Page:Tragedies of Euripides (Way 1896) v2.djvu/284

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Yet, morn by morn, I never wont to cease
Conning what I would tell thee to thy face, 910
If ever from past terrors disenthralled
I stood. Now am I; and I pay the debt
Of taunts I fain had hurled at thee alive.
Thou wast my ruin, of a sire beloved
Didst orphan me and him, who wronged thee never; 915
Didst foully wed my mother, slew'st her lord,
Hellas' war-chief,—thou who ne'er sawest Troy!
Such was thy folly's depth that thou didst dream
Thou hadst wedded in my mother a true wife,
With whom thou didst defile my father's couch! 920
Let whoso draggeth down his neighbour's wife
To folly, and then must take her for his own,
Know himself dupe, who deemeth that to him
She shall be true, who to her lord was false.
Wretched thy life was, which thou thoughtest blest:— 925
Thou knewest thine a marriage impious,
And she, that she had ta'en for lord a villain.
Transgressors both, each other's lot ye took,—
She took thy fortune, thou didst take her curse.
And through all Argos this was still thy name— 930
"That woman's husband": none said "That man's wife."
Yet shame is this, when foremost in the home
Is wife, not husband. Out upon the sons
That not the man's, their father's, sons are called,
Nay, but the mother's, all the city through! 935
For, when the ignoble weddeth high-born bride,
None take account of him, but all of her.
This was thy strong delusion, blind of heart,
Through pride of wealth to boast thee some great one!
Nought wealth is, save for fleeting fellowship. 940