Epeisodion 3
Chorus
And I counsel you not to dishonor us in any way, since our company can be a burden to your land.
Apollo
And I, for my part, command you to stand in fear of the oracles, both mine and Zeus’, and not cause them to be unfulfilled.
Chorus
Although it is not your office, you have respect for deeds of bloodshed. You will prophesy, dispensing prophecies that are no longer pure.
715
Apollo
Then was my father mistaken in any way in his purposes when Ixion, who first shed blood, was a suppliant?
Chorus
You do argue! But if I fail to win the case,
I will once more inflict my company on this land as a burden.
720
Apollo
But you have no honor, among both the younger and the older gods. I will win.
Chorus
You did such things also in the house of Pheres, when you persuaded the Fates to make mortals free from death.In atonement for having shed blood (according to one legend, that of the dragon at Delphi, according to another, that of the Cyclopes), Apollo was compelled by Zeus to serve as a thrall in the house of Admetus, son of Pheres. An ancient story, adopted by Aeschylus, reported that, when the time came for Admetus to die, Apollo, in gratitude for the kindness shown him by the prince, plied the Fates with wine (l. 728) and thus secured their consent that Admetus should be released from death on condition that some one should voluntarily choose to die in his stead. Euripides, in his Alcestis, tells how, when both the father and the mother of Admetus refused to give up to him the remnant of their days, his wife Alcestis died for him.
Apollo
Is it not right, then, to do good for a worshipper, especially when he is in need?
725
Chorus
It was you who destroyed the old dispensations when you beguiled the ancient goddesses with wine.
Apollo
Soon, when you have lost the case,
you will spit out your venom—no great burden to your enemies.
The balloting is now ended.
730
Chorus
Since you, a youth, would ride me down, an old woman, I am waiting to hear the verdict in the case, since I have not decided whether to be angry at the city.
Athena
It is my duty to give the final judgment
and I shall cast my vote for Orestes. For there was no mother who gave me birth; and in all things, except for marriage, whole-heartedly I am for the male and entirely on the father’s side. Therefore, I will not award greater honor to the death of a woman
735
who killed her husband, the master of the house. Orestes wins, even if the vote comes out equal.
Cast the ballots out of the urns, as quickly as possible, you jurors who have been assigned this task. The ballots are turned out and separated.
740
Orestes
O Phoebus Apollo! How will the trial be decided?
Chorus
O Night, our dark Mother, do you see this?
745
Orestes
Now I will meet my end by hanging, or I will live.
Chorus
Yes, and we will be ruined, or maintain our honors further.
Apollo
Correctly count the ballots cast forth, friends, and be in awe of doing wrong in the division of the votes.
Error of judgment is the source of much distress, and the cast of a single ballot has set upright a house. The ballots are shown to Athena.
750
Athena
This man is acquitted on the charge of murder, for the numbers of the casts are equal. Apollo disappears.
Orestes
Pallas, savior of my house!
I was deprived of a fatherland, and it is you who have given me a home there again. The Hellenes will say, The man is an Argive once again, and lives in his father’s heritage, by the grace of Pallas and of Loxias and of that third god, the one who accomplishes everything,
755
the savior—the one who, having respect for my father’s death, saves me, seeing those advocates of my mother.
I will return to my home now, after I swear an oath to this land and to your peopleThe passage points to the league between Athens and Argos, formed after Cimon was ostracized (461 B.C.) and the treaty with Sparta denounced. for the future and for all time to come,
760
that no captain of my land will ever come here and bring a well-equipped spear against them. For I myself, then in my grave, will accomplish it by failure without remedy,
765
making their marches spiritless and their journeys
ill-omened, so that those who violate my present oath will repent their enterprise. But while the straight course is preserved, and they hold in everlasting honor this city of Pallas with their allied spears, I will be the more well-disposed to them.
770
And so farewell—you and the people who guard your city. May your struggle with your enemies let none escape, bringing you safety and victory with the spear! Exit.
775
