The earliest occurrence of the proverb with which we are familiar through the history of St. Paul's conversion, Acts ix. 5, xxvi. 14. Footnote 400: The trace-horse, as not under the pressure of the collar, was taken as the type of free, those that wore the yoke, of enforced submission. THE LIBATION-POURERS DRAMATIS PERSONÆ ORESTES CLYTÆMNESTRA PYLADES ELECTRA ÆGISTHOS _Nurse_ _Servant_ _Chorus of Captive Women_ _ARGUMENT.—It came to pass, after Agamemnon had been slain, that Clytæmnestra and Ægisthos ruled in Argos, and all things seemed to go well with them. Orestes, who was heir to Agamemnon, they had sent away to the care of Strophios of Phokis, and there he abode. Electra, his sister, mourned in secret over her father's death, and prayed for vengeance, but no avenger came. And when Orestes grew up to man's estate, he went to ask counsel of the God at Delphi, and the Gods straitly charged him to take vengeance on his father's murderers; and so he started on his journey with his trusty friend Pylades, and arrived at Argos. And it chanced that a little while before he came, the Gods sent Clytæmnestra a fearful dream, that troubled her soul greatly; and in her terror she bade Electra go with her handmaids to pour libations on the tomb of Agamemnon, that so she might appease his soul, and propitiate the Powers that rule over the dark world of the dead._ THE LIBATION-POURERS SCENE.—Argos, _in front of the palace of the Atreidæ. The tomb of_ AGAMEMNON _(a raised mound of earth) is seen in the background._ _Enter_ ORESTES _and_ PYLADES _from the left;_ ORESTES _advances to the mound, and, as he speaks, lays on it a lock of his hair._ _Orest._ O Hermes of the darkness 'neath the earth, Who hast the charge of all thy Father's[401] sway, To me who pray deliverer, helper be; For I to this land come, from exile come, And on the raised mound of this monument I bid my father hear and list. One tress, Thank-offering for the gifts that fed my youth, To Inachos I consecrate, and this The second as the token of my grief;[402] For mine it was not, father, being by, Over thy death to groan, nor yet to stretch My hand forth for the burial of thy corpse. [_As he speaks_, ELECTRA, _followed by a train of captive women in black garments, bearing libations, wailing and tearing their clothes, comes forth from the palace_