Eumenides

Perseus Greek · Perseus Greek · 360 sections

594
By the oracles of this god here; he is my witness.
595
The prophet directed you to kill your mother?
596
Yes, and to this very hour, I do not blame my fortune.
597
But if the jury’s vote catches hold of you, you’ll soon speak differently.
598
I have good confidence. My father will send protection from his grave.
599
Put your confidence in the dead now, after you have killed your mother!
600
I do, for she was twice afflicted with pollution.
601
How so? Teach the judges this.
602
By murdering her husband, she killed my father.
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And so, although you are alive, she is free of pollution by her death.
604
But why did you not drive her into exile, while she lived?
605
She was not related by blood to the man she killed.
606
Then am I my mother’s kin by blood?
607
How else could she have nurtured you, murderer, beneath her belt? Do you reject the nearest kinship, that of a mother?
609
Apollo, give your testimony now. Explain, on my behalf,
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whether I was justified in killing her. For I do not deny that I did it, as it is done. But decide whether this bloodshed was, to your mind, just or not, so that I may inform the court.
614
I will speak justly before you, Athena’s great tribunal,—
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since I am a prophet, I cannot lie. I have never yet, on my oracular throne, said anything about a man or woman or city that Zeus, the father of the Olympians, did not command me to say. Learn how strong this plea of justice is;
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and I tell you to obey the will of my father; for an oath is not more powerful than Zeus.
622
Zeus, as you say, gave you this oracular command, to tell Orestes here to avenge his father’s murder but to take no account at all of the honor due his mother?
625
Yes, for it is not the same thing—the murder of a noble man, honored by a god-given scepter, and his murder indeed by a woman, not by rushing arrows sped from afar, as if by an Amazon, but as you will hear, Pallas, and those
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who are sitting to decide by vote in this matter. She received him from the expedition, where he had for the most part won success beyond expectation, in the judgment of those favorable to him; then, as he was stepping from the bath, on its very edge, she threw a cloak like a tent over it,
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fettered her husband in an embroidered robe, and cut him down. This was his death, as I have told it to you—the death of a man wholly majestic, commander of the fleet. As for that woman, I have described her in such a way as to whet the indignation of the people who have been appointed to decide this case.
640
Zeus gives greater honor to a father’s death, according to what you say; yet he himself bound his aged father, Cronus. How does this not contradict what you say? I call on you as witnesses turning to the judges to hear these things.
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Oh, monsters utterly loathed and detested by the gods!
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Zeus could undo fetters, there is a remedy for that, and many means of release. But when the dust has drawn up the blood of a man, once he is dead, there is no return to life. For this, my father has made no magic spells,
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although he arranges all other things, turning them up and down; nor does his exercise of force cost him a breath.
652
See how you advocate acquittal for this man! After he has poured out his mother’s blood on the ground, shall he then live in his father’s house in Argos?
655
Which of the public altars shall he use? What purification rite of the brotherhoods will receive him?
657
I will explain this, too, and see how correctly I will speak. The mother of what is called her child is not the parent, but the nurse of the newly-sown embryo.
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The one who mounts is the parent, whereas she, as a stranger for a stranger, preserves the young plant, if the god does not harm it. And I will show you proof of what I say: a father might exist without a mother. A witness is here at hand, the child of Olympian Zeus,
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who was not nursed in the darkness of a womb, and she is such a child as no goddess could give birth to. For my part, Pallas, as in all other matters, as I know how, I will make your city and people great; and I have sent this man as a suppliant to your sanctuary
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so that he may be faithful for all time, and that you, goddess, might win him and those to come after him as a new ally and so that these pledges of faith might remain always, for the later generations of these people to cherish.
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Am I to assume that enough has been said,
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and shall I now command these jurors to cast an honest vote according to their judgment?
676
For our part, every bolt is already shot. But I am waiting to hear how the trial will be decided.
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Why not? As for you, To Apollo and Orestes. how shall I arrange matters so that I will not be blamed by you?
679
You have heard what you have heard;
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and as you cast your ballots, keep the oath sacred in your hearts, friends.
