And built a tower against his citadel,
And sacrificed to Mars, from whence this hill
Is called Mars' hill. A due respect, henceforth,
For this my institution, and a fear
Allied to reverence, shall ever keep
My citizens from wrong, if they abstain
From making innovations on their laws.
If one pollutes clear water with the filth
Of mud, or any influx of foul stream,
He shall not find therein what he can drink.
Nor rule of despot, nor wild anarchy
I recommend, but a sound government
At a just distance from these bad extremes,
And not to cast away a wholesome fear.
What man, who nothing fears, is ever just?
And if ye will but hold in fitting awe
The majesty of Justice here enthroned,
Ye shall possess a safeguard of the state,
A bulwark of the country-such the realm
Of Pelops owns not, nor the Scythian race,
Nor any tribe of men. This Court august,
Quick to just wrath and incorruptible,
I institute a guardian of the land,
To keep watch in behalf of those that sleep.
Touching the future I've advised you all;
But rise, ye judges, and decide the cause,
Fearing the oath ye sware by. I have done.
[The first Areopagite rises, takes a ballot from the altar, and drops it into the urn: similarly the rest in succession, After the twelfth has dropt his ballot into the urn, ATHENA takes one from the altar, and holds it in her hand.
Chor. And I advise you by no means to slight These visitants, lest they be bitter ones.
Apollo. I bid you to respect my oracles,
Which are from Zeus, and not to make them vain.
Chor. Cases of blood belong not to thy lot;
Here staying, thou wilt be no prophet pure.
Apollo. Erred Zeus, when he his suppliant purified,
Ixion, from first stain of kindred blood?
Chor. Thou sayest: should I fail of justice here, I'll haunt this land in very bitterness.
Apollo. Unhonoured thou among the younger Gods,
And elder but I surely shall prevail.
Chor. Thus in the house of Pheres didst thou gull The Fates, and yet mere mortals made immortal. Apollo. Is it not just to aid a worshipper,
And most when in his need he prays for aid?
Chor. But thou didst trick those ancient goddesses,
Deceive with wine, then laugh at them in scorn.
Apollo. Thou shalt, non-suited, presently pour forth
Thy venom, uninjurious to thy foes.
Chor. Since thou, a youngling, dost insult me so,
Me that am old, I wait to hear the sentence,
As one in doubt, till that is fully known,
If I shall pour my fury on the city.
Ath. It falls on me the judgment to pronounce:
In favour of Orestes I reserve
My vote for from no mother had I birth.
Wholly my father's, on the father's side
I wholly am, and do most heartily
Prefer the male, save that I marry not.
Nor of the woman will I take the part,
Who slew her husband, overseer of home.
Should he have equal votes, it follows then,
Orestes is absolved. What wait we for?
Tellers, to whom this task has been assigned,
Turn out at once the ballots from the urns.
Ores. Phoebus Apollo! What is the result?
Chor. Oh Night! dark mother! dost thou see these doings?
Ores. Now! now! for me to perish by the noose,
Or else to look upon the blessed light!
Chor. Now! now! for me to suffer worst eclipse, Or henceforth hold my office unabridged.
[The ballots are turned out and counted.
Apollo. Correctly, strangers, number out the votes,
And with impartial justice; for great harm
Doth often from the loss of one accrue ;
One doth o'erthrow, or raise a family.
Ath. He is acquitted-for the votes are equal.
[She gives her ballot in favour of ORESTES.
Ores. Oh Pallas! thou that hast preserved my house,
And me, sad outcast from my father-land,
Hast to my home restored. Some Greek will say,
He is again an Argive, and he dwells
Secure in his hereditary state,
By means of Pallas and of Loxias,
And the third Saviour, who doth sway all things
He that respects the father's privilege,
And doth preserve me now, beholding these,
Appellants fell! my mother's advocates.
