Page:Tragedies of Sophocles (Jebb 1917).djvu/270

258 . I care not to live by such a law.

. Well, if thou must do this, thou wilt praise me yet.

. And do it I will, no whit dismayed by thee.

. Is this so indeed? Wilt thou not change thy counsels?

. No, for nothing is more hateful than bad counsel.

. Thou seemest to agree with nothing that I urge.

. My resolve is not new, but long since fixed.

. Then I will go; thou canst not be brought to approve my words, nor I to commend thy conduct.

. Nay, go within; never will I follow thee, however much thou mayst desire it; it were great folly even to attempt an idle quest.

. Nay, if thou art wise in thine own eyes, be such wisdom thine; by and by, when thou standest in evil plight, thou wilt praise my words.

. When we see the birds of the air, with sure instinct, careful to nourish those who give them life and nurture, why do not we pay these debts in like measure? Nay, by the lightning-flash of Zeus, by Themis throned in heaven, it is not long till sin brings sorrow.

Voice that comest to the dead beneath the earth, send a piteous cry, I pray thee, to the son of Atreus in that world, a joyless message of dishonour;

tell him that the fortunes of his house are now distempered; while, among his children, strife of sister with