Clytemnestra [aside]: Shall I in cruel scorn desert him now?
Who sin in company should suffer so.
[To Aegisthus.]
Nay, come with me; we will together wait
The issue of our dark and dangerous fate.
[Exeunt into the palace.]
Chorus:[1] Sing Phoebus' praise, O race renowned; 310
With festal laurel wreathe your heads;
And let your virgin locks flow free,
Ye Argive maids.
And ye who drink of the cold Erasinus,
Who dwell by Eurotas, 315
Who know the green banks of the silent Ismenus,
Come join in our singing;
And do ye swell our chorus, ye far Theban daughters,
Whom the child of Tiresias, Manto the seer,
Once taught to bow down to the Delian gods. 320
Now peace has come:
Unbend thy victorious bow, O Apollo,
Lay down from thy shoulder thy quiver of arrows,
And let thy tuneful lyre resound
To the touch of thy swift-flying fingers. 325
No lofty strain be thine today,
But such as on thy milder lyre
Thou art wont to sound when the learned muse
Surveys thy sports.
And yet, an' thou wilt, strike a heavier strain, 330
As when thou didst sing of the Titans o'ercome
By Jupiter's hurtling bolts;
When mountain on lofty mountain piled,
Pelion, Ossa, and pine-clad Olympus,
Built high to the sky for the impious monsters 335
Their ladder's rocky rounds.
Thou too be with us, Juno, queen,
Who sharest the throne of heaven's lord. 340
Mycenae's altars blaze for thee.
Thou alone dost protect us,
Anxious and suppliant;
- ↑ The line arrangement of Schroeder has been followed in this Chorus.
