Page:Tragedies of Euripides (Way 1898) v3.djvu/53

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Then Talaus' son read right the oracle?

Yea—to us twain gave his young daughters twain.

Blest or unblest, then, art thou in thy bride?

Unto this day I find no fault in her.

How didst thou win yon host to follow thee?

To his two daughters' husbands swore Adrastus,

Tydeus and me,—my marriage-kinsman he,—

To bring both home from exile, me the first.

And many a Danaan and Mycenian chief

Is here—a needful, yet a mournful grace

To me, for I against my country march.

And, by the Gods I swear, unwillingly

I lift the spear against my best-beloved.

But with thee rests the assuaging of these ills,

Mother, to set at one those one in blood,

And end mine, thine, and all the city's toils.

Old is the saw, yet will I utter it:—

Wealth in men's eyes is honoured most of all,

And of all things on earth hath chiefest power.

Captaining countless spears for this I come;

For the high-born in poverty is naught.