EURIPIDES
Orestes
And might that stone be stained with blood of Greeks?
Pylades
If ever I saw blood—look, on the edgel
Orestes
Look, near the roof! Belongings of the dead!
Pylades
Trophies of foreigners these men have murdered! 7;
Orestes
Careful!
O Phoebus, why must Thy oracle
Bring this on me again, the sight of blood
Again? Have I not seen enough of blood?
My mother shed my father's blood, I hers.
And then the Furies, with their eyes bloody,
Hunted me, hounded me across the land 80
Until at last I ran to Thee and begged
An end of all the cycles of despair
That sped me, hurled me, maddened me through Hellas.
The answer was, "Go to the Taurian country 85
Where Artemis, my sister, has a shrine.
Find there Her statue which had fallen down
From Heaven. Then prove yourself a man able
Enough or fortunate enough to steal it,
Stalwart enough to face all risk and bring it
Home to the holy land of Attica." 90
Although no more was said, I understood
That this would mean the end of my afflictions.
And here I am, O Phoebus, far from home
On a misbegotten shore—doing Thy will.
But Pylades, my fellow venturer, 95
Where can we turn? What man could possibly
Scale these high walls? Or climb the open stairs
And not be seen? Or force the brazen locks
376