Page:Sophocles - Seven Plays, 1900.djvu/245

1186–1221]

. Tell me the oath, and I will utter it.

. Swear thou wilt do the thing I bid thee do.

. I swear, and make Zeus witness of my troth.

. But if you swerve, pray that the curse may come.

. It will not come for swerving:—but I pray.

. Now, dost thou know on Oeta’s topmost height

The crag of Zeus?

. I know it, and full oft

Have stood there sacrificing.

. Then even there,

With thine own hand uplifting this my body,

Taking what friends thou wilt, and having lopped

Much wood from the deep-rooted oak and rough

Wild olive, lay me on the gathered pile,

And burn all with the touch of pine-wood flame.

Let not a tear of mourning dim thine eye;

But silent, with dry gaze, if thou art mine,

Perform it. Else my curse awaits thee still

To weigh thee down when I am lost in night.

. How cruel, O my father, is thy tongue!

. ’Tis peremptory. Else, if thou refuse,

Be called another’s and be no more mine.

. Alas that thou shouldst challenge me to this,

To be thy murderer, guilty of thy blood!

. Not I, in sooth: but healer of my pain,

And sole preserver from a life of woe.

. How can it heal to burn thee on the pyre?

. If this act frighten thee, perform the rest.

. Mine arms shall not refuse to carry thee.

. And wilt thou gather the appointed wood?

. So my hand fire it not. In all but this,

Not scanting labour, I will do my part.

. Enough. ’Tis well. And having thus much given

Add one small kindness to a list so full.

. How great soe’er it were, it should be done.

. The maid of Eurytus thou knowest, I ween.

. Of Iolè thou speak’st, or I mistake.

. Of her. This then is all I urge, my son.