Page:Tragedies of Euripides (Way 1894) v1.djvu/277

Rh (Epode) Upon Helen the sister of Zeus' sons hurling back,

And on Paris, fell shepherd of Ida, curses black,

Who from mine home

By their bridal had reft me—'twas bridal none, but wrack

Devil-wrought:—to her fatherland home o'er yon sea-track

Ne'er may she come!

Priam of men most dear!—and dearest thou,

Hecuba, I weep beholding thee,

Thy city, and thine offspring slain so late.

Nought is there man may trust, nor high repute,

Nor hope that weal shall not be turned to woe:

But the Gods all confound, hurled forth and back,

Turmoiling them, that we through ignorance

May worship them:—what skills it to make moan

For this, outrunning evils none the more?

But if mine absence thou dost chide, forbear;

For in the mid-Thrace tracts afar was I

When thou cam'st hither: soon as I returned,

At point was I to hasten forth mine home;

When lo, for this same end thine handmaid came

Telling a tale whose tidings winged mine haste.

I shame to look thee in the face, who lie,

O Polymestor, in such depth of ills.