< Page:Tragedies of Euripides (Way 1898) v3.djvu
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242

EURIPIDES.

The guest-fare, tarrying 'neath the selfsame roof; ⁠950

Yet from all converse by their silence banned me,
So from their meat and drink to hold me apart;
And, filling for each man a several pitcher,
All equal, had their pleasure of the wine.
I took not on me to arraign mine hosts; ⁠955
But, as who marked it not, in silence grieved;
With bitter sighs the mother-slayer grieved.[1]
Now are my woes to Athens made, I hear,
A festival, and yet the custom lives
That Pallas' people keep the Pitcher-feast. ⁠960
And when to Ares' mount I came to face
My trial, I upon this platform stood,
And the Erinnyes' eldest upon that.
Then, of my mother's blood arraigned, I spake;
And Phœbus' witness saved me. Pallas told ⁠965
The votes: her arm swept half apart for me.
So was I victor in the murder-trial.
They[2] which consented to the judgment, chose
Nigh the tribunal for themselves a shrine.
But of the Erinnyes some consented not, ⁠970
And hounded me with homeless chasings aye,
Until, to Phœbus' hallowed soil returned,
Fasting before his shrine I cast me down,
And swore to snap my life-thread, dying there,
Except Apollo saved me, who destroyed. ⁠975[3]

  1. ↑ Or,
    "But silent grieved, as on whose conscience lay,
    ⁠For all my sighs, no stain of mother's blood."
    ⁠(England).
  2. ↑ i.e. Those of the Erinnyes.
  3. ↑ pitcher for each. The festival, of which this was the mythical origin, was held at Athens in Anthesterion (February).
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