Page:Tragedies of Euripides (Way 1894) v1.djvu/251

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My daughter, nobly said: yet anguish cleaves

Unto that "nobly." But if Peleus' son

Must gain this grace, and ye must flee reproach,

Odysseus, slay not her in any wise;

But me, lead me unto Achilles' pyre:

Stab me, spare not: 'twas I gave Paris birth

Who with his shafts smote Peleus' son and slew.

Not thee, grey mother, did Achilles' ghost

Require the Achaian men to slay, but her.

Yet ye—at least me with my daughter slay:

Then twice so deep a draught of blood shall sink

To earth and to the dead who claimeth this.

Thy daughter's death sufficeth: death on death

Must not be heaped. Would God we owed not this!

I must—I must die where my daughter dies!

Must?—I knew not that I had found a master!

As ivy clings to oak will I clasp her.

Not if thou heed a wiser than thyself.