Epeisodion 2
King
I have considered them; and I am driven to this cruel predicament. I must take upon myself a mighty war against one side or the other.
There is no escape, it is as firmly fixed as a ship’s hull drawn tight by windlasses. There is no result without grievous hurt. Now when goods are plundered from a homestead,
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other goods may come by grace of Zeus, guardian of household wealth; as a tongue that has shot arrows beside the mark, one speech may be the healer of another. But to avoid the shedding of kindred blood,
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surely there is need of sacrifice and that many a victim fall to many a god as a deliverance from impending harm. For truly, it is to my undoing that I have come into this quarrel; and yet I prefer to be unskilled rather than practised in the lore of foretelling ill. But may my judgment belie itself and all go well!
450
Chorus
Hear now the end of my appeals for compassion.
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King
I hear; say on. It shall not escape me.
Chorus
I have breast-bands and girdles to gather up my robes.
King
Such things are proper, no doubt, for women.
Chorus
In these then, be sure, I have a beautiful instrument—
King
Tell me what speech you plan to utter.
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Chorus
If you will not give some pledge to this group—
King
What will the contrivance of the sashes do for you?
Chorus
To adorn these images with tablets of strange sort.
King
Your words are riddling; come, explain in simple speech.
Chorus
To hang ourselves from the statues of these gods.
465
King
I detect a threat that is a lash upon my heart.
Chorus
You have grasped my intention, for I have cleared your vision.
King
And on many sides there are difficulties hard to wrestle with; for, like a flood, a multitude of ills bursts on me.
It is a sea of ruin, fathomless and impassable, which I am launched upon, and nowhere is there a haven from distress. For should I not pay the debt due to you, the pollution you name is beyond all range of speech; yet if
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I take my stand before the walls and try the issue of battle with the sons of Aegyptus, your kinsmen, how will the cost not mount to a cruel price—men’s blood to stain the ground for women’s sake?
And yet the wrath of Zeus who guards the suppliant compels my reverence; for supreme among mortals is the fear of him.
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