681
Hear now my ordinance, people of Attica, as you judge the first trial for bloodshed. In the future, even as now, this court of judges will always exist for the people of Aegeus.
685
And this Hill of Ares, the seat and camp of the Amazons, when they came with an army in resentment against Theseus, and in those days built up this new citadel with lofty towers to rival his, and sacrificed to Ares, from which this rock takes its name,
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the Hill of Ares: on this hill, the reverence of the citizens, and fear, its kinsman, will hold them back from doing wrong by day and night alike, so long as they themselves do not pollute the laws with evil streams; if you stain clear water
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with filth, you will never find a drink. Neither anarchy nor tyranny—this I counsel my citizens to support and respect, and not to drive fear wholly out of the city. For who among mortals, if he fears nothing, is righteous?
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Stand in just awe of such majesty, and you will have a defense for your land and salvation of your city, such as no man has, either among the Scythians or in Pelops’ realm. I establish this tribunal, untouched by greed,
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worthy of reverence, quick to anger, awake on behalf of those who sleep, a guardian of the land. I have prolonged this advice to my citizens for the future; but now you must rise and take a ballot, and decide the case
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under the sacred obligation of your oath. My word has been spoken. The judges rise from their seats and cast their ballots one by one during the following altercation.
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And I counsel you not to dishonor us in any way, since our company can be a burden to your land.
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And I, for my part, command you to stand in fear of the oracles, both mine and Zeus’, and not cause them to be unfulfilled.
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Although it is not your office, you have respect for deeds of bloodshed. You will prophesy, dispensing prophecies that are no longer pure.
717
Then was my father mistaken in any way in his purposes when Ixion, who first shed blood, was a suppliant?
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You do argue! But if I fail to win the case,
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I will once more inflict my company on this land as a burden.
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But you have no honor, among both the younger and the older gods. I will win.
723
You did such things also in the house of Pheres, when you persuaded the Fates to make mortals free from death.
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Is it not right, then, to do good for a worshipper, especially when he is in need?
727
It was you who destroyed the old dispensations when you beguiled the ancient goddesses with wine.
729
Soon, when you have lost the case,
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you will spit out your venom—no great burden to your enemies. The balloting is now ended.
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Since you, a youth, would ride me down, an old woman, I am waiting to hear the verdict in the case, since I have not decided whether to be angry at the city.
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It is my duty to give the final judgment
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and I shall cast my vote for Orestes. For there was no mother who gave me birth; and in all things, except for marriage, whole-heartedly I am for the male and entirely on the father’s side. Therefore, I will not award greater honor to the death of a woman
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who killed her husband, the master of the house. Orestes wins, even if the vote comes out equal. Cast the ballots out of the urns, as quickly as possible, you jurors who have been assigned this task. The ballots are turned out and separated.
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O Phoebus Apollo! How will the trial be decided?
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O Night, our dark Mother, do you see this?
746
Now I will meet my end by hanging, or I will live.
747
Yes, and we will be ruined, or maintain our honors further.
748
Correctly count the ballots cast forth, friends, and be in awe of doing wrong in the division of the votes.
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Error of judgment is the source of much distress, and the cast of a single ballot has set upright a house. The ballots are shown to Athena.
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This man is acquitted on the charge of murder, for the numbers of the casts are equal. Apollo disappears.
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Pallas, savior of my house!
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I was deprived of a fatherland, and it is you who have given me a home there again. The Hellenes will say, The man is an Argive once again, and lives in his father’s heritage, by the grace of Pallas and of Loxias and of that third god, the one who accomplishes everything,
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the savior—the one who, having respect for my father’s death, saves me, seeing those advocates of my mother. I will return to my home now, after I swear an oath to this land and to your people for the future and for all time to come,
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that no captain of my land will ever come here and bring a well-equipped spear against them. For I myself, then in my grave, will accomplish it by failure without remedy,
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making their marches spiritless and their journeys ill-omened, so that those who violate my present oath will repent their enterprise. But while the straight course is preserved, and they hold in everlasting honor this city of Pallas with their allied spears, I will be the more well-disposed to them.
