Ye Guardians, hear the word she hath said,
And shall fulfill! Most potent hands
Hath great Erinys, in the lands
Where dwell the deathless and the dead.
And all this world of men declares
Her visible act on right and wrong;
How one man’s life she makes a song,
Another’s a long mist of tears.
Let manhood’s glory by no doom
Of death untimely be defiled;
Let life to maidens in their bloom
Bring each a lover and a child.
O whatsoever Gods have power,
And Fates eternal, grant this dower!
Ye Fates, our Mother’s Sisterhood,
Assigners true to all that be,
To every house its ill and good,
To every hour its potency;
Righteous participants through all,
Of Gods the most majestical.
With joy I hear their prescient song
Touching my land; and much in pride
I praise Persuasion gentle-eyed,
Who guarded well my lips and tongue,
When these were wrathful and denied;
But Zeus, whose Word is in the Mart,
Prevailed; and of our strife no part,
Save strife in blessing, shall abide.
Let her who hungereth still for wrong,
Faction, in Athens ne’er again
Lift on the air her ravening song;
Let not the dust of Pallas’ Plain
Drink the dark blood of any son
By fury of revenge fordone.
Rage not to smite the smiter, lest
By rage the City’s heart be torn:
Bless him that blesseth: in each breast
So shall a single love be born,
And ’gainst Her foes a single hate.
This also maketh firm a state.
Wise are they and have found the way
Of peace. And in each awful face
I see for you, my People, grace:
If ye are gentle, even as they,
And do them worship, this shall be
Your work: to guide through ill, through good,
Both land and town in that pure mood
Of truth that shuns iniquity. The Judges and the concourse of Athenians have now formed into procession, to escort the Furies to their Cavern.
Rejoice, rejoice! And as ye go your ways
In rich apportionment of blissful days,
Farewell, farewell!
Ye folk within the wall, approved
To neighbour Jove’s eternal eyes,49
Ye lovers of the Well-beloved,
The Virgin Spirit, timely wise,
The wings of Pallas fold above you,
Therefore shall Zeus the Father love you.
Fare ye well also. I must go
Before you, guiding, to make bright
Your secret chambers50 with the light,
The holy light, they dared not know.
Come, and when deep beneath the veil
Of earth ye pass, ’mid offering high,
Hold down the evil that shall die,
Send up the good that shall prevail.
Ye sons of Cranaos, guide them, till
These Wanderers rest within your doors:
With them one City now is yours;
Be one in working and in will!
Rejoice, rejoice! I raise my voice again,
To speak that bliss that overtowereth pain.
Farewell, farewell!
All things within the Wall that dwell,
All gods and men, that are or were;
All life from Pallas’ citadel
Which draws its being, I am here:
These Dwellers in your gates adore,
And fear the tides of Life no more!
The prayers they have uttered o’er my land I praise;
And speed them on, ’mid many a torch’s blaze,
To that most deep and subterranean end Of wandering.
Let these ministers, who tend
Mine image, follow; righteous warders they.
Let all the fullness of the land this day,
Children, and wives and women bent with years,
Come forth: do worship to these Wanderers
Accepted in their robes of crimson dye.51
Let leap the flash of fire. This great
Ally Shall be revealed and proven in the fate
Of Athens, if her men be true and great.
Gather ye home; are ye great, do ye crave adoration,
O childless Children of Night in the pride of your going?
(Give good words, O Folk of the Fold!)
Aeonian caverns of glory are yours, and oblation
Of worship, and sacrifice high, and praise overflowing.
(Give good words, O young men and old!)
Come with the Law that can pardon, the Judgement that knoweth,
O Semnai, Semnai, watchers o’er people and land;
And joy be a-stream in your ways, as the fire that bloweth
A-stream from beacon and brand. A cry of joy rises above the singing.
Outpour ye the Chalice of Peace where the torches are blending:
In Pallas the place it is found and the task it is done.
The Law that is Fate and the Father the All-Comprehending
Are here met together as one. Again a cry of joy as the Procession passes out of sight.
Endnotes
-
See Rise of the Greek Epic, Edn. 3, p. 276 ff. ↩
-
Five Stages of Greek Religion, Chapter II. ↩
-
See the last verses of the play. On the political circumstances which gave point to the poet’s doctrine of Reconciliation see note 41 and note 47. ↩
-
The Scene is conceived as different in different parts of the play, but probably no actual change was made. A stage with the usual “House” background, representing a Temple or Castle, with a round orchestra (dancing floor) on a lower level in front, will suit all the needs of the action. A statue of Athena in place of the Omphalos Altar will turn the “House” from the Temple of Apollo at Delphi to that of Athena in Athens. A semicircle of seats, or something similar, will symbolize the Areopagus. Compare the change of scene in the Choëphoroe, where Agamemnon’s Grave seems to be in the centre of the orchestra while the “House” represents the palace of Aigisthos, and the action of the play is now at one, now at the other. ↩
-
The priestess first praises the
