Page:Sophocles - Seven Plays, 1900.djvu/176

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. No; not by thee! Let me not sink so low.

. Then I will hie me on mine errand straight.

. Stay; whither art bound? For whom to spend those gifts?

. Sent by my mother to my father’s tomb

To pour libations to him.

. How? To him?

Most hostile to her of all souls that are?

. Who perished by her hand—so thou wouldst say.

. What friend hath moved her? Who hath cared for this?

. Methinks ’twas some dread vision, seen by night.

. Gods of my father, O be with me now!

. What? art thou hopeful from the fear I spake of?

. Tell me the dream, and I will answer thee.

. I know but little of it.

. Speak but that.

A little word hath ofttimes been the cause

Of ruin or salvation unto men.

. ’Tis said she saw our father’s spirit come

Once more to visit the abodes of light;

Then take and firmly plant upon the hearth

The sceptre which he bore of old, and now

Aegisthus bears: and out of this upsprang

A burgeoned shoot, that shadowed all the ground

Of loved Mycenae. So I heard the tale

Told by a maid who listened when the Queen

Made known her vision to the God of Day.

But more than this I know not, save that I

Am sent by her through terror of the dream.

And I beseech thee by the Gods we serve

To take my counsel and not rashly fall.

If thou repel me now, the time may come

When suffering shall have brought thee to my side.

. Now, dear Chrysothemis, of what thou bearest

Let nothing touch his tomb. ’Tis impious