not, but I wonder at the sight.
Who in the world are ye? I speak to all,
And to the stranger who has placed himself
Here at my statue; you I now address,
Wild forms! resembling no begotten kind,
Nor goddesses as they are seen by gods,
Nor mortal shapes. But causelessly to find

Fault with one's neighbours, is from justice far

The spirit of Themis doth revolt from it.

Chor. Daughter of Zeus! all shalt thou hear in brief: We are the daughters of the gloomy Night,

Call'd Aræ, in our underground abodes.

Ath. I know your race, and name-shown attributes.
Chor. Thou soon shalt hear my office and its dues.
Ath. I'd learn, if one would give a plain account.
Chor. We from their homes hunt forth the murderers.
Ath. Where is the limit of their banishment?
Chor. Where joy is altogether thing unknown.
Ath. In such wise dost thou set thy hounds on him?
Chor. Yes! he thought right to shed his mother's blood.
Ath. Fearing no power that urged the deed on him?
Chor. Where is there such a goad to such a deed?
Ath. Two parties here I've heard but one as yet.
Chor. He will not name, nor let us name, an oath.
Ath. Ye would be called just, not be truly so.

Chor. How, pray? Instruct us-wise thou surely art.
Ath. Injustice should not win by oaths, I say.
Chor. Then question him, and judge at once between us.
Ath. To my decision will ye leave the case?
Chor. Why not? we worship what is worshipful.
Ath. What wilt thou say in answer for thyself?
Speak, stranger; country, lineage, fortunes tell;
And then rebate this charge, if confident
In thy own cause as just, thou here dost sit,
Watching this statue, near my sacred hearth,
Ixion-like, a suppliant purified:

Answer distinctly to these several points.

Ores. First, Queen Athena, to the last I speak,
And all concern on that point will remove.
The blood-stain is no longer on my hands,
Nor is thy statue by their touch defiled-
Of this I'll give to thee sufficient proof:
Those under ban of their blood-guiltiness,
The law says must not speak 'till, sprinkled with
The blood of cleansing, they are purified.
Long since, near other temples, was I washed
In blood of victims, and in running streams.
This point is answered. With regard to kin,
I am an Argive, son-thou knowest my sire-
Of Agamemnon, glorious emperor

Of the great host, with whom thou didst expunge,
Destroying Troy, the city of Ilion.

Returning from the war, in his own house

He perished foully: in a fraudful net

My dark-souled mother snared, and murdered him;
The bathing-room was witness to the deed.
And I, returning home from banishment,

An exile all the intermediate time,
Slew her who bore me-I deny it not-
Exacting blood for blood, her's for my sire's.
And Loxias was the mover of my act,

Fore-warning me of woes, heart-piercing stings,
Should I sit still, and leave the guilty free.
The deed was done; judge whether well or ill;
To thy decision I submit myself.

Ath. The matter is too great, if any man
Thinks to adjudge it; nor can I decide;
Themis forbids me in a case of blood.
But I receive thee, both as one to whom

I would, on other grounds, my favour show,
And more especially, because thou hast
Duly performed all expiatory rites,

And art a blameless suppliant, cleansed from stain,
And on my city bringing no reproach.

These also may not lightly be dismissed;

And should they not obtain the victory,

The venom dropping from them will become
A plague intolerable to the land.
Such ills may follow if they stay;
And to dismiss them is impossible:
And thus my will is puzzled either way.
But since this matter here has forced itself,
Sworn judges will I choose to sit and try
Cases of blood, and institute the Court
An ordinance for all hereafter time.

Summon your witnesses, collect your proofs,
The means of coming to a just conclusion.
But I will choose my worthiest citizens,

And come with them, who shall decide this cause

Truly on oath, whose awful sanctity

They will not violate in thought or word.

[ATHENA departs the opposite way to that she entered by.

Let none that reels to fortune's adverse stroke,
With many a broken wail our power invoke:

(str. B'.)

"Oh Justice! oh throned Furies! where are ye?" Some mother thus, in her new agony,

Or father will, perchance, be calling;

They may-the house of Justice now is falling.

A watcher of the thought—an awful fear-
Will sometimes check it in its foul career:
'Tis good when wisdom comes from sorrow's dart.
But who that feeds the fatness of his heart,
Checked by no fear from ill begun,

(ant. B'.)

Or state, or man, will worship justice? None!

(str. y'.

The life that owns no wholesome check,

Or that which to a master's beck
Looks evermore, thou shalt not praise.
By God's decree the mean is best.
And different things in different ways
He still inspects: to truth confest
My word agrees-for Insolence

Is own child to Irreverence;

And from the sound mind springs no less
All-loved, all-wished-for happiness.

By all means, furthermore I say,
Due reverence to justice pay;
Nor trample with a godless foot
Her altar, with an eye to gain;
For punishment shall come to boot-
The appointed end doth still remain.
Therefore let every man respect
The awe of parents, nor neglect

The sacred claims that draw their birth

(ant. y.)

With all his full-blown pride, unwept, unknown.

[ATHENA makes her appearance at the head of the twelve Areopagites, who take their seats in the orchestra.

