Page:Sophocles - Seven Plays, 1900.djvu/100

66 Thus firm, to give me swift and friendly death.

Fine instrument, so much for thee! Then, first,

Thou, for ’tis meet, great Father, lend thine aid.

For no great gift I sue thee. Let some voice

Bear Teucer the ill news, that none but he

May lift my body, newly fallen in death

About my bleeding sword, ere I be spied

By some of those who hate me, and be flung

To dogs and vultures for an outcast prey.

So far I entreat thee. Lord of Heaven. And thou,

Hermes, conductor of the shadowy dead,

Speed me to rest, and when with this sharp steel

I have cleft a sudden passage to my heart,

At one swift bound waft me to painless slumber!

But most be ye my helpers, awful Powers,

Who know no blandishments, but still perceive

All wicked deeds i’ the world—strong, swift, and sure,

Avenging Furies, understand my wrong,

See how my life is ruined, and by whom.

Come, ravin on Achaean flesh—spare none;

Rage through the camp!—Last, thou that driv’st thy course

Up yon steep Heaven, thou Sun, when thou behold’st

My fatherland, checking thy golden rein,

Report my fall, and this my fatal end,

To my old sire, and the poor soul who tends him.

Ah, hapless one! when she shall hear this word,

How she will make the city ring with woe!

’Twere from the business idly to condole.

To work, then, and dispatch. Death! O Death!

Now come, and welcome! Yet with thee, hereafter,

I shall find close communion where I go.

But unto thee, fresh beam of shining Day,

And thee, thou travelling Sun-god, I may speak

Now, and no more for ever. O fair light!

O sacred fields of Salamis my home!

Thou, firm-set natal hearth: Athens renowned,

And ye her people whom I love; O rivers,

Brooks, fountains here—yea, even the Trojan plain

I now invoke!—kind fosterers, farewell!