Page:Tragedies of Euripides (Way 1896) v2.djvu/137
Therein be they which, though I be afar,
Shall care for thee. Pass, ancient, to mine halls.
Iolaus.
I will not leave the altar. Let us sit,
Abiding Athens' triumph, suppliant here. 345
And, when thou hast brought this strife to glorious end,
Then will we enter. Champion-gods have we
Not weaker than the Argive Gods, O king.
Though Hera, bride of Zeus, before them go,
Ours is Athena ; and this tells, say I, 350
For triumph, to have gotten mightier Gods:
For Pallas never shall brook overthrow.
[Exit Demophon.
Chorus.
(Str.)
Ay, vaunt as thou wilt, yet uncaring
Will we swerve none the more from the right,
O thou stranger from Argolis faring
To Athens, thou shalt not affright
Our souls by thy bluster high-swelling.
Not yet such dishonour be done
To the land great and fair beyond telling!
Fools—thou and thy despot-lord dwelling 360
In Argos, this Sthenelus' son!
(Ant.)
Thou who com'st to a city no lesser
Than Argos, essaying to seize—
And thou alien, O violent oppressor!—
The suppliants that cling to her knees,
The homeless that cry from her altars!
And thou hast not respect to our king,