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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 15081 ***
+
+
+
+
+THE
+TRAGEDIES
+OF
+EURIPIDES.
+
+LITERALLY TRANSLATED OR REVISED,
+WITH CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES,
+
+BY
+THEODORE ALOIS BUCKLEY,
+OF CHRIST CHURCH.
+
+VOL. I.
+
+HECUBA, ORESTES, PHŒNISSÆ, MEDEA, HIPPOLYTUS, ALCESTIS,
+BACCHÆ, HERACLIDÆ, IPHIGENIA IN AULIDE,
+AND IPHIGENIA IN TAURIS.
+
+NEW YORK:
+HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS,
+FRANKLIN SQUARE.
+
+1892.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *       *
+
+PREFACE.
+
+The translations of the first six plays in the present volume were
+published at Oxford some years since, and have been frequently reprinted.
+They are now carefully revised according to Dindorf's text, and are
+accompanied by a few additional notes adapted to the requirements of the
+student.
+
+The translations of the Bacchæ, Heraclidæ, and the two Iphigenias, are
+based upon the same text, with certain exceptions, which are pointed out at
+the foot of the page. The annotations on the Iphigenias are almost
+exclusively critical, as it is presumed that a student who proceeds to the
+reading of these somewhat difficult plays[1], will be sufficiently advanced
+in his acquaintance with the Greek drama to dispense with more elementary
+information.
+
+          T.A. BUCKLEY,
+              CHRIST CHURCH, OXFORD.
+
+[1] The reader will obtain some notion of the difficulties alluded to, and
+the best mode of grappling with them, by consulting the recent Cambridge
+edition, published with English notes (Iph. in Aulide, 1840, in Tauris,
+1846), performances of great critical acumen, attributed to the present
+Bishop of Gloucester.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *       *
+
+INTRODUCTION.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+Euripides, son of Mnesarchus, was born in the island of Salamis, on the day
+of the celebrated victory (B.C. 480). His mother, Clito, had been sent
+thither in company with the other Athenian women, when Attica was given up,
+and the ships became at once the refuge of the male population, and the
+national defense. Mr. Donaldson[1] well remarks, that the patronymic form
+of his name, derived from the Euripus, which was the scene of the first
+successful resistance offered to the Persian navy, shows that the attention
+of his parents was fully excited by the stirring events of the time.
+
+Notwithstanding the fact that his mother had been an herb-seller, it is
+probable that his father was a man of some family. That he was at least
+possessed of ample means, is evident from the care and expense bestowed
+upon our poet's education. Under the tutorship of Anaxagoras, Prodicus, and
+Protagoras, he had studied both natural philosophy and rhetoric in its
+sophistical form. In gymnastic exercises he exhibited a successful prowess,
+being twice victorious in the Eleusinian and Thesean games. Of his skill in
+painting, some specimens were preserved at Megara.
+
+His appearance as a dramatist was at an earlier age than that of his
+predecessors, as he was only five and twenty years old when he produced the
+"Peliades," his first tragedy. On this occasion, he gained the third prize
+in the tragic contests, but the first, fourteen years after, and
+subsequently, with the "Hippolytus," in 428 B.C. The peculiar tendency of
+some of the ideas expressed in his plays, was the probable cause of the
+retirement of Euripides to Macedonia, where he obtained the friendship of
+King Archelaus. Perhaps, however, the unhappiness of his connubial state,
+arising from the infidelity of his two wives, might have rendered Athens a
+disagreeable place of abode for the woman-hating poet, especially when his
+"domestic bliss" was continually seasoned by the sarcastic jokes and
+allusions of his political enemy, Aristophanes. Moreover, his acquaintance
+with the talking philosopher, Socrates, must have been unfavorable to the
+continuance of his popularity.
+
+The fate of Pentheus in our author's noble play, the "Bacchæ," appears to
+have given origin to the tradition that he himself was torn to pieces by
+dogs. If we reflect that this play was probably the last of his works, the
+mistake seems a plausible one. The death of Euripides, which probably
+happened in the ordinary course of nature, has, like that of Æschylus, been
+associated with the marvelous.
+
+The Athenians vainly craved the honor of giving a resting-place to the
+ashes of their philosopher-poet. He was buried at Pella, but a cenotaph at
+Athens showed that his countrymen had not forgotten Euripides. His death
+took place B.C. 406.
+
+The inferiority of our author to the greater tragedians, prevents our
+feeling much desire to enter upon the respective merits and demerits of his
+several plays, especially as we are completely anticipated by Schlegel,
+with whose masterly analysis every reader ought to be acquainted.
+Nevertheless, a few general remarks may, perhaps, be not wholly
+unprofitable.
+
+It has been truly remarked, that tragedy, in no small degree, owed its
+downfall to Euripides. Poetry was gradually superseded by rhetoric,
+sublimity by earnestness, pathos by reasoning. Thus, Iphigenia and Macaria
+give so many good reasons for dying, that the sacrifice appears very small,
+and a modern wag in the upper regions of the theatre would, at the end of
+the speech of the latter heroine, almost have exclaimed, "Then why don't
+you die?"
+
+It has been said, that our poet drew the characters of life as he found
+them, but bad as his characters are, they exhibit only a vulgar wickedness.
+Unable to portray a Clytæmnestra, he revels in the continual paltriness of
+a Menelaus or Ulysses. As if he took a delight in the black side of
+humanity, he loves to show the strength of false reasoning, of sophistry
+antagonistic to truth, and of cold expediency in opposition to the natural
+feelings of humanity. From a similar reason, his occasional attempts at
+comedy degenerate into mere farce. We question whether the scene between
+Death and Apollo in the "Alcestis," could be surpassed in vulgarity, even
+by the modern school of English dramatists, while his exaggerations in the
+minor characters are scarcely to be surpassed by the lowest writer of any
+period.
+
+Under Euripides, the stage began gradually to approximate more closely to
+the ordinary and, at that time, debased character of Athenian society. A
+contempt for the Lacedæmonians, a passionate taste for the babbling and
+trickery of the forum, and an attempt to depreciate the social position and
+influence of the weaker sex, form the most unamiable features of this
+change. Yet we must allow, that if Euripides has reveled in the
+amiabilities of a Melanippe or a Phædra, in the gentle revenge of a Medea
+or Hecuba, he has at the same time given us an Alcestis, the only real
+example of genuine conjugal affection on the Greek stage.
+
+Nor must we forget that Euripides is a greater admirer of nature, a more
+complete delineator of her workings, than the two greater tragedians. He
+has more of illustrative philosophy, more of regard to the objects of the
+animated creation, the system of the universe, than his greater rivals
+exhibit. He is, as Vitruvius has justly styled him, a "stage-philosopher."
+Did we possess a larger acquaintance with the works of Parmenides,
+Empedocles, and other early cosmogonists, we should perhaps think less of
+his merits on this head: as it is, the possession of some such fragments of
+our poet makes us deeply regret the loss of the plays themselves.
+
+But his very love for the contemplation of nature has in no small degree
+contributed to the mischievous skepticism promulgated by our poet. In early
+times, when a rural theogony was the standard of belief, when each star had
+its deity, each deity its undisputed, unquestioned prerogative and worship,
+there was little inclination, less opportunity, for skepticism. Throughout
+the poetry of Hesiod, we find this feeling ever predominant, a feeling
+which Virgil and Tibullus well knew how to appreciate. Even Euripides
+himself, perhaps taught by some dangerous lessons at home, has expressed
+his belief that it is best "not to be too clever in matters regarding the
+Gods."[2] A calm retreat in the wild, picturesque tracts of Macedonia,
+might have had some share in reforming this spoiled pupil of the sophists.
+But as we find that the too careful contemplation of nature degenerates
+into superstition or rationalism in their various forms, so Euripides had
+imbibed the taste for saying startling things,[3] rather than wise; for
+reducing the principles of creation to materialism, the doctrines of right
+and wrong to expediency, and immutable truths to a popular system of
+question and answer. Like the generality of sophists, he took away a
+received truth, and left nothing to supply its place; he reasoned falsehood
+into probability, truth into nonentity.
+
+At a period when the Prodico-Socratic style of disputing was in high
+fashion, the popularity of Euripides must have been excessive. His familiar
+appeals to the trifling matters of ordinary life, his characters all
+philosophizing, from the prince to the dry-nurse, his excellent reasons for
+doing right or wrong, as the case might be, must have been inestimably
+delightful to the accommodating morals of the Athenians. The Court of
+Charles the Second could hardly have derived more pleasure from the
+writings of a Behn or a Hamilton, than these unworthy descendants of Codrus
+must have experienced in hearing a bad cause so cleverly defended. Whether
+the orators and dikasts followed the example of the stage in those days,
+can scarcely be ascertained, but it is more than certain that they
+practically illustrated its principles. At least, the Sicilians were so
+fond of our author, that a few of the unfortunate survivors of the
+Syracusan disaster, were enabled to pick up a living by quoting such
+passages of our author as they had learned by heart. A compliment paid to
+few living dramatists in our days!
+
+In dramatic conduct, Euripides is at an even greater disadvantage with
+Æschylus and Sophocles. The best characters of the piece are often the
+least employed, as in the instance of Macaria in the "Heraclidæ," while the
+play is dwindled away with dull, heavy dirges, and the complaints of senile
+childishness. The chorus, as Aristotle[4] has remarked, is most
+unfortunately independent of the plot, although the finest poetry is
+generally to be found in the lyric portions of our author's plays. In fact,
+Euripides rather wanted management in employing his resources, than the
+resources themselves. An ear well attuned to the harmony of verse, a
+delicate perception of the graceful points of language, and a finished
+subtilty in touching the more minute feelings and impulses of the mind,
+were all thrown away either upon bad subjects or worse principles. There is
+no true tragedy in Euripides, He is a melodramatist, but not according to
+the modern acceptation. His plays might end either happily or the reverse.
+A deity conveniently brought in, the arrival of a messenger, however
+unexpectedly, together with a liberal allowance for a cowardly revenge upon
+the vanquished--these are the Euripidean elements for giving a tragic end
+to a play. Nay, so great is the prodigality of slaughter throughout his
+dramas, that we can but imagine morbid cruelty to have formed a
+considerable ingredient in the disposition of Euripides. Even his pathos is
+somewhat tinctured with this taste for painful images. As we have beheld in
+our own times a barbarian alternately glut his sight with executions, and
+then shed floods of tears, and sink into idiot despondency; so the poetry
+of Euripides in turn disgusts us with outrageous cruelty, and depresses us
+with the most painful demands upon our compassion.
+
+In the lyric portions of his dramas, our poet has been far more successful.
+The description of the capture of Troy by night,[5] is a splendid specimen
+of animation blended with true pathos. But taken as a whole. Euripides is a
+most unequal author. We may commence a play with pleasure (but O for the
+prologues!), we may proceed with satisfaction, but the feeling rarely lasts
+to the end. If I may venture an opinion upon so uncertain a subject, I
+should name the Hippolytus, Ion, Troades, Bacchæ, and Iphigenia in Aulis as
+his best plays, placing the Phœnissæ, Alcestis, Medea, Hecuba, and Orestes
+in a lower rank. The Helena is an amusing heap of absurdities, and reads
+much better in the burlesque of Aristophanes; the Electra is utterly
+beneath criticism; the Cyclops a weak, but humorous imitation of Homer. The
+other plays appear to be neither bad nor good.
+
+The style of Euripides is, generally speaking, easy; and I can mention no
+author from whom a taste for elegant Greek and a facility in composition
+can more easily be derived. Some of his plays have suffered severely from
+the ravages of time, the ignorance of copyists, and the more dangerous
+officiousness of grammarians. Some passages of the Bacchæ, Rhesus, Troades,
+and the two Iphigenias, despite the ingenuity and erudition of such
+scholars as Porson, Elmsley, Monk, Burges, and a host of others, must still
+remain mere matter for guessing. Hermann's Euripides is, as a whole, sadly
+unworthy the abilities of the Humboldt of Greek literature.
+
+The present volume contains the most popular of our author's works,
+according to present usage. But the spirit which is gradually infusing
+itself into the minds of those who are most actively engaged in the
+educational system of England, fully warrants a hope that Porson's "four
+plays" will shortly cease to be the boundaries of the student's
+acquaintance with Euripides.
+
+I need scarcely observe, that the study of Aristophanes is indissolubly
+connected with that of our author. If the reader discover the painful fact
+that the burlesque writer is greater than the tragedian, he will perhaps
+also recollect that such a literary relation is, unfortunately, by no means
+confined to the days of Aristophanes.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+Notes on the Introduction
+
+[1] See Theatre of the Greeks, p. 92. sqq.
+
+[2] Bacch. 200. This play was written during his sojourn with Archelaus.
+
+[3] τοιουτονι τι παρακεκινδευμενον. Aristoph. Ran. 99.
+
+[4] Poet. § xviii.
+
+[5] Hec. 905 sqq.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *       *
+
+HECUBA.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+PERSONS REPRESENTED.
+
+  GHOST OF POLYDORE.
+  HECUBA.
+  CHORUS OF FEMALE CAPTIVES.
+  POLYXENA.
+  ULYSSES.
+  TALTHYBIUS.
+  FEMALE ATTENDANT.
+  AGAMEMNON.
+  POLYMESTOR AND HIS CHILDREN.
+
+_The Scene lies before the Grecian tents, on the coast of the Thracian
+Chersonese._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE ARGUMENT.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+After the capture of Troy, the Greeks put into the Chersonese over against
+Troas, But Achilles, having appeared by night, demanded one of the
+daughters of Priam to be slain. The Greeks therefore, in honor to their
+hero, tore Polyxena from Hecuba, and offered her up in sacrifice.
+Polymestor moreover, the king of the Thracians, murdered Polydore, a son of
+Priam's. Now Polymestor had received him from the hands of Priam as a
+charge to take care of, together with some money. But when the city was
+taken, wishing to seize upon his wealth, he determined to dispatch him, and
+disregarded the ill-fated friendship that subsisted between them; but his
+body being cast out into the sea, the wave threw him up on the shore before
+the tents of the captive women. Hecuba, on seeing the corse, recognized it;
+and having imparted her design to Agamemnon, sent for Polymestor to come to
+her with his sons, concealing what had happened, under pretense that she
+might discover to him some treasures hidden in Ilium. But on his arrival
+she slew his sons, and put out his eyes; but pleading her cause before the
+Greeks, she gained it over her accuser (Polymestor). For it was decided
+that she did not begin the cruelty, but only avenged herself on him who did
+begin it.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+HECUBA.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+GHOST OF POLYDORE.
+
+I am present, having left the secret dwellings of the dead and the gates of
+darkness, where Pluto has his abode apart from the other Gods, Polydore the
+son of Hecuba the daughter of Cisseus,[1] and Priam my sire, who when the
+danger of falling by the spear of Greece was threatening the city of the
+Phrygians, in fear, privately sent me from the Trojan land to the house of
+Polymestor, his Thracian friend, who cultivates the most fruitful soil of
+the Chersonese, ruling a warlike people with his spear.[2] But my father
+sends privately with me a large quantity of gold, in order that, if at any
+time the walls of Troy should fall, there might not be a lack of sustenance
+for his surviving children. But I was the youngest of the sons of Priam; on
+which account also he sent me privately from the land, for I was able
+neither to bear arms nor the spear with my youthful arm. As long then
+indeed as the landmarks of the country remained erect, and the towers of
+Troy were unshaken, and Hector my brother prevailed with his spear, I
+miserable increased vigorously as some young branch, by the nurture I
+received at the hands of the Thracian, my father's friend. But after that
+both Troy and the life of Hector were put an end to, and my father's
+mansions razed to the ground, and himself falls at the altar built by the
+God, slain by the blood-polluted son of Achilles, the friend of my father
+slays me, wretched man, for the sake of my gold, and having slain me threw
+me into the surf of the sea, that he might possess the gold himself in his
+palace. But I am exposed on the shore, at another time on the ocean's
+surge, borne about by many ebbings and flowings of the waves, unwept,
+unburied; but at present I am hastening on my dear mother's account, having
+left my body, borne aloft this day already the third,[3] for so long has my
+wretched mother been present in this territory of the Chersonese from Troy.
+But all the Grecians, holding their ships at anchor, are sitting quiet on
+the shores of this land of Thrace. For Achilles the son of Peleus,
+appearing above his tomb, stayed all the army of the Grecians as they were
+directing homeward their sea dipped oars; and asks to receive my sister
+Polyxena as a dear victim, and a tribute of honor to his tomb. And this he
+will obtain, nor will he be without this gift from his friends; and fate
+this day leads forth my sister to death. But my mother will see the two
+corses of her two children, both mine and the unhappy virgin's; for I shall
+appear on a breaker before the feet of a female slave, that I wretched may
+obtain sepulture; for I have successfully entreated those who have power
+beneath to find a tomb, and to fall into my mother's hands. As much then as
+I wish to have shall be mine; but I will withdraw myself out of the way of
+the aged Hecuba, for she is advancing her step beyond the tent of
+Agamemnon, dreading my phantom. Alas! O my mother, who, from kingly
+palaces, hast beheld the day of slavery, how unfortunate art thou now, in
+the degree that thou wert once fortunate! but some one of the Gods
+counterpoising your state, destroys you on account of your ancient
+prosperity.
+
+HECUBA. CHORUS.
+
+HEC. Lead onward, ye Trojan dames, the old woman before the tent; lead
+onward, raising up one now your fellow-slave, but once your queen; take me,
+bear me, conduct me, support my body, holding my aged hand; and I, leaning
+on the bending staff of my hand,[4] will hasten to put forward the slow
+motion of my joints. O lightning of Jove! O thou gloomy night! why, I pray,
+am I thus disquieted in the night with terrors, with phantoms? O thou
+venerable Earth, the mother of black-winged dreams, I renounce the nightly
+vision, which regarding my son who is preserved in Thrace, and regarding
+Polyxena my dear daughter, in my dreams have I beheld, a fearful sight, I
+have learned, I have understood. Gods of this land, preserve my son, who,
+my only son, and, [as it were,] the anchor of my house, inhabits the snowy
+Thrace under the protection of his father's friend. Some strange event will
+take place, some strain will come mournful to the mournful. Never did my
+mind so incessantly shudder and tremble. Where, I pray, ye Trojan dames,
+can I behold the divine spirit of Helenus, or Cassandra, that they may
+interpret my dreams? For I beheld a dappled hind torn by the blood-stained
+fang of the wolf, forcibly dragged from my bosom, a miserable sight. And
+dreadful this vision also; the spectre of Achilles came above the summit of
+his tomb, and demanded as a tribute of honor one of the wretched Trojan
+women. From my daughter then, from my daughter avert this fate, ye Gods, I
+implore you.
+
+CHOR. Hecuba, with haste to thee I flew, leaving the tents of our lords,
+where I was allotted and ordained a slave, driven from the city of Troy,
+led captive of the Greeks by the point of the spear, not to alleviate aught
+of your sufferings, but bringing a heavy weight of tidings, and to thee, O
+lady, a herald of woe. For it is said that it has been decreed in the full
+council of the Greeks to make thy daughter a sacrifice to Achilles: for you
+know how that having ascended o'er his tomb, he appeared in his golden arms
+and restrained the fleet ships, as they were setting their sails with their
+halliards, exclaiming in these words; "Where speed ye, Grecians, leaving my
+tomb unhonored!" Then the waves of great contention clashed together, and a
+divided opinion went forth through the army of the Greeks; to some it
+appeared advisable to give a victim to his tomb, and to others it appeared
+not. But Agamemnon was studious to advance your good, cherishing the love
+of the infuriated prophetess. But the two sons of Theseus, scions of
+Athens, were the proposers of different arguments, but in this one opinion
+they coincided, to crown the tomb of Achilles with fresh blood; and
+declared they would never prefer the bed of Cassandra before the spear of
+Achilles. And the strength of the arguments urged on either side was in a
+manner equal, till that subtle adviser, that babbling knave,[5] honeyed in
+speech, pleasing to the populace, that son of Laertes, persuades the army,
+not to reject the suit of the noblest of all the Greeks on account of a
+captive victim, and not to put it in the power of any of the dead standing
+near Proserpine to say that the Grecians departed from the plains of Troy
+ungrateful to the heroes who died for the state of Greece. And Ulysses will
+come only not now, to tear your child from your bosom, and to take her from
+your aged arms. But go to the temples, speed to the altars, sit a suppliant
+at the knees of Agamemnon, invoke the Gods, both those of heaven, and those
+under the earth; for either thy prayers will prevent thy being deprived of
+thy wretched daughter, or thou must behold the virgin falling before the
+tomb, dyed in blood gushing forth in a dark stream from her neck adorned
+with gold.[6]
+
+HEC. Alas! wretched me! what shall I exclaim? what shriek shall I utter?
+what lamentation? miserable through miserable age, and slavery not to be
+endured, insupportable. Alas! who is there to defend me? what offspring,
+what city! The old man is gone. My children are gone. Whither shall I turn
+me? and whither shall I go? Where is any god or deity to succor me? O
+Trojan dames, bearers of evil tidings, bearers of woe, you have destroyed
+me utterly, you have destroyed me. Life in the light is no more desirable!
+O wretched foot, lead, lead an aged woman to this tent! O child, daughter
+of the most afflicted mother, come forth, come forth from the tent, hear
+thy mother's voice, that thou mayest know what a report I hear that
+concerns thy life.
+
+HECUBA, POLYXENA, CHORUS.
+
+POLYX. O mother, why dost thou call! proclaiming what new affliction hast
+thou frighted me from the tent, as some bird from its nest, with this
+alarm?
+
+HEC. Alas! my child!
+
+POLYX. Why address me in words of ill omen? This is an evil prelude.
+
+HEC. Alas! for thy life.
+
+POLYX. Speak, conceal it no longer from me. I fear, I fear, my mother; why
+I pray dost thou groan?
+
+HEC. O child, child of an unhappy mother!
+
+POLYX. Why sayest thou this?
+
+HEC. My child, the common decree of the Greeks unites to slay thee at the
+tomb of the son of Peleus.
+
+POLYX. Alas, my mother! how are you relating unenviable ills? Tell me, tell
+me, my mother.
+
+HEC. I declare, my child, the ill-omened report, they bring word that a
+decree has passed by the vote of the Greeks regarding thy life.
+
+POLYX. O thou that hast borne affliction! O thou wretched on every side! O
+mother unhappy in your life, what most hated and most unutterable calamity
+has some destiny again sent against thee! This child is no longer thine; no
+longer indeed shall I miserable share slavery with miserable age. For as a
+mountain whelp or heifer shalt thou wretched behold me wretched torn from
+thine arms, and sent down beneath the darkness of the earth a victim to
+Pluto, where I shall lie bound in misery with the dead. But it is for thee
+indeed, my afflicted mother, that I lament in these mournful strains, but
+for my life, my wrongs, my fate, I mourn not; but death, a better lot, has
+befallen me.
+
+CHOR. But see Ulysses advances with hasty step, to declare to thee, Hecuba,
+some new determination.
+
+ULYSSES, HECUBA, POLYXENA, CHORUS.
+
+ULYSS. Lady, I imagine that you are acquainted with the decree of the army,
+and the vote which has prevailed; nevertheless, I will declare it. It has
+been decreed by the Greeks to offer on the lofty mound of Achilles's tomb
+thy daughter Polyxena. But they order me to conduct and convey the damsel;
+but the son of Achilles is appointed to be the priest, and to preside over
+the rites. Do you know then what to do? Be not dragged away by violence,
+nor enter into a contest of strength with me, but acknowledge superior
+force and the presence of thy ills; it is wise to have proper sentiments
+even in adversity.
+
+HEC. Alas! alas! the great trial is at hand, as it seems, of lamentations
+full, nor without tears; for I have not died in the state in which I ought
+to have died, nor hath Jove destroyed me, but preserves me, that I wretched
+may behold other misfortunes greater than [past] misfortunes. But if it be
+allowed slaves to put questions to the free, not offensive nor grating to
+the feelings, it will be your part to be questioned, and ours who are
+asking to attend.
+
+ULYSS. You have permission, ask freely, I grudge not the time.
+
+HEC. Dost thou remember when thou camest a spy on Troy, disfigured by a
+vile dress, and from thine eyes drops caused by the fear of death bedewed
+thy beard?
+
+ULYSS. I remember well; for it made no slight impression on my heart.
+
+HEC. But Helen knew thee, and told me alone.
+
+ULYSS. I remember the great danger I encountered.
+
+HEC. And didst thou embrace my knees in thy humility?
+
+ULYSS. So that my hand was numbered[7] through fear on thy garments.
+
+HEC. What then didst thou say, being then my slave?
+
+ULYSS. Many arguments that I invented to save me from death.
+
+HEC. Did I preserve thee then, and conduct thee safe from the land?
+
+ULYSS. Yes, so that I now behold the light of the sun.
+
+HEC. Art thou not then convicted of baseness by this conduct, who hast
+received benefits from me such as thou acknowledgest thou hast, and doest
+us no good in return, but evil, as far as in thee lies? Thankless is your
+race, as many of you as court honor from oratory before the populace; be ye
+not known to me, who care not to injure your friends, provided you say what
+is gratifying to the people. But plotting what dark design have they
+determined upon a decree of death against my child? Did fate impel them to
+offer human sacrifices at the tomb, where it were rather right to sacrifice
+cattle? Or does Achilles, desirous of devoting in his turn to death those
+that wrought his death, with a color of justice meditate her destruction?
+But she has done him no ill: he should demand Helen as a sacrifice on his
+tomb; for she destroyed him, and brought him to Troy. But if some captive
+selected from the rest, and excelling in beauty, ought to die, this is not
+ours. For the daughter of Tyndarus is most preeminent in beauty, and has
+been found to be no less injurious than us. On the score of justice then I
+urge this argument; but with respect to what you ought to repay at my
+demand, hear: thou hast touched my hand, as thou ownest, and this aged
+cheek also, falling at my knees. Thy hand and knees I in return grasp, and
+re-demand the favor I granted you then, and beseech you, do not tear my
+child from my arms, nor kill her; enough have died already. In her I
+rejoice, and forget my misfortunes; she serves as my consolation in the
+stead of many things, she is my city, my nurse, my staff, the guide of my
+way. It becomes not those who have power to exercise their power in things
+wherein they ought not, nor should the fortunate imagine their fortune will
+last forever. For I too have had my time of prosperity, but now have I
+ceased to be: one day wrenched from me all my happiness. But by thy beard
+which I supplicate, reverence me, pity me; go to the Grecian army, and
+remind them that it is a shameful thing to slay women whom ye have once
+spared, and that too dragging them from the altar. But show mercy. But the
+laws of blood among you are laid down alike for the free and the slave. But
+your worth will carry with it persuasion, although your arguments be bad;
+for the same words from those of little character, have not the same force
+as when they proceed from those of high reputation.
+
+CHOR. There is no nature of man so obdurate, which on hearing thy groans,
+and thy long plaints of misery, would not let fall the tear.
+
+ULYSS. Hecuba, be advised, nor through passion deem him thine enemy who
+gives thee good advice. I indeed am ready to preserve thy person through
+the means of which I was fortunate; and I say no other. But what I declared
+before all I will not deny, that, Troy being captured, we should give thy
+daughter as a victim to the noblest man of the army, who demands her; for
+in this many cities fail, when any man who is brave and zealous receives no
+more honor than those who are less valiant. But Achilles, O lady, is worthy
+of honor from us, a man who died most gloriously in behalf of the Grecian
+country. Were not then this disgraceful, if when living we treat him as a
+friend, but after he is gone we no longer treat him so? Well! what then
+will any one say, if there again should be an assembling of the army, and a
+contest with the enemy: "Shall we fight or preserve our lives, seeing that
+he who falls lies unhonored?" But for me at least, living from day to day,
+although I have but little, that little is sufficient; but I would wish
+that my monument should be beheld crowned with honor, for the gratification
+is for a long time. But if thou sayest thou sufferest affliction, hear this
+in return from me. There are with us aged matrons, and hoary sires, not
+less wretched than thou art, and brides bereft of the noblest husbands,
+whose ashes this land of Troy conceals. Endure this. But we, if we
+injudiciously determine to honor the brave man, shall incur the charge of
+folly. But you barbarians neither consider your friends as friends, nor do
+you hold up to admiration those who have died honorably; thus shall Greece
+be prosperous, but you shall experience fortune corresponding to your
+counsels.
+
+CHOR. Alas! alas! how wretched is the state of slavery, and to endure
+indignities compelled by superior force! (Note [B].)
+
+HEC. O daughter, my words respecting thy death are vanished in the air, set
+forth in vain; but thou, if thou hast greater powers [of persuasion] than
+thy mother, use all thy influence, uttering every note as the throat of the
+nightingale, that thou mayest not be deprived of life. But fall before the
+knees of Ulysses in all the eloquence of grief, and persuade him; thou hast
+a pretext, for he also hath children; so that he may be inclined to pity
+thy fortune.
+
+POLYX. I see, Ulysses, that thou art hiding thy hand beneath thy robe, and
+turnest thy face away, that I may not touch thy beard. Be not afraid; thou
+hast avoided my suppliant Jove; for I will follow thee both on account of
+fate, and even wishing to die; but if I were not willing, I should appear
+base, and too fond of life. For wherefore should I live, whose father was
+monarch of all the Trojans; this my dawn of life. Then was I nurtured under
+fair hope, a bride for princes, having no small competition for my hand, to
+whose palace and hearth I should come. But I, wretched now, was mistress
+among the Trojan women, and conspicuous in the train of virgins, equal to
+goddesses, death only excepted. But now I am a slave; first of all the very
+name, not being familiar, persuades me to love death. Then perhaps I might
+meet with masters cruel in disposition, who will buy me for silver, the
+sister both of Hector and many other [heroes.] And imposing the task of
+making bread in his palace, will compel me, passing the day in misery, both
+to sweep the house, and stand at the loom. And some slave somewhere
+purchased will defile my bed, before wooed by princes. This never shall be.
+I will quit this light from mine eyes free, offering my body to Pluto. Lead
+on then, Ulysses, conduct me to death; for I see neither confidence of
+hope, nor of expectation, present to me that I can ever enjoy good fortune.
+But do thou, my mother, in no wise hinder me by your words or by your
+actions; but assent to my death before I meet with indignities unsuited to
+my rank. For one who has not been accustomed to taste misfortunes bears
+indeed, but grieves, to put his neck under the yoke. But he would be far
+more blessed in death than in life; for to live otherwise than honorably is
+a great burden.
+
+CHOR. It is a great and distinguishing feature among men to be born of
+generous parents, and the name of nobility of birth among the illustrious,
+proceeds from great to greater still.
+
+HEC. You have spoken honorably, my daughter, but in that honorable dwells
+grief. But if the son of Peleus must be gratified, and you must escape
+blame, Ulysses, kill not her; but leading me to the pyre of Achilles,
+strike me, spare me not; I brought forth Paris, who destroyed the son of
+Thetis, having pierced him with his arrows.
+
+ULYSS. The phantom of Achilles did not demand that thou, O aged lady, but
+that thy daughter here should die.
+
+HEC. Do thou then at least slay me with my daughter, and there will be
+twice the libation of blood for the earth, and the dead who makes this
+request.
+
+ULYSS. Thy daughter's death suffices; one must not be heaped on another;
+would that we required not even this one.
+
+HEC. There is a strong necessity for me to die with my daughter.
+
+ULYSS. How so? for I am not aware of any master that I have.
+
+HEC. As the ivy the oak, so will I clasp her.
+
+ULYSS. Not so; if you will take the advice of your superiors in knowledge.
+
+HEC. Never will I willingly quit my child here.
+
+ULYSS. Nor will I leave this place without the virgin.
+
+POLYX. Mother, be persuaded; and thou, son of Laertes, be gentle to a
+parent with reason moved to anger. But thou, O wretched mother, contend not
+with conquerors. Dost thou wish to fall on the earth and to wound thy aged
+flesh dragged by violence, and to suffer the indignity of being torn by a
+youthful arm? which things you will suffer. Do not, I pray thee, for it is
+not seemly. But, my dear mother, give me thy beloved hand, and grant me to
+join cheek to cheek; since never hereafter, but now for the last time shall
+I behold the rays of the sun and his bright orb. Receive my last address, O
+mother! O thou that bearedst me, I am going below.
+
+HEC. And I, O daughter, shall be a slave in the light of day.
+
+POLYX. Without the bridegroom, without the bridal song, which I ought to
+have obtained.
+
+HEC. Mournful thou, my child; but I am a wretched woman.
+
+POLYX. There shall I lie in darkness far from thee.
+
+HEC. Alas me, what shall I do? where end my life?
+
+POLYX. I shall die a slave, born of a free father.
+
+HEC. But I bereft indeed of fifty children.
+
+POLYX. What message shall I bear to Hector, and to thy aged husband?
+
+HEC. Tell them that I am most miserable of all women.
+
+POLYX. O ye breasts that tenderly nursed me.
+
+HEC. O daughter of an untimely and unhappy fate.
+
+POLYX. Farewell, O mother, farewell Cassandra too.
+
+HEC. Others farewell, but this is not for thy mother.
+
+POLYX. Farewell, my brother Polydore, among the warlike Thracians.
+
+HEC. If he lives at least: but I doubt, so unfortunate am I in every thing.
+
+POLTX. He lives, and shall close thy dying eye.
+
+HEC. I am dead, before my death, beneath my ills.
+
+POLYX. Lead me, Ulysses, having covered my face with a veil, since, before
+I am sacrificed indeed, I am melted in heart at my mother's plaints, her
+also I melt by my lamentations. O light, for yet it is allowed me to
+express thy name, but I have no share in thee, except during the time that
+I am going between the sword and the pyre of Achilles.
+
+HEC. Ah me! I faint; and my limbs fail me.--O daughter, touch thy mother,
+stretch forth thy hand--give it me--leave me not childless--I am lost, my
+friends. Would that I might see the Spartan Helen, the sister of the twin
+sons of Jove, thus, for through her bright eyes that most vile woman
+destroyed the happy Troy.
+
+CHOR. Gale, gale of the sea,[8] which waftest the swift barks bounding
+through the waves through the surge of the ocean, whither wilt thou bear me
+hapless? To whose mansion shall I come, a purchased slave? Or to the port
+of the Doric or Phthian shore, where they report that Apidanus, the most
+beautiful father of floods, enriches the plains? or wilt thou bear me
+hapless urged by the maritime oar, passing a life of misery in my
+prison-house, to that island[9] where both the first-born palm tree and the
+laurel shot forth their hallowed branches to their beloved Latona, emblem
+of the divine parturition? And with the Delian nymphs shall I celebrate in
+song the golden chaplet and bow of Diana? Or, in the Athenian city, shall I
+upon the saffron robe harness the steeds to the car of Minerva splendid in
+her chariot, representing them in embroidery upon the splendid looms of
+brilliant threads, or the race of Titans, which Jove the son of Saturn
+sends to eternal rest with his flaming lightning? Alas, my children! Alas,
+my ancestors, and my paternal land, which is overthrown, buried in smoke,
+captured by the Argive sword! but I indeed am[10] a slave in a foreign
+country, having left Asia the slave of Europe, having changed my bridal
+chamber for the grave.
+
+TALTHYBIUS, HECUBA, CHORUS.
+
+TAL. Tell me, ye Trojan dames, where can I find Hecuba, late the queen of
+Troy?
+
+CHOR. Not far from thee, O Talthybius, she is lying stretched on the
+ground, muffled in her robes.
+
+TAL. O Jupiter, what shall I say? Shall I say that thou beholdest mortals?
+or that they have to no end or purpose entertained false notions, who
+suppose the existence of a race of Deities, and that fortune has the
+sovereign control over men? Was not this the queen of the opulent
+Phrygians? was not this the wife of the all-blest Priam? And now all her
+city is overthrown by the spear, but she a captive, aged, childless, lies
+on the ground defiling her ill-fated head with the dust. Alas! alas! I too
+am old, but rather may death be my portion before I am involved in any such
+debasing fortune; stand up, oh unhappy, raise thy side, and lift up thy
+hoary head.
+
+HEC. Let me alone: who art thou that sufferest not my body to rest? why
+dost thou, whoever thou art, disturb me from my sadness?
+
+TAL. I am here, Talthybius, the herald of the Greeks, Agamemnon having sent
+me for thee, O lady.
+
+HEC. Hast thou come then, thou dearest of men, it having been decreed by
+the Greeks to slay me too upon the tomb? Thou wouldest bring dear news
+indeed. Then haste we, let us speed with all our might: lead on, old man.
+
+TAL. I am here and come to thee, O lady, that thou mayest entomb thy dead
+daughter. Both the two sons of Atreus and the Grecian host send me.
+
+HEC. Alas! what wilt thou say? Art thou not come for me as doomed to death,
+but to bring this cruel message? Thou art dead, my child, torn from thy
+mother; and I am childless as far as regards thee; oh! wretch that I am.
+But how did ye slay her? was it with becoming reverence? Or did ye proceed
+in your butchery as with an enemy, O old man? Tell me, though you will
+relate no pleasing tale.
+
+TAL. Twice, O lady, thou desirest me to indulge in tears through pity for
+thy daughter; for both now while relating the mournful circumstance shall I
+bedew this eye, as did I then at the tomb when she perished. The whole host
+of the Grecian army was present before the tomb, at the sacrifice of thy
+daughter. But the son of Achilles taking Polyxena by the hand, placed her
+on the summit of the mound; but I stood near him: and there followed a
+chosen band of illustrious youths in readiness to restrain with their hands
+thy daughter's struggles; then the son of Achilles took a full-crowned
+goblet of entire gold, and poured forth libations to his deceased father;
+and makes signal to me to proclaim silence through all the Grecian host.
+And I standing forth in the midst, thus spoke: "Be silent, O ye Greeks, let
+all the people remain silent; silence, be still:" and I made the people
+perfectly still. But he said, "O son of Peleus, O my father, accept these
+libations which have the power of soothing, and which speed the dead on
+their way; and come, that thou mayest drink the pure purple blood of this
+virgin, which both the army and myself offer unto thee; but be propitious
+to us, and grant us to weigh anchor, and to loose the cables of our ships,
+and to return each to his country, having met with a prosperous return from
+Troy." Thus much he said, and all the army joined in the prayer. Then
+taking by the hilt his sword decked with gold, he drew it from its
+scabbard, and made signs to the chosen youths of the Greeks to hold the
+virgin. But she, when she perceived it,[11] uttered this speech: "O
+Argives, ye that destroyed my city, I die willingly; let none touch my
+body; for I will offer my neck to the sword with a good heart. But, by the
+Gods, let me go free while ye kill me, that I may die free, for to be
+classed as a slave among the dead, when a queen, is what I am ashamed of."
+But the people murmured assent, and king Agamemnon ordered the young men to
+quit the virgin; [but they, soon as they heard the last words of him who
+had the seat of chief authority among them, let go their hold,] and she, on
+hearing this speech of her lords, took her robe, and rent it, beginning
+from the top of her shoulder down to her waist: and showed her breasts and
+bosom beauteous, as a statue's, and bending her knee on the ground, spoke
+words the most piteous ever heard, "Lo! strike, if this bosom thou
+desirest, O youth; or wouldest thou rather under the neck, here is this
+throat prepared." But he at once resolved and unresolved through pity of
+the virgin, cuts with the sword the passage of her breath; and fountains of
+blood burst forth. But she, e'en in death, showed much care to fall
+decently, and to veil from the eyes of men what ought to be concealed. But
+after that she breathed forth her spirit under the fatal blow, not one of
+the Greeks exercised the same offices; but some scattered leaves from their
+hands on the dead; some heap the funeral pile, bringing whole trunks of
+pines: but he that would not bring, heard rebukes of this sort from him
+that was thus employed: "Standest thou idle, thou man of most mean spirit?
+Hast in thy hand no robe, no ornament for the maiden? Hast thou naught to
+give to her so exceeding brave in heart and most noble in soul?" These
+things I tell thee of the death of thy daughter, but I behold thee at once
+the most happy, at once the most unhappy of all women in thine offspring.
+
+CHOR. Dreadful calamities have risen fierce against the house of Priam;
+such the hard fate of the Gods.
+
+HEC. O daughter! which of my ills I shall first attend to, amidst such a
+multitude, I know not: for if I touch on any, another does not suffer me;
+and thence again some fresh grief draws me aside, succeeding miseries upon
+miseries. And now I can not obliterate from my mind thy sufferings, so as
+not to bewail them: but excess of grief hast thou taken away, having been
+reported to me as noble. Is it then no paradox, if land indeed naturally
+bad, when blest with a favorable season from heaven, bears well the ear;
+but good land, robbed of the advantages it ought to have, brings forth bad
+fruit: but ever among men, the bad by nature is nothing else but bad; the
+good always good, nor under misfortune does he degenerate from his nature,
+but is the same good man? Is it, that the parents cause this difference, or
+the education? The being brought up nobly hath indeed in it the knowledge
+and principles of goodness; but if one is acquainted well with this, he
+knows what is vicious, having already learned it by the rule of virtue. And
+this indeed has my mind been ejaculating in vain. But do thou go, and
+signify these things to the Greeks, that no one be suffered to touch my
+daughter, but bid them keep off the multitude. In so vast an army the
+rabble are riotous, and the sailors' uncontrolled insolence is fiercer than
+fire; and he is evil, who does not evil. But do thou, my old attendant,
+taking an urn, fill it with sea water, and bring it hither, that I may wash
+my girl in her last bath, the bride no bride now, and the virgin no longer
+a virgin, wash her, and lay her out; according to her merits--whence can I?
+This I can not; but as I can, I will, for what can I do! And collecting
+ornaments from among the captured women, who dwell beside me in these
+tents, if any one, unobserved by our new lords, has by her any stolen
+memorial of her home. O state of my house, O mansions once happy! O Priam,
+of vast wealth possessed, and supremely blest in thine offspring, and I
+too, this aged woman, the mother of such children! How have we come to
+nothing, bereft of our former grandeur! And yet still forsooth we are
+elated, one of us in his gorgeous palaces; another, when honored among his
+citizens. These are nothing. In vain the counsels of the mind, and the
+tongue's boast. He is most blest, to whom from day to day no evil happens.
+
+CHORUS.
+
+Against me was it fated that calamity, against me was it fated that woe
+should spring, when Paris first hewed the pine in Ida's forest, preparing
+to cut his way over the ocean surge to the bed of Helen, the fairest that
+the sun's golden beams shine upon. For toils, and fate more stern than
+toils, close us round: and from the folly of one came a public calamity
+fatal to the land of Simois, and woes springing from other woes: and when
+the dispute was decided, which the shepherd decided between the three
+daughters of the blessed Gods on Ida's top, for war, and slaughter, and the
+desolation of my palaces. And many a Spartan virgin at her home on the
+banks of the fair-flowing Eurotas sighs while bathed in tears: and many an
+aged matron strikes her hand against her hoary head, for her children who
+have perished, and tears her cheek making her nails all blood-stained with
+her wounds.
+
+FEMALE ATTENDANT, CHORUS, HECUBA.
+
+ATT. O attendants, where, I pray, is the all-wretched Hecuba, who surpasses
+the whole race of man and woman kind in calamities? no one shall wrest from
+her the crown.
+
+CHOR. But what dost thou want, O wretch, in thy words of ill omen? for thy
+messages of woe never rest.
+
+ATT. I bring this grief to Hecuba; but in calamity 'tis no easy thing for
+men to speak words of good import.
+
+CHOR. And see, she is coming out of the house, and appears in the right
+time for thy words.
+
+ATT. O all-wretched mistress, and yet still more wretched than I can
+express in words, thou art undone, and no longer beholdest the light,
+childless, husbandless, cityless, entirely destroyed.
+
+HEC. Thou has said nothing new, but hast reproached me who already know it:
+but why dost thou bring this corse of my Polyxena, whose sepulture was
+reported to me as in a state of active progress through the labors of all
+the Grecians?
+
+ATT. She nothing knows, but, woe's me! laments Polyxena, nor does she
+apprehend her new misfortunes.
+
+HEC. O wretched me! dost bring hither the body of the frantic and inspired
+Cassandra?
+
+ATT. She whom thou mentionedst, lives; but thou dost not weep for him who
+is dead; but behold this corse cast naked [on the shore,] and look if it
+will appear to thee a wonder, and what thou little expectest.
+
+HEC. Alas me! I do indeed see my son Polydore a corse, whom (_I fondly
+hoped_) the man of Thrace was preserving in his palace. Now am I lost
+indeed, I no longer exist. Oh my child, my child! Alas! I begin the Bacchic
+strain, having lately learned my woes from my evil genius.
+
+ATT. Thou knowest then the calamity of thy son, O most unfortunate.
+
+HEC. I see incredible evils, still fresh, still fresh: and my immeasurable
+woes follow one upon the other. No longer will a day without a tear,
+without a groan, have part with me.
+
+CHOR. Dreadful, oh! dreadful are the miseries that we endure!
+
+HEC. O child, child of a wretched mother, by what fate art thou dead, by
+what hap liest thou here? by the hand of what man?
+
+ATT. I know not: on the wave-washed shore I found him.
+
+HEC. Cast up from the sea, or fallen by the blood-stained spear? (Note
+[C].)
+
+ATT. The ocean's billow cast him up from the deep on the smooth sand.
+
+HEC. Woe is me! Now understand I the dream, the vision of mine eyes; the
+black-winged phantom has not flitted by me in vain, which I saw concerning
+thee, my child, as being no longer in the light of day.
+
+CHOR. But who slew him? canst thou, O skilled in dreams, declare him?
+
+HEC. My friend, my friend, who curbs the steed in Thrace, where his aged
+father placed him for concealment.
+
+CHOR. Ah me! what wilt thou say? Was it to possess his gold that he slew
+him!
+
+HEC. Unutterable deeds, unworthy of a name, surpassing miracles,
+unhallowed, insufferable! Where are the laws of hospitality? O most accurst
+of men, how didst thou mar that skin, how sever with the cruel sword the
+poor limbs of this boy, nor didst feel pity?
+
+CHOR. O hapless woman, how has the deity made thee by far the most wretched
+of mortals, whoever he be that presses heavy on thee! But, my friends, let
+us henceforward be silent, for I see our lord Agamemnon advancing.
+
+AGAMEMNON, CHORUS, HECUBA.
+
+AGA. Why, Hecuba, delayest thou to come, and bury thy girl in her tomb,
+agreeably to what Talthybius told me, that no one of the Argives should be
+suffered to touch thy daughter. For our part we leave her alone, and touch
+her not; but thou art slow, whereat I am astonished. I am come therefore to
+fetch thee, for every thing there has been well and duly performed, if
+aught of well there be in this. Ah! what corse is this I see before the
+tent? some Trojan's too? for that it is no Grecian's, the robes that vest
+his limbs inform me.
+
+HEC. (_aside_) Thou ill-starr'd wretch! myself I mean, when I say "thou." O
+Hecuba, what shall I do? Shall I fall at the knees of Agamemnon here, or
+bear my ills in silence?
+
+AGA. Why dost lament turning thy back upon me, and sayest not what has
+happened? Who is this?
+
+HEC. (_aside_) But should he, thinking me a slave, an enemy, spurn me from
+his knees, I should be adding to my present sufferings.
+
+AGA. No prophet I, so as to trace, unless by hearing, the path of thy
+counsels.
+
+HEC. (_aside_) Am I not rather then putting an evil construction on this
+man's thoughts, whereas he has no evil intention toward me?
+
+AGA. If thou art willing that I should nothing of this affair, thou art of
+a mind with me, for neither do I wish to hear.
+
+HEC. (_aside_) I can not without him take vengeance for my children. Why do
+I thus hesitate? I must be bold, whether I succeed, or fail. Agamemnon, by
+these knees, and by thy beard I implore thee, and by thy blessed hand--
+
+AGA. What thy request? Is it to pass thy life in freedom? for this is easy
+for thee to obtain.
+
+HEC. Not this indeed; but so that I avenge myself on the bad, I am willing
+to pass my whole life in slavery.
+
+AGA. And for what assistance dost thou call on me?
+
+HEC. In none of those things which thou imaginest, O king. Seest thou this
+corse, o'er which I drop the tear?
+
+AGA. I see it; thy meaning however I can not learn from this.
+
+HEC. Him did I once bring forth, him bore I in my bosom.
+
+AGA. Is this indeed one of thy children, O unhappy woman?
+
+HEC. It is, but not of the sons of Priam who fell under the walls of Troy.
+
+AGA. Didst thou then bear any other besides those, O lady?
+
+HEC. In vain, as it appears, this whom you see.
+
+AGA. But where did he chance to be, when the city fell?
+
+HEC. His father sent him out of the country, dreading his death.
+
+AGA. Whither, having removed him alone of his children then alive?
+
+HEC. To this country, where he was found a corse.
+
+AGA. To him who is king over this state, to Polymestor?
+
+HEC. Hither was he sent, the guardian of gold, which proved most
+destructive to him.
+
+AGA. By whose hand then he is dead, and having met with what fate?
+
+HEC. By whom else should he? The Thracian host slew him.
+
+AGA. O wretch! was he so inflamed with the desire of obtaining the gold?
+
+HEC. Even so, after he had heard of Troy's disasters.
+
+AGA. And where didst thou find him, or who brought the body?
+
+HEC. She, meeting with it on the sea-shore.
+
+AGA. In quest of it, or occupied in some other employment?
+
+HEC. She was going to bring from the sea wherewith to bathe Polyxena.
+
+AGA. This friend then, as it seems, murdered him, and after that cast him
+out.
+
+HEC. To toss upon the waves thus gashing his body.
+
+AGA. O thou unhappy from thy unmeasured ills!
+
+HEC. I perish, no woe is left, O Agamemnon.
+
+AGA. Alas! alas! What woman was ever so unfortunate?
+
+HEC. There is none, except you reckon Misfortune herself. But for what
+cause I fall at thy knees, now hear: if I appear to you to suffer these
+ills justly, I would be reconciled to them; but if otherwise, be thou my
+avenger on this man, this most impious of false friends; who revering
+neither the Gods beneath[12] the earth, nor the Gods above, hath done this
+most unholy deed, having often partaken of the same table with me, [and in
+the list of hospitality the first of my friends; and having met with
+whatever was due,[13] and having received a full consideration for his
+services,[14]] slew him, and deigned not to give him a tomb, _which he
+might have given_, although he purposed to slay him, but cast him forth at
+the mercy of the waves. We indeed are slaves, and perhaps weak; but the
+Gods are strong, and strong the law, which governs them; for by the law we
+judge that there are Gods, and we live having justice and injustice
+strictly defined; which if when referred to thee it be disregarded, and
+they shall suffer no punishment who slay their guests, or dare to pollute
+the hallowed statutes of the Gods, there is nothing equitable in the
+dealings of men. Beholding these things then in a base and proper light,
+reverence me; pity me, and, as the artist stands aside _to view a picture_,
+do thou view my living portrait, and see what woes I am enduring. Once was
+I a queen, but now I am thy slave; once was I blest in my children, but now
+aged, and at the same time childless, cityless, destitute, the most
+miserable of mortals. Alas me wretched! whither withdrawest from me thy
+foot? It seems[15] I shall make no impression, wretch that I am. Why then
+do we mortals toil after all other sciences, as a matter of duty, and dive
+into them, but least of all strive to learn thoroughly Persuasion, the sole
+mistress o'er the minds of men, giving a price for her knowledge, that at
+some time we may have it in our power at once to persuade and obtain what
+we wish?--How then can any one hereafter hope that he shall be fortunate?
+So many children that I had, and now not one is left to me. But I am
+perishing a captive in base servitude, and yet see the smoke there leaping
+aloft from the city. And however this part of my argument may perchance be
+vain, the bringing forward love; still nevertheless it shall be urged. My
+daughter is wont to sleep by thy side, that prophetess, whom the Trojans
+call Cassandra. Where wilt thou show that thy nights were nights of love, O
+king, or will my daughter receive any recompense for her most fond
+embraces, and I through her? [For from the secret shade, and from night's
+joys, the greatest delight is wont to spring to mortals.] Now then attend.
+Thou seest this corse? Him assisting, thou wilt assist one joined to thee
+in affinity. One thing my speech wants yet. I would fain I had a voice in
+my arms, and hands, and in my hair, and in my footsteps, or by the skill of
+Dædalus, or some God, that each at once might hold thy knees, weeping, and
+imploring in all the strains of eloquence. O my lord. O greatest light of
+the Greeks, be persuaded; lend thy hand to avenge this aged woman, although
+she is of no consequence, yet avenge her. For it belongs to a good man to
+minister justice, and always and in every case to punish the bad.
+
+CHOR. It is strange, how every thing happens to mortals, and laws determine
+even the fates, making the greatest enemies friends, and enemies of those
+who before were on good terms.
+
+AGA. I, O Hecuba, have pity both on thee and thy son, thy misfortunes, and
+thy suppliant touch, and I am willing in regard both to the Gods and to
+justice, that this impious host should give thee full revenge, provided a
+way could be found, that both you might be gratified, and I might in the
+eyes of the army not seem to meditate this destruction against the king of
+Thrace for Cassandra's sake. For there is a point in which apprehension
+hath reached me. This man the army deems a friend, the dead an enemy; but
+if he is dear to thee, this is a private feeling and does not affect the
+army. Wherefore consider, that thou hast me willing to labor with thee, and
+ready to assist thee, but backward, should I be murmured against among the
+Greeks.
+
+HEC. Alas! no mortal is there who is free. For either he is the slave of
+money or of fortune; or the populace of the city or the dictates of the law
+constrain him to adopt manners not accordant with his natural inclinations.
+But since thou fearest, and payest too much regard to the multitude, I will
+liberate thee from this fear. For consent with me, if I meditate vengeance
+against the murderer of this youth, but do not act with me. But should any
+tumult or offer of assistance arise from out of the Greeks, when the
+Thracian feels the punishment he shall feel, suppress it, not appearing to
+do it for my sake: but of the rest be confident: I will dispose all things
+well.
+
+AGA. How then? What wilt thou do? Wilt thou grasp the sword in thine aged
+hand, and strike the barbarian? or with poison wilt thou work, or with what
+assistance? What hand will conspire with thee? whence wilt thou procure
+friends?
+
+HEC. These tents inclose a host of Trojan dames.
+
+AGA. Meanest thou the captives, the booty of the Greeks?
+
+HEC. With these will I avenge me of my murderer.
+
+AGA. And how shall the victory over men be to women?
+
+HEC. Numbers are powerful, with stratagem invincible.
+
+AGA. Powerful, I grant; I mistrust however the race of women.
+
+HEC. And why? Did not women slay the sons of Ægyptus,[16] and utterly
+extirpated the race of men from Lemnos?[17] But thus let it be. Give up
+this discussion. But grant this woman to pass in safety through the army.
+And do thou go to the Thracian host and tell him, "Hecuba, once queen of
+Troy, sends for you on business of no less importance to yourself than to
+her, and your sons likewise, since it is of consequence that your children
+also should hear her words."--And do thou, O Agamemnon, as yet forbear to
+raise the tomb over the newly-sacrificed Polyxena, that these two, the
+brother and the sister, the divided care of their mother, may, when reduced
+to ashes by one and the same flame, be interred side by side.
+
+AGA. Thus shall it be. And yet, if the army could sail, I should not have
+it in my power to grant thy request: but now, for the deity breathes not
+prosperous gales, we must wait, watching for a calm voyage. But may things
+turn out well some way or other: for this is a general principle among all,
+both individuals in private and states, That the wicked man should feel
+vengeance, but the good man enjoy prosperity.
+
+CHORUS.
+
+O thou, my country of Troy, no longer shall thou be called the city of the
+invincible, such a cloud of Grecians envelops thee, with the spear, with
+the spear having destroyed thee. And thou hast been shorn of thy crown of
+turrets, and thou hast been discolored by the dismal blackness of smoke;
+hapless city, no longer shall I tread my steps in thee.
+
+In the midnight hour I perished, when after the feast sweet sleep is
+scattered over the eyes. And my husband, from the song and cheerful
+sacrifice retired, was sleeping peacefully in my bed, his spear on its peg,
+no more dreaming to behold the naval host of the Greeks treading the
+streets of Troy. But I was binding my braided hair with fillets fastened on
+the top of mine head, looking into the round polished surface of the golden
+mirror, that I might get into my bed prepared for me. On a sudden a
+tumultuous cry penetrated the city; and this shout of exhortation was heard
+in the streets of Troy, "When indeed, ye sons of Grecians, when, _if not
+now_, will ye return to your homes having overthrown the proud citadel of
+Ilium!" And having left my dear bed, in a single robe, like a Spartan
+virgin, flying for aid to the venerable shrine of Diana, I hapless fled in
+vain. And I am dragged, after having seen my husband slain, to the ocean
+waves; and casting a distant look back upon my city, after the vessel had
+begun her way in her return to Greece, and divided me from the land of
+Troy, I wretched fainted through anguish. And consigning to curses Helen,
+the sister of the Twin Brothers, and the Idean shepherd, the ruthless
+Paris, since his marriage, no marriage, but some Fury's hate hath utterly
+destroyed me far from my native land, and hath driven me from my home. Whom
+may the ocean refuse ever to bear back again; and may she never reach again
+her paternal home.
+
+POLYMESTOR, HECUBA, CHORUS.
+
+POLY. O Priam, thou dearest of men, and thou most dear Hecuba, at thy sight
+I weep for thee, and thy city, and thy daughter who has lately died. Alas!
+there is nothing secure, neither glory, nor when one is faring well is
+there a certainty that he will not fare ill. But the Gods mingle these
+things promiscuously to and fro, making all confusion, so that we through
+ignorance may worship them. But wherefore should I utter these plaints,
+which in no way tend to free thee from thy former calamities. But thou, if
+thou hast aught to blame for my absence, forbear; for I chanced to be afar
+off in the middle of my Thracian territories, when thou camest hither; but
+soon as I returned, as I was already setting out from my house, this maid
+of thine met me for the self-same purpose, and delivered thy message, which
+when I had heard, I came.
+
+HEC. O Polymestor, I am ashamed to look thee in the face, sunk as I am in
+such miseries; for before one who has seen me in prosperity, shame
+overwhelms me, being in the state in which I now am, nor can I look upon
+thee with unmoved eyes. But impute not this to any enmity I bear thee; but
+there are other causes, and in some degree this law; "that women ought not
+to gaze at men."
+
+POLY. And 'tis indeed no wonder; but what need hast thou of me? for what
+purpose didst thou send for me to come from home?
+
+HEC. I am desirous of communicating a private affair of my own to thee and
+thy children; but order thy attendants to retire from these tents.
+
+POLY. Depart, for here to be alone is safe. Friendly thou art, this Grecian
+army too is friendly toward me, but it is for thee to signify, in what
+manner I, who am in good circumstances, ought to succor my friends in
+distress; since, on my part, I am ready.
+
+HEC. First then tell me of my son Polydore, whom thou retainest, receiving
+him from mine, and from his father's hand, if he live; but the rest I shall
+inquire of thee afterward.
+
+POLY. He lives, and in good health; as far as regards him indeed thou art
+happy.
+
+HEC. O my best friend, how well thou speakest, and how worthily of thyself!
+
+POLY. What dost thou wish then to inquire of me in the next place?
+
+HEC. Whether he remembers at all me, his mother?
+
+POLY. Yes: and he even sought to come to thee by stealth.
+
+HEC. And is the gold safe, which he brought with him from Troy?
+
+POLY. It is safe, at least it is guarded in my house.
+
+HEC. Preserve it therefore, nor covet the goods of others.
+
+POLY. Certainly not. May I enjoy what is mine own, O lady.
+
+HEC. Knowest thou then, what I wish to say to thee and thy children?
+
+POLY. I do not: this shalt thou signify by thy speech.
+
+HEC. Be my son loved by thee, as thou art now loved of me.
+
+POLY. What is it, that I and my sons must know?
+
+HEC. The ancient buried treasures of the family of Priam.
+
+POLY. Is it this thou wishest me to inform thy son of?
+
+HEC. Yes, certainly; through thee at least, for thou art a pious man.
+
+POLY. What necessity then is there for the presence of these children?
+
+HEC. 'Tis better in case of thy death, that these should know.
+
+POLY. Well hast thou thus said, and 'tis the wiser plan.
+
+HEC. Thou knowest then where the temple of Minerva in Troy is--
+
+POLY. Is the gold there! but what is the mark?
+
+HEC. A black rock rising above the earth.
+
+POLY. Hast any thing further to tell me of what is there?
+
+HEC. No, but I wish thee to take care of some treasures, with which I came
+out of the city.
+
+POLY. Where are they then? Hast thou them hidden beneath thy robes?
+
+HEC. Amidst a heap of spoils they are preserved in this tent.
+
+POLY. But where? These are the naval encampments of the Grecians.
+
+HEC. The habitations of the captive women are private.
+
+POLY. And is all secure within, and untenanted by men?
+
+HEC. Not one of the Greeks is within, but we women only. But come into the
+tent, for the Greeks are desirous of loosing the sheets of their vessels
+homeward from Troy; so that, having done every thing that thou oughtest,
+thou mayest go with thy children to that place where thou hast given my son
+to dwell.
+
+CHOR. Not yet hast thou suffered, but peradventure thou wilt suffer
+vengeance; as a man falling headlong into the gulf where no harbor is,
+shalt thou be hurled from thy dear heart, having lost thy life;[18] for
+where the rites of hospitality coincide[19] with justice, and with the
+Gods, _on the villain who dares to violate these_ destructive, destructive
+indeed impends the evil. But thy hopes will deceive thee, which thou
+entertainedst from this journey, which has brought thee, thou wretched man,
+to the deadly mansions of Pluto; but thou shalt quit thy life by no
+warrior's hand.
+
+POLYMESTOR, HECUBA, SEMICHORUS.
+
+POLY. Oh me! I wretch am deprived of the sight of mine eyes.
+
+SEMI. Heard ye the shriek of the man of Thrace, my friends?
+
+POLY. Oh me; there again--Oh my children, thy miserable butchery!
+
+SEMI. My friends, some strange ills have been perpetrated within the tents.
+
+POLY. But for all your nimble feet, ye never can escape me, for by my blows
+will I burst open the recesses of these tents.
+
+SEMI. Behold, he uses violently the weapon of his heavy hand. Will ye that
+we fall on; since the instant calls on us to be present with assistance to
+Hecuba and the Trojan dames?
+
+HEC. Dash on, spare nothing, break down the gates, for thou never shalt
+replace the clear sight in those pupils, nor shalt thou behold alive those
+children which I have slain.
+
+SEMI. What! hast thou vanquished the Thracian? and hast thou got the
+mastery over this host, my mistress? and hast thou done such deeds, as thou
+sayest?
+
+HEC. Thou wilt see him quickly before the house, blind, with blind
+wandering steps approaching, and the bodies of his two children, whom I
+have slain with these most valiant Trojan women; but he has felt my
+vengeance; but he is coming as thou seest from the tent. But I will retire
+out of his way, and make good my retreat from the boiling rage of this most
+desperate Thracian.
+
+POLY. Alas me! whither can I go? where stand? whither shall I direct my
+way, advancing my steps like the four-footed mountain beast on my hands and
+on my feet in pursuit? What new path shall I take in this direction or in
+that, desirous of seizing these murderous Trojan dames, who have utterly
+destroyed me; O ye impious, impious Phrygian daughters! Ah the accursed, in
+what corner do they shrink from me in flight? Would that thou, O sun,
+could'st heal, could'st heal these bleeding lids of my eyes, and remove
+this gloomy-darkness. Ah, hush, hush! I hear the carefully-concealed step
+of these women. Whither shall I direct my course in order that I may glut
+myself on the flesh and bones of these, making the wild beasts' banquet,
+inflicting vengeance on them, in return for the injuries done me. Wretch
+that I am! Whither, whither am I borne, having left my children deserted,
+for these fiends of hell to tear piecemeal, a mangled, bleeding, savage
+prey to dogs, and a thing to cast out on the mountains? Where shall I
+stand? Whither turn? Whither go, as a ship setting her yellow canvas sails
+with her sea-washed palsers, rushing to this lair of death, the protector
+of my children?
+
+CHOR. O miserable man, what intolerable evils have been perpetrated by
+thee! but on thee having done base deeds the God hath sent dreadful
+punishment, whoever he be that presses heavy on thee.
+
+POLY. Alas! alas! O Thracian nation, brandishing the spear, warlike,
+bestriding the steed, nation ruled by Mars; O ye Greeks, sons of Atreus; I
+raise the cry, the cry, the cry; Come, come, hasten, I entreat you by the
+Gods. Does any hear, or will no one assist me? Why do ye delay? The women
+have destroyed me, the captive women. Horrible, horrible treatment have I
+suffered. Alas me for my ruin! Whither can I turn? Whither can I go? Shall
+I soar through the ethereal skies to the lofty mansions where Orion or
+Sirius dart from their eyes the flaming rays of fire: or shall I hapless
+rush to the gloomy shore of Pluto?
+
+CHOR. It is pardonable, when any one suffers greater misfortunes than he
+can bear, for him to be desirous to quit a miserable life.
+
+AGAMEMNON, POLYMESTOR, HECUBA, CHORUS.
+
+AGA. I came having heard the clamor: for Echo, the mountain's daughter, did
+not sound in gentle strains through the army, causing a disturbance. But
+did we not know that the Phrygian towers are fallen beneath the Grecian
+spear, this tumult might have caused no little terror.
+
+POLY. O my dearest friend (for I know thee, Agamemnon, having heard thy
+voice), seest thou what I am suffering?
+
+AGA. Ah! wretched Polymestor, who hath destroyed thee? who made thine eyes
+sightless, having drowned their orbs in blood? And who hath slain these thy
+children? Sure, whoe'er it was, felt the greatest rage against thee and thy
+sons.
+
+POLY. Hecuba with the female captives hath destroyed me--nay, not destroyed
+me, but more than destroyed me.
+
+AGA. What sayest thou? Hast thou done this deed, as he affirms? Hast thou,
+Hecuba, dared this inconceivable act of boldness?
+
+POLY. Ah me! what wilt thou say? Is she any where near me? Show me, tell me
+where she is, that I may seize her in my hands, and tear piecemeal and
+mangle her body.
+
+AGA. What ho! what are you doing?
+
+POLY. By the Gods I entreat thee, suffer me to lay my raging hand upon her.
+
+AGA. Forbear. And having banished this barbarous deed from thy thoughts,
+speak; that having heard both thee and her in your respective turns, I may
+decide justly, in return for what thou art suffering these ills.
+
+POLY. I will speak then. There was a certain youth, the youngest of Priam's
+children, by name Polydore, the son of Hecuba; him his father Priam sent to
+me from Troy to bring up in my palace, already presaging[20] the capture of
+Troy. Him I put to death. But for what cause I put him to death, with what
+policy and prudent forethought, now hear. I feared, lest the boy being left
+an enemy to thee, should collect the scattered remnants of Troy, and again
+people the city. And lest the Greeks, having discovered that one of the
+sons of Priam was alive, should again direct an expedition against the
+Phrygian land, and after that should harass and lay waste the plains of
+Thrace; and it might fare ill with the neighbors of the Trojans, under
+which misfortune, O king, we are now laboring. But Hecuba, when she had
+discovered her son's death, by such treachery as this lured me hither, as
+about to tell me of treasure belonging to Priam's family concealed in Troy,
+and introduces me alone with my sons into the tent, that no one else might
+know it. And I sat, having reclined on the centre of the couch; but many
+Trojan damsels, some from the left hand, and others from the right, sat
+round me, as by an intimate friend, holding in their hands the Edonian
+looms, and praised these robes, looking at them in the light; but others,
+beholding with admiration my Thracian spear, deprived me of my double
+ornament. But as many as were mothers caressed my children in their arms in
+seeming admiration, that they might be farther removed from their father,
+successively handing them from one to another: and then, amidst their kind
+blandishments, what think you? in an instant, snatching from somewhere
+beneath their garments their daggers, they stab my children. But they
+having seized me in an hostile manner held my hands and feet; and if,
+wishing to succor my children, I raised my head, they held me by the hair:
+but if I attempted to move my hands, I wretched could effect nothing
+through the host of women. But at last, cruelty and worse than cruelty,
+they perpetrated dreadful things; for having taken their clasps they pierce
+and gore the wretched pupils of my eyes, then vanish in flight through the
+tent. But I, having leaped out, like some exasperated beast, pursue the
+blood-stained wretches, searching every wall, as the hunter, casting down,
+rending. This have I suffered, while studious to advance thy interest,
+Agamemnon, and having killed thine enemy. But that I may not extend my
+speech to a greater length, if any one of those of ancient times hath
+reviled women, or if any one doth now, or shall hereafter revile them, I
+will comprise the whole when I say, that such a race neither doth the sea
+nor the earth produce, but he who is always with them knows it best.
+
+CHOR. Be not at all insolent, nor, in thy calamities, thus comprehending
+the female sex, abuse them all. For of us there are many, some indeed are
+envied _for their virtues_, but some are by nature in the catalogue of bad
+things.
+
+HEC. Agamemnon, it never were fitting among men that the tongue should have
+greater force than actions. But if a man has acted well, well should he
+speak; if on the other hand basely, his words likewise should be unsound,
+and never ought he to be capable of speaking unjust things well. Perhaps
+indeed they who have brought these things to a pitch of accuracy are
+accounted wise, but they can not endure wise unto the end, but perish
+vilely, nor has any one yet escaped this. And this in my prelude is what I
+have to say to thee. Now am I going to direct my discourse to this man, and
+I will answer his arguments. Thou, that assertest, that in order to rid the
+Greeks of their redoubled toil, and for Agamemnon's sake that thou didst
+slay my son? But, in the first place, monstrous villain, never can the race
+of barbarians be friendly to the Grecians, never can this take place. But
+what favor wert thou so eagerly currying? wert thou about to contract an
+alliance, or was it that thou wert of kindred birth, or what pretext hadst
+thou? or were they about to ravage the crops of thy country, having sailed
+thither again? Whom, thinkest thou, wilt thou persuade of these things? The
+gold, if thou wert willing to speak truth, the gold destroyed my son, and
+thy base gains. For come, tell me this; how when Troy was prosperous, and a
+tower yet girt around the city, and Priam lived, and the spear of Hector
+was in its glory, why didst thou not then, if thou wert willing to lay him
+under this obligation, bringing up my child, and retaining him in thy
+palace, why didst thou not then slay him, or go and take him alive to the
+Greeks? But when we were no longer in the light of prosperity, and the city
+by its smoke showed that it was in the power of the enemy, thou slewest thy
+guest who had come to thy hearth. Now hear besides how thou wilt appear
+vile: thou oughtest, if thou wert the friend of the Greeks, to have given
+the gold, which thou confessedst thou hast, not thine, but his,
+distributing to those who were in need, and had long been strangers to
+their native land. But thou, even now, hast not courage to part with it
+from thy hand, but having it, thou still art keeping it close in thine
+house. And yet, in bringing up my child, as it was thy duty to bring him
+up, and in preserving him, thou hadst had fair honor. For in adversity
+friends are most clearly proved good. But good circumstances have in every
+case their friends. But if thou wert in want of money, and he in a
+flourishing condition, my son had been to thee a vast treasure; but now,
+thou neither hast him for thy friend, and the benefit from the gold is
+gone, and thy sons are gone, and thou art--as thou art. But to thee,
+Agamemnon, I say; if thou aidest this man, thou wilt appear to be doing
+wrong. For thou wilt be conferring a benefit on a host, who is neither
+pious, nor faithful to those to whom he ought, not holy, not just. But we
+shall say that thou delightest in the bad, if thus thou actest: but I speak
+no offense to my lords.
+
+CHOR. Ah! Ah! How do good deeds ever supply to men the source of good
+words!
+
+AGA. Thankless my office to decide on others' grievances; but still I must,
+for it brings disgrace on a man, having taken a thing in hand, to give it
+up. But to me, be assured, thou neither appearest for my sake, nor for the
+sake of the Grecians, to have killed this man thy guest, but that thou
+mightest possess the gold in thy palace. But thou talkest of thy advantage,
+when thou art in calamities.[21] Perhaps with you it is a slight thing to
+kill your guests; but with us Grecians this thing is abhorred. How then, in
+giving my decision that thou hast not injured, can I escape blame? I can
+not; but as thou hast dared to do things dishonorable, endure now things
+unpleasant.
+
+POLY. Alas me! worsted, as it seems, by a woman who is a slave, I shall
+submit to the vengeance of my inferiors.
+
+AGA. Will it not then be justly, seeing thou hast acted wrong?
+
+POLY. Alas me! wretched on account of these children and on account of my
+eyes.
+
+HEC. Thou sufferest? but what do I? Thinkest thou I suffer not for my
+child?
+
+POLY. Thou rejoicest in insulting me, O thou malicious woman.
+
+HEC. For ought not I to rejoice on having avenged myself on thee?
+
+POLY. But thou wilt not soon, when the liquid wave--
+
+HEC. Shall bear me, _dost thou mean_, to the confines of the Grecian land?
+
+POLY. --shall cover thee, having fallen from the shrouds.
+
+HEC. From whom meeting with this violent leap?
+
+POLY. Thyself shalt climb with thy feet up the ship's mast.
+
+HEC. Having wings on my back, or in what way?
+
+POLY. Thou shalt become a dog with a fiery aspect.
+
+HEC. But how dost thou know of this my metamorphose?
+
+POLY. Dionysius the Thracian prophet told it me.
+
+HEC. But did he not declare to thee any of the evils which thou sufferest?
+
+POLY. No: for, _if he had_, thou never wouldst thus treacherously have
+taken me.
+
+HEC. [22]Thence shall I conclude my life in death, or still live on?
+
+POLY. Thou shalt die. But the name of thy tomb shall be--
+
+HEC. Dost thou speak of it as in any way correspondent to my shape?
+
+POLY. [23]The tomb of the wretched dog, a mark to mariners.
+
+HEC. I heed it not, since thou at least hast felt my vengeance.
+
+POLY. And it is fated too for thy daughter Cassandra to die.
+
+HEC. I renounce these prophecies; I give them for thyself to bear.
+
+POLY. Him shall his wife slay, a cruel guardian of his house.
+
+HEC. Never yet may the daughter of Tyndarus have arrived at such madness.
+
+POLY. Even this man himself, having lifted up the axe.
+
+AGA. What ho! thou art mad, and art desirous of obtaining greater ills.
+
+POLY. Kill me, for the murderous bath at Argos awaits thee.
+
+AGA. Will ye not, slaves, forcibly drag him from my presence?
+
+POLY. Thou art galled at what thou hearest.
+
+AGA. Will ye not stop his mouth?
+
+POLY. Stop it: for the word is spoken.
+
+AGA. Will ye not as quick as possible cast him out on some desert island,
+since he is thus, and past endurance insolent? But do thou, wretched
+Hecuba, go and bury thy two dead: and you, O Trojan dames, must approach
+your masters' tents, for I perceive that the gales are favorable for
+wafting us to our homes. And may we sail in safety to our native country,
+and behold our household and families in prosperity, having found rest from
+these toils.
+
+CHOR. Come, my friends, to the harbor, and the tents, to undergo the tasks
+imposed by our masters. For necessity is relentless.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+NOTES ON HECUBA
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+[1] Homer makes Dymas, not Cisseus, the father of Hecuba. Virgil however
+follows Euripides, the rest of the Latin poets Virgil.
+
+[2] In the martial time of antiquity the spear was reverenced as something
+divine, and signified the chief command in arms, it was also the insigne of
+the highest civil authority: in this sense Euripides in other places uses
+the word δορυ. See Hippol. 988.
+
+[3] τριταιος properly signifies _triduanus_; here it is used for τριτος,
+the cardinal number for the ordinal. So also Hippol. 275.
+
+  Πως δ' ου, τριταιαν γ' ουσ' ασιτος ‛ημεραν:
+
+[4] Most interpreters render this, _leaning on the crooked staff with my
+hand_. Nor has Beck altered it in his Latin version, though he transcribed
+Musgrave's note. "σκολιω, σκιμπωνι (_for which Porson directs_ σκιπωνι,)
+Scipiones in universum recti sunt, non curvi. Loquitur igitur non de vero
+scipione, sed metaphorice de brachio, quod ancillis innitens, scipionis
+usum præstabat; quodque, ob cubiti flexuram, σκολιον σκιμπωμα vocat."
+
+[5] _that babbling knave_.] Tzetzes on Lycophron, line 763. κοπις, ‛ο
+‛ρητωρ, και εμπειρος, ‛ο ‛υπο πολλων πραγματων κεκομμενος. In the Index to
+Lycophron κοπις is translated _scurra_.
+
+[6] Among the ancients it was the custom for virgins to have a great
+quantity of golden ornaments about them, to which Homer alludes, Il. Β.
+872.
+
+  ‛Ος και χρυσον εχων πολεμον δ' ιεν ηϋτε κουρη. PORSON.
+
+[7] This is the only sense that can be made of ενθανειν, and this sense
+seems strained: Brunck proposes εντακηναι for ενθανειν γε. See Note [A].
+
+[8] λιμνη is used for the _sea_ in Troades 444; as also in Iliad Ν. 21, and
+Odyssey Γ. 1. and in many other passages of Homer.
+
+[9] The construction is η πορευσεις με ενθα νασων; for εις εκεινην των
+νασων, ενθα.
+
+[10] κεκλημαι for ειμι, not an unusual signification. Hippol. 2, θεα
+κεκλημαι Κυπρις.
+
+[11] _When she perceived it,_ εφρασθη, συνηκεν, εγνω, ενοησεν. _Hesych_.
+
+[12] The Gods beneath he despised, by casting him out without a tomb; the
+Gods above, as the guardians of the rites of hospitality.
+
+[13] _Whatever was due_, either on the score of friendship, or as an
+equivalent for his care and protection.
+
+[14] Musgrave proposes to read προμισθιαν for προμηθιαν: the version above
+is in accordance with the scholiast and the paraphrast.
+
+[15] See note on Medea 338.
+
+[16] The story of the daughters of Danaus is well known.
+
+[17] Of this there are two accounts given in the Scholia. The one is, that
+the women of Lemnos being punished by Venus with an ill savor, and
+therefore neglected by their husbands, conspired against them and slew
+them. The other is found in Herodotus, Erato, chap. 138. see also Æsch.
+Choephoræ, line 627, ed. Schutz.
+
+[18] Polymestor was guilty of two crimes, αδικιας and ασεβειας, for he had
+both violated the laws of men, and profaned the deity of Jupiter
+Hospitalis. Whence Agamemnon, v. 840, hints that he is to suffer on both
+accounts.
+
+  και βουλομαι θεων θ' ‛ουνεκ ανοσιον ξενον,
+  και του δικαιον, τηνδε σοι δουναι δικην.
+
+The Chorus therefore says, _Ubi contingit eundem et Justitiæ et Diis esse
+addictum, exitiale semper malum esse_; or, as the learned Hemsterheuyse has
+more fully and more elegantly expressed, it, _Ubi_, id est, _in quo_, vel
+_in quem cadit et concurrit, ut ob crimen commissum simul et humanæ
+justitiæ et Deorum vindictæ sit obnoxius, ac velut oppignoratus; illi
+certissimum exitium imminet_. This sense the words give, if for ου, we read
+‛ου, i.e. in the sense of ‛οπου. MUSGRAVE. Correct Dindorf's text to ‛ου.
+
+[19] συμπεσεειν _in unum coire, coincidere_. In this sense it is used also,
+Herod. Euterpe, chap. 49.
+
+[20] The verbal adjective in τος is almost universally used in a passive
+sense; ‛υποπτος, however, in this place is an exception to the rule, as are
+also, καλυπτης, Soph. Antig. 1011, μεμπτος, Trachin. 446.
+
+[21] Perhaps the preferable way is to make κακοισιν agree with ανθρωποις
+understood; that the sense may be, _You are a bad man to talk of your
+advantage as a plea for having acted thus_.
+
+[22] Θανουσα δ' η ζωσ' ενθαδ' εκπλησω βιον; a similar expression occurs in
+the Anthologia.
+
+  σιγων παρερχου τον ταλαιπωρον βιον,
+  αυτος σιωπηι τον χρονον μιμουμενος,
+  λαθων δε και βιωσον. ει δε μη, θανων.
+
+[23] The place of her burial was called Cynosema, a promontory of the
+Thracian Chersonese. It was here that the Athenians gained a naval victory
+over the Peloponnesians and Syracusans, in the twenty-first year of the
+Peloponnesian war. Thucydides, book viii.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+ADDITIONAL NOTES.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+[A] Vs. 246, ενθανειν γε. "Pravam esse scripturam dici Brunckius et Corayus
+viderunt; quorum ille legere voluit ‛ωστ' εντακηναι, hic vero ‛ωστ'
+εμβαλειν. Sed neuter rem acu tetigit. Euripides scripsit: ‛ωστ' εν γε
+φυναι, uti patet ex Hom. Il. Ζ. 253, εν τ' αρα ‛οι φυ χειρι, Od. Π. 21,
+παντα κυσεν περιφυς, Theocrit. Id. xiii. 47, ται δ' εν χερι πασαι εφυσαν,
+et, quod rem conficit, ex Euripidis ipsius Ion. 891, λευκοις δ' εμφυσας
+καρποις χειρων." G. BURGES, apud _Revue de Philologie_, vol. i. No. 5. p.
+457.
+
+[B] We must, I think, read τολμαιν.
+
+[C] Dindorf disposes these lines differently, but I prefer Porson's
+arrangement, as follows:
+
+  ΕΚ. εκβλητον, η πες. φ. δορος;
+  ΘΕΡ. εν ψαμαθωι λευραι
+  ποντου νιν, κ.τ.λ.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *       *
+
+ORESTES.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+PERSONS REPRESENTED.
+
+  ELECTRA.
+  HELEN.
+  HERMIONE.
+  CHORUS.
+  ORESTES.
+  MENELAUS.
+  TYNDARUS.
+  PYLADES.
+  A PHRYGIAN.
+  APOLLO.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE ARGUMENT.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+Orestes, in revenge for the murder of his father, took off Ægisthus and
+Clyætmnestra; but having dared to slay his mother, he was instantly
+punished for it by being afflicted with madness. But on Tyndarus, the
+father of her who was slain, laying an accusation against him, the Argives
+were about to give a public decision on this question, "What ought he, who
+has dared this impious deed, to suffer?" By chance Menelaus, having
+returned from his wanderings, sent in Helen indeed by night, but himself
+came by day, and being entreated by Orestes to aid him, he rather feared
+Tyndarus the accuser: but when the speeches came to be spoken among the
+populace, the multitude were stirred up to kill Orestes. * * * * But
+Pylades, his friend, accompanying him, counseled him first to take revenge
+on Menelaus by killing Helen. As they were going on this project, they were
+disappointed of their hope by the Gods snatching away Helen from them. But
+Electra delivered up Hermione, when she made her appearance, into their
+hands, and they were about to kill her. When Menelaus came, and saw himself
+bereft by them at once of his wife and child, he endeavored to storm the
+palace; but they, anticipating his purpose, threatened to set it on fire.
+Apollo, however, having appeared, said that he had conducted Helen to the
+Gods, and commanded Orestes to take Hermione to wife, and Electra to dwell
+with Pylades, and, after that he was purified of the murder, to reign over
+Argos.
+
+The scene of the piece is laid at Argos; But the chorus consists of Argive
+women, intimate associates of Electra, who also come on inquiring about the
+calamity of Orestes. The play has a catastrophe rather suited to comedy.
+The opening scene of the play is thus arranged. Orestes is discovered
+before the palace of Agamemnon, fatigued, and, on account of his madness,
+lying on a couch on which Electra is sitting by him at his feet. A
+difficulty has been started, why does not she sit at his head? for thus
+would she seem to watch more tenderly over her brother, if she sat nearer
+him. The poet, it is answered, seems to have made this arrangement on
+account of the Chorus; for Orestes, who had but just then and with
+difficulty gotten to sleep, would have been awakened, if the women that
+constituted the Chorus had stood nearer to him. But this we may infer from
+what Electra says to the Chorus, "Σιγα, σιγα, λεπτον ιχνος αρβυληις." It is
+probable then that the above is the reason of this arrangement.
+
+The play is among the most celebrated on the stage, but infamous in its
+morals; for, with the exception of Pylades, all the characters are bad
+persons.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+ORESTES.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+ELECTRA.
+
+There is no word so dreadful to relate, nor suffering, nor heaven-inflicted
+calamity, the burden of which human nature may not be compelled to bear.
+For Tantalus, the blest, (and I am not reproaching his fortune, _when I say
+this_,) the son of Jupiter, as they report, trembling at the rock which
+impends over his head, hangs in the air, and suffers this punishment, as
+they say indeed, because, although being a man, yet having the honor of a
+table in common with the Gods upon equal terms, he possessed an
+ungovernable tongue, a most disgraceful malady. He begat Pelops, and from
+him sprung Atreus, for whom the Goddess having carded the wool[1] spun the
+thread of contention, _and doomed him_ to make war on Thyestes his
+relation; (why must I commemorate things unspeakable?) But Atreus then[2]
+killed his children--and feasted him. But from Atreus, for I pass over in
+silence the misfortunes which intervened, sprung Agamemnon, the
+illustrious, (if he was indeed illustrious,) and Menelaus; their mother
+Aërope of Crete. But Menelaus indeed marries Helen, the hated of the Gods,
+but King Agamemnon _obtained_ Clytæmnestra's bed, memorable throughout the
+Grecians: from whom we virgins were born, three from one mother;
+Chrysothemis, and Iphigenia, and myself Electra; and Orestes the male part
+of the family, from a most unholy mother, who slew her husband, having
+covered him around with an inextricable robe; the reason however it is not
+decorous in a virgin to tell; I leave this undeclared for men to consider
+as they will. But why indeed must I accuse the injustice of Phœbus? Yet
+persuaded he Orestes to kill that mother that brought him forth, a deed
+which gained not a good report from all men. But nevertheless he did slay
+her, as he would not be disobedient to the God. I also took a share in the
+murder, but such as a woman ought to take. As did Pylades also who
+perpetrated this deed with us. From that time wasting away, the wretched
+Orestes is afflicted with a grievous malady, but falling on his couch there
+lies, but his mother's blood whirls him to frenzy (for I dread to mention
+those Goddesses, the Eumenides, who persecute him with terror). Moreover
+this is the sixth day since his slaughtered mother was purified by fire as
+to her body. During which he has neither taken any food down his throat, he
+has not bathed his limbs, but covered beneath his cloak, when indeed his
+body is lightened of its disease, on coming to his right mind he weeps, but
+at another time starts suddenly from his couch, as a colt from his yoke.
+But it has been decreed by this city of Argos, that no one shall receive us
+who have slain a mother under their roof, nor at their fire, and that none
+shall speak to us; but this is the appointed day, in the which the city of
+the Argives will pronounce their vote, whether it is fitting that we should
+die being stoned with stones, or having whet the sword, should plunge it
+into our necks. But I yet have some hope that we may not die, for Menelaus
+has arrived at this country from Troy, and filling the Nauplian harbor with
+his oars is mooring his fleet off the shore, having been lost in wanderings
+from Troy a long time: but the much-afflicted Helen has he sent before to
+our palace, having taken advantage of the night, lest any of those, whose
+children died under Ilium, when they saw her coming, by day, might go so
+far as to stone her; but she is within bewailing her sister, and the
+calamity of her family. She has however some consolation in her woes, for
+the virgin Hermione, whom Menelaus bringing from Sparta, left at our
+palace, when he sailed to Troy, and gave as a charge to my mother to bring
+up, in her she rejoices, and forgets her miseries. But I am looking at each
+avenue when I shall see Menelaus present, since, for the rest, we ride on
+slender power,[3] if we receive not some succor from him; the house of the
+unfortunate is an embarrassed state of affairs.
+
+ELECTRA. HELEN.
+
+HEL. O daughter of Clytæmnestra and Agamemnon, O Electra, thou that hast
+remained a virgin a long time. How are ye, O wretched woman, both you, and
+your brother, the wretched Orestes (he was the murderer of his mother)? For
+by thy converse I am not polluted, transferring, as I do, the blame to
+Phœbus. And yet I groan the death of Clytæmnestra, whom, after that I
+sailed to Troy, (how did I sail, urged by the maddening fate of the Gods!)
+I saw not, but of her bereft I lament my fortune.
+
+ELEC. Helen, why should I inform thee of things thou seest thyself here
+present, the race of Agamemnon in calamities. I indeed sleepless sit
+companion to the wretched corse, (for he is a corse, in that he breathes so
+little,) but at his fortune I murmur not. But thou a happy woman, and thy
+husband a happy man, have come to us, who fare most wretchedly.
+
+HEL. But what length of time has he been lying on his couch?
+
+ELEC. Ever since he shed his parent's blood.
+
+HEL. Oh wretched, and his mother too, that thus she perished!
+
+ELEC. These things are thus, so that he is unable to speak for misery.
+
+HEL. By the Gods wilt thou oblige me in a thing, O virgin?
+
+ELEC. As far as I am permitted by the little leisure I have from watching
+by my brother.
+
+HEL. Wilt thou go to the tomb of my sister?
+
+ELEC. My mother's tomb dost thou desire? wherefore?
+
+HEL. Bearing the first offerings of my hair, and my libations.
+
+ELEC. But is it not lawful for thee to go to the tomb of thy friends?
+
+HEL. No, for I am ashamed to show myself among the Argives.
+
+ELEC. Late art thou discreet, then formerly leaving thine home
+disgracefully.
+
+HEL. True hast thou spoken, but thou speakest not pleasantly to me.
+
+ELEC. But what shame possesses thee among the Myceneans?
+
+HEL. I fear the fathers of those who are dead under Ilium.
+
+ELEC. For this is a dreadful thing; and at Argos thou art declaimed against
+by every one's mouth.
+
+HEL. Do thou then grant me this favor, and free me from this fear.
+
+ELEC. I can not look upon the tomb of my mother.
+
+HEL. And yet it is disgraceful for servants to bear these.
+
+ELEC. But why not send thy daughter Hermione?
+
+HEL. It is not well for virgins to go among the crowd.
+
+ELEC. And yet she might repay the dead the care of her education.
+
+HEL. Right hast thou spoken, and I obey thee, O virgin, and I will send my
+daughter, for thou sayest well. Come forth, my child Hermione, before the
+house, and take these libations in thine hand, and my hair, and, going to
+the tomb of Clytæmnestra, leave there this mixture of milk and honey, and
+the froth of wine, and standing on the summit of the mound, say thus:
+"Helen, thy sister, presents thee with these libations, in fear herself to
+approach thy tomb, and afraid of the populace of Argos:" and bid her hold
+kind intentions toward me, and thyself, and my husband, and toward these
+two miserable persons whom the God has destroyed. But promise all the
+offerings to the manes, whatever it is fitting that I should perform for a
+sister. Go, my child, hasten, and when thou hast offered the libations at
+the tomb, remember to return back as speedily as possible.
+
+ELEC. [_alone_] O Nature, what a great evil art thou among men, and the
+safeguard of those who possess thee, with virtue! For see, how she has
+shorn off the extremities of her hair, in order to preserve her beauty; but
+she is the same woman she always was. May the Gods detest thee, for that
+thou hast destroyed me, and this man, and the whole state of Greece: oh
+wretch that I am! But my dear friends that accompany me in my lamentations
+are again present; perhaps they will disturb the sleeper from his slumber,
+and will melt my eyes in tears when I behold my brother raving.
+
+ELECTRA, CHORUS.
+
+ELEC. O most dear woman, proceed with a gentle foot, make no noise, let
+there be heard no sound. For your friendliness is very kind, but to awake
+him will be a calamity to me. Hush, hush--gently advance the tread of thy
+sandal, make no noise, let there be heard no sound. Move onward from that
+place--onward from before the couch.
+
+CHOR. Behold, I obey.
+
+ELEC. St! st! Speak to me, my friend, as the breathing of the soft reed
+pipe.
+
+CHOR. See, I utter a voice low as an under note.
+
+ELEC. Ay, thus come hither, come hither, approach quietly--go quietly: tell
+me, for what purpose, I pray, are ye come? For he has fallen on his couch,
+and been sleeping some time.
+
+CHOR. How is he? Give us an account of him, my friend.
+
+ELEC. What fortune can I say of him? and what his calamities? still indeed
+he breathes, but sighs at short intervals.
+
+CHOR. What sayest thou? Oh, the unhappy man!
+
+ELEC. You will kill him if you move his eyelids, now that he is taking the
+sweetest enjoyment of sleep.
+
+CHOR. Unfortunate on account of these most angry deeds from heaven! oh!
+wretched on account of thy sufferings!
+
+ELEC. Alas! alas! Apollo himself unjust, then spoke unjust things, when at
+the tripod of Themis he commanded the unhallowed, inauspicious murder of my
+mother.
+
+CHOR. Dost thou see? he moves his body in the robes that cover him.
+
+ELEC. You by your cries, O wretch, have disturbed him from his sleep.
+
+CHOR. I indeed think he is sleeping yet.
+
+ELEC. Will you not depart from us? will you not bend your footsteps back
+from the house, ceasing this noise?
+
+CHOR. He sleeps.
+
+ELEC. Thou sayest well.
+
+CHOR. Venerable, venerable Night, thou that dispensest sleep to languid
+mortals, come from Erebus; come, come, borne on thy wings to the house of
+Agamemnon; for by our griefs and by our sufferings we are quite undone,
+undone.
+
+ELEC. Ye were making a noise.
+
+CHOR. No. (Note [A].)
+
+ELEC. Silently, silently repressing the high notes of your voice, apart
+from his couch, you will enable him to have the tranquil enjoyment of
+sleep.
+
+CHOR. Tell us; what end to his miseries awaits him?
+
+ELEC. Death, death; what else can? for he has no appetite for food.
+
+CHOR. Death then is manifestly before him.
+
+ELEC. Phœbus offered us as victims, when he commanded[4] the dreadful,
+abhorred murder of our mother, that slew our father.
+
+CHOR. With justice indeed, but not well.
+
+ELEC. Thou hast died, thou hast died, O mother, O thou that didst bring me
+forth, but hast killed the father, and the children of thy blood. We
+perish, we perish, even as two corses. For thou art among the dead, and the
+greatest part of my life is passed in groans, and wailings, and nightly
+tears; marriageless, childless, behold, how like a miserable wretch do I
+drag out my existence forever!
+
+CHOR. O virgin Electra, approach near, and look that thy brother has not
+died unobserved by thee; for by this excessive quiet he doth not please me.
+
+ORESTES, ELECTRA, CHORUS.
+
+ORES. O precious balm of sleep, thou that relievest my malady, how pleasant
+didst thou come to me in the time of need! O divine oblivion of my
+sufferings, how wise thou art, and the goddess to be supplicated by all in
+distress!--whence, in heaven's name, came I hither? and how brought? for I
+remember not things past, bereaved, as I am, of my senses.
+
+ELEC. My dearest brother, how didst thou delight me when thou didst fall
+asleep! wilt thou I touch thee, and raise thy body up?
+
+ORES. Raise me then, raise me, and wipe the clotted foam from off my
+wretched mouth, and from my eyes.
+
+ELEC. Behold, the task is sweet, and I refuse not to administer to a
+brother's limbs with a sister's hand.
+
+ORES. Lay thy side by my side, and remove the squalid hair from my face,
+for I see but imperfectly with my eyes.
+
+ELEC. O wretched head, sordid with ringlets, how art thou disordered from
+long want of the bath!
+
+ORES. Lay me on the couch again; when my fit of madness gives me a respite,
+I am feeble and weak in my limbs.
+
+ELEC. Behold, the couch is pleasant to the sick man, an irksome thing to
+keep, but still a necessary one.
+
+ORES. Again raise me upright--turn my body.
+
+CHOR. Sick persons are hard to be pleased from their feebleness.
+
+ELEC. Wilt thou set thy feet on the ground, putting forward thy
+long-discontinued[5] step? In all things change is sweet.
+
+ORES. Yes, by all means; for this has a semblance of health, but the
+semblance is good, though it be distant from the truth.
+
+ELEC. Hear now therefore, O my brother, while yet the Furies suffer thee to
+have thy right faculties.
+
+ORES. Wilt thou tell any news? and if good indeed, thou art conferring
+pleasure; but if it pertain at all to mischief--I have enough distress.
+
+ELEC. Menelaus has arrived, the brother of thy father, but his ships are
+moored in the Nauplian bay.
+
+ORES. How sayest? Is he come, a light in mine and thy sufferings, a man of
+kindred blood, and that hath received benefits from our father?
+
+ELEC. He is come; take this a sure proof of my words, bringing with him
+Helen from the walls of Troy.
+
+ORES. Had he been saved alone, he had been more blest. But if he brings his
+wife, he has arrived with a mighty evil.
+
+ELEC. Tyndarus begat an offspring of daughters, a conspicuous mark for
+blame, and infamous throughout Greece.
+
+ORES. Do thou then be unlike the bad, for it is in thy power. And not only
+say, but also hold these sentiments.
+
+ELEC. Alas! my brother, thine eye rolls wildly; quick art thou changed to
+madness, so late in thy senses.
+
+ORES. O mother, I implore thee, urge not on me those Furies gazing blood,
+horrid with snakes, for these, these are leaping around me.
+
+ELEC. Remain, O wretched man, calmly on thy couch, for thou seest none of
+those things, which thou fanciest thou seest plainly.
+
+ORES. O Phœbus, these dire Goddesses in the shape of dogs will kill me,
+these gorgon-visaged ministers of hell.
+
+ELEC. I will not let thee go, but, putting my arm around thee, will stop
+thy starting into those unfortunate convulsions.
+
+ORES. Loose me. Thou art one of my Furies, and seizest me by the middle,
+that thou mayest hurl me into Tartarus.
+
+ELEC. Oh! wretched me! what assistance can I obtain, since we have on us
+the vengeful wrath of heaven!
+
+ORES. Give me my bow of horn, the gift of Phœbus, with which Apollo said I
+should repel the Fiends, if they appalled me by their maddened raging.
+
+ELEC. Shall any God be wounded by mortal hand? (Note [B].)
+
+ORES. _Yes. She shall,_ if she will not depart from my sight... Hear ye
+not--see ye not the winged shafts impelled from the distant-wounding bow?
+Ha! ha! Why tarry ye yet? Skim the high air with your wings, and impeach
+the oracles of Phœbus.--Ah! why am I thus disquieted, heaving my panting
+breath from my lungs? Whither, whither have I wandered from my couch? For
+from the waves again I see a calm.--Sister, why weepest, hiding thine eyes
+beneath thy vests, I am ashamed to have thee a partner in my sufferings,
+and to give a virgin trouble through my malady. Pine not away on account of
+my miseries: for thou indeed didst assent to this, but the shedding of my
+mother's blood was accomplished by me: but I blame Apollo, who, after
+having instigated me to a most unholy act, with words indeed consoled me,
+but not with deeds. But I think that my father, had I, beholding him, asked
+him if it were right for me to slay my mother, would have put forth many
+supplications, beseeching me by this beard not to impel my sword to the
+slaughter of her who bore me, if neither he thereby could be restored to
+life, and I thus wretched must go through such miseries. And now then
+unveil thyself, my sister, and cease from tears, even though we be very
+miserable: but when thou seest me desponding, do thou restrain my
+distraction, and that which preys upon my mind, and console me; but when
+thou groanest, it becomes my duty to come to thee, and suggest words of
+comfort. For these are the good offices friends ought to render each other.
+But go thou into the house, O unfortunate sister, and, stretched at full
+length, compose thy sleepless eyelids to sleep, and take refreshment, and
+pour the bath upon thy fair skin. For if thou forsakest me, or gettest any
+illness by continually sitting by me, we perish; for thee I have my only
+succor, by the rest, as thou seest, abandoned.
+
+ELEC. This can not be: with thee will I choose to die, with thee to live;
+for it is the same: for if then shouldst die, what can I do, a woman? how
+shall I be preserved, alone and destitute? without a brother, without a
+father, without a friend: but if it seemeth good to thee, these things it
+is my duty to do: but recline thy body on the bed, and do not to such a
+degree conceive to be real whatever frightens and startles thee from the
+couch, but keep quiet on the bed strewn for thee. For though thou be not
+ill, but only seem to be ill, still this even is an evil and a distress to
+mortals. (Note [C].)
+
+CHORUS. Alas! alas! O swift-winged, raving[6] Goddesses, who keep up the
+dance, not that of Bacchus, with tears and groans. You, dark Eumenides,
+you, that fly through the wide extended air, executing vengeance, executing
+slaughter, you do I supplicate, I supplicate: suffer the offspring of
+Agamemnon to forget his furious madness; alas! for his sufferings. What
+were they that eagerly grasping at, thou unhappy perishest, having received
+from the tripod the oracle which Phœbus spake, on that pavement, where are
+said to be the recesses in the midst of the globe! O Jupiter, what pity is
+there? what is this contention of slaughter that comes persecuting thee
+wretched, to whom some evil genius casts tear upon tear, transporting to
+thy house the blood of thy mother which drives thee frenzied! Thus I
+bewail, I bewail. Great prosperity is not lasting among mortals; but, as
+the sail of the swift bark, some deity having shaken him, hath sunk him in
+the voracious and destructive waves of tremendous evils, as in the waves of
+the ocean. For what other[6a] family ought I to reverence yet before that
+sprung from divine nuptials, sprung from Tantalus?--But lo! the king! the
+prince Menelaus, is coming! but he is very easily discernible from the
+elegance of his person, as king of the house of the Tantalidæ.
+
+O thou that didst direct the army of a thousand vessels to Asia's land,
+hail! but thou comest hither with good fortune, having obtained the object
+of thy wishes from the Gods.
+
+MENELAUS, ORESTES, CHORUS.
+
+MEN. O palace, in some respect indeed I behold thee with pleasure, coming
+from Troy, but in other respect I groan when I see thee. For never yet saw
+I any other house more completely encircled round with lamentable woes. For
+I was made acquainted with the misfortune that befell Agamemnon, [and his
+death, by what death he perished at the hands of his wife,][6b] when I was
+landing my ships at Malea; but from the waves the prophet of the mariners
+declared unto me, the foreboding Glaucus the son of Nereus, an unerring
+God, who told me thus in evident form standing by me. "Menelaus, thy
+brother lieth dead, having fallen in his last bath, which his wife
+prepared." But he filled both me and my sailors with many tears; but when I
+come to the Nauplian shore, my wife having already landed there, expecting
+to clasp in my friendly embraces Orestes the son of Agamemnon, and his
+mother, as being in prosperity, I heard from some fisherman[7] the
+unhallowed murder of the daughter of Tyndarus. And now tell me, maidens,
+where is the son of Agamemnon, who dared these terrible deeds of evil? for
+he was an infant in Clytæmnestra's arms at that time when I left the palace
+on my way to Troy, so that I should not know him, were I to see him.
+
+ORES. I, Menelaus, am Orestes, whom thou seekest, I of my own accord will
+declare my evils. But first I touch thy knees in supplication, putting up
+prayers from my mouth, not using the sacred branch:[8] save me. But thou
+art come in the very season of my sufferings.
+
+MEN. O ye Gods, what do I behold! whom of the dead do I see!
+
+ORES. Ay! well thou sayest the dead; for in my state of suffering I live
+not; but see the light.
+
+MEN. Thou wretched man, how disordered thou art in thy squalid hair!
+
+ORES. Not the appearance, but the deeds torment me.
+
+MEN. But thou glarest dreadfully with thy shriveled eyeballs.
+
+ORES. My body is vanished, but my name has not left me.
+
+MEN. Alas, thy uncomeliness of form which has appeared to me beyond
+conception!
+
+ORES. I am he, the murderer of my wretched mother.
+
+MEN. I have heard; but spare a little the recital of thy woes.
+
+ORES. I spare it; but in woes the deity is rich to me.
+
+MEN. What dost thou suffer? What malady destroys thee?
+
+ORES. The conviction that I am conscious of having perpetrated dreadful
+deeds.
+
+MEN. How sayest thou? Plainness, and not obscurity, is wisdom.
+
+ORES. Sorrow is chiefly what destroys me,--
+
+MEN. She is a dreadful goddess, but sorrow admits of cure.
+
+ORES. And fits of madness in revenge for my mother's blood.
+
+MEN. But when didst first have the raging? what day was it then?
+
+ORES. That day in which I heaped the tomb on my mother.
+
+MEN. What? in the house, or sitting at the pyre?
+
+ORES. As I was guarding by night lest any one should bear off her bones.[9]
+
+MEN. Was any one else present, who supported thy body?
+
+ORES. Pylades, who perpetrated with me the vengeance and death of my
+mother.
+
+MEN. But by what visions art thou thus afflicted?
+
+ORES. I appear to behold three virgins like the night.
+
+MEN. I know whom thou meanest, but am unwilling to name them.
+
+ORES. Yes: for they are awful; but forbear from speaking such high polished
+words.[10]
+
+MEN. Do these drive thee to distraction on account of this kindred murder?
+
+ORES. Alas me for the persecutions, with which wretched I am driven!
+
+MEN. It is not strange that those who do strange deeds should suffer them.
+
+ORES. But we have whereto we may transfer the criminality[11] of the
+mischance.
+
+MEN. Say not the death _of thy father;_ for this is not wise.
+
+ORES. Phœbus who commanded us to perpetrate the slaying of our mother.
+
+MEN. Being more ignorant than to know equity, and justice.
+
+ORES. We are servants of the Gods, whatever those Gods be.
+
+MEN. And then does not Apollo assist thee in thy miseries?
+
+ORES. He is always about to do it, but such are the Gods by nature.
+
+MEN. But how long a time has thy mother's breath gone from her?
+
+ORES. This is the sixth day since; the funeral pyre is yet warm.
+
+MEN. How quickly have the Goddesses come to demand of thee thy mother's
+blood!
+
+ORES. I am not wise, but a true friend to my friends.
+
+MEN. But what then doth the revenge of thy father profit thee?
+
+ORES. Nothing yet; but I consider what is in prospect in the same light as
+a thing not done.
+
+MEN. But regarding the city how standest thou, having done these things?
+
+ORES. We are hated to that degree, that no one speaks to us.
+
+MEN. Nor hast thou washed thy blood from thy hands according to the laws?
+
+ORES. _How can I?_ for I am shut out from the houses, whithersoever I go.
+
+MEN. Who of the citizens thus contend to drive thee from the land?
+
+ORES. Œax,[12] imputing to my father the hatred which arose on account of
+Troy.
+
+MEN. I understand. The death of Palamede takes its vengeance on thee.
+
+ORES. In which at least I had no share--but I perish by the three.
+
+MEN. But who else? Is it perchance one of the friends of Ægisthus?
+
+ORES. They persecute me, whom now the city obeys.
+
+MEN. But does the city suffer thee to wield Agamemnon's sceptre?
+
+ORES. How should they? who no longer suffer us to live.
+
+MEN. Doing what, which thou canst tell me as a clear fact?
+
+ORES. This very day sentence will be passed upon us.
+
+MEN. To be exiled from this city? or to die? or not to die?
+
+ORES. To die, by being stoned with stones by the citizens.
+
+MEN. And dost thou not fly then, escaping beyond the boundaries of the
+country?
+
+ORES. _How can we?_ for we are surrounded on every side by brazen arms.
+
+MEN. By private enemies, or by the hand of Argos?
+
+ORES. By all the citizens, that I may die--the word is brief.
+
+MEN. O unhappy man! thou art come to the extreme of misfortune.
+
+ORES. On thee my hope builds her escape from evils, but, thyself happy,
+coming among the distressed, impart thy good fortune to thy friends, and be
+not the only man to retain a benefit thou hast received, but undertake also
+services in thy turn, paying their father's kindness to those to whom thou
+oughtest. For those friends have the name, not the reality, who are not
+friends in adversity.
+
+CHOR. And see the Spartan Tyndarus is toiling hither with his aged foot, in
+a black vest, and shorn, his locks cut off in mourning for his daughter.
+
+ORES. I am undone, O Menelaus! Lo! Tyndarus is coming toward us, to come
+before whose presence, most of all men's, shame covereth me, on account of
+what has been done. For he used to nurture me when I was little, and
+satiated me with many kisses, dandling in his arms Agamemnon's boy, and
+Leda with him, honoring me no less than the twin-born of Jove. For which, O
+my wretched heart and soul, I have given no good return: what dark veil can
+I take for my countenance? what cloud can I place before me, that I may
+avoid the glances of the old man's eyes?
+
+TYNDARUS, MENELAUS, ORESTES, CHORUS.
+
+TYND. Where, where can I see my daughter's husband Menelaus? For as I was
+pouring my libations on the tomb of Clytæmnestra, I heard that he was come
+to Nauplia with his wife, safe through a length of years. Conduct me, for I
+long to stand by his hand and salute him, seeing my friend after a long
+lapse of time.
+
+MEN. O hail! old man, who sharest thy bed with Jove.
+
+TYND. O hail! thou also, Menelaus my dear relation,--ah! what an evil is it
+not to know the future! This dragon here, the murderer of his mother,
+glares before the house his pestilential gleams--the object of my
+detestation--Menelaus, dost thou speak to this unholy wretch?
+
+MEN. Why not? he is the son of a father who was dear to me.
+
+TYND. What! was he sprung from him, being such as he is?
+
+MEN. He was; but, though he be unfortunate, he should be respected.
+
+TYND. Having been a long time with barbarians, thou art thyself turned
+barbarian.
+
+MEN. Nay! it is the Grecian fashion always to honor one of kindred blood.
+
+TYND. _Yes_, and also not to wish to be above the laws.
+
+MEN. Every thing proceeding from necessity is considered as subservient to
+her[13] among the wise.
+
+TYND. Do thou then keep to this, but I'll have none of it.
+
+MEN. _No_, for anger joined with thine age, is not wisdom.
+
+TYND. With this man what controversy can there be regarding wisdom? If what
+things are virtuous, and what are not virtuous, are plain to all, what man
+was ever more unwise that this man? who did not indeed consider justice,
+nor applied to the common existing law of the Grecians. For after that
+Agamemnon breathed forth his last, struck by my daughter on the head, a
+most foul deed (for never will I approve of this), it behooved him indeed
+to lay against her a sacred charge of bloodshed, following up the
+accusation, and to cast his mother from out of the house; and he would have
+taken the wise side in the calamity, and would have kept to law, and would
+have been pious. But now has he come to the same fate with his mother. For
+with justice thinking her wicked, himself has become more wicked in slaying
+his mother.
+
+But thus much, Menelaus, will I ask thee; If the wife that shared his bed
+were to kill him, and his son again kills his mother in return, and he that
+is born of him shall expiate the murder with murder, whither then will the
+extremes of these evils proceed? Well did our fathers of old lay down these
+things; they suffered not him to come into the sight of their eyes, not to
+their converse, who was under an attainder[14] of blood; but they made him
+atone by banishment; they suffered however none to kill him in return. For
+always were one about to be attainted of murder, taking the pollution last
+into his hands. But I hate indeed impious women, but first among them my
+daughter, who slew her husband. But never will I approve of Helen thy wife,
+nor would I speak to her, neither do I commend[15] thee for going to the
+plain of Troy on account of a perfidious woman. But I will defend the law,
+as far at least as I am able, putting a stop to this brutish and murderous
+practice, which is ever destructive both of the country and the state.--For
+what feelings of humanity hadst thou, thou wretched man, when she bared her
+breast in supplication, thy mother? I indeed, though I witnessed not that
+scene of misery, melt in my aged eyes with tears through wretchedness. One
+thing however goes to the scale of my arguments; thou art both hated by the
+Gods, and sufferest vengeance of thy mother, wandering about with madness
+and terrors; why must I hear by the testimony of others, what it is in my
+power to see? That thou mayest know then _once for all_, Menelaus, do not
+things contrary to the Gods, through thy wishes to assist this man. But
+suffer him to be slain by the citizens with stones, or set not thy foot on
+Spartan ground. But my daughter in dying met with justice, but it was not
+fitting that she should die by him.[16] In other respects indeed have I
+been a happy man, except in my daughters, but in this I am not happy.
+
+CHOR. He is enviable, who is fortunate in his children, and has not on him
+some notorious calamities.
+
+ORES. O old man, I tremble to speak to thee, wherein I am about to grieve
+thee and thy mind. But I am unholy in that I slew my mother; but holy at
+least in another point of view, having avenged my father. Let then thine
+age, which hinders me through fear from speaking, be removed out of the way
+of my words, and I will go on in a direct path; but now do I fear thy gray
+hairs. What could I do? for oppose the facts, two against two. My father
+indeed begat me, but thy daughter brought me forth, a field receiving the
+seed from another; but without a father there never could be a child. I
+reasoned therefore with myself, that I should assist the prime author of my
+birth rather than the aliment which under him produced me. But thy daughter
+(I am ashamed to call her mother), in secret and unchaste nuptials, had
+approached the bed of another man; of myself, if I speak ill of her, shall
+I be speaking, but yet will I tell it. Ægisthus was her secret husband in
+her palace. Him I slew, and after him I sacrificed my mother, doing indeed
+unholy things, but avenging my father. But as touching those things for
+which thou threatenest that I must be stoned, hear, how I shall assist all
+Greece. For if the women shall arrive at such a pitch of boldness as to
+murder the men, making good their escape with regard to their children,
+seeking to captivate their pity by their breasts, it would be as nothing
+with them to slay their husbands, having any pretext that might chance; but
+I having done dreadful things (as thou sayest), have put a stop to this
+law, but hating my mother deservedly I slew her, who betrayed her husband
+absent from home in arms, the generalissimo of the whole land of Greece,
+and kept not her bed undefiled. But when she perceived that she had done
+amiss, she inflicted not vengeance on herself, but, that she might not
+suffer vengeance from her husband, punished and slew my father. By the
+Gods, (in no good cause have I named the Gods, pleading against a charge of
+murder,) had I by my silence praised my mother's actions, what then would
+the deceased have done to me? To my mother indeed the Furies are present as
+allies, but would they not be present to him, who has received the greater
+injury? Would he not, detesting me, have haunted me with the Furies? Thou
+then, O old man, by begetting a bad daughter, hast destroyed me; for
+through her boldness deprived of my father, I became a matricide. Dost see?
+Telemachus slew not the wife of Ulysses, for she married not a husband on a
+husband, but her marriage-bed remains unpolluted in the palace. Dost see?
+Apollo, who, dwelling in his habitation in the midst of the earth, gives
+the most clear oracles to mortals, by whom we are entirely guided, whatever
+he may say, on him relying slew I my mother. 'Twas he who erred, not I:
+what could I do? Is not the God sufficient for me, who transfer _the deed_
+to him, to do away with the pollution? Whither then can any fly for succor,
+unless he that commanded me shall deliver me from death? But say not these
+things have been done "not well;" but _say_ "not fortunately" for us who
+did them. But to whatsoever men their marriages are well established, there
+is a happy life, but to those to whom they fall not out well, with regard
+to their affairs both at home and abroad they are unfortunate.
+
+CHOR. Women were born always to be in the way of what may happen to men, to
+the making of things unfortunate.
+
+TYND. Since thou art bold, and yieldest not to my speech, but thus
+answerest me so as to grieve my mind, thou wilt rather inflame me to urge
+thy death. But this I shall consider a handsome addition to those labors
+for which I came, _namely_, to deck my daughter's tomb. For going to the
+multitude of the Argives assembled, I will rouse the state willing and not
+unwilling, to pass the sentence[16a] of being stoned on thee and on thy
+sister; but she is worthy of death rather than thee, who irritated thee
+against her mother, always pealing in thine ear words to increase thy
+hatred, relating dreams she had of Agamemnon, and this also, that the
+infernal Gods detested the bed of Ægisthus; for even here _on earth_ it
+were hard _to be endured_; until she set the house in flames with fire more
+strong than Vulcan's.--Menelaus, but to thee I speak this, and will
+moreover perform it. If thou regard my hate, and my alliance, ward not off
+death from this man in opposition to the Gods; but suffer him to be slain
+by the citizens with stones, or set not thy foot on Spartan ground. Thus
+much having heard, depart, nor choose the impious for thy friends, passing
+over the pious.--But O attendants, conduct us from this house.
+
+ORES. Depart, that the remainder of my speech may reach this man
+uninterrupted by the clamors of thy age: Menelaus, whither dost thou roam
+in thought, entering on a double path of double care?
+
+MEN. Suffer me; having some thoughts with myself, I am perplexed to which
+side of fortune to turn me.
+
+ORES. Do not make up thy opinion, but having first heard my words, then
+deliberate.
+
+MEN. Say on; for thou hast spoken rightly; but there are seasons where
+silence may be better than talking, and there are seasons where talking may
+be better than silence.
+
+ORES. I will speak then forthwith: Long speeches have the preference before
+short ones, and are more plain to hear. Give thou to me nothing of what
+thou hast, O Menelaus, but what thou hast received from my father, return;
+I mean not riches--yet riches, which are the most dear of what I possess,
+if thou wilt preserve my life. Say I am unjust, I ought to receive from
+thee, instead of this evil, something contrary to what justice demands; for
+Agamemnon my father having collected Greece in arms, in a way justice did
+not demand, went to Troy, not having erred himself, but in order to set
+right the error, and injustice of thy wife. This one thing indeed thou
+oughtest to give me for one thing, but he, as friends should for friends,
+of a truth exposed his person for thee toiling at the shield, that thou
+mightest receive back thy wife. Repay me then this kindness for that which
+thou receivedst there, toiling for one day in standing as my succor, not
+completing ten years. But the sacrifice of my sister, which Aulis received,
+this I suffer thee to have; do not kill Hermione, _I ask it not_. For, I
+being in the state in which I now am, thou must of necessity have the
+advantage, and I must suffer it to be so. But grant my life to my wretched
+father, and my sister's, who has been a virgin a long time. For dying I
+shall leave my father's house destitute. Thou wilt say "impossible:" this
+is the very thing _I have been urging_, it behooves friends to help their
+friends in misfortunes. But when the God gives prosperity, what need is
+there of friends? For the God himself sufficeth, being willing to assist.
+Thou appearest to all the Greeks to be fond of thy wife; (and this I say,
+not stealing under thee imperceptibly with flattery;) by her I implore
+thee; O wretched me for my woes, to what have I come? but why must I suffer
+thus? For in behalf of the whole house I make this supplication. O divine
+brother of my father, conceive that the dead man beneath the earth hears
+these things, and that his spirit is hovering over thee, and speaks what I
+speak. These things have I said, with tears, and groans, and miseries,[17]
+and have prayed earnestly, looking for preservation, which all, and not I
+only, seek.
+
+CHOR. I too implore thee, although a woman, yet still I implore thee to
+succor those in need, but thou art able.
+
+MEN. Orestes, I indeed reverence thy person, and I am willing to labor with
+thee in thy misfortunes. For thus it is right to endure together the
+misfortunes of one's relations, if the God gives the ability, even so far
+as to die, and to kill the adversary; but this ability again I want from
+the Gods. For I am come having my single spear unaided by allies, having
+wandered with infinite labors with small assistance of friends left me. In
+battle therefore we can not come off superior to Pelasgian Argos; but if we
+can by soft speeches, to that hope are we equal. For how can any one
+achieve great actions with small means? For when the rabble is in full
+force falling into a rage, it is equally difficult to extinguish as a
+fierce fire. But if one quietly yields to it as it is spreading, and gives
+in to it, watching well his opportunity, perhaps it may spend its rage, but
+when it has remitted from its blast, you may without difficulty have it
+your own way, as much as you please. For there is inherent in them pity,
+but there is inherent also vehement passion, to one who carefully watches
+his opportunity a most excellent advantage. But I will go and endeavor to
+persuade Tyndarus, and the city, to use their great power in a becoming
+manner. For a ship, the main sheet stretched out to a violent degree, is
+wont to pitch, but stands upright again, if you slacken the main sheet. For
+the God hates too great vehemence, and the citizens hate it; but I must (I
+speak as I mean) save thee by wisdom, not by opposing my superiors. But I
+can not by force, as perchance thou thinkest, preserve thee; for it is no
+easy matter to erect from one single spear trophies from the evils, which
+are about thee. For never have we approached the land of Argos by way of
+supplication; but now there is necessity for the wise to become the slaves
+of fortune.
+
+ORESTES, CHORUS.
+
+ORES. O thou, a mere cipher in other things except in warring for the sake
+of a woman; O thou most base in avenging thy friends, dost thou fly,
+turning away from me? But all Agamemnon's services are gone: thou wert then
+without friends, O my father, in thy affliction. Alas me! I am betrayed,
+and there no longer are any hopes, whither turning I may escape death from
+the Argives. For he was the refuge of my safety. But I see this most dear
+of men, Pylades, coming with hasty step from the Phocians, a pleasing
+sight, a man faithful in adversity, more grateful to behold than the calm
+to the mariners.
+
+PYLADES, ORESTES, CHORUS.
+
+PYL. I came through the city with a quicker step than I ought, having heard
+of the council of state assembled, and seeing it plainly myself, against
+thee and thy sister, as about to kill you instantly.--What is this? how art
+thou? in what state, O most dear to me of my companions and kindred? for
+all these things art thou to me.
+
+ORES. We are gone--briefly to show thee my calamities.
+
+PYL. Thou wilt have ruined me too; for the things of friends are common.
+
+ORES. Menelaus has behaved most basely toward me and my sister.
+
+PYL. It is to be expected that the husband of a bad wife be bad.
+
+ORES. He is come, and has done just as much for me as if he had not come.
+
+PYL. What! is he in truth come to this land?
+
+ORES. After a long season; but nevertheless he was very soon discovered to
+be too base to his friends.
+
+PYL. And has he brought in his ship with him his most infamous wife?
+
+ORES. Not he her, but she brought him hither.
+
+PYL. Where is she, who, beyond any woman,[18] destroyed most of the
+Grecians?
+
+ORES. In my palace, if I may indeed be allowed to call this mine.
+
+PYL. But what words didst thou say to thy father's brother?
+
+ORES. _I requested him_ not to suffer me and my sister to be slain by the
+citizens.
+
+PYL. By the Gods, what said he to this request; this I wish to know.
+
+ORES. He declined, from motives of prudence, as bad friends act toward
+their friends.
+
+PYL. Going on what ground of excuse? This having learned, I am in
+possession of every thing.
+
+ORES. The father himself came, he that begat such excellent daughters.
+
+PYL. Tyndarus you mean; perhaps enraged with thee on account of his
+daughter.
+
+ORES. You are right: be paid more attention to his ties with him, than to
+his ties with my father.
+
+PYL. And dared he not, being present, to take arms against thy troubles?
+
+ORES. _No_: for he was not born a warrior, but brave among women.
+
+PYL. Thou art then in the greatest miseries, and it is necessary for thee
+to die.
+
+ORES. The citizens must pass their vote on us for the murder _we have
+committed_.[19]
+
+PYL. Which vote what will it decide? tell me, for I am in fear.
+
+ORES. Either to die or live; not many words on matters of great import.
+
+PYL. Come fly, and quit the palace with thy sister.
+
+ORES. Seest thou not? we are watched by guards on every side,
+
+PYL. I saw the streets of the city lined with arms.
+
+ORES. We are invested as to our persons, as a city by the enemy.
+
+PYL. Now ask me also, what I suffer; for I too am undone.
+
+ORES. By whom? This would be an evil added to my evils.
+
+PYL. Strophius, my father, being enraged, hath driven me an exile from his
+house.
+
+ORES. Bringing against thee some private charge, or one in common with the
+citizens?
+
+PYL. Because I perpetrated with thee the murder of thy mother, he banished
+me, calling me unholy.
+
+ORES. O thou unfortunate! it seems that thou also sufferest for my evils.
+
+PYL. We have not Menelaus's manners--this must be borne.
+
+ORES. Dost thou not fear lest Argos should wish to kill thee, as it does
+also me?
+
+PYL. We do not belong to these to punish, but to the land of the Phocians.
+
+ORES. The populace is a terrible thing, when they have evil leaders.
+
+PYL. But when they have good ones, they always deliberate good things.
+
+ORES. Be it so: we must speak on our common business.
+
+PYL. On what affair of necessity?
+
+ORES. Supposing I should go to the citizens, and say--
+
+PYL. --that thou hast acted justly?
+
+ORES. Ay, avenging my father:
+
+PYL. I fear they might not receive thee gladly.
+
+ORES. But shall I die then shuddering in silence!
+
+PYL. This were cowardly.
+
+ORES. How then can I do?
+
+PYL. Hast thou any chance of safety, if thou remainest?
+
+ORES. I have none.
+
+PYL. But going, is there any hope of thy being preserved from thy miseries?
+
+ORES. Should it chance well, there might be.
+
+PYL. Is not this then better than remaining?
+
+ORES. Shall I go then?
+
+PYL. Dying thus, at least thou wilt die more honorably.
+
+ORES. And I have a just cause.
+
+PYL. Only pray for its appearing so.
+
+ORES. Thou sayest well: this way I avoid the imputation of cowardice.
+
+PYL. More than by tarrying here.
+
+ORES. And some one perchance may pity me--
+
+PYL. Yes; for thy nobleness of birth is a great thing.
+
+ORES. --indignant at my father's death.
+
+PYL. All this in prospect.
+
+ORES. Go I must, for it is not manly to die ingloriously.
+
+PYL. These sentiments I praise.
+
+ORES. Shall we then tell these things to my sister?
+
+PYL. No, by the Gods.
+
+ORES. Why, there might be tears.
+
+PYL. This then is a great omen.
+
+ORES. Clearly it is better to be silent.
+
+PYL. Thou art a gainer by delay.
+
+ORES. This one thing only opposes me.
+
+PYL. What new thing again is this thou sayest?
+
+ORES. I fear lest the goddesses should stop me with their torments.
+
+PYL. But I will take care of thee.
+
+ORES. It is a difficult and dangerous task to touch a man thus disordered.
+
+PYL. Not for me to touch thee.
+
+ORES. Take care how thou art partner of my madness.
+
+PYL. Let not this be thought of.
+
+ORES. Wilt thou not then be timid to assist me?
+
+PYL. No, for timidity is a great evil to friends.
+
+ORES. Go on now, the helm of my foot.
+
+PYL. Having a charge worthy of a friend.
+
+ORES. And guide me to my father's tomb.
+
+PYL. To what end is this?
+
+ORES. That I may supplicate him to save me.
+
+PYL. This at least is just.
+
+ORES. But let me not see my mother's monument.
+
+PYL. For she was an enemy. But hasten, that the decree of the Argives
+condemn thee not before thou goest; leaning thy side, weary with disease,
+on mine: since I will conduct thee through the city, little caring for the
+multitude, nothing ashamed; for where shall I show myself thy friend, if I
+assist thee not when them art in perilous condition?
+
+ORES. This it is to have companions, not relationship alone; so that a man
+who is congenial in manners, though a stranger in blood, is a better friend
+for a man to have, than ten thousand relatives.
+
+CHORUS.
+
+The great happiness, and the valor high sounding throughout Greece, and by
+the channels of the Simois, has again withdrawn from the fortune of the
+Atridæ, as of old, from the ancient calamity of the house, when the strife
+of the golden lamb[20] arose among the descendants of Tantalus; most
+shocking feasts, and the slaughter of noble children; from whence murder
+responsive to murder fails not to attend on the two sons of Atreus. What
+seems good is not good, to gash the parents' skin with a fierce hand, and
+brandish the sword black-stained with blood in the sunbeams. But, on the
+other hand, to act wickedly[21] is mad impiety, and the folly of
+evil-minded men.
+
+But the wretched daughter of Tyndarus in the fear of death shrieked out,
+"My son, thou darest impious deeds, killing thy mother; do not, attending
+to the gratification of thy father, kindle an everlasting disgrace."
+
+What malady, or what tears, or what pity on earth is greater, than to
+imbrue one's hand in a mother's blood? What a deed, what a deed having
+performed, does the son of Agamemnon rave with madness, a prey to the
+Eumenides, marked for death, giddy with his rolling eyes! O wretched on
+account of his mother, when though seeing the breast bared from the robe of
+golden texture, he stabbed the mother in retaliation for the father's
+sufferings.
+
+ELECTRA, CHORUS.
+
+ELEC. Ye virgins, has the wretched Orestes, overcome with heaven-inflicted
+madness, rushed any where from this house?
+
+CHOR. By no means; but he is gone to the Argive people, to undergo the
+trial proposed regarding life, by which you must either live or die.
+
+ELEC. Alas me! what thing has he done? but who persuaded him?
+
+CHOR. Pylades.--But this messenger seems soon about to inform us of what
+has passed there concerning thy brother.
+
+MESSENGER, ELECTRA, CHORUS.
+
+MESS. O wretched hapless daughter of the chief Agamemnon, revered Electra,
+hear the unfortunate words which I am come to bring.
+
+ELEC. Alas! alas! we are undone; this thou signifiest by thy speech. For
+thou comest, as it seems, a messenger of woes.
+
+MESS. It has been carried by the vote of the Pelasgians, that thy brother
+and thou must die this day.
+
+ELEC. Ah me! the expected event has come, which long since fearing, I pined
+away with lamentations on account of what was in prospect.--But what was
+the debate? What arguments among the Argives condemned us, and confirmed
+our sentence of death? Tell me, old man, whether by the hand raised to
+stone me, or by the sword must I breathe out my soul, having this calamity
+in common with my brother?
+
+MESS. I chanced indeed to be entering the gates from the country, anxious
+to hear both what regarded thee, and what regarded Orestes; for at all
+times I had a favorable inclination toward thy father: and thy house fed
+me, poor indeed, but noble in my conduct toward friends. But I see the
+crowd going and sitting down on an eminence; where they say Danaus first
+collected the people to a common council, when he suffered punishment at
+the hands of Ægyptus. But seeing this concourse, I asked one of the
+citizens, "What new thing is stirring in Argos? Has any message from
+hostile powers roused the city of the Danaids?" But he said, "Seest thou
+not this Orestes walking near us, who is about to run in the contest of
+life and death?" But I see an unexpected sight, which oh that I had never
+seen! Pylades and thy brother walking together, the one indeed broken with
+sickness, but the other, like a brother, sympathizing with his friend,
+tending his weakened state with fostering care. But when the assembly of
+the Argives was full, a herald stood forth and said, "Who wishes to speak
+_on the question_, whether it is right that Orestes, who has killed his
+mother, should die, or not?" And on this Talthybius rises, who, in
+conjunction with thy father, laid waste the Phrygians. But he spoke words
+of divided import, being the constant slave of those in power; struck with
+admiration indeed at thy father, but not commending thy brother (speciously
+mixing up words of bad import), because he laid down no good laws toward
+his parents: but he was continually casting a smiling glance on Ægisthus's
+friends. For such is this kind; heralds always dance attendance on the
+prosperous; but that man is their friend, whoever may chance to have power
+in the state, and to be in office. But next to him prince Diomed harangued;
+he indeed was for suffering them to kill neither thee nor thy brother, but
+_bid them_ observe piety by punishing you with banishment. But some indeed
+murmured their assent, that he spoke well, but others praised him not.[22]
+And after him rises up some man, intemperate in speech, powerful in
+boldness, an Argive, yet not an Argive,[23] forced upon us, relying both on
+the tumult, and on ignorant boldness, prompt by persuasion to involve them
+in some mischief. (For when a man, sweet in words, holding bad sentiments,
+persuades the multitude, it is a great evil to the city. But as many as
+always advise good things with understanding, although not at the present
+moment, eventually are of service to the state: but the intelligent leader
+ought to look to this, for the case is the same with the man who speaks
+words, and the man who approves them.) Who said, that they ought to kill
+Orestes and thee by stoning. But Tyndarus was privily making up such sort
+of speeches for him who wished your death to speak. But another man stood
+up, and spoke in opposition to him, in form indeed not made to catch the
+eye; but a man endued with the qualities of a man, rarely polluting the
+city, and the circle of the forum; one who farmed his own land,[24] which
+class of persons[25] alone preserve the country, but prudent, and wishing
+the tenor of his conduct to be in unison with his words, uncorrupted, one
+that had conformed to a blameless mode of living; he proposed to crown
+Orestes the son of Agamemnon,[25a] who was willing to avenge his father by
+slaying a wicked and unholy woman, who took this out of the power of men,
+and would no one have been the cause of arming the hand for war, nor
+undertaking an expedition, leaving his home, if those who are left destroy
+what is intrusted to their charge in the house, disgracing their husbands'
+beds. And to right-minded men at least he appeared to speak well: and none
+spoke besides, but thy brother advanced and said, "O inhabitants of the
+land of Inachus, avenging you no less than my father, I slew my mother, for
+if the murder of men shall become licensed to women, ye no longer can
+escape dying, or ye must be slaves to your wives. But ye do the contrary to
+what ye ought to do. For now she that was false to the bed of my father is
+dead; but if ye do indeed slay me, the law has lost its force, and no man
+can escape dying, forasmuch as there will be no lack of this audacity."
+
+But he persuaded not the people, though appearing to speak well. But that
+villain, who spoke among the multitude, overcomes him, he that harangued
+for the killing of thy brother and thee. But scarcely did the wretched
+Orestes persuade them that he might not die by stoning; but he promised
+that this day he would quit his life by self-slaughter together with
+thee:--but Pylades is conducting him from the council, weeping: but his
+friends accompany him bewailing him, pitying him; but he is coming a sad
+spectacle to thee, and a wretched sight. But prepare the sword, or the
+noose for thy neck, for thou must die, but thy nobleness of birth hath
+profited thee nothing, nor the Pythian Phœbus who sits on the tripod, but
+hath destroyed thee.
+
+CHOR. O unhappy virgin! how art thou dumb, casting thy muffled countenance
+toward the ground, as though about to run into a strain of groans and
+lamentations!
+
+ELEC. I begin the lament, O land of Greece, digging my white nail into my
+cheek, sad bleeding woe, and dashing my head, which[26] the lovely[27]
+goddess of the manes beneath the earth has to her share. And let the
+Cyclopian land[28] howl, applying the steel to their head cropped of hair
+over the calamity of our house. This pity, this pity, proceeds for those
+who are about to die, who once were the princes of Greece. For it is gone,
+it is gone, the entire race of the children of Pelops has perished, and the
+happiness which once resided in these blest abodes. Envy from heaven has
+now seized it, and the harsh decree of blood in the state. Alas! alas! O
+race of mortals that endure for a day, full of tears, full of troubles,
+behold how contrary to expectation fate comes. But in the long lapse of
+time each different man receives by turns his different sufferings.[29] But
+the whole race of mortals is unstable and uncertain.
+
+Oh! could I go to that rock stretched from Olympus in its loftiness midst
+heaven and earth by golden chains, that mass of clay borne round with rapid
+revolutions, that in my plaints I might cry out to my ancient father
+Tantalus; who begat the progenitors of my family, who saw calamities, what
+time in the pursuing of steeds, Pelops in his car drawn by four horses
+perpetrated, as he drove, the murder of Myrtilus, _by casting him_ into the
+sea, hurling him down to the surge of the ocean, as he guided his car on
+the shore of the briny sea by Geræstus foaming with its white billows.
+Whence the baleful curse came on my house since, by the agency of Maia's
+son,[30] there appeared the pernicious, pernicious prodigy of the
+golden-fleeced lamb, a birth which took place among the flocks of the
+warlike Atreus. On which both Discord drove back the winged chariot of the
+sun, directing it from the path of heaven leading to the west toward Aurora
+borne on her single horse.[31] And Jupiter drove back the course of the
+seven moving Pleiads another way: and from that period[32] he sends deaths
+in succession to deaths, and "the feast of Thyestes," so named from
+Thyestes. And the bed of the Cretan Ærope deceitful in a deceitful marriage
+has come as a finishing stroke on me and my father, to the miserable
+destruction of our family.
+
+CHOR. But see, thy brother is advancing, condemned by the vote of death,
+and Pylades the most faithful of all, a man like a brother, supporting the
+enfeebled limbs of Orestes, walking by his side[33] with the foot of tender
+solicitude.
+
+ELECTRA, ORESTES, PYLADES, CHORUS.
+
+ELEC. Alas me! for I bewail thee, my brother, seeing thee before the tomb,
+and before the pyre of thy departed shade: alas me! again and again, how am
+I bereft of my senses, seeing with my eyes the very last sight of thee.
+
+ORES. Wilt thou not in silence, ceasing from womanish groans, make up thy
+mind to what is decreed? These things indeed are lamentable, but yet we
+must bear our present fate.
+
+ELEC. And how can I be silent? We wretched no longer are permitted to view
+this light of the God.
+
+ORES. Do not thou kill me; I, the unhappy, have died enough already under
+the hands of the Argives; but pass over our present ills.
+
+ELEC. O Orestes! oh wretched in thy youth, and thy fate, and thy untimely
+death, then oughtest thou to live, when thou art no more.
+
+ORES. Do not by the Gods throw cowardice around me, bringing the
+remembrance of my woes so as to cause tears.
+
+ELEC. We shall die; it is not possible not to groan our misfortunes; for
+the dear life is a cause of pity to all mortals.
+
+ORES. This is the day appointed for us! but we must either fit the
+suspended noose, or whet the sword with our hand.
+
+ELEC. Do thou then kill me, my brother; let none of the Argives kill me,
+putting a contumely on the offspring of Agamemnon.
+
+ORES. I have enough of thy mother's blood, but thee I will not slay; but
+die by thine own hand in whatever manner thou wilt.
+
+ELEC. These things shall be; I will not be deserted by thy sword;[34] but I
+wish to clasp my hands around thy neck.
+
+ORES. Thou enjoyest a vain gratification, if this be an enjoyment, to throw
+thy hands around those who are hard at death's door.
+
+ELEC. Oh thou most dear! oh thou that hast the desirable and most sweet
+name, and one soul with thy sister!
+
+ORES. Thou wilt melt me; and still I wish to answer thee in the endearment
+of encircling arms, for why am I any longer ashamed? O bosom of my sister,
+O dear object of my caresses, these embraces are allowed to us miserable
+beings instead of children and the bridal bed.
+
+ELEC. Alas! How can the same sword (if this request be lawful) kill us, and
+one tomb wrought of cedar receive us?
+
+ORES. This would be most sweet; but thou seest how destitute we are, in
+respect to being able to share our sepulture.
+
+ELEC. Did not Menelaus speak in behalf of thee, taking a decided part
+against thy death, the base man, the deserter of my father? [Note [G].]
+
+ORES. He showed it not even in his countenance, but keeping his hopes on
+the sceptre, he was cautious how he saved his friends. But let be, he will
+die acting in a manner nobly, and most worthily of Agamemnon. And I indeed
+will show my high descent to the city, striking home to my heart with the
+sword; but thee, on the other hand, it behooveth to act in concert with my
+bold attempts. But do thou, Pylades, be the umpire of our death, and well
+compose the bodies of us when dead, and bury us together, bearing us to our
+father's tomb. And farewell--but I am going to the deed, as thou seest.
+
+PYL. Hold. This one thing indeed first I bring in charge against thee--Dost
+thou think that I can wish to live when thou diest?[35]
+
+ORES. For how does it concern thee to die with me?
+
+PYL. Dost ask? But how does it to live without thy company?
+
+ORES. Thou didst not slay my mother, as I did, a wretch.
+
+PYL. With thee I did at least; I ought also to suffer these things in
+common with thee.
+
+ORES. Take thyself back to thy father, do not die with me. For thou indeed
+hast a city (but I no longer have), and the mansion of thy father, and a
+great harbor of wealth. But thou art frustrated in thy marriage with this
+unhappy virgin, whom I betrothed to thee, revering thy friendship.
+Nevertheless do thou, contracting other nuptials, be a blest father, but
+the connection between me and thee no longer subsists, But thou, O darling
+name of my converse, farewell, be happy, for this is not allowed me, but it
+is to thee; for we, the dead, are deprived of happiness.
+
+PYL. Surely thou art wide astray from my purposes. Nor may the fruitful
+plain receive my blood, nor the bright air, if ever I betraying thee,
+having freed myself, forsake thee; for I committed the slaughter with thee
+(I will not deny it), and I planned all things, for which now thou
+sufferest vengeance. Die then I must with thee and her together, for her,
+whose marriage I have courted, I consider as my wife; for what good excuse
+ever shall I give, going to the Delphian land to the citadel of the
+Phocians, I, who was present with you, your friend, before indeed you were
+unfortunate, but now, when you are unfortunate, am no longer thy friend? It
+is not possible--but these things are my care also. But since we are about
+to die, let us come to a common conference, how Menelaus may be involved in
+our calamity.
+
+ORES. O thou dearest man: for would I see this and die.
+
+PYL. Be persuaded then, but defer the slaughtering sword.
+
+ORES. I will defer, if any how I can avenge myself on my enemy.
+
+PYL. Be silent then, for I have but small confidence in women.
+
+ORES. Do not at all fear these, for they are friends that are present.
+
+PYL. Let us kill Helen, which will cause great grief to Menelaus.
+
+ORES. How? for the will is here, if it can be done with glory.
+
+PYL. Stabbing her; but she is lurking in thy house.
+
+ORES. Yes indeed, and is putting her seal on all my effects.
+
+PYL. But she shall seal no more, having Pluto for her bridegroom.
+
+ORES. And how can this be? for she has a train of barbarian attendants.
+
+PYL. Whom? for I would be afraid of no Phrygian.
+
+ORES. Such men as should preside over mirrors and scents.
+
+PYL. For has she brought hither her Trojan fineries?
+
+ORES. _Oh yes!_ so that Greece is but a cottage for her.
+
+PYL. A race of slaves is a mere nothing against a race that will not be
+slaves.
+
+ORES. In good truth, this if I could achieve, I shrink not from two deaths.
+
+PYL. But neither do I indeed, if I could revenge thee at least.
+
+ORES. Disclose thy purpose, and go through it as thou sayest.
+
+PYL. We will enter then the house, as men about to die.
+
+ORES. Thus far I comprehend, but the rest I do not comprehend.
+
+PYL. We will make our lamentation to her of the things we suffer.
+
+ORES. So that she shall weep, though joyed within her heart.
+
+PYL. And the same things will be for us to do afterward, which she does
+then.
+
+ORES. Then how shall we finish the contest?
+
+PYL. We will wear our swords concealed beneath our robes.
+
+ORES. But what slaughter can there be before her attendants?
+
+PYL. We will bolt them out, scattered in different parts of the house.
+
+ORES. And him that is not silent we must kill.
+
+PYL. Then the circumstances of the moment will point out what steps to
+take.
+
+ORES. To kill Helen, I understand the sign.
+
+PYL. Thou seest: but hear on what honorable principles I meditate it. For,
+if we draw our sword on a more modest woman, the murder will blot our names
+with infamy. But in the present instance, she shall suffer vengeance for
+the whole of Greece, whose fathers she slew, and made the brides bereaved
+of their spouses; there shall be a shout, and they will kindle up fire to
+the Gods, praying for many blessings to fall to thee and me, inasmuch as we
+shed the blood of a wicked woman. But thou shalt not be called the
+matricide, when thou hast slain her, but dropping this name thou shalt
+arrive at better things, being styled the slayer of the havoc-dealing
+Helen. It never, never were right that Menelaus should be prosperous, and
+that thy father, and thou, and thy sister should die, and thy mother; (this
+I forbear, for it is not decorous to mention;) and that he should seize thy
+house, having recovered his bride by the means of Agamemnon's valor. For
+may I live no longer, if I draw not my black sword upon her. But if then we
+do not compass the murder of Helen, having fired the palace we will die,
+for we shall have glory, succeeding in one of these two things, nobly
+dying, or nobly rescued.
+
+CHOR. The daughter of Tyndarus is an object of detestation to all women,
+being one that has given rise to scandal against the sex.
+
+ORES. Alas! There is no better thing than a real friend, not riches, not
+kingdoms; but the popular applause becomes a thing of no account to receive
+in exchange for a generous friend. For thou contrivedst the destruction
+that befell Ægisthus, and wast close to me in my dangers. But now again
+thou givest me to revenge me on mine enemies, and art not out of the
+way--but I will leave off praising thee, since there is some burden even in
+this "to be praised to excess." But I altogether in a state of death, wish
+to do something to my foes and die, that I may in turn destroy those who
+betrayed me, and those may groan who also made me unhappy. I am the son of
+Agamemnon, who ruled over Greece by general consent; no tyrant, but yet he
+had the power as it were of a God, whom I will not disgrace, suffering a
+slavish death, but breathe out my soul in freedom, but on Menelaus will I
+revenge me. For if we could gain this one thing, we should be prosperous,
+if from any chance safety should come unhoped for on the slayers _then_,
+not the slain: this I pray for. For what I wish is sweet to delight the
+mind without fear of cost, though with but fleeting words uttered through
+the mouth.
+
+ELEC. I, O brother, think that this very thing brings safety to thee, and
+thy friend, and in the third place to me.
+
+ORES. Thou meanest the providence of the Gods: but where is this? for I
+know that there is understanding in thy mind.
+
+ELEC. Hear me then, and thou too give thy attention.
+
+ORES. Speak, since the existing prospect of good affords some pleasure.
+
+ELEC. Art thou acquainted with the daughter of Helen? Thou knowest her of
+whom I ask.
+
+ORES. I know her, Hermione, whom my mother brought up.
+
+ELEC. She is gone to Clytæmnestra's tomb.
+
+ORES. For what purpose? what hope dost thou suggest?
+
+ELEC. To pour libations on the tomb in behalf of her mother.
+
+ORES. And what is this, thou hast told me of, that regards our safety?
+
+ELEC. Seize her as a pledge as she is coming back.
+
+ORES. What remedy for the three friends is this thou sayest?
+
+ELEC. When Helen is dead, if Menelaus does any harm to thee or Pylades, or
+me (for this firm of friendship is all one), say that thou wilt kill
+Hermione; but thou oughtest to draw thy sword, and hold it to the neck of
+the virgin. And if indeed Menelaus save thee, anxious that the virgin may
+not die; when he sees Helen's corse weltering in blood, give back the
+virgin for her father to enjoy; but should he, not governing his angry
+temper, slay thee, do thou also plunge the sword into the virgin's neck,
+and I think that he, though at first he come to us very big, will after a
+season soften his heart; for neither is he brave nor valiant: this is the
+fortress of our safety that I have; my arguments on the subject have been
+spoken.
+
+ORES. O thou that hast indeed the mind of a man, but a form among women
+beautiful, to what a degree art thou more worthy of life than death!
+Pylades, wilt thou miserably be disappointed of such a woman, or dwelling
+with her obtain this happy marriage?
+
+PYL. For would it could be so! and she could come to the city of the
+Phocians meeting with her deserts in splendid nuptials!
+
+ORES. But when will Hermione come to the house? Since for the rest thou
+saidst most admirably, if we could succeed in taking the whelp of the
+impious father.
+
+ELEC. Even now I guess that she must be near the house, for _with this
+supposition_ the space itself of the time coincides.
+
+ORES. It is well; do thou therefore, my sister Electra, waiting before the
+house, meet the arrival of the virgin. And watch, lest any one, either some
+ally, or the brother of my father, should be beforehand with us coming to
+the palace: and make some noise toward the house, either knocking at the
+doors, or sending thy voice within. But let us, O Pylades (for thou
+undertakest this labor with me), entering in, arm our hands with the sword
+to one last attempt. O my father, that inhabitest the realms of gloomy
+night, Orestes thy son invokes thee to come a succor to thy suppliants; for
+on thy account I wretched suffer unjustly, and am betrayed by thy brother,
+myself having acted justly: whose wife I wish to take and destroy; but be
+thou our accomplice in this affair.
+
+ELEC. O father, come then, if beneath the earth thou hearest thy children
+calling, who die for thee.
+
+PYL. O thou relation[36] of my father, give ear, O Agamemnon, to my prayers
+also, preserve thy children.
+
+ORES. I slew my mother.
+
+PYL. But I directed the sword.
+
+ELEC. But I at least incited you, and freed you from delay.
+
+ORES. Succoring thee, my father.
+
+ELEC. Neither did I forsake thee.
+
+PYL. Wilt thou not therefore, hearing these things that are brought against
+thee,[37] defend thy children?
+
+ORES. I pour libations on thee with my tears.
+
+ELEC. And I with lamentations.
+
+PYL. Cease, and let us haste forth to the work, for if prayers penetrate
+under the earth, he hears; but, O Jove our ancestor, and thou revered deity
+of justice, grant us to succeed, him, and myself, and this virgin, for over
+us three friends one hazard, one cause impends, either for all to live, or
+all to die!
+
+ELECTRA, CHORUS.
+
+ELEC. O dear Mycenian virgins, who have the first place at the Pelasgian
+seat of the Argives;--
+
+CHOR. What voice art thou uttering, my respected mistress? for this
+appellation awaits thee in the city of the Danaids.
+
+ELEC. Arrange yourselves, some of you in this beaten way, and some there,
+in that other path, to guard the house.
+
+CHOR. But on what account dost thou command this, tell me, my friend.
+
+ELEC. Fear possesses me, lest any one being in the palace, on account of
+this murderous deed, should contrive evils on evils.
+
+SEMICHOR. Go, let us hasten, I indeed will guard this path, that tends
+toward where the sun flings his first rays.
+
+SEMICHOR. And I indeed this, which leads toward the west.
+
+ELEC. Now turn the glances of your eyes around in every position, now here,
+now there, then take some other view.
+
+CHOR. We are, as thou commandest.
+
+ELEC. Now roll your eyelids over your pupils, glance them every way through
+your ringlets.
+
+SEMICHOR. Is this any one here appearing in the path?--Who is this rustic
+that is standing about thy palace?
+
+ELEC. We are undone then, my friends; he will immediately show to the enemy
+the lurking beasts of prey armed with their swords.
+
+SEMICHOR. Be not afraid, the path is clear, which thou thinkest not.
+
+ELEC. But what?--does all with you remain secure? Give me some good report,
+whether the space before the hall be empty?
+
+SEMICHOR. All here at least is well, but look to thy province, for no one
+of the Danaids is approaching toward us.
+
+SEMICHOR. Thy report agrees with mine, for neither is there a disturbance
+here.
+
+ELEC. Come now,--I will listen at the door: why do ye delay, ye that are
+within, to sacrifice the victim, now that ye are in quiet?--They hear not:
+Alas me! wretched in misery! Are the swords then struck dumb at her beauty?
+Perhaps some Argive in arms rushing in with the foot of succor will
+approach the palace.--Now watch more carefully; it is no contest that
+admits delay; but turn _your eyes_ some this way, and some that.
+
+CHOR. I turn each different way, looking about on all sides.
+
+HELEN. (_within_) Oh! Pelasgian Argos! I am miserably slain!
+
+ELEC. Heard ye? The men are employing their head in the murder.--It is the
+shriek of Helen, as I may conjecture.
+
+SEMICHOR. O eternal might of Jove, come to assist my friends in every way.
+
+HEL. Menelaus, I die! But thou art at hand, and dost not help me!
+
+ELEC. Kill, strike, slay, plunging with your hands the two double-edged
+swords into the deserter of her father, the deserter of her husband, who
+destroyed numbers of the Grecians perishing by the spear at the river,
+whence tears fell into conjunction with tears, fell on account of the iron
+weapons around the whirlpools of Scamander.
+
+CHOR. Be still, be still: I heard the sound of some one coming along the
+path around the palace.
+
+ELEC. O most dear women, in the midst of the slaughter behold Hermione is
+present; let us cease from our clamor, for she comes about to fall into the
+meshes of our toils. A goodly prey will she be, if she be taken. Again to
+your stations with a calm countenance, and with a color that shall not give
+evidence of what has been done. I too will preserve a pensive cast of
+countenance, as though perfectly unacquainted with what has happened.
+
+HERMIONE, ELECTRA, CHORUS.
+
+ELEC. O virgin, art thou come from crowning Clytæmnestra's tomb, and
+pouring libations to her manes?
+
+HERM. I am come, having obtained her good services; but some terror has
+come upon me, on account of the noise in the palace, which I hear being a
+far distance off the house.
+
+ELEC. But why? There have happened to us things worthy of groans.
+
+HERM. Speak good words; but what news dost thou tell me?
+
+ELEC. It has been decreed by this land, that Orestes and I die.
+
+HERM. No, I hope not so; you, who are my relations.
+
+ELEC. It is fixed; but we stand under the yoke of necessity.
+
+HERM. Was the noise then in the house on this account?
+
+ELEC. For falling down a suppliant at the knees of Helen, he cries out--
+
+HERM. Who? for I know no more, except thou tellest me.
+
+ELEC. The wretched Orestes, that he may not die, and in behalf of me.
+
+HERM. For a just reason then the house lamented.
+
+ELEC. For on what other account should one rather cry out? But come, and
+join in supplication with thy friends, falling down before thy mother, the
+supremely blest, that Menelaus will not see us perish. But, O thou, that
+receivedst thy education at the hands of my mother, pity us, and alleviate
+our sufferings. Come hither to the trial; but I will lead the way, for thou
+alone hast the ends of our preservation.
+
+HERM. Behold I direct my footstep toward the house. Be preserved, as far as
+lies in me.
+
+ELEC. O ye in the house, my dear warriors, will ye not take your prey?
+
+HERM. Alas me! who are these I see?
+
+ORES. (_advancing_) Thou must be silent; for thou art come to preserve us,
+not thyself.
+
+ELEC. Hold her, hold her; and pointing a sword to her neck be silent, that
+Menelaus may know, that having found men, not Phrygian cowards, he has
+treated them in a manner he should treat cowards. What ho! what ho! my
+friends, make a noise, a noise, and shout before the palace, that the
+murder that is perpetrated spread not a dread alarm among the Argives, so
+that they run to assist to the king's palace, before I plainly see the
+slaughtered Helen lying weltering in her blood within the house, or else we
+hear the report from some of her attendants. For part of the havoc I know,
+and part not accurately.
+
+CHOR. With justice came the vengeance of the Gods on Helen. For she filled
+the whole of Greece with tears on account of the ruthless, ruthless Idean
+Paris, who brought the Grecian state to Ilium. But be silent, for the bolts
+of the royal mansion resound, for some one of the Phrygians comes forth,
+from whom we shall hear of the affairs within the house, in what state they
+are.
+
+PHRYGIAN, CHORUS.
+
+PHRY. I have escaped from death by the Argive sword in these barbaric
+slippers, _climbing_ over the cedar beams of the bed and the Doric
+triglyphs, by the flight of a barbarian.[38] Thou art gone, thou art gone,
+O my country, my country! Alas me! whither can I escape, O strangers,
+flying through the hoary air, or the sea, which the Ocean, with head in
+shape like a bull's, rolling with his arms encircles the earth?
+
+CHOR. But what is the matter, O attendant of Helen, thou man of Ida?
+
+PHRY. O Ilion, Ilion! alas me! O thou fertile Phrygian city, thou sacred
+mount of Ida, how do I lament for thee destroyed, a sad,[39] sad strain for
+my barbaric voice, on account of that form of the hapless, hapless Helen,
+born from a bird, the offspring of the beauteous Leda in shape of a swan,
+the fiend of the splendid Apollonian Pergamus! Alas! Oh! lamentations!
+lamentations! O wretched Dardania, warlike school[40] of Ganymede, the
+companion of Jove!
+
+CHOR. Relate to us clearly each circumstance that happened in the house,
+for I do not understand your former account, but merely conjecture.
+
+PHRY. Αιλινον, αιλινον, the Barbarians begin the song of death in the
+language of Asia, Alas! alas! when the blood of kings has been poured on
+the earth by the ruthless swords of death. There came to the palace (that I
+may relate each circumstance) two Grecians, lions, of the one the leader of
+the Grecian host was said to be the father, the other the son of Strophius,
+a man of dark design; such was Ulysses, secretly treacherous, but faithful
+to his friends, bold in battle, skilled in war, cruel as the dragon. May he
+perish for his deep concealed design, the worker of evil! But they having
+advanced within her chamber, whom the archer Paris had as his wife, their
+eyes bathed with tears, they sat down in humble mien, one on each side of
+her, on the right and on the left, armed with swords. And around her knees
+did they both fling their suppliant hands, around the knees of Helen did
+they fling them. But the Phrygian attendants sprung up, and fled in
+amazement: and one called out to another in terror, _See_, lest there be
+treachery. To some indeed there appeared no danger; but to others the
+dragon stained with his mother's blood appeared bent to infold in his
+closest toils the daughter of Tyndarus.
+
+CHOR. But where wert thou then, or hadst thou long before fled through
+fear?
+
+PHRY. After the Phrygian fashion I chanced with the close circle of
+feathers to be fanning the gale, _that sported_ in the ringlets of Helen,
+before her cheek, after the barbaric fashion. But she was winding with her
+fingers the flax round the distaff, but what she had spun she let fall on
+the ground, desirous of making from the Phrygian spoils a robe of purple as
+an ornament for the tomb, a gift to Clytæmnestra. But Orestes entreated the
+Spartan girl; "O daughter of Jove, here, place thy footstep on the ground,
+rising from thy seat, come to the place of our ancestor Pelops, the ancient
+altar, that thou mayest hear my words." And he leads her, but she followed,
+not dreaming of what was about to happen. But his accomplice, the wicked
+Phocian, attended to other points. "Will ye not depart from out of the way,
+but are the Phrygians always vile?" and he bolted us out scattered in
+different parts of the house, some in the stables of the horses, and some
+in the outhouses, and some here and there, dispersing them some one way,
+some another, afar from their mistress.
+
+CHOR. What calamity took place after this?
+
+PHRY. O powerful, powerful Idean mother, alas! alas! the murderous
+sufferings, and the lawless evils, which I saw, I saw in the royal palace!
+From beneath their purple robes concealed having their drawn swords in
+their hands, they turned each his eye on either side, lest any one might
+chance to be present. But like mountain boars standing over against the
+lady, they say, "Thou shalt die, thou shalt die! thy vile husband kills
+thee, having given up the offspring of his brother to die at Argos." But
+she shrieked out, Ah me! ah me! and throwing her white arm on her breast
+inflicted on her head miserable blows, and, her feet turned to flight, she
+stepped, she stepped with her golden sandals; but Orestes thrusting his
+fingers into her hair, outstripping her flight,[41] bending back her neck
+over his left shoulder, was about to plunge the black sword into her
+throat.
+
+CHOR. Where then were the Phrygians, who dwell under the same roof, to
+assist her?
+
+PHRY. With a clamor having burst by means of bars the doors and cells where
+we were waiting, we run to her assistance, each to different parts of the
+house, one bringing stones, another spears, another having a long-handled
+sword in his hand. But Pylades came against us, impetuous, like as the
+Phrygian Hector or Ajax in his triple-crested helmet, whom I saw, I saw at
+the gates of Priam: but we clashed together the points of our swords: then
+indeed, then did the Phrygians give clear proof how inferior we were in the
+force of Mars to the spear of Greece. One indeed turning away, a fugitive,
+but another wounded, and another deprecating the death that threatened him:
+but under favor of the darkness we fled: and the corses fell, but some
+staggered, and some lay prostrate. But the wretched Hermione came to the
+house at the time when her murdered mother fell to the ground, that unhappy
+woman that gave her birth. And running upon her as Bacchanals without their
+thyrsus, as a heifer in the mountains they bore her away in their hands,
+and again eagerly rushed upon the daughter of Jove to slay her. But she
+vanished altogether from the chamber through the palace. O Jupiter and O
+earth, and light, and darkness! or by her enchantments, or by the art of
+magic, or by the stealth of the Gods. But of what followed I know no
+farther, for I sped in stealth my foot from the palace. But Menelaus having
+endured many, many severe toils, has received back from Troy the violated
+rites of Helen to no purpose.
+
+CHOR. And see something strange succeeds to these strange things, for I see
+Orestes with his sword drawn walking before the palace with agitated step,
+
+ORESTES, PHRYGIAN, CHORUS.
+
+ORES. Where is he that fled from my sword out of the palace?
+
+PHRY. I supplicate thee, O king, falling prostrate before thee after the
+barbaric fashion.
+
+ORES. The case before us is not in Ilium, but the Argive land.
+
+PHRY. In every region to live is sweeter than to die, in the opinion of the
+wise.
+
+ORES. Didst thou not raise a cry for Menelaus to come with succor?
+
+PHRY. I indeed am present on purpose to assist thee; for thou art the more
+worthy.
+
+ORES. Perished then the daughter of Tyndarus justly?
+
+PHRY. Most justly, even had she three lives for vengeance.
+
+ORES. With thy tongue dost thou flatter, not having these sentiments
+within?
+
+PHRY. For ought she not? She who utterly destroyed Greece as well as the
+Phrygians themselves?
+
+ORES. Swear, I will kill thee else, that thou art not speaking to curry
+favor with me.
+
+PHRY. By my life have I sworn, which I should wish to hold a sacred oath.
+
+ORES. Was the steel thus dreadful to all the Phrygians at Troy also?
+
+PHRY. Remove thy sword, for being so near me it gleams horrid slaughter.
+
+ORES. Art thou afraid, lest thou shouldest become a rock, as though looking
+on the Gorgon?
+
+PHRY. Lest I should become a corse, but I know not of the Gorgon's head.
+
+ORES. Slave as thou art, dost thou fear death, which will rid thee from thy
+woes?
+
+PHRY. Every one, although a man be a slave, rejoices to behold the light.
+
+ORES. Thou sayest well; thy understanding; saves thee, but go into the
+house.
+
+PHRY. Thou wilt not kill me then?
+
+ORES. Thou art pardoned.
+
+PHRY. This is good word thou hast spoken.
+
+ORES. Yet we may change our measures.
+
+PHRY. But this thou sayest not well.
+
+ORES. Thou art a fool, if thou thinkest I could endure to defile me by
+smiting thy neck, for neither art thou a woman, nor oughtest thou to be
+ranked among men. But that thou mightest not raise a clamor came I forth
+out of the house: for Argos, when it has heard a noise, is soon roused, but
+we have no dread in meeting Menelaus, as far as swords go; but let him come
+exulting with his golden ringlets flowing over his shoulders, for if he
+collects the Argives, and brings them against the palace seeking revenge
+for the death of Helen, and is not willing to let me be in safety, and my
+sister, and Pylades my accomplice in this affair, he shall see two corses,
+both the virgin and his wife.
+
+CHORUS.
+
+Alas! alas! O fate, the house of the Atridæ again falls into another,
+another fearful struggle.
+
+SEMICHOR. What shall we do? shall we carry these tidings to the city, or
+shall we keep in silence?
+
+SEMICHOR. This is the safer plan, my friends.
+
+SEMICHOR. Behold before the house, behold this smoke leaping aloft in the
+air portends _something_.
+
+SEMICHOR. They are lighting the torches, as about to burn down the mansion
+of Tantalus, nor do they forbear from murder.
+
+CHOR. The God rules the events that happen to mortals, whichsoever way he
+wills. But some vast power by the instigation of the Furies has struck, has
+struck these palaces to the shedding of blood on account of the fall of
+Myrtilus from the chariot.
+
+But lo! I see Menelaus also here approaching the house with a quick step,
+having by some means or other perceived the calamity which now is present.
+Will ye not anticipate him by closing the gates with bolts, O ye children
+of Atreus, who are in the palace? A man in prosperity is a terrible thing
+to those in adversity, as now them art in misery, Orestes.
+
+MENELAUS _below_, ORESTES, PYLADES, ELECTRA, HERMIONE
+_above_, CHORUS.
+
+MEN. I am present, having heard the horrid and atrocious deeds of the two
+lions, for I call them not men. For I have now heard of my wife, that she
+died not, but vanished away, this that I heard was empty report, which one
+deceived by fright related; but these are the artifices of the matricide,
+and much derision. Open some one the door, my attendants I command to burst
+open these gates here, that my child at least we may deliver from the hand
+of these blood-polluted men, and may receive my unhappy, my miserable lady,
+with whom those murderers of my wife must die by my hand.
+
+ORES. What ho there! Touch not these gates with thine hands: to Menelaus I
+speak, that thou towerest in thy boldness, or with this pinnacle will I
+crush thy head, having rent down the ancient battlement, the labor of the
+builders. But the gates are made fast with bolts, which will hinder thee
+from thy purpose of bringing aid, so that thou canst not pass within the
+palace.
+
+MEN. Ha! what is this? I see the blaze of torches, and these stationed on
+the battlements, on the height of the palace, and the sword placed over the
+neck of my daughter to guard her.
+
+ORES. Whether is it thy will to question, or to hear me?
+
+MEN. I wish neither, but it is necessary, as it seems, to hear thee.
+
+ORES. I am about to slay thy daughter if thou wish to know.
+
+MEN. Having slain Helen, dost thou perpetrate murder on murder?
+
+ORES. For would I had gained my purpose not being deluded, as I was, by the
+Gods.
+
+MEN. Thou hast slain her, and deniest it, and speakest these things to
+insult me.
+
+ORES. It is a denial that gives me pain, for would that--
+
+MEN. Thou had done what deed? for thou callest forth alarm.
+
+ORES. I had hurled to hell the fury of Greece.
+
+MEN. Give back the body of my wife, that I may bury her in a tomb.
+
+ORES. Ask her of the Gods; but I will slay thy daughter.
+
+MEN. The matricide contrives murder on murder.
+
+ORES. The avenger of his father, whom thou gavest up to die.
+
+MEN. Was not the blood of thy mother formerly shed sufficient for thee?
+
+ORES. I should not be weary of slaying wicked women, were I to slay them
+forever.
+
+MEN. Art thou also, Pylades, a partaker in this murder?
+
+ORES. By his silence he assents, but if I speak, it will be sufficient.
+
+MEN. But not with impunity, unless indeed thou fliest on wings.
+
+ORES. We will not fly, but will set fire to the palace?
+
+MEN. What! wilt thou destroy thy father's mansion?
+
+ORES. Yes, that thou mayest not possess it, will I, having stabbed this
+virgin here over the flames.
+
+MEN. Slay her; since having slain thou shalt at least give me satisfaction
+for these deeds.
+
+ORES. It shall be so then.
+
+MEN. Alas! on no account do this!
+
+ORES. Be silent then; but bear to suffer evil justly.
+
+MEN. What! is it just for thee to live?
+
+ORES. Yes, and to rule over the land.
+
+MEN. What land!
+
+ORES. Here, in Pelasgian Argos.
+
+MEN. Well wouldst thou touch the sacred lavers!
+
+ORES. And pray why not?
+
+MEN. And wouldst slaughter the victim before the battle!
+
+ORES. And thou wouldst most righteously.
+
+MEN. Yes, for I am pure as to my hands.
+
+ORES. But not thy heart.
+
+MEN. Who would speak to thee?
+
+ORES. Whoever loves his father.
+
+MEN. And whoever reveres his mother.
+
+ORES. --Is happy.
+
+MEN. Not thou at least.
+
+ORES. For wicked women please me not.
+
+MEN. Take away the sword from my daughter.
+
+ORES. Thou art false in thy expectations.
+
+MEN. But wilt thou kill my daughter?
+
+ORES. Thou art no longer false.
+
+MEN. Alas me! what shall I do?
+
+ORES. Go to the Argives, and persuade them.
+
+MEN. With what persuasion?
+
+ORES. Beseech the city that we may not die.[41a]
+
+MEN. Otherwise ye will slay my daughter?
+
+ORES. The thing is so.
+
+MEN. O wretched Helen!--
+
+ORES. And am I not wretched?
+
+MEN. I brought thee hither from the Trojans to be a victim.
+
+ORES. For would this were so!
+
+MEN. Having endured ten thousand toils.
+
+ORES. Except on my account.
+
+MEN. I have met with dreadful treatment.
+
+ORES. For then, _when thou oughtest_, thou wert of no assistance.
+
+MEN. Thou hast me.
+
+ORES. Thou at least hast caught thyself. But, ho there! set fire to the
+palace, Electra, from beneath: and thou, Pylades, the most true of my
+friends, light up these battlements of the walls.
+
+MEN. O land of the Danai, and inhabitants of warlike Argos, will ye not, ho
+there! come in arms to my succor? For this man here, having perpetrated the
+shocking murder of his mother, brings destruction on your whole city, that
+he may live.
+
+APOLLO.
+
+Menelaus, cease from thy irritated state of mind; I Phœbus the son of
+Latona, in thy presence, am addressing thee. Thou too, Orestes, who
+standest over that damsel with thy sword drawn, that thou mayest know what
+commands I bring with me. Helen indeed, whom thou minded to destroy,
+working Menelaus to anger, didst fail of thy purpose, she is here, whom ye
+see wrapt in the bosom of the sky, preserved, and not slain by thy hands.
+Her I preserved, and snatched from thy sword, commanded by my father Jove.
+For being the daughter of Jove, it is right that she should live immortal.
+And she shall have her seat by Castor and Pollux in the bosom of the sky,
+the guardian of mariners. But take to thyself another bride, and lead her
+home, since for the beauty of this woman the Gods brought together the
+Greeks and Trojans, and caused deaths, that they might draw from off the
+earth the pride of mortals, who had become an infinite multitude. Thus is
+it with regard to Helen; but thee, on the other hand, Orestes, it
+behooveth, having passed beyond the boundaries of this land, to inhabit the
+Parrhasian plain during the revolution of a year, and it shall be called by
+a name after thy flight, so that the Azanes and Arcadians shall call it
+Oresteum: and thence having departed to the city of the Athenians, undergo
+the charge of shedding thy mother's blood laid by the three Furies. But the
+Gods the arbiters of the cause shall pass on thee most sacredly their
+decree on the hill of Mars, in which it behooveth thee to be victorious.
+But Hermione, to whose neck thou art holding the sword, it is destined for
+thee, Orestes, to wed, but Neoptolemus, who thinks to marry her, shall
+never marry her. For it is fated to him to die by the Delphic sword, as he
+is demanding of me satisfaction for his father Achilles. But to Pylades
+give thy sister's hand, as thou didst formerly agree, but a happy life now
+coming on awaits him. But, O Menelaus, suffer Orestes to reign over Argos.
+But depart and rule over the Spartan land, having it as thy wife's dowry,
+who exposing thee to numberless evils always was bringing thee to this. But
+what regards the city I will make all right for him, I, who compelled him
+to slay his mother.
+
+ORES. O Loxian prophet, thou wert not then a false prophet in thine
+oracles, but a true one. And yet a fear comes upon me, that having heard
+one of the Furies, I might think that I have been hearing thy voice. But it
+is well fulfilled, and I will obey thy words. Behold I let go Hermione from
+slaughter, and approve her alliance, whenever her father shall give her.
+
+MEN. O Helen, daughter of Jove, hail! but I bless thee inhabiting the happy
+mansions of the Gods. But to thee, Orestes, do I betroth my daughter at
+Phœbus's commands, but illustrious thyself marrying from an illustrious
+family, be happy, both thou and I who give her.
+
+APOL. Now depart each of you whither we have appointed, and dissolve your
+quarrels.
+
+MEN. It is our duty to obey.
+
+ORES. I too entertain the same sentiments, and I receive with friendship
+thee in thy sufferings, O Menelaus, and thy oracles, O Apollo.
+
+APOL. Go now, each his own way, honoring the most excellent goddess Peace;
+but I will convey Helen to the mansions of Jove, passing through the pole
+of the shining stars, where sitting by Juno, and Hercules's Hebe, a
+goddess, she shall ever be honored by mortals with libations, in
+conjunction with the Tyndaridæ, the sons of Jove, presiding over the sea to
+the benefit of mariners.
+
+CHOR. O greatly glorious Victory, mayest thou uphold my life, and cease not
+from crowning me!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+NOTES ON ORESTES
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+[1] στεμματα, ερια, _Schol._ "eo quod colum cingant seu coronant," Scapula
+explains it.
+
+[2] "_Then_" is not to be considered as signifying point of time, but it is
+meant to express ουν, _continuativam_. See Hoogeveen de Particula ουν,
+Sect. ii. § 6.
+
+[3] The original Greek phrase was ελπιδος λεπτης, which Euripides has
+changed to ασθενους ‛ρωμης, though the other had equally suited the metre.
+But Euripides is fond of slight alterations in proverbs. PORSON.
+
+[4] δους--δυναται δε και αποδους. SCHOL.
+
+[5] Perhaps this interpretation of χρονιον is better than "slow," for the
+considerate Electra would hardly go to remind her brother of his
+infirmities.
+
+[6] Ποτνιαδες. The Furies have this epithet from Potnia, a town in Bœotia,
+where Glaucus's horses, having eaten of a certain herb and becoming mad,
+tore their own master in pieces. SCHOL.
+
+[6a] Note [D].
+
+[6b] Dindorf would omit this verse.
+
+[7] ‛αλιτυπων, ‛αλιεων, ‛οι ταις κωπαις τυπτουσι την θαλασσαν. SCHOL.
+
+[8] αφυλλου. Alluding to the branch, which the ancients used to hold in
+token of supplication.
+
+[9] "κατα την νυκτα πεπονθα τηρων την αναιρεσιν, και την αναληψιν των
+οστεων, τουτεστιν, ‛ινα μη τις αφεληται ταυτα." PARAPH. Heath translates
+it, _watchfully observing, till her bones were collected._
+
+[10] The old reading was απαιδευτα. The meaning of the present reading
+seems to be, "Yes, they are awful 'tis true, but still however you need not
+be so very scrupulous about naming them."
+
+[11] αναφορα was a legal term, and signified the line of defense adopted by
+the accused, when he transferred the charge brought against himself to some
+other person.--See Demosthenes in Timocr.
+
+[12] Œax was Palamede's brother.
+
+[13] And therefore we are not to impeach the _man_. Some would have δουλον
+to bear the sense of δουλοποιον, enslaves, and therefore can not be
+avoided.
+
+[14] εχω for ενοχος ειμι.
+
+[15] Ζηλω, το μακαριζω. ενταυθα δε αντι του επαινω. SCHOL.
+
+[16] Conf. Ter. Eun. Act. v. Sc. 2.
+
+                  Non dedignum, Chærea,
+  Fecisti; nam si ego digna hac contumelia
+  Sum maxume, at tu indignus, qui faceres, tamen.
+
+[16a] Note [E].
+
+[17] Of this passage the Scholiast gives two interpretations; either it may
+mean μετα δακρυων και γοων ειπον: or, ειπον ταυτα εις δακρυα και γοους, και
+ξυμφορας, ηγουν ‛ινα μη τυχω, τουτων: τευξομαι δε, ει πετρωθηναι με εασηις.
+
+[18] _"Beyond any woman,"_ γυνη μια, this is a mode of expression
+frequently met with in the Attic writers, especially in Xenophon.
+
+[19] επι τωι φονωι, τουτεστι δια τον φονον, ‛ον ειργασαμεθα. PARAPH.
+
+[20] Thyestes and Atreus, having a dispute about their father Pelops's
+kingdom, agreed, that whichever should discover the first prodigy should
+have possession of the throne. There appeared in Atreus's flock a golden
+lamb, which, however, Ærope his wife secretly had conveyed to Thyestes to
+show before the judges. Atreus afterward invited Thyestes to a feast, and
+served up before him Aglaiis, Orchomenus, and Caleus, three sons he had by
+his intrigues with Ærope.
+
+[21] Alluding to the murder of Agamemnon by Clytæmnestra. This is the
+interpretation and explanation of the Scholiast; but it is perhaps better
+translated, "_but on the other hand to play the coward is great impiety,
+and the error of cowardly-minded men_;" the chorus meaning, that this might
+have been said of Orestes, had he not avenged his father.
+
+[22] That is, _blamed him_. So St. Paul, 1 Cor. xi. 21, επαινεσω ‛υμας εν
+τουτοι; ουκ επαινω. Ter. And. Act. II. Sc. 6. "Et, quod dicendum hic siet,
+Tu quoque perparce nimium, non laudo."
+
+[23] An Argive as far as he was born there, and therefore ηναγκασμενος; not
+an Argive, inasmuch as his parents were not of that state. This is supposed
+to allude to Cleophon. SCHOL. See Dindorf.
+
+[24] This is the interpretation of one Scholiast; another explains it
+οικειαις χερσιν εργαζομενος. Grotius translates it _agricola_.
+
+[25] The same construction occurs in the Supplicants, 870. φιλοις δ' αληθης
+ην φιλος, παρουσι τε και μη παρουσιν: ‛ων (of which sort of men) αριθμος ου
+πολυς. PORSON.
+
+[25a] See Note [F].
+
+[26] Which, κτυπον namely: ονυχα and κτυπον are each governed by τιθεισα;
+but it is not easy to find a single verb in English that should be
+transitive to both these substantives.
+
+[27] καλλιπαις, _lovely_, not lovely in her children: so in Phœn. 1634.
+ευτεκνος ξυνωρις.
+
+[28] Argos, so called from the Cyclopes, a nation of Thrace, who, being
+called in as allies, afterward settled here.
+
+[29] ‛ετεροις may perhaps seem to make the construction plainer than
+‛ετερος; but Porson has received the latter into his text on account of the
+metre.
+
+[30] Myrtilus was the son of Mercury, who therefore sowed this dissension
+between the two brothers in revenge for his death by Pelops. See note at
+line 802.
+
+[31] Some would understand by μονοπωλον not that Aurora was borne on one
+horse, but that this alteration in the course of nature took place for one
+day. SCHOL.
+
+[32] και απο τωνδε, ητοι μετα ταυτα. PARAPH.
+
+[33] παρασειρος is used to signify a loose horse tied abreast of another in
+the shaft, and is technically termed "the outrigger." The metaphorical
+application of it to Pylades, who voluntarily attached himself to the
+misfortunes of his friend, is extremely beautiful.
+
+[34] Or, _"I will not be at all behind thy slaughter."_
+
+[35] ευ in this passage _interrogat oblique_, see Hoogeveen, xvi. § 1. 15.
+
+[36] Strophius, the father of Pylades, married Anaxibia, Agamemnon's
+sister.
+
+[37] ονειδη, των ευεργεσιων τας ‛υπομνησεις. SCHOL. Ter. And. i. 1. "isthæc
+commemoratio quasi exprobratio est immemoris benefici."
+
+[38] i.e. being a barbarian, and therefore not knowing whither to go.
+
+[39] ‛αρματειον, such a strain as that raised over Hector, ‛ελκομενω, δια
+του ‛αρματος. See two other explanations in the Scholia.
+
+[40] ‛ιπποσυνα, ‛ητις ‛υπηρχες ‛ιππηλασια του Γ. BRUNCK.
+
+[41] Literally, _her Mycenian slipper_.
+
+[41a] Read θανειν with Pors. Dind.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+ADDITIONAL NOTES.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+[A] But Dindorf reads κτυπου η ηγαγετ'. ουχι; interrogatively, thus: "Ye
+were making a noise. Will ye not ... enable him," etc.?
+
+[B] Dindorf would continue this verse to Orestes.
+
+[C] Dindorf supposes something to be wanting after vs. 314.
+
+[D] The use of αλλος ‛ετερος is learnedly illustrated by Dindorf.
+
+[E] Elmsley, on Heracl. 852, more simply regards the datives σοι σηι τ'
+αδελφη as dependent upon επισεισω, understanding ‛ωστε δουναι δικην. This
+is better than to suppose (with Porson) that δουναι δικην can mean to
+_inflict_ punishment.
+
+[F] Dindorf (in his notes) agrees with Porson in omitting the following
+verse.
+
+[G] Dindorf's text and punctuation must be altered.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE PHŒNICIAN VIRGINS.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+PERSONS REPRESENTED.
+
+  JOCASTA.
+  TUTOR.
+  ANTIGONE.
+  CHORUS OF PHŒNICIAN VIRGINS.
+  POLYNICES.
+  ETEOCLES.
+  CREON.
+  MENŒCEUS.
+  TIRECIAS.
+  MESSENGERS.
+  ŒDIPUS.
+
+_The Scene is in the Court before the royal palace at Thebes_.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE ARGUMENT.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+Eteocles having gotten possession of the throne of Thebes, deprived his
+brother Polynices of his share; but he having come as an exile to Argos,
+married the daughter of the king Adrastus; but ambitious of returning to
+his country, and having persuaded his father-in-law, he assembled a great
+army for Thebes against his brother. His mother Jocasta made him come into
+the city, under sanction of a truce, and first confer with his brother
+respecting the empire. But Eteocles being violent and fierce from having
+possessed the empire, Jocasta could not reconcile her children.--Polynices,
+prepared as against an enemy, rushed out of the city. Now Tiresias
+prophesied that victory should be on the side of the Thebans, if Menœceus
+the son of Creon would give himself up to be sacrificed to Mars. Creon
+refused to give his son to the city, but the youth was willing, and, his
+father pointing out to him the means of flight and giving him money, he put
+himself to death.--The Thebans slew the leaders of the Argives. Eteocles
+and Polynices in a single combat slew each other, and their mother having
+found the corses of her sons laid violent hands on herself; and Creon her
+brother received the kingdom. The Argives defeated in battle retired. But
+Creon, being morose, would not give up those of the enemy who had fallen at
+Thebes, for sepulture, and exposed the body of Polynices without burial,
+and banished Œdipus from his country; in the one instance disregarding the
+laws of humanity, in the other giving way to passion, nor feeling pity for
+him after his calamity.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE PHŒNICIAN VIRGINS.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+JOCASTA.
+
+O thou that cuttest thy path through the constellations[1] of heaven, and
+art mounted on thy golden-joined seats, thou sun, whirling thy flame
+with[2] thy swift steeds, how inauspicious didst thou dart thy ray on that
+day when Cadmus came to this land having left the sea-washed coast of
+Phœnicia; who in former time having married Harmonia, daughter of Venus,
+begat Polydorus; from him they say sprung Labdacus, and from him Laius. But
+I am[3] the daughter of Menœceus, and Creon my brother was born of the same
+mother; me they call Jocasta (for this name[4] my father gave me), and
+Laius takes me for his wife; but after that he was childless, for a long
+time sharing my bed in the palace, he went and inquired of Apollo, and at
+the same time demands the mutual offspring of male children in his family;
+but the God said, "O king of Thebes renowned for its chariots, sow not for
+such a harvest of children against the will of the Gods, for if thou shalt
+beget a son, he that is born shall slay thee, and the whole of thy house
+shall wade through blood." But having yielded to pleasure, and having
+fallen into inebriety, he begot to us a son, and having begot him, feeling
+conscious of his error and the command of the God, gives the babe to some
+herdsmen to expose at the meads of Juno and the rock of Cithæron, having
+bored sharp-pointed iron through the middle of his ankles, from which
+circumstance Greece gave him the name of Œdipus. But him the grooms who
+attend the steeds of Polybus find and carry home, and placed him in the
+arms of their mistress. But she rested beneath her bosom him that gave me a
+mother's pangs, and persuades her husband that she had brought forth. But
+now my son showing signs of manhood in his darkening cheek, either having
+suspected it by instinct, or having learned it from some one, went to the
+temple of Apollo, desirous of discovering his parents; at the same time
+went Laius my husband, seeking to gain intelligence of his son who had been
+exposed, if he were no longer living; and both met at the same point of the
+road at Phocis where it divides itself; and the charioteer of Laius
+commands him, "Stranger, withdraw out of the way of princes;" but he moved
+slowly, in silence, with haughty spirit; but the steeds with their hoof
+dyed with blood the tendons of his feet. At this (but why need I relate
+each horrid circumstance besides the deed itself?) the son kills his
+father, and having taken the chariot, sends it as a present to his
+foster-father Polybus. Now at this time the sphinx preyed vulture-like[5]
+upon the city with rapacity, my husband now no more, Creon my brother
+proclaims that he will give my bed as a reward to him who would solve the
+enigma of the crafty virgin. But by some chance or other Œdipus my son
+happens to discover the riddle of the sphinx, [and he receives as a prize
+the sceptre of this land,][5a] and marries me, his mother, wretched he not
+knowing it, nor knew his mother that she was lying down with her son. And I
+bear children to my child, two sons, Eteocles and the illustrious
+Polynices, and two daughters, one her father named Ismene, the elder I
+called Antigone. But Œdipus, after having gone through all sufferings,
+having discovered in my bed the marriage with his mother, he perpetrated a
+deed of horror on his own eyes, having drenched in blood their pupils with
+his golden buckles. But after that the cheek of my children grows dark with
+manly down, they hid their father confined with bolts that his sad fortune
+might be forgotten, which indeed required the greatest policy. He is still
+living in the palace, but sick in mind through his misfortunes he
+imprecates the most unhallowed curses on his children, that they may share
+this house with the sharpened sword. But these two, dreading lest the Gods
+should bring to completion these curses,[6] should they dwell together, in
+friendly compact determined that Polynices the younger son should first go
+a willing exile from this land, but that Eteocles remaining here should
+hold the sceptre for a year, changing in his turn; but after that he sat on
+the throne of power, he moves not from his seat, but drives Polynices an
+exile from this land. But he having fled to Argos, and having contracted an
+alliance with Adrastus, assembles together and leads a vast army of
+Argives; and having marched to these very walls with seven gates he demands
+his father's sceptre and his share of the land. But I to quell this strife
+persuaded my son to come to his brother, confiding in a truce before he
+grasped the spear. And the messenger who was sent declares that he will
+come. But, O thou that inhabitest the shining clouds of heaven, Jove,
+preserve us, give reconciliation to my children; it becomes thee, if thou
+art wise, not to suffer the same man always to be unfortunate.
+
+TUTOR, ANTIGONE.
+
+TUT. O thou fair bud in thy father's house, Antigone, since thy mother has
+permitted thee to leave the virgin's apartments for the extreme chamber[7]
+of the mansion, in order to view the Argive army in compliance with thy
+entreaties, yet stay, until I shall first investigate the path, lest any
+citizen should appear in the pass, and to me taunts should come as a slave,
+and to thee as a princess: and I who well know each circumstance will tell
+you all that I saw or heard from the Argives, when I went bearing the offer
+of a truce to thy brother, from this place thither, and again to this place
+from him. But no citizen approaches this house; come, ascend with thy steps
+these ancient stairs of cedar, and survey the plains, and by the streams of
+Ismenus and Dirce's fount how great is the host of the enemy.
+
+ANT. Stretch forth now, stretch forth thine aged hand from the stairs to my
+youth, raising up the steps of my feet.
+
+TUT. Behold, join thy hand, virgin, thou hast come in lucky hour, for the
+Pelasgian host is now in motion, and they are separating the bands from one
+another.
+
+ANT. O awful daughter of Latona, Hecate, the field all brass[8] gleaming
+like lightning.
+
+TUT. For Polynices hath not come tamely to this land, raging with host of
+horsemen, and ten thousand shields.
+
+ANT. Are the gates fastened with bars, and is the brazen bolt fitted to the
+stone-work of Amphion's wall?
+
+TUT. Take courage; as to the interior the city is safe, But view the first
+chief, if thou desirest to know.
+
+ANT. Who is he with the white-plumed helmet, who commands in the van of the
+army, moving lightly round on his arm his brazen shield?
+
+TUT. He is a leader, lady.
+
+ANT. Who is he? From whom sprung? Speak, aged man, what is he called by
+name?
+
+TUT. He indeed is called by birth a Mycenæan, and he dwells at the streams
+of Lerna,[9] the king Hippomedon.
+
+ANT. Ah! how haughty, how terrible to behold! like to an earth-born giant,
+starlike in countenance amidst his painted devices,[10] he corresponds not
+with the race of mortals.
+
+TUT. Dost thou not see him now passing the stream of Dirce, a general?
+
+ANT. Here is another, another fashion of arms. But who is he?
+
+TUT. He is the son of Œneus, Tydeus, and bears on his breast the Ætolian
+Mars.
+
+ANT. Is this the prince, O aged man, who is husband to the sister of my
+brother's wife?[11] In his arms how different of color, of barbaric
+mixture!
+
+TUT. For all the Ætolians, my child, bear the target, and hurl with the
+lance, most certain in their aim.
+
+ANT. But how, O aged man, dost thou know these things so perfectly?
+
+TUT. Having seen the devices of the shields, then I remarked them, when I
+went to bear the offer of a truce to thy brother, beholding which, I
+recognize the warriors.
+
+ANT. But who is this, who is passing round the tomb of Zethus, with
+clustering locks, in his eyes a Gorgon to behold, in appearance a youth?
+
+TUT. A general he is. [See Note [A].]
+
+ANT. How a crowd in complete armor attends him behind![12]
+
+TUT. This is Parthenopæus, son of Atalanta.
+
+ANT. But, may Diana who rushes over the mountains with his mother destroy
+him, having subdued him with her arrows, who has come against my city to
+destroy it.
+
+TUT. May it be so, my child, nevertheless they are come with justice to
+this land; wherefore also I fear lest the Gods should judge rightly.
+
+ANT. Where, but where is he who was born of one mother with me in hard
+fate, O dearest old man; tell me, where is Polynices?
+
+TUT. He is standing near the tomb of the seven virgin daughters of Niobe,
+close by Adrastus. Seest thou him?
+
+ANT. I see indeed, but not distinctly; but somehow I see the resemblance of
+his form, and his shape shadowed out. Would that with my feet I could
+perform the journey of the winged cloud through the air to my brother, then
+would I fling my arms round his dearest neck, after so long a time a
+wretched exile. How splendid is he, O old man, in his golden armor,
+glittering like the morning rays of the sun.
+
+TUT. He will come to this house confiding in the truce, so as to fill thee
+with joy.
+
+ANT. But who, O aged man, is this, who guides his milk-white steeds seated
+in his chariot?
+
+TUT. The prophet Amphiaraus this, O my mistress, and with him the victims,
+the libations of the earth delighting in blood.
+
+AST. O thou daughter of the brightly girded sun, thou moon, golden-circled
+light, applying what quiet and temperate blows to his steeds does he direct
+his chariot! But where is he who utters such dreadful insults against this
+city, Capaneus?
+
+TUT. He is scanning the approach to the towers, measuring the walls both
+from their foundation to the top.
+
+ANT. O vengeance, and ye loud-roaring thunders of Jove, and thou blasting
+fire of the lightning, do thou quell this more-than-mortal arrogance. This
+is he who will with his spear give to Mycenæ, and to the streams of Lernæan
+Triæna,[13] and to the Amymonian[14] waters of Neptune, the Theban women,
+having invested them with slavery. Sever, O awful Goddess, never, O
+daughter of Jove, with golden clusters of ringlets, Diana, may I endure
+servitude.
+
+TUT. My child, enter the palace, and at home remain in thy virgin chambers,
+since thou hast arrived at the indulgement of thy desire, as to what you
+were anxious to behold. For, since confusion has entered the city, a crowd
+of women is advancing to the royal palace. The race of women is prone to
+complaint, and if they find but small occasion for words, they add more,
+and it is a sort of pleasure to women, to speak nothing well-advised one of
+another.[15]
+
+CHORUS.
+
+I have come, having left the Tyrian wave, the first-fruits of Loxias, from
+the sea-washed Phœnicia, a slave for the shrine of Apollo, that I might
+dwell under the snowy brows of Parnassus, having sped my way over the
+Ionian flood by the oar, the west wind with its blasts riding over the
+barren plains of waters[16] which flow round Sicily, the sweetest murmur in
+the heavens. Chosen out from my city the fairest present to Apollo, I came
+to the land of the Cadmeans, the illustrious descendants of Agenor, sent
+hither to these kindred towers of Laius. And I am made the slave of Apollo
+in like manner with the golden-framed images. Moreover the water of
+Castalia awaits me, to lave the virgin pride of my tresses, in the ministry
+of Apollo. O blazing rock, the flame of fire that seems[17] double above
+the Dionysian heights of Bacchus, and thou vine, who distillest the daily
+nectar, producing the fruitful cluster from the tender shoot; and ye divine
+caves of the dragon,[18] and ye mountain watch-towers of the Gods, and thou
+hallowed snowy mountain, would that I were the chorus of the immortal God
+free from alarms encompassing thee around, by the caves of Apollo in the
+centre of the earth, having left Dirce. But now impetuous Mars having
+advanced before the walls lights up against this city, which may the Gods
+avert, hostile war; for common are the misfortunes of friends, and common
+is it, if this land defended by its seven turrets should suffer any
+calamity, to the Phœnician country, alas! alas! common is the affinity,[19]
+common are the descendants of Io bearing horns; of which woes I have a
+share. But a thick cloud of shields glares around the city, the likeness of
+gory battle, bearing which destruction from the Furies to the children of
+Œdipus Mars shall quickly advance. O Pelasgian Argos, I dread thy power,
+and vengeance from the Gods, for he rushes not his arms to this war
+unjustly, who seeks to recover his home.
+
+POLYNICES, CHORUS.
+
+POL. The bolts indeed of the gate-keepers have with ease admitted me, that
+I might come within the walls; wherefore also I fear, lest, having caught
+me within their nets, they let[19a] not my body go without bloodshed. On
+which account my eye must be turned about on every side, both that way and
+this, lest there be treachery. But armed in my hand with this sword, I will
+give myself confidence of daring. Ha! Who is this; or do we fear a noise?
+Every thing appears terrible even to the bold, when his foot shall pass
+across a hostile country. I trust however in my mother, at the same time I
+scarce trust, who persuaded me to come hither confiding in a truce. But
+protection is nigh; for the hearths of the altars are at hand, and houses
+not deserted. Come. I will let go my sword into its dark scabbard, and will
+question these who they are, that are standing at the palace. Ye female
+strangers, tell me, from what country do ye approach Grecian habitations?
+
+CHOR. The Phœnician is my paternal country, she that nurtured me: and the
+descendants of Agenor sent me hither from the spoils, the first-fruits to
+Apollo. And while the renowned son of Œdipus was preparing to send me to
+the revered shrine, and to the altars of Phœbus, in the mean time the
+Argives marched against the city. But do thou in turn answer me, who thou
+art, who hast come to this bulwark of the Theban land with its seven gates?
+
+POL. My father is Œdipus the son of Laius; Jocasta daughter of Menœceus
+brought me forth; the Theban people call me Polynices.
+
+CHOR. O thou allied to the sons of Agenor, my lords, by whom I was sent, I
+fall at thy knees in lowly posture, O king, preserving my country's custom.
+Thou hast come, thou hast come, after a length of time, to thy paternal
+land. O venerable matron, come forth quickly, open the doors; dost thou
+hear, O mother, that producedst this hero? why dost thou delay to leave thy
+lofty mansion, and to embrace thy child with thine arms?
+
+JOCASTA, POLYNICES, CHORUS.
+
+JOC. Hearing the Phœnician tongue, ye virgins, within this mansion, I drag
+my steps trembling with age. Ah! my son, after length of time, after
+numberless days, I behold thy countenance; clasp thy mother's bosom in
+thine arms, throw around her[20] thy kisses, and the dark ringlets of thy
+clustering hair, shading my neck. Ah! scarce possible is it that thou
+appearest in thy mother's arms so unhoped for, and so unexpected. How shall
+I address thee? how shall I perform all? how shall I, walking in rapture
+around thee on that side and this, both with my hands and words, reap the
+varied pleasure, the delight of my former joys? O my son, thou hast left
+thy father's house deserted, sent away an exile by wrongful treatment from
+thy brother. How longed for by thy friends! how longed for by Thebes! From
+which time I am both shorn of my hoary locks, letting them fall with tears,
+with wailing;[21] deprived, my child, of the white robes, I receive in
+exchange around me these dark and dismal weeds. But the old man in the
+palace deprived of sight, always preserving with tears regret for the
+unanimity of the brothers which is separated from the family, has madly
+rushed on self-destruction with the sword and with the noose above the
+beams of the house, bewailing the curse imprecated on his children; and
+with cries of woe he is always hidden in darkness. But thou, my child, I
+hear, art both joined in marriage, and hast the joys of love in a foreign
+family, and cherishest a foreign alliance; intolerable to this thy mother
+and to the aged Laius, the woe of a foreign marriage brought upon us. But
+neither did I light the torch of fire for you, as is customary in the
+marriage rites, as befits the happy mother; nor was Ismenus careful of the
+bridal rites in the luxury of the bath: and the entrance of thy bride was
+made in silence through the Theban city. May these ills perish, whether the
+sword, or discord, or thy father is the cause, or whether fate has rushed
+with violence upon the house of Œdipus; for the weight of these sorrows has
+fallen upon me.
+
+CHOR. Parturition with the attendant throes has a wonderful effect on
+women;[22] and somehow the whole race of women have strong affection toward
+their children.
+
+POL. My mother, determining wisely, and yet not determining wisely, have I
+come to men my foes; but it is necessary that all must be enamored of their
+country; but whoever says otherwise, pleases himself with vain words, but
+has his heart there. But so far have I come to trouble and terror, lest any
+treachery from my brother should slay me, so that having my hand on my
+sword I proceeded through the city rolling round my eye; but one thing is
+on my side, the truce and thy faith, which has brought me within my
+paternal walls: but I have come with many tears, after a length of time
+beholding the courts and the altars of the Gods, and the schools wherein I
+was brought up, and the fount of Dirce, from which banished by injustice, I
+inhabit a foreign city, having a stream of tears flowing through my eyes.
+But, for from one woe springs a second, I behold thee having thy head shorn
+of its locks, and these sable garments; alas me! on account of my
+misfortunes. How dreadful a thing, mother, is the enmity of relations,
+having means of reconciliation seldom to be brought about! For how fares
+the old man my father in the palace, vainly looking upon darkness; and how
+fare my two sisters? Are they indeed bewailing my wretched banishment?
+
+JOC. Some God miserably destroys the race of Œdipus; for thus began it,
+when I brought forth children in that unhallowed manner, and thy father
+married me in evil hour, and thou didst spring forth. But why relate these
+things? What is sent by the Gods we must bear. But how I may ask the
+questions I wish, I know not, for I fear lest I wound at all thy feelings;
+but I have a great desire.
+
+POL. But inquire freely, leave nothing out. For what you wish, my mother,
+this is dear to me.
+
+JOC. I ask thee therefore, first, for the information that I wish to
+obtain. What is the being deprived of one's country, is it a great ill?
+
+POL. The greatest: and greater is it in deed than in word.
+
+JOC. What is the reason of that? What is that so harsh to exiles?
+
+POL. One thing, and that the greatest, not to have the liberty of speaking.
+
+JOC. This that you have mentioned belongs to a slave, not to give utterance
+to what one thinks.
+
+POL. It is necessary to bear with the follies of those in power.
+
+JOC. And this is painful, to be unwise with the unwise.
+
+POL. But for interest we must bend to slavery contrary to our nature.
+
+JOC. But hopes support exiles, as report goes.
+
+POL. They look upon them with favorable eyes, at least, but are slow of
+foot.
+
+JOC. Hath not time shown them to be vain?
+
+POL. They have a certain sweet delight to set against misfortunes.
+
+JOC. But whence wert thou supported, before thou foundest means of
+sustenance by thy marriage?
+
+POL. At one time I had food for the day, at another I had not.
+
+JOC. And did the friends and hosts of your father not assist you?
+
+POL. Be prosperous, _and thou shalt have friends_:[23] but friends are
+none, should one be in adversity.
+
+JOC. Did not thy noble birth raise thee to great distinction?
+
+POL. To want is wretched; high birth fed me not.
+
+JOC. Their own country, it appears, is the dearest thing to men.
+
+POL. You can not express by words how dear it is.
+
+JOC. But how camest thou to Argos? What intention hadst thou?
+
+POL. Apollo gave a certain oracle to Adrastus.
+
+JOC. What is this thou hast mentioned? I am unable to discover.
+
+POL. To unite his daughters in marriage with a boar and lion.
+
+JOC. And what part of the name of beasts belongs to you, my son.
+
+POL. I know not. The God called me to this fortune.
+
+JOC. For the God is wise. But in what manner didst thou obtain her bed?
+
+POL. It was night; but I came to the portals of Adrastus.
+
+JOC. In search of a couch to rest on, as a wandering exile?
+
+POL. This was the case, and then indeed there came a second exile.
+
+JOC. Who was this? how unfortunate then was he also!
+
+POL. Tydeus, who they say sprung from Œneus his sire.
+
+JOC. In what then did Adrastus liken you to beasts?
+
+POL. Because we came to blows for lodging.
+
+JOC. In this the son of Talaus understood the oracle.
+
+POL. And gave in marriage to us two his two virgin daughters.
+
+JOC. Art thou fortunate then in thy marriage alliance, or unfortunate?
+
+POL. My marriage can not be found fault with up to this day.
+
+JOC. But how didst thou persuade an army to follow you hither?
+
+POL. Adrastus swore this oath to his two sons-in-law, that he would replace
+both in their own country, but me first. And many princes of the Argives
+and Mycenæans are at hand, rendering to me a sad, but necessary favor; for
+I am leading an army against this my own city; but I have called the Gods
+to witness how unwillingly I have raised the spear against my dearest
+parents. But the dissolution of these ills extends to thee, my mother, that
+having reconciled the friendly brothers, you may free from toil me and
+thyself, and the whole city. It is a proverb long ago chanted, but
+nevertheless I will repeat it; wealth is honored most of all things by men,
+and has the greatest influence of any thing among men. In pursuit of which
+I am come, leading hither ten thousand spears: for a nobly-born man in
+poverty is nothing.
+
+CHOR. And see Eteocles here comes to this mediation; thy business it is, O
+Jocasta, being their mother, to speak words, with which thou shalt
+reconcile thy children.
+
+ETEOCLES, POLYNICES, JOCASTA, CHORUS.
+
+ETEO. Mother, I am present; giving this grace to thee, I have come; what
+must I do? Let some one begin the conference. Since arranging also around
+the walls the chariots of the bands, I restrained the city, that I may hear
+from thee the common terms[24] of reconciliation, for which thou hast
+permitted this man to come within the walls under sanction of a truce,
+having persuaded me.
+
+JOC. Stay; precipitate haste has not justice; but slow counsels perform
+most deeds in wisdom. But repress that fierce eye and those blasts of rage;
+for thou art not looking on the Gorgon's head cut off at the neck, but thou
+art looking on thy brother who is come to thee. And do thou again,
+Polynices, turn thy face toward thy brother; for looking at the same point
+with thine eyes, thou wilt both speak better, and receive his words better.
+But I wish to give you a wise piece of advice. When a friend is enraged
+with a man his friend, having met him face to face, let him fix his eyes on
+his friend's eyes, this only ought he to consider, the end for which he is
+come, but to have no recollection of former grievances. Thy words then
+first, my son, Polynices; for thou art come leading an army of Argives,
+having suffered injustice, as thou sayest; and may some God be umpire and
+the reconciler of your strife.
+
+POL. The speech of truth is simple, and those things which are just need
+not wily interpretations; for they have energy themselves; but the unjust
+speech, unsound in itself, requires cunning preparations to gloze it. But I
+have previously considered for my father's house, and my own advantage and
+that of this man; desiring to escape the curses, which Œdipus denounced
+formerly against us, I myself of my own accord departed from this land,
+having given him to rule over his own country for the space of a year, so
+that I myself should have the government again, having received it in turn,
+and not having come into enmity and bloodshed with this man to perform some
+evil deed, and to suffer what is now taking place. But he having assented
+to this, and having brought the Gods to witness his oaths, has performed
+nothing of what he promised, but himself holds the regal power and my share
+of the palace. And now I am ready, having received my own right, to send
+the army away from out of this land, and to regulate my house, having
+received it in my turn, and to give it up again to this man for the same
+space of time, and neither to lay my country waste, nor to apply to its
+towers the means of ascent by the firmly-fixed ladders. Which, should I not
+meet with justice, will I endeavor to put in execution: and I call the Gods
+as witnesses of this, that acting in every thing with justice, I am without
+justice deprived of my country in the most unrighteous manner. These
+individual circumstances, mother, not having collected together intricacies
+of argument, have I declared, but both to the wise and to the illiterate
+just, as appears to me.
+
+CHOR. To me indeed, although we have not been brought up according to the
+Grecian land, nevertheless to me thou appearest to speak with judgment.
+
+ETEO. If the same thing were judged honorable alike by all, and at the same
+time wise, there would not be doubtful strife among men. But now nothing is
+similar, nothing the same among mortals, except in names; but the sense is
+not the same, for I, my mother, will speak having kept nothing back; I
+would mount to the rising of the stars, and sink beneath the earth, were I
+able to perform this, so that I might possess the greatest of the
+Goddesses, kingly power.[25] This prize then, my mother, I am not willing
+rather to give up to another, than to preserve for myself. For it implies
+cowardice in him, whoever having lost the greater share, hath received the
+less; but in addition to this I feel ashamed, that this man having come
+with arms, and laying the country waste, should obtain what he wishes; for
+to Thebes this would be a reproach, if through fear of the Mycenæan spear I
+should give up my sceptre for this man to hold. But he ought, my mother, to
+effect a reconciliation, not by arms: for speech does every thing which
+even the sword of the enemy could do. But if he is desirous of inhabiting
+this land in any other way, it is in his power; but the other point I will
+never give up willingly. When it is in my power to rule, ever to be a slave
+to him? Wherefore come fire, come sword, yoke thy steeds, fill the plains
+with chariots, since I will not give up my kingly power to this man. For if
+one must be unjust, it is most glorious to be unjust concerning empire, but
+in every thing else one should be just.
+
+CHOR. It is not right to speak well, where the deeds are not glorious; for
+this is not honorable, but galling to justice.
+
+JOC. My son, Eteocles, not every ill is added to age, but experience has it
+in its power to evince more wisdom than youth.[26] Why, my child, dost thou
+so desirously court ambition, the most baneful of the deities? do not thou;
+the Goddess is unjust. But she hath entered into many families and happy
+states and hath come forth again, to the destruction of those who have to
+do with her. Of whom thou art madly enamored. This is more noble, my son,
+to honor equality, which ever links friends with friends, and states with
+states, and allies with allies: for equality is sanctioned by law among
+men. But the lesser share is ever at enmity with the greater, and straight
+begins the day of hatred. For equality arranged also among mortals
+measures, and the divisions of weights, and defined numbers. And the dark
+eye of night, and the light of the sun, equally walk their annual round,
+and neither of them being overcome hath envy of the other. Thus the sun and
+the night are subservient to men, but wilt not thou brook having an equal
+share of government, and give his share to him? Then where is justice? Why
+dost thou honor so unboundedly that prosperous injustice, royalty, and
+think so highly of her? Is the being conspicuous honorable? At least, it is
+empty honor. Or dost thou desire to labor much, possessing much in thy
+house? but what is superfluity? It possesses but a name; since a
+sufficiency indeed to the temperate is abundance. Neither do men enjoy
+riches as their own, but having the property of the Gods do we cherish
+them. And when they list, again do they take them away. Come, if I ask
+thee, having proposed together two measures, whether it is thy wish to
+reign, or save the city? Wilt thou say, to reign? But should he conquer
+thee, and the Argive spears overcome the Cadmæanforces, thou wilt behold
+this city of the Thebans vanquished, thou wilt behold many captive maidens
+with violence ravished by men your foes. Bitter then to Thebes will be the
+power which thou seekest to hold; but yet thou art ambitious of it. To thee
+I say this: but to thee, Polynices, say I, that Adrastus hath conferred an
+unwise favor on thee; and foolishly hast thou also come to destroy this
+city. Come, if thou wilt subdue this land (may which never happen), by the
+Gods, how wilt thou erect trophies of thy spear? And how again wilt thou
+sacrifice the first-fruits, having conquered thy country? and how wilt thou
+engrave upon the spoils by the waters of Inachus, "Having laid Thebes in
+ashes, Polynices consecrated these shields to the Gods?" Never, my son, may
+it come to thee to receive such glory from the Greeks. But again, shouldest
+thou be conquered, and should the arms of the other prevail, how wilt thou
+return to Argos having left behind ten thousand dead? Surely some one will
+say, O! unfortunate marriage alliance! O Adrastus, who placed them on us,
+through the nuptials of one bride we are lost! Thou art hastening two ills,
+my son, to be deprived of those, and to fail in this. Give up your too
+great ardor, give it up; the follies of two when they clash together in the
+same point, are the most hateful ill.
+
+CHOR. O ye Gods, may ye be averters of these ills, and grant to the
+children of Œdipus some means of agreement.
+
+ETEO. My mother, this is not a contest of words, but intervening time is
+fruitlessly wasted; and thy earnestness avails nothing; for we shall not
+agree in any other way, than on the terms proposed, that I holding the
+sceptre be monarch of this land. Forbearing then tedious admonitions, let
+me have my way; and do thou begone from out these walls, or thou shalt die.
+
+POL. By whose hand? Who is there so invulnerable, who having pointed the
+murderous sword against me, shall not bear the same fate?
+
+ETEO. He is near, not far removed from thee: dost thou look on these my
+hands?
+
+POL. I see them. But wealth is cowardly, and feeble, loving life.
+
+ETEO. And therefore hast thou come, with such a host against one who is
+nothing in arms?
+
+POL. For a cautious general is better than one daring.
+
+ETEO. Thou art insolent, having trusted in the truce, which preserves you
+from death.
+
+POL. A second time again I demand of you the sceptre and my share of the
+land.
+
+ETEO. I will admit no demand, for I will regulate my own family.
+
+POL. Holding more than your share?
+
+ETEO. I own it; but quit this land.
+
+POL. O ye altars of my paternal Gods.
+
+ETEO. Which thou art come to destroy?
+
+POL. Do ye hear me?
+
+ETEO. Who will hear thee, who art marching against thy country?
+
+POL. And ye shrines of the Gods[27] delighting in the milk-white steeds;
+
+ETEO. Who hate thee.
+
+POL. I am driven out of my own country.
+
+ETEO. For thou hast come to destroy it.
+
+POL. With injustice indeed, O ye Gods!
+
+ETEO. At Mycenæ call upon the Gods, not here.
+
+POL. Thou art impious.
+
+ETEO. But not my country's enemy, as thou art.
+
+POL. Who drives me out without my share.
+
+ETEO. And I will put thee to death in addition.
+
+POL. My father, hearest thou what I suffer?
+
+ETEO. For he hears what wrongs thou doest.
+
+POL. And thou, my mother?
+
+ETEO. It is not lawful for thee to mention thy mother.
+
+POL. O my city!
+
+ETEO. To Argos go, and call on Lerna's stream.
+
+POL. I will go, do not distress thyself; but thee, my mother, I mention
+with honor.
+
+ETEO. Depart from out of the country.
+
+POL. I will go out; but grant me to see my father.
+
+ETEO. You will not obtain your request.
+
+POL. But my virgin sisters then.
+
+ETEO. Never shalt thou behold these.
+
+POL. O my sisters!
+
+ETEO. Why callest thou on these--being their greatest enemy?
+
+POL. My mother, but thou farewell.
+
+JOC. Do I experience any thing that is well, my son?
+
+POL. I am no longer thy child.
+
+JOC. To many troubles was I born.
+
+POL. For he throws insults on us.
+
+ETEO. For I am insulted in turn.
+
+POL. Where wilt thou stand before the towers?
+
+ETEO. Why dost thou ask me this question?
+
+POL. I will oppose myself to thee, to slay thee.
+
+ETEO. Desire of this seizes me also.
+
+JOC. Wretched me! what will ye do, my children?
+
+POL. The deed itself will show.
+
+JOC. Will ye not escape your father's curses?
+
+ETEO. Let the whole house perish!
+
+POL. Since soon my blood-stained sword will not remain any longer in
+inactivity. But I call to witness the land that nurtured me, and the Gods,
+how dishonored I am driven from this land, suffering such foul treatment,
+as a slave and not born of the same father Œdipus. And if any thing befalls
+thee, my city, blame not me, but him; for against my will have I come, and
+against my will am I driven from this land. And thou, king Apollo, God of
+our streets, and ye shrines, farewell, and ye my equals, and ye altars of
+the Gods receiving the victims; for I know not if it is allowed me ever
+again to address you. But hope does not yet slumber, in which I have
+trusted with the favor of the Gods, that having slain this man, I shall be
+master of this Theban land.
+
+ETEO. Depart from out of the country; with truth indeed did your father
+give you the name of Polynices by some divine foreknowledge, a name
+corresponding with strife.
+
+CHORUS.
+
+Cadmus came from Tyre to this land, before whom the quadrupede heifer bent
+with willing fall,[28] showing the accomplishment of the oracle, where the
+divine word ordered him to colonize the plains of the Aonians productive of
+wheat, where indeed the fair-flowing stream of the water of Dirce passes
+over the verdant and deep-furrowed fields, where the * * * * mother
+produced Bacchus, by her marriage with Jove, whom the wreathed ivy twining
+around him instantly, while yet a babe, blest and covered with its verdant
+shady branches, an event to be celebrated with Bacchic revel by the Theban
+virgins and inspired women. There was the bloodstained dragon of Mars, the
+savage guard, watching with far-rolling eyeballs over the flowing fountains
+and grassy streams; whom Cadmus, having come for water for purification,
+slew with a fragment of rock, the destroyer of the monster having thrown
+his arms with blows on his blood-stained head, by the counsel of the divine
+Pallas born without mother, having thrown the teeth fallen to the earth
+upon the deep-furrowed plains. Whence the earth sent forth a spectacle, an
+armed [host] above the extreme limits of the ground; but iron-hearted
+slaughter again united them with their beloved earth; and sprinkled with
+blood the ground which showed them to the serene gales of the air. And
+thee, sprung of old from our ancestor Io, Epaphus, O progeny of Jove, on
+thee have I called, have I called in a foreign tongue, with prayers in
+foreign accent, come, come to this land (thy descendants have founded it),
+where the two Goddesses Proserpine and the dear Goddess Ceres, queen of all
+(since earth nurtures all things), have held their possessions, send the
+fire-bearing Goddesses to defend this land: since every thing is easy to
+the Gods.
+
+ETEOCLES, CHORUS, MESSENGER.
+
+ETEO. Go thou, and bring hither Creon son of Menœceus, the brother of my
+mother Jocasta, saying this, that I wish to communicate with him counsels
+of a private nature and those which concern the common welfare of the
+country, before we go into battle and the ranks of war. And see, he spares
+the trouble of your steps, by his presence; for I see him coming toward my
+palace.
+
+CREON, ETEOCLES, CHORUS.
+
+CRE. Surely have I visited many places, desiring to see you, O king
+Eteocles! and I have gone round to the gates and the guards of the Thebans,
+seeking you.
+
+ETEO. And indeed I have wished to see you, Creon, for I found attempts at
+reconciliation altogether fail when I came and entered into conference with
+Polynices.
+
+CRE. I have heard that he aspires to higher thoughts than Thebes, having
+trusted in his alliance with Adrastus and his army. But it becomes us to
+hold these things in dependence on the Gods. But what is most immediately
+before us, this am I come to acquaint you with.
+
+ETEO. What is this? for I understand not your speech.
+
+CRE. A prisoner is arrived from the Argives.
+
+ETEO. Does he bring us any news of those stationed there?
+
+CRE. The Argive army is preparing quickly to surround the city of the
+Thebans with thickly-ranged arms.(Note [B].)
+
+ETEO. Therefore must we draw our forces out of the Theban city.
+
+CRE. Whither? Dost thou not in the impetuosity of youth see what it
+behooves thee to see?
+
+ETEO. Without these trenches, as we are quickly about to fight.
+
+CRE. Small are the forces of this land; but theirs innumerable.
+
+ETEO. I know that they are bold in words.
+
+CRE. Argos of the Greeks has some renown.
+
+ETEO. Be confident; quickly will I fill the plain with their slaughter.
+
+CRE. I would it were so: but this I see is a work of much labor.
+
+ETEO. Know that I will not restrain my forces within the walls.
+
+CRE. And yet the whole of victory is prudence.
+
+ETEO. Dost thou wish then that I have recourse to other measures?
+
+CRE. To every measure indeed, rather than hazard all on one battle.
+
+ETEO. What if we were to attack them by night from ambush?
+
+CRE. If, having failed, at least you can have a safe retreat hither.
+
+ETEO. Night brings the same advantage to all, but more to the daring.
+
+CRE. Dreadful is it to fail in the darkness of night.
+
+ETEO. But shall I lead my force against them while at their meal?
+
+CRE. That would cause terror; but we must conquer.
+
+ETEO. The ford of Dirce is indeed deep to pass.
+
+CRE. Every thing is inferior to a good guard.
+
+ETEO. What then, shall I charge the Argive army with my cavalry?
+
+CRE. And there the army is fenced round with chariots.
+
+ETEO. What then shall I do? give up the city to the enemy?
+
+CRE. By no means; but deliberate if thou art wise.
+
+ETEO. What more prudent forethought is there?
+
+CRE. They say that they have seven men, as I have heard.
+
+ETEO. What have they been commanded to do? for their strength is small.
+
+CRE. To head their bands, to besiege the seven gates.
+
+ETEO. What then shall we do? I will not wait this indecision.
+
+CRE. Do thou thyself also choose seven men for the gates.
+
+ETEO. To head divisions, or for single combat?
+
+CRE. To head divisions, having selected the bravest.
+
+ETEO. I understand you; to guard the approach to the walls.
+
+CRE. And with them other generals; one man sees not every thing?
+
+ETEO. Having chosen them for boldness, or prudence in judgment?
+
+CRE. For both; for one without the other availeth nothing.
+
+ETEO. It shall be so: and having gone to the city of the seven towers, I
+will appoint chiefs at the gates, as you advise, having opposed equal
+champions against equal foes. But to mention the name of each would be a
+great delay, the enemy encamped under our very walls. But I will go, that I
+may not be idle with my hand. And may it befall me to find my brother
+opposed to me, and being joined with me in battle, to take him with my
+spear, [and to slay him, who came to desolate my country.] But it is thy
+duty to attend to the marriage of my sister Antigone and thy son Hæmon, if
+I fail aught of success; but the firm vow made before I now confirm at my
+going out. Thou art my mother's brother, why need I use more words? Treat
+her worthily, both for thine own and my sake. But my father incurs the
+punishment of the rashness he brought upon himself, having quenched his
+sight; I praise him not; even us will he put to death with his execrations,
+should he gain his point. But one thing is left undone by us, if the
+soothsayer Tiresias have any oracle to deliver, to enquire this of him; but
+I will send thy son, Creon, Menœceus, of the same name with thy father, to
+bring Tiresias hither. With pleasure will he enter into conversation with
+you; but I lately reviled him with his divining art, so that he is offended
+with me. But this charge I give the city with thee, Creon; if my arms
+should conquer, that the body of Polynices be never buried in this Theban
+land; but that the man who buries him shall die, although he be a friend.
+This I have told you: but my attendants I tell, bring out my arms, and my
+panoply which covers me, that we may go this appointed contest of the spear
+with victorious justice. But to Caution, the most valued of the Goddesses,
+will we address our prayers to preserve this city.
+
+CHORUS.
+
+O Mars, cause of infinite woe, why, I pray, art thou so possessed with
+blood and death, so discordant with the revels of Bacchus? Thou dost not in
+the circle of beautiful dancers in the bloom of youth, having let flow thy
+hair,[29] on the breath of the flute modulate strains, in which there is a
+lovely power to renew the dance. But with thy armed men, having excited the
+army of Argives against Thebes with blood, thou dancest before the city in
+a most inharmonious revel, thou movest not thy foot maddened by the thyrsus
+clad in fawn-skins, but thy solid-hoofed steed with thy chariot and horses'
+bits; and bounding at the streams of Ismenus, thou art borne rapidly in the
+chariot-course, having excited against the race of those sown [by Cadmus,]
+a raging host that grasp the shield, well armed, adverse to us at the walls
+of stone: surely Discord is some dreadful Goddess, who devised all these
+calamities against the princes of this land, the Labdacidæ involved in woe.
+O thou forest of heavenly foliage, most productive of beasts, thou snowy
+eye of Diana, Cithæron, never oughtest thou to have nourished him doomed to
+death, the son of Jocasta, Œdipus, the babe who was cast out from his home,
+marked by the golden clasps. Neither ought that winged virgin the Sphinx,
+thou mountain monster, that grief to this land, to have come, with her most
+inharmonious lays; who formerly approaching our walls, bore in her four
+talons the descendants of Cadmus to the inaccessible light of heaven, whom
+the infernal Pluto sends against the Thebans; but other ill-fated discord
+among the children of Œdipus springs up in the palace and in the city. For
+that which is not honorable, never can be honorable, as neither can
+children the unhallowed offspring of the mother, the pollution of the
+father. But she came to a kindred bed. Thou didst produce, O [Theban] land!
+thou didst produce formerly (as I heard the foreign report,[30] I heard it
+formerly at home), the race sprung from teeth from the fiery-crested dragon
+fed on beasts, the proudest honor of Thebes. But to the nuptials of
+Harmonia the Gods came of old, and by the harp and by the lyre of Amphion
+uprose the walls of Thebes the tower of the double streams,[31] at the
+midst of the pass of Dirce, which waters the verdant plain before Ismenus.
+And Io, our ancient mother, doomed to bear horns, brought forth a line of
+Theban kings. But this city receiving ten thousand goods one in change for
+another, hath stood in the highest chaplets of war.
+
+TIRESIAS (_led by his daughter_), MENŒCEUS, CREON, CHORUS.
+
+TIR. Lead onward, my daughter, since thou art an eye to my blind steps, as
+the star to the mariners. Placing my steps hither on this level plain,
+proceed lest we stumble; thy father is feeble; and preserve carefully in
+thy virgin hand my calculations which I took, having learned the auguries
+of the birds, sitting in the sacred seats where I fortell the future. My
+child, Menœceus, son of Creon, tell me, how far is the remainder of the
+journey through the city to thy father? Since my knees are weary, and with
+difficulty I accomplish such a long journey.
+
+CRE. Be of good cheer; for thou hast steered thy foot, Tiresias, near to
+thy friends; but take hold of him, my son. Since every chariot,[32] and the
+foot of the aged man is used to expect the assistance of another's hand.
+
+TIR. Well: I am present; but why didst thou call me with such haste, Creon?
+
+CRE. We have not as yet forgotten: but recover thy strength, and collect
+thy breath, having thrown aside the fatigue occasioned by the journey.
+
+TIR. I am relaxed indeed[32a] with toil, brought hither from the Athenians
+the day before this. For there also was a contest of the spear with
+Eumolpus, where I made the descendants of Cecrops splendid conquerors. And
+I wear this golden chaplet, as thou seest, having received the first-fruits
+of the spoil of the enemy.
+
+CRE. Thy victorious garlands I make a happy omen. For we, as thou well
+knowest, are tossing in a storm of war with the Greeks, and great is the
+hazard of Thebes. The king Eteocles has therefore gone forth adorned with
+his armor already to battle with the Argives. But to me has he sent that I
+might learn from you, by doing what we should be most likely to preserve
+the city.
+
+TRE. For Eteocles' sake indeed I would have stopped my mouth, and repressed
+the oracles, but to thee, since thou desirest to know them, will I declare
+them: for this land labors under the malady of old, O Creon, from the time
+when Laïus became the father of children in spite of the Gods, and begat
+the wretched Œdipus, a husband for his mother. But the cruel lacerations of
+his eyes were in the wisdom of the Gods, and a warning to Greece. Which
+things the sons of Œdipus seeking to conceal among themselves by the lapse
+of time, as about forsooth to escape from the Gods, erred through their
+ignorance, for they neither giving the honor due to their father, nor
+allowing him a free liberty, infuriated the unfortunate man: and he
+breathed out against them dreadful threats, being both in affliction, and
+moreover dishonored. And I, what things omitting to do, and what words
+omitting to speak on the subject, have nevertheless fallen into the hatred
+of the sons of Œdipus? But death from their mutual hands is near them, O
+Creon. And many corses fallen around corses, having mingled the weapons of
+Argos and Thebes, shall cause bitter lamentations to the Theban land. And
+thou, O wretched city, art sapped from thy foundations, unless men will
+obey my words. For this were the first thing, that not any of the family of
+Œdipus should be citizens, nor king of the territory, inasmuch as they are
+possessed by demons, and are they that will overthrow the city. And since
+the evil triumphs over the good, there is one other thing requisite to
+insure preservation. But, as this is neither safe for me to say, and
+distressing to those on whom the lot has fallen, to give to the city the
+balm of preservation, I will depart: farewell; for being an individual with
+many shall I suffer what is about to happen if it must be so; for what can
+I do![33]
+
+CRE. Stay here, old man.
+
+TIR. Lay not hold upon me.
+
+CRE. Remain; why dost thou fly me?
+
+TIR. Thy fortune flies thee, but not I.
+
+CRE. Tell me the means of preserving the citizens and their city.
+
+TRE. Thou wishest now indeed, and soon thou wilt not wish.
+
+CRE. And how am I not willing to preserve my country?
+
+TIR. Art thou willing then to hear, and art thou eager?
+
+CRE. For toward what ought I to have a greater eagerness?
+
+TIR. Hear now then my prophecies.--But this first I wish to ascertain
+clearly, where is Menœceus who brought me hither.
+
+CRE. He is not far off, but close to thee.
+
+TIR. Let him depart then afar from my oracles.
+
+CRE. He that is my son will keep secret what ought to be kept secret.
+
+TIR. Art thou willing then that I speak in his presence?
+
+CRE. _Yes_: for he would be delighted to hear of the means of preservation.
+
+TIR. Hear now then the tenor of my oracles; what things doing ye may
+preserve the city of the Cadmeans. It is necessary for thee to sacrifice
+this thy son Menœceus for the country, since thou thyself callest for this
+fortune.
+
+CRE. What sayest thou, what word is this thou hast spoken, old man?
+
+TIR. As circumstances are, thus also oughtest thou to act.
+
+CRE. O thou, that hast said many evils in a short time!
+
+TIR. To thee at least; but to thy country great and salutary.
+
+CRE. I heard not, I attended not; let the city go where it will.
+
+TIR. This is no longer the same man; he retracts again what he said.
+
+CRE. Farewell! depart; for I have no need of thy prophecies.
+
+TIR. Has truth perished, because thou art unfortunate?
+
+CRE. By thy knees I implore thee, and by thy reverend locks.
+
+TIR. Why kneel to me? the evils thou askest are hard to be controlled.
+(Note [E].)
+
+CRE. Keep it secret; and speak not these words to the city.
+
+TIR. Dost thou command me to be unjust? I can not be silent.
+
+CRE. What then wilt thou do to me? Wilt thou slay my son?
+
+TIR. These things will be a care to others; but by me will it be spoken.
+
+CRE. But from whence has this evil come to me, and to my child?
+
+TIR. Well dost thou ask me, and comest to the drift of my discourse. It is
+necessary that he, stabbed in that cave where the earth-born dragon lay,
+the guardian of Dirce's fountain, give his gory blood a libation to the
+earth on account of the ancient wrath of Mars against Cadmus, who avenges
+the slaughter of the earth-born dragon; and these things done, ye shall
+obtain Mars as your ally. But if the earth receive fruit in return for
+fruit, and mortal blood in return for blood, ye shall have that land
+propitious, which formerly sent forth a crop of men from seed armed with
+golden helmets; but there must of this race die one, who is the son of the
+dragon's jaw. But thou art left among us of the race of those sown men,
+pure in thy descent, both by thy mother's side and in the male line; and
+thy children too: Hæmon's marriage however precludes his being slain, for
+he is not a youth, [for, although he has not approached her bed, he has yet
+contracted the marriage.] But this youth, devoted to this city, by dying
+may preserve his native country. And he will cause a bitter return to
+Adrastus and the Argives, casting back death over their eyes, and Thebes
+will he make illustrious: of these two fates choose the one; either
+preserve thy child or the state. Every information from me thou hast:--lead
+me, my child, toward home;--but whoever exercises the art of divination, is
+a fool; if indeed he chance to show disagreeable things, he is rendered
+hateful to those to whom he may prophesy; but speaking falsely to his
+employers from motives of pity, he is unjust as touching the Gods.--Phœbus
+alone should speak in oracles to men, who fears nobody.
+
+CREON, MENŒCEUS, CHORUS.
+
+CHOR. Creon, why art thou mute compressing thy voice in silence, for to me
+also there is no less consternation.
+
+CRE. But what can one say?--It is clear however what my answer will be. For
+never will I go to this degree of calamity, to expose my son a victim for
+the state. For all men live with an affection toward their children, nor
+would any give up his own child to die. Let no one praise me for the deed,
+and slay my children. But I myself, for I am arrived at a mature period of
+life, am ready to die to liberate my country. But haste, my son, before the
+whole city hears it, disregarding the intemperate oracles of prophets, fly
+as quickly as possible, having quitted this land. For he will tell these
+things to the authorities and chiefs, going to the seven gates, and to the
+officers: and if indeed we get before him, there is safety for thee, but if
+thou art too late, we are undone, thou diest.
+
+MEN. Whither then fly? To what city? what friends?
+
+CRE. Wheresoever thou wilt be farthest removed from this country.
+
+MEN. Therefore it is fitting for thee to speak, and for me to do.
+
+CRE. Having passed through Delphi--
+
+MEN. Whither is it right for me to go, my father?
+
+CRE. To the land of Ætolia.
+
+MEN. And from this whither shall I proceed?
+
+CRE. To Thesprotia's soil.
+
+MEN. To the sacred seat of Dodona?
+
+CRE. Thou understandest.
+
+MEN. What then will there be to protect me?
+
+CRE. The conducting deity.
+
+MEN. But what means of procuring money?
+
+CRE. I will supply gold.
+
+MEN. Thou sayest well, my father. Go then, for having proceeded to
+salute[34] thy sister, whose breast I first sucked, Jocasta I mean,
+deprived of my mother, and reft from her, an orphan, I will depart and save
+my life. But haste, go, let not thy purpose be hindered.
+
+MENŒCEUS, CHORUS.
+
+MEN. Ye females, how well removed I my father's fears, having deceived him
+with words, in order to gain my wishes; who sends me out of the way,
+depriving the city of its good fortune, and gives me up to cowardice. And
+these things are pardonable indeed in an old man, but in my case it
+deserves no pardon to become the deserter of that country which gave me
+birth. That ye may know then, I will go, and preserve the city, and will
+give up my life for this land. For it is a disgraceful thing, that those
+indeed who are free from the oracle, and are not concerned with any
+compulsion of the Gods, standing at their shields in battle, shall not be
+slow to die fighting before the towers for their country; and I, having
+betrayed my father, and my brother, and my own city, shall depart
+coward-like from out of the land; but wherever I live, I shall appear vile.
+No: by that Jove that dwelleth amidst the constellations, and sanguinary
+Mars, who set up those sown men, who erst sprung from the earth, to be
+kings of this country. But I will depart, and standing on the summit of the
+battlements, stabbing myself over the dark deep lair of the dragon, where
+the prophet appointed, will give liberty to the country--the word has been
+spoken. But I go, by my death about to give no mean gift to the state, and
+will rid this land of its affliction. For if every one, seizing what
+opportunity he had in his power of doing good, would persist in it, and
+bring it forward for his country's weal, states, experiencing fewer
+calamities, henceforward might be prosperous.
+
+CHOR. Thou camest forth, thou camest forth, O winged monster, production of
+the earth, and the viper of hell, the ravager of the Cadmeans, big with
+destruction, big with woes, in form half-virgin, a hostile prodigy, with
+thy ravening wings, and thy talons that preyed on raw flesh, who erst from
+Dirce's spot bearing aloft the youths, accompanied by an inharmonious lay,
+thou broughtest, thou broughtest cruel woes to our country; cruel was he of
+the Gods, whoever was the author of these things. And the moans of the
+matrons, and the moans of the virgins, resounded in the house, in a voice,
+in a strain of misery, they lamented some one thing, some another, in
+succession through the city. And the groaning and the noise was like to
+thunder, when the winged virgin bore out of sight any man from the city.
+But at length came by the mission of the Pythian oracle Œdipus the unhappy
+to this land of Thebes, to us then indeed delighted, but again came woes.
+For he, wretched man, having gained the glorious victory over the enigmas,
+contracts a marriage, an unfortunate marriage with his mother, and pollutes
+the city. And fresh woes does the unfortunate man cause to succeed with
+slaughter, devoting by curses his sons to the unhallowed contest.--With
+admiration, with admiration we look on him, who is gone to kill himself for
+the sake of his country's land; to Creon indeed having left lamentations,
+but about to make the seven-towered gates of the land greatly victorious.
+Thus may we be mothers, thus may we be blest in our children, O dear
+Pallas, who destroyedst the blood of the dragon by the hurled stone,
+driving the attention of Cadmus to the action, whence with rapine some
+fiend of the Gods rushed on this land.
+
+MESSENGER, JOCASTA, CHORUS.
+
+MESS. Ho there! who is at the gate of the palace? Open, conduct Jocasta
+from out of the house.--What ho! again--after a long time indeed, but yet
+come forth, hear, O renowned wife of Œdipus, ceasing from thy lamentations,
+and thy tears of grief.
+
+JOC. O most dear man, surely thou comest bearing the news of some calamity,
+of the death of Eteocles, by whose shield thou always didst go, warding off
+the weapons of the enemy. What new message, I pray, dost thou come to
+deliver? Is my son dead or alive? Tell me.
+
+MESS. He lives, be not alarmed for this, for I will rid thee of this fear.
+
+JOC. But what? In what state are our seven-towered ramparts?
+
+MESS. They stand unshaken, nor is the city destroyed.
+
+JOC. Come they in danger from the spear of Argos?
+
+MESS. To the very extreme of danger; but the arms of Thebes came off
+superior to the Mycenæan spear.
+
+JOC. Tell me one thing, by the Gods, whether thou knowest any thing of
+Polynices (since this is a concern to me also) whether he sees the light.
+
+MESS. Thus far in the day thy pair of children lives.
+
+JOC. Be thou blest. But how did ye stationed on the towers drive off the
+spear of Argos from the gates? Tell me, that I may go and delight the old
+blind man in the house with the news of his country's being preserved.
+
+MESS. After that the son of Creon, he that died for the land, standing on
+the summit of the towers, plunged the black-handled sword into his throat,
+the salvation of this land, thy son placed seven cohorts, and their leaders
+with them, at the seven gates, guards against the Argive spear; and he drew
+up the horse ready to support the horse, and the heavy-armed men to
+reinforce the shield-bearers, so that to the part of the wall which was in
+danger there might be succor at hand. But from the lofty citadel we view
+the army of the Argives with their white shields, having quitted Tumessus
+and now come near the trench, at full speed they reached the city of the
+land of Cadmus. And the pæan and the trumpets at the same time from them
+resounded, and off the walls from us. And first indeed Parthenopæus the son
+of the huntress (_Atalanta_) led his division horrent with their thick
+shields against the Neïtan[35] gate, having a family device in the middle
+of his shield, Atalanta destroying the Ætolian boar with her
+distant-wounding bow. And against the Prætan gate marched the prophet
+Amphiaraüs, having victims in his car, not bearing an insolent emblem, but
+modestly having his arms without a device. But against the Ogygian gate
+stood Prince Hippomedon, bearing an emblem in the middle of his shield, the
+Argus gazing with his spangled[36] eyes, [some eyes indeed with the rising
+of the stars awake,[37] and some with the setting closed, as we had the
+opportunity of seeing afterward when he was dead.] But Tydeus was drawn up
+at the Homoloïan gate, having on his shield a lion's skin rough with his
+mane, but in his right hand he bore a torch, as the Titan Prometheus,[38]
+intent on firing the city. But thy son Polynices drew up his array at the
+Crenean gate; but the swift Potnian mares, the emblem on his shield, were
+starting through fright, well circularly[39] grouped within _the orb_ at
+the handle of the shield, so that they seemed infuriated. But Capaneus, not
+holding less notions than Mars on the approaching battle, drew up his
+division against the Electran gate. Upon the iron embossments of his shield
+was an earth-born giant bearing upon his shoulders a whole city, which he
+had torn up from the foundations with bars, an intimation to us what our
+city should suffer. But at the seventh gate was Adrastus, having his shield
+filled with a hundred vipers, bearing on his left arm a representation of
+the hydra, the boast of Argos, and from the midst of the walls the dragons
+were bearing the children of the Thebans in their jaws. But I had the
+opportunity of seeing each of these, as I took the word of battle to the
+leaders of the divisions. And first indeed we fought with bows, and
+javelins, and distant-wounding slings, and fragments of rocks; but when we
+were conquering in the fight, Tydeus shouted out, and thy son on a sudden,
+"O sons of the Danaï, why delay we, ere we are galled with their missile
+weapons, to make a rush at the gates all in a body, light-armed men,
+horsemen, and those who drive the chariots?" And when they heard the cry,
+no one was backward; but many fell, their heads besmeared with blood; of us
+also you might have seen before the walls frequent divers toppling to the
+ground; and they moistened the parched earth with streams of blood. But the
+Arcadian, no Argive, the son of Atalanta, as some whirlwind falling on the
+gates, calls out for fire and a spade, as though he would dig up the city.
+But Periclymenus the son of the God of the Ocean stopped him in his raging,
+hurling at his head a stone, a wagon-load, a pinnacle[40] _rent_ from the
+battlement; and dashed in pieces his head with its auburn hair, and crushed
+the suture of the bones, and besmeared with blood his lately blooming
+cheeks; nor shall he carry back his living form to his mother, glorious in
+her bow, the daughter of Mænalus. But when thy son saw this gate was in a
+state of safety, he went to another, and I followed. But I see Tydeus, and
+many armed with shields around him, darting with their Ætolian lances at
+the highest battlements of the towers, so that our men put to flight
+quitted the heights of the ramparts; but thy son, as a hunter, collects
+them together again; and posted them a second time on the towers; and we
+hasten on to another gate, having relieved the distress in this quarter.
+But Capaneus, how can I express the measure of his rage! For he came
+bearing the ranges of a long-reaching ladder, and made this high boast,
+"That not even the hallowed fire of Jove should hinder him from taking the
+city from its highest turrets." And these things soon as he had proclaimed,
+though assailed with stones, he clambered up, having contracted his body
+under his shield, climbing the slippery footing of the bars[41] of the
+ladder: but when he was now mounting the battlements of the walls Jupiter
+strikes him with his thunder; and the earth resounded, insomuch that all
+trembled; and his limbs were hurled, as it were by a sling, from the ladder
+separately from one another, his hair to heaven, and his blood to the
+ground, and his limbs, like the whirling of Ixion on his wheel, were
+carried round; and his scorched body falls to the earth. But when Adrastus
+saw that Jove was hostile to his army, he stationed the host of the Argives
+without the trench. But ours on the contrary, when they saw the auspicious
+sign from Jove, drove out their chariots, horsemen and heavy-armed, and
+rushing into the midst of the Argive arms engaged in fight: and there were
+all the sorts of misery together: they died, they fell from their chariots,
+and the wheels leaped up and axles upon axles: and corses were heaped
+together with corses.--We have preserved then our towers from being
+overthrown to this present day; but whether for the future this land will
+be prosperous, rests with the Gods.
+
+CHOR. To conquer is glorious; but if the Gods have the better intent, may I
+be fortunate!
+
+JOC. Well are the ways of the Gods, and of fortune; for my children live,
+and my country has escaped; but the unhappy Creon seems to feel the effects
+of my marriage, and of Œdipus's misfortunes, being deprived of his child;
+for the state indeed, happily, but individually, to his misery: but recount
+to me again, what after this did my two sons purpose to do?
+
+MESS. Forbear the rest; for in every circumstance hitherto thou art
+fortunate.
+
+JOC. This hast thou said so as to raise suspicion; I must not forbear.
+
+MESS. Dost thou want any thing more than that thy sons are safe?
+
+JOC. In what follows also I would hear if I am fortunate.
+
+MESS. Let me go: thy son is deprived of his armor-bearer.
+
+JOC. Thou concealest some ill and coverest it in obscurity.
+
+MESS. I can not speak thy ills after thy happiness.
+
+JOC. _But thou shalt_, unless fleeing from me thou fleest through the air.
+
+MESS. Alas! alas! Why dost thou not suffer me to depart after a message of
+glad tidings, but forcest me to tell calamities?--Thy sons are intent on
+most shameful deeds of boldness--to engage in single combat apart from the
+whole army, having addressed to the Argives and Thebans in common a speech,
+such as they never ought to have spoken. But Eteocles began, standing on
+the lofty turret, having commanded to proclaim silence to the army. And he
+said, "O generals of the Grecian land, and chieftains of the Danaï, who
+have come hither, and O people of Cadmus, neither for the sake of Polynices
+barter your lives, nor for my cause. For I myself, taking this danger on
+myself, alone will enter the lists with my brother; and if indeed I slay
+him, I will dwell in the palace alone; but should I be subdued, I will give
+it up to him alone. But you, ceasing from the combat, O Argives, shall
+return to your land, not leaving your lives here; [of the Theban people
+also there is enough that lieth dead,"] Thus much he spake; but thy son
+Polynices rushed from the ranks, and approved his words. But all the
+Argives murmured their applause, and the people of Cadmus, as thinking this
+plan just. And after this the generals made a truce, and in the space
+between the two armies pledged an oath to abide by it. And now the two sons
+of the aged Œdipus clad their bodies in an entire suit of brazen armor. And
+their friends adorned them, the champion of this land indeed the chieftains
+of the Thebans; and him the principal men of the Danaï. And they stood
+resplendent, and they changed not their color, raging to let forth their
+spears at each other. But their friends on either side as they passed by
+encouraging them with words, thus spoke. "Polynices, it rests with thee to
+erect the statue of Jove, emblem of victory, and to confer a glorious fame
+on Argos." But to Eteocles on the other hand; "Now thou fightest for the
+state, now if thou come off victorious, thou art in possession of the
+sceptre." These things they said exhorting them to the combat. But the
+seers sacrificed the sheep, and scrutinized the shooting of the flames, and
+the bursting _of the gall_, the moisture adverse[42] _to the fire_, and the
+extremity of the flame, which bears a two-fold import, both the sign of
+victory,[43] and the sign of being defeated.[44] But if thou hast any
+power, or words of wisdom, or the soothing charms of incantation, go, stay
+thy children from the fearful combat, since great the danger, [and dreadful
+will be the sequel of the contest, _namely_, tears for thee, deprived this
+day of thy two children.]
+
+JOC. O my child, Antigone, come forth from before the palace; the state of
+thy fortune suits not now the dance, nor the virgin's chamber, but it is
+thy duty, in conjunction with thy mother, to hinder two excellent men, and
+thy brothers verging toward death from falling by each other's hands.
+
+ANTIGONE, JOCASTA, CHORUS.
+
+ANT. With what new horrors, O mother of my being, dost thou call out to thy
+friends before the house?
+
+JOC. O my daughter, the life of thy brothers is gone from them.
+
+ANT. How sayest thou?
+
+JOC. They are drawn out in single combat.
+
+ANT. Alas me! what wilt thou say, my mother?
+
+JOC. Nothing of pleasant import; but follow.
+
+ANT. Whither? leaving my virgin chamber.
+
+JOC. To the army.
+
+ANT. I am ashamed to go among the crowd.
+
+JOC. Thy present state admits not bashfulness.
+
+ANT. But what shall I do then?
+
+JOC. Thou shalt quell the strife of the brothers.
+
+ANT. Doing what, my mother.
+
+JOC. Falling before them with me.
+
+ANT. Lead to the space between the armies; we must not delay.
+
+JOC. Haste, daughter, haste, since, if indeed I reach my sons before they
+engage, I still exist in heaven's fair light, but if they die, I shall lie
+dead with them.
+
+CHORUS.
+
+Alas! alas! shuddering with horror, shuddering is my breast; and through my
+flesh came pity, pity for the unhappy mother, on account of her two
+children, whether of them then will distain with blood the other (alas me
+for my sufferings, O Jove, O earth), the own brother's neck, the own
+brother's life, in arms, in slaughter? Wretched, wretched I, over which
+corse then shall I raise the lamentation for the dead? O earth, earth, the
+two beasts of prey, blood-thirsty souls, brandishing the spear, will
+quickly distain with blood the fallen, fallen enemy. Wretches, that they
+ever came to the thought of a single combat! In a foreign strain will I
+mourn with tears my elegy of groans due to the dead. Destiny is at
+hand--death is near; this day will decide the event. Ill-fated, ill-fated
+murder because of the Furies! But I see Creon here with clouded brow
+advancing toward the house, I will cease therefore from the groans I am
+uttering.
+
+CREON, CHORUS.
+
+CRE. Ah me! what shall I do? whether am I to groan in weeping myself, or
+the city, which a cloud of such magnitude encircles as to cast us amidst
+the gloom of Acheron? For my son has perished having died for the city,
+having achieved a glorious name, but to me a name of sorrow. Him having
+taken just now from the dragon's den, stabbed by his own hand, I wretched
+bore in my arms; and the whole house resounds with shrieks; but I, myself
+aged, am come after my aged sister Jocasta, that she may wash and lay out
+my son now no more. For it behooves the living well to revere the God below
+by paying honors to the dead.
+
+CHOR. Thy sister is gone out of the house, O Creon, and the girl Antigone
+attending the steps of her mother.
+
+CRE. Whither? and for what hap? tell me.
+
+CHOR. She heard that her sons were about to come to a contest in single
+battle for the royal palace.
+
+CRE. How sayest thou? whilst I was fondly attending to my son's corse, I
+arrived not so far _in knowledge_, as to be acquainted with this also.
+
+CHOR. But thy sister has indeed been gone some time; but I think, O Creon,
+that the contest, in which their lives are at stake, has already been
+concluded by the sons of Œdipus.
+
+CRE. Ah me! I see indeed this signal, the downcast eye and countenance of
+the approaching messenger, who will relate every thing that has taken
+place.
+
+MESSENGER, CREON, CHORUS.
+
+MESS. O wretched me! what language or what words can I utter? we are
+undone--
+
+CRE. Thou beginnest thy speech with no promising prelude.
+
+MESS. Oh wretched me! doubly do I lament, for I hear great calamities.
+
+CRE. In addition to the calamities that have happened dost thou still speak
+of others?
+
+MESS. Thy sister's sons, O Creon, no longer behold the light.
+
+CRE. Ah! alas! thou utterest great ills to me and to the state.
+
+MESS. O mansions of Œdipus, do ye hear these things of thy children who
+have perished by similar fates?
+
+CHOR. Ay, so that, had they but sense, they would weep.
+
+CRE. O most heavy misery! Oh me wretched with woes! alas! unhappy me!
+
+MESS. If that thou knewest the evils yet in addition to these.
+
+CRE. And how can there be more fatal ills than these?
+
+MESS. Thy sister is dead with her two children.
+
+CHOR. Raise, raise the cry of woe, and smite your heads with the blows of
+your white hands.
+
+CRE. Oh unhappy Jocasta, what an end of thy life and of thy marriage hast
+thou endured in the riddles of the Sphinx![45] But how took place the
+slaughter of her two sons, and the combat arising from the curse of Œdipus?
+tell me.
+
+MESS. The success of the country before the towers indeed thou knowest; for
+the circuit of the wall is not of such vast extent, but that thou must know
+all that has taken place. But after that the sons of the aged Œdipus had
+clad their limbs in brazen armor, they came and stood in the midst of the
+plain between the two armies, ready for the contest, and the fierceness of
+the single battle. And having cast a look toward Argos, Polynices uttered
+his prayer; "O venerable Juno (for I am thine, since in marriage I joined
+myself with the daughter of Adrastus, and dwell in that land), grant me to
+slay my brother, and to cover with blood my hostile hand bearing the
+victory." And Eteocles looking at the temple of Pallas, glorious in her
+golden shield, prayed; "O Daughter of Jove, grant me with my hand to hurl
+my victorious spear from this arm home to the breast of my brother, [and
+slay him who came to lay waste my country."] And when the sound of the
+Tuscan trumpet was raised, as the torch, the signal for the fierce battle,
+they sped with dreadful rush toward each other; and like wild boars
+whetting their savage tusks, they met, their cheeks all moist with foam;
+and they rushed forward with their lances; but they couched beneath the
+orbs of their shields, in order that the steel might fall harmless. But if
+either perceived the other's eye raised above the verge, he drove the lance
+at his face, intent to be beforehand with him: but dexterously they shifted
+their eyes to the open ornaments of their shields, so that the spear was
+made of none effect. And more sweat trickled down the spectators than the
+combatants, through the fear of their friends. But Eteocles, stumbling with
+his foot against a stone, which rolled under his tread,[46] places his limb
+without the shield. But Polynices ran up with his spear, when he saw a
+stroke open to his steel, and the Argive spear passed through the shank.
+And all the host of the Danaï shouted for joy. And the hero who first was
+wounded, when he perceived his shoulder exposed in this effort, pierced the
+breast of Polynices with his lance, and gave joy to the citizens of Cadmus,
+but he broke the point of his spear. But being come to a strait for a
+spear, he retreated backward on his leg, and taking a stone of marble, he
+hurled it and crashed _his antagonist's_ spear in the middle: and the
+battle was on equal terms, both being deprived of the spear in their hands.
+Then seizing the handles of their swords they met at close quarters, and,
+as they clashed their shields together, raised a great tumult of battle
+around them. And Eteocles having a sort of idea of its success, made use of
+a Thessalian stratagem, _which he had learned_ from his connection with
+that country. For giving up his present mode of attack, he brings his left
+foot behind, protecting well the pit of his own stomach; and stepping
+forward his right leg, he plunged the sword through the navel, and drove it
+to the vertebræ. But the unhappy Polynices bending together his side and
+his bowels falls weltering in blood. But the other, as he were now the
+victor, and had subdued him in the fight, casting his sword on the ground,
+went to spoil him, not fixing his attention on himself, but on that his
+purpose. Which thing also deceived him; for Polynices, he that fell first,
+still breathing a little, preserving his sword e'en in his deathly fall,
+with difficulty indeed, but he did stretch his sword to the heart of
+Eteocles. And holding the dust in their gripe they both fall near one
+another, and determined not the victory.
+
+CHOR. Alas! alas! to what degree, O Œdipus, do I groan for thy misfortunes!
+but the God seems to have fulfilled thy imprecations.
+
+MESS. Hear now then woes even in addition to these--For when her sons
+having fallen were breathing their last, at this moment the wretched mother
+rushes before them, and when she perceived them stricken with mortal wounds
+she shrieked out, "Oh my sons, I am come too late a succor:" and throwing
+herself by the side of her children in turn, she wept, she lamented with
+moans her long anxiety in suckling them _now lost_: and their sister, who
+accompanied to stand by her in her misery, at the same time _broke forth_;
+"O supporters of my mother's age! Oh ye that have betrayed my hopes of
+marriage, my dearest brothers!"--But king Eteocles heaving from his breast
+his gasping breath, heard his mother, and putting out his cold clammy hand,
+sent not forth indeed a voice; but from his eyes spoke her in tears to
+signify affection. But Polynices, who yet breathed, looking at his sister
+and his aged mother, thus spoke: "We perish, O my mother; but I grieve for
+thee, and for this my sister, and my brother who lies dead, for being my
+friend, he became my enemy, but still my friend.--But bury me, O mother of
+my being, and thou my sister, in my native land, and pacify the exasperated
+city, that I may obtain thus much at least of my country's land, although I
+have lost the palace. And close my eyelids with thy hand, my mother" (and
+he places it himself upon his eyes), "and fare ye well! for now darkness
+surroundeth me." And both breathed out their lives together. And the
+mother, when she saw what had taken place, beyond endurance grieving,
+snatched the sword from the dead body, and perpetrated a deed of horror;
+for she drove the steel through the middle of her throat, and lies dead on
+those most dear to her, having each in her arms embraced. But the people
+rose up hastily to a strife of opinions; we indeed, as holding, that my
+master was victorious; but they, that the other was; and there was also a
+contention between the generals, those on the other side _contended_, that
+Polynices first struck with the spear, but those on ours that there was no
+victory where the combatants died. [And in the mean time Antigone withdrew
+from the army;] but they rushed to arms; but fortunately by a sort of
+foresight the people of Cadmus had sat upon their shields: and we gained
+the advantage of falling on the Argives not yet accoutred in their arms.
+And no one made a stand, but flying they covered the plain; and immense
+quantities of blood were spilt of the corses that fell, but when we were
+victorious in the fight, some indeed raised the image of Jove emblem of
+victory, but some of us stripping the shields from the Argive corses sent
+the spoils within the city. But others with Antigone are bearing hither the
+dead for their friends to lament over. But these contests have in some
+respect turned out most happy for this state, but in other respect most
+unhappy.
+
+CHOR. No longer the misfortunes of the house come to our ears, we may also
+see before the palace these three fallen corses, who have shared the dark
+realms by a united death.
+
+[_The dead bodies borne_.]
+
+ANTIGONE, CREON, CHORUS.
+
+ANT. Not veiling the softness of my cheek on which my ringlets fall, nor
+caring for the purple glow of virginity under my lids, the blush of my
+countenance, I am borne along the bacchanal of the dead, rending the fillet
+from my hair, rejecting the saffron robe of delicateness, having the
+mournful office of conducting the dead. Alas! alas! woe is me! Oh
+Polynices, thou well answeredst to thy name! Alas me! Oh Thebes! but thy
+strife, no strife, but murder consummated with murder,[47] hath destroyed
+the house of Œdipus with dreadful, with mournful blood. But what groan
+responsive to my sufferings, or what lament of music shall I invoke to my
+tears, to my tears, O house, O house, bearing these three kindred bodies,
+my mother, and her children, the joy of the fury? who destroyed the entire
+house of Œdipus, what time intelligently[48] he unfolded the difficult song
+of the fierce monster, having thereby slain the body of the fierce musical
+Sphinx. Alas me! my father; what Grecian, or what Barbarian, or what other
+of the noble in birth, of mortal blood, in time of old ever bore such
+manifest sufferings of so many ills? Wretched I, how do I lament! What
+bird, sitting on the highest boughs of the oak or pine, will sing
+responsive to my lamentations, who have lost my mother? who weep the strain
+of grief in addition to these moans _for my brothers_, about to pass my
+long life in floods of tears.--Which shall I bewail? On which first shall I
+scatter the first offerings rent from my hair? On my mother's two breasts
+of milk, or upon the death-wounds of my two brothers? Alas! alas! Leave
+thine house, bringing thy sightless eye, O aged father, Œdipus, show thy
+wretched age, who within thy palace having poured the gloomy darkness over
+thine eyes, draggest on a long[49] life. Dost thou hear wandering in the
+hall,--resting thy aged foot upon the couch in a state of misery?
+
+ŒDIPUS, CREON, ANTIGONE, CHORUS.
+
+ŒD. Why, O virgin, hast thou with the most doleful tears called me forth
+leaning on the support of a blind foot[50] to the light, a bed-ridden man
+from his darksome chamber, gray-headed, an obscure phantom of air--a dead
+body beneath the earth--a flitting dream?
+
+ANT. O father, thou shalt receive words of unhappy tidings; no longer do
+thy children behold the light, nor thy wife, who ever was employed in
+attending as a staff on thy blind foot, my father: alas me!
+
+ŒD. Alas me, for my sufferings! for well may I groan and vociferate these
+things. The three souls, tell me, my child, by what fate, how quitted they
+this light?
+
+ANT. Not for the sake of reproaching thee, nor exulting over thee, but for
+grief I speak: thy evil genius, heavy with swords, and fire, and wretched
+combats, has rushed down upon thy children, O my father.
+
+ŒD. Alas me! ah! ah!
+
+ANT. Why dost thou thus groan?
+
+ŒD. Alas me! my children!
+
+ANT. Thou wouldest grieve indeed, if looking on the chariot of the sun
+drawn by its four steeds, thou couldest direct the sight of thine eyes to
+these bodies of the dead.
+
+ŒD. The evil of my sons indeed is manifest; but my wretched wife, by what
+fate, O my child, did she perish?
+
+ANT. Causing to all tears of grief they could not contain, to her children
+she bared her breast, a suppliant she bared it, holding it up in
+supplication. But the mother found her children at the Electran gate, in
+the mead where the lotus abounds, contending with their lances in the
+common war, as lions bred in the same cave, with the blood-wounds now a
+cold, a gory libation, which Plato received, and Mars gave. And having
+seized the brazen-wrought sword from the dead she plunged it into her
+flesh, but with grief for her children she fell amidst her children. But
+all these sufferings, O my father, has the God heaped this day upon our
+house, whoever he be, that adds this consummation.
+
+CHOR. This day hath been the beginning of many woes to the house of Œdipus;
+but may life be more fortunate!
+
+CRE. Now indeed cease from your grief, for it is time to think of the
+sepulture. But hear these words, O Œdipus; Eteocles, thy son, hath given to
+me the dominion of this land, giving them as a marriage portion to Hæmon,
+and _with them_ the bed of thy daughter Antigone. I therefore will not
+suffer thee any longer to dwell in this land. For clearly did Tiresias say,
+that never, whilst thou dost inhabit this land, will the state be
+prosperous. But depart; and this I say not from insolence, nor being thine
+enemy, but on account of thy evil genius, fearing lest the country suffer
+any harm.
+
+ŒD. O Fate, from the beginning how wretched [and unhappy] didst thou form
+me, [if ever other man was formed!] whom, even before I came into the light
+from my mother's womb, when yet unborn Apollo foretold that I should be the
+murderer of my father Laïus, alas! wretch that I am! And when I was born,
+again my father who gave me life, seeks to take my life, considering that I
+was born his enemy: for it was fated that he should die by my hands, and he
+sends me, poor wretch, as I craved the breast, a prey for the wild beasts:
+where I was preserved--for would that Cithæron, it ought, had sunk to the
+bottomless chasms of Tartarus, for that it did not destroy me; but the God
+fixed it my lot to serve under Polybus my master: but I unhappy man, having
+slain my own father, ascended the bed of my wretched mother, and begat
+children, my brothers, whom I destroyed, having received down the curse
+from Laïus, and given it to my sons. For I was not by nature so utterly
+devoid of understanding, as to have devised such things against my eyes,
+and against the life of my children, without the interference of some of
+the Gods. Well!--what then shall I ill-fated do? who will accompany me the
+guide of my dark steps? She that lies here dead! living, well know I, she
+would. But my noble pair of sons? I have no sons.--But still in my vigor
+can I myself procure my sustenance? Whence?--Why, O Creon, dost thou thus
+utterly kill me? for kill me thou wilt, if thou shalt cast me out of the
+land. Yet will I not appear base, stretching my hands around thy knees, for
+I can not belie my former nobleness, not even though my plight is
+miserable.
+
+CRE. Well has it been spoken by thee, that thou wilt not touch my knees,
+but I can not permit thee to dwell in the land. But of these corses, the
+one we must even now bear to the house; but the body of Polynices cast out
+unburied beyond the borders of this land. And these things shall be
+proclaimed to all the Thebans: "whoever shall be found either crowning the
+corse, or covering it with earth, shall receive death for his offense." But
+thou, ceasing from the groans for the three dead, retire, Antigone, within
+the house, and behave as beseems a virgin, expecting the approaching day in
+which the bed of Hæmon awaits thee.
+
+ANT. Oh father, in what a state of woes do we miserable beings lie! How do
+I lament for thee! more than for the dead! For it is not that one of thy
+ills is heavy, and the other not heavy, but thou art in all things unhappy,
+my father.--But thee I ask, our new lord, [wherefore dost thou insult my
+father here, banishing him from his country?] Why make thy laws against an
+unhappy corse?
+
+CRE. The determination of Eteocles this, not mine.
+
+ANT. It is absurd, and thou a fool to enforce it.
+
+CRE. How so? Is it not just to execute injunctions?
+
+ANT. No, if they are base, at least, and spoken with ill intent.
+
+CRE. What! will he not with justice be given to the dogs?
+
+ANT. _No_, for thus do ye not demand of him lawful justice.
+
+CRE. _We do_; since he was the enemy of the state, who least ought to be an
+enemy.
+
+ANT. Hath he not paid then his life to fortune?
+
+CRE. And in his burial too let him now satisfy vengeance.
+
+ANT. What outrage having committed, if he came after his share of the
+kingdom?
+
+CRE. This man, that you may know once for all, shall be unburied.
+
+ANT. I will bury him; even though the city forbid it.
+
+CRE. Thyself then wilt thou at the same time bury near the corse.
+
+ANT. But that is a glorious thing, for two friends to lie near.
+
+CRE. Lay hold of her, and bear her to the house.
+
+ANT. By no means--for I will not let go this body.
+
+CRE. The God has decreed it, O virgin, not as thou wilt.
+
+ANT. And this too is decreed--that the dead be not insulted.
+
+CRE. Around him none shall place the moist dust.
+
+ANT. Nay, by his mother here Jocasta, I entreat thee, Creon.
+
+CRE. Thou laborest in vain, for thou canst not obtain this.
+
+ANT. But suffer thou me at any rate to bathe the body.
+
+CRE. This would be one of the things forbidden by the state.
+
+ANT. But let me put bandages round his cruel wounds.
+
+CRE. In no way shalt thou show respect to this corse.
+
+ANT. Oh most dear, but I will at least kiss thy lips.
+
+CRE. Thou shalt not prepare calamity against thy wedding by thy
+lamentations.
+
+ANT. What! while I live shall I ever marry thy son?
+
+CRE. There is strong necessity for thee, for by what means wilt thou escape
+the marriage?
+
+ANT. That night then shall find me one of the Danaïdæ.
+
+CRE. Dost mark with what audacity she hath insulted us?
+
+ANT. The steel be witness, and the sword, by which I swear.
+
+CRE. But why art thou so eager to get rid of this marriage?
+
+ANT. I will take my flight with my most wretched father here.
+
+CRE. There is nobleness in thee; but there is some degree of folly.
+
+ANT. And I will die with him too, that thou mayest farther know.
+
+CRE. Go--thou shalt not slay my son--quit the land.
+
+ŒDIPUS, ANTIGONE, CHORUS.
+
+ŒD. O daughter, I praise thee indeed for thy zealous intentions.
+
+ANT. But if I were to marry, and thou suffer banishment alone, my father?
+
+ŒD. Stay and be happy; I will bear with content mine own ills.
+
+ANT. And who will minister to thee, blind as thou art, my father?
+
+ŒD. Falling wherever it shall be my fate, I will lie on the ground.
+
+ANT. But Œdipus, where is he? and the renowned Enigmas?
+
+ŒD. Perished! one day blest me, and one day destroyed.
+
+ANT. Ought not I then to have a share in thy woes?
+
+ŒD. To a daughter exile with a blind father is shameful.
+
+ANT. Not to a right-minded one however, but honorable, my father.
+
+ŒD. Lead me now onward, that I may touch thy mother.
+
+ANT. There: touch the aged woman with thy most dear hand.
+
+ŒD. O mother! Oh most hapless wife!
+
+ANT. She doth lie miserable, having all ills at once on her.
+
+ŒD. But where is the fallen body of Eteocles, and of Polynices?
+
+ANT. They lie extended before thee near one another.
+
+ŒD. Place my blind hand upon their unhappy faces.
+
+ANT. There: touch thy dead children with thy hand.
+
+ŒD. O ye dear wrecks, unhappy, of an unhappy father.
+
+ANT. O name of Polynices, most dear indeed to me.
+
+ŒD. Now, my child, is the oracle of Apollo come to pass.
+
+ANT. What? but dost thou mention evils in addition to these evils?
+
+ŒD. That I must die an exile at Athens.
+
+ANT. Where? what citadel of Attica will receive thee?
+
+ŒD. The sacred Colonus, and the temple of the Equestrian God. But
+stay--minister to thy blind father here, since thou art desirous of sharing
+his exile.
+
+ANT. Go to thy wretched banishment: stretch forth thy dear hand, O aged
+father, having me as thy guide, as the gale that wafts the ship.
+
+ŒD. Behold, I go, my child, be thou my unhappy conductor.
+
+ANT. We are, we are indeed unhappy above all Theban virgins.
+
+ŒD. Where shall I place my aged footstep? Bring my staff, my child.
+
+ANT. This way, this way come; here, here place thy foot, thou that hast the
+strength of a dream.
+
+ŒD. Alas! alas! for my most wretched flight!--To drive me, old as I am,
+from my country--Alas! alas! the dreadful, dreadful things that I have
+suffered!
+
+ANT. What suffered! what suffered![51] Vengeance sees not the wicked, nor
+repays the foolishness of mortals.
+
+ŒD. That man am I, who mounted aloft to the victorious heavenly song,
+having solved the dark enigma of the virgin Sphinx.
+
+ANT. Dost thou bring up again the glory of the Sphinx? Forbear from
+speaking of thy former successes. These wretched sufferings awaited thee, O
+father, being an exile from thy country to die any where. Leaving with my
+dear virgins tears for my loss, I depart far from my country, wandering in
+state not like a virgin's.
+
+ŒD. Oh! the excellency of thy mind!
+
+ANT. In the calamities of a father at least it will make me glorious.
+Wretched am I, on account of the insults offered to thee and to my brother,
+who has perished from the family, a corse denied sepulture, unhappy, whom,
+even if I must die, my father, I will cover with secret earth.
+
+ŒD. Go, show thyself to thy companions.
+
+ANT. They have enough of my lamentations.
+
+ŒD. But make thy supplications at the altars.
+
+ANT. They have a satiety of my woes.
+
+ŒD. Go then, where stands the fane of Bacchus unapproached, on the
+mountains of the Mænades.
+
+ANT. To whom I formerly, clad in the skin of the Theban fawn, danced the
+sacred step of Semele on the mountains, conferring a thankless favor on the
+Gods?
+
+ŒD. O ye inhabitants of my illustrious country, behold, I, this Œdipus, who
+alone stayed the violence of the bloodthirsty Sphinx, now, dishonored,
+forsaken, miserable, am banished from the land. Yet why do I bewail these
+things, and lament in vain? For the necessity of fate proceeding from the
+Gods a mortal must endure.
+
+CRE. [O greatly glorious Victory, mayest thou uphold my life, and cease not
+from crowning me!] (See note [H].)
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+NOTES ON THE PHŒNICIAN VIRGINS
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+[1] That is, through the signs of the zodiac: αστηρ differs from αστρον,
+the former signifying a single star, the latter many.
+
+[2] The preposition συν is omitted, as in Homer,
+
+  Αυτηι κεν γαιηι ερυσαιμι.
+
+The same omission occurs in the Bacchæ, αυτηισιν ελαταις, and again in the
+Hippolytus. It is an Atticism.
+
+[3] See note on Hecuba, 478.
+
+[4] The word τουνομα must be supplied after τουτο, which is implied in the
+verb καλουσιν.
+
+[5] The ζαρος is a bird of prey of the vulture species. The sphinx was
+represented as having the face of a woman, the breast and feet of a lion,
+and the wings of a bird.
+
+[5a] Dindorf would omit this verse.
+
+[6] αραι and αρασθαι are often used by the poets in a good sense for
+prayers, ευχαι and ευχεσθαι for curses and imprecations.
+
+[7] διηρες ‛υπερωον, η κλιμαξ. HESYCHIUS.
+
+[8] Milton, Par. Regained, b. iii. l. 326.
+
+  The field, all iron, cast a gleaming brown.
+
+[9] Lerna, a country of Argolis celebrated for a grove and a lake where the
+Danaides threw the heads of their murdered husbands. It was there also that
+Hercules killed the famous Hydra.
+
+[10] This alludes to the figure of Argus engraved on his shield. See verse
+1130.
+
+[11] Tydeus married Deipyle, Polynices Argia, both daughters of Adrastus,
+king of Argos.
+
+[12] Some suppose ‛υστερωι ποδι to mean with their last steps, that is,
+with steps which are doomed never to return again to their own country.
+
+[13] Triæna was a place in Argolis, where Neptune stuck his trident in the
+ground, and immediately water sprung up. SCHOL.
+
+[14] Amymone was daughter of Danaus and Europa; she was employed, by order
+of her father, in supplying the city of Argos with water, in a great
+drought. Neptune saw her in this employment, and was enamored of her. He
+carried her away, and in the place where she stood he raised a fountain,
+which has been called Amymone. See Propert. ii. El. 20. v. 47.
+
+[15] αλληλας λεγουσιν is, _they say one of another_; αλληλαις λεγουσιν,
+_they say among themselves_.
+
+[16] By πεδιων ακαρπιστων is to be understood the sea. The construction
+πεδιων περιρρυτον Σικελιας, that is, ‛α Σικελιαν περιρρει. The same
+construction is found in Sophocles, Œd. Tyr. l. 885. δικας αφοβητος. L.
+969. αφαυστος εγχους. See also Horace, Lib. iv. Od. 4. 43.
+
+  Ceu flamma per tædas, vel Eurus
+  Per Siculas equitavit undas.
+
+[17] The fire was on that head of Parnassus which was sacred to Apollo and
+Diana; to those below it appeared double, being divided to the eye by a
+pointed rock which rose before it. SCHOL.
+
+[18] The Python which Apollo slew.
+
+[19] Libya the daughter of Epaphus bore to Neptune Agenor and Belus. Cadmus
+was the son of Agenor, and Antiope the daughter of Belus.
+
+[19a] But Dind. εκφρωσ'. See his note.
+
+[20] The construction is, αμφιβαλλε μοι το των παρηϊδων σου ορεγμα: that
+is, _genarum ad oscula porrectionem_. It can not be translated literally.
+The verb αμφιβαλλε is to be supplied before ορεγμα, and before πλοκαμον.
+See Orestes, 950.
+
+[21] Locus videtur corruptus. PORSON. Valckenaer proposes to read
+δακρυοεσσ' ανιεισα κ.τ.λ. Markland would supply φωνην after ‛ιεισα. Another
+reading proposed is, δακρυοεσσ' ενιεισα πενθηρη κονιν. _Lacrymabunda,
+lugubrem cinerem injiciens_. Followed by Dindorf.
+
+[22] Cf. Æsch. Prom. 39. το συγγενες τοι δεινον ‛η θ' ‛ομιλια, where
+consult Schutz.
+
+[23] See Porson's note. A similar ellipse is to be found in Luke xiii. 9.
+Καιν μεν ποιησηι καρπον: ει δε μηγε, εις το μελλον εκκοψεις αυτην: which is
+thus translated in our version; "And if it bear fruit, _well_: and if not,
+_then_ after that thou shalt cut it down." See also Iliad, A. 135.
+Aristoph. Plut. 468. ed. Kuster.
+
+[24] Βραβευς, properly, is the judge in a contest, who confers the prizes,
+and on whose decision the awarding of the prizes depends: βραβευτης is the
+same. Βραβειον is the prize. Βραβεια, and in the plural βραβειαι, the very
+act of deciding the contest.
+
+[25] So Hotspur, of honor:
+
+  By heaven, methinks, it were an easy leap,
+  To pluck bright honor from the pale-faced moon:
+  Or dive into the bottom of the deep,
+  Where fathom-line could never touch the ground,
+  And pluck up drowned honor by the locks;
+  So he, that doth redeem her thence, might wear,
+  Without corrival, all her dignities.
+                  Hen. IV. P. i. A. i. Sc. 3.
+
+[26] See Ovid. Met. vi. 28. Non omnia grandior ætas, Quæ fugiamus, habet;
+seris venit usus ab annis.
+
+[27] The Scholiast doubts whether these Gods were Castor and Pollux, or
+Zethus and Amphion, but inclines to the latter. See Herc. Fur. v. 29, 30.
+
+[28] Or, _fell with limbs that had never known yoke_.--V. Ovid: Met. iii.
+10.
+
+  Bos tibi, Phœbus ait, solis occurret in arvis,
+  Nullum passa jugum.
+
+[29] Valckenaer proposes reading instead of ‛οραις or ‛ορας, αυραις,
+writing the passage αυραις βοστρυχον αμπετασας, "per auras leves crine
+jactato:" which seems peculiarly adapted to this place, where the poet
+places the tumultuous rage of Mars in contrast with the sweet enthusiasm of
+the Bacchanalians, who are represented as flying over the plains with their
+hair streaming in the wind. But see Note [C].
+
+[30] ακοη is here to be understood in the sense of ακουομενον as we find
+αισθησις for αισθητον, νους for το νοουμενον.
+
+[31] The words διδυμων ποταμων do not refer to Dirce, but to Thebes, Thebes
+being called πολις διποταμος. The construction is πυργος διδυμων ποταμων.
+Thus in Pindar οικημα ποταμου means οικημα παρα ποταμωι. Olymp. 2. Antistr.
+1.
+
+[32] See note [D].
+
+[32a] γουν. See Dind.
+
+[33] τι γαρ παθω; _Quid enim agam?_ est formula eorum, quos invitos natura
+vel fatum, vel quæcumque alia cogit necessitas. VALCKEN.
+
+[34] Προσηγορησων is to be joined with μολων, not with ειμι. In
+confirmation of this see line 1011.
+
+[35] So called after Neïs the son of Amphion and Niobe, or from νεαται,
+"_Newgate_." SCHOL.
+
+[36] Argus himself might be called στικτος, but not his eyes, hence πυκνοις
+is proposed by Heinsius. Abreschius receives στικτοις in the sense of ‛οις
+στικτος εστι.
+
+[37] The Scholiast makes βλεποντα the accusative singular to agree with
+πανοπτην. Musgrave takes it as agreeing with ομματα; in this latter case
+κρυπτοντα is used in a neuter signification. Note [F].
+
+[38] This is Musgrave's interpretation, by putting the stop after ‛ως,
+which also Porson adopts; others would join ‛ως with πρησων. It seems
+however more natural that the torch should be referred to Tydeus's emblem,
+than to himself.
+
+[39] Commentators and interpreters are much at variance concerning the word
+στροφιγξιν. For his better satisfaction on this passage the reader is
+referred to the Scholia.
+
+[40] γεισσα is in apposition to λααν in the preceding line. Cf. Orestes,
+1585.
+
+[41] Commentators are divided on the meaning of ενηλατα. One Scholiast
+understands it to mean the uprights of the ladder in which the bars are
+fixed. Eustathias considers ενηλατων βαθρα a periphrasis for βαθρα, ενηλατα
+being the βαθρα or βαθμιδες, which ενεληλανται τοις ορθοϊς ξυλοις.
+
+[42] Musgrave would render ‛υγροτητ' εναντιαν by "mobilitatem male
+coalescentem;" in this case it would indicate the bad omen, and be opposed
+to ακραν λαμπαδα, which then should be translated "the pointed flame."
+Valckenaer considers the passage as desperately corrupt. See Musgrave's
+note. Cf. Note [G].
+
+[43] If the flame was clear and vivid.
+
+[44] If it terminated in smoke and blackness.
+
+[45] The construction of this passage is the same as that of Il. Δ 155.
+θανατον νυ τοι ‛ορκι' εταμνον. "Fœdus, quod pepigi, tibi mortis causa est."
+PORSON.
+
+[46] Beck, by putting the stop after πετρον, makes ‛υποδρομον to agree with
+κολον, "_his limb diverted from its tread_."
+
+[47] The construction is φονος κρανθεις φονωι: αιματι depends on εν
+understood.
+
+[48] Most MSS. have ξυνετος. Here then is a remarkable instance of the same
+word having both an active and a passive signification in the same
+sentence.
+
+[49] μακροπνουν, not μακροπουν, is Porson's reading, μακροπνους ζωη is
+explained "vita in qua longo tempore spiratur; ergo longa."
+
+[50] See note at Hecuba 65.
+
+[51] The old reading was τι τλας; τι τλας; making it the present tense.
+Brunck first edited it as it stands in Porson. Antigone repeats the last
+word of her father.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+ADDITIONAL NOTES.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+[A] "Signum interrogandi non post νεανιας, sed post λοχαγος ponendum.
+λοχαγος in libris pedagogo tribuitur: quod correxit Hermannus." DINDORF.
+
+[B] Porson and Dindorf (in his notes) favor Reiske's conjecture, πυκνοισι
+for πυργοισι.
+
+[C] Dindorf rightly approves the explanation of Musgrave, who takes
+στεφανοισι, like the Latin _corona_, to mean the _assemblies_. He
+translates: "_nec in pulchros choros ducentibus circulis juventutis_."
+
+[D] The full sense, as laid down by Schœfer and Dindorf, is, "for ever when
+an old man travels, whether in a carriage, or on foot, he requires help
+from others." πασα απηνη πους τε is rather boldly used, but is not without
+example.
+
+[E] i.e. "_you ask a thing_ (i.e. your son's safety) _dangerous to the
+city, which you can not preserve_." SCHŒFER.
+
+[F] These three lines are condemned by Valck. and Dind.
+
+[G] Matthiæ attempts to explain these words as follows: "εμπυροι ακμαι may
+be put for τα εμπυρα, in which the seers observed (ενωμων) two things, viz.
+the divisions (‛ρηξεις) of the flame, which, if it slid round the altars,
+was of ill omen (hence ‛υγραι, i.e. gliding gently around the altars with
+many curves, for which is put ‛υγροτης εναντια); and 2dly, _the upright
+shooting of the flame_, ακραν λαμπαδα."
+
+[H] See Dindorf on Orest. 1691. He fully condemns these lines as the work
+of an interpolator. They are, however, as old as the days of Lucian.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *       *
+
+MEDEA.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+PERSONS REPRESENTED.
+
+  NURSE.
+  TUTOR.
+  MEDEA.
+  CHORUS OF CORINTHIAN WOMEN.
+  CREON.
+  JASON.
+  ÆGEUS
+  MESSENGER.
+  SONS OF MEDEA.
+
+_The Scene lies in the vestibule of the palace of Jason at Corinth_.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE ARGUMENT.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+JASON, having come to Corinth, and bringing with him Medea, espouses
+Glauce, the daughter of Creon, king of Corinth. But Medea, on the point of
+being banished from Corinth by Creon, having asked to remain one day, and
+having obtained her wish, sends to Glauce, by the hands of her sons,
+presents, as an acknowledgment for the favor, a robe and a golden chaplet,
+which she puts on and perishes; Creon also having embraced his daughter is
+destroyed. But Medea, when she had slain her children, escapes to Athens,
+in a chariot drawn by winged dragons, which she received from the Sun, and
+there marries Ægeus son of Pandion.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+MEDEA.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+NURSE OF MEDEA.
+
+Would that the hull of Argo had not winged her way to the Colchian land
+through the Cyanean Symplegades,[1] and that the pine felled in the forests
+of Pelion had never fallen, nor had caused the hands of the chiefs to
+row,[2] who went in search of the golden fleece for Pelias; for neither
+then would my mistress Medea have sailed to the towers of the Iolcian land,
+deeply smitten in her mind with the love of Jason; nor having persuaded the
+daughters of Pelias to slay their father would she have inhabited this
+country of Corinth with her husband and her children, pleasing indeed by
+her flight[3] the citizens to whose land she came, and herself concurring
+in every respect with Jason; which is the surest support of conjugal
+happiness, when the wife is not estranged from the husband. But now every
+thing is at variance, and the dearest ties are weakened. For having
+betrayed his own children, and my mistress, Jason reposes in royal wedlock,
+having married the daughter of Creon, who is prince of this land. But Medea
+the unhappy, dishonored, calls on his oaths, and recalls the hands they
+plighted, the greatest pledge of fidelity, and invokes the gods to witness
+what return she meets with from Jason. And she lies without tasting food,
+having sunk her body in grief, dissolving all her tedious time in tears,
+after she had once known that she had been injured by her husband, neither
+raising her eye, nor lifting her countenance from the ground; but as the
+rock, or the wave of the sea, does she listen to her friends when advised.
+Save that sometimes having turned her snow-white neck she to herself
+bewails her dear father, and her country, and her house, having betrayed
+which she hath come hither with a man who has now dishonored her. And she
+wretched hath discovered from affliction what it is not to forsake one's
+paternal country. But she hates her children, nor is she delighted at
+beholding them: but I fear her, lest she form some new design: for violent
+is her mind, nor will it endure to suffer ills. I know her, and I fear her,
+lest she should force the sharpened sword through her heart, or even should
+murder the princess and him who married her, and after that receive some
+greater ill. For she is violent; he who engages with her in enmity will not
+with ease at least sing the song of victory. But these her children are
+coming hither having ceased from their exercises, nothing mindful of their
+mother's ills, for the mind of youth is not wont to grieve.
+
+TUTOR, WITH THE SONS OF MEDEA, NURSE.
+
+TUT. O thou ancient possession of my mistress's house, why dost thou stand
+at the gates preserving thus thy solitude, bewailing to thyself our
+misfortunes? How doth Medea wish to be left alone without thee?
+
+NUR. O aged man, attendant on the children of Jason, to faithful servants
+the affairs of their masters turning out ill are a calamity, and lay hold
+upon their feelings. For I have arrived at such a height of grief that
+desire hath stolen on me to come forth hence and tell the misfortunes of
+Medea to the earth and heaven.
+
+TUT. Does not she wretched yet receive any respite from her grief?
+
+NUR. I envy thy ignorance; her woe is at its rise, and not even yet at its
+height.
+
+TUT. O unwise woman, if it is allowable to say this of one's lords, since
+she knows nothing of later ills.
+
+NUR. But what is this, O aged man? grudge not to tell me.
+
+TUT. Nothing: I have repented even of what was said before.
+
+NUR. Do not, I beseech you by your beard, conceal it from your
+fellow-servant; for I will preserve silence, if it be necessary, on these
+subjects.
+
+TUT. I heard from some one who was saying, not appearing to listen, having
+approached the places where dice is played, where the elders sit, around
+the hallowed font of Pirene, that the king of this land, Creon, intends to
+banish from the Corinthian country these children, together with their
+mother; whether this report be true, however, I know not; but I wish this
+may not be the case.
+
+NUR. And will Jason endure to see his children suffer this, even although
+he is at enmity with their mother?
+
+TUT. Ancient alliances are deserted for new, and he is no friend to this
+family.
+
+NUR. We perish then, if to the old we shall add a new ill, before the
+former be exhausted.[4]
+
+TUT. But do thou, for it is not seasonable that my mistress should know
+this, restrain your tongue, and be silent on this report.
+
+NUR. O my children, do you hear what your father is toward you? Yet may he
+not perish, for he is my master, yet he is found to be treacherous toward
+his friends.
+
+TUT. And what man is not? dost thou only now know this, that every one
+loves himself dearer than his neighbor,[5] some indeed with justice, but
+others even for the sake of gain, unless it be that[6] their father loves
+not these at least on account of new nuptials.
+
+NUR. Go within the house, my children, for all will be well. But do thou
+keep these as much as possible out of the way, and let them not approach
+their mother, deranged through grief. For but now I saw her looking with
+wildness in her eyes on these, as about to execute some design, nor will
+she cease from her fury, I well know, before she overwhelm some one with
+it; upon her enemies however, and not her friends, may she do some [ill.]
+
+MEDEA. (_within_) Wretch that I am, and miserable on account of my
+misfortunes, alas me! would I might perish!
+
+NUR. Thus it is, my children; your mother excites her heart, excites her
+fury. Hasten as quick as possible within the house, and come not near her
+sight, nor approach her, but guard against the fierce temper and violent
+nature of her self-willed mind. Go now, go as quick as possible within. But
+it is evident that the cloud of grief raised up from the beginning will
+quickly burst forth with greater fury; what I pray will her soul, great in
+rage, implacable, irritated by ills, perform!
+
+MED. Alas! alas! I wretched have suffered, have suffered treatment worthy
+of great lamentation. O ye accursed children of a hated mother, may ye
+perish with your father, and may the whole house fall.
+
+NUR. Alas! alas! me miserable! but why should your children share their
+father's error? Why dost thou hate these! Alas me, my children, how beyond
+measure do I grieve lest ye suffer any evil! Dreadful are the dispositions
+of tyrants, and somehow in few things controlled, in most absolute, they
+with difficulty lay aside their passion. The being accustomed then[7] to
+live in mediocrity of life is the better: may it be my lot then to grow old
+if not in splendor, at least in security. For, in the first place, even to
+mention the name of moderation carries with it superiority, but to use it
+is by far the best conduct for men; but excess of fortune brings more power
+to men than is convenient;[8] and has brought greater woes upon families,
+when the Deity be enraged.
+
+NURSE, CHORUS.
+
+CHOR. I heard the voice, I heard the cry of the unhappy Colchian; is not
+she yet appeased? but, O aged matron, tell me; for within the apartment
+with double doors, I heard her cry; nor am I delighted, O woman, with the
+griefs of the family, since it is friendly to me.
+
+NUR. The family is not; these things are gone already: for he possesses the
+bed of royalty; but she, my mistress, is melting away her life in her
+chamber, in no way soothing her mind by the advice of any one of her
+friends.
+
+MED. Alas! alas! may the flame of heaven rush through my head, what profit
+for me to live any longer. Alas! alas! may I rest myself in death, having
+left a hated life.
+
+CHOR. Dost thou hear, O Jove, and earth, and light, the cry which the
+wretched bride utters? why I pray should this insatiable love of the
+marriage-bed hasten thee, O vain woman, to death? Pray not for this. But if
+thy husband courts a new bed, be not thus[9] enraged with him. Jove will
+avenge these wrongs for thee: waste not thyself so, bewailing thy husband.
+
+MED. O great Themis and revered Diana, do ye behold what I suffer, having
+bound my accursed husband by powerful oaths? Whom may I at some time see
+and his bride torn piecemeal with their very houses, who dare to injure me
+first. O my father, O my city, whom I basely abandoned, having slain my
+brother.
+
+NUR. Do ye hear what she says, and how she invokes Themis hearing the vow,
+and Jove who is considered the dispenser of oaths to mortals? It is not
+possible that my mistress will lull her rage to rest on any trivial
+circumstance.
+
+CHOR. By what means could she come into our sight, and hear the voice of
+our discourse, if she would by any means remit her fierce anger and her
+fury of mind. Let not my zeal however be wanting ever to my friends. But go
+and conduct her hither from without the house, my friend, and tell her
+this, hasten, before she injure in any way those within, for this grief of
+hers is increased to a great height.
+
+NUR. I will do it, but I fear that I shall not persuade my mistress;
+nevertheless I will give you this favor of my labor. And yet with the
+aspect of a lioness that has just brought forth does she look sternly on
+her attendants when any one approaches near attempting to address her. But
+thou wouldest not err in calling men of old foolish and nothing wise, who
+invented songs, for festivals, for banquets, and for suppers, the delights
+of life that charm the ear; but no mortal has discovered how to soothe with
+music and with varied strains those bitter pangs, from which death and
+dreadful misfortunes overthrow families. And yet for men to assuage these
+griefs with music were gain; but where the plenteous banquet is furnished,
+why raise they the song in vain? for the present bounty of the feast brings
+pleasure of itself to men.
+
+CHOR. I heard the dismal sound of groans, and in a shrill voice she vents
+her bitter[10] anguish on the traitor to her bed, her faithless
+husband--and suffering wrongs she calls upon the Goddess Themis, arbitress
+of oaths, daughter of Jove, who conducted her to the opposite coast of
+Greece, across the sea by night, over the salt straits of the boundless
+ocean.
+
+MEDEA, CHORUS.
+
+MED. Ye Corinthian dames, I have come from out my palace; do not in any
+wise blame me; for I have known many men who have been[11] renowned, some
+who have lived far from public notice, and others in the world; but those
+of a retired turn have gained for themselves a character of infamy and
+indolence. For justice dwells not in the eyes of man,[12] whoever, before
+he can well discover the disposition of a man, hates him at sight, in no
+way wronged by him. But it is necessary for a stranger exactly to conform
+himself to the state, nor would I praise the native, whoever becoming
+self-willed is insolent to his fellow-citizens through ignorance. But this
+unexpected event that hath fallen upon me hath destroyed my spirit: I am
+going, and having given up the pleasure of life I am desirous to meet
+death, my friends. For he on whom my all rested, as you well know, my
+husband, has turned out the basest of men. But of all things as many as
+have life and intellect, we women are the most wretched race. Who indeed
+first must purchase a husband with excess of money, and receive him a lord
+of our persons; for this is a still greater ill than the former. And in
+this is the greatest risk, whether we receive a bad one or a good one; for
+divorces bring not good fame to women, nor is it possible to repudiate
+one's husband. But on passing to new tempers and new laws, one need be a
+prophetess, as one can not learn of one's self, what sort of consort one
+shall most likely experience. And if with us carefully performing these
+things a husband shall dwell not imposing on us a yoke with severity,
+enviable is our life; if not, to die is better. But a man, when he is
+displeased living with those at home, having gone abroad is wont to relieve
+his heart of uneasiness, having recourse either to some friend or compeer.
+But we must look but to one person. But they say of us that we live a life
+of ease at home, but they are fighting with the spear; judging ill, since I
+would rather thrice stand in arms, than once suffer the pangs of
+child-birth. But, for the same argument comes not home to you and me, this
+is thy city, and thy father's house, thine are both the luxuries of life,
+and the society of friends; but I being destitute, cityless, am wronged by
+my husband, brought as a prize from a foreign land, having neither mother,
+nor brother, nor relation to afford me shelter from this calamity. So much
+then I wish to obtain from you, if any plan or contrivance be devised by me
+to repay with justice these injuries on my husband, and on him who gave his
+daughter, and on her to whom he was married,[13] that you would be silent;
+for a woman in other respects is full of fear, and timid to look upon deeds
+of courage and the sword; but when she is injured in her bed, no other
+disposition is more blood-thirsty.
+
+CHOR. I will do this; for with justice, Medea, wilt thou avenge thyself on
+thy husband, and I do not wonder that you lament your misfortunes. But I
+see Creon monarch of this land advancing, the messenger of new counsels.
+
+CREON, MEDEA, CHORUS.
+
+CRE. Thee of gloomy countenance, and enraged with thy husband, Medea, I
+command to depart in exile from out of this land, taking with thee thy two
+children, and not to delay in any way, since I am the arbiter of this
+edict, and I will not return back to my palace, until I shall drive thee
+beyond the boundaries of this realm.
+
+MED. Alas! alas! I wretched am utterly destroyed, for my enemies stretch
+out every cable against me; nor is there any easy escape from this evil,
+but I will speak, although suffering injurious treatment; for what, Creon,
+dost thou drive me from this land?
+
+CRE. I fear thee (there is no need for me to wrap my words in obscurity,)
+lest thou do my child some irremediable mischief, And many circumstances
+are in unison with this dread. Thou art wise, and skilled in many evil
+sciences, and thou art exasperated, deprived of thy husband's bed. And I
+hear that thou threatenest, as they tell me, to wreak some deed of
+vengeance on the betrother, and the espouser and the espoused; against this
+then, before I suffer, will I guard. Better is it for me now to incur
+enmity from you, than softened by your words afterward greatly to lament
+it.
+
+MED. Alas! alas! not now for the first time, but often, Creon, hath this
+opinion injured me, and worked me much woe. But whatever man is prudent,
+let him never educate his children too deep in wisdom. For, independent of
+the other charges of idleness which they meet with, they find hostile envy
+from their fellow-citizens. For holding out to fools some new-discovered
+wisdom, thou wilt seem to be useless and not wise. And being judged
+superior to others who seem to have some varied knowledge, thou wilt appear
+offensive in the city. But even I myself share this fortune; for being
+wise, to some I am an object of envy, but to others, unsuited; but I am not
+very wise. Thou then fearest me, lest thou suffer some grievous
+mischief.[14] My affairs are not in a state, fear me not, Creon, so as to
+offend against princes. For in what hast thou injured me? Thou hast given
+thy daughter to whom thy mind led thee; but I hate my husband: but thou, I
+think, didst these things in prudence. And now I envy not that thy affairs
+are prospering; make your alliances, be successful; but suffer me to dwell
+in this land, for although injured will I keep silence, overcome by my
+superiors.
+
+CRE. Thou speakest soft words to the ear, but within my mind I have my
+fears, lest thou meditate some evil intent. And so much the less do I trust
+thee than before. For a woman that is quick to anger, and a man likewise,
+is easier to guard against, than one that is crafty and keeps silence. But
+begone as quick as possible, make no more words; since this is decreed, and
+thou hast no art, by which thou wilt stay with us, being hostile to me.
+
+MED. No I beseech you by your knees, and your newly-married daughter.
+
+CRE. Thou wastest words; for thou wilt never persuade me.
+
+MED. Wilt thou then banish me, nor reverence my prayers?
+
+CRE. For I do not love thee better than my own family.
+
+MED. O my country, how I remember thee now!
+
+CRE. For next to my children it is much the dearest thing to me.
+
+MED. Alas! alas! how great an ill is love to man!
+
+CRE. That is, I think, as fortune also shall attend it.
+
+MED. Jove, let it not escape thine eye, who is the cause of these
+misfortunes.
+
+CRE. Begone, fond woman, and free me from these cares.
+
+MED. Care indeed;[15] and do not I experience cares?
+
+CRE. Quickly shalt thou be driven hence by force by the hands of my
+domestics.
+
+MED. No, I pray not this at least; but I implore thee, Creon.
+
+CRE. Thou wilt give trouble, woman, it seems.[16]
+
+MED. I will go; I dare not ask to obtain this of you.
+
+CRE. Why then dost thou resist, and wilt not depart from these realms?
+
+MED. Permit me to remain here this one day, and to bring my purpose to a
+conclusion, in what way we shall fly, and to make provision for my sons,
+since their father in no way regards providing for his children; but pity
+them, for thou also art the father of children; and it is probable that
+thou hast tenderness: for of myself I have no care whether I may suffer
+banishment, but I weep for them experiencing this calamity.
+
+CRE. My disposition is least of all imperious, and through feeling pity in
+many cases have I injured myself. And now I see that I am doing wrong, O
+lady, but nevertheless thou shalt obtain thy request; but this I warn thee,
+if to-morrow's light of the God of day shall behold thee and thy children
+within the confines of these realms, thou shalt die: this word is spoken in
+truth. But now if thou must stay, remain here yet one day, for thou wilt
+not do any horrid deed of which I have dread.
+
+MEDEA, CHORUS.
+
+CHOR. Unhappy woman! alas wretched on account of thy griefs! whither wilt
+thou turn? what hospitality, or house, or country wilt thou find a refuge
+for these ills? how the Deity hath led thee, Medea, into a pathless tide of
+woes!
+
+MED. Ill hath it been done on every side. Who will gainsay it? but these
+things are not in this way, do not yet think it. Still is there a contest
+for those lately married, and to those allied to them no small affliction.
+For dost thou think I ever would have fawned upon this man, if I were not
+to gain something, or form some plan? I would not even have addressed him.
+I would not even have touched him with my hands. But he hath arrived at
+such a height of folly, as that, when it was in his power to have crushed
+my plans, by banishing me from this land, he hath granted me to stay this
+day in which three of mine enemies will I put to death, the father, the
+bride, and my husband. But having in my power many resources of destruction
+against them, I know not, my friends, which I shall first attempt. Whether
+shall I consume the bridal house with fire, or force the sharpened sword
+through her heart having entered the chamber by stealth where the couch is
+spread? But one thing is against me; if I should be caught entering the
+house and prosecuting my plans, by my death I shall afford laughter for my
+foes. Best then is it to pursue the straight path, in which I am most
+skilled, to take them off by poison. Let it be so. And suppose them dead:
+what city will receive me? What hospitable stranger affording a land of
+safety and a faithful home will protect my person? There is none. Waiting
+then yet a little time, if any tower of safety shall appear to us, I will
+proceed to this murder in treachery and silence. But if ill fortune that
+leaves me without resource force me, I myself having grasped the sword,
+although I should die, will kill them, and will rush to the extreme height
+of daring. For never, I swear by my mistress whom I revere most of all, and
+have chosen for my assistant, Hecate, who dwells in the inmost recesses of
+my house, shall any one of them wring my heart with grief with impunity.
+Bitter and mournful to them will I make these nuptials, and bitter this
+alliance, and my flight from this land. But come, spare none of these
+sciences in which thou art skilled, Medea, deliberating and plotting.
+Proceed to the deed of terror: now is the time of resolution: seest thou
+what thou art suffering? Ill doth it become thee to incur ridicule from the
+race of Sisyphus, and from the nuptials of Jason, who art sprung from a
+noble father, and from the sun. And thou art skilled. Besides also we women
+are, by nature, to good actions of the least capacity, but the most cunning
+inventors of every ill.
+
+CHOR. The waters of the hallowed streams flow upward to their sources, and
+justice and every thing is reversed. The counsels of men are treacherous,
+and no longer is the faith of heaven firm. But fame changes, so that my sex
+may have the glory.[17] Honor cometh to the female race; no longer shall
+opprobrious fame oppress the women. But the Muses shall cease from their
+ancient strains, from celebrating our perfidy. For Phœbus, leader of the
+choir, gave not to our minds the heavenly music of the lyre, since they
+would in turn have raised a strain against the race of men. But time of old
+hath much to say both of our life and the life of men. But thou hast sailed
+from thy father's house with maddened heart, having passed through the
+double rocks of the ocean, and thou dwellest in a foreign land, having lost
+the shelter of thy widowed bed, wretched woman, and art driven dishonored
+an exile from this land. The reverence of oaths is gone, nor does shame any
+longer dwell in mighty Greece, but hath fled away through the air. But thou
+helpless woman hast neither father's house to afford you haven from your
+woes, and another more powerful queen of the nuptial bed rules over the
+house.
+
+JASON, MEDEA, CHORUS.
+
+JAS. Not now for the first time, but often have I perceived that fierce
+anger is an irremediable ill. For though it was in your power to inhabit
+this land and this house, bearing with gentleness the determination of thy
+superiors, by thy rash words thou shalt be banished from this land. And to
+me indeed it is of no importance; never cease from saying that Jason is the
+worst of men. But for what has been said by thee against the royal family,
+think it the greatest good fortune that thou art punished by banishment
+only. I indeed was always employed in diminishing the anger of the enraged
+princes, and was willing that thou shouldest remain. But thou remittest not
+of thy folly, always reviling the ruling powers; wherefore thou shalt be
+banished from the land. But nevertheless even after this am I come, not
+wearied with my friends, providing for thee, O woman, that thou mightest
+not be banished with thy children, either without money, or in want of any
+thing. Banishment draws many misfortunes with it. For although thou hatest
+me, I never could wish thee evil.
+
+MED. O thou vilest of men (for this is the greatest reproach I have in my
+power with my tongue to tell thee, for thy unmanly cowardice), hast thou
+come to us, hast thou come, who art most hateful? This is not fortitude, or
+confidence, to look in the face of friends whom thou hast injured, but the
+worst of all diseases among men, impudence. But thou hast done well in
+coming. For both I shall be lightened in my heart while reviling thee, and
+thou wilt be pained at hearing me. But I will first begin to speak from the
+first circumstances. I preserved thee (as those Greeks well know as many as
+embarked with thee on board the same ship Argo) when sent to master the
+fire-breathing bulls with the yoke, and to sow the fatal seed: and having
+slain the dragon who watching around the golden fleece guarded it with
+spiry folds, a sleepless guard, I raised up to thee a light of safety. But
+I myself having betrayed my father, and my house, came to the Peliotic
+Iolcos[18] with thee, with more readiness than prudence. And I slew Pelias
+by a death which it is most miserable to die, by the hands of his own
+children, and I freed thee from every fear. And having experienced these
+services from me, thou vilest of men, thou hast betrayed me and hast
+procured for thyself a new bed, children being born to thee, for if thou
+wert still childless it would be pardonable in thee to be enamored of this
+alliance. But the faith of oaths is vanished: nor can I discover whether
+thou thinkest that the former Gods are not still in power, or whether new
+laws are now laid down for men, since thou art at least conscious of being
+perjured toward me. Alas! this right hand which thou hast often touched,
+and these knees, since in vain have I been polluted by a wicked husband,
+and have failed in my hopes. Come (for I will converse with thee as with a
+friend, not expecting to receive any benefit from thee at least, but
+nevertheless I will; for when questioned thou wilt appear more base), now
+whither shall I turn? Whether to my father's house, which I betrayed for
+thee, and my country, and came hither? or to the miserable daughters of
+Pelias? friendly would they indeed receive me in their house, whose father
+I slew. For thus it is: I am in enmity with my friends at home; but those
+whom I ought not to injure, by obliging thee, I make my enemies. On which
+account in return for this thou hast made me to be called happy by many
+dames through Greece, and in thee I, wretch that I am, have an admirable
+and faithful husband, if cast out at least I shall fly this land, deserted
+by my friends, lonely with thy lonely children. Fair renown indeed to the
+new married bridegroom, that his children are wandering in poverty, and I
+also who preserved thee. O Jove, why I pray hast thou given to men certain
+proofs of the gold which is adulterate, but no mark is set by nature on the
+person of men by which one may distinguish the bad man.
+
+CHOR. Dreadful is that anger and irremediable, when friends with friends
+kindle strife.
+
+JAS. It befits me, it seems, not to be weak in argument, but as the prudent
+pilot of a vessel, with all the sail that can be hoisted, to run from out
+of thy violent abuse, O woman. But I, since thou thus much vauntest thy
+favors, think that Venus alone both of Gods and men was the protectress of
+my voyage. But thou hast a fickle mind, but it is an invidious account to
+go through, how love compelled thee with his inevitable arrows to preserve
+my life. But I will not follow up arguments with too great accuracy, for
+where thou hast assisted me it is well. Moreover thou hast received more at
+least from my safety than thou gavest, as I will explain to thee. First of
+all thou dwellest in Greece instead of a foreign land, and thou learnest
+what justice is, and to enjoy laws, not to be directed by mere force. And
+all the Grecians have seen that thou art wise, and thou hast renown; but if
+thou wert dwelling in the extreme confines of that land, there would not
+have been fame of thee. But may neither gold in my house be be my lot, nor
+to attune the strain more sweet than Orpheus, if my fortune be not
+conspicuous. So much then have I said of my toils; for thou first
+broughtest forward this contest of words. But with regard to those
+reproaches which thou heapest on me for my royal marriage, in this will I
+show first that I have been wise, in the next place moderate, thirdly a
+great friend to thee, and my children: but be silent. After I had come
+hither from the Iolcian land bringing with me many grievous calamities,
+what measure more fortunate than this could I have invented, than, an exile
+as I was, to marry the daughter of the monarch? not, by which thou art
+grated, loathing thy bed, nor smitten with desire of a new bride, nor
+having emulation of a numerous offspring, for those born to me are
+sufficient, nor do I find fault with that; but that (which is of the
+greatest consequence) we might live honorably, and might not be in want,
+knowing well that every friend flies out of the way of a poor man; and that
+I might bring up my children worthy of my house, and that having begotten
+brothers to those children sprung from thee, I might place them on the same
+footing, and having united the family, I might flourish; for both thou hast
+some need of children, and to me it were advantageous to advance my present
+progeny by means of the children which might arise; have I determined ill?
+not even thou couldest say so, if thy bed did not gall thee. But thus far
+have you come, that your bed being safe, you women think that you have
+every thing. But if any misfortune befall that, the most excellent and
+fairest objects you make the most hateful. It were well then that men
+should generate children from some other source, and that the female race
+should not exist, and thus there would not have been any evil among
+men.[19]
+
+CHOR. Jason, thou hast well adorned these arguments of thine, but
+nevertheless to me, although I speak reluctantly, thou appearest, in
+betraying thy wife, to act unjustly.
+
+MED. Surely I am in many things different from many mortals, for in my
+judgment, whatever man being unjust, is deeply skilled in argument, merits
+the severest punishment. For vaunting that with his tongue he can well
+gloze over injustice, he dares to work deceit, but he is not over-wise.
+Thus do not thou also be now plausible to me, nor skilled in speaking, for
+one word will overthrow thee: it behooved thee, if thou wert not a bad man,
+to have contracted this marriage having persuaded me, and not without the
+knowledge of thy friends.
+
+JAS. Well wouldest thou have lent assistance to this report, if I had
+mentioned the marriage to thee, who not even now endurest to lay aside this
+unabated rage of heart.
+
+MED. This did not move thee, but a foreign bed would lead in its result to
+an old age without honor.
+
+JAS. Be well assured of this, that I did not form this alliance with the
+princess, which I now hold, for the sake of the woman, but, as I said
+before also, wishing to preserve thee, and to beget royal children brothers
+to my sons, a support to our house.
+
+MED. Let not a splendid life of bitterness be my lot, nor wealth, which
+rends my heart.
+
+JAS. Dost thou know how to alter thy prayers, and appear wiser? Let not
+good things ever seem to you bitter, nor when in prosperity seem to be in
+adversity.
+
+MED. Insult me, since thou hast refuge, but I destitute shall fly this
+land.
+
+JAS. Thou chosest this thyself, blame no one else.
+
+MED. By doing what? by marrying and betraying thee?
+
+JAS. By imprecating unhallowed curses on the royal family.
+
+MED. From thy house at least am I laden with curses.
+
+JAS. I will not dispute more of this with thee. But if thou wishest to
+receive either for thyself or children any part of my wealth as an
+assistant on thy flight, speak, since I am ready to give with an unsparing
+hand, and to send tokens of hospitality to my friends, who will treat you
+well; and refusing these thou wilt be foolish, woman, but ceasing from
+thine anger, thou wilt gain better treatment.
+
+MED. I will neither use thy friends, nor will I receive aught; do not give
+to me, for the gifts of a bad man bring no assistance.
+
+JAS. Then I call the Gods to witness, that I wish to assist thee and thy
+children in every thing; but good things please thee not, but thou
+rejectest thy friends with audacity, wherefore shalt thou grieve the more.
+
+MED. Begone, for thou art captured by desire of thy new bride, tarrying so
+long without the palace; wed her, for perhaps, but with the assistance of
+the God shall it be said, thou wilt make such a marriage alliance, as thou
+wilt hereafter wish to renounce.
+
+CHOR. The loves, when they come too impetuously, have given neither good
+report nor virtue among men, but if Venus come with moderation, no other
+Goddess is so benign. Never, O my mistress, mayest thou send forth against
+me from thy golden bow thy inevitable shaft, having steeped it in desire.
+But may temperance preserve me, the noblest gift of heaven; never may
+dreaded Venus, having smitten my mind for another's bed, heap upon me
+jealous passions and unabated quarrels, but approving the peaceful union,
+may she quick of perception sit in judgment on the bed of women. O my
+country, and my house, never may I be an outcast of my city, having a life
+scarce to be endured through poverty, the most lamentable of all woes. By
+death, by death, may I before that be subdued, having lived to accomplish
+that day; but no greater misfortune is there than to be deprived of one's
+paternal country. We have seen it, nor have we to speak from others'
+accounts; for thee, neither city nor friend hath pitied, though suffering
+the most dreadful anguish. Thankless may he perish who desires not to
+assist his friends, having unlocked the pure treasures of his mind; never
+shall he be friend to me.
+
+ÆGEUS, MEDEA, CHORUS.
+
+ÆG. Medea, hail! for no one hath known a more honorable salutation to
+address to friends than this.
+
+MED. Hail thou also, son of the wise Pandion, Ægeus, coming from what
+quarter dost thou tread the plain of this land?
+
+ÆG. Having left the ancient oracle of Phœbus.
+
+MED. But wherefore wert thou sent to the prophetic centre of the earth?
+
+ÆG. Inquiring of the God how offspring may arise to me?
+
+MED. By the Gods, tell me, dost thou live this life hitherto childless?
+
+ÆG. Childless I am, by the disposal of some deity.
+
+MED. Hast thou a wife, or knowest thou not the marriage-bed!
+
+ÆG. I am not destitute of the connubial bed.
+
+MED. What then did Apollo tell thee respecting thy offspring?
+
+ÆG. Words deeper than a man can form opinion of.
+
+MED. Is it allowable for me to know the oracle of the God?
+
+ÆG. Certainly, inasmuch as it needs also a deep-skilled mind.
+
+MED. What then did he say? Speak, if I may hear.
+
+ÆG. That I was not to loose the projecting foot of the vessel--
+
+MED. Before thou didst what, or came to what land?
+
+ÆG. Before I revisit my paternal hearth.
+
+MED. Then as desiring what dost thou direct thy voyage to this land?
+
+ÆG. There is one Pittheus, king of the country of Trazene.
+
+MED. The most pious son, as report says, of Pelops.
+
+ÆG. To him I wish to communicate the oracle of the God.
+
+MED. For he is a wise man, and versed in such matters.
+
+ÆG. And to me at least the dearest of all my friends in war.
+
+MED. Mayest thou prosper, and obtain what thou desirest.
+
+ÆG. But why is thine eye and thy color thus faded?
+
+MED. Ægeus, my husband is the worst of all men.
+
+ÆG. What sayest thou? tell me all thy troubles.
+
+MED. Jason wrongs me, having never suffered wrong from me.
+
+ÆG. Having done what? tell me more clearly.
+
+MED. He hath here a wife besides me, mistress of the house.
+
+ÆG. Hath he dared to commit this disgraceful action?
+
+MED. Be assured he has; but we his former friends are dishonored.
+
+ÆG. Enamored of her, or hating thy bed?
+
+MED. [Smitten with] violent love indeed, he was faithless to his friends.
+
+ÆG. Let him perish then, since, as you say, he is a bad man.
+
+MED. He was charmed to receive an alliance with princes.
+
+ÆG. And who gives the bride to him? finish the account, I beg.
+
+MED. Creon, who is monarch of this Corinthian land.
+
+ÆG. Pardonable was it then that thou art grieved, O lady.
+
+MED. I perish, and in addition to this am I banished from this land.
+
+ÆG. By whom? thou art mentioning another fresh misfortune.
+
+MED. Creon drives me an exile out of this land of Corinth.
+
+ÆG. And does Jason suffer it? I praise not this.
+
+MED. By his words he does not, but at heart he wishes [to endure my
+banishment:] but by this thy beard I entreat thee, and by these thy knees,
+and I become thy suppliant, pity me, pity this unfortunate woman, nor
+behold me going forth in exile abandoned, but receive me at thy hearth in
+thy country and thy house. Thus by the Gods shall thy desire of children be
+accomplished to thee, and thou thyself shalt die in happiness. But thou
+knowest not what this fortune is that thou hast found; but I will free thee
+from being childless, and I will cause thee to raise up offspring, such
+charms I know.
+
+ÆG. On many accounts, O lady, am I willing to confer this favor on thee,
+first on account of the Gods, then of the children, whose birth thou
+holdest forth; for on this point else I am totally sunk in despair. But
+thus am I determined: if thou comest to my country, I will endeavor to
+receive thee with hospitality, being a just man; so much however I
+beforehand apprise thee of, O lady, I shall not be willing to lead thee
+with me from this land; but if thou comest thyself to my house, thou shalt
+stay there in safety, and to no one will I give thee up. But do thou of
+thyself withdraw thy foot from this country, for I wish to be without blame
+even among strangers.
+
+MED. It shall be so, but if there was a pledge of this given to me, I
+should have all things from thee in a noble manner.
+
+ÆG. Dost thou not trust me? what is thy difficulty?
+
+MED. I trust thee; but the house of Pelias is mine enemy, and Creon too; to
+these then, wert thou bound by oaths, thou wouldest not give me up from the
+country, should they attempt to drag me thence. But having agreed by words
+alone, and without calling the Gods to witness, thou mightest be their
+friend, and perhaps[20] be persuaded by an embassy; for weak is my state,
+but theirs are riches, and a royal house.
+
+ÆG. Thou hast spoken much prudence, O lady. But if it seems fit to thee
+that I should do this, I refuse not. For to me also this seems the safest
+plan, that I should have some pretext to show to your enemies, and thy
+safety is better secured; propose the Gods that I am to invoke.
+
+MED. Swear by the earth, and by the sun the father of my father, and join
+the whole race of Gods.
+
+ÆG. That I will do what thing, or what not do? speak.
+
+MED. That thou wilt neither thyself ever cast me forth from out of thy
+country, nor, if any one of my enemies desire to drag me thence, that thou
+wilt, while living, give me up willingly.
+
+ÆG. I swear by the earth, and the hallowed majesty of the sun, and by all
+the Gods, to abide by what I hear from thee.
+
+MED. It is sufficient: but what wilt thou endure shouldest thou not abide
+by this oath?
+
+ÆG. That which befalls impious men.
+
+MED. Go with blessings; for every thing is well. And I will come as quick
+as possible to thy city, having performed what I intend, and having
+obtained what I desire.
+
+CHOR. But may the son of Maia the king, the guide, conduct thee safely to
+thy house, and the plans of those things, which thou anxiously keepest in
+thy mind, mayest thou bring to completion, since, Ægeus, thou hast appeared
+to us to be a noble man.
+
+MEDEA, CHORUS.
+
+MED. O Jove, and thou vengeance of Jove, and thou light of the sun, now, my
+friends, shall I obtain a splendid victory over my enemies, and I have
+struck into the path. Now is there hope that my enemies will suffer
+punishment. For this man, where I was most at a loss, hath appeared a
+harbor to my plans. From him will I make fast my cable from the stern,
+having come to the town and citadel of Pallas. But now will I communicate
+all my plans to thee; but receive my words not as attuned to pleasure.
+Having sent one of my domestics, I will ask Jason to come into my presence;
+and when he is come, I will address gentle words to him, as that it appears
+to me that these his actions are both honorable, and are advantageous and
+well determined on.[21] And I will entreat him that my sons may stay; not
+that I would leave my children in a hostile country for my enemies to
+insult, but that by deceit I may slay the king's daughter. For I will send
+them bearing presents in their hands, both a fine-wrought robe, and a
+golden-twined wreath.[22] And if she take the ornaments and place them
+round her person, she shall perish miserably, and every one who shall touch
+the damsel; with such charms will I anoint the presents. Here however I
+finish this account; but I bewail the deed such as must next be done by me;
+for I shall slay my children; there is no one who shall rescue them from
+me; and having heaped in ruins the whole house of Jason, I will go from out
+this land, flying the murder of my dearest children, and having dared a
+deed most unhallowed. For it is not to be borne, my friends, to be derided
+by one's enemies. Let things take their course; what gain is it to me to
+live longer? I have neither country, nor house, nor refuge from my ills.
+Then erred I, when I left my father's house, persuaded by the words of a
+Grecian man, who with the will of the Gods shall suffer punishment from me.
+For neither shall he ever hereafter behold the children he had by me alive,
+nor shall he raise a child by his new wedded wife, since it is fated that
+the wretch should wretchedly perish by my spells. Let no one think me
+mean-spirited and weak, nor of a gentle temper, but of a contrary
+disposition to my foes relentless, and to my friends kind: for the lives of
+such sort are most glorious.
+
+CHOR. Since thou hast communicated this plan to me, desirous both of doing
+good to thee, and assisting the laws of mortals, I dissuade thee from doing
+this.
+
+MED. It can not be otherwise, but it is pardonable in thee to say this, not
+suffering the cruel treatment that I do.
+
+CHOR. But wilt thou dare to slay thy two sons, O lady?
+
+MED. For in this way will my husband be most afflicted.
+
+CHOR. But thou at least wilt be the most wretched woman.
+
+MED. Be that as it may: all intervening words are superfluous; but go,
+hasten, and bring Jason hither; for I make use of thee in all matters of
+trust. And thou wilt mention nothing of the plans determined on by me, if
+at least thou meanest well to thy mistress, and art a woman.
+
+CHOR. The Athenians happy of old, and the descendants of the blessed Gods,
+feeding on the most exalted wisdom of a country sacred and unconquered,
+always tripping elegantly through the purest atmosphere, where they say
+that of old the golden-haired Harmonia gave birth to the chaste nine
+Pierian Muses.[23] And they report also that Venus drawing in her breath
+from the stream of the fair-flowing Cephisus, breathed over their country
+gentle sweetly-breathing gales of air; and always entwining in her hair the
+fragrant wreath of roses, sends the loves as assessors to wisdom; the
+assistants of every virtue. How then will the city of hallowed rivers,[24]
+or the country which conducts thee to friends, receive the murderer of her
+children, the unholy one? Consider in conjunction with others of the
+slaughter of thy children, consider what a murder thou wilt undertake. Do
+not by thy knees, by every plea,[25] by every prayer, we entreat you, do
+not murder your children; but how wilt thou acquire confidence either of
+mind or hand or in heart against thy children, attempting a dreadful deed
+of boldness? But how, having darted thine eyes upon thy children, wilt thou
+endure the perpetration of the murder without tears? Thou wilt not[26] be
+able, when thy children fall suppliant at thy feet, to imbrue thy savage
+hand in their wretched life-blood.
+
+JASON, MEDEA, CHORUS.
+
+JAS. I am come, by thee requested; for although thou art enraged, thou
+shalt not be deprived of this at least; but I will hear what new service
+thou dost desire of me, lady.
+
+MED. Jason, I entreat you to be forgiving of what has been said, but right
+is it that you should bear with my anger, since many friendly acts have
+been done by us two. But I reasoned with myself and rebuked myself; wayward
+woman, why am I maddened and am enraged with those who consult well for me?
+and why am I in enmity with the princes of the land and with my husband,
+who is acting in the most advantageous manner for us, having married a
+princess, and begetting brothers to my children? Shall I not cease from my
+rage? What injury do I suffer, the Gods providing well for me? Have I not
+children? And I know that I am flying the country, and am in want of
+friends. Revolving this in my mind I perceive that I had much imprudence,
+and was enraged without reason. Now then I approve of this, and thou
+appearest to me to be prudent, having added this alliance to us; but I was
+foolish, who ought to share in these plans, and to join in adorning and to
+stand by the bed, and to delight with thee that thy bride was enamored of
+thee; but we women are as we are, I will not speak evil of the sex;
+wherefore it is not right that you should put yourself on an equality with
+the evil, nor repay folly for folly. I give up, and say that then I erred
+in judgment, but now I have determined on these things better. O my
+children, my children, come forth, leave the house, come forth, salute, and
+address your father with me, and be reconciled to your friends from your
+former hatred together with your mother. For there is amity between us, and
+my rage hath ceased. Take his right hand. Alas! my misfortunes; how I feel
+some hidden ill in my mind! Will ye, my children, in this manner, and for a
+long time enjoying life, stretch out your dear hands? Wretch that I am! how
+near am I to weeping and full of fear!--But at last canceling this dispute
+with your father, I have filled thus my tender sight with tears.
+
+CHOR. In my eyes also the moist tear is arisen; and may not the evil
+advance to a greater height than it is at present.
+
+JAS. I approve of this, lady, nor do I blame the past; for it is reasonable
+that the female sex be enraged with a husband who barters them for another
+union.--But thy heart has changed to the more proper side, and thou hast
+discovered, but after some time, the better counsel: these are the actions
+of a wise woman. But for you, my sons, your father not without thought hath
+formed many provident plans, with the assistance of the Gods. For I think
+that you will be yet the first in this Corinthian country, together with
+your brothers. But advance and prosper: and the rest your father, and
+whatever God is propitious, will effect. And may I behold you blooming
+arrive at the prime of youth, superior to my enemies. And thou, why dost
+thou bedew thine eyes with the moist tear, having turned aside thy white
+cheek, and why dost thou not receive these words from me with pleasure?
+
+MED. It is nothing. I was thinking of my sons.
+
+JAS. Be of good courage; for I will arange well for them.
+
+MED. I will be so, I will not mistrust thy words; but a woman is of soft
+mould, and was born to tears.
+
+JAS. Why, I pray, dost thou so grieve for thy children?
+
+MED. I brought them into the world, and when thou wert praying that thy
+children might live, a feeling of pity came upon me if that would be. But
+for what cause thou hast come to a conference with me, partly hath been
+explained, but the other reasons I will mention. Since it appeareth fit to
+the royal family to send me from this country, for me also this appears
+best, I know it well, that I might not dwell here, a check either to thee
+or to the princes of the land; for I seem to be an object of enmity to the
+house; I indeed will set out from this land in flight; but to the end that
+the children may be brought up by thy hand, entreat Creon that they may not
+leave this land.
+
+JAS. I know not whether I shall persuade him; but it is right to try.
+
+MED. But do thou then exhort thy bride to ask her father, that my children
+may not leave this country.
+
+JAS. Certainly I will, and I think at least that she will persuade him, if
+indeed she be one of the female sex.
+
+MED. I also will assist you in this task, for I will send to her presents
+which (I well know) far surpass in beauty any now among men, both a
+fine-wrought robe, and a golden-twined chaplet, my sons carrying them. But
+as quick as possible let one of my attendants bring hither these ornaments.
+Thy bride shall be blessed not in one instance, but in many, having met
+with you at least the best of husbands, and possessing ornaments which the
+sun my father's father once gave to his descendants. Take these nuptial
+presents, my sons, in your hands, and bear and present them to the blessed
+royal bride; she shall receive gifts not indeed to be despised.
+
+JAS. Why, O fond woman, dost thou rob thy hands of these; thinkest thou
+that the royal palace is in want of vests? in want of gold? keep these
+presents, give them not away; for if the lady esteems me of any value, she
+will prefer pleasing me to riches, I know full well.
+
+MED. But do not oppose me; gifts, they say, persuade even the Gods,[27] and
+gold is more powerful than a thousand arguments to men. Hers is fortune,
+her substance the God now increases, she in youth governs all. But the
+sentence of banishment on my children I would buy off with my life, not
+with gold alone. But my children, enter you the wealthy palace, to the new
+bride of your father, and my mistress, entreat her, beseech her, that you
+may not leave the land, presenting these ornaments; but this is of the
+greatest consequence, that, she receive these gifts in her own hand. Go as
+quick as possible, and may you be bearers of good tidings to your mother in
+what she desires to obtain, having succeeded favorably.
+
+CHOR. Now no longer have I any hope of life for the children, no longer [is
+there hope]; for already are they going to death. The bride shall receive
+the destructive present of the golden chaplet, she wretched shall receive
+them, and around her golden tresses shall she place the attire of death,
+having received the presents in her hands. The beauty and the divine
+glitter of the robe will persuade her to place around her head the
+golden-wrought chaplet. Already with the dead shall the bride be adorned;
+into such a net will she fall, and such a destiny will she, hapless woman,
+meet with; nor will she escape her fate. But thou, oh unhappy man! oh
+wretched bridegroom! son-in-law of princes, unknowingly thou bringest on
+thy children destruction, and on thy wife a bitter death; hapless man, how
+much art thou fallen from thy state![28] But I lament for thy grief, O
+wretch, mother of these children, who wilt murder thy sons on account of a
+bridal-bed; deserting which, in defiance of thee, thy husband dwells with
+another wife.
+
+TUTOR, MEDEA, CHORUS.
+
+TUT. Thy sons, my mistress, are reprieved from banishment, and the royal
+bride received thy presents in her hands with pleasure, and hence is peace
+to thy children.
+
+MED. Ah!
+
+TUT. Why dost thou stand in confusion, when thou art fortunate?
+
+MED. Alas! alas!
+
+TUT. This behavior is not consonant with the message I have brought thee.
+
+MED. Alas! again.
+
+TUT. Have I reported any ill fortune unknowingly, and have I failed in my
+hope of being the messenger of good?
+
+MED. Thou hast said what thou hast said, I blame not thee.
+
+TUT. Why then dost thou bend down thine eye, and shed tears?
+
+MED. Strong necessity compels me, O aged man, for this the Gods and I
+deliberating ill have contrived.
+
+TUT. Be of good courage; thou also wilt return home yet through thy
+children.
+
+MED. Others first will I send to their home,[29] O wretched me!
+
+TUT. Thou art not the only one who art separated from thy children; it
+behooves a mortal to bear calamities with meekness.
+
+MED. I will do so; but go within the house, and prepare for the children
+what is needful for the day. O my sons, my sons, you have indeed a city,
+and a house, in which having forsaken me miserable, you shall dwell, ever
+deprived of a mother. But I am now going an exile into a foreign land,
+before I could have delight in you, and see you flourishing, before I could
+adorn your marriage, and wife, and nuptial-bed, and hold up the torch.[30]
+O unfortunate woman that I am, on account of my wayward temper. In vain
+then, my children, have I brought you up, in vain have I toiled, and been
+consumed with cares, suffering the strong agonies of child-bearing. Surely
+once there was a time when I hapless woman had many hopes in you, that you
+would both tend me in my age, and when dead would with your hands decently
+compose my limbs, a thing desired by men. But now this pleasing thought
+hath indeed perished; for deprived of you I shall pass a life of misery,
+and bitter to myself. But you will no longer behold your mother with your
+dear eyes, having passed into another state of life. Alas! alas! why do you
+look upon me with your eyes, my children? Why do ye smile that last smile?
+Alas! alas! what shall I do? for my heart is sinking. Ye females, when I
+behold the cheerful look of my children, I have no power. Farewell my
+counsels: I will take my children with me from this land. What does it
+avail me grieving their father with the ills of these, to acquire twice as
+much pain for myself? never will I at least do this. Farewell my counsels.
+And yet what do I suffer? do I wish to incur ridicule, having left my foes
+unpunished? This must be dared. But the bringing forward words of
+tenderness in my mind arises also from my cowardice. Go, my children, into
+the house; and he for whom it is not lawful to be present at my sacrifice,
+let him take care himself to keep away.[31] But I will not stain my hand.
+Alas! alas! do not thou then, my soul, do not thou at least perpetrate
+this. Let them escape, thou wretch, spare thy sons. There shall they live
+with us and delight thee. No, I swear by the infernal deities who dwell
+with Pluto, never shall this be, that I will give up my children to be
+insulted by my enemies. [At all events they must die, and since they must,
+I who brought them into the world will perpetrate the deed.] This is fully
+determined by fate, and shall not pass away. And now the chaplet is on her
+head, and the bride is perishing in the robes; of this I am well assured.
+But, since I am now going a most dismal path, and these will I send by one
+still more dismal, I desire to address my children: give, my sons, give thy
+right hand for thy mother to kiss. O most dear hand, and those lips dearest
+to me, and that form and noble countenance of my children, be ye blessed,
+but there;[32] for every thing here your father hath taken away. O the
+sweet embrace, and that soft skin, and that most fragrant breath of my
+children. Go, go; no longer am I able to look upon you, but am overcome by
+my ills. I know indeed the ills that I am about to dare, but my rage is
+master of my counsels,[33] which is indeed the cause of the greatest
+calamities to men.
+
+CHOR. Already have I often gone through more refined reasonings, and have
+come to greater arguments than suits the female mind to investigate; for we
+also have a muse, which dwelleth with us, for the sake of teaching wisdom;
+but not with all, for haply thou wilt find but a small number of the race
+of women out of many not ungifted with the muse.[34]
+
+And I say that those men who are entirely free from wedlock, and have not
+begotten children, surpass in happiness those who have families; those
+indeed who are childless, through inexperience whether children are born a
+joy or anguish to men, not having them themselves, are exempt from much
+misery. But those who have a sweet blooming offspring of children in their
+house, I behold worn with care the whole time; first of all how they shall
+bring them up honorably, and how they shall leave means of sustenance for
+their children. And still after this, whether they are toiling for bad or
+good sons, this is still in darkness. But one ill to mortals, the last of
+all, I now will mention. For suppose they have both found sufficient store,
+and the bodies of their children have arrived at manhood, and that they are
+good; but if this fortune shall happen to them, death, bearing away their
+sons, vanishes with them to the shades of darkness. How then does it profit
+that the Gods heap on mortals yet this grief in addition to others, the
+most bitter of all, for the sake of children?
+
+MEDEA, MESSENGER, CHORUS.
+
+MED. For a long time waiting for the event, my friends, I am anxiously
+expecting what will be the result thence. And I see indeed one of the
+domestics of Jason coming hither, and his quickened breath shows that he
+will be the messenger of some new ill.
+
+MESS. O thou, that hast impiously perpetrated a deed of terror, Medea, fly,
+fly, leaving neither the ocean chariot,[35] nor the car whirling o'er the
+plain.
+
+MED. But what is done that requires this flight?
+
+MESS. The princess is just dead, and Creon her father destroyed by thy
+charms.
+
+MED. Thou hast spoken most glad tidings: and hereafter from this time shalt
+thou be among my benefactors and friends.
+
+MESS. What sayest thou? Art thou in thy senses, and not mad, lady? who
+having destroyed the king and family, rejoicest at hearing it, and fearest
+not such things?
+
+MED. I also have something to say to these words of thine at least; but be
+not hasty, my friend; but tell me how they perished, for twice as much
+delight wilt thou give me if they died miserably.
+
+MESS. As soon as thy two sons were come with their father, and had entered
+the bridal house, we servants, who were grieved at thy misfortunes, were
+delighted; and immediately there was much conversation in our ears, that
+thy husband and thou had brought the former quarrel to a friendly
+termination. One kissed the hand, another the auburn head of thy sons, and
+I also myself followed with them to the women's apartments through joy. But
+my mistress, whom we now reverence instead of thee, before she saw thy two
+sons enter, held her cheerful eyes fixed on Jason; afterward however she
+covered her eyes, and turned aside her white cheek, disgusted at the
+entrance of thy sons; but thy husband quelled the anger and rage of the
+young bride, saying this; Be not angry with thy friends, but cease from thy
+rage, and turn again thy face, esteeming those as friends, whom thy husband
+does. But receive the gifts, and ask thy father to give up the sentence of
+banishment against these children for my sake. But when she saw the
+ornaments, she refused not, but promised her husband every thing; and
+before thy sons and their father were gone far from the house, she took and
+put on the variegated robes, and having placed the golden chaplet around
+her tresses she arranges her hair in the radiant mirror, smiling at the
+lifeless image of her person. And after, having risen from her seat, she
+goes across the chamber, elegantly tripping with snow-white foot; rejoicing
+greatly in the presents, looking much and oftentimes with her eyes on her
+outstretched neck.[36] After that however there was a sight of horror to
+behold. For having changed color, she goes staggering back trembling in her
+limbs, and is scarce in time to prevent herself from falling on the ground,
+by sinking into a chair. And some aged female attendant, when she thought
+that the wrath either of Pan or some other Deity[37] had visited her,
+offered up the invocation, before at least she sees the white foam bursting
+from her mouth, and her mistress rolling her eyeballs from their sockets,
+and the blood no longer in the flesh; then she sent forth a loud shriek of
+far different sound from the strain of supplication; and straightway one
+rushed to the apartments of her father, but another to her newly-married
+husband, to tell the calamity befallen the bride, and all the house was
+filled with frequent hurryings to and fro. And by this time a swift runner,
+exerting his limbs, might have reached[38] the goal of the course of six
+plethra;[39] but she, wretched woman, from being speechless, and from a
+closed eye having groaned deeply writhed in agony; for a double pest was
+warring against her. The golden chaplet indeed placed on her head was
+sending forth a stream of all-devouring fire wonderful to behold, but the
+fine-wrought robes, the presents of thy sons, were devouring the white
+flesh of the hapless woman. But she having started from her seat flies, all
+on fire, tossing her hair and head on this side and that side, desirous of
+shaking off the chaplet; but the golden wreath firmly kept its hold; but
+the fire, when she shook her hair, blazed out with double fury, and she
+sinks upon the ground overcome by her sufferings, difficult for any one
+except her father to recognize. For neither was the expression of her eyes
+clear, nor her noble countenance; but the blood was dropping from the top
+of her head mixed with fire. But her flesh was dropping off her bones, as
+the tear from the pine-tree, by the hidden fangs of the poison; a sight of
+horror. But all feared to touch the body, for we had her fate to warn us.
+But the hapless father, through ignorance of her suffering, having come
+with haste into the apartment, falls on the corpse, and groans immediately;
+and having folded his arms round her, kisses her, saying these words; O
+miserable child, what Deity hath thus cruelly destroyed thee? who makes an
+aged father bowing to the tomb[40] bereaved of thee? Alas me! let me die
+with thee, my child. But after he had ceased from his lamentations and
+cries, desiring to raise his aged body, he was held, as the ivy by the
+boughs of the laurel, by the fine-wrought robes; and dreadful was the
+struggle, for he wished to raise his knee, but she held him back; but if he
+drew himself away by force he tore the aged flesh from his bones. But at
+length the wretched man swooned away, and gave up his life; for no longer
+was he able to endure the agony. But they lie corses, the daughter and aged
+father near one another; a calamity that demands tears. And let thy affairs
+indeed be not matter for my words; for thou thyself wilt know a refuge from
+punishment. But the affairs of mortals not now for the first time I deem a
+shadow, and I would venture to say that those persons who seem to be wise
+and are researchers of arguments, these I say, run into the greatest folly.
+For no mortal man is happy; but wealth pouring in, one man may be more
+fortunate than another, but happy he can not be.
+
+CHOR. The Deity, it seems, will in this day justly heap on Jason a variety
+of ills. O hapless lady, how we pity thy sufferings, daughter of Creon, who
+art gone to the house of darkness, through thy marriage with Jason.
+
+MED. The deed is determined on by me, my friends, to slay my children as
+soon as possible, and to hasten from this land; and not by delaying to give
+my sons for another hand more hostile to murder. But come, be armed, my
+heart; why do we delay to do dreadful but necessary deeds? Come, O wretched
+hand of mine, grasp the sword, grasp it, advance to the bitter goal of
+life, and be not cowardly, nor remember thy children how dear they are, how
+thou broughtest them into the world; but for this short day at least forget
+thy children; hereafter lament. For although thou slayest them,
+nevertheless they at least were dear, but I a wretched woman.
+
+CHOR. O thou earth, and thou all-illuming beam of the sun, look down upon,
+behold this abandoned woman, before she move her blood-stained hand itself
+about to inflict the blow against her children; for from thy golden race
+they sprung; but fearful is it for the blood of Gods to fall by the hand of
+man. But do thou, O heaven-born light, restrain her, stop her, remove from
+this house this blood-stained and miserable Erinnys agitated by the Furies.
+The care of thy children perishes in vain, and in vain hast thou produced a
+dear race, O thou who didst leave the most inhospitable entrance of the
+Cyanean rocks, the Symplegades. Hapless woman, why does such grievous rage
+settle on thy mind; and hostile slaughter ensue? For kindred pollutions are
+difficult of purification to mortals; correspondent calamities falling from
+the Gods to the earth upon the houses of the murderers.[41]
+
+FIRST SON. (_within_) Alas! what shall I do? whither shall I fly from my
+mother's hand?
+
+SECOND SON. I know not, dearest brother, for we perish.
+
+CHOR. Hearest thou the cry? hearest thou the children? O wretch, O
+ill-fated woman! Shall I enter the house? It seems right to me to ward off
+the murderous blow from the children.
+
+SONS. Nay, by the Gods assist us, for it is in needful time; since now at
+least are we near the destruction of the sword.
+
+CHOR. Miserable woman, art thou then a rock, or iron, who cuttest down with
+death by thine own hand the fair crop of children which thou producedst
+thyself? one indeed I hear of, one woman of those of old, who laid violent
+hands on her children, Ino, maddened by the Gods when the wife of Jove sent
+her in banishment from her home; and she miserable woman falls into the sea
+through the impious murder of her children, directing her foot over the
+sea-shore, and dying with her two sons, there she perished! what then I
+pray can be more dreadful than this? O thou bed of woman, fruitful in ills,
+how many evils hast thou already brought to men!
+
+JASON, CHORUS.
+
+JAS. Ye females, who stand near this mansion, is she who hath done these
+deeds of horror, Medea, in this house; or hath she withdrawn herself in
+flight? For now it is necessary for her either to be hidden beneath the
+earth, or to raise her winged body into the vast expanse of air, if she
+would not suffer vengeance from the king's house. Does she trust that after
+having slain the princes of this land, she shall herself escape from this
+house with impunity?--But I have not such care for her as for my children;
+for they whom she has injured will punish her. But I came to preserve my
+children's life, lest [Creon's] relations by birth do any injury,[42]
+avenging the impious murder perpetrated by their mother.
+
+CHOR. Unhappy man! thou knowest not at what misery thou hast arrived,
+Jason, or else thou wouldest not have uttered these words.
+
+JAS. What is this, did she wish to slay me also?
+
+CHOR. Thy children are dead by their mother's hand.
+
+JAS. Alas me! What wilt thou say? how hast thou killed me, woman!
+
+CHOR. Think now of thy sons as no longer living.
+
+JAS. Where did she slay them, within or without the house?
+
+CHOR. Open those doors, and thou wilt see the slaughter of thy sons.
+
+JAS. Undo the bars, as quick as possible, attendants; unloose the hinges,
+that I may see this double evil, my sons slain, and may punish her.
+
+MED. Why dost thou shake and unbolt these gates, seeking the dead and me
+who did the deed. Cease from this labor; but if thou wantest aught with me,
+speak if thou wishest any thing; but never shall thou touch me with thy
+hands; such a chariot the sun my father's father gives me, a defense from
+the hostile hand.[43]
+
+JAS. O thou abomination! thou most detested woman, both by the Gods and by
+me, and by all the race of man; who hast dared to plunge the sword in thine
+own children, thou who bore them, and hast destroyed me childless. And
+having done this thou beholdest both the sun and the earth, having dared a
+most impious deed. Mayest thou perish! but I am now wise, not being so then
+when I brought thee from thy house and from a foreign land to a Grecian
+habitation, a great pest, traitress to thy father and the land that
+nurtured thee. But the Gods have sent thy evil genius on me. For having
+slain thy brother at the altar, thou embarkedst on board the gallant vessel
+Argo. Thou begannest indeed with such deeds as these; and being wedded to
+me, and bearing me children, thou hast destroyed them on account of another
+bed and marriage. There is not one Grecian woman who would have dared a
+deed like this, in preference to whom at least, I thought worthy to wed
+thee, an alliance hateful and destructive to me, a lioness, no woman,
+having a nature more savage than the Tuscan Scylla. But I can not gall thy
+heart with ten thousand reproaches, such shameless confidence is implanted
+in thee. Go, thou worker of ill, and stained with the blood of thy
+children. But for me it remains to bewail my fate, who shall neither enjoy
+my new nuptials, nor shall I have it in my power to address while alive my
+sons whom I begot and educated, but I have lost them.
+
+MED. Surely I could make long reply to these words, if the Sire Jupiter did
+not know what treatment thou receivedst from me, and what thou didst in
+return; but you were mistaken, when you expected, having dishonored my bed,
+to lead a life of pleasure, mocking me, and so was the princess, and so was
+Creon, who proposed the match to thee, when he expected to drive me from
+this land with impunity. Wherefore, if thou wilt, call me lioness, and
+Scylla who dwelt in the Tuscan plain. For thy heart, as is right, I have
+wounded.
+
+JAS. And thou thyself grievest at least, and art a sharer in these ills.
+
+MED. Be assured of that; but this lessens[44] the grief, that thou canst
+not mock me.
+
+JAS. My children, what a wicked mother have ye found!
+
+MED. My sons, how did ye perish by your father's fault!
+
+JAS. Nevertheless my hand slew them not.
+
+MED. But injury, and thy new nuptials.
+
+JAS. And on account of thy bed didst thou think fit to slay them?
+
+MED. Dost thou deem this a slight evil to a woman?
+
+JAS. Whoever at least is modest; but in thee is every ill.
+
+MED. These are no longer living, for this will gall thee.
+
+JAS. These are living, alas me! avenging furies on thy head.
+
+MED. The Gods know who began the injury.
+
+JAS. They know indeed thy execrable mind.
+
+Meo. Thou art hateful to me, and I detest thy bitter speech.
+
+JAS. And I in sooth thine; the separation at least is without pain.
+
+MED. How then? what shall I do? for I also am very desirous.
+
+JAS. Suffer me, I beg, to bury and mourn over these dead bodies.
+
+MED. Never indeed; since I will bury them with this hand bearing them to
+the shrine of Juno, the Goddess guardian of the citadel, that no one of my
+enemies may insult them, tearing up their graves. But in this land of
+Sisyphus will I institute in addition to this a solemn festival and
+sacrifices hereafter to expiate this unhallowed murder. But I myself will
+go to the land of Erectheus, to dwell with Ægeus son of Pandion. But thou,
+wretch, as is fit, shalt die wretchedly, struck on thy head with a relic of
+thy ship Argo, having seen the bitter end of my marriage.
+
+JAS. But may the Fury of the children, and Justice the avenger of murder,
+destroy thee.
+
+MED. But what God or Deity hears thee, thou perjured man, and traitor to
+the rights of hospitality?
+
+JAS. Ah! thou abominable woman, and murderer of thy children.
+
+MED. Go to thy home, and bury thy wife.
+
+JAS. I go, even deprived of both my children.
+
+MED. Thou dost not yet mourn enough: stay and grow old.[45]
+
+JAS. Oh my dearest sons!
+
+MED. To their mother at least, but not to thee.
+
+JAS. And yet thou slewest them.
+
+MED. To grieve thee.
+
+JAS. Alas, alas! I hapless man long to kiss the dear mouths of my children.
+
+MED. Now them addressest, now salutest them, formerly rejecting them with
+scorn.
+
+JAS. Grant me, by the Gods, to touch the soft skin of my sons.
+
+MED. It is not possible. Thy words are thrown away in vain.
+
+JAS. Dost thou hear this, O Jove, how I am rejected, and what I suffer from
+this accursed and child-destroying lioness? But as much indeed as is in my
+power and I am able, I lament and mourn over these; calling the Gods to
+witness, that having slain my children, thou preventest me from touching
+them with my hands, and from burying the bodies, whom, oh that I had never
+begotten, and seen them thus destroyed by thee.
+
+CHOR. Jove is the dispenser of various fates in heaven, and the Gods
+perform many things contrary to our expectations, and those things which we
+looked for are not accomplished; but the God hath brought to pass things
+unthought of. In such manner hath this affair ended.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+NOTES ON MEDEA
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+[1] The Cyaneæ Petræ, or Symplegades, were two rocks in the mouth of the
+Euxine Sea, said to meet together with prodigious violence, and crush the
+passing ships. See Pindar. Pyth. iv. 386.
+
+[2] ερετμωσαι signifies to make to row; ερετμησαι, to row. In the same
+sense the two verbs derived from πολεμος are used, πολεμοω signifying ad
+bellum excito; πολεμεω, bellum gero.
+
+[3] Elmsley reads φυγη in the nominative case, "_a flight indeed
+pleasing_," etc.
+
+[4] Literally, _Before we have drained this to the very dregs_. So Virgil,
+Æn. iv. 14. _Quæ bella exhausta canebat_!
+
+[5] Ter. And. Act. ii. Sc. 5. _Omnes sibi malle melius esse quam alteri_.
+Ac. iv. Sc. 1. _Proximus sum egomet mihi_.
+
+[6] Elmsley reads και for ει, "_And their father_," etc.
+
+[7] In Elms. Dind. το γαρ ειθισθαι, "_for the being accustomed_," etc.
+
+[8] δυναται here signifies ισχυει, σθενει; and in this sense it is
+repeatedly used: ουδενα καιρον, in this place, is not to be interpreted
+"intempestive", but "immoderate, supra modum." For this signification
+consult Stephen's Thesaurus, word καιρος. EMSLEY.
+
+[9] ‛οδε is used in this sense v. 49, 687, 901, of this Play.
+
+[10] μογερα is best taken with Reiske as the accusative plural, though the
+Scholiast considers it the nominative singular. ELMSLEY.
+
+[11] γεγωτας need not be translated as νομιζομενους, the sense is [Greek;
+ontas]: so αυθαδης γεγως, line 225.
+
+[12] That is, the character of man can not be discovered by the
+countenance: so Juvenal,
+
+  Fronti nulla fides.
+
+‛οστις, though in the singular number, refers to βροτων in the plural: a
+similar construction is met with in Homer, Il. Γ. 279.
+
+  ανθρωπους τιννυσθον, ‛ο τις κ' επιορκον ‛ομοσσηι.
+
+[13] Grammarians teach us that γαμειν is applied to the husband, γαμεισθαι
+to the wife; and this rule will generally be found to hold good. We must
+either then read ‛η τ' εγηματο, which Porson does not object to, and
+Elmsley adopts; or understand εγηματο in an ironical sense, in the spirit
+of Martial's _Uxori nubere nolo meæ_: in the latter case ‛ηι τ' εγηματο
+should be read (not ‛ην τ'), as being the proper syntax.
+
+[14] The primary signification of πλημμελης is _absonus_, _out of tune_:
+hence is easily deduced the signification in which it is often found in
+Euripides. The word πλημμελησας occurs in the Phœnissæ, l. 1669.
+
+[15] Elmsley approves of the reading adopted by Porson, though he has given
+in his text
+
+  πονουμεν ‛ημεις, κ' ον πονων κεχρημεθα.
+
+"_We are oppressed with cares, and want not other cares_," as being more
+likely to have come from Euripides. So also Dindorf.
+
+[16] ‛ως εοικας; is here used for the more common expression ‛ως εοικεν. So
+Herodotus, Clio, clv. ου παυσονται ‛οι Λυδοι, ‛ως οικασι, πραγματα
+παρεχοντες, και αυτοι εχοντες. See also Hecuba, 801.
+
+[17] Beck interprets this passage, "Mea quidem vita ut non habeat laudem,
+fama obstat." Heath translates it, "Jam in contrariam partem tendens fama
+efficit, ut mea quoque vita laudem habeat." We are told by the Scholiast,
+that by βιοταν is to be understood φυσιν.
+
+[18] Iolcos was a city of Thessaly, distant about seven stadii from the
+sea, where the parents of Jason lived: Pelion was both a mountain and city
+of Thessaly, close to Iolcos; whence Iolcos is called Peliotic.
+
+[19] For the same sentiment more fully expressed, see Hippolytus, 616-625.
+See also Paradise Lost, x. 890.
+
+                  Oh, why did God,
+  Creator wise, that peopled highest heaven
+  With spirits masculine, create at last
+  This novelty on earth, this fair defect
+  Of nature, and not fill the world at once
+  With men, as angels, without feminine?
+
+[20] Porson rightly reads ταχ' αν πιθοιο with Wyttenbach.
+
+[21] Elmsley has
+
+  "‛ως και δοκει μοι ταυτα, και καλως εχειν
+  γαμους τυραννων, ‛ους προδους ‛ημας εχει,
+  και ξυμφορ' ειναι, και καλως εγνωσμενα."
+
+"_that these things appear good to me, and that the alliance with the
+princes, which he, having forsaken me, has contracted, are both
+advantageous and well determined on_." So also Dind. but καλως εχει. Porson
+omits the line.
+
+[22] In Elmsley this line is omitted, and instead of it is inserted
+
+  "νυμφηι φεροντας, τηνδε μη φευγειν χθονα."
+
+"_offering them to the bride, that they may not be banished from this
+country_," which Dindorf retains, and brackets the other.
+
+[23] Although the Scholiast reprobates this interpretation, it seems to be
+the best, nor is it any objection, that Μνημοσυνη is elsewhere represented
+as the Mother of the Muses; so much at variance is the poetry of Euripides
+with the received mythology of the ancients. ELMSLEY.
+
+[24] The construction is πολις ‛ιερων ποταμων; thus Thebes, Phœnis. l. 831,
+is called πυργος διδυμων ποταμων. A like expression occurs in 2 Sam. xii.
+27. I have fought against Rabbah, and have taken _the city of waters_,
+πολιν των ‛υδατων in the Septuagint version.
+
+[25] Elmsley reads παντες, "_we all entreat thee_." So Dindorf.
+
+[26] Elmsley reads ‛η δυνασει with the note of interrogation after θυμωι;
+"_or how wilt thou be able,_" etc.
+
+[27] An allusion to that well-known saying in Plato, de Repub. 1. 3. Δωρα
+θεους πειθει, δωρ' αιδοιους βασιληας. Ovid. de Arte Am. iii. 635.
+
+  Munera, crede mini, capiunt hominesque deosque.
+
+[28] Vertit Portus, _O infelix quantam calamitatem ignoras_. Mihi sensus
+videtur esse, _quantum a pristina fortuna excidisti_. ELMSLEY.
+
+[29] Medea here makes use of the ambiguous word καταξω, which may be
+understood by the Tutor in the sense of "bringing back to their country,"
+but implies also the horrid purpose of destroying her children: τοδε
+'καταξω' αντι του πεμψω εις τον Αιδην, as the Scholiast explains it.
+
+[30] It was the custom for mothers to bear lighted torches at their
+children's nuptials. See Iphig. Aul. l. 372.
+
+[31] ‛οτωι δε φησιν ουκ ευσεβες φαινεται παρειναι τωι φονωι, και δεχεσθαι
+τοιαυτας θυσιας, ‛ουτος αποτω.--τωι δε αυτωι μελησει συναπτεον το μη
+παρειναι. SCHOL.
+
+[32] _But there_; that is, in the regions below.
+
+[33] Ovid. Metamorph. vii. 20.
+
+      Video meliora proboque,
+  Deteriora sequor.
+
+[34] Elmsley reads
+
+  παυρον δε γενος (μιαν εν πολλαις
+  ‛ευροις αν ισως)
+  ουκ, κ.τ.λ.
+
+"_But a small number of the race of women (you may perchance find one among
+many) not ungifted with the muse_."
+
+[35] A similar expression is found in Iphig. Taur, v. 410. ναϊον οχημα. A
+ship is frequently called ‛Ερμα θαλασσης: so Virgil, Æn. vi. Classique
+immittit habenas.
+
+[36] Elmsley is of opinion that _the instep_ and not _the neck_ is meant by
+τενων.
+
+[37] The ancients attributed all sudden terrors, and sudden sicknesses,
+such as epilepsies, for which no cause appeared, to Pan, or to some other
+Deity. The anger of the God they endeavored to avert by a hymn, which had
+the nature of a charm.
+
+[38] Elmsley has ανθηπτετο, which is the old reading: this makes no
+difference in the construing or the construction, as, in the line before,
+he reads αν ‛ελκων, where Porson has ανελκων.
+
+[39] The space of time elapsed is meant to be marked by this circumstance.
+MUSGRAVE. PORSON. Thus we find in Μ of the Odyssey, l. 439, the time of day
+expressed by the rising of the judges; in Δ of the Iliad, l. 86, by the
+dining of the woodman. When we recollect that the ancients had not the
+inventions that we have whereby to measure their time, we shall cease to
+consider the circumlocution as absurd or out of place.
+
+[40] The same expression occurs in the Heraclidæ, l. 168. The Scholiast
+explains it thus; τυμβογεροντα, τον πλησιον θανατου ‛οντα: τυμβους δε
+καλουσι τους γεροντας, παροσον πλησιον εισι του θανατου και του ταφου.
+
+[41] αυτοφονταις may be taken as an adjective to agree with δομοις, or the
+construction may be αχη πιτνοντα αυτοφονταις επι δομοις, in the same manner
+as λιθος επεσε μοι επι κεφαληι. ELMSLEY.
+
+[42] μη με τι δρασωσι' had been "lest they do _me_ any injury." Elmsley
+conceives that νιν is the true reading, which might easily have been
+corrupted into μοι.
+
+[43] Here Medea appears above in a chariot drawn by dragons, bearing with
+her the bodies of her slaughtered sons. SCHOL. See Horace, Epod. 3.
+
+  Hoc delibutis ulta donis pellicem,
+  Serpente fugit alite.
+
+[44] λυει may also be interpreted, with the Scholiast, in the sense of
+λυσιτελει, "the grief delights me." The translation given in the text is
+proposed by Porson, and approved of by Elmsley.
+
+[45] Elmsley has
+
+  μενε και γηρας.
+
+"_Stay yet for old age_." So also Dindorf.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *       *
+
+HIPPOLYTUS.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+PERSONS REPRESENTED.
+
+  VENUS.
+  HIPPOLYTUS.
+  ATTENDANTS.
+  PHÆDRA.
+  NURSE.
+  THESEUS.
+  MESSENGER.
+  DIANA.
+  CHORUS OF TRŒZENIAN DAMES.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE ARGUMENT.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+Theseus was the son of Othra and Neptune, and king of the Athenians; and
+having married Hippolyta, one of the Amazons, he begat Hippolytus, who
+excelled in beauty and chastity. When his wife died, he married, for his
+second wife, Phædra, a Cretan, daughter of Minos, king of Crete, and
+Pasiphaë. Theseus, in consequence of having slain Pallas, one of his
+kinsmen, goes into banishment, with his wife, to Trœzene, where it happened
+that Hippolytus was being brought up by Pittheus: but Phædra having seen
+the youth was desperately enamored, not that she was incontinent, but in
+order to fulfill the anger of Venus, who, having determined to destroy
+Hippolytus on account of his chastity, brought her plans to a conclusion.
+She, concealing her disease, at length was compelled to declare it to her
+nurse, who had promised to relieve her, and who, though against her
+inclination, carried her words to the youth. Phædra, having learned that he
+was exasperated, eluded the nurse, and hung herself. At which time Theseus
+having arrived, and wishing to take her down that was strangled, found a
+letter attached to her, throughout which she accused Hippolytus of a design
+on her virtue. And he, believing what was written, ordered Hippolytus to go
+into banishment, and put up a prayer to Neptune, in compliance with which
+the god destroyed Hippolytus. But Diana declared to Theseus every thing
+that had happened, and blamed not Phædra, but comforted him, bereaved of
+his child and wife, and promised to institute honors in the place to
+Hippolytus.
+
+The scene of the play is laid in Trœzene. It was acted in the archonship of
+Ameinon, in the fourth year of the 87th Olympiad. Euripides first, Jophon
+second, Jon third. This Hippolytus is the second of that name, and is
+called ΣΤΕΦΑΝΙΑΣ: but it appears to have been written the latest, for what
+was unseemly and deserved blame is corrected in this play. The play is
+ranked among the first.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+HIPPOLYTUS.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+VENUS.
+
+Great in the sight of mortals, and not without a name am I the Goddess
+Venus, and in heaven: and of as many as dwell within the ocean and the
+boundaries of Atlas, beholding the light of the sun, those indeed, who
+reverence my authority, I advance to honor; but overthrow as many as hold
+themselves high toward me. For this is in sooth a property inherent even in
+the race of the Gods, that "they rejoice when honored by men." But quickly
+will I show the truth of these words: for the son of Theseus, born of the
+Amazon, Hippolytus, pupil of the chaste Pittheus, alone of the inhabitants
+of this land of Trœzene, says that I am of deities the vilest, and rejects
+the bridal bed, and will have nothing to do with marriage. But Dian, the
+sister of Phœbus, daughter of Jove, he honors, esteeming her the greatest
+of deities. And through the green wood ever accompanying the virgin, with
+his swift dogs he clears the beasts from off the earth, having formed a
+fellowship greater than mortal ought. This indeed I grudge him not; for
+wherefore should I? but wherein he has erred toward me, I will avenge me on
+Hippolytus this very day: and having cleared most of the difficulties
+beforehand,[1] I need not much labor. For Phædra, his father's noble wife,
+having seen him, (as he was going once from the house of Pittheus to the
+land of Pandion, in order to see and afterward be fully admitted to the
+hallowed mysteries,) was smitten in her heart with fierce love by my
+design. And even before she came to this land of Trœzene, at the very rock
+of Pallas that overlooks this land, she raised a temple to Venus, loving an
+absent love; and gave out afterward,[2] that the Goddess was honored with
+her temple for Hippolytus's sake. But now since Theseus has left the land
+of Cecrops, in order to avoid the pollution of the murder of the sons of
+Pallas, and is sailing to this land with his wife, having submitted to a
+year's banishment from his people; there indeed groaning and stricken with
+the stings of love, the wretched woman perishes in secret; and not one of
+her domestics is conscious of her malady. But this love must by no means
+fall to the ground in this way: but I will open the matter to Theseus, and
+it shall become manifest. And him that is our enemy shall the father kill
+with imprecations, which Neptune, king of the ocean, granted as a privilege
+to Theseus, that he should make no prayer thrice to the God in vain. But
+Phædra dies, an illustrious woman indeed, yet still [she must die]; for I
+will not make her ills of that high consequence, that will hinder my
+enemies from giving me such full vengeance as may content me. But, as I see
+the son of Theseus coming, having left the toil of the chase, I will depart
+from this spot. But with him a numerous train of attendants following
+behind raise a clamor, praising the Goddess Dian with hymns, for he knows
+not that the gates of hell are opened, and that this day is the last he
+beholds.
+
+HIPPOLYTUS, ATTENDANTS.
+
+HIPP. Follow, follow, singing the heavenly Dian, daughter of Jove; Dian,
+under whose protection we are.
+
+ATT. Holy, holy, most hallowed offspring of Jove, hail! hail! O Dian,
+daughter of Latona and of Jove, most beauteous by far of virgins, who, born
+of an illustrious sire, in the vast heaven dwellest in the palace of Jove,
+that mansion rich in gold.
+
+HIPP. Hail, O most beauteous, most beauteous of virgins in Olympus, Dian!
+For thee, my mistress, bear I this wreathed garland from the pure mead,
+where neither does the shepherd think fit to feed his flocks, nor yet came
+iron there, but the bee ranges over the pure and vernal mead, and Reverence
+waters it with river dews. Whosoever has chastity, not that which is taught
+in schools, but that which is by nature, for this description of persons it
+is lawful thence to pluck, but for the evil it is not lawful.[3] But, O my
+dear mistress, receive this wreath to bind your golden tresses from a pious
+hand. For to me alone of mortals is allowed this privilege. With thee I am
+both present, and exchange words with thee, hearing thy voice, but not
+seeing thy countenance. But may I finish the last turn of my course of
+life, even as I began.
+
+ATT. O king, (for the Gods alone ought we to call Lords,) will you hear
+somewhat from me, who advise you well?
+
+HIPP. Most certainly, or else I should not seem wise.
+
+ATT. Knowest thou then the law, which is established among men?
+
+HIPP. I know not; but what is the one, about which thou askest me?
+
+ATT. To hate haughtiness, and that which is disagreeable to all.
+
+HIPP. And rightly; for what haughty mortal is not odious?
+
+ATT. And in the affable is there any charm?
+
+HIPP. A very great one indeed, and gain with little toil.
+
+ATT. Dost thou suppose that the same thing holds also among the Gods?
+
+HIPP. Certainly, forasmuch as we mortals use the laws of the Gods.
+
+ATT. How is it then that thou addressest not a venerable Goddess?
+
+HIPP. Whom? but take heed that thy mouth err not.[4]
+
+ATT. Venus, who hath her station at thy gates.
+
+HIPP. I, who am chaste, salute her at a distance.
+
+ATT. Venerable is she, however, and of note among mortals.
+
+HIPP. Different Gods and men are objects of regard to different persons.
+
+ATT. May you be blest, having as much sense as you require.[5]
+
+HIPP. No one of the Gods, that is worshiped by night, delights me.
+
+ATT. My son, we must conform to the honors of the Gods.
+
+HIPP. Depart, my companions, and having entered the house, prepare the
+viands: delightful after the chase is the full table.--And I must rub down
+my horses, that having yoked them to the car, when I am satiated with the
+repast, I may give them their proper exercise. But to your Venus I bid a
+long farewell.
+
+ATT. But we, for one must not imitate the young, having our thoughts such,
+as it becomes slaves to give utterance to, will adore thy image, O Venus,
+our mistress; but thou shouldest pardon, if any one having intense feelings
+of mind by reason of his youth, speak foolishly: seem not to hear these
+things, for Gods must needs be wiser than men.
+
+CHOR. There is a rock near the ocean,[6] distilling water, which sends
+forth from its precipices a flowing fountain, wherein they dip their urns;
+where was a friend of mine wetting the purple vests in the dew of the
+stream, and she laid them down on the back of the warm sunny cliff: from
+hence first came to me the report concerning my mistress, that she, worn
+with the bed of sickness, keeps her person within the house, and that fine
+vests veil her auburn head. And I hear that she this day for the third
+keeps her body untouched by the fruit of Ceres, [which she receives not]
+into her ambrosial mouth, wishing in secret suffering to hasten to the
+unhappy goal of death. For heaven-possessed, O lady, or whether by Pan, or
+by Hecate, or by the venerable Corybantes, or by the mother who haunts the
+mountains, thou art raving. But thou art thus tormented on account of some
+fault committed against the Cretan huntress, profane because of unoffered
+sacred cakes. For she goes through the sea and beyond the land on the
+eddies of the watery brine. Or some one in the palace misguides thy noble
+husband, the chief of the Athenians, by secret concubinage in thy bed. Or
+some sailor who put from port at Crete, hath sailed to the harbor most
+friendly to mariners, bringing some message to the queen; and, confined to
+her couch, she is bound in soul by sorrow for its sufferings. But wretched
+helplessness is wont to dwell with the wayward constitution of women, both
+on account of their throes and their loss of reason. Once through my womb
+shot this thrill, but I invoked the heavenly Dian, who gives easy throes,
+who presides over the bow, and to me she came ever much to be blessed, as
+well as the other Gods. But lo! the old nurse is bringing her out of the
+palace before the gates; and the sad cloud upon her brows is increased.
+What it can possibly be, my soul desires to know, with what can be
+afflicted the person of the queen, of color so changed.[7]
+
+PHÆDRA, NURSE, CHORUS.
+
+Alas! the evils of men, and their odious diseases! what shall I do for
+thee? and what not do? lo! here is the clear light for thee, here the air:
+and now is thy couch whereon thou liest sick removed from out of the house:
+for every word you spoke was to come hither; but soon you will be in a
+hurry to go to your chamber back again: for you are soon changed, and are
+pleased with nothing. Nor does what is present delight you, but what is not
+present you think more agreeable. It is a better thing to be sick, than to
+tend the sick: the one is a simple ill, but with the other is joined both
+pain of mind and toil of hands. But the whole life of men is full of grief,
+nor is there rest from toils. But whatever else there be more dear than
+life, darkness enveloping hides it in clouds. Hence we appear to dote on
+this present state, because it gleams on earth, through inexperience of
+another life, and the non-appearance of the things beneath the earth. But
+we are blindly carried away by fables.
+
+PHÆ. Raise my body, place my head upright--I am faint in the joints of my
+limbs, my friends, lay hold of my fair-formed hands, O attendants--The
+dressing on my head is heavy for me to support--take it off, let flow my
+ringlets on my shoulders.
+
+NUR. Be of good courage, my child, and do not thus painfully shift [the
+posture of] your body. But you will bear your sickness more easily both
+with quiet, and with a noble temper, for it is necessary for mortals to
+suffer misery.
+
+PHÆ. Alas! alas! would I could draw from the dewy fountain the drink of
+pure waters, and that under the alders, and in the leafy mead reclining I
+might rest!
+
+NUR. O my child, what sayest thou? Wilt thou not desist from uttering these
+things before the multitude, blurting forth a speech of madness?[8]
+
+PHÆ. Bear me to the mountain--I will go to the wood, and by the pine-trees,
+where tread the dogs the slayers of beasts, pursuing the dappled hinds--By
+the Gods I long to cheer on the hounds, and by the side of my auburn hair
+to hurl the Thessalian javelin bearing the lanced weapon in my hand.
+
+NUR. Wherefore in the name of heaven, my child, do you hanker after these
+things? wherefore have you any anxiety for hunting? and wherefore do you
+long for the fountain streams? for by the towers there is a perpetual flow
+of water, whence may be your draught.
+
+PHÆ. O Dian, mistress of Limna near the sea, and of the exercises of the
+rattling steeds, would that I were on thy plains, breaking the Henetian
+colts.
+
+NUR. Wherefore again have you madly uttered this word? at one time having
+ascended the mountain you set forth with the desire of hunting; but now
+again you long for the colts on the wave-beaten sands. These things demand
+much skill in prophecy [to find out], who it is of the Gods that torments
+thee, O lady, and strikes mad thy senses.
+
+PHÆ. Wretch that I am, what then have I committed? whither have I wandered
+from my sound mind? I have gone mad; I have fallen by the evil influence of
+some God. Alas! alas! unhappy that I am--Nurse, cover my head again, for I
+am ashamed of the things I have spoken: cover me; a tear trickles down my
+eyes, and my sight is turned to my disgrace. For to be in one's right mind
+causes grief: but madness is an ill; yet it is better to perish, nothing
+knowing of one's ills.
+
+NUR. I cover thee--but when in sooth will death cover my body? Length of
+life teaches me many things. For it behooves mortals to form moderate
+friendships with each other, and not to the very marrow of the soul: and
+the affections of the mind should be dissoluble, and so that we can slacken
+them, or tighten.[9] But that one soul should feel pangs for two, as I now
+grieve for her, is a heavy burden. The concerns of life carried to too
+great an extent, they say, bring rather destruction than delight, and are
+rather at enmity with health. Thus I praise what is in extreme less than
+_the sentiment of_ "Nothing in excess;" and the wise will agree with me.
+
+CHOR. O aged woman, faithful nurse of the queen Phædra, we see indeed the
+wretched state of this lady, but it is not clear what her disease is: but
+we would wish to inquire and hear from you.
+
+NUR. I know not by my inquiries; for she is not willing to speak.
+
+CHOR. Nor what is the origin of these pangs?
+
+NUR. You come to the same result; for she is silent with regard to all
+these things.
+
+CHOR. How feeble she is, and wasted away as to her body!
+
+NUR. How could it be otherwise, seeing that she has abstained from food
+these three days?
+
+CHOR. From the violence of her calamity is it, or does she endeavor to die?
+
+NUR. To die; but she fasts to the dissolution of her life.
+
+CHOR. An extraordinary thing you have been telling me, if this conduct
+meets the approbation of her husband.
+
+NUR. [He nothing knows,] for she conceals this calamity, and denies that
+she is ill.
+
+CHOR. But does he not guess it, looking into her face?
+
+NUR. [How should he?] for he is out of this country.
+
+CHOR. But do you not urge it as a matter of necessity, when you endeavor to
+ascertain her disease and the wandering of her senses?
+
+NUR. I have tried every thing, and have made no further advances. I will
+not however abate even now from my zeal, so that you being present may bear
+witness with me, how I behave to my mistress when in calamity--Come, dear
+child, let us both forget our former conversations; and be both thou more
+mild, having smoothed that contracted brow, and altered the bent of your
+design; and I giving up that wherein I did not do right to follow thee,
+will have recourse to other better words. And if indeed you are ill with
+any of those maladies that are not to be mentioned, these women here can
+allay the disease: but if it may be related to men, tell it, that the thing
+may be mentioned to physicians.--Well! why art thou silent? It doth not
+behoove thee to be silent, my child, but either shouldst thou convict me,
+if aught I say amiss, or yield to words well spoken.--Say something--look
+hither--O wretch that I am! Ladies, in vain do we undergo these toils,
+while we are as far off from our purpose as before: for neither then was
+she softened by our words, nor now does she give heed to us. Still however
+know (now then be more obstinate than the sea) that, if thou shalt die,
+thou wilt betray thy children, who will have no share in their paternal
+mansion. I swear by the warlike queen the Amazon, who brought forth a lord
+over thy children, base-born yet of noble sentiments, thou knowest him
+well, Hippolytus.
+
+PHÆ. Ah me!
+
+NUR. This touches thee.
+
+PHÆ. You have destroyed me, nurse, and by the Gods I entreat thee
+henceforth to be silent with respect to this man.
+
+NUR. Do you see? you judge well indeed, but judging well you are not
+willing both to assist your children and to save your own life.
+
+PHÆ. I love my children; but I am wintering in the storm of another
+misfortune.
+
+NUR. You have your hands, my child, pure from blood.
+
+PHÆ. My hands are pure, but my mind has some pollution.
+
+NUR. What! from some calamity brought on you by any of your enemies?
+
+PHÆ. A friend destroys me against my will, himself unwilling.
+
+NUR. Has Theseus sinned any sin against thee?
+
+PHÆ. Would that I never be discovered to have injured him.
+
+NUR. What then this dreadful thing that impels thee to die?
+
+PHÆ. Suffer me to err, for against thee I err not.
+
+NUR. Not willingly [dost thou do so,] but 'tis through thee that I shall
+perish.[10]
+
+PHÆ. What are you doing? you oppress me, hanging on me with your hand.
+
+NUR. And never will I let go these knees.
+
+PHÆ. Ills to thyself wilt thou hear, O wretched woman, if thou shalt hear
+these ills.
+
+NUR. [Still will I cling:] for what greater evil can befall me than to lose
+thee?
+
+PHÆ. You will be undone.[11] The thing however brings honor to me.
+
+NUR. And dost thou then hide what is useful, when I beseech thee?
+
+PHÆ. _Yes_, for from base things we devise things noble.
+
+NUR. Wilt not thou, then, appear more noble by telling it?
+
+PHÆ. Depart, by the Gods, and let go my hand!
+
+NUR. No in sooth, since thou givest me not the boon that were right.
+
+PHÆ. I will give it; for I have respect unto the reverence of thy hand.
+
+NUR. Now will I be silent: for hence is it yours to speak.
+
+PHÆ. O wretched mother, what a love didst thou love!
+
+NUR. That which she had for the bull, my child, or what is this thou
+meanest?
+
+PHÆ. Thou, too, O wretched sister, wife of Bacchus!
+
+NUR. Child, what ails thee? thou speakest ill against thy relations.
+
+PHÆ. And I the third, how unhappily I perish!
+
+NUR. I am struck dumb with amazement. Whither will thy speech tend?
+
+PHÆ. _To that point_, whence we have not now lately become unfortunate.
+
+NUR. I know not a whit further of the things I wish to hear.
+
+PHÆ. Alas! would thou couldst speak the things which I must speak.
+
+NUR. I am no prophetess so as to know clearly things hidden.
+
+PHÆ. What is that thing, which they do call men's loving![12]
+
+NUR. The same, my child, a most delightful thing, and painful withal.
+
+PHÆ. One of the two feelings I must perceive.
+
+NUR. What say'st? Thou lovest, my child? What man!
+
+PHÆ. Him whoever he is,[13] that is born of the Amazon.
+
+NUR. Hippolytus dost thou say?
+
+PHÆ. From thyself, not me, you hear--this name.
+
+NUR. Ah me! what wilt thou go on to say? my child, how hast thou destroyed
+me! Ladies, this is not to be borne; I will not endure to live, hateful is
+the day, hateful the light I behold. I will hurl myself down, I will rid me
+of this body: I will remove from life to death--farewell--I no longer am.
+For the chaste are in love with what is evil, not willingly indeed, yet
+still [they love.] Venus then is no deity, but if there be aught mightier
+than deity, that is she, who hath destroyed both this my mistress, and me,
+and the whole house.
+
+CHOR. Thou didst hear, O thou didst hear the queen lamenting her wretched
+sufferings that should not be heard. Dear lady, may I perish before I come
+to thy state of mind! Alas me! alas! alas! O hapless for these pangs! O the
+woes that attend on mortals! Thou art undone, thou hast disclosed thy evils
+to the light. What time is this that has eternally[14] awaited thee? Some
+new misfortune will happen to the house. And no longer is it obscure where
+the fortune of Venus sets, O wretched Cretan daughter.
+
+PHÆ. Women of Trœzene, who inhabit this extreme frontier of the land of
+Pelops. Often at other times in the long season of night have I thought in
+what manner the life of mortals is depraved.[15] And to me they seem to do
+ill, not from the nature of their minds, for many have good thoughts, but
+thus must we view these things. What things are good we understand and
+know, but practice not; some from idleness, and others preferring some
+other pleasures to what is right: for there are many pleasures in life-long
+prates, and indolence, a pleasing ill, and shame; but there are two, the
+one indeed not base, but the other the weight that overthrows houses, but
+if the occasion on which each is used, were clear, the two things would not
+have the same letters. Knowing them as I did these things beforehand, by no
+drug did I think I should so far destroy these _sentiments_, as to fall
+into an opposite way of thinking. But I will also tell you the course of my
+determinations. After that love had wounded me, I considered how best I
+might endure it. I began therefore from this time to be silent, and to
+conceal this disease. For no confidence can be placed in the tongue, which
+knows to advise the thoughts of other men, but itself from itself has very
+many evils. But in the second place, I meditated to bear well my madness
+conquering it by my chastity. But in the third place, since by these means
+I was not able to subdue Venus, it appeared to me best to die: no one will
+gainsay this resolution. For may it be my lot, neither to be concealed
+where I do noble deeds, nor to have many witnesses, where I act basely.
+Besides this I knew I was a woman--a thing hated by all. O may she most
+miserably perish who first began to pollute the marriage-bed with other
+men! From noble families first arose this evil among women: for when base
+things appear right to those who are accounted good, surely they will
+appear so to the bad. I hate moreover those women who are chaste in their
+language indeed, but secretly have in them no good deeds of boldness: who,
+how, I pray, O Venus my revered mistress, look they on the faces of their
+husbands, nor dread the darkness that aided their deeds, and the ceilings
+of the house, lest they should some time or other utter a voice? For this
+bare idea kills me, friends, lest I should ever be discovered to have
+disgraced my husband, or my children, whom I brought forth; but free, happy
+in liberty of speech may they inhabit the city of illustrious Athens, in
+their mother glorious! For it enslaves a man, though he be valiant-hearted,
+when he is conscious of his mother's or his father's misdeeds. But this
+alone they say in endurance compeers with life, an honest and good mind, to
+whomsoever it belong. But Time, when it so chance, holding up the mirror as
+to a young virgin, shows forth the bad, among whom may I be never seen!
+
+CHOR. Alas! alas! In every way how fair is chastity, and how goodly a
+report has it among men!
+
+NUR. My mistress, just now indeed thy calamity coming upon me unawares,
+gave me a dreadful alarm. But now I perceive I was weak; and somehow or
+other among mortals second thoughts are the wisest. For thou hast not
+suffered any thing excessive nor extraordinary, but the anger of the
+Goddess hath fallen upon thee. Thou lovest--what wonder this? with many
+mortals.--And then will you lose your life for love? There is then no
+advantage for those who love others, nor to those who may hereafter, if
+they must needs die. For Venus is a thing not to be borne, if she rush on
+vehement. Who comes quietly indeed on the person who yields; but whom she
+finds haughty and of lofty notions, him taking (how thinkest thou?) she
+chastises. But Venus goes through air, and is on the ocean wave; and all
+things from her have their birth. She it is that sows and gives forth love,
+from whence all we on earth are engendered. As many indeed as ken the
+writings of the ancients, or are themselves ever among the muses, they know
+indeed, how that Jove was formerly inflamed with the love of Semele; they
+know too, how that formerly the lovely bright Aurora bore away Cephalus up
+to the Gods, for love, but still they live in heaven, and fly not from the
+presence of the Gods: but they acquiesce yielding, I ween, to what has
+befallen them. And wilt thou not bear it? Thy father then ought to have
+begotten thee on stipulated terms, or else under the dominion of other
+Gods, unless thou wilt be content with these laws. How many, thinkest thou,
+are in full and complete possession of their senses, who, when they see
+their bridal bed diseased, seem not to see it! And how many fathers,
+thinkest thou, have aided their erring sons in matters of love, for this is
+a maxim among the wise part of mankind, "that things that show not fair
+should be concealed." Nor should men labor too exactly their conduct in
+life, for neither would they do well to employ much accuracy in the roof
+wherewith their houses are covered; but having fallen into fortune so deep
+as thou hast, how dost thou imagine thou canst swim out? But if thou hast
+more things good than bad, mortal as thou art, thou surely must be well
+off. But cease, my dear child, from these evil thoughts, cease too from
+being haughty, for nothing else save haughtiness is this, to wish to be
+superior to the Gods. But, as thou art in love, endure it; a God hath
+willed it so: and, being ill, by some good means or other try to get rid of
+thy illness. But there are charms and soothing spells: there will appear
+some medicine for this sickness. Else surely men would be slow indeed in
+discoveries, if we women should not find contrivances.
+
+CHOR. Phædra, she speaks indeed most useful advice in thy present state:
+but thee I praise. Yet is this praise less welcome than her words, and to
+thee more painful to hear.
+
+PHÆ. This is it that destroys cities of men and families well
+governed--words too fair. For it is not at all requisite to speak words
+pleasant to the ear, but that whereby one may become of fair report.
+
+NUR. Why dost thou talk in this grand strain? thou needest not gay
+decorated words, but a man: as soon as possible must those be found, who
+will speak out the plain straightforward word concerning thee. For if thy
+life were not in calamities of such a cast, I never would have brought thee
+thus far for the sake of lust, and for thy pleasure: but now the great
+point is to save thy life; and this is not a thing deserving of blame.
+
+PHÆ. O thou that hast spoken dreadful things, wilt thou not shut thy mouth?
+and wilt not cease from uttering again those words most vile?
+
+NUR. Vile they are, but better these for thee than fair; but better will
+the deed be (if at least it will save thee), than the name, in the which
+while thou boastest, thou wilt die.
+
+PHÆ. Nay do not, I entreat thee by the Gods (for thou speakest well, but
+base are [the things thou speakest]) go beyond this, since rightly have I
+surrendered my life to love; but if thou speak base things in fair phrase,
+I shall be consumed, [being cast] into that [evil] which I am now avoiding.
+
+NUR. If in truth this be thy opinion, thou oughtest not to err, but if thou
+hast erred, be persuaded by me, for this is the next best thing thou canst
+do.[16] I have in the house soothing philters of love (and they but lately
+came into my thought); which, by no base deed, nor to the harm of thy
+senses, will rid you of this disease, unless you are obstinate. But it is
+requisite to receive from him that is the object of your love, some token,
+either some word, or some relic of his vest, and to join from two one love.
+
+PHÆ. But is the charm an unguent or a potion?
+
+NUR. I know not: wish to be relieved, not informed, my child.
+
+PHÆ. I fear thee, lest thou should appear too wise to me.
+
+NUR. Know that you would fear every thing, _if you fear this_, but what is
+it you are afraid of?
+
+PHÆ. Lest you should tell any of these things to the son of Theseus.
+
+NUR. Let be, my child, I will arrange these matters honorably, only be thou
+my coadjutor, O Venus, my revered mistress; but the other things which I
+purpose, it will suffice to tell to my friends within.
+
+CHORUS, PHÆDRA.
+
+CHOR. Love, love, O thou that instillest desire through the eyes, inspiring
+sweet affection in the souls of those against whom thou makest war, mayst
+thou never appear to me to my injury, nor come unmodulated: for neither is
+the blast of fire nor the bolt of heaven more vehement, than that of Venus,
+which Love, the boy of Jove, sends from his hands. In vain, in vain, both
+by the Alpheus, and at the Pythian temples of Phœbus does Greece then
+solemnize the slaughter of bulls: but Love, the tyrant of men, porter of
+the dearest chambers of Venus, we worship not, the destroyer and visitant
+of men in all shapes of calamity, when he comes. That virgin in Œchalia,
+yoked to no bridal bed, till then unwedded, and who knew no husband, having
+taken from her home a wanderer impelled by the oar, her, like some
+Bacchanal of Pluto, with blood, with smoke, and murderous hymeneals did
+Venus give to the son of Alcmena. O unhappy woman, because of her nuptials!
+O sacred wall of Thebes, O mouth of Dirce, you can assist me in telling, in
+what manner Venus comes: for by the forked lightning, by a cruel fate, did
+she put to eternal sleep the parent of the Jove-begotten Bacchus, when she
+was visited as a bride. For dreadful doth she breathe on all things, and
+like some bee hovers about.
+
+PHÆ. Women, be silent: I am undone.
+
+CHOR. What is there that affrights thee, Phædra, in thine house?
+
+PHÆ. Be silent, that I may make out the voice of those within.
+
+CHOR. I am silent: this however is an evil bodement.
+
+PHÆ. Alas me! O! O! O! oh unhappy me, because of my sufferings!
+
+CHOR. What sound dost thou utter? what word speakest thou? tell me what
+report frightens thee, lady, rushing upon thy senses!
+
+PHÆ. We are undone. Do you, standing at these gates, hear what the noise is
+that strikes on the house?
+
+CHOR. Thou art by the gate, the noise that is sent forth from the house is
+thy care. But tell me, tell me, what evil, I pray thee, came _to thine
+ears_?
+
+PHÆ. The son of the warlike Amazon, Hippolytus, cries out, abusing in
+dreadful forms my attendant.
+
+CHOR. I hear indeed a noise, but can not plainly tell how it is. The voice
+came, it came through to the door.
+
+PHÆ. But hark! he calls her plainly the pander of wickedness, the betrayer
+of her master's bed.
+
+CHOR. Alas me for thy miseries! Thou art betrayed, dear mistress. What
+shall I counsel thee? for hidden things are come to light, and thou art
+utterly destroyed----
+
+PHÆ. O! O!
+
+CHOR. Betrayed by thy friends.
+
+PHÆ. She hath destroyed me by speaking of my unhappy state, kindly but not
+honorably endeavoring to heal this disease.
+
+CHOR. How then? what wilt thou do, O thou that hast suffered things
+incurable?
+
+PHÆ. I know not, save one thing; to die as soon as possible is the only
+cure of my present sufferings.
+
+HIPPOLYTUS, PHÆDRA, NURSE, CHORUS.
+
+HIPP. O mother earth, and ye disclosing rays of the sun, of what words have
+I heard the dreadful sound!
+
+NUR. Be silent, my son, before any one hears thy voice.
+
+HIPP. It is not possible for me to be silent, when I have heard such
+dreadful things.
+
+NUR. Nay, I implore thee by thy beauteous hand.
+
+HIPP. Wilt not desist from bringing thy hand near me, and from touching my
+garments?
+
+NUR. O! by thy knees, I implore thee, do not utterly destroy me.
+
+HIPP. But wherefore this? since, thou sayest, thou hast spoken nothing
+evil.
+
+NUR. This word, my son, is by no means to be divulged.
+
+HIPP. It is more fair to speak fair things to many.
+
+NUR. O my child, by no means dishonor your oath.
+
+HIPP. My tongue hath sworn--my mind is still unsworn.[17]
+
+NUR. O my son, what wilt thou do? wilt thou destroy thy friends?
+
+HIPP. _Friends!_ I reject the word: no unjust person is my friend.
+
+NUR. Pardon, my child: that men should err is but to be expected.
+
+HIPP. O Jove, wherefore in the name of heaven didst thou place in the light
+of the sun that specious[18] evil to men, women? for if thou didst will to
+propagate the race of mortals, there was no necessity for this to be done
+by women, but men might, having placed an equivalent in thy temples, either
+in brass, or iron, or the weighty gold, buy a race of children, each for
+the consideration of the value paid, and thus might dwell in unmolested
+houses, without females. But now, first of all, when we prepare to bring
+this evil to our homes, we squander away the wealth of our houses. By this
+too it is evident, that woman is a great evil; for the father, who begat
+her and brought her up, having given her a dowry sends her away in order to
+be rid of the evil. But the husband, on the other hand, when he has
+received the baneful evil[19] into his house, rejoices, having added a
+beautiful decoration to a most vile image, and tricks her out with robes,
+unhappy man, while he has been insensibly minishing the wealth of the
+family. But he is constrained; so that having made alliance with noble
+kinsmen, he retains with [seeming] joy a marriage bitter to him: or if he
+has received a good bride, but worthless parents in law, he suppresses the
+evil that has befallen him by the consideration of the good. But his state
+is the easiest, whose wife is settled in his house, a cipher, but useless
+by reason of simplicity. But a wise woman I detest: may there not be in my
+house at least a woman more highly gifted with mind than woman ought to be.
+For Venus engenders mischief rather among clever women, but a woman who is
+not endowed with capacity, by reason of her small understanding, is removed
+from folly. But it is right that an attendant should have no access to a
+woman, but with them ought to dwell the speechless brute beasts, in which
+case they would be able neither to address any one, nor from them to
+receive a voice in return. But now, they that are evil follow after their
+evil devices within, and the servants carry it forth abroad. As thou also
+hast, O evil woman, come to the purpose of admitting me to share a bed
+which must not be approached--a father's. Which impious things I will wash
+out with flowing stream, pouring it into my ears: how then could I be the
+vile one, who do not even deem myself pure, because I have heard such
+things?--But be well assured, my piety protects thee, woman, for, had I not
+been taken unawares by the oaths of the Gods, never would I have refrained
+from telling these things to my father. But now will I depart from the
+house, _and stay_ during the time that Theseus is absent from the land, and
+will keep my mouth silent; but I will see, returning with my father's
+return, how you will look at him, both you and your mistress. But your
+boldness I shall know, having before had proof of it. May you perish: but
+never shall I take my fill of hating women, not even if any one assert,
+that I am always saying this. For in some way or other they surely are
+always bad. Either then let some one teach them to be modest, or else let
+him suffer me ever to utter my invectives against them.
+
+CHORUS, PHÆDRA, NURSE.
+
+CHOR. Oh unhappy ill-fated fortune of women! what art now or what words
+have we, having failed as we have, to extricate the knot caused by [these]
+words?
+
+PHÆ. We have met a just reward; O earth, and light, in what manner, I pray,
+can I escape from my fortunes? and how, my friends, can I conceal my
+calamity? Who of the Gods will appear my succorer, or what mortal my ally,
+or my fellow-worker in unjust works? for the suffering of my life that is
+at present on me comes hardly to be escaped.[20] I am the most ill-fated of
+women.
+
+CHOR. Alas! alas! we are undone, lady, and the arts of thy attendant have
+not succeeded, and it fares ill with us.
+
+PHÆ. O thou most vile, and the destruction of thy friends, what hast thou
+done to me! May Jove, my ancestor, tear thee up by the roots, having
+stricken thee by his fire. Did not I tell thee (did not I foresee thy
+intention?) to be silent with regard to those things with which I am now
+tormented? but thou couldst not refrain; wherefore I can no longer die with
+glory: but I must now in sooth employ new measures. For he, now that his
+mind is made keen with rage, will tell, to my detriment, thy errors to his
+father, and will fill the whole earth with the most vile reports. Mayst
+thou perish, both thou and whoever else is forward to assist friends
+against their will otherwise than by honorable means.
+
+NUR. Lady, thou canst indeed blame the evil I have wrought; for that which
+gnaws upon thee masters thy better judgment;--but I too have somewhat to
+say in answer to these things, if thou wilt admit it: I brought thee up,
+and have a kind affection toward thee; but, while searching for medicine
+for thy disease, I found not that I wished for. But if I had succeeded, I
+had been surely ranked among the wise; for we have the reputation of sense
+according to our success.
+
+PHÆ. What? is this conduct just, and satisfactory to me, to injure me
+first, and then to meet me in argument?
+
+NUR. We talk too long--I did not behave wisely. But even from this state of
+things it is possible that thou mayest be saved, my child.
+
+PHÆ. Desist from speaking; for before also thou didst not well advise for
+me, and didst attempt evil things. But depart from my sight, and take care
+about thyself; for I will settle my own affairs in an honorable manner. But
+you, noble daughters of Trœzene, grant thus much to me requesting it, bury
+in silence what you here have heard.
+
+CHOR. I swear by hallowed Dian, daughter of Jove, that I will never reveal
+to the face of day one of thy evils.
+
+PHÆ. Thou hast well spoken: but one kind of resource, while I search around
+me,[21] do I find for my present calamity, so that I may make the life of
+my children glorious, and may myself be assisted as things have now fallen
+out. For never will I disgrace the house of Crete at least, nor will I come
+before the face of Theseus having acted basely, for one's life's sake.
+
+CHOR. But what irremediable evil art thou then about to perpetrate?
+
+PHÆ. To die: but how, this will I devise.
+
+CHOR. Speak words of better omen.
+
+PHÆ. And do thou at least advise me well. But having quitted life this day,
+I shall gratify Venus, who destroys me, and shall be conquered by bitter
+love. But when I am dead, I shall be an evil to another at least,[22] so
+that he may know not to exult over my misfortunes; but, having shared this
+malady in common with me, he shall learn to be modest.
+
+CHOR. Would that I were under the rocks' vast retreats,[23] and that there
+the God would make me a winged bird among the swift flocks, and that I were
+lifted up above the ocean wave that dashes against the Adriatic shore, and
+the water of Eridanus, where for grief of Phaethon the thrice wretched
+virgins let fall into their father's billow the amber-beaming brightness of
+their tears: and that I could make my way to the shore where the apples
+grow of the harmonious daughters of Hesperus, where the ruler of the ocean
+no longer permits the passage of the purple sea to mariners, dwelling in
+that dread bourn of heaven which Atlas doth sustain, and the ambrosial
+founts stream forth hard by the couches of Jove's palaces, where the divine
+and life-bestowing earth increases the bliss of the Gods. O white-winged
+bark of Crete, who didst bear my queen through the perturbed[24] ocean wave
+of brine from a happy home, thereby aiding her in a most evil marriage. For
+surely in both instances, or at any rate from Crete she came ill-omened to
+renowned Athens, when on the Munychian shore they bound the platted ends of
+their cables, and disembarked on the continent. Wherefore she was
+heartbroken with the terrible disease of unhallowed love by the influence
+of Venus; and now that she can no longer hold out against the heavy
+calamity,[25] she will fit around her the noose suspended[26] from the
+ceiling of her bridal chamber, adjusting it to her white neck, having
+revered the hateful Goddess, and embracing an honorable name, and ridding
+from her breast the painful love.
+
+FEMALE SERVANT, CHORUS, THESEUS.
+
+SERV. Alack! alack! run to my succor all that are near the house--My
+mistress the wife of Theseus is hanging.
+
+CHOR. Alas! alas! the deed is done: the queen is indeed no more--she is
+suspended in the noose that hangs there.
+
+SERV. Will ye not haste? will not some one bring a two-edged sword, with
+which we may undo this knot around her neck?
+
+SEMICHOR. My friends, what do we? does it seem good to enter the house and
+to free the queen from the tight-drawn noose?
+
+SEMICHOR. Why we? Are not the young men-servants at hand? The being
+over-busy is not a safe plan through life.
+
+SERV. Lay right the wretched corpse, pull her limbs straight. A grievous
+housekeeping this for my master!
+
+CHOR. The unhappy woman, as I hear, has perished, for already are they
+laying her out as a corpse.
+
+THES. Know ye, females, what noise this is in my house? a heavy sound of my
+attendants reached me. For the family does not think fit to open the gates
+to me and to hail me with joy as having returned from the oracle. Has any
+ill befallen the aged Pittheus? His life is now indeed far advanced; but
+still he would be much lamented by us, were he to leave this house.
+
+CHOR. This that has happened, Theseus, extends not to the old; the young
+are they that by their death will grieve thee.
+
+THES. Alas me! is the life of any of my children stolen from me?
+
+CHOR. They live, but their mother is dead in a way that will grieve thee
+most.
+
+THES. What sayest? My wife dead? By what fate?
+
+CHOR. She suspended the noose, wherewith she strangled herself.
+
+THES. Wasted with sorrow, or from some sudden calamity?
+
+CHOR. Thus much we know--_nothing further_; for I am but just come to thy
+house, Theseus, to bewail thy evils.
+
+THES. Alas! alas! why then have I my head crowned with entwined leaves, who
+am the unhappy inquirer of the oracle? Servants, undo the bars of the
+gates; unloose the bolts, that I may behold the mournful spectacle of my
+wife, who by her death hath utterly undone me.
+
+CHOR. Alas! alas! unhappy for thy wretched ills: thou hast been a sufferer;
+thou hast perpetrated a deed of such extent as to throw this house into
+utter confusion. Alas! alas! thy boldness, O thou who hast died a violent
+death, and, by an unhallowed chance, the act committed by thy wretched
+hand. Who is it then, thou unhappy one, that destroys thy life?
+
+THES. Alas me for my sufferings![27] I have suffered, unhappy wretch, the
+extreme of my troubles--O fortune, how heavy hast thou come upon me and my
+house, an imperceptible spot from some evil demon! the wearing out of a
+life not to be endured;[28] and I, unhappy wretch, perceive a sea of
+troubles so great, that never again can I emerge from it, nor escape beyond
+the flood of this calamity. What mention making can I unhappy, what
+heavy-fated fortune of thine, lady, saying that it was, can I be right? For
+as some bird thou art vanished from my hand, having leaped me a sudden leap
+to the realms of Pluto. Alas! alas! wretched, wretched are these
+sufferings, but from some distant period or other receive I this calamity
+from the Gods, for the errors of some of those of old.
+
+CHOR. Not to thee alone, O king, have these evils happened; but with many
+others thou hast lost an excellent wife.[29]
+
+THES. In the shades beneath the earth, I unhappy wish, dying, to dwell in
+darkness, reft as I am of thy most dear company, for thou hast destroyed
+rather than perished--What then do I hear? whence came the deadly chance,
+lady, to thine heart? Will any speak what has happened, or does my royal
+palace contain to no purpose the crowd of my attendants?--Alas me on thy
+account! unhappy that I am, what grief in my house have I seen,
+intolerable, indescribable! but--we are undone! my house left desolate, and
+my children orphans.
+
+CHOR. Thou hast left us, thou hast left us, O dear among women, and most
+excellent of those as many as both the light of the sun, and the
+star-visaged moon of night behold. O unhappy man! how great ill doth the
+house contain! with tears gushing over, my eyelids are wet at thy calamity.
+But the woe that will ensue on this I have long since been dreading.
+
+THES. Alas! alas! What I pray is this letter suspended from her dear hand?
+does it mean to betoken some new calamity?--What, has the unhappy woman
+written injunctions to me, making some request about[30] my bridal bed and
+my children? Be of good courage, hapless one; for no woman exists, who
+shall enter the bed and the house of Theseus. But lo! the impressions of
+the golden seal[31] of her no more here court my attention.[32] Come, let
+me unfold the envelopments of the seal, and see what this letter should say
+to me.
+
+CHOR. Alas! alas! this new evil in succession again doth the God bring on.
+To me indeed the condition of life will be impossible to bear,[33] from
+what has happened; for I consider, alas! as ruined and no more the house of
+my kings. O God, if it be in any way possible, do not overthrow the house;
+but hear me as I pray, for from some quarter, as though a prophet, I behold
+an evil omen.
+
+THES. Ah me! what other evil is this in addition to evil, not to be borne,
+nor spoken! alas wretched me!
+
+CHOR. What is the matter? Tell me if it may be told me.
+
+THES. It cries out--the letter cries out things most dreadful: which way
+can I fly the weight of my ills; for I perish utterly destroyed. What, what
+a complaint have I seen speaking in her writing!
+
+CHOR. Alas! thou utterest words foreboding woes.
+
+THES. No longer will I keep within the door of my lips this dreadful,
+dreadful evil hardly to be uttered. O city, city, Hippolytus has dared by
+force to approach my bed, having despised the awful eye of Jove. But O
+father Neptune, by one of these three curses, which thou formerly didst
+promise me, by one of those destroy my son, and let him not escape beyond
+this day, if thou hast given me curses that shall be verified.
+
+CHOR. O king, by the Gods recall back this prayer, for hereafter you will
+know that you have erred; be persuaded by me.
+
+THES. It can not be: and moreover I will drive him from this land. And by
+one or other of the two fates shall he be assailed: for either Neptune
+shall send him dead to the mansions of Pluto, having respect unto my wish;
+or else banished from this country, wandering over a foreign land, he shall
+drag out a miserable existence.
+
+CHOR. And lo! thy son Hippolytus is present here opportunely, but if thou
+let go thy evil displeasure, king Theseus, thou wilt advise the best for
+thine house.
+
+HIPPOLYTUS, THESEUS, CHORUS.
+
+HIPP. I heard thy cry, my father, and came in haste; the thing however, for
+which you are groaning, I know not; but would fain hear from you. Ha! what
+is the matter? I behold thy wife, my father, a corpse: this is a thing meet
+for the greatest wonder.--Her, whom I lately left, her, who beheld the
+light no great time since. What ails her? In what manner died she, my
+father, I would fain hear from you. Art silent? But there is no use of
+silence in misfortunes; for the heart which desires to hear all things, is
+found eager also in the case of ills. It is not indeed right, my father, to
+conceal thy misfortunes from friends, and even more than friends.
+
+THES. O men, who vainly go astray in many things, why then do ye teach ten
+thousand arts, and contrive and invent every thing; but one thing ye do not
+know, nor yet have investigated, to teach those to be wise who have no
+intellect!
+
+HIPP. A clever sophist this you speak of, who is able to compel those who
+have no wisdom to be rightly wise. But (for thou art arguing too refinedly
+on no suitable occasion) I fear, O father, lest thy tongue be talking at
+random through thy woes.
+
+THES. Alas! there ought to be established for men some infallible proof of
+their friends, and some means of knowing their dispositions, both who is
+true, and who is not a friend, and men ought all to have two voices, the
+one true, the other as it chanced, that the untrue one might be convicted
+by the true, and then we should not be deceived.
+
+HIPP. Has some one then falsely accused me in your ear, and am I suffering
+who am not at all guilty? I am amazed, for your words, wandering beyond the
+bounds of reason, do amaze me.
+
+THES. Alas! the mind of man, to what lengths will it go? what will be the
+limit to its boldness and temerity? For if it shall increase with each
+generation of man, and the successor shall be wicked a degree beyond his
+predecessor, it will be necessary for the Gods to add to the earth another
+land, which[34] will contain the unjust and the evil ones.--But look: ye on
+this man, who being born of me hath defiled my bed, and is manifestly
+convicted by the deceased of being most base.--But, since thou hast come to
+this attaint, show thy face here before thy father. Dost thou forsooth
+associate with the Gods, as being an extraordinary person? art thou chaste
+and uncontaminated with evil? I will not believe thy boasts, attributing
+(_as I must, if I do believe_) to the Gods the folly of thinking evil. Now
+then vaunt, and with thy feeding on inanimate food retail your doctrines
+upon men, and having Orpheus[35] for your master, revel it, reverencing the
+emptiness of many letters; _which avail you not_; since you are caught.
+
+But such sort of men I warn all to shun; for they hunt with fair-sounding
+words, while they devise base things. She is dead: dost thou think this
+will save thee? By this thou art most detected, O thou most vile one! For
+what sort of oaths, what arguments can be more strong than what she says,
+so that thou canst escape the accusation? Wilt thou say that she hated
+thee, and that the bastard race is hateful forsooth to those of noble
+birth? A bad housewife then of life you account her, if through hatred of
+thee she lost what was most dear to her. But wilt thou say that there is
+not this folly in men, but that there is in women? I myself have known
+young men who were not a whit more steady than women, when Venus disturbed
+the youthful mind: but their pretense of manliness protects them. Now
+however, why do I thus contend against thy words, when the corse, the
+surest witness, is here? Depart an exile from this land as soon as
+possible. And neither go to the divine-built Athens, nor to the confines of
+that land over which my sceptre rules. For if I thus suffering by thee be
+vanquished, never will the Isthmian Sinis bear witness of me that I killed
+him, but will say that I vainly boast. Nor will the Scironian rocks, that
+dwell by the sea, confess that I am formidable to the bad.
+
+CHOR. I know not how I can say that any of mortals is happy; for the things
+that were most excellent are turned back again.
+
+HIPP. Father, thy rage indeed, and the commotion of thy mind is terrible;
+this thing, however, though it have fair arguments, if any one unravel it,
+is not fair. But I am unadorned with phrase to speak to the multitude, but
+to speak to my equals and to a few, more expert: but this also has
+consistency in it; for those, who are of no account among the wise, are
+more fitted to speak before the rabble. But yet it is necessary for me,
+since this calamity has come, to unloose my tongue. But first will I begin
+to speak from that point where first you attacked, as though you would
+destroy, and as though I should not answer again. Dost thou behold this
+light and this earth? In these there is not a man more chaste than me, not
+even though thou deny it. For, first indeed, I know to reverence the Gods,
+and to have such friends as attempt not to be unjust, but those, to whom
+there is modesty, so that neither they give utterance to evil thoughts, nor
+minister in return base services to those who use their friendship: nor am
+I the derider of my associates, O father, but the same man to my friends
+when they are not present, and when I am with them. But of one thing by
+which thou thinkest to crush me, I am pure;[36] for to this day my body is
+undefiled by the couch of love; and I know not the deed except hearing of
+it by report, and seeing it in a picture, nor even am I forward to look at
+these things, having a virgin mind. And perhaps my modesty persuades you
+not. Behooves it thee then to show in what manner I lost it. Did this
+woman's person excel in beauty all women? Or did I hope to rule over thine
+house, having thy bridal bed as carrying dowry with it? I must in that case
+have been a fool, and not at all in my senses. But did I do it as though to
+reign were pleasant to the modest? By no means indeed is it, except
+monarchy have destroyed the minds of men who are pleased with her. But I
+would wish indeed to be first victor in the Grecian games, but second in
+the state ever to be happy with the most excellent friends. For thus is it
+possible to be well circumstanced: but the absence of the danger gives
+greater joy than dominion. One of my arguments has not been spoken, but the
+rest you are in possession of: for, if I had a witness such as myself am,
+and were she alive during my contention, you would know the evil ones,
+searching them by their works. But now I swear by Jove, the guardian of
+oaths,[37] and by the plain of the earth, that never touched I thy bridal
+bed, nor ever wished it, nor conceived the thought. Else may I perish
+inglorious, without a name, and may neither sea nor earth receive the flesh
+of me when dead, if I be a wicked man. But whether or no she have destroyed
+her life through fear, I know not: for it is not lawful for me to speak
+further. Cautious[38] she was, though she could not be chaste; but I, who
+could be, had the power to no good purpose.
