Page:Tragedies of Euripides (Way 1896) v2.djvu/330
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274
EURIPIDES.
There are maids that have cast shorn hair
Where seaward Skamander on-sweeping
The limbs of their brothers bare.
And from Hellas a cry, a cry, 370
Ringeth heavenward wild and high,
And with frenzied hands on her head
She smiteth: her fingers are red
From the cheeks that the blood-furrows dye.
Where seaward Skamander on-sweeping
The limbs of their brothers bare.
And from Hellas a cry, a cry, 370
Ringeth heavenward wild and high,
And with frenzied hands on her head
She smiteth: her fingers are red
From the cheeks that the blood-furrows dye.
Ah, maiden of Arcady, happy, Kallisto,[1] art thou,
O fourfoot-pacing thing who wast Zeus's bride!
Better by far than my mother's is thy lot now,
Who hast cast the burden of human sorrow aside,
And only now for the shaggy limb
Of the brute with tears are thy fierce eyes dim.[2] 380
Yea, happier she whom Artemis drave from her choir,
A stag gold-antlered, Merops' Titanian daughter,[3]
Because of her beauty,—but mine with the brands of desire
Hath enkindled Dardanian Pergamus' ruin-pyre,
And hath given the Achaians to slaughter.
O fourfoot-pacing thing who wast Zeus's bride!
Better by far than my mother's is thy lot now,
Who hast cast the burden of human sorrow aside,
And only now for the shaggy limb
Of the brute with tears are thy fierce eyes dim.[2] 380
Yea, happier she whom Artemis drave from her choir,
A stag gold-antlered, Merops' Titanian daughter,[3]
Because of her beauty,—but mine with the brands of desire
Hath enkindled Dardanian Pergamus' ruin-pyre,
And hath given the Achaians to slaughter.
[They pass into the palace.
Enter Menelaus.
Menelaus.
Ah, Pelops, thou at Pisa victor once
Over Oenomaus in chariot-strife,