Story of Orestes Part 19

IRIS Courage, old men! beholding here--Night's birth-- Madness, and me the handmaid of the G.o.ds, Iris: since to your town we come no plague-- Wage war against the house of but one man From Zeus and from Alkmene sprung, they say.

Now, till he made an end of bitter toils Fate kept him safe, nor did his father Zeus Let us once hurt him, Here nor myself.

But since he has toiled through Eurustheus' task Here desires to fix fresh blood on him-- Slaying his children; I desire it too.

Up then, collecting the unsoftened heart, Unwedded virgin of black Night! Drive, drag, Frenzy upon the man here--whirls of brain Big with child-murder, while his feet leap gay.

Let go the b.l.o.o.d.y cable its whole length!

So that,--when o'er the Acherousian ford He has sent floating, by self-homicide, His beautiful boy-garland,--he may know First, Here's anger, what it is to him, And then learn mine. The G.o.ds are vile indeed And mortal matters vast if he 'scape free.

MADNESS Certes, from well-born sire and mother too Had I my birth, whose blood is Night's and Heaven's; But here's my glory,--not to grudge the good!

Nor love I raids against the friends of man.

I wish, then, to persuade, before I see You stumbling, you and Here: trust my words!

This man, the house of whom ye hound me to, Is not unfamed on earth, nor G.o.ds among; Since, having quelled waste land and savage sea, He alone raised again the falling rights Of G.o.ds--gone ruinous through impious men.

Desire no mighty mischief, I advise!

IRIS Give thou no thought to Here's faulty schemes!

MADNESS Changing her step from faulty to fault-free!

IRIS Not to be wise, did Zeus' wife send thee here!

MADNESS Sun, thee I cite to witness--doing what I loath to do!

But since indeed to Here and thyself I must subserve, And follow you quick, with a whizz, as the hounds a-hunt with the huntsman, --Go I will! and neither the sea, as it groans with its waves so furiously, Nor earthquake, no, nor the bolt of thunder gasping out heaven's labor-throe, Shall cover the ground as I, at a bound, rush into the bosom of Herakles!

And home I scatter and house I batter, Having first of all made the children fall,-- And he who felled them is never to know He gave birth to each child that received the blow, Till the Madness I am have let him go!

Ha, behold, already he rocks his head--he is off from the starting place!

Not a word, as he rolls his frightful orbs, from their sockets wrenched in the ghastly race!

And the breathings of him he tempers and times no more than a bull in act to toss, And hideously he bellows invoking the Keres, daughters of Tartaros.

Ay and I soon will dance thee madder, and pipe thee quite out of thy mind with fear!

So, up with the famous foot, thou Iris, march to Olu[y?]mpus, leave me here!

Me and mine, who now combine, in the dreadful shape no mortal sees, And now are about to pa.s.s, from without, inside of the home of Herakles!

CHORAL ODE

Otototoi,--groan: Away is mown Thy flower, Zeus' offspring, City!

Unhappy h.e.l.las, who dost cast (the pity!) Who worked thee all the good, Away from thee,--destroyest in a mood Of Madness him, to death whom pipings dance!

There goes she, in her chariot,--groans, her brood And gives her team the goad, as though adrift For doom, Night's Gorgon, Madness, she whose glance Turns man to marble! with what hissings lift Their hundred heads the snakes, her head's inheritance!

Quick has the G.o.d changed fortune: through their sire Quick will the children, that he saved, expire!

O miserable me! O Zeus! thy child-- Childless himself--soon vengeance, hunger-wild, Craving for punishment, will lay how low-- Loaded with many a woe!

O palace-roofs! your courts about, A measure begins all unrejoiced By the tympanies and the thyrsos hoist Of the Bromian revel-rout, O ye domes! and the measure proceeds For blood, not such as the cl.u.s.ter bleeds Of the Dionusian pouring-out!

Break forth! fly, children! fatal this-- Fatal the lay that is piped, I wis!

Ay, for he hunts a children-chase-- Never shall madness lead her revel And leave no trace in the dwelling-place!

Ai, ai, because of the evil!

Ai, ai, the old man--how I groan For the father, and not the father alone!

She who was nurse of his children small,--small Her gain that they never were born at all!

See! see!

A whirlwind shakes. .h.i.ther and thither The house--the roof falls in together!

Ha, ha, what dost thou, son of Zeus?

A trouble of Tartaros broke loose, Such as once Pallas on the t.i.tan thundered, Thou sendest on thy domes, roof-shattered and wall-sundered.

Ideas of Deity

5

None of mortal men Escape unhurt by fortune, nor the G.o.ds, Unless the stories of the bards be false.

Have they not formed connubial ties to which No law a.s.sents? Have they not gall'd with chains Their fathers through ambition? Yet they hold Their mansions on Olympus, and their wrongs With patience bear.

Euripides: _Hercules_ 1414.

6

These are your works, ye G.o.ds! these changes fraught With horrible confusion, mingled thus That we through ignorance might wors.h.i.+p you.

Euripides: _Hecuba_ 943.

7

O supreme of heav'n, What shall we say? that thy firm providence Regards mankind? or vain the thoughts, which deem That the just G.o.ds are rulers in the sky, Since tyrant fortune lords it o'er the world?

Do. 470.

8

Mortal as I am In virtue I exceed thee, though a G.o.d Of mighty pow'r; for I have not betray'd The sons of Hercules: well did'st thou know To come by stealth unto my couch, t' invade A bed not thine, nor leave obtain'd; to save Thy friends thou dost not know; thou art a G.o.d In wisdom or in justice little vers'd.

Euripides: _Hercules_ 385.

9

I deem not of the G.o.ds, as having form'd Connubial ties to which no law a.s.sents, Nor as oppressed with chains: disgraceful this I hold, nor ever will believe that one Lords it o'er others: of no foreign aid The G.o.d, who is indeed a G.o.d, hath need: These are the wretched fables of the bards.

Euripides: _Hercules_ 1444.

10

O Jove, who rulest the rolling of the earth, And o'er it hast thy throne, whoe'er thou art, The ruling mind, or the necessity Of nature, I adore thee: dark thy ways, And silent are thy steps; to mortal man Yet thou with justice all things dost ordain.

Euripides: _Daughters of Troy_ 955.

Was this then human, or divine?

Did it a middle nature share?

What mortal shall declare?

Who shall the secret bounds define?

When the G.o.ds work we see their pow'r; We see on their high bidding wait The prosperous gales, the storms of fate: But who their awful councils shall explore?

Euripides: _Helena_ 1235.

12

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 you Atreidae; may they seize on them.

Doers of evil, with all evil plagues And uttermost destruction.

Sophocles: _Ajax_ 937 [Plumptre].

Pa.s.sing bits of Nature-Painting