Page:Tragedies of Sophocles (Jebb 1917).djvu/249

401—426] . It is for cowards to find peace in such maxims.

. So thou wilt not hearken, and take my counsel?

. No, verily; long may be it before I am so foolish.

. Then I will go forth upon mine errand.

. And whither goest thou? To whom bearest thou these offerings?

. Our mother sends me with funeral libations for our sire.

. How sayest thou? For her deadliest foe?

. Slain by her own hand—so thou wouldest say.

. What friend hath persuaded her? Whose wish was this?

. The cause, I think, was some dread vision of the night.

. Gods of our house! be ye with me—now at last!

. Dost thou find any encouragement in this terror?

. If thou wouldst tell me the vision, then I could answer.

. Nay, I can tell but little of the story.

. Tell what thou canst; a little word hath often marred, or made, men's fortunes.

. 'Tis said that she beheld our sire, restored to the sunlight, at her side once more; then he took the sceptre,—once his own, but now borne by Aegisthus,—and planted it at the hearth; and thence a fruitful bough sprang upward, wherewith the whole land of Mycenae was overshadowed. Such was the tale that I heard told by one who was present when she declared her dream to the Sun-god. More than this I know