Page:Masterpieces of Greek Literature (1902).djvu/240

210 210 EURIPIDES

Entreats her not to give him up, and seeks

The impossible, in fine : for there she wastes

And withers by disease, abandoned now,

A mere dead weight upon her husband's arm. -no

Yet, none the less, although she breathe so faint.

Her will is to behold the beams o' the sun :

Since never more again, but this last once,

Shall she see sun, its circlet or its ray.

But I will go, announce your presence, — friends 275

Indeed ; since 't is not all so love their lords

As seek them in misfortune, kind the same :

But you are the old friends I recognize."

And at the loord she turned again to go The lohile they vjaited, tahing up the plaint 280

To Zeus again : " What passage from this strait ? What loosing of the heavy fortune fast About the palace ? Will such help appear, Or must we clip the locks and cast around Each form already the black peplos' fold? 285

Clearly the black robe, clearly ! All the same, Pray to the Gods ! — like Gods' no power so great ! Ο thou king Paian, find some way to save 1 Reveal it, yea, reveal it ! Since of old Thou found'st a cure, why, now again become 2θο

Releaser from the bonds of Death, we beg, And give the sanguinary Hades pause ! " So the song dwindled into a mere moan. How dear the wife^ and what her husband's woe ; When suddenly -^

" Behold, behold ! " breaks forth : " Here is she coming from the house indeed ! 296

Her husband comes, too ! Cry aloud, lament, Pheraian land, this best of women, bound — So is she withered by disease away —