Page:The Dramas of Aeschylus (Swanwick).djvu/242

172 As stranger for a stranger, rears the germ,

Unless the god should blight it in the bud.

Sure warrant of my word I will adduce;—

Without a mother may a father be;

Witness this daughter of Olympian Zeus,

Not nurtured in the darkness of the womb,

Yet such a scion goddess never bare.

In will, in action, Pallas, be it mine

Thy city and thy people to exalt.

This man I sent, a suppliant to thy shrine,

That faithful he might be for evermore.

That, goddess! thou for allies mightest win

Him and his after-race, and that these pacts

Might last eternal, blessed by men unborn.

I do command you, as your judgment leads,

Just verdict give,—of pleadings now enough.

By us in sooth our shafts have all been shot,

The issue of the cause I wait to hear.

How may I rule the cause, unblamed by you?

Ye heard what ye have heard;—now in your hearts,

Your oaths revering, strangers, give your votes.

Hear ye my statute, men of Attica,—