Page:The Plays of Euripides Vol. 1- Edward P. Coleridge (1910).djvu/36

8. Promise me my gift when thou dost conquer the Achæans.

. I will give it thee; do thou ask anything except the captains of the fleet.

. Slay them; I do not ask thee to keep thy hand off Menelaus.

. Is it the son of Oileus thou wouldst ask me for?

. Ill hands to dig and delve are those mid luxury nursed.

. Whom then of the Achæans wilt thou have alive to hold to ransom?

. I told thee before, my house is stored with gold.

. Why then, thou shalt come and with thine own hands choose out some spoil.

. Nail up the spoils for the gods on their temple-walls.

. Prithee, what higher prize than these wilt ask me for?

. Achilles' coursers. Needs must the prize be worth the toil when one stakes one's life on Fortune's die.

. Ah! but thy wishes clash with mine anent those steeds; for of immortal stock, they and their sires before them, are those horses that bear the son of Peleus on his headlong course. Them did king Poseidon, ocean's god, break and give to Peleus, so runs the legend—yet, for I did urge thee on, I will not break my word; to thee will I give Achilles' team, to add a splendour to thy house.

. I thank thee; in receiving them I avow I am taking a fairer gift than any other Phrygian for my bravery. Yet thee it needs not to be envious; countless joys besides this will glad thy heart in thy kingship o'er this land.

. Great the enterprise, and great the boon thou designest to receive. Happy, ay, happy wilt thou be, if thou succeed; fair the fame thy toil shall win. Yet to wed with a prince's sister were a distinction high. On Heaven's decrees let Justice keep her eye! what man can give thou hast, it seems, in full.