Page:Tragedies of Euripides (Way 1898) v3.djvu/237

Rh Hellas shall make atonement for thy death,

Yea, shall requite thy blood in Aulis spilt.

Strange tale thou tellest of the man new come,

Whoe'er from Hellas yon drear sea hath reached.

Enough: go thou, the strangers hither bring:

I will take thought for all that needeth here.

O hardened heart, to strangers in time past

Gentle wast thou and ever pitiful,

To kinship meting out its due of tears,

When Greeks soever fell into thine hands.

But now, from dreams whereby mine heart is steeled,—

Who deem Orestes seëth light no more,—

Stern shall ye find me, who ye be soe'er.

Ah, friends, true saw was this, I prove it now:—

The hapless, which, have known fair fortune once,

Are bitter-thoughted unto happier folk.

Ah, never yet a breeze from Zeus hath come,

Nor ship, that through the Clashing Rocks hath brought

Hitherward Helen, her which ruined me,

And Menelaus, that I might requite

An Aulis here on them for that afar,

Where, like a calf, the sons of Danaus seized

And would have slain me—mine own sire the priest!

Ah me! that hour's woe cannot I forget—

How oft unto my father's beard I strained

Mine hands, and clung unto my father's knees,

Crying, "O father, in a shameful bridal

I am joined of thee! My mother, in this hour