Page:Electra of Euripides (Murray 1913).djvu/19



Old gleam on the face of the world, I give thee hail,

River of Argos land, where sail on sail

The long ships met, a thousand, near and far,

When Agamemnon walked the seas in war;

Who smote King Priam in the dust, and burned

The storied streets of Ilion, and returned

Above all conquerors, heaping tower and fane

Of Argos high with spoils of Eastern slain.

So in far lands he prospered; and at home

His own wife trapped and slew him. 'Twas the doom

Aegisthus wrought, son of his father's foe.

Gone is that King, and the old spear laid low

That Tantalus wielded when the world was young.

Aegisthus hath his queen, and reigns among

His people. And the children here alone,

Orestes and Electra, buds unblown