"
Then she adjures him by all the sacred ties, and dwells pathetically
on the circumstance which had struck even Menelaus.
"If Paris be enamored of his bride,
His Helen,--what concerns it me? and how
Comes he to my destruction?
Look upon me;
Give me a smile, give me a kiss, my father;
That, if my words persuade thee not, in death
I may have this memorial of thy love."
Never have the names of father and daughter been uttered with a holier
tenderness than by Euripides, as in this most lovely passage, or in
the "Supplicants," after the voluntary death of Evadne. Iphis says:
"What shall this wretch now do? Should I return
To my own house?--sad desolation there
I shall behold, to sink my soul with grief.
Or go I to the house of Capaneus?
That was delightful to me, when I found
My daughter there; but she is there no more.
Oft would she kiss my check, with fond caress
Oft soothe me. To a father, waxing old,
Nothing is dearer than a daughter! Sons
Have spirits of higher pitch, but less inclined
To sweet, endearing fondness. Lead me then,
Instantly lead me to my house; consign
My wretched age to darkness, there to pine
And waste away.
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