Page:Tragedies of Euripides (Way 1896) v2.djvu/301

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To Athens go: the awful image clasp
Of Pallas; for their serpent-frenzied rage 1255
Shall she refrain, that they may touch thee not,
Outstretching o'er thine head her Gorgon shield.
There is a Hill of Ares, where first sat
Gods to give judgment touching blood-shedding,
When fierce-souled Ares Halirrothius slew, 1260
The Sea-king's son, in wrath for outrage done
His daughter. That tribunal since that hour
Sacred and stablished stands in sight of Gods.
There must thou for this murder be arraigned.
And, in the judgment, equal votes cast down 1265
From death shall save thee: for the blame thereof
Shall Loxias take, who bade thee slay thy mother.
And this for after times shall rest the law,
That equal votes shall still acquit the accused.
Yet shall the Dread Ones, anguish-stricken for this, 1270
Hard by that hill sink into earth's deep cleft
Revered by men, a sacred oracle.^[1]
Thou by Alpheius' streams must found a city
Arcadian, near Lykaian Zeus's shrine;
And by thy name the city shall be called. 1275
This to thee: touching yon Aegisthus' corse,
The Argive folk shall hide it in the tomb.
Thy mother—Menelaus, now first come
To Nauplia, since he won the land of Troy,
Shall bury her, he and Helen: for she comes, 1280
Who ne'er saw Troy, from Proteus' halls in Egypt.^[2]

1. As there is no record of oracles delivered at the Areopagus by the Eumenides, οἰκητήριον has been proposed—"their hallowed dwelling-place."
2. According to the legend followed in the "Helena," but not in "The Daughters of Troy."