Page:Four Plays of Aeschylus (1908) Morshead.djvu/178

148

Lie they out yonder? the full horror speak!

Did hands meet hands more close than brotherly?

Came fate on each, and in the selfsame hour?

Yea, blotting out the lineage ill-starred!

Now mix your exultation and your tears,

Over a city saved, the while its lords,

Twin leaders of the fight, have parcelled out

With forged arbitrament of Scythian steel

The full division of their fatherland,

And, as their father's imprecation bade,

Shall have their due of land, a twofold grave.

So is the city saved; the earth has drunk

Blood of twin princes, by each other slain.

O mighty Zeus and guardian powers,

The strength and stay of Cadmus' towers!

Shall I send forth a joyous cry,

Hail to the lord of weal renewed?

Or weep the misbegotten twain,

Born to a fatal destiny?

Each numbered now among the slain,

Each dying in ill fortitude,

Each truly named, each child of feud?

O dark and all-prevailing ill,

That broods o'er Oedipus and all his line,

Numbing my heart with mortal chill!

Ah me, this song of mine,

Which, Thyad-like, I woke, now falleth still,

Or only tells of doom,