Page:Tragedies of Euripides (Way 1898) v3.djvu/174

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Profit the state—ere long, if not straightway.910
Thus ought we on each leader of men to look,
And so esteem: for both be in like case,
The speaker, and the man in honour set.^[1]
Thee and Orestes he bade stone to death.
But Tyndareus still prompted him the words915
That best told, as he laboured for your death.
To plead against him then another rose,
No dainty presence, but a manful man,
In town and market-circle seldom found,
A yeoman—such as are the land's one stay,—920
Yet shrewd in grapple of words, when this he would;^[2]
A stainless man, who lived a blameless life.
He moved that they should crown Agamemnon's son
Orestes, since he dared avenge his sire,
Slaying the wicked and the godless wife925
Who sapped our strength:—none would take shield on arm,
Or would forsake his home to march to war,
If men's house-warders be seduced the while
By stayers at home, and couches be defiled.
To honest men he seemed to speak right well;930
And none spake after. Then thy brother rose,
And said, "Lords of the land of Inachus,—
Of old Pelasgians, later Danaus' sons,—
'Twas in your cause, no less than in my sire's,
I slew my mother; for, if their lords' blood935

1. Wedd interprets, "and the appraiser of his speech," i.e. the audience, who are thus pronounced to be as responsible for the decision as the orator.
2. Variously rendered: by Wedd, "Yet wisely eager now for war of words:" by Paley, "Yet shrewd, and fain to assail that tonguester's plea."