σὺ δ’ αἱματηρὸν πνεῦμ’ ἐπουρίσασα τῷ,
ἀτμῷ κατισχναίνουσα, νηδύος πυρὶ,
ἕπου, μάραινε δευτέροις διώγμασιν[1152].
‘Up and pursue! let thy breath lap his blood
With sering reek, as were thy bowels a furnace,
Till he be shrivelled in the redoubled chase.’
And the Furies prove by their threats to Orestes that they are not unmindful of their charge. ‘Nay, in return for the blood thou hast shed, thou must give me to suck the red juices from thy living limbs. Thyself must be my meat, my horrid drink.’ ‘Yea, while thou livest, I will drain thee dry, ere I hale thee ’neath the earth[1153].’ And the same thought is emphasized yet again in that binding-spell which the Furies chant to draw him whom they already account their prey from his vain refuge at Athene’s altar:
ἐπὶ δὲ τῷ τεθυμένῳ
τόδε μέλος, παρακοπὰ, παραφορὰ φρενοδαλής,
ὕμνος ἐξ Ἐρινύων,