+
+CHOR. Thou hast said sufficient to rebut the charge, in offering the oaths
+by the Gods, no slight proof.
+
+THES. Is not this man then an enchanter and a juggler, who trusts that he
+will overcome my mind by his goodness of disposition, after he has
+dishonored his father?
+
+HIPP. I too very much wonder at this conduct of yours, my father; for if
+you were my son, and I your father, I should slay you, and not punish you
+by banishment, if you had dared to defile my wife.
+
+THES. How fitly hast thou said this! yet thou shalt not so die, as thou
+hast laid down this law for thyself; for a quick grave is easiest to the
+miserable man; but wandering an exile from thy country's land to foreign
+realms, thou shalt drag out a life of bitterness; for this is the reward
+for the impious man.
+
+HIPP. Ah me! what wilt thou do? wilt thou not even await time as evidence
+against me, but wilt thou banish me from the land?
+
+THES. Ay, beyond the ocean, and the place of Atlas,[39] if any way I could,
+so much do I hate thee.
+
+HIPP. Without having even examined oath, or proof, or the sayings of the
+seers, wilt thou cast me uncondemned from out the land?
+
+THES. This letter here, that waiteth no seer's observations,[40] accuses
+thee faithfully; but to the birds that flit above my head I bid a long
+farewell.
+
+HIPP. O Gods, wherefore then do I not ope my mouth, who am destroyed by you
+whom I worship?--And yet not so--for thus I should not altogether persuade
+those whom I ought, but should be violating to no purpose the oaths which I
+have sworn.
+
+THES. Alas me! how thy sanctity kills me! Wilt not thou go as quick as
+possible from thy country's land?
+
+HIPP. Whither then shall I unhappy turn me; what stranger's mansion shall I
+enter, banished on this charge?
+
+THES. His, who delights to entertain defilers of women, and those who dwell
+with[41] evil deeds.
+
+HIPP. Alas! alas! this goes to my heart, and almost makes me weep: if
+indeed I appear vile, and seem so to thee.
+
+THES. Then oughtest thou to have groaned, and owned the guilt before, when
+thou daredst to wrong thy father's wife.
+
+HIPP. O mansions, would that ye could utter me a voice, and bear witness
+whether I be a vile man!
+
+THES. Dost fly to dumb witnesses? this deed, though it speak not, clearly
+proves thee vile.
+
+HIPP. Alas! would that I could look upon myself standing opposite, to that
+degree do I weep for the evils which I suffer!
+
+THES. Thou hast accustomed thyself much more to regard thyself, than to be
+a just man, and to do what is righteous to thy parents.
+
+HIPP. O unhappy mother! O wretched natal hour! may none of my friends ever
+be illegitimate.
+
+THES. Servants, will ye not drag him out? did you not hear me long ago
+pronounce him banished!
+
+HIPP. Any one of them shall touch me to his cost however; but thou thyself,
+if it be thy desire, thrust me out from the land.
+
+THES. I will do this, unless thou wilt obey my words, for no pity for thy
+banishment comes over me.
+
+HIPP. It is fixed, as it seems; alas, wretch that I am! since I know these
+things indeed, but know not how to say them. O most dear to me of deities,
+daughter of Latona, thou that assortest with me, huntest with me, we shall
+then indeed be banished illustrious Athens: but farewell O city, and land
+of Erectheus. O plain of Trœzene, how many things hast thou to employ the
+happy youth! Farewell! for I address thee, beholding thee for the last
+time--Come youths of this land my companions, bid me farewell, and conduct
+me from the land, for never shall you see a man more chaste, even though I
+seem not to my father.
+
+CHORUS.
+
+Surely the providence of the Gods, when it comes into my mind, greatly
+takes away sorrow: but cherishing in my hope some knowledge, I am utterly
+deficient, when I look on the fortunes and on the deeds of men, for they
+are changed in different manners, and the life of man varies, ever
+exceeding vague. Would that in answer to my petitions fate from the Gods
+would give me this, prosperity with riches, and a mind unsullied by griefs.
+And be my character neither too high, nor on the other hand infamous. But
+changing my easy habits with the morrow ever may I lead a happy life; for
+no longer have I an unperturbed mind, but I see things contrary to my
+expectations: since we have seen the brightest star of Grecian Minerva sent
+forth to another land on account of his father's rage. O sands of the
+neighboring shore, and mountain wood, where with the swift-footed dogs he
+wont to slay the wild beasts, accompanying the chaste Dian! No more shalt
+thou mount the car drawn by the team of Henetian steeds, restraining with
+thy foot the horses in their exercise on the course round Limna.[42] And
+the sleepless song that used to dwell under the bridge of the chords shall
+cease in thy father's house. And the haunts of the daughter of Latona in
+the deep wood shall be without their garlands: and the contest among the
+damsels for thy bridal bed has died away by reason of thy exile. But I, for
+thy misfortunes, shall endure with tears a fortuneless fortune.[43] O
+unhappy mother, thou hast brought forth in vain! Alas! I am enraged with
+the Gods. Alas! alas! united charms of marriage, wherefore send ye the
+unhappy one, guilty of no crime, away from his country's land--away from
+these mansions?
+
+But lo! I perceive a follower of Hippolytus with a sad countenance coming
+toward the house in haste.
+
+MESSENGER, CHORUS.
+
+MESS. Ye females, whither going can I find Theseus, king of this land? If
+ye know, tell me: is he within this palace?
+
+CHOR. The [king] himself is coming out of the palace.
+
+MESSENGER, THESEUS, CHORUS.
+
+MESS. I bring a tale that demands concern, of thee and of thy subjects,
+both those who inhabit the city of the Athenians, and the realms of the
+Trœzenian land.
+
+THES. What is it? Has any sudden calamity come upon the two neighboring
+states?
+
+MESS. To speak the word--Hippolytus is no more. He views the light however
+for a short moment.
+
+THES. _Killed_? By whom? Has any come to enmity with him, whose wife, as
+his father's, he has forcibly defiled?
+
+MESS. His own chariot slew him, and the imprecations of thy mouth, which
+thou didst put up to thy father, the ruler of the ocean, concerning thy
+son.
+
+THES. O ye Gods! and O Neptune! how truly then wert thou my father, when
+thou didst duly hear my imprecations! Tell me too, how did he perish? in
+what way did the staff of Justice strike him that disgraced me?
+
+MESS. We indeed near the wave-beaten shore were combing out with combs the
+horses' hair, weeping, for there had come a messenger saying, that
+Hippolytus no longer trod on this land, having from thee received the
+sentence of wretched banishment. But he came bringing to us on the shore
+the same strain of tears: and an innumerable throng of his friends and
+companions came following with him. But at length after some time he spake,
+having ceased from his groans. "Wherefore am I thus disquieted? My father's
+words must be obeyed. My servants, yoke to my car the harnessed steeds, for
+this city is for me no more." Then indeed every man hasted, and sooner than
+one could speak we drew up the horses caparisoned before our master; and he
+seizes with his hands the reins from off the bow of the chariot, mounting
+with his foot sandaled as it was.[44] And first indeed he addressed the
+Gods with outstretched hands: "Jove, may I no longer exist, if I am a base
+man; but may my father perceive how unworthily he treats me, either when I
+am dead, or while I view the light." And on this having taken the whip in
+his hands he struck the horses both at once: and we the attendants followed
+our master by the chariot close to the reins, along the road that leads
+straightway to Argos and Epidauria, but when we came into the desert
+country, there is a certain shore beyond this land which slopes even down
+to the Saronic Sea, from thence a voice like the subterraneous thunder of
+Jove sent forth a dreadful groan appalling to hear, and the horses pointed
+their heads erect and their ears toward the sky, and on us there came a
+vehement fear, whence possibly the voice could come: but looking toward the
+sea-beaten shore we beheld a vast wave pillared in heaven, so that the view
+of the heights of Sciron was taken from mine eye:[45] and it concealed the
+Isthmus and the rock of Æsculapius. And then swelling up and splashing
+forth[46] much foam around in the ocean surf, it moves toward the shore,
+where was the chariot drawn by its four horses. But together with its
+breaker and its tripled surge,[47] the wave sent forth a bull, a fierce
+monster; with whose bellowing the whole land filled resounded fearfully:
+and to the lookers-on a sight appeared more dreadful than the eyes could
+bear. And straightway a dreadful fear comes over the steeds. But their
+master, being much conversant with the ways of horses, seized the reins in
+his hands, and pulls them as a sailor pulls his oar, having fixed his body
+in an opposite direction to the reins.[48] But they, champing with their
+jaws the forged bits, bare him on forcibly, heeding neither the hand that
+steered them, nor the traces, nor the compact chariot: and, if indeed
+holding the reins he directed their course toward the softer ground, the
+bull appeared in front, so as to turn them away maddening with fright the
+four horses that drew the chariot. But if they were borne to the rocks
+maddened in mettle, silently approaching the chariot he followed so far,
+until he overthrew it and drove it backward, dashing the felly of the wheel
+against the rock. And all was in confusion, and the naves of the wheels
+flew up, and the linch-pins of the axles. But the unhappy man himself
+entangled in the reins is dragged along, bound in a difficult bond, his
+head dashed against the rocks, and torn his flesh, and crying out in a
+voice dreadful to hear, "Stop, O ye that have been trained up in my stalls,
+do not destroy me. Oh unhappy imprecation of my father! Who will come near
+and save a most excellent man?" But many of us wishing so to do failed
+through want of swiftness: and he indeed freed, in what manner I know not,
+from the entanglements of the reins, falls, having the breath of life in
+him, but for a very short time. And the horses vanished, and the woeful
+monster of the bull I know not where in the mountain country. I am indeed
+the slave of thy house, O king, but thus much never shall I at least be
+able to be persuaded of thy son, that he is evil, not even if the whole
+race of women were hung, and though one should fill with writing all the
+fir of Ida,[49] since I am confident that he is virtuous.
+
+CHOR. Alas! alas! The calamity of new evils is consummated, nor is there
+refuge from fate and from what must be.
+
+THES. Through hate of the man, who has thus suffered, I was pleased with
+this account; but now, having respect unto the Gods, and to him, because he
+is of me, I am neither pleased, nor yet troubled at these ills.
+
+MESS. How then? Must we bring him hither, or what must we do to the unhappy
+man to gratify thy wishes! Think; but if thou take my advice, thou wilt not
+be harsh toward thy son in his misfortunes.
+
+THES. Bear him hither, that seeing him before my eyes that denied he had
+defiled my bed, I may confute him with words, and with what has happened
+from the Gods.
+
+CHOR. Thou, Venus, bendest the stubborn mind of the Gods, and of mortals,
+and with thee he of varied plume, that darts about on swiftest wing; and
+flies over the earth and over the loud-resounding briny ocean; and Love
+charms to subjection, on whose maddened heart the winged urchin come
+gleaming with gold, the race of the mountain whelps, and of those that
+inhabit the sea, and as many things as the earth nourisheth, which the sun
+doth behold scorched [with its rays,] and men: but over all these things
+thou, Venus, alone holdest sovereign rule.
+
+DIANA, THESEUS, CHORUS.
+
+DI. Thee, the noble son of Ægeus, I command to listen; but it is I, Diana,
+daughter of Latona, who am addressing thee: Theseus, wherefore dost thou,
+wretched man, take delight in these things, seeing that thou hast slain in
+no just way thy son, being persuaded by the lying words of thy wife in
+things not seen? But the guilt that has seized on thee is manifest. How
+canst thou, shamed as thou art, refrain from hiding thy body beneath the
+dark recesses of the earth? or from withdrawing thy foot from this
+suffering, by changing thy nature, and becoming a winged creature above?
+Since among good men at least thou hast not a part in life to possess.
+Hear, O Theseus, the state of thy ills. Even though I gain no advantage
+from it, yet will I torment thee; but for this purpose came I to show thee
+the upright mind of thy son, that he may die with a good reputation, and
+thy wife's passion, or, in some sort, nobleness; for, gnawed by the stings
+of that deity most hateful to us, as many as delight in virginity, she
+became enamored of thy son. But while she endeavored by right feeling to
+conquer Venus, she was destroyed not willingly by the means employed by the
+nurse, who having first bound him by oaths, told thy son her malady. But
+he, as was right, obeyed not her words; nor, again, though evil-entreated
+by thee, did he violate the sanctity of his oaths, being a pious man. But
+she, fearing lest her conduct should be scrutinized, wrote a false letter,
+and by deceit destroyed thy son, but nevertheless persuaded thee.
+
+THES. Ah me!
+
+DI. My tale torments thee, Theseus, but be still, that having heard what
+follows thou mayest groan the more--Knowest thou then that thou receivedst
+from thy father three wishes with a certainty of their being granted?
+Whereof one thou hast expended, O most evil one, on thy son, when thou
+mightest have done it on some of thine enemies. Thy father then that
+dwelleth in the ocean, gave thee as much as he was bound to give, because
+he promised. But thou both in his eyes and in mine appearest evil, who
+neither didst await nor examine proof, nor the voice of the prophets, didst
+not leave the consideration to length of time, but, quicker than became
+thee, didst vent thy curses against thy son and slay him.
+
+THES. Mistress, let me die!
+
+DI. Thou hast committed dreadful deeds, but nevertheless, it is still
+possible even for thee to obtain pardon for these things. For Venus willed
+that these things should be in order to satiate her rage. But among the
+Gods the law is thus--None wishes to thwart the purpose of him that wills
+anything, but we always give way. Since, be well assured, were it not that
+I feared Jove, never should I have come to such disgrace, as to suffer to
+die a man of all mortals the most dear to me. But thine error, first of all
+thine ignorance frees from malice; and then thy wife by her dying put an
+end to the proof of words, so as to persuade thy mind. Chiefly then on thee
+these ills are burst, but sorrow is to me too; for Gods rejoice not when
+the pious die; the wicked however we destroy with their children and their
+houses.
+
+CHOR. And lo! the unhappy man there is coming, all mangled his young flesh
+and auburn head. Oh the misery of the house! such double anguish coming
+down from heaven has been wrought in the palaces!
+
+HIPPOLYTUS, DIANA, THESEUS, CHORUS.
+
+HIPP. O! O! O! Unhappy I was thus foully mangled by the unjust prayers of
+an unjust father--I am destroyed miserably. Ah me! ah me! Pains rush
+through my head, and the spasm darts across my brain. Stop, I will rest my
+fainting body. Oh! oh! O those hateful horses of my chariot, things which I
+fed with my own hand, ye have destroyed me utterly and slain me. Oh! oh! by
+the Gods, gently, my servants, touch with your hands my torn flesh. Who
+stands by my side on the right? Lift me up properly, and take hold all
+equally on me, the unblessed of heaven, and cursed by my father's
+error--Jove, Jove, beholdest thou these things? Lo! I, the chaste, and the
+reverencer of the Gods, I who in modesty exceed all, have lost my life, and
+go to a manifest hell beneath the earth; but in vain have I labored in the
+task of piety toward men. O! O! O! O! and now the pain, the pain comes upon
+me, loose unhappy me, and let death come to be my physician. Destroy me,
+destroy the unhappy one--I long for a two-edged blade, wherewith to cut me
+in pieces, and to put my life to an eternal rest. Oh unhappy curse of my
+father! the evil too of my blood-polluted kinsmen, my old forefathers,
+bursts forth[50] upon me; nor is it at a distance; and it hath come on me,
+wherefore, I pray, who am nothing guilty of these ills? Alas me! me! what
+can I say? how can I free my life from this cruel calamity? Would that the
+black and nightly fate of Pluto would put me wretched to eternal sleep!
+
+DI. Oh unhappy mortal, with what a calamity art thou enthralled! but the
+nobleness of thy mind hath destroyed thee.
+
+HIPP. Let be. O divine breathing of perfume, for, even though being in
+ills, I perceived thee, and felt my body lightened of its pain.[51] The
+Goddess Dian is in this place.
+
+DI. Oh unhappy one! she is, to thee the most dear of deities.
+
+HIPP. Mistress, thou seest wretched me, in what state I am.
+
+DI. I see; but it is not lawful for me to shed a tear down mine eyes.
+
+HIPP. Thy hunter, and thy servant is no more.
+
+DI. No in sooth; but beloved by me thou perishest.
+
+HIPP. And he that managed they steeds, and guarded thy statutes.
+
+DI. _Ay_, for the crafty Venus hath so wrought.
+
+HIPP. Ah me! I perceive indeed the power that hath destroyed me.
+
+DI. She thought her honor aggrieved, and hated thee for being chaste.
+
+HIPP. One Venus hath destroyed us three.
+
+DI. Thy father, and thee, and his wife the third.
+
+HIPP. I mourn therefore also my father's misery.
+
+DI. He was deceived by the devices of the Goddess.
+
+HIPP. Oh! unhappy thou, because of this calamity, my father!
+
+THES. I perish, my son, nor have I delight in life.
+
+HIPP. I lament thee rather than myself on account of thy error.
+
+THES. My son, would that I could die in thy stead!
+
+HIPP. Oh! the bitter gifts of thy father Neptune!
+
+THES. Would that the prayer had never come into my mouth.
+
+HIPP. Wherefore this wish? thou wouldst have slain me, so enraged wert thou
+then.
+
+THES. For I was deceived in my notions by the Gods.
+
+HIPP. Alas! would that the race of mortals could curse the Gods!
+
+DI. Let be; for not even when thou art under the darkness of the earth
+shall the rage arising from the bent of the Goddess Venus descend upon thy
+body unrevenged: by reason of thy piety and thy excellent mind. For with
+these inevitable weapons from mine own hand will I revenge me on
+another,[52] whoever to her be the dearest of mortals. But to thee, O
+unhappy one, in recompense for these evils, will I give the greatest honors
+in the land of Trœzene; for the unwedded virgins before their nuptials
+shall shear their locks to thee for many an age, owning the greatest sorrow
+tears can give; but ever among the virgins shall there be a remembrance of
+thee that shall awake the song, nor dying away without a name shall
+Phædra's love toward thee pass unrecorded:--But thou, O son of the aged
+Ægeus, take thy son in thine arms and clasp him to thee; for unwillingly
+thou didst destroy him, but that men should err, when the Gods dispose
+events, is but to be expected!--and thee, Hippolytus, I exhort not to
+remain at enmity with thy father; for thou perceivest the fate, whereby
+thou wert destroyed. And farewell! for it is not lawful for me to behold
+the dead, nor to pollute mine eye with the gasps of the dying; but I see
+that thou art now near this calamity.
+
+HIPP. Go thou too, and farewell, blessed virgin! But thou easily quittest a
+long companionship. But I give up all enmity against my father at thy
+request, for before also I was wont to obey thy words. Ah! ah! darkness now
+covers me over mine eyes. Take hold on me, my father, and lift up my body.
+
+THES. Ah me! my son, what dost thou, do to me unhappy?
+
+HIPP. I perish, and do indeed see the gates of hell.
+
+THES. What? leaving my mind uncleansed from thy blood?
+
+HIPP. No in sooth, since I free thee from this murder.
+
+THES. What sayest thou? dost thou remit me free from the guilt of blood?
+
+HIPP. I call to witness Dian that slays with the bow.
+
+THES. O most dear, how noble thou appearest to thy father!
+
+HIPP. O farewell thou too, take my best farewell, my father!
+
+THES. Oh me! for thy pious and brave soul!
+
+HIPP. Pray to have legitimate sons like me.
+
+THES. Do not, I prithee, leave me, my son, but be strong.
+
+HIPP. My time of strength is past; for I perish, my father: but cover my
+face as quickly as possible with robes.
+
+THES. O famous realms of Athens and of Pallas, of what a man will ye have
+been bereaved! Oh unhappy I! What abundant reason, Venus, shall I have to
+remember thy ills!
+
+CHOR. This common grief to all the citizens hath come unexpectedly. There
+will be a fast falling of many tears; for the mournful stories of great men
+rather obtain.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+NOTES ON HIPPOLYTUS
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+[1] The construction in the original furnishes a remarkable example of the
+"nominativus pendens."
+
+[2] Or, _that posterity might know it_. TR. Dindorf would omit these words.
+B.
+
+[3] Dindorf would omit these lines. I think the difficulty in the structure
+may be removed by reading ‛οστις instead of ‛οσοις. The enallage, ‛οστις
+... τουτοις, is by no means unusual. B.
+
+[4] Cf. Soph. Œd. Col. 121, sqq. B.
+
+[5] Which at present you do not appear to have.
+
+[6] Monk would join ωκεανου with πετρα, as in the translation, but other
+commentators prefer, which is certainly more simple, to join it with ‛υδωρ.
+Then the difficulty occurs of sea-water being unfit for washing vests. This
+difficulty Beck obviates, by saying that ‛υδωρ ωκεανου may be applied to
+fresh water, Ocean being the parent of all streams, the word ωκεανου being
+here, in a manner, redundant. TR. Matthiæ is very wrath with the "all on a
+washing day" manner in which the Chorus learned Phædra's indisposition. The
+"Bothie of Toper na Fuosich" will furnish some similar simplicities, such
+as the meeting a lassie "digging potatoes." But we might as well object to
+the whole story of Nausicaa. It must be recollected that the duties of the
+laundry were considered more aristocratic by the ancients, than in modern
+times. B.
+
+[7] Cf. Æsch. Pr. 23. Χροιας αμειψεις ανθος. B.
+
+[8] Literally _a speech mounted on madness_. A similar expression occurs,
+Odyssey Α. 297. Νηπιαας οχεειν.
+
+[9] Plutarch in explanation of this line says, "καθαπερ ποδα νεως,
+επιδιδοντα και προσαγοντα ταις χρειαις την φιλιαν."
+
+[10] I have followed the elegant interpretation of L. Dindorf, who observes
+that ου δηθ ‛εκουσα refers to Phædra's assertion, ου γαρ ες σ' αμαρτανω,
+and that the meaning is, "non quidem consilio in me peccas, sed si tu
+peribis, ego quoque occidero." He compares Alcest. 389. B.
+
+[11] See Matthiæ's note. I prefer, however, ολεις, with Musgrave. B.
+
+[12] Matthiæ considers this as briefly expressed for τι τουτο, το εραν, ‛α
+λεγουσι ποιειν ανθρωπους. Still I can not help thinking ανθρωπων a better
+reading. B.
+
+[13] Phædra struggles between shame and uncertainty, before she can
+pronounce the name. It should be read as if ‛οστις ποθ'--‛ουτος--‛ο της
+Αμαζονος. B.
+
+[14] Matthiæ takes παναμεριος as = εν τηιδε τηι ‛ημεραι, i.e. up to this
+very time. I think the passage is corrupt. B.
+
+[15] This passage, like many others in the play, is admirably burlesqued by
+Aristoph., Ran. 962. B.
+
+[16] _Or, this is a second favor thou mayst grant me_.
+
+[17] On the numberless references to this impious sophism, see the learned
+notes of Valckenaer and Monk. Compare more particularly Aristoph. Ran. 102,
+1471. Thesmoph. 275. Arist. Rhet. iii. 15. B.
+
+[18] Literally, "spurious coined race." B.
+
+[19] The MSS. reading, φυτον, is preferable. B.
+
+[20] The syntax appears to be δυσεκπερατον βιου, _such as my like can
+scarcely get over_. Musgrave has followed the other explanation of the
+Scholiast, which makes βιου depend on παθος. TR. I have followed the
+Scholiast and Dindorf. B.
+
+[21] προτρεπουσα, αντι του ζητουσα και εξερευνωσα. Schol. Dindorf
+acknowledges the strangeness of the usage, and seems to prefer προσκοπουσ',
+with Monk. B.
+
+[22] Cf. Soph. Ant. 751. ‛ηδ' ουν θανειται, και θανουσ' ολει τινα. B.
+
+[23] For the meaning and derivation of αλιβατοις, see Monk's note.
+
+[24] ‛αλικτυπον seems to be an awkward epithet of κυμα, unless it mean
+"_dashed [against the shore] by the waves_." Perhaps αλικτυπον would be
+less forced. B.
+
+[25] ‛Υπεραντλος ουσα συμφοραι, a metaphor taken from a ship which can no
+longer keep out water.
+
+[26] See the note on my Translation of Æsch. Agam., p. 121, note 1. ed.
+Bonn. B.
+
+[27] Read ωμοι εγω πονων: επαθον ω ταλας with cod. Hav. See Dindorf. B.
+
+[28] Cf. Matth. apud Dindorf. B.
+
+[29] In the same manner the chorus in the Alcestis comforts Admetus. v.
+
+  Ου γαρ τι πρωτος, ουδε λοισθιος βροτων
+  γυναικος εσθλης ημπλακες.
+
+[30] ‛Υπερ is here to be understood. VALK.
+
+[31] Σφενδονη, literally, the setting of the seal, which embraces the gem
+as a sling its stone.
+
+[32] See a similar expression in Æsch. Eum. 254,
+
+  Οσμη βροτειων ‛αιματων με προσγελαι.
+
+[33] The construction is, ειη αν εμοι αβιωτος τυχα βιου, ‛οστε τυχειν
+αυτης. MONK.
+
+[34] η, _which land, together with the present earth_.
+
+[35] On the Orphic abstinence from animal food, see Matth. apud Dind.
+Compare Porphyr. de Abst. ii. 3 sqq. B.
+
+[36] Αθικτος appears here to have an active sense. So in Soph. Œd. c. 1521.
+αθικτος ‛ηγητηρος. It is used in its more frequent sense (a passive) in v.
+648, of this play. TR. Compare my note on Æsch. Prom. 110, p. 6, n. I. B.
+
+[37] Cf. Med. 169. Ζηνα θ' ‛ος ορκων θνατοις ταμιας νενομισται. B.
+
+[38] There are various interpretations of this passage. The Scholiast puts
+this sense upon it, _Phædra was chaste (in your eyes), who had not the
+power of being chaste, I had the power, and is it likely that I did not
+exert it to good purpose?_ Others translate the former part of the passage
+with the Scholiast, but make ου καλως εχρωμεθα refer to the present time,
+_had it to no good purpose_, i.e. am not now able to persuade you of my
+innocence. Some translate εσωφροησεν, _acted like a chaste woman_. TR.
+There is evidently a double meaning, which is almost lost by translation.
+Theseus is not intended to understand this. B.
+
+[39] Cf. vs. 3. B.
+
+[40] Κληροι were the notes the augurs took of their observations, and wrote
+down on tablets. See Phœn. 852.
+
+[41] ξυνοικουρους appears to be metaphorically used, but I think the sense
+would be greatly improved by reading κακους, and taking ξυνοικουρους to
+mean "to dwell with him," referring it to ‛οστις. B.
+
+[42] But we must read γυμναδος ‛ιππου with Reiske, Brunot, and Dindorf. See
+his notes. ποδι must be joined with γυμ. ‛ιππου. B.
+
+[43] ποτμον αποτμον. B.
+
+[44] Αυταισιν αρβυλαισιν. Some have supposed αρβυλη to mean a part of the
+chariot, but this seems at variance with the best authorities (see Monk's
+note); perhaps the expression may mean what is implied in the translation;
+that Hippolytus did not wait to change any part of his dress. TR. But I
+agree with Dindorf, that αυταισιν is then utterly absurd and useless. The
+Scholiast seems correct in saying, ταις τον ‛αρματος περι την αντυγα, ενθα
+την οτασιν εχει ‛ο ‛ηνιοχος. B.
+
+[45] "Adeo ut deficerent a visu, ne cernere possem, Scironis alta." B.
+
+[46] Καχλαζω, a word formed from the noise of the sea--‛ο γαρ ηχος του
+κυματος εν τοις κοιλωμασι των πετρων γινομενος, δοκει μιμεισθαι το καχλα,
+καχλα.--_Etym. Mag._
+
+[47] Τρικυμιαι. See Blomfield's _Glossary to the Prometheus_, 1051.
+
+[48] Musgrave supposes that Hippolytus wound the reins round his body; but
+on this supposition, not to mention other objections, the comparison with
+the sailor does not hold so well. It is more natural to suppose that he
+leaned back in order to get a purchase: in this attitude he is made to
+describe himself in Ov. _Met._ xv. 519, _Et retro lentas tendo resupinus
+habenas._ If there be any doubt of εις τουμισθεν ‛ιμασιν being Greek, this
+objection is obviated by putting a stop after ‛ιμασιν, and making it depend
+on ‛ελκει.
+
+[49] i.e. in Crete. See Dindorf's note. B.
+
+[50] Εξοριζεται, _valde prorumpit, liberat terminos, quibus hactenus septum
+fuit_. REISKE.
+
+[51] Heath translates ανεκουφισθην _adtollebam corpus_, honoris scilicet
+gratia. Compare Iliad, Ο. 241. αταρ ασθμα και ‛ιδρως παυετ', επει μιν
+εγειρε Διος νοος αιγιοχοιο, which Pope translates,
+
+  "Jove thinking of his pains, they pass'd away:"
+
+in which the idea is much more sublime; for there the thought of a Deity
+effects what the presence of one does here.
+
+[52] Probably meaning Adonis. See Monk. B.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *       *
+
+ALCESTIS.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+PERSONS REPRESENTED.
+
+  APOLLO.
+  DEATH.
+  CHORUS OF PHERŒANS.
+  ATTENDANTS.
+  ALCESTIS.
+  ADMETUS.
+  EUMELUS.
+  HERCULES.
+  PHERES.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE ARGUMENT.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+Apollo desired of the Fates that Admetus, who was about to die, might give
+a substitute to die for him, that so he might live for a term equal to his
+former life; and Alcestis, his wife, gave herself up, while neither of his
+parents were willing to die instead of their son. But not long after the
+time when this calamity happened, Hercules having arrived, and having
+learned from a servant what had befallen Alcestis, went to her tomb, and
+having made Death retire, covers the lady with a robe; and requested
+Admetus to receive her and keep her for him; and said he had borne her off
+as a prize in wrestling; but when he would not, he unveiled her, and
+discovered her whom he was lamenting.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+ALCESTIS
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+APOLLO.
+
+O mansions of Admetus, wherein I endured to acquiesce in the slave's
+table,[1] though a God; for Jove was the cause, by slaying my son
+Æsculapius, hurling the lightning against his breast: whereat enraged, I
+slay the Cyclops, forgers of Jove's fire; and me my father compelled to
+serve for hire with a mortal, as a punishment for these things. But having
+come to this land, I tended the herds of him who received me, and have
+preserved this house until this day: for being pious I met with a pious
+man,[2] the son of Pheres, whom I delivered from dying by deluding the
+Fates: but those Goddesses granted me that Admetus should escape the
+impending death, could he furnish in his place another dead for the powers
+below. But having tried and gone through all his friends, his father and
+his aged mother who bore him, he found not, save his wife, one who was
+willing to die for him, and view no more the light: who now within the
+house is borne in their hands, breathing her last; for on this day is it
+destined for her to die, and to depart from life. But I, lest the
+pollution[3] come upon me in the house, leave this palace's most dear
+abode. But already I behold Death near, priest of the dead, who is about to
+bear her down to the mansions of Pluto; but he comes at the right time,
+observing this day, in the which it was destined for her to die.
+
+DEATH,[4] APOLLO.
+
+DEA. Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! What dost thou at the palace? why tamest here, Phœbus?
+Art thou again at thy deeds of injustice, taking away and putting an end to
+the honors of the powers beneath? Did it not suffice thee to stay the death
+of Admetus, when thou didst delude the Fates by fraudful artifice?[5] But
+now too dost thou keep guard for her, having armed thine hand with thy bow,
+who then promised, in order to redeem her husband, herself, the daughter of
+Pelias, to die for him?
+
+AP. Fear not, I cleave to justice and honest arguments.
+
+DEA. What business then has your bow, if you cleave to justice?
+
+AP. It is my habit ever to bear it.
+
+DEA. Yes, and without regard to justice to aid this house.
+
+AP. _Ay_, for I am afflicted at the misfortunes of a man that is dear to
+me.
+
+DEA. And wilt thou deprive me of this second dead?
+
+AP. But neither took I him from thee by force.
+
+DEA. How then is he upon earth, and not beneath the ground?
+
+AP. Because he gave in his stead his wife, after whom thou art now come.
+
+DEA. Yes, and will bear her off to the land beneath.
+
+AP. Take her away, for I know not whether I can persuade thee.
+
+DEA. What? to slay him, whom I ought? for this was I commanded.
+
+AP. No: but to cast death upon those about to die.
+
+DEA. Yes, I perceive thy speech, and what thou aim'st at.
+
+AP. Is it possible then for Alcestis to arrive at old age?
+
+DEA. It is not: consider that I too am delighted with my due honors.
+
+AP. Thou canst not, however, take more than one life.
+
+DEA. When the young die I earn the greater glory.
+
+AP. And if she die old, she will be sumptuously entombed.[6]
+
+DEA. Thou layest down the law, Phœbus, in favor of the rich.
+
+AP. How sayest thou? what? hast thou been clever without my perceiving it?
+
+DEA. Those who have means would purchase to die old.
+
+AP. Doth it not then seem good to thee to grant me this favor?
+
+DEA. No in truth; and thou knowest my ways.
+
+AP. Yes, hostile to mortals, and detested by the Gods.
+
+DEA. Thou canst not have all things, which thou oughtest not.
+
+AP. Nevertheless, thou wilt stop, though thou art over-fierce; such a man
+will come to the house of Pheres, whom Eurystheus hath sent after the
+chariot and its horses,[7] _to bring them_ from the wintry regions of
+Thrace, who in sooth, being welcomed in the mansions of Admetus, shall take
+away by force this woman from thee; and there will be no obligation to thee
+at my hands, but still thou wilt do this, and wilt be hated by me.
+
+DEA. Much though thou talkest, thou wilt gain nothing. This woman then
+shall descend to the house of Pluto; and I am advancing upon her, that I
+may begin the rites on her with my sword; for sacred is he to the Gods
+beneath the earth, the hair of whose head this sword hath consecrated.[8]
+
+CHORUS.
+
+SEMICH. Wherefore in heaven's name is this stillness before the palace? why
+is the house of Admetus hushed in silence?
+
+SEMICH. But there is not even one of our friends near, who can tell us
+whether we have to deplore the departed queen, or whether Alcestis,
+daughter of Pelias, yet living views this light, who has appeared to me and
+to all to have been the best wife toward her husband.
+
+CHOR. Hears any one either a wailing, or the beating of hands within the
+house, or a lamentation, as though the thing had taken place?[9] There is
+not however any one of the servants standing before the gates. Oh would
+that thou wouldst appear, O Apollo, amidst the waves of this calamity!
+
+SEMICH. They would not however be silent, were she dead.
+
+SEMICH. For the corse is certainly not gone from the house.
+
+SEMICH. Whence this conjecture? I do not presume this. What is it gives you
+confidence?
+
+SEMICH. How could Admetus have made a private funeral of his so excellent
+wife?
+
+CHOR. But before the gates I see not the bath of water from the
+fountain,[10] as is the custom at the gates of the dead: and in the
+vestibule is no shorn hair, which is wont to fall in grief for the dead;
+the youthful[11] hand of women for the youthful _wife_ sound not.
+
+SEMICH. And yet this is the appointed day,--
+
+SEMICH. What is this thou sayest?
+
+SEMICH. In the which she must go beneath the earth.
+
+SEMICH. Thou hast touched my soul, hast touched my heart.
+
+SEMICH. When the good are afflicted, he must mourn, who from the beginning
+has been accounted good.
+
+CHOR. But there is not whither in the earth any one having sent naval
+equipment, or to Lycia, or to the thirsty site of Hammon's temple, can
+redeem the unhappy woman's life, for abrupt fate approaches, and I know not
+to whom of those that sacrifice at the hearths of the Gods I can go. But
+only if the son of Phœbus were viewing with his eyes this light, could she
+come, having left the darksome habitations and the gates of Pluto: for he
+raised up the dead, before that the stroke of the lightning's fire hurled
+by Jove destroyed him. But now what hope of life can I any longer
+entertain? For all things have already been done by the king, and at the
+altars of all the Gods abound the victims dropping with blood, and no cure
+is there of these evils.
+
+CHORUS, FEMALE ATTENDANT.
+
+CHOR. But here comes one of the female attendants from the house, in tears;
+what shall I hear has happened? To mourn indeed, if any thing happens to
+our lords, is pardonable: but whether the lady be still alive, or whether
+she be dead, we would wish to know.
+
+ATT. You may call her both alive and dead.
+
+CHOR. And how can the same woman be both alive and dead?
+
+ATT. Already she is on the verge of death,[12] and breathing her life away.
+
+CHOR. Oh wretched man, being what thyself of what a wife art thou bereft!
+
+ATT. My master knows not this yet, until he suffer.
+
+CHOR. Is there no longer hope that she may save her life?
+
+ATT. No, for the destined day makes its attack upon her.
+
+CHOR. Are not then suitable preparations made for these events?
+
+ATT. Yes, the adornments[13] are ready, wherewith her husband will bury
+her.
+
+CHOR. Let her know then that she will die glorious, and by far the best of
+women under the sun.
+
+ATT. And how not the best? who will contest it? What must the woman be, who
+has surpassed her? and how can any give greater proof of esteeming her
+husband, than by being willing to die for him? And these things indeed the
+whole city knoweth. But what she did in the house you will marvel when you
+hear. For, when she perceived that the destined day was come, she washed
+her fair skin with water from the river; and having taken from her closets
+of cedar vesture and ornaments, she attired herself becomingly; and
+standing before the altar she prayed: "O mistress, since I go beneath the
+earth, adoring thee for the last time, I will beseech thee to protect my
+orphan children, and to the one join a loving wife, and to the other a
+noble husband: nor, as their mother perishes, let my children untimely die,
+but happy in their paternal country let them complete a joyous life."--But
+all the altars, which are in the house of Admetus, she went to, and
+crowned, and prayed, tearing the leaves from off the myrtle boughs,
+tearless, without a groan, nor did the approaching evil change the natural
+beauty of her skin. And then rushing to her chamber, and her bed, there
+indeed she wept and spoke thus: "O bridal bed, whereon I loosed my virgin
+zone with this man, for whom I die, farewell! for I hate thee not; but me
+alone hast thou lost; for dreading to betray thee, and my husband, I die;
+but thee some other woman will possess, more chaste there can not, but
+perchance more fortunate."[14]--And falling on it she kissed it; but all
+the bed was bathed with the flood that issued from her eyes. But when she
+had satiety of much weeping, she goes hastily forward,[15] rushing from the
+bed. And ofttimes having left her chamber, she oft returned, and threw
+herself upon the bed again. And her children, hanging to the garments of
+their mother, wept; but she, taking them in her arms, embraced them, first
+one and then the other, as about to die. But all the domestics wept
+throughout the house, bewailing their mistress, but she stretched out her
+right hand to each, and there was none so mean, whom she addressed not, and
+was answered in return. Such are the woes in the house of Admetus. And had
+he died indeed, he would have perished; but now that he has escaped death,
+he has grief to that degree which he will never forget.
+
+CHOR. Surely Admetus groans at these evils, if he must be deprived of so
+excellent a wife.
+
+ATT. Yes, he weeps, holding his dear wife in his hands, and prays her not
+to leave him, asking impossibilities; for she wastes away, and is consumed
+by sickness, but fainting a wretched burden in his arms, yet still though
+but feebly breathing, she fain would glance toward the rays of the sun; as
+though never again, but now for the last time she is to view the sun's beam
+and his orb. But I will go and announce your presence, for it is by no
+means all that are well-wishers to their lords, so as to come kindly to
+them in their misfortunes; but you of old are friendly to my master.
+
+SEMICH. O Jove, what means of escape can there in any way be, and what
+method to rid us of the fortune which attends my master?
+
+SEMICH. Will any appear? or must I cut my locks, and clothe me even now in
+black array of garments?
+
+SEMICH. 'Tis plain, my friends, too plain; but still let us pray to the
+Gods, for the power of the Gods is mightiest.
+
+SEMICH. O Apollo, king of healing, find out some remedy for the evils of
+Admetus, procure it, O! procure it. For before this also thou didst find
+_remedy_, and now become our deliverer from death, and stop the murderous
+Pluto.
+
+SEMICH. Alas! alas! woe! woe! O son of Pheres, how didst thou fare when
+thou wert deprived of thy wife?
+
+SEMICH. Alas! alas! these things would even justify self-slaughter, and
+there is more, than whereat one might thrust one's neck in the suspending
+noose.[16]
+
+SEMICH. For not a dear, but a most dear wife, wilt thou see dead this day.
+
+SEMICH. Behold, behold; lo! she doth come from the house, and her husband
+with her. Cry out, O groan, O land of Pheres, for the most excellent woman,
+wasting with sickness, _departing_ beneath the earth to the infernal Pluto.
+Never will I aver that marriage brings more joy than grief, forming my
+conjectures both from former things, and beholding this fortune of the
+king; who, when he has lost this most excellent wife, will thenceforward
+pass a life not worthy to be called life.[17]
+
+ALCESTIS, ADMETUS, EUMELUS, CHORUS.
+
+ALC. Thou Sun, and thou light of day, and ye heavenly eddies of the
+fleeting clouds--
+
+ADM. He beholds[18] thee and me, two unhappy creatures, having done nothing
+to the Gods, for which thou shouldst die.
+
+ALC. O earth, and ye roofs of the palace, and thou bridal bed of my native
+Iolcos.
+
+ADM. Lift up thyself, unhappy one, desert me not; but entreat the powerful
+Gods to pity.
+
+ALC. I see--I see the two-oared boat--and the ferryman of the dead, holding
+his hand on the pole--Charon even now calls me--"Why dost thou delay?
+haste, thou stoppest us here"--with such words vehement he hastens me.
+
+ADM. Ah me! a bitter voyage this thou speakest of! Oh! unhappy one, how do
+we suffer!
+
+ALC. He pulls me, some one pulls me--do you not see?--to the hall of the
+dead, the winged Pluto, staring from beneath his black eyebrows--What wilt
+thou do?--let me go--what a journey am I most wretched going!
+
+ADM. Mournful to thy friends, and of these especially to me and to thy
+children, who have this grief in common.
+
+ALC. Leave off[19] supporting me, leave off now, lay me down, I have no
+strength in my feet. Death is near, and darkling night creeps upon mine
+eyes--my children, my children, no more your mother is--no more.--Farewell,
+my children, long may you view this light!
+
+ADM. Ah me! I hear this sad word, and more than any death to me. Do not by
+the Gods have the heart to leave me: do not by those children, whom thou
+wilt make orphans: but rise, be of good courage: for, thee dead, I should
+no longer be: for on thee we depend both to live, and not to live: for thy
+love we adore.
+
+ALC. Admetus, thou seest both thy affairs and mine, in what state they are,
+I wish to tell thee, ere I die, what I would have done. I, honoring thee,
+and causing thee at the price of my life to view this light, die, it being
+in my power not to die, for thee: but though I might have married a husband
+from among the Thessalians whom I would, and have lived in a palace blessed
+with regal sway, was not willing to live, bereft of thee, with my children
+orphans; nor did I spare myself, though possessing the gifts of bloomy
+youth, wherein I delighted. And yet thy father and thy mother forsook thee,
+though they had well arrived at a point of life, in which they might have
+died, and nobly delivered their son, and died with glory: for thou wert
+their only one, and there was no hope, when thou wert dead, that they could
+have other children.[20] And I should have lived, and thou, the rest of our
+time. And thou wouldst not be groaning deprived of thy wife, and wouldst
+not have to bring up thy children orphans. But these things indeed, some
+one of the Gods hath brought to pass, that they should be thus. Be it
+so--but do thou remember to give me a return for this; for never shall I
+ask thee for an equal one, (for nothing is more precious than life,) but
+just, as thou wilt say: for thou lovest not these children less than I do,
+if thou art right-minded; them bring up lords over my house, and bring not
+in second marriage a step-mother over these children, who, being a worse
+woman than me, through envy will stretch out her hand against thine and my
+children. Do not this then, I beseech thee; for a step-mother that is in
+second marriage is enemy to the children of the former marriage, no milder
+than a viper. And my boy indeed has his father, a great tower of defense;
+but thou, O my child, how wilt thou be, brought up during thy virgin years?
+Having what consort of thy father's? _I fear_, lest casting some evil
+obloquy on thee, she destroys thy marriage in the bloom of youth.[21] For
+neither will thy mother ever preside over thy nuptials, nor strengthen thee
+being present, my daughter, at thy travails, where nothing is more kind
+than a mother. For I needs must die, and this evil comes upon me not
+to-morrow, nor on the third day of the month, but immediately shall I be
+numbered among those that are no more. Farewell, and may you be happy; and
+thou indeed, my husband, mayst boast, that thou hadst a most excellent
+wife, and you, my children, that you were born of a most excellent mother.
+
+CHOR. Be of good cheer; for I fear not to answer for him: he will do this,
+if he be not bereft of his senses.
+
+ADM. These things shall be so, they shall be, fear not: since I, when alive
+also, possessed thee _alone_, and when thou art dead, thou shalt be my only
+wife, and no Thessalian bride shall address me in the place of thee: there
+is not woman who shall, either of so noble a sire, nor otherwise most
+exquisite in beauty. But my children are enough; of these I pray the Gods
+that I may have the enjoyment; for thee we do not enjoy. But I shall not
+have this grief for thee for a year, but as long as my life endures, O
+lady, abhorring her indeed that brought me forth, and hating my father; for
+they were in word, not in deed, my friends. But thou, giving what was
+dearest to thee for my life, hast rescued me. Have I not then reason to
+groan deprived of such a wife? But I will put an end to the feasts, and the
+meetings of those that drink together, and garland and song, which wont to
+dwell in my house. For neither can I any more touch the lyre, nor lift up
+my heart to sing to the Libyan flute; for thou hast taken away my joy of
+life. But by the cunning hand of artists imaged thy figure shall be lain on
+my bridal bed, on which I will fall, and clasping my hands around, calling
+on thy name, shall fancy that I hold my dear wife in mine arms, though
+holding her not:[22] a cold delight, I ween; but still I may draw off the
+weight that sits upon my soul: and in my dreams visiting me, thou mayst
+delight me, for a friend is sweet even to behold at night, for whatever
+time he may come. But if the tongue of Orpheus and his strain were mine, so
+that invoking with hymns the daughter of Ceres or her husband, I could
+receive thee from the shades below, I would descend, and neither the dog of
+Pluto, nor Charon at his oar, the ferryman of departed spirits, should stay
+me before I brought thy life to the light. But there expect me when I die
+and prepare a mansion for me, as about to dwell with me. For I will enjoin
+these[23] to place me in the same cedar with thee, and to lay my side near
+thy side: for not even when dead may I be separated from thee, the only
+faithful one to me!
+
+CHOR. And I indeed with thee, as a friend with a friend, will bear this
+painful grief for her, for she is worthy.
+
+ALC. My children, ye indeed hear your father saying that he will never
+marry another wife to be over you, nor dishonor me.
+
+ADM. And now too, I say this, and will perform it
+
+ALC. For this receive these children from my hand.
+
+ADM. Yes, I receive a dear gift from a dear hand.
+
+ALC. Be thou then a mother to these children in my stead.
+
+ADM. There is much need that I should, when they are deprived of thee.
+
+ALC. O my children, at a time when I ought to live I depart beneath.
+
+ADM. Ah me; what shall I do of thee bereaved!
+
+ALC. Time will soften thy grief: he that is dead is nothing.
+
+ADM. Take me with thee, by the Gods take me beneath.
+
+ALC. Enough are we _to go_, who die for thee.
+
+ADM. O fate, of what a wife thou deprivest me!
+
+ALC. And lo! my darkening eye is weighed down.
+
+ADM. I am undone then, if thou wilt leave me, my wife.
+
+ALC. As being no more, you may speak of me as nothing.
+
+ADM. Lift up thy face; do not leave thy children.
+
+ALC. Not willingly in sooth, but--farewell, my children.
+
+ADM. Look on them, O! look.
+
+ALC. I am no more.
+
+ADM. What dost thou? dost thou leave us?
+
+ALC. Farewell!
+
+ADM. I am an undone wretch!
+
+CHOR. She is gone, Admetus' wife is no more.
+
+EUM. Alas me, for my state! my mother is gone indeed below; she is no
+longer, my father, under the sun; but unhappy leaving me has made my life
+an orphan's. For look, look at her eyelid, and her nerveless arms. Hear,
+hear, O mother. I beseech thee; I, I now call thee, mother, thy young one
+falling on thy mouth--
+
+ADM. Who hears not, neither sees: so that I and you are struck with a heavy
+calamity.
+
+EUM. Young and deserted, my father, am I left by my dear mother: O! I that
+have suffered indeed dreadful deeds!--and thou hast suffered with me, my
+sister. O father, in vain, in vain didst thou marry, nor with her didst
+thou arrive at the end of old age, for she perished before, but thou being
+gone, mother, the house is undone.
+
+CHOR. Admetus, you must bear this calamity; for in no wise the first, nor
+the last of mortals hast thou lost thy dear wife: but learn, that to die is
+a debt we must all of us discharge.
+
+ADM. I know it, and this evil hath not come suddenly on me; but knowing it
+long ago I was afflicted. But be present, for I will have the corse borne
+forth, and while ye stay, chant a hymn to the God below that accepteth not
+libations. And all the Thessalians, over whom I reign, I enjoin to share in
+the grief for this lady, by shearing _their locks_ with steel, and by
+arraying themselves in sable garb. And harness[24] your teams of horses to
+your chariots, and cut from your single steeds the manes that fall upon
+their necks. And let there be no noise of pipes, nor of the lyre throughout
+the city for twelve completed moons. For none other corse more dear shall I
+inter, nor one more kind toward me. But she deserves to receive honor from
+me, seeing that she alone hath died for me.
+
+CHORUS.
+
+O daughter of Pelias, farewell where thou dwellest in sunless dwelling
+within the mansions of Pluto. And let Pluto know, the God with ebon locks,
+and the old man, the ferryman of the dead, who sits intent upon his oar and
+his rudder, that he is conducting by far the most excellent of women in his
+two-oared boat over the lake of Acheron. Oft shall the servants of the
+Muses sing of thee, celebrating thee both on the seven-stringed lute on the
+mountains, and in hymns unaccompanied by the lyre: in Sparta, when returns
+the annual circle in the season of the Carnean month,[25] when the moon is
+up the whole night long; and in splendid[26] and happy Athens. Such a song
+hast thou left by thy death to the minstrels of melodies. Would that it
+rested with me, and that I could waft thee to the light from the mansions
+of Pluto, and from Cocytus' streams, by the oar of that infernal river. For
+thou, O unexampled, O dear among women, thou didst dare to receive thy
+husband from the realms below in exchange for thine own life. Light may the
+earth from above fall upon thee, lady! and if thy husband chooses any other
+alliance, surely he will be much detested by me and by thy children. When
+his mother was not willing for him to hide her body in the ground, nor his
+aged father, but these two wretches, having hoary locks, dared not to
+rescue him they brought forth, yet thou in the vigor of youth didst depart,
+having died for thy husband. May it be mine to meet with another[27] such a
+dear wife; for rare in life is such a portion, for surely she would live
+with me forever without once causing pain.
+
+HERCULES, CHORUS.
+
+HER. Strangers, inhabitants of the land of Pheres, can I find Admetus
+within the palace?
+
+CHOR. The son of Pheres is within the palace, O Hercules. But tell me, what
+purpose sends thee to the land of the Thessalians, so that thou comest to
+this city of Pheres?
+
+HER. I am performing a certain labor for the Tirynthian Eurystheus.
+
+CHOR. And whither goest thou? on what wandering expedition art bound?
+
+HER. After the four chariot-steeds of Diomed the Thracian.
+
+CHOR. How wilt thou be able? Art thou ignorant of this host?
+
+HER. I am ignorant; I have not yet been to the land of the Bistonians.
+
+CHOR. Thou canst not be lord of these steeds without battle.
+
+HER. But neither is it possible for me to renounce the labors _set me_.
+
+CHOR. Thou wilt come then having slain, or being slain wilt remain there.
+
+HER. Not the first contest this that I shall run.
+
+CHOR. But what advance will you have made, when you have overcome their
+master?
+
+HER. I will drive away the horses to king Eurystheus.
+
+CHOR. 'Tis no easy matter to put the bit in their jaws.
+
+HER. _'Tis,_ except they breathe fire from their nostrils.
+
+CHOR. But they tear men piecemeal with their devouring jaws.
+
+HER. The provender of mountain beasts, not horses, you are speaking of.
+
+CHOR. Their stalls thou mayst behold with blood bestained.
+
+HER. Son of what sire does their owner boast to be?
+
+CHOR. Of Mars, prince[28] of the Thracian target, rich with gold.
+
+HER. And this labor, thou talkest of, is one my fate compels me to (for it
+is ever hard and tends to steeps); if I must join in battle with the
+children whom Mars begat, first indeed with Lycaon, and again with Cycnus,
+and I come to this third combat, about to engage with the horses and their
+master. But none there is, who shall ever see the son of Alcmena fearing
+the hand of his enemies.
+
+CHOR. And lo! hither comes the very man Admetus, lord of this land, from
+out of the palace.
+
+ADMETUS, HERCULES, CHORUS.
+
+ADM. Hail! O son of Jove, and of the blood of Perseus.
+
+HER. Admetus, hail thou too, king of the Thessalians!
+
+ADM. I would I could _receive this salutation;_ but I know that thou art
+well disposed toward me.
+
+HER. Wherefore art thou conspicuous with thy locks shorn for grief?
+
+ADM. I am about to bury a certain corse this day.
+
+HER. May the God avert calamity from thy children!
+
+ADM. My children whom I begat, live in the house.
+
+HER. Thy father however is of full age, if he is gone.
+
+ADM. Both he lives, and she who bore me, Hercules.
+
+HER. Surely your wife Alcestis is not dead?
+
+ADM. There are two accounts which I may tell of her.
+
+HER. Speakest thou of her as dead or as alive?
+
+ADM. She both is, and is no more, and she grieves me.
+
+HER. I know nothing more; for thou speakest things obscure.
+
+ADM. Knowest thou not the fate which it was doomed for her to meet with?
+
+HER. I know that she took upon herself to die for thee.
+
+ADM. How then is she any more, if that she promised this?
+
+HER. Ah! do not weep for thy wife before the time; wait till this happens.
+
+ADM. He that is about to die is dead, and he that is dead is no more.
+
+HER. The being and the not being is considered a different thing.
+
+ADM. You judge in this way, Hercules, but I in that.
+
+HER. Why then dost weep? Who is he of thy friends that is dead?
+
+ADM. A woman, a woman we were lately mentioning.
+
+HER. A stranger by blood, or any by birth allied to thee?
+
+ADM. A stranger; but on other account dear to this house.
+
+HER. How then died she in thine house?
+
+ADM. Her father dead, she lived an orphan here.
+
+HER. Alas! Would that I had found thee, Admetus, not mourning!
+
+ADM. As about to do what then, dost thou make use of these words?
+
+HER. I will go to some other hearth of those who will receive a guest.
+
+ADM. It must not be, O king: let not so great an evil happen!
+
+HER. Troublesome is a guest if he come to mourners.
+
+ADM. The dead are dead--but go into the house.
+
+HER. 'Tis base however to feast with weeping friends.
+
+ADM. The guest-chamber, whither we will lead thee, is apart.
+
+HER. Let me go, and I will owe you ten thousand thanks.
+
+ADM. It must not be that thou go to the hearth of another man. Lead on
+thou, having thrown open the guest-chamber that is separate from the house:
+and tell them that have the management, that there be plenty of meats; and
+shut the gates in the middle of the hall: it is not meet that feasting
+guests should hear groans, nor should they be made sad.
+
+CHOR. What are you doing? when so great a calamity is before you, Admetus,
+hast thou the heart to receive guests? wherefore art thou foolish?
+
+ADM. But if I had driven him who came my guest from my house, and from the
+city, would you have praised me rather? No in sooth, since my calamity had
+been no whit the less, but I the more inhospitable: and in addition to my
+evils, there had been this other evil, that mine should be called the
+stranger-hating house. But I myself find this man a most excellent host,
+whenever I go to the thirsty land of Argos.
+
+CHOR. How then didst thou hide thy present fate, when a friend, as thou
+thyself sayest, came?
+
+ADM. He never would have been willing to enter the house if he had known
+aught of my sufferings. And to him[29] indeed, I ween, acting thus, I
+appear not to be wise, nor will he praise me; but my house knows not to
+drive away, nor to dishonor guests.
+
+CHORUS.
+
+O greatly hospitable and ever liberal house of this man, thee even the
+Pythian Apollo, master of the lyre, deigned to inhabit, and endured to
+become a shepherd in thine abodes, through the sloping hills piping to thy
+flocks his pastoral nuptial hymns. And there were wont to feed with them,
+through delight of his lays, both the spotted lynxes, and the bloody troop
+of lions[30] came having left the forest of Othrys; disported too around
+thy cithern, Phœbus, the dappled fawn, advancing with light pastern beyond
+the lofty-feathered pines, joying in the gladdening strain. Wherefore he
+dwelleth in a home most rich in flocks by the fair-flowing lake of Bœbe;
+and to the tillage of his fields, and the extent of his plains, toward that
+dusky _part of the heavens_, where the sun stays his horses, makes the
+clime of the Molossians the limit, and holds dominion as far as the
+portless shore of the Ægean Sea at Pelion. And now having thrown open his
+house he hath received his guest with moistened eyelid, weeping over the
+corse of his dear wife, who but now died in the palace: for a noble
+disposition is prone to reverence [of the guest]. But in the good there is
+all manner of wisdom. And confidence is seated on my soul that the man who
+reveres the Gods will fare prosperously.
+
+ADMETUS, CHORUS.
+
+ADM. Ye men of Pheræ that are kindly present, my servants indeed bear
+aloft[31] the corse, having every thing fit for the tomb, and for the pyre.
+But do you, as is the custom, salute[32] the dead going forth on her last
+journey.
+
+CHOR. And lo! I see thy father advancing with his aged foot, and attendants
+bearing in their hands adornment for thy wife, due honors of those beneath.
+
+PHERES, ADMETUS, CHORUS.
+
+PHE. I am at present sympathizing in thy misfortunes, my son: for thou hast
+lost (no one will deny) a good and a chaste wife; but these things indeed
+thou must bear, though hard to be borne. But receive this adornment, and
+let it go with her beneath the earth: Her body 'tis right to honor, who in
+sooth died to save thy life, my son, and made me to be not childless, nor
+suffered me to waste away deprived of thee in an old age of misery. But she
+has made most illustrious the life of all women, having dared this noble
+action. O thou that hast preserved my son here, and hast raised us up who
+were falling, farewell,[33] and may it be well with thee even in the
+mansions of Pluto! I affirm that such marriages are profitable to men, or
+that it is not meet to marry.
+
+ADM. Neither hast thou come bidden of me to this funeral, nor do I count
+thy presence among things acceptable. But she here never shall put on thy
+decorations; for in no wise shall she be buried indebted to what thou hast.
+Then oughtest thou to have grieved with me, when I was in danger of
+perishing.[34] But dost thou, who stoodest aloof, and permittedst another,
+a young person, thyself being old, to die, weep over this dead body? Thou
+wert not then really the father of me, nor did she, who says she bore me,
+and is called my mother, bear me; but born of slavish blood I was secretly
+put under the breast of thy wife. Thou showedst when thou camest to the
+test, who thou art; and I deem that I am not thy son. Or else surely thou
+exceedest all in nothingness of soul, who being of the age thou art, and
+having come to the goal of life, neither hadst the will nor the courage to
+die for thy son; but sufferedst this stranger lady, whom alone I might
+justly have considered both mother and father. And yet thou mightst have
+run this race for glory, hadst thou died for thy son. But at any rate the
+remainder of the time thou hadst to live was short: and I should have lived
+and she the rest of our days, and I should not, bereft of her, be groaning
+at my miseries. And in sooth thou didst receive as many things as a happy
+man should receive; thou passedst the vigor of thine age indeed in
+sovereign sway, but I was thy son to succeed thee in this palace, so that
+thou wert not about to die childless and leave a desolate house for others
+to plunder. Thou canst not however say of me, that I gave thee up to die,
+dishonoring thine old age, whereas I was particularly respectful toward
+thee; and for this behavior both thou, and she that bare me, have made me
+such return. Wherefore you have no more time to lose[35] in getting
+children, who will succor thee in thine old age, and deck thee when dead,
+and lay out thy corse; for I will not bury thee with this mine hand; for I
+in sooth died, as far as in thee lay; but if, having met with, another
+deliverer, I view the light, I say that I am both his child, and the
+friendly comforter of his old age. In vain then do old men pray to be dead,
+complaining of age, and the long time of life: but if death come near, not
+one is willing to die, and old age is no longer burdensome to them.[36]
+
+CHOR. Desist, for the present calamity is sufficient; and do not, O son,
+provoke thy father's mind.
+
+PHE. O son, whom dost thou presume thou art gibing with thy reproaches, a
+Lydian or a Phrygian bought with thy money?[37] Knowest thou not that I am
+a Thessalian, and born from a Thessalian father, truly free? Thou art too
+insolent, and casting the impetuous words of youth against us, shalt not
+having cast them thus depart. But I begat thee the lord of my house, and
+brought thee up, but I am not thy debtor to die for thee; for I received no
+paternal law like this, nor Grecian law, that fathers should die for their
+children; for for thyself thou wert born, whether unfortunate or fortunate,
+but what from us thou oughtest to have, thou hast. Thou rulest indeed over
+many, and I will leave thee a large demesne of lands, for these I received
+from my father. In what then have I injured thee? Of what do I deprive
+thee? Thou joyest to see the light, and dost think thy father does not
+joy?[38] Surely I count the time we must spend beneath long, and life is
+short, but still sweet. Thou too didst shamelessly fight off from dying,
+and livest, having passed over thy destined fate, by slaying her; then dost
+thou talk of my nothingness of soul, O most vile one, when thou art
+surpassed by a woman who died for thee, the handsome youth? But thou hast
+made a clever discovery, so that thou mayst never die, if thou wilt
+persuade the wife that is thine from time to time to die for thee: and then
+reproachest thou thy friends who are not willing to do this, thyself being
+a coward? Hold thy peace, and consider, if thou lovest thy life, that all
+love theirs; but if thou shalt speak evil against us, thou shalt hear many
+reproaches and not false ones.
+
+CHOR. Too many evil things have been spoken both now and before, but cease,
+old man, from reviling thy son.
+
+ADM. Speak, for I have spoken; but if thou art grieved at hearing the
+truth, thou shouldst not err against me.
+
+PHE. But had I died for thee, I had erred more.
+
+ADM. What? is it the same thing for a man in his prime, and for an old man
+to die?
+
+PHE. We ought to live with one life, not with two.
+
+ADM. Mayst thou then live a longer time than Jove!
+
+PHE. Dost curse thy parents, having met with no injustice?
+
+ADM. _I said it_, for I perceived thou lovedst a long life.
+
+PHE. But art not thou bearing forth this corse instead of thyself?
+
+ADM. A proof this, O most vile one, of thy nothingness of soul.
+
+PHE. She died not by us at least; thou wilt not say this.
+
+ADM. Alas! Oh that you may ever come to need my aid!
+
+PHE. Wed many wives, that more may die.
+
+ADM. This is a reproach to thyself, for thou wert not willing to die.
+
+PHE. Sweet is this light of the God, sweet is it.
+
+ADM. Base is thy spirit and not that of men.
+
+PHE. Thou dost not laugh as carrying an aged corse.
+
+ADM. Thou wilt surely however die inglorious, when thou diest.
+
+PHE. To bear an evil report is no matter to me when dead.
+
+ADM. Alas! alas! how full of shamelessness is old age!
+
+PHE. She was not shameless: her you found mad.
+
+ADM. Begone, and suffer me to bury this dead.
+
+PHE. I will depart; but you will bury her, yourself being her murderer. But
+you will render satisfaction to your wife's relatives yet: or surely
+Acastus no longer ranks among men, if he shall not revenge the blood of his
+sister.
+
+ADM. Get thee gone, then, thou and thy wife; childless, thy child yet
+living, as ye deserve, grow old; for ye no more come into the same house
+with me: and if it were necessary for me to renounce by heralds thy
+paternal hearth, I would renounce it. But let us (for the evil before us
+must be borne) proceed, that we may place the corse upon the funeral pyre.
+
+CHOR. O! O! unhappy because of thy bold deed, O noble, and by far most
+excellent, farewell! may both Mercury[39] that dwells beneath, and Pluto,
+kindly receive thee; but if there too any distinction is shown to the good,
+partaking of this mayst thou sit by the bride of Pluto.
+
+SERVANT.
+
+I have now known many guests, and from all parts of the earth that have
+come to the house of Admetus, to whom I have spread the feast, but never
+yet did I receive into this house a worse one than this stranger. Who, in
+the first place, indeed, though he saw my master in affliction, came in,
+and prevailed upon himself to pass the gates. And then not at all in a
+modest manner received he the entertainment that there happened to be, when
+he heard of the calamity: but if we did not bring any thing, he hurried us
+to bring it. And having taken in his hands the cup wreathed with ivy,[40]
+he quaffs the neat wine of the purple mother, until the fumes of the liquor
+coming upon him inflamed him; and he crowns his head with branches of
+myrtles howling discordantly; and there were two strains to hear; for he
+was singing, not caring at all for the afflictions of Admetus, but we the
+domestics, were bewailing our mistress, and we showed not that we were
+weeping to the guest, for thus Admetus commanded. And now indeed I am
+performing the offices of hospitality to the stranger in the house, some
+deceitful thief and robber. But she is gone from the house, nor did I
+follow, nor stretched out my hand in lamentation for my mistress, who was a
+mother to me, and to all the domestics, for she saved us from ten thousand
+ills, softening the anger of her husband. Do I not then justly hate this
+stranger, who is come in our miseries?
+
+HERCULES, SERVANT.
+
+HER. Ho there! why dost thou look so grave and thoughtful? The servant
+ought not to be of woeful countenance before guests, but should receive
+them with an affable mind. But thou, though thou seest a companion of thy
+lord present, receivest him with a morose and clouded countenance, fixing
+thy attention on a calamity that thou hast nothing to do with. Come hither,
+that thou mayst become more wise. Knowest thou mortal affairs, of what
+nature they are? I think not; from whence should you? but hear me. Death is
+a debt that all mortals must pay: and there is not of them one, who knows
+whether he shall live the coming morrow: for what depends on fortune is
+uncertain how it will turn out, and is not to be learned, neither is it
+detected by art. Having heard these things then, and learned them from me,
+make thyself merry, drink, and think the life allowed from day to day thine
+own, but the rest Fortune's. And honor also Venus, the most sweet of
+deities to mortals, for she is a kind deity. But let go these other things,
+and obey my words, if I appear to speak rightly: I think so indeed. Wilt
+thou not then leave off thy excessive grief, and drink with me, crowned
+with garlands, having thrown open these gates? And well know I that the
+trickling of the cup falling down _thy throat_ will change thee from thy
+present cloudy and pent state of mind. But we who are mortals should think
+as mortals. Since to all the morose, indeed, and to those of sad
+countenance, if they take me as judge at least, life is not truly life, but
+misery.
+
+SERV. I know this; but now we are in circumstances not such as are fit for
+revel and mirth.
+
+HER. The lady that is dead is a stranger; grieve not too much, for the
+lords of this house live.
+
+SERV. What live! knowest thou not the misery within the house?
+
+HER. Unless thy lord hath told me any thing falsely.
+
+SERV. He is too, too hospitable.
+
+HER. Is it unmeet that I should be well treated, because a stranger is
+dead?
+
+SERV. Surely however she was very near.
+
+HER. Has he forborne to tell me any calamity that there is?
+
+SERV. Depart and farewell; we have a care for the evils of our lords.
+
+HER. This speech is the beginning of no foreign loss.
+
+SERV. For I should not, _had it been foreign_, have been grieved at seeing
+thee reveling.
+
+HER. What! have I received so great an injury from mine host?
+
+SERV. Thou camest not in a fit time for the house to receive thee, for
+there is grief to us, and thou seest that we are shorn, and our black
+garments.
+
+HER. But who is it that is dead? Has either any of his children died, or
+his aged father?
+
+SERV. The wife indeed of Admetus is dead, O stranger.
+
+HER. What sayst thou? and yet did ye receive me?
+
+SERV. _Yes_, for he had too much respect to turn thee from his house.
+
+HER. O unhappy man, what a wife hast thou lost!
+
+SERV. We all are lost, not she alone.
+
+HER. But I did perceive it indeed, when I saw his eye streaming with tears,
+and his shorn hair, and his countenance; but he persuaded me, saying, that
+he was conducting the funeral of a stranger to the tomb: but spite of my
+inclination having passed over these gates, I drank in the house of the
+hospitable man, while he was in this case, and reveled, crowned as to my
+head with garlands. But 'twas thine to tell me not _to do it_, when such an
+evil was upon the house. Where is he burying her? whither going can I find
+her?
+
+SERV. By the straight road that leads to Larissa, thou wilt see the
+polished tomb beyond the suburbs.
+
+HERCULES.
+
+O my much-daring heart and my soul, now show what manner of son the
+Tirynthian Alcmena, daughter of Electryon, bare thee to Jove. For I must
+rescue the woman lately dead, Alcestis, and place her again in this house,
+and perform this service for Admetus. And going I will lay wait for the
+sable-vested king of the departed, Death, and I think that I shall find him
+drinking of the libations near the tomb. And if having taken him by lying
+in wait, rushing from my ambush, I shall seize hold of him, and make a
+circle around him with mine arms, there is not who shall take him away
+panting as to his sides, until he release me the woman. But if however I
+fail of this capture, and he come not to the clottered mass of blood, I
+will go a journey beneath to the sunless mansions of Cora and her king, and
+will prefer my request; and I trust that I shall bring up Alcestis, so as
+to place her in the hands of that host, who received me into his house, nor
+drove me away, although struck with a heavy calamity, but concealed it,
+noble as he was, having respect unto me. Who of the Thessalians is more
+hospitable than he? Who that dwelleth in Greece? Wherefore he shall not
+say, that he did a service to a worthless man, himself being noble.
+
+ADMETUS, CHORUS.
+
+ADM. Alas! alas! O hateful approach, and hateful prospect of this widowed
+house. Oh me! Alas! alas! whither can I go! where rest! what can I say! and
+what not! would that I could perish! Surely my mother brought me forth to
+heavy fortune. I count the dead happy, them I long for! those houses I
+desire to dwell in: for neither delight I in viewing the sunbeams, nor
+treading with my foot upon the earth; of such a hostage has death robbed
+me, and delivered up to Pluto.
+
+CHOR. Advance, advance; go into the recesses of the house.
+
+(ADM. Oh! Oh!)
+
+Thou hast suffered things that demand groans.
+
+(ADM. Alas! alas!)
+
+Thou hast gone through grief, I well know.
+
+(ADM. Woe! Woe!)
+
+Thou nothing aidest her that is beneath.
+
+(ADM. Ah me! me!)
+
+Never to see thy dear wife's face again before thee, is severe.
+
+ADM. Thou hast made mention of that which ulcerated my soul; for what can
+be greater ill to man than to lose his faithful wife? Would that I never
+had married and dwelt with her in the palace. But I judge happy those, who
+are unmarried and childless; for theirs is one only life, for this to
+grieve is a moderate burden: but to behold the diseases of children, and
+the bridal bed wasted by death, is not supportable, when it were in one's
+power to be without children and unmarried the whole of life.
+
+CHOR. Fate, fate hard to be struggled with hath come.
+
+(ADM. Oh! Oh!)
+
+But puttest thou no bound to thy sorrows?
+
+(ADM. Alas! alas!)
+
+Heavy are they to bear, but still
+
+(ADM. Woe! woe!)
+
+endure, thou art not the first man that hast lost
+
+(ADM. Ah me! me!)
+
+thy wife; but calamity appearing afflicts different men in different
+shapes.
+
+ADM. O lasting griefs, and sorrows for our friends beneath the earth!--Why
+did you hinder me from throwing myself[41] into her hallowed grave, and
+from lying dead with her, by far the most excellent woman? And Pluto would
+have retained instead of one, two most faithful souls having together
+passed over the infernal lake.
+
+CHOR. I had a certain kinsman, whose son worthy to be lamented, an only
+child, died in his house; but nevertheless he bore his calamity with
+moderation, being bereft of child, though now hastening to gray hairs, and
+advanced in life.
+
+ADM. O house, how can I enter in? and how dwell in thee now my fortune has
+undergone this change? Ah me! for there is great difference between: then
+indeed with Pelian torches, and with bridal songs I entered in, bearing the
+hand of my dear wife, and there followed a loud-shouting revelry hailing
+happy both her that is dead and me, inasmuch as being noble, and born of
+illustrious parents both, we were united together: but now the groan
+instead of hymeneals, and black array instead of white robes, usher me in
+to my deserted couch.
+
+CHOR. This grief came quick on happy fortune to thee unschooled in evil:
+but thou hast saved thy life. Thy wife is dead, she left her love behind:
+what new thing this? Death has ere this destroyed many wives.
+
+ADM. My friends, I deem the fortune of my wife more happy than mine own,
+even although these things appear not so. For her indeed no grief shall
+ever touch, and she hath with glory ceased from many toils. But I, who
+ought not to have lived, though I have scaped destiny, shall pass a bitter
+life; I but now perceive. For how can I bear the entering into this house?
+Whom speaking to, or by whom addressed,[42] can I have joy in entering?
+Whither shall I turn me? For the solitude within will drive me forth, when
+I see the place where my wife used to lie, empty, and the seat whereon she
+used to sit, and the floor throughout the house all dirty, and when my
+children falling about my knees weep their mother, and they lament their
+mistress, _thinking_ what a lady they have lost from out of the house. Such
+things within the house; but abroad the nuptials of the Thessalians and the
+assemblies full of women will torture me: for I shall not be able to look
+on the companions of my wife. But whoever is mine enemy will say thus of
+me: "See that man, who basely lives, who dared not to die, but giving in
+his stead her, whom he married, escaped Hades, (and then does he seem to be
+a man?) and hates his parents, himself not willing to die."--Such report
+shall I have in addition to my woes; why then is it the more honorable
+course for me to live, my friends, having an evil character and an evil
+fortune?
+
+CHOR. I too have both been borne aloft through song, and having very much
+handled arguments have found nothing more powerful than Necessity: nor is
+there any cure in the Thracian tablets which Orpheus[43] wrote, nor among
+those medicines, which Phœbus gave the sons of Æsculapius, dispensing[44]
+them to wretched mortals. But neither to the altars nor to the image of
+this Goddess alone, is it lawful to approach, she hears not victims. Do
+not, O revered one, come on me more severe, than hitherto in my life. For
+Jove, whatever he have assented to, with thee brings this to pass. Thou too
+perforce subduest the iron among the Chalybi; nor has thy rugged spirit any
+remorse.
+
+And thee, _Admetus_, the Goddess hath seized in the inevitable grasp of her
+hand; but bear it, for thou wilt never by weeping bring back on earth the
+dead from beneath. Even the sons of the Gods by stealth begotten perish in
+death. Dear she was while she was with us, and dear even now when dead. But
+thou didst join to thy bed[45] the noblest wife of all women. Nor let the
+tomb of thy wife be accounted as the mound over the dead that perish, but
+let it be honored equally with the Gods, a thing for travelers to
+adore:[46] and some one, going out of his direct road, shall say thus: "She
+in olden time died for her husband, but now she is a blest divinity: Hail,
+O adored one, and be propitious!" Such words will be addressed to her.--And
+lo! here comes, as it seems, the son of Alcmena to thy house, Admetus.
+
+HERCULES, ADMETUS, CHORUS.
+
+HER. One should speak freely to a friend, Admetus, and, not in silence keep
+within our bosoms what we blame. Now I thought myself worthy as a friend to
+stand near thy calamities, and to search them out;[47] but thou didst not
+tell me that it was thy wife's corse that demanded thy attention; but didst
+receive me in thy house, as though occupied in grief for one not thine. And
+I crowned my head and poured out to the Gods libations in thy house which
+had suffered this calamity. And I _do_ blame thee, I blame thee, having met
+with this treatment! not that I wish to grieve thee in thy miseries. But
+wherefore I am come, having turned back again, I will tell thee. Receive
+and take care of this woman for me, until I come hither driving the
+Thracian mares, having slain the king of the Bistonians. But if I meet with
+what I pray I may not meet with, (for may I return!) I give thee her as an
+attendant of thy palace. But with much toil came she into my hands; for I
+find some who had proposed a public contest for wrestlers, worthy of my
+labors, from whence I bear off her, having received her as the prize of my
+victory; for those who conquered in the lighter exercises had to receive
+horses, but those again who conquered in the greater, the boxing and the
+wrestling, cattle, and a woman was added to these; but in me, who happened
+to be there, it had been base to neglect this glorious gain. But, as I
+said, the woman ought to be a care to you, for I am come not having
+obtained her by stealth, but with labor; but at some time or other thou too
+wilt perhaps commend me for it.
+
+ADM. By no means slighting thee, nor considering thee among mine enemies,
+did I conceal from thee the unhappy fate of my wife; but this had been a
+grief added to grief, if thou hadst gone to the house of another host: but
+it was sufficient for me to weep my own calamity. But the woman, if it is
+in any way possible, I beseech thee, O king, bid some one of the
+Thessalians, who has not suffered what I have, to take care of (but thou
+hast many friends among the Pheræans) lest thou remind me of my
+misfortunes. I can not, beholding her in the house, refrain from weeping;
+add not a sickness to me already sick; for I am enough weighed down with
+misery. Where besides in the house can a youthful woman be maintained? for
+she is youthful, as she evinces by her garb and her attire; shall she then
+live in the men's apartment? And how will she be undefiled, living among
+young men? A man in his vigor, Hercules, it is no easy thing to restrain;
+but I have a care for thee. Or can I maintain her, having made her enter
+the chamber of her that is dead? And how can I introduce her into her bed?
+I fear a double accusation, both from the citizens, lest any should convict
+me of having betrayed my benefactress, and lying in the bed of another
+girl; and I ought to have much regard toward the dead (and she deserves my
+respect). But thou, O lady, whoever thou art, know that thou hast the same
+size of person with Alcestis, and art like her in figure. Ah me! take by
+the Gods this woman from mine eyes, lest you destroy me already destroyed.
+For I think, when I look upon her, that I behold my wife; and it agitates
+my heart, and from mine eyes the streams break forth; O unhappy I, how
+lately did I begin to taste this bitter grief!
+
+CHOR. I can not indeed speak well of thy fortune; but it behooves thee,
+whatever thou art, to bear with firmness the dispensation of the Gods.
+
+HER. Oh would that I had such power as to bring thy wife to the light from
+the infernal mansions, and to do this service for thee!
+
+ADM. Well know I that thou hast the will: but how can this be? It is not
+possible for the dead to come into the light.
+
+HER. Do not, I pray, go beyond all bound, but bear it decently,
+
+ADM. Tis easier to exhort, than suffering to endure.
+
+HER. But what advantage can you gain if you wish to groan forever?
+
+ADM. I know that too myself; but a certain love impels me.
+
+HER. For to love one that is dead draws the tear.
+
+ADM. She hath destroyed me, and yet more than my words express.
+
+HER. Thou hast lost an excellent wife; who will deny it?
+
+ADM. _Ay,_ so that I am no longer delighted with life.
+
+HER. Time will soften the evil, but now it is yet in its vigor[48] on thee.
+
+ADM. Time thou mayst say, if to die be time.
+
+HER. A wife will bid it cease, and the desire of a new marriage.
+
+ADM. Hold thy peace--What saidst thou? I could not have supposed it.
+
+HER. But why? what, wilt not marry, but pass a widowed life alone?
+
+ADM. There is no woman that shall lie with me.
+
+HER. Dost thou think that thou art in aught benefiting her that is dead?
+
+ADM. Her, wherever she is, I am bound to honor.
+
+HER. I praise you indeed, I praise you; but you incur the charge of folly.
+
+ADM. _Praise me, or praise me not;_ for you shall never call me bridegroom.
+
+HER. I do praise thee, because thou art a faithful friend to thy wife.
+
+ADM. May I die, when I forsake her, although she is not!
+
+HER. Receive then this noble woman into thine house.
+
+ADM. Do not, I beseech thee by thy father Jove.
+
+HER. And yet you will be acting wrong, if you do not this.
+
+ADM. Yes, and if I do it, I shall have my heart gnawed with sorrow.
+
+HER. Be prevailed upon: perhaps this favor may be proved a duty.
+
+ADM. Ah! would that you had never borne her off from the contest!
+
+HER. Yet with me conquering thou'rt victorious too.
+
+ADM. Thou hast well spoken; but let the woman depart.
+
+HER. She shall depart, if it is needful; but first see whether it be
+needful.
+
+ADM. It is needful, if thou at least dost not mean to make me angry.
+
+HER. I too have this desire, for I know somewhat.
+
+ADM. Conquer then. Thou dost not however do things pleasing to me.
+
+HER. But some time or other thou wilt praise me; only be persuaded.
+
+ADM. Lead her in, if I must receive her in my house.
+
+HER. I will not deliver up the woman into the charge of the servants.
+
+ADM. But do thou thyself lead her into the house if it seems fit.
+
+HER. I then will give her into thine hands.
+
+ADM. I will not touch her; but she is at liberty to enter the house.
+
+HER. I trust her to thy right hand alone.
+
+ADM. O king, thou compellest me to do this against my will.
+
+HER. Dare to stretch out thy hand and touch the stranger.
+
+ADM. And in truth I stretch it out, as I would to the Gorgon with her
+severed head.[49]
+
+HER. Have you her?
+
+ADM. I have.
+
+HER. Then keep her fast; and some time or other thou wilt say that the son
+of Jove is a generous guest. But look on her, whether she seems aught to
+resemble thy wife; and being blest leave off from thy grief.
+
+ADM. O Gods, what shall I say? An unexpected wonder this! Do I truly see
+here my wife, or does the mocking joy of the Deity strike me from my
+senses?
+
+HER. It is not so; but thou beholdest here thy wife.
+
+ADM. Yet see, whether this be not a phantom from the realms beneath.
+
+HER. Thou hast not made thine host an invoker of spirits.
+
+ADM. But do I behold my wife, whom I buried?
+
+HER. Be well assured _thou dost;_ but I wonder not at thy disbelief of thy
+fortune.
+
+ADM. May I touch her, may I speak to her as my living wife?[50]
+
+HER. Speak to her; for thou hast all that thou desirest.
+
+ADM. O face and person of my dearest wife, have I thee beyond my hopes,
+when I thought never to see thee more?
+
+HER. Thou hast: but _take care_ there be no envy of the Gods.
+
+ADM. O noble son of the most powerful Jove, mayst thou be blest, and may
+thy father, who begot thee, protect thee, for thou alone hast restored me!
+How didst thou bring her from beneath into this light!
+
+HER. Having fought a battle with the prince of those beneath.
+
+ADM. Where dost thou say thou didst have this conflict with Death!
+
+HER. At the tomb itself, having seized him from ambush with my hands.
+
+ADM. But why, I pray, does this woman stand here speechless?
+
+HER. It is not yet allowed thee to hear her address thee, before she is
+unbound from her consecrations[51] to the Gods beneath, and the third day
+come. But lead her in, and as thou oughtest, henceforward, Admetus,
+continue in thy piety with respect to strangers. And farewell! But I will
+go and perform the task that is before me for the imperial son of
+Sthenelus.
+
+ADM. Stay with us, and be a companion of our hearth.
+
+HER. This shall be some time hence, but now I must haste.
+
+ADM. But mayst thou be prosperous, and return on thy journey back. But to
+the citizens, and to all the tetrarchy I issue my commands, that they
+institute dances in honor of these happy events, and make the altars
+odorous with their sacrifices of oxen that accompany their vows. For now
+are we placed in a better state of life than the former one: for I will not
+deny that I am happy.
+
+CHOR. Many are the shapes of the things the deities direct, and many things
+the Gods perform contrary to our expectations. And those things which we
+looked for are not accomplished; but the God hath brought to pass things
+not looked for. Such hath been the event of this affair.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+NOTES ON ALCESTIS
+
+[1] Lactant. i. 10. "Quid Apollo? Nonne ... turpissime gregem pavit
+alienum?" B.
+
+[2] Hygin. Fab. li. "Apollo ab eo in servitutem liberaliter acceptus." B.
+
+[3] Cf. Hippol. 1437. B.
+
+[4] No one will, I believe, object to this translation of ΘΑΝΑΤΟΣ; it seems
+rather a matter of surprise that Potter has kept the Latin ORCUS, a name
+clearly substituted as the nearest to ΘΑΝΑΤΟΣ of the masculine gender.
+
+[5] Cf. Æsch. Eum. 723 sqq. B.
+
+[6] It was customary to bury those, who died advanced in years, with
+greater magnificence than young persons.
+
+[7] The horses of Diomed, king of Thrace. The construction is, Ευρυσθεως
+πεμψαντος [αυτον meta hippeion ochêma [axonta] ek topôn dyschei merôn
+Thrêikês]. MONK.
+
+[8] On this custom, see Monk, and Lomeier de Lustrationibus § xxviii. B.
+
+[9] Perhaps, "as though all were over," B.
+
+[10] Casaubon on Theophr. § 16, observes that it was customary to place a
+large vessel filled with lustral water before the doors of a house during
+the time the corpse was lying out, with which every one who came out
+sprinkled himself. See also Monk's note, Kirchmann de Funeribus, iii. 9.
+The same custom was observed on returning from the funeral. See Pollux,
+viii. 7. p. 391, ed. Seber. B.
+
+[11] See Dindorf. B.
+
+[12] Potterus, Arch. Gr. _mortuos_ a _Græcis_ προνωπεις vocari tradit, quod
+solebant ex penitiore ædium parte produci, ac in _vestibulo_, i.e.
+προνωπιωι collocari: atque hunc locum adducit, sed frustra, ut opinor. Non
+enim _mortua_ jam erat, nec _producta_, sed, ut recte hanc vocem
+interpretatur schol. εις θανατον προνενευκυια, i.e. _morti propinqua_.
+Proprie προνωπης is dicitur, qui _corpore prono ad terram fertur_, ut
+Æschyl. Agam. 242. Inde, quia moribundi virium defectu terram petere
+solent, ad hos designandos translatum est. KUINOEL.
+
+[13] The old word "dizening" is perhaps the most literal translation of
+κοσμος, which, however, here means the whole preparations for the funeral.
+Something like it is implied in Hamlet, v. 1.
+
+                  ... her virgin rites,
+  Her maiden strewments, and the bringing home
+  Of bell and burial.     B.
+
+[14] Aristophanes is almost too bad in his burlesque, Equit. 1251. σε δ'
+αλλος τις λαβων κεκτησεται, κλεπτης μεν ουκ αν μαλλον, ευτυχης δ' ‛ισως. B.
+
+[15] Some would translate προνωπης in the same manner as in verse 144.
+
+[16] Conf. Ter.: Phorm. iv. 4, 5. Opera tua ad _restim_ mihi quidem res
+rediit planissume.
+
+[17] Perhaps it is unnecessary to remark, that αβιωτον agrees with βιον
+implied in βιοτευσει.
+
+[18] ‛οραι scilicet ‛ηλιος. MONK.
+
+[19] Cf. Hippol. 1372. B.
+
+[20] It must be remembered that to survive one's children was considered
+the greatest of misfortunes. Cf. Plaut. Mil. Glor. l. 1. "Ita ut tuum vis
+unicum gnatum tuæ Superesse vitæ, sospitem et superstitem." B.
+
+[21] Kuinoel carries on the interrogation to γαμους, and Buchanan has
+translated it according to this punctuation. Monk compares Iliad, p. 95;
+μηπως με περιστελωσ' ‛ενα πολλοι.
+
+[22] Compare my note on Æsch. Ag. 414 sqq. B.
+
+[23] _These_, my children.
+
+[24] Reiske proposes to read τεθριππα δε ζευγη τε και--_And both from your
+chariot teams, and from your single horses cut the manes_.
+
+[25] This festival was celebrated in honor of Apollo at Sparta, from the
+seventh to the sixteenth day of the month Carneus. See Monk. B.
+
+[26] On λιπαραις Αθαναις, see Monk. B.
+
+[27] Literally, _the duplicate_ of such a wife.
+
+[28] αναξ πελτης, so αναξ κωπης in Æsch. Pers. 384, _of a rower_. Wakefield
+compares Ovid's _Clypei dominus septemplicis Ajax_. MONK.
+
+[29] Heath and Markland take τωι for τινι.
+
+[30] Cf. Theocrit. Id. i. 71 sqq. of Daphnis, τηνον μεν θωες, τηνον λυκοι
+ωρυσαντο, Τηνον χοι 'κ δρυμοιο λεων ανεκλαυσε θανοντα ... πολλαι μεν παρ
+ποσσι βοες, πολλοι δε τε ταυροι, πολλαι δ' αυ δαμαλαι και πορτιες ωδυραντο.
+Virg. Ecl. v. 27 sqq. Calpurnius, Ecl. ii. 18. Nemesianus, Ecl. i. 74 sqq.;
+ii. 32. B.
+
+[31] αρδην γινεται απο του αιρειν. δηλοι δε το φοραδην. Schol.
+
+[32] Cf. Suppl. 773. Αιδου τε μολπας εκχεω δακρυρροους, φιλους προσαυδων,
+‛ων λελειμμενος ταλας ερημα κλαιω. See Gorius Monum. sive Columbar. Libert.
+Florent. mdccxxvii. p.186, who observes, "χαιρε was the accustomed
+salutation addressed to the dead. Catullus, Carm. xcvii. _Accipe fraterno
+multum manantia fletu, atque in perpetuum frater HAVE, atque VALE_." The
+same scholar compares a monument, apud Fabretti, cap. v. p. 392, n. 265,
+
+
+D. M
+AVE SALVINIA
+OMNIUM. AMAN
+TISSIMA. ET.
+VALE,
+
+which is very apposite to the present occasion. B.
+
+[33] Wakefield reads χαιρε καιν Αιδου δομοις; having in his mind probably
+Hom. Il. Ψ. 19. Χαιρε μοι ‛ω Πατροκλε, και ειν Αϊδαο δομοισι.
+
+[34] I should scarcely have observed that this is the proper sense of the
+imperfect, had not the former translator mistaken it. B.
+
+[35] Cf. Iph. Taur. 244. χερνιβας δε και καταργματα ουκ αν φθανοις αν
+ευτρεπη ποιουμενη. B.
+
+[36] An apparent allusion to the fable of Death and the Old Man. B
+
+[37] Aristophanes' version of this line is, ω παι, τιν αυχεις, ποτερα Λυδον
+η Φρυγα Μορμολυττεσθαι δοκεις. B.
+
+[38] Turned by Aristophanes into an apology for beating one's father, Nub.
+1415. κλαουσι παιδες, πατερα δ' ου κλαειν δοκεις. See Thesmoph. 194. B.
+
+[39] Cf. Æsch. Choeph. sub init. and Gorius, Monum. Libert. p. 24. ad Tab.
+x. lit. A.
+
+[40] Theocrit. i. 27. Και βαθυ κισσυβιον κεκλυσμενον ‛αδει καρωι, Τω περι
+μεν χειλη μαρευεται ‛υψοθι κισσος. B.
+
+[41] Hamlet, v. 1.
+
+  --Hold off the earth awhile,
+  Till I have caught her once more in mine arms:
+                  [_ leaps into the grave_.]
+  Now pile your dust upon the quick and dead.     B.
+
+[42] Cf. vs. 195. ‛ον ου προσειπε και προσερρηθη παλιν. B.
+
+[43] Ορφεια γαρυς, a paraphrasis for Ορφευς.
+
+[44] αντιτεμων, μεταφορικως απο των τας ‛ριζας τεμνοντων και ‛ευρισκοντων.
+SCHOL. TR. Cf. on Æsch. Agam. 17. B.
+
+[45] In Phavorinus, among the senses of κλισια is κλινη και κλινητηριον.
+
+[46] It will be remembered that the tombs were built near the highways,
+with great magnificence, and sometimes very lofty, especially when near the
+sea-coast (cf. Æsch. Choeph. 351. D'Orville on Charit. lib. i. sub fin.
+Eurip. Hecub. 1273). They are often used as landmarks or milestones, as in
+Theocr. vi. 10, and as oratories or chapels, Apul. Florid, i. p.340, ed.
+Elm. B.
+
+[47] This appears the most obvious sense, as connected with what follows.
+All the interpreters, however, translate it, _I thought myself worthy,
+standing, as I did, near thy calamities_,(i.e. near thee in thy
+calamities,) _to be proved thy friend._
+
+[48] In the same manner ‛ηβαι is used in Orestes, 687, ‛οταν γαρ ‛ηβαι
+δημος εις οργην πεσων.
+
+[49] i.e. _the severed head of the Gorgon_. Valckenaer observes, that this
+is an expression meaning _facie aversa_, and compares l. 465 of the
+Phœnissæ.
+
+[50] Winter's Tale, v. 3.
+
+  Start not: her actions shall be holy, as,
+  You hear, my spell is lawful: do not shun her,
+  Until you see her die again; for then
+  You kill her double: Nay, present your hand:
+  When she was young you woo'd her; now, in age,
+  Is she become the suitor?
+
+Compare also Much Ado about Nothing, v. 4. B.
+
+[51] ‛αφαγνιζειν h. l. non _purificare_ sed _desecrare_. Orcus enim, quando
+gladio totondisset Alcestidis capillos, eam diis manibus sacram dicaverat,
+quod diserte ‛ηγνισαι appellat noster, vide 75--77. Contraria igitur aliqua
+ceremonia desecranda erat, antequam Admeto ejus consuetudine et colloquio
+frui liceret. HEATH.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE BACCHÆ.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+PERSONS REPRESENTED,
+
+  BACCHUS.
+  CHORUS.
+  TIRESIAS.
+  CADMUS.
+  PENTHEUS.
+  SERVANT.
+  MESSENGER.
+  ANOTHER MESSENGER.
+  AGAVE.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE ARGUMENT.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+Bacchus, the son of Jove by Semele, had made Thebes, his mother's
+birth-place, his favorite place of abode and worship. Pentheus, the then
+reigning king, who, as others say, preferred the worship of Minerva,
+slighted the new God, and persecuted those who celebrated his revels. Upon
+this, Bacchus excited his mother Agave, together with the sisters of
+Semele, Autonoe and Ino, to madness, and visiting Pentheus in disguise of a
+Bacchanal, was at first imprisoned, but, easily escaping from his bonds, he
+persuaded Pentheus to intrude upon the rites of the Bacchants. While
+surveying them from a lofty tree, the voice of Bacchus was heard inciting
+the Bacchants to avenge themselves upon the intruder, and they tore the
+miserable Pentheus piecemeal. The grief and banishment of Agave for her
+unwitting offense conclude the play.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE BACCHÆ.[1]
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+BACCHUS.
+
+I, Bacchus, the son of Jove, am come to this land of the Thebans, whom
+formerly Semele, the daughter of Cadmus, brought forth, delivered by the
+lightning-bearing flame. And having taken a mortal form instead of a God's,
+I am present at the fountains of Dirce and the water of Ismenus. And I see
+the tomb of my thunder-stricken mother here near the palace, and the
+remnants of the house smoking, and the still living name of Jove's fire,
+the everlasting insult of Juno against my mother. But I praise Cadmus, who
+has made this place hallowed, the shrine of his daughter; and I have
+covered it around with the cluster-bearing leaf of the vine. And having
+left the wealthy lands of the Lydians and Phrygians, and the sun-parched
+plains of the Persians, and the Bactrian walls; and having come over the
+stormy land of the Medes, and the happy Arabia, and all Asia which lies
+along the coast of the salt sea, having fair-towered cities full of Greeks
+and barbarians mingled together; and there having danced and established my
+mysteries, that I might be a God manifest among men, I have come to this
+city first of the Grecian [cities,] and I have raised my shout first in
+Thebes of this land of Greece, fitting a deer-skin on my body, and taking a
+thyrsus in my hand, an ivy-clad[2] weapon, because the sisters of my
+mother, whom, it least of all became, said that I, Bacchus, was not born of
+Jove; but that Semele, having conceived by some mortal, charged the sin of
+her bed upon Jove, a trick of Cadmus; on which account they said that Jove
+had slain her, because she told a false tale about her marriage. Therefore
+I have now driven them from the house with frenzy, and they dwell on the
+mountain, insane of mind; and I have compelled them to wear the dress of my
+mysteries. And all the female seed of the Cadmeans, as many as are women,
+have I driven maddened from the house. And they, mingled with the sons of
+Cadmus, sit on the roofless rocks beneath the green pines. For this city
+must know, even though it be unwilling, that it is not initiated into my
+Bacchanalian rites, and that I plead the cause of my mother, Semele, in
+appearing manifest to mortals as a God whom she bore to Jove. Cadmus then
+gave his honor and power to Pentheus, born from his daughter, who fights
+against the Gods as far as I am concerned, and drives me from sacrifices,
+and in his prayers makes no mention of me; on which account I will show him
+and all the Thebans that I am a God. And having set matters here aright,
+manifesting myself, I will move to another land. But if the city of the
+Thebans should in anger seek by arms to bring down the Bacchæ from the
+mountain, I, general of the Mænads, will join battle.[3] On which account I
+have changed my form to a mortal one, and transformed my shape into the
+nature of a man. But, O ye who have left Tmolus, the bulwark of Lydia; ye
+women, my assembly, whom I have brought from among the barbarians as
+assistants and companions to me; take your drums, your native instruments
+in the Phrygian cities, the invention of the mother Rhea[4] and myself, and
+coming beat them around this royal palace of Pentheus, that the city of
+Cadmus may see it. And I, with the Bacchæ, going to the dells of Cithæron,
+where they are, will share their dances.
+
+CHOR. Coming from the land of Asia, having left the sacred Tmolus, I dance
+in honor of Bromius, a sweet labor and a toil easily borne, celebrating the
+god Bacchus. Who is in the way? who is in the way? who is in the halls? Let
+him depart. And let every one be pure as to his mouth speaking propitious
+things; for now I will with hymns celebrate Bacchus according to
+custom:--Blessed is he,[5] whoever being favored, knowing the mysteries of
+the gods, keeps his life pure, and has his soul initiated into the Bacchic
+revels, dancing o'er the mountains with holy purifications, and reverencing
+the mysteries of the mighty mother Cybele, and brandishing the thyrsus, and
+being crowned with ivy, serves Bacchus! Go, ye Bacchæ; go, ye Bacchæ,
+escorting Bromius, a God, the son of a God, from the Phrygian mountains to
+the broad streets of Greece! Bromius! whom formerly, being in the pains of
+travail, the thunder of Jove flying upon her, his mother cast from her
+womb, leaving life by the stroke of the thunder-bolt. And immediately
+Jupiter, the son of Saturn, received him in a chamber fitted for birth; and
+covering him in his thigh, shuts him with golden clasps hidden from Juno.
+And he brought him forth, when the Fates had perfected the horned God, and
+crowned him with crowns of snakes, whence the thyrsus-bearing Mænads are
+wont to cover their prey with their locks. O Thebes, thou nurse of Semele,
+crown thyself with ivy, flourish, flourish with the verdant yew bearing
+sweet fruit, and be ye crowned in honor of Bacchus with branches of oak or
+pine, and adorn your garments of spotted deer-skin with fleeces of
+white-haired sheep,[6] and sport in holy games with the insulting wands,
+straightway shall all the earth dance, when Bromius leads the bands to the
+mountain, to the mountain, where the female crowd abides, away from the
+distaff and the shuttle,[7] driven frantic by Bacchus. O dwelling of the
+Curetes, and ye divine Cretan caves,[8] parents to Jupiter, where the
+Corybantes with the triple helmet invented for me in their caves this
+circle o'erstretched with hide; and with the constant sweet-voiced breath
+of Phrygian pipes they mingled a sound of Bacchus, and put the instrument
+in the hand of Rhea, resounding with the sweet songs of the Bacchæ. And
+hard by the raving satyrs went through the sacred rites of the mother
+Goddess. And they added the dances of the Trieterides;[9] in which Bacchus
+rejoices; pleased on the mountains, when after the running dance he falls
+upon the plain, having a sacred garment of deer-skin, seeking a sacrifice
+of goats, a raw-eaten delight,[10] on his way to the Phrygian, the Lydian
+mountains; and the leader is Bromius, Evoe![11] but the plain flows with
+milk, and flows with wine, and flows with the nectar of bees; and the smoke
+is as of Syrian frankincense. But Bacchus bearing a flaming torch of pine
+on his thyrsus, rushes about arousing in his course the wandering Choruses,
+and agitating them with shouts, casting his rich locks loose in the
+air,--and with his songs he shouts out such words as this: O go forth, ye
+Bacchæ; O go forth, ye Bacchæ, delight of gold-flowing Tmolus. Sing Bacchus
+'neath the loud drums, Evoe, celebrating the God Evius in Phrygian cries
+and shouts. When the sweet-sounding sacred pipe sounds a sacred playful
+sound suited to the frantic wanderers, to the mountain, to the
+mountain--and the Bacchant rejoicing like a foal with its mother at
+pasture, stirs its swift foot in the dance.
+
+TIRESIAS. Who at the doors will call out Cadmus from the house, the son of
+Agenor, who, leaving the city of Sidon, erected this city of the Thebans?
+Let some one go, tell him that Tiresias seeks him; but he himself knows on
+what account I come, and what agreement I, an old man, have made with him,
+yet older; to twine the thyrsi, and to put on the skins of deer, and to
+crown the head with ivy branches.
+
+CADMUS. O dearest friend! how I, being in the house, was delighted, hearing
+your voice, the wise voice of a wise man; and I am come prepared, having
+this equipment of the God; for we needs must extol him, who is the son
+sprung from my daughter, Bacchus, who has appeared as a God to men, as much
+as is in our power. Whither shall I dance, whither direct the foot, and
+wave the hoary head? Do you lead me, you, an old man! O Tiresias, direct
+me, an old man; for you are wise. Since I shall never tire, neither night
+nor day, striking the earth with the thyrsus. Gladly we forget that we are
+old.
+
+TI. You have the same feelings indeed as I; for I too feel young, and will
+attempt the dance.
+
+CA. Then we will go to the mountain in chariots.[12]
+
+TI. But thus the God would not have equal honor.
+
+CA. I, an old man, will lead you, an old man.[13]
+
+TI. The God will without trouble guide us thither.
+
+CA. But shall we alone of the city dance in honor of Bacchus?
+
+TI. [Ay,] for we alone think rightly, but the rest ill.
+
+CA. We are long in delaying;[14] but take hold of my hand.
+
+TI. See, take hold, and join your hand to mine.
+
+CA. I do not despise the Gods, being a mortal.
+
+TI. We do not show too much wiseness about the Gods. Our ancestral
+traditions, and those which we have kept throughout our life, no argument
+will overturn them; not if any one were to find out wisdom with the highest
+genius. Some one will say that I do not respect old age, being about to
+dance, having crowned my head with ivy; for the God has made no distinction
+as to whether it becomes the young man to dance, or the elder; but wishes
+to have common honors from all; but does not at all wish to be extolled by
+a few.
+
+CA. Since you, O Tiresias, do not see this light, I will be to you an
+interpreter of things. Hither is Pentheus coming to the house in haste, the
+son of Echion, to whom I give power over the land. How fluttered he is!
+what strange thing will he say?
+
+PENTHEUS. I happened to be at a distance from this land, and I hear of
+strange evils in this city, that the women have left our palace in
+mad-wandering Bacchic rites; and that they are rushing about in the shady
+mountains, honoring with dances this new God Bacchus, whoever he is; and
+that full goblets stand in the middle of their assemblies, and that flying
+each different ways into secrecy, they yield to the embraces of men, on
+pretence, indeed, as [being] worshiping Mænads; but that they consider
+Venus before Bacchus. As many then as I have taken, the servants keep them
+bound as to their hands in the public strong-holds, and as many as are
+absent I will hunt from the mountain, Ino, and Agave who bore me to Echion,
+and the mother of Actæon, I mean Autonoe; and having bound them in iron
+fetters, I will soon stop them from this ill-working revelry. And they say
+that some stranger has come hither, a juggler, a charmer, from the Lydian
+land, fragrant in hair with golden curls, florid, having in his eyes the
+graces of Venus, who days and nights is with them, alluring the young
+maidens with Bacchic mysteries--but if I catch him under this roof, I will
+stop him from making a noise with the thyrsus, and waving his hair, by
+cutting off his neck from his body. He says he is the God Bacchus, [He was
+once on a time sown in the thigh of Jove,[15] ] who was burned in the flame
+of lightning, together with his mother, because she falsely claimed
+nuptials with Jove. Are not these things deserving of a terrible halter,
+for a stranger to insult us with these insults, whoever he be? But here is
+another marvel--I see Tiresias the soothsayer, in dappled deer-skins, and
+the father of my mother, most great absurdity, raging about with a
+thyrsus--I deprecate it, O father, seeing your old age destitute of sense;
+will you not dash away the ivy?[16] will you not, O father of my mother,
+put down your hand empty of the thyrsus? Have you persuaded him to this, O
+Tiresias? do you wish, introducing this new God among men, to examine birds
+and to receive rewards for fiery omens? If your hoary old age did not
+defend you, you should sit as a prisoner in the midst of the Bacchæ, for
+introducing these wicked rites; for where the joy of the grape-cluster is
+present at a feast of women, I no longer say any thing good of their
+mysteries.
+
+CHOR. Alas for his impiety! O host, do you not reverence the Gods! and
+being son of Echion, do you disgrace your race and Cadmus, who sowed the
+earth-born crop?
+
+TI. When any wise man takes a good occasion for his speech, it is not a
+great task to speak well; but you have a rapid tongue, as if wise, but in
+your words there is no wisdom; but a powerful man, when bold, and able to
+speak, is a bad citizen if he has not sense. And this new God, whom you
+ridicule, I am unable to express how great he will be in Greece. For, O
+young man, two things are first among men; Ceres, the goddess, and she is
+the earth, call her whichever name you will.[17] She nourishes mortals with
+dry food; but he who is come as a match to her, the son of Semele, has
+invented the liquid drink of the grape, and introduced it among mortals,
+which delivers miserable mortals from grief,[18] when they are filled with
+the stream of the vine; and gives sleep an oblivion of daily evils: nor is
+there any other medicine for troubles. He who is a God is poured out in
+libations to the Gods, that by his means men may have good things--and you
+laugh at him, as to how he was sewn up in the thigh of Jove; I will teach
+you that this is well--when Jove snatched him out of the lightning flame,
+and bore him, a young infant, up to Olympus, Juno wished to cast him down
+from heaven; but Jove had a counter contrivance, as being a God. Having
+broken a part of the air which surrounds the earth, he placed in it, giving
+him as a pledge, Bacchus, safe from Juno's enmity; and in time, mortals
+say, that he was nourished in the thigh of Jove; changing his name, because
+a God gave him formerly as a pledge to a Goddess, they having made
+agreement.[19] But this God is a prophet--for Bacchanal excitement and
+frenzy have much divination in them.[20] For when the God comes violent[21]
+into the body, he makes the frantic to foretell the future; and he also
+possesses some quality of Mars; for terror flutters sometimes an army under
+arms and in its ranks, before they touch the spear; and this also is a
+frenzy from Bacchus. Then you shall see him also on the Delphic rocks,
+bounding with torches along the double-pointed district, tossing about, and
+shaking the Bacchic branch, mighty through Greece. But be persuaded by me,
+O Pentheus; do not boast that sovereignty has power among men, nor, even if
+you think so, and your mind is disordered, believe that you are at all
+wise. But receive the God into the land, and sacrifice to him, and play the
+Bacchanal, and crown your head. Bacchus will not compel women to be
+modest[22] with regard to Venus, but in his nature modesty in all things is
+ever innate. This you must needs consider, for she who is modest will not
+be corrupted by being at Bacchanalian revels. Dost see? Thou rejoicest when
+many stand at thy gates, and the city extols the name of Pentheus; and he,
+I ween, is pleased, when honored. I, then, and Cadmus whom you laugh to
+scorn, will crown ourselves with ivy, and dance, a hoary pair; but still we
+must dance; and I will not contend against the Gods, persuaded by your
+words--for you rave most grievously; nor can you procure any cure from
+medicine, nor are you now afflicted beyond their power.[23]
+
+CHOR. O old man, thou dost not shame Apollo by thy words, and honoring
+Bromius, the mighty God, thou art wise.
+
+CAD. My son, well has Tiresias advised you; dwell with us, not away from
+the laws. For now you flit about, and though wise are wise in naught; for
+although this may not be a God, as you say, let it be said by you that he
+is; and tell a glorious falsehood, that Semele may seem to have borne a
+God, and that honor may redound to all our race. You see the hapless fate
+of Actæon,[24] whom his blood-thirsty hounds, whom he had reared up, tore
+to pieces in the meadows, having boasted that he was superior in the chase
+to Diana. This may you not suffer; come, that I may crown thy head with
+ivy, with us give honor to the God--
+
+PEN. Do not bring your hand toward me; but departing, play the Bacchanal,
+and wipe not off your folly on me; but I will follow up with punishment
+this teacher of your madness; let some one go as quickly as possible, and
+going to his seat where he watches the birds, upset and overthrow it with
+levers, turning every thing upside down; and commit his crowns to the winds
+and storms; for doing this, I shall gnaw him most. And some of you going
+along the city, track out this effeminate stranger, who brings this new
+disease upon women, and pollutes our beds. And if you catch him, convey him
+hither bound; that meeting with a judgment of stoning he may die, having
+seen a bitter revelry of Bacchus in Thebes.
+
+TI. O wretched man! how little knowest thou what thou sayest! You are mad
+now, and before you was out of your mind. Let us go, O Cadmus, and entreat
+the God, on behalf of him, savage though he be, and on behalf of the city,
+to do him no ill: but follow me with the ivy-clad staff, and try to support
+my body, and I will yours; for it would be shameful for two old men to fall
+down: but let that pass, for we must serve Bacchus, the son of Jove; but
+beware lest Pentheus bring grief into thy house, O Cadmus. I do not speak
+in prophecy, but judging from the state of things, for a foolish man says
+foolish things.
+
+CHOR. O holy venerable Goddess! holy, who bearest thy golden pinions along
+the earth, hearest thou these words of Pentheus? Hearest thou his unholy
+insolence against Bromius, the son of Semele, the first deity of the Gods,
+at the banquets where the guests wear beautiful chaplets! who has this
+office, to join in dances, and to laugh with the flute, and to put an end
+to cares, when the juice of the grape comes at the feast of the Gods, and
+in the ivy-bearing banquets the goblet sheds sleep over man? Of unbridled
+mouths and lawless folly misery is the end, but the life of quiet and
+wisdom remains unshaken, and supports a house; for the heavenly powers are
+afar indeed, but still inhabiting the air, they behold the deeds of
+mortals. But cleverness[25] is not wisdom, nor is the thinking on things
+unfit for mortals. Life is short; and in it who, pursuing great things,
+would not enjoy the present? These are the manners of maniacs; and of
+ill-disposed men, in my opinion. Would that I could go to Cyprus, the
+island of Venus, where the Loves dwell, soothing the minds of mortals, and
+to Paphos, which the waters of a foreign river flowing with an hundred[26]
+mouths, fertilize without rain--and to the land of Pieria, where is the
+beautiful seat of the Muses, the holy hill of Olympus. Lead me thither, O
+Bromius, Bromius, O master thou of Bacchanals! There are the Graces, and
+there is Love, and there is it lawful for the Bacchæ to celebrate their
+orgies; the God, the son of Jove, delights in banquets, and loves Peace,
+giver of riches, the Goddess the nourisher of youths. And both to the rich
+and the poor[27] has she granted to enjoy an equal delight from wine,
+banishing grief; and he who does not care for these things, hates to lead a
+happy life by day and by friendly night--but it is wise[28] to keep away
+the mind and intellect proceeding from over-curious men; what the baser
+multitude thinks and adopts, that will I say.
+
+SERVANT. Pentheus, we are here; having caught this prey, for which you sent
+us: nor have we gone in vain; but the beast was docile in our hands, nor
+did he withdraw his foot in flight, but yielded not unwillingly; nor did he
+[turn] pale nor change his wine-complexioned cheek, but laughing, allowed
+us to bind and lead him away; and remained still, making my work easy; and
+I for shame said, O stranger, I do not take you of my own will, but by
+order of Pentheus who sent me. And the Bacchæ whom you shut up, whom you
+carried off and bound in the chains of the public prison, they being set
+loose are escaped, and are dancing in the meadows, invoking Bromius as
+their God, and of their own accord the fetters were loosed from their feet,
+and the keys opened the doors without mortal hand, and full of many wonders
+is this man come to Thebes; but the rest must be thy care.
+
+PEN. Take hold of him by the hands; for being in the toils, he is not so
+swift as to escape me: but in your body you are not ill-formed, O stranger,
+for women's purposes, on which account you have come to Thebes. For your
+hair is long, not through wrestling, scattered over your cheeks, full of
+desire, and you have a white skin from careful preparation; hunting after
+Venus by your beauty not exposed to strokes of the sun, but [kept] beneath
+the shade. First then tell me who thou art in family.
+
+BAC. There is no boast; but this is easy to say; thou knowest by hearsay of
+the flowery Tmolus?
+
+PEN. I know, [the hill] which surrounds the city of Sardis.
+
+BAC. Thence am I; and Lydia is my country.
+
+PEN. And whence do you bring these rites into Greece?
+
+BAC. Bacchus persuaded us, the son of Jove.
+
+PEN. Is Jove then one who begets new Gods?
+
+BAC. No, but having married Semele here,--
+
+PEN. Did he compel you by night, or in your sight [by day]?
+
+BAC. Seeing me who saw him; and he gave me orgies.
+
+PEN. And what appearance have these orgies?
+
+BAC. It is unlawful for the uninitiated among mortals to know.
+
+PEN. And have they any profit to those who sacrifice?
+
+BAC. It is not lawful for you to hear, but they are worth knowing.
+
+PEN. You have well coined this story, that I may wish to hear.
+
+BAC. The orgies of the God hate him who works impiety.
+
+PEN. For you say, forsooth, that you saw the God clearly what he was like?
+
+BAC. As he chose; I did not order this.
+
+PEN. This too you have well contrived, saying mere nonsense.
+
+BAC. One may seem, speaking wisely to one ignorant, not to be wise.
+
+PEN. And did you come hither first, bringing the God?
+
+BAC. Every one of the barbarians celebrates these orgies.
+
+PEN. [Ay,] for they are much less wise than Greeks.
+
+BAC. In these things they are wiser, but their laws are different.
+
+PEN. Do you practice these rites at night, or by day?
+
+BAG. Most of them at night;[29] darkness conveys awe.
+
+PEN. This is treacherous toward women, and unsound.
+
+BAC. Even by day some may devise base things.
+
+PEN. You must pay the penalty of your evil devices.
+
+BAC. And you of your ignorance, being impious to the God.
+
+PEN. How bold is Bacchus, and not unpracticed in speech.
+
+BAC. Say what I must suffer, what ill wilt thou do me?
+
+PEN. First I will cut off your delicate hair.
+
+BAC. The hair is sacred, I cherish it for the God.[30]
+
+PEN. Next yield up this thyrsus out of your hands.
+
+BAC. Take it from me yourself, I bear it as the ensign of Bacchus.
+
+PEN. And we will guard your body within in prison.
+
+BAC. The God himself will release me when I wish.[31]
+
+PEN. Ay, when you call him, standing among the Bacchæ.
+
+BAC. Even now, being near, he sees what I suffer.
+
+PEN. And where is he? for at least he is not apparent to my eyes.
+
+BAC. Near me, but you being impious, see him not.
+
+PEN. Seize him, he insults me and Thebes!
+
+BAC. I warn you not to bind me: I in my senses command you not in your
+senses.
+
+PEN. And I bid them to bind you, as being mightier than you.
+
+BAC. You know not why you live, nor what you do, nor who you are.
+
+PEN. Pentheus, son of Agave, and of my father Echion.
+
+BAC. You are suited to be miserable according to your name.[32]
+
+PEN. Begone! confine him near the stable of horses that he may behold dim
+darkness! There dance; and as for these women whom you bring with you, the
+accomplices in your wickedness, we will either sell them away, or stopping
+their hand from this noise and beating of skins, I will keep them as slaves
+at the loom.
+
+BAC. I will go--for what is not right it is not right to suffer; but as a
+punishment for these insults Bacchus shall pursue you, who you say exists
+not; for, injuring us, you put him in bonds.
+
+CHOR. O daughter of Achelous, venerable Dirce, happy virgin, for thou didst
+receive the infant of Jove in thy fountains when Jove who begat him saved
+him in his thigh from the immortal fire; uttering this shout: Go, O
+Dithyrambus, enter this my male womb, I will make you illustrious, O
+Bacchus, in Thebes, so that they shall call you by this name. But you, O
+happy Dirce, reject me having a garland-bearing company about you. Why dost
+thou reject me? Why dost thou avoid me? Yet, I swear by the clustering
+delights of the vine of Bacchus, yet shall you have a care for Bacchus.
+What rage, what rage does the earth-born race show, and Pentheus once
+descended from the dragon, whom the earth-born Echion begat, a fierce-faced
+monster, not a mortal man, but like a bloody giant, an enemy to the Gods,
+who will soon bind me, the handmaid of Bacchus, in halters, he already has
+within the house my fellow-reveler, hidden in a dark prison. Dost thou
+behold this, O son of Jove, Bacchus, thy prophets in the dangers of
+restraint? Come, O thou of golden face, brandishing your thyrsus along
+Olympus, and restrain the insolence of the blood-thirsty man. Where art
+thou assembling thy bands of thyrsus-bearers, O Bacchus, is it near Nysa
+which nourishes wild beasts, or in the summits of Corycus?[33] or perhaps
+in the deep-wooded lairs of Olympus, where formerly Orpheus playing the
+lyre drew together the trees by his songs, collected the beasts of the
+fields; O happy Pieria, Evius respects you, and will come to lead the dance
+with revelings having crossed the swiftly-flowing Axius, he will bring the
+dancing Mænads, and [leaving] Lydia[34] the giver of wealth to mortals, and
+the father whom I have heard fertilizes the country renowned for horses
+with the fairest streams.
+
+BAC. Io! hear ye, hear ye my song, Io Bacchæ! O Bacchæ!
+
+CHOR. Who is here, who? from what quarter did the shout of Evius summon me?
+
+BAC. Io, Io, I say again! I, the son of Semele, the son of Jove!
+
+CHOR. Io! Io! Master, master! come now to our company. O Bromius! Bromius!
+Shake this place, O holy Earth![35] O! O! quickly will the palace of
+Pentheus be shaken in ruin--Bacchus is in the halls. Worship him. We
+worship him. Behold these stone buttresses shaken with their pillars.
+Bacchus will shout in the palace.
+
+BAC. Light the burning fiery lamp; burn, burn the house of Pentheus.
+
+SEM. Alas! Dost thou not behold the fire, nor perceive around the sacred
+tomb of Semele the flame which formerly the bolt-bearing thunder of Jupiter
+left?
+
+SEM. Cast on the ground your trembling bodies, cast them down, O Mænads,
+for the king turning things upside down is coming to this palace,
+[Bacchus,] the son of Jupiter.
+
+BAC. O barbarian women! have ye fallen to the ground thus stricken with
+fear? Ye have felt, it seems, Bacchus shaking the house of Pentheus; but
+lift up your bodies, and take courage, casting off fear from your flesh.
+
+CHOR. O thou most mighty light to us of Evian Bacchic rites, how gladly do
+I see thee, being before alone and desolate!
+
+BAC. Ye came to despair, when I was sent in, as about to fall into the dark
+prison of Pentheus.
+
+CHOR. How not?--who was my guardian if you met with misfortune? but how
+were you liberated, having met with an impious man?
+
+BAC. I delivered myself easily without trouble.
+
+CHOR. And did he not bind your hands in links of chains?
+
+BAC. In this too I mocked him; for, thinking to bind me, he neither touched
+nor handled me, but fed on hope; and finding a bull in the stable, where
+having taken me, he confined me, he cast halters round the knees of that,
+and the hoofs of its feet;[36] breathing out fury, stilling sweat from his
+body, gnashing his teeth in his lips. But I, being near, sitting quietly,
+looked on; and, in the mean time, Bacchus coming, shook the house, and
+kindled flame on the tomb of his mother; and he, when he saw it, thinking
+the house was burning, rushed to and fro, calling to the servants to bring
+water,[37] and every servant was at work toiling in vain; and letting go
+this labor, I having escaped, seizing a dark sword he rushes into the
+house, and then Bromius, as it seems to me, I speak my opinion, made an
+appearance in the palace, and he rushing toward it, rushed on and stabbed
+at the bright air,[38] as if slaying me; and besides this, Bacchus afflicts
+him with these other things; and threw down his house to the ground, and
+every thing was shivered in pieces, while he beheld my bitter chains; and
+from fatigue dropping his sword, he falls exhausted--for he being a man,
+dared to join battle with a God: and I quietly getting out of the house am
+come to you, not regarding Pentheus. But, as it seems to me, a shoe sounds
+in the house; he will soon come out in front of the house. What will he say
+after this? I shall easily bear him, even if he comes vaunting greatly, for
+it is the part of a wise man to practice prudent moderation.
+
+PEN. I have suffered terrible things, the stranger has escaped me, who was
+lately coerced in bonds. Hollo! here is the man; what is this? how do you
+appear near my house, having come out?
+
+BAC. Stay your foot; and substitute calm steps for anger.
+
+PEN. How come you out, having escaped your chains?
+
+BAC. Did I not say, or did you not hear, that some one would deliver me?
+
+PEN. Who? for you are always introducing strange things.
+
+BAC. He who produces the rich-clustering vine for mortals.
+
+PEN. This is a fine reproach you charge on Bacchus; I order ye to close
+every tower all round.
+
+BAC. Why? do not Gods pass over walls too?
+
+PEN. You are wise, wise at least in all save what you should be wise in.
+
+BAC. In what I most ought, in that I was born wise; but first learn,
+hearing his words who is come from the mountain to bring a message to you;
+but we will await you, we will not fly.
+
+MESSENGER. Pentheus, ruler o'er this Theban land, I come, having left
+Cithæron, where never have the brilliant flakes of white snow fallen.[39]
+
+PEN. But bringing what important news are you come?
+
+MESS. Having seen the holy Bacchæ, who driven by madness have darted their
+fair feet from this land, have I come, wishing to tell you and the city, O
+king, what awful things they do, things beyond marvel; and I wish to hear
+whether in freedom of speech I shall tell you the matters there, or whether
+I shall repress my report, for I fear, O king, the hastiness of thy mind,
+and your keen temper, and too imperious disposition.[40]
+
+PEN. Speak, as you shall be in all things blameless as far as I am
+concerned; for it is not meet to be wrath with the just; and in proportion
+as you speak worse things of the Bacchæ, so much the more will we punish
+this man who has taught these tricks to the women.
+
+MESS. I was just now driving up to the heights the herd of calves, when the
+sun sends forth his rays warming the land, and I see three companies of
+dances of women, of one of which Autonoe was chief; of a second, thy
+mother, Agave; and Ino led the third dance; and they were all sleeping,
+relaxed in their bodies, some resting their locks against the leaves of
+pine, and some laying their heads at random on the leaves of oak in the
+ground, modestly, not, as you say, that, drunk with the goblet and the
+noise of the flute, they solitary hunt Venus through the wood. But thy
+mother standing in the midst of the Bacchæ, raised a shout, to wake their
+bodies from sleep, when she heard the lowing of the horned oxen; but they,
+casting off refreshing sleep from their eyes, started upright, a marvel to
+behold for their elegance, young, old, and virgins yet unyoked, And first
+they let loose their hair over their shoulders; and arranged their
+deer-skins, as many as had had the fastenings of their knots unloosed, and
+they girded the dappled hides with serpents licking their jaws--and some
+having in their arms a kid, or the wild whelps of wolves, gave them white
+milk, all those who, having lately had children, had breasts still full,
+having left their infants, and they put on their ivy chaplets, and garlands
+of oak and blossoming yew; and one having taken a thyrsus, struck it
+against a rock, whence a dewy stream of water springs out; another placed
+her wand on the ground, and then the God sent up a spring of wine. And as
+many as had craving for the white drink, scratching the earth with the tips
+of their fingers, obtained abundance of milk; and from the ivy thyrsus
+sweet streams of honey dropped, so that, had you been present, beholding
+these things, you would have approached with prayers that God whom you now
+blame. And we came together, herdsmen and shepherds, to reason with one
+another concerning this strange matter, what terrible things and worthy of
+marvel they do; and some one, a wanderer about the city, and practiced in
+speaking, said to us all, O ye who inhabit the holy downs of the mountains,
+will ye that we hunt out Agave, the mother of Pentheus, back from the
+revels, and do the king a pleasure? And he seemed to us to speak well, and
+hiding ourselves, we lay in ambush in the foliage of the thickets; and
+they, at the appointed hour, waved the thyrsus in their solemnities,
+calling on Bacchus with united voice, the son of Jove, Bromius; and the
+whole mountain and the beasts were in a revel; and nothing was unmoved by
+their running; and Agave was bounding near to me, and I sprang forth, as
+wishing to seize her, leaving my ambush where I was hidden. But she cried
+out, O my fleet hounds, we are hunted by these men; but follow me, follow,
+armed with thyrsi in your hands. We then flying, avoided the tearing of the
+Bacchæ, but they sprang on the heifers browsing the grass with unarmed
+hand, and you might see one rending asunder a fatted lowing calf, and
+others rent open cows, and you might see either ribs, or a cloven-footed
+hoof, tossed here and there, and hanging beneath the pine-trees the
+fragments were dripping, dabbled in gore; and the fierce bulls before
+showing their fury with their horns, were thrown to the ground, overpowered
+by myriads of maiden hands; and quicker were the coverings of flesh torn
+asunder by the royal maids than you could shut your eyes; and like birds
+raised in their course, they proceed along the level plain, which by the
+streams of the Asopus produce the fertile crop of the Thebans, and falling
+on Hysiæ and Erythræ,[41] which, are below Cithæron, they turned every
+thing upside down; they dragged children from the houses; and whatever they
+put on their shoulders stuck there without chains, and fell not on the dark
+plain, neither brass nor iron; and they bore fire on their tresses, and it
+burned not; but some from rage betook themselves to arms, being plundered
+by the Bacchæ, the sight of which was fearful to behold, O king! For their
+pointed spear was not made bloody, but the women hurling the thyrsi from
+their hands, wounded them, and turned their backs to flight, women
+[defeating] men; not without the aid of some God. And they went back again
+to whence they had departed, to the same fountains which the God had caused
+to spring up for them, and they washed off the blood; and the snakes with
+their tongues cleaned off the drops from their cheeks. Receive then, O
+master, this deity, whoever he be, in this city, since he is mighty in
+other respects, and they say this too of him, as I hear, that he has given
+mortals the vine which puts an end to grief,--for where wine exists not
+there is no longer Venus, nor any thing pleasant to men.[42]
+
+CHOR. I fear to speak unshackled words to the king, but still they shall be
+spoken; Bacchus is inferior to none of the Gods.
+
+PEN. Already like fire does this insolence of the Bacchæ extend thus near,
+a great reproach to the Greeks. But I must not hesitate; go to the Electra
+gates, bid all the shield-bearers and riders of swift-footed horses to
+assemble, and all who brandish the light shield, and twang with their hand
+the string of the bow, as we will make an attack upon the Bacchæ; but it is
+too much, if we are to suffer what we are suffering at the hands of women.
+
+BAC. O Pentheus, you obey not at all hearing my words; but although
+suffering ill at your hands, still I say that you ought not to take up arms
+against a God, but to rest quiet; Bromius will not endure your moving the
+Bacchæ from their Evian mountains.
+
+PEN. You shall not teach me; but be content,[43] having escaped from
+prison, or else I will again bring punishment upon you.
+
+BAC. I would rather sacrifice to him than, being wrath, kick against the
+pricks; a mortal against a God.
+
+PEN. I will sacrifice, making a great slaughter of the women, as they
+deserve, in the glens of Cithæron.
+
+BAC. You will all fly, (and that will be shameful,) so as to yield your
+brazen shields to the thyrsi of the Bacchæ.
+
+PEN. We are troubled with this impracticable stranger, who neither
+suffering nor doing will be silent.
+
+BAC. My friend, there is still opportunity to arrange these things well.
+
+PEN. By doing what? being a slave to my slaves?
+
+BAC. I will bring the women here without arms.
+
+PEN. Alas! you are contriving some trick against me.
+
+BAC. Of what sort, if I wish to save you by my contrivances?
+
+PEN. You have devised this together, that ye may have your revelings
+forever.
+
+BAC. And indeed, know this, I agreed on it with the God.
+
+PEN. Bring hither the arms! and do you cease to speak.
+
+BAC. Hah! Do you wish to see them sitting on the mountains?
+
+PEN. Very much, if I gave countless weight of gold for it.
+
+BAC. But why? have you fallen into a great wish for this?
+
+PEN. I should like to see them drunk grievously [for them].
+
+BAC. Would you then gladly see what is grievous to you?
+
+PEN. To be sure, sitting quietly under the pines.
+
+BAC. But they will track you out, even though you come secretly.
+
+PEN. But [I will come] openly, for you have said this well.
+
+BAC. Shall I then guide you? and will you attempt the way?
+
+PEN. Lead me as quickly as possible; for I do not grudge you the time.
+
+BAC. Put on then linen garments on your body.
+
+PEN. What then, shall I be reckoned among women, being a man?
+
+BAC. Lest they slay you if you be seen there, being a man.
+
+PEN. You say this well, and you have been long wise.
+
+BAC. Bacchus taught me this wisdom.
+
+PEN. How then can these things which you advise me be well done?
+
+BAC. I will attire you, going into the house.
+
+PEN. With what dress--a woman's? but shame possesses me.
+
+BAC. Do you no longer wish to be a spectator of the Mænads?
+
+PEN. But what attire do you bid me put on my body?
+
+BAC. I will spread out your hair at length on your head.
+
+PEN. And what is the next point of my equipment?
+
+BAC. A garment down to your feet; and you shall have a turban on your head.
+
+PEN. Shall you put any thing else on me besides this?
+
+BAC. A thyrsus in your hand, and the dappled hide of a deer.
+
+PEN. I can not wear a woman's dress.
+
+BAC. But you will shed blood if you join battle with the Bacchæ.
+
+PEN. True; we must first go and see.
+
+BAC. That is wiser at least than to hunt evils with evils.
+
+PEN. And how shall I go through the city escaping the notice of the
+Cadmeans?
+
+BAC. We will go by deserted roads, and I will guide you.
+
+PEN. Every thing is better than for the Bacchæ to mock me.
+
+BAC. We will go into the house and consider what seems best.
+
+PEN. We can do what we like; my part is completely prepared. Let us go; for
+either I will go bearing arms, or I will be guided by your counsels.
+
+BAC. O women! the man is in the toils,[44] and he will come to the Bacchæ,
+where, dying, he will pay the penalty. Now, Bacchus, 'tis thine office, for
+you are not far off. Let us punish him; but first drive him out of his
+wits, inspiring vain frenzy, since, being in his right mind, he will not be
+willing to put on a female dress, but driving him out of his senses he will
+put it on; and I wish him to furnish laughter to the Thebans, being led in
+woman's guise through the city, after[45] his former threats, with which he
+was terrible. But I will go to fit on Pentheus the dress, which, having
+taken, he shall die, slain by his mother's hand. And he shall know Bacchus,
+the son of Jupiter, who is in fact to men at once the most terrible, and
+the mildest of deities.[46]
+
+CHOR. Shall I move my white foot in the night-long dance, honoring Bacchus,
+exposing my neck to the dewy air, sporting like a fawn in the verdant
+delights of the mead, when it has escaped a fearful chase beyond the watch
+of the well-woven nets, (and the huntsman cheering hastens on the course of
+his hounds,) and with toil like the swift storm[47] rushes along the plain
+that skirts the river, exulting in the solitude apart from men, and in the
+thickets of the shady-foliaged wood? What is wisdom, what is a more
+glorious gift from the Gods among mortals than to hold one's hand on the
+heads of one's enemies? What is good is always pleasant; divine strength is
+roused with difficulty, but still is sure, and it chastises those mortals
+who honor folly, and do not extol the Gods in their insane mind. But the
+Gods cunningly conceal the long foot[48] of time, and hunt the impious man;
+for it is not right to determine or plan any thing beyond the laws: for it
+is a light expense to deem that that has power whatever is divine, and that
+what has been law for a long time has its origin in nature. What is wisdom,
+what is a more noble gift from the Gods among men, than to hold one's hand
+on the heads of one's enemies? what is honorable is always pleasant. Happy
+is he who has escaped from the wave of the sea, and arrived in harbor.[49]
+Happy, too, is he who has overcome his labors; and one surpasses another in
+different ways, in wealth and power. Still are there innumerable hopes to
+innumerable men, some result in wealth to mortals, and some fail, but I
+call him happy whose life is happy day by day.
+
+BAC. You, who are eager to see what you ought not, and hasty to do a deed
+not of haste, I mean Pentheus, come forth before the house, be seen by me,
+having the costume of a woman, of a frantic Bacchant, as a spy upon your
+mother and her company! In appearance, you are like one of the daughters of
+Cadmus.
+
+PEN. And indeed I think I see two suns,[50] and twin Thebes, and
+seven-gated city; and you seem to guide me, being like a bull, and horns
+seem to grow on your head. But were you ever a beast? for you look like a
+bull.
+
+BAC. The God accompanies us, not propitious formerly, but now at truce with
+us. You see what you should see.
+
+PEN. How do I look? Does not my standing seem like that of Ino, or of
+Agave, my mother?
+
+BAC. I seem to see them as I behold you; but this lock of hair of yours is
+out of its place, not as I dressed it beneath the turban.
+
+PEN. Moving it within doors backward and forward, and practicing Bacchic
+revelry, I disarranged it.
+
+BAC. But we who ought to wait upon you will again rearrange it. But hold up
+your head.
+
+PEN. Look, do you arrange it, for we depend on you.
+
+BAC. And your girdle is loosened, and the fringes of your garments do not
+extend regularly round your legs.
+
+PEN. They seem so to me, too, about the right foot at least; but on this
+side the robe sits well along the leg.
+
+BAC. Will you not think me the first of your friends when, contrary to your
+expectation, you see the Bacchæ acting modestly?
+
+PEN. But shall I be more like a Bacchant holding the thyrsus in my right
+hand, or in this?
+
+BAC. You should [hold it in] your right hand, and raise it at the same time
+with your right foot; and I praise you for having changed your mind.
+
+PEN. Could I bear on my shoulders the glens of Cithæron, Bacchæ and all?
+
+BAC. You could if you were willing; but you had your mind unsound before;
+but now you have such as you ought.
+
+PEN. Shall we bring levers, or shall I tear them up with my hands, putting
+my shoulder or arm under the summits?
+
+BAC. No, lest you ruin the habitations of the Nymphs, and the seats of Pan
+where he plays his pipes.
+
+PEN. You speak well,--it is not with strength we should conquer women; but
+I will hide my body among the pines.
+
+BAC. Hide you the hiding in which you should be hidden, coming as a crafty
+spy on the Mænads.
+
+PEN. And, indeed, I think to catch them in the thickets, like birds in the
+sweet nets of beds.
+
+BAC. You go then as a watch for this very thing; and perhaps you will catch
+them, if you be not caught first.
+
+PEN. Conduct me through the middle of the Theban land, for I am the only
+man of them who would dare these things.
+
+BAC. You alone labor for this city, you alone; therefore the labors, which
+are meet,[51] await you. But follow me, I am your saving guide, some one
+else will guide you away from thence.
+
+PEN. Yes, my mother.
+
+BAC. Being remarkable among all.
+
+PEN. For this purpose do I come.
+
+BAC. You will depart being borne.[52]
+
+PEN. You allude to my delicacy.
+
+BAC. In the hands of your mother.
+
+PEN. And wilt thou compel me to be effeminate?
+
+BAC. Ay, with such effeminacy.
+
+PEN. I lay mine hands to worthy things.
+
+BAC. You are terrible, terrible: and you go to terrible sufferings; so that
+you shall find a renown reaching to heaven. Spread out, O Agave, your
+hands, and ye, her sister, daughters of Cadmus! I lead this young man to a
+mighty contest; and the conqueror shall be I and Bacchus! The rest the
+matter itself will show.
+
+CHOR. Go, ye fleet hounds of madness, go to the mountain where the
+daughters of Cadmus hold their company; drive them raving against the
+frantic spy on the Mænads,--him in woman's attire. First shall his mother
+from some smooth rock or paling, behold him in ambush; and she will cry out
+to the Mænads: Who is this of the Cadmeans who has come to the mountain,
+the mountain, as a spy on us, who are on the mountain? Io Bacchæ! Who
+brought him forth? for he was not born of the blood of women: but, as to
+his race, he is either born of some lion, or of the Libyan Gorgons. Let
+manifest justice go forth, let it go with sword in hand, slaying the
+godless, lawless, unjust, earth-born offspring of Echion through the
+throat; who, with wicked mind and unjust rage about your orgies, O Bacchus,
+and those of thy mother,[53] with raving heart and mad disposition proceeds
+as about to overcome an invincible deity by force. To possess without
+pretext a wise understanding in respect to the Gods, and [a disposition]
+befitting mortals, is a life ever free from grief. I joyfully hunt after
+wisdom, if apart from envy, but the other conduct is evidently ever great
+throughout life, directing one rightly the livelong day, to reverence
+things honorable.[54] Appear as a bull, or a many-headed dragon, or a fiery
+lion, to be seen. Go, O Bacchus! cast a snare around the hunter of the
+Bacchæ, with a smiling face falling upon the deadly crowd of the Mænads.
+
+MESS. O house, which wast formerly prosperous in Greece! house of the
+Sidonian old man, who sowed in the land the earth-born harvest of the
+dragon; how I lament for you, though a slave. But still the [calamities] of
+their masters are a grief to good servants.
+
+CHOR. But what is the matter? Tellest thou any news from the Bacchæ?
+
+MESS. Pentheus is dead, the son of his father Echion.
+
+CHOR. O, king Bacchus! truly you appear a great God!
+
+MESS. How sayest thou? Why do you say this? Do you, O woman, delight at my
+master being unfortunate?
+
+CHOR. I, a foreigner, celebrate it in foreign strains; for no longer do I
+crouch in fear under my fetters.
+
+MESS. But do you think Thebes thus void of men?
+
+CHOR. Bacchus, Bacchus, not Thebes, has my allegiance.
+
+MESS. You, indeed may be pardoned; still, O woman, it is not right to
+rejoice at the misfortunes which have been brought to pass.
+
+CHOR. Tell me, say, by what fate is the wicked man doing wicked things
+dead, O man?
+
+MESS. When having left Therapnæ of this Theban land, we crossed the streams
+of Asopus, we entered on the height of Cithæron, Pentheus and I, for I was
+following my master, and the stranger who was our guide in this search, for
+the sight: first, then, we sat down in a grassy vale, keeping our steps and
+tongues in silence, that we might see, not being seen; and there was a
+valley surrounded by precipices, irrigated with streams, shaded around with
+pines, where the Mænads were sitting employing their hands in pleasant
+labors, for some of them were again crowning the worn-out thyrsus, so as to
+make it leafy with ivy; and some, like horses quitting the painted yoke,
+shouted in reply to another a Bacchic melody. And the miserable Pentheus,
+not seeing the crowd of women, spake thus: O stranger, where we are
+standing, I can not come at the place where is the dance of the Mænads; but
+climbing a mound, or pine with lofty neck, I could well discern the
+shameful deeds of the Mænads. And on this I now see a strange deed of the
+stranger; for seizing hold of the extreme lofty branch of a pine, he pulled
+it down, pulled it, pulled it to the dark earth, and it was bent like a
+bow, or as a curved wheel worked by a lathe describes a circle as it
+revolves, thus the stranger, pulling a mountain bough with his hands, bent
+it to the earth; doing no mortal's deed; and having placed Pentheus on the
+pine branches, he let it go upright through his hands steadily, taking care
+that it should not shake him off; and the pine stood firm upright to the
+sky, bearing on its back my master, sitting on it; and he was seen rather
+than saw the Mænads, for sitting on high he was apparent, as not
+before.[55] And one could no longer see the stranger, but there was a
+certain voice from the sky; Bacchus, as one might conjecture, shouted out:
+O youthful women, I bring you him who made you and me and my orgies a
+laughing-stock: but punish ye him. And at the same time he cried out, and
+sent forth to heaven and earth a light of holy fire;[56] and the air was
+silent, and the fair meadowed grove kept its leaves in silence, and you
+could not hear the voice of the beasts; but they not distinctly receiving
+the voice, stood upright, and cast their eyes around. And again he
+proclaimed his bidding. And when the daughters of Cadmus' recognized the
+distinct command of Bacchus, they rushed forth, having in the eager running
+of their feet a speed not less than that of a dove; his mother, Agave, and
+her kindred sisters, and all the Bacchæ: and frantic with the inspiration
+of the God, they bounded through the torrent-streaming valley, and the
+clefts. But when they saw my master sitting on the pine, first they threw
+at him handfuls of stones, striking his head, mounting on an opposite piled
+rock; and with pine branches some aimed, and some hurled their thyrsi
+through the air at Pentheus, wretched mark;[57] but they failed of their
+purpose; for he having a height too great for their eagerness, sat,
+wretched, destitute through perplexity. But at last thundering together[58]
+some oaken branches, they tore up the roots with levers not of iron; and
+when they could not accomplish the end of their labors, Agave said, Come,
+standing round in a circle, seize each a branch, O Mænads, that we may take
+the beast[59] who has climbed aloft, that he may not tell abroad the secret
+dances of the God. And they applied their innumerable hands to the pine,
+and tore it up from the ground; and sitting on high, Pentheus falls to the
+ground from on high, with numberless lamentations; for he knew that he was
+near to ill. And first his mother, as the priestess, began his slaughter,
+and falls upon him; but he threw the turban from his hair, that the
+wretched Agave, recognizing him, might not slay him; and touching her
+cheek, he says, I, indeed, O mother, am thy child,[60] Pentheus, whom you
+bore in the house of Echion; but pity me, O mother! and do not slay me, thy
+child, for my sins. But she, foaming and rolling her eyes every way, not
+thinking as she ought to think, was possessed by Bacchus, and he did not
+persuade her; and seizing his left hand with her hand, treading on the side
+of the unhappy man, she tore off his shoulder, not by [her own] strength,
+but the God gave facility to her hands; and Ino completed the work on the
+other side, tearing his flesh. And Autonoe and the whole crowd of the
+Bacchæ pressed on; and there was a noise of all together; he, indeed,
+groaning as much as he had life in him, and they shouted; and one bore his
+arm, another his foot, shoe and all; and his sides were bared by their
+tearings, and the whole band, with gory hands, tore to pieces the flesh of
+Pentheus: and his body lies in different places, part under the rugged
+rocks, part in the deep shade of the wood, not easy to be sought; and as to
+his miserable head, which his mother has taken in her hands, having fixed
+it on the top of a thyrsus, she is bearing it, like that of a savage lion,
+through the middle of Cithæron, leaving her sisters in the dances of the
+Mænads; and she goes along rejoicing in her unhappy prey, within these
+walls, calling upon Bacchus, her fellow-huntsman, her fellow-workman in the
+chase, of glorious victory, by which she wins a victory of tears. I,
+therefore, will depart out of the way of this calamity before Agave comes
+to the palace; but to be wise, and to reverence the Gods, this, I think, is
+the most honorable and wisest thing for mortals who adopt it.
+
+CHOR. Let us dance in honor of Bacchus; let us raise a shout for what has
+befallen Pentheus, the descendant of the dragon, who assumed female attire
+and the wand with the beautiful thyrsus,--a certain death, having a
+bull[61] as his leader to calamity. Ye Cadmean Bacchants, ye have
+accomplished a glorious victory, illustrious, yet for woe and tears. It is
+a glorious contest to plunge one's dripping hand in the blood of one's son.
+But--for I see Agave, the mother of Pentheus, coining to the house with
+starting eyes; receive the revel of the Evian God.
+
+AGAVE. O Asiatic Bacchæ!
+
+CHOR. To what dost thou excite me? O!
+
+AG. We bring from the mountains a fresh-culled wreathing[62] to the house,
+a blessed prey.
+
+CHOR. I see it, and hail you as a fellow-reveler, O!
+
+AG. I have caught him without a noose, a young lion, as you may see.
+
+CHOR. From what desert?
+
+AG. Cithæron.
+
+CHOR. What did Cithæron?
+
+AG. Slew him.
+
+CHOR. Who was it who first smote him?
+
+AG. The honor is mine. Happy Agave! We are renowned in our revels.
+
+CHOR. Who else?
+
+AG. Cadmus's.
+
+CHOR. What of Cadmus?
+
+AG. Descendants after me, after me laid hands on this beast.
+
+CHOR. You are fortunate in this capture.
+
+AG. Partake then of our feast.
+
+CHOR. What shall I, unhappy, partake of?
+
+AG. The whelp is young about the chin; he has just lost his soft-haired
+head-gear.[63]
+
+AG. For it is beautiful as the mane of a wild beast.
+
+CHOR. Bacchus, a wise huntsman, wisely hurried the Mænads against this
+beast.
+
+CHOR. For the king is a huntsman.
+
+AG. Do you praise?
+
+CHOR. What? I do praise.
+
+AG. But soon the Cadmeans.
+
+CHOR. And thy son Pentheus his mother--
+
+AG. --will praise, as having caught this lion-born prey.
+
+CHOR. An excellent prey.
+
+AG. Excellently.
+
+CHOR. You rejoice.
+
+AG. I rejoice greatly, having accomplished great and illustrious deeds for
+this land.
+
+CHOR. Show now, O wretched woman, thy victorious booty to the citizens,
+which you have come bringing with you.
+
+AG. O, ye who dwell in the fair-towered city of the Theban land, come ye,
+that ye may behold this prey, O daughters of Cadmus, of the wild beast
+which we have taken; not by the thonged javelins of the Thessalians, not by
+nets, but by the fingers, our white arms; then may we boast that we should
+in vain possess the instruments of the spear-makers; but we, with this
+hand, slew this beast, and tore its limbs asunder. Where is my aged father?
+let him come near; and where is my son Pentheus? let him take and raise the
+ascent of a wattled ladder against the house, that he may fasten to the
+triglyphs this head of the lion which I am present having caught.
+
+CAD. Follow me, bearing the miserable burden of Pentheus; follow me, O
+servants, before the house; whose body here, laboring with immeasurable
+search, I bear, having found it in the defiles of Cithæron, torn to pieces,
+and finding nothing in the same place, lying in a thicket, difficult to be
+searched. For I heard from some one of the daring deeds of my daughters
+just as I came to the city within the walls, with the old Tiresias,
+concerning the Bacchæ; and having returned again to the mountain, I bring
+back my child, slain by the Mænads. And I saw Autonoe, who formerly bore
+Actæon to Aristæus, and Ino together, still mad in the thicket, unhappy
+creatures; but some one told me that Agave was coming hither with frantic
+foot; nor did I hear a false tale, for I behold her, an unhappy sight.
+
+AG. O father! you may boast a great boast, that you of mortals have
+begotten by far the best daughters; I mean all, but particularly myself,
+who, leaving my shuttle at the loom, have come to greater things, to catch
+wild beasts with my hands. And having taken him, I bear in my arms, as you
+see, these spoils of my valor, that they may be suspended against your
+house. And do you, O father, receive them in your hands; and rejoicing over
+my successful capture, invite your friends to a feast; for you are blessed,
+blessed since I have done such deeds.
+
+CAD. O, woe! and not to be seen, of those who have accomplished a slaughter
+not to be measured by wretched hands; having stricken down a glorious
+victim for the Gods, you invite Thebes and me to a banquet. Alas me, first
+for thy ills, then for mine own; how justly, but how severely, has king
+Bromius destroyed us, being one of our own family!
+
+AG. How morose is old age in men! and sullen to the eye; would that my son
+may be fond of hunting, resembling the disposition of his mother, when with
+the Theban youths he would strive after the beasts--but he is only fit to
+contend with Gods. He is to be admonished, O father, by you and me, not to
+rejoice in clever evil. Where is he? Who will summon him hither to my
+sight, that he may see me, that happy woman?
+
+CAD. Alas, alas! knowing what ye have done, ye will grieve a sad grief; but
+if forever ye remain in the condition in which ye are, not fortunate, you
+will seem not to be unfortunate.
+
+AG. But what of these matters is not well, or what is grievous?
+
+CAD. First cast your eyes up to this sky.
+
+AG. Well; why do you bid me look at it?
+
+CAD. Is it still the same, or think you it is changed?
+
+AG. It is brighter than formerly, and more divine.
+
+CAD. Is then this fluttering still present to your soul?
+
+AG. I understand not your word; but I become somehow sobered, changing from
+my former mind.
+
+CAD. Can you then hear any thing, and answer clearly?
+
+AG. How I forget what we said before, O father!
+
+CAD. To what house did you come in marriage?
+
+AG. You gave me, as they say, to the sown Echion.
+
+CAD. What son then was born in your house to your husband?
+
+AG. Pentheus, by the association of myself and his father.
+
+CAD. Whose head then have you in your arms?
+
+AG. That of a lion, as those who hunted him said.
+
+CAD. Look now rightly; short is the toil to see.
+
+AG. Ah! what do I see? what is this I bear in my hands?
+
+CAD. Look at it, and learn more clearly.
+
+AG. I see the greatest grief, wretch that I am!
+
+CAD. Does it seem to you to be like a lion?
+
+AG. No: but I, wretched, hold the head of Pentheus.
+
+CAD. Ay, much lamented before you recognized him.
+
+AG. Who slew him, how came he into my hands?
+
+CAD. O wretched truth, how unseasonably art thou come!
+
+AG. Tell me, since delay causes a quivering at my heart.
+
+CAD. You and your sisters slew him.
+
+AG. And where did he die, in the house, or in what place?
+
+CAD. Where formerly the dogs tore Actæon to pieces.
+
+AG. But why did he, unhappy, go to Cithæron?
+
+CAD. He went deriding the God and your Bacchic revels.
+
+AG. But on what account did we go thither?
+
+CAD. Ye were mad, and the whole city was frantic with Bacchus.[64]
+
+AG. Bacchus undid us--now I perceive.
+
+CAD. Being insulted with insolence--for ye thought him not a God.
+
+AG. But the dear body of my child, O father!
+
+CAD. I having with difficulty traced it, bring it all.
+
+AG. What! rightly united in its joints? * * * *
+
+AG. But what part had Pentheus in my folly?[65]
+
+CAD. He was like you, not reverencing the God, therefore he joined all in
+one ruin, both ye and this one, so as to ruin the house, and me, who being
+childless of male children, see this branch of thy womb, O unhappy woman!
+most miserably and shamefully slain--whom the house respected; you, O
+child, who supported my house, born of my daughter, and was an object of
+fear to the city; and no one wished to insult the old man, seeing you; for
+he would have received a worthy punishment. But now I shall be cast out of
+my house dishonored, I, the mighty Cadmus, who sowed the Theban race, and
+reaped a most glorious crop; O dearest of men, for although no longer in
+being, still thou shalt be counted by me as dearest of my children; no
+longer touching this, my chin, with thy hand, addressing me, your mother's
+father, wilt thou embrace me, my son, saying, Who injures, who insults you,
+O father, who harasses your heart, being troublesome I say, that I may
+punish him who does you wrong, O father. But now I am miserable, and thou
+art wretched, and thy mother is pitiable, and thy relations are wretched.
+But if there is any one who despises the Gods, looking on this man's death,
+let him acknowledge the Gods.
+
+CHOR. I grieve for thy state, O Cadmus; but your child has the punishment
+of your daughter, deserved indeed, but grievous to you.
+
+AG. O father, for you see how I am changed ...
+
+BAC ... changing, you shall become a dragon, and your wife becoming a
+beast, shall receive in exchange the form of a serpent, Harmonia, the
+daughter of Mars, whom you had, being a mortal. And as the oracle of Jove
+says, you shall drive with your wife a chariot of heifers, ruling over
+barbarians; and with an innumerable army you shall sack many cities; and
+when they plunder the temple of Apollo, they shall have a miserable return,
+but Mars shall defend you and Harmonia, and shall settle your life in the
+islands of the blessed. I say this, I, Bacchus, not born of a mortal
+father, but of Jove; and if ye had known how to be wise when ye would not,
+ye would have been happy, having the son of Jupiter for your ally.
+
+CAD. Bacchus, we beseech thee, we have erred.
+
+BAC. Ye have learned it too late; but when it behooved you, you knew it
+not.
+
+CAD. I knew it, but you press on us too severely.
+
+BAC. [Ay,] for I, being a God, was insulted by you.
+
+CAD. It is not right for Gods to resemble mortals in anger.[66]
+
+BAC. My father, Jove, long ago decreed this.
+
+AG. Alas! a miserable banishment is the decree[67] [for us,] old man.
+
+BAC. Why do ye then delay what must needs be?
+
+CAD. O child, into what terrible evil have we come; both you wretched and
+your * * * * sisters,[68] and I miserable, shall go, an aged sojourner, to
+foreigners. Still it is foretold that I shall bring into Greece a motley
+barbarian army, and leading their spears, I, a dragon, shall lead the
+daughter of Mars, Harmonia, my wife, having the fierce nature of a dragon,
+to the altars and tombs of the Greeks. Nor shall I, wretched, rest from
+ills, nor even sailing over the Acheron below shall I be at rest.
+
+AG. O, my father! and I being deprived of you shall be banished.
+
+CAD. Why do you embrace me with your hands, O unhappy child, as a white
+swan does its exhausted[69] parent?
+
+AG. For whither can I turn, cast out from my country?
+
+CAD. I know not, my child; your father is a poor ally.
+
+AG. Farewell, O house! farewell, O ancestral city! I leave you in
+misfortune a fugitive from my chamber.
+
+CAD. Go then, my child, to the land of Aristæus * * * *.
+
+AG. I bemoan thee, O father!
+
+CAD. And I thee, my child; and I lament your sisters.
+
+AG. Terribly indeed has king Bacchus brought this misery upon thy house.
+
+BAC. [Ay,] for I have suffered terrible things from ye, having a name
+unhonored in Thebes.
+
+AG. Farewell, my father.
+
+CAD. And you farewell, O miserable daughter; yet you can not easily arrive
+at this.
+
+AG. Lead me, O guides, where I may take my miserable sisters as the
+companions of my flight; and may I go where neither accursed Cithæron may
+see me, nor I may see Cithæron with my eyes, and where there is no memory
+of the thyrsus hallowed, but they may be a care to other Bacchæ.
+
+CHOR. There are many forms of divine things; and the Gods bring to pass
+many in an unexpected manner: both what has been expected has not been
+accomplished, and God has found out a means for doing things unthought of.
+So, too, has this event turned out.[70]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+NOTES ON THE BACCHÆ
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+[1] For illustrations of the fable of this play, compare Hyginus, Fab.
+clxxxiv., who evidently has a view to Euripides. Ovid, Metam. iii. fab. v.
+Oppian, Cyneg. iv. 241 sqq. Nonnus, 45, p. 765 sq. and 46, p. 783 sqq.,
+some of whose imitations I shall mention in my notes. With the opening
+speech of this play compare the similar one of Venus in the Hippolytus.
+
+[2] Cf. vs. 176; and for the musical instruments employed in the
+Bacchanalian rites, vs. 125 sqq. Oppian, Cyn. iv. 243. νεβρισι δ'
+αμφεβαλοντο, και εστεψαντο κορυμβοις, Εν σπεϊ, και περι παιδα το μυστικον
+ωρχησαντο. Τυμπανα δ' εκτυπεον, και κυμβαλα χερσι κροταινον. Compare
+Gorius, Monum. Libert. et Serv. ad Tab. vii. p. 15 sq.
+
+[3] Such is the sense of συναψομαι, μαχην being understood. See Matthiæ.
+
+[4] Drums and cymbals were invented by the Goddess in order to drown the
+cries of the infant Jupiter. Minutius Felix, xxi. "Avido patri subtrahitur
+infans ne voretur, et Corybantum cymbalis, ne pater audiat, vagitus initus
+eliditur" (read _audiat vagitus, tinnitus illi editur_, from the _vestigia_
+of Cod. Reg.). Cf. Lactant. i. 13.
+
+[5] Cf. Homer, Hymn. in Cerer. 485. ολβιος, ‛ος ταδ' οπωπεν επιχθονιων
+ανθρωπων: ‛Ος δ' ατελης, ‛ιερων ‛οστ' αμμορος, ουποθ' ‛ομοιων Αισαν εχει,
+φθιμενος περ, ‛υπο ζοφωι ευρωεντι. See Ruhnken's note, and Valck. on Eur.
+Hippol.
+
+[6] This passage is extremely difficult. Πλοκαμων seems decidedly corrupt.
+Reiske would read ποκαδων, Musgrave λευκοτριχων πλοκαμοις μαλλων. Elmsley
+would substitute προβατων, "si προβατον apud Euripidem exstaret." This
+seems the most probable view as yet expressed. The εριοστεπτοι κλαδοι are
+learnedly explained by Lobeck on Ag. p. 375 sq., quoted by Dindorf. The
+μαλλωσις or insertion of spots of party-colored fur upon the plain skin of
+animals, was a favorite ornament of the wealthy. The spots of ermine
+similarly used now are the clearest illustration to which I can point.
+Lobeck also observes, "κατα βακχιουσθαι non bacchari significat, sed
+coronari."
+
+[7] These ladies seem to have been rather undomestic in character, as Agave
+makes this very fact a boast, vs. 1236.
+
+[8] Cf. Apollodor. l. i., § 3, interpp. ad Virg. G. iv. 152. Compare
+Porphyr. de Nymph. Antr. p. 262, ad. Holst. σπηλαια τοινυν και αντρα των
+παλαιοτατων πριν και ναους επινοησαι θεοις αφοσιουντων. και εν Κρητηι μεν
+κουρητων, Διϊ εν Αρκαδιαι δε, σεληνηι και Πανι Λυκειωι: και εν Ναξωι
+Διονυσωι. πανταχου δ' ‛οπου τον Μιθραν εγνωσαν, δια σπηλαιου τον θεον
+‛ιλεουμενων. Cf. Moll. ad Longi Past. i. 2. p. 22 sq. ed. Boden.
+
+[9] Cf. Virg. Æn. iv. 301, and Ritterh. on Oppian, Cyn. i, 24.
+
+[10] Compare the epithet of Bacchus Ωμαδιος, Orph. Hymn. xxx. 5; l. 7,
+which has been wrongly explained by Gesner and Hermann. The true
+interpretation is given by Porphyr. de Abst. ii. 55, who states that human
+sacrifices were offered ωμαδιωι Διονυσωι the man being torn to pieces
+(διααπωντες).
+
+[11] Persius i. 92. "et lynceus Mænas flexura corymbis Evion ingeminat,
+reparabilis assonat Echo." Euseb. Pr. Ev. ii. 3, derives the cry from Eve!
+
+[12] I should read this line interrogatively, with Elmsley.
+
+[13] Quoted by Gellius, xiii. 18.
+
+[14] Elmsley would read μακρον το μελλον. Perhaps the true reading is
+μελλειν ακαιρον = _it is no season for delay_.
+
+[15] The construction is so completely akward, that I almost feel inclined
+to consider this verse as an interpolation, with Dindorf.
+
+[16] Compare Nonnus, 45. p. 765 4. Τειρεσιαν και Καδμον ατασθαλον ιαχε
+Πενθευς. Καδμε, τι μαργαινεις, τινι δαιμονι κωμον εγειρεις; Καδμε,
+μιαινομενης αποκατθεο κισσον εθειρης, Κατθεο και ναρθεκα νοοπλανεος
+Διονυσου.... Νηπιε Τειρεσια στεφανηφορε ‛ριψον αηταις Σων πλοκαμων ταδε
+φυλλα νοθον στεφος, κ.τ.λ.
+
+[17] Compare the opinion of Perseus in Cicero de N.D. i. 15, with Minutius
+Felix, xxi.
+
+[18] Pseud-Orpheus Hymn. l. 6. παυσιπονον θνητοισι φανεις ακος.
+
+[19] Dindorf truly says that this passage smacks rather of Proclus, than of
+Euripides, and I agree with him that its spuriousness is more than
+probable. Had Euripides designed an etymological quibble, he would probably
+have made some allusion to Merus, a mountain of India, where Bacchus is
+said to have been brought up. See Curtius, viii. 10. "Sita est sub
+radicibus montis, quem Meron incolæ appellant. Inde Græci mentiendi traxere
+licentiam, Jovis femine liberum patrem esse celatum." Cf. Eustath. on
+Dionys. Perieg. 1159. Lucian. Dial. Deor. ix. and Hermann on Orph. Hymn.
+lii. 3.
+
+[20] The gift of μαντικη was supposed to follow initiation, and is often
+joined with the rites of this deity. Philostratus, Heroic. p. 22, ed.
+Boiss. ‛οτε δη και μαντικης σοφιας εμφορουνται, και το χρησμωδες αυταις
+προσβακχευει.
+
+[21] Cf. Hippol. 443. Κυπρις γαρ ου φορητον ην πολλη ‛ρυηι.
+
+[22] I have followed Matthiæ's interpretation of this passage.
+
+[23] See Hermann's note.
+
+[24] The fate of Actæon is often joined with that of Pentheus.
+
+[25] i.e. over-cunning in regard to religious matters. Cf. 200. ουδεν
+σοφιζομεσθα τοισι δαιμοσιν.
+
+[26] Probably a mere hyperbole to denote great fruitfulness. See Elmsley.
+
+[27] Cf. Hor. Od. iii. 21, 20.
+
+[28] I follow Dindorf in reading σοφα δ', but am scarcely satisfied.
+
+[29] Hence his epithet of Bacchus Νυκτελιος. See Herm. on Orph. Hymn. xlix.
+3.
+
+[30] See my note on Æsch. Choeph. 7.
+
+[31] Cf Person Advers. p. 265. Hor. Ep. i. 16. 73 "Vir bonus et sapiens
+audebit dicere Pentheu, Rector Thebarum, quid me perferre patique Indignum
+coges? Adima bona, nempe pecus, rem, Lectos, argentum: tollas licet. In
+manicis et Compedibus sævo te sub custode tenebo. Ipse deus, simul atque
+volam, me solvet. Opinor, Hoc sentit: moriar. Mors ultima linea rerum est."
+
+[32] Punning on πενθος, _grief_. Cf. Arist. Rhet. ii. 23, 29.
+
+[33] i.e. of Parnassus. Elmsley (after Stanl. on Æsch. Eum. 22.) remarks
+that Κωρυκις πετρα means the Corycian cave in Parnassus, Κωρυκιαι κορυφαι,
+the heights of Parnassus.
+
+[34] Hermann and Dindorf correct Λοιδιαν from Herodot. vii. 127.
+
+[35] The earth and buildings were supposed to shake at the presence of a
+deity. Cf. Callimach. Hymn. Apol. sub init. Virg. Æn. iii. 90; vi. 255. For
+the present instance Nonnus, 45. p. 751.
+
+  ηδη δ' αυτοελικτος εσειετο Πενθεος αυλη,
+  ακλινεων σφαιρηδον αναϊσσουσα θεμεθλων,
+  και πολεων δεδονητο θορων ενοσιχθονι παλμωι
+  πηματος εσσομενοιο προαγγελος.
+
+[36] The madness of Ajax led to a similar delusion. Cf. Soph. Aj. 56 sqq.
+
+[37] Compare a fragment of Didymus apud Macrob. Sat. v. 18, who states
+Αχελωον παν ‛υδωρ Ευριπιδης φησιν εν ‛Υψιπυληι. See also comm. on Virg.
+Georg. i. 9.
+
+[38] The reader of Scott will call to mind the fine description of Ireton
+lunging at the air, in a paroxysm of fanatic raving. See "Woodstock." So
+also Orestes in Iph. Taur. 296 sqq.
+
+[39] ανεισαν, _solvuntur, liquescunt._ BRODEUS.
+
+[40] Cf. Soph Ant. 243 sqq.
+
+[41] These two cities were in ruins in the time of Pausanias. See ix. 3. p.
+714, ed. Kuhn.
+
+[42] Cf. Athenæus, p. 40. B. Terent. Eun. iv. 5. "Sine Cerere et Libero
+friget Venus." Apul Met. ii. p. 119, ed. Elm. "Ecce, inquam, Veneris
+hortator et armiger Liber advenit ultro," where see Pricæus.
+
+[43] More literally, perhaps, "keep it and be thankful."
+
+[44] Theocrit. i. 40. μεγα δικτυον ες βολον ‛ελκει.
+
+[45] But εκ των απειλων conveys a notion of change = _instead of_.
+
+[46] Elmsley remarks that ανθρωποισι belongs to both members of the
+sentence. I have therefore supplied. The sense may be illustrated from
+Hippol. 5 sq.
+
+[47] See Matthiæ.
+
+[48] i.e. step. This is ridiculed by Aristoph. Ran. 100, where the
+Scholiast quotes a similar example from our author's Alexandra.
+
+[49] Compare Havercamp on Lucret. ii. sub init.
+
+[50] Compare Virgil, Æn. iv. 469. "Et solem geminum, et duplices se
+ostendere Thebas." In the second passage of Clemens Alexandrinus quoted by
+Elmsley, γερων is probably a mistaken reference to Tiresias.
+
+[51] An obscure hint at the impending fate of Pentheus. Nonnus has led the
+way to the catastrophe by a graphic description of Agave's dream. Dionys.
+45. p. 751.
+
+[52] φερομενος may mean either "carried in a litter," or "carried to
+burial." There is a somewhat similar play in the epigram of Ausonius,
+xxiii. "Mater Lacæna clypeo obarmans filium, cum hoc, inquit, aut in hoc,
+redi."
+
+[53] Burges more rightly reads ματρος τε Γας. See Elmsley's note.
+
+[54] As one must make some translation, I have done my best with this
+passage, which is, however, utterly unintelligible in Dindorf's text. A
+reference to his selection of notes will furnish some new readings, but, as
+a whole, quite unsatisfactory.
+
+[55] Compare the parallel account in Nonnus, 46. p. 784.
+
+[56] Alluded to by Oppian, Cyn. iv. 300. απτε σελας φλογερον πατρωιον, αν
+δ' ελεληξον Δαιαν, αταρτηρον δ' οπασον τισιν ωκα τυραννου. He then relates
+that Pentheus was transformed into a bull, the Mænads into panthers, who
+tore him to pieces.
+
+[57] στοχος is either the aim itself, or the mark aimed at, as in this
+passage, and Xenoph. Ages. 1. 25.
+
+[58] I have done my best with this extraordinary expression, of which
+Elmsley quotes another example from Archilochus Fragm. 36. Perhaps the
+notion of excessive rapidity is intended to be expressed.
+
+[59] θηρ seems metaphorically said, as in Æsch. Eum. 47. Nonnus, 45. p.
+784, 23. above, 922.
+
+[60] Compare Nonnus, 46. p. 784.
+
+  Και τοτε μιν λιπε λυσσα νοοσφαλεος Διονυσου,
+  και προτερας φρενας εσχε το δευτερον: αμφι δε γαιηι
+  γειτονα ποτμον εχων κενυρην εφθεγξατο φωνην.
+  * * * * * *
+  μητερ εμη δυσμητερ απηνεος ιοχεο λυσσης,
+  θηρα ποθεν καλεεις με τον ‛υιεα.
+
+The whole passage is very elegant, and even pathetic.
+
+[61] Alluding to the horns of Bacchus. Cf. Sidon. Apoll. Burg. Pontii
+Leontii, vs. 26, "Caput ardua rumpunt Cornua, et indigenam jaculantur
+fulminis ignem." See some whimsical reasons for this in Isidor. Origg viii.
+2. Albricus de Deor. Nu. xix. But compare above, vs. 920. Και ταυρος ‛ημιν
+προσθεν ‛ηγεισθαι δοκεις, και σωι κερατε κρατι προσπεφυκεναι.
+
+[62] Elmsley has rightly shown that ‛ελικα could not of itself mean "a
+bull" or "heifer," although Homer has ειλιποδας ‛ελικας βους. I have
+therefore followed Hermann, who remarks, "‛ελιξ seems properly to be meant
+for the clusters of ivy with which the thyrsus was entwined. Hence Agave
+says that she adorns the thyrsus with a new-fashioned wreath, viz. the head
+of her son." Such language is, however, more like the proverbial boldness
+of Æschylus, than the even style of our poet.
+
+[63] "κορυθα, ornamentum capitis, vix potest dubitari quin pro ipso capite
+posuerit." HERMANN. There is considerable variation in the manner in which
+the following lines are disposed.
+
+[64] Or, "Bacchus-mad."
+
+[65] I have marked a lacuna with Dindorf.
+
+[66] See the commentators on Virg. Æn. i. 11. "Tantæne animis cœlestibus
+iræ?"
+
+[67] After τλημονες φυγαι supply μενουσιν. ELMSLEY.
+
+[68] A word is wanting to complete the verse.
+
+[69] See Musgrave. Cranes are chiefly celebrated for parental affection.
+
+[70] These verses are found at the ends of no less than four others of our
+author's plays, viz. Andromacha, Helen, Medea, and Alcestis.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE HERACLIDÆ.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+PERSONS REPRESENTED.
+
+  IOLAUS.
+  COPREUS.*
+  CHORUS.
+  DEMOPHOON.
+  APOLLO.
+  MACARIA.*
+  SERVANT.
+  ALCMENA.
+  MESSENGER.
+  EURYSTHEUS.
+
+_Note_.--The names of Copreus and Macaria were wanting in the MSS., but
+have been supplied from the mythologists. See Elmsley on vss. 49 and 474.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE ARGUMENT.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+Iolaus, son of Iphiclus, and nephew of Hercules, whom he had joined in his
+expeditions during his youth, in his old age protected his sons. For the
+sons of Hercules having been driven out of every part of Greece by
+Eurystheus, he came with them to Athens; and, embracing the altars of the
+Gods, was safe, Demophoon being king of the city; and when Copreus, the
+herald of Eurystheus, wished to remove the suppliants, he prevented him.
+Upon this he departed, threatening war. Demophoon despised him; but hearing
+the oracles promise him victory if he sacrificed the most noble Athenian
+virgin to Ceres, he was grieved; not wishing to slay either his own
+daughter, or that of any citizen, for the sake of the suppliants. But
+Macaria, one of the daughters of Hercules, hearing of the prediction,
+willingly devoted herself. They honored her for her noble death, and,
+knowing that their enemies were at hand, went forth to battle. The play
+ends with their victory, and the capture of Eurystheus.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE HERACLIDÆ.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+IOLAUS.
+
+This has long since been my established opinion, the just man is born for
+his neighbors; but he who has a mind bent upon gain is both useless to the
+city and disagreeable to deal with, but best for himself. And I know this,
+not having learned it by word of mouth; for I, through shame, and
+reverencing the ties of kindred, when it was in my power to dwell quietly
+in Argos, partook of more of Hercules' labors, while he was with us, than
+any one man besides:[1] and now that he dwells in heaven, keeping these his
+children under my wings, I preserve them, I myself being in want of safety.
+For since their father was removed from the earth, first Eurystheus wished
+to kill me, but I escaped; and my country indeed is no more, but my life is
+saved, and I wander in exile, migrating from one city to another. For, in
+addition to my other ills, Eurystheus has chosen to insult me with this
+insult; sending heralds whenever on earth he learns we are settled, he
+demands us, and drives us out of the land; alleging the city of Argos, one
+not paltry either to be friends with or to make an enemy, and himself too
+prospering as he is; but they seeing my weak state, and that these too are
+little, and bereaved of their sire, respecting the more powerful, drive us
+from the land. And I am banished, together with the banished children, and
+fare ill together with those who fare ill, loathing to desert them, lest
+some may say thus, Behold, now that the children have no father, Iolaus,
+their kinsman born, defends them not. But being bereft of all Greece,
+coming to Marathon and the country under the same rule, we sit suppliants
+at the altars of the Gods, that they may assist us; for it is said that the
+two sons of Theseus inhabit the territory of this land, of the race of
+Pandion, having received it by lot, being near akin to these children; on
+which account we have come this way to the frontiers of illustrious Athens.
+And by two aged people is this flight led, I, indeed, being alarmed about
+these children; and the female race of her son Alcmena preserves within
+this temple, clasping it in her arms; for we are ashamed that virgins
+should mingle with the mob, and stand at the altars. But Hyllus and his
+brothers, who are older, are seeking where there is a strong-hold that we
+may inhabit, if we be thrust forth from this land by force. O children,
+children! hither; take hold of my garments; I see the herald of Eurystheus
+coming hither toward us, by whom we are pursued as wanderers, deprived of
+every land.[2] O detested one, may you perish, and the man who sent you:
+how many evils indeed have you announced to the noble father of these
+children from that same mouth!
+
+COPREUS. I suppose you think that this is a fine seat you are sitting in,
+and have come to a city which is an ally, thinking foolishly; for there is
+no one who will choose your useless power in preference to Eurystheus.
+Depart; why toilest thou thus? You must rise up and go to Argos, where
+punishment by stoning awaits you.
+
+IOL. Not so, since the altar of the God will aid me, and the free land in
+which we tread.
+
+COP. Do you wish to cause me trouble with this band?
+
+IOL. Surely you will not drag me away, nor these children, seizing by
+force?
+
+COP. You shall know; but you are not a good prophet in this.
+
+IOL. This shall never happen, while I am alive.
+
+COP. Depart; but I will lead these away, even though you be unwilling,
+considering them, wherever they may be, to belong to Eurystheus.
+
+IOL. O ye who have dwelt in Athens a long time, defend us; for, being
+suppliants of Jove, the Presider over the Forum,[3] we are treated with
+violence, and our garlands are profaned, both a reproach to the city, and
+an insult to the Gods.
+
+CHORUS. Hollo! hollo! what is this noise near the altar? what calamity will
+it straightway portend?
+
+IOL. Behold me, a weak old man, thrown down on the plain; miserable that I
+am.
+
+CHOR. By whose hand do you fall this unhappy fall?
+
+ * * * *
+
+IOL. This man, O strangers, dishonoring your Gods, drags me violently from
+the altar of Jupiter.
+
+CHOR. From what land, O old man, have you come hither to this people
+dwelling together in four cities?[4] or, have you come hither from across
+[the sea] with marine oar, having quitted the Eubœan shore?
+
+IOL. O strangers, I am not accustomed to an islander's life, but we are
+come to your land from Mycenæ.
+
+CHOR. What name, O old man, did the Mycenæan people call you?
+
+IOL. Know that I am lolaus, once the companion of Hercules; for this body
+is not unrenowned.
+
+CHOR. I know, having heard of it before; but say whose youthful children
+you are leading in your hand.
+
+IOL. These, O strangers, are the sons of Hercules, who are come as
+suppliants of you and the city.
+
+CHOR. What do ye seek? or, tell me, is it wanting to have speech of the
+city?
+
+IOL. Not to be given up, and not to go to Argos, being dragged from your
+Gods by force.
+
+COP. But this will not be sufficient for your masters, who, having power
+over you, find you here.
+
+CHOR. It is right, O stranger, to reverence the suppliants of the Gods, and
+not for you to leave by violent hands the habitations of the deities, for
+venerable Justice will not suffer this.
+
+COP. Send now Eurystheus's subjects out of this land, and I will not use
+this hand violently.
+
+CHOR. It is impious for a state to reject the suppliant prayer of
+strangers.
+
+COP. But it is good to have one's foot out of trouble, being possessed of
+the better counsel.
+
+CHOR. You should then have dared this, having spoken to the king of this
+land, but you should not drag strangers away from the Gods by force, if you
+respect a free land.
+
+COP. But who is king of this country and city?
+
+CHOR. Demophoon, the son of Theseus, of a noble father.
+
+COP. With him, then, the contest of this argument had best be; all else is
+spoken in vain.
+
+CHOR. And indeed hither he comes in haste, and Acamas, his brother, to hear
+these words.
+
+DEMOPHOON. Since you, being an old man, have anticipated us, who are
+younger, in running to this hearth of Jove, say what hap collects this
+multitude here.
+
+CHOR. These sons of Hercules sit here as suppliants, having crowned the
+altar, as you see. O king, and Iolaus, the faithful companion of their
+father.
+
+DE. Why then did this chance occasion clamors?
+
+CHOR. This man caused the noise, seeking to lead him by force from this
+hearth; and he tripped up the legs of the old man, so that I shed the tear
+for pity.
+
+DE. And indeed he has a Grecian robe and style of dress; but these are the
+doings of a barbarian hand; it is for you then to tell me, and not to
+delay, leaving the confines of what land you are come hither.
+
+COP. I am an Argive; for this you wish to learn: and I am willing to say
+why, and from whom, I am come. Eurystheus, the king of Mycenæ, sends me
+hither to lead away these men; and I have come, O stranger, having many
+just things at once to do and to say; for I being an Argive myself, lead
+away Argives, having them as fugitives from my country condemned to die by
+the laws there; and we have the right, managing our city ourselves by
+ourselves, to fix our own punishments: but they having come to the hearths
+of many others also, there also we have taken our stand on these same
+arguments, and no one has dared to bring evils upon himself. But either
+perceiving some folly in you, they have come hither, or in perplexity
+running the risk, whether it shall be or not. For surely they do not think
+that you alone are mad, in so great a portion of Greece as they have been
+over, so as to commiserate their foolish distresses. Come, compare the two;
+admitting them into your land, and suffering us to lead them away, what
+will you gain? Such things as these you may gain from us; you may add to
+this city the whole power of Argos, and all the might of Eurystheus; but if
+looking to the words and pitiable condition of these men, you are softened
+by them, the matter comes to the contest of the spear; for think not that
+we will give up this contest without steel. What then will you say?
+deprived of what lands, making war with the Tirynthians and Argives, and
+repelling them, with what allies, and on whose behalf will you bury the
+dead that fall? Surely you will obtain an evil report among the citizens,
+if, for the sake of an old man, a mere tomb,[5] one who is nothing, as one
+may say, and of these children, you will put your foot into a mess;[6] you
+will say, at best, that you shall find, at least, hope; and this too is at
+present much wanting; for these who are armed would fight but ill with
+Argives if they were grown up, if this encourages your mind, and there is
+much time in the mean while in which ye may be destroyed; but be persuaded
+by me, giving nothing, but permitting me to lead away my own, gain Mycenæ.
+And do not (as you are wont to do) suffer this, when it is in your power to
+choose the better friends, choose the worse.
+
+CHOR. Who can decide what is right, or understand an argument, till he has
+clearly heard the statement of both?
+
+IOL. O king, this exists in thy city; I am permitted in turn to speak and
+to hear, and no one will reject me before that, as in other places; but
+with this man we have nothing to do; for since nothing of Argos is any
+longer ours, (it having been decreed by a vote,) but we are exiled our
+country, how can this man justly lead us away as Mycenæans, whom they have
+driven from the land? for we are strangers; or else you decide that whoever
+is banished Argos is banished the boundaries of the Greeks. Surely not from
+Athens; they will not, for fear of the Argives, drive out the children of
+Hercules from their land; for it is not Trachis, nor the Achæan city, from
+whence you, not by justice, but bragging about Argos; just as you now
+speak, drove these men, sitting at the altars as suppliants; for if this
+shall be, and they ratify your words, I no longer know this Athens as free.
+But I know their disposition and nature; they will rather die; for among
+virtuous men, disgrace is considered before life. Enough of the city; for
+indeed it is an invidious thing to praise it too much; and often I know
+myself I have been oppressed at being overpraised: but I wish to say to you
+that it is necessary for you to save these men, since you are ruler over
+this land. Pittheus was son of Pelops and Æthra, daughter of Pittheus, and
+your father Theseus was born of her. And again I trace for you their
+descent: Hercules was son of Jupiter and Alcmena, and she was the child of
+the daughter of Pelops; so your father and theirs must be fellow-cousins.
+Thus you, O Demophoon, are related to them by birth; and, besides this
+connection, I will tell you for what you are bound to requite the children.
+For I say, I formerly, when shield-bearer to their father, sailed with
+Theseus after the belt,[7] the cause of much slaughter, and from the murky
+recesses of hell did he bring forth your father. All Greece bears witness
+to this; for which things they beseech you to return a kindness, and that
+they may not be yielded up, nor be driven from this land, torn from your
+Gods by violence; for this would be disgraceful to you by yourself, and an
+evil to the city,[8] that suppliant relations, wanderers--alas for the
+misery! look on them, look--should be dragged away by force. But I beseech
+you, and offer you suppliant garlands, by your hands and your chin, do not
+dishonor the children of Hercules, having received them in your power; but
+be thou a relation to them, be a friend, father, brother, master; for all
+these things are better than [for them] to fall into the power of the
+Argives.
+
+CHOR. Hearing of these men's misfortunes, I pitied them, O king! and now
+particularly I have witnessed nobleness overcome by fortune; for these men,
+being sons of a noble father, are undeservedly unhappy.
+
+DE. Three ways of misfortune urge me, O Iolaus, not to reject these
+suppliants. The greatest, Jupiter, at whose altars you sit, having this
+procession of youths with you; and my relationship to them, and because I
+am bound of old that they should fare well at my hands, in gratitude to
+their father; and the disgrace,[9] which one ought exceedingly to regard.
+For if I permitted this altar to be violated by force by a strange man, I
+shall not seem to inhabit a free country. But I fear to betray my
+suppliants to the Argives; and this is nearly as bad as the noose. But I
+wish you had come with better fortune; but still, even now, fear not that
+any one shall drag you and these children by force from this altar. And do
+thou, going to Argos, both tell this to Eurystheus; and besides that, if he
+has any charge against these strangers, he shall meet with justice; but you
+shall never drag away these men.
+
+COP. Not if it be just, and I prevail in argument?
+
+DE. And how can it be just to drag away a suppliant by force?
+
+COP. This, then, is not disgraceful to me, but an injury to you.
+
+DE. To me indeed, if I allow you to drag them away.
+
+COP. But do you depart, and then will I drag them thence.
+
+DE. You are stupid, thinking yourself wiser than a God.
+
+COP. Hither it seems the wicked should fly.
+
+DE. The seat of the Gods is a common defense to all.
+
+COP. Perhaps this will not seem good to the Mycenæans.
+
+DE. Am not I then master over those here?
+
+COP. [Ay,] but not to injure them, if you are wise.
+
+DE. Are ye hurt, if I do not defile the Gods?
+
+COP. I do not wish you to have war with the Argives.
+
+DE. I, too, am the same; but I will not let go of these men.
+
+COP. At all events, taking possession of my own, I shall lead them away.
+
+DE. Then you will not easily depart back to Argos.
+
+COP. I shall soon see that by experience.
+
+DE. You will touch them to your own injury, and that without delay.
+
+CHOR. For God's sake, venture not to strike a herald!
+
+DE. I will not, if the herald at least will learn to be wise.
+
+CHOR. Depart thou; and do not you touch him, O king!
+
+COP. I go; for the struggle of a single hand is powerless. But I will come,
+bringing hither many a brazen spear of Argive war; and ten thousand
+shield-bearers await me, and Eurystheus, the king himself, as general. And
+he waits, expecting news from hence, on the extreme confines of Alcathus;
+and, having heard of your insolence, he will make himself too well known to
+you, and to the citizens, and to this land, and to the trees; for in vain
+should we have so much youth in Argos, if we did not chastise you.
+
+DE. Destruction on you! for I do not fear your Argos. But you are not
+likely, insulting me, to drag these men away from hence by force; for I
+possess this land, not being subject to that of Argos, but free.
+
+CHOR. It is time to provide, before the army of the Argives approaches the
+borders. And very impetuous is the Mars of the Mycenæans, and on this
+account more than before; for it is the habit of all heralds to tower up
+what is twice as much. What do you not think he will say to his princes
+about what terrible things he has suffered, and how within a little he was
+losing his life.
+
+IOL. There is not, to this man's children, a more glorious honor than to be
+sprung from a good and valiant father, and to marry from a good family; but
+I will not praise him who, overcome by desire, has mingled with the vulgar,
+to leave his children a reproach instead of pleasure; for noble birth wards
+off misfortune better than low descent; for we, having fallen into the
+extremity of evils, find these men friends and relations, who alone, in so
+large a country as Greece, have stood forward [on our behalf.] Give, O
+children, give them your right hand; and do ye give yours to the children,
+and draw near to them. O children, we have come to experience of our
+friends; and if you ever have a return to your country, and [again] possess
+the homes and honors of your father, always consider them your saviors and
+friends, and never lift the hostile spear against the land, remembering
+these things; but consider it the dearest city of all. And they are worthy
+that you should revere them, who have chosen to have so great a country and
+the Pelasgic people as enemies instead of us, though seeing us to be
+beggared wanderers; but still they have not given us up, nor driven us from
+their land. But I, living and dying, when I do die, with much praise, my
+friend, will extol you when I am in company with Theseus; and telling this,
+I will delight him, saying how well you received and aided the children of
+Hercules; and, being noble, you preserve through Greece your ancestral
+glory; and being born of noble parents, you are nowise inferior to your
+father, with but few others; for among many you may find perhaps but one
+who is not inferior to his father.[10]
+
+CHOR. This land is ever willing to aid in a just cause those in difficulty;
+therefore it has borne numberless toils for its friends, and now I see this
+contest at hand.
+
+DE. Thou hast spoken well; and I boast, old man, that their disposition is
+such that the kindness will be remembered. And I will make an assembly of
+the citizens, and draw them up so as to receive the army of the Mycenæans
+with a large force. First, I will send spies toward it, that it may not
+fall upon me by surprise: for in Argos every warrior is eager to run to
+assistance. And having collected the soothsayers, I will sacrifice. And do
+you go to my palace with the children, leaving the hearth of Jove, for
+there are those who, even if I be from home, will take care of you; go
+then, old man, to my palace.
+
+IOL. I will not leave the altar; but we will sit here, as suppliants,
+waiting till the city is successful; and when you are well freed from this
+contest, we will go to thy palace. But we have Gods as allies not inferior
+to those of the Argives, O king; for Juno, the wife of Jove, is their
+champion, but Minerva ours; and I say that this also tends to success, to
+have the best Gods, for Pallas will not endure to be conquered.
+
+CHOR. If thou boastest greatly, others do not therefore care for thee the
+more, O stranger, coming from Argos; but with thy big words thou wilt not
+terrify my mind: may it not be so to the mighty Athens, with the beauteous
+dances. But both thou art foolish, the son of Sthenelus, king in Argos,
+who, coming to another city not less than Argos, being a stranger, seek by
+violence to lead away wanderers, suppliants of the Gods, and claiming the
+protection of my land, not yielding to our kings, nor saying any thing else
+that is just. How can this be thought well among the wise? Peace indeed
+pleases me; but, O foolish king, I tell thee, if thou comest to this city,
+thou wilt not thus obtain what thou thinkest for. You are not the only one
+who has a spear and a brazen shield; but, O lover of war, mayest thou not
+with the spear disturb my city dear to the Graces; but restrain thyself.
+
+IOL. O my son, why comest thou, bringing solicitude to my eyes? Hast thou
+any news of the enemy? Do they delay, or are they at hand I or what do you
+hear? for I fear the word of the herald will in no wise be false, for their
+leader will come, having been fortunate in previous affairs, I clearly
+know, and with no moderate pride, against Athens; but Jove is the chastiser
+of over-arrogant thoughts.[11]
+
+DE. The army of the Argives is coming, and Eurystheus the king. I have seen
+it myself;[12] for it behooves a man who says he knows well the duty of a
+general not to reconnoitre the enemy by means of messengers. He has not
+then, as yet, let loose his army on these plains, but, sitting on a lofty
+crag, he reconnoitres (I should tell thee this as a conjecture) to see by
+which way he shall now lead his expedition, and place it in a safe station
+in this land; and my preparations are already well arranged, and the city
+is in arms, and the victims stand ready for those Gods to whom they ought
+to be slain offered; and the city, by means of soothsayers, is preparing by
+sacrifices flight for the enemy and safety for the city.[13] And having
+collected together all the bards who proclaim oracles, I have tested the
+ancient oracles, both public and concealed, which might save this land; and
+in their other counsels many things are different; but one opinion of all
+is conspicuously the same, they command me to sacrifice to the daughter of
+Ceres a damsel who is of a noble father.[14] And I have indeed, as you see,
+such great good-will toward you, but I will neither slay my own child[15]
+nor compel any other of my citizens to do so unwillingly; and who is so mad
+of his own accord, as to give out of his hands his dearest children? And
+now you may see bitter meetings; some saying that it is right to aid
+foreign suppliants, and some blaming my folly; and if I do this, a civil
+war is at once prepared. This, then, do you consider, and devise how both
+you yourselves may be saved and this land, and I be not brought into ill
+odor with the citizens; for I have not absolute sovereignty, as over
+barbarians; but if I do just things, I shall receive just things.
+
+CHOR. But does not the Goddess allow this city, although eager, to aid
+strangers?
+
+IOL. O children, we are like sailors, who, fleeing from the fierce rage of
+the storm, have come close to land, and then, again, by gales from the
+land, have been driven again out to sea; thus also shall we be driven from
+this land, being already on shore, as if saved. Alas! why, O wretched hope,
+did you then delight me, not being about to perfect my joy? For his
+thoughts, in truth, are to be pardoned if he is not willing to slay the
+children of his citizens; and I acquiesce in their conduct here, if the
+Gods decree that I shall fare thus. My gratitude to you shall never perish.
+O children, I know not what to do with you: whither shall we turn? for who
+of the Gods has been uncrowned by us? and what bulwark of land have we not
+approachedl? We shall perish, my children, we shall be given up; and for
+myself I care nothing if it behooves me to die, except that, dying, I shall
+gratify my enemies; but I weep for and pity you, O children, and Alcmena,
+the aged mother of your father; O! unhappy art thou, because of thy long
+life; and miserable am I, having labored much in vain. It was our fate
+then, our fate, falling into the hands of an enemy, to leave life
+disgracefully and miserably. But do you know in what you may aid me? for
+all hope of their safety has not deserted me. Give me up to the Argives
+instead of them, O king, and so neither run any risk yourself, and let the
+children be saved for me; I must not love my own life, let it go; and above
+all, Eurystheus would like taking me, the ally of Hercules, to insult me;
+for he is a froward man; and the wise should pray to have enmity with a
+wise man, not with an ignorant disposition, for in that case one, even if
+unfortunate, may meet with much respect.
+
+CHOR. O old man, do not now blame the city, perhaps it might be a gain to
+us; but still it would be an evil reproach that we betrayed strangers,
+
+DE. You have spoken things noble indeed, but impossible; the king does not
+lead his army hither wanting you; for what profit were it to Eurystheus for
+an old man to die? but he wishes to slay these children; for noble youths,
+who remember their fathers' injuries, springing up, are terrible to
+enemies; all which he must needs foresee; but if you know any other more
+seasonable counsel, prepare it, since I am perplexed and full of fear,
+having heard the oracle.
+
+MACARIA. O strangers, do not impute boldness to me because of my
+advances,[16] this I will beg first; for silence and modesty are best for a
+woman, and to remain quietly in-doors; but, having heard your lamentations,
+O Iolaus, I have come forth, not being commissioned to act as embassador
+for my race, but I am in some wise fit to do so; but chiefly do I care for
+these, my brothers: concerning myself I wish to ask whether, besides our
+former evils, any additional distress gnaws your mind?
+
+IOL. O daughter, it is not a new thing that I justly have to praise you
+most of the children of Hercules; but our house having appeared to us to
+progress well, has again changed to perplexity, for this man says, that the
+deliverers of oracles order us to sacrifice not a bull or a heifer, but a
+virgin, who is of a noble father, if we and this city would exist. About
+this then we are perplexed, for this man says he will neither slay his own
+children nor those of any one else; and to me he says, not plainly indeed,
+but somehow or other, unless I can devise any remedy for this, that we must
+find some other land, but he himself wishes to preserve this country.
+
+MAC. On this condition can we then be saved?
+
+IOL. On this, being fortunate in other respects.
+
+MAC. Fear not then any longer the hostile spear of the Argives; for I
+myself, old man, before I am commanded, am prepared to die, and to stand
+for slaughter; for what shall we say if the city thinks fit for our sakes
+to encounter a great danger, but we putting toils on others, avoid death
+when we can be saved? Not so, since this would be ridiculous for suppliants
+sitting at the shrines of the Gods to mourn, but being of such a sire as we
+are, to be seen to be cowards; how can this seem good! it were more noble,
+I think, (which may it never happen!) to fall into the hands of the enemy,
+this city being taken, and afterward, being born of a noble father, having
+suffered dreadful things, to see Hades none the less; but shall I wander
+about, driven from this land, and shall I not indeed be ashamed if any one
+says, "Why have ye come hither with your suppliant branches, yourselves
+being too fond of life! Depart from the land, for we will not aid cowards."
+But neither, indeed, if these die, and I myself am saved, have I any hope
+to fare well; for before now many have in this way betrayed their friends.
+For who would choose to have me, a solitary damsel, for his wife, or to
+raise children from me? therefore it is better to die than to have such an
+unworthy fate as this; and this may even be more seemly for some other, who
+is not illustrious as I. Lead me then where this body must needs die, and
+crown me and begin the rites, if you think fit, and conquer your enemies;
+for this life is ready for you, willing, and not unwilling; and I promise
+to die for these my brethren, and for myself; for not caring for life, I
+have found this most glorious thing to find, namely, to leave life
+gloriously.
+
+CHOR. Alas! alas! what shall I say, hearing this noble speech of the maiden
+who is willing to die on behalf of her brothers? Who can utter more noble
+words than these I who of men can do [a greater deed?][17]
+
+IOL. My child, your head comes from no other source, but thou, the seed of
+a divine mind, art sprung from Hercules.[18] I am not ashamed at your
+words, but I am grieved for your fortune; but how it may be more justly
+done, I will say: we must call hither all her sisters, and then let her who
+draws the lot die for her family; but it is not right for thee to die
+without casting lots.
+
+MAC. I will not die, obtaining the lot by chance, for then there are no
+thanks [to me;]--speak it not, old man; but if you accept me, and are
+willing to use me willing, I readily give up my life to them, but not,
+being compelled.
+
+IOL. Alas! this word of thine is again nobler than the former, and that
+other was most excellent; but you surpass daring by daring, and [good]
+words by good words. I do not bid you, nor do I forbid you, to die, my
+child; but you will benefit your brothers by dying.
+
+MAC. Thou biddest wisely; fear not to partake of my pollution, but I shall
+die freely. But follow me, O old man; for I wish to die by your hand; and
+do you, being present, wrap my body in my garments, since I am going to the
+terror of sacrifice, because I am born of the father of whom I boast to be.
+
+IOL. I could not be present at your death.
+
+MAC. At least, then, entreat of him that I may die, not by the hands of
+men, but of women.
+
+CHOR. It shall be so, O hapless virgin; since it were disgraceful to me too
+not to deck thee honorably on many accounts; both for your valiant spirit,
+and for justice' sake: but you are the most unhappy of all women that I
+have beheld with mine eyes; but, if thou wilt, depart, bespeaking a last
+address to these and to the old man.
+
+MAC. Farewell, old man, farewell; and train up for me these children to be
+such as thyself, wise in all respects, nothing more, for they will suffice;
+and endeavor to save them, not being over-willing to die. We are your
+children; by your hands we were brought up, and behold see me yielding up
+my nuptial hour, dying for them. And ye, my company of brothers now
+present, may ye be happy, and may every thing be yours, for the sake of
+which my soul is sacrificed; and honor the old man, and the old woman in
+the house, Alcmena, the mother of my father, and these strangers. And if a
+release from troubles, and a return should ever be found for you through
+the Gods, remember to bury her who saves you, as is fitting; most honorably
+were just, for I was not wanting to you, but died for my race. This is my
+heir-loom instead of children and virginity, if indeed there be aught under
+the earth. May there indeed be nothing; for if we, mortals who die, are to
+have cares even there, I know not where one can turn, for to die is
+considered the greatest remedy for evils.
+
+IOL. But, O you, who mightily surpass all women in courage, know that, both
+living and dying, you shall be most honored by us: and farewell; for I
+abhor to speak words of ill omen about the Goddess to whom your body is
+given as the first-fruits, the daughter of Ceres. O children, we are
+undone; my limbs are relaxed by grief; take me, and place me in my seat,
+veiling me there with these garments, O children; since neither am I
+pleased at these things which are done, and if the oracle were not
+fulfilled, life would be unbearable, for the ruin would be greater; but
+even this is a calamity.
+
+CHOR. I say that no man is either happy or miserable but through the Gods,
+and that the same family does not always walk in good fortune, but
+different fates pursue it different ways; it is wont to make one from a
+lofty station insignificant, and makes the wanderer wealthy: but it is
+impossible to avoid what is fated; no one can repel it by wisdom, but he
+who is hasty without purpose will always have trouble; but do not thus bear
+the fortune sent by the Gods, falling down [in prayer,] and do not
+over-pain your mind with grief, for she hapless possesses a glorious
+portion of death on behalf of her brethren and her country; nor will an
+inglorious reputation among men await her: but virtue proceeds through
+toils. These things are worthy of her father, and worthy of her noble
+descent; and if you respect the deaths of the good, I share your feelings.
+
+SERVANT. O children, hail! But at what distance from this place is the aged
+Iolaus and your father's mother?
+
+IOL. We are here, such a presence as mine is.
+
+SERV. On what account dost thou lie thus, and have an eye so downcast?
+
+IOL. A domestic care has come upon me, by which I am constrained.
+
+SERV. Raise now thyself, erect thy head.
+
+IOL. I am an old man, and by no means strong.
+
+SERV. But I am come, bearing to you a great joy.
+
+IOL. And who art thou, where having met you, do I forget you?
+
+SERV. I am a poor servant of Hyllus; do you not recognize me, seeing me?
+
+IOL. O dearest one, dost thou then come as a savior to us from injury?
+
+SERV. Surely; and moreover you are prosperous as to the present state of
+affairs.
+
+IOL. O mother of a doughty son, I mean Alcmena, come forth, hear these most
+welcome words; for you have been long wasting away as to your soul in
+anxiety concerning those who have come hither, where they would ever
+arrive.[19]
+
+ALCMENA. Wherefore has a mighty shout filled all this house? O Iolaus, does
+any herald, coming from Argos, again do you violence? my strength indeed is
+weak, but thus much you must know, O stranger, you shall never drag these
+away while I am living, else may I no longer be thought to be his mother;
+but if you touch them with your hand, you will have no honorable contest
+with two old people.
+
+IOL. Be of good cheer, old woman; fear not, the herald is not come from
+Argos bearing hostile words.
+
+ALC. Why then did you raise a shout, a messenger of fear?
+
+IOL. To you, that you should approach near before this temple.
+
+ALC. I do not understand this; for who is this man?
+
+IOL. He announces that your son's son is come.
+
+ALC. O! hail thou also for this news; but why and where[20] is he now
+absent putting his foot in this country? what calamity prevents him from
+appearing hither with you, and delighting my mind?
+
+SERV. He is stationing and marshaling the army which he has come bringing.
+
+ALC. I no longer understand this speech.
+
+IOL. I do; but it is my business to inquire about this.
+
+SERV. What then of what has been done do you wish to learn?
+
+IOL. With how great a multitude of allies is he come?
+
+SERV. With many; but I can say no other number.
+
+IOL. The chiefs of the Athenians know, I suppose.
+
+SERV. They do; and they occupy the left wing.[21]
+
+IOL. Is then the army already armed as for the work?
+
+SERV. Ay; and already the victims are led away from the ranks.
+
+IOL. And how far distant is the Argive army?
+
+SERV. So that the general can be distinctly seen.
+
+IOL. Doing what? arraying the ranks of the enemies?
+
+SERV. We conjectured this, for we did not hear him; but I will go; I should
+not like my masters to join battle with the enemy, deserted as far as my
+part is concerned.
+
+IOL. And I will go with you; for we think the same things, being present to
+aid our friends as much as we can.
+
+SERV. It is not your part to say a foolish word.
+
+IOL. And not to share the sturdy battle with my friends!
+
+SERV. One can not see a wound from an inactive hand.
+
+IOL. But what, can not I too strike through a shield?
+
+SERV. You might strike, but you yourself would fall first.
+
+IOL. No one of the enemy will dare to behold me.
+
+SERV. You have not, my good friend, the strength which once you had.
+
+IOL. But I will fight with them who will not be the fewer in numbers.
+
+SERV. You add but a slight weight to your friends.
+
+IOL. Do not detain me who am prepared to act.
+
+SERV. You are not able to do any thing, but you may perhaps be to advise.
+
+IOL. You may say the rest, as I not staying to hear.
+
+SERV. How then will you appear to the soldiers without arms?
+
+IOL. There are within this palace arms taken in war, which I will use and
+restore if alive; but the God will not demand them back of me, if I fall;
+but go in, and taking them down from the pegs, bring me as quickly as
+possible the panoply of a warrior; for this is a disgraceful house-keeping,
+for some to fight, and some to remain behind through fear.
+
+CHOR. Time does not depress your spirit, but it grows young again, but your
+body is weak: why dost thou toil in vain? which will harm you indeed, but
+profit our city but little; you should consider your age, and leave alone
+impossibilities, it can not be that you again should acquire youth.
+
+ALC. Why are you, not being in your senses, about to leave me alone with my
+children?
+
+IOL. For valor is the part of men; but it is your duty to take care of
+them.
+
+ALC. But what if you die? how shall I be saved?
+
+IOL. Your sons who are left will take care of your son.
+
+ALC. But if they, which Heaven forbid, should meet with fate!
+
+IOL. These strangers will not betray you, do not fear.
+
+ALC. Such confidence indeed I have, nothing else.
+
+IOL. And Jove, I well know, cares for your toils.
+
+ALC. Alas! Jupiter shall never be reproached by me, but he himself knows
+whether he is just toward me.
+
+SERV. You see now this panoply of arms; but you can not make too much
+haste[22] in arraying your body in them, as the contest is at hand, and,
+above all things, Mars hates those who delay; but if you fear the weight of
+arms, now then go forth unarmed,[23] and in the ranks be clad with this
+equipment, and I will carry it so far.
+
+IOL. Thou hast said well; but bring the arms, having them close at hand,
+and put a spear in my hand, and support my left arm guiding my foot.
+
+SERV. Is it right to lead a warrior like a child?
+
+IOL. One must go safely for the sake of the omen.
+
+SERV. Would you were able to do as much as you are willing.
+
+IOL. Make haste, I shall suffer sadly if too late for the battle.
+
+SERV. It is you who delay, and not I, seeming to do something.
+
+IOL. Do you not see how my foot presses on?
+
+SERV. I see you rather seeming to hasten than hastening.
+
+IOL. You will not say so, when you behold me there.
+
+SERV. Doing what? I wish I may see you successful.
+
+IOL. Striking some of the enemy through the shield.
+
+SERV. If indeed we get there; for that I have fears of.
+
+IOL. Alas! O arm, would thou wert such an ally to me as I recollect you in
+your youth, when you ravaged Sparta with Hercules, how would I put
+Eurystheus to flight; since he is but a coward in abiding a spear. But in
+prosperity then is this too which is not right, a reputation for courage;
+for we think that he who is prosperous knows all things well.
+
+CHOR. O earth, and moon that shinest through the night, and most brilliant
+rays of the God, that gave light to mortals, bring me news, and shout in
+heaven and at the queenly throne of the blue-eyed Minerva. I am about, on
+behalf of my country, on behalf of my house, having received suppliants I
+am about to cut through danger with the white steel. It is terrible that a
+city, prosperous as Mycenæ, and much praised for valor in war, should
+nourish secret[24] anger against my land; but it is evil too, O city, if we
+are to give up strangers at the bidding of Argos.[25] Jupiter is my ally, I
+fear not; Jupiter rightly has favor toward me. Never shall the Gods seem
+inferior to men in my opinion.[26] But, O venerable Goddess, for the soil
+of this land is thine, and the city of which you are mother, mistress, and
+guardian, lead away by some other way him who unjustly leads on this
+spear-brandishing host from Argos; for as far as my virtue is concerned, I
+do not deserve to be banished from these halls. For honor, with much
+sacrifice, is ever offered to you; nor does the waning[27] day of the month
+forget you, nor the songs of youths, nor the measures of dances; but on the
+lofty hill shouts resound in accordance with the beatings of the feet of
+virgins the livelong night.
+
+SERV. O mistress, I bring news most concise for you to hear, and to myself
+most glorious; we have conquered our enemies, and trophies are set up
+bearing the panoply of your enemies.
+
+ALC. O best beloved, this day has caused thee to be made free for this thy
+news; but from one disaster you do not yet free me, for I fear whether they
+be living to me whom I wish to be.
+
+SERV. They live, the most glorious in the army.
+
+ALC. Does not the aged Iolaus survive?
+
+SERV. Surely, and having done most glorious deeds by help of the Gods.
+
+ALC. But what? has he done any doughty act in the fight?
+
+SERV. He has changed from an old into a young man again.
+
+ALC. Thou tellest marvelous things, but first I wish you to relate the
+prosperous contest of your friends in battle.
+
+SERV. One speech of mine shall tell you all this; for when stretching out
+[our ranks] face to face, we arrayed our armies against one another, Hyllus
+putting his foot out of his four-horse chariot, stood in the mid-space of
+the field;[28] and then said, O general, you are come from Argos, why leave
+we not this land alone? and you will do Mycenæ no harm, depriving it of one
+man; but you fighting alone with me alone, either killing me, lead away the
+children of Hercules, or dying, allow me to possess my ancestral
+prerogative and palaces. And the army gave praise; that the speech was well
+spoken for a termination of their toils, and in respect of courage. But he
+neither regarding those who had heard the speech, nor, although he was
+general, his [own character for] cowardice, ventured not to come near the
+warlike spear, but was most cowardly; and being such, he came to enslave
+the descendants of Hercules. Hyllus then returned again back to his ranks;
+but the soothsayers, when they saw that the affair could not be arranged by
+single combat of one shield, sacrificed, and delayed not, but let fall
+forth immediately the propitious slaughter of mortal throats; and some
+mounted chariots, and some concealed their sides under the sides of their
+shields; but the king of the Athenians gave to his army such orders as
+become a high-born man. "O fellow-citizens, now it behooves one to defend
+the land that has produced and cherished us."[29] And the other also
+besought his allies not to disgrace Argos and Mycenæ. But when the signal
+was sounded on a Tyrrhenian trumpet, and they joined battle with one
+another, what a clash of spears dost thou think sounded, how great a
+groaning and lamentation at the same time! And first the dashing on of the
+Argive spear broke us; then they again retreated; and next foot being
+interchanged with foot, and man standing against man, the battle waged
+fierce; and many fell; and there were two cries, O ye who [dwell in]
+Athens, O ye who sow the land of the Argives, will ye not avert disgrace
+from the city? And with difficulty doing every thing, not without toils did
+we put the Argive force to flight; and then the old man, seeing Hyllus
+rushing on, Iolaus, stretching forth his right hand, besought him to place
+him on the horse-chariot; and seizing the reins in his hands, he pressed
+hard upon the horses of Eurystheus. And what happened after this I must
+tell by having heard from others, I myself hitherto having seen all; for
+passing by the venerable hill of the divine Minerva of Pellene, seeing the
+chariot of Eurystheus, he prayed to Juno and Jupiter to be young for one
+day, and to work vengeance on his enemies. But you have a marvel to hear;
+for two stars standing on the horse-chariot, concealed the chariot in a dim
+cloud, the wiser men say it was thy son and Hebe; but he from the obscure
+darkness showed forth a youthful image of youthful arms. And the glorious
+Iolaus takes the four-horse chariot of Eurystheus at the Scironian
+rocks--and having bound his hands in fetters, he comes bringing as glorious
+first-fruits of victory, the general, him who before was prosperous; but by
+his present fortune he proclaims clearly to all mortals to learn not to
+envy him who seems prosperous, till one sees him dead, as fortune is but
+for the day.
+
+CHOR. O Jupiter, thou turner to flight, now is it mine to behold a day free
+from dreadful fear.
+
+ALC. O Jupiter, at length you have looked upon my miseries, but still I
+thank you for what has been done: and I, who formerly did not think that my
+son dwelt with the Gods, now clearly know it. O children, now indeed you
+shall be free from toils, and free from Eurystheus, who shall perish
+miserably; and ye shall see the city of your sire, and you shall tread on
+your inheritance of land; and ye shall sacrifice to your ancestral gods,
+debarred from whom ye have had, as strangers, a wandering miserable life.
+But devising what clever thing has Iolaus spared Eurystheus, so as not to
+slay him, tell me; for in my opinion this is not wise, having taken our
+enemies, not to exact punishment of them.
+
+SERV. Having respect for you, that with your own eyes you may see him[30]
+defeated and subjected to your hand; not, indeed, of his own will, but he
+has bound him by force in constraint, for he was not willing to come alive
+into your sight and to be punished. But, O old woman, farewell, and
+remember for me what you first said when I began my tale. Make me free; and
+in such noble people as you the mouth ought to be free from falsehood.
+
+CHOR. To me the dance is sweet, if there be the thrilling delight of the
+pipe at the feast; and may Venus be kind. And sweet it is to see the good
+fortune of friends who did not expect it before; for the fate which
+accomplishes gifts gives birth to many things; and Time, the son of Saturn.
+You have, O city, a just path, you should never be deprived of it, to honor
+the Gods; and he who bids you not do so, is near madness, such proofs as
+these being shown. God, in truth, evidently exhorts us, taking away the
+arrogance of the unjust forever. Your son, O old woman, is gone to heaven;
+he shuns the report of having descended to the realm of Pluto, being
+consumed as to his body in the terrible flame of fire; and he embraces the
+lovely bed of Hebe in the golden hall. O Hymen, you have honored two
+children of Jupiter. Many things agree with many; for in truth they say
+that Minerva was an ally of their father, and the city and people of that
+Goddess has saved them, and has restrained the insolence of a man to whom
+passion was before justice, through violence. May my mind and soul, never
+be insatiable.
+
+MESS. O mistress, you see, but still it shall be said, we are come,
+bringing to you Eurystheus here, an unhoped-for sight, and one no less so
+for him to meet with, for he never expected to come into your hands when he
+went forth from Mycenæ with a much-toiling band of spearmen, proudly
+planning things much greater than his fortune, that he should destroy
+Athens; but the God changed his fortune, and made it contrary. Hyllus,
+therefore, and the good Iolaus, have set up a statue, in honor of their
+victory, of Jove, the putter to flight; and they send me to bring this man
+to you, wishing to delight your mind; for it is most delightful to see an
+enemy unfortunate, after having been fortunate.
+
+ALC. O hateful thing, art thou come? has justice taken you at last? first
+then indeed turn hither your head toward me, and dare to look your enemies
+in the face; for now you are ruled, and you rule no more. Art thou he, for
+I wish to know, who chose, O wretch, much to insult my son, though no
+longer existing? For in what respect didst thou not dare to insult him? who
+led him, while alive, down to hell, and sent him forth, bidding him destroy
+hydras and lions? And I am silent concerning the other evils you contrived,
+for it would be a long story; and it did not satisfy you that he alone
+should endure these things, but you drove me also, and my children, out of
+all Greece, sitting as suppliants of the Gods, some old, and some still
+infants; but you found men and a city free, who feared you not. Thou needs
+must die miserably, and you shall gain every thing, for you ought to die
+not once only, having wrought many evil deeds.
+
+MESS. It is not practicable for you to put him to death.[31]
+
+ALC. In vain then have we taken him prisoner. But what law hinders him from
+dying?
+
+MESS. It seems not so to the chiefs of this land.
+
+ALC. What is this? not good to them to slay one's enemies?
+
+MESS. Not any one whom they have taken alive in battle.
+
+ALC. And did Hyllus endure this decision?
+
+MESS. He could, I suppose, disobey this land![32]
+
+ALC. He ought no longer to live, nor behold the light.
+
+MESS. Then first he did wrong in not dying.
+
+ALC. Then it is no longer right for him to be punished?[33]
+
+MESS. There is no one who may put him to death.
+
+ALC. I will. And yet I say that I am some one.
+
+MESS. You will indeed have much blame if you do this.
+
+ALC. I love this city. It can not be denied. But as for this man, since he
+has come into my power, there is no mortal who shall take him from me. For
+this, whoever will may call me bold, and thinking things too much for a
+woman; but this deed shall be done by me.
+
+CHOR. It is a serious and excusable thing, O lady, for you to have hatred
+against this man, I well know it.
+
+EURYSTHEUS. O woman, know plainly that I will not flatter you, nor say any
+thing else for my life, whence I may incur any imputation of cowardice. But
+not of my own accord did I undertake this strife--I knew that I was your
+cousin by birth, and a relation to your son Hercules; but whether I wished
+it or not, Juno, for it was a Goddess, forced me to toil through this ill.
+But when I took up enmity against him, and determined to contest this
+contest, I became a contriver of many evils, and sitting continually in
+council with myself, I brought forth many plans by night, how dispersing
+and slaying my enemies, I might dwell for the future not with fear, knowing
+that your son was not one of the many, but truly a man; for though he be
+mine enemy, yet shall he be well spoken of, as he was a doughty man. And
+when he was released [from life], did it not behoove me, being hated by
+these children, and knowing their father's hatred to me, to move every
+stone, slaying and banishing them, and contriving, that, doing such things,
+my own affairs would have been safe? You, therefore, had you obtained my
+fortunes, would not have oppressed with evils the hostile offspring of a
+hated lion, but would wisely have permitted them to live in Argos; you will
+persuade no one of this. Now then, since they did not destroy me then, when
+I was willing, by the laws of the Greeks I shall, if slain, bear pollution
+to my slayer; and the city, being wise, has let me go, having greater honor
+for God than for its enmity toward me. And to what you said you have heard
+a reply: and now you may call me at once suppliant and brave.[34] Thus is
+the case with me, I do not wish to die, but I should not be grieved at
+leaving life.
+
+CHOR. I wish, O Alcmena, to advise you a little, to let go this man, since
+it seems so to the city.
+
+ALC. But how, if he both die, and still we obey the city?
+
+CHOR. That would be best; but how can that be?
+
+ALC. I will teach you, easily; for having slain him, then I will give his
+corpse to those of his friends who come after him; for I will not deny his
+body to the earth, but he dying, shall satisfy my revenge.
+
+EU. Slay me, I do not deprecate thy wrath. But this city indeed, since it
+has released me, and feared to slay me, I will present with an ancient
+oracle of Apollo, which, in time, will be of greater profit than you would
+expect; for ye will bury me when I am dead, where it is fated, before the
+temple of the divine virgin of Pallene; and being well disposed to you, and
+a protector to the city, I shall ever lie as a sojourner under the ground,
+but most hostile to their descendants when they come hither with much
+force, betraying this kindness: such strangers do ye now defend. How then
+did I, knowing this, come hither, and not respect the oracle of the God?
+Thinking Juno far more powerful than oracles, and that she would not betray
+me, [I did so.] But suffer neither libations nor blood to be poured on my
+tomb, for I will give them an evil return as a requital for these things;
+and ye shall have a double gain from me, I will both profit you and injure
+them by dying.
+
+ALC. Why then do ye delay, if you are fated to accomplish safety to the
+city and to your descendants, to slay this man, hearing these things? for
+they show us the safest path. The man is an enemy, but he will profit us
+dying. Take him away, O servants; then having slain him, ye must give him
+to the dogs; for hope not thou, that living, thou shalt again banish me
+from my native land.
+
+CHOR. These things seem good to me, proceed, O attendants, for every thing
+on our part shall be done completely for our sovereigns.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+NOTES ON THE HERACLYDÆ
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+[1] Such seems to be the force of εις ανηρ.
+
+[2] But the construction is probably αληται γης, (compare my note on Æsch.
+Eum. 63,) and απεστερημενοι is _bereaved, destitute_.
+
+[3] Cf. Æsch. Eum. 973.
+
+[4] i.e. Œnoe, Marathon, Probalinthus, and Tricorythus.
+
+[5] Elmsley compares Med. 1209. τις τον γεροντα τυμβον ορθανον σεθεν
+τιθησι; so the Latins used "Silicernium." Cf. Fulgent. Expos. Serm. Ant. p.
+171, ed. Munck.
+
+[6] αντλος, sentina, bilge-water. See Elmsley.
+
+[7] See Elmsley's note.
+
+[8] See Dindorf, who repents of the reading in the text, and restores σοι
+γαρ τοδ' αισχρον χωρις εν πολει κακον. He, however, condemns this and the
+two next lines as spurious.
+
+[9] i.e. if I neglect them.
+
+[10] Cf. Hor. Od. iii. 6, 48. "Ætas parentum, pejor avis, tulit Nos
+nequiores, mox daturos Progeniem vitiosiorem."
+
+[11] Cf. Soph. Ant. 127. Ζευς γαρ μεγαλης γλωσσης κομπους ‛Υπερεχθαιρει.
+
+[12] Cf. Æsch. Sept. c. Th. 40 sq., also Soph. Œd. T. 6 sqq.
+
+[13] i.e. μαντεις κατ' αστυ θυηφολουσι. ELMSLEY.
+
+[14] Pausanias, i. 32, states that the oracle expressly required that one
+of the descendants of Hercules should be devoted, and that upon this
+Macaria, his daughter by Deianira, voluntarily offered herself. Her name
+was afterward given to a fountain. Enripides probably omitted this fact, in
+order to place the noble-mindedness of Macaria in a stronger light. The
+curious reader may compare the similar sacrifices of Codrus, (Pausan. vii.
+25. Vell. Patere. i. 4,) Menœceus, (Eur. Phœn. 1009, Statius Theb. x. 751
+sqq.,) Chaon (Serv. on Virg. Æn. iii. 335). See also Lomeier de
+Lustrationibus, § xxii., where the whole subject is learnedly treated.
+
+[15] Cf. Æsch. Ag. 206 sqq.
+
+[16] I prefer understanding ‛ενεκα εξοδων εμων with Elmsley, to Matthiæ's
+forced interpretation. Compare Med. 214 sqq.
+
+[17] The cognate accusative to δρασειεν must be supplied from the context.
+
+[18] There is some awkwardness in the construction. Perhaps if we read
+σπερμα, της θειας φρενος! πεφ. the sense will be improved.
+
+[19] The construction is thus laid down by Elmsley: παλαι γαρ ωδινουσα
+[περι tôn aphig. ps. et. ei. n. [autôn] genêsetai]. He remarks that νοστος
+often means "arrival," in the tragedians.
+
+[20] See Matthiæ. I should, however, prefer παις for που, with Elmsley.
+
+[21] κατα is understood, as in Thucyd. v. 67. ELMSLEY.
+
+[22] See Alcest. 662, Iph. Taur. 245, and Elmsley's note on this passage.
+
+[23] γυμνος, _expeditus_. As in agriculture it is applied to the husbandman
+who casts off his upper garment, so also in war it simply denotes being
+without armor.
+
+[24] κευθειν.
+
+[25] I have corrected κελευσμασιν Αργους, with Reiske and Dindorf.
+
+[26] I have adopted Dindorf's correction, ‛ησσονες παρ' εμοι θεοι
+φανουνται.
+
+[27] i.e. the last, says Brodæus. But Elmsley prefers taking it for the
+νουμηνια or Kalends, with Musgrave.
+
+[28] δορος, which is often used to signify _the fight_, is here somewhat
+boldly put for the arrangement of the battle.
+
+[29] Cf. Æsch. Soph. c. Th. 14 sqq. Elmsley's notes on the whole of this
+spirited passage deserve to be consulted.
+
+[30] κρατουντα can not be used passively. κλαιοντα is the conjecture of
+Orelli, approved by Dindorf. I have expressed the sense, not the text.
+
+[31] See Musgrave's note (apud Dindorf). Tyrwhitt considers all the
+dramatis personæ wrongly assigned.
+
+[32] Ironically spoken.
+
+[33] There seems to be something wrong here.
+
+[34] See Matthiæ, who explains it: "_me et supplicem_, qui mortem
+deprecetur, _et fortem_, qui mortem contemnat, _dicere licet_."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *       *
+
+IPHIGENIA IN AULIS.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+PERSONS REPRESENTED.
+
+  AGAMEMNON.
+  OLD MAN.
+  MENELAUS.
+  ACHILLES.
+  MESSENGER.
+  ANOTHER MESSENGER.
+  IPHIGENIA.
+  CLYTÆMNESTRA.
+  CHORUS.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE ARGUMENT.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+When the Greeks were detained at Aulis by stress of weather, Calchas
+declared that they would never reach Troy unless the daughter of Agamemnon,
+Iphigenia, was sacrificed to Diana. Agamemnon sent for his daughter with
+this view, but repenting, he dispatched a messenger to prevent Clytæmnestra
+sending her. The messenger being intercepted by Menelaus, an altercation
+between the brother chieftains arose, during which Iphigenia, who had been
+tempted with the expectation of being wedded to Achilles, arrived with her
+mother. The latter, meeting with Achilles, discovered the deception, and
+Achilles swore to protect her. But Iphigenia, having determined to die
+nobly on behalf of the Greeks, was snatched away by the Goddess, and a stag
+substituted in her place. The Greeks were then enabled to set sail.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+IPHIGENIA IN AULIS.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+AGAMEMNON. Come before this dwelling, O aged man.
+
+OLD MAN. I come. But what new thing dost thou meditate, king Agamemnon?
+
+AG. You shall learn.[1]
+
+OLD M. I hasten. My old age is very sleepless, and sits wakeful upon mine
+eyes.
+
+AG. What star can this be that traverses this way?
+
+OLD M. Sirius, flitting yet midway (between the heavens and the ocean,)[2]
+close to the seven Pleiads.
+
+AG. No longer therefore is there the sound either of birds or of the sea,
+but silence of the winds reigns about this Euripus.
+
+OLD M. But why art thou hastening without the tent, king Agamemnon? But
+still there is silence here by Aulis, and the guards of the fortifications
+are undisturbed. Let us go within.
+
+AG. I envy thee, old man, and I envy that man who has passed through a life
+without danger, unknown, unglorious; but I less envy those in honor.
+
+OLD M. And yet 'tis in this that the glory of life is.
+
+AG. But this very glory is uncertain, for the love of popularity is
+pleasant indeed, but hurts when present. Sometimes the worship of the Gods
+not rightly conducted upturns one's life, and sometimes the many and
+dissatisfied opinions of men harass.
+
+OLD M. I praise not these remarks in a chieftain. O Agamemnon, Atreus did
+not beget thee upon a condition of complete good fortune.[3] But thou needs
+must rejoice and grieve; [in turn,] for thou art a mortal born, and even
+though you wish it not, the will of the Gods will be thus. But thou,
+opening the light of a lamp, art both writing this letter, which thou still
+art carrying in thy hands, and again you blot out the same characters, and
+seal, and loose again, and cast the tablet to the ground, pouring abundant
+tears, and thou lackest naught of the unwonted things that tend to madness.
+Why art thou troubled, why art thou troubled? What new thing, what new
+thing [has happened] concerning thee, O king? Come, communicate discourse
+with me. But thou wilt speak to a good and faithful man, for to thy wife
+Tyndarus sent me once on a time, as a dower-gift, and disinterested
+companion.[4]
+
+AG. To Leda, daughter of Thestias, were born three virgins, Phœbe, and
+Clytæmnestra my spouse, and Helen. Of this latter, the youths of Greece
+that were in the first state of prosperity came as suitors. But terrible
+threats of bloodshed[5] arose against one another, from whoever should not
+obtain the virgin. But the matter was difficult for her father Tyndarus,
+whether to give, or not to give [her in marriage,] and how he might best
+deal with the circumstances, when this occurred to him; that the suitors
+should join oaths and plight right hands with one another, and over
+burnt-offerings should enter into treaty, and bind themselves by this oath,
+"Of whomsoever the daughter of Tyndarus shall become wife, that they will
+join to assist him, if any one should depart from his house taking [her]
+with him, and excluding the possessor from his bed, and that they will make
+an expedition in arms, and sack the city [of the ravisher,] Greek or
+barbarian alike." But after they had pledged themselves, the old man
+Tyndarus somehow cleverly overreached them by a cunning plan. He permits
+his daughter to choose one of the suitors, toward whom the friendly gales
+of Venus might impel her. But she chose (whom would she had never taken!)
+Menelaus. And he who, according to the story told by men, once judged the
+Goddesses, coming from Phrygia to Lacedæmon, flowered in the vesture of his
+garments, and glittering with gold, barbarian finery, loving Helen who
+loved him, he stole and bore her away to the bull-stalls of Ida, having
+found Menelaus abroad. But he, goaded hastily[6] through Greece, calls to
+witness the old oath given to Tyndarus, that it behooves to assist the
+aggrieved. Henceforth the Greeks hastening with the spear, having taken
+their arms, come to this Aulis with its narrow straits, with ships and
+shields together, and accoutred with many horses and chariots. And they
+chose me general of the host, out of regard for Menelaus, being his brother
+forsooth. And would that some other than I had obtained the dignity. But
+when the army was assembled and levied, we sat, having no power of sailing,
+at Aulis. But Calchas the seer proclaimed to us, being at a loss, that we
+should sacrifice Iphigenia, whom I begat, to Diana, who inhabits this
+place, and that if we sacrificed her, we should have both our voyage, and
+the sacking of Troy, but that this should not befall us if we did not
+sacrifice her. But I hearing this in rousing proclamation, bade Talthybius
+dismiss the whole army, as I should never have the heart to slay my
+daughter. Upon this, indeed, my brother, alleging every kind of reasoning,
+persuaded me to dare the dreadful deed, and having written in the folds of
+a letter, I sent word to my wife to send her daughter as if to be married
+to Achilles, both enlarging on the dignity of the man, and asserting that
+he would not sail with the Greeks, unless a wife for him from among us
+should come to Phthia. For I had this means of persuading my wife, having
+made up a pretended match for the virgin. But we alone of the Greeks know
+how these matters are, Calchas, Ulysses, and Nestor. But the things which I
+then determined not well, I am now differently writing so as to be well, in
+this letter, which by the shadow of night thou beheldest me opening and
+closing, old man. But come, go thou, taking these letters, to Argos. But as
+to what the letter conceals in its folds, I will tell thee in words all
+that is written therein; for thou art faithful to my wife and house.
+
+OLD M. Speak, and tell me, that with my tongue I may also say what agrees
+with your letter.
+
+AG. (reading) "I send to thee, O germ of Leda, besides[7] my former
+dispatches, not to send thy daughter to the bay-like wing of Eubœa,[8]
+waveless Aulis. For we will delay the bridals of our daughter till another
+season."
+
+OLD M. And how will not Achilles raise up his temper against thee and thy
+wife, showing great wrath at failing of his spouse? This also is terrible.
+Show what thou meanest.
+
+AG. Achilles, furnishing the pretext, not the reality, knows not these
+nuptials, nor what we are doing; nor that I have professed to give my
+daughter into the nuptial chain of his arms by marriage.[9]
+
+OLD M. Thou venturest terrible things, king Agamemnon, who, having promised
+thy daughter as wife to the son of the Goddess, dost lead her as a
+sacrifice on behalf of the Greeks.
+
+AG. Ah me! I was out of my senses. Alas! And I am falling into calamity.
+But go, plying thy foot, yielding naught to old age.
+
+OLD M. I hasten, O king.
+
+AG. Do not thou either sit down by the woody fountains, nor repose in
+sleep.
+
+OLD M. Speak good words.
+
+AG. But every where as you pass the double track, look about, watching lest
+there escape thee a chariot passing with swift wheels, bearing my daughter
+hither to the ships of the Greeks.
+
+OLD M. This shall be.
+
+AG. And go out of the gates[10] quickly,† for if you meet with the
+procession,† again go forth, shake the reins, going to the temples reared
+by the Cyclops.
+
+OLD M. But tell me, how, saying this, I shall obtain belief from thy
+daughter and wife.
+
+AG. Preserve the seal, this which thou bearest on this letter. Go: morn,
+already dawning forth this light, grows white, and the fire of the sun's
+four steeds. Aid me in my toils. But no one of mortals is prosperous or
+blest to the last, for none hath yet been born free from pain.
+
+CHORUS. I came to the sands of the shore of marine Aulis, having sailed
+through the waves of Euripus, quitting Chalcis with its narrow strait, my
+city, the nurse of the sea-neighboring waters[11] of renowned Arethusa, in
+order that I might behold the army of the Greeks, and the ship-conveying
+oars of the Grecian youths, whom against Troy in a thousand ships of fir,
+our husbands say that yellow-haired Menelaus and Agamemnon of noble birth,
+are leading in quest of Helen,[12] whom the herdsman Paris bore from
+reed-nourishing Eurotas, a gift of Venus, when at the fountain dews Venus
+held contest, contest respecting beauty with Juno and Pallas. But I came
+swiftly through the wood of Diana with its many sacrifices, making my cheek
+red with youthful modesty, wishing to behold the defense of the shield, and
+the arm-bearing tents[13] of the Greeks, and the crowd of steeds. But I saw
+the two Ajaces companions, the son of Oileus, and the son of Telamon, the
+glory of Salamis, and Protesilaus and Palamedes, whom the daughter of
+Neptune bore, diverting themselves[14] with the complicated figures of
+draughts, and Diomede rejoicing in the pleasures of the disk, and by them
+Merione, the blossom of Mars, a marvel to mortals, and the son of Laertes
+from the mountains of the isle, and with them Nireus, fairest of the
+Greeks, and Achilles, tempest-like in the course, fleet as the winds, whom
+Thetis bore, and Chiron trained up, I beheld him on the shore, coursing in
+arms along the shingles. And he toiled through a contest of feet, running
+against a chariot of four steeds for victory. But the charioteer cried out,
+Eumelus, the grandson of Pheres,[15] whose most beauteous steeds I beheld,
+decked out with gold-tricked bits, hurried on by the lash, the middle ones
+in yoke dappled with white-spotted hair, but those outside, in loose
+harness, running contrariwise in the bendings of the course, bays, with
+dappled skins under their legs with solid hoofs. Close by which Pelides was
+running in arms, by the orb and wheels of the chariot.[16] And I came to
+the multitude of ships, a sight not to be described, that I might satiate
+the sight of my woman's eyes, a sweet delight. And at the right horn [of
+the fleet] was the Phthiotic army of the Myrmidons, with fifty valiant
+ships. And in golden effigies the Nereid Goddesses stood on the summit of
+the poops, the standard of the host of Achilles. And next to these there
+stood the Argive ships, with equal number of oars, of which [Euryalus] the
+grandson of Mecisteus was general, whom his father Talaus trains up, and
+Sthenelus son of Capaneus. But [Acamas] son of Theseus, leading sixty ships
+from Athens, kept station, having the Goddess Pallas placed[17] in her
+equestrian winged chariot, a prosperous sign to sailors. But I beheld the
+armament of the Bœotians, fifty sea-bound ships, with signs at the
+figure-heads, and their sign was Cadmus, holding a golden dragon, at the
+beaks of the ships, and Leitus the earth-born was leader of the naval
+armament, and [I beheld] those from the Phocian land. But the son of
+Oileus, leading an equal number of Locrian ships, came, having left the
+Thronian city. But from Cyclopian Mycenæ the son of Atreus sent the
+assembled mariners of a hundred ships. And with him was Adrastus, as friend
+with friend, in order that Greece might wreak vengeance on those who fled
+their homes, for the sake of barbarian nuptials. But from Pylos we beheld
+on the poops of Gerenian Nestor, a sign bull-footed to view, his neighbor
+Alpheus. But there were twelve beaks of Ænian ships, which king Gyneus led,
+and near these again the chieftains of Elis, whom all the people named
+Epeians, and o'er these Eurytus had power. But the white-oared Taphian host
+* * * * led,[18] which Meges ruled, the offspring of Phyleus, leaving the
+island Echinades, inaccessible to sailors. And Ajax, the foster-child of
+Salamis, joined the right horn to the left, to which he was stationed
+nearest, joining them with his furthermost ships, with twelve most swift
+vessels, as I heard, and beheld the naval people. To which if any one add
+the barbarian barks, * * * * it will not obtain a return. * * * * Where I
+beheld the naval expedition, but hearing other things at home I preserve
+remembrance of the assembled army.
+
+OLD M. Menelaus, thou art daring dreadful deeds thou shouldst not dare.
+
+MENELAUS. Away with thee! thou art too faithful to thy masters.
+
+OLD M. An honorable rebuke thou hast rebuked me with!
+
+MEN. To thy cost shall it be, if thou dost that thou shouldst not do.
+
+OLD M. You have no right to open the letter which I was carrying.
+
+MEN. Nor shouldst thou bear ills to all the Greeks.
+
+OLD M. Contest this point with others, but give up this [letter] to me.
+
+MEN. I will not let it go.
+
+OLD M. Nor will I let it go.
+
+MEN. Then quickly with my sceptre will I make thine head bloody.
+
+OLD M. But glorious it is to die for one's masters.
+
+MEN. Let go. Being a slave, thou speakest too many words.
+
+OLD M. O master, I am wronged, and this man, having snatched thy letter out
+of my hands, O Agamemnon, is unwilling to act rightly.
+
+MEN. Ah! what is this tumult and disorder of words?
+
+OLD M. My words, not his, are fittest to speak.[19]
+
+AG. But wherefore, Menelaus, dost thou come to strife with this man and art
+dragging him by force?
+
+MEN. Look at me, that I may take this commencement of my speech.
+
+AG. What, shall I through fear not open mine eyelids, being born of Atreus?
+
+MEN. Seest thou this letter, the minister of writings most vile?
+
+AG. I see it, and do thou first let it go from thy hands.
+
+MEN. Not, at least, before I show to the Greeks what is written therein.
+
+AG. What, knowest thou what 'tis unseasonable thou shouldst know, having
+broken the seal?
+
+MEN. Ay, so as to pain thee, having unfolded the ills thou hast wrought
+privily.
+
+AG. But where didst thou obtain it? O Gods, for thy shameless heart!
+
+MEN. Expecting thy daughter from Argos, whether she will come to the army.
+
+AG. What behooves thee to keep watch upon my affairs? Is not this the act
+of a shameless man?
+
+MEN. Because the will [to do so] teased me, and I am not born thy slave.
+
+AG. Is it not dreadful? Shall I not be suffered to be master of my own
+family?
+
+MEN. For thou thinkest inconsistently, now one thing, before another,
+another thing presently.
+
+AG. Well hast thou talked evil. Hateful is a too clever tongue.[20]
+
+MEN. But an unstable mind is an unjust thing to possess, and not clear[21]
+for friends. I wish to expostulate with thee, but do not thou in wrath turn
+away from the truth, nor will I speak overlong. Thou knowest when thou wast
+making interest to be leader of the Greeks against Troy--in seeming indeed
+not wishing it, but wishing it in will--how humble thou wast, taking hold
+of every right hand, and keeping open doors to any of the people that
+wished, and giving audience to all in turn even if one wished it not,
+seeking by manners to purchase popularity among the multitude. But when you
+obtained the power, changing to different manners, you were no longer the
+same friend as before to your old friends, difficult of access,[22] and
+rarely within doors. But it behooves not a man who has met with great
+fortune to change his manners, but then chiefly to be firm toward his
+friends, when he is best able to benefit them, being prosperous. I have
+first gone over these charges against thee, in which I first found thee
+base. But when thou afterward camest into Aulis and to the army of all the
+Greeks, thou wast naught, but wast in stupefaction at the fortune which
+then befell us from the Gods, lacking a favorable breeze for the journey.
+But the Greeks demanded that you should dismiss the ships, and not toil
+vainly at Aulis. But how cheerless and distressed a countenance you wore,
+because you were not able to land your army at Priam's land, having a
+thousand ships under command.[23] And thou besoughtest me, "What shall I
+do?" "But what resource shall I find from whence?" so that thou mightest
+not lose an ill renown, being deprived of the command. And then, when
+Calchas o'er the victims said that thou must sacrifice thy daughter to
+Diana, and that there would [then] be means of sailing for the Greeks,
+delighted in heart, you gladly promised to sacrifice your child, and of
+your own accord, not by compulsion--do not say so--you send to your wife to
+convoy your daughter hither, on a pretext of being wedded to Achilles. And
+then changing [your mind] you are caught altering to other writings, to the
+effect that you will not now be the slayer of your daughter. Very pretty,
+forsooth! This is the same air which heard these very protestations from
+thee. But innumerable men experience this in their affairs; they persevere
+in labor when in power,[24] and then make a bad result, sometimes through
+the foolish mind of the citizens, but sometimes with reason, themselves
+becoming incapable of preserving the state, I indeed chiefly groan for
+hapless Greece, who, wishing to work some doughty deed against these
+good-for-nothing barbarians, will let them, laughing at us, slip through
+her hands, on account of thee and thy daughter. I would not make any one
+ruler of the land for the sake of necessity,[25] nor chieftain of armed
+men. It behooves the general of the state to possess sense, for every man
+is a ruler who possesses sense.
+
+CHOR. 'Tis dreadful for words and strife to happen between brothers, when
+they fall into dispute.
+
+AG. I wish to address thee in evil terms, but mildly,[26] in brief, not
+uplifting mine eyelids too much aloft through insolence, but moderately, as
+being my brother. For a good man is wont to show respect [to others.] Tell
+me, why dost thou burst forth thus violently, having thy face suffused with
+rage? Who wrongs thee? What lackest thou? Wouldst fain gain a good wife! I
+can not supply thee, for thou didst ill rule over the one you possessed.
+Must I therefore pay the penalty of your mismanagement, who have made no
+mistake? Or does my ambition annoy thee? But wouldst thou fain hold in
+thine arms a fair woman, forgetting discretion and honor? Evil pleasures
+belong to an evil man. But if I, having before resolved ill, have changed
+to good counsel, am I mad? Rather art thou [mad,] who, having lost a bad
+wife, desirest to recover her, when God has well prospered thy fortune. The
+nuptial-craving suitors in their folly swore the oath to Tyndarus, but
+hope, I ween, was their God, and wrought this more than thyself and thy
+strength. Whom taking[27] make thou the expedition, but I think thou wilt
+know [that it is] through the folly of their hearts, for the divinity is
+not ignorant, but is capable of discerning oaths ill plighted and perforce.
+But I will not slay my children, so that thy state will in justice be well,
+revenge upon the worst of wives, but nights and days will waste me away in
+tears, having wrought lawless, unjust deeds against the children whom I
+begat. These words are briefly spoken to thee, both plain and easy, but if
+thou art unwilling to be wise, I will arrange my own affairs well.
+
+CHOR. These words are different from those before spoken, but they are to a
+good effect, that the children be spared.
+
+MEN. Alas! alas! have I then wretched no friends?
+
+AG. [Yes, you have,] at least, if you do not wish to ruin your friends.
+
+MEN. But how will you show that you are born of the same sire with me?
+
+AG. I am born to be wise with you, not foolish.[28]
+
+MEN. It behooves friends to grieve in common with friends.
+
+AG. Admonish me by well doing, not by paining me.
+
+MEN. Dost thou not then think fit to toil through this with Greece?
+
+AG. But Greece, with thee, is sickening through some deity.
+
+MEN. Vaunt then on thy sceptre, having betrayed thy brother. But I will
+seek some other schemes, and other friends.
+
+[_Enter a Messenger_.[29]]
+
+MESSENGER. O Agamemnon, king of all the Greeks, I am come, bringing thy
+daughter to thee, whom thou didst name Iphigenia in thy palace. But her
+mother follows, the person of thy [wife] Clytæmnestra, and the boy Orestes,
+that thou mayest be pleased at the sight, being away from thine home a long
+season. But as they have come a long way, they and their mares are
+refreshing their female feet by the fair-flowing fountain, and we let loose
+the mares in a grassy meadow, that they might taste fodder. But I am come
+before them to prepare you [for their reception,] for a swift report passed
+through the army, that thy daughter had arrived. And all the multitude
+comes out hastily to the spectacle, that they may behold thy child. For
+prosperous men are renowned and conspicuous among all mortals. And they
+say, "Is there a marriage on foot? or what is going on?" Or, "Has king
+Agamemnon, having a yearning after his daughter, brought his child hither?"
+But from some you would have heard this: "They are initiating[30] the
+damsel in honor of Artemis, queen of Aulis, who will marry her." But come,
+get ready the baskets,[31] which come next, crown thine head. And do thou,
+king Menelaus, prepare a nuptial lay, and through the house let the pipe
+sound and let there be noise of feet, for this day comes blessed upon the
+virgin.
+
+AG. I commend [your words,] but go thou within the house, and it shall be
+well, as fortune takes its course. Alas! what shall I wretched say? Whence
+shall I begin? Into what fetters of necessity have I fallen! Fortune has
+upturned me, so as to become far too clever for my cleverness. But lowness
+of birth has some advantage thus. For such persons are at liberty to weep,
+and speak unhappy words, but to him that is of noble birth, all these
+things belong. We have our dignity as ruler of our life, and are slaves to
+the multitude. For I am ashamed indeed to let fall the tear, yet again
+wretched am I ashamed not to weep, having come into the greatest
+calamities. Well! what shall I say to my wife? How shall I receive her?
+What manner of countenance shall I present? And truly she hath undone me,
+coming uncalled amidst the ills which before possessed me. And with reason
+did she follow her daughter, being about to deck her as a bride,[32] and to
+perform the dearest offices, where she will find us base. But for this
+hapless virgin--why [call her] virgin? Hades, as it seems, will speedily
+attend on her nuptials,--how do I pity her! For I think that she will
+beseech me thus: O father, wilt thou slay me? Such a wedding mayest thou
+thyself wed, and whosoever is a friend to thee. But Orestes being present
+will cry out knowingly words not knowing, for he is yet an infant. Alas!
+how has Priam's son, Paris, undone me by wedding the nuptials of Paris, who
+has wrought this!
+
+CHOR. And I also pity her, as it becomes a stranger woman to moan for the
+misfortune of her lords.
+
+MEN. Brother, give me thy right hand to touch.
+
+AG. I give it, for thine is the power, but I am wretched.
+
+MEN. I swear by Pelops, who was called the sire of my father and thine, and
+my father Atreus, that I indeed will tell thee plainly from my heart, and
+not any thing out of contrivance, but only what I think. I, beholding thee
+letting fall the tear from thine eyes, pitied thee, and myself let fall [a
+tear] for thee in return. And I have changed[33] my old determinations, not
+being wrath against you, but I will place myself in your present situation,
+and I recommend you neither to slay your child, nor to take my part; for it
+is not just that thou shouldst groan, but my affairs be in a pleasant
+state, and that thine should die, but mine behold the light. For what do I
+wish? Might I not obtain another choice alliance, if I crave nuptials? But,
+having undone my brother, whom it least behooved me, shall I receive Helen,
+an evil in place of a good? I was foolish and young, before that, viewing
+the matter closely, I saw what it is to beget children. Besides, pity came
+over me, considering our connection, for the hapless girl, who is about to
+be sacrificed because of my marriage. But what has thy virgin [daughter] to
+do with Helen? Let the army go, being disbanded from Aulis. But cease thou
+bedewing thine eyes with tears, my brother, and exciting me to tears. But
+if I have any concern in the oracle respecting thy daughter, let me have
+none: to thee I yield my part. But I have come to a change[34] from
+terrible resolutions. I have experienced[35] what was meet. I have changed
+to regard him who is sprung from a common source. Such changes belong not
+to a bad man, [viz.] to follow the best always.
+
+CHOR. Thou hast spoken generous words, and becoming Tantalus the son of
+Jove. Thou disgracest not thine ancestors.
+
+AG. I commend thee, Menelaus, in that, contrary to my expectation, you have
+subjoined these words, rightly, and worthily of thee.
+
+MEN. A certain disturbance[36] between brothers arises on account of love,
+and avarice in their houses. I abhor such a relationship, mutually sore.
+
+AG. But [consider,] for we are come into circumstances that render it
+necessary to accomplish the bloody slaughter of my daughter.
+
+MEN. How? Who will compel thee to slay thy child?
+
+AG. The whole assembly of the armament of the Greeks.
+
+MEN. Not so, if at least thou dismiss it back to Argos.
+
+AG. In this matter I might escape discovery, but in that I can not.[37]
+
+MEN. What? One should not too much fear the multitude.
+
+AG. Calchas will proclaim his prophecy to the army of the Greeks.
+
+MEN. Not if he die first--and this is easy.
+
+AG. The whole race of seers is an ambitious ill.
+
+MEN. And in naught good or profitable, when at hand.[38]
+
+AG. But dost thou not fear that which occurs to me?
+
+MEN. How can I understand the word you say not?
+
+AG. The son of Sisyphus knows all these matters.
+
+MEN. It can not be that Orestes can pain thee and me.
+
+AG. He is ever changeable, and with the multitude.
+
+MEN. He is indeed possessed with the passion for popularity, a dreadful
+evil.
+
+AG. Do you not then think that he, standing in the midst of the Greeks,
+will tell the oracles which Calchas pronounced, and of me, that I promised
+to offer a sacrifice to Diana, and then break my word. With which [words]
+having carried away the army, he will bid the Greeks slay thee and me, and
+sacrifice the damsel. And if I flee to Argos, they will come and ravage and
+raze the land, Cyclopean walls and all. Such are my troubles. O unhappy me!
+How, by the Gods, am I at a loss in these present matters! Take care of one
+thing for me, Menelaus, going through the army, that Clytæmnestra may not
+learn these matters, before I take and offer my daughter to Hades, that I
+may fare ill with as few tears as possible. But do ye, O stranger women,
+preserve silence.
+
+CHORUS. Blest are they who share the nuptial bed of the Goddess
+Aphrodite,[39] when she is moderate, and with modesty, obtaining a calm
+from the maddening stings, when Love with his golden locks stretches his
+twin bow of graces, the one for a prosperous fate, the other for the
+upturning of life. I deprecate this [bow,] O fairest Venus, from our beds,
+but may mine be a moderate grace, and holy endearments, and may I share
+Aphrodite, but reject her when excessive. But the natures of mortals are
+different, and their manners are different,[40] but that which is clearly
+good is ever plain. And the education which trains[41] [men] up, conduces
+greatly to virtue, for to have reverence is wisdom, and it possesses an
+equivalent advantage, viz. to perceive what is fitting by one's mind, where
+report bears unwasting glory to life.[42] 'Tis a great thing to hunt for
+[the praise of] virtue, among women indeed, by a secret affection,[43] but
+among men, on the other hand, honor being inherent,[44] [bears that praise,
+honor,] which increases a state to an incalculable extent.[45]
+
+Thou earnest, O Paris, †where thou wast trained up a shepherd with the
+white heifers of Ida, trilling a barbarian lay, breathing an imitation of
+the Phrygian pipes of Olympus on a reed. And the cows with their
+well-filled udders browsed, when the judgment of the Goddesses drove thee
+mad, which sends thee into Greece,† before the ivory-decked palaces, thou
+who didst strike love into the eyes of Helen which were upon thee, and
+thyself wast fluttered with love. Whence strife, strife brings Greece
+against the bulwarks of Troy with spears and ships.† Alas! alas! great are
+the fortunes of the great.[46] Behold the king's daughter, Iphigenia, my
+queen, and Clytæmnestra, daughter of Tyndarus, how are they sprung from the
+great, and to what suitable fortune they are come. The powerful, in sooth,
+and the wealthy, are Gods to those of mortals who are unblest. [Let us
+stand still, ye children of Chalcis, let us receive the queen from her
+chariot to the earth, not unsteadily, but gently with the soft attention of
+our hands, lest the renowned daughter of Agamemnon, newly coming to me, be
+alarmed, nor let us, as strangers to strangers, cause disturbance or fear
+to the Argive ladies.[47]]
+
+[_Enter_ Clytæmnestra, IPHIGENIA, _and probably_ ORESTES _in a chariot.
+They descend from it, while the Chorus make obeisance_.]
+
+CLY. I regard both your kindness and your favorable words as a good omen,
+and I have some hope that I am here as escort [of my daughter] to honorable
+nuptials. But take out of my chariot the dower-gifts which I bear for my
+girl, and send them carefully into the house. And do thou, my child, quit
+the horse-chariot, setting [carefully] thy foot delicate and at the same
+time tender. But you,[48] maidens, receive her in your arms, and lift her
+from the chariot. And let some one give me the firm support of his hand,
+that I may beseemingly leave the chariot-seat. But do some[49] of you stand
+in front of the horses' yoke, for the uncontrolled eye of horses is
+timorous, and take this boy, the son of Agamemnon, Orestes, for he is still
+an infant. Child! dost sleep, overcome by the ride? Wake up happily for thy
+sisters' nuptials. For thou thyself being noble shalt obtain relationship
+with a good man, the God-like son of the daughter of Nereus. [[50]Next come
+thou close to my foot, O daughter, to thy mother, Iphigenia, and standing
+near, show these strangers how happy I am, and come hither indeed, and
+address thy dear father.] O thou most great glory to me, king Agamemnon, we
+are come, not disobeying thy bidding.
+
+IPH. O mother, running indeed, (but be thou not angry,) I will apply my
+breast to my father's breast. [[51]But I wish, rushing to embrace thy
+breast, O father, after a long season. For I long for thy face. But do not
+be angry.]
+
+CLY. But, O my child, enjoy [thine embraces,] but thou wert ever most fond
+of thy father, of all the children I bore.
+
+IPH. O father, joyous do I behold thee after a long season.
+
+AG. And I, thy father, [joyously behold] thee. Thou speakest thus equally
+in respect to both.
+
+IPH. Hail! But well hast thou done in bringing me to thee, O father.
+
+AG. I know not how I shall say, yet not say so, my child.
+
+IPH. Ah! how uneasily dost thou regard me, joyfully beholding me [before.]
+
+AG. A king and general has many cares.
+
+IPH. Give thyself up to me now, and turn not thyself to cares.
+
+AG. But I am altogether concerned with thee, and on no other subject.
+
+IPH. Relax thy brow, and open thy eyes in joy.
+
+AG. See, I rejoice as I rejoice, at seeing thee, child.[52]
+
+IPH. And then dost let fall a tear from thine eyes?
+
+AG. For long to us is the coming absence.
+
+IPH. I know not what you mean, I know not, dearest father mine.
+
+AG. Speaking sensibly, thou movest me the more to pity.
+
+IPH. I will speak foolishly, if I so may rejoice you.
+
+AG. Alas! I can not keep silence, but I commend thee.
+
+IPH. Remain, O father, in the house with thy children,
+
+AG. I fain would, but not having what I would, I am pained.
+
+IPH. Perish war and the ills of Menelaus![53]
+
+AG. What has undone me will first undo others.
+
+IPH. How long a time wast thou absent in the recesses of Aulis!
+
+AG. And now also there is something hinders me from sending on the army.
+
+IPH. Where say they that the Phrygians dwell, father?
+
+AG. Where would that Paris, Priam's son, had never dwelt.
+
+IPH. And dost thou go a long distance, O father, when thou leavest me?
+
+AG. Thou art come, my daughter, to the same state with thy father.[54]
+
+IPH. Alas! would that it were fitting me and thee to take me with thee as
+thy fellow-sailor.
+
+AG. But there is yet a sailing for thee, where thou wilt remember thy
+father.
+
+IPH. Shall I go, sailing with my mother, or alone?
+
+AG. Alone, apart from thy father and mother.
+
+IPH. What, art thou going to make me dwell in other houses, father?
+
+AG. Cease. It is not proper for girls to know these matters.
+
+IPH. Hasten back from Phrygia, do, my father, having settled matters well
+there.
+
+AG. It first behooves me to offer a certain sacrifice here.
+
+IPH. But it is with the priests that thou shouldst consider sacred matters.
+
+AG. [Yet] shalt thou know it, for thou wilt stand round the altar.
+
+IPH. What, shall we stand in chorus round the altar, my father?[55]
+
+AG. I deem thee happier than myself, for that thou know-est nothing. But go
+within the house, that the girls may behold thee,[56] having given me a sad
+kiss and thy right hand, being about to dwell a long time away from thy
+sire. O bosom and cheeks, O yellow tresses, how has the city of the
+Phrygians proved a burden to us, and Helen! I cease my words, for swift
+does the drop trickle from mine eyes when I touch thee. Go into the house.
+But I, I crave thy pardon, (_to Clytæmnestra_,) daughter of Leda, if I
+showed too much feeling, being about to bestow my daughter on Achilles. For
+the departure [of a girl] is a happy one, but nevertheless it pains the
+parents, when a father, who has toiled much, delivers up his children to
+another home.
+
+CLY. I am not so insensible--but think thou that I shall experience the
+same feelings, (so that I should not chide thee,) when I lead forth my girl
+with nuptial rejoicings, but custom wears away these thoughts in course of
+time. I know, however, the name of him to whom thou hast promised thy
+daughter, but I would fain know of what race, and whence [he is.]
+
+AG. Ægina was the daughter of her father Asopus.
+
+CLY. And who of mortals or of Gods wedded her?
+
+AG. Jove, and she gave birth to Æacus, prince of Œnone.
+
+CLY. But what son obtained the house of Æacus?
+
+AG. Peleus, and Peleus obtained the daughter of Nereus.
+
+CLY. By the gift of the God, or taking her in spite of the Gods?
+
+AG. Jove acted as a sponsor, and bestowed her, having the power.[57]
+
+CLY. And where does he wed her? In the wave of the sea?
+
+AG. Where Chiron dwells at the sacred foot of Pelion.
+
+CLY. Where they say that the race of Centaurs dwells?
+
+AG. Here the Gods celebrated the nuptial feast of Peleus.
+
+CLY. But did Thetis, or his father, train up Achilles?
+
+AG. Chiron, that he might not learn the manners of evil mortals.
+
+CLY. Hah! wise was the instructor, and wiser he who intrusted him.
+
+AG. Such a man will be the husband of thy child.
+
+CLY. Not to be found fault with. But what city in Greece does he inhabit?
+
+AG. Near the river Apidanus in the confines of Phthia.
+
+CLY. Thither will he lead thy virgin [daughter] and mine.
+
+AG. This shall be the care of him, her possessor.
+
+CLY. And may the pair be happy; but on what day will he wed her?
+
+AG. When the prospering orb of the moon comes round.
+
+CLY. But hast thou already sacrificed the first offerings for thy daughter
+to the Goddess?
+
+AG. I am about to do so. In this matter we are now engaged.
+
+CLY. And wilt thou then celebrate a wedding-feast afterward?
+
+AG. [Ay,] having sacrificed such offerings as it behooves me to sacrifice
+to the Gods.
+
+CLY. But where shall we set out a banquet for the women?
+
+AG. Here, by the fair-pooped ships of the Greeks.
+
+CLY. Well, and poorly,[58] forsooth! but may it nevertheless turn out well.
+
+AG. Do then thou knowest what, O lady, and obey me.
+
+CLY. In what? for I am accustomed to obey thee.
+
+AG. We indeed in this place, where the bridegroom is--
+
+CLY. Will do what without the mother, [of those things] which it behooves
+me to do?
+
+AG. --will bestow your daughter among the Greeks.
+
+CLY. But where must I be in the mean time?
+
+AG. Go to Argos, and take care of your virgins.
+
+CLY. Leaving my child? And who will bear the [nuptial] torch?
+
+AG. I will furnish the light that becomes the nuptials.
+
+CLY. The custom is not thus, but you think these matters trifles.
+
+AG. It is not proper that thou shouldst mingle in the crowd of the army.
+
+CLY. It is proper that I, the mother, should bestow at least my own
+daughter.
+
+AG. And it [is proper] that the damsels at home should not be alone.
+
+CLY. They are well guarded in their close chambers.
+
+AG. Obey me.
+
+CLY. [No,] by the Argive Goddess queen. But go you, and attend to matters
+abroad, but I [will mind] the affairs at home, as to the things which
+should be present to virgins at their wedding.[59]
+
+AG. Alas! In vain have I toiled,[60] and have been frustrated in my hope,
+wishing to send my wife out of my sight. But I am using stratagems, and
+finding contrivances against those I best love, overcome at all points. But
+nevertheless with the prophet Calchas I will go and ask the pleasure of the
+Goddess, not fortunate for me, the trouble of Greece.[61] But it behooves a
+wise man either to support a useful and good wife in his house or not to
+marry at all.[62]
+
+CHORUS. The assembly of the Grecian army will come to Simois, and to the
+silver eddies, both with ships and with arms, to Ilium, and to the Phœbeian
+plain of Troy, where I hear that Cassandra, adorned with a green-blossoming
+crown of laurel, lets loose her yellow locks, when the prophetic influence
+of the Gods breathes upon her. And the Trojans will stand upon the towers
+of Troy and around its walls, when brazen-shielded Mars, borne over the sea
+in fair-prowed ships, approaches the beds of Simois by rowing, seeking to
+bear away Helen, [the sister] of the twain sons of Jove in heaven, into the
+land of Greece, by the war-toiling shields and spears of the Greeks. But
+having surrounded Pergamus,[63] the city of the Phrygians, around its
+towers of stone, with bloody Mars, having torn off the heads [of the
+citizens] cut from their necks, having completely ravaged the city of Troy,
+he will make the daughters and wife of Priam shed many tears. But Helen,
+the daughter of Jove, will sit† in sad lamentation, having left her
+husband. Never upon me or upon my children's children may this expectation
+come, such as the wealthy Lydian and Phrygian wives possess while at their
+spinning, conversing thus with each other. Who,[64] dragging out my
+fair-haired tresses, will choose me as his spoil despite my tears, while my
+country is perishing? Through thee [forsooth,] the offspring of the
+long-necked swan, if indeed the report is true, that Leda † met with[65] a
+winged bird, when the body of Jove was transformed, and then in the tablets
+of the muses fables spread these reports among men, inopportunely, and in
+vain.
+
+[_Enter_ ACHILLES.]
+
+ACHILLES. Where about here is the general of the Greeks? Who of the
+servants will tell him that Achilles, the son of Peleus, is seeking him at
+the gates? For we do not remain by the Euripus in equal condition; for some
+of us being unyoked in nuptials, having left our solitary homes, sit here
+upon the shore, but others, having wives and children:[66] so violent a
+passion for this expedition has fallen upon Greece, not without the will of
+the Gods. It is therefore right that I should speak of what concerns me,
+and whoever else wishes will himself speak for himself. For leaving the
+Pharsalian land, and Peleus, I am waiting for these light gales of
+Euripus,[67] restraining the Myrmidons, who are continually pressing me,
+and saying, "Achilles, why tarry we? what manner of time must the armament
+against Troy yet measure out? At any rate act, if you are going to do any
+thing, or lead the army home, not abiding the delays of the Atrides."
+
+CLY. O son of the Goddess, daughter of Nereus, hearing from within thy
+words, I have come out before the house.
+
+ACH. O hallowed modesty, who can this woman be whom I behold here,
+possessing a fair-seeming form?
+
+CLY. It is no wonder that you know me not, whom you have never seen before,
+but I commend you because you respect modesty.
+
+ACH. But who art thou? And wherefore hast thou come to the assembly of the
+Greeks, a woman to men guarded with shields?
+
+CLY. I am the daughter of Leda, and Clytæmnestra is my name, and my husband
+is king Agamemnon.
+
+ACH. Well hast thou in few words spoken what is seasonable. But it is
+unbecoming for me to converse with women. (_Is going_.)
+
+CLY. Remain, (why dost thou fly?) at least join thy right hand with mine,
+as a happy commencement of betrothal.
+
+ACH. What sayest thou? I [give] thee my right hand? I should be ashamed of
+Agamemnon, if I touched what is not lawful for me.
+
+CLY. It is particularly lawful, since you are going to wed my daughter, O
+son of the sea Goddess, daughter of Nereus.
+
+ACH. What marriage dost thou say? Surprise possesses me, lady, unless,
+being beside yourself, you speak this new thing.
+
+CLY. This is the nature of all people, to be ashamed when they behold new
+friends, and are put in mind of nuptials.
+
+ACH. I never wooed thy daughter, lady, nor has any thing been said to me on
+the subject of marriage by the Atrides.
+
+CLY. What can it be? Do you in turn marvel at my words, for thine are a
+marvel to me.
+
+ACH. Conjecture; these matters are a common subject for conjecture, for
+both of us perhaps are deceived in our words.[68]
+
+CLY. But surely I have suffered terrible things! I am acting as match-maker
+in regard to a marriage that has no existence. I am ashamed of this.
+
+ACH. Perhaps some one has trifled with both me and thee. But pay no
+attention to it, and bear it with indifference.
+
+CLY. Farewell, for I can no longer behold thee with uplifted eyes, having
+appeared as a liar, and suffered unworthy things.
+
+ACH. And this same [farewell] is thine from me. But I will go seek thy
+husband within this house.
+
+[_The_ OLD MAN _appears at the door of the house_.]
+
+OLD M. O stranger, grandson of Æacus, remain. Ho! thee, I say, the son of
+the Goddess, and thee, the daughter of Leda.
+
+ACH. Who is it that calls, partially opening the doors? With what terror he
+calls!
+
+OLD M. A slave. I will not be nice about the title, for fortune allows it
+not.
+
+ACH. Of whom? for thou art not mine. My property and Agamemnon's are
+different.
+
+OLD M. Of this lady who is before the house, the gift of her father
+Tyndarus.
+
+ACH. We are still. Say if thou wantest any thing, for which thou hast
+stopped me.
+
+OLD M. Are ye sure that ye alone stand before these gates?
+
+CLY. Ay, so that you may speak to us only. But come out from the royal
+dwelling.
+
+OLD M. (Coming forward) O fortune, and foresight mine, preserve whom I
+wish.
+
+ACH. These words will do for[69] a future occasion, for they have some
+weight.
+
+CLY. By thy right hand [I beseech thee,] delay not, if thou hast aught to
+say to me.
+
+OLD M. Thou knowest then, being what manner of man, I have been by nature
+well disposed to thee and thy children.
+
+CLY. I know thee as being a faithful servant to my house.
+
+OLD M. And that king Agamemnon received me among thy dowry.
+
+CLY. Thou camest into Argos with us, and thou wast always mine.
+
+OLD M. So it is, and I am well disposed to thee, but less so to thy
+husband.
+
+CLY. Unfold now at least to me what words you are saying.
+
+OLD M. The father who begat her is about to slay thy daughter with his own
+hand.
+
+CLY. How? I deprecate thy words, old man, for thou thinkest not well.
+
+OLD M. Cutting the fair neck of the hapless girl with the sword.
+
+CLY. O wretched me! Is my husband mad?
+
+OLD M. He is in his right mind, save with respect to thee and thy daughter,
+but in this he is not wise.
+
+CLY. Upon what grounds? What maddening fiend impels him?
+
+OLD M. The oracles, as at least Calchas says, in order that the army may be
+able to proceed.
+
+CLY. Whither? Wretched me, and wretched she whom her father is about to
+slay?
+
+OLD M. To the house of Dardanus, that Menelaus may recover Helen.
+
+CLY. To the destruction, then, of Iphigenia, was the return of Helen
+foredoomed?
+
+OLD M. Thou hast the whole story. Her father is going to offer thy daughter
+to Diana.
+
+CLY. What! what pretext had the marriage, that brought me from home?
+
+OLD M. That thou rejoicing mightest bring thy child, as if about to wed her
+to Achilles.
+
+CLY. O daughter, both thou and thy mother are come to meet with
+destruction.
+
+OLD M. Ye twain are suffering sad things, and dreadful things hath
+Agamemnon dared.
+
+CLY. I wretched am undone, and my eyes no longer restrain the tear.
+
+OLD M. For bitter 'tis to mourn, deprived of one's children.
+
+CLY. But whence, old man, sayest thou that thou hast learned and knowest
+these things?
+
+OLD M. I went to bear a letter to thee, in reference to what was before
+written.
+
+CLY. Not allowing, or bidding me to bring my child, that she might die?
+
+OLD M. [It was] that you should not bring her, for your husband then
+thought well.
+
+CLY. And how was it then, that, bearing the letter, thou gavest it not to
+me?
+
+OLD M. Menelaus, who is the cause of these evils, took it from me.
+
+CLY. O child of Nereus' daughter, O son of Peleus, dost hear these things?
+
+ACH. I hear that thou art wretched, and I do not bear my part
+indifferently.
+
+CLY. They will slay my child, having deceived her with thy nuptials.
+
+ACH. I also blame thy husband, nor do I bear it lightly.
+
+CLY. I will not be ashamed to fall down at thy knee, mortal, to one born of
+a Goddess. For wherefore should I make a show of pride? Or what should I
+study more than my children? But, O son of the Goddess, aid me in my
+unhappiness, and her who is called thy wife, vainly indeed, but
+nevertheless, having decked her out, I led her as if to be married, but now
+I lead her to sacrifice, and reproach will come upon thee, who gavest no
+aid. For though thou wast not yoked in nuptials, at least thou wast called
+the beloved husband of the hapless virgin. By thy beard, by thy right hand,
+by thy mother [I beseech] thee, for thy name hath undone me, to whom thou
+shouldst needs give assistance. I have no other altar to fly to, but thy
+knee, nor is any friend near me,[70] but thou hearest the cruel and
+all-daring conduct of Agamemnon. But I a woman, as thou seest, have come to
+a naval host, uncontrolled, and bold for mischief, but useful, when they
+are willing. But if thou wilt venture to stretch thine hand in my behalf,
+we are saved, but if not, we are not saved.
+
+CHOR. A terrible thing it is to be a mother, and it bears a great
+endearment, and one common to all, so as to toil on behalf of their
+children.
+
+ACH. My mind is high-lifted in its thoughts,[71] and knows both how to
+grieve [moderately] in troubles, and to rejoice moderately in high
+prosperity. For the discreet among mortals are such as pass through life
+correctly with wisdom. Now there are certain cases where it is pleasant not
+to be too wise, and also where it is useful to possess wisdom. But I, being
+nurtured [in the dwelling] of a most pious man, Chiron, have learned to
+possess a candid disposition. And I will obey the Atrides, if indeed they
+order well, but when not well, I obey not. But here in Troy showing a free
+nature I will glorify Mars with the spear, as far as I can. But, O thou who
+hast suffered wretchedly at the hands of those dearest, in whatever can be
+done by a youth, I, showing so much pity, will set thee right, and thy
+daughter, having been called my bride, shall never be sacrificed by her
+father, for I will not furnish thy husband with my person to weave
+stratagems upon. For my name, even if he lift not up the sword, will slay
+thy daughter, but thy husband is the cause. But my body is no longer pure,
+if on my account, and because of my marriage, there perish a virgin who has
+gone through sad and unbearable troubles, and has been marvelously and
+undeservedly ill treated. I were the worst man among the Greeks, I were of
+naught (but Menelaus would be among men), not as born from Peleus, but from
+some fiend, if my name acts the murderer for thy husband.[72] By Nereus,
+nurtured in the damp waves, the father of Thetis, who begat me, king
+Agamemnon shall not lay hands on thy daughter, not so much as with a little
+finger, so as to touch her garments. I' faith, Sipylus, a fortress of
+barbarians, whence the [royal] generals trace their descent, shall be
+deemed a city, but the name of Phthia shall nowhere be named. And the seer
+Calchas will to his cost consecrate the sacrificial cakes and lustral
+waters. (But what man is a prophet?) who tells[73] a few things true, (but
+many falsely,) when he has made a hit, but when he fails, is undone. These
+words are not spoken for the sake of my wedding, (ten thousand girls are
+hunting after alliance with me,) but [because] king Agamemnon has been
+guilty of insult toward me. But it behooved him to ask [the use of] my name
+from me, as an enticement for his daughter, and Clytæmnestra would have
+been most readily persuaded to give her daughter to me as a husband. And I
+would have given her up to the Greeks, if on this account their passage to
+Troy had been impeded: I would not have refused to augment the common
+interest of those with whom I set out on the expedition. But now I am held
+as of no account by the generals, and it is a matter of indifference
+whether I benefit them or not. Soon shall my sword witness, which, before
+death came against the Phrygians,[74] I stained with spots of blood,
+whether any one shall take thy daughter from me. But keep quiet, I have
+appeared to thee as a most mighty God, though not [a God,] but nevertheless
+I will be such.
+
+CHOR. O son of Peleus, thou hast spoken both worthily of thyself, and of
+the marine deity, hallowed Goddess.
+
+CLY. Alas! how can I praise thee neither too much in words, nor, being
+deficient in this respect, [not] lose thy favor? For in a certain wise the
+praised dislike their praisers, if they praise too much. But I am ashamed
+at alleging pitiable words, being troubled in myself, while thou art not
+diseased with my ills. But in fact the good man has some reason, even
+though he be unconnected with them, for assisting the unfortunate. But pity
+us, for we have suffered pitiably; I, who, in the first place, thinking to
+have thee for a kinsman, cherished a vain hope.--Moreover, my child, by
+dying, might perchance become an omen to thy future bridals,[75] which thou
+must needs avoid. But well didst thou speak both first and last, for, if
+thou art willing, my child will be saved. Dost wish that she embrace thy
+knee as a suppliant? Such conduct is not virgin-like, but if thou wilt, she
+shall come, with her noble face suffused with modesty. Or shall I obtain
+these things from thee, without her presence?
+
+ACH. Let her remain within doors, for with dignity she preserves her
+dignity.
+
+CLY. Yet one must needs have modesty [only] as far as circumstances allow.
+
+ACH. Do thou neither bring forth thy daughter into my sight, lady, not let
+us fall into reproach for inconsiderate conduct, for our assembled army,
+being idle from home occupations, loves evil and slanderous talk. But at
+all events you will accomplish the same, whether you come to me as a
+suppliant, or do not supplicate, for a mighty contest awaits me, to release
+you from these evils. Wherefore, having heard one thing, be persuaded that
+I will not speak falsely. But if I speak falsely, and vainly amuse you, may
+I perish; but may I not perish, if I preserve the virgin.
+
+CLY. Mayest thou be blest, ever assisting the unhappy.
+
+ACH. Hear me then, that the matter may be well.
+
+CLY. What is this thou sayest? for one must listen to thee.
+
+ACH. Let us again persuade her father to be wiser.
+
+CLY. He is a coward, and fears the army too much.
+
+ACH. But words can conquer words.
+
+CLY. Chilly is the hope, but tell me what I must do.
+
+ACH. Beseech him first not to slay his child, but if he oppose this, you
+must come to me. For if he will be persuaded what you wish, there is no
+occasion for my efforts, for this very [consent] contains her safety. And I
+also shall appear in a better light with my friend, and the army will not
+blame me, if I transact matters by discretion rather than force. And if
+this turn out well, these things, even without my help, may turn out
+satisfactorily to thy friends and thyself.[76]
+
+CLY. How wisely hast thou spoken! But what thou sayest must be done. But if
+I do not obtain what I seek, where shall I again see thee? Where must I
+wretched woman, coming, find thee an assistant in my troubles?
+
+ACH. We guards will watch thee when there is occasion, lest any one behold
+thee going in agitation through the host of the Greeks. But do not shame
+thy ancestral home, for Tyndarus is not worthy of an evil reputation,
+seeing he is great among the Greeks.
+
+CLY. These things shall be. Command; it is meet that I obey thee. But if
+there are Gods, you, being a just man, will receive a good reward; but if
+not, why should one toil?
+
+CHOR. What was that nuptial song that raised[77] its strains on the Libyan
+reed, and with the dance-loving lyre, and the reedy syrinx, when o'er
+Pelion at the feast of the Gods the fair-haired muses, striking their feet
+with golden sandals against the ground, came to the wedding of Peleus,
+celebrating with melodious sounds Thetis, and the son of Æacus, on the
+mountains of the Centaurs, through the Palian wood.
+
+But the Dardan,[78] [Phrygian Ganymede,] dear delight of Jove's bed, poured
+out the nectar in the golden depths of the goblets, and along the white
+sands the fifty daughters of Nereus, entwining in circles, adorned the
+nuptials of Nereus with the dance. But with darts of fir, and crowns of
+grass, the horse-mounted troop of the Centaurs came to the banquet of the
+Gods and the cup of Bacchus. And the Thessalian girls shouted loud,[79] "O
+daughter of Nereus," and the prophet Phœbus, and Chiron, skilled in
+letters, declared, "Thou shalt bring forth a mighty light, who shall come
+to the [Trojan] land with Myrmidons armed with spear and shield, to burn
+the renowned city of Priam, around his body armed with a covering of golden
+arms wrought by Vulcan, having them as a gift from his Goddess Thetis, who
+begat him blessed." Then the deities celebrated the nuptials of the noble
+daughter of Nereus first,[80] and of Peleus. But thee, [O Iphigenia,] they
+will crown on the head with flowery garlands, like as a pure spotted heifer
+from a rocky cave, making bloody the mortal throat [of one] not trained up
+with the pipe, nor amidst the songs of herdsmen, but as a bride[81]
+prepared by thy mother for some one of the Argives. Where has the face of
+shame, or virtue any power to prevail? Since impiety indeed has influence,
+but virtue is left behind and disregarded by mortals, and lawlessness
+governs law, and it is a common struggle for mortals, lest any envy of the
+Gods befall.
+
+CLY. I have come out of the house to seek for my husband, who has been
+absent, and has quitted the house a long time. But my hapless daughter is
+in tears, casting forth many a change of complaint, having heard the death
+her father devises for her. But I was mindful of Agamemnon who is now
+coming hither,[82] who will quickly be detected doing evil deeds against
+his own children.
+
+AG. Daughter of Leda, opportunely have I found you without the house, that
+I may tell thee, apart from the virgin, words which it is not meet for
+those to hear who are about to marry.
+
+CLY. And what is it, on which your convenience lays hold?
+
+AG. Send forth thy daughter from the house with her father, since the
+lustral waters are ready prepared, and the salt-cakes to scatter with the
+hands upon the purifying flame, and heifers, which needs must be slain in
+honor of the Goddess Diana before the marriage solemnities, a shedding of
+black gore.
+
+CLY. In words, indeed, thou speakest well, but for thy deeds, I know not
+how I may say thou speakest well. But come without, O daughter, for thou
+knowest all that thy father meditates, and beneath thy robes bring the
+child Orestes, thy brother. See, she is here present to obey thee. But the
+rest I will speak on her behalf and mine.
+
+AG. Child, why weepest thou, and no longer beholdest me cheerfully, but
+fixing thy face upon the ground, keepest thy vest before it?
+
+CLY. Alas! What commencement of my sorrows shall I take? For I may use them
+all as first, [both last, and middle throughout.[83]]
+
+AG. But what is it? How all of you are come to one point with me, bearing
+disturbed and alarmed countenances.
+
+CLY. Wilt thou answer candidly, husband, if I ask thee?
+
+AG. There needs no admonition: I would fain be questioned.
+
+CLY. Art thou going to slay thy child and mine?
+
+AG. Ah! wretched things dost thou say, and thinkest what thou shouldst not.
+
+CLY. Keep quiet, and first in turn answer me that.
+
+AG. But if thou askest likely things, thou wilt hear likely.
+
+CLY. I ask no other things, nor do thou answer me others.
+
+AG. O revered destiny, and fate, and fortune mine!
+
+CLY. Ay, and mine too, and this child's, one of three unfortunates!
+
+AG. But in what art thou wronged?
+
+CLY. Dost thou ask me this? This thy wit hath no wit.[84]
+
+AG. I am undone. My secret plans are betrayed.
+
+CLY. I know and have learned all that you are about to do to me, and the
+very fact of thy silence, and of thy groaning much, is a proof that you
+confess it. Do not take the trouble to say any thing.
+
+AG. Behold, I am silent: for what need is there that, falsely speaking, I
+add shamelessness to misfortune?
+
+CLY. Listen, then, for I will unfold my story, and will no longer make use
+of riddles away from the purpose. In the first place, that I may first
+reproach thee with this--thou didst wed me unwilling, and obtain me by
+force, having slain Tantalus, my former husband, and having dashed[85] my
+infant living to the ground, having torn him by force from my breast. And
+the twin sons of Jove, my brothers, glorying in their steeds, made war
+[against thee] but my old father Tyndarus saved you, when you had become a
+suppliant, and thou again didst possess me as a wife. When I, being
+reconciled to thee in respect to thy person and home, thou wilt bear
+witness how blameless a wife I was, both modest in respect to affection,
+and enriching thy house, so that thou both going within and without thy
+doors wast blessed. And 'tis a rare prize for a man to obtain such a wife,
+but there is no lack of getting a bad spouse. And I bear thee this son,
+besides three virgins, of one of whom thou art cruelly going to deprive me.
+And if any one ask thee on what account thou wilt slay her, say, what will
+you answer? or must I needs make your plea, "that Menelaus may obtain
+Helen?" A pretty custom, forsooth, that children must pay the price of a
+bad woman. We gain the most hateful things at the hand of those dearest.
+Come, if thou wilt set out, leaving me at home, and then wilt be a long
+time absent, what sort of feelings dost think I shall experience, when I
+behold every seat empty of this child's presence, and every virgin chamber
+empty, but myself sit in tears alone, ever mourning her [in such strains as
+these:] "My child, thy father, who begat thee, hath destroyed thee,
+himself, no other, the slayer, by no other hand, leaving such a reward for
+[my care of] the house."[86] Since there wants but a little reason for me
+and my remaining daughters to give thee such a reception as you deserve to
+receive. Do not, by the Gods, either compel me to act evilly toward thee,
+nor do thou thyself be so. Ah well! thou wilt sacrifice thy daughter--what
+prayers wilt thou then utter? What good thing wilt thou crave for thyself,
+slaying thy child? An evil return, seeing, forsooth, thou hast
+disgracefully set out from home. But is it right that I should pray for
+thee any good thing? Verily we must believe the Gods are senseless, if we
+feel well disposed to murderers. But wilt thou, returning to Argos, embrace
+thy children? But 'tis not lawful for thee. Will any of your children look
+upon you, if thou offerest one of them for slaughter? Thus far have I
+proceeded in my argument. What! does it only behoove thee to carry about
+thy sceptre and marshal the army?--whose duty it were to speak a just
+speech among the Greeks: "Do ye desire, O Greeks, to sail against the land
+of the Phrygians? Cast lots, whose daughter needs must die"--for this would
+be on equal terms, but not that you should give thy daughter to the Greeks
+as a chosen victim. Or Menelaus, whose affair it was, ought to slay
+Hermione for her mother's sake. But now I, having cherished thy married
+life, shall be bereaved of my child, but she who has sinned, bearing her
+daughter under her care to Sparta, will be blest. As to these things,
+answer me if I say aught not rightly, but if I have spoken well, do not
+then slay thy child and mine, and thou wilt be wise.
+
+CHOR. Be persuaded, Agamemnon, for 'tis right to join in saving one's
+children. No one of mortals will gainsay this.
+
+IPH. If, O father, I possessed the eloquence of Orpheus, that I might charm
+by persuasion, so that rocks should follow me, and that I might soften whom
+I would by my words, to this would I have resorted. But now I will offer
+tears as all my skill, for these I can. And, as a suppliant bough, I press
+against thy knees my body, which this [my mother] bore thee, [beseeching]
+that thou slay me not before my time, for sweet it is to behold the light,
+nor do thou compel me to visit the places beneath the earth. And I
+first[87] hailed thee sire, and thou [didst first call] me daughter, and
+first drawing nigh to thy knees, I gave and in turn received sweet tokens
+of affection. And such, were thy words: "My daughter, shall I some time
+behold thee prospering in a husband's home, living and flourishing worthily
+of me?" And mine in turn ran thus, as I hung about thy beard, which now
+with my hand I embrace: "But how shall I [treat] thee? Shall I receive thee
+when an old man, O father, with the hearty reception of my house, repaying
+thee the careful nurture of my youth?" Of such words have remembrance, but
+thou hast forgotten them, and fain wouldst slay me. Do not, [I beseech you]
+by Pelops and by thy father Atreus, and this my mother, who having before
+brought me forth with throes, now suffers this second throe. What have I to
+do with the marriage of Paris and Helen? Whence came he, father, for my
+destruction? Look upon me; give me one look, one kiss, that this memorial
+of thee at least I, dying, may possess, if thou wilt not be persuaded by my
+words. Brother, thou art but a little helpmate to those dear, yet weep with
+me, beseech thy sire that thy sister die not. Even in babes there is wont
+to be some sense of evil. Behold, O father, he silently implores thee. But
+respect my prayer, and have pity on my years. Yea, by thy beard we, two
+dear ones, implore thee; the one is yet a nursling, but the other grown up.
+In one brief saying I will overcome all arguments. This light of heaven is
+sweetest of things for men to behold, but that below is naught; and mad is
+he who seeks to die. To live dishonorably is better than to die gloriously.
+
+CHOR. O wretched Helen, through thee and thy nuptials there is come a
+contest for the Atrides and their children.
+
+AG. I can understand what merits pity, and what not; and I love my
+children, for [otherwise] I were mad. And dreadful 'tis for me[88] to dare
+these things, O woman, and dreadful not to do so--for so I must needs act.
+Thou seest how great is this naval host, and how many are the chieftains of
+brazen arms among the Greeks, to whom there is not a power of arriving at
+the towers of Troy, unless I sacrifice you, as the seer Calchas says, nor
+can we take the renowned plain of Troy. But a certain passion has maddened
+the army of the Greeks, to sail as quickly as possible upon the land of the
+barbarians, and to put a stop to the rapes of Grecian wives. And they will
+slay my daughters at Argos, and you, and me, if I break through the
+commands of the Goddess. It is not Menelaus who has enslaved me, O
+daughter, nor have I followed his device, but Greece, for whom I, will or
+nill, must needs offer thee. And I am inferior on this head. For it
+behooves her, [Helen,] as far as thou, O daughter, art concerned, to be
+free, nor for us, being Greeks, to be plundered perforce of our wives by
+barbarians.
+
+CLY. O child! O ye stranger women! O wretched me for thy death! Thy father
+flees from thee, giving thee up to Hades.
+
+IPH. Alas for me! mother, mother. The same song suits both of us on account
+of our fortunes, and no more to me is the light, nor this bright beam of
+the sun. Alas! alas! thou snow-smitten wood of Troy, and mountains of Ida,
+where once on a time Priam exposed a tender infant, having separated him
+from his mother, that he might meet with deadly fate, Paris, who was styled
+Idæan, Idæan [Paris] in the city of the Phrygians. Would that the herdsman
+Paris, who was nurtured in care of steers, had ne'er dwelt near the white
+stream, where are the fountains of the Nymphs, and the meadow flourishing
+with blooming flowers, and roseate flowers and hyacinths for Goddesses to
+cull. Where once on a time came Pallas, and artful Venus, and Juno, and
+Hermes, the messenger of Jove; Venus indeed, vaunting herself in charms,
+and Pallas in the spear, and Juno in the royal nuptials of king Jove,
+[these came] to a hateful judgment and strife concerning beauty; but my
+death, my death, O virgins, bearing glory indeed to the Greeks, Diana hath
+received as first-fruits [of the expedition] against Troy.[89] But he that
+begot me wretched, O mother, O mother, has departed, leaving me deserted. O
+hapless me! having †beheld† bitter, bitter, ill-omened Helen, I am slain, I
+perish, by the impious slaughter of an impious sire. Would[90] for me that
+Aulis had never received the poops of the brazen-beaked ships into these
+ports, the fleet destined for Troy, nor that Jove had breathed an adverse
+wind over Euripus, softening one breeze so that some mortals might rejoice
+in their [expanded] sails, but to others a pain, to others difficulty, to
+some to set sail, to others to furl their sails, but to others to tarry. In
+truth the race of mortals is full of troubles, is full of troubles, and it
+necessarily befalls men to find some misfortune. Alas! alas! thou daughter
+of Tyndarus, who hast brought many sufferings, and many griefs upon the
+Greeks.
+
+CHOR. I indeed pity you having met with an evil calamity, such as thou
+never shouldst have met with.
+
+IPH. O mother, to whom I owe my birth, I behold a crowd of men near.
+
+CLY. Ay, the son of the Goddess, my child, for whom thou camest hither.
+
+IPH. Open the house, ye servants, that I may hide myself.
+
+CLY. But why dost thou fly hence, my child?
+
+IPH. I am ashamed to behold this Achilles.
+
+CLY. On what account?
+
+IPH. The unfortunate turn-out of my nuptials shames me.
+
+CLY. Thou art not in a state to give way to delicacy in the present
+circumstances. But do thou remain, there is no use for punctilio, if we can
+[but save your life.]
+
+ACH. O hapless lady, daughter of Leda.
+
+CLY. Thou sayest not falsely.
+
+ACH. Terrible things are cried out among the Greeks.
+
+CLY. What cry? tell me.
+
+ACH. Concerning thy child.
+
+CLY. Thou speakest a word of ill omen.
+
+ACH. That it is necessary to slay her.
+
+CLY. Does no one speak the contrary to this?
+
+ACH. Ay, I myself have got into trouble.
+
+CLY. Into what [trouble,] O friend?
+
+ACH. Of having my body stoned with stones.
+
+CLY. What, in trying to save my daughter!
+
+ACH. This very thing.
+
+CLY. And who would have dared to touch thy person?
+
+ACH. All the Greeks.
+
+CLY. And was not the host of the Myrmidons at hand for thee?
+
+ACH. That was the first that showed enmity.
+
+CLY. Then are we utterly undone, my daughter.
+
+ACH. For they railed at me as overcome by a betrothed--
+
+CLY. And what didst thou reply?
+
+ACH. That they should not slay my intended bride.
+
+CLY. For so 'twas right.
+
+ACH. [She] whom her father had promised me.
+
+CLY. Ay, and had sent for from Argos.
+
+ACH. But I was worsted by the outcry.
+
+CLY. For the multitude is a terrible evil.
+
+ACH. But nevertheless I will aid thee.
+
+CLY. And wilt thou, being one, fight with many?
+
+ACH. Dost see these men bearing [my] arms?
+
+CLY. Mayest thou gain by thy good intentions.
+
+ACH. But I will gain.
+
+CLY. Then my child will not be slain?
+
+ACH. Not, at least, with my consent.
+
+CLY. And will any one come to lay hands on the girl?
+
+ACH. Ay, a host of them, but Ulysses will conduct her.
+
+CLY. Will it be the descendant of Sisyphus?
+
+ACH. The very man.
+
+CLY. Doing it of his own accord, or appointed by the army?
+
+ACH. Chosen willingly.
+
+CLY. A wicked choice forsooth, to commit slaughter!
+
+ACH. But I will restrain him.
+
+CLY. But will he lead her unwillingly, having seized her?
+
+ACH. Ay, by her auburn locks.
+
+CLY. But what must I then do?
+
+ACH. Keep hold of your daughter.
+
+CLY. As far as this goes she shall not be slain.
+
+ACH. But it will come to this at all events.[91]
+
+IPH. Mother, do thou hear my words, for I perceive that thou art vainly
+wrathful with thy husband, but it is not easy for us to struggle with
+things [almost] impossible. It is meet therefore to praise our friend for
+his willingness, but it behooves thee also to see that you be not an object
+of reproach to the army, and we profit nothing more, and he meet with
+calamity. But hear me, mother, thinking upon what has entered my mind. I
+have determined to die, and this I would fain do gloriously, I mean, by
+dismissing all ignoble thoughts. Come hither, mother, consider with me how
+well I speak. Greece, the greatest of cities, is now all looking upon me,
+and there rests in me both the passage of the ships and the destruction of
+Troy, and, for the women hereafter, if the barbarians do them aught of
+harm, to allow them no longer to carry them off from prosperous Greece,
+having avenged the destruction of Helen, whom Paris bore away.[92] All
+these things I dying shall redeem, and my renown, for that I have freed
+Greece, will be blessed. Moreover, it is not right that I should be too
+fond of life; for thou hast brought me forth for the common good of Greece,
+not for thyself only. But shall ten thousand men armed with bucklers, and
+ten thousand, oars in hand, their country being injured, dare to do some
+deed against the foes, and perish on behalf of Greece, while my life, being
+but one, shall hinder all these things? What manner of justice is this?
+Have we a word to answer? And let me come to this point: it is not meet
+that this man should come to strife with all the Greeks for the sake of a
+woman, nor lose his life. And one man, forsooth, is better than ten
+thousand women, that he should behold the light. But if Diana hath wished
+to receive my body, shall I, being mortal, become an opponent to the
+Goddess! But it can not be. I give my body for Greece. Sacrifice it, and
+sack Troy. For this for a long time will be my memorial, and this my
+children, my wedding, and my glory. But it is meet that Greeks should rule
+over barbarians, O mother, but not barbarians over Greeks, for the one is
+slavish, but the others are free.
+
+CHOR. Thy part, indeed, O virgin, is glorious; but the work of fortune and
+of the Gods sickens.
+
+ACH. Daughter of Agamemnon, some one of the Gods destined me to happiness,
+if I obtained thee as a wife, and I envy Greece on thy account, and thee on
+account of Greece. For well hast thou spoken this, and worthily of the
+country, for, ceasing to strive with the deity, who is more powerful than
+thou art, thou hast considered what is good and useful. But still more does
+a desire of thy union enter my mind, when I look to thy nature, for thou
+art noble. But consider, for I wish to benefit you, and to receive you to
+my home, and, Thetis be my witness, I am grieved if I shall not save you,
+coming to conflict with the Greeks. Consider: death is a terrible ill.
+
+IPH. I speak these words, no others, with due foresight. Enough is the
+daughter of Tyndarus to have caused contests and slaughter of men through
+her person: but do not thou, O stranger, die in my behalf, nor slay any
+one. But let me preserve Greece, if I am able.
+
+ACH. O best of spirits, I have naught further to answer thee, since it
+seems thus to thee, for thou hast noble thoughts; for wherefore should not
+one tell the truth? But nevertheless thou mayest perchance repent these
+things. In order, therefore, that thou mayest all that lies in my power, I
+will go and place these my arms near the altar, as I will not allow you to
+die, but hinder it. And thou too wilt perhaps be of my opinion, when thou
+seest the sword nigh to thy neck. I will not allow thee to die through thy
+wild determination, but going with these mine arms to the temple of the
+Goddess, I will await thy presence there.
+
+IPH. Mother, why dost thou silently bedew thine eyes with tears?
+
+CLY. I wretched have a reason, so as to be pained at heart.
+
+IPH. Cease; do not daunt me, but obey me in this.
+
+CLY. Speak, for thou shalt not be wronged at my hands, my child.
+
+IPH. Neither then do thou cut off the locks of thine hair, [nor put on
+black garments around thy body.]
+
+CLY. Wherefore sayest thou this, my child? Having lost thee--
+
+IPH. Not you indeed--I am saved, and thou wilt be glorious as far as I am
+concerned.
+
+CLY. How sayest thou? Must I not bemoan thy life?
+
+IPH. Not in the least, since no tomb will be upraised for me.
+
+CLY. Why, what then is death? Is not a tomb customary?[93]
+
+IPH. The altar of the Goddess, daughter of Jove, will be my memorial.
+
+CLY. But, O child, I will obey thee, for thou speakest well.
+
+IPH. Ay, as prospering like the benefactress of Greece.
+
+CLY. What then shall I tell thy sisters?
+
+IPH. Neither do thou clothe them in black garments.
+
+CLY. But shall I speak any kind message from thee to the virgins?
+
+IPH. Ay, [bid them] fare well, and do thou, for my sake, train up this
+[boy] Orestes to be a man.
+
+CLY. Embrace him, beholding him for the last time.
+
+IPH. O dearest one, thou hast assisted thy friends to the utmost in thy
+power.
+
+CLY. Can I, by doing any thing in Argos, do thee a pleasure?
+
+IPH. Hate not my father, yes, thy husband.
+
+CLY. He needs shall go through terrible trials on thy account.
+
+IPH. Unwillingly he hath undone me on behalf of the land of Greece.
+
+CLY. But ungenerously, by craft, and not in a manner worthy of Atreus.
+
+IPH. Who will come and lead me, before I am torn away by the hair?[94]
+
+CLY. I will go with thee.
+
+IPH. Not you indeed, thou sayest not well.
+
+CLY. Ay [but I will,] clinging to thy garments.
+
+IPH. Be persuaded by me, mother. Remain, for this is more fitting both for
+me and thee. But let some one of these my father's followers conduct me to
+the meadow of Diana, where I may be sacrificed.
+
+CLY. O child, thou art going.
+
+IPH. Ay, and I shall ne'er return.
+
+CLY. Leaving thy mother--
+
+IPH. As thou seest, though, not worthily.
+
+CLY. Hold! Do not leave me.
+
+IPH. I do not suffer thee to shed tears. But, ye maidens, raise aloft the
+pæan for my sad hap, [celebrate] Diana, the daughter of Jove,[95] and let
+the joyful strain go forth to the Greeks. And let some one make ready the
+baskets, and let flame burn with the purifying cakes, and let my father
+serve the altar with his right hand, seeing I am going to bestow upon the
+Greeks safety that produces victory.[96]
+
+Conduct me, the conqueror of the cities of Troy and of the Phrygians.
+Surround[97] me with crowns, bring them hither. Here is my hair to crown.
+And [bear hither] the lustral fountains.[98] Encircle [with dances] around
+the temple and the altar, Diana, queen Diana, the blessed, since by my
+blood and offering I will wash out her oracles, if it needs must be so. O
+revered, revered mother, thus † indeed † will we [now] afford thee our
+tears, for it is not fitting during the sacred rites. O damsels, join in
+singing Diana, who dwells opposite Chalcis, where the warlike ships have
+been eager [to set out,] being detained in the narrow harbors of Aulis here
+through my name.[99] Alas! O my mother-land of Pelasgia, and my Mycenian
+handmaids.
+
+CHOR. Dost thou call upon the city of Perseus, the work of the Cyclopean
+hands?
+
+IPH. Thou hast nurtured me for a glory to Greece, and I will not refuse to
+die.
+
+CHOR. For renown will not fail thee.
+
+IPH. Alas! alas! lamp-bearing day, and thou too, beam of Jove, another,
+another life and state shall we dwell in. Farewell for me, beloved light!
+
+CHOR. Alas! alas! Behold[100] the destroyer of the cities of Troy and of
+the Phrygians, wending her way, decked as to her head with garlands and
+with lustral streams, to the altar of the sanguinary Goddess, about to
+stream with drops of gore, being stricken on her fair neck. Fair dewy
+streams, and lustral waters from ancestral sources[101] await thee, and the
+host of the Greeks eager to reach Troy. But let us celebrate Diana, the
+daughter of Jove, queen of the Gods, as upon a prosperous occasion. O
+hallowed one, that rejoicest in human sacrifices, send the army of the
+Greeks into the land of the Phrygians, and the territory of deceitful Troy,
+and grant that by Grecian spears Agamemnon may place a most glorious crown
+upon his head, a glory ever to be remembered.
+
+[_Enter a_ MESSENGER.[102]]
+
+MESS. O daughter of Tyndarus, Clytæmnestra, come without the house, that
+thou mayest hear my words.
+
+CLY. Hearing thy voice, I wretched came hither, terrified and astounded
+with fear, lest thou shouldst be come, bearing some new calamity to me in
+addition to the present one.
+
+MESS. Concerning thy daughter, then, I wish to tell thee marvelous and
+fearful things.
+
+CLY. Then delay not, but speak as quickly as possible.
+
+MESS. But, my dear mistress, thou shalt learn every thing clearly, and I
+will speak from the very commencement, unless my memory, in something
+failing, deceive my tongue. For when we came to the inclosure and flowery
+meads of Diana, the daughter of Jove, where there was an assembly of the
+army of the Greeks, leading thy daughter, the host of the Greeks was
+straightway convened. But when king Agamemnon beheld the girl wending her
+way to the grove for slaughter, he groaned aloud, and turning back his
+head, he shed tears, placing his garments[103] before his eyes. But she,
+standing near him that begot her, spake thus: "O father, I am here for
+thee, and I willing give my body on behalf of my country, and of the whole
+land of Greece, that, leading it to the altar of the Goddess, they may
+sacrifice it, since this is ordained. And, as far as I am concerned, may ye
+be fortunate, and obtain the gift of victory, and reach your native land.
+Furthermore, let no one of the Greeks lay hands on me, for with a stout
+heart I will present my neck in silence." Thus much she spoke, and every
+one marveled on hearing the courage and valor of the virgin. But
+Talthybius, whose office this was, standing in the midst, proclaimed
+good-omened silence to the people. And the seer Calchas placed in a golden
+canister a sharp knife,[104] which he had drawn out,† within its case,† and
+crowned the head of the girl. But the son of Peleus ran around the altar of
+the Goddess, taking the canister and lustral waters at the same time. And
+he said: "O Diana, beast-slaying daughter of Jove, that revolvest thy
+brilliant light by night, receive this offering which we bestow on thee,
+[we] the army of the Greeks, and king Agamemnon, the pure blood from a fair
+virgin's neck; and grant that the sail may be without injury to our ships,
+and that we may take the towers of Troy by the spear." But the Atrides and
+all the army stood looking on the ground, and the priest, taking the knife,
+prayed, and viewed her neck, that he might find a place to strike. And no
+little pity entered my mind, and I stood with eyes cast down, but suddenly
+there was a marvel to behold. For every one could clearly perceive the
+sound of the blow, but beheld not the virgin, where on earth she had
+vanished. But the priest exclaimed, and the whole army shouted, beholding
+an unexpected prodigy from some one of the Gods, of which, though seen,
+they had scarcely belief. For a stag lay panting on the ground, of mighty
+size to see and beautiful in appearance, with whose blood the altar of the
+Goddess was abundantly wetted. And upon this Calchas (think with what joy!)
+thus spake: "O leaders of this common host of the Greeks, behold this
+victim which the Goddess hath brought to her altar, a mountain-roaming
+stag. This she prefers greatly to the virgin, lest her altar should be
+denied with generous blood. And she hath willingly received this, and
+grants us a prosperous sail, and attack upon Troy. Upon this do every
+sailor take good courage, and go to his ships, since on this day it
+behooves us, quitting the hollow recesses of Aulis, to pass over the Ægean
+wave." But when the whole victim was reduced to ashes, he prayed what was
+meet, that the army might obtain a passage. And Agamemnon sends me to tell
+thee this, and to say what a fortune he hath met with from the Gods, and
+hath obtained unwaning glory through Greece. But I speak, having been
+present, and witnessing the matter. Thy child has evidently flown to the
+Gods; away then with grief, and cease wrath against your husband. But the
+will of the Gods is unforeseen by mortals, and them they love, they save.
+For this day hath beheld thy daughter dying and living [in turn.]
+
+CHOR. How delighted am I at hearing this from the messenger; but he says
+that thy daughter living abides among the Gods.
+
+CLY. O daughter, of whom of the Gods art thou the theft? How shall I
+address thee? What shall I say that these words do not offer me a vain
+comfort, that I may cease from my mournful grief on thy account?
+
+CHOR. And truly king Agamemnon draws hither, having this same story to tell
+thee.
+
+[_Enter_ AGAMEMNON.]
+
+AG. Lady, as far as thy daughter is concerned, we may be happy, for she
+really possesses a companionship with the Gods. But it behooves thee,
+taking this young child [Orestes,] to go home, for the army is looking
+toward setting sail. And fare thee well, long hence will be my addresses to
+thee from Troy, and may it be well with thee.
+
+CHOR. Atrides, rejoicing go thou to the land of the Phrygians, and
+rejoicing return, having obtained for me most glorious spoils from Troy.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+NOTES ON IPHIGENIA IN AULIS
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+[1] From the answer of the old man, Porson's conjecture, σπευδε, seems very
+probable.
+
+[2] See Hermann's note. The passage has been thus rendered by Ennius:
+
+  AG. "Quid nocti" videtur in altisono
+          Cœli clupeo?
+  SEN. Temo superat stellas, cogens
+      Sublime etiam atque etiam noctis
+      Itiner.
+
+See Scaliger on Varr. de L.L. vi. p.143, and on Festus s.v. Septemtriones.
+All the editors have overlooked the following passage of Apuleius de Deo
+Socr. p. 42, ed. Elm. "Suspicientes in hoc perfectissimo mundi, ut ait
+Ennius, clypeo," whence, as I have already observed in my notes on the
+passage, there is little doubt that Ennius wrote "in altisono mundi
+clypeo," of which _cœli_ was a gloss, naturally introduced by those who
+were ignorant of the use of _mundus_ in the same sense. The same error has
+taken place in some of the MSS. of Virg. Georg. i. 5, 6. Compare the
+commentators on Pompon. Mela. i. 1, ed. Gronov.
+
+[3] Such seems the force of επι πασιν αγαθοις. The Cambridge editor aptly
+compares Hipp. 461. χρην σ' επι ‛ρητοις αρα Πατερα φυτευειν.
+
+[4] The συννυμφοκομος was probably a kind of gentleman usher, but we have
+no correlative either to the custom or the word.
+
+[5] Hermann rightly regards this as a hendiadys.
+
+[6] δρομωι for μορωι is Markland's, and, doubtless, the correct, reading.
+μονος is merely a correction of the Aldine edition.
+
+[7] But read τας--δελτους with the Cambridge editor, = "in relation to my
+former dispatches."
+
+[8] ταν should probably be erased before κολπωδη, with the Cambridge
+editor. He remarks, "the sea-port, although separated from the island by
+the narrow strait of Euripus, is styled its _wing_." On the metrical
+difficulties and corruptions throughout this chorus, I must refer the
+reader to the same critic.
+
+[9] But λεκτρον, _uxorem_, is better, with ed. Camb.
+
+[10] It is impossible to get a satisfactory sense as these lines now stand.
+I have translated εξορμα. There seems to be a lacuna. The following are the
+readings of the Camb. ed. εν γαρ π. αντησηις, παλιν εξ. ς. χαλινους, επι
+κυκλωπων νιν ‛ιεις θυμ.
+
+[11] But αγχιαλον is better, with ed. Camb. from the Homeric χαλκιδα τ'
+αγχιαλον. He remarks that this word, in tragedy, is always the epithet of a
+place.
+
+[12] i.e. to exact satisfaction for her abduction.
+
+[13] i.e. the tents containing the armed soldiers.
+
+[14] ‛ηδομενους refers both to Πρωτεσιλαον and Παλαμηδεα, divided by the
+schema Alcmanicum. See Markland.
+
+[15] Cf. Homer, Il. Β. 763 sqq.
+
+[16] Cf. Monk on Hippol. 1229. I have translated συριγγας according to the
+figure of a part for the whole. The whole of the remainder of this chorus
+has been condemned as spurious by the Cambridge editor. See his remarks, p.
+219 sqq.
+
+[17] Can θετον refer to αγαλμα understood?
+
+[18] This part of the chorus is hopeless, as it is evidently imperfect. See
+Herm.
+
+[19] The Cambridge editor would assign this line to Menelaus.
+
+[20] I read ευ κεκομψευσαι, with Ruhnken. The Cambridge editor also reads
+πονηρα, which is better suited to the style of Euripides.
+
+[21] The same scholar has anticipated my conjecture, σαφης for σαφες.
+
+[22] Compare the similar conduct of Pausanias in Thucyd. i. 130, Dejoces in
+Herodot. i., with Livy, iii. 36, and Apul. de Deo Socr. p. 44, ed. Elm.
+
+[23] I read το Πριαμου with Elmsley. See the Camb. ed.
+
+[24] With the Cambridge editor I have restored the old reading εχοντες.
+
+[25] But see ed. Camb.
+
+[26] αυ is a better reading. See Markland and ed. Camb.
+
+[27] There is little hope of this passage, unless we adopt the readings of
+the Cambridge editor, ‛ους λαβων στρατευμ'. ‛ετοιμοι δ' εισι. The next line
+was lost, but has been restored from Theophilus ad Autol. p. 258, and Stob.
+xxviii. p. 128, Grot.
+
+[28] Cf. Soph. Antig. 523. ουτοι συνεχθειν, αλλα συμφιλειν εφυν.
+
+[29] Dindorf condemns the whole of this speech of the messenger, as well as
+the two following lines. Few will perhaps be disposed to follow him,
+although the awkwardness of the passage may be admitted. Hermann considers
+that the hasty entrance of the messenger is signified by his commencing
+with half a line.
+
+[30] There seems an intended allusion to the double sense of προτελεια,
+both as a marriage and sacrificial rite. See the Cambridge editor, and my
+note on Æsch. Agam. p. 102, n. 2, ed. Bohn.
+
+[31] "Auspicare canistra, id quod proximum est." MUSGR.
+
+[32] I think this is the meaning implied by νυμφευσουσα, as in vs. 885.
+‛ιν' αγαγοις χαιρουσ' Αχιλλει παιδα νυμφευσουσα σην. Alcest. 317. ου γαρ σε
+μητηρ ουτε νυμφευσει ποτε. The word seems to refer to the whole business of
+a mamma on this important occasion.
+
+[33] The Cambridge editor on vs. 439, p. 109, well observes, "the actual
+arrival of Iphigenia having convinced Menelaus that her sacrifice could not
+any longer be avoided, he bethinks him of removing from his brother's mind
+the impression produced by their recent altercation; and knowing his open
+and unsuspicious temper, he feels that he may safely adopt a false
+position, and deprecate that of which he was at the same time most
+earnestly desirous."
+
+[34] So Markland, but Hermann and the Cambridge editor prefer the old
+reading μετεστι σοι.
+
+[35] This and the two following lines are condemned by Dindorf.
+
+[36] Bœckh, Dindorf, and the Cambridge editor rightly explode these three
+lines, which are not even correct Greek.
+
+[37] λησομεν, _latebo faciens_.
+
+[38] παρα for παρον, ed. Camb.
+
+[39] i.e. by the gift of Venus. For the sense, compare Hippol. 443.
+
+[40] Read διαφοροι δε τροποι with Monk, and ορθως with Musgrave.
+
+[41] But παιδευομενων is better, with ed. Camb.
+
+[42] I have partly followed Markland, partly Matthiæ, in rendering this
+awkward passage. But there is much awkwardness of expression, and the notes
+of the Cambridge editor well deserve the attention of the student.
+εξαλλασσουσαν χαριν seems to refer to μετρια χαρις in vs. 555, and probably
+signifies that the grace of a reasonable affection leads to the equal grace
+of a clear perception, the mind being unblinded by vehement impulses of
+passion.
+
+[43] i.e. quiet, domestic.
+
+[44] ενων is only Markland's conjecture. The whole passage is desperate.
+
+[45] I read μυριοπληθη with ed. Camb. The pronoun ‛ο I can not make out,
+but by supplying an impossible ellipse.
+
+[46] The Cambridge editor rightly reads ιου, ιου, as an exclamation of
+pleasure, not of pain, is required.
+
+[47] Dindorf condemns this whole paragraph.
+
+[48] The Cambridge editor thinks these two lines a childish interpolation.
+They certainly are childish enough, but the same objection applies to the
+whole passage.
+
+[49] But read ‛οι δ' with Dobree. The grooms are meant.
+
+[50] Porson condemns these four lines, which are utterly destitute of sense
+or connection.
+
+[51] These "precious" lines are even worse than the preceding, and rightly
+condemned by all.
+
+[52] See Elmsl. on Soph. Œd. C. 273. The student must carefully observe the
+hidden train of thought pervading Agamemnon's replies.
+
+[53] τα Μενελεω κακα must mean the ills resulting from Menelaus, the
+mischiefs and toils to which his wife led, as in Soph. Antig. 2. των απ
+Οιδιπου κακων, "the ills brought about by the misfortunes or the curse of
+Œdipus." But I should almost prefer reading λεχη for κακα, which would
+naturally refer to Helen.
+
+[54] This line is metrically corrupt, but its emendation is very uncertain.
+
+[55] I have endeavored to convey the play upon the words as closely as I
+could. Elmsley well suggests that the proper reading is ‛εστηξεις in vs.
+675.
+
+[56] οφθηναι κοραις, "non, ut hic, a viris et exercitu." BRODÆUS.
+
+[57] Porson on Orest. 1090, remarks on that ‛ο κυριος was the term applied
+to the father or guardian of the bride. We might therefore render, "Jove
+gave her away," etc.
+
+[58] If this be the correct reading, we must take καλως ironically. But I
+think with Dindorf, that κακως, αναγκαιως δε.
+
+[59] This verse is condemned by the Cambridge editor.
+
+[60] Barnes rightly remarked that ηιξα is the aorist of αισσω, _conor_,
+_aggredior_.
+
+[61] These three lines are expunged by the Cambridge editor.
+
+[62] I have expressed the sense of η μη τρεφειν (= μη εχειν γυναικα),
+rather than the literal meaning of the words.
+
+[63] I must inform the reader that the latter portion of this chorus is
+extremely unsatisfactory in its present state. The Cambridge editor, who
+has well discussed its difficulties, thinks that Περγαμον is wrong, and
+that ερυμα should be introduced from vs. 792, where it appears to be quite
+useless.
+
+[64] I have ventured to read δακρυοεν τανυσας with MSS. Pariss., omitting
+ερυμα with the Cambridge editor, by which the difficulty is removed. The
+same scholar remarks that δακρυοεν is used adverbially.
+
+[65] There is obviously a defect in the structure, but I am scarcely
+pleased with the attempts made to supply it.
+
+[66] Read και παιδας with Musgrave.
+
+[67] But see ed. Camb.
+
+[68] But see ed. Camb.
+
+[69] But the Cambridge editor admirably amends, εις μελλοντα σωσει χρονον,
+i.e. "it will be a long time before it preserves them," a hit at the
+self-importance of the old gentleman.
+
+[70] I have little hesitation in reading πελας μοι with Markland, in place
+of γελαι μοι.
+
+[71] There is much difficulty in this passage, and Markland appears to give
+it up in despair. Matthiæ simply takes the first part as equivalent to
+‛υψηλοφρον εστι, referring μετριως to both verbs. The Cambridge editor
+takes διαζην as an infinitive disjoined from the construction. Vss. 922 sq.
+are indebted to Mr. G. Burges for their present situation, having before
+been assigned to the chorus.
+
+[72] I have closely followed the Cambridge editor.
+
+[73] See the notes of the same scholar.
+
+[74] Dindorf has rightly received Porson's successful emendation. See
+Tracts, p. 224, and the Cambridge editor.
+
+[75] Read σοις τε μελλουσιν with Markland.
+
+[76] The Cambridge editor would omit vs. 1022. There is certainly a strange
+redundancy of meaning.
+
+[77] Read εστασεν with Mark. Dind.
+
+[78] So called, either because he was carried off by Jove while hunting in
+the promontory of Dardanus, or from his Trojan descent.
+
+[79] I have adopted Tyrwhitt's view, considering the words inclosed in
+inverted commas as the actual words of the epithalamium. See Musgr. and ed.
+Camb. Hermann is strangely out of his reckoning.
+
+[80] Read, however, Νηρηιδων with Heath, "first of the Nereids."
+
+[81] The Cambridge editor would read νυμφοκομοι, Reiske νυμφοκομον. There
+is much difficulty in the whole of this last part of the chorus.
+
+[82] Such is Hermann's explanation, but βεβηκοτος can not bear the sense.
+The Cambridge editor suspects that these five lines are a forgery.
+
+[83] The Cambridge editor rightly, I think, condemns this line as the
+addition of some one "who thought that something more was wanting to
+comprise all the complaints of the speaker." I do not think the sense or
+construction is benefited by their existence.
+
+[84] "Verum astus hic astu vacat." ERASMUS.
+
+[85] Dindorf has apparently done wrong in admitting προσουδισας, but I have
+some doubt about every other reading yet proposed.
+
+[86] See Camb. ed., who suspects interpolation.
+
+[87] Cf. Lucret. i. 94. "Nec miseræ prodesse in tali tempore quibat, Quod
+patrio princeps donarat nomine regum." Æsch. Ag. 242 sqq.
+
+[88] The Cambridge editor clearly shows that μοι is the true reading, as in
+vs. 54, το πραγμα δ' απορως ειχε Τυνδαρεωι πατρι, and 370.
+
+[89] There is much doubt about the reading of this part of the chorus. See
+Dind. and ed. Camb.
+
+[90] I have partly followed Abresch in translating these lines, but I do
+not advise the reader to rest satisfied with my translation. A reference to
+the notes of the elegant scholar, to whom we owe the Cambridge edition of
+this play, will, I trust, show that I have done as much as can well be done
+with such corrupted lines.
+
+[91] Achilles is supposed to lay his hand on his sword. See however ed.
+Camb.
+
+[92] Obviously a spurious line.
+
+[93] I have punctuated with ed. Camb.
+
+[94] See ed. Camb.
+
+[95] ευφημησατε here governs two distinct accusatives.
+
+[96] The Cambridge editor here takes notice of Aristotle's charge of
+inconsistency, ‛οτι ουδεν εοικεν ‛η ‛ικετευουσα [Iphigenia] τηι ‛υστεραι.
+He well remarks, that Iphigenia at first naturally gives way before the
+suddenness of the announcement of her fate, but that when she collects her
+feelings, her natural nobleness prevails.
+
+[97] Cf. Lucret. i. 88. "Cui simul _infula_ virgineos _circumdata_ comtus,
+Ex utraque pari malarum parte profusa est."
+
+[98] Read παγας with Reiske, Dind. ed. Camb. There is much corruption and
+awkwardness in the following verses of this ode.
+
+[99] On the sense of μεμονε see ed. Camb., who would exclude δι' εμον
+ονομα.
+
+[100] Cf. Soph. Ant. 806 sqq. The whole of this passage has been admirably
+illustrated by the Cambridge editor.
+
+[101] There is much awkwardness about this epithet πατρωιαι. One would
+expect a clearer reference to Agamemnon. I scarcely can suppose it correct,
+although I do not quite see my way in the Cambridge editor's readings.
+
+[102] Porson, Præf. ad Hec. p. xxi., and the Cambridge editor (p. 228 sqq.)
+have concurred in fully condemning the whole of this last scene. It is
+certain that in the time of Ælian something different must have been in
+existence, and equally certain that the whole abounds in repetitions and
+inconsistencies, that seem to point either to spuriousness, or, at least,
+to the existence of interpolations of a serious character. In this latter
+opinion Matthiæ and Dindorf agree.
+
+[103] An allusion to the celebrated picture of Timanthes. See Barnes.
+
+[104] I have done my best with this passage, following Matthiæ's
+explanation, which, however, I do not perfectly understand. If vs. 1567
+were away, we should be less at a loss, but the same may be said of the
+whole scene.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *       *
+
+IPHIGENIA IN TAURIS.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+PERSONS REPRESENTED.
+
+  IPHIGENIA.
+  ORESTES.
+  PYLADES.
+  HERDSMAN.
+  THOAS.
+  MESSENGER.
+  MINERVA.
+  CHORUS OF GRECIAN CAPTIVE WOMEN.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE ARGUMENT.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+Orestes, coming into Tauri in Scythia, in company with Pylades, had been
+commanded to bear away the image of Diana, after which he was to meet with
+a respite from the avenging Erinnyes of his mother. His sister Iphigenia,
+who had been carried away by Diana from Aulis, when on the point of being
+sacrificed by her father, chances to be expiating a dream that led her to
+suppose Orestes dead, when a herdsman announces to her the arrival and
+detection of two strangers, whom she is bound by her office to sacrifice to
+Diana. On meeting, a mutual discovery takes place, and they plot their
+escape. Iphigenia imposes on the superstitious fears of Thoas, and,
+removing them to the sea-coast, they are on the point of making their
+escape together, when they are surprised, and subsequently detained and
+driven back by stress of weather. Thoas is about to pursue them, when
+Minerva appears, and restrains him from doing so, at the same time
+procuring liberty of return for the Grecian captives who form the chorus.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+IPHIGENIA IN TAURIS.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+IPHIGENIA.
+
+Pelops,[1] the son of Tantalus, setting out to Pisa with his swift steeds,
+weds the daughter of Œnomaus, from whom sprang Atreus; and from Atreus his
+sons, Menelaus and Agamemnon, from which [latter] I was born, Iphigenia,
+child of [Clytæmnestra,] daughter of Tyndarus, whom my father, as he
+imagined, sacrificed to Diana on account of Helen, near the eddies, which
+Euripus continually whirls to and fro, upturning the dark blue sea with
+frequent blasts, in the famed[2] recesses of Aulis. For here indeed king
+Agamemnon drew together a Grecian armament of a thousand ships, desiring
+that the Greeks might take the glorious prize of victory over Troy,[3] and
+avenge the outraged nuptials of Helen, for the gratification of Menelaus.
+But, there being great difficulty of sailing,[4] and meeting with no winds,
+he came to [the consideration of] the omens of burnt sacrifices, and
+Calchas speaks thus. O thou who rulest over this Grecian expedition,
+Agamemnon, thou wilt not lead forth thy ships from the ports of this land,
+before Diana shall receive thy daughter Iphigenia as a victim; for thou
+didst vow to sacrifice to the light-bearing Goddess whatsoever the year
+should bring forth most beautiful. Now your wife Clytæmnestra has brought
+forth a daughter in your house, referring to me the title of the most
+beautiful, whom thou must needs sacrifice. And so, by the arts of
+Ulysses,[5] they drew me from my mother under pretense of being wedded to
+Achilles. But I wretched coming to Aulis, being seized and raised aloft
+above[6] the pyre, would have been slain by the sword; but Diana, giving to
+the Greeks a stag in my stead, stole me away, and, sending me through the
+clear ether,[7] she settled me in this land of the Tauri, where barbarian
+Thoas rules[8] the land, o'er barbarians, [Thoas,] who guiding his foot
+swift as the pinion, has arrived at this epithet [of Thoas, i.e. _the
+swift_] on account of his fleetness of foot. And she places me in this
+house as priestess, since which time the Goddess Diana is wont to be
+pleased with such rites as these,[9] the name of which alone is fair. But,
+for the rest, I am silent, fearing the Goddess. For I sacrifice even as
+before was the custom in the city, whatever Grecian man comes to this land.
+I crop the hair, indeed, but the slaying that may not be told is the care
+of others within these shrines.[10] But the new visions which the [past]
+night hath brought with it, I will tell to the sky,[11] if indeed this be
+any remedy. I seemed in my sleep, removed from this land, to be dwelling in
+Argos, and to slumber in my virgin chamber, but the surface of the earth
+[appeared] to be shaken with a movement, and I fled, and standing without
+beheld the coping[12] of the house giving way, and all the roof falling
+stricken to the ground from the high supports. And one pillar alone, as it
+seemed to me, was left of my ancestral house, and from its capital it
+seemed to stream down yellow locks, and to receive a human voice, and I,
+cherishing this man-slaying office which I hold, weeping [began] to
+besprinkle it, as though about to be slain. But I thus interpret my dream.
+Orestes is dead, whose rites I was beginning. For male children are the
+pillars of the house, and those whom my lustral waters[13] sprinkle die.
+Nor yet can I connect the dream with my friends, for Strophius had no son,
+when I was to have died. Now, therefore, I being present, will to my absent
+brother offer the rites of the dead--for this I can do--in company with the
+attendants whom the king gave to me, Grecian women. But from some cause
+they are not yet present. I will go[14] within the home wherein I dwell,
+these shrines of the Goddess.
+
+ORESTES. Look out! Watch, lest there be any mortal in the way.
+
+PYLADES. I am looking out, and keeping watch, turning my eyes every where.
+
+OR. Pylades, does it seem to you that this is the temple of the Goddess,
+whither we have directed our ship through the seas from Argos?[15]
+
+PYL. It does, Orestes, and must seem the same to thee.
+
+OR. And the altar where Grecian blood is shed?
+
+PYL. At least it has its pinnacles tawny with blood.
+
+OR. And under the pinnacles themselves do you behold the spoils?
+
+PYL. The spoils, forsooth, of slain strangers.
+
+OR. But it behooves one, turning one's eye around, to keep a careful watch.
+O Phœbus, wherefore hast thou again led me into this snare by your
+prophecies, when I had avenged the blood of my father by slaying my mother?
+But by successive[16] attacks of the Furies was I driven an exile, an
+outcast from the land, and fulfilled many diverse bending courses. But
+coming [to thy oracle] I required of thee how I might arrive at an end of
+the madness that drove me on, and of my toils [which I had labored through,
+wandering over Greece.[17]] But thou didst answer that I must come to the
+confines of the Tauric territory, where thy sister Diana possesses altars,
+and must take the image of the Goddess, which they here say fell from
+heaven[18] into these shrines; and that taking it either by stratagem or by
+some stroke of fortune, having gone through the risk, I should give it to
+the land of the Athenians--but no further directions were given--and that
+having done this, I should have a respite from my toils.[19] But I am come
+hither, persuaded by thy words, to an unknown and inhospitable land. I ask
+you, then, Pylades, for you are a sharer with me in this toil, what shall
+we do? For thou beholdest the lofty battlements of the walls. Shall we
+proceed to the scaling of the walls? How then should we escape notice[20]
+[if we did so?] Or shall we open the brass-wrought fastenings of the bolts?
+of which things we know nothing.[21] But if we are caught opening the gates
+and contriving an entrance, we shall die. But before we die, let us flee to
+the temple, whither we lately sailed.
+
+PYL. To fly is unendurable, nor are we accustomed [to do so,] and we must
+not make light of the oracle of the God. But quitting the temple, let us
+hide our bodies in the caves, which the dark sea splashes with its waters,
+far away from the city, lest any one beholding the bark, inform the rulers,
+and we be straightway seized by force. But when the eye of dim night shall
+come, we must venture, bring all devices to bear, to seize the sculptured
+image from the temple. But observe the eaves [of the roof,[22]] where there
+is an empty space between the triglyphs in which you may let yourself down.
+For good men dare encounter toils, but the cowardly are of no account any
+where. We have not indeed come a long distance with our oars, so as to
+return again from the goal.[23]
+
+OR. But one must follow your advice, for you speak well. We must go
+whithersoever in this land we can conceal our bodies, and lie hid. For the
+[will] of the God will not be the cause of his oracle falling useless. We
+must venture; for no toil has an excuse for young men.[24]
+
+[ORESTES _and_ PYLADES _retire aside_.]
+
+CHORUS. Keep silence,[25] O ye that inhabit the twain rocks of the Euxine
+that face each other. O Dictynna, mountain daughter of Latona, to thy
+court, the gold-decked pinnacles of temples with fine columns, I, servant
+to the hallowed guardian of the key, conduct my pious virgin foot, changing
+[for my present habitation] the towers and walls of Greece with its noble
+steeds, and Europe with its fields abounding in trees, the dwelling of my
+ancestral home. I am come. What new matter? What anxious care hast thou?
+Wherefore hast thou led me, led me to the shrines, O daughter of him who
+came to the walls of Troy with the glorious fleet, with thousand sail, ten
+thousand spears of the renowned Atrides?[26]
+
+IPHIGENIA. O attendants mine,[27] in what moans of bitter lamentation do I
+dwell, in the songs of a songless strain unfit for the lyre, alas! alas! in
+funereal griefs for the ills which befall me, bemoaning my brother, what a
+vision have I seen in the night whose darkness has passed away![28] I am
+undone, undone. No more is my father's house, ah me! no more is our race.
+Alas! alas! for the toils in Argos! Alas! thou deity, who hast now robbed
+me of my only brother, sending him to Hades, to whom I am about to pour
+forth on the earth's surface these libations and this bowl for the
+departed, and streams from the mountain heifer, and the wine draughts of
+Bacchus, and the work of the swarthy bees,[29] which are the wonted
+peace-offerings to the departed. O germ of Agamemnon beneath the earth, to
+thee as dead do I send these offerings. And do thou receive them, for not
+before [thine own] tomb do I offer my auburn locks,[30] my tears. For far
+away am I journeyed from thy country and mine, where, as opinion goes, I
+wretched lie slaughtered.
+
+CHOR. A respondent strain and an Asiatic hymn of barbarian wailing will I
+peal forth to thee, my mistress, the song of mourning which, delighting the
+dead, Hades hymns in measure apart from Pæans.[31] Alas! the light of the
+sceptre in the Atrides' house is faded away. Alas! alas for my ancestral
+home! And what government of prosperous kings will there be in Argos?[32]
+* * * * And labor upon labor comes on * * * * [33] with his winged mares
+driven around. But the sun, changing from its proper place, [laid aside]
+its eye of light.[34] And upon other houses woe has come, because of the
+golden lamb, murder upon murder, and pang upon pang, whence the avenging
+Fury[35] of those sons slain of old comes upon the houses of the sons of
+Tantalus, and some deity hastens unkindly things against thee.
+
+IPH. From the beginning the demon of my mother's zone[36] was hostile to
+me, and from that night in which the Fates hastened the pangs of
+childbirth[37] * * * * whom, the first-born germ the wretched daughter of
+Leda, (Clytæmnestra,) wooed from among the Greeks brought forth, and
+trained up as a victim to a father's sin, a joyless sacrifice, a votive
+offering. But in a horse-chariot they brought[38] me to the sands of Aulis,
+a bride, alas! unhappy bride to the son of Nereus' daughter, alas! And now
+a stranger I dwell in an unpleasant home on the inhospitable sea, unwedded,
+childless, without city, without a friend, not chanting Juno in Argos, nor
+in the sweetly humming loom adorning with the shuttle the image of Athenian
+Pallas[39] and of the Titans, but imbruing altars with the shed blood of
+strangers, a pest unsuited to the harp, [of strangers] sighing forth[40] a
+piteous cry, and shedding a piteous tear. And now indeed forgetfulness of
+these matters [comes upon] me, but now I mourn my brother dead in Argos,
+whom I left yet an infant at the breast, yet young, yet a germ in his
+mother's arms and on her bosom, Orestes [the future] holder of the sceptre
+in Argos.
+
+CHOR. But hither comes a herdsman, leaving the sea-coast, about to tell
+thee some new thing.
+
+HERDSMAN. Daughter of Agamemnon and child of Clytæmnestra, hear thou from
+me a new announcement.
+
+IPH. And what is there astonishing in the present report?
+
+HERDS. Two youths are come into this land, to the dark-blue Symplegades,
+fleeing into a ship, a grateful sacrifice and offering to Diana. But you
+can not use too much haste[41] in making ready the lustral waters and the
+consecrations.
+
+IPH. Of what country? of what land do the strangers bear the name?
+
+HERDS. Greeks, this one thing I know, and nothing further.
+
+IPH. Hast thou not heard the name of the strangers, so as to tell it?
+
+HERDS. One of them was styled Pylades by the other.
+
+IPH. But what was the name of the yoke-fellow of this stranger?
+
+HERDS. No one knows this. For we heard it not.
+
+IPH. But how saw ye them, and chanced to take them?
+
+HERDS. Upon the furthest breakers of the inhospitable sea.
+
+IPH. And what had herdsmen to do with the sea?
+
+HERDS. We came to lave our steers in the dew of the sea.
+
+IPH. Go back again to this point--how did ye catch them, and by what means,
+for I would fain know this? For they are come after a long season, nor has
+the altar of the Goddess yet been crimsoned with Grecian blood.[42]
+
+HERDS. After we woodland herdsmen had brought our cattle down to the sea
+that flows between the Symplegades, there is a certain hollow cave,[43]
+broken by the frequent lashing of the waves, a retreat for those who hunt
+for the purple fish. Here some herdsman among us beheld two youths, and he
+retired back, piloting his step on tiptoe, and said: See ye not? these who
+sit here are some divine powers. And one of us, being religiously given,
+uplifted his hand, and addressed them, as he beheld: O son of Leucothea,
+guardian of ships, Palæmon our lord, be propitious to us, whether indeed ye
+be the twin sons of Jove (Castor and Pollux) who sit upon our shores, or
+the image of Nereus, who begot the noble chorus of the fifty Nereids. But
+another vain one, bold in his lawlessness, scoffed at these prayers, and
+said that they were shipwrecked[44] seamen who sat upon the cleft through
+fear of the law, hearing that we here sacrifice strangers. And to most of
+us he seemed to speak well, and [we resolved] to hunt for the accustomed
+victims for the Goddess. But meanwhile one of the strangers leaving the
+rock, stood still, and shook his head up and down, and groaned, with his
+very fingers quaking, wandering with ravings, and shouts with voice like
+that of hunter, "Pylades, dost thou behold this? Dost not behold this snake
+of Hades, how she would fain slay me, armed against me with horrid
+vipers?[45] And she breathing from beneath her garments[46] fire and
+slaughter, rows with her wings, bearing my mother in her arms, that she may
+cast upon me this rocky mass. Alas! she will slay me. Whither shall I fly?"
+And one beheld not the same form of countenance, but he uttered in turn the
+bellowings of calves and howls of dogs, which imitations [of wild beasts]
+they say the Furies utter. But we flinching, as though about to die, sat
+mute; and he drawing a sword with his hand, rushing among the calves,
+lion-like, strikes them on the flank with the steel, driving it into their
+sides, fancying that he was thus avenging himself on the Fury Goddesses,
+till that a gory foam was dashed up from the sea. Meanwhile, each one of
+us, as he beheld the herds being slain and ravaged, armed himself, and
+inflating the conch[47] shells and assembling the inhabitants--for we
+thought that herdsmen were weak to fight against well-trained and youthful
+strangers. And a large number of us was assembled in a short time. But the
+stranger, released from the attack of madness, drops down, with his beard
+befouled with foam. But when we saw him fallen opportunely [for us,] each
+man did his part, with stones, with blows. But the other of the strangers
+wiped away the foam, and tended his mouth, and spread over him the
+well-woven texture of his garments, guarding well the coming wounds, and
+aiding his friend with tender offices. But when the stranger returning to
+his senses leaped up, he perceived that a hostile tempest and present
+calamity was close upon them, and he groaned aloud. But we ceased not
+hurling rocks, each standing in a different place. But then indeed we heard
+a dread exhortation, "Pylades, we shall die, but that we die most
+gloriously! Follow me, drawing thy sword in hand." But when we saw the
+twain swords of the enemy[48] brandished, in flight we filled the woods
+about the crag. But if one fled, others pressing on pelted them; and if
+they drove these away, again the party who had just yielded aimed at them
+with rocks. But it was incredible, for out of innumerable hands no one
+succeeded in hitting these victims to the Goddess. And we with difficulty,
+I will not say overcome them by force, but taking them in a circle,
+beat[49] their swords out of their hands with stones, and they dropped
+their knees to earth [overcome] with toil. And we brought them to the king
+of this land, but he, when he beheld them, sent them as quickly as possible
+to thee for lustral waters and sacrifice. But do thou, O virgin, wish that
+such strangers may be here as victims, and if thou slayest these strangers,
+Hellas will atone for thy [intended] murder, paying the penalty of the
+sacrifice at Aulis.[50]
+
+CHOR. Thou hast told wondrous things concerning him who has appeared,
+whosoever he be that has come to the inhospitable sea from the Grecian
+earth.[51]
+
+IPH. Be it so. Do thou go and bring the strangers, but I will take care
+respecting the matters[52] here. O hapless heart, that once wast mild and
+full of pity toward strangers, awarding the tear to those of thine own
+land, when thou didst receive Grecian men into thine hands.[53] But now,
+because of the dreams by which I am driven wild, thinking that Orestes no
+longer beholds the sun, ye will find me ill disposed, whoever ye be that
+come. For this is true, I perceive it, my friends,[54] for the unhappy who
+themselves fare ill have no good feelings toward those more fortunate. But
+neither has any wind sent by Jove ever come [hither,] nor ship, which could
+have brought hither Helen, who destroyed me, and Menelaus, in order that I
+might be avenged on them, placing an Aulis here to the account[55] of the
+one there, where the sons of Danaus seized, and would have slain me like as
+a calf, and the father who begat me was the priest. Ah me! for I can not
+forget the ills of that time, how oft I stretched out my hands to his
+beard, and hanging on the knees of him who gave me life, spake words like
+these: "O father, basely am I, basely am I wedded at thine hands. But my
+mother, while thou art slaying me, and her Argive ladies are hymning my
+wedding[56] with their nuptial songs, and all the house resounds with the
+flute, while I perish by thy hands. Hades in truth was Achilles, not the
+son of Peleus, whom thou didst name as my husband, and in the chariot didst
+pilot me by craft unto a bloody wedding." But I, casting mine eye through
+my slender woven veil, neither took up with mine hands my brother who is
+now dead, nor joined my lips to my sister's,[57] through modesty, as
+departing to the home of Peleus; and many a salutation I deferred, as
+though about to come again to Argos. Oh wretched one, if thou hast died!
+from what glorious state, Orestes, and from how envied a sire's fortune art
+thou fallen! But I reproach the devices of the Goddess, who, if any one
+work the death of a man, or touch with hands a woman newly delivered, or a
+corpse, restrains him from her altars, as deeming him impure, but yet
+herself takes pleasure in man-slaying sacrifices. It can not be that the
+consort of Jove, Latona, hath brought forth so much ignorance. I even
+disbelieve the banquets of Tantalus set before the Gods, [as that they]
+should be pleased with feeding on a boy. But I deem that those in this
+land, being themselves man-slayers, charge the Goddess with their own
+baseness, for I think not that any one of the Gods is bad.
+
+CHOR. Ye dark blue, dark blue meetings of the sea, which Io, hurried along
+by the brize, once passed through to the Euxine wave, having changed the
+territory of Asia for Europe,--who were they who left fair-watered Eurotas,
+flourishing in reeds, or the sacred founts of Dirce, and came, and came to
+the inhospitable land, where the daughter of Jove bedews her altars and
+column-girt temples with human blood? Of a truth by the surge-dashing oars
+of fir, worked on both sides, they sailed in a nautical carriage o'er the
+ocean waves, striving in the emulation after loved wealth in their houses.
+For darling hope is in dangers insatiate among men, who bear off the weight
+of riches, wandering in vain speculation on the wave and o'er barbarian
+cities. But to some[58] there is a mind immoderate after riches, to others
+they come unsought. How did they pass through the rocks that run together,
+the ne'er resting beaches of Phineus, [and] the marine shore, running o'er
+the surge of Amphitrite,[59]--where the choruses of the fifty daughters of
+Nereus entwine in the dance,--[although] with breezes that fill the sails,
+the creaking rudders resting at the poop, with southern gales or the
+breezes of Zephyr, to the bird-haunted land, the white beach, the glorious
+race-course of Achilles, near the Euxine Sea. Would that, according to my
+mistress' prayers, Helen, the dear daughter of Leda, might sometime chance
+to come, quitting the city of Troy, that, having been drenched about the
+head with the blood-stained lustral dews, she might die by my mistress'
+hand, paying in turn an equal penalty [for her death.] Most joyfully then
+would we receive this news, if any one came sailing from the Grecian land,
+to make the toils of my hapless slavery to cease. And would that in my
+dreams I might tread[60] in mine home and ancestral city, enjoying the
+hymns of delight, a joy shared with the prosperous. But hither they come,
+bound as to their two[61] hands with chains, a new sacrifice for the
+Goddess. Be silent, my friends, for these first-fruits of the Greeks
+approach the temples, nor has the herdsman told a false tale. O reverend
+Goddess, if the city performs these things agreeably to thee, receive the
+sacrifice which, not hallowed among the Greeks, the custom of this place
+presents as a public offering.[62]
+
+IPH. Be it so. I must first take care that the rites of the Goddess are as
+they should be. Let go the hands of the strangers, that being consecrated
+they may no longer be in bonds. And, going within the temple, make ready
+the things which are necessary and usual on these occasions. Alas! Who is
+the mother who once bore you? And who your father, and your sister, if
+there be any born? Of what a pair of youths deprived will she be
+brotherless! For all the dispensations of the Gods creep into obscurity,
+and no one [absent] knows misfortune,[63] for fortune leads astray to what
+is hardly known. Whence come ye, O unhappy strangers? After how long a time
+have ye sailed to this land, and ye will be a long time from your home,
+ever among the shades![64]
+
+OR. Why mournest thou thus, and teasest us[65] concerning our future ills,
+whoever thou art, O lady? In naught do I deem him wise, who, when about to
+die, with bewailings seeks to overcome the fear of death, nor him who
+deplores death now near at hand,[66] when he has no hope of safety, in that
+he joins two ills instead of one, both incurs the charge of folly, and dies
+none the less. But one must needs let fortune take its course. But mourn us
+not, for we know and are acquainted with the sacrificial rites of this
+place.
+
+IPH. Which of ye twain here is named Pylades? This I would fain know first.
+
+OR. This man, if indeed 'tis any pleasure for thee to know this.
+
+IPH. Born citizen of what Grecian state?
+
+OR. And what wouldst thou gain by knowing this, lady?
+
+IPH. Are ye brothers from one mother?
+
+OR. In friendship we are, but we are not related, lady.
+
+IPH. But what name did the father who begot thee give to thee?
+
+OR. In truth we might be styled the unhappy.
+
+IPH. I ask not this. Leave this to fortune.
+
+OR. Dying nameless, I should not be mocked.
+
+IPH. Wherefore dost grudge this, and art thus proud?
+
+OR. My body thou shalt sacrifice, not my name.
+
+IPH. Nor wilt thou tell me which is thy city?
+
+OR. No. For thou seekest a thing of no profit, seeing I am to die.
+
+IPH. But what hinders thee from granting me this favor?
+
+OR. I boast renowned Argos for my country.
+
+IPH. In truth, by the Gods I ask thee, stranger, art thou thence born?
+
+OR. From Mycenæ,[67] that was once prosperous.
+
+IPH. And hast thou set out a wanderer from thy country, or by what hap?
+
+OR. I flee in a certain wise unwilling, willingly.
+
+IPH. Wouldst thou tell me one thing that I wish?
+
+OR. That something, forsooth,[68] may be added to my misfortune.
+
+IPH. And truly thou hast come desired by me, in coming from Argos.
+
+OR. Not by myself, at all events; but if by thee, do thou enjoy it.[69]
+
+IPH. Perchance thou knowest Troy, the fame of which is every where.
+
+OR. Ay, would that I never had, not even seeing it in a dream!
+
+IPH. They say that it is now no more, and has fallen by the spear.
+
+OR. And so it is, nor have you heard what is not the case.
+
+IPH. And is Helen come back to the house of Menelaus?
+
+OR. She is, ay, coming unluckily to one of mine.
+
+IPH. And where is she? For she has incurred an old debt of evil with me
+also.
+
+OR. She dwells in Sparta with her former consort.
+
+IPH. O hateful pest among the Greeks, not to me only!
+
+OR. I also have received some fruits of her nuptials.
+
+IPH. And did the return of the Greeks take place, as is reported?
+
+OR. How dost thou question me, embracing all matters at once!
+
+IPH. For I wish to obtain this before that thou diest.
+
+OR. Examine me, since thou hast this longing, and I will speak.
+
+IPH. Has a certain seer named Calchas returned from Troy?
+
+OR. He perished, as the story ran, at Mycenæ.
+
+IPH. O revered Goddess, how well it is! And how fares the son of Laertes?
+
+OR. He has not yet returned to his home, but he is alive, as report goes.
+
+IPH. May he perish, never obtaining a return to his country!
+
+OR. Invoke nothing--all his affairs are in a sickly state.
+
+IPH. But is the son of Thetis, the daughter of Nereus, yet alive?
+
+OR. He is not. In vain he held his wedding in Aulis.
+
+IPH. A crafty [wedding] it was, as those who have suffered say.
+
+OR. Who canst thou be? How well dost ken the affairs of Greece!
+
+IPH. I am from thence. While yet a child I was undone.
+
+OR. With reason thou desirest to know the affairs there, O lady.
+
+IPH. But how [fares] the general, who they say is prosperous.
+
+OR. Who? For he whom I know is not of the fortunate.
+
+IPH. A certain king Agamemnon was called the son of Atreus.
+
+OR. I know not--cease from these words, O lady.
+
+IPH. Nay, by the Gods, but speak, that I may be rejoiced, O stranger.
+
+OR. The wretched one is dead, and furthermore hath ruined one.[70]
+
+IPH. Is dead? By what mishap? O wretched me!
+
+OR. But why dost mourn this? Was he a relation of thine?
+
+IPH. I bemoan his former prosperity.
+
+OR. [Ay, well mayest thou,] for he has fallen, slain shamefully by a woman.
+
+IPH. O all grievous she that slew and he that fell!
+
+OR. Cease now at least, nor question further.
+
+IPH. Thus much at least, does the wife of the unhappy man live?
+
+OR. She is no more. The son she brought forth, he slew her.
+
+IPH. O house all troubled! with what intent, then?[71]
+
+OR. Taking satisfaction on her for the death of his father.
+
+IPH. Alas! how well he executed an evil act of justice.[72]
+
+OR. But, though just, he hath not good fortune from the Gods.
+
+IPH. But does Agamemnon leave any other child in his house?
+
+OR. He has left a single virgin [daughter,] Electra.
+
+IPH. What! Is there no report of his sacrificed daughter?[73]
+
+OR. None indeed, save that being dead she beholds not the light.
+
+IPH. Hapless she, and the father who slew her!
+
+OR. She perished, a thankless offering[74] because of a bad woman.
+
+IPH. But is the son of the deceased father at Argos?
+
+OR. He, wretched man, is nowhere and every where.
+
+IPH. Away, vain dreams, ye were then of naught!
+
+OR. Nor are the Gods who are called wise any less false than winged dreams.
+There is much inconsistency both among the Gods and among mortals. But one
+thing alone is left, when[75] a man not being foolish, persuaded by the
+words of seers, has perished, as he hath perished in man's knowledge.
+
+CHOR. Alas! alas! But what of us and our fathers? Are they, or are they not
+in being, who can tell?
+
+IPH. Hear me, for I am come to a certain discourse, meditating what is at
+once profitable for you and me. But that which is well is chiefly produced
+thus, when the same matter pleases all. Would ye be willing, if I were to
+save you, to go to Argos, and bear a message for me to my friends there,
+and carry a letter, which a certain captive wrote, pitying me, nor deeming
+my hand that of a murderess, but that he died through custom, as the
+Goddess sanctioned such things as just? For I had no one who would go and
+bear the news back to Argos, and who, being preserved, would send my
+letters to some one of my friends.[76] But do thou, for thou art, as thou
+seemest, of no ignoble birth, and knowest Mycenæ and the persons I wish, do
+thou, I say,[77] be saved, receiving no dishonorable reward, your safety
+for the sake of trifling letters. But let this man, since the city compels
+it, be a sacrifice to the Goddess, apart from thee.
+
+OR. Well hast thou spoken the rest, save one thing, O stranger lady, for
+'tis a heavy weight upon me that this man should be slain. For I was
+steersman of the vessel to these ills,[78] but he is a fellow-sailor
+because of mine own troubles. In no wise then is it right that I should do
+thee a favor to his destruction, and myself escape from ills. But let it be
+thus. Give him the letter, for he will send it to Argos, so as to be well
+for thee, but let him that will slay me. Base is the man, who, casting his
+friends into calamity, himself is saved. But this man is a friend, who I
+fain should see the light no less that myself.
+
+IPH. O noblest spirit, how art thou sprung from some generous root, thou
+truly a friend to thy friends! Such might he be who is left of my brothers!
+For in good truth, strangers, I am not brotherless, save that I behold him
+not. But since thou willest thus, let us send this man bearing the letter,
+but thou wilt die, and some great desire of this chances to possess
+thee?[79]
+
+OR. But who will sacrifice me, and dare this dreadful deed?
+
+IPH. I; for I have this sacrificial duty[80] from the Goddess.
+
+OR. Unenviable indeed. O damsel, and unblest.
+
+IPH. But we lie under necessity, which one must beware.
+
+OR. Thyself, a female, sacrificing males with the sword?
+
+IPH. Not so; but I shall lave around thy head with the lustral stream.
+
+OR. But who is the slayer, if I may ask this?
+
+IPH. Within the house are they whose office is this.
+
+OR. And what manner of tomb will receive me, when I die?
+
+IPH. The holy flame within, and the dark chasm of the rock.[81]
+
+OR. Alas! Would that a sister's hand might lay me out.[82]
+
+IPH. A vain prayer hast thou uttered, whoever thou art, O stranger, for she
+dwells far from this barbarian land. Nevertheless, since thou art an
+Argive, I will not fail to do thee kindness in what is possible. For on thy
+tomb will I place much adornment, and with the tawny oil will I cause thy
+body to be soon consumed,[83] and on thy pyre will I pour the flower-sucked
+riches of the swarthy bee. But I will go and fetch the letter from the
+shrines of the Goddess. But do thou not bear ill will against me. Guard
+them, ye servants, [but] without fetters.[84] Perchance I shall send
+unexpected tidings to some one of my friends at Argos, whom I chiefly love,
+and the letter, telling to him that she lives whom he thinks dead, will
+announce a faithful pleasure.
+
+CHOR. I deplore thee now destined to the gory streams of the lustral
+waters.[85]
+
+OR. 'Tis piteous, truly;[86] but fare ye well, stranger ladies.
+
+CHOR. But thee, (_to Pylades_) O youth, we honor for thy happy fortune,
+that at some time thou wilt return to thy country.
+
+PYL. Not to be coveted[87] by friends, when friends are to die.
+
+CHOR. O mournful journeying! Alas! alas! thou art undone. Woe! woe! which
+is the [victim] to be? For still my mind resolves[88] twain doubtful
+[ills,] whether with groans I shall bemoan thee (_to Orestes_) or thee (_to
+Pylades_) first.
+
+OR. Pylades, hast thou, by the Gods, experienced the same feeling as
+myself?
+
+PYL. I know not. Thou askest me unable to say.
+
+OR. Who is this damsel? With what a Grecian spirit she asked us concerning
+the toils in Troy, and the return of the Greeks, and Calchas wise in
+augury, and about Achilles, and how she pitied wretched Agamemnon, and
+asked me of his wife and children. This stranger lady is[89] some Greek by
+race; for otherwise she never would have been sending a letter and making
+these inquiries, as sharing a common weal in the well-doing of Argos.
+
+PYL. Thou hast outstripped me a little, but thou outstrippest me in saying
+the same things, save in one respect--for all, with whom there is any
+communication, know the fate of the king. But I was[90] considering another
+subject.
+
+OR. What? laying it down in common, you will better understand.
+
+PYL. 'Tis base that I should behold the light, while you perish; and,
+having sailed with you, with you I must needs die also. For I shall incur
+the imputation of both cowardice and baseness in Argos and the Phocian land
+with its many dells, and I shall seem to the many, for the many are evil,
+to have arrived alone in safety to mine home, having deserted thee, or even
+to have murdered thee, taking advantage of the sickly state of thine house,
+and to have devised thy fate for the sake of reigning, in order that,
+forsooth, I might wed thy sister as an heiress[91]. These things, then, I
+dread, and hold in shame, and it shall not be but I will breathe my last
+with thee, be slain, and have my body burned with thee, being a friend, and
+dreading reproach.
+
+OR. Speak words of better omen. I must needs bear my troubles, but when I
+may [endure] one single trouble, I will not endure twain. For what thou
+callest bitter and reproachful, that is my portion, if I cause thee to be
+slain who hast shared my toils. For, as far as I am concerned, it stands
+not badly with me, faring as I fare at the hands of the Gods, to end my
+life. But thou art prosperous, and hast a home pure, not sickening, but I
+[have] one impious and unhappy. And living thou mayest raise children from
+my sister, whom I gave thee to have[92] as a wife, and my name might exist,
+nor would my ancestral house be ever blotted out. But go, live, and dwell
+in my father's house; and when thou comest to Greece and chivalrous Argos,
+by thy right hand, I commit to thee this charge. Heap up a tomb, and place
+upon it remembrances of me, and let my sister offer tears and her shorn
+locks upon my sepulchre. And tell how I died by an Argive woman's hand,
+sacrificed as an offering by the altar's side. And do thou never desert my
+sister, seeing my father's connections and home bereaved. And fare thee
+well! for I have found thee best among my friends. Oh thou who hast been my
+fellow-huntsman, my mate! Oh thou who hast borne the weight of many of my
+sorrows! But Phœbus, prophet though he be, has deceived me. For, artfully
+devising, he has driven me as far as possible from Greece, in shame of his
+former prophecies. To whom I, yielding up mine all, and obeying his words,
+having slain my mother, myself perish in turn.
+
+PYL. Thou shalt have a tomb, and never will I, hapless one, betray thy
+sister's bed, since I shall hold thee more a friend dead than living. But
+the oracle of the God has never yet wronged thee, although thou art indeed
+on the very verge of death. But excessive mischance is very wont, is very
+wont to present changes, when the matter so falls.
+
+OR. Be silent--the words of Phœbus avail me naught, for the lady is coming
+hither without the temple.
+
+IPH. Depart ye, and go and make ready the things within for those who
+superintend the sacrifice. These, O stranger, are the many-folded
+inclosures of the letter, but hear thou what I further wish. No man is the
+same in trouble, and when he changes from fear into confidence. But I fear,
+lest he having got away from this land, will deem my letter of no account,
+who is about to bear this letter to Argos.[93]
+
+OR. What wouldst thou? Concerning what art thou disturbed?
+
+IPH. Let him make me oath that he will ferry these writings to Argos, to
+those friends to whom I wish to send them.
+
+OR. Wilt thou in turn make the same assertion to him?
+
+IPH. That I will do, or will not do what thing? say.
+
+OR. That you will release him from this barbarian land, not dying.
+
+IPH. Thou sayest justly; for how could he bear the message?
+
+OR. But will the ruler also grant this?
+
+IPH. Yea. I will persuade him, and will myself embark him on the ship's
+hull.
+
+OR. Swear, but do thou commence such oath as is holy.
+
+IPH. Thou must say "I will give this [letter] to my friends."
+
+PYL. I will give this letter to thy friends.
+
+IPH. And I will send thee safe beyond the Cyanean rocks.
+
+PYL. Whom of the Gods dost thou call to witness of thine oath in these
+words?
+
+IPH. Diana, in whose temple I hold office.
+
+PYL. But I [call upon] the king of heaven, hallowed Jove.
+
+IPH. But if, deserting thine oath, thou shouldst wrong me--
+
+PYL. May I not return? But thou, if thou savest me not--
+
+IPH. May I never living set footprint in Argos.
+
+PYL. Hear now then a matter which we have passed by.
+
+IPH. There will be opportunity hereafter, if matters stand aright.
+
+PYL. Grant me this one exception. If the vessel suffer any harm, and the
+letter be lost[94] in the storm, together with the goods, and I save my
+person only, that this mine oath be no longer valid.[95]
+
+IPH. Knowest thou what I will do?[96] for the many things contained in the
+folds of the letter bear opportunity for many things.[97] I will tell you
+in words all that you are to convey to my friends, for this plan is safe.
+If indeed thou preservest the letter, it will itself silently tell the
+things written, but if these letters be lost at sea, saving thy body, thou
+wilt preserve my message.
+
+PYL. Thou hast spoken well on behalf of the Gods[98] and of myself. But
+tell me to whom at Argos I must needs bear these epistles, and what hearing
+from thee, I must tell.
+
+IPH. Bear word to Orestes, the son of Agamemnon, (_reading_) "she[99] that
+was sacrificed at Aulis gives this commission, Iphigenia alive, but no
+longer alive as far as those in Argos are concerned."
+
+OR. But where is she? Does she come back again having died?
+
+IPH. She, whom you see. Do not confuse me with speaking. (_Continues
+reading_) "Bear me to Argos, my brother, before I die, remove me from this
+barbarian land and the sacrifices of the Goddess, in which I have the
+office of slaying strangers."
+
+OR. Pylades, what shall I say? where shall we be found to be?[100]
+
+IPH. (_still reading_) "Or I will be a cause of curses upon thine house,
+Orestes," (_with great stress upon the name and turning to Pylades_,) "that
+thou, twice hearing the name, mayest know it."
+
+PYL. O Gods!
+
+IPH. Why callest thou upon the Gods in matters that are mine?
+
+PYL. 'Tis nothing. Go on. I was wandering to another subject. Perchance,
+inquiring of thee, I shall arrive at things incredible.[101]
+
+IPH. (_continues reading_) "Say that the Goddess Diana saved me, giving in
+exchange for me a hind, which my father sacrificed, thinking that it was
+upon me that he laid the sharp sword, and she placed me to dwell in this
+land." This is the burden of my message, these are the words written in my
+letter.
+
+PYL. O thou who hast secured me in easy oaths, and hast sworn things
+fairest, I will not delay much time, but I will firmly accomplish the oath
+I have sworn. Behold, I bear and deliver to thee a letter, O Orestes, from
+this thy sister.
+
+OR. I receive it. And letting go the opening of the letter, I will first
+seize a delight not in words (_attempts to embrace her_). O dearest sister
+mine, in amazement, yet nevertheless embracing thee with a doubting arm, I
+go to a source of delight, hearing things marvelous to me.[102]
+
+CHOR. Stranger,[103] thou dost not rightly pollute the servant of the
+Goddess, casting thine arm around her garments that should ne'er be
+touched.
+
+OR. O fellow-sister born of one sire, Agamemnon, turn not from me,
+possessing a brother whom you never thought to possess.
+
+IPH. I [possess] thee my brother? Wilt not cease speaking? Both Argos and
+Nauplia are frequented by him.[104]
+
+OR. Unhappy one! thy brother is not there.
+
+IPH. But did the Lacedæmonian daughter of Tyndarus beget thee?
+
+OR. Ay, to the grandson of Pelops, whence I am sprung.[105]
+
+IPH. What sayest thou? Hast thou any proof of this for me?
+
+OR. I have. Ask something relative to my ancestral home.
+
+IPH. Thou must needs then speak, and I learn.
+
+OR. I will first speak from hearsay from Electra, this.[106] Thou knowest
+the strife that took place between Atreus and Thyestes?
+
+IPH. I have heard of it, when it was waged concerning the golden lamb.
+
+OR. Dost thou then remember weaving [a representation of] this on the
+deftly-wrought web?
+
+IPH. O dearest one. Thou art turning thy course near to my own
+thoughts.[107]
+
+OR. And [dost thou remember] a picture on the loom, the turning away of the
+sun?
+
+IPH. I wove this image also in the fine-threaded web.
+
+OR. And didst thou receive[108] a bath from thy mother, sent to Aulis?
+
+IPH. I know it: for the wedding, though good, did not take away my
+recollection.[109]
+
+OR. But what? [Dost thou remember] to have given thine hair to be carried
+to thy mother?
+
+IPH. Ay, as a memorial for the tomb[110] in place of my body.
+
+OR. But the proofs which I have myself beheld, these will I tell, viz. the
+ancient spear of Pelops in my father's house, which brandishing in his
+hand, he [Pelops] won Hippodameia, having slain Ænomaus, which is hidden in
+thy virgin chamber.
+
+IPH. O dearest one, no more, for thou art dearest. I hold thee, Orestes,
+one darling son[111] far away from his father-land, from Argos, O thou dear
+one!
+
+OR. And I [hold] thee that wast dead, as was supposed. But tears, yet
+tearless,[112] and groans together mingled with joy, bedew thine eyelids,
+and mine in like manner.
+
+IPH. This one, this, yet a babe I left, young in the arms of the nurse, ay,
+young in our house. O thou more fortunate than my words[113] can tell, what
+shall I say? This matter has turned out beyond marvel or calculation.
+
+OR. [Say this.] May we for the future be happy with each other!
+
+IPH. I have experienced an unaccountable delight, dear companions, but I
+fear lest it flit[114] from my hands, and escape toward the sky. O ye
+Cyclopean hearths, O Mycenæ, dear country mine. I am grateful to thee for
+my life, and grateful for my nurture, in that thou hast trained for me this
+brother light in my home.
+
+OR. In our race we are fortunate, but as to calamities, O sister, our life
+is by nature unhappy.
+
+IPH. But I wretched remember when my father with foolish spirit laid the
+sword upon my neck.
+
+OR. Ah me! For I seem, not being present, to behold you there.[115]
+
+IPH. Without Hymen, O my brother, when I was being led to the fictitious
+nuptial bed of Achilles. But near the altar were tears and lamentations.
+Alas! alas, for the lustral waters there!
+
+OR. I mourn aloud for the deed my father dared.
+
+IPH. I obtained a fatherless, a fatherless lot. But one calamity follows
+upon another.[116]
+
+OR. [Ay,] if thou hadst lost thy brother, O hapless one, by the
+intervention of some demon.
+
+IPH. O miserable for my dreadful daring! I have dared horrid, I have dared
+horrid things. Alas! my brother. But by a little hast thou escaped an
+unholy destruction, stricken by my hands. But what will be the end after
+this? What fortune will befall me? What retreat can I find for thee away
+from this city? can I send you out of the reach of slaughter to your
+country Argos, before that my sword enter on the contest concerning thy
+blood?[117] This is thy business, O hapless soul, to discover, whether over
+the land, not in a ship, but by the gust[118] of your feet thou wilt
+approach death, passing through[119] barbarian hordes, and through ways not
+to be traversed? Or[120] [wilt thou pass] through the Cyanean creek, a long
+journey in the flight of ships. Wretched, wretched one! Who then or God, or
+mortal, or [unexpected event,[121]] having accomplished a way out of
+inextricable difficulties, will show forth to the sole twain Atrides a
+release from ills?
+
+CHOR. Among marvels and things passing even fable are these things which I
+shall tell as having myself beheld, and not from hearsay.
+
+PYL. It is meet indeed that friends coming into the presence of friends,
+Orestes, should embrace one another with their hands, but, having ceased
+from mournful matters, it behooves you also to betake you to those measures
+by which we, obtaining the glorious name of safety, may depart from this
+barbarian earth. For it is the part of wise men, not wandering from their
+present chance, when they have obtained an opportunity, to acquire further
+delights.[122]
+
+OR. Thou sayest well. But I think that fortune will take care of this with
+us. For if a man be zealous, it is likely that the divine power will have
+still greater power.
+
+IPH. Do not restrain or hinder me from your words, not first to know what
+fortune of life Electra has obtained, for this were pleasant to me [to
+hear.][123]
+
+OR. She is partner with this man, possessing a happy life.
+
+IPH. And of what country is he, and son of what man born?
+
+OR. Strophius the Phocian is styled his father.
+
+IPH. And he is of the daughter of Atreus, a relative of mine?
+
+OR. Ay, a cousin, my only certain friend.
+
+IPH. Was he not in being, when my father sought to slay me?
+
+OR. He was not, for Strophius was childless some time.
+
+IPH. Hail! O thou spouse of my sister.
+
+OR. Ay, and my preserver, not relation only.
+
+IPH. But how didst thou dare the terrible deeds in respect to your mother?
+
+OR. Let us be silent respecting my mother--'twas in avenging my father.
+
+IPH. And what was the reason for her slaying her husband?
+
+OR. Let go the subject of my mother. Nor is it pleasant for you to hear.
+
+IPH. I am silent. But Argos now looks up to thee.
+
+OR. Menelaus rules: I am an exile from my country.
+
+IPH. What, did our uncle abuse our house unprospering?
+
+OR. Not so, but the fear of the Erinnyes drives me from my land.
+
+IPH. For this then wert thou spoken of as being frantic even here on the
+shore.
+
+OR. We were beheld not now for the first time in a hapless state.
+
+IPH. I perceive. The Goddesses goaded thee on because of thy mother.
+
+OR. Ay, so as to cast a bloody bit[124] upon me.
+
+IPH. For wherefore didst thou pilot thy foot to this land?
+
+OR. I came, commanded by the oracles of Phœbus--
+
+IPH. To do what thing? Is it one to be spoken of or kept in silence?
+
+OR. I will tell you, but these are the beginning for me of many[125] woes.
+After these evil things concerning my mother, on which I keep silence, had
+been wrought, I was driven an exile by the pursuits of the Erinnyes, when
+Loxias sent my foot[126] to Athens, that I might render satisfaction to the
+deities that must not be named. For there is a holy council, that Jove once
+on a time instituted for Mars on account of some pollution of his
+hands.[127] And coming thither, at first indeed no one of the strangers
+received me willingly, as being abhorred by the Gods, but they who had
+respect to me, afforded me[128] a stranger's meal at a separate table,
+being under the same house roof, and silently devised in respect to me,
+unaddressed by them, how I might be separated from their banquet[129] and
+cup, and, having filled up a share of wine in a separate vessel, equal for
+all, they enjoyed themselves. And I did not think fit to rebuke my guests,
+but I grieved in silence, and did not seem to perceive [their conduct,]
+deeply groaning, because I was my mother's slayer.[130] But I hear that my
+misfortunes have been made a festival at Athens, and that this custom still
+remains, that the people of Pallas honor the Libation Vessel.[131] But when
+I came to the hill of Mars, and stood in judgment, I indeed occupying one
+seat, but the eldest of the Erinnyes the other, having spoken and heard
+respecting my mother's death, Phœbus saved me by bearing witness, but
+Pallas counted out for me[132] the equal votes with her hand, and I came
+off victor in the bloody trial.[133] As many then as sat [in judgment,]
+persuaded by the sentence, determined to hold their dwelling near the court
+itself.[134] But as many of the Erinnyes as did not yield obedience to the
+sentence passed, continually kept driving me with unsettled wanderings,
+until I again returned to the holy ground of Phœbus, and lying stretched
+before the adyts, hungering for food, I swore that I would break from life
+by dying on the spot, unless Phœbus, who had undone, should preserve me.
+Upon this Phœbus, uttering a voice from the golden tripod, sent me hither
+to seize the heaven-sent image, and place it in the land of Athens. But
+that safety which he marked out for me do thou aid in. For if we can lay
+hold on the image of the Goddess, I both shall cease from my madness, and
+embarking thee in the bark of many oars, I shall settle thee again in
+Mycenæ. But, O beloved one, O sister mine, preserve my ancestral home, and
+preserve me, since all my state and that of the Pelopids is undone, unless
+we seize on the heavenly image of the Goddess.
+
+CHOR. Some dreadful wrath of the Gods hath burst forth, and leads the seed
+of Tantalus through troubles.[135]
+
+IPH. I entertained the desire to reach Argos, and behold thee, my brother,
+even before thou camest. But I wish, as you do, both to save thee, and to
+restore again our sickening ancestral home from troubles, in no wise wrath
+with him who would have slain me. For I should both release my hand from
+thy slaughter, and preserve mine house. But I fear how I shall be able to
+escape the notice of the Goddess and the king, when he shall find the stone
+pedestal bared of the image. And how shall I escape death? What account can
+I give? But if indeed these matters can be effected at once, and thou wilt
+bear away the image, and lead me in the fair-pooped ship, the risk will be
+a glorious one. But separated from this I perish, but you, arranging your
+own affairs, would obtain a prosperous return. Yet in no wise will I fly,
+not even if I needs must perish, having preserved thee. In no wise, I
+say;[136] for a man who dies from among his household is regretted, but a
+woman is of little account.
+
+OR. I would not be the murderer both of thee and of my mother. Her blood is
+enough, and being of the same mind with you, [with you] I should wish,
+living or dying, to obtain an equal lot. †But I will lead thee, even though
+I myself fall here, to my house, or, remaining with thee, will die.[137]†
+But hear my opinion. If this had been disagreeable to Diana, how would
+Loxias have answered, that I should remove the image of the Goddess to the
+city of Pallas, and behold thy face? For, putting all these matters
+together, I hope to obtain a return.
+
+IPH. How then can it happen that neither you die, and that we obtain what
+we wish? For it is in this respect that our journey homeward is at fault,
+but the will is not wanting.
+
+OR. Could we possibly destroy the tyrant?
+
+IPH, Thou tellest a fearful thing, for strangers to slay their receivers.
+
+OR. But if it will preserve thee and me, one must run the risk.
+
+IPH. I could not--yet I approve your zeal.
+
+OR. But what if you were secretly to hide me in this temple?
+
+IPH. In order, forsooth, that, taking advantage of darkness, we might be
+saved?
+
+OR. For night is the time for thieves, the light for truth.
+
+IPH. But within are the sacred keepers,[138] whom we can not escape.
+
+OR. Alas! we are undone. How can we then be saved?
+
+IPH. I seem to have a certain new device.
+
+OR. Of what kind? Make me a sharer in your opinion, that I also may learn.
+
+IPH. I will make use of thy ravings as a contrivance.
+
+OR. Ay, cunning are women to find out tricks.
+
+IPH. I will say that thou, being slayer of thy mother, art come from Argos.
+
+OR. Make use of my troubles, if you can turn them to account.
+
+IPH. I will say that it is not lawful to sacrifice thee to the Goddess.
+
+OR. Having what pretext? For I partly suspect.
+
+IPH. As not being pure, but I will [say that I will][139] give what is holy
+to sacrifice.
+
+OR. How then the more will the image of the Goddess be obtained?
+
+IPH. I [will say that I] will purify thee in the fountains of the sea.
+
+OR. The statue, in quest of which, we have sailed, is still in the temple.
+
+IPH. And I will say that I must wash that too, as if you had laid hands on
+it.
+
+OR. Where then is the damp breaker of the sea of which you speak?
+
+IPH. Where thy ship rides at anchor with rope-bound chains.
+
+OR. But wilt thou, or some one else, bear the image in their hands?
+
+IPH. I, for it is lawful for me alone to touch it.
+
+OR. But in what part of this contrivance will our friend Pylades[140] be
+placed?
+
+IPH. He will be said to bear the same pollution of hands as thyself.
+
+OR. And wilt thou do this unknown to, or with the knowledge of the king?
+
+IPH. Having persuaded him by words, for I could not escape notice.
+
+OR. And truly the well-rowed ship is ready for sailing.[141]
+
+IPH. You must take care of the rest, that it be well.
+
+OR. There lacks but one thing, namely, that these women who are present
+preserve our secret. But do thou beseech them, and find words that will
+persuade. A woman in truth has power to move pity. But all the rest will
+perchance fall out well.
+
+IPH. O dearest women, I look to you, and my affairs rest in you, as to
+whether they turn out well, or be of naught, and I be deprived of my
+country, my dear brother, and dearest sister. And let this first be the
+commencement of my words. We are women, a race well inclined to one
+another, and most safe in keeping secret matters of common interest. Do ye
+keep silence for us, and labor out our escape. Honorable is it for the man
+who possesses a faithful tongue. But behold how one fortune holds the three
+most dear, either a return to our father-land, or to die. But, being
+preserved, that thou also mayest share my fortune, I will restore thee safe
+to Greece. But, by thy right hand, thee, and thee [_addressing the women of
+the chorus in succession_] I beseech, and thee by thy beloved cheek, and
+thy knees, and those most dear at home, mother, and father, and children,
+to whom there are such.[142] What say ye? Who of you will, or will not
+[speak!] these things.[143] For if ye assent not to my words, I am undone,
+and my wretched sister.
+
+CHOR. Be of good cheer, dear mistress, and think only of being saved, since
+on my part all shall be kept secret, the mighty Jove be witness! in the
+things thou enjoinest.
+
+IPH. May your words profit ye, and may ye be blest. 'Tis thy part now, and
+thine [to the different women] to enter the house, as the ruler of this
+land will straightway come, inquiring concerning the sacrifice of the
+strangers, whether it is over. O revered Goddess, who in the recesses of
+Aulis didst save me from the dire hand of a slaying father, now also save
+me and these, or the voice of Loxias will through thee be no longer
+truthful among mortals. But do thou with good will quit the barbarian land
+for Athens, for it becomes thee not to dwell here, when you can possess a
+blest city.
+
+CHORUS. Thou bird, that by the rocky cliffs of the sea, halcyon,[144] dost
+chant thy mournful elegy, a sound well understood by the skilled, namely,
+that thou art ever bemoaning thine husband in song, I, a wingless bird,
+compare my dirge with thine, longing for the assemblies[145] of the Greeks,
+longing for Lucina, who dwells along the Cynthian height, and near the
+palm[146] with its luxuriant foliage, and the rich-springing laurel, and
+the holy shoot of the deep blue olive, the dear place of Latona's
+throes,[147] and the lake that rolls its waters in a circle,[148] where the
+melodious swan honors the muses. O ye many tricklings of tears which fell
+upon my cheeks, when, our towers being destroyed, I traveled in ships
+beneath the oars and the spears of the foes.[149] And through a bartering
+of great price I came a journey to a barbarian land,[150] where I serve the
+daughter of Agamemnon, the priestess of the Goddess, and the
+sheep-slaughtering[151] altars, envying her who has all her life been
+unfortunate;[152] for she bends not under necessity, who is familiar with
+it. Unhappiness is wont to change,[153] but to fare ill after prosperity is
+a heavy life for mortals. And thee indeed, O mistress, an Argive ship of
+fifty oars will conduct home, and the wax-bound reed of mountain Pan with
+Syrinx tune cheer on the oarsmen, and prophet Phœbus, plying the tones of
+his seven-stringed lyre, with song will lead thee prosperously to the rich
+land of Athens. But leaving me here thou wilt travel by the dashing oars.
+And the halyards by the prow,[154] will stretch forth the sails to the air,
+above the beak, the sheet lines of the swift-journeying ship. Would that I
+might pass through the glittering course, where the fair light of the sun
+wends its way, and over my own chamber might rest from rapidly moving the
+pinions on my shoulders.[155] And would that I might stand in the dance,
+where also [I was wont to stand,] a virgin sprung from honorable
+nuptials,[156] wreathing the dances of my companions at the foot of my dear
+mother,[157] bounding to the rivalry of the graces, to the wealthy strife
+respecting [beauteous] hair, pouring my variously-painted garb and tresses
+around, I shadowed my cheeks.[158]
+
+[_Enter_ THOAS.]
+
+THOAS. Where is the Grecian woman who keeps the gate of this temple? Has
+she yet begun the sacrifice of the strangers, and are the bodies burning in
+the flame within the pure recesses?
+
+CHOR. Here she is, O king, who will tell thee clearly all.
+
+TH. Ah! Why art thou removing in your arms this image of the Goddess from
+its seat that may not be disturbed, O daughter of Agamemnon?
+
+IPH. O king, rest there thy foot in the portico.
+
+TH. But what new matter is in the house, Iphigenia?
+
+IPH. I avert the ill--for holy[159] do I utter this word.
+
+TH. What new thing art thou prefacing? speak clearly.
+
+IPH. O king, no pure offerings hast thou hunted out for me.
+
+TH. What hath taught you this? or dost thou speak it as matter of opinion?
+
+IPH. The image of the Goddess hath again turned away from her seat.[160]
+
+TH. Of its own accord, or did an earthquake turn it?
+
+IPH. Of its own accord, and it closed its eyes.
+
+TH. But what is the cause? is it pollution from the strangers?
+
+IPH. That very thing, naught else, for they have done dreadful things.
+
+TH. What, did they slay any of the barbarians upon the shore?
+
+IPH. They came possessing the stain of domestic murder.
+
+TH. What? for I am fallen into a longing to learn this.
+
+IPH. They put an end to a mother's life by conspiring sword.
+
+TH. Apollo! not even among barbarians would any one have dared this.
+
+IPH. By persecutions they were driven out of all Greece.
+
+TH. Is it then on their account that thou bearest the image without?
+
+IPH. Ay, under the holy sky, that I may remove it from blood stains.
+
+TH. But how didst thou discover the pollution of the strangers?
+
+IPH. I examined them, when the image of the Goddess turned away.
+
+TH. Greece hath trained thee up wise, in that thou well didst perceive
+this.
+
+IPH. And now they have cast out a delightful bait for my mind.
+
+TH. By telling thee any charming news of those at Argos?
+
+IPH. That my only brother Orestes fares well.
+
+TH. So that, forsooth, thou mightest preserve them because of their
+pleasant news!
+
+IPH. And that my father lives and fares well.
+
+TH. But thou hast with reason attended to the interest of the Goddess.
+
+IPH. Ay, because hating all Greece that destroyed me.
+
+TH. What then shall we do, say, concerning the two strangers?
+
+IPH. We needs must respect the established law.
+
+TH. Are not the lustral waters and thy sword already engaged?[161]
+
+IPH. First I would fain lave them in pure cleansings.
+
+TH. In the fountains of waters, or in the dew of the sea?
+
+IPH. The sea washes out all the ills of men.
+
+TH. They would certainly fall in a more holy manner before the Goddess.
+
+IPH. And my matters would be in a more fitting state.[162]
+
+TH. Does not the wave dash against the very temple?
+
+IPH. There is need of solitude, for we have other things to do.
+
+TH. Lead them whither thou wilt, I crave not to see things that may not be
+told.
+
+IPH. The image of the Goddess also must be purified by me.
+
+TH. If indeed the stain of the matricide hath fallen on it.
+
+IPH. For otherwise I should not have removed it from its pedestal.
+
+TH. Just piety and foresight! How reasonably doth all the city marvel at
+thee!
+
+IPH. Knowest thou then what must be done for me?
+
+TH. 'Tis thine to explain this.
+
+IPH. Cast fetters upon the strangers.
+
+TH. Whither could they escape from thee?
+
+IPH. Greece knows nothing faithful.
+
+TH. Go for the fetters, attendants.
+
+IPH. Ay, and let them bring the strangers hither.
+
+TH. This shall be.
+
+IPH. Having enveloped their heads in robes.
+
+TH. Against the scorching of the sun?
+
+IPH. And send thou with me of thy followers--
+
+TH. These shall accompany thee.
+
+IPH. And send some one to signify to the city--
+
+TH. What hap?
+
+IPH. That all remain in their homes.
+
+TH. Lest they encounter homicide?
+
+IPH. For such things are unclean.
+
+TH. Go thou, and order this.
+
+IPH. That no one come into sight.
+
+TH. Thou carest well for the city.
+
+IPH. Ay, and more particularly friends must not be present.[163]
+
+TH. This you say in reference to me.
+
+IPH. But do thou, abiding here before the temple of the Goddess--
+
+TH. Do what?
+
+IPH. Purify the house with a torch.
+
+TH. That it may be pure when thou comest back to it?
+
+IPH. But when the strangers come out,
+
+TH. What must I do?
+
+IPH. Place your garment before your eyes.
+
+TH. Lest I contract contagion?
+
+IPH. But if I seem to tarry very long,
+
+TH. What limit of this shall I have?
+
+IPH. Wonder at nothing.
+
+TH. Do thou rightly the business of the Goddess at thy leisure.
+
+IPH. And may this purification turn out as I wish!
+
+TH. I join in your prayer.
+
+IPH. I now see these strangers coming out of the house, and the adornments
+of the Goddess, and the young lambs, in order that I may wash out foul
+slaughter by slaughter, and the shining light of lamps, and the other
+things, as many as I ordered as purifications for the strangers and the
+Goddess. But I proclaim to the strangers to get out of the way of this
+pollution, if any gate-keeper of the temples keeps pure hands for the Gods,
+or is about to join in nuptial alliance, or is pregnant, flee, get out of
+the way, lest this pollution fall on any. O thou queen, virgin daughter of
+Jove and Latona, if I wash away the blood-pollution from these men, and
+sacrifice where 'tis fitting, thou wilt occupy a pure house, and we shall
+be prosperous. But although I do not speak of the rest, I nevertheless
+signify my meaning to the Gods who know most things,[164] and to thee, O
+Goddess.
+
+CHORUS.[165] Of noble birth is the offspring of Latona, whom once on a time
+in the fruitful valleys of Delos, Phœbus with his golden locks, skilled on
+the lyre, (and she who rejoices in skill of the bow,) his mother bore while
+yet an infant[166] from the sea-side rock, leaving the renowned place of
+her delivery, destitute of waters,[167] the Parnassian height haunted by
+Bacchus, where the ruddy-visaged serpent, with spotted back, † brazen †
+beneath the shady laurel with its rich foliage, an enormous prodigy of the
+earth, guarded the subterranean oracle. Him thou, O Phœbus, while yet an
+infant, while yet leaping in thy dear mother's arms, didst slay, and
+entered upon thy divine oracles, and thou sittest on the golden tripod, on
+the throne that is ever true, distributing to mortals prophecies from the
+divine adyts beneath the Castalian streams, dwelling hard by, occupying a
+dwelling in the middle of the earth.[168] But when, having gone against
+Themis, daughter of earth, he expelled her from the divine oracles, earth
+begot dark phantoms of dreams, which to many mortals explain what first,
+what afterward, what in future will happen, during their sleep in the
+couches of the dusky earth.[169] But † the earth † deprived Phœbus of the
+honor of prophecies, through anger on her daughter's account, and the
+swift-footed king, hastening to Olympus, stretched forth his little hand to
+the throne of Jove.[170] [beseeching him] to take away the earth-born[171]
+wrath of the Goddess, † and the nightly responses. † But he laughed,
+because his son had come quickly to him, wishing to obtain the wealthy
+office, and he shook his hair, and put an end to the nightly dreams,[172]
+and took away nightly divination from mortals, and again conferred the
+honor on Loxias, and confidence to mortals from the songs of oracles
+[proclaimed] on this throne, thronged to by many strangers.[173]
+
+[_Enter_ A MESSENGER.]
+
+MESS. O ye guardians of the temple and presidents of the altars, where in
+this land has king Thoas gone? Do ye, opening the well-fastened gates, call
+the ruler of this land outside the house.
+
+CHOR. But what is it, if I may speak when I am not bidden?
+
+MESS. The two youths have escaped, and are gone by the contrivances of
+Agamemnon's daughter, endeavoring to fly from this land, and taking the
+sacred image in the bosom of a Grecian ship.
+
+CHOR. Thou tellest an incredible story, but the king of this country, whom
+you wish to see, is gone, having quitted the temple.
+
+MESS. Whither? For he needs must know what has been done.
+
+CHOR. We know not. But go thou and pursue him to wheresoever, having met
+with him, thou mayest recount this news.
+
+MESS. See, how faithless is the female race! and ye are partners in what
+has been done.
+
+CHOR. Art thou mad? What have we to do with the flight of the strangers?
+Will you not go as quickly as possible to the gates of the rulers?
+
+MESS. Not at least before some distinct informer[174] tell me this, whether
+the ruler of the land is within or not within. Ho there! Open the
+fastenings, I speak to those within, and tell the master that I am at the
+gates, bearing a weight of evil news.
+
+THOAS. (_coming out_) Who makes this noise near the temple of the Goddess,
+hammering at the door, and sending fear within?
+
+MESS. These women told me falsely, (and tried to drive me from the house,)
+that you were away, while you really were in the house.
+
+TH. Expecting or hunting after what gain?
+
+MESS. I will afterward tell of what concerns them, but hear the present,
+immediate matter. The virgin, she that presided over the altars here,
+Iphigenia, has gone out of the land with the strangers, having the sacred
+image of the Goddess; but the expiations were pretended.
+
+TH. How sayest thou? possessed by what breath of calamity?[175]
+
+MESS. In order to preserve Orestes, for at this thou wilt marvel.
+
+TH. What [Orestes]? Him, whom the daughter of Tyndarus bore?
+
+MESS. Him whom she consecrated to the Goddess at these altars.
+
+TH. Oh marvel! How can I rightly[176] call thee by a greater name?
+
+MESS. Do not turn thine attention to this, but listen to me; and having
+perceived and heard, clearly consider what pursuit will catch the
+strangers.
+
+TH. Speak, for thou sayest well, for they do not flee by the way of the
+neighboring sea, so as to be able to escape my fleet.
+
+MESS. When we came to the sea-shore, where the vessel of Orestes was
+anchored in secret, to us indeed, whom thou didst send with her, bearing
+fetters for the strangers, the daughter of Agamemnon made signs that we
+should get far out of the way, as she was about to offer the secret[177]
+flame and expiation, for which she had come. But she, holding the fetters
+of the strangers in her hands, followed behind them. And these matters were
+suspicious, but they satisfied your attendants, O king. But at length, in
+order forsooth that she might seem to us to be doing something, she
+screamed aloud, and chanted barbarian songs like a sorceress, as if washing
+out the stain of murder. But after we had remained sitting a long time, it
+occurred to us whether the strangers set at liberty might not slay her, and
+take to flight. And through fear lest we might behold what was not fitting,
+we sat in silence, but at length the same words were in every body's mouth,
+that we should go to where they were, although not permitted. And upon this
+we behold the hull of the Grecian ship, [the rowing winged with well-fitted
+oars,[178]] and fifty sailors holding their oars in the tholes, and the
+youths, freed from their fetters, standing [on the shore] astern of the
+ship.[179] But some held in the prow with their oars, and others from the
+epotides let down the anchor, and others hastily applying the ladders, drew
+the stern-cables through their hands, and giving them to the sea, let them
+down to the strangers.[180] But we unsparing [of the toil,] when we beheld
+the crafty stratagem, laid hold of the female stranger and of the cables,
+and tried to drag the rudders from the fair-prowed ship from the
+steerage-place. But words ensued: "On what plea do ye take to the sea,
+stealing from this land the images and priestess? Whose son art thou, who
+thyself, who art carrying this woman from the land?" But he replied,
+"Orestes, her brother, that you may know, the son of Agamemnon, I, having
+taken this my sister, whom I had lost from my house, am bearing her off."
+But naught the less we clung to the female stranger, and compelled them by
+force to follow us to thee, upon which arose sad smitings of the cheeks.
+For they had not arms in their hands, nor had we; but fists were sounding
+against fists, and the arms of both the youths at once were aimed against
+our sides and to the liver, so that we at once were exhausted[181] and worn
+out in our limbs. But stamped with horrid marks we fled to a precipice,
+some having bloody wounds on the head, others in the eyes, and standing on
+the heights, we waged a safer warfare, and pelted stones. But archers,
+standing on the poop, hindered us with their darts, so that we returned
+back. And meanwhile--for a tremendous wave drove the ship against the land,
+and there was alarm [on board] lest she might dip her
+sheet-line[182]--Orestes, taking his sister on his left shoulder, walked
+into the sea, and leaping upon the ladder, placed her within the
+well-banked ship, and also the image of the daughter of Jove, that fell
+from heaven. And from the middle of the ship a voice spake thus, "O
+mariners of the Grecian ship, seize[183] on your oars, and make white the
+surge, for we have obtained the things on account of which we sailed o'er
+the Euxine within the Symplegades." But they shouting forth a pleasant cry,
+smote the brine. The ship, as long indeed as it was within the port, went
+on; but, passing the outlet, meeting with a strong tide, it was driven
+back. For a terrible gale coming suddenly, drives [the bark winged with
+well-fitted oars] poop-wise,[184] but they persevered, kicking against the
+wave, but an ebbing tide brought them again aground. But the daughter of
+Agamemnon stood up and prayed, "O daughter of Latona, bring me, thy
+priestess, safe into Greece from a barbarian land, and pardon the stealing
+away of me. Thou also, O Goddess, lovest thy brother, and think thou that I
+also love my kindred." But the sailors shouted a pæan in assent to the
+prayers of the girl, applying on a given signal the point of the
+shoulders,[185] bared from their hands, to the oars. But more and more the
+vessel kept nearing the rocks, and one indeed leaped into the sea with his
+feet, and another fastened woven nooses.[186] And I was immediately sent
+hither to thee, to tell thee, O king, what had happened there. But go,
+taking fetters and halters in your hands, for, unless the wave shall become
+tranquil, there is no hope of safety for the strangers. For the ruler of
+the sea, the revered Neptune, both favorably regards Troy, and is at enmity
+with the Pelopidæ. And he will now, as it seems, deliver up to thee and the
+citizens the son of Agamemnon, to take him into your hands, and his sister,
+who is detected ungratefully forgetting the Goddess in respect to the
+sacrifice at Aulis.[187]
+
+CHOR. O hapless Iphigenia, with thy brother wilt thou die, again coming
+into the hands of thy masters.
+
+TH. O all ye citizens of this barbarian land, will ye not, casting bridles
+on your horses, run to the shore, and receive the casting on of the Grecian
+ship? But hastening, by the favor of the Goddess, will ye not hunt down the
+impious men, and some of you haul the swift barks down to the sea, that by
+sea, and by horse-coursings on the land seizing them, we may either hurl
+them down the broken rock, or impale their bodies upon stakes. But you
+women, the accomplices in these plots, I will punish hereafter, when I have
+leisure, but now, having such a present duty, we will not remain idle.
+
+[MINERVA _appears_.]
+
+MIN. Whither, whither sendest thou this troop to follow [the fugitives,]
+king Thoas? List to the words of me, Minerva. Cease pursuing, and stirring
+on the onset of your host. For by the destined oracles of Loxias Orestes
+came hither, fleeing the wrath of the Erinnyes, and in order to conduct his
+sister's person to Argos, and to bear the sacred image into my land, by way
+of respite from his present troubles. Thus are our words for thee, but as
+to him, Orestes, whom you wish to slay, having caught him in a tempest at
+sea, Neptune has already, for my sake, rendered the surface of the sea
+waveless, piloting him along in the ship. But do thou, Orestes, learning my
+commands, (for thou hearest the voice of a Goddess, although not present,)
+go, taking the image and thy sister. And when thou art come to heaven-built
+Athens, there is a certain sacred district in the farthest bounds of
+Atthis, near the Carystian rock, which my people call Alœ--here, having
+built a temple, do thou enshrine the image named after the Tauric land and
+thy toils, which thou hast labored through, wandering over Greece, under
+the goad of the Erinnyes. But mortals hereafter shall celebrate her as the
+Tauric Goddess Diana. And do thou ordain this law, that, when the people
+celebrate a feast in grateful commemoration of thy release from
+slaughter,[188] let them apply the sword to the neck of a man, and let
+blood flow on account of the holy Goddess, that she may have honor. But, O
+Iphigenia, thou must needs be guardian of the temple of this Goddess at the
+hallowed ascent of Brauron;[189] where also thou shalt be buried at thy
+death, and they shall offer to you the honor of rich woven vestments, which
+women, dying in childbed, may leave in their houses. But I command thee to
+let these Grecian women depart from the land on account of their
+disinterested disposition,[190] I, having saved thee also on a former
+occasion, by determining the equal votes in the Field of Mars, Orestes, and
+that, according to the same law, he should conquer, whoever receive equal
+suffrages. But, O son of Agamemnon, do thou remove thy sister from this
+land, nor be thou angered, Thoas.
+
+TH. Queen Minerva, whosoever, on hearing the words of the Gods, is
+disobedient, thinks not wisely. But I will not be angry with Orestes, if he
+has carried away the image of the Goddess with him, nor with his sister.
+For what credit is there in contending with the potent Gods? Let them
+depart to thy land with the image of the Goddess, and let them prosperously
+enshrine the effigy. But I will also send these women to blest Greece, as
+thy mandate bids. And I will stop the spear which I raised against the
+strangers, and the oars of the ships, as this seems fit to thee, O Goddess.
+
+MIN. I commend your words, for fate commands both thee and the Gods
+[themselves.] Go, ye breezes, conduct the vessel of Agamemnon's son to
+Athens. And I will journey with you, to guard the hallowed image of my
+sister.
+
+CHOR. Go ye, happy because of your preserved fortune. But, O Athenian
+Pallas, hallowed among both immortals and mortals, we will do even as thou
+biddest. For I have received a very delightful and unhoped-for voice in my
+hearing. O thou all hallowed Victory, mayest thou possess my life, and
+cease not to crown it.[191]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+NOTES ON IPHIGENIA IN TAURIS
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+[1] This verse and part of the following are set down among the "oil cruet"
+verses by Aristophanes, Ran. 1232. Aristotle, Poet. § xvii. gives a sketch
+of the plot of the whole play, by way of illustrating the general form of
+tragedy. Hyginus, who constantly has Euripides in view, also gives a brief
+analysis of the plot, fab. cxx. For a description of the quadrigæ of
+Pelops, see Philostratus Imagg. i. 19. It must be observed, that Antoninus
+Liberalis, § 27, makes Iphigenia only the supposititious daughter of
+Agamemnon, but really the daughter of Theseus and Helen. See Meurs. on
+Lycophron, p. 145.
+
+[2] I must confess that I can not find what should have so much displeased
+the critics in this word. Iphigenia, in using such an epithet, evidently
+refers to her own intended sacrifice, which had rendered the recesses of
+Aulis a place of no small fame.
+
+[3] But Lenting prefers Αχαιους, with the approbation of the Cambridge
+editor.
+
+[4] See Reiske apud Dindorf. Compare my note on Æsch. Ag. 188, p. 101, ed.
+Bohn. So also Callimachus, Hymn. iii. μειλιον απλοϊης, ‛οτε ‛οι κατεδησας
+αητας.
+
+[5] Sinon made the same complaint. Cf. Virg. Æn. ii. 90.
+
+[6] Cf. Æsch. Ag. 235.
+
+[7] This whole passage has been imitated by Ovid, de Ponto, iii. 2, 60.
+"Sceptra tenente illo, liquidas fecisse per auras, Nescio quam dicunt
+Iphigenian iter. Quam levibus ventis sub nube per aera vectam Creditur his
+Phœbe deposuisse locis." Cf. Lycophron, p. 16, vs. 3 sqq. Nonnus xiii. p.
+332, 14 sqq.
+
+[8] Observe the double construction of ανασσει. Orest. 1690. ναυταις
+μεδεουσα θαλασσης.
+
+[9] The Cambridge editor would expunge this line, which certainly seems
+languid and awkward. Boissonade on Aristænet. Ep. xiii. p. 421, would
+simply read τα δ' αλλα ς. τ. θ. φοβουμενη: θυω γαρ. He also retains
+‛ιερειαν, referring to Gaisford on Hephæst. p. 216.
+
+[10] The Cambridge editor would throw out vs. 41.
+
+[11] The Cambridge editor refers to Med. 56, Androm. 91, Soph. El. 425. Add
+Plaut. Merc. i. 1, 3. "Non ego idem facio, ut alios in comœdiis vidi facere
+amatores, qui aut nocti, aut die, Aut Soli, aut Lunæ miserias narrant
+suas." Theognetus apud Athen. xv. p. 671. Casaub. πεφιλοσοφηκας γηι και
+ουρανωι λαλων. Cf. Davis, on Cicero, Tusc. Q. iii. 26, and Lomeier de
+Lustrat. § xxxvii.
+
+[12] Θριγκον is properly the uppermost part of the walls of any building
+(Pollux, vii. 27) surrounding the roof, στεγος is the roof itself.
+
+[13] Cf. Meurs. ad Lycophron, p. 148.
+
+[14] I read ειμ' εισω with Hermann and the Cambridge editor.
+
+[15] This line is condemned by the Cambridge editor. Burges has transposed
+it.
+
+[16] But διαδρομαις, the correction of the Cambridge editor, seems
+preferable.
+
+[17] An interpolation universally condemned.
+
+[18] See Barnes, and Wetstein on Acts xix. 35.
+
+[19] On the wanderings of Orestes see my note on Æsch. Eum. 238 sqq. p.
+187, ed. Bohn.
+
+[20] See the note of the Cambridge editor, with whom we must read
+εισβησομεσθα.
+
+[21] ‛ων ουδεν ισμεν ad interiora templi spectat. HERM.
+
+[22] We must read γεισα τριγλυφων ‛οποι, with Blomfield and the Cambridge
+editor. See Philander on Vitruv. ii. p. 35, and Pollux, vii. 27.
+
+[23] The sense is ουτοι, μακραν ελθοντες, εκ τερματων (sc. a meta)
+νοστησομεν. ED. CAMB.
+
+[24] The Cambridge editor appositely compares a fragment of our author's
+Cresphontes, iii. 2, αισχρον τε μοχθειν μη θελειν νεανιαν.
+
+[25] On the whole of this chorus, which is corrupt in several places, the
+notes of the Cambridge editor should be consulted.
+
+[26] This last lumbering line must be corrupt.
+
+[27] Compare the similar scene in Soph. El. 86 sqq.
+
+[28] Cf. Elect. 90. νυκτος δε τησδε προς ταφον μολων πατρος. Hecub. 76.
+Æsch. Pers. 179. Aristoph. Ran. 1331.
+
+[29] Compare my note on Æsch. Pers. 610 sqq.
+
+[30] See on Æsch. Choeph. 6.
+
+[31] Markland's emendation has been unanimously adopted by the later
+editors.
+
+[32] Schema Colophonium. The Cambridge editor compares vs. 244. Αργει
+σκηπτουχον. Phœn. 17. Θηβαισιν αναξ. Heracl. 361. Αργει τυραννος.
+
+[33] I have marked lacunæ, as some mythological particulars have evidently
+been lost.
+
+[34] An imperfect allusion to the Thyestean banquet. Cf. Seneca Thyest.
+774. "O Phœbe patiens, fugeris retro licet, medioque ruptum merseris cœlo
+diem, sero occidisti--" vs. 787 sqq.
+
+[35] Cf. Æsch. Ag. 1501 sqq. Seneca, Ag. 57 sqq.
+
+[36] i.e. the demon allotted to me at my birth (cf. notes on Æsch. 1341, p.
+135, ed. Bohn). Statius, Theb. i. 60, makes Œdipus invoke Tisiphone under
+the same character.--"Si me de matre cadentem Fovisti gremio."
+
+[37] See the note of the Cambridge editor.
+
+[38] εβησαν is active.
+
+[39] The Cambridge editor aptly refers to Hecub. 464.
+
+[40] These participles refer to the preceding αιμορραντων ξεινων.
+
+[41] See on Heracl. 721.
+
+[42] The Cambridge editor would omit these two lines.
+
+[43] Cf. vs. 107. κατ' αντρ', ‛α ποντιος νοτιδι διακλυζει μελας. On αγμος
+(Brodæus' happy correction for ‛αρμος) the Cambridge editor quotes Nicander
+Ther. 146. κοιλη τε φαραγξ, και τρηχεες αγμοι, and other passages. The
+manner of hunting the purple fish is thus described by Pollux, i. 4, p. 24.
+They plat a long rope, to which they fasten, like bells, a number of hempen
+baskets, with an open entrance to admit the animal, but which does not
+allow of its egress. This they let down into the sea, the baskets being
+filled with such food as the murex delights in, and, having fastened the
+end of the rope to the rock, they leave it, and returning to the place,
+draw up the baskets full of the fish. Having broken the shells, they pound
+the flesh to form the dye.
+
+[44] εφθαρμενους. Cf. Cycl. 300. Hel. 783. Ed. Camb.
+
+[45] Compare Orest. 255 sqq.
+
+[46] χιτωνων is probably corrupt.
+
+[47] Cf. Lobeck on Aj. 17. Hesych. κοχλος τοις θαλαττιοις (i.e. κοχλοις)
+εχρωντο, προ της των σαλπιγγων ευρεσεως. Virg. Æn. vi. 171. "Sed tum forte
+cava dum personat æquora concha."
+
+[48] "Moriamur, et in media arma ruamus." Virg. Æn. ii.
+
+[49] Such seems to be the sense, but εξεκλεψαμεν is ridiculous, and
+Hermann's emendation more so. Bothe reads εξεκοψαμεν, which is better. The
+Cambridge editor thinks that the difficulty lies in πετροισι.
+
+[50] I would omit this line as an evident gloss.
+
+[51] See the Cambridge editor.
+
+[52] Reiske's emendation, ‛οσια for ‛οια, seems deserving of admission.
+
+[53] The Cambridge editor would omit these lines.
+
+[54] This line also the Cambridge editor trusts "will never hereafter be
+reckoned among the verses of Euripides."
+
+[55] Such is the proper sense of αντιθεισα.
+
+[56] νιν is νυμφευματα.
+
+[57] Read κασιγνητηι.
+
+[58] I read τοις μεν and τοις δ' with the Cambridge editor. Hermann's
+emendation is unheard of.
+
+[59] This clause interrupts the construction. δραμοντες must be understood
+with all the following sentence, as no finite verb is expressed except
+επερασαν.
+
+[60] I have partly followed Hermann, reading επεβαιην ... απολαυων, but, as
+to reading ‛υπνων for ‛υμνων, the Cambridge editor well calls it "one of
+the wonders of his edition." I should prefer reading ολβου with the same
+elegant scholar.
+
+[61] I follow the Cambridge editor in reading διδυμας, from Ovid, Ep. Pont.
+iii. 2, 71. "Protinus immitem Triviæ ducuntur ad aram, Evincti geminas ad
+sua terga manus."
+
+[62] "_displays while she offers_" i.e. "_presents as a public offering_"
+ED. CAMB.
+
+[63] I am but half satisfied with this passage.
+
+[64] Read εσεσθε δη κατω with the Cambridge editor.
+
+[65] We must read νω with Porson.
+
+[66] Probably a spurious line.
+
+[67] Read Μυκηνων γ', _ay, from Mycenæ_, with the Cambridge editor.
+
+[68] Hermann seems rightly to read ‛ος γ' εν.
+
+[69] Dindorf rightly adopts Reiske's emendation συ τουδ' ερα.
+
+[70] The Cambridge editor rightly reads τινά with an accent, as Orestes
+obviously means himself. Compare Soph. Ant. 751. ‛ηδ' ουν θανειται, και
+θανουσ' ολει τινά.
+
+[71] Such is the force of δη.
+
+[72] I would read εξεπραξατο with Emsley, but I do not agree with him in
+substituting κακην. The oxymoron seems intentional, and by no means unlike
+Euripides.
+
+[73] The Cambridge editor would read εστ' ουτις λογος.
+
+[74] But χαριν, as Matthiæ remarks, is taken in two senses; as a
+preposition with γυναικος, _ob improbam mulierem_, and as a substantive,
+with αχαριν added. Cf. Æsch. Choeph. 44. Lucretius uses a similar oxymoron
+respecting the same subject, i. 99. "Sed _casta inceste_ nubendi tempore in
+ipso Hostia concideret mactatu mæsta parentis."
+
+[75] This passage is very corrupt. The Cambridge editor supposes something
+lost respecting the fortunes of Orestes. Hermann reads ‛εν δε λυπεισθαι
+μονον, ‛ο τ' ουκ αφρων ων. But I am very doubtful.
+
+[76] These three lines are justly condemned as an absurd interpolation by
+Dindorf and the Cambridge editor.
+
+[77] This seems the easiest way of expressing και συ after συ δ'.
+
+[78] I am partly indebted to Potter's happy version. The Cambridge editor
+is as ingenious as usual, but he candidly allows that conjecture is
+scarcely requisite.
+
+[79] i.e. thou seemest reckless of life.
+
+[80] προστροπη, this mode of offering supplication, i.e. this duty of
+sacrifice.
+
+[81] Diodorus, xx. 14. quotes this and the preceding line reading χθονος
+for πετρας. He supposes that Euripides derived the present account from the
+sacrifices offered to Saturn by the Carthaginians, who caused their
+children to fall from the hands of the statue εις τι χασμα πληρες πυρος.
+Compare Porphyr. de Abst. ii. 27. Justin, xviii. 6. For similar human
+sacrifices among the Gauls, Cæsar de B.G. vi. 16, with the note of Vossius.
+Compare also Saxo Grammaticus, Hist. Dan. iii. p. 42, and the passages of
+early historians quoted in Stephens' entertaining notes, p. 92.
+
+[82] Cf. Tibull. i. 3, 5. "Abstineas, mors atra, precor, non hic mihi
+mater, Quæ legat in mæstos ossa perusta sinus; non soror, Assyrios cineri
+quæ dedat odores, et fleat effusis ante sepulchra comis."
+
+[83] This must be what the poet _intends_ by κατασβεσω, however awkwardly
+expressed. See Hermann's note.
+
+[84] Compare vs. 468 sq.
+
+[85] This line is hopelessly corrupt.
+
+[86] I read μεν ουν with the Cambridge editor.
+
+[87] αζηλα is in opposition to the whole preceding clause.
+
+[88] See the note of the Cambridge editor on Iph. Aul. 1372.
+
+[89] I should prefer εστι δη,"_she surely is._"
+
+[90] We must evidently read either διηλθον with Porson, or διελθε with
+Jan., Le Fevre, and Markland.
+
+[91] I almost agree with Dindorf in considering this line spurious.
+
+[92] For this construction compare Ritterhus. ad Oppian, Cyn. i. 11.
+
+[93] I can not help thinking this line is spurious, and the preceding θηται
+corrupt. One would expect θησηι.
+
+[94] Cf. Kuinoel on Cydon. de Mort. Contem. § 1, p. 6, n. 18.
+
+[95] Literally, "no longer a hinderance," i.e. "that I be no longer
+responsible for its fulfillment."
