Page:Tragedies of Euripides (Way 1898) v3.djvu/272

244 O then I flinch not, though my doom be death,

So I save thee! A man that from a house

Dies, leaves a void: a woman matters not.

My mother's slayer and thine I will not be!

Suffice her blood. With heart at one with thine

Fain would I live, and dying share thy death.

Thee will I lead, except I perish here,

Homeward, or dying here abide with thee.

Hear mine opinion—if this thing displease

Artemis, how had Loxias bidden me

To bear her statue unto Pallas' burg,

And see thy face? So, setting side by side

All these, I hope to win safe home-return.

How may we both escape death, and withal

Bear off that prize? Imperilled most herein

Our home-return is:—this must we debate.

Haply might we prevail to slay the king?

Foul deed were this, that strangers slay their host.