74 Ernest Heinrich Klotsche 



On Phoebus, who bade spill my mother's blood." 

 M. " Sore lack was his of justice and of right! " 

 O. " The God's thralls are we — whatsoe'er Gods be." 

 M. " And doth not Loxias shield thee in thine ills ? " 

 O. " He tarrieth long — such is the God's wont still." 



Or. 591-96: 



AiroXkwv OS /xetro^K^dXous eSpas 

 valo^v fipoTolcn arofxa vefiei. aacjieararov, 

 ^ Trei^onead^a xdi'i?' oc' av Keivos \eyrj, 

 TOVTW Tridbiievos Tr}v reKovaav eKravov. 

 eKeivov -qyeZad' avoaiov Kal KTeivere- 

 eKeivos fijj,apT\ ovk eyu. 



"... Apollo at earth's navel-throne 

 Gives most true revelation unto men, 

 Whom we obey in whatsoe'er he saith. 

 Obeying him, my mother did I slay. 

 Account ye him unholy : yea, slay him ! 

 He sinned, not I." 



After the poet has thoroughly censured the oracle-god for his 

 injustice the play concludes with the usual justification of Apollo's 

 wisdom. Apollo himself appears and gives his oracles as to how 

 affairs should be managed, vv. 1625-65. Orestes perfectly satis- 

 fied addresses Apollo : 



Or. 166^67: 



ov ypevdoixavTis fja-d' 'dp , dW eTr]Tvp.os. 



" Hail, Prophet Loxias, to thine oracles ! 

 No lying prophet wert thou then, but true." 



and Or. 1680-81 : 



Kaych TOLOvTos- cnrevSonai 8e (TVfxct>opals, 

 MeyeXae, Kal aois, Ao^ia, ■dta-KiaixaaLv. 



" I am as he to my fate reconciled. 

 To Menelaus, and thine oracles." 



The prophet Glaucus, from whom Menelaus learned the news 

 of his brother's fate, is called the " unerring God " : 



Or. 362 ff.: 



. . . NTjpews irpofpTiTrjs TXavKos a\J/evdr]s d^ebs, k. t. X. 



"... from the waves 

 The shipman's seer, the unerring God, the son 



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