Tell the tale first and set the matter clear.

LEADER
Though we be many, brief shall be our tale.

(To ORESTES)
Answer thou, setting word to match with word;

And first avow-hast thou thy mother slain?
ORESTES

I slew her. I deny no word hereof.
LEADER

Three falls decide the wrestle-this is one.
ORESTES

Thou vauntest thee-but o'er no final fall.
LEADER

Yet must thou tell the manner of thy deed.
ORESTES

Drawn sword in hand, I gashed her neck. 'Tis told.
LEADER

But by whose word, whose craft, wert thou impelled?
ORESTES

By oracles of him who here attests me.
LEADER

The prophet-god bade thee thy mother slay?
ORESTES

Yea, and thro' him less ill I fared, till now.
LEADER

If the vote grip thee, thou shalt change that word.
ORESTES

Strong is my hope; my buried sire shall aid.
LEADER

Go to now, trust the dead, a matricide!
ORESTES

Yea, for in her combined two stains of sin.
LEADER

How? speak this clearly to the judges' mind.
ORESTES

Slaying her husband, she did slay my sire.
LEADER

Therefore thou livest; death assoils her deed.
ORESTES

Then while she lived why didst thou hunt her not?
LEADER

She was not kin by blood to him she slew.
ORESTES

And I, am I by blood my mother's kin?
LEADER

O cursed with murder's guilt, how else wert thou
The burden of her womb? Dost thou forswear

Thy mother's kinship, closest bond of love?
ORESTES

It is thine hour, Apollo-speak the law,
Averring if this deed were justly done;

For done it is, and clear and undenied.
But if to thee this murder's cause seem right

Or wrongful, speak-that I to these may tell.
APOLLO

To you, Athena's mighty council-court,
Justly for justice will I plead, even I,

The prophet-god, nor cheat you by one word.
For never spake I from my prophet-seat

One word, of man, of woman, or of state,
Save what the Father of Olympian gods

Commanded unto me. I rede you then,
Bethink you of my plea, how strong it stands,

And follow the decree of Zeus our sire,-
For oaths prevail not over Zeus' command.

LEADER
Go to; thou sayest that from Zeus befell

The oracle that this Orestes bade
With vengeance quit the slaying of his sire,

And hold as nought his mother's right of kin!
APOLLO

Yea, for it stands not with a common death,
That he should die, a chieftain and a king

Decked with the sceptre which high heaven confers-
Die, and by female hands, not smitten down

By a far-shooting bow, held stalwartly
By some strong Amazon. Another doom

Was his: O Pallas, hear, and ye who sit
In judgment, to discern this thing aright!-

She with a specious voice of welcome true
Hailed him, returning from the mighty mart

Where war for life gives fame, triumphant home;
Then o'er the laver, as he bathed himself,

She spread from head to foot a covering net,
And in the endless mesh of cunning robes

Enwound and trapped her lord, and smote him down.
Lo, ye have heard what doom this chieftain met,

The majesty of Greece, the fleet's high lord:
Such as I tell it, let it gall your ears,

Who stand as judges to decide this cause.
LEADER

Zeus, as thou sayest, holds a father's death
As first of crimes,-yet he of his own act

Cast into chains his father, Cronus old:
How suits that deed with that which now ye tell?

O ye who judge, I bid ye mark my words!
APOLLO

O monsters loathed of all, O scorn of gods,
He that hath bound may loose: a cure there is.

Yea, many a plan that can unbind the chain.
But when the thirsty dust sucks up man's blood

Once shed in death, he shall arise no more.
No chant nor charm for this my Sire hath wrought.

All else there is, he moulds and shifts at will,
Not scant of strength nor breath, whate'er he do.

LEADER
Think yet, for what acquittal thou dost plead:

He who hath shed a mother's kindred blood,
Shall he in Argos dwell, where dwelt his sire?

How shall he stand before the city's shrines,
How share the clansmen's holy lustral bowl?

APOLLO
This too I answer; mark a soothfast word

Not the true parent is the woman's womb
That bears the child; she doth but nurse the seed

New-sown: the male is parent; she for him,
As stranger for a stranger, hoards the germ

Of life, unless the god its promise blight.
And proof hereof before you will I set.

Birth may from fathers, without mothers, be:
See at your side a witness of the same,

Athena, daughter of Olympian Zeus,
Never within the darkness of the womb

Fostered nor fashioned, but a bud more bright
Than any goddess in her breast might bear.

And I, O Pallas, howsoe'er I may,
Henceforth will glorify thy town, thy clan,

And for this end have sent my suppliant here
Unto thy shrine; that he from this time forth

Be loyal unto thee for evermore,
O goddess-queen, and thou unto thy side

Mayst win and hold him faithful, and his line,
And that for aye this pledge and troth remain

To children's children of AtheniaD seed.
ATHENA

Enough is said; I bid the judges now
With pure intent deliver just award.

LEADER
We too have shot our every shaft of speech,

And now abide to hear the doom of law.
ATHENA (to APOLLO and ORESTES)

Say, how ordaining shall I 'scape your blame?
APOLLO

I spake, ye heard; enough. O stranger men,
Heed well your oath as ye decide the cause.

ATHENA
O men of Athens, ye who first do judge

The law of bloodshed, hear me now ordain.
Here to all time for Aegeus' Attic host

Shall stand this council-court of judges sworn,
Here the tribunal, set on Ares' Hill

Where camped of old the tented Amazons,
What time in hate of Theseus they assailed

Athens, and set against her citadel
A counterwork of new sky-pointing towers,

And there to Ares held their sacrifice,
Where now the rock hath name, even Ares' Hill.

