EURIPIDES
Up to Demeter's child as victim a
Young lady of respectable descent.
Now you'll admit, I've done my best for you. 410
But I can hardly kill my child, or force
Another citizen to such a point.
Only a lunatic would let his child
Be killed that way, and angry groups in all
The streets are thrashing out the question now. 415
Some say we're bound to fight for refugees;
While others claim I've acted like a fool.
So if I did this for you, I would have
A full-scale civil war upon my hands.
However, maybe you can find a way 420
To save yourselves and us as well without
My losing face upon this issue. As
Fm not a tyrant over savages,
Good government must be both give and take.
Chorus
We're anxious to defend you, but the gods 425
Now seem determined not to let us fight.
loktus
O children, we're like sailors who've set through
A hurricane and almost reached the shore,
Only to have the wind veer round and blow
Us back to sea. And we ourselves are forced 430
Out of the harbor in that same way, although
We'd thought that we were safe inside the port.
0 Gpd! How terrible to liave a hope
That charms and cheats you. Still, I know that you
- Are not to blame. I can't expect you to 435
Kill off your subjects' children. This whole state
Has done its best. Although the gods see fit
To treat us this way, still I won't forget.
1 don't know what to do, boys, since we've no
More refuges to try, and no more gods 440
To pray to, no more countries in the world
148