Page:Electra of Euripides (Murray 1913).djvu/23

Rh

If so it please thee, go thy way. The springs

Are not far off. And I before the morn

Must drive my team afield, and sow the corn

In the hollows.—Not a thousand prayers can gain

A man's bare bread, save an he work amain.

[ and the ''depart on their several ways. After a few moments there enter stealthily two armed men, and''.

Thou art the first that I have known in deed

True and my friend, and shelterer of my need.

Thou only, Pylades, of all that knew,

Hast held Orestes of some worth, all through

These years of helplessness, wherein I lie

Downtrodden by the murderer—yea, and by

The murderess, my mother! I am come,

Fresh from the cleansing of Apollo, home

To Argos—and my coming no man yet

Knoweth—to pay the bloody twain their debt

Of blood. This very night I crept alone

To my dead father's grave, and poured thereon

My heart's first tears and tresses of my head

New-shorn, and o'er the barrow of the dead

Slew a black lamb, unknown of them that reign

In this unhappy land. I am not fain

To pass the city gates, but hold me here

Hard on the borders. So my road is clear