And hence shall Reverence and her kinsman Fear
Pass to each free man's heart, by day and night

Enjoining, Thou shalt do no unjust thing,
So long as law stands as it stood of old

Unmarred by civic change. Look you, the spring
Is pure; but foul it once with influx vile

And muddy clay, and none can drink thereof.
Therefore, O citizens, I bid ye bow

In awe to this command, Let no man live,
Uncurbed by law nor curbed by tyranny;

Nor banish ye the monarchy of Awe
Beyond the walls; untouched by fear divine,

No man doth justice in the world of men.
Therefore in purity and holy dread

Stand and revere; so shall ye have and hold
A saving bulwark of the state and land,

Such as no man hath ever elsewhere known,
Nor in far Scythia, nor in Pelops' realm.

Thus I ordain it now, a council-court
Pure and unsullied by the lust of gain,

Sacred and swift to vengeance, wakeful ever
To champion men who sleep, the country's guard.

Thus have I spoken, thus to mine own clan
Commended it for ever. Ye who judge,

Arise, take each his vote, mete out the right,
Your oath revering. Lo, my word is said.

(The twelve judges come forward, one by one, to the urns of
decision; the first votes; as each of the others follows, the

LEADER and APOLLO speak alternately.)
LEADER

I rede ye well, beware! nor put to shame,
In aught, this grievous company of hell.

APOLLO
I too would warn you, fear mine oracles-

From Zeus they are,-nor make them void of fruit.
LEADER

Presumptuous is thy claim, blood-guilt to judge,
And false henceforth thine oracles shall be.

APOLLO
Failed then the counsels of my sire, when turned

Ixion, first of slayers, to his side?
LEADER

These are but words; but I, if justice fail me,
Will haunt this land in grim and deadly deed.

• decree [di´kri:] n.法令；公告；天命 (初中英语单词)
• prevail [pri´veil] vi.胜(过)；流行；普遍 (初中英语单词)
• female [´fi:meil] a.女(性)的 n.女人 (初中英语单词)
• welcome [´welkəm] a.受欢迎的；可喜的 (初中英语单词)
• cunning [´kʌniŋ] a.&n.狡猾(诡诈)的 (初中英语单词)
• majesty [´mædʒisti] n.壮丽；崇高；尊严 (初中英语单词)
• greece [gri:s] n.希腊 (初中英语单词)
• breath [breθ] n.呼吸；气息 (初中英语单词)
• witness [´witnis] n.见证人 vt.目击 (初中英语单词)
• goddess [´gɔdis] n.女神 (初中英语单词)
• faithful [´feiθfəl] a.忠实的；可靠的 (初中英语单词)
• pledge [pledʒ] n.信物；誓约vt.使发誓 (初中英语单词)
• intent [in´tent] a.专心致志的 n.意图 (初中英语单词)
• apollo [ə´pɔləu] n.阿波罗 (初中英语单词)
• purity [´pjuəriti] n.纯净；贞洁 (初中英语单词)
• elsewhere [,elsweə] ad.在别处；向别处 (初中英语单词)
• champion [´tʃæmpiən] n.冠军 vt.拥护 (初中英语单词)
• spoken [´spəukən] speak的过去分词 (初中英语单词)
• henceforth [´hens´fɔ:θ] ad.今后；从今以后 (初中英语单词)
• deadly [´dedli] a.致命的 ad.死一般地 (初中英语单词)
• mighty [´maiti] a.强有力的 ad.很 (高中英语单词)
• oracle [´ɔrəkl] n.预言(者)；圣理名言 (高中英语单词)
• vengeance [´vendʒəns] n.报复，复仇 (高中英语单词)
• discern [di´sə:n] v.辩认出 (高中英语单词)
• kindred [´kindrid] n.亲属关系；同源关系 (高中英语单词)
• shrine [ʃrain] n.神龛；神殿；圣地 (高中英语单词)
• athens [´æθinz] n.雅典 (高中英语单词)
• reverence [´revərəns] n.尊敬；敬畏；尊严 (高中英语单词)
• banish [´bæniʃ] vt.流放；消除(顾虑等) (高中英语单词)
• ordain [ɔ:´dein] v.规定；颁布命令 (高中英语单词)
• setting [´setiŋ] n.安装；排字；布景 (英语四级单词)
• justly [´dʒʌstli] ad.公正地，正当地 (英语四级单词)
• nought [nɔ:t] n.=naught (英语四级单词)
• amazon [´æməzən] n.女战士 (英语四级单词)
• triumphant [trai´ʌmfənt] a.胜利的；洋洋得意的 (英语四级单词)
• glorify [´glɔ:rifai] vt.赞美，颂扬，美化 (英语四级单词)
• tribunal [trai´bju:nəl] n.(特种)法庭，审判员 (英语四级单词)
• unjust [ʌn´dʒʌst] a.不公平(正)的 (英语四级单词)
• monarchy [´mɔnəki] n.君主政治；君主国 (英语四级单词)
• bulwark [´bulwək] n.堡垒；屏障 (英语四级单词)
• grievous [´gri:vəs] a.痛苦的；严重的 (英语四级单词)
• chieftain [´tʃi:ftən] n.(强盗)首领；族长 (英语六级单词)
• smitten [´smitn] smite的过去分词 (英语六级单词)
• bloodshed [´blʌdʃed] n.流血；杀人 (英语六级单词)
• untouched [ʌn´tʌtʃt] a.原样的；未触动过的 (英语六级单词)
• revere [ri´viə] vt.尊敬；敬畏 (英语六级单词)