The Eumenides

thee on my altar stair
Perfect by suffering, from thy stains that were
Made clean and harmless, suppliant at my knee,
I, in my City’s name, must pity thee
And chide not. Yet these too, I may not slight:
They have their portion in the Orb of Right
Eternal. If they are baffled of their will,
The wrath of undone Justice shall distil
Through all the air a poison; yea, a pall
Intolerable about the land shall fall
And groaning sickness. Doubtful thus it lies:
To cast them out or keep them in mine eyes
Were equal peril, and I must ponder sore.
Yet, seeing fate lays this matter at my door,
Myself not judging, I will judges find
In mine own City, who will make no blind
Oath-challenge to pursuer and pursued,
But follow this new rule, by me indued
As law for ever. Proofs and witnesses
Call ye on either side, and set to these
Your oaths. Such oath helps Justice in her need.

I will go choose the noblest of the breed
Of Athens, and here bring them to decide
This bloody judgement even as truth is tried,
And then, their oath accomplished, to depart,
Right done, and no transgression in their heart. Exit Athena. The Shrine is closed, Orestes remaining inside at the foot of the Image.

Other Furies

—This day there is a new Order born.32
If this long coil of judging and of strife
Shall uplift the mother-murderer to life,
Shall the World not mark it, and in scorn
Go forth to do evil with a smile?
Yea, for parents hereafter there is guile
That waiteth, and great anguish; by a knife
In a child’s hand their bosom shall be torn.

—No wrath shall be stirred by any deed,
No doom from the Dark Watchers any more.
Lo, to all death I cast wide the door!
And men, while they whisper of the need
Of their neighbour, shall pray tremblingly within
For some rest and diminishing of sin.
They will praise the old medicine that of yore
Brought comfort, and marvel as they bleed.

—Vainly will they make their moan?
Vainly cry in sore despite,
“Help, ye Watchers on your throne,
Help, O Right!”
Many a father so shall cry,
Many a mother, new in pain;
Their vain sobbing floateth by:
“The great House is fallen again!
Law shall die!”

—Times there be when Fear is good,
And the Watcher in the breast
Needs must reign in masterhood.
Aye, ’tis best
Through much straitening to be wise.
Who that hath no fear at all
In the sunlight of his eyes,
Man or City, but shall fall
From Right somewise?

—The life that walketh without rule,
The life that is a tyrant’s fool,
Thou shalt not praise.
O’er all man’s striving variously
God looketh, but, where’er it be,
Gives to the Mean his victory.
And therefore know I and confess,
The doomèd child of Godlessness
Is Pride of Man, and Pride’s excess;
Only from health of heart shall spring
What men desire, what poets sing,
Stormless days.

—Whate’er befall, the Throne of Right
Fear thou, and let no lucre bright
Seen suddenly,
To spurn that Altar make thee blind;
For chastisement is hid behind,
And the End waiteth, and shall bind.
Wherefore I charge thee, through all stress
Thy mother and thy father bless:
Herein, O Man, lies holiness.
And next, of all within thy fold,
The stranger and the friendless hold
In sanctity.

—He that is righteous uncompelled and free
His life’s way taketh
Not without happiness; and utterly
Cast to destruction shall he never be.
But he who laugheth and is bold in sin,
From every port great gain he gathers in,
Rejoicing; but methinks shall cast away
All, with much haste and trembling, on the day
When sails are stript by the edge of wind and sea
And yard-arm breaketh.

He yearns, he strives, amid the whirling sea,
But none shall hear;
And loud his Daemon laughs, saying “This is he
Who vaunted him these things should never be!”
Who now is weeping, weak in the endless foam,
And sees the foreland where beyond is home,
But shall not pass it: on the rocks of Right
Wrecked is his life’s long glory; and the night
Falls, and there lives from all his agony
No word nor tear.

The scene is now set with seats for the Council of the Areopagus.33 Enter Athena, the Judges, a Herald, a crowd of Citizens, the Furies, Orestes.

Athena	Herald, thine office! See that yonder crowds Hold back, and let this piercer of the clouds, Filled with man’s breath, the Tuscan trumpet, blow His fiery summons to the host below. Then all be silence, while the people fill This Council Hall. Thus shall my sovran will And ordinance to this people, great and small,34 Be known for ever, and upheld by all Within our gates; and thus my wardens do Justice this day, discerning false from true.
	Enter Apollo.
Leader	Apollo, thou! Go, reign where thou art king! What portion hast thou in this doom-saying?
Apollo	I come to bear my witness.35 This is one Who in great anguish came to me alone For refuge, and knelt suppliant at my shrine. Therefore the cleansing of his stain is mine. Likewise I share his plea, and on me take What guilt he bears for that dead mother’s sake. Ope thou the court, O Pallas, and, as well Thou canst, establish justice durable.
Athena	Ho! Opened is the Court; and yours the speech.
	To the Furies.
	He who pursueth, speaking first, can teach Best his whole grief, and how the evil grew.
Leader	Many are we, yet shall our words be few. Make answer thou, point against point. And say First this one thing: thy mother didst thou slay?
Orestes	I slew her.⁠ ⁠… Aye. Denied it cannot be.
Leader	Aha! The first of the three bouts36 to me!
Orestes	Too soon ye vaunt. I am not yet outsped.
Leader	How didst thou slay? That also must be said.
Orestes	With an effort. I will say it. I drew sword and clave her throat.
Leader	Who and what tempted thee? Who