Page:House of Atreus 2nd ed (1889).djvu/209

Rh I am dishonoured of you, thrust to scorn!

But heavily my wrath

Shall on his land fling forth the drops that blast and burn,

Venom of vengeance, that shall work such scathe

As I have suffered; where that dew shall fall,

Shall leafless blight arise,

Wasting Earth's offspring,—Justice, hear my call!—

And thorough all the land in deadly wise

Shall scatter venom, to exude again

In pestilence on men.

What cry avails me now, what deed of blood,

Unto this land, what dark despite?

Alack, alack, forlorn

Are we, a bitter injury have borne,

Alack, O sisters, O dishonoured brood

Of mother Night!

Dishonoured are ye not; turn not, I pray,

As goddesses your swelling wrath on men,

Nor make the friendly earth despiteful to them.

I too have Zeus for champion—tis enough—

I only of all goddesses do know

To ope the chamber where his thunderbolts

Lie stored and sealed; but here is no such need.

Nay, be appeased, nor cast upon the ground

The malice of thy tongue, to blast the world;

Calm thou thy bitter wrath's black inward surge,

For high shall be thine honour, set beside me

For ever in this land, whose fertile lap

Shall pour its teeming firstfruits unto you,

Gifts for fair childbirth and for wedlock's crown:

Thus honoured, praise my spoken pledge for aye.