Euripides' HERACLEIDAE Complete

Translated by E. Coleridge.

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47 pages - You are on Page 18

Iolaus: My son, why, prithee, art thou returned with that anxious
look? Hast thou news of the enemy? Are they coming, are they here,
or what thy tidings? For of a surety yon herald will not play us false.
No! sure I am their captain, prosperous heretofore, will come, with
thoughts exceeding proud against Athens. But Zeus doth punish overweening
pride.

Demophon: The host of Argos is come, and Eurystheus its king; my own
eyes saw him, for the man who thinks he knows good generalship must
see the foe not by messengers alone. As yet, however, he hath not
sent his host into the plain, but, camped upon a rocky brow, is watching-I
only tell thee what I think this means-to see by which road to lead
his army hither without fighting, and how to take up a safe position
in this land. However, all my plans are by this time carefully laid;
the city is under arms, the victims stand ready to be slain to every
god, whose due this is; my seers have filled the town with sacrifices,
to turn the foe to flight and keep our country safe. All those who
chant prophetic words have I assembled, and have examined ancient
oracles, both public and secret, as means to save this city. And though
the several answers differ in many points, yet in one is the sentiment
of all clearly the same; they bid me sacrifice to Demeter's daughter
some maiden from a noble father sprung. Now I, though in your cause
I am as zealous as thou seest, yet will not slay my child, nor will
I compel any of my subjects to do so against his will; for who of
his own will doth harbour such an evil thought as to yield with his
own hands the child he loves? And now thou mayest see angry gatherings,
where some declare, 'tis right to stand by suppliant strangers, while
others charge me with folly; but if I do this deed, a civil war is
then and there at hand. Do thou then look to this and help to find
a way to save yourselves and this country without causing me to be
slandered by the citizens. For I am no despot like a barbarian monarch;
but provided do what is just, just will my treatment be.

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