May hurl them, or on stakes impale alive. 1430
You women, who were privy to this plot,
Hereafter, when my leisure serveth me,
Will I yet punish. Having now in hand
The instant need, I will not idly wait.
Athena appears in mid-air above the stage.
Athena.
Whither, now whither, speed'st thou this pursuit, 1435
King Thoas? Hear my words—Athena's words.
Cease from this chase, from pouring forth thine host;
For, foreordained by Loxias' oracles,
Orestes came, to escape the Erinnyes' wrath,
And lead his sister unto Argos home, 1440
And bear the sacred image to my land,
So to win respite from his present woes.
This is my word to thee: Orestes, whom
Thou think'st to take in mid-sea surge, and slay—
Even now for my sake doth Poseidon lull
To calm the breakers, speeding on his bark. 1445
And thou, Orestes, to mine hests give heed—
For, though afar, thou hear'st the voice divine:—
Taking the image and thy sister, go;
And when thou com'st to Athens' god-built towers,
A place there is upon the utmost bounds 1450
Of Attica, hard by Karystus' ridge,
A holy place, named Halae of my folk.
Build there a shrine, and set that image up,
Named from the Taurian land and from thy toils,
The travail of thy wandering through Greece, 1455
Erinnys-goaded. Men through days to come
Shall chant her—Artemis the Taurian Queen.
