CHORUS. Jove, thou sayest, Prefers the father: yet himself did bind With bonds his hoary-dated father Kronos.[n44] Make this with that to square, and thou art wise. Ye judges, mark me, if I reason well.
APOLLO. O odious monsters, of all gods abhorred! A chain made fast may be untied again. This ill hath many cures; but, when the dust Hath once drunk blood, no power can raise it. Jove Himself doth know no charm to disenchant Death; other things he turns both up and down, At his good pleasure, fainting not in strength.
CHORUS. Consider well whereto thy words will lead thee. How shall this man, who spilt his mother's blood, Dwell in his father's halls at Argos? How Devoutly kneel at the public altar? How With any clanship share lustration?[n45]
APOLLO. This Likewise I'll answer. Mark me! whom we call The mother begets not;[n46] she is but the nurse, Whose fostering breast the new-sown seed receives. The father truly gets; the dam but cherishes A stranger-bud, that, if the gods be kind, May blossom soon, and bear. Behold a proof! Without a mother may a child be born, Not so without a father. Which to witness Here is this daughter of Olympian Jove, Not nursed in darkness, in the womb, and yet She stands a goddess, heavenly mother ne'er Bore greater. Pallas, here I plight my faith To magnify thy city and thy people; And I this suppliant to thy hearth hath sent, Thy faithful ally ever. May the league Here sworn to-day their children's children bind!
ATHENA. Now judges, as your judgment is, I charge you, So vote the doom. Words we have had enough.
CHORUS. Our quiver's emptied. We await the doom.
ATHENA. How should the sentence fall to keep me free Of your displeasure?
CHORUS. What we said we said. Even as your heart informs you, nothing fearing, So judges justly vote, the oath revering.
ATHENA. Now, hear my ordinance, Athenians![n47] Ye, In this first strife of blood, umpires elect, While age on age shall roll, the sons of Aegeus This Council shall revere. Here, on this hill, The embattled Amazons pitched their tents of yore,[n48] What time with Theseus striving, they their tents Against these high-towered infant walls uptowered. To Mars they sacrificed, and, to this day, This Mars' Hill speaks their story. Here, Athenians, Shall reverence of the gods, and holy fear, That shrinks from wrong, both night and day possess, A place apart, so long as fickle change Your ancient laws disturbs not; but, if this { 163} Pure fount with muddy streams ye trouble, ye Shall draw the draught in vain. From anarchy And slavish masterdom alike my ordinance Preserve my people! Cast not from your walls All high authority; for where no fear Awful remains, what mortal will be just? This holy reverence use, and ye possess A bulwark, and a safeguard of the land, Such as no race of mortals vaunteth, far In Borean Scythia, or the land of Pelops.[f19] This council I appoint intact to stand From gain, a venerated conclave, quick In pointed indignation, when all sleep A sleepless watch. These words of warning hear, My citizens for ever. Now ye judges Rise, take your pebbles, and by vote decide, The sacred oath revering. I have spoken.