Page:The Dramas of Aeschylus (Swanwick).djvu/180

110 Her fiery plot, child-murdering;

Wretched, who burnt her son's coeval brand.

Born with him when he cried

First from the mother's womb;—

Like-aged with him it died,

When dawned his day of doom.

Needs must we loathe another dame,

The bloody Scylla, known to fame,

Who, lured by Minos' gifts of fine-wrought gold,

Neck-gear from Crete,—devoid of shame,

Nisos, her father, to his foemen sold.

Deep-breathing, free from care,

In slumber while he lay,

Ruthless she cut th' immortal hair:

And Hermes seized his prey.

But since these direful woes have burst,

Untimely, into song:—

Be the foul wedlock too accursed,

That doth this palace wrong.—

And cursèd be the plot that snared