THE BOOK WAS DRENCHED - OUDL Home

204 Aeschylus [1117-1145]
Of Atreus' home no blood can satiate,
Raise the wild cry above the sacrifice abhorred!
CHORUS {chanting)
Why biddest thou some fiend, I know not whom,
Shriek o'er the house? Thine is no cheering word.
Back to my heart in frozen fear I feel
My wanning life-blood run—
The blood that round the wounding steel
Ebbs slow, as sinks life's parting sun—
Swift, swift and sure, some woe comes pressing on!
CASSANDRA {chanting)
Away, away—keep him away—
The monarch of the herd, the pasture's pride,
Far from his mate! In treach'rous wrath,
Muffling his swarthy horns, with secret scathe
She gores his fenceless side!
Hark! in the brimming bath,
The heavy plash—the dying cry—
Hark—in the laver—hark, he falls by treachery!
CHORUS {chanting)
I read amiss dark sayings such as thine,
Yet something warns me that they tell of ill.
O dark prophetic speech,
III tidings dost thou teach
Ever, to mortals here below!
Ever some tale of awe and woe
Thro' all thy windings manifold
Do we unriddle and unfold!
CASSANDRA {chanting)
Ah well-a-day! the cup of agony,
Whereof I chant, foams with a draught for me.
Ah lord, ah leader, thou hast led me here—
Was't but to die with thee whose doom is near?
CHORUS (chanting)
Distraught thou art, divinely stirred,
And wailest for thyself a tuneless lay,
As piteous as the ceaseless tale
Wherewith the brown melodious bird
Doth ever Itysl Itys! wail,
Deep-bowered in sorrow, all its little life-time's day!