Delphi Complete Works of Aeschylus (Illustrated) (Delphi Ancient Classics) (25 page)

ORESTES
[235]
Lady Athena,
at Loxias’ command I have come. Receive kindly an accursed wretch, not one who
seeks purification, or with unclean hand, but with my guilt’s edge already
blunted and worn away at other homes and in the travelled paths of men. Going
over land and sea alike, keeping the commands of Loxias’ oracle, I now approach
your house and image, goddess. Here I will keep watch and await the result of
my trial.

[
The Furies
enter dispersedly, hunting Orestes’ trail by scent.
]

CHORUS
[245]
Aha! This
is a clear sign of the man. Follow the hints of a voiceless informer. For
as a hound tracks a wounded fawn, so we track him by the drops of blood. My
lungs pant from many tiring struggles, for I have roamed over the whole earth,
and I have come over the sea in wingless flight, pursuing him, no slower than a
ship. And now he is here somewhere, cowering. The smell of human blood gives me
a smiling welcome.

[254]
Look! Look
again! Look everywhere, so that the matricide will not escape by secret flight,
with his debt unpaid!

[258]
Yes, here he is
again with a defense; his arms twisted around the image of the immortal
goddess, he wishes to be tried for his debt.

[261]
But that is not
possible; a mother’s blood upon the earth is hard to recover — alas, the liquid
poured on the ground is gone. But you must allow me in return to suck the red
blood from your living limbs.

[264]
May I feed on
you — a gruesome drink! I will wither you alive and drag you down, so that you
pay atonement for your murdered mother’s agony.

[269]
And you will see
any other mortal who has sinned by not honoring a god or a stranger or dear
parents, each having a just punishment.

[273]
For Hades is
mighty in holding mortals to account under the earth, and he observes all
things and within his mind inscribes them.

ORESTES
[276]
Taught by
misery, I know many purification rituals, and I know where it is right to speak
and equally to be silent; and in this case, I have been ordered to speak by a
wise teacher. For the blood is slumbering and fading from my hand, the pollution
of matricide is washed away; while it was still fresh, it was driven away at
the hearth of the god Phoebus by purifying sacrifices of swine. It would be a
long story to tell from the beginning, how many people I have visited, with no
harm from association with me.  [Time purges all things, aging with them.]

[287]
So now with a
pure mouth I piously invoke Athena, lady of this land, to come to my aid.
Without the spear, she will win me and my land and the Argive people as
faithful and true allies for all time. But whether in some region of the Libyan
land, near the waters of Triton, her native stream, she is in action or at
rest, aiding those whom she loves, or whether, like a bold marshal, she is
surveying the Phlegraean plain, oh, let her come — as a goddess, she hears even
from far away — to be my deliverer from distress!

CHORUS
[299]
No,
neither Apollo nor Athena’s strength can save you from perishing abandoned, not
knowing where joy is in your heart — a bloodless victim of the gods below, a
shadow. You do not answer, but scorn my words, you who are fattened and
consecrated to me? Living, you will be my feast, not slain at an altar; now you
will hear this hymn, a spell to bind you.

[307]
Come now, let us
also join the dance, since we are resolved to display our hated song and to
declare our allotted office, how our party directs the affairs of men. We claim
to be just and upright. No wrath from us will come stealthily to the one who
holds out clean hands, and he will go through life unharmed; but whoever sins,
as this man has, and hides his blood-stained hands, as avengers of bloodshed we
appear against him to the end, presenting ourselves as upright witnesses for
the dead.

[321]
O mother Night,
hear me, mother who gave birth to me as a retribution for the blind and the
seeing. For Leto’s son dishonors me by snatching away this cowering wretch, a
proper expiation for his mother’s blood.

[328]
This is our song
over the sacrificial victim — frenzied, maddened, destroying the mind, the
Furies’ hymn, a spell to bind the soul, not tuned to the lyre, withering the
life of mortals.

