Page:Tragedies of Euripides (Way 1898) v3.djvu/125



Orestes asleep on his bed, Electra watching beside it.

there is so terrible to tell,

Nor fleshly pang, nor visitation of God,

But poor humanity may have to bear it.

For the once blest,—I taunt his misery not,—

Begotten of Zeus, as men say, Tantalus,

Dreading the crag which topples o'er his head,

Now hangs mid air; and pays this penalty,

As the tale telleth, for that he, a man,

Honoured to sit god-like at meat with Gods,

In shameful madness kept unreined his tongue.

He begat Pelops; born to him was Atreus

For whom with her doom-threads Fate twined a strand

Of strife against Thyestes, yea, his brother;—

Why must I tell o'er things unspeakable?

Atreus for their sire's feasting slew his sons.

Of Atreus—what befell between I tell not—

Famed Agamemnon sprang,—if this be fame,—

And Menelaus, of Cretan Aeropê.

And Menelaus wedded Helen, loathed

Of heaven, the while King Agamemnon won