Page:The poetical works of Matthew Arnold, 1897.djvu/412

374 To the side of Hebe,

To immortal delight,

The labor-released Hero.

O heritage of Neleus,

Ill-kept by his infirm heirs!

O kingdom of Messenê,

Of rich soil, chosen by craft,

Possess'd in hatred, lost in blood!

O town, high Stenyclaros,

With new walls, which the victors

From the four-town'd, mountain-shadow'd Doris,

For their Heracles-issued princes

Built in strength against the vanquish'd!

Another, another sacrifice on this day

Ye witness, ye new-built towers!

When the white-robed, garland-crowned Monarch

Approaches, with undoubting heart,

Living, his own sacrifice-block,

And stands, shouting for a slaughterous axe;

And the stern, destiny-brought Stranger,

The inheritor of the realm,

Coming swiftly through the jocund Dorians,

Drives the axe to its goal.

That the blood rushes in streams to the dust;

Bearing with it, to Erinnys,

To the Gods of Hades,

To the dead unavenged,

The fiercely-required Victim.

Knowing he did it, unknowing pays for it.

Unknowing, unknowing,

Thinking atoned-for

Deeds unatonable,