Suppliant Maidens and Other Plays eBook

THE SUPPLIANT MAIDENS

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

  DANAUS, THE KING OF ARGOS, HERALD OF AEGYPTUS.
  Chorus of the Daughters of Danaus.  Attendants.

  Scene. —­A sacred precinct near the gates of Argos:  statue and
  shrines of Zeus and other deities stand around.

CHORUS

  ZEUS!  Lord and guard of suppliant hands! 
    Look down benign on us who crave
    Thine aid—­whom winds and waters drave
  From where, through drifting shifting sands,
    Pours Nilus to the wave. 
  From where the green land, god-possest,
  Closes and fronts the Syrian waste,
  We flee as exiles, yet unbanned
  By murder’s sentence from our land;
  But—­since Aegyptus had decreed
  His sons should wed his brother’s seed,—­
  Ourselves we tore from bonds abhorred,
  From wedlock not of heart but hand,
  Nor brooked to call a kinsman lord! 
  And Danaus, our sire and guide,
  The king of counsel, pond’ring well
  The dice of fortune as they fell,
  Out of two griefs the kindlier chose,
  And bade us fly, with him beside,
  Heedless what winds or waves arose,
  And o’er the wide sea waters haste,
  Until to Argos’ shore at last
    Our wandering pinnace came—­
  Argos, the immemorial home
  Of her from whom we boast to come—­
  Io, the ox-horned maiden, whom,
  After long wandering, woe, and scathe,
  Zeus with a touch, a mystic breath,
    Made mother of our name. 
  Therefore, of all the lands of earth,
  On this most gladly step we forth,
  And in our hands aloft we bear—­
  Sole weapon for a suppliant’s wear—­
  The olive-shoot, with wool enwound! 
    City, and land, and waters wan
  Of Inachus, and gods most high,
  And ye who, deep beneath the ground,
  Bring vengeance weird on mortal man,
  Powers of the grave, on you we cry! 
  And unto Zeus the Saviour, guard
  Of mortals’ holy purity! 
  Receive ye us—­keep watch and ward
  Above the suppliant maiden band! 
  Chaste be the heart of this your land
  Towards the weak! but, ere the throng,
  The wanton swarm, from Egypt sprung,
  Leap forth upon the silted shore,
  Thrust back their swift-rowed bark again,
  Repel them, urge them to the main! 
  And there, ’mid storm and lightning’s shine,
  And scudding drift and thunder’s roar,
  Deep death be theirs, in stormy brine! 
  Before they foully grasp and win
  Us, maiden-children of their kin,
  And climb the couch by law denied,
  And wrong each weak reluctant bride. 
    And now on her I call,

  Mine ancestress, who far on Egypt’s shore
      A young cow’s semblance wore,—­
  A maiden once, by Hera’s malice changed! 
      And then on him withal,
  Who, as amid the flowers the grazing creature