Page:Tragedies of Euripides (Way 1898) v3.djvu/173

Rh Pylades with thy brother moving on;

This, sickness-palsied, with down-drooping head;

That, as a brother, in his friend's affliction

Afflicted, tending like a nurse the sick.

When now the Argive gathering was full,

A herald rose and cried: "Who fain would speak

Whether Orestes ought to live or die

For matricide?" Talthybius thereupon

Rose, helper of thy sire when Troy was sacked.

He spake—subservient ever to the strong—

Half-heartedly, extolling high thy sire,

But praising not thy brother; intertwined

Fair words and foul—that he laid down a law

Right ill for parents: so was glancing still

With flattering eye upon Aegisthus' friends.

Such is the herald tribe: lightly they skip

To fortune's minions' side: their friend is he

Who in a state hath power and beareth rule.

Next after him prince Diomedes spake.

Thee nor thy brother would he have them slay,

But exile you, of reverence to the Gods.

Then murmured some that good his counsel was;

Some praised it not. Thereafter rose up one

Of tongue unbridled, stout in impudence,

An Argive, yet no Argive, thrust on us:

In bluster and coarse-grained fluency confident,

Still plausible to trap the folk in mischief:

For when an evil heart with winning tongue

Persuades the crowd, ill is it for the state:

Whoso with understanding counsel well