Page:Four Plays of Aeschylus (1908) Morshead.djvu/113

Rh

Woe for the host, to wrack and ruin hurled!

O warning of the night, prophetic dream!

Thou didst foreshadow clearly all the doom,

While ye, old men, made light of woman's fears!

Ah well—yet, as your divination ruled

The meaning of the sign, I hold it good,

First, that I put up prayer unto the gods,

And, after that, forth from my palace bring

The sacrificial cake, the offering due

To Earth and to the spirits of the dead.

Too well I know it is a timeless rite

Over a finished thing that cannot change!

But yet—I know not—there may come of it

Alleviation for the after time.

You it beseems, in view of what hath happed,

T' advise with loyal hearts our loyal guards:

And to my son—if, ere my coming forth,

He should draw hitherward—give comfort meet,

Escort him to the palace in all state,

Lest to these woes he add another woe!

[Exit.

Zeus, lord and king! to death and nought

Our countless host by thee is brought.

Deep in the gloom of death, to-day,

Lie Susa and Ecbatana:

How many a maid in sorrow stands

And rends her tire with tender hands!

How tears run down, in common pain

And woeful mourning for the slain!

O delicate in dole and grief,