Page:Tragedies of Euripides (Way 1898) v3.djvu/152

124 For, rightfully accounting her as vile,

Viler himself is made by matricide.

But this, Menelaus, will I ask of thee:—

If of his wedded wife this man were slain,

And his son in revenge his mother slay,

And his son blood with blood requite thereafter,

Where shall the limit of the horror lie?

Well did our ancient fathers thus ordain:

Whoso was stained with blood, they suffered not

To come before their eyes, to cross their path—

"By exile justify, not blood for blood."

Else one had aye been liable to death

Still taking the last blood-guilt on his hands.

For me, sooth, wicked women I abhor,

My daughter most of all, who slew her lord.

Helen thy wife shall have no praise of mine:

I will not speak to her; nor envy thee

Thy journeying unto Troy for such vile wife.

But, all I can, will I stand up for Law,

To quell this brute in man, this murder-thirst,

Which evermore destroyeth lands and towns.

What heart hadst thou, O miscreant, in that hour

When suppliant unto thee thy mother bared

Her breast? I, who saw not the horrors there,

Yet drown, ah me! mine agèd eyes with tears.

One thing, in any wise, attests my words—

Thou art loathed of Gods, punished for matricide

By terrors and mad ravings. Where is need

For other witness of things plain to see?

Be warned then, Menelaus: strive not thou

Against the Gods, being fain to help this man.