Peleus.
Thou, thou a man?—Coward, of cowards bred! 590
What part or lot hast thou amongst true men?
Thou, by a Phrygian from thy wife divorced,
Who leftest hearth and home unbarred, unwarded,
As who kept in his halls a virtuous wife,—
And she the vilest! Though one should essay, 595
Virtuous could daughter of Sparta never be.
They gad abroad with young men from their homes,
And with bare thighs and loose disgirdled vesture
Race, wrestle with them,—things intolerable
To me! And is it wonder-worthy then 600
That ye train not your women to be chaste?
This well might Helen have asked thee, who forsook
Thy love, and from thine halls went revelling forth
With a young gallant to an alien land.
Yet for her sake thou gatheredst that huge host 605
Of Greeks, and leddest them to Ilium.
Thou shouldst have spued her forth, have stirred no spear,
Who hadst found her vile, but let her there abide,
Yea, paid a price to take her never back.
But nowise thus the wind of thine heart blew. 610
Nay, many a gallant life hast thou destroyed,
And childless made grey mothers in their halls,
And white-haired sires hast robbed of noble sons;—
My wretched self am one, who see in thee,
Like some foul fiend, Achilles' murderer;— 615
Thou who alone unwounded cam'st from Troy,
And daintiest arms in dainty sheaths unstained,
Borne thither, hither back didst bring again!
I warned my bridegroom-grandson not to make
