Page:Sophocles (Storr 1912) v1.djvu/327

 Enter.

Dry your tears; when grace is shed

On the quick and on the dead

By dark Powers beneficent,

Over-grief they would resent.

Aegeus’ child, to thee we pray.

What the boon, my children, say.

With our own eyes we fain would see

Our father’s tomb.

That may not be.

What say’st thou. King?

My children, he

Charged me straitly that no mortal

Should approach the sacred portal,

Or greet with funeral litanies

The hidden tomb wherein he lies;

Saying, “If thou keep’st my hest

Thou shalt hold thy realm at rest.”

The God of Oaths this promise heard,

And to Zeus I pledged my word.

Well, if he would have it so,

We must yield. Then let us go

Back to Thebes, if yet we may

Heal this mortal feud and stay

The self-wrought doom

That drives our brothers to their tomb. 305