Page:Tragedies of Euripides (Way 1898) v3.djvu/270

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The guest-fare, tarrying 'neath the selfsame roof; 950
Yet from all converse by their silence banned me,
So from their meat and drink to hold me apart;
And, filling for each man a several pitcher,
All equal, had their pleasure of the wine.
I took not on me to arraign mine hosts; 955
But, as who marked it not, in silence grieved;
With bitter sighs the mother-slayer grieved.^[1]
Now are my woes to Athens made, I hear,
A festival, and yet the custom lives
That Pallas' people keep the Pitcher-feast. 960
And when to Ares' mount I came to face
My trial, I upon this platform stood,
And the Erinnyes' eldest upon that.
Then, of my mother's blood arraigned, I spake;
And Phœbus' witness saved me. Pallas told 965
The votes: her arm swept half apart for me.
So was I victor in the murder-trial.
They^[2] which consented to the judgment, chose
Nigh the tribunal for themselves a shrine.
But of the Erinnyes some consented not, 970
And hounded me with homeless chasings aye,
Until, to Phœbus' hallowed soil returned,
Fasting before his shrine I cast me down,
And swore to snap my life-thread, dying there,
Except Apollo saved me, who destroyed. 975

pitcher for each. The festival, of which this was the mythical origin, was held at Athens in Anthesterion (February).

1. Or,
   "But silent grieved, as on whose conscience lay,
   For all my sighs, no stain of mother's blood."
   (England).
2. i.e. Those of the Erinnyes.