The. What! did brother rob brother of his inheritance?
Adr. To avenge this I set out; hence my ruin.
The. Didst consult seers, and gaze into the flame of burnt-offerings?
Adr. Ah me! thou pressest on the very point, wherein I most did fail.
The. It seems thy going was not favoured by heaven.
Adr. Worse; I went in spite even of Amphiaraus.
The. And so heaven lightly turned[1] its face from thee.
Adr. I was carried away by the clamour of younger men.
The. Thou didst favour courage instead of discretion.
Adr[2] [True; and many a general owes defeat to that.] O king of Athens, bravest of the sons of Hellas, I blush to throw myself upon the ground and clasp thy knees, I a grey-haired king, blest in days gone by; yet needs must I yield to my misfortunes. I pray thee save the dead; have pity on my sorrows and on these, the mothers of the slain, whom hoary eld finds reft of their sons; yet they endured to journey hither and tread a foreign soil with aged tottering steps, bearing no embassy to Demeter's mysteries; only seeking burial for their dead, which lot should have been theirs, e'en burial by the hands of sons still in their prime.[3] And 'tis wise in the rich to see the poor man's poverty, and in the poor man to turn ambitious eyes toward the rich, that so he may himself indulge a longing for property; and they, whom fortune frowns not on, should gaze on misery's presentment; [likewise, who maketh songs should take a pleasure in their making; for if it be not so with him, he will in no wise avail to gladden others, if
- ↑ Reiske conjectures ἀπεστράφης and omits σ᾽
- ↑ Dindorf condemns this line. Paley brackets it as spurious. Nauck assigns it to Theseus, and retains it.
- ↑ Nauck condemns from line 176–183. Reiske, followed by Paley, brackets lines 180–183. Dindorf considers that the rest of the speech is not free from suspicion.
