Page:The Plays of Euripides Vol. 1- Edward P. Coleridge (1910).djvu/351

Rh bear a name dishonoured, at least my body here may not incur disgrace.

. Who is lord and master of this fenced palace? The house is one I may compare to the halls of Plutus, with its royal bulwarks and towering buildings. Ha! great gods! what sight is here? I see the counterfeit of that fell murderous dame, who ruined me and all the Achæans. May Heaven show its loathing for thee, so much dost thou resemble Helen! Were I not standing on a foreign soil, with this well-aimed shaft had I worked thy death, thy reward for resembling the daughter of Zeus.

. Oh! why, poor man, whoe'er thou art, dost thou turn from me, loathing me for those troubles Helen caused?

. I was wrong; I yielded to my anger more than I ought; my reason was, the hate all Hellas bears to that daughter of Zeus. Pardon me, lady, for the words I uttered.

. Who art thou? whence comest thou to visit this land?

. One of those hapless Achæans am I, lady.

. No wonder then that thou dost hate Helen. But say, who art thou? Whence comest? By what name am I to call thee?

. My name is Teucer; my sire was Telamon, and Salamis is the land that nurtured me.

. Then why art thou visiting these meadows by the Nile?

. A wanderer I, an exile from my native land.

. Thine must be a piteous lot; who from thy country drives thee out?

. My father Telamon. Couldst find a nearer and a dearer?