Page:Tragedies of Euripides (Way 1896) v2.djvu/467

To bring forth at Eurystheus' hest to light
The hound three-headed, warder of Hell-gate.
And this—woe's me!—my latest desperate deed,
Murder—mine house's topstone—my sons' blood! 1280
I am come to this strait—in my dear-loved Thebes
I cannot dwell uncursed. Though I should stay,
To what fane can I go?—what gathering
Of friends?—the Accurst, to whom no man may speak!
Shall I to Argos?—I, an outlawed man! 1285
Come then, to another city let me go—
And there be eyed askance, a branded man,
My jailers there the scorpions of the tongue—
"Lo there Zeus' son, who murdered babes and wife!
Shall he not hence?—perdition go with him!" 1290
Now to the man called happy in time past
Reverse is torture: he whose days were dark
Always, grieves not, being cradled in distress.
And to this misery shall I come, I ween;
For earth shall find a voice forbidding me 1295
To touch her, and the sea, that I cross not,
And river springs: so, like Ixion whirled
In chains upon his wheel shall I become.
Best so—that none of Greeks set eyes on me
Amongst whom once I prospered and was blest. 1300
Why need I live? What profit shall I have
Owning a useless life,^[1] a life accurst?
Now let her dance, that glorious bride of Zeus,
Beating with sandalled foot Olympus' floor!
She hath compassed her desire that she desired, 1305
Down with his pedestal hurling in utter wreck
The foremost man of Greece! To such a Goddess