Page:House of Atreus 2nd ed (1889).djvu/182

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And yet forsooth dost chide us following him!

Ay—not for you it is, to near this fane.

Yet is such office ours, imposed by fate.

What office? vaunt the thing ye deem so fair.

From home to home we chase the matricide.

What? to avenge a wife who slays her lord?

That is not blood outpoured by kindred hands.

How darkly ye dishonour and annul

The troth to which the high accomplishers,

Hera and Zeus, do honour. Yea, and thus

Is Aphrodite to dishonour cast,

The queen of rapture unto mortal men.

Know, that above the marriage-bed ordained

For man and woman standeth Right as guard,

Enhancing sanctity of troth-plight sworn;

Therefore, if thou art placable to those

Who have their consort slain, nor will'st to turn

On them the eye of wrath, unjust art thou

In hounding to his doom the man who slew