EURIPIDES

The highest honors, here and when you're gone.

And so Godspeed, saving the pardon of 600

The goddess in whose hands your life is placed.

(Exit Macaria.)
This shock's too much for me, and everything

(Totters.)

Is going black. Quick, children, prop me up!
Let me sit down and cover me with these.
To flout the oracle would be the end of all 605

Of us; though this alternative is sad,
Still, it's the lesser evil of the two.

Chorus

STROPHE

In all our ups and downs a wise
Man knows the gods have final say,

Nor can one house monopolize 610

Destiny, but from day to day
Luck pirouettes, and people who
Had conquered stoop, while drudges make
Their fortunes overnight. But you

Cannot get out of it or break 615

Through by chicanery. You'll find
To try's a waste, time out of mind.

ANTISTROPHE
Don't take God's orders lying down
Or fret because Macaria's won 620
A high and durable renown
For kin and country. She's undone,
For doing what Will send her through
The ages. A stout heart commands
Its way through pain. In that she's true 625
To everything her father stands
For and her birthright, true as steel.
The brave are gone; the quick must feel.