+
+[96] The Cambridge editor, however, seems to have settled the question in
+favor of οισθ' ‛ουν ‛ο δρασον.
+
+[97] I must candidly confess that none of the explanations of these words
+satisfy me. Perhaps it is best to regard them, with Seidler, as merely
+signifying the mutability of fortune.
+
+[98] i.e. as far as the fulfilling of my oath is concerned.
+
+[99] The letter evidently commences with the words ‛η 'ν Αυλιδι σφαγεισα. I
+can not imagine how Markland and others should have made it commence with
+the previous line.
+
+[100] i.e. in what company.
+
+[101] This line is either spurious or out of place. See the Cambridge
+editor.
+
+[102] The Cambridge editor in a note exhibiting his usual chastened and
+elegant judgment, regards these three lines as an absurd and trifling
+interpolation. For the credit of Euripides, I would fain do the same.
+
+[103] The same elegant scholar justly assigns these lines to Iphigenia.
+
+[104] So Erfurdt.
+
+[105] See the Cambridge editor.
+
+[106] This line seems justly condemned by the Cambridge editor.
+
+[107] With καμπτεις understand δρομον = thou art fast arriving at the goal
+of the truth.
+
+[108] Read απεδεξω with ed. Camb.
+
+[109] "I remember it: for the wedding did not, by its happy result, take
+away the recollection of that commencement of nuptial ceremonies." CAMB.
+ED.
+
+[110] i.e. Iphigenia sent it with a view to a cenotaph at Mycenæ, as she
+was about to die at Aulis. See Seidler.
+
+[111] "This Homeric epithet of an only son is used, I believe, nowhere else
+in Attic poetry. Its adoption here seems owing to Hom. Il. Ι. 142 and 284.
+τισω δε μιν ‛ισον Ορεστηι ‛Ος μοι τηλυγετος τρεφεται θαλιηι ενι πολληι."
+ED. CAMB.
+
+[112] This is Musgrave's elegant emendation, which Hermann, unwilling to
+let well alone, has attempted to spoil. See, however, the Cambridge editor,
+who possesses taste and clear perception, unbiased by self-love.
+
+[113] Read εμοις with the Cambridge editor.
+
+[114] But φυγηις, and ω φιλος, the emendation of Burges, seems far better,
+and is followed by the Cambridge editor.
+
+[115] i.e. I can imagine your sufferings at Aulis.
+
+[116] The Cambridge editor compares Hec. 684. ‛ετερα δ' αφ' ‛ετερων κακα
+κακων κυρει.
+
+[117] This is Reiske's interpretation, taking the construction πριν ξιφος
+παλ. επι ‛αιματι. But Seidler would recall the old reading πελασαι,
+comparing Hel. 361. αυτοσιδαρον εσω πελασω δια σαρκος ‛αμιλλαν. This is
+better, but we must also read ετι for επι with the Cambridge editor.
+
+[118] ‛ριπαι ποδων is a bold way of expressing rapid traveling.
+
+[119] Read ανα with Markland, for αρα.
+
+[120] I read η δια κυαν. with the Cambridge editor. The following words are
+rendered thus by Musgrave, "Per ... _est_ longum iter."
+
+[121] Unintelligible, and probably spurious.
+
+[122] The Cambridge editor finds fault with the obvious clumsiness of the
+expression, and proposes εχειν for λαβειν. I have still greater doubts
+about εκβαντας τυχης. The sense ought to be, "'tis the part of wise men,
+_when fortune favors_, not to lose the opportunity, but to gain other
+advantages."
+
+[123] See Dindorf's notes. But the Cambridge editor has shown so decided a
+superiority to the German critics, that I should unhesitatingly adopt his
+reading, as follows: ου μη μ' επισχηις, ουδ' αποστησεις λογου, το μη ου
+πυθεσθαι ... φιλα γαρ ταυτα, (with Markland,) although πρωτον may perhaps
+be defended.
+
+[124] See the Cambridge editor. The same elegant scholar has also improved
+the arrangement of the lines.
+
+[125] "Quanquam animus meminisse horret, luctuque refugit, Incipiam." Virg.
+Æn. i.
+
+[126] I read ενθ' εμον ποδα with Herm. and Dind.
+
+[127] Cf. Elect. 1258 sqq., and Meurs. Areop. § i. ψηφος seems here used to
+denote the place where the council was held. The pollution of Mars was the
+murder of Hallirothius. Cf. Pausan. i. 21.
+
+[128] An instance of the nominativus pendens.
+
+[129] So Valckenaer, Diatr. p. 246, who quotes some passages relative to
+the treatment of Orestes at Athens.
+
+[130] See the Cambridge editor.
+
+[131] See Barnes, who quotes the Schol. on Arist. Eq. 95. Χους was the name
+of the festival.
+
+[132] εμοι is the dativus commodi.
+
+[133] I am indebted to Maltby for this translation.
+
+[134] Cf. Piers, on Mœr. p. 351, and the Cambridge editor.
+
+[135] But see ed. Camb.
+
+[136] Such is the force, of ου γαρ αλλ'.
+
+[137] These lines are very corrupt, and perhaps, as Dindorf thinks,
+spurious.
+
+[138] Markland rightly reads ‛ιεροφυλακες.
+
+[139] "dicam me daturam." MARKLAND.
+
+[140] ‛οδ' is the correction of Brodæus.
+
+[141] νεως πιτυλος seems not merely a periphrase, but implies that the oars
+are in the row-locks, as if ready for starting.
+
+[142] But the Cambridge editor very elegantly reads ει τοι.
+
+[143] Put φθεγξασθε in an inclosure, and join ταυτα with θελει. See ed.
+Camb.
+
+[144] Schol. Theocr. Id. vii. 57. θρηνητικον το ζωιον, και παρα τοις
+αιγιαλοις νεοττευον. Cf. Aristoph. Ran. 1309, who perhaps had the passage
+in view.
+
+[145] αγορος is a somewhat rare word for αγυρις.
+
+[146] Cf. Hecub. 457 sqq.
+
+[147] So Matthiæ, "locum ubi Latona partum edidit."
+
+[148] Read κυκλιον with Seidler. On the λιμνη τροχοειδης at Delos, see
+Barnes.
+
+[149] "I was conveyed by sailors and soldiers." ED. CAMB.
+
+[150] The same scholar quotes Soph. Ph. 43. αλλ' η' πι φορβης νοστον
+εξεληλυθεν, vhere νοστος is used in the same manner as here, simply meaning
+"a journey."
+
+[151] But see Camb. ed.
+
+[152] I read ζηλουσα ταν with the same.
+
+[153] The Cambridge critic again proposes μεταβολαι δ' ευδαιμονια, which he
+felicitously supports. Musgrave has however partly anticipated this
+emendation.
+
+[154] Dindorf has shown so little care in editing this passage, that I have
+merely recalled the old reading, αερι δ' ‛ιστια προτονοι κ. πρ. ‛υπερ
+στολον εκπ., following the construction proposed by Heath, and approved, as
+it appears, by the Cambridge editor. Seidler's note is learned and
+instructive, but I have some doubts about his criticism.
+
+[155] i.e. I wish I might become a bird and fly homeward.
+
+[156] See ed. Camb.
+
+[157] But see ibid. Dindorf's text is a hopeless display of bad readings
+and worse punctuation.
+
+[158] Reading γεννας, I have done my best with this passage, but I can only
+refer to the Cambridge editor for a text and notes worthy of the play.
+
+[159] I have recalled the old reading, ‛οσια.
+
+[160] On these sort of prodigies, see Musgrave, and Dansq. on Quintus
+Calaber, xii. 497 sqq.
+
+[161] "in eo, ut" is the force of εν εργωι.
+
+[162] Perhaps a sly allusion to their escape.
+
+[163] See ed. Camb.
+
+[164] But we must read τοις τε with the Cambridge editor = "who know more
+than men."
+
+[165] I can not too early impress upon the reader the necessity of a
+careful attention to the criticisms of the Cambridge editor throughout this
+difficult chorus, especially to his masterly sketch of the whole, p. 146,
+147.
+
+[166] φερεν ινιν is Burges' elegant emendation, the credit of which has
+been unduly claimed by Seidler.
+
+[167] i.e. the place afterward called Inopus. See Herm., whose construction
+I have followed.
+
+[168] On the ομφαλος see my note on Æsch. Eum. p. 180, ed. Bohn. On the
+Delphic priesthood, compare ibid. p. 179.
+
+[169] See, however, the Cambridge editor.
+
+[170] Read ες θρονον with Barnes and Dind., or rather επι Ζηνος θρονον with
+Herm.
+
+[171] But see Dindorf.
+
+[172] See Dindorf's note, but still better the Cambridge editor.
+
+[173] I follow Seidler.
+
+[174] So ed. Camb.
+
+[175] i.e. what evil inspiration of the Gods impelled her to this act?
+Thoas, who is represented as superstitious to the most barbarian extent,
+naturally regards the infidelity of Iphigenia as proceeding from the
+intervention of heaven.
+
+[176] Cf. Monk. on Hippol. 828.
+
+[177] Cf. vs. 1197. ερημιας δει.
+
+[178] Dindorf and the Cambridge editor follow Hermann, who would place this
+line after vs. 1394.
+
+[179] So Musgrave.
+
+[180] Seidler has deserved well of this passage, both by his correction
+τοιν ξενοιν for την ξενην, and by his learned and clear explanation of the
+nautical terms.
+
+[181] Dindorf has adopted Markland's emendation, but I prefer ‛ωστ'
+εξαναπνειν with the Cambridge editor.
+
+[182] i.e. capsize.
+
+[183] But see ed. Camb.
+
+[184] I have introduced the line above mentioned, and have likewise adopted
+Hermann's introduction of παλιμπρυμνηδον from Hesychius, in lieu of παλιν
+πρυμνησι'.
+
+[185] See ed. Camb.
+
+[186] "The obvious intent of these measures was to fasten the vessel to
+some point of the rocks, and thus prevent her being wrecked." ED. CAMB.
+
+[187] "Our passage is thus to be understood, ‛η ‛αλισκεται προδουσα το
+μνημονευειν θεαι φονον." ED. CAMB.
+
+[188] So Hermann rightly explains the sense. I agree with the Cambridge
+editor, that if Euripides had intended to use ‛οσιας substantively, he
+would hardly have joined it with θεας, thereby causing an ambiguity.
+
+[189] There is another construction, taking κλιμ. θεας together. On the
+whole introduction of Minerva, see the clever note of the Cambridge editor,
+p. 158, 159.
+
+[190] There is evidently a lacuna, as the transition to Orestes is worse
+than abrupt. The mythological allusions in the following lines are well
+explained in the notes of Barnes and Seidler.
+
+[191] On these last verses see the end of the Orestes, with Dindorf's note.
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 15081 ***
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+<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 15081 ***</div>
+
+<p class="center">THE</p>
+<h2>TRAGEDIES</h2>
+<p class="center">OF</p>
+<h1>EURIPIDES.</h1>
+
+<p class="center">LITERALLY TRANSLATED OR REVISED,</p>
+<h3>WITH CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES,</h3>
+
+<p class="center">BY</p>
+<h3>THEODORE ALOIS BUCKLEY,</h3>
+<p class="center">OF CHRIST CHURCH.</p>
+
+<h3>VOL. I.</h3>
+
+<p class="center">HECUBA, ORESTES, PH&#338;NISSÆ, MEDEA, HIPPOLYTUS, ALCESTIS,<br />
+BACCHÆ, HERACLIDÆ, IPHIGENIA IN AULIDE,<br />
+AND IPHIGENIA IN TAURIS.</p>
+
+<h3>NEW YORK:</h3>
+<p class="center">HARPER &amp; BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS,</p>
+<p class="center">FRANKLIN SQUARE.</p>
+
+<h3>1892.</h3>
+
+<hr class="full" />
+
+  <div class="personae">
+    <div class="stanza">
+	<p><a href="#PREFACE">PREFACE.</a></p>
+	<p><a href="#INTRODUCTION">INTRODUCTION.</a></p>
+	<p><a href="#HECUBA">HECUBA.</a></p>
+	<p><a href="#ORESTES">ORESTES.</a></p>
+	<p><a href="#PHOENISSAE">THE PH&#338;NICIAN VIRGINS.</a></p>
+	<p><a href="#MEDEA">MEDEA.</a></p>
+	<p><a href="#HIPPOLYTUS">HIPPOLYTUS.</a></p>
+	<p><a href="#ALCESTIS">ALCESTIS.</a></p>
+	<p><a href="#BACCHAE">THE BACCHÆ.</a></p>
+	<p><a href="#HERACLIDAE">THE HERACLIDÆ.</a></p>
+	<p><a href="#AULIS">IPHIGENIA IN AULIS.</a></p>
+	<p><a href="#TAURIS">IPHIGENIA IN TAURIS.</a></p>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+
+<hr class="full" />
+<a name="PREFACE"></a>
+<h2>PREFACE.</h2>
+
+  <p>The translations of the first six plays in the present volume were
+  published at Oxford some years since, and have been frequently reprinted.
+  They are now carefully revised according to Dindorf's text, and are
+  accompanied by a few additional notes adapted to the requirements of the
+  student.</p>
+
+  <p>The translations of the Bacchæ, Heraclidæ, and the two Iphigenias, are
+  based upon the same text, with certain exceptions, which are pointed out
+  at the foot of the page. The annotations on the Iphigenias are almost
+  exclusively critical, as it is presumed that a student who proceeds to
+  the reading of these somewhat difficult plays<a name="NtA_1"></a><a
+  href="#Nt_1"><sup>[1]</sup></a>, will be sufficiently advanced in his
+  acquaintance with the Greek drama to dispense with more elementary
+  information.</p>
+
+  <div class="poem">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <p class="i8">T.A. BUCKLEY,</p>
+      <p class="i8">    CHRIST CHURCH, OXFORD.</p>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+<div class="note">
+  <p><a name="Nt_1"></a><a href="#NtA_1">[1]</a> The reader will obtain
+  some notion of the difficulties alluded to, and the best mode of
+  grappling with them, by consulting the recent Cambridge edition,
+  published with English notes (Iph. in Aulide, 1840, in Tauris, 1846),
+  performances of great critical acumen, attributed to the present Bishop
+  of Gloucester.</p>
+
+</div>
+<hr class="full" />
+
+<a name="INTRODUCTION"></a>
+<h2>INTRODUCTION.</h2>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+  <p>Euripides, son of Mnesarchus, was born in the island of Salamis, on
+  the day of the celebrated victory (B.C. 480). His mother, Clito, had been
+  sent thither in company with the other Athenian women, when Attica was
+  given up, and the ships became at once the refuge of the male population,
+  and the national defense. Mr. Donaldson<a name="Int_1"></a><a
+  href="#IntN_1"><sup>[1]</sup></a> well remarks, that the patronymic form
+  of his name, derived from the Euripus, which was the scene of the first
+  successful resistance offered to the Persian navy, shows that the
+  attention of his parents was fully excited by the stirring events of the
+  time.</p>
+
+  <p>Notwithstanding the fact that his mother had been an herb-seller, it
+  is probable that his father was a man of some family. That he was at
+  least possessed of ample means, is evident from the care and expense
+  bestowed upon our poet's education. Under the tutorship of Anaxagoras,
+  Prodicus, and Protagoras, he had studied both natural philosophy and
+  rhetoric in its sophistical form. In gymnastic exercises he exhibited a
+  successful prowess, being twice victorious in the Eleusinian and Thesean
+  games. Of his skill in painting, some specimens were preserved at
+  Megara.</p>
+
+  <p>His appearance as a dramatist was at an earlier age than that of his
+  predecessors, as he was only five and twenty years old when he produced
+  the "Peliades," his first tragedy. On this occasion, he gained the third
+  prize in the tragic contests, but the first, fourteen years after, and
+  subsequently, with the "Hippolytus," in 428 B.C. The peculiar tendency of
+  some of the ideas expressed in his plays, was the probable cause of the
+  retirement of Euripides to Macedonia, where he obtained the friendship of
+  King Archelaus. Perhaps, however, the unhappiness of his connubial state,
+  arising from the infidelity of his two wives, might have rendered Athens
+  a disagreeable place of abode for the woman-hating poet, especially when
+  his "domestic bliss" was continually seasoned by the sarcastic jokes and
+  allusions of his political enemy, Aristophanes. Moreover, his
+  acquaintance with the talking philosopher, Socrates, must have been
+  unfavorable to the continuance of his popularity.</p>
+
+  <p>The fate of Pentheus in our author's noble play, the "Bacchæ," appears
+  to have given origin to the tradition that he himself was torn to pieces
+  by dogs. If we reflect that this play was probably the last of his works,
+  the mistake seems a plausible one. The death of Euripides, which probably
+  happened in the ordinary course of nature, has, like that of Æschylus,
+  been associated with the marvelous.</p>
+
+  <p>The Athenians vainly craved the honor of giving a resting-place to the
+  ashes of their philosopher-poet. He was buried at Pella, but a cenotaph
+  at Athens showed that his countrymen had not forgotten Euripides. His
+  death took place B.C. 406.</p>
+
+  <p>The inferiority of our author to the greater tragedians, prevents our
+  feeling much desire to enter upon the respective merits and demerits of
+  his several plays, especially as we are completely anticipated by
+  Schlegel, with whose masterly analysis every reader ought to be
+  acquainted. Nevertheless, a few general remarks may, perhaps, be not
+  wholly unprofitable.</p>
+
+  <p>It has been truly remarked, that tragedy, in no small degree, owed its
+  downfall to Euripides. Poetry was gradually superseded by rhetoric,
+  sublimity by earnestness, pathos by reasoning. Thus, Iphigenia and
+  Macaria give so many good reasons for dying, that the sacrifice appears
+  very small, and a modern wag in the upper regions of the theatre would,
+  at the end of the speech of the latter heroine, almost have exclaimed,
+  "Then why don't you die?"</p>
+
+  <p>It has been said, that our poet drew the characters of life as he
+  found them, but bad as his characters are, they exhibit only a vulgar
+  wickedness. Unable to portray a Clytæmnestra, he revels in the continual
+  paltriness of a Menelaus or Ulysses. As if he took a delight in the black
+  side of humanity, he loves to show the strength of false reasoning, of
+  sophistry antagonistic to truth, and of cold expediency in opposition to
+  the natural feelings of humanity. From a similar reason, his occasional
+  attempts at comedy degenerate into mere farce. We question whether the
+  scene between Death and Apollo in the "Alcestis," could be surpassed in
+  vulgarity, even by the modern school of English dramatists, while his
+  exaggerations in the minor characters are scarcely to be surpassed by the
+  lowest writer of any period.</p>
+
+  <p>Under Euripides, the stage began gradually to approximate more closely
+  to the ordinary and, at that time, debased character of Athenian society.
+  A contempt for the Lacedæmonians, a passionate taste for the babbling and
+  trickery of the forum, and an attempt to depreciate the social position
+  and influence of the weaker sex, form the most unamiable features of this
+  change. Yet we must allow, that if Euripides has reveled in the
+  amiabilities of a Melanippe or a Phædra, in the gentle revenge of a Medea
+  or Hecuba, he has at the same time given us an Alcestis, the only real
+  example of genuine conjugal affection on the Greek stage.</p>
+
+  <p>Nor must we forget that Euripides is a greater admirer of nature, a
+  more complete delineator of her workings, than the two greater
+  tragedians. He has more of illustrative philosophy, more of regard to the
+  objects of the animated creation, the system of the universe, than his
+  greater rivals exhibit. He is, as Vitruvius has justly styled him, a
+  "stage-philosopher." Did we possess a larger acquaintance with the works
+  of Parmenides, Empedocles, and other early cosmogonists, we should
+  perhaps think less of his merits on this head: as it is, the possession
+  of some such fragments of our poet makes us deeply regret the loss of the
+  plays themselves.</p>
+
+  <p>But his very love for the contemplation of nature has in no small
+  degree contributed to the mischievous skepticism promulgated by our poet.
+  In early times, when a rural theogony was the standard of belief, when
+  each star had its deity, each deity its undisputed, unquestioned
+  prerogative and worship, there was little inclination, less opportunity,
+  for skepticism. Throughout the poetry of Hesiod, we find this feeling
+  ever predominant, a feeling which Virgil and Tibullus well knew how to
+  appreciate. Even Euripides himself, perhaps taught by some dangerous
+  lessons at home, has expressed his belief that it is best "not to be too
+  clever in matters regarding the Gods."<a name="Int_2"></a><a
+  href="#IntN_2"><sup>[2]</sup></a> A calm retreat in the wild, picturesque
+  tracts of Macedonia, might have had some share in reforming this spoiled
+  pupil of the sophists. But as we find that the too careful contemplation
+  of nature degenerates into superstition or rationalism in their various
+  forms, so Euripides had imbibed the taste for saying startling things,<a
+  name="Int_3"></a><a href="#IntN_3"><sup>[3]</sup></a> rather than wise;
+  for reducing the principles of creation to materialism, the doctrines of
+  right and wrong to expediency, and immutable truths to a popular system
+  of question and answer. Like the generality of sophists, he took away a
+  received truth, and left nothing to supply its place; he reasoned
+  falsehood into probability, truth into nonentity.</p>
+
+  <p>At a period when the Prodico-Socratic style of disputing was in high
+  fashion, the popularity of Euripides must have been excessive. His
+  familiar appeals to the trifling matters of ordinary life, his characters
+  all philosophizing, from the prince to the dry-nurse, his excellent
+  reasons for doing right or wrong, as the case might be, must have been
+  inestimably delightful to the accommodating morals of the Athenians. The
+  Court of Charles the Second could hardly have derived more pleasure from
+  the writings of a Behn or a Hamilton, than these unworthy descendants of
+  Codrus must have experienced in hearing a bad cause so cleverly defended.
+  Whether the orators and dikasts followed the example of the stage in
+  those days, can scarcely be ascertained, but it is more than certain that
+  they practically illustrated its principles. At least, the Sicilians were
+  so fond of our author, that a few of the unfortunate survivors of the
+  Syracusan disaster, were enabled to pick up a living by quoting such
+  passages of our author as they had learned by heart. A compliment paid to
+  few living dramatists in our days!</p>
+
+  <p>In dramatic conduct, Euripides is at an even greater disadvantage with
+  Æschylus and Sophocles. The best characters of the piece are often the
+  least employed, as in the instance of Macaria in the "Heraclidæ," while
+  the play is dwindled away with dull, heavy dirges, and the complaints of
+  senile childishness. The chorus, as Aristotle<a name="Int_4"></a><a
+  href="#IntN_4"><sup>[4]</sup></a> has remarked, is most unfortunately
+  independent of the plot, although the finest poetry is generally to be
+  found in the lyric portions of our author's plays. In fact, Euripides
+  rather wanted management in employing his resources, than the resources
+  themselves. An ear well attuned to the harmony of verse, a delicate
+  perception of the graceful points of language, and a finished subtilty in
+  touching the more minute feelings and impulses of the mind, were all
+  thrown away either upon bad subjects or worse principles. There is no
+  true tragedy in Euripides, He is a melodramatist, but not according to
+  the modern acceptation. His plays might end either happily or the
+  reverse. A deity conveniently brought in, the arrival of a messenger,
+  however unexpectedly, together with a liberal allowance for a cowardly
+  revenge upon the vanquished&mdash;these are the Euripidean elements for
+  giving a tragic end to a play. Nay, so great is the prodigality of
+  slaughter throughout his dramas, that we can but imagine morbid cruelty
+  to have formed a considerable ingredient in the disposition of Euripides.
+  Even his pathos is somewhat tinctured with this taste for painful images.
+  As we have beheld in our own times a barbarian alternately glut his sight
+  with executions, and then shed floods of tears, and sink into idiot
+  despondency; so the poetry of Euripides in turn disgusts us with
+  outrageous cruelty, and depresses us with the most painful demands upon
+  our compassion.</p>
+
+  <p>In the lyric portions of his dramas, our poet has been far more
+  successful. The description of the capture of Troy by night,<a
+  name="Int_5"></a><a href="#IntN_5"><sup>[5]</sup></a> is a splendid
+  specimen of animation blended with true pathos. But taken as a whole.
+  Euripides is a most unequal author. We may commence a play with pleasure
+  (but O for the prologues!), we may proceed with satisfaction, but the
+  feeling rarely lasts to the end. If I may venture an opinion upon so
+  uncertain a subject, I should name the Hippolytus, Ion, Troades, Bacchæ,
+  and Iphigenia in Aulis as his best plays, placing the Ph&#339;nissæ,
+  Alcestis, Medea, Hecuba, and Orestes in a lower rank. The Helena is an
+  amusing heap of absurdities, and reads much better in the burlesque of
+  Aristophanes; the Electra is utterly beneath criticism; the Cyclops a
+  weak, but humorous imitation of Homer. The other plays appear to be
+  neither bad nor good.</p>
+
+  <p>The style of Euripides is, generally speaking, easy; and I can mention
+  no author from whom a taste for elegant Greek and a facility in
+  composition can more easily be derived. Some of his plays have suffered
+  severely from the ravages of time, the ignorance of copyists, and the
+  more dangerous officiousness of grammarians. Some passages of the Bacchæ,
+  Rhesus, Troades, and the two Iphigenias, despite the ingenuity and
+  erudition of such scholars as Porson, Elmsley, Monk, Burges, and a host
+  of others, must still remain mere matter for guessing. Hermann's
+  Euripides is, as a whole, sadly unworthy the abilities of the Humboldt of
+  Greek literature.</p>
+
+  <p>The present volume contains the most popular of our author's works,
+  according to present usage. But the spirit which is gradually infusing
+  itself into the minds of those who are most actively engaged in the
+  educational system of England, fully warrants a hope that Porson's "four
+  plays" will shortly cease to be the boundaries of the student's
+  acquaintance with Euripides.</p>
+
+  <p>I need scarcely observe, that the study of Aristophanes is
+  indissolubly connected with that of our author. If the reader discover
+  the painful fact that the burlesque writer is greater than the tragedian,
+  he will perhaps also recollect that such a literary relation is,
+  unfortunately, by no means confined to the days of Aristophanes.</p>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+<h3>Notes on the Introduction</h3>
+
+<div class="note">
+  <p><a name="IntN_1"></a><a href="#Int_1">[1]</a> See Theatre of the
+  Greeks, p. 92. sqq.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IntN_2"></a><a href="#Int_2">[2]</a> Bacch. 200. This play
+  was written during his sojourn with Archelaus.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IntN_3"></a><a href="#Int_3">[3]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="toioutoni ti
+  parakekindeumenon">&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3BA;&#x3B5;&#x3BA;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;&#x3B4;&#x3B5;&#x3C5;&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span>.
+  Aristoph. Ran. 99.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IntN_4"></a><a href="#Int_4">[4]</a> Poet. § xviii.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IntN_5"></a><a href="#Int_5">[5]</a> Hec. 905 sqq.</p>
+
+</div>
+<hr class="full" />
+
+<a name="HECUBA"></a>
+<h2>HECUBA.</h2>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+<h3>PERSONS REPRESENTED.</h3>
+
+  <div class="personae">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <p>GHOST OF POLYDORE.</p>
+      <p>HECUBA.</p>
+      <p>CHORUS OF FEMALE CAPTIVES.</p>
+      <p>POLYXENA.</p>
+      <p>ULYSSES.</p>
+      <p>TALTHYBIUS.</p>
+      <p>FEMALE ATTENDANT.</p>
+      <p>AGAMEMNON.</p>
+      <p>POLYMESTOR AND HIS CHILDREN.</p>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+<p class="center"><i>The Scene lies before the Grecian tents, on the coast of the Thracian Chersonese.</i></p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h3>THE ARGUMENT.</h3>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+  <p>After the capture of Troy, the Greeks put into the Chersonese over
+  against Troas, But Achilles, having appeared by night, demanded one of
+  the daughters of Priam to be slain. The Greeks therefore, in honor to
+  their hero, tore Polyxena from Hecuba, and offered her up in sacrifice.
+  Polymestor moreover, the king of the Thracians, murdered Polydore, a son
+  of Priam's. Now Polymestor had received him from the hands of Priam as a
+  charge to take care of, together with some money. But when the city was
+  taken, wishing to seize upon his wealth, he determined to dispatch him,
+  and disregarded the ill-fated friendship that subsisted between them; but
+  his body being cast out into the sea, the wave threw him up on the shore
+  before the tents of the captive women. Hecuba, on seeing the corse,
+  recognized it; and having imparted her design to Agamemnon, sent for
+  Polymestor to come to her with his sons, concealing what had happened,
+  under pretense that she might discover to him some treasures hidden in
+  Ilium. But on his arrival she slew his sons, and put out his eyes; but
+  pleading her cause before the Greeks, she gained it over her accuser
+  (Polymestor). For it was decided that she did not begin the cruelty, but
+  only avenged herself on him who did begin it.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2>HECUBA.</h2>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+<p class="center">GHOST OF POLYDORE.</p>
+
+  <p>I am present, having left the secret dwellings of the dead and the
+  gates of darkness, where Pluto has his abode apart from the other Gods,
+  Polydore the son of Hecuba the daughter of Cisseus,<a name="Hec_1"></a><a
+  href="#HecN_1"><sup>[1]</sup></a> and Priam my sire, who when the danger
+  of falling by the spear of Greece was threatening the city of the
+  Phrygians, in fear, privately sent me from the Trojan land to the house
+  of Polymestor, his Thracian friend, who cultivates the most fruitful soil
+  of the Chersonese, ruling a warlike people with his spear.<a
+  name="Hec_2"></a><a href="#HecN_2"><sup>[2]</sup></a> But my father sends
+  privately with me a large quantity of gold, in order that, if at any time
+  the walls of Troy should fall, there might not be a lack of sustenance
+  for his surviving children. But I was the youngest of the sons of Priam;
+  on which account also he sent me privately from the land, for I was able
+  neither to bear arms nor the spear with my youthful arm. As long then
+  indeed as the landmarks of the country remained erect, and the towers of
+  Troy were unshaken, and Hector my brother prevailed with his spear, I
+  miserable increased vigorously as some young branch, by the nurture I
+  received at the hands of the Thracian, my father's friend. But after that
+  both Troy and the life of Hector were put an end to, and my father's
+  mansions razed to the ground, and himself falls at the altar built by the
+  God, slain by the blood-polluted son of Achilles, the friend of my father
+  slays me, wretched man, for the sake of my gold, and having slain me
+  threw me into the surf of the sea, that he might possess the gold himself
+  in his palace. But I am exposed on the shore, at another time on the
+  ocean's surge, borne about by many ebbings and flowings of the waves,
+  unwept, unburied; but at present I am hastening on my dear mother's
+  account, having left my body, borne aloft this day already the third,<a
+  name="Hec_3"></a><a href="#HecN_3"><sup>[3]</sup></a> for so long has my
+  wretched mother been present in this territory of the Chersonese from
+  Troy. But all the Grecians, holding their ships at anchor, are sitting
+  quiet on the shores of this land of Thrace. For Achilles the son of
+  Peleus, appearing above his tomb, stayed all the army of the Grecians as
+  they were directing homeward their sea dipped oars; and asks to receive
+  my sister Polyxena as a dear victim, and a tribute of honor to his tomb.
+  And this he will obtain, nor will he be without this gift from his
+  friends; and fate this day leads forth my sister to death. But my mother
+  will see the two corses of her two children, both mine and the unhappy
+  virgin's; for I shall appear on a breaker before the feet of a female
+  slave, that I wretched may obtain sepulture; for I have successfully
+  entreated those who have power beneath to find a tomb, and to fall into
+  my mother's hands. As much then as I wish to have shall be mine; but I
+  will withdraw myself out of the way of the aged Hecuba, for she is
+  advancing her step beyond the tent of Agamemnon, dreading my phantom.
+  Alas! O my mother, who, from kingly palaces, hast beheld the day of
+  slavery, how unfortunate art thou now, in the degree that thou wert once
+  fortunate! but some one of the Gods counterpoising your state, destroys
+  you on account of your ancient prosperity.</p>
+
+<p class="center">HECUBA. CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. Lead onward, ye Trojan dames, the old woman before the tent; lead
+  onward, raising up one now your fellow-slave, but once your queen; take
+  me, bear me, conduct me, support my body, holding my aged hand; and I,
+  leaning on the bending staff of my hand,<a name="Hec_4"></a><a
+  href="#HecN_4"><sup>[4]</sup></a> will hasten to put forward the slow
+  motion of my joints. O lightning of Jove! O thou gloomy night! why, I
+  pray, am I thus disquieted in the night with terrors, with phantoms? O
+  thou venerable Earth, the mother of black-winged dreams, I renounce the
+  nightly vision, which regarding my son who is preserved in Thrace, and
+  regarding Polyxena my dear daughter, in my dreams have I beheld, a
+  fearful sight, I have learned, I have understood. Gods of this land,
+  preserve my son, who, my only son, and, [as it were,] the anchor of my
+  house, inhabits the snowy Thrace under the protection of his father's
+  friend. Some strange event will take place, some strain will come
+  mournful to the mournful. Never did my mind so incessantly shudder and
+  tremble. Where, I pray, ye Trojan dames, can I behold the divine spirit
+  of Helenus, or Cassandra, that they may interpret my dreams? For I beheld
+  a dappled hind torn by the blood-stained fang of the wolf, forcibly
+  dragged from my bosom, a miserable sight. And dreadful this vision also;
+  the spectre of Achilles came above the summit of his tomb, and demanded
+  as a tribute of honor one of the wretched Trojan women. From my daughter
+  then, from my daughter avert this fate, ye Gods, I implore you.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Hecuba, with haste to thee I flew, leaving the tents of our
+  lords, where I was allotted and ordained a slave, driven from the city of
+  Troy, led captive of the Greeks by the point of the spear, not to
+  alleviate aught of your sufferings, but bringing a heavy weight of
+  tidings, and to thee, O lady, a herald of woe. For it is said that it has
+  been decreed in the full council of the Greeks to make thy daughter a
+  sacrifice to Achilles: for you know how that having ascended o'er his
+  tomb, he appeared in his golden arms and restrained the fleet ships, as
+  they were setting their sails with their halliards, exclaiming in these
+  words; "Where speed ye, Grecians, leaving my tomb unhonored!" Then the
+  waves of great contention clashed together, and a divided opinion went
+  forth through the army of the Greeks; to some it appeared advisable to
+  give a victim to his tomb, and to others it appeared not. But Agamemnon
+  was studious to advance your good, cherishing the love of the infuriated
+  prophetess. But the two sons of Theseus, scions of Athens, were the
+  proposers of different arguments, but in this one opinion they coincided,
+  to crown the tomb of Achilles with fresh blood; and declared they would
+  never prefer the bed of Cassandra before the spear of Achilles. And the
+  strength of the arguments urged on either side was in a manner equal,
+  till that subtle adviser, that babbling knave,<a name="Hec_5"></a><a
+  href="#HecN_5"><sup>[5]</sup></a> honeyed in speech, pleasing to the
+  populace, that son of Laertes, persuades the army, not to reject the suit
+  of the noblest of all the Greeks on account of a captive victim, and not
+  to put it in the power of any of the dead standing near Proserpine to say
+  that the Grecians departed from the plains of Troy ungrateful to the
+  heroes who died for the state of Greece. And Ulysses will come only not
+  now, to tear your child from your bosom, and to take her from your aged
+  arms. But go to the temples, speed to the altars, sit a suppliant at the
+  knees of Agamemnon, invoke the Gods, both those of heaven, and those
+  under the earth; for either thy prayers will prevent thy being deprived
+  of thy wretched daughter, or thou must behold the virgin falling before
+  the tomb, dyed in blood gushing forth in a dark stream from her neck
+  adorned with gold.<a name="Hec_6"></a><a
+  href="#HecN_6"><sup>[6]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>HEC. Alas! wretched me! what shall I exclaim? what shriek shall I
+  utter? what lamentation? miserable through miserable age, and slavery not
+  to be endured, insupportable. Alas! who is there to defend me? what
+  offspring, what city! The old man is gone. My children are gone. Whither
+  shall I turn me? and whither shall I go? Where is any god or deity to
+  succor me? O Trojan dames, bearers of evil tidings, bearers of woe, you
+  have destroyed me utterly, you have destroyed me. Life in the light is no
+  more desirable! O wretched foot, lead, lead an aged woman to this tent! O
+  child, daughter of the most afflicted mother, come forth, come forth from
+  the tent, hear thy mother's voice, that thou mayest know what a report I
+  hear that concerns thy life.</p>
+
+<p class="center">HECUBA, POLYXENA, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>POLYX. O mother, why dost thou call! proclaiming what new affliction
+  hast thou frighted me from the tent, as some bird from its nest, with
+  this alarm?</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. Alas! my child!</p>
+
+  <p>POLYX. Why address me in words of ill omen? This is an evil
+  prelude.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. Alas! for thy life.</p>
+
+  <p>POLYX. Speak, conceal it no longer from me. I fear, I fear, my mother;
+  why I pray dost thou groan?</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. O child, child of an unhappy mother!</p>
+
+  <p>POLYX. Why sayest thou this?</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. My child, the common decree of the Greeks unites to slay thee at
+  the tomb of the son of Peleus.</p>
+
+  <p>POLYX. Alas, my mother! how are you relating unenviable ills? Tell me,
+  tell me, my mother.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. I declare, my child, the ill-omened report, they bring word that
+  a decree has passed by the vote of the Greeks regarding thy life.</p>
+
+  <p>POLYX. O thou that hast borne affliction! O thou wretched on every
+  side! O mother unhappy in your life, what most hated and most unutterable
+  calamity has some destiny again sent against thee! This child is no
+  longer thine; no longer indeed shall I miserable share slavery with
+  miserable age. For as a mountain whelp or heifer shalt thou wretched
+  behold me wretched torn from thine arms, and sent down beneath the
+  darkness of the earth a victim to Pluto, where I shall lie bound in
+  misery with the dead. But it is for thee indeed, my afflicted mother,
+  that I lament in these mournful strains, but for my life, my wrongs, my
+  fate, I mourn not; but death, a better lot, has befallen me.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. But see Ulysses advances with hasty step, to declare to thee,
+  Hecuba, some new determination.</p>
+
+<p class="center">ULYSSES, HECUBA, POLYXENA, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>ULYSS. Lady, I imagine that you are acquainted with the decree of the
+  army, and the vote which has prevailed; nevertheless, I will declare it.
+  It has been decreed by the Greeks to offer on the lofty mound of
+  Achilles's tomb thy daughter Polyxena. But they order me to conduct and
+  convey the damsel; but the son of Achilles is appointed to be the priest,
+  and to preside over the rites. Do you know then what to do? Be not
+  dragged away by violence, nor enter into a contest of strength with me,
+  but acknowledge superior force and the presence of thy ills; it is wise
+  to have proper sentiments even in adversity.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. Alas! alas! the great trial is at hand, as it seems, of
+  lamentations full, nor without tears; for I have not died in the state in
+  which I ought to have died, nor hath Jove destroyed me, but preserves me,
+  that I wretched may behold other misfortunes greater than [past]
+  misfortunes. But if it be allowed slaves to put questions to the free,
+  not offensive nor grating to the feelings, it will be your part to be
+  questioned, and ours who are asking to attend.</p>
+
+  <p>ULYSS. You have permission, ask freely, I grudge not the time.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. Dost thou remember when thou camest a spy on Troy, disfigured by
+  a vile dress, and from thine eyes drops caused by the fear of death
+  bedewed thy beard?</p>
+
+  <p>ULYSS. I remember well; for it made no slight impression on my
+  heart.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. But Helen knew thee, and told me alone.</p>
+
+  <p>ULYSS. I remember the great danger I encountered.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. And didst thou embrace my knees in thy humility?</p>
+
+  <p>ULYSS. So that my hand was numbered<a name="Hec_7"></a><a
+  href="#HecN_7"><sup>[7]</sup></a> through fear on thy garments.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. What then didst thou say, being then my slave?</p>
+
+  <p>ULYSS. Many arguments that I invented to save me from death.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. Did I preserve thee then, and conduct thee safe from the
+  land?</p>
+
+  <p>ULYSS. Yes, so that I now behold the light of the sun.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. Art thou not then convicted of baseness by this conduct, who hast
+  received benefits from me such as thou acknowledgest thou hast, and doest
+  us no good in return, but evil, as far as in thee lies? Thankless is your
+  race, as many of you as court honor from oratory before the populace; be
+  ye not known to me, who care not to injure your friends, provided you say
+  what is gratifying to the people. But plotting what dark design have they
+  determined upon a decree of death against my child? Did fate impel them
+  to offer human sacrifices at the tomb, where it were rather right to
+  sacrifice cattle? Or does Achilles, desirous of devoting in his turn to
+  death those that wrought his death, with a color of justice meditate her
+  destruction? But she has done him no ill: he should demand Helen as a
+  sacrifice on his tomb; for she destroyed him, and brought him to Troy.
+  But if some captive selected from the rest, and excelling in beauty,
+  ought to die, this is not ours. For the daughter of Tyndarus is most
+  preeminent in beauty, and has been found to be no less injurious than us.
+  On the score of justice then I urge this argument; but with respect to
+  what you ought to repay at my demand, hear: thou hast touched my hand, as
+  thou ownest, and this aged cheek also, falling at my knees. Thy hand and
+  knees I in return grasp, and re-demand the favor I granted you then, and
+  beseech you, do not tear my child from my arms, nor kill her; enough have
+  died already. In her I rejoice, and forget my misfortunes; she serves as
+  my consolation in the stead of many things, she is my city, my nurse, my
+  staff, the guide of my way. It becomes not those who have power to
+  exercise their power in things wherein they ought not, nor should the
+  fortunate imagine their fortune will last forever. For I too have had my
+  time of prosperity, but now have I ceased to be: one day wrenched from me
+  all my happiness. But by thy beard which I supplicate, reverence me, pity
+  me; go to the Grecian army, and remind them that it is a shameful thing
+  to slay women whom ye have once spared, and that too dragging them from
+  the altar. But show mercy. But the laws of blood among you are laid down
+  alike for the free and the slave. But your worth will carry with it
+  persuasion, although your arguments be bad; for the same words from those
+  of little character, have not the same force as when they proceed from
+  those of high reputation.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. There is no nature of man so obdurate, which on hearing thy
+  groans, and thy long plaints of misery, would not let fall the tear.</p>
+
+  <p>ULYSS. Hecuba, be advised, nor through passion deem him thine enemy
+  who gives thee good advice. I indeed am ready to preserve thy person
+  through the means of which I was fortunate; and I say no other. But what
+  I declared before all I will not deny, that, Troy being captured, we
+  should give thy daughter as a victim to the noblest man of the army, who
+  demands her; for in this many cities fail, when any man who is brave and
+  zealous receives no more honor than those who are less valiant. But
+  Achilles, O lady, is worthy of honor from us, a man who died most
+  gloriously in behalf of the Grecian country. Were not then this
+  disgraceful, if when living we treat him as a friend, but after he is
+  gone we no longer treat him so? Well! what then will any one say, if
+  there again should be an assembling of the army, and a contest with the
+  enemy: "Shall we fight or preserve our lives, seeing that he who falls
+  lies unhonored?" But for me at least, living from day to day, although I
+  have but little, that little is sufficient; but I would wish that my
+  monument should be beheld crowned with honor, for the gratification is
+  for a long time. But if thou sayest thou sufferest affliction, hear this
+  in return from me. There are with us aged matrons, and hoary sires, not
+  less wretched than thou art, and brides bereft of the noblest husbands,
+  whose ashes this land of Troy conceals. Endure this. But we, if we
+  injudiciously determine to honor the brave man, shall incur the charge of
+  folly. But you barbarians neither consider your friends as friends, nor
+  do you hold up to admiration those who have died honorably; thus shall
+  Greece be prosperous, but you shall experience fortune corresponding to
+  your counsels.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Alas! alas! how wretched is the state of slavery, and to endure
+  indignities compelled by superior force! (Note <a name="Hec_B"></a><a
+  href="#HecN_B">[B]</a>.)</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. O daughter, my words respecting thy death are vanished in the
+  air, set forth in vain; but thou, if thou hast greater powers [of
+  persuasion] than thy mother, use all thy influence, uttering every note
+  as the throat of the nightingale, that thou mayest not be deprived of
+  life. But fall before the knees of Ulysses in all the eloquence of grief,
+  and persuade him; thou hast a pretext, for he also hath children; so that
+  he may be inclined to pity thy fortune.</p>
+
+  <p>POLYX. I see, Ulysses, that thou art hiding thy hand beneath thy robe,
+  and turnest thy face away, that I may not touch thy beard. Be not afraid;
+  thou hast avoided my suppliant Jove; for I will follow thee both on
+  account of fate, and even wishing to die; but if I were not willing, I
+  should appear base, and too fond of life. For wherefore should I live,
+  whose father was monarch of all the Trojans; this my dawn of life. Then
+  was I nurtured under fair hope, a bride for princes, having no small
+  competition for my hand, to whose palace and hearth I should come. But I,
+  wretched now, was mistress among the Trojan women, and conspicuous in the
+  train of virgins, equal to goddesses, death only excepted. But now I am a
+  slave; first of all the very name, not being familiar, persuades me to
+  love death. Then perhaps I might meet with masters cruel in disposition,
+  who will buy me for silver, the sister both of Hector and many other
+  [heroes.] And imposing the task of making bread in his palace, will
+  compel me, passing the day in misery, both to sweep the house, and stand
+  at the loom. And some slave somewhere purchased will defile my bed,
+  before wooed by princes. This never shall be. I will quit this light from
+  mine eyes free, offering my body to Pluto. Lead on then, Ulysses, conduct
+  me to death; for I see neither confidence of hope, nor of expectation,
+  present to me that I can ever enjoy good fortune. But do thou, my mother,
+  in no wise hinder me by your words or by your actions; but assent to my
+  death before I meet with indignities unsuited to my rank. For one who has
+  not been accustomed to taste misfortunes bears indeed, but grieves, to
+  put his neck under the yoke. But he would be far more blessed in death
+  than in life; for to live otherwise than honorably is a great burden.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. It is a great and distinguishing feature among men to be born of
+  generous parents, and the name of nobility of birth among the
+  illustrious, proceeds from great to greater still.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. You have spoken honorably, my daughter, but in that honorable
+  dwells grief. But if the son of Peleus must be gratified, and you must
+  escape blame, Ulysses, kill not her; but leading me to the pyre of
+  Achilles, strike me, spare me not; I brought forth Paris, who destroyed
+  the son of Thetis, having pierced him with his arrows.</p>
+
+  <p>ULYSS. The phantom of Achilles did not demand that thou, O aged lady,
+  but that thy daughter here should die.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. Do thou then at least slay me with my daughter, and there will be
+  twice the libation of blood for the earth, and the dead who makes this
+  request.</p>
+
+  <p>ULYSS. Thy daughter's death suffices; one must not be heaped on
+  another; would that we required not even this one.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. There is a strong necessity for me to die with my daughter.</p>
+
+  <p>ULYSS. How so? for I am not aware of any master that I have.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. As the ivy the oak, so will I clasp her.</p>
+
+  <p>ULYSS. Not so; if you will take the advice of your superiors in
+  knowledge.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. Never will I willingly quit my child here.</p>
+
+  <p>ULYSS. Nor will I leave this place without the virgin.</p>
+
+  <p>POLYX. Mother, be persuaded; and thou, son of Laertes, be gentle to a
+  parent with reason moved to anger. But thou, O wretched mother, contend
+  not with conquerors. Dost thou wish to fall on the earth and to wound thy
+  aged flesh dragged by violence, and to suffer the indignity of being torn
+  by a youthful arm? which things you will suffer. Do not, I pray thee, for
+  it is not seemly. But, my dear mother, give me thy beloved hand, and
+  grant me to join cheek to cheek; since never hereafter, but now for the
+  last time shall I behold the rays of the sun and his bright orb. Receive
+  my last address, O mother! O thou that bearedst me, I am going below.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. And I, O daughter, shall be a slave in the light of day.</p>
+
+  <p>POLYX. Without the bridegroom, without the bridal song, which I ought
+  to have obtained.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. Mournful thou, my child; but I am a wretched woman.</p>
+
+  <p>POLYX. There shall I lie in darkness far from thee.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. Alas me, what shall I do? where end my life?</p>
+
+  <p>POLYX. I shall die a slave, born of a free father.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. But I bereft indeed of fifty children.</p>
+
+  <p>POLYX. What message shall I bear to Hector, and to thy aged
+  husband?</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. Tell them that I am most miserable of all women.</p>
+
+  <p>POLYX. O ye breasts that tenderly nursed me.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. O daughter of an untimely and unhappy fate.</p>
+
+  <p>POLYX. Farewell, O mother, farewell Cassandra too.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. Others farewell, but this is not for thy mother.</p>
+
+  <p>POLYX. Farewell, my brother Polydore, among the warlike Thracians.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. If he lives at least: but I doubt, so unfortunate am I in every
+  thing.</p>
+
+  <p>POLTX. He lives, and shall close thy dying eye.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. I am dead, before my death, beneath my ills.</p>
+
+  <p>POLYX. Lead me, Ulysses, having covered my face with a veil, since,
+  before I am sacrificed indeed, I am melted in heart at my mother's
+  plaints, her also I melt by my lamentations. O light, for yet it is
+  allowed me to express thy name, but I have no share in thee, except
+  during the time that I am going between the sword and the pyre of
+  Achilles.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. Ah me! I faint; and my limbs fail me.&mdash;O daughter, touch thy
+  mother, stretch forth thy hand&mdash;give it me&mdash;leave me not
+  childless&mdash;I am lost, my friends. Would that I might see the Spartan
+  Helen, the sister of the twin sons of Jove, thus, for through her bright
+  eyes that most vile woman destroyed the happy Troy.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Gale, gale of the sea,<a name="Hec_8"></a><a
+  href="#HecN_8"><sup>[8]</sup></a> which waftest the swift barks bounding
+  through the waves through the surge of the ocean, whither wilt thou bear
+  me hapless? To whose mansion shall I come, a purchased slave? Or to the
+  port of the Doric or Phthian shore, where they report that Apidanus, the
+  most beautiful father of floods, enriches the plains? or wilt thou bear
+  me hapless urged by the maritime oar, passing a life of misery in my
+  prison-house, to that island<a name="Hec_9"></a><a
+  href="#HecN_9"><sup>[9]</sup></a> where both the first-born palm tree and
+  the laurel shot forth their hallowed branches to their beloved Latona,
+  emblem of the divine parturition? And with the Delian nymphs shall I
+  celebrate in song the golden chaplet and bow of Diana? Or, in the
+  Athenian city, shall I upon the saffron robe harness the steeds to the
+  car of Minerva splendid in her chariot, representing them in embroidery
+  upon the splendid looms of brilliant threads, or the race of Titans,
+  which Jove the son of Saturn sends to eternal rest with his flaming
+  lightning? Alas, my children! Alas, my ancestors, and my paternal land,
+  which is overthrown, buried in smoke, captured by the Argive sword! but I
+  indeed am<a name="Hec_10"></a><a href="#HecN_10"><sup>[10]</sup></a> a
+  slave in a foreign country, having left Asia the slave of Europe, having
+  changed my bridal chamber for the grave.</p>
+
+<p class="center">TALTHYBIUS, HECUBA, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>TAL. Tell me, ye Trojan dames, where can I find Hecuba, late the queen
+  of Troy?</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Not far from thee, O Talthybius, she is lying stretched on the
+  ground, muffled in her robes.</p>
+
+  <p>TAL. O Jupiter, what shall I say? Shall I say that thou beholdest
+  mortals? or that they have to no end or purpose entertained false
+  notions, who suppose the existence of a race of Deities, and that fortune
+  has the sovereign control over men? Was not this the queen of the opulent
+  Phrygians? was not this the wife of the all-blest Priam? And now all her
+  city is overthrown by the spear, but she a captive, aged, childless, lies
+  on the ground defiling her ill-fated head with the dust. Alas! alas! I
+  too am old, but rather may death be my portion before I am involved in
+  any such debasing fortune; stand up, oh unhappy, raise thy side, and lift
+  up thy hoary head.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. Let me alone: who art thou that sufferest not my body to rest?
+  why dost thou, whoever thou art, disturb me from my sadness?</p>
+
+  <p>TAL. I am here, Talthybius, the herald of the Greeks, Agamemnon having
+  sent me for thee, O lady.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. Hast thou come then, thou dearest of men, it having been decreed
+  by the Greeks to slay me too upon the tomb? Thou wouldest bring dear news
+  indeed. Then haste we, let us speed with all our might: lead on, old
+  man.</p>
+
+  <p>TAL. I am here and come to thee, O lady, that thou mayest entomb thy
+  dead daughter. Both the two sons of Atreus and the Grecian host send
+  me.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. Alas! what wilt thou say? Art thou not come for me as doomed to
+  death, but to bring this cruel message? Thou art dead, my child, torn
+  from thy mother; and I am childless as far as regards thee; oh! wretch
+  that I am. But how did ye slay her? was it with becoming reverence? Or
+  did ye proceed in your butchery as with an enemy, O old man? Tell me,
+  though you will relate no pleasing tale.</p>
+
+  <p>TAL. Twice, O lady, thou desirest me to indulge in tears through pity
+  for thy daughter; for both now while relating the mournful circumstance
+  shall I bedew this eye, as did I then at the tomb when she perished. The
+  whole host of the Grecian army was present before the tomb, at the
+  sacrifice of thy daughter. But the son of Achilles taking Polyxena by the
+  hand, placed her on the summit of the mound; but I stood near him: and
+  there followed a chosen band of illustrious youths in readiness to
+  restrain with their hands thy daughter's struggles; then the son of
+  Achilles took a full-crowned goblet of entire gold, and poured forth
+  libations to his deceased father; and makes signal to me to proclaim
+  silence through all the Grecian host. And I standing forth in the midst,
+  thus spoke: "Be silent, O ye Greeks, let all the people remain silent;
+  silence, be still:" and I made the people perfectly still. But he said,
+  "O son of Peleus, O my father, accept these libations which have the
+  power of soothing, and which speed the dead on their way; and come, that
+  thou mayest drink the pure purple blood of this virgin, which both the
+  army and myself offer unto thee; but be propitious to us, and grant us to
+  weigh anchor, and to loose the cables of our ships, and to return each to
+  his country, having met with a prosperous return from Troy." Thus much he
+  said, and all the army joined in the prayer. Then taking by the hilt his
+  sword decked with gold, he drew it from its scabbard, and made signs to
+  the chosen youths of the Greeks to hold the virgin. But she, when she
+  perceived it,<a name="Hec_11"></a><a href="#HecN_11"><sup>[11]</sup></a>
+  uttered this speech: "O Argives, ye that destroyed my city, I die
+  willingly; let none touch my body; for I will offer my neck to the sword
+  with a good heart. But, by the Gods, let me go free while ye kill me,
+  that I may die free, for to be classed as a slave among the dead, when a
+  queen, is what I am ashamed of." But the people murmured assent, and king
+  Agamemnon ordered the young men to quit the virgin; [but they, soon as
+  they heard the last words of him who had the seat of chief authority
+  among them, let go their hold,] and she, on hearing this speech of her
+  lords, took her robe, and rent it, beginning from the top of her shoulder
+  down to her waist: and showed her breasts and bosom beauteous, as a
+  statue's, and bending her knee on the ground, spoke words the most
+  piteous ever heard, "Lo! strike, if this bosom thou desirest, O youth; or
+  wouldest thou rather under the neck, here is this throat prepared." But
+  he at once resolved and unresolved through pity of the virgin, cuts with
+  the sword the passage of her breath; and fountains of blood burst forth.
+  But she, e'en in death, showed much care to fall decently, and to veil
+  from the eyes of men what ought to be concealed. But after that she
+  breathed forth her spirit under the fatal blow, not one of the Greeks
+  exercised the same offices; but some scattered leaves from their hands on
+  the dead; some heap the funeral pile, bringing whole trunks of pines: but
+  he that would not bring, heard rebukes of this sort from him that was
+  thus employed: "Standest thou idle, thou man of most mean spirit? Hast in
+  thy hand no robe, no ornament for the maiden? Hast thou naught to give to
+  her so exceeding brave in heart and most noble in soul?" These things I
+  tell thee of the death of thy daughter, but I behold thee at once the
+  most happy, at once the most unhappy of all women in thine offspring.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Dreadful calamities have risen fierce against the house of
+  Priam; such the hard fate of the Gods.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. O daughter! which of my ills I shall first attend to, amidst such
+  a multitude, I know not: for if I touch on any, another does not suffer
+  me; and thence again some fresh grief draws me aside, succeeding miseries
+  upon miseries. And now I can not obliterate from my mind thy sufferings,
+  so as not to bewail them: but excess of grief hast thou taken away,
+  having been reported to me as noble. Is it then no paradox, if land
+  indeed naturally bad, when blest with a favorable season from heaven,
+  bears well the ear; but good land, robbed of the advantages it ought to
+  have, brings forth bad fruit: but ever among men, the bad by nature is
+  nothing else but bad; the good always good, nor under misfortune does he
+  degenerate from his nature, but is the same good man? Is it, that the
+  parents cause this difference, or the education? The being brought up
+  nobly hath indeed in it the knowledge and principles of goodness; but if
+  one is acquainted well with this, he knows what is vicious, having
+  already learned it by the rule of virtue. And this indeed has my mind
+  been ejaculating in vain. But do thou go, and signify these things to the
+  Greeks, that no one be suffered to touch my daughter, but bid them keep
+  off the multitude. In so vast an army the rabble are riotous, and the
+  sailors' uncontrolled insolence is fiercer than fire; and he is evil, who
+  does not evil. But do thou, my old attendant, taking an urn, fill it with
+  sea water, and bring it hither, that I may wash my girl in her last bath,
+  the bride no bride now, and the virgin no longer a virgin, wash her, and
+  lay her out; according to her merits&mdash;whence can I? This I can not;
+  but as I can, I will, for what can I do! And collecting ornaments from
+  among the captured women, who dwell beside me in these tents, if any one,
+  unobserved by our new lords, has by her any stolen memorial of her home.
+  O state of my house, O mansions once happy! O Priam, of vast wealth
+  possessed, and supremely blest in thine offspring, and I too, this aged
+  woman, the mother of such children! How have we come to nothing, bereft
+  of our former grandeur! And yet still forsooth we are elated, one of us
+  in his gorgeous palaces; another, when honored among his citizens. These
+  are nothing. In vain the counsels of the mind, and the tongue's boast. He
+  is most blest, to whom from day to day no evil happens.</p>
+
+<p class="center">CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>Against me was it fated that calamity, against me was it fated that
+  woe should spring, when Paris first hewed the pine in Ida's forest,
+  preparing to cut his way over the ocean surge to the bed of Helen, the
+  fairest that the sun's golden beams shine upon. For toils, and fate more
+  stern than toils, close us round: and from the folly of one came a public
+  calamity fatal to the land of Simois, and woes springing from other woes:
+  and when the dispute was decided, which the shepherd decided between the
+  three daughters of the blessed Gods on Ida's top, for war, and slaughter,
+  and the desolation of my palaces. And many a Spartan virgin at her home
+  on the banks of the fair-flowing Eurotas sighs while bathed in tears: and
+  many an aged matron strikes her hand against her hoary head, for her
+  children who have perished, and tears her cheek making her nails all
+  blood-stained with her wounds.</p>
+
+<p class="center">FEMALE ATTENDANT, CHORUS, HECUBA.</p>
+
+  <p>ATT. O attendants, where, I pray, is the all-wretched Hecuba, who
+  surpasses the whole race of man and woman kind in calamities? no one
+  shall wrest from her the crown.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. But what dost thou want, O wretch, in thy words of ill omen? for
+  thy messages of woe never rest.</p>
+
+  <p>ATT. I bring this grief to Hecuba; but in calamity 'tis no easy thing
+  for men to speak words of good import.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. And see, she is coming out of the house, and appears in the
+  right time for thy words.</p>
+
+  <p>ATT. O all-wretched mistress, and yet still more wretched than I can
+  express in words, thou art undone, and no longer beholdest the light,
+  childless, husbandless, cityless, entirely destroyed.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. Thou has said nothing new, but hast reproached me who already
+  know it: but why dost thou bring this corse of my Polyxena, whose
+  sepulture was reported to me as in a state of active progress through the
+  labors of all the Grecians?</p>
+
+  <p>ATT. She nothing knows, but, woe's me! laments Polyxena, nor does she
+  apprehend her new misfortunes.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. O wretched me! dost bring hither the body of the frantic and
+  inspired Cassandra?</p>
+
+  <p>ATT. She whom thou mentionedst, lives; but thou dost not weep for him
+  who is dead; but behold this corse cast naked [on the shore,] and look if
+  it will appear to thee a wonder, and what thou little expectest.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. Alas me! I do indeed see my son Polydore a corse, whom (<i>I
+  fondly hoped</i>) the man of Thrace was preserving in his palace. Now am
+  I lost indeed, I no longer exist. Oh my child, my child! Alas! I begin
+  the Bacchic strain, having lately learned my woes from my evil
+  genius.</p>
+
+  <p>ATT. Thou knowest then the calamity of thy son, O most
+  unfortunate.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. I see incredible evils, still fresh, still fresh: and my
+  immeasurable woes follow one upon the other. No longer will a day without
+  a tear, without a groan, have part with me.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Dreadful, oh! dreadful are the miseries that we endure!</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. O child, child of a wretched mother, by what fate art thou dead,
+  by what hap liest thou here? by the hand of what man?</p>
+
+  <p>ATT. I know not: on the wave-washed shore I found him.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. Cast up from the sea, or fallen by the blood-stained spear? (Note
+  <a name="Hec_C"></a><a href="#HecN_C">[C]</a>.)</p>
+
+  <p>ATT. The ocean's billow cast him up from the deep on the smooth
+  sand.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. Woe is me! Now understand I the dream, the vision of mine eyes;
+  the black-winged phantom has not flitted by me in vain, which I saw
+  concerning thee, my child, as being no longer in the light of day.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. But who slew him? canst thou, O skilled in dreams, declare
+  him?</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. My friend, my friend, who curbs the steed in Thrace, where his
+  aged father placed him for concealment.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Ah me! what wilt thou say? Was it to possess his gold that he
+  slew him!</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. Unutterable deeds, unworthy of a name, surpassing miracles,
+  unhallowed, insufferable! Where are the laws of hospitality? O most
+  accurst of men, how didst thou mar that skin, how sever with the cruel
+  sword the poor limbs of this boy, nor didst feel pity?</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. O hapless woman, how has the deity made thee by far the most
+  wretched of mortals, whoever he be that presses heavy on thee! But, my
+  friends, let us henceforward be silent, for I see our lord Agamemnon
+  advancing.</p>
+
+<p class="center">AGAMEMNON, CHORUS, HECUBA.</p>
+
+  <p>AGA. Why, Hecuba, delayest thou to come, and bury thy girl in her
+  tomb, agreeably to what Talthybius told me, that no one of the Argives
+  should be suffered to touch thy daughter. For our part we leave her
+  alone, and touch her not; but thou art slow, whereat I am astonished. I
+  am come therefore to fetch thee, for every thing there has been well and
+  duly performed, if aught of well there be in this. Ah! what corse is this
+  I see before the tent? some Trojan's too? for that it is no Grecian's,
+  the robes that vest his limbs inform me.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. (<i>aside</i>) Thou ill-starr'd wretch! myself I mean, when I say
+  "thou." O Hecuba, what shall I do? Shall I fall at the knees of Agamemnon
+  here, or bear my ills in silence?</p>
+
+  <p>AGA. Why dost lament turning thy back upon me, and sayest not what has
+  happened? Who is this?</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. (<i>aside</i>) But should he, thinking me a slave, an enemy,
+  spurn me from his knees, I should be adding to my present sufferings.</p>
+
+  <p>AGA. No prophet I, so as to trace, unless by hearing, the path of thy
+  counsels.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. (<i>aside</i>) Am I not rather then putting an evil construction
+  on this man's thoughts, whereas he has no evil intention toward me?</p>
+
+  <p>AGA. If thou art willing that I should nothing of this affair, thou
+  art of a mind with me, for neither do I wish to hear.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. (<i>aside</i>) I can not without him take vengeance for my
+  children. Why do I thus hesitate? I must be bold, whether I succeed, or
+  fail. Agamemnon, by these knees, and by thy beard I implore thee, and by
+  thy blessed hand&mdash;</p>
+
+  <p>AGA. What thy request? Is it to pass thy life in freedom? for this is
+  easy for thee to obtain.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. Not this indeed; but so that I avenge myself on the bad, I am
+  willing to pass my whole life in slavery.</p>
+
+  <p>AGA. And for what assistance dost thou call on me?</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. In none of those things which thou imaginest, O king. Seest thou
+  this corse, o'er which I drop the tear?</p>
+
+  <p>AGA. I see it; thy meaning however I can not learn from this.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. Him did I once bring forth, him bore I in my bosom.</p>
+
+  <p>AGA. Is this indeed one of thy children, O unhappy woman?</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. It is, but not of the sons of Priam who fell under the walls of
+  Troy.</p>
+
+  <p>AGA. Didst thou then bear any other besides those, O lady?</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. In vain, as it appears, this whom you see.</p>
+
+  <p>AGA. But where did he chance to be, when the city fell?</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. His father sent him out of the country, dreading his death.</p>
+
+  <p>AGA. Whither, having removed him alone of his children then alive?</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. To this country, where he was found a corse.</p>
+
+  <p>AGA. To him who is king over this state, to Polymestor?</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. Hither was he sent, the guardian of gold, which proved most
+  destructive to him.</p>
+
+  <p>AGA. By whose hand then he is dead, and having met with what fate?</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. By whom else should he? The Thracian host slew him.</p>
+
+  <p>AGA. O wretch! was he so inflamed with the desire of obtaining the
+  gold?</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. Even so, after he had heard of Troy's disasters.</p>
+
+  <p>AGA. And where didst thou find him, or who brought the body?</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. She, meeting with it on the sea-shore.</p>
+
+  <p>AGA. In quest of it, or occupied in some other employment?</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. She was going to bring from the sea wherewith to bathe
+  Polyxena.</p>
+
+  <p>AGA. This friend then, as it seems, murdered him, and after that cast
+  him out.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. To toss upon the waves thus gashing his body.</p>
+
+  <p>AGA. O thou unhappy from thy unmeasured ills!</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. I perish, no woe is left, O Agamemnon.</p>
+
+  <p>AGA. Alas! alas! What woman was ever so unfortunate?</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. There is none, except you reckon Misfortune herself. But for what
+  cause I fall at thy knees, now hear: if I appear to you to suffer these
+  ills justly, I would be reconciled to them; but if otherwise, be thou my
+  avenger on this man, this most impious of false friends; who revering
+  neither the Gods beneath<a name="Hec_12"></a><a
+  href="#HecN_12"><sup>[12]</sup></a> the earth, nor the Gods above, hath
+  done this most unholy deed, having often partaken of the same table with
+  me, [and in the list of hospitality the first of my friends; and having
+  met with whatever was due,<a name="Hec_13"></a><a
+  href="#HecN_13"><sup>[13]</sup></a> and having received a full
+  consideration for his services,<a name="Hec_14"></a><a
+  href="#HecN_14"><sup>[14]</sup></a>] slew him, and deigned not to give
+  him a tomb, <i>which he might have given</i>, although he purposed to
+  slay him, but cast him forth at the mercy of the waves. We indeed are
+  slaves, and perhaps weak; but the Gods are strong, and strong the law,
+  which governs them; for by the law we judge that there are Gods, and we
+  live having justice and injustice strictly defined; which if when
+  referred to thee it be disregarded, and they shall suffer no punishment
+  who slay their guests, or dare to pollute the hallowed statutes of the
+  Gods, there is nothing equitable in the dealings of men. Beholding these
+  things then in a base and proper light, reverence me; pity me, and, as
+  the artist stands aside <i>to view a picture</i>, do thou view my living
+  portrait, and see what woes I am enduring. Once was I a queen, but now I
+  am thy slave; once was I blest in my children, but now aged, and at the
+  same time childless, cityless, destitute, the most miserable of mortals.
+  Alas me wretched! whither withdrawest from me thy foot? It seems<a
+  name="Hec_15"></a><a href="#HecN_15"><sup>[15]</sup></a> I shall make no
+  impression, wretch that I am. Why then do we mortals toil after all other
+  sciences, as a matter of duty, and dive into them, but least of all
+  strive to learn thoroughly Persuasion, the sole mistress o'er the minds
+  of men, giving a price for her knowledge, that at some time we may have
+  it in our power at once to persuade and obtain what we wish?&mdash;How
+  then can any one hereafter hope that he shall be fortunate? So many
+  children that I had, and now not one is left to me. But I am perishing a
+  captive in base servitude, and yet see the smoke there leaping aloft from
+  the city. And however this part of my argument may perchance be vain, the
+  bringing forward love; still nevertheless it shall be urged. My daughter
+  is wont to sleep by thy side, that prophetess, whom the Trojans call
+  Cassandra. Where wilt thou show that thy nights were nights of love, O
+  king, or will my daughter receive any recompense for her most fond
+  embraces, and I through her? [For from the secret shade, and from night's
+  joys, the greatest delight is wont to spring to mortals.] Now then
+  attend. Thou seest this corse? Him assisting, thou wilt assist one joined
+  to thee in affinity. One thing my speech wants yet. I would fain I had a
+  voice in my arms, and hands, and in my hair, and in my footsteps, or by
+  the skill of Dædalus, or some God, that each at once might hold thy
+  knees, weeping, and imploring in all the strains of eloquence. O my lord.
+  O greatest light of the Greeks, be persuaded; lend thy hand to avenge
+  this aged woman, although she is of no consequence, yet avenge her. For
+  it belongs to a good man to minister justice, and always and in every
+  case to punish the bad.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. It is strange, how every thing happens to mortals, and laws
+  determine even the fates, making the greatest enemies friends, and
+  enemies of those who before were on good terms.</p>
+
+  <p>AGA. I, O Hecuba, have pity both on thee and thy son, thy misfortunes,
+  and thy suppliant touch, and I am willing in regard both to the Gods and
+  to justice, that this impious host should give thee full revenge,
+  provided a way could be found, that both you might be gratified, and I
+  might in the eyes of the army not seem to meditate this destruction
+  against the king of Thrace for Cassandra's sake. For there is a point in
+  which apprehension hath reached me. This man the army deems a friend, the
+  dead an enemy; but if he is dear to thee, this is a private feeling and
+  does not affect the army. Wherefore consider, that thou hast me willing
+  to labor with thee, and ready to assist thee, but backward, should I be
+  murmured against among the Greeks.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. Alas! no mortal is there who is free. For either he is the slave
+  of money or of fortune; or the populace of the city or the dictates of
+  the law constrain him to adopt manners not accordant with his natural
+  inclinations. But since thou fearest, and payest too much regard to the
+  multitude, I will liberate thee from this fear. For consent with me, if I
+  meditate vengeance against the murderer of this youth, but do not act
+  with me. But should any tumult or offer of assistance arise from out of
+  the Greeks, when the Thracian feels the punishment he shall feel,
+  suppress it, not appearing to do it for my sake: but of the rest be
+  confident: I will dispose all things well.</p>
+
+  <p>AGA. How then? What wilt thou do? Wilt thou grasp the sword in thine
+  aged hand, and strike the barbarian? or with poison wilt thou work, or
+  with what assistance? What hand will conspire with thee? whence wilt thou
+  procure friends?</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. These tents inclose a host of Trojan dames.</p>
+
+  <p>AGA. Meanest thou the captives, the booty of the Greeks?</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. With these will I avenge me of my murderer.</p>
+
+  <p>AGA. And how shall the victory over men be to women?</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. Numbers are powerful, with stratagem invincible.</p>
+
+  <p>AGA. Powerful, I grant; I mistrust however the race of women.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. And why? Did not women slay the sons of Ægyptus,<a
+  name="Hec_16"></a><a href="#HecN_16"><sup>[16]</sup></a> and utterly
+  extirpated the race of men from Lemnos?<a name="Hec_17"></a><a
+  href="#HecN_17"><sup>[17]</sup></a> But thus let it be. Give up this
+  discussion. But grant this woman to pass in safety through the army. And
+  do thou go to the Thracian host and tell him, "Hecuba, once queen of
+  Troy, sends for you on business of no less importance to yourself than to
+  her, and your sons likewise, since it is of consequence that your
+  children also should hear her words."&mdash;And do thou, O Agamemnon, as
+  yet forbear to raise the tomb over the newly-sacrificed Polyxena, that
+  these two, the brother and the sister, the divided care of their mother,
+  may, when reduced to ashes by one and the same flame, be interred side by
+  side.</p>
+
+  <p>AGA. Thus shall it be. And yet, if the army could sail, I should not
+  have it in my power to grant thy request: but now, for the deity breathes
+  not prosperous gales, we must wait, watching for a calm voyage. But may
+  things turn out well some way or other: for this is a general principle
+  among all, both individuals in private and states, That the wicked man
+  should feel vengeance, but the good man enjoy prosperity.</p>
+
+<p class="center">CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>O thou, my country of Troy, no longer shall thou be called the city of
+  the invincible, such a cloud of Grecians envelops thee, with the spear,
+  with the spear having destroyed thee. And thou hast been shorn of thy
+  crown of turrets, and thou hast been discolored by the dismal blackness
+  of smoke; hapless city, no longer shall I tread my steps in thee.</p>
+
+  <p>In the midnight hour I perished, when after the feast sweet sleep is
+  scattered over the eyes. And my husband, from the song and cheerful
+  sacrifice retired, was sleeping peacefully in my bed, his spear on its
+  peg, no more dreaming to behold the naval host of the Greeks treading the
+  streets of Troy. But I was binding my braided hair with fillets fastened
+  on the top of mine head, looking into the round polished surface of the
+  golden mirror, that I might get into my bed prepared for me. On a sudden
+  a tumultuous cry penetrated the city; and this shout of exhortation was
+  heard in the streets of Troy, "When indeed, ye sons of Grecians, when,
+  <i>if not now</i>, will ye return to your homes having overthrown the
+  proud citadel of Ilium!" And having left my dear bed, in a single robe,
+  like a Spartan virgin, flying for aid to the venerable shrine of Diana, I
+  hapless fled in vain. And I am dragged, after having seen my husband
+  slain, to the ocean waves; and casting a distant look back upon my city,
+  after the vessel had begun her way in her return to Greece, and divided
+  me from the land of Troy, I wretched fainted through anguish. And
+  consigning to curses Helen, the sister of the Twin Brothers, and the
+  Idean shepherd, the ruthless Paris, since his marriage, no marriage, but
+  some Fury's hate hath utterly destroyed me far from my native land, and
+  hath driven me from my home. Whom may the ocean refuse ever to bear back
+  again; and may she never reach again her paternal home.</p>
+
+<p class="center">POLYMESTOR, HECUBA, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>POLY. O Priam, thou dearest of men, and thou most dear Hecuba, at thy
+  sight I weep for thee, and thy city, and thy daughter who has lately
+  died. Alas! there is nothing secure, neither glory, nor when one is
+  faring well is there a certainty that he will not fare ill. But the Gods
+  mingle these things promiscuously to and fro, making all confusion, so
+  that we through ignorance may worship them. But wherefore should I utter
+  these plaints, which in no way tend to free thee from thy former
+  calamities. But thou, if thou hast aught to blame for my absence,
+  forbear; for I chanced to be afar off in the middle of my Thracian
+  territories, when thou camest hither; but soon as I returned, as I was
+  already setting out from my house, this maid of thine met me for the
+  self-same purpose, and delivered thy message, which when I had heard, I
+  came.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. O Polymestor, I am ashamed to look thee in the face, sunk as I am
+  in such miseries; for before one who has seen me in prosperity, shame
+  overwhelms me, being in the state in which I now am, nor can I look upon
+  thee with unmoved eyes. But impute not this to any enmity I bear thee;
+  but there are other causes, and in some degree this law; "that women
+  ought not to gaze at men."</p>
+
+  <p>POLY. And 'tis indeed no wonder; but what need hast thou of me? for
+  what purpose didst thou send for me to come from home?</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. I am desirous of communicating a private affair of my own to thee
+  and thy children; but order thy attendants to retire from these
+  tents.</p>
+
+  <p>POLY. Depart, for here to be alone is safe. Friendly thou art, this
+  Grecian army too is friendly toward me, but it is for thee to signify, in
+  what manner I, who am in good circumstances, ought to succor my friends
+  in distress; since, on my part, I am ready.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. First then tell me of my son Polydore, whom thou retainest,
+  receiving him from mine, and from his father's hand, if he live; but the
+  rest I shall inquire of thee afterward.</p>
+
+  <p>POLY. He lives, and in good health; as far as regards him indeed thou
+  art happy.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. O my best friend, how well thou speakest, and how worthily of
+  thyself!</p>
+
+  <p>POLY. What dost thou wish then to inquire of me in the next place?</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. Whether he remembers at all me, his mother?</p>
+
+  <p>POLY. Yes: and he even sought to come to thee by stealth.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. And is the gold safe, which he brought with him from Troy?</p>
+
+  <p>POLY. It is safe, at least it is guarded in my house.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. Preserve it therefore, nor covet the goods of others.</p>
+
+  <p>POLY. Certainly not. May I enjoy what is mine own, O lady.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. Knowest thou then, what I wish to say to thee and thy
+  children?</p>
+
+  <p>POLY. I do not: this shalt thou signify by thy speech.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. Be my son loved by thee, as thou art now loved of me.</p>
+
+  <p>POLY. What is it, that I and my sons must know?</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. The ancient buried treasures of the family of Priam.</p>
+
+  <p>POLY. Is it this thou wishest me to inform thy son of?</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. Yes, certainly; through thee at least, for thou art a pious
+  man.</p>
+
+  <p>POLY. What necessity then is there for the presence of these
+  children?</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. 'Tis better in case of thy death, that these should know.</p>
+
+  <p>POLY. Well hast thou thus said, and 'tis the wiser plan.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. Thou knowest then where the temple of Minerva in Troy
+  is&mdash;</p>
+
+  <p>POLY. Is the gold there! but what is the mark?</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. A black rock rising above the earth.</p>
+
+  <p>POLY. Hast any thing further to tell me of what is there?</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. No, but I wish thee to take care of some treasures, with which I
+  came out of the city.</p>
+
+  <p>POLY. Where are they then? Hast thou them hidden beneath thy
+  robes?</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. Amidst a heap of spoils they are preserved in this tent.</p>
+
+  <p>POLY. But where? These are the naval encampments of the Grecians.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. The habitations of the captive women are private.</p>
+
+  <p>POLY. And is all secure within, and untenanted by men?</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. Not one of the Greeks is within, but we women only. But come into
+  the tent, for the Greeks are desirous of loosing the sheets of their
+  vessels homeward from Troy; so that, having done every thing that thou
+  oughtest, thou mayest go with thy children to that place where thou hast
+  given my son to dwell.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Not yet hast thou suffered, but peradventure thou wilt suffer
+  vengeance; as a man falling headlong into the gulf where no harbor is,
+  shalt thou be hurled from thy dear heart, having lost thy life;<a
+  name="Hec_18"></a><a href="#HecN_18"><sup>[18]</sup></a> for where the
+  rites of hospitality coincide<a name="Hec_19"></a><a
+  href="#HecN_19"><sup>[19]</sup></a> with justice, and with the Gods,
+  <i>on the villain who dares to violate these</i> destructive, destructive
+  indeed impends the evil. But thy hopes will deceive thee, which thou
+  entertainedst from this journey, which has brought thee, thou wretched
+  man, to the deadly mansions of Pluto; but thou shalt quit thy life by no
+  warrior's hand.</p>
+
+<p class="center">POLYMESTOR, HECUBA, SEMICHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>POLY. Oh me! I wretch am deprived of the sight of mine eyes.</p>
+
+  <p>SEMI. Heard ye the shriek of the man of Thrace, my friends?</p>
+
+  <p>POLY. Oh me; there again&mdash;Oh my children, thy miserable
+  butchery!</p>
+
+  <p>SEMI. My friends, some strange ills have been perpetrated within the
+  tents.</p>
+
+  <p>POLY. But for all your nimble feet, ye never can escape me, for by my
+  blows will I burst open the recesses of these tents.</p>
+
+  <p>SEMI. Behold, he uses violently the weapon of his heavy hand. Will ye
+  that we fall on; since the instant calls on us to be present with
+  assistance to Hecuba and the Trojan dames?</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. Dash on, spare nothing, break down the gates, for thou never
+  shalt replace the clear sight in those pupils, nor shalt thou behold
+  alive those children which I have slain.</p>
+
+  <p>SEMI. What! hast thou vanquished the Thracian? and hast thou got the
+  mastery over this host, my mistress? and hast thou done such deeds, as
+  thou sayest?</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. Thou wilt see him quickly before the house, blind, with blind
+  wandering steps approaching, and the bodies of his two children, whom I
+  have slain with these most valiant Trojan women; but he has felt my
+  vengeance; but he is coming as thou seest from the tent. But I will
+  retire out of his way, and make good my retreat from the boiling rage of
+  this most desperate Thracian.</p>
+
+  <p>POLY. Alas me! whither can I go? where stand? whither shall I direct
+  my way, advancing my steps like the four-footed mountain beast on my
+  hands and on my feet in pursuit? What new path shall I take in this
+  direction or in that, desirous of seizing these murderous Trojan dames,
+  who have utterly destroyed me; O ye impious, impious Phrygian daughters!
+  Ah the accursed, in what corner do they shrink from me in flight? Would
+  that thou, O sun, could'st heal, could'st heal these bleeding lids of my
+  eyes, and remove this gloomy-darkness. Ah, hush, hush! I hear the
+  carefully-concealed step of these women. Whither shall I direct my course
+  in order that I may glut myself on the flesh and bones of these, making
+  the wild beasts' banquet, inflicting vengeance on them, in return for the
+  injuries done me. Wretch that I am! Whither, whither am I borne, having
+  left my children deserted, for these fiends of hell to tear piecemeal, a
+  mangled, bleeding, savage prey to dogs, and a thing to cast out on the
+  mountains? Where shall I stand? Whither turn? Whither go, as a ship
+  setting her yellow canvas sails with her sea-washed palsers, rushing to
+  this lair of death, the protector of my children?</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. O miserable man, what intolerable evils have been perpetrated by
+  thee! but on thee having done base deeds the God hath sent dreadful
+  punishment, whoever he be that presses heavy on thee.</p>
+
+  <p>POLY. Alas! alas! O Thracian nation, brandishing the spear, warlike,
+  bestriding the steed, nation ruled by Mars; O ye Greeks, sons of Atreus;
+  I raise the cry, the cry, the cry; Come, come, hasten, I entreat you by
+  the Gods. Does any hear, or will no one assist me? Why do ye delay? The
+  women have destroyed me, the captive women. Horrible, horrible treatment
+  have I suffered. Alas me for my ruin! Whither can I turn? Whither can I
+  go? Shall I soar through the ethereal skies to the lofty mansions where
+  Orion or Sirius dart from their eyes the flaming rays of fire: or shall I
+  hapless rush to the gloomy shore of Pluto?</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. It is pardonable, when any one suffers greater misfortunes than
+  he can bear, for him to be desirous to quit a miserable life.</p>
+
+<p class="center">AGAMEMNON, POLYMESTOR, HECUBA, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>AGA. I came having heard the clamor: for Echo, the mountain's
+  daughter, did not sound in gentle strains through the army, causing a
+  disturbance. But did we not know that the Phrygian towers are fallen
+  beneath the Grecian spear, this tumult might have caused no little
+  terror.</p>
+
+  <p>POLY. O my dearest friend (for I know thee, Agamemnon, having heard
+  thy voice), seest thou what I am suffering?</p>
+
+  <p>AGA. Ah! wretched Polymestor, who hath destroyed thee? who made thine
+  eyes sightless, having drowned their orbs in blood? And who hath slain
+  these thy children? Sure, whoe'er it was, felt the greatest rage against
+  thee and thy sons.</p>
+
+  <p>POLY. Hecuba with the female captives hath destroyed me&mdash;nay, not
+  destroyed me, but more than destroyed me.</p>
+
+  <p>AGA. What sayest thou? Hast thou done this deed, as he affirms? Hast
+  thou, Hecuba, dared this inconceivable act of boldness?</p>
+
+  <p>POLY. Ah me! what wilt thou say? Is she any where near me? Show me,
+  tell me where she is, that I may seize her in my hands, and tear
+  piecemeal and mangle her body.</p>
+
+  <p>AGA. What ho! what are you doing?</p>
+
+  <p>POLY. By the Gods I entreat thee, suffer me to lay my raging hand upon
+  her.</p>
+
+  <p>AGA. Forbear. And having banished this barbarous deed from thy
+  thoughts, speak; that having heard both thee and her in your respective
+  turns, I may decide justly, in return for what thou art suffering these
+  ills.</p>
+
+  <p>POLY. I will speak then. There was a certain youth, the youngest of
+  Priam's children, by name Polydore, the son of Hecuba; him his father
+  Priam sent to me from Troy to bring up in my palace, already presaging<a
+  name="Hec_20"></a><a href="#HecN_20"><sup>[20]</sup></a> the capture of
+  Troy. Him I put to death. But for what cause I put him to death, with
+  what policy and prudent forethought, now hear. I feared, lest the boy
+  being left an enemy to thee, should collect the scattered remnants of
+  Troy, and again people the city. And lest the Greeks, having discovered
+  that one of the sons of Priam was alive, should again direct an
+  expedition against the Phrygian land, and after that should harass and
+  lay waste the plains of Thrace; and it might fare ill with the neighbors
+  of the Trojans, under which misfortune, O king, we are now laboring. But
+  Hecuba, when she had discovered her son's death, by such treachery as
+  this lured me hither, as about to tell me of treasure belonging to
+  Priam's family concealed in Troy, and introduces me alone with my sons
+  into the tent, that no one else might know it. And I sat, having reclined
+  on the centre of the couch; but many Trojan damsels, some from the left
+  hand, and others from the right, sat round me, as by an intimate friend,
+  holding in their hands the Edonian looms, and praised these robes,
+  looking at them in the light; but others, beholding with admiration my
+  Thracian spear, deprived me of my double ornament. But as many as were
+  mothers caressed my children in their arms in seeming admiration, that
+  they might be farther removed from their father, successively handing
+  them from one to another: and then, amidst their kind blandishments, what
+  think you? in an instant, snatching from somewhere beneath their garments
+  their daggers, they stab my children. But they having seized me in an
+  hostile manner held my hands and feet; and if, wishing to succor my
+  children, I raised my head, they held me by the hair: but if I attempted
+  to move my hands, I wretched could effect nothing through the host of
+  women. But at last, cruelty and worse than cruelty, they perpetrated
+  dreadful things; for having taken their clasps they pierce and gore the
+  wretched pupils of my eyes, then vanish in flight through the tent. But
+  I, having leaped out, like some exasperated beast, pursue the
+  blood-stained wretches, searching every wall, as the hunter, casting
+  down, rending. This have I suffered, while studious to advance thy
+  interest, Agamemnon, and having killed thine enemy. But that I may not
+  extend my speech to a greater length, if any one of those of ancient
+  times hath reviled women, or if any one doth now, or shall hereafter
+  revile them, I will comprise the whole when I say, that such a race
+  neither doth the sea nor the earth produce, but he who is always with
+  them knows it best.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Be not at all insolent, nor, in thy calamities, thus
+  comprehending the female sex, abuse them all. For of us there are many,
+  some indeed are envied <i>for their virtues</i>, but some are by nature
+  in the catalogue of bad things.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. Agamemnon, it never were fitting among men that the tongue should
+  have greater force than actions. But if a man has acted well, well should
+  he speak; if on the other hand basely, his words likewise should be
+  unsound, and never ought he to be capable of speaking unjust things well.
+  Perhaps indeed they who have brought these things to a pitch of accuracy
+  are accounted wise, but they can not endure wise unto the end, but perish
+  vilely, nor has any one yet escaped this. And this in my prelude is what
+  I have to say to thee. Now am I going to direct my discourse to this man,
+  and I will answer his arguments. Thou, that assertest, that in order to
+  rid the Greeks of their redoubled toil, and for Agamemnon's sake that
+  thou didst slay my son? But, in the first place, monstrous villain, never
+  can the race of barbarians be friendly to the Grecians, never can this
+  take place. But what favor wert thou so eagerly currying? wert thou about
+  to contract an alliance, or was it that thou wert of kindred birth, or
+  what pretext hadst thou? or were they about to ravage the crops of thy
+  country, having sailed thither again? Whom, thinkest thou, wilt thou
+  persuade of these things? The gold, if thou wert willing to speak truth,
+  the gold destroyed my son, and thy base gains. For come, tell me this;
+  how when Troy was prosperous, and a tower yet girt around the city, and
+  Priam lived, and the spear of Hector was in its glory, why didst thou not
+  then, if thou wert willing to lay him under this obligation, bringing up
+  my child, and retaining him in thy palace, why didst thou not then slay
+  him, or go and take him alive to the Greeks? But when we were no longer
+  in the light of prosperity, and the city by its smoke showed that it was
+  in the power of the enemy, thou slewest thy guest who had come to thy
+  hearth. Now hear besides how thou wilt appear vile: thou oughtest, if
+  thou wert the friend of the Greeks, to have given the gold, which thou
+  confessedst thou hast, not thine, but his, distributing to those who were
+  in need, and had long been strangers to their native land. But thou, even
+  now, hast not courage to part with it from thy hand, but having it, thou
+  still art keeping it close in thine house. And yet, in bringing up my
+  child, as it was thy duty to bring him up, and in preserving him, thou
+  hadst had fair honor. For in adversity friends are most clearly proved
+  good. But good circumstances have in every case their friends. But if
+  thou wert in want of money, and he in a flourishing condition, my son had
+  been to thee a vast treasure; but now, thou neither hast him for thy
+  friend, and the benefit from the gold is gone, and thy sons are gone, and
+  thou art&mdash;as thou art. But to thee, Agamemnon, I say; if thou aidest
+  this man, thou wilt appear to be doing wrong. For thou wilt be conferring
+  a benefit on a host, who is neither pious, nor faithful to those to whom
+  he ought, not holy, not just. But we shall say that thou delightest in
+  the bad, if thus thou actest: but I speak no offense to my lords.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Ah! Ah! How do good deeds ever supply to men the source of good
+  words!</p>
+
+  <p>AGA. Thankless my office to decide on others' grievances; but still I
+  must, for it brings disgrace on a man, having taken a thing in hand, to
+  give it up. But to me, be assured, thou neither appearest for my sake,
+  nor for the sake of the Grecians, to have killed this man thy guest, but
+  that thou mightest possess the gold in thy palace. But thou talkest of
+  thy advantage, when thou art in calamities.<a name="Hec_21"></a><a
+  href="#HecN_21"><sup>[21]</sup></a> Perhaps with you it is a slight thing
+  to kill your guests; but with us Grecians this thing is abhorred. How
+  then, in giving my decision that thou hast not injured, can I escape
+  blame? I can not; but as thou hast dared to do things dishonorable,
+  endure now things unpleasant.</p>
+
+  <p>POLY. Alas me! worsted, as it seems, by a woman who is a slave, I
+  shall submit to the vengeance of my inferiors.</p>
+
+  <p>AGA. Will it not then be justly, seeing thou hast acted wrong?</p>
+
+  <p>POLY. Alas me! wretched on account of these children and on account of
+  my eyes.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. Thou sufferest? but what do I? Thinkest thou I suffer not for my
+  child?</p>
+
+  <p>POLY. Thou rejoicest in insulting me, O thou malicious woman.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. For ought not I to rejoice on having avenged myself on thee?</p>
+
+  <p>POLY. But thou wilt not soon, when the liquid wave&mdash;</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. Shall bear me, <i>dost thou mean</i>, to the confines of the
+  Grecian land?</p>
+
+  <p>POLY. &mdash;shall cover thee, having fallen from the shrouds.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. From whom meeting with this violent leap?</p>
+
+  <p>POLY. Thyself shalt climb with thy feet up the ship's mast.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. Having wings on my back, or in what way?</p>
+
+  <p>POLY. Thou shalt become a dog with a fiery aspect.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. But how dost thou know of this my metamorphose?</p>
+
+  <p>POLY. Dionysius the Thracian prophet told it me.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. But did he not declare to thee any of the evils which thou
+  sufferest?</p>
+
+  <p>POLY. No: for, <i>if he had</i>, thou never wouldst thus treacherously
+  have taken me.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. <a name="Hec_22"></a><a href="#HecN_22"><sup>[22]</sup></a>Thence
+  shall I conclude my life in death, or still live on?</p>
+
+  <p>POLY. Thou shalt die. But the name of thy tomb shall be&mdash;</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. Dost thou speak of it as in any way correspondent to my
+  shape?</p>
+
+  <p>POLY. <a name="Hec_23"></a><a href="#HecN_23"><sup>[23]</sup></a>The
+  tomb of the wretched dog, a mark to mariners.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. I heed it not, since thou at least hast felt my vengeance.</p>
+
+  <p>POLY. And it is fated too for thy daughter Cassandra to die.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. I renounce these prophecies; I give them for thyself to bear.</p>
+
+  <p>POLY. Him shall his wife slay, a cruel guardian of his house.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. Never yet may the daughter of Tyndarus have arrived at such
+  madness.</p>
+
+  <p>POLY. Even this man himself, having lifted up the axe.</p>
+
+  <p>AGA. What ho! thou art mad, and art desirous of obtaining greater
+  ills.</p>
+
+  <p>POLY. Kill me, for the murderous bath at Argos awaits thee.</p>
+
+  <p>AGA. Will ye not, slaves, forcibly drag him from my presence?</p>
+
+  <p>POLY. Thou art galled at what thou hearest.</p>
+
+  <p>AGA. Will ye not stop his mouth?</p>
+
+  <p>POLY. Stop it: for the word is spoken.</p>
+
+  <p>AGA. Will ye not as quick as possible cast him out on some desert
+  island, since he is thus, and past endurance insolent? But do thou,
+  wretched Hecuba, go and bury thy two dead: and you, O Trojan dames, must
+  approach your masters' tents, for I perceive that the gales are favorable
+  for wafting us to our homes. And may we sail in safety to our native
+  country, and behold our household and families in prosperity, having
+  found rest from these toils.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Come, my friends, to the harbor, and the tents, to undergo the
+  tasks imposed by our masters. For necessity is relentless.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h3>NOTES ON HECUBA</h3>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+<div class="note">
+  <p><a name="HecN_1"></a><a href="#Hec_1">[1]</a> Homer makes Dymas, not
+  Cisseus, the father of Hecuba. Virgil however follows Euripides, the rest
+  of the Latin poets Virgil.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HecN_2"></a><a href="#Hec_2">[2]</a> In the martial time of
+  antiquity the spear was reverenced as something divine, and signified the
+  chief command in arms, it was also the insigne of the highest civil
+  authority: in this sense Euripides in other places uses the word <span
+  lang="el" title="dory">&#x3B4;&#x3BF;&#x3C1;&#x3C5;</span>. See Hippol.
+  988.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HecN_3"></a><a href="#Hec_3">[3]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="tritaios">&#x3C4;&#x3C1;&#x3B9;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span>
+  properly signifies <i>triduanus</i>; here it is used for <span lang="el"
+  title="tritos">&#x3C4;&#x3C1;&#x3B9;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span>, the
+  cardinal number for the ordinal. So also Hippol. 275.</p>
+
+  <div class="poem">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <p><span lang="el" title="Pôs d' ou, tritaian g' ous' asitos hêmeran:">&#x3A0;&#x3C9;&#x3C2; &#x3B4;' &#x3BF;&#x3C5;, &#x3C4;&#x3C1;&#x3B9;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;&#x3BD; &#x3B3;' &#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;' &#x3B1;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C2; &#x201B;&#x3B7;&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;:</span></p>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+  <p><a name="HecN_4"></a><a href="#Hec_4">[4]</a> Most interpreters render
+  this, <i>leaning on the crooked staff with my hand</i>. Nor has Beck
+  altered it in his Latin version, though he transcribed Musgrave's note.
+  "<span lang="el" title="skoliô,
+  skimpôni">&#x3C3;&#x3BA;&#x3BF;&#x3BB;&#x3B9;&#x3C9;,
+  &#x3C3;&#x3BA;&#x3B9;&#x3BC;&#x3C0;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;&#x3B9;</span> (<i>for
+  which Porson directs</i> <span lang="el"
+  title="skipôni">&#x3C3;&#x3BA;&#x3B9;&#x3C0;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;&#x3B9;</span>,)
+  Scipiones in universum recti sunt, non curvi. Loquitur igitur non de vero
+  scipione, sed metaphorice de brachio, quod ancillis innitens, scipionis
+  usum præstabat; quodque, ob cubiti flexuram, <span lang="el"
+  title="skolion
+  skimpôma">&#x3C3;&#x3BA;&#x3BF;&#x3BB;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3C3;&#x3BA;&#x3B9;&#x3BC;&#x3C0;&#x3C9;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;</span>
+  vocat."</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HecN_5"></a><a href="#Hec_5">[5]</a> <i>that babbling
+  knave</i>.] Tzetzes on Lycophron, line 763. <span lang="el" title="kopis,
+  ho rhêtôr, kai empeiros, ho hypo pollôn pragmatôn
+  kekommenos">&#x3BA;&#x3BF;&#x3C0;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;, &#x201B;&#x3BF;
+  &#x201B;&#x3C1;&#x3B7;&#x3C4;&#x3C9;&#x3C1;, &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3B5;&#x3BC;&#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;, &#x201B;&#x3BF;
+  &#x201B;&#x3C5;&#x3C0;&#x3BF; &#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3BB;&#x3BB;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3B3;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3BA;&#x3B5;&#x3BA;&#x3BF;&#x3BC;&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span>.
+  In the Index to Lycophron <span lang="el"
+  title="kopis">&#x3BA;&#x3BF;&#x3C0;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;</span> is translated
+  <i>scurra</i>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HecN_6"></a><a href="#Hec_6">[6]</a> Among the ancients it
+  was the custom for virgins to have a great quantity of golden ornaments
+  about them, to which Homer alludes, Il. <span lang="el"
+  title="B">&#x392;</span>. 872.</p>
+
+  <div class="poem">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <p><span lang="el" title="Hos kai chryson echôn polemon d' ien êüte kourê">&#x201B;&#x39F;&#x3C2; &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9; &#x3C7;&#x3C1;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3BF;&#x3BD; &#x3B5;&#x3C7;&#x3C9;&#x3BD; &#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3BB;&#x3B5;&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3BD; &#x3B4;' &#x3B9;&#x3B5;&#x3BD; &#x3B7;&#x3CB;&#x3C4;&#x3B5; &#x3BA;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C1;&#x3B7;</span>. PORSON.</p>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+  <p><a name="HecN_7"></a><a href="#Hec_7">[7]</a> This is the only sense
+  that can be made of <span lang="el"
+  title="enthanein">&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3B8;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;</span>,
+  and this sense seems strained: Brunck proposes <span lang="el"
+  title="entakênai">&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3BA;&#x3B7;&#x3BD;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;</span>
+  for <span lang="el" title="enthanein
+  ge">&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3B8;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B3;&#x3B5;</span>. See Note <a name="Hec_A"></a><a
+  href="#HecN_A">[A]</a>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HecN_8"></a><a href="#Hec_8">[8]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="limnê">&#x3BB;&#x3B9;&#x3BC;&#x3BD;&#x3B7;</span> is used for the
+  <i>sea</i> in Troades 444; as also in Iliad <span lang="el"
+  title="N">&#x39D;</span>. 21, and Odyssey <span lang="el"
+  title="G">&#x393;</span>. 1. and in many other passages of Homer.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HecN_9"></a><a href="#Hec_9">[9]</a> The construction is
+  <span lang="el" title="ê poreuseis me entha nasôn">&#x3B7;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3C1;&#x3B5;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3BC;&#x3B5; &#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3B8;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3BD;&#x3B1;&#x3C3;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;</span>; for <span lang="el"
+  title="eis ekeinên tôn nasôn, entha.">&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B5;&#x3BA;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;&#x3B7;&#x3BD; &#x3C4;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3BD;&#x3B1;&#x3C3;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;,
+  &#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3B8;&#x3B1;.</span></p>
+
+  <p><a name="HecN_10"></a><a href="#Hec_10">[10]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="keklêmai">&#x3BA;&#x3B5;&#x3BA;&#x3BB;&#x3B7;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;</span>
+  for <span lang="el" title="eimi">&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3BC;&#x3B9;</span>, not
+  an unusual signification. Hippol. 2, <span lang="el" title="thea keklêmai
+  Kypris.">&#x3B8;&#x3B5;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3BA;&#x3B5;&#x3BA;&#x3BB;&#x3B7;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x39A;&#x3C5;&#x3C0;&#x3C1;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;.</span></p>
+
+  <p><a name="HecN_11"></a><a href="#Hec_11">[11]</a> <i>When she perceived
+  it,</i> <span lang="el" title="ephrasthê, synêken, egnô,
+  enoêsen">&#x3B5;&#x3C6;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3C3;&#x3B8;&#x3B7;,
+  &#x3C3;&#x3C5;&#x3BD;&#x3B7;&#x3BA;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;,
+  &#x3B5;&#x3B3;&#x3BD;&#x3C9;,
+  &#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3B7;&#x3C3;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;</span>.
+  <i>Hesych</i>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HecN_12"></a><a href="#Hec_12">[12]</a> The Gods beneath he
+  despised, by casting him out without a tomb; the Gods above, as the
+  guardians of the rites of hospitality.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HecN_13"></a><a href="#Hec_13">[13]</a> <i>Whatever was
+  due</i>, either on the score of friendship, or as an equivalent for his
+  care and protection.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HecN_14"></a><a href="#Hec_14">[14]</a> Musgrave proposes to
+  read <span lang="el"
+  title="promisthian">&#x3C0;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3BC;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3B8;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;</span>
+  for <span lang="el"
+  title="promêthian">&#x3C0;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3BC;&#x3B7;&#x3B8;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;</span>:
+  the version above is in accordance with the scholiast and the
+  paraphrast.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HecN_15"></a><a href="#Hec_15">[15]</a> See note on Medea
+  338.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HecN_16"></a><a href="#Hec_16">[16]</a> The story of the
+  daughters of Danaus is well known.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HecN_17"></a><a href="#Hec_17">[17]</a> Of this there are two
+  accounts given in the Scholia. The one is, that the women of Lemnos being
+  punished by Venus with an ill savor, and therefore neglected by their
+  husbands, conspired against them and slew them. The other is found in
+  Herodotus, Erato, chap. 138. see also Æsch. Choephoræ, line 627, ed.
+  Schutz.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HecN_18"></a><a href="#Hec_18">[18]</a> Polymestor was guilty
+  of two crimes, <span lang="el"
+  title="adikias">&#x3B1;&#x3B4;&#x3B9;&#x3BA;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;&#x3C2;</span>
+  and <span lang="el"
+  title="asebeias">&#x3B1;&#x3C3;&#x3B5;&#x3B2;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;&#x3C2;</span>,
+  for he had both violated the laws of men, and profaned the deity of
+  Jupiter Hospitalis. Whence Agamemnon, v. 840, hints that he is to suffer
+  on both accounts.</p>
+
+  <div class="poem">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <p><span lang="el" title="kai boulomai theôn th' hounek anosion xenon,">&#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9; &#x3B2;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3BB;&#x3BF;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3B9; &#x3B8;&#x3B5;&#x3C9;&#x3BD; &#x3B8;' &#x201B;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3BD;&#x3B5;&#x3BA; &#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3BD; &#x3BE;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;,</span>&nbsp;</p>
+      <p><span lang="el" title="kai tou dikaion, tênde soi dounai dikên.">&#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9; &#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C5; &#x3B4;&#x3B9;&#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;, &#x3C4;&#x3B7;&#x3BD;&#x3B4;&#x3B5; &#x3C3;&#x3BF;&#x3B9; &#x3B4;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3BD;&#x3B1;&#x3B9; &#x3B4;&#x3B9;&#x3BA;&#x3B7;&#x3BD;.</span>&nbsp;</p>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+  <p>The Chorus therefore says, <i>Ubi contingit eundem et Justitiæ et Diis
+  esse addictum, exitiale semper malum esse</i>; or, as the learned
+  Hemsterheuyse has more fully and more elegantly expressed, it,
+  <i>Ubi</i>, id est, <i>in quo</i>, vel <i>in quem cadit et concurrit, ut
+  ob crimen commissum simul et humanæ justitiæ et Deorum vindictæ sit
+  obnoxius, ac velut oppignoratus; illi certissimum exitium imminet</i>.
+  This sense the words give, if for <span lang="el"
+  title="ou">&#x3BF;&#x3C5;</span>, we read <span lang="el"
+  title="hou">&#x201B;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;</span>, i.e. in the sense of <span
+  lang="el" title="hopou">&#x201B;&#x3BF;&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;</span>.
+  MUSGRAVE. Correct Dindorf's text to <span lang="el"
+  title="hou">&#x201B;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HecN_19"></a><a href="#Hec_19">[19]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="sympeseein">&#x3C3;&#x3C5;&#x3BC;&#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3C3;&#x3B5;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;</span>
+  <i>in unum coire, coincidere</i>. In this sense it is used also, Herod.
+  Euterpe, chap. 49.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HecN_20"></a><a href="#Hec_20">[20]</a> The verbal adjective
+  in <span lang="el" title="tos">&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span> is almost
+  universally used in a passive sense; <span lang="el"
+  title="hypoptos">&#x201B;&#x3C5;&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3C0;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span>,
+  however, in this place is an exception to the rule, as are also, <span
+  lang="el"
+  title="kalyptês">&#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3C5;&#x3C0;&#x3C4;&#x3B7;&#x3C2;</span>,
+  Soph. Antig. 1011, <span lang="el"
+  title="memptos">&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3BC;&#x3C0;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span>,
+  Trachin. 446.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HecN_21"></a><a href="#Hec_21">[21]</a> Perhaps the
+  preferable way is to make <span lang="el"
+  title="kakoisin">&#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3BA;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;</span>
+  agree with <span lang="el"
+  title="anthrôpois">&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3B8;&#x3C1;&#x3C9;&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;</span>
+  understood; that the sense may be, <i>You are a bad man to talk of your
+  advantage as a plea for having acted thus</i>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HecN_22"></a><a href="#Hec_22">[22]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="Thanousa d' ê zôs' enthad' ekplêsô
+  bion">&#x398;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3B1; &#x3B4;' &#x3B7;
+  &#x3B6;&#x3C9;&#x3C3;' &#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3B8;&#x3B1;&#x3B4;'
+  &#x3B5;&#x3BA;&#x3C0;&#x3BB;&#x3B7;&#x3C3;&#x3C9;
+  &#x3B2;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span>; a similar expression occurs in the
+  Anthologia.</p>
+
+  <div class="poem">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <p><span lang="el" title="sigôn parerchou ton talaipôron bion,">&#x3C3;&#x3B9;&#x3B3;&#x3C9;&#x3BD; &#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3C1;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3C7;&#x3BF;&#x3C5; &#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3BD; &#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3C0;&#x3C9;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3BD; &#x3B2;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;,</span>&nbsp;</p>
+      <p><span lang="el" title="autos siôpêi ton chronon mimoumenos,">&#x3B1;&#x3C5;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C2; &#x3C3;&#x3B9;&#x3C9;&#x3C0;&#x3B7;&#x3B9; &#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3BD; &#x3C7;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3BD; &#x3BC;&#x3B9;&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;,</span>&nbsp;</p>
+      <p><span lang="el" title="lathôn de kai biôson. ei de mê, thanôn.">&#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3B8;&#x3C9;&#x3BD; &#x3B4;&#x3B5; &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9; &#x3B2;&#x3B9;&#x3C9;&#x3C3;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;. &#x3B5;&#x3B9; &#x3B4;&#x3B5; &#x3BC;&#x3B7;, &#x3B8;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;.</span>&nbsp;</p>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+  <p><a name="HecN_23"></a><a href="#Hec_23">[23]</a> The place of her
+  burial was called Cynosema, a promontory of the Thracian Chersonese. It
+  was here that the Athenians gained a naval victory over the
+  Peloponnesians and Syracusans, in the twenty-first year of the
+  Peloponnesian war. Thucydides, book viii.</p>
+
+</div>
+<hr class="short" />
+
+<h3>ADDITIONAL NOTES.</h3>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+<div class="note">
+  <p><a name="HecN_A"></a><a href="#Hec_A">[A]</a> Vs. 246, <span lang="el"
+  title="enthanein
+  ge">&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3B8;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B3;&#x3B5;</span>. "Pravam esse scripturam dici Brunckius et Corayus
+  viderunt; quorum ille legere voluit <span lang="el" title="hôst'
+  entakênai">&#x201B;&#x3C9;&#x3C3;&#x3C4;'
+  &#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3BA;&#x3B7;&#x3BD;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;</span>,
+  hic vero <span lang="el" title="hôst'
+  embalein">&#x201B;&#x3C9;&#x3C3;&#x3C4;'
+  &#x3B5;&#x3BC;&#x3B2;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;</span>. Sed
+  neuter rem acu tetigit. Euripides scripsit: <span lang="el" title="hôst'
+  en ge phynai">&#x201B;&#x3C9;&#x3C3;&#x3C4;' &#x3B5;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B3;&#x3B5; &#x3C6;&#x3C5;&#x3BD;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;</span>, uti patet ex
+  Hom. Il. <span lang="el" title="Z">&#x396;</span>. 253, <span lang="el"
+  title="en t' ara hoi phy cheiri">&#x3B5;&#x3BD; &#x3C4;'
+  &#x3B1;&#x3C1;&#x3B1; &#x201B;&#x3BF;&#x3B9; &#x3C6;&#x3C5;
+  &#x3C7;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C1;&#x3B9;</span>, Od. <span lang="el"
+  title="P">&#x3A0;</span>. 21, <span lang="el" title="panta kysen
+  periphys">&#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3BA;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3B9;&#x3C6;&#x3C5;&#x3C2;</span>, Theocrit. Id.
+  xiii. 47, <span lang="el" title="tai d' en cheri pasai
+  ephysan">&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3B9; &#x3B4;' &#x3B5;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3C7;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3B9; &#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3C3;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3B5;&#x3C6;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;</span>, et, quod rem conficit,
+  ex Euripidis ipsius Ion. 891, <span lang="el" title="leukois d' emphysas
+  karpois cheirôn">&#x3BB;&#x3B5;&#x3C5;&#x3BA;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B4;' &#x3B5;&#x3BC;&#x3C6;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3B1;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3C1;&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3C7;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C1;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;</span>." G. BURGES, apud
+  <i>Revue de Philologie</i>, vol. i. No. 5. p. 457.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HecN_B"></a><a href="#Hec_B">[B]</a> We must, I think, read
+  <span lang="el"
+  title="tolmain">&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3BB;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HecN_C"></a><a href="#Hec_C">[C]</a> Dindorf disposes these
+  lines differently, but I prefer Porson's arrangement, as follows:</p>
+
+  <div class="poem">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <p><span lang="el" title="EK. ekblêton, ê pes. ph. doros;">&#x395;&#x39A;. &#x3B5;&#x3BA;&#x3B2;&#x3BB;&#x3B7;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;, &#x3B7; &#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3C2;. &#x3C6;. &#x3B4;&#x3BF;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;;</span>&nbsp;</p>
+      <p><span lang="el" title="THER. en psamathôi leurai">&#x398;&#x395;&#x3A1;. &#x3B5;&#x3BD; &#x3C8;&#x3B1;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3B8;&#x3C9;&#x3B9; &#x3BB;&#x3B5;&#x3C5;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;</span>&nbsp;</p>
+      <p><span lang="el" title="pontou nin, k.t.l.">&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C5; &#x3BD;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;, &#x3BA;.&#x3C4;.&#x3BB;.</span>&nbsp;</p>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+<hr class="full" />
+
+<a name="ORESTES"></a>
+<h2>ORESTES.</h2>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+<h3>PERSONS REPRESENTED.</h3>
+
+  <div class="personae">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <p>ELECTRA.</p>
+      <p>HELEN.</p>
+      <p>HERMIONE.</p>
+      <p>CHORUS.</p>
+      <p>ORESTES.</p>
+      <p>MENELAUS.</p>
+      <p>TYNDARUS.</p>
+      <p>PYLADES.</p>
+      <p>A PHRYGIAN.</p>
+      <p>APOLLO.</p>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+<hr />
+
+<h3>THE ARGUMENT.</h3>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+  <p>Orestes, in revenge for the murder of his father, took off Ægisthus
+  and Clyætmnestra; but having dared to slay his mother, he was instantly
+  punished for it by being afflicted with madness. But on Tyndarus, the
+  father of her who was slain, laying an accusation against him, the
+  Argives were about to give a public decision on this question, "What
+  ought he, who has dared this impious deed, to suffer?" By chance
+  Menelaus, having returned from his wanderings, sent in Helen indeed by
+  night, but himself came by day, and being entreated by Orestes to aid
+  him, he rather feared Tyndarus the accuser: but when the speeches came to
+  be spoken among the populace, the multitude were stirred up to kill
+  Orestes. *&nbsp;*&nbsp;*&nbsp;* But Pylades, his friend, accompanying him, counseled him
+  first to take revenge on Menelaus by killing Helen. As they were going on
+  this project, they were disappointed of their hope by the Gods snatching
+  away Helen from them. But Electra delivered up Hermione, when she made
+  her appearance, into their hands, and they were about to kill her. When
+  Menelaus came, and saw himself bereft by them at once of his wife and
+  child, he endeavored to storm the palace; but they, anticipating his
+  purpose, threatened to set it on fire. Apollo, however, having appeared,
+  said that he had conducted Helen to the Gods, and commanded Orestes to
+  take Hermione to wife, and Electra to dwell with Pylades, and, after that
+  he was purified of the murder, to reign over Argos.</p>
+
+  <p>The scene of the piece is laid at Argos; But the chorus consists of
+  Argive women, intimate associates of Electra, who also come on inquiring
+  about the calamity of Orestes. The play has a catastrophe rather suited
+  to comedy. The opening scene of the play is thus arranged. Orestes is
+  discovered before the palace of Agamemnon, fatigued, and, on account of
+  his madness, lying on a couch on which Electra is sitting by him at his
+  feet. A difficulty has been started, why does not she sit at his head?
+  for thus would she seem to watch more tenderly over her brother, if she
+  sat nearer him. The poet, it is answered, seems to have made this
+  arrangement on account of the Chorus; for Orestes, who had but just then
+  and with difficulty gotten to sleep, would have been awakened, if the
+  women that constituted the Chorus had stood nearer to him. But this we
+  may infer from what Electra says to the Chorus, "<span lang="el"
+  title="Siga, siga, lepton ichnos arbylêis">&#x3A3;&#x3B9;&#x3B3;&#x3B1;,
+  &#x3C3;&#x3B9;&#x3B3;&#x3B1;, &#x3BB;&#x3B5;&#x3C0;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B9;&#x3C7;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B1;&#x3C1;&#x3B2;&#x3C5;&#x3BB;&#x3B7;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;</span>." It is
+  probable then that the above is the reason of this arrangement.</p>
+
+  <p>The play is among the most celebrated on the stage, but infamous in
+  its morals; for, with the exception of Pylades, all the characters are
+  bad persons.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2>ORESTES.</h2>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+<p class="center">ELECTRA.</p>
+
+  <p>There is no word so dreadful to relate, nor suffering, nor
+  heaven-inflicted calamity, the burden of which human nature may not be
+  compelled to bear. For Tantalus, the blest, (and I am not reproaching his
+  fortune, <i>when I say this</i>,) the son of Jupiter, as they report,
+  trembling at the rock which impends over his head, hangs in the air, and
+  suffers this punishment, as they say indeed, because, although being a
+  man, yet having the honor of a table in common with the Gods upon equal
+  terms, he possessed an ungovernable tongue, a most disgraceful malady. He
+  begat Pelops, and from him sprung Atreus, for whom the Goddess having
+  carded the wool<a name="Orest_1"></a><a
+  href="#OrestN_1"><sup>[1]</sup></a> spun the thread of contention, <i>and
+  doomed him</i> to make war on Thyestes his relation; (why must I
+  commemorate things unspeakable?) But Atreus then<a name="Orest_2"></a><a
+  href="#OrestN_2"><sup>[2]</sup></a> killed his children&mdash;and feasted
+  him. But from Atreus, for I pass over in silence the misfortunes which
+  intervened, sprung Agamemnon, the illustrious, (if he was indeed
+  illustrious,) and Menelaus; their mother Aërope of Crete. But Menelaus
+  indeed marries Helen, the hated of the Gods, but King Agamemnon
+  <i>obtained</i> Clytæmnestra's bed, memorable throughout the Grecians:
+  from whom we virgins were born, three from one mother; Chrysothemis, and
+  Iphigenia, and myself Electra; and Orestes the male part of the family,
+  from a most unholy mother, who slew her husband, having covered him
+  around with an inextricable robe; the reason however it is not decorous
+  in a virgin to tell; I leave this undeclared for men to consider as they
+  will. But why indeed must I accuse the injustice of Ph&#339;bus? Yet
+  persuaded he Orestes to kill that mother that brought him forth, a deed
+  which gained not a good report from all men. But nevertheless he did slay
+  her, as he would not be disobedient to the God. I also took a share in
+  the murder, but such as a woman ought to take. As did Pylades also who
+  perpetrated this deed with us. From that time wasting away, the wretched
+  Orestes is afflicted with a grievous malady, but falling on his couch
+  there lies, but his mother's blood whirls him to frenzy (for I dread to
+  mention those Goddesses, the Eumenides, who persecute him with terror).
+  Moreover this is the sixth day since his slaughtered mother was purified
+  by fire as to her body. During which he has neither taken any food down
+  his throat, he has not bathed his limbs, but covered beneath his cloak,
+  when indeed his body is lightened of its disease, on coming to his right
+  mind he weeps, but at another time starts suddenly from his couch, as a
+  colt from his yoke. But it has been decreed by this city of Argos, that
+  no one shall receive us who have slain a mother under their roof, nor at
+  their fire, and that none shall speak to us; but this is the appointed
+  day, in the which the city of the Argives will pronounce their vote,
+  whether it is fitting that we should die being stoned with stones, or
+  having whet the sword, should plunge it into our necks. But I yet have
+  some hope that we may not die, for Menelaus has arrived at this country
+  from Troy, and filling the Nauplian harbor with his oars is mooring his
+  fleet off the shore, having been lost in wanderings from Troy a long
+  time: but the much-afflicted Helen has he sent before to our palace,
+  having taken advantage of the night, lest any of those, whose children
+  died under Ilium, when they saw her coming, by day, might go so far as to
+  stone her; but she is within bewailing her sister, and the calamity of
+  her family. She has however some consolation in her woes, for the virgin
+  Hermione, whom Menelaus bringing from Sparta, left at our palace, when he
+  sailed to Troy, and gave as a charge to my mother to bring up, in her she
+  rejoices, and forgets her miseries. But I am looking at each avenue when
+  I shall see Menelaus present, since, for the rest, we ride on slender
+  power,<a name="Orest_3"></a><a href="#OrestN_3"><sup>[3]</sup></a> if we
+  receive not some succor from him; the house of the unfortunate is an
+  embarrassed state of affairs.</p>
+
+<p class="center">ELECTRA. HELEN.</p>
+
+  <p>HEL. O daughter of Clytæmnestra and Agamemnon, O Electra, thou that
+  hast remained a virgin a long time. How are ye, O wretched woman, both
+  you, and your brother, the wretched Orestes (he was the murderer of his
+  mother)? For by thy converse I am not polluted, transferring, as I do,
+  the blame to Ph&#339;bus. And yet I groan the death of Clytæmnestra,
+  whom, after that I sailed to Troy, (how did I sail, urged by the
+  maddening fate of the Gods!) I saw not, but of her bereft I lament my
+  fortune.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. Helen, why should I inform thee of things thou seest thyself
+  here present, the race of Agamemnon in calamities. I indeed sleepless sit
+  companion to the wretched corse, (for he is a corse, in that he breathes
+  so little,) but at his fortune I murmur not. But thou a happy woman, and
+  thy husband a happy man, have come to us, who fare most wretchedly.</p>
+
+  <p>HEL. But what length of time has he been lying on his couch?</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. Ever since he shed his parent's blood.</p>
+
+  <p>HEL. Oh wretched, and his mother too, that thus she perished!</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. These things are thus, so that he is unable to speak for
+  misery.</p>
+
+  <p>HEL. By the Gods wilt thou oblige me in a thing, O virgin?</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. As far as I am permitted by the little leisure I have from
+  watching by my brother.</p>
+
+  <p>HEL. Wilt thou go to the tomb of my sister?</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. My mother's tomb dost thou desire? wherefore?</p>
+
+  <p>HEL. Bearing the first offerings of my hair, and my libations.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. But is it not lawful for thee to go to the tomb of thy
+  friends?</p>
+
+  <p>HEL. No, for I am ashamed to show myself among the Argives.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. Late art thou discreet, then formerly leaving thine home
+  disgracefully.</p>
+
+  <p>HEL. True hast thou spoken, but thou speakest not pleasantly to
+  me.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. But what shame possesses thee among the Myceneans?</p>
+
+  <p>HEL. I fear the fathers of those who are dead under Ilium.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. For this is a dreadful thing; and at Argos thou art declaimed
+  against by every one's mouth.</p>
+
+  <p>HEL. Do thou then grant me this favor, and free me from this fear.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. I can not look upon the tomb of my mother.</p>
+
+  <p>HEL. And yet it is disgraceful for servants to bear these.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. But why not send thy daughter Hermione?</p>
+
+  <p>HEL. It is not well for virgins to go among the crowd.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. And yet she might repay the dead the care of her education.</p>
+
+  <p>HEL. Right hast thou spoken, and I obey thee, O virgin, and I will
+  send my daughter, for thou sayest well. Come forth, my child Hermione,
+  before the house, and take these libations in thine hand, and my hair,
+  and, going to the tomb of Clytæmnestra, leave there this mixture of milk
+  and honey, and the froth of wine, and standing on the summit of the
+  mound, say thus: "Helen, thy sister, presents thee with these libations,
+  in fear herself to approach thy tomb, and afraid of the populace of
+  Argos:" and bid her hold kind intentions toward me, and thyself, and my
+  husband, and toward these two miserable persons whom the God has
+  destroyed. But promise all the offerings to the manes, whatever it is
+  fitting that I should perform for a sister. Go, my child, hasten, and
+  when thou hast offered the libations at the tomb, remember to return back
+  as speedily as possible.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. [<i>alone</i>] O Nature, what a great evil art thou among men,
+  and the safeguard of those who possess thee, with virtue! For see, how
+  she has shorn off the extremities of her hair, in order to preserve her
+  beauty; but she is the same woman she always was. May the Gods detest
+  thee, for that thou hast destroyed me, and this man, and the whole state
+  of Greece: oh wretch that I am! But my dear friends that accompany me in
+  my lamentations are again present; perhaps they will disturb the sleeper
+  from his slumber, and will melt my eyes in tears when I behold my brother
+  raving.</p>
+
+<p class="center">ELECTRA, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. O most dear woman, proceed with a gentle foot, make no noise,
+  let there be heard no sound. For your friendliness is very kind, but to
+  awake him will be a calamity to me. Hush, hush&mdash;gently advance the
+  tread of thy sandal, make no noise, let there be heard no sound. Move
+  onward from that place&mdash;onward from before the couch.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Behold, I obey.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. St! st! Speak to me, my friend, as the breathing of the soft
+  reed pipe.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. See, I utter a voice low as an under note.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. Ay, thus come hither, come hither, approach quietly&mdash;go
+  quietly: tell me, for what purpose, I pray, are ye come? For he has
+  fallen on his couch, and been sleeping some time.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. How is he? Give us an account of him, my friend.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. What fortune can I say of him? and what his calamities? still
+  indeed he breathes, but sighs at short intervals.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. What sayest thou? Oh, the unhappy man!</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. You will kill him if you move his eyelids, now that he is taking
+  the sweetest enjoyment of sleep.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Unfortunate on account of these most angry deeds from heaven!
+  oh! wretched on account of thy sufferings!</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. Alas! alas! Apollo himself unjust, then spoke unjust things,
+  when at the tripod of Themis he commanded the unhallowed, inauspicious
+  murder of my mother.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Dost thou see? he moves his body in the robes that cover
+  him.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. You by your cries, O wretch, have disturbed him from his
+  sleep.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. I indeed think he is sleeping yet.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. Will you not depart from us? will you not bend your footsteps
+  back from the house, ceasing this noise?</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. He sleeps.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. Thou sayest well.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Venerable, venerable Night, thou that dispensest sleep to
+  languid mortals, come from Erebus; come, come, borne on thy wings to the
+  house of Agamemnon; for by our griefs and by our sufferings we are quite
+  undone, undone.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. Ye were making a noise.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. No. (Note <a name="Orest_A"></a><a
+  href="#OrestN_A">[A]</a>.)</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. Silently, silently repressing the high notes of your voice,
+  apart from his couch, you will enable him to have the tranquil enjoyment
+  of sleep.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Tell us; what end to his miseries awaits him?</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. Death, death; what else can? for he has no appetite for
+  food.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Death then is manifestly before him.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. Ph&#339;bus offered us as victims, when he commanded<a
+  name="Orest_4"></a><a href="#OrestN_4"><sup>[4]</sup></a> the dreadful,
+  abhorred murder of our mother, that slew our father.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. With justice indeed, but not well.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. Thou hast died, thou hast died, O mother, O thou that didst
+  bring me forth, but hast killed the father, and the children of thy
+  blood. We perish, we perish, even as two corses. For thou art among the
+  dead, and the greatest part of my life is passed in groans, and wailings,
+  and nightly tears; marriageless, childless, behold, how like a miserable
+  wretch do I drag out my existence forever!</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. O virgin Electra, approach near, and look that thy brother has
+  not died unobserved by thee; for by this excessive quiet he doth not
+  please me.</p>
+
+<p class="center">ORESTES, ELECTRA, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. O precious balm of sleep, thou that relievest my malady, how
+  pleasant didst thou come to me in the time of need! O divine oblivion of
+  my sufferings, how wise thou art, and the goddess to be supplicated by
+  all in distress!&mdash;whence, in heaven's name, came I hither? and how
+  brought? for I remember not things past, bereaved, as I am, of my
+  senses.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. My dearest brother, how didst thou delight me when thou didst
+  fall asleep! wilt thou I touch thee, and raise thy body up?</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Raise me then, raise me, and wipe the clotted foam from off my
+  wretched mouth, and from my eyes.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. Behold, the task is sweet, and I refuse not to administer to a
+  brother's limbs with a sister's hand.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Lay thy side by my side, and remove the squalid hair from my
+  face, for I see but imperfectly with my eyes.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. O wretched head, sordid with ringlets, how art thou disordered
+  from long want of the bath!</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Lay me on the couch again; when my fit of madness gives me a
+  respite, I am feeble and weak in my limbs.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. Behold, the couch is pleasant to the sick man, an irksome thing
+  to keep, but still a necessary one.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Again raise me upright&mdash;turn my body.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Sick persons are hard to be pleased from their feebleness.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. Wilt thou set thy feet on the ground, putting forward thy
+  long-discontinued<a name="Orest_5"></a><a
+  href="#OrestN_5"><sup>[5]</sup></a> step? In all things change is
+  sweet.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Yes, by all means; for this has a semblance of health, but the
+  semblance is good, though it be distant from the truth.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. Hear now therefore, O my brother, while yet the Furies suffer
+  thee to have thy right faculties.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Wilt thou tell any news? and if good indeed, thou art conferring
+  pleasure; but if it pertain at all to mischief&mdash;I have enough
+  distress.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. Menelaus has arrived, the brother of thy father, but his ships
+  are moored in the Nauplian bay.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. How sayest? Is he come, a light in mine and thy sufferings, a
+  man of kindred blood, and that hath received benefits from our
+  father?</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. He is come; take this a sure proof of my words, bringing with
+  him Helen from the walls of Troy.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Had he been saved alone, he had been more blest. But if he
+  brings his wife, he has arrived with a mighty evil.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. Tyndarus begat an offspring of daughters, a conspicuous mark for
+  blame, and infamous throughout Greece.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Do thou then be unlike the bad, for it is in thy power. And not
+  only say, but also hold these sentiments.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. Alas! my brother, thine eye rolls wildly; quick art thou changed
+  to madness, so late in thy senses.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. O mother, I implore thee, urge not on me those Furies gazing
+  blood, horrid with snakes, for these, these are leaping around me.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. Remain, O wretched man, calmly on thy couch, for thou seest none
+  of those things, which thou fanciest thou seest plainly.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. O Ph&#339;bus, these dire Goddesses in the shape of dogs will
+  kill me, these gorgon-visaged ministers of hell.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. I will not let thee go, but, putting my arm around thee, will
+  stop thy starting into those unfortunate convulsions.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Loose me. Thou art one of my Furies, and seizest me by the
+  middle, that thou mayest hurl me into Tartarus.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. Oh! wretched me! what assistance can I obtain, since we have on
+  us the vengeful wrath of heaven!</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Give me my bow of horn, the gift of Ph&#339;bus, with which
+  Apollo said I should repel the Fiends, if they appalled me by their
+  maddened raging.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. Shall any God be wounded by mortal hand? (Note <a
+  name="Orest_B"></a><a href="#OrestN_B">[B]</a>.)</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. <i>Yes. She shall,</i> if she will not depart from my sight...
+  Hear ye not&mdash;see ye not the winged shafts impelled from the
+  distant-wounding bow? Ha! ha! Why tarry ye yet? Skim the high air with
+  your wings, and impeach the oracles of Ph&#339;bus.&mdash;Ah! why am I
+  thus disquieted, heaving my panting breath from my lungs? Whither,
+  whither have I wandered from my couch? For from the waves again I see a
+  calm.&mdash;Sister, why weepest, hiding thine eyes beneath thy vests, I
+  am ashamed to have thee a partner in my sufferings, and to give a virgin
+  trouble through my malady. Pine not away on account of my miseries: for
+  thou indeed didst assent to this, but the shedding of my mother's blood
+  was accomplished by me: but I blame Apollo, who, after having instigated
+  me to a most unholy act, with words indeed consoled me, but not with
+  deeds. But I think that my father, had I, beholding him, asked him if it
+  were right for me to slay my mother, would have put forth many
+  supplications, beseeching me by this beard not to impel my sword to the
+  slaughter of her who bore me, if neither he thereby could be restored to
+  life, and I thus wretched must go through such miseries. And now then
+  unveil thyself, my sister, and cease from tears, even though we be very
+  miserable: but when thou seest me desponding, do thou restrain my
+  distraction, and that which preys upon my mind, and console me; but when
+  thou groanest, it becomes my duty to come to thee, and suggest words of
+  comfort. For these are the good offices friends ought to render each
+  other. But go thou into the house, O unfortunate sister, and, stretched
+  at full length, compose thy sleepless eyelids to sleep, and take
+  refreshment, and pour the bath upon thy fair skin. For if thou forsakest
+  me, or gettest any illness by continually sitting by me, we perish; for
+  thee I have my only succor, by the rest, as thou seest, abandoned.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. This can not be: with thee will I choose to die, with thee to
+  live; for it is the same: for if then shouldst die, what can I do, a
+  woman? how shall I be preserved, alone and destitute? without a brother,
+  without a father, without a friend: but if it seemeth good to thee, these
+  things it is my duty to do: but recline thy body on the bed, and do not
+  to such a degree conceive to be real whatever frightens and startles thee
+  from the couch, but keep quiet on the bed strewn for thee. For though
+  thou be not ill, but only seem to be ill, still this even is an evil and
+  a distress to mortals. (Note <a name="Orest_C"></a><a
+  href="#OrestN_C">[C]</a>.)</p>
+
+  <p>CHORUS. Alas! alas! O swift-winged, raving<a name="Orest_6"></a><a
+  href="#OrestN_6"><sup>[6]</sup></a> Goddesses, who keep up the dance, not
+  that of Bacchus, with tears and groans. You, dark Eumenides, you, that
+  fly through the wide extended air, executing vengeance, executing
+  slaughter, you do I supplicate, I supplicate: suffer the offspring of
+  Agamemnon to forget his furious madness; alas! for his sufferings. What
+  were they that eagerly grasping at, thou unhappy perishest, having
+  received from the tripod the oracle which Ph&#339;bus spake, on that
+  pavement, where are said to be the recesses in the midst of the globe! O
+  Jupiter, what pity is there? what is this contention of slaughter that
+  comes persecuting thee wretched, to whom some evil genius casts tear upon
+  tear, transporting to thy house the blood of thy mother which drives thee
+  frenzied! Thus I bewail, I bewail. Great prosperity is not lasting among
+  mortals; but, as the sail of the swift bark, some deity having shaken
+  him, hath sunk him in the voracious and destructive waves of tremendous
+  evils, as in the waves of the ocean. For what other<a
+  name="Orest_6a"></a><a href="#OrestN_6a"><sup>[6a]</sup></a> family ought
+  I to reverence yet before that sprung from divine nuptials, sprung from
+  Tantalus?&mdash;But lo! the king! the prince Menelaus, is coming! but he
+  is very easily discernible from the elegance of his person, as king of
+  the house of the Tantalidæ.</p>
+
+  <p>O thou that didst direct the army of a thousand vessels to Asia's
+  land, hail! but thou comest hither with good fortune, having obtained the
+  object of thy wishes from the Gods.</p>
+
+<p class="center">MENELAUS, ORESTES, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. O palace, in some respect indeed I behold thee with pleasure,
+  coming from Troy, but in other respect I groan when I see thee. For never
+  yet saw I any other house more completely encircled round with lamentable
+  woes. For I was made acquainted with the misfortune that befell
+  Agamemnon, [and his death, by what death he perished at the hands of his
+  wife,]<a name="Orest_6b"></a><a href="#OrestN_6b"><sup>[6b]</sup></a>
+  when I was landing my ships at Malea; but from the waves the prophet of
+  the mariners declared unto me, the foreboding Glaucus the son of Nereus,
+  an unerring God, who told me thus in evident form standing by me.
+  "Menelaus, thy brother lieth dead, having fallen in his last bath, which
+  his wife prepared." But he filled both me and my sailors with many tears;
+  but when I come to the Nauplian shore, my wife having already landed
+  there, expecting to clasp in my friendly embraces Orestes the son of
+  Agamemnon, and his mother, as being in prosperity, I heard from some
+  fisherman<a name="Orest_7"></a><a href="#OrestN_7"><sup>[7]</sup></a> the
+  unhallowed murder of the daughter of Tyndarus. And now tell me, maidens,
+  where is the son of Agamemnon, who dared these terrible deeds of evil?
+  for he was an infant in Clytæmnestra's arms at that time when I left the
+  palace on my way to Troy, so that I should not know him, were I to see
+  him.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. I, Menelaus, am Orestes, whom thou seekest, I of my own accord
+  will declare my evils. But first I touch thy knees in supplication,
+  putting up prayers from my mouth, not using the sacred branch:<a
+  name="Orest_8"></a><a href="#OrestN_8"><sup>[8]</sup></a> save me. But
+  thou art come in the very season of my sufferings.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. O ye Gods, what do I behold! whom of the dead do I see!</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Ay! well thou sayest the dead; for in my state of suffering I
+  live not; but see the light.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. Thou wretched man, how disordered thou art in thy squalid
+  hair!</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Not the appearance, but the deeds torment me.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. But thou glarest dreadfully with thy shriveled eyeballs.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. My body is vanished, but my name has not left me.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. Alas, thy uncomeliness of form which has appeared to me beyond
+  conception!</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. I am he, the murderer of my wretched mother.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. I have heard; but spare a little the recital of thy woes.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. I spare it; but in woes the deity is rich to me.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. What dost thou suffer? What malady destroys thee?</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. The conviction that I am conscious of having perpetrated
+  dreadful deeds.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. How sayest thou? Plainness, and not obscurity, is wisdom.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Sorrow is chiefly what destroys me,&mdash;</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. She is a dreadful goddess, but sorrow admits of cure.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. And fits of madness in revenge for my mother's blood.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. But when didst first have the raging? what day was it then?</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. That day in which I heaped the tomb on my mother.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. What? in the house, or sitting at the pyre?</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. As I was guarding by night lest any one should bear off her
+  bones.<a name="Orest_9"></a><a href="#OrestN_9"><sup>[9]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>MEN. Was any one else present, who supported thy body?</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Pylades, who perpetrated with me the vengeance and death of my
+  mother.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. But by what visions art thou thus afflicted?</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. I appear to behold three virgins like the night.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. I know whom thou meanest, but am unwilling to name them.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Yes: for they are awful; but forbear from speaking such high
+  polished words.<a name="Orest_10"></a><a
+  href="#OrestN_10"><sup>[10]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>MEN. Do these drive thee to distraction on account of this kindred
+  murder?</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Alas me for the persecutions, with which wretched I am
+  driven!</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. It is not strange that those who do strange deeds should suffer
+  them.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. But we have whereto we may transfer the criminality<a
+  name="Orest_11"></a><a href="#OrestN_11"><sup>[11]</sup></a> of the
+  mischance.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. Say not the death <i>of thy father;</i> for this is not wise.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Ph&#339;bus who commanded us to perpetrate the slaying of our
+  mother.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. Being more ignorant than to know equity, and justice.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. We are servants of the Gods, whatever those Gods be.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. And then does not Apollo assist thee in thy miseries?</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. He is always about to do it, but such are the Gods by
+  nature.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. But how long a time has thy mother's breath gone from her?</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. This is the sixth day since; the funeral pyre is yet warm.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. How quickly have the Goddesses come to demand of thee thy
+  mother's blood!</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. I am not wise, but a true friend to my friends.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. But what then doth the revenge of thy father profit thee?</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Nothing yet; but I consider what is in prospect in the same
+  light as a thing not done.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. But regarding the city how standest thou, having done these
+  things?</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. We are hated to that degree, that no one speaks to us.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. Nor hast thou washed thy blood from thy hands according to the
+  laws?</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. <i>How can I?</i> for I am shut out from the houses,
+  whithersoever I go.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. Who of the citizens thus contend to drive thee from the land?</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. &#338;ax,<a name="Orest_12"></a><a
+  href="#OrestN_12"><sup>[12]</sup></a> imputing to my father the hatred
+  which arose on account of Troy.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. I understand. The death of Palamede takes its vengeance on
+  thee.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. In which at least I had no share&mdash;but I perish by the
+  three.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. But who else? Is it perchance one of the friends of Ægisthus?</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. They persecute me, whom now the city obeys.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. But does the city suffer thee to wield Agamemnon's sceptre?</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. How should they? who no longer suffer us to live.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. Doing what, which thou canst tell me as a clear fact?</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. This very day sentence will be passed upon us.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. To be exiled from this city? or to die? or not to die?</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. To die, by being stoned with stones by the citizens.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. And dost thou not fly then, escaping beyond the boundaries of the
+  country?</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. <i>How can we?</i> for we are surrounded on every side by brazen
+  arms.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. By private enemies, or by the hand of Argos?</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. By all the citizens, that I may die&mdash;the word is brief.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. O unhappy man! thou art come to the extreme of misfortune.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. On thee my hope builds her escape from evils, but, thyself
+  happy, coming among the distressed, impart thy good fortune to thy
+  friends, and be not the only man to retain a benefit thou hast received,
+  but undertake also services in thy turn, paying their father's kindness
+  to those to whom thou oughtest. For those friends have the name, not the
+  reality, who are not friends in adversity.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. And see the Spartan Tyndarus is toiling hither with his aged
+  foot, in a black vest, and shorn, his locks cut off in mourning for his
+  daughter.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. I am undone, O Menelaus! Lo! Tyndarus is coming toward us, to
+  come before whose presence, most of all men's, shame covereth me, on
+  account of what has been done. For he used to nurture me when I was
+  little, and satiated me with many kisses, dandling in his arms
+  Agamemnon's boy, and Leda with him, honoring me no less than the
+  twin-born of Jove. For which, O my wretched heart and soul, I have given
+  no good return: what dark veil can I take for my countenance? what cloud
+  can I place before me, that I may avoid the glances of the old man's
+  eyes?</p>
+
+<p class="center">TYNDARUS, MENELAUS, ORESTES, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>TYND. Where, where can I see my daughter's husband Menelaus? For as I
+  was pouring my libations on the tomb of Clytæmnestra, I heard that he was
+  come to Nauplia with his wife, safe through a length of years. Conduct
+  me, for I long to stand by his hand and salute him, seeing my friend
+  after a long lapse of time.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. O hail! old man, who sharest thy bed with Jove.</p>
+
+  <p>TYND. O hail! thou also, Menelaus my dear relation,&mdash;ah! what an
+  evil is it not to know the future! This dragon here, the murderer of his
+  mother, glares before the house his pestilential gleams&mdash;the object
+  of my detestation&mdash;Menelaus, dost thou speak to this unholy
+  wretch?</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. Why not? he is the son of a father who was dear to me.</p>
+
+  <p>TYND. What! was he sprung from him, being such as he is?</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. He was; but, though he be unfortunate, he should be
+  respected.</p>
+
+  <p>TYND. Having been a long time with barbarians, thou art thyself turned
+  barbarian.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. Nay! it is the Grecian fashion always to honor one of kindred
+  blood.</p>
+
+  <p>TYND. <i>Yes</i>, and also not to wish to be above the laws.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. Every thing proceeding from necessity is considered as
+  subservient to her<a name="Orest_13"></a><a
+  href="#OrestN_13"><sup>[13]</sup></a> among the wise.</p>
+
+  <p>TYND. Do thou then keep to this, but I'll have none of it.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. <i>No</i>, for anger joined with thine age, is not wisdom.</p>
+
+  <p>TYND. With this man what controversy can there be regarding wisdom? If
+  what things are virtuous, and what are not virtuous, are plain to all,
+  what man was ever more unwise that this man? who did not indeed consider
+  justice, nor applied to the common existing law of the Grecians. For
+  after that Agamemnon breathed forth his last, struck by my daughter on
+  the head, a most foul deed (for never will I approve of this), it
+  behooved him indeed to lay against her a sacred charge of bloodshed,
+  following up the accusation, and to cast his mother from out of the
+  house; and he would have taken the wise side in the calamity, and would
+  have kept to law, and would have been pious. But now has he come to the
+  same fate with his mother. For with justice thinking her wicked, himself
+  has become more wicked in slaying his mother.</p>
+
+  <p>But thus much, Menelaus, will I ask thee; If the wife that shared his
+  bed were to kill him, and his son again kills his mother in return, and
+  he that is born of him shall expiate the murder with murder, whither then
+  will the extremes of these evils proceed? Well did our fathers of old lay
+  down these things; they suffered not him to come into the sight of their
+  eyes, not to their converse, who was under an attainder<a
+  name="Orest_14"></a><a href="#OrestN_14"><sup>[14]</sup></a> of blood;
+  but they made him atone by banishment; they suffered however none to kill
+  him in return. For always were one about to be attainted of murder,
+  taking the pollution last into his hands. But I hate indeed impious
+  women, but first among them my daughter, who slew her husband. But never
+  will I approve of Helen thy wife, nor would I speak to her, neither do I
+  commend<a name="Orest_15"></a><a href="#OrestN_15"><sup>[15]</sup></a>
+  thee for going to the plain of Troy on account of a perfidious woman. But
+  I will defend the law, as far at least as I am able, putting a stop to
+  this brutish and murderous practice, which is ever destructive both of
+  the country and the state.&mdash;For what feelings of humanity hadst
+  thou, thou wretched man, when she bared her breast in supplication, thy
+  mother? I indeed, though I witnessed not that scene of misery, melt in my
+  aged eyes with tears through wretchedness. One thing however goes to the
+  scale of my arguments; thou art both hated by the Gods, and sufferest
+  vengeance of thy mother, wandering about with madness and terrors; why
+  must I hear by the testimony of others, what it is in my power to see?
+  That thou mayest know then <i>once for all</i>, Menelaus, do not things
+  contrary to the Gods, through thy wishes to assist this man. But suffer
+  him to be slain by the citizens with stones, or set not thy foot on
+  Spartan ground. But my daughter in dying met with justice, but it was not
+  fitting that she should die by him.<a name="Orest_16"></a><a
+  href="#OrestN_16"><sup>[16]</sup></a> In other respects indeed have I
+  been a happy man, except in my daughters, but in this I am not happy.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. He is enviable, who is fortunate in his children, and has not on
+  him some notorious calamities.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. O old man, I tremble to speak to thee, wherein I am about to
+  grieve thee and thy mind. But I am unholy in that I slew my mother; but
+  holy at least in another point of view, having avenged my father. Let
+  then thine age, which hinders me through fear from speaking, be removed
+  out of the way of my words, and I will go on in a direct path; but now do
+  I fear thy gray hairs. What could I do? for oppose the facts, two against
+  two. My father indeed begat me, but thy daughter brought me forth, a
+  field receiving the seed from another; but without a father there never
+  could be a child. I reasoned therefore with myself, that I should assist
+  the prime author of my birth rather than the aliment which under him
+  produced me. But thy daughter (I am ashamed to call her mother), in
+  secret and unchaste nuptials, had approached the bed of another man; of
+  myself, if I speak ill of her, shall I be speaking, but yet will I tell
+  it. Ægisthus was her secret husband in her palace. Him I slew, and after
+  him I sacrificed my mother, doing indeed unholy things, but avenging my
+  father. But as touching those things for which thou threatenest that I
+  must be stoned, hear, how I shall assist all Greece. For if the women
+  shall arrive at such a pitch of boldness as to murder the men, making
+  good their escape with regard to their children, seeking to captivate
+  their pity by their breasts, it would be as nothing with them to slay
+  their husbands, having any pretext that might chance; but I having done
+  dreadful things (as thou sayest), have put a stop to this law, but hating
+  my mother deservedly I slew her, who betrayed her husband absent from
+  home in arms, the generalissimo of the whole land of Greece, and kept not
+  her bed undefiled. But when she perceived that she had done amiss, she
+  inflicted not vengeance on herself, but, that she might not suffer
+  vengeance from her husband, punished and slew my father. By the Gods, (in
+  no good cause have I named the Gods, pleading against a charge of
+  murder,) had I by my silence praised my mother's actions, what then would
+  the deceased have done to me? To my mother indeed the Furies are present
+  as allies, but would they not be present to him, who has received the
+  greater injury? Would he not, detesting me, have haunted me with the
+  Furies? Thou then, O old man, by begetting a bad daughter, hast destroyed
+  me; for through her boldness deprived of my father, I became a matricide.
+  Dost see? Telemachus slew not the wife of Ulysses, for she married not a
+  husband on a husband, but her marriage-bed remains unpolluted in the
+  palace. Dost see? Apollo, who, dwelling in his habitation in the midst of
+  the earth, gives the most clear oracles to mortals, by whom we are
+  entirely guided, whatever he may say, on him relying slew I my mother.
+  'Twas he who erred, not I: what could I do? Is not the God sufficient for
+  me, who transfer <i>the deed</i> to him, to do away with the pollution?
+  Whither then can any fly for succor, unless he that commanded me shall
+  deliver me from death? But say not these things have been done "not
+  well;" but <i>say</i> "not fortunately" for us who did them. But to
+  whatsoever men their marriages are well established, there is a happy
+  life, but to those to whom they fall not out well, with regard to their
+  affairs both at home and abroad they are unfortunate.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Women were born always to be in the way of what may happen to
+  men, to the making of things unfortunate.</p>
+
+  <p>TYND. Since thou art bold, and yieldest not to my speech, but thus
+  answerest me so as to grieve my mind, thou wilt rather inflame me to urge
+  thy death. But this I shall consider a handsome addition to those labors
+  for which I came, <i>namely</i>, to deck my daughter's tomb. For going to
+  the multitude of the Argives assembled, I will rouse the state willing
+  and not unwilling, to pass the sentence<a name="Orest_16a"></a><a
+  href="#OrestN_16a"><sup>[16a]</sup></a> of being stoned on thee and on
+  thy sister; but she is worthy of death rather than thee, who irritated
+  thee against her mother, always pealing in thine ear words to increase
+  thy hatred, relating dreams she had of Agamemnon, and this also, that the
+  infernal Gods detested the bed of Ægisthus; for even here <i>on earth</i>
+  it were hard <i>to be endured</i>; until she set the house in flames with
+  fire more strong than Vulcan's.&mdash;Menelaus, but to thee I speak this,
+  and will moreover perform it. If thou regard my hate, and my alliance,
+  ward not off death from this man in opposition to the Gods; but suffer
+  him to be slain by the citizens with stones, or set not thy foot on
+  Spartan ground. Thus much having heard, depart, nor choose the impious
+  for thy friends, passing over the pious.&mdash;But O attendants, conduct
+  us from this house.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Depart, that the remainder of my speech may reach this man
+  uninterrupted by the clamors of thy age: Menelaus, whither dost thou roam
+  in thought, entering on a double path of double care?</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. Suffer me; having some thoughts with myself, I am perplexed to
+  which side of fortune to turn me.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Do not make up thy opinion, but having first heard my words,
+  then deliberate.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. Say on; for thou hast spoken rightly; but there are seasons where
+  silence may be better than talking, and there are seasons where talking
+  may be better than silence.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. I will speak then forthwith: Long speeches have the preference
+  before short ones, and are more plain to hear. Give thou to me nothing of
+  what thou hast, O Menelaus, but what thou hast received from my father,
+  return; I mean not riches&mdash;yet riches, which are the most dear of
+  what I possess, if thou wilt preserve my life. Say I am unjust, I ought
+  to receive from thee, instead of this evil, something contrary to what
+  justice demands; for Agamemnon my father having collected Greece in arms,
+  in a way justice did not demand, went to Troy, not having erred himself,
+  but in order to set right the error, and injustice of thy wife. This one
+  thing indeed thou oughtest to give me for one thing, but he, as friends
+  should for friends, of a truth exposed his person for thee toiling at the
+  shield, that thou mightest receive back thy wife. Repay me then this
+  kindness for that which thou receivedst there, toiling for one day in
+  standing as my succor, not completing ten years. But the sacrifice of my
+  sister, which Aulis received, this I suffer thee to have; do not kill
+  Hermione, <i>I ask it not</i>. For, I being in the state in which I now
+  am, thou must of necessity have the advantage, and I must suffer it to be
+  so. But grant my life to my wretched father, and my sister's, who has
+  been a virgin a long time. For dying I shall leave my father's house
+  destitute. Thou wilt say "impossible:" this is the very thing <i>I have
+  been urging</i>, it behooves friends to help their friends in
+  misfortunes. But when the God gives prosperity, what need is there of
+  friends? For the God himself sufficeth, being willing to assist. Thou
+  appearest to all the Greeks to be fond of thy wife; (and this I say, not
+  stealing under thee imperceptibly with flattery;) by her I implore thee;
+  O wretched me for my woes, to what have I come? but why must I suffer
+  thus? For in behalf of the whole house I make this supplication. O divine
+  brother of my father, conceive that the dead man beneath the earth hears
+  these things, and that his spirit is hovering over thee, and speaks what
+  I speak. These things have I said, with tears, and groans, and
+  miseries,<a name="Orest_17"></a><a href="#OrestN_17"><sup>[17]</sup></a>
+  and have prayed earnestly, looking for preservation, which all, and not I
+  only, seek.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. I too implore thee, although a woman, yet still I implore thee
+  to succor those in need, but thou art able.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. Orestes, I indeed reverence thy person, and I am willing to labor
+  with thee in thy misfortunes. For thus it is right to endure together the
+  misfortunes of one's relations, if the God gives the ability, even so far
+  as to die, and to kill the adversary; but this ability again I want from
+  the Gods. For I am come having my single spear unaided by allies, having
+  wandered with infinite labors with small assistance of friends left me.
+  In battle therefore we can not come off superior to Pelasgian Argos; but
+  if we can by soft speeches, to that hope are we equal. For how can any
+  one achieve great actions with small means? For when the rabble is in
+  full force falling into a rage, it is equally difficult to extinguish as
+  a fierce fire. But if one quietly yields to it as it is spreading, and
+  gives in to it, watching well his opportunity, perhaps it may spend its
+  rage, but when it has remitted from its blast, you may without difficulty
+  have it your own way, as much as you please. For there is inherent in
+  them pity, but there is inherent also vehement passion, to one who
+  carefully watches his opportunity a most excellent advantage. But I will
+  go and endeavor to persuade Tyndarus, and the city, to use their great
+  power in a becoming manner. For a ship, the main sheet stretched out to a
+  violent degree, is wont to pitch, but stands upright again, if you
+  slacken the main sheet. For the God hates too great vehemence, and the
+  citizens hate it; but I must (I speak as I mean) save thee by wisdom, not
+  by opposing my superiors. But I can not by force, as perchance thou
+  thinkest, preserve thee; for it is no easy matter to erect from one
+  single spear trophies from the evils, which are about thee. For never
+  have we approached the land of Argos by way of supplication; but now
+  there is necessity for the wise to become the slaves of fortune.</p>
+
+<p class="center">ORESTES, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. O thou, a mere cipher in other things except in warring for the
+  sake of a woman; O thou most base in avenging thy friends, dost thou fly,
+  turning away from me? But all Agamemnon's services are gone: thou wert
+  then without friends, O my father, in thy affliction. Alas me! I am
+  betrayed, and there no longer are any hopes, whither turning I may escape
+  death from the Argives. For he was the refuge of my safety. But I see
+  this most dear of men, Pylades, coming with hasty step from the Phocians,
+  a pleasing sight, a man faithful in adversity, more grateful to behold
+  than the calm to the mariners.</p>
+
+<p class="center">PYLADES, ORESTES, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. I came through the city with a quicker step than I ought, having
+  heard of the council of state assembled, and seeing it plainly myself,
+  against thee and thy sister, as about to kill you instantly.&mdash;What
+  is this? how art thou? in what state, O most dear to me of my companions
+  and kindred? for all these things art thou to me.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. We are gone&mdash;briefly to show thee my calamities.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. Thou wilt have ruined me too; for the things of friends are
+  common.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Menelaus has behaved most basely toward me and my sister.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. It is to be expected that the husband of a bad wife be bad.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. He is come, and has done just as much for me as if he had not
+  come.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. What! is he in truth come to this land?</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. After a long season; but nevertheless he was very soon
+  discovered to be too base to his friends.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. And has he brought in his ship with him his most infamous
+  wife?</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Not he her, but she brought him hither.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. Where is she, who, beyond any woman,<a name="Orest_18"></a><a
+  href="#OrestN_18"><sup>[18]</sup></a> destroyed most of the Grecians?</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. In my palace, if I may indeed be allowed to call this mine.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. But what words didst thou say to thy father's brother?</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. <i>I requested him</i> not to suffer me and my sister to be
+  slain by the citizens.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. By the Gods, what said he to this request; this I wish to
+  know.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. He declined, from motives of prudence, as bad friends act toward
+  their friends.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. Going on what ground of excuse? This having learned, I am in
+  possession of every thing.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. The father himself came, he that begat such excellent
+  daughters.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. Tyndarus you mean; perhaps enraged with thee on account of his
+  daughter.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. You are right: be paid more attention to his ties with him, than
+  to his ties with my father.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. And dared he not, being present, to take arms against thy
+  troubles?</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. <i>No</i>: for he was not born a warrior, but brave among
+  women.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. Thou art then in the greatest miseries, and it is necessary for
+  thee to die.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. The citizens must pass their vote on us for the murder <i>we
+  have committed</i>.<a name="Orest_19"></a><a
+  href="#OrestN_19"><sup>[19]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>PYL. Which vote what will it decide? tell me, for I am in fear.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Either to die or live; not many words on matters of great
+  import.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. Come fly, and quit the palace with thy sister.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Seest thou not? we are watched by guards on every side,</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. I saw the streets of the city lined with arms.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. We are invested as to our persons, as a city by the enemy.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. Now ask me also, what I suffer; for I too am undone.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. By whom? This would be an evil added to my evils.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. Strophius, my father, being enraged, hath driven me an exile from
+  his house.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Bringing against thee some private charge, or one in common with
+  the citizens?</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. Because I perpetrated with thee the murder of thy mother, he
+  banished me, calling me unholy.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. O thou unfortunate! it seems that thou also sufferest for my
+  evils.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. We have not Menelaus's manners&mdash;this must be borne.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Dost thou not fear lest Argos should wish to kill thee, as it
+  does also me?</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. We do not belong to these to punish, but to the land of the
+  Phocians.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. The populace is a terrible thing, when they have evil
+  leaders.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. But when they have good ones, they always deliberate good
+  things.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Be it so: we must speak on our common business.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. On what affair of necessity?</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Supposing I should go to the citizens, and say&mdash;</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. &mdash;that thou hast acted justly?</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Ay, avenging my father:</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. I fear they might not receive thee gladly.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. But shall I die then shuddering in silence!</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. This were cowardly.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. How then can I do?</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. Hast thou any chance of safety, if thou remainest?</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. I have none.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. But going, is there any hope of thy being preserved from thy
+  miseries?</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Should it chance well, there might be.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. Is not this then better than remaining?</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Shall I go then?</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. Dying thus, at least thou wilt die more honorably.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. And I have a just cause.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. Only pray for its appearing so.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Thou sayest well: this way I avoid the imputation of
+  cowardice.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. More than by tarrying here.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. And some one perchance may pity me&mdash;</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. Yes; for thy nobleness of birth is a great thing.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. &mdash;indignant at my father's death.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. All this in prospect.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Go I must, for it is not manly to die ingloriously.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. These sentiments I praise.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Shall we then tell these things to my sister?</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. No, by the Gods.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Why, there might be tears.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. This then is a great omen.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Clearly it is better to be silent.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. Thou art a gainer by delay.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. This one thing only opposes me.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. What new thing again is this thou sayest?</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. I fear lest the goddesses should stop me with their
+  torments.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. But I will take care of thee.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. It is a difficult and dangerous task to touch a man thus
+  disordered.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. Not for me to touch thee.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Take care how thou art partner of my madness.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. Let not this be thought of.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Wilt thou not then be timid to assist me?</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. No, for timidity is a great evil to friends.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Go on now, the helm of my foot.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. Having a charge worthy of a friend.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. And guide me to my father's tomb.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. To what end is this?</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. That I may supplicate him to save me.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. This at least is just.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. But let me not see my mother's monument.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. For she was an enemy. But hasten, that the decree of the Argives
+  condemn thee not before thou goest; leaning thy side, weary with disease,
+  on mine: since I will conduct thee through the city, little caring for
+  the multitude, nothing ashamed; for where shall I show myself thy friend,
+  if I assist thee not when them art in perilous condition?</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. This it is to have companions, not relationship alone; so that a
+  man who is congenial in manners, though a stranger in blood, is a better
+  friend for a man to have, than ten thousand relatives.</p>
+
+<p class="center">CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>The great happiness, and the valor high sounding throughout Greece,
+  and by the channels of the Simois, has again withdrawn from the fortune
+  of the Atridæ, as of old, from the ancient calamity of the house, when
+  the strife of the golden lamb<a name="Orest_20"></a><a
+  href="#OrestN_20"><sup>[20]</sup></a> arose among the descendants of
+  Tantalus; most shocking feasts, and the slaughter of noble children; from
+  whence murder responsive to murder fails not to attend on the two sons of
+  Atreus. What seems good is not good, to gash the parents' skin with a
+  fierce hand, and brandish the sword black-stained with blood in the
+  sunbeams. But, on the other hand, to act wickedly<a
+  name="Orest_21"></a><a href="#OrestN_21"><sup>[21]</sup></a> is mad
+  impiety, and the folly of evil-minded men.</p>
+
+  <p>But the wretched daughter of Tyndarus in the fear of death shrieked
+  out, "My son, thou darest impious deeds, killing thy mother; do not,
+  attending to the gratification of thy father, kindle an everlasting
+  disgrace."</p>
+
+  <p>What malady, or what tears, or what pity on earth is greater, than to
+  imbrue one's hand in a mother's blood? What a deed, what a deed having
+  performed, does the son of Agamemnon rave with madness, a prey to the
+  Eumenides, marked for death, giddy with his rolling eyes! O wretched on
+  account of his mother, when though seeing the breast bared from the robe
+  of golden texture, he stabbed the mother in retaliation for the father's
+  sufferings.</p>
+
+<p class="center">ELECTRA, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. Ye virgins, has the wretched Orestes, overcome with
+  heaven-inflicted madness, rushed any where from this house?</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. By no means; but he is gone to the Argive people, to undergo the
+  trial proposed regarding life, by which you must either live or die.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. Alas me! what thing has he done? but who persuaded him?</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Pylades.&mdash;But this messenger seems soon about to inform us
+  of what has passed there concerning thy brother.</p>
+
+<p class="center">MESSENGER, ELECTRA, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. O wretched hapless daughter of the chief Agamemnon, revered
+  Electra, hear the unfortunate words which I am come to bring.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. Alas! alas! we are undone; this thou signifiest by thy speech.
+  For thou comest, as it seems, a messenger of woes.</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. It has been carried by the vote of the Pelasgians, that thy
+  brother and thou must die this day.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. Ah me! the expected event has come, which long since fearing, I
+  pined away with lamentations on account of what was in
+  prospect.&mdash;But what was the debate? What arguments among the Argives
+  condemned us, and confirmed our sentence of death? Tell me, old man,
+  whether by the hand raised to stone me, or by the sword must I breathe
+  out my soul, having this calamity in common with my brother?</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. I chanced indeed to be entering the gates from the country,
+  anxious to hear both what regarded thee, and what regarded Orestes; for
+  at all times I had a favorable inclination toward thy father: and thy
+  house fed me, poor indeed, but noble in my conduct toward friends. But I
+  see the crowd going and sitting down on an eminence; where they say
+  Danaus first collected the people to a common council, when he suffered
+  punishment at the hands of Ægyptus. But seeing this concourse, I asked
+  one of the citizens, "What new thing is stirring in Argos? Has any
+  message from hostile powers roused the city of the Danaids?" But he said,
+  "Seest thou not this Orestes walking near us, who is about to run in the
+  contest of life and death?" But I see an unexpected sight, which oh that
+  I had never seen! Pylades and thy brother walking together, the one
+  indeed broken with sickness, but the other, like a brother, sympathizing
+  with his friend, tending his weakened state with fostering care. But when
+  the assembly of the Argives was full, a herald stood forth and said, "Who
+  wishes to speak <i>on the question</i>, whether it is right that Orestes,
+  who has killed his mother, should die, or not?" And on this Talthybius
+  rises, who, in conjunction with thy father, laid waste the Phrygians. But
+  he spoke words of divided import, being the constant slave of those in
+  power; struck with admiration indeed at thy father, but not commending
+  thy brother (speciously mixing up words of bad import), because he laid
+  down no good laws toward his parents: but he was continually casting a
+  smiling glance on Ægisthus's friends. For such is this kind; heralds
+  always dance attendance on the prosperous; but that man is their friend,
+  whoever may chance to have power in the state, and to be in office. But
+  next to him prince Diomed harangued; he indeed was for suffering them to
+  kill neither thee nor thy brother, but <i>bid them</i> observe piety by
+  punishing you with banishment. But some indeed murmured their assent,
+  that he spoke well, but others praised him not.<a name="Orest_22"></a><a
+  href="#OrestN_22"><sup>[22]</sup></a> And after him rises up some man,
+  intemperate in speech, powerful in boldness, an Argive, yet not an
+  Argive,<a name="Orest_23"></a><a href="#OrestN_23"><sup>[23]</sup></a>
+  forced upon us, relying both on the tumult, and on ignorant boldness,
+  prompt by persuasion to involve them in some mischief. (For when a man,
+  sweet in words, holding bad sentiments, persuades the multitude, it is a
+  great evil to the city. But as many as always advise good things with
+  understanding, although not at the present moment, eventually are of
+  service to the state: but the intelligent leader ought to look to this,
+  for the case is the same with the man who speaks words, and the man who
+  approves them.) Who said, that they ought to kill Orestes and thee by
+  stoning. But Tyndarus was privily making up such sort of speeches for him
+  who wished your death to speak. But another man stood up, and spoke in
+  opposition to him, in form indeed not made to catch the eye; but a man
+  endued with the qualities of a man, rarely polluting the city, and the
+  circle of the forum; one who farmed his own land,<a
+  name="Orest_24"></a><a href="#OrestN_24"><sup>[24]</sup></a> which class
+  of persons<a name="Orest_25"></a><a href="#OrestN_25"><sup>[25]</sup></a>
+  alone preserve the country, but prudent, and wishing the tenor of his
+  conduct to be in unison with his words, uncorrupted, one that had
+  conformed to a blameless mode of living; he proposed to crown Orestes the
+  son of Agamemnon,<a name="Orest_25a"></a><a
+  href="#OrestN_25a"><sup>[25a]</sup></a> who was willing to avenge his
+  father by slaying a wicked and unholy woman, who took this out of the
+  power of men, and would no one have been the cause of arming the hand for
+  war, nor undertaking an expedition, leaving his home, if those who are
+  left destroy what is intrusted to their charge in the house, disgracing
+  their husbands' beds. And to right-minded men at least he appeared to
+  speak well: and none spoke besides, but thy brother advanced and said, "O
+  inhabitants of the land of Inachus, avenging you no less than my father,
+  I slew my mother, for if the murder of men shall become licensed to
+  women, ye no longer can escape dying, or ye must be slaves to your wives.
+  But ye do the contrary to what ye ought to do. For now she that was false
+  to the bed of my father is dead; but if ye do indeed slay me, the law has
+  lost its force, and no man can escape dying, forasmuch as there will be
+  no lack of this audacity."</p>
+
+  <p>But he persuaded not the people, though appearing to speak well. But
+  that villain, who spoke among the multitude, overcomes him, he that
+  harangued for the killing of thy brother and thee. But scarcely did the
+  wretched Orestes persuade them that he might not die by stoning; but he
+  promised that this day he would quit his life by self-slaughter together
+  with thee:&mdash;but Pylades is conducting him from the council, weeping:
+  but his friends accompany him bewailing him, pitying him; but he is
+  coming a sad spectacle to thee, and a wretched sight. But prepare the
+  sword, or the noose for thy neck, for thou must die, but thy nobleness of
+  birth hath profited thee nothing, nor the Pythian Ph&#339;bus who sits on
+  the tripod, but hath destroyed thee.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. O unhappy virgin! how art thou dumb, casting thy muffled
+  countenance toward the ground, as though about to run into a strain of
+  groans and lamentations!</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. I begin the lament, O land of Greece, digging my white nail into
+  my cheek, sad bleeding woe, and dashing my head, which<a
+  name="Orest_26"></a><a href="#OrestN_26"><sup>[26]</sup></a> the lovely<a
+  name="Orest_27"></a><a href="#OrestN_27"><sup>[27]</sup></a> goddess of
+  the manes beneath the earth has to her share. And let the Cyclopian
+  land<a name="Orest_28"></a><a href="#OrestN_28"><sup>[28]</sup></a> howl,
+  applying the steel to their head cropped of hair over the calamity of our
+  house. This pity, this pity, proceeds for those who are about to die, who
+  once were the princes of Greece. For it is gone, it is gone, the entire
+  race of the children of Pelops has perished, and the happiness which once
+  resided in these blest abodes. Envy from heaven has now seized it, and
+  the harsh decree of blood in the state. Alas! alas! O race of mortals
+  that endure for a day, full of tears, full of troubles, behold how
+  contrary to expectation fate comes. But in the long lapse of time each
+  different man receives by turns his different sufferings.<a
+  name="Orest_29"></a><a href="#OrestN_29"><sup>[29]</sup></a> But the
+  whole race of mortals is unstable and uncertain.</p>
+
+  <p>Oh! could I go to that rock stretched from Olympus in its loftiness
+  midst heaven and earth by golden chains, that mass of clay borne round
+  with rapid revolutions, that in my plaints I might cry out to my ancient
+  father Tantalus; who begat the progenitors of my family, who saw
+  calamities, what time in the pursuing of steeds, Pelops in his car drawn
+  by four horses perpetrated, as he drove, the murder of Myrtilus, <i>by
+  casting him</i> into the sea, hurling him down to the surge of the ocean,
+  as he guided his car on the shore of the briny sea by Geræstus foaming
+  with its white billows. Whence the baleful curse came on my house since,
+  by the agency of Maia's son,<a name="Orest_30"></a><a
+  href="#OrestN_30"><sup>[30]</sup></a> there appeared the pernicious,
+  pernicious prodigy of the golden-fleeced lamb, a birth which took place
+  among the flocks of the warlike Atreus. On which both Discord drove back
+  the winged chariot of the sun, directing it from the path of heaven
+  leading to the west toward Aurora borne on her single horse.<a
+  name="Orest_31"></a><a href="#OrestN_31"><sup>[31]</sup></a> And Jupiter
+  drove back the course of the seven moving Pleiads another way: and from
+  that period<a name="Orest_32"></a><a
+  href="#OrestN_32"><sup>[32]</sup></a> he sends deaths in succession to
+  deaths, and "the feast of Thyestes," so named from Thyestes. And the bed
+  of the Cretan Ærope deceitful in a deceitful marriage has come as a
+  finishing stroke on me and my father, to the miserable destruction of our
+  family.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. But see, thy brother is advancing, condemned by the vote of
+  death, and Pylades the most faithful of all, a man like a brother,
+  supporting the enfeebled limbs of Orestes, walking by his side<a
+  name="Orest_33"></a><a href="#OrestN_33"><sup>[33]</sup></a> with the
+  foot of tender solicitude.</p>
+
+<p class="center">ELECTRA, ORESTES, PYLADES, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. Alas me! for I bewail thee, my brother, seeing thee before the
+  tomb, and before the pyre of thy departed shade: alas me! again and
+  again, how am I bereft of my senses, seeing with my eyes the very last
+  sight of thee.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Wilt thou not in silence, ceasing from womanish groans, make up
+  thy mind to what is decreed? These things indeed are lamentable, but yet
+  we must bear our present fate.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. And how can I be silent? We wretched no longer are permitted to
+  view this light of the God.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Do not thou kill me; I, the unhappy, have died enough already
+  under the hands of the Argives; but pass over our present ills.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. O Orestes! oh wretched in thy youth, and thy fate, and thy
+  untimely death, then oughtest thou to live, when thou art no more.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Do not by the Gods throw cowardice around me, bringing the
+  remembrance of my woes so as to cause tears.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. We shall die; it is not possible not to groan our misfortunes;
+  for the dear life is a cause of pity to all mortals.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. This is the day appointed for us! but we must either fit the
+  suspended noose, or whet the sword with our hand.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. Do thou then kill me, my brother; let none of the Argives kill
+  me, putting a contumely on the offspring of Agamemnon.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. I have enough of thy mother's blood, but thee I will not slay;
+  but die by thine own hand in whatever manner thou wilt.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. These things shall be; I will not be deserted by thy sword;<a
+  name="Orest_34"></a><a href="#OrestN_34"><sup>[34]</sup></a> but I wish
+  to clasp my hands around thy neck.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Thou enjoyest a vain gratification, if this be an enjoyment, to
+  throw thy hands around those who are hard at death's door.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. Oh thou most dear! oh thou that hast the desirable and most
+  sweet name, and one soul with thy sister!</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Thou wilt melt me; and still I wish to answer thee in the
+  endearment of encircling arms, for why am I any longer ashamed? O bosom
+  of my sister, O dear object of my caresses, these embraces are allowed to
+  us miserable beings instead of children and the bridal bed.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. Alas! How can the same sword (if this request be lawful) kill
+  us, and one tomb wrought of cedar receive us?</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. This would be most sweet; but thou seest how destitute we are,
+  in respect to being able to share our sepulture.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. Did not Menelaus speak in behalf of thee, taking a decided part
+  against thy death, the base man, the deserter of my father? [Note <a
+  name="Orest_G"></a><a href="#OrestN_G">[G]</a>.]</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. He showed it not even in his countenance, but keeping his hopes
+  on the sceptre, he was cautious how he saved his friends. But let be, he
+  will die acting in a manner nobly, and most worthily of Agamemnon. And I
+  indeed will show my high descent to the city, striking home to my heart
+  with the sword; but thee, on the other hand, it behooveth to act in
+  concert with my bold attempts. But do thou, Pylades, be the umpire of our
+  death, and well compose the bodies of us when dead, and bury us together,
+  bearing us to our father's tomb. And farewell&mdash;but I am going to the
+  deed, as thou seest.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. Hold. This one thing indeed first I bring in charge against
+  thee&mdash;Dost thou think that I can wish to live when thou diest?<a
+  name="Orest_35"></a><a href="#OrestN_35"><sup>[35]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>ORES. For how does it concern thee to die with me?</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. Dost ask? But how does it to live without thy company?</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Thou didst not slay my mother, as I did, a wretch.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. With thee I did at least; I ought also to suffer these things in
+  common with thee.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Take thyself back to thy father, do not die with me. For thou
+  indeed hast a city (but I no longer have), and the mansion of thy father,
+  and a great harbor of wealth. But thou art frustrated in thy marriage
+  with this unhappy virgin, whom I betrothed to thee, revering thy
+  friendship. Nevertheless do thou, contracting other nuptials, be a blest
+  father, but the connection between me and thee no longer subsists, But
+  thou, O darling name of my converse, farewell, be happy, for this is not
+  allowed me, but it is to thee; for we, the dead, are deprived of
+  happiness.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. Surely thou art wide astray from my purposes. Nor may the
+  fruitful plain receive my blood, nor the bright air, if ever I betraying
+  thee, having freed myself, forsake thee; for I committed the slaughter
+  with thee (I will not deny it), and I planned all things, for which now
+  thou sufferest vengeance. Die then I must with thee and her together, for
+  her, whose marriage I have courted, I consider as my wife; for what good
+  excuse ever shall I give, going to the Delphian land to the citadel of
+  the Phocians, I, who was present with you, your friend, before indeed you
+  were unfortunate, but now, when you are unfortunate, am no longer thy
+  friend? It is not possible &mdash;but these things are my care also. But
+  since we are about to die, let us come to a common conference, how
+  Menelaus may be involved in our calamity.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. O thou dearest man: for would I see this and die.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. Be persuaded then, but defer the slaughtering sword.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. I will defer, if any how I can avenge myself on my enemy.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. Be silent then, for I have but small confidence in women.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Do not at all fear these, for they are friends that are
+  present.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. Let us kill Helen, which will cause great grief to Menelaus.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. How? for the will is here, if it can be done with glory.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. Stabbing her; but she is lurking in thy house.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Yes indeed, and is putting her seal on all my effects.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. But she shall seal no more, having Pluto for her bridegroom.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. And how can this be? for she has a train of barbarian
+  attendants.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. Whom? for I would be afraid of no Phrygian.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Such men as should preside over mirrors and scents.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. For has she brought hither her Trojan fineries?</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. <i>Oh yes!</i> so that Greece is but a cottage for her.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. A race of slaves is a mere nothing against a race that will not
+  be slaves.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. In good truth, this if I could achieve, I shrink not from two
+  deaths.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. But neither do I indeed, if I could revenge thee at least.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Disclose thy purpose, and go through it as thou sayest.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. We will enter then the house, as men about to die.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Thus far I comprehend, but the rest I do not comprehend.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. We will make our lamentation to her of the things we suffer.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. So that she shall weep, though joyed within her heart.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. And the same things will be for us to do afterward, which she
+  does then.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Then how shall we finish the contest?</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. We will wear our swords concealed beneath our robes.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. But what slaughter can there be before her attendants?</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. We will bolt them out, scattered in different parts of the
+  house.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. And him that is not silent we must kill.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. Then the circumstances of the moment will point out what steps to
+  take.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. To kill Helen, I understand the sign.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. Thou seest: but hear on what honorable principles I meditate it.
+  For, if we draw our sword on a more modest woman, the murder will blot
+  our names with infamy. But in the present instance, she shall suffer
+  vengeance for the whole of Greece, whose fathers she slew, and made the
+  brides bereaved of their spouses; there shall be a shout, and they will
+  kindle up fire to the Gods, praying for many blessings to fall to thee
+  and me, inasmuch as we shed the blood of a wicked woman. But thou shalt
+  not be called the matricide, when thou hast slain her, but dropping this
+  name thou shalt arrive at better things, being styled the slayer of the
+  havoc-dealing Helen. It never, never were right that Menelaus should be
+  prosperous, and that thy father, and thou, and thy sister should die, and
+  thy mother; (this I forbear, for it is not decorous to mention;) and that
+  he should seize thy house, having recovered his bride by the means of
+  Agamemnon's valor. For may I live no longer, if I draw not my black sword
+  upon her. But if then we do not compass the murder of Helen, having fired
+  the palace we will die, for we shall have glory, succeeding in one of
+  these two things, nobly dying, or nobly rescued.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. The daughter of Tyndarus is an object of detestation to all
+  women, being one that has given rise to scandal against the sex.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Alas! There is no better thing than a real friend, not riches,
+  not kingdoms; but the popular applause becomes a thing of no account to
+  receive in exchange for a generous friend. For thou contrivedst the
+  destruction that befell Ægisthus, and wast close to me in my dangers. But
+  now again thou givest me to revenge me on mine enemies, and art not out
+  of the way&mdash;but I will leave off praising thee, since there is some
+  burden even in this "to be praised to excess." But I altogether in a
+  state of death, wish to do something to my foes and die, that I may in
+  turn destroy those who betrayed me, and those may groan who also made me
+  unhappy. I am the son of Agamemnon, who ruled over Greece by general
+  consent; no tyrant, but yet he had the power as it were of a God, whom I
+  will not disgrace, suffering a slavish death, but breathe out my soul in
+  freedom, but on Menelaus will I revenge me. For if we could gain this one
+  thing, we should be prosperous, if from any chance safety should come
+  unhoped for on the slayers <i>then</i>, not the slain: this I pray for.
+  For what I wish is sweet to delight the mind without fear of cost, though
+  with but fleeting words uttered through the mouth.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. I, O brother, think that this very thing brings safety to thee,
+  and thy friend, and in the third place to me.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Thou meanest the providence of the Gods: but where is this? for
+  I know that there is understanding in thy mind.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. Hear me then, and thou too give thy attention.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Speak, since the existing prospect of good affords some
+  pleasure.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. Art thou acquainted with the daughter of Helen? Thou knowest her
+  of whom I ask.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. I know her, Hermione, whom my mother brought up.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. She is gone to Clytæmnestra's tomb.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. For what purpose? what hope dost thou suggest?</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. To pour libations on the tomb in behalf of her mother.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. And what is this, thou hast told me of, that regards our
+  safety?</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. Seize her as a pledge as she is coming back.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. What remedy for the three friends is this thou sayest?</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. When Helen is dead, if Menelaus does any harm to thee or
+  Pylades, or me (for this firm of friendship is all one), say that thou
+  wilt kill Hermione; but thou oughtest to draw thy sword, and hold it to
+  the neck of the virgin. And if indeed Menelaus save thee, anxious that
+  the virgin may not die; when he sees Helen's corse weltering in blood,
+  give back the virgin for her father to enjoy; but should he, not
+  governing his angry temper, slay thee, do thou also plunge the sword into
+  the virgin's neck, and I think that he, though at first he come to us
+  very big, will after a season soften his heart; for neither is he brave
+  nor valiant: this is the fortress of our safety that I have; my arguments
+  on the subject have been spoken.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. O thou that hast indeed the mind of a man, but a form among
+  women beautiful, to what a degree art thou more worthy of life than
+  death! Pylades, wilt thou miserably be disappointed of such a woman, or
+  dwelling with her obtain this happy marriage?</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. For would it could be so! and she could come to the city of the
+  Phocians meeting with her deserts in splendid nuptials!</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. But when will Hermione come to the house? Since for the rest
+  thou saidst most admirably, if we could succeed in taking the whelp of
+  the impious father.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. Even now I guess that she must be near the house, for <i>with
+  this supposition</i> the space itself of the time coincides.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. It is well; do thou therefore, my sister Electra, waiting before
+  the house, meet the arrival of the virgin. And watch, lest any one,
+  either some ally, or the brother of my father, should be beforehand with
+  us coming to the palace: and make some noise toward the house, either
+  knocking at the doors, or sending thy voice within. But let us, O Pylades
+  (for thou undertakest this labor with me), entering in, arm our hands
+  with the sword to one last attempt. O my father, that inhabitest the
+  realms of gloomy night, Orestes thy son invokes thee to come a succor to
+  thy suppliants; for on thy account I wretched suffer unjustly, and am
+  betrayed by thy brother, myself having acted justly: whose wife I wish to
+  take and destroy; but be thou our accomplice in this affair.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. O father, come then, if beneath the earth thou hearest thy
+  children calling, who die for thee.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. O thou relation<a name="Orest_36"></a><a
+  href="#OrestN_36"><sup>[36]</sup></a> of my father, give ear, O
+  Agamemnon, to my prayers also, preserve thy children.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. I slew my mother.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. But I directed the sword.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. But I at least incited you, and freed you from delay.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Succoring thee, my father.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. Neither did I forsake thee.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. Wilt thou not therefore, hearing these things that are brought
+  against thee,<a name="Orest_37"></a><a
+  href="#OrestN_37"><sup>[37]</sup></a> defend thy children?</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. I pour libations on thee with my tears.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. And I with lamentations.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. Cease, and let us haste forth to the work, for if prayers
+  penetrate under the earth, he hears; but, O Jove our ancestor, and thou
+  revered deity of justice, grant us to succeed, him, and myself, and this
+  virgin, for over us three friends one hazard, one cause impends, either
+  for all to live, or all to die!</p>
+
+<p class="center">ELECTRA, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. O dear Mycenian virgins, who have the first place at the
+  Pelasgian seat of the Argives;&mdash;</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. What voice art thou uttering, my respected mistress? for this
+  appellation awaits thee in the city of the Danaids.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. Arrange yourselves, some of you in this beaten way, and some
+  there, in that other path, to guard the house.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. But on what account dost thou command this, tell me, my
+  friend.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. Fear possesses me, lest any one being in the palace, on account
+  of this murderous deed, should contrive evils on evils.</p>
+
+  <p>SEMICHOR. Go, let us hasten, I indeed will guard this path, that tends
+  toward where the sun flings his first rays.</p>
+
+  <p>SEMICHOR. And I indeed this, which leads toward the west.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. Now turn the glances of your eyes around in every position, now
+  here, now there, then take some other view.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. We are, as thou commandest.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. Now roll your eyelids over your pupils, glance them every way
+  through your ringlets.</p>
+
+  <p>SEMICHOR. Is this any one here appearing in the path?&mdash;Who is
+  this rustic that is standing about thy palace?</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. We are undone then, my friends; he will immediately show to the
+  enemy the lurking beasts of prey armed with their swords.</p>
+
+  <p>SEMICHOR. Be not afraid, the path is clear, which thou thinkest
+  not.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. But what?&mdash;does all with you remain secure? Give me some
+  good report, whether the space before the hall be empty?</p>
+
+  <p>SEMICHOR. All here at least is well, but look to thy province, for no
+  one of the Danaids is approaching toward us.</p>
+
+  <p>SEMICHOR. Thy report agrees with mine, for neither is there a
+  disturbance here.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. Come now,&mdash;I will listen at the door: why do ye delay, ye
+  that are within, to sacrifice the victim, now that ye are in
+  quiet?&mdash;They hear not: Alas me! wretched in misery! Are the swords
+  then struck dumb at her beauty? Perhaps some Argive in arms rushing in
+  with the foot of succor will approach the palace.&mdash;Now watch more
+  carefully; it is no contest that admits delay; but turn <i>your eyes</i>
+  some this way, and some that.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. I turn each different way, looking about on all sides.</p>
+
+  <p>HELEN. (<i>within</i>) Oh! Pelasgian Argos! I am miserably slain!</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. Heard ye? The men are employing their head in the
+  murder.&mdash;It is the shriek of Helen, as I may conjecture.</p>
+
+  <p>SEMICHOR. O eternal might of Jove, come to assist my friends in every
+  way.</p>
+
+  <p>HEL. Menelaus, I die! But thou art at hand, and dost not help me!</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. Kill, strike, slay, plunging with your hands the two
+  double-edged swords into the deserter of her father, the deserter of her
+  husband, who destroyed numbers of the Grecians perishing by the spear at
+  the river, whence tears fell into conjunction with tears, fell on account
+  of the iron weapons around the whirlpools of Scamander.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Be still, be still: I heard the sound of some one coming along
+  the path around the palace.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. O most dear women, in the midst of the slaughter behold Hermione
+  is present; let us cease from our clamor, for she comes about to fall
+  into the meshes of our toils. A goodly prey will she be, if she be taken.
+  Again to your stations with a calm countenance, and with a color that
+  shall not give evidence of what has been done. I too will preserve a
+  pensive cast of countenance, as though perfectly unacquainted with what
+  has happened.</p>
+
+<p class="center">HERMIONE, ELECTRA, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. O virgin, art thou come from crowning Clytæmnestra's tomb, and
+  pouring libations to her manes?</p>
+
+  <p>HERM. I am come, having obtained her good services; but some terror
+  has come upon me, on account of the noise in the palace, which I hear
+  being a far distance off the house.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. But why? There have happened to us things worthy of groans.</p>
+
+  <p>HERM. Speak good words; but what news dost thou tell me?</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. It has been decreed by this land, that Orestes and I die.</p>
+
+  <p>HERM. No, I hope not so; you, who are my relations.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. It is fixed; but we stand under the yoke of necessity.</p>
+
+  <p>HERM. Was the noise then in the house on this account?</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. For falling down a suppliant at the knees of Helen, he cries
+  out&mdash;</p>
+
+  <p>HERM. Who? for I know no more, except thou tellest me.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. The wretched Orestes, that he may not die, and in behalf of
+  me.</p>
+
+  <p>HERM. For a just reason then the house lamented.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. For on what other account should one rather cry out? But come,
+  and join in supplication with thy friends, falling down before thy
+  mother, the supremely blest, that Menelaus will not see us perish. But, O
+  thou, that receivedst thy education at the hands of my mother, pity us,
+  and alleviate our sufferings. Come hither to the trial; but I will lead
+  the way, for thou alone hast the ends of our preservation.</p>
+
+  <p>HERM. Behold I direct my footstep toward the house. Be preserved, as
+  far as lies in me.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. O ye in the house, my dear warriors, will ye not take your
+  prey?</p>
+
+  <p>HERM. Alas me! who are these I see?</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. (<i>advancing</i>) Thou must be silent; for thou art come to
+  preserve us, not thyself.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. Hold her, hold her; and pointing a sword to her neck be silent,
+  that Menelaus may know, that having found men, not Phrygian cowards, he
+  has treated them in a manner he should treat cowards. What ho! what ho!
+  my friends, make a noise, a noise, and shout before the palace, that the
+  murder that is perpetrated spread not a dread alarm among the Argives, so
+  that they run to assist to the king's palace, before I plainly see the
+  slaughtered Helen lying weltering in her blood within the house, or else
+  we hear the report from some of her attendants. For part of the havoc I
+  know, and part not accurately.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. With justice came the vengeance of the Gods on Helen. For she
+  filled the whole of Greece with tears on account of the ruthless,
+  ruthless Idean Paris, who brought the Grecian state to Ilium. But be
+  silent, for the bolts of the royal mansion resound, for some one of the
+  Phrygians comes forth, from whom we shall hear of the affairs within the
+  house, in what state they are.</p>
+
+<p class="center">PHRYGIAN, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>PHRY. I have escaped from death by the Argive sword in these barbaric
+  slippers, <i>climbing</i> over the cedar beams of the bed and the Doric
+  triglyphs, by the flight of a barbarian.<a name="Orest_38"></a><a
+  href="#OrestN_38"><sup>[38]</sup></a> Thou art gone, thou art gone, O my
+  country, my country! Alas me! whither can I escape, O strangers, flying
+  through the hoary air, or the sea, which the Ocean, with head in shape
+  like a bull's, rolling with his arms encircles the earth?</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. But what is the matter, O attendant of Helen, thou man of
+  Ida?</p>
+
+  <p>PHRY. O Ilion, Ilion! alas me! O thou fertile Phrygian city, thou
+  sacred mount of Ida, how do I lament for thee destroyed, a sad,<a
+  name="Orest_39"></a><a href="#OrestN_39"><sup>[39]</sup></a> sad strain
+  for my barbaric voice, on account of that form of the hapless, hapless
+  Helen, born from a bird, the offspring of the beauteous Leda in shape of
+  a swan, the fiend of the splendid Apollonian Pergamus! Alas! Oh!
+  lamentations! lamentations! O wretched Dardania, warlike school<a
+  name="Orest_40"></a><a href="#OrestN_40"><sup>[40]</sup></a> of Ganymede,
+  the companion of Jove!</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Relate to us clearly each circumstance that happened in the
+  house, for I do not understand your former account, but merely
+  conjecture.</p>
+
+  <p>PHRY. <span lang="el" title="Ailinon,
+  ailinon">&#x391;&#x3B9;&#x3BB;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;,
+  &#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3BB;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span>, the Barbarians
+  begin the song of death in the language of Asia, Alas! alas! when the
+  blood of kings has been poured on the earth by the ruthless swords of
+  death. There came to the palace (that I may relate each circumstance) two
+  Grecians, lions, of the one the leader of the Grecian host was said to be
+  the father, the other the son of Strophius, a man of dark design; such
+  was Ulysses, secretly treacherous, but faithful to his friends, bold in
+  battle, skilled in war, cruel as the dragon. May he perish for his deep
+  concealed design, the worker of evil! But they having advanced within her
+  chamber, whom the archer Paris had as his wife, their eyes bathed with
+  tears, they sat down in humble mien, one on each side of her, on the
+  right and on the left, armed with swords. And around her knees did they
+  both fling their suppliant hands, around the knees of Helen did they
+  fling them. But the Phrygian attendants sprung up, and fled in amazement:
+  and one called out to another in terror, <i>See</i>, lest there be
+  treachery. To some indeed there appeared no danger; but to others the
+  dragon stained with his mother's blood appeared bent to infold in his
+  closest toils the daughter of Tyndarus.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. But where wert thou then, or hadst thou long before fled through
+  fear?</p>
+
+  <p>PHRY. After the Phrygian fashion I chanced with the close circle of
+  feathers to be fanning the gale, <i>that sported</i> in the ringlets of
+  Helen, before her cheek, after the barbaric fashion. But she was winding
+  with her fingers the flax round the distaff, but what she had spun she
+  let fall on the ground, desirous of making from the Phrygian spoils a
+  robe of purple as an ornament for the tomb, a gift to Clytæmnestra. But
+  Orestes entreated the Spartan girl; "O daughter of Jove, here, place thy
+  footstep on the ground, rising from thy seat, come to the place of our
+  ancestor Pelops, the ancient altar, that thou mayest hear my words." And
+  he leads her, but she followed, not dreaming of what was about to happen.
+  But his accomplice, the wicked Phocian, attended to other points. "Will
+  ye not depart from out of the way, but are the Phrygians always vile?"
+  and he bolted us out scattered in different parts of the house, some in
+  the stables of the horses, and some in the outhouses, and some here and
+  there, dispersing them some one way, some another, afar from their
+  mistress.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. What calamity took place after this?</p>
+
+  <p>PHRY. O powerful, powerful Idean mother, alas! alas! the murderous
+  sufferings, and the lawless evils, which I saw, I saw in the royal
+  palace! From beneath their purple robes concealed having their drawn
+  swords in their hands, they turned each his eye on either side, lest any
+  one might chance to be present. But like mountain boars standing over
+  against the lady, they say, "Thou shalt die, thou shalt die! thy vile
+  husband kills thee, having given up the offspring of his brother to die
+  at Argos." But she shrieked out, Ah me! ah me! and throwing her white arm
+  on her breast inflicted on her head miserable blows, and, her feet turned
+  to flight, she stepped, she stepped with her golden sandals; but Orestes
+  thrusting his fingers into her hair, outstripping her flight,<a
+  name="Orest_41"></a><a href="#OrestN_41"><sup>[41]</sup></a> bending back
+  her neck over his left shoulder, was about to plunge the black sword into
+  her throat.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Where then were the Phrygians, who dwell under the same roof, to
+  assist her?</p>
+
+  <p>PHRY. With a clamor having burst by means of bars the doors and cells
+  where we were waiting, we run to her assistance, each to different parts
+  of the house, one bringing stones, another spears, another having a
+  long-handled sword in his hand. But Pylades came against us, impetuous,
+  like as the Phrygian Hector or Ajax in his triple-crested helmet, whom I
+  saw, I saw at the gates of Priam: but we clashed together the points of
+  our swords: then indeed, then did the Phrygians give clear proof how
+  inferior we were in the force of Mars to the spear of Greece. One indeed
+  turning away, a fugitive, but another wounded, and another deprecating
+  the death that threatened him: but under favor of the darkness we fled:
+  and the corses fell, but some staggered, and some lay prostrate. But the
+  wretched Hermione came to the house at the time when her murdered mother
+  fell to the ground, that unhappy woman that gave her birth. And running
+  upon her as Bacchanals without their thyrsus, as a heifer in the
+  mountains they bore her away in their hands, and again eagerly rushed
+  upon the daughter of Jove to slay her. But she vanished altogether from
+  the chamber through the palace. O Jupiter and O earth, and light, and
+  darkness! or by her enchantments, or by the art of magic, or by the
+  stealth of the Gods. But of what followed I know no farther, for I sped
+  in stealth my foot from the palace. But Menelaus having endured many,
+  many severe toils, has received back from Troy the violated rites of
+  Helen to no purpose.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. And see something strange succeeds to these strange things, for
+  I see Orestes with his sword drawn walking before the palace with
+  agitated step,</p>
+
+<p class="center">ORESTES, PHRYGIAN, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Where is he that fled from my sword out of the palace?</p>
+
+  <p>PHRY. I supplicate thee, O king, falling prostrate before thee after
+  the barbaric fashion.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. The case before us is not in Ilium, but the Argive land.</p>
+
+  <p>PHRY. In every region to live is sweeter than to die, in the opinion
+  of the wise.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Didst thou not raise a cry for Menelaus to come with succor?</p>
+
+  <p>PHRY. I indeed am present on purpose to assist thee; for thou art the
+  more worthy.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Perished then the daughter of Tyndarus justly?</p>
+
+  <p>PHRY. Most justly, even had she three lives for vengeance.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. With thy tongue dost thou flatter, not having these sentiments
+  within?</p>
+
+  <p>PHRY. For ought she not? She who utterly destroyed Greece as well as
+  the Phrygians themselves?</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Swear, I will kill thee else, that thou art not speaking to
+  curry favor with me.</p>
+
+  <p>PHRY. By my life have I sworn, which I should wish to hold a sacred
+  oath.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Was the steel thus dreadful to all the Phrygians at Troy
+  also?</p>
+
+  <p>PHRY. Remove thy sword, for being so near me it gleams horrid
+  slaughter.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Art thou afraid, lest thou shouldest become a rock, as though
+  looking on the Gorgon?</p>
+
+  <p>PHRY. Lest I should become a corse, but I know not of the Gorgon's
+  head.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Slave as thou art, dost thou fear death, which will rid thee
+  from thy woes?</p>
+
+  <p>PHRY. Every one, although a man be a slave, rejoices to behold the
+  light.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Thou sayest well; thy understanding; saves thee, but go into the
+  house.</p>
+
+  <p>PHRY. Thou wilt not kill me then?</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Thou art pardoned.</p>
+
+  <p>PHRY. This is good word thou hast spoken.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Yet we may change our measures.</p>
+
+  <p>PHRY. But this thou sayest not well.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Thou art a fool, if thou thinkest I could endure to defile me by
+  smiting thy neck, for neither art thou a woman, nor oughtest thou to be
+  ranked among men. But that thou mightest not raise a clamor came I forth
+  out of the house: for Argos, when it has heard a noise, is soon roused,
+  but we have no dread in meeting Menelaus, as far as swords go; but let
+  him come exulting with his golden ringlets flowing over his shoulders,
+  for if he collects the Argives, and brings them against the palace
+  seeking revenge for the death of Helen, and is not willing to let me be
+  in safety, and my sister, and Pylades my accomplice in this affair, he
+  shall see two corses, both the virgin and his wife.</p>
+
+<p class="center">CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>Alas! alas! O fate, the house of the Atridæ again falls into another,
+  another fearful struggle.</p>
+
+  <p>SEMICHOR. What shall we do? shall we carry these tidings to the city,
+  or shall we keep in silence?</p>
+
+  <p>SEMICHOR. This is the safer plan, my friends.</p>
+
+  <p>SEMICHOR. Behold before the house, behold this smoke leaping aloft in
+  the air portends <i>something</i>.</p>
+
+  <p>SEMICHOR. They are lighting the torches, as about to burn down the
+  mansion of Tantalus, nor do they forbear from murder.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. The God rules the events that happen to mortals, whichsoever way
+  he wills. But some vast power by the instigation of the Furies has
+  struck, has struck these palaces to the shedding of blood on account of
+  the fall of Myrtilus from the chariot.</p>
+
+  <p>But lo! I see Menelaus also here approaching the house with a quick
+  step, having by some means or other perceived the calamity which now is
+  present. Will ye not anticipate him by closing the gates with bolts, O ye
+  children of Atreus, who are in the palace? A man in prosperity is a
+  terrible thing to those in adversity, as now them art in misery,
+  Orestes.</p>
+
+<p class="center">MENELAUS <i>below</i>, ORESTES, PYLADES, ELECTRA, HERMIONE
+<i>above</i>, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. I am present, having heard the horrid and atrocious deeds of the
+  two lions, for I call them not men. For I have now heard of my wife, that
+  she died not, but vanished away, this that I heard was empty report,
+  which one deceived by fright related; but these are the artifices of the
+  matricide, and much derision. Open some one the door, my attendants I
+  command to burst open these gates here, that my child at least we may
+  deliver from the hand of these blood-polluted men, and may receive my
+  unhappy, my miserable lady, with whom those murderers of my wife must die
+  by my hand.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. What ho there! Touch not these gates with thine hands: to
+  Menelaus I speak, that thou towerest in thy boldness, or with this
+  pinnacle will I crush thy head, having rent down the ancient battlement,
+  the labor of the builders. But the gates are made fast with bolts, which
+  will hinder thee from thy purpose of bringing aid, so that thou canst not
+  pass within the palace.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. Ha! what is this? I see the blaze of torches, and these stationed
+  on the battlements, on the height of the palace, and the sword placed
+  over the neck of my daughter to guard her.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Whether is it thy will to question, or to hear me?</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. I wish neither, but it is necessary, as it seems, to hear
+  thee.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. I am about to slay thy daughter if thou wish to know.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. Having slain Helen, dost thou perpetrate murder on murder?</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. For would I had gained my purpose not being deluded, as I was,
+  by the Gods.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. Thou hast slain her, and deniest it, and speakest these things to
+  insult me.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. It is a denial that gives me pain, for would that&mdash;</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. Thou had done what deed? for thou callest forth alarm.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. I had hurled to hell the fury of Greece.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. Give back the body of my wife, that I may bury her in a tomb.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Ask her of the Gods; but I will slay thy daughter.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. The matricide contrives murder on murder.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. The avenger of his father, whom thou gavest up to die.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. Was not the blood of thy mother formerly shed sufficient for
+  thee?</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. I should not be weary of slaying wicked women, were I to slay
+  them forever.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. Art thou also, Pylades, a partaker in this murder?</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. By his silence he assents, but if I speak, it will be
+  sufficient.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. But not with impunity, unless indeed thou fliest on wings.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. We will not fly, but will set fire to the palace?</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. What! wilt thou destroy thy father's mansion?</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Yes, that thou mayest not possess it, will I, having stabbed
+  this virgin here over the flames.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. Slay her; since having slain thou shalt at least give me
+  satisfaction for these deeds.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. It shall be so then.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. Alas! on no account do this!</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Be silent then; but bear to suffer evil justly.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. What! is it just for thee to live?</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Yes, and to rule over the land.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. What land!</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Here, in Pelasgian Argos.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. Well wouldst thou touch the sacred lavers!</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. And pray why not?</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. And wouldst slaughter the victim before the battle!</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. And thou wouldst most righteously.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. Yes, for I am pure as to my hands.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. But not thy heart.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. Who would speak to thee?</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Whoever loves his father.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. And whoever reveres his mother.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. &mdash;Is happy.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. Not thou at least.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. For wicked women please me not.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. Take away the sword from my daughter.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Thou art false in thy expectations.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. But wilt thou kill my daughter?</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Thou art no longer false.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. Alas me! what shall I do?</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Go to the Argives, and persuade them.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. With what persuasion?</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Beseech the city that we may not die.<a name="Orest_41a"></a><a
+  href="#OrestN_41a"><sup>[41a]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>MEN. Otherwise ye will slay my daughter?</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. The thing is so.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. O wretched Helen!&mdash;</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. And am I not wretched?</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. I brought thee hither from the Trojans to be a victim.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. For would this were so!</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. Having endured ten thousand toils.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Except on my account.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. I have met with dreadful treatment.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. For then, <i>when thou oughtest</i>, thou wert of no
+  assistance.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. Thou hast me.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Thou at least hast caught thyself. But, ho there! set fire to
+  the palace, Electra, from beneath: and thou, Pylades, the most true of my
+  friends, light up these battlements of the walls.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. O land of the Danai, and inhabitants of warlike Argos, will ye
+  not, ho there! come in arms to my succor? For this man here, having
+  perpetrated the shocking murder of his mother, brings destruction on your
+  whole city, that he may live.</p>
+
+<p class="center">APOLLO.</p>
+
+  <p>Menelaus, cease from thy irritated state of mind; I Ph&#339;bus the
+  son of Latona, in thy presence, am addressing thee. Thou too, Orestes,
+  who standest over that damsel with thy sword drawn, that thou mayest know
+  what commands I bring with me. Helen indeed, whom thou minded to destroy,
+  working Menelaus to anger, didst fail of thy purpose, she is here, whom
+  ye see wrapt in the bosom of the sky, preserved, and not slain by thy
+  hands. Her I preserved, and snatched from thy sword, commanded by my
+  father Jove. For being the daughter of Jove, it is right that she should
+  live immortal. And she shall have her seat by Castor and Pollux in the
+  bosom of the sky, the guardian of mariners. But take to thyself another
+  bride, and lead her home, since for the beauty of this woman the Gods
+  brought together the Greeks and Trojans, and caused deaths, that they
+  might draw from off the earth the pride of mortals, who had become an
+  infinite multitude. Thus is it with regard to Helen; but thee, on the
+  other hand, Orestes, it behooveth, having passed beyond the boundaries of
+  this land, to inhabit the Parrhasian plain during the revolution of a
+  year, and it shall be called by a name after thy flight, so that the
+  Azanes and Arcadians shall call it Oresteum: and thence having departed
+  to the city of the Athenians, undergo the charge of shedding thy mother's
+  blood laid by the three Furies. But the Gods the arbiters of the cause
+  shall pass on thee most sacredly their decree on the hill of Mars, in
+  which it behooveth thee to be victorious. But Hermione, to whose neck
+  thou art holding the sword, it is destined for thee, Orestes, to wed, but
+  Neoptolemus, who thinks to marry her, shall never marry her. For it is
+  fated to him to die by the Delphic sword, as he is demanding of me
+  satisfaction for his father Achilles. But to Pylades give thy sister's
+  hand, as thou didst formerly agree, but a happy life now coming on awaits
+  him. But, O Menelaus, suffer Orestes to reign over Argos. But depart and
+  rule over the Spartan land, having it as thy wife's dowry, who exposing
+  thee to numberless evils always was bringing thee to this. But what
+  regards the city I will make all right for him, I, who compelled him to
+  slay his mother.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. O Loxian prophet, thou wert not then a false prophet in thine
+  oracles, but a true one. And yet a fear comes upon me, that having heard
+  one of the Furies, I might think that I have been hearing thy voice. But
+  it is well fulfilled, and I will obey thy words. Behold I let go Hermione
+  from slaughter, and approve her alliance, whenever her father shall give
+  her.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. O Helen, daughter of Jove, hail! but I bless thee inhabiting the
+  happy mansions of the Gods. But to thee, Orestes, do I betroth my
+  daughter at Ph&#339;bus's commands, but illustrious thyself marrying from
+  an illustrious family, be happy, both thou and I who give her.</p>
+
+  <p>APOL. Now depart each of you whither we have appointed, and dissolve
+  your quarrels.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. It is our duty to obey.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. I too entertain the same sentiments, and I receive with
+  friendship thee in thy sufferings, O Menelaus, and thy oracles, O
+  Apollo.</p>
+
+  <p>APOL. Go now, each his own way, honoring the most excellent goddess
+  Peace; but I will convey Helen to the mansions of Jove, passing through
+  the pole of the shining stars, where sitting by Juno, and Hercules's
+  Hebe, a goddess, she shall ever be honored by mortals with libations, in
+  conjunction with the Tyndaridæ, the sons of Jove, presiding over the sea
+  to the benefit of mariners.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. O greatly glorious Victory, mayest thou uphold my life, and
+  cease not from crowning me!</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h3>NOTES ON ORESTES</h3>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+<div class="note">
+  <p><a name="OrestN_1"></a><a href="#Orest_1">[1]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="stemmata,
+  eria">&#x3C3;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3BC;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;,
+  &#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;</span>, <i>Schol.</i> "eo quod colum cingant
+  seu coronant," Scapula explains it.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="OrestN_2"></a><a href="#Orest_2">[2]</a> "<i>Then</i>" is not
+  to be considered as signifying point of time, but it is meant to express
+  <span lang="el" title="oun">&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3BD;</span>,
+  <i>continuativam</i>. See Hoogeveen de Particula <span lang="el"
+  title="oun">&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3BD;</span>, Sect. ii. § 6.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="OrestN_3"></a><a href="#Orest_3">[3]</a> The original Greek
+  phrase was <span lang="el" title="elpidos
+  leptês">&#x3B5;&#x3BB;&#x3C0;&#x3B9;&#x3B4;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3BB;&#x3B5;&#x3C0;&#x3C4;&#x3B7;&#x3C2;</span>, which Euripides has
+  changed to <span lang="el" title="asthenous
+  rhômês">&#x3B1;&#x3C3;&#x3B8;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C2;
+  &#x201B;&#x3C1;&#x3C9;&#x3BC;&#x3B7;&#x3C2;</span>, though the other had
+  equally suited the metre. But Euripides is fond of slight alterations in
+  proverbs. PORSON.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="OrestN_4"></a><a href="#Orest_4">[4]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="dous&mdash;dynatai de kai
+  apodous">&#x3B4;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C2;&mdash;&#x3B4;&#x3C5;&#x3BD;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3B4;&#x3B5; &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3B1;&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3B4;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C2;</span>. SCHOL.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="OrestN_5"></a><a href="#Orest_5">[5]</a> Perhaps this
+  interpretation of <span lang="el"
+  title="chronion">&#x3C7;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span>
+  is better than "slow," for the considerate Electra would hardly go to
+  remind her brother of his infirmities.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="OrestN_6"></a><a href="#Orest_6">[6]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="Potniades">&#x3A0;&#x3BF;&#x3C4;&#x3BD;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;&#x3B4;&#x3B5;&#x3C2;</span>.
+  The Furies have this epithet from Potnia, a town in B&#339;otia, where
+  Glaucus's horses, having eaten of a certain herb and becoming mad, tore
+  their own master in pieces. SCHOL.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="OrestN_6a"></a><a href="#Orest_6a">[6a]</a> Note <a
+  name="Orest_D"></a><a href="#OrestN_D">[D]</a>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="OrestN_6b"></a><a href="#Orest_6b">[6b]</a> Dindorf would
+  omit this verse. </p>
+
+  <p><a name="OrestN_7"></a><a href="#Orest_7">[7]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="halitypôn, halieôn, hoi tais kôpais typtousi tên
+  thalassan">&#x201B;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3B9;&#x3C4;&#x3C5;&#x3C0;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;,
+  &#x201B;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3B9;&#x3B5;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;,
+  &#x201B;&#x3BF;&#x3B9; &#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3BA;&#x3C9;&#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3C5;&#x3C0;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3B7;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B8;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3C3;&#x3C3;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;</span>.
+  SCHOL.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="OrestN_8"></a><a href="#Orest_8">[8]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="aphyllou">&#x3B1;&#x3C6;&#x3C5;&#x3BB;&#x3BB;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;</span>.
+  Alluding to the branch, which the ancients used to hold in token of
+  supplication.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="OrestN_9"></a><a href="#Orest_9">[9]</a> "<span lang="el"
+  title="kata tên nykta pepontha têrôn tên anairesin, kai tên analêpsin tôn
+  osteôn, toutestin, hina mê tis aphelêtai
+  tauta">&#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3B1; &#x3C4;&#x3B7;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3BD;&#x3C5;&#x3BA;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3B8;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3B7;&#x3C1;&#x3C9;&#x3BD; &#x3C4;&#x3B7;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3C1;&#x3B5;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;,
+  &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9; &#x3C4;&#x3B7;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3B7;&#x3C8;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3C9;&#x3BD; &#x3BF;&#x3C3;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;,
+  &#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3C3;&#x3C4;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;,
+  &#x201B;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;&#x3B1; &#x3BC;&#x3B7; &#x3C4;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B1;&#x3C6;&#x3B5;&#x3BB;&#x3B7;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3C5;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;</span>." PARAPH. Heath translates it,
+  <i>watchfully observing, till her bones were collected.</i></p>
+
+  <p><a name="OrestN_10"></a><a href="#Orest_10">[10]</a> The old reading
+  was <span lang="el"
+  title="apaideuta">&#x3B1;&#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3B4;&#x3B5;&#x3C5;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;</span>.
+  The meaning of the present reading seems to be, "Yes, they are awful 'tis
+  true, but still however you need not be so very scrupulous about naming
+  them."</p>
+
+  <p><a name="OrestN_11"></a><a href="#Orest_11">[11]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="anaphora">&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3B1;&#x3C6;&#x3BF;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;</span>
+  was a legal term, and signified the line of defense adopted by the
+  accused, when he transferred the charge brought against himself to some
+  other person.&mdash;See Demosthenes in Timocr.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="OrestN_12"></a><a href="#Orest_12">[12]</a> &#338;ax was
+  Palamede's brother.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="OrestN_13"></a><a href="#Orest_13">[13]</a> And therefore we
+  are not to impeach the <i>man</i>. Some would have <span lang="el"
+  title="doulon">&#x3B4;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3BB;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span> to bear
+  the sense of <span lang="el"
+  title="doulopoion">&#x3B4;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3BB;&#x3BF;&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span>,
+  enslaves, and therefore can not be avoided.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="OrestN_14"></a><a href="#Orest_14">[14]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="echô">&#x3B5;&#x3C7;&#x3C9;</span> for <span lang="el"
+  title="enochos eimi">&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3C7;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3BC;&#x3B9;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="OrestN_15"></a><a href="#Orest_15">[15]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="Zêlô, to makarizô. entautha de anti tou
+  epainô.">&#x396;&#x3B7;&#x3BB;&#x3C9;, &#x3C4;&#x3BF;
+  &#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3C1;&#x3B9;&#x3B6;&#x3C9;.
+  &#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3C5;&#x3B8;&#x3B1; &#x3B4;&#x3B5;
+  &#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3B9; &#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;
+  &#x3B5;&#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;&#x3C9;.</span> SCHOL.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="OrestN_16"></a><a href="#Orest_16">[16]</a> Conf. Ter. Eun.
+  Act. v. Sc. 2.</p>
+
+  <div class="poem">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <p class="i16">Non dedignum, Chærea,</p>
+      <p>Fecisti; nam si ego digna hac contumelia</p>
+      <p>Sum maxume, at tu indignus, qui faceres, tamen.</p>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+  <p><a name="OrestN_16a"></a><a href="#Orest_16a">[16a]</a> Note <a
+  name="Orest_E"></a><a href="#OrestN_E">[E]</a>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="OrestN_17"></a><a href="#Orest_17">[17]</a> Of this passage
+  the Scholiast gives two interpretations; either it may mean <span
+  lang="el" title="meta dakryôn kai goôn
+  eipon">&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3B4;&#x3B1;&#x3BA;&#x3C1;&#x3C5;&#x3C9;&#x3BD; &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3B3;&#x3BF;&#x3C9;&#x3BD; &#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span>:
+  or, <span lang="el" title="eipon tauta eis dakrya kai goous, kai
+  xymphoras, êgoun hina mê tychô, toutôn: teuxomai de, ei petrôthênai me
+  easêis">&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3C5;&#x3C4;&#x3B1; &#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B4;&#x3B1;&#x3BA;&#x3C1;&#x3C5;&#x3B1; &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3B3;&#x3BF;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C2;, &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3BE;&#x3C5;&#x3BC;&#x3C6;&#x3BF;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3C2;,
+  &#x3B7;&#x3B3;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3BD; &#x201B;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3BC;&#x3B7; &#x3C4;&#x3C5;&#x3C7;&#x3C9;,
+  &#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C4;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;:
+  &#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3C5;&#x3BE;&#x3BF;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3B9; &#x3B4;&#x3B5;,
+  &#x3B5;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3C4;&#x3C1;&#x3C9;&#x3B8;&#x3B7;&#x3BD;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3BC;&#x3B5; &#x3B5;&#x3B1;&#x3C3;&#x3B7;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="OrestN_18"></a><a href="#Orest_18">[18]</a> <i>"Beyond any
+  woman,"</i> <span lang="el" title="gynê mia">&#x3B3;&#x3C5;&#x3BD;&#x3B7;
+  &#x3BC;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;</span>, this is a mode of expression frequently met
+  with in the Attic writers, especially in Xenophon.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="OrestN_19"></a><a href="#Orest_19">[19]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="epi tôi phonôi, toutesti dia ton phonon, hon
+  eirgasametha.">&#x3B5;&#x3C0;&#x3B9; &#x3C4;&#x3C9;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3C6;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3C9;&#x3B9;,
+  &#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3C3;&#x3C4;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3B4;&#x3B9;&#x3B1; &#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3C6;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;, &#x201B;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C1;&#x3B3;&#x3B1;&#x3C3;&#x3B1;&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3B8;&#x3B1;.</span>
+  PARAPH.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="OrestN_20"></a><a href="#Orest_20">[20]</a> Thyestes and
+  Atreus, having a dispute about their father Pelops's kingdom, agreed,
+  that whichever should discover the first prodigy should have possession
+  of the throne. There appeared in Atreus's flock a golden lamb, which,
+  however, Ærope his wife secretly had conveyed to Thyestes to show before
+  the judges. Atreus afterward invited Thyestes to a feast, and served up
+  before him Aglaiis, Orchomenus, and Caleus, three sons he had by his
+  intrigues with Ærope.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="OrestN_21"></a><a href="#Orest_21">[21]</a> Alluding to the
+  murder of Agamemnon by Clytæmnestra. This is the interpretation and
+  explanation of the Scholiast; but it is perhaps better translated,
+  "<i>but on the other hand to play the coward is great impiety, and the
+  error of cowardly-minded men</i>;" the chorus meaning, that this might
+  have been said of Orestes, had he not avenged his father.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="OrestN_22"></a><a href="#Orest_22">[22]</a> That is,
+  <i>blamed him</i>. So St. Paul, 1 Cor. xi. 21, <span lang="el"
+  title="epainesô hymas en toutoi; ouk
+  epainô">&#x3B5;&#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;&#x3B5;&#x3C3;&#x3C9;
+  &#x201B;&#x3C5;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3C2; &#x3B5;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;; &#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3BA;
+  &#x3B5;&#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;&#x3C9;</span>. Ter. And. Act. <span
+  class="vol">II.</span> Sc. 6. "Et, quod dicendum hic siet, Tu quoque
+  perparce nimium, non laudo."</p>
+
+  <p><a name="OrestN_23"></a><a href="#Orest_23">[23]</a> An Argive as far
+  as he was born there, and therefore <span lang="el"
+  title="ênankasmenos">&#x3B7;&#x3BD;&#x3B1;&#x3B3;&#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3C3;&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span>;
+  not an Argive, inasmuch as his parents were not of that state. This is
+  supposed to allude to Cleophon. SCHOL. See Dindorf.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="OrestN_24"></a><a href="#Orest_24">[24]</a> This is the
+  interpretation of one Scholiast; another explains it <span lang="el"
+  title="oikeiais chersin
+  ergazomenos">&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3BA;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3C7;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3B3;&#x3B1;&#x3B6;&#x3BF;&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span>.
+  Grotius translates it <i>agricola</i>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="OrestN_25"></a><a href="#Orest_25">[25]</a> The same
+  construction occurs in the Supplicants, 870. <span lang="el"
+  title="philois d' alêthês ên philos, parousi te kai mê parousin:
+  hôn">&#x3C6;&#x3B9;&#x3BB;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3C2; &#x3B4;'
+  &#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3B7;&#x3B8;&#x3B7;&#x3C2; &#x3B7;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3C6;&#x3B9;&#x3BB;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;,
+  &#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3B9; &#x3C4;&#x3B5;
+  &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9; &#x3BC;&#x3B7;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;:
+  &#x201B;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;</span> (of which sort of men) <span lang="el"
+  title="arithmos ou
+  polys.">&#x3B1;&#x3C1;&#x3B9;&#x3B8;&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3C2; &#x3BF;&#x3C5;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3BB;&#x3C5;&#x3C2;.</span> PORSON.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="OrestN_25a"></a><a href="#Orest_25a">[25a]</a> See Note <a
+  name="Orest_F"></a><a href="#OrestN_F">[F]</a>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="OrestN_26"></a><a href="#Orest_26">[26]</a> Which, <span
+  lang="el"
+  title="ktypon">&#x3BA;&#x3C4;&#x3C5;&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span> namely:
+  <span lang="el" title="onycha">&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3C5;&#x3C7;&#x3B1;</span>
+  and <span lang="el"
+  title="ktypon">&#x3BA;&#x3C4;&#x3C5;&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span> are each
+  governed by <span lang="el"
+  title="titheisa">&#x3C4;&#x3B9;&#x3B8;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3B1;</span>;
+  but it is not easy to find a single verb in English that should be
+  transitive to both these substantives.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="OrestN_27"></a><a href="#Orest_27">[27]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="kallipais">&#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3BB;&#x3B9;&#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;</span>,
+  <i>lovely</i>, not lovely in her children: so in Ph&#339;n. 1634. <span
+  lang="el" title="euteknos
+  xynôris">&#x3B5;&#x3C5;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3BA;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3BE;&#x3C5;&#x3BD;&#x3C9;&#x3C1;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="OrestN_28"></a><a href="#Orest_28">[28]</a> Argos, so called
+  from the Cyclopes, a nation of Thrace, who, being called in as allies,
+  afterward settled here.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="OrestN_29"></a><a href="#Orest_29">[29]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="heterois">&#x201B;&#x3B5;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;</span>
+  may perhaps seem to make the construction plainer than <span lang="el"
+  title="heteros">&#x201B;&#x3B5;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span>;
+  but Porson has received the latter into his text on account of the
+  metre.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="OrestN_30"></a><a href="#Orest_30">[30]</a> Myrtilus was the
+  son of Mercury, who therefore sowed this dissension between the two
+  brothers in revenge for his death by Pelops. See note at line 802.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="OrestN_31"></a><a href="#Orest_31">[31]</a> Some would
+  understand by <span lang="el"
+  title="monopôlon">&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3C0;&#x3C9;&#x3BB;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span>
+  not that Aurora was borne on one horse, but that this alteration in the
+  course of nature took place for one day. SCHOL.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="OrestN_32"></a><a href="#Orest_32">[32]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="kai apo tônde, êtoi meta tauta.">&#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3B1;&#x3C0;&#x3BF; &#x3C4;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;&#x3B4;&#x3B5;,
+  &#x3B7;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3B9; &#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3C5;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;.</span> PARAPH.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="OrestN_33"></a><a href="#Orest_33">[33]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="paraseiros">&#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3C3;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span>
+  is used to signify a loose horse tied abreast of another in the shaft,
+  and is technically termed "the outrigger." The metaphorical application
+  of it to Pylades, who voluntarily attached himself to the misfortunes of
+  his friend, is extremely beautiful.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="OrestN_34"></a><a href="#Orest_34">[34]</a> Or, <i>"I will
+  not be at all behind thy slaughter."</i></p>
+
+  <p><a name="OrestN_35"></a><a href="#Orest_35">[35]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="eu">&#x3B5;&#x3C5;</span> in this passage <i>interrogat
+  oblique</i>, see Hoogeveen, xvi. § 1. 15.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="OrestN_36"></a><a href="#Orest_36">[36]</a> Strophius, the
+  father of Pylades, married Anaxibia, Agamemnon's sister.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="OrestN_37"></a><a href="#Orest_37">[37]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="oneidê, tôn euergesiôn tas
+  hypomnêseis">&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3B4;&#x3B7;,
+  &#x3C4;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B5;&#x3C5;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3B3;&#x3B5;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3C2;
+  &#x201B;&#x3C5;&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3BC;&#x3BD;&#x3B7;&#x3C3;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;</span>.
+  SCHOL. Ter. And. i. 1. "isthæc commemoratio quasi exprobratio est
+  immemoris benefici."</p>
+
+  <p><a name="OrestN_38"></a><a href="#Orest_38">[38]</a> i.e. being a
+  barbarian, and therefore not knowing whither to go.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="OrestN_39"></a><a href="#Orest_39">[39]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="harmateion">&#x201B;&#x3B1;&#x3C1;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span>,
+  such a strain as that raised over Hector, <span lang="el"
+  title="helkomenô, dia tou
+  harmatos">&#x201B;&#x3B5;&#x3BB;&#x3BA;&#x3BF;&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3C9;,
+  &#x3B4;&#x3B9;&#x3B1; &#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;
+  &#x201B;&#x3B1;&#x3C1;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span>. See two
+  other explanations in the Scholia.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="OrestN_40"></a><a href="#Orest_40">[40]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="hipposyna, hêtis hypêrches hippêlasia tou
+  G.">&#x201B;&#x3B9;&#x3C0;&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3C3;&#x3C5;&#x3BD;&#x3B1;,
+  &#x201B;&#x3B7;&#x3C4;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x201B;&#x3C5;&#x3C0;&#x3B7;&#x3C1;&#x3C7;&#x3B5;&#x3C2;
+  &#x201B;&#x3B9;&#x3C0;&#x3C0;&#x3B7;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C5; &#x393;.</span> BRUNCK.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="OrestN_41"></a><a href="#Orest_41">[41]</a> Literally, <i>her
+  Mycenian slipper</i>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="OrestN_41a"></a><a href="#Orest_41a">[41a]</a> Read <span
+  lang="el"
+  title="thanein">&#x3B8;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;</span> with
+  Pors. Dind.</p>
+
+</div>
+<hr class="short" />
+
+<h3>ADDITIONAL NOTES.</h3>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+<div class="note">
+  <p><a name="OrestN_A"></a><a href="#Orest_A">[A]</a> But Dindorf reads
+  <span lang="el" title="ktypou ê êgaget'.
+  ouchi">&#x3BA;&#x3C4;&#x3C5;&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3C5; &#x3B7;
+  &#x3B7;&#x3B3;&#x3B1;&#x3B3;&#x3B5;&#x3C4;'.
+  &#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C7;&#x3B9;</span>; interrogatively, thus: "Ye were
+  making a noise. Will ye not ... enable him," etc.?</p>
+
+  <p><a name="OrestN_B"></a><a href="#Orest_B">[B]</a> Dindorf would
+  continue this verse to Orestes.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="OrestN_C"></a><a href="#Orest_C">[C]</a> Dindorf supposes
+  something to be wanting after vs. 314.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="OrestN_D"></a><a href="#Orest_D">[D]</a> The use of <span
+  lang="el" title="allos heteros">&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3BB;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;
+  &#x201B;&#x3B5;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span> is learnedly
+  illustrated by Dindorf.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="OrestN_E"></a><a href="#Orest_E">[E]</a> Elmsley, on Heracl.
+  852, more simply regards the datives <span lang="el" title="soi sêi t'
+  adelphê">&#x3C3;&#x3BF;&#x3B9; &#x3C3;&#x3B7;&#x3B9; &#x3C4;'
+  &#x3B1;&#x3B4;&#x3B5;&#x3BB;&#x3C6;&#x3B7;</span> as dependent upon <span
+  lang="el"
+  title="episeisô">&#x3B5;&#x3C0;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3C9;</span>,
+  understanding <span lang="el" title="hôste dounai
+  dikên">&#x201B;&#x3C9;&#x3C3;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;
+  &#x3B4;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3BD;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3B4;&#x3B9;&#x3BA;&#x3B7;&#x3BD;</span>. This is better than to
+  suppose (with Porson) that <span lang="el" title="dounai
+  dikên">&#x3B4;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3BD;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3B4;&#x3B9;&#x3BA;&#x3B7;&#x3BD;</span> can mean to <i>inflict</i>
+  punishment.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="OrestN_F"></a><a href="#Orest_F">[F]</a> Dindorf (in his
+  notes) agrees with Porson in omitting the following verse.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="OrestN_G"></a><a href="#Orest_G">[G]</a> Dindorf's text and
+  punctuation must be altered.</p>
+
+</div>
+<hr class="full" />
+
+<a name="PHOENISSAE"></a>
+<h2>THE PH&#338;NICIAN VIRGINS.</h2>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+<h3>PERSONS REPRESENTED.</h3>
+
+  <div class="personae">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <p>JOCASTA.</p>
+      <p>TUTOR.</p>
+      <p>ANTIGONE.</p>
+      <p>CHORUS OF PH&#338;NICIAN VIRGINS.</p>
+      <p>POLYNICES.</p>
+      <p>ETEOCLES.</p>
+      <p>CREON.</p>
+      <p>MEN&#338;CEUS.</p>
+      <p>TIRECIAS.</p>
+      <p>MESSENGERS.</p>
+      <p>&#338;DIPUS.</p>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+<p class="center"><i>The Scene is in the Court before the royal palace at Thebes</i>.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h3>THE ARGUMENT.</h3>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+  <p>Eteocles having gotten possession of the throne of Thebes, deprived
+  his brother Polynices of his share; but he having come as an exile to
+  Argos, married the daughter of the king Adrastus; but ambitious of
+  returning to his country, and having persuaded his father-in-law, he
+  assembled a great army for Thebes against his brother. His mother Jocasta
+  made him come into the city, under sanction of a truce, and first confer
+  with his brother respecting the empire. But Eteocles being violent and
+  fierce from having possessed the empire, Jocasta could not reconcile her
+  children.&mdash;Polynices, prepared as against an enemy, rushed out of
+  the city. Now Tiresias prophesied that victory should be on the side of
+  the Thebans, if Men&#339;ceus the son of Creon would give himself up to
+  be sacrificed to Mars. Creon refused to give his son to the city, but the
+  youth was willing, and, his father pointing out to him the means of
+  flight and giving him money, he put himself to death.&mdash;The Thebans
+  slew the leaders of the Argives. Eteocles and Polynices in a single
+  combat slew each other, and their mother having found the corses of her
+  sons laid violent hands on herself; and Creon her brother received the
+  kingdom. The Argives defeated in battle retired. But Creon, being morose,
+  would not give up those of the enemy who had fallen at Thebes, for
+  sepulture, and exposed the body of Polynices without burial, and banished
+  &#338;dipus from his country; in the one instance disregarding the laws
+  of humanity, in the other giving way to passion, nor feeling pity for him
+  after his calamity.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2>THE PH&#338;NICIAN VIRGINS.</h2>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+<p class="center">JOCASTA.</p>
+
+  <p>O thou that cuttest thy path through the constellations<a
+  name="Phoen_1"></a><a href="#PhoenN_1"><sup>[1]</sup></a> of heaven, and
+  art mounted on thy golden-joined seats, thou sun, whirling thy flame
+  with<a name="Phoen_2"></a><a href="#PhoenN_2"><sup>[2]</sup></a> thy
+  swift steeds, how inauspicious didst thou dart thy ray on that day when
+  Cadmus came to this land having left the sea-washed coast of
+  Ph&#339;nicia; who in former time having married Harmonia, daughter of
+  Venus, begat Polydorus; from him they say sprung Labdacus, and from him
+  Laius. But I am<a name="Phoen_3"></a><a
+  href="#PhoenN_3"><sup>[3]</sup></a> the daughter of Men&#339;ceus, and
+  Creon my brother was born of the same mother; me they call Jocasta (for
+  this name<a name="Phoen_4"></a><a href="#PhoenN_4"><sup>[4]</sup></a> my
+  father gave me), and Laius takes me for his wife; but after that he was
+  childless, for a long time sharing my bed in the palace, he went and
+  inquired of Apollo, and at the same time demands the mutual offspring of
+  male children in his family; but the God said, "O king of Thebes renowned
+  for its chariots, sow not for such a harvest of children against the will
+  of the Gods, for if thou shalt beget a son, he that is born shall slay
+  thee, and the whole of thy house shall wade through blood." But having
+  yielded to pleasure, and having fallen into inebriety, he begot to us a
+  son, and having begot him, feeling conscious of his error and the command
+  of the God, gives the babe to some herdsmen to expose at the meads of
+  Juno and the rock of Cithæron, having bored sharp-pointed iron through
+  the middle of his ankles, from which circumstance Greece gave him the
+  name of &#338;dipus. But him the grooms who attend the steeds of Polybus
+  find and carry home, and placed him in the arms of their mistress. But
+  she rested beneath her bosom him that gave me a mother's pangs, and
+  persuades her husband that she had brought forth. But now my son showing
+  signs of manhood in his darkening cheek, either having suspected it by
+  instinct, or having learned it from some one, went to the temple of
+  Apollo, desirous of discovering his parents; at the same time went Laius
+  my husband, seeking to gain intelligence of his son who had been exposed,
+  if he were no longer living; and both met at the same point of the road
+  at Phocis where it divides itself; and the charioteer of Laius commands
+  him, "Stranger, withdraw out of the way of princes;" but he moved slowly,
+  in silence, with haughty spirit; but the steeds with their hoof dyed with
+  blood the tendons of his feet. At this (but why need I relate each horrid
+  circumstance besides the deed itself?) the son kills his father, and
+  having taken the chariot, sends it as a present to his foster-father
+  Polybus. Now at this time the sphinx preyed vulture-like<a
+  name="Phoen_5"></a><a href="#PhoenN_5"><sup>[5]</sup></a> upon the city
+  with rapacity, my husband now no more, Creon my brother proclaims that he
+  will give my bed as a reward to him who would solve the enigma of the
+  crafty virgin. But by some chance or other &#338;dipus my son happens to
+  discover the riddle of the sphinx, [and he receives as a prize the
+  sceptre of this land,]<a name="Phoen_5a"></a><a
+  href="#PhoenN_5a"><sup>[5a]</sup></a> and marries me, his mother,
+  wretched he not knowing it, nor knew his mother that she was lying down
+  with her son. And I bear children to my child, two sons, Eteocles and the
+  illustrious Polynices, and two daughters, one her father named Ismene,
+  the elder I called Antigone. But &#338;dipus, after having gone through
+  all sufferings, having discovered in my bed the marriage with his mother,
+  he perpetrated a deed of horror on his own eyes, having drenched in blood
+  their pupils with his golden buckles. But after that the cheek of my
+  children grows dark with manly down, they hid their father confined with
+  bolts that his sad fortune might be forgotten, which indeed required the
+  greatest policy. He is still living in the palace, but sick in mind
+  through his misfortunes he imprecates the most unhallowed curses on his
+  children, that they may share this house with the sharpened sword. But
+  these two, dreading lest the Gods should bring to completion these
+  curses,<a name="Phoen_6"></a><a href="#PhoenN_6"><sup>[6]</sup></a>
+  should they dwell together, in friendly compact determined that Polynices
+  the younger son should first go a willing exile from this land, but that
+  Eteocles remaining here should hold the sceptre for a year, changing in
+  his turn; but after that he sat on the throne of power, he moves not from
+  his seat, but drives Polynices an exile from this land. But he having
+  fled to Argos, and having contracted an alliance with Adrastus, assembles
+  together and leads a vast army of Argives; and having marched to these
+  very walls with seven gates he demands his father's sceptre and his share
+  of the land. But I to quell this strife persuaded my son to come to his
+  brother, confiding in a truce before he grasped the spear. And the
+  messenger who was sent declares that he will come. But, O thou that
+  inhabitest the shining clouds of heaven, Jove, preserve us, give
+  reconciliation to my children; it becomes thee, if thou art wise, not to
+  suffer the same man always to be unfortunate.</p>
+
+<p class="center">TUTOR, ANTIGONE.</p>
+
+  <p>TUT. O thou fair bud in thy father's house, Antigone, since thy mother
+  has permitted thee to leave the virgin's apartments for the extreme
+  chamber<a name="Phoen_7"></a><a href="#PhoenN_7"><sup>[7]</sup></a> of
+  the mansion, in order to view the Argive army in compliance with thy
+  entreaties, yet stay, until I shall first investigate the path, lest any
+  citizen should appear in the pass, and to me taunts should come as a
+  slave, and to thee as a princess: and I who well know each circumstance
+  will tell you all that I saw or heard from the Argives, when I went
+  bearing the offer of a truce to thy brother, from this place thither, and
+  again to this place from him. But no citizen approaches this house; come,
+  ascend with thy steps these ancient stairs of cedar, and survey the
+  plains, and by the streams of Ismenus and Dirce's fount how great is the
+  host of the enemy.</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. Stretch forth now, stretch forth thine aged hand from the stairs
+  to my youth, raising up the steps of my feet.</p>
+
+  <p>TUT. Behold, join thy hand, virgin, thou hast come in lucky hour, for
+  the Pelasgian host is now in motion, and they are separating the bands
+  from one another.</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. O awful daughter of Latona, Hecate, the field all brass<a
+  name="Phoen_8"></a><a href="#PhoenN_8"><sup>[8]</sup></a> gleaming like
+  lightning.</p>
+
+  <p>TUT. For Polynices hath not come tamely to this land, raging with host
+  of horsemen, and ten thousand shields.</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. Are the gates fastened with bars, and is the brazen bolt fitted
+  to the stone-work of Amphion's wall?</p>
+
+  <p>TUT. Take courage; as to the interior the city is safe, But view the
+  first chief, if thou desirest to know.</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. Who is he with the white-plumed helmet, who commands in the van
+  of the army, moving lightly round on his arm his brazen shield?</p>
+
+  <p>TUT. He is a leader, lady.</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. Who is he? From whom sprung? Speak, aged man, what is he called
+  by name?</p>
+
+  <p>TUT. He indeed is called by birth a Mycenæan, and he dwells at the
+  streams of Lerna,<a name="Phoen_9"></a><a
+  href="#PhoenN_9"><sup>[9]</sup></a> the king Hippomedon.</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. Ah! how haughty, how terrible to behold! like to an earth-born
+  giant, starlike in countenance amidst his painted devices,<a
+  name="Phoen_10"></a><a href="#PhoenN_10"><sup>[10]</sup></a> he
+  corresponds not with the race of mortals.</p>
+
+  <p>TUT. Dost thou not see him now passing the stream of Dirce, a
+  general?</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. Here is another, another fashion of arms. But who is he?</p>
+
+  <p>TUT. He is the son of &#338;neus, Tydeus, and bears on his breast the
+  Ætolian Mars.</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. Is this the prince, O aged man, who is husband to the sister of
+  my brother's wife?<a name="Phoen_11"></a><a
+  href="#PhoenN_11"><sup>[11]</sup></a> In his arms how different of color,
+  of barbaric mixture!</p>
+
+  <p>TUT. For all the Ætolians, my child, bear the target, and hurl with
+  the lance, most certain in their aim.</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. But how, O aged man, dost thou know these things so
+  perfectly?</p>
+
+  <p>TUT. Having seen the devices of the shields, then I remarked them,
+  when I went to bear the offer of a truce to thy brother, beholding which,
+  I recognize the warriors.</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. But who is this, who is passing round the tomb of Zethus, with
+  clustering locks, in his eyes a Gorgon to behold, in appearance a
+  youth?</p>
+
+  <p>TUT. A general he is. [See Note <a name="Phoen_A"></a><a
+  href="#PhoenN_A">[A]</a>.]</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. How a crowd in complete armor attends him behind!<a
+  name="Phoen_12"></a><a href="#PhoenN_12"><sup>[12]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>TUT. This is Parthenopæus, son of Atalanta.</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. But, may Diana who rushes over the mountains with his mother
+  destroy him, having subdued him with her arrows, who has come against my
+  city to destroy it.</p>
+
+  <p>TUT. May it be so, my child, nevertheless they are come with justice
+  to this land; wherefore also I fear lest the Gods should judge
+  rightly.</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. Where, but where is he who was born of one mother with me in hard
+  fate, O dearest old man; tell me, where is Polynices?</p>
+
+  <p>TUT. He is standing near the tomb of the seven virgin daughters of
+  Niobe, close by Adrastus. Seest thou him?</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. I see indeed, but not distinctly; but somehow I see the
+  resemblance of his form, and his shape shadowed out. Would that with my
+  feet I could perform the journey of the winged cloud through the air to
+  my brother, then would I fling my arms round his dearest neck, after so
+  long a time a wretched exile. How splendid is he, O old man, in his
+  golden armor, glittering like the morning rays of the sun.</p>
+
+  <p>TUT. He will come to this house confiding in the truce, so as to fill
+  thee with joy.</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. But who, O aged man, is this, who guides his milk-white steeds
+  seated in his chariot?</p>
+
+  <p>TUT. The prophet Amphiaraus this, O my mistress, and with him the
+  victims, the libations of the earth delighting in blood.</p>
+
+  <p>AST. O thou daughter of the brightly girded sun, thou moon,
+  golden-circled light, applying what quiet and temperate blows to his
+  steeds does he direct his chariot! But where is he who utters such
+  dreadful insults against this city, Capaneus?</p>
+
+  <p>TUT. He is scanning the approach to the towers, measuring the walls
+  both from their foundation to the top.</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. O vengeance, and ye loud-roaring thunders of Jove, and thou
+  blasting fire of the lightning, do thou quell this more-than-mortal
+  arrogance. This is he who will with his spear give to Mycenæ, and to the
+  streams of Lernæan Triæna,<a name="Phoen_13"></a><a
+  href="#PhoenN_13"><sup>[13]</sup></a> and to the Amymonian<a
+  name="Phoen_14"></a><a href="#PhoenN_14"><sup>[14]</sup></a> waters of
+  Neptune, the Theban women, having invested them with slavery. Sever, O
+  awful Goddess, never, O daughter of Jove, with golden clusters of
+  ringlets, Diana, may I endure servitude.</p>
+
+  <p>TUT. My child, enter the palace, and at home remain in thy virgin
+  chambers, since thou hast arrived at the indulgement of thy desire, as to
+  what you were anxious to behold. For, since confusion has entered the
+  city, a crowd of women is advancing to the royal palace. The race of
+  women is prone to complaint, and if they find but small occasion for
+  words, they add more, and it is a sort of pleasure to women, to speak
+  nothing well-advised one of another.<a name="Phoen_15"></a><a
+  href="#PhoenN_15"><sup>[15]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p class="center">CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>I have come, having left the Tyrian wave, the first-fruits of Loxias,
+  from the sea-washed Ph&#339;nicia, a slave for the shrine of Apollo, that
+  I might dwell under the snowy brows of Parnassus, having sped my way over
+  the Ionian flood by the oar, the west wind with its blasts riding over
+  the barren plains of waters<a name="Phoen_16"></a><a
+  href="#PhoenN_16"><sup>[16]</sup></a> which flow round Sicily, the
+  sweetest murmur in the heavens. Chosen out from my city the fairest
+  present to Apollo, I came to the land of the Cadmeans, the illustrious
+  descendants of Agenor, sent hither to these kindred towers of Laius. And
+  I am made the slave of Apollo in like manner with the golden-framed
+  images. Moreover the water of Castalia awaits me, to lave the virgin
+  pride of my tresses, in the ministry of Apollo. O blazing rock, the flame
+  of fire that seems<a name="Phoen_17"></a><a
+  href="#PhoenN_17"><sup>[17]</sup></a> double above the Dionysian heights
+  of Bacchus, and thou vine, who distillest the daily nectar, producing the
+  fruitful cluster from the tender shoot; and ye divine caves of the
+  dragon,<a name="Phoen_18"></a><a href="#PhoenN_18"><sup>[18]</sup></a>
+  and ye mountain watch-towers of the Gods, and thou hallowed snowy
+  mountain, would that I were the chorus of the immortal God free from
+  alarms encompassing thee around, by the caves of Apollo in the centre of
+  the earth, having left Dirce. But now impetuous Mars having advanced
+  before the walls lights up against this city, which may the Gods avert,
+  hostile war; for common are the misfortunes of friends, and common is it,
+  if this land defended by its seven turrets should suffer any calamity, to
+  the Ph&#339;nician country, alas! alas! common is the affinity,<a
+  name="Phoen_19"></a><a href="#PhoenN_19"><sup>[19]</sup></a> common are
+  the descendants of Io bearing horns; of which woes I have a share. But a
+  thick cloud of shields glares around the city, the likeness of gory
+  battle, bearing which destruction from the Furies to the children of
+  &#338;dipus Mars shall quickly advance. O Pelasgian Argos, I dread thy
+  power, and vengeance from the Gods, for he rushes not his arms to this
+  war unjustly, who seeks to recover his home.</p>
+
+<p class="center">POLYNICES, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>POL. The bolts indeed of the gate-keepers have with ease admitted me,
+  that I might come within the walls; wherefore also I fear, lest, having
+  caught me within their nets, they let<a name="Phoen_19a"></a><a
+  href="#PhoenN_19a"><sup>[19a]</sup></a> not my body go without bloodshed.
+  On which account my eye must be turned about on every side, both that way
+  and this, lest there be treachery. But armed in my hand with this sword,
+  I will give myself confidence of daring. Ha! Who is this; or do we fear a
+  noise? Every thing appears terrible even to the bold, when his foot shall
+  pass across a hostile country. I trust however in my mother, at the same
+  time I scarce trust, who persuaded me to come hither confiding in a
+  truce. But protection is nigh; for the hearths of the altars are at hand,
+  and houses not deserted. Come. I will let go my sword into its dark
+  scabbard, and will question these who they are, that are standing at the
+  palace. Ye female strangers, tell me, from what country do ye approach
+  Grecian habitations?</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. The Ph&#339;nician is my paternal country, she that nurtured me:
+  and the descendants of Agenor sent me hither from the spoils, the
+  first-fruits to Apollo. And while the renowned son of &#338;dipus was
+  preparing to send me to the revered shrine, and to the altars of
+  Ph&#339;bus, in the mean time the Argives marched against the city. But
+  do thou in turn answer me, who thou art, who hast come to this bulwark of
+  the Theban land with its seven gates?</p>
+
+  <p>POL. My father is &#338;dipus the son of Laius; Jocasta daughter of
+  Men&#339;ceus brought me forth; the Theban people call me Polynices.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. O thou allied to the sons of Agenor, my lords, by whom I was
+  sent, I fall at thy knees in lowly posture, O king, preserving my
+  country's custom. Thou hast come, thou hast come, after a length of time,
+  to thy paternal land. O venerable matron, come forth quickly, open the
+  doors; dost thou hear, O mother, that producedst this hero? why dost thou
+  delay to leave thy lofty mansion, and to embrace thy child with thine
+  arms?</p>
+
+<p class="center">JOCASTA, POLYNICES, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>JOC. Hearing the Ph&#339;nician tongue, ye virgins, within this
+  mansion, I drag my steps trembling with age. Ah! my son, after length of
+  time, after numberless days, I behold thy countenance; clasp thy mother's
+  bosom in thine arms, throw around her<a name="Phoen_20"></a><a
+  href="#PhoenN_20"><sup>[20]</sup></a> thy kisses, and the dark ringlets
+  of thy clustering hair, shading my neck. Ah! scarce possible is it that
+  thou appearest in thy mother's arms so unhoped for, and so unexpected.
+  How shall I address thee? how shall I perform all? how shall I, walking
+  in rapture around thee on that side and this, both with my hands and
+  words, reap the varied pleasure, the delight of my former joys? O my son,
+  thou hast left thy father's house deserted, sent away an exile by
+  wrongful treatment from thy brother. How longed for by thy friends! how
+  longed for by Thebes! From which time I am both shorn of my hoary locks,
+  letting them fall with tears, with wailing;<a name="Phoen_21"></a><a
+  href="#PhoenN_21"><sup>[21]</sup></a> deprived, my child, of the white
+  robes, I receive in exchange around me these dark and dismal weeds. But
+  the old man in the palace deprived of sight, always preserving with tears
+  regret for the unanimity of the brothers which is separated from the
+  family, has madly rushed on self-destruction with the sword and with the
+  noose above the beams of the house, bewailing the curse imprecated on his
+  children; and with cries of woe he is always hidden in darkness. But
+  thou, my child, I hear, art both joined in marriage, and hast the joys of
+  love in a foreign family, and cherishest a foreign alliance; intolerable
+  to this thy mother and to the aged Laius, the woe of a foreign marriage
+  brought upon us. But neither did I light the torch of fire for you, as is
+  customary in the marriage rites, as befits the happy mother; nor was
+  Ismenus careful of the bridal rites in the luxury of the bath: and the
+  entrance of thy bride was made in silence through the Theban city. May
+  these ills perish, whether the sword, or discord, or thy father is the
+  cause, or whether fate has rushed with violence upon the house of
+  &#338;dipus; for the weight of these sorrows has fallen upon me.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Parturition with the attendant throes has a wonderful effect on
+  women;<a name="Phoen_22"></a><a href="#PhoenN_22"><sup>[22]</sup></a> and
+  somehow the whole race of women have strong affection toward their
+  children.</p>
+
+  <p>POL. My mother, determining wisely, and yet not determining wisely,
+  have I come to men my foes; but it is necessary that all must be enamored
+  of their country; but whoever says otherwise, pleases himself with vain
+  words, but has his heart there. But so far have I come to trouble and
+  terror, lest any treachery from my brother should slay me, so that having
+  my hand on my sword I proceeded through the city rolling round my eye;
+  but one thing is on my side, the truce and thy faith, which has brought
+  me within my paternal walls: but I have come with many tears, after a
+  length of time beholding the courts and the altars of the Gods, and the
+  schools wherein I was brought up, and the fount of Dirce, from which
+  banished by injustice, I inhabit a foreign city, having a stream of tears
+  flowing through my eyes. But, for from one woe springs a second, I behold
+  thee having thy head shorn of its locks, and these sable garments; alas
+  me! on account of my misfortunes. How dreadful a thing, mother, is the
+  enmity of relations, having means of reconciliation seldom to be brought
+  about! For how fares the old man my father in the palace, vainly looking
+  upon darkness; and how fare my two sisters? Are they indeed bewailing my
+  wretched banishment?</p>
+
+  <p>JOC. Some God miserably destroys the race of &#338;dipus; for thus
+  began it, when I brought forth children in that unhallowed manner, and
+  thy father married me in evil hour, and thou didst spring forth. But why
+  relate these things? What is sent by the Gods we must bear. But how I may
+  ask the questions I wish, I know not, for I fear lest I wound at all thy
+  feelings; but I have a great desire.</p>
+
+  <p>POL. But inquire freely, leave nothing out. For what you wish, my
+  mother, this is dear to me.</p>
+
+  <p>JOC. I ask thee therefore, first, for the information that I wish to
+  obtain. What is the being deprived of one's country, is it a great
+  ill?</p>
+
+  <p>POL. The greatest: and greater is it in deed than in word.</p>
+
+  <p>JOC. What is the reason of that? What is that so harsh to exiles?</p>
+
+  <p>POL. One thing, and that the greatest, not to have the liberty of
+  speaking.</p>
+
+  <p>JOC. This that you have mentioned belongs to a slave, not to give
+  utterance to what one thinks.</p>
+
+  <p>POL. It is necessary to bear with the follies of those in power.</p>
+
+  <p>JOC. And this is painful, to be unwise with the unwise.</p>
+
+  <p>POL. But for interest we must bend to slavery contrary to our
+  nature.</p>
+
+  <p>JOC. But hopes support exiles, as report goes.</p>
+
+  <p>POL. They look upon them with favorable eyes, at least, but are slow
+  of foot.</p>
+
+  <p>JOC. Hath not time shown them to be vain?</p>
+
+  <p>POL. They have a certain sweet delight to set against misfortunes.</p>
+
+  <p>JOC. But whence wert thou supported, before thou foundest means of
+  sustenance by thy marriage?</p>
+
+  <p>POL. At one time I had food for the day, at another I had not.</p>
+
+  <p>JOC. And did the friends and hosts of your father not assist you?</p>
+
+  <p>POL. Be prosperous, <i>and thou shalt have friends</i>:<a
+  name="Phoen_23"></a><a href="#PhoenN_23"><sup>[23]</sup></a> but friends
+  are none, should one be in adversity.</p>
+
+  <p>JOC. Did not thy noble birth raise thee to great distinction?</p>
+
+  <p>POL. To want is wretched; high birth fed me not.</p>
+
+  <p>JOC. Their own country, it appears, is the dearest thing to men.</p>
+
+  <p>POL. You can not express by words how dear it is.</p>
+
+  <p>JOC. But how camest thou to Argos? What intention hadst thou?</p>
+
+  <p>POL. Apollo gave a certain oracle to Adrastus.</p>
+
+  <p>JOC. What is this thou hast mentioned? I am unable to discover.</p>
+
+  <p>POL. To unite his daughters in marriage with a boar and lion.</p>
+
+  <p>JOC. And what part of the name of beasts belongs to you, my son.</p>
+
+  <p>POL. I know not. The God called me to this fortune.</p>
+
+  <p>JOC. For the God is wise. But in what manner didst thou obtain her
+  bed?</p>
+
+  <p>POL. It was night; but I came to the portals of Adrastus.</p>
+
+  <p>JOC. In search of a couch to rest on, as a wandering exile?</p>
+
+  <p>POL. This was the case, and then indeed there came a second exile.</p>
+
+  <p>JOC. Who was this? how unfortunate then was he also!</p>
+
+  <p>POL. Tydeus, who they say sprung from &#338;neus his sire.</p>
+
+  <p>JOC. In what then did Adrastus liken you to beasts?</p>
+
+  <p>POL. Because we came to blows for lodging.</p>
+
+  <p>JOC. In this the son of Talaus understood the oracle.</p>
+
+  <p>POL. And gave in marriage to us two his two virgin daughters.</p>
+
+  <p>JOC. Art thou fortunate then in thy marriage alliance, or
+  unfortunate?</p>
+
+  <p>POL. My marriage can not be found fault with up to this day.</p>
+
+  <p>JOC. But how didst thou persuade an army to follow you hither?</p>
+
+  <p>POL. Adrastus swore this oath to his two sons-in-law, that he would
+  replace both in their own country, but me first. And many princes of the
+  Argives and Mycenæans are at hand, rendering to me a sad, but necessary
+  favor; for I am leading an army against this my own city; but I have
+  called the Gods to witness how unwillingly I have raised the spear
+  against my dearest parents. But the dissolution of these ills extends to
+  thee, my mother, that having reconciled the friendly brothers, you may
+  free from toil me and thyself, and the whole city. It is a proverb long
+  ago chanted, but nevertheless I will repeat it; wealth is honored most of
+  all things by men, and has the greatest influence of any thing among men.
+  In pursuit of which I am come, leading hither ten thousand spears: for a
+  nobly-born man in poverty is nothing.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. And see Eteocles here comes to this mediation; thy business it
+  is, O Jocasta, being their mother, to speak words, with which thou shalt
+  reconcile thy children.</p>
+
+<p class="center">ETEOCLES, POLYNICES, JOCASTA, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>ETEO. Mother, I am present; giving this grace to thee, I have come;
+  what must I do? Let some one begin the conference. Since arranging also
+  around the walls the chariots of the bands, I restrained the city, that I
+  may hear from thee the common terms<a name="Phoen_24"></a><a
+  href="#PhoenN_24"><sup>[24]</sup></a> of reconciliation, for which thou
+  hast permitted this man to come within the walls under sanction of a
+  truce, having persuaded me.</p>
+
+  <p>JOC. Stay; precipitate haste has not justice; but slow counsels
+  perform most deeds in wisdom. But repress that fierce eye and those
+  blasts of rage; for thou art not looking on the Gorgon's head cut off at
+  the neck, but thou art looking on thy brother who is come to thee. And do
+  thou again, Polynices, turn thy face toward thy brother; for looking at
+  the same point with thine eyes, thou wilt both speak better, and receive
+  his words better. But I wish to give you a wise piece of advice. When a
+  friend is enraged with a man his friend, having met him face to face, let
+  him fix his eyes on his friend's eyes, this only ought he to consider,
+  the end for which he is come, but to have no recollection of former
+  grievances. Thy words then first, my son, Polynices; for thou art come
+  leading an army of Argives, having suffered injustice, as thou sayest;
+  and may some God be umpire and the reconciler of your strife.</p>
+
+  <p>POL. The speech of truth is simple, and those things which are just
+  need not wily interpretations; for they have energy themselves; but the
+  unjust speech, unsound in itself, requires cunning preparations to gloze
+  it. But I have previously considered for my father's house, and my own
+  advantage and that of this man; desiring to escape the curses, which
+  &#338;dipus denounced formerly against us, I myself of my own accord
+  departed from this land, having given him to rule over his own country
+  for the space of a year, so that I myself should have the government
+  again, having received it in turn, and not having come into enmity and
+  bloodshed with this man to perform some evil deed, and to suffer what is
+  now taking place. But he having assented to this, and having brought the
+  Gods to witness his oaths, has performed nothing of what he promised, but
+  himself holds the regal power and my share of the palace. And now I am
+  ready, having received my own right, to send the army away from out of
+  this land, and to regulate my house, having received it in my turn, and
+  to give it up again to this man for the same space of time, and neither
+  to lay my country waste, nor to apply to its towers the means of ascent
+  by the firmly-fixed ladders. Which, should I not meet with justice, will
+  I endeavor to put in execution: and I call the Gods as witnesses of this,
+  that acting in every thing with justice, I am without justice deprived of
+  my country in the most unrighteous manner. These individual
+  circumstances, mother, not having collected together intricacies of
+  argument, have I declared, but both to the wise and to the illiterate
+  just, as appears to me.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. To me indeed, although we have not been brought up according to
+  the Grecian land, nevertheless to me thou appearest to speak with
+  judgment.</p>
+
+  <p>ETEO. If the same thing were judged honorable alike by all, and at the
+  same time wise, there would not be doubtful strife among men. But now
+  nothing is similar, nothing the same among mortals, except in names; but
+  the sense is not the same, for I, my mother, will speak having kept
+  nothing back; I would mount to the rising of the stars, and sink beneath
+  the earth, were I able to perform this, so that I might possess the
+  greatest of the Goddesses, kingly power.<a name="Phoen_25"></a><a
+  href="#PhoenN_25"><sup>[25]</sup></a> This prize then, my mother, I am
+  not willing rather to give up to another, than to preserve for myself.
+  For it implies cowardice in him, whoever having lost the greater share,
+  hath received the less; but in addition to this I feel ashamed, that this
+  man having come with arms, and laying the country waste, should obtain
+  what he wishes; for to Thebes this would be a reproach, if through fear
+  of the Mycenæan spear I should give up my sceptre for this man to hold.
+  But he ought, my mother, to effect a reconciliation, not by arms: for
+  speech does every thing which even the sword of the enemy could do. But
+  if he is desirous of inhabiting this land in any other way, it is in his
+  power; but the other point I will never give up willingly. When it is in
+  my power to rule, ever to be a slave to him? Wherefore come fire, come
+  sword, yoke thy steeds, fill the plains with chariots, since I will not
+  give up my kingly power to this man. For if one must be unjust, it is
+  most glorious to be unjust concerning empire, but in every thing else one
+  should be just.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. It is not right to speak well, where the deeds are not glorious;
+  for this is not honorable, but galling to justice.</p>
+
+  <p>JOC. My son, Eteocles, not every ill is added to age, but experience
+  has it in its power to evince more wisdom than youth.<a
+  name="Phoen_26"></a><a href="#PhoenN_26"><sup>[26]</sup></a> Why, my
+  child, dost thou so desirously court ambition, the most baneful of the
+  deities? do not thou; the Goddess is unjust. But she hath entered into
+  many families and happy states and hath come forth again, to the
+  destruction of those who have to do with her. Of whom thou art madly
+  enamored. This is more noble, my son, to honor equality, which ever links
+  friends with friends, and states with states, and allies with allies: for
+  equality is sanctioned by law among men. But the lesser share is ever at
+  enmity with the greater, and straight begins the day of hatred. For
+  equality arranged also among mortals measures, and the divisions of
+  weights, and defined numbers. And the dark eye of night, and the light of
+  the sun, equally walk their annual round, and neither of them being
+  overcome hath envy of the other. Thus the sun and the night are
+  subservient to men, but wilt not thou brook having an equal share of
+  government, and give his share to him? Then where is justice? Why dost
+  thou honor so unboundedly that prosperous injustice, royalty, and think
+  so highly of her? Is the being conspicuous honorable? At least, it is
+  empty honor. Or dost thou desire to labor much, possessing much in thy
+  house? but what is superfluity? It possesses but a name; since a
+  sufficiency indeed to the temperate is abundance. Neither do men enjoy
+  riches as their own, but having the property of the Gods do we cherish
+  them. And when they list, again do they take them away. Come, if I ask
+  thee, having proposed together two measures, whether it is thy wish to
+  reign, or save the city? Wilt thou say, to reign? But should he conquer
+  thee, and the Argive spears overcome the Cadmæanforces, thou wilt behold
+  this city of the Thebans vanquished, thou wilt behold many captive
+  maidens with violence ravished by men your foes. Bitter then to Thebes
+  will be the power which thou seekest to hold; but yet thou art ambitious
+  of it. To thee I say this: but to thee, Polynices, say I, that Adrastus
+  hath conferred an unwise favor on thee; and foolishly hast thou also come
+  to destroy this city. Come, if thou wilt subdue this land (may which
+  never happen), by the Gods, how wilt thou erect trophies of thy spear?
+  And how again wilt thou sacrifice the first-fruits, having conquered thy
+  country? and how wilt thou engrave upon the spoils by the waters of
+  Inachus, "Having laid Thebes in ashes, Polynices consecrated these
+  shields to the Gods?" Never, my son, may it come to thee to receive such
+  glory from the Greeks. But again, shouldest thou be conquered, and should
+  the arms of the other prevail, how wilt thou return to Argos having left
+  behind ten thousand dead? Surely some one will say, O! unfortunate
+  marriage alliance! O Adrastus, who placed them on us, through the
+  nuptials of one bride we are lost! Thou art hastening two ills, my son,
+  to be deprived of those, and to fail in this. Give up your too great
+  ardor, give it up; the follies of two when they clash together in the
+  same point, are the most hateful ill.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. O ye Gods, may ye be averters of these ills, and grant to the
+  children of &#338;dipus some means of agreement.</p>
+
+  <p>ETEO. My mother, this is not a contest of words, but intervening time
+  is fruitlessly wasted; and thy earnestness avails nothing; for we shall
+  not agree in any other way, than on the terms proposed, that I holding
+  the sceptre be monarch of this land. Forbearing then tedious admonitions,
+  let me have my way; and do thou begone from out these walls, or thou
+  shalt die.</p>
+
+  <p>POL. By whose hand? Who is there so invulnerable, who having pointed
+  the murderous sword against me, shall not bear the same fate?</p>
+
+  <p>ETEO. He is near, not far removed from thee: dost thou look on these
+  my hands?</p>
+
+  <p>POL. I see them. But wealth is cowardly, and feeble, loving life.</p>
+
+  <p>ETEO. And therefore hast thou come, with such a host against one who
+  is nothing in arms?</p>
+
+  <p>POL. For a cautious general is better than one daring.</p>
+
+  <p>ETEO. Thou art insolent, having trusted in the truce, which preserves
+  you from death.</p>
+
+  <p>POL. A second time again I demand of you the sceptre and my share of
+  the land.</p>
+
+  <p>ETEO. I will admit no demand, for I will regulate my own family.</p>
+
+  <p>POL. Holding more than your share?</p>
+
+  <p>ETEO. I own it; but quit this land.</p>
+
+  <p>POL. O ye altars of my paternal Gods.</p>
+
+  <p>ETEO. Which thou art come to destroy?</p>
+
+  <p>POL. Do ye hear me?</p>
+
+  <p>ETEO. Who will hear thee, who art marching against thy country?</p>
+
+  <p>POL. And ye shrines of the Gods<a name="Phoen_27"></a><a
+  href="#PhoenN_27"><sup>[27]</sup></a> delighting in the milk-white
+  steeds;</p>
+
+  <p>ETEO. Who hate thee.</p>
+
+  <p>POL. I am driven out of my own country.</p>
+
+  <p>ETEO. For thou hast come to destroy it.</p>
+
+  <p>POL. With injustice indeed, O ye Gods!</p>
+
+  <p>ETEO. At Mycenæ call upon the Gods, not here.</p>
+
+  <p>POL. Thou art impious.</p>
+
+  <p>ETEO. But not my country's enemy, as thou art.</p>
+
+  <p>POL. Who drives me out without my share.</p>
+
+  <p>ETEO. And I will put thee to death in addition.</p>
+
+  <p>POL. My father, hearest thou what I suffer?</p>
+
+  <p>ETEO. For he hears what wrongs thou doest.</p>
+
+  <p>POL. And thou, my mother?</p>
+
+  <p>ETEO. It is not lawful for thee to mention thy mother.</p>
+
+  <p>POL. O my city!</p>
+
+  <p>ETEO. To Argos go, and call on Lerna's stream.</p>
+
+  <p>POL. I will go, do not distress thyself; but thee, my mother, I
+  mention with honor.</p>
+
+  <p>ETEO. Depart from out of the country.</p>
+
+  <p>POL. I will go out; but grant me to see my father.</p>
+
+  <p>ETEO. You will not obtain your request.</p>
+
+  <p>POL. But my virgin sisters then.</p>
+
+  <p>ETEO. Never shalt thou behold these.</p>
+
+  <p>POL. O my sisters!</p>
+
+  <p>ETEO. Why callest thou on these&mdash;being their greatest enemy?</p>
+
+  <p>POL. My mother, but thou farewell.</p>
+
+  <p>JOC. Do I experience any thing that is well, my son?</p>
+
+  <p>POL. I am no longer thy child.</p>
+
+  <p>JOC. To many troubles was I born.</p>
+
+  <p>POL. For he throws insults on us.</p>
+
+  <p>ETEO. For I am insulted in turn.</p>
+
+  <p>POL. Where wilt thou stand before the towers?</p>
+
+  <p>ETEO. Why dost thou ask me this question?</p>
+
+  <p>POL. I will oppose myself to thee, to slay thee.</p>
+
+  <p>ETEO. Desire of this seizes me also.</p>
+
+  <p>JOC. Wretched me! what will ye do, my children?</p>
+
+  <p>POL. The deed itself will show.</p>
+
+  <p>JOC. Will ye not escape your father's curses?</p>
+
+  <p>ETEO. Let the whole house perish!</p>
+
+  <p>POL. Since soon my blood-stained sword will not remain any longer in
+  inactivity. But I call to witness the land that nurtured me, and the
+  Gods, how dishonored I am driven from this land, suffering such foul
+  treatment, as a slave and not born of the same father &#338;dipus. And if
+  any thing befalls thee, my city, blame not me, but him; for against my
+  will have I come, and against my will am I driven from this land. And
+  thou, king Apollo, God of our streets, and ye shrines, farewell, and ye
+  my equals, and ye altars of the Gods receiving the victims; for I know
+  not if it is allowed me ever again to address you. But hope does not yet
+  slumber, in which I have trusted with the favor of the Gods, that having
+  slain this man, I shall be master of this Theban land.</p>
+
+  <p>ETEO. Depart from out of the country; with truth indeed did your
+  father give you the name of Polynices by some divine foreknowledge, a
+  name corresponding with strife.</p>
+
+<p class="center">CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>Cadmus came from Tyre to this land, before whom the quadrupede heifer
+  bent with willing fall,<a name="Phoen_28"></a><a
+  href="#PhoenN_28"><sup>[28]</sup></a> showing the accomplishment of the
+  oracle, where the divine word ordered him to colonize the plains of the
+  Aonians productive of wheat, where indeed the fair-flowing stream of the
+  water of Dirce passes over the verdant and deep-furrowed fields, where
+  the *&nbsp;*&nbsp;*&nbsp;* mother produced Bacchus, by her marriage with Jove, whom the
+  wreathed ivy twining around him instantly, while yet a babe, blest and
+  covered with its verdant shady branches, an event to be celebrated with
+  Bacchic revel by the Theban virgins and inspired women. There was the
+  bloodstained dragon of Mars, the savage guard, watching with far-rolling
+  eyeballs over the flowing fountains and grassy streams; whom Cadmus,
+  having come for water for purification, slew with a fragment of rock, the
+  destroyer of the monster having thrown his arms with blows on his
+  blood-stained head, by the counsel of the divine Pallas born without
+  mother, having thrown the teeth fallen to the earth upon the
+  deep-furrowed plains. Whence the earth sent forth a spectacle, an armed
+  [host] above the extreme limits of the ground; but iron-hearted slaughter
+  again united them with their beloved earth; and sprinkled with blood the
+  ground which showed them to the serene gales of the air. And thee, sprung
+  of old from our ancestor Io, Epaphus, O progeny of Jove, on thee have I
+  called, have I called in a foreign tongue, with prayers in foreign
+  accent, come, come to this land (thy descendants have founded it), where
+  the two Goddesses Proserpine and the dear Goddess Ceres, queen of all
+  (since earth nurtures all things), have held their possessions, send the
+  fire-bearing Goddesses to defend this land: since every thing is easy to
+  the Gods.</p>
+
+<p class="center">ETEOCLES, CHORUS, MESSENGER.</p>
+
+  <p>ETEO. Go thou, and bring hither Creon son of Men&#339;ceus, the
+  brother of my mother Jocasta, saying this, that I wish to communicate
+  with him counsels of a private nature and those which concern the common
+  welfare of the country, before we go into battle and the ranks of war.
+  And see, he spares the trouble of your steps, by his presence; for I see
+  him coming toward my palace.</p>
+
+<p class="center">CREON, ETEOCLES, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. Surely have I visited many places, desiring to see you, O king
+  Eteocles! and I have gone round to the gates and the guards of the
+  Thebans, seeking you.</p>
+
+  <p>ETEO. And indeed I have wished to see you, Creon, for I found attempts
+  at reconciliation altogether fail when I came and entered into conference
+  with Polynices.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. I have heard that he aspires to higher thoughts than Thebes,
+  having trusted in his alliance with Adrastus and his army. But it becomes
+  us to hold these things in dependence on the Gods. But what is most
+  immediately before us, this am I come to acquaint you with.</p>
+
+  <p>ETEO. What is this? for I understand not your speech.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. A prisoner is arrived from the Argives.</p>
+
+  <p>ETEO. Does he bring us any news of those stationed there?</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. The Argive army is preparing quickly to surround the city of the
+  Thebans with thickly-ranged arms.(Note <a name="Phoen_B"></a><a
+  href="#PhoenN_B">[B]</a>.)</p>
+
+  <p>ETEO. Therefore must we draw our forces out of the Theban city.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. Whither? Dost thou not in the impetuosity of youth see what it
+  behooves thee to see?</p>
+
+  <p>ETEO. Without these trenches, as we are quickly about to fight.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. Small are the forces of this land; but theirs innumerable.</p>
+
+  <p>ETEO. I know that they are bold in words.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. Argos of the Greeks has some renown.</p>
+
+  <p>ETEO. Be confident; quickly will I fill the plain with their
+  slaughter.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. I would it were so: but this I see is a work of much labor.</p>
+
+  <p>ETEO. Know that I will not restrain my forces within the walls.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. And yet the whole of victory is prudence.</p>
+
+  <p>ETEO. Dost thou wish then that I have recourse to other measures?</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. To every measure indeed, rather than hazard all on one
+  battle.</p>
+
+  <p>ETEO. What if we were to attack them by night from ambush?</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. If, having failed, at least you can have a safe retreat
+  hither.</p>
+
+  <p>ETEO. Night brings the same advantage to all, but more to the
+  daring.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. Dreadful is it to fail in the darkness of night.</p>
+
+  <p>ETEO. But shall I lead my force against them while at their meal?</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. That would cause terror; but we must conquer.</p>
+
+  <p>ETEO. The ford of Dirce is indeed deep to pass.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. Every thing is inferior to a good guard.</p>
+
+  <p>ETEO. What then, shall I charge the Argive army with my cavalry?</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. And there the army is fenced round with chariots.</p>
+
+  <p>ETEO. What then shall I do? give up the city to the enemy?</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. By no means; but deliberate if thou art wise.</p>
+
+  <p>ETEO. What more prudent forethought is there?</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. They say that they have seven men, as I have heard.</p>
+
+  <p>ETEO. What have they been commanded to do? for their strength is
+  small.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. To head their bands, to besiege the seven gates.</p>
+
+  <p>ETEO. What then shall we do? I will not wait this indecision.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. Do thou thyself also choose seven men for the gates.</p>
+
+  <p>ETEO. To head divisions, or for single combat?</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. To head divisions, having selected the bravest.</p>
+
+  <p>ETEO. I understand you; to guard the approach to the walls.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. And with them other generals; one man sees not every thing?</p>
+
+  <p>ETEO. Having chosen them for boldness, or prudence in judgment?</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. For both; for one without the other availeth nothing.</p>
+
+  <p>ETEO. It shall be so: and having gone to the city of the seven towers,
+  I will appoint chiefs at the gates, as you advise, having opposed equal
+  champions against equal foes. But to mention the name of each would be a
+  great delay, the enemy encamped under our very walls. But I will go, that
+  I may not be idle with my hand. And may it befall me to find my brother
+  opposed to me, and being joined with me in battle, to take him with my
+  spear, [and to slay him, who came to desolate my country.] But it is thy
+  duty to attend to the marriage of my sister Antigone and thy son Hæmon,
+  if I fail aught of success; but the firm vow made before I now confirm at
+  my going out. Thou art my mother's brother, why need I use more words?
+  Treat her worthily, both for thine own and my sake. But my father incurs
+  the punishment of the rashness he brought upon himself, having quenched
+  his sight; I praise him not; even us will he put to death with his
+  execrations, should he gain his point. But one thing is left undone by
+  us, if the soothsayer Tiresias have any oracle to deliver, to enquire
+  this of him; but I will send thy son, Creon, Men&#339;ceus, of the same
+  name with thy father, to bring Tiresias hither. With pleasure will he
+  enter into conversation with you; but I lately reviled him with his
+  divining art, so that he is offended with me. But this charge I give the
+  city with thee, Creon; if my arms should conquer, that the body of
+  Polynices be never buried in this Theban land; but that the man who
+  buries him shall die, although he be a friend. This I have told you: but
+  my attendants I tell, bring out my arms, and my panoply which covers me,
+  that we may go this appointed contest of the spear with victorious
+  justice. But to Caution, the most valued of the Goddesses, will we
+  address our prayers to preserve this city.</p>
+
+<p class="center">CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>O Mars, cause of infinite woe, why, I pray, art thou so possessed with
+  blood and death, so discordant with the revels of Bacchus? Thou dost not
+  in the circle of beautiful dancers in the bloom of youth, having let flow
+  thy hair,<a name="Phoen_29"></a><a href="#PhoenN_29"><sup>[29]</sup></a>
+  on the breath of the flute modulate strains, in which there is a lovely
+  power to renew the dance. But with thy armed men, having excited the army
+  of Argives against Thebes with blood, thou dancest before the city in a
+  most inharmonious revel, thou movest not thy foot maddened by the thyrsus
+  clad in fawn-skins, but thy solid-hoofed steed with thy chariot and
+  horses' bits; and bounding at the streams of Ismenus, thou art borne
+  rapidly in the chariot-course, having excited against the race of those
+  sown [by Cadmus,] a raging host that grasp the shield, well armed,
+  adverse to us at the walls of stone: surely Discord is some dreadful
+  Goddess, who devised all these calamities against the princes of this
+  land, the Labdacidæ involved in woe. O thou forest of heavenly foliage,
+  most productive of beasts, thou snowy eye of Diana, Cithæron, never
+  oughtest thou to have nourished him doomed to death, the son of Jocasta,
+  &#338;dipus, the babe who was cast out from his home, marked by the
+  golden clasps. Neither ought that winged virgin the Sphinx, thou mountain
+  monster, that grief to this land, to have come, with her most
+  inharmonious lays; who formerly approaching our walls, bore in her four
+  talons the descendants of Cadmus to the inaccessible light of heaven,
+  whom the infernal Pluto sends against the Thebans; but other ill-fated
+  discord among the children of &#338;dipus springs up in the palace and in
+  the city. For that which is not honorable, never can be honorable, as
+  neither can children the unhallowed offspring of the mother, the
+  pollution of the father. But she came to a kindred bed. Thou didst
+  produce, O [Theban] land! thou didst produce formerly (as I heard the
+  foreign report,<a name="Phoen_30"></a><a
+  href="#PhoenN_30"><sup>[30]</sup></a> I heard it formerly at home), the
+  race sprung from teeth from the fiery-crested dragon fed on beasts, the
+  proudest honor of Thebes. But to the nuptials of Harmonia the Gods came
+  of old, and by the harp and by the lyre of Amphion uprose the walls of
+  Thebes the tower of the double streams,<a name="Phoen_31"></a><a
+  href="#PhoenN_31"><sup>[31]</sup></a> at the midst of the pass of Dirce,
+  which waters the verdant plain before Ismenus. And Io, our ancient
+  mother, doomed to bear horns, brought forth a line of Theban kings. But
+  this city receiving ten thousand goods one in change for another, hath
+  stood in the highest chaplets of war.</p>
+
+<p class="center">TIRESIAS (<i>led by his daughter</i>), MEN&#338;CEUS, CREON, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>TIR. Lead onward, my daughter, since thou art an eye to my blind
+  steps, as the star to the mariners. Placing my steps hither on this level
+  plain, proceed lest we stumble; thy father is feeble; and preserve
+  carefully in thy virgin hand my calculations which I took, having learned
+  the auguries of the birds, sitting in the sacred seats where I fortell
+  the future. My child, Men&#339;ceus, son of Creon, tell me, how far is
+  the remainder of the journey through the city to thy father? Since my
+  knees are weary, and with difficulty I accomplish such a long
+  journey.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. Be of good cheer; for thou hast steered thy foot, Tiresias, near
+  to thy friends; but take hold of him, my son. Since every chariot,<a
+  name="Phoen_32"></a><a href="#PhoenN_32"><sup>[32]</sup></a> and the foot
+  of the aged man is used to expect the assistance of another's hand.</p>
+
+  <p>TIR. Well: I am present; but why didst thou call me with such haste,
+  Creon?</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. We have not as yet forgotten: but recover thy strength, and
+  collect thy breath, having thrown aside the fatigue occasioned by the
+  journey.</p>
+
+  <p>TIR. I am relaxed indeed<a name="Phoen_32a"></a><a
+  href="#PhoenN_32a"><sup>[32a]</sup></a> with toil, brought hither from
+  the Athenians the day before this. For there also was a contest of the
+  spear with Eumolpus, where I made the descendants of Cecrops splendid
+  conquerors. And I wear this golden chaplet, as thou seest, having
+  received the first-fruits of the spoil of the enemy.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. Thy victorious garlands I make a happy omen. For we, as thou well
+  knowest, are tossing in a storm of war with the Greeks, and great is the
+  hazard of Thebes. The king Eteocles has therefore gone forth adorned with
+  his armor already to battle with the Argives. But to me has he sent that
+  I might learn from you, by doing what we should be most likely to
+  preserve the city.</p>
+
+  <p>TRE. For Eteocles' sake indeed I would have stopped my mouth, and
+  repressed the oracles, but to thee, since thou desirest to know them,
+  will I declare them: for this land labors under the malady of old, O
+  Creon, from the time when Laïus became the father of children in spite of
+  the Gods, and begat the wretched &#338;dipus, a husband for his mother.
+  But the cruel lacerations of his eyes were in the wisdom of the Gods, and
+  a warning to Greece. Which things the sons of &#338;dipus seeking to
+  conceal among themselves by the lapse of time, as about forsooth to
+  escape from the Gods, erred through their ignorance, for they neither
+  giving the honor due to their father, nor allowing him a free liberty,
+  infuriated the unfortunate man: and he breathed out against them dreadful
+  threats, being both in affliction, and moreover dishonored. And I, what
+  things omitting to do, and what words omitting to speak on the subject,
+  have nevertheless fallen into the hatred of the sons of &#338;dipus? But
+  death from their mutual hands is near them, O Creon. And many corses
+  fallen around corses, having mingled the weapons of Argos and Thebes,
+  shall cause bitter lamentations to the Theban land. And thou, O wretched
+  city, art sapped from thy foundations, unless men will obey my words. For
+  this were the first thing, that not any of the family of &#338;dipus
+  should be citizens, nor king of the territory, inasmuch as they are
+  possessed by demons, and are they that will overthrow the city. And since
+  the evil triumphs over the good, there is one other thing requisite to
+  insure preservation. But, as this is neither safe for me to say, and
+  distressing to those on whom the lot has fallen, to give to the city the
+  balm of preservation, I will depart: farewell; for being an individual
+  with many shall I suffer what is about to happen if it must be so; for
+  what can I do!<a name="Phoen_33"></a><a
+  href="#PhoenN_33"><sup>[33]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>CRE. Stay here, old man.</p>
+
+  <p>TIR. Lay not hold upon me.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. Remain; why dost thou fly me?</p>
+
+  <p>TIR. Thy fortune flies thee, but not I.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. Tell me the means of preserving the citizens and their city.</p>
+
+  <p>TRE. Thou wishest now indeed, and soon thou wilt not wish.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. And how am I not willing to preserve my country?</p>
+
+  <p>TIR. Art thou willing then to hear, and art thou eager?</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. For toward what ought I to have a greater eagerness?</p>
+
+  <p>TIR. Hear now then my prophecies.&mdash;But this first I wish to
+  ascertain clearly, where is Men&#339;ceus who brought me hither.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. He is not far off, but close to thee.</p>
+
+  <p>TIR. Let him depart then afar from my oracles.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. He that is my son will keep secret what ought to be kept
+  secret.</p>
+
+  <p>TIR. Art thou willing then that I speak in his presence?</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. <i>Yes</i>: for he would be delighted to hear of the means of
+  preservation.</p>
+
+  <p>TIR. Hear now then the tenor of my oracles; what things doing ye may
+  preserve the city of the Cadmeans. It is necessary for thee to sacrifice
+  this thy son Men&#339;ceus for the country, since thou thyself callest
+  for this fortune.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. What sayest thou, what word is this thou hast spoken, old
+  man?</p>
+
+  <p>TIR. As circumstances are, thus also oughtest thou to act.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. O thou, that hast said many evils in a short time!</p>
+
+  <p>TIR. To thee at least; but to thy country great and salutary.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. I heard not, I attended not; let the city go where it will.</p>
+
+  <p>TIR. This is no longer the same man; he retracts again what he
+  said.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. Farewell! depart; for I have no need of thy prophecies.</p>
+
+  <p>TIR. Has truth perished, because thou art unfortunate?</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. By thy knees I implore thee, and by thy reverend locks.</p>
+
+  <p>TIR. Why kneel to me? the evils thou askest are hard to be controlled.
+  (Note <a name="Phoen_E"></a><a href="#PhoenN_E">[E]</a>.)</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. Keep it secret; and speak not these words to the city.</p>
+
+  <p>TIR. Dost thou command me to be unjust? I can not be silent.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. What then wilt thou do to me? Wilt thou slay my son?</p>
+
+  <p>TIR. These things will be a care to others; but by me will it be
+  spoken.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. But from whence has this evil come to me, and to my child?</p>
+
+  <p>TIR. Well dost thou ask me, and comest to the drift of my discourse.
+  It is necessary that he, stabbed in that cave where the earth-born dragon
+  lay, the guardian of Dirce's fountain, give his gory blood a libation to
+  the earth on account of the ancient wrath of Mars against Cadmus, who
+  avenges the slaughter of the earth-born dragon; and these things done, ye
+  shall obtain Mars as your ally. But if the earth receive fruit in return
+  for fruit, and mortal blood in return for blood, ye shall have that land
+  propitious, which formerly sent forth a crop of men from seed armed with
+  golden helmets; but there must of this race die one, who is the son of
+  the dragon's jaw. But thou art left among us of the race of those sown
+  men, pure in thy descent, both by thy mother's side and in the male line;
+  and thy children too: Hæmon's marriage however precludes his being slain,
+  for he is not a youth, [for, although he has not approached her bed, he
+  has yet contracted the marriage.] But this youth, devoted to this city,
+  by dying may preserve his native country. And he will cause a bitter
+  return to Adrastus and the Argives, casting back death over their eyes,
+  and Thebes will he make illustrious: of these two fates choose the one;
+  either preserve thy child or the state. Every information from me thou
+  hast:&mdash;lead me, my child, toward home;&mdash;but whoever exercises
+  the art of divination, is a fool; if indeed he chance to show
+  disagreeable things, he is rendered hateful to those to whom he may
+  prophesy; but speaking falsely to his employers from motives of pity, he
+  is unjust as touching the Gods.&mdash;Ph&#339;bus alone should speak in
+  oracles to men, who fears nobody.</p>
+
+<p class="center">CREON, MEN&#338;CEUS, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Creon, why art thou mute compressing thy voice in silence, for
+  to me also there is no less consternation.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. But what can one say?&mdash;It is clear however what my answer
+  will be. For never will I go to this degree of calamity, to expose my son
+  a victim for the state. For all men live with an affection toward their
+  children, nor would any give up his own child to die. Let no one praise
+  me for the deed, and slay my children. But I myself, for I am arrived at
+  a mature period of life, am ready to die to liberate my country. But
+  haste, my son, before the whole city hears it, disregarding the
+  intemperate oracles of prophets, fly as quickly as possible, having
+  quitted this land. For he will tell these things to the authorities and
+  chiefs, going to the seven gates, and to the officers: and if indeed we
+  get before him, there is safety for thee, but if thou art too late, we
+  are undone, thou diest.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. Whither then fly? To what city? what friends?</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. Wheresoever thou wilt be farthest removed from this country.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. Therefore it is fitting for thee to speak, and for me to do.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. Having passed through Delphi&mdash;</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. Whither is it right for me to go, my father?</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. To the land of Ætolia.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. And from this whither shall I proceed?</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. To Thesprotia's soil.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. To the sacred seat of Dodona?</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. Thou understandest.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. What then will there be to protect me?</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. The conducting deity.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. But what means of procuring money?</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. I will supply gold.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. Thou sayest well, my father. Go then, for having proceeded to
+  salute<a name="Phoen_34"></a><a href="#PhoenN_34"><sup>[34]</sup></a> thy
+  sister, whose breast I first sucked, Jocasta I mean, deprived of my
+  mother, and reft from her, an orphan, I will depart and save my life. But
+  haste, go, let not thy purpose be hindered.</p>
+
+<p class="center">MEN&#338;CEUS, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. Ye females, how well removed I my father's fears, having deceived
+  him with words, in order to gain my wishes; who sends me out of the way,
+  depriving the city of its good fortune, and gives me up to cowardice. And
+  these things are pardonable indeed in an old man, but in my case it
+  deserves no pardon to become the deserter of that country which gave me
+  birth. That ye may know then, I will go, and preserve the city, and will
+  give up my life for this land. For it is a disgraceful thing, that those
+  indeed who are free from the oracle, and are not concerned with any
+  compulsion of the Gods, standing at their shields in battle, shall not be
+  slow to die fighting before the towers for their country; and I, having
+  betrayed my father, and my brother, and my own city, shall depart
+  coward-like from out of the land; but wherever I live, I shall appear
+  vile. No: by that Jove that dwelleth amidst the constellations, and
+  sanguinary Mars, who set up those sown men, who erst sprung from the
+  earth, to be kings of this country. But I will depart, and standing on
+  the summit of the battlements, stabbing myself over the dark deep lair of
+  the dragon, where the prophet appointed, will give liberty to the
+  country&mdash;the word has been spoken. But I go, by my death about to
+  give no mean gift to the state, and will rid this land of its affliction.
+  For if every one, seizing what opportunity he had in his power of doing
+  good, would persist in it, and bring it forward for his country's weal,
+  states, experiencing fewer calamities, henceforward might be
+  prosperous.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Thou camest forth, thou camest forth, O winged monster,
+  production of the earth, and the viper of hell, the ravager of the
+  Cadmeans, big with destruction, big with woes, in form half-virgin, a
+  hostile prodigy, with thy ravening wings, and thy talons that preyed on
+  raw flesh, who erst from Dirce's spot bearing aloft the youths,
+  accompanied by an inharmonious lay, thou broughtest, thou broughtest
+  cruel woes to our country; cruel was he of the Gods, whoever was the
+  author of these things. And the moans of the matrons, and the moans of
+  the virgins, resounded in the house, in a voice, in a strain of misery,
+  they lamented some one thing, some another, in succession through the
+  city. And the groaning and the noise was like to thunder, when the winged
+  virgin bore out of sight any man from the city. But at length came by the
+  mission of the Pythian oracle &#338;dipus the unhappy to this land of
+  Thebes, to us then indeed delighted, but again came woes. For he,
+  wretched man, having gained the glorious victory over the enigmas,
+  contracts a marriage, an unfortunate marriage with his mother, and
+  pollutes the city. And fresh woes does the unfortunate man cause to
+  succeed with slaughter, devoting by curses his sons to the unhallowed
+  contest.&mdash;With admiration, with admiration we look on him, who is
+  gone to kill himself for the sake of his country's land; to Creon indeed
+  having left lamentations, but about to make the seven-towered gates of
+  the land greatly victorious. Thus may we be mothers, thus may we be blest
+  in our children, O dear Pallas, who destroyedst the blood of the dragon
+  by the hurled stone, driving the attention of Cadmus to the action,
+  whence with rapine some fiend of the Gods rushed on this land.</p>
+
+<p class="center">MESSENGER, JOCASTA, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. Ho there! who is at the gate of the palace? Open, conduct
+  Jocasta from out of the house.&mdash;What ho! again&mdash;after a long
+  time indeed, but yet come forth, hear, O renowned wife of &#338;dipus,
+  ceasing from thy lamentations, and thy tears of grief.</p>
+
+  <p>JOC. O most dear man, surely thou comest bearing the news of some
+  calamity, of the death of Eteocles, by whose shield thou always didst go,
+  warding off the weapons of the enemy. What new message, I pray, dost thou
+  come to deliver? Is my son dead or alive? Tell me.</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. He lives, be not alarmed for this, for I will rid thee of this
+  fear.</p>
+
+  <p>JOC. But what? In what state are our seven-towered ramparts?</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. They stand unshaken, nor is the city destroyed.</p>
+
+  <p>JOC. Come they in danger from the spear of Argos?</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. To the very extreme of danger; but the arms of Thebes came off
+  superior to the Mycenæan spear.</p>
+
+  <p>JOC. Tell me one thing, by the Gods, whether thou knowest any thing of
+  Polynices (since this is a concern to me also) whether he sees the
+  light.</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. Thus far in the day thy pair of children lives.</p>
+
+  <p>JOC. Be thou blest. But how did ye stationed on the towers drive off
+  the spear of Argos from the gates? Tell me, that I may go and delight the
+  old blind man in the house with the news of his country's being
+  preserved.</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. After that the son of Creon, he that died for the land, standing
+  on the summit of the towers, plunged the black-handled sword into his
+  throat, the salvation of this land, thy son placed seven cohorts, and
+  their leaders with them, at the seven gates, guards against the Argive
+  spear; and he drew up the horse ready to support the horse, and the
+  heavy-armed men to reinforce the shield-bearers, so that to the part of
+  the wall which was in danger there might be succor at hand. But from the
+  lofty citadel we view the army of the Argives with their white shields,
+  having quitted Tumessus and now come near the trench, at full speed they
+  reached the city of the land of Cadmus. And the pæan and the trumpets at
+  the same time from them resounded, and off the walls from us. And first
+  indeed Parthenopæus the son of the huntress (<i>Atalanta</i>) led his
+  division horrent with their thick shields against the Neïtan<a
+  name="Phoen_35"></a><a href="#PhoenN_35"><sup>[35]</sup></a> gate, having
+  a family device in the middle of his shield, Atalanta destroying the
+  Ætolian boar with her distant-wounding bow. And against the Prætan gate
+  marched the prophet Amphiaraüs, having victims in his car, not bearing an
+  insolent emblem, but modestly having his arms without a device. But
+  against the Ogygian gate stood Prince Hippomedon, bearing an emblem in
+  the middle of his shield, the Argus gazing with his spangled<a
+  name="Phoen_36"></a><a href="#PhoenN_36"><sup>[36]</sup></a> eyes, [some
+  eyes indeed with the rising of the stars awake,<a name="Phoen_37"></a><a
+  href="#PhoenN_37"><sup>[37]</sup></a> and some with the setting closed,
+  as we had the opportunity of seeing afterward when he was dead.] But
+  Tydeus was drawn up at the Homoloïan gate, having on his shield a lion's
+  skin rough with his mane, but in his right hand he bore a torch, as the
+  Titan Prometheus,<a name="Phoen_38"></a><a
+  href="#PhoenN_38"><sup>[38]</sup></a> intent on firing the city. But thy
+  son Polynices drew up his array at the Crenean gate; but the swift
+  Potnian mares, the emblem on his shield, were starting through fright,
+  well circularly<a name="Phoen_39"></a><a
+  href="#PhoenN_39"><sup>[39]</sup></a> grouped within <i>the orb</i> at
+  the handle of the shield, so that they seemed infuriated. But Capaneus,
+  not holding less notions than Mars on the approaching battle, drew up his
+  division against the Electran gate. Upon the iron embossments of his
+  shield was an earth-born giant bearing upon his shoulders a whole city,
+  which he had torn up from the foundations with bars, an intimation to us
+  what our city should suffer. But at the seventh gate was Adrastus, having
+  his shield filled with a hundred vipers, bearing on his left arm a
+  representation of the hydra, the boast of Argos, and from the midst of
+  the walls the dragons were bearing the children of the Thebans in their
+  jaws. But I had the opportunity of seeing each of these, as I took the
+  word of battle to the leaders of the divisions. And first indeed we
+  fought with bows, and javelins, and distant-wounding slings, and
+  fragments of rocks; but when we were conquering in the fight, Tydeus
+  shouted out, and thy son on a sudden, "O sons of the Danaï, why delay we,
+  ere we are galled with their missile weapons, to make a rush at the gates
+  all in a body, light-armed men, horsemen, and those who drive the
+  chariots?" And when they heard the cry, no one was backward; but many
+  fell, their heads besmeared with blood; of us also you might have seen
+  before the walls frequent divers toppling to the ground; and they
+  moistened the parched earth with streams of blood. But the Arcadian, no
+  Argive, the son of Atalanta, as some whirlwind falling on the gates,
+  calls out for fire and a spade, as though he would dig up the city. But
+  Periclymenus the son of the God of the Ocean stopped him in his raging,
+  hurling at his head a stone, a wagon-load, a pinnacle<a
+  name="Phoen_40"></a><a href="#PhoenN_40"><sup>[40]</sup></a> <i>rent</i>
+  from the battlement; and dashed in pieces his head with its auburn hair,
+  and crushed the suture of the bones, and besmeared with blood his lately
+  blooming cheeks; nor shall he carry back his living form to his mother,
+  glorious in her bow, the daughter of Mænalus. But when thy son saw this
+  gate was in a state of safety, he went to another, and I followed. But I
+  see Tydeus, and many armed with shields around him, darting with their
+  Ætolian lances at the highest battlements of the towers, so that our men
+  put to flight quitted the heights of the ramparts; but thy son, as a
+  hunter, collects them together again; and posted them a second time on
+  the towers; and we hasten on to another gate, having relieved the
+  distress in this quarter. But Capaneus, how can I express the measure of
+  his rage! For he came bearing the ranges of a long-reaching ladder, and
+  made this high boast, "That not even the hallowed fire of Jove should
+  hinder him from taking the city from its highest turrets." And these
+  things soon as he had proclaimed, though assailed with stones, he
+  clambered up, having contracted his body under his shield, climbing the
+  slippery footing of the bars<a name="Phoen_41"></a><a
+  href="#PhoenN_41"><sup>[41]</sup></a> of the ladder: but when he was now
+  mounting the battlements of the walls Jupiter strikes him with his
+  thunder; and the earth resounded, insomuch that all trembled; and his
+  limbs were hurled, as it were by a sling, from the ladder separately from
+  one another, his hair to heaven, and his blood to the ground, and his
+  limbs, like the whirling of Ixion on his wheel, were carried round; and
+  his scorched body falls to the earth. But when Adrastus saw that Jove was
+  hostile to his army, he stationed the host of the Argives without the
+  trench. But ours on the contrary, when they saw the auspicious sign from
+  Jove, drove out their chariots, horsemen and heavy-armed, and rushing
+  into the midst of the Argive arms engaged in fight: and there were all
+  the sorts of misery together: they died, they fell from their chariots,
+  and the wheels leaped up and axles upon axles: and corses were heaped
+  together with corses.&mdash;We have preserved then our towers from being
+  overthrown to this present day; but whether for the future this land will
+  be prosperous, rests with the Gods.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. To conquer is glorious; but if the Gods have the better intent,
+  may I be fortunate!</p>
+
+  <p>JOC. Well are the ways of the Gods, and of fortune; for my children
+  live, and my country has escaped; but the unhappy Creon seems to feel the
+  effects of my marriage, and of &#338;dipus's misfortunes, being deprived
+  of his child; for the state indeed, happily, but individually, to his
+  misery: but recount to me again, what after this did my two sons purpose
+  to do?</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. Forbear the rest; for in every circumstance hitherto thou art
+  fortunate.</p>
+
+  <p>JOC. This hast thou said so as to raise suspicion; I must not
+  forbear.</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. Dost thou want any thing more than that thy sons are safe?</p>
+
+  <p>JOC. In what follows also I would hear if I am fortunate.</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. Let me go: thy son is deprived of his armor-bearer.</p>
+
+  <p>JOC. Thou concealest some ill and coverest it in obscurity.</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. I can not speak thy ills after thy happiness.</p>
+
+  <p>JOC. <i>But thou shalt</i>, unless fleeing from me thou fleest through
+  the air.</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. Alas! alas! Why dost thou not suffer me to depart after a
+  message of glad tidings, but forcest me to tell calamities?&mdash;Thy
+  sons are intent on most shameful deeds of boldness&mdash;to engage in
+  single combat apart from the whole army, having addressed to the Argives
+  and Thebans in common a speech, such as they never ought to have spoken.
+  But Eteocles began, standing on the lofty turret, having commanded to
+  proclaim silence to the army. And he said, "O generals of the Grecian
+  land, and chieftains of the Danaï, who have come hither, and O people of
+  Cadmus, neither for the sake of Polynices barter your lives, nor for my
+  cause. For I myself, taking this danger on myself, alone will enter the
+  lists with my brother; and if indeed I slay him, I will dwell in the
+  palace alone; but should I be subdued, I will give it up to him alone.
+  But you, ceasing from the combat, O Argives, shall return to your land,
+  not leaving your lives here; [of the Theban people also there is enough
+  that lieth dead,"] Thus much he spake; but thy son Polynices rushed from
+  the ranks, and approved his words. But all the Argives murmured their
+  applause, and the people of Cadmus, as thinking this plan just. And after
+  this the generals made a truce, and in the space between the two armies
+  pledged an oath to abide by it. And now the two sons of the aged
+  &#338;dipus clad their bodies in an entire suit of brazen armor. And
+  their friends adorned them, the champion of this land indeed the
+  chieftains of the Thebans; and him the principal men of the Danaï. And
+  they stood resplendent, and they changed not their color, raging to let
+  forth their spears at each other. But their friends on either side as
+  they passed by encouraging them with words, thus spoke. "Polynices, it
+  rests with thee to erect the statue of Jove, emblem of victory, and to
+  confer a glorious fame on Argos." But to Eteocles on the other hand; "Now
+  thou fightest for the state, now if thou come off victorious, thou art in
+  possession of the sceptre." These things they said exhorting them to the
+  combat. But the seers sacrificed the sheep, and scrutinized the shooting
+  of the flames, and the bursting <i>of the gall</i>, the moisture
+  adverse<a name="Phoen_42"></a><a href="#PhoenN_42"><sup>[42]</sup></a>
+  <i>to the fire</i>, and the extremity of the flame, which bears a
+  two-fold import, both the sign of victory,<a name="Phoen_43"></a><a
+  href="#PhoenN_43"><sup>[43]</sup></a> and the sign of being defeated.<a
+  name="Phoen_44"></a><a href="#PhoenN_44"><sup>[44]</sup></a> But if thou
+  hast any power, or words of wisdom, or the soothing charms of
+  incantation, go, stay thy children from the fearful combat, since great
+  the danger, [and dreadful will be the sequel of the contest,
+  <i>namely</i>, tears for thee, deprived this day of thy two
+  children.]</p>
+
+  <p>JOC. O my child, Antigone, come forth from before the palace; the
+  state of thy fortune suits not now the dance, nor the virgin's chamber,
+  but it is thy duty, in conjunction with thy mother, to hinder two
+  excellent men, and thy brothers verging toward death from falling by each
+  other's hands.</p>
+
+<p class="center">ANTIGONE, JOCASTA, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. With what new horrors, O mother of my being, dost thou call out
+  to thy friends before the house?</p>
+
+  <p>JOC. O my daughter, the life of thy brothers is gone from them.</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. How sayest thou?</p>
+
+  <p>JOC. They are drawn out in single combat.</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. Alas me! what wilt thou say, my mother?</p>
+
+  <p>JOC. Nothing of pleasant import; but follow.</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. Whither? leaving my virgin chamber.</p>
+
+  <p>JOC. To the army.</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. I am ashamed to go among the crowd.</p>
+
+  <p>JOC. Thy present state admits not bashfulness.</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. But what shall I do then?</p>
+
+  <p>JOC. Thou shalt quell the strife of the brothers.</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. Doing what, my mother.</p>
+
+  <p>JOC. Falling before them with me.</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. Lead to the space between the armies; we must not delay.</p>
+
+  <p>JOC. Haste, daughter, haste, since, if indeed I reach my sons before
+  they engage, I still exist in heaven's fair light, but if they die, I
+  shall lie dead with them.</p>
+
+<p class="center">CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>Alas! alas! shuddering with horror, shuddering is my breast; and
+  through my flesh came pity, pity for the unhappy mother, on account of
+  her two children, whether of them then will distain with blood the other
+  (alas me for my sufferings, O Jove, O earth), the own brother's neck, the
+  own brother's life, in arms, in slaughter? Wretched, wretched I, over
+  which corse then shall I raise the lamentation for the dead? O earth,
+  earth, the two beasts of prey, blood-thirsty souls, brandishing the
+  spear, will quickly distain with blood the fallen, fallen enemy.
+  Wretches, that they ever came to the thought of a single combat! In a
+  foreign strain will I mourn with tears my elegy of groans due to the
+  dead. Destiny is at hand&mdash;death is near; this day will decide the
+  event. Ill-fated, ill-fated murder because of the Furies! But I see Creon
+  here with clouded brow advancing toward the house, I will cease therefore
+  from the groans I am uttering.</p>
+
+<p class="center">CREON, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. Ah me! what shall I do? whether am I to groan in weeping myself,
+  or the city, which a cloud of such magnitude encircles as to cast us
+  amidst the gloom of Acheron? For my son has perished having died for the
+  city, having achieved a glorious name, but to me a name of sorrow. Him
+  having taken just now from the dragon's den, stabbed by his own hand, I
+  wretched bore in my arms; and the whole house resounds with shrieks; but
+  I, myself aged, am come after my aged sister Jocasta, that she may wash
+  and lay out my son now no more. For it behooves the living well to revere
+  the God below by paying honors to the dead.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Thy sister is gone out of the house, O Creon, and the girl
+  Antigone attending the steps of her mother.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. Whither? and for what hap? tell me.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. She heard that her sons were about to come to a contest in
+  single battle for the royal palace.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. How sayest thou? whilst I was fondly attending to my son's corse,
+  I arrived not so far <i>in knowledge</i>, as to be acquainted with this
+  also.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. But thy sister has indeed been gone some time; but I think, O
+  Creon, that the contest, in which their lives are at stake, has already
+  been concluded by the sons of &#338;dipus.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. Ah me! I see indeed this signal, the downcast eye and countenance
+  of the approaching messenger, who will relate every thing that has taken
+  place.</p>
+
+<p class="center">MESSENGER, CREON, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. O wretched me! what language or what words can I utter? we are
+  undone&mdash;</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. Thou beginnest thy speech with no promising prelude.</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. Oh wretched me! doubly do I lament, for I hear great
+  calamities.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. In addition to the calamities that have happened dost thou still
+  speak of others?</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. Thy sister's sons, O Creon, no longer behold the light.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. Ah! alas! thou utterest great ills to me and to the state.</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. O mansions of &#338;dipus, do ye hear these things of thy
+  children who have perished by similar fates?</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Ay, so that, had they but sense, they would weep.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. O most heavy misery! Oh me wretched with woes! alas! unhappy
+  me!</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. If that thou knewest the evils yet in addition to these.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. And how can there be more fatal ills than these?</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. Thy sister is dead with her two children.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Raise, raise the cry of woe, and smite your heads with the blows
+  of your white hands.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. Oh unhappy Jocasta, what an end of thy life and of thy marriage
+  hast thou endured in the riddles of the Sphinx!<a name="Phoen_45"></a><a
+  href="#PhoenN_45"><sup>[45]</sup></a> But how took place the slaughter of
+  her two sons, and the combat arising from the curse of &#338;dipus? tell
+  me.</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. The success of the country before the towers indeed thou
+  knowest; for the circuit of the wall is not of such vast extent, but that
+  thou must know all that has taken place. But after that the sons of the
+  aged &#338;dipus had clad their limbs in brazen armor, they came and
+  stood in the midst of the plain between the two armies, ready for the
+  contest, and the fierceness of the single battle. And having cast a look
+  toward Argos, Polynices uttered his prayer; "O venerable Juno (for I am
+  thine, since in marriage I joined myself with the daughter of Adrastus,
+  and dwell in that land), grant me to slay my brother, and to cover with
+  blood my hostile hand bearing the victory." And Eteocles looking at the
+  temple of Pallas, glorious in her golden shield, prayed; "O Daughter of
+  Jove, grant me with my hand to hurl my victorious spear from this arm
+  home to the breast of my brother, [and slay him who came to lay waste my
+  country."] And when the sound of the Tuscan trumpet was raised, as the
+  torch, the signal for the fierce battle, they sped with dreadful rush
+  toward each other; and like wild boars whetting their savage tusks, they
+  met, their cheeks all moist with foam; and they rushed forward with their
+  lances; but they couched beneath the orbs of their shields, in order that
+  the steel might fall harmless. But if either perceived the other's eye
+  raised above the verge, he drove the lance at his face, intent to be
+  beforehand with him: but dexterously they shifted their eyes to the open
+  ornaments of their shields, so that the spear was made of none effect.
+  And more sweat trickled down the spectators than the combatants, through
+  the fear of their friends. But Eteocles, stumbling with his foot against
+  a stone, which rolled under his tread,<a name="Phoen_46"></a><a
+  href="#PhoenN_46"><sup>[46]</sup></a> places his limb without the shield.
+  But Polynices ran up with his spear, when he saw a stroke open to his
+  steel, and the Argive spear passed through the shank. And all the host of
+  the Danaï shouted for joy. And the hero who first was wounded, when he
+  perceived his shoulder exposed in this effort, pierced the breast of
+  Polynices with his lance, and gave joy to the citizens of Cadmus, but he
+  broke the point of his spear. But being come to a strait for a spear, he
+  retreated backward on his leg, and taking a stone of marble, he hurled it
+  and crashed <i>his antagonist's</i> spear in the middle: and the battle
+  was on equal terms, both being deprived of the spear in their hands. Then
+  seizing the handles of their swords they met at close quarters, and, as
+  they clashed their shields together, raised a great tumult of battle
+  around them. And Eteocles having a sort of idea of its success, made use
+  of a Thessalian stratagem, <i>which he had learned</i> from his
+  connection with that country. For giving up his present mode of attack,
+  he brings his left foot behind, protecting well the pit of his own
+  stomach; and stepping forward his right leg, he plunged the sword through
+  the navel, and drove it to the vertebræ. But the unhappy Polynices
+  bending together his side and his bowels falls weltering in blood. But
+  the other, as he were now the victor, and had subdued him in the fight,
+  casting his sword on the ground, went to spoil him, not fixing his
+  attention on himself, but on that his purpose. Which thing also deceived
+  him; for Polynices, he that fell first, still breathing a little,
+  preserving his sword e'en in his deathly fall, with difficulty indeed,
+  but he did stretch his sword to the heart of Eteocles. And holding the
+  dust in their gripe they both fall near one another, and determined not
+  the victory.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Alas! alas! to what degree, O &#338;dipus, do I groan for thy
+  misfortunes! but the God seems to have fulfilled thy imprecations.</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. Hear now then woes even in addition to these&mdash;For when her
+  sons having fallen were breathing their last, at this moment the wretched
+  mother rushes before them, and when she perceived them stricken with
+  mortal wounds she shrieked out, "Oh my sons, I am come too late a
+  succor:" and throwing herself by the side of her children in turn, she
+  wept, she lamented with moans her long anxiety in suckling them <i>now
+  lost</i>: and their sister, who accompanied to stand by her in her
+  misery, at the same time <i>broke forth</i>; "O supporters of my mother's
+  age! Oh ye that have betrayed my hopes of marriage, my dearest
+  brothers!"&mdash;But king Eteocles heaving from his breast his gasping
+  breath, heard his mother, and putting out his cold clammy hand, sent not
+  forth indeed a voice; but from his eyes spoke her in tears to signify
+  affection. But Polynices, who yet breathed, looking at his sister and his
+  aged mother, thus spoke: "We perish, O my mother; but I grieve for thee,
+  and for this my sister, and my brother who lies dead, for being my
+  friend, he became my enemy, but still my friend.&mdash;But bury me, O
+  mother of my being, and thou my sister, in my native land, and pacify the
+  exasperated city, that I may obtain thus much at least of my country's
+  land, although I have lost the palace. And close my eyelids with thy
+  hand, my mother" (and he places it himself upon his eyes), "and fare ye
+  well! for now darkness surroundeth me." And both breathed out their lives
+  together. And the mother, when she saw what had taken place, beyond
+  endurance grieving, snatched the sword from the dead body, and
+  perpetrated a deed of horror; for she drove the steel through the middle
+  of her throat, and lies dead on those most dear to her, having each in
+  her arms embraced. But the people rose up hastily to a strife of
+  opinions; we indeed, as holding, that my master was victorious; but they,
+  that the other was; and there was also a contention between the generals,
+  those on the other side <i>contended</i>, that Polynices first struck
+  with the spear, but those on ours that there was no victory where the
+  combatants died. [And in the mean time Antigone withdrew from the army;]
+  but they rushed to arms; but fortunately by a sort of foresight the
+  people of Cadmus had sat upon their shields: and we gained the advantage
+  of falling on the Argives not yet accoutred in their arms. And no one
+  made a stand, but flying they covered the plain; and immense quantities
+  of blood were spilt of the corses that fell, but when we were victorious
+  in the fight, some indeed raised the image of Jove emblem of victory, but
+  some of us stripping the shields from the Argive corses sent the spoils
+  within the city. But others with Antigone are bearing hither the dead for
+  their friends to lament over. But these contests have in some respect
+  turned out most happy for this state, but in other respect most
+  unhappy.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. No longer the misfortunes of the house come to our ears, we may
+  also see before the palace these three fallen corses, who have shared the
+  dark realms by a united death.</p>
+
+<p class="center">[<i>The dead bodies borne</i>.]</p>
+
+<p class="center">ANTIGONE, CREON, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. Not veiling the softness of my cheek on which my ringlets fall,
+  nor caring for the purple glow of virginity under my lids, the blush of
+  my countenance, I am borne along the bacchanal of the dead, rending the
+  fillet from my hair, rejecting the saffron robe of delicateness, having
+  the mournful office of conducting the dead. Alas! alas! woe is me! Oh
+  Polynices, thou well answeredst to thy name! Alas me! Oh Thebes! but thy
+  strife, no strife, but murder consummated with murder,<a
+  name="Phoen_47"></a><a href="#PhoenN_47"><sup>[47]</sup></a> hath
+  destroyed the house of &#338;dipus with dreadful, with mournful blood.
+  But what groan responsive to my sufferings, or what lament of music shall
+  I invoke to my tears, to my tears, O house, O house, bearing these three
+  kindred bodies, my mother, and her children, the joy of the fury? who
+  destroyed the entire house of &#338;dipus, what time intelligently<a
+  name="Phoen_48"></a><a href="#PhoenN_48"><sup>[48]</sup></a> he unfolded
+  the difficult song of the fierce monster, having thereby slain the body
+  of the fierce musical Sphinx. Alas me! my father; what Grecian, or what
+  Barbarian, or what other of the noble in birth, of mortal blood, in time
+  of old ever bore such manifest sufferings of so many ills? Wretched I,
+  how do I lament! What bird, sitting on the highest boughs of the oak or
+  pine, will sing responsive to my lamentations, who have lost my mother?
+  who weep the strain of grief in addition to these moans <i>for my
+  brothers</i>, about to pass my long life in floods of tears.&mdash;Which
+  shall I bewail? On which first shall I scatter the first offerings rent
+  from my hair? On my mother's two breasts of milk, or upon the
+  death-wounds of my two brothers? Alas! alas! Leave thine house, bringing
+  thy sightless eye, O aged father, &#338;dipus, show thy wretched age, who
+  within thy palace having poured the gloomy darkness over thine eyes,
+  draggest on a long<a name="Phoen_49"></a><a
+  href="#PhoenN_49"><sup>[49]</sup></a> life. Dost thou hear wandering in
+  the hall,&mdash;resting thy aged foot upon the couch in a state of
+  misery?</p>
+
+<p class="center">&#338;DIPUS, CREON, ANTIGONE, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>&#338;D. Why, O virgin, hast thou with the most doleful tears called
+  me forth leaning on the support of a blind foot<a name="Phoen_50"></a><a
+  href="#PhoenN_50"><sup>[50]</sup></a> to the light, a bed-ridden man from
+  his darksome chamber, gray-headed, an obscure phantom of air&mdash;a dead
+  body beneath the earth&mdash;a flitting dream?</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. O father, thou shalt receive words of unhappy tidings; no longer
+  do thy children behold the light, nor thy wife, who ever was employed in
+  attending as a staff on thy blind foot, my father: alas me!</p>
+
+  <p>&#338;D. Alas me, for my sufferings! for well may I groan and
+  vociferate these things. The three souls, tell me, my child, by what
+  fate, how quitted they this light?</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. Not for the sake of reproaching thee, nor exulting over thee, but
+  for grief I speak: thy evil genius, heavy with swords, and fire, and
+  wretched combats, has rushed down upon thy children, O my father.</p>
+
+  <p>&#338;D. Alas me! ah! ah!</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. Why dost thou thus groan?</p>
+
+  <p>&#338;D. Alas me! my children!</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. Thou wouldest grieve indeed, if looking on the chariot of the sun
+  drawn by its four steeds, thou couldest direct the sight of thine eyes to
+  these bodies of the dead.</p>
+
+  <p>&#338;D. The evil of my sons indeed is manifest; but my wretched wife,
+  by what fate, O my child, did she perish?</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. Causing to all tears of grief they could not contain, to her
+  children she bared her breast, a suppliant she bared it, holding it up in
+  supplication. But the mother found her children at the Electran gate, in
+  the mead where the lotus abounds, contending with their lances in the
+  common war, as lions bred in the same cave, with the blood-wounds now a
+  cold, a gory libation, which Plato received, and Mars gave. And having
+  seized the brazen-wrought sword from the dead she plunged it into her
+  flesh, but with grief for her children she fell amidst her children. But
+  all these sufferings, O my father, has the God heaped this day upon our
+  house, whoever he be, that adds this consummation.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. This day hath been the beginning of many woes to the house of
+  &#338;dipus; but may life be more fortunate!</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. Now indeed cease from your grief, for it is time to think of the
+  sepulture. But hear these words, O &#338;dipus; Eteocles, thy son, hath
+  given to me the dominion of this land, giving them as a marriage portion
+  to Hæmon, and <i>with them</i> the bed of thy daughter Antigone. I
+  therefore will not suffer thee any longer to dwell in this land. For
+  clearly did Tiresias say, that never, whilst thou dost inhabit this land,
+  will the state be prosperous. But depart; and this I say not from
+  insolence, nor being thine enemy, but on account of thy evil genius,
+  fearing lest the country suffer any harm.</p>
+
+  <p>&#338;D. O Fate, from the beginning how wretched [and unhappy] didst
+  thou form me, [if ever other man was formed!] whom, even before I came
+  into the light from my mother's womb, when yet unborn Apollo foretold
+  that I should be the murderer of my father Laïus, alas! wretch that I am!
+  And when I was born, again my father who gave me life, seeks to take my
+  life, considering that I was born his enemy: for it was fated that he
+  should die by my hands, and he sends me, poor wretch, as I craved the
+  breast, a prey for the wild beasts: where I was preserved&mdash;for would
+  that Cithæron, it ought, had sunk to the bottomless chasms of Tartarus,
+  for that it did not destroy me; but the God fixed it my lot to serve
+  under Polybus my master: but I unhappy man, having slain my own father,
+  ascended the bed of my wretched mother, and begat children, my brothers,
+  whom I destroyed, having received down the curse from Laïus, and given it
+  to my sons. For I was not by nature so utterly devoid of understanding,
+  as to have devised such things against my eyes, and against the life of
+  my children, without the interference of some of the Gods.
+  Well!&mdash;what then shall I ill-fated do? who will accompany me the
+  guide of my dark steps? She that lies here dead! living, well know I, she
+  would. But my noble pair of sons? I have no sons.&mdash;But still in my
+  vigor can I myself procure my sustenance? Whence?&mdash;Why, O Creon,
+  dost thou thus utterly kill me? for kill me thou wilt, if thou shalt cast
+  me out of the land. Yet will I not appear base, stretching my hands
+  around thy knees, for I can not belie my former nobleness, not even
+  though my plight is miserable.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. Well has it been spoken by thee, that thou wilt not touch my
+  knees, but I can not permit thee to dwell in the land. But of these
+  corses, the one we must even now bear to the house; but the body of
+  Polynices cast out unburied beyond the borders of this land. And these
+  things shall be proclaimed to all the Thebans: "whoever shall be found
+  either crowning the corse, or covering it with earth, shall receive death
+  for his offense." But thou, ceasing from the groans for the three dead,
+  retire, Antigone, within the house, and behave as beseems a virgin,
+  expecting the approaching day in which the bed of Hæmon awaits thee.</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. Oh father, in what a state of woes do we miserable beings lie!
+  How do I lament for thee! more than for the dead! For it is not that one
+  of thy ills is heavy, and the other not heavy, but thou art in all things
+  unhappy, my father.&mdash;But thee I ask, our new lord, [wherefore dost
+  thou insult my father here, banishing him from his country?] Why make thy
+  laws against an unhappy corse?</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. The determination of Eteocles this, not mine.</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. It is absurd, and thou a fool to enforce it.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. How so? Is it not just to execute injunctions?</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. No, if they are base, at least, and spoken with ill intent.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. What! will he not with justice be given to the dogs?</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. <i>No</i>, for thus do ye not demand of him lawful justice.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. <i>We do</i>; since he was the enemy of the state, who least
+  ought to be an enemy.</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. Hath he not paid then his life to fortune?</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. And in his burial too let him now satisfy vengeance.</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. What outrage having committed, if he came after his share of the
+  kingdom?</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. This man, that you may know once for all, shall be unburied.</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. I will bury him; even though the city forbid it.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. Thyself then wilt thou at the same time bury near the corse.</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. But that is a glorious thing, for two friends to lie near.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. Lay hold of her, and bear her to the house.</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. By no means&mdash;for I will not let go this body.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. The God has decreed it, O virgin, not as thou wilt.</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. And this too is decreed&mdash;that the dead be not insulted.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. Around him none shall place the moist dust.</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. Nay, by his mother here Jocasta, I entreat thee, Creon.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. Thou laborest in vain, for thou canst not obtain this.</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. But suffer thou me at any rate to bathe the body.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. This would be one of the things forbidden by the state.</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. But let me put bandages round his cruel wounds.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. In no way shalt thou show respect to this corse.</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. Oh most dear, but I will at least kiss thy lips.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. Thou shalt not prepare calamity against thy wedding by thy
+  lamentations.</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. What! while I live shall I ever marry thy son?</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. There is strong necessity for thee, for by what means wilt thou
+  escape the marriage?</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. That night then shall find me one of the Danaïdæ.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. Dost mark with what audacity she hath insulted us?</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. The steel be witness, and the sword, by which I swear.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. But why art thou so eager to get rid of this marriage?</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. I will take my flight with my most wretched father here.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. There is nobleness in thee; but there is some degree of
+  folly.</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. And I will die with him too, that thou mayest farther know.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. Go&mdash;thou shalt not slay my son&mdash;quit the land.</p>
+
+<p class="center">&#338;DIPUS, ANTIGONE, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>&#338;D. O daughter, I praise thee indeed for thy zealous
+  intentions.</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. But if I were to marry, and thou suffer banishment alone, my
+  father?</p>
+
+  <p>&#338;D. Stay and be happy; I will bear with content mine own
+  ills.</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. And who will minister to thee, blind as thou art, my father?</p>
+
+  <p>&#338;D. Falling wherever it shall be my fate, I will lie on the
+  ground.</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. But &#338;dipus, where is he? and the renowned Enigmas?</p>
+
+  <p>&#338;D. Perished! one day blest me, and one day destroyed.</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. Ought not I then to have a share in thy woes?</p>
+
+  <p>&#338;D. To a daughter exile with a blind father is shameful.</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. Not to a right-minded one however, but honorable, my father.</p>
+
+  <p>&#338;D. Lead me now onward, that I may touch thy mother.</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. There: touch the aged woman with thy most dear hand.</p>
+
+  <p>&#338;D. O mother! Oh most hapless wife!</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. She doth lie miserable, having all ills at once on her.</p>
+
+  <p>&#338;D. But where is the fallen body of Eteocles, and of
+  Polynices?</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. They lie extended before thee near one another.</p>
+
+  <p>&#338;D. Place my blind hand upon their unhappy faces.</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. There: touch thy dead children with thy hand.</p>
+
+  <p>&#338;D. O ye dear wrecks, unhappy, of an unhappy father.</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. O name of Polynices, most dear indeed to me.</p>
+
+  <p>&#338;D. Now, my child, is the oracle of Apollo come to pass.</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. What? but dost thou mention evils in addition to these evils?</p>
+
+  <p>&#338;D. That I must die an exile at Athens.</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. Where? what citadel of Attica will receive thee?</p>
+
+  <p>&#338;D. The sacred Colonus, and the temple of the Equestrian God. But
+  stay&mdash;minister to thy blind father here, since thou art desirous of
+  sharing his exile.</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. Go to thy wretched banishment: stretch forth thy dear hand, O
+  aged father, having me as thy guide, as the gale that wafts the ship.</p>
+
+  <p>&#338;D. Behold, I go, my child, be thou my unhappy conductor.</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. We are, we are indeed unhappy above all Theban virgins.</p>
+
+  <p>&#338;D. Where shall I place my aged footstep? Bring my staff, my
+  child.</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. This way, this way come; here, here place thy foot, thou that
+  hast the strength of a dream.</p>
+
+  <p>&#338;D. Alas! alas! for my most wretched flight!&mdash;To drive me,
+  old as I am, from my country&mdash;Alas! alas! the dreadful, dreadful
+  things that I have suffered!</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. What suffered! what suffered!<a name="Phoen_51"></a><a
+  href="#PhoenN_51"><sup>[51]</sup></a> Vengeance sees not the wicked, nor
+  repays the foolishness of mortals.</p>
+
+  <p>&#338;D. That man am I, who mounted aloft to the victorious heavenly
+  song, having solved the dark enigma of the virgin Sphinx.</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. Dost thou bring up again the glory of the Sphinx? Forbear from
+  speaking of thy former successes. These wretched sufferings awaited thee,
+  O father, being an exile from thy country to die any where. Leaving with
+  my dear virgins tears for my loss, I depart far from my country,
+  wandering in state not like a virgin's.</p>
+
+  <p>&#338;D. Oh! the excellency of thy mind!</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. In the calamities of a father at least it will make me glorious.
+  Wretched am I, on account of the insults offered to thee and to my
+  brother, who has perished from the family, a corse denied sepulture,
+  unhappy, whom, even if I must die, my father, I will cover with secret
+  earth.</p>
+
+  <p>&#338;D. Go, show thyself to thy companions.</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. They have enough of my lamentations.</p>
+
+  <p>&#338;D. But make thy supplications at the altars.</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. They have a satiety of my woes.</p>
+
+  <p>&#338;D. Go then, where stands the fane of Bacchus unapproached, on
+  the mountains of the Mænades.</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. To whom I formerly, clad in the skin of the Theban fawn, danced
+  the sacred step of Semele on the mountains, conferring a thankless favor
+  on the Gods?</p>
+
+  <p>&#338;D. O ye inhabitants of my illustrious country, behold, I, this
+  &#338;dipus, who alone stayed the violence of the bloodthirsty Sphinx,
+  now, dishonored, forsaken, miserable, am banished from the land. Yet why
+  do I bewail these things, and lament in vain? For the necessity of fate
+  proceeding from the Gods a mortal must endure.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. [O greatly glorious Victory, mayest thou uphold my life, and
+  cease not from crowning me!] (See note <a name="Phoen_H"></a><a
+  href="#PhoenN_H">[H]</a>.)</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h3>NOTES ON THE PH&#338;NICIAN VIRGINS</h3>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+<div class="note">
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_1"></a><a href="#Phoen_1">[1]</a> That is, through the
+  signs of the zodiac: <span lang="el"
+  title="astêr">&#x3B1;&#x3C3;&#x3C4;&#x3B7;&#x3C1;</span> differs from
+  <span lang="el"
+  title="astron">&#x3B1;&#x3C3;&#x3C4;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span>, the
+  former signifying a single star, the latter many.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_2"></a><a href="#Phoen_2">[2]</a> The preposition
+  <span lang="el" title="syn">&#x3C3;&#x3C5;&#x3BD;</span> is omitted, as
+  in Homer,</p>
+
+  <div class="poem">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <p><span lang="el" title="Autêi ken gaiêi erysaimi.">&#x391;&#x3C5;&#x3C4;&#x3B7;&#x3B9; &#x3BA;&#x3B5;&#x3BD; &#x3B3;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3B7;&#x3B9; &#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3BC;&#x3B9;.</span>&nbsp;</p>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+  <p>The same omission occurs in the Bacchæ, <span lang="el"
+  title="autêisin
+  elatais">&#x3B1;&#x3C5;&#x3C4;&#x3B7;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B5;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;</span>, and again in
+  the Hippolytus. It is an Atticism.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_3"></a><a href="#Phoen_3">[3]</a> See note on Hecuba,
+  478.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_4"></a><a href="#Phoen_4">[4]</a> The word <span
+  lang="el"
+  title="tounoma">&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;</span>
+  must be supplied after <span lang="el"
+  title="touto">&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;</span>, which is
+  implied in the verb <span lang="el"
+  title="kalousin">&#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_5"></a><a href="#Phoen_5">[5]</a> The <span lang="el"
+  title="zaros">&#x3B6;&#x3B1;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span> is a bird of
+  prey of the vulture species. The sphinx was represented as having the
+  face of a woman, the breast and feet of a lion, and the wings of a
+  bird.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_5a"></a><a href="#Phoen_5a">[5a]</a> Dindorf would
+  omit this verse.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_6"></a><a href="#Phoen_6">[6]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="arai">&#x3B1;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;</span> and <span lang="el"
+  title="arasthai">&#x3B1;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3C3;&#x3B8;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;</span>
+  are often used by the poets in a good sense for prayers, <span lang="el"
+  title="euchai">&#x3B5;&#x3C5;&#x3C7;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;</span> and <span
+  lang="el"
+  title="euchesthai">&#x3B5;&#x3C5;&#x3C7;&#x3B5;&#x3C3;&#x3B8;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;</span>
+  for curses and imprecations.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_7"></a><a href="#Phoen_7">[7]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="diêres hyperôon, ê
+  klimax">&#x3B4;&#x3B9;&#x3B7;&#x3C1;&#x3B5;&#x3C2;
+  &#x201B;&#x3C5;&#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3C9;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;, &#x3B7;
+  &#x3BA;&#x3BB;&#x3B9;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3BE;</span>. HESYCHIUS.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_8"></a><a href="#Phoen_8">[8]</a> Milton, Par.
+  Regained, b. iii. l. 326.</p>
+
+  <div class="poem">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <p>The field, all iron, cast a gleaming brown.</p>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_9"></a><a href="#Phoen_9">[9]</a> Lerna, a country of
+  Argolis celebrated for a grove and a lake where the Danaides threw the
+  heads of their murdered husbands. It was there also that Hercules killed
+  the famous Hydra.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_10"></a><a href="#Phoen_10">[10]</a> This alludes to
+  the figure of Argus engraved on his shield. See verse 1130.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_11"></a><a href="#Phoen_11">[11]</a> Tydeus married
+  Deipyle, Polynices Argia, both daughters of Adrastus, king of Argos.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_12"></a><a href="#Phoen_12">[12]</a> Some suppose
+  <span lang="el" title="hysterôi
+  podi">&#x201B;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3C9;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3B4;&#x3B9;</span> to mean with their last steps, that
+  is, with steps which are doomed never to return again to their own
+  country.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_13"></a><a href="#Phoen_13">[13]</a> Triæna was a
+  place in Argolis, where Neptune stuck his trident in the ground, and
+  immediately water sprung up. SCHOL.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_14"></a><a href="#Phoen_14">[14]</a> Amymone was
+  daughter of Danaus and Europa; she was employed, by order of her father,
+  in supplying the city of Argos with water, in a great drought. Neptune
+  saw her in this employment, and was enamored of her. He carried her away,
+  and in the place where she stood he raised a fountain, which has been
+  called Amymone. See Propert. ii. El. 20. v. 47.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_15"></a><a href="#Phoen_15">[15]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="allêlas
+  legousin">&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3BB;&#x3B7;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3BB;&#x3B5;&#x3B3;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;</span> is,
+  <i>they say one of another</i>; <span lang="el" title="allêlais
+  legousin">&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3BB;&#x3B7;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3BB;&#x3B5;&#x3B3;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;</span>, <i>they
+  say among themselves</i>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_16"></a><a href="#Phoen_16">[16]</a> By <span
+  lang="el" title="pediôn
+  akarpistôn">&#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3B4;&#x3B9;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B1;&#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3C1;&#x3C0;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3C4;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;</span>
+  is to be understood the sea. The construction <span lang="el"
+  title="pediôn perirrhyton
+  Sikelias">&#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3B4;&#x3B9;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3B9;&#x3C1;&#x3C1;&#x3C5;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3A3;&#x3B9;&#x3BA;&#x3B5;&#x3BB;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;&#x3C2;</span>, that is,
+  <span lang="el" title="ha Sikelian perirrhei">&#x201B;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3A3;&#x3B9;&#x3BA;&#x3B5;&#x3BB;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3B9;&#x3C1;&#x3C1;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;</span>. The same
+  construction is found in Sophocles, &#338;d. Tyr. l. 885. <span lang="el"
+  title="dikas aphobêtos">&#x3B4;&#x3B9;&#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B1;&#x3C6;&#x3BF;&#x3B2;&#x3B7;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span>. L. 969.
+  <span lang="el" title="aphaustos
+  enchous">&#x3B1;&#x3C6;&#x3B1;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B5;&#x3B3;&#x3C7;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C2;</span>. See also Horace, Lib.
+  iv. Od. 4. 43.</p>
+
+  <div class="poem">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <p>Ceu flamma per tædas, vel Eurus</p>
+      <p>Per Siculas equitavit undas.</p>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_17"></a><a href="#Phoen_17">[17]</a> The fire was on
+  that head of Parnassus which was sacred to Apollo and Diana; to those
+  below it appeared double, being divided to the eye by a pointed rock
+  which rose before it. SCHOL.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_18"></a><a href="#Phoen_18">[18]</a> The Python which
+  Apollo slew.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_19"></a><a href="#Phoen_19">[19]</a> Libya the
+  daughter of Epaphus bore to Neptune Agenor and Belus. Cadmus was the son
+  of Agenor, and Antiope the daughter of Belus.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_19a"></a><a href="#Phoen_19a">[19a]</a> But Dind.
+  <span lang="el"
+  title="ekphrôs'">&#x3B5;&#x3BA;&#x3C6;&#x3C1;&#x3C9;&#x3C3;'</span>. See
+  his note.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_20"></a><a href="#Phoen_20">[20]</a> The construction
+  is, <span lang="el" title="amphiballe moi to tôn parêïdôn sou
+  oregma">&#x3B1;&#x3BC;&#x3C6;&#x3B9;&#x3B2;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3BB;&#x3B5;
+  &#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3B9; &#x3C4;&#x3BF; &#x3C4;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3C1;&#x3B7;&#x3CA;&#x3B4;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3C3;&#x3BF;&#x3C5; &#x3BF;&#x3C1;&#x3B5;&#x3B3;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;</span>:
+  that is, <i>genarum ad oscula porrectionem</i>. It can not be translated
+  literally. The verb <span lang="el"
+  title="amphiballe">&#x3B1;&#x3BC;&#x3C6;&#x3B9;&#x3B2;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3BB;&#x3B5;</span>
+  is to be supplied before <span lang="el"
+  title="oregma">&#x3BF;&#x3C1;&#x3B5;&#x3B3;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;</span>, and
+  before <span lang="el"
+  title="plokamon">&#x3C0;&#x3BB;&#x3BF;&#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span>.
+  See Orestes, 950.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_21"></a><a href="#Phoen_21">[21]</a> Locus videtur
+  corruptus. PORSON. Valckenaer proposes to read <span lang="el"
+  title="dakryoess' anieisa
+  k.t.l.">&#x3B4;&#x3B1;&#x3BA;&#x3C1;&#x3C5;&#x3BF;&#x3B5;&#x3C3;&#x3C3;'
+  &#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3B9;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3BA;.&#x3C4;.&#x3BB;.</span> Markland would supply <span lang="el"
+  title="phônên">&#x3C6;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;&#x3B7;&#x3BD;</span> after <span
+  lang="el"
+  title="hieisa">&#x201B;&#x3B9;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3B1;</span>.
+  Another reading proposed is, <span lang="el" title="dakryoess' enieisa
+  penthêrê
+  konin">&#x3B4;&#x3B1;&#x3BA;&#x3C1;&#x3C5;&#x3BF;&#x3B5;&#x3C3;&#x3C3;'
+  &#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3B9;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3B8;&#x3B7;&#x3C1;&#x3B7;
+  &#x3BA;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;</span>. <i>Lacrymabunda, lugubrem
+  cinerem injiciens</i>. Followed by Dindorf.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_22"></a><a href="#Phoen_22">[22]</a> Cf. Æsch. Prom.
+  39. <span lang="el" title="to syngenes toi deinon hê th'
+  homilia">&#x3C4;&#x3BF;
+  &#x3C3;&#x3C5;&#x3B3;&#x3B3;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3B5;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3B9; &#x3B4;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;
+  &#x201B;&#x3B7; &#x3B8;'
+  &#x201B;&#x3BF;&#x3BC;&#x3B9;&#x3BB;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;</span>, where consult
+  Schutz.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_23"></a><a href="#Phoen_23">[23]</a> See Porson's
+  note. A similar ellipse is to be found in Luke xiii. 9. <span lang="el"
+  title="Kain men poiêsêi karpon: ei de mêge, eis to mellon ekkopseis
+  autên:">&#x39A;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3BD; &#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3B7;&#x3C3;&#x3B7;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3C1;&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;: &#x3B5;&#x3B9; &#x3B4;&#x3B5;
+  &#x3BC;&#x3B7;&#x3B3;&#x3B5;, &#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C2; &#x3C4;&#x3BF;
+  &#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3BB;&#x3BB;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B5;&#x3BA;&#x3BA;&#x3BF;&#x3C8;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B1;&#x3C5;&#x3C4;&#x3B7;&#x3BD;:</span> which is thus translated in
+  our version; "And if it bear fruit, <i>well</i>: and if not, <i>then</i>
+  after that thou shalt cut it down." See also Iliad, A. 135. Aristoph.
+  Plut. 468. ed. Kuster.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_24"></a><a href="#Phoen_24">[24]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="Brabeus">&#x392;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3B2;&#x3B5;&#x3C5;&#x3C2;</span>,
+  properly, is the judge in a contest, who confers the prizes, and on whose
+  decision the awarding of the prizes depends: <span lang="el"
+  title="brabeutês">&#x3B2;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3B2;&#x3B5;&#x3C5;&#x3C4;&#x3B7;&#x3C2;</span>
+  is the same. <span lang="el"
+  title="Brabeion">&#x392;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3B2;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span>
+  is the prize. <span lang="el"
+  title="Brabeia">&#x392;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3B2;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;</span>,
+  and in the plural <span lang="el"
+  title="brabeiai">&#x3B2;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3B2;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;</span>,
+  the very act of deciding the contest.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_25"></a><a href="#Phoen_25">[25]</a> So Hotspur, of
+  honor:</p>
+
+  <div class="poem">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <p>By heaven, methinks, it were an easy leap,</p>
+      <p>To pluck bright honor from the pale-faced moon:</p>
+      <p>Or dive into the bottom of the deep,</p>
+      <p>Where fathom-line could never touch the ground,</p>
+      <p>And pluck up drowned honor by the locks;</p>
+      <p>So he, that doth redeem her thence, might wear,</p>
+      <p>Without corrival, all her dignities.</p>
+      <p class="i16">Hen. IV. P. i. A. i. Sc. 3.</p>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_26"></a><a href="#Phoen_26">[26]</a> See Ovid. Met.
+  vi. 28. Non omnia grandior ætas, Quæ fugiamus, habet; seris venit usus ab
+  annis.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_27"></a><a href="#Phoen_27">[27]</a> The Scholiast
+  doubts whether these Gods were Castor and Pollux, or Zethus and Amphion,
+  but inclines to the latter. See Herc. Fur. v. 29, 30.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_28"></a><a href="#Phoen_28">[28]</a> Or, <i>fell with
+  limbs that had never known yoke</i>.&mdash;V. Ovid: Met. iii. 10.</p>
+
+  <div class="poem">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <p>Bos tibi, Ph&#339;bus ait, solis occurret in arvis,</p>
+      <p>Nullum passa jugum.</p>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_29"></a><a href="#Phoen_29">[29]</a> Valckenaer
+  proposes reading instead of <span lang="el"
+  title="horais">&#x201B;&#x3BF;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;</span> or
+  <span lang="el"
+  title="horas">&#x201B;&#x3BF;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3C2;</span>, <span
+  lang="el"
+  title="aurais">&#x3B1;&#x3C5;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;</span>, writing
+  the passage <span lang="el" title="aurais bostrychon
+  ampetasas">&#x3B1;&#x3C5;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B2;&#x3BF;&#x3C3;&#x3C4;&#x3C1;&#x3C5;&#x3C7;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B1;&#x3BC;&#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3C3;&#x3B1;&#x3C2;</span>,
+  "per auras leves crine jactato:" which seems peculiarly adapted to this
+  place, where the poet places the tumultuous rage of Mars in contrast with
+  the sweet enthusiasm of the Bacchanalians, who are represented as flying
+  over the plains with their hair streaming in the wind. But see Note <a
+  name="Phoen_C"></a><a href="#PhoenN_C">[C]</a>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_30"></a><a href="#Phoen_30">[30]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="akoê">&#x3B1;&#x3BA;&#x3BF;&#x3B7;</span> is here to be understood
+  in the sense of <span lang="el"
+  title="akouomenon">&#x3B1;&#x3BA;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3BF;&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span>
+  as we find <span lang="el"
+  title="aisthêsis">&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3B8;&#x3B7;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;</span>
+  for <span lang="el"
+  title="aisthêton">&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3B8;&#x3B7;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span>,
+  <span lang="el" title="nous">&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C2;</span> for
+  <span lang="el" title="to nooumenon">&#x3C4;&#x3BF;
+  &#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_31"></a><a href="#Phoen_31">[31]</a> The words <span
+  lang="el" title="didymôn
+  potamôn">&#x3B4;&#x3B9;&#x3B4;&#x3C5;&#x3BC;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3BC;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;</span> do not refer to
+  Dirce, but to Thebes, Thebes being called <span lang="el" title="polis
+  dipotamos">&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3BB;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B4;&#x3B9;&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span>.
+  The construction is <span lang="el" title="pyrgos didymôn
+  potamôn">&#x3C0;&#x3C5;&#x3C1;&#x3B3;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B4;&#x3B9;&#x3B4;&#x3C5;&#x3BC;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3BC;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;</span>. Thus in Pindar
+  <span lang="el" title="oikêma
+  potamou">&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3BA;&#x3B7;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;</span> means <span
+  lang="el" title="oikêma para
+  potamôi">&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3BA;&#x3B7;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3BC;&#x3C9;&#x3B9;</span>. Olymp. 2.
+  Antistr. 1.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_32"></a><a href="#Phoen_32">[32]</a> See note <a
+  name="Phoen_D"></a><a href="#PhoenN_D">[D]</a>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_32a"></a><a href="#Phoen_32a">[32a]</a> <span
+  lang="el" title="goun">&#x3B3;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3BD;</span>. See Dind.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_33"></a><a href="#Phoen_33">[33]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="ti gar pathô">&#x3C4;&#x3B9; &#x3B3;&#x3B1;&#x3C1;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3B8;&#x3C9;</span>; <i>Quid enim agam?</i> est formula
+  eorum, quos invitos natura vel fatum, vel quæcumque alia cogit
+  necessitas. VALCKEN.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_34"></a><a href="#Phoen_34">[34]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="Prosêgorêsôn">&#x3A0;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3C3;&#x3B7;&#x3B3;&#x3BF;&#x3C1;&#x3B7;&#x3C3;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;</span>
+  is to be joined with <span lang="el"
+  title="molôn">&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3BB;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;</span>, not with <span
+  lang="el" title="eimi">&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3BC;&#x3B9;</span>. In
+  confirmation of this see line 1011.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_35"></a><a href="#Phoen_35">[35]</a> So called after
+  Neïs the son of Amphion and Niobe, or from <span lang="el"
+  title="neatai">&#x3BD;&#x3B5;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;</span>,
+  "<i>Newgate</i>." SCHOL.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_36"></a><a href="#Phoen_36">[36]</a> Argus himself
+  might be called <span lang="el"
+  title="stiktos">&#x3C3;&#x3C4;&#x3B9;&#x3BA;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span>,
+  but not his eyes, hence <span lang="el"
+  title="pyknois">&#x3C0;&#x3C5;&#x3BA;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;</span>
+  is proposed by Heinsius. Abreschius receives <span lang="el"
+  title="stiktois">&#x3C3;&#x3C4;&#x3B9;&#x3BA;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;</span>
+  in the sense of <span lang="el" title="hois stiktos
+  esti">&#x201B;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3C3;&#x3C4;&#x3B9;&#x3BA;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B5;&#x3C3;&#x3C4;&#x3B9;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_37"></a><a href="#Phoen_37">[37]</a> The Scholiast
+  makes <span lang="el"
+  title="bleponta">&#x3B2;&#x3BB;&#x3B5;&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;</span>
+  the accusative singular to agree with <span lang="el"
+  title="panoptên">&#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3C0;&#x3C4;&#x3B7;&#x3BD;</span>.
+  Musgrave takes it as agreeing with <span lang="el"
+  title="ommata">&#x3BF;&#x3BC;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;</span>; in this
+  latter case <span lang="el"
+  title="kryptonta">&#x3BA;&#x3C1;&#x3C5;&#x3C0;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;</span>
+  is used in a neuter signification. Note <a name="Phoen_F"></a><a
+  href="#PhoenN_F">[F]</a>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_38"></a><a href="#Phoen_38">[38]</a> This is
+  Musgrave's interpretation, by putting the stop after <span lang="el"
+  title="hôs">&#x201B;&#x3C9;&#x3C2;</span>, which also Porson adopts;
+  others would join <span lang="el"
+  title="hôs">&#x201B;&#x3C9;&#x3C2;</span> with <span lang="el"
+  title="prêsôn">&#x3C0;&#x3C1;&#x3B7;&#x3C3;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;</span>. It
+  seems however more natural that the torch should be referred to Tydeus's
+  emblem, than to himself.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_39"></a><a href="#Phoen_39">[39]</a> Commentators and
+  interpreters are much at variance concerning the word <span lang="el"
+  title="strophinxin">&#x3C3;&#x3C4;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3C6;&#x3B9;&#x3B3;&#x3BE;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;</span>.
+  For his better satisfaction on this passage the reader is referred to the
+  Scholia.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_40"></a><a href="#Phoen_40">[40]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="geissa">&#x3B3;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3C3;&#x3B1;</span> is in
+  apposition to <span lang="el"
+  title="laan">&#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;</span> in the preceding line.
+  Cf. Orestes, 1585.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_41"></a><a href="#Phoen_41">[41]</a> Commentators are
+  divided on the meaning of <span lang="el"
+  title="enêlata">&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3B7;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;</span>.
+  One Scholiast understands it to mean the uprights of the ladder in which
+  the bars are fixed. Eustathias considers <span lang="el" title="enêlatôn
+  bathra">&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3B7;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B2;&#x3B1;&#x3B8;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;</span> a periphrasis for <span
+  lang="el" title="bathra, enêlata">&#x3B2;&#x3B1;&#x3B8;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;,
+  &#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3B7;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;</span> being the <span
+  lang="el" title="bathra">&#x3B2;&#x3B1;&#x3B8;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;</span> or
+  <span lang="el"
+  title="bathmides">&#x3B2;&#x3B1;&#x3B8;&#x3BC;&#x3B9;&#x3B4;&#x3B5;&#x3C2;</span>,
+  which <span lang="el" title="enelêlantai tois orthoïs
+  xylois">&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3B5;&#x3BB;&#x3B7;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3C2; &#x3BF;&#x3C1;&#x3B8;&#x3BF;&#x3CA;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3BE;&#x3C5;&#x3BB;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_42"></a><a href="#Phoen_42">[42]</a> Musgrave would
+  render <span lang="el" title="hygrotêt'
+  enantian">&#x201B;&#x3C5;&#x3B3;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3C4;&#x3B7;&#x3C4;'
+  &#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;</span> by
+  "mobilitatem male coalescentem;" in this case it would indicate the bad
+  omen, and be opposed to <span lang="el" title="akran
+  lampada">&#x3B1;&#x3BA;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3BC;&#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3B4;&#x3B1;</span>, which then
+  should be translated "the pointed flame." Valckenaer considers the
+  passage as desperately corrupt. See Musgrave's note. Cf. Note <a
+  name="Phoen_G"></a><a href="#PhoenN_G">[G]</a>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_43"></a><a href="#Phoen_43">[43]</a> If the flame was
+  clear and vivid.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_44"></a><a href="#Phoen_44">[44]</a> If it terminated
+  in smoke and blackness.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_45"></a><a href="#Phoen_45">[45]</a> The construction
+  of this passage is the same as that of Il. <span lang="el"
+  title="D">&#x394;</span> 155. <span lang="el" title="thanaton ny toi
+  horki' etamnon">&#x3B8;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3BD;&#x3C5; &#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;
+  &#x201B;&#x3BF;&#x3C1;&#x3BA;&#x3B9;'
+  &#x3B5;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3BC;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span>. "F&#339;dus,
+  quod pepigi, tibi mortis causa est." PORSON.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_46"></a><a href="#Phoen_46">[46]</a> Beck, by putting
+  the stop after <span lang="el"
+  title="petron">&#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3C4;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span>, makes
+  <span lang="el"
+  title="hypodromon">&#x201B;&#x3C5;&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3B4;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span>
+  to agree with <span lang="el"
+  title="kolon">&#x3BA;&#x3BF;&#x3BB;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span>, "<i>his limb
+  diverted from its tread</i>."</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_47"></a><a href="#Phoen_47">[47]</a> The construction
+  is <span lang="el" title="phonos krantheis
+  phonôi">&#x3C6;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3BA;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3B8;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3C6;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3C9;&#x3B9;</span>: <span lang="el"
+  title="aimati">&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3B9;</span> depends
+  on <span lang="el" title="en">&#x3B5;&#x3BD;</span> understood.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_48"></a><a href="#Phoen_48">[48]</a> Most MSS. have
+  <span lang="el"
+  title="xynetos">&#x3BE;&#x3C5;&#x3BD;&#x3B5;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span>.
+  Here then is a remarkable instance of the same word having both an active
+  and a passive signification in the same sentence.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_49"></a><a href="#Phoen_49">[49]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="makropnoun">&#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3BA;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3C0;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3BD;</span>,
+  not <span lang="el"
+  title="makropoun">&#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3BA;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3BD;</span>,
+  is Porson's reading, <span lang="el" title="makropnous
+  zôê">&#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3BA;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3C0;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B6;&#x3C9;&#x3B7;</span> is explained "vita in qua longo tempore
+  spiratur; ergo longa."</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_50"></a><a href="#Phoen_50">[50]</a> See note at
+  Hecuba 65.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_51"></a><a href="#Phoen_51">[51]</a> The old reading
+  was <span lang="el" title="ti tlas; ti tlas;">&#x3C4;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3C2;; &#x3C4;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3C2;;</span> making it the present tense. Brunck
+  first edited it as it stands in Porson. Antigone repeats the last word of
+  her father.</p>
+
+</div>
+<hr class="short" />
+
+<h3>ADDITIONAL NOTES.</h3>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+<div class="note">
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_A"></a><a href="#Phoen_A">[A]</a> "Signum interrogandi
+  non post <span lang="el"
+  title="neanias">&#x3BD;&#x3B5;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;&#x3C2;</span>,
+  sed post <span lang="el"
+  title="lochagos">&#x3BB;&#x3BF;&#x3C7;&#x3B1;&#x3B3;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span>
+  ponendum. <span lang="el"
+  title="lochagos">&#x3BB;&#x3BF;&#x3C7;&#x3B1;&#x3B3;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span>
+  in libris pedagogo tribuitur: quod correxit Hermannus." DINDORF.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_B"></a><a href="#Phoen_B">[B]</a> Porson and Dindorf
+  (in his notes) favor Reiske's conjecture, <span lang="el"
+  title="pyknoisi">&#x3C0;&#x3C5;&#x3BA;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;</span>
+  for <span lang="el"
+  title="pyrgoisi">&#x3C0;&#x3C5;&#x3C1;&#x3B3;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_C"></a><a href="#Phoen_C">[C]</a> Dindorf rightly
+  approves the explanation of Musgrave, who takes <span lang="el"
+  title="stephanoisi">&#x3C3;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3C6;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;</span>,
+  like the Latin <i>corona</i>, to mean the <i>assemblies</i>. He
+  translates: "<i>nec in pulchros choros ducentibus circulis
+  juventutis</i>."</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_D"></a><a href="#Phoen_D">[D]</a> The full sense, as
+  laid down by Sch&#339;fer and Dindorf, is, "for ever when an old man
+  travels, whether in a carriage, or on foot, he requires help from
+  others." <span lang="el" title="pasa apênê pous
+  te">&#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3C3;&#x3B1; &#x3B1;&#x3C0;&#x3B7;&#x3BD;&#x3B7;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C2; &#x3C4;&#x3B5;</span> is rather boldly used,
+  but is not without example.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_E"></a><a href="#Phoen_E">[E]</a> i.e. "<i>you ask a
+  thing</i> (i.e. your son's safety) <i>dangerous to the city, which you
+  can not preserve</i>." SCH&#338;FER.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_F"></a><a href="#Phoen_F">[F]</a> These three lines
+  are condemned by Valck. and Dind.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_G"></a><a href="#Phoen_G">[G]</a> Matthiæ attempts to
+  explain these words as follows: "<span lang="el" title="empyroi
+  akmai">&#x3B5;&#x3BC;&#x3C0;&#x3C5;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3B1;&#x3BA;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;</span> may be put for <span lang="el"
+  title="ta empyra">&#x3C4;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3B5;&#x3BC;&#x3C0;&#x3C5;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;</span>, in which the seers
+  observed (<span lang="el"
+  title="enômôn">&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3C9;&#x3BC;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;</span>) two
+  things, viz. the divisions (<span lang="el"
+  title="rhêxeis">&#x201B;&#x3C1;&#x3B7;&#x3BE;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;</span>)
+  of the flame, which, if it slid round the altars, was of ill omen (hence
+  <span lang="el"
+  title="hygrai">&#x201B;&#x3C5;&#x3B3;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;</span>, i.e.
+  gliding gently around the altars with many curves, for which is put <span
+  lang="el" title="hygrotês
+  enantia">&#x201B;&#x3C5;&#x3B3;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3C4;&#x3B7;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;</span>); and 2dly,
+  <i>the upright shooting of the flame</i>, <span lang="el" title="akran
+  lampada">&#x3B1;&#x3BA;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3BC;&#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3B4;&#x3B1;</span>."</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_H"></a><a href="#Phoen_H">[H]</a> See Dindorf on
+  Orest. 1691. He fully condemns these lines as the work of an
+  interpolator. They are, however, as old as the days of Lucian.</p>
+
+</div>
+<hr class="full" />
+
+<a name="MEDEA"></a>
+<h2>MEDEA.</h2>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+<h3>PERSONS REPRESENTED.</h3>
+
+  <div class="personae">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <p>NURSE.</p>
+      <p>TUTOR.</p>
+      <p>MEDEA.</p>
+      <p>CHORUS OF CORINTHIAN WOMEN.</p>
+      <p>CREON.</p>
+      <p>JASON.</p>
+      <p>ÆGEUS</p>
+      <p>MESSENGER.</p>
+      <p>SONS OF MEDEA.</p>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+<p class="center"><i>The Scene lies in the vestibule of the palace of Jason at Corinth</i>.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h3>THE ARGUMENT.</h3>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+  <p>JASON, having come to Corinth, and bringing with him Medea, espouses
+  Glauce, the daughter of Creon, king of Corinth. But Medea, on the point
+  of being banished from Corinth by Creon, having asked to remain one day,
+  and having obtained her wish, sends to Glauce, by the hands of her sons,
+  presents, as an acknowledgment for the favor, a robe and a golden
+  chaplet, which she puts on and perishes; Creon also having embraced his
+  daughter is destroyed. But Medea, when she had slain her children,
+  escapes to Athens, in a chariot drawn by winged dragons, which she
+  received from the Sun, and there marries Ægeus son of Pandion.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2>MEDEA.</h2>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+<p class="center">NURSE OF MEDEA.</p>
+
+  <p>Would that the hull of Argo had not winged her way to the Colchian
+  land through the Cyanean Symplegades,<a name="Med_1"></a><a
+  href="#MedN_1"><sup>[1]</sup></a> and that the pine felled in the forests
+  of Pelion had never fallen, nor had caused the hands of the chiefs to
+  row,<a name="Med_2"></a><a href="#MedN_2"><sup>[2]</sup></a> who went in
+  search of the golden fleece for Pelias; for neither then would my
+  mistress Medea have sailed to the towers of the Iolcian land, deeply
+  smitten in her mind with the love of Jason; nor having persuaded the
+  daughters of Pelias to slay their father would she have inhabited this
+  country of Corinth with her husband and her children, pleasing indeed by
+  her flight<a name="Med_3"></a><a href="#MedN_3"><sup>[3]</sup></a> the
+  citizens to whose land she came, and herself concurring in every respect
+  with Jason; which is the surest support of conjugal happiness, when the
+  wife is not estranged from the husband. But now every thing is at
+  variance, and the dearest ties are weakened. For having betrayed his own
+  children, and my mistress, Jason reposes in royal wedlock, having married
+  the daughter of Creon, who is prince of this land. But Medea the unhappy,
+  dishonored, calls on his oaths, and recalls the hands they plighted, the
+  greatest pledge of fidelity, and invokes the gods to witness what return
+  she meets with from Jason. And she lies without tasting food, having sunk
+  her body in grief, dissolving all her tedious time in tears, after she
+  had once known that she had been injured by her husband, neither raising
+  her eye, nor lifting her countenance from the ground; but as the rock, or
+  the wave of the sea, does she listen to her friends when advised. Save
+  that sometimes having turned her snow-white neck she to herself bewails
+  her dear father, and her country, and her house, having betrayed which
+  she hath come hither with a man who has now dishonored her. And she
+  wretched hath discovered from affliction what it is not to forsake one's
+  paternal country. But she hates her children, nor is she delighted at
+  beholding them: but I fear her, lest she form some new design: for
+  violent is her mind, nor will it endure to suffer ills. I know her, and I
+  fear her, lest she should force the sharpened sword through her heart, or
+  even should murder the princess and him who married her, and after that
+  receive some greater ill. For she is violent; he who engages with her in
+  enmity will not with ease at least sing the song of victory. But these
+  her children are coming hither having ceased from their exercises,
+  nothing mindful of their mother's ills, for the mind of youth is not wont
+  to grieve.</p>
+
+<p class="center">TUTOR, WITH THE SONS OF MEDEA, NURSE.</p>
+
+  <p>TUT. O thou ancient possession of my mistress's house, why dost thou
+  stand at the gates preserving thus thy solitude, bewailing to thyself our
+  misfortunes? How doth Medea wish to be left alone without thee?</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. O aged man, attendant on the children of Jason, to faithful
+  servants the affairs of their masters turning out ill are a calamity, and
+  lay hold upon their feelings. For I have arrived at such a height of
+  grief that desire hath stolen on me to come forth hence and tell the
+  misfortunes of Medea to the earth and heaven.</p>
+
+  <p>TUT. Does not she wretched yet receive any respite from her grief?</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. I envy thy ignorance; her woe is at its rise, and not even yet at
+  its height.</p>
+
+  <p>TUT. O unwise woman, if it is allowable to say this of one's lords,
+  since she knows nothing of later ills.</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. But what is this, O aged man? grudge not to tell me.</p>
+
+  <p>TUT. Nothing: I have repented even of what was said before.</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. Do not, I beseech you by your beard, conceal it from your
+  fellow-servant; for I will preserve silence, if it be necessary, on these
+  subjects.</p>
+
+  <p>TUT. I heard from some one who was saying, not appearing to listen,
+  having approached the places where dice is played, where the elders sit,
+  around the hallowed font of Pirene, that the king of this land, Creon,
+  intends to banish from the Corinthian country these children, together
+  with their mother; whether this report be true, however, I know not; but
+  I wish this may not be the case.</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. And will Jason endure to see his children suffer this, even
+  although he is at enmity with their mother?</p>
+
+  <p>TUT. Ancient alliances are deserted for new, and he is no friend to
+  this family.</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. We perish then, if to the old we shall add a new ill, before the
+  former be exhausted.<a name="Med_4"></a><a
+  href="#MedN_4"><sup>[4]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>TUT. But do thou, for it is not seasonable that my mistress should
+  know this, restrain your tongue, and be silent on this report.</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. O my children, do you hear what your father is toward you? Yet
+  may he not perish, for he is my master, yet he is found to be treacherous
+  toward his friends.</p>
+
+  <p>TUT. And what man is not? dost thou only now know this, that every one
+  loves himself dearer than his neighbor,<a name="Med_5"></a><a
+  href="#MedN_5"><sup>[5]</sup></a> some indeed with justice, but others
+  even for the sake of gain, unless it be that<a name="Med_6"></a><a
+  href="#MedN_6"><sup>[6]</sup></a> their father loves not these at least
+  on account of new nuptials.</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. Go within the house, my children, for all will be well. But do
+  thou keep these as much as possible out of the way, and let them not
+  approach their mother, deranged through grief. For but now I saw her
+  looking with wildness in her eyes on these, as about to execute some
+  design, nor will she cease from her fury, I well know, before she
+  overwhelm some one with it; upon her enemies however, and not her
+  friends, may she do some [ill.]</p>
+
+  <p>MEDEA. (<i>within</i>) Wretch that I am, and miserable on account of
+  my misfortunes, alas me! would I might perish!</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. Thus it is, my children; your mother excites her heart, excites
+  her fury. Hasten as quick as possible within the house, and come not near
+  her sight, nor approach her, but guard against the fierce temper and
+  violent nature of her self-willed mind. Go now, go as quick as possible
+  within. But it is evident that the cloud of grief raised up from the
+  beginning will quickly burst forth with greater fury; what I pray will
+  her soul, great in rage, implacable, irritated by ills, perform!</p>
+
+  <p>MED. Alas! alas! I wretched have suffered, have suffered treatment
+  worthy of great lamentation. O ye accursed children of a hated mother,
+  may ye perish with your father, and may the whole house fall.</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. Alas! alas! me miserable! but why should your children share
+  their father's error? Why dost thou hate these! Alas me, my children, how
+  beyond measure do I grieve lest ye suffer any evil! Dreadful are the
+  dispositions of tyrants, and somehow in few things controlled, in most
+  absolute, they with difficulty lay aside their passion. The being
+  accustomed then<a name="Med_7"></a><a href="#MedN_7"><sup>[7]</sup></a>
+  to live in mediocrity of life is the better: may it be my lot then to
+  grow old if not in splendor, at least in security. For, in the first
+  place, even to mention the name of moderation carries with it
+  superiority, but to use it is by far the best conduct for men; but excess
+  of fortune brings more power to men than is convenient;<a
+  name="Med_8"></a><a href="#MedN_8"><sup>[8]</sup></a> and has brought
+  greater woes upon families, when the Deity be enraged.</p>
+
+<p class="center">NURSE, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. I heard the voice, I heard the cry of the unhappy Colchian; is
+  not she yet appeased? but, O aged matron, tell me; for within the
+  apartment with double doors, I heard her cry; nor am I delighted, O
+  woman, with the griefs of the family, since it is friendly to me.</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. The family is not; these things are gone already: for he
+  possesses the bed of royalty; but she, my mistress, is melting away her
+  life in her chamber, in no way soothing her mind by the advice of any one
+  of her friends.</p>
+
+  <p>MED. Alas! alas! may the flame of heaven rush through my head, what
+  profit for me to live any longer. Alas! alas! may I rest myself in death,
+  having left a hated life.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Dost thou hear, O Jove, and earth, and light, the cry which the
+  wretched bride utters? why I pray should this insatiable love of the
+  marriage-bed hasten thee, O vain woman, to death? Pray not for this. But
+  if thy husband courts a new bed, be not thus<a name="Med_9"></a><a
+  href="#MedN_9"><sup>[9]</sup></a> enraged with him. Jove will avenge
+  these wrongs for thee: waste not thyself so, bewailing thy husband.</p>
+
+  <p>MED. O great Themis and revered Diana, do ye behold what I suffer,
+  having bound my accursed husband by powerful oaths? Whom may I at some
+  time see and his bride torn piecemeal with their very houses, who dare to
+  injure me first. O my father, O my city, whom I basely abandoned, having
+  slain my brother.</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. Do ye hear what she says, and how she invokes Themis hearing the
+  vow, and Jove who is considered the dispenser of oaths to mortals? It is
+  not possible that my mistress will lull her rage to rest on any trivial
+  circumstance.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. By what means could she come into our sight, and hear the voice
+  of our discourse, if she would by any means remit her fierce anger and
+  her fury of mind. Let not my zeal however be wanting ever to my friends.
+  But go and conduct her hither from without the house, my friend, and tell
+  her this, hasten, before she injure in any way those within, for this
+  grief of hers is increased to a great height.</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. I will do it, but I fear that I shall not persuade my mistress;
+  nevertheless I will give you this favor of my labor. And yet with the
+  aspect of a lioness that has just brought forth does she look sternly on
+  her attendants when any one approaches near attempting to address her.
+  But thou wouldest not err in calling men of old foolish and nothing wise,
+  who invented songs, for festivals, for banquets, and for suppers, the
+  delights of life that charm the ear; but no mortal has discovered how to
+  soothe with music and with varied strains those bitter pangs, from which
+  death and dreadful misfortunes overthrow families. And yet for men to
+  assuage these griefs with music were gain; but where the plenteous
+  banquet is furnished, why raise they the song in vain? for the present
+  bounty of the feast brings pleasure of itself to men.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. I heard the dismal sound of groans, and in a shrill voice she
+  vents her bitter<a name="Med_10"></a><a
+  href="#MedN_10"><sup>[10]</sup></a> anguish on the traitor to her bed,
+  her faithless husband&mdash;and suffering wrongs she calls upon the
+  Goddess Themis, arbitress of oaths, daughter of Jove, who conducted her
+  to the opposite coast of Greece, across the sea by night, over the salt
+  straits of the boundless ocean.</p>
+
+<p class="center">MEDEA, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>MED. Ye Corinthian dames, I have come from out my palace; do not in
+  any wise blame me; for I have known many men who have been<a
+  name="Med_11"></a><a href="#MedN_11"><sup>[11]</sup></a> renowned, some
+  who have lived far from public notice, and others in the world; but those
+  of a retired turn have gained for themselves a character of infamy and
+  indolence. For justice dwells not in the eyes of man,<a
+  name="Med_12"></a><a href="#MedN_12"><sup>[12]</sup></a> whoever, before
+  he can well discover the disposition of a man, hates him at sight, in no
+  way wronged by him. But it is necessary for a stranger exactly to conform
+  himself to the state, nor would I praise the native, whoever becoming
+  self-willed is insolent to his fellow-citizens through ignorance. But
+  this unexpected event that hath fallen upon me hath destroyed my spirit:
+  I am going, and having given up the pleasure of life I am desirous to
+  meet death, my friends. For he on whom my all rested, as you well know,
+  my husband, has turned out the basest of men. But of all things as many
+  as have life and intellect, we women are the most wretched race. Who
+  indeed first must purchase a husband with excess of money, and receive
+  him a lord of our persons; for this is a still greater ill than the
+  former. And in this is the greatest risk, whether we receive a bad one or
+  a good one; for divorces bring not good fame to women, nor is it possible
+  to repudiate one's husband. But on passing to new tempers and new laws,
+  one need be a prophetess, as one can not learn of one's self, what sort
+  of consort one shall most likely experience. And if with us carefully
+  performing these things a husband shall dwell not imposing on us a yoke
+  with severity, enviable is our life; if not, to die is better. But a man,
+  when he is displeased living with those at home, having gone abroad is
+  wont to relieve his heart of uneasiness, having recourse either to some
+  friend or compeer. But we must look but to one person. But they say of us
+  that we live a life of ease at home, but they are fighting with the
+  spear; judging ill, since I would rather thrice stand in arms, than once
+  suffer the pangs of child-birth. But, for the same argument comes not
+  home to you and me, this is thy city, and thy father's house, thine are
+  both the luxuries of life, and the society of friends; but I being
+  destitute, cityless, am wronged by my husband, brought as a prize from a
+  foreign land, having neither mother, nor brother, nor relation to afford
+  me shelter from this calamity. So much then I wish to obtain from you, if
+  any plan or contrivance be devised by me to repay with justice these
+  injuries on my husband, and on him who gave his daughter, and on her to
+  whom he was married,<a name="Med_13"></a><a
+  href="#MedN_13"><sup>[13]</sup></a> that you would be silent; for a woman
+  in other respects is full of fear, and timid to look upon deeds of
+  courage and the sword; but when she is injured in her bed, no other
+  disposition is more blood-thirsty.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. I will do this; for with justice, Medea, wilt thou avenge
+  thyself on thy husband, and I do not wonder that you lament your
+  misfortunes. But I see Creon monarch of this land advancing, the
+  messenger of new counsels.</p>
+
+<p class="center">CREON, MEDEA, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. Thee of gloomy countenance, and enraged with thy husband, Medea,
+  I command to depart in exile from out of this land, taking with thee thy
+  two children, and not to delay in any way, since I am the arbiter of this
+  edict, and I will not return back to my palace, until I shall drive thee
+  beyond the boundaries of this realm.</p>
+
+  <p>MED. Alas! alas! I wretched am utterly destroyed, for my enemies
+  stretch out every cable against me; nor is there any easy escape from
+  this evil, but I will speak, although suffering injurious treatment; for
+  what, Creon, dost thou drive me from this land?</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. I fear thee (there is no need for me to wrap my words in
+  obscurity,) lest thou do my child some irremediable mischief, And many
+  circumstances are in unison with this dread. Thou art wise, and skilled
+  in many evil sciences, and thou art exasperated, deprived of thy
+  husband's bed. And I hear that thou threatenest, as they tell me, to
+  wreak some deed of vengeance on the betrother, and the espouser and the
+  espoused; against this then, before I suffer, will I guard. Better is it
+  for me now to incur enmity from you, than softened by your words
+  afterward greatly to lament it.</p>
+
+  <p>MED. Alas! alas! not now for the first time, but often, Creon, hath
+  this opinion injured me, and worked me much woe. But whatever man is
+  prudent, let him never educate his children too deep in wisdom. For,
+  independent of the other charges of idleness which they meet with, they
+  find hostile envy from their fellow-citizens. For holding out to fools
+  some new-discovered wisdom, thou wilt seem to be useless and not wise.
+  And being judged superior to others who seem to have some varied
+  knowledge, thou wilt appear offensive in the city. But even I myself
+  share this fortune; for being wise, to some I am an object of envy, but
+  to others, unsuited; but I am not very wise. Thou then fearest me, lest
+  thou suffer some grievous mischief.<a name="Med_14"></a><a
+  href="#MedN_14"><sup>[14]</sup></a> My affairs are not in a state, fear
+  me not, Creon, so as to offend against princes. For in what hast thou
+  injured me? Thou hast given thy daughter to whom thy mind led thee; but I
+  hate my husband: but thou, I think, didst these things in prudence. And
+  now I envy not that thy affairs are prospering; make your alliances, be
+  successful; but suffer me to dwell in this land, for although injured
+  will I keep silence, overcome by my superiors.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. Thou speakest soft words to the ear, but within my mind I have my
+  fears, lest thou meditate some evil intent. And so much the less do I
+  trust thee than before. For a woman that is quick to anger, and a man
+  likewise, is easier to guard against, than one that is crafty and keeps
+  silence. But begone as quick as possible, make no more words; since this
+  is decreed, and thou hast no art, by which thou wilt stay with us, being
+  hostile to me.</p>
+
+  <p>MED. No I beseech you by your knees, and your newly-married
+  daughter.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. Thou wastest words; for thou wilt never persuade me.</p>
+
+  <p>MED. Wilt thou then banish me, nor reverence my prayers?</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. For I do not love thee better than my own family.</p>
+
+  <p>MED. O my country, how I remember thee now!</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. For next to my children it is much the dearest thing to me.</p>
+
+  <p>MED. Alas! alas! how great an ill is love to man!</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. That is, I think, as fortune also shall attend it.</p>
+
+  <p>MED. Jove, let it not escape thine eye, who is the cause of these
+  misfortunes.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. Begone, fond woman, and free me from these cares.</p>
+
+  <p>MED. Care indeed;<a name="Med_15"></a><a
+  href="#MedN_15"><sup>[15]</sup></a> and do not I experience cares?</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. Quickly shalt thou be driven hence by force by the hands of my
+  domestics.</p>
+
+  <p>MED. No, I pray not this at least; but I implore thee, Creon.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. Thou wilt give trouble, woman, it seems.<a name="Med_16"></a><a
+  href="#MedN_16"><sup>[16]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>MED. I will go; I dare not ask to obtain this of you.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. Why then dost thou resist, and wilt not depart from these
+  realms?</p>
+
+  <p>MED. Permit me to remain here this one day, and to bring my purpose to
+  a conclusion, in what way we shall fly, and to make provision for my
+  sons, since their father in no way regards providing for his children;
+  but pity them, for thou also art the father of children; and it is
+  probable that thou hast tenderness: for of myself I have no care whether
+  I may suffer banishment, but I weep for them experiencing this
+  calamity.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. My disposition is least of all imperious, and through feeling
+  pity in many cases have I injured myself. And now I see that I am doing
+  wrong, O lady, but nevertheless thou shalt obtain thy request; but this I
+  warn thee, if to-morrow's light of the God of day shall behold thee and
+  thy children within the confines of these realms, thou shalt die: this
+  word is spoken in truth. But now if thou must stay, remain here yet one
+  day, for thou wilt not do any horrid deed of which I have dread.</p>
+
+<p class="center">MEDEA, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Unhappy woman! alas wretched on account of thy griefs! whither
+  wilt thou turn? what hospitality, or house, or country wilt thou find a
+  refuge for these ills? how the Deity hath led thee, Medea, into a
+  pathless tide of woes!</p>
+
+  <p>MED. Ill hath it been done on every side. Who will gainsay it? but
+  these things are not in this way, do not yet think it. Still is there a
+  contest for those lately married, and to those allied to them no small
+  affliction. For dost thou think I ever would have fawned upon this man,
+  if I were not to gain something, or form some plan? I would not even have
+  addressed him. I would not even have touched him with my hands. But he
+  hath arrived at such a height of folly, as that, when it was in his power
+  to have crushed my plans, by banishing me from this land, he hath granted
+  me to stay this day in which three of mine enemies will I put to death,
+  the father, the bride, and my husband. But having in my power many
+  resources of destruction against them, I know not, my friends, which I
+  shall first attempt. Whether shall I consume the bridal house with fire,
+  or force the sharpened sword through her heart having entered the chamber
+  by stealth where the couch is spread? But one thing is against me; if I
+  should be caught entering the house and prosecuting my plans, by my death
+  I shall afford laughter for my foes. Best then is it to pursue the
+  straight path, in which I am most skilled, to take them off by poison.
+  Let it be so. And suppose them dead: what city will receive me? What
+  hospitable stranger affording a land of safety and a faithful home will
+  protect my person? There is none. Waiting then yet a little time, if any
+  tower of safety shall appear to us, I will proceed to this murder in
+  treachery and silence. But if ill fortune that leaves me without resource
+  force me, I myself having grasped the sword, although I should die, will
+  kill them, and will rush to the extreme height of daring. For never, I
+  swear by my mistress whom I revere most of all, and have chosen for my
+  assistant, Hecate, who dwells in the inmost recesses of my house, shall
+  any one of them wring my heart with grief with impunity. Bitter and
+  mournful to them will I make these nuptials, and bitter this alliance,
+  and my flight from this land. But come, spare none of these sciences in
+  which thou art skilled, Medea, deliberating and plotting. Proceed to the
+  deed of terror: now is the time of resolution: seest thou what thou art
+  suffering? Ill doth it become thee to incur ridicule from the race of
+  Sisyphus, and from the nuptials of Jason, who art sprung from a noble
+  father, and from the sun. And thou art skilled. Besides also we women
+  are, by nature, to good actions of the least capacity, but the most
+  cunning inventors of every ill.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. The waters of the hallowed streams flow upward to their sources,
+  and justice and every thing is reversed. The counsels of men are
+  treacherous, and no longer is the faith of heaven firm. But fame changes,
+  so that my sex may have the glory.<a name="Med_17"></a><a
+  href="#MedN_17"><sup>[17]</sup></a> Honor cometh to the female race; no
+  longer shall opprobrious fame oppress the women. But the Muses shall
+  cease from their ancient strains, from celebrating our perfidy. For
+  Ph&#339;bus, leader of the choir, gave not to our minds the heavenly
+  music of the lyre, since they would in turn have raised a strain against
+  the race of men. But time of old hath much to say both of our life and
+  the life of men. But thou hast sailed from thy father's house with
+  maddened heart, having passed through the double rocks of the ocean, and
+  thou dwellest in a foreign land, having lost the shelter of thy widowed
+  bed, wretched woman, and art driven dishonored an exile from this land.
+  The reverence of oaths is gone, nor does shame any longer dwell in mighty
+  Greece, but hath fled away through the air. But thou helpless woman hast
+  neither father's house to afford you haven from your woes, and another
+  more powerful queen of the nuptial bed rules over the house.</p>
+
+<p class="center">JASON, MEDEA, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>JAS. Not now for the first time, but often have I perceived that
+  fierce anger is an irremediable ill. For though it was in your power to
+  inhabit this land and this house, bearing with gentleness the
+  determination of thy superiors, by thy rash words thou shalt be banished
+  from this land. And to me indeed it is of no importance; never cease from
+  saying that Jason is the worst of men. But for what has been said by thee
+  against the royal family, think it the greatest good fortune that thou
+  art punished by banishment only. I indeed was always employed in
+  diminishing the anger of the enraged princes, and was willing that thou
+  shouldest remain. But thou remittest not of thy folly, always reviling
+  the ruling powers; wherefore thou shalt be banished from the land. But
+  nevertheless even after this am I come, not wearied with my friends,
+  providing for thee, O woman, that thou mightest not be banished with thy
+  children, either without money, or in want of any thing. Banishment draws
+  many misfortunes with it. For although thou hatest me, I never could wish
+  thee evil.</p>
+
+  <p>MED. O thou vilest of men (for this is the greatest reproach I have in
+  my power with my tongue to tell thee, for thy unmanly cowardice), hast
+  thou come to us, hast thou come, who art most hateful? This is not
+  fortitude, or confidence, to look in the face of friends whom thou hast
+  injured, but the worst of all diseases among men, impudence. But thou
+  hast done well in coming. For both I shall be lightened in my heart while
+  reviling thee, and thou wilt be pained at hearing me. But I will first
+  begin to speak from the first circumstances. I preserved thee (as those
+  Greeks well know as many as embarked with thee on board the same ship
+  Argo) when sent to master the fire-breathing bulls with the yoke, and to
+  sow the fatal seed: and having slain the dragon who watching around the
+  golden fleece guarded it with spiry folds, a sleepless guard, I raised up
+  to thee a light of safety. But I myself having betrayed my father, and my
+  house, came to the Peliotic Iolcos<a name="Med_18"></a><a
+  href="#MedN_18"><sup>[18]</sup></a> with thee, with more readiness than
+  prudence. And I slew Pelias by a death which it is most miserable to die,
+  by the hands of his own children, and I freed thee from every fear. And
+  having experienced these services from me, thou vilest of men, thou hast
+  betrayed me and hast procured for thyself a new bed, children being born
+  to thee, for if thou wert still childless it would be pardonable in thee
+  to be enamored of this alliance. But the faith of oaths is vanished: nor
+  can I discover whether thou thinkest that the former Gods are not still
+  in power, or whether new laws are now laid down for men, since thou art
+  at least conscious of being perjured toward me. Alas! this right hand
+  which thou hast often touched, and these knees, since in vain have I been
+  polluted by a wicked husband, and have failed in my hopes. Come (for I
+  will converse with thee as with a friend, not expecting to receive any
+  benefit from thee at least, but nevertheless I will; for when questioned
+  thou wilt appear more base), now whither shall I turn? Whether to my
+  father's house, which I betrayed for thee, and my country, and came
+  hither? or to the miserable daughters of Pelias? friendly would they
+  indeed receive me in their house, whose father I slew. For thus it is: I
+  am in enmity with my friends at home; but those whom I ought not to
+  injure, by obliging thee, I make my enemies. On which account in return
+  for this thou hast made me to be called happy by many dames through
+  Greece, and in thee I, wretch that I am, have an admirable and faithful
+  husband, if cast out at least I shall fly this land, deserted by my
+  friends, lonely with thy lonely children. Fair renown indeed to the new
+  married bridegroom, that his children are wandering in poverty, and I
+  also who preserved thee. O Jove, why I pray hast thou given to men
+  certain proofs of the gold which is adulterate, but no mark is set by
+  nature on the person of men by which one may distinguish the bad man.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Dreadful is that anger and irremediable, when friends with
+  friends kindle strife.</p>
+
+  <p>JAS. It befits me, it seems, not to be weak in argument, but as the
+  prudent pilot of a vessel, with all the sail that can be hoisted, to run
+  from out of thy violent abuse, O woman. But I, since thou thus much
+  vauntest thy favors, think that Venus alone both of Gods and men was the
+  protectress of my voyage. But thou hast a fickle mind, but it is an
+  invidious account to go through, how love compelled thee with his
+  inevitable arrows to preserve my life. But I will not follow up arguments
+  with too great accuracy, for where thou hast assisted me it is well.
+  Moreover thou hast received more at least from my safety than thou
+  gavest, as I will explain to thee. First of all thou dwellest in Greece
+  instead of a foreign land, and thou learnest what justice is, and to
+  enjoy laws, not to be directed by mere force. And all the Grecians have
+  seen that thou art wise, and thou hast renown; but if thou wert dwelling
+  in the extreme confines of that land, there would not have been fame of
+  thee. But may neither gold in my house be be my lot, nor to attune the
+  strain more sweet than Orpheus, if my fortune be not conspicuous. So much
+  then have I said of my toils; for thou first broughtest forward this
+  contest of words. But with regard to those reproaches which thou heapest
+  on me for my royal marriage, in this will I show first that I have been
+  wise, in the next place moderate, thirdly a great friend to thee, and my
+  children: but be silent. After I had come hither from the Iolcian land
+  bringing with me many grievous calamities, what measure more fortunate
+  than this could I have invented, than, an exile as I was, to marry the
+  daughter of the monarch? not, by which thou art grated, loathing thy bed,
+  nor smitten with desire of a new bride, nor having emulation of a
+  numerous offspring, for those born to me are sufficient, nor do I find
+  fault with that; but that (which is of the greatest consequence) we might
+  live honorably, and might not be in want, knowing well that every friend
+  flies out of the way of a poor man; and that I might bring up my children
+  worthy of my house, and that having begotten brothers to those children
+  sprung from thee, I might place them on the same footing, and having
+  united the family, I might flourish; for both thou hast some need of
+  children, and to me it were advantageous to advance my present progeny by
+  means of the children which might arise; have I determined ill? not even
+  thou couldest say so, if thy bed did not gall thee. But thus far have you
+  come, that your bed being safe, you women think that you have every
+  thing. But if any misfortune befall that, the most excellent and fairest
+  objects you make the most hateful. It were well then that men should
+  generate children from some other source, and that the female race should
+  not exist, and thus there would not have been any evil among men.<a
+  name="Med_19"></a><a href="#MedN_19"><sup>[19]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Jason, thou hast well adorned these arguments of thine, but
+  nevertheless to me, although I speak reluctantly, thou appearest, in
+  betraying thy wife, to act unjustly.</p>
+
+  <p>MED. Surely I am in many things different from many mortals, for in my
+  judgment, whatever man being unjust, is deeply skilled in argument,
+  merits the severest punishment. For vaunting that with his tongue he can
+  well gloze over injustice, he dares to work deceit, but he is not
+  over-wise. Thus do not thou also be now plausible to me, nor skilled in
+  speaking, for one word will overthrow thee: it behooved thee, if thou
+  wert not a bad man, to have contracted this marriage having persuaded me,
+  and not without the knowledge of thy friends.</p>
+
+  <p>JAS. Well wouldest thou have lent assistance to this report, if I had
+  mentioned the marriage to thee, who not even now endurest to lay aside
+  this unabated rage of heart.</p>
+
+  <p>MED. This did not move thee, but a foreign bed would lead in its
+  result to an old age without honor.</p>
+
+  <p>JAS. Be well assured of this, that I did not form this alliance with
+  the princess, which I now hold, for the sake of the woman, but, as I said
+  before also, wishing to preserve thee, and to beget royal children
+  brothers to my sons, a support to our house.</p>
+
+  <p>MED. Let not a splendid life of bitterness be my lot, nor wealth,
+  which rends my heart.</p>
+
+  <p>JAS. Dost thou know how to alter thy prayers, and appear wiser? Let
+  not good things ever seem to you bitter, nor when in prosperity seem to
+  be in adversity.</p>
+
+  <p>MED. Insult me, since thou hast refuge, but I destitute shall fly this
+  land.</p>
+
+  <p>JAS. Thou chosest this thyself, blame no one else.</p>
+
+  <p>MED. By doing what? by marrying and betraying thee?</p>
+
+  <p>JAS. By imprecating unhallowed curses on the royal family.</p>
+
+  <p>MED. From thy house at least am I laden with curses.</p>
+
+  <p>JAS. I will not dispute more of this with thee. But if thou wishest to
+  receive either for thyself or children any part of my wealth as an
+  assistant on thy flight, speak, since I am ready to give with an
+  unsparing hand, and to send tokens of hospitality to my friends, who will
+  treat you well; and refusing these thou wilt be foolish, woman, but
+  ceasing from thine anger, thou wilt gain better treatment.</p>
+
+  <p>MED. I will neither use thy friends, nor will I receive aught; do not
+  give to me, for the gifts of a bad man bring no assistance.</p>
+
+  <p>JAS. Then I call the Gods to witness, that I wish to assist thee and
+  thy children in every thing; but good things please thee not, but thou
+  rejectest thy friends with audacity, wherefore shalt thou grieve the
+  more.</p>
+
+  <p>MED. Begone, for thou art captured by desire of thy new bride,
+  tarrying so long without the palace; wed her, for perhaps, but with the
+  assistance of the God shall it be said, thou wilt make such a marriage
+  alliance, as thou wilt hereafter wish to renounce.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. The loves, when they come too impetuously, have given neither
+  good report nor virtue among men, but if Venus come with moderation, no
+  other Goddess is so benign. Never, O my mistress, mayest thou send forth
+  against me from thy golden bow thy inevitable shaft, having steeped it in
+  desire. But may temperance preserve me, the noblest gift of heaven; never
+  may dreaded Venus, having smitten my mind for another's bed, heap upon me
+  jealous passions and unabated quarrels, but approving the peaceful union,
+  may she quick of perception sit in judgment on the bed of women. O my
+  country, and my house, never may I be an outcast of my city, having a
+  life scarce to be endured through poverty, the most lamentable of all
+  woes. By death, by death, may I before that be subdued, having lived to
+  accomplish that day; but no greater misfortune is there than to be
+  deprived of one's paternal country. We have seen it, nor have we to speak
+  from others' accounts; for thee, neither city nor friend hath pitied,
+  though suffering the most dreadful anguish. Thankless may he perish who
+  desires not to assist his friends, having unlocked the pure treasures of
+  his mind; never shall he be friend to me.</p>
+
+<p class="center">ÆGEUS, MEDEA, CHORUS.</p>
+
+ÆG. Medea, hail! for no one hath known a more honorable
+salutation to address to friends than this.
+
+  <p>MED. Hail thou also, son of the wise Pandion, Ægeus, coming from what
+  quarter dost thou tread the plain of this land?</p>
+
+ÆG. Having left the ancient oracle of Ph&#339;bus.
+
+  <p>MED. But wherefore wert thou sent to the prophetic centre of the
+  earth?</p>
+
+ÆG. Inquiring of the God how offspring may arise to me?
+
+  <p>MED. By the Gods, tell me, dost thou live this life hitherto
+  childless?</p>
+
+ÆG. Childless I am, by the disposal of some deity.
+
+  <p>MED. Hast thou a wife, or knowest thou not the marriage-bed!</p>
+
+ÆG. I am not destitute of the connubial bed.
+
+  <p>MED. What then did Apollo tell thee respecting thy offspring?</p>
+
+ÆG. Words deeper than a man can form opinion of.
+
+  <p>MED. Is it allowable for me to know the oracle of the God?</p>
+
+ÆG. Certainly, inasmuch as it needs also a deep-skilled mind.
+
+  <p>MED. What then did he say? Speak, if I may hear.</p>
+
+ÆG. That I was not to loose the projecting foot of the vessel&mdash;
+
+  <p>MED. Before thou didst what, or came to what land?</p>
+
+ÆG. Before I revisit my paternal hearth.
+
+  <p>MED. Then as desiring what dost thou direct thy voyage to this
+  land?</p>
+
+ÆG. There is one Pittheus, king of the country of Trazene.
+
+  <p>MED. The most pious son, as report says, of Pelops.</p>
+
+ÆG. To him I wish to communicate the oracle of the God.
+
+  <p>MED. For he is a wise man, and versed in such matters.</p>
+
+ÆG. And to me at least the dearest of all my friends in war.
+
+  <p>MED. Mayest thou prosper, and obtain what thou desirest.</p>
+
+ÆG. But why is thine eye and thy color thus faded?
+
+  <p>MED. Ægeus, my husband is the worst of all men.</p>
+
+ÆG. What sayest thou? tell me all thy troubles.
+
+  <p>MED. Jason wrongs me, having never suffered wrong from me.</p>
+
+ÆG. Having done what? tell me more clearly.
+
+  <p>MED. He hath here a wife besides me, mistress of the house.</p>
+
+ÆG. Hath he dared to commit this disgraceful action?
+
+  <p>MED. Be assured he has; but we his former friends are dishonored.</p>
+
+ÆG. Enamored of her, or hating thy bed?
+
+  <p>MED. [Smitten with] violent love indeed, he was faithless to his
+  friends.</p>
+
+ÆG. Let him perish then, since, as you say, he is a bad
+man.
+
+  <p>MED. He was charmed to receive an alliance with princes.</p>
+
+ÆG. And who gives the bride to him? finish the account,
+I beg.
+
+  <p>MED. Creon, who is monarch of this Corinthian land.</p>
+
+ÆG. Pardonable was it then that thou art grieved, O lady.
+
+  <p>MED. I perish, and in addition to this am I banished from this
+  land.</p>
+
+ÆG. By whom? thou art mentioning another fresh misfortune.
+
+  <p>MED. Creon drives me an exile out of this land of Corinth.</p>
+
+ÆG. And does Jason suffer it? I praise not this.
+
+  <p>MED. By his words he does not, but at heart he wishes [to endure my
+  banishment:] but by this thy beard I entreat thee, and by these thy
+  knees, and I become thy suppliant, pity me, pity this unfortunate woman,
+  nor behold me going forth in exile abandoned, but receive me at thy
+  hearth in thy country and thy house. Thus by the Gods shall thy desire of
+  children be accomplished to thee, and thou thyself shalt die in
+  happiness. But thou knowest not what this fortune is that thou hast
+  found; but I will free thee from being childless, and I will cause thee
+  to raise up offspring, such charms I know.</p>
+
+ÆG. On many accounts, O lady, am I willing to confer this
+favor on thee, first on account of the Gods, then of the
+children, whose birth thou holdest forth; for on this point else
+I am totally sunk in despair. But thus am I determined: if
+thou comest to my country, I will endeavor to receive thee
+with hospitality, being a just man; so much however I beforehand
+apprise thee of, O lady, I shall not be willing to lead
+thee with me from this land; but if thou comest thyself to my
+house, thou shalt stay there in safety, and to no one will I
+give thee up. But do thou of thyself withdraw thy foot from
+this country, for I wish to be without blame even among
+strangers.
+
+  <p>MED. It shall be so, but if there was a pledge of this given to me, I
+  should have all things from thee in a noble manner.</p>
+
+ÆG. Dost thou not trust me? what is thy difficulty?
+
+  <p>MED. I trust thee; but the house of Pelias is mine enemy, and Creon
+  too; to these then, wert thou bound by oaths, thou wouldest not give me
+  up from the country, should they attempt to drag me thence. But having
+  agreed by words alone, and without calling the Gods to witness, thou
+  mightest be their friend, and perhaps<a name="Med_20"></a><a
+  href="#MedN_20"><sup>[20]</sup></a> be persuaded by an embassy; for weak
+  is my state, but theirs are riches, and a royal house.</p>
+
+ÆG. Thou hast spoken much prudence, O lady. But if it
+seems fit to thee that I should do this, I refuse not. For to
+me also this seems the safest plan, that I should have some
+pretext to show to your enemies, and thy safety is better secured;
+propose the Gods that I am to invoke.
+
+  <p>MED. Swear by the earth, and by the sun the father of my father, and
+  join the whole race of Gods.</p>
+
+ÆG. That I will do what thing, or what not do? speak.
+
+  <p>MED. That thou wilt neither thyself ever cast me forth from out of thy
+  country, nor, if any one of my enemies desire to drag me thence, that
+  thou wilt, while living, give me up willingly.</p>
+
+ÆG. I swear by the earth, and the hallowed majesty of
+the sun, and by all the Gods, to abide by what I hear from
+thee.
+
+  <p>MED. It is sufficient: but what wilt thou endure shouldest thou not
+  abide by this oath?</p>
+
+ÆG. That which befalls impious men.
+
+  <p>MED. Go with blessings; for every thing is well. And I will come as
+  quick as possible to thy city, having performed what I intend, and having
+  obtained what I desire.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. But may the son of Maia the king, the guide, conduct thee safely
+  to thy house, and the plans of those things, which thou anxiously keepest
+  in thy mind, mayest thou bring to completion, since, Ægeus, thou hast
+  appeared to us to be a noble man.</p>
+
+<p class="center">MEDEA, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>MED. O Jove, and thou vengeance of Jove, and thou light of the sun,
+  now, my friends, shall I obtain a splendid victory over my enemies, and I
+  have struck into the path. Now is there hope that my enemies will suffer
+  punishment. For this man, where I was most at a loss, hath appeared a
+  harbor to my plans. From him will I make fast my cable from the stern,
+  having come to the town and citadel of Pallas. But now will I communicate
+  all my plans to thee; but receive my words not as attuned to pleasure.
+  Having sent one of my domestics, I will ask Jason to come into my
+  presence; and when he is come, I will address gentle words to him, as
+  that it appears to me that these his actions are both honorable, and are
+  advantageous and well determined on.<a name="Med_21"></a><a
+  href="#MedN_21"><sup>[21]</sup></a> And I will entreat him that my sons
+  may stay; not that I would leave my children in a hostile country for my
+  enemies to insult, but that by deceit I may slay the king's daughter. For
+  I will send them bearing presents in their hands, both a fine-wrought
+  robe, and a golden-twined wreath.<a name="Med_22"></a><a
+  href="#MedN_22"><sup>[22]</sup></a> And if she take the ornaments and
+  place them round her person, she shall perish miserably, and every one
+  who shall touch the damsel; with such charms will I anoint the presents.
+  Here however I finish this account; but I bewail the deed such as must
+  next be done by me; for I shall slay my children; there is no one who
+  shall rescue them from me; and having heaped in ruins the whole house of
+  Jason, I will go from out this land, flying the murder of my dearest
+  children, and having dared a deed most unhallowed. For it is not to be
+  borne, my friends, to be derided by one's enemies. Let things take their
+  course; what gain is it to me to live longer? I have neither country, nor
+  house, nor refuge from my ills. Then erred I, when I left my father's
+  house, persuaded by the words of a Grecian man, who with the will of the
+  Gods shall suffer punishment from me. For neither shall he ever hereafter
+  behold the children he had by me alive, nor shall he raise a child by his
+  new wedded wife, since it is fated that the wretch should wretchedly
+  perish by my spells. Let no one think me mean-spirited and weak, nor of a
+  gentle temper, but of a contrary disposition to my foes relentless, and
+  to my friends kind: for the lives of such sort are most glorious.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Since thou hast communicated this plan to me, desirous both of
+  doing good to thee, and assisting the laws of mortals, I dissuade thee
+  from doing this.</p>
+
+  <p>MED. It can not be otherwise, but it is pardonable in thee to say
+  this, not suffering the cruel treatment that I do.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. But wilt thou dare to slay thy two sons, O lady?</p>
+
+  <p>MED. For in this way will my husband be most afflicted.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. But thou at least wilt be the most wretched woman.</p>
+
+  <p>MED. Be that as it may: all intervening words are superfluous; but go,
+  hasten, and bring Jason hither; for I make use of thee in all matters of
+  trust. And thou wilt mention nothing of the plans determined on by me, if
+  at least thou meanest well to thy mistress, and art a woman.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. The Athenians happy of old, and the descendants of the blessed
+  Gods, feeding on the most exalted wisdom of a country sacred and
+  unconquered, always tripping elegantly through the purest atmosphere,
+  where they say that of old the golden-haired Harmonia gave birth to the
+  chaste nine Pierian Muses.<a name="Med_23"></a><a
+  href="#MedN_23"><sup>[23]</sup></a> And they report also that Venus
+  drawing in her breath from the stream of the fair-flowing Cephisus,
+  breathed over their country gentle sweetly-breathing gales of air; and
+  always entwining in her hair the fragrant wreath of roses, sends the
+  loves as assessors to wisdom; the assistants of every virtue. How then
+  will the city of hallowed rivers,<a name="Med_24"></a><a
+  href="#MedN_24"><sup>[24]</sup></a> or the country which conducts thee to
+  friends, receive the murderer of her children, the unholy one? Consider
+  in conjunction with others of the slaughter of thy children, consider
+  what a murder thou wilt undertake. Do not by thy knees, by every plea,<a
+  name="Med_25"></a><a href="#MedN_25"><sup>[25]</sup></a> by every prayer,
+  we entreat you, do not murder your children; but how wilt thou acquire
+  confidence either of mind or hand or in heart against thy children,
+  attempting a dreadful deed of boldness? But how, having darted thine eyes
+  upon thy children, wilt thou endure the perpetration of the murder
+  without tears? Thou wilt not<a name="Med_26"></a><a
+  href="#MedN_26"><sup>[26]</sup></a> be able, when thy children fall
+  suppliant at thy feet, to imbrue thy savage hand in their wretched
+  life-blood.</p>
+
+<p class="center">JASON, MEDEA, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>JAS. I am come, by thee requested; for although thou art enraged, thou
+  shalt not be deprived of this at least; but I will hear what new service
+  thou dost desire of me, lady.</p>
+
+  <p>MED. Jason, I entreat you to be forgiving of what has been said, but
+  right is it that you should bear with my anger, since many friendly acts
+  have been done by us two. But I reasoned with myself and rebuked myself;
+  wayward woman, why am I maddened and am enraged with those who consult
+  well for me? and why am I in enmity with the princes of the land and with
+  my husband, who is acting in the most advantageous manner for us, having
+  married a princess, and begetting brothers to my children? Shall I not
+  cease from my rage? What injury do I suffer, the Gods providing well for
+  me? Have I not children? And I know that I am flying the country, and am
+  in want of friends. Revolving this in my mind I perceive that I had much
+  imprudence, and was enraged without reason. Now then I approve of this,
+  and thou appearest to me to be prudent, having added this alliance to us;
+  but I was foolish, who ought to share in these plans, and to join in
+  adorning and to stand by the bed, and to delight with thee that thy bride
+  was enamored of thee; but we women are as we are, I will not speak evil
+  of the sex; wherefore it is not right that you should put yourself on an
+  equality with the evil, nor repay folly for folly. I give up, and say
+  that then I erred in judgment, but now I have determined on these things
+  better. O my children, my children, come forth, leave the house, come
+  forth, salute, and address your father with me, and be reconciled to your
+  friends from your former hatred together with your mother. For there is
+  amity between us, and my rage hath ceased. Take his right hand. Alas! my
+  misfortunes; how I feel some hidden ill in my mind! Will ye, my children,
+  in this manner, and for a long time enjoying life, stretch out your dear
+  hands? Wretch that I am! how near am I to weeping and full of
+  fear!&mdash;But at last canceling this dispute with your father, I have
+  filled thus my tender sight with tears.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. In my eyes also the moist tear is arisen; and may not the evil
+  advance to a greater height than it is at present.</p>
+
+  <p>JAS. I approve of this, lady, nor do I blame the past; for it is
+  reasonable that the female sex be enraged with a husband who barters them
+  for another union.&mdash;But thy heart has changed to the more proper
+  side, and thou hast discovered, but after some time, the better counsel:
+  these are the actions of a wise woman. But for you, my sons, your father
+  not without thought hath formed many provident plans, with the assistance
+  of the Gods. For I think that you will be yet the first in this
+  Corinthian country, together with your brothers. But advance and prosper:
+  and the rest your father, and whatever God is propitious, will effect.
+  And may I behold you blooming arrive at the prime of youth, superior to
+  my enemies. And thou, why dost thou bedew thine eyes with the moist tear,
+  having turned aside thy white cheek, and why dost thou not receive these
+  words from me with pleasure?</p>
+
+  <p>MED. It is nothing. I was thinking of my sons.</p>
+
+  <p>JAS. Be of good courage; for I will arange well for them.</p>
+
+  <p>MED. I will be so, I will not mistrust thy words; but a woman is of
+  soft mould, and was born to tears.</p>
+
+  <p>JAS. Why, I pray, dost thou so grieve for thy children?</p>
+
+  <p>MED. I brought them into the world, and when thou wert praying that
+  thy children might live, a feeling of pity came upon me if that would be.
+  But for what cause thou hast come to a conference with me, partly hath
+  been explained, but the other reasons I will mention. Since it appeareth
+  fit to the royal family to send me from this country, for me also this
+  appears best, I know it well, that I might not dwell here, a check either
+  to thee or to the princes of the land; for I seem to be an object of
+  enmity to the house; I indeed will set out from this land in flight; but
+  to the end that the children may be brought up by thy hand, entreat Creon
+  that they may not leave this land.</p>
+
+  <p>JAS. I know not whether I shall persuade him; but it is right to
+  try.</p>
+
+  <p>MED. But do thou then exhort thy bride to ask her father, that my
+  children may not leave this country.</p>
+
+  <p>JAS. Certainly I will, and I think at least that she will persuade
+  him, if indeed she be one of the female sex.</p>
+
+  <p>MED. I also will assist you in this task, for I will send to her
+  presents which (I well know) far surpass in beauty any now among men,
+  both a fine-wrought robe, and a golden-twined chaplet, my sons carrying
+  them. But as quick as possible let one of my attendants bring hither
+  these ornaments. Thy bride shall be blessed not in one instance, but in
+  many, having met with you at least the best of husbands, and possessing
+  ornaments which the sun my father's father once gave to his descendants.
