Page:Tragedies of Euripides (Way 1896) v2.djvu/364

This will I speak, bowed at thy father's grave.^[1]
O ancient, dweller in this tomb of stone,
Restore thy trust: I claim of thee my wife,
Sent hither of Zeus to thee, to ward for me.
I know that thou, the dead, canst ne'er restore: 965
But this thy child will think scorn that her sire,
Glorious of old, from the underworld invoked,
Have infamy,—for now it rests with her.
Hades, on thy championship I call,
Who hast welcomed many dead, for Helen's sake 970
Slain by my sword: thou hast them for thine hire.
Or give them back with life's breath filled again,
Or thou constrain this maid to show her worthy
Of a good sire, and render back my wife.
But if ye will despoil me of my bride, 975
That which to thee she said not will I say:—
Know, maiden, I have bound me by an oath
To dare thy brother, first, unto the fight:
Then he or I must die, my word is passed.
But if he flinch from grappling foot to foot, 980
And seek to starve the suppliants at the tomb,
I am resolved to slay her, then to thrust
Into mine own heart this two-edged sword
On this tomb's crest, that streams of our life-blood
May drench the grave: so shall we side by side, 985
Two corpses, lie upon this carven tomb,
To be thy deathless grief, thy sire's reproach.
Her shall thy brother never wed—nor he,
Nor any other:—I will bear her hence,
If home I may not, then unto the dead. 990
Why speak thus? If with tears I played the woman,