Thy grip; thy miser-clutch keeps it at home.
Yet hadst thou, as behoved thee, reared my son
And saved alive, thine had been fair renown.1225
For in adversity the good are friends
Most true: prosperity hath friends unsought.
Hadst thou lacked money, and his lot been fair,
A treasury deep my son had been to thee:
But now thou hast not him unto thy friend;1230
Gone is the gold's avail, thy sons are gone,—
And this thy plight! Now unto thee I say,
Agamemnon, if thou help him, base thou showest.
The godless, false to whom he owed fair faith,
The impious host unrighteous shalt thou comfort.1235
Thou joyest in the wicked, shall we say,
If such thou be—but on my lords I rail not.
Chorus.
Lo, how the good cause giveth evermore
To men occasion for good argument
Agamemnon.
It likes me not to judge on others' wrongs;1240
Yet needs I must, for shame it were to take
This cause into mine hands, and then thrust by.
But,—wouldst thou know my thought,—not for my sake,
Nor the Achaians', didst thou slay thy guest,
But even to keep that gold within thine halls.1245
In this ill plight thou speak'st to serve thine ends.
Haply with you guest-murder is as nought,
But to us which be Greeks foul shame is this.
How can I uncondemned adjudge thee guiltless?
I cannot. Forasmuch as thou hast dared1250
To do foul deeds, even drain thy bitter cup.
