Page:Tragedies of Euripides (Way 1898) v3.djvu/140

112 For if thou fail me, or of tireless watch

Fall sick, I am lost, in thee alone have I

Mine help, of others, as thou seest, forlorn.

Never! With thee will I make choice of death

Or life: it is all one; for, if thou die,

What shall a woman do? how 'scape alone,

Without friend, father, brother? Yet, if thou

Wilt have it so, I must. But lay thee down,

And heed not terrors overmuch, that scare

Thee from thy couch, but on thy bed abide.

For though thou be not, save in fancy, sick,

This is affliction, this despair, to men.

(Str.) Terrible Ones of the on-rushing feet,

Of the pinions far-sailing,

Through whose dance-revel, held where no Bacchanals meet,

Ringeth weeping and wailing,

Swart-hued Eumenides, wide 'neath the dome

Of the firmament soaring,

Avenging, avenging blood-guilt,—lo, I come,

Imploring, imploring!—

To the son of Atreides vouchsafe to forget

His frenzy of raving.

Ah for the task to the woe-stricken set!

Ah ruinous craving

To accomplish the hest of the Tripod, the word

That of Phœbus was uttered

At the navel of earth as thou stoodest, when stirred

The dim crypt as it muttered!