Page:Tragedies of Sophocles (Jebb 1917).djvu/76

64 . Could a messenger go for him from among you?

. With what aim to speak, or to prepare his coming?

. That by small service he may find a great gain.

. And what help can be from one who sees not?

. In all that I speak there shall be sight.

. Mark me now, friend—I would not have thee come to harm,—for thou art noble, if one may judge by thy looks, leaving thy fortune aside;—stay here, e'en where I found thee, till I go and tell these things to the folk on this spot,—not in the town: they will decide for thee whether thou shalt abide or retire.

[Exit.

. My child, say, is the stranger gone?

. He is gone, and so thou canst utter what thou wilt, father, in quietness, as knowing that I alone am near.

. Queens of dread aspect, since your seat is the first in this land whereat I have bent the knee, show not yourselves ungracious to Phoebus or to myself; who, when he proclaimed that doom of many woes, spake of this as a rest for me after long years,—on reaching my goal in a land where I should find a seat of the Awful Goddesses, and a hospitable shelter,—even that there I should close my weary life, with benefits, through my having dwelt therein, for mine hosts, but ruin for those who sent me forth—who drove me away. And he went on to warn me that signs of these things should come, in earthquake, or in thunder, haply, or in the lightning of Zeus.