Page:Tragedies of Seneca (1907) Miller.djvu/348

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Of heaped-up mountains, and those giant forms,
Themselves like mountains huge: such arms employ;
Hurl down such fires. Avenge the banished day; 1085
With thy consuming Sames supply the light
Which has been snatched from out the darkened heaven.
Select us both as objects of thy wrath;
Or if not both, then me; aim thou at me.
With that three-forked bolt of thine transfix 1090
My guilty breast. If I would give my sons
To burning and to fitting burial,
I must myself be burned. But if my prayers
Do not with heaven prevail, and if no god
Aims at the impious his fatal shaft;
Then may eternal night brood o'er the earth,
And hide these boundless crimes in endless shade.
If thou, O sun, dost to thy purpose hold, 1095
And cease to shine, I supplicate no more.
Atreus: ⁠Now do I praise my handiwork indeed;
Now have I gained the palm of victory.
My deed had failed entirely of its aim,
Didst thou not suffer thus. Now may I trust
That those I call my sons are truly so,
And faith that once my marriage bed was pure
Has come again.
Thyestes: ⁠What was my children's sin? 1100
Atreus: ⁠Because they were thy chidlren.
Thyestes: ⁠But to think
That children to the father—
Atreus: ⁠That indeed,
I do confess it, gives me greatest joy:
That thou art well assured they were thy sons.
Thyestes: I call upon the gods of innocence—
Atreus: ⁠Why not upon the gods of marriage call?
Thyestes: Why dost thou seek to punish crime with crime?
Atreus: ⁠Well do I know the cause of thy complaint:
Because I have forestalled thee in the deed.
Thou grievest, not because thou hast consumed 1105
This horrid feast, but that thou wast not first
To set it forth. This was thy fell intent.