Page:Tragedies of Euripides (Way 1896) v2.djvu/203

Forlorn of soul strays far from olden bliss. 635
Thy child, as though she ne'er had looked on light,
Is dead, and nothing knoweth of her ills.
But I, who drew my bow at fair repute,
Won overmeasure, yet fair fortune missed.
All virtuous fame that women e'er have found, 640
This was my quest, my gain, 'neath Hector's roof.
First—be the woman smirched with other stain,
Or be she not—this very thing shall bring
Ill fame, if one abide not in the home:
So banished I such craving, kept the house: 645
Within my bowers I suffered not to come
The tinsel-talk of women, lived content
To be in virtue schooled by mine own heart;
With silent tongue, with quiet eye, still met
My lord; knew in what matters I should rule, 650
And where 'twas meet to yield him victory:
Whereof the fame to the Achaian host
Reached,—for my ruin; for, when I was ta'en,
Achilles' son would have me for his wife;
And I shall serve within his murderers' halls. 655
If from mine heart I thrust my love, mine Hector,
And to this new lord ope the doors thereof,
I shall be traitress to the dead: but if
I loathe this prince, shall win my masters' hate.
And yet one night, say they, unknits the knot 660
Of woman's hate of any husband's couch!
I scorn the wife who flings her sometime lord
Away, and on a new couch loves another!
Not even the steed, from her stall-mate disyoked,
Will with a willing spirit draw the yoke; 665
Yet speech nor understanding in the brute
Is found, whose nature lags behind the man.