+  Take these nuptial presents, my sons, in your hands, and bear and present
+  them to the blessed royal bride; she shall receive gifts not indeed to be
+  despised.</p>
+
+  <p>JAS. Why, O fond woman, dost thou rob thy hands of these; thinkest
+  thou that the royal palace is in want of vests? in want of gold? keep
+  these presents, give them not away; for if the lady esteems me of any
+  value, she will prefer pleasing me to riches, I know full well.</p>
+
+  <p>MED. But do not oppose me; gifts, they say, persuade even the Gods,<a
+  name="Med_27"></a><a href="#MedN_27"><sup>[27]</sup></a> and gold is more
+  powerful than a thousand arguments to men. Hers is fortune, her substance
+  the God now increases, she in youth governs all. But the sentence of
+  banishment on my children I would buy off with my life, not with gold
+  alone. But my children, enter you the wealthy palace, to the new bride of
+  your father, and my mistress, entreat her, beseech her, that you may not
+  leave the land, presenting these ornaments; but this is of the greatest
+  consequence, that, she receive these gifts in her own hand. Go as quick
+  as possible, and may you be bearers of good tidings to your mother in
+  what she desires to obtain, having succeeded favorably.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Now no longer have I any hope of life for the children, no
+  longer [is there hope]; for already are they going to death. The bride
+  shall receive the destructive present of the golden chaplet, she wretched
+  shall receive them, and around her golden tresses shall she place the
+  attire of death, having received the presents in her hands. The beauty
+  and the divine glitter of the robe will persuade her to place around her
+  head the golden-wrought chaplet. Already with the dead shall the bride be
+  adorned; into such a net will she fall, and such a destiny will she,
+  hapless woman, meet with; nor will she escape her fate. But thou, oh
+  unhappy man! oh wretched bridegroom! son-in-law of princes, unknowingly
+  thou bringest on thy children destruction, and on thy wife a bitter
+  death; hapless man, how much art thou fallen from thy state!<a
+  name="Med_28"></a><a href="#MedN_28"><sup>[28]</sup></a> But I lament for
+  thy grief, O wretch, mother of these children, who wilt murder thy sons
+  on account of a bridal-bed; deserting which, in defiance of thee, thy
+  husband dwells with another wife.</p>
+
+<p class="center">TUTOR, MEDEA, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>TUT. Thy sons, my mistress, are reprieved from banishment, and the
+  royal bride received thy presents in her hands with pleasure, and hence
+  is peace to thy children.</p>
+
+  <p>MED. Ah!</p>
+
+  <p>TUT. Why dost thou stand in confusion, when thou art fortunate?</p>
+
+  <p>MED. Alas! alas!</p>
+
+  <p>TUT. This behavior is not consonant with the message I have brought
+  thee.</p>
+
+  <p>MED. Alas! again.</p>
+
+  <p>TUT. Have I reported any ill fortune unknowingly, and have I failed in
+  my hope of being the messenger of good?</p>
+
+  <p>MED. Thou hast said what thou hast said, I blame not thee.</p>
+
+  <p>TUT. Why then dost thou bend down thine eye, and shed tears?</p>
+
+  <p>MED. Strong necessity compels me, O aged man, for this the Gods and I
+  deliberating ill have contrived.</p>
+
+  <p>TUT. Be of good courage; thou also wilt return home yet through thy
+  children.</p>
+
+  <p>MED. Others first will I send to their home,<a name="Med_29"></a><a
+  href="#MedN_29"><sup>[29]</sup></a> O wretched me!</p>
+
+  <p>TUT. Thou art not the only one who art separated from thy children; it
+  behooves a mortal to bear calamities with meekness.</p>
+
+  <p>MED. I will do so; but go within the house, and prepare for the
+  children what is needful for the day. O my sons, my sons, you have indeed
+  a city, and a house, in which having forsaken me miserable, you shall
+  dwell, ever deprived of a mother. But I am now going an exile into a
+  foreign land, before I could have delight in you, and see you
+  flourishing, before I could adorn your marriage, and wife, and
+  nuptial-bed, and hold up the torch.<a name="Med_30"></a><a
+  href="#MedN_30"><sup>[30]</sup></a> O unfortunate woman that I am, on
+  account of my wayward temper. In vain then, my children, have I brought
+  you up, in vain have I toiled, and been consumed with cares, suffering
+  the strong agonies of child-bearing. Surely once there was a time when I
+  hapless woman had many hopes in you, that you would both tend me in my
+  age, and when dead would with your hands decently compose my limbs, a
+  thing desired by men. But now this pleasing thought hath indeed perished;
+  for deprived of you I shall pass a life of misery, and bitter to myself.
+  But you will no longer behold your mother with your dear eyes, having
+  passed into another state of life. Alas! alas! why do you look upon me
+  with your eyes, my children? Why do ye smile that last smile? Alas! alas!
+  what shall I do? for my heart is sinking. Ye females, when I behold the
+  cheerful look of my children, I have no power. Farewell my counsels: I
+  will take my children with me from this land. What does it avail me
+  grieving their father with the ills of these, to acquire twice as much
+  pain for myself? never will I at least do this. Farewell my counsels. And
+  yet what do I suffer? do I wish to incur ridicule, having left my foes
+  unpunished? This must be dared. But the bringing forward words of
+  tenderness in my mind arises also from my cowardice. Go, my children,
+  into the house; and he for whom it is not lawful to be present at my
+  sacrifice, let him take care himself to keep away.<a name="Med_31"></a><a
+  href="#MedN_31"><sup>[31]</sup></a> But I will not stain my hand. Alas!
+  alas! do not thou then, my soul, do not thou at least perpetrate this.
+  Let them escape, thou wretch, spare thy sons. There shall they live with
+  us and delight thee. No, I swear by the infernal deities who dwell with
+  Pluto, never shall this be, that I will give up my children to be
+  insulted by my enemies. [At all events they must die, and since they
+  must, I who brought them into the world will perpetrate the deed.] This
+  is fully determined by fate, and shall not pass away. And now the chaplet
+  is on her head, and the bride is perishing in the robes; of this I am
+  well assured. But, since I am now going a most dismal path, and these
+  will I send by one still more dismal, I desire to address my children:
+  give, my sons, give thy right hand for thy mother to kiss. O most dear
+  hand, and those lips dearest to me, and that form and noble countenance
+  of my children, be ye blessed, but there;<a name="Med_32"></a><a
+  href="#MedN_32"><sup>[32]</sup></a> for every thing here your father hath
+  taken away. O the sweet embrace, and that soft skin, and that most
+  fragrant breath of my children. Go, go; no longer am I able to look upon
+  you, but am overcome by my ills. I know indeed the ills that I am about
+  to dare, but my rage is master of my counsels,<a name="Med_33"></a><a
+  href="#MedN_33"><sup>[33]</sup></a> which is indeed the cause of the
+  greatest calamities to men.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Already have I often gone through more refined reasonings, and
+  have come to greater arguments than suits the female mind to investigate;
+  for we also have a muse, which dwelleth with us, for the sake of teaching
+  wisdom; but not with all, for haply thou wilt find but a small number of
+  the race of women out of many not ungifted with the muse.<a
+  name="Med_34"></a><a href="#MedN_34"><sup>[34]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>And I say that those men who are entirely free from wedlock, and have
+  not begotten children, surpass in happiness those who have families;
+  those indeed who are childless, through inexperience whether children are
+  born a joy or anguish to men, not having them themselves, are exempt from
+  much misery. But those who have a sweet blooming offspring of children in
+  their house, I behold worn with care the whole time; first of all how
+  they shall bring them up honorably, and how they shall leave means of
+  sustenance for their children. And still after this, whether they are
+  toiling for bad or good sons, this is still in darkness. But one ill to
+  mortals, the last of all, I now will mention. For suppose they have both
+  found sufficient store, and the bodies of their children have arrived at
+  manhood, and that they are good; but if this fortune shall happen to
+  them, death, bearing away their sons, vanishes with them to the shades of
+  darkness. How then does it profit that the Gods heap on mortals yet this
+  grief in addition to others, the most bitter of all, for the sake of
+  children?</p>
+
+<p class="center">MEDEA, MESSENGER, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>MED. For a long time waiting for the event, my friends, I am anxiously
+  expecting what will be the result thence. And I see indeed one of the
+  domestics of Jason coming hither, and his quickened breath shows that he
+  will be the messenger of some new ill.</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. O thou, that hast impiously perpetrated a deed of terror, Medea,
+  fly, fly, leaving neither the ocean chariot,<a name="Med_35"></a><a
+  href="#MedN_35"><sup>[35]</sup></a> nor the car whirling o'er the
+  plain.</p>
+
+  <p>MED. But what is done that requires this flight?</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. The princess is just dead, and Creon her father destroyed by thy
+  charms.</p>
+
+  <p>MED. Thou hast spoken most glad tidings: and hereafter from this time
+  shalt thou be among my benefactors and friends.</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. What sayest thou? Art thou in thy senses, and not mad, lady? who
+  having destroyed the king and family, rejoicest at hearing it, and
+  fearest not such things?</p>
+
+  <p>MED. I also have something to say to these words of thine at least;
+  but be not hasty, my friend; but tell me how they perished, for twice as
+  much delight wilt thou give me if they died miserably.</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. As soon as thy two sons were come with their father, and had
+  entered the bridal house, we servants, who were grieved at thy
+  misfortunes, were delighted; and immediately there was much conversation
+  in our ears, that thy husband and thou had brought the former quarrel to
+  a friendly termination. One kissed the hand, another the auburn head of
+  thy sons, and I also myself followed with them to the women's apartments
+  through joy. But my mistress, whom we now reverence instead of thee,
+  before she saw thy two sons enter, held her cheerful eyes fixed on Jason;
+  afterward however she covered her eyes, and turned aside her white cheek,
+  disgusted at the entrance of thy sons; but thy husband quelled the anger
+  and rage of the young bride, saying this; Be not angry with thy friends,
+  but cease from thy rage, and turn again thy face, esteeming those as
+  friends, whom thy husband does. But receive the gifts, and ask thy father
+  to give up the sentence of banishment against these children for my sake.
+  But when she saw the ornaments, she refused not, but promised her husband
+  every thing; and before thy sons and their father were gone far from the
+  house, she took and put on the variegated robes, and having placed the
+  golden chaplet around her tresses she arranges her hair in the radiant
+  mirror, smiling at the lifeless image of her person. And after, having
+  risen from her seat, she goes across the chamber, elegantly tripping with
+  snow-white foot; rejoicing greatly in the presents, looking much and
+  oftentimes with her eyes on her outstretched neck.<a name="Med_36"></a><a
+  href="#MedN_36"><sup>[36]</sup></a> After that however there was a sight
+  of horror to behold. For having changed color, she goes staggering back
+  trembling in her limbs, and is scarce in time to prevent herself from
+  falling on the ground, by sinking into a chair. And some aged female
+  attendant, when she thought that the wrath either of Pan or some other
+  Deity<a name="Med_37"></a><a href="#MedN_37"><sup>[37]</sup></a> had
+  visited her, offered up the invocation, before at least she sees the
+  white foam bursting from her mouth, and her mistress rolling her eyeballs
+  from their sockets, and the blood no longer in the flesh; then she sent
+  forth a loud shriek of far different sound from the strain of
+  supplication; and straightway one rushed to the apartments of her father,
+  but another to her newly-married husband, to tell the calamity befallen
+  the bride, and all the house was filled with frequent hurryings to and
+  fro. And by this time a swift runner, exerting his limbs, might have
+  reached<a name="Med_38"></a><a href="#MedN_38"><sup>[38]</sup></a> the
+  goal of the course of six plethra;<a name="Med_39"></a><a
+  href="#MedN_39"><sup>[39]</sup></a> but she, wretched woman, from being
+  speechless, and from a closed eye having groaned deeply writhed in agony;
+  for a double pest was warring against her. The golden chaplet indeed
+  placed on her head was sending forth a stream of all-devouring fire
+  wonderful to behold, but the fine-wrought robes, the presents of thy
+  sons, were devouring the white flesh of the hapless woman. But she having
+  started from her seat flies, all on fire, tossing her hair and head on
+  this side and that side, desirous of shaking off the chaplet; but the
+  golden wreath firmly kept its hold; but the fire, when she shook her
+  hair, blazed out with double fury, and she sinks upon the ground overcome
+  by her sufferings, difficult for any one except her father to recognize.
+  For neither was the expression of her eyes clear, nor her noble
+  countenance; but the blood was dropping from the top of her head mixed
+  with fire. But her flesh was dropping off her bones, as the tear from the
+  pine-tree, by the hidden fangs of the poison; a sight of horror. But all
+  feared to touch the body, for we had her fate to warn us. But the hapless
+  father, through ignorance of her suffering, having come with haste into
+  the apartment, falls on the corpse, and groans immediately; and having
+  folded his arms round her, kisses her, saying these words; O miserable
+  child, what Deity hath thus cruelly destroyed thee? who makes an aged
+  father bowing to the tomb<a name="Med_40"></a><a
+  href="#MedN_40"><sup>[40]</sup></a> bereaved of thee? Alas me! let me die
+  with thee, my child. But after he had ceased from his lamentations and
+  cries, desiring to raise his aged body, he was held, as the ivy by the
+  boughs of the laurel, by the fine-wrought robes; and dreadful was the
+  struggle, for he wished to raise his knee, but she held him back; but if
+  he drew himself away by force he tore the aged flesh from his bones. But
+  at length the wretched man swooned away, and gave up his life; for no
+  longer was he able to endure the agony. But they lie corses, the daughter
+  and aged father near one another; a calamity that demands tears. And let
+  thy affairs indeed be not matter for my words; for thou thyself wilt know
+  a refuge from punishment. But the affairs of mortals not now for the
+  first time I deem a shadow, and I would venture to say that those persons
+  who seem to be wise and are researchers of arguments, these I say, run
+  into the greatest folly. For no mortal man is happy; but wealth pouring
+  in, one man may be more fortunate than another, but happy he can not
+  be.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. The Deity, it seems, will in this day justly heap on Jason a
+  variety of ills. O hapless lady, how we pity thy sufferings, daughter of
+  Creon, who art gone to the house of darkness, through thy marriage with
+  Jason.</p>
+
+  <p>MED. The deed is determined on by me, my friends, to slay my children
+  as soon as possible, and to hasten from this land; and not by delaying to
+  give my sons for another hand more hostile to murder. But come, be armed,
+  my heart; why do we delay to do dreadful but necessary deeds? Come, O
+  wretched hand of mine, grasp the sword, grasp it, advance to the bitter
+  goal of life, and be not cowardly, nor remember thy children how dear
+  they are, how thou broughtest them into the world; but for this short day
+  at least forget thy children; hereafter lament. For although thou slayest
+  them, nevertheless they at least were dear, but I a wretched woman.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. O thou earth, and thou all-illuming beam of the sun, look down
+  upon, behold this abandoned woman, before she move her blood-stained hand
+  itself about to inflict the blow against her children; for from thy
+  golden race they sprung; but fearful is it for the blood of Gods to fall
+  by the hand of man. But do thou, O heaven-born light, restrain her, stop
+  her, remove from this house this blood-stained and miserable Erinnys
+  agitated by the Furies. The care of thy children perishes in vain, and in
+  vain hast thou produced a dear race, O thou who didst leave the most
+  inhospitable entrance of the Cyanean rocks, the Symplegades. Hapless
+  woman, why does such grievous rage settle on thy mind; and hostile
+  slaughter ensue? For kindred pollutions are difficult of purification to
+  mortals; correspondent calamities falling from the Gods to the earth upon
+  the houses of the murderers.<a name="Med_41"></a><a
+  href="#MedN_41"><sup>[41]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>FIRST SON. (<i>within</i>) Alas! what shall I do? whither shall I fly
+  from my mother's hand?</p>
+
+  <p>SECOND SON. I know not, dearest brother, for we perish.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Hearest thou the cry? hearest thou the children? O wretch, O
+  ill-fated woman! Shall I enter the house? It seems right to me to ward
+  off the murderous blow from the children.</p>
+
+  <p>SONS. Nay, by the Gods assist us, for it is in needful time; since now
+  at least are we near the destruction of the sword.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Miserable woman, art thou then a rock, or iron, who cuttest down
+  with death by thine own hand the fair crop of children which thou
+  producedst thyself? one indeed I hear of, one woman of those of old, who
+  laid violent hands on her children, Ino, maddened by the Gods when the
+  wife of Jove sent her in banishment from her home; and she miserable
+  woman falls into the sea through the impious murder of her children,
+  directing her foot over the sea-shore, and dying with her two sons, there
+  she perished! what then I pray can be more dreadful than this? O thou bed
+  of woman, fruitful in ills, how many evils hast thou already brought to
+  men!</p>
+
+<p class="center">JASON, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>JAS. Ye females, who stand near this mansion, is she who hath done
+  these deeds of horror, Medea, in this house; or hath she withdrawn
+  herself in flight? For now it is necessary for her either to be hidden
+  beneath the earth, or to raise her winged body into the vast expanse of
+  air, if she would not suffer vengeance from the king's house. Does she
+  trust that after having slain the princes of this land, she shall herself
+  escape from this house with impunity?&mdash;But I have not such care for
+  her as for my children; for they whom she has injured will punish her.
+  But I came to preserve my children's life, lest [Creon's] relations by
+  birth do any injury,<a name="Med_42"></a><a
+  href="#MedN_42"><sup>[42]</sup></a> avenging the impious murder
+  perpetrated by their mother.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Unhappy man! thou knowest not at what misery thou hast arrived,
+  Jason, or else thou wouldest not have uttered these words.</p>
+
+  <p>JAS. What is this, did she wish to slay me also?</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Thy children are dead by their mother's hand.</p>
+
+  <p>JAS. Alas me! What wilt thou say? how hast thou killed me, woman!</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Think now of thy sons as no longer living.</p>
+
+  <p>JAS. Where did she slay them, within or without the house?</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Open those doors, and thou wilt see the slaughter of thy
+  sons.</p>
+
+  <p>JAS. Undo the bars, as quick as possible, attendants; unloose the
+  hinges, that I may see this double evil, my sons slain, and may punish
+  her.</p>
+
+  <p>MED. Why dost thou shake and unbolt these gates, seeking the dead and
+  me who did the deed. Cease from this labor; but if thou wantest aught
+  with me, speak if thou wishest any thing; but never shall thou touch me
+  with thy hands; such a chariot the sun my father's father gives me, a
+  defense from the hostile hand.<a name="Med_43"></a><a
+  href="#MedN_43"><sup>[43]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>JAS. O thou abomination! thou most detested woman, both by the Gods
+  and by me, and by all the race of man; who hast dared to plunge the sword
+  in thine own children, thou who bore them, and hast destroyed me
+  childless. And having done this thou beholdest both the sun and the
+  earth, having dared a most impious deed. Mayest thou perish! but I am now
+  wise, not being so then when I brought thee from thy house and from a
+  foreign land to a Grecian habitation, a great pest, traitress to thy
+  father and the land that nurtured thee. But the Gods have sent thy evil
+  genius on me. For having slain thy brother at the altar, thou embarkedst
+  on board the gallant vessel Argo. Thou begannest indeed with such deeds
+  as these; and being wedded to me, and bearing me children, thou hast
+  destroyed them on account of another bed and marriage. There is not one
+  Grecian woman who would have dared a deed like this, in preference to
+  whom at least, I thought worthy to wed thee, an alliance hateful and
+  destructive to me, a lioness, no woman, having a nature more savage than
+  the Tuscan Scylla. But I can not gall thy heart with ten thousand
+  reproaches, such shameless confidence is implanted in thee. Go, thou
+  worker of ill, and stained with the blood of thy children. But for me it
+  remains to bewail my fate, who shall neither enjoy my new nuptials, nor
+  shall I have it in my power to address while alive my sons whom I begot
+  and educated, but I have lost them.</p>
+
+  <p>MED. Surely I could make long reply to these words, if the Sire
+  Jupiter did not know what treatment thou receivedst from me, and what
+  thou didst in return; but you were mistaken, when you expected, having
+  dishonored my bed, to lead a life of pleasure, mocking me, and so was the
+  princess, and so was Creon, who proposed the match to thee, when he
+  expected to drive me from this land with impunity. Wherefore, if thou
+  wilt, call me lioness, and Scylla who dwelt in the Tuscan plain. For thy
+  heart, as is right, I have wounded.</p>
+
+  <p>JAS. And thou thyself grievest at least, and art a sharer in these
+  ills.</p>
+
+  <p>MED. Be assured of that; but this lessens<a name="Med_44"></a><a
+  href="#MedN_44"><sup>[44]</sup></a> the grief, that thou canst not mock
+  me.</p>
+
+  <p>JAS. My children, what a wicked mother have ye found!</p>
+
+  <p>MED. My sons, how did ye perish by your father's fault!</p>
+
+  <p>JAS. Nevertheless my hand slew them not.</p>
+
+  <p>MED. But injury, and thy new nuptials.</p>
+
+  <p>JAS. And on account of thy bed didst thou think fit to slay them?</p>
+
+  <p>MED. Dost thou deem this a slight evil to a woman?</p>
+
+  <p>JAS. Whoever at least is modest; but in thee is every ill.</p>
+
+  <p>MED. These are no longer living, for this will gall thee.</p>
+
+  <p>JAS. These are living, alas me! avenging furies on thy head.</p>
+
+  <p>MED. The Gods know who began the injury.</p>
+
+  <p>JAS. They know indeed thy execrable mind.</p>
+
+  <p>Meo. Thou art hateful to me, and I detest thy bitter speech.</p>
+
+  <p>JAS. And I in sooth thine; the separation at least is without
+  pain.</p>
+
+  <p>MED. How then? what shall I do? for I also am very desirous.</p>
+
+  <p>JAS. Suffer me, I beg, to bury and mourn over these dead bodies.</p>
+
+  <p>MED. Never indeed; since I will bury them with this hand bearing them
+  to the shrine of Juno, the Goddess guardian of the citadel, that no one
+  of my enemies may insult them, tearing up their graves. But in this land
+  of Sisyphus will I institute in addition to this a solemn festival and
+  sacrifices hereafter to expiate this unhallowed murder. But I myself will
+  go to the land of Erectheus, to dwell with Ægeus son of Pandion. But
+  thou, wretch, as is fit, shalt die wretchedly, struck on thy head with a
+  relic of thy ship Argo, having seen the bitter end of my marriage.</p>
+
+  <p>JAS. But may the Fury of the children, and Justice the avenger of
+  murder, destroy thee.</p>
+
+  <p>MED. But what God or Deity hears thee, thou perjured man, and traitor
+  to the rights of hospitality?</p>
+
+  <p>JAS. Ah! thou abominable woman, and murderer of thy children.</p>
+
+  <p>MED. Go to thy home, and bury thy wife.</p>
+
+  <p>JAS. I go, even deprived of both my children.</p>
+
+  <p>MED. Thou dost not yet mourn enough: stay and grow old.<a
+  name="Med_45"></a><a href="#MedN_45"><sup>[45]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>JAS. Oh my dearest sons!</p>
+
+  <p>MED. To their mother at least, but not to thee.</p>
+
+  <p>JAS. And yet thou slewest them.</p>
+
+  <p>MED. To grieve thee.</p>
+
+  <p>JAS. Alas, alas! I hapless man long to kiss the dear mouths of my
+  children.</p>
+
+  <p>MED. Now them addressest, now salutest them, formerly rejecting them
+  with scorn.</p>
+
+  <p>JAS. Grant me, by the Gods, to touch the soft skin of my sons.</p>
+
+  <p>MED. It is not possible. Thy words are thrown away in vain.</p>
+
+  <p>JAS. Dost thou hear this, O Jove, how I am rejected, and what I suffer
+  from this accursed and child-destroying lioness? But as much indeed as is
+  in my power and I am able, I lament and mourn over these; calling the
+  Gods to witness, that having slain my children, thou preventest me from
+  touching them with my hands, and from burying the bodies, whom, oh that I
+  had never begotten, and seen them thus destroyed by thee.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Jove is the dispenser of various fates in heaven, and the Gods
+  perform many things contrary to our expectations, and those things which
+  we looked for are not accomplished; but the God hath brought to pass
+  things unthought of. In such manner hath this affair ended.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h3>NOTES ON MEDEA</h3>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+<div class="note">
+  <p><a name="MedN_1"></a><a href="#Med_1">[1]</a> The Cyaneæ Petræ, or
+  Symplegades, were two rocks in the mouth of the Euxine Sea, said to meet
+  together with prodigious violence, and crush the passing ships. See
+  Pindar. Pyth. iv. 386.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="MedN_2"></a><a href="#Med_2">[2]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="eretmôsai">&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3B5;&#x3C4;&#x3BC;&#x3C9;&#x3C3;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;</span>
+  signifies to make to row; <span lang="el"
+  title="eretmêsai">&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3B5;&#x3C4;&#x3BC;&#x3B7;&#x3C3;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;</span>,
+  to row. In the same sense the two verbs derived from <span lang="el"
+  title="polemos">&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3BB;&#x3B5;&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span>
+  are used, <span lang="el"
+  title="polemoô">&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3BB;&#x3B5;&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3C9;</span>
+  signifying ad bellum excito; <span lang="el"
+  title="polemeô">&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3BB;&#x3B5;&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3C9;</span>,
+  bellum gero.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="MedN_3"></a><a href="#Med_3">[3]</a> Elmsley reads <span
+  lang="el" title="phygê">&#x3C6;&#x3C5;&#x3B3;&#x3B7;</span> in the
+  nominative case, "<i>a flight indeed pleasing</i>," etc.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="MedN_4"></a><a href="#Med_4">[4]</a> Literally, <i>Before we
+  have drained this to the very dregs</i>. So Virgil, Æn. iv. 14. <i>Quæ
+  bella exhausta canebat</i>!</p>
+
+  <p><a name="MedN_5"></a><a href="#Med_5">[5]</a> Ter. And. Act. ii. Sc.
+  5. <i>Omnes sibi malle melius esse quam alteri</i>. Ac. iv. Sc. 1.
+  <i>Proximus sum egomet mihi</i>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="MedN_6"></a><a href="#Med_6">[6]</a> Elmsley reads <span
+  lang="el" title="kai">&#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;</span> for <span lang="el"
+  title="ei">&#x3B5;&#x3B9;</span>, "<i>And their father</i>," etc.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="MedN_7"></a><a href="#Med_7">[7]</a> In Elms. Dind. <span
+  lang="el" title="to gar eithisthai">&#x3C4;&#x3BF; &#x3B3;&#x3B1;&#x3C1;
+  &#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3B8;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3B8;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;</span>, "<i>for
+  the being accustomed</i>," etc.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="MedN_8"></a><a href="#Med_8">[8]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="dynatai">&#x3B4;&#x3C5;&#x3BD;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;</span>
+  here signifies <span lang="el" title="ischyei,
+  sthenei">&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3C7;&#x3C5;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;,
+  &#x3C3;&#x3B8;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;</span>; and in this sense it
+  is repeatedly used: <span lang="el" title="oudena
+  kairon">&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3B4;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span>, in this place, is not
+  to be interpreted "intempestive", but "immoderate, supra modum." For this
+  signification consult Stephen's Thesaurus, word <span lang="el"
+  title="kairos">&#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span>.
+  EMSLEY.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="MedN_9"></a><a href="#Med_9">[9]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="hode">&#x201B;&#x3BF;&#x3B4;&#x3B5;</span> is used in this sense
+  v. 49, 687, 901, of this Play.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="MedN_10"></a><a href="#Med_10">[10]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="mogera">&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3B3;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;</span> is best
+  taken with Reiske as the accusative plural, though the Scholiast
+  considers it the nominative singular. ELMSLEY.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="MedN_11"></a><a href="#Med_11">[11]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="gegôtas">&#x3B3;&#x3B5;&#x3B3;&#x3C9;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3C2;</span>
+  need not be translated as <span lang="el"
+  title="nomizomenous">&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3BC;&#x3B9;&#x3B6;&#x3BF;&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C2;</span>,
+  the sense is [Greek; ontas]: so <span lang="el" title="authadês
+  gegôs">&#x3B1;&#x3C5;&#x3B8;&#x3B1;&#x3B4;&#x3B7;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B3;&#x3B5;&#x3B3;&#x3C9;&#x3C2;</span>, line 225.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="MedN_12"></a><a href="#Med_12">[12]</a> That is, the
+  character of man can not be discovered by the countenance: so
+  Juvenal,</p>
+
+  <div class="poem">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <p>Fronti nulla fides.</p>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+  <p><span lang="el"
+  title="hostis">&#x201B;&#x3BF;&#x3C3;&#x3C4;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;</span>, though
+  in the singular number, refers to <span lang="el"
+  title="brotôn">&#x3B2;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3C4;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;</span> in the
+  plural: a similar construction is met with in Homer, Il. <span lang="el"
+  title="G">&#x393;</span>. 279.</p>
+
+  <div class="poem">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <p><span lang="el" title="anthrôpous tinnysthon, ho tis k' epiorkon homossêi">&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3B8;&#x3C1;&#x3C9;&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C2; &#x3C4;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;&#x3BD;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3B8;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;, &#x201B;&#x3BF; &#x3C4;&#x3B9;&#x3C2; &#x3BA;' &#x3B5;&#x3C0;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3C1;&#x3BA;&#x3BF;&#x3BD; &#x201B;&#x3BF;&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3C3;&#x3C3;&#x3B7;&#x3B9;</span>.</p>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+  <p><a name="MedN_13"></a><a href="#Med_13">[13]</a> Grammarians teach us
+  that <span lang="el"
+  title="gamein">&#x3B3;&#x3B1;&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;</span> is
+  applied to the husband, <span lang="el"
+  title="gameisthai">&#x3B3;&#x3B1;&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3B8;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;</span>
+  to the wife; and this rule will generally be found to hold good. We must
+  either then read <span lang="el" title="hê t' egêmato">&#x201B;&#x3B7;
+  &#x3C4;' &#x3B5;&#x3B3;&#x3B7;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;</span>, which
+  Porson does not object to, and Elmsley adopts; or understand <span
+  lang="el"
+  title="egêmato">&#x3B5;&#x3B3;&#x3B7;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;</span>
+  in an ironical sense, in the spirit of Martial's <i>Uxori nubere nolo
+  meæ</i>: in the latter case <span lang="el" title="hêi t'
+  egêmato">&#x201B;&#x3B7;&#x3B9; &#x3C4;'
+  &#x3B5;&#x3B3;&#x3B7;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;</span> should be read
+  (not <span lang="el" title="hên t'">&#x201B;&#x3B7;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3C4;'</span>), as being the proper syntax.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="MedN_14"></a><a href="#Med_14">[14]</a> The primary
+  signification of <span lang="el"
+  title="plêmmelês">&#x3C0;&#x3BB;&#x3B7;&#x3BC;&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3BB;&#x3B7;&#x3C2;</span>
+  is <i>absonus</i>, <i>out of tune</i>: hence is easily deduced the
+  signification in which it is often found in Euripides. The word <span
+  lang="el"
+  title="plêmmelêsas">&#x3C0;&#x3BB;&#x3B7;&#x3BC;&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3BB;&#x3B7;&#x3C3;&#x3B1;&#x3C2;</span>
+  occurs in the Ph&#339;nissæ, l. 1669.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="MedN_15"></a><a href="#Med_15">[15]</a> Elmsley approves of
+  the reading adopted by Porson, though he has given in his text</p>
+
+  <div class="poem">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <p><span lang="el" title="ponoumen hêmeis, k' on ponôn kechrêmetha">&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3BD; &#x201B;&#x3B7;&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;, &#x3BA;' &#x3BF;&#x3BD; &#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3C9;&#x3BD; &#x3BA;&#x3B5;&#x3C7;&#x3C1;&#x3B7;&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3B8;&#x3B1;</span>.</p>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+  <p>"<i>We are oppressed with cares, and want not other cares</i>," as
+  being more likely to have come from Euripides. So also Dindorf.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="MedN_16"></a><a href="#Med_16">[16]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="hôs eoikas">&#x201B;&#x3C9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B5;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3C2;</span>; is here used for the
+  more common expression <span lang="el" title="hôs
+  eoiken">&#x201B;&#x3C9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B5;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3BA;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;</span>. So Herodotus, Clio,
+  clv. <span lang="el" title="ou pausontai hoi Lydoi, hôs oikasi, pragmata
+  parechontes, kai autoi echontes">&#x3BF;&#x3C5;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x201B;&#x3BF;&#x3B9; &#x39B;&#x3C5;&#x3B4;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;,
+  &#x201B;&#x3C9;&#x3C2; &#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;,
+  &#x3C0;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3B3;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3C1;&#x3B5;&#x3C7;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3C2;,
+  &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9; &#x3B1;&#x3C5;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3B5;&#x3C7;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3C2;</span>. See also
+  Hecuba, 801.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="MedN_17"></a><a href="#Med_17">[17]</a> Beck interprets this
+  passage, "Mea quidem vita ut non habeat laudem, fama obstat." Heath
+  translates it, "Jam in contrariam partem tendens fama efficit, ut mea
+  quoque vita laudem habeat." We are told by the Scholiast, that by <span
+  lang="el"
+  title="biotan">&#x3B2;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;</span> is to be
+  understood <span lang="el"
+  title="physin">&#x3C6;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="MedN_18"></a><a href="#Med_18">[18]</a> Iolcos was a city of
+  Thessaly, distant about seven stadii from the sea, where the parents of
+  Jason lived: Pelion was both a mountain and city of Thessaly, close to
+  Iolcos; whence Iolcos is called Peliotic.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="MedN_19"></a><a href="#Med_19">[19]</a> For the same
+  sentiment more fully expressed, see Hippolytus, 616-625. See also
+  Paradise Lost, x. 890.</p>
+
+  <div class="poem">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <p class="i16">Oh, why did God,</p>
+      <p>Creator wise, that peopled highest heaven</p>
+      <p>With spirits masculine, create at last</p>
+      <p>This novelty on earth, this fair defect</p>
+      <p>Of nature, and not fill the world at once</p>
+      <p>With men, as angels, without feminine?</p>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+  <p><a name="MedN_20"></a><a href="#Med_20">[20]</a> Porson rightly reads
+  <span lang="el" title="tach' an pithoio">&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3C7;'
+  &#x3B1;&#x3BD; &#x3C0;&#x3B9;&#x3B8;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;</span> with
+  Wyttenbach.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="MedN_21"></a><a href="#Med_21">[21]</a> Elmsley has</p>
+
+  <div class="poem">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <p>"<span lang="el" title="hôs kai dokei moi tauta, kai kalôs echein">&#x201B;&#x3C9;&#x3C2; &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9; &#x3B4;&#x3BF;&#x3BA;&#x3B5;&#x3B9; &#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3B9; &#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3C5;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;, &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9; &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3C9;&#x3C2; &#x3B5;&#x3C7;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;</span>&nbsp;</p>
+      <p><span lang="el" title="gamous tyrannôn, hous prodous hêmas echei">&#x3B3;&#x3B1;&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C2; &#x3C4;&#x3C5;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3BD;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;, &#x201B;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C2; &#x3C0;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3B4;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C2; &#x201B;&#x3B7;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3C2; &#x3B5;&#x3C7;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;</span>,</p>
+      <p><span lang="el" title="kai xymphor' einai, kai kalôs egnôsmena">&#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9; &#x3BE;&#x3C5;&#x3BC;&#x3C6;&#x3BF;&#x3C1;' &#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;, &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9; &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3C9;&#x3C2; &#x3B5;&#x3B3;&#x3BD;&#x3C9;&#x3C3;&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3B1;</span>."</p>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+  <p>"<i>that these things appear good to me, and that the alliance with
+  the princes, which he, having forsaken me, has contracted, are both
+  advantageous and well determined on</i>." So also Dind. but <span
+  lang="el" title="kalôs echei">&#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3C9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B5;&#x3C7;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;</span>. Porson omits the line.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="MedN_22"></a><a href="#Med_22">[22]</a> In Elmsley this line
+  is omitted, and instead of it is inserted</p>
+
+  <div class="poem">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <p>"<span lang="el" title="nymphêi pherontas, tênde mê pheugein chthona">&#x3BD;&#x3C5;&#x3BC;&#x3C6;&#x3B7;&#x3B9; &#x3C6;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3C2;, &#x3C4;&#x3B7;&#x3BD;&#x3B4;&#x3B5; &#x3BC;&#x3B7; &#x3C6;&#x3B5;&#x3C5;&#x3B3;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3BD; &#x3C7;&#x3B8;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3B1;</span>."</p>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+  <p>"<i>offering them to the bride, that they may not be banished from
+  this country</i>," which Dindorf retains, and brackets the other.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="MedN_23"></a><a href="#Med_23">[23]</a> Although the
+  Scholiast reprobates this interpretation, it seems to be the best, nor is
+  it any objection, that <span lang="el"
+  title="Mnêmosynê">&#x39C;&#x3BD;&#x3B7;&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3C3;&#x3C5;&#x3BD;&#x3B7;</span>
+  is elsewhere represented as the Mother of the Muses; so much at variance
+  is the poetry of Euripides with the received mythology of the ancients.
+  ELMSLEY.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="MedN_24"></a><a href="#Med_24">[24]</a> The construction is
+  <span lang="el" title="polis hierôn
+  potamôn">&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3BB;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x201B;&#x3B9;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3BC;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;</span>; thus Thebes,
+  Ph&#339;nis. l. 831, is called <span lang="el" title="pyrgos didymôn
+  potamôn">&#x3C0;&#x3C5;&#x3C1;&#x3B3;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B4;&#x3B9;&#x3B4;&#x3C5;&#x3BC;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3BC;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;</span>. A like
+  expression occurs in 2 Sam. xii. 27. I have fought against Rabbah, and
+  have taken <i>the city of waters</i>, <span lang="el" title="polin tôn
+  hydatôn">&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3BB;&#x3B9;&#x3BD; &#x3C4;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x201B;&#x3C5;&#x3B4;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;</span> in the
+  Septuagint version.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="MedN_25"></a><a href="#Med_25">[25]</a> Elmsley reads <span
+  lang="el"
+  title="pantes">&#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3C2;</span>, "<i>we
+  all entreat thee</i>." So Dindorf.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="MedN_26"></a><a href="#Med_26">[26]</a> Elmsley reads <span
+  lang="el" title="hê dynasei">&#x201B;&#x3B7;
+  &#x3B4;&#x3C5;&#x3BD;&#x3B1;&#x3C3;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;</span> with the note of
+  interrogation after <span lang="el"
+  title="thymôi">&#x3B8;&#x3C5;&#x3BC;&#x3C9;&#x3B9;</span>; "<i>or how
+  wilt thou be able,</i>" etc.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="MedN_27"></a><a href="#Med_27">[27]</a> An allusion to that
+  well-known saying in Plato, de Repub. 1. 3. <span lang="el" title="Dôra
+  theous peithei, dôr' aidoious basilêas">&#x394;&#x3C9;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3B8;&#x3B5;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3B8;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;, &#x3B4;&#x3C9;&#x3C1;'
+  &#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3B4;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B2;&#x3B1;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;&#x3BB;&#x3B7;&#x3B1;&#x3C2;</span>. Ovid. de
+  Arte Am. iii. 635.</p>
+
+  <div class="poem">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <p>Munera, crede mini, capiunt hominesque deosque.</p>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+  <p><a name="MedN_28"></a><a href="#Med_28">[28]</a> Vertit Portus, <i>O
+  infelix quantam calamitatem ignoras</i>. Mihi sensus videtur esse,
+  <i>quantum a pristina fortuna excidisti</i>. ELMSLEY.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="MedN_29"></a><a href="#Med_29">[29]</a> Medea here makes use
+  of the ambiguous word <span lang="el"
+  title="kataxô">&#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3BE;&#x3C9;</span>, which
+  may be understood by the Tutor in the sense of "bringing back to their
+  country," but implies also the horrid purpose of destroying her children:
+  <span lang="el" title="tode 'kataxô' anti tou pempsô eis ton
+  Aidên">&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3B4;&#x3B5;
+  '&#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3BE;&#x3C9;' &#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C5; &#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3BC;&#x3C8;&#x3C9;
+  &#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C2; &#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;
+  &#x391;&#x3B9;&#x3B4;&#x3B7;&#x3BD;</span>, as the Scholiast explains
+  it.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="MedN_30"></a><a href="#Med_30">[30]</a> It was the custom for
+  mothers to bear lighted torches at their children's nuptials. See Iphig.
+  Aul. l. 372.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="MedN_31"></a><a href="#Med_31">[31]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="hotôi de phêsin ouk eusebes phainetai pareinai tôi phonôi, kai
+  dechesthai toiautas thysias, houtos apotô.&mdash;tôi de autôi melêsei
+  synapteon to mê pareinai">&#x201B;&#x3BF;&#x3C4;&#x3C9;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3B4;&#x3B5; &#x3C6;&#x3B7;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;&#x3BD; &#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3BA;
+  &#x3B5;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3B5;&#x3B2;&#x3B5;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3C6;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;&#x3B5;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3C1;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3C9;&#x3B9; &#x3C6;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3C9;&#x3B9;,
+  &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3B4;&#x3B5;&#x3C7;&#x3B5;&#x3C3;&#x3B8;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;&#x3C5;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B8;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;&#x3C2;,
+  &#x201B;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B1;&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3C4;&#x3C9;.&mdash;&#x3C4;&#x3C9;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3B4;&#x3B5; &#x3B1;&#x3C5;&#x3C4;&#x3C9;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3BB;&#x3B7;&#x3C3;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3C3;&#x3C5;&#x3BD;&#x3B1;&#x3C0;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3BF; &#x3BC;&#x3B7;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3C1;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;</span>.
+  SCHOL.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="MedN_32"></a><a href="#Med_32">[32]</a> <i>But there</i>;
+  that is, in the regions below.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="MedN_33"></a><a href="#Med_33">[33]</a> Ovid. Metamorph. vii.
+  20.</p>
+
+  <div class="poem">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <p class="i4">Video meliora proboque,</p>
+      <p>Deteriora sequor.</p>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+  <p><a name="MedN_34"></a><a href="#Med_34">[34]</a> Elmsley reads</p>
+
+  <div class="poem">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <p><span lang="el" title="pauron de genos (mian en pollais">&#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3C5;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3BD; &#x3B4;&#x3B5; &#x3B3;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3C2; (&#x3BC;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;&#x3BD; &#x3B5;&#x3BD; &#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3BB;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;</span>&nbsp;</p>
+      <p><span lang="el" title="heurois an isôs)">&#x201B;&#x3B5;&#x3C5;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3C2; &#x3B1;&#x3BD; &#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3C9;&#x3C2;)</span>&nbsp;</p>
+      <p><span lang="el" title="ouk, k.t.l.">&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3BA;, &#x3BA;.&#x3C4;.&#x3BB;.</span>&nbsp;</p>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+  <p>"<i>But a small number of the race of women (you may perchance find
+  one among many) not ungifted with the muse</i>."</p>
+
+  <p><a name="MedN_35"></a><a href="#Med_35">[35]</a> A similar expression
+  is found in Iphig. Taur, v. 410. <span lang="el" title="naïon
+  ochêma">&#x3BD;&#x3B1;&#x3CA;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3BF;&#x3C7;&#x3B7;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;</span>. A ship is frequently called
+  <span lang="el" title="Herma
+  thalassês">&#x201B;&#x395;&#x3C1;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3B8;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3C3;&#x3C3;&#x3B7;&#x3C2;</span>: so
+  Virgil, Æn. vi. Classique immittit habenas.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="MedN_36"></a><a href="#Med_36">[36]</a> Elmsley is of opinion
+  that <i>the instep</i> and not <i>the neck</i> is meant by <span
+  lang="el" title="tenôn">&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="MedN_37"></a><a href="#Med_37">[37]</a> The ancients
+  attributed all sudden terrors, and sudden sicknesses, such as epilepsies,
+  for which no cause appeared, to Pan, or to some other Deity. The anger of
+  the God they endeavored to avert by a hymn, which had the nature of a
+  charm.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="MedN_38"></a><a href="#Med_38">[38]</a> Elmsley has <span
+  lang="el"
+  title="anthêpteto">&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3B8;&#x3B7;&#x3C0;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;</span>,
+  which is the old reading: this makes no difference in the construing or
+  the construction, as, in the line before, he reads <span lang="el"
+  title="an helkôn">&#x3B1;&#x3BD;
+  &#x201B;&#x3B5;&#x3BB;&#x3BA;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;</span>, where Porson has
+  <span lang="el"
+  title="anelkôn">&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3B5;&#x3BB;&#x3BA;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="MedN_39"></a><a href="#Med_39">[39]</a> The space of time
+  elapsed is meant to be marked by this circumstance. MUSGRAVE. PORSON.
+  Thus we find in <span lang="el" title="M">&#x39C;</span> of the Odyssey,
+  l. 439, the time of day expressed by the rising of the judges; in <span
+  lang="el" title="D">&#x394;</span> of the Iliad, l. 86, by the dining of
+  the woodman. When we recollect that the ancients had not the inventions
+  that we have whereby to measure their time, we shall cease to consider
+  the circumlocution as absurd or out of place.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="MedN_40"></a><a href="#Med_40">[40]</a> The same expression
+  occurs in the Heraclidæ, l. 168. The Scholiast explains it thus; <span
+  lang="el" title="tymbogeronta, ton plêsion thanatou honta: tymbous de
+  kalousi tous gerontas, paroson plêsion eisi tou thanatou kai tou
+  taphou">&#x3C4;&#x3C5;&#x3BC;&#x3B2;&#x3BF;&#x3B3;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;,
+  &#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3BD; &#x3C0;&#x3BB;&#x3B7;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B8;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;
+  &#x201B;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;:
+  &#x3C4;&#x3C5;&#x3BC;&#x3B2;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C2; &#x3B4;&#x3B5;
+  &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B3;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3C2;,
+  &#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3C3;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3BB;&#x3B7;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3B9; &#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;
+  &#x3B8;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C5; &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C5; &#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3C6;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="MedN_41"></a><a href="#Med_41">[41]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="autophontais">&#x3B1;&#x3C5;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C6;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;</span>
+  may be taken as an adjective to agree with <span lang="el"
+  title="domois">&#x3B4;&#x3BF;&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;</span>, or the
+  construction may be <span lang="el" title="achê pitnonta autophontais epi
+  domois">&#x3B1;&#x3C7;&#x3B7;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3B9;&#x3C4;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3B1;&#x3C5;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C6;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B5;&#x3C0;&#x3B9; &#x3B4;&#x3BF;&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;</span>,
+  in the same manner as <span lang="el" title="lithos epese moi epi
+  kephalêi">&#x3BB;&#x3B9;&#x3B8;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B5;&#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3C3;&#x3B5; &#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3B5;&#x3C0;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3BA;&#x3B5;&#x3C6;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3B7;&#x3B9;</span>. ELMSLEY.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="MedN_42"></a><a href="#Med_42">[42]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="mê me ti drasôsi'">&#x3BC;&#x3B7; &#x3BC;&#x3B5; &#x3C4;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3B4;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3C3;&#x3C9;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;'</span> had been "lest
+  they do <i>me</i> any injury." Elmsley conceives that <span lang="el"
+  title="nin">&#x3BD;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;</span> is the true reading, which might
+  easily have been corrupted into <span lang="el"
+  title="moi">&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="MedN_43"></a><a href="#Med_43">[43]</a> Here Medea appears
+  above in a chariot drawn by dragons, bearing with her the bodies of her
+  slaughtered sons. SCHOL. See Horace, Epod. 3.</p>
+
+  <div class="poem">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <p>Hoc delibutis ulta donis pellicem,</p>
+      <p>Serpente fugit alite.</p>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+  <p><a name="MedN_44"></a><a href="#Med_44">[44]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="lyei">&#x3BB;&#x3C5;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;</span> may also be interpreted,
+  with the Scholiast, in the sense of <span lang="el"
+  title="lysitelei">&#x3BB;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3BB;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;</span>,
+  "the grief delights me." The translation given in the text is proposed by
+  Porson, and approved of by Elmsley.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="MedN_45"></a><a href="#Med_45">[45]</a> Elmsley has</p>
+
+  <div class="poem">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <p><span lang="el" title="mene kai gêras">&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3B5; &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9; &#x3B3;&#x3B7;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3C2;</span>.</p>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+  <p>"<i>Stay yet for old age</i>." So also Dindorf. </p>
+
+</div>
+<hr class="full" />
+
+<a name="HIPPOLYTUS"></a>
+<h2>HIPPOLYTUS.</h2>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+<h3>PERSONS REPRESENTED.</h3>
+
+  <div class="personae">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <p>VENUS.</p>
+      <p>HIPPOLYTUS.</p>
+      <p>ATTENDANTS.</p>
+      <p>PHÆDRA.</p>
+      <p>NURSE.</p>
+      <p>THESEUS.</p>
+      <p>MESSENGER.</p>
+      <p>DIANA.</p>
+      <p>CHORUS OF TR&#338;ZENIAN DAMES.</p>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+<hr />
+
+<h3>THE ARGUMENT.</h3>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+  <p>Theseus was the son of Othra and Neptune, and king of the Athenians;
+  and having married Hippolyta, one of the Amazons, he begat Hippolytus,
+  who excelled in beauty and chastity. When his wife died, he married, for
+  his second wife, Phædra, a Cretan, daughter of Minos, king of Crete, and
+  Pasiphaë. Theseus, in consequence of having slain Pallas, one of his
+  kinsmen, goes into banishment, with his wife, to Tr&#339;zene, where it
+  happened that Hippolytus was being brought up by Pittheus: but Phædra
+  having seen the youth was desperately enamored, not that she was
+  incontinent, but in order to fulfill the anger of Venus, who, having
+  determined to destroy Hippolytus on account of his chastity, brought her
+  plans to a conclusion. She, concealing her disease, at length was
+  compelled to declare it to her nurse, who had promised to relieve her,
+  and who, though against her inclination, carried her words to the youth.
+  Phædra, having learned that he was exasperated, eluded the nurse, and
+  hung herself. At which time Theseus having arrived, and wishing to take
+  her down that was strangled, found a letter attached to her, throughout
+  which she accused Hippolytus of a design on her virtue. And he, believing
+  what was written, ordered Hippolytus to go into banishment, and put up a
+  prayer to Neptune, in compliance with which the god destroyed Hippolytus.
+  But Diana declared to Theseus every thing that had happened, and blamed
+  not Phædra, but comforted him, bereaved of his child and wife, and
+  promised to institute honors in the place to Hippolytus.</p>
+
+  <p>The scene of the play is laid in Tr&#339;zene. It was acted in the
+  archonship of Ameinon, in the fourth year of the 87th Olympiad. Euripides
+  first, Jophon second, Jon third. This Hippolytus is the second of that
+  name, and is called <span lang="el"
+  title="STEPHANIAS">&#x3A3;&#x3A4;&#x395;&#x3A6;&#x391;&#x39D;&#x399;&#x391;&#x3A3;</span>:
+  but it appears to have been written the latest, for what was unseemly and
+  deserved blame is corrected in this play. The play is ranked among the
+  first.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2>HIPPOLYTUS.</h2>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+<p class="center">VENUS.</p>
+
+  <p>Great in the sight of mortals, and not without a name am I the Goddess
+  Venus, and in heaven: and of as many as dwell within the ocean and the
+  boundaries of Atlas, beholding the light of the sun, those indeed, who
+  reverence my authority, I advance to honor; but overthrow as many as hold
+  themselves high toward me. For this is in sooth a property inherent even
+  in the race of the Gods, that "they rejoice when honored by men." But
+  quickly will I show the truth of these words: for the son of Theseus,
+  born of the Amazon, Hippolytus, pupil of the chaste Pittheus, alone of
+  the inhabitants of this land of Tr&#339;zene, says that I am of deities
+  the vilest, and rejects the bridal bed, and will have nothing to do with
+  marriage. But Dian, the sister of Ph&#339;bus, daughter of Jove, he
+  honors, esteeming her the greatest of deities. And through the green wood
+  ever accompanying the virgin, with his swift dogs he clears the beasts
+  from off the earth, having formed a fellowship greater than mortal ought.
+  This indeed I grudge him not; for wherefore should I? but wherein he has
+  erred toward me, I will avenge me on Hippolytus this very day: and having
+  cleared most of the difficulties beforehand,<a name="Hipp_1"></a><a
+  href="#HippN_1"><sup>[1]</sup></a> I need not much labor. For Phædra, his
+  father's noble wife, having seen him, (as he was going once from the
+  house of Pittheus to the land of Pandion, in order to see and afterward
+  be fully admitted to the hallowed mysteries,) was smitten in her heart
+  with fierce love by my design. And even before she came to this land of
+  Tr&#339;zene, at the very rock of Pallas that overlooks this land, she
+  raised a temple to Venus, loving an absent love; and gave out
+  afterward,<a name="Hipp_2"></a><a href="#HippN_2"><sup>[2]</sup></a> that
+  the Goddess was honored with her temple for Hippolytus's sake. But now
+  since Theseus has left the land of Cecrops, in order to avoid the
+  pollution of the murder of the sons of Pallas, and is sailing to this
+  land with his wife, having submitted to a year's banishment from his
+  people; there indeed groaning and stricken with the stings of love, the
+  wretched woman perishes in secret; and not one of her domestics is
+  conscious of her malady. But this love must by no means fall to the
+  ground in this way: but I will open the matter to Theseus, and it shall
+  become manifest. And him that is our enemy shall the father kill with
+  imprecations, which Neptune, king of the ocean, granted as a privilege to
+  Theseus, that he should make no prayer thrice to the God in vain. But
+  Phædra dies, an illustrious woman indeed, yet still [she must die]; for I
+  will not make her ills of that high consequence, that will hinder my
+  enemies from giving me such full vengeance as may content me. But, as I
+  see the son of Theseus coming, having left the toil of the chase, I will
+  depart from this spot. But with him a numerous train of attendants
+  following behind raise a clamor, praising the Goddess Dian with hymns,
+  for he knows not that the gates of hell are opened, and that this day is
+  the last he beholds.</p>
+
+<p class="center">HIPPOLYTUS, ATTENDANTS.</p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. Follow, follow, singing the heavenly Dian, daughter of Jove;
+  Dian, under whose protection we are.</p>
+
+  <p>ATT. Holy, holy, most hallowed offspring of Jove, hail! hail! O Dian,
+  daughter of Latona and of Jove, most beauteous by far of virgins, who,
+  born of an illustrious sire, in the vast heaven dwellest in the palace of
+  Jove, that mansion rich in gold.</p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. Hail, O most beauteous, most beauteous of virgins in Olympus,
+  Dian! For thee, my mistress, bear I this wreathed garland from the pure
+  mead, where neither does the shepherd think fit to feed his flocks, nor
+  yet came iron there, but the bee ranges over the pure and vernal mead,
+  and Reverence waters it with river dews. Whosoever has chastity, not that
+  which is taught in schools, but that which is by nature, for this
+  description of persons it is lawful thence to pluck, but for the evil it
+  is not lawful.<a name="Hipp_3"></a><a href="#HippN_3"><sup>[3]</sup></a>
+  But, O my dear mistress, receive this wreath to bind your golden tresses
+  from a pious hand. For to me alone of mortals is allowed this privilege.
+  With thee I am both present, and exchange words with thee, hearing thy
+  voice, but not seeing thy countenance. But may I finish the last turn of
+  my course of life, even as I began.</p>
+
+  <p>ATT. O king, (for the Gods alone ought we to call Lords,) will you
+  hear somewhat from me, who advise you well?</p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. Most certainly, or else I should not seem wise.</p>
+
+  <p>ATT. Knowest thou then the law, which is established among men?</p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. I know not; but what is the one, about which thou askest me?</p>
+
+  <p>ATT. To hate haughtiness, and that which is disagreeable to all.</p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. And rightly; for what haughty mortal is not odious?</p>
+
+  <p>ATT. And in the affable is there any charm?</p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. A very great one indeed, and gain with little toil.</p>
+
+  <p>ATT. Dost thou suppose that the same thing holds also among the
+  Gods?</p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. Certainly, forasmuch as we mortals use the laws of the Gods.</p>
+
+  <p>ATT. How is it then that thou addressest not a venerable Goddess?</p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. Whom? but take heed that thy mouth err not.<a
+  name="Hipp_4"></a><a href="#HippN_4"><sup>[4]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>ATT. Venus, who hath her station at thy gates.</p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. I, who am chaste, salute her at a distance.</p>
+
+  <p>ATT. Venerable is she, however, and of note among mortals.</p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. Different Gods and men are objects of regard to different
+  persons.</p>
+
+  <p>ATT. May you be blest, having as much sense as you require.<a
+  name="Hipp_5"></a><a href="#HippN_5"><sup>[5]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. No one of the Gods, that is worshiped by night, delights me.</p>
+
+  <p>ATT. My son, we must conform to the honors of the Gods.</p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. Depart, my companions, and having entered the house, prepare the
+  viands: delightful after the chase is the full table.&mdash;And I must
+  rub down my horses, that having yoked them to the car, when I am satiated
+  with the repast, I may give them their proper exercise. But to your Venus
+  I bid a long farewell.</p>
+
+  <p>ATT. But we, for one must not imitate the young, having our thoughts
+  such, as it becomes slaves to give utterance to, will adore thy image, O
+  Venus, our mistress; but thou shouldest pardon, if any one having intense
+  feelings of mind by reason of his youth, speak foolishly: seem not to
+  hear these things, for Gods must needs be wiser than men.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. There is a rock near the ocean,<a name="Hipp_6"></a><a
+  href="#HippN_6"><sup>[6]</sup></a> distilling water, which sends forth
+  from its precipices a flowing fountain, wherein they dip their urns;
+  where was a friend of mine wetting the purple vests in the dew of the
+  stream, and she laid them down on the back of the warm sunny cliff: from
+  hence first came to me the report concerning my mistress, that she, worn
+  with the bed of sickness, keeps her person within the house, and that
+  fine vests veil her auburn head. And I hear that she this day for the
+  third keeps her body untouched by the fruit of Ceres, [which she receives
+  not] into her ambrosial mouth, wishing in secret suffering to hasten to
+  the unhappy goal of death. For heaven-possessed, O lady, or whether by
+  Pan, or by Hecate, or by the venerable Corybantes, or by the mother who
+  haunts the mountains, thou art raving. But thou art thus tormented on
+  account of some fault committed against the Cretan huntress, profane
+  because of unoffered sacred cakes. For she goes through the sea and
+  beyond the land on the eddies of the watery brine. Or some one in the
+  palace misguides thy noble husband, the chief of the Athenians, by secret
+  concubinage in thy bed. Or some sailor who put from port at Crete, hath
+  sailed to the harbor most friendly to mariners, bringing some message to
+  the queen; and, confined to her couch, she is bound in soul by sorrow for
+  its sufferings. But wretched helplessness is wont to dwell with the
+  wayward constitution of women, both on account of their throes and their
+  loss of reason. Once through my womb shot this thrill, but I invoked the
+  heavenly Dian, who gives easy throes, who presides over the bow, and to
+  me she came ever much to be blessed, as well as the other Gods. But lo!
+  the old nurse is bringing her out of the palace before the gates; and the
+  sad cloud upon her brows is increased. What it can possibly be, my soul
+  desires to know, with what can be afflicted the person of the queen, of
+  color so changed.<a name="Hipp_7"></a><a
+  href="#HippN_7"><sup>[7]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p class="center">PHÆDRA, NURSE, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>Alas! the evils of men, and their odious diseases! what shall I do for
+  thee? and what not do? lo! here is the clear light for thee, here the
+  air: and now is thy couch whereon thou liest sick removed from out of the
+  house: for every word you spoke was to come hither; but soon you will be
+  in a hurry to go to your chamber back again: for you are soon changed,
+  and are pleased with nothing. Nor does what is present delight you, but
+  what is not present you think more agreeable. It is a better thing to be
+  sick, than to tend the sick: the one is a simple ill, but with the other
+  is joined both pain of mind and toil of hands. But the whole life of men
+  is full of grief, nor is there rest from toils. But whatever else there
+  be more dear than life, darkness enveloping hides it in clouds. Hence we
+  appear to dote on this present state, because it gleams on earth, through
+  inexperience of another life, and the non-appearance of the things
+  beneath the earth. But we are blindly carried away by fables.</p>
+
+  <p>PHÆ. Raise my body, place my head upright&mdash;I am faint in the
+  joints of my limbs, my friends, lay hold of my fair-formed hands, O
+  attendants&mdash;The dressing on my head is heavy for me to
+  support&mdash;take it off, let flow my ringlets on my shoulders.</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. Be of good courage, my child, and do not thus painfully shift
+  [the posture of] your body. But you will bear your sickness more easily
+  both with quiet, and with a noble temper, for it is necessary for mortals
+  to suffer misery.</p>
+
+  <p>PHÆ. Alas! alas! would I could draw from the dewy fountain the drink
+  of pure waters, and that under the alders, and in the leafy mead
+  reclining I might rest!</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. O my child, what sayest thou? Wilt thou not desist from uttering
+  these things before the multitude, blurting forth a speech of madness?<a
+  name="Hipp_8"></a><a href="#HippN_8"><sup>[8]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>PHÆ. Bear me to the mountain&mdash;I will go to the wood, and by the
+  pine-trees, where tread the dogs the slayers of beasts, pursuing the
+  dappled hinds&mdash;By the Gods I long to cheer on the hounds, and by the
+  side of my auburn hair to hurl the Thessalian javelin bearing the lanced
+  weapon in my hand.</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. Wherefore in the name of heaven, my child, do you hanker after
+  these things? wherefore have you any anxiety for hunting? and wherefore
+  do you long for the fountain streams? for by the towers there is a
+  perpetual flow of water, whence may be your draught.</p>
+
+  <p>PHÆ. O Dian, mistress of Limna near the sea, and of the exercises of
+  the rattling steeds, would that I were on thy plains, breaking the
+  Henetian colts.</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. Wherefore again have you madly uttered this word? at one time
+  having ascended the mountain you set forth with the desire of hunting;
+  but now again you long for the colts on the wave-beaten sands. These
+  things demand much skill in prophecy [to find out], who it is of the Gods
+  that torments thee, O lady, and strikes mad thy senses.</p>
+
+  <p>PHÆ. Wretch that I am, what then have I committed? whither have I
+  wandered from my sound mind? I have gone mad; I have fallen by the evil
+  influence of some God. Alas! alas! unhappy that I am&mdash;Nurse, cover
+  my head again, for I am ashamed of the things I have spoken: cover me; a
+  tear trickles down my eyes, and my sight is turned to my disgrace. For to
+  be in one's right mind causes grief: but madness is an ill; yet it is
+  better to perish, nothing knowing of one's ills.</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. I cover thee&mdash;but when in sooth will death cover my body?
+  Length of life teaches me many things. For it behooves mortals to form
+  moderate friendships with each other, and not to the very marrow of the
+  soul: and the affections of the mind should be dissoluble, and so that we
+  can slacken them, or tighten.<a name="Hipp_9"></a><a
+  href="#HippN_9"><sup>[9]</sup></a> But that one soul should feel pangs
+  for two, as I now grieve for her, is a heavy burden. The concerns of life
+  carried to too great an extent, they say, bring rather destruction than
+  delight, and are rather at enmity with health. Thus I praise what is in
+  extreme less than <i>the sentiment of</i> "Nothing in excess;" and the
+  wise will agree with me.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. O aged woman, faithful nurse of the queen Phædra, we see indeed
+  the wretched state of this lady, but it is not clear what her disease is:
+  but we would wish to inquire and hear from you.</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. I know not by my inquiries; for she is not willing to speak.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Nor what is the origin of these pangs?</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. You come to the same result; for she is silent with regard to all
+  these things.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. How feeble she is, and wasted away as to her body!</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. How could it be otherwise, seeing that she has abstained from
+  food these three days?</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. From the violence of her calamity is it, or does she endeavor to
+  die?</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. To die; but she fasts to the dissolution of her life.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. An extraordinary thing you have been telling me, if this conduct
+  meets the approbation of her husband.</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. [He nothing knows,] for she conceals this calamity, and denies
+  that she is ill.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. But does he not guess it, looking into her face?</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. [How should he?] for he is out of this country.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. But do you not urge it as a matter of necessity, when you
+  endeavor to ascertain her disease and the wandering of her senses?</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. I have tried every thing, and have made no further advances. I
+  will not however abate even now from my zeal, so that you being present
+  may bear witness with me, how I behave to my mistress when in
+  calamity&mdash;Come, dear child, let us both forget our former
+  conversations; and be both thou more mild, having smoothed that
+  contracted brow, and altered the bent of your design; and I giving up
+  that wherein I did not do right to follow thee, will have recourse to
+  other better words. And if indeed you are ill with any of those maladies
+  that are not to be mentioned, these women here can allay the disease: but
+  if it may be related to men, tell it, that the thing may be mentioned to
+  physicians.&mdash;Well! why art thou silent? It doth not behoove thee to
+  be silent, my child, but either shouldst thou convict me, if aught I say
+  amiss, or yield to words well spoken.&mdash;Say something&mdash;look
+  hither&mdash;O wretch that I am! Ladies, in vain do we undergo these
+  toils, while we are as far off from our purpose as before: for neither
+  then was she softened by our words, nor now does she give heed to us.
+  Still however know (now then be more obstinate than the sea) that, if
+  thou shalt die, thou wilt betray thy children, who will have no share in
+  their paternal mansion. I swear by the warlike queen the Amazon, who
+  brought forth a lord over thy children, base-born yet of noble
+  sentiments, thou knowest him well, Hippolytus.</p>
+
+  <p>PHÆ. Ah me!</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. This touches thee.</p>
+
+  <p>PHÆ. You have destroyed me, nurse, and by the Gods I entreat thee
+  henceforth to be silent with respect to this man.</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. Do you see? you judge well indeed, but judging well you are not
+  willing both to assist your children and to save your own life.</p>
+
+  <p>PHÆ. I love my children; but I am wintering in the storm of another
+  misfortune.</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. You have your hands, my child, pure from blood.</p>
+
+  <p>PHÆ. My hands are pure, but my mind has some pollution.</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. What! from some calamity brought on you by any of your
+  enemies?</p>
+
+  <p>PHÆ. A friend destroys me against my will, himself unwilling.</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. Has Theseus sinned any sin against thee?</p>
+
+  <p>PHÆ. Would that I never be discovered to have injured him.</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. What then this dreadful thing that impels thee to die?</p>
+
+  <p>PHÆ. Suffer me to err, for against thee I err not.</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. Not willingly [dost thou do so,] but 'tis through thee that I
+  shall perish.<a name="Hipp_10"></a><a
+  href="#HippN_10"><sup>[10]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>PHÆ. What are you doing? you oppress me, hanging on me with your
+  hand.</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. And never will I let go these knees.</p>
+
+  <p>PHÆ. Ills to thyself wilt thou hear, O wretched woman, if thou shalt
+  hear these ills.</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. [Still will I cling:] for what greater evil can befall me than to
+  lose thee?</p>
+
+  <p>PHÆ. You will be undone.<a name="Hipp_11"></a><a
+  href="#HippN_11"><sup>[11]</sup></a> The thing however brings honor to
+  me.</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. And dost thou then hide what is useful, when I beseech thee?</p>
+
+  <p>PHÆ. <i>Yes</i>, for from base things we devise things noble.</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. Wilt not thou, then, appear more noble by telling it?</p>
+
+  <p>PHÆ. Depart, by the Gods, and let go my hand!</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. No in sooth, since thou givest me not the boon that were
+  right.</p>
+
+  <p>PHÆ. I will give it; for I have respect unto the reverence of thy
+  hand.</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. Now will I be silent: for hence is it yours to speak.</p>
+
+  <p>PHÆ. O wretched mother, what a love didst thou love!</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. That which she had for the bull, my child, or what is this thou
+  meanest?</p>
+
+  <p>PHÆ. Thou, too, O wretched sister, wife of Bacchus!</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. Child, what ails thee? thou speakest ill against thy
+  relations.</p>
+
+  <p>PHÆ. And I the third, how unhappily I perish!</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. I am struck dumb with amazement. Whither will thy speech
+  tend?</p>
+
+  <p>PHÆ. <i>To that point</i>, whence we have not now lately become
+  unfortunate.</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. I know not a whit further of the things I wish to hear.</p>
+
+  <p>PHÆ. Alas! would thou couldst speak the things which I must speak.</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. I am no prophetess so as to know clearly things hidden.</p>
+
+  <p>PHÆ. What is that thing, which they do call men's loving!<a
+  name="Hipp_12"></a><a href="#HippN_12"><sup>[12]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>NUR. The same, my child, a most delightful thing, and painful
+  withal.</p>
+
+  <p>PHÆ. One of the two feelings I must perceive.</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. What say'st? Thou lovest, my child? What man!</p>
+
+  <p>PHÆ. Him whoever he is,<a name="Hipp_13"></a><a
+  href="#HippN_13"><sup>[13]</sup></a> that is born of the Amazon.</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. Hippolytus dost thou say?</p>
+
+  <p>PHÆ. From thyself, not me, you hear&mdash;this name.</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. Ah me! what wilt thou go on to say? my child, how hast thou
+  destroyed me! Ladies, this is not to be borne; I will not endure to live,
+  hateful is the day, hateful the light I behold. I will hurl myself down,
+  I will rid me of this body: I will remove from life to
+  death&mdash;farewell&mdash;I no longer am. For the chaste are in love
+  with what is evil, not willingly indeed, yet still [they love.] Venus
+  then is no deity, but if there be aught mightier than deity, that is she,
+  who hath destroyed both this my mistress, and me, and the whole
+  house.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Thou didst hear, O thou didst hear the queen lamenting her
+  wretched sufferings that should not be heard. Dear lady, may I perish
+  before I come to thy state of mind! Alas me! alas! alas! O hapless for
+  these pangs! O the woes that attend on mortals! Thou art undone, thou
+  hast disclosed thy evils to the light. What time is this that has
+  eternally<a name="Hipp_14"></a><a href="#HippN_14"><sup>[14]</sup></a>
+  awaited thee? Some new misfortune will happen to the house. And no longer
+  is it obscure where the fortune of Venus sets, O wretched Cretan
+  daughter.</p>
+
+  <p>PHÆ. Women of Tr&#339;zene, who inhabit this extreme frontier of the
+  land of Pelops. Often at other times in the long season of night have I
+  thought in what manner the life of mortals is depraved.<a
+  name="Hipp_15"></a><a href="#HippN_15"><sup>[15]</sup></a> And to me they
+  seem to do ill, not from the nature of their minds, for many have good
+  thoughts, but thus must we view these things. What things are good we
+  understand and know, but practice not; some from idleness, and others
+  preferring some other pleasures to what is right: for there are many
+  pleasures in life-long prates, and indolence, a pleasing ill, and shame;
+  but there are two, the one indeed not base, but the other the weight that
+  overthrows houses, but if the occasion on which each is used, were clear,
+  the two things would not have the same letters. Knowing them as I did
+  these things beforehand, by no drug did I think I should so far destroy
+  these <i>sentiments</i>, as to fall into an opposite way of thinking. But
+  I will also tell you the course of my determinations. After that love had
+  wounded me, I considered how best I might endure it. I began therefore
+  from this time to be silent, and to conceal this disease. For no
+  confidence can be placed in the tongue, which knows to advise the
+  thoughts of other men, but itself from itself has very many evils. But in
+  the second place, I meditated to bear well my madness conquering it by my
+  chastity. But in the third place, since by these means I was not able to
+  subdue Venus, it appeared to me best to die: no one will gainsay this
+  resolution. For may it be my lot, neither to be concealed where I do
+  noble deeds, nor to have many witnesses, where I act basely. Besides this
+  I knew I was a woman&mdash;a thing hated by all. O may she most miserably
+  perish who first began to pollute the marriage-bed with other men! From
+  noble families first arose this evil among women: for when base things
+  appear right to those who are accounted good, surely they will appear so
+  to the bad. I hate moreover those women who are chaste in their language
+  indeed, but secretly have in them no good deeds of boldness: who, how, I
+  pray, O Venus my revered mistress, look they on the faces of their
+  husbands, nor dread the darkness that aided their deeds, and the ceilings
+  of the house, lest they should some time or other utter a voice? For this
+  bare idea kills me, friends, lest I should ever be discovered to have
+  disgraced my husband, or my children, whom I brought forth; but free,
+  happy in liberty of speech may they inhabit the city of illustrious
+  Athens, in their mother glorious! For it enslaves a man, though he be
+  valiant-hearted, when he is conscious of his mother's or his father's
+  misdeeds. But this alone they say in endurance compeers with life, an
+  honest and good mind, to whomsoever it belong. But Time, when it so
+  chance, holding up the mirror as to a young virgin, shows forth the bad,
+  among whom may I be never seen!</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Alas! alas! In every way how fair is chastity, and how goodly a
+  report has it among men!</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. My mistress, just now indeed thy calamity coming upon me
+  unawares, gave me a dreadful alarm. But now I perceive I was weak; and
+  somehow or other among mortals second thoughts are the wisest. For thou
+  hast not suffered any thing excessive nor extraordinary, but the anger of
+  the Goddess hath fallen upon thee. Thou lovest&mdash;what wonder this?
+  with many mortals.&mdash;And then will you lose your life for love? There
+  is then no advantage for those who love others, nor to those who may
+  hereafter, if they must needs die. For Venus is a thing not to be borne,
+  if she rush on vehement. Who comes quietly indeed on the person who
+  yields; but whom she finds haughty and of lofty notions, him taking (how
+  thinkest thou?) she chastises. But Venus goes through air, and is on the
+  ocean wave; and all things from her have their birth. She it is that sows
+  and gives forth love, from whence all we on earth are engendered. As many
+  indeed as ken the writings of the ancients, or are themselves ever among
+  the muses, they know indeed, how that Jove was formerly inflamed with the
+  love of Semele; they know too, how that formerly the lovely bright Aurora
+  bore away Cephalus up to the Gods, for love, but still they live in
+  heaven, and fly not from the presence of the Gods: but they acquiesce
+  yielding, I ween, to what has befallen them. And wilt thou not bear it?
+  Thy father then ought to have begotten thee on stipulated terms, or else
+  under the dominion of other Gods, unless thou wilt be content with these
+  laws. How many, thinkest thou, are in full and complete possession of
+  their senses, who, when they see their bridal bed diseased, seem not to
+  see it! And how many fathers, thinkest thou, have aided their erring sons
+  in matters of love, for this is a maxim among the wise part of mankind,
+  "that things that show not fair should be concealed." Nor should men
+  labor too exactly their conduct in life, for neither would they do well
+  to employ much accuracy in the roof wherewith their houses are covered;
+  but having fallen into fortune so deep as thou hast, how dost thou
+  imagine thou canst swim out? But if thou hast more things good than bad,
+  mortal as thou art, thou surely must be well off. But cease, my dear
+  child, from these evil thoughts, cease too from being haughty, for
+  nothing else save haughtiness is this, to wish to be superior to the
+  Gods. But, as thou art in love, endure it; a God hath willed it so: and,
+  being ill, by some good means or other try to get rid of thy illness. But
+  there are charms and soothing spells: there will appear some medicine for
+  this sickness. Else surely men would be slow indeed in discoveries, if we
+  women should not find contrivances.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Phædra, she speaks indeed most useful advice in thy present
+  state: but thee I praise. Yet is this praise less welcome than her words,
+  and to thee more painful to hear.</p>
+
+  <p>PHÆ. This is it that destroys cities of men and families well
+  governed&mdash;words too fair. For it is not at all requisite to speak
+  words pleasant to the ear, but that whereby one may become of fair
+  report.</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. Why dost thou talk in this grand strain? thou needest not gay
+  decorated words, but a man: as soon as possible must those be found, who
+  will speak out the plain straightforward word concerning thee. For if thy
+  life were not in calamities of such a cast, I never would have brought
+  thee thus far for the sake of lust, and for thy pleasure: but now the
+  great point is to save thy life; and this is not a thing deserving of
+  blame.</p>
+
+  <p>PHÆ. O thou that hast spoken dreadful things, wilt thou not shut thy
+  mouth? and wilt not cease from uttering again those words most vile?</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. Vile they are, but better these for thee than fair; but better
+  will the deed be (if at least it will save thee), than the name, in the
+  which while thou boastest, thou wilt die.</p>
+
+  <p>PHÆ. Nay do not, I entreat thee by the Gods (for thou speakest well,
+  but base are [the things thou speakest]) go beyond this, since rightly
+  have I surrendered my life to love; but if thou speak base things in fair
+  phrase, I shall be consumed, [being cast] into that [evil] which I am now
+  avoiding.</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. If in truth this be thy opinion, thou oughtest not to err, but if
+  thou hast erred, be persuaded by me, for this is the next best thing thou
+  canst do.<a name="Hipp_16"></a><a href="#HippN_16"><sup>[16]</sup></a> I
+  have in the house soothing philters of love (and they but lately came
+  into my thought); which, by no base deed, nor to the harm of thy senses,
+  will rid you of this disease, unless you are obstinate. But it is
+  requisite to receive from him that is the object of your love, some
+  token, either some word, or some relic of his vest, and to join from two
+  one love.</p>
+
+  <p>PHÆ. But is the charm an unguent or a potion?</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. I know not: wish to be relieved, not informed, my child.</p>
+
+  <p>PHÆ. I fear thee, lest thou should appear too wise to me.</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. Know that you would fear every thing, <i>if you fear this</i>,
+  but what is it you are afraid of?</p>
+
+  <p>PHÆ. Lest you should tell any of these things to the son of
+  Theseus.</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. Let be, my child, I will arrange these matters honorably, only be
+  thou my coadjutor, O Venus, my revered mistress; but the other things
+  which I purpose, it will suffice to tell to my friends within.</p>
+
+<p class="center">CHORUS, PHÆDRA.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Love, love, O thou that instillest desire through the eyes,
+  inspiring sweet affection in the souls of those against whom thou makest
+  war, mayst thou never appear to me to my injury, nor come unmodulated:
+  for neither is the blast of fire nor the bolt of heaven more vehement,
+  than that of Venus, which Love, the boy of Jove, sends from his hands. In
+  vain, in vain, both by the Alpheus, and at the Pythian temples of
+  Ph&#339;bus does Greece then solemnize the slaughter of bulls: but Love,
+  the tyrant of men, porter of the dearest chambers of Venus, we worship
+  not, the destroyer and visitant of men in all shapes of calamity, when he
+  comes. That virgin in &#338;chalia, yoked to no bridal bed, till then
+  unwedded, and who knew no husband, having taken from her home a wanderer
+  impelled by the oar, her, like some Bacchanal of Pluto, with blood, with
+  smoke, and murderous hymeneals did Venus give to the son of Alcmena. O
+  unhappy woman, because of her nuptials! O sacred wall of Thebes, O mouth
+  of Dirce, you can assist me in telling, in what manner Venus comes: for
+  by the forked lightning, by a cruel fate, did she put to eternal sleep
+  the parent of the Jove-begotten Bacchus, when she was visited as a bride.
+  For dreadful doth she breathe on all things, and like some bee hovers
+  about.</p>
+
+  <p>PHÆ. Women, be silent: I am undone.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. What is there that affrights thee, Phædra, in thine house?</p>
+
+  <p>PHÆ. Be silent, that I may make out the voice of those within.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. I am silent: this however is an evil bodement.</p>
+
+  <p>PHÆ. Alas me! O! O! O! oh unhappy me, because of my sufferings!</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. What sound dost thou utter? what word speakest thou? tell me
+  what report frightens thee, lady, rushing upon thy senses!</p>
+
+  <p>PHÆ. We are undone. Do you, standing at these gates, hear what the
+  noise is that strikes on the house?</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Thou art by the gate, the noise that is sent forth from the
+  house is thy care. But tell me, tell me, what evil, I pray thee, came
+  <i>to thine ears</i>?</p>
+
+  <p>PHÆ. The son of the warlike Amazon, Hippolytus, cries out, abusing in
+  dreadful forms my attendant.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. I hear indeed a noise, but can not plainly tell how it is. The
+  voice came, it came through to the door.</p>
+
+  <p>PHÆ. But hark! he calls her plainly the pander of wickedness, the
+  betrayer of her master's bed.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Alas me for thy miseries! Thou art betrayed, dear mistress. What
+  shall I counsel thee? for hidden things are come to light, and thou art
+  utterly destroyed&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+  <p>PHÆ. O! O!</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Betrayed by thy friends.</p>
+
+  <p>PHÆ. She hath destroyed me by speaking of my unhappy state, kindly but
+  not honorably endeavoring to heal this disease.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. How then? what wilt thou do, O thou that hast suffered things
+  incurable?</p>
+
+  <p>PHÆ. I know not, save one thing; to die as soon as possible is the
+  only cure of my present sufferings.</p>
+
+<p class="center">HIPPOLYTUS, PHÆDRA, NURSE, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. O mother earth, and ye disclosing rays of the sun, of what words
+  have I heard the dreadful sound!</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. Be silent, my son, before any one hears thy voice.</p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. It is not possible for me to be silent, when I have heard such
+  dreadful things.</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. Nay, I implore thee by thy beauteous hand.</p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. Wilt not desist from bringing thy hand near me, and from
+  touching my garments?</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. O! by thy knees, I implore thee, do not utterly destroy me.</p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. But wherefore this? since, thou sayest, thou hast spoken nothing
+  evil.</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. This word, my son, is by no means to be divulged.</p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. It is more fair to speak fair things to many.</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. O my child, by no means dishonor your oath.</p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. My tongue hath sworn&mdash;my mind is still unsworn.<a
+  name="Hipp_17"></a><a href="#HippN_17"><sup>[17]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>NUR. O my son, what wilt thou do? wilt thou destroy thy friends?</p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. <i>Friends!</i> I reject the word: no unjust person is my
+  friend.</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. Pardon, my child: that men should err is but to be expected.</p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. O Jove, wherefore in the name of heaven didst thou place in the
+  light of the sun that specious<a name="Hipp_18"></a><a
+  href="#HippN_18"><sup>[18]</sup></a> evil to men, women? for if thou
+  didst will to propagate the race of mortals, there was no necessity for
+  this to be done by women, but men might, having placed an equivalent in
+  thy temples, either in brass, or iron, or the weighty gold, buy a race of
+  children, each for the consideration of the value paid, and thus might
+  dwell in unmolested houses, without females. But now, first of all, when
+  we prepare to bring this evil to our homes, we squander away the wealth
+  of our houses. By this too it is evident, that woman is a great evil; for
+  the father, who begat her and brought her up, having given her a dowry
+  sends her away in order to be rid of the evil. But the husband, on the
+  other hand, when he has received the baneful evil<a name="Hipp_19"></a><a
+  href="#HippN_19"><sup>[19]</sup></a> into his house, rejoices, having
+  added a beautiful decoration to a most vile image, and tricks her out
+  with robes, unhappy man, while he has been insensibly minishing the
+  wealth of the family. But he is constrained; so that having made alliance
+  with noble kinsmen, he retains with [seeming] joy a marriage bitter to
+  him: or if he has received a good bride, but worthless parents in law, he
+  suppresses the evil that has befallen him by the consideration of the
+  good. But his state is the easiest, whose wife is settled in his house, a
+  cipher, but useless by reason of simplicity. But a wise woman I detest:
+  may there not be in my house at least a woman more highly gifted with
+  mind than woman ought to be. For Venus engenders mischief rather among
+  clever women, but a woman who is not endowed with capacity, by reason of
+  her small understanding, is removed from folly. But it is right that an
+  attendant should have no access to a woman, but with them ought to dwell
+  the speechless brute beasts, in which case they would be able neither to
+  address any one, nor from them to receive a voice in return. But now,
+  they that are evil follow after their evil devices within, and the
+  servants carry it forth abroad. As thou also hast, O evil woman, come to
+  the purpose of admitting me to share a bed which must not be
+  approached&mdash;a father's. Which impious things I will wash out with
+  flowing stream, pouring it into my ears: how then could I be the vile
+  one, who do not even deem myself pure, because I have heard such
+  things?&mdash;But be well assured, my piety protects thee, woman, for,
+  had I not been taken unawares by the oaths of the Gods, never would I
+  have refrained from telling these things to my father. But now will I
+  depart from the house, <i>and stay</i> during the time that Theseus is
+  absent from the land, and will keep my mouth silent; but I will see,
+  returning with my father's return, how you will look at him, both you and
+  your mistress. But your boldness I shall know, having before had proof of
+  it. May you perish: but never shall I take my fill of hating women, not
+  even if any one assert, that I am always saying this. For in some way or
+  other they surely are always bad. Either then let some one teach them to
+  be modest, or else let him suffer me ever to utter my invectives against
+  them.</p>
+
+<p class="center">CHORUS, PHÆDRA, NURSE.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Oh unhappy ill-fated fortune of women! what art now or what
+  words have we, having failed as we have, to extricate the knot caused by
+  [these] words?</p>
+
+  <p>PHÆ. We have met a just reward; O earth, and light, in what manner, I
+  pray, can I escape from my fortunes? and how, my friends, can I conceal
+  my calamity? Who of the Gods will appear my succorer, or what mortal my
+  ally, or my fellow-worker in unjust works? for the suffering of my life
+  that is at present on me comes hardly to be escaped.<a
+  name="Hipp_20"></a><a href="#HippN_20"><sup>[20]</sup></a> I am the most
+  ill-fated of women.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Alas! alas! we are undone, lady, and the arts of thy attendant
+  have not succeeded, and it fares ill with us.</p>
+
+  <p>PHÆ. O thou most vile, and the destruction of thy friends, what hast
+  thou done to me! May Jove, my ancestor, tear thee up by the roots, having
+  stricken thee by his fire. Did not I tell thee (did not I foresee thy
+  intention?) to be silent with regard to those things with which I am now
+  tormented? but thou couldst not refrain; wherefore I can no longer die
+  with glory: but I must now in sooth employ new measures. For he, now that
+  his mind is made keen with rage, will tell, to my detriment, thy errors
+  to his father, and will fill the whole earth with the most vile reports.
+  Mayst thou perish, both thou and whoever else is forward to assist
+  friends against their will otherwise than by honorable means.</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. Lady, thou canst indeed blame the evil I have wrought; for that
+  which gnaws upon thee masters thy better judgment;&mdash;but I too have
+  somewhat to say in answer to these things, if thou wilt admit it: I
+  brought thee up, and have a kind affection toward thee; but, while
+  searching for medicine for thy disease, I found not that I wished for.
+  But if I had succeeded, I had been surely ranked among the wise; for we
+  have the reputation of sense according to our success.</p>
+
+  <p>PHÆ. What? is this conduct just, and satisfactory to me, to injure me
+  first, and then to meet me in argument?</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. We talk too long&mdash;I did not behave wisely. But even from
+  this state of things it is possible that thou mayest be saved, my
+  child.</p>
+
+  <p>PHÆ. Desist from speaking; for before also thou didst not well advise
+  for me, and didst attempt evil things. But depart from my sight, and take
+  care about thyself; for I will settle my own affairs in an honorable
+  manner. But you, noble daughters of Tr&#339;zene, grant thus much to me
+  requesting it, bury in silence what you here have heard.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. I swear by hallowed Dian, daughter of Jove, that I will never
+  reveal to the face of day one of thy evils.</p>
+
+  <p>PHÆ. Thou hast well spoken: but one kind of resource, while I search
+  around me,<a name="Hipp_21"></a><a href="#HippN_21"><sup>[21]</sup></a>
+  do I find for my present calamity, so that I may make the life of my
+  children glorious, and may myself be assisted as things have now fallen
+  out. For never will I disgrace the house of Crete at least, nor will I
+  come before the face of Theseus having acted basely, for one's life's
+  sake.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. But what irremediable evil art thou then about to
+  perpetrate?</p>
+
+  <p>PHÆ. To die: but how, this will I devise.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Speak words of better omen.</p>
+
+  <p>PHÆ. And do thou at least advise me well. But having quitted life this
+  day, I shall gratify Venus, who destroys me, and shall be conquered by
+  bitter love. But when I am dead, I shall be an evil to another at
+  least,<a name="Hipp_22"></a><a href="#HippN_22"><sup>[22]</sup></a> so
+  that he may know not to exult over my misfortunes; but, having shared
+  this malady in common with me, he shall learn to be modest.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Would that I were under the rocks' vast retreats,<a
+  name="Hipp_23"></a><a href="#HippN_23"><sup>[23]</sup></a> and that there
+  the God would make me a winged bird among the swift flocks, and that I
+  were lifted up above the ocean wave that dashes against the Adriatic
+  shore, and the water of Eridanus, where for grief of Phaethon the thrice
+  wretched virgins let fall into their father's billow the amber-beaming
+  brightness of their tears: and that I could make my way to the shore
+  where the apples grow of the harmonious daughters of Hesperus, where the
+  ruler of the ocean no longer permits the passage of the purple sea to
+  mariners, dwelling in that dread bourn of heaven which Atlas doth
+  sustain, and the ambrosial founts stream forth hard by the couches of
+  Jove's palaces, where the divine and life-bestowing earth increases the
+  bliss of the Gods. O white-winged bark of Crete, who didst bear my queen
+  through the perturbed<a name="Hipp_24"></a><a
+  href="#HippN_24"><sup>[24]</sup></a> ocean wave of brine from a happy
+  home, thereby aiding her in a most evil marriage. For surely in both
+  instances, or at any rate from Crete she came ill-omened to renowned
+  Athens, when on the Munychian shore they bound the platted ends of their
+  cables, and disembarked on the continent. Wherefore she was heartbroken
+  with the terrible disease of unhallowed love by the influence of Venus;
+  and now that she can no longer hold out against the heavy calamity,<a
+  name="Hipp_25"></a><a href="#HippN_25"><sup>[25]</sup></a> she will fit
+  around her the noose suspended<a name="Hipp_26"></a><a
+  href="#HippN_26"><sup>[26]</sup></a> from the ceiling of her bridal
+  chamber, adjusting it to her white neck, having revered the hateful
+  Goddess, and embracing an honorable name, and ridding from her breast the
+  painful love.</p>
+
+<p class="center">FEMALE SERVANT, CHORUS, THESEUS.</p>
+
+  <p>SERV. Alack! alack! run to my succor all that are near the
+  house&mdash;My mistress the wife of Theseus is hanging.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Alas! alas! the deed is done: the queen is indeed no
+  more&mdash;she is suspended in the noose that hangs there.</p>
+
+  <p>SERV. Will ye not haste? will not some one bring a two-edged sword,
+  with which we may undo this knot around her neck?</p>
+
+  <p>SEMICHOR. My friends, what do we? does it seem good to enter the house
+  and to free the queen from the tight-drawn noose?</p>
+
+  <p>SEMICHOR. Why we? Are not the young men-servants at hand? The being
+  over-busy is not a safe plan through life.</p>
+
+  <p>SERV. Lay right the wretched corpse, pull her limbs straight. A
+  grievous housekeeping this for my master!</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. The unhappy woman, as I hear, has perished, for already are they
+  laying her out as a corpse.</p>
+
+  <p>THES. Know ye, females, what noise this is in my house? a heavy sound
+  of my attendants reached me. For the family does not think fit to open
+  the gates to me and to hail me with joy as having returned from the
+  oracle. Has any ill befallen the aged Pittheus? His life is now indeed
+  far advanced; but still he would be much lamented by us, were he to leave
+  this house.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. This that has happened, Theseus, extends not to the old; the
+  young are they that by their death will grieve thee.</p>
+
+  <p>THES. Alas me! is the life of any of my children stolen from me?</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. They live, but their mother is dead in a way that will grieve
+  thee most.</p>
+
+  <p>THES. What sayest? My wife dead? By what fate?</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. She suspended the noose, wherewith she strangled herself.</p>
+
+  <p>THES. Wasted with sorrow, or from some sudden calamity?</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Thus much we know&mdash;<i>nothing further</i>; for I am but
+  just come to thy house, Theseus, to bewail thy evils.</p>
+
+  <p>THES. Alas! alas! why then have I my head crowned with entwined
+  leaves, who am the unhappy inquirer of the oracle? Servants, undo the
+  bars of the gates; unloose the bolts, that I may behold the mournful
+  spectacle of my wife, who by her death hath utterly undone me.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Alas! alas! unhappy for thy wretched ills: thou hast been a
+  sufferer; thou hast perpetrated a deed of such extent as to throw this
+  house into utter confusion. Alas! alas! thy boldness, O thou who hast
+  died a violent death, and, by an unhallowed chance, the act committed by
+  thy wretched hand. Who is it then, thou unhappy one, that destroys thy
+  life?</p>
+
+  <p>THES. Alas me for my sufferings!<a name="Hipp_27"></a><a
+  href="#HippN_27"><sup>[27]</sup></a> I have suffered, unhappy wretch, the
+  extreme of my troubles&mdash;O fortune, how heavy hast thou come upon me
+  and my house, an imperceptible spot from some evil demon! the wearing out
+  of a life not to be endured;<a name="Hipp_28"></a><a
+  href="#HippN_28"><sup>[28]</sup></a> and I, unhappy wretch, perceive a
+  sea of troubles so great, that never again can I emerge from it, nor
+  escape beyond the flood of this calamity. What mention making can I
+  unhappy, what heavy-fated fortune of thine, lady, saying that it was, can
+  I be right? For as some bird thou art vanished from my hand, having
+  leaped me a sudden leap to the realms of Pluto. Alas! alas! wretched,
+  wretched are these sufferings, but from some distant period or other
+  receive I this calamity from the Gods, for the errors of some of those of
+  old.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Not to thee alone, O king, have these evils happened; but with
+  many others thou hast lost an excellent wife.<a name="Hipp_29"></a><a
+  href="#HippN_29"><sup>[29]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>THES. In the shades beneath the earth, I unhappy wish, dying, to dwell
+  in darkness, reft as I am of thy most dear company, for thou hast
+  destroyed rather than perished&mdash;What then do I hear? whence came the
+  deadly chance, lady, to thine heart? Will any speak what has happened, or
+  does my royal palace contain to no purpose the crowd of my
+  attendants?&mdash;Alas me on thy account! unhappy that I am, what grief
+  in my house have I seen, intolerable, indescribable! but&mdash;we are
+  undone! my house left desolate, and my children orphans.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Thou hast left us, thou hast left us, O dear among women, and
+  most excellent of those as many as both the light of the sun, and the
+  star-visaged moon of night behold. O unhappy man! how great ill doth the
+  house contain! with tears gushing over, my eyelids are wet at thy
+  calamity. But the woe that will ensue on this I have long since been
+  dreading.</p>
+
+  <p>THES. Alas! alas! What I pray is this letter suspended from her dear
+  hand? does it mean to betoken some new calamity?&mdash;What, has the
+  unhappy woman written injunctions to me, making some request about<a
+  name="Hipp_30"></a><a href="#HippN_30"><sup>[30]</sup></a> my bridal bed
+  and my children? Be of good courage, hapless one; for no woman exists,
+  who shall enter the bed and the house of Theseus. But lo! the impressions
+  of the golden seal<a name="Hipp_31"></a><a
+  href="#HippN_31"><sup>[31]</sup></a> of her no more here court my
+  attention.<a name="Hipp_32"></a><a href="#HippN_32"><sup>[32]</sup></a>
+  Come, let me unfold the envelopments of the seal, and see what this
+  letter should say to me.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Alas! alas! this new evil in succession again doth the God bring
+  on. To me indeed the condition of life will be impossible to bear,<a
+  name="Hipp_33"></a><a href="#HippN_33"><sup>[33]</sup></a> from what has
+  happened; for I consider, alas! as ruined and no more the house of my
+  kings. O God, if it be in any way possible, do not overthrow the house;
+  but hear me as I pray, for from some quarter, as though a prophet, I
+  behold an evil omen.</p>
+
+  <p>THES. Ah me! what other evil is this in addition to evil, not to be
+  borne, nor spoken! alas wretched me!</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. What is the matter? Tell me if it may be told me.</p>
+
+  <p>THES. It cries out&mdash;the letter cries out things most dreadful:
+  which way can I fly the weight of my ills; for I perish utterly
+  destroyed. What, what a complaint have I seen speaking in her
+  writing!</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Alas! thou utterest words foreboding woes.</p>
+
+  <p>THES. No longer will I keep within the door of my lips this dreadful,
+  dreadful evil hardly to be uttered. O city, city, Hippolytus has dared by
+  force to approach my bed, having despised the awful eye of Jove. But O
+  father Neptune, by one of these three curses, which thou formerly didst
+  promise me, by one of those destroy my son, and let him not escape beyond
+  this day, if thou hast given me curses that shall be verified.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. O king, by the Gods recall back this prayer, for hereafter you
+  will know that you have erred; be persuaded by me.</p>
+
+  <p>THES. It can not be: and moreover I will drive him from this land. And
+  by one or other of the two fates shall he be assailed: for either Neptune
+  shall send him dead to the mansions of Pluto, having respect unto my
+  wish; or else banished from this country, wandering over a foreign land,
+  he shall drag out a miserable existence.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. And lo! thy son Hippolytus is present here opportunely, but if
+  thou let go thy evil displeasure, king Theseus, thou wilt advise the best
+  for thine house.</p>
+
+<p class="center">HIPPOLYTUS, THESEUS, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. I heard thy cry, my father, and came in haste; the thing
+  however, for which you are groaning, I know not; but would fain hear from
+  you. Ha! what is the matter? I behold thy wife, my father, a corpse: this
+  is a thing meet for the greatest wonder.&mdash;Her, whom I lately left,
+  her, who beheld the light no great time since. What ails her? In what
+  manner died she, my father, I would fain hear from you. Art silent? But
+  there is no use of silence in misfortunes; for the heart which desires to
+  hear all things, is found eager also in the case of ills. It is not
+  indeed right, my father, to conceal thy misfortunes from friends, and
+  even more than friends.</p>
+
+  <p>THES. O men, who vainly go astray in many things, why then do ye teach
+  ten thousand arts, and contrive and invent every thing; but one thing ye
+  do not know, nor yet have investigated, to teach those to be wise who
+  have no intellect!</p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. A clever sophist this you speak of, who is able to compel those
+  who have no wisdom to be rightly wise. But (for thou art arguing too
+  refinedly on no suitable occasion) I fear, O father, lest thy tongue be
+  talking at random through thy woes.</p>
+
+  <p>THES. Alas! there ought to be established for men some infallible
+  proof of their friends, and some means of knowing their dispositions,
+  both who is true, and who is not a friend, and men ought all to have two
+  voices, the one true, the other as it chanced, that the untrue one might
+  be convicted by the true, and then we should not be deceived.</p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. Has some one then falsely accused me in your ear, and am I
+  suffering who am not at all guilty? I am amazed, for your words,
+  wandering beyond the bounds of reason, do amaze me.</p>
+
+  <p>THES. Alas! the mind of man, to what lengths will it go? what will be
+  the limit to its boldness and temerity? For if it shall increase with
+  each generation of man, and the successor shall be wicked a degree beyond
+  his predecessor, it will be necessary for the Gods to add to the earth
+  another land, which<a name="Hipp_34"></a><a
+  href="#HippN_34"><sup>[34]</sup></a> will contain the unjust and the evil
+  ones.&mdash;But look: ye on this man, who being born of me hath defiled
+  my bed, and is manifestly convicted by the deceased of being most
+  base.&mdash;But, since thou hast come to this attaint, show thy face here
+  before thy father. Dost thou forsooth associate with the Gods, as being
+  an extraordinary person? art thou chaste and uncontaminated with evil? I
+  will not believe thy boasts, attributing (<i>as I must, if I do
+  believe</i>) to the Gods the folly of thinking evil. Now then vaunt, and
+  with thy feeding on inanimate food retail your doctrines upon men, and
+  having Orpheus<a name="Hipp_35"></a><a
+  href="#HippN_35"><sup>[35]</sup></a> for your master, revel it,
+  reverencing the emptiness of many letters; <i>which avail you not</i>;
+  since you are caught.</p>
+
+  <p>But such sort of men I warn all to shun; for they hunt with
+  fair-sounding words, while they devise base things. She is dead: dost
+  thou think this will save thee? By this thou art most detected, O thou
+  most vile one! For what sort of oaths, what arguments can be more strong
+  than what she says, so that thou canst escape the accusation? Wilt thou
+  say that she hated thee, and that the bastard race is hateful forsooth to
+  those of noble birth? A bad housewife then of life you account her, if
+  through hatred of thee she lost what was most dear to her. But wilt thou
+  say that there is not this folly in men, but that there is in women? I
+  myself have known young men who were not a whit more steady than women,
+  when Venus disturbed the youthful mind: but their pretense of manliness
+  protects them. Now however, why do I thus contend against thy words, when
+  the corse, the surest witness, is here? Depart an exile from this land as
+  soon as possible. And neither go to the divine-built Athens, nor to the
+  confines of that land over which my sceptre rules. For if I thus
+  suffering by thee be vanquished, never will the Isthmian Sinis bear
+  witness of me that I killed him, but will say that I vainly boast. Nor
+  will the Scironian rocks, that dwell by the sea, confess that I am
+  formidable to the bad.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. I know not how I can say that any of mortals is happy; for the
+  things that were most excellent are turned back again.</p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. Father, thy rage indeed, and the commotion of thy mind is
+  terrible; this thing, however, though it have fair arguments, if any one
+  unravel it, is not fair. But I am unadorned with phrase to speak to the
+  multitude, but to speak to my equals and to a few, more expert: but this
+  also has consistency in it; for those, who are of no account among the
+  wise, are more fitted to speak before the rabble. But yet it is necessary
+  for me, since this calamity has come, to unloose my tongue. But first
+  will I begin to speak from that point where first you attacked, as though
+  you would destroy, and as though I should not answer again. Dost thou
+  behold this light and this earth? In these there is not a man more chaste
+  than me, not even though thou deny it. For, first indeed, I know to
+  reverence the Gods, and to have such friends as attempt not to be unjust,
+  but those, to whom there is modesty, so that neither they give utterance
+  to evil thoughts, nor minister in return base services to those who use
+  their friendship: nor am I the derider of my associates, O father, but
+  the same man to my friends when they are not present, and when I am with
+  them. But of one thing by which thou thinkest to crush me, I am pure;<a
+  name="Hipp_36"></a><a href="#HippN_36"><sup>[36]</sup></a> for to this
+  day my body is undefiled by the couch of love; and I know not the deed
+  except hearing of it by report, and seeing it in a picture, nor even am I
+  forward to look at these things, having a virgin mind. And perhaps my
+  modesty persuades you not. Behooves it thee then to show in what manner I
+  lost it. Did this woman's person excel in beauty all women? Or did I hope
+  to rule over thine house, having thy bridal bed as carrying dowry with
+  it? I must in that case have been a fool, and not at all in my senses.
+  But did I do it as though to reign were pleasant to the modest? By no
+  means indeed is it, except monarchy have destroyed the minds of men who
+  are pleased with her. But I would wish indeed to be first victor in the
+  Grecian games, but second in the state ever to be happy with the most
+  excellent friends. For thus is it possible to be well circumstanced: but
+  the absence of the danger gives greater joy than dominion. One of my
+  arguments has not been spoken, but the rest you are in possession of:
+  for, if I had a witness such as myself am, and were she alive during my
+  contention, you would know the evil ones, searching them by their works.
+  But now I swear by Jove, the guardian of oaths,<a name="Hipp_37"></a><a
+  href="#HippN_37"><sup>[37]</sup></a> and by the plain of the earth, that
+  never touched I thy bridal bed, nor ever wished it, nor conceived the
+  thought. Else may I perish inglorious, without a name, and may neither
+  sea nor earth receive the flesh of me when dead, if I be a wicked man.
+  But whether or no she have destroyed her life through fear, I know not:
+  for it is not lawful for me to speak further. Cautious<a
+  name="Hipp_38"></a><a href="#HippN_38"><sup>[38]</sup></a> she was,
+  though she could not be chaste; but I, who could be, had the power to no
+  good purpose.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Thou hast said sufficient to rebut the charge, in offering the
+  oaths by the Gods, no slight proof.</p>
+
+  <p>THES. Is not this man then an enchanter and a juggler, who trusts that
+  he will overcome my mind by his goodness of disposition, after he has
+  dishonored his father?</p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. I too very much wonder at this conduct of yours, my father; for
+  if you were my son, and I your father, I should slay you, and not punish
+  you by banishment, if you had dared to defile my wife.</p>
+
+  <p>THES. How fitly hast thou said this! yet thou shalt not so die, as
+  thou hast laid down this law for thyself; for a quick grave is easiest to
+  the miserable man; but wandering an exile from thy country's land to
+  foreign realms, thou shalt drag out a life of bitterness; for this is the
+  reward for the impious man.</p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. Ah me! what wilt thou do? wilt thou not even await time as
+  evidence against me, but wilt thou banish me from the land?</p>
+
+  <p>THES. Ay, beyond the ocean, and the place of Atlas,<a
+  name="Hipp_39"></a><a href="#HippN_39"><sup>[39]</sup></a> if any way I
+  could, so much do I hate thee.</p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. Without having even examined oath, or proof, or the sayings of
+  the seers, wilt thou cast me uncondemned from out the land?</p>
+
+  <p>THES. This letter here, that waiteth no seer's observations,<a
+  name="Hipp_40"></a><a href="#HippN_40"><sup>[40]</sup></a> accuses thee
+  faithfully; but to the birds that flit above my head I bid a long
+  farewell.</p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. O Gods, wherefore then do I not ope my mouth, who am destroyed
+  by you whom I worship?&mdash;And yet not so&mdash;for thus I should not
+  altogether persuade those whom I ought, but should be violating to no
+  purpose the oaths which I have sworn.</p>
+
+  <p>THES. Alas me! how thy sanctity kills me! Wilt not thou go as quick as
+  possible from thy country's land?</p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. Whither then shall I unhappy turn me; what stranger's mansion
+  shall I enter, banished on this charge?</p>
+
+  <p>THES. His, who delights to entertain defilers of women, and those who
+  dwell with<a name="Hipp_41"></a><a href="#HippN_41"><sup>[41]</sup></a>
+  evil deeds.</p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. Alas! alas! this goes to my heart, and almost makes me weep: if
+  indeed I appear vile, and seem so to thee.</p>
+
+  <p>THES. Then oughtest thou to have groaned, and owned the guilt before,
+  when thou daredst to wrong thy father's wife.</p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. O mansions, would that ye could utter me a voice, and bear
+  witness whether I be a vile man!</p>
+
+  <p>THES. Dost fly to dumb witnesses? this deed, though it speak not,
+  clearly proves thee vile.</p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. Alas! would that I could look upon myself standing opposite, to
+  that degree do I weep for the evils which I suffer!</p>
+
+  <p>THES. Thou hast accustomed thyself much more to regard thyself, than
+  to be a just man, and to do what is righteous to thy parents.</p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. O unhappy mother! O wretched natal hour! may none of my friends
+  ever be illegitimate.</p>
+
+  <p>THES. Servants, will ye not drag him out? did you not hear me long ago
+  pronounce him banished!</p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. Any one of them shall touch me to his cost however; but thou
+  thyself, if it be thy desire, thrust me out from the land.</p>
+
+  <p>THES. I will do this, unless thou wilt obey my words, for no pity for
+  thy banishment comes over me.</p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. It is fixed, as it seems; alas, wretch that I am! since I know
+  these things indeed, but know not how to say them. O most dear to me of
+  deities, daughter of Latona, thou that assortest with me, huntest with
+  me, we shall then indeed be banished illustrious Athens: but farewell O
+  city, and land of Erectheus. O plain of Tr&#339;zene, how many things
+  hast thou to employ the happy youth! Farewell! for I address thee,
+  beholding thee for the last time&mdash;Come youths of this land my
+  companions, bid me farewell, and conduct me from the land, for never
+  shall you see a man more chaste, even though I seem not to my father.</p>
+
+<p class="center">CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>Surely the providence of the Gods, when it comes into my mind, greatly
+  takes away sorrow: but cherishing in my hope some knowledge, I am utterly
+  deficient, when I look on the fortunes and on the deeds of men, for they
+  are changed in different manners, and the life of man varies, ever
+  exceeding vague. Would that in answer to my petitions fate from the Gods
+  would give me this, prosperity with riches, and a mind unsullied by
+  griefs. And be my character neither too high, nor on the other hand
+  infamous. But changing my easy habits with the morrow ever may I lead a
+  happy life; for no longer have I an unperturbed mind, but I see things
+  contrary to my expectations: since we have seen the brightest star of
+  Grecian Minerva sent forth to another land on account of his father's
+  rage. O sands of the neighboring shore, and mountain wood, where with the
+  swift-footed dogs he wont to slay the wild beasts, accompanying the
+  chaste Dian! No more shalt thou mount the car drawn by the team of
+  Henetian steeds, restraining with thy foot the horses in their exercise
+  on the course round Limna.<a name="Hipp_42"></a><a
+  href="#HippN_42"><sup>[42]</sup></a> And the sleepless song that used to
+  dwell under the bridge of the chords shall cease in thy father's house.
+  And the haunts of the daughter of Latona in the deep wood shall be
+  without their garlands: and the contest among the damsels for thy bridal
+  bed has died away by reason of thy exile. But I, for thy misfortunes,
+  shall endure with tears a fortuneless fortune.<a name="Hipp_43"></a><a
+  href="#HippN_43"><sup>[43]</sup></a> O unhappy mother, thou hast brought
+  forth in vain! Alas! I am enraged with the Gods. Alas! alas! united
+  charms of marriage, wherefore send ye the unhappy one, guilty of no
+  crime, away from his country's land&mdash;away from these mansions?</p>
+
+  <p>But lo! I perceive a follower of Hippolytus with a sad countenance
+  coming toward the house in haste.</p>
+
+<p class="center">MESSENGER, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. Ye females, whither going can I find Theseus, king of this land?
+  If ye know, tell me: is he within this palace?</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. The [king] himself is coming out of the palace.</p>
+
+<p class="center">MESSENGER, THESEUS, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. I bring a tale that demands concern, of thee and of thy
+  subjects, both those who inhabit the city of the Athenians, and the
+  realms of the Tr&#339;zenian land.</p>
+
+  <p>THES. What is it? Has any sudden calamity come upon the two
+  neighboring states?</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. To speak the word&mdash;Hippolytus is no more. He views the
+  light however for a short moment.</p>
+
+  <p>THES. <i>Killed</i>? By whom? Has any come to enmity with him, whose
+  wife, as his father's, he has forcibly defiled?</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. His own chariot slew him, and the imprecations of thy mouth,
+  which thou didst put up to thy father, the ruler of the ocean, concerning
+  thy son.</p>
+
+  <p>THES. O ye Gods! and O Neptune! how truly then wert thou my father,
+  when thou didst duly hear my imprecations! Tell me too, how did he
+  perish? in what way did the staff of Justice strike him that disgraced
+  me?</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. We indeed near the wave-beaten shore were combing out with combs
+  the horses' hair, weeping, for there had come a messenger saying, that
+  Hippolytus no longer trod on this land, having from thee received the
+  sentence of wretched banishment. But he came bringing to us on the shore
+  the same strain of tears: and an innumerable throng of his friends and
+  companions came following with him. But at length after some time he
+  spake, having ceased from his groans. "Wherefore am I thus disquieted? My
+  father's words must be obeyed. My servants, yoke to my car the harnessed
+  steeds, for this city is for me no more." Then indeed every man hasted,
+  and sooner than one could speak we drew up the horses caparisoned before
+  our master; and he seizes with his hands the reins from off the bow of
+  the chariot, mounting with his foot sandaled as it was.<a
+  name="Hipp_44"></a><a href="#HippN_44"><sup>[44]</sup></a> And first
+  indeed he addressed the Gods with outstretched hands: "Jove, may I no
+  longer exist, if I am a base man; but may my father perceive how
+  unworthily he treats me, either when I am dead, or while I view the
+  light." And on this having taken the whip in his hands he struck the
+  horses both at once: and we the attendants followed our master by the
+  chariot close to the reins, along the road that leads straightway to
+  Argos and Epidauria, but when we came into the desert country, there is a
+  certain shore beyond this land which slopes even down to the Saronic Sea,
+  from thence a voice like the subterraneous thunder of Jove sent forth a
+  dreadful groan appalling to hear, and the horses pointed their heads
+  erect and their ears toward the sky, and on us there came a vehement
+  fear, whence possibly the voice could come: but looking toward the
+  sea-beaten shore we beheld a vast wave pillared in heaven, so that the
+  view of the heights of Sciron was taken from mine eye:<a
+  name="Hipp_45"></a><a href="#HippN_45"><sup>[45]</sup></a> and it
+  concealed the Isthmus and the rock of Æsculapius. And then swelling up
+  and splashing forth<a name="Hipp_46"></a><a
+  href="#HippN_46"><sup>[46]</sup></a> much foam around in the ocean surf,
+  it moves toward the shore, where was the chariot drawn by its four
+  horses. But together with its breaker and its tripled surge,<a
+  name="Hipp_47"></a><a href="#HippN_47"><sup>[47]</sup></a> the wave sent
+  forth a bull, a fierce monster; with whose bellowing the whole land
+  filled resounded fearfully: and to the lookers-on a sight appeared more
+  dreadful than the eyes could bear. And straightway a dreadful fear comes
+  over the steeds. But their master, being much conversant with the ways of
+  horses, seized the reins in his hands, and pulls them as a sailor pulls
+  his oar, having fixed his body in an opposite direction to the reins.<a
+  name="Hipp_48"></a><a href="#HippN_48"><sup>[48]</sup></a> But they,
+  champing with their jaws the forged bits, bare him on forcibly, heeding
+  neither the hand that steered them, nor the traces, nor the compact
+  chariot: and, if indeed holding the reins he directed their course toward
+  the softer ground, the bull appeared in front, so as to turn them away
+  maddening with fright the four horses that drew the chariot. But if they
+  were borne to the rocks maddened in mettle, silently approaching the
+  chariot he followed so far, until he overthrew it and drove it backward,
+  dashing the felly of the wheel against the rock. And all was in
+  confusion, and the naves of the wheels flew up, and the linch-pins of the
+  axles. But the unhappy man himself entangled in the reins is dragged
+  along, bound in a difficult bond, his head dashed against the rocks, and
+  torn his flesh, and crying out in a voice dreadful to hear, "Stop, O ye
+  that have been trained up in my stalls, do not destroy me. Oh unhappy
+  imprecation of my father! Who will come near and save a most excellent
+  man?" But many of us wishing so to do failed through want of swiftness:
+  and he indeed freed, in what manner I know not, from the entanglements of
+  the reins, falls, having the breath of life in him, but for a very short
+  time. And the horses vanished, and the woeful monster of the bull I know
+  not where in the mountain country. I am indeed the slave of thy house, O
+  king, but thus much never shall I at least be able to be persuaded of thy
+  son, that he is evil, not even if the whole race of women were hung, and
+  though one should fill with writing all the fir of Ida,<a
+  name="Hipp_49"></a><a href="#HippN_49"><sup>[49]</sup></a> since I am
+  confident that he is virtuous.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Alas! alas! The calamity of new evils is consummated, nor is
+  there refuge from fate and from what must be.</p>
+
+  <p>THES. Through hate of the man, who has thus suffered, I was pleased
+  with this account; but now, having respect unto the Gods, and to him,
+  because he is of me, I am neither pleased, nor yet troubled at these
+  ills.</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. How then? Must we bring him hither, or what must we do to the
+  unhappy man to gratify thy wishes! Think; but if thou take my advice,
+  thou wilt not be harsh toward thy son in his misfortunes.</p>
+
+  <p>THES. Bear him hither, that seeing him before my eyes that denied he
+  had defiled my bed, I may confute him with words, and with what has
+  happened from the Gods.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Thou, Venus, bendest the stubborn mind of the Gods, and of
+  mortals, and with thee he of varied plume, that darts about on swiftest
+  wing; and flies over the earth and over the loud-resounding briny ocean;
+  and Love charms to subjection, on whose maddened heart the winged urchin
+  come gleaming with gold, the race of the mountain whelps, and of those
+  that inhabit the sea, and as many things as the earth nourisheth, which
+  the sun doth behold scorched [with its rays,] and men: but over all these
+  things thou, Venus, alone holdest sovereign rule.</p>
+
+<p class="center">DIANA, THESEUS, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>DI. Thee, the noble son of Ægeus, I command to listen; but it is I,
+  Diana, daughter of Latona, who am addressing thee: Theseus, wherefore
+  dost thou, wretched man, take delight in these things, seeing that thou
+  hast slain in no just way thy son, being persuaded by the lying words of
+  thy wife in things not seen? But the guilt that has seized on thee is
+  manifest. How canst thou, shamed as thou art, refrain from hiding thy
+  body beneath the dark recesses of the earth? or from withdrawing thy foot
+  from this suffering, by changing thy nature, and becoming a winged
+  creature above? Since among good men at least thou hast not a part in
+  life to possess. Hear, O Theseus, the state of thy ills. Even though I
+  gain no advantage from it, yet will I torment thee; but for this purpose
+  came I to show thee the upright mind of thy son, that he may die with a
+  good reputation, and thy wife's passion, or, in some sort, nobleness;
+  for, gnawed by the stings of that deity most hateful to us, as many as
+  delight in virginity, she became enamored of thy son. But while she
+  endeavored by right feeling to conquer Venus, she was destroyed not
+  willingly by the means employed by the nurse, who having first bound him
+  by oaths, told thy son her malady. But he, as was right, obeyed not her
+  words; nor, again, though evil-entreated by thee, did he violate the
+  sanctity of his oaths, being a pious man. But she, fearing lest her
+  conduct should be scrutinized, wrote a false letter, and by deceit
+  destroyed thy son, but nevertheless persuaded thee.</p>
+
+  <p>THES. Ah me!</p>
+
+  <p>DI. My tale torments thee, Theseus, but be still, that having heard
+  what follows thou mayest groan the more&mdash;Knowest thou then that thou
+  receivedst from thy father three wishes with a certainty of their being
+  granted? Whereof one thou hast expended, O most evil one, on thy son,
+  when thou mightest have done it on some of thine enemies. Thy father then
+  that dwelleth in the ocean, gave thee as much as he was bound to give,
+  because he promised. But thou both in his eyes and in mine appearest
+  evil, who neither didst await nor examine proof, nor the voice of the
+  prophets, didst not leave the consideration to length of time, but,
+  quicker than became thee, didst vent thy curses against thy son and slay
+  him.</p>
+
+  <p>THES. Mistress, let me die!</p>
+
+  <p>DI. Thou hast committed dreadful deeds, but nevertheless, it is still
+  possible even for thee to obtain pardon for these things. For Venus
+  willed that these things should be in order to satiate her rage. But
+  among the Gods the law is thus&mdash;None wishes to thwart the purpose of
+  him that wills anything, but we always give way. Since, be well assured,
+  were it not that I feared Jove, never should I have come to such
+  disgrace, as to suffer to die a man of all mortals the most dear to me.
+  But thine error, first of all thine ignorance frees from malice; and then
+  thy wife by her dying put an end to the proof of words, so as to persuade
+  thy mind. Chiefly then on thee these ills are burst, but sorrow is to me
+  too; for Gods rejoice not when the pious die; the wicked however we
+  destroy with their children and their houses.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. And lo! the unhappy man there is coming, all mangled his young
+  flesh and auburn head. Oh the misery of the house! such double anguish
+  coming down from heaven has been wrought in the palaces!</p>
+
+<p class="center">HIPPOLYTUS, DIANA, THESEUS, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. O! O! O! Unhappy I was thus foully mangled by the unjust prayers
+  of an unjust father&mdash;I am destroyed miserably. Ah me! ah me! Pains
+  rush through my head, and the spasm darts across my brain. Stop, I will
+  rest my fainting body. Oh! oh! O those hateful horses of my chariot,
+  things which I fed with my own hand, ye have destroyed me utterly and
+  slain me. Oh! oh! by the Gods, gently, my servants, touch with your hands
+  my torn flesh. Who stands by my side on the right? Lift me up properly,
+  and take hold all equally on me, the unblessed of heaven, and cursed by
+  my father's error&mdash;Jove, Jove, beholdest thou these things? Lo! I,
+  the chaste, and the reverencer of the Gods, I who in modesty exceed all,
+  have lost my life, and go to a manifest hell beneath the earth; but in
+  vain have I labored in the task of piety toward men. O! O! O! O! and now
+  the pain, the pain comes upon me, loose unhappy me, and let death come to
+  be my physician. Destroy me, destroy the unhappy one&mdash;I long for a
+  two-edged blade, wherewith to cut me in pieces, and to put my life to an
+  eternal rest. Oh unhappy curse of my father! the evil too of my
+  blood-polluted kinsmen, my old forefathers, bursts forth<a
+  name="Hipp_50"></a><a href="#HippN_50"><sup>[50]</sup></a> upon me; nor
+  is it at a distance; and it hath come on me, wherefore, I pray, who am
+  nothing guilty of these ills? Alas me! me! what can I say? how can I free
+  my life from this cruel calamity? Would that the black and nightly fate
+  of Pluto would put me wretched to eternal sleep!</p>
+
+  <p>DI. Oh unhappy mortal, with what a calamity art thou enthralled! but
+  the nobleness of thy mind hath destroyed thee.</p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. Let be. O divine breathing of perfume, for, even though being in
+  ills, I perceived thee, and felt my body lightened of its pain.<a
+  name="Hipp_51"></a><a href="#HippN_51"><sup>[51]</sup></a> The Goddess
+  Dian is in this place.</p>
+
+  <p>DI. Oh unhappy one! she is, to thee the most dear of deities.</p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. Mistress, thou seest wretched me, in what state I am.</p>
+
+  <p>DI. I see; but it is not lawful for me to shed a tear down mine
+  eyes.</p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. Thy hunter, and thy servant is no more.</p>
+
+  <p>DI. No in sooth; but beloved by me thou perishest.</p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. And he that managed they steeds, and guarded thy statutes.</p>
+
+  <p>DI. <i>Ay</i>, for the crafty Venus hath so wrought.</p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. Ah me! I perceive indeed the power that hath destroyed me.</p>
+
+  <p>DI. She thought her honor aggrieved, and hated thee for being
+  chaste.</p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. One Venus hath destroyed us three.</p>
+
+  <p>DI. Thy father, and thee, and his wife the third.</p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. I mourn therefore also my father's misery.</p>
+
+  <p>DI. He was deceived by the devices of the Goddess.</p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. Oh! unhappy thou, because of this calamity, my father!</p>
+
+  <p>THES. I perish, my son, nor have I delight in life.</p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. I lament thee rather than myself on account of thy error.</p>
+
+  <p>THES. My son, would that I could die in thy stead!</p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. Oh! the bitter gifts of thy father Neptune!</p>
+
+  <p>THES. Would that the prayer had never come into my mouth.</p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. Wherefore this wish? thou wouldst have slain me, so enraged wert
+  thou then.</p>
+
+  <p>THES. For I was deceived in my notions by the Gods.</p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. Alas! would that the race of mortals could curse the Gods!</p>
+
+  <p>DI. Let be; for not even when thou art under the darkness of the earth
+  shall the rage arising from the bent of the Goddess Venus descend upon
+  thy body unrevenged: by reason of thy piety and thy excellent mind. For
+  with these inevitable weapons from mine own hand will I revenge me on
+  another,<a name="Hipp_52"></a><a href="#HippN_52"><sup>[52]</sup></a>
+  whoever to her be the dearest of mortals. But to thee, O unhappy one, in
+  recompense for these evils, will I give the greatest honors in the land
+  of Tr&#339;zene; for the unwedded virgins before their nuptials shall
+  shear their locks to thee for many an age, owning the greatest sorrow
+  tears can give; but ever among the virgins shall there be a remembrance
+  of thee that shall awake the song, nor dying away without a name shall
+  Phædra's love toward thee pass unrecorded:&mdash;But thou, O son of the
+  aged Ægeus, take thy son in thine arms and clasp him to thee; for
+  unwillingly thou didst destroy him, but that men should err, when the
+  Gods dispose events, is but to be expected!&mdash;and thee, Hippolytus, I
+  exhort not to remain at enmity with thy father; for thou perceivest the
+  fate, whereby thou wert destroyed. And farewell! for it is not lawful for
+  me to behold the dead, nor to pollute mine eye with the gasps of the
+  dying; but I see that thou art now near this calamity.</p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. Go thou too, and farewell, blessed virgin! But thou easily
+  quittest a long companionship. But I give up all enmity against my father
+  at thy request, for before also I was wont to obey thy words. Ah! ah!
+  darkness now covers me over mine eyes. Take hold on me, my father, and
+  lift up my body.</p>
+
+  <p>THES. Ah me! my son, what dost thou, do to me unhappy?</p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. I perish, and do indeed see the gates of hell.</p>
+
+  <p>THES. What? leaving my mind uncleansed from thy blood?</p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. No in sooth, since I free thee from this murder.</p>
+
+  <p>THES. What sayest thou? dost thou remit me free from the guilt of
+  blood?</p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. I call to witness Dian that slays with the bow.</p>
+
+  <p>THES. O most dear, how noble thou appearest to thy father!</p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. O farewell thou too, take my best farewell, my father!</p>
+
+  <p>THES. Oh me! for thy pious and brave soul!</p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. Pray to have legitimate sons like me.</p>
+
+  <p>THES. Do not, I prithee, leave me, my son, but be strong.</p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. My time of strength is past; for I perish, my father: but cover
+  my face as quickly as possible with robes.</p>
+
+  <p>THES. O famous realms of Athens and of Pallas, of what a man will ye
+  have been bereaved! Oh unhappy I! What abundant reason, Venus, shall I
+  have to remember thy ills!</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. This common grief to all the citizens hath come unexpectedly.
+  There will be a fast falling of many tears; for the mournful stories of
+  great men rather obtain.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h3>NOTES ON HIPPOLYTUS</h3>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+<div class="note">
+  <p><a name="HippN_1"></a><a href="#Hipp_1">[1]</a> The construction in
+  the original furnishes a remarkable example of the "nominativus
+  pendens."</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HippN_2"></a><a href="#Hipp_2">[2]</a> Or, <i>that posterity
+  might know it</i>. TR. Dindorf would omit these words. B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HippN_3"></a><a href="#Hipp_3">[3]</a> Dindorf would omit
+  these lines. I think the difficulty in the structure may be removed by
+  reading <span lang="el"
+  title="hostis">&#x201B;&#x3BF;&#x3C3;&#x3C4;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;</span> instead
+  of <span lang="el"
+  title="hosois">&#x201B;&#x3BF;&#x3C3;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;</span>. The
+  enallage, <span lang="el" title="hostis ...
+  toutois">&#x201B;&#x3BF;&#x3C3;&#x3C4;&#x3B9;&#x3C2; ...
+  &#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;</span>, is by no means
+  unusual. B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HippN_4"></a><a href="#Hipp_4">[4]</a> Cf. Soph. &#338;d.
+  Col. 121, sqq. B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HippN_5"></a><a href="#Hipp_5">[5]</a> Which at present you
+  do not appear to have.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HippN_6"></a><a href="#Hipp_6">[6]</a> Monk would join <span
+  lang="el"
+  title="ôkeanou">&#x3C9;&#x3BA;&#x3B5;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;</span>
+  with <span lang="el"
+  title="petra">&#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3C4;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;</span>, as in the
+  translation, but other commentators prefer, which is certainly more
+  simple, to join it with <span lang="el"
+  title="hydôr">&#x201B;&#x3C5;&#x3B4;&#x3C9;&#x3C1;</span>. Then the
+  difficulty occurs of sea-water being unfit for washing vests. This
+  difficulty Beck obviates, by saying that <span lang="el" title="hydôr
+  ôkeanou">&#x201B;&#x3C5;&#x3B4;&#x3C9;&#x3C1;
+  &#x3C9;&#x3BA;&#x3B5;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;</span> may be applied
+  to fresh water, Ocean being the parent of all streams, the word <span
+  lang="el"
+  title="ôkeanou">&#x3C9;&#x3BA;&#x3B5;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;</span>
+  being here, in a manner, redundant. TR. Matthiæ is very wrath with the
+  "all on a washing day" manner in which the Chorus learned Phædra's
+  indisposition. The "Bothie of Toper na Fuosich" will furnish some similar
+  simplicities, such as the meeting a lassie "digging potatoes." But we
+  might as well object to the whole story of Nausicaa. It must be
+  recollected that the duties of the laundry were considered more
+  aristocratic by the ancients, than in modern times. B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HippN_7"></a><a href="#Hipp_7">[7]</a> Cf. Æsch. Pr. 23.
+  <span lang="el" title="Chroias ameipseis
+  anthos">&#x3A7;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B1;&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C8;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3B8;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span>. B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HippN_8"></a><a href="#Hipp_8">[8]</a> Literally <i>a speech
+  mounted on madness</i>. A similar expression occurs, Odyssey <span
+  lang="el" title="A">&#x391;</span>. 297. <span lang="el" title="Nêpiaas
+  ocheein">&#x39D;&#x3B7;&#x3C0;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;&#x3B1;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3BF;&#x3C7;&#x3B5;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HippN_9"></a><a href="#Hipp_9">[9]</a> Plutarch in
+  explanation of this line says, "<span lang="el" title="kathaper poda
+  neôs, epididonta kai prosagonta tais chreiais tên
+  philian">&#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B8;&#x3B1;&#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3B4;&#x3B1; &#x3BD;&#x3B5;&#x3C9;&#x3C2;,
+  &#x3B5;&#x3C0;&#x3B9;&#x3B4;&#x3B9;&#x3B4;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3C3;&#x3B1;&#x3B3;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3C7;&#x3C1;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3C2; &#x3C4;&#x3B7;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3C6;&#x3B9;&#x3BB;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;</span>."</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HippN_10"></a><a href="#Hipp_10">[10]</a> I have followed the
+  elegant interpretation of L. Dindorf, who observes that <span lang="el"
+  title="ou dêth hekousa">&#x3BF;&#x3C5; &#x3B4;&#x3B7;&#x3B8;
+  &#x201B;&#x3B5;&#x3BA;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3B1;</span> refers to
+  Phædra's assertion, <span lang="el" title="ou gar es s'
+  amartanô">&#x3BF;&#x3C5; &#x3B3;&#x3B1;&#x3C1; &#x3B5;&#x3C2; &#x3C3;'
+  &#x3B1;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3C1;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3C9;</span>, and that
+  the meaning is, "non quidem consilio in me peccas, sed si tu peribis, ego
+  quoque occidero." He compares Alcest. 389. B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HippN_11"></a><a href="#Hipp_11">[11]</a> See Matthiæ's note.
+  I prefer, however, <span lang="el"
+  title="oleis">&#x3BF;&#x3BB;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;</span>, with Musgrave.
+  B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HippN_12"></a><a href="#Hipp_12">[12]</a> Matthiæ considers
+  this as briefly expressed for <span lang="el" title="ti touto, to eran,
+  ha legousi poiein anthrôpous">&#x3C4;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;, &#x3C4;&#x3BF;
+  &#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;, &#x201B;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3BB;&#x3B5;&#x3B3;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3B8;&#x3C1;&#x3C9;&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C2;</span>.
+  Still I can not help thinking <span lang="el"
+  title="anthrôpôn">&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3B8;&#x3C1;&#x3C9;&#x3C0;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;</span>
+  a better reading. B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HippN_13"></a><a href="#Hipp_13">[13]</a> Phædra struggles
+  between shame and uncertainty, before she can pronounce the name. It
+  should be read as if <span lang="el" title="hostis
+  poth'&mdash;houtos&mdash;ho tês
+  Amazonos">&#x201B;&#x3BF;&#x3C3;&#x3C4;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3B8;'&mdash;&#x201B;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;&mdash;&#x201B;&#x3BF;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3B7;&#x3C2;
+  &#x391;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3B6;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span>. B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HippN_14"></a><a href="#Hipp_14">[14]</a> Matthiæ takes <span
+  lang="el"
+  title="panamerios">&#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3B1;&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span>
+  as = <span lang="el" title="en têide têi hêmerai">&#x3B5;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3B7;&#x3B9;&#x3B4;&#x3B5; &#x3C4;&#x3B7;&#x3B9;
+  &#x201B;&#x3B7;&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;</span>, i.e. up to
+  this very time. I think the passage is corrupt. B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HippN_15"></a><a href="#Hipp_15">[15]</a> This passage, like
+  many others in the play, is admirably burlesqued by Aristoph., Ran. 962.
+  B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HippN_16"></a><a href="#Hipp_16">[16]</a> <i>Or, this is a
+  second favor thou mayst grant me</i>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HippN_17"></a><a href="#Hipp_17">[17]</a> On the numberless
+  references to this impious sophism, see the learned notes of Valckenaer
+  and Monk. Compare more particularly Aristoph. Ran. 102, 1471. Thesmoph.
+  275. Arist. Rhet. iii. 15. B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HippN_18"></a><a href="#Hipp_18">[18]</a> Literally,
+  "spurious coined race." B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HippN_19"></a><a href="#Hipp_19">[19]</a> The MSS. reading,
+  <span lang="el"
+  title="phyton">&#x3C6;&#x3C5;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span>, is preferable.
+  B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HippN_20"></a><a href="#Hipp_20">[20]</a> The syntax appears
+  to be <span lang="el" title="dysekperaton
+  biou">&#x3B4;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3B5;&#x3BA;&#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B2;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;</span>, <i>such as my like can scarcely get
+  over</i>. Musgrave has followed the other explanation of the Scholiast,
+  which makes <span lang="el"
+  title="biou">&#x3B2;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;</span> depend on <span
+  lang="el" title="pathos">&#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3B8;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span>. TR.
+  I have followed the Scholiast and Dindorf. B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HippN_21"></a><a href="#Hipp_21">[21]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="protrepousa, anti tou zêtousa kai
+  exereunôsa">&#x3C0;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3C4;&#x3C1;&#x3B5;&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3B1;,
+  &#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3B9; &#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;
+  &#x3B6;&#x3B7;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3B1; &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3B5;&#x3BE;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3B5;&#x3C5;&#x3BD;&#x3C9;&#x3C3;&#x3B1;</span>.
+  Schol. Dindorf acknowledges the strangeness of the usage, and seems to
+  prefer <span lang="el"
+  title="proskopous'">&#x3C0;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3C3;&#x3BA;&#x3BF;&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;'</span>,
+  with Monk. B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HippN_22"></a><a href="#Hipp_22">[22]</a> Cf. Soph. Ant. 751.
+  <span lang="el" title="hêd' oun thaneitai, kai thanous' olei
+  tina">&#x201B;&#x3B7;&#x3B4;' &#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B8;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;,
+  &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9; &#x3B8;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;'
+  &#x3BF;&#x3BB;&#x3B5;&#x3B9; &#x3C4;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;&#x3B1;</span>. B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HippN_23"></a><a href="#Hipp_23">[23]</a> For the meaning and
+  derivation of <span lang="el"
+  title="alibatois">&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3B9;&#x3B2;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;</span>,
+  see Monk's note.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HippN_24"></a><a href="#Hipp_24">[24]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="haliktypon">&#x201B;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3B9;&#x3BA;&#x3C4;&#x3C5;&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span>
+  seems to be an awkward epithet of <span lang="el"
+  title="kyma">&#x3BA;&#x3C5;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;</span>, unless it mean
+  "<i>dashed [against the shore] by the waves</i>." Perhaps <span lang="el"
+  title="aliktypon">&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3B9;&#x3BA;&#x3C4;&#x3C5;&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span>
+  would be less forced. B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HippN_25"></a><a href="#Hipp_25">[25]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="Hyperantlos ousa
+  symphorai">&#x201B;&#x3A5;&#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3BB;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3C3;&#x3C5;&#x3BC;&#x3C6;&#x3BF;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;</span>, a
+  metaphor taken from a ship which can no longer keep out water.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HippN_26"></a><a href="#Hipp_26">[26]</a> See the note on my
+  Translation of Æsch. Agam., p. 121, note 1. ed. Bonn. B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HippN_27"></a><a href="#Hipp_27">[27]</a> Read <span
+  lang="el" title="ômoi egô ponôn: epathon ô
+  talas">&#x3C9;&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3B9; &#x3B5;&#x3B3;&#x3C9;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;:
+  &#x3B5;&#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3B8;&#x3BF;&#x3BD; &#x3C9;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3C2;</span> with cod. Hav. See Dindorf.
+  B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HippN_28"></a><a href="#Hipp_28">[28]</a> Cf. Matth. apud
+  Dindorf. B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HippN_29"></a><a href="#Hipp_29">[29]</a> In the same manner
+  the chorus in the Alcestis comforts Admetus. v.</p>
+
+  <div class="poem">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <p><span lang="el" title="Ou gar ti prôtos, oude loisthios brotôn">&#x39F;&#x3C5; &#x3B3;&#x3B1;&#x3C1; &#x3C4;&#x3B9; &#x3C0;&#x3C1;&#x3C9;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;, &#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3B4;&#x3B5; &#x3BB;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3B8;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3C2; &#x3B2;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3C4;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;</span>&nbsp;</p>
+      <p><span lang="el" title="gynaikos esthlês êmplakes.">&#x3B3;&#x3C5;&#x3BD;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3BA;&#x3BF;&#x3C2; &#x3B5;&#x3C3;&#x3B8;&#x3BB;&#x3B7;&#x3C2; &#x3B7;&#x3BC;&#x3C0;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3BA;&#x3B5;&#x3C2;.</span>&nbsp;</p>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+  <p><a name="HippN_30"></a><a href="#Hipp_30">[30]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="Hyper">&#x201B;&#x3A5;&#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;</span> is here to be
+  understood. VALK.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HippN_31"></a><a href="#Hipp_31">[31]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="Sphendonê">&#x3A3;&#x3C6;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3B4;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3B7;</span>,
+  literally, the setting of the seal, which embraces the gem as a sling its
+  stone.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HippN_32"></a><a href="#Hipp_32">[32]</a> See a similar
+  expression in Æsch. Eum. 254,</p>
+
+  <div class="poem">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <p><span lang="el" title="Osmê broteiôn haimatôn me prosgelai.">&#x39F;&#x3C3;&#x3BC;&#x3B7; &#x3B2;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C9;&#x3BD; &#x201B;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3C9;&#x3BD; &#x3BC;&#x3B5; &#x3C0;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3C3;&#x3B3;&#x3B5;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;.</span>&nbsp;</p>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+  <p><a name="HippN_33"></a><a href="#Hipp_33">[33]</a> The construction
+  is, <span lang="el" title="eiê an emoi abiôtos tycha biou, hoste tychein
+  autês.">&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3B7; &#x3B1;&#x3BD; &#x3B5;&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3B1;&#x3B2;&#x3B9;&#x3C9;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3C5;&#x3C7;&#x3B1; &#x3B2;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;,
+  &#x201B;&#x3BF;&#x3C3;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3C5;&#x3C7;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B1;&#x3C5;&#x3C4;&#x3B7;&#x3C2;.</span> MONK.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HippN_34"></a><a href="#Hipp_34">[34]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="ê">&#x3B7;</span>, <i>which land, together with the present
+  earth</i>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HippN_35"></a><a href="#Hipp_35">[35]</a> On the Orphic
+  abstinence from animal food, see Matth. apud Dind. Compare Porphyr. de
+  Abst. ii. 3 sqq. B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HippN_36"></a><a href="#Hipp_36">[36]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="Athiktos">&#x391;&#x3B8;&#x3B9;&#x3BA;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span>
+  appears here to have an active sense. So in Soph. &#338;d. c. 1521. <span
+  lang="el" title="athiktos
+  hêgêtêros">&#x3B1;&#x3B8;&#x3B9;&#x3BA;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;
+  &#x201B;&#x3B7;&#x3B3;&#x3B7;&#x3C4;&#x3B7;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span>.
+  It is used in its more frequent sense (a passive) in v. 648, of this
+  play. TR. Compare my note on Æsch. Prom. 110, p. 6, n. I. B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HippN_37"></a><a href="#Hipp_37">[37]</a> Cf. Med. 169. <span
+  lang="el" title="Zêna th' hos orkôn thnatois tamias
+  nenomistai">&#x396;&#x3B7;&#x3BD;&#x3B1; &#x3B8;' &#x201B;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3BF;&#x3C1;&#x3BA;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B8;&#x3BD;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3BC;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3BD;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3BC;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;</span>.
+  B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HippN_38"></a><a href="#Hipp_38">[38]</a> There are various
+  interpretations of this passage. The Scholiast puts this sense upon it,
+  <i>Phædra was chaste (in your eyes), who had not the power of being
+  chaste, I had the power, and is it likely that I did not exert it to good
+  purpose?</i> Others translate the former part of the passage with the
+  Scholiast, but make <span lang="el" title="ou kalôs
+  echrômetha">&#x3BF;&#x3C5; &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3C9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B5;&#x3C7;&#x3C1;&#x3C9;&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3B8;&#x3B1;</span> refer to
+  the present time, <i>had it to no good purpose</i>, i.e. am not now able
+  to persuade you of my innocence. Some translate <span lang="el"
+  title="esôphroêsen">&#x3B5;&#x3C3;&#x3C9;&#x3C6;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3B7;&#x3C3;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;</span>,
+  <i>acted like a chaste woman</i>. TR. There is evidently a double
+  meaning, which is almost lost by translation. Theseus is not intended to
+  understand this. B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HippN_39"></a><a href="#Hipp_39">[39]</a> Cf. vs. 3. B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HippN_40"></a><a href="#Hipp_40">[40]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="Klêroi">&#x39A;&#x3BB;&#x3B7;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;</span> were the
+  notes the augurs took of their observations, and wrote down on tablets.
+  See Ph&#339;n. 852.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HippN_41"></a><a href="#Hipp_41">[41]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="xynoikourous">&#x3BE;&#x3C5;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3BA;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C2;</span>
+  appears to be metaphorically used, but I think the sense would be greatly
+  improved by reading <span lang="el"
+  title="kakous">&#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3BA;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C2;</span>, and
+  taking <span lang="el"
+  title="xynoikourous">&#x3BE;&#x3C5;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3BA;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C2;</span>
+  to mean "to dwell with him," referring it to <span lang="el"
+  title="hostis">&#x201B;&#x3BF;&#x3C3;&#x3C4;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;</span>. B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HippN_42"></a><a href="#Hipp_42">[42]</a> But we must read
+  <span lang="el" title="gymnados
+  hippou">&#x3B3;&#x3C5;&#x3BC;&#x3BD;&#x3B1;&#x3B4;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;
+  &#x201B;&#x3B9;&#x3C0;&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;</span> with Reiske, Brunot,
+  and Dindorf. See his notes. <span lang="el"
+  title="podi">&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3B4;&#x3B9;</span> must be joined with
+  <span lang="el" title="gym. hippou">&#x3B3;&#x3C5;&#x3BC;.
+  &#x201B;&#x3B9;&#x3C0;&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;</span>. B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HippN_43"></a><a href="#Hipp_43">[43]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="potmon apotmon">&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3C4;&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B1;&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3C4;&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span>. B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HippN_44"></a><a href="#Hipp_44">[44]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="Autaisin
+  arbylaisin">&#x391;&#x3C5;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B1;&#x3C1;&#x3B2;&#x3C5;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;</span>.
+  Some have supposed <span lang="el"
+  title="arbylê">&#x3B1;&#x3C1;&#x3B2;&#x3C5;&#x3BB;&#x3B7;</span> to mean
+  a part of the chariot, but this seems at variance with the best
+  authorities (see Monk's note); perhaps the expression may mean what is
+  implied in the translation; that Hippolytus did not wait to change any
+  part of his dress. TR. But I agree with Dindorf, that <span lang="el"
+  title="autaisin">&#x3B1;&#x3C5;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;</span>
+  is then utterly absurd and useless. The Scholiast seems correct in
+  saying, <span lang="el" title="tais ton harmatos peri tên antyga, entha
+  tên otasin echei ho hêniochos">&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;
+  &#x201B;&#x3B1;&#x3C1;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3B9; &#x3C4;&#x3B7;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3C5;&#x3B3;&#x3B1;, &#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3B8;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3B7;&#x3BD; &#x3BF;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B5;&#x3C7;&#x3B5;&#x3B9; &#x201B;&#x3BF;
+  &#x201B;&#x3B7;&#x3BD;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3C7;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span>. B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HippN_45"></a><a href="#Hipp_45">[45]</a> "Adeo ut deficerent
+  a visu, ne cernere possem, Scironis alta." B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HippN_46"></a><a href="#Hipp_46">[46]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="Kachlazô">&#x39A;&#x3B1;&#x3C7;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3B6;&#x3C9;</span>,
+  a word formed from the noise of the sea&mdash;<span lang="el" title="ho
+  gar êchos tou kymatos en tois koilômasi tôn petrôn ginomenos, dokei
+  mimeisthai to kachla, kachla">&#x201B;&#x3BF; &#x3B3;&#x3B1;&#x3C1;
+  &#x3B7;&#x3C7;&#x3BF;&#x3C2; &#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;
+  &#x3BA;&#x3C5;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C2; &#x3B5;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3BA;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3BB;&#x3C9;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3C9;&#x3BD; &#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3C4;&#x3C1;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B3;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;,
+  &#x3B4;&#x3BF;&#x3BA;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3BC;&#x3B9;&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3B8;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3BF; &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3C7;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;,
+  &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3C7;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;</span>.&mdash;<i>Etym. Mag.</i></p>
+
+  <p><a name="HippN_47"></a><a href="#Hipp_47">[47]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="Trikymiai">&#x3A4;&#x3C1;&#x3B9;&#x3BA;&#x3C5;&#x3BC;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;</span>.
+  See Blomfield's <i>Glossary to the Prometheus</i>, 1051.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HippN_48"></a><a href="#Hipp_48">[48]</a> Musgrave supposes
+  that Hippolytus wound the reins round his body; but on this supposition,
+  not to mention other objections, the comparison with the sailor does not
+  hold so well. It is more natural to suppose that he leaned back in order
+  to get a purchase: in this attitude he is made to describe himself in Ov.
+  <i>Met.</i> xv. 519, <i>Et retro lentas tendo resupinus habenas.</i> If
+  there be any doubt of <span lang="el" title="eis toumisthen
+  himasin">&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3BC;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3B8;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;
+  &#x201B;&#x3B9;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;</span> being Greek,
+  this objection is obviated by putting a stop after <span lang="el"
+  title="himasin">&#x201B;&#x3B9;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;</span>,
+  and making it depend on <span lang="el"
+  title="helkei">&#x201B;&#x3B5;&#x3BB;&#x3BA;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HippN_49"></a><a href="#Hipp_49">[49]</a> i.e. in Crete. See
+  Dindorf's note. B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HippN_50"></a><a href="#Hipp_50">[50]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="Exorizetai">&#x395;&#x3BE;&#x3BF;&#x3C1;&#x3B9;&#x3B6;&#x3B5;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;</span>,
+  <i>valde prorumpit, liberat terminos, quibus hactenus septum fuit</i>.
+  REISKE.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HippN_51"></a><a href="#Hipp_51">[51]</a> Heath translates
+  <span lang="el"
+  title="anekouphisthên">&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3B5;&#x3BA;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C6;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3B8;&#x3B7;&#x3BD;</span>
+  <i>adtollebam corpus</i>, honoris scilicet gratia. Compare Iliad, <span
+  lang="el" title="O">&#x39F;</span>. 241. <span lang="el" title="atar
+  asthma kai hidrôs pauet', epei min egeire Dios noos
+  aigiochoio">&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3C1;
+  &#x3B1;&#x3C3;&#x3B8;&#x3BC;&#x3B1; &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x201B;&#x3B9;&#x3B4;&#x3C1;&#x3C9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3C5;&#x3B5;&#x3C4;', &#x3B5;&#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3BC;&#x3B9;&#x3BD; &#x3B5;&#x3B3;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C1;&#x3B5;
+  &#x394;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3C2; &#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3B3;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3C7;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;</span>,
+  which Pope translates,</p>
+
+  <div class="poem">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <p>"Jove thinking of his pains, they pass'd away:"</p>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+  <p>in which the idea is much more sublime; for there the thought of a
+  Deity effects what the presence of one does here.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HippN_52"></a><a href="#Hipp_52">[52]</a> Probably meaning
+  Adonis. See Monk. B.</p>
+
+</div>
+<hr class="full" />
+
+<a name="ALCESTIS"></a>
+<h2>ALCESTIS.</h2>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+<h3>PERSONS REPRESENTED.</h3>
+
+  <div class="personae">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <p>APOLLO.</p>
+      <p>DEATH.</p>
+      <p>CHORUS OF PHER&#338;ANS.</p>
+      <p>ATTENDANTS.</p>
+      <p>ALCESTIS.</p>
+      <p>ADMETUS.</p>
+      <p>EUMELUS.</p>
+      <p>HERCULES.</p>
+      <p>PHERES.</p>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+<hr />
+
+<h3>THE ARGUMENT.</h3>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+  <p>Apollo desired of the Fates that Admetus, who was about to die, might
+  give a substitute to die for him, that so he might live for a term equal
+  to his former life; and Alcestis, his wife, gave herself up, while
+  neither of his parents were willing to die instead of their son. But not
+  long after the time when this calamity happened, Hercules having arrived,
+  and having learned from a servant what had befallen Alcestis, went to her
+  tomb, and having made Death retire, covers the lady with a robe; and
+  requested Admetus to receive her and keep her for him; and said he had
+  borne her off as a prize in wrestling; but when he would not, he unveiled
+  her, and discovered her whom he was lamenting.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2>ALCESTIS</h2>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+<p class="center">APOLLO.</p>
+
+  <p>O mansions of Admetus, wherein I endured to acquiesce in the slave's
+  table,<a name="Alc_1"></a><a href="#AlcN_1"><sup>[1]</sup></a> though a
+  God; for Jove was the cause, by slaying my son Æsculapius, hurling the
+  lightning against his breast: whereat enraged, I slay the Cyclops,
+  forgers of Jove's fire; and me my father compelled to serve for hire with
+  a mortal, as a punishment for these things. But having come to this land,
+  I tended the herds of him who received me, and have preserved this house
+  until this day: for being pious I met with a pious man,<a
+  name="Alc_2"></a><a href="#AlcN_2"><sup>[2]</sup></a> the son of Pheres,
+  whom I delivered from dying by deluding the Fates: but those Goddesses
+  granted me that Admetus should escape the impending death, could he
+  furnish in his place another dead for the powers below. But having tried
+  and gone through all his friends, his father and his aged mother who bore
+  him, he found not, save his wife, one who was willing to die for him, and
+  view no more the light: who now within the house is borne in their hands,
+  breathing her last; for on this day is it destined for her to die, and to
+  depart from life. But I, lest the pollution<a name="Alc_3"></a><a
+  href="#AlcN_3"><sup>[3]</sup></a> come upon me in the house, leave this
+  palace's most dear abode. But already I behold Death near, priest of the
+  dead, who is about to bear her down to the mansions of Pluto; but he
+  comes at the right time, observing this day, in the which it was destined
+  for her to die.</p>
+
+<p class="center">DEATH,<a name="Alc_4"></a><a href="#AlcN_4"><sup>[4]</sup></a> APOLLO.</p>
+
+  <p>DEA. Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! What dost thou at the palace? why tamest here,
+  Ph&#339;bus? Art thou again at thy deeds of injustice, taking away and
+  putting an end to the honors of the powers beneath? Did it not suffice
+  thee to stay the death of Admetus, when thou didst delude the Fates by
+  fraudful artifice?<a name="Alc_5"></a><a
+  href="#AlcN_5"><sup>[5]</sup></a> But now too dost thou keep guard for
+  her, having armed thine hand with thy bow, who then promised, in order to
+  redeem her husband, herself, the daughter of Pelias, to die for him?</p>
+
+  <p>AP. Fear not, I cleave to justice and honest arguments.</p>
+
+  <p>DEA. What business then has your bow, if you cleave to justice?</p>
+
+  <p>AP. It is my habit ever to bear it.</p>
+
+  <p>DEA. Yes, and without regard to justice to aid this house.</p>
+
+  <p>AP. <i>Ay</i>, for I am afflicted at the misfortunes of a man that is
+  dear to me.</p>
+
+  <p>DEA. And wilt thou deprive me of this second dead?</p>
+
+  <p>AP. But neither took I him from thee by force.</p>
+
+  <p>DEA. How then is he upon earth, and not beneath the ground?</p>
+
+  <p>AP. Because he gave in his stead his wife, after whom thou art now
+  come.</p>
+
+  <p>DEA. Yes, and will bear her off to the land beneath.</p>
+
+  <p>AP. Take her away, for I know not whether I can persuade thee.</p>
+
+  <p>DEA. What? to slay him, whom I ought? for this was I commanded.</p>
+
+  <p>AP. No: but to cast death upon those about to die.</p>
+
+  <p>DEA. Yes, I perceive thy speech, and what thou aim'st at.</p>
+
+  <p>AP. Is it possible then for Alcestis to arrive at old age?</p>
+
+  <p>DEA. It is not: consider that I too am delighted with my due
+  honors.</p>
+
+  <p>AP. Thou canst not, however, take more than one life.</p>
+
+  <p>DEA. When the young die I earn the greater glory.</p>
+
+  <p>AP. And if she die old, she will be sumptuously entombed.<a
+  name="Alc_6"></a><a href="#AlcN_6"><sup>[6]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>DEA. Thou layest down the law, Ph&#339;bus, in favor of the rich.</p>
+
+  <p>AP. How sayest thou? what? hast thou been clever without my perceiving
+  it?</p>
+
+  <p>DEA. Those who have means would purchase to die old.</p>
+
+  <p>AP. Doth it not then seem good to thee to grant me this favor?</p>
+
+  <p>DEA. No in truth; and thou knowest my ways.</p>
+
+  <p>AP. Yes, hostile to mortals, and detested by the Gods.</p>
+
+  <p>DEA. Thou canst not have all things, which thou oughtest not.</p>
+
+  <p>AP. Nevertheless, thou wilt stop, though thou art over-fierce; such a
+  man will come to the house of Pheres, whom Eurystheus hath sent after the
+  chariot and its horses,<a name="Alc_7"></a><a
+  href="#AlcN_7"><sup>[7]</sup></a> <i>to bring them</i> from the wintry
+  regions of Thrace, who in sooth, being welcomed in the mansions of
+  Admetus, shall take away by force this woman from thee; and there will be
+  no obligation to thee at my hands, but still thou wilt do this, and wilt
+  be hated by me.</p>
+
+  <p>DEA. Much though thou talkest, thou wilt gain nothing. This woman then
+  shall descend to the house of Pluto; and I am advancing upon her, that I
+  may begin the rites on her with my sword; for sacred is he to the Gods
+  beneath the earth, the hair of whose head this sword hath consecrated.<a
+  name="Alc_8"></a><a href="#AlcN_8"><sup>[8]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p class="center">CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>SEMICH. Wherefore in heaven's name is this stillness before the
+  palace? why is the house of Admetus hushed in silence?</p>
+
+  <p>SEMICH. But there is not even one of our friends near, who can tell us
+  whether we have to deplore the departed queen, or whether Alcestis,
+  daughter of Pelias, yet living views this light, who has appeared to me
+  and to all to have been the best wife toward her husband.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Hears any one either a wailing, or the beating of hands within
+  the house, or a lamentation, as though the thing had taken place?<a
+  name="Alc_9"></a><a href="#AlcN_9"><sup>[9]</sup></a> There is not
+  however any one of the servants standing before the gates. Oh would that
+  thou wouldst appear, O Apollo, amidst the waves of this calamity!</p>
+
+  <p>SEMICH. They would not however be silent, were she dead.</p>
+
+  <p>SEMICH. For the corse is certainly not gone from the house.</p>
+
+  <p>SEMICH. Whence this conjecture? I do not presume this. What is it
+  gives you confidence?</p>
+
+  <p>SEMICH. How could Admetus have made a private funeral of his so
+  excellent wife?</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. But before the gates I see not the bath of water from the
+  fountain,<a name="Alc_10"></a><a href="#AlcN_10"><sup>[10]</sup></a> as
+  is the custom at the gates of the dead: and in the vestibule is no shorn
+  hair, which is wont to fall in grief for the dead; the youthful<a
+  name="Alc_11"></a><a href="#AlcN_11"><sup>[11]</sup></a> hand of women
+  for the youthful <i>wife</i> sound not.</p>
+
+  <p>SEMICH. And yet this is the appointed day,&mdash;</p>
+
+  <p>SEMICH. What is this thou sayest?</p>
+
+  <p>SEMICH. In the which she must go beneath the earth.</p>
+
+  <p>SEMICH. Thou hast touched my soul, hast touched my heart.</p>
+
+  <p>SEMICH. When the good are afflicted, he must mourn, who from the
+  beginning has been accounted good.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. But there is not whither in the earth any one having sent naval
+  equipment, or to Lycia, or to the thirsty site of Hammon's temple, can
+  redeem the unhappy woman's life, for abrupt fate approaches, and I know
+  not to whom of those that sacrifice at the hearths of the Gods I can go.
+  But only if the son of Ph&#339;bus were viewing with his eyes this light,
+  could she come, having left the darksome habitations and the gates of
+  Pluto: for he raised up the dead, before that the stroke of the
+  lightning's fire hurled by Jove destroyed him. But now what hope of life
+  can I any longer entertain? For all things have already been done by the
+  king, and at the altars of all the Gods abound the victims dropping with
+  blood, and no cure is there of these evils.</p>
+
+<p class="center">CHORUS, FEMALE ATTENDANT.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. But here comes one of the female attendants from the house, in
+  tears; what shall I hear has happened? To mourn indeed, if any thing
+  happens to our lords, is pardonable: but whether the lady be still alive,
+  or whether she be dead, we would wish to know.</p>
+
+  <p>ATT. You may call her both alive and dead.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. And how can the same woman be both alive and dead?</p>
+
+  <p>ATT. Already she is on the verge of death,<a name="Alc_12"></a><a
+  href="#AlcN_12"><sup>[12]</sup></a> and breathing her life away.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Oh wretched man, being what thyself of what a wife art thou
+  bereft!</p>
+
+  <p>ATT. My master knows not this yet, until he suffer.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Is there no longer hope that she may save her life?</p>
+
+  <p>ATT. No, for the destined day makes its attack upon her.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Are not then suitable preparations made for these events?</p>
+
+  <p>ATT. Yes, the adornments<a name="Alc_13"></a><a
+  href="#AlcN_13"><sup>[13]</sup></a> are ready, wherewith her husband will
+  bury her.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Let her know then that she will die glorious, and by far the
+  best of women under the sun.</p>
+
+  <p>ATT. And how not the best? who will contest it? What must the woman
+  be, who has surpassed her? and how can any give greater proof of
+  esteeming her husband, than by being willing to die for him? And these
+  things indeed the whole city knoweth. But what she did in the house you
+  will marvel when you hear. For, when she perceived that the destined day
+  was come, she washed her fair skin with water from the river; and having
+  taken from her closets of cedar vesture and ornaments, she attired
+  herself becomingly; and standing before the altar she prayed: "O
+  mistress, since I go beneath the earth, adoring thee for the last time, I
+  will beseech thee to protect my orphan children, and to the one join a
+  loving wife, and to the other a noble husband: nor, as their mother
+  perishes, let my children untimely die, but happy in their paternal
+  country let them complete a joyous life."&mdash;But all the altars, which
+  are in the house of Admetus, she went to, and crowned, and prayed,
+  tearing the leaves from off the myrtle boughs, tearless, without a groan,
+  nor did the approaching evil change the natural beauty of her skin. And
+  then rushing to her chamber, and her bed, there indeed she wept and spoke
+  thus: "O bridal bed, whereon I loosed my virgin zone with this man, for
+  whom I die, farewell! for I hate thee not; but me alone hast thou lost;
+  for dreading to betray thee, and my husband, I die; but thee some other
+  woman will possess, more chaste there can not, but perchance more
+  fortunate."<a name="Alc_14"></a><a
+  href="#AlcN_14"><sup>[14]</sup></a>&mdash;And falling on it she kissed
+  it; but all the bed was bathed with the flood that issued from her eyes.
+  But when she had satiety of much weeping, she goes hastily forward,<a
+  name="Alc_15"></a><a href="#AlcN_15"><sup>[15]</sup></a> rushing from the
+  bed. And ofttimes having left her chamber, she oft returned, and threw
+  herself upon the bed again. And her children, hanging to the garments of
+  their mother, wept; but she, taking them in her arms, embraced them,
+  first one and then the other, as about to die. But all the domestics wept
+  throughout the house, bewailing their mistress, but she stretched out her
+  right hand to each, and there was none so mean, whom she addressed not,
+  and was answered in return. Such are the woes in the house of Admetus.
+  And had he died indeed, he would have perished; but now that he has
+  escaped death, he has grief to that degree which he will never
+  forget.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Surely Admetus groans at these evils, if he must be deprived of
+  so excellent a wife.</p>
+
+  <p>ATT. Yes, he weeps, holding his dear wife in his hands, and prays her
+  not to leave him, asking impossibilities; for she wastes away, and is
+  consumed by sickness, but fainting a wretched burden in his arms, yet
+  still though but feebly breathing, she fain would glance toward the rays
+  of the sun; as though never again, but now for the last time she is to
+  view the sun's beam and his orb. But I will go and announce your
+  presence, for it is by no means all that are well-wishers to their lords,
+  so as to come kindly to them in their misfortunes; but you of old are
+  friendly to my master.</p>
+
+  <p>SEMICH. O Jove, what means of escape can there in any way be, and what
+  method to rid us of the fortune which attends my master?</p>
+
+  <p>SEMICH. Will any appear? or must I cut my locks, and clothe me even
+  now in black array of garments?</p>
+
+  <p>SEMICH. 'Tis plain, my friends, too plain; but still let us pray to
+  the Gods, for the power of the Gods is mightiest.</p>
+
+  <p>SEMICH. O Apollo, king of healing, find out some remedy for the evils
+  of Admetus, procure it, O! procure it. For before this also thou didst
+  find <i>remedy</i>, and now become our deliverer from death, and stop the
+  murderous Pluto.</p>
+
+  <p>SEMICH. Alas! alas! woe! woe! O son of Pheres, how didst thou fare
+  when thou wert deprived of thy wife?</p>
+
+  <p>SEMICH. Alas! alas! these things would even justify self-slaughter,
+  and there is more, than whereat one might thrust one's neck in the
+  suspending noose.<a name="Alc_16"></a><a
+  href="#AlcN_16"><sup>[16]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>SEMICH. For not a dear, but a most dear wife, wilt thou see dead this
+  day.</p>
+
+  <p>SEMICH. Behold, behold; lo! she doth come from the house, and her
+  husband with her. Cry out, O groan, O land of Pheres, for the most
+  excellent woman, wasting with sickness, <i>departing</i> beneath the
+  earth to the infernal Pluto. Never will I aver that marriage brings more
+  joy than grief, forming my conjectures both from former things, and
+  beholding this fortune of the king; who, when he has lost this most
+  excellent wife, will thenceforward pass a life not worthy to be called
+  life.<a name="Alc_17"></a><a href="#AlcN_17"><sup>[17]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p class="center">ALCESTIS, ADMETUS, EUMELUS, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>ALC. Thou Sun, and thou light of day, and ye heavenly eddies of the
+  fleeting clouds&mdash;</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. He beholds<a name="Alc_18"></a><a
+  href="#AlcN_18"><sup>[18]</sup></a> thee and me, two unhappy creatures,
+  having done nothing to the Gods, for which thou shouldst die.</p>
+
+  <p>ALC. O earth, and ye roofs of the palace, and thou bridal bed of my
+  native Iolcos.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. Lift up thyself, unhappy one, desert me not; but entreat the
+  powerful Gods to pity.</p>
+
+  <p>ALC. I see&mdash;I see the two-oared boat&mdash;and the ferryman of
+  the dead, holding his hand on the pole&mdash;Charon even now calls
+  me&mdash;"Why dost thou delay? haste, thou stoppest us here"&mdash;with
+  such words vehement he hastens me.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. Ah me! a bitter voyage this thou speakest of! Oh! unhappy one,
+  how do we suffer!</p>
+
+  <p>ALC. He pulls me, some one pulls me&mdash;do you not see?&mdash;to the
+  hall of the dead, the winged Pluto, staring from beneath his black
+  eyebrows&mdash;What wilt thou do?&mdash;let me go&mdash;what a journey am
+  I most wretched going!</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. Mournful to thy friends, and of these especially to me and to thy
+  children, who have this grief in common.</p>
+
+  <p>ALC. Leave off<a name="Alc_19"></a><a
+  href="#AlcN_19"><sup>[19]</sup></a> supporting me, leave off now, lay me
+  down, I have no strength in my feet. Death is near, and darkling night
+  creeps upon mine eyes&mdash;my children, my children, no more your mother
+  is&mdash;no more.&mdash;Farewell, my children, long may you view this
+  light!</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. Ah me! I hear this sad word, and more than any death to me. Do
+  not by the Gods have the heart to leave me: do not by those children,
+  whom thou wilt make orphans: but rise, be of good courage: for, thee
+  dead, I should no longer be: for on thee we depend both to live, and not
+  to live: for thy love we adore.</p>
+
+  <p>ALC. Admetus, thou seest both thy affairs and mine, in what state they
+  are, I wish to tell thee, ere I die, what I would have done. I, honoring
+  thee, and causing thee at the price of my life to view this light, die,
+  it being in my power not to die, for thee: but though I might have
+  married a husband from among the Thessalians whom I would, and have lived
+  in a palace blessed with regal sway, was not willing to live, bereft of
+  thee, with my children orphans; nor did I spare myself, though possessing
+  the gifts of bloomy youth, wherein I delighted. And yet thy father and
+  thy mother forsook thee, though they had well arrived at a point of life,
+  in which they might have died, and nobly delivered their son, and died
+  with glory: for thou wert their only one, and there was no hope, when
+  thou wert dead, that they could have other children.<a
+  name="Alc_20"></a><a href="#AlcN_20"><sup>[20]</sup></a> And I should
+  have lived, and thou, the rest of our time. And thou wouldst not be
+  groaning deprived of thy wife, and wouldst not have to bring up thy
+  children orphans. But these things indeed, some one of the Gods hath
+  brought to pass, that they should be thus. Be it so&mdash;but do thou
+  remember to give me a return for this; for never shall I ask thee for an
+  equal one, (for nothing is more precious than life,) but just, as thou
+  wilt say: for thou lovest not these children less than I do, if thou art
+  right-minded; them bring up lords over my house, and bring not in second
+  marriage a step-mother over these children, who, being a worse woman than
+  me, through envy will stretch out her hand against thine and my children.
+  Do not this then, I beseech thee; for a step-mother that is in second
+  marriage is enemy to the children of the former marriage, no milder than
+  a viper. And my boy indeed has his father, a great tower of defense; but
+  thou, O my child, how wilt thou be, brought up during thy virgin years?
+  Having what consort of thy father's? <i>I fear</i>, lest casting some
+  evil obloquy on thee, she destroys thy marriage in the bloom of youth.<a
+  name="Alc_21"></a><a href="#AlcN_21"><sup>[21]</sup></a> For neither will
+  thy mother ever preside over thy nuptials, nor strengthen thee being
+  present, my daughter, at thy travails, where nothing is more kind than a
+  mother. For I needs must die, and this evil comes upon me not to-morrow,
+  nor on the third day of the month, but immediately shall I be numbered
+  among those that are no more. Farewell, and may you be happy; and thou
+  indeed, my husband, mayst boast, that thou hadst a most excellent wife,
+  and you, my children, that you were born of a most excellent mother.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Be of good cheer; for I fear not to answer for him: he will do
+  this, if he be not bereft of his senses.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. These things shall be so, they shall be, fear not: since I, when
+  alive also, possessed thee <i>alone</i>, and when thou art dead, thou
+  shalt be my only wife, and no Thessalian bride shall address me in the
+  place of thee: there is not woman who shall, either of so noble a sire,
+  nor otherwise most exquisite in beauty. But my children are enough; of
+  these I pray the Gods that I may have the enjoyment; for thee we do not
+  enjoy. But I shall not have this grief for thee for a year, but as long
+  as my life endures, O lady, abhorring her indeed that brought me forth,
+  and hating my father; for they were in word, not in deed, my friends. But
+  thou, giving what was dearest to thee for my life, hast rescued me. Have
+  I not then reason to groan deprived of such a wife? But I will put an end
+  to the feasts, and the meetings of those that drink together, and garland
+  and song, which wont to dwell in my house. For neither can I any more
+  touch the lyre, nor lift up my heart to sing to the Libyan flute; for
+  thou hast taken away my joy of life. But by the cunning hand of artists
+  imaged thy figure shall be lain on my bridal bed, on which I will fall,
+  and clasping my hands around, calling on thy name, shall fancy that I
+  hold my dear wife in mine arms, though holding her not:<a
+  name="Alc_22"></a><a href="#AlcN_22"><sup>[22]</sup></a> a cold delight,
+  I ween; but still I may draw off the weight that sits upon my soul: and
+  in my dreams visiting me, thou mayst delight me, for a friend is sweet
+  even to behold at night, for whatever time he may come. But if the tongue
+  of Orpheus and his strain were mine, so that invoking with hymns the
+  daughter of Ceres or her husband, I could receive thee from the shades
+  below, I would descend, and neither the dog of Pluto, nor Charon at his
+  oar, the ferryman of departed spirits, should stay me before I brought
+  thy life to the light. But there expect me when I die and prepare a
+  mansion for me, as about to dwell with me. For I will enjoin these<a
+  name="Alc_23"></a><a href="#AlcN_23"><sup>[23]</sup></a> to place me in
+  the same cedar with thee, and to lay my side near thy side: for not even
+  when dead may I be separated from thee, the only faithful one to me!</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. And I indeed with thee, as a friend with a friend, will bear
+  this painful grief for her, for she is worthy.</p>
+
+  <p>ALC. My children, ye indeed hear your father saying that he will never
+  marry another wife to be over you, nor dishonor me.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. And now too, I say this, and will perform it</p>
+
+  <p>ALC. For this receive these children from my hand.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. Yes, I receive a dear gift from a dear hand.</p>
+
+  <p>ALC. Be thou then a mother to these children in my stead.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. There is much need that I should, when they are deprived of
+  thee.</p>
+
+  <p>ALC. O my children, at a time when I ought to live I depart
+  beneath.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. Ah me; what shall I do of thee bereaved!</p>
+
+  <p>ALC. Time will soften thy grief: he that is dead is nothing.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. Take me with thee, by the Gods take me beneath.</p>
+
+  <p>ALC. Enough are we <i>to go</i>, who die for thee.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. O fate, of what a wife thou deprivest me!</p>
+
+  <p>ALC. And lo! my darkening eye is weighed down.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. I am undone then, if thou wilt leave me, my wife.</p>
+
+  <p>ALC. As being no more, you may speak of me as nothing.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. Lift up thy face; do not leave thy children.</p>
+
+  <p>ALC. Not willingly in sooth, but&mdash;farewell, my children.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. Look on them, O! look.</p>
+
+  <p>ALC. I am no more.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. What dost thou? dost thou leave us?</p>
+
+  <p>ALC. Farewell!</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. I am an undone wretch!</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. She is gone, Admetus' wife is no more.</p>
+
+  <p>EUM. Alas me, for my state! my mother is gone indeed below; she is no
+  longer, my father, under the sun; but unhappy leaving me has made my life
+  an orphan's. For look, look at her eyelid, and her nerveless arms. Hear,
+  hear, O mother. I beseech thee; I, I now call thee, mother, thy young one
+  falling on thy mouth&mdash;</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. Who hears not, neither sees: so that I and you are struck with a
+  heavy calamity.</p>
+
+  <p>EUM. Young and deserted, my father, am I left by my dear mother: O! I
+  that have suffered indeed dreadful deeds!&mdash;and thou hast suffered
+  with me, my sister. O father, in vain, in vain didst thou marry, nor with
+  her didst thou arrive at the end of old age, for she perished before, but
+  thou being gone, mother, the house is undone.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Admetus, you must bear this calamity; for in no wise the first,
+  nor the last of mortals hast thou lost thy dear wife: but learn, that to
+  die is a debt we must all of us discharge.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. I know it, and this evil hath not come suddenly on me; but
+  knowing it long ago I was afflicted. But be present, for I will have the
+  corse borne forth, and while ye stay, chant a hymn to the God below that
+  accepteth not libations. And all the Thessalians, over whom I reign, I
+  enjoin to share in the grief for this lady, by shearing <i>their
+  locks</i> with steel, and by arraying themselves in sable garb. And
+  harness<a name="Alc_24"></a><a href="#AlcN_24"><sup>[24]</sup></a> your
+  teams of horses to your chariots, and cut from your single steeds the
+  manes that fall upon their necks. And let there be no noise of pipes, nor
+  of the lyre throughout the city for twelve completed moons. For none
+  other corse more dear shall I inter, nor one more kind toward me. But she
+  deserves to receive honor from me, seeing that she alone hath died for
+  me.</p>
+
+<p class="center">CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>O daughter of Pelias, farewell where thou dwellest in sunless dwelling
+  within the mansions of Pluto. And let Pluto know, the God with ebon
+  locks, and the old man, the ferryman of the dead, who sits intent upon
+  his oar and his rudder, that he is conducting by far the most excellent
+  of women in his two-oared boat over the lake of Acheron. Oft shall the
+  servants of the Muses sing of thee, celebrating thee both on the
+  seven-stringed lute on the mountains, and in hymns unaccompanied by the
+  lyre: in Sparta, when returns the annual circle in the season of the
+  Carnean month,<a name="Alc_25"></a><a href="#AlcN_25"><sup>[25]</sup></a>
+  when the moon is up the whole night long; and in splendid<a
+  name="Alc_26"></a><a href="#AlcN_26"><sup>[26]</sup></a> and happy
+  Athens. Such a song hast thou left by thy death to the minstrels of
+  melodies. Would that it rested with me, and that I could waft thee to the
+  light from the mansions of Pluto, and from Cocytus' streams, by the oar
+  of that infernal river. For thou, O unexampled, O dear among women, thou
+  didst dare to receive thy husband from the realms below in exchange for
+  thine own life. Light may the earth from above fall upon thee, lady! and
+  if thy husband chooses any other alliance, surely he will be much
+  detested by me and by thy children. When his mother was not willing for
+  him to hide her body in the ground, nor his aged father, but these two
+  wretches, having hoary locks, dared not to rescue him they brought forth,
+  yet thou in the vigor of youth didst depart, having died for thy husband.
+  May it be mine to meet with another<a name="Alc_27"></a><a
+  href="#AlcN_27"><sup>[27]</sup></a> such a dear wife; for rare in life is
+  such a portion, for surely she would live with me forever without once
+  causing pain.</p>
+
+<p class="center">HERCULES, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. Strangers, inhabitants of the land of Pheres, can I find Admetus
+  within the palace?</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. The son of Pheres is within the palace, O Hercules. But tell me,
+  what purpose sends thee to the land of the Thessalians, so that thou
+  comest to this city of Pheres?</p>
+
+  <p>HER. I am performing a certain labor for the Tirynthian
+  Eurystheus.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. And whither goest thou? on what wandering expedition art
+  bound?</p>
+
+  <p>HER. After the four chariot-steeds of Diomed the Thracian.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. How wilt thou be able? Art thou ignorant of this host?</p>
+
+  <p>HER. I am ignorant; I have not yet been to the land of the
+  Bistonians.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Thou canst not be lord of these steeds without battle.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. But neither is it possible for me to renounce the labors <i>set
+  me</i>.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Thou wilt come then having slain, or being slain wilt remain
+  there.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. Not the first contest this that I shall run.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. But what advance will you have made, when you have overcome
+  their master?</p>
+
+  <p>HER. I will drive away the horses to king Eurystheus.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. 'Tis no easy matter to put the bit in their jaws.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. <i>'Tis,</i> except they breathe fire from their nostrils.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. But they tear men piecemeal with their devouring jaws.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. The provender of mountain beasts, not horses, you are speaking
+  of.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Their stalls thou mayst behold with blood bestained.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. Son of what sire does their owner boast to be?</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Of Mars, prince<a name="Alc_28"></a><a
+  href="#AlcN_28"><sup>[28]</sup></a> of the Thracian target, rich with
+  gold.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. And this labor, thou talkest of, is one my fate compels me to
+  (for it is ever hard and tends to steeps); if I must join in battle with
+  the children whom Mars begat, first indeed with Lycaon, and again with
+  Cycnus, and I come to this third combat, about to engage with the horses
+  and their master. But none there is, who shall ever see the son of
+  Alcmena fearing the hand of his enemies.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. And lo! hither comes the very man Admetus, lord of this land,
+  from out of the palace.</p>
+
+<p class="center">ADMETUS, HERCULES, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. Hail! O son of Jove, and of the blood of Perseus.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. Admetus, hail thou too, king of the Thessalians!</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. I would I could <i>receive this salutation;</i> but I know that
+  thou art well disposed toward me.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. Wherefore art thou conspicuous with thy locks shorn for
+  grief?</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. I am about to bury a certain corse this day.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. May the God avert calamity from thy children!</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. My children whom I begat, live in the house.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. Thy father however is of full age, if he is gone.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. Both he lives, and she who bore me, Hercules.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. Surely your wife Alcestis is not dead?</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. There are two accounts which I may tell of her.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. Speakest thou of her as dead or as alive?</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. She both is, and is no more, and she grieves me.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. I know nothing more; for thou speakest things obscure.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. Knowest thou not the fate which it was doomed for her to meet
+  with?</p>
+
+  <p>HER. I know that she took upon herself to die for thee.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. How then is she any more, if that she promised this?</p>
+
+  <p>HER. Ah! do not weep for thy wife before the time; wait till this
+  happens.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. He that is about to die is dead, and he that is dead is no
+  more.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. The being and the not being is considered a different thing.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. You judge in this way, Hercules, but I in that.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. Why then dost weep? Who is he of thy friends that is dead?</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. A woman, a woman we were lately mentioning.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. A stranger by blood, or any by birth allied to thee?</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. A stranger; but on other account dear to this house.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. How then died she in thine house?</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. Her father dead, she lived an orphan here.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. Alas! Would that I had found thee, Admetus, not mourning!</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. As about to do what then, dost thou make use of these words?</p>
+
+  <p>HER. I will go to some other hearth of those who will receive a
+  guest.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. It must not be, O king: let not so great an evil happen!</p>
+
+  <p>HER. Troublesome is a guest if he come to mourners.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. The dead are dead&mdash;but go into the house.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. 'Tis base however to feast with weeping friends.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. The guest-chamber, whither we will lead thee, is apart.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. Let me go, and I will owe you ten thousand thanks.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. It must not be that thou go to the hearth of another man. Lead on
+  thou, having thrown open the guest-chamber that is separate from the
+  house: and tell them that have the management, that there be plenty of
+  meats; and shut the gates in the middle of the hall: it is not meet that
+  feasting guests should hear groans, nor should they be made sad.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. What are you doing? when so great a calamity is before you,
+  Admetus, hast thou the heart to receive guests? wherefore art thou
+  foolish?</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. But if I had driven him who came my guest from my house, and from
+  the city, would you have praised me rather? No in sooth, since my
+  calamity had been no whit the less, but I the more inhospitable: and in
+  addition to my evils, there had been this other evil, that mine should be
+  called the stranger-hating house. But I myself find this man a most
+  excellent host, whenever I go to the thirsty land of Argos.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. How then didst thou hide thy present fate, when a friend, as
+  thou thyself sayest, came?</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. He never would have been willing to enter the house if he had
+  known aught of my sufferings. And to him<a name="Alc_29"></a><a
+  href="#AlcN_29"><sup>[29]</sup></a> indeed, I ween, acting thus, I appear
+  not to be wise, nor will he praise me; but my house knows not to drive
+  away, nor to dishonor guests.</p>
+
+<p class="center">CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>O greatly hospitable and ever liberal house of this man,
+  thee even the Pythian Apollo, master of the lyre, deigned to
+  inhabit, and endured to become a shepherd in thine abodes,
+  through the sloping hills piping to thy flocks his pastoral nuptial
+  hymns. And there were wont to feed with them, through
+  delight of his lays, both the spotted lynxes, and the bloody
+  troop of lions<a name="Alc_30"></a><a href="#AlcN_30"><sup>[30]</sup></a>
+  came having left the forest of Othrys; disported
+  too around thy cithern, Ph&#339;bus, the dappled fawn,
+  advancing with light pastern beyond the lofty-feathered pines,
+  joying in the gladdening strain. Wherefore he dwelleth in a
+  home most rich in flocks by the fair-flowing lake of B&#339;be;
+  and to the tillage of his fields, and the extent of his plains,
+  toward that dusky <i>part of the heavens</i>, where the sun stays
+  his horses, makes the clime of the Molossians the limit, and
+  holds dominion as far as the portless shore of the Ægean Sea
+  at Pelion. And now having thrown open his house he hath
+  received his guest with moistened eyelid, weeping over the
+  corse of his dear wife, who but now died in the palace: for a
+  noble disposition is prone to reverence [of the guest]. But
+  in the good there is all manner of wisdom. And confidence
+  is seated on my soul that the man who reveres the Gods will
+  fare prosperously.</p>
+
+<p class="center">ADMETUS, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. Ye men of Pheræ that are kindly present, my servants indeed bear
+  aloft<a name="Alc_31"></a><a href="#AlcN_31"><sup>[31]</sup></a> the
+  corse, having every thing fit for the tomb, and for the pyre. But do you,
+  as is the custom, salute<a name="Alc_32"></a><a
+  href="#AlcN_32"><sup>[32]</sup></a> the dead going forth on her last
+  journey.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. And lo! I see thy father advancing with his aged foot, and
+  attendants bearing in their hands adornment for thy wife, due honors of
+  those beneath.</p>
+
+<p class="center">PHERES, ADMETUS, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>PHE. I am at present sympathizing in thy misfortunes, my son: for thou
+  hast lost (no one will deny) a good and a chaste wife; but these things
+  indeed thou must bear, though hard to be borne. But receive this
+  adornment, and let it go with her beneath the earth: Her body 'tis right
+  to honor, who in sooth died to save thy life, my son, and made me to be
+  not childless, nor suffered me to waste away deprived of thee in an old
+  age of misery. But she has made most illustrious the life of all women,
+  having dared this noble action. O thou that hast preserved my son here,
+  and hast raised us up who were falling, farewell,<a name="Alc_33"></a><a
+  href="#AlcN_33"><sup>[33]</sup></a> and may it be well with thee even in
+  the mansions of Pluto! I affirm that such marriages are profitable to
+  men, or that it is not meet to marry.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. Neither hast thou come bidden of me to this funeral, nor do I
+  count thy presence among things acceptable. But she here never shall put
+  on thy decorations; for in no wise shall she be buried indebted to what
+  thou hast. Then oughtest thou to have grieved with me, when I was in
+  danger of perishing.<a name="Alc_34"></a><a
+  href="#AlcN_34"><sup>[34]</sup></a> But dost thou, who stoodest aloof,
+  and permittedst another, a young person, thyself being old, to die, weep
+  over this dead body? Thou wert not then really the father of me, nor did
+  she, who says she bore me, and is called my mother, bear me; but born of
+  slavish blood I was secretly put under the breast of thy wife. Thou
+  showedst when thou camest to the test, who thou art; and I deem that I am
+  not thy son. Or else surely thou exceedest all in nothingness of soul,
+  who being of the age thou art, and having come to the goal of life,
+  neither hadst the will nor the courage to die for thy son; but sufferedst
+  this stranger lady, whom alone I might justly have considered both mother
+  and father. And yet thou mightst have run this race for glory, hadst thou
+  died for thy son. But at any rate the remainder of the time thou hadst to
+  live was short: and I should have lived and she the rest of our days, and
+  I should not, bereft of her, be groaning at my miseries. And in sooth
+  thou didst receive as many things as a happy man should receive; thou
+  passedst the vigor of thine age indeed in sovereign sway, but I was thy
+  son to succeed thee in this palace, so that thou wert not about to die
+  childless and leave a desolate house for others to plunder. Thou canst
+  not however say of me, that I gave thee up to die, dishonoring thine old
+  age, whereas I was particularly respectful toward thee; and for this
+  behavior both thou, and she that bare me, have made me such return.
+  Wherefore you have no more time to lose<a name="Alc_35"></a><a
+  href="#AlcN_35"><sup>[35]</sup></a> in getting children, who will succor
+  thee in thine old age, and deck thee when dead, and lay out thy corse;
+  for I will not bury thee with this mine hand; for I in sooth died, as far
+  as in thee lay; but if, having met with, another deliverer, I view the
+  light, I say that I am both his child, and the friendly comforter of his
+  old age. In vain then do old men pray to be dead, complaining of age, and
+  the long time of life: but if death come near, not one is willing to die,
+  and old age is no longer burdensome to them.<a name="Alc_36"></a><a
+  href="#AlcN_36"><sup>[36]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Desist, for the present calamity is sufficient; and do not, O
+  son, provoke thy father's mind.</p>
+
+  <p>PHE. O son, whom dost thou presume thou art gibing with thy
+  reproaches, a Lydian or a Phrygian bought with thy money?<a
+  name="Alc_37"></a><a href="#AlcN_37"><sup>[37]</sup></a> Knowest thou not
+  that I am a Thessalian, and born from a Thessalian father, truly free?
+  Thou art too insolent, and casting the impetuous words of youth against
+  us, shalt not having cast them thus depart. But I begat thee the lord of
+  my house, and brought thee up, but I am not thy debtor to die for thee;
+  for I received no paternal law like this, nor Grecian law, that fathers
+  should die for their children; for for thyself thou wert born, whether
+  unfortunate or fortunate, but what from us thou oughtest to have, thou
+  hast. Thou rulest indeed over many, and I will leave thee a large demesne
+  of lands, for these I received from my father. In what then have I
+  injured thee? Of what do I deprive thee? Thou joyest to see the light,
+  and dost think thy father does not joy?<a name="Alc_38"></a><a
+  href="#AlcN_38"><sup>[38]</sup></a> Surely I count the time we must spend
+  beneath long, and life is short, but still sweet. Thou too didst
+  shamelessly fight off from dying, and livest, having passed over thy
+  destined fate, by slaying her; then dost thou talk of my nothingness of
+  soul, O most vile one, when thou art surpassed by a woman who died for
+  thee, the handsome youth? But thou hast made a clever discovery, so that
+  thou mayst never die, if thou wilt persuade the wife that is thine from
+  time to time to die for thee: and then reproachest thou thy friends who
+  are not willing to do this, thyself being a coward? Hold thy peace, and
+  consider, if thou lovest thy life, that all love theirs; but if thou
+  shalt speak evil against us, thou shalt hear many reproaches and not
+  false ones.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Too many evil things have been spoken both now and before, but
+  cease, old man, from reviling thy son.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. Speak, for I have spoken; but if thou art grieved at hearing the
+  truth, thou shouldst not err against me.</p>
+
+  <p>PHE. But had I died for thee, I had erred more.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. What? is it the same thing for a man in his prime, and for an old
+  man to die?</p>
+
+  <p>PHE. We ought to live with one life, not with two.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. Mayst thou then live a longer time than Jove!</p>
+
+  <p>PHE. Dost curse thy parents, having met with no injustice?</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. <i>I said it</i>, for I perceived thou lovedst a long life.</p>
+
+  <p>PHE. But art not thou bearing forth this corse instead of thyself?</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. A proof this, O most vile one, of thy nothingness of soul.</p>
+
+  <p>PHE. She died not by us at least; thou wilt not say this.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. Alas! Oh that you may ever come to need my aid!</p>
+
+  <p>PHE. Wed many wives, that more may die.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. This is a reproach to thyself, for thou wert not willing to
+  die.</p>
+
+  <p>PHE. Sweet is this light of the God, sweet is it.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. Base is thy spirit and not that of men.</p>
+
+  <p>PHE. Thou dost not laugh as carrying an aged corse.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. Thou wilt surely however die inglorious, when thou diest.</p>
+
+  <p>PHE. To bear an evil report is no matter to me when dead.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. Alas! alas! how full of shamelessness is old age!</p>
+
+  <p>PHE. She was not shameless: her you found mad.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. Begone, and suffer me to bury this dead.</p>
+
+  <p>PHE. I will depart; but you will bury her, yourself being her
+  murderer. But you will render satisfaction to your wife's relatives yet:
+  or surely Acastus no longer ranks among men, if he shall not revenge the
+  blood of his sister.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. Get thee gone, then, thou and thy wife; childless, thy child yet
+  living, as ye deserve, grow old; for ye no more come into the same house
+  with me: and if it were necessary for me to renounce by heralds thy
+  paternal hearth, I would renounce it. But let us (for the evil before us
+  must be borne) proceed, that we may place the corse upon the funeral
+  pyre.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. O! O! unhappy because of thy bold deed, O noble, and by far most
+  excellent, farewell! may both Mercury<a name="Alc_39"></a><a
+  href="#AlcN_39"><sup>[39]</sup></a> that dwells beneath, and Pluto,
+  kindly receive thee; but if there too any distinction is shown to the
+  good, partaking of this mayst thou sit by the bride of Pluto.</p>
+
+<p class="center">SERVANT.</p>
+
+  <p>I have now known many guests, and from all parts of the earth that
+  have come to the house of Admetus, to whom I have spread the feast, but
+  never yet did I receive into this house a worse one than this stranger.
+  Who, in the first place, indeed, though he saw my master in affliction,
+  came in, and prevailed upon himself to pass the gates. And then not at
+  all in a modest manner received he the entertainment that there happened
+  to be, when he heard of the calamity: but if we did not bring any thing,
+  he hurried us to bring it. And having taken in his hands the cup wreathed
+  with ivy,<a name="Alc_40"></a><a href="#AlcN_40"><sup>[40]</sup></a> he
+  quaffs the neat wine of the purple mother, until the fumes of the liquor
+  coming upon him inflamed him; and he crowns his head with branches of
+  myrtles howling discordantly; and there were two strains to hear; for he
+  was singing, not caring at all for the afflictions of Admetus, but we the
+  domestics, were bewailing our mistress, and we showed not that we were
+  weeping to the guest, for thus Admetus commanded. And now indeed I am
+  performing the offices of hospitality to the stranger in the house, some
+  deceitful thief and robber. But she is gone from the house, nor did I
+  follow, nor stretched out my hand in lamentation for my mistress, who was
+  a mother to me, and to all the domestics, for she saved us from ten
+  thousand ills, softening the anger of her husband. Do I not then justly
+  hate this stranger, who is come in our miseries?</p>
+
+<p class="center">HERCULES, SERVANT.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. Ho there! why dost thou look so grave and thoughtful? The servant
+  ought not to be of woeful countenance before guests, but should receive
+  them with an affable mind. But thou, though thou seest a companion of thy
+  lord present, receivest him with a morose and clouded countenance, fixing
+  thy attention on a calamity that thou hast nothing to do with. Come
+  hither, that thou mayst become more wise. Knowest thou mortal affairs, of
+  what nature they are? I think not; from whence should you? but hear me.
+  Death is a debt that all mortals must pay: and there is not of them one,
+  who knows whether he shall live the coming morrow: for what depends on
+  fortune is uncertain how it will turn out, and is not to be learned,
+  neither is it detected by art. Having heard these things then, and
+  learned them from me, make thyself merry, drink, and think the life
+  allowed from day to day thine own, but the rest Fortune's. And honor also
+  Venus, the most sweet of deities to mortals, for she is a kind deity. But
+  let go these other things, and obey my words, if I appear to speak
+  rightly: I think so indeed. Wilt thou not then leave off thy excessive
+  grief, and drink with me, crowned with garlands, having thrown open these
+  gates? And well know I that the trickling of the cup falling down <i>thy
+  throat</i> will change thee from thy present cloudy and pent state of
+  mind. But we who are mortals should think as mortals. Since to all the
+  morose, indeed, and to those of sad countenance, if they take me as judge
+  at least, life is not truly life, but misery.</p>
+
+  <p>SERV. I know this; but now we are in circumstances not such as are fit
+  for revel and mirth.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. The lady that is dead is a stranger; grieve not too much, for the
+  lords of this house live.</p>
+
+  <p>SERV. What live! knowest thou not the misery within the house?</p>
+
+  <p>HER. Unless thy lord hath told me any thing falsely.</p>
+
+  <p>SERV. He is too, too hospitable.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. Is it unmeet that I should be well treated, because a stranger is
+  dead?</p>
+
+  <p>SERV. Surely however she was very near.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. Has he forborne to tell me any calamity that there is?</p>
+
+  <p>SERV. Depart and farewell; we have a care for the evils of our
+  lords.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. This speech is the beginning of no foreign loss.</p>
+
+  <p>SERV. For I should not, <i>had it been foreign</i>, have been grieved
+  at seeing thee reveling.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. What! have I received so great an injury from mine host?</p>
+
+  <p>SERV. Thou camest not in a fit time for the house to receive thee, for
+  there is grief to us, and thou seest that we are shorn, and our black
+  garments.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. But who is it that is dead? Has either any of his children died,
+  or his aged father?</p>
+
+  <p>SERV. The wife indeed of Admetus is dead, O stranger.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. What sayst thou? and yet did ye receive me?</p>
+
+  <p>SERV. <i>Yes</i>, for he had too much respect to turn thee from his
+  house.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. O unhappy man, what a wife hast thou lost!</p>
+
+  <p>SERV. We all are lost, not she alone.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. But I did perceive it indeed, when I saw his eye streaming with
+  tears, and his shorn hair, and his countenance; but he persuaded me,
+  saying, that he was conducting the funeral of a stranger to the tomb: but
+  spite of my inclination having passed over these gates, I drank in the
+  house of the hospitable man, while he was in this case, and reveled,
+  crowned as to my head with garlands. But 'twas thine to tell me not <i>to
+  do it</i>, when such an evil was upon the house. Where is he burying her?
+  whither going can I find her?</p>
+
+  <p>SERV. By the straight road that leads to Larissa, thou wilt see the
+  polished tomb beyond the suburbs.</p>
+
+<p class="center">HERCULES.</p>
+
+  <p>O my much-daring heart and my soul, now show what manner of son the
+  Tirynthian Alcmena, daughter of Electryon, bare thee to Jove. For I must
+  rescue the woman lately dead, Alcestis, and place her again in this
+  house, and perform this service for Admetus. And going I will lay wait
+  for the sable-vested king of the departed, Death, and I think that I
+  shall find him drinking of the libations near the tomb. And if having
+  taken him by lying in wait, rushing from my ambush, I shall seize hold of
+  him, and make a circle around him with mine arms, there is not who shall
+  take him away panting as to his sides, until he release me the woman. But
+  if however I fail of this capture, and he come not to the clottered mass
+  of blood, I will go a journey beneath to the sunless mansions of Cora and
+  her king, and will prefer my request; and I trust that I shall bring up
+  Alcestis, so as to place her in the hands of that host, who received me
+  into his house, nor drove me away, although struck with a heavy calamity,
+  but concealed it, noble as he was, having respect unto me. Who of the
+  Thessalians is more hospitable than he? Who that dwelleth in Greece?
+  Wherefore he shall not say, that he did a service to a worthless man,
+  himself being noble.</p>
+
+<p class="center">ADMETUS, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. Alas! alas! O hateful approach, and hateful prospect of this
+  widowed house. Oh me! Alas! alas! whither can I go! where rest! what can
+  I say! and what not! would that I could perish! Surely my mother brought
+  me forth to heavy fortune. I count the dead happy, them I long for! those
+  houses I desire to dwell in: for neither delight I in viewing the
+  sunbeams, nor treading with my foot upon the earth; of such a hostage has
+  death robbed me, and delivered up to Pluto.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Advance, advance; go into the recesses of the house.</p>
+
+  <p>(ADM. Oh! Oh!)</p>
+
+  <p>Thou hast suffered things that demand groans.</p>
+
+  <p>(ADM. Alas! alas!)</p>
+
+  <p>Thou hast gone through grief, I well know.</p>
+
+  <p>(ADM. Woe! Woe!)</p>
+
+  <p>Thou nothing aidest her that is beneath.</p>
+
+  <p>(ADM. Ah me! me!)</p>
+
+  <p>Never to see thy dear wife's face again before thee, is severe.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. Thou hast made mention of that which ulcerated my soul; for what
+  can be greater ill to man than to lose his faithful wife? Would that I
+  never had married and dwelt with her in the palace. But I judge happy
+  those, who are unmarried and childless; for theirs is one only life, for
+  this to grieve is a moderate burden: but to behold the diseases of
+  children, and the bridal bed wasted by death, is not supportable, when it
+  were in one's power to be without children and unmarried the whole of
+  life.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Fate, fate hard to be struggled with hath come.</p>
+
+  <p>(ADM. Oh! Oh!)</p>
+
+  <p>But puttest thou no bound to thy sorrows?</p>
+
+  <p>(ADM. Alas! alas!)</p>
+
+  <p>Heavy are they to bear, but still</p>
+
+  <p>(ADM. Woe! woe!)</p>
+
+  <p>endure, thou art not the first man that hast lost</p>
+
+  <p>(ADM. Ah me! me!)</p>
+
+  <p>thy wife; but calamity appearing afflicts different men in different
+  shapes.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. O lasting griefs, and sorrows for our friends beneath the
+  earth!&mdash;Why did you hinder me from throwing myself<a
+  name="Alc_41"></a><a href="#AlcN_41"><sup>[41]</sup></a> into her
+  hallowed grave, and from lying dead with her, by far the most excellent
+  woman? And Pluto would have retained instead of one, two most faithful
+  souls having together passed over the infernal lake.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. I had a certain kinsman, whose son worthy to be lamented, an
+  only child, died in his house; but nevertheless he bore his calamity with
+  moderation, being bereft of child, though now hastening to gray hairs,
+  and advanced in life.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. O house, how can I enter in? and how dwell in thee now my fortune
+  has undergone this change? Ah me! for there is great difference between:
+  then indeed with Pelian torches, and with bridal songs I entered in,
+  bearing the hand of my dear wife, and there followed a loud-shouting
+  revelry hailing happy both her that is dead and me, inasmuch as being
+  noble, and born of illustrious parents both, we were united together: but
+  now the groan instead of hymeneals, and black array instead of white
+  robes, usher me in to my deserted couch.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. This grief came quick on happy fortune to thee unschooled in
+  evil: but thou hast saved thy life. Thy wife is dead, she left her love
+  behind: what new thing this? Death has ere this destroyed many wives.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. My friends, I deem the fortune of my wife more happy than mine
+  own, even although these things appear not so. For her indeed no grief
+  shall ever touch, and she hath with glory ceased from many toils. But I,
+  who ought not to have lived, though I have scaped destiny, shall pass a
+  bitter life; I but now perceive. For how can I bear the entering into
+  this house? Whom speaking to, or by whom addressed,<a
+  name="Alc_42"></a><a href="#AlcN_42"><sup>[42]</sup></a> can I have joy
+  in entering? Whither shall I turn me? For the solitude within will drive
+  me forth, when I see the place where my wife used to lie, empty, and the
+  seat whereon she used to sit, and the floor throughout the house all
+  dirty, and when my children falling about my knees weep their mother, and
+  they lament their mistress, <i>thinking</i> what a lady they have lost
+  from out of the house. Such things within the house; but abroad the
+  nuptials of the Thessalians and the assemblies full of women will torture
+  me: for I shall not be able to look on the companions of my wife. But
+  whoever is mine enemy will say thus of me: "See that man, who basely
+  lives, who dared not to die, but giving in his stead her, whom he
+  married, escaped Hades, (and then does he seem to be a man?) and hates
+  his parents, himself not willing to die."&mdash;Such report shall I have
+  in addition to my woes; why then is it the more honorable course for me
+  to live, my friends, having an evil character and an evil fortune?</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. I too have both been borne aloft through song, and having very
+  much handled arguments have found nothing more powerful than Necessity:
+  nor is there any cure in the Thracian tablets which Orpheus<a
+  name="Alc_43"></a><a href="#AlcN_43"><sup>[43]</sup></a> wrote, nor among
+  those medicines, which Ph&#339;bus gave the sons of Æsculapius,
+  dispensing<a name="Alc_44"></a><a href="#AlcN_44"><sup>[44]</sup></a>
+  them to wretched mortals. But neither to the altars nor to the image of
+  this Goddess alone, is it lawful to approach, she hears not victims. Do
+  not, O revered one, come on me more severe, than hitherto in my life. For
+  Jove, whatever he have assented to, with thee brings this to pass. Thou
+  too perforce subduest the iron among the Chalybi; nor has thy rugged
+  spirit any remorse.</p>
+
+  <p>And thee, <i>Admetus</i>, the Goddess hath seized in the inevitable
+  grasp of her hand; but bear it, for thou wilt never by weeping bring back
+  on earth the dead from beneath. Even the sons of the Gods by stealth
+  begotten perish in death. Dear she was while she was with us, and dear
+  even now when dead. But thou didst join to thy bed<a name="Alc_45"></a><a
+  href="#AlcN_45"><sup>[45]</sup></a> the noblest wife of all women. Nor
+  let the tomb of thy wife be accounted as the mound over the dead that
+  perish, but let it be honored equally with the Gods, a thing for
+  travelers to adore:<a name="Alc_46"></a><a
+  href="#AlcN_46"><sup>[46]</sup></a> and some one, going out of his direct
+  road, shall say thus: "She in olden time died for her husband, but now
+  she is a blest divinity: Hail, O adored one, and be propitious!" Such
+  words will be addressed to her.&mdash;And lo! here comes, as it seems,
+  the son of Alcmena to thy house, Admetus.</p>
+
+<p class="center">HERCULES, ADMETUS, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. One should speak freely to a friend, Admetus, and, not in silence
+  keep within our bosoms what we blame. Now I thought myself worthy as a
+  friend to stand near thy calamities, and to search them out;<a
+  name="Alc_47"></a><a href="#AlcN_47"><sup>[47]</sup></a> but thou didst
+  not tell me that it was thy wife's corse that demanded thy attention; but
+  didst receive me in thy house, as though occupied in grief for one not
+  thine. And I crowned my head and poured out to the Gods libations in thy
+  house which had suffered this calamity. And I <i>do</i> blame thee, I
+  blame thee, having met with this treatment! not that I wish to grieve
+  thee in thy miseries. But wherefore I am come, having turned back again,
+  I will tell thee. Receive and take care of this woman for me, until I
+  come hither driving the Thracian mares, having slain the king of the
+  Bistonians. But if I meet with what I pray I may not meet with, (for may
+  I return!) I give thee her as an attendant of thy palace. But with much
+  toil came she into my hands; for I find some who had proposed a public
+  contest for wrestlers, worthy of my labors, from whence I bear off her,
+  having received her as the prize of my victory; for those who conquered
+  in the lighter exercises had to receive horses, but those again who
+  conquered in the greater, the boxing and the wrestling, cattle, and a
+  woman was added to these; but in me, who happened to be there, it had
+  been base to neglect this glorious gain. But, as I said, the woman ought
+  to be a care to you, for I am come not having obtained her by stealth,
+  but with labor; but at some time or other thou too wilt perhaps commend
+  me for it.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. By no means slighting thee, nor considering thee among mine
+  enemies, did I conceal from thee the unhappy fate of my wife; but this
+  had been a grief added to grief, if thou hadst gone to the house of
+  another host: but it was sufficient for me to weep my own calamity. But
+  the woman, if it is in any way possible, I beseech thee, O king, bid some
+  one of the Thessalians, who has not suffered what I have, to take care of
+  (but thou hast many friends among the Pheræans) lest thou remind me of my
+  misfortunes. I can not, beholding her in the house, refrain from weeping;
+  add not a sickness to me already sick; for I am enough weighed down with
+  misery. Where besides in the house can a youthful woman be maintained?
+  for she is youthful, as she evinces by her garb and her attire; shall she
+  then live in the men's apartment? And how will she be undefiled, living
+  among young men? A man in his vigor, Hercules, it is no easy thing to
+  restrain; but I have a care for thee. Or can I maintain her, having made
+  her enter the chamber of her that is dead? And how can I introduce her
+  into her bed? I fear a double accusation, both from the citizens, lest
+  any should convict me of having betrayed my benefactress, and lying in
+  the bed of another girl; and I ought to have much regard toward the dead
+  (and she deserves my respect). But thou, O lady, whoever thou art, know
+  that thou hast the same size of person with Alcestis, and art like her in
+  figure. Ah me! take by the Gods this woman from mine eyes, lest you
+  destroy me already destroyed. For I think, when I look upon her, that I
+  behold my wife; and it agitates my heart, and from mine eyes the streams
+  break forth; O unhappy I, how lately did I begin to taste this bitter
+  grief!</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. I can not indeed speak well of thy fortune; but it behooves
+  thee, whatever thou art, to bear with firmness the dispensation of the
+  Gods.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. Oh would that I had such power as to bring thy wife to the light
+  from the infernal mansions, and to do this service for thee!</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. Well know I that thou hast the will: but how can this be? It is
+  not possible for the dead to come into the light.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. Do not, I pray, go beyond all bound, but bear it decently,</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. Tis easier to exhort, than suffering to endure.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. But what advantage can you gain if you wish to groan forever?</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. I know that too myself; but a certain love impels me.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. For to love one that is dead draws the tear.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. She hath destroyed me, and yet more than my words express.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. Thou hast lost an excellent wife; who will deny it?</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. <i>Ay,</i> so that I am no longer delighted with life.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. Time will soften the evil, but now it is yet in its vigor<a
+  name="Alc_48"></a><a href="#AlcN_48"><sup>[48]</sup></a> on thee.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. Time thou mayst say, if to die be time.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. A wife will bid it cease, and the desire of a new marriage.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. Hold thy peace&mdash;What saidst thou? I could not have supposed
+  it.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. But why? what, wilt not marry, but pass a widowed life alone?</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. There is no woman that shall lie with me.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. Dost thou think that thou art in aught benefiting her that is
+  dead?</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. Her, wherever she is, I am bound to honor.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. I praise you indeed, I praise you; but you incur the charge of
+  folly.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. <i>Praise me, or praise me not;</i> for you shall never call me
+  bridegroom.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. I do praise thee, because thou art a faithful friend to thy
+  wife.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. May I die, when I forsake her, although she is not!</p>
+
+  <p>HER. Receive then this noble woman into thine house.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. Do not, I beseech thee by thy father Jove.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. And yet you will be acting wrong, if you do not this.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. Yes, and if I do it, I shall have my heart gnawed with
+  sorrow.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. Be prevailed upon: perhaps this favor may be proved a duty.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. Ah! would that you had never borne her off from the contest!</p>
+
+  <p>HER. Yet with me conquering thou'rt victorious too.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. Thou hast well spoken; but let the woman depart.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. She shall depart, if it is needful; but first see whether it be
+  needful.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. It is needful, if thou at least dost not mean to make me
+  angry.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. I too have this desire, for I know somewhat.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. Conquer then. Thou dost not however do things pleasing to me.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. But some time or other thou wilt praise me; only be
+  persuaded.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. Lead her in, if I must receive her in my house.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. I will not deliver up the woman into the charge of the
+  servants.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. But do thou thyself lead her into the house if it seems fit.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. I then will give her into thine hands.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. I will not touch her; but she is at liberty to enter the
+  house.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. I trust her to thy right hand alone.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. O king, thou compellest me to do this against my will.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. Dare to stretch out thy hand and touch the stranger.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. And in truth I stretch it out, as I would to the Gorgon with her
+  severed head.<a name="Alc_49"></a><a
+  href="#AlcN_49"><sup>[49]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>HER. Have you her?</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. I have.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. Then keep her fast; and some time or other thou wilt say that the
+  son of Jove is a generous guest. But look on her, whether she seems aught
+  to resemble thy wife; and being blest leave off from thy grief.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. O Gods, what shall I say? An unexpected wonder this! Do I truly
+  see here my wife, or does the mocking joy of the Deity strike me from my
+  senses?</p>
+
+  <p>HER. It is not so; but thou beholdest here thy wife.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. Yet see, whether this be not a phantom from the realms
+  beneath.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. Thou hast not made thine host an invoker of spirits.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. But do I behold my wife, whom I buried?</p>
+
+  <p>HER. Be well assured <i>thou dost;</i> but I wonder not at thy
+  disbelief of thy fortune.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. May I touch her, may I speak to her as my living wife?<a
+  name="Alc_50"></a><a href="#AlcN_50"><sup>[50]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>HER. Speak to her; for thou hast all that thou desirest.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. O face and person of my dearest wife, have I thee beyond my
+  hopes, when I thought never to see thee more?</p>
+
+  <p>HER. Thou hast: but <i>take care</i> there be no envy of the Gods.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. O noble son of the most powerful Jove, mayst thou be blest, and
+  may thy father, who begot thee, protect thee, for thou alone hast
+  restored me! How didst thou bring her from beneath into this light!</p>
+
+  <p>HER. Having fought a battle with the prince of those beneath.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. Where dost thou say thou didst have this conflict with Death!</p>
+
+  <p>HER. At the tomb itself, having seized him from ambush with my
+  hands.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. But why, I pray, does this woman stand here speechless?</p>
+
+  <p>HER. It is not yet allowed thee to hear her address thee, before she
+  is unbound from her consecrations<a name="Alc_51"></a><a
+  href="#AlcN_51"><sup>[51]</sup></a> to the Gods beneath, and the third
+  day come. But lead her in, and as thou oughtest, henceforward, Admetus,
+  continue in thy piety with respect to strangers. And farewell! But I will
+  go and perform the task that is before me for the imperial son of
+  Sthenelus.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. Stay with us, and be a companion of our hearth.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. This shall be some time hence, but now I must haste.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. But mayst thou be prosperous, and return on thy journey back. But
+  to the citizens, and to all the tetrarchy I issue my commands, that they
+  institute dances in honor of these happy events, and make the altars
+  odorous with their sacrifices of oxen that accompany their vows. For now
+  are we placed in a better state of life than the former one: for I will
+  not deny that I am happy.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Many are the shapes of the things the deities direct, and many
+  things the Gods perform contrary to our expectations. And those things
+  which we looked for are not accomplished; but the God hath brought to
+  pass things not looked for. Such hath been the event of this affair.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h3>NOTES ON ALCESTIS</h3>
+
+<div class="note">
+  <p><a name="AlcN_1"></a><a href="#Alc_1">[1]</a> Lactant. i. 10. "Quid
+  Apollo? Nonne ... turpissime gregem pavit alienum?" B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="AlcN_2"></a><a href="#Alc_2">[2]</a> Hygin. Fab. li. "Apollo
+  ab eo in servitutem liberaliter acceptus." B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="AlcN_3"></a><a href="#Alc_3">[3]</a> Cf. Hippol. 1437. B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="AlcN_4"></a><a href="#Alc_4">[4]</a> No one will, I believe,
+  object to this translation of <span lang="el"
+  title="THANATOS">&#x398;&#x391;&#x39D;&#x391;&#x3A4;&#x39F;&#x3A3;</span>;
+  it seems rather a matter of surprise that Potter has kept the Latin
+  ORCUS, a name clearly substituted as the nearest to <span lang="el"
+  title="THANATOS">&#x398;&#x391;&#x39D;&#x391;&#x3A4;&#x39F;&#x3A3;</span>
+  of the masculine gender.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="AlcN_5"></a><a href="#Alc_5">[5]</a> Cf. Æsch. Eum. 723 sqq.
+  B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="AlcN_6"></a><a href="#Alc_6">[6]</a> It was customary to bury
+  those, who died advanced in years, with greater magnificence than young
+  persons.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="AlcN_7"></a><a href="#Alc_7">[7]</a> The horses of Diomed,
+  king of Thrace. The construction is, <span lang="el" title="Eurystheôs
+  pempsantos [auton\] meta hippeion ochêma [axonta\] ek topôn dyschei merôn
+  Thrêikês">&#x395;&#x3C5;&#x3C1;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3B8;&#x3B5;&#x3C9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3BC;&#x3C8;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;
+  [&#x3B1;&#x3C5;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;] &#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;
+  &#x201B;&#x3B9;&#x3C0;&#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3BF;&#x3C7;&#x3B7;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;
+  [&#x3B1;&#x3BE;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;] &#x3B5;&#x3BA;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C0;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B4;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3C7;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x398;&#x3C1;&#x3B7;&#x3B9;&#x3BA;&#x3B7;&#x3C2;</span>. MONK.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="AlcN_8"></a><a href="#Alc_8">[8]</a> On this custom, see
+  Monk, and Lomeier de Lustrationibus § xxviii. B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="AlcN_9"></a><a href="#Alc_9">[9]</a> Perhaps, "as though all
+  were over," B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="AlcN_10"></a><a href="#Alc_10">[10]</a> Casaubon on Theophr.
+  § 16, observes that it was customary to place a large vessel filled with
+  lustral water before the doors of a house during the time the corpse was
+  lying out, with which every one who came out sprinkled himself. See also
+  Monk's note, Kirchmann de Funeribus, iii. 9. The same custom was observed
+  on returning from the funeral. See Pollux, viii. 7. p. 391, ed. Seber.
+  B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="AlcN_11"></a><a href="#Alc_11">[11]</a> See Dindorf. B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="AlcN_12"></a><a href="#Alc_12">[12]</a> Potterus, Arch. Gr.
+  <i>mortuos</i> a <i>Græcis</i> <span lang="el"
+  title="pronôpeis">&#x3C0;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3C9;&#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;</span>
+  vocari tradit, quod solebant ex penitiore ædium parte produci, ac in
+  <i>vestibulo</i>, i.e. <span lang="el"
+  title="pronôpiôi">&#x3C0;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3C9;&#x3C0;&#x3B9;&#x3C9;&#x3B9;</span>
+  collocari: atque hunc locum adducit, sed frustra, ut opinor. Non enim
+  <i>mortua</i> jam erat, nec <i>producta</i>, sed, ut recte hanc vocem
+  interpretatur schol. <span lang="el" title="eis thanaton
+  proneneukyia">&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B8;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3B5;&#x3C5;&#x3BA;&#x3C5;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;</span>,
+  i.e. <i>morti propinqua</i>. Proprie <span lang="el"
+  title="pronôpês">&#x3C0;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3C9;&#x3C0;&#x3B7;&#x3C2;</span>
+  is dicitur, qui <i>corpore prono ad terram fertur</i>, ut Æschyl. Agam.
+  242. Inde, quia moribundi virium defectu terram petere solent, ad hos
+  designandos translatum est. KUINOEL.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="AlcN_13"></a><a href="#Alc_13">[13]</a> The old word
+  "dizening" is perhaps the most literal translation of <span lang="el"
+  title="kosmos">&#x3BA;&#x3BF;&#x3C3;&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span>, which,
+  however, here means the whole preparations for the funeral. Something
+  like it is implied in Hamlet, v. 1.</p>
+
+  <div class="poem">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <p class="i16">... her virgin rites,</p>
+      <p>Her maiden strewments, and the bringing home</p>
+      <p>Of bell and burial.&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; B.</p>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+  <p><a name="AlcN_14"></a><a href="#Alc_14">[14]</a> Aristophanes is
+  almost too bad in his burlesque, Equit. 1251. <span lang="el" title="se
+  d' allos tis labôn kektêsetai, kleptês men ouk an mallon, eutychês d'
+  hisôs">&#x3C3;&#x3B5; &#x3B4;' &#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3BB;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3B9;&#x3C2; &#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3B2;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3BA;&#x3B5;&#x3BA;&#x3C4;&#x3B7;&#x3C3;&#x3B5;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;,
+  &#x3BA;&#x3BB;&#x3B5;&#x3C0;&#x3C4;&#x3B7;&#x3C2; &#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3BA; &#x3B1;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3BB;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;,
+  &#x3B5;&#x3C5;&#x3C4;&#x3C5;&#x3C7;&#x3B7;&#x3C2; &#x3B4;'
+  &#x201B;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3C9;&#x3C2;</span>. B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="AlcN_15"></a><a href="#Alc_15">[15]</a> Some would translate
+  <span lang="el"
+  title="pronôpês">&#x3C0;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3C9;&#x3C0;&#x3B7;&#x3C2;</span>
+  in the same manner as in verse 144.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="AlcN_16"></a><a href="#Alc_16">[16]</a> Conf. Ter.: Phorm.
+  iv. 4, 5. Opera tua ad <i>restim</i> mihi quidem res rediit
+  planissume.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="AlcN_17"></a><a href="#Alc_17">[17]</a> Perhaps it is
+  unnecessary to remark, that <span lang="el"
+  title="abiôton">&#x3B1;&#x3B2;&#x3B9;&#x3C9;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span>
+  agrees with <span lang="el"
+  title="bion">&#x3B2;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span> implied in <span
+  lang="el"
+  title="bioteusei">&#x3B2;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="AlcN_18"></a><a href="#Alc_18">[18]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="horai">&#x201B;&#x3BF;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;</span> scilicet <span
+  lang="el"
+  title="hêlios">&#x201B;&#x3B7;&#x3BB;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span>.
+  MONK.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="AlcN_19"></a><a href="#Alc_19">[19]</a> Cf. Hippol. 1372.
+  B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="AlcN_20"></a><a href="#Alc_20">[20]</a> It must be remembered
+  that to survive one's children was considered the greatest of
+  misfortunes. Cf. Plaut. Mil. Glor. l. 1. "Ita ut tuum vis unicum gnatum
+  tuæ Superesse vitæ, sospitem et superstitem." B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="AlcN_21"></a><a href="#Alc_21">[21]</a> Kuinoel carries on
+  the interrogation to <span lang="el"
+  title="gamous">&#x3B3;&#x3B1;&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C2;</span>, and
+  Buchanan has translated it according to this punctuation. Monk compares
+  Iliad, p. 95; <span lang="el" title="mêpôs me peristelôs' hena
+  polloi">&#x3BC;&#x3B7;&#x3C0;&#x3C9;&#x3C2; &#x3BC;&#x3B5;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3BB;&#x3C9;&#x3C3;'
+  &#x201B;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3BB;&#x3BB;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="AlcN_22"></a><a href="#Alc_22">[22]</a> Compare my note on
+  Æsch. Ag. 414 sqq. B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="AlcN_23"></a><a href="#Alc_23">[23]</a> <i>These</i>, my
+  children.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="AlcN_24"></a><a href="#Alc_24">[24]</a> Reiske proposes to
+  read <span lang="el" title="tethrippa de zeugê te
+  kai">&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3B8;&#x3C1;&#x3B9;&#x3C0;&#x3C0;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3B4;&#x3B5; &#x3B6;&#x3B5;&#x3C5;&#x3B3;&#x3B7; &#x3C4;&#x3B5;
+  &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;</span>&mdash;<i>And both from your chariot teams,
+  and from your single horses cut the manes</i>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="AlcN_25"></a><a href="#Alc_25">[25]</a> This festival was
+  celebrated in honor of Apollo at Sparta, from the seventh to the
+  sixteenth day of the month Carneus. See Monk. B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="AlcN_26"></a><a href="#Alc_26">[26]</a> On <span lang="el"
+  title="liparais
+  Athanais">&#x3BB;&#x3B9;&#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x391;&#x3B8;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;</span>, see Monk.
+  B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="AlcN_27"></a><a href="#Alc_27">[27]</a> Literally, <i>the
+  duplicate</i> of such a wife.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="AlcN_28"></a><a href="#Alc_28">[28]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="anax peltês">&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3B1;&#x3BE;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3BB;&#x3C4;&#x3B7;&#x3C2;</span>, so <span lang="el"
+  title="anax kôpês">&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3B1;&#x3BE;
+  &#x3BA;&#x3C9;&#x3C0;&#x3B7;&#x3C2;</span> in Æsch. Pers. 384, <i>of a
+  rower</i>. Wakefield compares Ovid's <i>Clypei dominus septemplicis
+  Ajax</i>. MONK.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="AlcN_29"></a><a href="#Alc_29">[29]</a> Heath and Markland
+  take <span lang="el" title="tôi">&#x3C4;&#x3C9;&#x3B9;</span> for <span
+  lang="el" title="tini">&#x3C4;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;&#x3B9;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="AlcN_30"></a><a href="#Alc_30">[30]</a> Cf. Theocrit. Id. i.
+  71 sqq. of Daphnis, <span lang="el" title="tênon men thôes, tênon lykoi
+  ôrysanto, Tênon choi 'k drymoio leôn aneklause thanonta ... pollai men
+  par possi boes, polloi de te tauroi, pollai d' au damalai kai porties
+  ôdyranto">&#x3C4;&#x3B7;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3BD; &#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B8;&#x3C9;&#x3B5;&#x3C2;, &#x3C4;&#x3B7;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3BB;&#x3C5;&#x3BA;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3C9;&#x3C1;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;,
+  &#x3A4;&#x3B7;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3BD; &#x3C7;&#x3BF;&#x3B9; '&#x3BA;
+  &#x3B4;&#x3C1;&#x3C5;&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;
+  &#x3BB;&#x3B5;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3B5;&#x3BA;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3B5;
+  &#x3B8;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3B1; ...
+  &#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3BB;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3B9; &#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3C1; &#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3C3;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3B2;&#x3BF;&#x3B5;&#x3C2;, &#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3BB;&#x3BB;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3B4;&#x3B5; &#x3C4;&#x3B5; &#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3C5;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;,
+  &#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3BB;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3B9; &#x3B4;' &#x3B1;&#x3C5;
+  &#x3B4;&#x3B1;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3B9; &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3C1;&#x3C4;&#x3B9;&#x3B5;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3C9;&#x3B4;&#x3C5;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;</span>. Virg.
+  Ecl. v. 27 sqq. Calpurnius, Ecl. ii. 18. Nemesianus, Ecl. i. 74 sqq.; ii.
+  32. B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="AlcN_31"></a><a href="#Alc_31">[31]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="ardên ginetai apo tou airein. dêloi de to
+  phoradên">&#x3B1;&#x3C1;&#x3B4;&#x3B7;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B3;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;&#x3B5;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3B9; &#x3B1;&#x3C0;&#x3BF;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C5; &#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3C1;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;.
+  &#x3B4;&#x3B7;&#x3BB;&#x3BF;&#x3B9; &#x3B4;&#x3B5; &#x3C4;&#x3BF;
+  &#x3C6;&#x3BF;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3B4;&#x3B7;&#x3BD;</span>. Schol.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="AlcN_32"></a><a href="#Alc_32">[32]</a> Cf. Suppl. 773.
+  "<span lang="el" title="Aidou te molpas ekcheô dakryrroous, philous
+  prosaudôn, hôn leleimmenos talas erêma
+  klaiô">&#x391;&#x3B9;&#x3B4;&#x3BF;&#x3C5; &#x3C4;&#x3B5;
+  &#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3BB;&#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B5;&#x3BA;&#x3C7;&#x3B5;&#x3C9;
+  &#x3B4;&#x3B1;&#x3BA;&#x3C1;&#x3C5;&#x3C1;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C2;,
+  &#x3C6;&#x3B9;&#x3BB;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3C3;&#x3B1;&#x3C5;&#x3B4;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;,
+  &#x201B;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3BB;&#x3B5;&#x3BB;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3BC;&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3C2; &#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3B7;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3BA;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3C9;</span>. See Gorius Monum. sive
+  Columbar. Libert. Florent. mdccxxvii. p.186, who observes, "<span
+  lang="el" title="chaire">&#x3C7;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3C1;&#x3B5;</span> was
+  the accustomed salutation addressed to the dead. Catullus, Carm. xcvii.
+  <i>Accipe fraterno multum manantia fletu, atque in perpetuum frater HAVE,
+  atque VALE</i>." The same scholar compares a monument, apud Fabretti,
+  cap. v. p. 392, n. 265,</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+D. M<br />
+AVE SALVINIA<br />
+OMNIUM. AMAN<br />
+TISSIMA. ET.<br />
+VALE,
+</p>
+
+  <p>which is very apposite to the present occasion. B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="AlcN_33"></a><a href="#Alc_33">[33]</a> Wakefield reads <span
+  lang="el" title="chaire kain Aidou
+  domois">&#x3C7;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3C1;&#x3B5; &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x391;&#x3B9;&#x3B4;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;
+  &#x3B4;&#x3BF;&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;</span>; having in his mind
+  probably Hom. Il. <span lang="el" title="Ps">&#x3A8;</span>. 19. <span
+  lang="el" title="Chaire moi hô Patrokle, kai ein Aïdao
+  domoisi">&#x3A7;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3C1;&#x3B5; &#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;
+  &#x201B;&#x3C9; &#x3A0;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3BA;&#x3BB;&#x3B5;,
+  &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9; &#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x391;&#x3CA;&#x3B4;&#x3B1;&#x3BF;
+  &#x3B4;&#x3BF;&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="AlcN_34"></a><a href="#Alc_34">[34]</a> I should scarcely
+  have observed that this is the proper sense of the imperfect, had not the
+  former translator mistaken it. B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="AlcN_35"></a><a href="#Alc_35">[35]</a> Cf. Iph. Taur. 244.
+  <span lang="el" title="chernibas de kai katargmata ouk an phthanois an
+  eutrepê
+  poioumenê">&#x3C7;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3BD;&#x3B9;&#x3B2;&#x3B1;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B4;&#x3B5; &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3C1;&#x3B3;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3BA; &#x3B1;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3C6;&#x3B8;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3C2; &#x3B1;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B5;&#x3C5;&#x3C4;&#x3C1;&#x3B5;&#x3C0;&#x3B7;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3B7;</span>.
+  B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="AlcN_36"></a><a href="#Alc_36">[36]</a> An apparent allusion
+  to the fable of Death and the Old Man. B</p>
+
+  <p><a name="AlcN_37"></a><a href="#Alc_37">[37]</a> Aristophanes' version
+  of this line is, <span lang="el" title="ô pai, tin aucheis, potera Lydon
+  ê Phryga Mormolyttesthai dokeis">&#x3C9; &#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;,
+  &#x3C4;&#x3B9;&#x3BD; &#x3B1;&#x3C5;&#x3C7;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;,
+  &#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;
+  &#x39B;&#x3C5;&#x3B4;&#x3BF;&#x3BD; &#x3B7;
+  &#x3A6;&#x3C1;&#x3C5;&#x3B3;&#x3B1;
+  &#x39C;&#x3BF;&#x3C1;&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3BB;&#x3C5;&#x3C4;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3C3;&#x3B8;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3B4;&#x3BF;&#x3BA;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;</span>. B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="AlcN_38"></a><a href="#Alc_38">[38]</a> Turned by
+  Aristophanes into an apology for beating one's father, Nub. 1415. <span
+  lang="el" title="klaousi paides, patera d' ou klaein
+  dokeis">&#x3BA;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3B4;&#x3B5;&#x3C2;,
+  &#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3B1; &#x3B4;' &#x3BF;&#x3C5;
+  &#x3BA;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B4;&#x3BF;&#x3BA;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;</span>. See Thesmoph. 194.
+  B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="AlcN_39"></a><a href="#Alc_39">[39]</a> Cf. Æsch. Choeph. sub
+  init. and Gorius, Monum. Libert. p. 24. ad Tab. x. lit. A.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="AlcN_40"></a><a href="#Alc_40">[40]</a> Theocrit. i. 27.
+  <span lang="el" title="Kai bathy kissybion keklysmenon hadei karôi, Tô
+  peri men cheilê mareuetai hypsothi kissos.">&#x39A;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3B2;&#x3B1;&#x3B8;&#x3C5;
+  &#x3BA;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3C3;&#x3C5;&#x3B2;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3BA;&#x3B5;&#x3BA;&#x3BB;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;
+  &#x201B;&#x3B1;&#x3B4;&#x3B5;&#x3B9; &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3C1;&#x3C9;&#x3B9;,
+  &#x3A4;&#x3C9; &#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3B9; &#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3C7;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3BB;&#x3B7;
+  &#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3C1;&#x3B5;&#x3C5;&#x3B5;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x201B;&#x3C5;&#x3C8;&#x3BF;&#x3B8;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3BA;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3C3;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;.</span> B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="AlcN_41"></a><a href="#Alc_41">[41]</a> Hamlet, v. 1.</p>
+
+  <div class="poem">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <p>&mdash;Hold off the earth awhile,</p>
+      <p>Till I have caught her once more in mine arms:</p>
+      <p class="i16">[<i> leaps into the grave</i>.]</p>
+      <p>Now pile your dust upon the quick and dead.&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; B.</p>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+  <p><a name="AlcN_42"></a><a href="#Alc_42">[42]</a> Cf. vs. 195. <span
+  lang="el" title="hon ou proseipe kai proserrêthê
+  palin">&#x201B;&#x3BF;&#x3BD; &#x3BF;&#x3C5;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3C3;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C0;&#x3B5;
+  &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3C3;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3C1;&#x3B7;&#x3B8;&#x3B7;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;</span>. B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="AlcN_43"></a><a href="#Alc_43">[43]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="Orpheia garys">&#x39F;&#x3C1;&#x3C6;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3B3;&#x3B1;&#x3C1;&#x3C5;&#x3C2;</span>, a paraphrasis for <span
+  lang="el"
+  title="Orpheus">&#x39F;&#x3C1;&#x3C6;&#x3B5;&#x3C5;&#x3C2;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="AlcN_44"></a><a href="#Alc_44">[44]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="antitemôn, metaphorikôs apo tôn tas rhizas temnontôn kai
+  heuriskontôn.">&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3B9;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3BC;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;,
+  &#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3C6;&#x3BF;&#x3C1;&#x3B9;&#x3BA;&#x3C9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B1;&#x3C0;&#x3BF; &#x3C4;&#x3C9;&#x3BD; &#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3C2;
+  &#x201B;&#x3C1;&#x3B9;&#x3B6;&#x3B1;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3BC;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x201B;&#x3B5;&#x3C5;&#x3C1;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3BA;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;.</span>
+  SCHOL. TR. Cf. on Æsch. Agam. 17. B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="AlcN_45"></a><a href="#Alc_45">[45]</a> In Phavorinus, among
+  the senses of <span lang="el"
+  title="klisia">&#x3BA;&#x3BB;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;</span> is <span
+  lang="el" title="klinê kai
+  klinêtêrion">&#x3BA;&#x3BB;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;&#x3B7; &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3BA;&#x3BB;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;&#x3B7;&#x3C4;&#x3B7;&#x3C1;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="AlcN_46"></a><a href="#Alc_46">[46]</a> It will be remembered
+  that the tombs were built near the highways, with great magnificence, and
+  sometimes very lofty, especially when near the sea-coast (cf. Æsch.
+  Choeph. 351. D'Orville on Charit. lib. i. sub fin. Eurip. Hecub. 1273).
+  They are often used as landmarks or milestones, as in Theocr. vi. 10, and
+  as oratories or chapels, Apul. Florid, i. p.340, ed. Elm. B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="AlcN_47"></a><a href="#Alc_47">[47]</a> This appears the most
+  obvious sense, as connected with what follows. All the interpreters,
+  however, translate it, <i>I thought myself worthy, standing, as I did,
+  near thy calamities</i>,(i.e. near thee in thy calamities,) <i>to be
+  proved thy friend.</i></p>
+
+  <p><a name="AlcN_48"></a><a href="#Alc_48">[48]</a> In the same manner
+  <span lang="el" title="hêbai">&#x201B;&#x3B7;&#x3B2;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;</span>
+  is used in Orestes, 687, <span lang="el" title="hotan gar hêbai dêmos eis
+  orgên pesôn">&#x201B;&#x3BF;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3BD; &#x3B3;&#x3B1;&#x3C1;
+  &#x201B;&#x3B7;&#x3B2;&#x3B1;&#x3B9; &#x3B4;&#x3B7;&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C2; &#x3BF;&#x3C1;&#x3B3;&#x3B7;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3C3;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;</span>. </p>
+
+  <p><a name="AlcN_49"></a><a href="#Alc_49">[49]</a> i.e. <i>the severed
+  head of the Gorgon</i>. Valckenaer observes, that this is an expression
+  meaning <i>facie aversa</i>, and compares l. 465 of the
+  Ph&#339;nissæ.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="AlcN_50"></a><a href="#Alc_50">[50]</a> Winter's Tale, v.
+  3.</p>
+
+  <div class="poem">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <p>Start not: her actions shall be holy, as,</p>
+      <p>You hear, my spell is lawful: do not shun her,</p>
+      <p>Until you see her die again; for then</p>
+      <p>You kill her double: Nay, present your hand:</p>
+      <p>When she was young you woo'd her; now, in age,</p>
+      <p>Is she become the suitor?</p>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+  <p>Compare also Much Ado about Nothing, v. 4. B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="AlcN_51"></a><a href="#Alc_51">[51]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="haphagnizein">&#x201B;&#x3B1;&#x3C6;&#x3B1;&#x3B3;&#x3BD;&#x3B9;&#x3B6;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;</span>
+  h. l. non <i>purificare</i> sed <i>desecrare</i>. Orcus enim, quando
+  gladio totondisset Alcestidis capillos, eam diis manibus sacram
+  dicaverat, quod diserte <span lang="el"
+  title="hêgnisai">&#x201B;&#x3B7;&#x3B3;&#x3BD;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;</span>
+  appellat noster, vide 75&mdash;77. Contraria igitur aliqua ceremonia
+  desecranda erat, antequam Admeto ejus consuetudine et colloquio frui
+  liceret. HEATH.</p>
+
+</div>
+<hr class="full" />
+
+<a name="BACCHAE"></a>
+<h2>THE BACCHÆ.</h2>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+<h3>PERSONS REPRESENTED,</h3>
+
+  <div class="personae">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <p>BACCHUS.</p>
+      <p>CHORUS.</p>
+      <p>TIRESIAS.</p>
+      <p>CADMUS.</p>
+      <p>PENTHEUS.</p>
+      <p>SERVANT.</p>
+      <p>MESSENGER.</p>
+      <p>ANOTHER MESSENGER.</p>
+      <p>AGAVE.</p>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+<hr />
+
+<h3>THE ARGUMENT.</h3>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+  <p>Bacchus, the son of Jove by Semele, had made Thebes, his mother's
+  birth-place, his favorite place of abode and worship. Pentheus, the then
+  reigning king, who, as others say, preferred the worship of Minerva,
+  slighted the new God, and persecuted those who celebrated his revels.
+  Upon this, Bacchus excited his mother Agave, together with the sisters of
+  Semele, Autonoe and Ino, to madness, and visiting Pentheus in disguise of
+  a Bacchanal, was at first imprisoned, but, easily escaping from his
+  bonds, he persuaded Pentheus to intrude upon the rites of the Bacchants.
+  While surveying them from a lofty tree, the voice of Bacchus was heard
+  inciting the Bacchants to avenge themselves upon the intruder, and they
+  tore the miserable Pentheus piecemeal. The grief and banishment of Agave
+  for her unwitting offense conclude the play.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2>THE BACCHÆ.<a name="Ba_1"></a><a href="#BaN_1"><sup>[1]</sup></a></h2>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+<p class="center">BACCHUS.</p>
+
+  <p>I, Bacchus, the son of Jove, am come to this land of the Thebans, whom
+  formerly Semele, the daughter of Cadmus, brought forth, delivered by the
+  lightning-bearing flame. And having taken a mortal form instead of a
+  God's, I am present at the fountains of Dirce and the water of Ismenus.
+  And I see the tomb of my thunder-stricken mother here near the palace,
+  and the remnants of the house smoking, and the still living name of
+  Jove's fire, the everlasting insult of Juno against my mother. But I
+  praise Cadmus, who has made this place hallowed, the shrine of his
+  daughter; and I have covered it around with the cluster-bearing leaf of
+  the vine. And having left the wealthy lands of the Lydians and Phrygians,
+  and the sun-parched plains of the Persians, and the Bactrian walls; and
+  having come over the stormy land of the Medes, and the happy Arabia, and
+  all Asia which lies along the coast of the salt sea, having fair-towered
+  cities full of Greeks and barbarians mingled together; and there having
+  danced and established my mysteries, that I might be a God manifest among
+  men, I have come to this city first of the Grecian [cities,] and I have
+  raised my shout first in Thebes of this land of Greece, fitting a
+  deer-skin on my body, and taking a thyrsus in my hand, an ivy-clad<a
+  name="Ba_2"></a><a href="#BaN_2"><sup>[2]</sup></a> weapon, because the
+  sisters of my mother, whom, it least of all became, said that I, Bacchus,
+  was not born of Jove; but that Semele, having conceived by some mortal,
+  charged the sin of her bed upon Jove, a trick of Cadmus; on which account
+  they said that Jove had slain her, because she told a false tale about
+  her marriage. Therefore I have now driven them from the house with
+  frenzy, and they dwell on the mountain, insane of mind; and I have
+  compelled them to wear the dress of my mysteries. And all the female seed
+  of the Cadmeans, as many as are women, have I driven maddened from the
+  house. And they, mingled with the sons of Cadmus, sit on the roofless
+  rocks beneath the green pines. For this city must know, even though it be
+  unwilling, that it is not initiated into my Bacchanalian rites, and that
+  I plead the cause of my mother, Semele, in appearing manifest to mortals
+  as a God whom she bore to Jove. Cadmus then gave his honor and power to
+  Pentheus, born from his daughter, who fights against the Gods as far as I
+  am concerned, and drives me from sacrifices, and in his prayers makes no
+  mention of me; on which account I will show him and all the Thebans that
+  I am a God. And having set matters here aright, manifesting myself, I
+  will move to another land. But if the city of the Thebans should in anger
+  seek by arms to bring down the Bacchæ from the mountain, I, general of
+  the Mænads, will join battle.<a name="Ba_3"></a><a
+  href="#BaN_3"><sup>[3]</sup></a> On which account I have changed my form
+  to a mortal one, and transformed my shape into the nature of a man. But,
+  O ye who have left Tmolus, the bulwark of Lydia; ye women, my assembly,
+  whom I have brought from among the barbarians as assistants and
+  companions to me; take your drums, your native instruments in the
+  Phrygian cities, the invention of the mother Rhea<a name="Ba_4"></a><a
+  href="#BaN_4"><sup>[4]</sup></a> and myself, and coming beat them around
+  this royal palace of Pentheus, that the city of Cadmus may see it. And I,
+  with the Bacchæ, going to the dells of Cithæron, where they are, will
+  share their dances.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Coming from the land of Asia, having left the sacred Tmolus, I
+  dance in honor of Bromius, a sweet labor and a toil easily borne,
+  celebrating the god Bacchus. Who is in the way? who is in the way? who is
+  in the halls? Let him depart. And let every one be pure as to his mouth
+  speaking propitious things; for now I will with hymns celebrate Bacchus
+  according to custom:&mdash;Blessed is he,<a name="Ba_5"></a><a
+  href="#BaN_5"><sup>[5]</sup></a> whoever being favored, knowing the
+  mysteries of the gods, keeps his life pure, and has his soul initiated
+  into the Bacchic revels, dancing o'er the mountains with holy
+  purifications, and reverencing the mysteries of the mighty mother Cybele,
+  and brandishing the thyrsus, and being crowned with ivy, serves Bacchus!
+  Go, ye Bacchæ; go, ye Bacchæ, escorting Bromius, a God, the son of a God,
+  from the Phrygian mountains to the broad streets of Greece! Bromius! whom
+  formerly, being in the pains of travail, the thunder of Jove flying upon
+  her, his mother cast from her womb, leaving life by the stroke of the
+  thunder-bolt. And immediately Jupiter, the son of Saturn, received him in
+  a chamber fitted for birth; and covering him in his thigh, shuts him with
+  golden clasps hidden from Juno. And he brought him forth, when the Fates
+  had perfected the horned God, and crowned him with crowns of snakes,
+  whence the thyrsus-bearing Mænads are wont to cover their prey with their
+  locks. O Thebes, thou nurse of Semele, crown thyself with ivy, flourish,
+  flourish with the verdant yew bearing sweet fruit, and be ye crowned in
+  honor of Bacchus with branches of oak or pine, and adorn your garments of
+  spotted deer-skin with fleeces of white-haired sheep,<a
+  name="Ba_6"></a><a href="#BaN_6"><sup>[6]</sup></a> and sport in holy
+  games with the insulting wands, straightway shall all the earth dance,
+  when Bromius leads the bands to the mountain, to the mountain, where the
+  female crowd abides, away from the distaff and the shuttle,<a
+  name="Ba_7"></a><a href="#BaN_7"><sup>[7]</sup></a> driven frantic by
+  Bacchus. O dwelling of the Curetes, and ye divine Cretan caves,<a
+  name="Ba_8"></a><a href="#BaN_8"><sup>[8]</sup></a> parents to Jupiter,
+  where the Corybantes with the triple helmet invented for me in their
+  caves this circle o'erstretched with hide; and with the constant
+  sweet-voiced breath of Phrygian pipes they mingled a sound of Bacchus,
+  and put the instrument in the hand of Rhea, resounding with the sweet
+  songs of the Bacchæ. And hard by the raving satyrs went through the
+  sacred rites of the mother Goddess. And they added the dances of the
+  Trieterides;<a name="Ba_9"></a><a href="#BaN_9"><sup>[9]</sup></a> in
+  which Bacchus rejoices; pleased on the mountains, when after the running
+  dance he falls upon the plain, having a sacred garment of deer-skin,
+  seeking a sacrifice of goats, a raw-eaten delight,<a name="Ba_10"></a><a
+  href="#BaN_10"><sup>[10]</sup></a> on his way to the Phrygian, the Lydian
+  mountains; and the leader is Bromius, Evoe!<a name="Ba_11"></a><a
+  href="#BaN_11"><sup>[11]</sup></a> but the plain flows with milk, and
+  flows with wine, and flows with the nectar of bees; and the smoke is as
+  of Syrian frankincense. But Bacchus bearing a flaming torch of pine on
+  his thyrsus, rushes about arousing in his course the wandering Choruses,
+  and agitating them with shouts, casting his rich locks loose in the
+  air,&mdash;and with his songs he shouts out such words as this: O go
+  forth, ye Bacchæ; O go forth, ye Bacchæ, delight of gold-flowing Tmolus.
+  Sing Bacchus 'neath the loud drums, Evoe, celebrating the God Evius in
+  Phrygian cries and shouts. When the sweet-sounding sacred pipe sounds a
+  sacred playful sound suited to the frantic wanderers, to the mountain, to
+  the mountain&mdash;and the Bacchant rejoicing like a foal with its mother
+  at pasture, stirs its swift foot in the dance.</p>
+
+  <p>TIRESIAS. Who at the doors will call out Cadmus from the house, the
+  son of Agenor, who, leaving the city of Sidon, erected this city of the
+  Thebans? Let some one go, tell him that Tiresias seeks him; but he
+  himself knows on what account I come, and what agreement I, an old man,
+  have made with him, yet older; to twine the thyrsi, and to put on the
+  skins of deer, and to crown the head with ivy branches.</p>
+
+  <p>CADMUS. O dearest friend! how I, being in the house, was delighted,
+  hearing your voice, the wise voice of a wise man; and I am come prepared,
+  having this equipment of the God; for we needs must extol him, who is the
+  son sprung from my daughter, Bacchus, who has appeared as a God to men,
+  as much as is in our power. Whither shall I dance, whither direct the
+  foot, and wave the hoary head? Do you lead me, you, an old man! O
+  Tiresias, direct me, an old man; for you are wise. Since I shall never
+  tire, neither night nor day, striking the earth with the thyrsus. Gladly
+  we forget that we are old.</p>
+
+  <p>TI. You have the same feelings indeed as I; for I too feel young, and
+  will attempt the dance.</p>
+
+  <p>CA. Then we will go to the mountain in chariots.<a name="Ba_12"></a><a
+  href="#BaN_12"><sup>[12]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>TI. But thus the God would not have equal honor.</p>
+
+  <p>CA. I, an old man, will lead you, an old man.<a name="Ba_13"></a><a
+  href="#BaN_13"><sup>[13]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>TI. The God will without trouble guide us thither.</p>
+
+  <p>CA. But shall we alone of the city dance in honor of Bacchus?</p>
+
+  <p>TI. [Ay,] for we alone think rightly, but the rest ill.</p>
+
+  <p>CA. We are long in delaying;<a name="Ba_14"></a><a
+  href="#BaN_14"><sup>[14]</sup></a> but take hold of my hand.</p>
+
+  <p>TI. See, take hold, and join your hand to mine.</p>
+
+  <p>CA. I do not despise the Gods, being a mortal.</p>
+
+  <p>TI. We do not show too much wiseness about the Gods. Our ancestral
+  traditions, and those which we have kept throughout our life, no argument
+  will overturn them; not if any one were to find out wisdom with the
+  highest genius. Some one will say that I do not respect old age, being
+  about to dance, having crowned my head with ivy; for the God has made no
+  distinction as to whether it becomes the young man to dance, or the
+  elder; but wishes to have common honors from all; but does not at all
+  wish to be extolled by a few.</p>
+
+  <p>CA. Since you, O Tiresias, do not see this light, I will be to you an
+  interpreter of things. Hither is Pentheus coming to the house in haste,
+  the son of Echion, to whom I give power over the land. How fluttered he
+  is! what strange thing will he say?</p>
+
+  <p>PENTHEUS. I happened to be at a distance from this land, and I hear of
+  strange evils in this city, that the women have left our palace in
+  mad-wandering Bacchic rites; and that they are rushing about in the shady
+  mountains, honoring with dances this new God Bacchus, whoever he is; and
+  that full goblets stand in the middle of their assemblies, and that
+  flying each different ways into secrecy, they yield to the embraces of
+  men, on pretence, indeed, as [being] worshiping Mænads; but that they
+  consider Venus before Bacchus. As many then as I have taken, the servants
+  keep them bound as to their hands in the public strong-holds, and as many
+  as are absent I will hunt from the mountain, Ino, and Agave who bore me
+  to Echion, and the mother of Actæon, I mean Autonoe; and having bound
+  them in iron fetters, I will soon stop them from this ill-working
+  revelry. And they say that some stranger has come hither, a juggler, a
+  charmer, from the Lydian land, fragrant in hair with golden curls,
+  florid, having in his eyes the graces of Venus, who days and nights is
+  with them, alluring the young maidens with Bacchic mysteries&mdash;but if
+  I catch him under this roof, I will stop him from making a noise with the
+  thyrsus, and waving his hair, by cutting off his neck from his body. He
+  says he is the God Bacchus, [He was once on a time sown in the thigh of
+  Jove,<a name="Ba_15"></a><a href="#BaN_15"><sup>[15]</sup></a> ] who was
+  burned in the flame of lightning, together with his mother, because she
+  falsely claimed nuptials with Jove. Are not these things deserving of a
+  terrible halter, for a stranger to insult us with these insults, whoever
+  he be? But here is another marvel&mdash;I see Tiresias the soothsayer, in
+  dappled deer-skins, and the father of my mother, most great absurdity,
+  raging about with a thyrsus&mdash;I deprecate it, O father, seeing your
+  old age destitute of sense; will you not dash away the ivy?<a
+  name="Ba_16"></a><a href="#BaN_16"><sup>[16]</sup></a> will you not, O
+  father of my mother, put down your hand empty of the thyrsus? Have you
+  persuaded him to this, O Tiresias? do you wish, introducing this new God
+  among men, to examine birds and to receive rewards for fiery omens? If
+  your hoary old age did not defend you, you should sit as a prisoner in
+  the midst of the Bacchæ, for introducing these wicked rites; for where
+  the joy of the grape-cluster is present at a feast of women, I no longer
+  say any thing good of their mysteries.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Alas for his impiety! O host, do you not reverence the Gods! and
+  being son of Echion, do you disgrace your race and Cadmus, who sowed the
+  earth-born crop?</p>
+
+  <p>TI. When any wise man takes a good occasion for his speech, it is not
+  a great task to speak well; but you have a rapid tongue, as if wise, but
+  in your words there is no wisdom; but a powerful man, when bold, and able
+  to speak, is a bad citizen if he has not sense. And this new God, whom
+  you ridicule, I am unable to express how great he will be in Greece. For,
+  O young man, two things are first among men; Ceres, the goddess, and she
+  is the earth, call her whichever name you will.<a name="Ba_17"></a><a
+  href="#BaN_17"><sup>[17]</sup></a> She nourishes mortals with dry food;
+  but he who is come as a match to her, the son of Semele, has invented the
+  liquid drink of the grape, and introduced it among mortals, which
+  delivers miserable mortals from grief,<a name="Ba_18"></a><a
+  href="#BaN_18"><sup>[18]</sup></a> when they are filled with the stream
+  of the vine; and gives sleep an oblivion of daily evils: nor is there
+  any other medicine for troubles. He who is a God is poured out in
+  libations to the Gods, that by his means men may have good
+  things&mdash;and you laugh at him, as to how he was sewn up in the thigh
+  of Jove; I will teach you that this is well&mdash;when Jove snatched him
+  out of the lightning flame, and bore him, a young infant, up to Olympus,
+  Juno wished to cast him down from heaven; but Jove had a counter
+  contrivance, as being a God. Having broken a part of the air which
+  surrounds the earth, he placed in it, giving him as a pledge, Bacchus,
+  safe from Juno's enmity; and in time, mortals say, that he was nourished
+  in the thigh of Jove; changing his name, because a God gave him formerly
+  as a pledge to a Goddess, they having made agreement.<a
+  name="Ba_19"></a><a href="#BaN_19"><sup>[19]</sup></a> But this God is a
+  prophet&mdash;for Bacchanal excitement and frenzy have much divination in
+  them.<a name="Ba_20"></a><a href="#BaN_20"><sup>[20]</sup></a> For when
+  the God comes violent<a name="Ba_21"></a><a
+  href="#BaN_21"><sup>[21]</sup></a> into the body, he makes the frantic to
+  foretell the future; and he also possesses some quality of Mars; for
+  terror flutters sometimes an army under arms and in its ranks, before
+  they touch the spear; and this also is a frenzy from Bacchus. Then you
+  shall see him also on the Delphic rocks, bounding with torches along the
+  double-pointed district, tossing about, and shaking the Bacchic branch,
+  mighty through Greece. But be persuaded by me, O Pentheus; do not boast
+  that sovereignty has power among men, nor, even if you think so, and your
+  mind is disordered, believe that you are at all wise. But receive the God
+  into the land, and sacrifice to him, and play the Bacchanal, and crown
+  your head. Bacchus will not compel women to be modest<a
+  name="Ba_22"></a><a href="#BaN_22"><sup>[22]</sup></a> with regard to
+  Venus, but in his nature modesty in all things is ever innate. This you
+  must needs consider, for she who is modest will not be corrupted by being
+  at Bacchanalian revels. Dost see? Thou rejoicest when many stand at thy
+  gates, and the city extols the name of Pentheus; and he, I ween, is
+  pleased, when honored. I, then, and Cadmus whom you laugh to scorn, will
+  crown ourselves with ivy, and dance, a hoary pair; but still we must
+  dance; and I will not contend against the Gods, persuaded by your
+  words&mdash;for you rave most grievously; nor can you procure any cure
+  from medicine, nor are you now afflicted beyond their power.<a
+  name="Ba_23"></a><a href="#BaN_23"><sup>[23]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. O old man, thou dost not shame Apollo by thy words, and honoring
+  Bromius, the mighty God, thou art wise.</p>
+
+  <p>CAD. My son, well has Tiresias advised you; dwell with us, not away
+  from the laws. For now you flit about, and though wise are wise in
+  naught; for although this may not be a God, as you say, let it be said by
+  you that he is; and tell a glorious falsehood, that Semele may seem to
+  have borne a God, and that honor may redound to all our race. You see the
+  hapless fate of Actæon,<a name="Ba_24"></a><a
+  href="#BaN_24"><sup>[24]</sup></a> whom his blood-thirsty hounds, whom he
+  had reared up, tore to pieces in the meadows, having boasted that he was
+  superior in the chase to Diana. This may you not suffer; come, that I may
+  crown thy head with ivy, with us give honor to the God&mdash;</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. Do not bring your hand toward me; but departing, play the
+  Bacchanal, and wipe not off your folly on me; but I will follow up with
+  punishment this teacher of your madness; let some one go as quickly as
+  possible, and going to his seat where he watches the birds, upset and
+  overthrow it with levers, turning every thing upside down; and commit his
+  crowns to the winds and storms; for doing this, I shall gnaw him most.
+  And some of you going along the city, track out this effeminate stranger,
+  who brings this new disease upon women, and pollutes our beds. And if you
+  catch him, convey him hither bound; that meeting with a judgment of
+  stoning he may die, having seen a bitter revelry of Bacchus in
+  Thebes.</p>
+
+  <p>TI. O wretched man! how little knowest thou what thou sayest! You are
+  mad now, and before you was out of your mind. Let us go, O Cadmus, and
+  entreat the God, on behalf of him, savage though he be, and on behalf of
+  the city, to do him no ill: but follow me with the ivy-clad staff, and
+  try to support my body, and I will yours; for it would be shameful for
+  two old men to fall down: but let that pass, for we must serve Bacchus,
+  the son of Jove; but beware lest Pentheus bring grief into thy house, O
+  Cadmus. I do not speak in prophecy, but judging from the state of things,
+  for a foolish man says foolish things.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. O holy venerable Goddess! holy, who bearest thy golden pinions
+  along the earth, hearest thou these words of Pentheus? Hearest thou his
+  unholy insolence against Bromius, the son of Semele, the first deity of
+  the Gods, at the banquets where the guests wear beautiful chaplets! who
+  has this office, to join in dances, and to laugh with the flute, and to
+  put an end to cares, when the juice of the grape comes at the feast of
+  the Gods, and in the ivy-bearing banquets the goblet sheds sleep over
+  man? Of unbridled mouths and lawless folly misery is the end, but the
+  life of quiet and wisdom remains unshaken, and supports a house; for the
+  heavenly powers are afar indeed, but still inhabiting the air, they
+  behold the deeds of mortals. But cleverness<a name="Ba_25"></a><a
+  href="#BaN_25"><sup>[25]</sup></a> is not wisdom, nor is the thinking on
+  things unfit for mortals. Life is short; and in it who, pursuing great
+  things, would not enjoy the present? These are the manners of maniacs;
+  and of ill-disposed men, in my opinion. Would that I could go to Cyprus,
+  the island of Venus, where the Loves dwell, soothing the minds of
+  mortals, and to Paphos, which the waters of a foreign river flowing with
+  an hundred<a name="Ba_26"></a><a href="#BaN_26"><sup>[26]</sup></a>
+  mouths, fertilize without rain&mdash;and to the land of Pieria, where is
+  the beautiful seat of the Muses, the holy hill of Olympus. Lead me
+  thither, O Bromius, Bromius, O master thou of Bacchanals! There are the
+  Graces, and there is Love, and there is it lawful for the Bacchæ to
+  celebrate their orgies; the God, the son of Jove, delights in banquets,
+  and loves Peace, giver of riches, the Goddess the nourisher of youths.
+  And both to the rich and the poor<a name="Ba_27"></a><a
+  href="#BaN_27"><sup>[27]</sup></a> has she granted to enjoy an equal
+  delight from wine, banishing grief; and he who does not care for these
+  things, hates to lead a happy life by day and by friendly night&mdash;but
+  it is wise<a name="Ba_28"></a><a href="#BaN_28"><sup>[28]</sup></a> to
+  keep away the mind and intellect proceeding from over-curious men; what
+  the baser multitude thinks and adopts, that will I say.</p>
+
+  <p>SERVANT. Pentheus, we are here; having caught this prey, for which you
+  sent us: nor have we gone in vain; but the beast was docile in our hands,
+  nor did he withdraw his foot in flight, but yielded not unwillingly; nor
+  did he [turn] pale nor change his wine-complexioned cheek, but laughing,
+  allowed us to bind and lead him away; and remained still, making my work
+  easy; and I for shame said, O stranger, I do not take you of my own will,
+  but by order of Pentheus who sent me. And the Bacchæ whom you shut up,
+  whom you carried off and bound in the chains of the public prison, they
+  being set loose are escaped, and are dancing in the meadows, invoking
+  Bromius as their God, and of their own accord the fetters were loosed
+  from their feet, and the keys opened the doors without mortal hand, and
+  full of many wonders is this man come to Thebes; but the rest must be thy
+  care.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. Take hold of him by the hands; for being in the toils, he is not
+  so swift as to escape me: but in your body you are not ill-formed, O
+  stranger, for women's purposes, on which account you have come to Thebes.
+  For your hair is long, not through wrestling, scattered over your cheeks,
+  full of desire, and you have a white skin from careful preparation;
+  hunting after Venus by your beauty not exposed to strokes of the sun, but
+  [kept] beneath the shade. First then tell me who thou art in family.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. There is no boast; but this is easy to say; thou knowest by
+  hearsay of the flowery Tmolus?</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. I know, [the hill] which surrounds the city of Sardis.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. Thence am I; and Lydia is my country.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. And whence do you bring these rites into Greece?</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. Bacchus persuaded us, the son of Jove.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. Is Jove then one who begets new Gods?</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. No, but having married Semele here,&mdash;</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. Did he compel you by night, or in your sight [by day]?</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. Seeing me who saw him; and he gave me orgies.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. And what appearance have these orgies?</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. It is unlawful for the uninitiated among mortals to know.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. And have they any profit to those who sacrifice?</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. It is not lawful for you to hear, but they are worth knowing.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. You have well coined this story, that I may wish to hear.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. The orgies of the God hate him who works impiety.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. For you say, forsooth, that you saw the God clearly what he was
+  like?</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. As he chose; I did not order this.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. This too you have well contrived, saying mere nonsense.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. One may seem, speaking wisely to one ignorant, not to be
+  wise.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. And did you come hither first, bringing the God?</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. Every one of the barbarians celebrates these orgies.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. [Ay,] for they are much less wise than Greeks.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. In these things they are wiser, but their laws are different.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. Do you practice these rites at night, or by day?</p>
+
+  <p>BAG. Most of them at night;<a name="Ba_29"></a><a
+  href="#BaN_29"><sup>[29]</sup></a> darkness conveys awe.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. This is treacherous toward women, and unsound.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. Even by day some may devise base things.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. You must pay the penalty of your evil devices.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. And you of your ignorance, being impious to the God.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. How bold is Bacchus, and not unpracticed in speech.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. Say what I must suffer, what ill wilt thou do me?</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. First I will cut off your delicate hair.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. The hair is sacred, I cherish it for the God.<a
+  name="Ba_30"></a><a href="#BaN_30"><sup>[30]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>PEN. Next yield up this thyrsus out of your hands.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. Take it from me yourself, I bear it as the ensign of Bacchus.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. And we will guard your body within in prison.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. The God himself will release me when I wish.<a
+  name="Ba_31"></a><a href="#BaN_31"><sup>[31]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>PEN. Ay, when you call him, standing among the Bacchæ.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. Even now, being near, he sees what I suffer.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. And where is he? for at least he is not apparent to my eyes.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. Near me, but you being impious, see him not.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. Seize him, he insults me and Thebes!</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. I warn you not to bind me: I in my senses command you not in your
+  senses.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. And I bid them to bind you, as being mightier than you.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. You know not why you live, nor what you do, nor who you are.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. Pentheus, son of Agave, and of my father Echion.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. You are suited to be miserable according to your name.<a
+  name="Ba_32"></a><a href="#BaN_32"><sup>[32]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>PEN. Begone! confine him near the stable of horses that he may behold
+  dim darkness! There dance; and as for these women whom you bring with
+  you, the accomplices in your wickedness, we will either sell them away,
+  or stopping their hand from this noise and beating of skins, I will keep
+  them as slaves at the loom.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. I will go&mdash;for what is not right it is not right to suffer;
+  but as a punishment for these insults Bacchus shall pursue you, who you
+  say exists not; for, injuring us, you put him in bonds.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. O daughter of Achelous, venerable Dirce, happy virgin, for thou
+  didst receive the infant of Jove in thy fountains when Jove who begat him
+  saved him in his thigh from the immortal fire; uttering this shout: Go, O
+  Dithyrambus, enter this my male womb, I will make you illustrious, O
+  Bacchus, in Thebes, so that they shall call you by this name. But you, O
+  happy Dirce, reject me having a garland-bearing company about you. Why
+  dost thou reject me? Why dost thou avoid me? Yet, I swear by the
+  clustering delights of the vine of Bacchus, yet shall you have a care for
+  Bacchus. What rage, what rage does the earth-born race show, and Pentheus
+  once descended from the dragon, whom the earth-born Echion begat, a
+  fierce-faced monster, not a mortal man, but like a bloody giant, an enemy
+  to the Gods, who will soon bind me, the handmaid of Bacchus, in halters,
+  he already has within the house my fellow-reveler, hidden in a dark
+  prison. Dost thou behold this, O son of Jove, Bacchus, thy prophets in
+  the dangers of restraint? Come, O thou of golden face, brandishing your
+  thyrsus along Olympus, and restrain the insolence of the blood-thirsty
+  man. Where art thou assembling thy bands of thyrsus-bearers, O Bacchus,
+  is it near Nysa which nourishes wild beasts, or in the summits of
+  Corycus?<a name="Ba_33"></a><a href="#BaN_33"><sup>[33]</sup></a> or
+  perhaps in the deep-wooded lairs of Olympus, where formerly Orpheus
+  playing the lyre drew together the trees by his songs, collected the
+  beasts of the fields; O happy Pieria, Evius respects you, and will come
+  to lead the dance with revelings having crossed the swiftly-flowing
+  Axius, he will bring the dancing Mænads, and [leaving] Lydia<a
+  name="Ba_34"></a><a href="#BaN_34"><sup>[34]</sup></a> the giver of
+  wealth to mortals, and the father whom I have heard fertilizes the
+  country renowned for horses with the fairest streams.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. Io! hear ye, hear ye my song, Io Bacchæ! O Bacchæ!</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Who is here, who? from what quarter did the shout of Evius
+  summon me?</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. Io, Io, I say again! I, the son of Semele, the son of Jove!</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Io! Io! Master, master! come now to our company. O Bromius!
+  Bromius! Shake this place, O holy Earth!<a name="Ba_35"></a><a
+  href="#BaN_35"><sup>[35]</sup></a> O! O! quickly will the palace of
+  Pentheus be shaken in ruin&mdash;Bacchus is in the halls. Worship him. We
+  worship him. Behold these stone buttresses shaken with their pillars.
+  Bacchus will shout in the palace.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. Light the burning fiery lamp; burn, burn the house of
+  Pentheus.</p>
+
+  <p>SEM. Alas! Dost thou not behold the fire, nor perceive around the
+  sacred tomb of Semele the flame which formerly the bolt-bearing thunder
+  of Jupiter left?</p>
+
+  <p>SEM. Cast on the ground your trembling bodies, cast them down, O
+  Mænads, for the king turning things upside down is coming to this palace,
+  [Bacchus,] the son of Jupiter.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. O barbarian women! have ye fallen to the ground thus stricken
+  with fear? Ye have felt, it seems, Bacchus shaking the house of Pentheus;
+  but lift up your bodies, and take courage, casting off fear from your
+  flesh.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. O thou most mighty light to us of Evian Bacchic rites, how
+  gladly do I see thee, being before alone and desolate!</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. Ye came to despair, when I was sent in, as about to fall into the
+  dark prison of Pentheus.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. How not?&mdash;who was my guardian if you met with misfortune?
+  but how were you liberated, having met with an impious man?</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. I delivered myself easily without trouble.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. And did he not bind your hands in links of chains?</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. In this too I mocked him; for, thinking to bind me, he neither
+  touched nor handled me, but fed on hope; and finding a bull in the
+  stable, where having taken me, he confined me, he cast halters round the
+  knees of that, and the hoofs of its feet;<a name="Ba_36"></a><a
+  href="#BaN_36"><sup>[36]</sup></a> breathing out fury, stilling sweat
+  from his body, gnashing his teeth in his lips. But I, being near, sitting
+  quietly, looked on; and, in the mean time, Bacchus coming, shook the
+  house, and kindled flame on the tomb of his mother; and he, when he saw
+  it, thinking the house was burning, rushed to and fro, calling to the
+  servants to bring water,<a name="Ba_37"></a><a
+  href="#BaN_37"><sup>[37]</sup></a> and every servant was at work toiling
+  in vain; and letting go this labor, I having escaped, seizing a dark
+  sword he rushes into the house, and then Bromius, as it seems to me, I
+  speak my opinion, made an appearance in the palace, and he rushing toward
+  it, rushed on and stabbed at the bright air,<a name="Ba_38"></a><a
+  href="#BaN_38"><sup>[38]</sup></a> as if slaying me; and besides this,
+  Bacchus afflicts him with these other things; and threw down his house to
+  the ground, and every thing was shivered in pieces, while he beheld my
+  bitter chains; and from fatigue dropping his sword, he falls
+  exhausted&mdash;for he being a man, dared to join battle with a God: and
+  I quietly getting out of the house am come to you, not regarding
+  Pentheus. But, as it seems to me, a shoe sounds in the house; he will
+  soon come out in front of the house. What will he say after this? I shall
+  easily bear him, even if he comes vaunting greatly, for it is the part of
+  a wise man to practice prudent moderation.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. I have suffered terrible things, the stranger has escaped me, who
+  was lately coerced in bonds. Hollo! here is the man; what is this? how do
+  you appear near my house, having come out?</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. Stay your foot; and substitute calm steps for anger.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. How come you out, having escaped your chains?</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. Did I not say, or did you not hear, that some one would deliver
+  me?</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. Who? for you are always introducing strange things.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. He who produces the rich-clustering vine for mortals.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. This is a fine reproach you charge on Bacchus; I order ye to
+  close every tower all round.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. Why? do not Gods pass over walls too?</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. You are wise, wise at least in all save what you should be wise
+  in.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. In what I most ought, in that I was born wise; but first learn,
+  hearing his words who is come from the mountain to bring a message to
+  you; but we will await you, we will not fly.</p>
+
+  <p>MESSENGER. Pentheus, ruler o'er this Theban land, I come, having left
+  Cithæron, where never have the brilliant flakes of white snow fallen.<a
+  name="Ba_39"></a><a href="#BaN_39"><sup>[39]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>PEN. But bringing what important news are you come?</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. Having seen the holy Bacchæ, who driven by madness have darted
+  their fair feet from this land, have I come, wishing to tell you and the
+  city, O king, what awful things they do, things beyond marvel; and I wish
+  to hear whether in freedom of speech I shall tell you the matters there,
+  or whether I shall repress my report, for I fear, O king, the hastiness
+  of thy mind, and your keen temper, and too imperious disposition.<a
+  name="Ba_40"></a><a href="#BaN_40"><sup>[40]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>PEN. Speak, as you shall be in all things blameless as far as I am
+  concerned; for it is not meet to be wrath with the just; and in
+  proportion as you speak worse things of the Bacchæ, so much the more will
+  we punish this man who has taught these tricks to the women.</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. I was just now driving up to the heights the herd of calves,
+  when the sun sends forth his rays warming the land, and I see three
+  companies of dances of women, of one of which Autonoe was chief; of a
+  second, thy mother, Agave; and Ino led the third dance; and they were all
+  sleeping, relaxed in their bodies, some resting their locks against the
+  leaves of pine, and some laying their heads at random on the leaves of
+  oak in the ground, modestly, not, as you say, that, drunk with the goblet
+  and the noise of the flute, they solitary hunt Venus through the wood.
+  But thy mother standing in the midst of the Bacchæ, raised a shout, to
+  wake their bodies from sleep, when she heard the lowing of the horned
+  oxen; but they, casting off refreshing sleep from their eyes, started
+  upright, a marvel to behold for their elegance, young, old, and virgins
+  yet unyoked, And first they let loose their hair over their shoulders;
+  and arranged their deer-skins, as many as had had the fastenings of their
+  knots unloosed, and they girded the dappled hides with serpents licking
+  their jaws&mdash;and some having in their arms a kid, or the wild whelps
+  of wolves, gave them white milk, all those who, having lately had
+  children, had breasts still full, having left their infants, and they put
+  on their ivy chaplets, and garlands of oak and blossoming yew; and one
+  having taken a thyrsus, struck it against a rock, whence a dewy stream of
+  water springs out; another placed her wand on the ground, and then the
+  God sent up a spring of wine. And as many as had craving for the white
+  drink, scratching the earth with the tips of their fingers, obtained
+  abundance of milk; and from the ivy thyrsus sweet streams of honey
+  dropped, so that, had you been present, beholding these things, you would
+  have approached with prayers that God whom you now blame. And we came
+  together, herdsmen and shepherds, to reason with one another concerning
+  this strange matter, what terrible things and worthy of marvel they do;
+  and some one, a wanderer about the city, and practiced in speaking, said
+  to us all, O ye who inhabit the holy downs of the mountains, will ye that
+  we hunt out Agave, the mother of Pentheus, back from the revels, and do
+  the king a pleasure? And he seemed to us to speak well, and hiding
+  ourselves, we lay in ambush in the foliage of the thickets; and they, at
+  the appointed hour, waved the thyrsus in their solemnities, calling on
+  Bacchus with united voice, the son of Jove, Bromius; and the whole
+  mountain and the beasts were in a revel; and nothing was unmoved by their
+  running; and Agave was bounding near to me, and I sprang forth, as
+  wishing to seize her, leaving my ambush where I was hidden. But she cried
+  out, O my fleet hounds, we are hunted by these men; but follow me,
+  follow, armed with thyrsi in your hands. We then flying, avoided the
+  tearing of the Bacchæ, but they sprang on the heifers browsing the grass
+  with unarmed hand, and you might see one rending asunder a fatted lowing
+  calf, and others rent open cows, and you might see either ribs, or a
+  cloven-footed hoof, tossed here and there, and hanging beneath the
+  pine-trees the fragments were dripping, dabbled in gore; and the fierce
+  bulls before showing their fury with their horns, were thrown to the
+  ground, overpowered by myriads of maiden hands; and quicker were the
+  coverings of flesh torn asunder by the royal maids than you could shut
+  your eyes; and like birds raised in their course, they proceed along the
+  level plain, which by the streams of the Asopus produce the fertile crop
+  of the Thebans, and falling on Hysiæ and Erythræ,<a name="Ba_41"></a><a
+  href="#BaN_41"><sup>[41]</sup></a> which, are below Cithæron, they turned
+  every thing upside down; they dragged children from the houses; and
+  whatever they put on their shoulders stuck there without chains, and fell
+  not on the dark plain, neither brass nor iron; and they bore fire on
+  their tresses, and it burned not; but some from rage betook themselves to
+  arms, being plundered by the Bacchæ, the sight of which was fearful to
+  behold, O king! For their pointed spear was not made bloody, but the
+  women hurling the thyrsi from their hands, wounded them, and turned their
+  backs to flight, women [defeating] men; not without the aid of some God.
+  And they went back again to whence they had departed, to the same
+  fountains which the God had caused to spring up for them, and they washed
+  off the blood; and the snakes with their tongues cleaned off the drops
+  from their cheeks. Receive then, O master, this deity, whoever he be, in
+  this city, since he is mighty in other respects, and they say this too of
+  him, as I hear, that he has given mortals the vine which puts an end to
+  grief,&mdash;for where wine exists not there is no longer Venus, nor any
+  thing pleasant to men.<a name="Ba_42"></a><a
+  href="#BaN_42"><sup>[42]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. I fear to speak unshackled words to the king, but still they
+  shall be spoken; Bacchus is inferior to none of the Gods.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. Already like fire does this insolence of the Bacchæ extend thus
+  near, a great reproach to the Greeks. But I must not hesitate; go to the
+  Electra gates, bid all the shield-bearers and riders of swift-footed
+  horses to assemble, and all who brandish the light shield, and twang with
+  their hand the string of the bow, as we will make an attack upon the
+  Bacchæ; but it is too much, if we are to suffer what we are suffering at
+  the hands of women.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. O Pentheus, you obey not at all hearing my words; but although
+  suffering ill at your hands, still I say that you ought not to take up
+  arms against a God, but to rest quiet; Bromius will not endure your
+  moving the Bacchæ from their Evian mountains.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. You shall not teach me; but be content,<a name="Ba_43"></a><a
+  href="#BaN_43"><sup>[43]</sup></a> having escaped from prison, or else I
+  will again bring punishment upon you.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. I would rather sacrifice to him than, being wrath, kick against
+  the pricks; a mortal against a God.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. I will sacrifice, making a great slaughter of the women, as they
+  deserve, in the glens of Cithæron.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. You will all fly, (and that will be shameful,) so as to yield
+  your brazen shields to the thyrsi of the Bacchæ.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. We are troubled with this impracticable stranger, who neither
+  suffering nor doing will be silent.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. My friend, there is still opportunity to arrange these things
+  well.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. By doing what? being a slave to my slaves?</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. I will bring the women here without arms.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. Alas! you are contriving some trick against me.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. Of what sort, if I wish to save you by my contrivances?</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. You have devised this together, that ye may have your revelings
+  forever.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. And indeed, know this, I agreed on it with the God.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. Bring hither the arms! and do you cease to speak.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. Hah! Do you wish to see them sitting on the mountains?</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. Very much, if I gave countless weight of gold for it.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. But why? have you fallen into a great wish for this?</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. I should like to see them drunk grievously [for them].</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. Would you then gladly see what is grievous to you?</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. To be sure, sitting quietly under the pines.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. But they will track you out, even though you come secretly.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. But [I will come] openly, for you have said this well.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. Shall I then guide you? and will you attempt the way?</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. Lead me as quickly as possible; for I do not grudge you the
+  time.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. Put on then linen garments on your body.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. What then, shall I be reckoned among women, being a man?</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. Lest they slay you if you be seen there, being a man.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. You say this well, and you have been long wise.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. Bacchus taught me this wisdom.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. How then can these things which you advise me be well done?</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. I will attire you, going into the house.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. With what dress&mdash;a woman's? but shame possesses me.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. Do you no longer wish to be a spectator of the Mænads?</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. But what attire do you bid me put on my body?</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. I will spread out your hair at length on your head.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. And what is the next point of my equipment?</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. A garment down to your feet; and you shall have a turban on your
+  head.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. Shall you put any thing else on me besides this?</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. A thyrsus in your hand, and the dappled hide of a deer.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. I can not wear a woman's dress.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. But you will shed blood if you join battle with the Bacchæ.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. True; we must first go and see.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. That is wiser at least than to hunt evils with evils.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. And how shall I go through the city escaping the notice of the
+  Cadmeans?</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. We will go by deserted roads, and I will guide you.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. Every thing is better than for the Bacchæ to mock me.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. We will go into the house and consider what seems best.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. We can do what we like; my part is completely prepared. Let us
+  go; for either I will go bearing arms, or I will be guided by your
+  counsels.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. O women! the man is in the toils,<a name="Ba_44"></a><a
+  href="#BaN_44"><sup>[44]</sup></a> and he will come to the Bacchæ, where,
+  dying, he will pay the penalty. Now, Bacchus, 'tis thine office, for you
+  are not far off. Let us punish him; but first drive him out of his wits,
+  inspiring vain frenzy, since, being in his right mind, he will not be
+  willing to put on a female dress, but driving him out of his senses he
+  will put it on; and I wish him to furnish laughter to the Thebans, being
+  led in woman's guise through the city, after<a name="Ba_45"></a><a
+  href="#BaN_45"><sup>[45]</sup></a> his former threats, with which he was
+  terrible. But I will go to fit on Pentheus the dress, which, having
+  taken, he shall die, slain by his mother's hand. And he shall know
+  Bacchus, the son of Jupiter, who is in fact to men at once the most
+  terrible, and the mildest of deities.<a name="Ba_46"></a><a
+  href="#BaN_46"><sup>[46]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Shall I move my white foot in the night-long dance, honoring
+  Bacchus, exposing my neck to the dewy air, sporting like a fawn in the
+  verdant delights of the mead, when it has escaped a fearful chase beyond
+  the watch of the well-woven nets, (and the huntsman cheering hastens on
+  the course of his hounds,) and with toil like the swift storm<a
+  name="Ba_47"></a><a href="#BaN_47"><sup>[47]</sup></a> rushes along the
+  plain that skirts the river, exulting in the solitude apart from men, and
+  in the thickets of the shady-foliaged wood? What is wisdom, what is a
+  more glorious gift from the Gods among mortals than to hold one's hand on
+  the heads of one's enemies? What is good is always pleasant; divine
+  strength is roused with difficulty, but still is sure, and it chastises
+  those mortals who honor folly, and do not extol the Gods in their insane
+  mind. But the Gods cunningly conceal the long foot<a name="Ba_48"></a><a
+  href="#BaN_48"><sup>[48]</sup></a> of time, and hunt the impious man; for
+  it is not right to determine or plan any thing beyond the laws: for it is
+  a light expense to deem that that has power whatever is divine, and that
+  what has been law for a long time has its origin in nature. What is
+  wisdom, what is a more noble gift from the Gods among men, than to hold
+  one's hand on the heads of one's enemies? what is honorable is always
+  pleasant. Happy is he who has escaped from the wave of the sea, and
+  arrived in harbor.<a name="Ba_49"></a><a
+  href="#BaN_49"><sup>[49]</sup></a> Happy, too, is he who has overcome his
+  labors; and one surpasses another in different ways, in wealth and power.
+  Still are there innumerable hopes to innumerable men, some result in
+  wealth to mortals, and some fail, but I call him happy whose life is
+  happy day by day.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. You, who are eager to see what you ought not, and hasty to do a
+  deed not of haste, I mean Pentheus, come forth before the house, be seen
+  by me, having the costume of a woman, of a frantic Bacchant, as a spy
+  upon your mother and her company! In appearance, you are like one of the
+  daughters of Cadmus.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. And indeed I think I see two suns,<a name="Ba_50"></a><a
+  href="#BaN_50"><sup>[50]</sup></a> and twin Thebes, and seven-gated city;
+  and you seem to guide me, being like a bull, and horns seem to grow on
+  your head. But were you ever a beast? for you look like a bull.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. The God accompanies us, not propitious formerly, but now at truce
+  with us. You see what you should see.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. How do I look? Does not my standing seem like that of Ino, or of
+  Agave, my mother?</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. I seem to see them as I behold you; but this lock of hair of
+  yours is out of its place, not as I dressed it beneath the turban.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. Moving it within doors backward and forward, and practicing
+  Bacchic revelry, I disarranged it.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. But we who ought to wait upon you will again rearrange it. But
+  hold up your head.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. Look, do you arrange it, for we depend on you.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. And your girdle is loosened, and the fringes of your garments do
+  not extend regularly round your legs.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. They seem so to me, too, about the right foot at least; but on
+  this side the robe sits well along the leg.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. Will you not think me the first of your friends when, contrary to
+  your expectation, you see the Bacchæ acting modestly?</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. But shall I be more like a Bacchant holding the thyrsus in my
+  right hand, or in this?</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. You should [hold it in] your right hand, and raise it at the same
+  time with your right foot; and I praise you for having changed your
+  mind.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. Could I bear on my shoulders the glens of Cithæron, Bacchæ and
+  all?</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. You could if you were willing; but you had your mind unsound
+  before; but now you have such as you ought.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. Shall we bring levers, or shall I tear them up with my hands,
+  putting my shoulder or arm under the summits?</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. No, lest you ruin the habitations of the Nymphs, and the seats of
+  Pan where he plays his pipes.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. You speak well,&mdash;it is not with strength we should conquer
+  women; but I will hide my body among the pines.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. Hide you the hiding in which you should be hidden, coming as a
+  crafty spy on the Mænads.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. And, indeed, I think to catch them in the thickets, like birds in
+  the sweet nets of beds.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. You go then as a watch for this very thing; and perhaps you will
+  catch them, if you be not caught first.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. Conduct me through the middle of the Theban land, for I am the
+  only man of them who would dare these things.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. You alone labor for this city, you alone; therefore the labors,
+  which are meet,<a name="Ba_51"></a><a href="#BaN_51"><sup>[51]</sup></a>
+  await you. But follow me, I am your saving guide, some one else will
+  guide you away from thence.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. Yes, my mother.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. Being remarkable among all.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. For this purpose do I come.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. You will depart being borne.<a name="Ba_52"></a><a
+  href="#BaN_52"><sup>[52]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>PEN. You allude to my delicacy.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. In the hands of your mother.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. And wilt thou compel me to be effeminate?</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. Ay, with such effeminacy.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. I lay mine hands to worthy things.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. You are terrible, terrible: and you go to terrible sufferings; so
+  that you shall find a renown reaching to heaven. Spread out, O Agave,
+  your hands, and ye, her sister, daughters of Cadmus! I lead this young
+  man to a mighty contest; and the conqueror shall be I and Bacchus! The
+  rest the matter itself will show.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Go, ye fleet hounds of madness, go to the mountain where the
+  daughters of Cadmus hold their company; drive them raving against the
+  frantic spy on the Mænads,&mdash;him in woman's attire. First shall his
+  mother from some smooth rock or paling, behold him in ambush; and she
+  will cry out to the Mænads: Who is this of the Cadmeans who has come to
+  the mountain, the mountain, as a spy on us, who are on the mountain? Io
+  Bacchæ! Who brought him forth? for he was not born of the blood of women:
+  but, as to his race, he is either born of some lion, or of the Libyan
+  Gorgons. Let manifest justice go forth, let it go with sword in hand,
+  slaying the godless, lawless, unjust, earth-born offspring of Echion
+  through the throat; who, with wicked mind and unjust rage about your
+  orgies, O Bacchus, and those of thy mother,<a name="Ba_53"></a><a
+  href="#BaN_53"><sup>[53]</sup></a> with raving heart and mad disposition
+  proceeds as about to overcome an invincible deity by force. To possess
+  without pretext a wise understanding in respect to the Gods, and [a
+  disposition] befitting mortals, is a life ever free from grief. I
+  joyfully hunt after wisdom, if apart from envy, but the other conduct is
+  evidently ever great throughout life, directing one rightly the livelong
+  day, to reverence things honorable.<a name="Ba_54"></a><a
+  href="#BaN_54"><sup>[54]</sup></a> Appear as a bull, or a many-headed
+  dragon, or a fiery lion, to be seen. Go, O Bacchus! cast a snare around
+  the hunter of the Bacchæ, with a smiling face falling upon the deadly
+  crowd of the Mænads.</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. O house, which wast formerly prosperous in Greece! house of the
+  Sidonian old man, who sowed in the land the earth-born harvest of the
+  dragon; how I lament for you, though a slave. But still the [calamities]
+  of their masters are a grief to good servants.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. But what is the matter? Tellest thou any news from the
+  Bacchæ?</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. Pentheus is dead, the son of his father Echion.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. O, king Bacchus! truly you appear a great God!</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. How sayest thou? Why do you say this? Do you, O woman, delight
+  at my master being unfortunate?</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. I, a foreigner, celebrate it in foreign strains; for no longer
+  do I crouch in fear under my fetters.</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. But do you think Thebes thus void of men?</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Bacchus, Bacchus, not Thebes, has my allegiance.</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. You, indeed may be pardoned; still, O woman, it is not right to
+  rejoice at the misfortunes which have been brought to pass.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Tell me, say, by what fate is the wicked man doing wicked things
+  dead, O man?</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. When having left Therapnæ of this Theban land, we crossed the
+  streams of Asopus, we entered on the height of Cithæron, Pentheus and I,
+  for I was following my master, and the stranger who was our guide in this
+  search, for the sight: first, then, we sat down in a grassy vale, keeping
+  our steps and tongues in silence, that we might see, not being seen; and
+  there was a valley surrounded by precipices, irrigated with streams,
+  shaded around with pines, where the Mænads were sitting employing their
+  hands in pleasant labors, for some of them were again crowning the
+  worn-out thyrsus, so as to make it leafy with ivy; and some, like horses
+  quitting the painted yoke, shouted in reply to another a Bacchic melody.
+  And the miserable Pentheus, not seeing the crowd of women, spake thus: O
+  stranger, where we are standing, I can not come at the place where is the
+  dance of the Mænads; but climbing a mound, or pine with lofty neck, I
+  could well discern the shameful deeds of the Mænads. And on this I now
+  see a strange deed of the stranger; for seizing hold of the extreme lofty
+  branch of a pine, he pulled it down, pulled it, pulled it to the dark
+  earth, and it was bent like a bow, or as a curved wheel worked by a lathe
+  describes a circle as it revolves, thus the stranger, pulling a mountain
+  bough with his hands, bent it to the earth; doing no mortal's deed; and
+  having placed Pentheus on the pine branches, he let it go upright through
+  his hands steadily, taking care that it should not shake him off; and the
+  pine stood firm upright to the sky, bearing on its back my master,
+  sitting on it; and he was seen rather than saw the Mænads, for sitting on
+  high he was apparent, as not before.<a name="Ba_55"></a><a
+  href="#BaN_55"><sup>[55]</sup></a> And one could no longer see the
+  stranger, but there was a certain voice from the sky; Bacchus, as one
+  might conjecture, shouted out: O youthful women, I bring you him who made
+  you and me and my orgies a laughing-stock: but punish ye him. And at the
+  same time he cried out, and sent forth to heaven and earth a light of
+  holy fire;<a name="Ba_56"></a><a href="#BaN_56"><sup>[56]</sup></a> and
+  the air was silent, and the fair meadowed grove kept its leaves in
+  silence, and you could not hear the voice of the beasts; but they not
+  distinctly receiving the voice, stood upright, and cast their eyes
+  around. And again he proclaimed his bidding. And when the daughters of
+  Cadmus' recognized the distinct command of Bacchus, they rushed forth,
+  having in the eager running of their feet a speed not less than that of a
+  dove; his mother, Agave, and her kindred sisters, and all the Bacchæ: and
+  frantic with the inspiration of the God, they bounded through the
+  torrent-streaming valley, and the clefts. But when they saw my master
+  sitting on the pine, first they threw at him handfuls of stones, striking
+  his head, mounting on an opposite piled rock; and with pine branches some
+  aimed, and some hurled their thyrsi through the air at Pentheus, wretched
+  mark;<a name="Ba_57"></a><a href="#BaN_57"><sup>[57]</sup></a> but they
+  failed of their purpose; for he having a height too great for their
+  eagerness, sat, wretched, destitute through perplexity. But at last
+  thundering together<a name="Ba_58"></a><a
+  href="#BaN_58"><sup>[58]</sup></a> some oaken branches, they tore up the
+  roots with levers not of iron; and when they could not accomplish the end
+  of their labors, Agave said, Come, standing round in a circle, seize each
+  a branch, O Mænads, that we may take the beast<a name="Ba_59"></a><a
+  href="#BaN_59"><sup>[59]</sup></a> who has climbed aloft, that he may not
+  tell abroad the secret dances of the God. And they applied their
+  innumerable hands to the pine, and tore it up from the ground; and
+  sitting on high, Pentheus falls to the ground from on high, with
+  numberless lamentations; for he knew that he was near to ill. And first
+  his mother, as the priestess, began his slaughter, and falls upon him;
+  but he threw the turban from his hair, that the wretched Agave,
+  recognizing him, might not slay him; and touching her cheek, he says, I,
+  indeed, O mother, am thy child,<a name="Ba_60"></a><a
+  href="#BaN_60"><sup>[60]</sup></a> Pentheus, whom you bore in the house
+  of Echion; but pity me, O mother! and do not slay me, thy child, for my
+  sins. But she, foaming and rolling her eyes every way, not thinking as
+  she ought to think, was possessed by Bacchus, and he did not persuade
+  her; and seizing his left hand with her hand, treading on the side of the
+  unhappy man, she tore off his shoulder, not by [her own] strength, but
+  the God gave facility to her hands; and Ino completed the work on the
+  other side, tearing his flesh. And Autonoe and the whole crowd of the
+  Bacchæ pressed on; and there was a noise of all together; he, indeed,
+  groaning as much as he had life in him, and they shouted; and one bore
+  his arm, another his foot, shoe and all; and his sides were bared by
+  their tearings, and the whole band, with gory hands, tore to pieces the
+  flesh of Pentheus: and his body lies in different places, part under the
+  rugged rocks, part in the deep shade of the wood, not easy to be sought;
+  and as to his miserable head, which his mother has taken in her hands,
+  having fixed it on the top of a thyrsus, she is bearing it, like that of
+  a savage lion, through the middle of Cithæron, leaving her sisters in the
+  dances of the Mænads; and she goes along rejoicing in her unhappy prey,
+  within these walls, calling upon Bacchus, her fellow-huntsman, her
+  fellow-workman in the chase, of glorious victory, by which she wins a
+  victory of tears. I, therefore, will depart out of the way of this
+  calamity before Agave comes to the palace; but to be wise, and to
+  reverence the Gods, this, I think, is the most honorable and wisest thing
+  for mortals who adopt it.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Let us dance in honor of Bacchus; let us raise a shout for what
+  has befallen Pentheus, the descendant of the dragon, who assumed female
+  attire and the wand with the beautiful thyrsus,&mdash;a certain death,
+  having a bull<a name="Ba_61"></a><a href="#BaN_61"><sup>[61]</sup></a> as
+  his leader to calamity. Ye Cadmean Bacchants, ye have accomplished a
+  glorious victory, illustrious, yet for woe and tears. It is a glorious
+  contest to plunge one's dripping hand in the blood of one's son.
+  But&mdash;for I see Agave, the mother of Pentheus, coining to the house
+  with starting eyes; receive the revel of the Evian God.</p>
+
+  <p>AGAVE. O Asiatic Bacchæ!</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. To what dost thou excite me? O!</p>
+
+  <p>AG. We bring from the mountains a fresh-culled wreathing<a
+  name="Ba_62"></a><a href="#BaN_62"><sup>[62]</sup></a> to the house, a
+  blessed prey.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. I see it, and hail you as a fellow-reveler, O!</p>
+
+  <p>AG. I have caught him without a noose, a young lion, as you may
+  see.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. From what desert?</p>
+
+  <p>AG. Cithæron.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. What did Cithæron?</p>
+
+  <p>AG. Slew him.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Who was it who first smote him?</p>
+
+  <p>AG. The honor is mine. Happy Agave! We are renowned in our revels.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Who else?</p>
+
+  <p>AG. Cadmus's.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. What of Cadmus?</p>
+
+  <p>AG. Descendants after me, after me laid hands on this beast.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. You are fortunate in this capture.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. Partake then of our feast.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. What shall I, unhappy, partake of?</p>
+
+  <p>AG. The whelp is young about the chin; he has just lost his
+  soft-haired head-gear.<a name="Ba_63"></a><a
+  href="#BaN_63"><sup>[63]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>AG. For it is beautiful as the mane of a wild beast.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Bacchus, a wise huntsman, wisely hurried the Mænads against this
+  beast.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. For the king is a huntsman.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. Do you praise?</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. What? I do praise.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. But soon the Cadmeans.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. And thy son Pentheus his mother&mdash;</p>
+
+  <p>AG. &mdash;will praise, as having caught this lion-born prey.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. An excellent prey.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. Excellently.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. You rejoice.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. I rejoice greatly, having accomplished great and illustrious deeds
+  for this land.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Show now, O wretched woman, thy victorious booty to the
+  citizens, which you have come bringing with you.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. O, ye who dwell in the fair-towered city of the Theban land, come
+  ye, that ye may behold this prey, O daughters of Cadmus, of the wild
+  beast which we have taken; not by the thonged javelins of the
+  Thessalians, not by nets, but by the fingers, our white arms; then may we
+  boast that we should in vain possess the instruments of the spear-makers;
+  but we, with this hand, slew this beast, and tore its limbs asunder.
+  Where is my aged father? let him come near; and where is my son Pentheus?
+  let him take and raise the ascent of a wattled ladder against the house,
+  that he may fasten to the triglyphs this head of the lion which I am
+  present having caught.</p>
+
+  <p>CAD. Follow me, bearing the miserable burden of Pentheus; follow me, O
+  servants, before the house; whose body here, laboring with immeasurable
+  search, I bear, having found it in the defiles of Cithæron, torn to
+  pieces, and finding nothing in the same place, lying in a thicket,
+  difficult to be searched. For I heard from some one of the daring deeds
+  of my daughters just as I came to the city within the walls, with the old
+  Tiresias, concerning the Bacchæ; and having returned again to the
+  mountain, I bring back my child, slain by the Mænads. And I saw Autonoe,
+  who formerly bore Actæon to Aristæus, and Ino together, still mad in the
+  thicket, unhappy creatures; but some one told me that Agave was coming
+  hither with frantic foot; nor did I hear a false tale, for I behold her,
+  an unhappy sight.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. O father! you may boast a great boast, that you of mortals have
+  begotten by far the best daughters; I mean all, but particularly myself,
+  who, leaving my shuttle at the loom, have come to greater things, to
+  catch wild beasts with my hands. And having taken him, I bear in my arms,
+  as you see, these spoils of my valor, that they may be suspended against
+  your house. And do you, O father, receive them in your hands; and
+  rejoicing over my successful capture, invite your friends to a feast; for
+  you are blessed, blessed since I have done such deeds.</p>
+
+  <p>CAD. O, woe! and not to be seen, of those who have accomplished a
+  slaughter not to be measured by wretched hands; having stricken down a
+  glorious victim for the Gods, you invite Thebes and me to a banquet. Alas
+  me, first for thy ills, then for mine own; how justly, but how severely,
+  has king Bromius destroyed us, being one of our own family!</p>
+
+  <p>AG. How morose is old age in men! and sullen to the eye; would that my
+  son may be fond of hunting, resembling the disposition of his mother,
+  when with the Theban youths he would strive after the beasts&mdash;but he
+  is only fit to contend with Gods. He is to be admonished, O father, by
+  you and me, not to rejoice in clever evil. Where is he? Who will summon
+  him hither to my sight, that he may see me, that happy woman?</p>
+
+  <p>CAD. Alas, alas! knowing what ye have done, ye will grieve a sad
+  grief; but if forever ye remain in the condition in which ye are, not
+  fortunate, you will seem not to be unfortunate.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. But what of these matters is not well, or what is grievous?</p>
+
+  <p>CAD. First cast your eyes up to this sky.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. Well; why do you bid me look at it?</p>
+
+  <p>CAD. Is it still the same, or think you it is changed?</p>
+
+  <p>AG. It is brighter than formerly, and more divine.</p>
+
+  <p>CAD. Is then this fluttering still present to your soul?</p>
+
+  <p>AG. I understand not your word; but I become somehow sobered, changing
+  from my former mind.</p>
+
+  <p>CAD. Can you then hear any thing, and answer clearly?</p>
+
+  <p>AG. How I forget what we said before, O father!</p>
+
+  <p>CAD. To what house did you come in marriage?</p>
+
+  <p>AG. You gave me, as they say, to the sown Echion.</p>
+
+  <p>CAD. What son then was born in your house to your husband?</p>
+
+  <p>AG. Pentheus, by the association of myself and his father.</p>
+
+  <p>CAD. Whose head then have you in your arms?</p>
+
+  <p>AG. That of a lion, as those who hunted him said.</p>
+
+  <p>CAD. Look now rightly; short is the toil to see.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. Ah! what do I see? what is this I bear in my hands?</p>
+
+  <p>CAD. Look at it, and learn more clearly.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. I see the greatest grief, wretch that I am!</p>
+
+  <p>CAD. Does it seem to you to be like a lion?</p>
+
+  <p>AG. No: but I, wretched, hold the head of Pentheus.</p>
+
+  <p>CAD. Ay, much lamented before you recognized him.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. Who slew him, how came he into my hands?</p>
+
+  <p>CAD. O wretched truth, how unseasonably art thou come!</p>
+
+  <p>AG. Tell me, since delay causes a quivering at my heart.</p>
+
+  <p>CAD. You and your sisters slew him.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. And where did he die, in the house, or in what place?</p>
+
+  <p>CAD. Where formerly the dogs tore Actæon to pieces.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. But why did he, unhappy, go to Cithæron?</p>
+
+  <p>CAD. He went deriding the God and your Bacchic revels.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. But on what account did we go thither?</p>
+
+  <p>CAD. Ye were mad, and the whole city was frantic with Bacchus.<a
+  name="Ba_64"></a><a href="#BaN_64"><sup>[64]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>AG. Bacchus undid us&mdash;now I perceive.</p>
+
+  <p>CAD. Being insulted with insolence&mdash;for ye thought him not a
+  God.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. But the dear body of my child, O father!</p>
+
+  <p>CAD. I having with difficulty traced it, bring it all.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. What! rightly united in its joints? *&nbsp;*&nbsp;*&nbsp;*</p>
+
+  <p>AG. But what part had Pentheus in my folly?<a name="Ba_65"></a><a
+  href="#BaN_65"><sup>[65]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>CAD. He was like you, not reverencing the God, therefore he joined all
+  in one ruin, both ye and this one, so as to ruin the house, and me, who
+  being childless of male children, see this branch of thy womb, O unhappy
+  woman! most miserably and shamefully slain&mdash;whom the house
+  respected; you, O child, who supported my house, born of my daughter, and
+  was an object of fear to the city; and no one wished to insult the old
+  man, seeing you; for he would have received a worthy punishment. But now
+  I shall be cast out of my house dishonored, I, the mighty Cadmus, who
+  sowed the Theban race, and reaped a most glorious crop; O dearest of men,
+  for although no longer in being, still thou shalt be counted by me as
+  dearest of my children; no longer touching this, my chin, with thy hand,
+  addressing me, your mother's father, wilt thou embrace me, my son,
+  saying, Who injures, who insults you, O father, who harasses your heart,
+  being troublesome I say, that I may punish him who does you wrong, O
+  father. But now I am miserable, and thou art wretched, and thy mother is
+  pitiable, and thy relations are wretched. But if there is any one who
+  despises the Gods, looking on this man's death, let him acknowledge the
+  Gods.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. I grieve for thy state, O Cadmus; but your child has the
+  punishment of your daughter, deserved indeed, but grievous to you.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. O father, for you see how I am changed ...</p>
+
+  <p>BAC ... changing, you shall become a dragon, and your wife becoming a
+  beast, shall receive in exchange the form of a serpent, Harmonia, the
+  daughter of Mars, whom you had, being a mortal. And as the oracle of Jove
+  says, you shall drive with your wife a chariot of heifers, ruling over
+  barbarians; and with an innumerable army you shall sack many cities; and
+  when they plunder the temple of Apollo, they shall have a miserable
+  return, but Mars shall defend you and Harmonia, and shall settle your
+  life in the islands of the blessed. I say this, I, Bacchus, not born of a
+  mortal father, but of Jove; and if ye had known how to be wise when ye
+  would not, ye would have been happy, having the son of Jupiter for your
+  ally.</p>
+
+  <p>CAD. Bacchus, we beseech thee, we have erred.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. Ye have learned it too late; but when it behooved you, you knew
+  it not.</p>
+
+  <p>CAD. I knew it, but you press on us too severely.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. [Ay,] for I, being a God, was insulted by you.</p>
+
+  <p>CAD. It is not right for Gods to resemble mortals in anger.<a
+  name="Ba_66"></a><a href="#BaN_66"><sup>[66]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>BAC. My father, Jove, long ago decreed this.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. Alas! a miserable banishment is the decree<a name="Ba_67"></a><a
+  href="#BaN_67"><sup>[67]</sup></a> [for us,] old man.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. Why do ye then delay what must needs be?</p>
+
+  <p>CAD. O child, into what terrible evil have we come; both you wretched
+  and your *&nbsp;*&nbsp;*&nbsp;* sisters,<a name="Ba_68"></a><a
+  href="#BaN_68"><sup>[68]</sup></a> and I miserable, shall go, an aged
+  sojourner, to foreigners. Still it is foretold that I shall bring into
+  Greece a motley barbarian army, and leading their spears, I, a dragon,
+  shall lead the daughter of Mars, Harmonia, my wife, having the fierce
+  nature of a dragon, to the altars and tombs of the Greeks. Nor shall I,
+  wretched, rest from ills, nor even sailing over the Acheron below shall I
+  be at rest.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. O, my father! and I being deprived of you shall be banished.</p>
+
+  <p>CAD. Why do you embrace me with your hands, O unhappy child, as a
+  white swan does its exhausted<a name="Ba_69"></a><a
+  href="#BaN_69"><sup>[69]</sup></a> parent?</p>
+
+  <p>AG. For whither can I turn, cast out from my country?</p>
+
+  <p>CAD. I know not, my child; your father is a poor ally.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. Farewell, O house! farewell, O ancestral city! I leave you in
+  misfortune a fugitive from my chamber.</p>
+
+  <p>CAD. Go then, my child, to the land of Aristæus *&nbsp;*&nbsp;*&nbsp;*.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. I bemoan thee, O father!</p>
+
+  <p>CAD. And I thee, my child; and I lament your sisters.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. Terribly indeed has king Bacchus brought this misery upon thy
+  house.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. [Ay,] for I have suffered terrible things from ye, having a name
+  unhonored in Thebes.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. Farewell, my father.</p>
+
+  <p>CAD. And you farewell, O miserable daughter; yet you can not easily
+  arrive at this.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. Lead me, O guides, where I may take my miserable sisters as the
+  companions of my flight; and may I go where neither accursed Cithæron may
+  see me, nor I may see Cithæron with my eyes, and where there is no memory
+  of the thyrsus hallowed, but they may be a care to other Bacchæ.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. There are many forms of divine things; and the Gods bring to
+  pass many in an unexpected manner: both what has been expected has not
+  been accomplished, and God has found out a means for doing things
+  unthought of. So, too, has this event turned out.<a name="Ba_70"></a><a
+  href="#BaN_70"><sup>[70]</sup></a></p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h3>NOTES ON THE BACCHÆ</h3>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+<div class="note">
+  <p><a name="BaN_1"></a><a href="#Ba_1">[1]</a> For illustrations of the
+  fable of this play, compare Hyginus, Fab. clxxxiv., who evidently has a
+  view to Euripides. Ovid, Metam. iii. fab. v. Oppian, Cyneg. iv. 241 sqq.
+  Nonnus, 45, p. 765 sq. and 46, p. 783 sqq., some of whose imitations I
+  shall mention in my notes. With the opening speech of this play compare
+  the similar one of Venus in the Hippolytus.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_2"></a><a href="#Ba_2">[2]</a> Cf. vs. 176; and for the
+  musical instruments employed in the Bacchanalian rites, vs. 125 sqq.
+  Oppian, Cyn. iv. 243. <span lang="el" title="nebrisi d' amphebalonto, kai
+  estepsanto korymbois, En speï, kai peri paida to mystikon ôrchêsanto.
+  Tympana d' ektypeon, kai kymbala chersi
+  krotainon">&#x3BD;&#x3B5;&#x3B2;&#x3C1;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3B9; &#x3B4;'
+  &#x3B1;&#x3BC;&#x3C6;&#x3B5;&#x3B2;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;,
+  &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3B5;&#x3C3;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3C8;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;
+  &#x3BA;&#x3BF;&#x3C1;&#x3C5;&#x3BC;&#x3B2;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;,
+  &#x395;&#x3BD; &#x3C3;&#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3CA;, &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3B9; &#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3B4;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3BF; &#x3BC;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3C4;&#x3B9;&#x3BA;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3C9;&#x3C1;&#x3C7;&#x3B7;&#x3C3;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;.
+  &#x3A4;&#x3C5;&#x3BC;&#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3B1; &#x3B4;'
+  &#x3B5;&#x3BA;&#x3C4;&#x3C5;&#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;,
+  &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9; &#x3BA;&#x3C5;&#x3BC;&#x3B2;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3C7;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3BA;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span>.
+  Compare Gorius, Monum. Libert. et Serv. ad Tab. vii. p. 15 sq.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_3"></a><a href="#Ba_3">[3]</a> Such is the sense of <span
+  lang="el"
+  title="synapsomai">&#x3C3;&#x3C5;&#x3BD;&#x3B1;&#x3C8;&#x3BF;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;</span>,
+  <span lang="el" title="machên">&#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3C7;&#x3B7;&#x3BD;</span>
+  being understood. See Matthiæ.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_4"></a><a href="#Ba_4">[4]</a> Drums and cymbals were
+  invented by the Goddess in order to drown the cries of the infant
+  Jupiter. Minutius Felix, xxi. "Avido patri subtrahitur infans ne voretur,
+  et Corybantum cymbalis, ne pater audiat, vagitus initus eliditur" (read
+  <i>audiat vagitus, tinnitus illi editur</i>, from the <i>vestigia</i> of
+  Cod. Reg.). Cf. Lactant. i. 13.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_5"></a><a href="#Ba_5">[5]</a> Cf. Homer, Hymn. in Cerer.
+  485. <span lang="el" title="olbios, hos tad' opôpen epichthoniôn
+  anthrôpôn: Hos d' atelês, hierôn host' ammoros, oupoth' homoiôn Aisan
+  echei, phthimenos per, hypo zophôi
+  eurôenti">&#x3BF;&#x3BB;&#x3B2;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;,
+  &#x201B;&#x3BF;&#x3C2; &#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3B4;'
+  &#x3BF;&#x3C0;&#x3C9;&#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B5;&#x3C0;&#x3B9;&#x3C7;&#x3B8;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3B9;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3B8;&#x3C1;&#x3C9;&#x3C0;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;:
+  &#x201B;&#x39F;&#x3C2; &#x3B4;'
+  &#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3BB;&#x3B7;&#x3C2;,
+  &#x201B;&#x3B9;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x201B;&#x3BF;&#x3C3;&#x3C4;'
+  &#x3B1;&#x3BC;&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;,
+  &#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3B8;'
+  &#x201B;&#x3BF;&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x391;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3B1;&#x3BD; &#x3B5;&#x3C7;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;,
+  &#x3C6;&#x3B8;&#x3B9;&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;, &#x201B;&#x3C5;&#x3C0;&#x3BF;
+  &#x3B6;&#x3BF;&#x3C6;&#x3C9;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3B5;&#x3C5;&#x3C1;&#x3C9;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3B9;</span>. See
+  Ruhnken's note, and Valck. on Eur. Hippol.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_6"></a><a href="#Ba_6">[6]</a> This passage is extremely
+  difficult. <span lang="el"
+  title="Plokamôn">&#x3A0;&#x3BB;&#x3BF;&#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3BC;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;</span>
+  seems decidedly corrupt. Reiske would read <span lang="el"
+  title="pokadôn">&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B4;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;</span>,
+  Musgrave <span lang="el" title="leukotrichôn plokamois
+  mallôn">&#x3BB;&#x3B5;&#x3C5;&#x3BA;&#x3BF;&#x3C4;&#x3C1;&#x3B9;&#x3C7;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3BB;&#x3BF;&#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3BB;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;</span>. Elmsley would
+  substitute <span lang="el"
+  title="probatôn">&#x3C0;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3B2;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;</span>,
+  "si <span lang="el"
+  title="probaton">&#x3C0;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3B2;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span>
+  apud Euripidem exstaret." This seems the most probable view as yet
+  expressed. The <span lang="el" title="eriosteptoi
+  kladoi">&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3C3;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3C0;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3BA;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3B4;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;</span> are learnedly explained
+  by Lobeck on Ag. p. 375 sq., quoted by Dindorf. The <span lang="el"
+  title="mallôsis">&#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3BB;&#x3C9;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;</span>
+  or insertion of spots of party-colored fur upon the plain skin of
+  animals, was a favorite ornament of the wealthy. The spots of ermine
+  similarly used now are the clearest illustration to which I can point.
+  Lobeck also observes, "<span lang="el" title="kata
+  bakchiousthai">&#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3B2;&#x3B1;&#x3BA;&#x3C7;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3B8;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;</span>
+  non bacchari significat, sed coronari."</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_7"></a><a href="#Ba_7">[7]</a> These ladies seem to have
+  been rather undomestic in character, as Agave makes this very fact a
+  boast, vs. 1236.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_8"></a><a href="#Ba_8">[8]</a> Cf. Apollodor. l. i., § 3,
+  interpp. ad Virg. G. iv. 152. Compare Porphyr. de Nymph. Antr. p. 262,
+  ad. Holst. <span lang="el" title="spêlaia toinyn kai antra tôn
+  palaiotatôn prin kai naous epinoêsai theois aphosiountôn. kai en Krêtêi
+  men kourêtôn, Diï en Arkadiai de, selênêi kai Pani Lykeiôi: kai en Naxôi
+  Dionysôi. pantachou d' hopou ton Mithran egnôsan, dia spêlaiou ton theon
+  hileoumenôn">&#x3C3;&#x3C0;&#x3B7;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;&#x3C5;&#x3BD; &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3C1;&#x3B1; &#x3C4;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3C1;&#x3B9;&#x3BD; &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3BD;&#x3B1;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B5;&#x3C0;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3B7;&#x3C3;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3B8;&#x3B5;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B1;&#x3C6;&#x3BF;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;.
+  &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9; &#x3B5;&#x3BD;
+  &#x39A;&#x3C1;&#x3B7;&#x3C4;&#x3B7;&#x3B9; &#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3BA;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C1;&#x3B7;&#x3C4;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;,
+  &#x394;&#x3B9;&#x3CA; &#x3B5;&#x3BD;
+  &#x391;&#x3C1;&#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B4;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;&#x3B9; &#x3B4;&#x3B5;,
+  &#x3C3;&#x3B5;&#x3BB;&#x3B7;&#x3BD;&#x3B7;&#x3B9; &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3A0;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3B9;
+  &#x39B;&#x3C5;&#x3BA;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C9;&#x3B9;: &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3B5;&#x3BD; &#x39D;&#x3B1;&#x3BE;&#x3C9;&#x3B9;
+  &#x394;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3C9;&#x3B9;.
+  &#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3C7;&#x3BF;&#x3C5; &#x3B4;'
+  &#x201B;&#x3BF;&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3C5; &#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;
+  &#x39C;&#x3B9;&#x3B8;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B5;&#x3B3;&#x3BD;&#x3C9;&#x3C3;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;, &#x3B4;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3C3;&#x3C0;&#x3B7;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3BD; &#x3B8;&#x3B5;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;
+  &#x201B;&#x3B9;&#x3BB;&#x3B5;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;</span>.
+  Cf. Moll. ad Longi Past. i. 2. p. 22 sq. ed. Boden.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_9"></a><a href="#Ba_9">[9]</a> Cf. Virg. Æn. iv. 301, and
+  Ritterh. on Oppian, Cyn. i, 24.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_10"></a><a href="#Ba_10">[10]</a> Compare the epithet of
+  Bacchus <span lang="el"
+  title="Ômadios">&#x3A9;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3B4;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span>,
+  Orph. Hymn. xxx. 5; l. 7, which has been wrongly explained by Gesner and
+  Hermann. The true interpretation is given by Porphyr. de Abst. ii. 55,
+  who states that human sacrifices were offered <span lang="el"
+  title="ômadiôi
+  Dionysôi">&#x3C9;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3B4;&#x3B9;&#x3C9;&#x3B9;
+  &#x394;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3C9;&#x3B9;</span> the man
+  being torn to pieces (<span lang="el"
+  title="diaapôntes">&#x3B4;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;&#x3B1;&#x3C0;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3C2;</span>).</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_11"></a><a href="#Ba_11">[11]</a> Persius i. 92. "et
+  lynceus Mænas flexura corymbis Evion ingeminat, reparabilis assonat
+  Echo." Euseb. Pr. Ev. ii. 3, derives the cry from Eve!</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_12"></a><a href="#Ba_12">[12]</a> I should read this line
+  interrogatively, with Elmsley.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_13"></a><a href="#Ba_13">[13]</a> Quoted by Gellius,
+  xiii. 18.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_14"></a><a href="#Ba_14">[14]</a> Elmsley would read
+  <span lang="el" title="makron to
+  mellon">&#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3BA;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3BD; &#x3C4;&#x3BF;
+  &#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3BB;&#x3BB;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span>. Perhaps the true
+  reading is <span lang="el" title="mellein
+  akairon">&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3BB;&#x3BB;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B1;&#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span> = <i>it is no
+  season for delay</i>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_15"></a><a href="#Ba_15">[15]</a> The construction is so
+  completely akward, that I almost feel inclined to consider this verse as
+  an interpolation, with Dindorf.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_16"></a><a href="#Ba_16">[16]</a> Compare Nonnus, 45. p.
+  765 4. <span lang="el" title="Teiresian kai Kadmon atasthalon iache
+  Pentheus. Kadme, ti margaineis, tini daimoni kômon egeireis; Kadme,
+  miainomenês apokattheo kisson etheirês, Kattheo kai nartheka nooplaneos
+  Dionysou.... Nêpie Teiresia stephanêphore rhipson aêtais Sôn plokamôn
+  tade phylla nothon stephos,
+  k.t.l.">&#x3A4;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C1;&#x3B5;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9; &#x39A;&#x3B1;&#x3B4;&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3C3;&#x3B8;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B9;&#x3B1;&#x3C7;&#x3B5;
+  &#x3A0;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3B8;&#x3B5;&#x3C5;&#x3C2;.
+  &#x39A;&#x3B1;&#x3B4;&#x3BC;&#x3B5;, &#x3C4;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3C1;&#x3B3;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;,
+  &#x3C4;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3B4;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3BA;&#x3C9;&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B5;&#x3B3;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C1;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;;
+  &#x39A;&#x3B1;&#x3B4;&#x3BC;&#x3B5;,
+  &#x3BC;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3B7;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B1;&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3B8;&#x3B5;&#x3BF;
+  &#x3BA;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3C3;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B5;&#x3B8;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C1;&#x3B7;&#x3C2;,
+  &#x39A;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3B8;&#x3B5;&#x3BF; &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3BD;&#x3B1;&#x3C1;&#x3B8;&#x3B5;&#x3BA;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3BF;&#x3C0;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3B5;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;
+  &#x394;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;....
+  &#x39D;&#x3B7;&#x3C0;&#x3B9;&#x3B5;
+  &#x3A4;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C1;&#x3B5;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3C3;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3C6;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3B7;&#x3C6;&#x3BF;&#x3C1;&#x3B5;
+  &#x201B;&#x3C1;&#x3B9;&#x3C8;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B1;&#x3B7;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3C2; &#x3A3;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3BB;&#x3BF;&#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3BC;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3B4;&#x3B5; &#x3C6;&#x3C5;&#x3BB;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3B8;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3C3;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3C6;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;,
+  &#x3BA;.&#x3C4;.&#x3BB;.</span></p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_17"></a><a href="#Ba_17">[17]</a> Compare the opinion of
+  Perseus in Cicero de N.D. i. 15, with Minutius Felix, xxi.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_18"></a><a href="#Ba_18">[18]</a> Pseud-Orpheus Hymn. l.
+  6. <span lang="el" title="pausiponon thnêtoisi phaneis
+  akos.">&#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B8;&#x3BD;&#x3B7;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3C6;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B1;&#x3BA;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;.</span></p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_19"></a><a href="#Ba_19">[19]</a> Dindorf truly says that
+  this passage smacks rather of Proclus, than of Euripides, and I agree
+  with him that its spuriousness is more than probable. Had Euripides
+  designed an etymological quibble, he would probably have made some
+  allusion to Merus, a mountain of India, where Bacchus is said to have
+  been brought up. See Curtius, viii. 10. "Sita est sub radicibus montis,
+  quem Meron incolæ appellant. Inde Græci mentiendi traxere licentiam,
+  Jovis femine liberum patrem esse celatum." Cf. Eustath. on Dionys.
+  Perieg. 1159. Lucian. Dial. Deor. ix. and Hermann on Orph. Hymn. lii.
+  3.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_20"></a><a href="#Ba_20">[20]</a> The gift of <span
+  lang="el"
+  title="mantikê">&#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3B9;&#x3BA;&#x3B7;</span>
+  was supposed to follow initiation, and is often joined with the rites of
+  this deity. Philostratus, Heroic. p. 22, ed. Boiss. <span lang="el"
+  title="hote dê kai mantikês sophias emphorountai, kai to chrêsmôdes
+  autais prosbakcheuei.">&#x201B;&#x3BF;&#x3C4;&#x3B5; &#x3B4;&#x3B7;
+  &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3B9;&#x3BA;&#x3B7;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3C3;&#x3BF;&#x3C6;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B5;&#x3BC;&#x3C6;&#x3BF;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;,
+  &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9; &#x3C4;&#x3BF;
+  &#x3C7;&#x3C1;&#x3B7;&#x3C3;&#x3BC;&#x3C9;&#x3B4;&#x3B5;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B1;&#x3C5;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3C3;&#x3B2;&#x3B1;&#x3BA;&#x3C7;&#x3B5;&#x3C5;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;.</span></p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_21"></a><a href="#Ba_21">[21]</a> Cf. Hippol. 443. <span
+  lang="el" title="Kypris gar ou phorêton ên pollê
+  rhyêi">&#x39A;&#x3C5;&#x3C0;&#x3C1;&#x3B9;&#x3C2; &#x3B3;&#x3B1;&#x3C1;
+  &#x3BF;&#x3C5; &#x3C6;&#x3BF;&#x3C1;&#x3B7;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B7;&#x3BD; &#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3BB;&#x3BB;&#x3B7;
+  &#x201B;&#x3C1;&#x3C5;&#x3B7;&#x3B9;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_22"></a><a href="#Ba_22">[22]</a> I have followed
+  Matthiæ's interpretation of this passage.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_23"></a><a href="#Ba_23">[23]</a> See Hermann's note.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_24"></a><a href="#Ba_24">[24]</a> The fate of Actæon is
+  often joined with that of Pentheus.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_25"></a><a href="#Ba_25">[25]</a> i.e. over-cunning in
+  regard to religious matters. Cf. 200. <span lang="el" title="ouden
+  sophizomestha toisi daimosin">&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3B4;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3C3;&#x3BF;&#x3C6;&#x3B9;&#x3B6;&#x3BF;&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3C3;&#x3B8;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3B4;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_26"></a><a href="#Ba_26">[26]</a> Probably a mere
+  hyperbole to denote great fruitfulness. See Elmsley.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_27"></a><a href="#Ba_27">[27]</a> Cf. Hor. Od. iii. 21,
+  20.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_28"></a><a href="#Ba_28">[28]</a> I follow Dindorf in
+  reading <span lang="el" title="sopha d'">&#x3C3;&#x3BF;&#x3C6;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3B4;'</span>, but am scarcely satisfied.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_29"></a><a href="#Ba_29">[29]</a> Hence his epithet of
+  Bacchus <span lang="el"
+  title="Nyktelios">&#x39D;&#x3C5;&#x3BA;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3BB;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span>.
+  See Herm. on Orph. Hymn. xlix. 3.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_30"></a><a href="#Ba_30">[30]</a> See my note on Æsch.
+  Choeph. 7.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_31"></a><a href="#Ba_31">[31]</a> Cf Person Advers. p.
+  265. Hor. Ep. i. 16. 73 "Vir bonus et sapiens audebit dicere Pentheu,
+  Rector Thebarum, quid me perferre patique Indignum coges? Adima bona,
+  nempe pecus, rem, Lectos, argentum: tollas licet. In manicis et
+  Compedibus sævo te sub custode tenebo. Ipse deus, simul atque volam, me
+  solvet. Opinor, Hoc sentit: moriar. Mors ultima linea rerum est."</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_32"></a><a href="#Ba_32">[32]</a> Punning on <span
+  lang="el"
+  title="penthos">&#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3B8;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span>,
+  <i>grief</i>. Cf. Arist. Rhet. ii. 23, 29.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_33"></a><a href="#Ba_33">[33]</a> i.e. of Parnassus.
+  Elmsley (after Stanl. on Æsch. Eum. 22.) remarks that <span lang="el"
+  title="Kôrykis petra">&#x39A;&#x3C9;&#x3C1;&#x3C5;&#x3BA;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3C4;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;</span> means the Corycian cave in
+  Parnassus, <span lang="el" title="Kôrykiai
+  koryphai">&#x39A;&#x3C9;&#x3C1;&#x3C5;&#x3BA;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3BA;&#x3BF;&#x3C1;&#x3C5;&#x3C6;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;</span>, the heights of
+  Parnassus.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_34"></a><a href="#Ba_34">[34]</a> Hermann and Dindorf
+  correct <span lang="el"
+  title="Loidian">&#x39B;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3B4;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;</span>
+  from Herodot. vii. 127.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_35"></a><a href="#Ba_35">[35]</a> The earth and buildings
+  were supposed to shake at the presence of a deity. Cf. Callimach. Hymn.
+  Apol. sub init. Virg. Æn. iii. 90; vi. 255. For the present instance
+  Nonnus, 45. p. 751.</p>
+
+  <div class="poem">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <p><span lang="el" title="êdê d' autoeliktos eseieto Pentheos aulê,">&#x3B7;&#x3B4;&#x3B7; &#x3B4;' &#x3B1;&#x3C5;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3B5;&#x3BB;&#x3B9;&#x3BA;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C2; &#x3B5;&#x3C3;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3B5;&#x3C4;&#x3BF; &#x3A0;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3B8;&#x3B5;&#x3BF;&#x3C2; &#x3B1;&#x3C5;&#x3BB;&#x3B7;,</span>&nbsp;</p>
+      <p><span lang="el" title="aklineôn sphairêdon anaïssousa themethlôn,">&#x3B1;&#x3BA;&#x3BB;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;&#x3B5;&#x3C9;&#x3BD; &#x3C3;&#x3C6;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3C1;&#x3B7;&#x3B4;&#x3BF;&#x3BD; &#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3B1;&#x3CA;&#x3C3;&#x3C3;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3B1; &#x3B8;&#x3B5;&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3B8;&#x3BB;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;,</span>&nbsp;</p>
+      <p><span lang="el" title="kai poleôn dedonêto thorôn enosichthoni palmôi">&#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9; &#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3BB;&#x3B5;&#x3C9;&#x3BD; &#x3B4;&#x3B5;&#x3B4;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3B7;&#x3C4;&#x3BF; &#x3B8;&#x3BF;&#x3C1;&#x3C9;&#x3BD; &#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;&#x3C7;&#x3B8;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3B9; &#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3BC;&#x3C9;&#x3B9;</span>&nbsp;</p>
+      <p><span lang="el" title="pêmatos essomenoio proangelos.">&#x3C0;&#x3B7;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C2; &#x3B5;&#x3C3;&#x3C3;&#x3BF;&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3BF; &#x3C0;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3B1;&#x3B3;&#x3B3;&#x3B5;&#x3BB;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;.</span>&nbsp;</p>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+  <p><a name="BaN_36"></a><a href="#Ba_36">[36]</a> The madness of Ajax led
+  to a similar delusion. Cf. Soph. Aj. 56 sqq.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_37"></a><a href="#Ba_37">[37]</a> Compare a fragment of
+  Didymus apud Macrob. Sat. v. 18, who states <span lang="el"
+  title="Achelôon pan hydôr Euripidês phêsin en
+  Hypsipylêi">&#x391;&#x3C7;&#x3B5;&#x3BB;&#x3C9;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3BD; &#x201B;&#x3C5;&#x3B4;&#x3C9;&#x3C1;
+  &#x395;&#x3C5;&#x3C1;&#x3B9;&#x3C0;&#x3B9;&#x3B4;&#x3B7;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3C6;&#x3B7;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;&#x3BD; &#x3B5;&#x3BD;
+  &#x201B;&#x3A5;&#x3C8;&#x3B9;&#x3C0;&#x3C5;&#x3BB;&#x3B7;&#x3B9;</span>.
+  See also comm. on Virg. Georg. i. 9.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_38"></a><a href="#Ba_38">[38]</a> The reader of Scott
+  will call to mind the fine description of Ireton lunging at the air, in a
+  paroxysm of fanatic raving. See "Woodstock." So also Orestes in Iph.
+  Taur. 296 sqq.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_39"></a><a href="#Ba_39">[39]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="aneisan">&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;</span>,
+  <i>solvuntur, liquescunt.</i> BRODEUS.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_40"></a><a href="#Ba_40">[40]</a> Cf. Soph Ant. 243
+  sqq.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_41"></a><a href="#Ba_41">[41]</a> These two cities were
+  in ruins in the time of Pausanias. See ix. 3. p. 714, ed. Kuhn.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_42"></a><a href="#Ba_42">[42]</a> Cf. Athenæus, p. 40. B.
+  Terent. Eun. iv. 5. "Sine Cerere et Libero friget Venus." Apul Met. ii.
+  p. 119, ed. Elm. "Ecce, inquam, Veneris hortator et armiger Liber advenit
+  ultro," where see Pricæus.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_43"></a><a href="#Ba_43">[43]</a> More literally,
+  perhaps, "keep it and be thankful."</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_44"></a><a href="#Ba_44">[44]</a> Theocrit. i. 40. <span
+  lang="el" title="mega diktyon es bolon
+  helkei">&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3B3;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3B4;&#x3B9;&#x3BA;&#x3C4;&#x3C5;&#x3BF;&#x3BD; &#x3B5;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B2;&#x3BF;&#x3BB;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;
+  &#x201B;&#x3B5;&#x3BB;&#x3BA;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_45"></a><a href="#Ba_45">[45]</a> But <span lang="el"
+  title="ek tôn apeilôn">&#x3B5;&#x3BA; &#x3C4;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B1;&#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3BB;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;</span> conveys a notion
+  of change = <i>instead of</i>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_46"></a><a href="#Ba_46">[46]</a> Elmsley remarks that
+  <span lang="el"
+  title="anthrôpoisi">&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3B8;&#x3C1;&#x3C9;&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;</span>
+  belongs to both members of the sentence. I have therefore supplied. The
+  sense may be illustrated from Hippol. 5 sq.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_47"></a><a href="#Ba_47">[47]</a> See Matthiæ.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_48"></a><a href="#Ba_48">[48]</a> i.e. step. This is
+  ridiculed by Aristoph. Ran. 100, where the Scholiast quotes a similar
+  example from our author's Alexandra.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_49"></a><a href="#Ba_49">[49]</a> Compare Havercamp on
+  Lucret. ii. sub init.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_50"></a><a href="#Ba_50">[50]</a> Compare Virgil, Æn. iv.
+  469. "Et solem geminum, et duplices se ostendere Thebas." In the second
+  passage of Clemens Alexandrinus quoted by Elmsley, <span lang="el"
+  title="gerôn">&#x3B3;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;</span> is probably a
+  mistaken reference to Tiresias.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_51"></a><a href="#Ba_51">[51]</a> An obscure hint at the
+  impending fate of Pentheus. Nonnus has led the way to the catastrophe by
+  a graphic description of Agave's dream. Dionys. 45. p. 751.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_52"></a><a href="#Ba_52">[52]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="pheromenos">&#x3C6;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span>
+  may mean either "carried in a litter," or "carried to burial." There is a
+  somewhat similar play in the epigram of Ausonius, xxiii. "Mater Lacæna
+  clypeo obarmans filium, cum hoc, inquit, aut in hoc, redi."</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_53"></a><a href="#Ba_53">[53]</a> Burges more rightly
+  reads <span lang="el" title="matros te
+  Gas">&#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3C2; &#x3C4;&#x3B5;
+  &#x393;&#x3B1;&#x3C2;</span>. See Elmsley's note.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_54"></a><a href="#Ba_54">[54]</a> As one must make some
+  translation, I have done my best with this passage, which is, however,
+  utterly unintelligible in Dindorf's text. A reference to his selection of
+  notes will furnish some new readings, but, as a whole, quite
+  unsatisfactory.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_55"></a><a href="#Ba_55">[55]</a> Compare the parallel
+  account in Nonnus, 46. p. 784.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_56"></a><a href="#Ba_56">[56]</a> Alluded to by Oppian,
+  Cyn. iv. 300. <span lang="el" title="apte selas phlogeron patrôion, an d'
+  elelêxon Daian, atartêron d' opason tisin ôka
+  tyrannou">&#x3B1;&#x3C0;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;
+  &#x3C3;&#x3B5;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3C6;&#x3BB;&#x3BF;&#x3B3;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3C1;&#x3C9;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;, &#x3B1;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B4;' &#x3B5;&#x3BB;&#x3B5;&#x3BB;&#x3B7;&#x3BE;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;
+  &#x394;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;,
+  &#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3C1;&#x3C4;&#x3B7;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3BD; &#x3B4;'
+  &#x3BF;&#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3C3;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;&#x3BD; &#x3C9;&#x3BA;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3C5;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;</span>. He then
+  relates that Pentheus was transformed into a bull, the Mænads into
+  panthers, who tore him to pieces.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_57"></a><a href="#Ba_57">[57]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="stochos">&#x3C3;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C7;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span> is
+  either the aim itself, or the mark aimed at, as in this passage, and
+  Xenoph. Ages. 1. 25.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_58"></a><a href="#Ba_58">[58]</a> I have done my best
+  with this extraordinary expression, of which Elmsley quotes another
+  example from Archilochus Fragm. 36. Perhaps the notion of excessive
+  rapidity is intended to be expressed.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_59"></a><a href="#Ba_59">[59]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="thêr">&#x3B8;&#x3B7;&#x3C1;</span> seems metaphorically said, as
+  in Æsch. Eum. 47. Nonnus, 45. p. 784, 23. above, 922.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_60"></a><a href="#Ba_60">[60]</a> Compare Nonnus, 46. p.
+  784.</p>
+
+  <div class="poem">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <p><span lang="el" title="Kai tote min lipe lyssa noosphaleos Dionysou,">&#x39A;&#x3B1;&#x3B9; &#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C4;&#x3B5; &#x3BC;&#x3B9;&#x3BD; &#x3BB;&#x3B9;&#x3C0;&#x3B5; &#x3BB;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3C3;&#x3B1; &#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3BF;&#x3C3;&#x3C6;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3B5;&#x3BF;&#x3C2; &#x394;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;,</span>&nbsp;</p>
+      <p><span lang="el" title="kai proteras phrenas esche to deuteron: amphi de gaiêi">&#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9; &#x3C0;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3C2; &#x3C6;&#x3C1;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3B1;&#x3C2; &#x3B5;&#x3C3;&#x3C7;&#x3B5; &#x3C4;&#x3BF; &#x3B4;&#x3B5;&#x3C5;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;: &#x3B1;&#x3BC;&#x3C6;&#x3B9; &#x3B4;&#x3B5; &#x3B3;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3B7;&#x3B9;</span>&nbsp;</p>
+      <p><span lang="el" title="geitona potmon echôn kenyrên ephthenxato phônên.">&#x3B3;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3B1; &#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3C4;&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3BD; &#x3B5;&#x3C7;&#x3C9;&#x3BD; &#x3BA;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3C5;&#x3C1;&#x3B7;&#x3BD; &#x3B5;&#x3C6;&#x3B8;&#x3B5;&#x3B3;&#x3BE;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3BF; &#x3C6;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;&#x3B7;&#x3BD;.</span>&nbsp;</p>
+      <p>*&nbsp;*&nbsp;*&nbsp;*&nbsp;*&nbsp;*</p>
+      <p><span lang="el" title="mêter emê dysmêter apêneos iocheo lyssês,">&#x3BC;&#x3B7;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3C1; &#x3B5;&#x3BC;&#x3B7; &#x3B4;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3BC;&#x3B7;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3C1; &#x3B1;&#x3C0;&#x3B7;&#x3BD;&#x3B5;&#x3BF;&#x3C2; &#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3C7;&#x3B5;&#x3BF; &#x3BB;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3C3;&#x3B7;&#x3C2;,</span>&nbsp;</p>
+      <p><span lang="el" title="thêra pothen kaleeis me ton hyiea.">&#x3B8;&#x3B7;&#x3C1;&#x3B1; &#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3B8;&#x3B5;&#x3BD; &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3B5;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C2; &#x3BC;&#x3B5; &#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3BD; &#x201B;&#x3C5;&#x3B9;&#x3B5;&#x3B1;.</span>&nbsp;</p>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+  <p>The whole passage is very elegant, and even pathetic.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_61"></a><a href="#Ba_61">[61]</a> Alluding to the horns
+  of Bacchus. Cf. Sidon. Apoll. Burg. Pontii Leontii, vs. 26, "Caput ardua
+  rumpunt Cornua, et indigenam jaculantur fulminis ignem." See some
+  whimsical reasons for this in Isidor. Origg viii. 2. Albricus de Deor.
+  Nu. xix. But compare above, vs. 920. <span lang="el" title="Kai tauros
+  hêmin prosthen hêgeisthai dokeis, kai sôi kerate krati
+  prospephykenai">&#x39A;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3C5;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;
+  &#x201B;&#x3B7;&#x3BC;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3C3;&#x3B8;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;
+  &#x201B;&#x3B7;&#x3B3;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3B8;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3B4;&#x3BF;&#x3BA;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;, &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3C3;&#x3C9;&#x3B9; &#x3BA;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;
+  &#x3BA;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3C3;&#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3C6;&#x3C5;&#x3BA;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_62"></a><a href="#Ba_62">[62]</a> Elmsley has rightly
+  shown that <span lang="el"
+  title="helika">&#x201B;&#x3B5;&#x3BB;&#x3B9;&#x3BA;&#x3B1;</span> could
+  not of itself mean "a bull" or "heifer," although Homer has <span
+  lang="el" title="eilipodas helikas
+  bous">&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3BB;&#x3B9;&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3B4;&#x3B1;&#x3C2;
+  &#x201B;&#x3B5;&#x3BB;&#x3B9;&#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B2;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C2;</span>. I have therefore followed Hermann,
+  who remarks, "<span lang="el"
+  title="helix">&#x201B;&#x3B5;&#x3BB;&#x3B9;&#x3BE;</span> seems properly
+  to be meant for the clusters of ivy with which the thyrsus was entwined.
+  Hence Agave says that she adorns the thyrsus with a new-fashioned wreath,
+  viz. the head of her son." Such language is, however, more like the
+  proverbial boldness of Æschylus, than the even style of our poet.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_63"></a><a href="#Ba_63">[63]</a> "<span lang="el"
+  title="korytha">&#x3BA;&#x3BF;&#x3C1;&#x3C5;&#x3B8;&#x3B1;</span>,
+  ornamentum capitis, vix potest dubitari quin pro ipso capite posuerit."
+  HERMANN. There is considerable variation in the manner in which the
+  following lines are disposed.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_64"></a><a href="#Ba_64">[64]</a> Or, "Bacchus-mad."</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_65"></a><a href="#Ba_65">[65]</a> I have marked a lacuna
+  with Dindorf.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_66"></a><a href="#Ba_66">[66]</a> See the commentators on
+  Virg. Æn. i. 11. "Tantæne animis c&#339;lestibus iræ?"</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_67"></a><a href="#Ba_67">[67]</a> After <span lang="el"
+  title="tlêmones
+  phygai">&#x3C4;&#x3BB;&#x3B7;&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3B5;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3C6;&#x3C5;&#x3B3;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;</span> supply <span lang="el"
+  title="menousin">&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;</span>.
+  ELMSLEY.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_68"></a><a href="#Ba_68">[68]</a> A word is wanting to
+  complete the verse.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_69"></a><a href="#Ba_69">[69]</a> See Musgrave. Cranes
+  are chiefly celebrated for parental affection.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_70"></a><a href="#Ba_70">[70]</a> These verses are found
+  at the ends of no less than four others of our author's plays, viz.
+  Andromacha, Helen, Medea, and Alcestis.</p>
+
+</div>
+<hr class="full" />
+
+<a name="HERACLIDAE"></a>
+<h2>THE HERACLIDÆ.</h2>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+<h3>PERSONS REPRESENTED.</h3>
+
+  <div class="personae">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <p>IOLAUS.</p>
+      <p>COPREUS.*</p>
+      <p>CHORUS.</p>
+      <p>DEMOPHOON.</p>
+      <p>APOLLO.</p>
+      <p>MACARIA.*</p>
+      <p>SERVANT.</p>
+      <p>ALCMENA.</p>
+      <p>MESSENGER.</p>
+      <p>EURYSTHEUS.</p>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+  <p><i>Note</i>.&mdash;The names of Copreus and Macaria were wanting in
+  the MSS., but have been supplied from the mythologists. See Elmsley on
+  vss. 49 and 474.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h3>THE ARGUMENT.</h3>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+  <p>Iolaus, son of Iphiclus, and nephew of Hercules, whom he had joined in
+  his expeditions during his youth, in his old age protected his sons. For
+  the sons of Hercules having been driven out of every part of Greece by
+  Eurystheus, he came with them to Athens; and, embracing the altars of the
+  Gods, was safe, Demophoon being king of the city; and when Copreus, the
+  herald of Eurystheus, wished to remove the suppliants, he prevented him.
+  Upon this he departed, threatening war. Demophoon despised him; but
+  hearing the oracles promise him victory if he sacrificed the most noble
+  Athenian virgin to Ceres, he was grieved; not wishing to slay either his
+  own daughter, or that of any citizen, for the sake of the suppliants. But
+  Macaria, one of the daughters of Hercules, hearing of the prediction,
+  willingly devoted herself. They honored her for her noble death, and,
+  knowing that their enemies were at hand, went forth to battle. The play
+  ends with their victory, and the capture of Eurystheus.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2>THE HERACLIDÆ.</h2>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+<p class="center">IOLAUS.</p>
+
+  <p>This has long since been my established opinion, the just man is born
+  for his neighbors; but he who has a mind bent upon gain is both useless
+  to the city and disagreeable to deal with, but best for himself. And I
+  know this, not having learned it by word of mouth; for I, through shame,
+  and reverencing the ties of kindred, when it was in my power to dwell
+  quietly in Argos, partook of more of Hercules' labors, while he was with
+  us, than any one man besides:<a name="Heraclid_1"></a><a
+  href="#HeraclidN_1"><sup>[1]</sup></a> and now that he dwells in heaven,
+  keeping these his children under my wings, I preserve them, I myself
+  being in want of safety. For since their father was removed from the
+  earth, first Eurystheus wished to kill me, but I escaped; and my country
+  indeed is no more, but my life is saved, and I wander in exile, migrating
+  from one city to another. For, in addition to my other ills, Eurystheus
+  has chosen to insult me with this insult; sending heralds whenever on
+  earth he learns we are settled, he demands us, and drives us out of the
+  land; alleging the city of Argos, one not paltry either to be friends
+  with or to make an enemy, and himself too prospering as he is; but they
+  seeing my weak state, and that these too are little, and bereaved of
+  their sire, respecting the more powerful, drive us from the land. And I
+  am banished, together with the banished children, and fare ill together
+  with those who fare ill, loathing to desert them, lest some may say thus,
+  Behold, now that the children have no father, Iolaus, their kinsman born,
+  defends them not. But being bereft of all Greece, coming to Marathon and
+  the country under the same rule, we sit suppliants at the altars of the
+  Gods, that they may assist us; for it is said that the two sons of
+  Theseus inhabit the territory of this land, of the race of Pandion,
+  having received it by lot, being near akin to these children; on which
+  account we have come this way to the frontiers of illustrious Athens. And
+  by two aged people is this flight led, I, indeed, being alarmed about
+  these children; and the female race of her son Alcmena preserves within
+  this temple, clasping it in her arms; for we are ashamed that virgins
+  should mingle with the mob, and stand at the altars. But Hyllus and his
+  brothers, who are older, are seeking where there is a strong-hold that we
+  may inhabit, if we be thrust forth from this land by force. O children,
+  children! hither; take hold of my garments; I see the herald of
+  Eurystheus coming hither toward us, by whom we are pursued as wanderers,
+  deprived of every land.<a name="Heraclid_2"></a><a
+  href="#HeraclidN_2"><sup>[2]</sup></a> O detested one, may you perish,
+  and the man who sent you: how many evils indeed have you announced to the
+  noble father of these children from that same mouth!</p>
+
+  <p>COPREUS. I suppose you think that this is a fine seat you are sitting
+  in, and have come to a city which is an ally, thinking foolishly; for
+  there is no one who will choose your useless power in preference to
+  Eurystheus. Depart; why toilest thou thus? You must rise up and go to
+  Argos, where punishment by stoning awaits you.</p>
+
+  <p>IOL. Not so, since the altar of the God will aid me, and the free land
+  in which we tread.</p>
+
+  <p>COP. Do you wish to cause me trouble with this band?</p>
+
+  <p>IOL. Surely you will not drag me away, nor these children, seizing by
+  force?</p>
+
+  <p>COP. You shall know; but you are not a good prophet in this.</p>
+
+  <p>IOL. This shall never happen, while I am alive.</p>
+
+  <p>COP. Depart; but I will lead these away, even though you be unwilling,
+  considering them, wherever they may be, to belong to Eurystheus.</p>
+
+  <p>IOL. O ye who have dwelt in Athens a long time, defend us; for, being
+  suppliants of Jove, the Presider over the Forum,<a
+  name="Heraclid_3"></a><a href="#HeraclidN_3"><sup>[3]</sup></a> we are
+  treated with violence, and our garlands are profaned, both a reproach to
+  the city, and an insult to the Gods.</p>
+
+  <p>CHORUS. Hollo! hollo! what is this noise near the altar? what calamity
+  will it straightway portend?</p>
+
+  <p>IOL. Behold me, a weak old man, thrown down on the plain; miserable
+  that I am.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. By whose hand do you fall this unhappy fall?</p>
+
+ *&nbsp;*&nbsp;*&nbsp;*
+
+  <p>IOL. This man, O strangers, dishonoring your Gods, drags me violently
+  from the altar of Jupiter.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. From what land, O old man, have you come hither to this people
+  dwelling together in four cities?<a name="Heraclid_4"></a><a
+  href="#HeraclidN_4"><sup>[4]</sup></a> or, have you come hither from
+  across [the sea] with marine oar, having quitted the Eub&#339;an
+  shore?</p>
+
+  <p>IOL. O strangers, I am not accustomed to an islander's life, but we
+  are come to your land from Mycenæ.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. What name, O old man, did the Mycenæan people call you?</p>
+
+  <p>IOL. Know that I am lolaus, once the companion of Hercules; for this
+  body is not unrenowned.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. I know, having heard of it before; but say whose youthful
+  children you are leading in your hand.</p>
+
+  <p>IOL. These, O strangers, are the sons of Hercules, who are come as
+  suppliants of you and the city.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. What do ye seek? or, tell me, is it wanting to have speech of
+  the city?</p>
+
+  <p>IOL. Not to be given up, and not to go to Argos, being dragged from
+  your Gods by force.</p>
+
+  <p>COP. But this will not be sufficient for your masters, who, having
+  power over you, find you here.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. It is right, O stranger, to reverence the suppliants of the
+  Gods, and not for you to leave by violent hands the habitations of the
+  deities, for venerable Justice will not suffer this.</p>
+
+  <p>COP. Send now Eurystheus's subjects out of this land, and I will not
+  use this hand violently.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. It is impious for a state to reject the suppliant prayer of
+  strangers.</p>
+
+  <p>COP. But it is good to have one's foot out of trouble, being possessed
+  of the better counsel.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. You should then have dared this, having spoken to the king of
+  this land, but you should not drag strangers away from the Gods by force,
+  if you respect a free land.</p>
+
+  <p>COP. But who is king of this country and city?</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Demophoon, the son of Theseus, of a noble father.</p>
+
+  <p>COP. With him, then, the contest of this argument had best be; all
+  else is spoken in vain.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. And indeed hither he comes in haste, and Acamas, his brother, to
+  hear these words.</p>
+
+  <p>DEMOPHOON. Since you, being an old man, have anticipated us, who are
+  younger, in running to this hearth of Jove, say what hap collects this
+  multitude here.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. These sons of Hercules sit here as suppliants, having crowned
+  the altar, as you see. O king, and Iolaus, the faithful companion of
+  their father.</p>
+
+  <p>DE. Why then did this chance occasion clamors?</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. This man caused the noise, seeking to lead him by force from
+  this hearth; and he tripped up the legs of the old man, so that I shed
+  the tear for pity.</p>
+
+  <p>DE. And indeed he has a Grecian robe and style of dress; but these are
+  the doings of a barbarian hand; it is for you then to tell me, and not to
+  delay, leaving the confines of what land you are come hither.</p>
+
+  <p>COP. I am an Argive; for this you wish to learn: and I am willing to
+  say why, and from whom, I am come. Eurystheus, the king of Mycenæ, sends
+  me hither to lead away these men; and I have come, O stranger, having
+  many just things at once to do and to say; for I being an Argive myself,
+  lead away Argives, having them as fugitives from my country condemned to
+  die by the laws there; and we have the right, managing our city ourselves
+  by ourselves, to fix our own punishments: but they having come to the
+  hearths of many others also, there also we have taken our stand on these
+  same arguments, and no one has dared to bring evils upon himself. But
+  either perceiving some folly in you, they have come hither, or in
+  perplexity running the risk, whether it shall be or not. For surely they
+  do not think that you alone are mad, in so great a portion of Greece as
+  they have been over, so as to commiserate their foolish distresses. Come,
+  compare the two; admitting them into your land, and suffering us to lead
+  them away, what will you gain? Such things as these you may gain from us;
+  you may add to this city the whole power of Argos, and all the might of
+  Eurystheus; but if looking to the words and pitiable condition of these
+  men, you are softened by them, the matter comes to the contest of the
+  spear; for think not that we will give up this contest without steel.
+  What then will you say? deprived of what lands, making war with the
+  Tirynthians and Argives, and repelling them, with what allies, and on
+  whose behalf will you bury the dead that fall? Surely you will obtain an
+  evil report among the citizens, if, for the sake of an old man, a mere
+  tomb,<a name="Heraclid_5"></a><a href="#HeraclidN_5"><sup>[5]</sup></a>
+  one who is nothing, as one may say, and of these children, you will put
+  your foot into a mess;<a name="Heraclid_6"></a><a
+  href="#HeraclidN_6"><sup>[6]</sup></a> you will say, at best, that you
+  shall find, at least, hope; and this too is at present much wanting; for
+  these who are armed would fight but ill with Argives if they were grown
+  up, if this encourages your mind, and there is much time in the mean
+  while in which ye may be destroyed; but be persuaded by me, giving
+  nothing, but permitting me to lead away my own, gain Mycenæ. And do not
+  (as you are wont to do) suffer this, when it is in your power to choose
+  the better friends, choose the worse.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Who can decide what is right, or understand an argument, till he
+  has clearly heard the statement of both?</p>
+
+  <p>IOL. O king, this exists in thy city; I am permitted in turn to speak
+  and to hear, and no one will reject me before that, as in other places;
+  but with this man we have nothing to do; for since nothing of Argos is
+  any longer ours, (it having been decreed by a vote,) but we are exiled
+  our country, how can this man justly lead us away as Mycenæans, whom they
+  have driven from the land? for we are strangers; or else you decide that
+  whoever is banished Argos is banished the boundaries of the Greeks.
+  Surely not from Athens; they will not, for fear of the Argives, drive out
+  the children of Hercules from their land; for it is not Trachis, nor the
+  Achæan city, from whence you, not by justice, but bragging about Argos;
+  just as you now speak, drove these men, sitting at the altars as
+  suppliants; for if this shall be, and they ratify your words, I no longer
+  know this Athens as free. But I know their disposition and nature; they
+  will rather die; for among virtuous men, disgrace is considered before
+  life. Enough of the city; for indeed it is an invidious thing to praise
+  it too much; and often I know myself I have been oppressed at being
+  overpraised: but I wish to say to you that it is necessary for you to
+  save these men, since you are ruler over this land. Pittheus was son of
+  Pelops and Æthra, daughter of Pittheus, and your father Theseus was born
+  of her. And again I trace for you their descent: Hercules was son of
+  Jupiter and Alcmena, and she was the child of the daughter of Pelops; so
+  your father and theirs must be fellow-cousins. Thus you, O Demophoon, are
+  related to them by birth; and, besides this connection, I will tell you
+  for what you are bound to requite the children. For I say, I formerly,
+  when shield-bearer to their father, sailed with Theseus after the belt,<a
+  name="Heraclid_7"></a><a href="#HeraclidN_7"><sup>[7]</sup></a> the cause
+  of much slaughter, and from the murky recesses of hell did he bring forth
+  your father. All Greece bears witness to this; for which things they
+  beseech you to return a kindness, and that they may not be yielded up,
+  nor be driven from this land, torn from your Gods by violence; for this
+  would be disgraceful to you by yourself, and an evil to the city,<a
+  name="Heraclid_8"></a><a href="#HeraclidN_8"><sup>[8]</sup></a> that
+  suppliant relations, wanderers&mdash;alas for the misery! look on them,
+  look&mdash;should be dragged away by force. But I beseech you, and offer
+  you suppliant garlands, by your hands and your chin, do not dishonor the
+  children of Hercules, having received them in your power; but be thou a
+  relation to them, be a friend, father, brother, master; for all these
+  things are better than [for them] to fall into the power of the
+  Argives.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Hearing of these men's misfortunes, I pitied them, O king! and
+  now particularly I have witnessed nobleness overcome by fortune; for
+  these men, being sons of a noble father, are undeservedly unhappy.</p>
+
+  <p>DE. Three ways of misfortune urge me, O Iolaus, not to reject these
+  suppliants. The greatest, Jupiter, at whose altars you sit, having this
+  procession of youths with you; and my relationship to them, and because I
+  am bound of old that they should fare well at my hands, in gratitude to
+  their father; and the disgrace,<a name="Heraclid_9"></a><a
+  href="#HeraclidN_9"><sup>[9]</sup></a> which one ought exceedingly to
+  regard. For if I permitted this altar to be violated by force by a
+  strange man, I shall not seem to inhabit a free country. But I fear to
+  betray my suppliants to the Argives; and this is nearly as bad as the
+  noose. But I wish you had come with better fortune; but still, even now,
+  fear not that any one shall drag you and these children by force from
+  this altar. And do thou, going to Argos, both tell this to Eurystheus;
+  and besides that, if he has any charge against these strangers, he shall
+  meet with justice; but you shall never drag away these men.</p>
+
+  <p>COP. Not if it be just, and I prevail in argument?</p>
+
+  <p>DE. And how can it be just to drag away a suppliant by force?</p>
+
+  <p>COP. This, then, is not disgraceful to me, but an injury to you.</p>
+
+  <p>DE. To me indeed, if I allow you to drag them away.</p>
+
+  <p>COP. But do you depart, and then will I drag them thence.</p>
+
+  <p>DE. You are stupid, thinking yourself wiser than a God.</p>
+
+  <p>COP. Hither it seems the wicked should fly.</p>
+
+  <p>DE. The seat of the Gods is a common defense to all.</p>
+
+  <p>COP. Perhaps this will not seem good to the Mycenæans.</p>
+
+  <p>DE. Am not I then master over those here?</p>
+
+  <p>COP. [Ay,] but not to injure them, if you are wise.</p>
+
+  <p>DE. Are ye hurt, if I do not defile the Gods?</p>
+
+  <p>COP. I do not wish you to have war with the Argives.</p>
+
+  <p>DE. I, too, am the same; but I will not let go of these men.</p>
+
+  <p>COP. At all events, taking possession of my own, I shall lead them
+  away.</p>
+
+  <p>DE. Then you will not easily depart back to Argos.</p>
+
+  <p>COP. I shall soon see that by experience.</p>
+
+  <p>DE. You will touch them to your own injury, and that without
+  delay.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. For God's sake, venture not to strike a herald!</p>
+
+  <p>DE. I will not, if the herald at least will learn to be wise.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Depart thou; and do not you touch him, O king!</p>
+
+  <p>COP. I go; for the struggle of a single hand is powerless. But I will
+  come, bringing hither many a brazen spear of Argive war; and ten thousand
+  shield-bearers await me, and Eurystheus, the king himself, as general.
+  And he waits, expecting news from hence, on the extreme confines of
+  Alcathus; and, having heard of your insolence, he will make himself too
+  well known to you, and to the citizens, and to this land, and to the
+  trees; for in vain should we have so much youth in Argos, if we did not
+  chastise you.</p>
+
+  <p>DE. Destruction on you! for I do not fear your Argos. But you are not
+  likely, insulting me, to drag these men away from hence by force; for I
+  possess this land, not being subject to that of Argos, but free.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. It is time to provide, before the army of the Argives approaches
+  the borders. And very impetuous is the Mars of the Mycenæans, and on this
+  account more than before; for it is the habit of all heralds to tower up
+  what is twice as much. What do you not think he will say to his princes
+  about what terrible things he has suffered, and how within a little he
+  was losing his life.</p>
+
+  <p>IOL. There is not, to this man's children, a more glorious honor than
+  to be sprung from a good and valiant father, and to marry from a good
+  family; but I will not praise him who, overcome by desire, has mingled
+  with the vulgar, to leave his children a reproach instead of pleasure;
+  for noble birth wards off misfortune better than low descent; for we,
+  having fallen into the extremity of evils, find these men friends and
+  relations, who alone, in so large a country as Greece, have stood forward
+  [on our behalf.] Give, O children, give them your right hand; and do ye
+  give yours to the children, and draw near to them. O children, we have
+  come to experience of our friends; and if you ever have a return to your
+  country, and [again] possess the homes and honors of your father, always
+  consider them your saviors and friends, and never lift the hostile spear
+  against the land, remembering these things; but consider it the dearest
+  city of all. And they are worthy that you should revere them, who have
+  chosen to have so great a country and the Pelasgic people as enemies
+  instead of us, though seeing us to be beggared wanderers; but still they
+  have not given us up, nor driven us from their land. But I, living and
+  dying, when I do die, with much praise, my friend, will extol you when I
+  am in company with Theseus; and telling this, I will delight him, saying
+  how well you received and aided the children of Hercules; and, being
+  noble, you preserve through Greece your ancestral glory; and being born
+  of noble parents, you are nowise inferior to your father, with but few
+  others; for among many you may find perhaps but one who is not inferior
+  to his father.<a name="Heraclid_10"></a><a
+  href="#HeraclidN_10"><sup>[10]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. This land is ever willing to aid in a just cause those in
+  difficulty; therefore it has borne numberless toils for its friends, and
+  now I see this contest at hand.</p>
+
+  <p>DE. Thou hast spoken well; and I boast, old man, that their
+  disposition is such that the kindness will be remembered. And I will make
+  an assembly of the citizens, and draw them up so as to receive the army
+  of the Mycenæans with a large force. First, I will send spies toward it,
+  that it may not fall upon me by surprise: for in Argos every warrior is
+  eager to run to assistance. And having collected the soothsayers, I will
+  sacrifice. And do you go to my palace with the children, leaving the
+  hearth of Jove, for there are those who, even if I be from home, will
+  take care of you; go then, old man, to my palace.</p>
+
+  <p>IOL. I will not leave the altar; but we will sit here, as suppliants,
+  waiting till the city is successful; and when you are well freed from
+  this contest, we will go to thy palace. But we have Gods as allies not
+  inferior to those of the Argives, O king; for Juno, the wife of Jove, is
+  their champion, but Minerva ours; and I say that this also tends to
+  success, to have the best Gods, for Pallas will not endure to be
+  conquered.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. If thou boastest greatly, others do not therefore care for thee
+  the more, O stranger, coming from Argos; but with thy big words thou wilt
+  not terrify my mind: may it not be so to the mighty Athens, with the
+  beauteous dances. But both thou art foolish, the son of Sthenelus, king
+  in Argos, who, coming to another city not less than Argos, being a
+  stranger, seek by violence to lead away wanderers, suppliants of the
+  Gods, and claiming the protection of my land, not yielding to our kings,
+  nor saying any thing else that is just. How can this be thought well
+  among the wise? Peace indeed pleases me; but, O foolish king, I tell
+  thee, if thou comest to this city, thou wilt not thus obtain what thou
+  thinkest for. You are not the only one who has a spear and a brazen
+  shield; but, O lover of war, mayest thou not with the spear disturb my
+  city dear to the Graces; but restrain thyself.</p>
+
+  <p>IOL. O my son, why comest thou, bringing solicitude to my eyes? Hast
+  thou any news of the enemy? Do they delay, or are they at hand I or what
+  do you hear? for I fear the word of the herald will in no wise be false,
+  for their leader will come, having been fortunate in previous affairs, I
+  clearly know, and with no moderate pride, against Athens; but Jove is the
+  chastiser of over-arrogant thoughts.<a name="Heraclid_11"></a><a
+  href="#HeraclidN_11"><sup>[11]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>DE. The army of the Argives is coming, and Eurystheus the king. I have
+  seen it myself;<a name="Heraclid_12"></a><a
+  href="#HeraclidN_12"><sup>[12]</sup></a> for it behooves a man who says
+  he knows well the duty of a general not to reconnoitre the enemy by means
+  of messengers. He has not then, as yet, let loose his army on these
+  plains, but, sitting on a lofty crag, he reconnoitres (I should tell thee
+  this as a conjecture) to see by which way he shall now lead his
+  expedition, and place it in a safe station in this land; and my
+  preparations are already well arranged, and the city is in arms, and the
+  victims stand ready for those Gods to whom they ought to be slain
+  offered; and the city, by means of soothsayers, is preparing by
+  sacrifices flight for the enemy and safety for the city.<a
+  name="Heraclid_13"></a><a href="#HeraclidN_13"><sup>[13]</sup></a> And
+  having collected together all the bards who proclaim oracles, I have
+  tested the ancient oracles, both public and concealed, which might save
+  this land; and in their other counsels many things are different; but one
+  opinion of all is conspicuously the same, they command me to sacrifice to
+  the daughter of Ceres a damsel who is of a noble father.<a
+  name="Heraclid_14"></a><a href="#HeraclidN_14"><sup>[14]</sup></a> And I
+  have indeed, as you see, such great good-will toward you, but I will
+  neither slay my own child<a name="Heraclid_15"></a><a
+  href="#HeraclidN_15"><sup>[15]</sup></a> nor compel any other of my
+  citizens to do so unwillingly; and who is so mad of his own accord, as to
+  give out of his hands his dearest children? And now you may see bitter
+  meetings; some saying that it is right to aid foreign suppliants, and
+  some blaming my folly; and if I do this, a civil war is at once prepared.
+  This, then, do you consider, and devise how both you yourselves may be
+  saved and this land, and I be not brought into ill odor with the
+  citizens; for I have not absolute sovereignty, as over barbarians; but if
+  I do just things, I shall receive just things.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. But does not the Goddess allow this city, although eager, to aid
+  strangers?</p>
+
+  <p>IOL. O children, we are like sailors, who, fleeing from the fierce
+  rage of the storm, have come close to land, and then, again, by gales
+  from the land, have been driven again out to sea; thus also shall we be
+  driven from this land, being already on shore, as if saved. Alas! why, O
+  wretched hope, did you then delight me, not being about to perfect my
+  joy? For his thoughts, in truth, are to be pardoned if he is not willing
+  to slay the children of his citizens; and I acquiesce in their conduct
+  here, if the Gods decree that I shall fare thus. My gratitude to you
+  shall never perish. O children, I know not what to do with you: whither
+  shall we turn? for who of the Gods has been uncrowned by us? and what
+  bulwark of land have we not approachedl? We shall perish, my children, we
+  shall be given up; and for myself I care nothing if it behooves me to
+  die, except that, dying, I shall gratify my enemies; but I weep for and
+  pity you, O children, and Alcmena, the aged mother of your father; O!
+  unhappy art thou, because of thy long life; and miserable am I, having
+  labored much in vain. It was our fate then, our fate, falling into the
+  hands of an enemy, to leave life disgracefully and miserably. But do you
+  know in what you may aid me? for all hope of their safety has not
+  deserted me. Give me up to the Argives instead of them, O king, and so
+  neither run any risk yourself, and let the children be saved for me; I
+  must not love my own life, let it go; and above all, Eurystheus would
+  like taking me, the ally of Hercules, to insult me; for he is a froward
+  man; and the wise should pray to have enmity with a wise man, not with an
+  ignorant disposition, for in that case one, even if unfortunate, may meet
+  with much respect.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. O old man, do not now blame the city, perhaps it might be a gain
+  to us; but still it would be an evil reproach that we betrayed
+  strangers,</p>
+
+  <p>DE. You have spoken things noble indeed, but impossible; the king does
+  not lead his army hither wanting you; for what profit were it to
+  Eurystheus for an old man to die? but he wishes to slay these children;
+  for noble youths, who remember their fathers' injuries, springing up, are
+  terrible to enemies; all which he must needs foresee; but if you know any
+  other more seasonable counsel, prepare it, since I am perplexed and full
+  of fear, having heard the oracle.</p>
+
+  <p>MACARIA. O strangers, do not impute boldness to me because of my
+  advances,<a name="Heraclid_16"></a><a
+  href="#HeraclidN_16"><sup>[16]</sup></a> this I will beg first; for
+  silence and modesty are best for a woman, and to remain quietly in-doors;
+  but, having heard your lamentations, O Iolaus, I have come forth, not
+  being commissioned to act as embassador for my race, but I am in some
+  wise fit to do so; but chiefly do I care for these, my brothers:
+  concerning myself I wish to ask whether, besides our former evils, any
+  additional distress gnaws your mind?</p>
+
+  <p>IOL. O daughter, it is not a new thing that I justly have to praise
+  you most of the children of Hercules; but our house having appeared to us
+  to progress well, has again changed to perplexity, for this man says,
+  that the deliverers of oracles order us to sacrifice not a bull or a
+  heifer, but a virgin, who is of a noble father, if we and this city would
+  exist. About this then we are perplexed, for this man says he will
+  neither slay his own children nor those of any one else; and to me he
+  says, not plainly indeed, but somehow or other, unless I can devise any
+  remedy for this, that we must find some other land, but he himself wishes
+  to preserve this country.</p>
+
+  <p>MAC. On this condition can we then be saved?</p>
+
+  <p>IOL. On this, being fortunate in other respects.</p>
+
+  <p>MAC. Fear not then any longer the hostile spear of the Argives; for I
+  myself, old man, before I am commanded, am prepared to die, and to stand
+  for slaughter; for what shall we say if the city thinks fit for our sakes
+  to encounter a great danger, but we putting toils on others, avoid death
+  when we can be saved? Not so, since this would be ridiculous for
+  suppliants sitting at the shrines of the Gods to mourn, but being of such
+  a sire as we are, to be seen to be cowards; how can this seem good! it
+  were more noble, I think, (which may it never happen!) to fall into the
+  hands of the enemy, this city being taken, and afterward, being born of a
+  noble father, having suffered dreadful things, to see Hades none the
+  less; but shall I wander about, driven from this land, and shall I not
+  indeed be ashamed if any one says, "Why have ye come hither with your
+  suppliant branches, yourselves being too fond of life! Depart from the
+  land, for we will not aid cowards." But neither, indeed, if these die,
+  and I myself am saved, have I any hope to fare well; for before now many
+  have in this way betrayed their friends. For who would choose to have me,
+  a solitary damsel, for his wife, or to raise children from me? therefore
+  it is better to die than to have such an unworthy fate as this; and this
+  may even be more seemly for some other, who is not illustrious as I. Lead
+  me then where this body must needs die, and crown me and begin the rites,
+  if you think fit, and conquer your enemies; for this life is ready for
+  you, willing, and not unwilling; and I promise to die for these my
+  brethren, and for myself; for not caring for life, I have found this most
+  glorious thing to find, namely, to leave life gloriously.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Alas! alas! what shall I say, hearing this noble speech of the
+  maiden who is willing to die on behalf of her brothers? Who can utter
+  more noble words than these I who of men can do [a greater deed?]<a
+  name="Heraclid_17"></a><a href="#HeraclidN_17"><sup>[17]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>IOL. My child, your head comes from no other source, but thou, the
+  seed of a divine mind, art sprung from Hercules.<a
+  name="Heraclid_18"></a><a href="#HeraclidN_18"><sup>[18]</sup></a> I am
+  not ashamed at your words, but I am grieved for your fortune; but how it
+  may be more justly done, I will say: we must call hither all her sisters,
+  and then let her who draws the lot die for her family; but it is not
+  right for thee to die without casting lots.</p>
+
+  <p>MAC. I will not die, obtaining the lot by chance, for then there are
+  no thanks [to me;]&mdash;speak it not, old man; but if you accept me, and
+  are willing to use me willing, I readily give up my life to them, but
+  not, being compelled.</p>
+
+  <p>IOL. Alas! this word of thine is again nobler than the former, and
+  that other was most excellent; but you surpass daring by daring, and
+  [good] words by good words. I do not bid you, nor do I forbid you, to
+  die, my child; but you will benefit your brothers by dying.</p>
+
+  <p>MAC. Thou biddest wisely; fear not to partake of my pollution, but I
+  shall die freely. But follow me, O old man; for I wish to die by your
+  hand; and do you, being present, wrap my body in my garments, since I am
+  going to the terror of sacrifice, because I am born of the father of whom
+  I boast to be.</p>
+
+  <p>IOL. I could not be present at your death.</p>
+
+  <p>MAC. At least, then, entreat of him that I may die, not by the hands
+  of men, but of women.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. It shall be so, O hapless virgin; since it were disgraceful to
+  me too not to deck thee honorably on many accounts; both for your valiant
+  spirit, and for justice' sake: but you are the most unhappy of all women
+  that I have beheld with mine eyes; but, if thou wilt, depart, bespeaking
+  a last address to these and to the old man.</p>
+
+  <p>MAC. Farewell, old man, farewell; and train up for me these children
+  to be such as thyself, wise in all respects, nothing more, for they will
+  suffice; and endeavor to save them, not being over-willing to die. We are
+  your children; by your hands we were brought up, and behold see me
+  yielding up my nuptial hour, dying for them. And ye, my company of
+  brothers now present, may ye be happy, and may every thing be yours, for
+  the sake of which my soul is sacrificed; and honor the old man, and the
+  old woman in the house, Alcmena, the mother of my father, and these
+  strangers. And if a release from troubles, and a return should ever be
+  found for you through the Gods, remember to bury her who saves you, as is
+  fitting; most honorably were just, for I was not wanting to you, but died
+  for my race. This is my heir-loom instead of children and virginity, if
+  indeed there be aught under the earth. May there indeed be nothing; for
+  if we, mortals who die, are to have cares even there, I know not where
+  one can turn, for to die is considered the greatest remedy for evils.</p>
+
+  <p>IOL. But, O you, who mightily surpass all women in courage, know that,
+  both living and dying, you shall be most honored by us: and farewell; for
+  I abhor to speak words of ill omen about the Goddess to whom your body is
+  given as the first-fruits, the daughter of Ceres. O children, we are
+  undone; my limbs are relaxed by grief; take me, and place me in my seat,
+  veiling me there with these garments, O children; since neither am I
+  pleased at these things which are done, and if the oracle were not
+  fulfilled, life would be unbearable, for the ruin would be greater; but
+  even this is a calamity.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. I say that no man is either happy or miserable but through the
+  Gods, and that the same family does not always walk in good fortune, but
+  different fates pursue it different ways; it is wont to make one from a
+  lofty station insignificant, and makes the wanderer wealthy: but it is
+  impossible to avoid what is fated; no one can repel it by wisdom, but he
+  who is hasty without purpose will always have trouble; but do not thus
+  bear the fortune sent by the Gods, falling down [in prayer,] and do not
+  over-pain your mind with grief, for she hapless possesses a glorious
+  portion of death on behalf of her brethren and her country; nor will an
+  inglorious reputation among men await her: but virtue proceeds through
+  toils. These things are worthy of her father, and worthy of her noble
+  descent; and if you respect the deaths of the good, I share your
+  feelings.</p>
+
+  <p>SERVANT. O children, hail! But at what distance from this place is the
+  aged Iolaus and your father's mother?</p>
+
+  <p>IOL. We are here, such a presence as mine is.</p>
+
+  <p>SERV. On what account dost thou lie thus, and have an eye so
+  downcast?</p>
+
+  <p>IOL. A domestic care has come upon me, by which I am constrained.</p>
+
+  <p>SERV. Raise now thyself, erect thy head.</p>
+
+  <p>IOL. I am an old man, and by no means strong.</p>
+
+  <p>SERV. But I am come, bearing to you a great joy.</p>
+
+  <p>IOL. And who art thou, where having met you, do I forget you?</p>
+
+  <p>SERV. I am a poor servant of Hyllus; do you not recognize me, seeing
+  me?</p>
+
+  <p>IOL. O dearest one, dost thou then come as a savior to us from
+  injury?</p>
+
+  <p>SERV. Surely; and moreover you are prosperous as to the present state
+  of affairs.</p>
+
+  <p>IOL. O mother of a doughty son, I mean Alcmena, come forth, hear these
+  most welcome words; for you have been long wasting away as to your soul
+  in anxiety concerning those who have come hither, where they would ever
+  arrive.<a name="Heraclid_19"></a><a
+  href="#HeraclidN_19"><sup>[19]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>ALCMENA. Wherefore has a mighty shout filled all this house? O Iolaus,
+  does any herald, coming from Argos, again do you violence? my strength
+  indeed is weak, but thus much you must know, O stranger, you shall never
+  drag these away while I am living, else may I no longer be thought to be
+  his mother; but if you touch them with your hand, you will have no
+  honorable contest with two old people.</p>
+
+  <p>IOL. Be of good cheer, old woman; fear not, the herald is not come
+  from Argos bearing hostile words.</p>
+
+  <p>ALC. Why then did you raise a shout, a messenger of fear?</p>
+
+  <p>IOL. To you, that you should approach near before this temple.</p>
+
+  <p>ALC. I do not understand this; for who is this man?</p>
+
+  <p>IOL. He announces that your son's son is come.</p>
+
+  <p>ALC. O! hail thou also for this news; but why and where<a
+  name="Heraclid_20"></a><a href="#HeraclidN_20"><sup>[20]</sup></a> is he
+  now absent putting his foot in this country? what calamity prevents him
+  from appearing hither with you, and delighting my mind?</p>
+
+  <p>SERV. He is stationing and marshaling the army which he has come
+  bringing.</p>
+
+  <p>ALC. I no longer understand this speech.</p>
+
+  <p>IOL. I do; but it is my business to inquire about this.</p>
+
+  <p>SERV. What then of what has been done do you wish to learn?</p>
+
+  <p>IOL. With how great a multitude of allies is he come?</p>
+
+  <p>SERV. With many; but I can say no other number.</p>
+
+  <p>IOL. The chiefs of the Athenians know, I suppose.</p>
+
+  <p>SERV. They do; and they occupy the left wing.<a
+  name="Heraclid_21"></a><a href="#HeraclidN_21"><sup>[21]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>IOL. Is then the army already armed as for the work?</p>
+
+  <p>SERV. Ay; and already the victims are led away from the ranks.</p>
+
+  <p>IOL. And how far distant is the Argive army?</p>
+
+  <p>SERV. So that the general can be distinctly seen.</p>
+
+  <p>IOL. Doing what? arraying the ranks of the enemies?</p>
+
+  <p>SERV. We conjectured this, for we did not hear him; but I will go; I
+  should not like my masters to join battle with the enemy, deserted as far
+  as my part is concerned.</p>
+
+  <p>IOL. And I will go with you; for we think the same things, being
+  present to aid our friends as much as we can.</p>
+
+  <p>SERV. It is not your part to say a foolish word.</p>
+
+  <p>IOL. And not to share the sturdy battle with my friends!</p>
+
+  <p>SERV. One can not see a wound from an inactive hand.</p>
+
+  <p>IOL. But what, can not I too strike through a shield?</p>
+
+  <p>SERV. You might strike, but you yourself would fall first.</p>
+
+  <p>IOL. No one of the enemy will dare to behold me.</p>
+
+  <p>SERV. You have not, my good friend, the strength which once you
+  had.</p>
+
+  <p>IOL. But I will fight with them who will not be the fewer in
+  numbers.</p>
+
+  <p>SERV. You add but a slight weight to your friends.</p>
+
+  <p>IOL. Do not detain me who am prepared to act.</p>
+
+  <p>SERV. You are not able to do any thing, but you may perhaps be to
+  advise.</p>
+
+  <p>IOL. You may say the rest, as I not staying to hear.</p>
+
+  <p>SERV. How then will you appear to the soldiers without arms?</p>
+
+  <p>IOL. There are within this palace arms taken in war, which I will use
+  and restore if alive; but the God will not demand them back of me, if I
+  fall; but go in, and taking them down from the pegs, bring me as quickly
+  as possible the panoply of a warrior; for this is a disgraceful
+  house-keeping, for some to fight, and some to remain behind through
+  fear.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Time does not depress your spirit, but it grows young again, but
+  your body is weak: why dost thou toil in vain? which will harm you
+  indeed, but profit our city but little; you should consider your age, and
+  leave alone impossibilities, it can not be that you again should acquire
+  youth.</p>
+
+  <p>ALC. Why are you, not being in your senses, about to leave me alone
+  with my children?</p>
+
+  <p>IOL. For valor is the part of men; but it is your duty to take care of
+  them.</p>
+
+  <p>ALC. But what if you die? how shall I be saved?</p>
+
+  <p>IOL. Your sons who are left will take care of your son.</p>
+
+  <p>ALC. But if they, which Heaven forbid, should meet with fate!</p>
+
+  <p>IOL. These strangers will not betray you, do not fear.</p>
+
+  <p>ALC. Such confidence indeed I have, nothing else.</p>
+
+  <p>IOL. And Jove, I well know, cares for your toils.</p>
+
+  <p>ALC. Alas! Jupiter shall never be reproached by me, but he himself
+  knows whether he is just toward me.</p>
+
+  <p>SERV. You see now this panoply of arms; but you can not make too much
+  haste<a name="Heraclid_22"></a><a
+  href="#HeraclidN_22"><sup>[22]</sup></a> in arraying your body in them,
+  as the contest is at hand, and, above all things, Mars hates those who
+  delay; but if you fear the weight of arms, now then go forth unarmed,<a
+  name="Heraclid_23"></a><a href="#HeraclidN_23"><sup>[23]</sup></a> and in
+  the ranks be clad with this equipment, and I will carry it so far.</p>
+
+  <p>IOL. Thou hast said well; but bring the arms, having them close at
+  hand, and put a spear in my hand, and support my left arm guiding my
+  foot.</p>
+
+  <p>SERV. Is it right to lead a warrior like a child?</p>
+
+  <p>IOL. One must go safely for the sake of the omen.</p>
+
+  <p>SERV. Would you were able to do as much as you are willing.</p>
+
+  <p>IOL. Make haste, I shall suffer sadly if too late for the battle.</p>
+
+  <p>SERV. It is you who delay, and not I, seeming to do something.</p>
+
+  <p>IOL. Do you not see how my foot presses on?</p>
+
+  <p>SERV. I see you rather seeming to hasten than hastening.</p>
+
+  <p>IOL. You will not say so, when you behold me there.</p>
+
+  <p>SERV. Doing what? I wish I may see you successful.</p>
+
+  <p>IOL. Striking some of the enemy through the shield.</p>
+
+  <p>SERV. If indeed we get there; for that I have fears of.</p>
+
+  <p>IOL. Alas! O arm, would thou wert such an ally to me as I recollect
+  you in your youth, when you ravaged Sparta with Hercules, how would I put
+  Eurystheus to flight; since he is but a coward in abiding a spear. But in
+  prosperity then is this too which is not right, a reputation for courage;
+  for we think that he who is prosperous knows all things well.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. O earth, and moon that shinest through the night, and most
+  brilliant rays of the God, that gave light to mortals, bring me news, and
+  shout in heaven and at the queenly throne of the blue-eyed Minerva. I am
+  about, on behalf of my country, on behalf of my house, having received
+  suppliants I am about to cut through danger with the white steel. It is
+  terrible that a city, prosperous as Mycenæ, and much praised for valor in
+  war, should nourish secret<a name="Heraclid_24"></a><a
+  href="#HeraclidN_24"><sup>[24]</sup></a> anger against my land; but it is
+  evil too, O city, if we are to give up strangers at the bidding of
+  Argos.<a name="Heraclid_25"></a><a
+  href="#HeraclidN_25"><sup>[25]</sup></a> Jupiter is my ally, I fear not;
+  Jupiter rightly has favor toward me. Never shall the Gods seem inferior
+  to men in my opinion.<a name="Heraclid_26"></a><a
+  href="#HeraclidN_26"><sup>[26]</sup></a> But, O venerable Goddess, for
+  the soil of this land is thine, and the city of which you are mother,
+  mistress, and guardian, lead away by some other way him who unjustly
+  leads on this spear-brandishing host from Argos; for as far as my virtue
+  is concerned, I do not deserve to be banished from these halls. For
+  honor, with much sacrifice, is ever offered to you; nor does the waning<a
+  name="Heraclid_27"></a><a href="#HeraclidN_27"><sup>[27]</sup></a> day of
+  the month forget you, nor the songs of youths, nor the measures of
+  dances; but on the lofty hill shouts resound in accordance with the
+  beatings of the feet of virgins the livelong night.</p>
+
+  <p>SERV. O mistress, I bring news most concise for you to hear, and to
+  myself most glorious; we have conquered our enemies, and trophies are set
+  up bearing the panoply of your enemies.</p>
+
+  <p>ALC. O best beloved, this day has caused thee to be made free for this
+  thy news; but from one disaster you do not yet free me, for I fear
+  whether they be living to me whom I wish to be.</p>
+
+  <p>SERV. They live, the most glorious in the army.</p>
+
+  <p>ALC. Does not the aged Iolaus survive?</p>
+
+  <p>SERV. Surely, and having done most glorious deeds by help of the
+  Gods.</p>
+
+  <p>ALC. But what? has he done any doughty act in the fight?</p>
+
+  <p>SERV. He has changed from an old into a young man again.</p>
+
+  <p>ALC. Thou tellest marvelous things, but first I wish you to relate the
+  prosperous contest of your friends in battle.</p>
+
+  <p>SERV. One speech of mine shall tell you all this; for when stretching
+  out [our ranks] face to face, we arrayed our armies against one another,
+  Hyllus putting his foot out of his four-horse chariot, stood in the
+  mid-space of the field;<a name="Heraclid_28"></a><a
+  href="#HeraclidN_28"><sup>[28]</sup></a> and then said, O general, you
+  are come from Argos, why leave we not this land alone? and you will do
+  Mycenæ no harm, depriving it of one man; but you fighting alone with me
+  alone, either killing me, lead away the children of Hercules, or dying,
+  allow me to possess my ancestral prerogative and palaces. And the army
+  gave praise; that the speech was well spoken for a termination of their
+  toils, and in respect of courage. But he neither regarding those who had
+  heard the speech, nor, although he was general, his [own character for]
+  cowardice, ventured not to come near the warlike spear, but was most
+  cowardly; and being such, he came to enslave the descendants of Hercules.
+  Hyllus then returned again back to his ranks; but the soothsayers, when
+  they saw that the affair could not be arranged by single combat of one
+  shield, sacrificed, and delayed not, but let fall forth immediately the
+  propitious slaughter of mortal throats; and some mounted chariots, and
+  some concealed their sides under the sides of their shields; but the king
+  of the Athenians gave to his army such orders as become a high-born man.
+  "O fellow-citizens, now it behooves one to defend the land that has
+  produced and cherished us."<a name="Heraclid_29"></a><a
+  href="#HeraclidN_29"><sup>[29]</sup></a> And the other also besought his
+  allies not to disgrace Argos and Mycenæ. But when the signal was sounded
+  on a Tyrrhenian trumpet, and they joined battle with one another, what a
+  clash of spears dost thou think sounded, how great a groaning and
+  lamentation at the same time! And first the dashing on of the Argive
+  spear broke us; then they again retreated; and next foot being
+  interchanged with foot, and man standing against man, the battle waged
+  fierce; and many fell; and there were two cries, O ye who [dwell in]
+  Athens, O ye who sow the land of the Argives, will ye not avert disgrace
+  from the city? And with difficulty doing every thing, not without toils
+  did we put the Argive force to flight; and then the old man, seeing
+  Hyllus rushing on, Iolaus, stretching forth his right hand, besought him
+  to place him on the horse-chariot; and seizing the reins in his hands, he
+  pressed hard upon the horses of Eurystheus. And what happened after this
+  I must tell by having heard from others, I myself hitherto having seen
+  all; for passing by the venerable hill of the divine Minerva of Pellene,
+  seeing the chariot of Eurystheus, he prayed to Juno and Jupiter to be
+  young for one day, and to work vengeance on his enemies. But you have a
+  marvel to hear; for two stars standing on the horse-chariot, concealed
+  the chariot in a dim cloud, the wiser men say it was thy son and Hebe;
+  but he from the obscure darkness showed forth a youthful image of
+  youthful arms. And the glorious Iolaus takes the four-horse chariot of
+  Eurystheus at the Scironian rocks&mdash;and having bound his hands in
+  fetters, he comes bringing as glorious first-fruits of victory, the
+  general, him who before was prosperous; but by his present fortune he
+  proclaims clearly to all mortals to learn not to envy him who seems
+  prosperous, till one sees him dead, as fortune is but for the day.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. O Jupiter, thou turner to flight, now is it mine to behold a day
+  free from dreadful fear.</p>
+
+  <p>ALC. O Jupiter, at length you have looked upon my miseries, but still
+  I thank you for what has been done: and I, who formerly did not think
+  that my son dwelt with the Gods, now clearly know it. O children, now
+  indeed you shall be free from toils, and free from Eurystheus, who shall
+  perish miserably; and ye shall see the city of your sire, and you shall
+  tread on your inheritance of land; and ye shall sacrifice to your
+  ancestral gods, debarred from whom ye have had, as strangers, a wandering
+  miserable life. But devising what clever thing has Iolaus spared
+  Eurystheus, so as not to slay him, tell me; for in my opinion this is not
+  wise, having taken our enemies, not to exact punishment of them.</p>
+
+  <p>SERV. Having respect for you, that with your own eyes you may see
+  him<a name="Heraclid_30"></a><a href="#HeraclidN_30"><sup>[30]</sup></a>
+  defeated and subjected to your hand; not, indeed, of his own will, but he
+  has bound him by force in constraint, for he was not willing to come
+  alive into your sight and to be punished. But, O old woman, farewell, and
+  remember for me what you first said when I began my tale. Make me free;
+  and in such noble people as you the mouth ought to be free from
+  falsehood.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. To me the dance is sweet, if there be the thrilling delight of
+  the pipe at the feast; and may Venus be kind. And sweet it is to see the
+  good fortune of friends who did not expect it before; for the fate which
+  accomplishes gifts gives birth to many things; and Time, the son of
+  Saturn. You have, O city, a just path, you should never be deprived of
+  it, to honor the Gods; and he who bids you not do so, is near madness,
+  such proofs as these being shown. God, in truth, evidently exhorts us,
+  taking away the arrogance of the unjust forever. Your son, O old woman,
+  is gone to heaven; he shuns the report of having descended to the realm
+  of Pluto, being consumed as to his body in the terrible flame of fire;
+  and he embraces the lovely bed of Hebe in the golden hall. O Hymen, you
+  have honored two children of Jupiter. Many things agree with many; for in
+  truth they say that Minerva was an ally of their father, and the city and
+  people of that Goddess has saved them, and has restrained the insolence
+  of a man to whom passion was before justice, through violence. May my
+  mind and soul, never be insatiable.</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. O mistress, you see, but still it shall be said, we are come,
+  bringing to you Eurystheus here, an unhoped-for sight, and one no less so
+  for him to meet with, for he never expected to come into your hands when
+  he went forth from Mycenæ with a much-toiling band of spearmen, proudly
+  planning things much greater than his fortune, that he should destroy
+  Athens; but the God changed his fortune, and made it contrary. Hyllus,
+  therefore, and the good Iolaus, have set up a statue, in honor of their
+  victory, of Jove, the putter to flight; and they send me to bring this
+  man to you, wishing to delight your mind; for it is most delightful to
+  see an enemy unfortunate, after having been fortunate.</p>
+
+  <p>ALC. O hateful thing, art thou come? has justice taken you at last?
+  first then indeed turn hither your head toward me, and dare to look your
+  enemies in the face; for now you are ruled, and you rule no more. Art
+  thou he, for I wish to know, who chose, O wretch, much to insult my son,
+  though no longer existing? For in what respect didst thou not dare to
+  insult him? who led him, while alive, down to hell, and sent him forth,
+  bidding him destroy hydras and lions? And I am silent concerning the
+  other evils you contrived, for it would be a long story; and it did not
+  satisfy you that he alone should endure these things, but you drove me
+  also, and my children, out of all Greece, sitting as suppliants of the
+  Gods, some old, and some still infants; but you found men and a city
+  free, who feared you not. Thou needs must die miserably, and you shall
+  gain every thing, for you ought to die not once only, having wrought many
+  evil deeds.</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. It is not practicable for you to put him to death.<a
+  name="Heraclid_31"></a><a href="#HeraclidN_31"><sup>[31]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>ALC. In vain then have we taken him prisoner. But what law hinders him
+  from dying?</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. It seems not so to the chiefs of this land.</p>
+
+  <p>ALC. What is this? not good to them to slay one's enemies?</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. Not any one whom they have taken alive in battle.</p>
+
+  <p>ALC. And did Hyllus endure this decision?</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. He could, I suppose, disobey this land!<a
+  name="Heraclid_32"></a><a href="#HeraclidN_32"><sup>[32]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>ALC. He ought no longer to live, nor behold the light.</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. Then first he did wrong in not dying.</p>
+
+  <p>ALC. Then it is no longer right for him to be punished?<a
+  name="Heraclid_33"></a><a href="#HeraclidN_33"><sup>[33]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>MESS. There is no one who may put him to death.</p>
+
+  <p>ALC. I will. And yet I say that I am some one.</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. You will indeed have much blame if you do this.</p>
+
+  <p>ALC. I love this city. It can not be denied. But as for this man,
+  since he has come into my power, there is no mortal who shall take him
+  from me. For this, whoever will may call me bold, and thinking things too
+  much for a woman; but this deed shall be done by me.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. It is a serious and excusable thing, O lady, for you to have
+  hatred against this man, I well know it.</p>
+
+  <p>EURYSTHEUS. O woman, know plainly that I will not flatter you, nor say
+  any thing else for my life, whence I may incur any imputation of
+  cowardice. But not of my own accord did I undertake this strife&mdash;I
+  knew that I was your cousin by birth, and a relation to your son
+  Hercules; but whether I wished it or not, Juno, for it was a Goddess,
+  forced me to toil through this ill. But when I took up enmity against
+  him, and determined to contest this contest, I became a contriver of many
+  evils, and sitting continually in council with myself, I brought forth
+  many plans by night, how dispersing and slaying my enemies, I might dwell
+  for the future not with fear, knowing that your son was not one of the
+  many, but truly a man; for though he be mine enemy, yet shall he be well
+  spoken of, as he was a doughty man. And when he was released [from life],
+  did it not behoove me, being hated by these children, and knowing their
+  father's hatred to me, to move every stone, slaying and banishing them,
+  and contriving, that, doing such things, my own affairs would have been
+  safe? You, therefore, had you obtained my fortunes, would not have
+  oppressed with evils the hostile offspring of a hated lion, but would
+  wisely have permitted them to live in Argos; you will persuade no one of
+  this. Now then, since they did not destroy me then, when I was willing,
+  by the laws of the Greeks I shall, if slain, bear pollution to my slayer;
+  and the city, being wise, has let me go, having greater honor for God
+  than for its enmity toward me. And to what you said you have heard a
+  reply: and now you may call me at once suppliant and brave.<a
+  name="Heraclid_34"></a><a href="#HeraclidN_34"><sup>[34]</sup></a> Thus
+  is the case with me, I do not wish to die, but I should not be grieved at
+  leaving life.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. I wish, O Alcmena, to advise you a little, to let go this man,
+  since it seems so to the city.</p>
+
+  <p>ALC. But how, if he both die, and still we obey the city?</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. That would be best; but how can that be?</p>
+
+  <p>ALC. I will teach you, easily; for having slain him, then I will give
+  his corpse to those of his friends who come after him; for I will not
+  deny his body to the earth, but he dying, shall satisfy my revenge.</p>
+
+  <p>EU. Slay me, I do not deprecate thy wrath. But this city indeed, since
+  it has released me, and feared to slay me, I will present with an ancient
+  oracle of Apollo, which, in time, will be of greater profit than you
+  would expect; for ye will bury me when I am dead, where it is fated,
+  before the temple of the divine virgin of Pallene; and being well
+  disposed to you, and a protector to the city, I shall ever lie as a
+  sojourner under the ground, but most hostile to their descendants when
+  they come hither with much force, betraying this kindness: such strangers
+  do ye now defend. How then did I, knowing this, come hither, and not
+  respect the oracle of the God? Thinking Juno far more powerful than
+  oracles, and that she would not betray me, [I did so.] But suffer neither
+  libations nor blood to be poured on my tomb, for I will give them an evil
+  return as a requital for these things; and ye shall have a double gain
+  from me, I will both profit you and injure them by dying.</p>
+
+  <p>ALC. Why then do ye delay, if you are fated to accomplish safety to
+  the city and to your descendants, to slay this man, hearing these things?
+  for they show us the safest path. The man is an enemy, but he will profit
+  us dying. Take him away, O servants; then having slain him, ye must give
+  him to the dogs; for hope not thou, that living, thou shalt again banish
+  me from my native land.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. These things seem good to me, proceed, O attendants, for every
+  thing on our part shall be done completely for our sovereigns.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h3>NOTES ON THE HERACLYDÆ</h3>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+<div class="note">
+  <p><a name="HeraclidN_1"></a><a href="#Heraclid_1">[1]</a> Such seems to
+  be the force of <span lang="el" title="eis anêr">&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3B7;&#x3C1;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HeraclidN_2"></a><a href="#Heraclid_2">[2]</a> But the
+  construction is probably <span lang="el" title="alêtai
+  gês">&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3B7;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3B3;&#x3B7;&#x3C2;</span>, (compare my note on Æsch. Eum. 63,) and
+  <span lang="el"
+  title="apesterêmenoi">&#x3B1;&#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3C3;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3B7;&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;</span>
+  is <i>bereaved, destitute</i>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HeraclidN_3"></a><a href="#Heraclid_3">[3]</a> Cf. Æsch. Eum.
+  973.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HeraclidN_4"></a><a href="#Heraclid_4">[4]</a> i.e.
+  &#338;noe, Marathon, Probalinthus, and Tricorythus.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HeraclidN_5"></a><a href="#Heraclid_5">[5]</a> Elmsley
+  compares Med. 1209. <span lang="el" title="tis ton geronta tymbon
+  orthanon sethen tithêsi">&#x3C4;&#x3B9;&#x3C2; &#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B3;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3C5;&#x3BC;&#x3B2;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3BF;&#x3C1;&#x3B8;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3C3;&#x3B5;&#x3B8;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3B9;&#x3B8;&#x3B7;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;</span>; so the Latins used
+  "Silicernium." Cf. Fulgent. Expos. Serm. Ant. p. 171, ed. Munck.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HeraclidN_6"></a><a href="#Heraclid_6">[6]</a> <span
+  lang="el"
+  title="antlos">&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3BB;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span>,
+  sentina, bilge-water. See Elmsley.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HeraclidN_7"></a><a href="#Heraclid_7">[7]</a> See Elmsley's
+  note.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HeraclidN_8"></a><a href="#Heraclid_8">[8]</a> See Dindorf,
+  who repents of the reading in the text, and restores <span lang="el"
+  title="soi gar tod' aischron chôris en polei kakon">&#x3C3;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3B3;&#x3B1;&#x3C1; &#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3B4;'
+  &#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3C7;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3C7;&#x3C9;&#x3C1;&#x3B9;&#x3C2; &#x3B5;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3BB;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3BA;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span>. He, however, condemns this
+  and the two next lines as spurious.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HeraclidN_9"></a><a href="#Heraclid_9">[9]</a> i.e. if I
+  neglect them.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HeraclidN_10"></a><a href="#Heraclid_10">[10]</a> Cf. Hor.
+  Od. iii. 6, 48. "Ætas parentum, pejor avis, tulit Nos nequiores, mox
+  daturos Progeniem vitiosiorem."</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HeraclidN_11"></a><a href="#Heraclid_11">[11]</a> Cf. Soph.
+  Ant. 127. <span lang="el" title="Zeus gar megalês glôssês kompous
+  Hyperechthairei">&#x396;&#x3B5;&#x3C5;&#x3C2; &#x3B3;&#x3B1;&#x3C1;
+  &#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3B3;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3B7;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B3;&#x3BB;&#x3C9;&#x3C3;&#x3C3;&#x3B7;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3BA;&#x3BF;&#x3BC;&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C2;
+  &#x201B;&#x3A5;&#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3B5;&#x3C7;&#x3B8;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3C1;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HeraclidN_12"></a><a href="#Heraclid_12">[12]</a> Cf. Æsch.
+  Sept. c. Th. 40 sq., also Soph. &#338;d. T. 6 sqq.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HeraclidN_13"></a><a href="#Heraclid_13">[13]</a> i.e. <span
+  lang="el" title="manteis kat' asty
+  thyêpholousi">&#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;' &#x3B1;&#x3C3;&#x3C4;&#x3C5;
+  &#x3B8;&#x3C5;&#x3B7;&#x3C6;&#x3BF;&#x3BB;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;</span>.
+  ELMSLEY.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HeraclidN_14"></a><a href="#Heraclid_14">[14]</a> Pausanias,
+  i. 32, states that the oracle expressly required that one of the
+  descendants of Hercules should be devoted, and that upon this Macaria,
+  his daughter by Deianira, voluntarily offered herself. Her name was
+  afterward given to a fountain. Enripides probably omitted this fact, in
+  order to place the noble-mindedness of Macaria in a stronger light. The
+  curious reader may compare the similar sacrifices of Codrus, (Pausan.
+  vii. 25. Vell. Patere. i. 4,) Men&#339;ceus, (Eur. Ph&#339;n. 1009,
+  Statius Theb. x. 751 sqq.,) Chaon (Serv. on Virg. Æn. iii. 335). See also
+  Lomeier de Lustrationibus, § xxii., where the whole subject is learnedly
+  treated.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HeraclidN_15"></a><a href="#Heraclid_15">[15]</a> Cf. Æsch.
+  Ag. 206 sqq.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HeraclidN_16"></a><a href="#Heraclid_16">[16]</a> I prefer
+  understanding <span lang="el" title="heneka exodôn
+  emôn">&#x201B;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3B5;&#x3BA;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3B5;&#x3BE;&#x3BF;&#x3B4;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B5;&#x3BC;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;</span> with Elmsley, to Matthiæ's forced
+  interpretation. Compare Med. 214 sqq.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HeraclidN_17"></a><a href="#Heraclid_17">[17]</a> The cognate
+  accusative to <span lang="el"
+  title="draseien">&#x3B4;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3C3;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;</span>
+  must be supplied from the context.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HeraclidN_18"></a><a href="#Heraclid_18">[18]</a> There is
+  some awkwardness in the construction. Perhaps if we read <span lang="el"
+  title="sperma, tês theias phrenos!
+  peph.">&#x3C3;&#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;, &#x3C4;&#x3B7;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B8;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3C6;&#x3C1;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;! &#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3C6;.</span>
+  the sense will be improved.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HeraclidN_19"></a><a href="#Heraclid_19">[19]</a> The
+  construction is thus laid down by Elmsley: <span lang="el" title="palai
+  gar ôdinousa [peri\] tôn aphig. ps. et. ei. n. [autôn\]
+  genêsetai">&#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3B9; &#x3B3;&#x3B1;&#x3C1;
+  &#x3C9;&#x3B4;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3B1;
+  [&#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3B9;] &#x3C4;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B1;&#x3C6;&#x3B9;&#x3B3;. &#x3C8;. &#x3B5;&#x3C4;. &#x3B5;&#x3B9;.
+  &#x3BD;. [&#x3B1;&#x3C5;&#x3C4;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;]
+  &#x3B3;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3B7;&#x3C3;&#x3B5;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;</span>.
+  He remarks that <span lang="el"
+  title="nostos">&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3C3;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span> often
+  means "arrival," in the tragedians.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HeraclidN_20"></a><a href="#Heraclid_20">[20]</a> See
+  Matthiæ. I should, however, prefer <span lang="el"
+  title="pais">&#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;</span> for <span lang="el"
+  title="pou">&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;</span>, with Elmsley.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HeraclidN_21"></a><a href="#Heraclid_21">[21]</a> <span
+  lang="el" title="kata">&#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;</span> is understood,
+  as in Thucyd. v. 67. ELMSLEY.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HeraclidN_22"></a><a href="#Heraclid_22">[22]</a> See Alcest.
+  662, Iph. Taur. 245, and Elmsley's note on this passage.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HeraclidN_23"></a><a href="#Heraclid_23">[23]</a> <span
+  lang="el"
+  title="gymnos">&#x3B3;&#x3C5;&#x3BC;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span>,
+  <i>expeditus</i>. As in agriculture it is applied to the husbandman who
+  casts off his upper garment, so also in war it simply denotes being
+  without armor.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HeraclidN_24"></a><a href="#Heraclid_24">[24]</a> <span
+  lang="el"
+  title="keuthein">&#x3BA;&#x3B5;&#x3C5;&#x3B8;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HeraclidN_25"></a><a href="#Heraclid_25">[25]</a> I have
+  corrected <span lang="el" title="keleusmasin
+  Argous">&#x3BA;&#x3B5;&#x3BB;&#x3B5;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x391;&#x3C1;&#x3B3;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C2;</span>, with Reiske and
+  Dindorf.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HeraclidN_26"></a><a href="#Heraclid_26">[26]</a> I have
+  adopted Dindorf's correction, <span lang="el" title="hêssones par' emoi
+  theoi
+  phanountai">&#x201B;&#x3B7;&#x3C3;&#x3C3;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3B5;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3C1;' &#x3B5;&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3B8;&#x3B5;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3C6;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HeraclidN_27"></a><a href="#Heraclid_27">[27]</a> i.e. the
+  last, says Brodæus. But Elmsley prefers taking it for the <span lang="el"
+  title="noumênia">&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3BC;&#x3B7;&#x3BD;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;</span>
+  or Kalends, with Musgrave.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HeraclidN_28"></a><a href="#Heraclid_28">[28]</a> <span
+  lang="el" title="doros">&#x3B4;&#x3BF;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span>, which
+  is often used to signify <i>the fight</i>, is here somewhat boldly put
+  for the arrangement of the battle.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HeraclidN_29"></a><a href="#Heraclid_29">[29]</a> Cf. Æsch.
+  Soph. c. Th. 14 sqq. Elmsley's notes on the whole of this spirited
+  passage deserve to be consulted.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HeraclidN_30"></a><a href="#Heraclid_30">[30]</a> <span
+  lang="el"
+  title="kratounta">&#x3BA;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;</span>
+  can not be used passively. <span lang="el"
+  title="klaionta">&#x3BA;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;</span>
+  is the conjecture of Orelli, approved by Dindorf. I have expressed the
+  sense, not the text.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HeraclidN_31"></a><a href="#Heraclid_31">[31]</a> See
+  Musgrave's note (apud Dindorf). Tyrwhitt considers all the dramatis
+  personæ wrongly assigned.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HeraclidN_32"></a><a href="#Heraclid_32">[32]</a> Ironically
+  spoken.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HeraclidN_33"></a><a href="#Heraclid_33">[33]</a> There seems
+  to be something wrong here.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HeraclidN_34"></a><a href="#Heraclid_34">[34]</a> See
+  Matthiæ, who explains it: "<i>me et supplicem</i>, qui mortem deprecetur,
+  <i>et fortem</i>, qui mortem contemnat, <i>dicere licet</i>."</p>
+
+</div>
+<hr class="full" />
+
+<a name="AULIS"></a>
+<h2>IPHIGENIA IN AULIS.</h2>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+<h3>PERSONS REPRESENTED.</h3>
+
+  <div class="personae">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <p>AGAMEMNON.</p>
+      <p>OLD MAN.</p>
+      <p>MENELAUS.</p>
+      <p>ACHILLES.</p>
+      <p>MESSENGER.</p>
+      <p>ANOTHER MESSENGER.</p>
+      <p>IPHIGENIA.</p>
+      <p>CLYTÆMNESTRA.</p>
+      <p>CHORUS.</p>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+<hr />
+
+<h3>THE ARGUMENT.</h3>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+  <p>When the Greeks were detained at Aulis by stress of weather, Calchas
+  declared that they would never reach Troy unless the daughter of
+  Agamemnon, Iphigenia, was sacrificed to Diana. Agamemnon sent for his
+  daughter with this view, but repenting, he dispatched a messenger to
+  prevent Clytæmnestra sending her. The messenger being intercepted by
+  Menelaus, an altercation between the brother chieftains arose, during
+  which Iphigenia, who had been tempted with the expectation of being
+  wedded to Achilles, arrived with her mother. The latter, meeting with
+  Achilles, discovered the deception, and Achilles swore to protect her.
+  But Iphigenia, having determined to die nobly on behalf of the Greeks,
+  was snatched away by the Goddess, and a stag substituted in her place.
+  The Greeks were then enabled to set sail.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2>IPHIGENIA IN AULIS.</h2>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+  <p>AGAMEMNON. Come before this dwelling, O aged man.</p>
+
+  <p>OLD MAN. I come. But what new thing dost thou meditate, king
+  Agamemnon?</p>
+
+  <p>AG. You shall learn.<a name="IA_1"></a><a
+  href="#IAN_1"><sup>[1]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>OLD M. I hasten. My old age is very sleepless, and sits wakeful upon
+  mine eyes.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. What star can this be that traverses this way?</p>
+
+  <p>OLD M. Sirius, flitting yet midway (between the heavens and the
+  ocean,)<a name="IA_2"></a><a href="#IAN_2"><sup>[2]</sup></a> close to
+  the seven Pleiads.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. No longer therefore is there the sound either of birds or of the
+  sea, but silence of the winds reigns about this Euripus.</p>
+
+  <p>OLD M. But why art thou hastening without the tent, king Agamemnon?
