Leader: And death hath purged her. Shalt not thou die too?
Orestes: Ye never hunted her, for all her stain.
Leader: ’Twas not one blood in slayer and in slain.
Orestes: And are my mother’s blood and my blood one?
Leader: How did she feed thee else beneath her zone? Caitiff! Thy mother’s blood wilt thou deny?
Orestes: Overcome.
I can no more. … Give witness, and reply, Lord Phoebus, in my stead, if righteously I slew. … I slew: denied it cannot be: But rightly, or most foully—as thine own Heart speaks, give judgement, and let all be known.
Apollo: Ye judges of Athena’s Court most high, I come to speak before you faithfully, Being God’s prophet: therefore truth is mine. Nor ever spake I from my throne divine Of man nor woman, land nor city wall, Save by command of Him who ruleth all, Zeus, the Olympian Father. Is there Right Holier than this, I charge ye think, or Might More mighty? Follow ye the All-father’s will: If oaths be strong, is Zeus not stronger still?
Leader: ’Twas Zeus, thou tellest, laid this duty large Upon thy lips? ’Twas Zeus who bade thee charge This man to avenge his father and cast down, As nothing worth, his mother’s sacred crown?
Apollo: Are these the same? That a great man, raised high By royal sceptre, given of God, should die, And die by a woman’s hand—and not in war By Amazonian arrow, sped from far, … But—Hear my tale, O Pallas, and ye too Who sit enthronèd to sift false from true; He came from battle after sufferings sore But greater glories, and she stood before The gate to greet and praise him, strewed his path
With crimson robes and led him to his bath— A marble bed!—and o’er the end thereof Laid the great web and curtained it above, To ensnare him as he rose; then, in the wide Unending folds, she smote him and he died! So died a man, ye hear it from my lips, All-honoured, War-Lord of a thousand ships; And such a wife was she! Be stern, and smite The guilty, ye who sit to establish right!
Leader: Doth Zeus count fatherhood so high a thing? Who cast in bonds his father and his king, Old Cronos? Are these things not contrary? I charge ye, judges, hearken his reply.
Apollo: Ye worms of hate, O ye that Gods abhor, Bonds can be loosened; there is cure therefor, And many and many a plan in God’s great mind To free the prisoners whom he erst did bind. But once the dust hath drunk the blood of men Murdered, there is no gathering it again. For that no magic doth my Father know, Though all things else he changeth high and low Or fixeth, and no toil is in his breath.
Leader: Is that thy pleading against this man’s death? The kindred blood, his mother’s blood, the well Of his own life, he hath spilt. How shall he dwell In Argos? In his home? What altar-stair, When Argos worships, will receive his prayer? What love-bowl of the brethren cleanse his hand?
Apollo: That too I answer; mark and understand. The mother to the child that men call hers Is no true life-begetter, but a nurse Of live seed. ’Tis the sower of the seed Alone begetteth. Woman comes at need, A stranger, to hold safe in trust and love That bud of new life—save when God above Wills that it die. And would ye proof of this, There have been fathers where no mother is. Whereof a perfect witness standeth nigh, Athena Pallas, child of the Most High, A thought-begotten unconceivèd bloom, No nursling of the darkness of the womb, But such a flower of life as goddess ne’er Hath born in heaven nor ever more shall bear.
Pallas, in all things it is mine to swell In power thy people and thy citadel; And therefore to thine Altar did I send This suppliant, that hereafter to the end Of mortal time he may be true to thee, And plant his spear by thine unfalteringly, And on through generations yet unborn Argos observe the pact her King hath sworn.
Athena: Now shall I charge upon their faith these men To cast true stones, or would ye speak again?
Leader: Shot is our every arrow: I but stay To learn how ends the issue of the day.
Athena: How shall I cast a judgement in this cause Unblamed of you, and of the eternal laws?
Apollo: Ye have heard what ye have heard. Strangers, revere Your oaths, and cast your judgement without fear.
Athena: Hear now mine ordinance, ye who have striven This day to give, what none before hath given, True judgement o’er spilt blood. O Attic Folk, Henceforth for ever, under Aigeus’ yoke, This Council and this Judgement Seat by me Are stablisht. On this mountain shall it be, Here in the Amazons’ most virgin hold, Who came in wrath for Theseus’ wrongs of old Embattled, and this fortress against ours,
Hill against hill, towers against soaring towers, Built, and to Ares on the rock with flame Gave sacrifice: whence comes its awful name, The Rock, the Mount, of Ares. All things here Being holy, Reverence and her sister, Fear, In darkness as in daylight shall restrain From all unrighteousness the sons of men, While Athens’ self corrupt not her own law. With mire and evil influx ye can flaw
Fair water till no lips may drink thereof. I charge you, citizens, enfold and love That spirit that nor anarch is nor thrall; And casting away Fear, yet cast not all; For who that hath no fear is safe from sin? That Fear which is both Ruth and Law within Be yours, and round your city and your land Shall be upraised a rampart, yea, a hand Of strong deliverance, which no sons of men,
From the Isle of Pelops to the Scythian fen, Possess nor know, this Council of the Right, Untouched of lucre, terrible to smite, And swift and merciful, a guard to keep Vigil above my people while they sleep. Which here I establish. Let these words advise My city evermore.—I charge you, rise And lift your stones of doom and judge, alway Your oath remembering. I have said my say. The Judges rise and go one by one past the two urns, casting their stones as they pass.
Leader: Behold, an awful presence moveth yet Within your land, which mock not nor forget!