[334]
For this is the
office that relentless Fate spun for us to hold securely: when rash murders of
kin come upon mortals, we pursue them until they go under the earth; and after
death, they have no great freedom.

[341]
This is our song
over the sacrificial victim — frenzied, maddened, destroying the mind,the
Furies’ hymn, a spell to bind the soul, not tuned to the lyre, withering the
life of mortals.

[349]
This office was
ordained for us at birth; but the immortal gods must hold back their hands from
us, nor does any of them share a feast in common with us; and I have neither
lot nor portion of pure white ceremonial robes . . .

[354]
For I have
chosen the overthrow of houses, whenever violence raised in the home seizes
someone near and dear. So speeding after this man, we weaken him, even though
he is strong, because of the fresh blood.

[360]
We are eager to
take these cares away from another, and to establish for the gods exemption
from my concerns, so that it will not come to trial; for Zeus has considered
us, a blood-dripping, hateful band, unworthy of his council.

[354]
chosen the overthrow of houses, whenever violence raised in the home seizes
someone near and dear. Speeding after this man, we weaken him, even though he
is strong, because of the fresh blood.>

[368]
And men’s
thoughts, very proud under the sky, waste away and dwindle in dishonor beneath
the earth, at our attack in black robes and the vindictive dance of our feet.

[372]
For surely with
a great leap from above I bring down the heavily falling force of my foot, my
limbs that trip even swift runners — unendurable ruin. But, as he falls, he
does not know it, because of his senseless folly; pollution hovers over the man
in such darkness, and mournful rumor speaks of a dark mist over his house. — unendurable
ruin.

[381]
For it remains.
We are skilled in plotting, powerful in execution, and we remember evil deeds;
we are revered and hard for mortals to appease, pursuing our allotted office
which is without rights, without honor, separated from the gods in sunless
light — our office that makes the path rough for seeing and dim-sighted alike.

[389]
What mortal,
then, does not stand in awe and dread of this, when he hears from me the law
ordained by Fate, given by the gods for perfect fulfilment? My ancient
privilege still remains, I do not meet with dishonor, although I have my place
under the earth and in sunless darkness.

[
Enter Athena,
wearing the aegis.
]

ATHENA
[397]
From afar
I heard the call of a summons, from the Scamander, while I was taking
possession of the land, which the leaders and chiefs of the Achaeans assigned
to me, a great portion of the spoil their spears had won,  to be wholly
mine forever, a choice gift to Theseus’ sons. From there I have come, urging on
my tireless foot, without wings rustling the folds of my aegis, [yoking this
chariot to colts in their prime.]  As I see this strange company of
visitors to my land, I am not afraid, but it is a wonder to my eyes. Who in the
world are you? I address you all in common — this stranger sitting at my image,
and you, who are like no race of creatures ever born, neither seen by gods
among goddesses nor resembling mortal forms. But it is far from just to speak ill
of one’s neighbor who is blameless, and Right stands aloof.

CHORUS
[415]
Daughter
of Zeus, you will hear it all in brief. We are the eternal children of Night.
We are called Curses in our homes beneath the earth.

ATHENA
[418]
I now know
your family and the names by which you are called.

CHORUS
[419]
You will
soon learn my office.

ATHENA
[420]
I shall
understand, if someone would tell the story clearly.

CHORUS
[421]
We drive
murderers from their homes.

ATHENA
[422]
And where
is the end of flight for the killer?

CHORUS
[423]
Where joy
is absent and unknown.

ATHENA
[424]
And would
you drive this man with your shrieks to such flight?

CHORUS
[425]
Yes, for
he thought it right to be his mother’s murderer.

ATHENA
[426]
Through
other compulsions, or in fear of someone’s wrath?

CHORUS
[427]
Where is
there a spur so keen as to compel the murder of a mother?

ATHENA
[428]
Two
parties are present; only half the case is heard.

