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Chorus
O king, I pity them, hearing their sad lot Now more than ever do I see noble birth o’ercome by fortune; for these, though sprung from a noble sire,
are suffering what they ne’er deserved.
235
O king, I pity them, hearing their sad lot Now more than ever do I see noble birth o’ercome by fortune; for these, though sprung from a noble sire,
are suffering what they ne’er deserved.
235
Demophon
Three aspects of the case constrain me, Iolaus, not to spurn the guests thou bringest; first and foremost, there is Zeus, at whose altar thou art seated with these tender children gathered round thee;
next come ties of kin, and the debt I owe to treat them kindly for their father’s sake; and last, mine honour, which before all I must regard; for if I permit this altar to be violently despoiled by stranger hands, men will think
240
the land I inhabit is free no more, and that through fear
1
I have surrendered suppliants to Argives, and this comes nigh to make one hang oneself. Would that thou hadst come under a luckier star! yet, as it is, fear not that any man shall tear thee and these children from the altar by force.
245
Get thee
(to Copreus) to Argos and tell Eurystheus so; yea and more, if he have any charge against these strangers, he shall have justice; but never shalt thou drag them hence.
250
Three aspects of the case constrain me, Iolaus, not to spurn the guests thou bringest; first and foremost, there is Zeus, at whose altar thou art seated with these tender children gathered round thee;
next come ties of kin, and the debt I owe to treat them kindly for their father’s sake; and last, mine honour, which before all I must regard; for if I permit this altar to be violently despoiled by stranger hands, men will think
240
the land I inhabit is free no more, and that through fear
1
I have surrendered suppliants to Argives, and this comes nigh to make one hang oneself. Would that thou hadst come under a luckier star! yet, as it is, fear not that any man shall tear thee and these children from the altar by force.
245
Get thee
(to Copreus) to Argos and tell Eurystheus so; yea and more, if he have any charge against these strangers, he shall have justice; but never shalt thou drag them hence.
250
Heracleidae. Euripides. Edward P. Coleridge (Translator). London. 1906.
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