Li. I, certainly, left him alive and well,—in vigorous health, unburdened by disease.
De. Where, tell me—at home, or on foreign soil?
Li. There is a headland of Euboea, where to Cenaean Zeus he consecrates altars, and the tribute of fruitful ground.
De. In payment of a vow, or at the bidding of an oracle?
Li. For a vow, made when he was seeking to240 conquer and despoil the country of these women who are before thee.
De. And these—who are they, I pray thee, and whose daughters? They deserve pity, unless their plight deceives me.
Li. These are captives whom he chose out for himself and for the gods, when he sacked the city of Eurytus.
De. Was it the war against that city which kept him away so long, beyond all forecast, past all count of days?
Li. Not so: the greater part of the time he was detained in Lydia,—no free man, as he declares, but sold into bondage. No offence should attend on the word,250 lady, when the deed is found to be of Zeus. So he passed a whole year, as he himself avows, in thraldom to Omphalè the barbarian. And so stung was he by that reproach, he bound himself by a solemn oath that he would one day enslave, with wife and child, the man who had brought that calamity upon him. Nor did he speak the word in vain; but, when he had been purged, gathered an alien host, and went