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SCENE FROM THE EUMENDIES
21
I'll suck the ruddy current of each vein,
Thy heart's blood's fountain will I drain.
Thus having wasted thee living away,
I'll drag thee downward to the realms below,
That for thy Mother's murder thou may'st pay
Unsleeping pangs. There shalt thou join, and know
Others that Guilt's dread sentence undergo,—
The Treacherous Host and Guest, the Thankless Child,
The Bold Blaspheming Wretch that hath the Gods reviled.
Thy heart's blood's fountain will I drain.
Thus having wasted thee living away,
I'll drag thee downward to the realms below,
That for thy Mother's murder thou may'st pay
Unsleeping pangs. There shalt thou join, and know
Others that Guilt's dread sentence undergo,—
The Treacherous Host and Guest, the Thankless Child,
The Bold Blaspheming Wretch that hath the Gods reviled.
For great is He, the Ruler of the Dead,
Before whose eye each mortal's acts are spread;
Who, in the tablets of his mind
With an all-recording pen
Writing the crimes of human-kind,
Exacts a stern account from erring men.
Before whose eye each mortal's acts are spread;
Who, in the tablets of his mind
With an all-recording pen
Writing the crimes of human-kind,
Exacts a stern account from erring men.
ORESTES.
Taught by long-suffering I am skill'd in arts
To purify the sinful; and I know
Both when to speak and when is silence best.
And now a wise Instructor orders me
That these my dread accusers meet reply.
Taught by long-suffering I am skill'd in arts
To purify the sinful; and I know
Both when to speak and when is silence best.
And now a wise Instructor orders me
That these my dread accusers meet reply.
Behold, the blood that clotted on my hand
Has slept and faded from it! I have washed
Hence the pollution of my Mother's death.
Has slept and faded from it! I have washed
Hence the pollution of my Mother's death.