Page:Masterpieces of Greek Literature (1902).djvu/154

124 124 AESCHYLUS

And on the mound washed up by it : lo, there 990

Shall Zeus give back to thee thy perfect mind, And onh" by the pressure and the touch Of a hand not terrible ; and thou to Zeus Shall bear a dusky son who shall be called Thence Epaphus, Touched. That son shall pluck the fruit 995

Of all that land wide-watered by the flow Of Nile ; but after him, when counting out As far as the fifth full generation, then Full fifty maidens,^ a fair woman -race. Shall back to Argos turn reluctantly, 1000

To fly the proffered nuptials of their kin, Their father's brothers. These being passion-struck, Like falcons bearing hard on flying doves. Shall follow hunting at a quarry of love They should not hunt ; till envious Heaven main- tain 1005 A curse betwixt that beauty and their desire,^ And Greece receive them, to be overcome In murtherous woman-war by fierce red hands Kept savage by the night. For every wife Shall slay a husband, dyeing deep in blood ιωο The sword of a double edge — (I wish indeed As fair a marriage- joy to all my foes ! ) One bride alone shall fail to smite to death The head upon her pillow, touched with love, Made impotent of purpose, and impelled 1015 To choose the lesser evil, — shame on her cheeks,^ Than blood-guilt on her hands ; which bride shall bear

1 The Danaids.

^ A better reading of the text makes Greece receive the maidens, •while their cousins are slain.

^ Literally, " to be called coward rather than murderess."