Page:Sophocles - Seven Plays, 1900.djvu/203

1376–1406]

. O King Apollo! hear them graoiously,

And hear me too, that with incessant hand

Honoured thee richly from my former store!

And now, fierce slayer, I importune thee,

And woo thee with such gifts as I can give,

Be kindly aidant to this enterprise,

And make the world take note, what meed of bane

Heaven still bestows on man’s iniquity.

[ goes within

. Lo, where the War-god moves

With soft, sure footstep, on to his design,

Breathing hot slaughter of an evil feud!

Even now the inevitable hounds that track

Dark deeds of hideous crime

Are gone beneath the covert of the domes.

Not long in wavering suspense shall hang

The dreaming presage of my wistful soul.

For lo! within is led

With crafty tread the avenger of the shades,

Even to his father’s throne of ancient power,

And in his hand the bright new-sharpened death!

And Hermes, Maia’s son,

Is leading him, and hath concealed the guile

Even to the fatal end in clouds of night.

His time of weary waiting all is o’er.

. O dearest women! they are even now

About it. Only bide in silence still.

. What is the present scene?

. She decks the vase

For burial, and they both are standing by.

, And wherefore hast thou darted forth?

. To watch

Aegisthus’ coming, that he enter not

At unawares.

. (within). Ah! ah! Woe for the house,

Desert of friends, and tilled with hands of death!

. A cry within! Did ye not hear it, friends?