Page:Tragedies of Sophocles (Plumptre 1878).djvu/462

364 And great Odysseus, sail, by oath fast bound

That they will either bring him back, with words

Persuading him, or else with force and arms;

And all the Achæans heard Odysseus speak

This clearly out. More confident was he

That he should do it than the other was.

Neop. And for what cause, so long a time elapsed,

Did those Atreidæ turn to seek this man

Whom for so long they had in exile left?

Whence came this yearning? Can it be the power

And vengeance of the Gods who wrong requite?

Attend. All this, for thou perchance hast heard it not,

I now will tell. A certain noble seer,

A son of Priam, Helenos his name,

There was, whom this man, going forth alone

By night (I mean Odysseus, full of craft,

On whom all words of shame and baseness fall)

As prisoner took, and where the Achæans meet

As goodly spoil displayed him. And he then,

Both all the rest to them did prophesy,

And that they should not take the Towers that hang

O'er Troïa, till, with words persuading him,

They fetched the man who in this island dwells.

And when Laertes' offspring heard the seer

Say this, he straightway promised he would bring

This man, and to the Achæans show him there,

And that he thought to do it with his will,

But, will or nill, to bring him; and he gave

Full leave to any man to take his head

If he should fail. And now, boy, thou hast heard

All that I know, and I must counsel speed

For thee and him, and any man thou lov'st.

Phil. Ah, woe is me! Did he, that utter mischief,

Swear to persuade me, and to bring me back