roubles, and has been marvelously and
undeservedly ill treated. I were the worst man among the Greeks, I were of
naught (but Menelaus would be among men), not as born from Peleus, but from
some fiend, if my name acts the murderer for thy husband.[72] By Nereus,
nurtured in the damp waves, the father of Thetis, who begat me, king
Agamemnon shall not lay hands on thy daughter, not so much as with a little
finger, so as to touch her garments. I' faith, Sipylus, a fortress of
barbarians, whence the [royal] generals trace their descent, shall be
deemed a city, but the name of Phthia shall nowhere be named. And the seer
Calchas will to his cost consecrate the sacrificial cakes and lustral
waters. (But what man is a prophet?) who tells[73] a few things true, (but
many falsely,) when he has made a hit, but when he fails, is undone. These
words are not spoken for the sake of my wedding, (ten thousand girls are
hunting after alliance with me,) but [because] king Agamemnon has been
guilty of insult toward me. But it behooved him to ask [the use of] my name
from me, as an enticement for his daughter, and Clytaemnestra would have
been most readily persuaded to give her daughter to me as a husband. And I
would have given her up to the Greeks, if on this account their passage to
Troy had been impeded: I would not have refused to augment the common
interest of those with whom I set out on the expedition. But now I am held
as of no account by the generals, and it is a matter of indifference
whether I benefit them or not. Soon shall my sword witness, which, before
death came against the Phrygians,[74] I stained with spots of blood,
whether any one shall take thy daughter from me. But keep quiet, I have
appeared to thee as a most mighty God, though not [a God,] but nevertheless
I will be such.

CHOR. O son of Peleus, thou hast spoken both worthily of thyself, and of
the marine deity, hallowed Goddess.

CLY. Alas! how can I praise thee neither too much in words, nor, being
deficient in this respect, [not] lose thy favor? For in a certain wise the
praised dislike their praisers, if they praise too much. But I am ashamed
at alleging pitiable words, being troubled in myself, while thou art not
diseased with my ills. But in fact the good man has some reason, even
though he be unconnected with them, for assisting the unfortunate. But pity
us, for we have suffered pitiably; I, who, in the first place, thinking to
have thee for a kinsman, cherish