EURIPIDES
You like, and say I don't behave the way
A woman should. I'll kill him all the same. 980
Chorus
We feel for you. God knows that you have cause
Enough to hate this man so terribly.
Eurystheus
Don't think I'm going to grovel to you or
Show the white feather here and beg to save
My skin. In any case, I didn't start 985
This feud of my accord. I knew quite well
That you're my cousin and that Heracles
Was consequently my own flesh and blood.
I couldn't help myself when heaven took
A hand, and Hera saddled me with this 990
Scourge in the first place. Once I had estranged
Your son for good and knew the fight was on,
I racked my brains to make things hard for him
And sat up nights to think of ways to beat
And finish off my enemies, and end 995
The fear that never left me day and night.
I didn't underrate your son and knew
His caliber, to give the man his due
For courage, though he was no friend of mine.
But though he'd died, the others kept alive 1000
The spite. I knew the feud was handed down.
That's why I had to try so hard to get
Them killed or exiled, and to plot and plan;
Those tactics meant the only hope for me.
And in my own place, you'd have beaten off 1005
The snarling cubs left by the lion who
Had hated you. Don't try to tell me that
You'd let them stay at peace, in Argos too.
You missed your chance to kill me at the time
When I was willing, so by all Greek laws 1010
My death pollutes the one who strikes me down.
Athens has let me live and knows enough
170