Ah! Here he is!

  His arms hold in embrace

  the statue of the goddess.

  260 He’s hoping for legal trial,

  but that’s not possible.

  A mother’s pulsing blood

  once spilled upon the ground

  can’t be fetched up again;

  it soaks in and is gone.

  In return you must give

  your red liquor, while alive,

  so that eagerly we gulp

  from your veins the sour syrup.

  Once we’ve drained you hollow,

  we shall drag you down below.

  There you’ll see all who’ve sinned

  270 against god or guest or kin.

  For Hades keeps a tally

  of every human folly,

  and writes them down retained

  in the ledger of his mind.

  ORESTES

  I’ve learned in my ordeals when is the time to speak

  and when to keep my silence: at this crisis,

  with a teacher’s wise advice, I should now speak.

  280 The blood upon my hands is fading, sleepy;

  and pollution from the killing of my mother

  has been washed away, purged by Apollo at his hearth.

  And I could tell of many I have visited

  while causing them no harm.

  So now I speak with purity and call upon Athena,

  mistress of this land, to come and bring me help.

  That way she shall recruit myself, my country,

  290 and the Argives as true allies for the rest of time.

  So whether she’s in Africa to help her friends,

  beside the Triton’s flow, where she was born,

  or else surveying Phlegra’s landscape, like a bold commander,

  I now call on her to come—a god can hear far off—

  so she may set me free.

  CHORUS LEADER

  No, not Apollo, not Athena can protect you

  300 from the fate of wandering disregarded,

  ignorant of feeling glad—

  a dinner for us goddesses,

  till drained of blood, a shadow.

  [ORESTES does not respond.]

  No reply? Contempt for what I say?

  You have been reared, I tell you,

  as an offering for me,

  and you shall feed me live—

  no need for ritual slaughter.

  So listen to this hymn

  that works to bind you tight.

  Choral Song

  CHORUS LEADER

  Come then, let us link together

  in our chorus, now that we are

  set on showing off our gruesome

  music. Firstly, listen how we

  310 make allotments among humans

  as we think is upright justice:

  when a man is pure in actions,

  there’s no threat of anger from us,

  and he lives his life undamaged;

  but the sinner who attempts to

  hide his violent deeds of murder—

  we bear witness for the victim,

  and extract the blood-price from him

  320 so he pays the final reckoning.

  CHORUS

  Mother Night, my mother Night,

  now hear me.

  As a goddess of revenge

  you bore me.

  Yet Apollo’s trying to

  deprive me

  of my rights by snatching off

  this cringing,

  consecrated creature from

  my clutches,

  which should be sacrificed

  for bloodshed.

  Over our victim

  chant our refrain,

  Erinyes’ hymn,

  driving insane,

  330 destroying his mind,

  binding his brain—

  tune without music,

  withering refrain.

  Moira’s thread has spun for us

  this province:

  to maintain forever as

  our essence

  power to follow with pursuit

  untiring

  those who’ve killed their closest kin

  uncaring,

  right down to the world below,

  relentless.

  Even there they are not free

  340 entirely.

  Over our victim

  sing our refrain,

  Erinyes’ hymn,

  driving insane,

  destroying his mind,

  binding his brain—

  chant without music,

  withering refrain.

  This standing was allotted to us

  (350) from our birth:

  to share no common feasting with

  the gods above;

  we have no part in rituals that

  don white robes.

  Our chosen role is as destroyers

  of a house

  when violent strife leads one to killing

  kin most close;

  then we wear down his strength and drain

  him to a husk.

  Because we free the other gods from

  (360) this grim task,

  they do not have to bring such cases

  to the test.

  And Zeus excludes our blood-soaked party

  from his feast.

  Men seem high and mighty

  underneath the sky,

  but they shrink and dwindle

  to indignity,

  370 crushed beneath the pounding

  dances of our fury.

  Down from above

  I leap and stamp,

  full weight of my leg,

  limb strong enough

  even to trip

  an athlete’s step

  with no escape.

  Ignorant he tumbles,

  damaged in his mind,

  dark cloud of pollution

  hovering around.

  And over his household

  380 grieving voices spread.

  This is our task: resourceful we

  make it complete and done;

  long we remember wrongs, and press

  implacably on men.

  Away from gods we do our work

  in murk that sees no sun.

