EURIPIDES
In the Tribunal Zeus had sanctified Mr
To Ares when she answered ancient charges.
When I arrived there, none of all my friends
Received me. They avoided me at first
As one unclean. Later they pitied me
And gave rne food in the same room with them
But at a separate table where they let 550
My meals be served when theirs were, sent me a cup
WThen their love-bowl was passed, but then would turn
Away and would not look at me nor speak
To me—because I was a murderer. . . .
I tried to act as though I did not care, 955
But sad and lonely when I thought of her
Whom I had killed, I drank a bitter cup.
I am told Athenians commemorate
My trial with a Service of the Pitcher,
Everyone drinking his own cup in silence. . . . 960
While I was facing judgment on that hill,
I on one flagging and across from me
The eldest of the Avengers charging me
With murder, Phoebus rose to my defense.
It was His eloquence that saved my life, 965
Persuading Pallas, in the chair, with votes
Cast evenly for and against me, that she add
Her own vote for me—which acquitted me.
Some of the Fiends, persuaded, went to found
A cellar temple under the Tribunal.
Others denounced the verdict as unfair 970
And flew at me in such a vicious frenzy
That I ran back for help again from Phoebus,
Faint with despair fell down upon my knees
And swore to starve myself to death unless
The God who had ruined me would rescue me. 975
Out pealed His voice over the golden tripod,
Bidding me find among the Taurians
Their Artemis of wood carven in Heaven
But fallen on their coast and, stealing it,
Establish it for Grecian worshippers
414