Page:The Plays of Euripides Vol. 1- Edward P. Coleridge (1910).djvu/338

310. Is not this monstrous? here am I laid claim to on a specious pretext.

. Nay, nay, but as a friend art thou by friends now found.

. I a friend of thine! and wouldst thou, then, have slain me privily?

. Thou art my child, if that is what a parent holds most dear.

. An end to thy web of falsehood! Right well will I convict thee.

. My child, that is my aim; God grant I reach it!

. Is this ark empty, or hath it aught within?

. Thy raiment wherein I exposed thee long ago.

. Wilt put a name thereto before thou see it?

. Unless I describe it, I offer to die.

. Say on; there is something strange in this thy confidence.

. Behold the robe my childish fingers wove.

. Describe it; maidens weave many a pattern.

. 'Tis not perfect, but a first lesson, as it were, in weaving.

. Describe its form; thou shalt not catch me thus.

. A Gorgon figures in the centre of the warp.

. Great Zeus! what fate is this that dogs my steps?

. 'Tis fringed with snakes like an ægis.

. Lo! 'tis the very robe; how true we find the voice of God!

. Ah! woven work that erst my virgin shuttle wrought.

. Is there aught beside, or stays thy lucky guessing here?