IPH.  If, O father, I possessed the eloquence of Orpheus, that I might charm by persuasion, so that rocks should follow me, and that I might soften whom I would by my words, to this would I have resorted.  But now I will offer tears as all my skill, for these I can.  And, as a suppliant bough, I press against thy knees my body, which this [my mother] bore thee, [beseeching] that thou slay me not before my time, for sweet it is to behold the light, nor do thou compel me to visit the places beneath the earth.  And I first[87] hailed thee sire, and thou [didst first call] me daughter, and first drawing nigh to thy knees, I gave and in turn received sweet tokens of affection.  And such, were thy words:  “My daughter, shall I some time behold thee prospering in a husband’s home, living and flourishing worthily of me?” And mine in turn ran thus, as I hung about thy beard, which now with my hand I embrace:  “But how shall I [treat] thee?  Shall I receive thee when an old man, O father, with the hearty reception of my house, repaying thee the careful nurture of my youth?” Of such words have remembrance, but thou hast forgotten them, and fain wouldst slay me.  Do not, [I beseech you] by Pelops and by thy father Atreus, and this my mother, who having before brought me forth with throes, now suffers this second throe.  What have I to do with the marriage of Paris and Helen?  Whence came he, father, for my destruction?  Look upon me; give me one look, one kiss, that this memorial of thee at least I, dying, may possess, if thou wilt not be persuaded by my words.  Brother, thou art but a little helpmate to those dear, yet weep with me, beseech thy sire that thy sister die not.  Even in babes there is wont to be some sense of evil.  Behold, O father, he silently implores thee.  But respect my prayer, and have pity on my years.  Yea, by thy beard we, two dear ones, implore thee; the one is yet a nursling, but the other grown up.  In one brief saying I will overcome all arguments.  This light of heaven is sweetest of things for men to behold, but that below is naught; and mad is he who seeks to die.  To live dishonorably is better than to die gloriously.

CHOR.  O wretched Helen, through thee and thy nuptials there is come a contest for the Atrides and their children.

AG.  I can understand what merits pity, and what not; and I love my children, for [otherwise] I were mad.  And dreadful ’tis for me[88] to dare these things, O woman, and dreadful not to do so—­for so I must needs act.  Thou seest how great is this naval host, and how many are the chieftains of brazen arms among the Greeks, to whom there is not a power of arriving at the towers of Troy, unless I sacrifice you, as the seer Calchas says, nor can we take the renowned plain of Troy.  But a certain passion has maddened the army of the Greeks, to sail as quickly as possible upon the land of the barbarians, and to put a stop to the rapes of Grecian wives.  And they will slay my daughters at Argos, and you, and me, if I break through the commands of the Goddess.  It is not Menelaus who has enslaved me, O daughter, nor have I followed his device, but Greece, for whom I, will or nill, must needs offer thee.  And I am inferior on this head.  For it behooves her, [Helen,] as far as thou, O daughter, art concerned, to be free, nor for us, being Greeks, to be plundered perforce of our wives by barbarians.