Scaife ATLAS

CTS Library / Eumenides

Eumenides (202-270)

urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0085.tlg007.perseus-eng2:202-270
Refs {'start': {'reference': '202', 'human_reference': 'Line 202'}, 'end': {'reference': '270', 'human_reference': 'Line 270'}}
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Through your oracle, you directed the stranger to kill his mother.
Apollo
Through my oracle, I directed him to exact vengeance for his father. What of it?
Chorus
And then you agreed to take the fresh blood on yourself.
Apollo
And I ordered him to turn for expiation to this house.
Chorus
And do you then rebuke us, the ones who escorted him here?
Apollo
Yes, for you are not fit to approach this house.
Chorus
But this has been assigned to us—
Apollo
What is this office of yours? Boast of your fine privilege!
Chorus
We drive matricides from their homes.
Apollo
But what about a wife who kills her husband?
Chorus
That would not be murder of a relative by blood.
213
Apollo
Then truly you dishonor and bring to nothing the pledges of Hera, the Fulfiller, and Zeus.[*]
Cypris too is cast aside, dishonored by this argument, and from her come the dearest things for mortals. For marriage ordained by fate for a man and a woman is greater than an oath and guarded by Justice. If, then, one should kill the other and you are so lenient
as not to punish or visit them with anger, I claim that you unjustly banish Orestes from his home. For I see you taking the one cause very much to heart, but clearly acting more leniently about the other. But the goddess Pallas will oversee the pleadings in this case.
Chorus
I will never, never leave that man!
Apollo
Pursue him then and get more trouble for yourself.
Chorus
Do not cut short my privileges by your words.
Apollo
I would not take your privileges as a gift.
Chorus
No, for in any case you are called great at the throne of Zeus.
But as for me—since a mother’s blood leads me, I will pursue my case against this man and I will hunt him down. Exeunt.
Apollo
And I will aid my suppliant and rescue him! For the wrath of the one who seeks purification is terrible among mortals and gods, if I intentionally abandon him. Enters the Sanctuary.
The scene changes to Athens, before the temple of Athena. Enter Hermes with Orestes, who embraces the ancient image of the goddess.
Orestes
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
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!
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.[*]
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. 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.
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.
For Hades is mighty in holding mortals to account under the earth,

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