Ath. Make proclamation, herald; keep in bounds

The people; let the Tyrrhene trumpet speak,

Filled with man's breath, its air-pervading tones,
A blast to hush the assembled multitude:
For, while this solemn consistory sits,
Silence is needful, that the folk at large
May learn my Institution, and the cause
Be with attention tried, and rightly judged.

[APOLLO appears on the stage.

Chor. Deal, King Apollo, with thy own affairs;
Pray tell me what hast thou to do with this?

Apol. To give my testimony for my guest
And suppliant have I come; for when he fled
An outcast, I washed out his stain of blood:
And I myself will be his advocate,
Since it was I that urged him to the deed.
But introduce the suit as president,
Athena, with the sanction of thy voice.

Ath. I introduce the suit: begin ye first:
The plaintiff, speaking first, shall put the court
Correctly in possession of the facts.

Chor. Though we are many, we will speak in brief:
Now answer in thy turn, and word for word:
Didst thou not take away thy mother's life?
Ores. I did I mean not to deny the fact.
Chor. Of the three falls here is already one.
Ores. Thou boastest over one not yet hurled down.
Chor. But thou must tell the manner of the deed.
Ores. I drew my sword, and pierced her in the neck.
Chor. By whom persuaded? who suggested it?
Ores. My witness here, this god, by oracles.

Chor. What! did the prophet bid thee slay thy mother?
Ores. Yes! nor have I repented of the deed.

Chor. If thou art cast, thou soon wilt change thy tone.
Ores. I have no fear, for my dead father aids me.
Chor. Ay! from the dead hope succour, matricide!
Ores. She was polluted with a double stain.
Chor. How, pray? inform the judges how this was.
Ores. Slaying her husband she my father slew.
Chor. Thou livest: she atoned for blood by blood.

Ores. Why didst not hunt her, while she lived, from home?
Chor. The man she slew was of no kin to her.

Ores. Am I, then, of her blood, akin to her?
Chor. How else within her girdle fed she thee?
Assassin! dost renounce that dearest blood?

Ores. Apollo! be my witness, and explain
If what I did was justly done or not-

For I confess the fact and give me reasons,
Which I may plead to justify myself.

Apollo. Athena's council, I will speak to you,
And being a prophet, truly: at no time,

Whether of man or woman, or a state,

Have I e'er uttered any oracle,

Which Zeus, the Olympian Sire, did not command.
Consider first his justice, and then bow

To the prerogative of Sovran Power:

An oath can ne'er transcend his influence.

Chor. Zeus, as thou sayest, gave this oracle,
To bid Orestes for his father's blood
Exact full vengeance, and in doing so
To disallow his mother's claims on hi
Apollo. 'Tis not the same thing for
One honoured with the staff of royalt
Conferred by Zeus, to have his life cu
To die, and that too by a woman's han
Not by a shaft from bow of Amazon,
But in the way that I shall tell you now.
When from his expedition he return'd,
With greater gains of honour and of spoil
Than his most loyal friends had ever hoped,

1839.]

She welcomed him, and in the bathing-room
Attended him, and over him she threw,

As from the bath he stept, a broidered robe,
A tent that had no doorway of escape,

Wherein she fettered, smote, and murdered him.
So fell the famous leader of the fleet;

Of her I so have spoken-such she was-
To stir the indignation of the Court.

Chor. Zeus, as thy speech implies, the father's fate
Doth make account of; yet he put in bonds
His own old father. Mark, ye judges, this;
Are not thy words at variance with his act?
Apollo. Abominable monsters! hate of gods!
Bonds may be loosed-there is a remedy,
And many a way of curing such a grief.

But when the dust has once drunk up man's blood,
There is not for the dead a second life.
My father has devised no counter-charm
For this necessity; but all things else
Disposes of, and turns them up and down,

This way and that, unwearied in his might.

Chor. How thou dost stretch the point for his acquittal!

Shall he, when he has spilled his mother's blood,

In Argos, in his father's palace dwell?

What public altars shall he worship at ?

The lustral water of what guild approach?

Apollo. Mark how correctly I will speak to this.

A mother is not generating cause,

But the receiver of the child call'd hers.

She, as a stranger, for a stranger keeps
The germ as a deposit, and in time,

When no blight falls on it, she brings it forth.
In proof of this, a father there may be
Without a mother; we've a witness here:
Athena, daughter of Olympian Zeus,
Though such a shoot as never goddess bore,
Nor shall hereafter bear, was never shut
Nor nurtured in the darkness of the womb.
Thy people, Pallas, in all other things
I will make great, according as I can ;
And I this suppliant to thy temple sent,
That he and his posterity may be
Faithful allies for ever, and may hold
This contract with thy people, thro' all time,
Religiously and no less lovingly.

Ath. According to your conscience give your votes,

Ye judges-for enough has now been said.

Chor. My shafts have all been shot: but I remain

To hear what is the judgment in this case.

Ath. What can I do, what disposition make,

So as to be without blame at your hands?

Chor. Ye've heard what ye have heard; but truly fear
Your oath, ye strangers, and so give your votes.
Ath. People of Athens, and ye judges sworn

In the first cause of blood that has been tried,

Hear what I say about this ordinance.
This solemn council for all after time
Unto the sons of Ægeus shall remain,
And ever hold their sessions on Mars' hill,
The station once of the bold Amazons,
When they from enmity to Theseus came
In dread array of war, and pitched their tents,

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