Leader: Look you! how a good cause ever affords men an opening for
a good speech.
Agamemnon: To be judge in a stranger's troubles goes much against
my grain, but still I must; yea, for to take this matter in hand and
then put it from me is a shameful course. My opinion, that thou mayst
know it, is that it was not for the sake of the Achaeans or me that
thou didst slay thy guest, but to keep that gold in thy own house.
In thy trouble thou makest a case in thy own interests. Maybe amongst
you 'tis a light thing to murder guests, but with us in Hellas 'tis
a disgrace. How can I escape reproach if I judge the not guilty? I
cannot do it. Nay, since thou didst dare thy horrid crime, endure
as well its painful consequence.
Polymestor: Woe is me! worsted by a woman and a slave, I am, it seems,
to suffer by unworthy hands.
Hecuba: Is it not just for thy atrocious crime?
Polymestor: Ah, my children! ah, my blinded eyes! woe is me!
Studies
