Page:The Dramas of Aeschylus (Swanwick).djvu/197

Rh

Subtle of soul, Requital came,

Dark-veiled who joins the fight;—

Daughter of Zeus, whom mortals name

Justice, their aim thus pointing right;

She with firm hand, the knife

Unsheaths for mortal strife,

While 'gainst her foes she breathes destruction's blight.

For Loxias, the king,

Who in Parnassian cavern holds his seat,

Doth vengeance hither bring,

Guilelessly guileful; lame, yet sure her feet.

Weighty the utterance; the power divine,

No consort is of guilt; needs must we pay

Homage to His heaven-ruling sway.

Clearly the light doth shine!

Reft was I of the sun whose sudden ray

Did with new joy illume

These halls, long sunk in gloom;

It gleamed,—then died away.

Anon, the cheering light,

New kindled, in this house shall shine once more,

What time, with lustral rite,

From the polluted hearth is purged the gore,