Page:The Dramas of Aeschylus (Swanwick).djvu/157

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Say plainly, who shall death with death requite.

May I the gods thus pray nor impious be?

How not requite an enemy with ill?

Of powers above the earth and powers below

Herald supreme, escorter of the shades,

Hermes, now summon to attend my prayer

The guardians of my father's house, dread powers,

Throned in the nether world, and mother Earth,

Who all things bringeth forth, who fosters all,

And doth of all receive again the germ.

And I, libations pouring to the dead,

Thus pray, my Sire invoking;—"Pity me,

And dear Orestes pity;—how shall we

Rule in our palace-home? for sold, alas!

By her who bare us, we as outcasts stray;

While, for Ægisthos, 'complice in thy death,

Her lord she bartered;—slavish is my lot,

Orestes exiled from his wealth, the while

Revel the twain, exulting in thy toils.

That home Orestes may at length return,

By glad success escorted, I implore.

Give ear, and grant me, Father, to become

Sounder of mind by far than is my mother,

With hands more pure. For us these orisons;