—— “Quantum non ultima Tethys,
Non genitor nympharum abluit Oceanus.”
This idea, by the way, of crimes of such crimson dye that they cannot be washed out by the wide world of waters, seems to have been originally derived from some verses of the chorus in the Choephoræ of Æschylus—
—— “ποροι τε παντες ἐκ μιας ὁδου
Βαινοντες τον χαιρομυσου
Φονον καθαιροντες ἰουσαν ατην.”
The great successor of Æschylus expressed the same idea, in different language, in the Œdipus Tyrannus—
“Ὀιμαι γαρ ὀυτ’ αν Ιστρον ὀυτε Φασιν αν
Νιψαι καθαρμω τηνδε στεγην, ὁσα
Κευθει.”