Euripides' HERACLEIDAE Complete

Translated by E. Coleridge.

Euripides Bilingual Anthology  Studies  Euripides in Print

47 pages - You are on Page 9

Leader: Who can decide a cause or ascertain its merits, till from
both sides he clearly learn what they would say?

Iolaus: O king, in thy land I start with this advantage, the right
to hear and speak in turn, and none, ere that, will drive me hence
as elsewhere they would. 'Twixt us and him is naught in common, for
we no longer have aught to do with Argos since that decree was passed,
but we are exiles from our native land; how then can he justly drag
us back as subjects of Mycenae, seeing that they have banished us?
For we are strangers. Or do ye claim that every exile from Argos is
exiled from the bounds of Hellas? Not from Athens surely; for ne'er
will she for fear of Argos drive the children of Heracles from her
land. Here is no Trachis, not at all; no! nor that Achaean town, whence
thou, defying justice, but boasting of the might of Argos in the very
words thou now art using, didst drive the suppliants from their station
at the altar. If this shall be, and they thy words approve, why then
I trow this is no more Athens, the home of freedom. Nay, but I know
the temper and nature of these citizens; they would rather die, for
honour ranks before mere life with men of worth. Enough of Athens!

Previous Page / First / Next Page of Heracleidae

Euripides Home Page ||| Elpenor's Free Greek Lessons
Aeschylus ||| Sophocles

Reference address : https://ellopos.net/elpenor/greek-texts/ancient-Greece/euripides/heracleidae.asp?pg=9