CHORUS
[429]
But he
will not receive an oath nor does he want to give one.

ATHENA
[430]
You want
to be called just rather than to act justly.

CHORUS
[431]
How so?
Teach me. For you are not poor in subtleties.

ATHENA
[432]
I say that
oaths must not win victory for injustice.

CHORUS
[433]
Well then,
question him, and make a straight judgment.

ATHENA
[434]
Then would
you turn over the decision of the charge to me?

CHORUS
[435]
How not? —
since we honor you because you are worthy and of worthy parentage.

ATHENA
[436]
What do
you want to say to this, stranger, in turn? After you name your country and family
and fortunes, then defend yourself against this charge; if indeed, relying on
the justice of your case, you sit clinging to my image near my hearth, as a
sacred suppliant, like Ixion. To all this give me a plain answer.

ORESTES
[443]
Lady
Athena, first of all I will take away a great anxiety from your last words. I
am not a suppliant in need of purification, nor did I sit at your image with
pollution on my hands. I will give you strong proof of this. It is the law for
one who is defiled by shedding blood to be barred from speech until he is
sprinkled with the blood of a new-born victim by a man who can purify from
murder. Long before at other houses I have been thus purified both by victims
and by flowing streams.

[453]
And so I declare
that this concern is out of the way. As to my family, you will soon learn. I am
an Argive; my father — you rightly inquire about him — was Agamemnon, the
commander of the naval forces; along with him, you made Troy, the city of
Ilion, to be no city. He did not die nobly, after he came home; but my
black-hearted mother killed him after she covered him in a crafty snare that
still remains to witness his murder in the bath. And when I came back home,
having been an exile in the time before, I killed the woman who gave birth to
me, I will not deny it, as the penalty in return for the murder of my
dearly-loved father. Together with me Loxias is responsible for this deed,
because he threatened me with pains, a goad for my heart, if I should fail to
do this deed to those who were responsible. You judge whether I acted justly or
not; whatever happens to me at your hands, I will be content.

ATHENA
[470]
The matter
is too great, if any mortal thinks to pass judgment on it;  no, it is not
lawful even for me to decide on cases of murder that is followed by the quick
anger of the Furies, especially since you, by rites fully performed, have come
a pure and harmless suppliant to my house; and so I respect you, since you do
not bring harm to my city. Yet these women have an office that does not permit
them to be dismissed lightly; and if they fail to win their cause, the venom
from their resentment will fall upon the ground, an intolerable, perpetual
plague afterwards in the land.

[480]
So stands the case: either course — to
let them stay, to drive them out — brings disaster and perplexity to me. But
since this matter has fallen here, I will select judges of homicide bound by
oath, and I will establish this tribunal for all time. Summon your witnesses
and proofs, sworn evidence to support your case; and I will return when I have
chosen the best of my citizens, for them to decide this matter truly, after
they take an oath that they will pronounce no judgment contrary to justice.
[
Exit.
]

CHORUS
[490]
Here is
the overturning of new laws, if the wrongful cause of this matricide is to
triumph. Now his deed will accustom all men to recklessness; [many sorrowful
wounds, given in truth by children, wait for parents in the future time.

[499]
For the wrath of
us, the Furies who keep watch on mortals, will not come stealthily upon such
deeds — I will let loose death in every form. And as he anticipates his
neighbor’s evils, one man will ask of another when hardship is to end or to
decrease; and the poor wretch offers the vain consolation of uncertain remedies.

[508]
Do not let
anyone who is struck by misfortune make an appeal and cry aloud this word, “Justice!”
“Thrones of the Furies!” Perhaps some father, or mother, in new sorrow, may cry
out these words piteously, now that the house of Justice is falling.

[517]
There is a time
when fear is good and ought to remain seated as a guardian of the heart. It is
profitable to learn wisdom under strain. But who, if he did not train his heart
in fear, either city or mortal, would still revere justice in the same way?