Apollo.
'Tis mine then to bring succour, and to save
My suppliant. Earth and Heaven are both afraid
For God's wrath, if one helpless is betrayed.
[Apollo returns behind the shrine, and the doors close. When they open again, they reveal, in place of Apollo's Central Altar, the Statue of Athena Parthenos: the scene now represents the Temple of Athena in Athens.
Enter Orestes, worn with travel and suffering.
Orestes.
Pallas Athena, from Apollo's wing
I come; receive in peace this hunted thing
My sin no more polluteth, nor with hand
Unpurified before thy throne I stand.
A blunted edge, grief-worn and sanctified
By pain, where'er men traffic or abide,
On, on, o'er land and sea I have made my way,
True-purposed Loxias' bidding to obey.
At last I have found thy House; thine image I
Clasp, and here wait thy judgement till I die.
[He throws himself down at the feet of the Statue, but no answer comes. Presently enter the Furies, following him.
Leader.
Ha! Here he has passed. Spot reeketh upon spot.
Blood is a spy that points and babbles not.
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