appeal. When the last judge has resumed his seat, Pallas herself, still standing on the stage, holds up a voting-pebble and speaks thus:—
"With me it rests to give the casting-vote,
And to Orestes I my suffrage pledge.
For to no mother do I owe my birth;
But I, in all save wedlock, praise the male.
In very truth I am my father's child,
Nor care I to avenge a woman's death
Who slew her husband, guardian of the house.
Orestes, judged by equal votes, prevails,
The pebbles now pour quickly from the urns,
Judges, to whom this office is assigned."
While the votes are counted Orestes and the Chorus express in turn their anxiety and suspense. At last the goddess thus declares the verdict;—
"Orestes has escaped the doom of blood,
For equal are the numbers of the votes."[1]
With eager eloquence Orestes pours out his thanks to Pallas, and promises the eternal friendship of his city to Athens. He promises this not only in the fiction of the play, but in real earnest, to Athens, here gathered in the theatre; for just now, when this play is being presented, an alliance has been contracted between Argos and Athens. Loud, therefore, is the applause with which his words are greeted:—
- ↑ She thus gives her casting-vote, and establishes that principle of Athenian law by which, when the votes were equal, the decision was always declared in favour of acquittal. The casting-vote thus given on the side of mercy was called the "Calculus Minervæ," or "Minerva's pebble."