+  But still there is silence here by Aulis, and the guards of the
+  fortifications are undisturbed. Let us go within.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. I envy thee, old man, and I envy that man who has passed through a
+  life without danger, unknown, unglorious; but I less envy those in
+  honor.</p>
+
+  <p>OLD M. And yet 'tis in this that the glory of life is.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. But this very glory is uncertain, for the love of popularity is
+  pleasant indeed, but hurts when present. Sometimes the worship of the
+  Gods not rightly conducted upturns one's life, and sometimes the many and
+  dissatisfied opinions of men harass.</p>
+
+  <p>OLD M. I praise not these remarks in a chieftain. O Agamemnon, Atreus
+  did not beget thee upon a condition of complete good fortune.<a
+  name="IA_3"></a><a href="#IAN_3"><sup>[3]</sup></a> But thou needs must
+  rejoice and grieve; [in turn,] for thou art a mortal born, and even
+  though you wish it not, the will of the Gods will be thus. But thou,
+  opening the light of a lamp, art both writing this letter, which thou
+  still art carrying in thy hands, and again you blot out the same
+  characters, and seal, and loose again, and cast the tablet to the ground,
+  pouring abundant tears, and thou lackest naught of the unwonted things
+  that tend to madness. Why art thou troubled, why art thou troubled? What
+  new thing, what new thing [has happened] concerning thee, O king? Come,
+  communicate discourse with me. But thou wilt speak to a good and faithful
+  man, for to thy wife Tyndarus sent me once on a time, as a dower-gift,
+  and disinterested companion.<a name="IA_4"></a><a
+  href="#IAN_4"><sup>[4]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>AG. To Leda, daughter of Thestias, were born three virgins,
+  Ph&#339;be, and Clytæmnestra my spouse, and Helen. Of this latter, the
+  youths of Greece that were in the first state of prosperity came as
+  suitors. But terrible threats of bloodshed<a name="IA_5"></a><a
+  href="#IAN_5"><sup>[5]</sup></a> arose against one another, from whoever
+  should not obtain the virgin. But the matter was difficult for her father
+  Tyndarus, whether to give, or not to give [her in marriage,] and how he
+  might best deal with the circumstances, when this occurred to him; that
+  the suitors should join oaths and plight right hands with one another,
+  and over burnt-offerings should enter into treaty, and bind themselves by
+  this oath, "Of whomsoever the daughter of Tyndarus shall become wife,
+  that they will join to assist him, if any one should depart from his
+  house taking [her] with him, and excluding the possessor from his bed,
+  and that they will make an expedition in arms, and sack the city [of the
+  ravisher,] Greek or barbarian alike." But after they had pledged
+  themselves, the old man Tyndarus somehow cleverly overreached them by a
+  cunning plan. He permits his daughter to choose one of the suitors,
+  toward whom the friendly gales of Venus might impel her. But she chose
+  (whom would she had never taken!) Menelaus. And he who, according to the
+  story told by men, once judged the Goddesses, coming from Phrygia to
+  Lacedæmon, flowered in the vesture of his garments, and glittering with
+  gold, barbarian finery, loving Helen who loved him, he stole and bore her
+  away to the bull-stalls of Ida, having found Menelaus abroad. But he,
+  goaded hastily<a name="IA_6"></a><a href="#IAN_6"><sup>[6]</sup></a>
+  through Greece, calls to witness the old oath given to Tyndarus, that it
+  behooves to assist the aggrieved. Henceforth the Greeks hastening with
+  the spear, having taken their arms, come to this Aulis with its narrow
+  straits, with ships and shields together, and accoutred with many horses
+  and chariots. And they chose me general of the host, out of regard for
+  Menelaus, being his brother forsooth. And would that some other than I
+  had obtained the dignity. But when the army was assembled and levied, we
+  sat, having no power of sailing, at Aulis. But Calchas the seer
+  proclaimed to us, being at a loss, that we should sacrifice Iphigenia,
+  whom I begat, to Diana, who inhabits this place, and that if we
+  sacrificed her, we should have both our voyage, and the sacking of Troy,
+  but that this should not befall us if we did not sacrifice her. But I
+  hearing this in rousing proclamation, bade Talthybius dismiss the whole
+  army, as I should never have the heart to slay my daughter. Upon this,
+  indeed, my brother, alleging every kind of reasoning, persuaded me to
+  dare the dreadful deed, and having written in the folds of a letter, I
+  sent word to my wife to send her daughter as if to be married to
+  Achilles, both enlarging on the dignity of the man, and asserting that he
+  would not sail with the Greeks, unless a wife for him from among us
+  should come to Phthia. For I had this means of persuading my wife, having
+  made up a pretended match for the virgin. But we alone of the Greeks know
+  how these matters are, Calchas, Ulysses, and Nestor. But the things which
+  I then determined not well, I am now differently writing so as to be
+  well, in this letter, which by the shadow of night thou beheldest me
+  opening and closing, old man. But come, go thou, taking these letters, to
+  Argos. But as to what the letter conceals in its folds, I will tell thee
+  in words all that is written therein; for thou art faithful to my wife
+  and house.</p>
+
+  <p>OLD M. Speak, and tell me, that with my tongue I may also say what
+  agrees with your letter.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. (reading) "I send to thee, O germ of Leda, besides<a
+  name="IA_7"></a><a href="#IAN_7"><sup>[7]</sup></a> my former dispatches,
+  not to send thy daughter to the bay-like wing of Eub&#339;a,<a
+  name="IA_8"></a><a href="#IAN_8"><sup>[8]</sup></a> waveless Aulis. For
+  we will delay the bridals of our daughter till another season."</p>
+
+  <p>OLD M. And how will not Achilles raise up his temper against thee and
+  thy wife, showing great wrath at failing of his spouse? This also is
+  terrible. Show what thou meanest.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. Achilles, furnishing the pretext, not the reality, knows not these
+  nuptials, nor what we are doing; nor that I have professed to give my
+  daughter into the nuptial chain of his arms by marriage.<a
+  name="IA_9"></a><a href="#IAN_9"><sup>[9]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>OLD M. Thou venturest terrible things, king Agamemnon, who, having
+  promised thy daughter as wife to the son of the Goddess, dost lead her as
+  a sacrifice on behalf of the Greeks.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. Ah me! I was out of my senses. Alas! And I am falling into
+  calamity. But go, plying thy foot, yielding naught to old age.</p>
+
+  <p>OLD M. I hasten, O king.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. Do not thou either sit down by the woody fountains, nor repose in
+  sleep.</p>
+
+  <p>OLD M. Speak good words.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. But every where as you pass the double track, look about, watching
+  lest there escape thee a chariot passing with swift wheels, bearing my
+  daughter hither to the ships of the Greeks.</p>
+
+  <p>OLD M. This shall be.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. And go out of the gates<a name="IA_10"></a><a
+  href="#IAN_10"><sup>[10]</sup></a> quickly,&#x2020; for if you meet with
+  the procession,&#x2020; again go forth, shake the reins, going to the
+  temples reared by the Cyclops.</p>
+
+  <p>OLD M. But tell me, how, saying this, I shall obtain belief from thy
+  daughter and wife.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. Preserve the seal, this which thou bearest on this letter. Go:
+  morn, already dawning forth this light, grows white, and the fire of the
+  sun's four steeds. Aid me in my toils. But no one of mortals is
+  prosperous or blest to the last, for none hath yet been born free from
+  pain.</p>
+
+  <p>CHORUS. I came to the sands of the shore of marine Aulis, having
+  sailed through the waves of Euripus, quitting Chalcis with its narrow
+  strait, my city, the nurse of the sea-neighboring waters<a
+  name="IA_11"></a><a href="#IAN_11"><sup>[11]</sup></a> of renowned
+  Arethusa, in order that I might behold the army of the Greeks, and the
+  ship-conveying oars of the Grecian youths, whom against Troy in a
+  thousand ships of fir, our husbands say that yellow-haired Menelaus and
+  Agamemnon of noble birth, are leading in quest of Helen,<a
+  name="IA_12"></a><a href="#IAN_12"><sup>[12]</sup></a> whom the herdsman
+  Paris bore from reed-nourishing Eurotas, a gift of Venus, when at the
+  fountain dews Venus held contest, contest respecting beauty with Juno and
+  Pallas. But I came swiftly through the wood of Diana with its many
+  sacrifices, making my cheek red with youthful modesty, wishing to behold
+  the defense of the shield, and the arm-bearing tents<a
+  name="IA_13"></a><a href="#IAN_13"><sup>[13]</sup></a> of the Greeks, and
+  the crowd of steeds. But I saw the two Ajaces companions, the son of
+  Oileus, and the son of Telamon, the glory of Salamis, and Protesilaus and
+  Palamedes, whom the daughter of Neptune bore, diverting themselves<a
+  name="IA_14"></a><a href="#IAN_14"><sup>[14]</sup></a> with the
+  complicated figures of draughts, and Diomede rejoicing in the pleasures
+  of the disk, and by them Merione, the blossom of Mars, a marvel to
+  mortals, and the son of Laertes from the mountains of the isle, and with
+  them Nireus, fairest of the Greeks, and Achilles, tempest-like in the
+  course, fleet as the winds, whom Thetis bore, and Chiron trained up, I
+  beheld him on the shore, coursing in arms along the shingles. And he
+  toiled through a contest of feet, running against a chariot of four
+  steeds for victory. But the charioteer cried out, Eumelus, the grandson
+  of Pheres,<a name="IA_15"></a><a href="#IAN_15"><sup>[15]</sup></a> whose
+  most beauteous steeds I beheld, decked out with gold-tricked bits,
+  hurried on by the lash, the middle ones in yoke dappled with
+  white-spotted hair, but those outside, in loose harness, running
+  contrariwise in the bendings of the course, bays, with dappled skins
+  under their legs with solid hoofs. Close by which Pelides was running in
+  arms, by the orb and wheels of the chariot.<a name="IA_16"></a><a
+  href="#IAN_16"><sup>[16]</sup></a> And I came to the multitude of ships,
+  a sight not to be described, that I might satiate the sight of my woman's
+  eyes, a sweet delight. And at the right horn [of the fleet] was the
+  Phthiotic army of the Myrmidons, with fifty valiant ships. And in golden
+  effigies the Nereid Goddesses stood on the summit of the poops, the
+  standard of the host of Achilles. And next to these there stood the
+  Argive ships, with equal number of oars, of which [Euryalus] the grandson
+  of Mecisteus was general, whom his father Talaus trains up, and Sthenelus
+  son of Capaneus. But [Acamas] son of Theseus, leading sixty ships from
+  Athens, kept station, having the Goddess Pallas placed<a
+  name="IA_17"></a><a href="#IAN_17"><sup>[17]</sup></a> in her equestrian
+  winged chariot, a prosperous sign to sailors. But I beheld the armament
+  of the B&#339;otians, fifty sea-bound ships, with signs at the
+  figure-heads, and their sign was Cadmus, holding a golden dragon, at the
+  beaks of the ships, and Leitus the earth-born was leader of the naval
+  armament, and [I beheld] those from the Phocian land. But the son of
+  Oileus, leading an equal number of Locrian ships, came, having left the
+  Thronian city. But from Cyclopian Mycenæ the son of Atreus sent the
+  assembled mariners of a hundred ships. And with him was Adrastus, as
+  friend with friend, in order that Greece might wreak vengeance on those
+  who fled their homes, for the sake of barbarian nuptials. But from Pylos
+  we beheld on the poops of Gerenian Nestor, a sign bull-footed to view,
+  his neighbor Alpheus. But there were twelve beaks of Ænian ships, which
+  king Gyneus led, and near these again the chieftains of Elis, whom all
+  the people named Epeians, and o'er these Eurytus had power. But the
+  white-oared Taphian host *&nbsp;*&nbsp;*&nbsp;* led,<a name="IA_18"></a><a
+  href="#IAN_18"><sup>[18]</sup></a> which Meges ruled, the offspring of
+  Phyleus, leaving the island Echinades, inaccessible to sailors. And Ajax,
+  the foster-child of Salamis, joined the right horn to the left, to which
+  he was stationed nearest, joining them with his furthermost ships, with
+  twelve most swift vessels, as I heard, and beheld the naval people. To
+  which if any one add the barbarian barks, *&nbsp;*&nbsp;*&nbsp;* it will not obtain a
+  return. *&nbsp;*&nbsp;*&nbsp;* Where I beheld the naval expedition, but hearing other
+  things at home I preserve remembrance of the assembled army.</p>
+
+  <p>OLD M. Menelaus, thou art daring dreadful deeds thou shouldst not
+  dare.</p>
+
+  <p>MENELAUS. Away with thee! thou art too faithful to thy masters.</p>
+
+  <p>OLD M. An honorable rebuke thou hast rebuked me with!</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. To thy cost shall it be, if thou dost that thou shouldst not
+  do.</p>
+
+  <p>OLD M. You have no right to open the letter which I was carrying.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. Nor shouldst thou bear ills to all the Greeks.</p>
+
+  <p>OLD M. Contest this point with others, but give up this [letter] to
+  me.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. I will not let it go.</p>
+
+  <p>OLD M. Nor will I let it go.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. Then quickly with my sceptre will I make thine head bloody.</p>
+
+  <p>OLD M. But glorious it is to die for one's masters.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. Let go. Being a slave, thou speakest too many words.</p>
+
+  <p>OLD M. O master, I am wronged, and this man, having snatched thy
+  letter out of my hands, O Agamemnon, is unwilling to act rightly.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. Ah! what is this tumult and disorder of words?</p>
+
+  <p>OLD M. My words, not his, are fittest to speak.<a name="IA_19"></a><a
+  href="#IAN_19"><sup>[19]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>AG. But wherefore, Menelaus, dost thou come to strife with this man
+  and art dragging him by force?</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. Look at me, that I may take this commencement of my speech.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. What, shall I through fear not open mine eyelids, being born of
+  Atreus?</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. Seest thou this letter, the minister of writings most vile?</p>
+
+  <p>AG. I see it, and do thou first let it go from thy hands.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. Not, at least, before I show to the Greeks what is written
+  therein.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. What, knowest thou what 'tis unseasonable thou shouldst know,
+  having broken the seal?</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. Ay, so as to pain thee, having unfolded the ills thou hast
+  wrought privily.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. But where didst thou obtain it? O Gods, for thy shameless
+  heart!</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. Expecting thy daughter from Argos, whether she will come to the
+  army.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. What behooves thee to keep watch upon my affairs? Is not this the
+  act of a shameless man?</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. Because the will [to do so] teased me, and I am not born thy
+  slave.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. Is it not dreadful? Shall I not be suffered to be master of my own
+  family?</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. For thou thinkest inconsistently, now one thing, before another,
+  another thing presently.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. Well hast thou talked evil. Hateful is a too clever tongue.<a
+  name="IA_20"></a><a href="#IAN_20"><sup>[20]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>MEN. But an unstable mind is an unjust thing to possess, and not
+  clear<a name="IA_21"></a><a href="#IAN_21"><sup>[21]</sup></a> for
+  friends. I wish to expostulate with thee, but do not thou in wrath turn
+  away from the truth, nor will I speak overlong. Thou knowest when thou
+  wast making interest to be leader of the Greeks against Troy&mdash;in
+  seeming indeed not wishing it, but wishing it in will&mdash;how humble
+  thou wast, taking hold of every right hand, and keeping open doors to any
+  of the people that wished, and giving audience to all in turn even if one
+  wished it not, seeking by manners to purchase popularity among the
+  multitude. But when you obtained the power, changing to different
+  manners, you were no longer the same friend as before to your old
+  friends, difficult of access,<a name="IA_22"></a><a
+  href="#IAN_22"><sup>[22]</sup></a> and rarely within doors. But it
+  behooves not a man who has met with great fortune to change his manners,
+  but then chiefly to be firm toward his friends, when he is best able to
+  benefit them, being prosperous. I have first gone over these charges
+  against thee, in which I first found thee base. But when thou afterward
+  camest into Aulis and to the army of all the Greeks, thou wast naught,
+  but wast in stupefaction at the fortune which then befell us from the
+  Gods, lacking a favorable breeze for the journey. But the Greeks demanded
+  that you should dismiss the ships, and not toil vainly at Aulis. But how
+  cheerless and distressed a countenance you wore, because you were not
+  able to land your army at Priam's land, having a thousand ships under
+  command.<a name="IA_23"></a><a href="#IAN_23"><sup>[23]</sup></a> And
+  thou besoughtest me, "What shall I do?" "But what resource shall I find
+  from whence?" so that thou mightest not lose an ill renown, being
+  deprived of the command. And then, when Calchas o'er the victims said
+  that thou must sacrifice thy daughter to Diana, and that there would
+  [then] be means of sailing for the Greeks, delighted in heart, you gladly
+  promised to sacrifice your child, and of your own accord, not by
+  compulsion&mdash;do not say so&mdash;you send to your wife to convoy your
+  daughter hither, on a pretext of being wedded to Achilles. And then
+  changing [your mind] you are caught altering to other writings, to the
+  effect that you will not now be the slayer of your daughter. Very pretty,
+  forsooth! This is the same air which heard these very protestations from
+  thee. But innumerable men experience this in their affairs; they
+  persevere in labor when in power,<a name="IA_24"></a><a
+  href="#IAN_24"><sup>[24]</sup></a> and then make a bad result, sometimes
+  through the foolish mind of the citizens, but sometimes with reason,
+  themselves becoming incapable of preserving the state, I indeed chiefly
+  groan for hapless Greece, who, wishing to work some doughty deed against
+  these good-for-nothing barbarians, will let them, laughing at us, slip
+  through her hands, on account of thee and thy daughter. I would not make
+  any one ruler of the land for the sake of necessity,<a
+  name="IA_25"></a><a href="#IAN_25"><sup>[25]</sup></a> nor chieftain of
+  armed men. It behooves the general of the state to possess sense, for
+  every man is a ruler who possesses sense.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. 'Tis dreadful for words and strife to happen between brothers,
+  when they fall into dispute.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. I wish to address thee in evil terms, but mildly,<a
+  name="IA_26"></a><a href="#IAN_26"><sup>[26]</sup></a> in brief, not
+  uplifting mine eyelids too much aloft through insolence, but moderately,
+  as being my brother. For a good man is wont to show respect [to others.]
+  Tell me, why dost thou burst forth thus violently, having thy face
+  suffused with rage? Who wrongs thee? What lackest thou? Wouldst fain gain
+  a good wife! I can not supply thee, for thou didst ill rule over the one
+  you possessed. Must I therefore pay the penalty of your mismanagement,
+  who have made no mistake? Or does my ambition annoy thee? But wouldst
+  thou fain hold in thine arms a fair woman, forgetting discretion and
+  honor? Evil pleasures belong to an evil man. But if I, having before
+  resolved ill, have changed to good counsel, am I mad? Rather art thou
+  [mad,] who, having lost a bad wife, desirest to recover her, when God has
+  well prospered thy fortune. The nuptial-craving suitors in their folly
+  swore the oath to Tyndarus, but hope, I ween, was their God, and wrought
+  this more than thyself and thy strength. Whom taking<a
+  name="IA_27"></a><a href="#IAN_27"><sup>[27]</sup></a> make thou the
+  expedition, but I think thou wilt know [that it is] through the folly of
+  their hearts, for the divinity is not ignorant, but is capable of
+  discerning oaths ill plighted and perforce. But I will not slay my
+  children, so that thy state will in justice be well, revenge upon the
+  worst of wives, but nights and days will waste me away in tears, having
+  wrought lawless, unjust deeds against the children whom I begat. These
+  words are briefly spoken to thee, both plain and easy, but if thou art
+  unwilling to be wise, I will arrange my own affairs well.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. These words are different from those before spoken, but they are
+  to a good effect, that the children be spared.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. Alas! alas! have I then wretched no friends?</p>
+
+  <p>AG. [Yes, you have,] at least, if you do not wish to ruin your
+  friends.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. But how will you show that you are born of the same sire with
+  me?</p>
+
+  <p>AG. I am born to be wise with you, not foolish.<a name="IA_28"></a><a
+  href="#IAN_28"><sup>[28]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>MEN. It behooves friends to grieve in common with friends.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. Admonish me by well doing, not by paining me.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. Dost thou not then think fit to toil through this with
+  Greece?</p>
+
+  <p>AG. But Greece, with thee, is sickening through some deity.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. Vaunt then on thy sceptre, having betrayed thy brother. But I
+  will seek some other schemes, and other friends.</p>
+
+<p class="center">[<i>Enter a Messenger</i>.<a name="IA_29"></a><a href="#IAN_29"><sup>[29]</sup></a>]</p>
+
+  <p>MESSENGER. O Agamemnon, king of all the Greeks, I am come, bringing
+  thy daughter to thee, whom thou didst name Iphigenia in thy palace. But
+  her mother follows, the person of thy [wife] Clytæmnestra, and the boy
+  Orestes, that thou mayest be pleased at the sight, being away from thine
+  home a long season. But as they have come a long way, they and their
+  mares are refreshing their female feet by the fair-flowing fountain, and
+  we let loose the mares in a grassy meadow, that they might taste fodder.
+  But I am come before them to prepare you [for their reception,] for a
+  swift report passed through the army, that thy daughter had arrived. And
+  all the multitude comes out hastily to the spectacle, that they may
+  behold thy child. For prosperous men are renowned and conspicuous among
+  all mortals. And they say, "Is there a marriage on foot? or what is going
+  on?" Or, "Has king Agamemnon, having a yearning after his daughter,
+  brought his child hither?" But from some you would have heard this: "They
+  are initiating<a name="IA_30"></a><a href="#IAN_30"><sup>[30]</sup></a>
+  the damsel in honor of Artemis, queen of Aulis, who will marry her." But
+  come, get ready the baskets,<a name="IA_31"></a><a
+  href="#IAN_31"><sup>[31]</sup></a> which come next, crown thine head. And
+  do thou, king Menelaus, prepare a nuptial lay, and through the house let
+  the pipe sound and let there be noise of feet, for this day comes blessed
+  upon the virgin.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. I commend [your words,] but go thou within the house, and it shall
+  be well, as fortune takes its course. Alas! what shall I wretched say?
+  Whence shall I begin? Into what fetters of necessity have I fallen!
+  Fortune has upturned me, so as to become far too clever for my
+  cleverness. But lowness of birth has some advantage thus. For such
+  persons are at liberty to weep, and speak unhappy words, but to him that
+  is of noble birth, all these things belong. We have our dignity as ruler
+  of our life, and are slaves to the multitude. For I am ashamed indeed to
+  let fall the tear, yet again wretched am I ashamed not to weep, having
+  come into the greatest calamities. Well! what shall I say to my wife? How
+  shall I receive her? What manner of countenance shall I present? And
+  truly she hath undone me, coming uncalled amidst the ills which before
+  possessed me. And with reason did she follow her daughter, being about to
+  deck her as a bride,<a name="IA_32"></a><a
+  href="#IAN_32"><sup>[32]</sup></a> and to perform the dearest offices,
+  where she will find us base. But for this hapless virgin&mdash;why [call
+  her] virgin? Hades, as it seems, will speedily attend on her
+  nuptials,&mdash;how do I pity her! For I think that she will beseech me
+  thus: O father, wilt thou slay me? Such a wedding mayest thou thyself
+  wed, and whosoever is a friend to thee. But Orestes being present will
+  cry out knowingly words not knowing, for he is yet an infant. Alas! how
+  has Priam's son, Paris, undone me by wedding the nuptials of Paris, who
+  has wrought this!</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. And I also pity her, as it becomes a stranger woman to moan for
+  the misfortune of her lords.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. Brother, give me thy right hand to touch.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. I give it, for thine is the power, but I am wretched.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. I swear by Pelops, who was called the sire of my father and
+  thine, and my father Atreus, that I indeed will tell thee plainly from my
+  heart, and not any thing out of contrivance, but only what I think. I,
+  beholding thee letting fall the tear from thine eyes, pitied thee, and
+  myself let fall [a tear] for thee in return. And I have changed<a
+  name="IA_33"></a><a href="#IAN_33"><sup>[33]</sup></a> my old
+  determinations, not being wrath against you, but I will place myself in
+  your present situation, and I recommend you neither to slay your child,
+  nor to take my part; for it is not just that thou shouldst groan, but my
+  affairs be in a pleasant state, and that thine should die, but mine
+  behold the light. For what do I wish? Might I not obtain another choice
+  alliance, if I crave nuptials? But, having undone my brother, whom it
+  least behooved me, shall I receive Helen, an evil in place of a good? I
+  was foolish and young, before that, viewing the matter closely, I saw
+  what it is to beget children. Besides, pity came over me, considering our
+  connection, for the hapless girl, who is about to be sacrificed because
+  of my marriage. But what has thy virgin [daughter] to do with Helen? Let
+  the army go, being disbanded from Aulis. But cease thou bedewing thine
+  eyes with tears, my brother, and exciting me to tears. But if I have any
+  concern in the oracle respecting thy daughter, let me have none: to thee
+  I yield my part. But I have come to a change<a name="IA_34"></a><a
+  href="#IAN_34"><sup>[34]</sup></a> from terrible resolutions. I
+  have experienced<a name="IA_35"></a><a href="#IAN_35"><sup>[35]</sup></a>
+  what was meet. I have changed to regard him who is sprung from a common
+  source. Such changes belong not to a bad man, [viz.] to follow the best
+  always.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Thou hast spoken generous words, and becoming Tantalus the son
+  of Jove. Thou disgracest not thine ancestors.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. I commend thee, Menelaus, in that, contrary to my expectation, you
+  have subjoined these words, rightly, and worthily of thee.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. A certain disturbance<a name="IA_36"></a><a
+  href="#IAN_36"><sup>[36]</sup></a> between brothers arises on account of
+  love, and avarice in their houses. I abhor such a relationship, mutually
+  sore.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. But [consider,] for we are come into circumstances that render it
+  necessary to accomplish the bloody slaughter of my daughter.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. How? Who will compel thee to slay thy child?</p>
+
+  <p>AG. The whole assembly of the armament of the Greeks.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. Not so, if at least thou dismiss it back to Argos.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. In this matter I might escape discovery, but in that I can not.<a
+  name="IA_37"></a><a href="#IAN_37"><sup>[37]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>MEN. What? One should not too much fear the multitude.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. Calchas will proclaim his prophecy to the army of the Greeks.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. Not if he die first&mdash;and this is easy.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. The whole race of seers is an ambitious ill.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. And in naught good or profitable, when at hand.<a
+  name="IA_38"></a><a href="#IAN_38"><sup>[38]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>AG. But dost thou not fear that which occurs to me?</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. How can I understand the word you say not?</p>
+
+  <p>AG. The son of Sisyphus knows all these matters.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. It can not be that Orestes can pain thee and me.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. He is ever changeable, and with the multitude.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. He is indeed possessed with the passion for popularity, a
+  dreadful evil.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. Do you not then think that he, standing in the midst of the
+  Greeks, will tell the oracles which Calchas pronounced, and of me, that I
+  promised to offer a sacrifice to Diana, and then break my word. With
+  which [words] having carried away the army, he will bid the Greeks slay
+  thee and me, and sacrifice the damsel. And if I flee to Argos, they will
+  come and ravage and raze the land, Cyclopean walls and all. Such are my
+  troubles. O unhappy me! How, by the Gods, am I at a loss in these present
+  matters! Take care of one thing for me, Menelaus, going through the army,
+  that Clytæmnestra may not learn these matters, before I take and offer my
+  daughter to Hades, that I may fare ill with as few tears as possible. But
+  do ye, O stranger women, preserve silence.</p>
+
+  <p>CHORUS. Blest are they who share the nuptial bed of the Goddess
+  Aphrodite,<a name="IA_39"></a><a href="#IAN_39"><sup>[39]</sup></a> when
+  she is moderate, and with modesty, obtaining a calm from the maddening
+  stings, when Love with his golden locks stretches his twin bow of graces,
+  the one for a prosperous fate, the other for the upturning of life. I
+  deprecate this [bow,] O fairest Venus, from our beds, but may mine be a
+  moderate grace, and holy endearments, and may I share Aphrodite, but
+  reject her when excessive. But the natures of mortals are different, and
+  their manners are different,<a name="IA_40"></a><a
+  href="#IAN_40"><sup>[40]</sup></a> but that which is clearly good is ever
+  plain. And the education which trains<a name="IA_41"></a><a
+  href="#IAN_41"><sup>[41]</sup></a> [men] up, conduces greatly to virtue,
+  for to have reverence is wisdom, and it possesses an equivalent
+  advantage, viz. to perceive what is fitting by one's mind, where report
+  bears unwasting glory to life.<a name="IA_42"></a><a
+  href="#IAN_42"><sup>[42]</sup></a> 'Tis a great thing to hunt for [the
+  praise of] virtue, among women indeed, by a secret affection,<a
+  name="IA_43"></a><a href="#IAN_43"><sup>[43]</sup></a> but among men, on
+  the other hand, honor being inherent,<a name="IA_44"></a><a
+  href="#IAN_44"><sup>[44]</sup></a> [bears that praise, honor,] which
+  increases a state to an incalculable extent.<a name="IA_45"></a><a
+  href="#IAN_45"><sup>[45]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>Thou earnest, O Paris, &#x2020;where thou wast trained up a shepherd
+  with the white heifers of Ida, trilling a barbarian lay, breathing an
+  imitation of the Phrygian pipes of Olympus on a reed. And the cows with
+  their well-filled udders browsed, when the judgment of the Goddesses
+  drove thee mad, which sends thee into Greece,&#x2020; before the
+  ivory-decked palaces, thou who didst strike love into the eyes of Helen
+  which were upon thee, and thyself wast fluttered with love. Whence
+  strife, strife brings Greece against the bulwarks of Troy with spears and
+  ships.&#x2020; Alas! alas! great are the fortunes of the great.<a
+  name="IA_46"></a><a href="#IAN_46"><sup>[46]</sup></a> Behold the king's
+  daughter, Iphigenia, my queen, and Clytæmnestra, daughter of Tyndarus,
+  how are they sprung from the great, and to what suitable fortune they are
+  come. The powerful, in sooth, and the wealthy, are Gods to those of
+  mortals who are unblest. [Let us stand still, ye children of Chalcis, let
+  us receive the queen from her chariot to the earth, not unsteadily, but
+  gently with the soft attention of our hands, lest the renowned daughter
+  of Agamemnon, newly coming to me, be alarmed, nor let us, as strangers to
+  strangers, cause disturbance or fear to the Argive ladies.<a
+  name="IA_47"></a><a href="#IAN_47"><sup>[47]</sup></a>]</p>
+
+  <p>[<i>Enter</i> Clytæmnestra, IPHIGENIA, <i>and probably</i> ORESTES
+  <i>in a chariot. They descend from it, while the Chorus make
+  obeisance</i>.]</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. I regard both your kindness and your favorable words as a good
+  omen, and I have some hope that I am here as escort [of my daughter] to
+  honorable nuptials. But take out of my chariot the dower-gifts which I
+  bear for my girl, and send them carefully into the house. And do thou, my
+  child, quit the horse-chariot, setting [carefully] thy foot delicate and
+  at the same time tender. But you,<a name="IA_48"></a><a
+  href="#IAN_48"><sup>[48]</sup></a> maidens, receive her in your arms, and
+  lift her from the chariot. And let some one give me the firm support of
+  his hand, that I may beseemingly leave the chariot-seat. But do some<a
+  name="IA_49"></a><a href="#IAN_49"><sup>[49]</sup></a> of you stand in
+  front of the horses' yoke, for the uncontrolled eye of horses is
+  timorous, and take this boy, the son of Agamemnon, Orestes, for he is
+  still an infant. Child! dost sleep, overcome by the ride? Wake up happily
+  for thy sisters' nuptials. For thou thyself being noble shalt obtain
+  relationship with a good man, the God-like son of the daughter of Nereus.
+  [<a name="IA_50"></a><a href="#IAN_50"><sup>[50]</sup></a>Next come thou
+  close to my foot, O daughter, to thy mother, Iphigenia, and standing
+  near, show these strangers how happy I am, and come hither indeed, and
+  address thy dear father.] O thou most great glory to me, king Agamemnon,
+  we are come, not disobeying thy bidding.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. O mother, running indeed, (but be thou not angry,) I will apply
+  my breast to my father's breast. [<a name="IA_51"></a><a
+  href="#IAN_51"><sup>[51]</sup></a>But I wish, rushing to embrace thy
+  breast, O father, after a long season. For I long for thy face. But do
+  not be angry.]</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. But, O my child, enjoy [thine embraces,] but thou wert ever most
+  fond of thy father, of all the children I bore.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. O father, joyous do I behold thee after a long season.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. And I, thy father, [joyously behold] thee. Thou speakest thus
+  equally in respect to both.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Hail! But well hast thou done in bringing me to thee, O
+  father.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. I know not how I shall say, yet not say so, my child.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Ah! how uneasily dost thou regard me, joyfully beholding me
+  [before.]</p>
+
+  <p>AG. A king and general has many cares.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Give thyself up to me now, and turn not thyself to cares.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. But I am altogether concerned with thee, and on no other
+  subject.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Relax thy brow, and open thy eyes in joy.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. See, I rejoice as I rejoice, at seeing thee, child.<a
+  name="IA_52"></a><a href="#IAN_52"><sup>[52]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>IPH. And then dost let fall a tear from thine eyes?</p>
+
+  <p>AG. For long to us is the coming absence.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. I know not what you mean, I know not, dearest father mine.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. Speaking sensibly, thou movest me the more to pity.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. I will speak foolishly, if I so may rejoice you.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. Alas! I can not keep silence, but I commend thee.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Remain, O father, in the house with thy children,</p>
+
+  <p>AG. I fain would, but not having what I would, I am pained.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Perish war and the ills of Menelaus!<a name="IA_53"></a><a
+  href="#IAN_53"><sup>[53]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>AG. What has undone me will first undo others.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. How long a time wast thou absent in the recesses of Aulis!</p>
+
+  <p>AG. And now also there is something hinders me from sending on the
+  army.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Where say they that the Phrygians dwell, father?</p>
+
+  <p>AG. Where would that Paris, Priam's son, had never dwelt.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. And dost thou go a long distance, O father, when thou leavest
+  me?</p>
+
+  <p>AG. Thou art come, my daughter, to the same state with thy father.<a
+  name="IA_54"></a><a href="#IAN_54"><sup>[54]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Alas! would that it were fitting me and thee to take me with thee
+  as thy fellow-sailor.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. But there is yet a sailing for thee, where thou wilt remember thy
+  father.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Shall I go, sailing with my mother, or alone?</p>
+
+  <p>AG. Alone, apart from thy father and mother.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. What, art thou going to make me dwell in other houses,
+  father?</p>
+
+  <p>AG. Cease. It is not proper for girls to know these matters.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Hasten back from Phrygia, do, my father, having settled matters
+  well there.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. It first behooves me to offer a certain sacrifice here.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. But it is with the priests that thou shouldst consider sacred
+  matters.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. [Yet] shalt thou know it, for thou wilt stand round the altar.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. What, shall we stand in chorus round the altar, my father?<a
+  name="IA_55"></a><a href="#IAN_55"><sup>[55]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>AG. I deem thee happier than myself, for that thou know-est nothing.
+  But go within the house, that the girls may behold thee,<a
+  name="IA_56"></a><a href="#IAN_56"><sup>[56]</sup></a> having given me a
+  sad kiss and thy right hand, being about to dwell a long time away from
+  thy sire. O bosom and cheeks, O yellow tresses, how has the city of the
+  Phrygians proved a burden to us, and Helen! I cease my words, for swift
+  does the drop trickle from mine eyes when I touch thee. Go into the
+  house. But I, I crave thy pardon, (<i>to Clytæmnestra</i>,) daughter of
+  Leda, if I showed too much feeling, being about to bestow my daughter on
+  Achilles. For the departure [of a girl] is a happy one, but nevertheless
+  it pains the parents, when a father, who has toiled much, delivers up his
+  children to another home.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. I am not so insensible&mdash;but think thou that I shall
+  experience the same feelings, (so that I should not chide thee,) when I
+  lead forth my girl with nuptial rejoicings, but custom wears away these
+  thoughts in course of time. I know, however, the name of him to whom thou
+  hast promised thy daughter, but I would fain know of what race, and
+  whence [he is.]</p>
+
+  <p>AG. Ægina was the daughter of her father Asopus.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. And who of mortals or of Gods wedded her?</p>
+
+  <p>AG. Jove, and she gave birth to Æacus, prince of &#338;none.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. But what son obtained the house of Æacus?</p>
+
+  <p>AG. Peleus, and Peleus obtained the daughter of Nereus.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. By the gift of the God, or taking her in spite of the Gods?</p>
+
+  <p>AG. Jove acted as a sponsor, and bestowed her, having the power.<a
+  name="IA_57"></a><a href="#IAN_57"><sup>[57]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>CLY. And where does he wed her? In the wave of the sea?</p>
+
+  <p>AG. Where Chiron dwells at the sacred foot of Pelion.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. Where they say that the race of Centaurs dwells?</p>
+
+  <p>AG. Here the Gods celebrated the nuptial feast of Peleus.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. But did Thetis, or his father, train up Achilles?</p>
+
+  <p>AG. Chiron, that he might not learn the manners of evil mortals.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. Hah! wise was the instructor, and wiser he who intrusted him.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. Such a man will be the husband of thy child.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. Not to be found fault with. But what city in Greece does he
+  inhabit?</p>
+
+  <p>AG. Near the river Apidanus in the confines of Phthia.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. Thither will he lead thy virgin [daughter] and mine.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. This shall be the care of him, her possessor.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. And may the pair be happy; but on what day will he wed her?</p>
+
+  <p>AG. When the prospering orb of the moon comes round.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. But hast thou already sacrificed the first offerings for thy
+  daughter to the Goddess?</p>
+
+  <p>AG. I am about to do so. In this matter we are now engaged.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. And wilt thou then celebrate a wedding-feast afterward?</p>
+
+  <p>AG. [Ay,] having sacrificed such offerings as it behooves me to
+  sacrifice to the Gods.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. But where shall we set out a banquet for the women?</p>
+
+  <p>AG. Here, by the fair-pooped ships of the Greeks.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. Well, and poorly,<a name="IA_58"></a><a
+  href="#IAN_58"><sup>[58]</sup></a> forsooth! but may it nevertheless turn
+  out well.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. Do then thou knowest what, O lady, and obey me.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. In what? for I am accustomed to obey thee.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. We indeed in this place, where the bridegroom is&mdash;</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. Will do what without the mother, [of those things] which it
+  behooves me to do?</p>
+
+  <p>AG. &mdash;will bestow your daughter among the Greeks.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. But where must I be in the mean time?</p>
+
+  <p>AG. Go to Argos, and take care of your virgins.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. Leaving my child? And who will bear the [nuptial] torch?</p>
+
+  <p>AG. I will furnish the light that becomes the nuptials.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. The custom is not thus, but you think these matters trifles.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. It is not proper that thou shouldst mingle in the crowd of the
+  army.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. It is proper that I, the mother, should bestow at least my own
+  daughter.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. And it [is proper] that the damsels at home should not be
+  alone.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. They are well guarded in their close chambers.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. Obey me.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. [No,] by the Argive Goddess queen. But go you, and attend to
+  matters abroad, but I [will mind] the affairs at home, as to the things
+  which should be present to virgins at their wedding.<a
+  name="IA_59"></a><a href="#IAN_59"><sup>[59]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>AG. Alas! In vain have I toiled,<a name="IA_60"></a><a
+  href="#IAN_60"><sup>[60]</sup></a> and have been frustrated in my hope,
+  wishing to send my wife out of my sight. But I am using stratagems, and
+  finding contrivances against those I best love, overcome at all points.
+  But nevertheless with the prophet Calchas I will go and ask the pleasure
+  of the Goddess, not fortunate for me, the trouble of Greece.<a
+  name="IA_61"></a><a href="#IAN_61"><sup>[61]</sup></a> But it behooves a
+  wise man either to support a useful and good wife in his house or not to
+  marry at all.<a name="IA_62"></a><a
+  href="#IAN_62"><sup>[62]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>CHORUS. The assembly of the Grecian army will come to Simois, and to
+  the silver eddies, both with ships and with arms, to Ilium, and to the
+  Ph&#339;beian plain of Troy, where I hear that Cassandra, adorned with a
+  green-blossoming crown of laurel, lets loose her yellow locks, when the
+  prophetic influence of the Gods breathes upon her. And the Trojans will
+  stand upon the towers of Troy and around its walls, when brazen-shielded
+  Mars, borne over the sea in fair-prowed ships, approaches the beds of
+  Simois by rowing, seeking to bear away Helen, [the sister] of the twain
+  sons of Jove in heaven, into the land of Greece, by the war-toiling
+  shields and spears of the Greeks. But having surrounded Pergamus,<a
+  name="IA_63"></a><a href="#IAN_63"><sup>[63]</sup></a> the city of the
+  Phrygians, around its towers of stone, with bloody Mars, having torn off
+  the heads [of the citizens] cut from their necks, having completely
+  ravaged the city of Troy, he will make the daughters and wife of Priam
+  shed many tears. But Helen, the daughter of Jove, will sit&#x2020; in sad
+  lamentation, having left her husband. Never upon me or upon my children's
+  children may this expectation come, such as the wealthy Lydian and
+  Phrygian wives possess while at their spinning, conversing thus with each
+  other. Who,<a name="IA_64"></a><a href="#IAN_64"><sup>[64]</sup></a>
+  dragging out my fair-haired tresses, will choose me as his spoil despite
+  my tears, while my country is perishing? Through thee [forsooth,] the
+  offspring of the long-necked swan, if indeed the report is true, that
+  Leda &#x2020; met with<a name="IA_65"></a><a
+  href="#IAN_65"><sup>[65]</sup></a> a winged bird, when the body of Jove
+  was transformed, and then in the tablets of the muses fables spread these
+  reports among men, inopportunely, and in vain.</p>
+
+<p class="center">[<i>Enter</i> ACHILLES.]</p>
+
+  <p>ACHILLES. Where about here is the general of the Greeks? Who of the
+  servants will tell him that Achilles, the son of Peleus, is seeking him
+  at the gates? For we do not remain by the Euripus in equal condition; for
+  some of us being unyoked in nuptials, having left our solitary homes, sit
+  here upon the shore, but others, having wives and children:<a
+  name="IA_66"></a><a href="#IAN_66"><sup>[66]</sup></a> so violent a
+  passion for this expedition has fallen upon Greece, not without the will
+  of the Gods. It is therefore right that I should speak of what concerns
+  me, and whoever else wishes will himself speak for himself. For leaving
+  the Pharsalian land, and Peleus, I am waiting for these light gales of
+  Euripus,<a name="IA_67"></a><a href="#IAN_67"><sup>[67]</sup></a>
+  restraining the Myrmidons, who are continually pressing me, and saying,
+  "Achilles, why tarry we? what manner of time must the armament against
+  Troy yet measure out? At any rate act, if you are going to do any thing,
+  or lead the army home, not abiding the delays of the Atrides."</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. O son of the Goddess, daughter of Nereus, hearing from within thy
+  words, I have come out before the house.</p>
+
+  <p>ACH. O hallowed modesty, who can this woman be whom I behold here,
+  possessing a fair-seeming form?</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. It is no wonder that you know me not, whom you have never seen
+  before, but I commend you because you respect modesty.</p>
+
+  <p>ACH. But who art thou? And wherefore hast thou come to the assembly of
+  the Greeks, a woman to men guarded with shields?</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. I am the daughter of Leda, and Clytæmnestra is my name, and my
+  husband is king Agamemnon.</p>
+
+  <p>ACH. Well hast thou in few words spoken what is seasonable. But it is
+  unbecoming for me to converse with women. (<i>Is going</i>.)</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. Remain, (why dost thou fly?) at least join thy right hand with
+  mine, as a happy commencement of betrothal.</p>
+
+  <p>ACH. What sayest thou? I [give] thee my right hand? I should be
+  ashamed of Agamemnon, if I touched what is not lawful for me.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. It is particularly lawful, since you are going to wed my
+  daughter, O son of the sea Goddess, daughter of Nereus.</p>
+
+  <p>ACH. What marriage dost thou say? Surprise possesses me, lady, unless,
+  being beside yourself, you speak this new thing.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. This is the nature of all people, to be ashamed when they behold
+  new friends, and are put in mind of nuptials.</p>
+
+  <p>ACH. I never wooed thy daughter, lady, nor has any thing been said to
+  me on the subject of marriage by the Atrides.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. What can it be? Do you in turn marvel at my words, for thine are
+  a marvel to me.</p>
+
+  <p>ACH. Conjecture; these matters are a common subject for conjecture,
+  for both of us perhaps are deceived in our words.<a name="IA_68"></a><a
+  href="#IAN_68"><sup>[68]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>CLY. But surely I have suffered terrible things! I am acting as
+  match-maker in regard to a marriage that has no existence. I am ashamed
+  of this.</p>
+
+  <p>ACH. Perhaps some one has trifled with both me and thee. But pay no
+  attention to it, and bear it with indifference.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. Farewell, for I can no longer behold thee with uplifted eyes,
+  having appeared as a liar, and suffered unworthy things.</p>
+
+  <p>ACH. And this same [farewell] is thine from me. But I will go seek thy
+  husband within this house.</p>
+
+<p class="center">[<i>The</i> OLD MAN <i>appears at the door of the house</i>.]</p>
+
+  <p>OLD M. O stranger, grandson of Æacus, remain. Ho! thee, I say, the son
+  of the Goddess, and thee, the daughter of Leda.</p>
+
+  <p>ACH. Who is it that calls, partially opening the doors? With what
+  terror he calls!</p>
+
+  <p>OLD M. A slave. I will not be nice about the title, for fortune allows
+  it not.</p>
+
+  <p>ACH. Of whom? for thou art not mine. My property and Agamemnon's are
+  different.</p>
+
+  <p>OLD M. Of this lady who is before the house, the gift of her father
+  Tyndarus.</p>
+
+  <p>ACH. We are still. Say if thou wantest any thing, for which thou hast
+  stopped me.</p>
+
+  <p>OLD M. Are ye sure that ye alone stand before these gates?</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. Ay, so that you may speak to us only. But come out from the royal
+  dwelling.</p>
+
+  <p>OLD M. (Coming forward) O fortune, and foresight mine, preserve whom I
+  wish.</p>
+
+  <p>ACH. These words will do for<a name="IA_69"></a><a
+  href="#IAN_69"><sup>[69]</sup></a> a future occasion, for they have some
+  weight.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. By thy right hand [I beseech thee,] delay not, if thou hast aught
+  to say to me.</p>
+
+  <p>OLD M. Thou knowest then, being what manner of man, I have been by
+  nature well disposed to thee and thy children.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. I know thee as being a faithful servant to my house.</p>
+
+  <p>OLD M. And that king Agamemnon received me among thy dowry.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. Thou camest into Argos with us, and thou wast always mine.</p>
+
+  <p>OLD M. So it is, and I am well disposed to thee, but less so to thy
+  husband.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. Unfold now at least to me what words you are saying.</p>
+
+  <p>OLD M. The father who begat her is about to slay thy daughter with his
+  own hand.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. How? I deprecate thy words, old man, for thou thinkest not
+  well.</p>
+
+  <p>OLD M. Cutting the fair neck of the hapless girl with the sword.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. O wretched me! Is my husband mad?</p>
+
+  <p>OLD M. He is in his right mind, save with respect to thee and thy
+  daughter, but in this he is not wise.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. Upon what grounds? What maddening fiend impels him?</p>
+
+  <p>OLD M. The oracles, as at least Calchas says, in order that the army
+  may be able to proceed.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. Whither? Wretched me, and wretched she whom her father is about
+  to slay?</p>
+
+  <p>OLD M. To the house of Dardanus, that Menelaus may recover Helen.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. To the destruction, then, of Iphigenia, was the return of Helen
+  foredoomed?</p>
+
+  <p>OLD M. Thou hast the whole story. Her father is going to offer thy
+  daughter to Diana.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. What! what pretext had the marriage, that brought me from
+  home?</p>
+
+  <p>OLD M. That thou rejoicing mightest bring thy child, as if about to
+  wed her to Achilles.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. O daughter, both thou and thy mother are come to meet with
+  destruction.</p>
+
+  <p>OLD M. Ye twain are suffering sad things, and dreadful things hath
+  Agamemnon dared.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. I wretched am undone, and my eyes no longer restrain the
+  tear.</p>
+
+  <p>OLD M. For bitter 'tis to mourn, deprived of one's children.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. But whence, old man, sayest thou that thou hast learned and
+  knowest these things?</p>
+
+  <p>OLD M. I went to bear a letter to thee, in reference to what was
+  before written.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. Not allowing, or bidding me to bring my child, that she might
+  die?</p>
+
+  <p>OLD M. [It was] that you should not bring her, for your husband then
+  thought well.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. And how was it then, that, bearing the letter, thou gavest it not
+  to me?</p>
+
+  <p>OLD M. Menelaus, who is the cause of these evils, took it from me.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. O child of Nereus' daughter, O son of Peleus, dost hear these
+  things?</p>
+
+  <p>ACH. I hear that thou art wretched, and I do not bear my part
+  indifferently.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. They will slay my child, having deceived her with thy
+  nuptials.</p>
+
+  <p>ACH. I also blame thy husband, nor do I bear it lightly.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. I will not be ashamed to fall down at thy knee, mortal, to one
+  born of a Goddess. For wherefore should I make a show of pride? Or what
+  should I study more than my children? But, O son of the Goddess, aid me
+  in my unhappiness, and her who is called thy wife, vainly indeed, but
+  nevertheless, having decked her out, I led her as if to be married, but
+  now I lead her to sacrifice, and reproach will come upon thee, who gavest
+  no aid. For though thou wast not yoked in nuptials, at least thou wast
+  called the beloved husband of the hapless virgin. By thy beard, by thy
+  right hand, by thy mother [I beseech] thee, for thy name hath undone me,
+  to whom thou shouldst needs give assistance. I have no other altar to fly
+  to, but thy knee, nor is any friend near me,<a name="IA_70"></a><a
+  href="#IAN_70"><sup>[70]</sup></a> but thou hearest the cruel and
+  all-daring conduct of Agamemnon. But I a woman, as thou seest, have come
+  to a naval host, uncontrolled, and bold for mischief, but useful, when
+  they are willing. But if thou wilt venture to stretch thine hand in my
+  behalf, we are saved, but if not, we are not saved.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. A terrible thing it is to be a mother, and it bears a great
+  endearment, and one common to all, so as to toil on behalf of their
+  children.</p>
+
+  <p>ACH. My mind is high-lifted in its thoughts,<a name="IA_71"></a><a
+  href="#IAN_71"><sup>[71]</sup></a> and knows both how to grieve
+  [moderately] in troubles, and to rejoice moderately in high prosperity.
+  For the discreet among mortals are such as pass through life correctly
+  with wisdom. Now there are certain cases where it is pleasant not to be
+  too wise, and also where it is useful to possess wisdom. But I, being
+  nurtured [in the dwelling] of a most pious man, Chiron, have learned to
+  possess a candid disposition. And I will obey the Atrides, if indeed they
+  order well, but when not well, I obey not. But here in Troy showing a
+  free nature I will glorify Mars with the spear, as far as I can. But, O
+  thou who hast suffered wretchedly at the hands of those dearest, in
+  whatever can be done by a youth, I, showing so much pity, will set thee
+  right, and thy daughter, having been called my bride, shall never be
+  sacrificed by her father, for I will not furnish thy husband with my
+  person to weave stratagems upon. For my name, even if he lift not up the
+  sword, will slay thy daughter, but thy husband is the cause. But my body
+  is no longer pure, if on my account, and because of my marriage, there
+  perish a virgin who has gone through sad and unbearable troubles, and has
+  been marvelously and undeservedly ill treated. I were the worst man among
+  the Greeks, I were of naught (but Menelaus would be among men), not as
+  born from Peleus, but from some fiend, if my name acts the murderer for
+  thy husband.<a name="IA_72"></a><a href="#IAN_72"><sup>[72]</sup></a> By
+  Nereus, nurtured in the damp waves, the father of Thetis, who begat me,
+  king Agamemnon shall not lay hands on thy daughter, not so much as with a
+  little finger, so as to touch her garments. I' faith, Sipylus, a fortress
+  of barbarians, whence the [royal] generals trace their descent, shall be
+  deemed a city, but the name of Phthia shall nowhere be named. And the
+  seer Calchas will to his cost consecrate the sacrificial cakes and
+  lustral waters. (But what man is a prophet?) who tells<a
+  name="IA_73"></a><a href="#IAN_73"><sup>[73]</sup></a> a few things true,
+  (but many falsely,) when he has made a hit, but when he fails, is undone.
+  These words are not spoken for the sake of my wedding, (ten thousand
+  girls are hunting after alliance with me,) but [because] king Agamemnon
+  has been guilty of insult toward me. But it behooved him to ask [the use
+  of] my name from me, as an enticement for his daughter, and Clytæmnestra
+  would have been most readily persuaded to give her daughter to me as a
+  husband. And I would have given her up to the Greeks, if on this account
+  their passage to Troy had been impeded: I would not have refused to
+  augment the common interest of those with whom I set out on the
+  expedition. But now I am held as of no account by the generals, and it is
+  a matter of indifference whether I benefit them or not. Soon shall my
+  sword witness, which, before death came against the Phrygians,<a
+  name="IA_74"></a><a href="#IAN_74"><sup>[74]</sup></a> I stained with
+  spots of blood, whether any one shall take thy daughter from me. But keep
+  quiet, I have appeared to thee as a most mighty God, though not [a God,]
+  but nevertheless I will be such.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. O son of Peleus, thou hast spoken both worthily of thyself, and
+  of the marine deity, hallowed Goddess.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. Alas! how can I praise thee neither too much in words, nor, being
+  deficient in this respect, [not] lose thy favor? For in a certain wise
+  the praised dislike their praisers, if they praise too much. But I am
+  ashamed at alleging pitiable words, being troubled in myself, while thou
+  art not diseased with my ills. But in fact the good man has some reason,
+  even though he be unconnected with them, for assisting the unfortunate.
+  But pity us, for we have suffered pitiably; I, who, in the first place,
+  thinking to have thee for a kinsman, cherished a vain
+  hope.&mdash;Moreover, my child, by dying, might perchance become an omen
+  to thy future bridals,<a name="IA_75"></a><a
+  href="#IAN_75"><sup>[75]</sup></a> which thou must needs avoid. But well
+  didst thou speak both first and last, for, if thou art willing, my child
+  will be saved. Dost wish that she embrace thy knee as a suppliant? Such
+  conduct is not virgin-like, but if thou wilt, she shall come, with her
+  noble face suffused with modesty. Or shall I obtain these things from
+  thee, without her presence?</p>
+
+  <p>ACH. Let her remain within doors, for with dignity she preserves her
+  dignity.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. Yet one must needs have modesty [only] as far as circumstances
+  allow.</p>
+
+  <p>ACH. Do thou neither bring forth thy daughter into my sight, lady, not
+  let us fall into reproach for inconsiderate conduct, for our assembled
+  army, being idle from home occupations, loves evil and slanderous talk.
+  But at all events you will accomplish the same, whether you come to me as
+  a suppliant, or do not supplicate, for a mighty contest awaits me, to
+  release you from these evils. Wherefore, having heard one thing, be
+  persuaded that I will not speak falsely. But if I speak falsely, and
+  vainly amuse you, may I perish; but may I not perish, if I preserve the
+  virgin.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. Mayest thou be blest, ever assisting the unhappy.</p>
+
+  <p>ACH. Hear me then, that the matter may be well.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. What is this thou sayest? for one must listen to thee.</p>
+
+  <p>ACH. Let us again persuade her father to be wiser.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. He is a coward, and fears the army too much.</p>
+
+  <p>ACH. But words can conquer words.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. Chilly is the hope, but tell me what I must do.</p>
+
+  <p>ACH. Beseech him first not to slay his child, but if he oppose this,
+  you must come to me. For if he will be persuaded what you wish, there is
+  no occasion for my efforts, for this very [consent] contains her safety.
+  And I also shall appear in a better light with my friend, and the army
+  will not blame me, if I transact matters by discretion rather than force.
+  And if this turn out well, these things, even without my help, may turn
+  out satisfactorily to thy friends and thyself.<a name="IA_76"></a><a
+  href="#IAN_76"><sup>[76]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>CLY. How wisely hast thou spoken! But what thou sayest must be done.
+  But if I do not obtain what I seek, where shall I again see thee? Where
+  must I wretched woman, coming, find thee an assistant in my troubles?</p>
+
+  <p>ACH. We guards will watch thee when there is occasion, lest any one
+  behold thee going in agitation through the host of the Greeks. But do not
+  shame thy ancestral home, for Tyndarus is not worthy of an evil
+  reputation, seeing he is great among the Greeks.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. These things shall be. Command; it is meet that I obey thee. But
+  if there are Gods, you, being a just man, will receive a good reward; but
+  if not, why should one toil?</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. What was that nuptial song that raised<a name="IA_77"></a><a
+  href="#IAN_77"><sup>[77]</sup></a> its strains on the Libyan reed, and
+  with the dance-loving lyre, and the reedy syrinx, when o'er Pelion at the
+  feast of the Gods the fair-haired muses, striking their feet with golden
+  sandals against the ground, came to the wedding of Peleus, celebrating
+  with melodious sounds Thetis, and the son of Æacus, on the mountains of
+  the Centaurs, through the Palian wood.</p>
+
+  <p>But the Dardan,<a name="IA_78"></a><a
+  href="#IAN_78"><sup>[78]</sup></a> [Phrygian Ganymede,] dear delight of
+  Jove's bed, poured out the nectar in the golden depths of the goblets,
+  and along the white sands the fifty daughters of Nereus, entwining in
+  circles, adorned the nuptials of Nereus with the dance. But with darts of
+  fir, and crowns of grass, the horse-mounted troop of the Centaurs came to
+  the banquet of the Gods and the cup of Bacchus. And the Thessalian girls
+  shouted loud,<a name="IA_79"></a><a href="#IAN_79"><sup>[79]</sup></a> "O
+  daughter of Nereus," and the prophet Ph&#339;bus, and Chiron, skilled in
+  letters, declared, "Thou shalt bring forth a mighty light, who shall come
+  to the [Trojan] land with Myrmidons armed with spear and shield, to burn
+  the renowned city of Priam, around his body armed with a covering of
+  golden arms wrought by Vulcan, having them as a gift from his Goddess
+  Thetis, who begat him blessed." Then the deities celebrated the nuptials
+  of the noble daughter of Nereus first,<a name="IA_80"></a><a
+  href="#IAN_80"><sup>[80]</sup></a> and of Peleus. But thee, [O
+  Iphigenia,] they will crown on the head with flowery garlands, like as a
+  pure spotted heifer from a rocky cave, making bloody the mortal throat
+  [of one] not trained up with the pipe, nor amidst the songs of herdsmen,
+  but as a bride<a name="IA_81"></a><a href="#IAN_81"><sup>[81]</sup></a>
+  prepared by thy mother for some one of the Argives. Where has the face of
+  shame, or virtue any power to prevail? Since impiety indeed has
+  influence, but virtue is left behind and disregarded by mortals, and
+  lawlessness governs law, and it is a common struggle for mortals, lest
+  any envy of the Gods befall.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. I have come out of the house to seek for my husband, who has been
+  absent, and has quitted the house a long time. But my hapless daughter is
+  in tears, casting forth many a change of complaint, having heard the
+  death her father devises for her. But I was mindful of Agamemnon who is
+  now coming hither,<a name="IA_82"></a><a
+  href="#IAN_82"><sup>[82]</sup></a> who will quickly be detected doing
+  evil deeds against his own children.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. Daughter of Leda, opportunely have I found you without the house,
+  that I may tell thee, apart from the virgin, words which it is not meet
+  for those to hear who are about to marry.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. And what is it, on which your convenience lays hold?</p>
+
+  <p>AG. Send forth thy daughter from the house with her father, since the
+  lustral waters are ready prepared, and the salt-cakes to scatter with the
+  hands upon the purifying flame, and heifers, which needs must be slain in
+  honor of the Goddess Diana before the marriage solemnities, a shedding of
+  black gore.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. In words, indeed, thou speakest well, but for thy deeds, I know
+  not how I may say thou speakest well. But come without, O daughter, for
+  thou knowest all that thy father meditates, and beneath thy robes bring
+  the child Orestes, thy brother. See, she is here present to obey thee.
+  But the rest I will speak on her behalf and mine.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. Child, why weepest thou, and no longer beholdest me cheerfully,
+  but fixing thy face upon the ground, keepest thy vest before it?</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. Alas! What commencement of my sorrows shall I take? For I may use
+  them all as first, [both last, and middle throughout.<a
+  name="IA_83"></a><a href="#IAN_83"><sup>[83]</sup></a>]</p>
+
+  <p>AG. But what is it? How all of you are come to one point with me,
+  bearing disturbed and alarmed countenances.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. Wilt thou answer candidly, husband, if I ask thee?</p>
+
+  <p>AG. There needs no admonition: I would fain be questioned.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. Art thou going to slay thy child and mine?</p>
+
+  <p>AG. Ah! wretched things dost thou say, and thinkest what thou shouldst
+  not.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. Keep quiet, and first in turn answer me that.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. But if thou askest likely things, thou wilt hear likely.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. I ask no other things, nor do thou answer me others.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. O revered destiny, and fate, and fortune mine!</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. Ay, and mine too, and this child's, one of three
+  unfortunates!</p>
+
+  <p>AG. But in what art thou wronged?</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. Dost thou ask me this? This thy wit hath no wit.<a
+  name="IA_84"></a><a href="#IAN_84"><sup>[84]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>AG. I am undone. My secret plans are betrayed.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. I know and have learned all that you are about to do to me, and
+  the very fact of thy silence, and of thy groaning much, is a proof that
+  you confess it. Do not take the trouble to say any thing.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. Behold, I am silent: for what need is there that, falsely
+  speaking, I add shamelessness to misfortune?</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. Listen, then, for I will unfold my story, and will no longer make
+  use of riddles away from the purpose. In the first place, that I may
+  first reproach thee with this&mdash;thou didst wed me unwilling, and
+  obtain me by force, having slain Tantalus, my former husband, and having
+  dashed<a name="IA_85"></a><a href="#IAN_85"><sup>[85]</sup></a> my infant
+  living to the ground, having torn him by force from my breast. And the
+  twin sons of Jove, my brothers, glorying in their steeds, made war
+  [against thee] but my old father Tyndarus saved you, when you had become
+  a suppliant, and thou again didst possess me as a wife. When I, being
+  reconciled to thee in respect to thy person and home, thou wilt bear
+  witness how blameless a wife I was, both modest in respect to affection,
+  and enriching thy house, so that thou both going within and without thy
+  doors wast blessed. And 'tis a rare prize for a man to obtain such a
+  wife, but there is no lack of getting a bad spouse. And I bear thee this
+  son, besides three virgins, of one of whom thou art cruelly going to
+  deprive me. And if any one ask thee on what account thou wilt slay her,
+  say, what will you answer? or must I needs make your plea, "that Menelaus
+  may obtain Helen?" A pretty custom, forsooth, that children must pay the
+  price of a bad woman. We gain the most hateful things at the hand of
+  those dearest. Come, if thou wilt set out, leaving me at home, and then
+  wilt be a long time absent, what sort of feelings dost think I shall
+  experience, when I behold every seat empty of this child's presence, and
+  every virgin chamber empty, but myself sit in tears alone, ever mourning
+  her [in such strains as these:] "My child, thy father, who begat thee,
+  hath destroyed thee, himself, no other, the slayer, by no other hand,
+  leaving such a reward for [my care of] the house."<a name="IA_86"></a><a
+  href="#IAN_86"><sup>[86]</sup></a> Since there wants but a little reason
+  for me and my remaining daughters to give thee such a reception as you
+  deserve to receive. Do not, by the Gods, either compel me to act evilly
+  toward thee, nor do thou thyself be so. Ah well! thou wilt sacrifice thy
+  daughter&mdash;what prayers wilt thou then utter? What good thing wilt
+  thou crave for thyself, slaying thy child? An evil return, seeing,
+  forsooth, thou hast disgracefully set out from home. But is it right that
+  I should pray for thee any good thing? Verily we must believe the Gods
+  are senseless, if we feel well disposed to murderers. But wilt thou,
+  returning to Argos, embrace thy children? But 'tis not lawful for thee.
+  Will any of your children look upon you, if thou offerest one of them for
+  slaughter? Thus far have I proceeded in my argument. What! does it only
+  behoove thee to carry about thy sceptre and marshal the army?&mdash;whose
+  duty it were to speak a just speech among the Greeks: "Do ye desire, O
+  Greeks, to sail against the land of the Phrygians? Cast lots, whose
+  daughter needs must die"&mdash;for this would be on equal terms, but not
+  that you should give thy daughter to the Greeks as a chosen victim. Or
+  Menelaus, whose affair it was, ought to slay Hermione for her mother's
+  sake. But now I, having cherished thy married life, shall be bereaved of
+  my child, but she who has sinned, bearing her daughter under her care to
+  Sparta, will be blest. As to these things, answer me if I say aught not
+  rightly, but if I have spoken well, do not then slay thy child and mine,
+  and thou wilt be wise.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Be persuaded, Agamemnon, for 'tis right to join in saving one's
+  children. No one of mortals will gainsay this.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. If, O father, I possessed the eloquence of Orpheus, that I might
+  charm by persuasion, so that rocks should follow me, and that I might
+  soften whom I would by my words, to this would I have resorted. But now I
+  will offer tears as all my skill, for these I can. And, as a suppliant
+  bough, I press against thy knees my body, which this [my mother] bore
+  thee, [beseeching] that thou slay me not before my time, for sweet it is
+  to behold the light, nor do thou compel me to visit the places beneath
+  the earth. And I first<a name="IA_87"></a><a
+  href="#IAN_87"><sup>[87]</sup></a> hailed thee sire, and thou [didst
+  first call] me daughter, and first drawing nigh to thy knees, I gave and
+  in turn received sweet tokens of affection. And such, were thy words: "My
+  daughter, shall I some time behold thee prospering in a husband's home,
+  living and flourishing worthily of me?" And mine in turn ran thus, as I
+  hung about thy beard, which now with my hand I embrace: "But how shall I
+  [treat] thee? Shall I receive thee when an old man, O father, with the
+  hearty reception of my house, repaying thee the careful nurture of my
+  youth?" Of such words have remembrance, but thou hast forgotten them, and
+  fain wouldst slay me. Do not, [I beseech you] by Pelops and by thy father
+  Atreus, and this my mother, who having before brought me forth with
+  throes, now suffers this second throe. What have I to do with the
+  marriage of Paris and Helen? Whence came he, father, for my destruction?
+  Look upon me; give me one look, one kiss, that this memorial of thee at
+  least I, dying, may possess, if thou wilt not be persuaded by my words.
+  Brother, thou art but a little helpmate to those dear, yet weep with me,
+  beseech thy sire that thy sister die not. Even in babes there is wont to
+  be some sense of evil. Behold, O father, he silently implores thee. But
+  respect my prayer, and have pity on my years. Yea, by thy beard we, two
+  dear ones, implore thee; the one is yet a nursling, but the other grown
+  up. In one brief saying I will overcome all arguments. This light of
+  heaven is sweetest of things for men to behold, but that below is naught;
+  and mad is he who seeks to die. To live dishonorably is better than to
+  die gloriously.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. O wretched Helen, through thee and thy nuptials there is come a
+  contest for the Atrides and their children.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. I can understand what merits pity, and what not; and I love my
+  children, for [otherwise] I were mad. And dreadful 'tis for me<a
+  name="IA_88"></a><a href="#IAN_88"><sup>[88]</sup></a> to dare these
+  things, O woman, and dreadful not to do so&mdash;for so I must needs act.
+  Thou seest how great is this naval host, and how many are the chieftains
+  of brazen arms among the Greeks, to whom there is not a power of arriving
+  at the towers of Troy, unless I sacrifice you, as the seer Calchas says,
+  nor can we take the renowned plain of Troy. But a certain passion has
+  maddened the army of the Greeks, to sail as quickly as possible upon the
+  land of the barbarians, and to put a stop to the rapes of Grecian wives.
+  And they will slay my daughters at Argos, and you, and me, if I break
+  through the commands of the Goddess. It is not Menelaus who has enslaved
+  me, O daughter, nor have I followed his device, but Greece, for whom I,
+  will or nill, must needs offer thee. And I am inferior on this head. For
+  it behooves her, [Helen,] as far as thou, O daughter, art concerned, to
+  be free, nor for us, being Greeks, to be plundered perforce of our wives
+  by barbarians.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. O child! O ye stranger women! O wretched me for thy death! Thy
+  father flees from thee, giving thee up to Hades.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Alas for me! mother, mother. The same song suits both of us on
+  account of our fortunes, and no more to me is the light, nor this bright
+  beam of the sun. Alas! alas! thou snow-smitten wood of Troy, and
+  mountains of Ida, where once on a time Priam exposed a tender infant,
+  having separated him from his mother, that he might meet with deadly
+  fate, Paris, who was styled Idæan, Idæan [Paris] in the city of the
+  Phrygians. Would that the herdsman Paris, who was nurtured in care of
+  steers, had ne'er dwelt near the white stream, where are the fountains of
+  the Nymphs, and the meadow flourishing with blooming flowers, and roseate
+  flowers and hyacinths for Goddesses to cull. Where once on a time came
+  Pallas, and artful Venus, and Juno, and Hermes, the messenger of Jove;
+  Venus indeed, vaunting herself in charms, and Pallas in the spear, and
+  Juno in the royal nuptials of king Jove, [these came] to a hateful
+  judgment and strife concerning beauty; but my death, my death, O virgins,
+  bearing glory indeed to the Greeks, Diana hath received as first-fruits
+  [of the expedition] against Troy.<a name="IA_89"></a><a
+  href="#IAN_89"><sup>[89]</sup></a> But he that begot me wretched, O
+  mother, O mother, has departed, leaving me deserted. O hapless me! having
+  &#x2020;beheld&#x2020; bitter, bitter, ill-omened Helen, I am slain, I
+  perish, by the impious slaughter of an impious sire. Would<a
+  name="IA_90"></a><a href="#IAN_90"><sup>[90]</sup></a> for me that Aulis
+  had never received the poops of the brazen-beaked ships into these ports,
+  the fleet destined for Troy, nor that Jove had breathed an adverse wind
+  over Euripus, softening one breeze so that some mortals might rejoice in
+  their [expanded] sails, but to others a pain, to others difficulty, to
+  some to set sail, to others to furl their sails, but to others to tarry.
+  In truth the race of mortals is full of troubles, is full of troubles,
+  and it necessarily befalls men to find some misfortune. Alas! alas! thou
+  daughter of Tyndarus, who hast brought many sufferings, and many griefs
+  upon the Greeks.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. I indeed pity you having met with an evil calamity, such as thou
+  never shouldst have met with.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. O mother, to whom I owe my birth, I behold a crowd of men
+  near.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. Ay, the son of the Goddess, my child, for whom thou camest
+  hither.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Open the house, ye servants, that I may hide myself.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. But why dost thou fly hence, my child?</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. I am ashamed to behold this Achilles.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. On what account?</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. The unfortunate turn-out of my nuptials shames me.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. Thou art not in a state to give way to delicacy in the present
+  circumstances. But do thou remain, there is no use for punctilio, if we
+  can [but save your life.]</p>
+
+  <p>ACH. O hapless lady, daughter of Leda.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. Thou sayest not falsely.</p>
+
+  <p>ACH. Terrible things are cried out among the Greeks.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. What cry? tell me.</p>
+
+  <p>ACH. Concerning thy child.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. Thou speakest a word of ill omen.</p>
+
+  <p>ACH. That it is necessary to slay her.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. Does no one speak the contrary to this?</p>
+
+  <p>ACH. Ay, I myself have got into trouble.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. Into what [trouble,] O friend?</p>
+
+  <p>ACH. Of having my body stoned with stones.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. What, in trying to save my daughter!</p>
+
+  <p>ACH. This very thing.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. And who would have dared to touch thy person?</p>
+
+  <p>ACH. All the Greeks.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. And was not the host of the Myrmidons at hand for thee?</p>
+
+  <p>ACH. That was the first that showed enmity.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. Then are we utterly undone, my daughter.</p>
+
+  <p>ACH. For they railed at me as overcome by a betrothed&mdash;</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. And what didst thou reply?</p>
+
+  <p>ACH. That they should not slay my intended bride.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. For so 'twas right.</p>
+
+  <p>ACH. [She] whom her father had promised me.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. Ay, and had sent for from Argos.</p>
+
+  <p>ACH. But I was worsted by the outcry.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. For the multitude is a terrible evil.</p>
+
+  <p>ACH. But nevertheless I will aid thee.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. And wilt thou, being one, fight with many?</p>
+
+  <p>ACH. Dost see these men bearing [my] arms?</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. Mayest thou gain by thy good intentions.</p>
+
+  <p>ACH. But I will gain.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. Then my child will not be slain?</p>
+
+  <p>ACH. Not, at least, with my consent.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. And will any one come to lay hands on the girl?</p>
+
+  <p>ACH. Ay, a host of them, but Ulysses will conduct her.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. Will it be the descendant of Sisyphus?</p>
+
+  <p>ACH. The very man.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. Doing it of his own accord, or appointed by the army?</p>
+
+  <p>ACH. Chosen willingly.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. A wicked choice forsooth, to commit slaughter!</p>
+
+  <p>ACH. But I will restrain him.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. But will he lead her unwillingly, having seized her?</p>
+
+  <p>ACH. Ay, by her auburn locks.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. But what must I then do?</p>
+
+  <p>ACH. Keep hold of your daughter.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. As far as this goes she shall not be slain.</p>
+
+  <p>ACH. But it will come to this at all events.<a name="IA_91"></a><a
+  href="#IAN_91"><sup>[91]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Mother, do thou hear my words, for I perceive that thou art
+  vainly wrathful with thy husband, but it is not easy for us to struggle
+  with things [almost] impossible. It is meet therefore to praise our
+  friend for his willingness, but it behooves thee also to see that you be
+  not an object of reproach to the army, and we profit nothing more, and he
+  meet with calamity. But hear me, mother, thinking upon what has entered
+  my mind. I have determined to die, and this I would fain do gloriously, I
+  mean, by dismissing all ignoble thoughts. Come hither, mother, consider
+  with me how well I speak. Greece, the greatest of cities, is now all
+  looking upon me, and there rests in me both the passage of the ships and
+  the destruction of Troy, and, for the women hereafter, if the barbarians
+  do them aught of harm, to allow them no longer to carry them off from
+  prosperous Greece, having avenged the destruction of Helen, whom Paris
+  bore away.<a name="IA_92"></a><a href="#IAN_92"><sup>[92]</sup></a> All
+  these things I dying shall redeem, and my renown, for that I have freed
+  Greece, will be blessed. Moreover, it is not right that I should be too
+  fond of life; for thou hast brought me forth for the common good of
+  Greece, not for thyself only. But shall ten thousand men armed with
+  bucklers, and ten thousand, oars in hand, their country being injured,
+  dare to do some deed against the foes, and perish on behalf of Greece,
+  while my life, being but one, shall hinder all these things? What manner
+  of justice is this? Have we a word to answer? And let me come to this
+  point: it is not meet that this man should come to strife with all the
+  Greeks for the sake of a woman, nor lose his life. And one man, forsooth,
+  is better than ten thousand women, that he should behold the light. But
+  if Diana hath wished to receive my body, shall I, being mortal, become an
+  opponent to the Goddess! But it can not be. I give my body for Greece.
+  Sacrifice it, and sack Troy. For this for a long time will be my
+  memorial, and this my children, my wedding, and my glory. But it is meet
+  that Greeks should rule over barbarians, O mother, but not barbarians
+  over Greeks, for the one is slavish, but the others are free.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Thy part, indeed, O virgin, is glorious; but the work of fortune
+  and of the Gods sickens.</p>
+
+  <p>ACH. Daughter of Agamemnon, some one of the Gods destined me to
+  happiness, if I obtained thee as a wife, and I envy Greece on thy
+  account, and thee on account of Greece. For well hast thou spoken this,
+  and worthily of the country, for, ceasing to strive with the deity, who
+  is more powerful than thou art, thou hast considered what is good and
+  useful. But still more does a desire of thy union enter my mind, when I
+  look to thy nature, for thou art noble. But consider, for I wish to
+  benefit you, and to receive you to my home, and, Thetis be my witness, I
+  am grieved if I shall not save you, coming to conflict with the Greeks.
+  Consider: death is a terrible ill.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. I speak these words, no others, with due foresight. Enough is the
+  daughter of Tyndarus to have caused contests and slaughter of men through
+  her person: but do not thou, O stranger, die in my behalf, nor slay any
+  one. But let me preserve Greece, if I am able.</p>
+
+  <p>ACH. O best of spirits, I have naught further to answer thee, since it
+  seems thus to thee, for thou hast noble thoughts; for wherefore should
+  not one tell the truth? But nevertheless thou mayest perchance repent
+  these things. In order, therefore, that thou mayest all that lies in my
+  power, I will go and place these my arms near the altar, as I will not
+  allow you to die, but hinder it. And thou too wilt perhaps be of my
+  opinion, when thou seest the sword nigh to thy neck. I will not allow
+  thee to die through thy wild determination, but going with these mine
+  arms to the temple of the Goddess, I will await thy presence there.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Mother, why dost thou silently bedew thine eyes with tears?</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. I wretched have a reason, so as to be pained at heart.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Cease; do not daunt me, but obey me in this.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. Speak, for thou shalt not be wronged at my hands, my child.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Neither then do thou cut off the locks of thine hair, [nor put on
+  black garments around thy body.]</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. Wherefore sayest thou this, my child? Having lost thee&mdash;</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Not you indeed&mdash;I am saved, and thou wilt be glorious as far
+  as I am concerned.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. How sayest thou? Must I not bemoan thy life?</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Not in the least, since no tomb will be upraised for me.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. Why, what then is death? Is not a tomb customary?<a
+  name="IA_93"></a><a href="#IAN_93"><sup>[93]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>IPH. The altar of the Goddess, daughter of Jove, will be my
+  memorial.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. But, O child, I will obey thee, for thou speakest well.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Ay, as prospering like the benefactress of Greece.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. What then shall I tell thy sisters?</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Neither do thou clothe them in black garments.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. But shall I speak any kind message from thee to the virgins?</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Ay, [bid them] fare well, and do thou, for my sake, train up this
+  [boy] Orestes to be a man.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. Embrace him, beholding him for the last time.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. O dearest one, thou hast assisted thy friends to the utmost in
+  thy power.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. Can I, by doing any thing in Argos, do thee a pleasure?</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Hate not my father, yes, thy husband.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. He needs shall go through terrible trials on thy account.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Unwillingly he hath undone me on behalf of the land of
+  Greece.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. But ungenerously, by craft, and not in a manner worthy of
+  Atreus.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Who will come and lead me, before I am torn away by the hair?<a
+  name="IA_94"></a><a href="#IAN_94"><sup>[94]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>CLY. I will go with thee.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Not you indeed, thou sayest not well.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. Ay [but I will,] clinging to thy garments.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Be persuaded by me, mother. Remain, for this is more fitting both
+  for me and thee. But let some one of these my father's followers conduct
+  me to the meadow of Diana, where I may be sacrificed.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. O child, thou art going.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Ay, and I shall ne'er return.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. Leaving thy mother&mdash;</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. As thou seest, though, not worthily.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. Hold! Do not leave me.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. I do not suffer thee to shed tears. But, ye maidens, raise aloft
+  the pæan for my sad hap, [celebrate] Diana, the daughter of Jove,<a
+  name="IA_95"></a><a href="#IAN_95"><sup>[95]</sup></a> and let the joyful
+  strain go forth to the Greeks. And let some one make ready the baskets,
+  and let flame burn with the purifying cakes, and let my father serve the
+  altar with his right hand, seeing I am going to bestow upon the Greeks
+  safety that produces victory.<a name="IA_96"></a><a
+  href="#IAN_96"><sup>[96]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>Conduct me, the conqueror of the cities of Troy and of the Phrygians.
+  Surround<a name="IA_97"></a><a href="#IAN_97"><sup>[97]</sup></a> me with
+  crowns, bring them hither. Here is my hair to crown. And [bear hither]
+  the lustral fountains.<a name="IA_98"></a><a
+  href="#IAN_98"><sup>[98]</sup></a> Encircle [with dances] around the
+  temple and the altar, Diana, queen Diana, the blessed, since by my blood
+  and offering I will wash out her oracles, if it needs must be so. O
+  revered, revered mother, thus &#x2020; indeed &#x2020; will we [now]
+  afford thee our tears, for it is not fitting during the sacred rites. O
+  damsels, join in singing Diana, who dwells opposite Chalcis, where the
+  warlike ships have been eager [to set out,] being detained in the narrow
+  harbors of Aulis here through my name.<a name="IA_99"></a><a
+  href="#IAN_99"><sup>[99]</sup></a> Alas! O my mother-land of Pelasgia,
+  and my Mycenian handmaids.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Dost thou call upon the city of Perseus, the work of the
+  Cyclopean hands?</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Thou hast nurtured me for a glory to Greece, and I will not
+  refuse to die.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. For renown will not fail thee.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Alas! alas! lamp-bearing day, and thou too, beam of Jove,
+  another, another life and state shall we dwell in. Farewell for me,
+  beloved light!</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Alas! alas! Behold<a name="IA_100"></a><a
+  href="#IAN_100"><sup>[100]</sup></a> the destroyer of the cities of Troy
+  and of the Phrygians, wending her way, decked as to her head with
+  garlands and with lustral streams, to the altar of the sanguinary
+  Goddess, about to stream with drops of gore, being stricken on her fair
+  neck. Fair dewy streams, and lustral waters from ancestral sources<a
+  name="IA_101"></a><a href="#IAN_101"><sup>[101]</sup></a> await thee, and
+  the host of the Greeks eager to reach Troy. But let us celebrate Diana,
+  the daughter of Jove, queen of the Gods, as upon a prosperous occasion. O
+  hallowed one, that rejoicest in human sacrifices, send the army of the
+  Greeks into the land of the Phrygians, and the territory of deceitful
+  Troy, and grant that by Grecian spears Agamemnon may place a most
+  glorious crown upon his head, a glory ever to be remembered.</p>
+
+<p class="center">[<i>Enter a</i> MESSENGER.<a name="IA_102"></a><a href="#IAN_102"><sup>[102]</sup></a>]</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. O daughter of Tyndarus, Clytæmnestra, come without the house,
+  that thou mayest hear my words.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. Hearing thy voice, I wretched came hither, terrified and
+  astounded with fear, lest thou shouldst be come, bearing some new
+  calamity to me in addition to the present one.</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. Concerning thy daughter, then, I wish to tell thee marvelous and
+  fearful things.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. Then delay not, but speak as quickly as possible.</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. But, my dear mistress, thou shalt learn every thing clearly, and
+  I will speak from the very commencement, unless my memory, in something
+  failing, deceive my tongue. For when we came to the inclosure and flowery
+  meads of Diana, the daughter of Jove, where there was an assembly of the
+  army of the Greeks, leading thy daughter, the host of the Greeks was
+  straightway convened. But when king Agamemnon beheld the girl wending her
+  way to the grove for slaughter, he groaned aloud, and turning back his
+  head, he shed tears, placing his garments<a name="IA_103"></a><a
+  href="#IAN_103"><sup>[103]</sup></a> before his eyes. But she, standing
+  near him that begot her, spake thus: "O father, I am here for thee, and I
+  willing give my body on behalf of my country, and of the whole land of
+  Greece, that, leading it to the altar of the Goddess, they may sacrifice
+  it, since this is ordained. And, as far as I am concerned, may ye be
+  fortunate, and obtain the gift of victory, and reach your native land.
+  Furthermore, let no one of the Greeks lay hands on me, for with a stout
+  heart I will present my neck in silence." Thus much she spoke, and every
+  one marveled on hearing the courage and valor of the virgin. But
+  Talthybius, whose office this was, standing in the midst, proclaimed
+  good-omened silence to the people. And the seer Calchas placed in a
+  golden canister a sharp knife,<a name="IA_104"></a><a
+  href="#IAN_104"><sup>[104]</sup></a> which he had drawn out,&#x2020;
+  within its case,&#x2020; and crowned the head of the girl. But the son of
+  Peleus ran around the altar of the Goddess, taking the canister and
+  lustral waters at the same time. And he said: "O Diana, beast-slaying
+  daughter of Jove, that revolvest thy brilliant light by night, receive
+  this offering which we bestow on thee, [we] the army of the Greeks, and
+  king Agamemnon, the pure blood from a fair virgin's neck; and grant that
+  the sail may be without injury to our ships, and that we may take the
+  towers of Troy by the spear." But the Atrides and all the army stood
+  looking on the ground, and the priest, taking the knife, prayed, and
+  viewed her neck, that he might find a place to strike. And no little pity
+  entered my mind, and I stood with eyes cast down, but suddenly there was
+  a marvel to behold. For every one could clearly perceive the sound of the
+  blow, but beheld not the virgin, where on earth she had vanished. But the
+  priest exclaimed, and the whole army shouted, beholding an unexpected
+  prodigy from some one of the Gods, of which, though seen, they had
+  scarcely belief. For a stag lay panting on the ground, of mighty size to
+  see and beautiful in appearance, with whose blood the altar of the
+  Goddess was abundantly wetted. And upon this Calchas (think with what
+  joy!) thus spake: "O leaders of this common host of the Greeks, behold
+  this victim which the Goddess hath brought to her altar, a
+  mountain-roaming stag. This she prefers greatly to the virgin, lest her
+  altar should be denied with generous blood. And she hath willingly
+  received this, and grants us a prosperous sail, and attack upon Troy.
+  Upon this do every sailor take good courage, and go to his ships, since
+  on this day it behooves us, quitting the hollow recesses of Aulis, to
+  pass over the Ægean wave." But when the whole victim was reduced to
+  ashes, he prayed what was meet, that the army might obtain a passage. And
+  Agamemnon sends me to tell thee this, and to say what a fortune he hath
+  met with from the Gods, and hath obtained unwaning glory through Greece.
+  But I speak, having been present, and witnessing the matter. Thy child
+  has evidently flown to the Gods; away then with grief, and cease wrath
+  against your husband. But the will of the Gods is unforeseen by mortals,
+  and them they love, they save. For this day hath beheld thy daughter
+  dying and living [in turn.]</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. How delighted am I at hearing this from the messenger; but he
+  says that thy daughter living abides among the Gods.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. O daughter, of whom of the Gods art thou the theft? How shall I
+  address thee? What shall I say that these words do not offer me a vain
+  comfort, that I may cease from my mournful grief on thy account?</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. And truly king Agamemnon draws hither, having this same story to
+  tell thee.</p>
+
+<p class="center">[<i>Enter</i> AGAMEMNON.]</p>
+
+  <p>AG. Lady, as far as thy daughter is concerned, we may be happy, for
+  she really possesses a companionship with the Gods. But it behooves thee,
+  taking this young child [Orestes,] to go home, for the army is looking
+  toward setting sail. And fare thee well, long hence will be my addresses
+  to thee from Troy, and may it be well with thee.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Atrides, rejoicing go thou to the land of the Phrygians, and
+  rejoicing return, having obtained for me most glorious spoils from
+  Troy.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h3>NOTES ON IPHIGENIA IN AULIS</h3>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+<div class="note">
+  <p><a name="IAN_1"></a><a href="#IA_1">[1]</a> From the answer of the old
+  man, Porson's conjecture, <span lang="el"
+  title="speude">&#x3C3;&#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3C5;&#x3B4;&#x3B5;</span>, seems
+  very probable.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_2"></a><a href="#IA_2">[2]</a> See Hermann's note. The
+  passage has been thus rendered by Ennius:</p>
+
+  <div class="poem">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <p>AG. "Quid nocti" videtur in altisono</p>
+      <p class="i8">C&#339;li clupeo?</p>
+      <p>SEN. Temo superat stellas, cogens</p>
+      <p class="i4">Sublime etiam atque etiam noctis</p>
+      <p class="i4">Itiner.</p>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+  <p>See Scaliger on Varr. de L.L. vi. p.143, and on Festus s.v.
+  Septemtriones. All the editors have overlooked the following passage of
+  Apuleius de Deo Socr. p. 42, ed. Elm. "Suspicientes in hoc perfectissimo
+  mundi, ut ait Ennius, clypeo," whence, as I have already observed in my
+  notes on the passage, there is little doubt that Ennius wrote "in
+  altisono mundi clypeo," of which <i>c&#339;li</i> was a gloss, naturally
+  introduced by those who were ignorant of the use of <i>mundus</i> in the
+  same sense. The same error has taken place in some of the MSS. of Virg.
+  Georg. i. 5, 6. Compare the commentators on Pompon. Mela. i. 1, ed.
+  Gronov.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_3"></a><a href="#IA_3">[3]</a> Such seems the force of
+  <span lang="el" title="epi pasin agathois">&#x3B5;&#x3C0;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B1;&#x3B3;&#x3B1;&#x3B8;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;</span>. The Cambridge
+  editor aptly compares Hipp. 461. <span lang="el" title="chrên s' epi
+  rhêtois ara Patera phyteuein">&#x3C7;&#x3C1;&#x3B7;&#x3BD; &#x3C3;'
+  &#x3B5;&#x3C0;&#x3B9; &#x201B;&#x3C1;&#x3B7;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B1;&#x3C1;&#x3B1; &#x3A0;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3C6;&#x3C5;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3C5;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_4"></a><a href="#IA_4">[4]</a> The <span lang="el"
+  title="synnymphokomos">&#x3C3;&#x3C5;&#x3BD;&#x3BD;&#x3C5;&#x3BC;&#x3C6;&#x3BF;&#x3BA;&#x3BF;&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span>
+  was probably a kind of gentleman usher, but we have no correlative either
+  to the custom or the word.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_5"></a><a href="#IA_5">[5]</a> Hermann rightly regards
+  this as a hendiadys.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_6"></a><a href="#IA_6">[6]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="dromôi">&#x3B4;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3BC;&#x3C9;&#x3B9;</span> for
+  <span lang="el" title="morôi">&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3C1;&#x3C9;&#x3B9;</span>
+  is Markland's, and, doubtless, the correct, reading. <span lang="el"
+  title="monos">&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span> is merely a
+  correction of the Aldine edition.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_7"></a><a href="#IA_7">[7]</a> But read <span lang="el"
+  title="tas&mdash;deltous">&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3C2;&mdash;&#x3B4;&#x3B5;&#x3BB;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C2;</span>
+  with the Cambridge editor, = "in relation to my former dispatches."</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_8"></a><a href="#IA_8">[8]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="tan">&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;</span> should probably be erased before
+  <span lang="el"
+  title="kolpôdê">&#x3BA;&#x3BF;&#x3BB;&#x3C0;&#x3C9;&#x3B4;&#x3B7;</span>,
+  with the Cambridge editor. He remarks, "the sea-port, although separated
+  from the island by the narrow strait of Euripus, is styled its
+  <i>wing</i>." On the metrical difficulties and corruptions throughout
+  this chorus, I must refer the reader to the same critic.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_9"></a><a href="#IA_9">[9]</a> But <span lang="el"
+  title="lektron">&#x3BB;&#x3B5;&#x3BA;&#x3C4;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span>,
+  <i>uxorem</i>, is better, with ed. Camb.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_10"></a><a href="#IA_10">[10]</a> It is impossible to get
+  a satisfactory sense as these lines now stand. I have translated <span
+  lang="el"
+  title="exorma">&#x3B5;&#x3BE;&#x3BF;&#x3C1;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;</span>. There
+  seems to be a lacuna. The following are the readings of the Camb. ed.
+  <span lang="el" title="en gar p. antêsêis, palin ex. s. chalinous, epi
+  kyklôpôn nin hieis thym.">&#x3B5;&#x3BD; &#x3B3;&#x3B1;&#x3C1; &#x3C0;.
+  &#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3B7;&#x3C3;&#x3B7;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;,
+  &#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3B9;&#x3BD; &#x3B5;&#x3BE;. &#x3C2;.
+  &#x3C7;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C2;,
+  &#x3B5;&#x3C0;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3BA;&#x3C5;&#x3BA;&#x3BB;&#x3C9;&#x3C0;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3BD;&#x3B9;&#x3BD; &#x201B;&#x3B9;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B8;&#x3C5;&#x3BC;.</span></p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_11"></a><a href="#IA_11">[11]</a> But <span lang="el"
+  title="anchialon">&#x3B1;&#x3B3;&#x3C7;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span>
+  is better, with ed. Camb. from the Homeric <span lang="el"
+  title="chalkida t'
+  anchialon">&#x3C7;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3BA;&#x3B9;&#x3B4;&#x3B1; &#x3C4;'
+  &#x3B1;&#x3B3;&#x3C7;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span>. He
+  remarks that this word, in tragedy, is always the epithet of a place.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_12"></a><a href="#IA_12">[12]</a> i.e. to exact
+  satisfaction for her abduction.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_13"></a><a href="#IA_13">[13]</a> i.e. the tents
+  containing the armed soldiers.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_14"></a><a href="#IA_14">[14]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="hêdomenous">&#x201B;&#x3B7;&#x3B4;&#x3BF;&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C2;</span>
+  refers both to <span lang="el"
+  title="Prôtesilaon">&#x3A0;&#x3C1;&#x3C9;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span>
+  and <span lang="el"
+  title="Palamêdea">&#x3A0;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3BC;&#x3B7;&#x3B4;&#x3B5;&#x3B1;</span>,
+  divided by the schema Alcmanicum. See Markland.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_15"></a><a href="#IA_15">[15]</a> Cf. Homer, Il. <span
+  lang="el" title="B">&#x392;</span>. 763 sqq.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_16"></a><a href="#IA_16">[16]</a> Cf. Monk on Hippol.
+  1229. I have translated <span lang="el"
+  title="syringas">&#x3C3;&#x3C5;&#x3C1;&#x3B9;&#x3B3;&#x3B3;&#x3B1;&#x3C2;</span>
+  according to the figure of a part for the whole. The whole of the
+  remainder of this chorus has been condemned as spurious by the Cambridge
+  editor. See his remarks, p. 219 sqq.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_17"></a><a href="#IA_17">[17]</a> Can <span lang="el"
+  title="theton">&#x3B8;&#x3B5;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span> refer to <span
+  lang="el"
+  title="agalma">&#x3B1;&#x3B3;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;</span>
+  understood?</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_18"></a><a href="#IA_18">[18]</a> This part of the chorus
+  is hopeless, as it is evidently imperfect. See Herm.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_19"></a><a href="#IA_19">[19]</a> The Cambridge editor
+  would assign this line to Menelaus.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_20"></a><a href="#IA_20">[20]</a> I read <span lang="el"
+  title="eu kekompseusai">&#x3B5;&#x3C5;
+  &#x3BA;&#x3B5;&#x3BA;&#x3BF;&#x3BC;&#x3C8;&#x3B5;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;</span>,
+  with Ruhnken. The Cambridge editor also reads <span lang="el"
+  title="ponêra">&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3B7;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;</span>, which
+  is better suited to the style of Euripides.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_21"></a><a href="#IA_21">[21]</a> The same scholar has
+  anticipated my conjecture, <span lang="el"
+  title="saphês">&#x3C3;&#x3B1;&#x3C6;&#x3B7;&#x3C2;</span> for <span
+  lang="el" title="saphes">&#x3C3;&#x3B1;&#x3C6;&#x3B5;&#x3C2;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_22"></a><a href="#IA_22">[22]</a> Compare the similar
+  conduct of Pausanias in Thucyd. i. 130, Dejoces in Herodot. i., with
+  Livy, iii. 36, and Apul. de Deo Socr. p. 44, ed. Elm.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_23"></a><a href="#IA_23">[23]</a> I read <span lang="el"
+  title="to Priamou">&#x3C4;&#x3BF;
+  &#x3A0;&#x3C1;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;</span> with Elmsley.
+  See the Camb. ed.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_24"></a><a href="#IA_24">[24]</a> With the Cambridge
+  editor I have restored the old reading <span lang="el"
+  title="echontes">&#x3B5;&#x3C7;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3C2;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_25"></a><a href="#IA_25">[25]</a> But see ed. Camb.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_26"></a><a href="#IA_26">[26]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="au">&#x3B1;&#x3C5;</span> is a better reading. See Markland and
+  ed. Camb.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_27"></a><a href="#IA_27">[27]</a> There is little hope of
+  this passage, unless we adopt the readings of the Cambridge editor, <span
+  lang="el" title="hous labôn strateum'. hetoimoi d'
+  eisi">&#x201B;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C2; &#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3B2;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3C3;&#x3C4;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3C5;&#x3BC;'.
+  &#x201B;&#x3B5;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3B9; &#x3B4;'
+  &#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;</span>. The next line was lost, but has been
+  restored from Theophilus ad Autol. p. 258, and Stob. xxviii. p. 128,
+  Grot.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_28"></a><a href="#IA_28">[28]</a> Cf. Soph. Antig. 523.
+  <span lang="el" title="outoi synechthein, alla symphilein
+  ephyn">&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3C3;&#x3C5;&#x3BD;&#x3B5;&#x3C7;&#x3B8;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;,
+  &#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3C3;&#x3C5;&#x3BC;&#x3C6;&#x3B9;&#x3BB;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B5;&#x3C6;&#x3C5;&#x3BD;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_29"></a><a href="#IA_29">[29]</a> Dindorf condemns the
+  whole of this speech of the messenger, as well as the two following
+  lines. Few will perhaps be disposed to follow him, although the
+  awkwardness of the passage may be admitted. Hermann considers that the
+  hasty entrance of the messenger is signified by his commencing with half
+  a line.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_30"></a><a href="#IA_30">[30]</a> There seems an intended
+  allusion to the double sense of <span lang="el"
+  title="proteleia">&#x3C0;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3BB;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;</span>,
+  both as a marriage and sacrificial rite. See the Cambridge editor, and my
+  note on Æsch. Agam. p. 102, n. 2, ed. Bohn.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_31"></a><a href="#IA_31">[31]</a> "Auspicare canistra, id
+  quod proximum est." MUSGR.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_32"></a><a href="#IA_32">[32]</a> I think this is the
+  meaning implied by <span lang="el"
+  title="nympheusousa">&#x3BD;&#x3C5;&#x3BC;&#x3C6;&#x3B5;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3B1;</span>,
+  as in vs. 885. <span lang="el" title="hin' agagois chairous' Achillei
+  paida nympheusousa sên">&#x201B;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;'
+  &#x3B1;&#x3B3;&#x3B1;&#x3B3;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3C7;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;'
+  &#x391;&#x3C7;&#x3B9;&#x3BB;&#x3BB;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3B4;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3BD;&#x3C5;&#x3BC;&#x3C6;&#x3B5;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3C3;&#x3B7;&#x3BD;</span>. Alcest. 317. <span lang="el" title="ou gar
+  se mêtêr oute nympheusei pote">&#x3BF;&#x3C5; &#x3B3;&#x3B1;&#x3C1;
+  &#x3C3;&#x3B5; &#x3BC;&#x3B7;&#x3C4;&#x3B7;&#x3C1;
+  &#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;
+  &#x3BD;&#x3C5;&#x3BC;&#x3C6;&#x3B5;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;</span>. The word seems to refer to the whole
+  business of a mamma on this important occasion.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_33"></a><a href="#IA_33">[33]</a> The Cambridge editor on
+  vs. 439, p. 109, well observes, "the actual arrival of Iphigenia having
+  convinced Menelaus that her sacrifice could not any longer be avoided, he
+  bethinks him of removing from his brother's mind the impression produced
+  by their recent altercation; and knowing his open and unsuspicious
+  temper, he feels that he may safely adopt a false position, and deprecate
+  that of which he was at the same time most earnestly desirous."</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_34"></a><a href="#IA_34">[34]</a> So Markland, but
+  Hermann and the Cambridge editor prefer the old reading <span lang="el"
+  title="metesti soi">&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3C3;&#x3C4;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3C3;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_35"></a><a href="#IA_35">[35]</a> This and the two
+  following lines are condemned by Dindorf.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_36"></a><a href="#IA_36">[36]</a> B&#339;ckh, Dindorf,
+  and the Cambridge editor rightly explode these three lines, which are not
+  even correct Greek.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_37"></a><a href="#IA_37">[37]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="lêsomen">&#x3BB;&#x3B7;&#x3C3;&#x3BF;&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;</span>,
+  <i>latebo faciens</i>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_38"></a><a href="#IA_38">[38]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="para">&#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;</span> for <span lang="el"
+  title="paron">&#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span>, ed. Camb.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_39"></a><a href="#IA_39">[39]</a> i.e. by the gift of
+  Venus. For the sense, compare Hippol. 443.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_40"></a><a href="#IA_40">[40]</a> Read <span lang="el"
+  title="diaphoroi de
+  tropoi">&#x3B4;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;&#x3C6;&#x3BF;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3B4;&#x3B5; &#x3C4;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;</span> with
+  Monk, and <span lang="el"
+  title="orthôs">&#x3BF;&#x3C1;&#x3B8;&#x3C9;&#x3C2;</span> with
+  Musgrave.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_41"></a><a href="#IA_41">[41]</a> But <span lang="el"
+  title="paideuomenôn">&#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3B4;&#x3B5;&#x3C5;&#x3BF;&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;</span>
+  is better, with ed. Camb.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_42"></a><a href="#IA_42">[42]</a> I have partly followed
+  Markland, partly Matthiæ, in rendering this awkward passage. But there is
+  much awkwardness of expression, and the notes of the Cambridge editor
+  well deserve the attention of the student. <span lang="el"
+  title="exallassousan
+  charin">&#x3B5;&#x3BE;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3C3;&#x3C3;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3C7;&#x3B1;&#x3C1;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;</span> seems to refer to <span
+  lang="el" title="metria
+  charis">&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3C4;&#x3C1;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3C7;&#x3B1;&#x3C1;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;</span> in vs. 555, and probably
+  signifies that the grace of a reasonable affection leads to the equal
+  grace of a clear perception, the mind being unblinded by vehement
+  impulses of passion.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_43"></a><a href="#IA_43">[43]</a> i.e. quiet,
+  domestic.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_44"></a><a href="#IA_44">[44]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="enôn">&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;</span> is only Markland's
+  conjecture. The whole passage is desperate.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_45"></a><a href="#IA_45">[45]</a> I read <span lang="el"
+  title="myrioplêthê">&#x3BC;&#x3C5;&#x3C1;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3C0;&#x3BB;&#x3B7;&#x3B8;&#x3B7;</span>
+  with ed. Camb. The pronoun <span lang="el"
+  title="ho">&#x201B;&#x3BF;</span> I can not make out, but by supplying an
+  impossible ellipse.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_46"></a><a href="#IA_46">[46]</a> The Cambridge editor
+  rightly reads <span lang="el" title="iou, iou">&#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;,
+  &#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;</span>, as an exclamation of pleasure, not of pain,
+  is required.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_47"></a><a href="#IA_47">[47]</a> Dindorf condemns this
+  whole paragraph.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_48"></a><a href="#IA_48">[48]</a> The Cambridge editor
+  thinks these two lines a childish interpolation. They certainly are
+  childish enough, but the same objection applies to the whole passage.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_49"></a><a href="#IA_49">[49]</a> But read <span
+  lang="el" title="hoi d'">&#x201B;&#x3BF;&#x3B9; &#x3B4;'</span> with
+  Dobree. The grooms are meant.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_50"></a><a href="#IA_50">[50]</a> Porson condemns these
+  four lines, which are utterly destitute of sense or connection.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_51"></a><a href="#IA_51">[51]</a> These "precious" lines
+  are even worse than the preceding, and rightly condemned by all.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_52"></a><a href="#IA_52">[52]</a> See Elmsl. on Soph.
+  &#338;d. C. 273. The student must carefully observe the hidden train of
+  thought pervading Agamemnon's replies.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_53"></a><a href="#IA_53">[53]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="ta Meneleô kaka">&#x3C4;&#x3B1;
+  &#x39C;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3B5;&#x3BB;&#x3B5;&#x3C9;
+  &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3BA;&#x3B1;</span> must mean the ills resulting from
+  Menelaus, the mischiefs and toils to which his wife led, as in Soph.
+  Antig. 2. <span lang="el" title="tôn ap Oidipou
+  kakôn">&#x3C4;&#x3C9;&#x3BD; &#x3B1;&#x3C0;
+  &#x39F;&#x3B9;&#x3B4;&#x3B9;&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;
+  &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3BA;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;</span>, "the ills brought about by
+  the misfortunes or the curse of &#338;dipus." But I should almost prefer
+  reading <span lang="el" title="lechê">&#x3BB;&#x3B5;&#x3C7;&#x3B7;</span>
+  for <span lang="el" title="kaka">&#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3BA;&#x3B1;</span>,
+  which would naturally refer to Helen.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_54"></a><a href="#IA_54">[54]</a> This line is metrically
+  corrupt, but its emendation is very uncertain.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_55"></a><a href="#IA_55">[55]</a> I have endeavored to
+  convey the play upon the words as closely as I could. Elmsley well
+  suggests that the proper reading is <span lang="el"
+  title="hestêxeis">&#x201B;&#x3B5;&#x3C3;&#x3C4;&#x3B7;&#x3BE;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;</span>
+  in vs. 675.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_56"></a><a href="#IA_56">[56]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="ophthênai
+  korais">&#x3BF;&#x3C6;&#x3B8;&#x3B7;&#x3BD;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3BA;&#x3BF;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;</span>, "non, ut hic, a viris
+  et exercitu." BRODÆUS.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_57"></a><a href="#IA_57">[57]</a> Porson on Orest. 1090,
+  remarks on that <span lang="el" title="ho kyrios">&#x201B;&#x3BF;
+  &#x3BA;&#x3C5;&#x3C1;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span> was the term applied to
+  the father or guardian of the bride. We might therefore render, "Jove
+  gave her away," etc.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_58"></a><a href="#IA_58">[58]</a> If this be the correct
+  reading, we must take <span lang="el"
+  title="kalôs">&#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3C9;&#x3C2;</span> ironically. But
+  I think with Dindorf, that <span lang="el" title="kakôs, anankaiôs
+  de">&#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3BA;&#x3C9;&#x3C2;,
+  &#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3B1;&#x3B3;&#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3C9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B4;&#x3B5;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_59"></a><a href="#IA_59">[59]</a> This verse is condemned
+  by the Cambridge editor.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_60"></a><a href="#IA_60">[60]</a> Barnes rightly remarked
+  that <span lang="el" title="êixa">&#x3B7;&#x3B9;&#x3BE;&#x3B1;</span> is
+  the aorist of <span lang="el"
+  title="aissô">&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3C3;&#x3C9;</span>, <i>conor</i>,
+  <i>aggredior</i>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_61"></a><a href="#IA_61">[61]</a> These three lines are
+  expunged by the Cambridge editor.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_62"></a><a href="#IA_62">[62]</a> I have expressed the
+  sense of <span lang="el" title="ê mê trephein">&#x3B7; &#x3BC;&#x3B7;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3C1;&#x3B5;&#x3C6;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;</span> (= <span
+  lang="el" title="mê echein gynaika">&#x3BC;&#x3B7;
+  &#x3B5;&#x3C7;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B3;&#x3C5;&#x3BD;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3BA;&#x3B1;</span>), rather than
+  the literal meaning of the words.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_63"></a><a href="#IA_63">[63]</a> I must inform the
+  reader that the latter portion of this chorus is extremely unsatisfactory
+  in its present state. The Cambridge editor, who has well discussed its
+  difficulties, thinks that <span lang="el"
+  title="Pergamon">&#x3A0;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3B3;&#x3B1;&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span>
+  is wrong, and that <span lang="el"
+  title="eryma">&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3C5;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;</span> should be
+  introduced from vs. 792, where it appears to be quite useless.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_64"></a><a href="#IA_64">[64]</a> I have ventured to read
+  <span lang="el" title="dakryoen
+  tanysas">&#x3B4;&#x3B1;&#x3BA;&#x3C1;&#x3C5;&#x3BF;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3B1;&#x3C2;</span> with MSS.
+  Pariss., omitting <span lang="el"
+  title="eryma">&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3C5;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;</span> with the
+  Cambridge editor, by which the difficulty is removed. The same scholar
+  remarks that <span lang="el"
+  title="dakryoen">&#x3B4;&#x3B1;&#x3BA;&#x3C1;&#x3C5;&#x3BF;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;</span>
+  is used adverbially.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_65"></a><a href="#IA_65">[65]</a> There is obviously a
+  defect in the structure, but I am scarcely pleased with the attempts made
+  to supply it.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_66"></a><a href="#IA_66">[66]</a> Read <span lang="el"
+  title="kai paidas">&#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3B4;&#x3B1;&#x3C2;</span> with Musgrave.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_67"></a><a href="#IA_67">[67]</a> But see ed. Camb.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_68"></a><a href="#IA_68">[68]</a> But see ed. Camb.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_69"></a><a href="#IA_69">[69]</a> But the Cambridge
+  editor admirably amends, <span lang="el" title="eis mellonta sôsei
+  chronon">&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3BB;&#x3BB;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3C3;&#x3C9;&#x3C3;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3C7;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span>, i.e. "it will be a
+  long time before it preserves them," a hit at the self-importance of the
+  old gentleman.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_70"></a><a href="#IA_70">[70]</a> I have little
+  hesitation in reading <span lang="el" title="pelas
+  moi">&#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3C2; &#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;</span>
+  with Markland, in place of <span lang="el" title="gelai
+  moi">&#x3B3;&#x3B5;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_71"></a><a href="#IA_71">[71]</a> There is much
+  difficulty in this passage, and Markland appears to give it up in
+  despair. Matthiæ simply takes the first part as equivalent to <span
+  lang="el" title="hypsêlophron
+  esti">&#x201B;&#x3C5;&#x3C8;&#x3B7;&#x3BB;&#x3BF;&#x3C6;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B5;&#x3C3;&#x3C4;&#x3B9;</span>, referring <span lang="el"
+  title="metriôs">&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3C4;&#x3C1;&#x3B9;&#x3C9;&#x3C2;</span>
+  to both verbs. The Cambridge editor takes <span lang="el"
+  title="diazên">&#x3B4;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;&#x3B6;&#x3B7;&#x3BD;</span> as an
+  infinitive disjoined from the construction. Vss. 922 sq. are indebted to
+  Mr. G. Burges for their present situation, having before been assigned to
+  the chorus.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_72"></a><a href="#IA_72">[72]</a> I have closely followed
+  the Cambridge editor.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_73"></a><a href="#IA_73">[73]</a> See the notes of the
+  same scholar.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_74"></a><a href="#IA_74">[74]</a> Dindorf has rightly
+  received Porson's successful emendation. See Tracts, p. 224, and the
+  Cambridge editor.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_75"></a><a href="#IA_75">[75]</a> Read <span lang="el"
+  title="sois te mellousin">&#x3C3;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3C2; &#x3C4;&#x3B5;
+  &#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3BB;&#x3BB;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;</span>
+  with Markland. </p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_76"></a><a href="#IA_76">[76]</a> The Cambridge editor
+  would omit vs. 1022. There is certainly a strange redundancy of
+  meaning.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_77"></a><a href="#IA_77">[77]</a> Read <span lang="el"
+  title="estasen">&#x3B5;&#x3C3;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3C3;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;</span>
+  with Mark. Dind.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_78"></a><a href="#IA_78">[78]</a> So called, either
+  because he was carried off by Jove while hunting in the promontory of
+  Dardanus, or from his Trojan descent.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_79"></a><a href="#IA_79">[79]</a> I have adopted
+  Tyrwhitt's view, considering the words inclosed in inverted commas as the
+  actual words of the epithalamium. See Musgr. and ed. Camb. Hermann is
+  strangely out of his reckoning.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_80"></a><a href="#IA_80">[80]</a> Read, however, <span
+  lang="el"
+  title="Nêrêidôn">&#x39D;&#x3B7;&#x3C1;&#x3B7;&#x3B9;&#x3B4;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;</span>
+  with Heath, "first of the Nereids."</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_81"></a><a href="#IA_81">[81]</a> The Cambridge editor
+  would read <span lang="el"
+  title="nymphokomoi">&#x3BD;&#x3C5;&#x3BC;&#x3C6;&#x3BF;&#x3BA;&#x3BF;&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;</span>,
+  Reiske <span lang="el"
+  title="nymphokomon">&#x3BD;&#x3C5;&#x3BC;&#x3C6;&#x3BF;&#x3BA;&#x3BF;&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span>.
+  There is much difficulty in the whole of this last part of the
+  chorus.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_82"></a><a href="#IA_82">[82]</a> Such is Hermann's
+  explanation, but <span lang="el"
+  title="bebêkotos">&#x3B2;&#x3B5;&#x3B2;&#x3B7;&#x3BA;&#x3BF;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span>
+  can not bear the sense. The Cambridge editor suspects that these five
+  lines are a forgery.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_83"></a><a href="#IA_83">[83]</a> The Cambridge editor
+  rightly, I think, condemns this line as the addition of some one "who
+  thought that something more was wanting to comprise all the complaints of
+  the speaker." I do not think the sense or construction is benefited by
+  their existence.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_84"></a><a href="#IA_84">[84]</a> "Verum astus hic astu
+  vacat." ERASMUS.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_85"></a><a href="#IA_85">[85]</a> Dindorf has apparently
+  done wrong in admitting <span lang="el"
+  title="prosoudisas">&#x3C0;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3C3;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3B4;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3B1;&#x3C2;</span>,
+  but I have some doubt about every other reading yet proposed.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_86"></a><a href="#IA_86">[86]</a> See Camb. ed., who
+  suspects interpolation.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_87"></a><a href="#IA_87">[87]</a> Cf. Lucret. i. 94. "Nec
+  miseræ prodesse in tali tempore quibat, Quod patrio princeps donarat
+  nomine regum." Æsch. Ag. 242 sqq.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_88"></a><a href="#IA_88">[88]</a> The Cambridge editor
+  clearly shows that <span lang="el"
+  title="moi">&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;</span> is the true reading, as in vs.
+  54, <span lang="el" title="to pragma d' aporôs eiche Tyndareôi
+  patri">&#x3C4;&#x3BF; &#x3C0;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3B3;&#x3BC;&#x3B1; &#x3B4;'
+  &#x3B1;&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3C1;&#x3C9;&#x3C2; &#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C7;&#x3B5;
+  &#x3A4;&#x3C5;&#x3BD;&#x3B4;&#x3B1;&#x3C1;&#x3B5;&#x3C9;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3C1;&#x3B9;</span>, and 370.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_89"></a><a href="#IA_89">[89]</a> There is much doubt
+  about the reading of this part of the chorus. See Dind. and ed. Camb.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_90"></a><a href="#IA_90">[90]</a> I have partly followed
+  Abresch in translating these lines, but I do not advise the reader to
+  rest satisfied with my translation. A reference to the notes of the
+  elegant scholar, to whom we owe the Cambridge edition of this play, will,
+  I trust, show that I have done as much as can well be done with such
+  corrupted lines.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_91"></a><a href="#IA_91">[91]</a> Achilles is supposed to
+  lay his hand on his sword. See however ed. Camb.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_92"></a><a href="#IA_92">[92]</a> Obviously a spurious
+  line.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_93"></a><a href="#IA_93">[93]</a> I have punctuated with
+  ed. Camb.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_94"></a><a href="#IA_94">[94]</a> See ed. Camb.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_95"></a><a href="#IA_95">[95]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="euphêmêsate">&#x3B5;&#x3C5;&#x3C6;&#x3B7;&#x3BC;&#x3B7;&#x3C3;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;</span>
+  here governs two distinct accusatives.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_96"></a><a href="#IA_96">[96]</a> The Cambridge editor
+  here takes notice of Aristotle's charge of inconsistency, <span lang="el"
+  title="hoti ouden eoiken hê hiketeuousa">&#x201B;&#x3BF;&#x3C4;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3B4;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B5;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3BA;&#x3B5;&#x3BD; &#x201B;&#x3B7;
+  &#x201B;&#x3B9;&#x3BA;&#x3B5;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3C5;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3B1;</span>
+  [Iphigenia] <span lang="el" title="têi hysterai">&#x3C4;&#x3B7;&#x3B9;
+  &#x201B;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;</span>. He well
+  remarks, that Iphigenia at first naturally gives way before the
+  suddenness of the announcement of her fate, but that when she collects
+  her feelings, her natural nobleness prevails.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_97"></a><a href="#IA_97">[97]</a> Cf. Lucret. i. 88. "Cui
+  simul <i>infula</i> virgineos <i>circumdata</i> comtus, Ex utraque pari
+  malarum parte profusa est."</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_98"></a><a href="#IA_98">[98]</a> Read <span lang="el"
+  title="pagas">&#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3B3;&#x3B1;&#x3C2;</span> with Reiske,
+  Dind. ed. Camb. There is much corruption and awkwardness in the following
+  verses of this ode.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_99"></a><a href="#IA_99">[99]</a> On the sense of <span
+  lang="el"
+  title="memone">&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3B5;</span> see ed.
+  Camb., who would exclude <span lang="el" title="di' emon
+  onoma">&#x3B4;&#x3B9;' &#x3B5;&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_100"></a><a href="#IA_100">[100]</a> Cf. Soph. Ant. 806
+  sqq. The whole of this passage has been admirably illustrated by the
+  Cambridge editor.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_101"></a><a href="#IA_101">[101]</a> There is much
+  awkwardness about this epithet <span lang="el"
+  title="patrôiai">&#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3C1;&#x3C9;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;</span>.
+  One would expect a clearer reference to Agamemnon. I scarcely can suppose
+  it correct, although I do not quite see my way in the Cambridge editor's
+  readings.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_102"></a><a href="#IA_102">[102]</a> Porson, Præf. ad
+  Hec. p. xxi., and the Cambridge editor (p. 228 sqq.) have concurred in
+  fully condemning the whole of this last scene. It is certain that in the
+  time of Ælian something different must have been in existence, and
+  equally certain that the whole abounds in repetitions and
+  inconsistencies, that seem to point either to spuriousness, or, at least,
+  to the existence of interpolations of a serious character. In this latter
+  opinion Matthiæ and Dindorf agree.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_103"></a><a href="#IA_103">[103]</a> An allusion to the
+  celebrated picture of Timanthes. See Barnes.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_104"></a><a href="#IA_104">[104]</a> I have done my best
+  with this passage, following Matthiæ's explanation, which, however, I do
+  not perfectly understand. If vs. 1567 were away, we should be less at a
+  loss, but the same may be said of the whole scene.</p>
+
+</div>
+<hr class="full" />
+
+<a name="TAURIS"></a>
+<h2>IPHIGENIA IN TAURIS.</h2>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+<h3>PERSONS REPRESENTED.</h3>
+
+  <div class="personae">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <p>IPHIGENIA.</p>
+      <p>ORESTES.</p>
+      <p>PYLADES.</p>
+      <p>HERDSMAN.</p>
+      <p>THOAS.</p>
+      <p>MESSENGER.</p>
+      <p>MINERVA.</p>
+      <p>CHORUS OF GRECIAN CAPTIVE WOMEN.</p>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+<hr />
+
+<h3>THE ARGUMENT.</h3>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+  <p>Orestes, coming into Tauri in Scythia, in company with Pylades, had
+  been commanded to bear away the image of Diana, after which he was to
+  meet with a respite from the avenging Erinnyes of his mother. His sister
+  Iphigenia, who had been carried away by Diana from Aulis, when on the
+  point of being sacrificed by her father, chances to be expiating a dream
+  that led her to suppose Orestes dead, when a herdsman announces to her
+  the arrival and detection of two strangers, whom she is bound by her
+  office to sacrifice to Diana. On meeting, a mutual discovery takes place,
+  and they plot their escape. Iphigenia imposes on the superstitious fears
+  of Thoas, and, removing them to the sea-coast, they are on the point of
+  making their escape together, when they are surprised, and subsequently
+  detained and driven back by stress of weather. Thoas is about to pursue
+  them, when Minerva appears, and restrains him from doing so, at the same
+  time procuring liberty of return for the Grecian captives who form the
+  chorus.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2>IPHIGENIA IN TAURIS.</h2>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+<p class="center">IPHIGENIA.</p>
+
+  <p>Pelops,<a name="IT_1"></a><a href="#ITN_1"><sup>[1]</sup></a> the son
+  of Tantalus, setting out to Pisa with his swift steeds, weds the daughter
+  of &#338;nomaus, from whom sprang Atreus; and from Atreus his sons,
+  Menelaus and Agamemnon, from which [latter] I was born, Iphigenia, child
+  of [Clytæmnestra,] daughter of Tyndarus, whom my father, as he imagined,
+  sacrificed to Diana on account of Helen, near the eddies, which Euripus
+  continually whirls to and fro, upturning the dark blue sea with frequent
+  blasts, in the famed<a name="IT_2"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_2"><sup>[2]</sup></a> recesses of Aulis. For here indeed king
+  Agamemnon drew together a Grecian armament of a thousand ships, desiring
+  that the Greeks might take the glorious prize of victory over Troy,<a
+  name="IT_3"></a><a href="#ITN_3"><sup>[3]</sup></a> and avenge the
+  outraged nuptials of Helen, for the gratification of Menelaus. But, there
+  being great difficulty of sailing,<a name="IT_4"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_4"><sup>[4]</sup></a> and meeting with no winds, he came to
+  [the consideration of] the omens of burnt sacrifices, and Calchas speaks
+  thus. O thou who rulest over this Grecian expedition, Agamemnon, thou
+  wilt not lead forth thy ships from the ports of this land, before Diana
+  shall receive thy daughter Iphigenia as a victim; for thou didst vow to
+  sacrifice to the light-bearing Goddess whatsoever the year should bring
+  forth most beautiful. Now your wife Clytæmnestra has brought forth a
+  daughter in your house, referring to me the title of the most beautiful,
+  whom thou must needs sacrifice. And so, by the arts of Ulysses,<a
+  name="IT_5"></a><a href="#ITN_5"><sup>[5]</sup></a> they drew me from my
+  mother under pretense of being wedded to Achilles. But I wretched coming
+  to Aulis, being seized and raised aloft above<a name="IT_6"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_6"><sup>[6]</sup></a> the pyre, would have been slain by the
+  sword; but Diana, giving to the Greeks a stag in my stead, stole me away,
+  and, sending me through the clear ether,<a name="IT_7"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_7"><sup>[7]</sup></a> she settled me in this land of the
+  Tauri, where barbarian Thoas rules<a name="IT_8"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_8"><sup>[8]</sup></a> the land, o'er barbarians, [Thoas,] who
+  guiding his foot swift as the pinion, has arrived at this epithet [of
+  Thoas, i.e. <i>the swift</i>] on account of his fleetness of foot. And
+  she places me in this house as priestess, since which time the Goddess
+  Diana is wont to be pleased with such rites as these,<a
+  name="IT_9"></a><a href="#ITN_9"><sup>[9]</sup></a> the name of which
+  alone is fair. But, for the rest, I am silent, fearing the Goddess. For I
+  sacrifice even as before was the custom in the city, whatever Grecian man
+  comes to this land. I crop the hair, indeed, but the slaying that may not
+  be told is the care of others within these shrines.<a name="IT_10"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_10"><sup>[10]</sup></a> But the new visions which the [past]
+  night hath brought with it, I will tell to the sky,<a name="IT_11"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_11"><sup>[11]</sup></a> if indeed this be any remedy. I seemed
+  in my sleep, removed from this land, to be dwelling in Argos, and to
+  slumber in my virgin chamber, but the surface of the earth [appeared] to
+  be shaken with a movement, and I fled, and standing without beheld the
+  coping<a name="IT_12"></a><a href="#ITN_12"><sup>[12]</sup></a> of the
+  house giving way, and all the roof falling stricken to the ground from
+  the high supports. And one pillar alone, as it seemed to me, was left of
+  my ancestral house, and from its capital it seemed to stream down yellow
+  locks, and to receive a human voice, and I, cherishing this man-slaying
+  office which I hold, weeping [began] to besprinkle it, as though about to
+  be slain. But I thus interpret my dream. Orestes is dead, whose rites I
+  was beginning. For male children are the pillars of the house, and those
+  whom my lustral waters<a name="IT_13"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_13"><sup>[13]</sup></a> sprinkle die. Nor yet can I connect
+  the dream with my friends, for Strophius had no son, when I was to have
+  died. Now, therefore, I being present, will to my absent brother offer
+  the rites of the dead&mdash;for this I can do&mdash;in company with the
+  attendants whom the king gave to me, Grecian women. But from some cause
+  they are not yet present. I will go<a name="IT_14"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_14"><sup>[14]</sup></a> within the home wherein I dwell, these
+  shrines of the Goddess.</p>
+
+  <p>ORESTES. Look out! Watch, lest there be any mortal in the way.</p>
+
+  <p>PYLADES. I am looking out, and keeping watch, turning my eyes every
+  where.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. Pylades, does it seem to you that this is the temple of the
+  Goddess, whither we have directed our ship through the seas from Argos?<a
+  name="IT_15"></a><a href="#ITN_15"><sup>[15]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>PYL. It does, Orestes, and must seem the same to thee.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. And the altar where Grecian blood is shed?</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. At least it has its pinnacles tawny with blood.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. And under the pinnacles themselves do you behold the spoils?</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. The spoils, forsooth, of slain strangers.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. But it behooves one, turning one's eye around, to keep a careful
+  watch. O Ph&#339;bus, wherefore hast thou again led me into this snare by
+  your prophecies, when I had avenged the blood of my father by slaying my
+  mother? But by successive<a name="IT_16"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_16"><sup>[16]</sup></a> attacks of the Furies was I driven an
+  exile, an outcast from the land, and fulfilled many diverse bending
+  courses. But coming [to thy oracle] I required of thee how I might arrive
+  at an end of the madness that drove me on, and of my toils [which I had
+  labored through, wandering over Greece.<a name="IT_17"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_17"><sup>[17]</sup></a>] But thou didst answer that I must
+  come to the confines of the Tauric territory, where thy sister Diana
+  possesses altars, and must take the image of the Goddess, which they here
+  say fell from heaven<a name="IT_18"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_18"><sup>[18]</sup></a> into these shrines; and that taking it
+  either by stratagem or by some stroke of fortune, having gone through the
+  risk, I should give it to the land of the Athenians&mdash;but no further
+  directions were given&mdash;and that having done this, I should have a
+  respite from my toils.<a name="IT_19"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_19"><sup>[19]</sup></a> But I am come hither, persuaded by thy
+  words, to an unknown and inhospitable land. I ask you, then, Pylades, for
+  you are a sharer with me in this toil, what shall we do? For thou
+  beholdest the lofty battlements of the walls. Shall we proceed to the
+  scaling of the walls? How then should we escape notice<a
+  name="IT_20"></a><a href="#ITN_20"><sup>[20]</sup></a> [if we did so?] Or
+  shall we open the brass-wrought fastenings of the bolts? of which things
+  we know nothing.<a name="IT_21"></a><a href="#ITN_21"><sup>[21]</sup></a>
+  But if we are caught opening the gates and contriving an entrance, we
+  shall die. But before we die, let us flee to the temple, whither we
+  lately sailed.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. To fly is unendurable, nor are we accustomed [to do so,] and we
+  must not make light of the oracle of the God. But quitting the temple,
+  let us hide our bodies in the caves, which the dark sea splashes with its
+  waters, far away from the city, lest any one beholding the bark, inform
+  the rulers, and we be straightway seized by force. But when the eye of
+  dim night shall come, we must venture, bring all devices to bear, to
+  seize the sculptured image from the temple. But observe the eaves [of the
+  roof,<a name="IT_22"></a><a href="#ITN_22"><sup>[22]</sup></a>] where
+  there is an empty space between the triglyphs in which you may let
+  yourself down. For good men dare encounter toils, but the cowardly are of
+  no account any where. We have not indeed come a long distance with our
+  oars, so as to return again from the goal.<a name="IT_23"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_23"><sup>[23]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>OR. But one must follow your advice, for you speak well. We must go
+  whithersoever in this land we can conceal our bodies, and lie hid. For
+  the [will] of the God will not be the cause of his oracle falling
+  useless. We must venture; for no toil has an excuse for young men.<a
+  name="IT_24"></a><a href="#ITN_24"><sup>[24]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p class="center">[ORESTES <i>and</i> PYLADES <i>retire aside</i>.]</p>
+
+  <p>CHORUS. Keep silence,<a name="IT_25"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_25"><sup>[25]</sup></a> O ye that inhabit the twain rocks of
+  the Euxine that face each other. O Dictynna, mountain daughter of Latona,
+  to thy court, the gold-decked pinnacles of temples with fine columns, I,
+  servant to the hallowed guardian of the key, conduct my pious virgin
+  foot, changing [for my present habitation] the towers and walls of Greece
+  with its noble steeds, and Europe with its fields abounding in trees, the
+  dwelling of my ancestral home. I am come. What new matter? What anxious
+  care hast thou? Wherefore hast thou led me, led me to the shrines, O
+  daughter of him who came to the walls of Troy with the glorious fleet,
+  with thousand sail, ten thousand spears of the renowned Atrides?<a
+  name="IT_26"></a><a href="#ITN_26"><sup>[26]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>IPHIGENIA. O attendants mine,<a name="IT_27"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_27"><sup>[27]</sup></a> in what moans of bitter lamentation do
+  I dwell, in the songs of a songless strain unfit for the lyre, alas!
+  alas! in funereal griefs for the ills which befall me, bemoaning my
+  brother, what a vision have I seen in the night whose darkness has passed
+  away!<a name="IT_28"></a><a href="#ITN_28"><sup>[28]</sup></a> I am
+  undone, undone. No more is my father's house, ah me! no more is our race.
+  Alas! alas! for the toils in Argos! Alas! thou deity, who hast now robbed
+  me of my only brother, sending him to Hades, to whom I am about to pour
+  forth on the earth's surface these libations and this bowl for the
+  departed, and streams from the mountain heifer, and the wine draughts of
+  Bacchus, and the work of the swarthy bees,<a name="IT_29"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_29"><sup>[29]</sup></a> which are the wonted peace-offerings
+  to the departed. O germ of Agamemnon beneath the earth, to thee as dead
+  do I send these offerings. And do thou receive them, for not before
+  [thine own] tomb do I offer my auburn locks,<a name="IT_30"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_30"><sup>[30]</sup></a> my tears. For far away am I journeyed
+  from thy country and mine, where, as opinion goes, I wretched lie
+  slaughtered.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. A respondent strain and an Asiatic hymn of barbarian wailing
+  will I peal forth to thee, my mistress, the song of mourning which,
+  delighting the dead, Hades hymns in measure apart from Pæans.<a
+  name="IT_31"></a><a href="#ITN_31"><sup>[31]</sup></a> Alas! the light of
+  the sceptre in the Atrides' house is faded away. Alas! alas for my
+  ancestral home! And what government of prosperous kings will there be in
+  Argos?<a name="IT_32"></a><a href="#ITN_32"><sup>[32]</sup></a> *&nbsp;*&nbsp;*&nbsp;*
+  And labor upon labor comes on *&nbsp;*&nbsp;*&nbsp;* <a name="IT_33"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_33"><sup>[33]</sup></a> with his winged mares driven around.
+  But the sun, changing from its proper place, [laid aside] its eye of
+  light.<a name="IT_34"></a><a href="#ITN_34"><sup>[34]</sup></a> And upon
+  other houses woe has come, because of the golden lamb, murder upon
+  murder, and pang upon pang, whence the avenging Fury<a
+  name="IT_35"></a><a href="#ITN_35"><sup>[35]</sup></a> of those sons
+  slain of old comes upon the houses of the sons of Tantalus, and some
+  deity hastens unkindly things against thee.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. From the beginning the demon of my mother's zone<a
+  name="IT_36"></a><a href="#ITN_36"><sup>[36]</sup></a> was hostile to me,
+  and from that night in which the Fates hastened the pangs of childbirth<a
+  name="IT_37"></a><a href="#ITN_37"><sup>[37]</sup></a> *&nbsp;*&nbsp;*&nbsp;* whom, the
+  first-born germ the wretched daughter of Leda, (Clytæmnestra,) wooed from
+  among the Greeks brought forth, and trained up as a victim to a father's
+  sin, a joyless sacrifice, a votive offering. But in a horse-chariot they
+  brought<a name="IT_38"></a><a href="#ITN_38"><sup>[38]</sup></a> me to
+  the sands of Aulis, a bride, alas! unhappy bride to the son of Nereus'
+  daughter, alas! And now a stranger I dwell in an unpleasant home on the
+  inhospitable sea, unwedded, childless, without city, without a friend,
+  not chanting Juno in Argos, nor in the sweetly humming loom adorning with
+  the shuttle the image of Athenian Pallas<a name="IT_39"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_39"><sup>[39]</sup></a> and of the Titans, but imbruing altars
+  with the shed blood of strangers, a pest unsuited to the harp, [of
+  strangers] sighing forth<a name="IT_40"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_40"><sup>[40]</sup></a> a piteous cry, and shedding a piteous
+  tear. And now indeed forgetfulness of these matters [comes upon] me, but
+  now I mourn my brother dead in Argos, whom I left yet an infant at the
+  breast, yet young, yet a germ in his mother's arms and on her bosom,
+  Orestes [the future] holder of the sceptre in Argos.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. But hither comes a herdsman, leaving the sea-coast, about to
+  tell thee some new thing.</p>
+
+  <p>HERDSMAN. Daughter of Agamemnon and child of Clytæmnestra, hear thou
+  from me a new announcement.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. And what is there astonishing in the present report?</p>
+
+  <p>HERDS. Two youths are come into this land, to the dark-blue
+  Symplegades, fleeing into a ship, a grateful sacrifice and offering to
+  Diana. But you can not use too much haste<a name="IT_41"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_41"><sup>[41]</sup></a> in making ready the lustral waters and
+  the consecrations.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Of what country? of what land do the strangers bear the name?</p>
+
+  <p>HERDS. Greeks, this one thing I know, and nothing further.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Hast thou not heard the name of the strangers, so as to tell
+  it?</p>
+
+  <p>HERDS. One of them was styled Pylades by the other.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. But what was the name of the yoke-fellow of this stranger?</p>
+
+  <p>HERDS. No one knows this. For we heard it not.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. But how saw ye them, and chanced to take them?</p>
+
+  <p>HERDS. Upon the furthest breakers of the inhospitable sea.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. And what had herdsmen to do with the sea?</p>
+
+  <p>HERDS. We came to lave our steers in the dew of the sea.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Go back again to this point&mdash;how did ye catch them, and by
+  what means, for I would fain know this? For they are come after a long
+  season, nor has the altar of the Goddess yet been crimsoned with Grecian
+  blood.<a name="IT_42"></a><a href="#ITN_42"><sup>[42]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>HERDS. After we woodland herdsmen had brought our cattle down to the
+  sea that flows between the Symplegades, there is a certain hollow cave,<a
+  name="IT_43"></a><a href="#ITN_43"><sup>[43]</sup></a> broken by the
+  frequent lashing of the waves, a retreat for those who hunt for the
+  purple fish. Here some herdsman among us beheld two youths, and he
+  retired back, piloting his step on tiptoe, and said: See ye not? these
+  who sit here are some divine powers. And one of us, being religiously
+  given, uplifted his hand, and addressed them, as he beheld: O son of
+  Leucothea, guardian of ships, Palæmon our lord, be propitious to us,
+  whether indeed ye be the twin sons of Jove (Castor and Pollux) who sit
+  upon our shores, or the image of Nereus, who begot the noble chorus of
+  the fifty Nereids. But another vain one, bold in his lawlessness, scoffed
+  at these prayers, and said that they were shipwrecked<a
+  name="IT_44"></a><a href="#ITN_44"><sup>[44]</sup></a> seamen who sat
+  upon the cleft through fear of the law, hearing that we here sacrifice
+  strangers. And to most of us he seemed to speak well, and [we resolved]
+  to hunt for the accustomed victims for the Goddess. But meanwhile one of
+  the strangers leaving the rock, stood still, and shook his head up and
+  down, and groaned, with his very fingers quaking, wandering with ravings,
+  and shouts with voice like that of hunter, "Pylades, dost thou behold
+  this? Dost not behold this snake of Hades, how she would fain slay me,
+  armed against me with horrid vipers?<a name="IT_45"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_45"><sup>[45]</sup></a> And she breathing from beneath her
+  garments<a name="IT_46"></a><a href="#ITN_46"><sup>[46]</sup></a> fire
+  and slaughter, rows with her wings, bearing my mother in her arms, that
+  she may cast upon me this rocky mass. Alas! she will slay me. Whither
+  shall I fly?" And one beheld not the same form of countenance, but he
+  uttered in turn the bellowings of calves and howls of dogs, which
+  imitations [of wild beasts] they say the Furies utter. But we flinching,
+  as though about to die, sat mute; and he drawing a sword with his hand,
+  rushing among the calves, lion-like, strikes them on the flank with the
+  steel, driving it into their sides, fancying that he was thus avenging
+  himself on the Fury Goddesses, till that a gory foam was dashed up from
+  the sea. Meanwhile, each one of us, as he beheld the herds being slain
+  and ravaged, armed himself, and inflating the conch<a name="IT_47"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_47"><sup>[47]</sup></a> shells and assembling the
+  inhabitants&mdash;for we thought that herdsmen were weak to fight against
+  well-trained and youthful strangers. And a large number of us was
+  assembled in a short time. But the stranger, released from the attack of
+  madness, drops down, with his beard befouled with foam. But when we saw
+  him fallen opportunely [for us,] each man did his part, with stones, with
+  blows. But the other of the strangers wiped away the foam, and tended his
+  mouth, and spread over him the well-woven texture of his garments,
+  guarding well the coming wounds, and aiding his friend with tender
+  offices. But when the stranger returning to his senses leaped up, he
+  perceived that a hostile tempest and present calamity was close upon
+  them, and he groaned aloud. But we ceased not hurling rocks, each
+  standing in a different place. But then indeed we heard a dread
+  exhortation, "Pylades, we shall die, but that we die most gloriously!
+  Follow me, drawing thy sword in hand." But when we saw the twain swords
+  of the enemy<a name="IT_48"></a><a href="#ITN_48"><sup>[48]</sup></a>
+  brandished, in flight we filled the woods about the crag. But if one
+  fled, others pressing on pelted them; and if they drove these away, again
+  the party who had just yielded aimed at them with rocks. But it was
+  incredible, for out of innumerable hands no one succeeded in hitting
+  these victims to the Goddess. And we with difficulty, I will not say
+  overcome them by force, but taking them in a circle, beat<a
+  name="IT_49"></a><a href="#ITN_49"><sup>[49]</sup></a> their swords out
+  of their hands with stones, and they dropped their knees to earth
+  [overcome] with toil. And we brought them to the king of this land, but
+  he, when he beheld them, sent them as quickly as possible to thee for
+  lustral waters and sacrifice. But do thou, O virgin, wish that such
+  strangers may be here as victims, and if thou slayest these strangers,
+  Hellas will atone for thy [intended] murder, paying the penalty of the
+  sacrifice at Aulis.<a name="IT_50"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_50"><sup>[50]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Thou hast told wondrous things concerning him who has appeared,
+  whosoever he be that has come to the inhospitable sea from the Grecian
+  earth.<a name="IT_51"></a><a href="#ITN_51"><sup>[51]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Be it so. Do thou go and bring the strangers, but I will take
+  care respecting the matters<a name="IT_52"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_52"><sup>[52]</sup></a> here. O hapless heart, that once wast
+  mild and full of pity toward strangers, awarding the tear to those of
+  thine own land, when thou didst receive Grecian men into thine hands.<a
+  name="IT_53"></a><a href="#ITN_53"><sup>[53]</sup></a> But now, because
+  of the dreams by which I am driven wild, thinking that Orestes no longer
+  beholds the sun, ye will find me ill disposed, whoever ye be that come.
+  For this is true, I perceive it, my friends,<a name="IT_54"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_54"><sup>[54]</sup></a> for the unhappy who themselves fare
+  ill have no good feelings toward those more fortunate. But neither has
+  any wind sent by Jove ever come [hither,] nor ship, which could have
+  brought hither Helen, who destroyed me, and Menelaus, in order that I
+  might be avenged on them, placing an Aulis here to the account<a
+  name="IT_55"></a><a href="#ITN_55"><sup>[55]</sup></a> of the one there,
+  where the sons of Danaus seized, and would have slain me like as a calf,
+  and the father who begat me was the priest. Ah me! for I can not forget
+  the ills of that time, how oft I stretched out my hands to his beard, and
+  hanging on the knees of him who gave me life, spake words like these: "O
+  father, basely am I, basely am I wedded at thine hands. But my mother,
+  while thou art slaying me, and her Argive ladies are hymning my wedding<a
+  name="IT_56"></a><a href="#ITN_56"><sup>[56]</sup></a> with their nuptial
+  songs, and all the house resounds with the flute, while I perish by thy
+  hands. Hades in truth was Achilles, not the son of Peleus, whom thou
+  didst name as my husband, and in the chariot didst pilot me by craft unto
+  a bloody wedding." But I, casting mine eye through my slender woven veil,
+  neither took up with mine hands my brother who is now dead, nor joined my
+  lips to my sister's,<a name="IT_57"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_57"><sup>[57]</sup></a> through modesty, as departing to the
+  home of Peleus; and many a salutation I deferred, as though about to come
+  again to Argos. Oh wretched one, if thou hast died! from what glorious
+  state, Orestes, and from how envied a sire's fortune art thou fallen! But
+  I reproach the devices of the Goddess, who, if any one work the death of
+  a man, or touch with hands a woman newly delivered, or a corpse,
+  restrains him from her altars, as deeming him impure, but yet herself
+  takes pleasure in man-slaying sacrifices. It can not be that the consort
+  of Jove, Latona, hath brought forth so much ignorance. I even disbelieve
+  the banquets of Tantalus set before the Gods, [as that they] should be
+  pleased with feeding on a boy. But I deem that those in this land, being
+  themselves man-slayers, charge the Goddess with their own baseness, for I
+  think not that any one of the Gods is bad.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Ye dark blue, dark blue meetings of the sea, which Io, hurried
+  along by the brize, once passed through to the Euxine wave, having
+  changed the territory of Asia for Europe,&mdash;who were they who left
+  fair-watered Eurotas, flourishing in reeds, or the sacred founts of
+  Dirce, and came, and came to the inhospitable land, where the daughter of
+  Jove bedews her altars and column-girt temples with human blood? Of a
+  truth by the surge-dashing oars of fir, worked on both sides, they sailed
+  in a nautical carriage o'er the ocean waves, striving in the emulation
+  after loved wealth in their houses. For darling hope is in dangers
+  insatiate among men, who bear off the weight of riches, wandering in vain
+  speculation on the wave and o'er barbarian cities. But to some<a
+  name="IT_58"></a><a href="#ITN_58"><sup>[58]</sup></a> there is a mind
+  immoderate after riches, to others they come unsought. How did they pass
+  through the rocks that run together, the ne'er resting beaches of
+  Phineus, [and] the marine shore, running o'er the surge of Amphitrite,<a
+  name="IT_59"></a><a href="#ITN_59"><sup>[59]</sup></a>&mdash;where the
+  choruses of the fifty daughters of Nereus entwine in the
+  dance,&mdash;[although] with breezes that fill the sails, the creaking
+  rudders resting at the poop, with southern gales or the breezes of
+  Zephyr, to the bird-haunted land, the white beach, the glorious
+  race-course of Achilles, near the Euxine Sea. Would that, according to my
+  mistress' prayers, Helen, the dear daughter of Leda, might sometime
+  chance to come, quitting the city of Troy, that, having been drenched
+  about the head with the blood-stained lustral dews, she might die by my
+  mistress' hand, paying in turn an equal penalty [for her death.] Most
+  joyfully then would we receive this news, if any one came sailing from
+  the Grecian land, to make the toils of my hapless slavery to cease. And
+  would that in my dreams I might tread<a name="IT_60"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_60"><sup>[60]</sup></a> in mine home and ancestral city,
+  enjoying the hymns of delight, a joy shared with the prosperous. But
+  hither they come, bound as to their two<a name="IT_61"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_61"><sup>[61]</sup></a> hands with chains, a new sacrifice for
+  the Goddess. Be silent, my friends, for these first-fruits of the Greeks
+  approach the temples, nor has the herdsman told a false tale. O reverend
+  Goddess, if the city performs these things agreeably to thee, receive the
+  sacrifice which, not hallowed among the Greeks, the custom of this place
+  presents as a public offering.<a name="IT_62"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_62"><sup>[62]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Be it so. I must first take care that the rites of the Goddess
+  are as they should be. Let go the hands of the strangers, that being
+  consecrated they may no longer be in bonds. And, going within the temple,
+  make ready the things which are necessary and usual on these occasions.
+  Alas! Who is the mother who once bore you? And who your father, and your
+  sister, if there be any born? Of what a pair of youths deprived will she
+  be brotherless! For all the dispensations of the Gods creep into
+  obscurity, and no one [absent] knows misfortune,<a name="IT_63"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_63"><sup>[63]</sup></a> for fortune leads astray to what is
+  hardly known. Whence come ye, O unhappy strangers? After how long a time
+  have ye sailed to this land, and ye will be a long time from your home,
+  ever among the shades!<a name="IT_64"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_64"><sup>[64]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>OR. Why mournest thou thus, and teasest us<a name="IT_65"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_65"><sup>[65]</sup></a> concerning our future ills, whoever
+  thou art, O lady? In naught do I deem him wise, who, when about to die,
+  with bewailings seeks to overcome the fear of death, nor him who deplores
+  death now near at hand,<a name="IT_66"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_66"><sup>[66]</sup></a> when he has no hope of safety, in that
+  he joins two ills instead of one, both incurs the charge of folly, and
+  dies none the less. But one must needs let fortune take its course. But
+  mourn us not, for we know and are acquainted with the sacrificial rites
+  of this place.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Which of ye twain here is named Pylades? This I would fain know
+  first.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. This man, if indeed 'tis any pleasure for thee to know this.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Born citizen of what Grecian state?</p>
+
+  <p>OR. And what wouldst thou gain by knowing this, lady?</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Are ye brothers from one mother?</p>
+
+  <p>OR. In friendship we are, but we are not related, lady.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. But what name did the father who begot thee give to thee?</p>
+
+  <p>OR. In truth we might be styled the unhappy.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. I ask not this. Leave this to fortune.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. Dying nameless, I should not be mocked.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Wherefore dost grudge this, and art thus proud?</p>
+
+  <p>OR. My body thou shalt sacrifice, not my name.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Nor wilt thou tell me which is thy city?</p>
+
+  <p>OR. No. For thou seekest a thing of no profit, seeing I am to die.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. But what hinders thee from granting me this favor?</p>
+
+  <p>OR. I boast renowned Argos for my country.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. In truth, by the Gods I ask thee, stranger, art thou thence
+  born?</p>
+
+  <p>OR. From Mycenæ,<a name="IT_67"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_67"><sup>[67]</sup></a> that was once prosperous.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. And hast thou set out a wanderer from thy country, or by what
+  hap?</p>
+
+  <p>OR. I flee in a certain wise unwilling, willingly.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Wouldst thou tell me one thing that I wish?</p>
+
+  <p>OR. That something, forsooth,<a name="IT_68"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_68"><sup>[68]</sup></a> may be added to my misfortune.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. And truly thou hast come desired by me, in coming from Argos.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. Not by myself, at all events; but if by thee, do thou enjoy it.<a
+  name="IT_69"></a><a href="#ITN_69"><sup>[69]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Perchance thou knowest Troy, the fame of which is every
+  where.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. Ay, would that I never had, not even seeing it in a dream!</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. They say that it is now no more, and has fallen by the spear.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. And so it is, nor have you heard what is not the case.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. And is Helen come back to the house of Menelaus?</p>
+
+  <p>OR. She is, ay, coming unluckily to one of mine.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. And where is she? For she has incurred an old debt of evil with
+  me also.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. She dwells in Sparta with her former consort.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. O hateful pest among the Greeks, not to me only!</p>
+
+  <p>OR. I also have received some fruits of her nuptials.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. And did the return of the Greeks take place, as is reported?</p>
+
+  <p>OR. How dost thou question me, embracing all matters at once!</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. For I wish to obtain this before that thou diest.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. Examine me, since thou hast this longing, and I will speak.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Has a certain seer named Calchas returned from Troy?</p>
+
+  <p>OR. He perished, as the story ran, at Mycenæ.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. O revered Goddess, how well it is! And how fares the son of
+  Laertes?</p>
+
+  <p>OR. He has not yet returned to his home, but he is alive, as report
+  goes.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. May he perish, never obtaining a return to his country!</p>
+
+  <p>OR. Invoke nothing&mdash;all his affairs are in a sickly state.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. But is the son of Thetis, the daughter of Nereus, yet alive?</p>
+
+  <p>OR. He is not. In vain he held his wedding in Aulis.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. A crafty [wedding] it was, as those who have suffered say.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. Who canst thou be? How well dost ken the affairs of Greece!</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. I am from thence. While yet a child I was undone.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. With reason thou desirest to know the affairs there, O lady.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. But how [fares] the general, who they say is prosperous.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. Who? For he whom I know is not of the fortunate.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. A certain king Agamemnon was called the son of Atreus.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. I know not&mdash;cease from these words, O lady.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Nay, by the Gods, but speak, that I may be rejoiced, O
+  stranger.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. The wretched one is dead, and furthermore hath ruined one.<a
+  name="IT_70"></a><a href="#ITN_70"><sup>[70]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Is dead? By what mishap? O wretched me!</p>
+
+  <p>OR. But why dost mourn this? Was he a relation of thine?</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. I bemoan his former prosperity.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. [Ay, well mayest thou,] for he has fallen, slain shamefully by a
+  woman.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. O all grievous she that slew and he that fell!</p>
+
+  <p>OR. Cease now at least, nor question further.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Thus much at least, does the wife of the unhappy man live?</p>
+
+  <p>OR. She is no more. The son she brought forth, he slew her.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. O house all troubled! with what intent, then?<a
+  name="IT_71"></a><a href="#ITN_71"><sup>[71]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>OR. Taking satisfaction on her for the death of his father.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Alas! how well he executed an evil act of justice.<a
+  name="IT_72"></a><a href="#ITN_72"><sup>[72]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>OR. But, though just, he hath not good fortune from the Gods.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. But does Agamemnon leave any other child in his house?</p>
+
+  <p>OR. He has left a single virgin [daughter,] Electra.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. What! Is there no report of his sacrificed daughter?<a
+  name="IT_73"></a><a href="#ITN_73"><sup>[73]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>OR. None indeed, save that being dead she beholds not the light.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Hapless she, and the father who slew her!</p>
+
+  <p>OR. She perished, a thankless offering<a name="IT_74"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_74"><sup>[74]</sup></a> because of a bad woman.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. But is the son of the deceased father at Argos?</p>
+
+  <p>OR. He, wretched man, is nowhere and every where.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Away, vain dreams, ye were then of naught!</p>
+
+  <p>OR. Nor are the Gods who are called wise any less false than winged
+  dreams. There is much inconsistency both among the Gods and among
+  mortals. But one thing alone is left, when<a name="IT_75"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_75"><sup>[75]</sup></a> a man not being foolish, persuaded by
+  the words of seers, has perished, as he hath perished in man's
+  knowledge.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Alas! alas! But what of us and our fathers? Are they, or are
+  they not in being, who can tell?</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Hear me, for I am come to a certain discourse, meditating what is
+  at once profitable for you and me. But that which is well is chiefly
+  produced thus, when the same matter pleases all. Would ye be willing, if
+  I were to save you, to go to Argos, and bear a message for me to my
+  friends there, and carry a letter, which a certain captive wrote, pitying
+  me, nor deeming my hand that of a murderess, but that he died through
+  custom, as the Goddess sanctioned such things as just? For I had no one
+  who would go and bear the news back to Argos, and who, being preserved,
+  would send my letters to some one of my friends.<a name="IT_76"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_76"><sup>[76]</sup></a> But do thou, for thou art, as thou
+  seemest, of no ignoble birth, and knowest Mycenæ and the persons I wish,
+  do thou, I say,<a name="IT_77"></a><a href="#ITN_77"><sup>[77]</sup></a>
+  be saved, receiving no dishonorable reward, your safety for the sake of
+  trifling letters. But let this man, since the city compels it, be a
+  sacrifice to the Goddess, apart from thee.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. Well hast thou spoken the rest, save one thing, O stranger lady,
+  for 'tis a heavy weight upon me that this man should be slain. For I was
+  steersman of the vessel to these ills,<a name="IT_78"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_78"><sup>[78]</sup></a> but he is a fellow-sailor because of
+  mine own troubles. In no wise then is it right that I should do thee a
+  favor to his destruction, and myself escape from ills. But let it be
+  thus. Give him the letter, for he will send it to Argos, so as to be well
+  for thee, but let him that will slay me. Base is the man, who, casting
+  his friends into calamity, himself is saved. But this man is a friend,
+  who I fain should see the light no less that myself.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. O noblest spirit, how art thou sprung from some generous root,
+  thou truly a friend to thy friends! Such might he be who is left of my
+  brothers! For in good truth, strangers, I am not brotherless, save that I
+  behold him not. But since thou willest thus, let us send this man bearing
+  the letter, but thou wilt die, and some great desire of this chances to
+  possess thee?<a name="IT_79"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_79"><sup>[79]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>OR. But who will sacrifice me, and dare this dreadful deed?</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. I; for I have this sacrificial duty<a name="IT_80"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_80"><sup>[80]</sup></a> from the Goddess.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. Unenviable indeed. O damsel, and unblest.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. But we lie under necessity, which one must beware.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. Thyself, a female, sacrificing males with the sword?</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Not so; but I shall lave around thy head with the lustral
+  stream.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. But who is the slayer, if I may ask this?</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Within the house are they whose office is this.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. And what manner of tomb will receive me, when I die?</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. The holy flame within, and the dark chasm of the rock.<a
+  name="IT_81"></a><a href="#ITN_81"><sup>[81]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>OR. Alas! Would that a sister's hand might lay me out.<a
+  name="IT_82"></a><a href="#ITN_82"><sup>[82]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>IPH. A vain prayer hast thou uttered, whoever thou art, O stranger,
+  for she dwells far from this barbarian land. Nevertheless, since thou art
+  an Argive, I will not fail to do thee kindness in what is possible. For
+  on thy tomb will I place much adornment, and with the tawny oil will I
+  cause thy body to be soon consumed,<a name="IT_83"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_83"><sup>[83]</sup></a> and on thy pyre will I pour the
+  flower-sucked riches of the swarthy bee. But I will go and fetch the
+  letter from the shrines of the Goddess. But do thou not bear ill will
+  against me. Guard them, ye servants, [but] without fetters.<a
+  name="IT_84"></a><a href="#ITN_84"><sup>[84]</sup></a> Perchance I shall
+  send unexpected tidings to some one of my friends at Argos, whom I
+  chiefly love, and the letter, telling to him that she lives whom he
+  thinks dead, will announce a faithful pleasure.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. I deplore thee now destined to the gory streams of the lustral
+  waters.<a name="IT_85"></a><a href="#ITN_85"><sup>[85]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>OR. 'Tis piteous, truly;<a name="IT_86"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_86"><sup>[86]</sup></a> but fare ye well, stranger ladies.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. But thee, (<i>to Pylades</i>) O youth, we honor for thy happy
+  fortune, that at some time thou wilt return to thy country.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. Not to be coveted<a name="IT_87"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_87"><sup>[87]</sup></a> by friends, when friends are to
+  die.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. O mournful journeying! Alas! alas! thou art undone. Woe! woe!
+  which is the [victim] to be? For still my mind resolves<a
+  name="IT_88"></a><a href="#ITN_88"><sup>[88]</sup></a> twain doubtful
+  [ills,] whether with groans I shall bemoan thee (<i>to Orestes</i>) or
+  thee (<i>to Pylades</i>) first.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. Pylades, hast thou, by the Gods, experienced the same feeling as
+  myself?</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. I know not. Thou askest me unable to say.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. Who is this damsel? With what a Grecian spirit she asked us
+  concerning the toils in Troy, and the return of the Greeks, and Calchas
+  wise in augury, and about Achilles, and how she pitied wretched
+  Agamemnon, and asked me of his wife and children. This stranger lady is<a
+  name="IT_89"></a><a href="#ITN_89"><sup>[89]</sup></a> some Greek by
+  race; for otherwise she never would have been sending a letter and making
+  these inquiries, as sharing a common weal in the well-doing of Argos.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. Thou hast outstripped me a little, but thou outstrippest me in
+  saying the same things, save in one respect&mdash;for all, with whom
+  there is any communication, know the fate of the king. But I was<a
+  name="IT_90"></a><a href="#ITN_90"><sup>[90]</sup></a> considering
+  another subject.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. What? laying it down in common, you will better understand.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. 'Tis base that I should behold the light, while you perish; and,
+  having sailed with you, with you I must needs die also. For I shall incur
+  the imputation of both cowardice and baseness in Argos and the Phocian
+  land with its many dells, and I shall seem to the many, for the many are
+  evil, to have arrived alone in safety to mine home, having deserted thee,
+  or even to have murdered thee, taking advantage of the sickly state of
+  thine house, and to have devised thy fate for the sake of reigning, in
+  order that, forsooth, I might wed thy sister as an heiress<a
+  name="IT_91"></a><a href="#ITN_91"><sup>[91]</sup></a>. These things,
+  then, I dread, and hold in shame, and it shall not be but I will breathe
+  my last with thee, be slain, and have my body burned with thee, being a
+  friend, and dreading reproach.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. Speak words of better omen. I must needs bear my troubles, but
+  when I may [endure] one single trouble, I will not endure twain. For what
+  thou callest bitter and reproachful, that is my portion, if I cause thee
+  to be slain who hast shared my toils. For, as far as I am concerned, it
+  stands not badly with me, faring as I fare at the hands of the Gods, to
+  end my life. But thou art prosperous, and hast a home pure, not
+  sickening, but I [have] one impious and unhappy. And living thou mayest
+  raise children from my sister, whom I gave thee to have<a
+  name="IT_92"></a><a href="#ITN_92"><sup>[92]</sup></a> as a wife, and my
+  name might exist, nor would my ancestral house be ever blotted out. But
+  go, live, and dwell in my father's house; and when thou comest to Greece
+  and chivalrous Argos, by thy right hand, I commit to thee this charge.
+  Heap up a tomb, and place upon it remembrances of me, and let my sister
+  offer tears and her shorn locks upon my sepulchre. And tell how I died by
+  an Argive woman's hand, sacrificed as an offering by the altar's side.
+  And do thou never desert my sister, seeing my father's connections and
+  home bereaved. And fare thee well! for I have found thee best among my
+  friends. Oh thou who hast been my fellow-huntsman, my mate! Oh thou who
+  hast borne the weight of many of my sorrows! But Ph&#339;bus, prophet
+  though he be, has deceived me. For, artfully devising, he has driven me
+  as far as possible from Greece, in shame of his former prophecies. To
+  whom I, yielding up mine all, and obeying his words, having slain my
+  mother, myself perish in turn.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. Thou shalt have a tomb, and never will I, hapless one, betray thy
+  sister's bed, since I shall hold thee more a friend dead than living. But
+  the oracle of the God has never yet wronged thee, although thou art
+  indeed on the very verge of death. But excessive mischance is very wont,
+  is very wont to present changes, when the matter so falls.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. Be silent&mdash;the words of Ph&#339;bus avail me naught, for the
+  lady is coming hither without the temple.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Depart ye, and go and make ready the things within for those who
+  superintend the sacrifice. These, O stranger, are the many-folded
+  inclosures of the letter, but hear thou what I further wish. No man is
+  the same in trouble, and when he changes from fear into confidence. But I
+  fear, lest he having got away from this land, will deem my letter of no
+  account, who is about to bear this letter to Argos.<a name="IT_93"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_93"><sup>[93]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>OR. What wouldst thou? Concerning what art thou disturbed?</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Let him make me oath that he will ferry these writings to Argos,
+  to those friends to whom I wish to send them.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. Wilt thou in turn make the same assertion to him?</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. That I will do, or will not do what thing? say.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. That you will release him from this barbarian land, not dying.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Thou sayest justly; for how could he bear the message?</p>
+
+  <p>OR. But will the ruler also grant this?</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Yea. I will persuade him, and will myself embark him on the
+  ship's hull.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. Swear, but do thou commence such oath as is holy.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Thou must say "I will give this [letter] to my friends."</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. I will give this letter to thy friends.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. And I will send thee safe beyond the Cyanean rocks.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. Whom of the Gods dost thou call to witness of thine oath in these
+  words?</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Diana, in whose temple I hold office.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. But I [call upon] the king of heaven, hallowed Jove.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. But if, deserting thine oath, thou shouldst wrong me&mdash;</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. May I not return? But thou, if thou savest me not&mdash;</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. May I never living set footprint in Argos.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. Hear now then a matter which we have passed by.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. There will be opportunity hereafter, if matters stand aright.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. Grant me this one exception. If the vessel suffer any harm, and
+  the letter be lost<a name="IT_94"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_94"><sup>[94]</sup></a> in the storm, together with the goods,
+  and I save my person only, that this mine oath be no longer valid.<a
+  name="IT_95"></a><a href="#ITN_95"><sup>[95]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Knowest thou what I will do?<a name="IT_96"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_96"><sup>[96]</sup></a> for the many things contained in the
+  folds of the letter bear opportunity for many things.<a
+  name="IT_97"></a><a href="#ITN_97"><sup>[97]</sup></a> I will tell you in
+  words all that you are to convey to my friends, for this plan is safe. If
+  indeed thou preservest the letter, it will itself silently tell the
+  things written, but if these letters be lost at sea, saving thy body,
+  thou wilt preserve my message.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. Thou hast spoken well on behalf of the Gods<a name="IT_98"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_98"><sup>[98]</sup></a> and of myself. But tell me to whom at
+  Argos I must needs bear these epistles, and what hearing from thee, I
+  must tell.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Bear word to Orestes, the son of Agamemnon, (<i>reading</i>)
+  "she<a name="IT_99"></a><a href="#ITN_99"><sup>[99]</sup></a> that was
+  sacrificed at Aulis gives this commission, Iphigenia alive, but no longer
+  alive as far as those in Argos are concerned."</p>
+
+  <p>OR. But where is she? Does she come back again having died?</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. She, whom you see. Do not confuse me with speaking. (<i>Continues
+  reading</i>) "Bear me to Argos, my brother, before I die, remove me from
+  this barbarian land and the sacrifices of the Goddess, in which I have
+  the office of slaying strangers."</p>
+
+  <p>OR. Pylades, what shall I say? where shall we be found to be?<a
+  name="IT_100"></a><a href="#ITN_100"><sup>[100]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>IPH. (<i>still reading</i>) "Or I will be a cause of curses upon thine
+  house, Orestes," (<i>with great stress upon the name and turning to
+  Pylades</i>,) "that thou, twice hearing the name, mayest know it."</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. O Gods!</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Why callest thou upon the Gods in matters that are mine?</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. 'Tis nothing. Go on. I was wandering to another subject.
+  Perchance, inquiring of thee, I shall arrive at things incredible.<a
+  name="IT_101"></a><a href="#ITN_101"><sup>[101]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>IPH. (<i>continues reading</i>) "Say that the Goddess Diana saved me,
+  giving in exchange for me a hind, which my father sacrificed, thinking
+  that it was upon me that he laid the sharp sword, and she placed me to
+  dwell in this land." This is the burden of my message, these are the
+  words written in my letter.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. O thou who hast secured me in easy oaths, and hast sworn things
+  fairest, I will not delay much time, but I will firmly accomplish the
+  oath I have sworn. Behold, I bear and deliver to thee a letter, O
+  Orestes, from this thy sister.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. I receive it. And letting go the opening of the letter, I will
+  first seize a delight not in words (<i>attempts to embrace her</i>). O
+  dearest sister mine, in amazement, yet nevertheless embracing thee with a
+  doubting arm, I go to a source of delight, hearing things marvelous to
+  me.<a name="IT_102"></a><a href="#ITN_102"><sup>[102]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Stranger,<a name="IT_103"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_103"><sup>[103]</sup></a> thou dost not rightly pollute the
+  servant of the Goddess, casting thine arm around her garments that should
+  ne'er be touched.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. O fellow-sister born of one sire, Agamemnon, turn not from me,
+  possessing a brother whom you never thought to possess.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. I [possess] thee my brother? Wilt not cease speaking? Both Argos
+  and Nauplia are frequented by him.<a name="IT_104"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_104"><sup>[104]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>OR. Unhappy one! thy brother is not there.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. But did the Lacedæmonian daughter of Tyndarus beget thee?</p>
+
+  <p>OR. Ay, to the grandson of Pelops, whence I am sprung.<a
+  name="IT_105"></a><a href="#ITN_105"><sup>[105]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>IPH. What sayest thou? Hast thou any proof of this for me?</p>
+
+  <p>OR. I have. Ask something relative to my ancestral home.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Thou must needs then speak, and I learn.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. I will first speak from hearsay from Electra, this.<a
+  name="IT_106"></a><a href="#ITN_106"><sup>[106]</sup></a> Thou knowest
+  the strife that took place between Atreus and Thyestes?</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. I have heard of it, when it was waged concerning the golden
+  lamb.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. Dost thou then remember weaving [a representation of] this on the
+  deftly-wrought web?</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. O dearest one. Thou art turning thy course near to my own
+  thoughts.<a name="IT_107"></a><a href="#ITN_107"><sup>[107]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>OR. And [dost thou remember] a picture on the loom, the turning away
+  of the sun?</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. I wove this image also in the fine-threaded web.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. And didst thou receive<a name="IT_108"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_108"><sup>[108]</sup></a> a bath from thy mother, sent to
+  Aulis?</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. I know it: for the wedding, though good, did not take away my
+  recollection.<a name="IT_109"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_109"><sup>[109]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>OR. But what? [Dost thou remember] to have given thine hair to be
+  carried to thy mother?</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Ay, as a memorial for the tomb<a name="IT_110"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_110"><sup>[110]</sup></a> in place of my body.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. But the proofs which I have myself beheld, these will I tell, viz.
+  the ancient spear of Pelops in my father's house, which brandishing in
+  his hand, he [Pelops] won Hippodameia, having slain Ænomaus, which is
+  hidden in thy virgin chamber.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. O dearest one, no more, for thou art dearest. I hold thee,
+  Orestes, one darling son<a name="IT_111"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_111"><sup>[111]</sup></a> far away from his father-land, from
+  Argos, O thou dear one!</p>
+
+  <p>OR. And I [hold] thee that wast dead, as was supposed. But tears, yet
+  tearless,<a name="IT_112"></a><a href="#ITN_112"><sup>[112]</sup></a> and
+  groans together mingled with joy, bedew thine eyelids, and mine in like
+  manner.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. This one, this, yet a babe I left, young in the arms of the
+  nurse, ay, young in our house. O thou more fortunate than my words<a
+  name="IT_113"></a><a href="#ITN_113"><sup>[113]</sup></a> can tell, what
+  shall I say? This matter has turned out beyond marvel or calculation.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. [Say this.] May we for the future be happy with each other!</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. I have experienced an unaccountable delight, dear companions, but
+  I fear lest it flit<a name="IT_114"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_114"><sup>[114]</sup></a> from my hands, and escape toward the
+  sky. O ye Cyclopean hearths, O Mycenæ, dear country mine. I am grateful
+  to thee for my life, and grateful for my nurture, in that thou hast
+  trained for me this brother light in my home.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. In our race we are fortunate, but as to calamities, O sister, our
+  life is by nature unhappy.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. But I wretched remember when my father with foolish spirit laid
+  the sword upon my neck.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. Ah me! For I seem, not being present, to behold you there.<a
+  name="IT_115"></a><a href="#ITN_115"><sup>[115]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Without Hymen, O my brother, when I was being led to the
+  fictitious nuptial bed of Achilles. But near the altar were tears and
+  lamentations. Alas! alas, for the lustral waters there!</p>
+
+  <p>OR. I mourn aloud for the deed my father dared.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. I obtained a fatherless, a fatherless lot. But one calamity
+  follows upon another.<a name="IT_116"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_116"><sup>[116]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>OR. [Ay,] if thou hadst lost thy brother, O hapless one, by the
+  intervention of some demon.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. O miserable for my dreadful daring! I have dared horrid, I have
+  dared horrid things. Alas! my brother. But by a little hast thou escaped
+  an unholy destruction, stricken by my hands. But what will be the end
+  after this? What fortune will befall me? What retreat can I find for thee
+  away from this city? can I send you out of the reach of slaughter to your
+  country Argos, before that my sword enter on the contest concerning thy
+  blood?<a name="IT_117"></a><a href="#ITN_117"><sup>[117]</sup></a> This
+  is thy business, O hapless soul, to discover, whether over the land, not
+  in a ship, but by the gust<a name="IT_118"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_118"><sup>[118]</sup></a> of your feet thou wilt approach
+  death, passing through<a name="IT_119"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_119"><sup>[119]</sup></a> barbarian hordes, and through ways
+  not to be traversed? Or<a name="IT_120"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_120"><sup>[120]</sup></a> [wilt thou pass] through the Cyanean
+  creek, a long journey in the flight of ships. Wretched, wretched one! Who
+  then or God, or mortal, or [unexpected event,<a name="IT_121"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_121"><sup>[121]</sup></a>] having accomplished a way out of
+  inextricable difficulties, will show forth to the sole twain Atrides a
+  release from ills?</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Among marvels and things passing even fable are these things
+  which I shall tell as having myself beheld, and not from hearsay.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. It is meet indeed that friends coming into the presence of
+  friends, Orestes, should embrace one another with their hands, but,
+  having ceased from mournful matters, it behooves you also to betake you
+  to those measures by which we, obtaining the glorious name of safety, may
+  depart from this barbarian earth. For it is the part of wise men, not
+  wandering from their present chance, when they have obtained an
+  opportunity, to acquire further delights.<a name="IT_122"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_122"><sup>[122]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>OR. Thou sayest well. But I think that fortune will take care of this
+  with us. For if a man be zealous, it is likely that the divine power will
+  have still greater power.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Do not restrain or hinder me from your words, not first to know
+  what fortune of life Electra has obtained, for this were pleasant to me
+  [to hear.]<a name="IT_123"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_123"><sup>[123]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>OR. She is partner with this man, possessing a happy life.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. And of what country is he, and son of what man born?</p>
+
+  <p>OR. Strophius the Phocian is styled his father.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. And he is of the daughter of Atreus, a relative of mine?</p>
+
+  <p>OR. Ay, a cousin, my only certain friend.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Was he not in being, when my father sought to slay me?</p>
+
+  <p>OR. He was not, for Strophius was childless some time.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Hail! O thou spouse of my sister.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. Ay, and my preserver, not relation only.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. But how didst thou dare the terrible deeds in respect to your
+  mother?</p>
+
+  <p>OR. Let us be silent respecting my mother&mdash;'twas in avenging my
+  father.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. And what was the reason for her slaying her husband?</p>
+
+  <p>OR. Let go the subject of my mother. Nor is it pleasant for you to
+  hear.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. I am silent. But Argos now looks up to thee.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. Menelaus rules: I am an exile from my country.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. What, did our uncle abuse our house unprospering?</p>
+
+  <p>OR. Not so, but the fear of the Erinnyes drives me from my land.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. For this then wert thou spoken of as being frantic even here on
+  the shore.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. We were beheld not now for the first time in a hapless state.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. I perceive. The Goddesses goaded thee on because of thy
+  mother.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. Ay, so as to cast a bloody bit<a name="IT_124"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_124"><sup>[124]</sup></a> upon me.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. For wherefore didst thou pilot thy foot to this land?</p>
+
+  <p>OR. I came, commanded by the oracles of Ph&#339;bus&mdash;</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. To do what thing? Is it one to be spoken of or kept in
+  silence?</p>
+
+  <p>OR. I will tell you, but these are the beginning for me of many<a
+  name="IT_125"></a><a href="#ITN_125"><sup>[125]</sup></a> woes. After
+  these evil things concerning my mother, on which I keep silence, had been
+  wrought, I was driven an exile by the pursuits of the Erinnyes, when
+  Loxias sent my foot<a name="IT_126"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_126"><sup>[126]</sup></a> to Athens, that I might render
+  satisfaction to the deities that must not be named. For there is a holy
+  council, that Jove once on a time instituted for Mars on account of some
+  pollution of his hands.<a name="IT_127"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_127"><sup>[127]</sup></a> And coming thither, at first indeed
+  no one of the strangers received me willingly, as being abhorred by the
+  Gods, but they who had respect to me, afforded me<a name="IT_128"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_128"><sup>[128]</sup></a> a stranger's meal at a separate
+  table, being under the same house roof, and silently devised in respect
+  to me, unaddressed by them, how I might be separated from their banquet<a
+  name="IT_129"></a><a href="#ITN_129"><sup>[129]</sup></a> and cup, and,
+  having filled up a share of wine in a separate vessel, equal for all,
+  they enjoyed themselves. And I did not think fit to rebuke my guests, but
+  I grieved in silence, and did not seem to perceive [their conduct,]
+  deeply groaning, because I was my mother's slayer.<a name="IT_130"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_130"><sup>[130]</sup></a> But I hear that my misfortunes have
+  been made a festival at Athens, and that this custom still remains, that
+  the people of Pallas honor the Libation Vessel.<a name="IT_131"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_131"><sup>[131]</sup></a> But when I came to the hill of Mars,
+  and stood in judgment, I indeed occupying one seat, but the eldest of the
+  Erinnyes the other, having spoken and heard respecting my mother's death,
+  Ph&#339;bus saved me by bearing witness, but Pallas counted out for me<a
+  name="IT_132"></a><a href="#ITN_132"><sup>[132]</sup></a> the equal votes
+  with her hand, and I came off victor in the bloody trial.<a
+  name="IT_133"></a><a href="#ITN_133"><sup>[133]</sup></a> As many then as
+  sat [in judgment,] persuaded by the sentence, determined to hold their
+  dwelling near the court itself.<a name="IT_134"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_134"><sup>[134]</sup></a> But as many of the Erinnyes as did
+  not yield obedience to the sentence passed, continually kept driving me
+  with unsettled wanderings, until I again returned to the holy ground of
+  Ph&#339;bus, and lying stretched before the adyts, hungering for food, I
+  swore that I would break from life by dying on the spot, unless
+  Ph&#339;bus, who had undone, should preserve me. Upon this Ph&#339;bus,
+  uttering a voice from the golden tripod, sent me hither to seize the
+  heaven-sent image, and place it in the land of Athens. But that safety
+  which he marked out for me do thou aid in. For if we can lay hold on the
+  image of the Goddess, I both shall cease from my madness, and embarking
+  thee in the bark of many oars, I shall settle thee again in Mycenæ. But,
+  O beloved one, O sister mine, preserve my ancestral home, and preserve
+  me, since all my state and that of the Pelopids is undone, unless we
+  seize on the heavenly image of the Goddess.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Some dreadful wrath of the Gods hath burst forth, and leads the
+  seed of Tantalus through troubles.<a name="IT_135"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_135"><sup>[135]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>IPH. I entertained the desire to reach Argos, and behold thee, my
+  brother, even before thou camest. But I wish, as you do, both to save
+  thee, and to restore again our sickening ancestral home from troubles, in
+  no wise wrath with him who would have slain me. For I should both release
+  my hand from thy slaughter, and preserve mine house. But I fear how I
+  shall be able to escape the notice of the Goddess and the king, when he
+  shall find the stone pedestal bared of the image. And how shall I escape
+  death? What account can I give? But if indeed these matters can be
+  effected at once, and thou wilt bear away the image, and lead me in the
+  fair-pooped ship, the risk will be a glorious one. But separated from
+  this I perish, but you, arranging your own affairs, would obtain a
+  prosperous return. Yet in no wise will I fly, not even if I needs must
+  perish, having preserved thee. In no wise, I say;<a name="IT_136"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_136"><sup>[136]</sup></a> for a man who dies from among his
+  household is regretted, but a woman is of little account.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. I would not be the murderer both of thee and of my mother. Her
+  blood is enough, and being of the same mind with you, [with you] I should
+  wish, living or dying, to obtain an equal lot. &#x2020;But I will lead
+  thee, even though I myself fall here, to my house, or, remaining with
+  thee, will die.<a name="IT_137"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_137"><sup>[137]</sup></a>&#x2020; But hear my opinion. If this
+  had been disagreeable to Diana, how would Loxias have answered, that I
+  should remove the image of the Goddess to the city of Pallas, and behold
+  thy face? For, putting all these matters together, I hope to obtain a
+  return.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. How then can it happen that neither you die, and that we obtain
+  what we wish? For it is in this respect that our journey homeward is at
+  fault, but the will is not wanting.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. Could we possibly destroy the tyrant?</p>
+
+  <p>IPH, Thou tellest a fearful thing, for strangers to slay their
+  receivers.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. But if it will preserve thee and me, one must run the risk.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. I could not&mdash;yet I approve your zeal.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. But what if you were secretly to hide me in this temple?</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. In order, forsooth, that, taking advantage of darkness, we might
+  be saved?</p>
+
+  <p>OR. For night is the time for thieves, the light for truth.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. But within are the sacred keepers,<a name="IT_138"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_138"><sup>[138]</sup></a> whom we can not escape.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. Alas! we are undone. How can we then be saved?</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. I seem to have a certain new device.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. Of what kind? Make me a sharer in your opinion, that I also may
+  learn.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. I will make use of thy ravings as a contrivance.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. Ay, cunning are women to find out tricks.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. I will say that thou, being slayer of thy mother, art come from
+  Argos.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. Make use of my troubles, if you can turn them to account.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. I will say that it is not lawful to sacrifice thee to the
+  Goddess.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. Having what pretext? For I partly suspect.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. As not being pure, but I will [say that I will]<a
+  name="IT_139"></a><a href="#ITN_139"><sup>[139]</sup></a> give what is
+  holy to sacrifice.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. How then the more will the image of the Goddess be obtained?</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. I [will say that I] will purify thee in the fountains of the
+  sea.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. The statue, in quest of which, we have sailed, is still in the
+  temple.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. And I will say that I must wash that too, as if you had laid
+  hands on it.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. Where then is the damp breaker of the sea of which you speak?</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Where thy ship rides at anchor with rope-bound chains.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. But wilt thou, or some one else, bear the image in their
+  hands?</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. I, for it is lawful for me alone to touch it.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. But in what part of this contrivance will our friend Pylades<a
+  name="IT_140"></a><a href="#ITN_140"><sup>[140]</sup></a> be placed?</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. He will be said to bear the same pollution of hands as
+  thyself.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. And wilt thou do this unknown to, or with the knowledge of the
+  king?</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Having persuaded him by words, for I could not escape notice.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. And truly the well-rowed ship is ready for sailing.<a
+  name="IT_141"></a><a href="#ITN_141"><sup>[141]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>IPH. You must take care of the rest, that it be well.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. There lacks but one thing, namely, that these women who are
+  present preserve our secret. But do thou beseech them, and find words
+  that will persuade. A woman in truth has power to move pity. But all the
+  rest will perchance fall out well.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. O dearest women, I look to you, and my affairs rest in you, as to
+  whether they turn out well, or be of naught, and I be deprived of my
+  country, my dear brother, and dearest sister. And let this first be the
+  commencement of my words. We are women, a race well inclined to one
+  another, and most safe in keeping secret matters of common interest. Do
+  ye keep silence for us, and labor out our escape. Honorable is it for the
+  man who possesses a faithful tongue. But behold how one fortune holds the
+  three most dear, either a return to our father-land, or to die. But,
+  being preserved, that thou also mayest share my fortune, I will restore
+  thee safe to Greece. But, by thy right hand, thee, and thee
+  [<i>addressing the women of the chorus in succession</i>] I beseech, and
+  thee by thy beloved cheek, and thy knees, and those most dear at home,
+  mother, and father, and children, to whom there are such.<a
+  name="IT_142"></a><a href="#ITN_142"><sup>[142]</sup></a> What say ye?
+  Who of you will, or will not [speak!] these things.<a
+  name="IT_143"></a><a href="#ITN_143"><sup>[143]</sup></a> For if ye
+  assent not to my words, I am undone, and my wretched sister.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Be of good cheer, dear mistress, and think only of being saved,
+  since on my part all shall be kept secret, the mighty Jove be witness! in
+  the things thou enjoinest.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. May your words profit ye, and may ye be blest. 'Tis thy part now,
+  and thine [to the different women] to enter the house, as the ruler of
+  this land will straightway come, inquiring concerning the sacrifice of
+  the strangers, whether it is over. O revered Goddess, who in the recesses
+  of Aulis didst save me from the dire hand of a slaying father, now also
+  save me and these, or the voice of Loxias will through thee be no longer
+  truthful among mortals. But do thou with good will quit the barbarian
+  land for Athens, for it becomes thee not to dwell here, when you can
+  possess a blest city.</p>
+
+  <p>CHORUS. Thou bird, that by the rocky cliffs of the sea, halcyon,<a
+  name="IT_144"></a><a href="#ITN_144"><sup>[144]</sup></a> dost chant thy
+  mournful elegy, a sound well understood by the skilled, namely, that thou
+  art ever bemoaning thine husband in song, I, a wingless bird, compare my
+  dirge with thine, longing for the assemblies<a name="IT_145"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_145"><sup>[145]</sup></a> of the Greeks, longing for Lucina,
+  who dwells along the Cynthian height, and near the palm<a
+  name="IT_146"></a><a href="#ITN_146"><sup>[146]</sup></a> with its
+  luxuriant foliage, and the rich-springing laurel, and the holy shoot of
+  the deep blue olive, the dear place of Latona's throes,<a
+  name="IT_147"></a><a href="#ITN_147"><sup>[147]</sup></a> and the lake
+  that rolls its waters in a circle,<a name="IT_148"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_148"><sup>[148]</sup></a> where the melodious swan honors the
+  muses. O ye many tricklings of tears which fell upon my cheeks, when, our
+  towers being destroyed, I traveled in ships beneath the oars and the
+  spears of the foes.<a name="IT_149"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_149"><sup>[149]</sup></a> And through a bartering of great
+  price I came a journey to a barbarian land,<a name="IT_150"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_150"><sup>[150]</sup></a> where I serve the daughter of
+  Agamemnon, the priestess of the Goddess, and the sheep-slaughtering<a
+  name="IT_151"></a><a href="#ITN_151"><sup>[151]</sup></a> altars, envying
+  her who has all her life been unfortunate;<a name="IT_152"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_152"><sup>[152]</sup></a> for she bends not under necessity,
+  who is familiar with it. Unhappiness is wont to change,<a
+  name="IT_153"></a><a href="#ITN_153"><sup>[153]</sup></a> but to fare ill
+  after prosperity is a heavy life for mortals. And thee indeed, O
+  mistress, an Argive ship of fifty oars will conduct home, and the
+  wax-bound reed of mountain Pan with Syrinx tune cheer on the oarsmen, and
+  prophet Ph&#339;bus, plying the tones of his seven-stringed lyre, with
+  song will lead thee prosperously to the rich land of Athens. But leaving
+  me here thou wilt travel by the dashing oars. And the halyards by the
+  prow,<a name="IT_154"></a><a href="#ITN_154"><sup>[154]</sup></a> will
+  stretch forth the sails to the air, above the beak, the sheet lines of
+  the swift-journeying ship. Would that I might pass through the glittering
+  course, where the fair light of the sun wends its way, and over my own
+  chamber might rest from rapidly moving the pinions on my shoulders.<a
+  name="IT_155"></a><a href="#ITN_155"><sup>[155]</sup></a> And would that
+  I might stand in the dance, where also [I was wont to stand,] a virgin
+  sprung from honorable nuptials,<a name="IT_156"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_156"><sup>[156]</sup></a> wreathing the dances of my
+  companions at the foot of my dear mother,<a name="IT_157"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_157"><sup>[157]</sup></a> bounding to the rivalry of the
+  graces, to the wealthy strife respecting [beauteous] hair, pouring my
+  variously-painted garb and tresses around, I shadowed my cheeks.<a
+  name="IT_158"></a><a href="#ITN_158"><sup>[158]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p class="center">[<i>Enter</i> THOAS.]</p>
+
+  <p>THOAS. Where is the Grecian woman who keeps the gate of this temple?
+  Has she yet begun the sacrifice of the strangers, and are the bodies
+  burning in the flame within the pure recesses?</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Here she is, O king, who will tell thee clearly all.</p>
+
+  <p>TH. Ah! Why art thou removing in your arms this image of the Goddess
+  from its seat that may not be disturbed, O daughter of Agamemnon?</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. O king, rest there thy foot in the portico.</p>
+
+  <p>TH. But what new matter is in the house, Iphigenia?</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. I avert the ill&mdash;for holy<a name="IT_159"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_159"><sup>[159]</sup></a> do I utter this word.</p>
+
+  <p>TH. What new thing art thou prefacing? speak clearly.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. O king, no pure offerings hast thou hunted out for me.</p>
+
+  <p>TH. What hath taught you this? or dost thou speak it as matter of
+  opinion?</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. The image of the Goddess hath again turned away from her seat.<a
+  name="IT_160"></a><a href="#ITN_160"><sup>[160]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>TH. Of its own accord, or did an earthquake turn it?</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Of its own accord, and it closed its eyes.</p>
+
+  <p>TH. But what is the cause? is it pollution from the strangers?</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. That very thing, naught else, for they have done dreadful
+  things.</p>
+
+  <p>TH. What, did they slay any of the barbarians upon the shore?</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. They came possessing the stain of domestic murder.</p>
+
+  <p>TH. What? for I am fallen into a longing to learn this.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. They put an end to a mother's life by conspiring sword.</p>
+
+  <p>TH. Apollo! not even among barbarians would any one have dared
+  this.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. By persecutions they were driven out of all Greece.</p>
+
+  <p>TH. Is it then on their account that thou bearest the image
+  without?</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Ay, under the holy sky, that I may remove it from blood
+  stains.</p>
+
+  <p>TH. But how didst thou discover the pollution of the strangers?</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. I examined them, when the image of the Goddess turned away.</p>
+
+  <p>TH. Greece hath trained thee up wise, in that thou well didst perceive
+  this.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. And now they have cast out a delightful bait for my mind.</p>
+
+  <p>TH. By telling thee any charming news of those at Argos?</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. That my only brother Orestes fares well.</p>
+
+  <p>TH. So that, forsooth, thou mightest preserve them because of their
+  pleasant news!</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. And that my father lives and fares well.</p>
+
+  <p>TH. But thou hast with reason attended to the interest of the
+  Goddess.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Ay, because hating all Greece that destroyed me.</p>
+
+  <p>TH. What then shall we do, say, concerning the two strangers?</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. We needs must respect the established law.</p>
+
+  <p>TH. Are not the lustral waters and thy sword already engaged?<a
+  name="IT_161"></a><a href="#ITN_161"><sup>[161]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>IPH. First I would fain lave them in pure cleansings.</p>
+
+  <p>TH. In the fountains of waters, or in the dew of the sea?</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. The sea washes out all the ills of men.</p>
+
+  <p>TH. They would certainly fall in a more holy manner before the
+  Goddess.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. And my matters would be in a more fitting state.<a
+  name="IT_162"></a><a href="#ITN_162"><sup>[162]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>TH. Does not the wave dash against the very temple?</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. There is need of solitude, for we have other things to do.</p>
+
+  <p>TH. Lead them whither thou wilt, I crave not to see things that may
+  not be told.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. The image of the Goddess also must be purified by me.</p>
+
+  <p>TH. If indeed the stain of the matricide hath fallen on it.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. For otherwise I should not have removed it from its pedestal.</p>
+
+  <p>TH. Just piety and foresight! How reasonably doth all the city marvel
+  at thee!</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Knowest thou then what must be done for me?</p>
+
+  <p>TH. 'Tis thine to explain this.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Cast fetters upon the strangers.</p>
+
+  <p>TH. Whither could they escape from thee?</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Greece knows nothing faithful.</p>
+
+  <p>TH. Go for the fetters, attendants.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Ay, and let them bring the strangers hither.</p>
+
+  <p>TH. This shall be.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Having enveloped their heads in robes.</p>
+
+  <p>TH. Against the scorching of the sun?</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. And send thou with me of thy followers&mdash;</p>
+
+  <p>TH. These shall accompany thee.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. And send some one to signify to the city&mdash;</p>
+
+  <p>TH. What hap?</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. That all remain in their homes.</p>
+
+  <p>TH. Lest they encounter homicide?</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. For such things are unclean.</p>
+
+  <p>TH. Go thou, and order this.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. That no one come into sight.</p>
+
+  <p>TH. Thou carest well for the city.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Ay, and more particularly friends must not be present.<a
+  name="IT_163"></a><a href="#ITN_163"><sup>[163]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>TH. This you say in reference to me.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. But do thou, abiding here before the temple of the
+  Goddess&mdash;</p>
+
+  <p>TH. Do what?</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Purify the house with a torch.</p>
+
+  <p>TH. That it may be pure when thou comest back to it?</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. But when the strangers come out,</p>
+
+  <p>TH. What must I do?</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Place your garment before your eyes.</p>
+
+  <p>TH. Lest I contract contagion?</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. But if I seem to tarry very long,</p>
+
+  <p>TH. What limit of this shall I have?</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Wonder at nothing.</p>
+
+  <p>TH. Do thou rightly the business of the Goddess at thy leisure.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. And may this purification turn out as I wish!</p>
+
+  <p>TH. I join in your prayer.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. I now see these strangers coming out of the house, and the
+  adornments of the Goddess, and the young lambs, in order that I may wash
+  out foul slaughter by slaughter, and the shining light of lamps, and the
+  other things, as many as I ordered as purifications for the strangers and
+  the Goddess. But I proclaim to the strangers to get out of the way of
+  this pollution, if any gate-keeper of the temples keeps pure hands for
+  the Gods, or is about to join in nuptial alliance, or is pregnant, flee,
+  get out of the way, lest this pollution fall on any. O thou queen, virgin
+  daughter of Jove and Latona, if I wash away the blood-pollution from
+  these men, and sacrifice where 'tis fitting, thou wilt occupy a pure
+  house, and we shall be prosperous. But although I do not speak of the
+  rest, I nevertheless signify my meaning to the Gods who know most
+  things,<a name="IT_164"></a><a href="#ITN_164"><sup>[164]</sup></a> and
+  to thee, O Goddess.</p>
+
+  <p>CHORUS.<a name="IT_165"></a><a href="#ITN_165"><sup>[165]</sup></a> Of
+  noble birth is the offspring of Latona, whom once on a time in the
+  fruitful valleys of Delos, Ph&#339;bus with his golden locks, skilled on
+  the lyre, (and she who rejoices in skill of the bow,) his mother bore
+  while yet an infant<a name="IT_166"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_166"><sup>[166]</sup></a> from the sea-side rock, leaving the
+  renowned place of her delivery, destitute of waters,<a
+  name="IT_167"></a><a href="#ITN_167"><sup>[167]</sup></a> the Parnassian
+  height haunted by Bacchus, where the ruddy-visaged serpent, with spotted
+  back, &#x2020; brazen &#x2020; beneath the shady laurel with its rich
+  foliage, an enormous prodigy of the earth, guarded the subterranean
+  oracle. Him thou, O Ph&#339;bus, while yet an infant, while yet leaping
+  in thy dear mother's arms, didst slay, and entered upon thy divine
+  oracles, and thou sittest on the golden tripod, on the throne that is
+  ever true, distributing to mortals prophecies from the divine adyts
+  beneath the Castalian streams, dwelling hard by, occupying a dwelling in
+  the middle of the earth.<a name="IT_168"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_168"><sup>[168]</sup></a> But when, having gone against
+  Themis, daughter of earth, he expelled her from the divine oracles, earth
+  begot dark phantoms of dreams, which to many mortals explain what first,
+  what afterward, what in future will happen, during their sleep in the
+  couches of the dusky earth.<a name="IT_169"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_169"><sup>[169]</sup></a> But &#x2020; the earth &#x2020;
+  deprived Ph&#339;bus of the honor of prophecies, through anger on her
+  daughter's account, and the swift-footed king, hastening to Olympus,
+  stretched forth his little hand to the throne of Jove.<a
+  name="IT_170"></a><a href="#ITN_170"><sup>[170]</sup></a> [beseeching
+  him] to take away the earth-born<a name="IT_171"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_171"><sup>[171]</sup></a> wrath of the Goddess, &#x2020; and
+  the nightly responses. &#x2020; But he laughed, because his son had come
+  quickly to him, wishing to obtain the wealthy office, and he shook his
+  hair, and put an end to the nightly dreams,<a name="IT_172"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_172"><sup>[172]</sup></a> and took away nightly divination
+  from mortals, and again conferred the honor on Loxias, and confidence to
+  mortals from the songs of oracles [proclaimed] on this throne, thronged
+  to by many strangers.<a name="IT_173"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_173"><sup>[173]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p class="center">[<i>Enter</i> A MESSENGER.]</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. O ye guardians of the temple and presidents of the altars, where
+  in this land has king Thoas gone? Do ye, opening the well-fastened gates,
+  call the ruler of this land outside the house.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. But what is it, if I may speak when I am not bidden?</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. The two youths have escaped, and are gone by the contrivances of
+  Agamemnon's daughter, endeavoring to fly from this land, and taking the
+  sacred image in the bosom of a Grecian ship.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Thou tellest an incredible story, but the king of this country,
+  whom you wish to see, is gone, having quitted the temple.</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. Whither? For he needs must know what has been done.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. We know not. But go thou and pursue him to wheresoever, having
+  met with him, thou mayest recount this news.</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. See, how faithless is the female race! and ye are partners in
+  what has been done.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Art thou mad? What have we to do with the flight of the
+  strangers? Will you not go as quickly as possible to the gates of the
+  rulers?</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. Not at least before some distinct informer<a
+  name="IT_174"></a><a href="#ITN_174"><sup>[174]</sup></a> tell me this,
+  whether the ruler of the land is within or not within. Ho there! Open the
+  fastenings, I speak to those within, and tell the master that I am at the
+  gates, bearing a weight of evil news.</p>
+
+  <p>THOAS. (<i>coming out</i>) Who makes this noise near the temple of the
+  Goddess, hammering at the door, and sending fear within?</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. These women told me falsely, (and tried to drive me from the
+  house,) that you were away, while you really were in the house.</p>
+
+  <p>TH. Expecting or hunting after what gain?</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. I will afterward tell of what concerns them, but hear the
+  present, immediate matter. The virgin, she that presided over the altars
+  here, Iphigenia, has gone out of the land with the strangers, having the
+  sacred image of the Goddess; but the expiations were pretended.</p>
+
+  <p>TH. How sayest thou? possessed by what breath of calamity?<a
+  name="IT_175"></a><a href="#ITN_175"><sup>[175]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>MESS. In order to preserve Orestes, for at this thou wilt marvel.</p>
+
+  <p>TH. What [Orestes]? Him, whom the daughter of Tyndarus bore?</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. Him whom she consecrated to the Goddess at these altars.</p>
+
+  <p>TH. Oh marvel! How can I rightly<a name="IT_176"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_176"><sup>[176]</sup></a> call thee by a greater name?</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. Do not turn thine attention to this, but listen to me; and
+  having perceived and heard, clearly consider what pursuit will catch the
+  strangers.</p>
+
+  <p>TH. Speak, for thou sayest well, for they do not flee by the way of
+  the neighboring sea, so as to be able to escape my fleet.</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. When we came to the sea-shore, where the vessel of Orestes was
+  anchored in secret, to us indeed, whom thou didst send with her, bearing
+  fetters for the strangers, the daughter of Agamemnon made signs that we
+  should get far out of the way, as she was about to offer the secret<a
+  name="IT_177"></a><a href="#ITN_177"><sup>[177]</sup></a> flame and
+  expiation, for which she had come. But she, holding the fetters of the
+  strangers in her hands, followed behind them. And these matters were
+  suspicious, but they satisfied your attendants, O king. But at length, in
+  order forsooth that she might seem to us to be doing something, she
+  screamed aloud, and chanted barbarian songs like a sorceress, as if
+  washing out the stain of murder. But after we had remained sitting a long
+  time, it occurred to us whether the strangers set at liberty might not
+  slay her, and take to flight. And through fear lest we might behold what
+  was not fitting, we sat in silence, but at length the same words were in
+  every body's mouth, that we should go to where they were, although not
+  permitted. And upon this we behold the hull of the Grecian ship, [the
+  rowing winged with well-fitted oars,<a name="IT_178"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_178"><sup>[178]</sup></a>] and fifty sailors holding their
+  oars in the tholes, and the youths, freed from their fetters, standing
+  [on the shore] astern of the ship.<a name="IT_179"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_179"><sup>[179]</sup></a> But some held in the prow with their
+  oars, and others from the epotides let down the anchor, and others
+  hastily applying the ladders, drew the stern-cables through their hands,
+  and giving them to the sea, let them down to the strangers.<a
+  name="IT_180"></a><a href="#ITN_180"><sup>[180]</sup></a> But we
+  unsparing [of the toil,] when we beheld the crafty stratagem, laid hold
+  of the female stranger and of the cables, and tried to drag the rudders
+  from the fair-prowed ship from the steerage-place. But words ensued: "On
+  what plea do ye take to the sea, stealing from this land the images and
+  priestess? Whose son art thou, who thyself, who art carrying this woman
+  from the land?" But he replied, "Orestes, her brother, that you may know,
+  the son of Agamemnon, I, having taken this my sister, whom I had lost
+  from my house, am bearing her off." But naught the less we clung to the
+  female stranger, and compelled them by force to follow us to thee, upon
+  which arose sad smitings of the cheeks. For they had not arms in their
+  hands, nor had we; but fists were sounding against fists, and the arms of
+  both the youths at once were aimed against our sides and to the liver, so
+  that we at once were exhausted<a name="IT_181"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_181"><sup>[181]</sup></a> and worn out in our limbs. But
+  stamped with horrid marks we fled to a precipice, some having bloody
+  wounds on the head, others in the eyes, and standing on the heights, we
+  waged a safer warfare, and pelted stones. But archers, standing on the
+  poop, hindered us with their darts, so that we returned back. And
+  meanwhile&mdash;for a tremendous wave drove the ship against the land,
+  and there was alarm [on board] lest she might dip her sheet-line<a
+  name="IT_182"></a><a href="#ITN_182"><sup>[182]</sup></a>&mdash;Orestes,
+  taking his sister on his left shoulder, walked into the sea, and leaping
+  upon the ladder, placed her within the well-banked ship, and also the
+  image of the daughter of Jove, that fell from heaven. And from the middle
+  of the ship a voice spake thus, "O mariners of the Grecian ship, seize<a
+  name="IT_183"></a><a href="#ITN_183"><sup>[183]</sup></a> on your oars,
+  and make white the surge, for we have obtained the things on account of
+  which we sailed o'er the Euxine within the Symplegades." But they
+  shouting forth a pleasant cry, smote the brine. The ship, as long indeed
+  as it was within the port, went on; but, passing the outlet, meeting with
+  a strong tide, it was driven back. For a terrible gale coming suddenly,
+  drives [the bark winged with well-fitted oars] poop-wise,<a
+  name="IT_184"></a><a href="#ITN_184"><sup>[184]</sup></a> but they
+  persevered, kicking against the wave, but an ebbing tide brought them
+  again aground. But the daughter of Agamemnon stood up and prayed, "O
+  daughter of Latona, bring me, thy priestess, safe into Greece from a
+  barbarian land, and pardon the stealing away of me. Thou also, O Goddess,
+  lovest thy brother, and think thou that I also love my kindred." But the
+  sailors shouted a pæan in assent to the prayers of the girl, applying on
+  a given signal the point of the shoulders,<a name="IT_185"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_185"><sup>[185]</sup></a> bared from their hands, to the oars.
+  But more and more the vessel kept nearing the rocks, and one indeed
+  leaped into the sea with his feet, and another fastened woven nooses.<a
+  name="IT_186"></a><a href="#ITN_186"><sup>[186]</sup></a> And I was
+  immediately sent hither to thee, to tell thee, O king, what had happened
+  there. But go, taking fetters and halters in your hands, for, unless the
+  wave shall become tranquil, there is no hope of safety for the strangers.
+  For the ruler of the sea, the revered Neptune, both favorably regards
+  Troy, and is at enmity with the Pelopidæ. And he will now, as it seems,
+  deliver up to thee and the citizens the son of Agamemnon, to take him
+  into your hands, and his sister, who is detected ungratefully forgetting
+  the Goddess in respect to the sacrifice at Aulis.<a name="IT_187"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_187"><sup>[187]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. O hapless Iphigenia, with thy brother wilt thou die, again
+  coming into the hands of thy masters.</p>
+
+  <p>TH. O all ye citizens of this barbarian land, will ye not, casting
+  bridles on your horses, run to the shore, and receive the casting on of
+  the Grecian ship? But hastening, by the favor of the Goddess, will ye not
+  hunt down the impious men, and some of you haul the swift barks down to
+  the sea, that by sea, and by horse-coursings on the land seizing them, we
+  may either hurl them down the broken rock, or impale their bodies upon
+  stakes. But you women, the accomplices in these plots, I will punish
+  hereafter, when I have leisure, but now, having such a present duty, we
+  will not remain idle.</p>
+
+<p class="center">[MINERVA <i>appears</i>.]</p>
+
+  <p>MIN. Whither, whither sendest thou this troop to follow [the
+  fugitives,] king Thoas? List to the words of me, Minerva. Cease pursuing,
+  and stirring on the onset of your host. For by the destined oracles of
+  Loxias Orestes came hither, fleeing the wrath of the Erinnyes, and in
+  order to conduct his sister's person to Argos, and to bear the sacred
+  image into my land, by way of respite from his present troubles. Thus are
+  our words for thee, but as to him, Orestes, whom you wish to slay, having
+  caught him in a tempest at sea, Neptune has already, for my sake,
+  rendered the surface of the sea waveless, piloting him along in the ship.
+  But do thou, Orestes, learning my commands, (for thou hearest the voice
+  of a Goddess, although not present,) go, taking the image and thy sister.
+  And when thou art come to heaven-built Athens, there is a certain sacred
+  district in the farthest bounds of Atthis, near the Carystian rock, which
+  my people call Al&#339;&mdash;here, having built a temple, do thou
+  enshrine the image named after the Tauric land and thy toils, which thou
+  hast labored through, wandering over Greece, under the goad of the
+  Erinnyes. But mortals hereafter shall celebrate her as the Tauric Goddess
+  Diana. And do thou ordain this law, that, when the people celebrate a
+  feast in grateful commemoration of thy release from slaughter,<a
+  name="IT_188"></a><a href="#ITN_188"><sup>[188]</sup></a> let them apply
+  the sword to the neck of a man, and let blood flow on account of the holy
+  Goddess, that she may have honor. But, O Iphigenia, thou must needs be
+  guardian of the temple of this Goddess at the hallowed ascent of
+  Brauron;<a name="IT_189"></a><a href="#ITN_189"><sup>[189]</sup></a>
+  where also thou shalt be buried at thy death, and they shall offer to you
+  the honor of rich woven vestments, which women, dying in childbed, may
+  leave in their houses. But I command thee to let these Grecian women
+  depart from the land on account of their disinterested disposition,<a
+  name="IT_190"></a><a href="#ITN_190"><sup>[190]</sup></a> I, having saved
+  thee also on a former occasion, by determining the equal votes in the
+  Field of Mars, Orestes, and that, according to the same law, he should
+  conquer, whoever receive equal suffrages. But, O son of Agamemnon, do
+  thou remove thy sister from this land, nor be thou angered, Thoas.</p>
+
+  <p>TH. Queen Minerva, whosoever, on hearing the words of the Gods, is
+  disobedient, thinks not wisely. But I will not be angry with Orestes, if
+  he has carried away the image of the Goddess with him, nor with his
+  sister. For what credit is there in contending with the potent Gods? Let
+  them depart to thy land with the image of the Goddess, and let them
+  prosperously enshrine the effigy. But I will also send these women to
+  blest Greece, as thy mandate bids. And I will stop the spear which I
+  raised against the strangers, and the oars of the ships, as this seems
+  fit to thee, O Goddess.</p>
+
+  <p>MIN. I commend your words, for fate commands both thee and the Gods
+  [themselves.] Go, ye breezes, conduct the vessel of Agamemnon's son to
+  Athens. And I will journey with you, to guard the hallowed image of my
+  sister.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Go ye, happy because of your preserved fortune. But, O Athenian
+  Pallas, hallowed among both immortals and mortals, we will do even as
+  thou biddest. For I have received a very delightful and unhoped-for voice
+  in my hearing. O thou all hallowed Victory, mayest thou possess my life,
+  and cease not to crown it.<a name="IT_191"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_191"><sup>[191]</sup></a></p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h3>NOTES ON IPHIGENIA IN TAURIS</h3>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+<div class="note">
+  <p><a name="ITN_1"></a><a href="#IT_1">[1]</a> This verse and part of the
+  following are set down among the "oil cruet" verses by Aristophanes, Ran.
+  1232. Aristotle, Poet. § xvii. gives a sketch of the plot of the whole
+  play, by way of illustrating the general form of tragedy. Hyginus, who
+  constantly has Euripides in view, also gives a brief analysis of the
+  plot, fab. cxx. For a description of the quadrigæ of Pelops, see
+  Philostratus Imagg. i. 19. It must be observed, that Antoninus Liberalis,
+  § 27, makes Iphigenia only the supposititious daughter of Agamemnon, but
+  really the daughter of Theseus and Helen. See Meurs. on Lycophron, p.
+  145.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_2"></a><a href="#IT_2">[2]</a> I must confess that I can
+  not find what should have so much displeased the critics in this word.
+  Iphigenia, in using such an epithet, evidently refers to her own intended
+  sacrifice, which had rendered the recesses of Aulis a place of no small
+  fame.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_3"></a><a href="#IT_3">[3]</a> But Lenting prefers <span
+  lang="el"
+  title="Achaious">&#x391;&#x3C7;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C2;</span>,
+  with the approbation of the Cambridge editor.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_4"></a><a href="#IT_4">[4]</a> See Reiske apud Dindorf.
+  Compare my note on Æsch. Ag. 188, p. 101, ed. Bohn. So also Callimachus,
+  Hymn. iii. <span lang="el" title="meilion aploïês, hote hoi katedêsas
+  aêtas">&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3BB;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B1;&#x3C0;&#x3BB;&#x3BF;&#x3CA;&#x3B7;&#x3C2;,
+  &#x201B;&#x3BF;&#x3C4;&#x3B5; &#x201B;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3B4;&#x3B7;&#x3C3;&#x3B1;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B1;&#x3B7;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3C2;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_5"></a><a href="#IT_5">[5]</a> Sinon made the same
+  complaint. Cf. Virg. Æn. ii. 90.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_6"></a><a href="#IT_6">[6]</a> Cf. Æsch. Ag. 235.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_7"></a><a href="#IT_7">[7]</a> This whole passage has
+  been imitated by Ovid, de Ponto, iii. 2, 60. "Sceptra tenente illo,
+  liquidas fecisse per auras, Nescio quam dicunt Iphigenian iter. Quam
+  levibus ventis sub nube per aera vectam Creditur his Ph&#339;be
+  deposuisse locis." Cf. Lycophron, p. 16, vs. 3 sqq. Nonnus xiii. p. 332,
+  14 sqq.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_8"></a><a href="#IT_8">[8]</a> Observe the double
+  construction of <span lang="el"
+  title="anassei">&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3B1;&#x3C3;&#x3C3;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;</span>.
+  Orest. 1690. <span lang="el" title="nautais medeousa
+  thalassês">&#x3BD;&#x3B1;&#x3C5;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3B4;&#x3B5;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3B8;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3C3;&#x3C3;&#x3B7;&#x3C2;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_9"></a><a href="#IT_9">[9]</a> The Cambridge editor would
+  expunge this line, which certainly seems languid and awkward. Boissonade
+  on Aristænet. Ep. xiii. p. 421, would simply read <span lang="el"
+  title="ta d' alla s. t. th. phoboumenê: thyô gar">&#x3C4;&#x3B1; &#x3B4;'
+  &#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3BB;&#x3B1; &#x3C2;. &#x3C4;. &#x3B8;.
+  &#x3C6;&#x3BF;&#x3B2;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3B7;:
+  &#x3B8;&#x3C5;&#x3C9; &#x3B3;&#x3B1;&#x3C1;</span>. He also retains <span
+  lang="el"
+  title="hiereian">&#x201B;&#x3B9;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;</span>,
+  referring to Gaisford on Hephæst. p. 216.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_10"></a><a href="#IT_10">[10]</a> The Cambridge editor
+  would throw out vs. 41.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_11"></a><a href="#IT_11">[11]</a> The Cambridge editor
+  refers to Med. 56, Androm. 91, Soph. El. 425. Add Plaut. Merc. i. 1, 3.
+  "Non ego idem facio, ut alios in com&#339;diis vidi facere amatores, qui
+  aut nocti, aut die, Aut Soli, aut Lunæ miserias narrant suas." Theognetus
+  apud Athen. xv. p. 671. Casaub. <span lang="el" title="pephilosophêkas
+  gêi kai ouranôi
+  lalôn">&#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3C6;&#x3B9;&#x3BB;&#x3BF;&#x3C3;&#x3BF;&#x3C6;&#x3B7;&#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B3;&#x3B7;&#x3B9; &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3C9;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;</span>. Cf. Davis, on Cicero, Tusc.
+  Q. iii. 26, and Lomeier de Lustrat. § xxxvii.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_12"></a><a href="#IT_12">[12]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="Thrinkon">&#x398;&#x3C1;&#x3B9;&#x3B3;&#x3BA;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span>
+  is properly the uppermost part of the walls of any building (Pollux, vii.
+  27) surrounding the roof, <span lang="el"
+  title="stegos">&#x3C3;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3B3;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span> is the
+  roof itself.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_13"></a><a href="#IT_13">[13]</a> Cf. Meurs. ad
+  Lycophron, p. 148.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_14"></a><a href="#IT_14">[14]</a> I read <span lang="el"
+  title="eim' eisô">&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3BC;'
+  &#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3C9;</span> with Hermann and the Cambridge
+  editor.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_15"></a><a href="#IT_15">[15]</a> This line is condemned
+  by the Cambridge editor. Burges has transposed it.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_16"></a><a href="#IT_16">[16]</a> But <span lang="el"
+  title="diadromais">&#x3B4;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;&#x3B4;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;</span>,
+  the correction of the Cambridge editor, seems preferable.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_17"></a><a href="#IT_17">[17]</a> An interpolation
+  universally condemned.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_18"></a><a href="#IT_18">[18]</a> See Barnes, and
+  Wetstein on Acts xix. 35.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_19"></a><a href="#IT_19">[19]</a> On the wanderings of
+  Orestes see my note on Æsch. Eum. 238 sqq. p. 187, ed. Bohn.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_20"></a><a href="#IT_20">[20]</a> See the note of the
+  Cambridge editor, with whom we must read <span lang="el"
+  title="eisbêsomestha">&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3B2;&#x3B7;&#x3C3;&#x3BF;&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3C3;&#x3B8;&#x3B1;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_21"></a><a href="#IT_21">[21]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="hôn ouden ismen">&#x201B;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3B4;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;</span> ad interiora templi spectat.
+  HERM.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_22"></a><a href="#IT_22">[22]</a> We must read <span
+  lang="el" title="geisa triglyphôn
+  hopoi">&#x3B3;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3C1;&#x3B9;&#x3B3;&#x3BB;&#x3C5;&#x3C6;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x201B;&#x3BF;&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;</span>, with Blomfield and the
+  Cambridge editor. See Philander on Vitruv. ii. p. 35, and Pollux, vii.
+  27.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_23"></a><a href="#IT_23">[23]</a> The sense is <span
+  lang="el" title="outoi, makran elthontes, ek
+  termatôn">&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;,
+  &#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3BA;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B5;&#x3BB;&#x3B8;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3C2;, &#x3B5;&#x3BA;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;</span> (sc. a
+  meta) <span lang="el"
+  title="nostêsomen">&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3C3;&#x3C4;&#x3B7;&#x3C3;&#x3BF;&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;</span>.
+  ED. CAMB.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_24"></a><a href="#IT_24">[24]</a> The Cambridge editor
+  appositely compares a fragment of our author's Cresphontes, iii. 2, <span
+  lang="el" title="aischron te mochthein mê thelein
+  neanian">&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3C7;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3BD; &#x3C4;&#x3B5;
+  &#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3C7;&#x3B8;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3BD; &#x3BC;&#x3B7;
+  &#x3B8;&#x3B5;&#x3BB;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3BD;&#x3B5;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_25"></a><a href="#IT_25">[25]</a> On the whole of this
+  chorus, which is corrupt in several places, the notes of the Cambridge
+  editor should be consulted.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_26"></a><a href="#IT_26">[26]</a> This last lumbering
+  line must be corrupt.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_27"></a><a href="#IT_27">[27]</a> Compare the similar
+  scene in Soph. El. 86 sqq.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_28"></a><a href="#IT_28">[28]</a> Cf. Elect. 90. <span
+  lang="el" title="nyktos de têsde pros taphon molôn
+  patros">&#x3BD;&#x3C5;&#x3BA;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C2; &#x3B4;&#x3B5;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3B7;&#x3C3;&#x3B4;&#x3B5; &#x3C0;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3C6;&#x3BF;&#x3BD; &#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3BB;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span>. Hecub. 76. Æsch. Pers.
+  179. Aristoph. Ran. 1331.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_29"></a><a href="#IT_29">[29]</a> Compare my note on
+  Æsch. Pers. 610 sqq.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_30"></a><a href="#IT_30">[30]</a> See on Æsch. Choeph.
+  6.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_31"></a><a href="#IT_31">[31]</a> Markland's emendation
+  has been unanimously adopted by the later editors.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_32"></a><a href="#IT_32">[32]</a> Schema Colophonium. The
+  Cambridge editor compares vs. 244. <span lang="el" title="Argei
+  skêptouchon">&#x391;&#x3C1;&#x3B3;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3C3;&#x3BA;&#x3B7;&#x3C0;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C7;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span>.
+  Ph&#339;n. 17. <span lang="el" title="Thêbaisin
+  anax">&#x398;&#x3B7;&#x3B2;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3B1;&#x3BE;</span>. Heracl. 361. <span lang="el"
+  title="Argei tyrannos">&#x391;&#x3C1;&#x3B3;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3C5;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_33"></a><a href="#IT_33">[33]</a> I have marked lacunæ,
+  as some mythological particulars have evidently been lost.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_34"></a><a href="#IT_34">[34]</a> An imperfect allusion
+  to the Thyestean banquet. Cf. Seneca Thyest. 774. "O Ph&#339;be patiens,
+  fugeris retro licet, medioque ruptum merseris c&#339;lo diem, sero
+  occidisti&mdash;" vs. 787 sqq.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_35"></a><a href="#IT_35">[35]</a> Cf. Æsch. Ag. 1501 sqq.
+  Seneca, Ag. 57 sqq.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_36"></a><a href="#IT_36">[36]</a> i.e. the demon allotted
+  to me at my birth (cf. notes on Æsch. 1341, p. 135, ed. Bohn). Statius,
+  Theb. i. 60, makes &#338;dipus invoke Tisiphone under the same
+  character.&mdash;"Si me de matre cadentem Fovisti gremio."</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_37"></a><a href="#IT_37">[37]</a> See the note of the
+  Cambridge editor.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_38"></a><a href="#IT_38">[38]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="ebêsan">&#x3B5;&#x3B2;&#x3B7;&#x3C3;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;</span> is
+  active.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_39"></a><a href="#IT_39">[39]</a> The Cambridge editor
+  aptly refers to Hecub. 464.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_40"></a><a href="#IT_40">[40]</a> These participles refer
+  to the preceding <span lang="el" title="aimorrantôn
+  xeinôn">&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3C1;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3BE;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_41"></a><a href="#IT_41">[41]</a> See on Heracl. 721.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_42"></a><a href="#IT_42">[42]</a> The Cambridge editor
+  would omit these two lines.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_43"></a><a href="#IT_43">[43]</a> Cf. vs. 107. <span
+  lang="el" title="kat' antr', ha pontios notidi diaklyzei
+  melas">&#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;' &#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3C1;',
+  &#x201B;&#x3B1; &#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3C4;&#x3B9;&#x3B4;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3B4;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;&#x3BA;&#x3BB;&#x3C5;&#x3B6;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3C2;</span>. On <span lang="el"
+  title="agmos">&#x3B1;&#x3B3;&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span> (Brodæus' happy
+  correction for <span lang="el"
+  title="harmos">&#x201B;&#x3B1;&#x3C1;&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span>) the
+  Cambridge editor quotes Nicander Ther. 146. <span lang="el" title="koilê
+  te pharanx, kai trêchees agmoi">&#x3BA;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3BB;&#x3B7;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3B5; &#x3C6;&#x3B1;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3B3;&#x3BE;,
+  &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9; &#x3C4;&#x3C1;&#x3B7;&#x3C7;&#x3B5;&#x3B5;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B1;&#x3B3;&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;</span>, and other passages. The
+  manner of hunting the purple fish is thus described by Pollux, i. 4, p.
+  24. They plat a long rope, to which they fasten, like bells, a number of
+  hempen baskets, with an open entrance to admit the animal, but which does
+  not allow of its egress. This they let down into the sea, the baskets
+  being filled with such food as the murex delights in, and, having
+  fastened the end of the rope to the rock, they leave it, and returning to
+  the place, draw up the baskets full of the fish. Having broken the
+  shells, they pound the flesh to form the dye.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_44"></a><a href="#IT_44">[44]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="ephtharmenous">&#x3B5;&#x3C6;&#x3B8;&#x3B1;&#x3C1;&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C2;</span>.
+  Cf. Cycl. 300. Hel. 783. Ed. Camb.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_45"></a><a href="#IT_45">[45]</a> Compare Orest. 255
+  sqq.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_46"></a><a href="#IT_46">[46]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="chitônôn">&#x3C7;&#x3B9;&#x3C4;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;</span>
+  is probably corrupt.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_47"></a><a href="#IT_47">[47]</a> Cf. Lobeck on Aj. 17.
+  Hesych. <span lang="el" title="kochlos tois
+  thalattiois">&#x3BA;&#x3BF;&#x3C7;&#x3BB;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B8;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3C4;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;</span>
+  (i.e. <span lang="el"
+  title="kochlois">&#x3BA;&#x3BF;&#x3C7;&#x3BB;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;</span>)
+  <span lang="el" title="echrônto, pro tês tôn salpingôn
+  eureseôs">&#x3B5;&#x3C7;&#x3C1;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;,
+  &#x3C0;&#x3C1;&#x3BF; &#x3C4;&#x3B7;&#x3C2; &#x3C4;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3C3;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3C0;&#x3B9;&#x3B3;&#x3B3;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B5;&#x3C5;&#x3C1;&#x3B5;&#x3C3;&#x3B5;&#x3C9;&#x3C2;</span>. Virg.
+  Æn. vi. 171. "Sed tum forte cava dum personat æquora concha."</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_48"></a><a href="#IT_48">[48]</a> "Moriamur, et in media
+  arma ruamus." Virg. Æn. ii.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_49"></a><a href="#IT_49">[49]</a> Such seems to be the
+  sense, but <span lang="el"
+  title="exeklepsamen">&#x3B5;&#x3BE;&#x3B5;&#x3BA;&#x3BB;&#x3B5;&#x3C8;&#x3B1;&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;</span>
+  is ridiculous, and Hermann's emendation more so. Bothe reads <span
+  lang="el"
+  title="exekopsamen">&#x3B5;&#x3BE;&#x3B5;&#x3BA;&#x3BF;&#x3C8;&#x3B1;&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;</span>,
+  which is better. The Cambridge editor thinks that the difficulty lies in
+  <span lang="el"
+  title="petroisi">&#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3C4;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_50"></a><a href="#IT_50">[50]</a> I would omit this line
+  as an evident gloss.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_51"></a><a href="#IT_51">[51]</a> See the Cambridge
+  editor.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_52"></a><a href="#IT_52">[52]</a> Reiske's emendation,
+  <span lang="el" title="hosia">&#x201B;&#x3BF;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;</span>
+  for <span lang="el" title="hoia">&#x201B;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;</span>,
+  seems deserving of admission.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_53"></a><a href="#IT_53">[53]</a> The Cambridge editor
+  would omit these lines.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_54"></a><a href="#IT_54">[54]</a> This line also the
+  Cambridge editor trusts "will never hereafter be reckoned among the
+  verses of Euripides."</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_55"></a><a href="#IT_55">[55]</a> Such is the proper
+  sense of <span lang="el"
+  title="antitheisa">&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3B9;&#x3B8;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3B1;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_56"></a><a href="#IT_56">[56]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="nin">&#x3BD;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;</span> is <span lang="el"
+  title="nympheumata">&#x3BD;&#x3C5;&#x3BC;&#x3C6;&#x3B5;&#x3C5;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_57"></a><a href="#IT_57">[57]</a> Read <span lang="el"
+  title="kasignêtêi">&#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;&#x3B3;&#x3BD;&#x3B7;&#x3C4;&#x3B7;&#x3B9;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_58"></a><a href="#IT_58">[58]</a> I read <span lang="el"
+  title="tois men">&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;</span> and <span lang="el" title="tois
+  d'">&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3C2; &#x3B4;'</span> with the Cambridge
+  editor. Hermann's emendation is unheard of.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_59"></a><a href="#IT_59">[59]</a> This clause interrupts
+  the construction. <span lang="el"
+  title="dramontes">&#x3B4;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3C2;</span>
+  must be understood with all the following sentence, as no finite verb is
+  expressed except <span lang="el"
+  title="eperasan">&#x3B5;&#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3C3;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_60"></a><a href="#IT_60">[60]</a> I have partly followed
+  Hermann, reading <span lang="el" title="epebaiên ...
+  apolauôn">&#x3B5;&#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3B2;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3B7;&#x3BD; ...
+  &#x3B1;&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3C5;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;</span>, but, as
+  to reading <span lang="el"
+  title="hypnôn">&#x201B;&#x3C5;&#x3C0;&#x3BD;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;</span> for
+  <span lang="el"
+  title="hymnôn">&#x201B;&#x3C5;&#x3BC;&#x3BD;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;</span>, the
+  Cambridge editor well calls it "one of the wonders of his edition." I
+  should prefer reading <span lang="el"
+  title="olbou">&#x3BF;&#x3BB;&#x3B2;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;</span> with the same
+  elegant scholar.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_61"></a><a href="#IT_61">[61]</a> I follow the Cambridge
+  editor in reading <span lang="el"
+  title="didymas">&#x3B4;&#x3B9;&#x3B4;&#x3C5;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3C2;</span>,
+  from Ovid, Ep. Pont. iii. 2, 71. "Protinus immitem Triviæ ducuntur ad
+  aram, Evincti geminas ad sua terga manus."</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_62"></a><a href="#IT_62">[62]</a> "<i>displays while she
+  offers</i>" i.e. "<i>presents as a public offering</i>" ED. CAMB.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_63"></a><a href="#IT_63">[63]</a> I am but half satisfied
+  with this passage.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_64"></a><a href="#IT_64">[64]</a> Read <span lang="el"
+  title="esesthe dê katô">&#x3B5;&#x3C3;&#x3B5;&#x3C3;&#x3B8;&#x3B5;
+  &#x3B4;&#x3B7; &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3C9;</span> with the Cambridge
+  editor.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_65"></a><a href="#IT_65">[65]</a> We must read <span
+  lang="el" title="nô">&#x3BD;&#x3C9;</span> with Porson.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_66"></a><a href="#IT_66">[66]</a> Probably a spurious
+  line.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_67"></a><a href="#IT_67">[67]</a> Read <span lang="el"
+  title="Mykênôn g'">&#x39C;&#x3C5;&#x3BA;&#x3B7;&#x3BD;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B3;'</span>, <i>ay, from Mycenæ</i>, with the Cambridge editor.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_68"></a><a href="#IT_68">[68]</a> Hermann seems rightly
+  to read <span lang="el" title="hos g' en">&#x201B;&#x3BF;&#x3C2; &#x3B3;'
+  &#x3B5;&#x3BD;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_69"></a><a href="#IT_69">[69]</a> Dindorf rightly adopts
+  Reiske's emendation <span lang="el" title="sy toud' era">&#x3C3;&#x3C5;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3B4;' &#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_70"></a><a href="#IT_70">[70]</a> The Cambridge editor
+  rightly reads <span lang="el"
+  title="tiná">&#x3C4;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;&#x3AC;</span> with an accent, as
+  Orestes obviously means himself. Compare Soph. Ant. 751. <span lang="el"
+  title="hêd' oun thaneitai, kai thanous' olei
+  tiná">&#x201B;&#x3B7;&#x3B4;' &#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B8;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;,
+  &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9; &#x3B8;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;'
+  &#x3BF;&#x3BB;&#x3B5;&#x3B9; &#x3C4;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;&#x3AC;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_71"></a><a href="#IT_71">[71]</a> Such is the force of
+  <span lang="el" title="dê">&#x3B4;&#x3B7;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_72"></a><a href="#IT_72">[72]</a> I would read <span
+  lang="el"
+  title="exepraxato">&#x3B5;&#x3BE;&#x3B5;&#x3C0;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3BE;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;</span>
+  with Emsley, but I do not agree with him in substituting <span lang="el"
+  title="kakên">&#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3BA;&#x3B7;&#x3BD;</span>. The oxymoron
+  seems intentional, and by no means unlike Euripides.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_73"></a><a href="#IT_73">[73]</a> The Cambridge editor
+  would read <span lang="el" title="est' outis
+  logos">&#x3B5;&#x3C3;&#x3C4;' &#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C4;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3BB;&#x3BF;&#x3B3;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_74"></a><a href="#IT_74">[74]</a> But <span lang="el"
+  title="charin">&#x3C7;&#x3B1;&#x3C1;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;</span>, as Matthiæ
+  remarks, is taken in two senses; as a preposition with <span lang="el"
+  title="gynaikos">&#x3B3;&#x3C5;&#x3BD;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3BA;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span>,
+  <i>ob improbam mulierem</i>, and as a substantive, with <span lang="el"
+  title="acharin">&#x3B1;&#x3C7;&#x3B1;&#x3C1;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;</span> added.
+  Cf. Æsch. Choeph. 44. Lucretius uses a similar oxymoron respecting the
+  same subject, i. 99. "Sed <i>casta inceste</i> nubendi tempore in ipso
+  Hostia concideret mactatu mæsta parentis."</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_75"></a><a href="#IT_75">[75]</a> This passage is very
+  corrupt. The Cambridge editor supposes something lost respecting the
+  fortunes of Orestes. Hermann reads <span lang="el" title="hen de
+  lypeisthai monon, ho t' ouk aphrôn ôn">&#x201B;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B4;&#x3B5;
+  &#x3BB;&#x3C5;&#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3B8;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;, &#x201B;&#x3BF; &#x3C4;'
+  &#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3BA; &#x3B1;&#x3C6;&#x3C1;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3C9;&#x3BD;</span>. But I am very doubtful.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_76"></a><a href="#IT_76">[76]</a> These three lines are
+  justly condemned as an absurd interpolation by Dindorf and the Cambridge
+  editor.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_77"></a><a href="#IT_77">[77]</a> This seems the easiest
+  way of expressing <span lang="el" title="kai sy">&#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3C3;&#x3C5;</span> after <span lang="el" title="sy d'">&#x3C3;&#x3C5;
+  &#x3B4;'</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_78"></a><a href="#IT_78">[78]</a> I am partly indebted to
+  Potter's happy version. The Cambridge editor is as ingenious as usual,
+  but he candidly allows that conjecture is scarcely requisite.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_79"></a><a href="#IT_79">[79]</a> i.e. thou seemest
+  reckless of life.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_80"></a><a href="#IT_80">[80]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="prostropê">&#x3C0;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3C3;&#x3C4;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3C0;&#x3B7;</span>,
+  this mode of offering supplication, i.e. this duty of sacrifice.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_81"></a><a href="#IT_81">[81]</a> Diodorus, xx. 14.
+  quotes this and the preceding line reading <span lang="el"
+  title="chthonos">&#x3C7;&#x3B8;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span> for
+  <span lang="el"
+  title="petras">&#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3C4;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3C2;</span>. He
+  supposes that Euripides derived the present account from the sacrifices
+  offered to Saturn by the Carthaginians, who caused their children to fall
+  from the hands of the statue <span lang="el" title="eis ti chasma plêres
+  pyros">&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C2; &#x3C4;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3C7;&#x3B1;&#x3C3;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3BB;&#x3B7;&#x3C1;&#x3B5;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3C5;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span>. Compare Porphyr. de Abst. ii.
+  27. Justin, xviii. 6. For similar human sacrifices among the Gauls, Cæsar
+  de B.G. vi. 16, with the note of Vossius. Compare also Saxo Grammaticus,
+  Hist. Dan. iii. p. 42, and the passages of early historians quoted in
+  Stephens' entertaining notes, p. 92.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_82"></a><a href="#IT_82">[82]</a> Cf. Tibull. i. 3, 5.
+  "Abstineas, mors atra, precor, non hic mihi mater, Quæ legat in mæstos
+  ossa perusta sinus; non soror, Assyrios cineri quæ dedat odores, et fleat
+  effusis ante sepulchra comis."</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_83"></a><a href="#IT_83">[83]</a> This must be what the
+  poet <i>intends</i> by <span lang="el"
+  title="katasbesô">&#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3C3;&#x3B2;&#x3B5;&#x3C3;&#x3C9;</span>,
+  however awkwardly expressed. See Hermann's note.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_84"></a><a href="#IT_84">[84]</a> Compare vs. 468 sq.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_85"></a><a href="#IT_85">[85]</a> This line is hopelessly
+  corrupt.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_86"></a><a href="#IT_86">[86]</a> I read <span lang="el"
+  title="men oun">&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3BD; &#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3BD;</span> with
+  the Cambridge editor.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_87"></a><a href="#IT_87">[87]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="azêla">&#x3B1;&#x3B6;&#x3B7;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;</span> is in opposition
+  to the whole preceding clause.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_88"></a><a href="#IT_88">[88]</a> See the note of the
+  Cambridge editor on Iph. Aul. 1372.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_89"></a><a href="#IT_89">[89]</a> I should prefer <span
+  lang="el" title="esti dê">&#x3B5;&#x3C3;&#x3C4;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3B4;&#x3B7;</span>,"<i>she surely is.</i>"</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_90"></a><a href="#IT_90">[90]</a> We must evidently read
+  either <span lang="el"
+  title="diêlthon">&#x3B4;&#x3B9;&#x3B7;&#x3BB;&#x3B8;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span>
+  with Porson, or <span lang="el"
+  title="dielthe">&#x3B4;&#x3B9;&#x3B5;&#x3BB;&#x3B8;&#x3B5;</span> with
+  Jan., Le Fevre, and Markland.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_91"></a><a href="#IT_91">[91]</a> I almost agree with
+  Dindorf in considering this line spurious.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_92"></a><a href="#IT_92">[92]</a> For this construction
+  compare Ritterhus. ad Oppian, Cyn. i. 11.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_93"></a><a href="#IT_93">[93]</a> I can not help thinking
+  this line is spurious, and the preceding <span lang="el"
+  title="thêtai">&#x3B8;&#x3B7;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;</span> corrupt. One
+  would expect <span lang="el"
+  title="thêsêi">&#x3B8;&#x3B7;&#x3C3;&#x3B7;&#x3B9;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_94"></a><a href="#IT_94">[94]</a> Cf. Kuinoel on Cydon.
+  de Mort. Contem. § 1, p. 6, n. 18.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_95"></a><a href="#IT_95">[95]</a> Literally, "no longer a
+  hinderance," i.e. "that I be no longer responsible for its
+  fulfillment."</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_96"></a><a href="#IT_96">[96]</a> The Cambridge editor,
+  however, seems to have settled the question in favor of <span lang="el"
+  title="oisth' houn ho drason">&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3B8;'
+  &#x201B;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3BD; &#x201B;&#x3BF;
+  &#x3B4;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3C3;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_97"></a><a href="#IT_97">[97]</a> I must candidly confess
+  that none of the explanations of these words satisfy me. Perhaps it is
+  best to regard them, with Seidler, as merely signifying the mutability of
+  fortune.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_98"></a><a href="#IT_98">[98]</a> i.e. as far as the
+  fulfilling of my oath is concerned.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_99"></a><a href="#IT_99">[99]</a> The letter evidently
+  commences with the words <span lang="el" title="hê 'n Aulidi
+  sphageisa">&#x201B;&#x3B7; '&#x3BD;
+  &#x391;&#x3C5;&#x3BB;&#x3B9;&#x3B4;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3C3;&#x3C6;&#x3B1;&#x3B3;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3B1;</span>. I can
+  not imagine how Markland and others should have made it commence with the
+  previous line.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_100"></a><a href="#IT_100">[100]</a> i.e. in what
+  company.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_101"></a><a href="#IT_101">[101]</a> This line is either
+  spurious or out of place. See the Cambridge editor.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_102"></a><a href="#IT_102">[102]</a> The Cambridge editor
+  in a note exhibiting his usual chastened and elegant judgment, regards
+  these three lines as an absurd and trifling interpolation. For the credit
+  of Euripides, I would fain do the same.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_103"></a><a href="#IT_103">[103]</a> The same elegant
+  scholar justly assigns these lines to Iphigenia.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_104"></a><a href="#IT_104">[104]</a> So Erfurdt.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_105"></a><a href="#IT_105">[105]</a> See the Cambridge
+  editor.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_106"></a><a href="#IT_106">[106]</a> This line seems
+  justly condemned by the Cambridge editor.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_107"></a><a href="#IT_107">[107]</a> With <span lang="el"
+  title="kampteis">&#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3BC;&#x3C0;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;</span>
+  understand <span lang="el"
+  title="dromon">&#x3B4;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span> = thou
+  art fast arriving at the goal of the truth.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_108"></a><a href="#IT_108">[108]</a> Read <span lang="el"
+  title="apedexô">&#x3B1;&#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3B4;&#x3B5;&#x3BE;&#x3C9;</span>
+  with ed. Camb.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_109"></a><a href="#IT_109">[109]</a> "I remember it: for
+  the wedding did not, by its happy result, take away the recollection of
+  that commencement of nuptial ceremonies." CAMB. ED.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_110"></a><a href="#IT_110">[110]</a> i.e. Iphigenia sent
+  it with a view to a cenotaph at Mycenæ, as she was about to die at Aulis.
+  See Seidler.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_111"></a><a href="#IT_111">[111]</a> "This Homeric
+  epithet of an only son is used, I believe, nowhere else in Attic poetry.
+  Its adoption here seems owing to Hom. Il. <span lang="el"
+  title="I">&#x399;</span>. 142 and 284. <span lang="el" title="tisô de min
+  hison Orestêi Hos moi têlygetos trephetai thaliêi eni
+  pollêi">&#x3C4;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3C9; &#x3B4;&#x3B5; &#x3BC;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x201B;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;
+  &#x39F;&#x3C1;&#x3B5;&#x3C3;&#x3C4;&#x3B7;&#x3B9; &#x201B;&#x39F;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3B7;&#x3BB;&#x3C5;&#x3B3;&#x3B5;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3C1;&#x3B5;&#x3C6;&#x3B5;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3B8;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3B9;&#x3B7;&#x3B9; &#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3BB;&#x3BB;&#x3B7;&#x3B9;</span>." ED. CAMB.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_112"></a><a href="#IT_112">[112]</a> This is Musgrave's
+  elegant emendation, which Hermann, unwilling to let well alone, has
+  attempted to spoil. See, however, the Cambridge editor, who possesses
+  taste and clear perception, unbiased by self-love.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_113"></a><a href="#IT_113">[113]</a> Read <span lang="el"
+  title="emois">&#x3B5;&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;</span> with the
+  Cambridge editor.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_114"></a><a href="#IT_114">[114]</a> But <span lang="el"
+  title="phygêis">&#x3C6;&#x3C5;&#x3B3;&#x3B7;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;</span>, and
+  <span lang="el" title="ô philos">&#x3C9;
+  &#x3C6;&#x3B9;&#x3BB;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span>, the emendation of Burges,
+  seems far better, and is followed by the Cambridge editor.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_115"></a><a href="#IT_115">[115]</a> i.e. I can imagine
+  your sufferings at Aulis.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_116"></a><a href="#IT_116">[116]</a> The Cambridge editor
+  compares Hec. 684. <span lang="el" title="hetera d' aph' heterôn kaka
+  kakôn kyrei">&#x201B;&#x3B5;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3B1; &#x3B4;'
+  &#x3B1;&#x3C6;' &#x201B;&#x3B5;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3BA;&#x3B1; &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3BA;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3BA;&#x3C5;&#x3C1;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_117"></a><a href="#IT_117">[117]</a> This is Reiske's
+  interpretation, taking the construction <span lang="el" title="prin
+  xiphos pal. epi haimati">&#x3C0;&#x3C1;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3BE;&#x3B9;&#x3C6;&#x3BF;&#x3C2; &#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;.
+  &#x3B5;&#x3C0;&#x3B9;
+  &#x201B;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3B9;</span>. But Seidler
+  would recall the old reading <span lang="el"
+  title="pelasai">&#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3C3;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;</span>,
+  comparing Hel. 361. <span lang="el" title="autosidaron esô pelasô dia
+  sarkos
+  hamillan">&#x3B1;&#x3C5;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;&#x3B4;&#x3B1;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B5;&#x3C3;&#x3C9; &#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3C3;&#x3C9;
+  &#x3B4;&#x3B9;&#x3B1; &#x3C3;&#x3B1;&#x3C1;&#x3BA;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;
+  &#x201B;&#x3B1;&#x3BC;&#x3B9;&#x3BB;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;</span>. This is
+  better, but we must also read <span lang="el"
+  title="eti">&#x3B5;&#x3C4;&#x3B9;</span> for <span lang="el"
+  title="epi">&#x3B5;&#x3C0;&#x3B9;</span> with the Cambridge editor.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_118"></a><a href="#IT_118">[118]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="rhipai podôn">&#x201B;&#x3C1;&#x3B9;&#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3B4;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;</span> is a bold way of expressing
+  rapid traveling.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_119"></a><a href="#IT_119">[119]</a> Read <span lang="el"
+  title="ana">&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3B1;</span> with Markland, for <span
+  lang="el" title="ara">&#x3B1;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_120"></a><a href="#IT_120">[120]</a> I read <span
+  lang="el" title="ê dia kyan">&#x3B7; &#x3B4;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3BA;&#x3C5;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;</span>. with the Cambridge editor. The
+  following words are rendered thus by Musgrave, "Per ... <i>est</i> longum
+  iter."</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_121"></a><a href="#IT_121">[121]</a> Unintelligible, and
+  probably spurious.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_122"></a><a href="#IT_122">[122]</a> The Cambridge editor
+  finds fault with the obvious clumsiness of the expression, and proposes
+  <span lang="el" title="echein">&#x3B5;&#x3C7;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;</span>
+  for <span lang="el"
+  title="labein">&#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3B2;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;</span>. I have
+  still greater doubts about <span lang="el" title="ekbantas
+  tychês">&#x3B5;&#x3BA;&#x3B2;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3C5;&#x3C7;&#x3B7;&#x3C2;</span>. The sense ought to be, "'tis
+  the part of wise men, <i>when fortune favors</i>, not to lose the
+  opportunity, but to gain other advantages."</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_123"></a><a href="#IT_123">[123]</a> See Dindorf's notes.
+  But the Cambridge editor has shown so decided a superiority to the German
+  critics, that I should unhesitatingly adopt his reading, as follows:
+  <span lang="el" title="ou mê m' epischêis, oud' apostêseis logou, to mê
+  ou pythesthai ... phila gar tauta">&#x3BF;&#x3C5; &#x3BC;&#x3B7; &#x3BC;'
+  &#x3B5;&#x3C0;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3C7;&#x3B7;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;,
+  &#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3B4;'
+  &#x3B1;&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3C3;&#x3C4;&#x3B7;&#x3C3;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3BB;&#x3BF;&#x3B3;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;, &#x3C4;&#x3BF; &#x3BC;&#x3B7;
+  &#x3BF;&#x3C5; &#x3C0;&#x3C5;&#x3B8;&#x3B5;&#x3C3;&#x3B8;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  ... &#x3C6;&#x3B9;&#x3BB;&#x3B1; &#x3B3;&#x3B1;&#x3C1;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3C5;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;</span>, (with Markland,) although
+  <span lang="el"
+  title="prôton">&#x3C0;&#x3C1;&#x3C9;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span> may
+  perhaps be defended.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_124"></a><a href="#IT_124">[124]</a> See the Cambridge
+  editor. The same elegant scholar has also improved the arrangement of the
+  lines.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_125"></a><a href="#IT_125">[125]</a> "Quanquam animus
+  meminisse horret, luctuque refugit, Incipiam." Virg. Æn. i.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_126"></a><a href="#IT_126">[126]</a> I read <span
+  lang="el" title="enth' emon poda">&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3B8;'
+  &#x3B5;&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3BD; &#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3B4;&#x3B1;</span> with
+  Herm. and Dind.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_127"></a><a href="#IT_127">[127]</a> Cf. Elect. 1258
+  sqq., and Meurs. Areop. § i. <span lang="el"
+  title="psêphos">&#x3C8;&#x3B7;&#x3C6;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span> seems here
+  used to denote the place where the council was held. The pollution of
+  Mars was the murder of Hallirothius. Cf. Pausan. i. 21.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_128"></a><a href="#IT_128">[128]</a> An instance of the
+  nominativus pendens.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_129"></a><a href="#IT_129">[129]</a> So Valckenaer,
+  Diatr. p. 246, who quotes some passages relative to the treatment of
+  Orestes at Athens.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_130"></a><a href="#IT_130">[130]</a> See the Cambridge
+  editor.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_131"></a><a href="#IT_131">[131]</a> See Barnes, who
+  quotes the Schol. on Arist. Eq. 95. <span lang="el"
+  title="Chous">&#x3A7;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C2;</span> was the name of the
+  festival.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_132"></a><a href="#IT_132">[132]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="emoi">&#x3B5;&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;</span> is the dativus
+  commodi.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_133"></a><a href="#IT_133">[133]</a> I am indebted to
+  Maltby for this translation.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_134"></a><a href="#IT_134">[134]</a> Cf. Piers, on
+  M&#339;r. p. 351, and the Cambridge editor.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_135"></a><a href="#IT_135">[135]</a> But see ed.
+  Camb.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_136"></a><a href="#IT_136">[136]</a> Such is the force,
+  of <span lang="el" title="ou gar all'">&#x3BF;&#x3C5;
+  &#x3B3;&#x3B1;&#x3C1; &#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3BB;'</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_137"></a><a href="#IT_137">[137]</a> These lines are very
+  corrupt, and perhaps, as Dindorf thinks, spurious.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_138"></a><a href="#IT_138">[138]</a> Markland rightly
+  reads <span lang="el"
+  title="hierophylakes">&#x201B;&#x3B9;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3C6;&#x3C5;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3BA;&#x3B5;&#x3C2;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_139"></a><a href="#IT_139">[139]</a> "dicam me daturam."
+  MARKLAND.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_140"></a><a href="#IT_140">[140]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="hod'">&#x201B;&#x3BF;&#x3B4;'</span> is the correction of
+  Brodæus.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_141"></a><a href="#IT_141">[141]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="neôs pitylos">&#x3BD;&#x3B5;&#x3C9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3B9;&#x3C4;&#x3C5;&#x3BB;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span> seems not merely
+  a periphrase, but implies that the oars are in the row-locks, as if ready
+  for starting.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_142"></a><a href="#IT_142">[142]</a> But the Cambridge
+  editor very elegantly reads <span lang="el" title="ei toi">&#x3B5;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_143"></a><a href="#IT_143">[143]</a> Put <span lang="el"
+  title="phthenxasthe">&#x3C6;&#x3B8;&#x3B5;&#x3B3;&#x3BE;&#x3B1;&#x3C3;&#x3B8;&#x3B5;</span>
+  in an inclosure, and join <span lang="el"
+  title="tauta">&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3C5;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;</span> with <span
+  lang="el" title="thelei">&#x3B8;&#x3B5;&#x3BB;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;</span>. See
+  ed. Camb.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_144"></a><a href="#IT_144">[144]</a> Schol. Theocr. Id.
+  vii. 57. <span lang="el" title="thrênêtikon to zôion, kai para tois
+  aigialois
+  neotteuon">&#x3B8;&#x3C1;&#x3B7;&#x3BD;&#x3B7;&#x3C4;&#x3B9;&#x3BA;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3BF; &#x3B6;&#x3C9;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;, &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3C1;&#x3B1; &#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3B3;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3BD;&#x3B5;&#x3BF;&#x3C4;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3C5;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span>.
+  Cf. Aristoph. Ran. 1309, who perhaps had the passage in view.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_145"></a><a href="#IT_145">[145]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="agoros">&#x3B1;&#x3B3;&#x3BF;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span> is a
+  somewhat rare word for <span lang="el"
+  title="agyris">&#x3B1;&#x3B3;&#x3C5;&#x3C1;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_146"></a><a href="#IT_146">[146]</a> Cf. Hecub. 457
+  sqq.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_147"></a><a href="#IT_147">[147]</a> So Matthiæ, "locum
+  ubi Latona partum edidit."</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_148"></a><a href="#IT_148">[148]</a> Read <span lang="el"
+  title="kyklion">&#x3BA;&#x3C5;&#x3BA;&#x3BB;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span>
+  with Seidler. On the <span lang="el" title="limnê
+  trochoeidês">&#x3BB;&#x3B9;&#x3BC;&#x3BD;&#x3B7;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3C7;&#x3BF;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3B4;&#x3B7;&#x3C2;</span>
+  at Delos, see Barnes.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_149"></a><a href="#IT_149">[149]</a> "I was conveyed by
+  sailors and soldiers." ED. CAMB.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_150"></a><a href="#IT_150">[150]</a> The same scholar
+  quotes Soph. Ph. 43. <span lang="el" title="all' ê' pi phorbês noston
+  exelêlythen">&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3BB;' &#x3B7;' &#x3C0;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3C6;&#x3BF;&#x3C1;&#x3B2;&#x3B7;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3C3;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B5;&#x3BE;&#x3B5;&#x3BB;&#x3B7;&#x3BB;&#x3C5;&#x3B8;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;</span>,
+  vhere <span lang="el"
+  title="nostos">&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3C3;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span> is used
+  in the same manner as here, simply meaning "a journey."</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_151"></a><a href="#IT_151">[151]</a> But see Camb.
+  ed.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_152"></a><a href="#IT_152">[152]</a> I read <span
+  lang="el" title="zêlousa
+  tan">&#x3B6;&#x3B7;&#x3BB;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;</span> with the same.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_153"></a><a href="#IT_153">[153]</a> The Cambridge critic
+  again proposes <span lang="el" title="metabolai d'
+  eudaimonia">&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3B2;&#x3BF;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3B4;'
+  &#x3B5;&#x3C5;&#x3B4;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;</span>,
+  which he felicitously supports. Musgrave has however partly anticipated
+  this emendation.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_154"></a><a href="#IT_154">[154]</a> Dindorf has shown so
+  little care in editing this passage, that I have merely recalled the old
+  reading, <span lang="el" title="aeri d' histia protonoi k. pr. hyper
+  stolon ekp.">&#x3B1;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3B9; &#x3B4;'
+  &#x201B;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3C4;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3B9; &#x3BA;.
+  &#x3C0;&#x3C1;. &#x201B;&#x3C5;&#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;
+  &#x3C3;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3BB;&#x3BF;&#x3BD; &#x3B5;&#x3BA;&#x3C0;.</span>,
+  following the construction proposed by Heath, and approved, as it
+  appears, by the Cambridge editor. Seidler's note is learned and
+  instructive, but I have some doubts about his criticism.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_155"></a><a href="#IT_155">[155]</a> i.e. I wish I might
+  become a bird and fly homeward.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_156"></a><a href="#IT_156">[156]</a> See ed. Camb.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_157"></a><a href="#IT_157">[157]</a> But see ibid.
+  Dindorf's text is a hopeless display of bad readings and worse
+  punctuation.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_158"></a><a href="#IT_158">[158]</a> Reading <span
+  lang="el"
+  title="gennas">&#x3B3;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3BD;&#x3B1;&#x3C2;</span>, I have
+  done my best with this passage, but I can only refer to the Cambridge
+  editor for a text and notes worthy of the play.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_159"></a><a href="#IT_159">[159]</a> I have recalled the
+  old reading, <span lang="el"
+  title="hosia">&#x201B;&#x3BF;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_160"></a><a href="#IT_160">[160]</a> On these sort of
+  prodigies, see Musgrave, and Dansq. on Quintus Calaber, xii. 497 sqq.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_161"></a><a href="#IT_161">[161]</a> "in eo, ut" is the
+  force of <span lang="el" title="en ergôi">&#x3B5;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3B3;&#x3C9;&#x3B9;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_162"></a><a href="#IT_162">[162]</a> Perhaps a sly
+  allusion to their escape.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_163"></a><a href="#IT_163">[163]</a> See ed. Camb.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_164"></a><a href="#IT_164">[164]</a> But we must read
+  <span lang="el" title="tois te">&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3B5;</span> with the Cambridge editor = "who know more than
+  men."</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_165"></a><a href="#IT_165">[165]</a> I can not too early
+  impress upon the reader the necessity of a careful attention to the
+  criticisms of the Cambridge editor throughout this difficult chorus,
+  especially to his masterly sketch of the whole, p. 146, 147.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_166"></a><a href="#IT_166">[166]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="pheren inin">&#x3C6;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B9;&#x3BD;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;</span> is Burges' elegant emendation, the
+  credit of which has been unduly claimed by Seidler.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_167"></a><a href="#IT_167">[167]</a> i.e. the place
+  afterward called Inopus. See Herm., whose construction I have
+  followed.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_168"></a><a href="#IT_168">[168]</a> On the <span
+  lang="el"
+  title="omphalos">&#x3BF;&#x3BC;&#x3C6;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span>
+  see my note on Æsch. Eum. p. 180, ed. Bohn. On the Delphic priesthood,
+  compare ibid. p. 179.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_169"></a><a href="#IT_169">[169]</a> See, however, the
+  Cambridge editor.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_170"></a><a href="#IT_170">[170]</a> Read <span lang="el"
+  title="es thronon">&#x3B5;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B8;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span> with Barnes and Dind.,
+  or rather <span lang="el" title="epi Zênos thronon">&#x3B5;&#x3C0;&#x3B9;
+  &#x396;&#x3B7;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B8;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span> with Herm.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_171"></a><a href="#IT_171">[171]</a> But see Dindorf.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_172"></a><a href="#IT_172">[172]</a> See Dindorf's note,
+  but still better the Cambridge editor.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_173"></a><a href="#IT_173">[173]</a> I follow
+  Seidler.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_174"></a><a href="#IT_174">[174]</a> So ed. Camb.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_175"></a><a href="#IT_175">[175]</a> i.e. what evil
+  inspiration of the Gods impelled her to this act? Thoas, who is
+  represented as superstitious to the most barbarian extent, naturally
+  regards the infidelity of Iphigenia as proceeding from the intervention
+  of heaven.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_176"></a><a href="#IT_176">[176]</a> Cf. Monk. on Hippol.
+  828.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_177"></a><a href="#IT_177">[177]</a> Cf. vs. 1197. <span
+  lang="el" title="erêmias
+  dei">&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3B7;&#x3BC;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B4;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_178"></a><a href="#IT_178">[178]</a> Dindorf and the
+  Cambridge editor follow Hermann, who would place this line after vs.
+  1394.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_179"></a><a href="#IT_179">[179]</a> So Musgrave.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_180"></a><a href="#IT_180">[180]</a> Seidler has deserved
+  well of this passage, both by his correction <span lang="el" title="toin
+  xenoin">&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3BE;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;</span> for <span lang="el"
+  title="tên xenên">&#x3C4;&#x3B7;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3BE;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3B7;&#x3BD;</span>, and by his learned and clear
+  explanation of the nautical terms.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_181"></a><a href="#IT_181">[181]</a> Dindorf has adopted
+  Markland's emendation, but I prefer <span lang="el" title="hôst'
+  exanapnein">&#x201B;&#x3C9;&#x3C3;&#x3C4;'
+  &#x3B5;&#x3BE;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3B1;&#x3C0;&#x3BD;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;</span>
+  with the Cambridge editor.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_182"></a><a href="#IT_182">[182]</a> i.e. capsize.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_183"></a><a href="#IT_183">[183]</a> But see ed.
+  Camb.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_184"></a><a href="#IT_184">[184]</a> I have introduced
+  the line above mentioned, and have likewise adopted Hermann's
+  introduction of <span lang="el"
+  title="palimprymnêdon">&#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3B9;&#x3BC;&#x3C0;&#x3C1;&#x3C5;&#x3BC;&#x3BD;&#x3B7;&#x3B4;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span>
+  from Hesychius, in lieu of <span lang="el" title="palin
+  prymnêsi'">&#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3C1;&#x3C5;&#x3BC;&#x3BD;&#x3B7;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;'</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_185"></a><a href="#IT_185">[185]</a> See ed. Camb.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_186"></a><a href="#IT_186">[186]</a> "The obvious intent
+  of these measures was to fasten the vessel to some point of the rocks,
+  and thus prevent her being wrecked." ED. CAMB.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_187"></a><a href="#IT_187">[187]</a> "Our passage is thus
+  to be understood, <span lang="el" title="hê halisketai prodousa to
+  mnêmoneuein theai phonon">&#x201B;&#x3B7;
+  &#x201B;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3BA;&#x3B5;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3B4;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3B1; &#x3C4;&#x3BF;
+  &#x3BC;&#x3BD;&#x3B7;&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3B5;&#x3C5;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B8;&#x3B5;&#x3B1;&#x3B9; &#x3C6;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span>."
+  ED. CAMB.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_188"></a><a href="#IT_188">[188]</a> So Hermann rightly
+  explains the sense. I agree with the Cambridge editor, that if Euripides
+  had intended to use <span lang="el"
+  title="hosias">&#x201B;&#x3BF;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;&#x3C2;</span>
+  substantively, he would hardly have joined it with <span lang="el"
+  title="theas">&#x3B8;&#x3B5;&#x3B1;&#x3C2;</span>, thereby causing an
+  ambiguity.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_189"></a><a href="#IT_189">[189]</a> There is another
+  construction, taking <span lang="el" title="klim.
+  theas">&#x3BA;&#x3BB;&#x3B9;&#x3BC;. &#x3B8;&#x3B5;&#x3B1;&#x3C2;</span>
+  together. On the whole introduction of Minerva, see the clever note of
+  the Cambridge editor, p. 158, 159.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_190"></a><a href="#IT_190">[190]</a> There is evidently a
+  lacuna, as the transition to Orestes is worse than abrupt. The
+  mythological allusions in the following lines are well explained in the
+  notes of Barnes and Seidler.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_191"></a><a href="#IT_191">[191]</a> On these last verses
+  see the end of the Orestes, with Dindorf's note.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 15081 ***</div>
+</body>
+</html>
+
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #15081 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/15081)
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+Project Gutenberg's The Tragedies of Euripides, Volume I., by Euripides
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Tragedies of Euripides, Volume I.
+
+Author: Euripides
+
+Release Date: February 16, 2005 [EBook #15081]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TRAGEDIES OF EURIPIDES, ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Charles Aldarondo, Keren Vergon, Keith Edkins and the
+PG Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
+
+
+
+
+
+THE
+TRAGEDIES
+OF
+EURIPIDES.
+
+LITERALLY TRANSLATED OR REVISED,
+WITH CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES,
+
+BY
+THEODORE ALOIS BUCKLEY,
+OF CHRIST CHURCH.
+
+VOL. I.
+
+HECUBA, ORESTES, PHŒNISSÆ, MEDEA, HIPPOLYTUS, ALCESTIS,
+BACCHÆ, HERACLIDÆ, IPHIGENIA IN AULIDE,
+AND IPHIGENIA IN TAURIS.
+
+NEW YORK:
+HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS,
+FRANKLIN SQUARE.
+
+1892.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *       *
+
+PREFACE.
+
+The translations of the first six plays in the present volume were
+published at Oxford some years since, and have been frequently reprinted.
+They are now carefully revised according to Dindorf's text, and are
+accompanied by a few additional notes adapted to the requirements of the
+student.
+
+The translations of the Bacchæ, Heraclidæ, and the two Iphigenias, are
+based upon the same text, with certain exceptions, which are pointed out at
+the foot of the page. The annotations on the Iphigenias are almost
+exclusively critical, as it is presumed that a student who proceeds to the
+reading of these somewhat difficult plays[1], will be sufficiently advanced
+in his acquaintance with the Greek drama to dispense with more elementary
+information.
+
+          T.A. BUCKLEY,
+              CHRIST CHURCH, OXFORD.
+
+[1] The reader will obtain some notion of the difficulties alluded to, and
+the best mode of grappling with them, by consulting the recent Cambridge
+edition, published with English notes (Iph. in Aulide, 1840, in Tauris,
+1846), performances of great critical acumen, attributed to the present
+Bishop of Gloucester.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *       *
+
+INTRODUCTION.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+Euripides, son of Mnesarchus, was born in the island of Salamis, on the day
+of the celebrated victory (B.C. 480). His mother, Clito, had been sent
+thither in company with the other Athenian women, when Attica was given up,
+and the ships became at once the refuge of the male population, and the
+national defense. Mr. Donaldson[1] well remarks, that the patronymic form
+of his name, derived from the Euripus, which was the scene of the first
+successful resistance offered to the Persian navy, shows that the attention
+of his parents was fully excited by the stirring events of the time.
+
+Notwithstanding the fact that his mother had been an herb-seller, it is
+probable that his father was a man of some family. That he was at least
+possessed of ample means, is evident from the care and expense bestowed
+upon our poet's education. Under the tutorship of Anaxagoras, Prodicus, and
+Protagoras, he had studied both natural philosophy and rhetoric in its
+sophistical form. In gymnastic exercises he exhibited a successful prowess,
+being twice victorious in the Eleusinian and Thesean games. Of his skill in
+painting, some specimens were preserved at Megara.
+
+His appearance as a dramatist was at an earlier age than that of his
+predecessors, as he was only five and twenty years old when he produced the
+"Peliades," his first tragedy. On this occasion, he gained the third prize
+in the tragic contests, but the first, fourteen years after, and
+subsequently, with the "Hippolytus," in 428 B.C. The peculiar tendency of
+some of the ideas expressed in his plays, was the probable cause of the
+retirement of Euripides to Macedonia, where he obtained the friendship of
+King Archelaus. Perhaps, however, the unhappiness of his connubial state,
+arising from the infidelity of his two wives, might have rendered Athens a
+disagreeable place of abode for the woman-hating poet, especially when his
+"domestic bliss" was continually seasoned by the sarcastic jokes and
+allusions of his political enemy, Aristophanes. Moreover, his acquaintance
+with the talking philosopher, Socrates, must have been unfavorable to the
+continuance of his popularity.
+
+The fate of Pentheus in our author's noble play, the "Bacchæ," appears to
+have given origin to the tradition that he himself was torn to pieces by
+dogs. If we reflect that this play was probably the last of his works, the
+mistake seems a plausible one. The death of Euripides, which probably
+happened in the ordinary course of nature, has, like that of Æschylus, been
+associated with the marvelous.
+
+The Athenians vainly craved the honor of giving a resting-place to the
+ashes of their philosopher-poet. He was buried at Pella, but a cenotaph at
+Athens showed that his countrymen had not forgotten Euripides. His death
+took place B.C. 406.
+
+The inferiority of our author to the greater tragedians, prevents our
+feeling much desire to enter upon the respective merits and demerits of his
+several plays, especially as we are completely anticipated by Schlegel,
+with whose masterly analysis every reader ought to be acquainted.
+Nevertheless, a few general remarks may, perhaps, be not wholly
+unprofitable.
+
+It has been truly remarked, that tragedy, in no small degree, owed its
+downfall to Euripides. Poetry was gradually superseded by rhetoric,
+sublimity by earnestness, pathos by reasoning. Thus, Iphigenia and Macaria
+give so many good reasons for dying, that the sacrifice appears very small,
+and a modern wag in the upper regions of the theatre would, at the end of
+the speech of the latter heroine, almost have exclaimed, "Then why don't
+you die?"
+
+It has been said, that our poet drew the characters of life as he found
+them, but bad as his characters are, they exhibit only a vulgar wickedness.
+Unable to portray a Clytæmnestra, he revels in the continual paltriness of
+a Menelaus or Ulysses. As if he took a delight in the black side of
+humanity, he loves to show the strength of false reasoning, of sophistry
+antagonistic to truth, and of cold expediency in opposition to the natural
+feelings of humanity. From a similar reason, his occasional attempts at
+comedy degenerate into mere farce. We question whether the scene between
+Death and Apollo in the "Alcestis," could be surpassed in vulgarity, even
+by the modern school of English dramatists, while his exaggerations in the
+minor characters are scarcely to be surpassed by the lowest writer of any
+period.
+
+Under Euripides, the stage began gradually to approximate more closely to
+the ordinary and, at that time, debased character of Athenian society. A
+contempt for the Lacedæmonians, a passionate taste for the babbling and
+trickery of the forum, and an attempt to depreciate the social position and
+influence of the weaker sex, form the most unamiable features of this
+change. Yet we must allow, that if Euripides has reveled in the
+amiabilities of a Melanippe or a Phædra, in the gentle revenge of a Medea
+or Hecuba, he has at the same time given us an Alcestis, the only real
+example of genuine conjugal affection on the Greek stage.
+
+Nor must we forget that Euripides is a greater admirer of nature, a more
+complete delineator of her workings, than the two greater tragedians. He
+has more of illustrative philosophy, more of regard to the objects of the
+animated creation, the system of the universe, than his greater rivals
+exhibit. He is, as Vitruvius has justly styled him, a "stage-philosopher."
+Did we possess a larger acquaintance with the works of Parmenides,
+Empedocles, and other early cosmogonists, we should perhaps think less of
+his merits on this head: as it is, the possession of some such fragments of
+our poet makes us deeply regret the loss of the plays themselves.
+
+But his very love for the contemplation of nature has in no small degree
+contributed to the mischievous skepticism promulgated by our poet. In early
+times, when a rural theogony was the standard of belief, when each star had
+its deity, each deity its undisputed, unquestioned prerogative and worship,
+there was little inclination, less opportunity, for skepticism. Throughout
+the poetry of Hesiod, we find this feeling ever predominant, a feeling
+which Virgil and Tibullus well knew how to appreciate. Even Euripides
+himself, perhaps taught by some dangerous lessons at home, has expressed
+his belief that it is best "not to be too clever in matters regarding the
+Gods."[2] A calm retreat in the wild, picturesque tracts of Macedonia,
+might have had some share in reforming this spoiled pupil of the sophists.
+But as we find that the too careful contemplation of nature degenerates
+into superstition or rationalism in their various forms, so Euripides had
+imbibed the taste for saying startling things,[3] rather than wise; for
+reducing the principles of creation to materialism, the doctrines of right
+and wrong to expediency, and immutable truths to a popular system of
+question and answer. Like the generality of sophists, he took away a
+received truth, and left nothing to supply its place; he reasoned falsehood
+into probability, truth into nonentity.
+
+At a period when the Prodico-Socratic style of disputing was in high
+fashion, the popularity of Euripides must have been excessive. His familiar
+appeals to the trifling matters of ordinary life, his characters all
+philosophizing, from the prince to the dry-nurse, his excellent reasons for
+doing right or wrong, as the case might be, must have been inestimably
+delightful to the accommodating morals of the Athenians. The Court of
+Charles the Second could hardly have derived more pleasure from the
+writings of a Behn or a Hamilton, than these unworthy descendants of Codrus
+must have experienced in hearing a bad cause so cleverly defended. Whether
+the orators and dikasts followed the example of the stage in those days,
+can scarcely be ascertained, but it is more than certain that they
+practically illustrated its principles. At least, the Sicilians were so
+fond of our author, that a few of the unfortunate survivors of the
+Syracusan disaster, were enabled to pick up a living by quoting such
+passages of our author as they had learned by heart. A compliment paid to
+few living dramatists in our days!
+
+In dramatic conduct, Euripides is at an even greater disadvantage with
+Æschylus and Sophocles. The best characters of the piece are often the
+least employed, as in the instance of Macaria in the "Heraclidæ," while the
+play is dwindled away with dull, heavy dirges, and the complaints of senile
+childishness. The chorus, as Aristotle[4] has remarked, is most
+unfortunately independent of the plot, although the finest poetry is
+generally to be found in the lyric portions of our author's plays. In fact,
+Euripides rather wanted management in employing his resources, than the
+resources themselves. An ear well attuned to the harmony of verse, a
+delicate perception of the graceful points of language, and a finished
+subtilty in touching the more minute feelings and impulses of the mind,
+were all thrown away either upon bad subjects or worse principles. There is
+no true tragedy in Euripides, He is a melodramatist, but not according to
+the modern acceptation. His plays might end either happily or the reverse.
+A deity conveniently brought in, the arrival of a messenger, however
+unexpectedly, together with a liberal allowance for a cowardly revenge upon
+the vanquished--these are the Euripidean elements for giving a tragic end
+to a play. Nay, so great is the prodigality of slaughter throughout his
+dramas, that we can but imagine morbid cruelty to have formed a
+considerable ingredient in the disposition of Euripides. Even his pathos is
+somewhat tinctured with this taste for painful images. As we have beheld in
+our own times a barbarian alternately glut his sight with executions, and
+then shed floods of tears, and sink into idiot despondency; so the poetry
+of Euripides in turn disgusts us with outrageous cruelty, and depresses us
+with the most painful demands upon our compassion.
+
+In the lyric portions of his dramas, our poet has been far more successful.
+The description of the capture of Troy by night,[5] is a splendid specimen
+of animation blended with true pathos. But taken as a whole. Euripides is a
+most unequal author. We may commence a play with pleasure (but O for the
+prologues!), we may proceed with satisfaction, but the feeling rarely lasts
+to the end. If I may venture an opinion upon so uncertain a subject, I
+should name the Hippolytus, Ion, Troades, Bacchæ, and Iphigenia in Aulis as
+his best plays, placing the Phœnissæ, Alcestis, Medea, Hecuba, and Orestes
+in a lower rank. The Helena is an amusing heap of absurdities, and reads
+much better in the burlesque of Aristophanes; the Electra is utterly
+beneath criticism; the Cyclops a weak, but humorous imitation of Homer. The
+other plays appear to be neither bad nor good.
+
+The style of Euripides is, generally speaking, easy; and I can mention no
+author from whom a taste for elegant Greek and a facility in composition
+can more easily be derived. Some of his plays have suffered severely from
+the ravages of time, the ignorance of copyists, and the more dangerous
+officiousness of grammarians. Some passages of the Bacchæ, Rhesus, Troades,
+and the two Iphigenias, despite the ingenuity and erudition of such
+scholars as Porson, Elmsley, Monk, Burges, and a host of others, must still
+remain mere matter for guessing. Hermann's Euripides is, as a whole, sadly
+unworthy the abilities of the Humboldt of Greek literature.
+
+The present volume contains the most popular of our author's works,
+according to present usage. But the spirit which is gradually infusing
+itself into the minds of those who are most actively engaged in the
+educational system of England, fully warrants a hope that Porson's "four
+plays" will shortly cease to be the boundaries of the student's
+acquaintance with Euripides.
+
+I need scarcely observe, that the study of Aristophanes is indissolubly
+connected with that of our author. If the reader discover the painful fact
+that the burlesque writer is greater than the tragedian, he will perhaps
+also recollect that such a literary relation is, unfortunately, by no means
+confined to the days of Aristophanes.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+Notes on the Introduction
+
+[1] See Theatre of the Greeks, p. 92. sqq.
+
+[2] Bacch. 200. This play was written during his sojourn with Archelaus.
+
+[3] τοιουτονι τι παρακεκινδευμενον. Aristoph. Ran. 99.
+
+[4] Poet. § xviii.
+
+[5] Hec. 905 sqq.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *       *
+
+HECUBA.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+PERSONS REPRESENTED.
+
+  GHOST OF POLYDORE.
+  HECUBA.
+  CHORUS OF FEMALE CAPTIVES.
+  POLYXENA.
+  ULYSSES.
+  TALTHYBIUS.
+  FEMALE ATTENDANT.
+  AGAMEMNON.
+  POLYMESTOR AND HIS CHILDREN.
+
+_The Scene lies before the Grecian tents, on the coast of the Thracian
+Chersonese._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE ARGUMENT.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+After the capture of Troy, the Greeks put into the Chersonese over against
+Troas, But Achilles, having appeared by night, demanded one of the
+daughters of Priam to be slain. The Greeks therefore, in honor to their
+hero, tore Polyxena from Hecuba, and offered her up in sacrifice.
+Polymestor moreover, the king of the Thracians, murdered Polydore, a son of
+Priam's. Now Polymestor had received him from the hands of Priam as a
+charge to take care of, together with some money. But when the city was
+taken, wishing to seize upon his wealth, he determined to dispatch him, and
+disregarded the ill-fated friendship that subsisted between them; but his
+body being cast out into the sea, the wave threw him up on the shore before
+the tents of the captive women. Hecuba, on seeing the corse, recognized it;
+and having imparted her design to Agamemnon, sent for Polymestor to come to
+her with his sons, concealing what had happened, under pretense that she
+might discover to him some treasures hidden in Ilium. But on his arrival
+she slew his sons, and put out his eyes; but pleading her cause before the
+Greeks, she gained it over her accuser (Polymestor). For it was decided
+that she did not begin the cruelty, but only avenged herself on him who did
+begin it.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+HECUBA.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+GHOST OF POLYDORE.
+
+I am present, having left the secret dwellings of the dead and the gates of
+darkness, where Pluto has his abode apart from the other Gods, Polydore the
+son of Hecuba the daughter of Cisseus,[1] and Priam my sire, who when the
+danger of falling by the spear of Greece was threatening the city of the
+Phrygians, in fear, privately sent me from the Trojan land to the house of
+Polymestor, his Thracian friend, who cultivates the most fruitful soil of
+the Chersonese, ruling a warlike people with his spear.[2] But my father
+sends privately with me a large quantity of gold, in order that, if at any
+time the walls of Troy should fall, there might not be a lack of sustenance
+for his surviving children. But I was the youngest of the sons of Priam; on
+which account also he sent me privately from the land, for I was able
+neither to bear arms nor the spear with my youthful arm. As long then
+indeed as the landmarks of the country remained erect, and the towers of
+Troy were unshaken, and Hector my brother prevailed with his spear, I
+miserable increased vigorously as some young branch, by the nurture I
+received at the hands of the Thracian, my father's friend. But after that
+both Troy and the life of Hector were put an end to, and my father's
+mansions razed to the ground, and himself falls at the altar built by the
+God, slain by the blood-polluted son of Achilles, the friend of my father
+slays me, wretched man, for the sake of my gold, and having slain me threw
+me into the surf of the sea, that he might possess the gold himself in his
+palace. But I am exposed on the shore, at another time on the ocean's
+surge, borne about by many ebbings and flowings of the waves, unwept,
+unburied; but at present I am hastening on my dear mother's account, having
+left my body, borne aloft this day already the third,[3] for so long has my
+wretched mother been present in this territory of the Chersonese from Troy.
+But all the Grecians, holding their ships at anchor, are sitting quiet on
+the shores of this land of Thrace. For Achilles the son of Peleus,
+appearing above his tomb, stayed all the army of the Grecians as they were
+directing homeward their sea dipped oars; and asks to receive my sister
+Polyxena as a dear victim, and a tribute of honor to his tomb. And this he
+will obtain, nor will he be without this gift from his friends; and fate
+this day leads forth my sister to death. But my mother will see the two
+corses of her two children, both mine and the unhappy virgin's; for I shall
+appear on a breaker before the feet of a female slave, that I wretched may
+obtain sepulture; for I have successfully entreated those who have power
+beneath to find a tomb, and to fall into my mother's hands. As much then as
+I wish to have shall be mine; but I will withdraw myself out of the way of
+the aged Hecuba, for she is advancing her step beyond the tent of
+Agamemnon, dreading my phantom. Alas! O my mother, who, from kingly
+palaces, hast beheld the day of slavery, how unfortunate art thou now, in
+the degree that thou wert once fortunate! but some one of the Gods
+counterpoising your state, destroys you on account of your ancient
+prosperity.
+
+HECUBA. CHORUS.
+
+HEC. Lead onward, ye Trojan dames, the old woman before the tent; lead
+onward, raising up one now your fellow-slave, but once your queen; take me,
+bear me, conduct me, support my body, holding my aged hand; and I, leaning
+on the bending staff of my hand,[4] will hasten to put forward the slow
+motion of my joints. O lightning of Jove! O thou gloomy night! why, I pray,
+am I thus disquieted in the night with terrors, with phantoms? O thou
+venerable Earth, the mother of black-winged dreams, I renounce the nightly
+vision, which regarding my son who is preserved in Thrace, and regarding
+Polyxena my dear daughter, in my dreams have I beheld, a fearful sight, I
+have learned, I have understood. Gods of this land, preserve my son, who,
+my only son, and, [as it were,] the anchor of my house, inhabits the snowy
+Thrace under the protection of his father's friend. Some strange event will
+take place, some strain will come mournful to the mournful. Never did my
+mind so incessantly shudder and tremble. Where, I pray, ye Trojan dames,
+can I behold the divine spirit of Helenus, or Cassandra, that they may
+interpret my dreams? For I beheld a dappled hind torn by the blood-stained
+fang of the wolf, forcibly dragged from my bosom, a miserable sight. And
+dreadful this vision also; the spectre of Achilles came above the summit of
+his tomb, and demanded as a tribute of honor one of the wretched Trojan
+women. From my daughter then, from my daughter avert this fate, ye Gods, I
+implore you.
+
+CHOR. Hecuba, with haste to thee I flew, leaving the tents of our lords,
+where I was allotted and ordained a slave, driven from the city of Troy,
+led captive of the Greeks by the point of the spear, not to alleviate aught
+of your sufferings, but bringing a heavy weight of tidings, and to thee, O
+lady, a herald of woe. For it is said that it has been decreed in the full
+council of the Greeks to make thy daughter a sacrifice to Achilles: for you
+know how that having ascended o'er his tomb, he appeared in his golden arms
+and restrained the fleet ships, as they were setting their sails with their
+halliards, exclaiming in these words; "Where speed ye, Grecians, leaving my
+tomb unhonored!" Then the waves of great contention clashed together, and a
+divided opinion went forth through the army of the Greeks; to some it
+appeared advisable to give a victim to his tomb, and to others it appeared
+not. But Agamemnon was studious to advance your good, cherishing the love
+of the infuriated prophetess. But the two sons of Theseus, scions of
+Athens, were the proposers of different arguments, but in this one opinion
+they coincided, to crown the tomb of Achilles with fresh blood; and
+declared they would never prefer the bed of Cassandra before the spear of
+Achilles. And the strength of the arguments urged on either side was in a
+manner equal, till that subtle adviser, that babbling knave,[5] honeyed in
+speech, pleasing to the populace, that son of Laertes, persuades the army,
+not to reject the suit of the noblest of all the Greeks on account of a
+captive victim, and not to put it in the power of any of the dead standing
+near Proserpine to say that the Grecians departed from the plains of Troy
+ungrateful to the heroes who died for the state of Greece. And Ulysses will
+come only not now, to tear your child from your bosom, and to take her from
+your aged arms. But go to the temples, speed to the altars, sit a suppliant
+at the knees of Agamemnon, invoke the Gods, both those of heaven, and those
+under the earth; for either thy prayers will prevent thy being deprived of
+thy wretched daughter, or thou must behold the virgin falling before the
+tomb, dyed in blood gushing forth in a dark stream from her neck adorned
+with gold.[6]
+
+HEC. Alas! wretched me! what shall I exclaim? what shriek shall I utter?
+what lamentation? miserable through miserable age, and slavery not to be
+endured, insupportable. Alas! who is there to defend me? what offspring,
+what city! The old man is gone. My children are gone. Whither shall I turn
+me? and whither shall I go? Where is any god or deity to succor me? O
+Trojan dames, bearers of evil tidings, bearers of woe, you have destroyed
+me utterly, you have destroyed me. Life in the light is no more desirable!
+O wretched foot, lead, lead an aged woman to this tent! O child, daughter
+of the most afflicted mother, come forth, come forth from the tent, hear
+thy mother's voice, that thou mayest know what a report I hear that
+concerns thy life.
+
+HECUBA, POLYXENA, CHORUS.
+
+POLYX. O mother, why dost thou call! proclaiming what new affliction hast
+thou frighted me from the tent, as some bird from its nest, with this
+alarm?
+
+HEC. Alas! my child!
+
+POLYX. Why address me in words of ill omen? This is an evil prelude.
+
+HEC. Alas! for thy life.
+
+POLYX. Speak, conceal it no longer from me. I fear, I fear, my mother; why
+I pray dost thou groan?
+
+HEC. O child, child of an unhappy mother!
+
+POLYX. Why sayest thou this?
+
+HEC. My child, the common decree of the Greeks unites to slay thee at the
+tomb of the son of Peleus.
+
+POLYX. Alas, my mother! how are you relating unenviable ills? Tell me, tell
+me, my mother.
+
+HEC. I declare, my child, the ill-omened report, they bring word that a
+decree has passed by the vote of the Greeks regarding thy life.
+
+POLYX. O thou that hast borne affliction! O thou wretched on every side! O
+mother unhappy in your life, what most hated and most unutterable calamity
+has some destiny again sent against thee! This child is no longer thine; no
+longer indeed shall I miserable share slavery with miserable age. For as a
+mountain whelp or heifer shalt thou wretched behold me wretched torn from
+thine arms, and sent down beneath the darkness of the earth a victim to
+Pluto, where I shall lie bound in misery with the dead. But it is for thee
+indeed, my afflicted mother, that I lament in these mournful strains, but
+for my life, my wrongs, my fate, I mourn not; but death, a better lot, has
+befallen me.
+
+CHOR. But see Ulysses advances with hasty step, to declare to thee, Hecuba,
+some new determination.
+
+ULYSSES, HECUBA, POLYXENA, CHORUS.
+
+ULYSS. Lady, I imagine that you are acquainted with the decree of the army,
+and the vote which has prevailed; nevertheless, I will declare it. It has
+been decreed by the Greeks to offer on the lofty mound of Achilles's tomb
+thy daughter Polyxena. But they order me to conduct and convey the damsel;
+but the son of Achilles is appointed to be the priest, and to preside over
+the rites. Do you know then what to do? Be not dragged away by violence,
+nor enter into a contest of strength with me, but acknowledge superior
+force and the presence of thy ills; it is wise to have proper sentiments
+even in adversity.
+
+HEC. Alas! alas! the great trial is at hand, as it seems, of lamentations
+full, nor without tears; for I have not died in the state in which I ought
+to have died, nor hath Jove destroyed me, but preserves me, that I wretched
+may behold other misfortunes greater than [past] misfortunes. But if it be
+allowed slaves to put questions to the free, not offensive nor grating to
+the feelings, it will be your part to be questioned, and ours who are
+asking to attend.
+
+ULYSS. You have permission, ask freely, I grudge not the time.
+
+HEC. Dost thou remember when thou camest a spy on Troy, disfigured by a
+vile dress, and from thine eyes drops caused by the fear of death bedewed
+thy beard?
+
+ULYSS. I remember well; for it made no slight impression on my heart.
+
+HEC. But Helen knew thee, and told me alone.
+
+ULYSS. I remember the great danger I encountered.
+
+HEC. And didst thou embrace my knees in thy humility?
+
+ULYSS. So that my hand was numbered[7] through fear on thy garments.
+
+HEC. What then didst thou say, being then my slave?
+
+ULYSS. Many arguments that I invented to save me from death.
+
+HEC. Did I preserve thee then, and conduct thee safe from the land?
+
+ULYSS. Yes, so that I now behold the light of the sun.
+
+HEC. Art thou not then convicted of baseness by this conduct, who hast
+received benefits from me such as thou acknowledgest thou hast, and doest
+us no good in return, but evil, as far as in thee lies? Thankless is your
+race, as many of you as court honor from oratory before the populace; be ye
+not known to me, who care not to injure your friends, provided you say what
+is gratifying to the people. But plotting what dark design have they
+determined upon a decree of death against my child? Did fate impel them to
+offer human sacrifices at the tomb, where it were rather right to sacrifice
+cattle? Or does Achilles, desirous of devoting in his turn to death those
+that wrought his death, with a color of justice meditate her destruction?
+But she has done him no ill: he should demand Helen as a sacrifice on his
+tomb; for she destroyed him, and brought him to Troy. But if some captive
+selected from the rest, and excelling in beauty, ought to die, this is not
+ours. For the daughter of Tyndarus is most preeminent in beauty, and has
+been found to be no less injurious than us. On the score of justice then I
+urge this argument; but with respect to what you ought to repay at my
+demand, hear: thou hast touched my hand, as thou ownest, and this aged
+cheek also, falling at my knees. Thy hand and knees I in return grasp, and
+re-demand the favor I granted you then, and beseech you, do not tear my
+child from my arms, nor kill her; enough have died already. In her I
+rejoice, and forget my misfortunes; she serves as my consolation in the
+stead of many things, she is my city, my nurse, my staff, the guide of my
+way. It becomes not those who have power to exercise their power in things
+wherein they ought not, nor should the fortunate imagine their fortune will
+last forever. For I too have had my time of prosperity, but now have I
+ceased to be: one day wrenched from me all my happiness. But by thy beard
+which I supplicate, reverence me, pity me; go to the Grecian army, and
+remind them that it is a shameful thing to slay women whom ye have once
+spared, and that too dragging them from the altar. But show mercy. But the
+laws of blood among you are laid down alike for the free and the slave. But
+your worth will carry with it persuasion, although your arguments be bad;
+for the same words from those of little character, have not the same force
+as when they proceed from those of high reputation.
+
+CHOR. There is no nature of man so obdurate, which on hearing thy groans,
+and thy long plaints of misery, would not let fall the tear.
+
+ULYSS. Hecuba, be advised, nor through passion deem him thine enemy who
+gives thee good advice. I indeed am ready to preserve thy person through
+the means of which I was fortunate; and I say no other. But what I declared
+before all I will not deny, that, Troy being captured, we should give thy
+daughter as a victim to the noblest man of the army, who demands her; for
+in this many cities fail, when any man who is brave and zealous receives no
+more honor than those who are less valiant. But Achilles, O lady, is worthy
+of honor from us, a man who died most gloriously in behalf of the Grecian
+country. Were not then this disgraceful, if when living we treat him as a
+friend, but after he is gone we no longer treat him so? Well! what then
+will any one say, if there again should be an assembling of the army, and a
+contest with the enemy: "Shall we fight or preserve our lives, seeing that
+he who falls lies unhonored?" But for me at least, living from day to day,
+although I have but little, that little is sufficient; but I would wish
+that my monument should be beheld crowned with honor, for the gratification
+is for a long time. But if thou sayest thou sufferest affliction, hear this
+in return from me. There are with us aged matrons, and hoary sires, not
+less wretched than thou art, and brides bereft of the noblest husbands,
+whose ashes this land of Troy conceals. Endure this. But we, if we
+injudiciously determine to honor the brave man, shall incur the charge of
+folly. But you barbarians neither consider your friends as friends, nor do
+you hold up to admiration those who have died honorably; thus shall Greece
+be prosperous, but you shall experience fortune corresponding to your
+counsels.
+
+CHOR. Alas! alas! how wretched is the state of slavery, and to endure
+indignities compelled by superior force! (Note [B].)
+
+HEC. O daughter, my words respecting thy death are vanished in the air, set
+forth in vain; but thou, if thou hast greater powers [of persuasion] than
+thy mother, use all thy influence, uttering every note as the throat of the
+nightingale, that thou mayest not be deprived of life. But fall before the
+knees of Ulysses in all the eloquence of grief, and persuade him; thou hast
+a pretext, for he also hath children; so that he may be inclined to pity
+thy fortune.
+
+POLYX. I see, Ulysses, that thou art hiding thy hand beneath thy robe, and
+turnest thy face away, that I may not touch thy beard. Be not afraid; thou
+hast avoided my suppliant Jove; for I will follow thee both on account of
+fate, and even wishing to die; but if I were not willing, I should appear
+base, and too fond of life. For wherefore should I live, whose father was
+monarch of all the Trojans; this my dawn of life. Then was I nurtured under
+fair hope, a bride for princes, having no small competition for my hand, to
+whose palace and hearth I should come. But I, wretched now, was mistress
+among the Trojan women, and conspicuous in the train of virgins, equal to
+goddesses, death only excepted. But now I am a slave; first of all the very
+name, not being familiar, persuades me to love death. Then perhaps I might
+meet with masters cruel in disposition, who will buy me for silver, the
+sister both of Hector and many other [heroes.] And imposing the task of
+making bread in his palace, will compel me, passing the day in misery, both
+to sweep the house, and stand at the loom. And some slave somewhere
+purchased will defile my bed, before wooed by princes. This never shall be.
+I will quit this light from mine eyes free, offering my body to Pluto. Lead
+on then, Ulysses, conduct me to death; for I see neither confidence of
+hope, nor of expectation, present to me that I can ever enjoy good fortune.
+But do thou, my mother, in no wise hinder me by your words or by your
+actions; but assent to my death before I meet with indignities unsuited to
+my rank. For one who has not been accustomed to taste misfortunes bears
+indeed, but grieves, to put his neck under the yoke. But he would be far
+more blessed in death than in life; for to live otherwise than honorably is
+a great burden.
+
+CHOR. It is a great and distinguishing feature among men to be born of
+generous parents, and the name of nobility of birth among the illustrious,
+proceeds from great to greater still.
+
+HEC. You have spoken honorably, my daughter, but in that honorable dwells
+grief. But if the son of Peleus must be gratified, and you must escape
+blame, Ulysses, kill not her; but leading me to the pyre of Achilles,
+strike me, spare me not; I brought forth Paris, who destroyed the son of
+Thetis, having pierced him with his arrows.
+
+ULYSS. The phantom of Achilles did not demand that thou, O aged lady, but
+that thy daughter here should die.
+
+HEC. Do thou then at least slay me with my daughter, and there will be
+twice the libation of blood for the earth, and the dead who makes this
+request.
+
+ULYSS. Thy daughter's death suffices; one must not be heaped on another;
+would that we required not even this one.
+
+HEC. There is a strong necessity for me to die with my daughter.
+
+ULYSS. How so? for I am not aware of any master that I have.
+
+HEC. As the ivy the oak, so will I clasp her.
+
+ULYSS. Not so; if you will take the advice of your superiors in knowledge.
+
+HEC. Never will I willingly quit my child here.
+
+ULYSS. Nor will I leave this place without the virgin.
+
+POLYX. Mother, be persuaded; and thou, son of Laertes, be gentle to a
+parent with reason moved to anger. But thou, O wretched mother, contend not
+with conquerors. Dost thou wish to fall on the earth and to wound thy aged
+flesh dragged by violence, and to suffer the indignity of being torn by a
+youthful arm? which things you will suffer. Do not, I pray thee, for it is
+not seemly. But, my dear mother, give me thy beloved hand, and grant me to
+join cheek to cheek; since never hereafter, but now for the last time shall
+I behold the rays of the sun and his bright orb. Receive my last address, O
+mother! O thou that bearedst me, I am going below.
+
+HEC. And I, O daughter, shall be a slave in the light of day.
+
+POLYX. Without the bridegroom, without the bridal song, which I ought to
+have obtained.
+
+HEC. Mournful thou, my child; but I am a wretched woman.
+
+POLYX. There shall I lie in darkness far from thee.
+
+HEC. Alas me, what shall I do? where end my life?
+
+POLYX. I shall die a slave, born of a free father.
+
+HEC. But I bereft indeed of fifty children.
+
+POLYX. What message shall I bear to Hector, and to thy aged husband?
+
+HEC. Tell them that I am most miserable of all women.
+
+POLYX. O ye breasts that tenderly nursed me.
+
+HEC. O daughter of an untimely and unhappy fate.
+
+POLYX. Farewell, O mother, farewell Cassandra too.
+
+HEC. Others farewell, but this is not for thy mother.
+
+POLYX. Farewell, my brother Polydore, among the warlike Thracians.
+
+HEC. If he lives at least: but I doubt, so unfortunate am I in every thing.
+
+POLTX. He lives, and shall close thy dying eye.
+
+HEC. I am dead, before my death, beneath my ills.
+
+POLYX. Lead me, Ulysses, having covered my face with a veil, since, before
+I am sacrificed indeed, I am melted in heart at my mother's plaints, her
+also I melt by my lamentations. O light, for yet it is allowed me to
+express thy name, but I have no share in thee, except during the time that
+I am going between the sword and the pyre of Achilles.
+
+HEC. Ah me! I faint; and my limbs fail me.--O daughter, touch thy mother,
+stretch forth thy hand--give it me--leave me not childless--I am lost, my
+friends. Would that I might see the Spartan Helen, the sister of the twin
+sons of Jove, thus, for through her bright eyes that most vile woman
+destroyed the happy Troy.
+
+CHOR. Gale, gale of the sea,[8] which waftest the swift barks bounding
+through the waves through the surge of the ocean, whither wilt thou bear me
+hapless? To whose mansion shall I come, a purchased slave? Or to the port
+of the Doric or Phthian shore, where they report that Apidanus, the most
+beautiful father of floods, enriches the plains? or wilt thou bear me
+hapless urged by the maritime oar, passing a life of misery in my
+prison-house, to that island[9] where both the first-born palm tree and the
+laurel shot forth their hallowed branches to their beloved Latona, emblem
+of the divine parturition? And with the Delian nymphs shall I celebrate in
+song the golden chaplet and bow of Diana? Or, in the Athenian city, shall I
+upon the saffron robe harness the steeds to the car of Minerva splendid in
+her chariot, representing them in embroidery upon the splendid looms of
+brilliant threads, or the race of Titans, which Jove the son of Saturn
+sends to eternal rest with his flaming lightning? Alas, my children! Alas,
+my ancestors, and my paternal land, which is overthrown, buried in smoke,
+captured by the Argive sword! but I indeed am[10] a slave in a foreign
+country, having left Asia the slave of Europe, having changed my bridal
+chamber for the grave.
+
+TALTHYBIUS, HECUBA, CHORUS.
+
+TAL. Tell me, ye Trojan dames, where can I find Hecuba, late the queen of
+Troy?
+
+CHOR. Not far from thee, O Talthybius, she is lying stretched on the
+ground, muffled in her robes.
+
+TAL. O Jupiter, what shall I say? Shall I say that thou beholdest mortals?
+or that they have to no end or purpose entertained false notions, who
+suppose the existence of a race of Deities, and that fortune has the
+sovereign control over men? Was not this the queen of the opulent
+Phrygians? was not this the wife of the all-blest Priam? And now all her
+city is overthrown by the spear, but she a captive, aged, childless, lies
+on the ground defiling her ill-fated head with the dust. Alas! alas! I too
+am old, but rather may death be my portion before I am involved in any such
+debasing fortune; stand up, oh unhappy, raise thy side, and lift up thy
+hoary head.
+
+HEC. Let me alone: who art thou that sufferest not my body to rest? why
+dost thou, whoever thou art, disturb me from my sadness?
+
+TAL. I am here, Talthybius, the herald of the Greeks, Agamemnon having sent
+me for thee, O lady.
+
+HEC. Hast thou come then, thou dearest of men, it having been decreed by
+the Greeks to slay me too upon the tomb? Thou wouldest bring dear news
+indeed. Then haste we, let us speed with all our might: lead on, old man.
+
+TAL. I am here and come to thee, O lady, that thou mayest entomb thy dead
+daughter. Both the two sons of Atreus and the Grecian host send me.
+
+HEC. Alas! what wilt thou say? Art thou not come for me as doomed to death,
+but to bring this cruel message? Thou art dead, my child, torn from thy
+mother; and I am childless as far as regards thee; oh! wretch that I am.
+But how did ye slay her? was it with becoming reverence? Or did ye proceed
+in your butchery as with an enemy, O old man? Tell me, though you will
+relate no pleasing tale.
+
+TAL. Twice, O lady, thou desirest me to indulge in tears through pity for
+thy daughter; for both now while relating the mournful circumstance shall I
+bedew this eye, as did I then at the tomb when she perished. The whole host
+of the Grecian army was present before the tomb, at the sacrifice of thy
+daughter. But the son of Achilles taking Polyxena by the hand, placed her
+on the summit of the mound; but I stood near him: and there followed a
+chosen band of illustrious youths in readiness to restrain with their hands
+thy daughter's struggles; then the son of Achilles took a full-crowned
+goblet of entire gold, and poured forth libations to his deceased father;
+and makes signal to me to proclaim silence through all the Grecian host.
+And I standing forth in the midst, thus spoke: "Be silent, O ye Greeks, let
+all the people remain silent; silence, be still:" and I made the people
+perfectly still. But he said, "O son of Peleus, O my father, accept these
+libations which have the power of soothing, and which speed the dead on
+their way; and come, that thou mayest drink the pure purple blood of this
+virgin, which both the army and myself offer unto thee; but be propitious
+to us, and grant us to weigh anchor, and to loose the cables of our ships,
+and to return each to his country, having met with a prosperous return from
+Troy." Thus much he said, and all the army joined in the prayer. Then
+taking by the hilt his sword decked with gold, he drew it from its
+scabbard, and made signs to the chosen youths of the Greeks to hold the
+virgin. But she, when she perceived it,[11] uttered this speech: "O
+Argives, ye that destroyed my city, I die willingly; let none touch my
+body; for I will offer my neck to the sword with a good heart. But, by the
+Gods, let me go free while ye kill me, that I may die free, for to be
+classed as a slave among the dead, when a queen, is what I am ashamed of."
+But the people murmured assent, and king Agamemnon ordered the young men to
+quit the virgin; [but they, soon as they heard the last words of him who
+had the seat of chief authority among them, let go their hold,] and she, on
+hearing this speech of her lords, took her robe, and rent it, beginning
+from the top of her shoulder down to her waist: and showed her breasts and
+bosom beauteous, as a statue's, and bending her knee on the ground, spoke
+words the most piteous ever heard, "Lo! strike, if this bosom thou
+desirest, O youth; or wouldest thou rather under the neck, here is this
+throat prepared." But he at once resolved and unresolved through pity of
+the virgin, cuts with the sword the passage of her breath; and fountains of
+blood burst forth. But she, e'en in death, showed much care to fall
+decently, and to veil from the eyes of men what ought to be concealed. But
+after that she breathed forth her spirit under the fatal blow, not one of
+the Greeks exercised the same offices; but some scattered leaves from their
+hands on the dead; some heap the funeral pile, bringing whole trunks of
+pines: but he that would not bring, heard rebukes of this sort from him
+that was thus employed: "Standest thou idle, thou man of most mean spirit?
+Hast in thy hand no robe, no ornament for the maiden? Hast thou naught to
+give to her so exceeding brave in heart and most noble in soul?" These
+things I tell thee of the death of thy daughter, but I behold thee at once
+the most happy, at once the most unhappy of all women in thine offspring.
+
+CHOR. Dreadful calamities have risen fierce against the house of Priam;
+such the hard fate of the Gods.
+
+HEC. O daughter! which of my ills I shall first attend to, amidst such a
+multitude, I know not: for if I touch on any, another does not suffer me;
+and thence again some fresh grief draws me aside, succeeding miseries upon
+miseries. And now I can not obliterate from my mind thy sufferings, so as
+not to bewail them: but excess of grief hast thou taken away, having been
+reported to me as noble. Is it then no paradox, if land indeed naturally
+bad, when blest with a favorable season from heaven, bears well the ear;
+but good land, robbed of the advantages it ought to have, brings forth bad
+fruit: but ever among men, the bad by nature is nothing else but bad; the
+good always good, nor under misfortune does he degenerate from his nature,
+but is the same good man? Is it, that the parents cause this difference, or
+the education? The being brought up nobly hath indeed in it the knowledge
+and principles of goodness; but if one is acquainted well with this, he
+knows what is vicious, having already learned it by the rule of virtue. And
+this indeed has my mind been ejaculating in vain. But do thou go, and
+signify these things to the Greeks, that no one be suffered to touch my
+daughter, but bid them keep off the multitude. In so vast an army the
+rabble are riotous, and the sailors' uncontrolled insolence is fiercer than
+fire; and he is evil, who does not evil. But do thou, my old attendant,
+taking an urn, fill it with sea water, and bring it hither, that I may wash
+my girl in her last bath, the bride no bride now, and the virgin no longer
+a virgin, wash her, and lay her out; according to her merits--whence can I?
+This I can not; but as I can, I will, for what can I do! And collecting
+ornaments from among the captured women, who dwell beside me in these
+tents, if any one, unobserved by our new lords, has by her any stolen
+memorial of her home. O state of my house, O mansions once happy! O Priam,
+of vast wealth possessed, and supremely blest in thine offspring, and I
+too, this aged woman, the mother of such children! How have we come to
+nothing, bereft of our former grandeur! And yet still forsooth we are
+elated, one of us in his gorgeous palaces; another, when honored among his
+citizens. These are nothing. In vain the counsels of the mind, and the
+tongue's boast. He is most blest, to whom from day to day no evil happens.
+
+CHORUS.
+
+Against me was it fated that calamity, against me was it fated that woe
+should spring, when Paris first hewed the pine in Ida's forest, preparing
+to cut his way over the ocean surge to the bed of Helen, the fairest that
+the sun's golden beams shine upon. For toils, and fate more stern than
+toils, close us round: and from the folly of one came a public calamity
+fatal to the land of Simois, and woes springing from other woes: and when
+the dispute was decided, which the shepherd decided between the three
+daughters of the blessed Gods on Ida's top, for war, and slaughter, and the
+desolation of my palaces. And many a Spartan virgin at her home on the
+banks of the fair-flowing Eurotas sighs while bathed in tears: and many an
+aged matron strikes her hand against her hoary head, for her children who
+have perished, and tears her cheek making her nails all blood-stained with
+her wounds.
+
+FEMALE ATTENDANT, CHORUS, HECUBA.
+
+ATT. O attendants, where, I pray, is the all-wretched Hecuba, who surpasses
+the whole race of man and woman kind in calamities? no one shall wrest from
+her the crown.
+
+CHOR. But what dost thou want, O wretch, in thy words of ill omen? for thy
+messages of woe never rest.
+
+ATT. I bring this grief to Hecuba; but in calamity 'tis no easy thing for
+men to speak words of good import.
+
+CHOR. And see, she is coming out of the house, and appears in the right
+time for thy words.
+
+ATT. O all-wretched mistress, and yet still more wretched than I can
+express in words, thou art undone, and no longer beholdest the light,
+childless, husbandless, cityless, entirely destroyed.
+
+HEC. Thou has said nothing new, but hast reproached me who already know it:
+but why dost thou bring this corse of my Polyxena, whose sepulture was
+reported to me as in a state of active progress through the labors of all
+the Grecians?
+
+ATT. She nothing knows, but, woe's me! laments Polyxena, nor does she
+apprehend her new misfortunes.
+
+HEC. O wretched me! dost bring hither the body of the frantic and inspired
+Cassandra?
+
+ATT. She whom thou mentionedst, lives; but thou dost not weep for him who
+is dead; but behold this corse cast naked [on the shore,] and look if it
+will appear to thee a wonder, and what thou little expectest.
+
+HEC. Alas me! I do indeed see my son Polydore a corse, whom (_I fondly
+hoped_) the man of Thrace was preserving in his palace. Now am I lost
+indeed, I no longer exist. Oh my child, my child! Alas! I begin the Bacchic
+strain, having lately learned my woes from my evil genius.
+
+ATT. Thou knowest then the calamity of thy son, O most unfortunate.
+
+HEC. I see incredible evils, still fresh, still fresh: and my immeasurable
+woes follow one upon the other. No longer will a day without a tear,
+without a groan, have part with me.
+
+CHOR. Dreadful, oh! dreadful are the miseries that we endure!
+
+HEC. O child, child of a wretched mother, by what fate art thou dead, by
+what hap liest thou here? by the hand of what man?
+
+ATT. I know not: on the wave-washed shore I found him.
+
+HEC. Cast up from the sea, or fallen by the blood-stained spear? (Note
+[C].)
+
+ATT. The ocean's billow cast him up from the deep on the smooth sand.
+
+HEC. Woe is me! Now understand I the dream, the vision of mine eyes; the
+black-winged phantom has not flitted by me in vain, which I saw concerning
+thee, my child, as being no longer in the light of day.
+
+CHOR. But who slew him? canst thou, O skilled in dreams, declare him?
+
+HEC. My friend, my friend, who curbs the steed in Thrace, where his aged
+father placed him for concealment.
+
+CHOR. Ah me! what wilt thou say? Was it to possess his gold that he slew
+him!
+
+HEC. Unutterable deeds, unworthy of a name, surpassing miracles,
+unhallowed, insufferable! Where are the laws of hospitality? O most accurst
+of men, how didst thou mar that skin, how sever with the cruel sword the
+poor limbs of this boy, nor didst feel pity?
+
+CHOR. O hapless woman, how has the deity made thee by far the most wretched
+of mortals, whoever he be that presses heavy on thee! But, my friends, let
+us henceforward be silent, for I see our lord Agamemnon advancing.
+
+AGAMEMNON, CHORUS, HECUBA.
+
+AGA. Why, Hecuba, delayest thou to come, and bury thy girl in her tomb,
+agreeably to what Talthybius told me, that no one of the Argives should be
+suffered to touch thy daughter. For our part we leave her alone, and touch
+her not; but thou art slow, whereat I am astonished. I am come therefore to
+fetch thee, for every thing there has been well and duly performed, if
+aught of well there be in this. Ah! what corse is this I see before the
+tent? some Trojan's too? for that it is no Grecian's, the robes that vest
+his limbs inform me.
+
+HEC. (_aside_) Thou ill-starr'd wretch! myself I mean, when I say "thou." O
+Hecuba, what shall I do? Shall I fall at the knees of Agamemnon here, or
+bear my ills in silence?
+
+AGA. Why dost lament turning thy back upon me, and sayest not what has
+happened? Who is this?
+
+HEC. (_aside_) But should he, thinking me a slave, an enemy, spurn me from
+his knees, I should be adding to my present sufferings.
+
+AGA. No prophet I, so as to trace, unless by hearing, the path of thy
+counsels.
+
+HEC. (_aside_) Am I not rather then putting an evil construction on this
+man's thoughts, whereas he has no evil intention toward me?
+
+AGA. If thou art willing that I should nothing of this affair, thou art of
+a mind with me, for neither do I wish to hear.
+
+HEC. (_aside_) I can not without him take vengeance for my children. Why do
+I thus hesitate? I must be bold, whether I succeed, or fail. Agamemnon, by
+these knees, and by thy beard I implore thee, and by thy blessed hand--
+
+AGA. What thy request? Is it to pass thy life in freedom? for this is easy
+for thee to obtain.
+
+HEC. Not this indeed; but so that I avenge myself on the bad, I am willing
+to pass my whole life in slavery.
+
+AGA. And for what assistance dost thou call on me?
+
+HEC. In none of those things which thou imaginest, O king. Seest thou this
+corse, o'er which I drop the tear?
+
+AGA. I see it; thy meaning however I can not learn from this.
+
+HEC. Him did I once bring forth, him bore I in my bosom.
+
+AGA. Is this indeed one of thy children, O unhappy woman?
+
+HEC. It is, but not of the sons of Priam who fell under the walls of Troy.
+
+AGA. Didst thou then bear any other besides those, O lady?
+
+HEC. In vain, as it appears, this whom you see.
+
+AGA. But where did he chance to be, when the city fell?
+
+HEC. His father sent him out of the country, dreading his death.
+
+AGA. Whither, having removed him alone of his children then alive?
+
+HEC. To this country, where he was found a corse.
+
+AGA. To him who is king over this state, to Polymestor?
+
+HEC. Hither was he sent, the guardian of gold, which proved most
+destructive to him.
+
+AGA. By whose hand then he is dead, and having met with what fate?
+
+HEC. By whom else should he? The Thracian host slew him.
+
+AGA. O wretch! was he so inflamed with the desire of obtaining the gold?
+
+HEC. Even so, after he had heard of Troy's disasters.
+
+AGA. And where didst thou find him, or who brought the body?
+
+HEC. She, meeting with it on the sea-shore.
+
+AGA. In quest of it, or occupied in some other employment?
+
+HEC. She was going to bring from the sea wherewith to bathe Polyxena.
+
+AGA. This friend then, as it seems, murdered him, and after that cast him
+out.
+
+HEC. To toss upon the waves thus gashing his body.
+
+AGA. O thou unhappy from thy unmeasured ills!
+
+HEC. I perish, no woe is left, O Agamemnon.
+
+AGA. Alas! alas! What woman was ever so unfortunate?
+
+HEC. There is none, except you reckon Misfortune herself. But for what
+cause I fall at thy knees, now hear: if I appear to you to suffer these
+ills justly, I would be reconciled to them; but if otherwise, be thou my
+avenger on this man, this most impious of false friends; who revering
+neither the Gods beneath[12] the earth, nor the Gods above, hath done this
+most unholy deed, having often partaken of the same table with me, [and in
+the list of hospitality the first of my friends; and having met with
+whatever was due,[13] and having received a full consideration for his
+services,[14]] slew him, and deigned not to give him a tomb, _which he
+might have given_, although he purposed to slay him, but cast him forth at
+the mercy of the waves. We indeed are slaves, and perhaps weak; but the
+Gods are strong, and strong the law, which governs them; for by the law we
+judge that there are Gods, and we live having justice and injustice
+strictly defined; which if when referred to thee it be disregarded, and
+they shall suffer no punishment who slay their guests, or dare to pollute
+the hallowed statutes of the Gods, there is nothing equitable in the
+dealings of men. Beholding these things then in a base and proper light,
+reverence me; pity me, and, as the artist stands aside _to view a picture_,
+do thou view my living portrait, and see what woes I am enduring. Once was
+I a queen, but now I am thy slave; once was I blest in my children, but now
+aged, and at the same time childless, cityless, destitute, the most
+miserable of mortals. Alas me wretched! whither withdrawest from me thy
+foot? It seems[15] I shall make no impression, wretch that I am. Why then
+do we mortals toil after all other sciences, as a matter of duty, and dive
+into them, but least of all strive to learn thoroughly Persuasion, the sole
+mistress o'er the minds of men, giving a price for her knowledge, that at
+some time we may have it in our power at once to persuade and obtain what
+we wish?--How then can any one hereafter hope that he shall be fortunate?
+So many children that I had, and now not one is left to me. But I am
+perishing a captive in base servitude, and yet see the smoke there leaping
+aloft from the city. And however this part of my argument may perchance be
+vain, the bringing forward love; still nevertheless it shall be urged. My
+daughter is wont to sleep by thy side, that prophetess, whom the Trojans
+call Cassandra. Where wilt thou show that thy nights were nights of love, O
+king, or will my daughter receive any recompense for her most fond
+embraces, and I through her? [For from the secret shade, and from night's
+joys, the greatest delight is wont to spring to mortals.] Now then attend.
+Thou seest this corse? Him assisting, thou wilt assist one joined to thee
+in affinity. One thing my speech wants yet. I would fain I had a voice in
+my arms, and hands, and in my hair, and in my footsteps, or by the skill of
+Dædalus, or some God, that each at once might hold thy knees, weeping, and
+imploring in all the strains of eloquence. O my lord. O greatest light of
+the Greeks, be persuaded; lend thy hand to avenge this aged woman, although
+she is of no consequence, yet avenge her. For it belongs to a good man to
+minister justice, and always and in every case to punish the bad.
+
+CHOR. It is strange, how every thing happens to mortals, and laws determine
+even the fates, making the greatest enemies friends, and enemies of those
+who before were on good terms.
+
+AGA. I, O Hecuba, have pity both on thee and thy son, thy misfortunes, and
+thy suppliant touch, and I am willing in regard both to the Gods and to
+justice, that this impious host should give thee full revenge, provided a
+way could be found, that both you might be gratified, and I might in the
+eyes of the army not seem to meditate this destruction against the king of
+Thrace for Cassandra's sake. For there is a point in which apprehension
+hath reached me. This man the army deems a friend, the dead an enemy; but
+if he is dear to thee, this is a private feeling and does not affect the
+army. Wherefore consider, that thou hast me willing to labor with thee, and
+ready to assist thee, but backward, should I be murmured against among the
+Greeks.
+
+HEC. Alas! no mortal is there who is free. For either he is the slave of
+money or of fortune; or the populace of the city or the dictates of the law
+constrain him to adopt manners not accordant with his natural inclinations.
+But since thou fearest, and payest too much regard to the multitude, I will
+liberate thee from this fear. For consent with me, if I meditate vengeance
+against the murderer of this youth, but do not act with me. But should any
+tumult or offer of assistance arise from out of the Greeks, when the
+Thracian feels the punishment he shall feel, suppress it, not appearing to
+do it for my sake: but of the rest be confident: I will dispose all things
+well.
+
+AGA. How then? What wilt thou do? Wilt thou grasp the sword in thine aged
+hand, and strike the barbarian? or with poison wilt thou work, or with what
+assistance? What hand will conspire with thee? whence wilt thou procure
+friends?
+
+HEC. These tents inclose a host of Trojan dames.
+
+AGA. Meanest thou the captives, the booty of the Greeks?
+
+HEC. With these will I avenge me of my murderer.
+
+AGA. And how shall the victory over men be to women?
+
+HEC. Numbers are powerful, with stratagem invincible.
+
+AGA. Powerful, I grant; I mistrust however the race of women.
+
+HEC. And why? Did not women slay the sons of Ægyptus,[16] and utterly
+extirpated the race of men from Lemnos?[17] But thus let it be. Give up
+this discussion. But grant this woman to pass in safety through the army.
+And do thou go to the Thracian host and tell him, "Hecuba, once queen of
+Troy, sends for you on business of no less importance to yourself than to
+her, and your sons likewise, since it is of consequence that your children
+also should hear her words."--And do thou, O Agamemnon, as yet forbear to
+raise the tomb over the newly-sacrificed Polyxena, that these two, the
+brother and the sister, the divided care of their mother, may, when reduced
+to ashes by one and the same flame, be interred side by side.
+
+AGA. Thus shall it be. And yet, if the army could sail, I should not have
+it in my power to grant thy request: but now, for the deity breathes not
+prosperous gales, we must wait, watching for a calm voyage. But may things
+turn out well some way or other: for this is a general principle among all,
+both individuals in private and states, That the wicked man should feel
+vengeance, but the good man enjoy prosperity.
+
+CHORUS.
+
+O thou, my country of Troy, no longer shall thou be called the city of the
+invincible, such a cloud of Grecians envelops thee, with the spear, with
+the spear having destroyed thee. And thou hast been shorn of thy crown of
+turrets, and thou hast been discolored by the dismal blackness of smoke;
+hapless city, no longer shall I tread my steps in thee.
+
+In the midnight hour I perished, when after the feast sweet sleep is
+scattered over the eyes. And my husband, from the song and cheerful
+sacrifice retired, was sleeping peacefully in my bed, his spear on its peg,
+no more dreaming to behold the naval host of the Greeks treading the
+streets of Troy. But I was binding my braided hair with fillets fastened on
+the top of mine head, looking into the round polished surface of the golden
+mirror, that I might get into my bed prepared for me. On a sudden a
+tumultuous cry penetrated the city; and this shout of exhortation was heard
+in the streets of Troy, "When indeed, ye sons of Grecians, when, _if not
+now_, will ye return to your homes having overthrown the proud citadel of
+Ilium!" And having left my dear bed, in a single robe, like a Spartan
+virgin, flying for aid to the venerable shrine of Diana, I hapless fled in
+vain. And I am dragged, after having seen my husband slain, to the ocean
+waves; and casting a distant look back upon my city, after the vessel had
+begun her way in her return to Greece, and divided me from the land of
+Troy, I wretched fainted through anguish. And consigning to curses Helen,
+the sister of the Twin Brothers, and the Idean shepherd, the ruthless
+Paris, since his marriage, no marriage, but some Fury's hate hath utterly
+destroyed me far from my native land, and hath driven me from my home. Whom
+may the ocean refuse ever to bear back again; and may she never reach again
+her paternal home.
+
+POLYMESTOR, HECUBA, CHORUS.
+
+POLY. O Priam, thou dearest of men, and thou most dear Hecuba, at thy sight
+I weep for thee, and thy city, and thy daughter who has lately died. Alas!
+there is nothing secure, neither glory, nor when one is faring well is
+there a certainty that he will not fare ill. But the Gods mingle these
+things promiscuously to and fro, making all confusion, so that we through
+ignorance may worship them. But wherefore should I utter these plaints,
+which in no way tend to free thee from thy former calamities. But thou, if
+thou hast aught to blame for my absence, forbear; for I chanced to be afar
+off in the middle of my Thracian territories, when thou camest hither; but
+soon as I returned, as I was already setting out from my house, this maid
+of thine met me for the self-same purpose, and delivered thy message, which
+when I had heard, I came.
+
+HEC. O Polymestor, I am ashamed to look thee in the face, sunk as I am in
+such miseries; for before one who has seen me in prosperity, shame
+overwhelms me, being in the state in which I now am, nor can I look upon
+thee with unmoved eyes. But impute not this to any enmity I bear thee; but
+there are other causes, and in some degree this law; "that women ought not
+to gaze at men."
+
+POLY. And 'tis indeed no wonder; but what need hast thou of me? for what
+purpose didst thou send for me to come from home?
+
+HEC. I am desirous of communicating a private affair of my own to thee and
+thy children; but order thy attendants to retire from these tents.
+
+POLY. Depart, for here to be alone is safe. Friendly thou art, this Grecian
+army too is friendly toward me, but it is for thee to signify, in what
+manner I, who am in good circumstances, ought to succor my friends in
+distress; since, on my part, I am ready.
+
+HEC. First then tell me of my son Polydore, whom thou retainest, receiving
+him from mine, and from his father's hand, if he live; but the rest I shall
+inquire of thee afterward.
+
+POLY. He lives, and in good health; as far as regards him indeed thou art
+happy.
+
+HEC. O my best friend, how well thou speakest, and how worthily of thyself!
+
+POLY. What dost thou wish then to inquire of me in the next place?
+
+HEC. Whether he remembers at all me, his mother?
+
+POLY. Yes: and he even sought to come to thee by stealth.
+
+HEC. And is the gold safe, which he brought with him from Troy?
+
+POLY. It is safe, at least it is guarded in my house.
+
+HEC. Preserve it therefore, nor covet the goods of others.
+
+POLY. Certainly not. May I enjoy what is mine own, O lady.
+
+HEC. Knowest thou then, what I wish to say to thee and thy children?
+
+POLY. I do not: this shalt thou signify by thy speech.
+
+HEC. Be my son loved by thee, as thou art now loved of me.
+
+POLY. What is it, that I and my sons must know?
+
+HEC. The ancient buried treasures of the family of Priam.
+
+POLY. Is it this thou wishest me to inform thy son of?
+
+HEC. Yes, certainly; through thee at least, for thou art a pious man.
+
+POLY. What necessity then is there for the presence of these children?
+
+HEC. 'Tis better in case of thy death, that these should know.
+
+POLY. Well hast thou thus said, and 'tis the wiser plan.
+
+HEC. Thou knowest then where the temple of Minerva in Troy is--
+
+POLY. Is the gold there! but what is the mark?
+
+HEC. A black rock rising above the earth.
+
+POLY. Hast any thing further to tell me of what is there?
+
+HEC. No, but I wish thee to take care of some treasures, with which I came
+out of the city.
+
+POLY. Where are they then? Hast thou them hidden beneath thy robes?
+
+HEC. Amidst a heap of spoils they are preserved in this tent.
+
+POLY. But where? These are the naval encampments of the Grecians.
+
+HEC. The habitations of the captive women are private.
+
+POLY. And is all secure within, and untenanted by men?
+
+HEC. Not one of the Greeks is within, but we women only. But come into the
+tent, for the Greeks are desirous of loosing the sheets of their vessels
+homeward from Troy; so that, having done every thing that thou oughtest,
+thou mayest go with thy children to that place where thou hast given my son
+to dwell.
+
+CHOR. Not yet hast thou suffered, but peradventure thou wilt suffer
+vengeance; as a man falling headlong into the gulf where no harbor is,
+shalt thou be hurled from thy dear heart, having lost thy life;[18] for
+where the rites of hospitality coincide[19] with justice, and with the
+Gods, _on the villain who dares to violate these_ destructive, destructive
+indeed impends the evil. But thy hopes will deceive thee, which thou
+entertainedst from this journey, which has brought thee, thou wretched man,
+to the deadly mansions of Pluto; but thou shalt quit thy life by no
+warrior's hand.
+
+POLYMESTOR, HECUBA, SEMICHORUS.
+
+POLY. Oh me! I wretch am deprived of the sight of mine eyes.
+
+SEMI. Heard ye the shriek of the man of Thrace, my friends?
+
+POLY. Oh me; there again--Oh my children, thy miserable butchery!
+
+SEMI. My friends, some strange ills have been perpetrated within the tents.
+
+POLY. But for all your nimble feet, ye never can escape me, for by my blows
+will I burst open the recesses of these tents.
+
+SEMI. Behold, he uses violently the weapon of his heavy hand. Will ye that
+we fall on; since the instant calls on us to be present with assistance to
+Hecuba and the Trojan dames?
+
+HEC. Dash on, spare nothing, break down the gates, for thou never shalt
+replace the clear sight in those pupils, nor shalt thou behold alive those
+children which I have slain.
+
+SEMI. What! hast thou vanquished the Thracian? and hast thou got the
+mastery over this host, my mistress? and hast thou done such deeds, as thou
+sayest?
+
+HEC. Thou wilt see him quickly before the house, blind, with blind
+wandering steps approaching, and the bodies of his two children, whom I
+have slain with these most valiant Trojan women; but he has felt my
+vengeance; but he is coming as thou seest from the tent. But I will retire
+out of his way, and make good my retreat from the boiling rage of this most
+desperate Thracian.
+
+POLY. Alas me! whither can I go? where stand? whither shall I direct my
+way, advancing my steps like the four-footed mountain beast on my hands and
+on my feet in pursuit? What new path shall I take in this direction or in
+that, desirous of seizing these murderous Trojan dames, who have utterly
+destroyed me; O ye impious, impious Phrygian daughters! Ah the accursed, in
+what corner do they shrink from me in flight? Would that thou, O sun,
+could'st heal, could'st heal these bleeding lids of my eyes, and remove
+this gloomy-darkness. Ah, hush, hush! I hear the carefully-concealed step
+of these women. Whither shall I direct my course in order that I may glut
+myself on the flesh and bones of these, making the wild beasts' banquet,
+inflicting vengeance on them, in return for the injuries done me. Wretch
+that I am! Whither, whither am I borne, having left my children deserted,
+for these fiends of hell to tear piecemeal, a mangled, bleeding, savage
+prey to dogs, and a thing to cast out on the mountains? Where shall I
+stand? Whither turn? Whither go, as a ship setting her yellow canvas sails
+with her sea-washed palsers, rushing to this lair of death, the protector
+of my children?
+
+CHOR. O miserable man, what intolerable evils have been perpetrated by
+thee! but on thee having done base deeds the God hath sent dreadful
+punishment, whoever he be that presses heavy on thee.
+
+POLY. Alas! alas! O Thracian nation, brandishing the spear, warlike,
+bestriding the steed, nation ruled by Mars; O ye Greeks, sons of Atreus; I
+raise the cry, the cry, the cry; Come, come, hasten, I entreat you by the
+Gods. Does any hear, or will no one assist me? Why do ye delay? The women
+have destroyed me, the captive women. Horrible, horrible treatment have I
+suffered. Alas me for my ruin! Whither can I turn? Whither can I go? Shall
+I soar through the ethereal skies to the lofty mansions where Orion or
+Sirius dart from their eyes the flaming rays of fire: or shall I hapless
+rush to the gloomy shore of Pluto?
+
+CHOR. It is pardonable, when any one suffers greater misfortunes than he
+can bear, for him to be desirous to quit a miserable life.
+
+AGAMEMNON, POLYMESTOR, HECUBA, CHORUS.
+
+AGA. I came having heard the clamor: for Echo, the mountain's daughter, did
+not sound in gentle strains through the army, causing a disturbance. But
+did we not know that the Phrygian towers are fallen beneath the Grecian
+spear, this tumult might have caused no little terror.
+
+POLY. O my dearest friend (for I know thee, Agamemnon, having heard thy
+voice), seest thou what I am suffering?
+
+AGA. Ah! wretched Polymestor, who hath destroyed thee? who made thine eyes
+sightless, having drowned their orbs in blood? And who hath slain these thy
+children? Sure, whoe'er it was, felt the greatest rage against thee and thy
+sons.
+
+POLY. Hecuba with the female captives hath destroyed me--nay, not destroyed
+me, but more than destroyed me.
+
+AGA. What sayest thou? Hast thou done this deed, as he affirms? Hast thou,
+Hecuba, dared this inconceivable act of boldness?
+
+POLY. Ah me! what wilt thou say? Is she any where near me? Show me, tell me
+where she is, that I may seize her in my hands, and tear piecemeal and
+mangle her body.
+
+AGA. What ho! what are you doing?
+
+POLY. By the Gods I entreat thee, suffer me to lay my raging hand upon her.
+
+AGA. Forbear. And having banished this barbarous deed from thy thoughts,
+speak; that having heard both thee and her in your respective turns, I may
+decide justly, in return for what thou art suffering these ills.
+
+POLY. I will speak then. There was a certain youth, the youngest of Priam's
+children, by name Polydore, the son of Hecuba; him his father Priam sent to
+me from Troy to bring up in my palace, already presaging[20] the capture of
+Troy. Him I put to death. But for what cause I put him to death, with what
+policy and prudent forethought, now hear. I feared, lest the boy being left
+an enemy to thee, should collect the scattered remnants of Troy, and again
+people the city. And lest the Greeks, having discovered that one of the
+sons of Priam was alive, should again direct an expedition against the
+Phrygian land, and after that should harass and lay waste the plains of
+Thrace; and it might fare ill with the neighbors of the Trojans, under
+which misfortune, O king, we are now laboring. But Hecuba, when she had
+discovered her son's death, by such treachery as this lured me hither, as
+about to tell me of treasure belonging to Priam's family concealed in Troy,
+and introduces me alone with my sons into the tent, that no one else might
+know it. And I sat, having reclined on the centre of the couch; but many
+Trojan damsels, some from the left hand, and others from the right, sat
+round me, as by an intimate friend, holding in their hands the Edonian
+looms, and praised these robes, looking at them in the light; but others,
+beholding with admiration my Thracian spear, deprived me of my double
+ornament. But as many as were mothers caressed my children in their arms in
+seeming admiration, that they might be farther removed from their father,
+successively handing them from one to another: and then, amidst their kind
+blandishments, what think you? in an instant, snatching from somewhere
+beneath their garments their daggers, they stab my children. But they
+having seized me in an hostile manner held my hands and feet; and if,
+wishing to succor my children, I raised my head, they held me by the hair:
+but if I attempted to move my hands, I wretched could effect nothing
+through the host of women. But at last, cruelty and worse than cruelty,
+they perpetrated dreadful things; for having taken their clasps they pierce
+and gore the wretched pupils of my eyes, then vanish in flight through the
+tent. But I, having leaped out, like some exasperated beast, pursue the
+blood-stained wretches, searching every wall, as the hunter, casting down,
+rending. This have I suffered, while studious to advance thy interest,
+Agamemnon, and having killed thine enemy. But that I may not extend my
+speech to a greater length, if any one of those of ancient times hath
+reviled women, or if any one doth now, or shall hereafter revile them, I
+will comprise the whole when I say, that such a race neither doth the sea
+nor the earth produce, but he who is always with them knows it best.
+
+CHOR. Be not at all insolent, nor, in thy calamities, thus comprehending
+the female sex, abuse them all. For of us there are many, some indeed are
+envied _for their virtues_, but some are by nature in the catalogue of bad
+things.
+
+HEC. Agamemnon, it never were fitting among men that the tongue should have
+greater force than actions. But if a man has acted well, well should he
+speak; if on the other hand basely, his words likewise should be unsound,
+and never ought he to be capable of speaking unjust things well. Perhaps
+indeed they who have brought these things to a pitch of accuracy are
+accounted wise, but they can not endure wise unto the end, but perish
+vilely, nor has any one yet escaped this. And this in my prelude is what I
+have to say to thee. Now am I going to direct my discourse to this man, and
+I will answer his arguments. Thou, that assertest, that in order to rid the
+Greeks of their redoubled toil, and for Agamemnon's sake that thou didst
+slay my son? But, in the first place, monstrous villain, never can the race
+of barbarians be friendly to the Grecians, never can this take place. But
+what favor wert thou so eagerly currying? wert thou about to contract an
+alliance, or was it that thou wert of kindred birth, or what pretext hadst
+thou? or were they about to ravage the crops of thy country, having sailed
+thither again? Whom, thinkest thou, wilt thou persuade of these things? The
+gold, if thou wert willing to speak truth, the gold destroyed my son, and
+thy base gains. For come, tell me this; how when Troy was prosperous, and a
+tower yet girt around the city, and Priam lived, and the spear of Hector
+was in its glory, why didst thou not then, if thou wert willing to lay him
+under this obligation, bringing up my child, and retaining him in thy
+palace, why didst thou not then slay him, or go and take him alive to the
+Greeks? But when we were no longer in the light of prosperity, and the city
+by its smoke showed that it was in the power of the enemy, thou slewest thy
+guest who had come to thy hearth. Now hear besides how thou wilt appear
+vile: thou oughtest, if thou wert the friend of the Greeks, to have given
+the gold, which thou confessedst thou hast, not thine, but his,
+distributing to those who were in need, and had long been strangers to
+their native land. But thou, even now, hast not courage to part with it
+from thy hand, but having it, thou still art keeping it close in thine
+house. And yet, in bringing up my child, as it was thy duty to bring him
+up, and in preserving him, thou hadst had fair honor. For in adversity
+friends are most clearly proved good. But good circumstances have in every
+case their friends. But if thou wert in want of money, and he in a
+flourishing condition, my son had been to thee a vast treasure; but now,
+thou neither hast him for thy friend, and the benefit from the gold is
+gone, and thy sons are gone, and thou art--as thou art. But to thee,
+Agamemnon, I say; if thou aidest this man, thou wilt appear to be doing
+wrong. For thou wilt be conferring a benefit on a host, who is neither
+pious, nor faithful to those to whom he ought, not holy, not just. But we
+shall say that thou delightest in the bad, if thus thou actest: but I speak
+no offense to my lords.
+
+CHOR. Ah! Ah! How do good deeds ever supply to men the source of good
+words!
+
+AGA. Thankless my office to decide on others' grievances; but still I must,
+for it brings disgrace on a man, having taken a thing in hand, to give it
+up. But to me, be assured, thou neither appearest for my sake, nor for the
+sake of the Grecians, to have killed this man thy guest, but that thou
+mightest possess the gold in thy palace. But thou talkest of thy advantage,
+when thou art in calamities.[21] Perhaps with you it is a slight thing to
+kill your guests; but with us Grecians this thing is abhorred. How then, in
+giving my decision that thou hast not injured, can I escape blame? I can
+not; but as thou hast dared to do things dishonorable, endure now things
+unpleasant.
+
+POLY. Alas me! worsted, as it seems, by a woman who is a slave, I shall
+submit to the vengeance of my inferiors.
+
+AGA. Will it not then be justly, seeing thou hast acted wrong?
+
+POLY. Alas me! wretched on account of these children and on account of my
+eyes.
+
+HEC. Thou sufferest? but what do I? Thinkest thou I suffer not for my
+child?
+
+POLY. Thou rejoicest in insulting me, O thou malicious woman.
+
+HEC. For ought not I to rejoice on having avenged myself on thee?
+
+POLY. But thou wilt not soon, when the liquid wave--
+
+HEC. Shall bear me, _dost thou mean_, to the confines of the Grecian land?
+
+POLY. --shall cover thee, having fallen from the shrouds.
+
+HEC. From whom meeting with this violent leap?
+
+POLY. Thyself shalt climb with thy feet up the ship's mast.
+
+HEC. Having wings on my back, or in what way?
+
+POLY. Thou shalt become a dog with a fiery aspect.
+
+HEC. But how dost thou know of this my metamorphose?
+
+POLY. Dionysius the Thracian prophet told it me.
+
+HEC. But did he not declare to thee any of the evils which thou sufferest?
+
+POLY. No: for, _if he had_, thou never wouldst thus treacherously have
+taken me.
+
+HEC. [22]Thence shall I conclude my life in death, or still live on?
+
+POLY. Thou shalt die. But the name of thy tomb shall be--
+
+HEC. Dost thou speak of it as in any way correspondent to my shape?
+
+POLY. [23]The tomb of the wretched dog, a mark to mariners.
+
+HEC. I heed it not, since thou at least hast felt my vengeance.
+
+POLY. And it is fated too for thy daughter Cassandra to die.
+
+HEC. I renounce these prophecies; I give them for thyself to bear.
+
+POLY. Him shall his wife slay, a cruel guardian of his house.
+
+HEC. Never yet may the daughter of Tyndarus have arrived at such madness.
+
+POLY. Even this man himself, having lifted up the axe.
+
+AGA. What ho! thou art mad, and art desirous of obtaining greater ills.
+
+POLY. Kill me, for the murderous bath at Argos awaits thee.
+
+AGA. Will ye not, slaves, forcibly drag him from my presence?
+
+POLY. Thou art galled at what thou hearest.
+
+AGA. Will ye not stop his mouth?
+
+POLY. Stop it: for the word is spoken.
+
+AGA. Will ye not as quick as possible cast him out on some desert island,
+since he is thus, and past endurance insolent? But do thou, wretched
+Hecuba, go and bury thy two dead: and you, O Trojan dames, must approach
+your masters' tents, for I perceive that the gales are favorable for
+wafting us to our homes. And may we sail in safety to our native country,
+and behold our household and families in prosperity, having found rest from
+these toils.
+
+CHOR. Come, my friends, to the harbor, and the tents, to undergo the tasks
+imposed by our masters. For necessity is relentless.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+NOTES ON HECUBA
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+[1] Homer makes Dymas, not Cisseus, the father of Hecuba. Virgil however
+follows Euripides, the rest of the Latin poets Virgil.
+
+[2] In the martial time of antiquity the spear was reverenced as something
+divine, and signified the chief command in arms, it was also the insigne of
+the highest civil authority: in this sense Euripides in other places uses
+the word δορυ. See Hippol. 988.
+
+[3] τριταιος properly signifies _triduanus_; here it is used for τριτος,
+the cardinal number for the ordinal. So also Hippol. 275.
+
+  Πως δ' ου, τριταιαν γ' ουσ' ασιτος ‛ημεραν:
+
+[4] Most interpreters render this, _leaning on the crooked staff with my
+hand_. Nor has Beck altered it in his Latin version, though he transcribed
+Musgrave's note. "σκολιω, σκιμπωνι (_for which Porson directs_ σκιπωνι,)
+Scipiones in universum recti sunt, non curvi. Loquitur igitur non de vero
+scipione, sed metaphorice de brachio, quod ancillis innitens, scipionis
+usum præstabat; quodque, ob cubiti flexuram, σκολιον σκιμπωμα vocat."
+
+[5] _that babbling knave_.] Tzetzes on Lycophron, line 763. κοπις, ‛ο
+‛ρητωρ, και εμπειρος, ‛ο ‛υπο πολλων πραγματων κεκομμενος. In the Index to
+Lycophron κοπις is translated _scurra_.
+
+[6] Among the ancients it was the custom for virgins to have a great
+quantity of golden ornaments about them, to which Homer alludes, Il. Β.
+872.
+
+  ‛Ος και χρυσον εχων πολεμον δ' ιεν ηϋτε κουρη. PORSON.
+
+[7] This is the only sense that can be made of ενθανειν, and this sense
+seems strained: Brunck proposes εντακηναι for ενθανειν γε. See Note [A].
+
+[8] λιμνη is used for the _sea_ in Troades 444; as also in Iliad Ν. 21, and
+Odyssey Γ. 1. and in many other passages of Homer.
+
+[9] The construction is η πορευσεις με ενθα νασων; for εις εκεινην των
+νασων, ενθα.
+
+[10] κεκλημαι for ειμι, not an unusual signification. Hippol. 2, θεα
+κεκλημαι Κυπρις.
+
+[11] _When she perceived it,_ εφρασθη, συνηκεν, εγνω, ενοησεν. _Hesych_.
+
+[12] The Gods beneath he despised, by casting him out without a tomb; the
+Gods above, as the guardians of the rites of hospitality.
+
+[13] _Whatever was due_, either on the score of friendship, or as an
+equivalent for his care and protection.
+
+[14] Musgrave proposes to read προμισθιαν for προμηθιαν: the version above
+is in accordance with the scholiast and the paraphrast.
+
+[15] See note on Medea 338.
+
+[16] The story of the daughters of Danaus is well known.
+
+[17] Of this there are two accounts given in the Scholia. The one is, that
+the women of Lemnos being punished by Venus with an ill savor, and
+therefore neglected by their husbands, conspired against them and slew
+them. The other is found in Herodotus, Erato, chap. 138. see also Æsch.
+Choephoræ, line 627, ed. Schutz.
+
+[18] Polymestor was guilty of two crimes, αδικιας and ασεβειας, for he had
+both violated the laws of men, and profaned the deity of Jupiter
+Hospitalis. Whence Agamemnon, v. 840, hints that he is to suffer on both
+accounts.
+
+  και βουλομαι θεων θ' ‛ουνεκ ανοσιον ξενον,
+  και του δικαιον, τηνδε σοι δουναι δικην.
+
+The Chorus therefore says, _Ubi contingit eundem et Justitiæ et Diis esse
+addictum, exitiale semper malum esse_; or, as the learned Hemsterheuyse has
+more fully and more elegantly expressed, it, _Ubi_, id est, _in quo_, vel
+_in quem cadit et concurrit, ut ob crimen commissum simul et humanæ
+justitiæ et Deorum vindictæ sit obnoxius, ac velut oppignoratus; illi
+certissimum exitium imminet_. This sense the words give, if for ου, we read
+‛ου, i.e. in the sense of ‛οπου. MUSGRAVE. Correct Dindorf's text to ‛ου.
+
+[19] συμπεσεειν _in unum coire, coincidere_. In this sense it is used also,
+Herod. Euterpe, chap. 49.
+
+[20] The verbal adjective in τος is almost universally used in a passive
+sense; ‛υποπτος, however, in this place is an exception to the rule, as are
+also, καλυπτης, Soph. Antig. 1011, μεμπτος, Trachin. 446.
+
+[21] Perhaps the preferable way is to make κακοισιν agree with ανθρωποις
+understood; that the sense may be, _You are a bad man to talk of your
+advantage as a plea for having acted thus_.
+
+[22] Θανουσα δ' η ζωσ' ενθαδ' εκπλησω βιον; a similar expression occurs in
+the Anthologia.
+
+  σιγων παρερχου τον ταλαιπωρον βιον,
+  αυτος σιωπηι τον χρονον μιμουμενος,
+  λαθων δε και βιωσον. ει δε μη, θανων.
+
+[23] The place of her burial was called Cynosema, a promontory of the
+Thracian Chersonese. It was here that the Athenians gained a naval victory
+over the Peloponnesians and Syracusans, in the twenty-first year of the
+Peloponnesian war. Thucydides, book viii.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+ADDITIONAL NOTES.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+[A] Vs. 246, ενθανειν γε. "Pravam esse scripturam dici Brunckius et Corayus
+viderunt; quorum ille legere voluit ‛ωστ' εντακηναι, hic vero ‛ωστ'
+εμβαλειν. Sed neuter rem acu tetigit. Euripides scripsit: ‛ωστ' εν γε
+φυναι, uti patet ex Hom. Il. Ζ. 253, εν τ' αρα ‛οι φυ χειρι, Od. Π. 21,
+παντα κυσεν περιφυς, Theocrit. Id. xiii. 47, ται δ' εν χερι πασαι εφυσαν,
+et, quod rem conficit, ex Euripidis ipsius Ion. 891, λευκοις δ' εμφυσας
+καρποις χειρων." G. BURGES, apud _Revue de Philologie_, vol. i. No. 5. p.
+457.
+
+[B] We must, I think, read τολμαιν.
+
+[C] Dindorf disposes these lines differently, but I prefer Porson's
+arrangement, as follows:
+
+  ΕΚ. εκβλητον, η πες. φ. δορος;
+  ΘΕΡ. εν ψαμαθωι λευραι
+  ποντου νιν, κ.τ.λ.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *       *
+
+ORESTES.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+PERSONS REPRESENTED.
+
+  ELECTRA.
+  HELEN.
+  HERMIONE.
+  CHORUS.
+  ORESTES.
+  MENELAUS.
+  TYNDARUS.
+  PYLADES.
+  A PHRYGIAN.
+  APOLLO.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE ARGUMENT.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+Orestes, in revenge for the murder of his father, took off Ægisthus and
+Clyætmnestra; but having dared to slay his mother, he was instantly
+punished for it by being afflicted with madness. But on Tyndarus, the
+father of her who was slain, laying an accusation against him, the Argives
+were about to give a public decision on this question, "What ought he, who
+has dared this impious deed, to suffer?" By chance Menelaus, having
+returned from his wanderings, sent in Helen indeed by night, but himself
+came by day, and being entreated by Orestes to aid him, he rather feared
+Tyndarus the accuser: but when the speeches came to be spoken among the
+populace, the multitude were stirred up to kill Orestes. * * * * But
+Pylades, his friend, accompanying him, counseled him first to take revenge
+on Menelaus by killing Helen. As they were going on this project, they were
+disappointed of their hope by the Gods snatching away Helen from them. But
+Electra delivered up Hermione, when she made her appearance, into their
+hands, and they were about to kill her. When Menelaus came, and saw himself
+bereft by them at once of his wife and child, he endeavored to storm the
+palace; but they, anticipating his purpose, threatened to set it on fire.
+Apollo, however, having appeared, said that he had conducted Helen to the
+Gods, and commanded Orestes to take Hermione to wife, and Electra to dwell
+with Pylades, and, after that he was purified of the murder, to reign over
+Argos.
+
+The scene of the piece is laid at Argos; But the chorus consists of Argive
+women, intimate associates of Electra, who also come on inquiring about the
+calamity of Orestes. The play has a catastrophe rather suited to comedy.
+The opening scene of the play is thus arranged. Orestes is discovered
+before the palace of Agamemnon, fatigued, and, on account of his madness,
+lying on a couch on which Electra is sitting by him at his feet. A
+difficulty has been started, why does not she sit at his head? for thus
+would she seem to watch more tenderly over her brother, if she sat nearer
+him. The poet, it is answered, seems to have made this arrangement on
+account of the Chorus; for Orestes, who had but just then and with
+difficulty gotten to sleep, would have been awakened, if the women that
+constituted the Chorus had stood nearer to him. But this we may infer from
+what Electra says to the Chorus, "Σιγα, σιγα, λεπτον ιχνος αρβυληις." It is
+probable then that the above is the reason of this arrangement.
+
+The play is among the most celebrated on the stage, but infamous in its
+morals; for, with the exception of Pylades, all the characters are bad
+persons.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+ORESTES.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+ELECTRA.
+
+There is no word so dreadful to relate, nor suffering, nor heaven-inflicted
+calamity, the burden of which human nature may not be compelled to bear.
+For Tantalus, the blest, (and I am not reproaching his fortune, _when I say
+this_,) the son of Jupiter, as they report, trembling at the rock which
+impends over his head, hangs in the air, and suffers this punishment, as
+they say indeed, because, although being a man, yet having the honor of a
+table in common with the Gods upon equal terms, he possessed an
+ungovernable tongue, a most disgraceful malady. He begat Pelops, and from
+him sprung Atreus, for whom the Goddess having carded the wool[1] spun the
+thread of contention, _and doomed him_ to make war on Thyestes his
+relation; (why must I commemorate things unspeakable?) But Atreus then[2]
+killed his children--and feasted him. But from Atreus, for I pass over in
+silence the misfortunes which intervened, sprung Agamemnon, the
+illustrious, (if he was indeed illustrious,) and Menelaus; their mother
+Aërope of Crete. But Menelaus indeed marries Helen, the hated of the Gods,
+but King Agamemnon _obtained_ Clytæmnestra's bed, memorable throughout the
+Grecians: from whom we virgins were born, three from one mother;
+Chrysothemis, and Iphigenia, and myself Electra; and Orestes the male part
+of the family, from a most unholy mother, who slew her husband, having
+covered him around with an inextricable robe; the reason however it is not
+decorous in a virgin to tell; I leave this undeclared for men to consider
+as they will. But why indeed must I accuse the injustice of Phœbus? Yet
+persuaded he Orestes to kill that mother that brought him forth, a deed
+which gained not a good report from all men. But nevertheless he did slay
+her, as he would not be disobedient to the God. I also took a share in the
+murder, but such as a woman ought to take. As did Pylades also who
+perpetrated this deed with us. From that time wasting away, the wretched
+Orestes is afflicted with a grievous malady, but falling on his couch there
+lies, but his mother's blood whirls him to frenzy (for I dread to mention
+those Goddesses, the Eumenides, who persecute him with terror). Moreover
+this is the sixth day since his slaughtered mother was purified by fire as
+to her body. During which he has neither taken any food down his throat, he
+has not bathed his limbs, but covered beneath his cloak, when indeed his
+body is lightened of its disease, on coming to his right mind he weeps, but
+at another time starts suddenly from his couch, as a colt from his yoke.
+But it has been decreed by this city of Argos, that no one shall receive us
+who have slain a mother under their roof, nor at their fire, and that none
+shall speak to us; but this is the appointed day, in the which the city of
+the Argives will pronounce their vote, whether it is fitting that we should
+die being stoned with stones, or having whet the sword, should plunge it
+into our necks. But I yet have some hope that we may not die, for Menelaus
+has arrived at this country from Troy, and filling the Nauplian harbor with
+his oars is mooring his fleet off the shore, having been lost in wanderings
+from Troy a long time: but the much-afflicted Helen has he sent before to
+our palace, having taken advantage of the night, lest any of those, whose
+children died under Ilium, when they saw her coming, by day, might go so
+far as to stone her; but she is within bewailing her sister, and the
+calamity of her family. She has however some consolation in her woes, for
+the virgin Hermione, whom Menelaus bringing from Sparta, left at our
+palace, when he sailed to Troy, and gave as a charge to my mother to bring
+up, in her she rejoices, and forgets her miseries. But I am looking at each
+avenue when I shall see Menelaus present, since, for the rest, we ride on
+slender power,[3] if we receive not some succor from him; the house of the
+unfortunate is an embarrassed state of affairs.
+
+ELECTRA. HELEN.
+
+HEL. O daughter of Clytæmnestra and Agamemnon, O Electra, thou that hast
+remained a virgin a long time. How are ye, O wretched woman, both you, and
+your brother, the wretched Orestes (he was the murderer of his mother)? For
+by thy converse I am not polluted, transferring, as I do, the blame to
+Phœbus. And yet I groan the death of Clytæmnestra, whom, after that I
+sailed to Troy, (how did I sail, urged by the maddening fate of the Gods!)
+I saw not, but of her bereft I lament my fortune.
+
+ELEC. Helen, why should I inform thee of things thou seest thyself here
+present, the race of Agamemnon in calamities. I indeed sleepless sit
+companion to the wretched corse, (for he is a corse, in that he breathes so
+little,) but at his fortune I murmur not. But thou a happy woman, and thy
+husband a happy man, have come to us, who fare most wretchedly.
+
+HEL. But what length of time has he been lying on his couch?
+
+ELEC. Ever since he shed his parent's blood.
+
+HEL. Oh wretched, and his mother too, that thus she perished!
+
+ELEC. These things are thus, so that he is unable to speak for misery.
+
+HEL. By the Gods wilt thou oblige me in a thing, O virgin?
+
+ELEC. As far as I am permitted by the little leisure I have from watching
+by my brother.
+
+HEL. Wilt thou go to the tomb of my sister?
+
+ELEC. My mother's tomb dost thou desire? wherefore?
+
+HEL. Bearing the first offerings of my hair, and my libations.
+
+ELEC. But is it not lawful for thee to go to the tomb of thy friends?
+
+HEL. No, for I am ashamed to show myself among the Argives.
+
+ELEC. Late art thou discreet, then formerly leaving thine home
+disgracefully.
+
+HEL. True hast thou spoken, but thou speakest not pleasantly to me.
+
+ELEC. But what shame possesses thee among the Myceneans?
+
+HEL. I fear the fathers of those who are dead under Ilium.
+
+ELEC. For this is a dreadful thing; and at Argos thou art declaimed against
+by every one's mouth.
+
+HEL. Do thou then grant me this favor, and free me from this fear.
+
+ELEC. I can not look upon the tomb of my mother.
+
+HEL. And yet it is disgraceful for servants to bear these.
+
+ELEC. But why not send thy daughter Hermione?
+
+HEL. It is not well for virgins to go among the crowd.
+
+ELEC. And yet she might repay the dead the care of her education.
+
+HEL. Right hast thou spoken, and I obey thee, O virgin, and I will send my
+daughter, for thou sayest well. Come forth, my child Hermione, before the
+house, and take these libations in thine hand, and my hair, and, going to
+the tomb of Clytæmnestra, leave there this mixture of milk and honey, and
+the froth of wine, and standing on the summit of the mound, say thus:
+"Helen, thy sister, presents thee with these libations, in fear herself to
+approach thy tomb, and afraid of the populace of Argos:" and bid her hold
+kind intentions toward me, and thyself, and my husband, and toward these
+two miserable persons whom the God has destroyed. But promise all the
+offerings to the manes, whatever it is fitting that I should perform for a
+sister. Go, my child, hasten, and when thou hast offered the libations at
+the tomb, remember to return back as speedily as possible.
+
+ELEC. [_alone_] O Nature, what a great evil art thou among men, and the
+safeguard of those who possess thee, with virtue! For see, how she has
+shorn off the extremities of her hair, in order to preserve her beauty; but
+she is the same woman she always was. May the Gods detest thee, for that
+thou hast destroyed me, and this man, and the whole state of Greece: oh
+wretch that I am! But my dear friends that accompany me in my lamentations
+are again present; perhaps they will disturb the sleeper from his slumber,
+and will melt my eyes in tears when I behold my brother raving.
+
+ELECTRA, CHORUS.
+
+ELEC. O most dear woman, proceed with a gentle foot, make no noise, let
+there be heard no sound. For your friendliness is very kind, but to awake
+him will be a calamity to me. Hush, hush--gently advance the tread of thy
+sandal, make no noise, let there be heard no sound. Move onward from that
+place--onward from before the couch.
+
+CHOR. Behold, I obey.
+
+ELEC. St! st! Speak to me, my friend, as the breathing of the soft reed
+pipe.
+
+CHOR. See, I utter a voice low as an under note.
+
+ELEC. Ay, thus come hither, come hither, approach quietly--go quietly: tell
+me, for what purpose, I pray, are ye come? For he has fallen on his couch,
+and been sleeping some time.
+
+CHOR. How is he? Give us an account of him, my friend.
+
+ELEC. What fortune can I say of him? and what his calamities? still indeed
+he breathes, but sighs at short intervals.
+
+CHOR. What sayest thou? Oh, the unhappy man!
+
+ELEC. You will kill him if you move his eyelids, now that he is taking the
+sweetest enjoyment of sleep.
+
+CHOR. Unfortunate on account of these most angry deeds from heaven! oh!
+wretched on account of thy sufferings!
+
+ELEC. Alas! alas! Apollo himself unjust, then spoke unjust things, when at
+the tripod of Themis he commanded the unhallowed, inauspicious murder of my
+mother.
+
+CHOR. Dost thou see? he moves his body in the robes that cover him.
+
+ELEC. You by your cries, O wretch, have disturbed him from his sleep.
+
+CHOR. I indeed think he is sleeping yet.
+
+ELEC. Will you not depart from us? will you not bend your footsteps back
+from the house, ceasing this noise?
+
+CHOR. He sleeps.
+
+ELEC. Thou sayest well.
+
+CHOR. Venerable, venerable Night, thou that dispensest sleep to languid
+mortals, come from Erebus; come, come, borne on thy wings to the house of
+Agamemnon; for by our griefs and by our sufferings we are quite undone,
+undone.
+
+ELEC. Ye were making a noise.
+
+CHOR. No. (Note [A].)
+
+ELEC. Silently, silently repressing the high notes of your voice, apart
+from his couch, you will enable him to have the tranquil enjoyment of
+sleep.
+
+CHOR. Tell us; what end to his miseries awaits him?
+
+ELEC. Death, death; what else can? for he has no appetite for food.
+
+CHOR. Death then is manifestly before him.
+
+ELEC. Phœbus offered us as victims, when he commanded[4] the dreadful,
+abhorred murder of our mother, that slew our father.
+
+CHOR. With justice indeed, but not well.
+
+ELEC. Thou hast died, thou hast died, O mother, O thou that didst bring me
+forth, but hast killed the father, and the children of thy blood. We
+perish, we perish, even as two corses. For thou art among the dead, and the
+greatest part of my life is passed in groans, and wailings, and nightly
+tears; marriageless, childless, behold, how like a miserable wretch do I
+drag out my existence forever!
+
+CHOR. O virgin Electra, approach near, and look that thy brother has not
+died unobserved by thee; for by this excessive quiet he doth not please me.
+
+ORESTES, ELECTRA, CHORUS.
+
+ORES. O precious balm of sleep, thou that relievest my malady, how pleasant
+didst thou come to me in the time of need! O divine oblivion of my
+sufferings, how wise thou art, and the goddess to be supplicated by all in
+distress!--whence, in heaven's name, came I hither? and how brought? for I
+remember not things past, bereaved, as I am, of my senses.
+
+ELEC. My dearest brother, how didst thou delight me when thou didst fall
+asleep! wilt thou I touch thee, and raise thy body up?
+
+ORES. Raise me then, raise me, and wipe the clotted foam from off my
+wretched mouth, and from my eyes.
+
+ELEC. Behold, the task is sweet, and I refuse not to administer to a
+brother's limbs with a sister's hand.
+
+ORES. Lay thy side by my side, and remove the squalid hair from my face,
+for I see but imperfectly with my eyes.
+
+ELEC. O wretched head, sordid with ringlets, how art thou disordered from
+long want of the bath!
+
+ORES. Lay me on the couch again; when my fit of madness gives me a respite,
+I am feeble and weak in my limbs.
+
+ELEC. Behold, the couch is pleasant to the sick man, an irksome thing to
+keep, but still a necessary one.
+
+ORES. Again raise me upright--turn my body.
+
+CHOR. Sick persons are hard to be pleased from their feebleness.
+
+ELEC. Wilt thou set thy feet on the ground, putting forward thy
+long-discontinued[5] step? In all things change is sweet.
+
+ORES. Yes, by all means; for this has a semblance of health, but the
+semblance is good, though it be distant from the truth.
+
+ELEC. Hear now therefore, O my brother, while yet the Furies suffer thee to
+have thy right faculties.
+
+ORES. Wilt thou tell any news? and if good indeed, thou art conferring
+pleasure; but if it pertain at all to mischief--I have enough distress.
+
+ELEC. Menelaus has arrived, the brother of thy father, but his ships are
+moored in the Nauplian bay.
+
+ORES. How sayest? Is he come, a light in mine and thy sufferings, a man of
+kindred blood, and that hath received benefits from our father?
+
+ELEC. He is come; take this a sure proof of my words, bringing with him
+Helen from the walls of Troy.
+
+ORES. Had he been saved alone, he had been more blest. But if he brings his
+wife, he has arrived with a mighty evil.
+
+ELEC. Tyndarus begat an offspring of daughters, a conspicuous mark for
+blame, and infamous throughout Greece.
+
+ORES. Do thou then be unlike the bad, for it is in thy power. And not only
+say, but also hold these sentiments.
+
+ELEC. Alas! my brother, thine eye rolls wildly; quick art thou changed to
+madness, so late in thy senses.
+
+ORES. O mother, I implore thee, urge not on me those Furies gazing blood,
+horrid with snakes, for these, these are leaping around me.
+
+ELEC. Remain, O wretched man, calmly on thy couch, for thou seest none of
+those things, which thou fanciest thou seest plainly.
+
+ORES. O Phœbus, these dire Goddesses in the shape of dogs will kill me,
+these gorgon-visaged ministers of hell.
+
+ELEC. I will not let thee go, but, putting my arm around thee, will stop
+thy starting into those unfortunate convulsions.
+
+ORES. Loose me. Thou art one of my Furies, and seizest me by the middle,
+that thou mayest hurl me into Tartarus.
+
+ELEC. Oh! wretched me! what assistance can I obtain, since we have on us
+the vengeful wrath of heaven!
+
+ORES. Give me my bow of horn, the gift of Phœbus, with which Apollo said I
+should repel the Fiends, if they appalled me by their maddened raging.
+
+ELEC. Shall any God be wounded by mortal hand? (Note [B].)
+
+ORES. _Yes. She shall,_ if she will not depart from my sight... Hear ye
+not--see ye not the winged shafts impelled from the distant-wounding bow?
+Ha! ha! Why tarry ye yet? Skim the high air with your wings, and impeach
+the oracles of Phœbus.--Ah! why am I thus disquieted, heaving my panting
+breath from my lungs? Whither, whither have I wandered from my couch? For
+from the waves again I see a calm.--Sister, why weepest, hiding thine eyes
+beneath thy vests, I am ashamed to have thee a partner in my sufferings,
+and to give a virgin trouble through my malady. Pine not away on account of
+my miseries: for thou indeed didst assent to this, but the shedding of my
+mother's blood was accomplished by me: but I blame Apollo, who, after
+having instigated me to a most unholy act, with words indeed consoled me,
+but not with deeds. But I think that my father, had I, beholding him, asked
+him if it were right for me to slay my mother, would have put forth many
+supplications, beseeching me by this beard not to impel my sword to the
+slaughter of her who bore me, if neither he thereby could be restored to
+life, and I thus wretched must go through such miseries. And now then
+unveil thyself, my sister, and cease from tears, even though we be very
+miserable: but when thou seest me desponding, do thou restrain my
+distraction, and that which preys upon my mind, and console me; but when
+thou groanest, it becomes my duty to come to thee, and suggest words of
+comfort. For these are the good offices friends ought to render each other.
+But go thou into the house, O unfortunate sister, and, stretched at full
+length, compose thy sleepless eyelids to sleep, and take refreshment, and
+pour the bath upon thy fair skin. For if thou forsakest me, or gettest any
+illness by continually sitting by me, we perish; for thee I have my only
+succor, by the rest, as thou seest, abandoned.
+
+ELEC. This can not be: with thee will I choose to die, with thee to live;
+for it is the same: for if then shouldst die, what can I do, a woman? how
+shall I be preserved, alone and destitute? without a brother, without a
+father, without a friend: but if it seemeth good to thee, these things it
+is my duty to do: but recline thy body on the bed, and do not to such a
+degree conceive to be real whatever frightens and startles thee from the
+couch, but keep quiet on the bed strewn for thee. For though thou be not
+ill, but only seem to be ill, still this even is an evil and a distress to
+mortals. (Note [C].)
+
+CHORUS. Alas! alas! O swift-winged, raving[6] Goddesses, who keep up the
+dance, not that of Bacchus, with tears and groans. You, dark Eumenides,
+you, that fly through the wide extended air, executing vengeance, executing
+slaughter, you do I supplicate, I supplicate: suffer the offspring of
+Agamemnon to forget his furious madness; alas! for his sufferings. What
+were they that eagerly grasping at, thou unhappy perishest, having received
+from the tripod the oracle which Phœbus spake, on that pavement, where are
+said to be the recesses in the midst of the globe! O Jupiter, what pity is
+there? what is this contention of slaughter that comes persecuting thee
+wretched, to whom some evil genius casts tear upon tear, transporting to
+thy house the blood of thy mother which drives thee frenzied! Thus I
+bewail, I bewail. Great prosperity is not lasting among mortals; but, as
+the sail of the swift bark, some deity having shaken him, hath sunk him in
+the voracious and destructive waves of tremendous evils, as in the waves of
+the ocean. For what other[6a] family ought I to reverence yet before that
+sprung from divine nuptials, sprung from Tantalus?--But lo! the king! the
+prince Menelaus, is coming! but he is very easily discernible from the
+elegance of his person, as king of the house of the Tantalidæ.
+
+O thou that didst direct the army of a thousand vessels to Asia's land,
+hail! but thou comest hither with good fortune, having obtained the object
+of thy wishes from the Gods.
+
+MENELAUS, ORESTES, CHORUS.
+
+MEN. O palace, in some respect indeed I behold thee with pleasure, coming
+from Troy, but in other respect I groan when I see thee. For never yet saw
+I any other house more completely encircled round with lamentable woes. For
+I was made acquainted with the misfortune that befell Agamemnon, [and his
+death, by what death he perished at the hands of his wife,][6b] when I was
+landing my ships at Malea; but from the waves the prophet of the mariners
+declared unto me, the foreboding Glaucus the son of Nereus, an unerring
+God, who told me thus in evident form standing by me. "Menelaus, thy
+brother lieth dead, having fallen in his last bath, which his wife
+prepared." But he filled both me and my sailors with many tears; but when I
+come to the Nauplian shore, my wife having already landed there, expecting
+to clasp in my friendly embraces Orestes the son of Agamemnon, and his
+mother, as being in prosperity, I heard from some fisherman[7] the
+unhallowed murder of the daughter of Tyndarus. And now tell me, maidens,
+where is the son of Agamemnon, who dared these terrible deeds of evil? for
+he was an infant in Clytæmnestra's arms at that time when I left the palace
+on my way to Troy, so that I should not know him, were I to see him.
+
+ORES. I, Menelaus, am Orestes, whom thou seekest, I of my own accord will
+declare my evils. But first I touch thy knees in supplication, putting up
+prayers from my mouth, not using the sacred branch:[8] save me. But thou
+art come in the very season of my sufferings.
+
+MEN. O ye Gods, what do I behold! whom of the dead do I see!
+
+ORES. Ay! well thou sayest the dead; for in my state of suffering I live
+not; but see the light.
+
+MEN. Thou wretched man, how disordered thou art in thy squalid hair!
+
+ORES. Not the appearance, but the deeds torment me.
+
+MEN. But thou glarest dreadfully with thy shriveled eyeballs.
+
+ORES. My body is vanished, but my name has not left me.
+
+MEN. Alas, thy uncomeliness of form which has appeared to me beyond
+conception!
+
+ORES. I am he, the murderer of my wretched mother.
+
+MEN. I have heard; but spare a little the recital of thy woes.
+
+ORES. I spare it; but in woes the deity is rich to me.
+
+MEN. What dost thou suffer? What malady destroys thee?
+
+ORES. The conviction that I am conscious of having perpetrated dreadful
+deeds.
+
+MEN. How sayest thou? Plainness, and not obscurity, is wisdom.
+
+ORES. Sorrow is chiefly what destroys me,--
+
+MEN. She is a dreadful goddess, but sorrow admits of cure.
+
+ORES. And fits of madness in revenge for my mother's blood.
+
+MEN. But when didst first have the raging? what day was it then?
+
+ORES. That day in which I heaped the tomb on my mother.
+
+MEN. What? in the house, or sitting at the pyre?
+
+ORES. As I was guarding by night lest any one should bear off her bones.[9]
+
+MEN. Was any one else present, who supported thy body?
+
+ORES. Pylades, who perpetrated with me the vengeance and death of my
+mother.
+
+MEN. But by what visions art thou thus afflicted?
+
+ORES. I appear to behold three virgins like the night.
+
+MEN. I know whom thou meanest, but am unwilling to name them.
+
+ORES. Yes: for they are awful; but forbear from speaking such high polished
+words.[10]
+
+MEN. Do these drive thee to distraction on account of this kindred murder?
+
+ORES. Alas me for the persecutions, with which wretched I am driven!
+
+MEN. It is not strange that those who do strange deeds should suffer them.
+
+ORES. But we have whereto we may transfer the criminality[11] of the
+mischance.
+
+MEN. Say not the death _of thy father;_ for this is not wise.
+
+ORES. Phœbus who commanded us to perpetrate the slaying of our mother.
+
+MEN. Being more ignorant than to know equity, and justice.
+
+ORES. We are servants of the Gods, whatever those Gods be.
+
+MEN. And then does not Apollo assist thee in thy miseries?
+
+ORES. He is always about to do it, but such are the Gods by nature.
+
+MEN. But how long a time has thy mother's breath gone from her?
+
+ORES. This is the sixth day since; the funeral pyre is yet warm.
+
+MEN. How quickly have the Goddesses come to demand of thee thy mother's
+blood!
+
+ORES. I am not wise, but a true friend to my friends.
+
+MEN. But what then doth the revenge of thy father profit thee?
+
+ORES. Nothing yet; but I consider what is in prospect in the same light as
+a thing not done.
+
+MEN. But regarding the city how standest thou, having done these things?
+
+ORES. We are hated to that degree, that no one speaks to us.
+
+MEN. Nor hast thou washed thy blood from thy hands according to the laws?
+
+ORES. _How can I?_ for I am shut out from the houses, whithersoever I go.
+
+MEN. Who of the citizens thus contend to drive thee from the land?
+
+ORES. Œax,[12] imputing to my father the hatred which arose on account of
+Troy.
+
+MEN. I understand. The death of Palamede takes its vengeance on thee.
+
+ORES. In which at least I had no share--but I perish by the three.
+
+MEN. But who else? Is it perchance one of the friends of Ægisthus?
+
+ORES. They persecute me, whom now the city obeys.
+
+MEN. But does the city suffer thee to wield Agamemnon's sceptre?
+
+ORES. How should they? who no longer suffer us to live.
+
+MEN. Doing what, which thou canst tell me as a clear fact?
+
+ORES. This very day sentence will be passed upon us.
+
+MEN. To be exiled from this city? or to die? or not to die?
+
+ORES. To die, by being stoned with stones by the citizens.
+
+MEN. And dost thou not fly then, escaping beyond the boundaries of the
+country?
+
+ORES. _How can we?_ for we are surrounded on every side by brazen arms.
+
+MEN. By private enemies, or by the hand of Argos?
+
+ORES. By all the citizens, that I may die--the word is brief.
+
+MEN. O unhappy man! thou art come to the extreme of misfortune.
+
+ORES. On thee my hope builds her escape from evils, but, thyself happy,
+coming among the distressed, impart thy good fortune to thy friends, and be
+not the only man to retain a benefit thou hast received, but undertake also
+services in thy turn, paying their father's kindness to those to whom thou
+oughtest. For those friends have the name, not the reality, who are not
+friends in adversity.
+
+CHOR. And see the Spartan Tyndarus is toiling hither with his aged foot, in
+a black vest, and shorn, his locks cut off in mourning for his daughter.
+
+ORES. I am undone, O Menelaus! Lo! Tyndarus is coming toward us, to come
+before whose presence, most of all men's, shame covereth me, on account of
+what has been done. For he used to nurture me when I was little, and
+satiated me with many kisses, dandling in his arms Agamemnon's boy, and
+Leda with him, honoring me no less than the twin-born of Jove. For which, O
+my wretched heart and soul, I have given no good return: what dark veil can
+I take for my countenance? what cloud can I place before me, that I may
+avoid the glances of the old man's eyes?
+
+TYNDARUS, MENELAUS, ORESTES, CHORUS.
+
+TYND. Where, where can I see my daughter's husband Menelaus? For as I was
+pouring my libations on the tomb of Clytæmnestra, I heard that he was come
+to Nauplia with his wife, safe through a length of years. Conduct me, for I
+long to stand by his hand and salute him, seeing my friend after a long
+lapse of time.
+
+MEN. O hail! old man, who sharest thy bed with Jove.
+
+TYND. O hail! thou also, Menelaus my dear relation,--ah! what an evil is it
+not to know the future! This dragon here, the murderer of his mother,
+glares before the house his pestilential gleams--the object of my
+detestation--Menelaus, dost thou speak to this unholy wretch?
+
+MEN. Why not? he is the son of a father who was dear to me.
+
+TYND. What! was he sprung from him, being such as he is?
+
+MEN. He was; but, though he be unfortunate, he should be respected.
+
+TYND. Having been a long time with barbarians, thou art thyself turned
+barbarian.
+
+MEN. Nay! it is the Grecian fashion always to honor one of kindred blood.
+
+TYND. _Yes_, and also not to wish to be above the laws.
+
+MEN. Every thing proceeding from necessity is considered as subservient to
+her[13] among the wise.
+
+TYND. Do thou then keep to this, but I'll have none of it.
+
+MEN. _No_, for anger joined with thine age, is not wisdom.
+
+TYND. With this man what controversy can there be regarding wisdom? If what
+things are virtuous, and what are not virtuous, are plain to all, what man
+was ever more unwise that this man? who did not indeed consider justice,
+nor applied to the common existing law of the Grecians. For after that
+Agamemnon breathed forth his last, struck by my daughter on the head, a
+most foul deed (for never will I approve of this), it behooved him indeed
+to lay against her a sacred charge of bloodshed, following up the
+accusation, and to cast his mother from out of the house; and he would have
+taken the wise side in the calamity, and would have kept to law, and would
+have been pious. But now has he come to the same fate with his mother. For
+with justice thinking her wicked, himself has become more wicked in slaying
+his mother.
+
+But thus much, Menelaus, will I ask thee; If the wife that shared his bed
+were to kill him, and his son again kills his mother in return, and he that
+is born of him shall expiate the murder with murder, whither then will the
+extremes of these evils proceed? Well did our fathers of old lay down these
+things; they suffered not him to come into the sight of their eyes, not to
+their converse, who was under an attainder[14] of blood; but they made him
+atone by banishment; they suffered however none to kill him in return. For
+always were one about to be attainted of murder, taking the pollution last
+into his hands. But I hate indeed impious women, but first among them my
+daughter, who slew her husband. But never will I approve of Helen thy wife,
+nor would I speak to her, neither do I commend[15] thee for going to the
+plain of Troy on account of a perfidious woman. But I will defend the law,
+as far at least as I am able, putting a stop to this brutish and murderous
+practice, which is ever destructive both of the country and the state.--For
+what feelings of humanity hadst thou, thou wretched man, when she bared her
+breast in supplication, thy mother? I indeed, though I witnessed not that
+scene of misery, melt in my aged eyes with tears through wretchedness. One
+thing however goes to the scale of my arguments; thou art both hated by the
+Gods, and sufferest vengeance of thy mother, wandering about with madness
+and terrors; why must I hear by the testimony of others, what it is in my
+power to see? That thou mayest know then _once for all_, Menelaus, do not
+things contrary to the Gods, through thy wishes to assist this man. But
+suffer him to be slain by the citizens with stones, or set not thy foot on
+Spartan ground. But my daughter in dying met with justice, but it was not
+fitting that she should die by him.[16] In other respects indeed have I
+been a happy man, except in my daughters, but in this I am not happy.
+
+CHOR. He is enviable, who is fortunate in his children, and has not on him
+some notorious calamities.
+
+ORES. O old man, I tremble to speak to thee, wherein I am about to grieve
+thee and thy mind. But I am unholy in that I slew my mother; but holy at
+least in another point of view, having avenged my father. Let then thine
+age, which hinders me through fear from speaking, be removed out of the way
+of my words, and I will go on in a direct path; but now do I fear thy gray
+hairs. What could I do? for oppose the facts, two against two. My father
+indeed begat me, but thy daughter brought me forth, a field receiving the
+seed from another; but without a father there never could be a child. I
+reasoned therefore with myself, that I should assist the prime author of my
+birth rather than the aliment which under him produced me. But thy daughter
+(I am ashamed to call her mother), in secret and unchaste nuptials, had
+approached the bed of another man; of myself, if I speak ill of her, shall
+I be speaking, but yet will I tell it. Ægisthus was her secret husband in
+her palace. Him I slew, and after him I sacrificed my mother, doing indeed
+unholy things, but avenging my father. But as touching those things for
+which thou threatenest that I must be stoned, hear, how I shall assist all
+Greece. For if the women shall arrive at such a pitch of boldness as to
+murder the men, making good their escape with regard to their children,
+seeking to captivate their pity by their breasts, it would be as nothing
+with them to slay their husbands, having any pretext that might chance; but
+I having done dreadful things (as thou sayest), have put a stop to this
+law, but hating my mother deservedly I slew her, who betrayed her husband
+absent from home in arms, the generalissimo of the whole land of Greece,
+and kept not her bed undefiled. But when she perceived that she had done
+amiss, she inflicted not vengeance on herself, but, that she might not
+suffer vengeance from her husband, punished and slew my father. By the
+Gods, (in no good cause have I named the Gods, pleading against a charge of
+murder,) had I by my silence praised my mother's actions, what then would
+the deceased have done to me? To my mother indeed the Furies are present as
+allies, but would they not be present to him, who has received the greater
+injury? Would he not, detesting me, have haunted me with the Furies? Thou
+then, O old man, by begetting a bad daughter, hast destroyed me; for
+through her boldness deprived of my father, I became a matricide. Dost see?
+Telemachus slew not the wife of Ulysses, for she married not a husband on a
+husband, but her marriage-bed remains unpolluted in the palace. Dost see?
+Apollo, who, dwelling in his habitation in the midst of the earth, gives
+the most clear oracles to mortals, by whom we are entirely guided, whatever
+he may say, on him relying slew I my mother. 'Twas he who erred, not I:
+what could I do? Is not the God sufficient for me, who transfer _the deed_
+to him, to do away with the pollution? Whither then can any fly for succor,
+unless he that commanded me shall deliver me from death? But say not these
+things have been done "not well;" but _say_ "not fortunately" for us who
+did them. But to whatsoever men their marriages are well established, there
+is a happy life, but to those to whom they fall not out well, with regard
+to their affairs both at home and abroad they are unfortunate.
+
+CHOR. Women were born always to be in the way of what may happen to men, to
+the making of things unfortunate.
+
+TYND. Since thou art bold, and yieldest not to my speech, but thus
+answerest me so as to grieve my mind, thou wilt rather inflame me to urge
+thy death. But this I shall consider a handsome addition to those labors
+for which I came, _namely_, to deck my daughter's tomb. For going to the
+multitude of the Argives assembled, I will rouse the state willing and not
+unwilling, to pass the sentence[16a] of being stoned on thee and on thy
+sister; but she is worthy of death rather than thee, who irritated thee
+against her mother, always pealing in thine ear words to increase thy
+hatred, relating dreams she had of Agamemnon, and this also, that the
+infernal Gods detested the bed of Ægisthus; for even here _on earth_ it
+were hard _to be endured_; until she set the house in flames with fire more
+strong than Vulcan's.--Menelaus, but to thee I speak this, and will
+moreover perform it. If thou regard my hate, and my alliance, ward not off
+death from this man in opposition to the Gods; but suffer him to be slain
+by the citizens with stones, or set not thy foot on Spartan ground. Thus
+much having heard, depart, nor choose the impious for thy friends, passing
+over the pious.--But O attendants, conduct us from this house.
+
+ORES. Depart, that the remainder of my speech may reach this man
+uninterrupted by the clamors of thy age: Menelaus, whither dost thou roam
+in thought, entering on a double path of double care?
+
+MEN. Suffer me; having some thoughts with myself, I am perplexed to which
+side of fortune to turn me.
+
+ORES. Do not make up thy opinion, but having first heard my words, then
+deliberate.
+
+MEN. Say on; for thou hast spoken rightly; but there are seasons where
+silence may be better than talking, and there are seasons where talking may
+be better than silence.
+
+ORES. I will speak then forthwith: Long speeches have the preference before
+short ones, and are more plain to hear. Give thou to me nothing of what
+thou hast, O Menelaus, but what thou hast received from my father, return;
+I mean not riches--yet riches, which are the most dear of what I possess,
+if thou wilt preserve my life. Say I am unjust, I ought to receive from
+thee, instead of this evil, something contrary to what justice demands; for
+Agamemnon my father having collected Greece in arms, in a way justice did
+not demand, went to Troy, not having erred himself, but in order to set
+right the error, and injustice of thy wife. This one thing indeed thou
+oughtest to give me for one thing, but he, as friends should for friends,
+of a truth exposed his person for thee toiling at the shield, that thou
+mightest receive back thy wife. Repay me then this kindness for that which
+thou receivedst there, toiling for one day in standing as my succor, not
+completing ten years. But the sacrifice of my sister, which Aulis received,
+this I suffer thee to have; do not kill Hermione, _I ask it not_. For, I
+being in the state in which I now am, thou must of necessity have the
+advantage, and I must suffer it to be so. But grant my life to my wretched
+father, and my sister's, who has been a virgin a long time. For dying I
+shall leave my father's house destitute. Thou wilt say "impossible:" this
+is the very thing _I have been urging_, it behooves friends to help their
+friends in misfortunes. But when the God gives prosperity, what need is
+there of friends? For the God himself sufficeth, being willing to assist.
+Thou appearest to all the Greeks to be fond of thy wife; (and this I say,
+not stealing under thee imperceptibly with flattery;) by her I implore
+thee; O wretched me for my woes, to what have I come? but why must I suffer
+thus? For in behalf of the whole house I make this supplication. O divine
+brother of my father, conceive that the dead man beneath the earth hears
+these things, and that his spirit is hovering over thee, and speaks what I
+speak. These things have I said, with tears, and groans, and miseries,[17]
+and have prayed earnestly, looking for preservation, which all, and not I
+only, seek.
+
+CHOR. I too implore thee, although a woman, yet still I implore thee to
+succor those in need, but thou art able.
+
+MEN. Orestes, I indeed reverence thy person, and I am willing to labor with
+thee in thy misfortunes. For thus it is right to endure together the
+misfortunes of one's relations, if the God gives the ability, even so far
+as to die, and to kill the adversary; but this ability again I want from
+the Gods. For I am come having my single spear unaided by allies, having
+wandered with infinite labors with small assistance of friends left me. In
+battle therefore we can not come off superior to Pelasgian Argos; but if we
+can by soft speeches, to that hope are we equal. For how can any one
+achieve great actions with small means? For when the rabble is in full
+force falling into a rage, it is equally difficult to extinguish as a
+fierce fire. But if one quietly yields to it as it is spreading, and gives
+in to it, watching well his opportunity, perhaps it may spend its rage, but
+when it has remitted from its blast, you may without difficulty have it
+your own way, as much as you please. For there is inherent in them pity,
+but there is inherent also vehement passion, to one who carefully watches
+his opportunity a most excellent advantage. But I will go and endeavor to
+persuade Tyndarus, and the city, to use their great power in a becoming
+manner. For a ship, the main sheet stretched out to a violent degree, is
+wont to pitch, but stands upright again, if you slacken the main sheet. For
+the God hates too great vehemence, and the citizens hate it; but I must (I
+speak as I mean) save thee by wisdom, not by opposing my superiors. But I
+can not by force, as perchance thou thinkest, preserve thee; for it is no
+easy matter to erect from one single spear trophies from the evils, which
+are about thee. For never have we approached the land of Argos by way of
+supplication; but now there is necessity for the wise to become the slaves
+of fortune.
+
+ORESTES, CHORUS.
+
+ORES. O thou, a mere cipher in other things except in warring for the sake
+of a woman; O thou most base in avenging thy friends, dost thou fly,
+turning away from me? But all Agamemnon's services are gone: thou wert then
+without friends, O my father, in thy affliction. Alas me! I am betrayed,
+and there no longer are any hopes, whither turning I may escape death from
+the Argives. For he was the refuge of my safety. But I see this most dear
+of men, Pylades, coming with hasty step from the Phocians, a pleasing
+sight, a man faithful in adversity, more grateful to behold than the calm
+to the mariners.
+
+PYLADES, ORESTES, CHORUS.
+
+PYL. I came through the city with a quicker step than I ought, having heard
+of the council of state assembled, and seeing it plainly myself, against
+thee and thy sister, as about to kill you instantly.--What is this? how art
+thou? in what state, O most dear to me of my companions and kindred? for
+all these things art thou to me.
+
+ORES. We are gone--briefly to show thee my calamities.
+
+PYL. Thou wilt have ruined me too; for the things of friends are common.
+
+ORES. Menelaus has behaved most basely toward me and my sister.
+
+PYL. It is to be expected that the husband of a bad wife be bad.
+
+ORES. He is come, and has done just as much for me as if he had not come.
+
+PYL. What! is he in truth come to this land?
+
+ORES. After a long season; but nevertheless he was very soon discovered to
+be too base to his friends.
+
+PYL. And has he brought in his ship with him his most infamous wife?
+
+ORES. Not he her, but she brought him hither.
+
+PYL. Where is she, who, beyond any woman,[18] destroyed most of the
+Grecians?
+
+ORES. In my palace, if I may indeed be allowed to call this mine.
+
+PYL. But what words didst thou say to thy father's brother?
+
+ORES. _I requested him_ not to suffer me and my sister to be slain by the
+citizens.
+
+PYL. By the Gods, what said he to this request; this I wish to know.
+
+ORES. He declined, from motives of prudence, as bad friends act toward
+their friends.
+
+PYL. Going on what ground of excuse? This having learned, I am in
+possession of every thing.
+
+ORES. The father himself came, he that begat such excellent daughters.
+
+PYL. Tyndarus you mean; perhaps enraged with thee on account of his
+daughter.
+
+ORES. You are right: be paid more attention to his ties with him, than to
+his ties with my father.
+
+PYL. And dared he not, being present, to take arms against thy troubles?
+
+ORES. _No_: for he was not born a warrior, but brave among women.
+
+PYL. Thou art then in the greatest miseries, and it is necessary for thee
+to die.
+
+ORES. The citizens must pass their vote on us for the murder _we have
+committed_.[19]
+
+PYL. Which vote what will it decide? tell me, for I am in fear.
+
+ORES. Either to die or live; not many words on matters of great import.
+
+PYL. Come fly, and quit the palace with thy sister.
+
+ORES. Seest thou not? we are watched by guards on every side,
+
+PYL. I saw the streets of the city lined with arms.
+
+ORES. We are invested as to our persons, as a city by the enemy.
+
+PYL. Now ask me also, what I suffer; for I too am undone.
+
+ORES. By whom? This would be an evil added to my evils.
+
+PYL. Strophius, my father, being enraged, hath driven me an exile from his
+house.
+
+ORES. Bringing against thee some private charge, or one in common with the
+citizens?
+
+PYL. Because I perpetrated with thee the murder of thy mother, he banished
+me, calling me unholy.
+
+ORES. O thou unfortunate! it seems that thou also sufferest for my evils.
+
+PYL. We have not Menelaus's manners--this must be borne.
+
+ORES. Dost thou not fear lest Argos should wish to kill thee, as it does
+also me?
+
+PYL. We do not belong to these to punish, but to the land of the Phocians.
+
+ORES. The populace is a terrible thing, when they have evil leaders.
+
+PYL. But when they have good ones, they always deliberate good things.
+
+ORES. Be it so: we must speak on our common business.
+
+PYL. On what affair of necessity?
+
+ORES. Supposing I should go to the citizens, and say--
+
+PYL. --that thou hast acted justly?
+
+ORES. Ay, avenging my father:
+
+PYL. I fear they might not receive thee gladly.
+
+ORES. But shall I die then shuddering in silence!
+
+PYL. This were cowardly.
+
+ORES. How then can I do?
+
+PYL. Hast thou any chance of safety, if thou remainest?
+
+ORES. I have none.
+
+PYL. But going, is there any hope of thy being preserved from thy miseries?
+
+ORES. Should it chance well, there might be.
+
+PYL. Is not this then better than remaining?
+
+ORES. Shall I go then?
+
+PYL. Dying thus, at least thou wilt die more honorably.
+
+ORES. And I have a just cause.
+
+PYL. Only pray for its appearing so.
+
+ORES. Thou sayest well: this way I avoid the imputation of cowardice.
+
+PYL. More than by tarrying here.
+
+ORES. And some one perchance may pity me--
+
+PYL. Yes; for thy nobleness of birth is a great thing.
+
+ORES. --indignant at my father's death.
+
+PYL. All this in prospect.
+
+ORES. Go I must, for it is not manly to die ingloriously.
+
+PYL. These sentiments I praise.
+
+ORES. Shall we then tell these things to my sister?
+
+PYL. No, by the Gods.
+
+ORES. Why, there might be tears.
+
+PYL. This then is a great omen.
+
+ORES. Clearly it is better to be silent.
+
+PYL. Thou art a gainer by delay.
+
+ORES. This one thing only opposes me.
+
+PYL. What new thing again is this thou sayest?
+
+ORES. I fear lest the goddesses should stop me with their torments.
+
+PYL. But I will take care of thee.
+
+ORES. It is a difficult and dangerous task to touch a man thus disordered.
+
+PYL. Not for me to touch thee.
+
+ORES. Take care how thou art partner of my madness.
+
+PYL. Let not this be thought of.
+
+ORES. Wilt thou not then be timid to assist me?
+
+PYL. No, for timidity is a great evil to friends.
+
+ORES. Go on now, the helm of my foot.
+
+PYL. Having a charge worthy of a friend.
+
+ORES. And guide me to my father's tomb.
+
+PYL. To what end is this?
+
+ORES. That I may supplicate him to save me.
+
+PYL. This at least is just.
+
+ORES. But let me not see my mother's monument.
+
+PYL. For she was an enemy. But hasten, that the decree of the Argives
+condemn thee not before thou goest; leaning thy side, weary with disease,
+on mine: since I will conduct thee through the city, little caring for the
+multitude, nothing ashamed; for where shall I show myself thy friend, if I
+assist thee not when them art in perilous condition?
+
+ORES. This it is to have companions, not relationship alone; so that a man
+who is congenial in manners, though a stranger in blood, is a better friend
+for a man to have, than ten thousand relatives.
+
+CHORUS.
+
+The great happiness, and the valor high sounding throughout Greece, and by
+the channels of the Simois, has again withdrawn from the fortune of the
+Atridæ, as of old, from the ancient calamity of the house, when the strife
+of the golden lamb[20] arose among the descendants of Tantalus; most
+shocking feasts, and the slaughter of noble children; from whence murder
+responsive to murder fails not to attend on the two sons of Atreus. What
+seems good is not good, to gash the parents' skin with a fierce hand, and
+brandish the sword black-stained with blood in the sunbeams. But, on the
+other hand, to act wickedly[21] is mad impiety, and the folly of
+evil-minded men.
+
+But the wretched daughter of Tyndarus in the fear of death shrieked out,
+"My son, thou darest impious deeds, killing thy mother; do not, attending
+to the gratification of thy father, kindle an everlasting disgrace."
+
+What malady, or what tears, or what pity on earth is greater, than to
+imbrue one's hand in a mother's blood? What a deed, what a deed having
+performed, does the son of Agamemnon rave with madness, a prey to the
+Eumenides, marked for death, giddy with his rolling eyes! O wretched on
+account of his mother, when though seeing the breast bared from the robe of
+golden texture, he stabbed the mother in retaliation for the father's
+sufferings.
+
+ELECTRA, CHORUS.
+
+ELEC. Ye virgins, has the wretched Orestes, overcome with heaven-inflicted
+madness, rushed any where from this house?
+
+CHOR. By no means; but he is gone to the Argive people, to undergo the
+trial proposed regarding life, by which you must either live or die.
+
+ELEC. Alas me! what thing has he done? but who persuaded him?
+
+CHOR. Pylades.--But this messenger seems soon about to inform us of what
+has passed there concerning thy brother.
+
+MESSENGER, ELECTRA, CHORUS.
+
+MESS. O wretched hapless daughter of the chief Agamemnon, revered Electra,
+hear the unfortunate words which I am come to bring.
+
+ELEC. Alas! alas! we are undone; this thou signifiest by thy speech. For
+thou comest, as it seems, a messenger of woes.
+
+MESS. It has been carried by the vote of the Pelasgians, that thy brother
+and thou must die this day.
+
+ELEC. Ah me! the expected event has come, which long since fearing, I pined
+away with lamentations on account of what was in prospect.--But what was
+the debate? What arguments among the Argives condemned us, and confirmed
+our sentence of death? Tell me, old man, whether by the hand raised to
+stone me, or by the sword must I breathe out my soul, having this calamity
+in common with my brother?
+
+MESS. I chanced indeed to be entering the gates from the country, anxious
+to hear both what regarded thee, and what regarded Orestes; for at all
+times I had a favorable inclination toward thy father: and thy house fed
+me, poor indeed, but noble in my conduct toward friends. But I see the
+crowd going and sitting down on an eminence; where they say Danaus first
+collected the people to a common council, when he suffered punishment at
+the hands of Ægyptus. But seeing this concourse, I asked one of the
+citizens, "What new thing is stirring in Argos? Has any message from
+hostile powers roused the city of the Danaids?" But he said, "Seest thou
+not this Orestes walking near us, who is about to run in the contest of
+life and death?" But I see an unexpected sight, which oh that I had never
+seen! Pylades and thy brother walking together, the one indeed broken with
+sickness, but the other, like a brother, sympathizing with his friend,
+tending his weakened state with fostering care. But when the assembly of
+the Argives was full, a herald stood forth and said, "Who wishes to speak
+_on the question_, whether it is right that Orestes, who has killed his
+mother, should die, or not?" And on this Talthybius rises, who, in
+conjunction with thy father, laid waste the Phrygians. But he spoke words
+of divided import, being the constant slave of those in power; struck with
+admiration indeed at thy father, but not commending thy brother (speciously
+mixing up words of bad import), because he laid down no good laws toward
+his parents: but he was continually casting a smiling glance on Ægisthus's
+friends. For such is this kind; heralds always dance attendance on the
+prosperous; but that man is their friend, whoever may chance to have power
+in the state, and to be in office. But next to him prince Diomed harangued;
+he indeed was for suffering them to kill neither thee nor thy brother, but
+_bid them_ observe piety by punishing you with banishment. But some indeed
+murmured their assent, that he spoke well, but others praised him not.[22]
+And after him rises up some man, intemperate in speech, powerful in
+boldness, an Argive, yet not an Argive,[23] forced upon us, relying both on
+the tumult, and on ignorant boldness, prompt by persuasion to involve them
+in some mischief. (For when a man, sweet in words, holding bad sentiments,
+persuades the multitude, it is a great evil to the city. But as many as
+always advise good things with understanding, although not at the present
+moment, eventually are of service to the state: but the intelligent leader
+ought to look to this, for the case is the same with the man who speaks
+words, and the man who approves them.) Who said, that they ought to kill
+Orestes and thee by stoning. But Tyndarus was privily making up such sort
+of speeches for him who wished your death to speak. But another man stood
+up, and spoke in opposition to him, in form indeed not made to catch the
+eye; but a man endued with the qualities of a man, rarely polluting the
+city, and the circle of the forum; one who farmed his own land,[24] which
+class of persons[25] alone preserve the country, but prudent, and wishing
+the tenor of his conduct to be in unison with his words, uncorrupted, one
+that had conformed to a blameless mode of living; he proposed to crown
+Orestes the son of Agamemnon,[25a] who was willing to avenge his father by
+slaying a wicked and unholy woman, who took this out of the power of men,
+and would no one have been the cause of arming the hand for war, nor
+undertaking an expedition, leaving his home, if those who are left destroy
+what is intrusted to their charge in the house, disgracing their husbands'
+beds. And to right-minded men at least he appeared to speak well: and none
+spoke besides, but thy brother advanced and said, "O inhabitants of the
+land of Inachus, avenging you no less than my father, I slew my mother, for
+if the murder of men shall become licensed to women, ye no longer can
+escape dying, or ye must be slaves to your wives. But ye do the contrary to
+what ye ought to do. For now she that was false to the bed of my father is
+dead; but if ye do indeed slay me, the law has lost its force, and no man
+can escape dying, forasmuch as there will be no lack of this audacity."
+
+But he persuaded not the people, though appearing to speak well. But that
+villain, who spoke among the multitude, overcomes him, he that harangued
+for the killing of thy brother and thee. But scarcely did the wretched
+Orestes persuade them that he might not die by stoning; but he promised
+that this day he would quit his life by self-slaughter together with
+thee:--but Pylades is conducting him from the council, weeping: but his
+friends accompany him bewailing him, pitying him; but he is coming a sad
+spectacle to thee, and a wretched sight. But prepare the sword, or the
+noose for thy neck, for thou must die, but thy nobleness of birth hath
+profited thee nothing, nor the Pythian Phœbus who sits on the tripod, but
+hath destroyed thee.
+
+CHOR. O unhappy virgin! how art thou dumb, casting thy muffled countenance
+toward the ground, as though about to run into a strain of groans and
+lamentations!
+
+ELEC. I begin the lament, O land of Greece, digging my white nail into my
+cheek, sad bleeding woe, and dashing my head, which[26] the lovely[27]
+goddess of the manes beneath the earth has to her share. And let the
+Cyclopian land[28] howl, applying the steel to their head cropped of hair
+over the calamity of our house. This pity, this pity, proceeds for those
+who are about to die, who once were the princes of Greece. For it is gone,
+it is gone, the entire race of the children of Pelops has perished, and the
+happiness which once resided in these blest abodes. Envy from heaven has
+now seized it, and the harsh decree of blood in the state. Alas! alas! O
+race of mortals that endure for a day, full of tears, full of troubles,
+behold how contrary to expectation fate comes. But in the long lapse of
+time each different man receives by turns his different sufferings.[29] But
+the whole race of mortals is unstable and uncertain.
+
+Oh! could I go to that rock stretched from Olympus in its loftiness midst
+heaven and earth by golden chains, that mass of clay borne round with rapid
+revolutions, that in my plaints I might cry out to my ancient father
+Tantalus; who begat the progenitors of my family, who saw calamities, what
+time in the pursuing of steeds, Pelops in his car drawn by four horses
+perpetrated, as he drove, the murder of Myrtilus, _by casting him_ into the
+sea, hurling him down to the surge of the ocean, as he guided his car on
+the shore of the briny sea by Geræstus foaming with its white billows.
+Whence the baleful curse came on my house since, by the agency of Maia's
+son,[30] there appeared the pernicious, pernicious prodigy of the
+golden-fleeced lamb, a birth which took place among the flocks of the
+warlike Atreus. On which both Discord drove back the winged chariot of the
+sun, directing it from the path of heaven leading to the west toward Aurora
+borne on her single horse.[31] And Jupiter drove back the course of the
+seven moving Pleiads another way: and from that period[32] he sends deaths
+in succession to deaths, and "the feast of Thyestes," so named from
+Thyestes. And the bed of the Cretan Ærope deceitful in a deceitful marriage
+has come as a finishing stroke on me and my father, to the miserable
+destruction of our family.
+
+CHOR. But see, thy brother is advancing, condemned by the vote of death,
+and Pylades the most faithful of all, a man like a brother, supporting the
+enfeebled limbs of Orestes, walking by his side[33] with the foot of tender
+solicitude.
+
+ELECTRA, ORESTES, PYLADES, CHORUS.
+
+ELEC. Alas me! for I bewail thee, my brother, seeing thee before the tomb,
+and before the pyre of thy departed shade: alas me! again and again, how am
+I bereft of my senses, seeing with my eyes the very last sight of thee.
+
+ORES. Wilt thou not in silence, ceasing from womanish groans, make up thy
+mind to what is decreed? These things indeed are lamentable, but yet we
+must bear our present fate.
+
+ELEC. And how can I be silent? We wretched no longer are permitted to view
+this light of the God.
+
+ORES. Do not thou kill me; I, the unhappy, have died enough already under
+the hands of the Argives; but pass over our present ills.
+
+ELEC. O Orestes! oh wretched in thy youth, and thy fate, and thy untimely
+death, then oughtest thou to live, when thou art no more.
+
+ORES. Do not by the Gods throw cowardice around me, bringing the
+remembrance of my woes so as to cause tears.
+
+ELEC. We shall die; it is not possible not to groan our misfortunes; for
+the dear life is a cause of pity to all mortals.
+
+ORES. This is the day appointed for us! but we must either fit the
+suspended noose, or whet the sword with our hand.
+
+ELEC. Do thou then kill me, my brother; let none of the Argives kill me,
+putting a contumely on the offspring of Agamemnon.
+
+ORES. I have enough of thy mother's blood, but thee I will not slay; but
+die by thine own hand in whatever manner thou wilt.
+
+ELEC. These things shall be; I will not be deserted by thy sword;[34] but I
+wish to clasp my hands around thy neck.
+
+ORES. Thou enjoyest a vain gratification, if this be an enjoyment, to throw
+thy hands around those who are hard at death's door.
+
+ELEC. Oh thou most dear! oh thou that hast the desirable and most sweet
+name, and one soul with thy sister!
+
+ORES. Thou wilt melt me; and still I wish to answer thee in the endearment
+of encircling arms, for why am I any longer ashamed? O bosom of my sister,
+O dear object of my caresses, these embraces are allowed to us miserable
+beings instead of children and the bridal bed.
+
+ELEC. Alas! How can the same sword (if this request be lawful) kill us, and
+one tomb wrought of cedar receive us?
+
+ORES. This would be most sweet; but thou seest how destitute we are, in
+respect to being able to share our sepulture.
+
+ELEC. Did not Menelaus speak in behalf of thee, taking a decided part
+against thy death, the base man, the deserter of my father? [Note [G].]
+
+ORES. He showed it not even in his countenance, but keeping his hopes on
+the sceptre, he was cautious how he saved his friends. But let be, he will
+die acting in a manner nobly, and most worthily of Agamemnon. And I indeed
+will show my high descent to the city, striking home to my heart with the
+sword; but thee, on the other hand, it behooveth to act in concert with my
+bold attempts. But do thou, Pylades, be the umpire of our death, and well
+compose the bodies of us when dead, and bury us together, bearing us to our
+father's tomb. And farewell--but I am going to the deed, as thou seest.
+
+PYL. Hold. This one thing indeed first I bring in charge against thee--Dost
+thou think that I can wish to live when thou diest?[35]
+
+ORES. For how does it concern thee to die with me?
+
+PYL. Dost ask? But how does it to live without thy company?
+
+ORES. Thou didst not slay my mother, as I did, a wretch.
+
+PYL. With thee I did at least; I ought also to suffer these things in
+common with thee.
+
+ORES. Take thyself back to thy father, do not die with me. For thou indeed
+hast a city (but I no longer have), and the mansion of thy father, and a
+great harbor of wealth. But thou art frustrated in thy marriage with this
+unhappy virgin, whom I betrothed to thee, revering thy friendship.
+Nevertheless do thou, contracting other nuptials, be a blest father, but
+the connection between me and thee no longer subsists, But thou, O darling
+name of my converse, farewell, be happy, for this is not allowed me, but it
+is to thee; for we, the dead, are deprived of happiness.
+
+PYL. Surely thou art wide astray from my purposes. Nor may the fruitful
+plain receive my blood, nor the bright air, if ever I betraying thee,
+having freed myself, forsake thee; for I committed the slaughter with thee
+(I will not deny it), and I planned all things, for which now thou
+sufferest vengeance. Die then I must with thee and her together, for her,
+whose marriage I have courted, I consider as my wife; for what good excuse
+ever shall I give, going to the Delphian land to the citadel of the
+Phocians, I, who was present with you, your friend, before indeed you were
+unfortunate, but now, when you are unfortunate, am no longer thy friend? It
+is not possible--but these things are my care also. But since we are about
+to die, let us come to a common conference, how Menelaus may be involved in
+our calamity.
+
+ORES. O thou dearest man: for would I see this and die.
+
+PYL. Be persuaded then, but defer the slaughtering sword.
+
+ORES. I will defer, if any how I can avenge myself on my enemy.
+
+PYL. Be silent then, for I have but small confidence in women.
+
+ORES. Do not at all fear these, for they are friends that are present.
+
+PYL. Let us kill Helen, which will cause great grief to Menelaus.
+
+ORES. How? for the will is here, if it can be done with glory.
+
+PYL. Stabbing her; but she is lurking in thy house.
+
+ORES. Yes indeed, and is putting her seal on all my effects.
+
+PYL. But she shall seal no more, having Pluto for her bridegroom.
+
+ORES. And how can this be? for she has a train of barbarian attendants.
+
+PYL. Whom? for I would be afraid of no Phrygian.
+
+ORES. Such men as should preside over mirrors and scents.
+
+PYL. For has she brought hither her Trojan fineries?
+
+ORES. _Oh yes!_ so that Greece is but a cottage for her.
+
+PYL. A race of slaves is a mere nothing against a race that will not be
+slaves.
+
+ORES. In good truth, this if I could achieve, I shrink not from two deaths.
+
+PYL. But neither do I indeed, if I could revenge thee at least.
+
+ORES. Disclose thy purpose, and go through it as thou sayest.
+
+PYL. We will enter then the house, as men about to die.
+
+ORES. Thus far I comprehend, but the rest I do not comprehend.
+
+PYL. We will make our lamentation to her of the things we suffer.
+
+ORES. So that she shall weep, though joyed within her heart.
+
+PYL. And the same things will be for us to do afterward, which she does
+then.
+
+ORES. Then how shall we finish the contest?
+
+PYL. We will wear our swords concealed beneath our robes.
+
+ORES. But what slaughter can there be before her attendants?
+
+PYL. We will bolt them out, scattered in different parts of the house.
+
+ORES. And him that is not silent we must kill.
+
+PYL. Then the circumstances of the moment will point out what steps to
+take.
+
+ORES. To kill Helen, I understand the sign.
+
+PYL. Thou seest: but hear on what honorable principles I meditate it. For,
+if we draw our sword on a more modest woman, the murder will blot our names
+with infamy. But in the present instance, she shall suffer vengeance for
+the whole of Greece, whose fathers she slew, and made the brides bereaved
+of their spouses; there shall be a shout, and they will kindle up fire to
+the Gods, praying for many blessings to fall to thee and me, inasmuch as we
+shed the blood of a wicked woman. But thou shalt not be called the
+matricide, when thou hast slain her, but dropping this name thou shalt
+arrive at better things, being styled the slayer of the havoc-dealing
+Helen. It never, never were right that Menelaus should be prosperous, and
+that thy father, and thou, and thy sister should die, and thy mother; (this
+I forbear, for it is not decorous to mention;) and that he should seize thy
+house, having recovered his bride by the means of Agamemnon's valor. For
+may I live no longer, if I draw not my black sword upon her. But if then we
+do not compass the murder of Helen, having fired the palace we will die,
+for we shall have glory, succeeding in one of these two things, nobly
+dying, or nobly rescued.
+
+CHOR. The daughter of Tyndarus is an object of detestation to all women,
+being one that has given rise to scandal against the sex.
+
+ORES. Alas! There is no better thing than a real friend, not riches, not
+kingdoms; but the popular applause becomes a thing of no account to receive
+in exchange for a generous friend. For thou contrivedst the destruction
+that befell Ægisthus, and wast close to me in my dangers. But now again
+thou givest me to revenge me on mine enemies, and art not out of the
+way--but I will leave off praising thee, since there is some burden even in
+this "to be praised to excess." But I altogether in a state of death, wish
+to do something to my foes and die, that I may in turn destroy those who
+betrayed me, and those may groan who also made me unhappy. I am the son of
+Agamemnon, who ruled over Greece by general consent; no tyrant, but yet he
+had the power as it were of a God, whom I will not disgrace, suffering a
+slavish death, but breathe out my soul in freedom, but on Menelaus will I
+revenge me. For if we could gain this one thing, we should be prosperous,
+if from any chance safety should come unhoped for on the slayers _then_,
+not the slain: this I pray for. For what I wish is sweet to delight the
+mind without fear of cost, though with but fleeting words uttered through
+the mouth.
+
+ELEC. I, O brother, think that this very thing brings safety to thee, and
+thy friend, and in the third place to me.
+
+ORES. Thou meanest the providence of the Gods: but where is this? for I
+know that there is understanding in thy mind.
+
+ELEC. Hear me then, and thou too give thy attention.
+
+ORES. Speak, since the existing prospect of good affords some pleasure.
+
+ELEC. Art thou acquainted with the daughter of Helen? Thou knowest her of
+whom I ask.
+
+ORES. I know her, Hermione, whom my mother brought up.
