Laudator Temporis Acti

Euripides, Children of Heracles 296-307 (tr. Mark Griffith):

There's no finer treasure for children than
to have been born of a noble and good father
[and to take a wife from a noble family. I don't approve
of a man leaving disgrace for his children for the sake of pleasure,        300
if he gives in to desire and shares his bed with those beneath him].
Good breeding resists ill luck better than ill breeding:
thus we, despite falling into the depths of adversity,        305
found these friends and relatives, who alone
of all the peoples of Greece stood up for us.

οὐκ ἔστι τοῦδε παισὶ κάλλιον γέρας,
ἢ πατρὸς ἐσθλοῦ κἀγαθοῦ πεφυκέναι
[γαμεῖν τ᾽ ἀπ᾽ ἐσθλῶν· ὃς δὲ νικηθεὶς πόθῳ
κακοῖς ἐκοινώνησεν οὐκ ἐπαινέσω,        300
τέκνοις ὄνειδος οὕνεχ᾽ ἡδονῆς λιπεῖν]·
τὸ δυστυχὲς γὰρ ηὑγένει᾽ ἀμύνεται
τῆς δυσγενείας μᾶλλον· ἡμεῖς γὰρ κακῶν
ἐς τοὔσχατον πεσόντες ηὕρομεν φίλους
καὶ ξυγγενεῖς τούσδ᾽, οἳ τοσῆσδ᾽ οἰκουμένης        305
Ἑλληνίδος γῆς τῶνδε προύστησαν μόνοι.

299-301 del. Niejahr