The Tragedies of Euripides, Volume I.. Euripides

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СКАЧАТЬ But who else? Is it perchance one of the friends of Ægisthus?

      ORES. They persecute me, whom now the city obeys.

      MEN. But does the city suffer thee to wield Agamemnon's sceptre?

      ORES. How should they? who no longer suffer us to live.

      MEN. Doing what, which thou canst tell me as a clear fact?

      ORES. This very day sentence will be passed upon us.

      MEN. To be exiled from this city? or to die? or not to die?

      ORES. To die, by being stoned with stones by the citizens.

      MEN. And dost thou not fly then, escaping beyond the boundaries of the country?

      ORES. How can we? for we are surrounded on every side by brazen arms.

      MEN. By private enemies, or by the hand of Argos?

      ORES. By all the citizens, that I may die – the word is brief.

      MEN. O unhappy man! thou art come to the extreme of misfortune.

      ORES. On thee my hope builds her escape from evils, but, thyself happy, coming among the distressed, impart thy good fortune to thy friends, and be not the only man to retain a benefit thou hast received, but undertake also services in thy turn, paying their father's kindness to those to whom thou oughtest. For those friends have the name, not the reality, who are not friends in adversity.

      CHOR. And see the Spartan Tyndarus is toiling hither with his aged foot, in a black vest, and shorn, his locks cut off in mourning for his daughter.

      ORES. I am undone, O Menelaus! Lo! Tyndarus is coming toward us, to come before whose presence, most of all men's, shame covereth me, on account of what has been done. For he used to nurture me when I was little, and satiated me with many kisses, dandling in his arms Agamemnon's boy, and Leda with him, honoring me no less than the twin-born of Jove. For which, O my wretched heart and soul, I have given no good return: what dark veil can I take for my countenance? what cloud can I place before me, that I may avoid the glances of the old man's eyes?

      TYNDARUS, MENELAUS, ORESTES, CHORUS

      TYND. Where, where can I see my daughter's husband Menelaus? For as I was pouring my libations on the tomb of Clytæmnestra, I heard that he was come to Nauplia with his wife, safe through a length of years. Conduct me, for I long to stand by his hand and salute him, seeing my friend after a long lapse of time.

      MEN. O hail! old man, who sharest thy bed with Jove.

      TYND. O hail! thou also, Menelaus my dear relation, – ah! what an evil is it not to know the future! This dragon here, the murderer of his mother, glares before the house his pestilential gleams – the object of my detestation – Menelaus, dost thou speak to this unholy wretch?

      MEN. Why not? he is the son of a father who was dear to me.

      TYND. What! was he sprung from him, being such as he is?

      MEN. He was; but, though he be unfortunate, he should be respected.

      TYND. Having been a long time with barbarians, thou art thyself turned barbarian.

      MEN. Nay! it is the Grecian fashion always to honor one of kindred blood.

      TYND. Yes, and also not to wish to be above the laws.

      MEN. Every thing proceeding from necessity is considered as subservient to her49 among the wise.

      TYND. Do thou then keep to this, but I'll have none of it.

      MEN. No, for anger joined with thine age, is not wisdom.

      TYND. With this man what controversy can there be regarding wisdom? If what things are virtuous, and what are not virtuous, are plain to all, what man was ever more unwise that this man? who did not indeed consider justice, nor applied to the common existing law of the Grecians. For after that Agamemnon breathed forth his last, struck by my daughter on the head, a most foul deed (for never will I approve of this), it behooved him indeed to lay against her a sacred charge of bloodshed, following up the accusation, and to cast his mother from out of the house; and he would have taken the wise side in the calamity, and would have kept to law, and would have been pious. But now has he come to the same fate with his mother. For with justice thinking her wicked, himself has become more wicked in slaying his mother.

      But thus much, Menelaus, will I ask thee; If the wife that shared his bed were to kill him, and his son again kills his mother in return, and he that is born of him shall expiate the murder with murder, whither then will the extremes of these evils proceed? Well did our fathers of old lay down these things; they suffered not him to come into the sight of their eyes, not to their converse, who was under an attainder50 of blood; but they made him atone by banishment; they suffered however none to kill him in return. For always were one about to be attainted of murder, taking the pollution last into his hands. But I hate indeed impious women, but first among them my daughter, who slew her husband. But never will I approve of Helen thy wife, nor would I speak to her, neither do I commend51 thee for going to the plain of Troy on account of a perfidious woman. But I will defend the law, as far at least as I am able, putting a stop to this brutish and murderous practice, which is ever destructive both of the country and the state. – For what feelings of humanity hadst thou, thou wretched man, when she bared her breast in supplication, thy mother? I indeed, though I witnessed not that scene of misery, melt in my aged eyes with tears through wretchedness. One thing however goes to the scale of my arguments; thou art both hated by the Gods, and sufferest vengeance of thy mother, wandering about with madness and terrors; why must I hear by the testimony of others, what it is in my power to see? That thou mayest know then once for all, Menelaus, do not things contrary to the Gods, through thy wishes to assist this man. But suffer him to be slain by the citizens with stones, or set not thy foot on Spartan ground. But my daughter in dying met with justice, but it was not fitting that she should die by him.52 In other respects indeed have I been a happy man, except in my daughters, but in this I am not happy.

      CHOR. He is enviable, who is fortunate in his children, and has not on him some notorious calamities.

      ORES. O old man, I tremble to speak to thee, wherein I am about to grieve thee and thy mind. But I am unholy in that I slew my mother; but holy at least in another point of view, having avenged my father. Let then thine age, which hinders me through fear from speaking, be removed out of the way of my words, and I will go on in a direct path; but now do I fear thy gray hairs. What could I do? for oppose the facts, two against two. My father indeed begat me, but thy daughter brought me forth, a field receiving the seed from another; but without a father there never could be a child. I reasoned therefore with myself, that I should assist the prime author of my birth rather than the aliment which under him produced me. But thy daughter (I am ashamed to call her mother), in secret and unchaste nuptials, had approached the bed of another man; of myself, if I speak ill of her, shall I be speaking, but yet will I tell it. Ægisthus was her secret husband in her palace. Him I slew, and after him I sacrificed my mother, doing indeed unholy things, but avenging my father. But as touching those things for which thou threatenest that I must be stoned, hear, how I shall assist all Greece. For if the women shall arrive at such a pitch of boldness as to murder the men, making good their escape with regard to their children, seeking to captivate their pity by their breasts, it would be as nothing with them to slay their husbands, having any pretext that might chance; СКАЧАТЬ