Page:The Dramas of Aeschylus (Swanwick).djvu/300

230 Then, bringing from my house libations, gifts

To Earth and to the Manès, I will come;

Too late, I know, for evils past recall,

But more auspicious may the future prove!

Meanwhile 'tis meet that, touching these events,

Ye faithful counsel with the faithful hold.

My son, ere my return, should he arrive,

Console ye, and escort him to his home,

Lest to these ills some further ill accrue.

O sovereign Zeus, who Persia's host

Countless and boasting loud

Hast now destroyed,

Lo! Susa and Agbatana

By thee are wrapt in sorrow's murky shroud.

And many a maid her mantling vest

With tender hands now teareth;

While drenching tears bedew her breast,

The general grief that shareth.

And Persia's women, delicate in woe,

Longing their new-wed lords to see again,

Their bridal couch with dainty covers dight,

Abandon'd now, their tender youth's delight,

With sateless moan complain;

While I, in fitting strain,

Wail for the fates of those in death laid low.

For now all Asia moans, left desolate.