Part 18 (2/2)

”O Light and Shadow of all things that be, O Beauty, wild with wreckage like the sea, Say who shall win thee, thou without a name?

O Helen, Helen, who shall die for thee?”

ALCIMEDON.

[_Starting up._] Now, by Thetis, stranger, in shape G.o.d has made you kinglike, but within a very fool!

HERMIONE.

[_Piteously._] My mother Helen never _wished_ the men to die!

ORESTES.

My singing mislikes you, old man? Or is it women that like you not?

PYRRHUS.

Stranger, some gayer song would better suit a day of rejoicing. Are the songs of Acarnania all sad?

ORESTES.

Do the men of Phthia wince at the name of death?

ALCIMEDON.

We have our own bard, who can sing to our liking; and his lays will tell whether we fear death.

ORESTES.

Your own bard will sing your own valour, belike? That I can ill do; for I have heard but little of the deeds of Pyrrhus.

ALCIMEDON.

The name of Troy has been heard, perchance, even in Acarnania?

ORESTES.

But the praise of your ancestors I could make into something--something gayer, you said? Was aeacus the first of your house?

ALCIMEDON.

aeacus, son of Zeus.

ORESTES.

[_Tw.a.n.ging the lyre carelessly and improvising._

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