Page:Tragedies of Euripides (Way 1896) v2.djvu/408

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And fain to dwell in his own fatherland,
Proffered Eurystheus for our home-return^[1]
A great price, even to rid the earth of pests— 20
Or spurred by Hera's goads, or drawn by fate.
And, all the other labours now achieved,
For the last, down the gorge of Tainarus
He hath passed to Hades, to bring up to light
The hound three-headed, whence he hath not returned. 25
Now an old legend lives mid Kadmus' sons
That erstwhile was one Lykus Dirkê's spouse,
And of this seven-gated city king,
Ere Zethus and Amphion ruled the land,
Lords of the White Steeds, sprung from loins of Zeus. 30
And this man's son, who bears his father's name,—
No Theban, a Eubœan outlander,—
Slew Kreon, and having slain him rules the land,
Falling upon the state sedition-rent.
And mine affinity with Kreon knit 35
Is turned to mighty evil, well I wot.
For, while my son is in the earth's dark heart,
This upstart^[2] Lykus, ruler of the land,
Would fain destroy the sons of Herakles,
And slay, with blood to smother blood, his wife 40
And me,—if I be reckoned among men,
A useless greybeard,—lest these, grown to man,
Take vengeance for their mother's father's blood.
And I—for me he left his halls within

1. Though Amphitryon had, with his family, been banished for shedding kindred blood, yet, having been ceremonially purified from the guilt by Kreon king of Thebes, he might now return by consent of the ruler of Mycenæ.
2. καινὸς vice κλεινὸς, "glorious" (ironically); and so in line 541.