Page:Tragedies of Sophocles (Plumptre 1878).djvu/381

Rh And take her as thy wife. Rebel thou not;

Nor let another take, instead of thee,

One who has clung so closely to my side;

But thou thyself, my son, make her thy wife.

Obey me, for to trust in greater things,

And then, in small, distrust, this cancels quite

The former boon.

Hyllos. [Aside.] Ah me! To vent one's wrath

On one so vexed is wrong. Yet who can bear

To see him in this mood?

Hera. Thou speakest then

As meaning not to do the things I say.

Hyllos. Nay, who could choose a wife who guilty stands,

She, and she only, of my mother's death,

And that thou, father, art as now thou art?

Who could do this, unless the fiends had laid

The spell of madness on him? Better 'twere

For me to die, my father, than to live

With worst foes dwelling.

Hera. This boy, it seems, denies

What I in death have asked for. But a curse

From God awaits thee, if thou disobey.

Hyllos. Too soon, 'twould seem, thou 'lt shew how wild thou art.

Hera. Yes; thou hast roused me when the ill was lulled.

Hyllos. Woe's me! I stand as one in much perplexed.

Hera. Yes, for thou dar'st thy father disobey.

Hyllos. But must I learn, my father, godless deeds?