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And so farewell—you and the people who guard your city. May your struggle with your enemies let none escape, bringing you safety and victory with the spear! Exit.
1.778
Younger gods, you have ridden down the ancient laws and have taken them from my hands!
1.780
And I—dishonored, unhappy, deeply angry—on this land, alas, I will release venom from my heart, venom in return for my grief, drops that the land cannot endure. From it,
1.785
a blight that destroys leaves, destroys children—a just return—speeding over the plain, will cast infection on the land to ruin mortals. I groan aloud. What shall I do? I am mocked by the people.
1.790
What I have suffered is unbearable. Ah, cruel indeed are the wrongs of the daughters of Night, mourning over dishonor!
1.793
Be persuaded by me not to bear it with heavy lament.
1.795
For you have not been defeated; the trial resulted fairly in an equal vote, without disgrace to you; but clear testimony from Zeus was present, and he himself who spoke the oracle himself gave witness that Orestes should not suffer harm for his deed.
1.800
Do not be angry, do not hurl your heavy rage on this land, or cause barrenness, letting loose drops whose savage spirit will devour the seed. For I promise you most sacredly that you will have
1.805
a cavernous sanctuary in a righteous land, where you will sit on shining thrones at your hearths, worshipped with honor by my citizens here.
1.808
Younger gods, you have ridden down the ancient laws and have taken them from my hands!
1.810
And I—dishonored, unhappy, deeply angry—on this land, alas, I will release venom from my heart, venom in return for my grief, drops that the land cannot endure. From it a blight
1.815
that destroys leaves, destroys children—a just return—speeding over the plain, will cast infection on the land to ruin mortals. I groan aloud. What shall I do? I am mocked by the people.
1.820
What I have suffered is unbearable. Ah, cruel indeed are the wrongs of the daughters of Night, mourning over dishonor!
1.823
You are not dishonored; so, although you are goddesses, do not, in excessive rage,
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blight past all cure a land of mortals. I also rely on Zeus—what need is there to mention that?—and I alone of the gods know the keys to the house where his thunderbolt is sealed. But there is no need of that. So yield to my persuasion
1.830
and do not hurl the words of a reckless tongue against the land, that all things bearing fruit will not prosper. Calm the black wave’s bitter anger, since you will receive proud honors and will live with me. And when you have the first-fruits of this great land forever,
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offerings on behalf of children and of marriage rites, you will praise my counsel.
2.837
For me to suffer this, alas! For me, with ancient wisdom, to live beneath the earth, alas, without honor, unclean!
2.840
I am breathing fury and utter rage. Oh, oh, the shame of it! What anguish steals into my breast! Hear my anger, mother
2.845
Night; for the deceptions of the gods, hard to fight, have deprived me of my ancient honors, bringing me to nothing.
2.848
I will endure your anger, for you are older, and in that respect you are surely wiser than I;
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yet Zeus has given me, too, no mean understanding. But as for you, if you go to a foreign land, you will come to love this land—I forewarn you. For time, flowing on, will bring greater honor to these citizens. And you,
2.855
having a seat of honor at the house of Erechtheus, will obtain from hosts of men and women more than you could ever win from other mortals. So do not cast on my realm keen incentives to bloodshed, harmful to young hearts,
2.860
maddening them with a fury not of wine; and do not, as if taking the heart out of fighting cocks, plant in my people the spirit of tribal war and boldness against each other. Let their war be with foreign enemies, and without stint for one
2.865
in whom there will be a terrible passion for glory; but I say there will be no battling of birds within the home. It is possible for you to choose such things from me: bestowing good, receiving good, well honored in this land that is most beloved to the gods.
2.870
For me to suffer this, alas! For me, with ancient wisdom, to live beneath the earth, alas, without honor, unclean! I am breathing fury and utter rage. Oh, oh the shame of it!

Perseus Greek. CTS URN tlg0085.tlg007.perseus-eng2. Via the Perseus Digital Library / Open Greek and Latin TEI corpora. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0. Source.