PEL. Answer my questions, O ye Phthian dames,
For doubtful is the rumour I have heard,
That Menelaus’ daughter, when she left
This house departed from the realm. I come
Anxious to learn if this account be true.
For ’tis their duty who remain at home
To guard the fortunes of their absent friends.
CHOR. What thou hast heard, O Peleus, is the truth,
And ill would it become me to conceal
The woes in which I deeply am involved:
Our royal mistress from these walls is fled.
PEL. What feared she? say.
CHOR. The anger of her lord,
Lest he from these abodes should cast her forth.
PEL. Because she plotted to have slain the boy?
CHOR. E’en so it was. Yon captive too she dreaded.
PEL. But from these mansions did she go, attended,
Or by her father or by whom?
CHOR. The son
Of Agamemnon from this land conveyed her.
PEL. What are his views? to take her for his bride?
CHOR. Thy grandson too he meditates to slay.
PEL. Stationed in secret ambush, or resolved
To meet the dauntless warrior face to face?
CHOR. Beneath Apollo’s unpolluted fane
With Delphi’s citizens.
PEL. Atrocious crime!
Ah me! will no one with his utmost speed
Go to the altar of the Pythian god,
And to our friends disclose what passes here,
Ere by his foes Achilles’ son is slain?