Hyllus (re-entering).
O mother, mother!
I would to heaven one of three things were true:
Either that thou wert dead, or, living, wert
No mother to me, or hadst gained a mind
Furnished with better thoughts than thou hast now!
Dê. My son! what canst thou so mislike in me?
Hyl. I tell thee thou this day hast been the death
Of him that was thy husband and my sire.
Dê. What word hath passed thy lips? my child, my child!
Hyl. A word that must be verified. For who
Can make the accomplished fact as things undone?
Dê. Alas, my son! what saidst thou? Who hath told
That I have wrought a deed so full of woe?
Hyl. ’Twas I myself that saw with these mine eyes
My father’s heavy state:—no hearsay word.
Dê. And where didst thou come near him and stand by?
Hyl. Art thou to hear it? On, then, with my tale!
When after sacking Eurytus’ great city
He marched in triumph with first-fruits of war,—
There is a headland, last of long Euboea,
Surf-beat Cenaeum,—where to his father Zeus
He dedicates high altars and a grove.
There first I saw him, gladdened from desire.
And when he now addressed him to the work
Of various sacrifice, the herald Lichas
Arrived from home, bearing thy fatal gift,
The deadly robe: wherewith invested straight,
As thou hadst given charge, he sacrificed
The firstlings of the spoil, twelve bulls entire,
Each after each. But the full count he brought
Was a clear hundred of all kinds of head.
Then the all-hapless one commenced his prayer
In solemn gladness for the bright array.
But presently, when from the holy things,
And from the richness of the oak-tree core,
