But if one gently yield him to their stress,
Slacken the sheet, and watch the season due,
Their storm might spend its force. When lulls the blast,700
Lightly thou mightest win thy will of them.
In them is ruth, high spirit is in them—
A precious thing to whoso bides his time.
Now Tyndareus and the city will I seek
To sway to temperance in their stormy mood.705
A ship, if one have strained the mainsheet taut,
Dips deep; but rights again, the mainsheet eased.
For Heaven hateth over-vehemence,
And citizens hate. I ought, I grant, to save thee—
By wisdom, not defiance of the strong.710
I cannot—as thou haply dream'st—by force
Save thee. How should I with my single spear
Triumph o'er all the ills that compass thee?
To move this land of Argos to relent[1]715
Never we stooped yet!—now is bitter need
That prudent men be bondmen unto fate.
Orestes.
O nothing-worth—save in a woman's cause
To lead a host!—craven in friends' defence!
Turn'st from me?—fleest?—are Agamemnon's deeds720
- ↑ This passage is a crux of commentators. Wedd interprets,
"Never have we been wont to train the land
Of Argos to be craven: need is now
That we, as wise, be, &c."But could a king of Sparta, though brother of the late Argive king, have talked, with any show of reason, of having had part in the training of Argives who had never owned his authority in peace or war?