But to this country and thy citizens
I bind myself and my posterity,
By solemn oath, for all hereafter time,
That never chief, with well-appointed troops
Shall, from my land, with hostile aim, come here.
For I, myself, then being in the tomb,
Will bring repentance for their bootless toils
On those that violate my present oath,
Discouraging their inauspicious paths
With misadventures, and with omens dire
Their passage over streams. But if they act
With righteousness, and honour evermore
The city of Pallas, and are allies true,
I will regard them more benignantly.
Farewell, thou and thy prople; may they bruise
Their foes with an inevitable fall,
And for themselves obtain deliverance,
And wished-for, honourable victory!
younger gods have trampled down Old laws, and wrested them from me; Amerced of office and renown,
I will, for this indignity,
Drop from my heart's wrath-bleeding wound
A blight—a plague-drop on the ground.
A lichen, fatal to the trees,
To children, shall invade the soil,
(Hear, Justice!) and inflict disease
Ön men-the blotch and deadly boil.
Ah! shall I groan? what shall I do?
What will become of me?
These citizens have made me rue
The worst indignity.
Daughters of Night! deep-injured, deep-resenting,
And for your degradation, deep-lamenting.
Ath. Let me prevail on you—take not this grief
Too much to heart; ye suffered not defeat.
The votes were equal, and the judgment fair,
Nor was to thy dishonour. E'en from Zeus
A clear convincing testimony came;
Who gave the oracle was witness too-
That this Orestes should incur no scathe
For what he did. Hurl not your bolts of wrath
Against this land, nor cause unfruitfulness,
By letting fall the drops of deities,
To blast the seed, a blight of rottenness.
For I do promise you most faithfully,
That ye at altars, having splendid seats,
Shall sit, and own in perpetuity
The secret places of this goodly land,
And be much honoured by these citizens.
Ye younger gods have trampled down
Old laws, and wrested them from me;
Amerced of office and renown,
I will, for this indignity,
Drop from my heart's wrath-bleeding wound
A blight-a plague-drop on the ground.
A lichen, fatal to the trees,
To children, shall invade the soil,
(Hear, Justice!) and inflict disease
On men-the blotch and deadly boil.
Ah, shall I groan? what shall I do?
What will become of me?
These citizens have made me rue
The worst indignity.
Daughters of night! deep-injured, deep-resenting,
And, for your degradation, deep-lamenting.
Ath. Ye are not dishonour'd; with excess of wrath Mar not man's earth with wounds-incurable.
I too rely on Zeus, and of the Gods
What need to say it? none but only I
Have knowledge of the keys of that dread vault,
Wherein sealed up he keeps his thunderbolt-
But there's no need of it. Be well advised,
Nor cast forth on the ground the rash tongue's fruit, That, where it falls, is mildew of all good.
Lull the sharp gust of thy tempestuous wrath,
And be my honoured fellow resident;
Having the first-fruits of this spacious land,
And offerings for hopes of progeny,
And consummation of the marriage rites.
Thou shalt for ever praise this good advice.
That I should suffer this! in age
Dishonoured, unavenged! oh rage—
I breathe it forth.
Oh earth! oh earth!
What pain is this that pricks my side?
Hear my sharp passion, mother Night!
From me, with many a guileful sleight,
These gods, who rob me and deride,
As though 'twere nothing, at their ease,
Have ta'en my public offices.
Ath. I put up with thy wrath; thou wiser art
As older, than I am-yet unto me
Not scantily Zeus the boon of wisdom gave.
At other land, of other tribes arrived,
When 'tis too late, ye will be fond of this;
Thereof I give you warning: time, that flows
Still onward, in his flowing stream, shall bring
Increase of honour for these citizens.
And near the palace of Erectheus, thou
Shalt here obtain an honourable seat,
And shalt such acceptable worship find
From troops of women, and from bands of men,
As no where else in all the world beside.
