EURIPIDES
to protest your fate, when the gods do not?
Obey the law and leave your native Thebes
and follow after me to Pallas' city.
There I shall purify your hands of blood,
give you a home and a share of my wealth. 1325
All those gifts I have because I killed
the Minotaur and saved twice seven youths,
I cede to you. Everywhere throughout my land,
plots of earth have been reserved for me.
These I now assign to you, to bear your name 1330
until you die. And when you go to Hades,
Athens shall raise you up a monument
of stone, and honor you with sacrifice.
And so my city, helping a noble man,
shall win from Hellas a lovely crown of fame. 1335
This thanks and this return I make you now,
who saved me once. For now you need a friend.
[He needs no friends who has the love of gods.
For when god helps a man, he has help enough.]
Heracles
Ah, all this has no bearing on my grief; 1340
but I do not believe the gods commit
adultery, or bind each other in chains.
I never did believe it; I never shall;
nor that one god is tyrant of the rest.
If god is truly god, he is perfect, 1345
lacking nothing. These are poets' wretched lies.
Even in my misery I asked myself,
would it not be cowardice to die?
The man who cannot bear up under fate
could never face the weapons of a man. 1350
I shall prevail against death. I shall go
to your city. I accept your countless gifts.
For countless were the labors I endured;
never yet have I refused, never yet
have I wept, and never did I think 1355
that I should come to this: tears in my eyes.
360