Eumenides

Aeschylus

Aeschylus, Volume 2. Smyth, Herbert Weir, translator. London; New York: William Heinemann; G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1926.

  1. I saw on the center-stone[*](ὀμφαλόςnavel was the name given by the Delphians to a white stone (in Aeschylus’ time placed in the inmost sanctuary of Apollo), which they regarded as marking the exact center of the earth. Near the great altar of Apollo the French excavators of Delphi discovered a navel-stone. ὀμφαλόςis sometimes used of Delphi itself.)a man defiled in the eyes of the gods, occupying the seat of suppliants. His hands were dripping blood; he held a sword just drawn and an olive-branch, from the top of the tree, decorously crowned with a large tuft of wool,
  2. a shining fleece; for as to this I can speak clearly. Before this man an extraordinary band of women slept, seated on thrones. No! Not women, but rather Gorgons I call them; and yet I cannot compare them to forms of Gorgons either.
  3. Once before I saw some creatures in a painting,[*](The Harpies.)carrying off the feast of Phineus; but these are wingless in appearance, black, altogether disgusting; they snore with repulsive breaths, they drip from their eyes hateful drops;