Ad chaos inane regna cum rege abripis?
Non tota ab imo tecta convellens solo 1010
Vertis Mycenas? stare circa Tantalum,
Avosque nostros, si quis intra Tartara est,
Uterque jam debuimus. hinc compagibus
Et hinc revulsis huc tuam immani sinu
Demitte vallem, nosque desossos tege 1015
Acheronte toto: noxiæ supra caput
Animæ vagentur nostrum, & ardenti freto
Phlegethon arenas igneus tortas agens,
Exitia supra nostra violentus fluat.
Immota tellus pondus ignavum jaces? 1020
Fugere Superi. ATR. At accipe hos potius libens
Diu expetitos, nulla per fratrem est mora,
Fruere: osculare: divide amplexus tribus.
THY. Hoc fœdus? hæc est gratia? hæc fratris fides?
Sic odia ponis? non peto, incolumes pater 1025
Natos ut habeam: scelere quod salvo dari
Odioque possit, frater hoc fratrem rogo,
Sepelire liceat. redde, quod cemas statim
Uri. nihil te genitor habiturus rogo,
Sed perditurus. ATR. Quidquid e natis tuis 1030
Superest, habebis: quodque non superest, habes.
THY. Utrumne fævis pabulum alitibus jacent?
An belluis fervantur? an pascunt feras?
ATR. Epulatus ipse es impia natos dape.
THY. Hoc est Deos quod puduit! hoc egit diem 1035
Adversum in ortus! quas miser voces dabo,
Questusque quos? quæ verba sufficient mihi?
Abscissa cerno capita, & avalsas manus,
Et rupta fractis cruribus vestigia.
Hoc est, quod avidus capere non potuit pater. 1040
Volvuntur intus viscera, & clausum nefas
Sine exitu luctatur, & quærit viam.
Da, frater, ensem, sanguinis multum mei
Habet ille. ferro liberis demus fugam.
gloom of empty Chaos? Why dost thou not turn the entire city Mycenæ upside down, tearing up every living abode, from its lowest foundations. We, die pair of us, ought to be domiciled in the very presence of Tantalus and our worthy grandsires, and if there be a place below the domains of Tartarus (where our grandfather is in his captivity), precipitate us hence into this valley of thine, with its immense gulf, the very points of contact at every part being rent asunder and in this place immure us, hidden away in the dungeons subjacent to the entire bed of the Acheron. Let the guilty shades (Manes) wander over our heads, and the fiery Phlegethon, driving the sands about in every direction with its burning headlong streams,
