Thus far for Helen: 'tis thy doom to pass,
Orestes, o'er the borders of this land,
And dwell a year's round on Parrhasian soil,1645
Which lips Azanian and Arcadian
Shall from thine exile call "Orestes' Land."
Thence shalt thou fare to the Athenians' burg,
And stand thy trial for thy mother's blood
Against the Avengers Three. The Gods shall there1650
Sit judges, and on Arês' Holy Hill
Pass righteous sentence: thou shalt win thy cause.
Hermionê, at whose throat is thy sword,
Orestes, is thy destined bride: who thinks
To wed her, shall not—Neoptolemus;1655
For doomed is he to die by Delphian swords,
When for his sire he claims redress of me.
On Pylades thy sister's plighted hand
Bestow: a life of bliss awaiteth him.
Menelaus, leave Orestes Argos' throne.1660
Go, hold the sceptre of the Spartan land,
As thy wife's dower, since she laid on thee
Travail untold to this day evermore.
I will to Argos reconcile this man
Whom I constrained to shed his mother's blood.1665
Orestes.
Hail, Prophet Loxias, to thine oracles!
No lying prophet wert thou then, but true.
And yet a fear crept o'er me, lest I heard,
Seeming to hear thy voice, a Fury-fiend.
Yet well ends all: thy words will I obey.1670
Lo, from the sword Hermione I release,
And pledge me, when her sire bestows, to wed.