+
+ELEC. She is gone to Clytæmnestra's tomb.
+
+ORES. For what purpose? what hope dost thou suggest?
+
+ELEC. To pour libations on the tomb in behalf of her mother.
+
+ORES. And what is this, thou hast told me of, that regards our safety?
+
+ELEC. Seize her as a pledge as she is coming back.
+
+ORES. What remedy for the three friends is this thou sayest?
+
+ELEC. When Helen is dead, if Menelaus does any harm to thee or Pylades, or
+me (for this firm of friendship is all one), say that thou wilt kill
+Hermione; but thou oughtest to draw thy sword, and hold it to the neck of
+the virgin. And if indeed Menelaus save thee, anxious that the virgin may
+not die; when he sees Helen's corse weltering in blood, give back the
+virgin for her father to enjoy; but should he, not governing his angry
+temper, slay thee, do thou also plunge the sword into the virgin's neck,
+and I think that he, though at first he come to us very big, will after a
+season soften his heart; for neither is he brave nor valiant: this is the
+fortress of our safety that I have; my arguments on the subject have been
+spoken.
+
+ORES. O thou that hast indeed the mind of a man, but a form among women
+beautiful, to what a degree art thou more worthy of life than death!
+Pylades, wilt thou miserably be disappointed of such a woman, or dwelling
+with her obtain this happy marriage?
+
+PYL. For would it could be so! and she could come to the city of the
+Phocians meeting with her deserts in splendid nuptials!
+
+ORES. But when will Hermione come to the house? Since for the rest thou
+saidst most admirably, if we could succeed in taking the whelp of the
+impious father.
+
+ELEC. Even now I guess that she must be near the house, for _with this
+supposition_ the space itself of the time coincides.
+
+ORES. It is well; do thou therefore, my sister Electra, waiting before the
+house, meet the arrival of the virgin. And watch, lest any one, either some
+ally, or the brother of my father, should be beforehand with us coming to
+the palace: and make some noise toward the house, either knocking at the
+doors, or sending thy voice within. But let us, O Pylades (for thou
+undertakest this labor with me), entering in, arm our hands with the sword
+to one last attempt. O my father, that inhabitest the realms of gloomy
+night, Orestes thy son invokes thee to come a succor to thy suppliants; for
+on thy account I wretched suffer unjustly, and am betrayed by thy brother,
+myself having acted justly: whose wife I wish to take and destroy; but be
+thou our accomplice in this affair.
+
+ELEC. O father, come then, if beneath the earth thou hearest thy children
+calling, who die for thee.
+
+PYL. O thou relation[36] of my father, give ear, O Agamemnon, to my prayers
+also, preserve thy children.
+
+ORES. I slew my mother.
+
+PYL. But I directed the sword.
+
+ELEC. But I at least incited you, and freed you from delay.
+
+ORES. Succoring thee, my father.
+
+ELEC. Neither did I forsake thee.
+
+PYL. Wilt thou not therefore, hearing these things that are brought against
+thee,[37] defend thy children?
+
+ORES. I pour libations on thee with my tears.
+
+ELEC. And I with lamentations.
+
+PYL. Cease, and let us haste forth to the work, for if prayers penetrate
+under the earth, he hears; but, O Jove our ancestor, and thou revered deity
+of justice, grant us to succeed, him, and myself, and this virgin, for over
+us three friends one hazard, one cause impends, either for all to live, or
+all to die!
+
+ELECTRA, CHORUS.
+
+ELEC. O dear Mycenian virgins, who have the first place at the Pelasgian
+seat of the Argives;--
+
+CHOR. What voice art thou uttering, my respected mistress? for this
+appellation awaits thee in the city of the Danaids.
+
+ELEC. Arrange yourselves, some of you in this beaten way, and some there,
+in that other path, to guard the house.
+
+CHOR. But on what account dost thou command this, tell me, my friend.
+
+ELEC. Fear possesses me, lest any one being in the palace, on account of
+this murderous deed, should contrive evils on evils.
+
+SEMICHOR. Go, let us hasten, I indeed will guard this path, that tends
+toward where the sun flings his first rays.
+
+SEMICHOR. And I indeed this, which leads toward the west.
+
+ELEC. Now turn the glances of your eyes around in every position, now here,
+now there, then take some other view.
+
+CHOR. We are, as thou commandest.
+
+ELEC. Now roll your eyelids over your pupils, glance them every way through
+your ringlets.
+
+SEMICHOR. Is this any one here appearing in the path?--Who is this rustic
+that is standing about thy palace?
+
+ELEC. We are undone then, my friends; he will immediately show to the enemy
+the lurking beasts of prey armed with their swords.
+
+SEMICHOR. Be not afraid, the path is clear, which thou thinkest not.
+
+ELEC. But what?--does all with you remain secure? Give me some good report,
+whether the space before the hall be empty?
+
+SEMICHOR. All here at least is well, but look to thy province, for no one
+of the Danaids is approaching toward us.
+
+SEMICHOR. Thy report agrees with mine, for neither is there a disturbance
+here.
+
+ELEC. Come now,--I will listen at the door: why do ye delay, ye that are
+within, to sacrifice the victim, now that ye are in quiet?--They hear not:
+Alas me! wretched in misery! Are the swords then struck dumb at her beauty?
+Perhaps some Argive in arms rushing in with the foot of succor will
+approach the palace.--Now watch more carefully; it is no contest that
+admits delay; but turn _your eyes_ some this way, and some that.
+
+CHOR. I turn each different way, looking about on all sides.
+
+HELEN. (_within_) Oh! Pelasgian Argos! I am miserably slain!
+
+ELEC. Heard ye? The men are employing their head in the murder.--It is the
+shriek of Helen, as I may conjecture.
+
+SEMICHOR. O eternal might of Jove, come to assist my friends in every way.
+
+HEL. Menelaus, I die! But thou art at hand, and dost not help me!
+
+ELEC. Kill, strike, slay, plunging with your hands the two double-edged
+swords into the deserter of her father, the deserter of her husband, who
+destroyed numbers of the Grecians perishing by the spear at the river,
+whence tears fell into conjunction with tears, fell on account of the iron
+weapons around the whirlpools of Scamander.
+
+CHOR. Be still, be still: I heard the sound of some one coming along the
+path around the palace.
+
+ELEC. O most dear women, in the midst of the slaughter behold Hermione is
+present; let us cease from our clamor, for she comes about to fall into the
+meshes of our toils. A goodly prey will she be, if she be taken. Again to
+your stations with a calm countenance, and with a color that shall not give
+evidence of what has been done. I too will preserve a pensive cast of
+countenance, as though perfectly unacquainted with what has happened.
+
+HERMIONE, ELECTRA, CHORUS.
+
+ELEC. O virgin, art thou come from crowning Clytæmnestra's tomb, and
+pouring libations to her manes?
+
+HERM. I am come, having obtained her good services; but some terror has
+come upon me, on account of the noise in the palace, which I hear being a
+far distance off the house.
+
+ELEC. But why? There have happened to us things worthy of groans.
+
+HERM. Speak good words; but what news dost thou tell me?
+
+ELEC. It has been decreed by this land, that Orestes and I die.
+
+HERM. No, I hope not so; you, who are my relations.
+
+ELEC. It is fixed; but we stand under the yoke of necessity.
+
+HERM. Was the noise then in the house on this account?
+
+ELEC. For falling down a suppliant at the knees of Helen, he cries out--
+
+HERM. Who? for I know no more, except thou tellest me.
+
+ELEC. The wretched Orestes, that he may not die, and in behalf of me.
+
+HERM. For a just reason then the house lamented.
+
+ELEC. For on what other account should one rather cry out? But come, and
+join in supplication with thy friends, falling down before thy mother, the
+supremely blest, that Menelaus will not see us perish. But, O thou, that
+receivedst thy education at the hands of my mother, pity us, and alleviate
+our sufferings. Come hither to the trial; but I will lead the way, for thou
+alone hast the ends of our preservation.
+
+HERM. Behold I direct my footstep toward the house. Be preserved, as far as
+lies in me.
+
+ELEC. O ye in the house, my dear warriors, will ye not take your prey?
+
+HERM. Alas me! who are these I see?
+
+ORES. (_advancing_) Thou must be silent; for thou art come to preserve us,
+not thyself.
+
+ELEC. Hold her, hold her; and pointing a sword to her neck be silent, that
+Menelaus may know, that having found men, not Phrygian cowards, he has
+treated them in a manner he should treat cowards. What ho! what ho! my
+friends, make a noise, a noise, and shout before the palace, that the
+murder that is perpetrated spread not a dread alarm among the Argives, so
+that they run to assist to the king's palace, before I plainly see the
+slaughtered Helen lying weltering in her blood within the house, or else we
+hear the report from some of her attendants. For part of the havoc I know,
+and part not accurately.
+
+CHOR. With justice came the vengeance of the Gods on Helen. For she filled
+the whole of Greece with tears on account of the ruthless, ruthless Idean
+Paris, who brought the Grecian state to Ilium. But be silent, for the bolts
+of the royal mansion resound, for some one of the Phrygians comes forth,
+from whom we shall hear of the affairs within the house, in what state they
+are.
+
+PHRYGIAN, CHORUS.
+
+PHRY. I have escaped from death by the Argive sword in these barbaric
+slippers, _climbing_ over the cedar beams of the bed and the Doric
+triglyphs, by the flight of a barbarian.[38] Thou art gone, thou art gone,
+O my country, my country! Alas me! whither can I escape, O strangers,
+flying through the hoary air, or the sea, which the Ocean, with head in
+shape like a bull's, rolling with his arms encircles the earth?
+
+CHOR. But what is the matter, O attendant of Helen, thou man of Ida?
+
+PHRY. O Ilion, Ilion! alas me! O thou fertile Phrygian city, thou sacred
+mount of Ida, how do I lament for thee destroyed, a sad,[39] sad strain for
+my barbaric voice, on account of that form of the hapless, hapless Helen,
+born from a bird, the offspring of the beauteous Leda in shape of a swan,
+the fiend of the splendid Apollonian Pergamus! Alas! Oh! lamentations!
+lamentations! O wretched Dardania, warlike school[40] of Ganymede, the
+companion of Jove!
+
+CHOR. Relate to us clearly each circumstance that happened in the house,
+for I do not understand your former account, but merely conjecture.
+
+PHRY. Αιλινον, αιλινον, the Barbarians begin the song of death in the
+language of Asia, Alas! alas! when the blood of kings has been poured on
+the earth by the ruthless swords of death. There came to the palace (that I
+may relate each circumstance) two Grecians, lions, of the one the leader of
+the Grecian host was said to be the father, the other the son of Strophius,
+a man of dark design; such was Ulysses, secretly treacherous, but faithful
+to his friends, bold in battle, skilled in war, cruel as the dragon. May he
+perish for his deep concealed design, the worker of evil! But they having
+advanced within her chamber, whom the archer Paris had as his wife, their
+eyes bathed with tears, they sat down in humble mien, one on each side of
+her, on the right and on the left, armed with swords. And around her knees
+did they both fling their suppliant hands, around the knees of Helen did
+they fling them. But the Phrygian attendants sprung up, and fled in
+amazement: and one called out to another in terror, _See_, lest there be
+treachery. To some indeed there appeared no danger; but to others the
+dragon stained with his mother's blood appeared bent to infold in his
+closest toils the daughter of Tyndarus.
+
+CHOR. But where wert thou then, or hadst thou long before fled through
+fear?
+
+PHRY. After the Phrygian fashion I chanced with the close circle of
+feathers to be fanning the gale, _that sported_ in the ringlets of Helen,
+before her cheek, after the barbaric fashion. But she was winding with her
+fingers the flax round the distaff, but what she had spun she let fall on
+the ground, desirous of making from the Phrygian spoils a robe of purple as
+an ornament for the tomb, a gift to Clytæmnestra. But Orestes entreated the
+Spartan girl; "O daughter of Jove, here, place thy footstep on the ground,
+rising from thy seat, come to the place of our ancestor Pelops, the ancient
+altar, that thou mayest hear my words." And he leads her, but she followed,
+not dreaming of what was about to happen. But his accomplice, the wicked
+Phocian, attended to other points. "Will ye not depart from out of the way,
+but are the Phrygians always vile?" and he bolted us out scattered in
+different parts of the house, some in the stables of the horses, and some
+in the outhouses, and some here and there, dispersing them some one way,
+some another, afar from their mistress.
+
+CHOR. What calamity took place after this?
+
+PHRY. O powerful, powerful Idean mother, alas! alas! the murderous
+sufferings, and the lawless evils, which I saw, I saw in the royal palace!
+From beneath their purple robes concealed having their drawn swords in
+their hands, they turned each his eye on either side, lest any one might
+chance to be present. But like mountain boars standing over against the
+lady, they say, "Thou shalt die, thou shalt die! thy vile husband kills
+thee, having given up the offspring of his brother to die at Argos." But
+she shrieked out, Ah me! ah me! and throwing her white arm on her breast
+inflicted on her head miserable blows, and, her feet turned to flight, she
+stepped, she stepped with her golden sandals; but Orestes thrusting his
+fingers into her hair, outstripping her flight,[41] bending back her neck
+over his left shoulder, was about to plunge the black sword into her
+throat.
+
+CHOR. Where then were the Phrygians, who dwell under the same roof, to
+assist her?
+
+PHRY. With a clamor having burst by means of bars the doors and cells where
+we were waiting, we run to her assistance, each to different parts of the
+house, one bringing stones, another spears, another having a long-handled
+sword in his hand. But Pylades came against us, impetuous, like as the
+Phrygian Hector or Ajax in his triple-crested helmet, whom I saw, I saw at
+the gates of Priam: but we clashed together the points of our swords: then
+indeed, then did the Phrygians give clear proof how inferior we were in the
+force of Mars to the spear of Greece. One indeed turning away, a fugitive,
+but another wounded, and another deprecating the death that threatened him:
+but under favor of the darkness we fled: and the corses fell, but some
+staggered, and some lay prostrate. But the wretched Hermione came to the
+house at the time when her murdered mother fell to the ground, that unhappy
+woman that gave her birth. And running upon her as Bacchanals without their
+thyrsus, as a heifer in the mountains they bore her away in their hands,
+and again eagerly rushed upon the daughter of Jove to slay her. But she
+vanished altogether from the chamber through the palace. O Jupiter and O
+earth, and light, and darkness! or by her enchantments, or by the art of
+magic, or by the stealth of the Gods. But of what followed I know no
+farther, for I sped in stealth my foot from the palace. But Menelaus having
+endured many, many severe toils, has received back from Troy the violated
+rites of Helen to no purpose.
+
+CHOR. And see something strange succeeds to these strange things, for I see
+Orestes with his sword drawn walking before the palace with agitated step,
+
+ORESTES, PHRYGIAN, CHORUS.
+
+ORES. Where is he that fled from my sword out of the palace?
+
+PHRY. I supplicate thee, O king, falling prostrate before thee after the
+barbaric fashion.
+
+ORES. The case before us is not in Ilium, but the Argive land.
+
+PHRY. In every region to live is sweeter than to die, in the opinion of the
+wise.
+
+ORES. Didst thou not raise a cry for Menelaus to come with succor?
+
+PHRY. I indeed am present on purpose to assist thee; for thou art the more
+worthy.
+
+ORES. Perished then the daughter of Tyndarus justly?
+
+PHRY. Most justly, even had she three lives for vengeance.
+
+ORES. With thy tongue dost thou flatter, not having these sentiments
+within?
+
+PHRY. For ought she not? She who utterly destroyed Greece as well as the
+Phrygians themselves?
+
+ORES. Swear, I will kill thee else, that thou art not speaking to curry
+favor with me.
+
+PHRY. By my life have I sworn, which I should wish to hold a sacred oath.
+
+ORES. Was the steel thus dreadful to all the Phrygians at Troy also?
+
+PHRY. Remove thy sword, for being so near me it gleams horrid slaughter.
+
+ORES. Art thou afraid, lest thou shouldest become a rock, as though looking
+on the Gorgon?
+
+PHRY. Lest I should become a corse, but I know not of the Gorgon's head.
+
+ORES. Slave as thou art, dost thou fear death, which will rid thee from thy
+woes?
+
+PHRY. Every one, although a man be a slave, rejoices to behold the light.
+
+ORES. Thou sayest well; thy understanding; saves thee, but go into the
+house.
+
+PHRY. Thou wilt not kill me then?
+
+ORES. Thou art pardoned.
+
+PHRY. This is good word thou hast spoken.
+
+ORES. Yet we may change our measures.
+
+PHRY. But this thou sayest not well.
+
+ORES. Thou art a fool, if thou thinkest I could endure to defile me by
+smiting thy neck, for neither art thou a woman, nor oughtest thou to be
+ranked among men. But that thou mightest not raise a clamor came I forth
+out of the house: for Argos, when it has heard a noise, is soon roused, but
+we have no dread in meeting Menelaus, as far as swords go; but let him come
+exulting with his golden ringlets flowing over his shoulders, for if he
+collects the Argives, and brings them against the palace seeking revenge
+for the death of Helen, and is not willing to let me be in safety, and my
+sister, and Pylades my accomplice in this affair, he shall see two corses,
+both the virgin and his wife.
+
+CHORUS.
+
+Alas! alas! O fate, the house of the Atridæ again falls into another,
+another fearful struggle.
+
+SEMICHOR. What shall we do? shall we carry these tidings to the city, or
+shall we keep in silence?
+
+SEMICHOR. This is the safer plan, my friends.
+
+SEMICHOR. Behold before the house, behold this smoke leaping aloft in the
+air portends _something_.
+
+SEMICHOR. They are lighting the torches, as about to burn down the mansion
+of Tantalus, nor do they forbear from murder.
+
+CHOR. The God rules the events that happen to mortals, whichsoever way he
+wills. But some vast power by the instigation of the Furies has struck, has
+struck these palaces to the shedding of blood on account of the fall of
+Myrtilus from the chariot.
+
+But lo! I see Menelaus also here approaching the house with a quick step,
+having by some means or other perceived the calamity which now is present.
+Will ye not anticipate him by closing the gates with bolts, O ye children
+of Atreus, who are in the palace? A man in prosperity is a terrible thing
+to those in adversity, as now them art in misery, Orestes.
+
+MENELAUS _below_, ORESTES, PYLADES, ELECTRA, HERMIONE
+_above_, CHORUS.
+
+MEN. I am present, having heard the horrid and atrocious deeds of the two
+lions, for I call them not men. For I have now heard of my wife, that she
+died not, but vanished away, this that I heard was empty report, which one
+deceived by fright related; but these are the artifices of the matricide,
+and much derision. Open some one the door, my attendants I command to burst
+open these gates here, that my child at least we may deliver from the hand
+of these blood-polluted men, and may receive my unhappy, my miserable lady,
+with whom those murderers of my wife must die by my hand.
+
+ORES. What ho there! Touch not these gates with thine hands: to Menelaus I
+speak, that thou towerest in thy boldness, or with this pinnacle will I
+crush thy head, having rent down the ancient battlement, the labor of the
+builders. But the gates are made fast with bolts, which will hinder thee
+from thy purpose of bringing aid, so that thou canst not pass within the
+palace.
+
+MEN. Ha! what is this? I see the blaze of torches, and these stationed on
+the battlements, on the height of the palace, and the sword placed over the
+neck of my daughter to guard her.
+
+ORES. Whether is it thy will to question, or to hear me?
+
+MEN. I wish neither, but it is necessary, as it seems, to hear thee.
+
+ORES. I am about to slay thy daughter if thou wish to know.
+
+MEN. Having slain Helen, dost thou perpetrate murder on murder?
+
+ORES. For would I had gained my purpose not being deluded, as I was, by the
+Gods.
+
+MEN. Thou hast slain her, and deniest it, and speakest these things to
+insult me.
+
+ORES. It is a denial that gives me pain, for would that--
+
+MEN. Thou had done what deed? for thou callest forth alarm.
+
+ORES. I had hurled to hell the fury of Greece.
+
+MEN. Give back the body of my wife, that I may bury her in a tomb.
+
+ORES. Ask her of the Gods; but I will slay thy daughter.
+
+MEN. The matricide contrives murder on murder.
+
+ORES. The avenger of his father, whom thou gavest up to die.
+
+MEN. Was not the blood of thy mother formerly shed sufficient for thee?
+
+ORES. I should not be weary of slaying wicked women, were I to slay them
+forever.
+
+MEN. Art thou also, Pylades, a partaker in this murder?
+
+ORES. By his silence he assents, but if I speak, it will be sufficient.
+
+MEN. But not with impunity, unless indeed thou fliest on wings.
+
+ORES. We will not fly, but will set fire to the palace?
+
+MEN. What! wilt thou destroy thy father's mansion?
+
+ORES. Yes, that thou mayest not possess it, will I, having stabbed this
+virgin here over the flames.
+
+MEN. Slay her; since having slain thou shalt at least give me satisfaction
+for these deeds.
+
+ORES. It shall be so then.
+
+MEN. Alas! on no account do this!
+
+ORES. Be silent then; but bear to suffer evil justly.
+
+MEN. What! is it just for thee to live?
+
+ORES. Yes, and to rule over the land.
+
+MEN. What land!
+
+ORES. Here, in Pelasgian Argos.
+
+MEN. Well wouldst thou touch the sacred lavers!
+
+ORES. And pray why not?
+
+MEN. And wouldst slaughter the victim before the battle!
+
+ORES. And thou wouldst most righteously.
+
+MEN. Yes, for I am pure as to my hands.
+
+ORES. But not thy heart.
+
+MEN. Who would speak to thee?
+
+ORES. Whoever loves his father.
+
+MEN. And whoever reveres his mother.
+
+ORES. --Is happy.
+
+MEN. Not thou at least.
+
+ORES. For wicked women please me not.
+
+MEN. Take away the sword from my daughter.
+
+ORES. Thou art false in thy expectations.
+
+MEN. But wilt thou kill my daughter?
+
+ORES. Thou art no longer false.
+
+MEN. Alas me! what shall I do?
+
+ORES. Go to the Argives, and persuade them.
+
+MEN. With what persuasion?
+
+ORES. Beseech the city that we may not die.[41a]
+
+MEN. Otherwise ye will slay my daughter?
+
+ORES. The thing is so.
+
+MEN. O wretched Helen!--
+
+ORES. And am I not wretched?
+
+MEN. I brought thee hither from the Trojans to be a victim.
+
+ORES. For would this were so!
+
+MEN. Having endured ten thousand toils.
+
+ORES. Except on my account.
+
+MEN. I have met with dreadful treatment.
+
+ORES. For then, _when thou oughtest_, thou wert of no assistance.
+
+MEN. Thou hast me.
+
+ORES. Thou at least hast caught thyself. But, ho there! set fire to the
+palace, Electra, from beneath: and thou, Pylades, the most true of my
+friends, light up these battlements of the walls.
+
+MEN. O land of the Danai, and inhabitants of warlike Argos, will ye not, ho
+there! come in arms to my succor? For this man here, having perpetrated the
+shocking murder of his mother, brings destruction on your whole city, that
+he may live.
+
+APOLLO.
+
+Menelaus, cease from thy irritated state of mind; I Phœbus the son of
+Latona, in thy presence, am addressing thee. Thou too, Orestes, who
+standest over that damsel with thy sword drawn, that thou mayest know what
+commands I bring with me. Helen indeed, whom thou minded to destroy,
+working Menelaus to anger, didst fail of thy purpose, she is here, whom ye
+see wrapt in the bosom of the sky, preserved, and not slain by thy hands.
+Her I preserved, and snatched from thy sword, commanded by my father Jove.
+For being the daughter of Jove, it is right that she should live immortal.
+And she shall have her seat by Castor and Pollux in the bosom of the sky,
+the guardian of mariners. But take to thyself another bride, and lead her
+home, since for the beauty of this woman the Gods brought together the
+Greeks and Trojans, and caused deaths, that they might draw from off the
+earth the pride of mortals, who had become an infinite multitude. Thus is
+it with regard to Helen; but thee, on the other hand, Orestes, it
+behooveth, having passed beyond the boundaries of this land, to inhabit the
+Parrhasian plain during the revolution of a year, and it shall be called by
+a name after thy flight, so that the Azanes and Arcadians shall call it
+Oresteum: and thence having departed to the city of the Athenians, undergo
+the charge of shedding thy mother's blood laid by the three Furies. But the
+Gods the arbiters of the cause shall pass on thee most sacredly their
+decree on the hill of Mars, in which it behooveth thee to be victorious.
+But Hermione, to whose neck thou art holding the sword, it is destined for
+thee, Orestes, to wed, but Neoptolemus, who thinks to marry her, shall
+never marry her. For it is fated to him to die by the Delphic sword, as he
+is demanding of me satisfaction for his father Achilles. But to Pylades
+give thy sister's hand, as thou didst formerly agree, but a happy life now
+coming on awaits him. But, O Menelaus, suffer Orestes to reign over Argos.
+But depart and rule over the Spartan land, having it as thy wife's dowry,
+who exposing thee to numberless evils always was bringing thee to this. But
+what regards the city I will make all right for him, I, who compelled him
+to slay his mother.
+
+ORES. O Loxian prophet, thou wert not then a false prophet in thine
+oracles, but a true one. And yet a fear comes upon me, that having heard
+one of the Furies, I might think that I have been hearing thy voice. But it
+is well fulfilled, and I will obey thy words. Behold I let go Hermione from
+slaughter, and approve her alliance, whenever her father shall give her.
+
+MEN. O Helen, daughter of Jove, hail! but I bless thee inhabiting the happy
+mansions of the Gods. But to thee, Orestes, do I betroth my daughter at
+Phœbus's commands, but illustrious thyself marrying from an illustrious
+family, be happy, both thou and I who give her.
+
+APOL. Now depart each of you whither we have appointed, and dissolve your
+quarrels.
+
+MEN. It is our duty to obey.
+
+ORES. I too entertain the same sentiments, and I receive with friendship
+thee in thy sufferings, O Menelaus, and thy oracles, O Apollo.
+
+APOL. Go now, each his own way, honoring the most excellent goddess Peace;
+but I will convey Helen to the mansions of Jove, passing through the pole
+of the shining stars, where sitting by Juno, and Hercules's Hebe, a
+goddess, she shall ever be honored by mortals with libations, in
+conjunction with the Tyndaridæ, the sons of Jove, presiding over the sea to
+the benefit of mariners.
+
+CHOR. O greatly glorious Victory, mayest thou uphold my life, and cease not
+from crowning me!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+NOTES ON ORESTES
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+[1] στεμματα, ερια, _Schol._ "eo quod colum cingant seu coronant," Scapula
+explains it.
+
+[2] "_Then_" is not to be considered as signifying point of time, but it is
+meant to express ουν, _continuativam_. See Hoogeveen de Particula ουν,
+Sect. ii. § 6.
+
+[3] The original Greek phrase was ελπιδος λεπτης, which Euripides has
+changed to ασθενους ‛ρωμης, though the other had equally suited the metre.
+But Euripides is fond of slight alterations in proverbs. PORSON.
+
+[4] δους--δυναται δε και αποδους. SCHOL.
+
+[5] Perhaps this interpretation of χρονιον is better than "slow," for the
+considerate Electra would hardly go to remind her brother of his
+infirmities.
+
+[6] Ποτνιαδες. The Furies have this epithet from Potnia, a town in Bœotia,
+where Glaucus's horses, having eaten of a certain herb and becoming mad,
+tore their own master in pieces. SCHOL.
+
+[6a] Note [D].
+
+[6b] Dindorf would omit this verse.
+
+[7] ‛αλιτυπων, ‛αλιεων, ‛οι ταις κωπαις τυπτουσι την θαλασσαν. SCHOL.
+
+[8] αφυλλου. Alluding to the branch, which the ancients used to hold in
+token of supplication.
+
+[9] "κατα την νυκτα πεπονθα τηρων την αναιρεσιν, και την αναληψιν των
+οστεων, τουτεστιν, ‛ινα μη τις αφεληται ταυτα." PARAPH. Heath translates
+it, _watchfully observing, till her bones were collected._
+
+[10] The old reading was απαιδευτα. The meaning of the present reading
+seems to be, "Yes, they are awful 'tis true, but still however you need not
+be so very scrupulous about naming them."
+
+[11] αναφορα was a legal term, and signified the line of defense adopted by
+the accused, when he transferred the charge brought against himself to some
+other person.--See Demosthenes in Timocr.
+
+[12] Œax was Palamede's brother.
+
+[13] And therefore we are not to impeach the _man_. Some would have δουλον
+to bear the sense of δουλοποιον, enslaves, and therefore can not be
+avoided.
+
+[14] εχω for ενοχος ειμι.
+
+[15] Ζηλω, το μακαριζω. ενταυθα δε αντι του επαινω. SCHOL.
+
+[16] Conf. Ter. Eun. Act. v. Sc. 2.
+
+                  Non dedignum, Chærea,
+  Fecisti; nam si ego digna hac contumelia
+  Sum maxume, at tu indignus, qui faceres, tamen.
+
+[16a] Note [E].
+
+[17] Of this passage the Scholiast gives two interpretations; either it may
+mean μετα δακρυων και γοων ειπον: or, ειπον ταυτα εις δακρυα και γοους, και
+ξυμφορας, ηγουν ‛ινα μη τυχω, τουτων: τευξομαι δε, ει πετρωθηναι με εασηις.
+
+[18] _"Beyond any woman,"_ γυνη μια, this is a mode of expression
+frequently met with in the Attic writers, especially in Xenophon.
+
+[19] επι τωι φονωι, τουτεστι δια τον φονον, ‛ον ειργασαμεθα. PARAPH.
+
+[20] Thyestes and Atreus, having a dispute about their father Pelops's
+kingdom, agreed, that whichever should discover the first prodigy should
+have possession of the throne. There appeared in Atreus's flock a golden
+lamb, which, however, Ærope his wife secretly had conveyed to Thyestes to
+show before the judges. Atreus afterward invited Thyestes to a feast, and
+served up before him Aglaiis, Orchomenus, and Caleus, three sons he had by
+his intrigues with Ærope.
+
+[21] Alluding to the murder of Agamemnon by Clytæmnestra. This is the
+interpretation and explanation of the Scholiast; but it is perhaps better
+translated, "_but on the other hand to play the coward is great impiety,
+and the error of cowardly-minded men_;" the chorus meaning, that this might
+have been said of Orestes, had he not avenged his father.
+
+[22] That is, _blamed him_. So St. Paul, 1 Cor. xi. 21, επαινεσω ‛υμας εν
+τουτοι; ουκ επαινω. Ter. And. Act. II. Sc. 6. "Et, quod dicendum hic siet,
+Tu quoque perparce nimium, non laudo."
+
+[23] An Argive as far as he was born there, and therefore ηναγκασμενος; not
+an Argive, inasmuch as his parents were not of that state. This is supposed
+to allude to Cleophon. SCHOL. See Dindorf.
+
+[24] This is the interpretation of one Scholiast; another explains it
+οικειαις χερσιν εργαζομενος. Grotius translates it _agricola_.
+
+[25] The same construction occurs in the Supplicants, 870. φιλοις δ' αληθης
+ην φιλος, παρουσι τε και μη παρουσιν: ‛ων (of which sort of men) αριθμος ου
+πολυς. PORSON.
+
+[25a] See Note [F].
+
+[26] Which, κτυπον namely: ονυχα and κτυπον are each governed by τιθεισα;
+but it is not easy to find a single verb in English that should be
+transitive to both these substantives.
+
+[27] καλλιπαις, _lovely_, not lovely in her children: so in Phœn. 1634.
+ευτεκνος ξυνωρις.
+
+[28] Argos, so called from the Cyclopes, a nation of Thrace, who, being
+called in as allies, afterward settled here.
+
+[29] ‛ετεροις may perhaps seem to make the construction plainer than
+‛ετερος; but Porson has received the latter into his text on account of the
+metre.
+
+[30] Myrtilus was the son of Mercury, who therefore sowed this dissension
+between the two brothers in revenge for his death by Pelops. See note at
+line 802.
+
+[31] Some would understand by μονοπωλον not that Aurora was borne on one
+horse, but that this alteration in the course of nature took place for one
+day. SCHOL.
+
+[32] και απο τωνδε, ητοι μετα ταυτα. PARAPH.
+
+[33] παρασειρος is used to signify a loose horse tied abreast of another in
+the shaft, and is technically termed "the outrigger." The metaphorical
+application of it to Pylades, who voluntarily attached himself to the
+misfortunes of his friend, is extremely beautiful.
+
+[34] Or, _"I will not be at all behind thy slaughter."_
+
+[35] ευ in this passage _interrogat oblique_, see Hoogeveen, xvi. § 1. 15.
+
+[36] Strophius, the father of Pylades, married Anaxibia, Agamemnon's
+sister.
+
+[37] ονειδη, των ευεργεσιων τας ‛υπομνησεις. SCHOL. Ter. And. i. 1. "isthæc
+commemoratio quasi exprobratio est immemoris benefici."
+
+[38] i.e. being a barbarian, and therefore not knowing whither to go.
+
+[39] ‛αρματειον, such a strain as that raised over Hector, ‛ελκομενω, δια
+του ‛αρματος. See two other explanations in the Scholia.
+
+[40] ‛ιπποσυνα, ‛ητις ‛υπηρχες ‛ιππηλασια του Γ. BRUNCK.
+
+[41] Literally, _her Mycenian slipper_.
+
+[41a] Read θανειν with Pors. Dind.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+ADDITIONAL NOTES.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+[A] But Dindorf reads κτυπου η ηγαγετ'. ουχι; interrogatively, thus: "Ye
+were making a noise. Will ye not ... enable him," etc.?
+
+[B] Dindorf would continue this verse to Orestes.
+
+[C] Dindorf supposes something to be wanting after vs. 314.
+
+[D] The use of αλλος ‛ετερος is learnedly illustrated by Dindorf.
+
+[E] Elmsley, on Heracl. 852, more simply regards the datives σοι σηι τ'
+αδελφη as dependent upon επισεισω, understanding ‛ωστε δουναι δικην. This
+is better than to suppose (with Porson) that δουναι δικην can mean to
+_inflict_ punishment.
+
+[F] Dindorf (in his notes) agrees with Porson in omitting the following
+verse.
+
+[G] Dindorf's text and punctuation must be altered.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE PHŒNICIAN VIRGINS.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+PERSONS REPRESENTED.
+
+  JOCASTA.
+  TUTOR.
+  ANTIGONE.
+  CHORUS OF PHŒNICIAN VIRGINS.
+  POLYNICES.
+  ETEOCLES.
+  CREON.
+  MENŒCEUS.
+  TIRECIAS.
+  MESSENGERS.
+  ŒDIPUS.
+
+_The Scene is in the Court before the royal palace at Thebes_.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE ARGUMENT.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+Eteocles having gotten possession of the throne of Thebes, deprived his
+brother Polynices of his share; but he having come as an exile to Argos,
+married the daughter of the king Adrastus; but ambitious of returning to
+his country, and having persuaded his father-in-law, he assembled a great
+army for Thebes against his brother. His mother Jocasta made him come into
+the city, under sanction of a truce, and first confer with his brother
+respecting the empire. But Eteocles being violent and fierce from having
+possessed the empire, Jocasta could not reconcile her children.--Polynices,
+prepared as against an enemy, rushed out of the city. Now Tiresias
+prophesied that victory should be on the side of the Thebans, if Menœceus
+the son of Creon would give himself up to be sacrificed to Mars. Creon
+refused to give his son to the city, but the youth was willing, and, his
+father pointing out to him the means of flight and giving him money, he put
+himself to death.--The Thebans slew the leaders of the Argives. Eteocles
+and Polynices in a single combat slew each other, and their mother having
+found the corses of her sons laid violent hands on herself; and Creon her
+brother received the kingdom. The Argives defeated in battle retired. But
+Creon, being morose, would not give up those of the enemy who had fallen at
+Thebes, for sepulture, and exposed the body of Polynices without burial,
+and banished Œdipus from his country; in the one instance disregarding the
+laws of humanity, in the other giving way to passion, nor feeling pity for
+him after his calamity.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE PHŒNICIAN VIRGINS.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+JOCASTA.
+
+O thou that cuttest thy path through the constellations[1] of heaven, and
+art mounted on thy golden-joined seats, thou sun, whirling thy flame
+with[2] thy swift steeds, how inauspicious didst thou dart thy ray on that
+day when Cadmus came to this land having left the sea-washed coast of
+Phœnicia; who in former time having married Harmonia, daughter of Venus,
+begat Polydorus; from him they say sprung Labdacus, and from him Laius. But
+I am[3] the daughter of Menœceus, and Creon my brother was born of the same
+mother; me they call Jocasta (for this name[4] my father gave me), and
+Laius takes me for his wife; but after that he was childless, for a long
+time sharing my bed in the palace, he went and inquired of Apollo, and at
+the same time demands the mutual offspring of male children in his family;
+but the God said, "O king of Thebes renowned for its chariots, sow not for
+such a harvest of children against the will of the Gods, for if thou shalt
+beget a son, he that is born shall slay thee, and the whole of thy house
+shall wade through blood." But having yielded to pleasure, and having
+fallen into inebriety, he begot to us a son, and having begot him, feeling
+conscious of his error and the command of the God, gives the babe to some
+herdsmen to expose at the meads of Juno and the rock of Cithæron, having
+bored sharp-pointed iron through the middle of his ankles, from which
+circumstance Greece gave him the name of Œdipus. But him the grooms who
+attend the steeds of Polybus find and carry home, and placed him in the
+arms of their mistress. But she rested beneath her bosom him that gave me a
+mother's pangs, and persuades her husband that she had brought forth. But
+now my son showing signs of manhood in his darkening cheek, either having
+suspected it by instinct, or having learned it from some one, went to the
+temple of Apollo, desirous of discovering his parents; at the same time
+went Laius my husband, seeking to gain intelligence of his son who had been
+exposed, if he were no longer living; and both met at the same point of the
+road at Phocis where it divides itself; and the charioteer of Laius
+commands him, "Stranger, withdraw out of the way of princes;" but he moved
+slowly, in silence, with haughty spirit; but the steeds with their hoof
+dyed with blood the tendons of his feet. At this (but why need I relate
+each horrid circumstance besides the deed itself?) the son kills his
+father, and having taken the chariot, sends it as a present to his
+foster-father Polybus. Now at this time the sphinx preyed vulture-like[5]
+upon the city with rapacity, my husband now no more, Creon my brother
+proclaims that he will give my bed as a reward to him who would solve the
+enigma of the crafty virgin. But by some chance or other Œdipus my son
+happens to discover the riddle of the sphinx, [and he receives as a prize
+the sceptre of this land,][5a] and marries me, his mother, wretched he not
+knowing it, nor knew his mother that she was lying down with her son. And I
+bear children to my child, two sons, Eteocles and the illustrious
+Polynices, and two daughters, one her father named Ismene, the elder I
+called Antigone. But Œdipus, after having gone through all sufferings,
+having discovered in my bed the marriage with his mother, he perpetrated a
+deed of horror on his own eyes, having drenched in blood their pupils with
+his golden buckles. But after that the cheek of my children grows dark with
+manly down, they hid their father confined with bolts that his sad fortune
+might be forgotten, which indeed required the greatest policy. He is still
+living in the palace, but sick in mind through his misfortunes he
+imprecates the most unhallowed curses on his children, that they may share
+this house with the sharpened sword. But these two, dreading lest the Gods
+should bring to completion these curses,[6] should they dwell together, in
+friendly compact determined that Polynices the younger son should first go
+a willing exile from this land, but that Eteocles remaining here should
+hold the sceptre for a year, changing in his turn; but after that he sat on
+the throne of power, he moves not from his seat, but drives Polynices an
+exile from this land. But he having fled to Argos, and having contracted an
+alliance with Adrastus, assembles together and leads a vast army of
+Argives; and having marched to these very walls with seven gates he demands
+his father's sceptre and his share of the land. But I to quell this strife
+persuaded my son to come to his brother, confiding in a truce before he
+grasped the spear. And the messenger who was sent declares that he will
+come. But, O thou that inhabitest the shining clouds of heaven, Jove,
+preserve us, give reconciliation to my children; it becomes thee, if thou
+art wise, not to suffer the same man always to be unfortunate.
+
+TUTOR, ANTIGONE.
+
+TUT. O thou fair bud in thy father's house, Antigone, since thy mother has
+permitted thee to leave the virgin's apartments for the extreme chamber[7]
+of the mansion, in order to view the Argive army in compliance with thy
+entreaties, yet stay, until I shall first investigate the path, lest any
+citizen should appear in the pass, and to me taunts should come as a slave,
+and to thee as a princess: and I who well know each circumstance will tell
+you all that I saw or heard from the Argives, when I went bearing the offer
+of a truce to thy brother, from this place thither, and again to this place
+from him. But no citizen approaches this house; come, ascend with thy steps
+these ancient stairs of cedar, and survey the plains, and by the streams of
+Ismenus and Dirce's fount how great is the host of the enemy.
+
+ANT. Stretch forth now, stretch forth thine aged hand from the stairs to my
+youth, raising up the steps of my feet.
+
+TUT. Behold, join thy hand, virgin, thou hast come in lucky hour, for the
+Pelasgian host is now in motion, and they are separating the bands from one
+another.
+
+ANT. O awful daughter of Latona, Hecate, the field all brass[8] gleaming
+like lightning.
+
+TUT. For Polynices hath not come tamely to this land, raging with host of
+horsemen, and ten thousand shields.
+
+ANT. Are the gates fastened with bars, and is the brazen bolt fitted to the
+stone-work of Amphion's wall?
+
+TUT. Take courage; as to the interior the city is safe, But view the first
+chief, if thou desirest to know.
+
+ANT. Who is he with the white-plumed helmet, who commands in the van of the
+army, moving lightly round on his arm his brazen shield?
+
+TUT. He is a leader, lady.
+
+ANT. Who is he? From whom sprung? Speak, aged man, what is he called by
+name?
+
+TUT. He indeed is called by birth a Mycenæan, and he dwells at the streams
+of Lerna,[9] the king Hippomedon.
+
+ANT. Ah! how haughty, how terrible to behold! like to an earth-born giant,
+starlike in countenance amidst his painted devices,[10] he corresponds not
+with the race of mortals.
+
+TUT. Dost thou not see him now passing the stream of Dirce, a general?
+
+ANT. Here is another, another fashion of arms. But who is he?
+
+TUT. He is the son of Œneus, Tydeus, and bears on his breast the Ætolian
+Mars.
+
+ANT. Is this the prince, O aged man, who is husband to the sister of my
+brother's wife?[11] In his arms how different of color, of barbaric
+mixture!
+
+TUT. For all the Ætolians, my child, bear the target, and hurl with the
+lance, most certain in their aim.
+
+ANT. But how, O aged man, dost thou know these things so perfectly?
+
+TUT. Having seen the devices of the shields, then I remarked them, when I
+went to bear the offer of a truce to thy brother, beholding which, I
+recognize the warriors.
+
+ANT. But who is this, who is passing round the tomb of Zethus, with
+clustering locks, in his eyes a Gorgon to behold, in appearance a youth?
+
+TUT. A general he is. [See Note [A].]
+
+ANT. How a crowd in complete armor attends him behind![12]
+
+TUT. This is Parthenopæus, son of Atalanta.
+
+ANT. But, may Diana who rushes over the mountains with his mother destroy
+him, having subdued him with her arrows, who has come against my city to
+destroy it.
+
+TUT. May it be so, my child, nevertheless they are come with justice to
+this land; wherefore also I fear lest the Gods should judge rightly.
+
+ANT. Where, but where is he who was born of one mother with me in hard
+fate, O dearest old man; tell me, where is Polynices?
+
+TUT. He is standing near the tomb of the seven virgin daughters of Niobe,
+close by Adrastus. Seest thou him?
+
+ANT. I see indeed, but not distinctly; but somehow I see the resemblance of
+his form, and his shape shadowed out. Would that with my feet I could
+perform the journey of the winged cloud through the air to my brother, then
+would I fling my arms round his dearest neck, after so long a time a
+wretched exile. How splendid is he, O old man, in his golden armor,
+glittering like the morning rays of the sun.
+
+TUT. He will come to this house confiding in the truce, so as to fill thee
+with joy.
+
+ANT. But who, O aged man, is this, who guides his milk-white steeds seated
+in his chariot?
+
+TUT. The prophet Amphiaraus this, O my mistress, and with him the victims,
+the libations of the earth delighting in blood.
+
+AST. O thou daughter of the brightly girded sun, thou moon, golden-circled
+light, applying what quiet and temperate blows to his steeds does he direct
+his chariot! But where is he who utters such dreadful insults against this
+city, Capaneus?
+
+TUT. He is scanning the approach to the towers, measuring the walls both
+from their foundation to the top.
+
+ANT. O vengeance, and ye loud-roaring thunders of Jove, and thou blasting
+fire of the lightning, do thou quell this more-than-mortal arrogance. This
+is he who will with his spear give to Mycenæ, and to the streams of Lernæan
+Triæna,[13] and to the Amymonian[14] waters of Neptune, the Theban women,
+having invested them with slavery. Sever, O awful Goddess, never, O
+daughter of Jove, with golden clusters of ringlets, Diana, may I endure
+servitude.
+
+TUT. My child, enter the palace, and at home remain in thy virgin chambers,
+since thou hast arrived at the indulgement of thy desire, as to what you
+were anxious to behold. For, since confusion has entered the city, a crowd
+of women is advancing to the royal palace. The race of women is prone to
+complaint, and if they find but small occasion for words, they add more,
+and it is a sort of pleasure to women, to speak nothing well-advised one of
+another.[15]
+
+CHORUS.
+
+I have come, having left the Tyrian wave, the first-fruits of Loxias, from
+the sea-washed Phœnicia, a slave for the shrine of Apollo, that I might
+dwell under the snowy brows of Parnassus, having sped my way over the
+Ionian flood by the oar, the west wind with its blasts riding over the
+barren plains of waters[16] which flow round Sicily, the sweetest murmur in
+the heavens. Chosen out from my city the fairest present to Apollo, I came
+to the land of the Cadmeans, the illustrious descendants of Agenor, sent
+hither to these kindred towers of Laius. And I am made the slave of Apollo
+in like manner with the golden-framed images. Moreover the water of
+Castalia awaits me, to lave the virgin pride of my tresses, in the ministry
+of Apollo. O blazing rock, the flame of fire that seems[17] double above
+the Dionysian heights of Bacchus, and thou vine, who distillest the daily
+nectar, producing the fruitful cluster from the tender shoot; and ye divine
+caves of the dragon,[18] and ye mountain watch-towers of the Gods, and thou
+hallowed snowy mountain, would that I were the chorus of the immortal God
+free from alarms encompassing thee around, by the caves of Apollo in the
+centre of the earth, having left Dirce. But now impetuous Mars having
+advanced before the walls lights up against this city, which may the Gods
+avert, hostile war; for common are the misfortunes of friends, and common
+is it, if this land defended by its seven turrets should suffer any
+calamity, to the Phœnician country, alas! alas! common is the affinity,[19]
+common are the descendants of Io bearing horns; of which woes I have a
+share. But a thick cloud of shields glares around the city, the likeness of
+gory battle, bearing which destruction from the Furies to the children of
+Œdipus Mars shall quickly advance. O Pelasgian Argos, I dread thy power,
+and vengeance from the Gods, for he rushes not his arms to this war
+unjustly, who seeks to recover his home.
+
+POLYNICES, CHORUS.
+
+POL. The bolts indeed of the gate-keepers have with ease admitted me, that
+I might come within the walls; wherefore also I fear, lest, having caught
+me within their nets, they let[19a] not my body go without bloodshed. On
+which account my eye must be turned about on every side, both that way and
+this, lest there be treachery. But armed in my hand with this sword, I will
+give myself confidence of daring. Ha! Who is this; or do we fear a noise?
+Every thing appears terrible even to the bold, when his foot shall pass
+across a hostile country. I trust however in my mother, at the same time I
+scarce trust, who persuaded me to come hither confiding in a truce. But
+protection is nigh; for the hearths of the altars are at hand, and houses
+not deserted. Come. I will let go my sword into its dark scabbard, and will
+question these who they are, that are standing at the palace. Ye female
+strangers, tell me, from what country do ye approach Grecian habitations?
+
+CHOR. The Phœnician is my paternal country, she that nurtured me: and the
+descendants of Agenor sent me hither from the spoils, the first-fruits to
+Apollo. And while the renowned son of Œdipus was preparing to send me to
+the revered shrine, and to the altars of Phœbus, in the mean time the
+Argives marched against the city. But do thou in turn answer me, who thou
+art, who hast come to this bulwark of the Theban land with its seven gates?
+
+POL. My father is Œdipus the son of Laius; Jocasta daughter of Menœceus
+brought me forth; the Theban people call me Polynices.
+
+CHOR. O thou allied to the sons of Agenor, my lords, by whom I was sent, I
+fall at thy knees in lowly posture, O king, preserving my country's custom.
+Thou hast come, thou hast come, after a length of time, to thy paternal
+land. O venerable matron, come forth quickly, open the doors; dost thou
+hear, O mother, that producedst this hero? why dost thou delay to leave thy
+lofty mansion, and to embrace thy child with thine arms?
+
+JOCASTA, POLYNICES, CHORUS.
+
+JOC. Hearing the Phœnician tongue, ye virgins, within this mansion, I drag
+my steps trembling with age. Ah! my son, after length of time, after
+numberless days, I behold thy countenance; clasp thy mother's bosom in
+thine arms, throw around her[20] thy kisses, and the dark ringlets of thy
+clustering hair, shading my neck. Ah! scarce possible is it that thou
+appearest in thy mother's arms so unhoped for, and so unexpected. How shall
+I address thee? how shall I perform all? how shall I, walking in rapture
+around thee on that side and this, both with my hands and words, reap the
+varied pleasure, the delight of my former joys? O my son, thou hast left
+thy father's house deserted, sent away an exile by wrongful treatment from
+thy brother. How longed for by thy friends! how longed for by Thebes! From
+which time I am both shorn of my hoary locks, letting them fall with tears,
+with wailing;[21] deprived, my child, of the white robes, I receive in
+exchange around me these dark and dismal weeds. But the old man in the
+palace deprived of sight, always preserving with tears regret for the
+unanimity of the brothers which is separated from the family, has madly
+rushed on self-destruction with the sword and with the noose above the
+beams of the house, bewailing the curse imprecated on his children; and
+with cries of woe he is always hidden in darkness. But thou, my child, I
+hear, art both joined in marriage, and hast the joys of love in a foreign
+family, and cherishest a foreign alliance; intolerable to this thy mother
+and to the aged Laius, the woe of a foreign marriage brought upon us. But
+neither did I light the torch of fire for you, as is customary in the
+marriage rites, as befits the happy mother; nor was Ismenus careful of the
+bridal rites in the luxury of the bath: and the entrance of thy bride was
+made in silence through the Theban city. May these ills perish, whether the
+sword, or discord, or thy father is the cause, or whether fate has rushed
+with violence upon the house of Œdipus; for the weight of these sorrows has
+fallen upon me.
+
+CHOR. Parturition with the attendant throes has a wonderful effect on
+women;[22] and somehow the whole race of women have strong affection toward
+their children.
+
+POL. My mother, determining wisely, and yet not determining wisely, have I
+come to men my foes; but it is necessary that all must be enamored of their
+country; but whoever says otherwise, pleases himself with vain words, but
+has his heart there. But so far have I come to trouble and terror, lest any
+treachery from my brother should slay me, so that having my hand on my
+sword I proceeded through the city rolling round my eye; but one thing is
+on my side, the truce and thy faith, which has brought me within my
+paternal walls: but I have come with many tears, after a length of time
+beholding the courts and the altars of the Gods, and the schools wherein I
+was brought up, and the fount of Dirce, from which banished by injustice, I
+inhabit a foreign city, having a stream of tears flowing through my eyes.
+But, for from one woe springs a second, I behold thee having thy head shorn
+of its locks, and these sable garments; alas me! on account of my
+misfortunes. How dreadful a thing, mother, is the enmity of relations,
+having means of reconciliation seldom to be brought about! For how fares
+the old man my father in the palace, vainly looking upon darkness; and how
+fare my two sisters? Are they indeed bewailing my wretched banishment?
+
+JOC. Some God miserably destroys the race of Œdipus; for thus began it,
+when I brought forth children in that unhallowed manner, and thy father
+married me in evil hour, and thou didst spring forth. But why relate these
+things? What is sent by the Gods we must bear. But how I may ask the
+questions I wish, I know not, for I fear lest I wound at all thy feelings;
+but I have a great desire.
+
+POL. But inquire freely, leave nothing out. For what you wish, my mother,
+this is dear to me.
+
+JOC. I ask thee therefore, first, for the information that I wish to
+obtain. What is the being deprived of one's country, is it a great ill?
+
+POL. The greatest: and greater is it in deed than in word.
+
+JOC. What is the reason of that? What is that so harsh to exiles?
+
+POL. One thing, and that the greatest, not to have the liberty of speaking.
+
+JOC. This that you have mentioned belongs to a slave, not to give utterance
+to what one thinks.
+
+POL. It is necessary to bear with the follies of those in power.
+
+JOC. And this is painful, to be unwise with the unwise.
+
+POL. But for interest we must bend to slavery contrary to our nature.
+
+JOC. But hopes support exiles, as report goes.
+
+POL. They look upon them with favorable eyes, at least, but are slow of
+foot.
+
+JOC. Hath not time shown them to be vain?
+
+POL. They have a certain sweet delight to set against misfortunes.
+
+JOC. But whence wert thou supported, before thou foundest means of
+sustenance by thy marriage?
+
+POL. At one time I had food for the day, at another I had not.
+
+JOC. And did the friends and hosts of your father not assist you?
+
+POL. Be prosperous, _and thou shalt have friends_:[23] but friends are
+none, should one be in adversity.
+
+JOC. Did not thy noble birth raise thee to great distinction?
+
+POL. To want is wretched; high birth fed me not.
+
+JOC. Their own country, it appears, is the dearest thing to men.
+
+POL. You can not express by words how dear it is.
+
+JOC. But how camest thou to Argos? What intention hadst thou?
+
+POL. Apollo gave a certain oracle to Adrastus.
+
+JOC. What is this thou hast mentioned? I am unable to discover.
+
+POL. To unite his daughters in marriage with a boar and lion.
+
+JOC. And what part of the name of beasts belongs to you, my son.
+
+POL. I know not. The God called me to this fortune.
+
+JOC. For the God is wise. But in what manner didst thou obtain her bed?
+
+POL. It was night; but I came to the portals of Adrastus.
+
+JOC. In search of a couch to rest on, as a wandering exile?
+
+POL. This was the case, and then indeed there came a second exile.
+
+JOC. Who was this? how unfortunate then was he also!
+
+POL. Tydeus, who they say sprung from Œneus his sire.
+
+JOC. In what then did Adrastus liken you to beasts?
+
+POL. Because we came to blows for lodging.
+
+JOC. In this the son of Talaus understood the oracle.
+
+POL. And gave in marriage to us two his two virgin daughters.
+
+JOC. Art thou fortunate then in thy marriage alliance, or unfortunate?
+
+POL. My marriage can not be found fault with up to this day.
+
+JOC. But how didst thou persuade an army to follow you hither?
+
+POL. Adrastus swore this oath to his two sons-in-law, that he would replace
+both in their own country, but me first. And many princes of the Argives
+and Mycenæans are at hand, rendering to me a sad, but necessary favor; for
+I am leading an army against this my own city; but I have called the Gods
+to witness how unwillingly I have raised the spear against my dearest
+parents. But the dissolution of these ills extends to thee, my mother, that
+having reconciled the friendly brothers, you may free from toil me and
+thyself, and the whole city. It is a proverb long ago chanted, but
+nevertheless I will repeat it; wealth is honored most of all things by men,
+and has the greatest influence of any thing among men. In pursuit of which
+I am come, leading hither ten thousand spears: for a nobly-born man in
+poverty is nothing.
+
+CHOR. And see Eteocles here comes to this mediation; thy business it is, O
+Jocasta, being their mother, to speak words, with which thou shalt
+reconcile thy children.
+
+ETEOCLES, POLYNICES, JOCASTA, CHORUS.
+
+ETEO. Mother, I am present; giving this grace to thee, I have come; what
+must I do? Let some one begin the conference. Since arranging also around
+the walls the chariots of the bands, I restrained the city, that I may hear
+from thee the common terms[24] of reconciliation, for which thou hast
+permitted this man to come within the walls under sanction of a truce,
+having persuaded me.
+
+JOC. Stay; precipitate haste has not justice; but slow counsels perform
+most deeds in wisdom. But repress that fierce eye and those blasts of rage;
+for thou art not looking on the Gorgon's head cut off at the neck, but thou
+art looking on thy brother who is come to thee. And do thou again,
+Polynices, turn thy face toward thy brother; for looking at the same point
+with thine eyes, thou wilt both speak better, and receive his words better.
+But I wish to give you a wise piece of advice. When a friend is enraged
+with a man his friend, having met him face to face, let him fix his eyes on
+his friend's eyes, this only ought he to consider, the end for which he is
+come, but to have no recollection of former grievances. Thy words then
+first, my son, Polynices; for thou art come leading an army of Argives,
+having suffered injustice, as thou sayest; and may some God be umpire and
+the reconciler of your strife.
+
+POL. The speech of truth is simple, and those things which are just need
+not wily interpretations; for they have energy themselves; but the unjust
+speech, unsound in itself, requires cunning preparations to gloze it. But I
+have previously considered for my father's house, and my own advantage and
+that of this man; desiring to escape the curses, which Œdipus denounced
+formerly against us, I myself of my own accord departed from this land,
+having given him to rule over his own country for the space of a year, so
+that I myself should have the government again, having received it in turn,
+and not having come into enmity and bloodshed with this man to perform some
+evil deed, and to suffer what is now taking place. But he having assented
+to this, and having brought the Gods to witness his oaths, has performed
+nothing of what he promised, but himself holds the regal power and my share
+of the palace. And now I am ready, having received my own right, to send
+the army away from out of this land, and to regulate my house, having
+received it in my turn, and to give it up again to this man for the same
+space of time, and neither to lay my country waste, nor to apply to its
+towers the means of ascent by the firmly-fixed ladders. Which, should I not
+meet with justice, will I endeavor to put in execution: and I call the Gods
+as witnesses of this, that acting in every thing with justice, I am without
+justice deprived of my country in the most unrighteous manner. These
+individual circumstances, mother, not having collected together intricacies
+of argument, have I declared, but both to the wise and to the illiterate
+just, as appears to me.
+
+CHOR. To me indeed, although we have not been brought up according to the
+Grecian land, nevertheless to me thou appearest to speak with judgment.
+
+ETEO. If the same thing were judged honorable alike by all, and at the same
+time wise, there would not be doubtful strife among men. But now nothing is
+similar, nothing the same among mortals, except in names; but the sense is
+not the same, for I, my mother, will speak having kept nothing back; I
+would mount to the rising of the stars, and sink beneath the earth, were I
+able to perform this, so that I might possess the greatest of the
+Goddesses, kingly power.[25] This prize then, my mother, I am not willing
+rather to give up to another, than to preserve for myself. For it implies
+cowardice in him, whoever having lost the greater share, hath received the
+less; but in addition to this I feel ashamed, that this man having come
+with arms, and laying the country waste, should obtain what he wishes; for
+to Thebes this would be a reproach, if through fear of the Mycenæan spear I
+should give up my sceptre for this man to hold. But he ought, my mother, to
+effect a reconciliation, not by arms: for speech does every thing which
+even the sword of the enemy could do. But if he is desirous of inhabiting
+this land in any other way, it is in his power; but the other point I will
+never give up willingly. When it is in my power to rule, ever to be a slave
+to him? Wherefore come fire, come sword, yoke thy steeds, fill the plains
+with chariots, since I will not give up my kingly power to this man. For if
+one must be unjust, it is most glorious to be unjust concerning empire, but
+in every thing else one should be just.
+
+CHOR. It is not right to speak well, where the deeds are not glorious; for
+this is not honorable, but galling to justice.
+
+JOC. My son, Eteocles, not every ill is added to age, but experience has it
+in its power to evince more wisdom than youth.[26] Why, my child, dost thou
+so desirously court ambition, the most baneful of the deities? do not thou;
+the Goddess is unjust. But she hath entered into many families and happy
+states and hath come forth again, to the destruction of those who have to
+do with her. Of whom thou art madly enamored. This is more noble, my son,
+to honor equality, which ever links friends with friends, and states with
+states, and allies with allies: for equality is sanctioned by law among
+men. But the lesser share is ever at enmity with the greater, and straight
+begins the day of hatred. For equality arranged also among mortals
+measures, and the divisions of weights, and defined numbers. And the dark
+eye of night, and the light of the sun, equally walk their annual round,
+and neither of them being overcome hath envy of the other. Thus the sun and
+the night are subservient to men, but wilt not thou brook having an equal
+share of government, and give his share to him? Then where is justice? Why
+dost thou honor so unboundedly that prosperous injustice, royalty, and
+think so highly of her? Is the being conspicuous honorable? At least, it is
+empty honor. Or dost thou desire to labor much, possessing much in thy
+house? but what is superfluity? It possesses but a name; since a
+sufficiency indeed to the temperate is abundance. Neither do men enjoy
+riches as their own, but having the property of the Gods do we cherish
+them. And when they list, again do they take them away. Come, if I ask
+thee, having proposed together two measures, whether it is thy wish to
+reign, or save the city? Wilt thou say, to reign? But should he conquer
+thee, and the Argive spears overcome the Cadmæanforces, thou wilt behold
+this city of the Thebans vanquished, thou wilt behold many captive maidens
+with violence ravished by men your foes. Bitter then to Thebes will be the
+power which thou seekest to hold; but yet thou art ambitious of it. To thee
+I say this: but to thee, Polynices, say I, that Adrastus hath conferred an
+unwise favor on thee; and foolishly hast thou also come to destroy this
+city. Come, if thou wilt subdue this land (may which never happen), by the
+Gods, how wilt thou erect trophies of thy spear? And how again wilt thou
+sacrifice the first-fruits, having conquered thy country? and how wilt thou
+engrave upon the spoils by the waters of Inachus, "Having laid Thebes in
+ashes, Polynices consecrated these shields to the Gods?" Never, my son, may
+it come to thee to receive such glory from the Greeks. But again, shouldest
+thou be conquered, and should the arms of the other prevail, how wilt thou
+return to Argos having left behind ten thousand dead? Surely some one will
+say, O! unfortunate marriage alliance! O Adrastus, who placed them on us,
+through the nuptials of one bride we are lost! Thou art hastening two ills,
+my son, to be deprived of those, and to fail in this. Give up your too
+great ardor, give it up; the follies of two when they clash together in the
+same point, are the most hateful ill.
+
+CHOR. O ye Gods, may ye be averters of these ills, and grant to the
+children of Œdipus some means of agreement.
+
+ETEO. My mother, this is not a contest of words, but intervening time is
+fruitlessly wasted; and thy earnestness avails nothing; for we shall not
+agree in any other way, than on the terms proposed, that I holding the
+sceptre be monarch of this land. Forbearing then tedious admonitions, let
+me have my way; and do thou begone from out these walls, or thou shalt die.
+
+POL. By whose hand? Who is there so invulnerable, who having pointed the
+murderous sword against me, shall not bear the same fate?
+
+ETEO. He is near, not far removed from thee: dost thou look on these my
+hands?
+
+POL. I see them. But wealth is cowardly, and feeble, loving life.
+
+ETEO. And therefore hast thou come, with such a host against one who is
+nothing in arms?
+
+POL. For a cautious general is better than one daring.
+
+ETEO. Thou art insolent, having trusted in the truce, which preserves you
+from death.
+
+POL. A second time again I demand of you the sceptre and my share of the
+land.
+
+ETEO. I will admit no demand, for I will regulate my own family.
+
+POL. Holding more than your share?
+
+ETEO. I own it; but quit this land.
+
+POL. O ye altars of my paternal Gods.
+
+ETEO. Which thou art come to destroy?
+
+POL. Do ye hear me?
+
+ETEO. Who will hear thee, who art marching against thy country?
+
+POL. And ye shrines of the Gods[27] delighting in the milk-white steeds;
+
+ETEO. Who hate thee.
+
+POL. I am driven out of my own country.
+
+ETEO. For thou hast come to destroy it.
+
+POL. With injustice indeed, O ye Gods!
+
+ETEO. At Mycenæ call upon the Gods, not here.
+
+POL. Thou art impious.
+
+ETEO. But not my country's enemy, as thou art.
+
+POL. Who drives me out without my share.
+
+ETEO. And I will put thee to death in addition.
+
+POL. My father, hearest thou what I suffer?
+
+ETEO. For he hears what wrongs thou doest.
+
+POL. And thou, my mother?
+
+ETEO. It is not lawful for thee to mention thy mother.
+
+POL. O my city!
+
+ETEO. To Argos go, and call on Lerna's stream.
+
+POL. I will go, do not distress thyself; but thee, my mother, I mention
+with honor.
+
+ETEO. Depart from out of the country.
+
+POL. I will go out; but grant me to see my father.
+
+ETEO. You will not obtain your request.
+
+POL. But my virgin sisters then.
+
+ETEO. Never shalt thou behold these.
+
+POL. O my sisters!
+
+ETEO. Why callest thou on these--being their greatest enemy?
+
+POL. My mother, but thou farewell.
+
+JOC. Do I experience any thing that is well, my son?
+
+POL. I am no longer thy child.
+
+JOC. To many troubles was I born.
+
+POL. For he throws insults on us.
+
+ETEO. For I am insulted in turn.
+
+POL. Where wilt thou stand before the towers?
+
+ETEO. Why dost thou ask me this question?
+
+POL. I will oppose myself to thee, to slay thee.
+
+ETEO. Desire of this seizes me also.
+
+JOC. Wretched me! what will ye do, my children?
+
+POL. The deed itself will show.
+
+JOC. Will ye not escape your father's curses?
+
+ETEO. Let the whole house perish!
+
+POL. Since soon my blood-stained sword will not remain any longer in
+inactivity. But I call to witness the land that nurtured me, and the Gods,
+how dishonored I am driven from this land, suffering such foul treatment,
+as a slave and not born of the same father Œdipus. And if any thing befalls
+thee, my city, blame not me, but him; for against my will have I come, and
+against my will am I driven from this land. And thou, king Apollo, God of
+our streets, and ye shrines, farewell, and ye my equals, and ye altars of
+the Gods receiving the victims; for I know not if it is allowed me ever
+again to address you. But hope does not yet slumber, in which I have
+trusted with the favor of the Gods, that having slain this man, I shall be
+master of this Theban land.
+
+ETEO. Depart from out of the country; with truth indeed did your father
+give you the name of Polynices by some divine foreknowledge, a name
+corresponding with strife.
+
+CHORUS.
+
+Cadmus came from Tyre to this land, before whom the quadrupede heifer bent
+with willing fall,[28] showing the accomplishment of the oracle, where the
+divine word ordered him to colonize the plains of the Aonians productive of
+wheat, where indeed the fair-flowing stream of the water of Dirce passes
+over the verdant and deep-furrowed fields, where the * * * * mother
+produced Bacchus, by her marriage with Jove, whom the wreathed ivy twining
+around him instantly, while yet a babe, blest and covered with its verdant
+shady branches, an event to be celebrated with Bacchic revel by the Theban
+virgins and inspired women. There was the bloodstained dragon of Mars, the
+savage guard, watching with far-rolling eyeballs over the flowing fountains
+and grassy streams; whom Cadmus, having come for water for purification,
+slew with a fragment of rock, the destroyer of the monster having thrown
+his arms with blows on his blood-stained head, by the counsel of the divine
+Pallas born without mother, having thrown the teeth fallen to the earth
+upon the deep-furrowed plains. Whence the earth sent forth a spectacle, an
+armed [host] above the extreme limits of the ground; but iron-hearted
+slaughter again united them with their beloved earth; and sprinkled with
+blood the ground which showed them to the serene gales of the air. And
+thee, sprung of old from our ancestor Io, Epaphus, O progeny of Jove, on
+thee have I called, have I called in a foreign tongue, with prayers in
+foreign accent, come, come to this land (thy descendants have founded it),
+where the two Goddesses Proserpine and the dear Goddess Ceres, queen of all
+(since earth nurtures all things), have held their possessions, send the
+fire-bearing Goddesses to defend this land: since every thing is easy to
+the Gods.
+
+ETEOCLES, CHORUS, MESSENGER.
+
+ETEO. Go thou, and bring hither Creon son of Menœceus, the brother of my
+mother Jocasta, saying this, that I wish to communicate with him counsels
+of a private nature and those which concern the common welfare of the
+country, before we go into battle and the ranks of war. And see, he spares
+the trouble of your steps, by his presence; for I see him coming toward my
+palace.
+
+CREON, ETEOCLES, CHORUS.
+
+CRE. Surely have I visited many places, desiring to see you, O king
+Eteocles! and I have gone round to the gates and the guards of the Thebans,
+seeking you.
+
+ETEO. And indeed I have wished to see you, Creon, for I found attempts at
+reconciliation altogether fail when I came and entered into conference with
+Polynices.
+
+CRE. I have heard that he aspires to higher thoughts than Thebes, having
+trusted in his alliance with Adrastus and his army. But it becomes us to
+hold these things in dependence on the Gods. But what is most immediately
+before us, this am I come to acquaint you with.
+
+ETEO. What is this? for I understand not your speech.
+
+CRE. A prisoner is arrived from the Argives.
+
+ETEO. Does he bring us any news of those stationed there?
+
+CRE. The Argive army is preparing quickly to surround the city of the
+Thebans with thickly-ranged arms.(Note [B].)
+
+ETEO. Therefore must we draw our forces out of the Theban city.
+
+CRE. Whither? Dost thou not in the impetuosity of youth see what it
+behooves thee to see?
+
+ETEO. Without these trenches, as we are quickly about to fight.
+
+CRE. Small are the forces of this land; but theirs innumerable.
+
+ETEO. I know that they are bold in words.
+
+CRE. Argos of the Greeks has some renown.
+
+ETEO. Be confident; quickly will I fill the plain with their slaughter.
+
+CRE. I would it were so: but this I see is a work of much labor.
+
+ETEO. Know that I will not restrain my forces within the walls.
+
+CRE. And yet the whole of victory is prudence.
+
+ETEO. Dost thou wish then that I have recourse to other measures?
+
+CRE. To every measure indeed, rather than hazard all on one battle.
+
+ETEO. What if we were to attack them by night from ambush?
+
+CRE. If, having failed, at least you can have a safe retreat hither.
+
+ETEO. Night brings the same advantage to all, but more to the daring.
+
+CRE. Dreadful is it to fail in the darkness of night.
+
+ETEO. But shall I lead my force against them while at their meal?
+
+CRE. That would cause terror; but we must conquer.
+
+ETEO. The ford of Dirce is indeed deep to pass.
+
+CRE. Every thing is inferior to a good guard.
+
+ETEO. What then, shall I charge the Argive army with my cavalry?
+
+CRE. And there the army is fenced round with chariots.
+
+ETEO. What then shall I do? give up the city to the enemy?
+
+CRE. By no means; but deliberate if thou art wise.
+
+ETEO. What more prudent forethought is there?
+
+CRE. They say that they have seven men, as I have heard.
+
+ETEO. What have they been commanded to do? for their strength is small.
+
+CRE. To head their bands, to besiege the seven gates.
+
+ETEO. What then shall we do? I will not wait this indecision.
+
+CRE. Do thou thyself also choose seven men for the gates.
+
+ETEO. To head divisions, or for single combat?
+
+CRE. To head divisions, having selected the bravest.
+
+ETEO. I understand you; to guard the approach to the walls.
+
+CRE. And with them other generals; one man sees not every thing?
+
+ETEO. Having chosen them for boldness, or prudence in judgment?
+
+CRE. For both; for one without the other availeth nothing.
+
+ETEO. It shall be so: and having gone to the city of the seven towers, I
+will appoint chiefs at the gates, as you advise, having opposed equal
+champions against equal foes. But to mention the name of each would be a
+great delay, the enemy encamped under our very walls. But I will go, that I
+may not be idle with my hand. And may it befall me to find my brother
+opposed to me, and being joined with me in battle, to take him with my
+spear, [and to slay him, who came to desolate my country.] But it is thy
+duty to attend to the marriage of my sister Antigone and thy son Hæmon, if
+I fail aught of success; but the firm vow made before I now confirm at my
+going out. Thou art my mother's brother, why need I use more words? Treat
+her worthily, both for thine own and my sake. But my father incurs the
+punishment of the rashness he brought upon himself, having quenched his
+sight; I praise him not; even us will he put to death with his execrations,
+should he gain his point. But one thing is left undone by us, if the
+soothsayer Tiresias have any oracle to deliver, to enquire this of him; but
+I will send thy son, Creon, Menœceus, of the same name with thy father, to
+bring Tiresias hither. With pleasure will he enter into conversation with
+you; but I lately reviled him with his divining art, so that he is offended
+with me. But this charge I give the city with thee, Creon; if my arms
+should conquer, that the body of Polynices be never buried in this Theban
+land; but that the man who buries him shall die, although he be a friend.
+This I have told you: but my attendants I tell, bring out my arms, and my
+panoply which covers me, that we may go this appointed contest of the spear
+with victorious justice. But to Caution, the most valued of the Goddesses,
+will we address our prayers to preserve this city.
+
+CHORUS.
+
+O Mars, cause of infinite woe, why, I pray, art thou so possessed with
+blood and death, so discordant with the revels of Bacchus? Thou dost not in
+the circle of beautiful dancers in the bloom of youth, having let flow thy
+hair,[29] on the breath of the flute modulate strains, in which there is a
+lovely power to renew the dance. But with thy armed men, having excited the
+army of Argives against Thebes with blood, thou dancest before the city in
+a most inharmonious revel, thou movest not thy foot maddened by the thyrsus
+clad in fawn-skins, but thy solid-hoofed steed with thy chariot and horses'
+bits; and bounding at the streams of Ismenus, thou art borne rapidly in the
+chariot-course, having excited against the race of those sown [by Cadmus,]
+a raging host that grasp the shield, well armed, adverse to us at the walls
+of stone: surely Discord is some dreadful Goddess, who devised all these
+calamities against the princes of this land, the Labdacidæ involved in woe.
+O thou forest of heavenly foliage, most productive of beasts, thou snowy
+eye of Diana, Cithæron, never oughtest thou to have nourished him doomed to
+death, the son of Jocasta, Œdipus, the babe who was cast out from his home,
+marked by the golden clasps. Neither ought that winged virgin the Sphinx,
+thou mountain monster, that grief to this land, to have come, with her most
+inharmonious lays; who formerly approaching our walls, bore in her four
+talons the descendants of Cadmus to the inaccessible light of heaven, whom
+the infernal Pluto sends against the Thebans; but other ill-fated discord
+among the children of Œdipus springs up in the palace and in the city. For
+that which is not honorable, never can be honorable, as neither can
+children the unhallowed offspring of the mother, the pollution of the
+father. But she came to a kindred bed. Thou didst produce, O [Theban] land!
+thou didst produce formerly (as I heard the foreign report,[30] I heard it
+formerly at home), the race sprung from teeth from the fiery-crested dragon
+fed on beasts, the proudest honor of Thebes. But to the nuptials of
+Harmonia the Gods came of old, and by the harp and by the lyre of Amphion
+uprose the walls of Thebes the tower of the double streams,[31] at the
+midst of the pass of Dirce, which waters the verdant plain before Ismenus.
+And Io, our ancient mother, doomed to bear horns, brought forth a line of
+Theban kings. But this city receiving ten thousand goods one in change for
+another, hath stood in the highest chaplets of war.
+
+TIRESIAS (_led by his daughter_), MENŒCEUS, CREON, CHORUS.
+
+TIR. Lead onward, my daughter, since thou art an eye to my blind steps, as
+the star to the mariners. Placing my steps hither on this level plain,
+proceed lest we stumble; thy father is feeble; and preserve carefully in
+thy virgin hand my calculations which I took, having learned the auguries
+of the birds, sitting in the sacred seats where I fortell the future. My
+child, Menœceus, son of Creon, tell me, how far is the remainder of the
+journey through the city to thy father? Since my knees are weary, and with
+difficulty I accomplish such a long journey.
+
+CRE. Be of good cheer; for thou hast steered thy foot, Tiresias, near to
+thy friends; but take hold of him, my son. Since every chariot,[32] and the
+foot of the aged man is used to expect the assistance of another's hand.
+
+TIR. Well: I am present; but why didst thou call me with such haste, Creon?
+
+CRE. We have not as yet forgotten: but recover thy strength, and collect
+thy breath, having thrown aside the fatigue occasioned by the journey.
+
+TIR. I am relaxed indeed[32a] with toil, brought hither from the Athenians
+the day before this. For there also was a contest of the spear with
+Eumolpus, where I made the descendants of Cecrops splendid conquerors. And
+I wear this golden chaplet, as thou seest, having received the first-fruits
+of the spoil of the enemy.
+
+CRE. Thy victorious garlands I make a happy omen. For we, as thou well
+knowest, are tossing in a storm of war with the Greeks, and great is the
+hazard of Thebes. The king Eteocles has therefore gone forth adorned with
+his armor already to battle with the Argives. But to me has he sent that I
+might learn from you, by doing what we should be most likely to preserve
+the city.
+
+TRE. For Eteocles' sake indeed I would have stopped my mouth, and repressed
+the oracles, but to thee, since thou desirest to know them, will I declare
+them: for this land labors under the malady of old, O Creon, from the time
+when Laïus became the father of children in spite of the Gods, and begat
+the wretched Œdipus, a husband for his mother. But the cruel lacerations of
+his eyes were in the wisdom of the Gods, and a warning to Greece. Which
+things the sons of Œdipus seeking to conceal among themselves by the lapse
+of time, as about forsooth to escape from the Gods, erred through their
+ignorance, for they neither giving the honor due to their father, nor
+allowing him a free liberty, infuriated the unfortunate man: and he
+breathed out against them dreadful threats, being both in affliction, and
+moreover dishonored. And I, what things omitting to do, and what words
+omitting to speak on the subject, have nevertheless fallen into the hatred
+of the sons of Œdipus? But death from their mutual hands is near them, O
+Creon. And many corses fallen around corses, having mingled the weapons of
+Argos and Thebes, shall cause bitter lamentations to the Theban land. And
+thou, O wretched city, art sapped from thy foundations, unless men will
+obey my words. For this were the first thing, that not any of the family of
+Œdipus should be citizens, nor king of the territory, inasmuch as they are
+possessed by demons, and are they that will overthrow the city. And since
+the evil triumphs over the good, there is one other thing requisite to
+insure preservation. But, as this is neither safe for me to say, and
+distressing to those on whom the lot has fallen, to give to the city the
+balm of preservation, I will depart: farewell; for being an individual with
+many shall I suffer what is about to happen if it must be so; for what can
+I do![33]
+
+CRE. Stay here, old man.
+
+TIR. Lay not hold upon me.
+
+CRE. Remain; why dost thou fly me?
+
+TIR. Thy fortune flies thee, but not I.
+
+CRE. Tell me the means of preserving the citizens and their city.
+
+TRE. Thou wishest now indeed, and soon thou wilt not wish.
+
+CRE. And how am I not willing to preserve my country?
+
+TIR. Art thou willing then to hear, and art thou eager?
+
+CRE. For toward what ought I to have a greater eagerness?
+
+TIR. Hear now then my prophecies.--But this first I wish to ascertain
+clearly, where is Menœceus who brought me hither.
+
+CRE. He is not far off, but close to thee.
+
+TIR. Let him depart then afar from my oracles.
+
+CRE. He that is my son will keep secret what ought to be kept secret.
+
+TIR. Art thou willing then that I speak in his presence?
+
+CRE. _Yes_: for he would be delighted to hear of the means of preservation.
+
+TIR. Hear now then the tenor of my oracles; what things doing ye may
+preserve the city of the Cadmeans. It is necessary for thee to sacrifice
+this thy son Menœceus for the country, since thou thyself callest for this
+fortune.
+
+CRE. What sayest thou, what word is this thou hast spoken, old man?
+
+TIR. As circumstances are, thus also oughtest thou to act.
+
+CRE. O thou, that hast said many evils in a short time!
+
+TIR. To thee at least; but to thy country great and salutary.
+
+CRE. I heard not, I attended not; let the city go where it will.
+
+TIR. This is no longer the same man; he retracts again what he said.
+
+CRE. Farewell! depart; for I have no need of thy prophecies.
+
+TIR. Has truth perished, because thou art unfortunate?
+
+CRE. By thy knees I implore thee, and by thy reverend locks.
+
+TIR. Why kneel to me? the evils thou askest are hard to be controlled.
+(Note [E].)
+
+CRE. Keep it secret; and speak not these words to the city.
+
+TIR. Dost thou command me to be unjust? I can not be silent.
+
+CRE. What then wilt thou do to me? Wilt thou slay my son?
+
+TIR. These things will be a care to others; but by me will it be spoken.
+
+CRE. But from whence has this evil come to me, and to my child?
+
+TIR. Well dost thou ask me, and comest to the drift of my discourse. It is
+necessary that he, stabbed in that cave where the earth-born dragon lay,
+the guardian of Dirce's fountain, give his gory blood a libation to the
+earth on account of the ancient wrath of Mars against Cadmus, who avenges
+the slaughter of the earth-born dragon; and these things done, ye shall
+obtain Mars as your ally. But if the earth receive fruit in return for
+fruit, and mortal blood in return for blood, ye shall have that land
+propitious, which formerly sent forth a crop of men from seed armed with
+golden helmets; but there must of this race die one, who is the son of the
+dragon's jaw. But thou art left among us of the race of those sown men,
+pure in thy descent, both by thy mother's side and in the male line; and
+thy children too: Hæmon's marriage however precludes his being slain, for
+he is not a youth, [for, although he has not approached her bed, he has yet
+contracted the marriage.] But this youth, devoted to this city, by dying
+may preserve his native country. And he will cause a bitter return to
+Adrastus and the Argives, casting back death over their eyes, and Thebes
+will he make illustrious: of these two fates choose the one; either
+preserve thy child or the state. Every information from me thou hast:--lead
+me, my child, toward home;--but whoever exercises the art of divination, is
+a fool; if indeed he chance to show disagreeable things, he is rendered
+hateful to those to whom he may prophesy; but speaking falsely to his
+employers from motives of pity, he is unjust as touching the Gods.--Phœbus
+alone should speak in oracles to men, who fears nobody.
+
+CREON, MENŒCEUS, CHORUS.
+
+CHOR. Creon, why art thou mute compressing thy voice in silence, for to me
+also there is no less consternation.
+
+CRE. But what can one say?--It is clear however what my answer will be. For
+never will I go to this degree of calamity, to expose my son a victim for
+the state. For all men live with an affection toward their children, nor
+would any give up his own child to die. Let no one praise me for the deed,
+and slay my children. But I myself, for I am arrived at a mature period of
+life, am ready to die to liberate my country. But haste, my son, before the
+whole city hears it, disregarding the intemperate oracles of prophets, fly
+as quickly as possible, having quitted this land. For he will tell these
+things to the authorities and chiefs, going to the seven gates, and to the
+officers: and if indeed we get before him, there is safety for thee, but if
+thou art too late, we are undone, thou diest.
+
+MEN. Whither then fly? To what city? what friends?
+
+CRE. Wheresoever thou wilt be farthest removed from this country.
+
+MEN. Therefore it is fitting for thee to speak, and for me to do.
+
+CRE. Having passed through Delphi--
+
+MEN. Whither is it right for me to go, my father?
+
+CRE. To the land of Ætolia.
+
+MEN. And from this whither shall I proceed?
+
+CRE. To Thesprotia's soil.
+
+MEN. To the sacred seat of Dodona?
+
+CRE. Thou understandest.
+
+MEN. What then will there be to protect me?
+
+CRE. The conducting deity.
+
+MEN. But what means of procuring money?
+
+CRE. I will supply gold.
+
+MEN. Thou sayest well, my father. Go then, for having proceeded to
+salute[34] thy sister, whose breast I first sucked, Jocasta I mean,
+deprived of my mother, and reft from her, an orphan, I will depart and save
+my life. But haste, go, let not thy purpose be hindered.
+
+MENŒCEUS, CHORUS.
+
+MEN. Ye females, how well removed I my father's fears, having deceived him
+with words, in order to gain my wishes; who sends me out of the way,
+depriving the city of its good fortune, and gives me up to cowardice. And
+these things are pardonable indeed in an old man, but in my case it
+deserves no pardon to become the deserter of that country which gave me
+birth. That ye may know then, I will go, and preserve the city, and will
+give up my life for this land. For it is a disgraceful thing, that those
+indeed who are free from the oracle, and are not concerned with any
+compulsion of the Gods, standing at their shields in battle, shall not be
+slow to die fighting before the towers for their country; and I, having
+betrayed my father, and my brother, and my own city, shall depart
+coward-like from out of the land; but wherever I live, I shall appear vile.
+No: by that Jove that dwelleth amidst the constellations, and sanguinary
+Mars, who set up those sown men, who erst sprung from the earth, to be
+kings of this country. But I will depart, and standing on the summit of the
+battlements, stabbing myself over the dark deep lair of the dragon, where
+the prophet appointed, will give liberty to the country--the word has been
+spoken. But I go, by my death about to give no mean gift to the state, and
+will rid this land of its affliction. For if every one, seizing what
+opportunity he had in his power of doing good, would persist in it, and
+bring it forward for his country's weal, states, experiencing fewer
+calamities, henceforward might be prosperous.
+
+CHOR. Thou camest forth, thou camest forth, O winged monster, production of
+the earth, and the viper of hell, the ravager of the Cadmeans, big with
+destruction, big with woes, in form half-virgin, a hostile prodigy, with
+thy ravening wings, and thy talons that preyed on raw flesh, who erst from
+Dirce's spot bearing aloft the youths, accompanied by an inharmonious lay,
+thou broughtest, thou broughtest cruel woes to our country; cruel was he of
+the Gods, whoever was the author of these things. And the moans of the
+matrons, and the moans of the virgins, resounded in the house, in a voice,
+in a strain of misery, they lamented some one thing, some another, in
+succession through the city. And the groaning and the noise was like to
+thunder, when the winged virgin bore out of sight any man from the city.
+But at length came by the mission of the Pythian oracle Œdipus the unhappy
+to this land of Thebes, to us then indeed delighted, but again came woes.
+For he, wretched man, having gained the glorious victory over the enigmas,
+contracts a marriage, an unfortunate marriage with his mother, and pollutes
+the city. And fresh woes does the unfortunate man cause to succeed with
+slaughter, devoting by curses his sons to the unhallowed contest.--With
+admiration, with admiration we look on him, who is gone to kill himself for
+the sake of his country's land; to Creon indeed having left lamentations,
+but about to make the seven-towered gates of the land greatly victorious.
+Thus may we be mothers, thus may we be blest in our children, O dear
+Pallas, who destroyedst the blood of the dragon by the hurled stone,
+driving the attention of Cadmus to the action, whence with rapine some
+fiend of the Gods rushed on this land.
+
+MESSENGER, JOCASTA, CHORUS.
+
+MESS. Ho there! who is at the gate of the palace? Open, conduct Jocasta
+from out of the house.--What ho! again--after a long time indeed, but yet
+come forth, hear, O renowned wife of Œdipus, ceasing from thy lamentations,
+and thy tears of grief.
+
+JOC. O most dear man, surely thou comest bearing the news of some calamity,
+of the death of Eteocles, by whose shield thou always didst go, warding off
+the weapons of the enemy. What new message, I pray, dost thou come to
+deliver? Is my son dead or alive? Tell me.
+
+MESS. He lives, be not alarmed for this, for I will rid thee of this fear.
+
+JOC. But what? In what state are our seven-towered ramparts?
+
+MESS. They stand unshaken, nor is the city destroyed.
+
+JOC. Come they in danger from the spear of Argos?
+
+MESS. To the very extreme of danger; but the arms of Thebes came off
+superior to the Mycenæan spear.
+
+JOC. Tell me one thing, by the Gods, whether thou knowest any thing of
+Polynices (since this is a concern to me also) whether he sees the light.
+
+MESS. Thus far in the day thy pair of children lives.
+
+JOC. Be thou blest. But how did ye stationed on the towers drive off the
+spear of Argos from the gates? Tell me, that I may go and delight the old
+blind man in the house with the news of his country's being preserved.
+
+MESS. After that the son of Creon, he that died for the land, standing on
+the summit of the towers, plunged the black-handled sword into his throat,
+the salvation of this land, thy son placed seven cohorts, and their leaders
+with them, at the seven gates, guards against the Argive spear; and he drew
+up the horse ready to support the horse, and the heavy-armed men to
+reinforce the shield-bearers, so that to the part of the wall which was in
+danger there might be succor at hand. But from the lofty citadel we view
+the army of the Argives with their white shields, having quitted Tumessus
+and now come near the trench, at full speed they reached the city of the
+land of Cadmus. And the pæan and the trumpets at the same time from them
+resounded, and off the walls from us. And first indeed Parthenopæus the son
+of the huntress (_Atalanta_) led his division horrent with their thick
+shields against the Neïtan[35] gate, having a family device in the middle
+of his shield, Atalanta destroying the Ætolian boar with her
+distant-wounding bow. And against the Prætan gate marched the prophet
+Amphiaraüs, having victims in his car, not bearing an insolent emblem, but
+modestly having his arms without a device. But against the Ogygian gate
+stood Prince Hippomedon, bearing an emblem in the middle of his shield, the
+Argus gazing with his spangled[36] eyes, [some eyes indeed with the rising
+of the stars awake,[37] and some with the setting closed, as we had the
+opportunity of seeing afterward when he was dead.] But Tydeus was drawn up
+at the Homoloïan gate, having on his shield a lion's skin rough with his
+mane, but in his right hand he bore a torch, as the Titan Prometheus,[38]
+intent on firing the city. But thy son Polynices drew up his array at the
+Crenean gate; but the swift Potnian mares, the emblem on his shield, were
+starting through fright, well circularly[39] grouped within _the orb_ at
+the handle of the shield, so that they seemed infuriated. But Capaneus, not
+holding less notions than Mars on the approaching battle, drew up his
+division against the Electran gate. Upon the iron embossments of his shield
+was an earth-born giant bearing upon his shoulders a whole city, which he
+had torn up from the foundations with bars, an intimation to us what our
+city should suffer. But at the seventh gate was Adrastus, having his shield
+filled with a hundred vipers, bearing on his left arm a representation of
+the hydra, the boast of Argos, and from the midst of the walls the dragons
+were bearing the children of the Thebans in their jaws. But I had the
+opportunity of seeing each of these, as I took the word of battle to the
+leaders of the divisions. And first indeed we fought with bows, and
+javelins, and distant-wounding slings, and fragments of rocks; but when we
+were conquering in the fight, Tydeus shouted out, and thy son on a sudden,
+"O sons of the Danaï, why delay we, ere we are galled with their missile
+weapons, to make a rush at the gates all in a body, light-armed men,
+horsemen, and those who drive the chariots?" And when they heard the cry,
+no one was backward; but many fell, their heads besmeared with blood; of us
+also you might have seen before the walls frequent divers toppling to the
+ground; and they moistened the parched earth with streams of blood. But the
+Arcadian, no Argive, the son of Atalanta, as some whirlwind falling on the
+gates, calls out for fire and a spade, as though he would dig up the city.
+But Periclymenus the son of the God of the Ocean stopped him in his raging,
+hurling at his head a stone, a wagon-load, a pinnacle[40] _rent_ from the
+battlement; and dashed in pieces his head with its auburn hair, and crushed
+the suture of the bones, and besmeared with blood his lately blooming
+cheeks; nor shall he carry back his living form to his mother, glorious in
+her bow, the daughter of Mænalus. But when thy son saw this gate was in a
+state of safety, he went to another, and I followed. But I see Tydeus, and
+many armed with shields around him, darting with their Ætolian lances at
+the highest battlements of the towers, so that our men put to flight
+quitted the heights of the ramparts; but thy son, as a hunter, collects
+them together again; and posted them a second time on the towers; and we
+hasten on to another gate, having relieved the distress in this quarter.
+But Capaneus, how can I express the measure of his rage! For he came
+bearing the ranges of a long-reaching ladder, and made this high boast,
+"That not even the hallowed fire of Jove should hinder him from taking the
+city from its highest turrets." And these things soon as he had proclaimed,
+though assailed with stones, he clambered up, having contracted his body
+under his shield, climbing the slippery footing of the bars[41] of the
+ladder: but when he was now mounting the battlements of the walls Jupiter
+strikes him with his thunder; and the earth resounded, insomuch that all
+trembled; and his limbs were hurled, as it were by a sling, from the ladder
+separately from one another, his hair to heaven, and his blood to the
+ground, and his limbs, like the whirling of Ixion on his wheel, were
+carried round; and his scorched body falls to the earth. But when Adrastus
+saw that Jove was hostile to his army, he stationed the host of the Argives
+without the trench. But ours on the contrary, when they saw the auspicious
+sign from Jove, drove out their chariots, horsemen and heavy-armed, and
+rushing into the midst of the Argive arms engaged in fight: and there were
+all the sorts of misery together: they died, they fell from their chariots,
+and the wheels leaped up and axles upon axles: and corses were heaped
+together with corses.--We have preserved then our towers from being
+overthrown to this present day; but whether for the future this land will
+be prosperous, rests with the Gods.
+
+CHOR. To conquer is glorious; but if the Gods have the better intent, may I
+be fortunate!
+
+JOC. Well are the ways of the Gods, and of fortune; for my children live,
+and my country has escaped; but the unhappy Creon seems to feel the effects
+of my marriage, and of Œdipus's misfortunes, being deprived of his child;
+for the state indeed, happily, but individually, to his misery: but recount
+to me again, what after this did my two sons purpose to do?
+
+MESS. Forbear the rest; for in every circumstance hitherto thou art
+fortunate.
+
+JOC. This hast thou said so as to raise suspicion; I must not forbear.
+
+MESS. Dost thou want any thing more than that thy sons are safe?
+
+JOC. In what follows also I would hear if I am fortunate.
+
+MESS. Let me go: thy son is deprived of his armor-bearer.
+
+JOC. Thou concealest some ill and coverest it in obscurity.
+
+MESS. I can not speak thy ills after thy happiness.
+
+JOC. _But thou shalt_, unless fleeing from me thou fleest through the air.
+
+MESS. Alas! alas! Why dost thou not suffer me to depart after a message of
+glad tidings, but forcest me to tell calamities?--Thy sons are intent on
+most shameful deeds of boldness--to engage in single combat apart from the
+whole army, having addressed to the Argives and Thebans in common a speech,
+such as they never ought to have spoken. But Eteocles began, standing on
+the lofty turret, having commanded to proclaim silence to the army. And he
+said, "O generals of the Grecian land, and chieftains of the Danaï, who
+have come hither, and O people of Cadmus, neither for the sake of Polynices
+barter your lives, nor for my cause. For I myself, taking this danger on
+myself, alone will enter the lists with my brother; and if indeed I slay
+him, I will dwell in the palace alone; but should I be subdued, I will give
+it up to him alone. But you, ceasing from the combat, O Argives, shall
+return to your land, not leaving your lives here; [of the Theban people
+also there is enough that lieth dead,"] Thus much he spake; but thy son
+Polynices rushed from the ranks, and approved his words. But all the
+Argives murmured their applause, and the people of Cadmus, as thinking this
+plan just. And after this the generals made a truce, and in the space
+between the two armies pledged an oath to abide by it. And now the two sons
+of the aged Œdipus clad their bodies in an entire suit of brazen armor. And
+their friends adorned them, the champion of this land indeed the chieftains
+of the Thebans; and him the principal men of the Danaï. And they stood
+resplendent, and they changed not their color, raging to let forth their
+spears at each other. But their friends on either side as they passed by
+encouraging them with words, thus spoke. "Polynices, it rests with thee to
+erect the statue of Jove, emblem of victory, and to confer a glorious fame
+on Argos." But to Eteocles on the other hand; "Now thou fightest for the
+state, now if thou come off victorious, thou art in possession of the
+sceptre." These things they said exhorting them to the combat. But the
+seers sacrificed the sheep, and scrutinized the shooting of the flames, and
+the bursting _of the gall_, the moisture adverse[42] _to the fire_, and the
+extremity of the flame, which bears a two-fold import, both the sign of
+victory,[43] and the sign of being defeated.[44] But if thou hast any
+power, or words of wisdom, or the soothing charms of incantation, go, stay
+thy children from the fearful combat, since great the danger, [and dreadful
+will be the sequel of the contest, _namely_, tears for thee, deprived this
+day of thy two children.]
+
+JOC. O my child, Antigone, come forth from before the palace; the state of
+thy fortune suits not now the dance, nor the virgin's chamber, but it is
+thy duty, in conjunction with thy mother, to hinder two excellent men, and
+thy brothers verging toward death from falling by each other's hands.
+
+ANTIGONE, JOCASTA, CHORUS.
+
+ANT. With what new horrors, O mother of my being, dost thou call out to thy
+friends before the house?
+
+JOC. O my daughter, the life of thy brothers is gone from them.
+
+ANT. How sayest thou?
+
+JOC. They are drawn out in single combat.
+
+ANT. Alas me! what wilt thou say, my mother?
+
+JOC. Nothing of pleasant import; but follow.
+
+ANT. Whither? leaving my virgin chamber.
+
+JOC. To the army.
+
+ANT. I am ashamed to go among the crowd.
+
+JOC. Thy present state admits not bashfulness.
+
+ANT. But what shall I do then?
+
+JOC. Thou shalt quell the strife of the brothers.
+
+ANT. Doing what, my mother.
+
+JOC. Falling before them with me.
+
+ANT. Lead to the space between the armies; we must not delay.
+
+JOC. Haste, daughter, haste, since, if indeed I reach my sons before they
+engage, I still exist in heaven's fair light, but if they die, I shall lie
+dead with them.
+
+CHORUS.
+
+Alas! alas! shuddering with horror, shuddering is my breast; and through my
+flesh came pity, pity for the unhappy mother, on account of her two
+children, whether of them then will distain with blood the other (alas me
+for my sufferings, O Jove, O earth), the own brother's neck, the own
+brother's life, in arms, in slaughter? Wretched, wretched I, over which
+corse then shall I raise the lamentation for the dead? O earth, earth, the
+two beasts of prey, blood-thirsty souls, brandishing the spear, will
+quickly distain with blood the fallen, fallen enemy. Wretches, that they
+ever came to the thought of a single combat! In a foreign strain will I
+mourn with tears my elegy of groans due to the dead. Destiny is at
+hand--death is near; this day will decide the event. Ill-fated, ill-fated
+murder because of the Furies! But I see Creon here with clouded brow
+advancing toward the house, I will cease therefore from the groans I am
+uttering.
+
+CREON, CHORUS.
+
+CRE. Ah me! what shall I do? whether am I to groan in weeping myself, or
+the city, which a cloud of such magnitude encircles as to cast us amidst
+the gloom of Acheron? For my son has perished having died for the city,
+having achieved a glorious name, but to me a name of sorrow. Him having
+taken just now from the dragon's den, stabbed by his own hand, I wretched
+bore in my arms; and the whole house resounds with shrieks; but I, myself
+aged, am come after my aged sister Jocasta, that she may wash and lay out
+my son now no more. For it behooves the living well to revere the God below
+by paying honors to the dead.
+
+CHOR. Thy sister is gone out of the house, O Creon, and the girl Antigone
+attending the steps of her mother.
+
+CRE. Whither? and for what hap? tell me.
+
+CHOR. She heard that her sons were about to come to a contest in single
+battle for the royal palace.
+
+CRE. How sayest thou? whilst I was fondly attending to my son's corse, I
+arrived not so far _in knowledge_, as to be acquainted with this also.
+
+CHOR. But thy sister has indeed been gone some time; but I think, O Creon,
+that the contest, in which their lives are at stake, has already been
+concluded by the sons of Œdipus.
+
+CRE. Ah me! I see indeed this signal, the downcast eye and countenance of
+the approaching messenger, who will relate every thing that has taken
+place.
+
+MESSENGER, CREON, CHORUS.
+
+MESS. O wretched me! what language or what words can I utter? we are
+undone--
+
+CRE. Thou beginnest thy speech with no promising prelude.
+
+MESS. Oh wretched me! doubly do I lament, for I hear great calamities.
+
+CRE. In addition to the calamities that have happened dost thou still speak
+of others?
+
+MESS. Thy sister's sons, O Creon, no longer behold the light.
+
+CRE. Ah! alas! thou utterest great ills to me and to the state.
+
+MESS. O mansions of Œdipus, do ye hear these things of thy children who
+have perished by similar fates?
+
+CHOR. Ay, so that, had they but sense, they would weep.
+
+CRE. O most heavy misery! Oh me wretched with woes! alas! unhappy me!
+
+MESS. If that thou knewest the evils yet in addition to these.
+
+CRE. And how can there be more fatal ills than these?
+
+MESS. Thy sister is dead with her two children.
+
+CHOR. Raise, raise the cry of woe, and smite your heads with the blows of
+your white hands.
+
+CRE. Oh unhappy Jocasta, what an end of thy life and of thy marriage hast
+thou endured in the riddles of the Sphinx![45] But how took place the
+slaughter of her two sons, and the combat arising from the curse of Œdipus?
+tell me.
+
+MESS. The success of the country before the towers indeed thou knowest; for
+the circuit of the wall is not of such vast extent, but that thou must know
+all that has taken place. But after that the sons of the aged Œdipus had
+clad their limbs in brazen armor, they came and stood in the midst of the
+plain between the two armies, ready for the contest, and the fierceness of
+the single battle. And having cast a look toward Argos, Polynices uttered
+his prayer; "O venerable Juno (for I am thine, since in marriage I joined
+myself with the daughter of Adrastus, and dwell in that land), grant me to
+slay my brother, and to cover with blood my hostile hand bearing the
+victory." And Eteocles looking at the temple of Pallas, glorious in her
+golden shield, prayed; "O Daughter of Jove, grant me with my hand to hurl
+my victorious spear from this arm home to the breast of my brother, [and
+slay him who came to lay waste my country."] And when the sound of the
+Tuscan trumpet was raised, as the torch, the signal for the fierce battle,
+they sped with dreadful rush toward each other; and like wild boars
+whetting their savage tusks, they met, their cheeks all moist with foam;
+and they rushed forward with their lances; but they couched beneath the
+orbs of their shields, in order that the steel might fall harmless. But if
+either perceived the other's eye raised above the verge, he drove the lance
+at his face, intent to be beforehand with him: but dexterously they shifted
+their eyes to the open ornaments of their shields, so that the spear was
+made of none effect. And more sweat trickled down the spectators than the
+combatants, through the fear of their friends. But Eteocles, stumbling with
+his foot against a stone, which rolled under his tread,[46] places his limb
+without the shield. But Polynices ran up with his spear, when he saw a
+stroke open to his steel, and the Argive spear passed through the shank.
+And all the host of the Danaï shouted for joy. And the hero who first was
+wounded, when he perceived his shoulder exposed in this effort, pierced the
+breast of Polynices with his lance, and gave joy to the citizens of Cadmus,
+but he broke the point of his spear. But being come to a strait for a
+spear, he retreated backward on his leg, and taking a stone of marble, he
+hurled it and crashed _his antagonist's_ spear in the middle: and the
+battle was on equal terms, both being deprived of the spear in their hands.
+Then seizing the handles of their swords they met at close quarters, and,
+as they clashed their shields together, raised a great tumult of battle
+around them. And Eteocles having a sort of idea of its success, made use of
+a Thessalian stratagem, _which he had learned_ from his connection with
+that country. For giving up his present mode of attack, he brings his left
+foot behind, protecting well the pit of his own stomach; and stepping
+forward his right leg, he plunged the sword through the navel, and drove it
+to the vertebræ. But the unhappy Polynices bending together his side and
+his bowels falls weltering in blood. But the other, as he were now the
+victor, and had subdued him in the fight, casting his sword on the ground,
+went to spoil him, not fixing his attention on himself, but on that his
+purpose. Which thing also deceived him; for Polynices, he that fell first,
+still breathing a little, preserving his sword e'en in his deathly fall,
+with difficulty indeed, but he did stretch his sword to the heart of
+Eteocles. And holding the dust in their gripe they both fall near one
+another, and determined not the victory.
+
+CHOR. Alas! alas! to what degree, O Œdipus, do I groan for thy misfortunes!
+but the God seems to have fulfilled thy imprecations.
+
+MESS. Hear now then woes even in addition to these--For when her sons
+having fallen were breathing their last, at this moment the wretched mother
+rushes before them, and when she perceived them stricken with mortal wounds
+she shrieked out, "Oh my sons, I am come too late a succor:" and throwing
+herself by the side of her children in turn, she wept, she lamented with
+moans her long anxiety in suckling them _now lost_: and their sister, who
+accompanied to stand by her in her misery, at the same time _broke forth_;
+"O supporters of my mother's age! Oh ye that have betrayed my hopes of
+marriage, my dearest brothers!"--But king Eteocles heaving from his breast
+his gasping breath, heard his mother, and putting out his cold clammy hand,
+sent not forth indeed a voice; but from his eyes spoke her in tears to
+signify affection. But Polynices, who yet breathed, looking at his sister
+and his aged mother, thus spoke: "We perish, O my mother; but I grieve for
+thee, and for this my sister, and my brother who lies dead, for being my
+friend, he became my enemy, but still my friend.--But bury me, O mother of
+my being, and thou my sister, in my native land, and pacify the exasperated
+city, that I may obtain thus much at least of my country's land, although I
+have lost the palace. And close my eyelids with thy hand, my mother" (and
+he places it himself upon his eyes), "and fare ye well! for now darkness
+surroundeth me." And both breathed out their lives together. And the
+mother, when she saw what had taken place, beyond endurance grieving,
+snatched the sword from the dead body, and perpetrated a deed of horror;
+for she drove the steel through the middle of her throat, and lies dead on
+those most dear to her, having each in her arms embraced. But the people
+rose up hastily to a strife of opinions; we indeed, as holding, that my
+master was victorious; but they, that the other was; and there was also a
+contention between the generals, those on the other side _contended_, that
+Polynices first struck with the spear, but those on ours that there was no
+victory where the combatants died. [And in the mean time Antigone withdrew
+from the army;] but they rushed to arms; but fortunately by a sort of
+foresight the people of Cadmus had sat upon their shields: and we gained
+the advantage of falling on the Argives not yet accoutred in their arms.
+And no one made a stand, but flying they covered the plain; and immense
+quantities of blood were spilt of the corses that fell, but when we were
+victorious in the fight, some indeed raised the image of Jove emblem of
+victory, but some of us stripping the shields from the Argive corses sent
+the spoils within the city. But others with Antigone are bearing hither the
+dead for their friends to lament over. But these contests have in some
+respect turned out most happy for this state, but in other respect most
+unhappy.
+
+CHOR. No longer the misfortunes of the house come to our ears, we may also
+see before the palace these three fallen corses, who have shared the dark
+realms by a united death.
+
+[_The dead bodies borne_.]
+
+ANTIGONE, CREON, CHORUS.
+
+ANT. Not veiling the softness of my cheek on which my ringlets fall, nor
+caring for the purple glow of virginity under my lids, the blush of my
+countenance, I am borne along the bacchanal of the dead, rending the fillet
+from my hair, rejecting the saffron robe of delicateness, having the
+mournful office of conducting the dead. Alas! alas! woe is me! Oh
+Polynices, thou well answeredst to thy name! Alas me! Oh Thebes! but thy
+strife, no strife, but murder consummated with murder,[47] hath destroyed
+the house of Œdipus with dreadful, with mournful blood. But what groan
+responsive to my sufferings, or what lament of music shall I invoke to my
+tears, to my tears, O house, O house, bearing these three kindred bodies,
+my mother, and her children, the joy of the fury? who destroyed the entire
+house of Œdipus, what time intelligently[48] he unfolded the difficult song
+of the fierce monster, having thereby slain the body of the fierce musical
+Sphinx. Alas me! my father; what Grecian, or what Barbarian, or what other
+of the noble in birth, of mortal blood, in time of old ever bore such
+manifest sufferings of so many ills? Wretched I, how do I lament! What
+bird, sitting on the highest boughs of the oak or pine, will sing
+responsive to my lamentations, who have lost my mother? who weep the strain
+of grief in addition to these moans _for my brothers_, about to pass my
+long life in floods of tears.--Which shall I bewail? On which first shall I
+scatter the first offerings rent from my hair? On my mother's two breasts
+of milk, or upon the death-wounds of my two brothers? Alas! alas! Leave
+thine house, bringing thy sightless eye, O aged father, Œdipus, show thy
+wretched age, who within thy palace having poured the gloomy darkness over
+thine eyes, draggest on a long[49] life. Dost thou hear wandering in the
+hall,--resting thy aged foot upon the couch in a state of misery?
+
+ŒDIPUS, CREON, ANTIGONE, CHORUS.
+
+ŒD. Why, O virgin, hast thou with the most doleful tears called me forth
+leaning on the support of a blind foot[50] to the light, a bed-ridden man
+from his darksome chamber, gray-headed, an obscure phantom of air--a dead
+body beneath the earth--a flitting dream?
+
+ANT. O father, thou shalt receive words of unhappy tidings; no longer do
+thy children behold the light, nor thy wife, who ever was employed in
+attending as a staff on thy blind foot, my father: alas me!
+
+ŒD. Alas me, for my sufferings! for well may I groan and vociferate these
+things. The three souls, tell me, my child, by what fate, how quitted they
+this light?
+
+ANT. Not for the sake of reproaching thee, nor exulting over thee, but for
+grief I speak: thy evil genius, heavy with swords, and fire, and wretched
+combats, has rushed down upon thy children, O my father.
+
+ŒD. Alas me! ah! ah!
+
+ANT. Why dost thou thus groan?
+
+ŒD. Alas me! my children!
+
+ANT. Thou wouldest grieve indeed, if looking on the chariot of the sun
+drawn by its four steeds, thou couldest direct the sight of thine eyes to
+these bodies of the dead.
+
+ŒD. The evil of my sons indeed is manifest; but my wretched wife, by what
+fate, O my child, did she perish?
+
+ANT. Causing to all tears of grief they could not contain, to her children
+she bared her breast, a suppliant she bared it, holding it up in
+supplication. But the mother found her children at the Electran gate, in
+the mead where the lotus abounds, contending with their lances in the
+common war, as lions bred in the same cave, with the blood-wounds now a
+cold, a gory libation, which Plato received, and Mars gave. And having
+seized the brazen-wrought sword from the dead she plunged it into her
+flesh, but with grief for her children she fell amidst her children. But
+all these sufferings, O my father, has the God heaped this day upon our
+house, whoever he be, that adds this consummation.
+
+CHOR. This day hath been the beginning of many woes to the house of Œdipus;
+but may life be more fortunate!
+
+CRE. Now indeed cease from your grief, for it is time to think of the
+sepulture. But hear these words, O Œdipus; Eteocles, thy son, hath given to
+me the dominion of this land, giving them as a marriage portion to Hæmon,
+and _with them_ the bed of thy daughter Antigone. I therefore will not
+suffer thee any longer to dwell in this land. For clearly did Tiresias say,
+that never, whilst thou dost inhabit this land, will the state be
+prosperous. But depart; and this I say not from insolence, nor being thine
+enemy, but on account of thy evil genius, fearing lest the country suffer
+any harm.
+
+ŒD. O Fate, from the beginning how wretched [and unhappy] didst thou form
+me, [if ever other man was formed!] whom, even before I came into the light
+from my mother's womb, when yet unborn Apollo foretold that I should be the
+murderer of my father Laïus, alas! wretch that I am! And when I was born,
+again my father who gave me life, seeks to take my life, considering that I
+was born his enemy: for it was fated that he should die by my hands, and he
+sends me, poor wretch, as I craved the breast, a prey for the wild beasts:
+where I was preserved--for would that Cithæron, it ought, had sunk to the
+bottomless chasms of Tartarus, for that it did not destroy me; but the God
+fixed it my lot to serve under Polybus my master: but I unhappy man, having
+slain my own father, ascended the bed of my wretched mother, and begat
+children, my brothers, whom I destroyed, having received down the curse
+from Laïus, and given it to my sons. For I was not by nature so utterly
+devoid of understanding, as to have devised such things against my eyes,
+and against the life of my children, without the interference of some of
+the Gods. Well!--what then shall I ill-fated do? who will accompany me the
+guide of my dark steps? She that lies here dead! living, well know I, she
+would. But my noble pair of sons? I have no sons.--But still in my vigor
+can I myself procure my sustenance? Whence?--Why, O Creon, dost thou thus
+utterly kill me? for kill me thou wilt, if thou shalt cast me out of the
+land. Yet will I not appear base, stretching my hands around thy knees, for
+I can not belie my former nobleness, not even though my plight is
+miserable.
+
+CRE. Well has it been spoken by thee, that thou wilt not touch my knees,
+but I can not permit thee to dwell in the land. But of these corses, the
+one we must even now bear to the house; but the body of Polynices cast out
+unburied beyond the borders of this land. And these things shall be
+proclaimed to all the Thebans: "whoever shall be found either crowning the
+corse, or covering it with earth, shall receive death for his offense." But
+thou, ceasing from the groans for the three dead, retire, Antigone, within
+the house, and behave as beseems a virgin, expecting the approaching day in
+which the bed of Hæmon awaits thee.
+
+ANT. Oh father, in what a state of woes do we miserable beings lie! How do
+I lament for thee! more than for the dead! For it is not that one of thy
+ills is heavy, and the other not heavy, but thou art in all things unhappy,
+my father.--But thee I ask, our new lord, [wherefore dost thou insult my
+father here, banishing him from his country?] Why make thy laws against an
+unhappy corse?
+
+CRE. The determination of Eteocles this, not mine.
+
+ANT. It is absurd, and thou a fool to enforce it.
+
+CRE. How so? Is it not just to execute injunctions?
+
+ANT. No, if they are base, at least, and spoken with ill intent.
+
+CRE. What! will he not with justice be given to the dogs?
+
+ANT. _No_, for thus do ye not demand of him lawful justice.
+
+CRE. _We do_; since he was the enemy of the state, who least ought to be an
+enemy.
+
+ANT. Hath he not paid then his life to fortune?
+
+CRE. And in his burial too let him now satisfy vengeance.
+
+ANT. What outrage having committed, if he came after his share of the
+kingdom?
+
+CRE. This man, that you may know once for all, shall be unburied.
+
+ANT. I will bury him; even though the city forbid it.
+
+CRE. Thyself then wilt thou at the same time bury near the corse.
+
+ANT. But that is a glorious thing, for two friends to lie near.
+
+CRE. Lay hold of her, and bear her to the house.
+
+ANT. By no means--for I will not let go this body.
+
+CRE. The God has decreed it, O virgin, not as thou wilt.
+
+ANT. And this too is decreed--that the dead be not insulted.
+
+CRE. Around him none shall place the moist dust.
+
+ANT. Nay, by his mother here Jocasta, I entreat thee, Creon.
+
+CRE. Thou laborest in vain, for thou canst not obtain this.
+
+ANT. But suffer thou me at any rate to bathe the body.
+
+CRE. This would be one of the things forbidden by the state.
+
+ANT. But let me put bandages round his cruel wounds.
+
+CRE. In no way shalt thou show respect to this corse.
+
+ANT. Oh most dear, but I will at least kiss thy lips.
+
+CRE. Thou shalt not prepare calamity against thy wedding by thy
+lamentations.
+
+ANT. What! while I live shall I ever marry thy son?
+
+CRE. There is strong necessity for thee, for by what means wilt thou escape
+the marriage?
+
+ANT. That night then shall find me one of the Danaïdæ.
+
+CRE. Dost mark with what audacity she hath insulted us?
+
+ANT. The steel be witness, and the sword, by which I swear.
+
+CRE. But why art thou so eager to get rid of this marriage?
+
+ANT. I will take my flight with my most wretched father here.
+
+CRE. There is nobleness in thee; but there is some degree of folly.
+
+ANT. And I will die with him too, that thou mayest farther know.
+
+CRE. Go--thou shalt not slay my son--quit the land.
+
+ŒDIPUS, ANTIGONE, CHORUS.
+
+ŒD. O daughter, I praise thee indeed for thy zealous intentions.
+
+ANT. But if I were to marry, and thou suffer banishment alone, my father?
+
+ŒD. Stay and be happy; I will bear with content mine own ills.
+
+ANT. And who will minister to thee, blind as thou art, my father?
+
+ŒD. Falling wherever it shall be my fate, I will lie on the ground.
+
+ANT. But Œdipus, where is he? and the renowned Enigmas?
+
+ŒD. Perished! one day blest me, and one day destroyed.
+
+ANT. Ought not I then to have a share in thy woes?
+
+ŒD. To a daughter exile with a blind father is shameful.
+
+ANT. Not to a right-minded one however, but honorable, my father.
+
+ŒD. Lead me now onward, that I may touch thy mother.
+
+ANT. There: touch the aged woman with thy most dear hand.
+
+ŒD. O mother! Oh most hapless wife!
+
+ANT. She doth lie miserable, having all ills at once on her.
+
+ŒD. But where is the fallen body of Eteocles, and of Polynices?
+
+ANT. They lie extended before thee near one another.
+
+ŒD. Place my blind hand upon their unhappy faces.
+
+ANT. There: touch thy dead children with thy hand.
+
+ŒD. O ye dear wrecks, unhappy, of an unhappy father.
+
+ANT. O name of Polynices, most dear indeed to me.
+
+ŒD. Now, my child, is the oracle of Apollo come to pass.
+
+ANT. What? but dost thou mention evils in addition to these evils?
+
+ŒD. That I must die an exile at Athens.
+
+ANT. Where? what citadel of Attica will receive thee?
+
+ŒD. The sacred Colonus, and the temple of the Equestrian God. But
+stay--minister to thy blind father here, since thou art desirous of sharing
+his exile.
+
+ANT. Go to thy wretched banishment: stretch forth thy dear hand, O aged
+father, having me as thy guide, as the gale that wafts the ship.
+
+ŒD. Behold, I go, my child, be thou my unhappy conductor.
+
+ANT. We are, we are indeed unhappy above all Theban virgins.
+
+ŒD. Where shall I place my aged footstep? Bring my staff, my child.
+
+ANT. This way, this way come; here, here place thy foot, thou that hast the
+strength of a dream.
+
+ŒD. Alas! alas! for my most wretched flight!--To drive me, old as I am,
+from my country--Alas! alas! the dreadful, dreadful things that I have
+suffered!
+
+ANT. What suffered! what suffered![51] Vengeance sees not the wicked, nor
+repays the foolishness of mortals.
+
+ŒD. That man am I, who mounted aloft to the victorious heavenly song,
+having solved the dark enigma of the virgin Sphinx.
+
+ANT. Dost thou bring up again the glory of the Sphinx? Forbear from
+speaking of thy former successes. These wretched sufferings awaited thee, O
+father, being an exile from thy country to die any where. Leaving with my
+dear virgins tears for my loss, I depart far from my country, wandering in
+state not like a virgin's.
+
+ŒD. Oh! the excellency of thy mind!
+
+ANT. In the calamities of a father at least it will make me glorious.
+Wretched am I, on account of the insults offered to thee and to my brother,
+who has perished from the family, a corse denied sepulture, unhappy, whom,
+even if I must die, my father, I will cover with secret earth.
+
+ŒD. Go, show thyself to thy companions.
+
+ANT. They have enough of my lamentations.
+
+ŒD. But make thy supplications at the altars.
+
+ANT. They have a satiety of my woes.
+
+ŒD. Go then, where stands the fane of Bacchus unapproached, on the
+mountains of the Mænades.
+
+ANT. To whom I formerly, clad in the skin of the Theban fawn, danced the
+sacred step of Semele on the mountains, conferring a thankless favor on the
+Gods?
+
+ŒD. O ye inhabitants of my illustrious country, behold, I, this Œdipus, who
+alone stayed the violence of the bloodthirsty Sphinx, now, dishonored,
+forsaken, miserable, am banished from the land. Yet why do I bewail these
+things, and lament in vain? For the necessity of fate proceeding from the
+Gods a mortal must endure.
+
+CRE. [O greatly glorious Victory, mayest thou uphold my life, and cease not
+from crowning me!] (See note [H].)
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+NOTES ON THE PHŒNICIAN VIRGINS
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+[1] That is, through the signs of the zodiac: αστηρ differs from αστρον,
+the former signifying a single star, the latter many.
+
+[2] The preposition συν is omitted, as in Homer,
+
+  Αυτηι κεν γαιηι ερυσαιμι.
+
+The same omission occurs in the Bacchæ, αυτηισιν ελαταις, and again in the
+Hippolytus. It is an Atticism.
+
+[3] See note on Hecuba, 478.
+
+[4] The word τουνομα must be supplied after τουτο, which is implied in the
+verb καλουσιν.
+
+[5] The ζαρος is a bird of prey of the vulture species. The sphinx was
+represented as having the face of a woman, the breast and feet of a lion,
+and the wings of a bird.
+
+[5a] Dindorf would omit this verse.
+
+[6] αραι and αρασθαι are often used by the poets in a good sense for
+prayers, ευχαι and ευχεσθαι for curses and imprecations.
+
+[7] διηρες ‛υπερωον, η κλιμαξ. HESYCHIUS.
+
+[8] Milton, Par. Regained, b. iii. l. 326.
+
+  The field, all iron, cast a gleaming brown.
+
+[9] Lerna, a country of Argolis celebrated for a grove and a lake where the
+Danaides threw the heads of their murdered husbands. It was there also that
+Hercules killed the famous Hydra.
+
+[10] This alludes to the figure of Argus engraved on his shield. See verse
+1130.
+
+[11] Tydeus married Deipyle, Polynices Argia, both daughters of Adrastus,
+king of Argos.
+
+[12] Some suppose ‛υστερωι ποδι to mean with their last steps, that is,
+with steps which are doomed never to return again to their own country.
+
+[13] Triæna was a place in Argolis, where Neptune stuck his trident in the
+ground, and immediately water sprung up. SCHOL.
+
+[14] Amymone was daughter of Danaus and Europa; she was employed, by order
+of her father, in supplying the city of Argos with water, in a great
+drought. Neptune saw her in this employment, and was enamored of her. He
+carried her away, and in the place where she stood he raised a fountain,
+which has been called Amymone. See Propert. ii. El. 20. v. 47.
+
+[15] αλληλας λεγουσιν is, _they say one of another_; αλληλαις λεγουσιν,
+_they say among themselves_.
+
+[16] By πεδιων ακαρπιστων is to be understood the sea. The construction
+πεδιων περιρρυτον Σικελιας, that is, ‛α Σικελιαν περιρρει. The same
+construction is found in Sophocles, Œd. Tyr. l. 885. δικας αφοβητος. L.
+969. αφαυστος εγχους. See also Horace, Lib. iv. Od. 4. 43.
+
+  Ceu flamma per tædas, vel Eurus
+  Per Siculas equitavit undas.
+
+[17] The fire was on that head of Parnassus which was sacred to Apollo and
+Diana; to those below it appeared double, being divided to the eye by a
+pointed rock which rose before it. SCHOL.
+
+[18] The Python which Apollo slew.
+
+[19] Libya the daughter of Epaphus bore to Neptune Agenor and Belus. Cadmus
+was the son of Agenor, and Antiope the daughter of Belus.
+
+[19a] But Dind. εκφρωσ'. See his note.
+
+[20] The construction is, αμφιβαλλε μοι το των παρηϊδων σου ορεγμα: that
+is, _genarum ad oscula porrectionem_. It can not be translated literally.
+The verb αμφιβαλλε is to be supplied before ορεγμα, and before πλοκαμον.
+See Orestes, 950.
+
+[21] Locus videtur corruptus. PORSON. Valckenaer proposes to read
+δακρυοεσσ' ανιεισα κ.τ.λ. Markland would supply φωνην after ‛ιεισα. Another
+reading proposed is, δακρυοεσσ' ενιεισα πενθηρη κονιν. _Lacrymabunda,
+lugubrem cinerem injiciens_. Followed by Dindorf.
+
+[22] Cf. Æsch. Prom. 39. το συγγενες τοι δεινον ‛η θ' ‛ομιλια, where
+consult Schutz.
+
+[23] See Porson's note. A similar ellipse is to be found in Luke xiii. 9.
+Καιν μεν ποιησηι καρπον: ει δε μηγε, εις το μελλον εκκοψεις αυτην: which is
+thus translated in our version; "And if it bear fruit, _well_: and if not,
+_then_ after that thou shalt cut it down." See also Iliad, A. 135.
+Aristoph. Plut. 468. ed. Kuster.
+
+[24] Βραβευς, properly, is the judge in a contest, who confers the prizes,
+and on whose decision the awarding of the prizes depends: βραβευτης is the
+same. Βραβειον is the prize. Βραβεια, and in the plural βραβειαι, the very
+act of deciding the contest.
+
+[25] So Hotspur, of honor:
+
+  By heaven, methinks, it were an easy leap,
+  To pluck bright honor from the pale-faced moon:
+  Or dive into the bottom of the deep,
+  Where fathom-line could never touch the ground,
+  And pluck up drowned honor by the locks;
+  So he, that doth redeem her thence, might wear,
+  Without corrival, all her dignities.
+                  Hen. IV. P. i. A. i. Sc. 3.
+
+[26] See Ovid. Met. vi. 28. Non omnia grandior ætas, Quæ fugiamus, habet;
+seris venit usus ab annis.
+
+[27] The Scholiast doubts whether these Gods were Castor and Pollux, or
+Zethus and Amphion, but inclines to the latter. See Herc. Fur. v. 29, 30.
+
+[28] Or, _fell with limbs that had never known yoke_.--V. Ovid: Met. iii.
+10.
+
+  Bos tibi, Phœbus ait, solis occurret in arvis,
+  Nullum passa jugum.
+
+[29] Valckenaer proposes reading instead of ‛οραις or ‛ορας, αυραις,
+writing the passage αυραις βοστρυχον αμπετασας, "per auras leves crine
+jactato:" which seems peculiarly adapted to this place, where the poet
+places the tumultuous rage of Mars in contrast with the sweet enthusiasm of
+the Bacchanalians, who are represented as flying over the plains with their
+hair streaming in the wind. But see Note [C].
+
+[30] ακοη is here to be understood in the sense of ακουομενον as we find
+αισθησις for αισθητον, νους for το νοουμενον.
+
+[31] The words διδυμων ποταμων do not refer to Dirce, but to Thebes, Thebes
+being called πολις διποταμος. The construction is πυργος διδυμων ποταμων.
+Thus in Pindar οικημα ποταμου means οικημα παρα ποταμωι. Olymp. 2. Antistr.
+1.
+
+[32] See note [D].
+
+[32a] γουν. See Dind.
+
+[33] τι γαρ παθω; _Quid enim agam?_ est formula eorum, quos invitos natura
+vel fatum, vel quæcumque alia cogit necessitas. VALCKEN.
+
+[34] Προσηγορησων is to be joined with μολων, not with ειμι. In
+confirmation of this see line 1011.
+
+[35] So called after Neïs the son of Amphion and Niobe, or from νεαται,
+"_Newgate_." SCHOL.
+
+[36] Argus himself might be called στικτος, but not his eyes, hence πυκνοις
+is proposed by Heinsius. Abreschius receives στικτοις in the sense of ‛οις
+στικτος εστι.
+
+[37] The Scholiast makes βλεποντα the accusative singular to agree with
+πανοπτην. Musgrave takes it as agreeing with ομματα; in this latter case
+κρυπτοντα is used in a neuter signification. Note [F].
+
+[38] This is Musgrave's interpretation, by putting the stop after ‛ως,
+which also Porson adopts; others would join ‛ως with πρησων. It seems
+however more natural that the torch should be referred to Tydeus's emblem,
+than to himself.
+
+[39] Commentators and interpreters are much at variance concerning the word
+στροφιγξιν. For his better satisfaction on this passage the reader is
+referred to the Scholia.
+
+[40] γεισσα is in apposition to λααν in the preceding line. Cf. Orestes,
+1585.
+
+[41] Commentators are divided on the meaning of ενηλατα. One Scholiast
+understands it to mean the uprights of the ladder in which the bars are
+fixed. Eustathias considers ενηλατων βαθρα a periphrasis for βαθρα, ενηλατα
+being the βαθρα or βαθμιδες, which ενεληλανται τοις ορθοϊς ξυλοις.
+
+[42] Musgrave would render ‛υγροτητ' εναντιαν by "mobilitatem male
+coalescentem;" in this case it would indicate the bad omen, and be opposed
+to ακραν λαμπαδα, which then should be translated "the pointed flame."
+Valckenaer considers the passage as desperately corrupt. See Musgrave's
+note. Cf. Note [G].
+
+[43] If the flame was clear and vivid.
+
+[44] If it terminated in smoke and blackness.
+
+[45] The construction of this passage is the same as that of Il. Δ 155.
+θανατον νυ τοι ‛ορκι' εταμνον. "Fœdus, quod pepigi, tibi mortis causa est."
+PORSON.
+
+[46] Beck, by putting the stop after πετρον, makes ‛υποδρομον to agree with
+κολον, "_his limb diverted from its tread_."
+
+[47] The construction is φονος κρανθεις φονωι: αιματι depends on εν
+understood.
+
+[48] Most MSS. have ξυνετος. Here then is a remarkable instance of the same
+word having both an active and a passive signification in the same
+sentence.
+
+[49] μακροπνουν, not μακροπουν, is Porson's reading, μακροπνους ζωη is
+explained "vita in qua longo tempore spiratur; ergo longa."
+
+[50] See note at Hecuba 65.
+
+[51] The old reading was τι τλας; τι τλας; making it the present tense.
+Brunck first edited it as it stands in Porson. Antigone repeats the last
+word of her father.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+ADDITIONAL NOTES.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+[A] "Signum interrogandi non post νεανιας, sed post λοχαγος ponendum.
+λοχαγος in libris pedagogo tribuitur: quod correxit Hermannus." DINDORF.
+
+[B] Porson and Dindorf (in his notes) favor Reiske's conjecture, πυκνοισι
+for πυργοισι.
+
+[C] Dindorf rightly approves the explanation of Musgrave, who takes
+στεφανοισι, like the Latin _corona_, to mean the _assemblies_. He
+translates: "_nec in pulchros choros ducentibus circulis juventutis_."
+
+[D] The full sense, as laid down by Schœfer and Dindorf, is, "for ever when
+an old man travels, whether in a carriage, or on foot, he requires help
+from others." πασα απηνη πους τε is rather boldly used, but is not without
+example.
+
+[E] i.e. "_you ask a thing_ (i.e. your son's safety) _dangerous to the
+city, which you can not preserve_." SCHŒFER.
+
+[F] These three lines are condemned by Valck. and Dind.
+
+[G] Matthiæ attempts to explain these words as follows: "εμπυροι ακμαι may
+be put for τα εμπυρα, in which the seers observed (ενωμων) two things, viz.
+the divisions (‛ρηξεις) of the flame, which, if it slid round the altars,
+was of ill omen (hence ‛υγραι, i.e. gliding gently around the altars with
+many curves, for which is put ‛υγροτης εναντια); and 2dly, _the upright
+shooting of the flame_, ακραν λαμπαδα."
+
+[H] See Dindorf on Orest. 1691. He fully condemns these lines as the work
+of an interpolator. They are, however, as old as the days of Lucian.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *       *
+
+MEDEA.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+PERSONS REPRESENTED.
+
+  NURSE.
+  TUTOR.
+  MEDEA.
+  CHORUS OF CORINTHIAN WOMEN.
+  CREON.
+  JASON.
+  ÆGEUS
+  MESSENGER.
+  SONS OF MEDEA.
+
+_The Scene lies in the vestibule of the palace of Jason at Corinth_.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE ARGUMENT.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+JASON, having come to Corinth, and bringing with him Medea, espouses
+Glauce, the daughter of Creon, king of Corinth. But Medea, on the point of
+being banished from Corinth by Creon, having asked to remain one day, and
+having obtained her wish, sends to Glauce, by the hands of her sons,
+presents, as an acknowledgment for the favor, a robe and a golden chaplet,
+which she puts on and perishes; Creon also having embraced his daughter is
+destroyed. But Medea, when she had slain her children, escapes to Athens,
+in a chariot drawn by winged dragons, which she received from the Sun, and
+there marries Ægeus son of Pandion.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+MEDEA.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+NURSE OF MEDEA.
+
+Would that the hull of Argo had not winged her way to the Colchian land
+through the Cyanean Symplegades,[1] and that the pine felled in the forests
+of Pelion had never fallen, nor had caused the hands of the chiefs to
+row,[2] who went in search of the golden fleece for Pelias; for neither
+then would my mistress Medea have sailed to the towers of the Iolcian land,
+deeply smitten in her mind with the love of Jason; nor having persuaded the
+daughters of Pelias to slay their father would she have inhabited this
+country of Corinth with her husband and her children, pleasing indeed by
+her flight[3] the citizens to whose land she came, and herself concurring
+in every respect with Jason; which is the surest support of conjugal
+happiness, when the wife is not estranged from the husband. But now every
+thing is at variance, and the dearest ties are weakened. For having
+betrayed his own children, and my mistress, Jason reposes in royal wedlock,
+having married the daughter of Creon, who is prince of this land. But Medea
+the unhappy, dishonored, calls on his oaths, and recalls the hands they
+plighted, the greatest pledge of fidelity, and invokes the gods to witness
+what return she meets with from Jason. And she lies without tasting food,
+having sunk her body in grief, dissolving all her tedious time in tears,
+after she had once known that she had been injured by her husband, neither
+raising her eye, nor lifting her countenance from the ground; but as the
+rock, or the wave of the sea, does she listen to her friends when advised.
+Save that sometimes having turned her snow-white neck she to herself
+bewails her dear father, and her country, and her house, having betrayed
+which she hath come hither with a man who has now dishonored her. And she
+wretched hath discovered from affliction what it is not to forsake one's
+paternal country. But she hates her children, nor is she delighted at
+beholding them: but I fear her, lest she form some new design: for violent
+is her mind, nor will it endure to suffer ills. I know her, and I fear her,
+lest she should force the sharpened sword through her heart, or even should
+murder the princess and him who married her, and after that receive some
+greater ill. For she is violent; he who engages with her in enmity will not
+with ease at least sing the song of victory. But these her children are
+coming hither having ceased from their exercises, nothing mindful of their
+mother's ills, for the mind of youth is not wont to grieve.
+
+TUTOR, WITH THE SONS OF MEDEA, NURSE.
+
+TUT. O thou ancient possession of my mistress's house, why dost thou stand
+at the gates preserving thus thy solitude, bewailing to thyself our
+misfortunes? How doth Medea wish to be left alone without thee?
+
+NUR. O aged man, attendant on the children of Jason, to faithful servants
+the affairs of their masters turning out ill are a calamity, and lay hold
+upon their feelings. For I have arrived at such a height of grief that
+desire hath stolen on me to come forth hence and tell the misfortunes of
+Medea to the earth and heaven.
+
+TUT. Does not she wretched yet receive any respite from her grief?
+
+NUR. I envy thy ignorance; her woe is at its rise, and not even yet at its
+height.
+
+TUT. O unwise woman, if it is allowable to say this of one's lords, since
+she knows nothing of later ills.
+
+NUR. But what is this, O aged man? grudge not to tell me.
+
+TUT. Nothing: I have repented even of what was said before.
+
+NUR. Do not, I beseech you by your beard, conceal it from your
+fellow-servant; for I will preserve silence, if it be necessary, on these
+subjects.
+
+TUT. I heard from some one who was saying, not appearing to listen, having
+approached the places where dice is played, where the elders sit, around
+the hallowed font of Pirene, that the king of this land, Creon, intends to
+banish from the Corinthian country these children, together with their
+mother; whether this report be true, however, I know not; but I wish this
+may not be the case.
+
+NUR. And will Jason endure to see his children suffer this, even although
+he is at enmity with their mother?
+
+TUT. Ancient alliances are deserted for new, and he is no friend to this
+family.
+
+NUR. We perish then, if to the old we shall add a new ill, before the
+former be exhausted.[4]
+
+TUT. But do thou, for it is not seasonable that my mistress should know
+this, restrain your tongue, and be silent on this report.
+
+NUR. O my children, do you hear what your father is toward you? Yet may he
+not perish, for he is my master, yet he is found to be treacherous toward
+his friends.
+
+TUT. And what man is not? dost thou only now know this, that every one
+loves himself dearer than his neighbor,[5] some indeed with justice, but
+others even for the sake of gain, unless it be that[6] their father loves
+not these at least on account of new nuptials.
+
+NUR. Go within the house, my children, for all will be well. But do thou
+keep these as much as possible out of the way, and let them not approach
+their mother, deranged through grief. For but now I saw her looking with
+wildness in her eyes on these, as about to execute some design, nor will
+she cease from her fury, I well know, before she overwhelm some one with
+it; upon her enemies however, and not her friends, may she do some [ill.]
+
+MEDEA. (_within_) Wretch that I am, and miserable on account of my
+misfortunes, alas me! would I might perish!
+
+NUR. Thus it is, my children; your mother excites her heart, excites her
+fury. Hasten as quick as possible within the house, and come not near her
+sight, nor approach her, but guard against the fierce temper and violent
+nature of her self-willed mind. Go now, go as quick as possible within. But
+it is evident that the cloud of grief raised up from the beginning will
+quickly burst forth with greater fury; what I pray will her soul, great in
+rage, implacable, irritated by ills, perform!
+
+MED. Alas! alas! I wretched have suffered, have suffered treatment worthy
+of great lamentation. O ye accursed children of a hated mother, may ye
+perish with your father, and may the whole house fall.
+
+NUR. Alas! alas! me miserable! but why should your children share their
+father's error? Why dost thou hate these! Alas me, my children, how beyond
+measure do I grieve lest ye suffer any evil! Dreadful are the dispositions
+of tyrants, and somehow in few things controlled, in most absolute, they
+with difficulty lay aside their passion. The being accustomed then[7] to
+live in mediocrity of life is the better: may it be my lot then to grow old
+if not in splendor, at least in security. For, in the first place, even to
+mention the name of moderation carries with it superiority, but to use it
+is by far the best conduct for men; but excess of fortune brings more power
+to men than is convenient;[8] and has brought greater woes upon families,
+when the Deity be enraged.
+
+NURSE, CHORUS.
+
+CHOR. I heard the voice, I heard the cry of the unhappy Colchian; is not
+she yet appeased? but, O aged matron, tell me; for within the apartment
+with double doors, I heard her cry; nor am I delighted, O woman, with the
+griefs of the family, since it is friendly to me.
+
+NUR. The family is not; these things are gone already: for he possesses the
+bed of royalty; but she, my mistress, is melting away her life in her
+chamber, in no way soothing her mind by the advice of any one of her
+friends.
+
+MED. Alas! alas! may the flame of heaven rush through my head, what profit
+for me to live any longer. Alas! alas! may I rest myself in death, having
+left a hated life.
+
+CHOR. Dost thou hear, O Jove, and earth, and light, the cry which the
+wretched bride utters? why I pray should this insatiable love of the
+marriage-bed hasten thee, O vain woman, to death? Pray not for this. But if
+thy husband courts a new bed, be not thus[9] enraged with him. Jove will
+avenge these wrongs for thee: waste not thyself so, bewailing thy husband.
+
+MED. O great Themis and revered Diana, do ye behold what I suffer, having
+bound my accursed husband by powerful oaths? Whom may I at some time see
+and his bride torn piecemeal with their very houses, who dare to injure me
+first. O my father, O my city, whom I basely abandoned, having slain my
+brother.
+
+NUR. Do ye hear what she says, and how she invokes Themis hearing the vow,
+and Jove who is considered the dispenser of oaths to mortals? It is not
+possible that my mistress will lull her rage to rest on any trivial
+circumstance.
+
+CHOR. By what means could she come into our sight, and hear the voice of
+our discourse, if she would by any means remit her fierce anger and her
+fury of mind. Let not my zeal however be wanting ever to my friends. But go
+and conduct her hither from without the house, my friend, and tell her
+this, hasten, before she injure in any way those within, for this grief of
+hers is increased to a great height.
+
+NUR. I will do it, but I fear that I shall not persuade my mistress;
+nevertheless I will give you this favor of my labor. And yet with the
+aspect of a lioness that has just brought forth does she look sternly on
+her attendants when any one approaches near attempting to address her. But
+thou wouldest not err in calling men of old foolish and nothing wise, who
+invented songs, for festivals, for banquets, and for suppers, the delights
+of life that charm the ear; but no mortal has discovered how to soothe with
+music and with varied strains those bitter pangs, from which death and
+dreadful misfortunes overthrow families. And yet for men to assuage these
+griefs with music were gain; but where the plenteous banquet is furnished,
+why raise they the song in vain? for the present bounty of the feast brings
+pleasure of itself to men.
+
+CHOR. I heard the dismal sound of groans, and in a shrill voice she vents
+her bitter[10] anguish on the traitor to her bed, her faithless
+husband--and suffering wrongs she calls upon the Goddess Themis, arbitress
+of oaths, daughter of Jove, who conducted her to the opposite coast of
+Greece, across the sea by night, over the salt straits of the boundless
+ocean.
+
+MEDEA, CHORUS.
+
+MED. Ye Corinthian dames, I have come from out my palace; do not in any
+wise blame me; for I have known many men who have been[11] renowned, some
+who have lived far from public notice, and others in the world; but those
+of a retired turn have gained for themselves a character of infamy and
+indolence. For justice dwells not in the eyes of man,[12] whoever, before
+he can well discover the disposition of a man, hates him at sight, in no
+way wronged by him. But it is necessary for a stranger exactly to conform
+himself to the state, nor would I praise the native, whoever becoming
+self-willed is insolent to his fellow-citizens through ignorance. But this
+unexpected event that hath fallen upon me hath destroyed my spirit: I am
+going, and having given up the pleasure of life I am desirous to meet
+death, my friends. For he on whom my all rested, as you well know, my
+husband, has turned out the basest of men. But of all things as many as
+have life and intellect, we women are the most wretched race. Who indeed
+first must purchase a husband with excess of money, and receive him a lord
+of our persons; for this is a still greater ill than the former. And in
+this is the greatest risk, whether we receive a bad one or a good one; for
+divorces bring not good fame to women, nor is it possible to repudiate
+one's husband. But on passing to new tempers and new laws, one need be a
+prophetess, as one can not learn of one's self, what sort of consort one
+shall most likely experience. And if with us carefully performing these
+things a husband shall dwell not imposing on us a yoke with severity,
+enviable is our life; if not, to die is better. But a man, when he is
+displeased living with those at home, having gone abroad is wont to relieve
+his heart of uneasiness, having recourse either to some friend or compeer.
+But we must look but to one person. But they say of us that we live a life
+of ease at home, but they are fighting with the spear; judging ill, since I
+would rather thrice stand in arms, than once suffer the pangs of
+child-birth. But, for the same argument comes not home to you and me, this
+is thy city, and thy father's house, thine are both the luxuries of life,
+and the society of friends; but I being destitute, cityless, am wronged by
+my husband, brought as a prize from a foreign land, having neither mother,
+nor brother, nor relation to afford me shelter from this calamity. So much
+then I wish to obtain from you, if any plan or contrivance be devised by me
+to repay with justice these injuries on my husband, and on him who gave his
+daughter, and on her to whom he was married,[13] that you would be silent;
+for a woman in other respects is full of fear, and timid to look upon deeds
+of courage and the sword; but when she is injured in her bed, no other
+disposition is more blood-thirsty.
+
+CHOR. I will do this; for with justice, Medea, wilt thou avenge thyself on
+thy husband, and I do not wonder that you lament your misfortunes. But I
+see Creon monarch of this land advancing, the messenger of new counsels.
+
+CREON, MEDEA, CHORUS.
+
+CRE. Thee of gloomy countenance, and enraged with thy husband, Medea, I
+command to depart in exile from out of this land, taking with thee thy two
+children, and not to delay in any way, since I am the arbiter of this
+edict, and I will not return back to my palace, until I shall drive thee
+beyond the boundaries of this realm.
+
+MED. Alas! alas! I wretched am utterly destroyed, for my enemies stretch
+out every cable against me; nor is there any easy escape from this evil,
+but I will speak, although suffering injurious treatment; for what, Creon,
+dost thou drive me from this land?
+
+CRE. I fear thee (there is no need for me to wrap my words in obscurity,)
+lest thou do my child some irremediable mischief, And many circumstances
+are in unison with this dread. Thou art wise, and skilled in many evil
+sciences, and thou art exasperated, deprived of thy husband's bed. And I
+hear that thou threatenest, as they tell me, to wreak some deed of
+vengeance on the betrother, and the espouser and the espoused; against this
+then, before I suffer, will I guard. Better is it for me now to incur
+enmity from you, than softened by your words afterward greatly to lament
+it.
+
+MED. Alas! alas! not now for the first time, but often, Creon, hath this
+opinion injured me, and worked me much woe. But whatever man is prudent,
+let him never educate his children too deep in wisdom. For, independent of
+the other charges of idleness which they meet with, they find hostile envy
+from their fellow-citizens. For holding out to fools some new-discovered
+wisdom, thou wilt seem to be useless and not wise. And being judged
+superior to others who seem to have some varied knowledge, thou wilt appear
+offensive in the city. But even I myself share this fortune; for being
+wise, to some I am an object of envy, but to others, unsuited; but I am not
+very wise. Thou then fearest me, lest thou suffer some grievous
+mischief.[14] My affairs are not in a state, fear me not, Creon, so as to
+offend against princes. For in what hast thou injured me? Thou hast given
+thy daughter to whom thy mind led thee; but I hate my husband: but thou, I
+think, didst these things in prudence. And now I envy not that thy affairs
+are prospering; make your alliances, be successful; but suffer me to dwell
+in this land, for although injured will I keep silence, overcome by my
+superiors.
+
+CRE. Thou speakest soft words to the ear, but within my mind I have my
+fears, lest thou meditate some evil intent. And so much the less do I trust
+thee than before. For a woman that is quick to anger, and a man likewise,
+is easier to guard against, than one that is crafty and keeps silence. But
+begone as quick as possible, make no more words; since this is decreed, and
+thou hast no art, by which thou wilt stay with us, being hostile to me.
+
+MED. No I beseech you by your knees, and your newly-married daughter.
+
+CRE. Thou wastest words; for thou wilt never persuade me.
+
+MED. Wilt thou then banish me, nor reverence my prayers?
+
+CRE. For I do not love thee better than my own family.
+
+MED. O my country, how I remember thee now!
+
+CRE. For next to my children it is much the dearest thing to me.
+
+MED. Alas! alas! how great an ill is love to man!
+
+CRE. That is, I think, as fortune also shall attend it.
+
+MED. Jove, let it not escape thine eye, who is the cause of these
+misfortunes.
+
+CRE. Begone, fond woman, and free me from these cares.
+
+MED. Care indeed;[15] and do not I experience cares?
+
+CRE. Quickly shalt thou be driven hence by force by the hands of my
+domestics.
+
+MED. No, I pray not this at least; but I implore thee, Creon.
+
+CRE. Thou wilt give trouble, woman, it seems.[16]
+
+MED. I will go; I dare not ask to obtain this of you.
+
+CRE. Why then dost thou resist, and wilt not depart from these realms?
+
+MED. Permit me to remain here this one day, and to bring my purpose to a
+conclusion, in what way we shall fly, and to make provision for my sons,
+since their father in no way regards providing for his children; but pity
+them, for thou also art the father of children; and it is probable that
+thou hast tenderness: for of myself I have no care whether I may suffer
+banishment, but I weep for them experiencing this calamity.
+
+CRE. My disposition is least of all imperious, and through feeling pity in
+many cases have I injured myself. And now I see that I am doing wrong, O
+lady, but nevertheless thou shalt obtain thy request; but this I warn thee,
+if to-morrow's light of the God of day shall behold thee and thy children
+within the confines of these realms, thou shalt die: this word is spoken in
+truth. But now if thou must stay, remain here yet one day, for thou wilt
+not do any horrid deed of which I have dread.
+
+MEDEA, CHORUS.
+
+CHOR. Unhappy woman! alas wretched on account of thy griefs! whither wilt
+thou turn? what hospitality, or house, or country wilt thou find a refuge
+for these ills? how the Deity hath led thee, Medea, into a pathless tide of
+woes!
+
+MED. Ill hath it been done on every side. Who will gainsay it? but these
+things are not in this way, do not yet think it. Still is there a contest
+for those lately married, and to those allied to them no small affliction.
+For dost thou think I ever would have fawned upon this man, if I were not
+to gain something, or form some plan? I would not even have addressed him.
+I would not even have touched him with my hands. But he hath arrived at
+such a height of folly, as that, when it was in his power to have crushed
+my plans, by banishing me from this land, he hath granted me to stay this
+day in which three of mine enemies will I put to death, the father, the
+bride, and my husband. But having in my power many resources of destruction
+against them, I know not, my friends, which I shall first attempt. Whether
+shall I consume the bridal house with fire, or force the sharpened sword
+through her heart having entered the chamber by stealth where the couch is
+spread? But one thing is against me; if I should be caught entering the
+house and prosecuting my plans, by my death I shall afford laughter for my
+foes. Best then is it to pursue the straight path, in which I am most
+skilled, to take them off by poison. Let it be so. And suppose them dead:
+what city will receive me? What hospitable stranger affording a land of
+safety and a faithful home will protect my person? There is none. Waiting
+then yet a little time, if any tower of safety shall appear to us, I will
+proceed to this murder in treachery and silence. But if ill fortune that
+leaves me without resource force me, I myself having grasped the sword,
+although I should die, will kill them, and will rush to the extreme height
+of daring. For never, I swear by my mistress whom I revere most of all, and
+have chosen for my assistant, Hecate, who dwells in the inmost recesses of
+my house, shall any one of them wring my heart with grief with impunity.
+Bitter and mournful to them will I make these nuptials, and bitter this
+alliance, and my flight from this land. But come, spare none of these
+sciences in which thou art skilled, Medea, deliberating and plotting.
+Proceed to the deed of terror: now is the time of resolution: seest thou
+what thou art suffering? Ill doth it become thee to incur ridicule from the
+race of Sisyphus, and from the nuptials of Jason, who art sprung from a
+noble father, and from the sun. And thou art skilled. Besides also we women
+are, by nature, to good actions of the least capacity, but the most cunning
+inventors of every ill.
+
+CHOR. The waters of the hallowed streams flow upward to their sources, and
+justice and every thing is reversed. The counsels of men are treacherous,
+and no longer is the faith of heaven firm. But fame changes, so that my sex
+may have the glory.[17] Honor cometh to the female race; no longer shall
+opprobrious fame oppress the women. But the Muses shall cease from their
+ancient strains, from celebrating our perfidy. For Phœbus, leader of the
+choir, gave not to our minds the heavenly music of the lyre, since they
+would in turn have raised a strain against the race of men. But time of old
+hath much to say both of our life and the life of men. But thou hast sailed
+from thy father's house with maddened heart, having passed through the
+double rocks of the ocean, and thou dwellest in a foreign land, having lost
+the shelter of thy widowed bed, wretched woman, and art driven dishonored
+an exile from this land. The reverence of oaths is gone, nor does shame any
+longer dwell in mighty Greece, but hath fled away through the air. But thou
+helpless woman hast neither father's house to afford you haven from your
+woes, and another more powerful queen of the nuptial bed rules over the
+house.
+
+JASON, MEDEA, CHORUS.
+
+JAS. Not now for the first time, but often have I perceived that fierce
+anger is an irremediable ill. For though it was in your power to inhabit
+this land and this house, bearing with gentleness the determination of thy
+superiors, by thy rash words thou shalt be banished from this land. And to
+me indeed it is of no importance; never cease from saying that Jason is the
+worst of men. But for what has been said by thee against the royal family,
+think it the greatest good fortune that thou art punished by banishment
+only. I indeed was always employed in diminishing the anger of the enraged
+princes, and was willing that thou shouldest remain. But thou remittest not
+of thy folly, always reviling the ruling powers; wherefore thou shalt be
+banished from the land. But nevertheless even after this am I come, not
+wearied with my friends, providing for thee, O woman, that thou mightest
+not be banished with thy children, either without money, or in want of any
+thing. Banishment draws many misfortunes with it. For although thou hatest
+me, I never could wish thee evil.
+
+MED. O thou vilest of men (for this is the greatest reproach I have in my
+power with my tongue to tell thee, for thy unmanly cowardice), hast thou
+come to us, hast thou come, who art most hateful? This is not fortitude, or
+confidence, to look in the face of friends whom thou hast injured, but the
+worst of all diseases among men, impudence. But thou hast done well in
+coming. For both I shall be lightened in my heart while reviling thee, and
+thou wilt be pained at hearing me. But I will first begin to speak from the
+first circumstances. I preserved thee (as those Greeks well know as many as
+embarked with thee on board the same ship Argo) when sent to master the
+fire-breathing bulls with the yoke, and to sow the fatal seed: and having
+slain the dragon who watching around the golden fleece guarded it with
+spiry folds, a sleepless guard, I raised up to thee a light of safety. But
+I myself having betrayed my father, and my house, came to the Peliotic
+Iolcos[18] with thee, with more readiness than prudence. And I slew Pelias
+by a death which it is most miserable to die, by the hands of his own
+children, and I freed thee from every fear. And having experienced these
+services from me, thou vilest of men, thou hast betrayed me and hast
+procured for thyself a new bed, children being born to thee, for if thou
+wert still childless it would be pardonable in thee to be enamored of this
+alliance. But the faith of oaths is vanished: nor can I discover whether
+thou thinkest that the former Gods are not still in power, or whether new
+laws are now laid down for men, since thou art at least conscious of being
+perjured toward me. Alas! this right hand which thou hast often touched,
+and these knees, since in vain have I been polluted by a wicked husband,
+and have failed in my hopes. Come (for I will converse with thee as with a
+friend, not expecting to receive any benefit from thee at least, but
+nevertheless I will; for when questioned thou wilt appear more base), now
+whither shall I turn? Whether to my father's house, which I betrayed for
+thee, and my country, and came hither? or to the miserable daughters of
+Pelias? friendly would they indeed receive me in their house, whose father
+I slew. For thus it is: I am in enmity with my friends at home; but those
+whom I ought not to injure, by obliging thee, I make my enemies. On which
+account in return for this thou hast made me to be called happy by many
+dames through Greece, and in thee I, wretch that I am, have an admirable
+and faithful husband, if cast out at least I shall fly this land, deserted
+by my friends, lonely with thy lonely children. Fair renown indeed to the
+new married bridegroom, that his children are wandering in poverty, and I
+also who preserved thee. O Jove, why I pray hast thou given to men certain
+proofs of the gold which is adulterate, but no mark is set by nature on the
+person of men by which one may distinguish the bad man.
+
+CHOR. Dreadful is that anger and irremediable, when friends with friends
+kindle strife.
+
+JAS. It befits me, it seems, not to be weak in argument, but as the prudent
+pilot of a vessel, with all the sail that can be hoisted, to run from out
+of thy violent abuse, O woman. But I, since thou thus much vauntest thy
+favors, think that Venus alone both of Gods and men was the protectress of
+my voyage. But thou hast a fickle mind, but it is an invidious account to
+go through, how love compelled thee with his inevitable arrows to preserve
+my life. But I will not follow up arguments with too great accuracy, for
+where thou hast assisted me it is well. Moreover thou hast received more at
+least from my safety than thou gavest, as I will explain to thee. First of
+all thou dwellest in Greece instead of a foreign land, and thou learnest
+what justice is, and to enjoy laws, not to be directed by mere force. And
+all the Grecians have seen that thou art wise, and thou hast renown; but if
+thou wert dwelling in the extreme confines of that land, there would not
+have been fame of thee. But may neither gold in my house be be my lot, nor
+to attune the strain more sweet than Orpheus, if my fortune be not
+conspicuous. So much then have I said of my toils; for thou first
+broughtest forward this contest of words. But with regard to those
+reproaches which thou heapest on me for my royal marriage, in this will I
+show first that I have been wise, in the next place moderate, thirdly a
+great friend to thee, and my children: but be silent. After I had come
+hither from the Iolcian land bringing with me many grievous calamities,
+what measure more fortunate than this could I have invented, than, an exile
+as I was, to marry the daughter of the monarch? not, by which thou art
+grated, loathing thy bed, nor smitten with desire of a new bride, nor
+having emulation of a numerous offspring, for those born to me are
+sufficient, nor do I find fault with that; but that (which is of the
+greatest consequence) we might live honorably, and might not be in want,
+knowing well that every friend flies out of the way of a poor man; and that
+I might bring up my children worthy of my house, and that having begotten
+brothers to those children sprung from thee, I might place them on the same
+footing, and having united the family, I might flourish; for both thou hast
+some need of children, and to me it were advantageous to advance my present
+progeny by means of the children which might arise; have I determined ill?
+not even thou couldest say so, if thy bed did not gall thee. But thus far
+have you come, that your bed being safe, you women think that you have
+every thing. But if any misfortune befall that, the most excellent and
+fairest objects you make the most hateful. It were well then that men
+should generate children from some other source, and that the female race
+should not exist, and thus there would not have been any evil among
+men.[19]
+
+CHOR. Jason, thou hast well adorned these arguments of thine, but
+nevertheless to me, although I speak reluctantly, thou appearest, in
+betraying thy wife, to act unjustly.
+
+MED. Surely I am in many things different from many mortals, for in my
+judgment, whatever man being unjust, is deeply skilled in argument, merits
+the severest punishment. For vaunting that with his tongue he can well
+gloze over injustice, he dares to work deceit, but he is not over-wise.
+Thus do not thou also be now plausible to me, nor skilled in speaking, for
+one word will overthrow thee: it behooved thee, if thou wert not a bad man,
+to have contracted this marriage having persuaded me, and not without the
+knowledge of thy friends.
+
+JAS. Well wouldest thou have lent assistance to this report, if I had
+mentioned the marriage to thee, who not even now endurest to lay aside this
+unabated rage of heart.
+
+MED. This did not move thee, but a foreign bed would lead in its result to
+an old age without honor.
+
+JAS. Be well assured of this, that I did not form this alliance with the
+princess, which I now hold, for the sake of the woman, but, as I said
+before also, wishing to preserve thee, and to beget royal children brothers
+to my sons, a support to our house.
+
+MED. Let not a splendid life of bitterness be my lot, nor wealth, which
+rends my heart.
+
+JAS. Dost thou know how to alter thy prayers, and appear wiser? Let not
+good things ever seem to you bitter, nor when in prosperity seem to be in
+adversity.
+
+MED. Insult me, since thou hast refuge, but I destitute shall fly this
+land.
+
+JAS. Thou chosest this thyself, blame no one else.
+
+MED. By doing what? by marrying and betraying thee?
+
+JAS. By imprecating unhallowed curses on the royal family.
+
+MED. From thy house at least am I laden with curses.
+
+JAS. I will not dispute more of this with thee. But if thou wishest to
+receive either for thyself or children any part of my wealth as an
+assistant on thy flight, speak, since I am ready to give with an unsparing
+hand, and to send tokens of hospitality to my friends, who will treat you
+well; and refusing these thou wilt be foolish, woman, but ceasing from
+thine anger, thou wilt gain better treatment.
+
+MED. I will neither use thy friends, nor will I receive aught; do not give
+to me, for the gifts of a bad man bring no assistance.
+
+JAS. Then I call the Gods to witness, that I wish to assist thee and thy
+children in every thing; but good things please thee not, but thou
+rejectest thy friends with audacity, wherefore shalt thou grieve the more.
+
+MED. Begone, for thou art captured by desire of thy new bride, tarrying so
+long without the palace; wed her, for perhaps, but with the assistance of
+the God shall it be said, thou wilt make such a marriage alliance, as thou
+wilt hereafter wish to renounce.
+
+CHOR. The loves, when they come too impetuously, have given neither good
+report nor virtue among men, but if Venus come with moderation, no other
+Goddess is so benign. Never, O my mistress, mayest thou send forth against
+me from thy golden bow thy inevitable shaft, having steeped it in desire.
+But may temperance preserve me, the noblest gift of heaven; never may
+dreaded Venus, having smitten my mind for another's bed, heap upon me
+jealous passions and unabated quarrels, but approving the peaceful union,
+may she quick of perception sit in judgment on the bed of women. O my
+country, and my house, never may I be an outcast of my city, having a life
+scarce to be endured through poverty, the most lamentable of all woes. By
+death, by death, may I before that be subdued, having lived to accomplish
+that day; but no greater misfortune is there than to be deprived of one's
+paternal country. We have seen it, nor have we to speak from others'
+accounts; for thee, neither city nor friend hath pitied, though suffering
+the most dreadful anguish. Thankless may he perish who desires not to
+assist his friends, having unlocked the pure treasures of his mind; never
+shall he be friend to me.
+
+ÆGEUS, MEDEA, CHORUS.
+
+ÆG. Medea, hail! for no one hath known a more honorable salutation to
+address to friends than this.
+
+MED. Hail thou also, son of the wise Pandion, Ægeus, coming from what
+quarter dost thou tread the plain of this land?
+
+ÆG. Having left the ancient oracle of Phœbus.
+
+MED. But wherefore wert thou sent to the prophetic centre of the earth?
+
+ÆG. Inquiring of the God how offspring may arise to me?
+
+MED. By the Gods, tell me, dost thou live this life hitherto childless?
+
+ÆG. Childless I am, by the disposal of some deity.
+
+MED. Hast thou a wife, or knowest thou not the marriage-bed!
+
+ÆG. I am not destitute of the connubial bed.
+
+MED. What then did Apollo tell thee respecting thy offspring?
+
+ÆG. Words deeper than a man can form opinion of.
+
+MED. Is it allowable for me to know the oracle of the God?
+
+ÆG. Certainly, inasmuch as it needs also a deep-skilled mind.
+
+MED. What then did he say? Speak, if I may hear.
+
+ÆG. That I was not to loose the projecting foot of the vessel--
+
+MED. Before thou didst what, or came to what land?
+
+ÆG. Before I revisit my paternal hearth.
+
+MED. Then as desiring what dost thou direct thy voyage to this land?
+
+ÆG. There is one Pittheus, king of the country of Trazene.
+
+MED. The most pious son, as report says, of Pelops.
+
+ÆG. To him I wish to communicate the oracle of the God.
+
+MED. For he is a wise man, and versed in such matters.
+
+ÆG. And to me at least the dearest of all my friends in war.
+
+MED. Mayest thou prosper, and obtain what thou desirest.
+
+ÆG. But why is thine eye and thy color thus faded?
+
+MED. Ægeus, my husband is the worst of all men.
+
+ÆG. What sayest thou? tell me all thy troubles.
+
+MED. Jason wrongs me, having never suffered wrong from me.
+
+ÆG. Having done what? tell me more clearly.
+
+MED. He hath here a wife besides me, mistress of the house.
+
+ÆG. Hath he dared to commit this disgraceful action?
+
+MED. Be assured he has; but we his former friends are dishonored.
+
+ÆG. Enamored of her, or hating thy bed?
+
+MED. [Smitten with] violent love indeed, he was faithless to his friends.
+
+ÆG. Let him perish then, since, as you say, he is a bad man.
+
+MED. He was charmed to receive an alliance with princes.
+
+ÆG. And who gives the bride to him? finish the account, I beg.
+
+MED. Creon, who is monarch of this Corinthian land.
+
+ÆG. Pardonable was it then that thou art grieved, O lady.
+
+MED. I perish, and in addition to this am I banished from this land.
+
+ÆG. By whom? thou art mentioning another fresh misfortune.
+
+MED. Creon drives me an exile out of this land of Corinth.
+
+ÆG. And does Jason suffer it? I praise not this.
+
+MED. By his words he does not, but at heart he wishes [to endure my
+banishment:] but by this thy beard I entreat thee, and by these thy knees,
+and I become thy suppliant, pity me, pity this unfortunate woman, nor
+behold me going forth in exile abandoned, but receive me at thy hearth in
+thy country and thy house. Thus by the Gods shall thy desire of children be
+accomplished to thee, and thou thyself shalt die in happiness. But thou
+knowest not what this fortune is that thou hast found; but I will free thee
+from being childless, and I will cause thee to raise up offspring, such
+charms I know.
+
+ÆG. On many accounts, O lady, am I willing to confer this favor on thee,
+first on account of the Gods, then of the children, whose birth thou
+holdest forth; for on this point else I am totally sunk in despair. But
+thus am I determined: if thou comest to my country, I will endeavor to
+receive thee with hospitality, being a just man; so much however I
+beforehand apprise thee of, O lady, I shall not be willing to lead thee
+with me from this land; but if thou comest thyself to my house, thou shalt
+stay there in safety, and to no one will I give thee up. But do thou of
+thyself withdraw thy foot from this country, for I wish to be without blame
+even among strangers.
+
+MED. It shall be so, but if there was a pledge of this given to me, I
+should have all things from thee in a noble manner.
+
+ÆG. Dost thou not trust me? what is thy difficulty?
+
+MED. I trust thee; but the house of Pelias is mine enemy, and Creon too; to
+these then, wert thou bound by oaths, thou wouldest not give me up from the
+country, should they attempt to drag me thence. But having agreed by words
+alone, and without calling the Gods to witness, thou mightest be their
+friend, and perhaps[20] be persuaded by an embassy; for weak is my state,
+but theirs are riches, and a royal house.
+
+ÆG. Thou hast spoken much prudence, O lady. But if it seems fit to thee
+that I should do this, I refuse not. For to me also this seems the safest
+plan, that I should have some pretext to show to your enemies, and thy
+safety is better secured; propose the Gods that I am to invoke.
+
+MED. Swear by the earth, and by the sun the father of my father, and join
+the whole race of Gods.
+
+ÆG. That I will do what thing, or what not do? speak.
+
+MED. That thou wilt neither thyself ever cast me forth from out of thy
+country, nor, if any one of my enemies desire to drag me thence, that thou
+wilt, while living, give me up willingly.
+
+ÆG. I swear by the earth, and the hallowed majesty of the sun, and by all
+the Gods, to abide by what I hear from thee.
+
+MED. It is sufficient: but what wilt thou endure shouldest thou not abide
+by this oath?
+
+ÆG. That which befalls impious men.
+
+MED. Go with blessings; for every thing is well. And I will come as quick
+as possible to thy city, having performed what I intend, and having
+obtained what I desire.
+
+CHOR. But may the son of Maia the king, the guide, conduct thee safely to
+thy house, and the plans of those things, which thou anxiously keepest in
+thy mind, mayest thou bring to completion, since, Ægeus, thou hast appeared
+to us to be a noble man.
+
+MEDEA, CHORUS.
+
+MED. O Jove, and thou vengeance of Jove, and thou light of the sun, now, my
+friends, shall I obtain a splendid victory over my enemies, and I have
+struck into the path. Now is there hope that my enemies will suffer
+punishment. For this man, where I was most at a loss, hath appeared a
+harbor to my plans. From him will I make fast my cable from the stern,
+having come to the town and citadel of Pallas. But now will I communicate
+all my plans to thee; but receive my words not as attuned to pleasure.
+Having sent one of my domestics, I will ask Jason to come into my presence;
+and when he is come, I will address gentle words to him, as that it appears
+to me that these his actions are both honorable, and are advantageous and
+well determined on.[21] And I will entreat him that my sons may stay; not
+that I would leave my children in a hostile country for my enemies to
+insult, but that by deceit I may slay the king's daughter. For I will send
+them bearing presents in their hands, both a fine-wrought robe, and a
+golden-twined wreath.[22] And if she take the ornaments and place them
+round her person, she shall perish miserably, and every one who shall touch
+the damsel; with such charms will I anoint the presents. Here however I
+finish this account; but I bewail the deed such as must next be done by me;
+for I shall slay my children; there is no one who shall rescue them from
+me; and having heaped in ruins the whole house of Jason, I will go from out
+this land, flying the murder of my dearest children, and having dared a
+deed most unhallowed. For it is not to be borne, my friends, to be derided
+by one's enemies. Let things take their course; what gain is it to me to
+live longer? I have neither country, nor house, nor refuge from my ills.
+Then erred I, when I left my father's house, persuaded by the words of a
+Grecian man, who with the will of the Gods shall suffer punishment from me.
+For neither shall he ever hereafter behold the children he had by me alive,
+nor shall he raise a child by his new wedded wife, since it is fated that
+the wretch should wretchedly perish by my spells. Let no one think me
+mean-spirited and weak, nor of a gentle temper, but of a contrary
+disposition to my foes relentless, and to my friends kind: for the lives of
+such sort are most glorious.
+
+CHOR. Since thou hast communicated this plan to me, desirous both of doing
+good to thee, and assisting the laws of mortals, I dissuade thee from doing
+this.
+
+MED. It can not be otherwise, but it is pardonable in thee to say this, not
+suffering the cruel treatment that I do.
+
+CHOR. But wilt thou dare to slay thy two sons, O lady?
+
+MED. For in this way will my husband be most afflicted.
+
+CHOR. But thou at least wilt be the most wretched woman.
+
+MED. Be that as it may: all intervening words are superfluous; but go,
+hasten, and bring Jason hither; for I make use of thee in all matters of
+trust. And thou wilt mention nothing of the plans determined on by me, if
+at least thou meanest well to thy mistress, and art a woman.
+
+CHOR. The Athenians happy of old, and the descendants of the blessed Gods,
+feeding on the most exalted wisdom of a country sacred and unconquered,
+always tripping elegantly through the purest atmosphere, where they say
+that of old the golden-haired Harmonia gave birth to the chaste nine
+Pierian Muses.[23] And they report also that Venus drawing in her breath
+from the stream of the fair-flowing Cephisus, breathed over their country
+gentle sweetly-breathing gales of air; and always entwining in her hair the
+fragrant wreath of roses, sends the loves as assessors to wisdom; the
+assistants of every virtue. How then will the city of hallowed rivers,[24]
+or the country which conducts thee to friends, receive the murderer of her
+children, the unholy one? Consider in conjunction with others of the
+slaughter of thy children, consider what a murder thou wilt undertake. Do
+not by thy knees, by every plea,[25] by every prayer, we entreat you, do
+not murder your children; but how wilt thou acquire confidence either of
+mind or hand or in heart against thy children, attempting a dreadful deed
+of boldness? But how, having darted thine eyes upon thy children, wilt thou
+endure the perpetration of the murder without tears? Thou wilt not[26] be
+able, when thy children fall suppliant at thy feet, to imbrue thy savage
+hand in their wretched life-blood.
+
+JASON, MEDEA, CHORUS.
+
+JAS. I am come, by thee requested; for although thou art enraged, thou
+shalt not be deprived of this at least; but I will hear what new service
+thou dost desire of me, lady.
+
+MED. Jason, I entreat you to be forgiving of what has been said, but right
+is it that you should bear with my anger, since many friendly acts have
+been done by us two. But I reasoned with myself and rebuked myself; wayward
+woman, why am I maddened and am enraged with those who consult well for me?
+and why am I in enmity with the princes of the land and with my husband,
+who is acting in the most advantageous manner for us, having married a
+princess, and begetting brothers to my children? Shall I not cease from my
+rage? What injury do I suffer, the Gods providing well for me? Have I not
+children? And I know that I am flying the country, and am in want of
+friends. Revolving this in my mind I perceive that I had much imprudence,
+and was enraged without reason. Now then I approve of this, and thou
+appearest to me to be prudent, having added this alliance to us; but I was
+foolish, who ought to share in these plans, and to join in adorning and to
+stand by the bed, and to delight with thee that thy bride was enamored of
+thee; but we women are as we are, I will not speak evil of the sex;
+wherefore it is not right that you should put yourself on an equality with
+the evil, nor repay folly for folly. I give up, and say that then I erred
+in judgment, but now I have determined on these things better. O my
+children, my children, come forth, leave the house, come forth, salute, and
+address your father with me, and be reconciled to your friends from your
+former hatred together with your mother. For there is amity between us, and
+my rage hath ceased. Take his right hand. Alas! my misfortunes; how I feel
+some hidden ill in my mind! Will ye, my children, in this manner, and for a
+long time enjoying life, stretch out your dear hands? Wretch that I am! how
+near am I to weeping and full of fear!--But at last canceling this dispute
+with your father, I have filled thus my tender sight with tears.
+
+CHOR. In my eyes also the moist tear is arisen; and may not the evil
+advance to a greater height than it is at present.
+
+JAS. I approve of this, lady, nor do I blame the past; for it is reasonable
+that the female sex be enraged with a husband who barters them for another
+union.--But thy heart has changed to the more proper side, and thou hast
+discovered, but after some time, the better counsel: these are the actions
+of a wise woman. But for you, my sons, your father not without thought hath
+formed many provident plans, with the assistance of the Gods. For I think
+that you will be yet the first in this Corinthian country, together with
+your brothers. But advance and prosper: and the rest your father, and
+whatever God is propitious, will effect. And may I behold you blooming
+arrive at the prime of youth, superior to my enemies. And thou, why dost
+thou bedew thine eyes with the moist tear, having turned aside thy white
+cheek, and why dost thou not receive these words from me with pleasure?
+
+MED. It is nothing. I was thinking of my sons.
+
+JAS. Be of good courage; for I will arange well for them.
+
+MED. I will be so, I will not mistrust thy words; but a woman is of soft
+mould, and was born to tears.
+
+JAS. Why, I pray, dost thou so grieve for thy children?
+
+MED. I brought them into the world, and when thou wert praying that thy
+children might live, a feeling of pity came upon me if that would be. But
+for what cause thou hast come to a conference with me, partly hath been
+explained, but the other reasons I will mention. Since it appeareth fit to
+the royal family to send me from this country, for me also this appears
+best, I know it well, that I might not dwell here, a check either to thee
+or to the princes of the land; for I seem to be an object of enmity to the
+house; I indeed will set out from this land in flight; but to the end that
+the children may be brought up by thy hand, entreat Creon that they may not
+leave this land.
+
+JAS. I know not whether I shall persuade him; but it is right to try.
+
+MED. But do thou then exhort thy bride to ask her father, that my children
+may not leave this country.
+
+JAS. Certainly I will, and I think at least that she will persuade him, if
+indeed she be one of the female sex.
+
+MED. I also will assist you in this task, for I will send to her presents
+which (I well know) far surpass in beauty any now among men, both a
+fine-wrought robe, and a golden-twined chaplet, my sons carrying them. But
+as quick as possible let one of my attendants bring hither these ornaments.
+Thy bride shall be blessed not in one instance, but in many, having met
+with you at least the best of husbands, and possessing ornaments which the
+sun my father's father once gave to his descendants. Take these nuptial
+presents, my sons, in your hands, and bear and present them to the blessed
+royal bride; she shall receive gifts not indeed to be despised.
+
+JAS. Why, O fond woman, dost thou rob thy hands of these; thinkest thou
+that the royal palace is in want of vests? in want of gold? keep these
+presents, give them not away; for if the lady esteems me of any value, she
+will prefer pleasing me to riches, I know full well.
+
+MED. But do not oppose me; gifts, they say, persuade even the Gods,[27] and
+gold is more powerful than a thousand arguments to men. Hers is fortune,
+her substance the God now increases, she in youth governs all. But the
+sentence of banishment on my children I would buy off with my life, not
+with gold alone. But my children, enter you the wealthy palace, to the new
+bride of your father, and my mistress, entreat her, beseech her, that you
+may not leave the land, presenting these ornaments; but this is of the
+greatest consequence, that, she receive these gifts in her own hand. Go as
+quick as possible, and may you be bearers of good tidings to your mother in
+what she desires to obtain, having succeeded favorably.
+
+CHOR. Now no longer have I any hope of life for the children, no longer [is
+there hope]; for already are they going to death. The bride shall receive
+the destructive present of the golden chaplet, she wretched shall receive
+them, and around her golden tresses shall she place the attire of death,
+having received the presents in her hands. The beauty and the divine
+glitter of the robe will persuade her to place around her head the
+golden-wrought chaplet. Already with the dead shall the bride be adorned;
+into such a net will she fall, and such a destiny will she, hapless woman,
+meet with; nor will she escape her fate. But thou, oh unhappy man! oh
+wretched bridegroom! son-in-law of princes, unknowingly thou bringest on
+thy children destruction, and on thy wife a bitter death; hapless man, how
+much art thou fallen from thy state![28] But I lament for thy grief, O
+wretch, mother of these children, who wilt murder thy sons on account of a
+bridal-bed; deserting which, in defiance of thee, thy husband dwells with
+another wife.
+
+TUTOR, MEDEA, CHORUS.
+
+TUT. Thy sons, my mistress, are reprieved from banishment, and the royal
+bride received thy presents in her hands with pleasure, and hence is peace
+to thy children.
+
+MED. Ah!
+
+TUT. Why dost thou stand in confusion, when thou art fortunate?
+
+MED. Alas! alas!
+
+TUT. This behavior is not consonant with the message I have brought thee.
+
+MED. Alas! again.
+
+TUT. Have I reported any ill fortune unknowingly, and have I failed in my
+hope of being the messenger of good?
+
+MED. Thou hast said what thou hast said, I blame not thee.
+
+TUT. Why then dost thou bend down thine eye, and shed tears?
+
+MED. Strong necessity compels me, O aged man, for this the Gods and I
+deliberating ill have contrived.
+
+TUT. Be of good courage; thou also wilt return home yet through thy
+children.
+
+MED. Others first will I send to their home,[29] O wretched me!
+
+TUT. Thou art not the only one who art separated from thy children; it
+behooves a mortal to bear calamities with meekness.
+
+MED. I will do so; but go within the house, and prepare for the children
+what is needful for the day. O my sons, my sons, you have indeed a city,
+and a house, in which having forsaken me miserable, you shall dwell, ever
+deprived of a mother. But I am now going an exile into a foreign land,
+before I could have delight in you, and see you flourishing, before I could
+adorn your marriage, and wife, and nuptial-bed, and hold up the torch.[30]
+O unfortunate woman that I am, on account of my wayward temper. In vain
+then, my children, have I brought you up, in vain have I toiled, and been
+consumed with cares, suffering the strong agonies of child-bearing. Surely
+once there was a time when I hapless woman had many hopes in you, that you
+would both tend me in my age, and when dead would with your hands decently
+compose my limbs, a thing desired by men. But now this pleasing thought
+hath indeed perished; for deprived of you I shall pass a life of misery,
+and bitter to myself. But you will no longer behold your mother with your
+dear eyes, having passed into another state of life. Alas! alas! why do you
+look upon me with your eyes, my children? Why do ye smile that last smile?
+Alas! alas! what shall I do? for my heart is sinking. Ye females, when I
+behold the cheerful look of my children, I have no power. Farewell my
+counsels: I will take my children with me from this land. What does it
+avail me grieving their father with the ills of these, to acquire twice as
+much pain for myself? never will I at least do this. Farewell my counsels.
+And yet what do I suffer? do I wish to incur ridicule, having left my foes
+unpunished? This must be dared. But the bringing forward words of
+tenderness in my mind arises also from my cowardice. Go, my children, into
+the house; and he for whom it is not lawful to be present at my sacrifice,
+let him take care himself to keep away.[31] But I will not stain my hand.
+Alas! alas! do not thou then, my soul, do not thou at least perpetrate
+this. Let them escape, thou wretch, spare thy sons. There shall they live
+with us and delight thee. No, I swear by the infernal deities who dwell
+with Pluto, never shall this be, that I will give up my children to be
+insulted by my enemies. [At all events they must die, and since they must,
+I who brought them into the world will perpetrate the deed.] This is fully
+determined by fate, and shall not pass away. And now the chaplet is on her
+head, and the bride is perishing in the robes; of this I am well assured.
+But, since I am now going a most dismal path, and these will I send by one
+still more dismal, I desire to address my children: give, my sons, give thy
+right hand for thy mother to kiss. O most dear hand, and those lips dearest
+to me, and that form and noble countenance of my children, be ye blessed,
+but there;[32] for every thing here your father hath taken away. O the
+sweet embrace, and that soft skin, and that most fragrant breath of my
+children. Go, go; no longer am I able to look upon you, but am overcome by
+my ills. I know indeed the ills that I am about to dare, but my rage is
+master of my counsels,[33] which is indeed the cause of the greatest
+calamities to men.
+
+CHOR. Already have I often gone through more refined reasonings, and have
+come to greater arguments than suits the female mind to investigate; for we
+also have a muse, which dwelleth with us, for the sake of teaching wisdom;
+but not with all, for haply thou wilt find but a small number of the race
+of women out of many not ungifted with the muse.[34]
+
+And I say that those men who are entirely free from wedlock, and have not
+begotten children, surpass in happiness those who have families; those
+indeed who are childless, through inexperience whether children are born a
+joy or anguish to men, not having them themselves, are exempt from much
+misery. But those who have a sweet blooming offspring of children in their
+house, I behold worn with care the whole time; first of all how they shall
+bring them up honorably, and how they shall leave means of sustenance for
+their children. And still after this, whether they are toiling for bad or
+good sons, this is still in darkness. But one ill to mortals, the last of
+all, I now will mention. For suppose they have both found sufficient store,
+and the bodies of their children have arrived at manhood, and that they are
+good; but if this fortune shall happen to them, death, bearing away their
+sons, vanishes with them to the shades of darkness. How then does it profit
+that the Gods heap on mortals yet this grief in addition to others, the
+most bitter of all, for the sake of children?
+
+MEDEA, MESSENGER, CHORUS.
+
+MED. For a long time waiting for the event, my friends, I am anxiously
+expecting what will be the result thence. And I see indeed one of the
+domestics of Jason coming hither, and his quickened breath shows that he
+will be the messenger of some new ill.
+
+MESS. O thou, that hast impiously perpetrated a deed of terror, Medea, fly,
+fly, leaving neither the ocean chariot,[35] nor the car whirling o'er the
+plain.
+
+MED. But what is done that requires this flight?
+
+MESS. The princess is just dead, and Creon her father destroyed by thy
+charms.
+
+MED. Thou hast spoken most glad tidings: and hereafter from this time shalt
+thou be among my benefactors and friends.
+
+MESS. What sayest thou? Art thou in thy senses, and not mad, lady? who
+having destroyed the king and family, rejoicest at hearing it, and fearest
+not such things?
+
+MED. I also have something to say to these words of thine at least; but be
+not hasty, my friend; but tell me how they perished, for twice as much
+delight wilt thou give me if they died miserably.
+
+MESS. As soon as thy two sons were come with their father, and had entered
+the bridal house, we servants, who were grieved at thy misfortunes, were
+delighted; and immediately there was much conversation in our ears, that
+thy husband and thou had brought the former quarrel to a friendly
+termination. One kissed the hand, another the auburn head of thy sons, and
+I also myself followed with them to the women's apartments through joy. But
+my mistress, whom we now reverence instead of thee, before she saw thy two
+sons enter, held her cheerful eyes fixed on Jason; afterward however she
+covered her eyes, and turned aside her white cheek, disgusted at the
+entrance of thy sons; but thy husband quelled the anger and rage of the
+young bride, saying this; Be not angry with thy friends, but cease from thy
+rage, and turn again thy face, esteeming those as friends, whom thy husband
+does. But receive the gifts, and ask thy father to give up the sentence of
+banishment against these children for my sake. But when she saw the
+ornaments, she refused not, but promised her husband every thing; and
+before thy sons and their father were gone far from the house, she took and
+put on the variegated robes, and having placed the golden chaplet around
+her tresses she arranges her hair in the radiant mirror, smiling at the
+lifeless image of her person. And after, having risen from her seat, she
+goes across the chamber, elegantly tripping with snow-white foot; rejoicing
+greatly in the presents, looking much and oftentimes with her eyes on her
+outstretched neck.[36] After that however there was a sight of horror to
+behold. For having changed color, she goes staggering back trembling in her
+limbs, and is scarce in time to prevent herself from falling on the ground,
+by sinking into a chair. And some aged female attendant, when she thought
+that the wrath either of Pan or some other Deity[37] had visited her,
+offered up the invocation, before at least she sees the white foam bursting
+from her mouth, and her mistress rolling her eyeballs from their sockets,
+and the blood no longer in the flesh; then she sent forth a loud shriek of
+far different sound from the strain of supplication; and straightway one
+rushed to the apartments of her father, but another to her newly-married
+husband, to tell the calamity befallen the bride, and all the house was
+filled with frequent hurryings to and fro. And by this time a swift runner,
+exerting his limbs, might have reached[38] the goal of the course of six
+plethra;[39] but she, wretched woman, from being speechless, and from a
+closed eye having groaned deeply writhed in agony; for a double pest was
+warring against her. The golden chaplet indeed placed on her head was
+sending forth a stream of all-devouring fire wonderful to behold, but the
+fine-wrought robes, the presents of thy sons, were devouring the white
+flesh of the hapless woman. But she having started from her seat flies, all
+on fire, tossing her hair and head on this side and that side, desirous of
+shaking off the chaplet; but the golden wreath firmly kept its hold; but
+the fire, when she shook her hair, blazed out with double fury, and she
+sinks upon the ground overcome by her sufferings, difficult for any one
+except her father to recognize. For neither was the expression of her eyes
+clear, nor her noble countenance; but the blood was dropping from the top
+of her head mixed with fire. But her flesh was dropping off her bones, as
+the tear from the pine-tree, by the hidden fangs of the poison; a sight of
+horror. But all feared to touch the body, for we had her fate to warn us.
+But the hapless father, through ignorance of her suffering, having come
+with haste into the apartment, falls on the corpse, and groans immediately;
+and having folded his arms round her, kisses her, saying these words; O
+miserable child, what Deity hath thus cruelly destroyed thee? who makes an
+aged father bowing to the tomb[40] bereaved of thee? Alas me! let me die
+with thee, my child. But after he had ceased from his lamentations and
+cries, desiring to raise his aged body, he was held, as the ivy by the
+boughs of the laurel, by the fine-wrought robes; and dreadful was the
+struggle, for he wished to raise his knee, but she held him back; but if he
+drew himself away by force he tore the aged flesh from his bones. But at
+length the wretched man swooned away, and gave up his life; for no longer
+was he able to endure the agony. But they lie corses, the daughter and aged
+father near one another; a calamity that demands tears. And let thy affairs
+indeed be not matter for my words; for thou thyself wilt know a refuge from
+punishment. But the affairs of mortals not now for the first time I deem a
+shadow, and I would venture to say that those persons who seem to be wise
+and are researchers of arguments, these I say, run into the greatest folly.
+For no mortal man is happy; but wealth pouring in, one man may be more
+fortunate than another, but happy he can not be.
+
+CHOR. The Deity, it seems, will in this day justly heap on Jason a variety
+of ills. O hapless lady, how we pity thy sufferings, daughter of Creon, who
+art gone to the house of darkness, through thy marriage with Jason.
+
+MED. The deed is determined on by me, my friends, to slay my children as
+soon as possible, and to hasten from this land; and not by delaying to give
+my sons for another hand more hostile to murder. But come, be armed, my
+heart; why do we delay to do dreadful but necessary deeds? Come, O wretched
+hand of mine, grasp the sword, grasp it, advance to the bitter goal of
+life, and be not cowardly, nor remember thy children how dear they are, how
+thou broughtest them into the world; but for this short day at least forget
+thy children; hereafter lament. For although thou slayest them,
+nevertheless they at least were dear, but I a wretched woman.
+
+CHOR. O thou earth, and thou all-illuming beam of the sun, look down upon,
+behold this abandoned woman, before she move her blood-stained hand itself
+about to inflict the blow against her children; for from thy golden race
+they sprung; but fearful is it for the blood of Gods to fall by the hand of
+man. But do thou, O heaven-born light, restrain her, stop her, remove from
+this house this blood-stained and miserable Erinnys agitated by the Furies.
+The care of thy children perishes in vain, and in vain hast thou produced a
+dear race, O thou who didst leave the most inhospitable entrance of the
+Cyanean rocks, the Symplegades. Hapless woman, why does such grievous rage
+settle on thy mind; and hostile slaughter ensue? For kindred pollutions are
+difficult of purification to mortals; correspondent calamities falling from
+the Gods to the earth upon the houses of the murderers.[41]
+
+FIRST SON. (_within_) Alas! what shall I do? whither shall I fly from my
+mother's hand?
+
+SECOND SON. I know not, dearest brother, for we perish.
+
+CHOR. Hearest thou the cry? hearest thou the children? O wretch, O
+ill-fated woman! Shall I enter the house? It seems right to me to ward off
+the murderous blow from the children.
+
+SONS. Nay, by the Gods assist us, for it is in needful time; since now at
+least are we near the destruction of the sword.
+
+CHOR. Miserable woman, art thou then a rock, or iron, who cuttest down with
+death by thine own hand the fair crop of children which thou producedst
+thyself? one indeed I hear of, one woman of those of old, who laid violent
+hands on her children, Ino, maddened by the Gods when the wife of Jove sent
+her in banishment from her home; and she miserable woman falls into the sea
+through the impious murder of her children, directing her foot over the
+sea-shore, and dying with her two sons, there she perished! what then I
+pray can be more dreadful than this? O thou bed of woman, fruitful in ills,
+how many evils hast thou already brought to men!
+
+JASON, CHORUS.
+
+JAS. Ye females, who stand near this mansion, is she who hath done these
+deeds of horror, Medea, in this house; or hath she withdrawn herself in
+flight? For now it is necessary for her either to be hidden beneath the
+earth, or to raise her winged body into the vast expanse of air, if she
+would not suffer vengeance from the king's house. Does she trust that after
+having slain the princes of this land, she shall herself escape from this
+house with impunity?--But I have not such care for her as for my children;
+for they whom she has injured will punish her. But I came to preserve my
+children's life, lest [Creon's] relations by birth do any injury,[42]
+avenging the impious murder perpetrated by their mother.
+
+CHOR. Unhappy man! thou knowest not at what misery thou hast arrived,
+Jason, or else thou wouldest not have uttered these words.
+
+JAS. What is this, did she wish to slay me also?
+
+CHOR. Thy children are dead by their mother's hand.
+
+JAS. Alas me! What wilt thou say? how hast thou killed me, woman!
+
+CHOR. Think now of thy sons as no longer living.
+
+JAS. Where did she slay them, within or without the house?
+
+CHOR. Open those doors, and thou wilt see the slaughter of thy sons.
+
+JAS. Undo the bars, as quick as possible, attendants; unloose the hinges,
+that I may see this double evil, my sons slain, and may punish her.
+
+MED. Why dost thou shake and unbolt these gates, seeking the dead and me
+who did the deed. Cease from this labor; but if thou wantest aught with me,
+speak if thou wishest any thing; but never shall thou touch me with thy
+hands; such a chariot the sun my father's father gives me, a defense from
+the hostile hand.[43]
+
+JAS. O thou abomination! thou most detested woman, both by the Gods and by
+me, and by all the race of man; who hast dared to plunge the sword in thine
+own children, thou who bore them, and hast destroyed me childless. And
+having done this thou beholdest both the sun and the earth, having dared a
+most impious deed. Mayest thou perish! but I am now wise, not being so then
+when I brought thee from thy house and from a foreign land to a Grecian
+habitation, a great pest, traitress to thy father and the land that
+nurtured thee. But the Gods have sent thy evil genius on me. For having
+slain thy brother at the altar, thou embarkedst on board the gallant vessel
+Argo. Thou begannest indeed with such deeds as these; and being wedded to
+me, and bearing me children, thou hast destroyed them on account of another
+bed and marriage. There is not one Grecian woman who would have dared a
+deed like this, in preference to whom at least, I thought worthy to wed
+thee, an alliance hateful and destructive to me, a lioness, no woman,
+having a nature more savage than the Tuscan Scylla. But I can not gall thy
+heart with ten thousand reproaches, such shameless confidence is implanted
+in thee. Go, thou worker of ill, and stained with the blood of thy
+children. But for me it remains to bewail my fate, who shall neither enjoy
+my new nuptials, nor shall I have it in my power to address while alive my
+sons whom I begot and educated, but I have lost them.
+
+MED. Surely I could make long reply to these words, if the Sire Jupiter did
+not know what treatment thou receivedst from me, and what thou didst in
+return; but you were mistaken, when you expected, having dishonored my bed,
+to lead a life of pleasure, mocking me, and so was the princess, and so was
+Creon, who proposed the match to thee, when he expected to drive me from
+this land with impunity. Wherefore, if thou wilt, call me lioness, and
+Scylla who dwelt in the Tuscan plain. For thy heart, as is right, I have
+wounded.
+
+JAS. And thou thyself grievest at least, and art a sharer in these ills.
+
+MED. Be assured of that; but this lessens[44] the grief, that thou canst
+not mock me.
+
+JAS. My children, what a wicked mother have ye found!
+
+MED. My sons, how did ye perish by your father's fault!
+
+JAS. Nevertheless my hand slew them not.
+
+MED. But injury, and thy new nuptials.
+
+JAS. And on account of thy bed didst thou think fit to slay them?
+
+MED. Dost thou deem this a slight evil to a woman?
+
+JAS. Whoever at least is modest; but in thee is every ill.
+
+MED. These are no longer living, for this will gall thee.
+
+JAS. These are living, alas me! avenging furies on thy head.
+
+MED. The Gods know who began the injury.
+
+JAS. They know indeed thy execrable mind.
+
+Meo. Thou art hateful to me, and I detest thy bitter speech.
+
+JAS. And I in sooth thine; the separation at least is without pain.
+
+MED. How then? what shall I do? for I also am very desirous.
+
+JAS. Suffer me, I beg, to bury and mourn over these dead bodies.
+
+MED. Never indeed; since I will bury them with this hand bearing them to
+the shrine of Juno, the Goddess guardian of the citadel, that no one of my
+enemies may insult them, tearing up their graves. But in this land of
+Sisyphus will I institute in addition to this a solemn festival and
+sacrifices hereafter to expiate this unhallowed murder. But I myself will
+go to the land of Erectheus, to dwell with Ægeus son of Pandion. But thou,
+wretch, as is fit, shalt die wretchedly, struck on thy head with a relic of
+thy ship Argo, having seen the bitter end of my marriage.
+
+JAS. But may the Fury of the children, and Justice the avenger of murder,
+destroy thee.
+
+MED. But what God or Deity hears thee, thou perjured man, and traitor to
+the rights of hospitality?
+
+JAS. Ah! thou abominable woman, and murderer of thy children.
+
+MED. Go to thy home, and bury thy wife.
+
+JAS. I go, even deprived of both my children.
+
+MED. Thou dost not yet mourn enough: stay and grow old.[45]
+
+JAS. Oh my dearest sons!
+
+MED. To their mother at least, but not to thee.
+
+JAS. And yet thou slewest them.
+
+MED. To grieve thee.
+
+JAS. Alas, alas! I hapless man long to kiss the dear mouths of my children.
+
+MED. Now them addressest, now salutest them, formerly rejecting them with
+scorn.
+
+JAS. Grant me, by the Gods, to touch the soft skin of my sons.
+
+MED. It is not possible. Thy words are thrown away in vain.
+
+JAS. Dost thou hear this, O Jove, how I am rejected, and what I suffer from
+this accursed and child-destroying lioness? But as much indeed as is in my
+power and I am able, I lament and mourn over these; calling the Gods to
+witness, that having slain my children, thou preventest me from touching
+them with my hands, and from burying the bodies, whom, oh that I had never
+begotten, and seen them thus destroyed by thee.
+
+CHOR. Jove is the dispenser of various fates in heaven, and the Gods
+perform many things contrary to our expectations, and those things which we
+looked for are not accomplished; but the God hath brought to pass things
+unthought of. In such manner hath this affair ended.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+NOTES ON MEDEA
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+[1] The Cyaneæ Petræ, or Symplegades, were two rocks in the mouth of the
+Euxine Sea, said to meet together with prodigious violence, and crush the
+passing ships. See Pindar. Pyth. iv. 386.
+
+[2] ερετμωσαι signifies to make to row; ερετμησαι, to row. In the same
+sense the two verbs derived from πολεμος are used, πολεμοω signifying ad
+bellum excito; πολεμεω, bellum gero.
+
+[3] Elmsley reads φυγη in the nominative case, "_a flight indeed
+pleasing_," etc.
+
+[4] Literally, _Before we have drained this to the very dregs_. So Virgil,
+Æn. iv. 14. _Quæ bella exhausta canebat_!
+
+[5] Ter. And. Act. ii. Sc. 5. _Omnes sibi malle melius esse quam alteri_.
+Ac. iv. Sc. 1. _Proximus sum egomet mihi_.
+
+[6] Elmsley reads και for ει, "_And their father_," etc.
+
+[7] In Elms. Dind. το γαρ ειθισθαι, "_for the being accustomed_," etc.
+
+[8] δυναται here signifies ισχυει, σθενει; and in this sense it is
+repeatedly used: ουδενα καιρον, in this place, is not to be interpreted
+"intempestive", but "immoderate, supra modum." For this signification
+consult Stephen's Thesaurus, word καιρος. EMSLEY.
+
+[9] ‛οδε is used in this sense v. 49, 687, 901, of this Play.
+
+[10] μογερα is best taken with Reiske as the accusative plural, though the
+Scholiast considers it the nominative singular. ELMSLEY.
+
+[11] γεγωτας need not be translated as νομιζομενους, the sense is [Greek;
+ontas]: so αυθαδης γεγως, line 225.
+
+[12] That is, the character of man can not be discovered by the
+countenance: so Juvenal,
+
+  Fronti nulla fides.
+
+‛οστις, though in the singular number, refers to βροτων in the plural: a
+similar construction is met with in Homer, Il. Γ. 279.
+
+  ανθρωπους τιννυσθον, ‛ο τις κ' επιορκον ‛ομοσσηι.
+
+[13] Grammarians teach us that γαμειν is applied to the husband, γαμεισθαι
+to the wife; and this rule will generally be found to hold good. We must
+either then read ‛η τ' εγηματο, which Porson does not object to, and
+Elmsley adopts; or understand εγηματο in an ironical sense, in the spirit
+of Martial's _Uxori nubere nolo meæ_: in the latter case ‛ηι τ' εγηματο
+should be read (not ‛ην τ'), as being the proper syntax.
+
+[14] The primary signification of πλημμελης is _absonus_, _out of tune_:
+hence is easily deduced the signification in which it is often found in
+Euripides. The word πλημμελησας occurs in the Phœnissæ, l. 1669.
+
+[15] Elmsley approves of the reading adopted by Porson, though he has given
+in his text
+
+  πονουμεν ‛ημεις, κ' ον πονων κεχρημεθα.
+
+"_We are oppressed with cares, and want not other cares_," as being more
+likely to have come from Euripides. So also Dindorf.
+
+[16] ‛ως εοικας; is here used for the more common expression ‛ως εοικεν. So
+Herodotus, Clio, clv. ου παυσονται ‛οι Λυδοι, ‛ως οικασι, πραγματα
+παρεχοντες, και αυτοι εχοντες. See also Hecuba, 801.
+
+[17] Beck interprets this passage, "Mea quidem vita ut non habeat laudem,
+fama obstat." Heath translates it, "Jam in contrariam partem tendens fama
+efficit, ut mea quoque vita laudem habeat." We are told by the Scholiast,
+that by βιοταν is to be understood φυσιν.
+
+[18] Iolcos was a city of Thessaly, distant about seven stadii from the
+sea, where the parents of Jason lived: Pelion was both a mountain and city
+of Thessaly, close to Iolcos; whence Iolcos is called Peliotic.
+
+[19] For the same sentiment more fully expressed, see Hippolytus, 616-625.
+See also Paradise Lost, x. 890.
+
+                  Oh, why did God,
+  Creator wise, that peopled highest heaven
+  With spirits masculine, create at last
+  This novelty on earth, this fair defect
+  Of nature, and not fill the world at once
+  With men, as angels, without feminine?
+
+[20] Porson rightly reads ταχ' αν πιθοιο with Wyttenbach.
+
+[21] Elmsley has
+
+  "‛ως και δοκει μοι ταυτα, και καλως εχειν
+  γαμους τυραννων, ‛ους προδους ‛ημας εχει,
+  και ξυμφορ' ειναι, και καλως εγνωσμενα."
+
+"_that these things appear good to me, and that the alliance with the
+princes, which he, having forsaken me, has contracted, are both
+advantageous and well determined on_." So also Dind. but καλως εχει. Porson
+omits the line.
+
+[22] In Elmsley this line is omitted, and instead of it is inserted
+
+  "νυμφηι φεροντας, τηνδε μη φευγειν χθονα."
+
+"_offering them to the bride, that they may not be banished from this
+country_," which Dindorf retains, and brackets the other.
+
+[23] Although the Scholiast reprobates this interpretation, it seems to be
+the best, nor is it any objection, that Μνημοσυνη is elsewhere represented
+as the Mother of the Muses; so much at variance is the poetry of Euripides
+with the received mythology of the ancients. ELMSLEY.
+
+[24] The construction is πολις ‛ιερων ποταμων; thus Thebes, Phœnis. l. 831,
+is called πυργος διδυμων ποταμων. A like expression occurs in 2 Sam. xii.
+27. I have fought against Rabbah, and have taken _the city of waters_,
+πολιν των ‛υδατων in the Septuagint version.
+
+[25] Elmsley reads παντες, "_we all entreat thee_." So Dindorf.
+
+[26] Elmsley reads ‛η δυνασει with the note of interrogation after θυμωι;
+"_or how wilt thou be able,_" etc.
+
+[27] An allusion to that well-known saying in Plato, de Repub. 1. 3. Δωρα
+θεους πειθει, δωρ' αιδοιους βασιληας. Ovid. de Arte Am. iii. 635.
+
+  Munera, crede mini, capiunt hominesque deosque.
+
+[28] Vertit Portus, _O infelix quantam calamitatem ignoras_. Mihi sensus
+videtur esse, _quantum a pristina fortuna excidisti_. ELMSLEY.
+
+[29] Medea here makes use of the ambiguous word καταξω, which may be
+understood by the Tutor in the sense of "bringing back to their country,"
+but implies also the horrid purpose of destroying her children: τοδε
+'καταξω' αντι του πεμψω εις τον Αιδην, as the Scholiast explains it.
+
+[30] It was the custom for mothers to bear lighted torches at their
+children's nuptials. See Iphig. Aul. l. 372.
+
+[31] ‛οτωι δε φησιν ουκ ευσεβες φαινεται παρειναι τωι φονωι, και δεχεσθαι
+τοιαυτας θυσιας, ‛ουτος αποτω.--τωι δε αυτωι μελησει συναπτεον το μη
+παρειναι. SCHOL.
+
+[32] _But there_; that is, in the regions below.
+
+[33] Ovid. Metamorph. vii. 20.
+
+      Video meliora proboque,
+  Deteriora sequor.
+
+[34] Elmsley reads
+
+  παυρον δε γενος (μιαν εν πολλαις
+  ‛ευροις αν ισως)
+  ουκ, κ.τ.λ.
+
+"_But a small number of the race of women (you may perchance find one among
+many) not ungifted with the muse_."
+
+[35] A similar expression is found in Iphig. Taur, v. 410. ναϊον οχημα. A
+ship is frequently called ‛Ερμα θαλασσης: so Virgil, Æn. vi. Classique
+immittit habenas.
+
+[36] Elmsley is of opinion that _the instep_ and not _the neck_ is meant by
+τενων.
+
+[37] The ancients attributed all sudden terrors, and sudden sicknesses,
+such as epilepsies, for which no cause appeared, to Pan, or to some other
+Deity. The anger of the God they endeavored to avert by a hymn, which had
+the nature of a charm.
+
+[38] Elmsley has ανθηπτετο, which is the old reading: this makes no
+difference in the construing or the construction, as, in the line before,
+he reads αν ‛ελκων, where Porson has ανελκων.
+
+[39] The space of time elapsed is meant to be marked by this circumstance.
+MUSGRAVE. PORSON. Thus we find in Μ of the Odyssey, l. 439, the time of day
+expressed by the rising of the judges; in Δ of the Iliad, l. 86, by the
+dining of the woodman. When we recollect that the ancients had not the
+inventions that we have whereby to measure their time, we shall cease to
+consider the circumlocution as absurd or out of place.
+
+[40] The same expression occurs in the Heraclidæ, l. 168. The Scholiast
+explains it thus; τυμβογεροντα, τον πλησιον θανατου ‛οντα: τυμβους δε
+καλουσι τους γεροντας, παροσον πλησιον εισι του θανατου και του ταφου.
+
+[41] αυτοφονταις may be taken as an adjective to agree with δομοις, or the
+construction may be αχη πιτνοντα αυτοφονταις επι δομοις, in the same manner
+as λιθος επεσε μοι επι κεφαληι. ELMSLEY.
+
+[42] μη με τι δρασωσι' had been "lest they do _me_ any injury." Elmsley
+conceives that νιν is the true reading, which might easily have been
+corrupted into μοι.
+
+[43] Here Medea appears above in a chariot drawn by dragons, bearing with
+her the bodies of her slaughtered sons. SCHOL. See Horace, Epod. 3.
+
+  Hoc delibutis ulta donis pellicem,
+  Serpente fugit alite.
+
+[44] λυει may also be interpreted, with the Scholiast, in the sense of
+λυσιτελει, "the grief delights me." The translation given in the text is
+proposed by Porson, and approved of by Elmsley.
+
+[45] Elmsley has
+
+  μενε και γηρας.
+
+"_Stay yet for old age_." So also Dindorf.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *       *
+
+HIPPOLYTUS.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+PERSONS REPRESENTED.
+
+  VENUS.
+  HIPPOLYTUS.
+  ATTENDANTS.
+  PHÆDRA.
+  NURSE.
+  THESEUS.
+  MESSENGER.
+  DIANA.
+  CHORUS OF TRŒZENIAN DAMES.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE ARGUMENT.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+Theseus was the son of Othra and Neptune, and king of the Athenians; and
+having married Hippolyta, one of the Amazons, he begat Hippolytus, who
+excelled in beauty and chastity. When his wife died, he married, for his
+second wife, Phædra, a Cretan, daughter of Minos, king of Crete, and
+Pasiphaë. Theseus, in consequence of having slain Pallas, one of his
+kinsmen, goes into banishment, with his wife, to Trœzene, where it happened
+that Hippolytus was being brought up by Pittheus: but Phædra having seen
+the youth was desperately enamored, not that she was incontinent, but in
+order to fulfill the anger of Venus, who, having determined to destroy
+Hippolytus on account of his chastity, brought her plans to a conclusion.
+She, concealing her disease, at length was compelled to declare it to her
+nurse, who had promised to relieve her, and who, though against her
+inclination, carried her words to the youth. Phædra, having learned that he
+was exasperated, eluded the nurse, and hung herself. At which time Theseus
+having arrived, and wishing to take her down that was strangled, found a
+letter attached to her, throughout which she accused Hippolytus of a design
+on her virtue. And he, believing what was written, ordered Hippolytus to go
+into banishment, and put up a prayer to Neptune, in compliance with which
+the god destroyed Hippolytus. But Diana declared to Theseus every thing
+that had happened, and blamed not Phædra, but comforted him, bereaved of
+his child and wife, and promised to institute honors in the place to
+Hippolytus.
+
+The scene of the play is laid in Trœzene. It was acted in the archonship of
+Ameinon, in the fourth year of the 87th Olympiad. Euripides first, Jophon
+second, Jon third. This Hippolytus is the second of that name, and is
+called ΣΤΕΦΑΝΙΑΣ: but it appears to have been written the latest, for what
+was unseemly and deserved blame is corrected in this play. The play is
+ranked among the first.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+HIPPOLYTUS.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+VENUS.
+
+Great in the sight of mortals, and not without a name am I the Goddess
+Venus, and in heaven: and of as many as dwell within the ocean and the
+boundaries of Atlas, beholding the light of the sun, those indeed, who
+reverence my authority, I advance to honor; but overthrow as many as hold
+themselves high toward me. For this is in sooth a property inherent even in
+the race of the Gods, that "they rejoice when honored by men." But quickly
+will I show the truth of these words: for the son of Theseus, born of the
+Amazon, Hippolytus, pupil of the chaste Pittheus, alone of the inhabitants
+of this land of Trœzene, says that I am of deities the vilest, and rejects
+the bridal bed, and will have nothing to do with marriage. But Dian, the
+sister of Phœbus, daughter of Jove, he honors, esteeming her the greatest
+of deities. And through the green wood ever accompanying the virgin, with
+his swift dogs he clears the beasts from off the earth, having formed a
+fellowship greater than mortal ought. This indeed I grudge him not; for
+wherefore should I? but wherein he has erred toward me, I will avenge me on
+Hippolytus this very day: and having cleared most of the difficulties
+beforehand,[1] I need not much labor. For Phædra, his father's noble wife,
+having seen him, (as he was going once from the house of Pittheus to the
+land of Pandion, in order to see and afterward be fully admitted to the
+hallowed mysteries,) was smitten in her heart with fierce love by my
+design. And even before she came to this land of Trœzene, at the very rock
+of Pallas that overlooks this land, she raised a temple to Venus, loving an
+absent love; and gave out afterward,[2] that the Goddess was honored with
+her temple for Hippolytus's sake. But now since Theseus has left the land
+of Cecrops, in order to avoid the pollution of the murder of the sons of
+Pallas, and is sailing to this land with his wife, having submitted to a
+year's banishment from his people; there indeed groaning and stricken with
+the stings of love, the wretched woman perishes in secret; and not one of
+her domestics is conscious of her malady. But this love must by no means
+fall to the ground in this way: but I will open the matter to Theseus, and
+it shall become manifest. And him that is our enemy shall the father kill
+with imprecations, which Neptune, king of the ocean, granted as a privilege
+to Theseus, that he should make no prayer thrice to the God in vain. But
+Phædra dies, an illustrious woman indeed, yet still [she must die]; for I
+will not make her ills of that high consequence, that will hinder my
+enemies from giving me such full vengeance as may content me. But, as I see
+the son of Theseus coming, having left the toil of the chase, I will depart
+from this spot. But with him a numerous train of attendants following
+behind raise a clamor, praising the Goddess Dian with hymns, for he knows
+not that the gates of hell are opened, and that this day is the last he
+beholds.
+
+HIPPOLYTUS, ATTENDANTS.
+
+HIPP. Follow, follow, singing the heavenly Dian, daughter of Jove; Dian,
+under whose protection we are.
+
+ATT. Holy, holy, most hallowed offspring of Jove, hail! hail! O Dian,
+daughter of Latona and of Jove, most beauteous by far of virgins, who, born
+of an illustrious sire, in the vast heaven dwellest in the palace of Jove,
+that mansion rich in gold.
+
+HIPP. Hail, O most beauteous, most beauteous of virgins in Olympus, Dian!
+For thee, my mistress, bear I this wreathed garland from the pure mead,
+where neither does the shepherd think fit to feed his flocks, nor yet came
+iron there, but the bee ranges over the pure and vernal mead, and Reverence
+waters it with river dews. Whosoever has chastity, not that which is taught
+in schools, but that which is by nature, for this description of persons it
+is lawful thence to pluck, but for the evil it is not lawful.[3] But, O my
+dear mistress, receive this wreath to bind your golden tresses from a pious
+hand. For to me alone of mortals is allowed this privilege. With thee I am
+both present, and exchange words with thee, hearing thy voice, but not
+seeing thy countenance. But may I finish the last turn of my course of
+life, even as I began.
+
+ATT. O king, (for the Gods alone ought we to call Lords,) will you hear
+somewhat from me, who advise you well?
+
+HIPP. Most certainly, or else I should not seem wise.
+
+ATT. Knowest thou then the law, which is established among men?
+
+HIPP. I know not; but what is the one, about which thou askest me?
+
+ATT. To hate haughtiness, and that which is disagreeable to all.
+
+HIPP. And rightly; for what haughty mortal is not odious?
+
+ATT. And in the affable is there any charm?
+
+HIPP. A very great one indeed, and gain with little toil.
+
+ATT. Dost thou suppose that the same thing holds also among the Gods?
+
+HIPP. Certainly, forasmuch as we mortals use the laws of the Gods.
+
+ATT. How is it then that thou addressest not a venerable Goddess?
+
+HIPP. Whom? but take heed that thy mouth err not.[4]
+
+ATT. Venus, who hath her station at thy gates.
+
+HIPP. I, who am chaste, salute her at a distance.
+
+ATT. Venerable is she, however, and of note among mortals.
+
+HIPP. Different Gods and men are objects of regard to different persons.
+
+ATT. May you be blest, having as much sense as you require.[5]
+
+HIPP. No one of the Gods, that is worshiped by night, delights me.
+
+ATT. My son, we must conform to the honors of the Gods.
+
+HIPP. Depart, my companions, and having entered the house, prepare the
+viands: delightful after the chase is the full table.--And I must rub down
+my horses, that having yoked them to the car, when I am satiated with the
+repast, I may give them their proper exercise. But to your Venus I bid a
+long farewell.
+
+ATT. But we, for one must not imitate the young, having our thoughts such,
+as it becomes slaves to give utterance to, will adore thy image, O Venus,
+our mistress; but thou shouldest pardon, if any one having intense feelings
+of mind by reason of his youth, speak foolishly: seem not to hear these
+things, for Gods must needs be wiser than men.
+
+CHOR. There is a rock near the ocean,[6] distilling water, which sends
+forth from its precipices a flowing fountain, wherein they dip their urns;
+where was a friend of mine wetting the purple vests in the dew of the
+stream, and she laid them down on the back of the warm sunny cliff: from
+hence first came to me the report concerning my mistress, that she, worn
+with the bed of sickness, keeps her person within the house, and that fine
+vests veil her auburn head. And I hear that she this day for the third
+keeps her body untouched by the fruit of Ceres, [which she receives not]
+into her ambrosial mouth, wishing in secret suffering to hasten to the
+unhappy goal of death. For heaven-possessed, O lady, or whether by Pan, or
+by Hecate, or by the venerable Corybantes, or by the mother who haunts the
+mountains, thou art raving. But thou art thus tormented on account of some
+fault committed against the Cretan huntress, profane because of unoffered
+sacred cakes. For she goes through the sea and beyond the land on the
+eddies of the watery brine. Or some one in the palace misguides thy noble
+husband, the chief of the Athenians, by secret concubinage in thy bed. Or
+some sailor who put from port at Crete, hath sailed to the harbor most
+friendly to mariners, bringing some message to the queen; and, confined to
+her couch, she is bound in soul by sorrow for its sufferings. But wretched
+helplessness is wont to dwell with the wayward constitution of women, both
+on account of their throes and their loss of reason. Once through my womb
+shot this thrill, but I invoked the heavenly Dian, who gives easy throes,
+who presides over the bow, and to me she came ever much to be blessed, as
+well as the other Gods. But lo! the old nurse is bringing her out of the
+palace before the gates; and the sad cloud upon her brows is increased.
+What it can possibly be, my soul desires to know, with what can be
+afflicted the person of the queen, of color so changed.[7]
+
+PHÆDRA, NURSE, CHORUS.
+
+Alas! the evils of men, and their odious diseases! what shall I do for
+thee? and what not do? lo! here is the clear light for thee, here the air:
+and now is thy couch whereon thou liest sick removed from out of the house:
+for every word you spoke was to come hither; but soon you will be in a
+hurry to go to your chamber back again: for you are soon changed, and are
+pleased with nothing. Nor does what is present delight you, but what is not
+present you think more agreeable. It is a better thing to be sick, than to
+tend the sick: the one is a simple ill, but with the other is joined both
+pain of mind and toil of hands. But the whole life of men is full of grief,
+nor is there rest from toils. But whatever else there be more dear than
+life, darkness enveloping hides it in clouds. Hence we appear to dote on
+this present state, because it gleams on earth, through inexperience of
+another life, and the non-appearance of the things beneath the earth. But
+we are blindly carried away by fables.
+
+PHÆ. Raise my body, place my head upright--I am faint in the joints of my
+limbs, my friends, lay hold of my fair-formed hands, O attendants--The
+dressing on my head is heavy for me to support--take it off, let flow my
+ringlets on my shoulders.
+
+NUR. Be of good courage, my child, and do not thus painfully shift [the
+posture of] your body. But you will bear your sickness more easily both
+with quiet, and with a noble temper, for it is necessary for mortals to
+suffer misery.
+
+PHÆ. Alas! alas! would I could draw from the dewy fountain the drink of
+pure waters, and that under the alders, and in the leafy mead reclining I
+might rest!
+
+NUR. O my child, what sayest thou? Wilt thou not desist from uttering these
+things before the multitude, blurting forth a speech of madness?[8]
+
+PHÆ. Bear me to the mountain--I will go to the wood, and by the pine-trees,
+where tread the dogs the slayers of beasts, pursuing the dappled hinds--By
+the Gods I long to cheer on the hounds, and by the side of my auburn hair
+to hurl the Thessalian javelin bearing the lanced weapon in my hand.
+
+NUR. Wherefore in the name of heaven, my child, do you hanker after these
+things? wherefore have you any anxiety for hunting? and wherefore do you
+long for the fountain streams? for by the towers there is a perpetual flow
+of water, whence may be your draught.
+
+PHÆ. O Dian, mistress of Limna near the sea, and of the exercises of the
+rattling steeds, would that I were on thy plains, breaking the Henetian
+colts.
+
+NUR. Wherefore again have you madly uttered this word? at one time having
+ascended the mountain you set forth with the desire of hunting; but now
+again you long for the colts on the wave-beaten sands. These things demand
+much skill in prophecy [to find out], who it is of the Gods that torments
+thee, O lady, and strikes mad thy senses.
+
+PHÆ. Wretch that I am, what then have I committed? whither have I wandered
+from my sound mind? I have gone mad; I have fallen by the evil influence of
+some God. Alas! alas! unhappy that I am--Nurse, cover my head again, for I
+am ashamed of the things I have spoken: cover me; a tear trickles down my
+eyes, and my sight is turned to my disgrace. For to be in one's right mind
+causes grief: but madness is an ill; yet it is better to perish, nothing
+knowing of one's ills.
+
+NUR. I cover thee--but when in sooth will death cover my body? Length of
+life teaches me many things. For it behooves mortals to form moderate
+friendships with each other, and not to the very marrow of the soul: and
+the affections of the mind should be dissoluble, and so that we can slacken
+them, or tighten.[9] But that one soul should feel pangs for two, as I now
+grieve for her, is a heavy burden. The concerns of life carried to too
+great an extent, they say, bring rather destruction than delight, and are
+rather at enmity with health. Thus I praise what is in extreme less than
+_the sentiment of_ "Nothing in excess;" and the wise will agree with me.
+
+CHOR. O aged woman, faithful nurse of the queen Phædra, we see indeed the
+wretched state of this lady, but it is not clear what her disease is: but
+we would wish to inquire and hear from you.
+
+NUR. I know not by my inquiries; for she is not willing to speak.
+
+CHOR. Nor what is the origin of these pangs?
+
+NUR. You come to the same result; for she is silent with regard to all
+these things.
+
+CHOR. How feeble she is, and wasted away as to her body!
+
+NUR. How could it be otherwise, seeing that she has abstained from food
+these three days?
+
+CHOR. From the violence of her calamity is it, or does she endeavor to die?
+
+NUR. To die; but she fasts to the dissolution of her life.
+
+CHOR. An extraordinary thing you have been telling me, if this conduct
+meets the approbation of her husband.
+
+NUR. [He nothing knows,] for she conceals this calamity, and denies that
+she is ill.
+
+CHOR. But does he not guess it, looking into her face?
+
+NUR. [How should he?] for he is out of this country.
+
+CHOR. But do you not urge it as a matter of necessity, when you endeavor to
+ascertain her disease and the wandering of her senses?
+
+NUR. I have tried every thing, and have made no further advances. I will
+not however abate even now from my zeal, so that you being present may bear
+witness with me, how I behave to my mistress when in calamity--Come, dear
+child, let us both forget our former conversations; and be both thou more
+mild, having smoothed that contracted brow, and altered the bent of your
+design; and I giving up that wherein I did not do right to follow thee,
+will have recourse to other better words. And if indeed you are ill with
+any of those maladies that are not to be mentioned, these women here can
+allay the disease: but if it may be related to men, tell it, that the thing
+may be mentioned to physicians.--Well! why art thou silent? It doth not
+behoove thee to be silent, my child, but either shouldst thou convict me,
+if aught I say amiss, or yield to words well spoken.--Say something--look
+hither--O wretch that I am! Ladies, in vain do we undergo these toils,
+while we are as far off from our purpose as before: for neither then was
+she softened by our words, nor now does she give heed to us. Still however
+know (now then be more obstinate than the sea) that, if thou shalt die,
+thou wilt betray thy children, who will have no share in their paternal
+mansion. I swear by the warlike queen the Amazon, who brought forth a lord
+over thy children, base-born yet of noble sentiments, thou knowest him
+well, Hippolytus.
+
+PHÆ. Ah me!
+
+NUR. This touches thee.
+
+PHÆ. You have destroyed me, nurse, and by the Gods I entreat thee
+henceforth to be silent with respect to this man.
+
+NUR. Do you see? you judge well indeed, but judging well you are not
+willing both to assist your children and to save your own life.
+
+PHÆ. I love my children; but I am wintering in the storm of another
+misfortune.
+
+NUR. You have your hands, my child, pure from blood.
+
+PHÆ. My hands are pure, but my mind has some pollution.
+
+NUR. What! from some calamity brought on you by any of your enemies?
+
+PHÆ. A friend destroys me against my will, himself unwilling.
+
+NUR. Has Theseus sinned any sin against thee?
+
+PHÆ. Would that I never be discovered to have injured him.
+
+NUR. What then this dreadful thing that impels thee to die?
+
+PHÆ. Suffer me to err, for against thee I err not.
+
+NUR. Not willingly [dost thou do so,] but 'tis through thee that I shall
+perish.[10]
+
+PHÆ. What are you doing? you oppress me, hanging on me with your hand.
+
+NUR. And never will I let go these knees.
+
+PHÆ. Ills to thyself wilt thou hear, O wretched woman, if thou shalt hear
+these ills.
+
+NUR. [Still will I cling:] for what greater evil can befall me than to lose
+thee?
+
+PHÆ. You will be undone.[11] The thing however brings honor to me.
+
+NUR. And dost thou then hide what is useful, when I beseech thee?
+
+PHÆ. _Yes_, for from base things we devise things noble.
+
+NUR. Wilt not thou, then, appear more noble by telling it?
+
+PHÆ. Depart, by the Gods, and let go my hand!
+
+NUR. No in sooth, since thou givest me not the boon that were right.
+
+PHÆ. I will give it; for I have respect unto the reverence of thy hand.
+
+NUR. Now will I be silent: for hence is it yours to speak.
+
+PHÆ. O wretched mother, what a love didst thou love!
+
+NUR. That which she had for the bull, my child, or what is this thou
+meanest?
+
+PHÆ. Thou, too, O wretched sister, wife of Bacchus!
+
+NUR. Child, what ails thee? thou speakest ill against thy relations.
+
+PHÆ. And I the third, how unhappily I perish!
+
+NUR. I am struck dumb with amazement. Whither will thy speech tend?
+
+PHÆ. _To that point_, whence we have not now lately become unfortunate.
+
+NUR. I know not a whit further of the things I wish to hear.
+
+PHÆ. Alas! would thou couldst speak the things which I must speak.
+
+NUR. I am no prophetess so as to know clearly things hidden.
+
+PHÆ. What is that thing, which they do call men's loving![12]
+
+NUR. The same, my child, a most delightful thing, and painful withal.
+
+PHÆ. One of the two feelings I must perceive.
+
+NUR. What say'st? Thou lovest, my child? What man!
+
+PHÆ. Him whoever he is,[13] that is born of the Amazon.
+
+NUR. Hippolytus dost thou say?
+
+PHÆ. From thyself, not me, you hear--this name.
+
+NUR. Ah me! what wilt thou go on to say? my child, how hast thou destroyed
+me! Ladies, this is not to be borne; I will not endure to live, hateful is
+the day, hateful the light I behold. I will hurl myself down, I will rid me
+of this body: I will remove from life to death--farewell--I no longer am.
+For the chaste are in love with what is evil, not willingly indeed, yet
+still [they love.] Venus then is no deity, but if there be aught mightier
+than deity, that is she, who hath destroyed both this my mistress, and me,
+and the whole house.
+
+CHOR. Thou didst hear, O thou didst hear the queen lamenting her wretched
+sufferings that should not be heard. Dear lady, may I perish before I come
+to thy state of mind! Alas me! alas! alas! O hapless for these pangs! O the
+woes that attend on mortals! Thou art undone, thou hast disclosed thy evils
+to the light. What time is this that has eternally[14] awaited thee? Some
+new misfortune will happen to the house. And no longer is it obscure where
+the fortune of Venus sets, O wretched Cretan daughter.
+
+PHÆ. Women of Trœzene, who inhabit this extreme frontier of the land of
+Pelops. Often at other times in the long season of night have I thought in
+what manner the life of mortals is depraved.[15] And to me they seem to do
+ill, not from the nature of their minds, for many have good thoughts, but
+thus must we view these things. What things are good we understand and
+know, but practice not; some from idleness, and others preferring some
+other pleasures to what is right: for there are many pleasures in life-long
+prates, and indolence, a pleasing ill, and shame; but there are two, the
+one indeed not base, but the other the weight that overthrows houses, but
+if the occasion on which each is used, were clear, the two things would not
+have the same letters. Knowing them as I did these things beforehand, by no
+drug did I think I should so far destroy these _sentiments_, as to fall
+into an opposite way of thinking. But I will also tell you the course of my
+determinations. After that love had wounded me, I considered how best I
+might endure it. I began therefore from this time to be silent, and to
+conceal this disease. For no confidence can be placed in the tongue, which
+knows to advise the thoughts of other men, but itself from itself has very
+many evils. But in the second place, I meditated to bear well my madness
+conquering it by my chastity. But in the third place, since by these means
+I was not able to subdue Venus, it appeared to me best to die: no one will
+gainsay this resolution. For may it be my lot, neither to be concealed
+where I do noble deeds, nor to have many witnesses, where I act basely.
+Besides this I knew I was a woman--a thing hated by all. O may she most
+miserably perish who first began to pollute the marriage-bed with other
+men! From noble families first arose this evil among women: for when base
+things appear right to those who are accounted good, surely they will
+appear so to the bad. I hate moreover those women who are chaste in their
+language indeed, but secretly have in them no good deeds of boldness: who,
+how, I pray, O Venus my revered mistress, look they on the faces of their
+husbands, nor dread the darkness that aided their deeds, and the ceilings
+of the house, lest they should some time or other utter a voice? For this
+bare idea kills me, friends, lest I should ever be discovered to have
+disgraced my husband, or my children, whom I brought forth; but free, happy
+in liberty of speech may they inhabit the city of illustrious Athens, in
+their mother glorious! For it enslaves a man, though he be valiant-hearted,
+when he is conscious of his mother's or his father's misdeeds. But this
+alone they say in endurance compeers with life, an honest and good mind, to
+whomsoever it belong. But Time, when it so chance, holding up the mirror as
+to a young virgin, shows forth the bad, among whom may I be never seen!
+
+CHOR. Alas! alas! In every way how fair is chastity, and how goodly a
+report has it among men!
+
+NUR. My mistress, just now indeed thy calamity coming upon me unawares,
+gave me a dreadful alarm. But now I perceive I was weak; and somehow or
+other among mortals second thoughts are the wisest. For thou hast not
+suffered any thing excessive nor extraordinary, but the anger of the
+Goddess hath fallen upon thee. Thou lovest--what wonder this? with many
+mortals.--And then will you lose your life for love? There is then no
+advantage for those who love others, nor to those who may hereafter, if
+they must needs die. For Venus is a thing not to be borne, if she rush on
+vehement. Who comes quietly indeed on the person who yields; but whom she
+finds haughty and of lofty notions, him taking (how thinkest thou?) she
+chastises. But Venus goes through air, and is on the ocean wave; and all
+things from her have their birth. She it is that sows and gives forth love,
+from whence all we on earth are engendered. As many indeed as ken the
+writings of the ancients, or are themselves ever among the muses, they know
+indeed, how that Jove was formerly inflamed with the love of Semele; they
+know too, how that formerly the lovely bright Aurora bore away Cephalus up
+to the Gods, for love, but still they live in heaven, and fly not from the
+presence of the Gods: but they acquiesce yielding, I ween, to what has
+befallen them. And wilt thou not bear it? Thy father then ought to have
+begotten thee on stipulated terms, or else under the dominion of other
+Gods, unless thou wilt be content with these laws. How many, thinkest thou,
+are in full and complete possession of their senses, who, when they see
+their bridal bed diseased, seem not to see it! And how many fathers,
+thinkest thou, have aided their erring sons in matters of love, for this is
+a maxim among the wise part of mankind, "that things that show not fair
+should be concealed." Nor should men labor too exactly their conduct in
+life, for neither would they do well to employ much accuracy in the roof
+wherewith their houses are covered; but having fallen into fortune so deep
+as thou hast, how dost thou imagine thou canst swim out? But if thou hast
+more things good than bad, mortal as thou art, thou surely must be well
+off. But cease, my dear child, from these evil thoughts, cease too from
+being haughty, for nothing else save haughtiness is this, to wish to be
+superior to the Gods. But, as thou art in love, endure it; a God hath
+willed it so: and, being ill, by some good means or other try to get rid of
+thy illness. But there are charms and soothing spells: there will appear
+some medicine for this sickness. Else surely men would be slow indeed in
+discoveries, if we women should not find contrivances.
+
+CHOR. Phædra, she speaks indeed most useful advice in thy present state:
+but thee I praise. Yet is this praise less welcome than her words, and to
+thee more painful to hear.
+
+PHÆ. This is it that destroys cities of men and families well
+governed--words too fair. For it is not at all requisite to speak words
+pleasant to the ear, but that whereby one may become of fair report.
+
+NUR. Why dost thou talk in this grand strain? thou needest not gay
+decorated words, but a man: as soon as possible must those be found, who
+will speak out the plain straightforward word concerning thee. For if thy
+life were not in calamities of such a cast, I never would have brought thee
+thus far for the sake of lust, and for thy pleasure: but now the great
+point is to save thy life; and this is not a thing deserving of blame.
+
+PHÆ. O thou that hast spoken dreadful things, wilt thou not shut thy mouth?
+and wilt not cease from uttering again those words most vile?
+
+NUR. Vile they are, but better these for thee than fair; but better will
+the deed be (if at least it will save thee), than the name, in the which
+while thou boastest, thou wilt die.
+
+PHÆ. Nay do not, I entreat thee by the Gods (for thou speakest well, but
+base are [the things thou speakest]) go beyond this, since rightly have I
+surrendered my life to love; but if thou speak base things in fair phrase,
+I shall be consumed, [being cast] into that [evil] which I am now avoiding.
+
+NUR. If in truth this be thy opinion, thou oughtest not to err, but if thou
+hast erred, be persuaded by me, for this is the next best thing thou canst
+do.[16] I have in the house soothing philters of love (and they but lately
+came into my thought); which, by no base deed, nor to the harm of thy
+senses, will rid you of this disease, unless you are obstinate. But it is
+requisite to receive from him that is the object of your love, some token,
+either some word, or some relic of his vest, and to join from two one love.
+
+PHÆ. But is the charm an unguent or a potion?
+
+NUR. I know not: wish to be relieved, not informed, my child.
+
+PHÆ. I fear thee, lest thou should appear too wise to me.
+
+NUR. Know that you would fear every thing, _if you fear this_, but what is
+it you are afraid of?
+
+PHÆ. Lest you should tell any of these things to the son of Theseus.
+
+NUR. Let be, my child, I will arrange these matters honorably, only be thou
+my coadjutor, O Venus, my revered mistress; but the other things which I
+purpose, it will suffice to tell to my friends within.
+
+CHORUS, PHÆDRA.
+
+CHOR. Love, love, O thou that instillest desire through the eyes, inspiring
+sweet affection in the souls of those against whom thou makest war, mayst
+thou never appear to me to my injury, nor come unmodulated: for neither is
+the blast of fire nor the bolt of heaven more vehement, than that of Venus,
+which Love, the boy of Jove, sends from his hands. In vain, in vain, both
+by the Alpheus, and at the Pythian temples of Phœbus does Greece then
+solemnize the slaughter of bulls: but Love, the tyrant of men, porter of
+the dearest chambers of Venus, we worship not, the destroyer and visitant
+of men in all shapes of calamity, when he comes. That virgin in Œchalia,
+yoked to no bridal bed, till then unwedded, and who knew no husband, having
+taken from her home a wanderer impelled by the oar, her, like some
+Bacchanal of Pluto, with blood, with smoke, and murderous hymeneals did
+Venus give to the son of Alcmena. O unhappy woman, because of her nuptials!
+O sacred wall of Thebes, O mouth of Dirce, you can assist me in telling, in
+what manner Venus comes: for by the forked lightning, by a cruel fate, did
+she put to eternal sleep the parent of the Jove-begotten Bacchus, when she
+was visited as a bride. For dreadful doth she breathe on all things, and
+like some bee hovers about.
+
+PHÆ. Women, be silent: I am undone.
+
+CHOR. What is there that affrights thee, Phædra, in thine house?
+
+PHÆ. Be silent, that I may make out the voice of those within.
+
+CHOR. I am silent: this however is an evil bodement.
+
+PHÆ. Alas me! O! O! O! oh unhappy me, because of my sufferings!
+
+CHOR. What sound dost thou utter? what word speakest thou? tell me what
+report frightens thee, lady, rushing upon thy senses!
+
+PHÆ. We are undone. Do you, standing at these gates, hear what the noise is
+that strikes on the house?
+
+CHOR. Thou art by the gate, the noise that is sent forth from the house is
+thy care. But tell me, tell me, what evil, I pray thee, came _to thine
+ears_?
+
+PHÆ. The son of the warlike Amazon, Hippolytus, cries out, abusing in
+dreadful forms my attendant.
+
+CHOR. I hear indeed a noise, but can not plainly tell how it is. The voice
+came, it came through to the door.
+
+PHÆ. But hark! he calls her plainly the pander of wickedness, the betrayer
+of her master's bed.
+
+CHOR. Alas me for thy miseries! Thou art betrayed, dear mistress. What
+shall I counsel thee? for hidden things are come to light, and thou art
+utterly destroyed----
+
+PHÆ. O! O!
+
+CHOR. Betrayed by thy friends.
+
+PHÆ. She hath destroyed me by speaking of my unhappy state, kindly but not
+honorably endeavoring to heal this disease.
+
+CHOR. How then? what wilt thou do, O thou that hast suffered things
+incurable?
+
+PHÆ. I know not, save one thing; to die as soon as possible is the only
+cure of my present sufferings.
+
+HIPPOLYTUS, PHÆDRA, NURSE, CHORUS.
+
+HIPP. O mother earth, and ye disclosing rays of the sun, of what words have
+I heard the dreadful sound!
+
+NUR. Be silent, my son, before any one hears thy voice.
+
+HIPP. It is not possible for me to be silent, when I have heard such
+dreadful things.
+
+NUR. Nay, I implore thee by thy beauteous hand.
+
+HIPP. Wilt not desist from bringing thy hand near me, and from touching my
+garments?
+
+NUR. O! by thy knees, I implore thee, do not utterly destroy me.
+
+HIPP. But wherefore this? since, thou sayest, thou hast spoken nothing
+evil.
+
+NUR. This word, my son, is by no means to be divulged.
+
+HIPP. It is more fair to speak fair things to many.
+
+NUR. O my child, by no means dishonor your oath.
+
+HIPP. My tongue hath sworn--my mind is still unsworn.[17]
+
+NUR. O my son, what wilt thou do? wilt thou destroy thy friends?
+
+HIPP. _Friends!_ I reject the word: no unjust person is my friend.
+
+NUR. Pardon, my child: that men should err is but to be expected.
+
+HIPP. O Jove, wherefore in the name of heaven didst thou place in the light
+of the sun that specious[18] evil to men, women? for if thou didst will to
+propagate the race of mortals, there was no necessity for this to be done
+by women, but men might, having placed an equivalent in thy temples, either
+in brass, or iron, or the weighty gold, buy a race of children, each for
+the consideration of the value paid, and thus might dwell in unmolested
+houses, without females. But now, first of all, when we prepare to bring
+this evil to our homes, we squander away the wealth of our houses. By this
+too it is evident, that woman is a great evil; for the father, who begat
+her and brought her up, having given her a dowry sends her away in order to
+be rid of the evil. But the husband, on the other hand, when he has
+received the baneful evil[19] into his house, rejoices, having added a
+beautiful decoration to a most vile image, and tricks her out with robes,
+unhappy man, while he has been insensibly minishing the wealth of the
+family. But he is constrained; so that having made alliance with noble
+kinsmen, he retains with [seeming] joy a marriage bitter to him: or if he
+has received a good bride, but worthless parents in law, he suppresses the
+evil that has befallen him by the consideration of the good. But his state
+is the easiest, whose wife is settled in his house, a cipher, but useless
+by reason of simplicity. But a wise woman I detest: may there not be in my
+house at least a woman more highly gifted with mind than woman ought to be.
+For Venus engenders mischief rather among clever women, but a woman who is
+not endowed with capacity, by reason of her small understanding, is removed
+from folly. But it is right that an attendant should have no access to a
+woman, but with them ought to dwell the speechless brute beasts, in which
+case they would be able neither to address any one, nor from them to
+receive a voice in return. But now, they that are evil follow after their
+evil devices within, and the servants carry it forth abroad. As thou also
+hast, O evil woman, come to the purpose of admitting me to share a bed
+which must not be approached--a father's. Which impious things I will wash
+out with flowing stream, pouring it into my ears: how then could I be the
+vile one, who do not even deem myself pure, because I have heard such
+things?--But be well assured, my piety protects thee, woman, for, had I not
+been taken unawares by the oaths of the Gods, never would I have refrained
+from telling these things to my father. But now will I depart from the
+house, _and stay_ during the time that Theseus is absent from the land, and
+will keep my mouth silent; but I will see, returning with my father's
+return, how you will look at him, both you and your mistress. But your
+boldness I shall know, having before had proof of it. May you perish: but
+never shall I take my fill of hating women, not even if any one assert,
+that I am always saying this. For in some way or other they surely are
+always bad. Either then let some one teach them to be modest, or else let
+him suffer me ever to utter my invectives against them.
+
+CHORUS, PHÆDRA, NURSE.
+
+CHOR. Oh unhappy ill-fated fortune of women! what art now or what words
+have we, having failed as we have, to extricate the knot caused by [these]
+words?
+
+PHÆ. We have met a just reward; O earth, and light, in what manner, I pray,
+can I escape from my fortunes? and how, my friends, can I conceal my
+calamity? Who of the Gods will appear my succorer, or what mortal my ally,
+or my fellow-worker in unjust works? for the suffering of my life that is
+at present on me comes hardly to be escaped.[20] I am the most ill-fated of
+women.
+
+CHOR. Alas! alas! we are undone, lady, and the arts of thy attendant have
+not succeeded, and it fares ill with us.
+
+PHÆ. O thou most vile, and the destruction of thy friends, what hast thou
+done to me! May Jove, my ancestor, tear thee up by the roots, having
+stricken thee by his fire. Did not I tell thee (did not I foresee thy
+intention?) to be silent with regard to those things with which I am now
+tormented? but thou couldst not refrain; wherefore I can no longer die with
+glory: but I must now in sooth employ new measures. For he, now that his
+mind is made keen with rage, will tell, to my detriment, thy errors to his
+father, and will fill the whole earth with the most vile reports. Mayst
+thou perish, both thou and whoever else is forward to assist friends
+against their will otherwise than by honorable means.
+
+NUR. Lady, thou canst indeed blame the evil I have wrought; for that which
+gnaws upon thee masters thy better judgment;--but I too have somewhat to
+say in answer to these things, if thou wilt admit it: I brought thee up,
+and have a kind affection toward thee; but, while searching for medicine
+for thy disease, I found not that I wished for. But if I had succeeded, I
+had been surely ranked among the wise; for we have the reputation of sense
+according to our success.
+
+PHÆ. What? is this conduct just, and satisfactory to me, to injure me
+first, and then to meet me in argument?
+
+NUR. We talk too long--I did not behave wisely. But even from this state of
+things it is possible that thou mayest be saved, my child.
+
+PHÆ. Desist from speaking; for before also thou didst not well advise for
+me, and didst attempt evil things. But depart from my sight, and take care
+about thyself; for I will settle my own affairs in an honorable manner. But
+you, noble daughters of Trœzene, grant thus much to me requesting it, bury
+in silence what you here have heard.
+
+CHOR. I swear by hallowed Dian, daughter of Jove, that I will never reveal
+to the face of day one of thy evils.
+
+PHÆ. Thou hast well spoken: but one kind of resource, while I search around
+me,[21] do I find for my present calamity, so that I may make the life of
+my children glorious, and may myself be assisted as things have now fallen
+out. For never will I disgrace the house of Crete at least, nor will I come
+before the face of Theseus having acted basely, for one's life's sake.
+
+CHOR. But what irremediable evil art thou then about to perpetrate?
+
+PHÆ. To die: but how, this will I devise.
+
+CHOR. Speak words of better omen.
+
+PHÆ. And do thou at least advise me well. But having quitted life this day,
+I shall gratify Venus, who destroys me, and shall be conquered by bitter
+love. But when I am dead, I shall be an evil to another at least,[22] so
+that he may know not to exult over my misfortunes; but, having shared this
+malady in common with me, he shall learn to be modest.
+
+CHOR. Would that I were under the rocks' vast retreats,[23] and that there
+the God would make me a winged bird among the swift flocks, and that I were
+lifted up above the ocean wave that dashes against the Adriatic shore, and
+the water of Eridanus, where for grief of Phaethon the thrice wretched
+virgins let fall into their father's billow the amber-beaming brightness of
+their tears: and that I could make my way to the shore where the apples
+grow of the harmonious daughters of Hesperus, where the ruler of the ocean
+no longer permits the passage of the purple sea to mariners, dwelling in
+that dread bourn of heaven which Atlas doth sustain, and the ambrosial
+founts stream forth hard by the couches of Jove's palaces, where the divine
+and life-bestowing earth increases the bliss of the Gods. O white-winged
+bark of Crete, who didst bear my queen through the perturbed[24] ocean wave
+of brine from a happy home, thereby aiding her in a most evil marriage. For
+surely in both instances, or at any rate from Crete she came ill-omened to
+renowned Athens, when on the Munychian shore they bound the platted ends of
+their cables, and disembarked on the continent. Wherefore she was
+heartbroken with the terrible disease of unhallowed love by the influence
+of Venus; and now that she can no longer hold out against the heavy
+calamity,[25] she will fit around her the noose suspended[26] from the
+ceiling of her bridal chamber, adjusting it to her white neck, having
+revered the hateful Goddess, and embracing an honorable name, and ridding
+from her breast the painful love.
+
+FEMALE SERVANT, CHORUS, THESEUS.
+
+SERV. Alack! alack! run to my succor all that are near the house--My
+mistress the wife of Theseus is hanging.
+
+CHOR. Alas! alas! the deed is done: the queen is indeed no more--she is
+suspended in the noose that hangs there.
+
+SERV. Will ye not haste? will not some one bring a two-edged sword, with
+which we may undo this knot around her neck?
+
+SEMICHOR. My friends, what do we? does it seem good to enter the house and
+to free the queen from the tight-drawn noose?
+
+SEMICHOR. Why we? Are not the young men-servants at hand? The being
+over-busy is not a safe plan through life.
+
+SERV. Lay right the wretched corpse, pull her limbs straight. A grievous
+housekeeping this for my master!
+
+CHOR. The unhappy woman, as I hear, has perished, for already are they
+laying her out as a corpse.
+
+THES. Know ye, females, what noise this is in my house? a heavy sound of my
+attendants reached me. For the family does not think fit to open the gates
+to me and to hail me with joy as having returned from the oracle. Has any
+ill befallen the aged Pittheus? His life is now indeed far advanced; but
+still he would be much lamented by us, were he to leave this house.
+
+CHOR. This that has happened, Theseus, extends not to the old; the young
+are they that by their death will grieve thee.
+
+THES. Alas me! is the life of any of my children stolen from me?
+
+CHOR. They live, but their mother is dead in a way that will grieve thee
+most.
+
+THES. What sayest? My wife dead? By what fate?
+
+CHOR. She suspended the noose, wherewith she strangled herself.
+
+THES. Wasted with sorrow, or from some sudden calamity?
+
+CHOR. Thus much we know--_nothing further_; for I am but just come to thy
+house, Theseus, to bewail thy evils.
+
+THES. Alas! alas! why then have I my head crowned with entwined leaves, who
+am the unhappy inquirer of the oracle? Servants, undo the bars of the
+gates; unloose the bolts, that I may behold the mournful spectacle of my
+wife, who by her death hath utterly undone me.
+
+CHOR. Alas! alas! unhappy for thy wretched ills: thou hast been a sufferer;
+thou hast perpetrated a deed of such extent as to throw this house into
+utter confusion. Alas! alas! thy boldness, O thou who hast died a violent
+death, and, by an unhallowed chance, the act committed by thy wretched
+hand. Who is it then, thou unhappy one, that destroys thy life?
+
+THES. Alas me for my sufferings![27] I have suffered, unhappy wretch, the
+extreme of my troubles--O fortune, how heavy hast thou come upon me and my
+house, an imperceptible spot from some evil demon! the wearing out of a
+life not to be endured;[28] and I, unhappy wretch, perceive a sea of
+troubles so great, that never again can I emerge from it, nor escape beyond
+the flood of this calamity. What mention making can I unhappy, what
+heavy-fated fortune of thine, lady, saying that it was, can I be right? For
+as some bird thou art vanished from my hand, having leaped me a sudden leap
+to the realms of Pluto. Alas! alas! wretched, wretched are these
+sufferings, but from some distant period or other receive I this calamity
+from the Gods, for the errors of some of those of old.
+
+CHOR. Not to thee alone, O king, have these evils happened; but with many
+others thou hast lost an excellent wife.[29]
+
+THES. In the shades beneath the earth, I unhappy wish, dying, to dwell in
+darkness, reft as I am of thy most dear company, for thou hast destroyed
+rather than perished--What then do I hear? whence came the deadly chance,
+lady, to thine heart? Will any speak what has happened, or does my royal
+palace contain to no purpose the crowd of my attendants?--Alas me on thy
+account! unhappy that I am, what grief in my house have I seen,
+intolerable, indescribable! but--we are undone! my house left desolate, and
+my children orphans.
+
+CHOR. Thou hast left us, thou hast left us, O dear among women, and most
+excellent of those as many as both the light of the sun, and the
+star-visaged moon of night behold. O unhappy man! how great ill doth the
+house contain! with tears gushing over, my eyelids are wet at thy calamity.
+But the woe that will ensue on this I have long since been dreading.
+
+THES. Alas! alas! What I pray is this letter suspended from her dear hand?
+does it mean to betoken some new calamity?--What, has the unhappy woman
+written injunctions to me, making some request about[30] my bridal bed and
+my children? Be of good courage, hapless one; for no woman exists, who
+shall enter the bed and the house of Theseus. But lo! the impressions of
+the golden seal[31] of her no more here court my attention.[32] Come, let
+me unfold the envelopments of the seal, and see what this letter should say
+to me.
+
+CHOR. Alas! alas! this new evil in succession again doth the God bring on.
+To me indeed the condition of life will be impossible to bear,[33] from
+what has happened; for I consider, alas! as ruined and no more the house of
+my kings. O God, if it be in any way possible, do not overthrow the house;
+but hear me as I pray, for from some quarter, as though a prophet, I behold
+an evil omen.
+
+THES. Ah me! what other evil is this in addition to evil, not to be borne,
+nor spoken! alas wretched me!
+
+CHOR. What is the matter? Tell me if it may be told me.
+
+THES. It cries out--the letter cries out things most dreadful: which way
+can I fly the weight of my ills; for I perish utterly destroyed. What, what
+a complaint have I seen speaking in her writing!
+
+CHOR. Alas! thou utterest words foreboding woes.
+
+THES. No longer will I keep within the door of my lips this dreadful,
+dreadful evil hardly to be uttered. O city, city, Hippolytus has dared by
+force to approach my bed, having despised the awful eye of Jove. But O
+father Neptune, by one of these three curses, which thou formerly didst
+promise me, by one of those destroy my son, and let him not escape beyond
+this day, if thou hast given me curses that shall be verified.
+
+CHOR. O king, by the Gods recall back this prayer, for hereafter you will
+know that you have erred; be persuaded by me.
+
+THES. It can not be: and moreover I will drive him from this land. And by
+one or other of the two fates shall he be assailed: for either Neptune
+shall send him dead to the mansions of Pluto, having respect unto my wish;
+or else banished from this country, wandering over a foreign land, he shall
+drag out a miserable existence.
+
+CHOR. And lo! thy son Hippolytus is present here opportunely, but if thou
+let go thy evil displeasure, king Theseus, thou wilt advise the best for
+thine house.
+
+HIPPOLYTUS, THESEUS, CHORUS.
+
+HIPP. I heard thy cry, my father, and came in haste; the thing however, for
+which you are groaning, I know not; but would fain hear from you. Ha! what
+is the matter? I behold thy wife, my father, a corpse: this is a thing meet
+for the greatest wonder.--Her, whom I lately left, her, who beheld the
+light no great time since. What ails her? In what manner died she, my
+father, I would fain hear from you. Art silent? But there is no use of
+silence in misfortunes; for the heart which desires to hear all things, is
+found eager also in the case of ills. It is not indeed right, my father, to
+conceal thy misfortunes from friends, and even more than friends.
+
+THES. O men, who vainly go astray in many things, why then do ye teach ten
+thousand arts, and contrive and invent every thing; but one thing ye do not
+know, nor yet have investigated, to teach those to be wise who have no
+intellect!
+
+HIPP. A clever sophist this you speak of, who is able to compel those who
+have no wisdom to be rightly wise. But (for thou art arguing too refinedly
+on no suitable occasion) I fear, O father, lest thy tongue be talking at
+random through thy woes.
+
+THES. Alas! there ought to be established for men some infallible proof of
+their friends, and some means of knowing their dispositions, both who is
+true, and who is not a friend, and men ought all to have two voices, the
+one true, the other as it chanced, that the untrue one might be convicted
+by the true, and then we should not be deceived.
+
+HIPP. Has some one then falsely accused me in your ear, and am I suffering
+who am not at all guilty? I am amazed, for your words, wandering beyond the
+bounds of reason, do amaze me.
+
+THES. Alas! the mind of man, to what lengths will it go? what will be the
+limit to its boldness and temerity? For if it shall increase with each
+generation of man, and the successor shall be wicked a degree beyond his
+predecessor, it will be necessary for the Gods to add to the earth another
+land, which[34] will contain the unjust and the evil ones.--But look: ye on
+this man, who being born of me hath defiled my bed, and is manifestly
+convicted by the deceased of being most base.--But, since thou hast come to
+this attaint, show thy face here before thy father. Dost thou forsooth
+associate with the Gods, as being an extraordinary person? art thou chaste
+and uncontaminated with evil? I will not believe thy boasts, attributing
+(_as I must, if I do believe_) to the Gods the folly of thinking evil. Now
+then vaunt, and with thy feeding on inanimate food retail your doctrines
+upon men, and having Orpheus[35] for your master, revel it, reverencing the
+emptiness of many letters; _which avail you not_; since you are caught.
+
+But such sort of men I warn all to shun; for they hunt with fair-sounding
+words, while they devise base things. She is dead: dost thou think this
+will save thee? By this thou art most detected, O thou most vile one! For
+what sort of oaths, what arguments can be more strong than what she says,
+so that thou canst escape the accusation? Wilt thou say that she hated
+thee, and that the bastard race is hateful forsooth to those of noble
+birth? A bad housewife then of life you account her, if through hatred of
+thee she lost what was most dear to her. But wilt thou say that there is
+not this folly in men, but that there is in women? I myself have known
+young men who were not a whit more steady than women, when Venus disturbed
+the youthful mind: but their pretense of manliness protects them. Now
+however, why do I thus contend against thy words, when the corse, the
+surest witness, is here? Depart an exile from this land as soon as
+possible. And neither go to the divine-built Athens, nor to the confines of
+that land over which my sceptre rules. For if I thus suffering by thee be
+vanquished, never will the Isthmian Sinis bear witness of me that I killed
+him, but will say that I vainly boast. Nor will the Scironian rocks, that
+dwell by the sea, confess that I am formidable to the bad.
+
+CHOR. I know not how I can say that any of mortals is happy; for the things
+that were most excellent are turned back again.
+
+HIPP. Father, thy rage indeed, and the commotion of thy mind is terrible;
+this thing, however, though it have fair arguments, if any one unravel it,
+is not fair. But I am unadorned with phrase to speak to the multitude, but
+to speak to my equals and to a few, more expert: but this also has
+consistency in it; for those, who are of no account among the wise, are
+more fitted to speak before the rabble. But yet it is necessary for me,
+since this calamity has come, to unloose my tongue. But first will I begin
+to speak from that point where first you attacked, as though you would
+destroy, and as though I should not answer again. Dost thou behold this
+light and this earth? In these there is not a man more chaste than me, not
+even though thou deny it. For, first indeed, I know to reverence the Gods,
+and to have such friends as attempt not to be unjust, but those, to whom
+there is modesty, so that neither they give utterance to evil thoughts, nor
+minister in return base services to those who use their friendship: nor am
+I the derider of my associates, O father, but the same man to my friends
+when they are not present, and when I am with them. But of one thing by
+which thou thinkest to crush me, I am pure;[36] for to this day my body is
+undefiled by the couch of love; and I know not the deed except hearing of
+it by report, and seeing it in a picture, nor even am I forward to look at
+these things, having a virgin mind. And perhaps my modesty persuades you
+not. Behooves it thee then to show in what manner I lost it. Did this
+woman's person excel in beauty all women? Or did I hope to rule over thine
+house, having thy bridal bed as carrying dowry with it? I must in that case
+have been a fool, and not at all in my senses. But did I do it as though to
+reign were pleasant to the modest? By no means indeed is it, except
+monarchy have destroyed the minds of men who are pleased with her. But I
+would wish indeed to be first victor in the Grecian games, but second in
+the state ever to be happy with the most excellent friends. For thus is it
+possible to be well circumstanced: but the absence of the danger gives
+greater joy than dominion. One of my arguments has not been spoken, but the
+rest you are in possession of: for, if I had a witness such as myself am,
+and were she alive during my contention, you would know the evil ones,
+searching them by their works. But now I swear by Jove, the guardian of
+oaths,[37] and by the plain of the earth, that never touched I thy bridal
+bed, nor ever wished it, nor conceived the thought. Else may I perish
+inglorious, without a name, and may neither sea nor earth receive the flesh
+of me when dead, if I be a wicked man. But whether or no she have destroyed
+her life through fear, I know not: for it is not lawful for me to speak
+further. Cautious[38] she was, though she could not be chaste; but I, who
+could be, had the power to no good purpose.
+
+CHOR. Thou hast said sufficient to rebut the charge, in offering the oaths
+by the Gods, no slight proof.
+
+THES. Is not this man then an enchanter and a juggler, who trusts that he
+will overcome my mind by his goodness of disposition, after he has
+dishonored his father?
+
+HIPP. I too very much wonder at this conduct of yours, my father; for if
+you were my son, and I your father, I should slay you, and not punish you
+by banishment, if you had dared to defile my wife.
+
+THES. How fitly hast thou said this! yet thou shalt not so die, as thou
+hast laid down this law for thyself; for a quick grave is easiest to the
+miserable man; but wandering an exile from thy country's land to foreign
+realms, thou shalt drag out a life of bitterness; for this is the reward
+for the impious man.
+
+HIPP. Ah me! what wilt thou do? wilt thou not even await time as evidence
+against me, but wilt thou banish me from the land?
+
+THES. Ay, beyond the ocean, and the place of Atlas,[39] if any way I could,
+so much do I hate thee.
+
+HIPP. Without having even examined oath, or proof, or the sayings of the
+seers, wilt thou cast me uncondemned from out the land?
+
+THES. This letter here, that waiteth no seer's observations,[40] accuses
+thee faithfully; but to the birds that flit above my head I bid a long
+farewell.
+
+HIPP. O Gods, wherefore then do I not ope my mouth, who am destroyed by you
+whom I worship?--And yet not so--for thus I should not altogether persuade
+those whom I ought, but should be violating to no purpose the oaths which I
+have sworn.
+
+THES. Alas me! how thy sanctity kills me! Wilt not thou go as quick as
+possible from thy country's land?
+
+HIPP. Whither then shall I unhappy turn me; what stranger's mansion shall I
+enter, banished on this charge?
+
+THES. His, who delights to entertain defilers of women, and those who dwell
+with[41] evil deeds.
+
+HIPP. Alas! alas! this goes to my heart, and almost makes me weep: if
+indeed I appear vile, and seem so to thee.
+
+THES. Then oughtest thou to have groaned, and owned the guilt before, when
+thou daredst to wrong thy father's wife.
+
+HIPP. O mansions, would that ye could utter me a voice, and bear witness
+whether I be a vile man!
+
+THES. Dost fly to dumb witnesses? this deed, though it speak not, clearly
+proves thee vile.
+
+HIPP. Alas! would that I could look upon myself standing opposite, to that
+degree do I weep for the evils which I suffer!
+
+THES. Thou hast accustomed thyself much more to regard thyself, than to be
+a just man, and to do what is righteous to thy parents.
+
+HIPP. O unhappy mother! O wretched natal hour! may none of my friends ever
+be illegitimate.
+
+THES. Servants, will ye not drag him out? did you not hear me long ago
+pronounce him banished!
+
+HIPP. Any one of them shall touch me to his cost however; but thou thyself,
+if it be thy desire, thrust me out from the land.
+
+THES. I will do this, unless thou wilt obey my words, for no pity for thy
+banishment comes over me.
+
+HIPP. It is fixed, as it seems; alas, wretch that I am! since I know these
+things indeed, but know not how to say them. O most dear to me of deities,
+daughter of Latona, thou that assortest with me, huntest with me, we shall
+then indeed be banished illustrious Athens: but farewell O city, and land
+of Erectheus. O plain of Trœzene, how many things hast thou to employ the
+happy youth! Farewell! for I address thee, beholding thee for the last
+time--Come youths of this land my companions, bid me farewell, and conduct
+me from the land, for never shall you see a man more chaste, even though I
+seem not to my father.
+
+CHORUS.
+
+Surely the providence of the Gods, when it comes into my mind, greatly
+takes away sorrow: but cherishing in my hope some knowledge, I am utterly
+deficient, when I look on the fortunes and on the deeds of men, for they
+are changed in different manners, and the life of man varies, ever
+exceeding vague. Would that in answer to my petitions fate from the Gods
+would give me this, prosperity with riches, and a mind unsullied by griefs.
+And be my character neither too high, nor on the other hand infamous. But
+changing my easy habits with the morrow ever may I lead a happy life; for
+no longer have I an unperturbed mind, but I see things contrary to my
+expectations: since we have seen the brightest star of Grecian Minerva sent
+forth to another land on account of his father's rage. O sands of the
+neighboring shore, and mountain wood, where with the swift-footed dogs he
+wont to slay the wild beasts, accompanying the chaste Dian! No more shalt
+thou mount the car drawn by the team of Henetian steeds, restraining with
+thy foot the horses in their exercise on the course round Limna.[42] And
+the sleepless song that used to dwell under the bridge of the chords shall
+cease in thy father's house. And the haunts of the daughter of Latona in
+the deep wood shall be without their garlands: and the contest among the
+damsels for thy bridal bed has died away by reason of thy exile. But I, for
+thy misfortunes, shall endure with tears a fortuneless fortune.[43] O
+unhappy mother, thou hast brought forth in vain! Alas! I am enraged with
+the Gods. Alas! alas! united charms of marriage, wherefore send ye the
+unhappy one, guilty of no crime, away from his country's land--away from
+these mansions?
+
+But lo! I perceive a follower of Hippolytus with a sad countenance coming
+toward the house in haste.
+
+MESSENGER, CHORUS.
+
+MESS. Ye females, whither going can I find Theseus, king of this land? If
+ye know, tell me: is he within this palace?
+
+CHOR. The [king] himself is coming out of the palace.
+
+MESSENGER, THESEUS, CHORUS.
+
+MESS. I bring a tale that demands concern, of thee and of thy subjects,
+both those who inhabit the city of the Athenians, and the realms of the
+Trœzenian land.
+
+THES. What is it? Has any sudden calamity come upon the two neighboring
+states?
+
+MESS. To speak the word--Hippolytus is no more. He views the light however
+for a short moment.
+
+THES. _Killed_? By whom? Has any come to enmity with him, whose wife, as
+his father's, he has forcibly defiled?
+
+MESS. His own chariot slew him, and the imprecations of thy mouth, which
+thou didst put up to thy father, the ruler of the ocean, concerning thy
+son.
+
+THES. O ye Gods! and O Neptune! how truly then wert thou my father, when
+thou didst duly hear my imprecations! Tell me too, how did he perish? in
+what way did the staff of Justice strike him that disgraced me?
+
+MESS. We indeed near the wave-beaten shore were combing out with combs the
+horses' hair, weeping, for there had come a messenger saying, that
+Hippolytus no longer trod on this land, having from thee received the
+sentence of wretched banishment. But he came bringing to us on the shore
+the same strain of tears: and an innumerable throng of his friends and
+companions came following with him. But at length after some time he spake,
+having ceased from his groans. "Wherefore am I thus disquieted? My father's
+words must be obeyed. My servants, yoke to my car the harnessed steeds, for
+this city is for me no more." Then indeed every man hasted, and sooner than
+one could speak we drew up the horses caparisoned before our master; and he
+seizes with his hands the reins from off the bow of the chariot, mounting
+with his foot sandaled as it was.[44] And first indeed he addressed the
+Gods with outstretched hands: "Jove, may I no longer exist, if I am a base
+man; but may my father perceive how unworthily he treats me, either when I
+am dead, or while I view the light." And on this having taken the whip in
+his hands he struck the horses both at once: and we the attendants followed
+our master by the chariot close to the reins, along the road that leads
+straightway to Argos and Epidauria, but when we came into the desert
+country, there is a certain shore beyond this land which slopes even down
+to the Saronic Sea, from thence a voice like the subterraneous thunder of
+Jove sent forth a dreadful groan appalling to hear, and the horses pointed
+their heads erect and their ears toward the sky, and on us there came a
+vehement fear, whence possibly the voice could come: but looking toward the
+sea-beaten shore we beheld a vast wave pillared in heaven, so that the view
+of the heights of Sciron was taken from mine eye:[45] and it concealed the
+Isthmus and the rock of Æsculapius. And then swelling up and splashing
+forth[46] much foam around in the ocean surf, it moves toward the shore,
+where was the chariot drawn by its four horses. But together with its
+breaker and its tripled surge,[47] the wave sent forth a bull, a fierce
+monster; with whose bellowing the whole land filled resounded fearfully:
+and to the lookers-on a sight appeared more dreadful than the eyes could
+bear. And straightway a dreadful fear comes over the steeds. But their
+master, being much conversant with the ways of horses, seized the reins in
+his hands, and pulls them as a sailor pulls his oar, having fixed his body
+in an opposite direction to the reins.[48] But they, champing with their
+jaws the forged bits, bare him on forcibly, heeding neither the hand that
+steered them, nor the traces, nor the compact chariot: and, if indeed
+holding the reins he directed their course toward the softer ground, the
+bull appeared in front, so as to turn them away maddening with fright the
+four horses that drew the chariot. But if they were borne to the rocks
+maddened in mettle, silently approaching the chariot he followed so far,
+until he overthrew it and drove it backward, dashing the felly of the wheel
+against the rock. And all was in confusion, and the naves of the wheels
+flew up, and the linch-pins of the axles. But the unhappy man himself
+entangled in the reins is dragged along, bound in a difficult bond, his
+head dashed against the rocks, and torn his flesh, and crying out in a
+voice dreadful to hear, "Stop, O ye that have been trained up in my stalls,
+do not destroy me. Oh unhappy imprecation of my father! Who will come near
+and save a most excellent man?" But many of us wishing so to do failed
+through want of swiftness: and he indeed freed, in what manner I know not,
+from the entanglements of the reins, falls, having the breath of life in
+him, but for a very short time. And the horses vanished, and the woeful
+monster of the bull I know not where in the mountain country. I am indeed
+the slave of thy house, O king, but thus much never shall I at least be
+able to be persuaded of thy son, that he is evil, not even if the whole
+race of women were hung, and though one should fill with writing all the
+fir of Ida,[49] since I am confident that he is virtuous.
+
+CHOR. Alas! alas! The calamity of new evils is consummated, nor is there
+refuge from fate and from what must be.
+
+THES. Through hate of the man, who has thus suffered, I was pleased with
+this account; but now, having respect unto the Gods, and to him, because he
+is of me, I am neither pleased, nor yet troubled at these ills.
+
+MESS. How then? Must we bring him hither, or what must we do to the unhappy
+man to gratify thy wishes! Think; but if thou take my advice, thou wilt not
+be harsh toward thy son in his misfortunes.
+
+THES. Bear him hither, that seeing him before my eyes that denied he had
+defiled my bed, I may confute him with words, and with what has happened
+from the Gods.
+
+CHOR. Thou, Venus, bendest the stubborn mind of the Gods, and of mortals,
+and with thee he of varied plume, that darts about on swiftest wing; and
+flies over the earth and over the loud-resounding briny ocean; and Love
+charms to subjection, on whose maddened heart the winged urchin come
+gleaming with gold, the race of the mountain whelps, and of those that
+inhabit the sea, and as many things as the earth nourisheth, which the sun
+doth behold scorched [with its rays,] and men: but over all these things
+thou, Venus, alone holdest sovereign rule.
+
+DIANA, THESEUS, CHORUS.
+
+DI. Thee, the noble son of Ægeus, I command to listen; but it is I, Diana,
+daughter of Latona, who am addressing thee: Theseus, wherefore dost thou,
+wretched man, take delight in these things, seeing that thou hast slain in
+no just way thy son, being persuaded by the lying words of thy wife in
+things not seen? But the guilt that has seized on thee is manifest. How
+canst thou, shamed as thou art, refrain from hiding thy body beneath the
+dark recesses of the earth? or from withdrawing thy foot from this
+suffering, by changing thy nature, and becoming a winged creature above?
+Since among good men at least thou hast not a part in life to possess.
+Hear, O Theseus, the state of thy ills. Even though I gain no advantage
+from it, yet will I torment thee; but for this purpose came I to show thee
+the upright mind of thy son, that he may die with a good reputation, and
+thy wife's passion, or, in some sort, nobleness; for, gnawed by the stings
+of that deity most hateful to us, as many as delight in virginity, she
+became enamored of thy son. But while she endeavored by right feeling to
+conquer Venus, she was destroyed not willingly by the means employed by the
+nurse, who having first bound him by oaths, told thy son her malady. But
+he, as was right, obeyed not her words; nor, again, though evil-entreated
+by thee, did he violate the sanctity of his oaths, being a pious man. But
+she, fearing lest her conduct should be scrutinized, wrote a false letter,
+and by deceit destroyed thy son, but nevertheless persuaded thee.
+
+THES. Ah me!
+
+DI. My tale torments thee, Theseus, but be still, that having heard what
+follows thou mayest groan the more--Knowest thou then that thou receivedst
+from thy father three wishes with a certainty of their being granted?
+Whereof one thou hast expended, O most evil one, on thy son, when thou
+mightest have done it on some of thine enemies. Thy father then that
+dwelleth in the ocean, gave thee as much as he was bound to give, because
+he promised. But thou both in his eyes and in mine appearest evil, who
+neither didst await nor examine proof, nor the voice of the prophets, didst
+not leave the consideration to length of time, but, quicker than became
+thee, didst vent thy curses against thy son and slay him.
+
+THES. Mistress, let me die!
+
+DI. Thou hast committed dreadful deeds, but nevertheless, it is still
+possible even for thee to obtain pardon for these things. For Venus willed
+that these things should be in order to satiate her rage. But among the
+Gods the law is thus--None wishes to thwart the purpose of him that wills
+anything, but we always give way. Since, be well assured, were it not that
+I feared Jove, never should I have come to such disgrace, as to suffer to
+die a man of all mortals the most dear to me. But thine error, first of all
+thine ignorance frees from malice; and then thy wife by her dying put an
+end to the proof of words, so as to persuade thy mind. Chiefly then on thee
+these ills are burst, but sorrow is to me too; for Gods rejoice not when
+the pious die; the wicked however we destroy with their children and their
+houses.
+
+CHOR. And lo! the unhappy man there is coming, all mangled his young flesh
+and auburn head. Oh the misery of the house! such double anguish coming
+down from heaven has been wrought in the palaces!
+
+HIPPOLYTUS, DIANA, THESEUS, CHORUS.
+
+HIPP. O! O! O! Unhappy I was thus foully mangled by the unjust prayers of
+an unjust father--I am destroyed miserably. Ah me! ah me! Pains rush
+through my head, and the spasm darts across my brain. Stop, I will rest my
+fainting body. Oh! oh! O those hateful horses of my chariot, things which I
+fed with my own hand, ye have destroyed me utterly and slain me. Oh! oh! by
+the Gods, gently, my servants, touch with your hands my torn flesh. Who
+stands by my side on the right? Lift me up properly, and take hold all
+equally on me, the unblessed of heaven, and cursed by my father's
+error--Jove, Jove, beholdest thou these things? Lo! I, the chaste, and the
+reverencer of the Gods, I who in modesty exceed all, have lost my life, and
+go to a manifest hell beneath the earth; but in vain have I labored in the
+task of piety toward men. O! O! O! O! and now the pain, the pain comes upon
+me, loose unhappy me, and let death come to be my physician. Destroy me,
+destroy the unhappy one--I long for a two-edged blade, wherewith to cut me
+in pieces, and to put my life to an eternal rest. Oh unhappy curse of my
+father! the evil too of my blood-polluted kinsmen, my old forefathers,
+bursts forth[50] upon me; nor is it at a distance; and it hath come on me,
+wherefore, I pray, who am nothing guilty of these ills? Alas me! me! what
+can I say? how can I free my life from this cruel calamity? Would that the
+black and nightly fate of Pluto would put me wretched to eternal sleep!
+
+DI. Oh unhappy mortal, with what a calamity art thou enthralled! but the
+nobleness of thy mind hath destroyed thee.
+
+HIPP. Let be. O divine breathing of perfume, for, even though being in
+ills, I perceived thee, and felt my body lightened of its pain.[51] The
+Goddess Dian is in this place.
+
+DI. Oh unhappy one! she is, to thee the most dear of deities.
+
+HIPP. Mistress, thou seest wretched me, in what state I am.
+
+DI. I see; but it is not lawful for me to shed a tear down mine eyes.
+
+HIPP. Thy hunter, and thy servant is no more.
+
+DI. No in sooth; but beloved by me thou perishest.
+
+HIPP. And he that managed they steeds, and guarded thy statutes.
+
+DI. _Ay_, for the crafty Venus hath so wrought.
+
+HIPP. Ah me! I perceive indeed the power that hath destroyed me.
+
+DI. She thought her honor aggrieved, and hated thee for being chaste.
+
+HIPP. One Venus hath destroyed us three.
+
+DI. Thy father, and thee, and his wife the third.
+
+HIPP. I mourn therefore also my father's misery.
+
+DI. He was deceived by the devices of the Goddess.
+
+HIPP. Oh! unhappy thou, because of this calamity, my father!
+
+THES. I perish, my son, nor have I delight in life.
+
+HIPP. I lament thee rather than myself on account of thy error.
+
+THES. My son, would that I could die in thy stead!
+
+HIPP. Oh! the bitter gifts of thy father Neptune!
+
+THES. Would that the prayer had never come into my mouth.
+
+HIPP. Wherefore this wish? thou wouldst have slain me, so enraged wert thou
+then.
+
+THES. For I was deceived in my notions by the Gods.
+
+HIPP. Alas! would that the race of mortals could curse the Gods!
+
+DI. Let be; for not even when thou art under the darkness of the earth
+shall the rage arising from the bent of the Goddess Venus descend upon thy
+body unrevenged: by reason of thy piety and thy excellent mind. For with
+these inevitable weapons from mine own hand will I revenge me on
+another,[52] whoever to her be the dearest of mortals. But to thee, O
+unhappy one, in recompense for these evils, will I give the greatest honors
+in the land of Trœzene; for the unwedded virgins before their nuptials
+shall shear their locks to thee for many an age, owning the greatest sorrow
+tears can give; but ever among the virgins shall there be a remembrance of
+thee that shall awake the song, nor dying away without a name shall
+Phædra's love toward thee pass unrecorded:--But thou, O son of the aged
+Ægeus, take thy son in thine arms and clasp him to thee; for unwillingly
+thou didst destroy him, but that men should err, when the Gods dispose
+events, is but to be expected!--and thee, Hippolytus, I exhort not to
+remain at enmity with thy father; for thou perceivest the fate, whereby
+thou wert destroyed. And farewell! for it is not lawful for me to behold
+the dead, nor to pollute mine eye with the gasps of the dying; but I see
+that thou art now near this calamity.
+
+HIPP. Go thou too, and farewell, blessed virgin! But thou easily quittest a
+long companionship. But I give up all enmity against my father at thy
+request, for before also I was wont to obey thy words. Ah! ah! darkness now
+covers me over mine eyes. Take hold on me, my father, and lift up my body.
+
+THES. Ah me! my son, what dost thou, do to me unhappy?
+
+HIPP. I perish, and do indeed see the gates of hell.
+
+THES. What? leaving my mind uncleansed from thy blood?
+
+HIPP. No in sooth, since I free thee from this murder.
+
+THES. What sayest thou? dost thou remit me free from the guilt of blood?
+
+HIPP. I call to witness Dian that slays with the bow.
+
+THES. O most dear, how noble thou appearest to thy father!
+
+HIPP. O farewell thou too, take my best farewell, my father!
+
+THES. Oh me! for thy pious and brave soul!
+
+HIPP. Pray to have legitimate sons like me.
+
+THES. Do not, I prithee, leave me, my son, but be strong.
+
+HIPP. My time of strength is past; for I perish, my father: but cover my
+face as quickly as possible with robes.
+
+THES. O famous realms of Athens and of Pallas, of what a man will ye have
+been bereaved! Oh unhappy I! What abundant reason, Venus, shall I have to
+remember thy ills!
+
+CHOR. This common grief to all the citizens hath come unexpectedly. There
+will be a fast falling of many tears; for the mournful stories of great men
+rather obtain.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+NOTES ON HIPPOLYTUS
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+[1] The construction in the original furnishes a remarkable example of the
+"nominativus pendens."
+
+[2] Or, _that posterity might know it_. TR. Dindorf would omit these words.
+B.
+
+[3] Dindorf would omit these lines. I think the difficulty in the structure
+may be removed by reading ‛οστις instead of ‛οσοις. The enallage, ‛οστις
+... τουτοις, is by no means unusual. B.
+
+[4] Cf. Soph. Œd. Col. 121, sqq. B.
+
+[5] Which at present you do not appear to have.
+
+[6] Monk would join ωκεανου with πετρα, as in the translation, but other
+commentators prefer, which is certainly more simple, to join it with ‛υδωρ.
+Then the difficulty occurs of sea-water being unfit for washing vests. This
+difficulty Beck obviates, by saying that ‛υδωρ ωκεανου may be applied to
+fresh water, Ocean being the parent of all streams, the word ωκεανου being
+here, in a manner, redundant. TR. Matthiæ is very wrath with the "all on a
+washing day" manner in which the Chorus learned Phædra's indisposition. The
+"Bothie of Toper na Fuosich" will furnish some similar simplicities, such
+as the meeting a lassie "digging potatoes." But we might as well object to
+the whole story of Nausicaa. It must be recollected that the duties of the
+laundry were considered more aristocratic by the ancients, than in modern
+times. B.
+
+[7] Cf. Æsch. Pr. 23. Χροιας αμειψεις ανθος. B.
+
+[8] Literally _a speech mounted on madness_. A similar expression occurs,
+Odyssey Α. 297. Νηπιαας οχεειν.
+
+[9] Plutarch in explanation of this line says, "καθαπερ ποδα νεως,
+επιδιδοντα και προσαγοντα ταις χρειαις την φιλιαν."
+
+[10] I have followed the elegant interpretation of L. Dindorf, who observes
+that ου δηθ ‛εκουσα refers to Phædra's assertion, ου γαρ ες σ' αμαρτανω,
+and that the meaning is, "non quidem consilio in me peccas, sed si tu
+peribis, ego quoque occidero." He compares Alcest. 389. B.
+
+[11] See Matthiæ's note. I prefer, however, ολεις, with Musgrave. B.
+
+[12] Matthiæ considers this as briefly expressed for τι τουτο, το εραν, ‛α
+λεγουσι ποιειν ανθρωπους. Still I can not help thinking ανθρωπων a better
+reading. B.
+
+[13] Phædra struggles between shame and uncertainty, before she can
+pronounce the name. It should be read as if ‛οστις ποθ'--‛ουτος--‛ο της
+Αμαζονος. B.
+
+[14] Matthiæ takes παναμεριος as = εν τηιδε τηι ‛ημεραι, i.e. up to this
+very time. I think the passage is corrupt. B.
+
+[15] This passage, like many others in the play, is admirably burlesqued by
+Aristoph., Ran. 962. B.
+
+[16] _Or, this is a second favor thou mayst grant me_.
+
+[17] On the numberless references to this impious sophism, see the learned
+notes of Valckenaer and Monk. Compare more particularly Aristoph. Ran. 102,
+1471. Thesmoph. 275. Arist. Rhet. iii. 15. B.
+
+[18] Literally, "spurious coined race." B.
+
+[19] The MSS. reading, φυτον, is preferable. B.
+
+[20] The syntax appears to be δυσεκπερατον βιου, _such as my like can
+scarcely get over_. Musgrave has followed the other explanation of the
+Scholiast, which makes βιου depend on παθος. TR. I have followed the
+Scholiast and Dindorf. B.
+
+[21] προτρεπουσα, αντι του ζητουσα και εξερευνωσα. Schol. Dindorf
+acknowledges the strangeness of the usage, and seems to prefer προσκοπουσ',
+with Monk. B.
+
+[22] Cf. Soph. Ant. 751. ‛ηδ' ουν θανειται, και θανουσ' ολει τινα. B.
+
+[23] For the meaning and derivation of αλιβατοις, see Monk's note.
+
+[24] ‛αλικτυπον seems to be an awkward epithet of κυμα, unless it mean
+"_dashed [against the shore] by the waves_." Perhaps αλικτυπον would be
+less forced. B.
+
+[25] ‛Υπεραντλος ουσα συμφοραι, a metaphor taken from a ship which can no
+longer keep out water.
+
+[26] See the note on my Translation of Æsch. Agam., p. 121, note 1. ed.
+Bonn. B.
+
+[27] Read ωμοι εγω πονων: επαθον ω ταλας with cod. Hav. See Dindorf. B.
+
+[28] Cf. Matth. apud Dindorf. B.
+
+[29] In the same manner the chorus in the Alcestis comforts Admetus. v.
+
+  Ου γαρ τι πρωτος, ουδε λοισθιος βροτων
+  γυναικος εσθλης ημπλακες.
+
+[30] ‛Υπερ is here to be understood. VALK.
+
+[31] Σφενδονη, literally, the setting of the seal, which embraces the gem
+as a sling its stone.
+
+[32] See a similar expression in Æsch. Eum. 254,
+
+  Οσμη βροτειων ‛αιματων με προσγελαι.
+
+[33] The construction is, ειη αν εμοι αβιωτος τυχα βιου, ‛οστε τυχειν
+αυτης. MONK.
+
+[34] η, _which land, together with the present earth_.
+
+[35] On the Orphic abstinence from animal food, see Matth. apud Dind.
+Compare Porphyr. de Abst. ii. 3 sqq. B.
+
+[36] Αθικτος appears here to have an active sense. So in Soph. Œd. c. 1521.
+αθικτος ‛ηγητηρος. It is used in its more frequent sense (a passive) in v.
+648, of this play. TR. Compare my note on Æsch. Prom. 110, p. 6, n. I. B.
+
+[37] Cf. Med. 169. Ζηνα θ' ‛ος ορκων θνατοις ταμιας νενομισται. B.
+
+[38] There are various interpretations of this passage. The Scholiast puts
+this sense upon it, _Phædra was chaste (in your eyes), who had not the
+power of being chaste, I had the power, and is it likely that I did not
+exert it to good purpose?_ Others translate the former part of the passage
+with the Scholiast, but make ου καλως εχρωμεθα refer to the present time,
+_had it to no good purpose_, i.e. am not now able to persuade you of my
+innocence. Some translate εσωφροησεν, _acted like a chaste woman_. TR.
+There is evidently a double meaning, which is almost lost by translation.
+Theseus is not intended to understand this. B.
+
+[39] Cf. vs. 3. B.
+
+[40] Κληροι were the notes the augurs took of their observations, and wrote
+down on tablets. See Phœn. 852.
+
+[41] ξυνοικουρους appears to be metaphorically used, but I think the sense
+would be greatly improved by reading κακους, and taking ξυνοικουρους to
+mean "to dwell with him," referring it to ‛οστις. B.
+
+[42] But we must read γυμναδος ‛ιππου with Reiske, Brunot, and Dindorf. See
+his notes. ποδι must be joined with γυμ. ‛ιππου. B.
+
+[43] ποτμον αποτμον. B.
+
+[44] Αυταισιν αρβυλαισιν. Some have supposed αρβυλη to mean a part of the
+chariot, but this seems at variance with the best authorities (see Monk's
+note); perhaps the expression may mean what is implied in the translation;
+that Hippolytus did not wait to change any part of his dress. TR. But I
+agree with Dindorf, that αυταισιν is then utterly absurd and useless. The
+Scholiast seems correct in saying, ταις τον ‛αρματος περι την αντυγα, ενθα
+την οτασιν εχει ‛ο ‛ηνιοχος. B.
+
+[45] "Adeo ut deficerent a visu, ne cernere possem, Scironis alta." B.
+
+[46] Καχλαζω, a word formed from the noise of the sea--‛ο γαρ ηχος του
+κυματος εν τοις κοιλωμασι των πετρων γινομενος, δοκει μιμεισθαι το καχλα,
+καχλα.--_Etym. Mag._
+
+[47] Τρικυμιαι. See Blomfield's _Glossary to the Prometheus_, 1051.
+
+[48] Musgrave supposes that Hippolytus wound the reins round his body; but
+on this supposition, not to mention other objections, the comparison with
+the sailor does not hold so well. It is more natural to suppose that he
+leaned back in order to get a purchase: in this attitude he is made to
+describe himself in Ov. _Met._ xv. 519, _Et retro lentas tendo resupinus
+habenas._ If there be any doubt of εις τουμισθεν ‛ιμασιν being Greek, this
+objection is obviated by putting a stop after ‛ιμασιν, and making it depend
+on ‛ελκει.
+
+[49] i.e. in Crete. See Dindorf's note. B.
+
+[50] Εξοριζεται, _valde prorumpit, liberat terminos, quibus hactenus septum
+fuit_. REISKE.
+
+[51] Heath translates ανεκουφισθην _adtollebam corpus_, honoris scilicet
+gratia. Compare Iliad, Ο. 241. αταρ ασθμα και ‛ιδρως παυετ', επει μιν
+εγειρε Διος νοος αιγιοχοιο, which Pope translates,
+
+  "Jove thinking of his pains, they pass'd away:"
+
+in which the idea is much more sublime; for there the thought of a Deity
+effects what the presence of one does here.
+
+[52] Probably meaning Adonis. See Monk. B.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *       *
+
+ALCESTIS.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+PERSONS REPRESENTED.
+
+  APOLLO.
+  DEATH.
+  CHORUS OF PHERŒANS.
+  ATTENDANTS.
+  ALCESTIS.
+  ADMETUS.
+  EUMELUS.
+  HERCULES.
+  PHERES.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE ARGUMENT.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+Apollo desired of the Fates that Admetus, who was about to die, might give
+a substitute to die for him, that so he might live for a term equal to his
+former life; and Alcestis, his wife, gave herself up, while neither of his
+parents were willing to die instead of their son. But not long after the
+time when this calamity happened, Hercules having arrived, and having
+learned from a servant what had befallen Alcestis, went to her tomb, and
+having made Death retire, covers the lady with a robe; and requested
+Admetus to receive her and keep her for him; and said he had borne her off
+as a prize in wrestling; but when he would not, he unveiled her, and
+discovered her whom he was lamenting.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+ALCESTIS
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+APOLLO.
+
+O mansions of Admetus, wherein I endured to acquiesce in the slave's
+table,[1] though a God; for Jove was the cause, by slaying my son
+Æsculapius, hurling the lightning against his breast: whereat enraged, I
+slay the Cyclops, forgers of Jove's fire; and me my father compelled to
+serve for hire with a mortal, as a punishment for these things. But having
+come to this land, I tended the herds of him who received me, and have
+preserved this house until this day: for being pious I met with a pious
+man,[2] the son of Pheres, whom I delivered from dying by deluding the
+Fates: but those Goddesses granted me that Admetus should escape the
+impending death, could he furnish in his place another dead for the powers
+below. But having tried and gone through all his friends, his father and
+his aged mother who bore him, he found not, save his wife, one who was
+willing to die for him, and view no more the light: who now within the
+house is borne in their hands, breathing her last; for on this day is it
+destined for her to die, and to depart from life. But I, lest the
+pollution[3] come upon me in the house, leave this palace's most dear
+abode. But already I behold Death near, priest of the dead, who is about to
+bear her down to the mansions of Pluto; but he comes at the right time,
+observing this day, in the which it was destined for her to die.
+
+DEATH,[4] APOLLO.
+
+DEA. Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! What dost thou at the palace? why tamest here, Phœbus?
+Art thou again at thy deeds of injustice, taking away and putting an end to
+the honors of the powers beneath? Did it not suffice thee to stay the death
+of Admetus, when thou didst delude the Fates by fraudful artifice?[5] But
+now too dost thou keep guard for her, having armed thine hand with thy bow,
+who then promised, in order to redeem her husband, herself, the daughter of
+Pelias, to die for him?
+
+AP. Fear not, I cleave to justice and honest arguments.
+
+DEA. What business then has your bow, if you cleave to justice?
+
+AP. It is my habit ever to bear it.
+
+DEA. Yes, and without regard to justice to aid this house.
+
+AP. _Ay_, for I am afflicted at the misfortunes of a man that is dear to
+me.
+
+DEA. And wilt thou deprive me of this second dead?
+
+AP. But neither took I him from thee by force.
+
+DEA. How then is he upon earth, and not beneath the ground?
+
+AP. Because he gave in his stead his wife, after whom thou art now come.
+
+DEA. Yes, and will bear her off to the land beneath.
+
+AP. Take her away, for I know not whether I can persuade thee.
+
+DEA. What? to slay him, whom I ought? for this was I commanded.
+
+AP. No: but to cast death upon those about to die.
+
+DEA. Yes, I perceive thy speech, and what thou aim'st at.
+
+AP. Is it possible then for Alcestis to arrive at old age?
+
+DEA. It is not: consider that I too am delighted with my due honors.
+
+AP. Thou canst not, however, take more than one life.
+
+DEA. When the young die I earn the greater glory.
+
+AP. And if she die old, she will be sumptuously entombed.[6]
+
+DEA. Thou layest down the law, Phœbus, in favor of the rich.
+
+AP. How sayest thou? what? hast thou been clever without my perceiving it?
+
+DEA. Those who have means would purchase to die old.
+
+AP. Doth it not then seem good to thee to grant me this favor?
+
+DEA. No in truth; and thou knowest my ways.
+
+AP. Yes, hostile to mortals, and detested by the Gods.
+
+DEA. Thou canst not have all things, which thou oughtest not.
+
+AP. Nevertheless, thou wilt stop, though thou art over-fierce; such a man
+will come to the house of Pheres, whom Eurystheus hath sent after the
+chariot and its horses,[7] _to bring them_ from the wintry regions of
+Thrace, who in sooth, being welcomed in the mansions of Admetus, shall take
+away by force this woman from thee; and there will be no obligation to thee
+at my hands, but still thou wilt do this, and wilt be hated by me.
+
+DEA. Much though thou talkest, thou wilt gain nothing. This woman then
+shall descend to the house of Pluto; and I am advancing upon her, that I
+may begin the rites on her with my sword; for sacred is he to the Gods
+beneath the earth, the hair of whose head this sword hath consecrated.[8]
+
+CHORUS.
+
+SEMICH. Wherefore in heaven's name is this stillness before the palace? why
+is the house of Admetus hushed in silence?
+
+SEMICH. But there is not even one of our friends near, who can tell us
+whether we have to deplore the departed queen, or whether Alcestis,
+daughter of Pelias, yet living views this light, who has appeared to me and
+to all to have been the best wife toward her husband.
+
+CHOR. Hears any one either a wailing, or the beating of hands within the
+house, or a lamentation, as though the thing had taken place?[9] There is
+not however any one of the servants standing before the gates. Oh would
+that thou wouldst appear, O Apollo, amidst the waves of this calamity!
+
+SEMICH. They would not however be silent, were she dead.
+
+SEMICH. For the corse is certainly not gone from the house.
+
+SEMICH. Whence this conjecture? I do not presume this. What is it gives you
+confidence?
+
+SEMICH. How could Admetus have made a private funeral of his so excellent
+wife?
+
+CHOR. But before the gates I see not the bath of water from the
+fountain,[10] as is the custom at the gates of the dead: and in the
+vestibule is no shorn hair, which is wont to fall in grief for the dead;
+the youthful[11] hand of women for the youthful _wife_ sound not.
+
+SEMICH. And yet this is the appointed day,--
+
+SEMICH. What is this thou sayest?
+
+SEMICH. In the which she must go beneath the earth.
+
+SEMICH. Thou hast touched my soul, hast touched my heart.
+
+SEMICH. When the good are afflicted, he must mourn, who from the beginning
+has been accounted good.
+
+CHOR. But there is not whither in the earth any one having sent naval
+equipment, or to Lycia, or to the thirsty site of Hammon's temple, can
+redeem the unhappy woman's life, for abrupt fate approaches, and I know not
+to whom of those that sacrifice at the hearths of the Gods I can go. But
+only if the son of Phœbus were viewing with his eyes this light, could she
+come, having left the darksome habitations and the gates of Pluto: for he
+raised up the dead, before that the stroke of the lightning's fire hurled
+by Jove destroyed him. But now what hope of life can I any longer
+entertain? For all things have already been done by the king, and at the
+altars of all the Gods abound the victims dropping with blood, and no cure
+is there of these evils.
+
+CHORUS, FEMALE ATTENDANT.
+
+CHOR. But here comes one of the female attendants from the house, in tears;
+what shall I hear has happened? To mourn indeed, if any thing happens to
+our lords, is pardonable: but whether the lady be still alive, or whether
+she be dead, we would wish to know.
+
+ATT. You may call her both alive and dead.
+
+CHOR. And how can the same woman be both alive and dead?
+
+ATT. Already she is on the verge of death,[12] and breathing her life away.
+
+CHOR. Oh wretched man, being what thyself of what a wife art thou bereft!
+
+ATT. My master knows not this yet, until he suffer.
+
+CHOR. Is there no longer hope that she may save her life?
+
+ATT. No, for the destined day makes its attack upon her.
+
+CHOR. Are not then suitable preparations made for these events?
+
+ATT. Yes, the adornments[13] are ready, wherewith her husband will bury
+her.
+
+CHOR. Let her know then that she will die glorious, and by far the best of
+women under the sun.
+
+ATT. And how not the best? who will contest it? What must the woman be, who
+has surpassed her? and how can any give greater proof of esteeming her
+husband, than by being willing to die for him? And these things indeed the
+whole city knoweth. But what she did in the house you will marvel when you
+hear. For, when she perceived that the destined day was come, she washed
+her fair skin with water from the river; and having taken from her closets
+of cedar vesture and ornaments, she attired herself becomingly; and
+standing before the altar she prayed: "O mistress, since I go beneath the
+earth, adoring thee for the last time, I will beseech thee to protect my
+orphan children, and to the one join a loving wife, and to the other a
+noble husband: nor, as their mother perishes, let my children untimely die,
+but happy in their paternal country let them complete a joyous life."--But
+all the altars, which are in the house of Admetus, she went to, and
+crowned, and prayed, tearing the leaves from off the myrtle boughs,
+tearless, without a groan, nor did the approaching evil change the natural
+beauty of her skin. And then rushing to her chamber, and her bed, there
+indeed she wept and spoke thus: "O bridal bed, whereon I loosed my virgin
+zone with this man, for whom I die, farewell! for I hate thee not; but me
+alone hast thou lost; for dreading to betray thee, and my husband, I die;
+but thee some other woman will possess, more chaste there can not, but
+perchance more fortunate."[14]--And falling on it she kissed it; but all
+the bed was bathed with the flood that issued from her eyes. But when she
+had satiety of much weeping, she goes hastily forward,[15] rushing from the
+bed. And ofttimes having left her chamber, she oft returned, and threw
+herself upon the bed again. And her children, hanging to the garments of
+their mother, wept; but she, taking them in her arms, embraced them, first
+one and then the other, as about to die. But all the domestics wept
+throughout the house, bewailing their mistress, but she stretched out her
+right hand to each, and there was none so mean, whom she addressed not, and
+was answered in return. Such are the woes in the house of Admetus. And had
+he died indeed, he would have perished; but now that he has escaped death,
+he has grief to that degree which he will never forget.
+
+CHOR. Surely Admetus groans at these evils, if he must be deprived of so
+excellent a wife.
+
+ATT. Yes, he weeps, holding his dear wife in his hands, and prays her not
+to leave him, asking impossibilities; for she wastes away, and is consumed
+by sickness, but fainting a wretched burden in his arms, yet still though
+but feebly breathing, she fain would glance toward the rays of the sun; as
+though never again, but now for the last time she is to view the sun's beam
+and his orb. But I will go and announce your presence, for it is by no
+means all that are well-wishers to their lords, so as to come kindly to
+them in their misfortunes; but you of old are friendly to my master.
+
+SEMICH. O Jove, what means of escape can there in any way be, and what
+method to rid us of the fortune which attends my master?
+
+SEMICH. Will any appear? or must I cut my locks, and clothe me even now in
+black array of garments?
+
+SEMICH. 'Tis plain, my friends, too plain; but still let us pray to the
+Gods, for the power of the Gods is mightiest.
+
+SEMICH. O Apollo, king of healing, find out some remedy for the evils of
+Admetus, procure it, O! procure it. For before this also thou didst find
+_remedy_, and now become our deliverer from death, and stop the murderous
+Pluto.
+
+SEMICH. Alas! alas! woe! woe! O son of Pheres, how didst thou fare when
+thou wert deprived of thy wife?
+
+SEMICH. Alas! alas! these things would even justify self-slaughter, and
+there is more, than whereat one might thrust one's neck in the suspending
+noose.[16]
+
+SEMICH. For not a dear, but a most dear wife, wilt thou see dead this day.
+
+SEMICH. Behold, behold; lo! she doth come from the house, and her husband
+with her. Cry out, O groan, O land of Pheres, for the most excellent woman,
+wasting with sickness, _departing_ beneath the earth to the infernal Pluto.
+Never will I aver that marriage brings more joy than grief, forming my
+conjectures both from former things, and beholding this fortune of the
+king; who, when he has lost this most excellent wife, will thenceforward
+pass a life not worthy to be called life.[17]
+
+ALCESTIS, ADMETUS, EUMELUS, CHORUS.
+
+ALC. Thou Sun, and thou light of day, and ye heavenly eddies of the
+fleeting clouds--
+
+ADM. He beholds[18] thee and me, two unhappy creatures, having done nothing
+to the Gods, for which thou shouldst die.
+
+ALC. O earth, and ye roofs of the palace, and thou bridal bed of my native
+Iolcos.
+
+ADM. Lift up thyself, unhappy one, desert me not; but entreat the powerful
+Gods to pity.
+
+ALC. I see--I see the two-oared boat--and the ferryman of the dead, holding
+his hand on the pole--Charon even now calls me--"Why dost thou delay?
+haste, thou stoppest us here"--with such words vehement he hastens me.
+
+ADM. Ah me! a bitter voyage this thou speakest of! Oh! unhappy one, how do
+we suffer!
+
+ALC. He pulls me, some one pulls me--do you not see?--to the hall of the
+dead, the winged Pluto, staring from beneath his black eyebrows--What wilt
+thou do?--let me go--what a journey am I most wretched going!
+
+ADM. Mournful to thy friends, and of these especially to me and to thy
+children, who have this grief in common.
+
+ALC. Leave off[19] supporting me, leave off now, lay me down, I have no
+strength in my feet. Death is near, and darkling night creeps upon mine
+eyes--my children, my children, no more your mother is--no more.--Farewell,
+my children, long may you view this light!
+
+ADM. Ah me! I hear this sad word, and more than any death to me. Do not by
+the Gods have the heart to leave me: do not by those children, whom thou
+wilt make orphans: but rise, be of good courage: for, thee dead, I should
+no longer be: for on thee we depend both to live, and not to live: for thy
+love we adore.
+
+ALC. Admetus, thou seest both thy affairs and mine, in what state they are,
+I wish to tell thee, ere I die, what I would have done. I, honoring thee,
+and causing thee at the price of my life to view this light, die, it being
+in my power not to die, for thee: but though I might have married a husband
+from among the Thessalians whom I would, and have lived in a palace blessed
+with regal sway, was not willing to live, bereft of thee, with my children
+orphans; nor did I spare myself, though possessing the gifts of bloomy
+youth, wherein I delighted. And yet thy father and thy mother forsook thee,
+though they had well arrived at a point of life, in which they might have
+died, and nobly delivered their son, and died with glory: for thou wert
+their only one, and there was no hope, when thou wert dead, that they could
+have other children.[20] And I should have lived, and thou, the rest of our
+time. And thou wouldst not be groaning deprived of thy wife, and wouldst
+not have to bring up thy children orphans. But these things indeed, some
+one of the Gods hath brought to pass, that they should be thus. Be it
+so--but do thou remember to give me a return for this; for never shall I
+ask thee for an equal one, (for nothing is more precious than life,) but
+just, as thou wilt say: for thou lovest not these children less than I do,
+if thou art right-minded; them bring up lords over my house, and bring not
+in second marriage a step-mother over these children, who, being a worse
+woman than me, through envy will stretch out her hand against thine and my
+children. Do not this then, I beseech thee; for a step-mother that is in
+second marriage is enemy to the children of the former marriage, no milder
+than a viper. And my boy indeed has his father, a great tower of defense;
+but thou, O my child, how wilt thou be, brought up during thy virgin years?
+Having what consort of thy father's? _I fear_, lest casting some evil
+obloquy on thee, she destroys thy marriage in the bloom of youth.[21] For
+neither will thy mother ever preside over thy nuptials, nor strengthen thee
+being present, my daughter, at thy travails, where nothing is more kind
+than a mother. For I needs must die, and this evil comes upon me not
+to-morrow, nor on the third day of the month, but immediately shall I be
+numbered among those that are no more. Farewell, and may you be happy; and
+thou indeed, my husband, mayst boast, that thou hadst a most excellent
+wife, and you, my children, that you were born of a most excellent mother.
+
+CHOR. Be of good cheer; for I fear not to answer for him: he will do this,
+if he be not bereft of his senses.
+
+ADM. These things shall be so, they shall be, fear not: since I, when alive
+also, possessed thee _alone_, and when thou art dead, thou shalt be my only
+wife, and no Thessalian bride shall address me in the place of thee: there
+is not woman who shall, either of so noble a sire, nor otherwise most
+exquisite in beauty. But my children are enough; of these I pray the Gods
+that I may have the enjoyment; for thee we do not enjoy. But I shall not
+have this grief for thee for a year, but as long as my life endures, O
+lady, abhorring her indeed that brought me forth, and hating my father; for
+they were in word, not in deed, my friends. But thou, giving what was
+dearest to thee for my life, hast rescued me. Have I not then reason to
+groan deprived of such a wife? But I will put an end to the feasts, and the
+meetings of those that drink together, and garland and song, which wont to
+dwell in my house. For neither can I any more touch the lyre, nor lift up
+my heart to sing to the Libyan flute; for thou hast taken away my joy of
+life. But by the cunning hand of artists imaged thy figure shall be lain on
+my bridal bed, on which I will fall, and clasping my hands around, calling
+on thy name, shall fancy that I hold my dear wife in mine arms, though
+holding her not:[22] a cold delight, I ween; but still I may draw off the
+weight that sits upon my soul: and in my dreams visiting me, thou mayst
+delight me, for a friend is sweet even to behold at night, for whatever
+time he may come. But if the tongue of Orpheus and his strain were mine, so
+that invoking with hymns the daughter of Ceres or her husband, I could
+receive thee from the shades below, I would descend, and neither the dog of
+Pluto, nor Charon at his oar, the ferryman of departed spirits, should stay
+me before I brought thy life to the light. But there expect me when I die
+and prepare a mansion for me, as about to dwell with me. For I will enjoin
+these[23] to place me in the same cedar with thee, and to lay my side near
+thy side: for not even when dead may I be separated from thee, the only
+faithful one to me!
+
+CHOR. And I indeed with thee, as a friend with a friend, will bear this
+painful grief for her, for she is worthy.
+
+ALC. My children, ye indeed hear your father saying that he will never
+marry another wife to be over you, nor dishonor me.
+
+ADM. And now too, I say this, and will perform it
+
+ALC. For this receive these children from my hand.
+
+ADM. Yes, I receive a dear gift from a dear hand.
+
+ALC. Be thou then a mother to these children in my stead.
+
+ADM. There is much need that I should, when they are deprived of thee.
+
+ALC. O my children, at a time when I ought to live I depart beneath.
+
+ADM. Ah me; what shall I do of thee bereaved!
+
+ALC. Time will soften thy grief: he that is dead is nothing.
+
+ADM. Take me with thee, by the Gods take me beneath.
+
+ALC. Enough are we _to go_, who die for thee.
+
+ADM. O fate, of what a wife thou deprivest me!
+
+ALC. And lo! my darkening eye is weighed down.
+
+ADM. I am undone then, if thou wilt leave me, my wife.
+
+ALC. As being no more, you may speak of me as nothing.
+
+ADM. Lift up thy face; do not leave thy children.
+
+ALC. Not willingly in sooth, but--farewell, my children.
+
+ADM. Look on them, O! look.
+
+ALC. I am no more.
+
+ADM. What dost thou? dost thou leave us?
+
+ALC. Farewell!
+
+ADM. I am an undone wretch!
+
+CHOR. She is gone, Admetus' wife is no more.
+
+EUM. Alas me, for my state! my mother is gone indeed below; she is no
+longer, my father, under the sun; but unhappy leaving me has made my life
+an orphan's. For look, look at her eyelid, and her nerveless arms. Hear,
+hear, O mother. I beseech thee; I, I now call thee, mother, thy young one
+falling on thy mouth--
+
+ADM. Who hears not, neither sees: so that I and you are struck with a heavy
+calamity.
+
+EUM. Young and deserted, my father, am I left by my dear mother: O! I that
+have suffered indeed dreadful deeds!--and thou hast suffered with me, my
+sister. O father, in vain, in vain didst thou marry, nor with her didst
+thou arrive at the end of old age, for she perished before, but thou being
+gone, mother, the house is undone.
+
+CHOR. Admetus, you must bear this calamity; for in no wise the first, nor
+the last of mortals hast thou lost thy dear wife: but learn, that to die is
+a debt we must all of us discharge.
+
+ADM. I know it, and this evil hath not come suddenly on me; but knowing it
+long ago I was afflicted. But be present, for I will have the corse borne
+forth, and while ye stay, chant a hymn to the God below that accepteth not
+libations. And all the Thessalians, over whom I reign, I enjoin to share in
+the grief for this lady, by shearing _their locks_ with steel, and by
+arraying themselves in sable garb. And harness[24] your teams of horses to
+your chariots, and cut from your single steeds the manes that fall upon
+their necks. And let there be no noise of pipes, nor of the lyre throughout
+the city for twelve completed moons. For none other corse more dear shall I
+inter, nor one more kind toward me. But she deserves to receive honor from
+me, seeing that she alone hath died for me.
+
+CHORUS.
+
+O daughter of Pelias, farewell where thou dwellest in sunless dwelling
+within the mansions of Pluto. And let Pluto know, the God with ebon locks,
+and the old man, the ferryman of the dead, who sits intent upon his oar and
+his rudder, that he is conducting by far the most excellent of women in his
+two-oared boat over the lake of Acheron. Oft shall the servants of the
+Muses sing of thee, celebrating thee both on the seven-stringed lute on the
+mountains, and in hymns unaccompanied by the lyre: in Sparta, when returns
+the annual circle in the season of the Carnean month,[25] when the moon is
+up the whole night long; and in splendid[26] and happy Athens. Such a song
+hast thou left by thy death to the minstrels of melodies. Would that it
+rested with me, and that I could waft thee to the light from the mansions
+of Pluto, and from Cocytus' streams, by the oar of that infernal river. For
+thou, O unexampled, O dear among women, thou didst dare to receive thy
+husband from the realms below in exchange for thine own life. Light may the
+earth from above fall upon thee, lady! and if thy husband chooses any other
+alliance, surely he will be much detested by me and by thy children. When
+his mother was not willing for him to hide her body in the ground, nor his
+aged father, but these two wretches, having hoary locks, dared not to
+rescue him they brought forth, yet thou in the vigor of youth didst depart,
+having died for thy husband. May it be mine to meet with another[27] such a
+dear wife; for rare in life is such a portion, for surely she would live
+with me forever without once causing pain.
+
+HERCULES, CHORUS.
+
+HER. Strangers, inhabitants of the land of Pheres, can I find Admetus
+within the palace?
+
+CHOR. The son of Pheres is within the palace, O Hercules. But tell me, what
+purpose sends thee to the land of the Thessalians, so that thou comest to
+this city of Pheres?
+
+HER. I am performing a certain labor for the Tirynthian Eurystheus.
+
+CHOR. And whither goest thou? on what wandering expedition art bound?
+
+HER. After the four chariot-steeds of Diomed the Thracian.
+
+CHOR. How wilt thou be able? Art thou ignorant of this host?
+
+HER. I am ignorant; I have not yet been to the land of the Bistonians.
+
+CHOR. Thou canst not be lord of these steeds without battle.
+
+HER. But neither is it possible for me to renounce the labors _set me_.
+
+CHOR. Thou wilt come then having slain, or being slain wilt remain there.
+
+HER. Not the first contest this that I shall run.
+
+CHOR. But what advance will you have made, when you have overcome their
+master?
+
+HER. I will drive away the horses to king Eurystheus.
+
+CHOR. 'Tis no easy matter to put the bit in their jaws.
+
+HER. _'Tis,_ except they breathe fire from their nostrils.
+
+CHOR. But they tear men piecemeal with their devouring jaws.
+
+HER. The provender of mountain beasts, not horses, you are speaking of.
+
+CHOR. Their stalls thou mayst behold with blood bestained.
+
+HER. Son of what sire does their owner boast to be?
+
+CHOR. Of Mars, prince[28] of the Thracian target, rich with gold.
+
+HER. And this labor, thou talkest of, is one my fate compels me to (for it
+is ever hard and tends to steeps); if I must join in battle with the
+children whom Mars begat, first indeed with Lycaon, and again with Cycnus,
+and I come to this third combat, about to engage with the horses and their
+master. But none there is, who shall ever see the son of Alcmena fearing
+the hand of his enemies.
+
+CHOR. And lo! hither comes the very man Admetus, lord of this land, from
+out of the palace.
+
+ADMETUS, HERCULES, CHORUS.
+
+ADM. Hail! O son of Jove, and of the blood of Perseus.
+
+HER. Admetus, hail thou too, king of the Thessalians!
+
+ADM. I would I could _receive this salutation;_ but I know that thou art
+well disposed toward me.
+
+HER. Wherefore art thou conspicuous with thy locks shorn for grief?
+
+ADM. I am about to bury a certain corse this day.
+
+HER. May the God avert calamity from thy children!
+
+ADM. My children whom I begat, live in the house.
+
+HER. Thy father however is of full age, if he is gone.
+
+ADM. Both he lives, and she who bore me, Hercules.
+
+HER. Surely your wife Alcestis is not dead?
+
+ADM. There are two accounts which I may tell of her.
+
+HER. Speakest thou of her as dead or as alive?
+
+ADM. She both is, and is no more, and she grieves me.
+
+HER. I know nothing more; for thou speakest things obscure.
+
+ADM. Knowest thou not the fate which it was doomed for her to meet with?
+
+HER. I know that she took upon herself to die for thee.
+
+ADM. How then is she any more, if that she promised this?
+
+HER. Ah! do not weep for thy wife before the time; wait till this happens.
+
+ADM. He that is about to die is dead, and he that is dead is no more.
+
+HER. The being and the not being is considered a different thing.
+
+ADM. You judge in this way, Hercules, but I in that.
+
+HER. Why then dost weep? Who is he of thy friends that is dead?
+
+ADM. A woman, a woman we were lately mentioning.
+
+HER. A stranger by blood, or any by birth allied to thee?
+
+ADM. A stranger; but on other account dear to this house.
+
+HER. How then died she in thine house?
+
+ADM. Her father dead, she lived an orphan here.
+
+HER. Alas! Would that I had found thee, Admetus, not mourning!
+
+ADM. As about to do what then, dost thou make use of these words?
+
+HER. I will go to some other hearth of those who will receive a guest.
+
+ADM. It must not be, O king: let not so great an evil happen!
+
+HER. Troublesome is a guest if he come to mourners.
+
+ADM. The dead are dead--but go into the house.
+
+HER. 'Tis base however to feast with weeping friends.
+
+ADM. The guest-chamber, whither we will lead thee, is apart.
+
+HER. Let me go, and I will owe you ten thousand thanks.
+
+ADM. It must not be that thou go to the hearth of another man. Lead on
+thou, having thrown open the guest-chamber that is separate from the house:
+and tell them that have the management, that there be plenty of meats; and
+shut the gates in the middle of the hall: it is not meet that feasting
+guests should hear groans, nor should they be made sad.
+
+CHOR. What are you doing? when so great a calamity is before you, Admetus,
+hast thou the heart to receive guests? wherefore art thou foolish?
+
+ADM. But if I had driven him who came my guest from my house, and from the
+city, would you have praised me rather? No in sooth, since my calamity had
+been no whit the less, but I the more inhospitable: and in addition to my
+evils, there had been this other evil, that mine should be called the
+stranger-hating house. But I myself find this man a most excellent host,
+whenever I go to the thirsty land of Argos.
+
+CHOR. How then didst thou hide thy present fate, when a friend, as thou
+thyself sayest, came?
+
+ADM. He never would have been willing to enter the house if he had known
+aught of my sufferings. And to him[29] indeed, I ween, acting thus, I
+appear not to be wise, nor will he praise me; but my house knows not to
+drive away, nor to dishonor guests.
+
+CHORUS.
+
+O greatly hospitable and ever liberal house of this man, thee even the
+Pythian Apollo, master of the lyre, deigned to inhabit, and endured to
+become a shepherd in thine abodes, through the sloping hills piping to thy
+flocks his pastoral nuptial hymns. And there were wont to feed with them,
+through delight of his lays, both the spotted lynxes, and the bloody troop
+of lions[30] came having left the forest of Othrys; disported too around
+thy cithern, Phœbus, the dappled fawn, advancing with light pastern beyond
+the lofty-feathered pines, joying in the gladdening strain. Wherefore he
+dwelleth in a home most rich in flocks by the fair-flowing lake of Bœbe;
+and to the tillage of his fields, and the extent of his plains, toward that
+dusky _part of the heavens_, where the sun stays his horses, makes the
+clime of the Molossians the limit, and holds dominion as far as the
+portless shore of the Ægean Sea at Pelion. And now having thrown open his
+house he hath received his guest with moistened eyelid, weeping over the
+corse of his dear wife, who but now died in the palace: for a noble
+disposition is prone to reverence [of the guest]. But in the good there is
+all manner of wisdom. And confidence is seated on my soul that the man who
+reveres the Gods will fare prosperously.
+
+ADMETUS, CHORUS.
+
+ADM. Ye men of Pheræ that are kindly present, my servants indeed bear
+aloft[31] the corse, having every thing fit for the tomb, and for the pyre.
+But do you, as is the custom, salute[32] the dead going forth on her last
+journey.
+
+CHOR. And lo! I see thy father advancing with his aged foot, and attendants
+bearing in their hands adornment for thy wife, due honors of those beneath.
+
+PHERES, ADMETUS, CHORUS.
+
+PHE. I am at present sympathizing in thy misfortunes, my son: for thou hast
+lost (no one will deny) a good and a chaste wife; but these things indeed
+thou must bear, though hard to be borne. But receive this adornment, and
+let it go with her beneath the earth: Her body 'tis right to honor, who in
+sooth died to save thy life, my son, and made me to be not childless, nor
+suffered me to waste away deprived of thee in an old age of misery. But she
+has made most illustrious the life of all women, having dared this noble
+action. O thou that hast preserved my son here, and hast raised us up who
+were falling, farewell,[33] and may it be well with thee even in the
+mansions of Pluto! I affirm that such marriages are profitable to men, or
+that it is not meet to marry.
+
+ADM. Neither hast thou come bidden of me to this funeral, nor do I count
+thy presence among things acceptable. But she here never shall put on thy
+decorations; for in no wise shall she be buried indebted to what thou hast.
+Then oughtest thou to have grieved with me, when I was in danger of
+perishing.[34] But dost thou, who stoodest aloof, and permittedst another,
+a young person, thyself being old, to die, weep over this dead body? Thou
+wert not then really the father of me, nor did she, who says she bore me,
+and is called my mother, bear me; but born of slavish blood I was secretly
+put under the breast of thy wife. Thou showedst when thou camest to the
+test, who thou art; and I deem that I am not thy son. Or else surely thou
+exceedest all in nothingness of soul, who being of the age thou art, and
+having come to the goal of life, neither hadst the will nor the courage to
+die for thy son; but sufferedst this stranger lady, whom alone I might
+justly have considered both mother and father. And yet thou mightst have
+run this race for glory, hadst thou died for thy son. But at any rate the
+remainder of the time thou hadst to live was short: and I should have lived
+and she the rest of our days, and I should not, bereft of her, be groaning
+at my miseries. And in sooth thou didst receive as many things as a happy
+man should receive; thou passedst the vigor of thine age indeed in
+sovereign sway, but I was thy son to succeed thee in this palace, so that
+thou wert not about to die childless and leave a desolate house for others
+to plunder. Thou canst not however say of me, that I gave thee up to die,
+dishonoring thine old age, whereas I was particularly respectful toward
+thee; and for this behavior both thou, and she that bare me, have made me
+such return. Wherefore you have no more time to lose[35] in getting
+children, who will succor thee in thine old age, and deck thee when dead,
+and lay out thy corse; for I will not bury thee with this mine hand; for I
+in sooth died, as far as in thee lay; but if, having met with, another
+deliverer, I view the light, I say that I am both his child, and the
+friendly comforter of his old age. In vain then do old men pray to be dead,
+complaining of age, and the long time of life: but if death come near, not
+one is willing to die, and old age is no longer burdensome to them.[36]
+
+CHOR. Desist, for the present calamity is sufficient; and do not, O son,
+provoke thy father's mind.
+
+PHE. O son, whom dost thou presume thou art gibing with thy reproaches, a
+Lydian or a Phrygian bought with thy money?[37] Knowest thou not that I am
+a Thessalian, and born from a Thessalian father, truly free? Thou art too
+insolent, and casting the impetuous words of youth against us, shalt not
+having cast them thus depart. But I begat thee the lord of my house, and
+brought thee up, but I am not thy debtor to die for thee; for I received no
+paternal law like this, nor Grecian law, that fathers should die for their
+children; for for thyself thou wert born, whether unfortunate or fortunate,
+but what from us thou oughtest to have, thou hast. Thou rulest indeed over
+many, and I will leave thee a large demesne of lands, for these I received
+from my father. In what then have I injured thee? Of what do I deprive
+thee? Thou joyest to see the light, and dost think thy father does not
+joy?[38] Surely I count the time we must spend beneath long, and life is
+short, but still sweet. Thou too didst shamelessly fight off from dying,
+and livest, having passed over thy destined fate, by slaying her; then dost
+thou talk of my nothingness of soul, O most vile one, when thou art
+surpassed by a woman who died for thee, the handsome youth? But thou hast
+made a clever discovery, so that thou mayst never die, if thou wilt
+persuade the wife that is thine from time to time to die for thee: and then
+reproachest thou thy friends who are not willing to do this, thyself being
+a coward? Hold thy peace, and consider, if thou lovest thy life, that all
+love theirs; but if thou shalt speak evil against us, thou shalt hear many
+reproaches and not false ones.
+
+CHOR. Too many evil things have been spoken both now and before, but cease,
+old man, from reviling thy son.
+
+ADM. Speak, for I have spoken; but if thou art grieved at hearing the
+truth, thou shouldst not err against me.
+
+PHE. But had I died for thee, I had erred more.
+
+ADM. What? is it the same thing for a man in his prime, and for an old man
+to die?
+
+PHE. We ought to live with one life, not with two.
+
+ADM. Mayst thou then live a longer time than Jove!
+
+PHE. Dost curse thy parents, having met with no injustice?
+
+ADM. _I said it_, for I perceived thou lovedst a long life.
+
+PHE. But art not thou bearing forth this corse instead of thyself?
+
+ADM. A proof this, O most vile one, of thy nothingness of soul.
+
+PHE. She died not by us at least; thou wilt not say this.
+
+ADM. Alas! Oh that you may ever come to need my aid!
+
+PHE. Wed many wives, that more may die.
+
+ADM. This is a reproach to thyself, for thou wert not willing to die.
+
+PHE. Sweet is this light of the God, sweet is it.
+
+ADM. Base is thy spirit and not that of men.
+
+PHE. Thou dost not laugh as carrying an aged corse.
+
+ADM. Thou wilt surely however die inglorious, when thou diest.
+
+PHE. To bear an evil report is no matter to me when dead.
+
+ADM. Alas! alas! how full of shamelessness is old age!
+
+PHE. She was not shameless: her you found mad.
+
+ADM. Begone, and suffer me to bury this dead.
+
+PHE. I will depart; but you will bury her, yourself being her murderer. But
+you will render satisfaction to your wife's relatives yet: or surely
+Acastus no longer ranks among men, if he shall not revenge the blood of his
+sister.
+
+ADM. Get thee gone, then, thou and thy wife; childless, thy child yet
+living, as ye deserve, grow old; for ye no more come into the same house
+with me: and if it were necessary for me to renounce by heralds thy
+paternal hearth, I would renounce it. But let us (for the evil before us
+must be borne) proceed, that we may place the corse upon the funeral pyre.
+
+CHOR. O! O! unhappy because of thy bold deed, O noble, and by far most
+excellent, farewell! may both Mercury[39] that dwells beneath, and Pluto,
+kindly receive thee; but if there too any distinction is shown to the good,
+partaking of this mayst thou sit by the bride of Pluto.
+
+SERVANT.
+
+I have now known many guests, and from all parts of the earth that have
+come to the house of Admetus, to whom I have spread the feast, but never
+yet did I receive into this house a worse one than this stranger. Who, in
+the first place, indeed, though he saw my master in affliction, came in,
+and prevailed upon himself to pass the gates. And then not at all in a
+modest manner received he the entertainment that there happened to be, when
+he heard of the calamity: but if we did not bring any thing, he hurried us
+to bring it. And having taken in his hands the cup wreathed with ivy,[40]
+he quaffs the neat wine of the purple mother, until the fumes of the liquor
+coming upon him inflamed him; and he crowns his head with branches of
+myrtles howling discordantly; and there were two strains to hear; for he
+was singing, not caring at all for the afflictions of Admetus, but we the
+domestics, were bewailing our mistress, and we showed not that we were
+weeping to the guest, for thus Admetus commanded. And now indeed I am
+performing the offices of hospitality to the stranger in the house, some
+deceitful thief and robber. But she is gone from the house, nor did I
+follow, nor stretched out my hand in lamentation for my mistress, who was a
+mother to me, and to all the domestics, for she saved us from ten thousand
+ills, softening the anger of her husband. Do I not then justly hate this
+stranger, who is come in our miseries?
+
+HERCULES, SERVANT.
+
+HER. Ho there! why dost thou look so grave and thoughtful? The servant
+ought not to be of woeful countenance before guests, but should receive
+them with an affable mind. But thou, though thou seest a companion of thy
+lord present, receivest him with a morose and clouded countenance, fixing
+thy attention on a calamity that thou hast nothing to do with. Come hither,
+that thou mayst become more wise. Knowest thou mortal affairs, of what
+nature they are? I think not; from whence should you? but hear me. Death is
+a debt that all mortals must pay: and there is not of them one, who knows
+whether he shall live the coming morrow: for what depends on fortune is
+uncertain how it will turn out, and is not to be learned, neither is it
+detected by art. Having heard these things then, and learned them from me,
+make thyself merry, drink, and think the life allowed from day to day thine
+own, but the rest Fortune's. And honor also Venus, the most sweet of
+deities to mortals, for she is a kind deity. But let go these other things,
+and obey my words, if I appear to speak rightly: I think so indeed. Wilt
+thou not then leave off thy excessive grief, and drink with me, crowned
+with garlands, having thrown open these gates? And well know I that the
+trickling of the cup falling down _thy throat_ will change thee from thy
+present cloudy and pent state of mind. But we who are mortals should think
+as mortals. Since to all the morose, indeed, and to those of sad
+countenance, if they take me as judge at least, life is not truly life, but
+misery.
+
+SERV. I know this; but now we are in circumstances not such as are fit for
+revel and mirth.
+
+HER. The lady that is dead is a stranger; grieve not too much, for the
+lords of this house live.
+
+SERV. What live! knowest thou not the misery within the house?
+
+HER. Unless thy lord hath told me any thing falsely.
+
+SERV. He is too, too hospitable.
+
+HER. Is it unmeet that I should be well treated, because a stranger is
+dead?
+
+SERV. Surely however she was very near.
+
+HER. Has he forborne to tell me any calamity that there is?
+
+SERV. Depart and farewell; we have a care for the evils of our lords.
+
+HER. This speech is the beginning of no foreign loss.
+
+SERV. For I should not, _had it been foreign_, have been grieved at seeing
+thee reveling.
+
+HER. What! have I received so great an injury from mine host?
+
+SERV. Thou camest not in a fit time for the house to receive thee, for
+there is grief to us, and thou seest that we are shorn, and our black
+garments.
+
+HER. But who is it that is dead? Has either any of his children died, or
+his aged father?
+
+SERV. The wife indeed of Admetus is dead, O stranger.
+
+HER. What sayst thou? and yet did ye receive me?
+
+SERV. _Yes_, for he had too much respect to turn thee from his house.
+
+HER. O unhappy man, what a wife hast thou lost!
+
+SERV. We all are lost, not she alone.
+
+HER. But I did perceive it indeed, when I saw his eye streaming with tears,
+and his shorn hair, and his countenance; but he persuaded me, saying, that
+he was conducting the funeral of a stranger to the tomb: but spite of my
+inclination having passed over these gates, I drank in the house of the
+hospitable man, while he was in this case, and reveled, crowned as to my
+head with garlands. But 'twas thine to tell me not _to do it_, when such an
+evil was upon the house. Where is he burying her? whither going can I find
+her?
+
+SERV. By the straight road that leads to Larissa, thou wilt see the
+polished tomb beyond the suburbs.
+
+HERCULES.
+
+O my much-daring heart and my soul, now show what manner of son the
+Tirynthian Alcmena, daughter of Electryon, bare thee to Jove. For I must
+rescue the woman lately dead, Alcestis, and place her again in this house,
+and perform this service for Admetus. And going I will lay wait for the
+sable-vested king of the departed, Death, and I think that I shall find him
+drinking of the libations near the tomb. And if having taken him by lying
+in wait, rushing from my ambush, I shall seize hold of him, and make a
+circle around him with mine arms, there is not who shall take him away
+panting as to his sides, until he release me the woman. But if however I
+fail of this capture, and he come not to the clottered mass of blood, I
+will go a journey beneath to the sunless mansions of Cora and her king, and
+will prefer my request; and I trust that I shall bring up Alcestis, so as
+to place her in the hands of that host, who received me into his house, nor
+drove me away, although struck with a heavy calamity, but concealed it,
+noble as he was, having respect unto me. Who of the Thessalians is more
+hospitable than he? Who that dwelleth in Greece? Wherefore he shall not
+say, that he did a service to a worthless man, himself being noble.
+
+ADMETUS, CHORUS.
+
+ADM. Alas! alas! O hateful approach, and hateful prospect of this widowed
+house. Oh me! Alas! alas! whither can I go! where rest! what can I say! and
+what not! would that I could perish! Surely my mother brought me forth to
+heavy fortune. I count the dead happy, them I long for! those houses I
+desire to dwell in: for neither delight I in viewing the sunbeams, nor
+treading with my foot upon the earth; of such a hostage has death robbed
+me, and delivered up to Pluto.
+
+CHOR. Advance, advance; go into the recesses of the house.
+
+(ADM. Oh! Oh!)
+
+Thou hast suffered things that demand groans.
+
+(ADM. Alas! alas!)
+
+Thou hast gone through grief, I well know.
+
+(ADM. Woe! Woe!)
+
+Thou nothing aidest her that is beneath.
+
+(ADM. Ah me! me!)
+
+Never to see thy dear wife's face again before thee, is severe.
+
+ADM. Thou hast made mention of that which ulcerated my soul; for what can
+be greater ill to man than to lose his faithful wife? Would that I never
+had married and dwelt with her in the palace. But I judge happy those, who
+are unmarried and childless; for theirs is one only life, for this to
+grieve is a moderate burden: but to behold the diseases of children, and
+the bridal bed wasted by death, is not supportable, when it were in one's
+power to be without children and unmarried the whole of life.
+
+CHOR. Fate, fate hard to be struggled with hath come.
+
+(ADM. Oh! Oh!)
+
+But puttest thou no bound to thy sorrows?
+
+(ADM. Alas! alas!)
+
+Heavy are they to bear, but still
+
+(ADM. Woe! woe!)
+
+endure, thou art not the first man that hast lost
+
+(ADM. Ah me! me!)
+
+thy wife; but calamity appearing afflicts different men in different
+shapes.
+
+ADM. O lasting griefs, and sorrows for our friends beneath the earth!--Why
+did you hinder me from throwing myself[41] into her hallowed grave, and
+from lying dead with her, by far the most excellent woman? And Pluto would
+have retained instead of one, two most faithful souls having together
+passed over the infernal lake.
+
+CHOR. I had a certain kinsman, whose son worthy to be lamented, an only
+child, died in his house; but nevertheless he bore his calamity with
+moderation, being bereft of child, though now hastening to gray hairs, and
+advanced in life.
+
+ADM. O house, how can I enter in? and how dwell in thee now my fortune has
+undergone this change? Ah me! for there is great difference between: then
+indeed with Pelian torches, and with bridal songs I entered in, bearing the
+hand of my dear wife, and there followed a loud-shouting revelry hailing
+happy both her that is dead and me, inasmuch as being noble, and born of
+illustrious parents both, we were united together: but now the groan
+instead of hymeneals, and black array instead of white robes, usher me in
+to my deserted couch.
+
+CHOR. This grief came quick on happy fortune to thee unschooled in evil:
+but thou hast saved thy life. Thy wife is dead, she left her love behind:
+what new thing this? Death has ere this destroyed many wives.
+
+ADM. My friends, I deem the fortune of my wife more happy than mine own,
+even although these things appear not so. For her indeed no grief shall
+ever touch, and she hath with glory ceased from many toils. But I, who
+ought not to have lived, though I have scaped destiny, shall pass a bitter
+life; I but now perceive. For how can I bear the entering into this house?
+Whom speaking to, or by whom addressed,[42] can I have joy in entering?
+Whither shall I turn me? For the solitude within will drive me forth, when
+I see the place where my wife used to lie, empty, and the seat whereon she
+used to sit, and the floor throughout the house all dirty, and when my
+children falling about my knees weep their mother, and they lament their
+mistress, _thinking_ what a lady they have lost from out of the house. Such
+things within the house; but abroad the nuptials of the Thessalians and the
+assemblies full of women will torture me: for I shall not be able to look
+on the companions of my wife. But whoever is mine enemy will say thus of
+me: "See that man, who basely lives, who dared not to die, but giving in
+his stead her, whom he married, escaped Hades, (and then does he seem to be
+a man?) and hates his parents, himself not willing to die."--Such report
+shall I have in addition to my woes; why then is it the more honorable
+course for me to live, my friends, having an evil character and an evil
+fortune?
+
+CHOR. I too have both been borne aloft through song, and having very much
+handled arguments have found nothing more powerful than Necessity: nor is
+there any cure in the Thracian tablets which Orpheus[43] wrote, nor among
+those medicines, which Phœbus gave the sons of Æsculapius, dispensing[44]
+them to wretched mortals. But neither to the altars nor to the image of
+this Goddess alone, is it lawful to approach, she hears not victims. Do
+not, O revered one, come on me more severe, than hitherto in my life. For
+Jove, whatever he have assented to, with thee brings this to pass. Thou too
+perforce subduest the iron among the Chalybi; nor has thy rugged spirit any
+remorse.
+
+And thee, _Admetus_, the Goddess hath seized in the inevitable grasp of her
+hand; but bear it, for thou wilt never by weeping bring back on earth the
+dead from beneath. Even the sons of the Gods by stealth begotten perish in
+death. Dear she was while she was with us, and dear even now when dead. But
+thou didst join to thy bed[45] the noblest wife of all women. Nor let the
+tomb of thy wife be accounted as the mound over the dead that perish, but
+let it be honored equally with the Gods, a thing for travelers to
+adore:[46] and some one, going out of his direct road, shall say thus: "She
+in olden time died for her husband, but now she is a blest divinity: Hail,
+O adored one, and be propitious!" Such words will be addressed to her.--And
+lo! here comes, as it seems, the son of Alcmena to thy house, Admetus.
+
+HERCULES, ADMETUS, CHORUS.
+
+HER. One should speak freely to a friend, Admetus, and, not in silence keep
+within our bosoms what we blame. Now I thought myself worthy as a friend to
+stand near thy calamities, and to search them out;[47] but thou didst not
+tell me that it was thy wife's corse that demanded thy attention; but didst
+receive me in thy house, as though occupied in grief for one not thine. And
+I crowned my head and poured out to the Gods libations in thy house which
+had suffered this calamity. And I _do_ blame thee, I blame thee, having met
+with this treatment! not that I wish to grieve thee in thy miseries. But
+wherefore I am come, having turned back again, I will tell thee. Receive
+and take care of this woman for me, until I come hither driving the
+Thracian mares, having slain the king of the Bistonians. But if I meet with
+what I pray I may not meet with, (for may I return!) I give thee her as an
+attendant of thy palace. But with much toil came she into my hands; for I
+find some who had proposed a public contest for wrestlers, worthy of my
+labors, from whence I bear off her, having received her as the prize of my
+victory; for those who conquered in the lighter exercises had to receive
+horses, but those again who conquered in the greater, the boxing and the
+wrestling, cattle, and a woman was added to these; but in me, who happened
+to be there, it had been base to neglect this glorious gain. But, as I
+said, the woman ought to be a care to you, for I am come not having
+obtained her by stealth, but with labor; but at some time or other thou too
+wilt perhaps commend me for it.
+
+ADM. By no means slighting thee, nor considering thee among mine enemies,
+did I conceal from thee the unhappy fate of my wife; but this had been a
+grief added to grief, if thou hadst gone to the house of another host: but
+it was sufficient for me to weep my own calamity. But the woman, if it is
+in any way possible, I beseech thee, O king, bid some one of the
+Thessalians, who has not suffered what I have, to take care of (but thou
+hast many friends among the Pheræans) lest thou remind me of my
+misfortunes. I can not, beholding her in the house, refrain from weeping;
+add not a sickness to me already sick; for I am enough weighed down with
+misery. Where besides in the house can a youthful woman be maintained? for
+she is youthful, as she evinces by her garb and her attire; shall she then
+live in the men's apartment? And how will she be undefiled, living among
+young men? A man in his vigor, Hercules, it is no easy thing to restrain;
+but I have a care for thee. Or can I maintain her, having made her enter
+the chamber of her that is dead? And how can I introduce her into her bed?
+I fear a double accusation, both from the citizens, lest any should convict
+me of having betrayed my benefactress, and lying in the bed of another
+girl; and I ought to have much regard toward the dead (and she deserves my
+respect). But thou, O lady, whoever thou art, know that thou hast the same
+size of person with Alcestis, and art like her in figure. Ah me! take by
+the Gods this woman from mine eyes, lest you destroy me already destroyed.
+For I think, when I look upon her, that I behold my wife; and it agitates
+my heart, and from mine eyes the streams break forth; O unhappy I, how
+lately did I begin to taste this bitter grief!
+
+CHOR. I can not indeed speak well of thy fortune; but it behooves thee,
+whatever thou art, to bear with firmness the dispensation of the Gods.
+
+HER. Oh would that I had such power as to bring thy wife to the light from
+the infernal mansions, and to do this service for thee!
+
+ADM. Well know I that thou hast the will: but how can this be? It is not
+possible for the dead to come into the light.
+
+HER. Do not, I pray, go beyond all bound, but bear it decently,
+
+ADM. Tis easier to exhort, than suffering to endure.
+
+HER. But what advantage can you gain if you wish to groan forever?
+
+ADM. I know that too myself; but a certain love impels me.
+
+HER. For to love one that is dead draws the tear.
+
+ADM. She hath destroyed me, and yet more than my words express.
+
+HER. Thou hast lost an excellent wife; who will deny it?
+
+ADM. _Ay,_ so that I am no longer delighted with life.
+
+HER. Time will soften the evil, but now it is yet in its vigor[48] on thee.
+
+ADM. Time thou mayst say, if to die be time.
+
+HER. A wife will bid it cease, and the desire of a new marriage.
+
+ADM. Hold thy peace--What saidst thou? I could not have supposed it.
+
+HER. But why? what, wilt not marry, but pass a widowed life alone?
+
+ADM. There is no woman that shall lie with me.
+
+HER. Dost thou think that thou art in aught benefiting her that is dead?
+
+ADM. Her, wherever she is, I am bound to honor.
+
+HER. I praise you indeed, I praise you; but you incur the charge of folly.
+
+ADM. _Praise me, or praise me not;_ for you shall never call me bridegroom.
+
+HER. I do praise thee, because thou art a faithful friend to thy wife.
+
+ADM. May I die, when I forsake her, although she is not!
+
+HER. Receive then this noble woman into thine house.
+
+ADM. Do not, I beseech thee by thy father Jove.
+
+HER. And yet you will be acting wrong, if you do not this.
+
+ADM. Yes, and if I do it, I shall have my heart gnawed with sorrow.
+
+HER. Be prevailed upon: perhaps this favor may be proved a duty.
+
+ADM. Ah! would that you had never borne her off from the contest!
+
+HER. Yet with me conquering thou'rt victorious too.
+
+ADM. Thou hast well spoken; but let the woman depart.
+
+HER. She shall depart, if it is needful; but first see whether it be
+needful.
+
+ADM. It is needful, if thou at least dost not mean to make me angry.
+
+HER. I too have this desire, for I know somewhat.
+
+ADM. Conquer then. Thou dost not however do things pleasing to me.
+
+HER. But some time or other thou wilt praise me; only be persuaded.
+
+ADM. Lead her in, if I must receive her in my house.
+
+HER. I will not deliver up the woman into the charge of the servants.
+
+ADM. But do thou thyself lead her into the house if it seems fit.
+
+HER. I then will give her into thine hands.
+
+ADM. I will not touch her; but she is at liberty to enter the house.
+
+HER. I trust her to thy right hand alone.
+
+ADM. O king, thou compellest me to do this against my will.
+
+HER. Dare to stretch out thy hand and touch the stranger.
+
+ADM. And in truth I stretch it out, as I would to the Gorgon with her
+severed head.[49]
+
+HER. Have you her?
+
+ADM. I have.
+
+HER. Then keep her fast; and some time or other thou wilt say that the son
+of Jove is a generous guest. But look on her, whether she seems aught to
+resemble thy wife; and being blest leave off from thy grief.
+
+ADM. O Gods, what shall I say? An unexpected wonder this! Do I truly see
+here my wife, or does the mocking joy of the Deity strike me from my
+senses?
+
+HER. It is not so; but thou beholdest here thy wife.
+
+ADM. Yet see, whether this be not a phantom from the realms beneath.
+
+HER. Thou hast not made thine host an invoker of spirits.
+
+ADM. But do I behold my wife, whom I buried?
+
+HER. Be well assured _thou dost;_ but I wonder not at thy disbelief of thy
+fortune.
+
+ADM. May I touch her, may I speak to her as my living wife?[50]
+
+HER. Speak to her; for thou hast all that thou desirest.
+
+ADM. O face and person of my dearest wife, have I thee beyond my hopes,
+when I thought never to see thee more?
+
+HER. Thou hast: but _take care_ there be no envy of the Gods.
+
+ADM. O noble son of the most powerful Jove, mayst thou be blest, and may
+thy father, who begot thee, protect thee, for thou alone hast restored me!
+How didst thou bring her from beneath into this light!
+
+HER. Having fought a battle with the prince of those beneath.
+
+ADM. Where dost thou say thou didst have this conflict with Death!
+
+HER. At the tomb itself, having seized him from ambush with my hands.
+
+ADM. But why, I pray, does this woman stand here speechless?
+
+HER. It is not yet allowed thee to hear her address thee, before she is
+unbound from her consecrations[51] to the Gods beneath, and the third day
+come. But lead her in, and as thou oughtest, henceforward, Admetus,
+continue in thy piety with respect to strangers. And farewell! But I will
+go and perform the task that is before me for the imperial son of
+Sthenelus.
+
+ADM. Stay with us, and be a companion of our hearth.
+
+HER. This shall be some time hence, but now I must haste.
+
+ADM. But mayst thou be prosperous, and return on thy journey back. But to
+the citizens, and to all the tetrarchy I issue my commands, that they
+institute dances in honor of these happy events, and make the altars
+odorous with their sacrifices of oxen that accompany their vows. For now
+are we placed in a better state of life than the former one: for I will not
+deny that I am happy.
+
+CHOR. Many are the shapes of the things the deities direct, and many things
+the Gods perform contrary to our expectations. And those things which we
+looked for are not accomplished; but the God hath brought to pass things
+not looked for. Such hath been the event of this affair.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+NOTES ON ALCESTIS
+
+[1] Lactant. i. 10. "Quid Apollo? Nonne ... turpissime gregem pavit
+alienum?" B.
+
+[2] Hygin. Fab. li. "Apollo ab eo in servitutem liberaliter acceptus." B.
+
+[3] Cf. Hippol. 1437. B.
+
+[4] No one will, I believe, object to this translation of ΘΑΝΑΤΟΣ; it seems
+rather a matter of surprise that Potter has kept the Latin ORCUS, a name
+clearly substituted as the nearest to ΘΑΝΑΤΟΣ of the masculine gender.
+
+[5] Cf. Æsch. Eum. 723 sqq. B.
+
+[6] It was customary to bury those, who died advanced in years, with
+greater magnificence than young persons.
+
+[7] The horses of Diomed, king of Thrace. The construction is, Ευρυσθεως
+πεμψαντος [αυτον meta hippeion ochêma [axonta] ek topôn dyschei merôn
+Thrêikês]. MONK.
+
+[8] On this custom, see Monk, and Lomeier de Lustrationibus § xxviii. B.
+
+[9] Perhaps, "as though all were over," B.
+
+[10] Casaubon on Theophr. § 16, observes that it was customary to place a
+large vessel filled with lustral water before the doors of a house during
+the time the corpse was lying out, with which every one who came out
+sprinkled himself. See also Monk's note, Kirchmann de Funeribus, iii. 9.
+The same custom was observed on returning from the funeral. See Pollux,
+viii. 7. p. 391, ed. Seber. B.
+
+[11] See Dindorf. B.
+
+[12] Potterus, Arch. Gr. _mortuos_ a _Græcis_ προνωπεις vocari tradit, quod
+solebant ex penitiore ædium parte produci, ac in _vestibulo_, i.e.
+προνωπιωι collocari: atque hunc locum adducit, sed frustra, ut opinor. Non
+enim _mortua_ jam erat, nec _producta_, sed, ut recte hanc vocem
+interpretatur schol. εις θανατον προνενευκυια, i.e. _morti propinqua_.
+Proprie προνωπης is dicitur, qui _corpore prono ad terram fertur_, ut
+Æschyl. Agam. 242. Inde, quia moribundi virium defectu terram petere
+solent, ad hos designandos translatum est. KUINOEL.
+
+[13] The old word "dizening" is perhaps the most literal translation of
+κοσμος, which, however, here means the whole preparations for the funeral.
+Something like it is implied in Hamlet, v. 1.
+
+                  ... her virgin rites,
+  Her maiden strewments, and the bringing home
+  Of bell and burial.     B.
+
+[14] Aristophanes is almost too bad in his burlesque, Equit. 1251. σε δ'
+αλλος τις λαβων κεκτησεται, κλεπτης μεν ουκ αν μαλλον, ευτυχης δ' ‛ισως. B.
+
+[15] Some would translate προνωπης in the same manner as in verse 144.
+
+[16] Conf. Ter.: Phorm. iv. 4, 5. Opera tua ad _restim_ mihi quidem res
+rediit planissume.
+
+[17] Perhaps it is unnecessary to remark, that αβιωτον agrees with βιον
+implied in βιοτευσει.
+
+[18] ‛οραι scilicet ‛ηλιος. MONK.
+
+[19] Cf. Hippol. 1372. B.
+
+[20] It must be remembered that to survive one's children was considered
+the greatest of misfortunes. Cf. Plaut. Mil. Glor. l. 1. "Ita ut tuum vis
+unicum gnatum tuæ Superesse vitæ, sospitem et superstitem." B.
+
+[21] Kuinoel carries on the interrogation to γαμους, and Buchanan has
+translated it according to this punctuation. Monk compares Iliad, p. 95;
+μηπως με περιστελωσ' ‛ενα πολλοι.
+
+[22] Compare my note on Æsch. Ag. 414 sqq. B.
+
+[23] _These_, my children.
+
+[24] Reiske proposes to read τεθριππα δε ζευγη τε και--_And both from your
+chariot teams, and from your single horses cut the manes_.
+
+[25] This festival was celebrated in honor of Apollo at Sparta, from the
+seventh to the sixteenth day of the month Carneus. See Monk. B.
+
+[26] On λιπαραις Αθαναις, see Monk. B.
+
+[27] Literally, _the duplicate_ of such a wife.
+
+[28] αναξ πελτης, so αναξ κωπης in Æsch. Pers. 384, _of a rower_. Wakefield
+compares Ovid's _Clypei dominus septemplicis Ajax_. MONK.
+
+[29] Heath and Markland take τωι for τινι.
+
+[30] Cf. Theocrit. Id. i. 71 sqq. of Daphnis, τηνον μεν θωες, τηνον λυκοι
+ωρυσαντο, Τηνον χοι 'κ δρυμοιο λεων ανεκλαυσε θανοντα ... πολλαι μεν παρ
+ποσσι βοες, πολλοι δε τε ταυροι, πολλαι δ' αυ δαμαλαι και πορτιες ωδυραντο.
+Virg. Ecl. v. 27 sqq. Calpurnius, Ecl. ii. 18. Nemesianus, Ecl. i. 74 sqq.;
+ii. 32. B.
+
+[31] αρδην γινεται απο του αιρειν. δηλοι δε το φοραδην. Schol.
+
+[32] Cf. Suppl. 773. Αιδου τε μολπας εκχεω δακρυρροους, φιλους προσαυδων,
+‛ων λελειμμενος ταλας ερημα κλαιω. See Gorius Monum. sive Columbar. Libert.
+Florent. mdccxxvii. p.186, who observes, "χαιρε was the accustomed
+salutation addressed to the dead. Catullus, Carm. xcvii. _Accipe fraterno
+multum manantia fletu, atque in perpetuum frater HAVE, atque VALE_." The
+same scholar compares a monument, apud Fabretti, cap. v. p. 392, n. 265,
+
+
+D. M
+AVE SALVINIA
+OMNIUM. AMAN
+TISSIMA. ET.
+VALE,
+
+which is very apposite to the present occasion. B.
+
+[33] Wakefield reads χαιρε καιν Αιδου δομοις; having in his mind probably
+Hom. Il. Ψ. 19. Χαιρε μοι ‛ω Πατροκλε, και ειν Αϊδαο δομοισι.
+
+[34] I should scarcely have observed that this is the proper sense of the
+imperfect, had not the former translator mistaken it. B.
+
+[35] Cf. Iph. Taur. 244. χερνιβας δε και καταργματα ουκ αν φθανοις αν
+ευτρεπη ποιουμενη. B.
+
+[36] An apparent allusion to the fable of Death and the Old Man. B
+
+[37] Aristophanes' version of this line is, ω παι, τιν αυχεις, ποτερα Λυδον
+η Φρυγα Μορμολυττεσθαι δοκεις. B.
+
+[38] Turned by Aristophanes into an apology for beating one's father, Nub.
+1415. κλαουσι παιδες, πατερα δ' ου κλαειν δοκεις. See Thesmoph. 194. B.
+
+[39] Cf. Æsch. Choeph. sub init. and Gorius, Monum. Libert. p. 24. ad Tab.
+x. lit. A.
+
+[40] Theocrit. i. 27. Και βαθυ κισσυβιον κεκλυσμενον ‛αδει καρωι, Τω περι
+μεν χειλη μαρευεται ‛υψοθι κισσος. B.
+
+[41] Hamlet, v. 1.
+
+  --Hold off the earth awhile,
+  Till I have caught her once more in mine arms:
+                  [_ leaps into the grave_.]
+  Now pile your dust upon the quick and dead.     B.
+
+[42] Cf. vs. 195. ‛ον ου προσειπε και προσερρηθη παλιν. B.
+
+[43] Ορφεια γαρυς, a paraphrasis for Ορφευς.
+
+[44] αντιτεμων, μεταφορικως απο των τας ‛ριζας τεμνοντων και ‛ευρισκοντων.
+SCHOL. TR. Cf. on Æsch. Agam. 17. B.
+
+[45] In Phavorinus, among the senses of κλισια is κλινη και κλινητηριον.
+
+[46] It will be remembered that the tombs were built near the highways,
+with great magnificence, and sometimes very lofty, especially when near the
+sea-coast (cf. Æsch. Choeph. 351. D'Orville on Charit. lib. i. sub fin.
+Eurip. Hecub. 1273). They are often used as landmarks or milestones, as in
+Theocr. vi. 10, and as oratories or chapels, Apul. Florid, i. p.340, ed.
+Elm. B.
+
+[47] This appears the most obvious sense, as connected with what follows.
+All the interpreters, however, translate it, _I thought myself worthy,
+standing, as I did, near thy calamities_,(i.e. near thee in thy
+calamities,) _to be proved thy friend._
+
+[48] In the same manner ‛ηβαι is used in Orestes, 687, ‛οταν γαρ ‛ηβαι
+δημος εις οργην πεσων.
+
+[49] i.e. _the severed head of the Gorgon_. Valckenaer observes, that this
+is an expression meaning _facie aversa_, and compares l. 465 of the
+Phœnissæ.
+
+[50] Winter's Tale, v. 3.
+
+  Start not: her actions shall be holy, as,
+  You hear, my spell is lawful: do not shun her,
+  Until you see her die again; for then
+  You kill her double: Nay, present your hand:
+  When she was young you woo'd her; now, in age,
+  Is she become the suitor?
+
+Compare also Much Ado about Nothing, v. 4. B.
+
+[51] ‛αφαγνιζειν h. l. non _purificare_ sed _desecrare_. Orcus enim, quando
+gladio totondisset Alcestidis capillos, eam diis manibus sacram dicaverat,
+quod diserte ‛ηγνισαι appellat noster, vide 75--77. Contraria igitur aliqua
+ceremonia desecranda erat, antequam Admeto ejus consuetudine et colloquio
+frui liceret. HEATH.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE BACCHÆ.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+PERSONS REPRESENTED,
+
+  BACCHUS.
+  CHORUS.
+  TIRESIAS.
+  CADMUS.
+  PENTHEUS.
+  SERVANT.
+  MESSENGER.
+  ANOTHER MESSENGER.
+  AGAVE.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE ARGUMENT.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+Bacchus, the son of Jove by Semele, had made Thebes, his mother's
+birth-place, his favorite place of abode and worship. Pentheus, the then
+reigning king, who, as others say, preferred the worship of Minerva,
+slighted the new God, and persecuted those who celebrated his revels. Upon
+this, Bacchus excited his mother Agave, together with the sisters of
+Semele, Autonoe and Ino, to madness, and visiting Pentheus in disguise of a
+Bacchanal, was at first imprisoned, but, easily escaping from his bonds, he
+persuaded Pentheus to intrude upon the rites of the Bacchants. While
+surveying them from a lofty tree, the voice of Bacchus was heard inciting
+the Bacchants to avenge themselves upon the intruder, and they tore the
+miserable Pentheus piecemeal. The grief and banishment of Agave for her
+unwitting offense conclude the play.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE BACCHÆ.[1]
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+BACCHUS.
+
+I, Bacchus, the son of Jove, am come to this land of the Thebans, whom
+formerly Semele, the daughter of Cadmus, brought forth, delivered by the
+lightning-bearing flame. And having taken a mortal form instead of a God's,
+I am present at the fountains of Dirce and the water of Ismenus. And I see
+the tomb of my thunder-stricken mother here near the palace, and the
+remnants of the house smoking, and the still living name of Jove's fire,
+the everlasting insult of Juno against my mother. But I praise Cadmus, who
+has made this place hallowed, the shrine of his daughter; and I have
+covered it around with the cluster-bearing leaf of the vine. And having
+left the wealthy lands of the Lydians and Phrygians, and the sun-parched
+plains of the Persians, and the Bactrian walls; and having come over the
+stormy land of the Medes, and the happy Arabia, and all Asia which lies
+along the coast of the salt sea, having fair-towered cities full of Greeks
+and barbarians mingled together; and there having danced and established my
+mysteries, that I might be a God manifest among men, I have come to this
+city first of the Grecian [cities,] and I have raised my shout first in
+Thebes of this land of Greece, fitting a deer-skin on my body, and taking a
+thyrsus in my hand, an ivy-clad[2] weapon, because the sisters of my
+mother, whom, it least of all became, said that I, Bacchus, was not born of
+Jove; but that Semele, having conceived by some mortal, charged the sin of
+her bed upon Jove, a trick of Cadmus; on which account they said that Jove
+had slain her, because she told a false tale about her marriage. Therefore
+I have now driven them from the house with frenzy, and they dwell on the
+mountain, insane of mind; and I have compelled them to wear the dress of my
+mysteries. And all the female seed of the Cadmeans, as many as are women,
+have I driven maddened from the house. And they, mingled with the sons of
+Cadmus, sit on the roofless rocks beneath the green pines. For this city
+must know, even though it be unwilling, that it is not initiated into my
+Bacchanalian rites, and that I plead the cause of my mother, Semele, in
+appearing manifest to mortals as a God whom she bore to Jove. Cadmus then
+gave his honor and power to Pentheus, born from his daughter, who fights
+against the Gods as far as I am concerned, and drives me from sacrifices,
+and in his prayers makes no mention of me; on which account I will show him
+and all the Thebans that I am a God. And having set matters here aright,
+manifesting myself, I will move to another land. But if the city of the
+Thebans should in anger seek by arms to bring down the Bacchæ from the
+mountain, I, general of the Mænads, will join battle.[3] On which account I
+have changed my form to a mortal one, and transformed my shape into the
+nature of a man. But, O ye who have left Tmolus, the bulwark of Lydia; ye
+women, my assembly, whom I have brought from among the barbarians as
+assistants and companions to me; take your drums, your native instruments
+in the Phrygian cities, the invention of the mother Rhea[4] and myself, and
+coming beat them around this royal palace of Pentheus, that the city of
+Cadmus may see it. And I, with the Bacchæ, going to the dells of Cithæron,
+where they are, will share their dances.
+
+CHOR. Coming from the land of Asia, having left the sacred Tmolus, I dance
+in honor of Bromius, a sweet labor and a toil easily borne, celebrating the
+god Bacchus. Who is in the way? who is in the way? who is in the halls? Let
+him depart. And let every one be pure as to his mouth speaking propitious
+things; for now I will with hymns celebrate Bacchus according to
+custom:--Blessed is he,[5] whoever being favored, knowing the mysteries of
+the gods, keeps his life pure, and has his soul initiated into the Bacchic
+revels, dancing o'er the mountains with holy purifications, and reverencing
+the mysteries of the mighty mother Cybele, and brandishing the thyrsus, and
+being crowned with ivy, serves Bacchus! Go, ye Bacchæ; go, ye Bacchæ,
+escorting Bromius, a God, the son of a God, from the Phrygian mountains to
+the broad streets of Greece! Bromius! whom formerly, being in the pains of
+travail, the thunder of Jove flying upon her, his mother cast from her
+womb, leaving life by the stroke of the thunder-bolt. And immediately
+Jupiter, the son of Saturn, received him in a chamber fitted for birth; and
+covering him in his thigh, shuts him with golden clasps hidden from Juno.
+And he brought him forth, when the Fates had perfected the horned God, and
+crowned him with crowns of snakes, whence the thyrsus-bearing Mænads are
+wont to cover their prey with their locks. O Thebes, thou nurse of Semele,
+crown thyself with ivy, flourish, flourish with the verdant yew bearing
+sweet fruit, and be ye crowned in honor of Bacchus with branches of oak or
+pine, and adorn your garments of spotted deer-skin with fleeces of
+white-haired sheep,[6] and sport in holy games with the insulting wands,
+straightway shall all the earth dance, when Bromius leads the bands to the
+mountain, to the mountain, where the female crowd abides, away from the
+distaff and the shuttle,[7] driven frantic by Bacchus. O dwelling of the
+Curetes, and ye divine Cretan caves,[8] parents to Jupiter, where the
+Corybantes with the triple helmet invented for me in their caves this
+circle o'erstretched with hide; and with the constant sweet-voiced breath
+of Phrygian pipes they mingled a sound of Bacchus, and put the instrument
+in the hand of Rhea, resounding with the sweet songs of the Bacchæ. And
+hard by the raving satyrs went through the sacred rites of the mother
+Goddess. And they added the dances of the Trieterides;[9] in which Bacchus
+rejoices; pleased on the mountains, when after the running dance he falls
+upon the plain, having a sacred garment of deer-skin, seeking a sacrifice
+of goats, a raw-eaten delight,[10] on his way to the Phrygian, the Lydian
+mountains; and the leader is Bromius, Evoe![11] but the plain flows with
+milk, and flows with wine, and flows with the nectar of bees; and the smoke
+is as of Syrian frankincense. But Bacchus bearing a flaming torch of pine
+on his thyrsus, rushes about arousing in his course the wandering Choruses,
+and agitating them with shouts, casting his rich locks loose in the
+air,--and with his songs he shouts out such words as this: O go forth, ye
+Bacchæ; O go forth, ye Bacchæ, delight of gold-flowing Tmolus. Sing Bacchus
+'neath the loud drums, Evoe, celebrating the God Evius in Phrygian cries
+and shouts. When the sweet-sounding sacred pipe sounds a sacred playful
+sound suited to the frantic wanderers, to the mountain, to the
+mountain--and the Bacchant rejoicing like a foal with its mother at
+pasture, stirs its swift foot in the dance.
+
+TIRESIAS. Who at the doors will call out Cadmus from the house, the son of
+Agenor, who, leaving the city of Sidon, erected this city of the Thebans?
+Let some one go, tell him that Tiresias seeks him; but he himself knows on
+what account I come, and what agreement I, an old man, have made with him,
+yet older; to twine the thyrsi, and to put on the skins of deer, and to
+crown the head with ivy branches.
+
+CADMUS. O dearest friend! how I, being in the house, was delighted, hearing
+your voice, the wise voice of a wise man; and I am come prepared, having
+this equipment of the God; for we needs must extol him, who is the son
+sprung from my daughter, Bacchus, who has appeared as a God to men, as much
+as is in our power. Whither shall I dance, whither direct the foot, and
+wave the hoary head? Do you lead me, you, an old man! O Tiresias, direct
+me, an old man; for you are wise. Since I shall never tire, neither night
+nor day, striking the earth with the thyrsus. Gladly we forget that we are
+old.
+
+TI. You have the same feelings indeed as I; for I too feel young, and will
+attempt the dance.
+
+CA. Then we will go to the mountain in chariots.[12]
+
+TI. But thus the God would not have equal honor.
+
+CA. I, an old man, will lead you, an old man.[13]
+
+TI. The God will without trouble guide us thither.
+
+CA. But shall we alone of the city dance in honor of Bacchus?
+
+TI. [Ay,] for we alone think rightly, but the rest ill.
+
+CA. We are long in delaying;[14] but take hold of my hand.
+
+TI. See, take hold, and join your hand to mine.
+
+CA. I do not despise the Gods, being a mortal.
+
+TI. We do not show too much wiseness about the Gods. Our ancestral
+traditions, and those which we have kept throughout our life, no argument
+will overturn them; not if any one were to find out wisdom with the highest
+genius. Some one will say that I do not respect old age, being about to
+dance, having crowned my head with ivy; for the God has made no distinction
+as to whether it becomes the young man to dance, or the elder; but wishes
+to have common honors from all; but does not at all wish to be extolled by
+a few.
+
+CA. Since you, O Tiresias, do not see this light, I will be to you an
+interpreter of things. Hither is Pentheus coming to the house in haste, the
+son of Echion, to whom I give power over the land. How fluttered he is!
+what strange thing will he say?
+
+PENTHEUS. I happened to be at a distance from this land, and I hear of
+strange evils in this city, that the women have left our palace in
+mad-wandering Bacchic rites; and that they are rushing about in the shady
+mountains, honoring with dances this new God Bacchus, whoever he is; and
+that full goblets stand in the middle of their assemblies, and that flying
+each different ways into secrecy, they yield to the embraces of men, on
+pretence, indeed, as [being] worshiping Mænads; but that they consider
+Venus before Bacchus. As many then as I have taken, the servants keep them
+bound as to their hands in the public strong-holds, and as many as are
+absent I will hunt from the mountain, Ino, and Agave who bore me to Echion,
+and the mother of Actæon, I mean Autonoe; and having bound them in iron
+fetters, I will soon stop them from this ill-working revelry. And they say
+that some stranger has come hither, a juggler, a charmer, from the Lydian
+land, fragrant in hair with golden curls, florid, having in his eyes the
+graces of Venus, who days and nights is with them, alluring the young
+maidens with Bacchic mysteries--but if I catch him under this roof, I will
+stop him from making a noise with the thyrsus, and waving his hair, by
+cutting off his neck from his body. He says he is the God Bacchus, [He was
+once on a time sown in the thigh of Jove,[15] ] who was burned in the flame
+of lightning, together with his mother, because she falsely claimed
+nuptials with Jove. Are not these things deserving of a terrible halter,
+for a stranger to insult us with these insults, whoever he be? But here is
+another marvel--I see Tiresias the soothsayer, in dappled deer-skins, and
+the father of my mother, most great absurdity, raging about with a
+thyrsus--I deprecate it, O father, seeing your old age destitute of sense;
+will you not dash away the ivy?[16] will you not, O father of my mother,
+put down your hand empty of the thyrsus? Have you persuaded him to this, O
+Tiresias? do you wish, introducing this new God among men, to examine birds
+and to receive rewards for fiery omens? If your hoary old age did not
+defend you, you should sit as a prisoner in the midst of the Bacchæ, for
+introducing these wicked rites; for where the joy of the grape-cluster is
+present at a feast of women, I no longer say any thing good of their
+mysteries.
+
+CHOR. Alas for his impiety! O host, do you not reverence the Gods! and
+being son of Echion, do you disgrace your race and Cadmus, who sowed the
+earth-born crop?
+
+TI. When any wise man takes a good occasion for his speech, it is not a
+great task to speak well; but you have a rapid tongue, as if wise, but in
+your words there is no wisdom; but a powerful man, when bold, and able to
+speak, is a bad citizen if he has not sense. And this new God, whom you
+ridicule, I am unable to express how great he will be in Greece. For, O
+young man, two things are first among men; Ceres, the goddess, and she is
+the earth, call her whichever name you will.[17] She nourishes mortals with
+dry food; but he who is come as a match to her, the son of Semele, has
+invented the liquid drink of the grape, and introduced it among mortals,
+which delivers miserable mortals from grief,[18] when they are filled with
+the stream of the vine; and gives sleep an oblivion of daily evils: nor is
+there any other medicine for troubles. He who is a God is poured out in
+libations to the Gods, that by his means men may have good things--and you
+laugh at him, as to how he was sewn up in the thigh of Jove; I will teach
+you that this is well--when Jove snatched him out of the lightning flame,
+and bore him, a young infant, up to Olympus, Juno wished to cast him down
+from heaven; but Jove had a counter contrivance, as being a God. Having
+broken a part of the air which surrounds the earth, he placed in it, giving
+him as a pledge, Bacchus, safe from Juno's enmity; and in time, mortals
+say, that he was nourished in the thigh of Jove; changing his name, because
+a God gave him formerly as a pledge to a Goddess, they having made
+agreement.[19] But this God is a prophet--for Bacchanal excitement and
+frenzy have much divination in them.[20] For when the God comes violent[21]
+into the body, he makes the frantic to foretell the future; and he also
+possesses some quality of Mars; for terror flutters sometimes an army under
+arms and in its ranks, before they touch the spear; and this also is a
+frenzy from Bacchus. Then you shall see him also on the Delphic rocks,
+bounding with torches along the double-pointed district, tossing about, and
+shaking the Bacchic branch, mighty through Greece. But be persuaded by me,
+O Pentheus; do not boast that sovereignty has power among men, nor, even if
+you think so, and your mind is disordered, believe that you are at all
+wise. But receive the God into the land, and sacrifice to him, and play the
+Bacchanal, and crown your head. Bacchus will not compel women to be
+modest[22] with regard to Venus, but in his nature modesty in all things is
+ever innate. This you must needs consider, for she who is modest will not
+be corrupted by being at Bacchanalian revels. Dost see? Thou rejoicest when
+many stand at thy gates, and the city extols the name of Pentheus; and he,
+I ween, is pleased, when honored. I, then, and Cadmus whom you laugh to
+scorn, will crown ourselves with ivy, and dance, a hoary pair; but still we
+must dance; and I will not contend against the Gods, persuaded by your
+words--for you rave most grievously; nor can you procure any cure from
+medicine, nor are you now afflicted beyond their power.[23]
+
+CHOR. O old man, thou dost not shame Apollo by thy words, and honoring
+Bromius, the mighty God, thou art wise.
+
+CAD. My son, well has Tiresias advised you; dwell with us, not away from
+the laws. For now you flit about, and though wise are wise in naught; for
+although this may not be a God, as you say, let it be said by you that he
+is; and tell a glorious falsehood, that Semele may seem to have borne a
+God, and that honor may redound to all our race. You see the hapless fate
+of Actæon,[24] whom his blood-thirsty hounds, whom he had reared up, tore
+to pieces in the meadows, having boasted that he was superior in the chase
+to Diana. This may you not suffer; come, that I may crown thy head with
+ivy, with us give honor to the God--
+
+PEN. Do not bring your hand toward me; but departing, play the Bacchanal,
+and wipe not off your folly on me; but I will follow up with punishment
+this teacher of your madness; let some one go as quickly as possible, and
+going to his seat where he watches the birds, upset and overthrow it with
+levers, turning every thing upside down; and commit his crowns to the winds
+and storms; for doing this, I shall gnaw him most. And some of you going
+along the city, track out this effeminate stranger, who brings this new
+disease upon women, and pollutes our beds. And if you catch him, convey him
+hither bound; that meeting with a judgment of stoning he may die, having
+seen a bitter revelry of Bacchus in Thebes.
+
+TI. O wretched man! how little knowest thou what thou sayest! You are mad
+now, and before you was out of your mind. Let us go, O Cadmus, and entreat
+the God, on behalf of him, savage though he be, and on behalf of the city,
+to do him no ill: but follow me with the ivy-clad staff, and try to support
+my body, and I will yours; for it would be shameful for two old men to fall
+down: but let that pass, for we must serve Bacchus, the son of Jove; but
+beware lest Pentheus bring grief into thy house, O Cadmus. I do not speak
+in prophecy, but judging from the state of things, for a foolish man says
+foolish things.
+
+CHOR. O holy venerable Goddess! holy, who bearest thy golden pinions along
+the earth, hearest thou these words of Pentheus? Hearest thou his unholy
+insolence against Bromius, the son of Semele, the first deity of the Gods,
+at the banquets where the guests wear beautiful chaplets! who has this
+office, to join in dances, and to laugh with the flute, and to put an end
+to cares, when the juice of the grape comes at the feast of the Gods, and
+in the ivy-bearing banquets the goblet sheds sleep over man? Of unbridled
+mouths and lawless folly misery is the end, but the life of quiet and
+wisdom remains unshaken, and supports a house; for the heavenly powers are
+afar indeed, but still inhabiting the air, they behold the deeds of
+mortals. But cleverness[25] is not wisdom, nor is the thinking on things
+unfit for mortals. Life is short; and in it who, pursuing great things,
+would not enjoy the present? These are the manners of maniacs; and of
+ill-disposed men, in my opinion. Would that I could go to Cyprus, the
+island of Venus, where the Loves dwell, soothing the minds of mortals, and
+to Paphos, which the waters of a foreign river flowing with an hundred[26]
+mouths, fertilize without rain--and to the land of Pieria, where is the
+beautiful seat of the Muses, the holy hill of Olympus. Lead me thither, O
+Bromius, Bromius, O master thou of Bacchanals! There are the Graces, and
+there is Love, and there is it lawful for the Bacchæ to celebrate their
+orgies; the God, the son of Jove, delights in banquets, and loves Peace,
+giver of riches, the Goddess the nourisher of youths. And both to the rich
+and the poor[27] has she granted to enjoy an equal delight from wine,
+banishing grief; and he who does not care for these things, hates to lead a
+happy life by day and by friendly night--but it is wise[28] to keep away
+the mind and intellect proceeding from over-curious men; what the baser
+multitude thinks and adopts, that will I say.
+
+SERVANT. Pentheus, we are here; having caught this prey, for which you sent
+us: nor have we gone in vain; but the beast was docile in our hands, nor
+did he withdraw his foot in flight, but yielded not unwillingly; nor did he
+[turn] pale nor change his wine-complexioned cheek, but laughing, allowed
+us to bind and lead him away; and remained still, making my work easy; and
+I for shame said, O stranger, I do not take you of my own will, but by
+order of Pentheus who sent me. And the Bacchæ whom you shut up, whom you
+carried off and bound in the chains of the public prison, they being set
+loose are escaped, and are dancing in the meadows, invoking Bromius as
+their God, and of their own accord the fetters were loosed from their feet,
+and the keys opened the doors without mortal hand, and full of many wonders
+is this man come to Thebes; but the rest must be thy care.
+
+PEN. Take hold of him by the hands; for being in the toils, he is not so
+swift as to escape me: but in your body you are not ill-formed, O stranger,
+for women's purposes, on which account you have come to Thebes. For your
+hair is long, not through wrestling, scattered over your cheeks, full of
+desire, and you have a white skin from careful preparation; hunting after
+Venus by your beauty not exposed to strokes of the sun, but [kept] beneath
+the shade. First then tell me who thou art in family.
+
+BAC. There is no boast; but this is easy to say; thou knowest by hearsay of
+the flowery Tmolus?
+
+PEN. I know, [the hill] which surrounds the city of Sardis.
+
+BAC. Thence am I; and Lydia is my country.
+
+PEN. And whence do you bring these rites into Greece?
+
+BAC. Bacchus persuaded us, the son of Jove.
+
+PEN. Is Jove then one who begets new Gods?
+
+BAC. No, but having married Semele here,--
+
+PEN. Did he compel you by night, or in your sight [by day]?
+
+BAC. Seeing me who saw him; and he gave me orgies.
+
+PEN. And what appearance have these orgies?
+
+BAC. It is unlawful for the uninitiated among mortals to know.
+
+PEN. And have they any profit to those who sacrifice?
+
+BAC. It is not lawful for you to hear, but they are worth knowing.
+
+PEN. You have well coined this story, that I may wish to hear.
+
+BAC. The orgies of the God hate him who works impiety.
+
+PEN. For you say, forsooth, that you saw the God clearly what he was like?
+
+BAC. As he chose; I did not order this.
+
+PEN. This too you have well contrived, saying mere nonsense.
+
+BAC. One may seem, speaking wisely to one ignorant, not to be wise.
+
+PEN. And did you come hither first, bringing the God?
+
+BAC. Every one of the barbarians celebrates these orgies.
+
+PEN. [Ay,] for they are much less wise than Greeks.
+
+BAC. In these things they are wiser, but their laws are different.
+
+PEN. Do you practice these rites at night, or by day?
+
+BAG. Most of them at night;[29] darkness conveys awe.
+
+PEN. This is treacherous toward women, and unsound.
+
+BAC. Even by day some may devise base things.
+
+PEN. You must pay the penalty of your evil devices.
+
+BAC. And you of your ignorance, being impious to the God.
+
+PEN. How bold is Bacchus, and not unpracticed in speech.
+
+BAC. Say what I must suffer, what ill wilt thou do me?
+
+PEN. First I will cut off your delicate hair.
+
+BAC. The hair is sacred, I cherish it for the God.[30]
+
+PEN. Next yield up this thyrsus out of your hands.
+
+BAC. Take it from me yourself, I bear it as the ensign of Bacchus.
+
+PEN. And we will guard your body within in prison.
+
+BAC. The God himself will release me when I wish.[31]
+
+PEN. Ay, when you call him, standing among the Bacchæ.
+
+BAC. Even now, being near, he sees what I suffer.
+
+PEN. And where is he? for at least he is not apparent to my eyes.
+
+BAC. Near me, but you being impious, see him not.
+
+PEN. Seize him, he insults me and Thebes!
+
+BAC. I warn you not to bind me: I in my senses command you not in your
+senses.
+
+PEN. And I bid them to bind you, as being mightier than you.
+
+BAC. You know not why you live, nor what you do, nor who you are.
+
+PEN. Pentheus, son of Agave, and of my father Echion.
+
+BAC. You are suited to be miserable according to your name.[32]
+
+PEN. Begone! confine him near the stable of horses that he may behold dim
+darkness! There dance; and as for these women whom you bring with you, the
+accomplices in your wickedness, we will either sell them away, or stopping
+their hand from this noise and beating of skins, I will keep them as slaves
+at the loom.
+
+BAC. I will go--for what is not right it is not right to suffer; but as a
+punishment for these insults Bacchus shall pursue you, who you say exists
+not; for, injuring us, you put him in bonds.
+
+CHOR. O daughter of Achelous, venerable Dirce, happy virgin, for thou didst
+receive the infant of Jove in thy fountains when Jove who begat him saved
+him in his thigh from the immortal fire; uttering this shout: Go, O
+Dithyrambus, enter this my male womb, I will make you illustrious, O
+Bacchus, in Thebes, so that they shall call you by this name. But you, O
+happy Dirce, reject me having a garland-bearing company about you. Why dost
+thou reject me? Why dost thou avoid me? Yet, I swear by the clustering
+delights of the vine of Bacchus, yet shall you have a care for Bacchus.
+What rage, what rage does the earth-born race show, and Pentheus once
+descended from the dragon, whom the earth-born Echion begat, a fierce-faced
+monster, not a mortal man, but like a bloody giant, an enemy to the Gods,
+who will soon bind me, the handmaid of Bacchus, in halters, he already has
+within the house my fellow-reveler, hidden in a dark prison. Dost thou
+behold this, O son of Jove, Bacchus, thy prophets in the dangers of
+restraint? Come, O thou of golden face, brandishing your thyrsus along
+Olympus, and restrain the insolence of the blood-thirsty man. Where art
+thou assembling thy bands of thyrsus-bearers, O Bacchus, is it near Nysa
+which nourishes wild beasts, or in the summits of Corycus?[33] or perhaps
+in the deep-wooded lairs of Olympus, where formerly Orpheus playing the
+lyre drew together the trees by his songs, collected the beasts of the
+fields; O happy Pieria, Evius respects you, and will come to lead the dance
+with revelings having crossed the swiftly-flowing Axius, he will bring the
+dancing Mænads, and [leaving] Lydia[34] the giver of wealth to mortals, and
+the father whom I have heard fertilizes the country renowned for horses
+with the fairest streams.
+
+BAC. Io! hear ye, hear ye my song, Io Bacchæ! O Bacchæ!
+
+CHOR. Who is here, who? from what quarter did the shout of Evius summon me?
+
+BAC. Io, Io, I say again! I, the son of Semele, the son of Jove!
+
+CHOR. Io! Io! Master, master! come now to our company. O Bromius! Bromius!
+Shake this place, O holy Earth![35] O! O! quickly will the palace of
+Pentheus be shaken in ruin--Bacchus is in the halls. Worship him. We
+worship him. Behold these stone buttresses shaken with their pillars.
+Bacchus will shout in the palace.
+
+BAC. Light the burning fiery lamp; burn, burn the house of Pentheus.
+
+SEM. Alas! Dost thou not behold the fire, nor perceive around the sacred
+tomb of Semele the flame which formerly the bolt-bearing thunder of Jupiter
+left?
+
+SEM. Cast on the ground your trembling bodies, cast them down, O Mænads,
+for the king turning things upside down is coming to this palace,
+[Bacchus,] the son of Jupiter.
+
+BAC. O barbarian women! have ye fallen to the ground thus stricken with
+fear? Ye have felt, it seems, Bacchus shaking the house of Pentheus; but
+lift up your bodies, and take courage, casting off fear from your flesh.
+
+CHOR. O thou most mighty light to us of Evian Bacchic rites, how gladly do
+I see thee, being before alone and desolate!
+
+BAC. Ye came to despair, when I was sent in, as about to fall into the dark
+prison of Pentheus.
+
+CHOR. How not?--who was my guardian if you met with misfortune? but how
+were you liberated, having met with an impious man?
+
+BAC. I delivered myself easily without trouble.
+
+CHOR. And did he not bind your hands in links of chains?
+
+BAC. In this too I mocked him; for, thinking to bind me, he neither touched
+nor handled me, but fed on hope; and finding a bull in the stable, where
+having taken me, he confined me, he cast halters round the knees of that,
+and the hoofs of its feet;[36] breathing out fury, stilling sweat from his
+body, gnashing his teeth in his lips. But I, being near, sitting quietly,
+looked on; and, in the mean time, Bacchus coming, shook the house, and
+kindled flame on the tomb of his mother; and he, when he saw it, thinking
+the house was burning, rushed to and fro, calling to the servants to bring
+water,[37] and every servant was at work toiling in vain; and letting go
+this labor, I having escaped, seizing a dark sword he rushes into the
+house, and then Bromius, as it seems to me, I speak my opinion, made an
+appearance in the palace, and he rushing toward it, rushed on and stabbed
+at the bright air,[38] as if slaying me; and besides this, Bacchus afflicts
+him with these other things; and threw down his house to the ground, and
+every thing was shivered in pieces, while he beheld my bitter chains; and
+from fatigue dropping his sword, he falls exhausted--for he being a man,
+dared to join battle with a God: and I quietly getting out of the house am
+come to you, not regarding Pentheus. But, as it seems to me, a shoe sounds
+in the house; he will soon come out in front of the house. What will he say
+after this? I shall easily bear him, even if he comes vaunting greatly, for
+it is the part of a wise man to practice prudent moderation.
+
+PEN. I have suffered terrible things, the stranger has escaped me, who was
+lately coerced in bonds. Hollo! here is the man; what is this? how do you
+appear near my house, having come out?
+
+BAC. Stay your foot; and substitute calm steps for anger.
+
+PEN. How come you out, having escaped your chains?
+
+BAC. Did I not say, or did you not hear, that some one would deliver me?
+
+PEN. Who? for you are always introducing strange things.
+
+BAC. He who produces the rich-clustering vine for mortals.
+
+PEN. This is a fine reproach you charge on Bacchus; I order ye to close
+every tower all round.
+
+BAC. Why? do not Gods pass over walls too?
+
+PEN. You are wise, wise at least in all save what you should be wise in.
+
+BAC. In what I most ought, in that I was born wise; but first learn,
+hearing his words who is come from the mountain to bring a message to you;
+but we will await you, we will not fly.
+
+MESSENGER. Pentheus, ruler o'er this Theban land, I come, having left
+Cithæron, where never have the brilliant flakes of white snow fallen.[39]
+
+PEN. But bringing what important news are you come?
+
+MESS. Having seen the holy Bacchæ, who driven by madness have darted their
+fair feet from this land, have I come, wishing to tell you and the city, O
+king, what awful things they do, things beyond marvel; and I wish to hear
+whether in freedom of speech I shall tell you the matters there, or whether
+I shall repress my report, for I fear, O king, the hastiness of thy mind,
+and your keen temper, and too imperious disposition.[40]
+
+PEN. Speak, as you shall be in all things blameless as far as I am
+concerned; for it is not meet to be wrath with the just; and in proportion
+as you speak worse things of the Bacchæ, so much the more will we punish
+this man who has taught these tricks to the women.
+
+MESS. I was just now driving up to the heights the herd of calves, when the
+sun sends forth his rays warming the land, and I see three companies of
+dances of women, of one of which Autonoe was chief; of a second, thy
+mother, Agave; and Ino led the third dance; and they were all sleeping,
+relaxed in their bodies, some resting their locks against the leaves of
+pine, and some laying their heads at random on the leaves of oak in the
+ground, modestly, not, as you say, that, drunk with the goblet and the
+noise of the flute, they solitary hunt Venus through the wood. But thy
+mother standing in the midst of the Bacchæ, raised a shout, to wake their
+bodies from sleep, when she heard the lowing of the horned oxen; but they,
+casting off refreshing sleep from their eyes, started upright, a marvel to
+behold for their elegance, young, old, and virgins yet unyoked, And first
+they let loose their hair over their shoulders; and arranged their
+deer-skins, as many as had had the fastenings of their knots unloosed, and
+they girded the dappled hides with serpents licking their jaws--and some
+having in their arms a kid, or the wild whelps of wolves, gave them white
+milk, all those who, having lately had children, had breasts still full,
+having left their infants, and they put on their ivy chaplets, and garlands
+of oak and blossoming yew; and one having taken a thyrsus, struck it
+against a rock, whence a dewy stream of water springs out; another placed
+her wand on the ground, and then the God sent up a spring of wine. And as
+many as had craving for the white drink, scratching the earth with the tips
+of their fingers, obtained abundance of milk; and from the ivy thyrsus
+sweet streams of honey dropped, so that, had you been present, beholding
+these things, you would have approached with prayers that God whom you now
+blame. And we came together, herdsmen and shepherds, to reason with one
+another concerning this strange matter, what terrible things and worthy of
+marvel they do; and some one, a wanderer about the city, and practiced in
+speaking, said to us all, O ye who inhabit the holy downs of the mountains,
+will ye that we hunt out Agave, the mother of Pentheus, back from the
+revels, and do the king a pleasure? And he seemed to us to speak well, and
+hiding ourselves, we lay in ambush in the foliage of the thickets; and
+they, at the appointed hour, waved the thyrsus in their solemnities,
+calling on Bacchus with united voice, the son of Jove, Bromius; and the
+whole mountain and the beasts were in a revel; and nothing was unmoved by
+their running; and Agave was bounding near to me, and I sprang forth, as
+wishing to seize her, leaving my ambush where I was hidden. But she cried
+out, O my fleet hounds, we are hunted by these men; but follow me, follow,
+armed with thyrsi in your hands. We then flying, avoided the tearing of the
+Bacchæ, but they sprang on the heifers browsing the grass with unarmed
+hand, and you might see one rending asunder a fatted lowing calf, and
+others rent open cows, and you might see either ribs, or a cloven-footed
+hoof, tossed here and there, and hanging beneath the pine-trees the
+fragments were dripping, dabbled in gore; and the fierce bulls before
+showing their fury with their horns, were thrown to the ground, overpowered
+by myriads of maiden hands; and quicker were the coverings of flesh torn
+asunder by the royal maids than you could shut your eyes; and like birds
+raised in their course, they proceed along the level plain, which by the
+streams of the Asopus produce the fertile crop of the Thebans, and falling
+on Hysiæ and Erythræ,[41] which, are below Cithæron, they turned every
+thing upside down; they dragged children from the houses; and whatever they
+put on their shoulders stuck there without chains, and fell not on the dark
+plain, neither brass nor iron; and they bore fire on their tresses, and it
+burned not; but some from rage betook themselves to arms, being plundered
+by the Bacchæ, the sight of which was fearful to behold, O king! For their
+pointed spear was not made bloody, but the women hurling the thyrsi from
+their hands, wounded them, and turned their backs to flight, women
+[defeating] men; not without the aid of some God. And they went back again
+to whence they had departed, to the same fountains which the God had caused
+to spring up for them, and they washed off the blood; and the snakes with
+their tongues cleaned off the drops from their cheeks. Receive then, O
+master, this deity, whoever he be, in this city, since he is mighty in
+other respects, and they say this too of him, as I hear, that he has given
+mortals the vine which puts an end to grief,--for where wine exists not
+there is no longer Venus, nor any thing pleasant to men.[42]
+
+CHOR. I fear to speak unshackled words to the king, but still they shall be
+spoken; Bacchus is inferior to none of the Gods.
+
+PEN. Already like fire does this insolence of the Bacchæ extend thus near,
+a great reproach to the Greeks. But I must not hesitate; go to the Electra
+gates, bid all the shield-bearers and riders of swift-footed horses to
+assemble, and all who brandish the light shield, and twang with their hand
+the string of the bow, as we will make an attack upon the Bacchæ; but it is
+too much, if we are to suffer what we are suffering at the hands of women.
+
+BAC. O Pentheus, you obey not at all hearing my words; but although
+suffering ill at your hands, still I say that you ought not to take up arms
+against a God, but to rest quiet; Bromius will not endure your moving the
+Bacchæ from their Evian mountains.
+
+PEN. You shall not teach me; but be content,[43] having escaped from
+prison, or else I will again bring punishment upon you.
+
+BAC. I would rather sacrifice to him than, being wrath, kick against the
+pricks; a mortal against a God.
+
+PEN. I will sacrifice, making a great slaughter of the women, as they
+deserve, in the glens of Cithæron.
+
+BAC. You will all fly, (and that will be shameful,) so as to yield your
+brazen shields to the thyrsi of the Bacchæ.
+
+PEN. We are troubled with this impracticable stranger, who neither
+suffering nor doing will be silent.
+
+BAC. My friend, there is still opportunity to arrange these things well.
+
+PEN. By doing what? being a slave to my slaves?
+
+BAC. I will bring the women here without arms.
+
+PEN. Alas! you are contriving some trick against me.
+
+BAC. Of what sort, if I wish to save you by my contrivances?
+
+PEN. You have devised this together, that ye may have your revelings
+forever.
+
+BAC. And indeed, know this, I agreed on it with the God.
+
+PEN. Bring hither the arms! and do you cease to speak.
+
+BAC. Hah! Do you wish to see them sitting on the mountains?
+
+PEN. Very much, if I gave countless weight of gold for it.
+
+BAC. But why? have you fallen into a great wish for this?
+
+PEN. I should like to see them drunk grievously [for them].
+
+BAC. Would you then gladly see what is grievous to you?
+
+PEN. To be sure, sitting quietly under the pines.
+
+BAC. But they will track you out, even though you come secretly.
+
+PEN. But [I will come] openly, for you have said this well.
+
+BAC. Shall I then guide you? and will you attempt the way?
+
+PEN. Lead me as quickly as possible; for I do not grudge you the time.
+
+BAC. Put on then linen garments on your body.
+
+PEN. What then, shall I be reckoned among women, being a man?
+
+BAC. Lest they slay you if you be seen there, being a man.
+
+PEN. You say this well, and you have been long wise.
+
+BAC. Bacchus taught me this wisdom.
+
+PEN. How then can these things which you advise me be well done?
+
+BAC. I will attire you, going into the house.
+
+PEN. With what dress--a woman's? but shame possesses me.
+
+BAC. Do you no longer wish to be a spectator of the Mænads?
+
+PEN. But what attire do you bid me put on my body?
+
+BAC. I will spread out your hair at length on your head.
+
+PEN. And what is the next point of my equipment?
+
+BAC. A garment down to your feet; and you shall have a turban on your head.
+
+PEN. Shall you put any thing else on me besides this?
+
+BAC. A thyrsus in your hand, and the dappled hide of a deer.
+
+PEN. I can not wear a woman's dress.
+
+BAC. But you will shed blood if you join battle with the Bacchæ.
+
+PEN. True; we must first go and see.
+
+BAC. That is wiser at least than to hunt evils with evils.
+
+PEN. And how shall I go through the city escaping the notice of the
+Cadmeans?
+
+BAC. We will go by deserted roads, and I will guide you.
+
+PEN. Every thing is better than for the Bacchæ to mock me.
+
+BAC. We will go into the house and consider what seems best.
+
+PEN. We can do what we like; my part is completely prepared. Let us go; for
+either I will go bearing arms, or I will be guided by your counsels.
+
+BAC. O women! the man is in the toils,[44] and he will come to the Bacchæ,
+where, dying, he will pay the penalty. Now, Bacchus, 'tis thine office, for
+you are not far off. Let us punish him; but first drive him out of his
+wits, inspiring vain frenzy, since, being in his right mind, he will not be
+willing to put on a female dress, but driving him out of his senses he will
+put it on; and I wish him to furnish laughter to the Thebans, being led in
+woman's guise through the city, after[45] his former threats, with which he
+was terrible. But I will go to fit on Pentheus the dress, which, having
+taken, he shall die, slain by his mother's hand. And he shall know Bacchus,
+the son of Jupiter, who is in fact to men at once the most terrible, and
+the mildest of deities.[46]
+
+CHOR. Shall I move my white foot in the night-long dance, honoring Bacchus,
+exposing my neck to the dewy air, sporting like a fawn in the verdant
+delights of the mead, when it has escaped a fearful chase beyond the watch
+of the well-woven nets, (and the huntsman cheering hastens on the course of
+his hounds,) and with toil like the swift storm[47] rushes along the plain
+that skirts the river, exulting in the solitude apart from men, and in the
+thickets of the shady-foliaged wood? What is wisdom, what is a more
+glorious gift from the Gods among mortals than to hold one's hand on the
+heads of one's enemies? What is good is always pleasant; divine strength is
+roused with difficulty, but still is sure, and it chastises those mortals
+who honor folly, and do not extol the Gods in their insane mind. But the
+Gods cunningly conceal the long foot[48] of time, and hunt the impious man;
+for it is not right to determine or plan any thing beyond the laws: for it
+is a light expense to deem that that has power whatever is divine, and that
+what has been law for a long time has its origin in nature. What is wisdom,
+what is a more noble gift from the Gods among men, than to hold one's hand
+on the heads of one's enemies? what is honorable is always pleasant. Happy
+is he who has escaped from the wave of the sea, and arrived in harbor.[49]
+Happy, too, is he who has overcome his labors; and one surpasses another in
+different ways, in wealth and power. Still are there innumerable hopes to
+innumerable men, some result in wealth to mortals, and some fail, but I
+call him happy whose life is happy day by day.
+
+BAC. You, who are eager to see what you ought not, and hasty to do a deed
+not of haste, I mean Pentheus, come forth before the house, be seen by me,
+having the costume of a woman, of a frantic Bacchant, as a spy upon your
+mother and her company! In appearance, you are like one of the daughters of
+Cadmus.
+
+PEN. And indeed I think I see two suns,[50] and twin Thebes, and
+seven-gated city; and you seem to guide me, being like a bull, and horns
+seem to grow on your head. But were you ever a beast? for you look like a
+bull.
+
+BAC. The God accompanies us, not propitious formerly, but now at truce with
+us. You see what you should see.
+
+PEN. How do I look? Does not my standing seem like that of Ino, or of
+Agave, my mother?
+
+BAC. I seem to see them as I behold you; but this lock of hair of yours is
+out of its place, not as I dressed it beneath the turban.
+
+PEN. Moving it within doors backward and forward, and practicing Bacchic
+revelry, I disarranged it.
+
+BAC. But we who ought to wait upon you will again rearrange it. But hold up
+your head.
+
+PEN. Look, do you arrange it, for we depend on you.
+
+BAC. And your girdle is loosened, and the fringes of your garments do not
+extend regularly round your legs.
+
+PEN. They seem so to me, too, about the right foot at least; but on this
+side the robe sits well along the leg.
+
+BAC. Will you not think me the first of your friends when, contrary to your
+expectation, you see the Bacchæ acting modestly?
+
+PEN. But shall I be more like a Bacchant holding the thyrsus in my right
+hand, or in this?
+
+BAC. You should [hold it in] your right hand, and raise it at the same time
+with your right foot; and I praise you for having changed your mind.
+
+PEN. Could I bear on my shoulders the glens of Cithæron, Bacchæ and all?
+
+BAC. You could if you were willing; but you had your mind unsound before;
+but now you have such as you ought.
+
+PEN. Shall we bring levers, or shall I tear them up with my hands, putting
+my shoulder or arm under the summits?
+
+BAC. No, lest you ruin the habitations of the Nymphs, and the seats of Pan
+where he plays his pipes.
+
+PEN. You speak well,--it is not with strength we should conquer women; but
+I will hide my body among the pines.
+
+BAC. Hide you the hiding in which you should be hidden, coming as a crafty
+spy on the Mænads.
+
+PEN. And, indeed, I think to catch them in the thickets, like birds in the
+sweet nets of beds.
+
+BAC. You go then as a watch for this very thing; and perhaps you will catch
+them, if you be not caught first.
+
+PEN. Conduct me through the middle of the Theban land, for I am the only
+man of them who would dare these things.
+
+BAC. You alone labor for this city, you alone; therefore the labors, which
+are meet,[51] await you. But follow me, I am your saving guide, some one
+else will guide you away from thence.
+
+PEN. Yes, my mother.
+
+BAC. Being remarkable among all.
+
+PEN. For this purpose do I come.
+
+BAC. You will depart being borne.[52]
+
+PEN. You allude to my delicacy.
+
+BAC. In the hands of your mother.
+
+PEN. And wilt thou compel me to be effeminate?
+
+BAC. Ay, with such effeminacy.
+
+PEN. I lay mine hands to worthy things.
+
+BAC. You are terrible, terrible: and you go to terrible sufferings; so that
+you shall find a renown reaching to heaven. Spread out, O Agave, your
+hands, and ye, her sister, daughters of Cadmus! I lead this young man to a
+mighty contest; and the conqueror shall be I and Bacchus! The rest the
+matter itself will show.
+
+CHOR. Go, ye fleet hounds of madness, go to the mountain where the
+daughters of Cadmus hold their company; drive them raving against the
+frantic spy on the Mænads,--him in woman's attire. First shall his mother
+from some smooth rock or paling, behold him in ambush; and she will cry out
+to the Mænads: Who is this of the Cadmeans who has come to the mountain,
+the mountain, as a spy on us, who are on the mountain? Io Bacchæ! Who
+brought him forth? for he was not born of the blood of women: but, as to
+his race, he is either born of some lion, or of the Libyan Gorgons. Let
+manifest justice go forth, let it go with sword in hand, slaying the
+godless, lawless, unjust, earth-born offspring of Echion through the
+throat; who, with wicked mind and unjust rage about your orgies, O Bacchus,
+and those of thy mother,[53] with raving heart and mad disposition proceeds
+as about to overcome an invincible deity by force. To possess without
+pretext a wise understanding in respect to the Gods, and [a disposition]
+befitting mortals, is a life ever free from grief. I joyfully hunt after
+wisdom, if apart from envy, but the other conduct is evidently ever great
+throughout life, directing one rightly the livelong day, to reverence
+things honorable.[54] Appear as a bull, or a many-headed dragon, or a fiery
+lion, to be seen. Go, O Bacchus! cast a snare around the hunter of the
+Bacchæ, with a smiling face falling upon the deadly crowd of the Mænads.
+
+MESS. O house, which wast formerly prosperous in Greece! house of the
+Sidonian old man, who sowed in the land the earth-born harvest of the
+dragon; how I lament for you, though a slave. But still the [calamities] of
+their masters are a grief to good servants.
+
+CHOR. But what is the matter? Tellest thou any news from the Bacchæ?
+
+MESS. Pentheus is dead, the son of his father Echion.
+
+CHOR. O, king Bacchus! truly you appear a great God!
+
+MESS. How sayest thou? Why do you say this? Do you, O woman, delight at my
+master being unfortunate?
+
+CHOR. I, a foreigner, celebrate it in foreign strains; for no longer do I
+crouch in fear under my fetters.
+
+MESS. But do you think Thebes thus void of men?
+
+CHOR. Bacchus, Bacchus, not Thebes, has my allegiance.
+
+MESS. You, indeed may be pardoned; still, O woman, it is not right to
+rejoice at the misfortunes which have been brought to pass.
+
+CHOR. Tell me, say, by what fate is the wicked man doing wicked things
+dead, O man?
+
+MESS. When having left Therapnæ of this Theban land, we crossed the streams
+of Asopus, we entered on the height of Cithæron, Pentheus and I, for I was
+following my master, and the stranger who was our guide in this search, for
+the sight: first, then, we sat down in a grassy vale, keeping our steps and
+tongues in silence, that we might see, not being seen; and there was a
+valley surrounded by precipices, irrigated with streams, shaded around with
+pines, where the Mænads were sitting employing their hands in pleasant
+labors, for some of them were again crowning the worn-out thyrsus, so as to
+make it leafy with ivy; and some, like horses quitting the painted yoke,
+shouted in reply to another a Bacchic melody. And the miserable Pentheus,
+not seeing the crowd of women, spake thus: O stranger, where we are
+standing, I can not come at the place where is the dance of the Mænads; but
+climbing a mound, or pine with lofty neck, I could well discern the
+shameful deeds of the Mænads. And on this I now see a strange deed of the
+stranger; for seizing hold of the extreme lofty branch of a pine, he pulled
+it down, pulled it, pulled it to the dark earth, and it was bent like a
+bow, or as a curved wheel worked by a lathe describes a circle as it
+revolves, thus the stranger, pulling a mountain bough with his hands, bent
+it to the earth; doing no mortal's deed; and having placed Pentheus on the
+pine branches, he let it go upright through his hands steadily, taking care
+that it should not shake him off; and the pine stood firm upright to the
+sky, bearing on its back my master, sitting on it; and he was seen rather
+than saw the Mænads, for sitting on high he was apparent, as not
+before.[55] And one could no longer see the stranger, but there was a
+certain voice from the sky; Bacchus, as one might conjecture, shouted out:
+O youthful women, I bring you him who made you and me and my orgies a
+laughing-stock: but punish ye him. And at the same time he cried out, and
+sent forth to heaven and earth a light of holy fire;[56] and the air was
+silent, and the fair meadowed grove kept its leaves in silence, and you
+could not hear the voice of the beasts; but they not distinctly receiving
+the voice, stood upright, and cast their eyes around. And again he
+proclaimed his bidding. And when the daughters of Cadmus' recognized the
+distinct command of Bacchus, they rushed forth, having in the eager running
+of their feet a speed not less than that of a dove; his mother, Agave, and
+her kindred sisters, and all the Bacchæ: and frantic with the inspiration
+of the God, they bounded through the torrent-streaming valley, and the
+clefts. But when they saw my master sitting on the pine, first they threw
+at him handfuls of stones, striking his head, mounting on an opposite piled
+rock; and with pine branches some aimed, and some hurled their thyrsi
+through the air at Pentheus, wretched mark;[57] but they failed of their
+purpose; for he having a height too great for their eagerness, sat,
+wretched, destitute through perplexity. But at last thundering together[58]
+some oaken branches, they tore up the roots with levers not of iron; and
+when they could not accomplish the end of their labors, Agave said, Come,
+standing round in a circle, seize each a branch, O Mænads, that we may take
+the beast[59] who has climbed aloft, that he may not tell abroad the secret
+dances of the God. And they applied their innumerable hands to the pine,
+and tore it up from the ground; and sitting on high, Pentheus falls to the
+ground from on high, with numberless lamentations; for he knew that he was
+near to ill. And first his mother, as the priestess, began his slaughter,
+and falls upon him; but he threw the turban from his hair, that the
+wretched Agave, recognizing him, might not slay him; and touching her
+cheek, he says, I, indeed, O mother, am thy child,[60] Pentheus, whom you
+bore in the house of Echion; but pity me, O mother! and do not slay me, thy
+child, for my sins. But she, foaming and rolling her eyes every way, not
+thinking as she ought to think, was possessed by Bacchus, and he did not
+persuade her; and seizing his left hand with her hand, treading on the side
+of the unhappy man, she tore off his shoulder, not by [her own] strength,
+but the God gave facility to her hands; and Ino completed the work on the
+other side, tearing his flesh. And Autonoe and the whole crowd of the
+Bacchæ pressed on; and there was a noise of all together; he, indeed,
+groaning as much as he had life in him, and they shouted; and one bore his
+arm, another his foot, shoe and all; and his sides were bared by their
+tearings, and the whole band, with gory hands, tore to pieces the flesh of
+Pentheus: and his body lies in different places, part under the rugged
+rocks, part in the deep shade of the wood, not easy to be sought; and as to
+his miserable head, which his mother has taken in her hands, having fixed
+it on the top of a thyrsus, she is bearing it, like that of a savage lion,
+through the middle of Cithæron, leaving her sisters in the dances of the
+Mænads; and she goes along rejoicing in her unhappy prey, within these
+walls, calling upon Bacchus, her fellow-huntsman, her fellow-workman in the
+chase, of glorious victory, by which she wins a victory of tears. I,
+therefore, will depart out of the way of this calamity before Agave comes
+to the palace; but to be wise, and to reverence the Gods, this, I think, is
+the most honorable and wisest thing for mortals who adopt it.
+
+CHOR. Let us dance in honor of Bacchus; let us raise a shout for what has
+befallen Pentheus, the descendant of the dragon, who assumed female attire
+and the wand with the beautiful thyrsus,--a certain death, having a
+bull[61] as his leader to calamity. Ye Cadmean Bacchants, ye have
+accomplished a glorious victory, illustrious, yet for woe and tears. It is
+a glorious contest to plunge one's dripping hand in the blood of one's son.
+But--for I see Agave, the mother of Pentheus, coining to the house with
+starting eyes; receive the revel of the Evian God.
+
+AGAVE. O Asiatic Bacchæ!
+
+CHOR. To what dost thou excite me? O!
+
+AG. We bring from the mountains a fresh-culled wreathing[62] to the house,
+a blessed prey.
+
+CHOR. I see it, and hail you as a fellow-reveler, O!
+
+AG. I have caught him without a noose, a young lion, as you may see.
+
+CHOR. From what desert?
+
+AG. Cithæron.
+
+CHOR. What did Cithæron?
+
+AG. Slew him.
+
+CHOR. Who was it who first smote him?
+
+AG. The honor is mine. Happy Agave! We are renowned in our revels.
+
+CHOR. Who else?
+
+AG. Cadmus's.
+
+CHOR. What of Cadmus?
+
+AG. Descendants after me, after me laid hands on this beast.
+
+CHOR. You are fortunate in this capture.