But cast not on this country bane of blood,
Exciting into rage youth's fiery mood,
Frantic with furious heats not raised by wine:
Nor vexing, as it were, the heart of cocks,
Stir 'mid my citizens intestine War,
That is against his neighbour over-bold.
Let there be foreign war. Ay! let it come,
And welcome-that wherein a passionate love
Of glory shall be shown; but for the fight
Of the domestic bird-I'll none of it.
Such choice is thine to make and to obtain,
Good doing, good receiving, to possess
A lot and part in this land loved of Gods.
CHORUS.
That I should suffer this! in age,
Dishonoured, unavenged! oh rage—
I breathe it forth.
Oh earth! oh earth!
What pain is this that pricks my side?
Hear my sharp passion, mother Night!
From me, with many a guileful sleight,
These gods, who rob me and deride,
As though 'twere nothing, at their ease,
Have ta'en my public offices.
Ath. I will not yet be weary of my tale
Of thy advantages—if thou wilt stay.
Thou shalt not say that thou, a goddess old,
By me, a younger, and these citizens
Wert driven from hence-inhospitably driven.
If holy to thy apprehension seems
Persuasion, speaking softly by my voice,
Thou wilt remain; if thou wilt not remain,
"Twill be unjust to bring upon this people
Thy wrathful fury, indignation, scathe.
'Tis in thy power, an honoured settler here,
To have due worship paid thee evermore.
Chor. What seat, pray, queen Athena, shall I have?
Ath. One free from all affliction-take it thou.
Chor. Suppose I do, what honour shall be mine?
Ath. That without thee not any house shall thrive.
Chor. Wilt thou effect that I shall have this power?
Ath. I'll make all right for him who does thee right.
Chor. And wilt thou pledge thyself for all time hence?
Ath. What I have promised, that I must perform.
Chor. I am nigh soothed, and stand apart from wrath.
Ath. Friends upon earth thou likewise shalt obtain.
Chor. What blessing shall I call upon thy people?
Ath. Whatever has respect to victory,
That is not mischievous; and this from earth,
And from the sea-dew, and the heavens above,
That the mild breathings of the winds may come,
While the bright sun shines clearly, o'er the land;
That earth's fruit and increase of animals
May ever for my citizens abound
In due succession; also that there be
No blight of the unborn of human kind.
But with all evil-doers be as fierce
As the case needs. For, like a husbandman,
My sole affection I reserve for those
That bear good fruit, so that the just may be
Exempt from sorrow. Let this be thy part.
It shall be mine to give them high renown-
I could not bear to have it otherwise-
In bold achievements and exploits of war.
I will accept a dwelling-place
With Pallas, nor will I disgrace
With aught of ill a city, where
The mightiest Zeus and Mars appear,
As in a sacred bulwark dwelling,
The bulwark of the Grecian gods:
But I with power all spells excelling
A blessing call on these abodes.
Let the sun's clear-shining light
Make to spring from out the earth,
Bloom of gladness to the sight,
Every sort of happy birth.
Ath. With good will for my people, settling here These mighty goddesses, of mood severe,
soothed and reconciled them: theirs the charge To exercise control o'er men at large.
Happy who feels them not, he nothing knows
Of life's worst bitterness and sharpest woes.
But from the sires, who grievously offend,
The curse of sin doth to their sons descend;
When life and life's delights the fond man calls
His own, and boasts-the silent ruin falls.
Let there be no blight of trees,
For the buds no scorching blast;
Never by the black disease
Be the landmarks overpast.
Let the flocks increase in season,
And with twin-births ever go;
And the people, as is reason,
Praise the gods who bless them so.
Ath. Hear ye what gifts she doth in fact dispen
For mighty is the mystic influence
Of dread Erinnys, both within the portals
Of Hades, and among the blest Immortals.
She doth discharge her ministry assigned
With most effectual power among mankind;
Some with a life of joyful song she cheers;
To some she gives a life bedimmed with tears.
|