Page:Tragedies of Sophocles (Plumptre 1878).djvu/300

202 Shall tell thee; for from her thou may'st not learn.

My father once, as I have heard the tale,

Taking his sport within the holy grove

The Goddess calls her own, had raised a deer,

Dappled, and antlered, and in careless mood

Boasts loudly at the death. And therefore she,

Leto's fair daughter, in her wrath detained

The Achæans that my father might perforce

Slay his own daughter, in the balance weighed

Against that quarry. Thus the matter stood

As to that offering. Other means were none

To free the army, or for homeward voyage,

Or yet for Ilion. Therefore sore constrained

And struggling, hardly at the last he wrought

The act of sacrifice, and not through love

For Menelaos. But had it been so,

Had he done this with wish to profit him,

(For I will take thy premiss,) ought he then

To die by thine hand? Why, what right is this?

See to it, giving men a law like this,

If thou but cause fresh trouble to thyself,

And change of purpose bringing late regret;

For, should we evermore take blood for blood,

Thou would'st fall first, if thou did'st get thy due.

See to it well, lest thus thy vain pretence

Be found as nought. For tell me, if thou wilt,

In recompense for what dost thou now do

Deed of all deeds most shameful, who dost sleep

With that red-handed felon who with thee

Murdered my father, and to him dost bear

New children, while thou easiest out from thee

Those born before, right seed of righteous sire?