Page:Tragedies of Euripides (Way 1898) v3.djvu/352

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EURIPIDES.

Klytemnestra.

Oh, alas for me! Now haply murder-frenzied is my lord.


Old Servant.

Sane—save touching thee and this thy daughter: only mad herein.


Klytemnestra.

What the reason? What avenging Demon[1] drives him to the sin?


Old Servant.

Oracles, as Kalchas sayeth, that the host may pass the sea.


Klytemnestra.

Whither? Woe for me, for thee, whose father waits to murder thee! 880


Old Servant.

Unto Dardanus' halls, that Menelaus may bring Helen home.


Klytemnestra.

Ha! is Helen's home-returning fraught with Iphigeneia's doom?


Old Servant.

Thou hast all: the sire will sacrifice thy child to Artemis.


Klytemnestra.

And the marriage made the pretext![2]—trained me from my home to this!

  1. ↑ Since the House of Atreus was notoriously under the ban of ancient crimes, this occurs as a possible explanation.
  2. ↑ Reading παρεῖχε. England reads γάμον τιν’ εἶχε, "And of marriage made he pretext."
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