Page:Tragedies of Euripides (Way 1898) v3.djvu/265

Rh But the marriage-chant rang not the altar beside,

But tears streamed, voices of wailing cried;

Woe, woe for the lustral-drops there shed!

I wail, I too, the deed my father dared.

An unfatherly father by doom was allotted to me;

Yet ills out of ills rise ceaselessly

By a God's decree!

Ah, hadst thou slain thy brother, hapless one!

Woe for my crime! I took in hand a deed

Of horror, brother! Scant escape was thine

From god-accursed destruction, even to bleed

By mine hand, mine!

Yea, now what end to all this doth remain?

What shrouded fate shall yet encounter me?

By what device from this land home again

Shall I speed thee

From slaughter, and to Argos bid depart,

Or ever with thy blood incarnadined

The sword be? 'Tis thy task, O wretched heart,

The means to find.