Page:Tragedies of Euripides (Way 1898) v3.djvu/240

212 The rudder astern, and before the gale

Of the south did the good ship flee,

Or by breath of the west was fanned

Past that bird-haunted strand,

The long white reach of Achilles' Beach,

Where his ghost-feet skim the sand

By the cheerless sea?

But O had Helen but strayed

Hither from Troy, as prayed

My lady,—that Leda's daughter,

Her darling, with spray of the water

Of death on her head as a wreath,

Were but laid with her throat beneath

The hand of my mistress for slaughter!

Fit penalty so should be paid.

How gladly the word would I hail,

If there came from the Hellene shore,

One hitherward wafted by wing of the sail,

Who should bid that my bondage be o'er,

My bondage of travail and pain!

O but in dreams yet again

Mid the homes to stand of my fatherland,

In the bliss of a rapturous strain

My soul to outpour!

Enter attendants with Orestes and Pylades.

Lo, hither with pinioned arms come twain,

Victims fresh for the Goddess's fane:—

Friends, hold ye your peace.

No lying message the herdman spoke:

To the temple be coming the pride of the folk

Of the land of Greece!

Dread Goddess, if well-pleasing unto thee