Page:Tragedies of Sophocles (Plumptre 1878).djvu/298

200 Both root and branch destroyed,

There has not left our master's lordly house

All shame and ignominy.

Clytem. Thou, as it seems, dost take thine ease abroad,

Ægisthos being absent, who has charged

That thou should'st not, being seen without the gates,

Disgrace thy friends. But now, since he is gone,

For me thou little carest. Yea, thou say'st

Full many a time to many men, that I

Am over-bold, and rule defying right,

Insulting thee and thine. But I disclaim

All insult, and but speak of thee the ill

I hear so often from thee. Evermore,

Thy father, and nought else, is thy pretext;

As that he died by me By me? Right well

I know 'tis true. That deed deny I not,

For Justice seized him, 'twas not I alone;

And thou should' st aid her, wert thou wise of heart,

Since that thy father, whom thou mournest still,

Alone of all the Hellenes had the heart

To sacrifice thy sister to the Gods,

Although, I trow, his toil was less than mine,

And little knew he of my travail-pangs.

And now, I ask thee, tell me for whose sake

He slew her? "For the Argives," sayest thou?

They had no right to seek my daughter's death;

But if he killed mine for another's sake,

His brother Menelaos', should he not

Be rignteously requited? Had not he