Page:Tragedies of Euripides (Way 1896) v2.djvu/284

228 Yet, morn by morn, I never wont to cease

Conning what I would tell thee to thy face,

If ever from past terrors disenthralled

I stood. Now am I; and I pay the debt

Of taunts I fain had hurled at thee alive.

Thou wast my ruin, of a sire beloved

Didst orphan me and him, who wronged thee never;

Didst foully wed my mother, slew'st her lord,

Hellas' war-chief,—thou who ne'er sawest Troy!

Such was thy folly's depth that thou didst dream

Thou hadst wedded in my mother a true wife,

With whom thou didst defile my father's couch!

Let whoso draggeth down his neighbour's wife

To folly, and then must take her for his own,

Know himself dupe, who deemeth that to him

She shall be true, who to her lord was false.

Wretched thy life was, which thou thoughtest blest:—

Thou knewest thine a marriage impious,

And she, that she had ta'en for lord a villain.

Transgressors both, each other's lot ye took,—

She took thy fortune, thou didst take her curse.

And through all Argos this was still thy name—

"That woman's husband": none said "That man's wife."

Yet shame is this, when foremost in the home

Is wife, not husband. Out upon the sons

That not the man's, their father's, sons are called,

Nay, but the mother's, all the city through!

For, when the ignoble weddeth high-born bride,

None take account of him, but all of her.

This was thy strong delusion, blind of heart,

Through pride of wealth to boast thee some great one!

Nought wealth is, save for fleeting fellowship.