cowardice, and ye are serving, as best ye may, the interests of those without, but we within our walls are suffering capture at our own hands; such blessings will you have if you live along with women. Wherefore if any one give not ear to my authority, be it man or woman, or other between [these names109], the fatal pebble shall decide against him, and by no means shall he escape the doom of stoning at the hand of the populace. For what passeth without is a man's concern, let not woman offer advice—but remaining within do thou occasion no mischief. Heard'st thou, or heard'st thou not, or am I speaking to a deaf woman? Ch. O dear son of Œdipus, I felt terror when I heard the din from the clatter of the cars, when the wheel-whirling naves rattled, and [the din] of the fire-wrought bits, the rudders110 of the horses, passing through their mouths that know no rest. Ch. 62 62 Et. What then? does the mariner who flees from the stern to the prow111 find means of escape, when his bark is laboring against the billow of the ocean? Et. Ch. No; but I came in haste to the ancient statues of the divinities, trusting in the gods, when there was a pattering at our gates of destructive sleet showering down, even then I was carried away by terror to offer my supplications to the Immortals, that they would extend their protection over the city. Ch. Et. Pray that our fortification may resist the hostile spear. Et. Ch. Shall not this, then, be at the disposal of the gods? Ch. Et. Ay, but 'tis said that the gods of the captured city abandon it. Et. Ch. At no time during my life may this conclave of gods abandon us: never may I behold our city overrun, and an army firing it with hostile flame.
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