Page:Eumenides (Murray 1925).djvu/51

vv. 609–628

I can no more. Give witness, and reply,

Lord Phoebus, in my stead, if righteously

I slew. I slew: denied it cannot be:

But rightly, or most foully—as thine own

Heart speaks, give judgement, and let all be known.

Ye judges of Athena's Court most high,

I come to speak before you faithfully,

Being God's prophet: therefore truth is mine.

Nor ever spake I from my throne divine

Of man nor woman, land nor city wall,

Save by command of Him who ruleth all,

Zeus, the Olympian Father. Is there Right

Holier than this, I charge ye think, or Might

More mighty? Follow ye the All-Father's will:

If oaths be strong, is Zeus not stronger still?

'Twas Zeus, thou tellest, laid this duty large

Upon thy lips? 'Twas Zeus who bade thee charge

This man to avenge his father and cast down,

As nothing worth, his mother's sacred crown?

Are these the same? That a great man, raised high

By royal sceptre, given of God, should die,

And die by a woman’s hand—and not in war

By Amazonian arrow, sped from far,