Falling in frenzied guilt, he knows it not;
So thick the blinding cloud
That o'er him floats; and Rumour widely spread
With many a sigh reports the dreary doom,
A mist that o'er the house
In gathering darkness broods. {358}
Strophe IV
Fixed is the law, no lack of means find we;
We work out all our will,
We, the dread Powers, the registrars of crime,
Whom mortals fail to soothe,
Fulfilling tasks dishonoured, unrevered,
Apart from all the Gods,
In foul and sunless gloom,
Driving o'er rough steep road both those that see,
And those whose eyes are dark.
Antistrophe IV
What mortal man then doth not bow in awe
And fear before all this,
Hearing from me the destined ordinance
Assigned me by the Gods?
This task of mine is one of ancient days;
Nor meet I here with scorn,
Though 'neath the earth I dwell,
And live there in the darkness thick and dense,
Where never sunbeam falls. {374}
EPISODE I
Enter in her Chariot [along the balcony of the permanent scene] Athene.
Athene has heard far off Orestes' cry, and has come in her swift chariot. What is this strange presence in her own city, and who is this suppliant? The Chorus, in parallel dialogue, explain who they are, and seek to enlist Athene against the matricide; but Athene answers she has only heard one side. Chorus rejoin that the adversary dares not rest his case on oath for oath [political allusion to procedure of ordinary Athenian Courts]; Athene thinks that a poor way of getting at truth, and as Chorus express confidence in her judgment she calls on Orestes; he details again all the rites of purification he has gone through, and how Apollo bade him do the deed. Athene pauses: Murder stirred by wrath [i.e., homicide as distinguished from murder, the special province of the Court of Areopagus] is too much for mortal or even herself to decide; but she hereby appoints jurors on oath [the special distinction of the Areopagus] as a perpetual institution for dealing with such cases. Let the parties prepare, she will return soon with the best of her citizens [observe, the Court was an Aristocratic Court] as Jurors. {467}
CHORAL INTERLUDE
in four Strophes and Antistrophes.