Let not a woman trust, since that first treason, a lover's
Desperate oath, none hope true lover's promise is earnest.
145 They, while fondly to win their amorous humour essayeth,
Fear no covetous oath, all false free promises heed not;
They if once lewd pleasure attain unruly possession,
Lo they fear not promise, of oath or perjury reck not.
Yet indeed, yet I, when floods of death were around thee,
150 Set thee on high, did rather a brother choose to defend not,
Ere I, in hate's last hour, false heart, fail'd thee to deliver.
Now, for a goodly reward, to the beasts they give me, the flying
Fowls; no handful of earth shall bury me, pass'd to the shadows.
What grim lioness yeaned thee, aneath what rock's desolation?
155 What wild sea did bear, what billows foamy regorged thee?
Seething sand, or Scylla the snare, or lonely Charybdis?
If for a life's dear joy comes back such only requital?
Hadst not a will with spousal an honour'd wife to receive me?
Awed thee a father stern, cross age's churlish avising?
160 Yet to your household thou, your kindred palaces olden,
Might'st have led me, to wait, joy-filled, a retainer upon thee,
Now in waters clear thy feet like ivory laving,
Clothing now thy bed with crimson's gorgeous apparel.
Yet to the brutish winds why moan I longer unheeded,
165 Crazy with an ill wrong? They senseless, voiceless, inhuman
Utter'd cry they hear not, in answers hollow reply not.
He rides far already, the mid sea's boundary cleaving,
Strays no mortal along these weeds stretched lonely about me.
Thus to my utmost need chance, spitefuller injury dealing,
170 Grudges an ear, where yet might lamentation have entry.
Jove, almighty, supreme, O would that never in early
Time on Gnossian earth great Cecrops' navies had harbour'd,
Ne'er to that unquell'd bull with a ransom of horror atoning,
Moor'd on Crete his cable a shipman's wily dishonour.
175 Never in youth's fair shape such ruthless stratagem hiding
He, that vile one, a guest found with us a safe habitation.
Whither flee then afar? what hope, poor lost one, upholds thee?
Mountains Idomenean? alas, broad surges of ocean
Part us, a rough rude space of flowing water, asunder.
180 Trust in a father's help? how trust, whom darkly deserting,
Him I turned to alone, my brother's bloody defier?
Nay, but a loyal lover, a hand pledg'd surely, shall ease me.
Surely; for o'er wide water his oars move flexibly fleeting.
Also a desert lies this region, a tenantless island,
185 Nowhere open way, seas splash in circle around me,
Nowhere flight, no glimmer of hope; all mournfully silent,
Loneliness all, all points me to death, death only remaining.
Yet these luminous orbs shall sink not feebly to darkness,
Yet from grief-worn limbs shall feeling wholly depart not,
190 Till to the gods I cry, the betrayed, for justice on evil,
Sue for life's last mercy the great federation of heaven.