Page:Tragedies of Seneca (1907) Miller.djvu/309



The Ghost of Tantalus: Who from th' accurséd regions of the dead, Hath haled me forth, where greedily I strive To snatch the food that ever doth escape My hungry lips? Who now to Tantalus Doth show those heavenly seats which once before I saw to my undoing? Can it be That some more fearful suffering than thirst In sight of water, worse than gaping want, Hath been devised? Must I the slippery stone Of Sisyphus upon my shoulders bear? Must I be stretched upon the whirling wheel, Or suffer Tityus' pangs, who, lying prone Within a huge recess, the grewsome birds Doth with his quivering, torn-out vitals feed? By night renewing what the day hath lost, He lies, an undiminished feast for all. For what new evil am I now reserved? O thou grim judge of shades, who'er thou art Who to the dead doth mete new punishments! If thou canst still some suffering devise Whereat grim Cerberus himself would quake, And gloomy Acheron be seized with fear, At whose dread sight e'en I would tremble sore: Seek such a punishment; for from my seed Is sprung a race which shall their house outvie In sin, shall make me innocent appear, And dare to do what I have never dared Whatever space within the impious realms Remains unoccupied, my house shall fill. While lives the race of Pelops on the earth, No rest shall Minos know. The Fury: Thou curséd shade, Be gone, and to the verge of madness drive Thine impious house. Be drawn the deadly sword To every crime upraised, by every hand;