+
+AG. Partake then of our feast.
+
+CHOR. What shall I, unhappy, partake of?
+
+AG. The whelp is young about the chin; he has just lost his soft-haired
+head-gear.[63]
+
+AG. For it is beautiful as the mane of a wild beast.
+
+CHOR. Bacchus, a wise huntsman, wisely hurried the Mænads against this
+beast.
+
+CHOR. For the king is a huntsman.
+
+AG. Do you praise?
+
+CHOR. What? I do praise.
+
+AG. But soon the Cadmeans.
+
+CHOR. And thy son Pentheus his mother--
+
+AG. --will praise, as having caught this lion-born prey.
+
+CHOR. An excellent prey.
+
+AG. Excellently.
+
+CHOR. You rejoice.
+
+AG. I rejoice greatly, having accomplished great and illustrious deeds for
+this land.
+
+CHOR. Show now, O wretched woman, thy victorious booty to the citizens,
+which you have come bringing with you.
+
+AG. O, ye who dwell in the fair-towered city of the Theban land, come ye,
+that ye may behold this prey, O daughters of Cadmus, of the wild beast
+which we have taken; not by the thonged javelins of the Thessalians, not by
+nets, but by the fingers, our white arms; then may we boast that we should
+in vain possess the instruments of the spear-makers; but we, with this
+hand, slew this beast, and tore its limbs asunder. Where is my aged father?
+let him come near; and where is my son Pentheus? let him take and raise the
+ascent of a wattled ladder against the house, that he may fasten to the
+triglyphs this head of the lion which I am present having caught.
+
+CAD. Follow me, bearing the miserable burden of Pentheus; follow me, O
+servants, before the house; whose body here, laboring with immeasurable
+search, I bear, having found it in the defiles of Cithæron, torn to pieces,
+and finding nothing in the same place, lying in a thicket, difficult to be
+searched. For I heard from some one of the daring deeds of my daughters
+just as I came to the city within the walls, with the old Tiresias,
+concerning the Bacchæ; and having returned again to the mountain, I bring
+back my child, slain by the Mænads. And I saw Autonoe, who formerly bore
+Actæon to Aristæus, and Ino together, still mad in the thicket, unhappy
+creatures; but some one told me that Agave was coming hither with frantic
+foot; nor did I hear a false tale, for I behold her, an unhappy sight.
+
+AG. O father! you may boast a great boast, that you of mortals have
+begotten by far the best daughters; I mean all, but particularly myself,
+who, leaving my shuttle at the loom, have come to greater things, to catch
+wild beasts with my hands. And having taken him, I bear in my arms, as you
+see, these spoils of my valor, that they may be suspended against your
+house. And do you, O father, receive them in your hands; and rejoicing over
+my successful capture, invite your friends to a feast; for you are blessed,
+blessed since I have done such deeds.
+
+CAD. O, woe! and not to be seen, of those who have accomplished a slaughter
+not to be measured by wretched hands; having stricken down a glorious
+victim for the Gods, you invite Thebes and me to a banquet. Alas me, first
+for thy ills, then for mine own; how justly, but how severely, has king
+Bromius destroyed us, being one of our own family!
+
+AG. How morose is old age in men! and sullen to the eye; would that my son
+may be fond of hunting, resembling the disposition of his mother, when with
+the Theban youths he would strive after the beasts--but he is only fit to
+contend with Gods. He is to be admonished, O father, by you and me, not to
+rejoice in clever evil. Where is he? Who will summon him hither to my
+sight, that he may see me, that happy woman?
+
+CAD. Alas, alas! knowing what ye have done, ye will grieve a sad grief; but
+if forever ye remain in the condition in which ye are, not fortunate, you
+will seem not to be unfortunate.
+
+AG. But what of these matters is not well, or what is grievous?
+
+CAD. First cast your eyes up to this sky.
+
+AG. Well; why do you bid me look at it?
+
+CAD. Is it still the same, or think you it is changed?
+
+AG. It is brighter than formerly, and more divine.
+
+CAD. Is then this fluttering still present to your soul?
+
+AG. I understand not your word; but I become somehow sobered, changing from
+my former mind.
+
+CAD. Can you then hear any thing, and answer clearly?
+
+AG. How I forget what we said before, O father!
+
+CAD. To what house did you come in marriage?
+
+AG. You gave me, as they say, to the sown Echion.
+
+CAD. What son then was born in your house to your husband?
+
+AG. Pentheus, by the association of myself and his father.
+
+CAD. Whose head then have you in your arms?
+
+AG. That of a lion, as those who hunted him said.
+
+CAD. Look now rightly; short is the toil to see.
+
+AG. Ah! what do I see? what is this I bear in my hands?
+
+CAD. Look at it, and learn more clearly.
+
+AG. I see the greatest grief, wretch that I am!
+
+CAD. Does it seem to you to be like a lion?
+
+AG. No: but I, wretched, hold the head of Pentheus.
+
+CAD. Ay, much lamented before you recognized him.
+
+AG. Who slew him, how came he into my hands?
+
+CAD. O wretched truth, how unseasonably art thou come!
+
+AG. Tell me, since delay causes a quivering at my heart.
+
+CAD. You and your sisters slew him.
+
+AG. And where did he die, in the house, or in what place?
+
+CAD. Where formerly the dogs tore Actæon to pieces.
+
+AG. But why did he, unhappy, go to Cithæron?
+
+CAD. He went deriding the God and your Bacchic revels.
+
+AG. But on what account did we go thither?
+
+CAD. Ye were mad, and the whole city was frantic with Bacchus.[64]
+
+AG. Bacchus undid us--now I perceive.
+
+CAD. Being insulted with insolence--for ye thought him not a God.
+
+AG. But the dear body of my child, O father!
+
+CAD. I having with difficulty traced it, bring it all.
+
+AG. What! rightly united in its joints? * * * *
+
+AG. But what part had Pentheus in my folly?[65]
+
+CAD. He was like you, not reverencing the God, therefore he joined all in
+one ruin, both ye and this one, so as to ruin the house, and me, who being
+childless of male children, see this branch of thy womb, O unhappy woman!
+most miserably and shamefully slain--whom the house respected; you, O
+child, who supported my house, born of my daughter, and was an object of
+fear to the city; and no one wished to insult the old man, seeing you; for
+he would have received a worthy punishment. But now I shall be cast out of
+my house dishonored, I, the mighty Cadmus, who sowed the Theban race, and
+reaped a most glorious crop; O dearest of men, for although no longer in
+being, still thou shalt be counted by me as dearest of my children; no
+longer touching this, my chin, with thy hand, addressing me, your mother's
+father, wilt thou embrace me, my son, saying, Who injures, who insults you,
+O father, who harasses your heart, being troublesome I say, that I may
+punish him who does you wrong, O father. But now I am miserable, and thou
+art wretched, and thy mother is pitiable, and thy relations are wretched.
+But if there is any one who despises the Gods, looking on this man's death,
+let him acknowledge the Gods.
+
+CHOR. I grieve for thy state, O Cadmus; but your child has the punishment
+of your daughter, deserved indeed, but grievous to you.
+
+AG. O father, for you see how I am changed ...
+
+BAC ... changing, you shall become a dragon, and your wife becoming a
+beast, shall receive in exchange the form of a serpent, Harmonia, the
+daughter of Mars, whom you had, being a mortal. And as the oracle of Jove
+says, you shall drive with your wife a chariot of heifers, ruling over
+barbarians; and with an innumerable army you shall sack many cities; and
+when they plunder the temple of Apollo, they shall have a miserable return,
+but Mars shall defend you and Harmonia, and shall settle your life in the
+islands of the blessed. I say this, I, Bacchus, not born of a mortal
+father, but of Jove; and if ye had known how to be wise when ye would not,
+ye would have been happy, having the son of Jupiter for your ally.
+
+CAD. Bacchus, we beseech thee, we have erred.
+
+BAC. Ye have learned it too late; but when it behooved you, you knew it
+not.
+
+CAD. I knew it, but you press on us too severely.
+
+BAC. [Ay,] for I, being a God, was insulted by you.
+
+CAD. It is not right for Gods to resemble mortals in anger.[66]
+
+BAC. My father, Jove, long ago decreed this.
+
+AG. Alas! a miserable banishment is the decree[67] [for us,] old man.
+
+BAC. Why do ye then delay what must needs be?
+
+CAD. O child, into what terrible evil have we come; both you wretched and
+your * * * * sisters,[68] and I miserable, shall go, an aged sojourner, to
+foreigners. Still it is foretold that I shall bring into Greece a motley
+barbarian army, and leading their spears, I, a dragon, shall lead the
+daughter of Mars, Harmonia, my wife, having the fierce nature of a dragon,
+to the altars and tombs of the Greeks. Nor shall I, wretched, rest from
+ills, nor even sailing over the Acheron below shall I be at rest.
+
+AG. O, my father! and I being deprived of you shall be banished.
+
+CAD. Why do you embrace me with your hands, O unhappy child, as a white
+swan does its exhausted[69] parent?
+
+AG. For whither can I turn, cast out from my country?
+
+CAD. I know not, my child; your father is a poor ally.
+
+AG. Farewell, O house! farewell, O ancestral city! I leave you in
+misfortune a fugitive from my chamber.
+
+CAD. Go then, my child, to the land of Aristæus * * * *.
+
+AG. I bemoan thee, O father!
+
+CAD. And I thee, my child; and I lament your sisters.
+
+AG. Terribly indeed has king Bacchus brought this misery upon thy house.
+
+BAC. [Ay,] for I have suffered terrible things from ye, having a name
+unhonored in Thebes.
+
+AG. Farewell, my father.
+
+CAD. And you farewell, O miserable daughter; yet you can not easily arrive
+at this.
+
+AG. Lead me, O guides, where I may take my miserable sisters as the
+companions of my flight; and may I go where neither accursed Cithæron may
+see me, nor I may see Cithæron with my eyes, and where there is no memory
+of the thyrsus hallowed, but they may be a care to other Bacchæ.
+
+CHOR. There are many forms of divine things; and the Gods bring to pass
+many in an unexpected manner: both what has been expected has not been
+accomplished, and God has found out a means for doing things unthought of.
+So, too, has this event turned out.[70]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+NOTES ON THE BACCHÆ
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+[1] For illustrations of the fable of this play, compare Hyginus, Fab.
+clxxxiv., who evidently has a view to Euripides. Ovid, Metam. iii. fab. v.
+Oppian, Cyneg. iv. 241 sqq. Nonnus, 45, p. 765 sq. and 46, p. 783 sqq.,
+some of whose imitations I shall mention in my notes. With the opening
+speech of this play compare the similar one of Venus in the Hippolytus.
+
+[2] Cf. vs. 176; and for the musical instruments employed in the
+Bacchanalian rites, vs. 125 sqq. Oppian, Cyn. iv. 243. νεβρισι δ'
+αμφεβαλοντο, και εστεψαντο κορυμβοις, Εν σπεϊ, και περι παιδα το μυστικον
+ωρχησαντο. Τυμπανα δ' εκτυπεον, και κυμβαλα χερσι κροταινον. Compare
+Gorius, Monum. Libert. et Serv. ad Tab. vii. p. 15 sq.
+
+[3] Such is the sense of συναψομαι, μαχην being understood. See Matthiæ.
+
+[4] Drums and cymbals were invented by the Goddess in order to drown the
+cries of the infant Jupiter. Minutius Felix, xxi. "Avido patri subtrahitur
+infans ne voretur, et Corybantum cymbalis, ne pater audiat, vagitus initus
+eliditur" (read _audiat vagitus, tinnitus illi editur_, from the _vestigia_
+of Cod. Reg.). Cf. Lactant. i. 13.
+
+[5] Cf. Homer, Hymn. in Cerer. 485. ολβιος, ‛ος ταδ' οπωπεν επιχθονιων
+ανθρωπων: ‛Ος δ' ατελης, ‛ιερων ‛οστ' αμμορος, ουποθ' ‛ομοιων Αισαν εχει,
+φθιμενος περ, ‛υπο ζοφωι ευρωεντι. See Ruhnken's note, and Valck. on Eur.
+Hippol.
+
+[6] This passage is extremely difficult. Πλοκαμων seems decidedly corrupt.
+Reiske would read ποκαδων, Musgrave λευκοτριχων πλοκαμοις μαλλων. Elmsley
+would substitute προβατων, "si προβατον apud Euripidem exstaret." This
+seems the most probable view as yet expressed. The εριοστεπτοι κλαδοι are
+learnedly explained by Lobeck on Ag. p. 375 sq., quoted by Dindorf. The
+μαλλωσις or insertion of spots of party-colored fur upon the plain skin of
+animals, was a favorite ornament of the wealthy. The spots of ermine
+similarly used now are the clearest illustration to which I can point.
+Lobeck also observes, "κατα βακχιουσθαι non bacchari significat, sed
+coronari."
+
+[7] These ladies seem to have been rather undomestic in character, as Agave
+makes this very fact a boast, vs. 1236.
+
+[8] Cf. Apollodor. l. i., § 3, interpp. ad Virg. G. iv. 152. Compare
+Porphyr. de Nymph. Antr. p. 262, ad. Holst. σπηλαια τοινυν και αντρα των
+παλαιοτατων πριν και ναους επινοησαι θεοις αφοσιουντων. και εν Κρητηι μεν
+κουρητων, Διϊ εν Αρκαδιαι δε, σεληνηι και Πανι Λυκειωι: και εν Ναξωι
+Διονυσωι. πανταχου δ' ‛οπου τον Μιθραν εγνωσαν, δια σπηλαιου τον θεον
+‛ιλεουμενων. Cf. Moll. ad Longi Past. i. 2. p. 22 sq. ed. Boden.
+
+[9] Cf. Virg. Æn. iv. 301, and Ritterh. on Oppian, Cyn. i, 24.
+
+[10] Compare the epithet of Bacchus Ωμαδιος, Orph. Hymn. xxx. 5; l. 7,
+which has been wrongly explained by Gesner and Hermann. The true
+interpretation is given by Porphyr. de Abst. ii. 55, who states that human
+sacrifices were offered ωμαδιωι Διονυσωι the man being torn to pieces
+(διααπωντες).
+
+[11] Persius i. 92. "et lynceus Mænas flexura corymbis Evion ingeminat,
+reparabilis assonat Echo." Euseb. Pr. Ev. ii. 3, derives the cry from Eve!
+
+[12] I should read this line interrogatively, with Elmsley.
+
+[13] Quoted by Gellius, xiii. 18.
+
+[14] Elmsley would read μακρον το μελλον. Perhaps the true reading is
+μελλειν ακαιρον = _it is no season for delay_.
+
+[15] The construction is so completely akward, that I almost feel inclined
+to consider this verse as an interpolation, with Dindorf.
+
+[16] Compare Nonnus, 45. p. 765 4. Τειρεσιαν και Καδμον ατασθαλον ιαχε
+Πενθευς. Καδμε, τι μαργαινεις, τινι δαιμονι κωμον εγειρεις; Καδμε,
+μιαινομενης αποκατθεο κισσον εθειρης, Κατθεο και ναρθεκα νοοπλανεος
+Διονυσου.... Νηπιε Τειρεσια στεφανηφορε ‛ριψον αηταις Σων πλοκαμων ταδε
+φυλλα νοθον στεφος, κ.τ.λ.
+
+[17] Compare the opinion of Perseus in Cicero de N.D. i. 15, with Minutius
+Felix, xxi.
+
+[18] Pseud-Orpheus Hymn. l. 6. παυσιπονον θνητοισι φανεις ακος.
+
+[19] Dindorf truly says that this passage smacks rather of Proclus, than of
+Euripides, and I agree with him that its spuriousness is more than
+probable. Had Euripides designed an etymological quibble, he would probably
+have made some allusion to Merus, a mountain of India, where Bacchus is
+said to have been brought up. See Curtius, viii. 10. "Sita est sub
+radicibus montis, quem Meron incolæ appellant. Inde Græci mentiendi traxere
+licentiam, Jovis femine liberum patrem esse celatum." Cf. Eustath. on
+Dionys. Perieg. 1159. Lucian. Dial. Deor. ix. and Hermann on Orph. Hymn.
+lii. 3.
+
+[20] The gift of μαντικη was supposed to follow initiation, and is often
+joined with the rites of this deity. Philostratus, Heroic. p. 22, ed.
+Boiss. ‛οτε δη και μαντικης σοφιας εμφορουνται, και το χρησμωδες αυταις
+προσβακχευει.
+
+[21] Cf. Hippol. 443. Κυπρις γαρ ου φορητον ην πολλη ‛ρυηι.
+
+[22] I have followed Matthiæ's interpretation of this passage.
+
+[23] See Hermann's note.
+
+[24] The fate of Actæon is often joined with that of Pentheus.
+
+[25] i.e. over-cunning in regard to religious matters. Cf. 200. ουδεν
+σοφιζομεσθα τοισι δαιμοσιν.
+
+[26] Probably a mere hyperbole to denote great fruitfulness. See Elmsley.
+
+[27] Cf. Hor. Od. iii. 21, 20.
+
+[28] I follow Dindorf in reading σοφα δ', but am scarcely satisfied.
+
+[29] Hence his epithet of Bacchus Νυκτελιος. See Herm. on Orph. Hymn. xlix.
+3.
+
+[30] See my note on Æsch. Choeph. 7.
+
+[31] Cf Person Advers. p. 265. Hor. Ep. i. 16. 73 "Vir bonus et sapiens
+audebit dicere Pentheu, Rector Thebarum, quid me perferre patique Indignum
+coges? Adima bona, nempe pecus, rem, Lectos, argentum: tollas licet. In
+manicis et Compedibus sævo te sub custode tenebo. Ipse deus, simul atque
+volam, me solvet. Opinor, Hoc sentit: moriar. Mors ultima linea rerum est."
+
+[32] Punning on πενθος, _grief_. Cf. Arist. Rhet. ii. 23, 29.
+
+[33] i.e. of Parnassus. Elmsley (after Stanl. on Æsch. Eum. 22.) remarks
+that Κωρυκις πετρα means the Corycian cave in Parnassus, Κωρυκιαι κορυφαι,
+the heights of Parnassus.
+
+[34] Hermann and Dindorf correct Λοιδιαν from Herodot. vii. 127.
+
+[35] The earth and buildings were supposed to shake at the presence of a
+deity. Cf. Callimach. Hymn. Apol. sub init. Virg. Æn. iii. 90; vi. 255. For
+the present instance Nonnus, 45. p. 751.
+
+  ηδη δ' αυτοελικτος εσειετο Πενθεος αυλη,
+  ακλινεων σφαιρηδον αναϊσσουσα θεμεθλων,
+  και πολεων δεδονητο θορων ενοσιχθονι παλμωι
+  πηματος εσσομενοιο προαγγελος.
+
+[36] The madness of Ajax led to a similar delusion. Cf. Soph. Aj. 56 sqq.
+
+[37] Compare a fragment of Didymus apud Macrob. Sat. v. 18, who states
+Αχελωον παν ‛υδωρ Ευριπιδης φησιν εν ‛Υψιπυληι. See also comm. on Virg.
+Georg. i. 9.
+
+[38] The reader of Scott will call to mind the fine description of Ireton
+lunging at the air, in a paroxysm of fanatic raving. See "Woodstock." So
+also Orestes in Iph. Taur. 296 sqq.
+
+[39] ανεισαν, _solvuntur, liquescunt._ BRODEUS.
+
+[40] Cf. Soph Ant. 243 sqq.
+
+[41] These two cities were in ruins in the time of Pausanias. See ix. 3. p.
+714, ed. Kuhn.
+
+[42] Cf. Athenæus, p. 40. B. Terent. Eun. iv. 5. "Sine Cerere et Libero
+friget Venus." Apul Met. ii. p. 119, ed. Elm. "Ecce, inquam, Veneris
+hortator et armiger Liber advenit ultro," where see Pricæus.
+
+[43] More literally, perhaps, "keep it and be thankful."
+
+[44] Theocrit. i. 40. μεγα δικτυον ες βολον ‛ελκει.
+
+[45] But εκ των απειλων conveys a notion of change = _instead of_.
+
+[46] Elmsley remarks that ανθρωποισι belongs to both members of the
+sentence. I have therefore supplied. The sense may be illustrated from
+Hippol. 5 sq.
+
+[47] See Matthiæ.
+
+[48] i.e. step. This is ridiculed by Aristoph. Ran. 100, where the
+Scholiast quotes a similar example from our author's Alexandra.
+
+[49] Compare Havercamp on Lucret. ii. sub init.
+
+[50] Compare Virgil, Æn. iv. 469. "Et solem geminum, et duplices se
+ostendere Thebas." In the second passage of Clemens Alexandrinus quoted by
+Elmsley, γερων is probably a mistaken reference to Tiresias.
+
+[51] An obscure hint at the impending fate of Pentheus. Nonnus has led the
+way to the catastrophe by a graphic description of Agave's dream. Dionys.
+45. p. 751.
+
+[52] φερομενος may mean either "carried in a litter," or "carried to
+burial." There is a somewhat similar play in the epigram of Ausonius,
+xxiii. "Mater Lacæna clypeo obarmans filium, cum hoc, inquit, aut in hoc,
+redi."
+
+[53] Burges more rightly reads ματρος τε Γας. See Elmsley's note.
+
+[54] As one must make some translation, I have done my best with this
+passage, which is, however, utterly unintelligible in Dindorf's text. A
+reference to his selection of notes will furnish some new readings, but, as
+a whole, quite unsatisfactory.
+
+[55] Compare the parallel account in Nonnus, 46. p. 784.
+
+[56] Alluded to by Oppian, Cyn. iv. 300. απτε σελας φλογερον πατρωιον, αν
+δ' ελεληξον Δαιαν, αταρτηρον δ' οπασον τισιν ωκα τυραννου. He then relates
+that Pentheus was transformed into a bull, the Mænads into panthers, who
+tore him to pieces.
+
+[57] στοχος is either the aim itself, or the mark aimed at, as in this
+passage, and Xenoph. Ages. 1. 25.
+
+[58] I have done my best with this extraordinary expression, of which
+Elmsley quotes another example from Archilochus Fragm. 36. Perhaps the
+notion of excessive rapidity is intended to be expressed.
+
+[59] θηρ seems metaphorically said, as in Æsch. Eum. 47. Nonnus, 45. p.
+784, 23. above, 922.
+
+[60] Compare Nonnus, 46. p. 784.
+
+  Και τοτε μιν λιπε λυσσα νοοσφαλεος Διονυσου,
+  και προτερας φρενας εσχε το δευτερον: αμφι δε γαιηι
+  γειτονα ποτμον εχων κενυρην εφθεγξατο φωνην.
+  * * * * * *
+  μητερ εμη δυσμητερ απηνεος ιοχεο λυσσης,
+  θηρα ποθεν καλεεις με τον ‛υιεα.
+
+The whole passage is very elegant, and even pathetic.
+
+[61] Alluding to the horns of Bacchus. Cf. Sidon. Apoll. Burg. Pontii
+Leontii, vs. 26, "Caput ardua rumpunt Cornua, et indigenam jaculantur
+fulminis ignem." See some whimsical reasons for this in Isidor. Origg viii.
+2. Albricus de Deor. Nu. xix. But compare above, vs. 920. Και ταυρος ‛ημιν
+προσθεν ‛ηγεισθαι δοκεις, και σωι κερατε κρατι προσπεφυκεναι.
+
+[62] Elmsley has rightly shown that ‛ελικα could not of itself mean "a
+bull" or "heifer," although Homer has ειλιποδας ‛ελικας βους. I have
+therefore followed Hermann, who remarks, "‛ελιξ seems properly to be meant
+for the clusters of ivy with which the thyrsus was entwined. Hence Agave
+says that she adorns the thyrsus with a new-fashioned wreath, viz. the head
+of her son." Such language is, however, more like the proverbial boldness
+of Æschylus, than the even style of our poet.
+
+[63] "κορυθα, ornamentum capitis, vix potest dubitari quin pro ipso capite
+posuerit." HERMANN. There is considerable variation in the manner in which
+the following lines are disposed.
+
+[64] Or, "Bacchus-mad."
+
+[65] I have marked a lacuna with Dindorf.
+
+[66] See the commentators on Virg. Æn. i. 11. "Tantæne animis cœlestibus
+iræ?"
+
+[67] After τλημονες φυγαι supply μενουσιν. ELMSLEY.
+
+[68] A word is wanting to complete the verse.
+
+[69] See Musgrave. Cranes are chiefly celebrated for parental affection.
+
+[70] These verses are found at the ends of no less than four others of our
+author's plays, viz. Andromacha, Helen, Medea, and Alcestis.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE HERACLIDÆ.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+PERSONS REPRESENTED.
+
+  IOLAUS.
+  COPREUS.*
+  CHORUS.
+  DEMOPHOON.
+  APOLLO.
+  MACARIA.*
+  SERVANT.
+  ALCMENA.
+  MESSENGER.
+  EURYSTHEUS.
+
+_Note_.--The names of Copreus and Macaria were wanting in the MSS., but
+have been supplied from the mythologists. See Elmsley on vss. 49 and 474.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE ARGUMENT.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+Iolaus, son of Iphiclus, and nephew of Hercules, whom he had joined in his
+expeditions during his youth, in his old age protected his sons. For the
+sons of Hercules having been driven out of every part of Greece by
+Eurystheus, he came with them to Athens; and, embracing the altars of the
+Gods, was safe, Demophoon being king of the city; and when Copreus, the
+herald of Eurystheus, wished to remove the suppliants, he prevented him.
+Upon this he departed, threatening war. Demophoon despised him; but hearing
+the oracles promise him victory if he sacrificed the most noble Athenian
+virgin to Ceres, he was grieved; not wishing to slay either his own
+daughter, or that of any citizen, for the sake of the suppliants. But
+Macaria, one of the daughters of Hercules, hearing of the prediction,
+willingly devoted herself. They honored her for her noble death, and,
+knowing that their enemies were at hand, went forth to battle. The play
+ends with their victory, and the capture of Eurystheus.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE HERACLIDÆ.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+IOLAUS.
+
+This has long since been my established opinion, the just man is born for
+his neighbors; but he who has a mind bent upon gain is both useless to the
+city and disagreeable to deal with, but best for himself. And I know this,
+not having learned it by word of mouth; for I, through shame, and
+reverencing the ties of kindred, when it was in my power to dwell quietly
+in Argos, partook of more of Hercules' labors, while he was with us, than
+any one man besides:[1] and now that he dwells in heaven, keeping these his
+children under my wings, I preserve them, I myself being in want of safety.
+For since their father was removed from the earth, first Eurystheus wished
+to kill me, but I escaped; and my country indeed is no more, but my life is
+saved, and I wander in exile, migrating from one city to another. For, in
+addition to my other ills, Eurystheus has chosen to insult me with this
+insult; sending heralds whenever on earth he learns we are settled, he
+demands us, and drives us out of the land; alleging the city of Argos, one
+not paltry either to be friends with or to make an enemy, and himself too
+prospering as he is; but they seeing my weak state, and that these too are
+little, and bereaved of their sire, respecting the more powerful, drive us
+from the land. And I am banished, together with the banished children, and
+fare ill together with those who fare ill, loathing to desert them, lest
+some may say thus, Behold, now that the children have no father, Iolaus,
+their kinsman born, defends them not. But being bereft of all Greece,
+coming to Marathon and the country under the same rule, we sit suppliants
+at the altars of the Gods, that they may assist us; for it is said that the
+two sons of Theseus inhabit the territory of this land, of the race of
+Pandion, having received it by lot, being near akin to these children; on
+which account we have come this way to the frontiers of illustrious Athens.
+And by two aged people is this flight led, I, indeed, being alarmed about
+these children; and the female race of her son Alcmena preserves within
+this temple, clasping it in her arms; for we are ashamed that virgins
+should mingle with the mob, and stand at the altars. But Hyllus and his
+brothers, who are older, are seeking where there is a strong-hold that we
+may inhabit, if we be thrust forth from this land by force. O children,
+children! hither; take hold of my garments; I see the herald of Eurystheus
+coming hither toward us, by whom we are pursued as wanderers, deprived of
+every land.[2] O detested one, may you perish, and the man who sent you:
+how many evils indeed have you announced to the noble father of these
+children from that same mouth!
+
+COPREUS. I suppose you think that this is a fine seat you are sitting in,
+and have come to a city which is an ally, thinking foolishly; for there is
+no one who will choose your useless power in preference to Eurystheus.
+Depart; why toilest thou thus? You must rise up and go to Argos, where
+punishment by stoning awaits you.
+
+IOL. Not so, since the altar of the God will aid me, and the free land in
+which we tread.
+
+COP. Do you wish to cause me trouble with this band?
+
+IOL. Surely you will not drag me away, nor these children, seizing by
+force?
+
+COP. You shall know; but you are not a good prophet in this.
+
+IOL. This shall never happen, while I am alive.
+
+COP. Depart; but I will lead these away, even though you be unwilling,
+considering them, wherever they may be, to belong to Eurystheus.
+
+IOL. O ye who have dwelt in Athens a long time, defend us; for, being
+suppliants of Jove, the Presider over the Forum,[3] we are treated with
+violence, and our garlands are profaned, both a reproach to the city, and
+an insult to the Gods.
+
+CHORUS. Hollo! hollo! what is this noise near the altar? what calamity will
+it straightway portend?
+
+IOL. Behold me, a weak old man, thrown down on the plain; miserable that I
+am.
+
+CHOR. By whose hand do you fall this unhappy fall?
+
+ * * * *
+
+IOL. This man, O strangers, dishonoring your Gods, drags me violently from
+the altar of Jupiter.
+
+CHOR. From what land, O old man, have you come hither to this people
+dwelling together in four cities?[4] or, have you come hither from across
+[the sea] with marine oar, having quitted the Eubœan shore?
+
+IOL. O strangers, I am not accustomed to an islander's life, but we are
+come to your land from Mycenæ.
+
+CHOR. What name, O old man, did the Mycenæan people call you?
+
+IOL. Know that I am lolaus, once the companion of Hercules; for this body
+is not unrenowned.
+
+CHOR. I know, having heard of it before; but say whose youthful children
+you are leading in your hand.
+
+IOL. These, O strangers, are the sons of Hercules, who are come as
+suppliants of you and the city.
+
+CHOR. What do ye seek? or, tell me, is it wanting to have speech of the
+city?
+
+IOL. Not to be given up, and not to go to Argos, being dragged from your
+Gods by force.
+
+COP. But this will not be sufficient for your masters, who, having power
+over you, find you here.
+
+CHOR. It is right, O stranger, to reverence the suppliants of the Gods, and
+not for you to leave by violent hands the habitations of the deities, for
+venerable Justice will not suffer this.
+
+COP. Send now Eurystheus's subjects out of this land, and I will not use
+this hand violently.
+
+CHOR. It is impious for a state to reject the suppliant prayer of
+strangers.
+
+COP. But it is good to have one's foot out of trouble, being possessed of
+the better counsel.
+
+CHOR. You should then have dared this, having spoken to the king of this
+land, but you should not drag strangers away from the Gods by force, if you
+respect a free land.
+
+COP. But who is king of this country and city?
+
+CHOR. Demophoon, the son of Theseus, of a noble father.
+
+COP. With him, then, the contest of this argument had best be; all else is
+spoken in vain.
+
+CHOR. And indeed hither he comes in haste, and Acamas, his brother, to hear
+these words.
+
+DEMOPHOON. Since you, being an old man, have anticipated us, who are
+younger, in running to this hearth of Jove, say what hap collects this
+multitude here.
+
+CHOR. These sons of Hercules sit here as suppliants, having crowned the
+altar, as you see. O king, and Iolaus, the faithful companion of their
+father.
+
+DE. Why then did this chance occasion clamors?
+
+CHOR. This man caused the noise, seeking to lead him by force from this
+hearth; and he tripped up the legs of the old man, so that I shed the tear
+for pity.
+
+DE. And indeed he has a Grecian robe and style of dress; but these are the
+doings of a barbarian hand; it is for you then to tell me, and not to
+delay, leaving the confines of what land you are come hither.
+
+COP. I am an Argive; for this you wish to learn: and I am willing to say
+why, and from whom, I am come. Eurystheus, the king of Mycenæ, sends me
+hither to lead away these men; and I have come, O stranger, having many
+just things at once to do and to say; for I being an Argive myself, lead
+away Argives, having them as fugitives from my country condemned to die by
+the laws there; and we have the right, managing our city ourselves by
+ourselves, to fix our own punishments: but they having come to the hearths
+of many others also, there also we have taken our stand on these same
+arguments, and no one has dared to bring evils upon himself. But either
+perceiving some folly in you, they have come hither, or in perplexity
+running the risk, whether it shall be or not. For surely they do not think
+that you alone are mad, in so great a portion of Greece as they have been
+over, so as to commiserate their foolish distresses. Come, compare the two;
+admitting them into your land, and suffering us to lead them away, what
+will you gain? Such things as these you may gain from us; you may add to
+this city the whole power of Argos, and all the might of Eurystheus; but if
+looking to the words and pitiable condition of these men, you are softened
+by them, the matter comes to the contest of the spear; for think not that
+we will give up this contest without steel. What then will you say?
+deprived of what lands, making war with the Tirynthians and Argives, and
+repelling them, with what allies, and on whose behalf will you bury the
+dead that fall? Surely you will obtain an evil report among the citizens,
+if, for the sake of an old man, a mere tomb,[5] one who is nothing, as one
+may say, and of these children, you will put your foot into a mess;[6] you
+will say, at best, that you shall find, at least, hope; and this too is at
+present much wanting; for these who are armed would fight but ill with
+Argives if they were grown up, if this encourages your mind, and there is
+much time in the mean while in which ye may be destroyed; but be persuaded
+by me, giving nothing, but permitting me to lead away my own, gain Mycenæ.
+And do not (as you are wont to do) suffer this, when it is in your power to
+choose the better friends, choose the worse.
+
+CHOR. Who can decide what is right, or understand an argument, till he has
+clearly heard the statement of both?
+
+IOL. O king, this exists in thy city; I am permitted in turn to speak and
+to hear, and no one will reject me before that, as in other places; but
+with this man we have nothing to do; for since nothing of Argos is any
+longer ours, (it having been decreed by a vote,) but we are exiled our
+country, how can this man justly lead us away as Mycenæans, whom they have
+driven from the land? for we are strangers; or else you decide that whoever
+is banished Argos is banished the boundaries of the Greeks. Surely not from
+Athens; they will not, for fear of the Argives, drive out the children of
+Hercules from their land; for it is not Trachis, nor the Achæan city, from
+whence you, not by justice, but bragging about Argos; just as you now
+speak, drove these men, sitting at the altars as suppliants; for if this
+shall be, and they ratify your words, I no longer know this Athens as free.
+But I know their disposition and nature; they will rather die; for among
+virtuous men, disgrace is considered before life. Enough of the city; for
+indeed it is an invidious thing to praise it too much; and often I know
+myself I have been oppressed at being overpraised: but I wish to say to you
+that it is necessary for you to save these men, since you are ruler over
+this land. Pittheus was son of Pelops and Æthra, daughter of Pittheus, and
+your father Theseus was born of her. And again I trace for you their
+descent: Hercules was son of Jupiter and Alcmena, and she was the child of
+the daughter of Pelops; so your father and theirs must be fellow-cousins.
+Thus you, O Demophoon, are related to them by birth; and, besides this
+connection, I will tell you for what you are bound to requite the children.
+For I say, I formerly, when shield-bearer to their father, sailed with
+Theseus after the belt,[7] the cause of much slaughter, and from the murky
+recesses of hell did he bring forth your father. All Greece bears witness
+to this; for which things they beseech you to return a kindness, and that
+they may not be yielded up, nor be driven from this land, torn from your
+Gods by violence; for this would be disgraceful to you by yourself, and an
+evil to the city,[8] that suppliant relations, wanderers--alas for the
+misery! look on them, look--should be dragged away by force. But I beseech
+you, and offer you suppliant garlands, by your hands and your chin, do not
+dishonor the children of Hercules, having received them in your power; but
+be thou a relation to them, be a friend, father, brother, master; for all
+these things are better than [for them] to fall into the power of the
+Argives.
+
+CHOR. Hearing of these men's misfortunes, I pitied them, O king! and now
+particularly I have witnessed nobleness overcome by fortune; for these men,
+being sons of a noble father, are undeservedly unhappy.
+
+DE. Three ways of misfortune urge me, O Iolaus, not to reject these
+suppliants. The greatest, Jupiter, at whose altars you sit, having this
+procession of youths with you; and my relationship to them, and because I
+am bound of old that they should fare well at my hands, in gratitude to
+their father; and the disgrace,[9] which one ought exceedingly to regard.
+For if I permitted this altar to be violated by force by a strange man, I
+shall not seem to inhabit a free country. But I fear to betray my
+suppliants to the Argives; and this is nearly as bad as the noose. But I
+wish you had come with better fortune; but still, even now, fear not that
+any one shall drag you and these children by force from this altar. And do
+thou, going to Argos, both tell this to Eurystheus; and besides that, if he
+has any charge against these strangers, he shall meet with justice; but you
+shall never drag away these men.
+
+COP. Not if it be just, and I prevail in argument?
+
+DE. And how can it be just to drag away a suppliant by force?
+
+COP. This, then, is not disgraceful to me, but an injury to you.
+
+DE. To me indeed, if I allow you to drag them away.
+
+COP. But do you depart, and then will I drag them thence.
+
+DE. You are stupid, thinking yourself wiser than a God.
+
+COP. Hither it seems the wicked should fly.
+
+DE. The seat of the Gods is a common defense to all.
+
+COP. Perhaps this will not seem good to the Mycenæans.
+
+DE. Am not I then master over those here?
+
+COP. [Ay,] but not to injure them, if you are wise.
+
+DE. Are ye hurt, if I do not defile the Gods?
+
+COP. I do not wish you to have war with the Argives.
+
+DE. I, too, am the same; but I will not let go of these men.
+
+COP. At all events, taking possession of my own, I shall lead them away.
+
+DE. Then you will not easily depart back to Argos.
+
+COP. I shall soon see that by experience.
+
+DE. You will touch them to your own injury, and that without delay.
+
+CHOR. For God's sake, venture not to strike a herald!
+
+DE. I will not, if the herald at least will learn to be wise.
+
+CHOR. Depart thou; and do not you touch him, O king!
+
+COP. I go; for the struggle of a single hand is powerless. But I will come,
+bringing hither many a brazen spear of Argive war; and ten thousand
+shield-bearers await me, and Eurystheus, the king himself, as general. And
+he waits, expecting news from hence, on the extreme confines of Alcathus;
+and, having heard of your insolence, he will make himself too well known to
+you, and to the citizens, and to this land, and to the trees; for in vain
+should we have so much youth in Argos, if we did not chastise you.
+
+DE. Destruction on you! for I do not fear your Argos. But you are not
+likely, insulting me, to drag these men away from hence by force; for I
+possess this land, not being subject to that of Argos, but free.
+
+CHOR. It is time to provide, before the army of the Argives approaches the
+borders. And very impetuous is the Mars of the Mycenæans, and on this
+account more than before; for it is the habit of all heralds to tower up
+what is twice as much. What do you not think he will say to his princes
+about what terrible things he has suffered, and how within a little he was
+losing his life.
+
+IOL. There is not, to this man's children, a more glorious honor than to be
+sprung from a good and valiant father, and to marry from a good family; but
+I will not praise him who, overcome by desire, has mingled with the vulgar,
+to leave his children a reproach instead of pleasure; for noble birth wards
+off misfortune better than low descent; for we, having fallen into the
+extremity of evils, find these men friends and relations, who alone, in so
+large a country as Greece, have stood forward [on our behalf.] Give, O
+children, give them your right hand; and do ye give yours to the children,
+and draw near to them. O children, we have come to experience of our
+friends; and if you ever have a return to your country, and [again] possess
+the homes and honors of your father, always consider them your saviors and
+friends, and never lift the hostile spear against the land, remembering
+these things; but consider it the dearest city of all. And they are worthy
+that you should revere them, who have chosen to have so great a country and
+the Pelasgic people as enemies instead of us, though seeing us to be
+beggared wanderers; but still they have not given us up, nor driven us from
+their land. But I, living and dying, when I do die, with much praise, my
+friend, will extol you when I am in company with Theseus; and telling this,
+I will delight him, saying how well you received and aided the children of
+Hercules; and, being noble, you preserve through Greece your ancestral
+glory; and being born of noble parents, you are nowise inferior to your
+father, with but few others; for among many you may find perhaps but one
+who is not inferior to his father.[10]
+
+CHOR. This land is ever willing to aid in a just cause those in difficulty;
+therefore it has borne numberless toils for its friends, and now I see this
+contest at hand.
+
+DE. Thou hast spoken well; and I boast, old man, that their disposition is
+such that the kindness will be remembered. And I will make an assembly of
+the citizens, and draw them up so as to receive the army of the Mycenæans
+with a large force. First, I will send spies toward it, that it may not
+fall upon me by surprise: for in Argos every warrior is eager to run to
+assistance. And having collected the soothsayers, I will sacrifice. And do
+you go to my palace with the children, leaving the hearth of Jove, for
+there are those who, even if I be from home, will take care of you; go
+then, old man, to my palace.
+
+IOL. I will not leave the altar; but we will sit here, as suppliants,
+waiting till the city is successful; and when you are well freed from this
+contest, we will go to thy palace. But we have Gods as allies not inferior
+to those of the Argives, O king; for Juno, the wife of Jove, is their
+champion, but Minerva ours; and I say that this also tends to success, to
+have the best Gods, for Pallas will not endure to be conquered.
+
+CHOR. If thou boastest greatly, others do not therefore care for thee the
+more, O stranger, coming from Argos; but with thy big words thou wilt not
+terrify my mind: may it not be so to the mighty Athens, with the beauteous
+dances. But both thou art foolish, the son of Sthenelus, king in Argos,
+who, coming to another city not less than Argos, being a stranger, seek by
+violence to lead away wanderers, suppliants of the Gods, and claiming the
+protection of my land, not yielding to our kings, nor saying any thing else
+that is just. How can this be thought well among the wise? Peace indeed
+pleases me; but, O foolish king, I tell thee, if thou comest to this city,
+thou wilt not thus obtain what thou thinkest for. You are not the only one
+who has a spear and a brazen shield; but, O lover of war, mayest thou not
+with the spear disturb my city dear to the Graces; but restrain thyself.
+
+IOL. O my son, why comest thou, bringing solicitude to my eyes? Hast thou
+any news of the enemy? Do they delay, or are they at hand I or what do you
+hear? for I fear the word of the herald will in no wise be false, for their
+leader will come, having been fortunate in previous affairs, I clearly
+know, and with no moderate pride, against Athens; but Jove is the chastiser
+of over-arrogant thoughts.[11]
+
+DE. The army of the Argives is coming, and Eurystheus the king. I have seen
+it myself;[12] for it behooves a man who says he knows well the duty of a
+general not to reconnoitre the enemy by means of messengers. He has not
+then, as yet, let loose his army on these plains, but, sitting on a lofty
+crag, he reconnoitres (I should tell thee this as a conjecture) to see by
+which way he shall now lead his expedition, and place it in a safe station
+in this land; and my preparations are already well arranged, and the city
+is in arms, and the victims stand ready for those Gods to whom they ought
+to be slain offered; and the city, by means of soothsayers, is preparing by
+sacrifices flight for the enemy and safety for the city.[13] And having
+collected together all the bards who proclaim oracles, I have tested the
+ancient oracles, both public and concealed, which might save this land; and
+in their other counsels many things are different; but one opinion of all
+is conspicuously the same, they command me to sacrifice to the daughter of
+Ceres a damsel who is of a noble father.[14] And I have indeed, as you see,
+such great good-will toward you, but I will neither slay my own child[15]
+nor compel any other of my citizens to do so unwillingly; and who is so mad
+of his own accord, as to give out of his hands his dearest children? And
+now you may see bitter meetings; some saying that it is right to aid
+foreign suppliants, and some blaming my folly; and if I do this, a civil
+war is at once prepared. This, then, do you consider, and devise how both
+you yourselves may be saved and this land, and I be not brought into ill
+odor with the citizens; for I have not absolute sovereignty, as over
+barbarians; but if I do just things, I shall receive just things.
+
+CHOR. But does not the Goddess allow this city, although eager, to aid
+strangers?
+
+IOL. O children, we are like sailors, who, fleeing from the fierce rage of
+the storm, have come close to land, and then, again, by gales from the
+land, have been driven again out to sea; thus also shall we be driven from
+this land, being already on shore, as if saved. Alas! why, O wretched hope,
+did you then delight me, not being about to perfect my joy? For his
+thoughts, in truth, are to be pardoned if he is not willing to slay the
+children of his citizens; and I acquiesce in their conduct here, if the
+Gods decree that I shall fare thus. My gratitude to you shall never perish.
+O children, I know not what to do with you: whither shall we turn? for who
+of the Gods has been uncrowned by us? and what bulwark of land have we not
+approachedl? We shall perish, my children, we shall be given up; and for
+myself I care nothing if it behooves me to die, except that, dying, I shall
+gratify my enemies; but I weep for and pity you, O children, and Alcmena,
+the aged mother of your father; O! unhappy art thou, because of thy long
+life; and miserable am I, having labored much in vain. It was our fate
+then, our fate, falling into the hands of an enemy, to leave life
+disgracefully and miserably. But do you know in what you may aid me? for
+all hope of their safety has not deserted me. Give me up to the Argives
+instead of them, O king, and so neither run any risk yourself, and let the
+children be saved for me; I must not love my own life, let it go; and above
+all, Eurystheus would like taking me, the ally of Hercules, to insult me;
+for he is a froward man; and the wise should pray to have enmity with a
+wise man, not with an ignorant disposition, for in that case one, even if
+unfortunate, may meet with much respect.
+
+CHOR. O old man, do not now blame the city, perhaps it might be a gain to
+us; but still it would be an evil reproach that we betrayed strangers,
+
+DE. You have spoken things noble indeed, but impossible; the king does not
+lead his army hither wanting you; for what profit were it to Eurystheus for
+an old man to die? but he wishes to slay these children; for noble youths,
+who remember their fathers' injuries, springing up, are terrible to
+enemies; all which he must needs foresee; but if you know any other more
+seasonable counsel, prepare it, since I am perplexed and full of fear,
+having heard the oracle.
+
+MACARIA. O strangers, do not impute boldness to me because of my
+advances,[16] this I will beg first; for silence and modesty are best for a
+woman, and to remain quietly in-doors; but, having heard your lamentations,
+O Iolaus, I have come forth, not being commissioned to act as embassador
+for my race, but I am in some wise fit to do so; but chiefly do I care for
+these, my brothers: concerning myself I wish to ask whether, besides our
+former evils, any additional distress gnaws your mind?
+
+IOL. O daughter, it is not a new thing that I justly have to praise you
+most of the children of Hercules; but our house having appeared to us to
+progress well, has again changed to perplexity, for this man says, that the
+deliverers of oracles order us to sacrifice not a bull or a heifer, but a
+virgin, who is of a noble father, if we and this city would exist. About
+this then we are perplexed, for this man says he will neither slay his own
+children nor those of any one else; and to me he says, not plainly indeed,
+but somehow or other, unless I can devise any remedy for this, that we must
+find some other land, but he himself wishes to preserve this country.
+
+MAC. On this condition can we then be saved?
+
+IOL. On this, being fortunate in other respects.
+
+MAC. Fear not then any longer the hostile spear of the Argives; for I
+myself, old man, before I am commanded, am prepared to die, and to stand
+for slaughter; for what shall we say if the city thinks fit for our sakes
+to encounter a great danger, but we putting toils on others, avoid death
+when we can be saved? Not so, since this would be ridiculous for suppliants
+sitting at the shrines of the Gods to mourn, but being of such a sire as we
+are, to be seen to be cowards; how can this seem good! it were more noble,
+I think, (which may it never happen!) to fall into the hands of the enemy,
+this city being taken, and afterward, being born of a noble father, having
+suffered dreadful things, to see Hades none the less; but shall I wander
+about, driven from this land, and shall I not indeed be ashamed if any one
+says, "Why have ye come hither with your suppliant branches, yourselves
+being too fond of life! Depart from the land, for we will not aid cowards."
+But neither, indeed, if these die, and I myself am saved, have I any hope
+to fare well; for before now many have in this way betrayed their friends.
+For who would choose to have me, a solitary damsel, for his wife, or to
+raise children from me? therefore it is better to die than to have such an
+unworthy fate as this; and this may even be more seemly for some other, who
+is not illustrious as I. Lead me then where this body must needs die, and
+crown me and begin the rites, if you think fit, and conquer your enemies;
+for this life is ready for you, willing, and not unwilling; and I promise
+to die for these my brethren, and for myself; for not caring for life, I
+have found this most glorious thing to find, namely, to leave life
+gloriously.
+
+CHOR. Alas! alas! what shall I say, hearing this noble speech of the maiden
+who is willing to die on behalf of her brothers? Who can utter more noble
+words than these I who of men can do [a greater deed?][17]
+
+IOL. My child, your head comes from no other source, but thou, the seed of
+a divine mind, art sprung from Hercules.[18] I am not ashamed at your
+words, but I am grieved for your fortune; but how it may be more justly
+done, I will say: we must call hither all her sisters, and then let her who
+draws the lot die for her family; but it is not right for thee to die
+without casting lots.
+
+MAC. I will not die, obtaining the lot by chance, for then there are no
+thanks [to me;]--speak it not, old man; but if you accept me, and are
+willing to use me willing, I readily give up my life to them, but not,
+being compelled.
+
+IOL. Alas! this word of thine is again nobler than the former, and that
+other was most excellent; but you surpass daring by daring, and [good]
+words by good words. I do not bid you, nor do I forbid you, to die, my
+child; but you will benefit your brothers by dying.
+
+MAC. Thou biddest wisely; fear not to partake of my pollution, but I shall
+die freely. But follow me, O old man; for I wish to die by your hand; and
+do you, being present, wrap my body in my garments, since I am going to the
+terror of sacrifice, because I am born of the father of whom I boast to be.
+
+IOL. I could not be present at your death.
+
+MAC. At least, then, entreat of him that I may die, not by the hands of
+men, but of women.
+
+CHOR. It shall be so, O hapless virgin; since it were disgraceful to me too
+not to deck thee honorably on many accounts; both for your valiant spirit,
+and for justice' sake: but you are the most unhappy of all women that I
+have beheld with mine eyes; but, if thou wilt, depart, bespeaking a last
+address to these and to the old man.
+
+MAC. Farewell, old man, farewell; and train up for me these children to be
+such as thyself, wise in all respects, nothing more, for they will suffice;
+and endeavor to save them, not being over-willing to die. We are your
+children; by your hands we were brought up, and behold see me yielding up
+my nuptial hour, dying for them. And ye, my company of brothers now
+present, may ye be happy, and may every thing be yours, for the sake of
+which my soul is sacrificed; and honor the old man, and the old woman in
+the house, Alcmena, the mother of my father, and these strangers. And if a
+release from troubles, and a return should ever be found for you through
+the Gods, remember to bury her who saves you, as is fitting; most honorably
+were just, for I was not wanting to you, but died for my race. This is my
+heir-loom instead of children and virginity, if indeed there be aught under
+the earth. May there indeed be nothing; for if we, mortals who die, are to
+have cares even there, I know not where one can turn, for to die is
+considered the greatest remedy for evils.
+
+IOL. But, O you, who mightily surpass all women in courage, know that, both
+living and dying, you shall be most honored by us: and farewell; for I
+abhor to speak words of ill omen about the Goddess to whom your body is
+given as the first-fruits, the daughter of Ceres. O children, we are
+undone; my limbs are relaxed by grief; take me, and place me in my seat,
+veiling me there with these garments, O children; since neither am I
+pleased at these things which are done, and if the oracle were not
+fulfilled, life would be unbearable, for the ruin would be greater; but
+even this is a calamity.
+
+CHOR. I say that no man is either happy or miserable but through the Gods,
+and that the same family does not always walk in good fortune, but
+different fates pursue it different ways; it is wont to make one from a
+lofty station insignificant, and makes the wanderer wealthy: but it is
+impossible to avoid what is fated; no one can repel it by wisdom, but he
+who is hasty without purpose will always have trouble; but do not thus bear
+the fortune sent by the Gods, falling down [in prayer,] and do not
+over-pain your mind with grief, for she hapless possesses a glorious
+portion of death on behalf of her brethren and her country; nor will an
+inglorious reputation among men await her: but virtue proceeds through
+toils. These things are worthy of her father, and worthy of her noble
+descent; and if you respect the deaths of the good, I share your feelings.
+
+SERVANT. O children, hail! But at what distance from this place is the aged
+Iolaus and your father's mother?
+
+IOL. We are here, such a presence as mine is.
+
+SERV. On what account dost thou lie thus, and have an eye so downcast?
+
+IOL. A domestic care has come upon me, by which I am constrained.
+
+SERV. Raise now thyself, erect thy head.
+
+IOL. I am an old man, and by no means strong.
+
+SERV. But I am come, bearing to you a great joy.
+
+IOL. And who art thou, where having met you, do I forget you?
+
+SERV. I am a poor servant of Hyllus; do you not recognize me, seeing me?
+
+IOL. O dearest one, dost thou then come as a savior to us from injury?
+
+SERV. Surely; and moreover you are prosperous as to the present state of
+affairs.
+
+IOL. O mother of a doughty son, I mean Alcmena, come forth, hear these most
+welcome words; for you have been long wasting away as to your soul in
+anxiety concerning those who have come hither, where they would ever
+arrive.[19]
+
+ALCMENA. Wherefore has a mighty shout filled all this house? O Iolaus, does
+any herald, coming from Argos, again do you violence? my strength indeed is
+weak, but thus much you must know, O stranger, you shall never drag these
+away while I am living, else may I no longer be thought to be his mother;
+but if you touch them with your hand, you will have no honorable contest
+with two old people.
+
+IOL. Be of good cheer, old woman; fear not, the herald is not come from
+Argos bearing hostile words.
+
+ALC. Why then did you raise a shout, a messenger of fear?
+
+IOL. To you, that you should approach near before this temple.
+
+ALC. I do not understand this; for who is this man?
+
+IOL. He announces that your son's son is come.
+
+ALC. O! hail thou also for this news; but why and where[20] is he now
+absent putting his foot in this country? what calamity prevents him from
+appearing hither with you, and delighting my mind?
+
+SERV. He is stationing and marshaling the army which he has come bringing.
+
+ALC. I no longer understand this speech.
+
+IOL. I do; but it is my business to inquire about this.
+
+SERV. What then of what has been done do you wish to learn?
+
+IOL. With how great a multitude of allies is he come?
+
+SERV. With many; but I can say no other number.
+
+IOL. The chiefs of the Athenians know, I suppose.
+
+SERV. They do; and they occupy the left wing.[21]
+
+IOL. Is then the army already armed as for the work?
+
+SERV. Ay; and already the victims are led away from the ranks.
+
+IOL. And how far distant is the Argive army?
+
+SERV. So that the general can be distinctly seen.
+
+IOL. Doing what? arraying the ranks of the enemies?
+
+SERV. We conjectured this, for we did not hear him; but I will go; I should
+not like my masters to join battle with the enemy, deserted as far as my
+part is concerned.
+
+IOL. And I will go with you; for we think the same things, being present to
+aid our friends as much as we can.
+
+SERV. It is not your part to say a foolish word.
+
+IOL. And not to share the sturdy battle with my friends!
+
+SERV. One can not see a wound from an inactive hand.
+
+IOL. But what, can not I too strike through a shield?
+
+SERV. You might strike, but you yourself would fall first.
+
+IOL. No one of the enemy will dare to behold me.
+
+SERV. You have not, my good friend, the strength which once you had.
+
+IOL. But I will fight with them who will not be the fewer in numbers.
+
+SERV. You add but a slight weight to your friends.
+
+IOL. Do not detain me who am prepared to act.
+
+SERV. You are not able to do any thing, but you may perhaps be to advise.
+
+IOL. You may say the rest, as I not staying to hear.
+
+SERV. How then will you appear to the soldiers without arms?
+
+IOL. There are within this palace arms taken in war, which I will use and
+restore if alive; but the God will not demand them back of me, if I fall;
+but go in, and taking them down from the pegs, bring me as quickly as
+possible the panoply of a warrior; for this is a disgraceful house-keeping,
+for some to fight, and some to remain behind through fear.
+
+CHOR. Time does not depress your spirit, but it grows young again, but your
+body is weak: why dost thou toil in vain? which will harm you indeed, but
+profit our city but little; you should consider your age, and leave alone
+impossibilities, it can not be that you again should acquire youth.
+
+ALC. Why are you, not being in your senses, about to leave me alone with my
+children?
+
+IOL. For valor is the part of men; but it is your duty to take care of
+them.
+
+ALC. But what if you die? how shall I be saved?
+
+IOL. Your sons who are left will take care of your son.
+
+ALC. But if they, which Heaven forbid, should meet with fate!
+
+IOL. These strangers will not betray you, do not fear.
+
+ALC. Such confidence indeed I have, nothing else.
+
+IOL. And Jove, I well know, cares for your toils.
+
+ALC. Alas! Jupiter shall never be reproached by me, but he himself knows
+whether he is just toward me.
+
+SERV. You see now this panoply of arms; but you can not make too much
+haste[22] in arraying your body in them, as the contest is at hand, and,
+above all things, Mars hates those who delay; but if you fear the weight of
+arms, now then go forth unarmed,[23] and in the ranks be clad with this
+equipment, and I will carry it so far.
+
+IOL. Thou hast said well; but bring the arms, having them close at hand,
+and put a spear in my hand, and support my left arm guiding my foot.
+
+SERV. Is it right to lead a warrior like a child?
+
+IOL. One must go safely for the sake of the omen.
+
+SERV. Would you were able to do as much as you are willing.
+
+IOL. Make haste, I shall suffer sadly if too late for the battle.
+
+SERV. It is you who delay, and not I, seeming to do something.
+
+IOL. Do you not see how my foot presses on?
+
+SERV. I see you rather seeming to hasten than hastening.
+
+IOL. You will not say so, when you behold me there.
+
+SERV. Doing what? I wish I may see you successful.
+
+IOL. Striking some of the enemy through the shield.
+
+SERV. If indeed we get there; for that I have fears of.
+
+IOL. Alas! O arm, would thou wert such an ally to me as I recollect you in
+your youth, when you ravaged Sparta with Hercules, how would I put
+Eurystheus to flight; since he is but a coward in abiding a spear. But in
+prosperity then is this too which is not right, a reputation for courage;
+for we think that he who is prosperous knows all things well.
+
+CHOR. O earth, and moon that shinest through the night, and most brilliant
+rays of the God, that gave light to mortals, bring me news, and shout in
+heaven and at the queenly throne of the blue-eyed Minerva. I am about, on
+behalf of my country, on behalf of my house, having received suppliants I
+am about to cut through danger with the white steel. It is terrible that a
+city, prosperous as Mycenæ, and much praised for valor in war, should
+nourish secret[24] anger against my land; but it is evil too, O city, if we
+are to give up strangers at the bidding of Argos.[25] Jupiter is my ally, I
+fear not; Jupiter rightly has favor toward me. Never shall the Gods seem
+inferior to men in my opinion.[26] But, O venerable Goddess, for the soil
+of this land is thine, and the city of which you are mother, mistress, and
+guardian, lead away by some other way him who unjustly leads on this
+spear-brandishing host from Argos; for as far as my virtue is concerned, I
+do not deserve to be banished from these halls. For honor, with much
+sacrifice, is ever offered to you; nor does the waning[27] day of the month
+forget you, nor the songs of youths, nor the measures of dances; but on the
+lofty hill shouts resound in accordance with the beatings of the feet of
+virgins the livelong night.
+
+SERV. O mistress, I bring news most concise for you to hear, and to myself
+most glorious; we have conquered our enemies, and trophies are set up
+bearing the panoply of your enemies.
+
+ALC. O best beloved, this day has caused thee to be made free for this thy
+news; but from one disaster you do not yet free me, for I fear whether they
+be living to me whom I wish to be.
+
+SERV. They live, the most glorious in the army.
+
+ALC. Does not the aged Iolaus survive?
+
+SERV. Surely, and having done most glorious deeds by help of the Gods.
+
+ALC. But what? has he done any doughty act in the fight?
+
+SERV. He has changed from an old into a young man again.
+
+ALC. Thou tellest marvelous things, but first I wish you to relate the
+prosperous contest of your friends in battle.
+
+SERV. One speech of mine shall tell you all this; for when stretching out
+[our ranks] face to face, we arrayed our armies against one another, Hyllus
+putting his foot out of his four-horse chariot, stood in the mid-space of
+the field;[28] and then said, O general, you are come from Argos, why leave
+we not this land alone? and you will do Mycenæ no harm, depriving it of one
+man; but you fighting alone with me alone, either killing me, lead away the
+children of Hercules, or dying, allow me to possess my ancestral
+prerogative and palaces. And the army gave praise; that the speech was well
+spoken for a termination of their toils, and in respect of courage. But he
+neither regarding those who had heard the speech, nor, although he was
+general, his [own character for] cowardice, ventured not to come near the
+warlike spear, but was most cowardly; and being such, he came to enslave
+the descendants of Hercules. Hyllus then returned again back to his ranks;
+but the soothsayers, when they saw that the affair could not be arranged by
+single combat of one shield, sacrificed, and delayed not, but let fall
+forth immediately the propitious slaughter of mortal throats; and some
+mounted chariots, and some concealed their sides under the sides of their
+shields; but the king of the Athenians gave to his army such orders as
+become a high-born man. "O fellow-citizens, now it behooves one to defend
+the land that has produced and cherished us."[29] And the other also
+besought his allies not to disgrace Argos and Mycenæ. But when the signal
+was sounded on a Tyrrhenian trumpet, and they joined battle with one
+another, what a clash of spears dost thou think sounded, how great a
+groaning and lamentation at the same time! And first the dashing on of the
+Argive spear broke us; then they again retreated; and next foot being
+interchanged with foot, and man standing against man, the battle waged
+fierce; and many fell; and there were two cries, O ye who [dwell in]
+Athens, O ye who sow the land of the Argives, will ye not avert disgrace
+from the city? And with difficulty doing every thing, not without toils did
+we put the Argive force to flight; and then the old man, seeing Hyllus
+rushing on, Iolaus, stretching forth his right hand, besought him to place
+him on the horse-chariot; and seizing the reins in his hands, he pressed
+hard upon the horses of Eurystheus. And what happened after this I must
+tell by having heard from others, I myself hitherto having seen all; for
+passing by the venerable hill of the divine Minerva of Pellene, seeing the
+chariot of Eurystheus, he prayed to Juno and Jupiter to be young for one
+day, and to work vengeance on his enemies. But you have a marvel to hear;
+for two stars standing on the horse-chariot, concealed the chariot in a dim
+cloud, the wiser men say it was thy son and Hebe; but he from the obscure
+darkness showed forth a youthful image of youthful arms. And the glorious
+Iolaus takes the four-horse chariot of Eurystheus at the Scironian
+rocks--and having bound his hands in fetters, he comes bringing as glorious
+first-fruits of victory, the general, him who before was prosperous; but by
+his present fortune he proclaims clearly to all mortals to learn not to
+envy him who seems prosperous, till one sees him dead, as fortune is but
+for the day.
+
+CHOR. O Jupiter, thou turner to flight, now is it mine to behold a day free
+from dreadful fear.
+
+ALC. O Jupiter, at length you have looked upon my miseries, but still I
+thank you for what has been done: and I, who formerly did not think that my
+son dwelt with the Gods, now clearly know it. O children, now indeed you
+shall be free from toils, and free from Eurystheus, who shall perish
+miserably; and ye shall see the city of your sire, and you shall tread on
+your inheritance of land; and ye shall sacrifice to your ancestral gods,
+debarred from whom ye have had, as strangers, a wandering miserable life.
+But devising what clever thing has Iolaus spared Eurystheus, so as not to
+slay him, tell me; for in my opinion this is not wise, having taken our
+enemies, not to exact punishment of them.
+
+SERV. Having respect for you, that with your own eyes you may see him[30]
+defeated and subjected to your hand; not, indeed, of his own will, but he
+has bound him by force in constraint, for he was not willing to come alive
+into your sight and to be punished. But, O old woman, farewell, and
+remember for me what you first said when I began my tale. Make me free; and
+in such noble people as you the mouth ought to be free from falsehood.
+
+CHOR. To me the dance is sweet, if there be the thrilling delight of the
+pipe at the feast; and may Venus be kind. And sweet it is to see the good
+fortune of friends who did not expect it before; for the fate which
+accomplishes gifts gives birth to many things; and Time, the son of Saturn.
+You have, O city, a just path, you should never be deprived of it, to honor
+the Gods; and he who bids you not do so, is near madness, such proofs as
+these being shown. God, in truth, evidently exhorts us, taking away the
+arrogance of the unjust forever. Your son, O old woman, is gone to heaven;
+he shuns the report of having descended to the realm of Pluto, being
+consumed as to his body in the terrible flame of fire; and he embraces the
+lovely bed of Hebe in the golden hall. O Hymen, you have honored two
+children of Jupiter. Many things agree with many; for in truth they say
+that Minerva was an ally of their father, and the city and people of that
+Goddess has saved them, and has restrained the insolence of a man to whom
+passion was before justice, through violence. May my mind and soul, never
+be insatiable.
+
+MESS. O mistress, you see, but still it shall be said, we are come,
+bringing to you Eurystheus here, an unhoped-for sight, and one no less so
+for him to meet with, for he never expected to come into your hands when he
+went forth from Mycenæ with a much-toiling band of spearmen, proudly
+planning things much greater than his fortune, that he should destroy
+Athens; but the God changed his fortune, and made it contrary. Hyllus,
+therefore, and the good Iolaus, have set up a statue, in honor of their
+victory, of Jove, the putter to flight; and they send me to bring this man
+to you, wishing to delight your mind; for it is most delightful to see an
+enemy unfortunate, after having been fortunate.
+
+ALC. O hateful thing, art thou come? has justice taken you at last? first
+then indeed turn hither your head toward me, and dare to look your enemies
+in the face; for now you are ruled, and you rule no more. Art thou he, for
+I wish to know, who chose, O wretch, much to insult my son, though no
+longer existing? For in what respect didst thou not dare to insult him? who
+led him, while alive, down to hell, and sent him forth, bidding him destroy
+hydras and lions? And I am silent concerning the other evils you contrived,
+for it would be a long story; and it did not satisfy you that he alone
+should endure these things, but you drove me also, and my children, out of
+all Greece, sitting as suppliants of the Gods, some old, and some still
+infants; but you found men and a city free, who feared you not. Thou needs
+must die miserably, and you shall gain every thing, for you ought to die
+not once only, having wrought many evil deeds.
+
+MESS. It is not practicable for you to put him to death.[31]
+
+ALC. In vain then have we taken him prisoner. But what law hinders him from
+dying?
+
+MESS. It seems not so to the chiefs of this land.
+
+ALC. What is this? not good to them to slay one's enemies?
+
+MESS. Not any one whom they have taken alive in battle.
+
+ALC. And did Hyllus endure this decision?
+
+MESS. He could, I suppose, disobey this land![32]
+
+ALC. He ought no longer to live, nor behold the light.
+
+MESS. Then first he did wrong in not dying.
+
+ALC. Then it is no longer right for him to be punished?[33]
+
+MESS. There is no one who may put him to death.
+
+ALC. I will. And yet I say that I am some one.
+
+MESS. You will indeed have much blame if you do this.
+
+ALC. I love this city. It can not be denied. But as for this man, since he
+has come into my power, there is no mortal who shall take him from me. For
+this, whoever will may call me bold, and thinking things too much for a
+woman; but this deed shall be done by me.
+
+CHOR. It is a serious and excusable thing, O lady, for you to have hatred
+against this man, I well know it.
+
+EURYSTHEUS. O woman, know plainly that I will not flatter you, nor say any
+thing else for my life, whence I may incur any imputation of cowardice. But
+not of my own accord did I undertake this strife--I knew that I was your
+cousin by birth, and a relation to your son Hercules; but whether I wished
+it or not, Juno, for it was a Goddess, forced me to toil through this ill.
+But when I took up enmity against him, and determined to contest this
+contest, I became a contriver of many evils, and sitting continually in
+council with myself, I brought forth many plans by night, how dispersing
+and slaying my enemies, I might dwell for the future not with fear, knowing
+that your son was not one of the many, but truly a man; for though he be
+mine enemy, yet shall he be well spoken of, as he was a doughty man. And
+when he was released [from life], did it not behoove me, being hated by
+these children, and knowing their father's hatred to me, to move every
+stone, slaying and banishing them, and contriving, that, doing such things,
+my own affairs would have been safe? You, therefore, had you obtained my
+fortunes, would not have oppressed with evils the hostile offspring of a
+hated lion, but would wisely have permitted them to live in Argos; you will
+persuade no one of this. Now then, since they did not destroy me then, when
+I was willing, by the laws of the Greeks I shall, if slain, bear pollution
+to my slayer; and the city, being wise, has let me go, having greater honor
+for God than for its enmity toward me. And to what you said you have heard
+a reply: and now you may call me at once suppliant and brave.[34] Thus is
+the case with me, I do not wish to die, but I should not be grieved at
+leaving life.
+
+CHOR. I wish, O Alcmena, to advise you a little, to let go this man, since
+it seems so to the city.
+
+ALC. But how, if he both die, and still we obey the city?
+
+CHOR. That would be best; but how can that be?
+
+ALC. I will teach you, easily; for having slain him, then I will give his
+corpse to those of his friends who come after him; for I will not deny his
+body to the earth, but he dying, shall satisfy my revenge.
+
+EU. Slay me, I do not deprecate thy wrath. But this city indeed, since it
+has released me, and feared to slay me, I will present with an ancient
+oracle of Apollo, which, in time, will be of greater profit than you would
+expect; for ye will bury me when I am dead, where it is fated, before the
+temple of the divine virgin of Pallene; and being well disposed to you, and
+a protector to the city, I shall ever lie as a sojourner under the ground,
+but most hostile to their descendants when they come hither with much
+force, betraying this kindness: such strangers do ye now defend. How then
+did I, knowing this, come hither, and not respect the oracle of the God?
+Thinking Juno far more powerful than oracles, and that she would not betray
+me, [I did so.] But suffer neither libations nor blood to be poured on my
+tomb, for I will give them an evil return as a requital for these things;
+and ye shall have a double gain from me, I will both profit you and injure
+them by dying.
+
+ALC. Why then do ye delay, if you are fated to accomplish safety to the
+city and to your descendants, to slay this man, hearing these things? for
+they show us the safest path. The man is an enemy, but he will profit us
+dying. Take him away, O servants; then having slain him, ye must give him
+to the dogs; for hope not thou, that living, thou shalt again banish me
+from my native land.
+
+CHOR. These things seem good to me, proceed, O attendants, for every thing
+on our part shall be done completely for our sovereigns.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+NOTES ON THE HERACLYDÆ
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+[1] Such seems to be the force of εις ανηρ.
+
+[2] But the construction is probably αληται γης, (compare my note on Æsch.
+Eum. 63,) and απεστερημενοι is _bereaved, destitute_.
+
+[3] Cf. Æsch. Eum. 973.
+
+[4] i.e. Œnoe, Marathon, Probalinthus, and Tricorythus.
+
+[5] Elmsley compares Med. 1209. τις τον γεροντα τυμβον ορθανον σεθεν
+τιθησι; so the Latins used "Silicernium." Cf. Fulgent. Expos. Serm. Ant. p.
+171, ed. Munck.
+
+[6] αντλος, sentina, bilge-water. See Elmsley.
+
+[7] See Elmsley's note.
+
+[8] See Dindorf, who repents of the reading in the text, and restores σοι
+γαρ τοδ' αισχρον χωρις εν πολει κακον. He, however, condemns this and the
+two next lines as spurious.
+
+[9] i.e. if I neglect them.
+
+[10] Cf. Hor. Od. iii. 6, 48. "Ætas parentum, pejor avis, tulit Nos
+nequiores, mox daturos Progeniem vitiosiorem."
+
+[11] Cf. Soph. Ant. 127. Ζευς γαρ μεγαλης γλωσσης κομπους ‛Υπερεχθαιρει.
+
+[12] Cf. Æsch. Sept. c. Th. 40 sq., also Soph. Œd. T. 6 sqq.
+
+[13] i.e. μαντεις κατ' αστυ θυηφολουσι. ELMSLEY.
+
+[14] Pausanias, i. 32, states that the oracle expressly required that one
+of the descendants of Hercules should be devoted, and that upon this
+Macaria, his daughter by Deianira, voluntarily offered herself. Her name
+was afterward given to a fountain. Enripides probably omitted this fact, in
+order to place the noble-mindedness of Macaria in a stronger light. The
+curious reader may compare the similar sacrifices of Codrus, (Pausan. vii.
+25. Vell. Patere. i. 4,) Menœceus, (Eur. Phœn. 1009, Statius Theb. x. 751
+sqq.,) Chaon (Serv. on Virg. Æn. iii. 335). See also Lomeier de
+Lustrationibus, § xxii., where the whole subject is learnedly treated.
+
+[15] Cf. Æsch. Ag. 206 sqq.
+
+[16] I prefer understanding ‛ενεκα εξοδων εμων with Elmsley, to Matthiæ's
+forced interpretation. Compare Med. 214 sqq.
+
+[17] The cognate accusative to δρασειεν must be supplied from the context.
+
+[18] There is some awkwardness in the construction. Perhaps if we read
+σπερμα, της θειας φρενος! πεφ. the sense will be improved.
+
+[19] The construction is thus laid down by Elmsley: παλαι γαρ ωδινουσα
+[περι tôn aphig. ps. et. ei. n. [autôn] genêsetai]. He remarks that νοστος
+often means "arrival," in the tragedians.
+
+[20] See Matthiæ. I should, however, prefer παις for που, with Elmsley.
+
+[21] κατα is understood, as in Thucyd. v. 67. ELMSLEY.
+
+[22] See Alcest. 662, Iph. Taur. 245, and Elmsley's note on this passage.
+
+[23] γυμνος, _expeditus_. As in agriculture it is applied to the husbandman
+who casts off his upper garment, so also in war it simply denotes being
+without armor.
+
+[24] κευθειν.
+
+[25] I have corrected κελευσμασιν Αργους, with Reiske and Dindorf.
+
+[26] I have adopted Dindorf's correction, ‛ησσονες παρ' εμοι θεοι
+φανουνται.
+
+[27] i.e. the last, says Brodæus. But Elmsley prefers taking it for the
+νουμηνια or Kalends, with Musgrave.
+
+[28] δορος, which is often used to signify _the fight_, is here somewhat
+boldly put for the arrangement of the battle.
+
+[29] Cf. Æsch. Soph. c. Th. 14 sqq. Elmsley's notes on the whole of this
+spirited passage deserve to be consulted.
+
+[30] κρατουντα can not be used passively. κλαιοντα is the conjecture of
+Orelli, approved by Dindorf. I have expressed the sense, not the text.
+
+[31] See Musgrave's note (apud Dindorf). Tyrwhitt considers all the
+dramatis personæ wrongly assigned.
+
+[32] Ironically spoken.
+
+[33] There seems to be something wrong here.
+
+[34] See Matthiæ, who explains it: "_me et supplicem_, qui mortem
+deprecetur, _et fortem_, qui mortem contemnat, _dicere licet_."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *       *
+
+IPHIGENIA IN AULIS.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+PERSONS REPRESENTED.
+
+  AGAMEMNON.
+  OLD MAN.
+  MENELAUS.
+  ACHILLES.
+  MESSENGER.
+  ANOTHER MESSENGER.
+  IPHIGENIA.
+  CLYTÆMNESTRA.
+  CHORUS.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE ARGUMENT.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+When the Greeks were detained at Aulis by stress of weather, Calchas
+declared that they would never reach Troy unless the daughter of Agamemnon,
+Iphigenia, was sacrificed to Diana. Agamemnon sent for his daughter with
+this view, but repenting, he dispatched a messenger to prevent Clytæmnestra
+sending her. The messenger being intercepted by Menelaus, an altercation
+between the brother chieftains arose, during which Iphigenia, who had been
+tempted with the expectation of being wedded to Achilles, arrived with her
+mother. The latter, meeting with Achilles, discovered the deception, and
+Achilles swore to protect her. But Iphigenia, having determined to die
+nobly on behalf of the Greeks, was snatched away by the Goddess, and a stag
+substituted in her place. The Greeks were then enabled to set sail.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+IPHIGENIA IN AULIS.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+AGAMEMNON. Come before this dwelling, O aged man.
+
+OLD MAN. I come. But what new thing dost thou meditate, king Agamemnon?
+
+AG. You shall learn.[1]
+
+OLD M. I hasten. My old age is very sleepless, and sits wakeful upon mine
+eyes.
+
+AG. What star can this be that traverses this way?
+
+OLD M. Sirius, flitting yet midway (between the heavens and the ocean,)[2]
+close to the seven Pleiads.
+
+AG. No longer therefore is there the sound either of birds or of the sea,
+but silence of the winds reigns about this Euripus.
+
+OLD M. But why art thou hastening without the tent, king Agamemnon? But
+still there is silence here by Aulis, and the guards of the fortifications
+are undisturbed. Let us go within.
+
+AG. I envy thee, old man, and I envy that man who has passed through a life
+without danger, unknown, unglorious; but I less envy those in honor.
+
+OLD M. And yet 'tis in this that the glory of life is.
+
+AG. But this very glory is uncertain, for the love of popularity is
+pleasant indeed, but hurts when present. Sometimes the worship of the Gods
+not rightly conducted upturns one's life, and sometimes the many and
+dissatisfied opinions of men harass.
+
+OLD M. I praise not these remarks in a chieftain. O Agamemnon, Atreus did
+not beget thee upon a condition of complete good fortune.[3] But thou needs
+must rejoice and grieve; [in turn,] for thou art a mortal born, and even
+though you wish it not, the will of the Gods will be thus. But thou,
+opening the light of a lamp, art both writing this letter, which thou still
+art carrying in thy hands, and again you blot out the same characters, and
+seal, and loose again, and cast the tablet to the ground, pouring abundant
+tears, and thou lackest naught of the unwonted things that tend to madness.
+Why art thou troubled, why art thou troubled? What new thing, what new
+thing [has happened] concerning thee, O king? Come, communicate discourse
+with me. But thou wilt speak to a good and faithful man, for to thy wife
+Tyndarus sent me once on a time, as a dower-gift, and disinterested
+companion.[4]
+
+AG. To Leda, daughter of Thestias, were born three virgins, Phœbe, and
+Clytæmnestra my spouse, and Helen. Of this latter, the youths of Greece
+that were in the first state of prosperity came as suitors. But terrible
+threats of bloodshed[5] arose against one another, from whoever should not
+obtain the virgin. But the matter was difficult for her father Tyndarus,
+whether to give, or not to give [her in marriage,] and how he might best
+deal with the circumstances, when this occurred to him; that the suitors
+should join oaths and plight right hands with one another, and over
+burnt-offerings should enter into treaty, and bind themselves by this oath,
+"Of whomsoever the daughter of Tyndarus shall become wife, that they will
+join to assist him, if any one should depart from his house taking [her]
+with him, and excluding the possessor from his bed, and that they will make
+an expedition in arms, and sack the city [of the ravisher,] Greek or
+barbarian alike." But after they had pledged themselves, the old man
+Tyndarus somehow cleverly overreached them by a cunning plan. He permits
+his daughter to choose one of the suitors, toward whom the friendly gales
+of Venus might impel her. But she chose (whom would she had never taken!)
+Menelaus. And he who, according to the story told by men, once judged the
+Goddesses, coming from Phrygia to Lacedæmon, flowered in the vesture of his
+garments, and glittering with gold, barbarian finery, loving Helen who
+loved him, he stole and bore her away to the bull-stalls of Ida, having
+found Menelaus abroad. But he, goaded hastily[6] through Greece, calls to
+witness the old oath given to Tyndarus, that it behooves to assist the
+aggrieved. Henceforth the Greeks hastening with the spear, having taken
+their arms, come to this Aulis with its narrow straits, with ships and
+shields together, and accoutred with many horses and chariots. And they
+chose me general of the host, out of regard for Menelaus, being his brother
+forsooth. And would that some other than I had obtained the dignity. But
+when the army was assembled and levied, we sat, having no power of sailing,
+at Aulis. But Calchas the seer proclaimed to us, being at a loss, that we
+should sacrifice Iphigenia, whom I begat, to Diana, who inhabits this
+place, and that if we sacrificed her, we should have both our voyage, and
+the sacking of Troy, but that this should not befall us if we did not
+sacrifice her. But I hearing this in rousing proclamation, bade Talthybius
+dismiss the whole army, as I should never have the heart to slay my
+daughter. Upon this, indeed, my brother, alleging every kind of reasoning,
+persuaded me to dare the dreadful deed, and having written in the folds of
+a letter, I sent word to my wife to send her daughter as if to be married
+to Achilles, both enlarging on the dignity of the man, and asserting that
+he would not sail with the Greeks, unless a wife for him from among us
+should come to Phthia. For I had this means of persuading my wife, having
+made up a pretended match for the virgin. But we alone of the Greeks know
+how these matters are, Calchas, Ulysses, and Nestor. But the things which I
+then determined not well, I am now differently writing so as to be well, in
+this letter, which by the shadow of night thou beheldest me opening and
+closing, old man. But come, go thou, taking these letters, to Argos. But as
+to what the letter conceals in its folds, I will tell thee in words all
+that is written therein; for thou art faithful to my wife and house.
+
+OLD M. Speak, and tell me, that with my tongue I may also say what agrees
+with your letter.
+
+AG. (reading) "I send to thee, O germ of Leda, besides[7] my former
+dispatches, not to send thy daughter to the bay-like wing of Eubœa,[8]
+waveless Aulis. For we will delay the bridals of our daughter till another
+season."
+
+OLD M. And how will not Achilles raise up his temper against thee and thy
+wife, showing great wrath at failing of his spouse? This also is terrible.
+Show what thou meanest.
+
+AG. Achilles, furnishing the pretext, not the reality, knows not these
+nuptials, nor what we are doing; nor that I have professed to give my
+daughter into the nuptial chain of his arms by marriage.[9]
+
+OLD M. Thou venturest terrible things, king Agamemnon, who, having promised
+thy daughter as wife to the son of the Goddess, dost lead her as a
+sacrifice on behalf of the Greeks.
+
+AG. Ah me! I was out of my senses. Alas! And I am falling into calamity.
+But go, plying thy foot, yielding naught to old age.
+
+OLD M. I hasten, O king.
+
+AG. Do not thou either sit down by the woody fountains, nor repose in
+sleep.
+
+OLD M. Speak good words.
+
+AG. But every where as you pass the double track, look about, watching lest
+there escape thee a chariot passing with swift wheels, bearing my daughter
+hither to the ships of the Greeks.
+
+OLD M. This shall be.
+
+AG. And go out of the gates[10] quickly,† for if you meet with the
+procession,† again go forth, shake the reins, going to the temples reared
+by the Cyclops.
+
+OLD M. But tell me, how, saying this, I shall obtain belief from thy
+daughter and wife.
+
+AG. Preserve the seal, this which thou bearest on this letter. Go: morn,
+already dawning forth this light, grows white, and the fire of the sun's
+four steeds. Aid me in my toils. But no one of mortals is prosperous or
+blest to the last, for none hath yet been born free from pain.
+
+CHORUS. I came to the sands of the shore of marine Aulis, having sailed
+through the waves of Euripus, quitting Chalcis with its narrow strait, my
+city, the nurse of the sea-neighboring waters[11] of renowned Arethusa, in
+order that I might behold the army of the Greeks, and the ship-conveying
+oars of the Grecian youths, whom against Troy in a thousand ships of fir,
+our husbands say that yellow-haired Menelaus and Agamemnon of noble birth,
+are leading in quest of Helen,[12] whom the herdsman Paris bore from
+reed-nourishing Eurotas, a gift of Venus, when at the fountain dews Venus
+held contest, contest respecting beauty with Juno and Pallas. But I came
+swiftly through the wood of Diana with its many sacrifices, making my cheek
+red with youthful modesty, wishing to behold the defense of the shield, and
+the arm-bearing tents[13] of the Greeks, and the crowd of steeds. But I saw
+the two Ajaces companions, the son of Oileus, and the son of Telamon, the
+glory of Salamis, and Protesilaus and Palamedes, whom the daughter of
+Neptune bore, diverting themselves[14] with the complicated figures of
+draughts, and Diomede rejoicing in the pleasures of the disk, and by them
+Merione, the blossom of Mars, a marvel to mortals, and the son of Laertes
+from the mountains of the isle, and with them Nireus, fairest of the
+Greeks, and Achilles, tempest-like in the course, fleet as the winds, whom
+Thetis bore, and Chiron trained up, I beheld him on the shore, coursing in
+arms along the shingles. And he toiled through a contest of feet, running
+against a chariot of four steeds for victory. But the charioteer cried out,
+Eumelus, the grandson of Pheres,[15] whose most beauteous steeds I beheld,
+decked out with gold-tricked bits, hurried on by the lash, the middle ones
+in yoke dappled with white-spotted hair, but those outside, in loose
+harness, running contrariwise in the bendings of the course, bays, with
+dappled skins under their legs with solid hoofs. Close by which Pelides was
+running in arms, by the orb and wheels of the chariot.[16] And I came to
+the multitude of ships, a sight not to be described, that I might satiate
+the sight of my woman's eyes, a sweet delight. And at the right horn [of
+the fleet] was the Phthiotic army of the Myrmidons, with fifty valiant
+ships. And in golden effigies the Nereid Goddesses stood on the summit of
+the poops, the standard of the host of Achilles. And next to these there
+stood the Argive ships, with equal number of oars, of which [Euryalus] the
+grandson of Mecisteus was general, whom his father Talaus trains up, and
+Sthenelus son of Capaneus. But [Acamas] son of Theseus, leading sixty ships
+from Athens, kept station, having the Goddess Pallas placed[17] in her
+equestrian winged chariot, a prosperous sign to sailors. But I beheld the
+armament of the Bœotians, fifty sea-bound ships, with signs at the
+figure-heads, and their sign was Cadmus, holding a golden dragon, at the
+beaks of the ships, and Leitus the earth-born was leader of the naval
+armament, and [I beheld] those from the Phocian land. But the son of
+Oileus, leading an equal number of Locrian ships, came, having left the
+Thronian city. But from Cyclopian Mycenæ the son of Atreus sent the
+assembled mariners of a hundred ships. And with him was Adrastus, as friend
+with friend, in order that Greece might wreak vengeance on those who fled
+their homes, for the sake of barbarian nuptials. But from Pylos we beheld
+on the poops of Gerenian Nestor, a sign bull-footed to view, his neighbor
+Alpheus. But there were twelve beaks of Ænian ships, which king Gyneus led,
+and near these again the chieftains of Elis, whom all the people named
+Epeians, and o'er these Eurytus had power. But the white-oared Taphian host
+* * * * led,[18] which Meges ruled, the offspring of Phyleus, leaving the
+island Echinades, inaccessible to sailors. And Ajax, the foster-child of
+Salamis, joined the right horn to the left, to which he was stationed
+nearest, joining them with his furthermost ships, with twelve most swift
+vessels, as I heard, and beheld the naval people. To which if any one add
+the barbarian barks, * * * * it will not obtain a return. * * * * Where I
+beheld the naval expedition, but hearing other things at home I preserve
+remembrance of the assembled army.
+
+OLD M. Menelaus, thou art daring dreadful deeds thou shouldst not dare.
+
+MENELAUS. Away with thee! thou art too faithful to thy masters.
+
+OLD M. An honorable rebuke thou hast rebuked me with!
+
+MEN. To thy cost shall it be, if thou dost that thou shouldst not do.
+
+OLD M. You have no right to open the letter which I was carrying.
+
+MEN. Nor shouldst thou bear ills to all the Greeks.
+
+OLD M. Contest this point with others, but give up this [letter] to me.
+
+MEN. I will not let it go.
+
+OLD M. Nor will I let it go.
+
+MEN. Then quickly with my sceptre will I make thine head bloody.
+
+OLD M. But glorious it is to die for one's masters.
+
+MEN. Let go. Being a slave, thou speakest too many words.
+
+OLD M. O master, I am wronged, and this man, having snatched thy letter out
+of my hands, O Agamemnon, is unwilling to act rightly.
+
+MEN. Ah! what is this tumult and disorder of words?
+
+OLD M. My words, not his, are fittest to speak.[19]
+
+AG. But wherefore, Menelaus, dost thou come to strife with this man and art
+dragging him by force?
+
+MEN. Look at me, that I may take this commencement of my speech.
+
+AG. What, shall I through fear not open mine eyelids, being born of Atreus?
+
+MEN. Seest thou this letter, the minister of writings most vile?
+
+AG. I see it, and do thou first let it go from thy hands.
+
+MEN. Not, at least, before I show to the Greeks what is written therein.
+
+AG. What, knowest thou what 'tis unseasonable thou shouldst know, having
+broken the seal?
+
+MEN. Ay, so as to pain thee, having unfolded the ills thou hast wrought
+privily.
+
+AG. But where didst thou obtain it? O Gods, for thy shameless heart!
+
+MEN. Expecting thy daughter from Argos, whether she will come to the army.
+
+AG. What behooves thee to keep watch upon my affairs? Is not this the act
+of a shameless man?
+
+MEN. Because the will [to do so] teased me, and I am not born thy slave.
+
+AG. Is it not dreadful? Shall I not be suffered to be master of my own
+family?
+
+MEN. For thou thinkest inconsistently, now one thing, before another,
+another thing presently.
+
+AG. Well hast thou talked evil. Hateful is a too clever tongue.[20]
+
+MEN. But an unstable mind is an unjust thing to possess, and not clear[21]
+for friends. I wish to expostulate with thee, but do not thou in wrath turn
+away from the truth, nor will I speak overlong. Thou knowest when thou wast
+making interest to be leader of the Greeks against Troy--in seeming indeed
+not wishing it, but wishing it in will--how humble thou wast, taking hold
+of every right hand, and keeping open doors to any of the people that
+wished, and giving audience to all in turn even if one wished it not,
+seeking by manners to purchase popularity among the multitude. But when you
+obtained the power, changing to different manners, you were no longer the
+same friend as before to your old friends, difficult of access,[22] and
+rarely within doors. But it behooves not a man who has met with great
+fortune to change his manners, but then chiefly to be firm toward his
+friends, when he is best able to benefit them, being prosperous. I have
+first gone over these charges against thee, in which I first found thee
+base. But when thou afterward camest into Aulis and to the army of all the
+Greeks, thou wast naught, but wast in stupefaction at the fortune which
+then befell us from the Gods, lacking a favorable breeze for the journey.
+But the Greeks demanded that you should dismiss the ships, and not toil
+vainly at Aulis. But how cheerless and distressed a countenance you wore,
+because you were not able to land your army at Priam's land, having a
+thousand ships under command.[23] And thou besoughtest me, "What shall I
+do?" "But what resource shall I find from whence?" so that thou mightest
+not lose an ill renown, being deprived of the command. And then, when
+Calchas o'er the victims said that thou must sacrifice thy daughter to
+Diana, and that there would [then] be means of sailing for the Greeks,
+delighted in heart, you gladly promised to sacrifice your child, and of
+your own accord, not by compulsion--do not say so--you send to your wife to
+convoy your daughter hither, on a pretext of being wedded to Achilles. And
+then changing [your mind] you are caught altering to other writings, to the
+effect that you will not now be the slayer of your daughter. Very pretty,
+forsooth! This is the same air which heard these very protestations from
+thee. But innumerable men experience this in their affairs; they persevere
+in labor when in power,[24] and then make a bad result, sometimes through
+the foolish mind of the citizens, but sometimes with reason, themselves
+becoming incapable of preserving the state, I indeed chiefly groan for
+hapless Greece, who, wishing to work some doughty deed against these
+good-for-nothing barbarians, will let them, laughing at us, slip through
+her hands, on account of thee and thy daughter. I would not make any one
+ruler of the land for the sake of necessity,[25] nor chieftain of armed
+men. It behooves the general of the state to possess sense, for every man
+is a ruler who possesses sense.
+
+CHOR. 'Tis dreadful for words and strife to happen between brothers, when
+they fall into dispute.
+
+AG. I wish to address thee in evil terms, but mildly,[26] in brief, not
+uplifting mine eyelids too much aloft through insolence, but moderately, as
+being my brother. For a good man is wont to show respect [to others.] Tell
+me, why dost thou burst forth thus violently, having thy face suffused with
+rage? Who wrongs thee? What lackest thou? Wouldst fain gain a good wife! I
+can not supply thee, for thou didst ill rule over the one you possessed.
+Must I therefore pay the penalty of your mismanagement, who have made no
+mistake? Or does my ambition annoy thee? But wouldst thou fain hold in
+thine arms a fair woman, forgetting discretion and honor? Evil pleasures
+belong to an evil man. But if I, having before resolved ill, have changed
+to good counsel, am I mad? Rather art thou [mad,] who, having lost a bad
+wife, desirest to recover her, when God has well prospered thy fortune. The
+nuptial-craving suitors in their folly swore the oath to Tyndarus, but
+hope, I ween, was their God, and wrought this more than thyself and thy
+strength. Whom taking[27] make thou the expedition, but I think thou wilt
+know [that it is] through the folly of their hearts, for the divinity is
+not ignorant, but is capable of discerning oaths ill plighted and perforce.
+But I will not slay my children, so that thy state will in justice be well,
+revenge upon the worst of wives, but nights and days will waste me away in
+tears, having wrought lawless, unjust deeds against the children whom I
+begat. These words are briefly spoken to thee, both plain and easy, but if
+thou art unwilling to be wise, I will arrange my own affairs well.
+
+CHOR. These words are different from those before spoken, but they are to a
+good effect, that the children be spared.
+
+MEN. Alas! alas! have I then wretched no friends?
+
+AG. [Yes, you have,] at least, if you do not wish to ruin your friends.
+
+MEN. But how will you show that you are born of the same sire with me?
+
+AG. I am born to be wise with you, not foolish.[28]
+
+MEN. It behooves friends to grieve in common with friends.
+
+AG. Admonish me by well doing, not by paining me.
+
+MEN. Dost thou not then think fit to toil through this with Greece?
+
+AG. But Greece, with thee, is sickening through some deity.
+
+MEN. Vaunt then on thy sceptre, having betrayed thy brother. But I will
+seek some other schemes, and other friends.
+
+[_Enter a Messenger_.[29]]
+
+MESSENGER. O Agamemnon, king of all the Greeks, I am come, bringing thy
+daughter to thee, whom thou didst name Iphigenia in thy palace. But her
+mother follows, the person of thy [wife] Clytæmnestra, and the boy Orestes,
+that thou mayest be pleased at the sight, being away from thine home a long
+season. But as they have come a long way, they and their mares are
+refreshing their female feet by the fair-flowing fountain, and we let loose
+the mares in a grassy meadow, that they might taste fodder. But I am come
+before them to prepare you [for their reception,] for a swift report passed
+through the army, that thy daughter had arrived. And all the multitude
+comes out hastily to the spectacle, that they may behold thy child. For
+prosperous men are renowned and conspicuous among all mortals. And they
+say, "Is there a marriage on foot? or what is going on?" Or, "Has king
+Agamemnon, having a yearning after his daughter, brought his child hither?"
+But from some you would have heard this: "They are initiating[30] the
+damsel in honor of Artemis, queen of Aulis, who will marry her." But come,
+get ready the baskets,[31] which come next, crown thine head. And do thou,
+king Menelaus, prepare a nuptial lay, and through the house let the pipe
+sound and let there be noise of feet, for this day comes blessed upon the
+virgin.
+
+AG. I commend [your words,] but go thou within the house, and it shall be
+well, as fortune takes its course. Alas! what shall I wretched say? Whence
+shall I begin? Into what fetters of necessity have I fallen! Fortune has
+upturned me, so as to become far too clever for my cleverness. But lowness
+of birth has some advantage thus. For such persons are at liberty to weep,
+and speak unhappy words, but to him that is of noble birth, all these
+things belong. We have our dignity as ruler of our life, and are slaves to
+the multitude. For I am ashamed indeed to let fall the tear, yet again
+wretched am I ashamed not to weep, having come into the greatest
+calamities. Well! what shall I say to my wife? How shall I receive her?
+What manner of countenance shall I present? And truly she hath undone me,
+coming uncalled amidst the ills which before possessed me. And with reason
+did she follow her daughter, being about to deck her as a bride,[32] and to
+perform the dearest offices, where she will find us base. But for this
+hapless virgin--why [call her] virgin? Hades, as it seems, will speedily
+attend on her nuptials,--how do I pity her! For I think that she will
+beseech me thus: O father, wilt thou slay me? Such a wedding mayest thou
+thyself wed, and whosoever is a friend to thee. But Orestes being present
+will cry out knowingly words not knowing, for he is yet an infant. Alas!
+how has Priam's son, Paris, undone me by wedding the nuptials of Paris, who
+has wrought this!
+
+CHOR. And I also pity her, as it becomes a stranger woman to moan for the
+misfortune of her lords.
+
+MEN. Brother, give me thy right hand to touch.
+
+AG. I give it, for thine is the power, but I am wretched.
+
+MEN. I swear by Pelops, who was called the sire of my father and thine, and
+my father Atreus, that I indeed will tell thee plainly from my heart, and
+not any thing out of contrivance, but only what I think. I, beholding thee
+letting fall the tear from thine eyes, pitied thee, and myself let fall [a
+tear] for thee in return. And I have changed[33] my old determinations, not
+being wrath against you, but I will place myself in your present situation,
+and I recommend you neither to slay your child, nor to take my part; for it
+is not just that thou shouldst groan, but my affairs be in a pleasant
+state, and that thine should die, but mine behold the light. For what do I
+wish? Might I not obtain another choice alliance, if I crave nuptials? But,
+having undone my brother, whom it least behooved me, shall I receive Helen,
+an evil in place of a good? I was foolish and young, before that, viewing
+the matter closely, I saw what it is to beget children. Besides, pity came
+over me, considering our connection, for the hapless girl, who is about to
+be sacrificed because of my marriage. But what has thy virgin [daughter] to
+do with Helen? Let the army go, being disbanded from Aulis. But cease thou
+bedewing thine eyes with tears, my brother, and exciting me to tears. But
+if I have any concern in the oracle respecting thy daughter, let me have
+none: to thee I yield my part. But I have come to a change[34] from
+terrible resolutions. I have experienced[35] what was meet. I have changed
+to regard him who is sprung from a common source. Such changes belong not
+to a bad man, [viz.] to follow the best always.
+
+CHOR. Thou hast spoken generous words, and becoming Tantalus the son of
+Jove. Thou disgracest not thine ancestors.
+
+AG. I commend thee, Menelaus, in that, contrary to my expectation, you have
+subjoined these words, rightly, and worthily of thee.
+
+MEN. A certain disturbance[36] between brothers arises on account of love,
+and avarice in their houses. I abhor such a relationship, mutually sore.
+
+AG. But [consider,] for we are come into circumstances that render it
+necessary to accomplish the bloody slaughter of my daughter.
+
+MEN. How? Who will compel thee to slay thy child?
+
+AG. The whole assembly of the armament of the Greeks.
+
+MEN. Not so, if at least thou dismiss it back to Argos.
+
+AG. In this matter I might escape discovery, but in that I can not.[37]
+
+MEN. What? One should not too much fear the multitude.
+
+AG. Calchas will proclaim his prophecy to the army of the Greeks.
+
+MEN. Not if he die first--and this is easy.
+
+AG. The whole race of seers is an ambitious ill.
+
+MEN. And in naught good or profitable, when at hand.[38]
+
+AG. But dost thou not fear that which occurs to me?
+
+MEN. How can I understand the word you say not?
+
+AG. The son of Sisyphus knows all these matters.
+
+MEN. It can not be that Orestes can pain thee and me.
+
+AG. He is ever changeable, and with the multitude.
+
+MEN. He is indeed possessed with the passion for popularity, a dreadful
+evil.
+
+AG. Do you not then think that he, standing in the midst of the Greeks,
+will tell the oracles which Calchas pronounced, and of me, that I promised
+to offer a sacrifice to Diana, and then break my word. With which [words]
+having carried away the army, he will bid the Greeks slay thee and me, and
+sacrifice the damsel. And if I flee to Argos, they will come and ravage and
+raze the land, Cyclopean walls and all. Such are my troubles. O unhappy me!
+How, by the Gods, am I at a loss in these present matters! Take care of one
+thing for me, Menelaus, going through the army, that Clytæmnestra may not
+learn these matters, before I take and offer my daughter to Hades, that I
+may fare ill with as few tears as possible. But do ye, O stranger women,
+preserve silence.
+
+CHORUS. Blest are they who share the nuptial bed of the Goddess
+Aphrodite,[39] when she is moderate, and with modesty, obtaining a calm
+from the maddening stings, when Love with his golden locks stretches his
+twin bow of graces, the one for a prosperous fate, the other for the
+upturning of life. I deprecate this [bow,] O fairest Venus, from our beds,
+but may mine be a moderate grace, and holy endearments, and may I share
+Aphrodite, but reject her when excessive. But the natures of mortals are
+different, and their manners are different,[40] but that which is clearly
+good is ever plain. And the education which trains[41] [men] up, conduces
+greatly to virtue, for to have reverence is wisdom, and it possesses an
+equivalent advantage, viz. to perceive what is fitting by one's mind, where
+report bears unwasting glory to life.[42] 'Tis a great thing to hunt for
+[the praise of] virtue, among women indeed, by a secret affection,[43] but
+among men, on the other hand, honor being inherent,[44] [bears that praise,
+honor,] which increases a state to an incalculable extent.[45]
+
+Thou earnest, O Paris, †where thou wast trained up a shepherd with the
+white heifers of Ida, trilling a barbarian lay, breathing an imitation of
+the Phrygian pipes of Olympus on a reed. And the cows with their
+well-filled udders browsed, when the judgment of the Goddesses drove thee
+mad, which sends thee into Greece,† before the ivory-decked palaces, thou
+who didst strike love into the eyes of Helen which were upon thee, and
+thyself wast fluttered with love. Whence strife, strife brings Greece
+against the bulwarks of Troy with spears and ships.† Alas! alas! great are
+the fortunes of the great.[46] Behold the king's daughter, Iphigenia, my
+queen, and Clytæmnestra, daughter of Tyndarus, how are they sprung from the
+great, and to what suitable fortune they are come. The powerful, in sooth,
+and the wealthy, are Gods to those of mortals who are unblest. [Let us
+stand still, ye children of Chalcis, let us receive the queen from her
+chariot to the earth, not unsteadily, but gently with the soft attention of
+our hands, lest the renowned daughter of Agamemnon, newly coming to me, be
+alarmed, nor let us, as strangers to strangers, cause disturbance or fear
+to the Argive ladies.[47]]
+
+[_Enter_ Clytæmnestra, IPHIGENIA, _and probably_ ORESTES _in a chariot.
+They descend from it, while the Chorus make obeisance_.]
+
+CLY. I regard both your kindness and your favorable words as a good omen,
+and I have some hope that I am here as escort [of my daughter] to honorable
+nuptials. But take out of my chariot the dower-gifts which I bear for my
+girl, and send them carefully into the house. And do thou, my child, quit
+the horse-chariot, setting [carefully] thy foot delicate and at the same
+time tender. But you,[48] maidens, receive her in your arms, and lift her
+from the chariot. And let some one give me the firm support of his hand,
+that I may beseemingly leave the chariot-seat. But do some[49] of you stand
+in front of the horses' yoke, for the uncontrolled eye of horses is
+timorous, and take this boy, the son of Agamemnon, Orestes, for he is still
+an infant. Child! dost sleep, overcome by the ride? Wake up happily for thy
+sisters' nuptials. For thou thyself being noble shalt obtain relationship
+with a good man, the God-like son of the daughter of Nereus. [[50]Next come
+thou close to my foot, O daughter, to thy mother, Iphigenia, and standing
+near, show these strangers how happy I am, and come hither indeed, and
+address thy dear father.] O thou most great glory to me, king Agamemnon, we
+are come, not disobeying thy bidding.
+
+IPH. O mother, running indeed, (but be thou not angry,) I will apply my
+breast to my father's breast. [[51]But I wish, rushing to embrace thy
+breast, O father, after a long season. For I long for thy face. But do not
+be angry.]
+
+CLY. But, O my child, enjoy [thine embraces,] but thou wert ever most fond
+of thy father, of all the children I bore.
+
+IPH. O father, joyous do I behold thee after a long season.
+
+AG. And I, thy father, [joyously behold] thee. Thou speakest thus equally
+in respect to both.
+
+IPH. Hail! But well hast thou done in bringing me to thee, O father.
+
+AG. I know not how I shall say, yet not say so, my child.
+
+IPH. Ah! how uneasily dost thou regard me, joyfully beholding me [before.]
+
+AG. A king and general has many cares.
+
+IPH. Give thyself up to me now, and turn not thyself to cares.
+
+AG. But I am altogether concerned with thee, and on no other subject.
+
+IPH. Relax thy brow, and open thy eyes in joy.
+
+AG. See, I rejoice as I rejoice, at seeing thee, child.[52]
+
+IPH. And then dost let fall a tear from thine eyes?
+
+AG. For long to us is the coming absence.
+
+IPH. I know not what you mean, I know not, dearest father mine.
+
+AG. Speaking sensibly, thou movest me the more to pity.
+
+IPH. I will speak foolishly, if I so may rejoice you.
+
+AG. Alas! I can not keep silence, but I commend thee.
+
+IPH. Remain, O father, in the house with thy children,
+
+AG. I fain would, but not having what I would, I am pained.
+
+IPH. Perish war and the ills of Menelaus![53]
+
+AG. What has undone me will first undo others.
+
+IPH. How long a time wast thou absent in the recesses of Aulis!
+
+AG. And now also there is something hinders me from sending on the army.
+
+IPH. Where say they that the Phrygians dwell, father?
+
+AG. Where would that Paris, Priam's son, had never dwelt.
+
+IPH. And dost thou go a long distance, O father, when thou leavest me?
+
+AG. Thou art come, my daughter, to the same state with thy father.[54]
+
+IPH. Alas! would that it were fitting me and thee to take me with thee as
+thy fellow-sailor.
+
+AG. But there is yet a sailing for thee, where thou wilt remember thy
+father.
+
+IPH. Shall I go, sailing with my mother, or alone?
+
+AG. Alone, apart from thy father and mother.
+
+IPH. What, art thou going to make me dwell in other houses, father?
+
+AG. Cease. It is not proper for girls to know these matters.
+
+IPH. Hasten back from Phrygia, do, my father, having settled matters well
+there.
+
+AG. It first behooves me to offer a certain sacrifice here.
+
+IPH. But it is with the priests that thou shouldst consider sacred matters.
+
+AG. [Yet] shalt thou know it, for thou wilt stand round the altar.
+
+IPH. What, shall we stand in chorus round the altar, my father?[55]
+
+AG. I deem thee happier than myself, for that thou know-est nothing. But go
+within the house, that the girls may behold thee,[56] having given me a sad
+kiss and thy right hand, being about to dwell a long time away from thy
+sire. O bosom and cheeks, O yellow tresses, how has the city of the
+Phrygians proved a burden to us, and Helen! I cease my words, for swift
+does the drop trickle from mine eyes when I touch thee. Go into the house.
+But I, I crave thy pardon, (_to Clytæmnestra_,) daughter of Leda, if I
+showed too much feeling, being about to bestow my daughter on Achilles. For
+the departure [of a girl] is a happy one, but nevertheless it pains the
+parents, when a father, who has toiled much, delivers up his children to
+another home.
+
+CLY. I am not so insensible--but think thou that I shall experience the
+same feelings, (so that I should not chide thee,) when I lead forth my girl
+with nuptial rejoicings, but custom wears away these thoughts in course of
+time. I know, however, the name of him to whom thou hast promised thy
+daughter, but I would fain know of what race, and whence [he is.]
+
+AG. Ægina was the daughter of her father Asopus.
+
+CLY. And who of mortals or of Gods wedded her?
+
+AG. Jove, and she gave birth to Æacus, prince of Œnone.
+
+CLY. But what son obtained the house of Æacus?
+
+AG. Peleus, and Peleus obtained the daughter of Nereus.
+
+CLY. By the gift of the God, or taking her in spite of the Gods?
+
+AG. Jove acted as a sponsor, and bestowed her, having the power.[57]
+
+CLY. And where does he wed her? In the wave of the sea?
+
+AG. Where Chiron dwells at the sacred foot of Pelion.
+
+CLY. Where they say that the race of Centaurs dwells?
+
+AG. Here the Gods celebrated the nuptial feast of Peleus.
+
+CLY. But did Thetis, or his father, train up Achilles?
+
+AG. Chiron, that he might not learn the manners of evil mortals.
+
+CLY. Hah! wise was the instructor, and wiser he who intrusted him.
+
+AG. Such a man will be the husband of thy child.
+
+CLY. Not to be found fault with. But what city in Greece does he inhabit?
+
+AG. Near the river Apidanus in the confines of Phthia.
+
+CLY. Thither will he lead thy virgin [daughter] and mine.
+
+AG. This shall be the care of him, her possessor.
+
+CLY. And may the pair be happy; but on what day will he wed her?
+
+AG. When the prospering orb of the moon comes round.
+
+CLY. But hast thou already sacrificed the first offerings for thy daughter
+to the Goddess?
+
+AG. I am about to do so. In this matter we are now engaged.
+
+CLY. And wilt thou then celebrate a wedding-feast afterward?
+
+AG. [Ay,] having sacrificed such offerings as it behooves me to sacrifice
+to the Gods.
+
+CLY. But where shall we set out a banquet for the women?
+
+AG. Here, by the fair-pooped ships of the Greeks.
+
+CLY. Well, and poorly,[58] forsooth! but may it nevertheless turn out well.
+
+AG. Do then thou knowest what, O lady, and obey me.
+
+CLY. In what? for I am accustomed to obey thee.
+
+AG. We indeed in this place, where the bridegroom is--
+
+CLY. Will do what without the mother, [of those things] which it behooves
+me to do?
+
+AG. --will bestow your daughter among the Greeks.
+
+CLY. But where must I be in the mean time?
+
+AG. Go to Argos, and take care of your virgins.
+
+CLY. Leaving my child? And who will bear the [nuptial] torch?
+
+AG. I will furnish the light that becomes the nuptials.
+
+CLY. The custom is not thus, but you think these matters trifles.
+
+AG. It is not proper that thou shouldst mingle in the crowd of the army.
+
+CLY. It is proper that I, the mother, should bestow at least my own
+daughter.
+
+AG. And it [is proper] that the damsels at home should not be alone.
+
+CLY. They are well guarded in their close chambers.
+
+AG. Obey me.
+
+CLY. [No,] by the Argive Goddess queen. But go you, and attend to matters
+abroad, but I [will mind] the affairs at home, as to the things which
+should be present to virgins at their wedding.[59]
+
+AG. Alas! In vain have I toiled,[60] and have been frustrated in my hope,
+wishing to send my wife out of my sight. But I am using stratagems, and
+finding contrivances against those I best love, overcome at all points. But
+nevertheless with the prophet Calchas I will go and ask the pleasure of the
+Goddess, not fortunate for me, the trouble of Greece.[61] But it behooves a
+wise man either to support a useful and good wife in his house or not to
+marry at all.[62]
+
+CHORUS. The assembly of the Grecian army will come to Simois, and to the
+silver eddies, both with ships and with arms, to Ilium, and to the Phœbeian
+plain of Troy, where I hear that Cassandra, adorned with a green-blossoming
+crown of laurel, lets loose her yellow locks, when the prophetic influence
+of the Gods breathes upon her. And the Trojans will stand upon the towers
+of Troy and around its walls, when brazen-shielded Mars, borne over the sea
+in fair-prowed ships, approaches the beds of Simois by rowing, seeking to
+bear away Helen, [the sister] of the twain sons of Jove in heaven, into the
+land of Greece, by the war-toiling shields and spears of the Greeks. But
+having surrounded Pergamus,[63] the city of the Phrygians, around its
+towers of stone, with bloody Mars, having torn off the heads [of the
+citizens] cut from their necks, having completely ravaged the city of Troy,
+he will make the daughters and wife of Priam shed many tears. But Helen,
+the daughter of Jove, will sit† in sad lamentation, having left her
+husband. Never upon me or upon my children's children may this expectation
+come, such as the wealthy Lydian and Phrygian wives possess while at their
+spinning, conversing thus with each other. Who,[64] dragging out my
+fair-haired tresses, will choose me as his spoil despite my tears, while my
+country is perishing? Through thee [forsooth,] the offspring of the
+long-necked swan, if indeed the report is true, that Leda † met with[65] a
+winged bird, when the body of Jove was transformed, and then in the tablets
+of the muses fables spread these reports among men, inopportunely, and in
+vain.
+
+[_Enter_ ACHILLES.]
+
+ACHILLES. Where about here is the general of the Greeks? Who of the
+servants will tell him that Achilles, the son of Peleus, is seeking him at
+the gates? For we do not remain by the Euripus in equal condition; for some
+of us being unyoked in nuptials, having left our solitary homes, sit here
+upon the shore, but others, having wives and children:[66] so violent a
+passion for this expedition has fallen upon Greece, not without the will of
+the Gods. It is therefore right that I should speak of what concerns me,
+and whoever else wishes will himself speak for himself. For leaving the
+Pharsalian land, and Peleus, I am waiting for these light gales of
+Euripus,[67] restraining the Myrmidons, who are continually pressing me,
+and saying, "Achilles, why tarry we? what manner of time must the armament
+against Troy yet measure out? At any rate act, if you are going to do any
+thing, or lead the army home, not abiding the delays of the Atrides."
+
+CLY. O son of the Goddess, daughter of Nereus, hearing from within thy
+words, I have come out before the house.
+
+ACH. O hallowed modesty, who can this woman be whom I behold here,
+possessing a fair-seeming form?
+
+CLY. It is no wonder that you know me not, whom you have never seen before,
+but I commend you because you respect modesty.
+
+ACH. But who art thou? And wherefore hast thou come to the assembly of the
+Greeks, a woman to men guarded with shields?
+
+CLY. I am the daughter of Leda, and Clytæmnestra is my name, and my husband
+is king Agamemnon.
+
+ACH. Well hast thou in few words spoken what is seasonable. But it is
+unbecoming for me to converse with women. (_Is going_.)
+
+CLY. Remain, (why dost thou fly?) at least join thy right hand with mine,
+as a happy commencement of betrothal.
+
+ACH. What sayest thou? I [give] thee my right hand? I should be ashamed of
+Agamemnon, if I touched what is not lawful for me.
+
+CLY. It is particularly lawful, since you are going to wed my daughter, O
+son of the sea Goddess, daughter of Nereus.
+
+ACH. What marriage dost thou say? Surprise possesses me, lady, unless,
+being beside yourself, you speak this new thing.
+
+CLY. This is the nature of all people, to be ashamed when they behold new
+friends, and are put in mind of nuptials.
+
+ACH. I never wooed thy daughter, lady, nor has any thing been said to me on
+the subject of marriage by the Atrides.
+
+CLY. What can it be? Do you in turn marvel at my words, for thine are a
+marvel to me.
+
+ACH. Conjecture; these matters are a common subject for conjecture, for
+both of us perhaps are deceived in our words.[68]
+
+CLY. But surely I have suffered terrible things! I am acting as match-maker
+in regard to a marriage that has no existence. I am ashamed of this.
+
+ACH. Perhaps some one has trifled with both me and thee. But pay no
+attention to it, and bear it with indifference.
+
+CLY. Farewell, for I can no longer behold thee with uplifted eyes, having
+appeared as a liar, and suffered unworthy things.
+
+ACH. And this same [farewell] is thine from me. But I will go seek thy
+husband within this house.
+
+[_The_ OLD MAN _appears at the door of the house_.]
+
+OLD M. O stranger, grandson of Æacus, remain. Ho! thee, I say, the son of
+the Goddess, and thee, the daughter of Leda.
+
+ACM. Who is it that calls, partially opening the doors? With what terror he
+calls!
+
+OLD M. A slave. I will not be nice about the title, for fortune allows it
+not.
+
+ACH. Of whom? for thou art not mine. My property and Agamemnon's are
+different.
+
+OLD M. Of this lady who is before the house, the gift of her father
+Tyndarus.
+
+ACH. We are still. Say if thou wantest any thing, for which thou hast
+stopped me.
+
+OLD M. Are ye sure that ye alone stand before these gates?
+
+CLY. Ay, so that you may speak to us only. But come out from the royal
+dwelling.
+
+OLD M. (Coming forward) O fortune, and foresight mine, preserve whom I
+wish.
+
+ACH. These words will do for[69] a future occasion, for they have some
+weight.
+
+CLY. By thy right hand [I beseech thee,] delay not, if thou hast aught to
+say to me.
+
+OLD M. Thou knowest then, being what manner of man, I have been by nature
+well disposed to thee and thy children.
+
+CLY. I know thee as being a faithful servant to my house.
+
+OLD M. And that king Agamemnon received me among thy dowry.
+
+CLY. Thou camest into Argos with us, and thou wast always mine.
+
+OLD M. So it is, and I am well disposed to thee, but less so to thy
+husband.
+
+CLY. Unfold now at least to me what words you are saying.
+
+OLD M. The father who begat her is about to slay thy daughter with his own
+hand.
+
+CLY. How? I deprecate thy words, old man, for thou thinkest not well.
+
+OLD M. Cutting the fair neck of the hapless girl with the sword.
+
+CLY. O wretched me! Is my husband mad?
+
+OLD M. He is in his right mind, save with respect to thee and thy daughter,
+but in this he is not wise.
+
+CLY. Upon what grounds? What maddening fiend impels him?
+
+OLD M. The oracles, as at least Calchas says, in order that the army may be
+able to proceed.
+
+CLY. Whither? Wretched me, and wretched she whom her father is about to
+slay?
+
+OLD M. To the house of Dardanus, that Menelaus may recover Helen.
+
+CLY. To the destruction, then, of Iphigenia, was the return of Helen
+foredoomed?
+
+OLD M. Thou hast the whole story. Her father is going to offer thy daughter
+to Diana.
+
+CLY. What! what pretext had the marriage, that brought me from home?
+
+OLD M. That thou rejoicing mightest bring thy child, as if about to wed her
+to Achilles.
+
+CLY. O daughter, both thou and thy mother are come to meet with
+destruction.
+
+OLD M. Ye twain are suffering sad things, and dreadful things hath
+Agamemnon dared.
+
+CLY. I wretched am undone, and my eyes no longer restrain the tear.
+
+OLD M. For bitter 'tis to mourn, deprived of one's children.
+
+CLY. But whence, old man, sayest thou that thou hast learned and knowest
+these things?
+
+OLD M. I went to bear a letter to thee, in reference to what was before
+written.
+
+CLY. Not allowing, or bidding me to bring my child, that she might die?
+
+OLD M. [It was] that you should not bring her, for your husband then
+thought well.
+
+CLY. And how was it then, that, bearing the letter, thou gavest it not to
+me?
+
+OLD M. Menelaus, who is the cause of these evils, took it from me.
+
+CLY. O child of Nereus' daughter, O son of Peleus, dost hear these things?
+
+ACH. I hear that thou art wretched, and I do not bear my part
+indifferently.
+
+CLY. They will slay my child, having deceived her with thy nuptials.
+
+ACH. I also blame thy husband, nor do I bear it lightly.
+
+CLY. I will not be ashamed to fall down at thy knee, mortal, to one born of
+a Goddess. For wherefore should I make a show of pride? Or what should I
+study more than my children? But, O son of the Goddess, aid me in my
+unhappiness, and her who is called thy wife, vainly indeed, but
+nevertheless, having decked her out, I led her as if to be married, but now
+I lead her to sacrifice, and reproach will come upon thee, who gavest no
+aid. For though thou wast not yoked in nuptials, at least thou wast called
+the beloved husband of the hapless virgin. By thy beard, by thy right hand,
+by thy mother [I beseech] thee, for thy name hath undone me, to whom thou
+shouldst needs give assistance. I have no other altar to fly to, but thy
+knee, nor is any friend near me,[70] but thou hearest the cruel and
+all-daring conduct of Agamemnon. But I a woman, as thou seest, have come to
+a naval host, uncontrolled, and bold for mischief, but useful, when they
+are willing. But if thou wilt venture to stretch thine hand in my behalf,
+we are saved, but if not, we are not saved.
+
+CHOR. A terrible thing it is to be a mother, and it bears a great
+endearment, and one common to all, so as to toil on behalf of their
+children.
+
+ACH. My mind is high-lifted in its thoughts,[71] and knows both how to
+grieve [moderately] in troubles, and to rejoice moderately in high
+prosperity. For the discreet among mortals are such as pass through life
+correctly with wisdom. Now there are certain cases where it is pleasant not
+to be too wise, and also where it is useful to possess wisdom. But I, being
+nurtured [in the dwelling] of a most pious man, Chiron, have learned to
+possess a candid disposition. And I will obey the Atrides, if indeed they
+order well, but when not well, I obey not. But here in Troy showing a free
+nature I will glorify Mars with the spear, as far as I can. But, O thou who
+hast suffered wretchedly at the hands of those dearest, in whatever can be
+done by a youth, I, showing so much pity, will set thee right, and thy
+daughter, having been called my bride, shall never be sacrificed by her
+father, for I will not furnish thy husband with my person to weave
+stratagems upon. For my name, even if he lift not up the sword, will slay
+thy daughter, but thy husband is the cause. But my body is no longer pure,
+if on my account, and because of my marriage, there perish a virgin who has
+gone through sad and unbearable troubles, and has been marvelously and
+undeservedly ill treated. I were the worst man among the Greeks, I were of
+naught (but Menelaus would be among men), not as born from Peleus, but from
+some fiend, if my name acts the murderer for thy husband.[72] By Nereus,
+nurtured in the damp waves, the father of Thetis, who begat me, king
+Agamemnon shall not lay hands on thy daughter, not so much as with a little
+finger, so as to touch her garments. I' faith, Sipylus, a fortress of
+barbarians, whence the [royal] generals trace their descent, shall be
+deemed a city, but the name of Phthia shall nowhere be named. And the seer
+Calchas will to his cost consecrate the sacrificial cakes and lustral
+waters. (But what man is a prophet?) who tells[73] a few things true, (but
+many falsely,) when he has made a hit, but when he fails, is undone. These
+words are not spoken for the sake of my wedding, (ten thousand girls are
+hunting after alliance with me,) but [because] king Agamemnon has been
+guilty of insult toward me. But it behooved him to ask [the use of] my name
+from me, as an enticement for his daughter, and Clytæmnestra would have
+been most readily persuaded to give her daughter to me as a husband. And I
+would have given her up to the Greeks, if on this account their passage to
+Troy had been impeded: I would not have refused to augment the common
+interest of those with whom I set out on the expedition. But now I am held
+as of no account by the generals, and it is a matter of indifference
+whether I benefit them or not. Soon shall my sword witness, which, before
+death came against the Phrygians,[74] I stained with spots of blood,
+whether any one shall take thy daughter from me. But keep quiet, I have
+appeared to thee as a most mighty God, though not [a God,] but nevertheless
+I will be such.
+
+CHOR. O son of Peleus, thou hast spoken both worthily of thyself, and of
+the marine deity, hallowed Goddess.
+
+CLY. Alas! how can I praise thee neither too much in words, nor, being
+deficient in this respect, [not] lose thy favor? For in a certain wise the
+praised dislike their praisers, if they praise too much. But I am ashamed
+at alleging pitiable words, being troubled in myself, while thou art not
+diseased with my ills. But in fact the good man has some reason, even
+though he be unconnected with them, for assisting the unfortunate. But pity
+us, for we have suffered pitiably; I, who, in the first place, thinking to
+have thee for a kinsman, cherished a vain hope.--Moreover, my child, by
+dying, might perchance become an omen to thy future bridals,[75] which thou
+must needs avoid. But well didst thou speak both first and last, for, if
+thou art willing, my child will be saved. Dost wish that she embrace thy
+knee as a suppliant? Such conduct is not virgin-like, but if thou wilt, she
+shall come, with her noble face suffused with modesty. Or shall I obtain
+these things from thee, without her presence?
+
+ACH. Let her remain within doors, for with dignity she preserves her
+dignity.
+
+CLY. Yet one must needs have modesty [only] as far as circumstances allow.
+
+ACH. Do thou neither bring forth thy daughter into my sight, lady, not let
+us fall into reproach for inconsiderate conduct, for our assembled army,
+being idle from home occupations, loves evil and slanderous talk. But at
+all events you will accomplish the same, whether you come to me as a
+suppliant, or do not supplicate, for a mighty contest awaits me, to release
+you from these evils. Wherefore, having heard one thing, be persuaded that
+I will not speak falsely. But if I speak falsely, and vainly amuse you, may
+I perish; but may I not perish, if I preserve the virgin.
+
+CLY. Mayest thou be blest, ever assisting the unhappy.
+
+ACH. Hear me then, that the matter may be well.
+
+CLY. What is this thou sayest? for one must listen to thee.
+
+ACH. Let us again persuade her father to be wiser.
+
+CLY. He is a coward, and fears the army too much.
+
+ACH. But words can conquer words.
+
+CLY. Chilly is the hope, but tell me what I must do.
+
+ACH. Beseech him first not to slay his child, but if he oppose this, you
+must come to me. For if he will be persuaded what you wish, there is no
+occasion for my efforts, for this very [consent] contains her safety. And I
+also shall appear in a better light with my friend, and the army will not
+blame me, if I transact matters by discretion rather than force. And if
+this turn out well, these things, even without my help, may turn out
+satisfactorily to thy friends and thyself.[76]
+
+CLY. How wisely hast thou spoken! But what thou sayest must be done. But if
+I do not obtain what I seek, where shall I again see thee? Where must I
+wretched woman, coming, find thee an assistant in my troubles?
+
+ACH. We guards will watch thee when there is occasion, lest any one behold
+thee going in agitation through the host of the Greeks. But do not shame
+thy ancestral home, for Tyndarus is not worthy of an evil reputation,
+seeing he is great among the Greeks.
+
+CLY. These things shall be. Command; it is meet that I obey thee. But if
+there are Gods, you, being a just man, will receive a good reward; but if
+not, why should one toil?
+
+CHOR. What was that nuptial song that raised[77] its strains on the Libyan
+reed, and with the dance-loving lyre, and the reedy syrinx, when o'er
+Pelion at the feast of the Gods the fair-haired muses, striking their feet
+with golden sandals against the ground, came to the wedding of Peleus,
+celebrating with melodious sounds Thetis, and the son of Æacus, on the
+mountains of the Centaurs, through the Palian wood.
+
+But the Dardan,[78] [Phrygian Ganymede,] dear delight of Jove's bed, poured
+out the nectar in the golden depths of the goblets, and along the white
+sands the fifty daughters of Nereus, entwining in circles, adorned the
+nuptials of Nereus with the dance. But with darts of fir, and crowns of
+grass, the horse-mounted troop of the Centaurs came to the banquet of the
+Gods and the cup of Bacchus. And the Thessalian girls shouted loud,[79] "O
+daughter of Nereus," and the prophet Phœbus, and Chiron, skilled in
+letters, declared, "Thou shalt bring forth a mighty light, who shall come
+to the [Trojan] land with Myrmidons armed with spear and shield, to burn
+the renowned city of Priam, around his body armed with a covering of golden
+arms wrought by Vulcan, having them as a gift from his Goddess Thetis, who
+begat him blessed." Then the deities celebrated the nuptials of the noble
+daughter of Nereus first,[80] and of Peleus. But thee, [O Iphigenia,] they
+will crown on the head with flowery garlands, like as a pure spotted heifer
+from a rocky cave, making bloody the mortal throat [of one] not trained up
+with the pipe, nor amidst the songs of herdsmen, but as a bride[81]
+prepared by thy mother for some one of the Argives. Where has the face of
+shame, or virtue any power to prevail? Since impiety indeed has influence,
+but virtue is left behind and disregarded by mortals, and lawlessness
+governs law, and it is a common struggle for mortals, lest any envy of the
+Gods befall.
+
+CLY. I have come out of the house to seek for my husband, who has been
+absent, and has quitted the house a long time. But my hapless daughter is
+in tears, casting forth many a change of complaint, having heard the death
+her father devises for her. But I was mindful of Agamemnon who is now
+coming hither,[82] who will quickly be detected doing evil deeds against
+his own children.
+
+AG. Daughter of Leda, opportunely have I found you without the house, that
+I may tell thee, apart from the virgin, words which it is not meet for
+those to hear who are about to marry.
+
+CLY. And what is it, on which your convenience lays hold?
+
+AG. Send forth thy daughter from the house with her father, since the
+lustral waters are ready prepared, and the salt-cakes to scatter with the
+hands upon the purifying flame, and heifers, which needs must be slain in
+honor of the Goddess Diana before the marriage solemnities, a shedding of
+black gore.
+
+CLY. In words, indeed, thou speakest well, but for thy deeds, I know not
+how I may say thou speakest well. But come without, O daughter, for thou
+knowest all that thy father meditates, and beneath thy robes bring the
+child Orestes, thy brother. See, she is here present to obey thee. But the
+rest I will speak on her behalf and mine.
+
+AG. Child, why weepest thou, and no longer beholdest me cheerfully, but
+fixing thy face upon the ground, keepest thy vest before it?
+
+CLY. Alas! What commencement of my sorrows shall I take? For I may use them
+all as first, [both last, and middle throughout.[83]]
+
+AG. But what is it? How all of you are come to one point with me, bearing
+disturbed and alarmed countenances.
+
+CLY. Wilt thou answer candidly, husband, if I ask thee?
+
+AG. There needs no admonition: I would fain be questioned.
+
+CLY. Art thou going to slay thy child and mine?
+
+AG. Ah! wretched things dost thou say, and thinkest what thou shouldst not.
+
+CLY. Keep quiet, and first in turn answer me that.
+
+AG. But if thou askest likely things, thou wilt hear likely.
+
+CLY. I ask no other things, nor do thou answer me others.
+
+AG. O revered destiny, and fate, and fortune mine!
+
+CLY. Ay, and mine too, and this child's, one of three unfortunates!
+
+AG. But in what art thou wronged?
+
+CLY. Dost thou ask me this? This thy wit hath no wit.[84]
+
+AG. I am undone. My secret plans are betrayed.
+
+CLY. I know and have learned all that you are about to do to me, and the
+very fact of thy silence, and of thy groaning much, is a proof that you
+confess it. Do not take the trouble to say any thing.
+
+AG. Behold, I am silent: for what need is there that, falsely speaking, I
+add shamelessness to misfortune?
+
+CLY. Listen, then, for I will unfold my story, and will no longer make use
+of riddles away from the purpose. In the first place, that I may first
+reproach thee with this--thou didst wed me unwilling, and obtain me by
+force, having slain Tantalus, my former husband, and having dashed[85] my
+infant living to the ground, having torn him by force from my breast. And
+the twin sons of Jove, my brothers, glorying in their steeds, made war
+[against thee] but my old father Tyndarus saved you, when you had become a
+suppliant, and thou again didst possess me as a wife. When I, being
+reconciled to thee in respect to thy person and home, thou wilt bear
+witness how blameless a wife I was, both modest in respect to affection,
+and enriching thy house, so that thou both going within and without thy
+doors wast blessed. And 'tis a rare prize for a man to obtain such a wife,
+but there is no lack of getting a bad spouse. And I bear thee this son,
+besides three virgins, of one of whom thou art cruelly going to deprive me.
+And if any one ask thee on what account thou wilt slay her, say, what will
+you answer? or must I needs make your plea, "that Menelaus may obtain
+Helen?" A pretty custom, forsooth, that children must pay the price of a
+bad woman. We gain the most hateful things at the hand of those dearest.
+Come, if thou wilt set out, leaving me at home, and then wilt be a long
+time absent, what sort of feelings dost think I shall experience, when I
+behold every seat empty of this child's presence, and every virgin chamber
+empty, but myself sit in tears alone, ever mourning her [in such strains as
+these:] "My child, thy father, who begat thee, hath destroyed thee,
+himself, no other, the slayer, by no other hand, leaving such a reward for
+[my care of] the house."[86] Since there wants but a little reason for me
+and my remaining daughters to give thee such a reception as you deserve to
+receive. Do not, by the Gods, either compel me to act evilly toward thee,
+nor do thou thyself be so. Ah well! thou wilt sacrifice thy daughter--what
+prayers wilt thou then utter? What good thing wilt thou crave for thyself,
+slaying thy child? An evil return, seeing, forsooth, thou hast
+disgracefully set out from home. But is it right that I should pray for
+thee any good thing? Verily we must believe the Gods are senseless, if we
+feel well disposed to murderers. But wilt thou, returning to Argos, embrace
+thy children? But 'tis not lawful for thee. Will any of your children look
+upon you, if thou offerest one of them for slaughter? Thus far have I
+proceeded in my argument. What! does it only behoove thee to carry about
+thy sceptre and marshal the army?--whose duty it were to speak a just
+speech among the Greeks: "Do ye desire, O Greeks, to sail against the land
+of the Phrygians? Cast lots, whose daughter needs must die"--for this would
+be on equal terms, but not that you should give thy daughter to the Greeks
+as a chosen victim. Or Menelaus, whose affair it was, ought to slay
+Hermione for her mother's sake. But now I, having cherished thy married
+life, shall be bereaved of my child, but she who has sinned, bearing her
+daughter under her care to Sparta, will be blest. As to these things,
+answer me if I say aught not rightly, but if I have spoken well, do not
+then slay thy child and mine, and thou wilt be wise.
+
+CHOR. Be persuaded, Agamemnon, for 'tis right to join in saving one's
+children. No one of mortals will gainsay this.
+
+IPH. If, O father, I possessed the eloquence of Orpheus, that I might charm
+by persuasion, so that rocks should follow me, and that I might soften whom
+I would by my words, to this would I have resorted. But now I will offer
+tears as all my skill, for these I can. And, as a suppliant bough, I press
+against thy knees my body, which this [my mother] bore thee, [beseeching]
+that thou slay me not before my time, for sweet it is to behold the light,
+nor do thou compel me to visit the places beneath the earth. And I
+first[87] hailed thee sire, and thou [didst first call] me daughter, and
+first drawing nigh to thy knees, I gave and in turn received sweet tokens
+of affection. And such, were thy words: "My daughter, shall I some time
+behold thee prospering in a husband's home, living and flourishing worthily
+of me?" And mine in turn ran thus, as I hung about thy beard, which now
+with my hand I embrace: "But how shall I [treat] thee? Shall I receive thee
+when an old man, O father, with the hearty reception of my house, repaying
+thee the careful nurture of my youth?" Of such words have remembrance, but
+thou hast forgotten them, and fain wouldst slay me. Do not, [I beseech you]
+by Pelops and by thy father Atreus, and this my mother, who having before
+brought me forth with throes, now suffers this second throe. What have I to
+do with the marriage of Paris and Helen? Whence came he, father, for my
+destruction? Look upon me; give me one look, one kiss, that this memorial
+of thee at least I, dying, may possess, if thou wilt not be persuaded by my
+words. Brother, thou art but a little helpmate to those dear, yet weep with
+me, beseech thy sire that thy sister die not. Even in babes there is wont
+to be some sense of evil. Behold, O father, he silently implores thee. But
+respect my prayer, and have pity on my years. Yea, by thy beard we, two
+dear ones, implore thee; the one is yet a nursling, but the other grown up.
+In one brief saying I will overcome all arguments. This light of heaven is
+sweetest of things for men to behold, but that below is naught; and mad is
+he who seeks to die. To live dishonorably is better than to die gloriously.
+
+CHOR. O wretched Helen, through thee and thy nuptials there is come a
+contest for the Atrides and their children.
+
+AG. I can understand what merits pity, and what not; and I love my
+children, for [otherwise] I were mad. And dreadful 'tis for me[88] to dare
+these things, O woman, and dreadful not to do so--for so I must needs act.
+Thou seest how great is this naval host, and how many are the chieftains of
+brazen arms among the Greeks, to whom there is not a power of arriving at
+the towers of Troy, unless I sacrifice you, as the seer Calchas says, nor
+can we take the renowned plain of Troy. But a certain passion has maddened
+the army of the Greeks, to sail as quickly as possible upon the land of the
+barbarians, and to put a stop to the rapes of Grecian wives. And they will
+slay my daughters at Argos, and you, and me, if I break through the
+commands of the Goddess. It is not Menelaus who has enslaved me, O
+daughter, nor have I followed his device, but Greece, for whom I, will or
+nill, must needs offer thee. And I am inferior on this head. For it
+behooves her, [Helen,] as far as thou, O daughter, art concerned, to be
+free, nor for us, being Greeks, to be plundered perforce of our wives by
+barbarians.
+
+CLY. O child! O ye stranger women! O wretched me for thy death! Thy father
+flees from thee, giving thee up to Hades.
+
+IPH. Alas for me! mother, mother. The same song suits both of us on account
+of our fortunes, and no more to me is the light, nor this bright beam of
+the sun. Alas! alas! thou snow-smitten wood of Troy, and mountains of Ida,
+where once on a time Priam exposed a tender infant, having separated him
+from his mother, that he might meet with deadly fate, Paris, who was styled
+Idæan, Idæan [Paris] in the city of the Phrygians. Would that the herdsman
+Paris, who was nurtured in care of steers, had ne'er dwelt near the white
+stream, where are the fountains of the Nymphs, and the meadow flourishing
+with blooming flowers, and roseate flowers and hyacinths for Goddesses to
+cull. Where once on a time came Pallas, and artful Venus, and Juno, and
+Hermes, the messenger of Jove; Venus indeed, vaunting herself in charms,
+and Pallas in the spear, and Juno in the royal nuptials of king Jove,
+[these came] to a hateful judgment and strife concerning beauty; but my
+death, my death, O virgins, bearing glory indeed to the Greeks, Diana hath
+received as first-fruits [of the expedition] against Troy.[89] But he that
+begot me wretched, O mother, O mother, has departed, leaving me deserted. O
+hapless me! having †beheld† bitter, bitter, ill-omened Helen, I am slain, I
+perish, by the impious slaughter of an impious sire. Would[90] for me that
+Aulis had never received the poops of the brazen-beaked ships into these
+ports, the fleet destined for Troy, nor that Jove had breathed an adverse
+wind over Euripus, softening one breeze so that some mortals might rejoice
+in their [expanded] sails, but to others a pain, to others difficulty, to
+some to set sail, to others to furl their sails, but to others to tarry. In
+truth the race of mortals is full of troubles, is full of troubles, and it
+necessarily befalls men to find some misfortune. Alas! alas! thou daughter
+of Tyndarus, who hast brought many sufferings, and many griefs upon the
+Greeks.
+
+CHOR. I indeed pity you having met with an evil calamity, such as thou
+never shouldst have met with.
+
+IPH. O mother, to whom I owe my birth, I behold a crowd of men near.
+
+CLY. Ay, the son of the Goddess, my child, for whom thou camest hither.
+
+IPH. Open the house, ye servants, that I may hide myself.
+
+CLY. But why dost thou fly hence, my child?
+
+IPH. I am ashamed to behold this Achilles.
+
+CLY. On what account?
+
+IPH. The unfortunate turn-out of my nuptials shames me.
+
+CLY. Thou art not in a state to give way to delicacy in the present
+circumstances. But do thou remain, there is no use for punctilio, if we can
+[but save your life.]
+
+ACH. O hapless lady, daughter of Leda.
+
+CLY. Thou sayest not falsely.
+
+ACH. Terrible things are cried out among the Greeks.
+
+CLY. What cry? tell me.
+
+ACH. Concerning thy child.
+
+CLY. Thou speakest a word of ill omen.
+
+ACH. That it is necessary to slay her.
+
+CLY. Does no one speak the contrary to this?
+
+ACH. Ay, I myself have got into trouble.
+
+CLY. Into what [trouble,] O friend?
+
+ACH. Of having my body stoned with stones.
+
+CLY. What, in trying to save my daughter!
+
+ACH. This very thing.
+
+CLY. And who would have dared to touch thy person?
+
+ACH. All the Greeks.
+
+CLY. And was not the host of the Myrmidons at hand for thee?
+
+ACH. That was the first that showed enmity.
+
+CLY. Then are we utterly undone, my daughter.
+
+ACH. For they railed at me as overcome by a betrothed--
+
+CLY. And what didst thou reply?
+
+ACH. That they should not slay my intended bride.
+
+CLY. For so 'twas right.
+
+ACH. [She] whom her father had promised me.
+
+CLY. Ay, and had sent for from Argos.
+
+ACH. But I was worsted by the outcry.
+
+CLY. For the multitude is a terrible evil.
+
+ACH. But nevertheless I will aid thee.
+
+CLY. And wilt thou, being one, fight with many?
+
+ACH. Dost see these men bearing [my] arms?
+
+CLY. Mayest thou gain by thy good intentions.
+
+ACH. But I will gain.
+
+CLY. Then my child will not be slain?
+
+ACH. Not, at least, with my consent.
+
+CLY. And will any one come to lay hands on the girl?
+
+ACH. Ay, a host of them, but Ulysses will conduct her.
+
+CLY. Will it be the descendant of Sisyphus?
+
+ACH. The very man.
+
+CLY. Doing it of his own accord, or appointed by the army?
+
+ACH. Chosen willingly.
+
+CLY. A wicked choice forsooth, to commit slaughter!
+
+ACH. But I will restrain him.
+
+CLY. But will he lead her unwillingly, having seized her?
+
+ACH. Ay, by her auburn locks.
+
+CLY. But what must I then do?
+
+ACH. Keep hold of your daughter.
+
+CLY. As far as this goes she shall not be slain.
+
+ACH. But it will come to this at all events.[91]
+
+IPH. Mother, do thou hear my words, for I perceive that thou art vainly
+wrathful with thy husband, but it is not easy for us to struggle with
+things [almost] impossible. It is meet therefore to praise our friend for
+his willingness, but it behooves thee also to see that you be not an object
+of reproach to the army, and we profit nothing more, and he meet with
+calamity. But hear me, mother, thinking upon what has entered my mind. I
+have determined to die, and this I would fain do gloriously, I mean, by
+dismissing all ignoble thoughts. Come hither, mother, consider with me how
+well I speak. Greece, the greatest of cities, is now all looking upon me,
+and there rests in me both the passage of the ships and the destruction of
+Troy, and, for the women hereafter, if the barbarians do them aught of
+harm, to allow them no longer to carry them off from prosperous Greece,
+having avenged the destruction of Helen, whom Paris bore away.[92] All
+these things I dying shall redeem, and my renown, for that I have freed
+Greece, will be blessed. Moreover, it is not right that I should be too
+fond of life; for thou hast brought me forth for the common good of Greece,
+not for thyself only. But shall ten thousand men armed with bucklers, and
+ten thousand, oars in hand, their country being injured, dare to do some
+deed against the foes, and perish on behalf of Greece, while my life, being
+but one, shall hinder all these things? What manner of justice is this?
+Have we a word to answer? And let me come to this point: it is not meet
+that this man should come to strife with all the Greeks for the sake of a
+woman, nor lose his life. And one man, forsooth, is better than ten
+thousand women, that he should behold the light. But if Diana hath wished
+to receive my body, shall I, being mortal, become an opponent to the
+Goddess! But it can not be. I give my body for Greece. Sacrifice it, and
+sack Troy. For this for a long time will be my memorial, and this my
+children, my wedding, and my glory. But it is meet that Greeks should rule
+over barbarians, O mother, but not barbarians over Greeks, for the one is
+slavish, but the others are free.
+
+CHOR. Thy part, indeed, O virgin, is glorious; but the work of fortune and
+of the Gods sickens.
+
+ACH. Daughter of Agamemnon, some one of the Gods destined me to happiness,
+if I obtained thee as a wife, and I envy Greece on thy account, and thee on
+account of Greece. For well hast thou spoken this, and worthily of the
+country, for, ceasing to strive with the deity, who is more powerful than
+thou art, thou hast considered what is good and useful. But still more does
+a desire of thy union enter my mind, when I look to thy nature, for thou
+art noble. But consider, for I wish to benefit you, and to receive you to
+my home, and, Thetis be my witness, I am grieved if I shall not save you,
+coming to conflict with the Greeks. Consider: death is a terrible ill.
+
+IPH. I speak these words, no others, with due foresight. Enough is the
+daughter of Tyndarus to have caused contests and slaughter of men through
+her person: but do not thou, O stranger, die in my behalf, nor slay any
+one. But let me preserve Greece, if I am able.
+
+ACH. O best of spirits, I have naught further to answer thee, since it
+seems thus to thee, for thou hast noble thoughts; for wherefore should not
+one tell the truth? But nevertheless thou mayest perchance repent these
+things. In order, therefore, that thou mayest all that lies in my power, I
+will go and place these my arms near the altar, as I will not allow you to
+die, but hinder it. And thou too wilt perhaps be of my opinion, when thou
+seest the sword nigh to thy neck. I will not allow thee to die through thy
+wild determination, but going with these mine arms to the temple of the
+Goddess, I will await thy presence there.
+
+IPH. Mother, why dost thou silently bedew thine eyes with tears?
+
+CLY. I wretched have a reason, so as to be pained at heart.
+
+IPH. Cease; do not daunt me, but obey me in this.
+
+CLY. Speak, for thou shalt not be wronged at my hands, my child.
+
+IPH. Neither then do thou cut off the locks of thine hair, [nor put on
+black garments around thy body.]
+
+CLY. Wherefore sayest thou this, my child? Having lost thee--
+
+IPH. Not you indeed--I am saved, and thou wilt be glorious as far as I am
+concerned.
+
+CLY. How sayest thou? Must I not bemoan thy life?
+
+IPH. Not in the least, since no tomb will be upraised for me.
+
+CLY. Why, what then is death? Is not a tomb customary?[93]
+
+IPH. The altar of the Goddess, daughter of Jove, will be my memorial.
+
+CLY. But, O child, I will obey thee, for thou speakest well.
+
+IPH. Ay, as prospering like the benefactress of Greece.
+
+CLY. What then shall I tell thy sisters?
+
+IPH. Neither do thou clothe them in black garments.
+
+CLY. But shall I speak any kind message from thee to the virgins?
+
+IPH. Ay, [bid them] fare well, and do thou, for my sake, train up this
+[boy] Orestes to be a man.
+
+CLY. Embrace him, beholding him for the last time.
+
+IPH. O dearest one, thou hast assisted thy friends to the utmost in thy
+power.
+
+CLY. Can I, by doing any thing in Argos, do thee a pleasure?
+
+IPH. Hate not my father, yes, thy husband.
+
+CLY. He needs shall go through terrible trials on thy account.
+
+IPH. Unwillingly he hath undone me on behalf of the land of Greece.
+
+CLY. But ungenerously, by craft, and not in a manner worthy of Atreus.
+
+IPH. Who will come and lead me, before I am torn away by the hair?[94]
+
+CLY. I will go with thee.
+
+IPH. Not you indeed, thou sayest not well.
+
+CLY. Ay [but I will,] clinging to thy garments.
+
+IPH. Be persuaded by me, mother. Remain, for this is more fitting both for
+me and thee. But let some one of these my father's followers conduct me to
+the meadow of Diana, where I may be sacrificed.
+
+CLY. O child, thou art going.
+
+IPH. Ay, and I shall ne'er return.
+
+CLY. Leaving thy mother--
+
+IPH. As thou seest, though, not worthily.
+
+CLY. Hold! Do not leave me.
+
+IPH. I do not suffer thee to shed tears. But, ye maidens, raise aloft the
+pæan for my sad hap, [celebrate] Diana, the daughter of Jove,[95] and let
+the joyful strain go forth to the Greeks. And let some one make ready the
+baskets, and let flame burn with the purifying cakes, and let my father
+serve the altar with his right hand, seeing I am going to bestow upon the
+Greeks safety that produces victory.[96]
+
+Conduct me, the conqueror of the cities of Troy and of the Phrygians.
+Surround[97] me with crowns, bring them hither. Here is my hair to crown.
+And [bear hither] the lustral fountains.[98] Encircle [with dances] around
+the temple and the altar, Diana, queen Diana, the blessed, since by my
+blood and offering I will wash out her oracles, if it needs must be so. O
+revered, revered mother, thus † indeed † will we [now] afford thee our
+tears, for it is not fitting during the sacred rites. O damsels, join in
+singing Diana, who dwells opposite Chalcis, where the warlike ships have
+been eager [to set out,] being detained in the narrow harbors of Aulis here
+through my name.[99] Alas! O my mother-land of Pelasgia, and my Mycenian
+handmaids.
+
+CHOR. Dost thou call upon the city of Perseus, the work of the Cyclopean
+hands?
+
+IPH. Thou hast nurtured me for a glory to Greece, and I will not refuse to
+die.
+
+CHOR. For renown will not fail thee.
+
+IPH. Alas! alas! lamp-bearing day, and thou too, beam of Jove, another,
+another life and state shall we dwell in. Farewell for me, beloved light!
+
+CHOR. Alas! alas! Behold[100] the destroyer of the cities of Troy and of
+the Phrygians, wending her way, decked as to her head with garlands and
+with lustral streams, to the altar of the sanguinary Goddess, about to
+stream with drops of gore, being stricken on her fair neck. Fair dewy
+streams, and lustral waters from ancestral sources[101] await thee, and the
+host of the Greeks eager to reach Troy. But let us celebrate Diana, the
+daughter of Jove, queen of the Gods, as upon a prosperous occasion. O
+hallowed one, that rejoicest in human sacrifices, send the army of the
+Greeks into the land of the Phrygians, and the territory of deceitful Troy,
+and grant that by Grecian spears Agamemnon may place a most glorious crown
+upon his head, a glory ever to be remembered.
+
+[_Enter a_ MESSENGER.[102]]
+
+MESS. O daughter of Tyndarus, Clytæmnestra, come without the house, that
+thou mayest hear my words.
+
+CLY. Hearing thy voice, I wretched came hither, terrified and astounded
+with fear, lest thou shouldst be come, bearing some new calamity to me in
+addition to the present one.
+
+MESS. Concerning thy daughter, then, I wish to tell thee marvelous and
+fearful things.
+
+CLY. Then delay not, but speak as quickly as possible.
+
+MESS. But, my dear mistress, thou shalt learn every thing clearly, and I
+will speak from the very commencement, unless my memory, in something
+failing, deceive my tongue. For when we came to the inclosure and flowery
+meads of Diana, the daughter of Jove, where there was an assembly of the
+army of the Greeks, leading thy daughter, the host of the Greeks was
+straightway convened. But when king Agamemnon beheld the girl wending her
+way to the grove for slaughter, he groaned aloud, and turning back his
+head, he shed tears, placing his garments[103] before his eyes. But she,
+standing near him that begot her, spake thus: "O father, I am here for
+thee, and I willing give my body on behalf of my country, and of the whole
+land of Greece, that, leading it to the altar of the Goddess, they may
+sacrifice it, since this is ordained. And, as far as I am concerned, may ye
+be fortunate, and obtain the gift of victory, and reach your native land.
+Furthermore, let no one of the Greeks lay hands on me, for with a stout
+heart I will present my neck in silence." Thus much she spoke, and every
+one marveled on hearing the courage and valor of the virgin. But
+Talthybius, whose office this was, standing in the midst, proclaimed
+good-omened silence to the people. And the seer Calchas placed in a golden
+canister a sharp knife,[104] which he had drawn out,† within its case,† and
+crowned the head of the girl. But the son of Peleus ran around the altar of
+the Goddess, taking the canister and lustral waters at the same time. And
+he said: "O Diana, beast-slaying daughter of Jove, that revolvest thy
+brilliant light by night, receive this offering which we bestow on thee,
+[we] the army of the Greeks, and king Agamemnon, the pure blood from a fair
+virgin's neck; and grant that the sail may be without injury to our ships,
+and that we may take the towers of Troy by the spear." But the Atrides and
+all the army stood looking on the ground, and the priest, taking the knife,
+prayed, and viewed her neck, that he might find a place to strike. And no
+little pity entered my mind, and I stood with eyes cast down, but suddenly
+there was a marvel to behold. For every one could clearly perceive the
+sound of the blow, but beheld not the virgin, where on earth she had
+vanished. But the priest exclaimed, and the whole army shouted, beholding
+an unexpected prodigy from some one of the Gods, of which, though seen,
+they had scarcely belief. For a stag lay panting on the ground, of mighty
+size to see and beautiful in appearance, with whose blood the altar of the
+Goddess was abundantly wetted. And upon this Calchas (think with what joy!)
+thus spake: "O leaders of this common host of the Greeks, behold this
+victim which the Goddess hath brought to her altar, a mountain-roaming
+stag. This she prefers greatly to the virgin, lest her altar should be
+denied with generous blood. And she hath willingly received this, and
+grants us a prosperous sail, and attack upon Troy. Upon this do every
+sailor take good courage, and go to his ships, since on this day it
+behooves us, quitting the hollow recesses of Aulis, to pass over the Ægean
+wave." But when the whole victim was reduced to ashes, he prayed what was
+meet, that the army might obtain a passage. And Agamemnon sends me to tell
+thee this, and to say what a fortune he hath met with from the Gods, and
+hath obtained unwaning glory through Greece. But I speak, having been
+present, and witnessing the matter. Thy child has evidently flown to the
+Gods; away then with grief, and cease wrath against your husband. But the
+will of the Gods is unforeseen by mortals, and them they love, they save.
+For this day hath beheld thy daughter dying and living [in turn.]
+
+CHOR. How delighted am I at hearing this from the messenger; but he says
+that thy daughter living abides among the Gods.
+
+CLY. O daughter, of whom of the Gods art thou the theft? How shall I
+address thee? What shall I say that these words do not offer me a vain
+comfort, that I may cease from my mournful grief on thy account?
+
+CHOR. And truly king Agamemnon draws hither, having this same story to tell
+thee.
+
+[_Enter_ AGAMEMNON.]
+
+AG. Lady, as far as thy daughter is concerned, we may be happy, for she
+really possesses a companionship with the Gods. But it behooves thee,
+taking this young child [Orestes,] to go home, for the army is looking
+toward setting sail. And fare thee well, long hence will be my addresses to
+thee from Troy, and may it be well with thee.
+
+CHOR. Atrides, rejoicing go thou to the land of the Phrygians, and
+rejoicing return, having obtained for me most glorious spoils from Troy.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+NOTES ON IPHIGENIA IN AULIS
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+[1] From the answer of the old man, Porson's conjecture, σπευδε, seems very
+probable.
+
+[2] See Hermann's note. The passage has been thus rendered by Ennius:
+
+  AG. "Quid nocti" videtur in altisono
+          Cœli clupeo?
+  SEN. Temo superat stellas, cogens
+      Sublime etiam atque etiam noctis
+      Itiner.
+
+See Scaliger on Varr. de L.L. vi. p.143, and on Festus s.v. Septemtriones.
+All the editors have overlooked the following passage of Apuleius de Deo
+Socr. p. 42, ed. Elm. "Suspicientes in hoc perfectissimo mundi, ut ait
+Ennius, clypeo," whence, as I have already observed in my notes on the
+passage, there is little doubt that Ennius wrote "in altisono mundi
+clypeo," of which _cœli_ was a gloss, naturally introduced by those who
+were ignorant of the use of _mundus_ in the same sense. The same error has
+taken place in some of the MSS. of Virg. Georg. i. 5, 6. Compare the
+commentators on Pompon. Mela. i. 1, ed. Gronov.
+
+[3] Such seems the force of επι πασιν αγαθοις. The Cambridge editor aptly
+compares Hipp. 461. χρην σ' επι ‛ρητοις αρα Πατερα φυτευειν.
+
+[4] The συννυμφοκομος was probably a kind of gentleman usher, but we have
+no correlative either to the custom or the word.
+
+[5] Hermann rightly regards this as a hendiadys.
+
+[6] δρομωι for μορωι is Markland's, and, doubtless, the correct, reading.
+μονος is merely a correction of the Aldine edition.
+
+[7] But read τας--δελτους with the Cambridge editor, = "in relation to my
+former dispatches."
+
+[8] ταν should probably be erased before κολπωδη, with the Cambridge
+editor. He remarks, "the sea-port, although separated from the island by
+the narrow strait of Euripus, is styled its _wing_." On the metrical
+difficulties and corruptions throughout this chorus, I must refer the
+reader to the same critic.
+
+[9] But λεκτρον, _uxorem_, is better, with ed. Camb.
+
+[10] It is impossible to get a satisfactory sense as these lines now stand.
+I have translated εξορμα. There seems to be a lacuna. The following are the
+readings of the Camb. ed. εν γαρ π. αντησηις, παλιν εξ. ς. χαλινους, επι
+κυκλωπων νιν ‛ιεις θυμ.
+
+[11] But αγχιαλον is better, with ed. Camb. from the Homeric χαλκιδα τ'
+αγχιαλον. He remarks that this word, in tragedy, is always the epithet of a
+place.
+
+[12] i.e. to exact satisfaction for her abduction.
+
+[13] i.e. the tents containing the armed soldiers.
+
+[14] ‛ηδομενους refers both to Πρωτεσιλαον and Παλαμηδεα, divided by the
+schema Alcmanicum. See Markland.
+
+[15] Cf. Homer, Il. Β. 763 sqq.
+
+[16] Cf. Monk on Hippol. 1229. I have translated συριγγας according to the
+figure of a part for the whole. The whole of the remainder of this chorus
+has been condemned as spurious by the Cambridge editor. See his remarks, p.
+219 sqq.
+
+[17] Can θετον refer to αγαλμα understood?
+
+[18] This part of the chorus is hopeless, as it is evidently imperfect. See
+Herm.
+
+[19] The Cambridge editor would assign this line to Menelaus.
+
+[20] I read ευ κεκομψευσαι, with Ruhnken. The Cambridge editor also reads
+πονηρα, which is better suited to the style of Euripides.
+
+[21] The same scholar has anticipated my conjecture, σαφης for σαφες.
+
+[22] Compare the similar conduct of Pausanias in Thucyd. i. 130, Dejoces in
+Herodot. i., with Livy, iii. 36, and Apul. de Deo Socr. p. 44, ed. Elm.
+
+[23] I read το Πριαμου with Elmsley. See the Camb. ed.
+
+[24] With the Cambridge editor I have restored the old reading εχοντες.
+
+[25] But see ed. Camb.
+
+[26] αυ is a better reading. See Markland and ed. Camb.
+
+[27] There is little hope of this passage, unless we adopt the readings of
+the Cambridge editor, ‛ους λαβων στρατευμ'. ‛ετοιμοι δ' εισι. The next line
+was lost, but has been restored from Theophilus ad Autol. p. 258, and Stob.
+xxviii. p. 128, Grot.
+
+[28] Cf. Soph. Antig. 523. ουτοι συνεχθειν, αλλα συμφιλειν εφυν.
+
+[29] Dindorf condemns the whole of this speech of the messenger, as well as
+the two following lines. Few will perhaps be disposed to follow him,
+although the awkwardness of the passage may be admitted. Hermann considers
+that the hasty entrance of the messenger is signified by his commencing
+with half a line.
+
+[30] There seems an intended allusion to the double sense of προτελεια,
+both as a marriage and sacrificial rite. See the Cambridge editor, and my
+note on Æsch. Agam. p. 102, n. 2, ed. Bohn.
+
+[31] "Auspicare canistra, id quod proximum est." MUSGR.
+
+[32] I think this is the meaning implied by νυμφευσουσα, as in vs. 885.
+‛ιν' αγαγοις χαιρουσ' Αχιλλει παιδα νυμφευσουσα σην. Alcest. 317. ου γαρ σε
+μητηρ ουτε νυμφευσει ποτε. The word seems to refer to the whole business of
+a mamma on this important occasion.
+
+[33] The Cambridge editor on vs. 439, p. 109, well observes, "the actual
+arrival of Iphigenia having convinced Menelaus that her sacrifice could not
+any longer be avoided, he bethinks him of removing from his brother's mind
+the impression produced by their recent altercation; and knowing his open
+and unsuspicious temper, he feels that he may safely adopt a false
+position, and deprecate that of which he was at the same time most
+earnestly desirous."
+
+[34] So Markland, but Hermann and the Cambridge editor prefer the old
+reading μετεστι σοι.
+
+[35] This and the two following lines are condemned by Dindorf.
+
+[36] Bœckh, Dindorf, and the Cambridge editor rightly explode these three
+lines, which are not even correct Greek.
+
+[37] λησομεν, _latebo faciens_.
+
+[38] παρα for παρον, ed. Camb.
+
+[39] i.e. by the gift of Venus. For the sense, compare Hippol. 443.
+
+[40] Read διαφοροι δε τροποι with Monk, and ορθως with Musgrave.
+
+[41] But παιδευομενων is better, with ed. Camb.
+
+[42] I have partly followed Markland, partly Matthiæ, in rendering this
+awkward passage. But there is much awkwardness of expression, and the notes
+of the Cambridge editor well deserve the attention of the student.
+εξαλλασσουσαν χαριν seems to refer to μετρια χαρις in vs. 555, and probably
+signifies that the grace of a reasonable affection leads to the equal grace
+of a clear perception, the mind being unblinded by vehement impulses of
+passion.
+
+[43] i.e. quiet, domestic.
+
+[44] ενων is only Markland's conjecture. The whole passage is desperate.
+
+[45] I read μυριοπληθη with ed. Camb. The pronoun ‛ο I can not make out,
+but by supplying an impossible ellipse.
+
+[46] The Cambridge editor rightly reads ιου, ιου, as an exclamation of
+pleasure, not of pain, is required.
+
+[47] Dindorf condemns this whole paragraph.
+
+[48] The Cambridge editor thinks these two lines a childish interpolation.
+They certainly are childish enough, but the same objection applies to the
+whole passage.
+
+[49] But read ‛οι δ' with Dobree. The grooms are meant.
+
+[50] Porson condemns these four lines, which are utterly destitute of sense
+or connection.
+
+[51] These "precious" lines are even worse than the preceding, and rightly
+condemned by all.
+
+[52] See Elmsl. on Soph. Œd. C. 273. The student must carefully observe the
+hidden train of thought pervading Agamemnon's replies.
+
+[53] τα Μενελεω κακα must mean the ills resulting from Menelaus, the
+mischiefs and toils to which his wife led, as in Soph. Antig. 2. των απ
+Οιδιπου κακων, "the ills brought about by the misfortunes or the curse of
+Œdipus." But I should almost prefer reading λεχη for κακα, which would
+naturally refer to Helen.
+
+[54] This line is metrically corrupt, but its emendation is very uncertain.
+
+[55] I have endeavored to convey the play upon the words as closely as I
+could. Elmsley well suggests that the proper reading is ‛εστηξεις in vs.
+675.
+
+[56] οφθηναι κοραις, "non, ut hic, a viris et exercitu." BRODÆUS.
+
+[57] Porson on Orest. 1090, remarks on that ‛ο κυριος was the term applied
+to the father or guardian of the bride. We might therefore render, "Jove
+gave her away," etc.
+
+[58] If this be the correct reading, we must take καλως ironically. But I
+think with Dindorf, that κακως, αναγκαιως δε.
+
+[59] This verse is condemned by the Cambridge editor.
+
+[60] Barnes rightly remarked that ηιξα is the aorist of αισσω, _conor_,
+_aggredior_.
+
+[61] These three lines are expunged by the Cambridge editor.
+
+[62] I have expressed the sense of η μη τρεφειν (= μη εχειν γυναικα),
+rather than the literal meaning of the words.
+
+[63] I must inform the reader that the latter portion of this chorus is
+extremely unsatisfactory in its present state. The Cambridge editor, who
+has well discussed its difficulties, thinks that Περγαμον is wrong, and
+that ερυμα should be introduced from vs. 792, where it appears to be quite
+useless.
+
+[64] I have ventured to read δακρυοεν τανυσας with MSS. Pariss., omitting
+ερυμα with the Cambridge editor, by which the difficulty is removed. The
+same scholar remarks that δακρυοεν is used adverbially.
+
+[65] There is obviously a defect in the structure, but I am scarcely
+pleased with the attempts made to supply it.
+
+[66] Read και παιδας with Musgrave.
+
+[67] But see ed. Camb.
+
+[68] But see ed. Camb.
+
+[69] But the Cambridge editor admirably amends, εις μελλοντα σωσει χρονον,
+i.e. "it will be a long time before it preserves them," a hit at the
+self-importance of the old gentleman.
+
+[70] I have little hesitation in reading πελας μοι with Markland, in place
+of γελαι μοι.
+
+[71] There is much difficulty in this passage, and Markland appears to give
+it up in despair. Matthiæ simply takes the first part as equivalent to
+‛υψηλοφρον εστι, referring μετριως to both verbs. The Cambridge editor
+takes διαζην as an infinitive disjoined from the construction. Vss. 922 sq.
+are indebted to Mr. G. Burges for their present situation, having before
+been assigned to the chorus.
+
+[72] I have closely followed the Cambridge editor.
+
+[73] See the notes of the same scholar.
+
+[74] Dindorf has rightly received Porson's successful emendation. See
+Tracts, p. 224, and the Cambridge editor.
+
+[75] Read σοις τε μελλουσιν with Markland.
+
+[76] The Cambridge editor would omit vs. 1022. There is certainly a strange
+redundancy of meaning.
+
+[77] Read εστασεν with Mark. Dind.
+
+[78] So called, either because he was carried off by Jove while hunting in
+the promontory of Dardanus, or from his Trojan descent.
+
+[79] I have adopted Tyrwhitt's view, considering the words inclosed in
+inverted commas as the actual words of the epithalamium. See Musgr. and ed.
+Camb. Hermann is strangely out of his reckoning.
+
+[80] Read, however, Νηρηιδων with Heath, "first of the Nereids."
+
+[81] The Cambridge editor would read νυμφοκομοι, Reiske νυμφοκομον. There
+is much difficulty in the whole of this last part of the chorus.
+
+[82] Such is Hermann's explanation, but βεβηκοτος can not bear the sense.
+The Cambridge editor suspects that these five lines are a forgery.
+
+[83] The Cambridge editor rightly, I think, condemns this line as the
+addition of some one "who thought that something more was wanting to
+comprise all the complaints of the speaker." I do not think the sense or
+construction is benefited by their existence.
+
+[84] "Verum astus hic astu vacat." ERASMUS.
+
+[85] Dindorf has apparently done wrong in admitting προσουδισας, but I have
+some doubt about every other reading yet proposed.
+
+[86] See Camb. ed., who suspects interpolation.
+
+[87] Cf. Lucret. i. 94. "Nec miseræ prodesse in tali tempore quibat, Quod
+patrio princeps donarat nomine regum." Æsch. Ag. 242 sqq.
+
+[88] The Cambridge editor clearly shows that μοι is the true reading, as in
+vs. 54, το πραγμα δ' απορως ειχε Τυνδαρεωι πατρι, and 370.
+
+[89] There is much doubt about the reading of this part of the chorus. See
+Dind. and ed. Camb.
+
+[90] I have partly followed Abresch in translating these lines, but I do
+not advise the reader to rest satisfied with my translation. A reference to
+the notes of the elegant scholar, to whom we owe the Cambridge edition of
+this play, will, I trust, show that I have done as much as can well be done
+with such corrupted lines.
+
+[91] Achilles is supposed to lay his hand on his sword. See however ed.
+Camb.
+
+[92] Obviously a spurious line.
+
+[93] I have punctuated with ed. Camb.
+
+[94] See ed. Camb.
+
+[95] ευφημησατε here governs two distinct accusatives.
+
+[96] The Cambridge editor here takes notice of Aristotle's charge of
+inconsistency, ‛οτι ουδεν εοικεν ‛η ‛ικετευουσα [Iphigenia] τηι ‛υστεραι.
+He well remarks, that Iphigenia at first naturally gives way before the
+suddenness of the announcement of her fate, but that when she collects her
+feelings, her natural nobleness prevails.
+
+[97] Cf. Lucret. i. 88. "Cui simul _infula_ virgineos _circumdata_ comtus,
+Ex utraque pari malarum parte profusa est."
+
+[98] Read παγας with Reiske, Dind. ed. Camb. There is much corruption and
+awkwardness in the following verses of this ode.
+
+[99] On the sense of μεμονε see ed. Camb., who would exclude δι' εμον
+ονομα.
+
+[100] Cf. Soph. Ant. 806 sqq. The whole of this passage has been admirably
+illustrated by the Cambridge editor.
+
+[101] There is much awkwardness about this epithet πατρωιαι. One would
+expect a clearer reference to Agamemnon. I scarcely can suppose it correct,
+although I do not quite see my way in the Cambridge editor's readings.
+
+[102] Porson, Præf. ad Hec. p. xxi., and the Cambridge editor (p. 228 sqq.)
+have concurred in fully condemning the whole of this last scene. It is
+certain that in the time of Ælian something different must have been in
+existence, and equally certain that the whole abounds in repetitions and
+inconsistencies, that seem to point either to spuriousness, or, at least,
+to the existence of interpolations of a serious character. In this latter
+opinion Matthiæ and Dindorf agree.
+
+[103] An allusion to the celebrated picture of Timanthes. See Barnes.
+
+[104] I have done my best with this passage, following Matthiæ's
+explanation, which, however, I do not perfectly understand. If vs. 1567
+were away, we should be less at a loss, but the same may be said of the
+whole scene.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *       *
+
+IPHIGENIA IN TAURIS.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+PERSONS REPRESENTED.
+
+  IPHIGENIA.
+  ORESTES.
+  PYLADES.
+  HERDSMAN.
+  THOAS.
+  MESSENGER.
+  MINERVA.
+  CHORUS OF GRECIAN CAPTIVE WOMEN.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE ARGUMENT.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+Orestes, coming into Tauri in Scythia, in company with Pylades, had been
+commanded to bear away the image of Diana, after which he was to meet with
+a respite from the avenging Erinnyes of his mother. His sister Iphigenia,
+who had been carried away by Diana from Aulis, when on the point of being
+sacrificed by her father, chances to be expiating a dream that led her to
+suppose Orestes dead, when a herdsman announces to her the arrival and
+detection of two strangers, whom she is bound by her office to sacrifice to
+Diana. On meeting, a mutual discovery takes place, and they plot their
+escape. Iphigenia imposes on the superstitious fears of Thoas, and,
+removing them to the sea-coast, they are on the point of making their
+escape together, when they are surprised, and subsequently detained and
+driven back by stress of weather. Thoas is about to pursue them, when
+Minerva appears, and restrains him from doing so, at the same time
+procuring liberty of return for the Grecian captives who form the chorus.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+IPHIGENIA IN TAURIS.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+IPHIGENIA.
+
+Pelops,[1] the son of Tantalus, setting out to Pisa with his swift steeds,
+weds the daughter of Œnomaus, from whom sprang Atreus; and from Atreus his
+sons, Menelaus and Agamemnon, from which [latter] I was born, Iphigenia,
+child of [Clytæmnestra,] daughter of Tyndarus, whom my father, as he
+imagined, sacrificed to Diana on account of Helen, near the eddies, which
+Euripus continually whirls to and fro, upturning the dark blue sea with
+frequent blasts, in the famed[2] recesses of Aulis. For here indeed king
+Agamemnon drew together a Grecian armament of a thousand ships, desiring
+that the Greeks might take the glorious prize of victory over Troy,[3] and
+avenge the outraged nuptials of Helen, for the gratification of Menelaus.
+But, there being great difficulty of sailing,[4] and meeting with no winds,
+he came to [the consideration of] the omens of burnt sacrifices, and
+Calchas speaks thus. O thou who rulest over this Grecian expedition,
+Agamemnon, thou wilt not lead forth thy ships from the ports of this land,
+before Diana shall receive thy daughter Iphigenia as a victim; for thou
+didst vow to sacrifice to the light-bearing Goddess whatsoever the year
+should bring forth most beautiful. Now your wife Clytæmnestra has brought
+forth a daughter in your house, referring to me the title of the most
+beautiful, whom thou must needs sacrifice. And so, by the arts of
+Ulysses,[5] they drew me from my mother under pretense of being wedded to
+Achilles. But I wretched coming to Aulis, being seized and raised aloft
+above[6] the pyre, would have been slain by the sword; but Diana, giving to
+the Greeks a stag in my stead, stole me away, and, sending me through the
+clear ether,[7] she settled me in this land of the Tauri, where barbarian
+Thoas rules[8] the land, o'er barbarians, [Thoas,] who guiding his foot
+swift as the pinion, has arrived at this epithet [of Thoas, i.e. _the
+swift_] on account of his fleetness of foot. And she places me in this
+house as priestess, since which time the Goddess Diana is wont to be
+pleased with such rites as these,[9] the name of which alone is fair. But,
+for the rest, I am silent, fearing the Goddess. For I sacrifice even as
+before was the custom in the city, whatever Grecian man comes to this land.
+I crop the hair, indeed, but the slaying that may not be told is the care
+of others within these shrines.[10] But the new visions which the [past]
+night hath brought with it, I will tell to the sky,[11] if indeed this be
+any remedy. I seemed in my sleep, removed from this land, to be dwelling in
+Argos, and to slumber in my virgin chamber, but the surface of the earth
+[appeared] to be shaken with a movement, and I fled, and standing without
+beheld the coping[12] of the house giving way, and all the roof falling
+stricken to the ground from the high supports. And one pillar alone, as it
+seemed to me, was left of my ancestral house, and from its capital it
+seemed to stream down yellow locks, and to receive a human voice, and I,
+cherishing this man-slaying office which I hold, weeping [began] to
+besprinkle it, as though about to be slain. But I thus interpret my dream.
+Orestes is dead, whose rites I was beginning. For male children are the
+pillars of the house, and those whom my lustral waters[13] sprinkle die.
+Nor yet can I connect the dream with my friends, for Strophius had no son,
+when I was to have died. Now, therefore, I being present, will to my absent
+brother offer the rites of the dead--for this I can do--in company with the
+attendants whom the king gave to me, Grecian women. But from some cause
+they are not yet present. I will go[14] within the home wherein I dwell,
+these shrines of the Goddess.
+
+ORESTES. Look out! Watch, lest there be any mortal in the way.
+
+PYLADES. I am looking out, and keeping watch, turning my eyes every where.
+
+OR. Pylades, does it seem to you that this is the temple of the Goddess,
+whither we have directed our ship through the seas from Argos?[15]
+
+PYL. It does, Orestes, and must seem the same to thee.
+
+OR. And the altar where Grecian blood is shed?
+
+PYL. At least it has its pinnacles tawny with blood.
+
+OR. And under the pinnacles themselves do you behold the spoils?
+
+PYL. The spoils, forsooth, of slain strangers.
+
+OR. But it behooves one, turning one's eye around, to keep a careful watch.
+O Phœbus, wherefore hast thou again led me into this snare by your
+prophecies, when I had avenged the blood of my father by slaying my mother?
+But by successive[16] attacks of the Furies was I driven an exile, an
+outcast from the land, and fulfilled many diverse bending courses. But
+coming [to thy oracle] I required of thee how I might arrive at an end of
+the madness that drove me on, and of my toils [which I had labored through,
+wandering over Greece.[17]] But thou didst answer that I must come to the
+confines of the Tauric territory, where thy sister Diana possesses altars,
+and must take the image of the Goddess, which they here say fell from
+heaven[18] into these shrines; and that taking it either by stratagem or by
+some stroke of fortune, having gone through the risk, I should give it to
+the land of the Athenians--but no further directions were given--and that
+having done this, I should have a respite from my toils.[19] But I am come
+hither, persuaded by thy words, to an unknown and inhospitable land. I ask
+you, then, Pylades, for you are a sharer with me in this toil, what shall
+we do? For thou beholdest the lofty battlements of the walls. Shall we
+proceed to the scaling of the walls? How then should we escape notice[20]
+[if we did so?] Or shall we open the brass-wrought fastenings of the bolts?
+of which things we know nothing.[21] But if we are caught opening the gates
+and contriving an entrance, we shall die. But before we die, let us flee to
+the temple, whither we lately sailed.
+
+PYL. To fly is unendurable, nor are we accustomed [to do so,] and we must
+not make light of the oracle of the God. But quitting the temple, let us
+hide our bodies in the caves, which the dark sea splashes with its waters,
+far away from the city, lest any one beholding the bark, inform the rulers,
+and we be straightway seized by force. But when the eye of dim night shall
+come, we must venture, bring all devices to bear, to seize the sculptured
+image from the temple. But observe the eaves [of the roof,[22]] where there
+is an empty space between the triglyphs in which you may let yourself down.
+For good men dare encounter toils, but the cowardly are of no account any
+where. We have not indeed come a long distance with our oars, so as to
+return again from the goal.[23]
+
+OR. But one must follow your advice, for you speak well. We must go
+whithersoever in this land we can conceal our bodies, and lie hid. For the
+[will] of the God will not be the cause of his oracle falling useless. We
+must venture; for no toil has an excuse for young men.[24]
+
+[ORESTES _and_ PYLADES _retire aside_.]
+
+CHORUS. Keep silence,[25] O ye that inhabit the twain rocks of the Euxine
+that face each other. O Dictynna, mountain daughter of Latona, to thy
+court, the gold-decked pinnacles of temples with fine columns, I, servant
+to the hallowed guardian of the key, conduct my pious virgin foot, changing
+[for my present habitation] the towers and walls of Greece with its noble
+steeds, and Europe with its fields abounding in trees, the dwelling of my
+ancestral home. I am come. What new matter? What anxious care hast thou?
+Wherefore hast thou led me, led me to the shrines, O daughter of him who
+came to the walls of Troy with the glorious fleet, with thousand sail, ten
+thousand spears of the renowned Atrides?[26]
+
+IPHIGENIA. O attendants mine,[27] in what moans of bitter lamentation do I
+dwell, in the songs of a songless strain unfit for the lyre, alas! alas! in
+funereal griefs for the ills which befall me, bemoaning my brother, what a
+vision have I seen in the night whose darkness has passed away![28] I am
+undone, undone. No more is my father's house, ah me! no more is our race.
+Alas! alas! for the toils in Argos! Alas! thou deity, who hast now robbed
+me of my only brother, sending him to Hades, to whom I am about to pour
+forth on the earth's surface these libations and this bowl for the
+departed, and streams from the mountain heifer, and the wine draughts of
+Bacchus, and the work of the swarthy bees,[29] which are the wonted
+peace-offerings to the departed. O germ of Agamemnon beneath the earth, to
+thee as dead do I send these offerings. And do thou receive them, for not
+before [thine own] tomb do I offer my auburn locks,[30] my tears. For far
+away am I journeyed from thy country and mine, where, as opinion goes, I
+wretched lie slaughtered.
+
+CHOR. A respondent strain and an Asiatic hymn of barbarian wailing will I
+peal forth to thee, my mistress, the song of mourning which, delighting the
+dead, Hades hymns in measure apart from Pæans.[31] Alas! the light of the
+sceptre in the Atrides' house is faded away. Alas! alas for my ancestral
+home! And what government of prosperous kings will there be in Argos?[32]
+* * * * And labor upon labor comes on * * * * [33] with his winged mares
+driven around. But the sun, changing from its proper place, [laid aside]
+its eye of light.[34] And upon other houses woe has come, because of the
+golden lamb, murder upon murder, and pang upon pang, whence the avenging
+Fury[35] of those sons slain of old comes upon the houses of the sons of
+Tantalus, and some deity hastens unkindly things against thee.
+
+IPH. From the beginning the demon of my mother's zone[36] was hostile to
+me, and from that night in which the Fates hastened the pangs of
+childbirth[37] * * * * whom, the first-born germ the wretched daughter of
+Leda, (Clytæmnestra,) wooed from among the Greeks brought forth, and
+trained up as a victim to a father's sin, a joyless sacrifice, a votive
+offering. But in a horse-chariot they brought[38] me to the sands of Aulis,
+a bride, alas! unhappy bride to the son of Nereus' daughter, alas! And now
+a stranger I dwell in an unpleasant home on the inhospitable sea, unwedded,
+childless, without city, without a friend, not chanting Juno in Argos, nor
+in the sweetly humming loom adorning with the shuttle the image of Athenian
+Pallas[39] and of the Titans, but imbruing altars with the shed blood of
+strangers, a pest unsuited to the harp, [of strangers] sighing forth[40] a
+piteous cry, and shedding a piteous tear. And now indeed forgetfulness of
+these matters [comes upon] me, but now I mourn my brother dead in Argos,
+whom I left yet an infant at the breast, yet young, yet a germ in his
+mother's arms and on her bosom, Orestes [the future] holder of the sceptre
+in Argos.
+
+CHOR. But hither comes a herdsman, leaving the sea-coast, about to tell
+thee some new thing.
+
+HERDSMAN. Daughter of Agamemnon and child of Clytæmnestra, hear thou from
+me a new announcement.
+
+IPH. And what is there astonishing in the present report?
+
+HERDS. Two youths are come into this land, to the dark-blue Symplegades,
+fleeing into a ship, a grateful sacrifice and offering to Diana. But you
+can not use too much haste[41] in making ready the lustral waters and the
+consecrations.
+
+IPH. Of what country? of what land do the strangers bear the name?
+
+HERDS. Greeks, this one thing I know, and nothing further.
+
+IPH. Hast thou not heard the name of the strangers, so as to tell it?
+
+HERDS. One of them was styled Pylades by the other.
+
+IPH. But what was the name of the yoke-fellow of this stranger?
+
+HERDS. No one knows this. For we heard it not.
+
+IPH. But how saw ye them, and chanced to take them?
+
+HERDS. Upon the furthest breakers of the inhospitable sea.
+
+IPH. And what had herdsmen to do with the sea?
+
+HERDS. We came to lave our steers in the dew of the sea.
+
+IPH. Go back again to this point--how did ye catch them, and by what means,
+for I would fain know this? For they are come after a long season, nor has
+the altar of the Goddess yet been crimsoned with Grecian blood.[42]
+
+HERDS. After we woodland herdsmen had brought our cattle down to the sea
+that flows between the Symplegades, there is a certain hollow cave,[43]
+broken by the frequent lashing of the waves, a retreat for those who hunt
+for the purple fish. Here some herdsman among us beheld two youths, and he
+retired back, piloting his step on tiptoe, and said: See ye not? these who
+sit here are some divine powers. And one of us, being religiously given,
+uplifted his hand, and addressed them, as he beheld: O son of Leucothea,
+guardian of ships, Palæmon our lord, be propitious to us, whether indeed ye
+be the twin sons of Jove (Castor and Pollux) who sit upon our shores, or
+the image of Nereus, who begot the noble chorus of the fifty Nereids. But
+another vain one, bold in his lawlessness, scoffed at these prayers, and
+said that they were shipwrecked[44] seamen who sat upon the cleft through
+fear of the law, hearing that we here sacrifice strangers. And to most of
+us he seemed to speak well, and [we resolved] to hunt for the accustomed
+victims for the Goddess. But meanwhile one of the strangers leaving the
+rock, stood still, and shook his head up and down, and groaned, with his
+very fingers quaking, wandering with ravings, and shouts with voice like
+that of hunter, "Pylades, dost thou behold this? Dost not behold this snake
+of Hades, how she would fain slay me, armed against me with horrid
+vipers?[45] And she breathing from beneath her garments[46] fire and
+slaughter, rows with her wings, bearing my mother in her arms, that she may
+cast upon me this rocky mass. Alas! she will slay me. Whither shall I fly?"
+And one beheld not the same form of countenance, but he uttered in turn the
+bellowings of calves and howls of dogs, which imitations [of wild beasts]
+they say the Furies utter. But we flinching, as though about to die, sat
+mute; and he drawing a sword with his hand, rushing among the calves,
+lion-like, strikes them on the flank with the steel, driving it into their
+sides, fancying that he was thus avenging himself on the Fury Goddesses,
+till that a gory foam was dashed up from the sea. Meanwhile, each one of
+us, as he beheld the herds being slain and ravaged, armed himself, and
+inflating the conch[47] shells and assembling the inhabitants--for we
+thought that herdsmen were weak to fight against well-trained and youthful
+strangers. And a large number of us was assembled in a short time. But the
+stranger, released from the attack of madness, drops down, with his beard
+befouled with foam. But when we saw him fallen opportunely [for us,] each
+man did his part, with stones, with blows. But the other of the strangers
+wiped away the foam, and tended his mouth, and spread over him the
+well-woven texture of his garments, guarding well the coming wounds, and
+aiding his friend with tender offices. But when the stranger returning to
+his senses leaped up, he perceived that a hostile tempest and present
+calamity was close upon them, and he groaned aloud. But we ceased not
+hurling rocks, each standing in a different place. But then indeed we heard
+a dread exhortation, "Pylades, we shall die, but that we die most
+gloriously! Follow me, drawing thy sword in hand." But when we saw the
+twain swords of the enemy[48] brandished, in flight we filled the woods
+about the crag. But if one fled, others pressing on pelted them; and if
+they drove these away, again the party who had just yielded aimed at them
+with rocks. But it was incredible, for out of innumerable hands no one
+succeeded in hitting these victims to the Goddess. And we with difficulty,
+I will not say overcome them by force, but taking them in a circle,
+beat[49] their swords out of their hands with stones, and they dropped
+their knees to earth [overcome] with toil. And we brought them to the king
+of this land, but he, when he beheld them, sent them as quickly as possible
+to thee for lustral waters and sacrifice. But do thou, O virgin, wish that
+such strangers may be here as victims, and if thou slayest these strangers,
+Hellas will atone for thy [intended] murder, paying the penalty of the
+sacrifice at Aulis.[50]
+
+CHOR. Thou hast told wondrous things concerning him who has appeared,
+whosoever he be that has come to the inhospitable sea from the Grecian
+earth.[51]
+
+IPH. Be it so. Do thou go and bring the strangers, but I will take care
+respecting the matters[52] here. O hapless heart, that once wast mild and
+full of pity toward strangers, awarding the tear to those of thine own
+land, when thou didst receive Grecian men into thine hands.[53] But now,
+because of the dreams by which I am driven wild, thinking that Orestes no
+longer beholds the sun, ye will find me ill disposed, whoever ye be that
+come. For this is true, I perceive it, my friends,[54] for the unhappy who
+themselves fare ill have no good feelings toward those more fortunate. But
+neither has any wind sent by Jove ever come [hither,] nor ship, which could
+have brought hither Helen, who destroyed me, and Menelaus, in order that I
+might be avenged on them, placing an Aulis here to the account[55] of the
+one there, where the sons of Danaus seized, and would have slain me like as
+a calf, and the father who begat me was the priest. Ah me! for I can not
+forget the ills of that time, how oft I stretched out my hands to his
+beard, and hanging on the knees of him who gave me life, spake words like
+these: "O father, basely am I, basely am I wedded at thine hands. But my
+mother, while thou art slaying me, and her Argive ladies are hymning my
+wedding[56] with their nuptial songs, and all the house resounds with the
+flute, while I perish by thy hands. Hades in truth was Achilles, not the
+son of Peleus, whom thou didst name as my husband, and in the chariot didst
+pilot me by craft unto a bloody wedding." But I, casting mine eye through
+my slender woven veil, neither took up with mine hands my brother who is
+now dead, nor joined my lips to my sister's,[57] through modesty, as
+departing to the home of Peleus; and many a salutation I deferred, as
+though about to come again to Argos. Oh wretched one, if thou hast died!
+from what glorious state, Orestes, and from how envied a sire's fortune art
+thou fallen! But I reproach the devices of the Goddess, who, if any one
+work the death of a man, or touch with hands a woman newly delivered, or a
+corpse, restrains him from her altars, as deeming him impure, but yet
+herself takes pleasure in man-slaying sacrifices. It can not be that the
+consort of Jove, Latona, hath brought forth so much ignorance. I even
+disbelieve the banquets of Tantalus set before the Gods, [as that they]
+should be pleased with feeding on a boy. But I deem that those in this
+land, being themselves man-slayers, charge the Goddess with their own
+baseness, for I think not that any one of the Gods is bad.
+
+CHOR. Ye dark blue, dark blue meetings of the sea, which Io, hurried along
+by the brize, once passed through to the Euxine wave, having changed the
+territory of Asia for Europe,--who were they who left fair-watered Eurotas,
+flourishing in reeds, or the sacred founts of Dirce, and came, and came to
+the inhospitable land, where the daughter of Jove bedews her altars and
+column-girt temples with human blood? Of a truth by the surge-dashing oars
+of fir, worked on both sides, they sailed in a nautical carriage o'er the
+ocean waves, striving in the emulation after loved wealth in their houses.
+For darling hope is in dangers insatiate among men, who bear off the weight
+of riches, wandering in vain speculation on the wave and o'er barbarian
+cities. But to some[58] there is a mind immoderate after riches, to others
+they come unsought. How did they pass through the rocks that run together,
+the ne'er resting beaches of Phineus, [and] the marine shore, running o'er
+the surge of Amphitrite,[59]--where the choruses of the fifty daughters of
+Nereus entwine in the dance,--[although] with breezes that fill the sails,
+the creaking rudders resting at the poop, with southern gales or the
+breezes of Zephyr, to the bird-haunted land, the white beach, the glorious
+race-course of Achilles, near the Euxine Sea. Would that, according to my
+mistress' prayers, Helen, the dear daughter of Leda, might sometime chance
+to come, quitting the city of Troy, that, having been drenched about the
+head with the blood-stained lustral dews, she might die by my mistress'
+hand, paying in turn an equal penalty [for her death.] Most joyfully then
+would we receive this news, if any one came sailing from the Grecian land,
+to make the toils of my hapless slavery to cease. And would that in my
+dreams I might tread[60] in mine home and ancestral city, enjoying the
+hymns of delight, a joy shared with the prosperous. But hither they come,
+bound as to their two[61] hands with chains, a new sacrifice for the
+Goddess. Be silent, my friends, for these first-fruits of the Greeks
+approach the temples, nor has the herdsman told a false tale. O reverend
+Goddess, if the city performs these things agreeably to thee, receive the
+sacrifice which, not hallowed among the Greeks, the custom of this place
+presents as a public offering.[62]
+
+IPH. Be it so. I must first take care that the rites of the Goddess are as
+they should be. Let go the hands of the strangers, that being consecrated
+they may no longer be in bonds. And, going within the temple, make ready
+the things which are necessary and usual on these occasions. Alas! Who is
+the mother who once bore you? And who your father, and your sister, if
+there be any born? Of what a pair of youths deprived will she be
+brotherless! For all the dispensations of the Gods creep into obscurity,
+and no one [absent] knows misfortune,[63] for fortune leads astray to what
+is hardly known. Whence come ye, O unhappy strangers? After how long a time
+have ye sailed to this land, and ye will be a long time from your home,
+ever among the shades![64]
+
+OR. Why mournest thou thus, and teasest us[65] concerning our future ills,
+whoever thou art, O lady? In naught do I deem him wise, who, when about to
+die, with bewailings seeks to overcome the fear of death, nor him who
+deplores death now near at hand,[66] when he has no hope of safety, in that
+he joins two ills instead of one, both incurs the charge of folly, and dies
+none the less. But one must needs let fortune take its course. But mourn us
+not, for we know and are acquainted with the sacrificial rites of this
+place.
+
+IPH. Which of ye twain here is named Pylades? This I would fain know first.
+
+OR. This man, if indeed 'tis any pleasure for thee to know this.
+
+IPH. Born citizen of what Grecian state?
+
+OR. And what wouldst thou gain by knowing this, lady?
+
+IPH. Are ye brothers from one mother?
+
+OR. In friendship we are, but we are not related, lady.
+
+IPH. But what name did the father who begot thee give to thee?
+
+OR. In truth we might be styled the unhappy.
+
+IPH. I ask not this. Leave this to fortune.
+
+OR. Dying nameless, I should not be mocked.
+
+IPH. Wherefore dost grudge this, and art thus proud?
+
+OR. My body thou shalt sacrifice, not my name.
+
+IPH. Nor wilt thou tell me which is thy city?
+
+OR. No. For thou seekest a thing of no profit, seeing I am to die.
+
+IPH. But what hinders thee from granting me this favor?
+
+OR. I boast renowned Argos for my country.
+
+IPH. In truth, by the Gods I ask thee, stranger, art thou thence born?
+
+OR. From Mycenæ,[67] that was once prosperous.
+
+IPH. And hast thou set out a wanderer from thy country, or by what hap?
+
+OR. I flee in a certain wise unwilling, willingly.
+
+IPH. Wouldst thou tell me one thing that I wish?
+
+OR. That something, forsooth,[68] may be added to my misfortune.
+
+IPH. And truly thou hast come desired by me, in coming from Argos.
+
+OR. Not by myself, at all events; but if by thee, do thou enjoy it.[69]
+
+IPH. Perchance thou knowest Troy, the fame of which is every where.
+
+OR. Ay, would that I never had, not even seeing it in a dream!
+
+IPH. They say that it is now no more, and has fallen by the spear.
+
+OR. And so it is, nor have you heard what is not the case.
+
+IPH. And is Helen come back to the house of Menelaus?
+
+OR. She is, ay, coming unluckily to one of mine.
+
+IPH. And where is she? For she has incurred an old debt of evil with me
+also.
+
+OR. She dwells in Sparta with her former consort.
+
+IPH. O hateful pest among the Greeks, not to me only!
+
+OR. I also have received some fruits of her nuptials.
+
+IPH. And did the return of the Greeks take place, as is reported?
+
+OR. How dost thou question me, embracing all matters at once!
+
+IPH. For I wish to obtain this before that thou diest.
+
+OR. Examine me, since thou hast this longing, and I will speak.
+
+IPH. Has a certain seer named Calchas returned from Troy?
+
+OR. He perished, as the story ran, at Mycenæ.
+
+IPH. O revered Goddess, how well it is! And how fares the son of Laertes?
+
+OR. He has not yet returned to his home, but he is alive, as report goes.
+
+IPH. May he perish, never obtaining a return to his country!
+
+OR. Invoke nothing--all his affairs are in a sickly state.
+
+IPH. But is the son of Thetis, the daughter of Nereus, yet alive?
+
+OR. He is not. In vain he held his wedding in Aulis.
+
+IPH. A crafty [wedding] it was, as those who have suffered say.
+
+OR. Who canst thou be? How well dost ken the affairs of Greece!
+
+IPH. I am from thence. While yet a child I was undone.
+
+OR. With reason thou desirest to know the affairs there, O lady.
+
+IPH. But how [fares] the general, who they say is prosperous.
+
+OR. Who? For he whom I know is not of the fortunate.
+
+IPH. A certain king Agamemnon was called the son of Atreus.
+
+OR. I know not--cease from these words, O lady.
+
+IPH. Nay, by the Gods, but speak, that I may be rejoiced, O stranger.
+
+OR. The wretched one is dead, and furthermore hath ruined one.[70]
+
+IPH. Is dead? By what mishap? O wretched me!
+
+OR. But why dost mourn this? Was he a relation of thine?
+
+IPH. I bemoan his former prosperity.
+
+OR. [Ay, well mayest thou,] for he has fallen, slain shamefully by a woman.
+
+IPH. O all grievous she that slew and he that fell!
+
+OR. Cease now at least, nor question further.
+
+IPH. Thus much at least, does the wife of the unhappy man live?
+
+OR. She is no more. The son she brought forth, he slew her.
+
+IPH. O house all troubled! with what intent, then?[71]
+
+OR. Taking satisfaction on her for the death of his father.
+
+IPH. Alas! how well he executed an evil act of justice.[72]
+
+OR. But, though just, he hath not good fortune from the Gods.
+
+IPH. But does Agamemnon leave any other child in his house?
+
+OR. He has left a single virgin [daughter,] Electra.
+
+IPH. What! Is there no report of his sacrificed daughter?[73]
+
+OR. None indeed, save that being dead she beholds not the light.
+
+IPH. Hapless she, and the father who slew her!
+
+OR. She perished, a thankless offering[74] because of a bad woman.
+
+IPH. But is the son of the deceased father at Argos?
+
+OR. He, wretched man, is nowhere and every where.
+
+IPH. Away, vain dreams, ye were then of naught!
+
+OR. Nor are the Gods who are called wise any less false than winged dreams.
+There is much inconsistency both among the Gods and among mortals. But one
+thing alone is left, when[75] a man not being foolish, persuaded by the
+words of seers, has perished, as he hath perished in man's knowledge.
+
+CHOR. Alas! alas! But what of us and our fathers? Are they, or are they not
+in being, who can tell?
+
+IPH. Hear me, for I am come to a certain discourse, meditating what is at
+once profitable for you and me. But that which is well is chiefly produced
+thus, when the same matter pleases all. Would ye be willing, if I were to
+save you, to go to Argos, and bear a message for me to my friends there,
+and carry a letter, which a certain captive wrote, pitying me, nor deeming
+my hand that of a murderess, but that he died through custom, as the
+Goddess sanctioned such things as just? For I had no one who would go and
+bear the news back to Argos, and who, being preserved, would send my
+letters to some one of my friends.[76] But do thou, for thou art, as thou
+seemest, of no ignoble birth, and knowest Mycenæ and the persons I wish, do
+thou, I say,[77] be saved, receiving no dishonorable reward, your safety
+for the sake of trifling letters. But let this man, since the city compels
+it, be a sacrifice to the Goddess, apart from thee.
+
+OR. Well hast thou spoken the rest, save one thing, O stranger lady, for
+'tis a heavy weight upon me that this man should be slain. For I was
+steersman of the vessel to these ills,[78] but he is a fellow-sailor
+because of mine own troubles. In no wise then is it right that I should do
+thee a favor to his destruction, and myself escape from ills. But let it be
+thus. Give him the letter, for he will send it to Argos, so as to be well
+for thee, but let him that will slay me. Base is the man, who, casting his
+friends into calamity, himself is saved. But this man is a friend, who I
+fain should see the light no less that myself.
+
+IPH. O noblest spirit, how art thou sprung from some generous root, thou
+truly a friend to thy friends! Such might he be who is left of my brothers!
+For in good truth, strangers, I am not brotherless, save that I behold him
+not. But since thou willest thus, let us send this man bearing the letter,
+but thou wilt die, and some great desire of this chances to possess
+thee?[79]
+
+OR. But who will sacrifice me, and dare this dreadful deed?
+
+IPH. I; for I have this sacrificial duty[80] from the Goddess.
+
+OR. Unenviable indeed. O damsel, and unblest.
+
+IPH. But we lie under necessity, which one must beware.
+
+OR. Thyself, a female, sacrificing males with the sword?
+
+IPH. Not so; but I shall lave around thy head with the lustral stream.
+
+OR. But who is the slayer, if I may ask this?
+
+IPH. Within the house are they whose office is this.
+
+OR. And what manner of tomb will receive me, when I die?
+
+IPH. The holy flame within, and the dark chasm of the rock.[81]
+
+OR. Alas! Would that a sister's hand might lay me out.[82]
+
+IPH. A vain prayer hast thou uttered, whoever thou art, O stranger, for she
+dwells far from this barbarian land. Nevertheless, since thou art an
+Argive, I will not fail to do thee kindness in what is possible. For on thy
+tomb will I place much adornment, and with the tawny oil will I cause thy
+body to be soon consumed,[83] and on thy pyre will I pour the flower-sucked
+riches of the swarthy bee. But I will go and fetch the letter from the
+shrines of the Goddess. But do thou not bear ill will against me. Guard
+them, ye servants, [but] without fetters.[84] Perchance I shall send
+unexpected tidings to some one of my friends at Argos, whom I chiefly love,
+and the letter, telling to him that she lives whom he thinks dead, will
+announce a faithful pleasure.
+
+CHOR. I deplore thee now destined to the gory streams of the lustral
+waters.[85]
+
+OR. 'Tis piteous, truly;[86] but fare ye well, stranger ladies.
+
+CHOR. But thee, (_to Pylades_) O youth, we honor for thy happy fortune,
+that at some time thou wilt return to thy country.
+
+PYL. Not to be coveted[87] by friends, when friends are to die.
+
+CHOR. O mournful journeying! Alas! alas! thou art undone. Woe! woe! which
+is the [victim] to be? For still my mind resolves[88] twain doubtful
+[ills,] whether with groans I shall bemoan thee (_to Orestes_) or thee (_to
+Pylades_) first.
+
+OR. Pylades, hast thou, by the Gods, experienced the same feeling as
+myself?
+
+PYL. I know not. Thou askest me unable to say.
+
+OR. Who is this damsel? With what a Grecian spirit she asked us concerning
+the toils in Troy, and the return of the Greeks, and Calchas wise in
+augury, and about Achilles, and how she pitied wretched Agamemnon, and
+asked me of his wife and children. This stranger lady is[89] some Greek by
+race; for otherwise she never would have been sending a letter and making
+these inquiries, as sharing a common weal in the well-doing of Argos.
+
+PYL. Thou hast outstripped me a little, but thou outstrippest me in saying
+the same things, save in one respect--for all, with whom there is any
+communication, know the fate of the king. But I was[90] considering another
+subject.
+
+OR. What? laying it down in common, you will better understand.
+
+PYL. 'Tis base that I should behold the light, while you perish; and,
+having sailed with you, with you I must needs die also. For I shall incur
+the imputation of both cowardice and baseness in Argos and the Phocian land
+with its many dells, and I shall seem to the many, for the many are evil,
+to have arrived alone in safety to mine home, having deserted thee, or even
+to have murdered thee, taking advantage of the sickly state of thine house,
+and to have devised thy fate for the sake of reigning, in order that,
+forsooth, I might wed thy sister as an heiress[91]. These things, then, I
+dread, and hold in shame, and it shall not be but I will breathe my last
+with thee, be slain, and have my body burned with thee, being a friend, and
+dreading reproach.
+
+OR. Speak words of better omen. I must needs bear my troubles, but when I
+may [endure] one single trouble, I will not endure twain. For what thou
+callest bitter and reproachful, that is my portion, if I cause thee to be
+slain who hast shared my toils. For, as far as I am concerned, it stands
+not badly with me, faring as I fare at the hands of the Gods, to end my
+life. But thou art prosperous, and hast a home pure, not sickening, but I
+[have] one impious and unhappy. And living thou mayest raise children from
+my sister, whom I gave thee to have[92] as a wife, and my name might exist,
+nor would my ancestral house be ever blotted out. But go, live, and dwell
+in my father's house; and when thou comest to Greece and chivalrous Argos,
+by thy right hand, I commit to thee this charge. Heap up a tomb, and place
+upon it remembrances of me, and let my sister offer tears and her shorn
+locks upon my sepulchre. And tell how I died by an Argive woman's hand,
+sacrificed as an offering by the altar's side. And do thou never desert my
+sister, seeing my father's connections and home bereaved. And fare thee
+well! for I have found thee best among my friends. Oh thou who hast been my
+fellow-huntsman, my mate! Oh thou who hast borne the weight of many of my
+sorrows! But Phœbus, prophet though he be, has deceived me. For, artfully
+devising, he has driven me as far as possible from Greece, in shame of his
+former prophecies. To whom I, yielding up mine all, and obeying his words,
+having slain my mother, myself perish in turn.
+
+PYL. Thou shalt have a tomb, and never will I, hapless one, betray thy
+sister's bed, since I shall hold thee more a friend dead than living. But
+the oracle of the God has never yet wronged thee, although thou art indeed
+on the very verge of death. But excessive mischance is very wont, is very
+wont to present changes, when the matter so falls.
+
+OR. Be silent--the words of Phœbus avail me naught, for the lady is coming
+hither without the temple.
+
+IPH. Depart ye, and go and make ready the things within for those who
+superintend the sacrifice. These, O stranger, are the many-folded
+inclosures of the letter, but hear thou what I further wish. No man is the
+same in trouble, and when he changes from fear into confidence. But I fear,
+lest he having got away from this land, will deem my letter of no account,
+who is about to bear this letter to Argos.[93]
+
+OR. What wouldst thou? Concerning what art thou disturbed?
+
+IPH. Let him make me oath that he will ferry these writings to Argos, to
+those friends to whom I wish to send them.
+
+OR. Wilt thou in turn make the same assertion to him?
+
+IPH. That I will do, or will not do what thing? say.
+
+OR. That you will release him from this barbarian land, not dying.
+
+IPH. Thou sayest justly; for how could he bear the message?
+
+OR. But will the ruler also grant this?
+
+IPH. Yea. I will persuade him, and will myself embark him on the ship's
+hull.
+
+OR. Swear, but do thou commence such oath as is holy.
+
+IPH. Thou must say "I will give this [letter] to my friends."
+
+PYL. I will give this letter to thy friends.
+
+IPH. And I will send thee safe beyond the Cyanean rocks.
+
+PYL. Whom of the Gods dost thou call to witness of thine oath in these
+words?
+
+IPH. Diana, in whose temple I hold office.
+
+PYL. But I [call upon] the king of heaven, hallowed Jove.
+
+IPH. But if, deserting thine oath, thou shouldst wrong me--
+
+PYL. May I not return? But thou, if thou savest me not--
+
+IPH. May I never living set footprint in Argos.
+
+PYL. Hear now then a matter which we have passed by.
+
+IPH. There will be opportunity hereafter, if matters stand aright.
+
+PYL. Grant me this one exception. If the vessel suffer any harm, and the
+letter be lost[94] in the storm, together with the goods, and I save my
+person only, that this mine oath be no longer valid.[95]
+
+IPH. Knowest thou what I will do?[96] for the many things contained in the
+folds of the letter bear opportunity for many things.[97] I will tell you
+in words all that you are to convey to my friends, for this plan is safe.
+If indeed thou preservest the letter, it will itself silently tell the
+things written, but if these letters be lost at sea, saving thy body, thou
+wilt preserve my message.
+
+PYL. Thou hast spoken well on behalf of the Gods[98] and of myself. But
+tell me to whom at Argos I must needs bear these epistles, and what hearing
+from thee, I must tell.
+
+IPH. Bear word to Orestes, the son of Agamemnon, (_reading_) "she[99] that
+was sacrificed at Aulis gives this commission, Iphigenia alive, but no
+longer alive as far as those in Argos are concerned."
+
+OR. But where is she? Does she come back again having died?
+
+IPH. She, whom you see. Do not confuse me with speaking. (_Continues
+reading_) "Bear me to Argos, my brother, before I die, remove me from this
+barbarian land and the sacrifices of the Goddess, in which I have the
+office of slaying strangers."
+
+OR. Pylades, what shall I say? where shall we be found to be?[100]
+
+IPH. (_still reading_) "Or I will be a cause of curses upon thine house,
+Orestes," (_with great stress upon the name and turning to Pylades_,) "that
+thou, twice hearing the name, mayest know it."
+
+PYL. O Gods!
+
+IPH. Why callest thou upon the Gods in matters that are mine?
+
+PYL. 'Tis nothing. Go on. I was wandering to another subject. Perchance,
+inquiring of thee, I shall arrive at things incredible.[101]
+
+IPH. (_continues reading_) "Say that the Goddess Diana saved me, giving in
+exchange for me a hind, which my father sacrificed, thinking that it was
+upon me that he laid the sharp sword, and she placed me to dwell in this
+land." This is the burden of my message, these are the words written in my
+letter.
+
+PYL. O thou who hast secured me in easy oaths, and hast sworn things
+fairest, I will not delay much time, but I will firmly accomplish the oath
+I have sworn. Behold, I bear and deliver to thee a letter, O Orestes, from
+this thy sister.
+
+OR. I receive it. And letting go the opening of the letter, I will first
+seize a delight not in words (_attempts to embrace her_). O dearest sister
+mine, in amazement, yet nevertheless embracing thee with a doubting arm, I
+go to a source of delight, hearing things marvelous to me.[102]
+
+CHOR. Stranger,[103] thou dost not rightly pollute the servant of the
+Goddess, casting thine arm around her garments that should ne'er be
+touched.
+
+OR. O fellow-sister born of one sire, Agamemnon, turn not from me,
+possessing a brother whom you never thought to possess.
+
+IPH. I [possess] thee my brother? Wilt not cease speaking? Both Argos and
+Nauplia are frequented by him.[104]
+
+OR. Unhappy one! thy brother is not there.
+
+IPH. But did the Lacedæmonian daughter of Tyndarus beget thee?
+
+OR. Ay, to the grandson of Pelops, whence I am sprung.[105]
+
+IPH. What sayest thou? Hast thou any proof of this for me?
+
+OR. I have. Ask something relative to my ancestral home.
+
+IPH. Thou must needs then speak, and I learn.
+
+OR. I will first speak from hearsay from Electra, this.[106] Thou knowest
+the strife that took place between Atreus and Thyestes?
+
+IPH. I have heard of it, when it was waged concerning the golden lamb.
+
+OR. Dost thou then remember weaving [a representation of] this on the
+deftly-wrought web?
+
+IPH. O dearest one. Thou art turning thy course near to my own
+thoughts.[107]
+
+OR. And [dost thou remember] a picture on the loom, the turning away of the
+sun?
+
+IPH. I wove this image also in the fine-threaded web.
+
+OR. And didst thou receive[108] a bath from thy mother, sent to Aulis?
+
+IPH. I know it: for the wedding, though good, did not take away my
+recollection.[109]
+
+OR. But what? [Dost thou remember] to have given thine hair to be carried
+to thy mother?
+
+IPH. Ay, as a memorial for the tomb[110] in place of my body.
+
+OR. But the proofs which I have myself beheld, these will I tell, viz. the
+ancient spear of Pelops in my father's house, which brandishing in his
+hand, he [Pelops] won Hippodameia, having slain Ænomaus, which is hidden in
+thy virgin chamber.
+
+IPH. O dearest one, no more, for thou art dearest. I hold thee, Orestes,
+one darling son[111] far away from his father-land, from Argos, O thou dear
+one!
+
+OR. And I [hold] thee that wast dead, as was supposed. But tears, yet
+tearless,[112] and groans together mingled with joy, bedew thine eyelids,
+and mine in like manner.
+
+IPH. This one, this, yet a babe I left, young in the arms of the nurse, ay,
+young in our house. O thou more fortunate than my words[113] can tell, what
+shall I say? This matter has turned out beyond marvel or calculation.
+
+OR. [Say this.] May we for the future be happy with each other!
+
+IPH. I have experienced an unaccountable delight, dear companions, but I
+fear lest it flit[114] from my hands, and escape toward the sky. O ye
+Cyclopean hearths, O Mycenæ, dear country mine. I am grateful to thee for
+my life, and grateful for my nurture, in that thou hast trained for me this
+brother light in my home.
+
+OR. In our race we are fortunate, but as to calamities, O sister, our life
+is by nature unhappy.
+
+IPH. But I wretched remember when my father with foolish spirit laid the
+sword upon my neck.
+
+OR. Ah me! For I seem, not being present, to behold you there.[115]
+
+IPH. Without Hymen, O my brother, when I was being led to the fictitious
+nuptial bed of Achilles. But near the altar were tears and lamentations.
+Alas! alas, for the lustral waters there!
+
+OR. I mourn aloud for the deed my father dared.
+
+IPH. I obtained a fatherless, a fatherless lot. But one calamity follows
+upon another.[116]
+
+OR. [Ay,] if thou hadst lost thy brother, O hapless one, by the
+intervention of some demon.
+
+IPH. O miserable for my dreadful daring! I have dared horrid, I have dared
+horrid things. Alas! my brother. But by a little hast thou escaped an
+unholy destruction, stricken by my hands. But what will be the end after
+this? What fortune will befall me? What retreat can I find for thee away
+from this city? can I send you out of the reach of slaughter to your
+country Argos, before that my sword enter on the contest concerning thy
+blood?[117] This is thy business, O hapless soul, to discover, whether over
+the land, not in a ship, but by the gust[118] of your feet thou wilt
+approach death, passing through[119] barbarian hordes, and through ways not
+to be traversed? Or[120] [wilt thou pass] through the Cyanean creek, a long
+journey in the flight of ships. Wretched, wretched one! Who then or God, or
+mortal, or [unexpected event,[121]] having accomplished a way out of
+inextricable difficulties, will show forth to the sole twain Atrides a
+release from ills?
+
+CHOR. Among marvels and things passing even fable are these things which I
+shall tell as having myself beheld, and not from hearsay.
+
+PYL. It is meet indeed that friends coming into the presence of friends,
+Orestes, should embrace one another with their hands, but, having ceased
+from mournful matters, it behooves you also to betake you to those measures
+by which we, obtaining the glorious name of safety, may depart from this
+barbarian earth. For it is the part of wise men, not wandering from their
+present chance, when they have obtained an opportunity, to acquire further
+delights.[122]
+
+OR. Thou sayest well. But I think that fortune will take care of this with
+us. For if a man be zealous, it is likely that the divine power will have
+still greater power.
+
+IPH. Do not restrain or hinder me from your words, not first to know what
+fortune of life Electra has obtained, for this were pleasant to me [to
+hear.][123]
+
+OR. She is partner with this man, possessing a happy life.
+
+IPH. And of what country is he, and son of what man born?
+
+OR. Strophius the Phocian is styled his father.
+
+IPH. And he is of the daughter of Atreus, a relative of mine?
+
+OR. Ay, a cousin, my only certain friend.
+
+IPH. Was he not in being, when my father sought to slay me?
+
+OR. He was not, for Strophius was childless some time.
+
+IPH. Hail! O thou spouse of my sister.
+
+OR. Ay, and my preserver, not relation only.
+
+IPH. But how didst thou dare the terrible deeds in respect to your mother?
+
+OR. Let us be silent respecting my mother--'twas in avenging my father.
+
+IPH. And what was the reason for her slaying her husband?
+
+OR. Let go the subject of my mother. Nor is it pleasant for you to hear.
+
+IPH. I am silent. But Argos now looks up to thee.
+
+OR. Menelaus rules: I am an exile from my country.
+
+IPH. What, did our uncle abuse our house unprospering?
+
+OR. Not so, but the fear of the Erinnyes drives me from my land.
+
+IPH. For this then wert thou spoken of as being frantic even here on the
+shore.
+
+OR. We were beheld not now for the first time in a hapless state.
+
+IPH. I perceive. The Goddesses goaded thee on because of thy mother.
+
+OR. Ay, so as to cast a bloody bit[124] upon me.
+
+IPH. For wherefore didst thou pilot thy foot to this land?
+
+OR. I came, commanded by the oracles of Phœbus--
+
+IPH. To do what thing? Is it one to be spoken of or kept in silence?
+
+OR. I will tell you, but these are the beginning for me of many[125] woes.
+After these evil things concerning my mother, on which I keep silence, had
+been wrought, I was driven an exile by the pursuits of the Erinnyes, when
+Loxias sent my foot[126] to Athens, that I might render satisfaction to the
+deities that must not be named. For there is a holy council, that Jove once
+on a time instituted for Mars on account of some pollution of his
+hands.[127] And coming thither, at first indeed no one of the strangers
+received me willingly, as being abhorred by the Gods, but they who had
+respect to me, afforded me[128] a stranger's meal at a separate table,
+being under the same house roof, and silently devised in respect to me,
+unaddressed by them, how I might be separated from their banquet[129] and
+cup, and, having filled up a share of wine in a separate vessel, equal for
+all, they enjoyed themselves. And I did not think fit to rebuke my guests,
+but I grieved in silence, and did not seem to perceive [their conduct,]
+deeply groaning, because I was my mother's slayer.[130] But I hear that my
+misfortunes have been made a festival at Athens, and that this custom still
+remains, that the people of Pallas honor the Libation Vessel.[131] But when
+I came to the hill of Mars, and stood in judgment, I indeed occupying one
+seat, but the eldest of the Erinnyes the other, having spoken and heard
+respecting my mother's death, Phœbus saved me by bearing witness, but
+Pallas counted out for me[132] the equal votes with her hand, and I came
+off victor in the bloody trial.[133] As many then as sat [in judgment,]
+persuaded by the sentence, determined to hold their dwelling near the court
+itself.[134] But as many of the Erinnyes as did not yield obedience to the
+sentence passed, continually kept driving me with unsettled wanderings,
+until I again returned to the holy ground of Phœbus, and lying stretched
+before the adyts, hungering for food, I swore that I would break from life
+by dying on the spot, unless Phœbus, who had undone, should preserve me.
+Upon this Phœbus, uttering a voice from the golden tripod, sent me hither
+to seize the heaven-sent image, and place it in the land of Athens. But
+that safety which he marked out for me do thou aid in. For if we can lay
+hold on the image of the Goddess, I both shall cease from my madness, and
+embarking thee in the bark of many oars, I shall settle thee again in
+Mycenæ. But, O beloved one, O sister mine, preserve my ancestral home, and
+preserve me, since all my state and that of the Pelopids is undone, unless
+we seize on the heavenly image of the Goddess.
+
+CHOR. Some dreadful wrath of the Gods hath burst forth, and leads the seed
+of Tantalus through troubles.[135]
+
+IPH. I entertained the desire to reach Argos, and behold thee, my brother,
+even before thou camest. But I wish, as you do, both to save thee, and to
+restore again our sickening ancestral home from troubles, in no wise wrath
+with him who would have slain me. For I should both release my hand from
+thy slaughter, and preserve mine house. But I fear how I shall be able to
+escape the notice of the Goddess and the king, when he shall find the stone
+pedestal bared of the image. And how shall I escape death? What account can
+I give? But if indeed these matters can be effected at once, and thou wilt
+bear away the image, and lead me in the fair-pooped ship, the risk will be
+a glorious one. But separated from this I perish, but you, arranging your
+own affairs, would obtain a prosperous return. Yet in no wise will I fly,
+not even if I needs must perish, having preserved thee. In no wise, I
+say;[136] for a man who dies from among his household is regretted, but a
+woman is of little account.
+
+OR. I would not be the murderer both of thee and of my mother. Her blood is
+enough, and being of the same mind with you, [with you] I should wish,
+living or dying, to obtain an equal lot. †But I will lead thee, even though
+I myself fall here, to my house, or, remaining with thee, will die.[137]†
+But hear my opinion. If this had been disagreeable to Diana, how would
+Loxias have answered, that I should remove the image of the Goddess to the
+city of Pallas, and behold thy face? For, putting all these matters
+together, I hope to obtain a return.
+
+IPH. How then can it happen that neither you die, and that we obtain what
+we wish? For it is in this respect that our journey homeward is at fault,
+but the will is not wanting.
+
+OR. Could we possibly destroy the tyrant?
+
+IPH, Thou tellest a fearful thing, for strangers to slay their receivers.
+
+OR. But if it will preserve thee and me, one must run the risk.
+
+IPH. I could not--yet I approve your zeal.
+
+OR. But what if you were secretly to hide me in this temple?
+
+IPH. In order, forsooth, that, taking advantage of darkness, we might be
+saved?
+
+OR. For night is the time for thieves, the light for truth.
+
+IPH. But within are the sacred keepers,[138] whom we can not escape.
+
+OR. Alas! we are undone. How can we then be saved?
+
+IPH. I seem to have a certain new device.
+
+OR. Of what kind? Make me a sharer in your opinion, that I also may learn.
+
+IPH. I will make use of thy ravings as a contrivance.
+
+OR. Ay, cunning are women to find out tricks.
+
+IPH. I will say that thou, being slayer of thy mother, art come from Argos.
+
+OR. Make use of my troubles, if you can turn them to account.
+
+IPH. I will say that it is not lawful to sacrifice thee to the Goddess.
+
+OR. Having what pretext? For I partly suspect.
+
+IPH. As not being pure, but I will [say that I will][139] give what is holy
+to sacrifice.
+
+OR. How then the more will the image of the Goddess be obtained?
+
+IPH. I [will say that I] will purify thee in the fountains of the sea.
+
+OR. The statue, in quest of which, we have sailed, is still in the temple.
+
+IPH. And I will say that I must wash that too, as if you had laid hands on
+it.
+
+OR. Where then is the damp breaker of the sea of which you speak?
+
+IPH. Where thy ship rides at anchor with rope-bound chains.
+
+OR. But wilt thou, or some one else, bear the image in their hands?
+
+IPH. I, for it is lawful for me alone to touch it.
+
+OR. But in what part of this contrivance will our friend Pylades[140] be
+placed?
+
+IPH. He will be said to bear the same pollution of hands as thyself.
+
+OR. And wilt thou do this unknown to, or with the knowledge of the king?
+
+IPH. Having persuaded him by words, for I could not escape notice.
+
+OR. And truly the well-rowed ship is ready for sailing.[141]
+
+IPH. You must take care of the rest, that it be well.
+
+OR. There lacks but one thing, namely, that these women who are present
+preserve our secret. But do thou beseech them, and find words that will
+persuade. A woman in truth has power to move pity. But all the rest will
+perchance fall out well.
+
+IPH. O dearest women, I look to you, and my affairs rest in you, as to
+whether they turn out well, or be of naught, and I be deprived of my
+country, my dear brother, and dearest sister. And let this first be the
+commencement of my words. We are women, a race well inclined to one
+another, and most safe in keeping secret matters of common interest. Do ye
+keep silence for us, and labor out our escape. Honorable is it for the man
+who possesses a faithful tongue. But behold how one fortune holds the three
+most dear, either a return to our father-land, or to die. But, being
+preserved, that thou also mayest share my fortune, I will restore thee safe
+to Greece. But, by thy right hand, thee, and thee [_addressing the women of
+the chorus in succession_] I beseech, and thee by thy beloved cheek, and
+thy knees, and those most dear at home, mother, and father, and children,
+to whom there are such.[142] What say ye? Who of you will, or will not
+[speak!] these things.[143] For if ye assent not to my words, I am undone,
+and my wretched sister.
+
+CHOR. Be of good cheer, dear mistress, and think only of being saved, since
+on my part all shall be kept secret, the mighty Jove be witness! in the
+things thou enjoinest.
+
+IPH. May your words profit ye, and may ye be blest. 'Tis thy part now, and
+thine [to the different women] to enter the house, as the ruler of this
+land will straightway come, inquiring concerning the sacrifice of the
+strangers, whether it is over. O revered Goddess, who in the recesses of
+Aulis didst save me from the dire hand of a slaying father, now also save
+me and these, or the voice of Loxias will through thee be no longer
+truthful among mortals. But do thou with good will quit the barbarian land
+for Athens, for it becomes thee not to dwell here, when you can possess a
+blest city.
+
+CHORUS. Thou bird, that by the rocky cliffs of the sea, halcyon,[144] dost
+chant thy mournful elegy, a sound well understood by the skilled, namely,
+that thou art ever bemoaning thine husband in song, I, a wingless bird,
+compare my dirge with thine, longing for the assemblies[145] of the Greeks,
+longing for Lucina, who dwells along the Cynthian height, and near the
+palm[146] with its luxuriant foliage, and the rich-springing laurel, and
+the holy shoot of the deep blue olive, the dear place of Latona's
+throes,[147] and the lake that rolls its waters in a circle,[148] where the
+melodious swan honors the muses. O ye many tricklings of tears which fell
+upon my cheeks, when, our towers being destroyed, I traveled in ships
+beneath the oars and the spears of the foes.[149] And through a bartering
+of great price I came a journey to a barbarian land,[150] where I serve the
+daughter of Agamemnon, the priestess of the Goddess, and the
+sheep-slaughtering[151] altars, envying her who has all her life been
+unfortunate;[152] for she bends not under necessity, who is familiar with
+it. Unhappiness is wont to change,[153] but to fare ill after prosperity is
+a heavy life for mortals. And thee indeed, O mistress, an Argive ship of
+fifty oars will conduct home, and the wax-bound reed of mountain Pan with
+Syrinx tune cheer on the oarsmen, and prophet Phœbus, plying the tones of
+his seven-stringed lyre, with song will lead thee prosperously to the rich
+land of Athens. But leaving me here thou wilt travel by the dashing oars.
+And the halyards by the prow,[154] will stretch forth the sails to the air,
+above the beak, the sheet lines of the swift-journeying ship. Would that I
+might pass through the glittering course, where the fair light of the sun
+wends its way, and over my own chamber might rest from rapidly moving the
+pinions on my shoulders.[155] And would that I might stand in the dance,
+where also [I was wont to stand,] a virgin sprung from honorable
+nuptials,[156] wreathing the dances of my companions at the foot of my dear
+mother,[157] bounding to the rivalry of the graces, to the wealthy strife
+respecting [beauteous] hair, pouring my variously-painted garb and tresses
+around, I shadowed my cheeks.[158]
+
+[_Enter_ THOAS.]
+
+THOAS. Where is the Grecian woman who keeps the gate of this temple? Has
+she yet begun the sacrifice of the strangers, and are the bodies burning in
+the flame within the pure recesses?
+
+CHOR. Here she is, O king, who will tell thee clearly all.
+
+TH. Ah! Why art thou removing in your arms this image of the Goddess from
+its seat that may not be disturbed, O daughter of Agamemnon?
+
+IPH. O king, rest there thy foot in the portico.
+
+TH. But what new matter is in the house, Iphigenia?
+
+IPH. I avert the ill--for holy[159] do I utter this word.
+
+TH. What new thing art thou prefacing? speak clearly.
+
+IPH. O king, no pure offerings hast thou hunted out for me.
+
+TH. What hath taught you this? or dost thou speak it as matter of opinion?
+
+IPH. The image of the Goddess hath again turned away from her seat.[160]
+
+TH. Of its own accord, or did an earthquake turn it?
+
+IPH. Of its own accord, and it closed its eyes.
+
+TH. But what is the cause? is it pollution from the strangers?
+
+IPH. That very thing, naught else, for they have done dreadful things.
+
+TH. What, did they slay any of the barbarians upon the shore?
+
+IPH. They came possessing the stain of domestic murder.
+
+TH. What? for I am fallen into a longing to learn this.
+
+IPH. They put an end to a mother's life by conspiring sword.
+
+TH. Apollo! not even among barbarians would any one have dared this.
+
+IPH. By persecutions they were driven out of all Greece.
+
+TH. Is it then on their account that thou bearest the image without?
+
+IPH. Ay, under the holy sky, that I may remove it from blood stains.
+
+TH. But how didst thou discover the pollution of the strangers?
+
+IPH. I examined them, when the image of the Goddess turned away.
+
+TH. Greece hath trained thee up wise, in that thou well didst perceive
+this.
+
+IPH. And now they have cast out a delightful bait for my mind.
+
+TH. By telling thee any charming news of those at Argos?
+
+IPH. That my only brother Orestes fares well.
+
+TH. So that, forsooth, thou mightest preserve them because of their
+pleasant news!
+
+IPH. And that my father lives and fares well.
+
+TH. But thou hast with reason attended to the interest of the Goddess.
+
+IPH. Ay, because hating all Greece that destroyed me.
+
+TH. What then shall we do, say, concerning the two strangers?
+
+IPH. We needs must respect the established law.
+
+TH. Are not the lustral waters and thy sword already engaged?[161]
+
+IPH. First I would fain lave them in pure cleansings.
+
+TH. In the fountains of waters, or in the dew of the sea?
+
+IPH. The sea washes out all the ills of men.
+
+TH. They would certainly fall in a more holy manner before the Goddess.
+
+IPH. And my matters would be in a more fitting state.[162]
+
+TH. Does not the wave dash against the very temple?
+
+IPH. There is need of solitude, for we have other things to do.
+
+TH. Lead them whither thou wilt, I crave not to see things that may not be
+told.
+
+IPH. The image of the Goddess also must be purified by me.
+
+TH. If indeed the stain of the matricide hath fallen on it.
+
+IPH. For otherwise I should not have removed it from its pedestal.
+
+TH. Just piety and foresight! How reasonably doth all the city marvel at
+thee!
+
+IPH. Knowest thou then what must be done for me?
+
+TH. 'Tis thine to explain this.
+
+IPH. Cast fetters upon the strangers.
+
+TH. Whither could they escape from thee?
+
+IPH. Greece knows nothing faithful.
+
+TH. Go for the fetters, attendants.
+
+IPH. Ay, and let them bring the strangers hither.
+
+TH. This shall be.
+
+IPH. Having enveloped their heads in robes.
+
+TH. Against the scorching of the sun?
+
+IPH. And send thou with me of thy followers--
+
+TH. These shall accompany thee.
+
+IPH. And send some one to signify to the city--
+
+TH. What hap?
+
+IPH. That all remain in their homes.
+
+TH. Lest they encounter homicide?
+
+IPH. For such things are unclean.
+
+TH. Go thou, and order this.
+
+IPH. That no one come into sight.
+
+TH. Thou carest well for the city.
+
+IPH. Ay, and more particularly friends must not be present.[163]
+
+TH. This you say in reference to me.
+
+IPH. But do thou, abiding here before the temple of the Goddess--
+
+TH. Do what?
+
+IPH. Purify the house with a torch.
+
+TH. That it may be pure when thou comest back to it?
+
+IPH. But when the strangers come out,
+
+TH. What must I do?
+
+IPH. Place your garment before your eyes.
+
+TH. Lest I contract contagion?
+
+IPH. But if I seem to tarry very long,
+
+TH. What limit of this shall I have?
+
+IPH. Wonder at nothing.
+
+TH. Do thou rightly the business of the Goddess at thy leisure.
+
+IPH. And may this purification turn out as I wish!
+
+TH. I join in your prayer.
+
+IPH. I now see these strangers coming out of the house, and the adornments
+of the Goddess, and the young lambs, in order that I may wash out foul
+slaughter by slaughter, and the shining light of lamps, and the other
+things, as many as I ordered as purifications for the strangers and the
+Goddess. But I proclaim to the strangers to get out of the way of this
+pollution, if any gate-keeper of the temples keeps pure hands for the Gods,
+or is about to join in nuptial alliance, or is pregnant, flee, get out of
+the way, lest this pollution fall on any. O thou queen, virgin daughter of
+Jove and Latona, if I wash away the blood-pollution from these men, and
+sacrifice where 'tis fitting, thou wilt occupy a pure house, and we shall
+be prosperous. But although I do not speak of the rest, I nevertheless
+signify my meaning to the Gods who know most things,[164] and to thee, O
+Goddess.
+
+CHORUS.[165] Of noble birth is the offspring of Latona, whom once on a time
+in the fruitful valleys of Delos, Phœbus with his golden locks, skilled on
+the lyre, (and she who rejoices in skill of the bow,) his mother bore while
+yet an infant[166] from the sea-side rock, leaving the renowned place of
+her delivery, destitute of waters,[167] the Parnassian height haunted by
+Bacchus, where the ruddy-visaged serpent, with spotted back, † brazen †
+beneath the shady laurel with its rich foliage, an enormous prodigy of the
+earth, guarded the subterranean oracle. Him thou, O Phœbus, while yet an
+infant, while yet leaping in thy dear mother's arms, didst slay, and
+entered upon thy divine oracles, and thou sittest on the golden tripod, on
+the throne that is ever true, distributing to mortals prophecies from the
+divine adyts beneath the Castalian streams, dwelling hard by, occupying a
+dwelling in the middle of the earth.[168] But when, having gone against
+Themis, daughter of earth, he expelled her from the divine oracles, earth
+begot dark phantoms of dreams, which to many mortals explain what first,
+what afterward, what in future will happen, during their sleep in the
+couches of the dusky earth.[169] But † the earth † deprived Phœbus of the
+honor of prophecies, through anger on her daughter's account, and the
+swift-footed king, hastening to Olympus, stretched forth his little hand to
+the throne of Jove.[170] [beseeching him] to take away the earth-born[171]
+wrath of the Goddess, † and the nightly responses. † But he laughed,
+because his son had come quickly to him, wishing to obtain the wealthy
+office, and he shook his hair, and put an end to the nightly dreams,[172]
+and took away nightly divination from mortals, and again conferred the
+honor on Loxias, and confidence to mortals from the songs of oracles
+[proclaimed] on this throne, thronged to by many strangers.[173]
+
+[_Enter_ A MESSENGER.]
+
+MESS. O ye guardians of the temple and presidents of the altars, where in
+this land has king Thoas gone? Do ye, opening the well-fastened gates, call
+the ruler of this land outside the house.
+
+CHOR. But what is it, if I may speak when I am not bidden?
+
+MESS. The two youths have escaped, and are gone by the contrivances of
+Agamemnon's daughter, endeavoring to fly from this land, and taking the
+sacred image in the bosom of a Grecian ship.
+
+CHOR. Thou tellest an incredible story, but the king of this country, whom
+you wish to see, is gone, having quitted the temple.
+
+MESS. Whither? For he needs must know what has been done.
+
+CHOR. We know not. But go thou and pursue him to wheresoever, having met
+with him, thou mayest recount this news.
+
+MESS. See, how faithless is the female race! and ye are partners in what
+has been done.
+
+CHOR. Art thou mad? What have we to do with the flight of the strangers?
+Will you not go as quickly as possible to the gates of the rulers?
+
+MESS. Not at least before some distinct informer[174] tell me this, whether
+the ruler of the land is within or not within. Ho there! Open the
+fastenings, I speak to those within, and tell the master that I am at the
+gates, bearing a weight of evil news.
+
+THOAS. (_coming out_) Who makes this noise near the temple of the Goddess,
+hammering at the door, and sending fear within?
+
+MESS. These women told me falsely, (and tried to drive me from the house,)
+that you were away, while you really were in the house.
+
+TH. Expecting or hunting after what gain?
+
+MESS. I will afterward tell of what concerns them, but hear the present,
+immediate matter. The virgin, she that presided over the altars here,
+Iphigenia, has gone out of the land with the strangers, having the sacred
+image of the Goddess; but the expiations were pretended.
+
+TH. How sayest thou? possessed by what breath of calamity?[175]
+
+MESS. In order to preserve Orestes, for at this thou wilt marvel.
+
+TH. What [Orestes]? Him, whom the daughter of Tyndarus bore?
+
+MESS. Him whom she consecrated to the Goddess at these altars.
+
+TH. Oh marvel! How can I rightly[176] call thee by a greater name?
+
+MESS. Do not turn thine attention to this, but listen to me; and having
+perceived and heard, clearly consider what pursuit will catch the
+strangers.
+
+TH. Speak, for thou sayest well, for they do not flee by the way of the
+neighboring sea, so as to be able to escape my fleet.
+
+MESS. When we came to the sea-shore, where the vessel of Orestes was
+anchored in secret, to us indeed, whom thou didst send with her, bearing
+fetters for the strangers, the daughter of Agamemnon made signs that we
+should get far out of the way, as she was about to offer the secret[177]
+flame and expiation, for which she had come. But she, holding the fetters
+of the strangers in her hands, followed behind them. And these matters were
+suspicious, but they satisfied your attendants, O king. But at length, in
+order forsooth that she might seem to us to be doing something, she
+screamed aloud, and chanted barbarian songs like a sorceress, as if washing
+out the stain of murder. But after we had remained sitting a long time, it
+occurred to us whether the strangers set at liberty might not slay her, and
+take to flight. And through fear lest we might behold what was not fitting,
+we sat in silence, but at length the same words were in every body's mouth,
+that we should go to where they were, although not permitted. And upon this
+we behold the hull of the Grecian ship, [the rowing winged with well-fitted
+oars,[178]] and fifty sailors holding their oars in the tholes, and the
+youths, freed from their fetters, standing [on the shore] astern of the
+ship.[179] But some held in the prow with their oars, and others from the
+epotides let down the anchor, and others hastily applying the ladders, drew
+the stern-cables through their hands, and giving them to the sea, let them
+down to the strangers.[180] But we unsparing [of the toil,] when we beheld
+the crafty stratagem, laid hold of the female stranger and of the cables,
+and tried to drag the rudders from the fair-prowed ship from the
+steerage-place. But words ensued: "On what plea do ye take to the sea,
+stealing from this land the images and priestess? Whose son art thou, who
+thyself, who art carrying this woman from the land?" But he replied,
+"Orestes, her brother, that you may know, the son of Agamemnon, I, having
+taken this my sister, whom I had lost from my house, am bearing her off."
+But naught the less we clung to the female stranger, and compelled them by
+force to follow us to thee, upon which arose sad smitings of the cheeks.
+For they had not arms in their hands, nor had we; but fists were sounding
+against fists, and the arms of both the youths at once were aimed against
+our sides and to the liver, so that we at once were exhausted[181] and worn
+out in our limbs. But stamped with horrid marks we fled to a precipice,
+some having bloody wounds on the head, others in the eyes, and standing on
+the heights, we waged a safer warfare, and pelted stones. But archers,
+standing on the poop, hindered us with their darts, so that we returned
+back. And meanwhile--for a tremendous wave drove the ship against the land,
+and there was alarm [on board] lest she might dip her
+sheet-line[182]--Orestes, taking his sister on his left shoulder, walked
+into the sea, and leaping upon the ladder, placed her within the
+well-banked ship, and also the image of the daughter of Jove, that fell
+from heaven. And from the middle of the ship a voice spake thus, "O
+mariners of the Grecian ship, seize[183] on your oars, and make white the
+surge, for we have obtained the things on account of which we sailed o'er
+the Euxine within the Symplegades." But they shouting forth a pleasant cry,
+smote the brine. The ship, as long indeed as it was within the port, went
+on; but, passing the outlet, meeting with a strong tide, it was driven
+back. For a terrible gale coming suddenly, drives [the bark winged with
+well-fitted oars] poop-wise,[184] but they persevered, kicking against the
+wave, but an ebbing tide brought them again aground. But the daughter of
+Agamemnon stood up and prayed, "O daughter of Latona, bring me, thy
+priestess, safe into Greece from a barbarian land, and pardon the stealing
+away of me. Thou also, O Goddess, lovest thy brother, and think thou that I
+also love my kindred." But the sailors shouted a pæan in assent to the
+prayers of the girl, applying on a given signal the point of the
+shoulders,[185] bared from their hands, to the oars. But more and more the
+vessel kept nearing the rocks, and one indeed leaped into the sea with his
+feet, and another fastened woven nooses.[186] And I was immediately sent
+hither to thee, to tell thee, O king, what had happened there. But go,
+taking fetters and halters in your hands, for, unless the wave shall become
+tranquil, there is no hope of safety for the strangers. For the ruler of
+the sea, the revered Neptune, both favorably regards Troy, and is at enmity
+with the Pelopidæ. And he will now, as it seems, deliver up to thee and the
+citizens the son of Agamemnon, to take him into your hands, and his sister,
+who is detected ungratefully forgetting the Goddess in respect to the
+sacrifice at Aulis.[187]
+
+CHOR. O hapless Iphigenia, with thy brother wilt thou die, again coming
+into the hands of thy masters.
+
+TH. O all ye citizens of this barbarian land, will ye not, casting bridles
+on your horses, run to the shore, and receive the casting on of the Grecian
+ship? But hastening, by the favor of the Goddess, will ye not hunt down the
+impious men, and some of you haul the swift barks down to the sea, that by
+sea, and by horse-coursings on the land seizing them, we may either hurl
+them down the broken rock, or impale their bodies upon stakes. But you
+women, the accomplices in these plots, I will punish hereafter, when I have
+leisure, but now, having such a present duty, we will not remain idle.
+
+[MINERVA _appears_.]
+
+MIN. Whither, whither sendest thou this troop to follow [the fugitives,]
+king Thoas? List to the words of me, Minerva. Cease pursuing, and stirring
+on the onset of your host. For by the destined oracles of Loxias Orestes
+came hither, fleeing the wrath of the Erinnyes, and in order to conduct his
+sister's person to Argos, and to bear the sacred image into my land, by way
+of respite from his present troubles. Thus are our words for thee, but as
+to him, Orestes, whom you wish to slay, having caught him in a tempest at
+sea, Neptune has already, for my sake, rendered the surface of the sea
+waveless, piloting him along in the ship. But do thou, Orestes, learning my
+commands, (for thou hearest the voice of a Goddess, although not present,)
+go, taking the image and thy sister. And when thou art come to heaven-built
+Athens, there is a certain sacred district in the farthest bounds of
+Atthis, near the Carystian rock, which my people call Alœ--here, having
+built a temple, do thou enshrine the image named after the Tauric land and
+thy toils, which thou hast labored through, wandering over Greece, under
+the goad of the Erinnyes. But mortals hereafter shall celebrate her as the
+Tauric Goddess Diana. And do thou ordain this law, that, when the people
+celebrate a feast in grateful commemoration of thy release from
+slaughter,[188] let them apply the sword to the neck of a man, and let
+blood flow on account of the holy Goddess, that she may have honor. But, O
+Iphigenia, thou must needs be guardian of the temple of this Goddess at the
+hallowed ascent of Brauron;[189] where also thou shalt be buried at thy
+death, and they shall offer to you the honor of rich woven vestments, which
+women, dying in childbed, may leave in their houses. But I command thee to
+let these Grecian women depart from the land on account of their
+disinterested disposition,[190] I, having saved thee also on a former
+occasion, by determining the equal votes in the Field of Mars, Orestes, and
+that, according to the same law, he should conquer, whoever receive equal
+suffrages. But, O son of Agamemnon, do thou remove thy sister from this
+land, nor be thou angered, Thoas.
+
+TH. Queen Minerva, whosoever, on hearing the words of the Gods, is
+disobedient, thinks not wisely. But I will not be angry with Orestes, if he
+has carried away the image of the Goddess with him, nor with his sister.
+For what credit is there in contending with the potent Gods? Let them
+depart to thy land with the image of the Goddess, and let them prosperously
+enshrine the effigy. But I will also send these women to blest Greece, as
+thy mandate bids. And I will stop the spear which I raised against the
+strangers, and the oars of the ships, as this seems fit to thee, O Goddess.
+
+MIN. I commend your words, for fate commands both thee and the Gods
+[themselves.] Go, ye breezes, conduct the vessel of Agamemnon's son to
+Athens. And I will journey with you, to guard the hallowed image of my
+sister.
+
+CHOR. Go ye, happy because of your preserved fortune. But, O Athenian
+Pallas, hallowed among both immortals and mortals, we will do even as thou
+biddest. For I have received a very delightful and unhoped-for voice in my
+hearing. O thou all hallowed Victory, mayest thou possess my life, and
+cease not to crown it.[191]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+NOTES ON IPHIGENIA IN TAURIS
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+[1] This verse and part of the following are set down among the "oil cruet"
+verses by Aristophanes, Ran. 1232. Aristotle, Poet. § xvii. gives a sketch
+of the plot of the whole play, by way of illustrating the general form of
+tragedy. Hyginus, who constantly has Euripides in view, also gives a brief
+analysis of the plot, fab. cxx. For a description of the quadrigæ of
+Pelops, see Philostratus Imagg. i. 19. It must be observed, that Antoninus
+Liberalis, § 27, makes Iphigenia only the supposititious daughter of
+Agamemnon, but really the daughter of Theseus and Helen. See Meurs. on
+Lycophron, p. 145.
+
+[2] I must confess that I can not find what should have so much displeased
+the critics in this word. Iphigenia, in using such an epithet, evidently
+refers to her own intended sacrifice, which had rendered the recesses of
+Aulis a place of no small fame.
+
+[3] But Lenting prefers Αχαιους, with the approbation of the Cambridge
+editor.
+
+[4] See Reiske apud Dindorf. Compare my note on Æsch. Ag. 188, p. 101, ed.
+Bohn. So also Callimachus, Hymn. iii. μειλιον απλοϊης, ‛οτε ‛οι κατεδησας
+αητας.
+
+[5] Sinon made the same complaint. Cf. Virg. Æn. ii. 90.
+
+[6] Cf. Æsch. Ag. 235.
+
+[7] This whole passage has been imitated by Ovid, de Ponto, iii. 2, 60.
+"Sceptra tenente illo, liquidas fecisse per auras, Nescio quam dicunt
+Iphigenian iter. Quam levibus ventis sub nube per aera vectam Creditur his
+Phœbe deposuisse locis." Cf. Lycophron, p. 16, vs. 3 sqq. Nonnus xiii. p.
+332, 14 sqq.
+
+[8] Observe the double construction of ανασσει. Orest. 1690. ναυταις
+μεδεουσα θαλασσης.
+
+[9] The Cambridge editor would expunge this line, which certainly seems
+languid and awkward. Boissonade on Aristænet. Ep. xiii. p. 421, would
+simply read τα δ' αλλα ς. τ. θ. φοβουμενη: θυω γαρ. He also retains
+‛ιερειαν, referring to Gaisford on Hephæst. p. 216.
+
+[10] The Cambridge editor would throw out vs. 41.
+
+[11] The Cambridge editor refers to Med. 56, Androm. 91, Soph. El. 425. Add
+Plaut. Merc. i. 1, 3. "Non ego idem facio, ut alios in comœdiis vidi facere
+amatores, qui aut nocti, aut die, Aut Soli, aut Lunæ miserias narrant
+suas." Theognetus apud Athen. xv. p. 671. Casaub. πεφιλοσοφηκας γηι και
+ουρανωι λαλων. Cf. Davis, on Cicero, Tusc. Q. iii. 26, and Lomeier de
+Lustrat. § xxxvii.
+
+[12] Θριγκον is properly the uppermost part of the walls of any building
+(Pollux, vii. 27) surrounding the roof, στεγος is the roof itself.
+
+[13] Cf. Meurs. ad Lycophron, p. 148.
+
+[14] I read ειμ' εισω with Hermann and the Cambridge editor.
+
+[15] This line is condemned by the Cambridge editor. Burges has transposed
+it.
+
+[16] But διαδρομαις, the correction of the Cambridge editor, seems
+preferable.
+
+[17] An interpolation universally condemned.
+
+[18] See Barnes, and Wetstein on Acts xix. 35.
+
+[19] On the wanderings of Orestes see my note on Æsch. Eum. 238 sqq. p.
+187, ed. Bohn.
+
+[20] See the note of the Cambridge editor, with whom we must read
+εισβησομεσθα.
+
+[21] ‛ων ουδεν ισμεν ad interiora templi spectat. HERM.
+
+[22] We must read γεισα τριγλυφων ‛οποι, with Blomfield and the Cambridge
+editor. See Philander on Vitruv. ii. p. 35, and Pollux, vii. 27.
+
+[23] The sense is ουτοι, μακραν ελθοντες, εκ τερματων (sc. a meta)
+νοστησομεν. ED. CAMB.
+
+[24] The Cambridge editor appositely compares a fragment of our author's
+Cresphontes, iii. 2, αισχρον τε μοχθειν μη θελειν νεανιαν.
+
+[25] On the whole of this chorus, which is corrupt in several places, the
+notes of the Cambridge editor should be consulted.
+
+[26] This last lumbering line must be corrupt.
+
+[27] Compare the similar scene in Soph. El. 86 sqq.
+
+[28] Cf. Elect. 90. νυκτος δε τησδε προς ταφον μολων πατρος. Hecub. 76.
+Æsch. Pers. 179. Aristoph. Ran. 1331.
+
+[29] Compare my note on Æsch. Pers. 610 sqq.
+
+[30] See on Æsch. Choeph. 6.
+
+[31] Markland's emendation has been unanimously adopted by the later
+editors.
+
+[32] Schema Colophonium. The Cambridge editor compares vs. 244. Αργει
+σκηπτουχον. Phœn. 17. Θηβαισιν αναξ. Heracl. 361. Αργει τυραννος.
+
+[33] I have marked lacunæ, as some mythological particulars have evidently
+been lost.
+
+[34] An imperfect allusion to the Thyestean banquet. Cf. Seneca Thyest.
+774. "O Phœbe patiens, fugeris retro licet, medioque ruptum merseris cœlo
+diem, sero occidisti--" vs. 787 sqq.
+
+[35] Cf. Æsch. Ag. 1501 sqq. Seneca, Ag. 57 sqq.
+
+[36] i.e. the demon allotted to me at my birth (cf. notes on Æsch. 1341, p.
+135, ed. Bohn). Statius, Theb. i. 60, makes Œdipus invoke Tisiphone under
+the same character.--"Si me de matre cadentem Fovisti gremio."
+
+[37] See the note of the Cambridge editor.
+
+[38] εβησαν is active.
+
+[39] The Cambridge editor aptly refers to Hecub. 464.
+
+[40] These participles refer to the preceding αιμορραντων ξεινων.
+
+[41] See on Heracl. 721.
+
+[42] The Cambridge editor would omit these two lines.
+
+[43] Cf. vs. 107. κατ' αντρ', ‛α ποντιος νοτιδι διακλυζει μελας. On αγμος
+(Brodæus' happy correction for ‛αρμος) the Cambridge editor quotes Nicander
+Ther. 146. κοιλη τε φαραγξ, και τρηχεες αγμοι, and other passages. The
+manner of hunting the purple fish is thus described by Pollux, i. 4, p. 24.
+They plat a long rope, to which they fasten, like bells, a number of hempen
+baskets, with an open entrance to admit the animal, but which does not
+allow of its egress. This they let down into the sea, the baskets being
+filled with such food as the murex delights in, and, having fastened the
+end of the rope to the rock, they leave it, and returning to the place,
+draw up the baskets full of the fish. Having broken the shells, they pound
+the flesh to form the dye.
+
+[44] εφθαρμενους. Cf. Cycl. 300. Hel. 783. Ed. Camb.
+
+[45] Compare Orest. 255 sqq.
+
+[46] χιτωνων is probably corrupt.
+
+[47] Cf. Lobeck on Aj. 17. Hesych. κοχλος τοις θαλαττιοις (i.e. κοχλοις)
+εχρωντο, προ της των σαλπιγγων ευρεσεως. Virg. Æn. vi. 171. "Sed tum forte
+cava dum personat æquora concha."
+
+[48] "Moriamur, et in media arma ruamus." Virg. Æn. ii.
+
+[49] Such seems to be the sense, but εξεκλεψαμεν is ridiculous, and
+Hermann's emendation more so. Bothe reads εξεκοψαμεν, which is better. The
+Cambridge editor thinks that the difficulty lies in πετροισι.
+
+[50] I would omit this line as an evident gloss.
+
+[51] See the Cambridge editor.
+
+[52] Reiske's emendation, ‛οσια for ‛οια, seems deserving of admission.
+
+[53] The Cambridge editor would omit these lines.
+
+[54] This line also the Cambridge editor trusts "will never hereafter be
+reckoned among the verses of Euripides."
+
+[55] Such is the proper sense of αντιθεισα.
+
+[56] νιν is νυμφευματα.
+
+[57] Read κασιγνητηι.
+
+[58] I read τοις μεν and τοις δ' with the Cambridge editor. Hermann's
+emendation is unheard of.
+
+[59] This clause interrupts the construction. δραμοντες must be understood
+with all the following sentence, as no finite verb is expressed except
+επερασαν.
+
+[60] I have partly followed Hermann, reading επεβαιην ... απολαυων, but, as
+to reading ‛υπνων for ‛υμνων, the Cambridge editor well calls it "one of
+the wonders of his edition." I should prefer reading ολβου with the same
+elegant scholar.
+
+[61] I follow the Cambridge editor in reading διδυμας, from Ovid, Ep. Pont.
+iii. 2, 71. "Protinus immitem Triviæ ducuntur ad aram, Evincti geminas ad
+sua terga manus."
+
+[62] "_displays while she offers_" i.e. "_presents as a public offering_"
+ED. CAMB.
+
+[63] I am but half satisfied with this passage.
+
+[64] Read εσεσθε δη κατω with the Cambridge editor.
+
+[65] We must read νω with Porson.
+
+[66] Probably a spurious line.
+
+[67] Read Μυκηνων γ', _ay, from Mycenæ_, with the Cambridge editor.
+
+[68] Hermann seems rightly to read ‛ος γ' εν.
+
+[69] Dindorf rightly adopts Reiske's emendation συ τουδ' ερα.
+
+[70] The Cambridge editor rightly reads τινά with an accent, as Orestes
+obviously means himself. Compare Soph. Ant. 751. ‛ηδ' ουν θανειται, και
+θανουσ' ολει τινά.
+
+[71] Such is the force of δη.
+
+[72] I would read εξεπραξατο with Emsley, but I do not agree with him in
+substituting κακην. The oxymoron seems intentional, and by no means unlike
+Euripides.
+
+[73] The Cambridge editor would read εστ' ουτις λογος.
+
+[74] But χαριν, as Matthiæ remarks, is taken in two senses; as a
+preposition with γυναικος, _ob improbam mulierem_, and as a substantive,
+with αχαριν added. Cf. Æsch. Choeph. 44. Lucretius uses a similar oxymoron
+respecting the same subject, i. 99. "Sed _casta inceste_ nubendi tempore in
+ipso Hostia concideret mactatu mæsta parentis."
+
+[75] This passage is very corrupt. The Cambridge editor supposes something
+lost respecting the fortunes of Orestes. Hermann reads ‛εν δε λυπεισθαι
+μονον, ‛ο τ' ουκ αφρων ων. But I am very doubtful.
+
+[76] These three lines are justly condemned as an absurd interpolation by
+Dindorf and the Cambridge editor.
+
+[77] This seems the easiest way of expressing και συ after συ δ'.
+
+[78] I am partly indebted to Potter's happy version. The Cambridge editor
+is as ingenious as usual, but he candidly allows that conjecture is
+scarcely requisite.
+
+[79] i.e. thou seemest reckless of life.
+
+[80] προστροπη, this mode of offering supplication, i.e. this duty of
+sacrifice.
+
+[81] Diodorus, xx. 14. quotes this and the preceding line reading χθονος
+for πετρας. He supposes that Euripides derived the present account from the
+sacrifices offered to Saturn by the Carthaginians, who caused their
+children to fall from the hands of the statue εις τι χασμα πληρες πυρος.
+Compare Porphyr. de Abst. ii. 27. Justin, xviii. 6. For similar human
+sacrifices among the Gauls, Cæsar de B.G. vi. 16, with the note of Vossius.
+Compare also Saxo Grammaticus, Hist. Dan. iii. p. 42, and the passages of
+early historians quoted in Stephens' entertaining notes, p. 92.
+
+[82] Cf. Tibull. i. 3, 5. "Abstineas, mors atra, precor, non hic mihi
+mater, Quæ legat in mæstos ossa perusta sinus; non soror, Assyrios cineri
+quæ dedat odores, et fleat effusis ante sepulchra comis."
+
+[83] This must be what the poet _intends_ by κατασβεσω, however awkwardly
+expressed. See Hermann's note.
+
+[84] Compare vs. 468 sq.
+
+[85] This line is hopelessly corrupt.
+
+[86] I read μεν ουν with the Cambridge editor.
+
+[87] αζηλα is in opposition to the whole preceding clause.
+
+[88] See the note of the Cambridge editor on Iph. Aul. 1372.
+
+[89] I should prefer εστι δη,"_she surely is._"
+
+[90] We must evidently read either διηλθον with Porson, or διελθε with
+Jan., Le Fevre, and Markland.
+
+[91] I almost agree with Dindorf in considering this line spurious.
+
+[92] For this construction compare Ritterhus. ad Oppian, Cyn. i. 11.
+
+[93] I can not help thinking this line is spurious, and the preceding θηται
+corrupt. One would expect θησηι.
+
+[94] Cf. Kuinoel on Cydon. de Mort. Contem. § 1, p. 6, n. 18.
+
+[95] Literally, "no longer a hinderance," i.e. "that I be no longer
+responsible for its fulfillment."
+
+[96] The Cambridge editor, however, seems to have settled the question in
+favor of οισθ' ‛ουν ‛ο δρασον.
+
+[97] I must candidly confess that none of the explanations of these words
+satisfy me. Perhaps it is best to regard them, with Seidler, as merely
+signifying the mutability of fortune.
+
+[98] i.e. as far as the fulfilling of my oath is concerned.
+
+[99] The letter evidently commences with the words ‛η 'ν Αυλιδι σφαγεισα. I
+can not imagine how Markland and others should have made it commence with
+the previous line.
+
+[100] i.e. in what company.
+
+[101] This line is either spurious or out of place. See the Cambridge
+editor.
+
+[102] The Cambridge editor in a note exhibiting his usual chastened and
+elegant judgment, regards these three lines as an absurd and trifling
+interpolation. For the credit of Euripides, I would fain do the same.
+
+[103] The same elegant scholar justly assigns these lines to Iphigenia.
+
+[104] So Erfurdt.
+
+[105] See the Cambridge editor.
+
+[106] This line seems justly condemned by the Cambridge editor.
+
+[107] With καμπτεις understand δρομον = thou art fast arriving at the goal
+of the truth.
+
+[108] Read απεδεξω with ed. Camb.
+
+[109] "I remember it: for the wedding did not, by its happy result, take
+away the recollection of that commencement of nuptial ceremonies." CAMB.
+ED.
+
+[110] i.e. Iphigenia sent it with a view to a cenotaph at Mycenæ, as she
+was about to die at Aulis. See Seidler.
+
+[111] "This Homeric epithet of an only son is used, I believe, nowhere else
+in Attic poetry. Its adoption here seems owing to Hom. Il. Ι. 142 and 284.
+τισω δε μιν ‛ισον Ορεστηι ‛Ος μοι τηλυγετος τρεφεται θαλιηι ενι πολληι."
+ED. CAMB.
+
+[112] This is Musgrave's elegant emendation, which Hermann, unwilling to
+let well alone, has attempted to spoil. See, however, the Cambridge editor,
+who possesses taste and clear perception, unbiased by self-love.
+
+[113] Read εμοις with the Cambridge editor.
+
+[114] But φυγηις, and ω φιλος, the emendation of Burges, seems far better,
+and is followed by the Cambridge editor.
+
+[115] i.e. I can imagine your sufferings at Aulis.
+
+[116] The Cambridge editor compares Hec. 684. ‛ετερα δ' αφ' ‛ετερων κακα
+κακων κυρει.
+
+[117] This is Reiske's interpretation, taking the construction πριν ξιφος
+παλ. επι ‛αιματι. But Seidler would recall the old reading πελασαι,
+comparing Hel. 361. αυτοσιδαρον εσω πελασω δια σαρκος ‛αμιλλαν. This is
+better, but we must also read ετι for επι with the Cambridge editor.
+
+[118] ‛ριπαι ποδων is a bold way of expressing rapid traveling.
+
+[119] Read ανα with Markland, for αρα.
+
+[120] I read η δια κυαν. with the Cambridge editor. The following words are
+rendered thus by Musgrave, "Per ... _est_ longum iter."
+
+[121] Unintelligible, and probably spurious.
+
+[122] The Cambridge editor finds fault with the obvious clumsiness of the
+expression, and proposes εχειν for λαβειν. I have still greater doubts
+about εκβαντας τυχης. The sense ought to be, "'tis the part of wise men,
+_when fortune favors_, not to lose the opportunity, but to gain other
+advantages."
+
+[123] See Dindorf's notes. But the Cambridge editor has shown so decided a
+superiority to the German critics, that I should unhesitatingly adopt his
+reading, as follows: ου μη μ' επισχηις, ουδ' αποστησεις λογου, το μη ου
+πυθεσθαι ... φιλα γαρ ταυτα, (with Markland,) although πρωτον may perhaps
+be defended.
+
+[124] See the Cambridge editor. The same elegant scholar has also improved
+the arrangement of the lines.
+
+[125] "Quanquam animus meminisse horret, luctuque refugit, Incipiam." Virg.
+Æn. i.
+
+[126] I read ενθ' εμον ποδα with Herm. and Dind.
+
+[127] Cf. Elect. 1258 sqq., and Meurs. Areop. § i. ψηφος seems here used to
+denote the place where the council was held. The pollution of Mars was the
+murder of Hallirothius. Cf. Pausan. i. 21.
+
+[128] An instance of the nominativus pendens.
+
+[129] So Valckenaer, Diatr. p. 246, who quotes some passages relative to
+the treatment of Orestes at Athens.
+
+[130] See the Cambridge editor.
+
+[131] See Barnes, who quotes the Schol. on Arist. Eq. 95. Χους was the name
+of the festival.
+
+[132] εμοι is the dativus commodi.
+
+[133] I am indebted to Maltby for this translation.
+
+[134] Cf. Piers, on Mœr. p. 351, and the Cambridge editor.
+
+[135] But see ed. Camb.
+
+[136] Such is the force, of ου γαρ αλλ'.
+
+[137] These lines are very corrupt, and perhaps, as Dindorf thinks,
+spurious.
+
+[138] Markland rightly reads ‛ιεροφυλακες.
+
+[139] "dicam me daturam." MARKLAND.
+
+[140] ‛οδ' is the correction of Brodæus.
+
+[141] νεως πιτυλος seems not merely a periphrase, but implies that the oars
+are in the row-locks, as if ready for starting.
+
+[142] But the Cambridge editor very elegantly reads ει τοι.
+
+[143] Put φθεγξασθε in an inclosure, and join ταυτα with θελει. See ed.
+Camb.
+
+[144] Schol. Theocr. Id. vii. 57. θρηνητικον το ζωιον, και παρα τοις
+αιγιαλοις νεοττευον. Cf. Aristoph. Ran. 1309, who perhaps had the passage
+in view.
+
+[145] αγορος is a somewhat rare word for αγυρις.
+
+[146] Cf. Hecub. 457 sqq.
+
+[147] So Matthiæ, "locum ubi Latona partum edidit."
+
+[148] Read κυκλιον with Seidler. On the λιμνη τροχοειδης at Delos, see
+Barnes.
+
+[149] "I was conveyed by sailors and soldiers." ED. CAMB.
+
+[150] The same scholar quotes Soph. Ph. 43. αλλ' η' πι φορβης νοστον
+εξεληλυθεν, vhere νοστος is used in the same manner as here, simply meaning
+"a journey."
+
+[151] But see Camb. ed.
+
+[152] I read ζηλουσα ταν with the same.
+
+[153] The Cambridge critic again proposes μεταβολαι δ' ευδαιμονια, which he
+felicitously supports. Musgrave has however partly anticipated this
+emendation.
+
+[154] Dindorf has shown so little care in editing this passage, that I have
+merely recalled the old reading, αερι δ' ‛ιστια προτονοι κ. πρ. ‛υπερ
+στολον εκπ., following the construction proposed by Heath, and approved, as
+it appears, by the Cambridge editor. Seidler's note is learned and
+instructive, but I have some doubts about his criticism.
+
+[155] i.e. I wish I might become a bird and fly homeward.
+
+[156] See ed. Camb.
+
+[157] But see ibid. Dindorf's text is a hopeless display of bad readings
+and worse punctuation.
+
+[158] Reading γεννας, I have done my best with this passage, but I can only
+refer to the Cambridge editor for a text and notes worthy of the play.
+
+[159] I have recalled the old reading, ‛οσια.
+
+[160] On these sort of prodigies, see Musgrave, and Dansq. on Quintus
+Calaber, xii. 497 sqq.
+
+[161] "in eo, ut" is the force of εν εργωι.
+
+[162] Perhaps a sly allusion to their escape.
+
+[163] See ed. Camb.
+
+[164] But we must read τοις τε with the Cambridge editor = "who know more
+than men."
+
+[165] I can not too early impress upon the reader the necessity of a
+careful attention to the criticisms of the Cambridge editor throughout this
+difficult chorus, especially to his masterly sketch of the whole, p. 146,
+147.
+
+[166] φερεν ινιν is Burges' elegant emendation, the credit of which has
+been unduly claimed by Seidler.
+
+[167] i.e. the place afterward called Inopus. See Herm., whose construction
+I have followed.
+
+[168] On the ομφαλος see my note on Æsch. Eum. p. 180, ed. Bohn. On the
+Delphic priesthood, compare ibid. p. 179.
+
+[169] See, however, the Cambridge editor.
+
+[170] Read ες θρονον with Barnes and Dind., or rather επι Ζηνος θρονον with
+Herm.
+
+[171] But see Dindorf.
+
+[172] See Dindorf's note, but still better the Cambridge editor.
+
+[173] I follow Seidler.
+
+[174] So ed. Camb.
+
+[175] i.e. what evil inspiration of the Gods impelled her to this act?
+Thoas, who is represented as superstitious to the most barbarian extent,
+naturally regards the infidelity of Iphigenia as proceeding from the
+intervention of heaven.
+
+[176] Cf. Monk. on Hippol. 828.
+
+[177] Cf. vs. 1197. ερημιας δει.
+
+[178] Dindorf and the Cambridge editor follow Hermann, who would place this
+line after vs. 1394.
+
+[179] So Musgrave.
+
+[180] Seidler has deserved well of this passage, both by his correction
+τοιν ξενοιν for την ξενην, and by his learned and clear explanation of the
+nautical terms.
+
+[181] Dindorf has adopted Markland's emendation, but I prefer ‛ωστ'
+εξαναπνειν with the Cambridge editor.
+
+[182] i.e. capsize.
+
+[183] But see ed. Camb.
+
+[184] I have introduced the line above mentioned, and have likewise adopted
+Hermann's introduction of παλιμπρυμνηδον from Hesychius, in lieu of παλιν
+πρυμνησι'.
+
+[185] See ed. Camb.
+
+[186] "The obvious intent of these measures was to fasten the vessel to
+some point of the rocks, and thus prevent her being wrecked." ED. CAMB.
+
+[187] "Our passage is thus to be understood, ‛η ‛αλισκεται προδουσα το
+μνημονευειν θεαι φονον." ED. CAMB.
+
+[188] So Hermann rightly explains the sense. I agree with the Cambridge
+editor, that if Euripides had intended to use ‛οσιας substantively, he
+would hardly have joined it with θεας, thereby causing an ambiguity.
+
+[189] There is another construction, taking κλιμ. θεας together. On the
+whole introduction of Minerva, see the clever note of the Cambridge editor,
+p. 158, 159.
+
+[190] There is evidently a lacuna, as the transition to Orestes is worse
+than abrupt. The mythological allusions in the following lines are well
+explained in the notes of Barnes and Seidler.
+
+[191] On these last verses see the end of the Orestes, with Dindorf's note.
+
+
+
+
+
+
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+Project Gutenberg's The Tragedies of Euripides, Volume I., by Euripides
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Tragedies of Euripides, Volume I.
+
+Author: Euripides
+
+Release Date: February 16, 2005 [EBook #15081]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TRAGEDIES OF EURIPIDES, ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Charles Aldarondo, Keren Vergon, Keith Edkins and the
+PG Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
+
+
+
+
+
+THE
+TRAGEDIES
+OF
+EURIPIDES.
+
+LITERALLY TRANSLATED OR REVISED,
+WITH CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES,
+
+BY
+THEODORE ALOIS BUCKLEY,
+OF CHRIST CHURCH.
+
+VOL. I.
+
+HECUBA, ORESTES, PHOENISS�, MEDEA, HIPPOLYTUS, ALCESTIS,
+BACCH�, HERACLID�, IPHIGENIA IN AULIDE,
+AND IPHIGENIA IN TAURIS.
+
+NEW YORK:
+HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS,
+FRANKLIN SQUARE.
+
+1892.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *       *
+
+PREFACE.
+
+The translations of the first six plays in the present volume were
+published at Oxford some years since, and have been frequently reprinted.
+They are now carefully revised according to Dindorf's text, and are
+accompanied by a few additional notes adapted to the requirements of the
+student.
+
+The translations of the Bacch�, Heraclid�, and the two Iphigenias, are
+based upon the same text, with certain exceptions, which are pointed out at
+the foot of the page. The annotations on the Iphigenias are almost
+exclusively critical, as it is presumed that a student who proceeds to the
+reading of these somewhat difficult plays[1], will be sufficiently advanced
+in his acquaintance with the Greek drama to dispense with more elementary
+information.
+
+          T.A. BUCKLEY,
+              CHRIST CHURCH, OXFORD.
+
+[1] The reader will obtain some notion of the difficulties alluded to, and
+the best mode of grappling with them, by consulting the recent Cambridge
+edition, published with English notes (Iph. in Aulide, 1840, in Tauris,
+1846), performances of great critical acumen, attributed to the present
+Bishop of Gloucester.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *       *
+
+INTRODUCTION.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+Euripides, son of Mnesarchus, was born in the island of Salamis, on the day
+of the celebrated victory (B.C. 480). His mother, Clito, had been sent
+thither in company with the other Athenian women, when Attica was given up,
+and the ships became at once the refuge of the male population, and the
+national defense. Mr. Donaldson[1] well remarks, that the patronymic form
+of his name, derived from the Euripus, which was the scene of the first
+successful resistance offered to the Persian navy, shows that the attention
+of his parents was fully excited by the stirring events of the time.
+
+Notwithstanding the fact that his mother had been an herb-seller, it is
+probable that his father was a man of some family. That he was at least
+possessed of ample means, is evident from the care and expense bestowed
+upon our poet's education. Under the tutorship of Anaxagoras, Prodicus, and
+Protagoras, he had studied both natural philosophy and rhetoric in its
+sophistical form. In gymnastic exercises he exhibited a successful prowess,
+being twice victorious in the Eleusinian and Thesean games. Of his skill in
+painting, some specimens were preserved at Megara.
+
+His appearance as a dramatist was at an earlier age than that of his
+predecessors, as he was only five and twenty years old when he produced the
+"Peliades," his first tragedy. On this occasion, he gained the third prize
+in the tragic contests, but the first, fourteen years after, and
+subsequently, with the "Hippolytus," in 428 B.C. The peculiar tendency of
+some of the ideas expressed in his plays, was the probable cause of the
+retirement of Euripides to Macedonia, where he obtained the friendship of
+King Archelaus. Perhaps, however, the unhappiness of his connubial state,
+arising from the infidelity of his two wives, might have rendered Athens a
+disagreeable place of abode for the woman-hating poet, especially when his
+"domestic bliss" was continually seasoned by the sarcastic jokes and
+allusions of his political enemy, Aristophanes. Moreover, his acquaintance
+with the talking philosopher, Socrates, must have been unfavorable to the
+continuance of his popularity.
+
+The fate of Pentheus in our author's noble play, the "Bacch�," appears to
+have given origin to the tradition that he himself was torn to pieces by
+dogs. If we reflect that this play was probably the last of his works, the
+mistake seems a plausible one. The death of Euripides, which probably
+happened in the ordinary course of nature, has, like that of �schylus, been
+associated with the marvelous.
+
+The Athenians vainly craved the honor of giving a resting-place to the
+ashes of their philosopher-poet. He was buried at Pella, but a cenotaph at
+Athens showed that his countrymen had not forgotten Euripides. His death
+took place B.C. 406.
+
+The inferiority of our author to the greater tragedians, prevents our
+feeling much desire to enter upon the respective merits and demerits of his
+several plays, especially as we are completely anticipated by Schlegel,
+with whose masterly analysis every reader ought to be acquainted.
+Nevertheless, a few general remarks may, perhaps, be not wholly
+unprofitable.
+
+It has been truly remarked, that tragedy, in no small degree, owed its
+downfall to Euripides. Poetry was gradually superseded by rhetoric,
+sublimity by earnestness, pathos by reasoning. Thus, Iphigenia and Macaria
+give so many good reasons for dying, that the sacrifice appears very small,
+and a modern wag in the upper regions of the theatre would, at the end of
+the speech of the latter heroine, almost have exclaimed, "Then why don't
+you die?"
+
+It has been said, that our poet drew the characters of life as he found
+them, but bad as his characters are, they exhibit only a vulgar wickedness.
+Unable to portray a Clyt�mnestra, he revels in the continual paltriness of
+a Menelaus or Ulysses. As if he took a delight in the black side of
+humanity, he loves to show the strength of false reasoning, of sophistry
+antagonistic to truth, and of cold expediency in opposition to the natural
+feelings of humanity. From a similar reason, his occasional attempts at
+comedy degenerate into mere farce. We question whether the scene between
+Death and Apollo in the "Alcestis," could be surpassed in vulgarity, even
+by the modern school of English dramatists, while his exaggerations in the
+minor characters are scarcely to be surpassed by the lowest writer of any
+period.
+
+Under Euripides, the stage began gradually to approximate more closely to
+the ordinary and, at that time, debased character of Athenian society. A
+contempt for the Laced�monians, a passionate taste for the babbling and
+trickery of the forum, and an attempt to depreciate the social position and
+influence of the weaker sex, form the most unamiable features of this
+change. Yet we must allow, that if Euripides has reveled in the
+amiabilities of a Melanippe or a Ph�dra, in the gentle revenge of a Medea
+or Hecuba, he has at the same time given us an Alcestis, the only real
+example of genuine conjugal affection on the Greek stage.
+
+Nor must we forget that Euripides is a greater admirer of nature, a more
+complete delineator of her workings, than the two greater tragedians. He
+has more of illustrative philosophy, more of regard to the objects of the
+animated creation, the system of the universe, than his greater rivals
+exhibit. He is, as Vitruvius has justly styled him, a "stage-philosopher."
+Did we possess a larger acquaintance with the works of Parmenides,
+Empedocles, and other early cosmogonists, we should perhaps think less of
+his merits on this head: as it is, the possession of some such fragments of
+our poet makes us deeply regret the loss of the plays themselves.
+
+But his very love for the contemplation of nature has in no small degree
+contributed to the mischievous skepticism promulgated by our poet. In early
+times, when a rural theogony was the standard of belief, when each star had
+its deity, each deity its undisputed, unquestioned prerogative and worship,
+there was little inclination, less opportunity, for skepticism. Throughout
+the poetry of Hesiod, we find this feeling ever predominant, a feeling
+which Virgil and Tibullus well knew how to appreciate. Even Euripides
+himself, perhaps taught by some dangerous lessons at home, has expressed
+his belief that it is best "not to be too clever in matters regarding the
+Gods."[2] A calm retreat in the wild, picturesque tracts of Macedonia,
+might have had some share in reforming this spoiled pupil of the sophists.
+But as we find that the too careful contemplation of nature degenerates
+into superstition or rationalism in their various forms, so Euripides had
+imbibed the taste for saying startling things,[3] rather than wise; for
+reducing the principles of creation to materialism, the doctrines of right
+and wrong to expediency, and immutable truths to a popular system of
+question and answer. Like the generality of sophists, he took away a
+received truth, and left nothing to supply its place; he reasoned falsehood
+into probability, truth into nonentity.
+
+At a period when the Prodico-Socratic style of disputing was in high
+fashion, the popularity of Euripides must have been excessive. His familiar
+appeals to the trifling matters of ordinary life, his characters all
+philosophizing, from the prince to the dry-nurse, his excellent reasons for
+doing right or wrong, as the case might be, must have been inestimably
+delightful to the accommodating morals of the Athenians. The Court of
+Charles the Second could hardly have derived more pleasure from the
+writings of a Behn or a Hamilton, than these unworthy descendants of Codrus
+must have experienced in hearing a bad cause so cleverly defended. Whether
+the orators and dikasts followed the example of the stage in those days,
+can scarcely be ascertained, but it is more than certain that they
+practically illustrated its principles. At least, the Sicilians were so
+fond of our author, that a few of the unfortunate survivors of the
+Syracusan disaster, were enabled to pick up a living by quoting such
+passages of our author as they had learned by heart. A compliment paid to
+few living dramatists in our days!
+
+In dramatic conduct, Euripides is at an even greater disadvantage with
+�schylus and Sophocles. The best characters of the piece are often the
+least employed, as in the instance of Macaria in the "Heraclid�," while the
+play is dwindled away with dull, heavy dirges, and the complaints of senile
+childishness. The chorus, as Aristotle[4] has remarked, is most
+unfortunately independent of the plot, although the finest poetry is
+generally to be found in the lyric portions of our author's plays. In fact,
+Euripides rather wanted management in employing his resources, than the
+resources themselves. An ear well attuned to the harmony of verse, a
+delicate perception of the graceful points of language, and a finished
+subtilty in touching the more minute feelings and impulses of the mind,
+were all thrown away either upon bad subjects or worse principles. There is
+no true tragedy in Euripides, He is a melodramatist, but not according to
+the modern acceptation. His plays might end either happily or the reverse.
+A deity conveniently brought in, the arrival of a messenger, however
+unexpectedly, together with a liberal allowance for a cowardly revenge upon
+the vanquished--these are the Euripidean elements for giving a tragic end
+to a play. Nay, so great is the prodigality of slaughter throughout his
+dramas, that we can but imagine morbid cruelty to have formed a
+considerable ingredient in the disposition of Euripides. Even his pathos is
+somewhat tinctured with this taste for painful images. As we have beheld in
+our own times a barbarian alternately glut his sight with executions, and
+then shed floods of tears, and sink into idiot despondency; so the poetry
+of Euripides in turn disgusts us with outrageous cruelty, and depresses us
+with the most painful demands upon our compassion.
+
+In the lyric portions of his dramas, our poet has been far more successful.
+The description of the capture of Troy by night,[5] is a splendid specimen
+of animation blended with true pathos. But taken as a whole. Euripides is a
+most unequal author. We may commence a play with pleasure (but O for the
+prologues!), we may proceed with satisfaction, but the feeling rarely lasts
+to the end. If I may venture an opinion upon so uncertain a subject, I
+should name the Hippolytus, Ion, Troades, Bacch�, and Iphigenia in Aulis as
+his best plays, placing the Phoeniss�, Alcestis, Medea, Hecuba, and Orestes
+in a lower rank. The Helena is an amusing heap of absurdities, and reads
+much better in the burlesque of Aristophanes; the Electra is utterly
+beneath criticism; the Cyclops a weak, but humorous imitation of Homer. The
+other plays appear to be neither bad nor good.
+
+The style of Euripides is, generally speaking, easy; and I can mention no
+author from whom a taste for elegant Greek and a facility in composition
+can more easily be derived. Some of his plays have suffered severely from
+the ravages of time, the ignorance of copyists, and the more dangerous
+officiousness of grammarians. Some passages of the Bacch�, Rhesus, Troades,
+and the two Iphigenias, despite the ingenuity and erudition of such
+scholars as Porson, Elmsley, Monk, Burges, and a host of others, must still
+remain mere matter for guessing. Hermann's Euripides is, as a whole, sadly
+unworthy the abilities of the Humboldt of Greek literature.
+
+The present volume contains the most popular of our author's works,
+according to present usage. But the spirit which is gradually infusing
+itself into the minds of those who are most actively engaged in the
+educational system of England, fully warrants a hope that Porson's "four
+plays" will shortly cease to be the boundaries of the student's
+acquaintance with Euripides.
+
+I need scarcely observe, that the study of Aristophanes is indissolubly
+connected with that of our author. If the reader discover the painful fact
+that the burlesque writer is greater than the tragedian, he will perhaps
+also recollect that such a literary relation is, unfortunately, by no means
+confined to the days of Aristophanes.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+Notes on the Introduction
+
+[1] See Theatre of the Greeks, p. 92. sqq.
+
+[2] Bacch. 200. This play was written during his sojourn with Archelaus.
+
+[3] [Greek: toioutoni ti parakekindeumenon]. Aristoph. Ran. 99.
+
+[4] Poet. � xviii.
+
+[5] Hec. 905 sqq.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *       *
+
+HECUBA.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+PERSONS REPRESENTED.
+
+  GHOST OF POLYDORE.
+  HECUBA.
+  CHORUS OF FEMALE CAPTIVES.
+  POLYXENA.
+  ULYSSES.
+  TALTHYBIUS.
+  FEMALE ATTENDANT.
+  AGAMEMNON.
+  POLYMESTOR AND HIS CHILDREN.
+
+_The Scene lies before the Grecian tents, on the coast of the Thracian
+Chersonese._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE ARGUMENT.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+After the capture of Troy, the Greeks put into the Chersonese over against
+Troas, But Achilles, having appeared by night, demanded one of the
+daughters of Priam to be slain. The Greeks therefore, in honor to their
+hero, tore Polyxena from Hecuba, and offered her up in sacrifice.
+Polymestor moreover, the king of the Thracians, murdered Polydore, a son of
+Priam's. Now Polymestor had received him from the hands of Priam as a
+charge to take care of, together with some money. But when the city was
+taken, wishing to seize upon his wealth, he determined to dispatch him, and
+disregarded the ill-fated friendship that subsisted between them; but his
+body being cast out into the sea, the wave threw him up on the shore before
+the tents of the captive women. Hecuba, on seeing the corse, recognized it;
+and having imparted her design to Agamemnon, sent for Polymestor to come to
+her with his sons, concealing what had happened, under pretense that she
+might discover to him some treasures hidden in Ilium. But on his arrival
+she slew his sons, and put out his eyes; but pleading her cause before the
+Greeks, she gained it over her accuser (Polymestor). For it was decided
+that she did not begin the cruelty, but only avenged herself on him who did
+begin it.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+HECUBA.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+GHOST OF POLYDORE.
+
+I am present, having left the secret dwellings of the dead and the gates of
+darkness, where Pluto has his abode apart from the other Gods, Polydore the
+son of Hecuba the daughter of Cisseus,[1] and Priam my sire, who when the
+danger of falling by the spear of Greece was threatening the city of the
+Phrygians, in fear, privately sent me from the Trojan land to the house of
+Polymestor, his Thracian friend, who cultivates the most fruitful soil of
+the Chersonese, ruling a warlike people with his spear.[2] But my father
+sends privately with me a large quantity of gold, in order that, if at any
+time the walls of Troy should fall, there might not be a lack of sustenance
+for his surviving children. But I was the youngest of the sons of Priam; on
+which account also he sent me privately from the land, for I was able
+neither to bear arms nor the spear with my youthful arm. As long then
+indeed as the landmarks of the country remained erect, and the towers of
+Troy were unshaken, and Hector my brother prevailed with his spear, I
+miserable increased vigorously as some young branch, by the nurture I
+received at the hands of the Thracian, my father's friend. But after that
+both Troy and the life of Hector were put an end to, and my father's
+mansions razed to the ground, and himself falls at the altar built by the
+God, slain by the blood-polluted son of Achilles, the friend of my father
+slays me, wretched man, for the sake of my gold, and having slain me threw
+me into the surf of the sea, that he might possess the gold himself in his
+palace. But I am exposed on the shore, at another time on the ocean's
+surge, borne about by many ebbings and flowings of the waves, unwept,
+unburied; but at present I am hastening on my dear mother's account, having
+left my body, borne aloft this day already the third,[3] for so long has my
+wretched mother been present in this territory of the Chersonese from Troy.
+But all the Grecians, holding their ships at anchor, are sitting quiet on
+the shores of this land of Thrace. For Achilles the son of Peleus,
+appearing above his tomb, stayed all the army of the Grecians as they were
+directing homeward their sea dipped oars; and asks to receive my sister
+Polyxena as a dear victim, and a tribute of honor to his tomb. And this he
+will obtain, nor will he be without this gift from his friends; and fate
+this day leads forth my sister to death. But my mother will see the two
+corses of her two children, both mine and the unhappy virgin's; for I shall
+appear on a breaker before the feet of a female slave, that I wretched may
+obtain sepulture; for I have successfully entreated those who have power
+beneath to find a tomb, and to fall into my mother's hands. As much then as
+I wish to have shall be mine; but I will withdraw myself out of the way of
+the aged Hecuba, for she is advancing her step beyond the tent of
+Agamemnon, dreading my phantom. Alas! O my mother, who, from kingly
+palaces, hast beheld the day of slavery, how unfortunate art thou now, in
+the degree that thou wert once fortunate! but some one of the Gods
+counterpoising your state, destroys you on account of your ancient
+prosperity.
+
+HECUBA. CHORUS.
+
+HEC. Lead onward, ye Trojan dames, the old woman before the tent; lead
+onward, raising up one now your fellow-slave, but once your queen; take me,
+bear me, conduct me, support my body, holding my aged hand; and I, leaning
+on the bending staff of my hand,[4] will hasten to put forward the slow
+motion of my joints. O lightning of Jove! O thou gloomy night! why, I pray,
+am I thus disquieted in the night with terrors, with phantoms? O thou
+venerable Earth, the mother of black-winged dreams, I renounce the nightly
+vision, which regarding my son who is preserved in Thrace, and regarding
+Polyxena my dear daughter, in my dreams have I beheld, a fearful sight, I
+have learned, I have understood. Gods of this land, preserve my son, who,
+my only son, and, [as it were,] the anchor of my house, inhabits the snowy
+Thrace under the protection of his father's friend. Some strange event will
+take place, some strain will come mournful to the mournful. Never did my
+mind so incessantly shudder and tremble. Where, I pray, ye Trojan dames,
+can I behold the divine spirit of Helenus, or Cassandra, that they may
+interpret my dreams? For I beheld a dappled hind torn by the blood-stained
+fang of the wolf, forcibly dragged from my bosom, a miserable sight. And
+dreadful this vision also; the spectre of Achilles came above the summit of
+his tomb, and demanded as a tribute of honor one of the wretched Trojan
+women. From my daughter then, from my daughter avert this fate, ye Gods, I
+implore you.
+
+CHOR. Hecuba, with haste to thee I flew, leaving the tents of our lords,
+where I was allotted and ordained a slave, driven from the city of Troy,
+led captive of the Greeks by the point of the spear, not to alleviate aught
+of your sufferings, but bringing a heavy weight of tidings, and to thee, O
+lady, a herald of woe. For it is said that it has been decreed in the full
+council of the Greeks to make thy daughter a sacrifice to Achilles: for you
+know how that having ascended o'er his tomb, he appeared in his golden arms
+and restrained the fleet ships, as they were setting their sails with their
+halliards, exclaiming in these words; "Where speed ye, Grecians, leaving my
+tomb unhonored!" Then the waves of great contention clashed together, and a
+divided opinion went forth through the army of the Greeks; to some it
+appeared advisable to give a victim to his tomb, and to others it appeared
+not. But Agamemnon was studious to advance your good, cherishing the love
+of the infuriated prophetess. But the two sons of Theseus, scions of
+Athens, were the proposers of different arguments, but in this one opinion
+they coincided, to crown the tomb of Achilles with fresh blood; and
+declared they would never prefer the bed of Cassandra before the spear of
+Achilles. And the strength of the arguments urged on either side was in a
+manner equal, till that subtle adviser, that babbling knave,[5] honeyed in
+speech, pleasing to the populace, that son of Laertes, persuades the army,
+not to reject the suit of the noblest of all the Greeks on account of a
+captive victim, and not to put it in the power of any of the dead standing
+near Proserpine to say that the Grecians departed from the plains of Troy
+ungrateful to the heroes who died for the state of Greece. And Ulysses will
+come only not now, to tear your child from your bosom, and to take her from
+your aged arms. But go to the temples, speed to the altars, sit a suppliant
+at the knees of Agamemnon, invoke the Gods, both those of heaven, and those
+under the earth; for either thy prayers will prevent thy being deprived of
+thy wretched daughter, or thou must behold the virgin falling before the
+tomb, dyed in blood gushing forth in a dark stream from her neck adorned
+with gold.[6]
+
+HEC. Alas! wretched me! what shall I exclaim? what shriek shall I utter?
+what lamentation? miserable through miserable age, and slavery not to be
+endured, insupportable. Alas! who is there to defend me? what offspring,
+what city! The old man is gone. My children are gone. Whither shall I turn
+me? and whither shall I go? Where is any god or deity to succor me? O
+Trojan dames, bearers of evil tidings, bearers of woe, you have destroyed
+me utterly, you have destroyed me. Life in the light is no more desirable!
+O wretched foot, lead, lead an aged woman to this tent! O child, daughter
+of the most afflicted mother, come forth, come forth from the tent, hear
+thy mother's voice, that thou mayest know what a report I hear that
+concerns thy life.
+
+HECUBA, POLYXENA, CHORUS.
+
+POLYX. O mother, why dost thou call! proclaiming what new affliction hast
+thou frighted me from the tent, as some bird from its nest, with this
+alarm?
+
+HEC. Alas! my child!
+
+POLYX. Why address me in words of ill omen? This is an evil prelude.
+
+HEC. Alas! for thy life.
+
+POLYX. Speak, conceal it no longer from me. I fear, I fear, my mother; why
+I pray dost thou groan?
+
+HEC. O child, child of an unhappy mother!
+
+POLYX. Why sayest thou this?
+
+HEC. My child, the common decree of the Greeks unites to slay thee at the
+tomb of the son of Peleus.
+
+POLYX. Alas, my mother! how are you relating unenviable ills? Tell me, tell
+me, my mother.
+
+HEC. I declare, my child, the ill-omened report, they bring word that a
+decree has passed by the vote of the Greeks regarding thy life.
+
+POLYX. O thou that hast borne affliction! O thou wretched on every side! O
+mother unhappy in your life, what most hated and most unutterable calamity
+has some destiny again sent against thee! This child is no longer thine; no
+longer indeed shall I miserable share slavery with miserable age. For as a
+mountain whelp or heifer shalt thou wretched behold me wretched torn from
+thine arms, and sent down beneath the darkness of the earth a victim to
+Pluto, where I shall lie bound in misery with the dead. But it is for thee
+indeed, my afflicted mother, that I lament in these mournful strains, but
+for my life, my wrongs, my fate, I mourn not; but death, a better lot, has
+befallen me.
+
+CHOR. But see Ulysses advances with hasty step, to declare to thee, Hecuba,
+some new determination.
+
+ULYSSES, HECUBA, POLYXENA, CHORUS.
+
+ULYSS. Lady, I imagine that you are acquainted with the decree of the army,
+and the vote which has prevailed; nevertheless, I will declare it. It has
+been decreed by the Greeks to offer on the lofty mound of Achilles's tomb
+thy daughter Polyxena. But they order me to conduct and convey the damsel;
+but the son of Achilles is appointed to be the priest, and to preside over
+the rites. Do you know then what to do? Be not dragged away by violence,
+nor enter into a contest of strength with me, but acknowledge superior
+force and the presence of thy ills; it is wise to have proper sentiments
+even in adversity.
+
+HEC. Alas! alas! the great trial is at hand, as it seems, of lamentations
+full, nor without tears; for I have not died in the state in which I ought
+to have died, nor hath Jove destroyed me, but preserves me, that I wretched
+may behold other misfortunes greater than [past] misfortunes. But if it be
+allowed slaves to put questions to the free, not offensive nor grating to
+the feelings, it will be your part to be questioned, and ours who are
+asking to attend.
+
+ULYSS. You have permission, ask freely, I grudge not the time.
+
+HEC. Dost thou remember when thou camest a spy on Troy, disfigured by a
+vile dress, and from thine eyes drops caused by the fear of death bedewed
+thy beard?
+
+ULYSS. I remember well; for it made no slight impression on my heart.
+
+HEC. But Helen knew thee, and told me alone.
+
+ULYSS. I remember the great danger I encountered.
+
+HEC. And didst thou embrace my knees in thy humility?
+
+ULYSS. So that my hand was numbered[7] through fear on thy garments.
+
+HEC. What then didst thou say, being then my slave?
+
+ULYSS. Many arguments that I invented to save me from death.
+
+HEC. Did I preserve thee then, and conduct thee safe from the land?
+
+ULYSS. Yes, so that I now behold the light of the sun.
+
+HEC. Art thou not then convicted of baseness by this conduct, who hast
+received benefits from me such as thou acknowledgest thou hast, and doest
+us no good in return, but evil, as far as in thee lies? Thankless is your
+race, as many of you as court honor from oratory before the populace; be ye
+not known to me, who care not to injure your friends, provided you say what
+is gratifying to the people. But plotting what dark design have they
+determined upon a decree of death against my child? Did fate impel them to
+offer human sacrifices at the tomb, where it were rather right to sacrifice
+cattle? Or does Achilles, desirous of devoting in his turn to death those
+that wrought his death, with a color of justice meditate her destruction?
+But she has done him no ill: he should demand Helen as a sacrifice on his
+tomb; for she destroyed him, and brought him to Troy. But if some captive
+selected from the rest, and excelling in beauty, ought to die, this is not
+ours. For the daughter of Tyndarus is most preeminent in beauty, and has
+been found to be no less injurious than us. On the score of justice then I
+urge this argument; but with respect to what you ought to repay at my
+demand, hear: thou hast touched my hand, as thou ownest, and this aged
+cheek also, falling at my knees. Thy hand and knees I in return grasp, and
+re-demand the favor I granted you then, and beseech you, do not tear my
+child from my arms, nor kill her; enough have died already. In her I
+rejoice, and forget my misfortunes; she serves as my consolation in the
+stead of many things, she is my city, my nurse, my staff, the guide of my
+way. It becomes not those who have power to exercise their power in things
+wherein they ought not, nor should the fortunate imagine their fortune will
+last forever. For I too have had my time of prosperity, but now have I
+ceased to be: one day wrenched from me all my happiness. But by thy beard
+which I supplicate, reverence me, pity me; go to the Grecian army, and
+remind them that it is a shameful thing to slay women whom ye have once
+spared, and that too dragging them from the altar. But show mercy. But the
+laws of blood among you are laid down alike for the free and the slave. But
+your worth will carry with it persuasion, although your arguments be bad;
+for the same words from those of little character, have not the same force
+as when they proceed from those of high reputation.
+
+CHOR. There is no nature of man so obdurate, which on hearing thy groans,
+and thy long plaints of misery, would not let fall the tear.
+
+ULYSS. Hecuba, be advised, nor through passion deem him thine enemy who
+gives thee good advice. I indeed am ready to preserve thy person through
+the means of which I was fortunate; and I say no other. But what I declared
+before all I will not deny, that, Troy being captured, we should give thy
+daughter as a victim to the noblest man of the army, who demands her; for
+in this many cities fail, when any man who is brave and zealous receives no
+more honor than those who are less valiant. But Achilles, O lady, is worthy
+of honor from us, a man who died most gloriously in behalf of the Grecian
+country. Were not then this disgraceful, if when living we treat him as a
+friend, but after he is gone we no longer treat him so? Well! what then
+will any one say, if there again should be an assembling of the army, and a
+contest with the enemy: "Shall we fight or preserve our lives, seeing that
+he who falls lies unhonored?" But for me at least, living from day to day,
+although I have but little, that little is sufficient; but I would wish
+that my monument should be beheld crowned with honor, for the gratification
+is for a long time. But if thou sayest thou sufferest affliction, hear this
+in return from me. There are with us aged matrons, and hoary sires, not
+less wretched than thou art, and brides bereft of the noblest husbands,
+whose ashes this land of Troy conceals. Endure this. But we, if we
+injudiciously determine to honor the brave man, shall incur the charge of
+folly. But you barbarians neither consider your friends as friends, nor do
+you hold up to admiration those who have died honorably; thus shall Greece
+be prosperous, but you shall experience fortune corresponding to your
+counsels.
+
+CHOR. Alas! alas! how wretched is the state of slavery, and to endure
+indignities compelled by superior force! (Note [B].)
+
+HEC. O daughter, my words respecting thy death are vanished in the air, set
+forth in vain; but thou, if thou hast greater powers [of persuasion] than
+thy mother, use all thy influence, uttering every note as the throat of the
+nightingale, that thou mayest not be deprived of life. But fall before the
+knees of Ulysses in all the eloquence of grief, and persuade him; thou hast
+a pretext, for he also hath children; so that he may be inclined to pity
+thy fortune.
+
+POLYX. I see, Ulysses, that thou art hiding thy hand beneath thy robe, and
+turnest thy face away, that I may not touch thy beard. Be not afraid; thou
+hast avoided my suppliant Jove; for I will follow thee both on account of
+fate, and even wishing to die; but if I were not willing, I should appear
+base, and too fond of life. For wherefore should I live, whose father was
+monarch of all the Trojans; this my dawn of life. Then was I nurtured under
+fair hope, a bride for princes, having no small competition for my hand, to
+whose palace and hearth I should come. But I, wretched now, was mistress
+among the Trojan women, and conspicuous in the train of virgins, equal to
+goddesses, death only excepted. But now I am a slave; first of all the very
+name, not being familiar, persuades me to love death. Then perhaps I might
+meet with masters cruel in disposition, who will buy me for silver, the
+sister both of Hector and many other [heroes.] And imposing the task of
+making bread in his palace, will compel me, passing the day in misery, both
+to sweep the house, and stand at the loom. And some slave somewhere
+purchased will defile my bed, before wooed by princes. This never shall be.
+I will quit this light from mine eyes free, offering my body to Pluto. Lead
+on then, Ulysses, conduct me to death; for I see neither confidence of
+hope, nor of expectation, present to me that I can ever enjoy good fortune.
+But do thou, my mother, in no wise hinder me by your words or by your
+actions; but assent to my death before I meet with indignities unsuited to
+my rank. For one who has not been accustomed to taste misfortunes bears
+indeed, but grieves, to put his neck under the yoke. But he would be far
+more blessed in death than in life; for to live otherwise than honorably is
+a great burden.
+
+CHOR. It is a great and distinguishing feature among men to be born of
+generous parents, and the name of nobility of birth among the illustrious,
+proceeds from great to greater still.
+
+HEC. You have spoken honorably, my daughter, but in that honorable dwells
+grief. But if the son of Peleus must be gratified, and you must escape
+blame, Ulysses, kill not her; but leading me to the pyre of Achilles,
+strike me, spare me not; I brought forth Paris, who destroyed the son of
+Thetis, having pierced him with his arrows.
+
+ULYSS. The phantom of Achilles did not demand that thou, O aged lady, but
+that thy daughter here should die.
+
+HEC. Do thou then at least slay me with my daughter, and there will be
+twice the libation of blood for the earth, and the dead who makes this
+request.
+
+ULYSS. Thy daughter's death suffices; one must not be heaped on another;
+would that we required not even this one.
+
+HEC. There is a strong necessity for me to die with my daughter.
+
+ULYSS. How so? for I am not aware of any master that I have.
+
+HEC. As the ivy the oak, so will I clasp her.
+
+ULYSS. Not so; if you will take the advice of your superiors in knowledge.
+
+HEC. Never will I willingly quit my child here.
+
+ULYSS. Nor will I leave this place without the virgin.
+
+POLYX. Mother, be persuaded; and thou, son of Laertes, be gentle to a
+parent with reason moved to anger. But thou, O wretched mother, contend not
+with conquerors. Dost thou wish to fall on the earth and to wound thy aged
+flesh dragged by violence, and to suffer the indignity of being torn by a
+youthful arm? which things you will suffer. Do not, I pray thee, for it is
+not seemly. But, my dear mother, give me thy beloved hand, and grant me to
+join cheek to cheek; since never hereafter, but now for the last time shall
+I behold the rays of the sun and his bright orb. Receive my last address, O
+mother! O thou that bearedst me, I am going below.
+
+HEC. And I, O daughter, shall be a slave in the light of day.
+
+POLYX. Without the bridegroom, without the bridal song, which I ought to
+have obtained.
+
+HEC. Mournful thou, my child; but I am a wretched woman.
+
+POLYX. There shall I lie in darkness far from thee.
+
+HEC. Alas me, what shall I do? where end my life?
+
+POLYX. I shall die a slave, born of a free father.
+
+HEC. But I bereft indeed of fifty children.
+
+POLYX. What message shall I bear to Hector, and to thy aged husband?
+
+HEC. Tell them that I am most miserable of all women.
+
+POLYX. O ye breasts that tenderly nursed me.
+
+HEC. O daughter of an untimely and unhappy fate.
+
+POLYX. Farewell, O mother, farewell Cassandra too.
+
+HEC. Others farewell, but this is not for thy mother.
+
+POLYX. Farewell, my brother Polydore, among the warlike Thracians.
+
+HEC. If he lives at least: but I doubt, so unfortunate am I in every thing.
+
+POLTX. He lives, and shall close thy dying eye.
+
+HEC. I am dead, before my death, beneath my ills.
+
+POLYX. Lead me, Ulysses, having covered my face with a veil, since, before
+I am sacrificed indeed, I am melted in heart at my mother's plaints, her
+also I melt by my lamentations. O light, for yet it is allowed me to
+express thy name, but I have no share in thee, except during the time that
+I am going between the sword and the pyre of Achilles.
+
+HEC. Ah me! I faint; and my limbs fail me.--O daughter, touch thy mother,
+stretch forth thy hand--give it me--leave me not childless--I am lost, my
+friends. Would that I might see the Spartan Helen, the sister of the twin
+sons of Jove, thus, for through her bright eyes that most vile woman
+destroyed the happy Troy.
+
+CHOR. Gale, gale of the sea,[8] which waftest the swift barks bounding
+through the waves through the surge of the ocean, whither wilt thou bear me
+hapless? To whose mansion shall I come, a purchased slave? Or to the port
+of the Doric or Phthian shore, where they report that Apidanus, the most
+beautiful father of floods, enriches the plains? or wilt thou bear me
+hapless urged by the maritime oar, passing a life of misery in my
+prison-house, to that island[9] where both the first-born palm tree and the
+laurel shot forth their hallowed branches to their beloved Latona, emblem
+of the divine parturition? And with the Delian nymphs shall I celebrate in
+song the golden chaplet and bow of Diana? Or, in the Athenian city, shall I
+upon the saffron robe harness the steeds to the car of Minerva splendid in
+her chariot, representing them in embroidery upon the splendid looms of
+brilliant threads, or the race of Titans, which Jove the son of Saturn
+sends to eternal rest with his flaming lightning? Alas, my children! Alas,
+my ancestors, and my paternal land, which is overthrown, buried in smoke,
+captured by the Argive sword! but I indeed am[10] a slave in a foreign
+country, having left Asia the slave of Europe, having changed my bridal
+chamber for the grave.
+
+TALTHYBIUS, HECUBA, CHORUS.
+
+TAL. Tell me, ye Trojan dames, where can I find Hecuba, late the queen of
+Troy?
+
+CHOR. Not far from thee, O Talthybius, she is lying stretched on the
+ground, muffled in her robes.
+
+TAL. O Jupiter, what shall I say? Shall I say that thou beholdest mortals?
+or that they have to no end or purpose entertained false notions, who
+suppose the existence of a race of Deities, and that fortune has the
+sovereign control over men? Was not this the queen of the opulent
+Phrygians? was not this the wife of the all-blest Priam? And now all her
+city is overthrown by the spear, but she a captive, aged, childless, lies
+on the ground defiling her ill-fated head with the dust. Alas! alas! I too
+am old, but rather may death be my portion before I am involved in any such
+debasing fortune; stand up, oh unhappy, raise thy side, and lift up thy
+hoary head.
+
+HEC. Let me alone: who art thou that sufferest not my body to rest? why
+dost thou, whoever thou art, disturb me from my sadness?
+
+TAL. I am here, Talthybius, the herald of the Greeks, Agamemnon having sent
+me for thee, O lady.
+
+HEC. Hast thou come then, thou dearest of men, it having been decreed by
+the Greeks to slay me too upon the tomb? Thou wouldest bring dear news
+indeed. Then haste we, let us speed with all our might: lead on, old man.
+
+TAL. I am here and come to thee, O lady, that thou mayest entomb thy dead
+daughter. Both the two sons of Atreus and the Grecian host send me.
+
+HEC. Alas! what wilt thou say? Art thou not come for me as doomed to death,
+but to bring this cruel message? Thou art dead, my child, torn from thy
+mother; and I am childless as far as regards thee; oh! wretch that I am.
+But how did ye slay her? was it with becoming reverence? Or did ye proceed
+in your butchery as with an enemy, O old man? Tell me, though you will
+relate no pleasing tale.
+
+TAL. Twice, O lady, thou desirest me to indulge in tears through pity for
+thy daughter; for both now while relating the mournful circumstance shall I
+bedew this eye, as did I then at the tomb when she perished. The whole host
+of the Grecian army was present before the tomb, at the sacrifice of thy
+daughter. But the son of Achilles taking Polyxena by the hand, placed her
+on the summit of the mound; but I stood near him: and there followed a
+chosen band of illustrious youths in readiness to restrain with their hands
+thy daughter's struggles; then the son of Achilles took a full-crowned
+goblet of entire gold, and poured forth libations to his deceased father;
+and makes signal to me to proclaim silence through all the Grecian host.
+And I standing forth in the midst, thus spoke: "Be silent, O ye Greeks, let
+all the people remain silent; silence, be still:" and I made the people
+perfectly still. But he said, "O son of Peleus, O my father, accept these
+libations which have the power of soothing, and which speed the dead on
+their way; and come, that thou mayest drink the pure purple blood of this
+virgin, which both the army and myself offer unto thee; but be propitious
+to us, and grant us to weigh anchor, and to loose the cables of our ships,
+and to return each to his country, having met with a prosperous return from
+Troy." Thus much he said, and all the army joined in the prayer. Then
+taking by the hilt his sword decked with gold, he drew it from its
+scabbard, and made signs to the chosen youths of the Greeks to hold the
+virgin. But she, when she perceived it,[11] uttered this speech: "O
+Argives, ye that destroyed my city, I die willingly; let none touch my
+body; for I will offer my neck to the sword with a good heart. But, by the
+Gods, let me go free while ye kill me, that I may die free, for to be
+classed as a slave among the dead, when a queen, is what I am ashamed of."
+But the people murmured assent, and king Agamemnon ordered the young men to
+quit the virgin; [but they, soon as they heard the last words of him who
+had the seat of chief authority among them, let go their hold,] and she, on
+hearing this speech of her lords, took her robe, and rent it, beginning
+from the top of her shoulder down to her waist: and showed her breasts and
+bosom beauteous, as a statue's, and bending her knee on the ground, spoke
+words the most piteous ever heard, "Lo! strike, if this bosom thou
+desirest, O youth; or wouldest thou rather under the neck, here is this
+throat prepared." But he at once resolved and unresolved through pity of
+the virgin, cuts with the sword the passage of her breath; and fountains of
+blood burst forth. But she, e'en in death, showed much care to fall
+decently, and to veil from the eyes of men what ought to be concealed. But
+after that she breathed forth her spirit under the fatal blow, not one of
+the Greeks exercised the same offices; but some scattered leaves from their
+hands on the dead; some heap the funeral pile, bringing whole trunks of
+pines: but he that would not bring, heard rebukes of this sort from him
+that was thus employed: "Standest thou idle, thou man of most mean spirit?
+Hast in thy hand no robe, no ornament for the maiden? Hast thou naught to
+give to her so exceeding brave in heart and most noble in soul?" These
+things I tell thee of the death of thy daughter, but I behold thee at once
+the most happy, at once the most unhappy of all women in thine offspring.
+
+CHOR. Dreadful calamities have risen fierce against the house of Priam;
+such the hard fate of the Gods.
+
+HEC. O daughter! which of my ills I shall first attend to, amidst such a
+multitude, I know not: for if I touch on any, another does not suffer me;
+and thence again some fresh grief draws me aside, succeeding miseries upon
+miseries. And now I can not obliterate from my mind thy sufferings, so as
+not to bewail them: but excess of grief hast thou taken away, having been
+reported to me as noble. Is it then no paradox, if land indeed naturally
+bad, when blest with a favorable season from heaven, bears well the ear;
+but good land, robbed of the advantages it ought to have, brings forth bad
+fruit: but ever among men, the bad by nature is nothing else but bad; the
+good always good, nor under misfortune does he degenerate from his nature,
+but is the same good man? Is it, that the parents cause this difference, or
+the education? The being brought up nobly hath indeed in it the knowledge
+and principles of goodness; but if one is acquainted well with this, he
+knows what is vicious, having already learned it by the rule of virtue. And
+this indeed has my mind been ejaculating in vain. But do thou go, and
+signify these things to the Greeks, that no one be suffered to touch my
+daughter, but bid them keep off the multitude. In so vast an army the
+rabble are riotous, and the sailors' uncontrolled insolence is fiercer than
+fire; and he is evil, who does not evil. But do thou, my old attendant,
+taking an urn, fill it with sea water, and bring it hither, that I may wash
+my girl in her last bath, the bride no bride now, and the virgin no longer
+a virgin, wash her, and lay her out; according to her merits--whence can I?
+This I can not; but as I can, I will, for what can I do! And collecting
+ornaments from among the captured women, who dwell beside me in these
+tents, if any one, unobserved by our new lords, has by her any stolen
+memorial of her home. O state of my house, O mansions once happy! O Priam,
+of vast wealth possessed, and supremely blest in thine offspring, and I
+too, this aged woman, the mother of such children! How have we come to
+nothing, bereft of our former grandeur! And yet still forsooth we are
+elated, one of us in his gorgeous palaces; another, when honored among his
+citizens. These are nothing. In vain the counsels of the mind, and the
+tongue's boast. He is most blest, to whom from day to day no evil happens.
+
+CHORUS.
+
+Against me was it fated that calamity, against me was it fated that woe
+should spring, when Paris first hewed the pine in Ida's forest, preparing
+to cut his way over the ocean surge to the bed of Helen, the fairest that
+the sun's golden beams shine upon. For toils, and fate more stern than
+toils, close us round: and from the folly of one came a public calamity
+fatal to the land of Simois, and woes springing from other woes: and when
+the dispute was decided, which the shepherd decided between the three
+daughters of the blessed Gods on Ida's top, for war, and slaughter, and the
+desolation of my palaces. And many a Spartan virgin at her home on the
+banks of the fair-flowing Eurotas sighs while bathed in tears: and many an
+aged matron strikes her hand against her hoary head, for her children who
+have perished, and tears her cheek making her nails all blood-stained with
+her wounds.
+
+FEMALE ATTENDANT, CHORUS, HECUBA.
+
+ATT. O attendants, where, I pray, is the all-wretched Hecuba, who surpasses
+the whole race of man and woman kind in calamities? no one shall wrest from
+her the crown.
+
+CHOR. But what dost thou want, O wretch, in thy words of ill omen? for thy
+messages of woe never rest.
+
+ATT. I bring this grief to Hecuba; but in calamity 'tis no easy thing for
+men to speak words of good import.
+
+CHOR. And see, she is coming out of the house, and appears in the right
+time for thy words.
+
+ATT. O all-wretched mistress, and yet still more wretched than I can
+express in words, thou art undone, and no longer beholdest the light,
+childless, husbandless, cityless, entirely destroyed.
+
+HEC. Thou has said nothing new, but hast reproached me who already know it:
+but why dost thou bring this corse of my Polyxena, whose sepulture was
+reported to me as in a state of active progress through the labors of all
+the Grecians?
+
+ATT. She nothing knows, but, woe's me! laments Polyxena, nor does she
+apprehend her new misfortunes.
+
+HEC. O wretched me! dost bring hither the body of the frantic and inspired
+Cassandra?
+
+ATT. She whom thou mentionedst, lives; but thou dost not weep for him who
+is dead; but behold this corse cast naked [on the shore,] and look if it
+will appear to thee a wonder, and what thou little expectest.
+
+HEC. Alas me! I do indeed see my son Polydore a corse, whom (_I fondly
+hoped_) the man of Thrace was preserving in his palace. Now am I lost
+indeed, I no longer exist. Oh my child, my child! Alas! I begin the Bacchic
+strain, having lately learned my woes from my evil genius.
+
+ATT. Thou knowest then the calamity of thy son, O most unfortunate.
+
+HEC. I see incredible evils, still fresh, still fresh: and my immeasurable
+woes follow one upon the other. No longer will a day without a tear,
+without a groan, have part with me.
+
+CHOR. Dreadful, oh! dreadful are the miseries that we endure!
+
+HEC. O child, child of a wretched mother, by what fate art thou dead, by
+what hap liest thou here? by the hand of what man?
+
+ATT. I know not: on the wave-washed shore I found him.
+
+HEC. Cast up from the sea, or fallen by the blood-stained spear? (Note
+[C].)
+
+ATT. The ocean's billow cast him up from the deep on the smooth sand.
+
+HEC. Woe is me! Now understand I the dream, the vision of mine eyes; the
+black-winged phantom has not flitted by me in vain, which I saw concerning
+thee, my child, as being no longer in the light of day.
+
+CHOR. But who slew him? canst thou, O skilled in dreams, declare him?
+
+HEC. My friend, my friend, who curbs the steed in Thrace, where his aged
+father placed him for concealment.
+
+CHOR. Ah me! what wilt thou say? Was it to possess his gold that he slew
+him!
+
+HEC. Unutterable deeds, unworthy of a name, surpassing miracles,
+unhallowed, insufferable! Where are the laws of hospitality? O most accurst
+of men, how didst thou mar that skin, how sever with the cruel sword the
+poor limbs of this boy, nor didst feel pity?
+
+CHOR. O hapless woman, how has the deity made thee by far the most wretched
+of mortals, whoever he be that presses heavy on thee! But, my friends, let
+us henceforward be silent, for I see our lord Agamemnon advancing.
+
+AGAMEMNON, CHORUS, HECUBA.
+
+AGA. Why, Hecuba, delayest thou to come, and bury thy girl in her tomb,
+agreeably to what Talthybius told me, that no one of the Argives should be
+suffered to touch thy daughter. For our part we leave her alone, and touch
+her not; but thou art slow, whereat I am astonished. I am come therefore to
+fetch thee, for every thing there has been well and duly performed, if
+aught of well there be in this. Ah! what corse is this I see before the
+tent? some Trojan's too? for that it is no Grecian's, the robes that vest
+his limbs inform me.
+
+HEC. (_aside_) Thou ill-starr'd wretch! myself I mean, when I say "thou." O
+Hecuba, what shall I do? Shall I fall at the knees of Agamemnon here, or
+bear my ills in silence?
+
+AGA. Why dost lament turning thy back upon me, and sayest not what has
+happened? Who is this?
+
+HEC. (_aside_) But should he, thinking me a slave, an enemy, spurn me from
+his knees, I should be adding to my present sufferings.
+
+AGA. No prophet I, so as to trace, unless by hearing, the path of thy
+counsels.
+
+HEC. (_aside_) Am I not rather then putting an evil construction on this
+man's thoughts, whereas he has no evil intention toward me?
+
+AGA. If thou art willing that I should nothing of this affair, thou art of
+a mind with me, for neither do I wish to hear.
+
+HEC. (_aside_) I can not without him take vengeance for my children. Why do
+I thus hesitate? I must be bold, whether I succeed, or fail. Agamemnon, by
+these knees, and by thy beard I implore thee, and by thy blessed hand--
+
+AGA. What thy request? Is it to pass thy life in freedom? for this is easy
+for thee to obtain.
+
+HEC. Not this indeed; but so that I avenge myself on the bad, I am willing
+to pass my whole life in slavery.
+
+AGA. And for what assistance dost thou call on me?
+
+HEC. In none of those things which thou imaginest, O king. Seest thou this
+corse, o'er which I drop the tear?
+
+AGA. I see it; thy meaning however I can not learn from this.
+
+HEC. Him did I once bring forth, him bore I in my bosom.
+
+AGA. Is this indeed one of thy children, O unhappy woman?
+
+HEC. It is, but not of the sons of Priam who fell under the walls of Troy.
+
+AGA. Didst thou then bear any other besides those, O lady?
+
+HEC. In vain, as it appears, this whom you see.
+
+AGA. But where did he chance to be, when the city fell?
+
+HEC. His father sent him out of the country, dreading his death.
+
+AGA. Whither, having removed him alone of his children then alive?
+
+HEC. To this country, where he was found a corse.
+
+AGA. To him who is king over this state, to Polymestor?
+
+HEC. Hither was he sent, the guardian of gold, which proved most
+destructive to him.
+
+AGA. By whose hand then he is dead, and having met with what fate?
+
+HEC. By whom else should he? The Thracian host slew him.
+
+AGA. O wretch! was he so inflamed with the desire of obtaining the gold?
+
+HEC. Even so, after he had heard of Troy's disasters.
+
+AGA. And where didst thou find him, or who brought the body?
+
+HEC. She, meeting with it on the sea-shore.
+
+AGA. In quest of it, or occupied in some other employment?
+
+HEC. She was going to bring from the sea wherewith to bathe Polyxena.
+
+AGA. This friend then, as it seems, murdered him, and after that cast him
+out.
+
+HEC. To toss upon the waves thus gashing his body.
+
+AGA. O thou unhappy from thy unmeasured ills!
+
+HEC. I perish, no woe is left, O Agamemnon.
+
+AGA. Alas! alas! What woman was ever so unfortunate?
+
+HEC. There is none, except you reckon Misfortune herself. But for what
+cause I fall at thy knees, now hear: if I appear to you to suffer these
+ills justly, I would be reconciled to them; but if otherwise, be thou my
+avenger on this man, this most impious of false friends; who revering
+neither the Gods beneath[12] the earth, nor the Gods above, hath done this
+most unholy deed, having often partaken of the same table with me, [and in
+the list of hospitality the first of my friends; and having met with
+whatever was due,[13] and having received a full consideration for his
+services,[14]] slew him, and deigned not to give him a tomb, _which he
+might have given_, although he purposed to slay him, but cast him forth at
+the mercy of the waves. We indeed are slaves, and perhaps weak; but the
+Gods are strong, and strong the law, which governs them; for by the law we
+judge that there are Gods, and we live having justice and injustice
+strictly defined; which if when referred to thee it be disregarded, and
+they shall suffer no punishment who slay their guests, or dare to pollute
+the hallowed statutes of the Gods, there is nothing equitable in the
+dealings of men. Beholding these things then in a base and proper light,
+reverence me; pity me, and, as the artist stands aside _to view a picture_,
+do thou view my living portrait, and see what woes I am enduring. Once was
+I a queen, but now I am thy slave; once was I blest in my children, but now
+aged, and at the same time childless, cityless, destitute, the most
+miserable of mortals. Alas me wretched! whither withdrawest from me thy
+foot? It seems[15] I shall make no impression, wretch that I am. Why then
+do we mortals toil after all other sciences, as a matter of duty, and dive
+into them, but least of all strive to learn thoroughly Persuasion, the sole
+mistress o'er the minds of men, giving a price for her knowledge, that at
+some time we may have it in our power at once to persuade and obtain what
+we wish?--How then can any one hereafter hope that he shall be fortunate?
+So many children that I had, and now not one is left to me. But I am
+perishing a captive in base servitude, and yet see the smoke there leaping
+aloft from the city. And however this part of my argument may perchance be
+vain, the bringing forward love; still nevertheless it shall be urged. My
+daughter is wont to sleep by thy side, that prophetess, whom the Trojans
+call Cassandra. Where wilt thou show that thy nights were nights of love, O
+king, or will my daughter receive any recompense for her most fond
+embraces, and I through her? [For from the secret shade, and from night's
+joys, the greatest delight is wont to spring to mortals.] Now then attend.
+Thou seest this corse? Him assisting, thou wilt assist one joined to thee
+in affinity. One thing my speech wants yet. I would fain I had a voice in
+my arms, and hands, and in my hair, and in my footsteps, or by the skill of
+D�dalus, or some God, that each at once might hold thy knees, weeping, and
+imploring in all the strains of eloquence. O my lord. O greatest light of
+the Greeks, be persuaded; lend thy hand to avenge this aged woman, although
+she is of no consequence, yet avenge her. For it belongs to a good man to
+minister justice, and always and in every case to punish the bad.
+
+CHOR. It is strange, how every thing happens to mortals, and laws determine
+even the fates, making the greatest enemies friends, and enemies of those
+who before were on good terms.
+
+AGA. I, O Hecuba, have pity both on thee and thy son, thy misfortunes, and
+thy suppliant touch, and I am willing in regard both to the Gods and to
+justice, that this impious host should give thee full revenge, provided a
+way could be found, that both you might be gratified, and I might in the
+eyes of the army not seem to meditate this destruction against the king of
+Thrace for Cassandra's sake. For there is a point in which apprehension
+hath reached me. This man the army deems a friend, the dead an enemy; but
+if he is dear to thee, this is a private feeling and does not affect the
+army. Wherefore consider, that thou hast me willing to labor with thee, and
+ready to assist thee, but backward, should I be murmured against among the
+Greeks.
+
+HEC. Alas! no mortal is there who is free. For either he is the slave of
+money or of fortune; or the populace of the city or the dictates of the law
+constrain him to adopt manners not accordant with his natural inclinations.
+But since thou fearest, and payest too much regard to the multitude, I will
+liberate thee from this fear. For consent with me, if I meditate vengeance
+against the murderer of this youth, but do not act with me. But should any
+tumult or offer of assistance arise from out of the Greeks, when the
+Thracian feels the punishment he shall feel, suppress it, not appearing to
+do it for my sake: but of the rest be confident: I will dispose all things
+well.
+
+AGA. How then? What wilt thou do? Wilt thou grasp the sword in thine aged
+hand, and strike the barbarian? or with poison wilt thou work, or with what
+assistance? What hand will conspire with thee? whence wilt thou procure
+friends?
+
+HEC. These tents inclose a host of Trojan dames.
+
+AGA. Meanest thou the captives, the booty of the Greeks?
+
+HEC. With these will I avenge me of my murderer.
+
+AGA. And how shall the victory over men be to women?
+
+HEC. Numbers are powerful, with stratagem invincible.
+
+AGA. Powerful, I grant; I mistrust however the race of women.
+
+HEC. And why? Did not women slay the sons of �gyptus,[16] and utterly
+extirpated the race of men from Lemnos?[17] But thus let it be. Give up
+this discussion. But grant this woman to pass in safety through the army.
+And do thou go to the Thracian host and tell him, "Hecuba, once queen of
+Troy, sends for you on business of no less importance to yourself than to
+her, and your sons likewise, since it is of consequence that your children
+also should hear her words."--And do thou, O Agamemnon, as yet forbear to
+raise the tomb over the newly-sacrificed Polyxena, that these two, the
+brother and the sister, the divided care of their mother, may, when reduced
+to ashes by one and the same flame, be interred side by side.
+
+AGA. Thus shall it be. And yet, if the army could sail, I should not have
+it in my power to grant thy request: but now, for the deity breathes not
+prosperous gales, we must wait, watching for a calm voyage. But may things
+turn out well some way or other: for this is a general principle among all,
+both individuals in private and states, That the wicked man should feel
+vengeance, but the good man enjoy prosperity.
+
+CHORUS.
+
+O thou, my country of Troy, no longer shall thou be called the city of the
+invincible, such a cloud of Grecians envelops thee, with the spear, with
+the spear having destroyed thee. And thou hast been shorn of thy crown of
+turrets, and thou hast been discolored by the dismal blackness of smoke;
+hapless city, no longer shall I tread my steps in thee.
+
+In the midnight hour I perished, when after the feast sweet sleep is
+scattered over the eyes. And my husband, from the song and cheerful
+sacrifice retired, was sleeping peacefully in my bed, his spear on its peg,
+no more dreaming to behold the naval host of the Greeks treading the
+streets of Troy. But I was binding my braided hair with fillets fastened on
+the top of mine head, looking into the round polished surface of the golden
+mirror, that I might get into my bed prepared for me. On a sudden a
+tumultuous cry penetrated the city; and this shout of exhortation was heard
+in the streets of Troy, "When indeed, ye sons of Grecians, when, _if not
+now_, will ye return to your homes having overthrown the proud citadel of
+Ilium!" And having left my dear bed, in a single robe, like a Spartan
+virgin, flying for aid to the venerable shrine of Diana, I hapless fled in
+vain. And I am dragged, after having seen my husband slain, to the ocean
+waves; and casting a distant look back upon my city, after the vessel had
+begun her way in her return to Greece, and divided me from the land of
+Troy, I wretched fainted through anguish. And consigning to curses Helen,
+the sister of the Twin Brothers, and the Idean shepherd, the ruthless
+Paris, since his marriage, no marriage, but some Fury's hate hath utterly
+destroyed me far from my native land, and hath driven me from my home. Whom
+may the ocean refuse ever to bear back again; and may she never reach again
+her paternal home.
+
+POLYMESTOR, HECUBA, CHORUS.
+
+POLY. O Priam, thou dearest of men, and thou most dear Hecuba, at thy sight
+I weep for thee, and thy city, and thy daughter who has lately died. Alas!
+there is nothing secure, neither glory, nor when one is faring well is
+there a certainty that he will not fare ill. But the Gods mingle these
+things promiscuously to and fro, making all confusion, so that we through
+ignorance may worship them. But wherefore should I utter these plaints,
+which in no way tend to free thee from thy former calamities. But thou, if
+thou hast aught to blame for my absence, forbear; for I chanced to be afar
+off in the middle of my Thracian territories, when thou camest hither; but
+soon as I returned, as I was already setting out from my house, this maid
+of thine met me for the self-same purpose, and delivered thy message, which
+when I had heard, I came.
+
+HEC. O Polymestor, I am ashamed to look thee in the face, sunk as I am in
+such miseries; for before one who has seen me in prosperity, shame
+overwhelms me, being in the state in which I now am, nor can I look upon
+thee with unmoved eyes. But impute not this to any enmity I bear thee; but
+there are other causes, and in some degree this law; "that women ought not
+to gaze at men."
+
+POLY. And 'tis indeed no wonder; but what need hast thou of me? for what
+purpose didst thou send for me to come from home?
+
+HEC. I am desirous of communicating a private affair of my own to thee and
+thy children; but order thy attendants to retire from these tents.
+
+POLY. Depart, for here to be alone is safe. Friendly thou art, this Grecian
+army too is friendly toward me, but it is for thee to signify, in what
+manner I, who am in good circumstances, ought to succor my friends in
+distress; since, on my part, I am ready.
+
+HEC. First then tell me of my son Polydore, whom thou retainest, receiving
+him from mine, and from his father's hand, if he live; but the rest I shall
+inquire of thee afterward.
+
+POLY. He lives, and in good health; as far as regards him indeed thou art
+happy.
+
+HEC. O my best friend, how well thou speakest, and how worthily of thyself!
+
+POLY. What dost thou wish then to inquire of me in the next place?
+
+HEC. Whether he remembers at all me, his mother?
+
+POLY. Yes: and he even sought to come to thee by stealth.
+
+HEC. And is the gold safe, which he brought with him from Troy?
+
+POLY. It is safe, at least it is guarded in my house.
+
+HEC. Preserve it therefore, nor covet the goods of others.
+
+POLY. Certainly not. May I enjoy what is mine own, O lady.
+
+HEC. Knowest thou then, what I wish to say to thee and thy children?
+
+POLY. I do not: this shalt thou signify by thy speech.
+
+HEC. Be my son loved by thee, as thou art now loved of me.
+
+POLY. What is it, that I and my sons must know?
+
+HEC. The ancient buried treasures of the family of Priam.
+
+POLY. Is it this thou wishest me to inform thy son of?
+
+HEC. Yes, certainly; through thee at least, for thou art a pious man.
+
+POLY. What necessity then is there for the presence of these children?
+
+HEC. 'Tis better in case of thy death, that these should know.
+
+POLY. Well hast thou thus said, and 'tis the wiser plan.
+
+HEC. Thou knowest then where the temple of Minerva in Troy is--
+
+POLY. Is the gold there! but what is the mark?
+
+HEC. A black rock rising above the earth.
+
+POLY. Hast any thing further to tell me of what is there?
+
+HEC. No, but I wish thee to take care of some treasures, with which I came
+out of the city.
+
+POLY. Where are they then? Hast thou them hidden beneath thy robes?
+
+HEC. Amidst a heap of spoils they are preserved in this tent.
+
+POLY. But where? These are the naval encampments of the Grecians.
+
+HEC. The habitations of the captive women are private.
+
+POLY. And is all secure within, and untenanted by men?
+
+HEC. Not one of the Greeks is within, but we women only. But come into the
+tent, for the Greeks are desirous of loosing the sheets of their vessels
+homeward from Troy; so that, having done every thing that thou oughtest,
+thou mayest go with thy children to that place where thou hast given my son
+to dwell.
+
+CHOR. Not yet hast thou suffered, but peradventure thou wilt suffer
+vengeance; as a man falling headlong into the gulf where no harbor is,
+shalt thou be hurled from thy dear heart, having lost thy life;[18] for
+where the rites of hospitality coincide[19] with justice, and with the
+Gods, _on the villain who dares to violate these_ destructive, destructive
+indeed impends the evil. But thy hopes will deceive thee, which thou
+entertainedst from this journey, which has brought thee, thou wretched man,
+to the deadly mansions of Pluto; but thou shalt quit thy life by no
+warrior's hand.
+
+POLYMESTOR, HECUBA, SEMICHORUS.
+
+POLY. Oh me! I wretch am deprived of the sight of mine eyes.
+
+SEMI. Heard ye the shriek of the man of Thrace, my friends?
+
+POLY. Oh me; there again--Oh my children, thy miserable butchery!
+
+SEMI. My friends, some strange ills have been perpetrated within the tents.
+
+POLY. But for all your nimble feet, ye never can escape me, for by my blows
+will I burst open the recesses of these tents.
+
+SEMI. Behold, he uses violently the weapon of his heavy hand. Will ye that
+we fall on; since the instant calls on us to be present with assistance to
+Hecuba and the Trojan dames?
+
+HEC. Dash on, spare nothing, break down the gates, for thou never shalt
+replace the clear sight in those pupils, nor shalt thou behold alive those
+children which I have slain.
+
+SEMI. What! hast thou vanquished the Thracian? and hast thou got the
+mastery over this host, my mistress? and hast thou done such deeds, as thou
+sayest?
+
+HEC. Thou wilt see him quickly before the house, blind, with blind
+wandering steps approaching, and the bodies of his two children, whom I
+have slain with these most valiant Trojan women; but he has felt my
+vengeance; but he is coming as thou seest from the tent. But I will retire
+out of his way, and make good my retreat from the boiling rage of this most
+desperate Thracian.
+
+POLY. Alas me! whither can I go? where stand? whither shall I direct my
+way, advancing my steps like the four-footed mountain beast on my hands and
+on my feet in pursuit? What new path shall I take in this direction or in
+that, desirous of seizing these murderous Trojan dames, who have utterly
+destroyed me; O ye impious, impious Phrygian daughters! Ah the accursed, in
+what corner do they shrink from me in flight? Would that thou, O sun,
+could'st heal, could'st heal these bleeding lids of my eyes, and remove
+this gloomy-darkness. Ah, hush, hush! I hear the carefully-concealed step
+of these women. Whither shall I direct my course in order that I may glut
+myself on the flesh and bones of these, making the wild beasts' banquet,
+inflicting vengeance on them, in return for the injuries done me. Wretch
+that I am! Whither, whither am I borne, having left my children deserted,
+for these fiends of hell to tear piecemeal, a mangled, bleeding, savage
+prey to dogs, and a thing to cast out on the mountains? Where shall I
+stand? Whither turn? Whither go, as a ship setting her yellow canvas sails
+with her sea-washed palsers, rushing to this lair of death, the protector
+of my children?
+
+CHOR. O miserable man, what intolerable evils have been perpetrated by
+thee! but on thee having done base deeds the God hath sent dreadful
+punishment, whoever he be that presses heavy on thee.
+
+POLY. Alas! alas! O Thracian nation, brandishing the spear, warlike,
+bestriding the steed, nation ruled by Mars; O ye Greeks, sons of Atreus; I
+raise the cry, the cry, the cry; Come, come, hasten, I entreat you by the
+Gods. Does any hear, or will no one assist me? Why do ye delay? The women
+have destroyed me, the captive women. Horrible, horrible treatment have I
+suffered. Alas me for my ruin! Whither can I turn? Whither can I go? Shall
+I soar through the ethereal skies to the lofty mansions where Orion or
+Sirius dart from their eyes the flaming rays of fire: or shall I hapless
+rush to the gloomy shore of Pluto?
+
+CHOR. It is pardonable, when any one suffers greater misfortunes than he
+can bear, for him to be desirous to quit a miserable life.
+
+AGAMEMNON, POLYMESTOR, HECUBA, CHORUS.
+
+AGA. I came having heard the clamor: for Echo, the mountain's daughter, did
+not sound in gentle strains through the army, causing a disturbance. But
+did we not know that the Phrygian towers are fallen beneath the Grecian
+spear, this tumult might have caused no little terror.
+
+POLY. O my dearest friend (for I know thee, Agamemnon, having heard thy
+voice), seest thou what I am suffering?
+
+AGA. Ah! wretched Polymestor, who hath destroyed thee? who made thine eyes
+sightless, having drowned their orbs in blood? And who hath slain these thy
+children? Sure, whoe'er it was, felt the greatest rage against thee and thy
+sons.
+
+POLY. Hecuba with the female captives hath destroyed me--nay, not destroyed
+me, but more than destroyed me.
+
+AGA. What sayest thou? Hast thou done this deed, as he affirms? Hast thou,
+Hecuba, dared this inconceivable act of boldness?
+
+POLY. Ah me! what wilt thou say? Is she any where near me? Show me, tell me
+where she is, that I may seize her in my hands, and tear piecemeal and
+mangle her body.
+
+AGA. What ho! what are you doing?
+
+POLY. By the Gods I entreat thee, suffer me to lay my raging hand upon her.
+
+AGA. Forbear. And having banished this barbarous deed from thy thoughts,
+speak; that having heard both thee and her in your respective turns, I may
+decide justly, in return for what thou art suffering these ills.
+
+POLY. I will speak then. There was a certain youth, the youngest of Priam's
+children, by name Polydore, the son of Hecuba; him his father Priam sent to
+me from Troy to bring up in my palace, already presaging[20] the capture of
+Troy. Him I put to death. But for what cause I put him to death, with what
+policy and prudent forethought, now hear. I feared, lest the boy being left
+an enemy to thee, should collect the scattered remnants of Troy, and again
+people the city. And lest the Greeks, having discovered that one of the
+sons of Priam was alive, should again direct an expedition against the
+Phrygian land, and after that should harass and lay waste the plains of
+Thrace; and it might fare ill with the neighbors of the Trojans, under
+which misfortune, O king, we are now laboring. But Hecuba, when she had
+discovered her son's death, by such treachery as this lured me hither, as
+about to tell me of treasure belonging to Priam's family concealed in Troy,
+and introduces me alone with my sons into the tent, that no one else might
+know it. And I sat, having reclined on the centre of the couch; but many
+Trojan damsels, some from the left hand, and others from the right, sat
+round me, as by an intimate friend, holding in their hands the Edonian
+looms, and praised these robes, looking at them in the light; but others,
+beholding with admiration my Thracian spear, deprived me of my double
+ornament. But as many as were mothers caressed my children in their arms in
+seeming admiration, that they might be farther removed from their father,
+successively handing them from one to another: and then, amidst their kind
+blandishments, what think you? in an instant, snatching from somewhere
+beneath their garments their daggers, they stab my children. But they
+having seized me in an hostile manner held my hands and feet; and if,
+wishing to succor my children, I raised my head, they held me by the hair:
+but if I attempted to move my hands, I wretched could effect nothing
+through the host of women. But at last, cruelty and worse than cruelty,
+they perpetrated dreadful things; for having taken their clasps they pierce
+and gore the wretched pupils of my eyes, then vanish in flight through the
+tent. But I, having leaped out, like some exasperated beast, pursue the
+blood-stained wretches, searching every wall, as the hunter, casting down,
+rending. This have I suffered, while studious to advance thy interest,
+Agamemnon, and having killed thine enemy. But that I may not extend my
+speech to a greater length, if any one of those of ancient times hath
+reviled women, or if any one doth now, or shall hereafter revile them, I
+will comprise the whole when I say, that such a race neither doth the sea
+nor the earth produce, but he who is always with them knows it best.
+
+CHOR. Be not at all insolent, nor, in thy calamities, thus comprehending
+the female sex, abuse them all. For of us there are many, some indeed are
+envied _for their virtues_, but some are by nature in the catalogue of bad
+things.
+
+HEC. Agamemnon, it never were fitting among men that the tongue should have
+greater force than actions. But if a man has acted well, well should he
+speak; if on the other hand basely, his words likewise should be unsound,
+and never ought he to be capable of speaking unjust things well. Perhaps
+indeed they who have brought these things to a pitch of accuracy are
+accounted wise, but they can not endure wise unto the end, but perish
+vilely, nor has any one yet escaped this. And this in my prelude is what I
+have to say to thee. Now am I going to direct my discourse to this man, and
+I will answer his arguments. Thou, that assertest, that in order to rid the
+Greeks of their redoubled toil, and for Agamemnon's sake that thou didst
+slay my son? But, in the first place, monstrous villain, never can the race
+of barbarians be friendly to the Grecians, never can this take place. But
+what favor wert thou so eagerly currying? wert thou about to contract an
+alliance, or was it that thou wert of kindred birth, or what pretext hadst
+thou? or were they about to ravage the crops of thy country, having sailed
+thither again? Whom, thinkest thou, wilt thou persuade of these things? The
+gold, if thou wert willing to speak truth, the gold destroyed my son, and
+thy base gains. For come, tell me this; how when Troy was prosperous, and a
+tower yet girt around the city, and Priam lived, and the spear of Hector
+was in its glory, why didst thou not then, if thou wert willing to lay him
+under this obligation, bringing up my child, and retaining him in thy
+palace, why didst thou not then slay him, or go and take him alive to the
+Greeks? But when we were no longer in the light of prosperity, and the city
+by its smoke showed that it was in the power of the enemy, thou slewest thy
+guest who had come to thy hearth. Now hear besides how thou wilt appear
+vile: thou oughtest, if thou wert the friend of the Greeks, to have given
+the gold, which thou confessedst thou hast, not thine, but his,
+distributing to those who were in need, and had long been strangers to
+their native land. But thou, even now, hast not courage to part with it
+from thy hand, but having it, thou still art keeping it close in thine
+house. And yet, in bringing up my child, as it was thy duty to bring him
+up, and in preserving him, thou hadst had fair honor. For in adversity
+friends are most clearly proved good. But good circumstances have in every
+case their friends. But if thou wert in want of money, and he in a
+flourishing condition, my son had been to thee a vast treasure; but now,
+thou neither hast him for thy friend, and the benefit from the gold is
+gone, and thy sons are gone, and thou art--as thou art. But to thee,
+Agamemnon, I say; if thou aidest this man, thou wilt appear to be doing
+wrong. For thou wilt be conferring a benefit on a host, who is neither
+pious, nor faithful to those to whom he ought, not holy, not just. But we
+shall say that thou delightest in the bad, if thus thou actest: but I speak
+no offense to my lords.
+
+CHOR. Ah! Ah! How do good deeds ever supply to men the source of good
+words!
+
+AGA. Thankless my office to decide on others' grievances; but still I must,
+for it brings disgrace on a man, having taken a thing in hand, to give it
+up. But to me, be assured, thou neither appearest for my sake, nor for the
+sake of the Grecians, to have killed this man thy guest, but that thou
+mightest possess the gold in thy palace. But thou talkest of thy advantage,
+when thou art in calamities.[21] Perhaps with you it is a slight thing to
+kill your guests; but with us Grecians this thing is abhorred. How then, in
+giving my decision that thou hast not injured, can I escape blame? I can
+not; but as thou hast dared to do things dishonorable, endure now things
+unpleasant.
+
+POLY. Alas me! worsted, as it seems, by a woman who is a slave, I shall
+submit to the vengeance of my inferiors.
+
+AGA. Will it not then be justly, seeing thou hast acted wrong?
+
+POLY. Alas me! wretched on account of these children and on account of my
+eyes.
+
+HEC. Thou sufferest? but what do I? Thinkest thou I suffer not for my
+child?
+
+POLY. Thou rejoicest in insulting me, O thou malicious woman.
+
+HEC. For ought not I to rejoice on having avenged myself on thee?
+
+POLY. But thou wilt not soon, when the liquid wave--
+
+HEC. Shall bear me, _dost thou mean_, to the confines of the Grecian land?
+
+POLY. --shall cover thee, having fallen from the shrouds.
+
+HEC. From whom meeting with this violent leap?
+
+POLY. Thyself shalt climb with thy feet up the ship's mast.
+
+HEC. Having wings on my back, or in what way?
+
+POLY. Thou shalt become a dog with a fiery aspect.
+
+HEC. But how dost thou know of this my metamorphose?
+
+POLY. Dionysius the Thracian prophet told it me.
+
+HEC. But did he not declare to thee any of the evils which thou sufferest?
+
+POLY. No: for, _if he had_, thou never wouldst thus treacherously have
+taken me.
+
+HEC. [22]Thence shall I conclude my life in death, or still live on?
+
+POLY. Thou shalt die. But the name of thy tomb shall be--
+
+HEC. Dost thou speak of it as in any way correspondent to my shape?
+
+POLY. [23]The tomb of the wretched dog, a mark to mariners.
+
+HEC. I heed it not, since thou at least hast felt my vengeance.
+
+POLY. And it is fated too for thy daughter Cassandra to die.
+
+HEC. I renounce these prophecies; I give them for thyself to bear.
+
+POLY. Him shall his wife slay, a cruel guardian of his house.
+
+HEC. Never yet may the daughter of Tyndarus have arrived at such madness.
+
+POLY. Even this man himself, having lifted up the axe.
+
+AGA. What ho! thou art mad, and art desirous of obtaining greater ills.
+
+POLY. Kill me, for the murderous bath at Argos awaits thee.
+
+AGA. Will ye not, slaves, forcibly drag him from my presence?
+
+POLY. Thou art galled at what thou hearest.
+
+AGA. Will ye not stop his mouth?
+
+POLY. Stop it: for the word is spoken.
+
+AGA. Will ye not as quick as possible cast him out on some desert island,
+since he is thus, and past endurance insolent? But do thou, wretched
+Hecuba, go and bury thy two dead: and you, O Trojan dames, must approach
+your masters' tents, for I perceive that the gales are favorable for
+wafting us to our homes. And may we sail in safety to our native country,
+and behold our household and families in prosperity, having found rest from
+these toils.
+
+CHOR. Come, my friends, to the harbor, and the tents, to undergo the tasks
+imposed by our masters. For necessity is relentless.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+NOTES ON HECUBA
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+[1] Homer makes Dymas, not Cisseus, the father of Hecuba. Virgil however
+follows Euripides, the rest of the Latin poets Virgil.
+
+[2] In the martial time of antiquity the spear was reverenced as something
+divine, and signified the chief command in arms, it was also the insigne of
+the highest civil authority: in this sense Euripides in other places uses
+the word [Greek: dory]. See Hippol. 988.
+
+[3] [Greek: tritaios] properly signifies _triduanus_; here it is used for
+[Greek: tritos], the cardinal number for the ordinal. So also Hippol. 275.
+
+  [Greek: P�s d' ou, tritaian g' ous' asitos h�meran:]
+
+[4] Most interpreters render this, _leaning on the crooked staff with my
+hand_. Nor has Beck altered it in his Latin version, though he transcribed
+Musgrave's note. "[Greek: skoli�, skimp�ni] (_for which Porson directs_
+[Greek: skip�ni],) Scipiones in universum recti sunt, non curvi. Loquitur
+igitur non de vero scipione, sed metaphorice de brachio, quod ancillis
+innitens, scipionis usum pr�stabat; quodque, ob cubiti flexuram, [Greek:
+skolion skimp�ma] vocat."
+
+[5] _that babbling knave_.] Tzetzes on Lycophron, line 763. [Greek: kopis,
+ho rh�t�r, kai empeiros, ho hypo poll�n pragmat�n kekommenos]. In the Index
+to Lycophron [Greek: kopis] is translated _scurra_.
+
+[6] Among the ancients it was the custom for virgins to have a great
+quantity of golden ornaments about them, to which Homer alludes, Il.
+[Greek: B]. 872.
+
+  [Greek: Hos kai chryson ech�n polemon d' ien ��te kour�]. PORSON.
+
+[7] This is the only sense that can be made of [Greek: enthanein], and this
+sense seems strained: Brunck proposes [Greek: entak�nai] for [Greek:
+enthanein ge]. See Note [A].
+
+[8] [Greek: limn�] is used for the _sea_ in Troades 444; as also in Iliad
+[Greek: N]. 21, and Odyssey [Greek: G]. 1. and in many other passages of
+Homer.
+
+[9] The construction is [Greek: � poreuseis me entha nas�n]; for [Greek:
+eis ekein�n t�n nas�n, entha.]
+
+[10] [Greek: kekl�mai] for [Greek: eimi], not an unusual signification.
+Hippol. 2, [Greek: thea kekl�mai Kypris.]
+
+[11] _When she perceived it,_ [Greek: ephrasth�, syn�ken, egn�, eno�sen].
+_Hesych_.
+
+[12] The Gods beneath he despised, by casting him out without a tomb; the
+Gods above, as the guardians of the rites of hospitality.
+
+[13] _Whatever was due_, either on the score of friendship, or as an
+equivalent for his care and protection.
+
+[14] Musgrave proposes to read [Greek: promisthian] for [Greek:
+prom�thian]: the version above is in accordance with the scholiast and the
+paraphrast.
+
+[15] See note on Medea 338.
+
+[16] The story of the daughters of Danaus is well known.
+
+[17] Of this there are two accounts given in the Scholia. The one is, that
+the women of Lemnos being punished by Venus with an ill savor, and
+therefore neglected by their husbands, conspired against them and slew
+them. The other is found in Herodotus, Erato, chap. 138. see also �sch.
+Choephor�, line 627, ed. Schutz.
+
+[18] Polymestor was guilty of two crimes, [Greek: adikias] and [Greek:
+asebeias], for he had both violated the laws of men, and profaned the deity
+of Jupiter Hospitalis. Whence Agamemnon, v. 840, hints that he is to suffer
+on both accounts.
+
+  [Greek: kai boulomai the�n th' hounek anosion xenon,]
+  [Greek: kai tou dikaion, t�nde soi dounai dik�n.]
+
+The Chorus therefore says, _Ubi contingit eundem et Justiti� et Diis esse
+addictum, exitiale semper malum esse_; or, as the learned Hemsterheuyse has
+more fully and more elegantly expressed, it, _Ubi_, id est, _in quo_, vel
+_in quem cadit et concurrit, ut ob crimen commissum simul et human�
+justiti� et Deorum vindict� sit obnoxius, ac velut oppignoratus; illi
+certissimum exitium imminet_. This sense the words give, if for [Greek:
+ou], we read [Greek: hou], i.e. in the sense of [Greek: hopou]. MUSGRAVE.
+Correct Dindorf's text to [Greek: hou].
+
+[19] [Greek: sympeseein] _in unum coire, coincidere_. In this sense it is
+used also, Herod. Euterpe, chap. 49.
+
+[20] The verbal adjective in [Greek: tos] is almost universally used in a
+passive sense; [Greek: hypoptos], however, in this place is an exception to
+the rule, as are also, [Greek: kalypt�s], Soph. Antig. 1011, [Greek:
+memptos], Trachin. 446.
+
+[21] Perhaps the preferable way is to make [Greek: kakoisin] agree with
+[Greek: anthr�pois] understood; that the sense may be, _You are a bad man
+to talk of your advantage as a plea for having acted thus_.
+
+[22] [Greek: Thanousa d' � z�s' enthad' ekpl�s� bion]; a similar expression
+occurs in the Anthologia.
+
+  [Greek: sig�n parerchou ton talaip�ron bion,]
+  [Greek: autos si�p�i ton chronon mimoumenos,]
+  [Greek: lath�n de kai bi�son. ei de m�, than�n.]
+
+[23] The place of her burial was called Cynosema, a promontory of the
+Thracian Chersonese. It was here that the Athenians gained a naval victory
+over the Peloponnesians and Syracusans, in the twenty-first year of the
+Peloponnesian war. Thucydides, book viii.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+ADDITIONAL NOTES.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+[A] Vs. 246, [Greek: enthanein ge]. "Pravam esse scripturam dici Brunckius
+et Corayus viderunt; quorum ille legere voluit [Greek: h�st' entak�nai],
+hic vero [Greek: h�st' embalein]. Sed neuter rem acu tetigit. Euripides
+scripsit: [Greek: h�st' en ge phynai], uti patet ex Hom. Il. [Greek: Z].
+253, [Greek: en t' ara hoi phy cheiri], Od. [Greek: P]. 21, [Greek: panta
+kysen periphys], Theocrit. Id. xiii. 47, [Greek: tai d' en cheri pasai
+ephysan], et, quod rem conficit, ex Euripidis ipsius Ion. 891, [Greek:
+leukois d' emphysas karpois cheir�n]." G. BURGES, apud _Revue de
+Philologie_, vol. i. No. 5. p. 457.
+
+[B] We must, I think, read [Greek: tolmain].
+
+[C] Dindorf disposes these lines differently, but I prefer Porson's
+arrangement, as follows:
+
+  [Greek: EK. ekbl�ton, � pes. ph. doros;]
+  [Greek: THER. en psamath�i leurai]
+  [Greek: pontou nin, k.t.l.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *       *
+
+ORESTES.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+PERSONS REPRESENTED.
+
+  ELECTRA.
+  HELEN.
+  HERMIONE.
+  CHORUS.
+  ORESTES.
+  MENELAUS.
+  TYNDARUS.
+  PYLADES.
+  A PHRYGIAN.
+  APOLLO.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE ARGUMENT.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+Orestes, in revenge for the murder of his father, took off �gisthus and
+Cly�tmnestra; but having dared to slay his mother, he was instantly
+punished for it by being afflicted with madness. But on Tyndarus, the
+father of her who was slain, laying an accusation against him, the Argives
+were about to give a public decision on this question, "What ought he, who
+has dared this impious deed, to suffer?" By chance Menelaus, having
+returned from his wanderings, sent in Helen indeed by night, but himself
+came by day, and being entreated by Orestes to aid him, he rather feared
+Tyndarus the accuser: but when the speeches came to be spoken among the
+populace, the multitude were stirred up to kill Orestes. * * * * But
+Pylades, his friend, accompanying him, counseled him first to take revenge
+on Menelaus by killing Helen. As they were going on this project, they were
+disappointed of their hope by the Gods snatching away Helen from them. But
+Electra delivered up Hermione, when she made her appearance, into their
+hands, and they were about to kill her. When Menelaus came, and saw himself
+bereft by them at once of his wife and child, he endeavored to storm the
+palace; but they, anticipating his purpose, threatened to set it on fire.
+Apollo, however, having appeared, said that he had conducted Helen to the
+Gods, and commanded Orestes to take Hermione to wife, and Electra to dwell
+with Pylades, and, after that he was purified of the murder, to reign over
+Argos.
+
+The scene of the piece is laid at Argos; But the chorus consists of Argive
+women, intimate associates of Electra, who also come on inquiring about the
+calamity of Orestes. The play has a catastrophe rather suited to comedy.
+The opening scene of the play is thus arranged. Orestes is discovered
+before the palace of Agamemnon, fatigued, and, on account of his madness,
+lying on a couch on which Electra is sitting by him at his feet. A
+difficulty has been started, why does not she sit at his head? for thus
+would she seem to watch more tenderly over her brother, if she sat nearer
+him. The poet, it is answered, seems to have made this arrangement on
+account of the Chorus; for Orestes, who had but just then and with
+difficulty gotten to sleep, would have been awakened, if the women that
+constituted the Chorus had stood nearer to him. But this we may infer from
+what Electra says to the Chorus, "[Greek: Siga, siga, lepton ichnos
+arbyl�is]." It is probable then that the above is the reason of this
+arrangement.
+
+The play is among the most celebrated on the stage, but infamous in its
+morals; for, with the exception of Pylades, all the characters are bad
+persons.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+ORESTES.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+ELECTRA.
+
+There is no word so dreadful to relate, nor suffering, nor heaven-inflicted
+calamity, the burden of which human nature may not be compelled to bear.
+For Tantalus, the blest, (and I am not reproaching his fortune, _when I say
+this_,) the son of Jupiter, as they report, trembling at the rock which
+impends over his head, hangs in the air, and suffers this punishment, as
+they say indeed, because, although being a man, yet having the honor of a
+table in common with the Gods upon equal terms, he possessed an
+ungovernable tongue, a most disgraceful malady. He begat Pelops, and from
+him sprung Atreus, for whom the Goddess having carded the wool[1] spun the
+thread of contention, _and doomed him_ to make war on Thyestes his
+relation; (why must I commemorate things unspeakable?) But Atreus then[2]
+killed his children--and feasted him. But from Atreus, for I pass over in
+silence the misfortunes which intervened, sprung Agamemnon, the
+illustrious, (if he was indeed illustrious,) and Menelaus; their mother
+A�rope of Crete. But Menelaus indeed marries Helen, the hated of the Gods,
+but King Agamemnon _obtained_ Clyt�mnestra's bed, memorable throughout the
+Grecians: from whom we virgins were born, three from one mother;
+Chrysothemis, and Iphigenia, and myself Electra; and Orestes the male part
+of the family, from a most unholy mother, who slew her husband, having
+covered him around with an inextricable robe; the reason however it is not
+decorous in a virgin to tell; I leave this undeclared for men to consider
+as they will. But why indeed must I accuse the injustice of Phoebus? Yet
+persuaded he Orestes to kill that mother that brought him forth, a deed
+which gained not a good report from all men. But nevertheless he did slay
+her, as he would not be disobedient to the God. I also took a share in the
+murder, but such as a woman ought to take. As did Pylades also who
+perpetrated this deed with us. From that time wasting away, the wretched
+Orestes is afflicted with a grievous malady, but falling on his couch there
+lies, but his mother's blood whirls him to frenzy (for I dread to mention
+those Goddesses, the Eumenides, who persecute him with terror). Moreover
+this is the sixth day since his slaughtered mother was purified by fire as
+to her body. During which he has neither taken any food down his throat, he
+has not bathed his limbs, but covered beneath his cloak, when indeed his
+body is lightened of its disease, on coming to his right mind he weeps, but
+at another time starts suddenly from his couch, as a colt from his yoke.
+But it has been decreed by this city of Argos, that no one shall receive us
+who have slain a mother under their roof, nor at their fire, and that none
+shall speak to us; but this is the appointed day, in the which the city of
+the Argives will pronounce their vote, whether it is fitting that we should
+die being stoned with stones, or having whet the sword, should plunge it
+into our necks. But I yet have some hope that we may not die, for Menelaus
+has arrived at this country from Troy, and filling the Nauplian harbor with
+his oars is mooring his fleet off the shore, having been lost in wanderings
+from Troy a long time: but the much-afflicted Helen has he sent before to
+our palace, having taken advantage of the night, lest any of those, whose
+children died under Ilium, when they saw her coming, by day, might go so
+far as to stone her; but she is within bewailing her sister, and the
+calamity of her family. She has however some consolation in her woes, for
+the virgin Hermione, whom Menelaus bringing from Sparta, left at our
+palace, when he sailed to Troy, and gave as a charge to my mother to bring
+up, in her she rejoices, and forgets her miseries. But I am looking at each
+avenue when I shall see Menelaus present, since, for the rest, we ride on
+slender power,[3] if we receive not some succor from him; the house of the
+unfortunate is an embarrassed state of affairs.
+
+ELECTRA. HELEN.
+
+HEL. O daughter of Clyt�mnestra and Agamemnon, O Electra, thou that hast
+remained a virgin a long time. How are ye, O wretched woman, both you, and
+your brother, the wretched Orestes (he was the murderer of his mother)? For
+by thy converse I am not polluted, transferring, as I do, the blame to
+Phoebus. And yet I groan the death of Clyt�mnestra, whom, after that I
+sailed to Troy, (how did I sail, urged by the maddening fate of the Gods!)
+I saw not, but of her bereft I lament my fortune.
+
+ELEC. Helen, why should I inform thee of things thou seest thyself here
+present, the race of Agamemnon in calamities. I indeed sleepless sit
+companion to the wretched corse, (for he is a corse, in that he breathes so
+little,) but at his fortune I murmur not. But thou a happy woman, and thy
+husband a happy man, have come to us, who fare most wretchedly.
+
+HEL. But what length of time has he been lying on his couch?
+
+ELEC. Ever since he shed his parent's blood.
+
+HEL. Oh wretched, and his mother too, that thus she perished!
+
+ELEC. These things are thus, so that he is unable to speak for misery.
+
+HEL. By the Gods wilt thou oblige me in a thing, O virgin?
+
+ELEC. As far as I am permitted by the little leisure I have from watching
+by my brother.
+
+HEL. Wilt thou go to the tomb of my sister?
+
+ELEC. My mother's tomb dost thou desire? wherefore?
+
+HEL. Bearing the first offerings of my hair, and my libations.
+
+ELEC. But is it not lawful for thee to go to the tomb of thy friends?
+
+HEL. No, for I am ashamed to show myself among the Argives.
+
+ELEC. Late art thou discreet, then formerly leaving thine home
+disgracefully.
+
+HEL. True hast thou spoken, but thou speakest not pleasantly to me.
+
+ELEC. But what shame possesses thee among the Myceneans?
+
+HEL. I fear the fathers of those who are dead under Ilium.
+
+ELEC. For this is a dreadful thing; and at Argos thou art declaimed against
+by every one's mouth.
+
+HEL. Do thou then grant me this favor, and free me from this fear.
+
+ELEC. I can not look upon the tomb of my mother.
+
+HEL. And yet it is disgraceful for servants to bear these.
+
+ELEC. But why not send thy daughter Hermione?
+
+HEL. It is not well for virgins to go among the crowd.
+
+ELEC. And yet she might repay the dead the care of her education.
+
+HEL. Right hast thou spoken, and I obey thee, O virgin, and I will send my
+daughter, for thou sayest well. Come forth, my child Hermione, before the
+house, and take these libations in thine hand, and my hair, and, going to
+the tomb of Clyt�mnestra, leave there this mixture of milk and honey, and
+the froth of wine, and standing on the summit of the mound, say thus:
+"Helen, thy sister, presents thee with these libations, in fear herself to
+approach thy tomb, and afraid of the populace of Argos:" and bid her hold
+kind intentions toward me, and thyself, and my husband, and toward these
+two miserable persons whom the God has destroyed. But promise all the
+offerings to the manes, whatever it is fitting that I should perform for a
+sister. Go, my child, hasten, and when thou hast offered the libations at
+the tomb, remember to return back as speedily as possible.
+
+ELEC. [_alone_] O Nature, what a great evil art thou among men, and the
+safeguard of those who possess thee, with virtue! For see, how she has
+shorn off the extremities of her hair, in order to preserve her beauty; but
+she is the same woman she always was. May the Gods detest thee, for that
+thou hast destroyed me, and this man, and the whole state of Greece: oh
+wretch that I am! But my dear friends that accompany me in my lamentations
+are again present; perhaps they will disturb the sleeper from his slumber,
+and will melt my eyes in tears when I behold my brother raving.
+
+ELECTRA, CHORUS.
+
+ELEC. O most dear woman, proceed with a gentle foot, make no noise, let
+there be heard no sound. For your friendliness is very kind, but to awake
+him will be a calamity to me. Hush, hush--gently advance the tread of thy
+sandal, make no noise, let there be heard no sound. Move onward from that
+place--onward from before the couch.
+
+CHOR. Behold, I obey.
+
+ELEC. St! st! Speak to me, my friend, as the breathing of the soft reed
+pipe.
+
+CHOR. See, I utter a voice low as an under note.
+
+ELEC. Ay, thus come hither, come hither, approach quietly--go quietly: tell
+me, for what purpose, I pray, are ye come? For he has fallen on his couch,
+and been sleeping some time.
+
+CHOR. How is he? Give us an account of him, my friend.
+
+ELEC. What fortune can I say of him? and what his calamities? still indeed
+he breathes, but sighs at short intervals.
+
+CHOR. What sayest thou? Oh, the unhappy man!
+
+ELEC. You will kill him if you move his eyelids, now that he is taking the
+sweetest enjoyment of sleep.
+
+CHOR. Unfortunate on account of these most angry deeds from heaven! oh!
+wretched on account of thy sufferings!
+
+ELEC. Alas! alas! Apollo himself unjust, then spoke unjust things, when at
+the tripod of Themis he commanded the unhallowed, inauspicious murder of my
+mother.
+
+CHOR. Dost thou see? he moves his body in the robes that cover him.
+
+ELEC. You by your cries, O wretch, have disturbed him from his sleep.
+
+CHOR. I indeed think he is sleeping yet.
+
+ELEC. Will you not depart from us? will you not bend your footsteps back
+from the house, ceasing this noise?
+
+CHOR. He sleeps.
+
+ELEC. Thou sayest well.
+
+CHOR. Venerable, venerable Night, thou that dispensest sleep to languid
+mortals, come from Erebus; come, come, borne on thy wings to the house of
+Agamemnon; for by our griefs and by our sufferings we are quite undone,
+undone.
+
+ELEC. Ye were making a noise.
+
+CHOR. No. (Note [A].)
+
+ELEC. Silently, silently repressing the high notes of your voice, apart
+from his couch, you will enable him to have the tranquil enjoyment of
+sleep.
+
+CHOR. Tell us; what end to his miseries awaits him?
+
+ELEC. Death, death; what else can? for he has no appetite for food.
+
+CHOR. Death then is manifestly before him.
+
+ELEC. Phoebus offered us as victims, when he commanded[4] the dreadful,
+abhorred murder of our mother, that slew our father.
+
+CHOR. With justice indeed, but not well.
+
+ELEC. Thou hast died, thou hast died, O mother, O thou that didst bring me
+forth, but hast killed the father, and the children of thy blood. We
+perish, we perish, even as two corses. For thou art among the dead, and the
+greatest part of my life is passed in groans, and wailings, and nightly
+tears; marriageless, childless, behold, how like a miserable wretch do I
+drag out my existence forever!
+
+CHOR. O virgin Electra, approach near, and look that thy brother has not
+died unobserved by thee; for by this excessive quiet he doth not please me.
+
+ORESTES, ELECTRA, CHORUS.
+
+ORES. O precious balm of sleep, thou that relievest my malady, how pleasant
+didst thou come to me in the time of need! O divine oblivion of my
+sufferings, how wise thou art, and the goddess to be supplicated by all in
+distress!--whence, in heaven's name, came I hither? and how brought? for I
+remember not things past, bereaved, as I am, of my senses.
+
+ELEC. My dearest brother, how didst thou delight me when thou didst fall
+asleep! wilt thou I touch thee, and raise thy body up?
+
+ORES. Raise me then, raise me, and wipe the clotted foam from off my
+wretched mouth, and from my eyes.
+
+ELEC. Behold, the task is sweet, and I refuse not to administer to a
+brother's limbs with a sister's hand.
+
+ORES. Lay thy side by my side, and remove the squalid hair from my face,
+for I see but imperfectly with my eyes.
+
+ELEC. O wretched head, sordid with ringlets, how art thou disordered from
+long want of the bath!
+
+ORES. Lay me on the couch again; when my fit of madness gives me a respite,
+I am feeble and weak in my limbs.
+
+ELEC. Behold, the couch is pleasant to the sick man, an irksome thing to
+keep, but still a necessary one.
+
+ORES. Again raise me upright--turn my body.
+
+CHOR. Sick persons are hard to be pleased from their feebleness.
+
+ELEC. Wilt thou set thy feet on the ground, putting forward thy
+long-discontinued[5] step? In all things change is sweet.
+
+ORES. Yes, by all means; for this has a semblance of health, but the
+semblance is good, though it be distant from the truth.
+
+ELEC. Hear now therefore, O my brother, while yet the Furies suffer thee to
+have thy right faculties.
+
+ORES. Wilt thou tell any news? and if good indeed, thou art conferring
+pleasure; but if it pertain at all to mischief--I have enough distress.
+
+ELEC. Menelaus has arrived, the brother of thy father, but his ships are
+moored in the Nauplian bay.
+
+ORES. How sayest? Is he come, a light in mine and thy sufferings, a man of
+kindred blood, and that hath received benefits from our father?
+
+ELEC. He is come; take this a sure proof of my words, bringing with him
+Helen from the walls of Troy.
+
+ORES. Had he been saved alone, he had been more blest. But if he brings his
+wife, he has arrived with a mighty evil.
+
+ELEC. Tyndarus begat an offspring of daughters, a conspicuous mark for
+blame, and infamous throughout Greece.
+
+ORES. Do thou then be unlike the bad, for it is in thy power. And not only
+say, but also hold these sentiments.
+
+ELEC. Alas! my brother, thine eye rolls wildly; quick art thou changed to
+madness, so late in thy senses.
+
+ORES. O mother, I implore thee, urge not on me those Furies gazing blood,
+horrid with snakes, for these, these are leaping around me.
+
+ELEC. Remain, O wretched man, calmly on thy couch, for thou seest none of
+those things, which thou fanciest thou seest plainly.
+
+ORES. O Phoebus, these dire Goddesses in the shape of dogs will kill me,
+these gorgon-visaged ministers of hell.
+
+ELEC. I will not let thee go, but, putting my arm around thee, will stop
+thy starting into those unfortunate convulsions.
+
+ORES. Loose me. Thou art one of my Furies, and seizest me by the middle,
+that thou mayest hurl me into Tartarus.
+
+ELEC. Oh! wretched me! what assistance can I obtain, since we have on us
+the vengeful wrath of heaven!
+
+ORES. Give me my bow of horn, the gift of Phoebus, with which Apollo said I
+should repel the Fiends, if they appalled me by their maddened raging.
+
+ELEC. Shall any God be wounded by mortal hand? (Note [B].)
+
+ORES. _Yes. She shall,_ if she will not depart from my sight... Hear ye
+not--see ye not the winged shafts impelled from the distant-wounding bow?
+Ha! ha! Why tarry ye yet? Skim the high air with your wings, and impeach
+the oracles of Phoebus.--Ah! why am I thus disquieted, heaving my panting
+breath from my lungs? Whither, whither have I wandered from my couch? For
+from the waves again I see a calm.--Sister, why weepest, hiding thine eyes
+beneath thy vests, I am ashamed to have thee a partner in my sufferings,
+and to give a virgin trouble through my malady. Pine not away on account of
+my miseries: for thou indeed didst assent to this, but the shedding of my
+mother's blood was accomplished by me: but I blame Apollo, who, after
+having instigated me to a most unholy act, with words indeed consoled me,
+but not with deeds. But I think that my father, had I, beholding him, asked
+him if it were right for me to slay my mother, would have put forth many
+supplications, beseeching me by this beard not to impel my sword to the
+slaughter of her who bore me, if neither he thereby could be restored to
+life, and I thus wretched must go through such miseries. And now then
+unveil thyself, my sister, and cease from tears, even though we be very
+miserable: but when thou seest me desponding, do thou restrain my
+distraction, and that which preys upon my mind, and console me; but when
+thou groanest, it becomes my duty to come to thee, and suggest words of
+comfort. For these are the good offices friends ought to render each other.
+But go thou into the house, O unfortunate sister, and, stretched at full
+length, compose thy sleepless eyelids to sleep, and take refreshment, and
+pour the bath upon thy fair skin. For if thou forsakest me, or gettest any
+illness by continually sitting by me, we perish; for thee I have my only
+succor, by the rest, as thou seest, abandoned.
+
+ELEC. This can not be: with thee will I choose to die, with thee to live;
+for it is the same: for if then shouldst die, what can I do, a woman? how
+shall I be preserved, alone and destitute? without a brother, without a
+father, without a friend: but if it seemeth good to thee, these things it
+is my duty to do: but recline thy body on the bed, and do not to such a
+degree conceive to be real whatever frightens and startles thee from the
+couch, but keep quiet on the bed strewn for thee. For though thou be not
+ill, but only seem to be ill, still this even is an evil and a distress to
+mortals. (Note [C].)
+
+CHORUS. Alas! alas! O swift-winged, raving[6] Goddesses, who keep up the
+dance, not that of Bacchus, with tears and groans. You, dark Eumenides,
+you, that fly through the wide extended air, executing vengeance, executing
+slaughter, you do I supplicate, I supplicate: suffer the offspring of
+Agamemnon to forget his furious madness; alas! for his sufferings. What
+were they that eagerly grasping at, thou unhappy perishest, having received
+from the tripod the oracle which Phoebus spake, on that pavement, where are
+said to be the recesses in the midst of the globe! O Jupiter, what pity is
+there? what is this contention of slaughter that comes persecuting thee
+wretched, to whom some evil genius casts tear upon tear, transporting to
+thy house the blood of thy mother which drives thee frenzied! Thus I
+bewail, I bewail. Great prosperity is not lasting among mortals; but, as
+the sail of the swift bark, some deity having shaken him, hath sunk him in
+the voracious and destructive waves of tremendous evils, as in the waves of
+the ocean. For what other[6a] family ought I to reverence yet before that
+sprung from divine nuptials, sprung from Tantalus?--But lo! the king! the
+prince Menelaus, is coming! but he is very easily discernible from the
+elegance of his person, as king of the house of the Tantalid�.
+
+O thou that didst direct the army of a thousand vessels to Asia's land,
+hail! but thou comest hither with good fortune, having obtained the object
+of thy wishes from the Gods.
+
+MENELAUS, ORESTES, CHORUS.
+
+MEN. O palace, in some respect indeed I behold thee with pleasure, coming
+from Troy, but in other respect I groan when I see thee. For never yet saw
+I any other house more completely encircled round with lamentable woes. For
+I was made acquainted with the misfortune that befell Agamemnon, [and his
+death, by what death he perished at the hands of his wife,][6b] when I was
+landing my ships at Malea; but from the waves the prophet of the mariners
+declared unto me, the foreboding Glaucus the son of Nereus, an unerring
+God, who told me thus in evident form standing by me. "Menelaus, thy
+brother lieth dead, having fallen in his last bath, which his wife
+prepared." But he filled both me and my sailors with many tears; but when I
+come to the Nauplian shore, my wife having already landed there, expecting
+to clasp in my friendly embraces Orestes the son of Agamemnon, and his
+mother, as being in prosperity, I heard from some fisherman[7] the
+unhallowed murder of the daughter of Tyndarus. And now tell me, maidens,
+where is the son of Agamemnon, who dared these terrible deeds of evil? for
+he was an infant in Clyt�mnestra's arms at that time when I left the palace
+on my way to Troy, so that I should not know him, were I to see him.
+
+ORES. I, Menelaus, am Orestes, whom thou seekest, I of my own accord will
+declare my evils. But first I touch thy knees in supplication, putting up
+prayers from my mouth, not using the sacred branch:[8] save me. But thou
+art come in the very season of my sufferings.
+
+MEN. O ye Gods, what do I behold! whom of the dead do I see!
+
+ORES. Ay! well thou sayest the dead; for in my state of suffering I live
+not; but see the light.
+
+MEN. Thou wretched man, how disordered thou art in thy squalid hair!
+
+ORES. Not the appearance, but the deeds torment me.
+
+MEN. But thou glarest dreadfully with thy shriveled eyeballs.
+
+ORES. My body is vanished, but my name has not left me.
+
+MEN. Alas, thy uncomeliness of form which has appeared to me beyond
+conception!
+
+ORES. I am he, the murderer of my wretched mother.
+
+MEN. I have heard; but spare a little the recital of thy woes.
+
+ORES. I spare it; but in woes the deity is rich to me.
+
+MEN. What dost thou suffer? What malady destroys thee?
+
+ORES. The conviction that I am conscious of having perpetrated dreadful
+deeds.
+
+MEN. How sayest thou? Plainness, and not obscurity, is wisdom.
+
+ORES. Sorrow is chiefly what destroys me,--
+
+MEN. She is a dreadful goddess, but sorrow admits of cure.
+
+ORES. And fits of madness in revenge for my mother's blood.
+
+MEN. But when didst first have the raging? what day was it then?
+
+ORES. That day in which I heaped the tomb on my mother.
+
+MEN. What? in the house, or sitting at the pyre?
+
+ORES. As I was guarding by night lest any one should bear off her bones.[9]
+
+MEN. Was any one else present, who supported thy body?
+
+ORES. Pylades, who perpetrated with me the vengeance and death of my
+mother.
+
+MEN. But by what visions art thou thus afflicted?
+
+ORES. I appear to behold three virgins like the night.
+
+MEN. I know whom thou meanest, but am unwilling to name them.
+
+ORES. Yes: for they are awful; but forbear from speaking such high polished
+words.[10]
+
+MEN. Do these drive thee to distraction on account of this kindred murder?
+
+ORES. Alas me for the persecutions, with which wretched I am driven!
+
+MEN. It is not strange that those who do strange deeds should suffer them.
+
+ORES. But we have whereto we may transfer the criminality[11] of the
+mischance.
+
+MEN. Say not the death _of thy father;_ for this is not wise.
+
+ORES. Phoebus who commanded us to perpetrate the slaying of our mother.
+
+MEN. Being more ignorant than to know equity, and justice.
+
+ORES. We are servants of the Gods, whatever those Gods be.
+
+MEN. And then does not Apollo assist thee in thy miseries?
+
+ORES. He is always about to do it, but such are the Gods by nature.
+
+MEN. But how long a time has thy mother's breath gone from her?
+
+ORES. This is the sixth day since; the funeral pyre is yet warm.
+
+MEN. How quickly have the Goddesses come to demand of thee thy mother's
+blood!
+
+ORES. I am not wise, but a true friend to my friends.
+
+MEN. But what then doth the revenge of thy father profit thee?
+
+ORES. Nothing yet; but I consider what is in prospect in the same light as
+a thing not done.
+
+MEN. But regarding the city how standest thou, having done these things?
+
+ORES. We are hated to that degree, that no one speaks to us.
+
+MEN. Nor hast thou washed thy blood from thy hands according to the laws?
+
+ORES. _How can I?_ for I am shut out from the houses, whithersoever I go.
+
+MEN. Who of the citizens thus contend to drive thee from the land?
+
+ORES. Oeax,[12] imputing to my father the hatred which arose on account of
+Troy.
+
+MEN. I understand. The death of Palamede takes its vengeance on thee.
+
+ORES. In which at least I had no share--but I perish by the three.
+
+MEN. But who else? Is it perchance one of the friends of �gisthus?
+
+ORES. They persecute me, whom now the city obeys.
+
+MEN. But does the city suffer thee to wield Agamemnon's sceptre?
+
+ORES. How should they? who no longer suffer us to live.
+
+MEN. Doing what, which thou canst tell me as a clear fact?
+
+ORES. This very day sentence will be passed upon us.
+
+MEN. To be exiled from this city? or to die? or not to die?
+
+ORES. To die, by being stoned with stones by the citizens.
+
+MEN. And dost thou not fly then, escaping beyond the boundaries of the
+country?
+
+ORES. _How can we?_ for we are surrounded on every side by brazen arms.
+
+MEN. By private enemies, or by the hand of Argos?
+
+ORES. By all the citizens, that I may die--the word is brief.
+
+MEN. O unhappy man! thou art come to the extreme of misfortune.
+
+ORES. On thee my hope builds her escape from evils, but, thyself happy,
+coming among the distressed, impart thy good fortune to thy friends, and be
+not the only man to retain a benefit thou hast received, but undertake also
+services in thy turn, paying their father's kindness to those to whom thou
+oughtest. For those friends have the name, not the reality, who are not
+friends in adversity.
+
+CHOR. And see the Spartan Tyndarus is toiling hither with his aged foot, in
+a black vest, and shorn, his locks cut off in mourning for his daughter.
+
+ORES. I am undone, O Menelaus! Lo! Tyndarus is coming toward us, to come
+before whose presence, most of all men's, shame covereth me, on account of
+what has been done. For he used to nurture me when I was little, and
+satiated me with many kisses, dandling in his arms Agamemnon's boy, and
+Leda with him, honoring me no less than the twin-born of Jove. For which, O
+my wretched heart and soul, I have given no good return: what dark veil can
+I take for my countenance? what cloud can I place before me, that I may
+avoid the glances of the old man's eyes?
+
+TYNDARUS, MENELAUS, ORESTES, CHORUS.
+
+TYND. Where, where can I see my daughter's husband Menelaus? For as I was
+pouring my libations on the tomb of Clyt�mnestra, I heard that he was come
+to Nauplia with his wife, safe through a length of years. Conduct me, for I
+long to stand by his hand and salute him, seeing my friend after a long
+lapse of time.
+
+MEN. O hail! old man, who sharest thy bed with Jove.
+
+TYND. O hail! thou also, Menelaus my dear relation,--ah! what an evil is it
+not to know the future! This dragon here, the murderer of his mother,
+glares before the house his pestilential gleams--the object of my
+detestation--Menelaus, dost thou speak to this unholy wretch?
+
+MEN. Why not? he is the son of a father who was dear to me.
+
+TYND. What! was he sprung from him, being such as he is?
+
+MEN. He was; but, though he be unfortunate, he should be respected.
+
+TYND. Having been a long time with barbarians, thou art thyself turned
+barbarian.
+
+MEN. Nay! it is the Grecian fashion always to honor one of kindred blood.
+
+TYND. _Yes_, and also not to wish to be above the laws.
+
+MEN. Every thing proceeding from necessity is considered as subservient to
+her[13] among the wise.
+
+TYND. Do thou then keep to this, but I'll have none of it.
+
+MEN. _No_, for anger joined with thine age, is not wisdom.
+
+TYND. With this man what controversy can there be regarding wisdom? If what
+things are virtuous, and what are not virtuous, are plain to all, what man
+was ever more unwise that this man? who did not indeed consider justice,
+nor applied to the common existing law of the Grecians. For after that
+Agamemnon breathed forth his last, struck by my daughter on the head, a
+most foul deed (for never will I approve of this), it behooved him indeed
+to lay against her a sacred charge of bloodshed, following up the
+accusation, and to cast his mother from out of the house; and he would have
+taken the wise side in the calamity, and would have kept to law, and would
+have been pious. But now has he come to the same fate with his mother. For
+with justice thinking her wicked, himself has become more wicked in slaying
+his mother.
+
+But thus much, Menelaus, will I ask thee; If the wife that shared his bed
+were to kill him, and his son again kills his mother in return, and he that
+is born of him shall expiate the murder with murder, whither then will the
+extremes of these evils proceed? Well did our fathers of old lay down these
+things; they suffered not him to come into the sight of their eyes, not to
+their converse, who was under an attainder[14] of blood; but they made him
+atone by banishment; they suffered however none to kill him in return. For
+always were one about to be attainted of murder, taking the pollution last
+into his hands. But I hate indeed impious women, but first among them my
+daughter, who slew her husband. But never will I approve of Helen thy wife,
+nor would I speak to her, neither do I commend[15] thee for going to the
+plain of Troy on account of a perfidious woman. But I will defend the law,
+as far at least as I am able, putting a stop to this brutish and murderous
+practice, which is ever destructive both of the country and the state.--For
+what feelings of humanity hadst thou, thou wretched man, when she bared her
+breast in supplication, thy mother? I indeed, though I witnessed not that
+scene of misery, melt in my aged eyes with tears through wretchedness. One
+thing however goes to the scale of my arguments; thou art both hated by the
+Gods, and sufferest vengeance of thy mother, wandering about with madness
+and terrors; why must I hear by the testimony of others, what it is in my
+power to see? That thou mayest know then _once for all_, Menelaus, do not
+things contrary to the Gods, through thy wishes to assist this man. But
+suffer him to be slain by the citizens with stones, or set not thy foot on
+Spartan ground. But my daughter in dying met with justice, but it was not
+fitting that she should die by him.[16] In other respects indeed have I
+been a happy man, except in my daughters, but in this I am not happy.
+
+CHOR. He is enviable, who is fortunate in his children, and has not on him
+some notorious calamities.
+
+ORES. O old man, I tremble to speak to thee, wherein I am about to grieve
+thee and thy mind. But I am unholy in that I slew my mother; but holy at
+least in another point of view, having avenged my father. Let then thine
+age, which hinders me through fear from speaking, be removed out of the way
+of my words, and I will go on in a direct path; but now do I fear thy gray
+hairs. What could I do? for oppose the facts, two against two. My father
+indeed begat me, but thy daughter brought me forth, a field receiving the
+seed from another; but without a father there never could be a child. I
+reasoned therefore with myself, that I should assist the prime author of my
+birth rather than the aliment which under him produced me. But thy daughter
+(I am ashamed to call her mother), in secret and unchaste nuptials, had
+approached the bed of another man; of myself, if I speak ill of her, shall
+I be speaking, but yet will I tell it. �gisthus was her secret husband in
+her palace. Him I slew, and after him I sacrificed my mother, doing indeed
+unholy things, but avenging my father. But as touching those things for
+which thou threatenest that I must be stoned, hear, how I shall assist all
+Greece. For if the women shall arrive at such a pitch of boldness as to
+murder the men, making good their escape with regard to their children,
+seeking to captivate their pity by their breasts, it would be as nothing
+with them to slay their husbands, having any pretext that might chance; but
+I having done dreadful things (as thou sayest), have put a stop to this
+law, but hating my mother deservedly I slew her, who betrayed her husband
+absent from home in arms, the generalissimo of the whole land of Greece,
+and kept not her bed undefiled. But when she perceived that she had done
+amiss, she inflicted not vengeance on herself, but, that she might not
+suffer vengeance from her husband, punished and slew my father. By the
+Gods, (in no good cause have I named the Gods, pleading against a charge of
+murder,) had I by my silence praised my mother's actions, what then would
+the deceased have done to me? To my mother indeed the Furies are present as
+allies, but would they not be present to him, who has received the greater
+injury? Would he not, detesting me, have haunted me with the Furies? Thou
+then, O old man, by begetting a bad daughter, hast destroyed me; for
+through her boldness deprived of my father, I became a matricide. Dost see?
+Telemachus slew not the wife of Ulysses, for she married not a husband on a
+husband, but her marriage-bed remains unpolluted in the palace. Dost see?
+Apollo, who, dwelling in his habitation in the midst of the earth, gives
+the most clear oracles to mortals, by whom we are entirely guided, whatever
+he may say, on him relying slew I my mother. 'Twas he who erred, not I:
+what could I do? Is not the God sufficient for me, who transfer _the deed_
+to him, to do away with the pollution? Whither then can any fly for succor,
+unless he that commanded me shall deliver me from death? But say not these
+things have been done "not well;" but _say_ "not fortunately" for us who
+did them. But to whatsoever men their marriages are well established, there
+is a happy life, but to those to whom they fall not out well, with regard
+to their affairs both at home and abroad they are unfortunate.
+
+CHOR. Women were born always to be in the way of what may happen to men, to
+the making of things unfortunate.
+
+TYND. Since thou art bold, and yieldest not to my speech, but thus
+answerest me so as to grieve my mind, thou wilt rather inflame me to urge
+thy death. But this I shall consider a handsome addition to those labors
+for which I came, _namely_, to deck my daughter's tomb. For going to the
+multitude of the Argives assembled, I will rouse the state willing and not
+unwilling, to pass the sentence[16a] of being stoned on thee and on thy
+sister; but she is worthy of death rather than thee, who irritated thee
+against her mother, always pealing in thine ear words to increase thy
+hatred, relating dreams she had of Agamemnon, and this also, that the
+infernal Gods detested the bed of �gisthus; for even here _on earth_ it
+were hard _to be endured_; until she set the house in flames with fire more
+strong than Vulcan's.--Menelaus, but to thee I speak this, and will
+moreover perform it. If thou regard my hate, and my alliance, ward not off
+death from this man in opposition to the Gods; but suffer him to be slain
+by the citizens with stones, or set not thy foot on Spartan ground. Thus
+much having heard, depart, nor choose the impious for thy friends, passing
+over the pious.--But O attendants, conduct us from this house.
+
+ORES. Depart, that the remainder of my speech may reach this man
+uninterrupted by the clamors of thy age: Menelaus, whither dost thou roam
+in thought, entering on a double path of double care?
+
+MEN. Suffer me; having some thoughts with myself, I am perplexed to which
+side of fortune to turn me.
+
+ORES. Do not make up thy opinion, but having first heard my words, then
+deliberate.
+
+MEN. Say on; for thou hast spoken rightly; but there are seasons where
+silence may be better than talking, and there are seasons where talking may
+be better than silence.
+
+ORES. I will speak then forthwith: Long speeches have the preference before
+short ones, and are more plain to hear. Give thou to me nothing of what
+thou hast, O Menelaus, but what thou hast received from my father, return;
+I mean not riches--yet riches, which are the most dear of what I possess,
+if thou wilt preserve my life. Say I am unjust, I ought to receive from
+thee, instead of this evil, something contrary to what justice demands; for
+Agamemnon my father having collected Greece in arms, in a way justice did
+not demand, went to Troy, not having erred himself, but in order to set
+right the error, and injustice of thy wife. This one thing indeed thou
+oughtest to give me for one thing, but he, as friends should for friends,
+of a truth exposed his person for thee toiling at the shield, that thou
+mightest receive back thy wife. Repay me then this kindness for that which
+thou receivedst there, toiling for one day in standing as my succor, not
+completing ten years. But the sacrifice of my sister, which Aulis received,
+this I suffer thee to have; do not kill Hermione, _I ask it not_. For, I
+being in the state in which I now am, thou must of necessity have the
+advantage, and I must suffer it to be so. But grant my life to my wretched
+father, and my sister's, who has been a virgin a long time. For dying I
+shall leave my father's house destitute. Thou wilt say "impossible:" this
+is the very thing _I have been urging_, it behooves friends to help their
+friends in misfortunes. But when the God gives prosperity, what need is
+there of friends? For the God himself sufficeth, being willing to assist.
+Thou appearest to all the Greeks to be fond of thy wife; (and this I say,
+not stealing under thee imperceptibly with flattery;) by her I implore
+thee; O wretched me for my woes, to what have I come? but why must I suffer
+thus? For in behalf of the whole house I make this supplication. O divine
+brother of my father, conceive that the dead man beneath the earth hears
+these things, and that his spirit is hovering over thee, and speaks what I
+speak. These things have I said, with tears, and groans, and miseries,[17]
+and have prayed earnestly, looking for preservation, which all, and not I
+only, seek.
+
+CHOR. I too implore thee, although a woman, yet still I implore thee to
+succor those in need, but thou art able.
+
+MEN. Orestes, I indeed reverence thy person, and I am willing to labor with
+thee in thy misfortunes. For thus it is right to endure together the
+misfortunes of one's relations, if the God gives the ability, even so far
+as to die, and to kill the adversary; but this ability again I want from
+the Gods. For I am come having my single spear unaided by allies, having
+wandered with infinite labors with small assistance of friends left me. In
+battle therefore we can not come off superior to Pelasgian Argos; but if we
+can by soft speeches, to that hope are we equal. For how can any one
+achieve great actions with small means? For when the rabble is in full
+force falling into a rage, it is equally difficult to extinguish as a
+fierce fire. But if one quietly yields to it as it is spreading, and gives
+in to it, watching well his opportunity, perhaps it may spend its rage, but
+when it has remitted from its blast, you may without difficulty have it
+your own way, as much as you please. For there is inherent in them pity,
+but there is inherent also vehement passion, to one who carefully watches
+his opportunity a most excellent advantage. But I will go and endeavor to
+persuade Tyndarus, and the city, to use their great power in a becoming
+manner. For a ship, the main sheet stretched out to a violent degree, is
+wont to pitch, but stands upright again, if you slacken the main sheet. For
+the God hates too great vehemence, and the citizens hate it; but I must (I
+speak as I mean) save thee by wisdom, not by opposing my superiors. But I
+can not by force, as perchance thou thinkest, preserve thee; for it is no
+easy matter to erect from one single spear trophies from the evils, which
+are about thee. For never have we approached the land of Argos by way of
+supplication; but now there is necessity for the wise to become the slaves
+of fortune.
+
+ORESTES, CHORUS.
+
+ORES. O thou, a mere cipher in other things except in warring for the sake
+of a woman; O thou most base in avenging thy friends, dost thou fly,
+turning away from me? But all Agamemnon's services are gone: thou wert then
+without friends, O my father, in thy affliction. Alas me! I am betrayed,
+and there no longer are any hopes, whither turning I may escape death from
+the Argives. For he was the refuge of my safety. But I see this most dear
+of men, Pylades, coming with hasty step from the Phocians, a pleasing
+sight, a man faithful in adversity, more grateful to behold than the calm
+to the mariners.
+
+PYLADES, ORESTES, CHORUS.
+
+PYL. I came through the city with a quicker step than I ought, having heard
+of the council of state assembled, and seeing it plainly myself, against
+thee and thy sister, as about to kill you instantly.--What is this? how art
+thou? in what state, O most dear to me of my companions and kindred? for
+all these things art thou to me.
+
+ORES. We are gone--briefly to show thee my calamities.
+
+PYL. Thou wilt have ruined me too; for the things of friends are common.
+
+ORES. Menelaus has behaved most basely toward me and my sister.
+
+PYL. It is to be expected that the husband of a bad wife be bad.
+
+ORES. He is come, and has done just as much for me as if he had not come.
+
+PYL. What! is he in truth come to this land?
+
+ORES. After a long season; but nevertheless he was very soon discovered to
+be too base to his friends.
+
+PYL. And has he brought in his ship with him his most infamous wife?
+
+ORES. Not he her, but she brought him hither.
+
+PYL. Where is she, who, beyond any woman,[18] destroyed most of the
+Grecians?
+
+ORES. In my palace, if I may indeed be allowed to call this mine.
+
+PYL. But what words didst thou say to thy father's brother?
+
+ORES. _I requested him_ not to suffer me and my sister to be slain by the
+citizens.
+
+PYL. By the Gods, what said he to this request; this I wish to know.
+
+ORES. He declined, from motives of prudence, as bad friends act toward
+their friends.
+
+PYL. Going on what ground of excuse? This having learned, I am in
+possession of every thing.
+
+ORES. The father himself came, he that begat such excellent daughters.
+
+PYL. Tyndarus you mean; perhaps enraged with thee on account of his
+daughter.
+
+ORES. You are right: be paid more attention to his ties with him, than to
+his ties with my father.
+
+PYL. And dared he not, being present, to take arms against thy troubles?
+
+ORES. _No_: for he was not born a warrior, but brave among women.
+
+PYL. Thou art then in the greatest miseries, and it is necessary for thee
+to die.
+
+ORES. The citizens must pass their vote on us for the murder _we have
+committed_.[19]
+
+PYL. Which vote what will it decide? tell me, for I am in fear.
+
+ORES. Either to die or live; not many words on matters of great import.
+
+PYL. Come fly, and quit the palace with thy sister.
+
+ORES. Seest thou not? we are watched by guards on every side,
+
+PYL. I saw the streets of the city lined with arms.
+
+ORES. We are invested as to our persons, as a city by the enemy.
+
+PYL. Now ask me also, what I suffer; for I too am undone.
+
+ORES. By whom? This would be an evil added to my evils.
+
+PYL. Strophius, my father, being enraged, hath driven me an exile from his
+house.
+
+ORES. Bringing against thee some private charge, or one in common with the
+citizens?
+
+PYL. Because I perpetrated with thee the murder of thy mother, he banished
+me, calling me unholy.
+
+ORES. O thou unfortunate! it seems that thou also sufferest for my evils.
+
+PYL. We have not Menelaus's manners--this must be borne.
+
+ORES. Dost thou not fear lest Argos should wish to kill thee, as it does
+also me?
+
+PYL. We do not belong to these to punish, but to the land of the Phocians.
+
+ORES. The populace is a terrible thing, when they have evil leaders.
+
+PYL. But when they have good ones, they always deliberate good things.
+
+ORES. Be it so: we must speak on our common business.
+
+PYL. On what affair of necessity?
+
+ORES. Supposing I should go to the citizens, and say--
+
+PYL. --that thou hast acted justly?
+
+ORES. Ay, avenging my father:
+
+PYL. I fear they might not receive thee gladly.
+
+ORES. But shall I die then shuddering in silence!
+
+PYL. This were cowardly.
+
+ORES. How then can I do?
+
+PYL. Hast thou any chance of safety, if thou remainest?
+
+ORES. I have none.
+
+PYL. But going, is there any hope of thy being preserved from thy miseries?
+
+ORES. Should it chance well, there might be.
+
+PYL. Is not this then better than remaining?
+
+ORES. Shall I go then?
+
+PYL. Dying thus, at least thou wilt die more honorably.
+
+ORES. And I have a just cause.
+
+PYL. Only pray for its appearing so.
+
+ORES. Thou sayest well: this way I avoid the imputation of cowardice.
+
+PYL. More than by tarrying here.
+
+ORES. And some one perchance may pity me--
+
+PYL. Yes; for thy nobleness of birth is a great thing.
+
+ORES. --indignant at my father's death.
+
+PYL. All this in prospect.
+
+ORES. Go I must, for it is not manly to die ingloriously.
+
+PYL. These sentiments I praise.
+
+ORES. Shall we then tell these things to my sister?
+
+PYL. No, by the Gods.
+
+ORES. Why, there might be tears.
+
+PYL. This then is a great omen.
+
+ORES. Clearly it is better to be silent.
+
+PYL. Thou art a gainer by delay.
+
+ORES. This one thing only opposes me.
+
+PYL. What new thing again is this thou sayest?
+
+ORES. I fear lest the goddesses should stop me with their torments.
+
+PYL. But I will take care of thee.
+
+ORES. It is a difficult and dangerous task to touch a man thus disordered.
+
+PYL. Not for me to touch thee.
+
+ORES. Take care how thou art partner of my madness.
+
+PYL. Let not this be thought of.
+
+ORES. Wilt thou not then be timid to assist me?
+
+PYL. No, for timidity is a great evil to friends.
+
+ORES. Go on now, the helm of my foot.
+
+PYL. Having a charge worthy of a friend.
+
+ORES. And guide me to my father's tomb.
+
+PYL. To what end is this?
+
+ORES. That I may supplicate him to save me.
+
+PYL. This at least is just.
+
+ORES. But let me not see my mother's monument.
+
+PYL. For she was an enemy. But hasten, that the decree of the Argives
+condemn thee not before thou goest; leaning thy side, weary with disease,
+on mine: since I will conduct thee through the city, little caring for the
+multitude, nothing ashamed; for where shall I show myself thy friend, if I
+assist thee not when them art in perilous condition?
+
+ORES. This it is to have companions, not relationship alone; so that a man
+who is congenial in manners, though a stranger in blood, is a better friend
+for a man to have, than ten thousand relatives.
+
+CHORUS.
+
+The great happiness, and the valor high sounding throughout Greece, and by
+the channels of the Simois, has again withdrawn from the fortune of the
+Atrid�, as of old, from the ancient calamity of the house, when the strife
+of the golden lamb[20] arose among the descendants of Tantalus; most
+shocking feasts, and the slaughter of noble children; from whence murder
+responsive to murder fails not to attend on the two sons of Atreus. What
+seems good is not good, to gash the parents' skin with a fierce hand, and
+brandish the sword black-stained with blood in the sunbeams. But, on the
+other hand, to act wickedly[21] is mad impiety, and the folly of
+evil-minded men.
+
+But the wretched daughter of Tyndarus in the fear of death shrieked out,
+"My son, thou darest impious deeds, killing thy mother; do not, attending
+to the gratification of thy father, kindle an everlasting disgrace."
+
+What malady, or what tears, or what pity on earth is greater, than to
+imbrue one's hand in a mother's blood? What a deed, what a deed having
+performed, does the son of Agamemnon rave with madness, a prey to the
+Eumenides, marked for death, giddy with his rolling eyes! O wretched on
+account of his mother, when though seeing the breast bared from the robe of
+golden texture, he stabbed the mother in retaliation for the father's
+sufferings.
+
+ELECTRA, CHORUS.
+
+ELEC. Ye virgins, has the wretched Orestes, overcome with heaven-inflicted
+madness, rushed any where from this house?
+
+CHOR. By no means; but he is gone to the Argive people, to undergo the
+trial proposed regarding life, by which you must either live or die.
+
+ELEC. Alas me! what thing has he done? but who persuaded him?
+
+CHOR. Pylades.--But this messenger seems soon about to inform us of what
+has passed there concerning thy brother.
+
+MESSENGER, ELECTRA, CHORUS.
+
+MESS. O wretched hapless daughter of the chief Agamemnon, revered Electra,
+hear the unfortunate words which I am come to bring.
+
+ELEC. Alas! alas! we are undone; this thou signifiest by thy speech. For
+thou comest, as it seems, a messenger of woes.
+
+MESS. It has been carried by the vote of the Pelasgians, that thy brother
+and thou must die this day.
+
+ELEC. Ah me! the expected event has come, which long since fearing, I pined
+away with lamentations on account of what was in prospect.--But what was
+the debate? What arguments among the Argives condemned us, and confirmed
+our sentence of death? Tell me, old man, whether by the hand raised to
+stone me, or by the sword must I breathe out my soul, having this calamity
+in common with my brother?
+
+MESS. I chanced indeed to be entering the gates from the country, anxious
+to hear both what regarded thee, and what regarded Orestes; for at all
+times I had a favorable inclination toward thy father: and thy house fed
+me, poor indeed, but noble in my conduct toward friends. But I see the
+crowd going and sitting down on an eminence; where they say Danaus first
+collected the people to a common council, when he suffered punishment at
+the hands of �gyptus. But seeing this concourse, I asked one of the
+citizens, "What new thing is stirring in Argos? Has any message from
+hostile powers roused the city of the Danaids?" But he said, "Seest thou
+not this Orestes walking near us, who is about to run in the contest of
+life and death?" But I see an unexpected sight, which oh that I had never
+seen! Pylades and thy brother walking together, the one indeed broken with
+sickness, but the other, like a brother, sympathizing with his friend,
+tending his weakened state with fostering care. But when the assembly of
+the Argives was full, a herald stood forth and said, "Who wishes to speak
+_on the question_, whether it is right that Orestes, who has killed his
+mother, should die, or not?" And on this Talthybius rises, who, in
+conjunction with thy father, laid waste the Phrygians. But he spoke words
+of divided import, being the constant slave of those in power; struck with
+admiration indeed at thy father, but not commending thy brother (speciously
+mixing up words of bad import), because he laid down no good laws toward
+his parents: but he was continually casting a smiling glance on �gisthus's
+friends. For such is this kind; heralds always dance attendance on the
+prosperous; but that man is their friend, whoever may chance to have power
+in the state, and to be in office. But next to him prince Diomed harangued;
+he indeed was for suffering them to kill neither thee nor thy brother, but
+_bid them_ observe piety by punishing you with banishment. But some indeed
+murmured their assent, that he spoke well, but others praised him not.[22]
+And after him rises up some man, intemperate in speech, powerful in
+boldness, an Argive, yet not an Argive,[23] forced upon us, relying both on
+the tumult, and on ignorant boldness, prompt by persuasion to involve them
+in some mischief. (For when a man, sweet in words, holding bad sentiments,
+persuades the multitude, it is a great evil to the city. But as many as
+always advise good things with understanding, although not at the present
+moment, eventually are of service to the state: but the intelligent leader
+ought to look to this, for the case is the same with the man who speaks
+words, and the man who approves them.) Who said, that they ought to kill
+Orestes and thee by stoning. But Tyndarus was privily making up such sort
+of speeches for him who wished your death to speak. But another man stood
+up, and spoke in opposition to him, in form indeed not made to catch the
+eye; but a man endued with the qualities of a man, rarely polluting the
+city, and the circle of the forum; one who farmed his own land,[24] which
+class of persons[25] alone preserve the country, but prudent, and wishing
+the tenor of his conduct to be in unison with his words, uncorrupted, one
+that had conformed to a blameless mode of living; he proposed to crown
+Orestes the son of Agamemnon,[25a] who was willing to avenge his father by
+slaying a wicked and unholy woman, who took this out of the power of men,
+and would no one have been the cause of arming the hand for war, nor
+undertaking an expedition, leaving his home, if those who are left destroy
+what is intrusted to their charge in the house, disgracing their husbands'
+beds. And to right-minded men at least he appeared to speak well: and none
+spoke besides, but thy brother advanced and said, "O inhabitants of the
+land of Inachus, avenging you no less than my father, I slew my mother, for
+if the murder of men shall become licensed to women, ye no longer can
+escape dying, or ye must be slaves to your wives. But ye do the contrary to
+what ye ought to do. For now she that was false to the bed of my father is
+dead; but if ye do indeed slay me, the law has lost its force, and no man
+can escape dying, forasmuch as there will be no lack of this audacity."
+
+But he persuaded not the people, though appearing to speak well. But that
+villain, who spoke among the multitude, overcomes him, he that harangued
+for the killing of thy brother and thee. But scarcely did the wretched
+Orestes persuade them that he might not die by stoning; but he promised
+that this day he would quit his life by self-slaughter together with
+thee:--but Pylades is conducting him from the council, weeping: but his
+friends accompany him bewailing him, pitying him; but he is coming a sad
+spectacle to thee, and a wretched sight. But prepare the sword, or the
+noose for thy neck, for thou must die, but thy nobleness of birth hath
+profited thee nothing, nor the Pythian Phoebus who sits on the tripod, but
+hath destroyed thee.
+
+CHOR. O unhappy virgin! how art thou dumb, casting thy muffled countenance
+toward the ground, as though about to run into a strain of groans and
+lamentations!
