_Cass._ [_In another access of frenzy._] Ah me, this fire! It comes upon me now! Ah me, Apollo, wolf-slayer! woe is me! This biped lioness who takes to bed A wolf in absence of the noble lion, 1230 Will slay me, wretched me. And, as one Mixing a poisoned draught, she boasts that she Will put my price into her cup of wrath, Sharpening her sword to smite her spouse with death, So paying him for bringing me. Oh, why Do I still wear what all men flout and scorn, My wand and seeress wreaths around my neck?[370] Thee, ere myself I die I will destroy: [_breaks her wand_] Perish ye thus: [_casting off her wreaths_] I soon shall follow you: Make rich another Atè[371] in my place; Behold Apollo's self is stripping me 1240 Of my divining garments, and that too, When he has seen me even in this garb Scorned without cause among my friends and kin, *By foes, with no diversity of mood. Reviled as vagrant, wandering prophetess, Poor, wretched, famished, I endured to live: And now the Seer who me a seeress made Hath brought me to this lot of deadly doom. Now for my father's altar there awaits me A butcher's block, where I am smitten down By slaughtering stroke, and with hot gush of blood. But the Gods will not slight us when we're dead; 1250 Another yet shall come as champion for us, A son who slays his mother, to avenge His father; and the exiled wanderer Far from his home, shall one day come again, Upon these woes to set the coping-stone: For the high Gods have sworn a mighty oath, His father's fall, laid low, shall bring him back. Why then do I thus groan in this new home,[372] When, to begin with, Ilion's town I saw Faring as it did fare, and they who held That town are gone by judgment of the Gods? 1260 I too will fare as they, and venture death: So I these gates of Hades now address, And pray for blow that bringeth death at once, That so with no fierce spasm, while the blood Flows in calm death, I then may close mine eyes. [_Goes towards the door of the palace_ _Chor._ O thou most wretched, yet again most wise: Long hast thou spoken, lady, but if well Thou know'st thy doom, why to the altar go'st thou, Like heifer driven of God, so confidently?[373] 1270 _Cass._ For me, my friends, there is no time to 'scape.[374] _Chor._ Yea; but he gains in time who comes the last. _Cass._ The day is come: small gain for me in flight. _Chor._ Know then thou sufferest with a heart full brave. _Cass._ Such words as these the happy never hear. _Chor._ Yet mortal man may welcome noble death. _Cass._ [_Shrinking back from opening the door._] Woe's me for thee and thy brave sons, my father![375] _Chor._ What cometh now? What fear oppresseth thee?