Page:Ten Tragedies of Seneca (1902).djvu/106

86 Nos quoque tremamus. quære: jam nostra subit

E stirpe turba, quæ suum vincat genus,

Ac me innocentem faciat, & inausa audeat.

Regione quidquid impia cessat loci,

Complebo. nunquam stante Pelopeia domo

Minos vacabit. MEG. Perge, detestabilis

Umbra, & penateis impios furiis age.

Certetur omni scelere, & alterna vice

Stringantur enses. ne sit irarum modus,

Pudorve. mentes cæcus instiget furor.

Rabies parentum duret, & longum nesas

Eat in nepotes. nec vacet cuiquam vetus

Odisse crimen, semper oriatur novum,

Nec unum in uno: dumque punitur scelus,

Crescat. superbis fratribus regna excidant,

Repetantque profugos: dubia violentæ domus

Fortuna reges inter iucertos labet.

Miser ex potente fiat, ex misero potens;

Fluctuque regnum casus assiduo ferat.

Ob scelera pulsi, dum dabit patriam Deus,

In scelera redeant; sintque tam invisi omnibus,

Quam sibi. nihil sit, ira quod vetitum putet.

Fratrem expavescat frater, & natum parens,

Natusque patrem: liberi pereant male;

Pejus tamen nascantur: immineat viro

Infesta conjux. bella trans pontum vehant:

Æffusus omnes irriget terras cruor;

Supraque magnos gentium exsultet duces

Libido victrix. impia stuprum in domo

Levissimum sit. fratris & fas, & fides,

  more horrible than dying with burning thirst? and with water, too, around me, and within my reach, or worse even than insatiable hunger with nothing to appease its pangs. I wonder whether the slippery stone of Sisyphus is intended to be worn on my shoulders, or the wheel of Ixion to whirl my limbs round and round with its rapid motion; or does the punishment of Tityus await me, whose lot it was, to provide food, as he lay exposed m a huge cave, for the horrible birds of prey, which pecked away at his entrails, and only to make up at night what he lost in the day, and he lies there, only waiting to afford a full repast for some fresh arrival, some bird of prey! To what fresh torment am I to be handed over? Oh! Whatever relentless judge thou art, who dispensest the laws of the Manes; why layest thou aside the old punishments already undergone to impose fresh ones? And if thou canst, add to my punishment what 