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Rh But—Hear my tale, O Pallas, and ye too

Who sit enthronèd to sift false from true;

He came from battle after sufferings sore

But greater glories, and she stood before

The gate to greet and praise him, strewed his path

With crimson robes and led him to his bath—

A marble bed!—and o'er the end thereof

Laid the great web and curtained it above,

To ensnare him as he rose; then, in the wide

Unending folds, she smote him and he died!

So died a man, ye hear it from my lips,

All-honoured, War-Lord of a thousand ships;

And such a wife was she! Be stern, and smite

The guilty, ye who sit to establish right!

Doth Zeus count fatherhood so high a thing?

Who cast in bonds his father and his king,

Old Cronos? Are these things not contrary?

I charge ye, judges, hearken his reply.

Ye worms of hate, O ye that Gods abhor,

Bonds can be loosened; there is cure therefor,

And many and many a plan in God's great mind

To free the prisoners whom he erst did bind.

But once the dust hath drunk the blood of men

Murdered, there is no gathering it again.

For that no magic doth my Father know,

Though all things else he changeth high and low

Or fixeth, and no toil is in his breath.