148 EURIPIDES. [L. 563-635 prince, if 'tis my breast thou'dst strike, lo ! here it is, strike home ! or if at my neck thy sword thou'lt aim, behold ! that neck is bared." Then he, half glad, half sorry in his pity for the maid, cleft with the steel the channels of her breath, and streams of 61ood gushed forth ; but she, e'en in death's agony, took good heed to fall with maiden grace, hiding from gaze of man what modest maiden must. Soon as she had breathed her last through the fatal gash, each Argive set his hand to different tasks, some strewing leaves o'er the corpse in hand- fuls, others bringing pine-logs and heaping up a pyre ; and he, who brought nothing, would hear from him who did such taunts as these, " Stand'st thou still, ignoble wretch, with never a robe or ornament ^ to bring for the maiden ? Wilt thou give naught to her that showed such peerless bravery and spirit ? " Such is the tale I tell about thy daughter's death, and I regard thee as blest beyond all mothers in thy noble child, yet crossed in fortune more than all. Cho. Upon the race of Priam and my city some fearful curse hath burst ; 'tis sent by God, and we must bear it. Hec. O my daughter ! 'mid this crowd of sorrows I know not where to turn my gaze ; for if I set myself to one, another will not give me pause ; while from this again a fresh grief summons me, finding a successor to sorrow's throne. No longer now can I efface from my mind the memory of thy sufferings sufficiently to stay my tears ; yet hath the story of thy noble death taken from the keenness of my grief. Is it not then strange that poor land, when blessed by heaven with a lucky year, yields a good crop, while that which is good, if robbed of needful care, bears but little increase ; yet 'mongst men^ the knave is never other than a knave, the good man aught but good, never changing for the worse ^ Nauck regards line 578 as spurious. ' dvOpojiroiQ, so Paley with the MSS., but Hermann writes avOputrroi.
