Apollo monologue — Specimens of Greek Tragedy — Aeschylus and Sophocles

With this, too, will I deal, and mark me well, The mother is not parent to the child, But only fosters that she hath conceived. The male is the true parent, and his mate But holds the germ, so it 'scape blight, in trust. This can I prove by puissant argument. A father sans a mother there may be. There stands the daughter of Olympian Zeus, She ne'er was nurtured in the darkling womb, Yet could no god in heaven beget her peer. Pallas, as always my endeavour is Thy city and thy people to exalt, So I have sent this suppliant to thy hearth, That he might be thy ever faithful friend, And thou might'st count him as a sure ally, Him and his race hereafter, and this bond Unbroken through all ages might endure.