Page:Tragedies of Euripides (Way 1896) v2.djvu/61

Rh Shunning the throng: wherefore Thessalians call it,

By reason of her bridal, "Thetis' Close."

Here made Achilles' son his dwelling-place,

And leaveth Peleus still Pharsalia's king,

Loth, while the ancient lives, to take his sceptre.

And I have borne a manchild in these halls

Unto Achilles' son, my body's lord;

And, sunk albeit in misery heretofore,

Was aye lured on by hope, in my son's life

To find some help, some shield from all mine ills.

But since my lord hath wed Hermionê

The Spartan, thrusting my thrall's couch aside,

With cruel wrongs she persecuteth me,

Saying that I by secret charms make her

A barren stock, and hated of her lord,

Would in her stead be lady of this house,

Casting her out, the lawful wife, by force:—

Ah me! with little joy I won that place,

And now have yielded up: great Zeus be witness

That not of mine own will I shared this couch.

Yet will she not believe, but seeks to slay me;

And her sire Menelaus helpeth her.

He hath come from Sparta, now is he within

For this same end, and I in fear have fled

To Thetis' shrine anigh unto this house,

And crouch here, so to be redeemed from death.

For Peleus and his seed revere this place,

This witness to the bridal of Nereus' child.

But him, mine only son, by stealth I send

To another's home, in dread lest he be slain.

For now his father is not nigh to aid,

Nor helps his son, being gone unto the land

Of Delphi, to atone to Loxias