Page:The Dramas of Aeschylus (Swanwick).djvu/240

170 The deed, as wrought, we do not disavow;—

But whether justly shed, or not, this blood,

Judge thou, that answer I may make to these.

To you, Athena's great tribunal, now

Justly I'll speak; a prophet may not lie;—

Ne'er from my throne prophetic spake I aught

Either of man, of woman, or the state,

Which Zeus, Olympian sire, hath not ordained.

Learn ye how potent is the plea I urge;—

The Father's will I charge you to obey;

For oaths are not of greater force than Zeus.

Zeus, as thou sayest, gave this oracle,

And bade Orestes here, his father's death

Avenging, to despise a mother's rights.

Unlike the case, when dies a highborn man,

Richly adorned with sceptres Heaven-bestowed,

Dies too by woman's craft, not slain in war

By Amazon's far-shooting, eager bow,

But Pallas, as thyself shalt hear, and these

Who sit, by ballot to adjudge this cause.

For when from distant warfare he returned,

With fair successes crowned, receiving him

With friendly welcome, she, the while he bathed,

The laver curtain'd o'er, from head to foot,

Then, tangled in inextricable maze

Of broider'd garment, she her husband smites.

As I have told you, such the hero's death,