Other Furies: Would they take thee from the care We have guarded thee withal? Would the Gods disown our prayer Till no Law be left at all? Yea, because of blood that drips As aforetime from our lips, And the world’s hate that we bear, God hath cast us from His hall!
Chorus: I am on them as they fly, With a voice out of the sky, And my armèd heel is o’er them To fall crashing from on high. There be fliers far and fast, But I trip them at the last, And my arms are there before them, And shall crush them ere they die!
Divers Furies: —The glories of Man that were proud where the sunlight came, Below in the dark are wasted and cast to shame; For he trembles at the hearing Of the Black Garments nearing, And the beating of the feet, like flame
—He falls and knows not; the blow hath made blind his eyes; And above hangs Sin, as a darkening of the skies, And a great voice swelling Like a mist about his dwelling, And sobbing in the mist and cries.
—For so it abideth: subtle are we to plan, Sure to fulfil, and forget not any Sin; And Venerable they call us, but none can win Our pardon for child of man. Unhonoured and undesired though our kingdom be, Where the sun is dead and no god in all the skies, Great crags and trackless, alike for them that see, And them of the wasted eyes;
—What mortal man but quaketh before my power, And boweth in worship to hear my rule of doom, God-given of old, fate-woven on the ageless loom And ripe to the perfect hour? To the end of all abideth mine ancient Right, Whose word shall be never broke nor its deed undone, Though my seat is below the Grave, in the place where sight Fails and there is no Sun.
Enter Athena.
Athena: Far off I heard the calling of my name, Beside Scamander, where I took in claim The new land which the Achaean lords and kings, In royal spoil for many warfarings, Gave, root and fruit for ever, as mine own Exempted prize, to Theseus’ sons alone. Thence came I speeding, while behind me rolled My wingless aegis, floating fold on fold.
But these strange visitants … I tremble not Beholding, yet I marvel. Who and what Are ye? I speak to all. And who is he Who round mine image clings so desperately?
But ye are like no earth-seed ever sown, No goddess-shape that Heaven hath looked upon, Nor any semblance borne of human kind …
Howbeit, ye have not wronged me. I were blind To right and custom did I speak you ill.
Leader: Virgin of God most high, have all thy will. Still-weeping Night knows us the brood she bears; The wronged ones in the darkness call us Prayers.
Athena: I know your lineage and the names ye hold.
Leader: Our office and our lot can soon be told.
Athena: Make clear thy word, that all be understood.
Leader: We hunt from home the shedder of man’s blood.
Athena: What end appoint ye to that flight of his?
Leader: A land where none remembereth what joy is.
Athena: And such a chase on this man thou wilt cry?
Leader: Who dared to be his mother’s murderer, aye,
Athena: What goaded him? Some fear, some unseen wrath?
Leader: What goad could drive a man on such a path?
Athena: Looking at Orestes.
Why speaketh one alone, when two are there?
Leader: He will not swear, nor challenge me to swear.