Page:Electra of Euripides (Murray 1913).djvu/83

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Remember, mother, thy last word of grace,

Bidding me speak, and fear not, to thy face.

So said I truly, child, and so say still.

Wilt softly hear, and after work me ill?

Not so, not so. I will but pleasure thee.

I answer then. And, mother, this shall be

My prayer of opening, where hangs the whole:

Would God that He had made thee clean of soul!

Helen and thou—O, face and form were fair,

Meet for men's praise; but sisters twain ye were,

Both things of naught, a stain on Castor's star.

And Helen slew her honour, borne afar

In wilful ravishment: but thou didst slay

The highest man of the world. And now wilt say

'Twas wrought in justice for thy child laid low

At Aulis? Ah, who knows thee as I know?

Thou, thou, who long ere aught of ill was done

Thy child, when Agamemnon scarce was gone,

Sate at the looking-glass, and tress by tress

Didst comb the twinèd gold in loneliness.

When any wife, her lord being far away,

Toils to be fair, O blot her out that day