Page:Tragedies of Euripides (Way 1898) v3.djvu/381

Agamemnon's child, a God came near to bless 1405
Me, could I but have won thee for my bride.
Happy in thee is Hellas, thou in Hellas!
Well saidst thou this, and worthily of our land:
Thou hast turned away from strife with Gods—a thing
Too hard for thee—hast weighed the good Fate spares. 1410
Yet love for thee now thrills me through the more
That I have seen thy nature, noble heart.
Wherefore look to it: thee I fain would serve,
And bear thee home. I chafe, be Thetis witness,
That I should save thee not in battle-shock 1415
With Danaans. Think—a fearful thing is death.

I say this,—as one past all hope and fear:—
Suffice that through her beauty Tyndareus' child
Stirs strife and slaughter: but thou, stranger-prince,
Die not for me, nor slay thou any man. 1420
Let me be Hellas' saviour, if I may.

O soul heroic!—nought can I say more
Hereto, since fixed thine heart is. Thy resolve
Is noble—why should one say not the truth?
But yet,—for haply yet thy mood may change,— 1425
That thou mayst know the proffer that I make,
I go, to place my weapons nigh the altar,
Ready to suffer not, but bar, thy death.
Thou mayst, even thou, unto mine offer turn,
When thou beholdest at thy throat the knife. 1430
Thou shalt not through a hasty impulse die.