Page:Tragedies of Sophocles (Jebb 1917).djvu/350

338 enough for thee, without mourning for the woes of thy neighbour.

. Thou sayest truly.—Resume thy story, then, and tell me wherein they did thee a despite.

. They came for me in a ship with gaily decked prow,—princely Odysseus, and he who watched over my father's youth,—saying, (whether truly or falsely, I know not,) that since my father had perished, fate now forbad that the towers of Troy should be taken by any hand but mine.

Saying that these things stood thus, my friend, they made me pause not long ere I set forth in haste,—chiefly through my yearning towards the dead, that I might see him before burial,—for I had never seen him; then, besides, there was a charm in their promise, if, when I went, I should sack the towers of Troy.

It was now the second day of my voyage, when, sped by breeze and oar, I drew nigh to cruel Sigeum. And when I landed, straightway all the host thronged around me with greetings, vowing that they saw their lost Achilles once more alive.

He, then, lay dead; and I, hapless one, when I had wept for him, presently went to the Atreidae,—to friends, as I well might deem,—and claimed my father's arms, with all else that had been his. O, 'twas a shameless answer that they made! 'Seed of Achilles, thou canst take all else that was thy sire's; but of those arms another man now is lord,—the son of Laertes.' The tears came into my eyes,—I sprang up in passionate anger, and said in my bitterness,—'Wretch! What, have ye dared to give my arms to another man, without my