Page:The Dramas of Aeschylus (Swanwick).djvu/225

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11, 12. There thou shalt see in durance drear,

'Gainst god or guest or parents dear,

Like thee who sinned, receiving their due meed.

13, 14. For Hades, ruler of the nether sphere,

Exactest auditor of human kind,

Graved on the tablet of his mind

Doth every trespass read.

To me, long disciplined in woe, are known

Divers lustrations; when to speak I know,

When to be silent; but in present need

By sapient teacher I was charged to speak.

The blood now sleepeth, fading from my hand;

Washed clean away the matricidal stain;

For while yet fresh, by rites of slaughter'd swine,

At Phœbos' altar it was duly purged;—

Tedious the tale, were I to reckon o'er

How many fared with me nor suffered harm.

Time, waxing old, doth all things purify;

Now, with pure lip, I piously invoke

Athena, of this region queen, to come,

My pleader: so she weaponless shall earn

Myself, my realm, and all the Argive host,

Honestly true, allies for evermore.

But whether on the Libyan plain, beside

Her natal Triton wave, she stand erect,

Or sit, with foot enveloped, to her friends

Dispensing aid;—or on Phlegraian fields,

Like warlike leader, marshal her array,—