Lay them; that all the citizens may see
Tokens of this thy visit. Touching me
Let fall no random word; for ever prone
The people are to blame authority.
These things beholding, some, to pity stirred, 480
The insolence may hate of this male troop.
So with the folk more favour shall ye find.
For to the weaker side all bear good will.
Danaos.
A precious boon is this for us, to win
A patron so august, the reigning prince.[1]
But native escort and interpreters
Send thou with us; so may we surer find
The temple-fronting altars, and abodes,
Friendly to guests,[2] of city-guarding gods,
And may in safety pass amid thy town.
For we by nature are unlike in form; 490
Not the same race rear Nile and Inachos;
Beware, lest rashness slaughter breed;[3] ere now,
Hath friend, through ignorance, by friend been slain.
King.
March with him guards, for well the stranger speaks.
Lead to the city altars, seats of gods;
- ↑ I adopt ἐγκρέοντα—Mr. Newman's emendation for εὖ ῥέοντα.
- ↑ For the second πολισσούχων, which is certainly corrupt, several adjectives are plausibly suggested; I have here adopted πολυξείνους.
- ↑ φόνον seems to me to give better sense than φόβον.
