MEN. Slay her; since having slain thou shalt at least give me satisfaction for these deeds. ORES. It shall be so then. MEN. Alas! on no account do this! ORES. Be silent then; but bear to suffer evil justly. MEN. What! is it just for thee to live? ORES. Yes, and to rule over the land. MEN. What land! ORES. Here, in Pelasgian Argos. MEN. Well wouldst thou touch the sacred lavers! ORES. And pray why not? MEN. And wouldst slaughter the victim before the battle! ORES. And thou wouldst most righteously. MEN. Yes, for I am pure as to my hands. ORES. But not thy heart. MEN. Who would speak to thee? ORES. Whoever loves his father. MEN. And whoever reveres his mother. ORES. --Is happy. MEN. Not thou at least. ORES. For wicked women please me not. MEN. Take away the sword from my daughter. ORES. Thou art false in thy expectations. MEN. But wilt thou kill my daughter? ORES. Thou art no longer false. MEN. Alas me! what shall I do? ORES. Go to the Argives, and persuade them. MEN. With what persuasion? ORES. Beseech the city that we may not die.[41a] MEN. Otherwise ye will slay my daughter? ORES. The thing is so. MEN. O wretched Helen!-- ORES. And am I not wretched? MEN. I brought thee hither from the Trojans to be a victim. ORES. For would this were so! MEN. Having endured ten thousand toils. ORES. Except on my account. MEN. I have met with dreadful treatment. ORES. For then, _when thou oughtest_, thou wert of no assistance. MEN. Thou hast me. ORES. Thou at least hast caught thyself. But, ho there! set fire to the palace, Electra, from beneath: and thou, Pylades, the most true of my friends, light up these battlements of the walls. MEN. O land of the Danai, and inhabitants of warlike Argos, will ye not, ho there! come in arms to my succor? For this man here, having perpetrated the shocking murder of his mother, brings destruction on your whole city, that he may live. APOLLO.