Works of Aeschylus - Aeschylus [97]
Away, thou plunderer accurst!
Death seize thee first,
Or e'er thou touch me-off! God, hear our cry,
Our maiden agony!
Ah, ah, the touch, the prelude of my shame.
Alas, my maiden fame!
O sister, sister, sister, to the altar cling,
For he that seizeth me,
Grim is his wrath and stern, by land as on the sea.
Guard us, O king!
The Herald of Aegyptus enters with attendants. The lines in the following scene between the Herald and the Chorus are sung and are accompanied by a frenzied symbolic dance.
Herald of Aegyptus:
Hence to my barge-step swiftly, tarry not.
Chorus:
Alack, he rends-he rends my hair! O wound on wound!
Help! my lopped head will fall, my blood gush o'er the ground!
Herald of Aegyptus:
Aboard, ye cursed-with a new curse, go!
Chorus:
Would God that on the wand'ring brine
Thou and this braggart tongue of thine
Had sunk beneath the main-
Thy mast and planks, made fast in vain!
Thee would I drive aboard once more,
A slayer and a dastard, from the shore!
Herald of Aegyptus:
Be still, thou vain demented soul;
My force thy craving shall control.
Away, aboard! What, clingest to the shrine?
Away! this city's gods I hold not for divine.
Chorus:
Aid me, ye gods, that never, never
I may again behold
The mighty, the life-giving river,
Nilus, the quickener of field and fold!
Alack, O sire, unto the shrine I cling-
Shrine of this land from which mine ancient line did spring!
Herald of Aegyptus:
Shrines, shrines, forsooth!-the ship, the ship be shrine
Aboard, perforce and will-ye nill-ye, go!
Or e'er from hands of mine
Ye suffer torments worse and blow on blow.
Chorus:
Alack, God grant those hands may strive in vain
With the salt-streaming wave,
When 'gainst the wide-blown blasts thy bark shall strain
To round Sarpedon's cape, the sandbank's treach'rous grave.
Herald of Aegyptus:
Shrill ye and shriek unto what gods ye may,
Ye shall not leap from out Aegyptus' bark,
How bitterly soe'er ye wail your woe.
Chorus:
Alack, alack my wrong!
Stern is thy voice, thy vaunting loud and strong.
Thy sire, the mighty Nilus, drive thee hence,
Turning to death and doom thy greedy violence!
Herald of Aegyptus:
Swift to the vessel of the double prow,
Go quickly! let none linger, else this hand
Ruthless will hale you by your tresses hence.
Chorus:
Alack, O father! from the shrine
Not aid but agony is mine.
As a spider he creeps and he clutches his prey,
And he hales me away.
A spectre of darkness, of darkness. Alas and alas! well-a-day!
O Earth, O my mother! O Zeus, thou king of the earth, and her child!
Turn back, we pray thee, from us his clamour and threatenings wild!
Herald of Aegyptus:
Peace! I fear not this country's deities.
They fostered not my childhood nor mine age.
Chorus:
Like a snake that is human he comes, he shudders and crawls to my side:
As an adder that biteth the foot, his clutch on my flesh doth abide.
O Earth, O my mother! O Zeus, thou king of the earth, and her child!
Turn back, we pray thee, from us his clamour and threatenings wild!
Herald of Aegyptus:
Swift each unto the ship; repine no more,
Or my hand shall not spare to rend your robe.
Chorus:
O chiefs, O leaders, aid me, or I yield!
Herald of Aegyptus:
Peace! if ye have not ears to hear my words,
Lo, by these tresses must I hale you hence.
Chorus:
Undone we are, O king! all hope is gone.
Herald of Aegyptus:
Ay, kings enow ye shall behold anon,
Aegyptus' sons-Ye shall not want for kings.
The King of Argos enters with his retinue.
The King of Argos:
Sirrah, what dost thou? in what arrogance
Darest thou thus insult Pelasgia's realm?
Deemest thou this a woman-hearted town?
Thou art too full of thy barbarian scorn
For us of Grecian blood, and, erring thus,
Thou dost bewray thyself a fool in all!
Herald of Aegyptus:
Say thou wherein my deeds transgress my right.
The King of Argos:
First, that thou play'st a stranger's part amiss.
Herald of Aegyptus:
Wherein? I do but search and claim mine own.
The King of Argos: