Eumenides

Aeschylus

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

  1. but from health of soul comes happiness, dear to all, much prayed for.
Chorus
  1. And as for the whole matter, I say to you: respect the altar of Justice
  2. and do not, looking to profit, dishonor it by spurning with godless foot; for punishment will come upon you. The appointed fulfilment remains.
  3. Therefore, let a man rightly put first in honor the reverence owed to his parents, and have regard for attentions paid to guests welcomed in his house.
Chorus
  1. Whoever is just willingly and without compulsion will not lack happiness; he will never be utterly destroyed. But I say that the man who boldly transgresses, amassing a great heap unjustly—by force,
  2. in time, he will strike his sail, when trouble seizes him as the yardarm is splintered.
Chorus
  1. He calls on those who hear nothing and he struggles in the midst of the whirling waters.
  2. The god laughs at the hot-headed man, seeing him, who boasted that this would never happen, exhausted by distress without remedy and unable to surmount the cresting wave. He wrecks the happiness of his earlier life on the reef of Justice,
  3. and he perishes unwept, unseen.
Enter, in procession, Athena, a herald, the jury of the Areopagus, a crowd of citizens. Orestes removes to the place appointed for the accused. Apollo appears after Athena’s first speech.
Athena
  1. Herald, give the signal and restrain the crowd; and let the piercing Tyrrhenian[*](The Etruscans were regarded as the inventors of the trumpet.) trumpet, filled with human breath, send forth its shrill blare to the people!
  2. For while this council-hall is filling, it is good to be silent, and for my ordinances to be learned, by the whole city for everlasting time, and by these appellants, so that their case may be decided well.
Enter Apollo.
Chorus
  1. Lord Apollo, be master of what is yours.
  2. Say what part you have in this matter.
Apollo
  1. I have come both to bear witness—for this man was a lawful suppliant and a guest of my sanctuary, and I am his purifier from bloodshed—and to be his advocate myself. I am
  2. responsible for the murder of his mother. To Athena. Bring in the case, and, in accordance with your wisdom, decide it.
Athena
  1. To the Furies. It is for you to speak—I am only bringing in the case; for the prosecutor at the beginning, speaking first, shall rightly inform us of the matter.
Chorus
  1. We are many, but we will speak briefly. To Orestes. Answer our questions, one by one. Say first if you killed your mother.
Orestes
  1. I killed her. There is no denial of this.
Chorus
  1. Of the three falls that win the wrestling match, this one is already ours.
Orestes
  1. You make this boast over a man who is not down yet.