Page:House of Atreus 2nd ed (1889).djvu/205

Rh

Scorn of the younger and the elder gods

Art thou: 'tis I that shall prevail anon.

Thus didst thou too of old in Pheres' halls,

O'erreaching Fate to make a mortal deathless.

Was it not well, my worshipper to aid,

Then most of all when hardest was the need?

I say thou didst annul the lots of life,

Cheating with wine the deities of eld.

I say thou shalt anon, thy pleadings foiled,

Spit venom vainly on thine enemies.

Since this young god o'errides mine ancient right

I tarry but to claim your law, not knowing

If wrath of mine shall blast your state or spare.

Mine is the right to add the final vote,

And I award it to Orestes' cause.

For me no mother bore within her womb,

And, save for wedlock evermore eschewed,

I vouch myself the champion of the man,

Not of the woman, yea, with all my soul,—

In heart, as birth, a father's child alone.

Thus will I not too heinously regard

A woman's death who did her husband slay,