Page:The Dramas of Aeschylus (Swanwick).djvu/456

386 Have I not known two potentates cast down?

Ay, and a third, now reigning, I shall see

In basest and most sudden overthrow.

Seem I to thee before these upstart gods

To quail or cringe? Far from it, nay, no whit.

But get thee back with speed the way thou camest,

For of thy quest thou'lt nothing learn from me.

E'en by such haughty wilfulness before

Didst thou to these dirge moorings waft thyself.

This my ill-fortune, be thou well assured,

I would not barter with thy servitude.

This rock to lackey better 'tis in sooth

Than trusty scout be born to father Zeus.

Thus, as is fitting, scorn replies to scorn.

Thou seem'st to revel in thy present state.

Revel? Oh might I in such revel see

My foes! And thee among them do I count.

Me too thou holdest guilty of thy ills?

Shortly to speak, all gods I hate, whoe'er,

By me bestead, maltreat me wrongfully.