Page:Tragedies of Euripides (Way 1894) v1.djvu/150

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Why shakest thou these doors and wouldst unbar,

Seeking thy dead and me who wrought the deed?

Cease this essay. If thou wouldst aught of me,

Say what thou wilt: thine hand shall touch me never.

Such chariot hath my father's sire, the Sun,

Given me, a defence from foeman's hand.

O thing abhorred! O woman hatefullest

To Gods, to me, to all the race of men,

Thou that couldst thrust the sword into the babes

Thou bar'st, and me hast made a childless ruin!

Thus hast thou wrought, yet look'st thou on the sun

And earth, who hast dared a deed most impious?

Now ruin seize thee!—clear I see, who saw not

Then, when from halls and land barbarian

To a Greek home I bare thee, utter bane,

Traitress to sire and land that nurtured thee!

Thy guilt's curse-bolt on me the Gods have launched;

For thine own brother by his hearth thou slewest

Ere thou didst enter fair-prowed Argo's hull.

With such deeds thou begannest. Wedded then

To this man, and the mother of my sons,

For wedlock-right's sake hast thou murdered them.

There is no Grecian woman that had dared

This:—yet I stooped to marry thee, good sooth,

Rather than these, a hateful bride and fell,

A tigress, not a woman, harbouring