Page:Sophocles (Storr 1912) v1.djvu/261

 Therefore again I charge thee as before,

See that the maidens are restored at once,

Unless thou would’st continue here by force

And not by choice a sojourner; so much

I tell thee home and what I say, I mean.

Thy case is perilous; though by birth and race

Thou should’st be just, thou plainly doest wrong.

Not deeming this a city void of men

Or counsel, son of Aegeus, as thou say’st,

I did what I have done; rather I thought

Your people were not like to set such store

By kin of mine and keep them ’gainst my will.

Nor would they harbour, so I stood assured,

A godless parricide, a reprobate

Convicted of incestuous marriage ties.

For on her native hill of Ares here

(I knew your far-famed Areopagus)

Sits Justice, and permits not vagrant folk

To stay within your borders. In that faith

I hunted down my quarry; and e’en then

I had refrained but for the curses dire

Wherewith he banned my kinsfolk and myself:

Such wrong, methought, had warrant for my act.

Anger has no old age but only death;

The dead alone can feel no touch of spite.

So thou must work thy will; my cause is just

But weak without allies; yet will I try,

Old as I am, to answer deeds with deeds. 239