Page:Tragedies of Seneca (1907) Miller.djvu/92

74 While yet stern Mars dares no impiety. Yet this as well is great impiety, That they have been so near. I am appalled, And tremble when I see two brothers stand, Each fronting each, upon the brink of crime. My limbs do quake with fear. How near I came To seeing greater infamy than that Which thy poor father never could have seen! Though I am freed from fear of such a crime, Though I shall not behold such evil now, Still am I most unhappy when I think How nearly I beheld it. O my son, By the womb that bore thee through ten weary months, And by thy noble sister's piety; By thy unhappy father's sightless eyes, Which he, though innocent of any crime, Tore out, his fatal error to avenge: Turn from thy father's walls these impious brands, Send back the standards of this warring host. Though thou shouldst yield, still is the greater part Of thy impiety already done: Thy fatherland has seen its fertile plains By hordes of hostile soldiery o'errun, The arméd legions gleaming from afar, The broad Cadmean meadows trampled down By flying hoofs, the princes, insolent, High in their chariots dashing o'er the plain, The blazing torches threatening our homes With utter devastation, and, a crime Which even Thebes till now has never seen, A brother 'gainst his brother waging war. This crime was seen by all our The ban host; The citizens and both thy sisters saw, And I thy mother; to himself is due That Oedipus, thy father, saw it not. Oh, do thou but compare thyself with him, By whose stern judgment fitting penalty E'en error pays. Do not with impious sword Destroy thy city and thy father's house,