Page:Sophocles (Storr 1912) v1.djvu/265

 Come, answer me one question, if thou canst:

If one should presently attempt thy life,

Would’st thou, O man of justice, first enquire

If the assassin was perchance thy sire,

Or turn upon him? As thou lov’st thy life,

On thy aggressor thou would’st turn, nor stay

Debating, if the law would bear thee out.

Such was my case, and such the pass whereto

The gods reduced me; and methinks my sire,

Could he come back to life, would not dissent.

Yet thou, for just thou art not, but a man

Who sticks at nothing, if it serve his plea,

Reproachest me with this before these men.

It serves thy turn to laud great Theseus’ name,

And Athens as a wisely governed State;

Yet in thy flatteries one thing is to seek:

If any land knows how to pay the gods

Their proper rites, ’tis Athens most of all.

This is the land whence thou wast fain to steal

Their aged suppliant and hast carried off

My daughters. Therefore to yon goddesses,

I turn, adjure them and invoke their aid

To champion my cause, that thou mayst learn

What is the breed of men who guard this State.

An honest man, my liege, one sore bestead

By fortune, and so worthy our support.

Enough of words; the captors speed amain,

While we the victims stand debating here.

What would’st thou? What can I, a feeble man? 243