Page:Tragedies of Euripides (Way 1896) v2.djvu/301

Rh To Athens go: the awful image clasp

Of Pallas; for their serpent-frenzied rage

Shall she refrain, that they may touch thee not,

Outstretching o'er thine head her Gorgon shield.

There is a Hill of Ares, where first sat

Gods to give judgment touching blood-shedding,

When fierce-souled Ares Halirrothius slew,

The Sea-king's son, in wrath for outrage done

His daughter. That tribunal since that hour

Sacred and stablished stands in sight of Gods.

There must thou for this murder be arraigned.

And, in the judgment, equal votes cast down

From death shall save thee: for the blame thereof

Shall Loxias take, who bade thee slay thy mother.

And this for after times shall rest the law,

That equal votes shall still acquit the accused.

Yet shall the Dread Ones, anguish-stricken for this,

Hard by that hill sink into earth's deep cleft

Revered by men, a sacred oracle.

Thou by Alpheius' streams must found a city

Arcadian, near Lykaian Zeus's shrine;

And by thy name the city shall be called.

This to thee: touching yon Aegisthus' corse,

The Argive folk shall hide it in the tomb.

Thy mother—Menelaus, now first come

To Nauplia, since he won the land of Troy,

Shall bury her, he and Helen: for she comes,

Who ne'er saw Troy, from Proteus' halls in Egypt.