Page:Sophocles - Seven Plays, 1900.djvu/90

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Glanced from my purpose, ne’er again had they

Perverted judgement. But the invincible

Stern daughter of the Highest, with baneful eye,

Even as mine arm descended, baffled me,

And hurled upon my soul a frenzied plague,

To stain my hand with these dumb victims’ blood.

And those mine enemies exult in safety,—

Not with my will; but where a God misguides,

Strong arms are thwarted and the weakling lives.

Now, what remains? Heaven hates me, ’tis too clear:

The Grecian host abhor me: Troy, with all

This country round our camp, is my sworn foe.

Shall I, across the Aegean sailing home,

Leave these Atridae and their fleet forlorn?

How shall I dare to front my father’s eye?

How will he once endure to look on me,

Denuded of the prize of high renown,

Whose coronal stood sparkling on his brow?

No! ’twere too dreadful. Then shall I advance

Before the Trojan battlements, and there

In single conflict doing valiantly

Last die upon their spears? Nay, for by this

I might perchance make Atreus’ offspring glad.

That may not be imagined. I must find

Some act to let my grey-haired father feel

No heartless recreant once called him sire.

Shame on the wight who when beset with ill

Cares to live on in misery unrelieved.

Can hour outlasting hour make less or more

Of death? Whereby then can it furnish joy?

That mortal weighs for nothing-worth with me,

Whom Hope can comfort with her fruitless fire.

Honour in life or honour in the grave

Befits the noble heart. You hear my will.

. From thine own spirit, Aias, all may tell,

That utterance came, and none have prompted thee.

Yet stay thy hurrying thought, and by thy friends

Be ruled to loose this burden from thy mind.

. O my great master! heaviest of all woe

Is theirs whose life is crushed beyond recall.