Page:Tragedies of Sophocles (Plumptre 1878).djvu/479

Rh Or pour libation? 'Twas on that pretence

Ye cast me forth. Perdition seize you all!

And it shall seize you, seeing ye have wronged

Him who stands here, if yet the Gods regard

Or right, or truth. And full assured am I

They do regard them. For ye ne'er had come

On this your errand for a wretch like me,

Unless the pricks of heaven-sent yearning for him

Had spurred you on. But, Ο my fatherland,

And all ye Gods who look on me, avenge,

Avenge me on them all in time to come,

If ye have pity on me. Piteously

As now I live, if I could see them smitten,

I then should deem my long disease was healed.

Chor. Sore vexed is he; sore words the stranger speaks,

Not yielding, Ο Odysseus, to his ills.

Odys. I might say much in answer to his words,

If there were time. Now this one word I speak:

Where men like this are wanted, such am I;

But when the time for good and just men calls,

Thou could'st not find a godlier man than me.

In every case it is my bent to win;

Except with thee. To thee of mine own will

I yield the victory. Ho, leave him there!

Lay no hand on him, let him here remain.

With these thy arms we have no need of thee:

Teucros is with us, skilled in this thine art;

And I, too, boast that I, not less than thou,

This bow can handle, with my hand shoot straight;

What need we thee? In Lemnos walk at will;

And let us go. And they perchance will give

As prize to me what rightly thou might'st claim.

Phil. Ah me! And what shall I, unhappy, do?