Page:Electra of Euripides (Murray 1913).djvu/39

Rh Ere he passed from us and men worshipped him,

They named my bridegroom!—

And she, she! The grim

Troy spoils gleam round her throne, and by each hand

Queens of the East, my father's prisoners, stand,

A cloud of Orient webs and tangling gold.

And there upon the floor, the blood, the old

Black blood, yet crawls and cankers, like a rot

In the stone! And on our father's chariot

The murderer's foot stands glorying, and the red

False hand uplifts that ancient staff, that led

The armies of the world! Aye, tell him how

The grave of Agamemnon, even now,

Lacketh the common honour of the dead;

A desert barrow, where no tears are shed,

No tresses hung, no gift, no myrtle spray.

And when the wine is in him, so men say,

Our mother's mighty master leaps thereon,

Spurning the slab, or pelteth stone on stone,

Flouting the lone dead and the twain that live:

"Where is thy son Orestes? Doth he give

Thy tomb good tendance? Or is all forgot?"

So is he scorned because he cometh not

O Stranger, on my knees, I charge thee, tell

This tale, not mine, but of dumb wrongs that swell

Crowding—and I the trumpet of their pain,

This tongue, these arms, this bitter burning brain;

These dead shorn locks, and he for whom they died!

His father slew Troy's thousands in their pride:

He hath but one to kill. O God, but one!

Is he a man, and Agamemnon's son?