Thoas.
Most high Athena, he who bows not low
His head to God’s word spoken, I scarce know
How such an one doth live. Orestes hath
Fled with mine Image hence ... I bear no wrath.
Nor yet against his sister. There is naught,
Methinks, of honour in a battle fought
’Gainst gods. The strength is theirs.
Let those two fare
Forth to thy land and plant mine Image there.
I wish them well.
These bondwomen no less
I will send free to Greece and happiness,
And stay my galleys’ oars, and bid this brand
Be sheathed again, Goddess, at thy command.
Athena.
’Tis well, O King. For that which needs
must be
Holdeth the high gods as it holdeth thee.
Winds of the north, O winds that laugh and run,
Bear now to Athens Agamemnon’s son:
Myself am with you, o’er long leagues of foam
Guiding my sister’s hallowed Image home.
[she floats away.]
Chorus.
Some women.
Go forth in bliss, O ye whose
lot
God shieldeth, that ye perish
not!
Others.
O great in our dull world of clay,
And great in heaven’s
undying gleam,
Pallas, thy bidding we obey:
And bless thee, for mine ears have heard
The joy and wonder of a word
Beyond my dream, beyond my
dream.
P. 3, 1. 1.—Oenomaus, King of Elis, offered
his daughter and his kingdom to any man who should
beat him in a chariot race; those who failed he slew.
Pelops challenged him and won the race through a
trick of his servant, Myrtilus, who treacherously took
the linchpins out of Oenomaus’s chariot.
Oenomaus was thrown out and killed; Pelops took the
kingdom, but in remorse or indignation threw Myrtilus
into the sea (1. 192, p. 11). In some stories
Oenomaus killed the suitors by spearing them from
behind when they passed him. Pelops was the
son of Tantalus, renowned for his pride and its punishment.
P. 3, 1. 8, For Helen’s sake.—i.e.
in order to win Helen back from the Trojans.
P. 4, 1. 23, Whatever birth most fair.—Artemis
Kalliste ("Most Fair”) was apparently so called
because, after a competition for beauty, that which
won the prize ([Greek Text]) was selected and given
to her. This rite is made by the story to lead
to a sacrifice of the fairest maiden, and may very
possibly have sometimes done so.
P. 4, 1. 42.—She tells her dream to the
sky to get it off her mind, much as the Nurse does
in the Medea (p. 5,1.57).
P. 5, 1. 50, One ... pillar.—It is worth
remembering that a pillar was among the earliest
objects of worship in Crete and elsewhere. Cf.
“the pillared sanctities” (1. 128, p. 9)
and the “blood on the pillars” (1. 405,
p. 20).
P. 8, 1. 113, A hollow one might creep through.—The
metopes, or gaps between the beams. The Temple
was therefore of a primitive Dorian type.
