my last
with thee, be slain, and have my body burned with thee, being a friend, and
dreading reproach.

OR. Speak words of better omen. I must needs bear my troubles, but when I
may [endure] one single trouble, I will not endure twain. For what thou
callest bitter and reproachful, that is my portion, if I cause thee to be
slain who hast shared my toils. For, as far as I am concerned, it stands
not badly with me, faring as I fare at the hands of the Gods, to end my
life. But thou art prosperous, and hast a home pure, not sickening, but I
[have] one impious and unhappy. And living thou mayest raise children from
my sister, whom I gave thee to have[92] as a wife, and my name might exist,
nor would my ancestral house be ever blotted out. But go, live, and dwell
in my father's house; and when thou comest to Greece and chivalrous Argos,
by thy right hand, I commit to thee this charge. Heap up a tomb, and place
upon it remembrances of me, and let my sister offer tears and her shorn
locks upon my sepulchre. And tell how I died by an Argive woman's hand,
sacrificed as an offering by the altar's side. And do thou never desert my
sister, seeing my father's connections and home bereaved. And fare thee
well! for I have found thee best among my friends. Oh thou who hast been my
fellow-huntsman, my mate! Oh thou who hast borne the weight of many of my
sorrows! But Phoebus, prophet though he be, has deceived me. For, artfully
devising, he has driven me as far as possible from Greece, in shame of his
former prophecies. To whom I, yielding up mine all, and obeying his words,
having slain my mother, myself perish in turn.

PYL. Thou shalt have a tomb, and never will I, hapless one, betray thy
sister's bed, since I shall hold thee more a friend dead than living. But
the oracle of the God has never yet wronged thee, although thou art indeed
on the very verge of death. But excessive mischance is very wont, is very
wont to present changes, when the matter so falls.

OR. Be silent--the words of Phoebus avail me naught, for the lady is coming
hither without the temple.

IPH. Depart ye, and go and make ready the things within for those who
superintend the sacrifice. These, O stranger, are the many-folded
inclosures of the letter, but hear thou what I further wish. No man is the
same in trouble, and when he changes from fear into confidence. But I fear,
lest he having got away from this land, will deem my letter of no account,
who is about to