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Look! Look again! Look everywhere, so that the matricide will not escape by secret flight, with his debt unpaid! [255]

Yes, here he is again with a defense; his arms twisted around the image of the immortal goddess, he wishes to be tried for his debt.1 [260]

But that is not possible; a mother's blood upon the earth is hard to recover—alas, the liquid poured on the ground is gone.

But you must allow me in return to suck the red blood from your living limbs. [265] May I feed on you—a gruesome drink!

I will wither you alive and drag you down, so that you pay atonement for your murdered mother's agony.

And you will see any other mortal who has sinned by not honoring a god or a stranger [270] or dear parents, each having a just punishment.

For Hades is mighty in holding mortals to account under the earth, and he observes all things and within his mind inscribes them. [275]

1 The reading χερῶν seems to mean “deed of violence.”

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