EURIPIDES
How have they hurt you? Yet I grant you wise
in one respect: being base yourself,
you fear the children of a noble man.
Still, this goes hard with us, that we must die
to prove your cowardice, a fate which you 210
might better suffer at our better hands,
if the mind of Zeus intended justice here.
But if the sceptre is what you desire,
then let us go as exiles from the land.
But beware of force, lest you suffer it, 215
when god swings round again with veering wind.
O country of Cadmus, on you too
my reproaches fall! Is this your vigil
for the sons of Heracles? For Heracles,
who single-handed fought your Minyan foe 220
and made Thebes see once more with free men's eyes?
No more can I praise Hellas, nor be still,
finding her so craven toward my son:
with sword, spear, and fire she should have come
to help these boys in gratitude to him, 225
for all his labors clearing land and sea.
Poor children, both Thebes and Hellas fail you.
And so you turn to me, a weak old man,
nothing more now than a jawing of words,
forsaken by that strength I used to have, 230
left only with this trembling husk of age.
But if my youth and strength could come again,
I'd take my spear and bloody your brown hair
until you ran beyond the bounds of Atlas,
trying, coward, to outrun my spear! 235
Chorus
There is a source of speech in all brave men
which does not fail, although the tongue be slow.
Lycus
Go on, rant, pile up your tower of words!
My actions, not my words, shall answer your abuse.