Page:Tragedies of Euripides (Way 1896) v2.djvu/89

Rh Speakest, my marriage-kinsman, thine own shame,

Rail'st on me for a foreign woman's sake,

Whom thou shouldst chase beyond the streams of Nile,

And beyond Phasis, yea, and cheer me on,—

This dame of Asia's mainland, wherein fell

Unnumbered sons of Hellas slain with spears,—

This woman who had part in thy son's blood;

For Paris, he that slew thy son Achilles,

Was Hector's brother, and she Hector's wife.

And wouldst thou pass beneath one roof with her,

And stoop to break bread with her at thy board,

In thine house let her bear our bitterest foes,

Whom I, of forethought for thyself and me,

Would slay?—and lo, from mine hands is she torn!

Come, reason we together—no shame this:—

If my child bear no sons, this woman's brood

Grow up, wilt thou establish these as lords

Of Phthia-land?—shall they, barbarians born,

Rule Greeks? And I, forsooth, am all unwise,

Who hate the wrong, but wisdom dwells with thee!

Consider this, too—hadst thou given thy daughter

To a citizen, and she were thus misused,

Hadst thou sat still? I trow not. Yet thou railest

Thus for an alien's sake on friends, on kin!

"Yet husband's cause"—say'st thou—"and wife's alike

Are strong, if she be wronged of him, or he

Find her committing folly in his halls."

Yea, but in his hands is o'ermastering strength,