  390 What person feels no awe and dread

  when hearing of our writ,

  granted to us by the gods,

  invariable, complete?

  My state is honored, though beneath

  the earth with no sun’s light.

  Scene 6

  [Enter ATHENA.]

  ATHENA

  From far away I heard a cry for help—

  I was at Troy, where I was marking out the share of land

  400 allotted by the leaders of the Greeks to me,

  for the Athenians to keep forever as a special gift.

  I’ve hastened all the way from there,

  though not with wings, my snake-cloak whirring in the wind.

  And now I see this strange new gathering of visitors.

  I feel no fear, but still I am astonished at the sight.

  Who are you—all of you, I mean?

  This stranger by my statue,

  [To the Erinyes.]

  410 and you—you don’t resemble

  any gods known to the gods,

  nor do you have a form like that of any humans.

  But it would be wrong of me to speak

  discourteously of those who’ve given no offense.

  CHORUS LEADER

  You shall hear everything concisely, child of Zeus.

  We are the daughters born of Night;

  and in the world beneath the earth

  we’re known as Curses.

  ATHENA

  So now I know your birth and title.

  CHORUS LEADER

  Next you should learn of our prerogatives:

  (420) we harry people-killers from their homes.

  ATHENA

  Where does the killer’s running reach its end?

  CHORUS LEADER

  Some place where joy is quite unknown.

  ATHENA

  And that’s the way you’re hustling this man here?

  CHORUS LEADER

  We are: he thought it right to be his mother’s killer.

  ATHENA

  With no compulsion? Or in dread of some fierce anger?

  CHORUS LEADER

  Could any be enough to spur a man to kill his mother?

  ATHENA

  (430) There are two parties here, and I’ve heard only half.

  CHORUS LEADER

  Then test the case, and pass your judgment honestly.

  ATHENA

  And would you really hand to me the final outcome?

  CHORUS LEADER

  Indeed, if you respect us in return for our respect.

  ATHENA [To ORESTES.]

  Now, stranger, what have you to answer in your turn?

  Tell me your country, family, and fortune;

  and then defend yourself against their hostile charges—

  440 if, that is, you are a solemn suppliant,

  and taking this position by my statue out of trust in justice.

  ORESTES

  Athena, I shall first allay your anxious question.

  I’m not here beside your image with my hands polluted.

  I’ll give a weighty proof of this: it is laid down

  a man with blood upon his hands is not allowed to speak

  450 until he has been cleansed by one with power to purify.

  Well, I’ve been purged in other places,

  both by sacrificial blood and by the flow of water.

  So now I’ll tell you of my family: I am from Argos,

  son of Agamemnon, marshal of the naval force—

  and you, with him, reduced Troy’s city to a nothing-place.

  And yet he died a squalid death when he came home.

  My dark-intentioned mother slaughtered him

  460 once she had cloaked him in a rich-embroidered net,

  complicit with his murder in the bath.

  And I, when I eventually returned from exile,

  killed my mother—I do not deny it—

  to make her pay the price for killing my dear father.

  And Apollo shares responsibility for this,

  since he proclaimed that I would suffer

  heart-impaling agonies if I did nothing to the guilty ones.

  Now it’s for you to pass your judgment:

  was it with injustice or with justice that I struck?

  Whatever way you deal with me,

  I shall assent to your decision.

  ATHENA

  470 This issue is too grave for any human

  to assess decisively.

  And it would not be right even for me

  to pass a judgment which is bound to stir such anger.

  On the one side, you’ve approached my temple

  as a suppliant pure and free of harm:

  these, on the other side, possess a function

  that is far from airily dismissed.

  And if they don’t emerge victorious in this affair,

  then they shall drizzle poison of resentment,

  which, as it falls upon the ground,

  will spread consuming plague.

  480 That’s how things stand—and either course

  seems bound to bring down rancor.

  So, since the issue has advanced this far,

  I shall establish here a charter for all time:

  a board of jurors, bound by solemn oath,

  who shall be judges in the case of homicide.

  [To both sides.]

  You therefore should assemble here your witnesses

  and evidence supportive for your case.

  Meanwhile, I shall select the finest of my citizens,

  and gather them to pass conclusive judgment here.

  [Exit ATHENA; ORESTES stays.]

  Choral Song

  CHORUS

  490 If these new rules now overrule,

  then unjust justice will prevail

  to win the mother-killer’s cause.

  This act will set all humans loose

  from decency; set people free

  to murder with impunity;

  leave parents helpless to stop harm

  at children’s hands in future time.

  500 Unhindered by our manic gaze,

  all kinds of death shall be released.

  Though all about the victims claim

  they have been harmed by kindred crime,

  they will not find that there’s redress

  in answer to their anguished cries.

  And though they try to stem their pain,

  their remedies shall be in vain.

  No use for anyone to shout

  510 when they have been struck down:

  “O Justice, O Erinyes

  upon your lofty throne!”

  Although a new-harmed father or

  a mother’s anguish calls

  for pity, it’s no use because

  the house of Justice falls.

  There is a way that terror can

  improve the minds of men,

  520 and fear prove beneficial since

  good sense is reached through pain.

  Those who do not cultivate

  at heart a sense of fear—

  the same for cities as for men—

  will not hold Justice dear.

  Don’t praise a life oppressed,

  nor yet a life dispersed

  in careless anarchy.

  In every sphere the god

  530 empowers the middle way.

  I frame a thought that’s apt:

  proud arrogance indeed

  springs from impiety,

  while from a mind with health

  develops longed-for growth

  of true prosperity.

  I say that everyone

  should treat the altar-stone

  of Justice with respect;

  540 don’t kick it in contempt

  for some imagined gain.

  There will be punishment.

  What’s fixed remains secure:

  with time it takes effect.

  In view of this, be sure

  to put first parents’ care,

  and treat guests with respect.

  550 The man of unforced justice

  will be securely prosperous:

  the man of lawless daring—

  pirate-fashion steering

  a cargo overloaded

  with goods unjustly looted—

  will end with sail in tatters,

  and with his mainmast shattered.

  He cries out from the circles

  of overwhelming whirlpools,

  but there is none to hear him.

  560 God mocks the man so certain

  that he’s immune from dangers.

  He cannot ride the breakers;

  wrecked on the reef of Justice,

  he drowns unwept, unnoticed.

  Scene 7

  [ATHENA reenters with jurors, who bring on benches and two voting urns. It emerges that the scene is now set on the hill of the Areopagus.]

  ATHENA

  Now let the herald call the people here to order;

  and let the piercing trumpet ring out loud and clear.

  570 For as this council is assembled, silence is appropriate

  so that the city as a whole may listen to my charter.

  This will stand for all of future time,

  (573) so justice may be well decided here.

  (681) Now listen to my charter, citizens of Athens,

  you who are the judges in this trial,

  the first trial ever held for bloodshed.

  This just assembly shall hold good

  for my Athenians for evermore.

  It shall convene upon this outcrop,

  the encampment of the Amazons,

  when they invaded and then fortified

  this citadel confronting the Acropolis.

  And here they sacrificed to Ares, which is why

  (690) this hilltop has been named the Areopagus.

  And here the sense of awe and inborn fear

  shall keep my citizens by day and night

  from doing wrong—provided they themselves

  do not revise and tamper with the laws.

  If you pollute clear water with bad effluent

  and dirt, you’ll never find it good to drink.

  So I advise my citizens to venerate a way of life

  that’s neither anarchy nor yet oppression either.

  And do not expel the element of fear

  entirely from the city—who can live a life

  that’s just, with no deterrent fear at all?

  (700) If you maintain this kind of just respect,

  you’ll have protection for both land and city

  of a strength no other humans have achieved.

  So this assembly here—immune from love of gain,

  full of respect and fierce in righteous anger,

  wakeful over those who sleep—

  this I establish as a fortress for the land.

  I have dwelled long on this advice

  (708) for all my citizens for all of future time.

 
  it is the proper time for witnesses

  to be assembled. Are there any here

  who wish to take their stand before our court?

  [Enter APOLLO.]

  APOLLO

  Yes, queen Athena, I have come in haste,

  departing from my shrine at Delphi

  to be present here.

  ATHENA

  It’s only right, my lord Apollo, that you>

  (574) exercise your power in your own province.

  How is this issue of concern to you?

  APOLLO

  I’ve come to act as witness for this man:

  he is my suppliant who looked for refuge at my hearth,