Page:The Dramas of Aeschylus (Swanwick).djvu/104

34 In Helen's quarrel busking war's array,

A mien didst wear unseemly in mine eyes.

Guiding not well the rudder of thy mind,

Who didst, on death-devoted men, essay

Courage to urge, by sacrifice.

But those who have achieved the great emprize,

Not from the surface of my mind alone,

I welcome now, with feelings not unkind;

And inquest made, in time shall it be known,

Who of thy citizens at home the while

Guarded thy state with truth, and who with guile.

First Argos and her tutelary gods,

Who with me wrought to compass my return,

And visit Priam's town with vengeance due,

Justly I hail. For in this cause the gods,

Swayed by no hearsay, in the bloody urn

Without dissentient voice the pebbles cast,

Sealing the doom of Ilion and her sons.

But to the rival urn, by no hand filled,

Hope only came. Smoke still uprising marks

The captured city; Atè's incense-fires

Are living still, but, dying as they die,

The ash sends upward costly fumes of wealth.

Wherefore 'tis meet to render to the gods

Memorial thanks; since round them we have cast

Our vengeful toils, and in a woman's cause

The Argive monster, offspring of the horse,

Host shield-accoutred, made its deadly leap,

And Priam's city levelled to the dust,