I pray the gods some respite from the weary task of this long year's watch that lying on the Atreidae's roof on bended arm, dog- like, I have kept, marking the conclave of all night's stars, those potentates blazing in the heavens that bring winter and summer to mortal men, the constellations, when they wane, when they rise.
AeschylusATHENA: There are two sides to this dispute. I've heard only one half the argument. (...) So you two parties, summon your witnesses, set out your proofs, with sworn evidence to back your stories. Once I've picked the finest men in Athens, I'll return. They'll rule fairly in this case, bound by a sworn oath to act with justice.
AeschylusOn me the tempest falls. It does not make me tremble. O holy Mother Earth, O air and sun, behold me. I am wronged.
AeschylusIf you pour oil and vinegar into the same vessel, you would call them not friends but opponents.
AeschylusThose who would learn must suffer. In our own despair, against our will, wisdom comes to us.
AeschylusJustice, voiceless, unseen, seeth thee when thou sleepest and when thou goest forth and when thou liest down. Continually doth she attend thee, now aslant thy course, now at a later time. These lines are from a section of doubtful or spurious fragments.
Aeschylus"Reverence for parents" stands written among the three laws of most revered righteousness.
AeschylusBut I will place this carefully fed pig Within the crackling oven; and, I pray, What nicer dish can e'er be given to man.
AeschylusI warn the marauder dragging plunder, chaotic, rich beyond all rights: he'll strike his sails, harried at long last, stunned when the squalls of torment break his spars to bits.
AeschylusO Death the Healer, scorn thou not, I pray, To come to me: of cureless ills thou art The one physician. Pain lays not its touch Upon a corpse.
AeschylusTo mourn and bewail your ill-fortune, when you will gain a tear from those who listen, this is worth the trouble.
AeschylusThe great and amorous sky curved over the earth, and lay upon her as a pure lover. The rain, the humid flux descending from heaven for both man and animal, for both thick and strong, germinated the wheat, swelled the furrows with fecund mud and brought forth the buds in the orchards. And it is I who empowered these moist espousals, I the great Aphrodite.
Aeschylus