EL. I have done. I check thee not. Go, sacrifice!
Accuse not me of hindering piety.
CLY. (to an attendant).
Then lift for me those fruitful offerings,
While to Apollo, before whom we stand,
I raise my supplication for release
From doubts and fears that shake my bosom now.
And, O defender of our house! attend
My secret utterance. No friendly ear
Is that which hearkens for my voice. My thought
Must not be blazoned with her standing by,
Lest through her envious and wide-babbling tongue
She fill the city full of wild surmise.
List, then, as I shall speak: and grant the dreams
Whose two-fold apparition I to-night
Have seen, if good their bodement, be fulfilled:
If hostile, turn their influence on my foes.
And yield not them their wish that would by guile
Thrust me from this high fortune, but vouchsafe
That ever thus exempt from harms I rule
The Atridae’s home and kingdom, in full life,
Partaking with the friends I live with now
All fair prosperity, and with my children,
Save those who hate and vex me bitterly.
Lykeian Phoebus, favourably hear
My prayer, and grant to all of us our need!
[page 149][657-689] More is there, which, though I be silent here,
A God should understand. No secret thing
Is hidden from the all-seeing sons of Heaven.
Enter the Old Man.
OLD M. Kind dames and damsels, may I clearly know
If these be King Aegisthus’ palace-halls?
CH. They are, sir; you yourself have guessed aright.
OLD M. May I guess further that in yonder dame
I see his queen? She looks right royally.
CH. ’Tis she,—no other,—whom your eyes behold.
OLD M. Princess, all hail! To thee and to thy spouse
I come with words of gladness from a friend.
CLY. That auspice I accept. But I would first
Learn from thee who of men hath sent thee forth?
OLD M. Phanoteus the Phocian, with a charge of weight.