next come ties of kin, and the debt I owe to treat them kindly for their father’s sake; and last, mine honour, which before all I must regard; for if I permit this altar to be violently despoiled by stranger hands, men will think the land I inhabit is free no more, and that through fearReading ὄκνῳ. I have surrendered suppliants to Argives, and this comes nigh to make one hang oneself. Would that thou hadst come under a luckier star! yet, as it is, fear not that any man shall tear thee and these children from the altar by force. Get thee (to Copreus) to Argos and tell Eurystheus so; yea and more, if he have any charge against these strangers, he shall have justice; but never shalt thou drag them hence.CopreusNot even if I have right upon my side and prove my case?DemophonHow can it be right to drag the suppliant away by force?CopreusWell,Reading with Musgrave οὐκοῦν . . . ἀλλ’ οὐ. Jerram reads οὔκουν . . . ἀλλὰ σοὶ giving as the sense of this line and the next—Cop. No disgrace to me: the hurt will be thine. Dem. So it will, if I let thee take them. mine is the disgrace; no harm will come to thee.DemophonTis harm to me, if I let them be haled away by thee.CopreusBanish them thyself, and then will I take them from elsewhere.DemophonNature made thee a fool, to think thou knowest better than the god.CopreusIt seems then evildoers are to find a refuge here.DemophonA temple of the gods is an asylum open to the world.CopreusMaybe they will not take this view in Mycensa.DemophonWhat! am I not lord of this domain?CopreusSo long as thou injure not the Argives, and ifKirchhoff places a comma after ἐκείνους, and changes ἣν into ἄν, but this is not necessary. wise, thou wilt not.DemophonBe injured for all I care, provided I sin not against the gods.CopreusI would not have thee come to blows with Argos.DemophonI am of like mind in this; but I will not dismiss these from my protection.CopreusFor all that, I shall take and drag my own away.DemophonWhy then perhaps thou wilt find a difficulty in returning to Argos.CopreusThat shall I soon find out by making the attempt.