Page:Four Plays of Aeschylus (1908) Morshead.djvu/52

22

Danaus; his brother fifty sons begat.

Grudge not, in telling, his name too to tell.

Aegyptus: thou my lineage old hast heard—

Strive then to aid a kindred Argive band.

Yea of a truth, in backward scope of time,

Of Argive race ye seem: but say what chance

Fell on you, goading you from home and land?

Lord of Pelasgian men, calamity

Is manifold and diverse; as of birds

Feather from feather differs, so of men

The woes are sundry. Who had dared foretell

That this our sudden flight, this hate and fear

Of loathly wedlock, would on Argos' shore

Set forth a race of kindred lineage?

What crave ye of these gods of festival,

Holding up newly-plucked white-tufted boughs?

Ne'er to be slaves unto Aegyptus' race.