Page:Eumenides (Murray 1925).djvu/27

vv. 143–161

—O rage, rage and wrath! Friends, they have done me wrong!

—Many and many a wrong I have suffered, mockeries all!

—Evil and violent deeds, a shame that lingereth long

And bitter, bitter as gall!

—The beast is out of the toils, out of the toils and away!

—I slept, and I lost my prey.

—What art thou, O Child of Zeus? A thief and a cozener!

—Hast broken beneath thy wheels them that were holy and old?

—A godless man and an evil son, he but kneels in prayer,

And straight he is ta'en to thy fold.

—Thou hast chosen the man who spilt his mother's blood!

—Are these things just, thou God?

—As a raging charioteer mid-grippeth his goad to bite

Beneath the belly, beneath the flank, where the smart is hot,

There riseth out of my dreams Derision with hands to smite;

As a wretch at the block is scourged when the scourger hateth aright,

And the shuddering pain dies not.