These wretched eyeballs—grasping their brooch-pins—1170
They stab, they flood with gore. Then through the tents
Fleeing they went. Up from the earth I leapt,
And like a wild beast chased the blood-stained hounds,
Groping o'er all the wall, like tracking huntsman,
Smiting and battering. All for my zeal's sake1175
For thee, I suffered this, who slew thy foe,
Agamemnon. Wherefore needeth many words?
Whoso ere now hath spoken ill of women,
Or speaketh now, or shall hereafter speak,
All this in one word will I close and say:—1180
Nor sea nor land doth nurture such a breed:
He knoweth, who hath converse with them most.
Chorus.
Be nowise reckless, nor, for thine own ills,
Include in this thy curse all womankind.
For some, yea many of us, deserve not blame,[1]1185
Though some by vice of blood count midst the bad.
Hecuba.
Agamemnon, never should this thing have been,
That words with men should more avail than deeds,
But good deeds should with reasonings good be paired,
- ↑ I venture to propose οὐκ for εἴσ᾽ in 1185. In a copy from a cursive MS., especially one like Harl. 5724, in which the contracted ει and ου are so similar, εἴσ᾽ would be more likely to have crept in for οὐκ, than τῶν for μὴ (1186), as suggested by Paley; and the Chorus would be more likely to claim that the majority of their sisters were good, than that they were bad.
