_Orest._ O Queen Athena, from thy last words starting, I first will free thee from a weighty care: I am not now defiled: no curse abides Upon the hand that on thy statue rests; And I will give thee proof full strong of this. The law is fixed the murderer shall be dumb, Till at the hand of one who frees from blood, The purple stream from yeanling swine run o'er him;[505] Long since at other houses these dread rites[506] We have gone through, slain victims, flowing streams: This care, then, I can speak of now as gone. 430 And how my lineage stands thou soon shalt know: An Argive I, my sire well known to thee, Chief ruler of the seamen, Agamemnon, With whom thou madest Troïa, Ilion's city, To be no city. He, when he came home, Died without honour; and my dark-souled mother Enwrapt and slew him with her broidered toils, Which bore their witness of the murder wrought There in the bath; and I, on my return, 440 (Till then an exile,) did my mother kill, (That deed I'll not deny,) in forfeit due Of blood for blood of father best beloved; And Loxias, too, is found accomplice here, Foretelling woes that pricked my heart to act, If I did nought to those accomplices In that same crime. But thou, judge thou my cause, If what I did were right or wrong, and I, Whate'er the issue, will be well content. _Athena._ Too great this matter, if a mortal man Think to decide it. Nor is't meet for me To judge a cause of murder stirred by wrath; 450 *And all the more since thou with contrite soul Hast come to this my house a suppliant, Harmless and pure. I now, in spite of all, Take thee as one my city need not blame;[507] But these hold office that forbids dismissal, And should they fail of victory in this cause, Hereafter from their passionate mood will poison[508] Fall on the land, disease intolerable, And lasting for all time. E'en thus it stands; And both alike, their staying or dismissal, Are unto me perplexing and disastrous. But since the matter thus hath come on me, I will appoint as judges of this murder Men bound by oath, a law for evermore;[509] And ye, call ye your proofs and witnesses, Sworn pledges given to help the cause of right. And I, selecting of my citizens Those who are best, will come again that they May judge this matter truly, taking oaths To utter nought against the law of right. [_Exit_ STROPHE I _Chor._ Now will there be an outbreak of new laws: If victory shall rest Upon the wrong right of this matricide, 470 This deed will prompt forthwith All mortal men to callous recklessness. And many deaths, I trow, At children's hands their parents now await Through all the time to come. ANTISTROPHE I