No Power Without Justice / I Can Believe in You

Peleus, the aged father of Achilles, has just successfully rescued Andromache and her child from death at the hands of Menelaus and Hermione. The Chorus sings him a happy but meditative victory ode.

LYRICS: The life that I praise,
that I aspire to
does not wield power
divorced from justice

Honest defeat does not bring shame
in private rooms,
in public life

O I can believe in you, old man (I can believe that you fought with your glorious spear)
I can believe in you (I can believe that you sailed through the Clashing Rocks)
Aboard the Argo on that glorious voyage (aboard the Argo you sailed the inhospitable waters)
I can believe in your honesty

Good families have honor and glory.
Time cannot erase them.
Their excellence shines out, even after death.

Let me be born (if I am born at all) to noble parents
and a rich home.
Rich men are shielded from human suffering
the poor are nothing, have no recourse.