clearly told. 
     He, when he hears and learns the story’s gist,
     Will joy, I trow, in heart.  Ah, wretched me! 
     How those old troubles, of all sorts made up,
     Most hard to bear, in Atreus’s palace-halls
     Have made my heart full heavy in my breast! 
     But never have I known a woe like this. 
     For other ills I bore full patiently,
     But as for dear Orestes, my sweet charge,
     Whom from his mother I received and nursed . . . 
     And then the shrill cries rousing me o’ nights,
     And many and unprofitable toils
     For me who bore them.  For one needs must rear
     The heedless infant like an animal,
     (How can it else be?) as his humor serve
     For while a child is yet in swaddling clothes,
     It speaketh not, if either hunger comes,
     Or passing thirst, or lower calls of need;
     And children’s stomach works its own content. 
     And I, though I foresaw this, call to mind,
     How I was cheated, washing swaddling clothes,
     And nurse and laundress did the selfsame work. 
     I then with these my double handicrafts,
     Brought up Orestes for his father dear;
     And now, woe’s me!  I learn that he is dead,
     And go to fetch the man that mars this house;
     And gladly will he hear these words of mine.

          From Plumptre’s Translation of ‘The Libation-Pourers.’

     THE DECREE OF ATHENA

     Hear ye my statute, men of Attica—­
     Ye who of bloodshed judge this primal cause;
     Yea, and in future age shall Aegeus’s host
     Revere this court of jurors.  This the hill
     Of Ares, seat of Amazons, their tent,
     What time ’gainst Theseus, breathing hate, they came,
     Waging fierce battle, and their towers upreared,
     A counter-fortress to Acropolis;—­
     To Ares they did sacrifice, and hence
     This rock is titled Areopagus. 
     Here then shall sacred Awe, to Fear allied,
     By day and night my lieges hold from wrong,
     Save if themselves do innovate my laws,
     If thou with mud, or influx base, bedim
     The sparkling water, nought thou’lt find to drink. 
     Nor Anarchy, nor Tyrant’s lawless rule
     Commend I to my people’s reverence;—­
     Nor let them banish from their city Fear;
     For who ’mong men, uncurbed by fear, is just? 
     Thus holding Awe in seemly reverence,
     A bulwark for your State shall ye possess,
     A safeguard to protect your city walls,
     Such as no mortals otherwhere can boast,
     Neither in Scythia, nor in Pelops’s realm. 
     Behold!  This Court august, untouched by bribes,
     Sharp to avenge, wakeful for those who sleep,
     Establish I, a bulwark to this land. 
     This charge, extending to all future time,
     I give my lieges.  Meet it as ye rise,
     Assume the pebbles, and decide the cause,
     Your oath revering.  All hath now been said.