Page:The tragedies of Euripides Vol I Buckley.pdf/38

 778811 LECOBA. 19 Hec. She, meeting with it on the sea shore. AGa. In quest of it, or occupied in some other employment? Hec. She was going to bring from the sea wherewith to bathe Polyxena. Ads. This friend then, as it seems, murdered him, and after that cast him out. HEQ. To toss upon the waves thus gasbing his body. AGA. O thou unhappy from thy unmeasured ills 1 Hec. I perish, no woe is left, О Agamemnon. AGA. Alas! alas! What woman was ever so unfortunate? Hec. There is none, except you reckon Misfortune herself. But for what cause I fall at thy knees, now hear: if I appear to you to suffer these illo justly, I would be reconciled to them; but if otherwise, be thou my avenger on this man, this most impious of false friends; who tovering neither the Gods beneath * the earth, nor the Gods above, hath done this most upboly deed, having often partaken of the same table with me, (and in the list of hospitality the first of my friends; and hav- ing met with whatever was due 1), and having received a full consideration for his services 14.] slew him, and deigned not to give him a tomb, which he might have given, although he pur- posed to slay him, but cast him forth at the mercy of the waves. We indeed are slaves, and perhaps weak; but the Gods are strong, and strong the law, which governs them; for by the law we judge that there are Gods, and we live having justice and injustice strictly defined; which if when referred to thee it be disregarded, and they shall suffer no punishment who slay their guests, or dare to pollute the hallowed statutes of the Gods, there is nothing equitable in the dealings of men. Bebolding these things then in a base and proper light, rever- ence me; pity me, and, as the artist stands aside to view a picture, do thou view my living portrait, and see what woes I am enduring. Once was I s queen, but now I am thy slave; once 789 I blest in my children, but now aged, and at the same time childless, cityless, destitute, the most miserable of mortals. 1 The Gods beneath he despised, by casting him out without a tomb; the Gods above, as the guardians of the rites of hospitality. la Whatever town due, either on the score of friendship, or as an equiva- lent for his care and protection. Musgrave proposes to read poucodlay for mpoundiay; the version above is in accordance with the scholiast and the paraphrast. C 2 16