Being such, do you reproach me with my lineage?
Telamon is the father who begat me,
Who, as the foremost champion of the Greeks,
Won as his bride my mother, a princess
By birth, Laomedon's daughter: a chosen spoil
She had been given him by Alcmena's son.
Thus of two noble parents nobly born,
How should I shame one of my blood, whom now,
Laid low by such calamity, you would thrust
Unburied forth, and feel no shame to say it?
But of this be sure: wheresoever you may cast him,
Us three also with him will you cast forth.
For it beseems me in his cause to die
In sight of all, rather than for the sake
Of your wife—or your brother's should I say?
Look then not to my interest, but your own.
For if you assail me, you shall soon wish rather
To have been a coward than too bold against me.
[Enter Odysseus.]
CHORUS
In good time. King Odysseus, hast thou come,
If 'tis thy purpose not to embroil but reconcile.
ODYSSEUS
What is it, friends? Far off I heard high words
From the Atreidæ over this hero's corpse.
AGAMEMNON
Royal Odysseus, but now from this man
We have been listening to most shameful taunts.
ODYSSEUS
How shameful? I could find excuse for one
Who, when reviled, retorts with bitter words.
AGAMEMNON
Yes, I repaid his vile deeds with reviling.
53
