Page:The Plays of Euripides Vol. 1- Edward P. Coleridge (1910).djvu/311

Rh. Among the frantic votaries of Bacchus.

. Wert thou sober, or in thy cups?

. I had indulged in the pleasures of the wine-cup.

. That is just the history of my birth.

. Fate hath discovered thee, my son.

. How came I to the temple?

. Maybe the maid exposed thee.

. I have escaped the shame of slavish birth.

. Acknowledge then thy father, my son.

. It is not right that I should mistrust the god.

. Thou art right there.

. What more can I desire

. Thine eyes now open to the sights they should.

. Than from a son of Zeus to spring?

. Which is indeed thy lot.

. May I embrace the author of my being?

. Aye, put thy trust in the god.

. Hail to thee, father mine.

. With joy that title I accept.

. This day

. Hath made me blest.

. Ah, mother dear! shall I ever see thee too? Now more than ever do I long to gaze upon thee, whoe'er thou art. But thou perhaps art dead, and I shall never have the chance.

. We share the good luck of thy house; but still I could have wished my mistress too, and Erechtheus' line? had been blest with children.

. My son, albeit the god hath for thy discovery brought his oracle to a true issue, and united thee to me, while thou, too, hast found what most thou dost desire, till now unconscious of it; still, as touching this anxiety so proper in thee, I feel an equal yearning that thou, my child, mayst find thy mother, and I the wife that bare thee unto me. Maybe we shall discover this, if we leave it to time. But now