th.--_Cho._ What, Zeus take a
matricide's part?--_Apollo_ details the base manner of Agamemnon's
murder.--_Cho._ taunt Apollo that Zeus himself rose by imprisoning his
father.--_Apollo_ rejoins that imprisonment is remediable, but blood
once spilt can never be brought back.--_Cho._ appeal to impossibility
of restoring such a criminal to the house he has polluted.--Then
_Apollo_ puts forth the essence of his case (in a subtle plea which
would delight the litigious Athenians): the mother is only the nurse,
the father is the true parent; as proof here is Pallas sprung from a
Father without any Mother; none can be shown born without Father. {650}

Both parties join issue, and then (_amidst intense political
excitement_) _Athene_ delivers the Inauguration Address of the Court of
the Areopagus.

_Athene_. Hear ye my order, O ye Attic people,
In act to judge your first great murder-cause.
And henceforth shall the host of Aegeus' race
For ever own this council-hall of judges:
And for this Ares' hill, the Amazons' seat
And camp when they, enraged with Theseus, came
In hostile march, and built as counterwork
This citadel high-reared, a city new,
And sacrificed to Ares, whence 'tis named
As Ares' hill and fortress: in this, I say,
The reverent awe its citizens shall own,
And fear, awe's kindred, shall restrain from wrong
By day, nor less by night, so long as they,
The burghers, alter not themselves their laws:
But if with drain of filth and tainted soil
Clear river thou pollute, no drink thou'lt find.
I give my counsel to you, citizens,
To reverence and guard well that form of State
Which is nor lawless, nor tyrannical,
And not to cast all fear from out the city;
For what man lives devoid of fear and just?
But rightly shrinking, owning awe like this,
Ye then would have a bulwark of your land,
A safeguard for your city, such as none
Boast or in Skythia's or in Pelops' clime.
This council I establish pure from bribe,
Reverend, and keen to act, for those that sleep
An ever-watchful sentry of the land. {676}

After a rapid stichomuthic interchange of promises and threats by the