Page:Tragedies of Sophocles (Plumptre 1878).djvu/416

318 And that I may not, seen by any foe,

Before he see me, be to dogs and birds

Foully cast forth, their quarry and their spoil;

So much, Ο Zeus, I ask Thee; and I call

With Thee, great Hermes, guide of all the dead,

And dweller in the dark, to close mine eyes

Kindly, with one swift, unconvulsive spring

Piercing my heart with this same sword of mine;

And those, the Ever-virgin Ones, I call,

Erinnyes dread that see all human deeds,

Swift-footed, that they mark how I am slain

By yon Atreidæ; may they seize on them,

Doers of evil, with all evil plagues

And uttermost destruction, as they now

See me destroyed [with suicidal hand,

So let them fall by dearest kindred slain.]

Come swift Erinnyes, vengeful, glut yourselves

(Yea, spare them not,) upon the host they rule.

Thou Sun, whose chariot in the heaven's high path

Rides on in glory, when Thou see'st the land

Owned by my fathers, draw thy golden reins,

And tell all these my sorrows, and my doom,

To mine old father, and my mother lorn;

Ah! when she hears, poor wretch, the evil news

Through all the city, great and bitter cries

Will issue from her lips. But not for me

Is time for vain lament. The work must now

Begin more swiftly. Come, and look on me,

Ο Death, Ο Death!—and yet in yonder world

I shall dwell with thee, speak enough with thee;

And Thee I call, thou light of golden day,

Thou Sun, who drivest on thy glorious car,

Thee, for this last time, never more again.

Ο Light, Ο sacred land that was my home;