Never came gale from Jove,nor flying bark,Which 'twixt the dangerous rocks of the Euxine sea Brought Helen hither,who my ruin wrought,Nor Menelaus;that on them my foul wrongs I might repay,and with an Aulis here Requite the Aulis there,where I was seized,And,as a heifer,by the Grecians slain:
My father too,who gave me birth,was priest.
Ah me!the sad remembrance of those ills Yet lives:how often did I stroke thy cheek,And,hanging on thy knees,address thee thus:-"Alas,my father!I by thee am led A bride to bridal rites unbless'd and base:
Them,while by thee I bleed,my mother hymns,And the Argive dames,with hymeneal strains,And with the jocund pipe the house resounds:
But at the altar I by thee am slain;
For Pluto was the Achilles,not the son Of Peleus,whom to me thou didst announce The affianced bridegroom,and by guile didst bring To bloody nuptials in the rolling car."But,o'er mine eyes the veil's fine texture spread,This brother in my hands who now is lost,I clasp'd not,though his sister;did not press My lips to his,through virgin modesty,As going to the house of Peleus:then Each fond embrace I to another time Deferr'd,as soon to Argos to return.
If,O unhappy brother,thou art dead,From what a state,thy father's envied height Of glory,loved Orestes,art thou torn!-These false rules of the goddess much I blame:
Whoe'er of mortals is with slaughter stain'd,Or hath at childbirth given assisting hands,Or chanced to touch aught dead,she as impure Drives from her altars;yet herself delights In human victims bleeding at her shrine.
Ne'er did Latona from the embrace of Jove Bring forth such inconsistence:I then deem The feast of Tantalus,where gods were guests,Unworthy of belief,as that they fed On his son's flesh delighted;and I think These people,who themselves have a wild joy In shedding human blood,their savage guilt Charge on the goddess:for this truth I hold;None of the gods is evil,or doth wrong.
(She enters the temple.)