Page:Tragedies of Euripides (Way 1898) v3.djvu/153

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ORESTES.
125

Leave him to die by stoning of the folk,
Or never set thou foot on Spartan ground.
Dying, my daughter paid but justice' debt;
Yet it beseemed not him to deal her death.
I in all else have been a happy man540
Save in my daughters: herein most ill-starred.


Chorus.

Well fares he who is in his children blest,
And hath not won misfortune world-renowned.


Orestes.

Ancient, I fear to make defence to thee,
Wherein I cannot but offend thy soul.545
Let thine old age, which overawes my tongue,
Untrammelled leave the path of my defence,
And I will on, who fear thy grey hairs now.
I know me guilt-stained with a mother's death,
Yet pure herein, that I avenged my sire.550
What ought I to have done? Let plea face plea:—
My sire begat me, thy child gave me birth—
The field that from another gat the seed.[1]
Without the father, might no offspring be.
I reasoned then—better defend my source555
Of life, than her that did but foster me.
Thy daughter—I take shame to call her mother—

  1. The same argument is put by Aeschylus (Eumenides, 658–666) into the mouth of Apollo, who instances the birth of Athena from the head of Zeus in support of his contention:—

    "The mother of the child named hers is not
    The parent, but the new-sown issue's nurse.
    The sire is parent: she but harboureth,
    A stranger guest, such life as God blasts not."