Page:Tragedies of Euripides (Way 1896) v2.djvu/365

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HELEN.
309

A pitiful thing were I, no man of deeds.
Slay, if thou wilt : thou shalt not slay and shame!
Yet do thou rather hearken to my words,
That thou be just, that I may win my wife. 995


Chorus.

Maiden, of these pleas art thou arbitress.
So judge, that thou may'st pleasure all at last.


Theonoe.

By nature and by choice I fear the Gods.
I love mine own soul, and my sire's renown
I will not stain, nor show my brother grace 1000
Wherefrom shall open infamy be his:[1]
And the great temple of Justice in my soul
Stands. Since from Nereus I inherit this,
I will essay to save Menelaus' life.
With Hera, seeing she fain would favour thee, 1005
I cast my vote. Gracious to me withal
Be Kypris, though she hath had no part in me,
And I will strive to abide a maiden aye.
For thy reproaches o'er my father's grave,
I make them mine; for I should work foul wrong, 1010
If I restored not. He, if yet he lived,
Had given back her to thee, and thee to her.
Yea, these things bring to all men recompense
In Hades as on earth. Albeit the soul
Of the dead live not,[2] deathless consciousness 1015
Still hath it when in deathless aether merged.

  1. ↑ Paley prefers φανήσομαι, "be mine."
  2. ↑ i.e. Have no individual existence, being absorbed into its kindred element.
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