156 EURIPIDES. [L. 827-893 inspired, as the Phrygians call her. How then, O king, wilt thou acknowledge those nights of rapture, or what return shall she my daughter or I her mother have for all the love she has lavished on her lord ? [For from dark- ness and the endearments of the night mortals reap by far their keenest joys.] ^ Heaken then ; dost see this corpse ? By doing him a service thou wilt do it to a kinsman of thy bride's. One thing only have I yet to urge. Oh ! would I had a voice in arms, in hands, in hair and feet, placed there by the arts of Daedalus or some god, that all together they might with tears embrace thy knees, bringing a thousand pleas to bear on thee ! O my lord and master, most glorious light of Hellas, listen, stretch forth a helping hand to this aged woman, for all she is a thing of naught ; still do so.^ For 'tis ever a good i(ian's duty to succour the right, and to punish evil-doers wherever found. Cho. 'Tis strange how each extreme doth meet in human life ! Custom determines even our natural ties, making the most bitter foes friends, and regarding as foes those who formerly were friends. Aga. Hecuba, I feel compassion for thee and thy son and thy ill-fortune, as well as for thy suppliant gesture, and I would gladly see yon impious host pay thee this forfeit for the sake of heaven and justice, could I but find some way to help thee without appearing to the army to have plotted the death of the Thracian king for Cassandra's sake. For on one point I am assailed by perplexity ; the army count this man their friend, the dead their foe; that he is dear to thee is a matter apart, wherein the army has no share. Reflect on this ; for though thou find'st me ready to share thy toil and quick to lend my aid, yet the risk of being re- proached by the Achseans makes me hesitate. ^ Matthiae, whom most editors have followed, condemns these two lines as spurious.
- Line 843 is perhaps interpolated.
