Page:Eumenides (Murray 1925).djvu/53

vv. 652–673

Is that thy pleading against this man's death?

The kindred blood, his mother's blood, the well

Of his own life, he hath spilt. How shall he dwell

In Argos? In his home? What altar-stair,

When Argos worships, will receive his prayer?

What love-bowl of the brethren cleanse his hand?

That too I answer; mark and understand.

The mother to the child that men call hers

Is no true life-begetter, but a nurse

Of live seed. 'Tis the sower of the seed

Alone begetteth. Woman comes at need,

A stranger, to hold safe in trust and love

That bud of new life—save when God above

Wills that it die. And would ye proof of this,

There have been fathers where no mother is.

Whereof a perfect witness standeth nigh,

Athena Pallas, child of the Most High,

A thought-begotten unconceivèd bloom,

No nursling of the darkness of the womb,

But such a flower of life as goddess ne'er

Hath born in heaven nor ever more shall bear.

Pallas, in all things it is mine to swell

In power thy people and thy citadel;

And therefore to thine Altar did I send

This suppliant, that hereafter to the end

Of mortal time he may be true to thee,

And plant his spear by thine unfalteringly,

And on through generations yet unborn

Argos observe the pact her King hath sworn.