Page:Sophocles (Storr 1912) v1.djvu/281



But he hath found asylum. O beware,

And fail not in due reverence to the god.

O heed me, father, though I am young in years.

Let the prince have his will and pay withal

What in his eyes is service to the god;

For our sake also let our brother come.

If what he urges tend not to thy good

He cannot surely wrest perforce thy will.

To hear him then, what harm? By open words

A scheme of villainy is soon bewrayed.

Thou art his father, therefore canst not pay

In kind a son’s most impious outrages.

O listen to him; other men like thee

Have thankless children and are choleric,

But yielding to persuasion’s gentle spell

They let their savage mood be exorcised.

Look thou to the past, forget the present, think

On all the woe thy sire and mother brought thee;

Thence wilt thou draw this lesson without fail,

Of evil passion evil is the end.

Thou hast, alas, to prick thy memory,

Stern monitors, these ever-sightless orbs.

O yield to us; just suitors should not need

To be importunate, nor he that takes

A favour lack the grace to make return. 259