"As charioteer
With steeds ungoverned, from the course I swerve;
Thoughts past control are whirling me along,
Their captive slave; while terror in my heart
Her pæan and her frenzied dance prepares."
But while Reason yet holds her seat he asserts his righteousness, and pleads the injunction of Apollo. Taking in his hands a suppliant's olive-branch with its festoons of white wool, he turns to go to Delphi, an exile and a wanderer, to seek there the protection of the god he has obeyed. And now he sees the Furies. They rise in the background:—
"Gorgon-like they come,
Vested with sable stoles, their locks entwined
With clustering snakes. No longer may I bide."
And though the Chorus cannot see them, they press round him more closely and more hideous; his frenzy grows, and covering his face with his hands he rushes in madness from the place.
The Chorus still bless him, and pray that he may obtain protection, and march back up the steps across the stage, and through the palace-gates, chanting this song:—
"Thrice the Atridan storm hath burst
O'er Mycenæ's halls.
Child-devouring horror first
Brooded o'er these walls.
Next a king's disaster came,
When the chief who led
Hellas' warriors, known to fame,
