Orestes Suppliant To Apollo.
Then they began to stir and rouse themselves, the spirit still goading them with angry words till they were now fully awake and ready to pursue. Then there appeared the God Apollo with his silver bow in his hand, and cried, "Depart from this place, ye accursed ones. Depart with all speed, lest an arrow leap forth from this string and smite you so that ye vomit forth the blood of men that ye have drunk. This is no fit halting-place for you; in the habitations of cruelty is your best abode, or in some lion's den, dripping with blood, not, verily, where men come to hear the oracles of truth. Depart ye, therefore, with all speed."
"Nay," said they; "hear, King Apollo, what we would say. For thou art verily guilty of this matter."
"How so? So much thou mayest say."
"Thou badest this stranger slay his mother."
"I bade him take vengeance for his father's blood."
"And thou wast ready to answer for this deed?"
"I bade him come for succour to this shrine."
"Yet they who attend him please thee not?"