Orestes - The Eumenides (Lines 615-651) lyrics

ORESTES: (ORESTES turns to APOLLO.) Bear me witness - show me the way, Apollo! 615 Did I strike her down with justice? Strike I did, I don't deny it, no. But how does our bloody work impress you now? - Just or not? Decide. I must make my case to them. (Looking to the judges.) APOLLO: Just, 620 I say, to you and your high court, Athena. Seer that I am, I never lie. Not once from the Prophet's thrones have I declared a word that bears on man, woman or city that Zeus did not command, the Olympian Father. 625 This is his justice - omnipotent, I warn you. Bend to the will of Zeus. No oath can match the power of the Father. LEADER: Zeus, you say, gave that command to your oracle? He charged Orestes here to avenge his father's d**h 630 and spurn his mother's rights? APOLLO: - Not the same for a noble man to die, covered with praise, his sceptre the gift of god - murdered, at that, by a woman's hand, no arrows whipping in from a distance as an Amazon would fight. 635 But as you will hear, Athena, and your people poised to cast their lots and judge the case. Home from the long campaign he came, more won than lost on balance, home to her loyal, waiting arms, the welcome bath... he was just emerging at the edge, 640 and there she pitched her tent, her circling shroud - she shackled her man in robes, in her gorgeous never - ending web she chopped him down! Such was the outrage of his d**h, I tell you, the lord of the squadrons, that magnificent man. 645 Her I draw to the life to lash your people, marshalled to reach a verdict. LEADER: Zeus, you say, sets more store by a father's d**h? He shackled his own father, Kronos proud with age. Doesn't that contradict you? 650 (To the judges.) Mark it well. I call you all to witness.