+
+ELEC. I begin the lament, O land of Greece, digging my white nail into my
+cheek, sad bleeding woe, and dashing my head, which[26] the lovely[27]
+goddess of the manes beneath the earth has to her share. And let the
+Cyclopian land[28] howl, applying the steel to their head cropped of hair
+over the calamity of our house. This pity, this pity, proceeds for those
+who are about to die, who once were the princes of Greece. For it is gone,
+it is gone, the entire race of the children of Pelops has perished, and the
+happiness which once resided in these blest abodes. Envy from heaven has
+now seized it, and the harsh decree of blood in the state. Alas! alas! O
+race of mortals that endure for a day, full of tears, full of troubles,
+behold how contrary to expectation fate comes. But in the long lapse of
+time each different man receives by turns his different sufferings.[29] But
+the whole race of mortals is unstable and uncertain.
+
+Oh! could I go to that rock stretched from Olympus in its loftiness midst
+heaven and earth by golden chains, that mass of clay borne round with rapid
+revolutions, that in my plaints I might cry out to my ancient father
+Tantalus; who begat the progenitors of my family, who saw calamities, what
+time in the pursuing of steeds, Pelops in his car drawn by four horses
+perpetrated, as he drove, the murder of Myrtilus, _by casting him_ into the
+sea, hurling him down to the surge of the ocean, as he guided his car on
+the shore of the briny sea by Ger�stus foaming with its white billows.
+Whence the baleful curse came on my house since, by the agency of Maia's
+son,[30] there appeared the pernicious, pernicious prodigy of the
+golden-fleeced lamb, a birth which took place among the flocks of the
+warlike Atreus. On which both Discord drove back the winged chariot of the
+sun, directing it from the path of heaven leading to the west toward Aurora
+borne on her single horse.[31] And Jupiter drove back the course of the
+seven moving Pleiads another way: and from that period[32] he sends deaths
+in succession to deaths, and "the feast of Thyestes," so named from
+Thyestes. And the bed of the Cretan �rope deceitful in a deceitful marriage
+has come as a finishing stroke on me and my father, to the miserable
+destruction of our family.
+
+CHOR. But see, thy brother is advancing, condemned by the vote of death,
+and Pylades the most faithful of all, a man like a brother, supporting the
+enfeebled limbs of Orestes, walking by his side[33] with the foot of tender
+solicitude.
+
+ELECTRA, ORESTES, PYLADES, CHORUS.
+
+ELEC. Alas me! for I bewail thee, my brother, seeing thee before the tomb,
+and before the pyre of thy departed shade: alas me! again and again, how am
+I bereft of my senses, seeing with my eyes the very last sight of thee.
+
+ORES. Wilt thou not in silence, ceasing from womanish groans, make up thy
+mind to what is decreed? These things indeed are lamentable, but yet we
+must bear our present fate.
+
+ELEC. And how can I be silent? We wretched no longer are permitted to view
+this light of the God.
+
+ORES. Do not thou kill me; I, the unhappy, have died enough already under
+the hands of the Argives; but pass over our present ills.
+
+ELEC. O Orestes! oh wretched in thy youth, and thy fate, and thy untimely
+death, then oughtest thou to live, when thou art no more.
+
+ORES. Do not by the Gods throw cowardice around me, bringing the
+remembrance of my woes so as to cause tears.
+
+ELEC. We shall die; it is not possible not to groan our misfortunes; for
+the dear life is a cause of pity to all mortals.
+
+ORES. This is the day appointed for us! but we must either fit the
+suspended noose, or whet the sword with our hand.
+
+ELEC. Do thou then kill me, my brother; let none of the Argives kill me,
+putting a contumely on the offspring of Agamemnon.
+
+ORES. I have enough of thy mother's blood, but thee I will not slay; but
+die by thine own hand in whatever manner thou wilt.
+
+ELEC. These things shall be; I will not be deserted by thy sword;[34] but I
+wish to clasp my hands around thy neck.
+
+ORES. Thou enjoyest a vain gratification, if this be an enjoyment, to throw
+thy hands around those who are hard at death's door.
+
+ELEC. Oh thou most dear! oh thou that hast the desirable and most sweet
+name, and one soul with thy sister!
+
+ORES. Thou wilt melt me; and still I wish to answer thee in the endearment
+of encircling arms, for why am I any longer ashamed? O bosom of my sister,
+O dear object of my caresses, these embraces are allowed to us miserable
+beings instead of children and the bridal bed.
+
+ELEC. Alas! How can the same sword (if this request be lawful) kill us, and
+one tomb wrought of cedar receive us?
+
+ORES. This would be most sweet; but thou seest how destitute we are, in
+respect to being able to share our sepulture.
+
+ELEC. Did not Menelaus speak in behalf of thee, taking a decided part
+against thy death, the base man, the deserter of my father? [Note [G].]
+
+ORES. He showed it not even in his countenance, but keeping his hopes on
+the sceptre, he was cautious how he saved his friends. But let be, he will
+die acting in a manner nobly, and most worthily of Agamemnon. And I indeed
+will show my high descent to the city, striking home to my heart with the
+sword; but thee, on the other hand, it behooveth to act in concert with my
+bold attempts. But do thou, Pylades, be the umpire of our death, and well
+compose the bodies of us when dead, and bury us together, bearing us to our
+father's tomb. And farewell--but I am going to the deed, as thou seest.
+
+PYL. Hold. This one thing indeed first I bring in charge against thee--Dost
+thou think that I can wish to live when thou diest?[35]
+
+ORES. For how does it concern thee to die with me?
+
+PYL. Dost ask? But how does it to live without thy company?
+
+ORES. Thou didst not slay my mother, as I did, a wretch.
+
+PYL. With thee I did at least; I ought also to suffer these things in
+common with thee.
+
+ORES. Take thyself back to thy father, do not die with me. For thou indeed
+hast a city (but I no longer have), and the mansion of thy father, and a
+great harbor of wealth. But thou art frustrated in thy marriage with this
+unhappy virgin, whom I betrothed to thee, revering thy friendship.
+Nevertheless do thou, contracting other nuptials, be a blest father, but
+the connection between me and thee no longer subsists, But thou, O darling
+name of my converse, farewell, be happy, for this is not allowed me, but it
+is to thee; for we, the dead, are deprived of happiness.
+
+PYL. Surely thou art wide astray from my purposes. Nor may the fruitful
+plain receive my blood, nor the bright air, if ever I betraying thee,
+having freed myself, forsake thee; for I committed the slaughter with thee
+(I will not deny it), and I planned all things, for which now thou
+sufferest vengeance. Die then I must with thee and her together, for her,
+whose marriage I have courted, I consider as my wife; for what good excuse
+ever shall I give, going to the Delphian land to the citadel of the
+Phocians, I, who was present with you, your friend, before indeed you were
+unfortunate, but now, when you are unfortunate, am no longer thy friend? It
+is not possible--but these things are my care also. But since we are about
+to die, let us come to a common conference, how Menelaus may be involved in
+our calamity.
+
+ORES. O thou dearest man: for would I see this and die.
+
+PYL. Be persuaded then, but defer the slaughtering sword.
+
+ORES. I will defer, if any how I can avenge myself on my enemy.
+
+PYL. Be silent then, for I have but small confidence in women.
+
+ORES. Do not at all fear these, for they are friends that are present.
+
+PYL. Let us kill Helen, which will cause great grief to Menelaus.
+
+ORES. How? for the will is here, if it can be done with glory.
+
+PYL. Stabbing her; but she is lurking in thy house.
+
+ORES. Yes indeed, and is putting her seal on all my effects.
+
+PYL. But she shall seal no more, having Pluto for her bridegroom.
+
+ORES. And how can this be? for she has a train of barbarian attendants.
+
+PYL. Whom? for I would be afraid of no Phrygian.
+
+ORES. Such men as should preside over mirrors and scents.
+
+PYL. For has she brought hither her Trojan fineries?
+
+ORES. _Oh yes!_ so that Greece is but a cottage for her.
+
+PYL. A race of slaves is a mere nothing against a race that will not be
+slaves.
+
+ORES. In good truth, this if I could achieve, I shrink not from two deaths.
+
+PYL. But neither do I indeed, if I could revenge thee at least.
+
+ORES. Disclose thy purpose, and go through it as thou sayest.
+
+PYL. We will enter then the house, as men about to die.
+
+ORES. Thus far I comprehend, but the rest I do not comprehend.
+
+PYL. We will make our lamentation to her of the things we suffer.
+
+ORES. So that she shall weep, though joyed within her heart.
+
+PYL. And the same things will be for us to do afterward, which she does
+then.
+
+ORES. Then how shall we finish the contest?
+
+PYL. We will wear our swords concealed beneath our robes.
+
+ORES. But what slaughter can there be before her attendants?
+
+PYL. We will bolt them out, scattered in different parts of the house.
+
+ORES. And him that is not silent we must kill.
+
+PYL. Then the circumstances of the moment will point out what steps to
+take.
+
+ORES. To kill Helen, I understand the sign.
+
+PYL. Thou seest: but hear on what honorable principles I meditate it. For,
+if we draw our sword on a more modest woman, the murder will blot our names
+with infamy. But in the present instance, she shall suffer vengeance for
+the whole of Greece, whose fathers she slew, and made the brides bereaved
+of their spouses; there shall be a shout, and they will kindle up fire to
+the Gods, praying for many blessings to fall to thee and me, inasmuch as we
+shed the blood of a wicked woman. But thou shalt not be called the
+matricide, when thou hast slain her, but dropping this name thou shalt
+arrive at better things, being styled the slayer of the havoc-dealing
+Helen. It never, never were right that Menelaus should be prosperous, and
+that thy father, and thou, and thy sister should die, and thy mother; (this
+I forbear, for it is not decorous to mention;) and that he should seize thy
+house, having recovered his bride by the means of Agamemnon's valor. For
+may I live no longer, if I draw not my black sword upon her. But if then we
+do not compass the murder of Helen, having fired the palace we will die,
+for we shall have glory, succeeding in one of these two things, nobly
+dying, or nobly rescued.
+
+CHOR. The daughter of Tyndarus is an object of detestation to all women,
+being one that has given rise to scandal against the sex.
+
+ORES. Alas! There is no better thing than a real friend, not riches, not
+kingdoms; but the popular applause becomes a thing of no account to receive
+in exchange for a generous friend. For thou contrivedst the destruction
+that befell �gisthus, and wast close to me in my dangers. But now again
+thou givest me to revenge me on mine enemies, and art not out of the
+way--but I will leave off praising thee, since there is some burden even in
+this "to be praised to excess." But I altogether in a state of death, wish
+to do something to my foes and die, that I may in turn destroy those who
+betrayed me, and those may groan who also made me unhappy. I am the son of
+Agamemnon, who ruled over Greece by general consent; no tyrant, but yet he
+had the power as it were of a God, whom I will not disgrace, suffering a
+slavish death, but breathe out my soul in freedom, but on Menelaus will I
+revenge me. For if we could gain this one thing, we should be prosperous,
+if from any chance safety should come unhoped for on the slayers _then_,
+not the slain: this I pray for. For what I wish is sweet to delight the
+mind without fear of cost, though with but fleeting words uttered through
+the mouth.
+
+ELEC. I, O brother, think that this very thing brings safety to thee, and
+thy friend, and in the third place to me.
+
+ORES. Thou meanest the providence of the Gods: but where is this? for I
+know that there is understanding in thy mind.
+
+ELEC. Hear me then, and thou too give thy attention.
+
+ORES. Speak, since the existing prospect of good affords some pleasure.
+
+ELEC. Art thou acquainted with the daughter of Helen? Thou knowest her of
+whom I ask.
+
+ORES. I know her, Hermione, whom my mother brought up.
+
+ELEC. She is gone to Clyt�mnestra's tomb.
+
+ORES. For what purpose? what hope dost thou suggest?
+
+ELEC. To pour libations on the tomb in behalf of her mother.
+
+ORES. And what is this, thou hast told me of, that regards our safety?
+
+ELEC. Seize her as a pledge as she is coming back.
+
+ORES. What remedy for the three friends is this thou sayest?
+
+ELEC. When Helen is dead, if Menelaus does any harm to thee or Pylades, or
+me (for this firm of friendship is all one), say that thou wilt kill
+Hermione; but thou oughtest to draw thy sword, and hold it to the neck of
+the virgin. And if indeed Menelaus save thee, anxious that the virgin may
+not die; when he sees Helen's corse weltering in blood, give back the
+virgin for her father to enjoy; but should he, not governing his angry
+temper, slay thee, do thou also plunge the sword into the virgin's neck,
+and I think that he, though at first he come to us very big, will after a
+season soften his heart; for neither is he brave nor valiant: this is the
+fortress of our safety that I have; my arguments on the subject have been
+spoken.
+
+ORES. O thou that hast indeed the mind of a man, but a form among women
+beautiful, to what a degree art thou more worthy of life than death!
+Pylades, wilt thou miserably be disappointed of such a woman, or dwelling
+with her obtain this happy marriage?
+
+PYL. For would it could be so! and she could come to the city of the
+Phocians meeting with her deserts in splendid nuptials!
+
+ORES. But when will Hermione come to the house? Since for the rest thou
+saidst most admirably, if we could succeed in taking the whelp of the
+impious father.
+
+ELEC. Even now I guess that she must be near the house, for _with this
+supposition_ the space itself of the time coincides.
+
+ORES. It is well; do thou therefore, my sister Electra, waiting before the
+house, meet the arrival of the virgin. And watch, lest any one, either some
+ally, or the brother of my father, should be beforehand with us coming to
+the palace: and make some noise toward the house, either knocking at the
+doors, or sending thy voice within. But let us, O Pylades (for thou
+undertakest this labor with me), entering in, arm our hands with the sword
+to one last attempt. O my father, that inhabitest the realms of gloomy
+night, Orestes thy son invokes thee to come a succor to thy suppliants; for
+on thy account I wretched suffer unjustly, and am betrayed by thy brother,
+myself having acted justly: whose wife I wish to take and destroy; but be
+thou our accomplice in this affair.
+
+ELEC. O father, come then, if beneath the earth thou hearest thy children
+calling, who die for thee.
+
+PYL. O thou relation[36] of my father, give ear, O Agamemnon, to my prayers
+also, preserve thy children.
+
+ORES. I slew my mother.
+
+PYL. But I directed the sword.
+
+ELEC. But I at least incited you, and freed you from delay.
+
+ORES. Succoring thee, my father.
+
+ELEC. Neither did I forsake thee.
+
+PYL. Wilt thou not therefore, hearing these things that are brought against
+thee,[37] defend thy children?
+
+ORES. I pour libations on thee with my tears.
+
+ELEC. And I with lamentations.
+
+PYL. Cease, and let us haste forth to the work, for if prayers penetrate
+under the earth, he hears; but, O Jove our ancestor, and thou revered deity
+of justice, grant us to succeed, him, and myself, and this virgin, for over
+us three friends one hazard, one cause impends, either for all to live, or
+all to die!
+
+ELECTRA, CHORUS.
+
+ELEC. O dear Mycenian virgins, who have the first place at the Pelasgian
+seat of the Argives;--
+
+CHOR. What voice art thou uttering, my respected mistress? for this
+appellation awaits thee in the city of the Danaids.
+
+ELEC. Arrange yourselves, some of you in this beaten way, and some there,
+in that other path, to guard the house.
+
+CHOR. But on what account dost thou command this, tell me, my friend.
+
+ELEC. Fear possesses me, lest any one being in the palace, on account of
+this murderous deed, should contrive evils on evils.
+
+SEMICHOR. Go, let us hasten, I indeed will guard this path, that tends
+toward where the sun flings his first rays.
+
+SEMICHOR. And I indeed this, which leads toward the west.
+
+ELEC. Now turn the glances of your eyes around in every position, now here,
+now there, then take some other view.
+
+CHOR. We are, as thou commandest.
+
+ELEC. Now roll your eyelids over your pupils, glance them every way through
+your ringlets.
+
+SEMICHOR. Is this any one here appearing in the path?--Who is this rustic
+that is standing about thy palace?
+
+ELEC. We are undone then, my friends; he will immediately show to the enemy
+the lurking beasts of prey armed with their swords.
+
+SEMICHOR. Be not afraid, the path is clear, which thou thinkest not.
+
+ELEC. But what?--does all with you remain secure? Give me some good report,
+whether the space before the hall be empty?
+
+SEMICHOR. All here at least is well, but look to thy province, for no one
+of the Danaids is approaching toward us.
+
+SEMICHOR. Thy report agrees with mine, for neither is there a disturbance
+here.
+
+ELEC. Come now,--I will listen at the door: why do ye delay, ye that are
+within, to sacrifice the victim, now that ye are in quiet?--They hear not:
+Alas me! wretched in misery! Are the swords then struck dumb at her beauty?
+Perhaps some Argive in arms rushing in with the foot of succor will
+approach the palace.--Now watch more carefully; it is no contest that
+admits delay; but turn _your eyes_ some this way, and some that.
+
+CHOR. I turn each different way, looking about on all sides.
+
+HELEN. (_within_) Oh! Pelasgian Argos! I am miserably slain!
+
+ELEC. Heard ye? The men are employing their head in the murder.--It is the
+shriek of Helen, as I may conjecture.
+
+SEMICHOR. O eternal might of Jove, come to assist my friends in every way.
+
+HEL. Menelaus, I die! But thou art at hand, and dost not help me!
+
+ELEC. Kill, strike, slay, plunging with your hands the two double-edged
+swords into the deserter of her father, the deserter of her husband, who
+destroyed numbers of the Grecians perishing by the spear at the river,
+whence tears fell into conjunction with tears, fell on account of the iron
+weapons around the whirlpools of Scamander.
+
+CHOR. Be still, be still: I heard the sound of some one coming along the
+path around the palace.
+
+ELEC. O most dear women, in the midst of the slaughter behold Hermione is
+present; let us cease from our clamor, for she comes about to fall into the
+meshes of our toils. A goodly prey will she be, if she be taken. Again to
+your stations with a calm countenance, and with a color that shall not give
+evidence of what has been done. I too will preserve a pensive cast of
+countenance, as though perfectly unacquainted with what has happened.
+
+HERMIONE, ELECTRA, CHORUS.
+
+ELEC. O virgin, art thou come from crowning Clyt�mnestra's tomb, and
+pouring libations to her manes?
+
+HERM. I am come, having obtained her good services; but some terror has
+come upon me, on account of the noise in the palace, which I hear being a
+far distance off the house.
+
+ELEC. But why? There have happened to us things worthy of groans.
+
+HERM. Speak good words; but what news dost thou tell me?
+
+ELEC. It has been decreed by this land, that Orestes and I die.
+
+HERM. No, I hope not so; you, who are my relations.
+
+ELEC. It is fixed; but we stand under the yoke of necessity.
+
+HERM. Was the noise then in the house on this account?
+
+ELEC. For falling down a suppliant at the knees of Helen, he cries out--
+
+HERM. Who? for I know no more, except thou tellest me.
+
+ELEC. The wretched Orestes, that he may not die, and in behalf of me.
+
+HERM. For a just reason then the house lamented.
+
+ELEC. For on what other account should one rather cry out? But come, and
+join in supplication with thy friends, falling down before thy mother, the
+supremely blest, that Menelaus will not see us perish. But, O thou, that
+receivedst thy education at the hands of my mother, pity us, and alleviate
+our sufferings. Come hither to the trial; but I will lead the way, for thou
+alone hast the ends of our preservation.
+
+HERM. Behold I direct my footstep toward the house. Be preserved, as far as
+lies in me.
+
+ELEC. O ye in the house, my dear warriors, will ye not take your prey?
+
+HERM. Alas me! who are these I see?
+
+ORES. (_advancing_) Thou must be silent; for thou art come to preserve us,
+not thyself.
+
+ELEC. Hold her, hold her; and pointing a sword to her neck be silent, that
+Menelaus may know, that having found men, not Phrygian cowards, he has
+treated them in a manner he should treat cowards. What ho! what ho! my
+friends, make a noise, a noise, and shout before the palace, that the
+murder that is perpetrated spread not a dread alarm among the Argives, so
+that they run to assist to the king's palace, before I plainly see the
+slaughtered Helen lying weltering in her blood within the house, or else we
+hear the report from some of her attendants. For part of the havoc I know,
+and part not accurately.
+
+CHOR. With justice came the vengeance of the Gods on Helen. For she filled
+the whole of Greece with tears on account of the ruthless, ruthless Idean
+Paris, who brought the Grecian state to Ilium. But be silent, for the bolts
+of the royal mansion resound, for some one of the Phrygians comes forth,
+from whom we shall hear of the affairs within the house, in what state they
+are.
+
+PHRYGIAN, CHORUS.
+
+PHRY. I have escaped from death by the Argive sword in these barbaric
+slippers, _climbing_ over the cedar beams of the bed and the Doric
+triglyphs, by the flight of a barbarian.[38] Thou art gone, thou art gone,
+O my country, my country! Alas me! whither can I escape, O strangers,
+flying through the hoary air, or the sea, which the Ocean, with head in
+shape like a bull's, rolling with his arms encircles the earth?
+
+CHOR. But what is the matter, O attendant of Helen, thou man of Ida?
+
+PHRY. O Ilion, Ilion! alas me! O thou fertile Phrygian city, thou sacred
+mount of Ida, how do I lament for thee destroyed, a sad,[39] sad strain for
+my barbaric voice, on account of that form of the hapless, hapless Helen,
+born from a bird, the offspring of the beauteous Leda in shape of a swan,
+the fiend of the splendid Apollonian Pergamus! Alas! Oh! lamentations!
+lamentations! O wretched Dardania, warlike school[40] of Ganymede, the
+companion of Jove!
+
+CHOR. Relate to us clearly each circumstance that happened in the house,
+for I do not understand your former account, but merely conjecture.
+
+PHRY. [Greek: Ailinon, ailinon], the Barbarians begin the song of death in
+the language of Asia, Alas! alas! when the blood of kings has been poured
+on the earth by the ruthless swords of death. There came to the palace
+(that I may relate each circumstance) two Grecians, lions, of the one the
+leader of the Grecian host was said to be the father, the other the son of
+Strophius, a man of dark design; such was Ulysses, secretly treacherous,
+but faithful to his friends, bold in battle, skilled in war, cruel as the
+dragon. May he perish for his deep concealed design, the worker of evil!
+But they having advanced within her chamber, whom the archer Paris had as
+his wife, their eyes bathed with tears, they sat down in humble mien, one
+on each side of her, on the right and on the left, armed with swords. And
+around her knees did they both fling their suppliant hands, around the
+knees of Helen did they fling them. But the Phrygian attendants sprung up,
+and fled in amazement: and one called out to another in terror, _See_, lest
+there be treachery. To some indeed there appeared no danger; but to others
+the dragon stained with his mother's blood appeared bent to infold in his
+closest toils the daughter of Tyndarus.
+
+CHOR. But where wert thou then, or hadst thou long before fled through
+fear?
+
+PHRY. After the Phrygian fashion I chanced with the close circle of
+feathers to be fanning the gale, _that sported_ in the ringlets of Helen,
+before her cheek, after the barbaric fashion. But she was winding with her
+fingers the flax round the distaff, but what she had spun she let fall on
+the ground, desirous of making from the Phrygian spoils a robe of purple as
+an ornament for the tomb, a gift to Clyt�mnestra. But Orestes entreated the
+Spartan girl; "O daughter of Jove, here, place thy footstep on the ground,
+rising from thy seat, come to the place of our ancestor Pelops, the ancient
+altar, that thou mayest hear my words." And he leads her, but she followed,
+not dreaming of what was about to happen. But his accomplice, the wicked
+Phocian, attended to other points. "Will ye not depart from out of the way,
+but are the Phrygians always vile?" and he bolted us out scattered in
+different parts of the house, some in the stables of the horses, and some
+in the outhouses, and some here and there, dispersing them some one way,
+some another, afar from their mistress.
+
+CHOR. What calamity took place after this?
+
+PHRY. O powerful, powerful Idean mother, alas! alas! the murderous
+sufferings, and the lawless evils, which I saw, I saw in the royal palace!
+From beneath their purple robes concealed having their drawn swords in
+their hands, they turned each his eye on either side, lest any one might
+chance to be present. But like mountain boars standing over against the
+lady, they say, "Thou shalt die, thou shalt die! thy vile husband kills
+thee, having given up the offspring of his brother to die at Argos." But
+she shrieked out, Ah me! ah me! and throwing her white arm on her breast
+inflicted on her head miserable blows, and, her feet turned to flight, she
+stepped, she stepped with her golden sandals; but Orestes thrusting his
+fingers into her hair, outstripping her flight,[41] bending back her neck
+over his left shoulder, was about to plunge the black sword into her
+throat.
+
+CHOR. Where then were the Phrygians, who dwell under the same roof, to
+assist her?
+
+PHRY. With a clamor having burst by means of bars the doors and cells where
+we were waiting, we run to her assistance, each to different parts of the
+house, one bringing stones, another spears, another having a long-handled
+sword in his hand. But Pylades came against us, impetuous, like as the
+Phrygian Hector or Ajax in his triple-crested helmet, whom I saw, I saw at
+the gates of Priam: but we clashed together the points of our swords: then
+indeed, then did the Phrygians give clear proof how inferior we were in the
+force of Mars to the spear of Greece. One indeed turning away, a fugitive,
+but another wounded, and another deprecating the death that threatened him:
+but under favor of the darkness we fled: and the corses fell, but some
+staggered, and some lay prostrate. But the wretched Hermione came to the
+house at the time when her murdered mother fell to the ground, that unhappy
+woman that gave her birth. And running upon her as Bacchanals without their
+thyrsus, as a heifer in the mountains they bore her away in their hands,
+and again eagerly rushed upon the daughter of Jove to slay her. But she
+vanished altogether from the chamber through the palace. O Jupiter and O
+earth, and light, and darkness! or by her enchantments, or by the art of
+magic, or by the stealth of the Gods. But of what followed I know no
+farther, for I sped in stealth my foot from the palace. But Menelaus having
+endured many, many severe toils, has received back from Troy the violated
+rites of Helen to no purpose.
+
+CHOR. And see something strange succeeds to these strange things, for I see
+Orestes with his sword drawn walking before the palace with agitated step,
+
+ORESTES, PHRYGIAN, CHORUS.
+
+ORES. Where is he that fled from my sword out of the palace?
+
+PHRY. I supplicate thee, O king, falling prostrate before thee after the
+barbaric fashion.
+
+ORES. The case before us is not in Ilium, but the Argive land.
+
+PHRY. In every region to live is sweeter than to die, in the opinion of the
+wise.
+
+ORES. Didst thou not raise a cry for Menelaus to come with succor?
+
+PHRY. I indeed am present on purpose to assist thee; for thou art the more
+worthy.
+
+ORES. Perished then the daughter of Tyndarus justly?
+
+PHRY. Most justly, even had she three lives for vengeance.
+
+ORES. With thy tongue dost thou flatter, not having these sentiments
+within?
+
+PHRY. For ought she not? She who utterly destroyed Greece as well as the
+Phrygians themselves?
+
+ORES. Swear, I will kill thee else, that thou art not speaking to curry
+favor with me.
+
+PHRY. By my life have I sworn, which I should wish to hold a sacred oath.
+
+ORES. Was the steel thus dreadful to all the Phrygians at Troy also?
+
+PHRY. Remove thy sword, for being so near me it gleams horrid slaughter.
+
+ORES. Art thou afraid, lest thou shouldest become a rock, as though looking
+on the Gorgon?
+
+PHRY. Lest I should become a corse, but I know not of the Gorgon's head.
+
+ORES. Slave as thou art, dost thou fear death, which will rid thee from thy
+woes?
+
+PHRY. Every one, although a man be a slave, rejoices to behold the light.
+
+ORES. Thou sayest well; thy understanding; saves thee, but go into the
+house.
+
+PHRY. Thou wilt not kill me then?
+
+ORES. Thou art pardoned.
+
+PHRY. This is good word thou hast spoken.
+
+ORES. Yet we may change our measures.
+
+PHRY. But this thou sayest not well.
+
+ORES. Thou art a fool, if thou thinkest I could endure to defile me by
+smiting thy neck, for neither art thou a woman, nor oughtest thou to be
+ranked among men. But that thou mightest not raise a clamor came I forth
+out of the house: for Argos, when it has heard a noise, is soon roused, but
+we have no dread in meeting Menelaus, as far as swords go; but let him come
+exulting with his golden ringlets flowing over his shoulders, for if he
+collects the Argives, and brings them against the palace seeking revenge
+for the death of Helen, and is not willing to let me be in safety, and my
+sister, and Pylades my accomplice in this affair, he shall see two corses,
+both the virgin and his wife.
+
+CHORUS.
+
+Alas! alas! O fate, the house of the Atrid� again falls into another,
+another fearful struggle.
+
+SEMICHOR. What shall we do? shall we carry these tidings to the city, or
+shall we keep in silence?
+
+SEMICHOR. This is the safer plan, my friends.
+
+SEMICHOR. Behold before the house, behold this smoke leaping aloft in the
+air portends _something_.
+
+SEMICHOR. They are lighting the torches, as about to burn down the mansion
+of Tantalus, nor do they forbear from murder.
+
+CHOR. The God rules the events that happen to mortals, whichsoever way he
+wills. But some vast power by the instigation of the Furies has struck, has
+struck these palaces to the shedding of blood on account of the fall of
+Myrtilus from the chariot.
+
+But lo! I see Menelaus also here approaching the house with a quick step,
+having by some means or other perceived the calamity which now is present.
+Will ye not anticipate him by closing the gates with bolts, O ye children
+of Atreus, who are in the palace? A man in prosperity is a terrible thing
+to those in adversity, as now them art in misery, Orestes.
+
+MENELAUS _below_, ORESTES, PYLADES, ELECTRA, HERMIONE
+_above_, CHORUS.
+
+MEN. I am present, having heard the horrid and atrocious deeds of the two
+lions, for I call them not men. For I have now heard of my wife, that she
+died not, but vanished away, this that I heard was empty report, which one
+deceived by fright related; but these are the artifices of the matricide,
+and much derision. Open some one the door, my attendants I command to burst
+open these gates here, that my child at least we may deliver from the hand
+of these blood-polluted men, and may receive my unhappy, my miserable lady,
+with whom those murderers of my wife must die by my hand.
+
+ORES. What ho there! Touch not these gates with thine hands: to Menelaus I
+speak, that thou towerest in thy boldness, or with this pinnacle will I
+crush thy head, having rent down the ancient battlement, the labor of the
+builders. But the gates are made fast with bolts, which will hinder thee
+from thy purpose of bringing aid, so that thou canst not pass within the
+palace.
+
+MEN. Ha! what is this? I see the blaze of torches, and these stationed on
+the battlements, on the height of the palace, and the sword placed over the
+neck of my daughter to guard her.
+
+ORES. Whether is it thy will to question, or to hear me?
+
+MEN. I wish neither, but it is necessary, as it seems, to hear thee.
+
+ORES. I am about to slay thy daughter if thou wish to know.
+
+MEN. Having slain Helen, dost thou perpetrate murder on murder?
+
+ORES. For would I had gained my purpose not being deluded, as I was, by the
+Gods.
+
+MEN. Thou hast slain her, and deniest it, and speakest these things to
+insult me.
+
+ORES. It is a denial that gives me pain, for would that--
+
+MEN. Thou had done what deed? for thou callest forth alarm.
+
+ORES. I had hurled to hell the fury of Greece.
+
+MEN. Give back the body of my wife, that I may bury her in a tomb.
+
+ORES. Ask her of the Gods; but I will slay thy daughter.
+
+MEN. The matricide contrives murder on murder.
+
+ORES. The avenger of his father, whom thou gavest up to die.
+
+MEN. Was not the blood of thy mother formerly shed sufficient for thee?
+
+ORES. I should not be weary of slaying wicked women, were I to slay them
+forever.
+
+MEN. Art thou also, Pylades, a partaker in this murder?
+
+ORES. By his silence he assents, but if I speak, it will be sufficient.
+
+MEN. But not with impunity, unless indeed thou fliest on wings.
+
+ORES. We will not fly, but will set fire to the palace?
+
+MEN. What! wilt thou destroy thy father's mansion?
+
+ORES. Yes, that thou mayest not possess it, will I, having stabbed this
+virgin here over the flames.
+
+MEN. Slay her; since having slain thou shalt at least give me satisfaction
+for these deeds.
+
+ORES. It shall be so then.
+
+MEN. Alas! on no account do this!
+
+ORES. Be silent then; but bear to suffer evil justly.
+
+MEN. What! is it just for thee to live?
+
+ORES. Yes, and to rule over the land.
+
+MEN. What land!
+
+ORES. Here, in Pelasgian Argos.
+
+MEN. Well wouldst thou touch the sacred lavers!
+
+ORES. And pray why not?
+
+MEN. And wouldst slaughter the victim before the battle!
+
+ORES. And thou wouldst most righteously.
+
+MEN. Yes, for I am pure as to my hands.
+
+ORES. But not thy heart.
+
+MEN. Who would speak to thee?
+
+ORES. Whoever loves his father.
+
+MEN. And whoever reveres his mother.
+
+ORES. --Is happy.
+
+MEN. Not thou at least.
+
+ORES. For wicked women please me not.
+
+MEN. Take away the sword from my daughter.
+
+ORES. Thou art false in thy expectations.
+
+MEN. But wilt thou kill my daughter?
+
+ORES. Thou art no longer false.
+
+MEN. Alas me! what shall I do?
+
+ORES. Go to the Argives, and persuade them.
+
+MEN. With what persuasion?
+
+ORES. Beseech the city that we may not die.[41a]
+
+MEN. Otherwise ye will slay my daughter?
+
+ORES. The thing is so.
+
+MEN. O wretched Helen!--
+
+ORES. And am I not wretched?
+
+MEN. I brought thee hither from the Trojans to be a victim.
+
+ORES. For would this were so!
+
+MEN. Having endured ten thousand toils.
+
+ORES. Except on my account.
+
+MEN. I have met with dreadful treatment.
+
+ORES. For then, _when thou oughtest_, thou wert of no assistance.
+
+MEN. Thou hast me.
+
+ORES. Thou at least hast caught thyself. But, ho there! set fire to the
+palace, Electra, from beneath: and thou, Pylades, the most true of my
+friends, light up these battlements of the walls.
+
+MEN. O land of the Danai, and inhabitants of warlike Argos, will ye not, ho
+there! come in arms to my succor? For this man here, having perpetrated the
+shocking murder of his mother, brings destruction on your whole city, that
+he may live.
+
+APOLLO.
+
+Menelaus, cease from thy irritated state of mind; I Phoebus the son of
+Latona, in thy presence, am addressing thee. Thou too, Orestes, who
+standest over that damsel with thy sword drawn, that thou mayest know what
+commands I bring with me. Helen indeed, whom thou minded to destroy,
+working Menelaus to anger, didst fail of thy purpose, she is here, whom ye
+see wrapt in the bosom of the sky, preserved, and not slain by thy hands.
+Her I preserved, and snatched from thy sword, commanded by my father Jove.
+For being the daughter of Jove, it is right that she should live immortal.
+And she shall have her seat by Castor and Pollux in the bosom of the sky,
+the guardian of mariners. But take to thyself another bride, and lead her
+home, since for the beauty of this woman the Gods brought together the
+Greeks and Trojans, and caused deaths, that they might draw from off the
+earth the pride of mortals, who had become an infinite multitude. Thus is
+it with regard to Helen; but thee, on the other hand, Orestes, it
+behooveth, having passed beyond the boundaries of this land, to inhabit the
+Parrhasian plain during the revolution of a year, and it shall be called by
+a name after thy flight, so that the Azanes and Arcadians shall call it
+Oresteum: and thence having departed to the city of the Athenians, undergo
+the charge of shedding thy mother's blood laid by the three Furies. But the
+Gods the arbiters of the cause shall pass on thee most sacredly their
+decree on the hill of Mars, in which it behooveth thee to be victorious.
+But Hermione, to whose neck thou art holding the sword, it is destined for
+thee, Orestes, to wed, but Neoptolemus, who thinks to marry her, shall
+never marry her. For it is fated to him to die by the Delphic sword, as he
+is demanding of me satisfaction for his father Achilles. But to Pylades
+give thy sister's hand, as thou didst formerly agree, but a happy life now
+coming on awaits him. But, O Menelaus, suffer Orestes to reign over Argos.
+But depart and rule over the Spartan land, having it as thy wife's dowry,
+who exposing thee to numberless evils always was bringing thee to this. But
+what regards the city I will make all right for him, I, who compelled him
+to slay his mother.
+
+ORES. O Loxian prophet, thou wert not then a false prophet in thine
+oracles, but a true one. And yet a fear comes upon me, that having heard
+one of the Furies, I might think that I have been hearing thy voice. But it
+is well fulfilled, and I will obey thy words. Behold I let go Hermione from
+slaughter, and approve her alliance, whenever her father shall give her.
+
+MEN. O Helen, daughter of Jove, hail! but I bless thee inhabiting the happy
+mansions of the Gods. But to thee, Orestes, do I betroth my daughter at
+Phoebus's commands, but illustrious thyself marrying from an illustrious
+family, be happy, both thou and I who give her.
+
+APOL. Now depart each of you whither we have appointed, and dissolve your
+quarrels.
+
+MEN. It is our duty to obey.
+
+ORES. I too entertain the same sentiments, and I receive with friendship
+thee in thy sufferings, O Menelaus, and thy oracles, O Apollo.
+
+APOL. Go now, each his own way, honoring the most excellent goddess Peace;
+but I will convey Helen to the mansions of Jove, passing through the pole
+of the shining stars, where sitting by Juno, and Hercules's Hebe, a
+goddess, she shall ever be honored by mortals with libations, in
+conjunction with the Tyndarid�, the sons of Jove, presiding over the sea to
+the benefit of mariners.
+
+CHOR. O greatly glorious Victory, mayest thou uphold my life, and cease not
+from crowning me!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+NOTES ON ORESTES
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+[1] [Greek: stemmata, eria], _Schol._ "eo quod colum cingant seu coronant,"
+Scapula explains it.
+
+[2] "_Then_" is not to be considered as signifying point of time, but it is
+meant to express [Greek: oun], _continuativam_. See Hoogeveen de Particula
+[Greek: oun], Sect. ii. � 6.
+
+[3] The original Greek phrase was [Greek: elpidos lept�s], which Euripides
+has changed to [Greek: asthenous rh�m�s], though the other had equally
+suited the metre. But Euripides is fond of slight alterations in proverbs.
+PORSON.
+
+[4] [Greek: dous--dynatai de kai apodous]. SCHOL.
+
+[5] Perhaps this interpretation of [Greek: chronion] is better than "slow,"
+for the considerate Electra would hardly go to remind her brother of his
+infirmities.
+
+[6] [Greek: Potniades]. The Furies have this epithet from Potnia, a town in
+Boeotia, where Glaucus's horses, having eaten of a certain herb and
+becoming mad, tore their own master in pieces. SCHOL.
+
+[6a] Note [D].
+
+[6b] Dindorf would omit this verse.
+
+[7] [Greek: halityp�n, halie�n, hoi tais k�pais typtousi t�n thalassan].
+SCHOL.
+
+[8] [Greek: aphyllou]. Alluding to the branch, which the ancients used to
+hold in token of supplication.
+
+[9] "[Greek: kata t�n nykta pepontha t�r�n t�n anairesin, kai t�n anal�psin
+t�n oste�n, toutestin, hina m� tis aphel�tai tauta]." PARAPH. Heath
+translates it, _watchfully observing, till her bones were collected._
+
+[10] The old reading was [Greek: apaideuta]. The meaning of the present
+reading seems to be, "Yes, they are awful 'tis true, but still however you
+need not be so very scrupulous about naming them."
+
+[11] [Greek: anaphora] was a legal term, and signified the line of defense
+adopted by the accused, when he transferred the charge brought against
+himself to some other person.--See Demosthenes in Timocr.
+
+[12] Oeax was Palamede's brother.
+
+[13] And therefore we are not to impeach the _man_. Some would have [Greek:
+doulon] to bear the sense of [Greek: doulopoion], enslaves, and therefore
+can not be avoided.
+
+[14] [Greek: ech�] for [Greek: enochos eimi].
+
+[15] [Greek: Z�l�, to makariz�. entautha de anti tou epain�.] SCHOL.
+
+[16] Conf. Ter. Eun. Act. v. Sc. 2.
+
+                  Non dedignum, Ch�rea,
+  Fecisti; nam si ego digna hac contumelia
+  Sum maxume, at tu indignus, qui faceres, tamen.
+
+[16a] Note [E].
+
+[17] Of this passage the Scholiast gives two interpretations; either it may
+mean [Greek: meta dakry�n kai go�n eipon]: or, [Greek: eipon tauta eis
+dakrya kai goous, kai xymphoras, �goun hina m� tych�, tout�n: teuxomai de,
+ei petr�th�nai me eas�is].
+
+[18] _"Beyond any woman,"_ [Greek: gyn� mia], this is a mode of expression
+frequently met with in the Attic writers, especially in Xenophon.
+
+[19] [Greek: epi t�i phon�i, toutesti dia ton phonon, hon eirgasametha.]
+PARAPH.
+
+[20] Thyestes and Atreus, having a dispute about their father Pelops's
+kingdom, agreed, that whichever should discover the first prodigy should
+have possession of the throne. There appeared in Atreus's flock a golden
+lamb, which, however, �rope his wife secretly had conveyed to Thyestes to
+show before the judges. Atreus afterward invited Thyestes to a feast, and
+served up before him Aglaiis, Orchomenus, and Caleus, three sons he had by
+his intrigues with �rope.
+
+[21] Alluding to the murder of Agamemnon by Clyt�mnestra. This is the
+interpretation and explanation of the Scholiast; but it is perhaps better
+translated, "_but on the other hand to play the coward is great impiety,
+and the error of cowardly-minded men_;" the chorus meaning, that this might
+have been said of Orestes, had he not avenged his father.
+
+[22] That is, _blamed him_. So St. Paul, 1 Cor. xi. 21, [Greek: epaines�
+hymas en toutoi; ouk epain�]. Ter. And. Act. II. Sc. 6. "Et, quod dicendum
+hic siet, Tu quoque perparce nimium, non laudo."
+
+[23] An Argive as far as he was born there, and therefore [Greek:
+�nankasmenos]; not an Argive, inasmuch as his parents were not of that
+state. This is supposed to allude to Cleophon. SCHOL. See Dindorf.
+
+[24] This is the interpretation of one Scholiast; another explains it
+[Greek: oikeiais chersin ergazomenos]. Grotius translates it _agricola_.
+
+[25] The same construction occurs in the Supplicants, 870. [Greek: philois
+d' al�th�s �n philos, parousi te kai m� parousin: h�n] (of which sort of
+men) [Greek: arithmos ou polys.] PORSON.
+
+[25a] See Note [F].
+
+[26] Which, [Greek: ktypon] namely: [Greek: onycha] and [Greek: ktypon] are
+each governed by [Greek: titheisa]; but it is not easy to find a single
+verb in English that should be transitive to both these substantives.
+
+[27] [Greek: kallipais], _lovely_, not lovely in her children: so in Phoen.
+1634. [Greek: euteknos xyn�ris].
+
+[28] Argos, so called from the Cyclopes, a nation of Thrace, who, being
+called in as allies, afterward settled here.
+
+[29] [Greek: heterois] may perhaps seem to make the construction plainer
+than [Greek: heteros]; but Porson has received the latter into his text on
+account of the metre.
+
+[30] Myrtilus was the son of Mercury, who therefore sowed this dissension
+between the two brothers in revenge for his death by Pelops. See note at
+line 802.
+
+[31] Some would understand by [Greek: monop�lon] not that Aurora was borne
+on one horse, but that this alteration in the course of nature took place
+for one day. SCHOL.
+
+[32] [Greek: kai apo t�nde, �toi meta tauta.] PARAPH.
+
+[33] [Greek: paraseiros] is used to signify a loose horse tied abreast of
+another in the shaft, and is technically termed "the outrigger." The
+metaphorical application of it to Pylades, who voluntarily attached himself
+to the misfortunes of his friend, is extremely beautiful.
+
+[34] Or, _"I will not be at all behind thy slaughter."_
+
+[35] [Greek: eu] in this passage _interrogat oblique_, see Hoogeveen, xvi.
+� 1. 15.
+
+[36] Strophius, the father of Pylades, married Anaxibia, Agamemnon's
+sister.
+
+[37] [Greek: oneid�, t�n euergesi�n tas hypomn�seis]. SCHOL. Ter. And. i.
+1. "isth�c commemoratio quasi exprobratio est immemoris benefici."
+
+[38] i.e. being a barbarian, and therefore not knowing whither to go.
+
+[39] [Greek: harmateion], such a strain as that raised over Hector, [Greek:
+helkomen�, dia tou harmatos]. See two other explanations in the Scholia.
+
+[40] [Greek: hipposyna, h�tis hyp�rches hipp�lasia tou G.] BRUNCK.
+
+[41] Literally, _her Mycenian slipper_.
+
+[41a] Read [Greek: thanein] with Pors. Dind.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+ADDITIONAL NOTES.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+[A] But Dindorf reads [Greek: ktypou � �gaget'. ouchi]; interrogatively,
+thus: "Ye were making a noise. Will ye not ... enable him," etc.?
+
+[B] Dindorf would continue this verse to Orestes.
+
+[C] Dindorf supposes something to be wanting after vs. 314.
+
+[D] The use of [Greek: allos heteros] is learnedly illustrated by Dindorf.
+
+[E] Elmsley, on Heracl. 852, more simply regards the datives [Greek: soi
+s�i t' adelph�] as dependent upon [Greek: episeis�], understanding [Greek:
+h�ste dounai dik�n]. This is better than to suppose (with Porson) that
+[Greek: dounai dik�n] can mean to _inflict_ punishment.
+
+[F] Dindorf (in his notes) agrees with Porson in omitting the following
+verse.
+
+[G] Dindorf's text and punctuation must be altered.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE PHOENICIAN VIRGINS.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+PERSONS REPRESENTED.
+
+  JOCASTA.
+  TUTOR.
+  ANTIGONE.
+  CHORUS OF PHOENICIAN VIRGINS.
+  POLYNICES.
+  ETEOCLES.
+  CREON.
+  MENOECEUS.
+  TIRECIAS.
+  MESSENGERS.
+  OEDIPUS.
+
+_The Scene is in the Court before the royal palace at Thebes_.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE ARGUMENT.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+Eteocles having gotten possession of the throne of Thebes, deprived his
+brother Polynices of his share; but he having come as an exile to Argos,
+married the daughter of the king Adrastus; but ambitious of returning to
+his country, and having persuaded his father-in-law, he assembled a great
+army for Thebes against his brother. His mother Jocasta made him come into
+the city, under sanction of a truce, and first confer with his brother
+respecting the empire. But Eteocles being violent and fierce from having
+possessed the empire, Jocasta could not reconcile her children.--Polynices,
+prepared as against an enemy, rushed out of the city. Now Tiresias
+prophesied that victory should be on the side of the Thebans, if Menoeceus
+the son of Creon would give himself up to be sacrificed to Mars. Creon
+refused to give his son to the city, but the youth was willing, and, his
+father pointing out to him the means of flight and giving him money, he put
+himself to death.--The Thebans slew the leaders of the Argives. Eteocles
+and Polynices in a single combat slew each other, and their mother having
+found the corses of her sons laid violent hands on herself; and Creon her
+brother received the kingdom. The Argives defeated in battle retired. But
+Creon, being morose, would not give up those of the enemy who had fallen at
+Thebes, for sepulture, and exposed the body of Polynices without burial,
+and banished Oedipus from his country; in the one instance disregarding the
+laws of humanity, in the other giving way to passion, nor feeling pity for
+him after his calamity.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE PHOENICIAN VIRGINS.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+JOCASTA.
+
+O thou that cuttest thy path through the constellations[1] of heaven, and
+art mounted on thy golden-joined seats, thou sun, whirling thy flame
+with[2] thy swift steeds, how inauspicious didst thou dart thy ray on that
+day when Cadmus came to this land having left the sea-washed coast of
+Phoenicia; who in former time having married Harmonia, daughter of Venus,
+begat Polydorus; from him they say sprung Labdacus, and from him Laius. But
+I am[3] the daughter of Menoeceus, and Creon my brother was born of the
+same mother; me they call Jocasta (for this name[4] my father gave me), and
+Laius takes me for his wife; but after that he was childless, for a long
+time sharing my bed in the palace, he went and inquired of Apollo, and at
+the same time demands the mutual offspring of male children in his family;
+but the God said, "O king of Thebes renowned for its chariots, sow not for
+such a harvest of children against the will of the Gods, for if thou shalt
+beget a son, he that is born shall slay thee, and the whole of thy house
+shall wade through blood." But having yielded to pleasure, and having
+fallen into inebriety, he begot to us a son, and having begot him, feeling
+conscious of his error and the command of the God, gives the babe to some
+herdsmen to expose at the meads of Juno and the rock of Cith�ron, having
+bored sharp-pointed iron through the middle of his ankles, from which
+circumstance Greece gave him the name of Oedipus. But him the grooms who
+attend the steeds of Polybus find and carry home, and placed him in the
+arms of their mistress. But she rested beneath her bosom him that gave me a
+mother's pangs, and persuades her husband that she had brought forth. But
+now my son showing signs of manhood in his darkening cheek, either having
+suspected it by instinct, or having learned it from some one, went to the
+temple of Apollo, desirous of discovering his parents; at the same time
+went Laius my husband, seeking to gain intelligence of his son who had been
+exposed, if he were no longer living; and both met at the same point of the
+road at Phocis where it divides itself; and the charioteer of Laius
+commands him, "Stranger, withdraw out of the way of princes;" but he moved
+slowly, in silence, with haughty spirit; but the steeds with their hoof
+dyed with blood the tendons of his feet. At this (but why need I relate
+each horrid circumstance besides the deed itself?) the son kills his
+father, and having taken the chariot, sends it as a present to his
+foster-father Polybus. Now at this time the sphinx preyed vulture-like[5]
+upon the city with rapacity, my husband now no more, Creon my brother
+proclaims that he will give my bed as a reward to him who would solve the
+enigma of the crafty virgin. But by some chance or other Oedipus my son
+happens to discover the riddle of the sphinx, [and he receives as a prize
+the sceptre of this land,][5a] and marries me, his mother, wretched he not
+knowing it, nor knew his mother that she was lying down with her son. And I
+bear children to my child, two sons, Eteocles and the illustrious
+Polynices, and two daughters, one her father named Ismene, the elder I
+called Antigone. But Oedipus, after having gone through all sufferings,
+having discovered in my bed the marriage with his mother, he perpetrated a
+deed of horror on his own eyes, having drenched in blood their pupils with
+his golden buckles. But after that the cheek of my children grows dark with
+manly down, they hid their father confined with bolts that his sad fortune
+might be forgotten, which indeed required the greatest policy. He is still
+living in the palace, but sick in mind through his misfortunes he
+imprecates the most unhallowed curses on his children, that they may share
+this house with the sharpened sword. But these two, dreading lest the Gods
+should bring to completion these curses,[6] should they dwell together, in
+friendly compact determined that Polynices the younger son should first go
+a willing exile from this land, but that Eteocles remaining here should
+hold the sceptre for a year, changing in his turn; but after that he sat on
+the throne of power, he moves not from his seat, but drives Polynices an
+exile from this land. But he having fled to Argos, and having contracted an
+alliance with Adrastus, assembles together and leads a vast army of
+Argives; and having marched to these very walls with seven gates he demands
+his father's sceptre and his share of the land. But I to quell this strife
+persuaded my son to come to his brother, confiding in a truce before he
+grasped the spear. And the messenger who was sent declares that he will
+come. But, O thou that inhabitest the shining clouds of heaven, Jove,
+preserve us, give reconciliation to my children; it becomes thee, if thou
+art wise, not to suffer the same man always to be unfortunate.
+
+TUTOR, ANTIGONE.
+
+TUT. O thou fair bud in thy father's house, Antigone, since thy mother has
+permitted thee to leave the virgin's apartments for the extreme chamber[7]
+of the mansion, in order to view the Argive army in compliance with thy
+entreaties, yet stay, until I shall first investigate the path, lest any
+citizen should appear in the pass, and to me taunts should come as a slave,
+and to thee as a princess: and I who well know each circumstance will tell
+you all that I saw or heard from the Argives, when I went bearing the offer
+of a truce to thy brother, from this place thither, and again to this place
+from him. But no citizen approaches this house; come, ascend with thy steps
+these ancient stairs of cedar, and survey the plains, and by the streams of
+Ismenus and Dirce's fount how great is the host of the enemy.
+
+ANT. Stretch forth now, stretch forth thine aged hand from the stairs to my
+youth, raising up the steps of my feet.
+
+TUT. Behold, join thy hand, virgin, thou hast come in lucky hour, for the
+Pelasgian host is now in motion, and they are separating the bands from one
+another.
+
+ANT. O awful daughter of Latona, Hecate, the field all brass[8] gleaming
+like lightning.
+
+TUT. For Polynices hath not come tamely to this land, raging with host of
+horsemen, and ten thousand shields.
+
+ANT. Are the gates fastened with bars, and is the brazen bolt fitted to the
+stone-work of Amphion's wall?
+
+TUT. Take courage; as to the interior the city is safe, But view the first
+chief, if thou desirest to know.
+
+ANT. Who is he with the white-plumed helmet, who commands in the van of the
+army, moving lightly round on his arm his brazen shield?
+
+TUT. He is a leader, lady.
+
+ANT. Who is he? From whom sprung? Speak, aged man, what is he called by
+name?
+
+TUT. He indeed is called by birth a Mycen�an, and he dwells at the streams
+of Lerna,[9] the king Hippomedon.
+
+ANT. Ah! how haughty, how terrible to behold! like to an earth-born giant,
+starlike in countenance amidst his painted devices,[10] he corresponds not
+with the race of mortals.
+
+TUT. Dost thou not see him now passing the stream of Dirce, a general?
+
+ANT. Here is another, another fashion of arms. But who is he?
+
+TUT. He is the son of Oeneus, Tydeus, and bears on his breast the �tolian
+Mars.
+
+ANT. Is this the prince, O aged man, who is husband to the sister of my
+brother's wife?[11] In his arms how different of color, of barbaric
+mixture!
+
+TUT. For all the �tolians, my child, bear the target, and hurl with the
+lance, most certain in their aim.
+
+ANT. But how, O aged man, dost thou know these things so perfectly?
+
+TUT. Having seen the devices of the shields, then I remarked them, when I
+went to bear the offer of a truce to thy brother, beholding which, I
+recognize the warriors.
+
+ANT. But who is this, who is passing round the tomb of Zethus, with
+clustering locks, in his eyes a Gorgon to behold, in appearance a youth?
+
+TUT. A general he is. [See Note [A].]
+
+ANT. How a crowd in complete armor attends him behind![12]
+
+TUT. This is Parthenop�us, son of Atalanta.
+
+ANT. But, may Diana who rushes over the mountains with his mother destroy
+him, having subdued him with her arrows, who has come against my city to
+destroy it.
+
+TUT. May it be so, my child, nevertheless they are come with justice to
+this land; wherefore also I fear lest the Gods should judge rightly.
+
+ANT. Where, but where is he who was born of one mother with me in hard
+fate, O dearest old man; tell me, where is Polynices?
+
+TUT. He is standing near the tomb of the seven virgin daughters of Niobe,
+close by Adrastus. Seest thou him?
+
+ANT. I see indeed, but not distinctly; but somehow I see the resemblance of
+his form, and his shape shadowed out. Would that with my feet I could
+perform the journey of the winged cloud through the air to my brother, then
+would I fling my arms round his dearest neck, after so long a time a
+wretched exile. How splendid is he, O old man, in his golden armor,
+glittering like the morning rays of the sun.
+
+TUT. He will come to this house confiding in the truce, so as to fill thee
+with joy.
+
+ANT. But who, O aged man, is this, who guides his milk-white steeds seated
+in his chariot?
+
+TUT. The prophet Amphiaraus this, O my mistress, and with him the victims,
+the libations of the earth delighting in blood.
+
+AST. O thou daughter of the brightly girded sun, thou moon, golden-circled
+light, applying what quiet and temperate blows to his steeds does he direct
+his chariot! But where is he who utters such dreadful insults against this
+city, Capaneus?
+
+TUT. He is scanning the approach to the towers, measuring the walls both
+from their foundation to the top.
+
+ANT. O vengeance, and ye loud-roaring thunders of Jove, and thou blasting
+fire of the lightning, do thou quell this more-than-mortal arrogance. This
+is he who will with his spear give to Mycen�, and to the streams of Lern�an
+Tri�na,[13] and to the Amymonian[14] waters of Neptune, the Theban women,
+having invested them with slavery. Sever, O awful Goddess, never, O
+daughter of Jove, with golden clusters of ringlets, Diana, may I endure
+servitude.
+
+TUT. My child, enter the palace, and at home remain in thy virgin chambers,
+since thou hast arrived at the indulgement of thy desire, as to what you
+were anxious to behold. For, since confusion has entered the city, a crowd
+of women is advancing to the royal palace. The race of women is prone to
+complaint, and if they find but small occasion for words, they add more,
+and it is a sort of pleasure to women, to speak nothing well-advised one of
+another.[15]
+
+CHORUS.
+
+I have come, having left the Tyrian wave, the first-fruits of Loxias, from
+the sea-washed Phoenicia, a slave for the shrine of Apollo, that I might
+dwell under the snowy brows of Parnassus, having sped my way over the
+Ionian flood by the oar, the west wind with its blasts riding over the
+barren plains of waters[16] which flow round Sicily, the sweetest murmur in
+the heavens. Chosen out from my city the fairest present to Apollo, I came
+to the land of the Cadmeans, the illustrious descendants of Agenor, sent
+hither to these kindred towers of Laius. And I am made the slave of Apollo
+in like manner with the golden-framed images. Moreover the water of
+Castalia awaits me, to lave the virgin pride of my tresses, in the ministry
+of Apollo. O blazing rock, the flame of fire that seems[17] double above
+the Dionysian heights of Bacchus, and thou vine, who distillest the daily
+nectar, producing the fruitful cluster from the tender shoot; and ye divine
+caves of the dragon,[18] and ye mountain watch-towers of the Gods, and thou
+hallowed snowy mountain, would that I were the chorus of the immortal God
+free from alarms encompassing thee around, by the caves of Apollo in the
+centre of the earth, having left Dirce. But now impetuous Mars having
+advanced before the walls lights up against this city, which may the Gods
+avert, hostile war; for common are the misfortunes of friends, and common
+is it, if this land defended by its seven turrets should suffer any
+calamity, to the Phoenician country, alas! alas! common is the
+affinity,[19] common are the descendants of Io bearing horns; of which woes
+I have a share. But a thick cloud of shields glares around the city, the
+likeness of gory battle, bearing which destruction from the Furies to the
+children of Oedipus Mars shall quickly advance. O Pelasgian Argos, I dread
+thy power, and vengeance from the Gods, for he rushes not his arms to this
+war unjustly, who seeks to recover his home.
+
+POLYNICES, CHORUS.
+
+POL. The bolts indeed of the gate-keepers have with ease admitted me, that
+I might come within the walls; wherefore also I fear, lest, having caught
+me within their nets, they let[19a] not my body go without bloodshed. On
+which account my eye must be turned about on every side, both that way and
+this, lest there be treachery. But armed in my hand with this sword, I will
+give myself confidence of daring. Ha! Who is this; or do we fear a noise?
+Every thing appears terrible even to the bold, when his foot shall pass
+across a hostile country. I trust however in my mother, at the same time I
+scarce trust, who persuaded me to come hither confiding in a truce. But
+protection is nigh; for the hearths of the altars are at hand, and houses
+not deserted. Come. I will let go my sword into its dark scabbard, and will
+question these who they are, that are standing at the palace. Ye female
+strangers, tell me, from what country do ye approach Grecian habitations?
+
+CHOR. The Phoenician is my paternal country, she that nurtured me: and the
+descendants of Agenor sent me hither from the spoils, the first-fruits to
+Apollo. And while the renowned son of Oedipus was preparing to send me to
+the revered shrine, and to the altars of Phoebus, in the mean time the
+Argives marched against the city. But do thou in turn answer me, who thou
+art, who hast come to this bulwark of the Theban land with its seven gates?
+
+POL. My father is Oedipus the son of Laius; Jocasta daughter of Menoeceus
+brought me forth; the Theban people call me Polynices.
+
+CHOR. O thou allied to the sons of Agenor, my lords, by whom I was sent, I
+fall at thy knees in lowly posture, O king, preserving my country's custom.
+Thou hast come, thou hast come, after a length of time, to thy paternal
+land. O venerable matron, come forth quickly, open the doors; dost thou
+hear, O mother, that producedst this hero? why dost thou delay to leave thy
+lofty mansion, and to embrace thy child with thine arms?
+
+JOCASTA, POLYNICES, CHORUS.
+
+JOC. Hearing the Phoenician tongue, ye virgins, within this mansion, I drag
+my steps trembling with age. Ah! my son, after length of time, after
+numberless days, I behold thy countenance; clasp thy mother's bosom in
+thine arms, throw around her[20] thy kisses, and the dark ringlets of thy
+clustering hair, shading my neck. Ah! scarce possible is it that thou
+appearest in thy mother's arms so unhoped for, and so unexpected. How shall
+I address thee? how shall I perform all? how shall I, walking in rapture
+around thee on that side and this, both with my hands and words, reap the
+varied pleasure, the delight of my former joys? O my son, thou hast left
+thy father's house deserted, sent away an exile by wrongful treatment from
+thy brother. How longed for by thy friends! how longed for by Thebes! From
+which time I am both shorn of my hoary locks, letting them fall with tears,
+with wailing;[21] deprived, my child, of the white robes, I receive in
+exchange around me these dark and dismal weeds. But the old man in the
+palace deprived of sight, always preserving with tears regret for the
+unanimity of the brothers which is separated from the family, has madly
+rushed on self-destruction with the sword and with the noose above the
+beams of the house, bewailing the curse imprecated on his children; and
+with cries of woe he is always hidden in darkness. But thou, my child, I
+hear, art both joined in marriage, and hast the joys of love in a foreign
+family, and cherishest a foreign alliance; intolerable to this thy mother
+and to the aged Laius, the woe of a foreign marriage brought upon us. But
+neither did I light the torch of fire for you, as is customary in the
+marriage rites, as befits the happy mother; nor was Ismenus careful of the
+bridal rites in the luxury of the bath: and the entrance of thy bride was
+made in silence through the Theban city. May these ills perish, whether the
+sword, or discord, or thy father is the cause, or whether fate has rushed
+with violence upon the house of Oedipus; for the weight of these sorrows
+has fallen upon me.
+
+CHOR. Parturition with the attendant throes has a wonderful effect on
+women;[22] and somehow the whole race of women have strong affection toward
+their children.
+
+POL. My mother, determining wisely, and yet not determining wisely, have I
+come to men my foes; but it is necessary that all must be enamored of their
+country; but whoever says otherwise, pleases himself with vain words, but
+has his heart there. But so far have I come to trouble and terror, lest any
+treachery from my brother should slay me, so that having my hand on my
+sword I proceeded through the city rolling round my eye; but one thing is
+on my side, the truce and thy faith, which has brought me within my
+paternal walls: but I have come with many tears, after a length of time
+beholding the courts and the altars of the Gods, and the schools wherein I
+was brought up, and the fount of Dirce, from which banished by injustice, I
+inhabit a foreign city, having a stream of tears flowing through my eyes.
+But, for from one woe springs a second, I behold thee having thy head shorn
+of its locks, and these sable garments; alas me! on account of my
+misfortunes. How dreadful a thing, mother, is the enmity of relations,
+having means of reconciliation seldom to be brought about! For how fares
+the old man my father in the palace, vainly looking upon darkness; and how
+fare my two sisters? Are they indeed bewailing my wretched banishment?
+
+JOC. Some God miserably destroys the race of Oedipus; for thus began it,
+when I brought forth children in that unhallowed manner, and thy father
+married me in evil hour, and thou didst spring forth. But why relate these
+things? What is sent by the Gods we must bear. But how I may ask the
+questions I wish, I know not, for I fear lest I wound at all thy feelings;
+but I have a great desire.
+
+POL. But inquire freely, leave nothing out. For what you wish, my mother,
+this is dear to me.
+
+JOC. I ask thee therefore, first, for the information that I wish to
+obtain. What is the being deprived of one's country, is it a great ill?
+
+POL. The greatest: and greater is it in deed than in word.
+
+JOC. What is the reason of that? What is that so harsh to exiles?
+
+POL. One thing, and that the greatest, not to have the liberty of speaking.
+
+JOC. This that you have mentioned belongs to a slave, not to give utterance
+to what one thinks.
+
+POL. It is necessary to bear with the follies of those in power.
+
+JOC. And this is painful, to be unwise with the unwise.
+
+POL. But for interest we must bend to slavery contrary to our nature.
+
+JOC. But hopes support exiles, as report goes.
+
+POL. They look upon them with favorable eyes, at least, but are slow of
+foot.
+
+JOC. Hath not time shown them to be vain?
+
+POL. They have a certain sweet delight to set against misfortunes.
+
+JOC. But whence wert thou supported, before thou foundest means of
+sustenance by thy marriage?
+
+POL. At one time I had food for the day, at another I had not.
+
+JOC. And did the friends and hosts of your father not assist you?
+
+POL. Be prosperous, _and thou shalt have friends_:[23] but friends are
+none, should one be in adversity.
+
+JOC. Did not thy noble birth raise thee to great distinction?
+
+POL. To want is wretched; high birth fed me not.
+
+JOC. Their own country, it appears, is the dearest thing to men.
+
+POL. You can not express by words how dear it is.
+
+JOC. But how camest thou to Argos? What intention hadst thou?
+
+POL. Apollo gave a certain oracle to Adrastus.
+
+JOC. What is this thou hast mentioned? I am unable to discover.
+
+POL. To unite his daughters in marriage with a boar and lion.
+
+JOC. And what part of the name of beasts belongs to you, my son.
+
+POL. I know not. The God called me to this fortune.
+
+JOC. For the God is wise. But in what manner didst thou obtain her bed?
+
+POL. It was night; but I came to the portals of Adrastus.
+
+JOC. In search of a couch to rest on, as a wandering exile?
+
+POL. This was the case, and then indeed there came a second exile.
+
+JOC. Who was this? how unfortunate then was he also!
+
+POL. Tydeus, who they say sprung from Oeneus his sire.
+
+JOC. In what then did Adrastus liken you to beasts?
+
+POL. Because we came to blows for lodging.
+
+JOC. In this the son of Talaus understood the oracle.
+
+POL. And gave in marriage to us two his two virgin daughters.
+
+JOC. Art thou fortunate then in thy marriage alliance, or unfortunate?
+
+POL. My marriage can not be found fault with up to this day.
+
+JOC. But how didst thou persuade an army to follow you hither?
+
+POL. Adrastus swore this oath to his two sons-in-law, that he would replace
+both in their own country, but me first. And many princes of the Argives
+and Mycen�ans are at hand, rendering to me a sad, but necessary favor; for
+I am leading an army against this my own city; but I have called the Gods
+to witness how unwillingly I have raised the spear against my dearest
+parents. But the dissolution of these ills extends to thee, my mother, that
+having reconciled the friendly brothers, you may free from toil me and
+thyself, and the whole city. It is a proverb long ago chanted, but
+nevertheless I will repeat it; wealth is honored most of all things by men,
+and has the greatest influence of any thing among men. In pursuit of which
+I am come, leading hither ten thousand spears: for a nobly-born man in
+poverty is nothing.
+
+CHOR. And see Eteocles here comes to this mediation; thy business it is, O
+Jocasta, being their mother, to speak words, with which thou shalt
+reconcile thy children.
+
+ETEOCLES, POLYNICES, JOCASTA, CHORUS.
+
+ETEO. Mother, I am present; giving this grace to thee, I have come; what
+must I do? Let some one begin the conference. Since arranging also around
+the walls the chariots of the bands, I restrained the city, that I may hear
+from thee the common terms[24] of reconciliation, for which thou hast
+permitted this man to come within the walls under sanction of a truce,
+having persuaded me.
+
+JOC. Stay; precipitate haste has not justice; but slow counsels perform
+most deeds in wisdom. But repress that fierce eye and those blasts of rage;
+for thou art not looking on the Gorgon's head cut off at the neck, but thou
+art looking on thy brother who is come to thee. And do thou again,
+Polynices, turn thy face toward thy brother; for looking at the same point
+with thine eyes, thou wilt both speak better, and receive his words better.
+But I wish to give you a wise piece of advice. When a friend is enraged
+with a man his friend, having met him face to face, let him fix his eyes on
+his friend's eyes, this only ought he to consider, the end for which he is
+come, but to have no recollection of former grievances. Thy words then
+first, my son, Polynices; for thou art come leading an army of Argives,
+having suffered injustice, as thou sayest; and may some God be umpire and
+the reconciler of your strife.
+
+POL. The speech of truth is simple, and those things which are just need
+not wily interpretations; for they have energy themselves; but the unjust
+speech, unsound in itself, requires cunning preparations to gloze it. But I
+have previously considered for my father's house, and my own advantage and
+that of this man; desiring to escape the curses, which Oedipus denounced
+formerly against us, I myself of my own accord departed from this land,
+having given him to rule over his own country for the space of a year, so
+that I myself should have the government again, having received it in turn,
+and not having come into enmity and bloodshed with this man to perform some
+evil deed, and to suffer what is now taking place. But he having assented
+to this, and having brought the Gods to witness his oaths, has performed
+nothing of what he promised, but himself holds the regal power and my share
+of the palace. And now I am ready, having received my own right, to send
+the army away from out of this land, and to regulate my house, having
+received it in my turn, and to give it up again to this man for the same
+space of time, and neither to lay my country waste, nor to apply to its
+towers the means of ascent by the firmly-fixed ladders. Which, should I not
+meet with justice, will I endeavor to put in execution: and I call the Gods
+as witnesses of this, that acting in every thing with justice, I am without
+justice deprived of my country in the most unrighteous manner. These
+individual circumstances, mother, not having collected together intricacies
+of argument, have I declared, but both to the wise and to the illiterate
+just, as appears to me.
+
+CHOR. To me indeed, although we have not been brought up according to the
+Grecian land, nevertheless to me thou appearest to speak with judgment.
+
+ETEO. If the same thing were judged honorable alike by all, and at the same
+time wise, there would not be doubtful strife among men. But now nothing is
+similar, nothing the same among mortals, except in names; but the sense is
+not the same, for I, my mother, will speak having kept nothing back; I
+would mount to the rising of the stars, and sink beneath the earth, were I
+able to perform this, so that I might possess the greatest of the
+Goddesses, kingly power.[25] This prize then, my mother, I am not willing
+rather to give up to another, than to preserve for myself. For it implies
+cowardice in him, whoever having lost the greater share, hath received the
+less; but in addition to this I feel ashamed, that this man having come
+with arms, and laying the country waste, should obtain what he wishes; for
+to Thebes this would be a reproach, if through fear of the Mycen�an spear I
+should give up my sceptre for this man to hold. But he ought, my mother, to
+effect a reconciliation, not by arms: for speech does every thing which
+even the sword of the enemy could do. But if he is desirous of inhabiting
+this land in any other way, it is in his power; but the other point I will
+never give up willingly. When it is in my power to rule, ever to be a slave
+to him? Wherefore come fire, come sword, yoke thy steeds, fill the plains
+with chariots, since I will not give up my kingly power to this man. For if
+one must be unjust, it is most glorious to be unjust concerning empire, but
+in every thing else one should be just.
+
+CHOR. It is not right to speak well, where the deeds are not glorious; for
+this is not honorable, but galling to justice.
+
+JOC. My son, Eteocles, not every ill is added to age, but experience has it
+in its power to evince more wisdom than youth.[26] Why, my child, dost thou
+so desirously court ambition, the most baneful of the deities? do not thou;
+the Goddess is unjust. But she hath entered into many families and happy
+states and hath come forth again, to the destruction of those who have to
+do with her. Of whom thou art madly enamored. This is more noble, my son,
+to honor equality, which ever links friends with friends, and states with
+states, and allies with allies: for equality is sanctioned by law among
+men. But the lesser share is ever at enmity with the greater, and straight
+begins the day of hatred. For equality arranged also among mortals
+measures, and the divisions of weights, and defined numbers. And the dark
+eye of night, and the light of the sun, equally walk their annual round,
+and neither of them being overcome hath envy of the other. Thus the sun and
+the night are subservient to men, but wilt not thou brook having an equal
+share of government, and give his share to him? Then where is justice? Why
+dost thou honor so unboundedly that prosperous injustice, royalty, and
+think so highly of her? Is the being conspicuous honorable? At least, it is
+empty honor. Or dost thou desire to labor much, possessing much in thy
+house? but what is superfluity? It possesses but a name; since a
+sufficiency indeed to the temperate is abundance. Neither do men enjoy
+riches as their own, but having the property of the Gods do we cherish
+them. And when they list, again do they take them away. Come, if I ask
+thee, having proposed together two measures, whether it is thy wish to
+reign, or save the city? Wilt thou say, to reign? But should he conquer
+thee, and the Argive spears overcome the Cadm�anforces, thou wilt behold
+this city of the Thebans vanquished, thou wilt behold many captive maidens
+with violence ravished by men your foes. Bitter then to Thebes will be the
+power which thou seekest to hold; but yet thou art ambitious of it. To thee
+I say this: but to thee, Polynices, say I, that Adrastus hath conferred an
+unwise favor on thee; and foolishly hast thou also come to destroy this
+city. Come, if thou wilt subdue this land (may which never happen), by the
+Gods, how wilt thou erect trophies of thy spear? And how again wilt thou
+sacrifice the first-fruits, having conquered thy country? and how wilt thou
+engrave upon the spoils by the waters of Inachus, "Having laid Thebes in
+ashes, Polynices consecrated these shields to the Gods?" Never, my son, may
+it come to thee to receive such glory from the Greeks. But again, shouldest
+thou be conquered, and should the arms of the other prevail, how wilt thou
+return to Argos having left behind ten thousand dead? Surely some one will
+say, O! unfortunate marriage alliance! O Adrastus, who placed them on us,
+through the nuptials of one bride we are lost! Thou art hastening two ills,
+my son, to be deprived of those, and to fail in this. Give up your too
+great ardor, give it up; the follies of two when they clash together in the
+same point, are the most hateful ill.
+
+CHOR. O ye Gods, may ye be averters of these ills, and grant to the
+children of Oedipus some means of agreement.
+
+ETEO. My mother, this is not a contest of words, but intervening time is
+fruitlessly wasted; and thy earnestness avails nothing; for we shall not
+agree in any other way, than on the terms proposed, that I holding the
+sceptre be monarch of this land. Forbearing then tedious admonitions, let
+me have my way; and do thou begone from out these walls, or thou shalt die.
+
+POL. By whose hand? Who is there so invulnerable, who having pointed the
+murderous sword against me, shall not bear the same fate?
+
+ETEO. He is near, not far removed from thee: dost thou look on these my
+hands?
+
+POL. I see them. But wealth is cowardly, and feeble, loving life.
+
+ETEO. And therefore hast thou come, with such a host against one who is
+nothing in arms?
+
+POL. For a cautious general is better than one daring.
+
+ETEO. Thou art insolent, having trusted in the truce, which preserves you
+from death.
+
+POL. A second time again I demand of you the sceptre and my share of the
+land.
+
+ETEO. I will admit no demand, for I will regulate my own family.
+
+POL. Holding more than your share?
+
+ETEO. I own it; but quit this land.
+
+POL. O ye altars of my paternal Gods.
+
+ETEO. Which thou art come to destroy?
+
+POL. Do ye hear me?
+
+ETEO. Who will hear thee, who art marching against thy country?
+
+POL. And ye shrines of the Gods[27] delighting in the milk-white steeds;
+
+ETEO. Who hate thee.
+
+POL. I am driven out of my own country.
+
+ETEO. For thou hast come to destroy it.
+
+POL. With injustice indeed, O ye Gods!
+
+ETEO. At Mycen� call upon the Gods, not here.
+
+POL. Thou art impious.
+
+ETEO. But not my country's enemy, as thou art.
+
+POL. Who drives me out without my share.
+
+ETEO. And I will put thee to death in addition.
+
+POL. My father, hearest thou what I suffer?
+
+ETEO. For he hears what wrongs thou doest.
+
+POL. And thou, my mother?
+
+ETEO. It is not lawful for thee to mention thy mother.
+
+POL. O my city!
+
+ETEO. To Argos go, and call on Lerna's stream.
+
+POL. I will go, do not distress thyself; but thee, my mother, I mention
+with honor.
+
+ETEO. Depart from out of the country.
+
+POL. I will go out; but grant me to see my father.
+
+ETEO. You will not obtain your request.
+
+POL. But my virgin sisters then.
+
+ETEO. Never shalt thou behold these.
+
+POL. O my sisters!
+
+ETEO. Why callest thou on these--being their greatest enemy?
+
+POL. My mother, but thou farewell.
+
+JOC. Do I experience any thing that is well, my son?
+
+POL. I am no longer thy child.
+
+JOC. To many troubles was I born.
+
+POL. For he throws insults on us.
+
+ETEO. For I am insulted in turn.
+
+POL. Where wilt thou stand before the towers?
+
+ETEO. Why dost thou ask me this question?
+
+POL. I will oppose myself to thee, to slay thee.
+
+ETEO. Desire of this seizes me also.
+
+JOC. Wretched me! what will ye do, my children?
+
+POL. The deed itself will show.
+
+JOC. Will ye not escape your father's curses?
+
+ETEO. Let the whole house perish!
+
+POL. Since soon my blood-stained sword will not remain any longer in
+inactivity. But I call to witness the land that nurtured me, and the Gods,
+how dishonored I am driven from this land, suffering such foul treatment,
+as a slave and not born of the same father Oedipus. And if any thing
+befalls thee, my city, blame not me, but him; for against my will have I
+come, and against my will am I driven from this land. And thou, king
+Apollo, God of our streets, and ye shrines, farewell, and ye my equals, and
+ye altars of the Gods receiving the victims; for I know not if it is
+allowed me ever again to address you. But hope does not yet slumber, in
+which I have trusted with the favor of the Gods, that having slain this
+man, I shall be master of this Theban land.
+
+ETEO. Depart from out of the country; with truth indeed did your father
+give you the name of Polynices by some divine foreknowledge, a name
+corresponding with strife.
+
+CHORUS.
+
+Cadmus came from Tyre to this land, before whom the quadrupede heifer bent
+with willing fall,[28] showing the accomplishment of the oracle, where the
+divine word ordered him to colonize the plains of the Aonians productive of
+wheat, where indeed the fair-flowing stream of the water of Dirce passes
+over the verdant and deep-furrowed fields, where the * * * * mother
+produced Bacchus, by her marriage with Jove, whom the wreathed ivy twining
+around him instantly, while yet a babe, blest and covered with its verdant
+shady branches, an event to be celebrated with Bacchic revel by the Theban
+virgins and inspired women. There was the bloodstained dragon of Mars, the
+savage guard, watching with far-rolling eyeballs over the flowing fountains
+and grassy streams; whom Cadmus, having come for water for purification,
+slew with a fragment of rock, the destroyer of the monster having thrown
+his arms with blows on his blood-stained head, by the counsel of the divine
+Pallas born without mother, having thrown the teeth fallen to the earth
+upon the deep-furrowed plains. Whence the earth sent forth a spectacle, an
+armed [host] above the extreme limits of the ground; but iron-hearted
+slaughter again united them with their beloved earth; and sprinkled with
+blood the ground which showed them to the serene gales of the air. And
+thee, sprung of old from our ancestor Io, Epaphus, O progeny of Jove, on
+thee have I called, have I called in a foreign tongue, with prayers in
+foreign accent, come, come to this land (thy descendants have founded it),
+where the two Goddesses Proserpine and the dear Goddess Ceres, queen of all
+(since earth nurtures all things), have held their possessions, send the
+fire-bearing Goddesses to defend this land: since every thing is easy to
+the Gods.
+
+ETEOCLES, CHORUS, MESSENGER.
+
+ETEO. Go thou, and bring hither Creon son of Menoeceus, the brother of my
+mother Jocasta, saying this, that I wish to communicate with him counsels
+of a private nature and those which concern the common welfare of the
+country, before we go into battle and the ranks of war. And see, he spares
+the trouble of your steps, by his presence; for I see him coming toward my
+palace.
+
+CREON, ETEOCLES, CHORUS.
+
+CRE. Surely have I visited many places, desiring to see you, O king
+Eteocles! and I have gone round to the gates and the guards of the Thebans,
+seeking you.
+
+ETEO. And indeed I have wished to see you, Creon, for I found attempts at
+reconciliation altogether fail when I came and entered into conference with
+Polynices.
+
+CRE. I have heard that he aspires to higher thoughts than Thebes, having
+trusted in his alliance with Adrastus and his army. But it becomes us to
+hold these things in dependence on the Gods. But what is most immediately
+before us, this am I come to acquaint you with.
+
+ETEO. What is this? for I understand not your speech.
+
+CRE. A prisoner is arrived from the Argives.
+
+ETEO. Does he bring us any news of those stationed there?
+
+CRE. The Argive army is preparing quickly to surround the city of the
+Thebans with thickly-ranged arms.(Note [B].)
+
+ETEO. Therefore must we draw our forces out of the Theban city.
+
+CRE. Whither? Dost thou not in the impetuosity of youth see what it
+behooves thee to see?
+
+ETEO. Without these trenches, as we are quickly about to fight.
+
+CRE. Small are the forces of this land; but theirs innumerable.
+
+ETEO. I know that they are bold in words.
+
+CRE. Argos of the Greeks has some renown.
+
+ETEO. Be confident; quickly will I fill the plain with their slaughter.
+
+CRE. I would it were so: but this I see is a work of much labor.
+
+ETEO. Know that I will not restrain my forces within the walls.
+
+CRE. And yet the whole of victory is prudence.
+
+ETEO. Dost thou wish then that I have recourse to other measures?
+
+CRE. To every measure indeed, rather than hazard all on one battle.
+
+ETEO. What if we were to attack them by night from ambush?
+
+CRE. If, having failed, at least you can have a safe retreat hither.
+
+ETEO. Night brings the same advantage to all, but more to the daring.
+
+CRE. Dreadful is it to fail in the darkness of night.
+
+ETEO. But shall I lead my force against them while at their meal?
+
+CRE. That would cause terror; but we must conquer.
+
+ETEO. The ford of Dirce is indeed deep to pass.
+
+CRE. Every thing is inferior to a good guard.
+
+ETEO. What then, shall I charge the Argive army with my cavalry?
+
+CRE. And there the army is fenced round with chariots.
+
+ETEO. What then shall I do? give up the city to the enemy?
+
+CRE. By no means; but deliberate if thou art wise.
+
+ETEO. What more prudent forethought is there?
+
+CRE. They say that they have seven men, as I have heard.
+
+ETEO. What have they been commanded to do? for their strength is small.
+
+CRE. To head their bands, to besiege the seven gates.
+
+ETEO. What then shall we do? I will not wait this indecision.
+
+CRE. Do thou thyself also choose seven men for the gates.
+
+ETEO. To head divisions, or for single combat?
+
+CRE. To head divisions, having selected the bravest.
+
+ETEO. I understand you; to guard the approach to the walls.
+
+CRE. And with them other generals; one man sees not every thing?
+
+ETEO. Having chosen them for boldness, or prudence in judgment?
+
+CRE. For both; for one without the other availeth nothing.
+
+ETEO. It shall be so: and having gone to the city of the seven towers, I
+will appoint chiefs at the gates, as you advise, having opposed equal
+champions against equal foes. But to mention the name of each would be a
+great delay, the enemy encamped under our very walls. But I will go, that I
+may not be idle with my hand. And may it befall me to find my brother
+opposed to me, and being joined with me in battle, to take him with my
+spear, [and to slay him, who came to desolate my country.] But it is thy
+duty to attend to the marriage of my sister Antigone and thy son H�mon, if
+I fail aught of success; but the firm vow made before I now confirm at my
+going out. Thou art my mother's brother, why need I use more words? Treat
+her worthily, both for thine own and my sake. But my father incurs the
+punishment of the rashness he brought upon himself, having quenched his
+sight; I praise him not; even us will he put to death with his execrations,
+should he gain his point. But one thing is left undone by us, if the
+soothsayer Tiresias have any oracle to deliver, to enquire this of him; but
+I will send thy son, Creon, Menoeceus, of the same name with thy father, to
+bring Tiresias hither. With pleasure will he enter into conversation with
+you; but I lately reviled him with his divining art, so that he is offended
+with me. But this charge I give the city with thee, Creon; if my arms
+should conquer, that the body of Polynices be never buried in this Theban
+land; but that the man who buries him shall die, although he be a friend.
+This I have told you: but my attendants I tell, bring out my arms, and my
+panoply which covers me, that we may go this appointed contest of the spear
+with victorious justice. But to Caution, the most valued of the Goddesses,
+will we address our prayers to preserve this city.
+
+CHORUS.
+
+O Mars, cause of infinite woe, why, I pray, art thou so possessed with
+blood and death, so discordant with the revels of Bacchus? Thou dost not in
+the circle of beautiful dancers in the bloom of youth, having let flow thy
+hair,[29] on the breath of the flute modulate strains, in which there is a
+lovely power to renew the dance. But with thy armed men, having excited the
+army of Argives against Thebes with blood, thou dancest before the city in
+a most inharmonious revel, thou movest not thy foot maddened by the thyrsus
+clad in fawn-skins, but thy solid-hoofed steed with thy chariot and horses'
+bits; and bounding at the streams of Ismenus, thou art borne rapidly in the
+chariot-course, having excited against the race of those sown [by Cadmus,]
+a raging host that grasp the shield, well armed, adverse to us at the walls
+of stone: surely Discord is some dreadful Goddess, who devised all these
+calamities against the princes of this land, the Labdacid� involved in woe.
+O thou forest of heavenly foliage, most productive of beasts, thou snowy
+eye of Diana, Cith�ron, never oughtest thou to have nourished him doomed to
+death, the son of Jocasta, Oedipus, the babe who was cast out from his
+home, marked by the golden clasps. Neither ought that winged virgin the
+Sphinx, thou mountain monster, that grief to this land, to have come, with
+her most inharmonious lays; who formerly approaching our walls, bore in her
+four talons the descendants of Cadmus to the inaccessible light of heaven,
+whom the infernal Pluto sends against the Thebans; but other ill-fated
+discord among the children of Oedipus springs up in the palace and in the
+city. For that which is not honorable, never can be honorable, as neither
+can children the unhallowed offspring of the mother, the pollution of the
+father. But she came to a kindred bed. Thou didst produce, O [Theban] land!
+thou didst produce formerly (as I heard the foreign report,[30] I heard it
+formerly at home), the race sprung from teeth from the fiery-crested dragon
+fed on beasts, the proudest honor of Thebes. But to the nuptials of
+Harmonia the Gods came of old, and by the harp and by the lyre of Amphion
+uprose the walls of Thebes the tower of the double streams,[31] at the
+midst of the pass of Dirce, which waters the verdant plain before Ismenus.
+And Io, our ancient mother, doomed to bear horns, brought forth a line of
+Theban kings. But this city receiving ten thousand goods one in change for
+another, hath stood in the highest chaplets of war.
+
+TIRESIAS (_led by his daughter_), MENOECEUS, CREON, CHORUS.
+
+TIR. Lead onward, my daughter, since thou art an eye to my blind steps, as
+the star to the mariners. Placing my steps hither on this level plain,
+proceed lest we stumble; thy father is feeble; and preserve carefully in
+thy virgin hand my calculations which I took, having learned the auguries
+of the birds, sitting in the sacred seats where I fortell the future. My
+child, Menoeceus, son of Creon, tell me, how far is the remainder of the
+journey through the city to thy father? Since my knees are weary, and with
+difficulty I accomplish such a long journey.
+
+CRE. Be of good cheer; for thou hast steered thy foot, Tiresias, near to
+thy friends; but take hold of him, my son. Since every chariot,[32] and the
+foot of the aged man is used to expect the assistance of another's hand.
+
+TIR. Well: I am present; but why didst thou call me with such haste, Creon?
+
+CRE. We have not as yet forgotten: but recover thy strength, and collect
+thy breath, having thrown aside the fatigue occasioned by the journey.
+
+TIR. I am relaxed indeed[32a] with toil, brought hither from the Athenians
+the day before this. For there also was a contest of the spear with
+Eumolpus, where I made the descendants of Cecrops splendid conquerors. And
+I wear this golden chaplet, as thou seest, having received the first-fruits
+of the spoil of the enemy.
+
+CRE. Thy victorious garlands I make a happy omen. For we, as thou well
+knowest, are tossing in a storm of war with the Greeks, and great is the
+hazard of Thebes. The king Eteocles has therefore gone forth adorned with
+his armor already to battle with the Argives. But to me has he sent that I
+might learn from you, by doing what we should be most likely to preserve
+the city.
+
+TRE. For Eteocles' sake indeed I would have stopped my mouth, and repressed
+the oracles, but to thee, since thou desirest to know them, will I declare
+them: for this land labors under the malady of old, O Creon, from the time
+when La�us became the father of children in spite of the Gods, and begat
+the wretched Oedipus, a husband for his mother. But the cruel lacerations
+of his eyes were in the wisdom of the Gods, and a warning to Greece. Which
+things the sons of Oedipus seeking to conceal among themselves by the lapse
+of time, as about forsooth to escape from the Gods, erred through their
+ignorance, for they neither giving the honor due to their father, nor
+allowing him a free liberty, infuriated the unfortunate man: and he
+breathed out against them dreadful threats, being both in affliction, and
+moreover dishonored. And I, what things omitting to do, and what words
+omitting to speak on the subject, have nevertheless fallen into the hatred
+of the sons of Oedipus? But death from their mutual hands is near them, O
+Creon. And many corses fallen around corses, having mingled the weapons of
+Argos and Thebes, shall cause bitter lamentations to the Theban land. And
+thou, O wretched city, art sapped from thy foundations, unless men will
+obey my words. For this were the first thing, that not any of the family of
+Oedipus should be citizens, nor king of the territory, inasmuch as they are
+possessed by demons, and are they that will overthrow the city. And since
+the evil triumphs over the good, there is one other thing requisite to
+insure preservation. But, as this is neither safe for me to say, and
+distressing to those on whom the lot has fallen, to give to the city the
+balm of preservation, I will depart: farewell; for being an individual with
+many shall I suffer what is about to happen if it must be so; for what can
+I do![33]
+
+CRE. Stay here, old man.
+
+TIR. Lay not hold upon me.
+
+CRE. Remain; why dost thou fly me?
+
+TIR. Thy fortune flies thee, but not I.
+
+CRE. Tell me the means of preserving the citizens and their city.
+
+TRE. Thou wishest now indeed, and soon thou wilt not wish.
+
+CRE. And how am I not willing to preserve my country?
+
+TIR. Art thou willing then to hear, and art thou eager?
+
+CRE. For toward what ought I to have a greater eagerness?
+
+TIR. Hear now then my prophecies.--But this first I wish to ascertain
+clearly, where is Menoeceus who brought me hither.
+
+CRE. He is not far off, but close to thee.
+
+TIR. Let him depart then afar from my oracles.
+
+CRE. He that is my son will keep secret what ought to be kept secret.
+
+TIR. Art thou willing then that I speak in his presence?
+
+CRE. _Yes_: for he would be delighted to hear of the means of preservation.
+
+TIR. Hear now then the tenor of my oracles; what things doing ye may
+preserve the city of the Cadmeans. It is necessary for thee to sacrifice
+this thy son Menoeceus for the country, since thou thyself callest for this
+fortune.
+
+CRE. What sayest thou, what word is this thou hast spoken, old man?
+
+TIR. As circumstances are, thus also oughtest thou to act.
+
+CRE. O thou, that hast said many evils in a short time!
+
+TIR. To thee at least; but to thy country great and salutary.
+
+CRE. I heard not, I attended not; let the city go where it will.
+
+TIR. This is no longer the same man; he retracts again what he said.
+
+CRE. Farewell! depart; for I have no need of thy prophecies.
+
+TIR. Has truth perished, because thou art unfortunate?
+
+CRE. By thy knees I implore thee, and by thy reverend locks.
+
+TIR. Why kneel to me? the evils thou askest are hard to be controlled.
+(Note [E].)
+
+CRE. Keep it secret; and speak not these words to the city.
+
+TIR. Dost thou command me to be unjust? I can not be silent.
+
+CRE. What then wilt thou do to me? Wilt thou slay my son?
+
+TIR. These things will be a care to others; but by me will it be spoken.
+
+CRE. But from whence has this evil come to me, and to my child?
+
+TIR. Well dost thou ask me, and comest to the drift of my discourse. It is
+necessary that he, stabbed in that cave where the earth-born dragon lay,
+the guardian of Dirce's fountain, give his gory blood a libation to the
+earth on account of the ancient wrath of Mars against Cadmus, who avenges
+the slaughter of the earth-born dragon; and these things done, ye shall
+obtain Mars as your ally. But if the earth receive fruit in return for
+fruit, and mortal blood in return for blood, ye shall have that land
+propitious, which formerly sent forth a crop of men from seed armed with
+golden helmets; but there must of this race die one, who is the son of the
+dragon's jaw. But thou art left among us of the race of those sown men,
+pure in thy descent, both by thy mother's side and in the male line; and
+thy children too: H�mon's marriage however precludes his being slain, for
+he is not a youth, [for, although he has not approached her bed, he has yet
+contracted the marriage.] But this youth, devoted to this city, by dying
+may preserve his native country. And he will cause a bitter return to
+Adrastus and the Argives, casting back death over their eyes, and Thebes
+will he make illustrious: of these two fates choose the one; either
+preserve thy child or the state. Every information from me thou hast:--lead
+me, my child, toward home;--but whoever exercises the art of divination, is
+a fool; if indeed he chance to show disagreeable things, he is rendered
+hateful to those to whom he may prophesy; but speaking falsely to his
+employers from motives of pity, he is unjust as touching the Gods.--Phoebus
+alone should speak in oracles to men, who fears nobody.
+
+CREON, MENOECEUS, CHORUS.
+
+CHOR. Creon, why art thou mute compressing thy voice in silence, for to me
+also there is no less consternation.
+
+CRE. But what can one say?--It is clear however what my answer will be. For
+never will I go to this degree of calamity, to expose my son a victim for
+the state. For all men live with an affection toward their children, nor
+would any give up his own child to die. Let no one praise me for the deed,
+and slay my children. But I myself, for I am arrived at a mature period of
+life, am ready to die to liberate my country. But haste, my son, before the
+whole city hears it, disregarding the intemperate oracles of prophets, fly
+as quickly as possible, having quitted this land. For he will tell these
+things to the authorities and chiefs, going to the seven gates, and to the
+officers: and if indeed we get before him, there is safety for thee, but if
+thou art too late, we are undone, thou diest.
+
+MEN. Whither then fly? To what city? what friends?
+
+CRE. Wheresoever thou wilt be farthest removed from this country.
+
+MEN. Therefore it is fitting for thee to speak, and for me to do.
+
+CRE. Having passed through Delphi--
+
+MEN. Whither is it right for me to go, my father?
+
+CRE. To the land of �tolia.
+
+MEN. And from this whither shall I proceed?
+
+CRE. To Thesprotia's soil.
+
+MEN. To the sacred seat of Dodona?
+
+CRE. Thou understandest.
+
+MEN. What then will there be to protect me?
+
+CRE. The conducting deity.
+
+MEN. But what means of procuring money?
+
+CRE. I will supply gold.
+
+MEN. Thou sayest well, my father. Go then, for having proceeded to
+salute[34] thy sister, whose breast I first sucked, Jocasta I mean,
+deprived of my mother, and reft from her, an orphan, I will depart and save
+my life. But haste, go, let not thy purpose be hindered.
+
+MENOECEUS, CHORUS.
+
+MEN. Ye females, how well removed I my father's fears, having deceived him
+with words, in order to gain my wishes; who sends me out of the way,
+depriving the city of its good fortune, and gives me up to cowardice. And
+these things are pardonable indeed in an old man, but in my case it
+deserves no pardon to become the deserter of that country which gave me
+birth. That ye may know then, I will go, and preserve the city, and will
+give up my life for this land. For it is a disgraceful thing, that those
+indeed who are free from the oracle, and are not concerned with any
+compulsion of the Gods, standing at their shields in battle, shall not be
+slow to die fighting before the towers for their country; and I, having
+betrayed my father, and my brother, and my own city, shall depart
+coward-like from out of the land; but wherever I live, I shall appear vile.
+No: by that Jove that dwelleth amidst the constellations, and sanguinary
+Mars, who set up those sown men, who erst sprung from the earth, to be
+kings of this country. But I will depart, and standing on the summit of the
+battlements, stabbing myself over the dark deep lair of the dragon, where
+the prophet appointed, will give liberty to the country--the word has been
+spoken. But I go, by my death about to give no mean gift to the state, and
+will rid this land of its affliction. For if every one, seizing what
+opportunity he had in his power of doing good, would persist in it, and
+bring it forward for his country's weal, states, experiencing fewer
+calamities, henceforward might be prosperous.
+
+CHOR. Thou camest forth, thou camest forth, O winged monster, production of
+the earth, and the viper of hell, the ravager of the Cadmeans, big with
+destruction, big with woes, in form half-virgin, a hostile prodigy, with
+thy ravening wings, and thy talons that preyed on raw flesh, who erst from
+Dirce's spot bearing aloft the youths, accompanied by an inharmonious lay,
+thou broughtest, thou broughtest cruel woes to our country; cruel was he of
+the Gods, whoever was the author of these things. And the moans of the
+matrons, and the moans of the virgins, resounded in the house, in a voice,
+in a strain of misery, they lamented some one thing, some another, in
+succession through the city. And the groaning and the noise was like to
+thunder, when the winged virgin bore out of sight any man from the city.
+But at length came by the mission of the Pythian oracle Oedipus the unhappy
+to this land of Thebes, to us then indeed delighted, but again came woes.
+For he, wretched man, having gained the glorious victory over the enigmas,
+contracts a marriage, an unfortunate marriage with his mother, and pollutes
+the city. And fresh woes does the unfortunate man cause to succeed with
+slaughter, devoting by curses his sons to the unhallowed contest.--With
+admiration, with admiration we look on him, who is gone to kill himself for
+the sake of his country's land; to Creon indeed having left lamentations,
+but about to make the seven-towered gates of the land greatly victorious.
+Thus may we be mothers, thus may we be blest in our children, O dear
+Pallas, who destroyedst the blood of the dragon by the hurled stone,
+driving the attention of Cadmus to the action, whence with rapine some
+fiend of the Gods rushed on this land.
+
+MESSENGER, JOCASTA, CHORUS.
+
+MESS. Ho there! who is at the gate of the palace? Open, conduct Jocasta
+from out of the house.--What ho! again--after a long time indeed, but yet
+come forth, hear, O renowned wife of Oedipus, ceasing from thy
+lamentations, and thy tears of grief.
+
+JOC. O most dear man, surely thou comest bearing the news of some calamity,
+of the death of Eteocles, by whose shield thou always didst go, warding off
+the weapons of the enemy. What new message, I pray, dost thou come to
+deliver? Is my son dead or alive? Tell me.
+
+MESS. He lives, be not alarmed for this, for I will rid thee of this fear.
+
+JOC. But what? In what state are our seven-towered ramparts?
+
+MESS. They stand unshaken, nor is the city destroyed.
+
+JOC. Come they in danger from the spear of Argos?
+
+MESS. To the very extreme of danger; but the arms of Thebes came off
+superior to the Mycen�an spear.
+
+JOC. Tell me one thing, by the Gods, whether thou knowest any thing of
+Polynices (since this is a concern to me also) whether he sees the light.
+
+MESS. Thus far in the day thy pair of children lives.
+
+JOC. Be thou blest. But how did ye stationed on the towers drive off the
+spear of Argos from the gates? Tell me, that I may go and delight the old
+blind man in the house with the news of his country's being preserved.
+
+MESS. After that the son of Creon, he that died for the land, standing on
+the summit of the towers, plunged the black-handled sword into his throat,
+the salvation of this land, thy son placed seven cohorts, and their leaders
+with them, at the seven gates, guards against the Argive spear; and he drew
+up the horse ready to support the horse, and the heavy-armed men to
+reinforce the shield-bearers, so that to the part of the wall which was in
+danger there might be succor at hand. But from the lofty citadel we view
+the army of the Argives with their white shields, having quitted Tumessus
+and now come near the trench, at full speed they reached the city of the
+land of Cadmus. And the p�an and the trumpets at the same time from them
+resounded, and off the walls from us. And first indeed Parthenop�us the son
+of the huntress (_Atalanta_) led his division horrent with their thick
+shields against the Ne�tan[35] gate, having a family device in the middle
+of his shield, Atalanta destroying the �tolian boar with her
+distant-wounding bow. And against the Pr�tan gate marched the prophet
+Amphiara�s, having victims in his car, not bearing an insolent emblem, but
+modestly having his arms without a device. But against the Ogygian gate
+stood Prince Hippomedon, bearing an emblem in the middle of his shield, the
+Argus gazing with his spangled[36] eyes, [some eyes indeed with the rising
+of the stars awake,[37] and some with the setting closed, as we had the
+opportunity of seeing afterward when he was dead.] But Tydeus was drawn up
+at the Homolo�an gate, having on his shield a lion's skin rough with his
+mane, but in his right hand he bore a torch, as the Titan Prometheus,[38]
+intent on firing the city. But thy son Polynices drew up his array at the
+Crenean gate; but the swift Potnian mares, the emblem on his shield, were
+starting through fright, well circularly[39] grouped within _the orb_ at
+the handle of the shield, so that they seemed infuriated. But Capaneus, not
+holding less notions than Mars on the approaching battle, drew up his
+division against the Electran gate. Upon the iron embossments of his shield
+was an earth-born giant bearing upon his shoulders a whole city, which he
+had torn up from the foundations with bars, an intimation to us what our
+city should suffer. But at the seventh gate was Adrastus, having his shield
+filled with a hundred vipers, bearing on his left arm a representation of
+the hydra, the boast of Argos, and from the midst of the walls the dragons
+were bearing the children of the Thebans in their jaws. But I had the
+opportunity of seeing each of these, as I took the word of battle to the
+leaders of the divisions. And first indeed we fought with bows, and
+javelins, and distant-wounding slings, and fragments of rocks; but when we
+were conquering in the fight, Tydeus shouted out, and thy son on a sudden,
+"O sons of the Dana�, why delay we, ere we are galled with their missile
+weapons, to make a rush at the gates all in a body, light-armed men,
+horsemen, and those who drive the chariots?" And when they heard the cry,
+no one was backward; but many fell, their heads besmeared with blood; of us
+also you might have seen before the walls frequent divers toppling to the
+ground; and they moistened the parched earth with streams of blood. But the
+Arcadian, no Argive, the son of Atalanta, as some whirlwind falling on the
+gates, calls out for fire and a spade, as though he would dig up the city.
+But Periclymenus the son of the God of the Ocean stopped him in his raging,
+hurling at his head a stone, a wagon-load, a pinnacle[40] _rent_ from the
+battlement; and dashed in pieces his head with its auburn hair, and crushed
+the suture of the bones, and besmeared with blood his lately blooming
+cheeks; nor shall he carry back his living form to his mother, glorious in
+her bow, the daughter of M�nalus. But when thy son saw this gate was in a
+state of safety, he went to another, and I followed. But I see Tydeus, and
+many armed with shields around him, darting with their �tolian lances at
+the highest battlements of the towers, so that our men put to flight
+quitted the heights of the ramparts; but thy son, as a hunter, collects
+them together again; and posted them a second time on the towers; and we
+hasten on to another gate, having relieved the distress in this quarter.
+But Capaneus, how can I express the measure of his rage! For he came
+bearing the ranges of a long-reaching ladder, and made this high boast,
+"That not even the hallowed fire of Jove should hinder him from taking the
+city from its highest turrets." And these things soon as he had proclaimed,
+though assailed with stones, he clambered up, having contracted his body
+under his shield, climbing the slippery footing of the bars[41] of the
+ladder: but when he was now mounting the battlements of the walls Jupiter
+strikes him with his thunder; and the earth resounded, insomuch that all
+trembled; and his limbs were hurled, as it were by a sling, from the ladder
+separately from one another, his hair to heaven, and his blood to the
+ground, and his limbs, like the whirling of Ixion on his wheel, were
+carried round; and his scorched body falls to the earth. But when Adrastus
+saw that Jove was hostile to his army, he stationed the host of the Argives
+without the trench. But ours on the contrary, when they saw the auspicious
+sign from Jove, drove out their chariots, horsemen and heavy-armed, and
+rushing into the midst of the Argive arms engaged in fight: and there were
+all the sorts of misery together: they died, they fell from their chariots,
+and the wheels leaped up and axles upon axles: and corses were heaped
+together with corses.--We have preserved then our towers from being
+overthrown to this present day; but whether for the future this land will
+be prosperous, rests with the Gods.
+
+CHOR. To conquer is glorious; but if the Gods have the better intent, may I
+be fortunate!
+
+JOC. Well are the ways of the Gods, and of fortune; for my children live,
+and my country has escaped; but the unhappy Creon seems to feel the effects
+of my marriage, and of Oedipus's misfortunes, being deprived of his child;
+for the state indeed, happily, but individually, to his misery: but recount
+to me again, what after this did my two sons purpose to do?
+
+MESS. Forbear the rest; for in every circumstance hitherto thou art
+fortunate.
+
+JOC. This hast thou said so as to raise suspicion; I must not forbear.
+
+MESS. Dost thou want any thing more than that thy sons are safe?
+
+JOC. In what follows also I would hear if I am fortunate.
+
+MESS. Let me go: thy son is deprived of his armor-bearer.
+
+JOC. Thou concealest some ill and coverest it in obscurity.
+
+MESS. I can not speak thy ills after thy happiness.
+
+JOC. _But thou shalt_, unless fleeing from me thou fleest through the air.
+
+MESS. Alas! alas! Why dost thou not suffer me to depart after a message of
+glad tidings, but forcest me to tell calamities?--Thy sons are intent on
+most shameful deeds of boldness--to engage in single combat apart from the
+whole army, having addressed to the Argives and Thebans in common a speech,
+such as they never ought to have spoken. But Eteocles began, standing on
+the lofty turret, having commanded to proclaim silence to the army. And he
+said, "O generals of the Grecian land, and chieftains of the Dana�, who
+have come hither, and O people of Cadmus, neither for the sake of Polynices
+barter your lives, nor for my cause. For I myself, taking this danger on
+myself, alone will enter the lists with my brother; and if indeed I slay
+him, I will dwell in the palace alone; but should I be subdued, I will give
+it up to him alone. But you, ceasing from the combat, O Argives, shall
+return to your land, not leaving your lives here; [of the Theban people
+also there is enough that lieth dead,"] Thus much he spake; but thy son
+Polynices rushed from the ranks, and approved his words. But all the
+Argives murmured their applause, and the people of Cadmus, as thinking this
+plan just. And after this the generals made a truce, and in the space
+between the two armies pledged an oath to abide by it. And now the two sons
+of the aged Oedipus clad their bodies in an entire suit of brazen armor.
+And their friends adorned them, the champion of this land indeed the
+chieftains of the Thebans; and him the principal men of the Dana�. And they
+stood resplendent, and they changed not their color, raging to let forth
+their spears at each other. But their friends on either side as they passed
+by encouraging them with words, thus spoke. "Polynices, it rests with thee
+to erect the statue of Jove, emblem of victory, and to confer a glorious
+fame on Argos." But to Eteocles on the other hand; "Now thou fightest for
+the state, now if thou come off victorious, thou art in possession of the
+sceptre." These things they said exhorting them to the combat. But the
+seers sacrificed the sheep, and scrutinized the shooting of the flames, and
+the bursting _of the gall_, the moisture adverse[42] _to the fire_, and the
+extremity of the flame, which bears a two-fold import, both the sign of
+victory,[43] and the sign of being defeated.[44] But if thou hast any
+power, or words of wisdom, or the soothing charms of incantation, go, stay
+thy children from the fearful combat, since great the danger, [and dreadful
+will be the sequel of the contest, _namely_, tears for thee, deprived this
+day of thy two children.]
+
+JOC. O my child, Antigone, come forth from before the palace; the state of
+thy fortune suits not now the dance, nor the virgin's chamber, but it is
+thy duty, in conjunction with thy mother, to hinder two excellent men, and
+thy brothers verging toward death from falling by each other's hands.
+
+ANTIGONE, JOCASTA, CHORUS.
+
+ANT. With what new horrors, O mother of my being, dost thou call out to thy
+friends before the house?
+
+JOC. O my daughter, the life of thy brothers is gone from them.
+
+ANT. How sayest thou?
+
+JOC. They are drawn out in single combat.
+
+ANT. Alas me! what wilt thou say, my mother?
+
+JOC. Nothing of pleasant import; but follow.
+
+ANT. Whither? leaving my virgin chamber.
+
+JOC. To the army.
+
+ANT. I am ashamed to go among the crowd.
+
+JOC. Thy present state admits not bashfulness.
+
+ANT. But what shall I do then?
+
+JOC. Thou shalt quell the strife of the brothers.
+
+ANT. Doing what, my mother.
+
+JOC. Falling before them with me.
+
+ANT. Lead to the space between the armies; we must not delay.
+
+JOC. Haste, daughter, haste, since, if indeed I reach my sons before they
+engage, I still exist in heaven's fair light, but if they die, I shall lie
+dead with them.
+
+CHORUS.
+
+Alas! alas! shuddering with horror, shuddering is my breast; and through my
+flesh came pity, pity for the unhappy mother, on account of her two
+children, whether of them then will distain with blood the other (alas me
+for my sufferings, O Jove, O earth), the own brother's neck, the own
+brother's life, in arms, in slaughter? Wretched, wretched I, over which
+corse then shall I raise the lamentation for the dead? O earth, earth, the
+two beasts of prey, blood-thirsty souls, brandishing the spear, will
+quickly distain with blood the fallen, fallen enemy. Wretches, that they
+ever came to the thought of a single combat! In a foreign strain will I
+mourn with tears my elegy of groans due to the dead. Destiny is at
+hand--death is near; this day will decide the event. Ill-fated, ill-fated
+murder because of the Furies! But I see Creon here with clouded brow
+advancing toward the house, I will cease therefore from the groans I am
+uttering.
+
+CREON, CHORUS.
+
+CRE. Ah me! what shall I do? whether am I to groan in weeping myself, or
+the city, which a cloud of such magnitude encircles as to cast us amidst
+the gloom of Acheron? For my son has perished having died for the city,
+having achieved a glorious name, but to me a name of sorrow. Him having
+taken just now from the dragon's den, stabbed by his own hand, I wretched
+bore in my arms; and the whole house resounds with shrieks; but I, myself
+aged, am come after my aged sister Jocasta, that she may wash and lay out
+my son now no more. For it behooves the living well to revere the God below
+by paying honors to the dead.
+
+CHOR. Thy sister is gone out of the house, O Creon, and the girl Antigone
+attending the steps of her mother.
+
+CRE. Whither? and for what hap? tell me.
+
+CHOR. She heard that her sons were about to come to a contest in single
+battle for the royal palace.
+
+CRE. How sayest thou? whilst I was fondly attending to my son's corse, I
+arrived not so far _in knowledge_, as to be acquainted with this also.
+
+CHOR. But thy sister has indeed been gone some time; but I think, O Creon,
+that the contest, in which their lives are at stake, has already been
+concluded by the sons of Oedipus.
+
+CRE. Ah me! I see indeed this signal, the downcast eye and countenance of
+the approaching messenger, who will relate every thing that has taken
+place.
+
+MESSENGER, CREON, CHORUS.
+
+MESS. O wretched me! what language or what words can I utter? we are
+undone--
+
+CRE. Thou beginnest thy speech with no promising prelude.
+
+MESS. Oh wretched me! doubly do I lament, for I hear great calamities.
+
+CRE. In addition to the calamities that have happened dost thou still speak
+of others?
+
+MESS. Thy sister's sons, O Creon, no longer behold the light.
+
+CRE. Ah! alas! thou utterest great ills to me and to the state.
+
+MESS. O mansions of Oedipus, do ye hear these things of thy children who
+have perished by similar fates?
+
+CHOR. Ay, so that, had they but sense, they would weep.
+
+CRE. O most heavy misery! Oh me wretched with woes! alas! unhappy me!
+
+MESS. If that thou knewest the evils yet in addition to these.
+
+CRE. And how can there be more fatal ills than these?
+
+MESS. Thy sister is dead with her two children.
+
+CHOR. Raise, raise the cry of woe, and smite your heads with the blows of
+your white hands.
+
+CRE. Oh unhappy Jocasta, what an end of thy life and of thy marriage hast
+thou endured in the riddles of the Sphinx![45] But how took place the
+slaughter of her two sons, and the combat arising from the curse of
+Oedipus? tell me.
+
+MESS. The success of the country before the towers indeed thou knowest; for
+the circuit of the wall is not of such vast extent, but that thou must know
+all that has taken place. But after that the sons of the aged Oedipus had
+clad their limbs in brazen armor, they came and stood in the midst of the
+plain between the two armies, ready for the contest, and the fierceness of
+the single battle. And having cast a look toward Argos, Polynices uttered
+his prayer; "O venerable Juno (for I am thine, since in marriage I joined
+myself with the daughter of Adrastus, and dwell in that land), grant me to
+slay my brother, and to cover with blood my hostile hand bearing the
+victory." And Eteocles looking at the temple of Pallas, glorious in her
+golden shield, prayed; "O Daughter of Jove, grant me with my hand to hurl
+my victorious spear from this arm home to the breast of my brother, [and
+slay him who came to lay waste my country."] And when the sound of the
+Tuscan trumpet was raised, as the torch, the signal for the fierce battle,
+they sped with dreadful rush toward each other; and like wild boars
+whetting their savage tusks, they met, their cheeks all moist with foam;
+and they rushed forward with their lances; but they couched beneath the
+orbs of their shields, in order that the steel might fall harmless. But if
+either perceived the other's eye raised above the verge, he drove the lance
+at his face, intent to be beforehand with him: but dexterously they shifted
+their eyes to the open ornaments of their shields, so that the spear was
+made of none effect. And more sweat trickled down the spectators than the
+combatants, through the fear of their friends. But Eteocles, stumbling with
+his foot against a stone, which rolled under his tread,[46] places his limb
+without the shield. But Polynices ran up with his spear, when he saw a
+stroke open to his steel, and the Argive spear passed through the shank.
+And all the host of the Dana� shouted for joy. And the hero who first was
+wounded, when he perceived his shoulder exposed in this effort, pierced the
+breast of Polynices with his lance, and gave joy to the citizens of Cadmus,
+but he broke the point of his spear. But being come to a strait for a
+spear, he retreated backward on his leg, and taking a stone of marble, he
+hurled it and crashed _his antagonist's_ spear in the middle: and the
+battle was on equal terms, both being deprived of the spear in their hands.
+Then seizing the handles of their swords they met at close quarters, and,
+as they clashed their shields together, raised a great tumult of battle
+around them. And Eteocles having a sort of idea of its success, made use of
+a Thessalian stratagem, _which he had learned_ from his connection with
+that country. For giving up his present mode of attack, he brings his left
+foot behind, protecting well the pit of his own stomach; and stepping
+forward his right leg, he plunged the sword through the navel, and drove it
+to the vertebr�. But the unhappy Polynices bending together his side and
+his bowels falls weltering in blood. But the other, as he were now the
+victor, and had subdued him in the fight, casting his sword on the ground,
+went to spoil him, not fixing his attention on himself, but on that his
+purpose. Which thing also deceived him; for Polynices, he that fell first,
+still breathing a little, preserving his sword e'en in his deathly fall,
+with difficulty indeed, but he did stretch his sword to the heart of
+Eteocles. And holding the dust in their gripe they both fall near one
+another, and determined not the victory.
+
+CHOR. Alas! alas! to what degree, O Oedipus, do I groan for thy
+misfortunes! but the God seems to have fulfilled thy imprecations.
+
+MESS. Hear now then woes even in addition to these--For when her sons
+having fallen were breathing their last, at this moment the wretched mother
+rushes before them, and when she perceived them stricken with mortal wounds
+she shrieked out, "Oh my sons, I am come too late a succor:" and throwing
+herself by the side of her children in turn, she wept, she lamented with
+moans her long anxiety in suckling them _now lost_: and their sister, who
+accompanied to stand by her in her misery, at the same time _broke forth_;
+"O supporters of my mother's age! Oh ye that have betrayed my hopes of
+marriage, my dearest brothers!"--But king Eteocles heaving from his breast
+his gasping breath, heard his mother, and putting out his cold clammy hand,
+sent not forth indeed a voice; but from his eyes spoke her in tears to
+signify affection. But Polynices, who yet breathed, looking at his sister
+and his aged mother, thus spoke: "We perish, O my mother; but I grieve for
+thee, and for this my sister, and my brother who lies dead, for being my
+friend, he became my enemy, but still my friend.--But bury me, O mother of
+my being, and thou my sister, in my native land, and pacify the exasperated
+city, that I may obtain thus much at least of my country's land, although I
+have lost the palace. And close my eyelids with thy hand, my mother" (and
+he places it himself upon his eyes), "and fare ye well! for now darkness
+surroundeth me." And both breathed out their lives together. And the
+mother, when she saw what had taken place, beyond endurance grieving,
+snatched the sword from the dead body, and perpetrated a deed of horror;
+for she drove the steel through the middle of her throat, and lies dead on
+those most dear to her, having each in her arms embraced. But the people
+rose up hastily to a strife of opinions; we indeed, as holding, that my
+master was victorious; but they, that the other was; and there was also a
+contention between the generals, those on the other side _contended_, that
+Polynices first struck with the spear, but those on ours that there was no
+victory where the combatants died. [And in the mean time Antigone withdrew
+from the army;] but they rushed to arms; but fortunately by a sort of
+foresight the people of Cadmus had sat upon their shields: and we gained
+the advantage of falling on the Argives not yet accoutred in their arms.
+And no one made a stand, but flying they covered the plain; and immense
+quantities of blood were spilt of the corses that fell, but when we were
+victorious in the fight, some indeed raised the image of Jove emblem of
+victory, but some of us stripping the shields from the Argive corses sent
+the spoils within the city. But others with Antigone are bearing hither the
+dead for their friends to lament over. But these contests have in some
+respect turned out most happy for this state, but in other respect most
+unhappy.
+
+CHOR. No longer the misfortunes of the house come to our ears, we may also
+see before the palace these three fallen corses, who have shared the dark
+realms by a united death.
+
+[_The dead bodies borne_.]
+
+ANTIGONE, CREON, CHORUS.
+
+ANT. Not veiling the softness of my cheek on which my ringlets fall, nor
+caring for the purple glow of virginity under my lids, the blush of my
+countenance, I am borne along the bacchanal of the dead, rending the fillet
+from my hair, rejecting the saffron robe of delicateness, having the
+mournful office of conducting the dead. Alas! alas! woe is me! Oh
+Polynices, thou well answeredst to thy name! Alas me! Oh Thebes! but thy
+strife, no strife, but murder consummated with murder,[47] hath destroyed
+the house of Oedipus with dreadful, with mournful blood. But what groan
+responsive to my sufferings, or what lament of music shall I invoke to my
+tears, to my tears, O house, O house, bearing these three kindred bodies,
+my mother, and her children, the joy of the fury? who destroyed the entire
+house of Oedipus, what time intelligently[48] he unfolded the difficult
+song of the fierce monster, having thereby slain the body of the fierce
+musical Sphinx. Alas me! my father; what Grecian, or what Barbarian, or
+what other of the noble in birth, of mortal blood, in time of old ever bore
+such manifest sufferings of so many ills? Wretched I, how do I lament! What
+bird, sitting on the highest boughs of the oak or pine, will sing
+responsive to my lamentations, who have lost my mother? who weep the strain
+of grief in addition to these moans _for my brothers_, about to pass my
+long life in floods of tears.--Which shall I bewail? On which first shall I
+scatter the first offerings rent from my hair? On my mother's two breasts
+of milk, or upon the death-wounds of my two brothers? Alas! alas! Leave
+thine house, bringing thy sightless eye, O aged father, Oedipus, show thy
+wretched age, who within thy palace having poured the gloomy darkness over
+thine eyes, draggest on a long[49] life. Dost thou hear wandering in the
+hall,--resting thy aged foot upon the couch in a state of misery?
+
+OEDIPUS, CREON, ANTIGONE, CHORUS.
+
+OED. Why, O virgin, hast thou with the most doleful tears called me forth
+leaning on the support of a blind foot[50] to the light, a bed-ridden man
+from his darksome chamber, gray-headed, an obscure phantom of air--a dead
+body beneath the earth--a flitting dream?
+
+ANT. O father, thou shalt receive words of unhappy tidings; no longer do
+thy children behold the light, nor thy wife, who ever was employed in
+attending as a staff on thy blind foot, my father: alas me!
+
+OED. Alas me, for my sufferings! for well may I groan and vociferate these
+things. The three souls, tell me, my child, by what fate, how quitted they
+this light?
+
+ANT. Not for the sake of reproaching thee, nor exulting over thee, but for
+grief I speak: thy evil genius, heavy with swords, and fire, and wretched
+combats, has rushed down upon thy children, O my father.
+
+OED. Alas me! ah! ah!
+
+ANT. Why dost thou thus groan?
+
+OED. Alas me! my children!
+
+ANT. Thou wouldest grieve indeed, if looking on the chariot of the sun
+drawn by its four steeds, thou couldest direct the sight of thine eyes to
+these bodies of the dead.
+
+OED. The evil of my sons indeed is manifest; but my wretched wife, by what
+fate, O my child, did she perish?
+
+ANT. Causing to all tears of grief they could not contain, to her children
+she bared her breast, a suppliant she bared it, holding it up in
+supplication. But the mother found her children at the Electran gate, in
+the mead where the lotus abounds, contending with their lances in the
+common war, as lions bred in the same cave, with the blood-wounds now a
+cold, a gory libation, which Plato received, and Mars gave. And having
+seized the brazen-wrought sword from the dead she plunged it into her
+flesh, but with grief for her children she fell amidst her children. But
+all these sufferings, O my father, has the God heaped this day upon our
+house, whoever he be, that adds this consummation.
+
+CHOR. This day hath been the beginning of many woes to the house of
+Oedipus; but may life be more fortunate!
+
+CRE. Now indeed cease from your grief, for it is time to think of the
+sepulture. But hear these words, O Oedipus; Eteocles, thy son, hath given
+to me the dominion of this land, giving them as a marriage portion to
+H�mon, and _with them_ the bed of thy daughter Antigone. I therefore will
+not suffer thee any longer to dwell in this land. For clearly did Tiresias
+say, that never, whilst thou dost inhabit this land, will the state be
+prosperous. But depart; and this I say not from insolence, nor being thine
+enemy, but on account of thy evil genius, fearing lest the country suffer
+any harm.
+
+OED. O Fate, from the beginning how wretched [and unhappy] didst thou form
+me, [if ever other man was formed!] whom, even before I came into the light
+from my mother's womb, when yet unborn Apollo foretold that I should be the
+murderer of my father La�us, alas! wretch that I am! And when I was born,
+again my father who gave me life, seeks to take my life, considering that I
+was born his enemy: for it was fated that he should die by my hands, and he
+sends me, poor wretch, as I craved the breast, a prey for the wild beasts:
+where I was preserved--for would that Cith�ron, it ought, had sunk to the
+bottomless chasms of Tartarus, for that it did not destroy me; but the God
+fixed it my lot to serve under Polybus my master: but I unhappy man, having
+slain my own father, ascended the bed of my wretched mother, and begat
+children, my brothers, whom I destroyed, having received down the curse
+from La�us, and given it to my sons. For I was not by nature so utterly
+devoid of understanding, as to have devised such things against my eyes,
+and against the life of my children, without the interference of some of
+the Gods. Well!--what then shall I ill-fated do? who will accompany me the
+guide of my dark steps? She that lies here dead! living, well know I, she
+would. But my noble pair of sons? I have no sons.--But still in my vigor
+can I myself procure my sustenance? Whence?--Why, O Creon, dost thou thus
+utterly kill me? for kill me thou wilt, if thou shalt cast me out of the
+land. Yet will I not appear base, stretching my hands around thy knees, for
+I can not belie my former nobleness, not even though my plight is
+miserable.
+
+CRE. Well has it been spoken by thee, that thou wilt not touch my knees,
+but I can not permit thee to dwell in the land. But of these corses, the
+one we must even now bear to the house; but the body of Polynices cast out
+unburied beyond the borders of this land. And these things shall be
+proclaimed to all the Thebans: "whoever shall be found either crowning the
+corse, or covering it with earth, shall receive death for his offense." But
+thou, ceasing from the groans for the three dead, retire, Antigone, within
+the house, and behave as beseems a virgin, expecting the approaching day in
+which the bed of H�mon awaits thee.
+
+ANT. Oh father, in what a state of woes do we miserable beings lie! How do
+I lament for thee! more than for the dead! For it is not that one of thy
+ills is heavy, and the other not heavy, but thou art in all things unhappy,
+my father.--But thee I ask, our new lord, [wherefore dost thou insult my
+father here, banishing him from his country?] Why make thy laws against an
+unhappy corse?
+
+CRE. The determination of Eteocles this, not mine.
+
+ANT. It is absurd, and thou a fool to enforce it.
+
+CRE. How so? Is it not just to execute injunctions?
+
+ANT. No, if they are base, at least, and spoken with ill intent.
+
+CRE. What! will he not with justice be given to the dogs?
+
+ANT. _No_, for thus do ye not demand of him lawful justice.
+
+CRE. _We do_; since he was the enemy of the state, who least ought to be an
+enemy.
+
+ANT. Hath he not paid then his life to fortune?
+
+CRE. And in his burial too let him now satisfy vengeance.
+
+ANT. What outrage having committed, if he came after his share of the
+kingdom?
+
+CRE. This man, that you may know once for all, shall be unburied.
+
+ANT. I will bury him; even though the city forbid it.
+
+CRE. Thyself then wilt thou at the same time bury near the corse.
+
+ANT. But that is a glorious thing, for two friends to lie near.
+
+CRE. Lay hold of her, and bear her to the house.
+
+ANT. By no means--for I will not let go this body.
+
+CRE. The God has decreed it, O virgin, not as thou wilt.
+
+ANT. And this too is decreed--that the dead be not insulted.
+
+CRE. Around him none shall place the moist dust.
+
+ANT. Nay, by his mother here Jocasta, I entreat thee, Creon.
+
+CRE. Thou laborest in vain, for thou canst not obtain this.
+
+ANT. But suffer thou me at any rate to bathe the body.
+
+CRE. This would be one of the things forbidden by the state.
+
+ANT. But let me put bandages round his cruel wounds.
+
+CRE. In no way shalt thou show respect to this corse.
+
+ANT. Oh most dear, but I will at least kiss thy lips.
+
+CRE. Thou shalt not prepare calamity against thy wedding by thy
+lamentations.
+
+ANT. What! while I live shall I ever marry thy son?
+
+CRE. There is strong necessity for thee, for by what means wilt thou escape
+the marriage?
+
+ANT. That night then shall find me one of the Dana�d�.
+
+CRE. Dost mark with what audacity she hath insulted us?
+
+ANT. The steel be witness, and the sword, by which I swear.
+
+CRE. But why art thou so eager to get rid of this marriage?
+
+ANT. I will take my flight with my most wretched father here.
+
+CRE. There is nobleness in thee; but there is some degree of folly.
+
+ANT. And I will die with him too, that thou mayest farther know.
+
+CRE. Go--thou shalt not slay my son--quit the land.
+
+OEDIPUS, ANTIGONE, CHORUS.
+
+OED. O daughter, I praise thee indeed for thy zealous intentions.
+
+ANT. But if I were to marry, and thou suffer banishment alone, my father?
+
+OED. Stay and be happy; I will bear with content mine own ills.
+
+ANT. And who will minister to thee, blind as thou art, my father?
+
+OED. Falling wherever it shall be my fate, I will lie on the ground.
+
+ANT. But Oedipus, where is he? and the renowned Enigmas?
+
+OED. Perished! one day blest me, and one day destroyed.
+
+ANT. Ought not I then to have a share in thy woes?
+
+OED. To a daughter exile with a blind father is shameful.
+
+ANT. Not to a right-minded one however, but honorable, my father.
+
+OED. Lead me now onward, that I may touch thy mother.
+
+ANT. There: touch the aged woman with thy most dear hand.
+
+OED. O mother! Oh most hapless wife!
+
+ANT. She doth lie miserable, having all ills at once on her.
+
+OED. But where is the fallen body of Eteocles, and of Polynices?
+
+ANT. They lie extended before thee near one another.
+
+OED. Place my blind hand upon their unhappy faces.
+
+ANT. There: touch thy dead children with thy hand.
+
+OED. O ye dear wrecks, unhappy, of an unhappy father.
+
+ANT. O name of Polynices, most dear indeed to me.
+
+OED. Now, my child, is the oracle of Apollo come to pass.
+
+ANT. What? but dost thou mention evils in addition to these evils?
+
+OED. That I must die an exile at Athens.
+
+ANT. Where? what citadel of Attica will receive thee?
+
+OED. The sacred Colonus, and the temple of the Equestrian God. But
+stay--minister to thy blind father here, since thou art desirous of sharing
+his exile.
+
+ANT. Go to thy wretched banishment: stretch forth thy dear hand, O aged
+father, having me as thy guide, as the gale that wafts the ship.
+
+OED. Behold, I go, my child, be thou my unhappy conductor.
+
+ANT. We are, we are indeed unhappy above all Theban virgins.
+
+OED. Where shall I place my aged footstep? Bring my staff, my child.
+
+ANT. This way, this way come; here, here place thy foot, thou that hast the
+strength of a dream.
+
+OED. Alas! alas! for my most wretched flight!--To drive me, old as I am,
+from my country--Alas! alas! the dreadful, dreadful things that I have
+suffered!
+
+ANT. What suffered! what suffered![51] Vengeance sees not the wicked, nor
+repays the foolishness of mortals.
+
+OED. That man am I, who mounted aloft to the victorious heavenly song,
+having solved the dark enigma of the virgin Sphinx.
+
+ANT. Dost thou bring up again the glory of the Sphinx? Forbear from
+speaking of thy former successes. These wretched sufferings awaited thee, O
+father, being an exile from thy country to die any where. Leaving with my
+dear virgins tears for my loss, I depart far from my country, wandering in
+state not like a virgin's.
+
+OED. Oh! the excellency of thy mind!
+
+ANT. In the calamities of a father at least it will make me glorious.
+Wretched am I, on account of the insults offered to thee and to my brother,
+who has perished from the family, a corse denied sepulture, unhappy, whom,
+even if I must die, my father, I will cover with secret earth.
+
+OED. Go, show thyself to thy companions.
+
+ANT. They have enough of my lamentations.
+
+OED. But make thy supplications at the altars.
+
+ANT. They have a satiety of my woes.
+
+OED. Go then, where stands the fane of Bacchus unapproached, on the
+mountains of the M�nades.
+
+ANT. To whom I formerly, clad in the skin of the Theban fawn, danced the
+sacred step of Semele on the mountains, conferring a thankless favor on the
+Gods?
+
+OED. O ye inhabitants of my illustrious country, behold, I, this Oedipus,
+who alone stayed the violence of the bloodthirsty Sphinx, now, dishonored,
+forsaken, miserable, am banished from the land. Yet why do I bewail these
+things, and lament in vain? For the necessity of fate proceeding from the
+Gods a mortal must endure.
+
+CRE. [O greatly glorious Victory, mayest thou uphold my life, and cease not
+from crowning me!] (See note [H].)
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+NOTES ON THE PHOENICIAN VIRGINS
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+[1] That is, through the signs of the zodiac: [Greek: ast�r] differs from
+[Greek: astron], the former signifying a single star, the latter many.
+
+[2] The preposition [Greek: syn] is omitted, as in Homer,
+
+  [Greek: Aut�i ken gai�i erysaimi.]
+
+The same omission occurs in the Bacch�, [Greek: aut�isin elatais], and
+again in the Hippolytus. It is an Atticism.
+
+[3] See note on Hecuba, 478.
+
+[4] The word [Greek: tounoma] must be supplied after [Greek: touto], which
+is implied in the verb [Greek: kalousin].
+
+[5] The [Greek: zaros] is a bird of prey of the vulture species. The sphinx
+was represented as having the face of a woman, the breast and feet of a
+lion, and the wings of a bird.
+
+[5a] Dindorf would omit this verse.
+
+[6] [Greek: arai] and [Greek: arasthai] are often used by the poets in a
+good sense for prayers, [Greek: euchai] and [Greek: euchesthai] for curses
+and imprecations.
+
+[7] [Greek: di�res hyper�on, � klimax]. HESYCHIUS.
+
+[8] Milton, Par. Regained, b. iii. l. 326.
+
+  The field, all iron, cast a gleaming brown.
+
+[9] Lerna, a country of Argolis celebrated for a grove and a lake where the
+Danaides threw the heads of their murdered husbands. It was there also that
+Hercules killed the famous Hydra.
+
+[10] This alludes to the figure of Argus engraved on his shield. See verse
+1130.
+
+[11] Tydeus married Deipyle, Polynices Argia, both daughters of Adrastus,
+king of Argos.
+
+[12] Some suppose [Greek: hyster�i podi] to mean with their last steps,
+that is, with steps which are doomed never to return again to their own
+country.
+
+[13] Tri�na was a place in Argolis, where Neptune stuck his trident in the
+ground, and immediately water sprung up. SCHOL.
+
+[14] Amymone was daughter of Danaus and Europa; she was employed, by order
+of her father, in supplying the city of Argos with water, in a great
+drought. Neptune saw her in this employment, and was enamored of her. He
+carried her away, and in the place where she stood he raised a fountain,
+which has been called Amymone. See Propert. ii. El. 20. v. 47.
+
+[15] [Greek: all�las legousin] is, _they say one of another_; [Greek:
+all�lais legousin], _they say among themselves_.
+
+[16] By [Greek: pedi�n akarpist�n] is to be understood the sea. The
+construction [Greek: pedi�n perirrhyton Sikelias], that is, [Greek: ha
+Sikelian perirrhei]. The same construction is found in Sophocles, Oed. Tyr.
+l. 885. [Greek: dikas aphob�tos]. L. 969. [Greek: aphaustos enchous]. See
+also Horace, Lib. iv. Od. 4. 43.
+
+  Ceu flamma per t�das, vel Eurus
+  Per Siculas equitavit undas.
+
+[17] The fire was on that head of Parnassus which was sacred to Apollo and
+Diana; to those below it appeared double, being divided to the eye by a
+pointed rock which rose before it. SCHOL.
+
+[18] The Python which Apollo slew.
+
+[19] Libya the daughter of Epaphus bore to Neptune Agenor and Belus. Cadmus
+was the son of Agenor, and Antiope the daughter of Belus.
+
+[19a] But Dind. [Greek: ekphr�s']. See his note.
+
+[20] The construction is, [Greek: amphiballe moi to t�n par��d�n sou
+oregma]: that is, _genarum ad oscula porrectionem_. It can not be
+translated literally. The verb [Greek: amphiballe] is to be supplied before
+[Greek: oregma], and before [Greek: plokamon]. See Orestes, 950.
+
+[21] Locus videtur corruptus. PORSON. Valckenaer proposes to read [Greek:
+dakryoess' anieisa k.t.l.] Markland would supply [Greek: ph�n�n] after
+[Greek: hieisa]. Another reading proposed is, [Greek: dakryoess' enieisa
+penth�r� konin]. _Lacrymabunda, lugubrem cinerem injiciens_. Followed by
+Dindorf.
+
+[22] Cf. �sch. Prom. 39. [Greek: to syngenes toi deinon h� th' homilia],
+where consult Schutz.
+
+[23] See Porson's note. A similar ellipse is to be found in Luke xiii. 9.
+[Greek: Kain men poi�s�i karpon: ei de m�ge, eis to mellon ekkopseis
+aut�n:] which is thus translated in our version; "And if it bear fruit,
+_well_: and if not, _then_ after that thou shalt cut it down." See also
+Iliad, A. 135. Aristoph. Plut. 468. ed. Kuster.
+
+[24] [Greek: Brabeus], properly, is the judge in a contest, who confers the
+prizes, and on whose decision the awarding of the prizes depends: [Greek:
+brabeut�s] is the same. [Greek: Brabeion] is the prize. [Greek: Brabeia],
+and in the plural [Greek: brabeiai], the very act of deciding the contest.
+
+[25] So Hotspur, of honor:
+
+  By heaven, methinks, it were an easy leap,
+  To pluck bright honor from the pale-faced moon:
+  Or dive into the bottom of the deep,
+  Where fathom-line could never touch the ground,
+  And pluck up drowned honor by the locks;
+  So he, that doth redeem her thence, might wear,
+  Without corrival, all her dignities.
+                  Hen. IV. P. i. A. i. Sc. 3.
+
+[26] See Ovid. Met. vi. 28. Non omnia grandior �tas, Qu� fugiamus, habet;
+seris venit usus ab annis.
+
+[27] The Scholiast doubts whether these Gods were Castor and Pollux, or
+Zethus and Amphion, but inclines to the latter. See Herc. Fur. v. 29, 30.
+
+[28] Or, _fell with limbs that had never known yoke_.--V. Ovid: Met. iii.
+10.
+
+  Bos tibi, Phoebus ait, solis occurret in arvis,
+  Nullum passa jugum.
+
+[29] Valckenaer proposes reading instead of [Greek: horais] or [Greek:
+horas], [Greek: aurais], writing the passage [Greek: aurais bostrychon
+ampetasas], "per auras leves crine jactato:" which seems peculiarly adapted
+to this place, where the poet places the tumultuous rage of Mars in
+contrast with the sweet enthusiasm of the Bacchanalians, who are
+represented as flying over the plains with their hair streaming in the
+wind. But see Note [C].
+
+[30] [Greek: ako�] is here to be understood in the sense of [Greek:
+akouomenon] as we find [Greek: aisth�sis] for [Greek: aisth�ton], [Greek:
+nous] for [Greek: to nooumenon].
+
+[31] The words [Greek: didym�n potam�n] do not refer to Dirce, but to
+Thebes, Thebes being called [Greek: polis dipotamos]. The construction is
+[Greek: pyrgos didym�n potam�n]. Thus in Pindar [Greek: oik�ma potamou]
+means [Greek: oik�ma para potam�i]. Olymp. 2. Antistr. 1.
+
+[32] See note [D].
+
+[32a] [Greek: goun]. See Dind.
+
+[33] [Greek: ti gar path�]; _Quid enim agam?_ est formula eorum, quos
+invitos natura vel fatum, vel qu�cumque alia cogit necessitas. VALCKEN.
+
+[34] [Greek: Pros�gor�s�n] is to be joined with [Greek: mol�n], not with
+[Greek: eimi]. In confirmation of this see line 1011.
+
+[35] So called after Ne�s the son of Amphion and Niobe, or from [Greek:
+neatai], "_Newgate_." SCHOL.
+
+[36] Argus himself might be called [Greek: stiktos], but not his eyes,
+hence [Greek: pyknois] is proposed by Heinsius. Abreschius receives [Greek:
+stiktois] in the sense of [Greek: hois stiktos esti].
+
+[37] The Scholiast makes [Greek: bleponta] the accusative singular to agree
+with [Greek: panopt�n]. Musgrave takes it as agreeing with [Greek: ommata];
+in this latter case [Greek: kryptonta] is used in a neuter signification.
+Note [F].
+
+[38] This is Musgrave's interpretation, by putting the stop after [Greek:
+h�s], which also Porson adopts; others would join [Greek: h�s] with [Greek:
+pr�s�n]. It seems however more natural that the torch should be referred to
+Tydeus's emblem, than to himself.
+
+[39] Commentators and interpreters are much at variance concerning the word
+[Greek: strophinxin]. For his better satisfaction on this passage the
+reader is referred to the Scholia.
+
+[40] [Greek: geissa] is in apposition to [Greek: laan] in the preceding
+line. Cf. Orestes, 1585.
+
+[41] Commentators are divided on the meaning of [Greek: en�lata]. One
+Scholiast understands it to mean the uprights of the ladder in which the
+bars are fixed. Eustathias considers [Greek: en�lat�n bathra] a periphrasis
+for [Greek: bathra, en�lata] being the [Greek: bathra] or [Greek:
+bathmides], which [Greek: enel�lantai tois ortho�s xylois].
+
+[42] Musgrave would render [Greek: hygrot�t' enantian] by "mobilitatem male
+coalescentem;" in this case it would indicate the bad omen, and be opposed
+to [Greek: akran lampada], which then should be translated "the pointed
+flame." Valckenaer considers the passage as desperately corrupt. See
+Musgrave's note. Cf. Note [G].
+
+[43] If the flame was clear and vivid.
+
+[44] If it terminated in smoke and blackness.
+
+[45] The construction of this passage is the same as that of Il. [Greek: D]
+155. [Greek: thanaton ny toi horki' etamnon]. "Foedus, quod pepigi, tibi
+mortis causa est." PORSON.
+
+[46] Beck, by putting the stop after [Greek: petron], makes [Greek:
+hypodromon] to agree with [Greek: kolon], "_his limb diverted from its
+tread_."
+
+[47] The construction is [Greek: phonos krantheis phon�i]: [Greek: aimati]
+depends on [Greek: en] understood.
+
+[48] Most MSS. have [Greek: xynetos]. Here then is a remarkable instance of
+the same word having both an active and a passive signification in the same
+sentence.
+
+[49] [Greek: makropnoun], not [Greek: makropoun], is Porson's reading,
+[Greek: makropnous z��] is explained "vita in qua longo tempore spiratur;
+ergo longa."
+
+[50] See note at Hecuba 65.
+
+[51] The old reading was [Greek: ti tlas; ti tlas;] making it the present
+tense. Brunck first edited it as it stands in Porson. Antigone repeats the
+last word of her father.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+ADDITIONAL NOTES.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+[A] "Signum interrogandi non post [Greek: neanias], sed post [Greek:
+lochagos] ponendum. [Greek: lochagos] in libris pedagogo tribuitur: quod
+correxit Hermannus." DINDORF.
+
+[B] Porson and Dindorf (in his notes) favor Reiske's conjecture, [Greek:
+pyknoisi] for [Greek: pyrgoisi].
+
+[C] Dindorf rightly approves the explanation of Musgrave, who takes [Greek:
+stephanoisi], like the Latin _corona_, to mean the _assemblies_. He
+translates: "_nec in pulchros choros ducentibus circulis juventutis_."
+
+[D] The full sense, as laid down by Schoefer and Dindorf, is, "for ever
+when an old man travels, whether in a carriage, or on foot, he requires
+help from others." [Greek: pasa ap�n� pous te] is rather boldly used, but
+is not without example.
+
+[E] i.e. "_you ask a thing_ (i.e. your son's safety) _dangerous to the
+city, which you can not preserve_." SCHOEFER.
+
+[F] These three lines are condemned by Valck. and Dind.
+
+[G] Matthi� attempts to explain these words as follows: "[Greek: empyroi
+akmai] may be put for [Greek: ta empyra], in which the seers observed
+([Greek: en�m�n]) two things, viz. the divisions ([Greek: rh�xeis]) of the
+flame, which, if it slid round the altars, was of ill omen (hence [Greek:
+hygrai], i.e. gliding gently around the altars with many curves, for which
+is put [Greek: hygrot�s enantia]); and 2dly, _the upright shooting of the
+flame_, [Greek: akran lampada]."
+
+[H] See Dindorf on Orest. 1691. He fully condemns these lines as the work
+of an interpolator. They are, however, as old as the days of Lucian.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *       *
+
+MEDEA.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+PERSONS REPRESENTED.
+
+  NURSE.
+  TUTOR.
+  MEDEA.
+  CHORUS OF CORINTHIAN WOMEN.
+  CREON.
+  JASON.
+  �GEUS
+  MESSENGER.
+  SONS OF MEDEA.
+
+_The Scene lies in the vestibule of the palace of Jason at Corinth_.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE ARGUMENT.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+JASON, having come to Corinth, and bringing with him Medea, espouses
+Glauce, the daughter of Creon, king of Corinth. But Medea, on the point of
+being banished from Corinth by Creon, having asked to remain one day, and
+having obtained her wish, sends to Glauce, by the hands of her sons,
+presents, as an acknowledgment for the favor, a robe and a golden chaplet,
+which she puts on and perishes; Creon also having embraced his daughter is
+destroyed. But Medea, when she had slain her children, escapes to Athens,
+in a chariot drawn by winged dragons, which she received from the Sun, and
+there marries �geus son of Pandion.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+MEDEA.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+NURSE OF MEDEA.
+
+Would that the hull of Argo had not winged her way to the Colchian land
+through the Cyanean Symplegades,[1] and that the pine felled in the forests
+of Pelion had never fallen, nor had caused the hands of the chiefs to
+row,[2] who went in search of the golden fleece for Pelias; for neither
+then would my mistress Medea have sailed to the towers of the Iolcian land,
+deeply smitten in her mind with the love of Jason; nor having persuaded the
+daughters of Pelias to slay their father would she have inhabited this
+country of Corinth with her husband and her children, pleasing indeed by
+her flight[3] the citizens to whose land she came, and herself concurring
+in every respect with Jason; which is the surest support of conjugal
+happiness, when the wife is not estranged from the husband. But now every
+thing is at variance, and the dearest ties are weakened. For having
+betrayed his own children, and my mistress, Jason reposes in royal wedlock,
+having married the daughter of Creon, who is prince of this land. But Medea
+the unhappy, dishonored, calls on his oaths, and recalls the hands they
+plighted, the greatest pledge of fidelity, and invokes the gods to witness
+what return she meets with from Jason. And she lies without tasting food,
+having sunk her body in grief, dissolving all her tedious time in tears,
+after she had once known that she had been injured by her husband, neither
+raising her eye, nor lifting her countenance from the ground; but as the
+rock, or the wave of the sea, does she listen to her friends when advised.
+Save that sometimes having turned her snow-white neck she to herself
+bewails her dear father, and her country, and her house, having betrayed
+which she hath come hither with a man who has now dishonored her. And she
+wretched hath discovered from affliction what it is not to forsake one's
+paternal country. But she hates her children, nor is she delighted at
+beholding them: but I fear her, lest she form some new design: for violent
+is her mind, nor will it endure to suffer ills. I know her, and I fear her,
+lest she should force the sharpened sword through her heart, or even should
+murder the princess and him who married her, and after that receive some
+greater ill. For she is violent; he who engages with her in enmity will not
+with ease at least sing the song of victory. But these her children are
+coming hither having ceased from their exercises, nothing mindful of their
+mother's ills, for the mind of youth is not wont to grieve.
+
+TUTOR, WITH THE SONS OF MEDEA, NURSE.
+
+TUT. O thou ancient possession of my mistress's house, why dost thou stand
+at the gates preserving thus thy solitude, bewailing to thyself our
+misfortunes? How doth Medea wish to be left alone without thee?
+
+NUR. O aged man, attendant on the children of Jason, to faithful servants
+the affairs of their masters turning out ill are a calamity, and lay hold
+upon their feelings. For I have arrived at such a height of grief that
+desire hath stolen on me to come forth hence and tell the misfortunes of
+Medea to the earth and heaven.
+
+TUT. Does not she wretched yet receive any respite from her grief?
+
+NUR. I envy thy ignorance; her woe is at its rise, and not even yet at its
+height.
+
+TUT. O unwise woman, if it is allowable to say this of one's lords, since
+she knows nothing of later ills.
+
+NUR. But what is this, O aged man? grudge not to tell me.
+
+TUT. Nothing: I have repented even of what was said before.
+
+NUR. Do not, I beseech you by your beard, conceal it from your
+fellow-servant; for I will preserve silence, if it be necessary, on these
+subjects.
+
+TUT. I heard from some one who was saying, not appearing to listen, having
+approached the places where dice is played, where the elders sit, around
+the hallowed font of Pirene, that the king of this land, Creon, intends to
+banish from the Corinthian country these children, together with their
+mother; whether this report be true, however, I know not; but I wish this
+may not be the case.
+
+NUR. And will Jason endure to see his children suffer this, even although
+he is at enmity with their mother?
+
+TUT. Ancient alliances are deserted for new, and he is no friend to this
+family.
+
+NUR. We perish then, if to the old we shall add a new ill, before the
+former be exhausted.[4]
+
+TUT. But do thou, for it is not seasonable that my mistress should know
+this, restrain your tongue, and be silent on this report.
+
+NUR. O my children, do you hear what your father is toward you? Yet may he
+not perish, for he is my master, yet he is found to be treacherous toward
+his friends.
+
+TUT. And what man is not? dost thou only now know this, that every one
+loves himself dearer than his neighbor,[5] some indeed with justice, but
+others even for the sake of gain, unless it be that[6] their father loves
+not these at least on account of new nuptials.
+
+NUR. Go within the house, my children, for all will be well. But do thou
+keep these as much as possible out of the way, and let them not approach
+their mother, deranged through grief. For but now I saw her looking with
+wildness in her eyes on these, as about to execute some design, nor will
+she cease from her fury, I well know, before she overwhelm some one with
+it; upon her enemies however, and not her friends, may she do some [ill.]
+
+MEDEA. (_within_) Wretch that I am, and miserable on account of my
+misfortunes, alas me! would I might perish!
+
+NUR. Thus it is, my children; your mother excites her heart, excites her
+fury. Hasten as quick as possible within the house, and come not near her
+sight, nor approach her, but guard against the fierce temper and violent
+nature of her self-willed mind. Go now, go as quick as possible within. But
+it is evident that the cloud of grief raised up from the beginning will
+quickly burst forth with greater fury; what I pray will her soul, great in
+rage, implacable, irritated by ills, perform!
+
+MED. Alas! alas! I wretched have suffered, have suffered treatment worthy
+of great lamentation. O ye accursed children of a hated mother, may ye
+perish with your father, and may the whole house fall.
+
+NUR. Alas! alas! me miserable! but why should your children share their
+father's error? Why dost thou hate these! Alas me, my children, how beyond
+measure do I grieve lest ye suffer any evil! Dreadful are the dispositions
+of tyrants, and somehow in few things controlled, in most absolute, they
+with difficulty lay aside their passion. The being accustomed then[7] to
+live in mediocrity of life is the better: may it be my lot then to grow old
+if not in splendor, at least in security. For, in the first place, even to
+mention the name of moderation carries with it superiority, but to use it
+is by far the best conduct for men; but excess of fortune brings more power
+to men than is convenient;[8] and has brought greater woes upon families,
+when the Deity be enraged.
+
+NURSE, CHORUS.
+
+CHOR. I heard the voice, I heard the cry of the unhappy Colchian; is not
+she yet appeased? but, O aged matron, tell me; for within the apartment
+with double doors, I heard her cry; nor am I delighted, O woman, with the
+griefs of the family, since it is friendly to me.
+
+NUR. The family is not; these things are gone already: for he possesses the
+bed of royalty; but she, my mistress, is melting away her life in her
+chamber, in no way soothing her mind by the advice of any one of her
+friends.
+
+MED. Alas! alas! may the flame of heaven rush through my head, what profit
+for me to live any longer. Alas! alas! may I rest myself in death, having
+left a hated life.
+
+CHOR. Dost thou hear, O Jove, and earth, and light, the cry which the
+wretched bride utters? why I pray should this insatiable love of the
+marriage-bed hasten thee, O vain woman, to death? Pray not for this. But if
+thy husband courts a new bed, be not thus[9] enraged with him. Jove will
+avenge these wrongs for thee: waste not thyself so, bewailing thy husband.
+
+MED. O great Themis and revered Diana, do ye behold what I suffer, having
+bound my accursed husband by powerful oaths? Whom may I at some time see
+and his bride torn piecemeal with their very houses, who dare to injure me
+first. O my father, O my city, whom I basely abandoned, having slain my
+brother.
+
+NUR. Do ye hear what she says, and how she invokes Themis hearing the vow,
+and Jove who is considered the dispenser of oaths to mortals? It is not
+possible that my mistress will lull her rage to rest on any trivial
+circumstance.
+
+CHOR. By what means could she come into our sight, and hear the voice of
+our discourse, if she would by any means remit her fierce anger and her
+fury of mind. Let not my zeal however be wanting ever to my friends. But go
+and conduct her hither from without the house, my friend, and tell her
+this, hasten, before she injure in any way those within, for this grief of
+hers is increased to a great height.
+
+NUR. I will do it, but I fear that I shall not persuade my mistress;
+nevertheless I will give you this favor of my labor. And yet with the
+aspect of a lioness that has just brought forth does she look sternly on
+her attendants when any one approaches near attempting to address her. But
+thou wouldest not err in calling men of old foolish and nothing wise, who
+invented songs, for festivals, for banquets, and for suppers, the delights
+of life that charm the ear; but no mortal has discovered how to soothe with
+music and with varied strains those bitter pangs, from which death and
+dreadful misfortunes overthrow families. And yet for men to assuage these
+griefs with music were gain; but where the plenteous banquet is furnished,
+why raise they the song in vain? for the present bounty of the feast brings
+pleasure of itself to men.
+
+CHOR. I heard the dismal sound of groans, and in a shrill voice she vents
+her bitter[10] anguish on the traitor to her bed, her faithless
+husband--and suffering wrongs she calls upon the Goddess Themis, arbitress
+of oaths, daughter of Jove, who conducted her to the opposite coast of
+Greece, across the sea by night, over the salt straits of the boundless
+ocean.
+
+MEDEA, CHORUS.
+
+MED. Ye Corinthian dames, I have come from out my palace; do not in any
+wise blame me; for I have known many men who have been[11] renowned, some
+who have lived far from public notice, and others in the world; but those
+of a retired turn have gained for themselves a character of infamy and
+indolence. For justice dwells not in the eyes of man,[12] whoever, before
+he can well discover the disposition of a man, hates him at sight, in no
+way wronged by him. But it is necessary for a stranger exactly to conform
+himself to the state, nor would I praise the native, whoever becoming
+self-willed is insolent to his fellow-citizens through ignorance. But this
+unexpected event that hath fallen upon me hath destroyed my spirit: I am
+going, and having given up the pleasure of life I am desirous to meet
+death, my friends. For he on whom my all rested, as you well know, my
+husband, has turned out the basest of men. But of all things as many as
+have life and intellect, we women are the most wretched race. Who indeed
+first must purchase a husband with excess of money, and receive him a lord
+of our persons; for this is a still greater ill than the former. And in
+this is the greatest risk, whether we receive a bad one or a good one; for
+divorces bring not good fame to women, nor is it possible to repudiate
+one's husband. But on passing to new tempers and new laws, one need be a
+prophetess, as one can not learn of one's self, what sort of consort one
+shall most likely experience. And if with us carefully performing these
+things a husband shall dwell not imposing on us a yoke with severity,
+enviable is our life; if not, to die is better. But a man, when he is
+displeased living with those at home, having gone abroad is wont to relieve
+his heart of uneasiness, having recourse either to some friend or compeer.
+But we must look but to one person. But they say of us that we live a life
+of ease at home, but they are fighting with the spear; judging ill, since I
+would rather thrice stand in arms, than once suffer the pangs of
+child-birth. But, for the same argument comes not home to you and me, this
+is thy city, and thy father's house, thine are both the luxuries of life,
+and the society of friends; but I being destitute, cityless, am wronged by
+my husband, brought as a prize from a foreign land, having neither mother,
+nor brother, nor relation to afford me shelter from this calamity. So much
+then I wish to obtain from you, if any plan or contrivance be devised by me
+to repay with justice these injuries on my husband, and on him who gave his
+daughter, and on her to whom he was married,[13] that you would be silent;
+for a woman in other respects is full of fear, and timid to look upon deeds
+of courage and the sword; but when she is injured in her bed, no other
+disposition is more blood-thirsty.
+
+CHOR. I will do this; for with justice, Medea, wilt thou avenge thyself on
+thy husband, and I do not wonder that you lament your misfortunes. But I
+see Creon monarch of this land advancing, the messenger of new counsels.
+
+CREON, MEDEA, CHORUS.
+
+CRE. Thee of gloomy countenance, and enraged with thy husband, Medea, I
+command to depart in exile from out of this land, taking with thee thy two
+children, and not to delay in any way, since I am the arbiter of this
+edict, and I will not return back to my palace, until I shall drive thee
+beyond the boundaries of this realm.
+
+MED. Alas! alas! I wretched am utterly destroyed, for my enemies stretch
+out every cable against me; nor is there any easy escape from this evil,
+but I will speak, although suffering injurious treatment; for what, Creon,
+dost thou drive me from this land?
+
+CRE. I fear thee (there is no need for me to wrap my words in obscurity,)
+lest thou do my child some irremediable mischief, And many circumstances
+are in unison with this dread. Thou art wise, and skilled in many evil
+sciences, and thou art exasperated, deprived of thy husband's bed. And I
+hear that thou threatenest, as they tell me, to wreak some deed of
+vengeance on the betrother, and the espouser and the espoused; against this
+then, before I suffer, will I guard. Better is it for me now to incur
+enmity from you, than softened by your words afterward greatly to lament
+it.
+
+MED. Alas! alas! not now for the first time, but often, Creon, hath this
+opinion injured me, and worked me much woe. But whatever man is prudent,
+let him never educate his children too deep in wisdom. For, independent of
+the other charges of idleness which they meet with, they find hostile envy
+from their fellow-citizens. For holding out to fools some new-discovered
+wisdom, thou wilt seem to be useless and not wise. And being judged
+superior to others who seem to have some varied knowledge, thou wilt appear
+offensive in the city. But even I myself share this fortune; for being
+wise, to some I am an object of envy, but to others, unsuited; but I am not
+very wise. Thou then fearest me, lest thou suffer some grievous
+mischief.[14] My affairs are not in a state, fear me not, Creon, so as to
+offend against princes. For in what hast thou injured me? Thou hast given
+thy daughter to whom thy mind led thee; but I hate my husband: but thou, I
+think, didst these things in prudence. And now I envy not that thy affairs
+are prospering; make your alliances, be successful; but suffer me to dwell
+in this land, for although injured will I keep silence, overcome by my
+superiors.
+
+CRE. Thou speakest soft words to the ear, but within my mind I have my
+fears, lest thou meditate some evil intent. And so much the less do I trust
+thee than before. For a woman that is quick to anger, and a man likewise,
+is easier to guard against, than one that is crafty and keeps silence. But
+begone as quick as possible, make no more words; since this is decreed, and
+thou hast no art, by which thou wilt stay with us, being hostile to me.
+
+MED. No I beseech you by your knees, and your newly-married daughter.
+
+CRE. Thou wastest words; for thou wilt never persuade me.
+
+MED. Wilt thou then banish me, nor reverence my prayers?
+
+CRE. For I do not love thee better than my own family.
+
+MED. O my country, how I remember thee now!
+
+CRE. For next to my children it is much the dearest thing to me.
+
+MED. Alas! alas! how great an ill is love to man!
+
+CRE. That is, I think, as fortune also shall attend it.
+
+MED. Jove, let it not escape thine eye, who is the cause of these
+misfortunes.
+
+CRE. Begone, fond woman, and free me from these cares.
+
+MED. Care indeed;[15] and do not I experience cares?
+
+CRE. Quickly shalt thou be driven hence by force by the hands of my
+domestics.
+
+MED. No, I pray not this at least; but I implore thee, Creon.
+
+CRE. Thou wilt give trouble, woman, it seems.[16]
+
+MED. I will go; I dare not ask to obtain this of you.
+
+CRE. Why then dost thou resist, and wilt not depart from these realms?
+
+MED. Permit me to remain here this one day, and to bring my purpose to a
+conclusion, in what way we shall fly, and to make provision for my sons,
+since their father in no way regards providing for his children; but pity
+them, for thou also art the father of children; and it is probable that
+thou hast tenderness: for of myself I have no care whether I may suffer
+banishment, but I weep for them experiencing this calamity.
+
+CRE. My disposition is least of all imperious, and through feeling pity in
+many cases have I injured myself. And now I see that I am doing wrong, O
+lady, but nevertheless thou shalt obtain thy request; but this I warn thee,
+if to-morrow's light of the God of day shall behold thee and thy children
+within the confines of these realms, thou shalt die: this word is spoken in
+truth. But now if thou must stay, remain here yet one day, for thou wilt
+not do any horrid deed of which I have dread.
+
+MEDEA, CHORUS.
+
+CHOR. Unhappy woman! alas wretched on account of thy griefs! whither wilt
+thou turn? what hospitality, or house, or country wilt thou find a refuge
+for these ills? how the Deity hath led thee, Medea, into a pathless tide of
+woes!
+
+MED. Ill hath it been done on every side. Who will gainsay it? but these
+things are not in this way, do not yet think it. Still is there a contest
+for those lately married, and to those allied to them no small affliction.
+For dost thou think I ever would have fawned upon this man, if I were not
+to gain something, or form some plan? I would not even have addressed him.
+I would not even have touched him with my hands. But he hath arrived at
+such a height of folly, as that, when it was in his power to have crushed
+my plans, by banishing me from this land, he hath granted me to stay this
+day in which three of mine enemies will I put to death, the father, the
+bride, and my husband. But having in my power many resources of destruction
+against them, I know not, my friends, which I shall first attempt. Whether
+shall I consume the bridal house with fire, or force the sharpened sword
+through her heart having entered the chamber by stealth where the couch is
+spread? But one thing is against me; if I should be caught entering the
+house and prosecuting my plans, by my death I shall afford laughter for my
+foes. Best then is it to pursue the straight path, in which I am most
+skilled, to take them off by poison. Let it be so. And suppose them dead:
+what city will receive me? What hospitable stranger affording a land of
+safety and a faithful home will protect my person? There is none. Waiting
+then yet a little time, if any tower of safety shall appear to us, I will
+proceed to this murder in treachery and silence. But if ill fortune that
+leaves me without resource force me, I myself having grasped the sword,
+although I should die, will kill them, and will rush to the extreme height
+of daring. For never, I swear by my mistress whom I revere most of all, and
+have chosen for my assistant, Hecate, who dwells in the inmost recesses of
+my house, shall any one of them wring my heart with grief with impunity.
+Bitter and mournful to them will I make these nuptials, and bitter this
+alliance, and my flight from this land. But come, spare none of these
+sciences in which thou art skilled, Medea, deliberating and plotting.
+Proceed to the deed of terror: now is the time of resolution: seest thou
+what thou art suffering? Ill doth it become thee to incur ridicule from the
+race of Sisyphus, and from the nuptials of Jason, who art sprung from a
+noble father, and from the sun. And thou art skilled. Besides also we women
+are, by nature, to good actions of the least capacity, but the most cunning
+inventors of every ill.
+
+CHOR. The waters of the hallowed streams flow upward to their sources, and
+justice and every thing is reversed. The counsels of men are treacherous,
+and no longer is the faith of heaven firm. But fame changes, so that my sex
+may have the glory.[17] Honor cometh to the female race; no longer shall
+opprobrious fame oppress the women. But the Muses shall cease from their
+ancient strains, from celebrating our perfidy. For Phoebus, leader of the
+choir, gave not to our minds the heavenly music of the lyre, since they
+would in turn have raised a strain against the race of men. But time of old
+hath much to say both of our life and the life of men. But thou hast sailed
+from thy father's house with maddened heart, having passed through the
+double rocks of the ocean, and thou dwellest in a foreign land, having lost
+the shelter of thy widowed bed, wretched woman, and art driven dishonored
+an exile from this land. The reverence of oaths is gone, nor does shame any
+longer dwell in mighty Greece, but hath fled away through the air. But thou
+helpless woman hast neither father's house to afford you haven from your
+woes, and another more powerful queen of the nuptial bed rules over the
+house.
+
+JASON, MEDEA, CHORUS.
+
+JAS. Not now for the first time, but often have I perceived that fierce
+anger is an irremediable ill. For though it was in your power to inhabit
+this land and this house, bearing with gentleness the determination of thy
+superiors, by thy rash words thou shalt be banished from this land. And to
+me indeed it is of no importance; never cease from saying that Jason is the
+worst of men. But for what has been said by thee against the royal family,
+think it the greatest good fortune that thou art punished by banishment
+only. I indeed was always employed in diminishing the anger of the enraged
+princes, and was willing that thou shouldest remain. But thou remittest not
+of thy folly, always reviling the ruling powers; wherefore thou shalt be
+banished from the land. But nevertheless even after this am I come, not
+wearied with my friends, providing for thee, O woman, that thou mightest
+not be banished with thy children, either without money, or in want of any
+thing. Banishment draws many misfortunes with it. For although thou hatest
+me, I never could wish thee evil.
+
+MED. O thou vilest of men (for this is the greatest reproach I have in my
+power with my tongue to tell thee, for thy unmanly cowardice), hast thou
+come to us, hast thou come, who art most hateful? This is not fortitude, or
+confidence, to look in the face of friends whom thou hast injured, but the
+worst of all diseases among men, impudence. But thou hast done well in
+coming. For both I shall be lightened in my heart while reviling thee, and
+thou wilt be pained at hearing me. But I will first begin to speak from the
+first circumstances. I preserved thee (as those Greeks well know as many as
+embarked with thee on board the same ship Argo) when sent to master the
+fire-breathing bulls with the yoke, and to sow the fatal seed: and having
+slain the dragon who watching around the golden fleece guarded it with
+spiry folds, a sleepless guard, I raised up to thee a light of safety. But
+I myself having betrayed my father, and my house, came to the Peliotic
+Iolcos[18] with thee, with more readiness than prudence. And I slew Pelias
+by a death which it is most miserable to die, by the hands of his own
+children, and I freed thee from every fear. And having experienced these
+services from me, thou vilest of men, thou hast betrayed me and hast
+procured for thyself a new bed, children being born to thee, for if thou
+wert still childless it would be pardonable in thee to be enamored of this
+alliance. But the faith of oaths is vanished: nor can I discover whether
+thou thinkest that the former Gods are not still in power, or whether new
+laws are now laid down for men, since thou art at least conscious of being
+perjured toward me. Alas! this right hand which thou hast often touched,
+and these knees, since in vain have I been polluted by a wicked husband,
+and have failed in my hopes. Come (for I will converse with thee as with a
+friend, not expecting to receive any benefit from thee at least, but
+nevertheless I will; for when questioned thou wilt appear more base), now
+whither shall I turn? Whether to my father's house, which I betrayed for
+thee, and my country, and came hither? or to the miserable daughters of
+Pelias? friendly would they indeed receive me in their house, whose father
+I slew. For thus it is: I am in enmity with my friends at home; but those
+whom I ought not to injure, by obliging thee, I make my enemies. On which
+account in return for this thou hast made me to be called happy by many
+dames through Greece, and in thee I, wretch that I am, have an admirable
+and faithful husband, if cast out at least I shall fly this land, deserted
+by my friends, lonely with thy lonely children. Fair renown indeed to the
+new married bridegroom, that his children are wandering in poverty, and I
+also who preserved thee. O Jove, why I pray hast thou given to men certain
+proofs of the gold which is adulterate, but no mark is set by nature on the
+person of men by which one may distinguish the bad man.
+
+CHOR. Dreadful is that anger and irremediable, when friends with friends
+kindle strife.
+
+JAS. It befits me, it seems, not to be weak in argument, but as the prudent
+pilot of a vessel, with all the sail that can be hoisted, to run from out
+of thy violent abuse, O woman. But I, since thou thus much vauntest thy
+favors, think that Venus alone both of Gods and men was the protectress of
+my voyage. But thou hast a fickle mind, but it is an invidious account to
+go through, how love compelled thee with his inevitable arrows to preserve
+my life. But I will not follow up arguments with too great accuracy, for
+where thou hast assisted me it is well. Moreover thou hast received more at
+least from my safety than thou gavest, as I will explain to thee. First of
+all thou dwellest in Greece instead of a foreign land, and thou learnest
+what justice is, and to enjoy laws, not to be directed by mere force. And
+all the Grecians have seen that thou art wise, and thou hast renown; but if
+thou wert dwelling in the extreme confines of that land, there would not
+have been fame of thee. But may neither gold in my house be be my lot, nor
+to attune the strain more sweet than Orpheus, if my fortune be not
+conspicuous. So much then have I said of my toils; for thou first
+broughtest forward this contest of words. But with regard to those
+reproaches which thou heapest on me for my royal marriage, in this will I
+show first that I have been wise, in the next place moderate, thirdly a
+great friend to thee, and my children: but be silent. After I had come
+hither from the Iolcian land bringing with me many grievous calamities,
+what measure more fortunate than this could I have invented, than, an exile
+as I was, to marry the daughter of the monarch? not, by which thou art
+grated, loathing thy bed, nor smitten with desire of a new bride, nor
+having emulation of a numerous offspring, for those born to me are
+sufficient, nor do I find fault with that; but that (which is of the
+greatest consequence) we might live honorably, and might not be in want,
+knowing well that every friend flies out of the way of a poor man; and that
+I might bring up my children worthy of my house, and that having begotten
+brothers to those children sprung from thee, I might place them on the same
+footing, and having united the family, I might flourish; for both thou hast
+some need of children, and to me it were advantageous to advance my present
+progeny by means of the children which might arise; have I determined ill?
+not even thou couldest say so, if thy bed did not gall thee. But thus far
+have you come, that your bed being safe, you women think that you have
+every thing. But if any misfortune befall that, the most excellent and
+fairest objects you make the most hateful. It were well then that men
+should generate children from some other source, and that the female race
+should not exist, and thus there would not have been any evil among
+men.[19]
+
+CHOR. Jason, thou hast well adorned these arguments of thine, but
+nevertheless to me, although I speak reluctantly, thou appearest, in
+betraying thy wife, to act unjustly.
+
+MED. Surely I am in many things different from many mortals, for in my
+judgment, whatever man being unjust, is deeply skilled in argument, merits
+the severest punishment. For vaunting that with his tongue he can well
+gloze over injustice, he dares to work deceit, but he is not over-wise.
+Thus do not thou also be now plausible to me, nor skilled in speaking, for
+one word will overthrow thee: it behooved thee, if thou wert not a bad man,
+to have contracted this marriage having persuaded me, and not without the
+knowledge of thy friends.
+
+JAS. Well wouldest thou have lent assistance to this report, if I had
+mentioned the marriage to thee, who not even now endurest to lay aside this
+unabated rage of heart.
+
+MED. This did not move thee, but a foreign bed would lead in its result to
+an old age without honor.
+
+JAS. Be well assured of this, that I did not form this alliance with the
+princess, which I now hold, for the sake of the woman, but, as I said
+before also, wishing to preserve thee, and to beget royal children brothers
+to my sons, a support to our house.
+
+MED. Let not a splendid life of bitterness be my lot, nor wealth, which
+rends my heart.
+
+JAS. Dost thou know how to alter thy prayers, and appear wiser? Let not
+good things ever seem to you bitter, nor when in prosperity seem to be in
+adversity.
+
+MED. Insult me, since thou hast refuge, but I destitute shall fly this
+land.
+
+JAS. Thou chosest this thyself, blame no one else.
+
+MED. By doing what? by marrying and betraying thee?
+
+JAS. By imprecating unhallowed curses on the royal family.
+
+MED. From thy house at least am I laden with curses.
+
+JAS. I will not dispute more of this with thee. But if thou wishest to
+receive either for thyself or children any part of my wealth as an
+assistant on thy flight, speak, since I am ready to give with an unsparing
+hand, and to send tokens of hospitality to my friends, who will treat you
+well; and refusing these thou wilt be foolish, woman, but ceasing from
+thine anger, thou wilt gain better treatment.
+
+MED. I will neither use thy friends, nor will I receive aught; do not give
+to me, for the gifts of a bad man bring no assistance.
+
+JAS. Then I call the Gods to witness, that I wish to assist thee and thy
+children in every thing; but good things please thee not, but thou
+rejectest thy friends with audacity, wherefore shalt thou grieve the more.
+
+MED. Begone, for thou art captured by desire of thy new bride, tarrying so
+long without the palace; wed her, for perhaps, but with the assistance of
+the God shall it be said, thou wilt make such a marriage alliance, as thou
+wilt hereafter wish to renounce.
+
+CHOR. The loves, when they come too impetuously, have given neither good
+report nor virtue among men, but if Venus come with moderation, no other
+Goddess is so benign. Never, O my mistress, mayest thou send forth against
+me from thy golden bow thy inevitable shaft, having steeped it in desire.
+But may temperance preserve me, the noblest gift of heaven; never may
+dreaded Venus, having smitten my mind for another's bed, heap upon me
+jealous passions and unabated quarrels, but approving the peaceful union,
+may she quick of perception sit in judgment on the bed of women. O my
+country, and my house, never may I be an outcast of my city, having a life
+scarce to be endured through poverty, the most lamentable of all woes. By
+death, by death, may I before that be subdued, having lived to accomplish
+that day; but no greater misfortune is there than to be deprived of one's
+paternal country. We have seen it, nor have we to speak from others'
+accounts; for thee, neither city nor friend hath pitied, though suffering
+the most dreadful anguish. Thankless may he perish who desires not to
+assist his friends, having unlocked the pure treasures of his mind; never
+shall he be friend to me.
+
+�GEUS, MEDEA, CHORUS.
+
+�G. Medea, hail! for no one hath known a more honorable salutation to
+address to friends than this.
+
+MED. Hail thou also, son of the wise Pandion, �geus, coming from what
+quarter dost thou tread the plain of this land?
+
+�G. Having left the ancient oracle of Phoebus.
+
+MED. But wherefore wert thou sent to the prophetic centre of the earth?
+
+�G. Inquiring of the God how offspring may arise to me?
+
+MED. By the Gods, tell me, dost thou live this life hitherto childless?
+
+�G. Childless I am, by the disposal of some deity.
+
+MED. Hast thou a wife, or knowest thou not the marriage-bed!
+
+�G. I am not destitute of the connubial bed.
+
+MED. What then did Apollo tell thee respecting thy offspring?
+
+�G. Words deeper than a man can form opinion of.
+
+MED. Is it allowable for me to know the oracle of the God?
+
+�G. Certainly, inasmuch as it needs also a deep-skilled mind.
+
+MED. What then did he say? Speak, if I may hear.
+
+�G. That I was not to loose the projecting foot of the vessel--
+
+MED. Before thou didst what, or came to what land?
+
+�G. Before I revisit my paternal hearth.
+
+MED. Then as desiring what dost thou direct thy voyage to this land?
+
+�G. There is one Pittheus, king of the country of Trazene.
+
+MED. The most pious son, as report says, of Pelops.
+
+�G. To him I wish to communicate the oracle of the God.
+
+MED. For he is a wise man, and versed in such matters.
+
+�G. And to me at least the dearest of all my friends in war.
+
+MED. Mayest thou prosper, and obtain what thou desirest.
+
+�G. But why is thine eye and thy color thus faded?
+
+MED. �geus, my husband is the worst of all men.
+
+�G. What sayest thou? tell me all thy troubles.
+
+MED. Jason wrongs me, having never suffered wrong from me.
+
+�G. Having done what? tell me more clearly.
+
+MED. He hath here a wife besides me, mistress of the house.
+
+�G. Hath he dared to commit this disgraceful action?
+
+MED. Be assured he has; but we his former friends are dishonored.
+
+�G. Enamored of her, or hating thy bed?
+
+MED. [Smitten with] violent love indeed, he was faithless to his friends.
+
+�G. Let him perish then, since, as you say, he is a bad man.
+
+MED. He was charmed to receive an alliance with princes.
+
+�G. And who gives the bride to him? finish the account, I beg.
+
+MED. Creon, who is monarch of this Corinthian land.
+
+�G. Pardonable was it then that thou art grieved, O lady.
+
+MED. I perish, and in addition to this am I banished from this land.
+
+�G. By whom? thou art mentioning another fresh misfortune.
+
+MED. Creon drives me an exile out of this land of Corinth.
+
+�G. And does Jason suffer it? I praise not this.
+
+MED. By his words he does not, but at heart he wishes [to endure my
+banishment:] but by this thy beard I entreat thee, and by these thy knees,
+and I become thy suppliant, pity me, pity this unfortunate woman, nor
+behold me going forth in exile abandoned, but receive me at thy hearth in
+thy country and thy house. Thus by the Gods shall thy desire of children be
+accomplished to thee, and thou thyself shalt die in happiness. But thou
+knowest not what this fortune is that thou hast found; but I will free thee
+from being childless, and I will cause thee to raise up offspring, such
+charms I know.
+
+�G. On many accounts, O lady, am I willing to confer this favor on thee,
+first on account of the Gods, then of the children, whose birth thou
+holdest forth; for on this point else I am totally sunk in despair. But
+thus am I determined: if thou comest to my country, I will endeavor to
+receive thee with hospitality, being a just man; so much however I
+beforehand apprise thee of, O lady, I shall not be willing to lead thee
+with me from this land; but if thou comest thyself to my house, thou shalt
+stay there in safety, and to no one will I give thee up. But do thou of
+thyself withdraw thy foot from this country, for I wish to be without blame
+even among strangers.
+
+MED. It shall be so, but if there was a pledge of this given to me, I
+should have all things from thee in a noble manner.
+
+�G. Dost thou not trust me? what is thy difficulty?
+
+MED. I trust thee; but the house of Pelias is mine enemy, and Creon too; to
+these then, wert thou bound by oaths, thou wouldest not give me up from the
+country, should they attempt to drag me thence. But having agreed by words
+alone, and without calling the Gods to witness, thou mightest be their
+friend, and perhaps[20] be persuaded by an embassy; for weak is my state,
+but theirs are riches, and a royal house.
+
+�G. Thou hast spoken much prudence, O lady. But if it seems fit to thee
+that I should do this, I refuse not. For to me also this seems the safest
+plan, that I should have some pretext to show to your enemies, and thy
+safety is better secured; propose the Gods that I am to invoke.
+
+MED. Swear by the earth, and by the sun the father of my father, and join
+the whole race of Gods.
+
+�G. That I will do what thing, or what not do? speak.
+
+MED. That thou wilt neither thyself ever cast me forth from out of thy
+country, nor, if any one of my enemies desire to drag me thence, that thou
+wilt, while living, give me up willingly.
+
+�G. I swear by the earth, and the hallowed majesty of the sun, and by all
+the Gods, to abide by what I hear from thee.
+
+MED. It is sufficient: but what wilt thou endure shouldest thou not abide
+by this oath?
+
+�G. That which befalls impious men.
+
+MED. Go with blessings; for every thing is well. And I will come as quick
+as possible to thy city, having performed what I intend, and having
+obtained what I desire.
+
+CHOR. But may the son of Maia the king, the guide, conduct thee safely to
+thy house, and the plans of those things, which thou anxiously keepest in
+thy mind, mayest thou bring to completion, since, �geus, thou hast appeared
+to us to be a noble man.
+
+MEDEA, CHORUS.
+
+MED. O Jove, and thou vengeance of Jove, and thou light of the sun, now, my
+friends, shall I obtain a splendid victory over my enemies, and I have
+struck into the path. Now is there hope that my enemies will suffer
+punishment. For this man, where I was most at a loss, hath appeared a
+harbor to my plans. From him will I make fast my cable from the stern,
+having come to the town and citadel of Pallas. But now will I communicate
+all my plans to thee; but receive my words not as attuned to pleasure.
+Having sent one of my domestics, I will ask Jason to come into my presence;
+and when he is come, I will address gentle words to him, as that it appears
+to me that these his actions are both honorable, and are advantageous and
+well determined on.[21] And I will entreat him that my sons may stay; not
+that I would leave my children in a hostile country for my enemies to
+insult, but that by deceit I may slay the king's daughter. For I will send
+them bearing presents in their hands, both a fine-wrought robe, and a
+golden-twined wreath.[22] And if she take the ornaments and place them
+round her person, she shall perish miserably, and every one who shall touch
+the damsel; with such charms will I anoint the presents. Here however I
+finish this account; but I bewail the deed such as must next be done by me;
+for I shall slay my children; there is no one who shall rescue them from
+me; and having heaped in ruins the whole house of Jason, I will go from out
+this land, flying the murder of my dearest children, and having dared a
+deed most unhallowed. For it is not to be borne, my friends, to be derided
+by one's enemies. Let things take their course; what gain is it to me to
+live longer? I have neither country, nor house, nor refuge from my ills.
+Then erred I, when I left my father's house, persuaded by the words of a
+Grecian man, who with the will of the Gods shall suffer punishment from me.
+For neither shall he ever hereafter behold the children he had by me alive,
+nor shall he raise a child by his new wedded wife, since it is fated that
+the wretch should wretchedly perish by my spells. Let no one think me
+mean-spirited and weak, nor of a gentle temper, but of a contrary
+disposition to my foes relentless, and to my friends kind: for the lives of
+such sort are most glorious.
+
+CHOR. Since thou hast communicated this plan to me, desirous both of doing
+good to thee, and assisting the laws of mortals, I dissuade thee from doing
+this.
+
+MED. It can not be otherwise, but it is pardonable in thee to say this, not
+suffering the cruel treatment that I do.
+
+CHOR. But wilt thou dare to slay thy two sons, O lady?
+
+MED. For in this way will my husband be most afflicted.
+
+CHOR. But thou at least wilt be the most wretched woman.
+
+MED. Be that as it may: all intervening words are superfluous; but go,
+hasten, and bring Jason hither; for I make use of thee in all matters of
+trust. And thou wilt mention nothing of the plans determined on by me, if
+at least thou meanest well to thy mistress, and art a woman.
+
+CHOR. The Athenians happy of old, and the descendants of the blessed Gods,
+feeding on the most exalted wisdom of a country sacred and unconquered,
+always tripping elegantly through the purest atmosphere, where they say
+that of old the golden-haired Harmonia gave birth to the chaste nine
+Pierian Muses.[23] And they report also that Venus drawing in her breath
+from the stream of the fair-flowing Cephisus, breathed over their country
+gentle sweetly-breathing gales of air; and always entwining in her hair the
+fragrant wreath of roses, sends the loves as assessors to wisdom; the
+assistants of every virtue. How then will the city of hallowed rivers,[24]
+or the country which conducts thee to friends, receive the murderer of her
+children, the unholy one? Consider in conjunction with others of the
+slaughter of thy children, consider what a murder thou wilt undertake. Do
+not by thy knees, by every plea,[25] by every prayer, we entreat you, do
+not murder your children; but how wilt thou acquire confidence either of
+mind or hand or in heart against thy children, attempting a dreadful deed
+of boldness? But how, having darted thine eyes upon thy children, wilt thou
+endure the perpetration of the murder without tears? Thou wilt not[26] be
+able, when thy children fall suppliant at thy feet, to imbrue thy savage
+hand in their wretched life-blood.
+
+JASON, MEDEA, CHORUS.
+
+JAS. I am come, by thee requested; for although thou art enraged, thou
+shalt not be deprived of this at least; but I will hear what new service
+thou dost desire of me, lady.
+
+MED. Jason, I entreat you to be forgiving of what has been said, but right
+is it that you should bear with my anger, since many friendly acts have
+been done by us two. But I reasoned with myself and rebuked myself; wayward
+woman, why am I maddened and am enraged with those who consult well for me?
+and why am I in enmity with the princes of the land and with my husband,
+who is acting in the most advantageous manner for us, having married a
+princess, and begetting brothers to my children? Shall I not cease from my
+rage? What injury do I suffer, the Gods providing well for me? Have I not
+children? And I know that I am flying the country, and am in want of
+friends. Revolving this in my mind I perceive that I had much imprudence,
+and was enraged without reason. Now then I approve of this, and thou
+appearest to me to be prudent, having added this alliance to us; but I was
+foolish, who ought to share in these plans, and to join in adorning and to
+stand by the bed, and to delight with thee that thy bride was enamored of
+thee; but we women are as we are, I will not speak evil of the sex;
+wherefore it is not right that you should put yourself on an equality with
+the evil, nor repay folly for folly. I give up, and say that then I erred
+in judgment, but now I have determined on these things better. O my
+children, my children, come forth, leave the house, come forth, salute, and
+address your father with me, and be reconciled to your friends from your
+former hatred together with your mother. For there is amity between us, and
+my rage hath ceased. Take his right hand. Alas! my misfortunes; how I feel
+some hidden ill in my mind! Will ye, my children, in this manner, and for a
+long time enjoying life, stretch out your dear hands? Wretch that I am! how
+near am I to weeping and full of fear!--But at last canceling this dispute
+with your father, I have filled thus my tender sight with tears.
+
+CHOR. In my eyes also the moist tear is arisen; and may not the evil
+advance to a greater height than it is at present.
+
+JAS. I approve of this, lady, nor do I blame the past; for it is reasonable
+that the female sex be enraged with a husband who barters them for another
+union.--But thy heart has changed to the more proper side, and thou hast
+discovered, but after some time, the better counsel: these are the actions
+of a wise woman. But for you, my sons, your father not without thought hath
+formed many provident plans, with the assistance of the Gods. For I think
+that you will be yet the first in this Corinthian country, together with
+your brothers. But advance and prosper: and the rest your father, and
+whatever God is propitious, will effect. And may I behold you blooming
+arrive at the prime of youth, superior to my enemies. And thou, why dost
+thou bedew thine eyes with the moist tear, having turned aside thy white
+cheek, and why dost thou not receive these words from me with pleasure?
+
+MED. It is nothing. I was thinking of my sons.
+
+JAS. Be of good courage; for I will arange well for them.
+
+MED. I will be so, I will not mistrust thy words; but a woman is of soft
+mould, and was born to tears.
+
+JAS. Why, I pray, dost thou so grieve for thy children?
+
+MED. I brought them into the world, and when thou wert praying that thy
+children might live, a feeling of pity came upon me if that would be. But
+for what cause thou hast come to a conference with me, partly hath been
+explained, but the other reasons I will mention. Since it appeareth fit to
+the royal family to send me from this country, for me also this appears
+best, I know it well, that I might not dwell here, a check either to thee
+or to the princes of the land; for I seem to be an object of enmity to the
+house; I indeed will set out from this land in flight; but to the end that
+the children may be brought up by thy hand, entreat Creon that they may not
+leave this land.
+
+JAS. I know not whether I shall persuade him; but it is right to try.
+
+MED. But do thou then exhort thy bride to ask her father, that my children
+may not leave this country.
+
+JAS. Certainly I will, and I think at least that she will persuade him, if
+indeed she be one of the female sex.
+
+MED. I also will assist you in this task, for I will send to her presents
+which (I well know) far surpass in beauty any now among men, both a
+fine-wrought robe, and a golden-twined chaplet, my sons carrying them. But
+as quick as possible let one of my attendants bring hither these ornaments.
+Thy bride shall be blessed not in one instance, but in many, having met
+with you at least the best of husbands, and possessing ornaments which the
+sun my father's father once gave to his descendants. Take these nuptial
+presents, my sons, in your hands, and bear and present them to the blessed
+royal bride; she shall receive gifts not indeed to be despised.
+
+JAS. Why, O fond woman, dost thou rob thy hands of these; thinkest thou
+that the royal palace is in want of vests? in want of gold? keep these
+presents, give them not away; for if the lady esteems me of any value, she
+will prefer pleasing me to riches, I know full well.
+
+MED. But do not oppose me; gifts, they say, persuade even the Gods,[27] and
+gold is more powerful than a thousand arguments to men. Hers is fortune,
+her substance the God now increases, she in youth governs all. But the
+sentence of banishment on my children I would buy off with my life, not
+with gold alone. But my children, enter you the wealthy palace, to the new
+bride of your father, and my mistress, entreat her, beseech her, that you
+may not leave the land, presenting these ornaments; but this is of the
+greatest consequence, that, she receive these gifts in her own hand. Go as
+quick as possible, and may you be bearers of good tidings to your mother in
+what she desires to obtain, having succeeded favorably.
+
+CHOR. Now no longer have I any hope of life for the children, no longer [is
+there hope]; for already are they going to death. The bride shall receive
+the destructive present of the golden chaplet, she wretched shall receive
+them, and around her golden tresses shall she place the attire of death,
+having received the presents in her hands. The beauty and the divine
+glitter of the robe will persuade her to place around her head the
+golden-wrought chaplet. Already with the dead shall the bride be adorned;
+into such a net will she fall, and such a destiny will she, hapless woman,
+meet with; nor will she escape her fate. But thou, oh unhappy man! oh
+wretched bridegroom! son-in-law of princes, unknowingly thou bringest on
+thy children destruction, and on thy wife a bitter death; hapless man, how
+much art thou fallen from thy state![28] But I lament for thy grief, O
+wretch, mother of these children, who wilt murder thy sons on account of a
+bridal-bed; deserting which, in defiance of thee, thy husband dwells with
+another wife.
+
+TUTOR, MEDEA, CHORUS.
+
+TUT. Thy sons, my mistress, are reprieved from banishment, and the royal
+bride received thy presents in her hands with pleasure, and hence is peace
+to thy children.
+
+MED. Ah!
+
+TUT. Why dost thou stand in confusion, when thou art fortunate?
+
+MED. Alas! alas!
+
+TUT. This behavior is not consonant with the message I have brought thee.
+
+MED. Alas! again.
+
+TUT. Have I reported any ill fortune unknowingly, and have I failed in my
+hope of being the messenger of good?
+
+MED. Thou hast said what thou hast said, I blame not thee.
+
+TUT. Why then dost thou bend down thine eye, and shed tears?
+
+MED. Strong necessity compels me, O aged man, for this the Gods and I
+deliberating ill have contrived.
+
+TUT. Be of good courage; thou also wilt return home yet through thy
+children.
+
+MED. Others first will I send to their home,[29] O wretched me!
+
+TUT. Thou art not the only one who art separated from thy children; it
+behooves a mortal to bear calamities with meekness.
+
+MED. I will do so; but go within the house, and prepare for the children
+what is needful for the day. O my sons, my sons, you have indeed a city,
+and a house, in which having forsaken me miserable, you shall dwell, ever
+deprived of a mother. But I am now going an exile into a foreign land,
+before I could have delight in you, and see you flourishing, before I could
+adorn your marriage, and wife, and nuptial-bed, and hold up the torch.[30]
+O unfortunate woman that I am, on account of my wayward temper. In vain
+then, my children, have I brought you up, in vain have I toiled, and been
+consumed with cares, suffering the strong agonies of child-bearing. Surely
+once there was a time when I hapless woman had many hopes in you, that you
+would both tend me in my age, and when dead would with your hands decently
+compose my limbs, a thing desired by men. But now this pleasing thought
+hath indeed perished; for deprived of you I shall pass a life of misery,
+and bitter to myself. But you will no longer behold your mother with your
+dear eyes, having passed into another state of life. Alas! alas! why do you
+look upon me with your eyes, my children? Why do ye smile that last smile?
+Alas! alas! what shall I do? for my heart is sinking. Ye females, when I
+behold the cheerful look of my children, I have no power. Farewell my
+counsels: I will take my children with me from this land. What does it
+avail me grieving their father with the ills of these, to acquire twice as
+much pain for myself? never will I at least do this. Farewell my counsels.
+And yet what do I suffer? do I wish to incur ridicule, having left my foes
+unpunished? This must be dared. But the bringing forward words of
+tenderness in my mind arises also from my cowardice. Go, my children, into
+the house; and he for whom it is not lawful to be present at my sacrifice,
+let him take care himself to keep away.[31] But I will not stain my hand.
+Alas! alas! do not thou then, my soul, do not thou at least perpetrate
+this. Let them escape, thou wretch, spare thy sons. There shall they live
+with us and delight thee. No, I swear by the infernal deities who dwell
+with Pluto, never shall this be, that I will give up my children to be
+insulted by my enemies. [At all events they must die, and since they must,
+I who brought them into the world will perpetrate the deed.] This is fully
+determined by fate, and shall not pass away. And now the chaplet is on her
+head, and the bride is perishing in the robes; of this I am well assured.
+But, since I am now going a most dismal path, and these will I send by one
+still more dismal, I desire to address my children: give, my sons, give thy
+right hand for thy mother to kiss. O most dear hand, and those lips dearest
+to me, and that form and noble countenance of my children, be ye blessed,
+but there;[32] for every thing here your father hath taken away. O the
+sweet embrace, and that soft skin, and that most fragrant breath of my
+children. Go, go; no longer am I able to look upon you, but am overcome by
+my ills. I know indeed the ills that I am about to dare, but my rage is
+master of my counsels,[33] which is indeed the cause of the greatest
+calamities to men.
+
+CHOR. Already have I often gone through more refined reasonings, and have
+come to greater arguments than suits the female mind to investigate; for we
+also have a muse, which dwelleth with us, for the sake of teaching wisdom;
+but not with all, for haply thou wilt find but a small number of the race
+of women out of many not ungifted with the muse.[34]
+
+And I say that those men who are entirely free from wedlock, and have not
+begotten children, surpass in happiness those who have families; those
+indeed who are childless, through inexperience whether children are born a
+joy or anguish to men, not having them themselves, are exempt from much
+misery. But those who have a sweet blooming offspring of children in their
+house, I behold worn with care the whole time; first of all how they shall
+bring them up honorably, and how they shall leave means of sustenance for
+their children. And still after this, whether they are toiling for bad or
+good sons, this is still in darkness. But one ill to mortals, the last of
+all, I now will mention. For suppose they have both found sufficient store,
+and the bodies of their children have arrived at manhood, and that they are
+good; but if this fortune shall happen to them, death, bearing away their
+sons, vanishes with them to the shades of darkness. How then does it profit
+that the Gods heap on mortals yet this grief in addition to others, the
+most bitter of all, for the sake of children?
+
+MEDEA, MESSENGER, CHORUS.
+
+MED. For a long time waiting for the event, my friends, I am anxiously
+expecting what will be the result thence. And I see indeed one of the
+domestics of Jason coming hither, and his quickened breath shows that he
+will be the messenger of some new ill.
+
+MESS. O thou, that hast impiously perpetrated a deed of terror, Medea, fly,
+fly, leaving neither the ocean chariot,[35] nor the car whirling o'er the
+plain.
+
+MED. But what is done that requires this flight?
+
+MESS. The princess is just dead, and Creon her father destroyed by thy
+charms.
+
+MED. Thou hast spoken most glad tidings: and hereafter from this time shalt
+thou be among my benefactors and friends.
+
+MESS. What sayest thou? Art thou in thy senses, and not mad, lady? who
+having destroyed the king and family, rejoicest at hearing it, and fearest
+not such things?
+
+MED. I also have something to say to these words of thine at least; but be
+not hasty, my friend; but tell me how they perished, for twice as much
+delight wilt thou give me if they died miserably.
+
+MESS. As soon as thy two sons were come with their father, and had entered
+the bridal house, we servants, who were grieved at thy misfortunes, were
+delighted; and immediately there was much conversation in our ears, that
+thy husband and thou had brought the former quarrel to a friendly
+termination. One kissed the hand, another the auburn head of thy sons, and
+I also myself followed with them to the women's apartments through joy. But
+my mistress, whom we now reverence instead of thee, before she saw thy two
+sons enter, held her cheerful eyes fixed on Jason; afterward however she
+covered her eyes, and turned aside her white cheek, disgusted at the
+entrance of thy sons; but thy husband quelled the anger and rage of the
+young bride, saying this; Be not angry with thy friends, but cease from thy
+rage, and turn again thy face, esteeming those as friends, whom thy husband
+does. But receive the gifts, and ask thy father to give up the sentence of
+banishment against these children for my sake. But when she saw the
+ornaments, she refused not, but promised her husband every thing; and
+before thy sons and their father were gone far from the house, she took and
+put on the variegated robes, and having placed the golden chaplet around
+her tresses she arranges her hair in the radiant mirror, smiling at the
+lifeless image of her person. And after, having risen from her seat, she
+goes across the chamber, elegantly tripping with snow-white foot; rejoicing
+greatly in the presents, looking much and oftentimes with her eyes on her
+outstretched neck.[36] After that however there was a sight of horror to
+behold. For having changed color, she goes staggering back trembling in her
+limbs, and is scarce in time to prevent herself from falling on the ground,
+by sinking into a chair. And some aged female attendant, when she thought
+that the wrath either of Pan or some other Deity[37] had visited her,
+offered up the invocation, before at least she sees the white foam bursting
+from her mouth, and her mistress rolling her eyeballs from their sockets,
+and the blood no longer in the flesh; then she sent forth a loud shriek of
+far different sound from the strain of supplication; and straightway one
+rushed to the apartments of her father, but another to her newly-married
+husband, to tell the calamity befallen the bride, and all the house was
+filled with frequent hurryings to and fro. And by this time a swift runner,
+exerting his limbs, might have reached[38] the goal of the course of six
+plethra;[39] but she, wretched woman, from being speechless, and from a
+closed eye having groaned deeply writhed in agony; for a double pest was
+warring against her. The golden chaplet indeed placed on her head was
+sending forth a stream of all-devouring fire wonderful to behold, but the
+fine-wrought robes, the presents of thy sons, were devouring the white
+flesh of the hapless woman. But she having started from her seat flies, all
+on fire, tossing her hair and head on this side and that side, desirous of
+shaking off the chaplet; but the golden wreath firmly kept its hold; but
+the fire, when she shook her hair, blazed out with double fury, and she
+sinks upon the ground overcome by her sufferings, difficult for any one
+except her father to recognize. For neither was the expression of her eyes
+clear, nor her noble countenance; but the blood was dropping from the top
+of her head mixed with fire. But her flesh was dropping off her bones, as
+the tear from the pine-tree, by the hidden fangs of the poison; a sight of
+horror. But all feared to touch the body, for we had her fate to warn us.
+But the hapless father, through ignorance of her suffering, having come
+with haste into the apartment, falls on the corpse, and groans immediately;
+and having folded his arms round her, kisses her, saying these words; O
+miserable child, what Deity hath thus cruelly destroyed thee? who makes an
+aged father bowing to the tomb[40] bereaved of thee? Alas me! let me die
+with thee, my child. But after he had ceased from his lamentations and
+cries, desiring to raise his aged body, he was held, as the ivy by the
+boughs of the laurel, by the fine-wrought robes; and dreadful was the
+struggle, for he wished to raise his knee, but she held him back; but if he
+drew himself away by force he tore the aged flesh from his bones. But at
+length the wretched man swooned away, and gave up his life; for no longer
+was he able to endure the agony. But they lie corses, the daughter and aged
+father near one another; a calamity that demands tears. And let thy affairs
+indeed be not matter for my words; for thou thyself wilt know a refuge from
+punishment. But the affairs of mortals not now for the first time I deem a
+shadow, and I would venture to say that those persons who seem to be wise
+and are researchers of arguments, these I say, run into the greatest folly.
+For no mortal man is happy; but wealth pouring in, one man may be more
+fortunate than another, but happy he can not be.
+
+CHOR. The Deity, it seems, will in this day justly heap on Jason a variety
+of ills. O hapless lady, how we pity thy sufferings, daughter of Creon, who
+art gone to the house of darkness, through thy marriage with Jason.
+
+MED. The deed is determined on by me, my friends, to slay my children as
+soon as possible, and to hasten from this land; and not by delaying to give
+my sons for another hand more hostile to murder. But come, be armed, my
+heart; why do we delay to do dreadful but necessary deeds? Come, O wretched
+hand of mine, grasp the sword, grasp it, advance to the bitter goal of
+life, and be not cowardly, nor remember thy children how dear they are, how
+thou broughtest them into the world; but for this short day at least forget
+thy children; hereafter lament. For although thou slayest them,
+nevertheless they at least were dear, but I a wretched woman.
+
+CHOR. O thou earth, and thou all-illuming beam of the sun, look down upon,
+behold this abandoned woman, before she move her blood-stained hand itself
+about to inflict the blow against her children; for from thy golden race
+they sprung; but fearful is it for the blood of Gods to fall by the hand of
+man. But do thou, O heaven-born light, restrain her, stop her, remove from
+this house this blood-stained and miserable Erinnys agitated by the Furies.
+The care of thy children perishes in vain, and in vain hast thou produced a
+dear race, O thou who didst leave the most inhospitable entrance of the
+Cyanean rocks, the Symplegades. Hapless woman, why does such grievous rage
+settle on thy mind; and hostile slaughter ensue? For kindred pollutions are
+difficult of purification to mortals; correspondent calamities falling from
+the Gods to the earth upon the houses of the murderers.[41]
+
+FIRST SON. (_within_) Alas! what shall I do? whither shall I fly from my
+mother's hand?
+
+SECOND SON. I know not, dearest brother, for we perish.
+
+CHOR. Hearest thou the cry? hearest thou the children? O wretch, O
+ill-fated woman! Shall I enter the house? It seems right to me to ward off
+the murderous blow from the children.
+
+SONS. Nay, by the Gods assist us, for it is in needful time; since now at
+least are we near the destruction of the sword.
+
+CHOR. Miserable woman, art thou then a rock, or iron, who cuttest down with
+death by thine own hand the fair crop of children which thou producedst
+thyself? one indeed I hear of, one woman of those of old, who laid violent
+hands on her children, Ino, maddened by the Gods when the wife of Jove sent
+her in banishment from her home; and she miserable woman falls into the sea
+through the impious murder of her children, directing her foot over the
+sea-shore, and dying with her two sons, there she perished! what then I
+pray can be more dreadful than this? O thou bed of woman, fruitful in ills,
+how many evils hast thou already brought to men!
+
+JASON, CHORUS.
+
+JAS. Ye females, who stand near this mansion, is she who hath done these
+deeds of horror, Medea, in this house; or hath she withdrawn herself in
+flight? For now it is necessary for her either to be hidden beneath the
+earth, or to raise her winged body into the vast expanse of air, if she
+would not suffer vengeance from the king's house. Does she trust that after
+having slain the princes of this land, she shall herself escape from this
+house with impunity?--But I have not such care for her as for my children;
+for they whom she has injured will punish her. But I came to preserve my
+children's life, lest [Creon's] relations by birth do any injury,[42]
+avenging the impious murder perpetrated by their mother.
+
+CHOR. Unhappy man! thou knowest not at what misery thou hast arrived,
+Jason, or else thou wouldest not have uttered these words.
+
+JAS. What is this, did she wish to slay me also?
+
+CHOR. Thy children are dead by their mother's hand.
+
+JAS. Alas me! What wilt thou say? how hast thou killed me, woman!
+
+CHOR. Think now of thy sons as no longer living.
+
+JAS. Where did she slay them, within or without the house?
+
+CHOR. Open those doors, and thou wilt see the slaughter of thy sons.
+
+JAS. Undo the bars, as quick as possible, attendants; unloose the hinges,
+that I may see this double evil, my sons slain, and may punish her.
+
+MED. Why dost thou shake and unbolt these gates, seeking the dead and me
+who did the deed. Cease from this labor; but if thou wantest aught with me,
+speak if thou wishest any thing; but never shall thou touch me with thy
+hands; such a chariot the sun my father's father gives me, a defense from
+the hostile hand.[43]
+
+JAS. O thou abomination! thou most detested woman, both by the Gods and by
+me, and by all the race of man; who hast dared to plunge the sword in thine
+own children, thou who bore them, and hast destroyed me childless. And
+having done this thou beholdest both the sun and the earth, having dared a
+most impious deed. Mayest thou perish! but I am now wise, not being so then
+when I brought thee from thy house and from a foreign land to a Grecian
+habitation, a great pest, traitress to thy father and the land that
+nurtured thee. But the Gods have sent thy evil genius on me. For having
+slain thy brother at the altar, thou embarkedst on board the gallant vessel
+Argo. Thou begannest indeed with such deeds as these; and being wedded to
+me, and bearing me children, thou hast destroyed them on account of another
+bed and marriage. There is not one Grecian woman who would have dared a
+deed like this, in preference to whom at least, I thought worthy to wed
+thee, an alliance hateful and destructive to me, a lioness, no woman,
+having a nature more savage than the Tuscan Scylla. But I can not gall thy
+heart with ten thousand reproaches, such shameless confidence is implanted
+in thee. Go, thou worker of ill, and stained with the blood of thy
+children. But for me it remains to bewail my fate, who shall neither enjoy
+my new nuptials, nor shall I have it in my power to address while alive my
+sons whom I begot and educated, but I have lost them.
+
+MED. Surely I could make long reply to these words, if the Sire Jupiter did
+not know what treatment thou receivedst from me, and what thou didst in
+return; but you were mistaken, when you expected, having dishonored my bed,
+to lead a life of pleasure, mocking me, and so was the princess, and so was
+Creon, who proposed the match to thee, when he expected to drive me from
+this land with impunity. Wherefore, if thou wilt, call me lioness, and
+Scylla who dwelt in the Tuscan plain. For thy heart, as is right, I have
+wounded.
+
+JAS. And thou thyself grievest at least, and art a sharer in these ills.
+
+MED. Be assured of that; but this lessens[44] the grief, that thou canst
+not mock me.
+
+JAS. My children, what a wicked mother have ye found!
+
+MED. My sons, how did ye perish by your father's fault!
+
+JAS. Nevertheless my hand slew them not.
+
+MED. But injury, and thy new nuptials.
+
+JAS. And on account of thy bed didst thou think fit to slay them?
+
+MED. Dost thou deem this a slight evil to a woman?
+
+JAS. Whoever at least is modest; but in thee is every ill.
+
+MED. These are no longer living, for this will gall thee.
+
+JAS. These are living, alas me! avenging furies on thy head.
+
+MED. The Gods know who began the injury.
+
+JAS. They know indeed thy execrable mind.
+
+Meo. Thou art hateful to me, and I detest thy bitter speech.
+
+JAS. And I in sooth thine; the separation at least is without pain.
+
+MED. How then? what shall I do? for I also am very desirous.
+
+JAS. Suffer me, I beg, to bury and mourn over these dead bodies.
+
+MED. Never indeed; since I will bury them with this hand bearing them to
+the shrine of Juno, the Goddess guardian of the citadel, that no one of my
+enemies may insult them, tearing up their graves. But in this land of
+Sisyphus will I institute in addition to this a solemn festival and
+sacrifices hereafter to expiate this unhallowed murder. But I myself will
+go to the land of Erectheus, to dwell with �geus son of Pandion. But thou,
+wretch, as is fit, shalt die wretchedly, struck on thy head with a relic of
+thy ship Argo, having seen the bitter end of my marriage.
+
+JAS. But may the Fury of the children, and Justice the avenger of murder,
+destroy thee.
+
+MED. But what God or Deity hears thee, thou perjured man, and traitor to
+the rights of hospitality?
+
+JAS. Ah! thou abominable woman, and murderer of thy children.
+
+MED. Go to thy home, and bury thy wife.
+
+JAS. I go, even deprived of both my children.
+
+MED. Thou dost not yet mourn enough: stay and grow old.[45]
+
+JAS. Oh my dearest sons!
+
+MED. To their mother at least, but not to thee.
+
+JAS. And yet thou slewest them.
+
+MED. To grieve thee.
+
+JAS. Alas, alas! I hapless man long to kiss the dear mouths of my children.
+
+MED. Now them addressest, now salutest them, formerly rejecting them with
+scorn.
+
+JAS. Grant me, by the Gods, to touch the soft skin of my sons.
+
+MED. It is not possible. Thy words are thrown away in vain.
+
+JAS. Dost thou hear this, O Jove, how I am rejected, and what I suffer from
+this accursed and child-destroying lioness? But as much indeed as is in my
+power and I am able, I lament and mourn over these; calling the Gods to
+witness, that having slain my children, thou preventest me from touching
+them with my hands, and from burying the bodies, whom, oh that I had never
+begotten, and seen them thus destroyed by thee.
+
+CHOR. Jove is the dispenser of various fates in heaven, and the Gods
+perform many things contrary to our expectations, and those things which we
+looked for are not accomplished; but the God hath brought to pass things
+unthought of. In such manner hath this affair ended.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+NOTES ON MEDEA
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+[1] The Cyane� Petr�, or Symplegades, were two rocks in the mouth of the
+Euxine Sea, said to meet together with prodigious violence, and crush the
+passing ships. See Pindar. Pyth. iv. 386.
+
+[2] [Greek: eretm�sai] signifies to make to row; [Greek: eretm�sai], to
+row. In the same sense the two verbs derived from [Greek: polemos] are
+used, [Greek: polemo�] signifying ad bellum excito; [Greek: poleme�],
+bellum gero.
+
+[3] Elmsley reads [Greek: phyg�] in the nominative case, "_a flight indeed
+pleasing_," etc.
+
+[4] Literally, _Before we have drained this to the very dregs_. So Virgil,
+�n. iv. 14. _Qu� bella exhausta canebat_!
+
+[5] Ter. And. Act. ii. Sc. 5. _Omnes sibi malle melius esse quam alteri_.
+Ac. iv. Sc. 1. _Proximus sum egomet mihi_.
+
+[6] Elmsley reads [Greek: kai] for [Greek: ei], "_And their father_," etc.
+
+[7] In Elms. Dind. [Greek: to gar eithisthai], "_for the being
+accustomed_," etc.
+
+[8] [Greek: dynatai] here signifies [Greek: ischyei, sthenei]; and in this
+sense it is repeatedly used: [Greek: oudena kairon], in this place, is not
+to be interpreted "intempestive", but "immoderate, supra modum." For this
+signification consult Stephen's Thesaurus, word [Greek: kairos]. EMSLEY.
+
+[9] [Greek: hode] is used in this sense v. 49, 687, 901, of this Play.
+
+[10] [Greek: mogera] is best taken with Reiske as the accusative plural,
+though the Scholiast considers it the nominative singular. ELMSLEY.
+
+[11] [Greek: geg�tas] need not be translated as [Greek: nomizomenous], the
+sense is [Greek; ontas]: so [Greek: authad�s geg�s], line 225.
+
+[12] That is, the character of man can not be discovered by the
+countenance: so Juvenal,
+
+  Fronti nulla fides.
+
+[Greek: hostis], though in the singular number, refers to [Greek: brot�n]
+in the plural: a similar construction is met with in Homer, Il. [Greek: G].
+279.
+
+  [Greek: anthr�pous tinnysthon, ho tis k' epiorkon homoss�i].
+
+[13] Grammarians teach us that [Greek: gamein] is applied to the husband,
+[Greek: gameisthai] to the wife; and this rule will generally be found to
+hold good. We must either then read [Greek: h� t' eg�mato], which Porson
+does not object to, and Elmsley adopts; or understand [Greek: eg�mato] in
+an ironical sense, in the spirit of Martial's _Uxori nubere nolo me�_: in
+the latter case [Greek: h�i t' eg�mato] should be read (not [Greek: h�n
+t']), as being the proper syntax.
+
+[14] The primary signification of [Greek: pl�mmel�s] is _absonus_, _out of
+tune_: hence is easily deduced the signification in which it is often found
+in Euripides. The word [Greek: pl�mmel�sas] occurs in the Phoeniss�, l.
+1669.
+
+[15] Elmsley approves of the reading adopted by Porson, though he has given
+in his text
+
+  [Greek: ponoumen h�meis, k' on pon�n kechr�metha].
+
+"_We are oppressed with cares, and want not other cares_," as being more
+likely to have come from Euripides. So also Dindorf.
+
+[16] [Greek: h�s eoikas]; is here used for the more common expression
+[Greek: h�s eoiken]. So Herodotus, Clio, clv. [Greek: ou pausontai hoi
+Lydoi, h�s oikasi, pragmata parechontes, kai autoi echontes]. See also
+Hecuba, 801.
+
+[17] Beck interprets this passage, "Mea quidem vita ut non habeat laudem,
+fama obstat." Heath translates it, "Jam in contrariam partem tendens fama
+efficit, ut mea quoque vita laudem habeat." We are told by the Scholiast,
+that by [Greek: biotan] is to be understood [Greek: physin].
+
+[18] Iolcos was a city of Thessaly, distant about seven stadii from the
+sea, where the parents of Jason lived: Pelion was both a mountain and city
+of Thessaly, close to Iolcos; whence Iolcos is called Peliotic.
+
+[19] For the same sentiment more fully expressed, see Hippolytus, 616-625.
+See also Paradise Lost, x. 890.
+
+                  Oh, why did God,
+  Creator wise, that peopled highest heaven
+  With spirits masculine, create at last
+  This novelty on earth, this fair defect
+  Of nature, and not fill the world at once
+  With men, as angels, without feminine?
+
+[20] Porson rightly reads [Greek: tach' an pithoio] with Wyttenbach.
+
+[21] Elmsley has
+
+  [Greek: "h�s kai dokei moi tauta, kai kal�s echein]
+  [Greek: gamous tyrann�n, hous prodous h�mas echei],
+  [Greek: kai xymphor' einai, kai kal�s egn�smena]."
+
+"_that these things appear good to me, and that the alliance with the
+princes, which he, having forsaken me, has contracted, are both
+advantageous and well determined on_." So also Dind. but [Greek: kal�s
+echei]. Porson omits the line.
+
+[22] In Elmsley this line is omitted, and instead of it is inserted
+
+  "[Greek: nymph�i pherontas, t�nde m� pheugein chthona]."
+
+"_offering them to the bride, that they may not be banished from this
+country_," which Dindorf retains, and brackets the other.
+
+[23] Although the Scholiast reprobates this interpretation, it seems to be
+the best, nor is it any objection, that [Greek: Mn�mosyn�] is elsewhere
+represented as the Mother of the Muses; so much at variance is the poetry
+of Euripides with the received mythology of the ancients. ELMSLEY.
+
+[24] The construction is [Greek: polis hier�n potam�n]; thus Thebes,
+Phoenis. l. 831, is called [Greek: pyrgos didym�n potam�n]. A like
+expression occurs in 2 Sam. xii. 27. I have fought against Rabbah, and have
+taken _the city of waters_, [Greek: polin t�n hydat�n] in the Septuagint
+version.
+
+[25] Elmsley reads [Greek: pantes], "_we all entreat thee_." So Dindorf.
+
+[26] Elmsley reads [Greek: h� dynasei] with the note of interrogation after
+[Greek: thym�i]; "_or how wilt thou be able,_" etc.
+
+[27] An allusion to that well-known saying in Plato, de Repub. 1. 3.
+[Greek: D�ra theous peithei, d�r' aidoious basil�as]. Ovid. de Arte Am.
+iii. 635.
+
+  Munera, crede mini, capiunt hominesque deosque.
+
+[28] Vertit Portus, _O infelix quantam calamitatem ignoras_. Mihi sensus
+videtur esse, _quantum a pristina fortuna excidisti_. ELMSLEY.
+
+[29] Medea here makes use of the ambiguous word [Greek: katax�], which may
+be understood by the Tutor in the sense of "bringing back to their
+country," but implies also the horrid purpose of destroying her children:
+[Greek: tode 'katax�' anti tou pemps� eis ton Aid�n], as the Scholiast
+explains it.
+
+[30] It was the custom for mothers to bear lighted torches at their
+children's nuptials. See Iphig. Aul. l. 372.
+
+[31] [Greek: hot�i de ph�sin ouk eusebes phainetai pareinai t�i phon�i, kai
+dechesthai toiautas thysias, houtos apot�.--t�i de aut�i mel�sei synapteon
+to m� pareinai]. SCHOL.
+
+[32] _But there_; that is, in the regions below.
+
+[33] Ovid. Metamorph. vii. 20.
+
+      Video meliora proboque,
+  Deteriora sequor.
+
+[34] Elmsley reads
+
+  [Greek: pauron de genos (mian en pollais]
+  [Greek: heurois an is�s)]
+  [Greek: ouk, k.t.l.]
+
+"_But a small number of the race of women (you may perchance find one among
+many) not ungifted with the muse_."
+
+[35] A similar expression is found in Iphig. Taur, v. 410. [Greek: na�on
+och�ma]. A ship is frequently called [Greek: Herma thalass�s]: so Virgil,
+�n. vi. Classique immittit habenas.
+
+[36] Elmsley is of opinion that _the instep_ and not _the neck_ is meant by
+[Greek: ten�n].
+
+[37] The ancients attributed all sudden terrors, and sudden sicknesses,
+such as epilepsies, for which no cause appeared, to Pan, or to some other
+Deity. The anger of the God they endeavored to avert by a hymn, which had
+the nature of a charm.
+
+[38] Elmsley has [Greek: anth�pteto], which is the old reading: this makes
+no difference in the construing or the construction, as, in the line
+before, he reads [Greek: an helk�n], where Porson has [Greek: anelk�n].
+
+[39] The space of time elapsed is meant to be marked by this circumstance.
+MUSGRAVE. PORSON. Thus we find in [Greek: M] of the Odyssey, l. 439, the
+time of day expressed by the rising of the judges; in [Greek: D] of the
+Iliad, l. 86, by the dining of the woodman. When we recollect that the
+ancients had not the inventions that we have whereby to measure their time,
+we shall cease to consider the circumlocution as absurd or out of place.
+
+[40] The same expression occurs in the Heraclid�, l. 168. The Scholiast
+explains it thus; [Greek: tymbogeronta, ton pl�sion thanatou honta: tymbous
+de kalousi tous gerontas, paroson pl�sion eisi tou thanatou kai tou
+taphou].
+
+[41] [Greek: autophontais] may be taken as an adjective to agree with
+[Greek: domois], or the construction may be [Greek: ach� pitnonta
+autophontais epi domois], in the same manner as [Greek: lithos epese moi
+epi kephal�i]. ELMSLEY.
+
+[42] [Greek: m� me ti dras�si'] had been "lest they do _me_ any injury."
+Elmsley conceives that [Greek: nin] is the true reading, which might easily
+have been corrupted into [Greek: moi].
+
+[43] Here Medea appears above in a chariot drawn by dragons, bearing with
+her the bodies of her slaughtered sons. SCHOL. See Horace, Epod. 3.
+
+  Hoc delibutis ulta donis pellicem,
+  Serpente fugit alite.
+
+[44] [Greek: lyei] may also be interpreted, with the Scholiast, in the
+sense of [Greek: lysitelei], "the grief delights me." The translation given
+in the text is proposed by Porson, and approved of by Elmsley.
+
+[45] Elmsley has
+
+  [Greek: mene kai g�ras].
+
+"_Stay yet for old age_." So also Dindorf.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *       *
+
+HIPPOLYTUS.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+PERSONS REPRESENTED.
+
+  VENUS.
+  HIPPOLYTUS.
+  ATTENDANTS.
+  PH�DRA.
+  NURSE.
+  THESEUS.
+  MESSENGER.
+  DIANA.
+  CHORUS OF TROEZENIAN DAMES.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE ARGUMENT.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+Theseus was the son of Othra and Neptune, and king of the Athenians; and
+having married Hippolyta, one of the Amazons, he begat Hippolytus, who
+excelled in beauty and chastity. When his wife died, he married, for his
+second wife, Ph�dra, a Cretan, daughter of Minos, king of Crete, and
+Pasipha�. Theseus, in consequence of having slain Pallas, one of his
+kinsmen, goes into banishment, with his wife, to Troezene, where it
+happened that Hippolytus was being brought up by Pittheus: but Ph�dra
+having seen the youth was desperately enamored, not that she was
+incontinent, but in order to fulfill the anger of Venus, who, having
+determined to destroy Hippolytus on account of his chastity, brought her
+plans to a conclusion. She, concealing her disease, at length was compelled
+to declare it to her nurse, who had promised to relieve her, and who,
+though against her inclination, carried her words to the youth. Ph�dra,
+having learned that he was exasperated, eluded the nurse, and hung herself.
+At which time Theseus having arrived, and wishing to take her down that was
+strangled, found a letter attached to her, throughout which she accused
+Hippolytus of a design on her virtue. And he, believing what was written,
+ordered Hippolytus to go into banishment, and put up a prayer to Neptune,
+in compliance with which the god destroyed Hippolytus. But Diana declared
+to Theseus every thing that had happened, and blamed not Ph�dra, but
+comforted him, bereaved of his child and wife, and promised to institute
+honors in the place to Hippolytus.
+
+The scene of the play is laid in Troezene. It was acted in the archonship
+of Ameinon, in the fourth year of the 87th Olympiad. Euripides first,
+Jophon second, Jon third. This Hippolytus is the second of that name, and
+is called [Greek: STEPHANIAS]: but it appears to have been written the
+latest, for what was unseemly and deserved blame is corrected in this play.
+The play is ranked among the first.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+HIPPOLYTUS.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+VENUS.
+
+Great in the sight of mortals, and not without a name am I the Goddess
+Venus, and in heaven: and of as many as dwell within the ocean and the
+boundaries of Atlas, beholding the light of the sun, those indeed, who
+reverence my authority, I advance to honor; but overthrow as many as hold
+themselves high toward me. For this is in sooth a property inherent even in
+the race of the Gods, that "they rejoice when honored by men." But quickly
+will I show the truth of these words: for the son of Theseus, born of the
+Amazon, Hippolytus, pupil of the chaste Pittheus, alone of the inhabitants
+of this land of Troezene, says that I am of deities the vilest, and rejects
+the bridal bed, and will have nothing to do with marriage. But Dian, the
+sister of Phoebus, daughter of Jove, he honors, esteeming her the greatest
+of deities. And through the green wood ever accompanying the virgin, with
+his swift dogs he clears the beasts from off the earth, having formed a
+fellowship greater than mortal ought. This indeed I grudge him not; for
+wherefore should I? but wherein he has erred toward me, I will avenge me on
+Hippolytus this very day: and having cleared most of the difficulties
+beforehand,[1] I need not much labor. For Ph�dra, his father's noble wife,
+having seen him, (as he was going once from the house of Pittheus to the
+land of Pandion, in order to see and afterward be fully admitted to the
+hallowed mysteries,) was smitten in her heart with fierce love by my
+design. And even before she came to this land of Troezene, at the very rock
+of Pallas that overlooks this land, she raised a temple to Venus, loving an
+absent love; and gave out afterward,[2] that the Goddess was honored with
+her temple for Hippolytus's sake. But now since Theseus has left the land
+of Cecrops, in order to avoid the pollution of the murder of the sons of
+Pallas, and is sailing to this land with his wife, having submitted to a
+year's banishment from his people; there indeed groaning and stricken with
+the stings of love, the wretched woman perishes in secret; and not one of
+her domestics is conscious of her malady. But this love must by no means
+fall to the ground in this way: but I will open the matter to Theseus, and
+it shall become manifest. And him that is our enemy shall the father kill
+with imprecations, which Neptune, king of the ocean, granted as a privilege
+to Theseus, that he should make no prayer thrice to the God in vain. But
+Ph�dra dies, an illustrious woman indeed, yet still [she must die]; for I
+will not make her ills of that high consequence, that will hinder my
+enemies from giving me such full vengeance as may content me. But, as I see
+the son of Theseus coming, having left the toil of the chase, I will depart
+from this spot. But with him a numerous train of attendants following
+behind raise a clamor, praising the Goddess Dian with hymns, for he knows
+not that the gates of hell are opened, and that this day is the last he
+beholds.
+
+HIPPOLYTUS, ATTENDANTS.
+
+HIPP. Follow, follow, singing the heavenly Dian, daughter of Jove; Dian,
+under whose protection we are.
+
+ATT. Holy, holy, most hallowed offspring of Jove, hail! hail! O Dian,
+daughter of Latona and of Jove, most beauteous by far of virgins, who, born
+of an illustrious sire, in the vast heaven dwellest in the palace of Jove,
+that mansion rich in gold.
+
+HIPP. Hail, O most beauteous, most beauteous of virgins in Olympus, Dian!
+For thee, my mistress, bear I this wreathed garland from the pure mead,
+where neither does the shepherd think fit to feed his flocks, nor yet came
+iron there, but the bee ranges over the pure and vernal mead, and Reverence
+waters it with river dews. Whosoever has chastity, not that which is taught
+in schools, but that which is by nature, for this description of persons it
+is lawful thence to pluck, but for the evil it is not lawful.[3] But, O my
+dear mistress, receive this wreath to bind your golden tresses from a pious
+hand. For to me alone of mortals is allowed this privilege. With thee I am
+both present, and exchange words with thee, hearing thy voice, but not
+seeing thy countenance. But may I finish the last turn of my course of
+life, even as I began.
+
+ATT. O king, (for the Gods alone ought we to call Lords,) will you hear
+somewhat from me, who advise you well?
+
+HIPP. Most certainly, or else I should not seem wise.
+
+ATT. Knowest thou then the law, which is established among men?
+
+HIPP. I know not; but what is the one, about which thou askest me?
+
+ATT. To hate haughtiness, and that which is disagreeable to all.
+
+HIPP. And rightly; for what haughty mortal is not odious?
+
+ATT. And in the affable is there any charm?
+
+HIPP. A very great one indeed, and gain with little toil.
+
+ATT. Dost thou suppose that the same thing holds also among the Gods?
+
+HIPP. Certainly, forasmuch as we mortals use the laws of the Gods.
+
+ATT. How is it then that thou addressest not a venerable Goddess?
+
+HIPP. Whom? but take heed that thy mouth err not.[4]
+
+ATT. Venus, who hath her station at thy gates.
+
+HIPP. I, who am chaste, salute her at a distance.
+
+ATT. Venerable is she, however, and of note among mortals.
+
+HIPP. Different Gods and men are objects of regard to different persons.
+
+ATT. May you be blest, having as much sense as you require.[5]
+
+HIPP. No one of the Gods, that is worshiped by night, delights me.
+
+ATT. My son, we must conform to the honors of the Gods.
+
+HIPP. Depart, my companions, and having entered the house, prepare the
+viands: delightful after the chase is the full table.--And I must rub down
+my horses, that having yoked them to the car, when I am satiated with the
+repast, I may give them their proper exercise. But to your Venus I bid a
+long farewell.
+
+ATT. But we, for one must not imitate the young, having our thoughts such,
+as it becomes slaves to give utterance to, will adore thy image, O Venus,
+our mistress; but thou shouldest pardon, if any one having intense feelings
+of mind by reason of his youth, speak foolishly: seem not to hear these
+things, for Gods must needs be wiser than men.
+
+CHOR. There is a rock near the ocean,[6] distilling water, which sends
+forth from its precipices a flowing fountain, wherein they dip their urns;
+where was a friend of mine wetting the purple vests in the dew of the
+stream, and she laid them down on the back of the warm sunny cliff: from
+hence first came to me the report concerning my mistress, that she, worn
+with the bed of sickness, keeps her person within the house, and that fine
+vests veil her auburn head. And I hear that she this day for the third
+keeps her body untouched by the fruit of Ceres, [which she receives not]
+into her ambrosial mouth, wishing in secret suffering to hasten to the
+unhappy goal of death. For heaven-possessed, O lady, or whether by Pan, or
+by Hecate, or by the venerable Corybantes, or by the mother who haunts the
+mountains, thou art raving. But thou art thus tormented on account of some
+fault committed against the Cretan huntress, profane because of unoffered
+sacred cakes. For she goes through the sea and beyond the land on the
+eddies of the watery brine. Or some one in the palace misguides thy noble
+husband, the chief of the Athenians, by secret concubinage in thy bed. Or
+some sailor who put from port at Crete, hath sailed to the harbor most
+friendly to mariners, bringing some message to the queen; and, confined to
+her couch, she is bound in soul by sorrow for its sufferings. But wretched
+helplessness is wont to dwell with the wayward constitution of women, both
+on account of their throes and their loss of reason. Once through my womb
+shot this thrill, but I invoked the heavenly Dian, who gives easy throes,
+who presides over the bow, and to me she came ever much to be blessed, as
+well as the other Gods. But lo! the old nurse is bringing her out of the
+palace before the gates; and the sad cloud upon her brows is increased.
+What it can possibly be, my soul desires to know, with what can be
+afflicted the person of the queen, of color so changed.[7]
+
+PH�DRA, NURSE, CHORUS.
+
+Alas! the evils of men, and their odious diseases! what shall I do for
+thee? and what not do? lo! here is the clear light for thee, here the air:
+and now is thy couch whereon thou liest sick removed from out of the house:
+for every word you spoke was to come hither; but soon you will be in a
+hurry to go to your chamber back again: for you are soon changed, and are
+pleased with nothing. Nor does what is present delight you, but what is not
+present you think more agreeable. It is a better thing to be sick, than to
+tend the sick: the one is a simple ill, but with the other is joined both
+pain of mind and toil of hands. But the whole life of men is full of grief,
+nor is there rest from toils. But whatever else there be more dear than
+life, darkness enveloping hides it in clouds. Hence we appear to dote on
+this present state, because it gleams on earth, through inexperience of
+another life, and the non-appearance of the things beneath the earth. But
+we are blindly carried away by fables.
+
+PH�. Raise my body, place my head upright--I am faint in the joints of my
+limbs, my friends, lay hold of my fair-formed hands, O attendants--The
+dressing on my head is heavy for me to support--take it off, let flow my
+ringlets on my shoulders.
+
+NUR. Be of good courage, my child, and do not thus painfully shift [the
+posture of] your body. But you will bear your sickness more easily both
+with quiet, and with a noble temper, for it is necessary for mortals to
+suffer misery.
+
+PH�. Alas! alas! would I could draw from the dewy fountain the drink of
+pure waters, and that under the alders, and in the leafy mead reclining I
+might rest!
+
+NUR. O my child, what sayest thou? Wilt thou not desist from uttering these
+things before the multitude, blurting forth a speech of madness?[8]
+
+PH�. Bear me to the mountain--I will go to the wood, and by the pine-trees,
+where tread the dogs the slayers of beasts, pursuing the dappled hinds--By
+the Gods I long to cheer on the hounds, and by the side of my auburn hair
+to hurl the Thessalian javelin bearing the lanced weapon in my hand.
+
+NUR. Wherefore in the name of heaven, my child, do you hanker after these
+things? wherefore have you any anxiety for hunting? and wherefore do you
+long for the fountain streams? for by the towers there is a perpetual flow
+of water, whence may be your draught.
+
+PH�. O Dian, mistress of Limna near the sea, and of the exercises of the
+rattling steeds, would that I were on thy plains, breaking the Henetian
+colts.
+
+NUR. Wherefore again have you madly uttered this word? at one time having
+ascended the mountain you set forth with the desire of hunting; but now
+again you long for the colts on the wave-beaten sands. These things demand
+much skill in prophecy [to find out], who it is of the Gods that torments
+thee, O lady, and strikes mad thy senses.
+
+PH�. Wretch that I am, what then have I committed? whither have I wandered
+from my sound mind? I have gone mad; I have fallen by the evil influence of
+some God. Alas! alas! unhappy that I am--Nurse, cover my head again, for I
+am ashamed of the things I have spoken: cover me; a tear trickles down my
+eyes, and my sight is turned to my disgrace. For to be in one's right mind
+causes grief: but madness is an ill; yet it is better to perish, nothing
+knowing of one's ills.
+
+NUR. I cover thee--but when in sooth will death cover my body? Length of
+life teaches me many things. For it behooves mortals to form moderate
+friendships with each other, and not to the very marrow of the soul: and
+the affections of the mind should be dissoluble, and so that we can slacken
+them, or tighten.[9] But that one soul should feel pangs for two, as I now
+grieve for her, is a heavy burden. The concerns of life carried to too
+great an extent, they say, bring rather destruction than delight, and are
+rather at enmity with health. Thus I praise what is in extreme less than
+_the sentiment of_ "Nothing in excess;" and the wise will agree with me.
+
+CHOR. O aged woman, faithful nurse of the queen Ph�dra, we see indeed the
+wretched state of this lady, but it is not clear what her disease is: but
+we would wish to inquire and hear from you.
+
+NUR. I know not by my inquiries; for she is not willing to speak.
+
+CHOR. Nor what is the origin of these pangs?
+
+NUR. You come to the same result; for she is silent with regard to all
+these things.
+
+CHOR. How feeble she is, and wasted away as to her body!
+
+NUR. How could it be otherwise, seeing that she has abstained from food
+these three days?
+
+CHOR. From the violence of her calamity is it, or does she endeavor to die?
+
+NUR. To die; but she fasts to the dissolution of her life.
+
+CHOR. An extraordinary thing you have been telling me, if this conduct
+meets the approbation of her husband.
+
+NUR. [He nothing knows,] for she conceals this calamity, and denies that
+she is ill.
+
+CHOR. But does he not guess it, looking into her face?
+
+NUR. [How should he?] for he is out of this country.
+
+CHOR. But do you not urge it as a matter of necessity, when you endeavor to
+ascertain her disease and the wandering of her senses?
+
+NUR. I have tried every thing, and have made no further advances. I will
+not however abate even now from my zeal, so that you being present may bear
+witness with me, how I behave to my mistress when in calamity--Come, dear
+child, let us both forget our former conversations; and be both thou more
+mild, having smoothed that contracted brow, and altered the bent of your
+design; and I giving up that wherein I did not do right to follow thee,
+will have recourse to other better words. And if indeed you are ill with
+any of those maladies that are not to be mentioned, these women here can
+allay the disease: but if it may be related to men, tell it, that the thing
+may be mentioned to physicians.--Well! why art thou silent? It doth not
+behoove thee to be silent, my child, but either shouldst thou convict me,
+if aught I say amiss, or yield to words well spoken.--Say something--look
+hither--O wretch that I am! Ladies, in vain do we undergo these toils,
+while we are as far off from our purpose as before: for neither then was
+she softened by our words, nor now does she give heed to us. Still however
+know (now then be more obstinate than the sea) that, if thou shalt die,
+thou wilt betray thy children, who will have no share in their paternal
+mansion. I swear by the warlike queen the Amazon, who brought forth a lord
+over thy children, base-born yet of noble sentiments, thou knowest him
+well, Hippolytus.
+
+PH�. Ah me!
+
+NUR. This touches thee.
+
+PH�. You have destroyed me, nurse, and by the Gods I entreat thee
+henceforth to be silent with respect to this man.
+
+NUR. Do you see? you judge well indeed, but judging well you are not
+willing both to assist your children and to save your own life.
+
+PH�. I love my children; but I am wintering in the storm of another
+misfortune.
+
+NUR. You have your hands, my child, pure from blood.
+
+PH�. My hands are pure, but my mind has some pollution.
+
+NUR. What! from some calamity brought on you by any of your enemies?
+
+PH�. A friend destroys me against my will, himself unwilling.
+
+NUR. Has Theseus sinned any sin against thee?
+
+PH�. Would that I never be discovered to have injured him.
+
+NUR. What then this dreadful thing that impels thee to die?
+
+PH�. Suffer me to err, for against thee I err not.
+
+NUR. Not willingly [dost thou do so,] but 'tis through thee that I shall
+perish.[10]
+
+PH�. What are you doing? you oppress me, hanging on me with your hand.
+
+NUR. And never will I let go these knees.
+
+PH�. Ills to thyself wilt thou hear, O wretched woman, if thou shalt hear
+these ills.
+
+NUR. [Still will I cling:] for what greater evil can befall me than to lose
+thee?
+
+PH�. You will be undone.[11] The thing however brings honor to me.
+
+NUR. And dost thou then hide what is useful, when I beseech thee?
+
+PH�. _Yes_, for from base things we devise things noble.
+
+NUR. Wilt not thou, then, appear more noble by telling it?
+
+PH�. Depart, by the Gods, and let go my hand!
+
+NUR. No in sooth, since thou givest me not the boon that were right.
+
+PH�. I will give it; for I have respect unto the reverence of thy hand.
+
+NUR. Now will I be silent: for hence is it yours to speak.
+
+PH�. O wretched mother, what a love didst thou love!
+
+NUR. That which she had for the bull, my child, or what is this thou
+meanest?
+
+PH�. Thou, too, O wretched sister, wife of Bacchus!
+
+NUR. Child, what ails thee? thou speakest ill against thy relations.
+
+PH�. And I the third, how unhappily I perish!
+
+NUR. I am struck dumb with amazement. Whither will thy speech tend?
+
+PH�. _To that point_, whence we have not now lately become unfortunate.
+
+NUR. I know not a whit further of the things I wish to hear.
+
+PH�. Alas! would thou couldst speak the things which I must speak.
+
+NUR. I am no prophetess so as to know clearly things hidden.
+
+PH�. What is that thing, which they do call men's loving![12]
+
+NUR. The same, my child, a most delightful thing, and painful withal.
+
+PH�. One of the two feelings I must perceive.
+
+NUR. What say'st? Thou lovest, my child? What man!
+
+PH�. Him whoever he is,[13] that is born of the Amazon.
+
+NUR. Hippolytus dost thou say?
+
+PH�. From thyself, not me, you hear--this name.
+
+NUR. Ah me! what wilt thou go on to say? my child, how hast thou destroyed
+me! Ladies, this is not to be borne; I will not endure to live, hateful is
+the day, hateful the light I behold. I will hurl myself down, I will rid me
+of this body: I will remove from life to death--farewell--I no longer am.
+For the chaste are in love with what is evil, not willingly indeed, yet
+still [they love.] Venus then is no deity, but if there be aught mightier
+than deity, that is she, who hath destroyed both this my mistress, and me,
+and the whole house.
+
+CHOR. Thou didst hear, O thou didst hear the queen lamenting her wretched
+sufferings that should not be heard. Dear lady, may I perish before I come
+to thy state of mind! Alas me! alas! alas! O hapless for these pangs! O the
+woes that attend on mortals! Thou art undone, thou hast disclosed thy evils
+to the light. What time is this that has eternally[14] awaited thee? Some
+new misfortune will happen to the house. And no longer is it obscure where
+the fortune of Venus sets, O wretched Cretan daughter.
+
+PH�. Women of Troezene, who inhabit this extreme frontier of the land of
+Pelops. Often at other times in the long season of night have I thought in
+what manner the life of mortals is depraved.[15] And to me they seem to do
+ill, not from the nature of their minds, for many have good thoughts, but
+thus must we view these things. What things are good we understand and
+know, but practice not; some from idleness, and others preferring some
+other pleasures to what is right: for there are many pleasures in life-long
+prates, and indolence, a pleasing ill, and shame; but there are two, the
+one indeed not base, but the other the weight that overthrows houses, but
+if the occasion on which each is used, were clear, the two things would not
+have the same letters. Knowing them as I did these things beforehand, by no
+drug did I think I should so far destroy these _sentiments_, as to fall
+into an opposite way of thinking. But I will also tell you the course of my
+determinations. After that love had wounded me, I considered how best I
+might endure it. I began therefore from this time to be silent, and to
+conceal this disease. For no confidence can be placed in the tongue, which
+knows to advise the thoughts of other men, but itself from itself has very
+many evils. But in the second place, I meditated to bear well my madness
+conquering it by my chastity. But in the third place, since by these means
+I was not able to subdue Venus, it appeared to me best to die: no one will
+gainsay this resolution. For may it be my lot, neither to be concealed
+where I do noble deeds, nor to have many witnesses, where I act basely.
+Besides this I knew I was a woman--a thing hated by all. O may she most
+miserably perish who first began to pollute the marriage-bed with other
+men! From noble families first arose this evil among women: for when base
+things appear right to those who are accounted good, surely they will
+appear so to the bad. I hate moreover those women who are chaste in their
+language indeed, but secretly have in them no good deeds of boldness: who,
+how, I pray, O Venus my revered mistress, look they on the faces of their
+husbands, nor dread the darkness that aided their deeds, and the ceilings
+of the house, lest they should some time or other utter a voice? For this
+bare idea kills me, friends, lest I should ever be discovered to have
+disgraced my husband, or my children, whom I brought forth; but free, happy
+in liberty of speech may they inhabit the city of illustrious Athens, in
+their mother glorious! For it enslaves a man, though he be valiant-hearted,
+when he is conscious of his mother's or his father's misdeeds. But this
+alone they say in endurance compeers with life, an honest and good mind, to
+whomsoever it belong. But Time, when it so chance, holding up the mirror as
+to a young virgin, shows forth the bad, among whom may I be never seen!
+
+CHOR. Alas! alas! In every way how fair is chastity, and how goodly a
+report has it among men!
+
+NUR. My mistress, just now indeed thy calamity coming upon me unawares,
+gave me a dreadful alarm. But now I perceive I was weak; and somehow or
+other among mortals second thoughts are the wisest. For thou hast not
+suffered any thing excessive nor extraordinary, but the anger of the
+Goddess hath fallen upon thee. Thou lovest--what wonder this? with many
+mortals.--And then will you lose your life for love? There is then no
+advantage for those who love others, nor to those who may hereafter, if
+they must needs die. For Venus is a thing not to be borne, if she rush on
+vehement. Who comes quietly indeed on the person who yields; but whom she
+finds haughty and of lofty notions, him taking (how thinkest thou?) she
+chastises. But Venus goes through air, and is on the ocean wave; and all
+things from her have their birth. She it is that sows and gives forth love,
+from whence all we on earth are engendered. As many indeed as ken the
+writings of the ancients, or are themselves ever among the muses, they know
+indeed, how that Jove was formerly inflamed with the love of Semele; they
+know too, how that formerly the lovely bright Aurora bore away Cephalus up
+to the Gods, for love, but still they live in heaven, and fly not from the
+presence of the Gods: but they acquiesce yielding, I ween, to what has
+befallen them. And wilt thou not bear it? Thy father then ought to have
+begotten thee on stipulated terms, or else under the dominion of other
+Gods, unless thou wilt be content with these laws. How many, thinkest thou,
+are in full and complete possession of their senses, who, when they see
+their bridal bed diseased, seem not to see it! And how many fathers,
+thinkest thou, have aided their erring sons in matters of love, for this is
+a maxim among the wise part of mankind, "that things that show not fair
+should be concealed." Nor should men labor too exactly their conduct in
+life, for neither would they do well to employ much accuracy in the roof
+wherewith their houses are covered; but having fallen into fortune so deep
+as thou hast, how dost thou imagine thou canst swim out? But if thou hast
+more things good than bad, mortal as thou art, thou surely must be well
+off. But cease, my dear child, from these evil thoughts, cease too from
+being haughty, for nothing else save haughtiness is this, to wish to be
+superior to the Gods. But, as thou art in love, endure it; a God hath
+willed it so: and, being ill, by some good means or other try to get rid of
+thy illness. But there are charms and soothing spells: there will appear
+some medicine for this sickness. Else surely men would be slow indeed in
+discoveries, if we women should not find contrivances.
+
+CHOR. Ph�dra, she speaks indeed most useful advice in thy present state:
+but thee I praise. Yet is this praise less welcome than her words, and to
+thee more painful to hear.
+
+PH�. This is it that destroys cities of men and families well
+governed--words too fair. For it is not at all requisite to speak words
+pleasant to the ear, but that whereby one may become of fair report.
+
+NUR. Why dost thou talk in this grand strain? thou needest not gay
+decorated words, but a man: as soon as possible must those be found, who
+will speak out the plain straightforward word concerning thee. For if thy
+life were not in calamities of such a cast, I never would have brought thee
+thus far for the sake of lust, and for thy pleasure: but now the great
+point is to save thy life; and this is not a thing deserving of blame.
+
+PH�. O thou that hast spoken dreadful things, wilt thou not shut thy mouth?
+and wilt not cease from uttering again those words most vile?
+
+NUR. Vile they are, but better these for thee than fair; but better will
+the deed be (if at least it will save thee), than the name, in the which
+while thou boastest, thou wilt die.
+
+PH�. Nay do not, I entreat thee by the Gods (for thou speakest well, but
+base are [the things thou speakest]) go beyond this, since rightly have I
+surrendered my life to love; but if thou speak base things in fair phrase,
+I shall be consumed, [being cast] into that [evil] which I am now avoiding.
+
+NUR. If in truth this be thy opinion, thou oughtest not to err, but if thou
+hast erred, be persuaded by me, for this is the next best thing thou canst
+do.[16] I have in the house soothing philters of love (and they but lately
+came into my thought); which, by no base deed, nor to the harm of thy
+senses, will rid you of this disease, unless you are obstinate. But it is
+requisite to receive from him that is the object of your love, some token,
+either some word, or some relic of his vest, and to join from two one love.
+
+PH�. But is the charm an unguent or a potion?
+
+NUR. I know not: wish to be relieved, not informed, my child.
+
+PH�. I fear thee, lest thou should appear too wise to me.
+
+NUR. Know that you would fear every thing, _if you fear this_, but what is
+it you are afraid of?
+
+PH�. Lest you should tell any of these things to the son of Theseus.
+
+NUR. Let be, my child, I will arrange these matters honorably, only be thou
+my coadjutor, O Venus, my revered mistress; but the other things which I
+purpose, it will suffice to tell to my friends within.
+
+CHORUS, PH�DRA.
+
+CHOR. Love, love, O thou that instillest desire through the eyes, inspiring
+sweet affection in the souls of those against whom thou makest war, mayst
+thou never appear to me to my injury, nor come unmodulated: for neither is
+the blast of fire nor the bolt of heaven more vehement, than that of Venus,
+which Love, the boy of Jove, sends from his hands. In vain, in vain, both
+by the Alpheus, and at the Pythian temples of Phoebus does Greece then
+solemnize the slaughter of bulls: but Love, the tyrant of men, porter of
+the dearest chambers of Venus, we worship not, the destroyer and visitant
+of men in all shapes of calamity, when he comes. That virgin in Oechalia,
+yoked to no bridal bed, till then unwedded, and who knew no husband, having
+taken from her home a wanderer impelled by the oar, her, like some
+Bacchanal of Pluto, with blood, with smoke, and murderous hymeneals did
+Venus give to the son of Alcmena. O unhappy woman, because of her nuptials!
+O sacred wall of Thebes, O mouth of Dirce, you can assist me in telling, in
+what manner Venus comes: for by the forked lightning, by a cruel fate, did
+she put to eternal sleep the parent of the Jove-begotten Bacchus, when she
+was visited as a bride. For dreadful doth she breathe on all things, and
+like some bee hovers about.
+
+PH�. Women, be silent: I am undone.
+
+CHOR. What is there that affrights thee, Ph�dra, in thine house?
+
+PH�. Be silent, that I may make out the voice of those within.
+
+CHOR. I am silent: this however is an evil bodement.
+
+PH�. Alas me! O! O! O! oh unhappy me, because of my sufferings!
+
+CHOR. What sound dost thou utter? what word speakest thou? tell me what
+report frightens thee, lady, rushing upon thy senses!
+
+PH�. We are undone. Do you, standing at these gates, hear what the noise is
+that strikes on the house?
+
+CHOR. Thou art by the gate, the noise that is sent forth from the house is
+thy care. But tell me, tell me, what evil, I pray thee, came _to thine
+ears_?
+
+PH�. The son of the warlike Amazon, Hippolytus, cries out, abusing in
+dreadful forms my attendant.
+
+CHOR. I hear indeed a noise, but can not plainly tell how it is. The voice
+came, it came through to the door.
+
+PH�. But hark! he calls her plainly the pander of wickedness, the betrayer
+of her master's bed.
+
+CHOR. Alas me for thy miseries! Thou art betrayed, dear mistress. What
+shall I counsel thee? for hidden things are come to light, and thou art
+utterly destroyed----
+
+PH�. O! O!
+
+CHOR. Betrayed by thy friends.
+
+PH�. She hath destroyed me by speaking of my unhappy state, kindly but not
+honorably endeavoring to heal this disease.
+
+CHOR. How then? what wilt thou do, O thou that hast suffered things
+incurable?
+
+PH�. I know not, save one thing; to die as soon as possible is the only
+cure of my present sufferings.
+
+HIPPOLYTUS, PH�DRA, NURSE, CHORUS.
+
+HIPP. O mother earth, and ye disclosing rays of the sun, of what words have
+I heard the dreadful sound!
+
+NUR. Be silent, my son, before any one hears thy voice.
+
+HIPP. It is not possible for me to be silent, when I have heard such
+dreadful things.
+
+NUR. Nay, I implore thee by thy beauteous hand.
+
+HIPP. Wilt not desist from bringing thy hand near me, and from touching my
+garments?
+
+NUR. O! by thy knees, I implore thee, do not utterly destroy me.
+
+HIPP. But wherefore this? since, thou sayest, thou hast spoken nothing
+evil.
+
+NUR. This word, my son, is by no means to be divulged.
+
+HIPP. It is more fair to speak fair things to many.
+
+NUR. O my child, by no means dishonor your oath.
+
+HIPP. My tongue hath sworn--my mind is still unsworn.[17]
+
+NUR. O my son, what wilt thou do? wilt thou destroy thy friends?
+
+HIPP. _Friends!_ I reject the word: no unjust person is my friend.
+
+NUR. Pardon, my child: that men should err is but to be expected.
+
+HIPP. O Jove, wherefore in the name of heaven didst thou place in the light
+of the sun that specious[18] evil to men, women? for if thou didst will to
+propagate the race of mortals, there was no necessity for this to be done
+by women, but men might, having placed an equivalent in thy temples, either
+in brass, or iron, or the weighty gold, buy a race of children, each for
+the consideration of the value paid, and thus might dwell in unmolested
+houses, without females. But now, first of all, when we prepare to bring
+this evil to our homes, we squander away the wealth of our houses. By this
+too it is evident, that woman is a great evil; for the father, who begat
+her and brought her up, having given her a dowry sends her away in order to
+be rid of the evil. But the husband, on the other hand, when he has
+received the baneful evil[19] into his house, rejoices, having added a
+beautiful decoration to a most vile image, and tricks her out with robes,
+unhappy man, while he has been insensibly minishing the wealth of the
+family. But he is constrained; so that having made alliance with noble
+kinsmen, he retains with [seeming] joy a marriage bitter to him: or if he
+has received a good bride, but worthless parents in law, he suppresses the
+evil that has befallen him by the consideration of the good. But his state
+is the easiest, whose wife is settled in his house, a cipher, but useless
+by reason of simplicity. But a wise woman I detest: may there not be in my
+house at least a woman more highly gifted with mind than woman ought to be.
+For Venus engenders mischief rather among clever women, but a woman who is
+not endowed with capacity, by reason of her small understanding, is removed
+from folly. But it is right that an attendant should have no access to a
+woman, but with them ought to dwell the speechless brute beasts, in which
+case they would be able neither to address any one, nor from them to
+receive a voice in return. But now, they that are evil follow after their
+evil devices within, and the servants carry it forth abroad. As thou also
+hast, O evil woman, come to the purpose of admitting me to share a bed
+which must not be approached--a father's. Which impious things I will wash
+out with flowing stream, pouring it into my ears: how then could I be the
+vile one, who do not even deem myself pure, because I have heard such
+things?--But be well assured, my piety protects thee, woman, for, had I not
+been taken unawares by the oaths of the Gods, never would I have refrained
+from telling these things to my father. But now will I depart from the
+house, _and stay_ during the time that Theseus is absent from the land, and
+will keep my mouth silent; but I will see, returning with my father's
+return, how you will look at him, both you and your mistress. But your
+boldness I shall know, having before had proof of it. May you perish: but
+never shall I take my fill of hating women, not even if any one assert,
+that I am always saying this. For in some way or other they surely are
+always bad. Either then let some one teach them to be modest, or else let
+him suffer me ever to utter my invectives against them.
+
+CHORUS, PH�DRA, NURSE.
+
+CHOR. Oh unhappy ill-fated fortune of women! what art now or what words
+have we, having failed as we have, to extricate the knot caused by [these]
+words?
+
+PH�. We have met a just reward; O earth, and light, in what manner, I pray,
+can I escape from my fortunes? and how, my friends, can I conceal my
+calamity? Who of the Gods will appear my succorer, or what mortal my ally,
+or my fellow-worker in unjust works? for the suffering of my life that is
+at present on me comes hardly to be escaped.[20] I am the most ill-fated of
+women.
+
+CHOR. Alas! alas! we are undone, lady, and the arts of thy attendant have
+not succeeded, and it fares ill with us.
+
+PH�. O thou most vile, and the destruction of thy friends, what hast thou
+done to me! May Jove, my ancestor, tear thee up by the roots, having
+stricken thee by his fire. Did not I tell thee (did not I foresee thy
+intention?) to be silent with regard to those things with which I am now
+tormented? but thou couldst not refrain; wherefore I can no longer die with
+glory: but I must now in sooth employ new measures. For he, now that his
+mind is made keen with rage, will tell, to my detriment, thy errors to his
+father, and will fill the whole earth with the most vile reports. Mayst
+thou perish, both thou and whoever else is forward to assist friends
+against their will otherwise than by honorable means.
+
+NUR. Lady, thou canst indeed blame the evil I have wrought; for that which
+gnaws upon thee masters thy better judgment;--but I too have somewhat to
+say in answer to these things, if thou wilt admit it: I brought thee up,
+and have a kind affection toward thee; but, while searching for medicine
+for thy disease, I found not that I wished for. But if I had succeeded, I
+had been surely ranked among the wise; for we have the reputation of sense
+according to our success.
+
+PH�. What? is this conduct just, and satisfactory to me, to injure me
+first, and then to meet me in argument?
+
+NUR. We talk too long--I did not behave wisely. But even from this state of
+things it is possible that thou mayest be saved, my child.
+
+PH�. Desist from speaking; for before also thou didst not well advise for
+me, and didst attempt evil things. But depart from my sight, and take care
+about thyself; for I will settle my own affairs in an honorable manner. But
+you, noble daughters of Troezene, grant thus much to me requesting it, bury
+in silence what you here have heard.
+
+CHOR. I swear by hallowed Dian, daughter of Jove, that I will never reveal
+to the face of day one of thy evils.
+
+PH�. Thou hast well spoken: but one kind of resource, while I search around
+me,[21] do I find for my present calamity, so that I may make the life of
+my children glorious, and may myself be assisted as things have now fallen
+out. For never will I disgrace the house of Crete at least, nor will I come
+before the face of Theseus having acted basely, for one's life's sake.
+
+CHOR. But what irremediable evil art thou then about to perpetrate?
+
+PH�. To die: but how, this will I devise.
+
+CHOR. Speak words of better omen.
+
+PH�. And do thou at least advise me well. But having quitted life this day,
+I shall gratify Venus, who destroys me, and shall be conquered by bitter
+love. But when I am dead, I shall be an evil to another at least,[22] so
+that he may know not to exult over my misfortunes; but, having shared this
+malady in common with me, he shall learn to be modest.
+
+CHOR. Would that I were under the rocks' vast retreats,[23] and that there
+the God would make me a winged bird among the swift flocks, and that I were
+lifted up above the ocean wave that dashes against the Adriatic shore, and
+the water of Eridanus, where for grief of Phaethon the thrice wretched
+virgins let fall into their father's billow the amber-beaming brightness of
+their tears: and that I could make my way to the shore where the apples
+grow of the harmonious daughters of Hesperus, where the ruler of the ocean
+no longer permits the passage of the purple sea to mariners, dwelling in
+that dread bourn of heaven which Atlas doth sustain, and the ambrosial
+founts stream forth hard by the couches of Jove's palaces, where the divine
+and life-bestowing earth increases the bliss of the Gods. O white-winged
+bark of Crete, who didst bear my queen through the perturbed[24] ocean wave
+of brine from a happy home, thereby aiding her in a most evil marriage. For
+surely in both instances, or at any rate from Crete she came ill-omened to
+renowned Athens, when on the Munychian shore they bound the platted ends of
+their cables, and disembarked on the continent. Wherefore she was
+heartbroken with the terrible disease of unhallowed love by the influence
+of Venus; and now that she can no longer hold out against the heavy
+calamity,[25] she will fit around her the noose suspended[26] from the
+ceiling of her bridal chamber, adjusting it to her white neck, having
+revered the hateful Goddess, and embracing an honorable name, and ridding
+from her breast the painful love.
+
+FEMALE SERVANT, CHORUS, THESEUS.
+
+SERV. Alack! alack! run to my succor all that are near the house--My
+mistress the wife of Theseus is hanging.
+
+CHOR. Alas! alas! the deed is done: the queen is indeed no more--she is
+suspended in the noose that hangs there.
+
+SERV. Will ye not haste? will not some one bring a two-edged sword, with
+which we may undo this knot around her neck?
+
+SEMICHOR. My friends, what do we? does it seem good to enter the house and
+to free the queen from the tight-drawn noose?
+
+SEMICHOR. Why we? Are not the young men-servants at hand? The being
+over-busy is not a safe plan through life.
+
+SERV. Lay right the wretched corpse, pull her limbs straight. A grievous
+housekeeping this for my master!
+
+CHOR. The unhappy woman, as I hear, has perished, for already are they
+laying her out as a corpse.
+
+THES. Know ye, females, what noise this is in my house? a heavy sound of my
+attendants reached me. For the family does not think fit to open the gates
+to me and to hail me with joy as having returned from the oracle. Has any
+ill befallen the aged Pittheus? His life is now indeed far advanced; but
+still he would be much lamented by us, were he to leave this house.
+
+CHOR. This that has happened, Theseus, extends not to the old; the young
+are they that by their death will grieve thee.
+
+THES. Alas me! is the life of any of my children stolen from me?
+
+CHOR. They live, but their mother is dead in a way that will grieve thee
+most.
+
+THES. What sayest? My wife dead? By what fate?
+
+CHOR. She suspended the noose, wherewith she strangled herself.
+
+THES. Wasted with sorrow, or from some sudden calamity?
+
+CHOR. Thus much we know--_nothing further_; for I am but just come to thy
+house, Theseus, to bewail thy evils.
+
+THES. Alas! alas! why then have I my head crowned with entwined leaves, who
+am the unhappy inquirer of the oracle? Servants, undo the bars of the
+gates; unloose the bolts, that I may behold the mournful spectacle of my
+wife, who by her death hath utterly undone me.
+
+CHOR. Alas! alas! unhappy for thy wretched ills: thou hast been a sufferer;
+thou hast perpetrated a deed of such extent as to throw this house into
+utter confusion. Alas! alas! thy boldness, O thou who hast died a violent
+death, and, by an unhallowed chance, the act committed by thy wretched
+hand. Who is it then, thou unhappy one, that destroys thy life?
+
+THES. Alas me for my sufferings![27] I have suffered, unhappy wretch, the
+extreme of my troubles--O fortune, how heavy hast thou come upon me and my
+house, an imperceptible spot from some evil demon! the wearing out of a
+life not to be endured;[28] and I, unhappy wretch, perceive a sea of
+troubles so great, that never again can I emerge from it, nor escape beyond
+the flood of this calamity. What mention making can I unhappy, what
+heavy-fated fortune of thine, lady, saying that it was, can I be right? For
+as some bird thou art vanished from my hand, having leaped me a sudden leap
+to the realms of Pluto. Alas! alas! wretched, wretched are these
+sufferings, but from some distant period or other receive I this calamity
+from the Gods, for the errors of some of those of old.
+
+CHOR. Not to thee alone, O king, have these evils happened; but with many
+others thou hast lost an excellent wife.[29]
+
+THES. In the shades beneath the earth, I unhappy wish, dying, to dwell in
+darkness, reft as I am of thy most dear company, for thou hast destroyed
+rather than perished--What then do I hear? whence came the deadly chance,
+lady, to thine heart? Will any speak what has happened, or does my royal
+palace contain to no purpose the crowd of my attendants?--Alas me on thy
+account! unhappy that I am, what grief in my house have I seen,
+intolerable, indescribable! but--we are undone! my house left desolate, and
+my children orphans.
+
+CHOR. Thou hast left us, thou hast left us, O dear among women, and most
+excellent of those as many as both the light of the sun, and the
+star-visaged moon of night behold. O unhappy man! how great ill doth the
+house contain! with tears gushing over, my eyelids are wet at thy calamity.
+But the woe that will ensue on this I have long since been dreading.
+
+THES. Alas! alas! What I pray is this letter suspended from her dear hand?
+does it mean to betoken some new calamity?--What, has the unhappy woman
+written injunctions to me, making some request about[30] my bridal bed and
+my children? Be of good courage, hapless one; for no woman exists, who
+shall enter the bed and the house of Theseus. But lo! the impressions of
+the golden seal[31] of her no more here court my attention.[32] Come, let
+me unfold the envelopments of the seal, and see what this letter should say
+to me.
+
+CHOR. Alas! alas! this new evil in succession again doth the God bring on.
+To me indeed the condition of life will be impossible to bear,[33] from
+what has happened; for I consider, alas! as ruined and no more the house of
+my kings. O God, if it be in any way possible, do not overthrow the house;
+but hear me as I pray, for from some quarter, as though a prophet, I behold
+an evil omen.
+
+THES. Ah me! what other evil is this in addition to evil, not to be borne,
+nor spoken! alas wretched me!
+
+CHOR. What is the matter? Tell me if it may be told me.
+
+THES. It cries out--the letter cries out things most dreadful: which way
+can I fly the weight of my ills; for I perish utterly destroyed. What, what
+a complaint have I seen speaking in her writing!
+
+CHOR. Alas! thou utterest words foreboding woes.
+
+THES. No longer will I keep within the door of my lips this dreadful,
+dreadful evil hardly to be uttered. O city, city, Hippolytus has dared by
+force to approach my bed, having despised the awful eye of Jove. But O
+father Neptune, by one of these three curses, which thou formerly didst
+promise me, by one of those destroy my son, and let him not escape beyond
+this day, if thou hast given me curses that shall be verified.
+
+CHOR. O king, by the Gods recall back this prayer, for hereafter you will
+know that you have erred; be persuaded by me.
+
+THES. It can not be: and moreover I will drive him from this land. And by
+one or other of the two fates shall he be assailed: for either Neptune
+shall send him dead to the mansions of Pluto, having respect unto my wish;
+or else banished from this country, wandering over a foreign land, he shall
+drag out a miserable existence.
+
+CHOR. And lo! thy son Hippolytus is present here opportunely, but if thou
+let go thy evil displeasure, king Theseus, thou wilt advise the best for
+thine house.
+
+HIPPOLYTUS, THESEUS, CHORUS.
+
+HIPP. I heard thy cry, my father, and came in haste; the thing however, for
+which you are groaning, I know not; but would fain hear from you. Ha! what
+is the matter? I behold thy wife, my father, a corpse: this is a thing meet
+for the greatest wonder.--Her, whom I lately left, her, who beheld the
+light no great time since. What ails her? In what manner died she, my
+father, I would fain hear from you. Art silent? But there is no use of
+silence in misfortunes; for the heart which desires to hear all things, is
+found eager also in the case of ills. It is not indeed right, my father, to
+conceal thy misfortunes from friends, and even more than friends.
+
+THES. O men, who vainly go astray in many things, why then do ye teach ten
+thousand arts, and contrive and invent every thing; but one thing ye do not
+know, nor yet have investigated, to teach those to be wise who have no
+intellect!
+
+HIPP. A clever sophist this you speak of, who is able to compel those who
+have no wisdom to be rightly wise. But (for thou art arguing too refinedly
+on no suitable occasion) I fear, O father, lest thy tongue be talking at
+random through thy woes.
+
+THES. Alas! there ought to be established for men some infallible proof of
+their friends, and some means of knowing their dispositions, both who is
+true, and who is not a friend, and men ought all to have two voices, the
+one true, the other as it chanced, that the untrue one might be convicted
+by the true, and then we should not be deceived.
+
+HIPP. Has some one then falsely accused me in your ear, and am I suffering
+who am not at all guilty? I am amazed, for your words, wandering beyond the
+bounds of reason, do amaze me.
+
+THES. Alas! the mind of man, to what lengths will it go? what will be the
+limit to its boldness and temerity? For if it shall increase with each
+generation of man, and the successor shall be wicked a degree beyond his
+predecessor, it will be necessary for the Gods to add to the earth another
+land, which[34] will contain the unjust and the evil ones.--But look: ye on
+this man, who being born of me hath defiled my bed, and is manifestly
+convicted by the deceased of being most base.--But, since thou hast come to
+this attaint, show thy face here before thy father. Dost thou forsooth
+associate with the Gods, as being an extraordinary person? art thou chaste
+and uncontaminated with evil? I will not believe thy boasts, attributing
+(_as I must, if I do believe_) to the Gods the folly of thinking evil. Now
+then vaunt, and with thy feeding on inanimate food retail your doctrines
+upon men, and having Orpheus[35] for your master, revel it, reverencing the
+emptiness of many letters; _which avail you not_; since you are caught.
+
+But such sort of men I warn all to shun; for they hunt with fair-sounding
+words, while they devise base things. She is dead: dost thou think this
+will save thee? By this thou art most detected, O thou most vile one! For
+what sort of oaths, what arguments can be more strong than what she says,
+so that thou canst escape the accusation? Wilt thou say that she hated
+thee, and that the bastard race is hateful forsooth to those of noble
+birth? A bad housewife then of life you account her, if through hatred of
+thee she lost what was most dear to her. But wilt thou say that there is
+not this folly in men, but that there is in women? I myself have known
+young men who were not a whit more steady than women, when Venus disturbed
+the youthful mind: but their pretense of manliness protects them. Now
+however, why do I thus contend against thy words, when the corse, the
+surest witness, is here? Depart an exile from this land as soon as
+possible. And neither go to the divine-built Athens, nor to the confines of
+that land over which my sceptre rules. For if I thus suffering by thee be
+vanquished, never will the Isthmian Sinis bear witness of me that I killed
+him, but will say that I vainly boast. Nor will the Scironian rocks, that
+dwell by the sea, confess that I am formidable to the bad.
+
+CHOR. I know not how I can say that any of mortals is happy; for the things
+that were most excellent are turned back again.
+
+HIPP. Father, thy rage indeed, and the commotion of thy mind is terrible;
+this thing, however, though it have fair arguments, if any one unravel it,
+is not fair. But I am unadorned with phrase to speak to the multitude, but
+to speak to my equals and to a few, more expert: but this also has
+consistency in it; for those, who are of no account among the wise, are
+more fitted to speak before the rabble. But yet it is necessary for me,
+since this calamity has come, to unloose my tongue. But first will I begin
+to speak from that point where first you attacked, as though you would
+destroy, and as though I should not answer again. Dost thou behold this
+light and this earth? In these there is not a man more chaste than me, not
+even though thou deny it. For, first indeed, I know to reverence the Gods,
+and to have such friends as attempt not to be unjust, but those, to whom
+there is modesty, so that neither they give utterance to evil thoughts, nor
+minister in return base services to those who use their friendship: nor am
+I the derider of my associates, O father, but the same man to my friends
+when they are not present, and when I am with them. But of one thing by
+which thou thinkest to crush me, I am pure;[36] for to this day my body is
+undefiled by the couch of love; and I know not the deed except hearing of
+it by report, and seeing it in a picture, nor even am I forward to look at
+these things, having a virgin mind. And perhaps my modesty persuades you
+not. Behooves it thee then to show in what manner I lost it. Did this
+woman's person excel in beauty all women? Or did I hope to rule over thine
+house, having thy bridal bed as carrying dowry with it? I must in that case
+have been a fool, and not at all in my senses. But did I do it as though to
+reign were pleasant to the modest? By no means indeed is it, except
+monarchy have destroyed the minds of men who are pleased with her. But I
+would wish indeed to be first victor in the Grecian games, but second in
+the state ever to be happy with the most excellent friends. For thus is it
+possible to be well circumstanced: but the absence of the danger gives
+greater joy than dominion. One of my arguments has not been spoken, but the
+rest you are in possession of: for, if I had a witness such as myself am,
+and were she alive during my contention, you would know the evil ones,
+searching them by their works. But now I swear by Jove, the guardian of
+oaths,[37] and by the plain of the earth, that never touched I thy bridal
+bed, nor ever wished it, nor conceived the thought. Else may I perish
+inglorious, without a name, and may neither sea nor earth receive the flesh
+of me when dead, if I be a wicked man. But whether or no she have destroyed
+her life through fear, I know not: for it is not lawful for me to speak
+further. Cautious[38] she was, though she could not be chaste; but I, who
+could be, had the power to no good purpose.
+
+CHOR. Thou hast said sufficient to rebut the charge, in offering the oaths
+by the Gods, no slight proof.
+
+THES. Is not this man then an enchanter and a juggler, who trusts that he
+will overcome my mind by his goodness of disposition, after he has
+dishonored his father?
+
+HIPP. I too very much wonder at this conduct of yours, my father; for if
+you were my son, and I your father, I should slay you, and not punish you
+by banishment, if you had dared to defile my wife.
+
+THES. How fitly hast thou said this! yet thou shalt not so die, as thou
+hast laid down this law for thyself; for a quick grave is easiest to the
+miserable man; but wandering an exile from thy country's land to foreign
+realms, thou shalt drag out a life of bitterness; for this is the reward
+for the impious man.
+
+HIPP. Ah me! what wilt thou do? wilt thou not even await time as evidence
+against me, but wilt thou banish me from the land?
+
+THES. Ay, beyond the ocean, and the place of Atlas,[39] if any way I could,
+so much do I hate thee.
+
+HIPP. Without having even examined oath, or proof, or the sayings of the
+seers, wilt thou cast me uncondemned from out the land?
+
+THES. This letter here, that waiteth no seer's observations,[40] accuses
+thee faithfully; but to the birds that flit above my head I bid a long
+farewell.
+
+HIPP. O Gods, wherefore then do I not ope my mouth, who am destroyed by you
+whom I worship?--And yet not so--for thus I should not altogether persuade
+those whom I ought, but should be violating to no purpose the oaths which I
+have sworn.
+
+THES. Alas me! how thy sanctity kills me! Wilt not thou go as quick as
+possible from thy country's land?
+
+HIPP. Whither then shall I unhappy turn me; what stranger's mansion shall I
+enter, banished on this charge?
+
+THES. His, who delights to entertain defilers of women, and those who dwell
+with[41] evil deeds.
+
+HIPP. Alas! alas! this goes to my heart, and almost makes me weep: if
+indeed I appear vile, and seem so to thee.
+
+THES. Then oughtest thou to have groaned, and owned the guilt before, when
+thou daredst to wrong thy father's wife.
+
+HIPP. O mansions, would that ye could utter me a voice, and bear witness
+whether I be a vile man!
+
+THES. Dost fly to dumb witnesses? this deed, though it speak not, clearly
+proves thee vile.
+
+HIPP. Alas! would that I could look upon myself standing opposite, to that
+degree do I weep for the evils which I suffer!
+
+THES. Thou hast accustomed thyself much more to regard thyself, than to be
+a just man, and to do what is righteous to thy parents.
+
+HIPP. O unhappy mother! O wretched natal hour! may none of my friends ever
+be illegitimate.
+
+THES. Servants, will ye not drag him out? did you not hear me long ago
+pronounce him banished!
+
+HIPP. Any one of them shall touch me to his cost however; but thou thyself,
+if it be thy desire, thrust me out from the land.
+
+THES. I will do this, unless thou wilt obey my words, for no pity for thy
+banishment comes over me.
+
+HIPP. It is fixed, as it seems; alas, wretch that I am! since I know these
+things indeed, but know not how to say them. O most dear to me of deities,
+daughter of Latona, thou that assortest with me, huntest with me, we shall
+then indeed be banished illustrious Athens: but farewell O city, and land
+of Erectheus. O plain of Troezene, how many things hast thou to employ the
+happy youth! Farewell! for I address thee, beholding thee for the last
+time--Come youths of this land my companions, bid me farewell, and conduct
+me from the land, for never shall you see a man more chaste, even though I
+seem not to my father.
+
+CHORUS.
+
+Surely the providence of the Gods, when it comes into my mind, greatly
+takes away sorrow: but cherishing in my hope some knowledge, I am utterly
+deficient, when I look on the fortunes and on the deeds of men, for they
+are changed in different manners, and the life of man varies, ever
+exceeding vague. Would that in answer to my petitions fate from the Gods
+would give me this, prosperity with riches, and a mind unsullied by griefs.
+And be my character neither too high, nor on the other hand infamous. But
+changing my easy habits with the morrow ever may I lead a happy life; for
+no longer have I an unperturbed mind, but I see things contrary to my
+expectations: since we have seen the brightest star of Grecian Minerva sent
+forth to another land on account of his father's rage. O sands of the
+neighboring shore, and mountain wood, where with the swift-footed dogs he
+wont to slay the wild beasts, accompanying the chaste Dian! No more shalt
+thou mount the car drawn by the team of Henetian steeds, restraining with
+thy foot the horses in their exercise on the course round Limna.[42] And
+the sleepless song that used to dwell under the bridge of the chords shall
+cease in thy father's house. And the haunts of the daughter of Latona in
+the deep wood shall be without their garlands: and the contest among the
+damsels for thy bridal bed has died away by reason of thy exile. But I, for
+thy misfortunes, shall endure with tears a fortuneless fortune.[43] O
+unhappy mother, thou hast brought forth in vain! Alas! I am enraged with
+the Gods. Alas! alas! united charms of marriage, wherefore send ye the
+unhappy one, guilty of no crime, away from his country's land--away from
+these mansions?
+
+But lo! I perceive a follower of Hippolytus with a sad countenance coming
+toward the house in haste.
+
+MESSENGER, CHORUS.
+
+MESS. Ye females, whither going can I find Theseus, king of this land? If
+ye know, tell me: is he within this palace?
+
+CHOR. The [king] himself is coming out of the palace.
+
+MESSENGER, THESEUS, CHORUS.
+
+MESS. I bring a tale that demands concern, of thee and of thy subjects,
+both those who inhabit the city of the Athenians, and the realms of the
+Troezenian land.
+
+THES. What is it? Has any sudden calamity come upon the two neighboring
+states?
+
+MESS. To speak the word--Hippolytus is no more. He views the light however
+for a short moment.
+
+THES. _Killed_? By whom? Has any come to enmity with him, whose wife, as
+his father's, he has forcibly defiled?
+
+MESS. His own chariot slew him, and the imprecations of thy mouth, which
+thou didst put up to thy father, the ruler of the ocean, concerning thy
+son.
+
+THES. O ye Gods! and O Neptune! how truly then wert thou my father, when
+thou didst duly hear my imprecations! Tell me too, how did he perish? in
+what way did the staff of Justice strike him that disgraced me?
+
+MESS. We indeed near the wave-beaten shore were combing out with combs the
+horses' hair, weeping, for there had come a messenger saying, that
+Hippolytus no longer trod on this land, having from thee received the
+sentence of wretched banishment. But he came bringing to us on the shore
+the same strain of tears: and an innumerable throng of his friends and
+companions came following with him. But at length after some time he spake,
+having ceased from his groans. "Wherefore am I thus disquieted? My father's
+words must be obeyed. My servants, yoke to my car the harnessed steeds, for
+this city is for me no more." Then indeed every man hasted, and sooner than
+one could speak we drew up the horses caparisoned before our master; and he
+seizes with his hands the reins from off the bow of the chariot, mounting
+with his foot sandaled as it was.[44] And first indeed he addressed the
+Gods with outstretched hands: "Jove, may I no longer exist, if I am a base
+man; but may my father perceive how unworthily he treats me, either when I
+am dead, or while I view the light." And on this having taken the whip in
+his hands he struck the horses both at once: and we the attendants followed
+our master by the chariot close to the reins, along the road that leads
+straightway to Argos and Epidauria, but when we came into the desert
+country, there is a certain shore beyond this land which slopes even down
+to the Saronic Sea, from thence a voice like the subterraneous thunder of
+Jove sent forth a dreadful groan appalling to hear, and the horses pointed
+their heads erect and their ears toward the sky, and on us there came a
+vehement fear, whence possibly the voice could come: but looking toward the
+sea-beaten shore we beheld a vast wave pillared in heaven, so that the view
+of the heights of Sciron was taken from mine eye:[45] and it concealed the
+Isthmus and the rock of �sculapius. And then swelling up and splashing
+forth[46] much foam around in the ocean surf, it moves toward the shore,
+where was the chariot drawn by its four horses. But together with its
+breaker and its tripled surge,[47] the wave sent forth a bull, a fierce
+monster; with whose bellowing the whole land filled resounded fearfully:
+and to the lookers-on a sight appeared more dreadful than the eyes could
+bear. And straightway a dreadful fear comes over the steeds. But their
+master, being much conversant with the ways of horses, seized the reins in
+his hands, and pulls them as a sailor pulls his oar, having fixed his body
+in an opposite direction to the reins.[48] But they, champing with their
+jaws the forged bits, bare him on forcibly, heeding neither the hand that
+steered them, nor the traces, nor the compact chariot: and, if indeed
+holding the reins he directed their course toward the softer ground, the
+bull appeared in front, so as to turn them away maddening with fright the
+four horses that drew the chariot. But if they were borne to the rocks
+maddened in mettle, silently approaching the chariot he followed so far,
+until he overthrew it and drove it backward, dashing the felly of the wheel
+against the rock. And all was in confusion, and the naves of the wheels
+flew up, and the linch-pins of the axles. But the unhappy man himself
+entangled in the reins is dragged along, bound in a difficult bond, his
+head dashed against the rocks, and torn his flesh, and crying out in a
+voice dreadful to hear, "Stop, O ye that have been trained up in my stalls,
+do not destroy me. Oh unhappy imprecation of my father! Who will come near
+and save a most excellent man?" But many of us wishing so to do failed
+through want of swiftness: and he indeed freed, in what manner I know not,
+from the entanglements of the reins, falls, having the breath of life in
+him, but for a very short time. And the horses vanished, and the woeful
+monster of the bull I know not where in the mountain country. I am indeed
+the slave of thy house, O king, but thus much never shall I at least be
+able to be persuaded of thy son, that he is evil, not even if the whole
+race of women were hung, and though one should fill with writing all the
+fir of Ida,[49] since I am confident that he is virtuous.
+
+CHOR. Alas! alas! The calamity of new evils is consummated, nor is there
+refuge from fate and from what must be.
+
+THES. Through hate of the man, who has thus suffered, I was pleased with
+this account; but now, having respect unto the Gods, and to him, because he
+is of me, I am neither pleased, nor yet troubled at these ills.
+
+MESS. How then? Must we bring him hither, or what must we do to the unhappy
+man to gratify thy wishes! Think; but if thou take my advice, thou wilt not
+be harsh toward thy son in his misfortunes.
+
+THES. Bear him hither, that seeing him before my eyes that denied he had
+defiled my bed, I may confute him with words, and with what has happened
+from the Gods.
+
+CHOR. Thou, Venus, bendest the stubborn mind of the Gods, and of mortals,
+and with thee he of varied plume, that darts about on swiftest wing; and
+flies over the earth and over the loud-resounding briny ocean; and Love
+charms to subjection, on whose maddened heart the winged urchin come
+gleaming with gold, the race of the mountain whelps, and of those that
+inhabit the sea, and as many things as the earth nourisheth, which the sun
+doth behold scorched [with its rays,] and men: but over all these things
+thou, Venus, alone holdest sovereign rule.
+
+DIANA, THESEUS, CHORUS.
+
+DI. Thee, the noble son of �geus, I command to listen; but it is I, Diana,
+daughter of Latona, who am addressing thee: Theseus, wherefore dost thou,
+wretched man, take delight in these things, seeing that thou hast slain in
+no just way thy son, being persuaded by the lying words of thy wife in
+things not seen? But the guilt that has seized on thee is manifest. How
+canst thou, shamed as thou art, refrain from hiding thy body beneath the
+dark recesses of the earth? or from withdrawing thy foot from this
+suffering, by changing thy nature, and becoming a winged creature above?
+Since among good men at least thou hast not a part in life to possess.
+Hear, O Theseus, the state of thy ills. Even though I gain no advantage
+from it, yet will I torment thee; but for this purpose came I to show thee
+the upright mind of thy son, that he may die with a good reputation, and
+thy wife's passion, or, in some sort, nobleness; for, gnawed by the stings
+of that deity most hateful to us, as many as delight in virginity, she
+became enamored of thy son. But while she endeavored by right feeling to
+conquer Venus, she was destroyed not willingly by the means employed by the
+nurse, who having first bound him by oaths, told thy son her malady. But
+he, as was right, obeyed not her words; nor, again, though evil-entreated
+by thee, did he violate the sanctity of his oaths, being a pious man. But
+she, fearing lest her conduct should be scrutinized, wrote a false letter,
+and by deceit destroyed thy son, but nevertheless persuaded thee.
+
+THES. Ah me!
+
+DI. My tale torments thee, Theseus, but be still, that having heard what
+follows thou mayest groan the more--Knowest thou then that thou receivedst
+from thy father three wishes with a certainty of their being granted?
+Whereof one thou hast expended, O most evil one, on thy son, when thou
+mightest have done it on some of thine enemies. Thy father then that
+dwelleth in the ocean, gave thee as much as he was bound to give, because
+he promised. But thou both in his eyes and in mine appearest evil, who
+neither didst await nor examine proof, nor the voice of the prophets, didst
+not leave the consideration to length of time, but, quicker than became
+thee, didst vent thy curses against thy son and slay him.
+
+THES. Mistress, let me die!
+
+DI. Thou hast committed dreadful deeds, but nevertheless, it is still
+possible even for thee to obtain pardon for these things. For Venus willed
+that these things should be in order to satiate her rage. But among the
+Gods the law is thus--None wishes to thwart the purpose of him that wills
+anything, but we always give way. Since, be well assured, were it not that
+I feared Jove, never should I have come to such disgrace, as to suffer to
+die a man of all mortals the most dear to me. But thine error, first of all
+thine ignorance frees from malice; and then thy wife by her dying put an
+end to the proof of words, so as to persuade thy mind. Chiefly then on thee
+these ills are burst, but sorrow is to me too; for Gods rejoice not when
+the pious die; the wicked however we destroy with their children and their
+houses.
+
+CHOR. And lo! the unhappy man there is coming, all mangled his young flesh
+and auburn head. Oh the misery of the house! such double anguish coming
+down from heaven has been wrought in the palaces!
+
+HIPPOLYTUS, DIANA, THESEUS, CHORUS.
+
+HIPP. O! O! O! Unhappy I was thus foully mangled by the unjust prayers of
+an unjust father--I am destroyed miserably. Ah me! ah me! Pains rush
+through my head, and the spasm darts across my brain. Stop, I will rest my
+fainting body. Oh! oh! O those hateful horses of my chariot, things which I
+fed with my own hand, ye have destroyed me utterly and slain me. Oh! oh! by
+the Gods, gently, my servants, touch with your hands my torn flesh. Who
+stands by my side on the right? Lift me up properly, and take hold all
+equally on me, the unblessed of heaven, and cursed by my father's
+error--Jove, Jove, beholdest thou these things? Lo! I, the chaste, and the
+reverencer of the Gods, I who in modesty exceed all, have lost my life, and
+go to a manifest hell beneath the earth; but in vain have I labored in the
+task of piety toward men. O! O! O! O! and now the pain, the pain comes upon
+me, loose unhappy me, and let death come to be my physician. Destroy me,
+destroy the unhappy one--I long for a two-edged blade, wherewith to cut me
+in pieces, and to put my life to an eternal rest. Oh unhappy curse of my
+father! the evil too of my blood-polluted kinsmen, my old forefathers,
+bursts forth[50] upon me; nor is it at a distance; and it hath come on me,
+wherefore, I pray, who am nothing guilty of these ills? Alas me! me! what
+can I say? how can I free my life from this cruel calamity? Would that the
+black and nightly fate of Pluto would put me wretched to eternal sleep!
+
+DI. Oh unhappy mortal, with what a calamity art thou enthralled! but the
+nobleness of thy mind hath destroyed thee.
+
+HIPP. Let be. O divine breathing of perfume, for, even though being in
+ills, I perceived thee, and felt my body lightened of its pain.[51] The
+Goddess Dian is in this place.
+
+DI. Oh unhappy one! she is, to thee the most dear of deities.
+
+HIPP. Mistress, thou seest wretched me, in what state I am.
+
+DI. I see; but it is not lawful for me to shed a tear down mine eyes.
+
+HIPP. Thy hunter, and thy servant is no more.
+
+DI. No in sooth; but beloved by me thou perishest.
+
+HIPP. And he that managed they steeds, and guarded thy statutes.
+
+DI. _Ay_, for the crafty Venus hath so wrought.
+
+HIPP. Ah me! I perceive indeed the power that hath destroyed me.
+
+DI. She thought her honor aggrieved, and hated thee for being chaste.
+
+HIPP. One Venus hath destroyed us three.
+
+DI. Thy father, and thee, and his wife the third.
+
+HIPP. I mourn therefore also my father's misery.
+
+DI. He was deceived by the devices of the Goddess.
+
+HIPP. Oh! unhappy thou, because of this calamity, my father!
+
+THES. I perish, my son, nor have I delight in life.
+
+HIPP. I lament thee rather than myself on account of thy error.
+
+THES. My son, would that I could die in thy stead!
+
+HIPP. Oh! the bitter gifts of thy father Neptune!
+
+THES. Would that the prayer had never come into my mouth.
+
+HIPP. Wherefore this wish? thou wouldst have slain me, so enraged wert thou
+then.
+
+THES. For I was deceived in my notions by the Gods.
+
+HIPP. Alas! would that the race of mortals could curse the Gods!
+
+DI. Let be; for not even when thou art under the darkness of the earth
+shall the rage arising from the bent of the Goddess Venus descend upon thy
+body unrevenged: by reason of thy piety and thy excellent mind. For with
+these inevitable weapons from mine own hand will I revenge me on
+another,[52] whoever to her be the dearest of mortals. But to thee, O
+unhappy one, in recompense for these evils, will I give the greatest honors
+in the land of Troezene; for the unwedded virgins before their nuptials
+shall shear their locks to thee for many an age, owning the greatest sorrow
+tears can give; but ever among the virgins shall there be a remembrance of
+thee that shall awake the song, nor dying away without a name shall
+Ph�dra's love toward thee pass unrecorded:--But thou, O son of the aged
+�geus, take thy son in thine arms and clasp him to thee; for unwillingly
+thou didst destroy him, but that men should err, when the Gods dispose
+events, is but to be expected!--and thee, Hippolytus, I exhort not to
+remain at enmity with thy father; for thou perceivest the fate, whereby
+thou wert destroyed. And farewell! for it is not lawful for me to behold
+the dead, nor to pollute mine eye with the gasps of the dying; but I see
+that thou art now near this calamity.
+
+HIPP. Go thou too, and farewell, blessed virgin! But thou easily quittest a
+long companionship. But I give up all enmity against my father at thy
+request, for before also I was wont to obey thy words. Ah! ah! darkness now
+covers me over mine eyes. Take hold on me, my father, and lift up my body.
+
+THES. Ah me! my son, what dost thou, do to me unhappy?
+
+HIPP. I perish, and do indeed see the gates of hell.
+
+THES. What? leaving my mind uncleansed from thy blood?
+
+HIPP. No in sooth, since I free thee from this murder.
+
+THES. What sayest thou? dost thou remit me free from the guilt of blood?
+
+HIPP. I call to witness Dian that slays with the bow.
+
+THES. O most dear, how noble thou appearest to thy father!
+
+HIPP. O farewell thou too, take my best farewell, my father!
+
+THES. Oh me! for thy pious and brave soul!
+
+HIPP. Pray to have legitimate sons like me.
+
+THES. Do not, I prithee, leave me, my son, but be strong.
+
+HIPP. My time of strength is past; for I perish, my father: but cover my
+face as quickly as possible with robes.
+
+THES. O famous realms of Athens and of Pallas, of what a man will ye have
+been bereaved! Oh unhappy I! What abundant reason, Venus, shall I have to
+remember thy ills!
+
+CHOR. This common grief to all the citizens hath come unexpectedly. There
+will be a fast falling of many tears; for the mournful stories of great men
+rather obtain.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+NOTES ON HIPPOLYTUS
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+[1] The construction in the original furnishes a remarkable example of the
+"nominativus pendens."
+
+[2] Or, _that posterity might know it_. TR. Dindorf would omit these words.
+B.
+
+[3] Dindorf would omit these lines. I think the difficulty in the structure
+may be removed by reading [Greek: hostis] instead of [Greek: hosois]. The
+enallage, [Greek: hostis ... toutois], is by no means unusual. B.
+
+[4] Cf. Soph. Oed. Col. 121, sqq. B.
+
+[5] Which at present you do not appear to have.
+
+[6] Monk would join [Greek: �keanou] with [Greek: petra], as in the
+translation, but other commentators prefer, which is certainly more simple,
+to join it with [Greek: hyd�r]. Then the difficulty occurs of sea-water
+being unfit for washing vests. This difficulty Beck obviates, by saying
+that [Greek: hyd�r �keanou] may be applied to fresh water, Ocean being the
+parent of all streams, the word [Greek: �keanou] being here, in a manner,
+redundant. TR. Matthi� is very wrath with the "all on a washing day" manner
+in which the Chorus learned Ph�dra's indisposition. The "Bothie of Toper na
+Fuosich" will furnish some similar simplicities, such as the meeting a
+lassie "digging potatoes." But we might as well object to the whole story
+of Nausicaa. It must be recollected that the duties of the laundry were
+considered more aristocratic by the ancients, than in modern times. B.
+
+[7] Cf. �sch. Pr. 23. [Greek: Chroias ameipseis anthos]. B.
+
+[8] Literally _a speech mounted on madness_. A similar expression occurs,
+Odyssey [Greek: A]. 297. [Greek: N�piaas ocheein].
+
+[9] Plutarch in explanation of this line says, "[Greek: kathaper poda ne�s,
+epididonta kai prosagonta tais chreiais t�n philian]."
+
+[10] I have followed the elegant interpretation of L. Dindorf, who observes
+that [Greek: ou d�th hekousa] refers to Ph�dra's assertion, [Greek: ou gar
+es s' amartan�], and that the meaning is, "non quidem consilio in me
+peccas, sed si tu peribis, ego quoque occidero." He compares Alcest. 389.
+B.
+
+[11] See Matthi�'s note. I prefer, however, [Greek: oleis], with Musgrave.
+B.
+
+[12] Matthi� considers this as briefly expressed for [Greek: ti touto, to
+eran, ha legousi poiein anthr�pous]. Still I can not help thinking [Greek:
+anthr�p�n] a better reading. B.
+
+[13] Ph�dra struggles between shame and uncertainty, before she can
+pronounce the name. It should be read as if [Greek: hostis
+poth'--houtos--ho t�s Amazonos]. B.
+
+[14] Matthi� takes [Greek: panamerios] as = [Greek: en t�ide t�i h�merai],
+i.e. up to this very time. I think the passage is corrupt. B.
+
+[15] This passage, like many others in the play, is admirably burlesqued by
+Aristoph., Ran. 962. B.
+
+[16] _Or, this is a second favor thou mayst grant me_.
+
+[17] On the numberless references to this impious sophism, see the learned
+notes of Valckenaer and Monk. Compare more particularly Aristoph. Ran. 102,
+1471. Thesmoph. 275. Arist. Rhet. iii. 15. B.
+
+[18] Literally, "spurious coined race." B.
+
+[19] The MSS. reading, [Greek: phyton], is preferable. B.
+
+[20] The syntax appears to be [Greek: dysekperaton biou], _such as my like
+can scarcely get over_. Musgrave has followed the other explanation of the
+Scholiast, which makes [Greek: biou] depend on [Greek: pathos]. TR. I have
+followed the Scholiast and Dindorf. B.
+
+[21] [Greek: protrepousa, anti tou z�tousa kai exereun�sa]. Schol. Dindorf
+acknowledges the strangeness of the usage, and seems to prefer [Greek:
+proskopous'], with Monk. B.
+
+[22] Cf. Soph. Ant. 751. [Greek: h�d' oun thaneitai, kai thanous' olei
+tina]. B.
+
+[23] For the meaning and derivation of [Greek: alibatois], see Monk's note.
+
+[24] [Greek: haliktypon] seems to be an awkward epithet of [Greek: kyma],
+unless it mean "_dashed [against the shore] by the waves_." Perhaps [Greek:
+aliktypon] would be less forced. B.
+
+[25] [Greek: Hyperantlos ousa symphorai], a metaphor taken from a ship
+which can no longer keep out water.
+
+[26] See the note on my Translation of �sch. Agam., p. 121, note 1. ed.
+Bonn. B.
+
+[27] Read [Greek: �moi eg� pon�n: epathon � talas] with cod. Hav. See
+Dindorf. B.
+
+[28] Cf. Matth. apud Dindorf. B.
+
+[29] In the same manner the chorus in the Alcestis comforts Admetus. v.
+
+  [Greek: Ou gar ti pr�tos, oude loisthios brot�n]
+  [Greek: gynaikos esthl�s �mplakes.]
+
+[30] [Greek: Hyper] is here to be understood. VALK.
+
+[31] [Greek: Sphendon�], literally, the setting of the seal, which embraces
+the gem as a sling its stone.
+
+[32] See a similar expression in �sch. Eum. 254,
+
+  [Greek: Osm� brotei�n haimat�n me prosgelai.]
+
+[33] The construction is, [Greek: ei� an emoi abi�tos tycha biou, hoste
+tychein aut�s.] MONK.
+
+[34] [Greek: �], _which land, together with the present earth_.
+
+[35] On the Orphic abstinence from animal food, see Matth. apud Dind.
+Compare Porphyr. de Abst. ii. 3 sqq. B.
+
+[36] [Greek: Athiktos] appears here to have an active sense. So in Soph.
+Oed. c. 1521. [Greek: athiktos h�g�t�ros]. It is used in its more frequent
+sense (a passive) in v. 648, of this play. TR. Compare my note on �sch.
+Prom. 110, p. 6, n. I. B.
+
+[37] Cf. Med. 169. [Greek: Z�na th' hos ork�n thnatois tamias nenomistai].
+B.
+
+[38] There are various interpretations of this passage. The Scholiast puts
+this sense upon it, _Ph�dra was chaste (in your eyes), who had not the
+power of being chaste, I had the power, and is it likely that I did not
+exert it to good purpose?_ Others translate the former part of the passage
+with the Scholiast, but make [Greek: ou kal�s echr�metha] refer to the
+present time, _had it to no good purpose_, i.e. am not now able to persuade
+you of my innocence. Some translate [Greek: es�phro�sen], _acted like a
+chaste woman_. TR. There is evidently a double meaning, which is almost
+lost by translation. Theseus is not intended to understand this. B.
+
+[39] Cf. vs. 3. B.
+
+[40] [Greek: Kl�roi] were the notes the augurs took of their observations,
+and wrote down on tablets. See Phoen. 852.
+
+[41] [Greek: xynoikourous] appears to be metaphorically used, but I think
+the sense would be greatly improved by reading [Greek: kakous], and taking
+[Greek: xynoikourous] to mean "to dwell with him," referring it to [Greek:
+hostis]. B.
+
+[42] But we must read [Greek: gymnados hippou] with Reiske, Brunot, and
+Dindorf. See his notes. [Greek: podi] must be joined with [Greek: gym.
+hippou]. B.
+
+[43] [Greek: potmon apotmon]. B.
+
+[44] [Greek: Autaisin arbylaisin]. Some have supposed [Greek: arbyl�] to
+mean a part of the chariot, but this seems at variance with the best
+authorities (see Monk's note); perhaps the expression may mean what is
+implied in the translation; that Hippolytus did not wait to change any part
+of his dress. TR. But I agree with Dindorf, that [Greek: autaisin] is then
+utterly absurd and useless. The Scholiast seems correct in saying, [Greek:
+tais ton harmatos peri t�n antyga, entha t�n otasin echei ho h�niochos]. B.
+
+[45] "Adeo ut deficerent a visu, ne cernere possem, Scironis alta." B.
+
+[46] [Greek: Kachlaz�], a word formed from the noise of the sea--[Greek: ho
+gar �chos tou kymatos en tois koil�masi t�n petr�n ginomenos, dokei
+mimeisthai to kachla, kachla].--_Etym. Mag._
+
+[47] [Greek: Trikymiai]. See Blomfield's _Glossary to the Prometheus_,
+1051.
+
+[48] Musgrave supposes that Hippolytus wound the reins round his body; but
+on this supposition, not to mention other objections, the comparison with
+the sailor does not hold so well. It is more natural to suppose that he
+leaned back in order to get a purchase: in this attitude he is made to
+describe himself in Ov. _Met._ xv. 519, _Et retro lentas tendo resupinus
+habenas._ If there be any doubt of [Greek: eis toumisthen himasin] being
+Greek, this objection is obviated by putting a stop after [Greek: himasin],
+and making it depend on [Greek: helkei].
+
+[49] i.e. in Crete. See Dindorf's note. B.
+
+[50] [Greek: Exorizetai], _valde prorumpit, liberat terminos, quibus
+hactenus septum fuit_. REISKE.
+
+[51] Heath translates [Greek: anekouphisth�n] _adtollebam corpus_, honoris
+scilicet gratia. Compare Iliad, [Greek: O]. 241. [Greek: atar asthma kai
+hidr�s pauet', epei min egeire Dios noos aigiochoio], which Pope
+translates,
+
+  "Jove thinking of his pains, they pass'd away:"
+
+in which the idea is much more sublime; for there the thought of a Deity
+effects what the presence of one does here.
+
+[52] Probably meaning Adonis. See Monk. B.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *       *
+
+ALCESTIS.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+PERSONS REPRESENTED.
+
+  APOLLO.
+  DEATH.
+  CHORUS OF PHEROEANS.
+  ATTENDANTS.
+  ALCESTIS.
+  ADMETUS.
+  EUMELUS.
+  HERCULES.
+  PHERES.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE ARGUMENT.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+Apollo desired of the Fates that Admetus, who was about to die, might give
+a substitute to die for him, that so he might live for a term equal to his
+former life; and Alcestis, his wife, gave herself up, while neither of his
+parents were willing to die instead of their son. But not long after the
+time when this calamity happened, Hercules having arrived, and having
+learned from a servant what had befallen Alcestis, went to her tomb, and
+having made Death retire, covers the lady with a robe; and requested
+Admetus to receive her and keep her for him; and said he had borne her off
+as a prize in wrestling; but when he would not, he unveiled her, and
+discovered her whom he was lamenting.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+ALCESTIS
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+APOLLO.
+
+O mansions of Admetus, wherein I endured to acquiesce in the slave's
+table,[1] though a God; for Jove was the cause, by slaying my son
+�sculapius, hurling the lightning against his breast: whereat enraged, I
+slay the Cyclops, forgers of Jove's fire; and me my father compelled to
+serve for hire with a mortal, as a punishment for these things. But having
+come to this land, I tended the herds of him who received me, and have
+preserved this house until this day: for being pious I met with a pious
+man,[2] the son of Pheres, whom I delivered from dying by deluding the
+Fates: but those Goddesses granted me that Admetus should escape the
+impending death, could he furnish in his place another dead for the powers
+below. But having tried and gone through all his friends, his father and
+his aged mother who bore him, he found not, save his wife, one who was
+willing to die for him, and view no more the light: who now within the
+house is borne in their hands, breathing her last; for on this day is it
+destined for her to die, and to depart from life. But I, lest the
+pollution[3] come upon me in the house, leave this palace's most dear
+abode. But already I behold Death near, priest of the dead, who is about to
+bear her down to the mansions of Pluto; but he comes at the right time,
+observing this day, in the which it was destined for her to die.
+
+DEATH,[4] APOLLO.
+
+DEA. Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! What dost thou at the palace? why tamest here,
+Phoebus? Art thou again at thy deeds of injustice, taking away and putting
+an end to the honors of the powers beneath? Did it not suffice thee to stay
+the death of Admetus, when thou didst delude the Fates by fraudful
+artifice?[5] But now too dost thou keep guard for her, having armed thine
+hand with thy bow, who then promised, in order to redeem her husband,
+herself, the daughter of Pelias, to die for him?
+
+AP. Fear not, I cleave to justice and honest arguments.
+
+DEA. What business then has your bow, if you cleave to justice?
+
+AP. It is my habit ever to bear it.
+
+DEA. Yes, and without regard to justice to aid this house.
+
+AP. _Ay_, for I am afflicted at the misfortunes of a man that is dear to
+me.
+
+DEA. And wilt thou deprive me of this second dead?
+
+AP. But neither took I him from thee by force.
+
+DEA. How then is he upon earth, and not beneath the ground?
+
+AP. Because he gave in his stead his wife, after whom thou art now come.
+
+DEA. Yes, and will bear her off to the land beneath.
+
+AP. Take her away, for I know not whether I can persuade thee.
+
+DEA. What? to slay him, whom I ought? for this was I commanded.
+
+AP. No: but to cast death upon those about to die.
+
+DEA. Yes, I perceive thy speech, and what thou aim'st at.
+
+AP. Is it possible then for Alcestis to arrive at old age?
+
+DEA. It is not: consider that I too am delighted with my due honors.
+
+AP. Thou canst not, however, take more than one life.
+
+DEA. When the young die I earn the greater glory.
+
+AP. And if she die old, she will be sumptuously entombed.[6]
+
+DEA. Thou layest down the law, Phoebus, in favor of the rich.
+
+AP. How sayest thou? what? hast thou been clever without my perceiving it?
+
+DEA. Those who have means would purchase to die old.
+
+AP. Doth it not then seem good to thee to grant me this favor?
+
+DEA. No in truth; and thou knowest my ways.
+
+AP. Yes, hostile to mortals, and detested by the Gods.
+
+DEA. Thou canst not have all things, which thou oughtest not.
+
+AP. Nevertheless, thou wilt stop, though thou art over-fierce; such a man
+will come to the house of Pheres, whom Eurystheus hath sent after the
+chariot and its horses,[7] _to bring them_ from the wintry regions of
+Thrace, who in sooth, being welcomed in the mansions of Admetus, shall take
+away by force this woman from thee; and there will be no obligation to thee
+at my hands, but still thou wilt do this, and wilt be hated by me.
+
+DEA. Much though thou talkest, thou wilt gain nothing. This woman then
+shall descend to the house of Pluto; and I am advancing upon her, that I
+may begin the rites on her with my sword; for sacred is he to the Gods
+beneath the earth, the hair of whose head this sword hath consecrated.[8]
+
+CHORUS.
+
+SEMICH. Wherefore in heaven's name is this stillness before the palace? why
+is the house of Admetus hushed in silence?
+
+SEMICH. But there is not even one of our friends near, who can tell us
+whether we have to deplore the departed queen, or whether Alcestis,
+daughter of Pelias, yet living views this light, who has appeared to me and
+to all to have been the best wife toward her husband.
+
+CHOR. Hears any one either a wailing, or the beating of hands within the
+house, or a lamentation, as though the thing had taken place?[9] There is
+not however any one of the servants standing before the gates. Oh would
+that thou wouldst appear, O Apollo, amidst the waves of this calamity!
+
+SEMICH. They would not however be silent, were she dead.
+
+SEMICH. For the corse is certainly not gone from the house.
+
+SEMICH. Whence this conjecture? I do not presume this. What is it gives you
+confidence?
+
+SEMICH. How could Admetus have made a private funeral of his so excellent
+wife?
+
+CHOR. But before the gates I see not the bath of water from the
+fountain,[10] as is the custom at the gates of the dead: and in the
+vestibule is no shorn hair, which is wont to fall in grief for the dead;
+the youthful[11] hand of women for the youthful _wife_ sound not.
+
+SEMICH. And yet this is the appointed day,--
+
+SEMICH. What is this thou sayest?
+
+SEMICH. In the which she must go beneath the earth.
+
+SEMICH. Thou hast touched my soul, hast touched my heart.
+
+SEMICH. When the good are afflicted, he must mourn, who from the beginning
+has been accounted good.
+
+CHOR. But there is not whither in the earth any one having sent naval
+equipment, or to Lycia, or to the thirsty site of Hammon's temple, can
+redeem the unhappy woman's life, for abrupt fate approaches, and I know not
+to whom of those that sacrifice at the hearths of the Gods I can go. But
+only if the son of Phoebus were viewing with his eyes this light, could she
+come, having left the darksome habitations and the gates of Pluto: for he
+raised up the dead, before that the stroke of the lightning's fire hurled
+by Jove destroyed him. But now what hope of life can I any longer
+entertain? For all things have already been done by the king, and at the
+altars of all the Gods abound the victims dropping with blood, and no cure
+is there of these evils.
+
+CHORUS, FEMALE ATTENDANT.
+
+CHOR. But here comes one of the female attendants from the house, in tears;
+what shall I hear has happened? To mourn indeed, if any thing happens to
+our lords, is pardonable: but whether the lady be still alive, or whether
+she be dead, we would wish to know.
+
+ATT. You may call her both alive and dead.
+
+CHOR. And how can the same woman be both alive and dead?
+
+ATT. Already she is on the verge of death,[12] and breathing her life away.
+
+CHOR. Oh wretched man, being what thyself of what a wife art thou bereft!
+
+ATT. My master knows not this yet, until he suffer.
+
+CHOR. Is there no longer hope that she may save her life?
+
+ATT. No, for the destined day makes its attack upon her.
+
+CHOR. Are not then suitable preparations made for these events?
+
+ATT. Yes, the adornments[13] are ready, wherewith her husband will bury
+her.
+
+CHOR. Let her know then that she will die glorious, and by far the best of
+women under the sun.
+
+ATT. And how not the best? who will contest it? What must the woman be, who
+has surpassed her? and how can any give greater proof of esteeming her
+husband, than by being willing to die for him? And these things indeed the
+whole city knoweth. But what she did in the house you will marvel when you
+hear. For, when she perceived that the destined day was come, she washed
+her fair skin with water from the river; and having taken from her closets
+of cedar vesture and ornaments, she attired herself becomingly; and
+standing before the altar she prayed: "O mistress, since I go beneath the
+earth, adoring thee for the last time, I will beseech thee to protect my
+orphan children, and to the one join a loving wife, and to the other a
+noble husband: nor, as their mother perishes, let my children untimely die,
+but happy in their paternal country let them complete a joyous life."--But
+all the altars, which are in the house of Admetus, she went to, and
+crowned, and prayed, tearing the leaves from off the myrtle boughs,
+tearless, without a groan, nor did the approaching evil change the natural
+beauty of her skin. And then rushing to her chamber, and her bed, there
+indeed she wept and spoke thus: "O bridal bed, whereon I loosed my virgin
+zone with this man, for whom I die, farewell! for I hate thee not; but me
+alone hast thou lost; for dreading to betray thee, and my husband, I die;
+but thee some other woman will possess, more chaste there can not, but
+perchance more fortunate."[14]--And falling on it she kissed it; but all
+the bed was bathed with the flood that issued from her eyes. But when she
+had satiety of much weeping, she goes hastily forward,[15] rushing from the
+bed. And ofttimes having left her chamber, she oft returned, and threw
+herself upon the bed again. And her children, hanging to the garments of
+their mother, wept; but she, taking them in her arms, embraced them, first
+one and then the other, as about to die. But all the domestics wept
+throughout the house, bewailing their mistress, but she stretched out her
+right hand to each, and there was none so mean, whom she addressed not, and
+was answered in return. Such are the woes in the house of Admetus. And had
+he died indeed, he would have perished; but now that he has escaped death,
+he has grief to that degree which he will never forget.
+
+CHOR. Surely Admetus groans at these evils, if he must be deprived of so
+excellent a wife.
+
+ATT. Yes, he weeps, holding his dear wife in his hands, and prays her not
+to leave him, asking impossibilities; for she wastes away, and is consumed
+by sickness, but fainting a wretched burden in his arms, yet still though
+but feebly breathing, she fain would glance toward the rays of the sun; as
+though never again, but now for the last time she is to view the sun's beam
+and his orb. But I will go and announce your presence, for it is by no
+means all that are well-wishers to their lords, so as to come kindly to
+them in their misfortunes; but you of old are friendly to my master.
+
+SEMICH. O Jove, what means of escape can there in any way be, and what
+method to rid us of the fortune which attends my master?
+
+SEMICH. Will any appear? or must I cut my locks, and clothe me even now in
+black array of garments?
+
+SEMICH. 'Tis plain, my friends, too plain; but still let us pray to the
+Gods, for the power of the Gods is mightiest.
+
+SEMICH. O Apollo, king of healing, find out some remedy for the evils of
+Admetus, procure it, O! procure it. For before this also thou didst find
+_remedy_, and now become our deliverer from death, and stop the murderous
+Pluto.
+
+SEMICH. Alas! alas! woe! woe! O son of Pheres, how didst thou fare when
+thou wert deprived of thy wife?
+
+SEMICH. Alas! alas! these things would even justify self-slaughter, and
+there is more, than whereat one might thrust one's neck in the suspending
+noose.[16]
+
+SEMICH. For not a dear, but a most dear wife, wilt thou see dead this day.
+
+SEMICH. Behold, behold; lo! she doth come from the house, and her husband
+with her. Cry out, O groan, O land of Pheres, for the most excellent woman,
+wasting with sickness, _departing_ beneath the earth to the infernal Pluto.
+Never will I aver that marriage brings more joy than grief, forming my
+conjectures both from former things, and beholding this fortune of the
+king; who, when he has lost this most excellent wife, will thenceforward
+pass a life not worthy to be called life.[17]
+
+ALCESTIS, ADMETUS, EUMELUS, CHORUS.
+
+ALC. Thou Sun, and thou light of day, and ye heavenly eddies of the
+fleeting clouds--
+
+ADM. He beholds[18] thee and me, two unhappy creatures, having done nothing
+to the Gods, for which thou shouldst die.
+
+ALC. O earth, and ye roofs of the palace, and thou bridal bed of my native
+Iolcos.
+
+ADM. Lift up thyself, unhappy one, desert me not; but entreat the powerful
+Gods to pity.
+
+ALC. I see--I see the two-oared boat--and the ferryman of the dead, holding
+his hand on the pole--Charon even now calls me--"Why dost thou delay?
+haste, thou stoppest us here"--with such words vehement he hastens me.
+
+ADM. Ah me! a bitter voyage this thou speakest of! Oh! unhappy one, how do
+we suffer!
+
+ALC. He pulls me, some one pulls me--do you not see?--to the hall of the
+dead, the winged Pluto, staring from beneath his black eyebrows--What wilt
+thou do?--let me go--what a journey am I most wretched going!
+
+ADM. Mournful to thy friends, and of these especially to me and to thy
+children, who have this grief in common.
+
+ALC. Leave off[19] supporting me, leave off now, lay me down, I have no
+strength in my feet. Death is near, and darkling night creeps upon mine
+eyes--my children, my children, no more your mother is--no more.--Farewell,
+my children, long may you view this light!
+
+ADM. Ah me! I hear this sad word, and more than any death to me. Do not by
+the Gods have the heart to leave me: do not by those children, whom thou
+wilt make orphans: but rise, be of good courage: for, thee dead, I should
+no longer be: for on thee we depend both to live, and not to live: for thy
+love we adore.
+
+ALC. Admetus, thou seest both thy affairs and mine, in what state they are,
+I wish to tell thee, ere I die, what I would have done. I, honoring thee,
+and causing thee at the price of my life to view this light, die, it being
+in my power not to die, for thee: but though I might have married a husband
+from among the Thessalians whom I would, and have lived in a palace blessed
+with regal sway, was not willing to live, bereft of thee, with my children
+orphans; nor did I spare myself, though possessing the gifts of bloomy
+youth, wherein I delighted. And yet thy father and thy mother forsook thee,
+though they had well arrived at a point of life, in which they might have
+died, and nobly delivered their son, and died with glory: for thou wert
+their only one, and there was no hope, when thou wert dead, that they could
+have other children.[20] And I should have lived, and thou, the rest of our
+time. And thou wouldst not be groaning deprived of thy wife, and wouldst
+not have to bring up thy children orphans. But these things indeed, some
+one of the Gods hath brought to pass, that they should be thus. Be it
+so--but do thou remember to give me a return for this; for never shall I
+ask thee for an equal one, (for nothing is more precious than life,) but
+just, as thou wilt say: for thou lovest not these children less than I do,
+if thou art right-minded; them bring up lords over my house, and bring not
+in second marriage a step-mother over these children, who, being a worse
+woman than me, through envy will stretch out her hand against thine and my
+children. Do not this then, I beseech thee; for a step-mother that is in
+second marriage is enemy to the children of the former marriage, no milder
+than a viper. And my boy indeed has his father, a great tower of defense;
+but thou, O my child, how wilt thou be, brought up during thy virgin years?
+Having what consort of thy father's? _I fear_, lest casting some evil
+obloquy on thee, she destroys thy marriage in the bloom of youth.[21] For
+neither will thy mother ever preside over thy nuptials, nor strengthen thee
+being present, my daughter, at thy travails, where nothing is more kind
+than a mother. For I needs must die, and this evil comes upon me not
+to-morrow, nor on the third day of the month, but immediately shall I be
+numbered among those that are no more. Farewell, and may you be happy; and
+thou indeed, my husband, mayst boast, that thou hadst a most excellent
+wife, and you, my children, that you were born of a most excellent mother.
+
+CHOR. Be of good cheer; for I fear not to answer for him: he will do this,
+if he be not bereft of his senses.
+
+ADM. These things shall be so, they shall be, fear not: since I, when alive
+also, possessed thee _alone_, and when thou art dead, thou shalt be my only
+wife, and no Thessalian bride shall address me in the place of thee: there
+is not woman who shall, either of so noble a sire, nor otherwise most
+exquisite in beauty. But my children are enough; of these I pray the Gods
+that I may have the enjoyment; for thee we do not enjoy. But I shall not
+have this grief for thee for a year, but as long as my life endures, O
+lady, abhorring her indeed that brought me forth, and hating my father; for
+they were in word, not in deed, my friends. But thou, giving what was
+dearest to thee for my life, hast rescued me. Have I not then reason to
+groan deprived of such a wife? But I will put an end to the feasts, and the
+meetings of those that drink together, and garland and song, which wont to
+dwell in my house. For neither can I any more touch the lyre, nor lift up
+my heart to sing to the Libyan flute; for thou hast taken away my joy of
+life. But by the cunning hand of artists imaged thy figure shall be lain on
+my bridal bed, on which I will fall, and clasping my hands around, calling
+on thy name, shall fancy that I hold my dear wife in mine arms, though
+holding her not:[22] a cold delight, I ween; but still I may draw off the
+weight that sits upon my soul: and in my dreams visiting me, thou mayst
+delight me, for a friend is sweet even to behold at night, for whatever
+time he may come. But if the tongue of Orpheus and his strain were mine, so
+that invoking with hymns the daughter of Ceres or her husband, I could
+receive thee from the shades below, I would descend, and neither the dog of
+Pluto, nor Charon at his oar, the ferryman of departed spirits, should stay
+me before I brought thy life to the light. But there expect me when I die
+and prepare a mansion for me, as about to dwell with me. For I will enjoin
+these[23] to place me in the same cedar with thee, and to lay my side near
+thy side: for not even when dead may I be separated from thee, the only
+faithful one to me!
+
+CHOR. And I indeed with thee, as a friend with a friend, will bear this
+painful grief for her, for she is worthy.
+
+ALC. My children, ye indeed hear your father saying that he will never
+marry another wife to be over you, nor dishonor me.
+
+ADM. And now too, I say this, and will perform it
+
+ALC. For this receive these children from my hand.
+
+ADM. Yes, I receive a dear gift from a dear hand.
+
+ALC. Be thou then a mother to these children in my stead.
+
+ADM. There is much need that I should, when they are deprived of thee.
+
+ALC. O my children, at a time when I ought to live I depart beneath.
+
+ADM. Ah me; what shall I do of thee bereaved!
+
+ALC. Time will soften thy grief: he that is dead is nothing.
+
+ADM. Take me with thee, by the Gods take me beneath.
+
+ALC. Enough are we _to go_, who die for thee.
+
+ADM. O fate, of what a wife thou deprivest me!
+
+ALC. And lo! my darkening eye is weighed down.
+
+ADM. I am undone then, if thou wilt leave me, my wife.
+
+ALC. As being no more, you may speak of me as nothing.
+
+ADM. Lift up thy face; do not leave thy children.
+
+ALC. Not willingly in sooth, but--farewell, my children.
+
+ADM. Look on them, O! look.
+
+ALC. I am no more.
+
+ADM. What dost thou? dost thou leave us?
+
+ALC. Farewell!
+
+ADM. I am an undone wretch!
+
+CHOR. She is gone, Admetus' wife is no more.
+
+EUM. Alas me, for my state! my mother is gone indeed below; she is no
+longer, my father, under the sun; but unhappy leaving me has made my life
+an orphan's. For look, look at her eyelid, and her nerveless arms. Hear,
+hear, O mother. I beseech thee; I, I now call thee, mother, thy young one
+falling on thy mouth--
+
+ADM. Who hears not, neither sees: so that I and you are struck with a heavy
+calamity.
+
+EUM. Young and deserted, my father, am I left by my dear mother: O! I that
+have suffered indeed dreadful deeds!--and thou hast suffered with me, my
+sister. O father, in vain, in vain didst thou marry, nor with her didst
+thou arrive at the end of old age, for she perished before, but thou being
+gone, mother, the house is undone.
+
+CHOR. Admetus, you must bear this calamity; for in no wise the first, nor
+the last of mortals hast thou lost thy dear wife: but learn, that to die is
+a debt we must all of us discharge.
+
+ADM. I know it, and this evil hath not come suddenly on me; but knowing it
+long ago I was afflicted. But be present, for I will have the corse borne
+forth, and while ye stay, chant a hymn to the God below that accepteth not
+libations. And all the Thessalians, over whom I reign, I enjoin to share in
+the grief for this lady, by shearing _their locks_ with steel, and by
+arraying themselves in sable garb. And harness[24] your teams of horses to
+your chariots, and cut from your single steeds the manes that fall upon
+their necks. And let there be no noise of pipes, nor of the lyre throughout
+the city for twelve completed moons. For none other corse more dear shall I
+inter, nor one more kind toward me. But she deserves to receive honor from
+me, seeing that she alone hath died for me.
+
+CHORUS.
+
+O daughter of Pelias, farewell where thou dwellest in sunless dwelling
+within the mansions of Pluto. And let Pluto know, the God with ebon locks,
+and the old man, the ferryman of the dead, who sits intent upon his oar and
+his rudder, that he is conducting by far the most excellent of women in his
+two-oared boat over the lake of Acheron. Oft shall the servants of the
+Muses sing of thee, celebrating thee both on the seven-stringed lute on the
+mountains, and in hymns unaccompanied by the lyre: in Sparta, when returns
+the annual circle in the season of the Carnean month,[25] when the moon is
+up the whole night long; and in splendid[26] and happy Athens. Such a song
+hast thou left by thy death to the minstrels of melodies. Would that it
+rested with me, and that I could waft thee to the light from the mansions
+of Pluto, and from Cocytus' streams, by the oar of that infernal river. For
+thou, O unexampled, O dear among women, thou didst dare to receive thy
+husband from the realms below in exchange for thine own life. Light may the
+earth from above fall upon thee, lady! and if thy husband chooses any other
+alliance, surely he will be much detested by me and by thy children. When
+his mother was not willing for him to hide her body in the ground, nor his
+aged father, but these two wretches, having hoary locks, dared not to
+rescue him they brought forth, yet thou in the vigor of youth didst depart,
+having died for thy husband. May it be mine to meet with another[27] such a
+dear wife; for rare in life is such a portion, for surely she would live
+with me forever without once causing pain.
+
+HERCULES, CHORUS.
+
+HER. Strangers, inhabitants of the land of Pheres, can I find Admetus
+within the palace?
+
+CHOR. The son of Pheres is within the palace, O Hercules. But tell me, what
+purpose sends thee to the land of the Thessalians, so that thou comest to
+this city of Pheres?
+
+HER. I am performing a certain labor for the Tirynthian Eurystheus.
+
+CHOR. And whither goest thou? on what wandering expedition art bound?
+
+HER. After the four chariot-steeds of Diomed the Thracian.
+
+CHOR. How wilt thou be able? Art thou ignorant of this host?
+
+HER. I am ignorant; I have not yet been to the land of the Bistonians.
+
+CHOR. Thou canst not be lord of these steeds without battle.
+
+HER. But neither is it possible for me to renounce the labors _set me_.
+
+CHOR. Thou wilt come then having slain, or being slain wilt remain there.
+
+HER. Not the first contest this that I shall run.
+
+CHOR. But what advance will you have made, when you have overcome their
+master?
+
+HER. I will drive away the horses to king Eurystheus.
+
+CHOR. 'Tis no easy matter to put the bit in their jaws.
+
+HER. _'Tis,_ except they breathe fire from their nostrils.
+
+CHOR. But they tear men piecemeal with their devouring jaws.
+
+HER. The provender of mountain beasts, not horses, you are speaking of.
+
+CHOR. Their stalls thou mayst behold with blood bestained.
+
+HER. Son of what sire does their owner boast to be?
+
+CHOR. Of Mars, prince[28] of the Thracian target, rich with gold.
+
+HER. And this labor, thou talkest of, is one my fate compels me to (for it
+is ever hard and tends to steeps); if I must join in battle with the
+children whom Mars begat, first indeed with Lycaon, and again with Cycnus,
+and I come to this third combat, about to engage with the horses and their
+master. But none there is, who shall ever see the son of Alcmena fearing
+the hand of his enemies.
+
+CHOR. And lo! hither comes the very man Admetus, lord of this land, from
+out of the palace.
+
+ADMETUS, HERCULES, CHORUS.
+
+ADM. Hail! O son of Jove, and of the blood of Perseus.
+
+HER. Admetus, hail thou too, king of the Thessalians!
+
+ADM. I would I could _receive this salutation;_ but I know that thou art
+well disposed toward me.
+
+HER. Wherefore art thou conspicuous with thy locks shorn for grief?
+
+ADM. I am about to bury a certain corse this day.
+
+HER. May the God avert calamity from thy children!
+
+ADM. My children whom I begat, live in the house.
+
+HER. Thy father however is of full age, if he is gone.
+
+ADM. Both he lives, and she who bore me, Hercules.
+
+HER. Surely your wife Alcestis is not dead?
+
+ADM. There are two accounts which I may tell of her.
+
+HER. Speakest thou of her as dead or as alive?
+
+ADM. She both is, and is no more, and she grieves me.
+
+HER. I know nothing more; for thou speakest things obscure.
+
+ADM. Knowest thou not the fate which it was doomed for her to meet with?
+
+HER. I know that she took upon herself to die for thee.
+
+ADM. How then is she any more, if that she promised this?
+
+HER. Ah! do not weep for thy wife before the time; wait till this happens.
+
+ADM. He that is about to die is dead, and he that is dead is no more.
+
+HER. The being and the not being is considered a different thing.
+
+ADM. You judge in this way, Hercules, but I in that.
+
+HER. Why then dost weep? Who is he of thy friends that is dead?
+
+ADM. A woman, a woman we were lately mentioning.
+
+HER. A stranger by blood, or any by birth allied to thee?
+
+ADM. A stranger; but on other account dear to this house.
+
+HER. How then died she in thine house?
+
+ADM. Her father dead, she lived an orphan here.
+
+HER. Alas! Would that I had found thee, Admetus, not mourning!
+
+ADM. As about to do what then, dost thou make use of these words?
+
+HER. I will go to some other hearth of those who will receive a guest.
+
+ADM. It must not be, O king: let not so great an evil happen!
+
+HER. Troublesome is a guest if he come to mourners.
+
+ADM. The dead are dead--but go into the house.
+
+HER. 'Tis base however to feast with weeping friends.
+
+ADM. The guest-chamber, whither we will lead thee, is apart.
+
+HER. Let me go, and I will owe you ten thousand thanks.
+
+ADM. It must not be that thou go to the hearth of another man. Lead on
+thou, having thrown open the guest-chamber that is separate from the house:
+and tell them that have the management, that there be plenty of meats; and
+shut the gates in the middle of the hall: it is not meet that feasting
+guests should hear groans, nor should they be made sad.
+
+CHOR. What are you doing? when so great a calamity is before you, Admetus,
+hast thou the heart to receive guests? wherefore art thou foolish?
+
+ADM. But if I had driven him who came my guest from my house, and from the
+city, would you have praised me rather? No in sooth, since my calamity had
+been no whit the less, but I the more inhospitable: and in addition to my
+evils, there had been this other evil, that mine should be called the
+stranger-hating house. But I myself find this man a most excellent host,
+whenever I go to the thirsty land of Argos.
+
+CHOR. How then didst thou hide thy present fate, when a friend, as thou
+thyself sayest, came?
+
+ADM. He never would have been willing to enter the house if he had known
+aught of my sufferings. And to him[29] indeed, I ween, acting thus, I
+appear not to be wise, nor will he praise me; but my house knows not to
+drive away, nor to dishonor guests.
+
+CHORUS.
+
+O greatly hospitable and ever liberal house of this man, thee even the
+Pythian Apollo, master of the lyre, deigned to inhabit, and endured to
+become a shepherd in thine abodes, through the sloping hills piping to thy
+flocks his pastoral nuptial hymns. And there were wont to feed with them,
+through delight of his lays, both the spotted lynxes, and the bloody troop
+of lions[30] came having left the forest of Othrys; disported too around
+thy cithern, Phoebus, the dappled fawn, advancing with light pastern beyond
+the lofty-feathered pines, joying in the gladdening strain. Wherefore he
+dwelleth in a home most rich in flocks by the fair-flowing lake of Boebe;
+and to the tillage of his fields, and the extent of his plains, toward that
+dusky _part of the heavens_, where the sun stays his horses, makes the
+clime of the Molossians the limit, and holds dominion as far as the
+portless shore of the �gean Sea at Pelion. And now having thrown open his
+house he hath received his guest with moistened eyelid, weeping over the
+corse of his dear wife, who but now died in the palace: for a noble
+disposition is prone to reverence [of the guest]. But in the good there is
+all manner of wisdom. And confidence is seated on my soul that the man who
+reveres the Gods will fare prosperously.
+
+ADMETUS, CHORUS.
+
+ADM. Ye men of Pher� that are kindly present, my servants indeed bear
+aloft[31] the corse, having every thing fit for the tomb, and for the pyre.
+But do you, as is the custom, salute[32] the dead going forth on her last
+journey.
+
+CHOR. And lo! I see thy father advancing with his aged foot, and attendants
+bearing in their hands adornment for thy wife, due honors of those beneath.
+
+PHERES, ADMETUS, CHORUS.
+
+PHE. I am at present sympathizing in thy misfortunes, my son: for thou hast
+lost (no one will deny) a good and a chaste wife; but these things indeed
+thou must bear, though hard to be borne. But receive this adornment, and
+let it go with her beneath the earth: Her body 'tis right to honor, who in
+sooth died to save thy life, my son, and made me to be not childless, nor
+suffered me to waste away deprived of thee in an old age of misery. But she
+has made most illustrious the life of all women, having dared this noble
+action. O thou that hast preserved my son here, and hast raised us up who
+were falling, farewell,[33] and may it be well with thee even in the
+mansions of Pluto! I affirm that such marriages are profitable to men, or
+that it is not meet to marry.
+
+ADM. Neither hast thou come bidden of me to this funeral, nor do I count
+thy presence among things acceptable. But she here never shall put on thy
+decorations; for in no wise shall she be buried indebted to what thou hast.
+Then oughtest thou to have grieved with me, when I was in danger of
+perishing.[34] But dost thou, who stoodest aloof, and permittedst another,
+a young person, thyself being old, to die, weep over this dead body? Thou
+wert not then really the father of me, nor did she, who says she bore me,
+and is called my mother, bear me; but born of slavish blood I was secretly
+put under the breast of thy wife. Thou showedst when thou camest to the
+test, who thou art; and I deem that I am not thy son. Or else surely thou
+exceedest all in nothingness of soul, who being of the age thou art, and
+having come to the goal of life, neither hadst the will nor the courage to
+die for thy son; but sufferedst this stranger lady, whom alone I might
+justly have considered both mother and father. And yet thou mightst have
+run this race for glory, hadst thou died for thy son. But at any rate the
+remainder of the time thou hadst to live was short: and I should have lived
+and she the rest of our days, and I should not, bereft of her, be groaning
+at my miseries. And in sooth thou didst receive as many things as a happy
+man should receive; thou passedst the vigor of thine age indeed in
+sovereign sway, but I was thy son to succeed thee in this palace, so that
+thou wert not about to die childless and leave a desolate house for others
+to plunder. Thou canst not however say of me, that I gave thee up to die,
+dishonoring thine old age, whereas I was particularly respectful toward
+thee; and for this behavior both thou, and she that bare me, have made me
+such return. Wherefore you have no more time to lose[35] in getting
+children, who will succor thee in thine old age, and deck thee when dead,
+and lay out thy corse; for I will not bury thee with this mine hand; for I
+in sooth died, as far as in thee lay; but if, having met with, another
+deliverer, I view the light, I say that I am both his child, and the
+friendly comforter of his old age. In vain then do old men pray to be dead,
+complaining of age, and the long time of life: but if death come near, not
+one is willing to die, and old age is no longer burdensome to them.[36]
+
+CHOR. Desist, for the present calamity is sufficient; and do not, O son,
+provoke thy father's mind.
+
+PHE. O son, whom dost thou presume thou art gibing with thy reproaches, a
+Lydian or a Phrygian bought with thy money?[37] Knowest thou not that I am
+a Thessalian, and born from a Thessalian father, truly free? Thou art too
+insolent, and casting the impetuous words of youth against us, shalt not
+having cast them thus depart. But I begat thee the lord of my house, and
+brought thee up, but I am not thy debtor to die for thee; for I received no
+paternal law like this, nor Grecian law, that fathers should die for their
+children; for for thyself thou wert born, whether unfortunate or fortunate,
+but what from us thou oughtest to have, thou hast. Thou rulest indeed over
+many, and I will leave thee a large demesne of lands, for these I received
+from my father. In what then have I injured thee? Of what do I deprive
+thee? Thou joyest to see the light, and dost think thy father does not
+joy?[38] Surely I count the time we must spend beneath long, and life is
+short, but still sweet. Thou too didst shamelessly fight off from dying,
+and livest, having passed over thy destined fate, by slaying her; then dost
+thou talk of my nothingness of soul, O most vile one, when thou art
+surpassed by a woman who died for thee, the handsome youth? But thou hast
+made a clever discovery, so that thou mayst never die, if thou wilt
+persuade the wife that is thine from time to time to die for thee: and then
+reproachest thou thy friends who are not willing to do this, thyself being
+a coward? Hold thy peace, and consider, if thou lovest thy life, that all
+love theirs; but if thou shalt speak evil against us, thou shalt hear many
+reproaches and not false ones.
+
+CHOR. Too many evil things have been spoken both now and before, but cease,
+old man, from reviling thy son.
+
+ADM. Speak, for I have spoken; but if thou art grieved at hearing the
+truth, thou shouldst not err against me.
+
+PHE. But had I died for thee, I had erred more.
+
+ADM. What? is it the same thing for a man in his prime, and for an old man
+to die?
+
+PHE. We ought to live with one life, not with two.
+
+ADM. Mayst thou then live a longer time than Jove!
+
+PHE. Dost curse thy parents, having met with no injustice?
+
+ADM. _I said it_, for I perceived thou lovedst a long life.
+
+PHE. But art not thou bearing forth this corse instead of thyself?
+
+ADM. A proof this, O most vile one, of thy nothingness of soul.
+
+PHE. She died not by us at least; thou wilt not say this.
+
+ADM. Alas! Oh that you may ever come to need my aid!
+
+PHE. Wed many wives, that more may die.
+
+ADM. This is a reproach to thyself, for thou wert not willing to die.
+
+PHE. Sweet is this light of the God, sweet is it.
+
+ADM. Base is thy spirit and not that of men.
+
+PHE. Thou dost not laugh as carrying an aged corse.
+
+ADM. Thou wilt surely however die inglorious, when thou diest.
+
+PHE. To bear an evil report is no matter to me when dead.
+
+ADM. Alas! alas! how full of shamelessness is old age!
+
+PHE. She was not shameless: her you found mad.
+
+ADM. Begone, and suffer me to bury this dead.
+
+PHE. I will depart; but you will bury her, yourself being her murderer. But
+you will render satisfaction to your wife's relatives yet: or surely
+Acastus no longer ranks among men, if he shall not revenge the blood of his
+sister.
+
+ADM. Get thee gone, then, thou and thy wife; childless, thy child yet
+living, as ye deserve, grow old; for ye no more come into the same house
+with me: and if it were necessary for me to renounce by heralds thy
+paternal hearth, I would renounce it. But let us (for the evil before us
+must be borne) proceed, that we may place the corse upon the funeral pyre.
+
+CHOR. O! O! unhappy because of thy bold deed, O noble, and by far most
+excellent, farewell! may both Mercury[39] that dwells beneath, and Pluto,
+kindly receive thee; but if there too any distinction is shown to the good,
+partaking of this mayst thou sit by the bride of Pluto.
+
+SERVANT.
+
+I have now known many guests, and from all parts of the earth that have
+come to the house of Admetus, to whom I have spread the feast, but never
+yet did I receive into this house a worse one than this stranger. Who, in
+the first place, indeed, though he saw my master in affliction, came in,
+and prevailed upon himself to pass the gates. And then not at all in a
+modest manner received he the entertainment that there happened to be, when
+he heard of the calamity: but if we did not bring any thing, he hurried us
+to bring it. And having taken in his hands the cup wreathed with ivy,[40]
+he quaffs the neat wine of the purple mother, until the fumes of the liquor
+coming upon him inflamed him; and he crowns his head with branches of
+myrtles howling discordantly; and there were two strains to hear; for he
+was singing, not caring at all for the afflictions of Admetus, but we the
+domestics, were bewailing our mistress, and we showed not that we were
+weeping to the guest, for thus Admetus commanded. And now indeed I am
+performing the offices of hospitality to the stranger in the house, some
+deceitful thief and robber. But she is gone from the house, nor did I
+follow, nor stretched out my hand in lamentation for my mistress, who was a
+mother to me, and to all the domestics, for she saved us from ten thousand
+ills, softening the anger of her husband. Do I not then justly hate this
+stranger, who is come in our miseries?
+
+HERCULES, SERVANT.
+
+HER. Ho there! why dost thou look so grave and thoughtful? The servant
+ought not to be of woeful countenance before guests, but should receive
+them with an affable mind. But thou, though thou seest a companion of thy
+lord present, receivest him with a morose and clouded countenance, fixing
+thy attention on a calamity that thou hast nothing to do with. Come hither,
+that thou mayst become more wise. Knowest thou mortal affairs, of what
+nature they are? I think not; from whence should you? but hear me. Death is
+a debt that all mortals must pay: and there is not of them one, who knows
+whether he shall live the coming morrow: for what depends on fortune is
+uncertain how it will turn out, and is not to be learned, neither is it
+detected by art. Having heard these things then, and learned them from me,
+make thyself merry, drink, and think the life allowed from day to day thine
+own, but the rest Fortune's. And honor also Venus, the most sweet of
+deities to mortals, for she is a kind deity. But let go these other things,
+and obey my words, if I appear to speak rightly: I think so indeed. Wilt
+thou not then leave off thy excessive grief, and drink with me, crowned
+with garlands, having thrown open these gates? And well know I that the
+trickling of the cup falling down _thy throat_ will change thee from thy
+present cloudy and pent state of mind. But we who are mortals should think
+as mortals. Since to all the morose, indeed, and to those of sad
+countenance, if they take me as judge at least, life is not truly life, but
+misery.
+
+SERV. I know this; but now we are in circumstances not such as are fit for
+revel and mirth.
+
+HER. The lady that is dead is a stranger; grieve not too much, for the
+lords of this house live.
+
+SERV. What live! knowest thou not the misery within the house?
+
+HER. Unless thy lord hath told me any thing falsely.
+
+SERV. He is too, too hospitable.
+
+HER. Is it unmeet that I should be well treated, because a stranger is
+dead?
+
+SERV. Surely however she was very near.
+
+HER. Has he forborne to tell me any calamity that there is?
+
+SERV. Depart and farewell; we have a care for the evils of our lords.
+
+HER. This speech is the beginning of no foreign loss.
+
+SERV. For I should not, _had it been foreign_, have been grieved at seeing
+thee reveling.
+
+HER. What! have I received so great an injury from mine host?
+
+SERV. Thou camest not in a fit time for the house to receive thee, for
+there is grief to us, and thou seest that we are shorn, and our black
+garments.
+
+HER. But who is it that is dead? Has either any of his children died, or
+his aged father?
+
+SERV. The wife indeed of Admetus is dead, O stranger.
+
+HER. What sayst thou? and yet did ye receive me?
+
+SERV. _Yes_, for he had too much respect to turn thee from his house.
+
+HER. O unhappy man, what a wife hast thou lost!
+
+SERV. We all are lost, not she alone.
+
+HER. But I did perceive it indeed, when I saw his eye streaming with tears,
+and his shorn hair, and his countenance; but he persuaded me, saying, that
+he was conducting the funeral of a stranger to the tomb: but spite of my
+inclination having passed over these gates, I drank in the house of the
+hospitable man, while he was in this case, and reveled, crowned as to my
+head with garlands. But 'twas thine to tell me not _to do it_, when such an
+evil was upon the house. Where is he burying her? whither going can I find
+her?
+
+SERV. By the straight road that leads to Larissa, thou wilt see the
+polished tomb beyond the suburbs.
+
+HERCULES.
+
+O my much-daring heart and my soul, now show what manner of son the
+Tirynthian Alcmena, daughter of Electryon, bare thee to Jove. For I must
+rescue the woman lately dead, Alcestis, and place her again in this house,
+and perform this service for Admetus. And going I will lay wait for the
+sable-vested king of the departed, Death, and I think that I shall find him
+drinking of the libations near the tomb. And if having taken him by lying
+in wait, rushing from my ambush, I shall seize hold of him, and make a
+circle around him with mine arms, there is not who shall take him away
+panting as to his sides, until he release me the woman. But if however I
+fail of this capture, and he come not to the clottered mass of blood, I
+will go a journey beneath to the sunless mansions of Cora and her king, and
+will prefer my request; and I trust that I shall bring up Alcestis, so as
+to place her in the hands of that host, who received me into his house, nor
+drove me away, although struck with a heavy calamity, but concealed it,
+noble as he was, having respect unto me. Who of the Thessalians is more
+hospitable than he? Who that dwelleth in Greece? Wherefore he shall not
+say, that he did a service to a worthless man, himself being noble.
+
+ADMETUS, CHORUS.
+
+ADM. Alas! alas! O hateful approach, and hateful prospect of this widowed
+house. Oh me! Alas! alas! whither can I go! where rest! what can I say! and
+what not! would that I could perish! Surely my mother brought me forth to
+heavy fortune. I count the dead happy, them I long for! those houses I
+desire to dwell in: for neither delight I in viewing the sunbeams, nor
+treading with my foot upon the earth; of such a hostage has death robbed
+me, and delivered up to Pluto.
+
+CHOR. Advance, advance; go into the recesses of the house.
+
+(ADM. Oh! Oh!)
+
+Thou hast suffered things that demand groans.
+
+(ADM. Alas! alas!)
+
+Thou hast gone through grief, I well know.
+
+(ADM. Woe! Woe!)
+
+Thou nothing aidest her that is beneath.
+
+(ADM. Ah me! me!)
+
+Never to see thy dear wife's face again before thee, is severe.
+
+ADM. Thou hast made mention of that which ulcerated my soul; for what can
+be greater ill to man than to lose his faithful wife? Would that I never
+had married and dwelt with her in the palace. But I judge happy those, who
+are unmarried and childless; for theirs is one only life, for this to
+grieve is a moderate burden: but to behold the diseases of children, and
+the bridal bed wasted by death, is not supportable, when it were in one's
+power to be without children and unmarried the whole of life.
+
+CHOR. Fate, fate hard to be struggled with hath come.
+
+(ADM. Oh! Oh!)
+
+But puttest thou no bound to thy sorrows?
+
+(ADM. Alas! alas!)
+
+Heavy are they to bear, but still
+
+(ADM. Woe! woe!)
+
+endure, thou art not the first man that hast lost
+
+(ADM. Ah me! me!)
+
+thy wife; but calamity appearing afflicts different men in different
+shapes.
+
+ADM. O lasting griefs, and sorrows for our friends beneath the earth!--Why
+did you hinder me from throwing myself[41] into her hallowed grave, and
+from lying dead with her, by far the most excellent woman? And Pluto would
+have retained instead of one, two most faithful souls having together
+passed over the infernal lake.
+
+CHOR. I had a certain kinsman, whose son worthy to be lamented, an only
+child, died in his house; but nevertheless he bore his calamity with
+moderation, being bereft of child, though now hastening to gray hairs, and
+advanced in life.
+
+ADM. O house, how can I enter in? and how dwell in thee now my fortune has
+undergone this change? Ah me! for there is great difference between: then
+indeed with Pelian torches, and with bridal songs I entered in, bearing the
+hand of my dear wife, and there followed a loud-shouting revelry hailing
+happy both her that is dead and me, inasmuch as being noble, and born of
+illustrious parents both, we were united together: but now the groan
+instead of hymeneals, and black array instead of white robes, usher me in
+to my deserted couch.
+
+CHOR. This grief came quick on happy fortune to thee unschooled in evil:
+but thou hast saved thy life. Thy wife is dead, she left her love behind:
+what new thing this? Death has ere this destroyed many wives.
+
+ADM. My friends, I deem the fortune of my wife more happy than mine own,
+even although these things appear not so. For her indeed no grief shall
+ever touch, and she hath with glory ceased from many toils. But I, who
+ought not to have lived, though I have scaped destiny, shall pass a bitter
+life; I but now perceive. For how can I bear the entering into this house?
+Whom speaking to, or by whom addressed,[42] can I have joy in entering?
+Whither shall I turn me? For the solitude within will drive me forth, when
+I see the place where my wife used to lie, empty, and the seat whereon she
+used to sit, and the floor throughout the house all dirty, and when my
+children falling about my knees weep their mother, and they lament their
+mistress, _thinking_ what a lady they have lost from out of the house. Such
+things within the house; but abroad the nuptials of the Thessalians and the
+assemblies full of women will torture me: for I shall not be able to look
+on the companions of my wife. But whoever is mine enemy will say thus of
+me: "See that man, who basely lives, who dared not to die, but giving in
+his stead her, whom he married, escaped Hades, (and then does he seem to be
+a man?) and hates his parents, himself not willing to die."--Such report
+shall I have in addition to my woes; why then is it the more honorable
+course for me to live, my friends, having an evil character and an evil
+fortune?
+
+CHOR. I too have both been borne aloft through song, and having very much
+handled arguments have found nothing more powerful than Necessity: nor is
+there any cure in the Thracian tablets which Orpheus[43] wrote, nor among
+those medicines, which Phoebus gave the sons of �sculapius, dispensing[44]
+them to wretched mortals. But neither to the altars nor to the image of
+this Goddess alone, is it lawful to approach, she hears not victims. Do
+not, O revered one, come on me more severe, than hitherto in my life. For
+Jove, whatever he have assented to, with thee brings this to pass. Thou too
+perforce subduest the iron among the Chalybi; nor has thy rugged spirit any
+remorse.
+
+And thee, _Admetus_, the Goddess hath seized in the inevitable grasp of her
+hand; but bear it, for thou wilt never by weeping bring back on earth the
+dead from beneath. Even the sons of the Gods by stealth begotten perish in
+death. Dear she was while she was with us, and dear even now when dead. But
+thou didst join to thy bed[45] the noblest wife of all women. Nor let the
+tomb of thy wife be accounted as the mound over the dead that perish, but
+let it be honored equally with the Gods, a thing for travelers to
+adore:[46] and some one, going out of his direct road, shall say thus: "She
+in olden time died for her husband, but now she is a blest divinity: Hail,
+O adored one, and be propitious!" Such words will be addressed to her.--And
+lo! here comes, as it seems, the son of Alcmena to thy house, Admetus.
+
+HERCULES, ADMETUS, CHORUS.
+
+HER. One should speak freely to a friend, Admetus, and, not in silence keep
+within our bosoms what we blame. Now I thought myself worthy as a friend to
+stand near thy calamities, and to search them out;[47] but thou didst not
+tell me that it was thy wife's corse that demanded thy attention; but didst
+receive me in thy house, as though occupied in grief for one not thine. And
+I crowned my head and poured out to the Gods libations in thy house which
+had suffered this calamity. And I _do_ blame thee, I blame thee, having met
+with this treatment! not that I wish to grieve thee in thy miseries. But
+wherefore I am come, having turned back again, I will tell thee. Receive
+and take care of this woman for me, until I come hither driving the
+Thracian mares, having slain the king of the Bistonians. But if I meet with
+what I pray I may not meet with, (for may I return!) I give thee her as an
+attendant of thy palace. But with much toil came she into my hands; for I
+find some who had proposed a public contest for wrestlers, worthy of my
+labors, from whence I bear off her, having received her as the prize of my
+victory; for those who conquered in the lighter exercises had to receive
+horses, but those again who conquered in the greater, the boxing and the
+wrestling, cattle, and a woman was added to these; but in me, who happened
+to be there, it had been base to neglect this glorious gain. But, as I
+said, the woman ought to be a care to you, for I am come not having
+obtained her by stealth, but with labor; but at some time or other thou too
+wilt perhaps commend me for it.
+
+ADM. By no means slighting thee, nor considering thee among mine enemies,
+did I conceal from thee the unhappy fate of my wife; but this had been a
+grief added to grief, if thou hadst gone to the house of another host: but
+it was sufficient for me to weep my own calamity. But the woman, if it is
+in any way possible, I beseech thee, O king, bid some one of the
+Thessalians, who has not suffered what I have, to take care of (but thou
+hast many friends among the Pher�ans) lest thou remind me of my
+misfortunes. I can not, beholding her in the house, refrain from weeping;
+add not a sickness to me already sick; for I am enough weighed down with
+misery. Where besides in the house can a youthful woman be maintained? for
+she is youthful, as she evinces by her garb and her attire; shall she then
+live in the men's apartment? And how will she be undefiled, living among
+young men? A man in his vigor, Hercules, it is no easy thing to restrain;
+but I have a care for thee. Or can I maintain her, having made her enter
+the chamber of her that is dead? And how can I introduce her into her bed?
+I fear a double accusation, both from the citizens, lest any should convict
+me of having betrayed my benefactress, and lying in the bed of another
+girl; and I ought to have much regard toward the dead (and she deserves my
+respect). But thou, O lady, whoever thou art, know that thou hast the same
+size of person with Alcestis, and art like her in figure. Ah me! take by
+the Gods this woman from mine eyes, lest you destroy me already destroyed.
+For I think, when I look upon her, that I behold my wife; and it agitates
+my heart, and from mine eyes the streams break forth; O unhappy I, how
+lately did I begin to taste this bitter grief!
+
+CHOR. I can not indeed speak well of thy fortune; but it behooves thee,
+whatever thou art, to bear with firmness the dispensation of the Gods.
+
+HER. Oh would that I had such power as to bring thy wife to the light from
+the infernal mansions, and to do this service for thee!
+
+ADM. Well know I that thou hast the will: but how can this be? It is not
+possible for the dead to come into the light.
+
+HER. Do not, I pray, go beyond all bound, but bear it decently,
+
+ADM. Tis easier to exhort, than suffering to endure.
+
+HER. But what advantage can you gain if you wish to groan forever?
+
+ADM. I know that too myself; but a certain love impels me.
+
+HER. For to love one that is dead draws the tear.
+
+ADM. She hath destroyed me, and yet more than my words express.
+
+HER. Thou hast lost an excellent wife; who will deny it?
+
+ADM. _Ay,_ so that I am no longer delighted with life.
+
+HER. Time will soften the evil, but now it is yet in its vigor[48] on thee.
+
+ADM. Time thou mayst say, if to die be time.
+
+HER. A wife will bid it cease, and the desire of a new marriage.
+
+ADM. Hold thy peace--What saidst thou? I could not have supposed it.
+
+HER. But why? what, wilt not marry, but pass a widowed life alone?
+
+ADM. There is no woman that shall lie with me.
+
+HER. Dost thou think that thou art in aught benefiting her that is dead?
+
+ADM. Her, wherever she is, I am bound to honor.
+
+HER. I praise you indeed, I praise you; but you incur the charge of folly.
+
+ADM. _Praise me, or praise me not;_ for you shall never call me bridegroom.
+
+HER. I do praise thee, because thou art a faithful friend to thy wife.
+
+ADM. May I die, when I forsake her, although she is not!
+
+HER. Receive then this noble woman into thine house.
+
+ADM. Do not, I beseech thee by thy father Jove.
+
+HER. And yet you will be acting wrong, if you do not this.
+
+ADM. Yes, and if I do it, I shall have my heart gnawed with sorrow.
+
+HER. Be prevailed upon: perhaps this favor may be proved a duty.
+
+ADM. Ah! would that you had never borne her off from the contest!
+
+HER. Yet with me conquering thou'rt victorious too.
+
+ADM. Thou hast well spoken; but let the woman depart.
+
+HER. She shall depart, if it is needful; but first see whether it be
+needful.
+
+ADM. It is needful, if thou at least dost not mean to make me angry.
+
+HER. I too have this desire, for I know somewhat.
+
+ADM. Conquer then. Thou dost not however do things pleasing to me.
+
+HER. But some time or other thou wilt praise me; only be persuaded.
+
+ADM. Lead her in, if I must receive her in my house.
+
+HER. I will not deliver up the woman into the charge of the servants.
+
+ADM. But do thou thyself lead her into the house if it seems fit.
+
+HER. I then will give her into thine hands.
+
+ADM. I will not touch her; but she is at liberty to enter the house.
+
+HER. I trust her to thy right hand alone.
+
+ADM. O king, thou compellest me to do this against my will.
+
+HER. Dare to stretch out thy hand and touch the stranger.
+
+ADM. And in truth I stretch it out, as I would to the Gorgon with her
+severed head.[49]
+
+HER. Have you her?
+
+ADM. I have.
+
+HER. Then keep her fast; and some time or other thou wilt say that the son
+of Jove is a generous guest. But look on her, whether she seems aught to
+resemble thy wife; and being blest leave off from thy grief.
+
+ADM. O Gods, what shall I say? An unexpected wonder this! Do I truly see
+here my wife, or does the mocking joy of the Deity strike me from my
+senses?
+
+HER. It is not so; but thou beholdest here thy wife.
+
+ADM. Yet see, whether this be not a phantom from the realms beneath.
+
+HER. Thou hast not made thine host an invoker of spirits.
+
+ADM. But do I behold my wife, whom I buried?
+
+HER. Be well assured _thou dost;_ but I wonder not at thy disbelief of thy
+fortune.
+
+ADM. May I touch her, may I speak to her as my living wife?[50]
+
+HER. Speak to her; for thou hast all that thou desirest.
+
+ADM. O face and person of my dearest wife, have I thee beyond my hopes,
+when I thought never to see thee more?
+
+HER. Thou hast: but _take care_ there be no envy of the Gods.
+
+ADM. O noble son of the most powerful Jove, mayst thou be blest, and may
+thy father, who begot thee, protect thee, for thou alone hast restored me!
+How didst thou bring her from beneath into this light!
+
+HER. Having fought a battle with the prince of those beneath.
+
+ADM. Where dost thou say thou didst have this conflict with Death!
+
+HER. At the tomb itself, having seized him from ambush with my hands.
+
+ADM. But why, I pray, does this woman stand here speechless?
+
+HER. It is not yet allowed thee to hear her address thee, before she is
+unbound from her consecrations[51] to the Gods beneath, and the third day
+come. But lead her in, and as thou oughtest, henceforward, Admetus,
+continue in thy piety with respect to strangers. And farewell! But I will
+go and perform the task that is before me for the imperial son of
+Sthenelus.
+
+ADM. Stay with us, and be a companion of our hearth.
+
+HER. This shall be some time hence, but now I must haste.
+
+ADM. But mayst thou be prosperous, and return on thy journey back. But to
+the citizens, and to all the tetrarchy I issue my commands, that they
+institute dances in honor of these happy events, and make the altars
+odorous with their sacrifices of oxen that accompany their vows. For now
+are we placed in a better state of life than the former one: for I will not
+deny that I am happy.
+
+CHOR. Many are the shapes of the things the deities direct, and many things
+the Gods perform contrary to our expectations. And those things which we
+looked for are not accomplished; but the God hath brought to pass things
+not looked for. Such hath been the event of this affair.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+NOTES ON ALCESTIS
+
+[1] Lactant. i. 10. "Quid Apollo? Nonne ... turpissime gregem pavit
+alienum?" B.
+
+[2] Hygin. Fab. li. "Apollo ab eo in servitutem liberaliter acceptus." B.
+
+[3] Cf. Hippol. 1437. B.
+
+[4] No one will, I believe, object to this translation of [Greek:
+THANATOS]; it seems rather a matter of surprise that Potter has kept the
+Latin ORCUS, a name clearly substituted as the nearest to [Greek: THANATOS]
+of the masculine gender.
+
+[5] Cf. �sch. Eum. 723 sqq. B.
+
+[6] It was customary to bury those, who died advanced in years, with
+greater magnificence than young persons.
+
+[7] The horses of Diomed, king of Thrace. The construction is, [Greek:
+Eurysthe�s pempsantos [auton] meta hippeion och�ma [axonta] ek top�n
+dyschei mer�n Thr�ik�s]. MONK.
+
+[8] On this custom, see Monk, and Lomeier de Lustrationibus � xxviii. B.
+
+[9] Perhaps, "as though all were over," B.
+
+[10] Casaubon on Theophr. � 16, observes that it was customary to place a
+large vessel filled with lustral water before the doors of a house during
+the time the corpse was lying out, with which every one who came out
+sprinkled himself. See also Monk's note, Kirchmann de Funeribus, iii. 9.
+The same custom was observed on returning from the funeral. See Pollux,
+viii. 7. p. 391, ed. Seber. B.
+
+[11] See Dindorf. B.
+
+[12] Potterus, Arch. Gr. _mortuos_ a _Gr�cis_ [Greek: pron�peis] vocari
+tradit, quod solebant ex penitiore �dium parte produci, ac in _vestibulo_,
+i.e. [Greek: pron�pi�i] collocari: atque hunc locum adducit, sed frustra,
+ut opinor. Non enim _mortua_ jam erat, nec _producta_, sed, ut recte hanc
+vocem interpretatur schol. [Greek: eis thanaton proneneukyia], i.e. _morti
+propinqua_. Proprie [Greek: pron�p�s] is dicitur, qui _corpore prono ad
+terram fertur_, ut �schyl. Agam. 242. Inde, quia moribundi virium defectu
+terram petere solent, ad hos designandos translatum est. KUINOEL.
+
+[13] The old word "dizening" is perhaps the most literal translation of
+[Greek: kosmos], which, however, here means the whole preparations for the
+funeral. Something like it is implied in Hamlet, v. 1.
+
+                  ... her virgin rites,
+  Her maiden strewments, and the bringing home
+  Of bell and burial.     B.
+
+[14] Aristophanes is almost too bad in his burlesque, Equit. 1251. [Greek:
+se d' allos tis lab�n kekt�setai, klept�s men ouk an mallon, eutych�s d'
+his�s]. B.
+
+[15] Some would translate [Greek: pron�p�s] in the same manner as in verse
+144.
+
+[16] Conf. Ter.: Phorm. iv. 4, 5. Opera tua ad _restim_ mihi quidem res
+rediit planissume.
+
+[17] Perhaps it is unnecessary to remark, that [Greek: abi�ton] agrees with
+[Greek: bion] implied in [Greek: bioteusei].
+
+[18] [Greek: horai] scilicet [Greek: h�lios]. MONK.
+
+[19] Cf. Hippol. 1372. B.
+
+[20] It must be remembered that to survive one's children was considered
+the greatest of misfortunes. Cf. Plaut. Mil. Glor. l. 1. "Ita ut tuum vis
+unicum gnatum tu� Superesse vit�, sospitem et superstitem." B.
+
+[21] Kuinoel carries on the interrogation to [Greek: gamous], and Buchanan
+has translated it according to this punctuation. Monk compares Iliad, p.
+95; [Greek: m�p�s me peristel�s' hena polloi].
+
+[22] Compare my note on �sch. Ag. 414 sqq. B.
+
+[23] _These_, my children.
+
+[24] Reiske proposes to read [Greek: tethrippa de zeug� te kai]--_And both
+from your chariot teams, and from your single horses cut the manes_.
+
+[25] This festival was celebrated in honor of Apollo at Sparta, from the
+seventh to the sixteenth day of the month Carneus. See Monk. B.
+
+[26] On [Greek: liparais Athanais], see Monk. B.
+
+[27] Literally, _the duplicate_ of such a wife.
+
+[28] [Greek: anax pelt�s], so [Greek: anax k�p�s] in �sch. Pers. 384, _of a
+rower_. Wakefield compares Ovid's _Clypei dominus septemplicis Ajax_. MONK.
+
+[29] Heath and Markland take [Greek: t�i] for [Greek: tini].
+
+[30] Cf. Theocrit. Id. i. 71 sqq. of Daphnis, [Greek: t�non men th�es,
+t�non lykoi �rysanto, T�non choi 'k drymoio le�n aneklause thanonta ...
+pollai men par possi boes, polloi de te tauroi, pollai d' au damalai kai
+porties �dyranto]. Virg. Ecl. v. 27 sqq. Calpurnius, Ecl. ii. 18.
+Nemesianus, Ecl. i. 74 sqq.; ii. 32. B.
+
+[31] [Greek: ard�n ginetai apo tou airein. d�loi de to phorad�n]. Schol.
+
+[32] Cf. Suppl. 773. [Greek: Aidou te molpas ekche� dakryrroous, philous
+prosaud�n, h�n leleimmenos talas er�ma klai�]. See Gorius Monum. sive
+Columbar. Libert. Florent. mdccxxvii. p.186, who observes, "[Greek: chaire]
+was the accustomed salutation addressed to the dead. Catullus, Carm. xcvii.
+_Accipe fraterno multum manantia fletu, atque in perpetuum frater HAVE,
+atque VALE_." The same scholar compares a monument, apud Fabretti, cap. v.
+p. 392, n. 265,
+
+
+D. M
+AVE SALVINIA
+OMNIUM. AMAN
+TISSIMA. ET.
+VALE,
+
+which is very apposite to the present occasion. B.
+
+[33] Wakefield reads [Greek: chaire kain Aidou domois]; having in his mind
+probably Hom. Il. [Greek: Ps]. 19. [Greek: Chaire moi h� Patrokle, kai ein
+A�dao domoisi].
+
+[34] I should scarcely have observed that this is the proper sense of the
+imperfect, had not the former translator mistaken it. B.
+
+[35] Cf. Iph. Taur. 244. [Greek: chernibas de kai katargmata ouk an
+phthanois an eutrep� poioumen�]. B.
+
+[36] An apparent allusion to the fable of Death and the Old Man. B
+
+[37] Aristophanes' version of this line is, [Greek: � pai, tin aucheis,
+potera Lydon � Phryga Mormolyttesthai dokeis]. B.
+
+[38] Turned by Aristophanes into an apology for beating one's father, Nub.
+1415. [Greek: klaousi paides, patera d' ou klaein dokeis]. See Thesmoph.
+194. B.
+
+[39] Cf. �sch. Choeph. sub init. and Gorius, Monum. Libert. p. 24. ad Tab.
+x. lit. A.
+
+[40] Theocrit. i. 27. [Greek: Kai bathy kissybion keklysmenon hadei kar�i,
+T� peri men cheil� mareuetai hypsothi kissos.] B.
+
+[41] Hamlet, v. 1.
+
+  --Hold off the earth awhile,
+  Till I have caught her once more in mine arms:
+                  [_ leaps into the grave_.]
+  Now pile your dust upon the quick and dead.     B.
+
+[42] Cf. vs. 195. [Greek: hon ou proseipe kai proserr�th� palin]. B.
+
+[43] [Greek: Orpheia garys], a paraphrasis for [Greek: Orpheus].
+
+[44] [Greek: antitem�n, metaphorik�s apo t�n tas rhizas temnont�n kai
+heuriskont�n.] SCHOL. TR. Cf. on �sch. Agam. 17. B.
+
+[45] In Phavorinus, among the senses of [Greek: klisia] is [Greek: klin�
+kai klin�t�rion].
+
+[46] It will be remembered that the tombs were built near the highways,
+with great magnificence, and sometimes very lofty, especially when near the
+sea-coast (cf. �sch. Choeph. 351. D'Orville on Charit. lib. i. sub fin.
+Eurip. Hecub. 1273). They are often used as landmarks or milestones, as in
+Theocr. vi. 10, and as oratories or chapels, Apul. Florid, i. p.340, ed.
+Elm. B.
+
+[47] This appears the most obvious sense, as connected with what follows.
+All the interpreters, however, translate it, _I thought myself worthy,
+standing, as I did, near thy calamities_,(i.e. near thee in thy
+calamities,) _to be proved thy friend._
+
+[48] In the same manner [Greek: h�bai] is used in Orestes, 687, [Greek:
+hotan gar h�bai d�mos eis org�n pes�n].
+
+[49] i.e. _the severed head of the Gorgon_. Valckenaer observes, that this
+is an expression meaning _facie aversa_, and compares l. 465 of the
+Phoeniss�.
+
+[50] Winter's Tale, v. 3.
+
+  Start not: her actions shall be holy, as,
+  You hear, my spell is lawful: do not shun her,
+  Until you see her die again; for then
+  You kill her double: Nay, present your hand:
+  When she was young you woo'd her; now, in age,
+  Is she become the suitor?
+
+Compare also Much Ado about Nothing, v. 4. B.
+
+[51] [Greek: haphagnizein] h. l. non _purificare_ sed _desecrare_. Orcus
+enim, quando gladio totondisset Alcestidis capillos, eam diis manibus
+sacram dicaverat, quod diserte [Greek: h�gnisai] appellat noster, vide
+75--77. Contraria igitur aliqua ceremonia desecranda erat, antequam Admeto
+ejus consuetudine et colloquio frui liceret. HEATH.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE BACCH�.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+PERSONS REPRESENTED,
+
+  BACCHUS.
+  CHORUS.
+  TIRESIAS.
+  CADMUS.
+  PENTHEUS.
+  SERVANT.
+  MESSENGER.
+  ANOTHER MESSENGER.
+  AGAVE.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE ARGUMENT.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+Bacchus, the son of Jove by Semele, had made Thebes, his mother's
+birth-place, his favorite place of abode and worship. Pentheus, the then
+reigning king, who, as others say, preferred the worship of Minerva,
+slighted the new God, and persecuted those who celebrated his revels. Upon
+this, Bacchus excited his mother Agave, together with the sisters of
+Semele, Autonoe and Ino, to madness, and visiting Pentheus in disguise of a
+Bacchanal, was at first imprisoned, but, easily escaping from his bonds, he
+persuaded Pentheus to intrude upon the rites of the Bacchants. While
+surveying them from a lofty tree, the voice of Bacchus was heard inciting
+the Bacchants to avenge themselves upon the intruder, and they tore the
+miserable Pentheus piecemeal. The grief and banishment of Agave for her
+unwitting offense conclude the play.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE BACCH�.[1]
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+BACCHUS.
+
+I, Bacchus, the son of Jove, am come to this land of the Thebans, whom
+formerly Semele, the daughter of Cadmus, brought forth, delivered by the
+lightning-bearing flame. And having taken a mortal form instead of a God's,
+I am present at the fountains of Dirce and the water of Ismenus. And I see
+the tomb of my thunder-stricken mother here near the palace, and the
+remnants of the house smoking, and the still living name of Jove's fire,
+the everlasting insult of Juno against my mother. But I praise Cadmus, who
+has made this place hallowed, the shrine of his daughter; and I have
+covered it around with the cluster-bearing leaf of the vine. And having
+left the wealthy lands of the Lydians and Phrygians, and the sun-parched
+plains of the Persians, and the Bactrian walls; and having come over the
+stormy land of the Medes, and the happy Arabia, and all Asia which lies
+along the coast of the salt sea, having fair-towered cities full of Greeks
+and barbarians mingled together; and there having danced and established my
+mysteries, that I might be a God manifest among men, I have come to this
+city first of the Grecian [cities,] and I have raised my shout first in
+Thebes of this land of Greece, fitting a deer-skin on my body, and taking a
+thyrsus in my hand, an ivy-clad[2] weapon, because the sisters of my
+mother, whom, it least of all became, said that I, Bacchus, was not born of
+Jove; but that Semele, having conceived by some mortal, charged the sin of
+her bed upon Jove, a trick of Cadmus; on which account they said that Jove
+had slain her, because she told a false tale about her marriage. Therefore
+I have now driven them from the house with frenzy, and they dwell on the
+mountain, insane of mind; and I have compelled them to wear the dress of my
+mysteries. And all the female seed of the Cadmeans, as many as are women,
+have I driven maddened from the house. And they, mingled with the sons of
+Cadmus, sit on the roofless rocks beneath the green pines. For this city
+must know, even though it be unwilling, that it is not initiated into my
+Bacchanalian rites, and that I plead the cause of my mother, Semele, in
+appearing manifest to mortals as a God whom she bore to Jove. Cadmus then
+gave his honor and power to Pentheus, born from his daughter, who fights
+against the Gods as far as I am concerned, and drives me from sacrifices,
+and in his prayers makes no mention of me; on which account I will show him
+and all the Thebans that I am a God. And having set matters here aright,
+manifesting myself, I will move to another land. But if the city of the
+Thebans should in anger seek by arms to bring down the Bacch� from the
+mountain, I, general of the M�nads, will join battle.[3] On which account I
+have changed my form to a mortal one, and transformed my shape into the
+nature of a man. But, O ye who have left Tmolus, the bulwark of Lydia; ye
+women, my assembly, whom I have brought from among the barbarians as
+assistants and companions to me; take your drums, your native instruments
+in the Phrygian cities, the invention of the mother Rhea[4] and myself, and
+coming beat them around this royal palace of Pentheus, that the city of
+Cadmus may see it. And I, with the Bacch�, going to the dells of Cith�ron,
+where they are, will share their dances.
+
+CHOR. Coming from the land of Asia, having left the sacred Tmolus, I dance
+in honor of Bromius, a sweet labor and a toil easily borne, celebrating the
+god Bacchus. Who is in the way? who is in the way? who is in the halls? Let
+him depart. And let every one be pure as to his mouth speaking propitious
+things; for now I will with hymns celebrate Bacchus according to
+custom:--Blessed is he,[5] whoever being favored, knowing the mysteries of
+the gods, keeps his life pure, and has his soul initiated into the Bacchic
+revels, dancing o'er the mountains with holy purifications, and reverencing
+the mysteries of the mighty mother Cybele, and brandishing the thyrsus, and
+being crowned with ivy, serves Bacchus! Go, ye Bacch�; go, ye Bacch�,
+escorting Bromius, a God, the son of a God, from the Phrygian mountains to
+the broad streets of Greece! Bromius! whom formerly, being in the pains of
+travail, the thunder of Jove flying upon her, his mother cast from her
+womb, leaving life by the stroke of the thunder-bolt. And immediately
+Jupiter, the son of Saturn, received him in a chamber fitted for birth; and
+covering him in his thigh, shuts him with golden clasps hidden from Juno.
+And he brought him forth, when the Fates had perfected the horned God, and
+crowned him with crowns of snakes, whence the thyrsus-bearing M�nads are
+wont to cover their prey with their locks. O Thebes, thou nurse of Semele,
+crown thyself with ivy, flourish, flourish with the verdant yew bearing
+sweet fruit, and be ye crowned in honor of Bacchus with branches of oak or
+pine, and adorn your garments of spotted deer-skin with fleeces of
+white-haired sheep,[6] and sport in holy games with the insulting wands,
+straightway shall all the earth dance, when Bromius leads the bands to the
+mountain, to the mountain, where the female crowd abides, away from the
+distaff and the shuttle,[7] driven frantic by Bacchus. O dwelling of the
+Curetes, and ye divine Cretan caves,[8] parents to Jupiter, where the
+Corybantes with the triple helmet invented for me in their caves this
+circle o'erstretched with hide; and with the constant sweet-voiced breath
+of Phrygian pipes they mingled a sound of Bacchus, and put the instrument
+in the hand of Rhea, resounding with the sweet songs of the Bacch�. And
+hard by the raving satyrs went through the sacred rites of the mother
+Goddess. And they added the dances of the Trieterides;[9] in which Bacchus
+rejoices; pleased on the mountains, when after the running dance he falls
+upon the plain, having a sacred garment of deer-skin, seeking a sacrifice
+of goats, a raw-eaten delight,[10] on his way to the Phrygian, the Lydian
+mountains; and the leader is Bromius, Evoe![11] but the plain flows with
+milk, and flows with wine, and flows with the nectar of bees; and the smoke
+is as of Syrian frankincense. But Bacchus bearing a flaming torch of pine
+on his thyrsus, rushes about arousing in his course the wandering Choruses,
+and agitating them with shouts, casting his rich locks loose in the
+air,--and with his songs he shouts out such words as this: O go forth, ye
+Bacch�; O go forth, ye Bacch�, delight of gold-flowing Tmolus. Sing Bacchus
+'neath the loud drums, Evoe, celebrating the God Evius in Phrygian cries
+and shouts. When the sweet-sounding sacred pipe sounds a sacred playful
+sound suited to the frantic wanderers, to the mountain, to the
+mountain--and the Bacchant rejoicing like a foal with its mother at
+pasture, stirs its swift foot in the dance.
+
+TIRESIAS. Who at the doors will call out Cadmus from the house, the son of
+Agenor, who, leaving the city of Sidon, erected this city of the Thebans?
+Let some one go, tell him that Tiresias seeks him; but he himself knows on
+what account I come, and what agreement I, an old man, have made with him,
+yet older; to twine the thyrsi, and to put on the skins of deer, and to
+crown the head with ivy branches.
+
+CADMUS. O dearest friend! how I, being in the house, was delighted, hearing
+your voice, the wise voice of a wise man; and I am come prepared, having
+this equipment of the God; for we needs must extol him, who is the son
+sprung from my daughter, Bacchus, who has appeared as a God to men, as much
+as is in our power. Whither shall I dance, whither direct the foot, and
+wave the hoary head? Do you lead me, you, an old man! O Tiresias, direct
+me, an old man; for you are wise. Since I shall never tire, neither night
+nor day, striking the earth with the thyrsus. Gladly we forget that we are
+old.
+
+TI. You have the same feelings indeed as I; for I too feel young, and will
+attempt the dance.
+
+CA. Then we will go to the mountain in chariots.[12]
+
+TI. But thus the God would not have equal honor.
+
+CA. I, an old man, will lead you, an old man.[13]
+
+TI. The God will without trouble guide us thither.
+
+CA. But shall we alone of the city dance in honor of Bacchus?
+
+TI. [Ay,] for we alone think rightly, but the rest ill.
+
+CA. We are long in delaying;[14] but take hold of my hand.
+
+TI. See, take hold, and join your hand to mine.
+
+CA. I do not despise the Gods, being a mortal.
+
+TI. We do not show too much wiseness about the Gods. Our ancestral
+traditions, and those which we have kept throughout our life, no argument
+will overturn them; not if any one were to find out wisdom with the highest
+genius. Some one will say that I do not respect old age, being about to
+dance, having crowned my head with ivy; for the God has made no distinction
+as to whether it becomes the young man to dance, or the elder; but wishes
+to have common honors from all; but does not at all wish to be extolled by
+a few.
+
+CA. Since you, O Tiresias, do not see this light, I will be to you an
+interpreter of things. Hither is Pentheus coming to the house in haste, the
+son of Echion, to whom I give power over the land. How fluttered he is!
+what strange thing will he say?
+
+PENTHEUS. I happened to be at a distance from this land, and I hear of
+strange evils in this city, that the women have left our palace in
+mad-wandering Bacchic rites; and that they are rushing about in the shady
+mountains, honoring with dances this new God Bacchus, whoever he is; and
+that full goblets stand in the middle of their assemblies, and that flying
+each different ways into secrecy, they yield to the embraces of men, on
+pretence, indeed, as [being] worshiping M�nads; but that they consider
+Venus before Bacchus. As many then as I have taken, the servants keep them
+bound as to their hands in the public strong-holds, and as many as are
+absent I will hunt from the mountain, Ino, and Agave who bore me to Echion,
+and the mother of Act�on, I mean Autonoe; and having bound them in iron
+fetters, I will soon stop them from this ill-working revelry. And they say
+that some stranger has come hither, a juggler, a charmer, from the Lydian
+land, fragrant in hair with golden curls, florid, having in his eyes the
+graces of Venus, who days and nights is with them, alluring the young
+maidens with Bacchic mysteries--but if I catch him under this roof, I will
+stop him from making a noise with the thyrsus, and waving his hair, by
+cutting off his neck from his body. He says he is the God Bacchus, [He was
+once on a time sown in the thigh of Jove,[15] ] who was burned in the flame
+of lightning, together with his mother, because she falsely claimed
+nuptials with Jove. Are not these things deserving of a terrible halter,
+for a stranger to insult us with these insults, whoever he be? But here is
+another marvel--I see Tiresias the soothsayer, in dappled deer-skins, and
+the father of my mother, most great absurdity, raging about with a
+thyrsus--I deprecate it, O father, seeing your old age destitute of sense;
+will you not dash away the ivy?[16] will you not, O father of my mother,
+put down your hand empty of the thyrsus? Have you persuaded him to this, O
+Tiresias? do you wish, introducing this new God among men, to examine birds
+and to receive rewards for fiery omens? If your hoary old age did not
+defend you, you should sit as a prisoner in the midst of the Bacch�, for
+introducing these wicked rites; for where the joy of the grape-cluster is
+present at a feast of women, I no longer say any thing good of their
+mysteries.
+
+CHOR. Alas for his impiety! O host, do you not reverence the Gods! and
+being son of Echion, do you disgrace your race and Cadmus, who sowed the
+earth-born crop?
+
+TI. When any wise man takes a good occasion for his speech, it is not a
+great task to speak well; but you have a rapid tongue, as if wise, but in
+your words there is no wisdom; but a powerful man, when bold, and able to
+speak, is a bad citizen if he has not sense. And this new God, whom you
+ridicule, I am unable to express how great he will be in Greece. For, O
+young man, two things are first among men; Ceres, the goddess, and she is
+the earth, call her whichever name you will.[17] She nourishes mortals with
+dry food; but he who is come as a match to her, the son of Semele, has
+invented the liquid drink of the grape, and introduced it among mortals,
+which delivers miserable mortals from grief,[18] when they are filled with
+the stream of the vine; and gives sleep an oblivion of daily evils: nor is
+there any other medicine for troubles. He who is a God is poured out in
+libations to the Gods, that by his means men may have good things--and you
+laugh at him, as to how he was sewn up in the thigh of Jove; I will teach
+you that this is well--when Jove snatched him out of the lightning flame,
+and bore him, a young infant, up to Olympus, Juno wished to cast him down
+from heaven; but Jove had a counter contrivance, as being a God. Having
+broken a part of the air which surrounds the earth, he placed in it, giving
+him as a pledge, Bacchus, safe from Juno's enmity; and in time, mortals
+say, that he was nourished in the thigh of Jove; changing his name, because
+a God gave him formerly as a pledge to a Goddess, they having made
+agreement.[19] But this God is a prophet--for Bacchanal excitement and
+frenzy have much divination in them.[20] For when the God comes violent[21]
+into the body, he makes the frantic to foretell the future; and he also
+possesses some quality of Mars; for terror flutters sometimes an army under
+arms and in its ranks, before they touch the spear; and this also is a
+frenzy from Bacchus. Then you shall see him also on the Delphic rocks,
+bounding with torches along the double-pointed district, tossing about, and
+shaking the Bacchic branch, mighty through Greece. But be persuaded by me,
+O Pentheus; do not boast that sovereignty has power among men, nor, even if
+you think so, and your mind is disordered, believe that you are at all
+wise. But receive the God into the land, and sacrifice to him, and play the
+Bacchanal, and crown your head. Bacchus will not compel women to be
+modest[22] with regard to Venus, but in his nature modesty in all things is
+ever innate. This you must needs consider, for she who is modest will not
+be corrupted by being at Bacchanalian revels. Dost see? Thou rejoicest when
+many stand at thy gates, and the city extols the name of Pentheus; and he,
+I ween, is pleased, when honored. I, then, and Cadmus whom you laugh to
+scorn, will crown ourselves with ivy, and dance, a hoary pair; but still we
+must dance; and I will not contend against the Gods, persuaded by your
+words--for you rave most grievously; nor can you procure any cure from
+medicine, nor are you now afflicted beyond their power.[23]
+
+CHOR. O old man, thou dost not shame Apollo by thy words, and honoring
+Bromius, the mighty God, thou art wise.
+
+CAD. My son, well has Tiresias advised you; dwell with us, not away from
+the laws. For now you flit about, and though wise are wise in naught; for
+although this may not be a God, as you say, let it be said by you that he
+is; and tell a glorious falsehood, that Semele may seem to have borne a
+God, and that honor may redound to all our race. You see the hapless fate
+of Act�on,[24] whom his blood-thirsty hounds, whom he had reared up, tore
+to pieces in the meadows, having boasted that he was superior in the chase
+to Diana. This may you not suffer; come, that I may crown thy head with
+ivy, with us give honor to the God--
+
+PEN. Do not bring your hand toward me; but departing, play the Bacchanal,
+and wipe not off your folly on me; but I will follow up with punishment
+this teacher of your madness; let some one go as quickly as possible, and
+going to his seat where he watches the birds, upset and overthrow it with
+levers, turning every thing upside down; and commit his crowns to the winds
+and storms; for doing this, I shall gnaw him most. And some of you going
+along the city, track out this effeminate stranger, who brings this new
+disease upon women, and pollutes our beds. And if you catch him, convey him
+hither bound; that meeting with a judgment of stoning he may die, having
+seen a bitter revelry of Bacchus in Thebes.
+
+TI. O wretched man! how little knowest thou what thou sayest! You are mad
+now, and before you was out of your mind. Let us go, O Cadmus, and entreat
+the God, on behalf of him, savage though he be, and on behalf of the city,
+to do him no ill: but follow me with the ivy-clad staff, and try to support
+my body, and I will yours; for it would be shameful for two old men to fall
+down: but let that pass, for we must serve Bacchus, the son of Jove; but
+beware lest Pentheus bring grief into thy house, O Cadmus. I do not speak
+in prophecy, but judging from the state of things, for a foolish man says
+foolish things.
+
+CHOR. O holy venerable Goddess! holy, who bearest thy golden pinions along
+the earth, hearest thou these words of Pentheus? Hearest thou his unholy
+insolence against Bromius, the son of Semele, the first deity of the Gods,
+at the banquets where the guests wear beautiful chaplets! who has this
+office, to join in dances, and to laugh with the flute, and to put an end
+to cares, when the juice of the grape comes at the feast of the Gods, and
+in the ivy-bearing banquets the goblet sheds sleep over man? Of unbridled
+mouths and lawless folly misery is the end, but the life of quiet and
+wisdom remains unshaken, and supports a house; for the heavenly powers are
+afar indeed, but still inhabiting the air, they behold the deeds of
+mortals. But cleverness[25] is not wisdom, nor is the thinking on things
+unfit for mortals. Life is short; and in it who, pursuing great things,
+would not enjoy the present? These are the manners of maniacs; and of
+ill-disposed men, in my opinion. Would that I could go to Cyprus, the
+island of Venus, where the Loves dwell, soothing the minds of mortals, and
+to Paphos, which the waters of a foreign river flowing with an hundred[26]
+mouths, fertilize without rain--and to the land of Pieria, where is the
+beautiful seat of the Muses, the holy hill of Olympus. Lead me thither, O
+Bromius, Bromius, O master thou of Bacchanals! There are the Graces, and
+there is Love, and there is it lawful for the Bacch� to celebrate their
+orgies; the God, the son of Jove, delights in banquets, and loves Peace,
+giver of riches, the Goddess the nourisher of youths. And both to the rich
+and the poor[27] has she granted to enjoy an equal delight from wine,
+banishing grief; and he who does not care for these things, hates to lead a
+happy life by day and by friendly night--but it is wise[28] to keep away
+the mind and intellect proceeding from over-curious men; what the baser
+multitude thinks and adopts, that will I say.
+
+SERVANT. Pentheus, we are here; having caught this prey, for which you sent
+us: nor have we gone in vain; but the beast was docile in our hands, nor
+did he withdraw his foot in flight, but yielded not unwillingly; nor did he
+[turn] pale nor change his wine-complexioned cheek, but laughing, allowed
+us to bind and lead him away; and remained still, making my work easy; and
+I for shame said, O stranger, I do not take you of my own will, but by
+order of Pentheus who sent me. And the Bacch� whom you shut up, whom you
+carried off and bound in the chains of the public prison, they being set
+loose are escaped, and are dancing in the meadows, invoking Bromius as
+their God, and of their own accord the fetters were loosed from their feet,
+and the keys opened the doors without mortal hand, and full of many wonders
+is this man come to Thebes; but the rest must be thy care.
+
+PEN. Take hold of him by the hands; for being in the toils, he is not so
+swift as to escape me: but in your body you are not ill-formed, O stranger,
+for women's purposes, on which account you have come to Thebes. For your
+hair is long, not through wrestling, scattered over your cheeks, full of
+desire, and you have a white skin from careful preparation; hunting after
+Venus by your beauty not exposed to strokes of the sun, but [kept] beneath
+the shade. First then tell me who thou art in family.
+
+BAC. There is no boast; but this is easy to say; thou knowest by hearsay of
+the flowery Tmolus?
+
+PEN. I know, [the hill] which surrounds the city of Sardis.
+
+BAC. Thence am I; and Lydia is my country.
+
+PEN. And whence do you bring these rites into Greece?
+
+BAC. Bacchus persuaded us, the son of Jove.
+
+PEN. Is Jove then one who begets new Gods?
+
+BAC. No, but having married Semele here,--
+
+PEN. Did he compel you by night, or in your sight [by day]?
+
+BAC. Seeing me who saw him; and he gave me orgies.
+
+PEN. And what appearance have these orgies?
+
+BAC. It is unlawful for the uninitiated among mortals to know.
+
+PEN. And have they any profit to those who sacrifice?
+
+BAC. It is not lawful for you to hear, but they are worth knowing.
+
+PEN. You have well coined this story, that I may wish to hear.
+
+BAC. The orgies of the God hate him who works impiety.
+
+PEN. For you say, forsooth, that you saw the God clearly what he was like?
+
+BAC. As he chose; I did not order this.
+
+PEN. This too you have well contrived, saying mere nonsense.
+
+BAC. One may seem, speaking wisely to one ignorant, not to be wise.
+
+PEN. And did you come hither first, bringing the God?
+
+BAC. Every one of the barbarians celebrates these orgies.
+
+PEN. [Ay,] for they are much less wise than Greeks.
+
+BAC. In these things they are wiser, but their laws are different.
+
+PEN. Do you practice these rites at night, or by day?
+
+BAG. Most of them at night;[29] darkness conveys awe.
+
+PEN. This is treacherous toward women, and unsound.
+
+BAC. Even by day some may devise base things.
+
+PEN. You must pay the penalty of your evil devices.
+
+BAC. And you of your ignorance, being impious to the God.
+
+PEN. How bold is Bacchus, and not unpracticed in speech.
+
+BAC. Say what I must suffer, what ill wilt thou do me?
+
+PEN. First I will cut off your delicate hair.
+
+BAC. The hair is sacred, I cherish it for the God.[30]
+
+PEN. Next yield up this thyrsus out of your hands.
+
+BAC. Take it from me yourself, I bear it as the ensign of Bacchus.
+
+PEN. And we will guard your body within in prison.
+
+BAC. The God himself will release me when I wish.[31]
+
+PEN. Ay, when you call him, standing among the Bacch�.
+
+BAC. Even now, being near, he sees what I suffer.
+
+PEN. And where is he? for at least he is not apparent to my eyes.
+
+BAC. Near me, but you being impious, see him not.
+
+PEN. Seize him, he insults me and Thebes!
+
+BAC. I warn you not to bind me: I in my senses command you not in your
+senses.
+
+PEN. And I bid them to bind you, as being mightier than you.
+
+BAC. You know not why you live, nor what you do, nor who you are.
+
+PEN. Pentheus, son of Agave, and of my father Echion.
+
+BAC. You are suited to be miserable according to your name.[32]
+
+PEN. Begone! confine him near the stable of horses that he may behold dim
+darkness! There dance; and as for these women whom you bring with you, the
+accomplices in your wickedness, we will either sell them away, or stopping
+their hand from this noise and beating of skins, I will keep them as slaves
+at the loom.
+
+BAC. I will go--for what is not right it is not right to suffer; but as a
+punishment for these insults Bacchus shall pursue you, who you say exists
+not; for, injuring us, you put him in bonds.
+
+CHOR. O daughter of Achelous, venerable Dirce, happy virgin, for thou didst
+receive the infant of Jove in thy fountains when Jove who begat him saved
+him in his thigh from the immortal fire; uttering this shout: Go, O
+Dithyrambus, enter this my male womb, I will make you illustrious, O
+Bacchus, in Thebes, so that they shall call you by this name. But you, O
+happy Dirce, reject me having a garland-bearing company about you. Why dost
+thou reject me? Why dost thou avoid me? Yet, I swear by the clustering
+delights of the vine of Bacchus, yet shall you have a care for Bacchus.
+What rage, what rage does the earth-born race show, and Pentheus once
+descended from the dragon, whom the earth-born Echion begat, a fierce-faced
+monster, not a mortal man, but like a bloody giant, an enemy to the Gods,
+who will soon bind me, the handmaid of Bacchus, in halters, he already has
+within the house my fellow-reveler, hidden in a dark prison. Dost thou
+behold this, O son of Jove, Bacchus, thy prophets in the dangers of
+restraint? Come, O thou of golden face, brandishing your thyrsus along
+Olympus, and restrain the insolence of the blood-thirsty man. Where art
+thou assembling thy bands of thyrsus-bearers, O Bacchus, is it near Nysa
+which nourishes wild beasts, or in the summits of Corycus?[33] or perhaps
+in the deep-wooded lairs of Olympus, where formerly Orpheus playing the
+lyre drew together the trees by his songs, collected the beasts of the
+fields; O happy Pieria, Evius respects you, and will come to lead the dance
+with revelings having crossed the swiftly-flowing Axius, he will bring the
+dancing M�nads, and [leaving] Lydia[34] the giver of wealth to mortals, and
+the father whom I have heard fertilizes the country renowned for horses
+with the fairest streams.
+
+BAC. Io! hear ye, hear ye my song, Io Bacch�! O Bacch�!
+
+CHOR. Who is here, who? from what quarter did the shout of Evius summon me?
+
+BAC. Io, Io, I say again! I, the son of Semele, the son of Jove!
+
+CHOR. Io! Io! Master, master! come now to our company. O Bromius! Bromius!
+Shake this place, O holy Earth![35] O! O! quickly will the palace of
+Pentheus be shaken in ruin--Bacchus is in the halls. Worship him. We
+worship him. Behold these stone buttresses shaken with their pillars.
+Bacchus will shout in the palace.
+
+BAC. Light the burning fiery lamp; burn, burn the house of Pentheus.
+
+SEM. Alas! Dost thou not behold the fire, nor perceive around the sacred
+tomb of Semele the flame which formerly the bolt-bearing thunder of Jupiter
+left?
+
+SEM. Cast on the ground your trembling bodies, cast them down, O M�nads,
+for the king turning things upside down is coming to this palace,
+[Bacchus,] the son of Jupiter.
+
+BAC. O barbarian women! have ye fallen to the ground thus stricken with
+fear? Ye have felt, it seems, Bacchus shaking the house of Pentheus; but
+lift up your bodies, and take courage, casting off fear from your flesh.
+
+CHOR. O thou most mighty light to us of Evian Bacchic rites, how gladly do
+I see thee, being before alone and desolate!
+
+BAC. Ye came to despair, when I was sent in, as about to fall into the dark
+prison of Pentheus.
+
+CHOR. How not?--who was my guardian if you met with misfortune? but how
+were you liberated, having met with an impious man?
+
+BAC. I delivered myself easily without trouble.
+
+CHOR. And did he not bind your hands in links of chains?
+
+BAC. In this too I mocked him; for, thinking to bind me, he neither touched
+nor handled me, but fed on hope; and finding a bull in the stable, where
+having taken me, he confined me, he cast halters round the knees of that,
+and the hoofs of its feet;[36] breathing out fury, stilling sweat from his
+body, gnashing his teeth in his lips. But I, being near, sitting quietly,
+looked on; and, in the mean time, Bacchus coming, shook the house, and
+kindled flame on the tomb of his mother; and he, when he saw it, thinking
+the house was burning, rushed to and fro, calling to the servants to bring
+water,[37] and every servant was at work toiling in vain; and letting go
+this labor, I having escaped, seizing a dark sword he rushes into the
+house, and then Bromius, as it seems to me, I speak my opinion, made an
+appearance in the palace, and he rushing toward it, rushed on and stabbed
+at the bright air,[38] as if slaying me; and besides this, Bacchus afflicts
+him with these other things; and threw down his house to the ground, and
+every thing was shivered in pieces, while he beheld my bitter chains; and
+from fatigue dropping his sword, he falls exhausted--for he being a man,
+dared to join battle with a God: and I quietly getting out of the house am
+come to you, not regarding Pentheus. But, as it seems to me, a shoe sounds
+in the house; he will soon come out in front of the house. What will he say
+after this? I shall easily bear him, even if he comes vaunting greatly, for
+it is the part of a wise man to practice prudent moderation.
+
+PEN. I have suffered terrible things, the stranger has escaped me, who was
+lately coerced in bonds. Hollo! here is the man; what is this? how do you
+appear near my house, having come out?
+
+BAC. Stay your foot; and substitute calm steps for anger.
+
+PEN. How come you out, having escaped your chains?
+
+BAC. Did I not say, or did you not hear, that some one would deliver me?
+
+PEN. Who? for you are always introducing strange things.
+
+BAC. He who produces the rich-clustering vine for mortals.
+
+PEN. This is a fine reproach you charge on Bacchus; I order ye to close
+every tower all round.
+
+BAC. Why? do not Gods pass over walls too?
+
+PEN. You are wise, wise at least in all save what you should be wise in.
+
+BAC. In what I most ought, in that I was born wise; but first learn,
+hearing his words who is come from the mountain to bring a message to you;
+but we will await you, we will not fly.
+
+MESSENGER. Pentheus, ruler o'er this Theban land, I come, having left
+Cith�ron, where never have the brilliant flakes of white snow fallen.[39]
+
+PEN. But bringing what important news are you come?
+
+MESS. Having seen the holy Bacch�, who driven by madness have darted their
+fair feet from this land, have I come, wishing to tell you and the city, O
+king, what awful things they do, things beyond marvel; and I wish to hear
+whether in freedom of speech I shall tell you the matters there, or whether
+I shall repress my report, for I fear, O king, the hastiness of thy mind,
+and your keen temper, and too imperious disposition.[40]
+
+PEN. Speak, as you shall be in all things blameless as far as I am
+concerned; for it is not meet to be wrath with the just; and in proportion
+as you speak worse things of the Bacch�, so much the more will we punish
+this man who has taught these tricks to the women.
+
+MESS. I was just now driving up to the heights the herd of calves, when the
+sun sends forth his rays warming the land, and I see three companies of
+dances of women, of one of which Autonoe was chief; of a second, thy
+mother, Agave; and Ino led the third dance; and they were all sleeping,
+relaxed in their bodies, some resting their locks against the leaves of
+pine, and some laying their heads at random on the leaves of oak in the
+ground, modestly, not, as you say, that, drunk with the goblet and the
+noise of the flute, they solitary hunt Venus through the wood. But thy
+mother standing in the midst of the Bacch�, raised a shout, to wake their
+bodies from sleep, when she heard the lowing of the horned oxen; but they,
+casting off refreshing sleep from their eyes, started upright, a marvel to
+behold for their elegance, young, old, and virgins yet unyoked, And first
+they let loose their hair over their shoulders; and arranged their
+deer-skins, as many as had had the fastenings of their knots unloosed, and
+they girded the dappled hides with serpents licking their jaws--and some
+having in their arms a kid, or the wild whelps of wolves, gave them white
+milk, all those who, having lately had children, had breasts still full,
+having left their infants, and they put on their ivy chaplets, and garlands
+of oak and blossoming yew; and one having taken a thyrsus, struck it
+against a rock, whence a dewy stream of water springs out; another placed
+her wand on the ground, and then the God sent up a spring of wine. And as
+many as had craving for the white drink, scratching the earth with the tips
+of their fingers, obtained abundance of milk; and from the ivy thyrsus
+sweet streams of honey dropped, so that, had you been present, beholding
+these things, you would have approached with prayers that God whom you now
+blame. And we came together, herdsmen and shepherds, to reason with one
+another concerning this strange matter, what terrible things and worthy of
+marvel they do; and some one, a wanderer about the city, and practiced in
+speaking, said to us all, O ye who inhabit the holy downs of the mountains,
+will ye that we hunt out Agave, the mother of Pentheus, back from the
+revels, and do the king a pleasure? And he seemed to us to speak well, and
+hiding ourselves, we lay in ambush in the foliage of the thickets; and
+they, at the appointed hour, waved the thyrsus in their solemnities,
+calling on Bacchus with united voice, the son of Jove, Bromius; and the
+whole mountain and the beasts were in a revel; and nothing was unmoved by
+their running; and Agave was bounding near to me, and I sprang forth, as
+wishing to seize her, leaving my ambush where I was hidden. But she cried
+out, O my fleet hounds, we are hunted by these men; but follow me, follow,
+armed with thyrsi in your hands. We then flying, avoided the tearing of the
+Bacch�, but they sprang on the heifers browsing the grass with unarmed
+hand, and you might see one rending asunder a fatted lowing calf, and
+others rent open cows, and you might see either ribs, or a cloven-footed
+hoof, tossed here and there, and hanging beneath the pine-trees the
+fragments were dripping, dabbled in gore; and the fierce bulls before
+showing their fury with their horns, were thrown to the ground, overpowered
+by myriads of maiden hands; and quicker were the coverings of flesh torn
+asunder by the royal maids than you could shut your eyes; and like birds
+raised in their course, they proceed along the level plain, which by the
+streams of the Asopus produce the fertile crop of the Thebans, and falling
+on Hysi� and Erythr�,[41] which, are below Cith�ron, they turned every
+thing upside down; they dragged children from the houses; and whatever they
+put on their shoulders stuck there without chains, and fell not on the dark
+plain, neither brass nor iron; and they bore fire on their tresses, and it
+burned not; but some from rage betook themselves to arms, being plundered
+by the Bacch�, the sight of which was fearful to behold, O king! For their
+pointed spear was not made bloody, but the women hurling the thyrsi from
+their hands, wounded them, and turned their backs to flight, women
+[defeating] men; not without the aid of some God. And they went back again
+to whence they had departed, to the same fountains which the God had caused
+to spring up for them, and they washed off the blood; and the snakes with
+their tongues cleaned off the drops from their cheeks. Receive then, O
+master, this deity, whoever he be, in this city, since he is mighty in
+other respects, and they say this too of him, as I hear, that he has given
+mortals the vine which puts an end to grief,--for where wine exists not
+there is no longer Venus, nor any thing pleasant to men.[42]
+
+CHOR. I fear to speak unshackled words to the king, but still they shall be
+spoken; Bacchus is inferior to none of the Gods.
+
+PEN. Already like fire does this insolence of the Bacch� extend thus near,
+a great reproach to the Greeks. But I must not hesitate; go to the Electra
+gates, bid all the shield-bearers and riders of swift-footed horses to
+assemble, and all who brandish the light shield, and twang with their hand
+the string of the bow, as we will make an attack upon the Bacch�; but it is
+too much, if we are to suffer what we are suffering at the hands of women.
+
+BAC. O Pentheus, you obey not at all hearing my words; but although
+suffering ill at your hands, still I say that you ought not to take up arms
+against a God, but to rest quiet; Bromius will not endure your moving the
+Bacch� from their Evian mountains.
+
+PEN. You shall not teach me; but be content,[43] having escaped from
+prison, or else I will again bring punishment upon you.
+
+BAC. I would rather sacrifice to him than, being wrath, kick against the
+pricks; a mortal against a God.
+
+PEN. I will sacrifice, making a great slaughter of the women, as they
+deserve, in the glens of Cith�ron.
+
+BAC. You will all fly, (and that will be shameful,) so as to yield your
+brazen shields to the thyrsi of the Bacch�.
+
+PEN. We are troubled with this impracticable stranger, who neither
+suffering nor doing will be silent.
+
+BAC. My friend, there is still opportunity to arrange these things well.
+
+PEN. By doing what? being a slave to my slaves?
+
+BAC. I will bring the women here without arms.
+
+PEN. Alas! you are contriving some trick against me.
+
+BAC. Of what sort, if I wish to save you by my contrivances?
+
+PEN. You have devised this together, that ye may have your revelings
+forever.
+
+BAC. And indeed, know this, I agreed on it with the God.
+
+PEN. Bring hither the arms! and do you cease to speak.
+
+BAC. Hah! Do you wish to see them sitting on the mountains?
+
+PEN. Very much, if I gave countless weight of gold for it.
+
+BAC. But why? have you fallen into a great wish for this?
+
+PEN. I should like to see them drunk grievously [for them].
+
+BAC. Would you then gladly see what is grievous to you?
+
+PEN. To be sure, sitting quietly under the pines.
+
+BAC. But they will track you out, even though you come secretly.
+
+PEN. But [I will come] openly, for you have said this well.
+
+BAC. Shall I then guide you? and will you attempt the way?
+
+PEN. Lead me as quickly as possible; for I do not grudge you the time.
+
+BAC. Put on then linen garments on your body.
+
+PEN. What then, shall I be reckoned among women, being a man?
+
+BAC. Lest they slay you if you be seen there, being a man.
+
+PEN. You say this well, and you have been long wise.
+
+BAC. Bacchus taught me this wisdom.
+
+PEN. How then can these things which you advise me be well done?
+
+BAC. I will attire you, going into the house.
+
+PEN. With what dress--a woman's? but shame possesses me.
+
+BAC. Do you no longer wish to be a spectator of the M�nads?
+
+PEN. But what attire do you bid me put on my body?
+
+BAC. I will spread out your hair at length on your head.
+
+PEN. And what is the next point of my equipment?
+
+BAC. A garment down to your feet; and you shall have a turban on your head.
+
+PEN. Shall you put any thing else on me besides this?
+
+BAC. A thyrsus in your hand, and the dappled hide of a deer.
+
+PEN. I can not wear a woman's dress.
+
+BAC. But you will shed blood if you join battle with the Bacch�.
+
+PEN. True; we must first go and see.
+
+BAC. That is wiser at least than to hunt evils with evils.
+
+PEN. And how shall I go through the city escaping the notice of the
+Cadmeans?
+
+BAC. We will go by deserted roads, and I will guide you.
+
+PEN. Every thing is better than for the Bacch� to mock me.
+
+BAC. We will go into the house and consider what seems best.
+
+PEN. We can do what we like; my part is completely prepared. Let us go; for
+either I will go bearing arms, or I will be guided by your counsels.
+
+BAC. O women! the man is in the toils,[44] and he will come to the Bacch�,
+where, dying, he will pay the penalty. Now, Bacchus, 'tis thine office, for
+you are not far off. Let us punish him; but first drive him out of his
+wits, inspiring vain frenzy, since, being in his right mind, he will not be
+willing to put on a female dress, but driving him out of his senses he will
+put it on; and I wish him to furnish laughter to the Thebans, being led in
+woman's guise through the city, after[45] his former threats, with which he
+was terrible. But I will go to fit on Pentheus the dress, which, having
+taken, he shall die, slain by his mother's hand. And he shall know Bacchus,
+the son of Jupiter, who is in fact to men at once the most terrible, and
+the mildest of deities.[46]
+
+CHOR. Shall I move my white foot in the night-long dance, honoring Bacchus,
+exposing my neck to the dewy air, sporting like a fawn in the verdant
+delights of the mead, when it has escaped a fearful chase beyond the watch
+of the well-woven nets, (and the huntsman cheering hastens on the course of
+his hounds,) and with toil like the swift storm[47] rushes along the plain
+that skirts the river, exulting in the solitude apart from men, and in the
+thickets of the shady-foliaged wood? What is wisdom, what is a more
+glorious gift from the Gods among mortals than to hold one's hand on the
+heads of one's enemies? What is good is always pleasant; divine strength is
+roused with difficulty, but still is sure, and it chastises those mortals
+who honor folly, and do not extol the Gods in their insane mind. But the
+Gods cunningly conceal the long foot[48] of time, and hunt the impious man;
+for it is not right to determine or plan any thing beyond the laws: for it
+is a light expense to deem that that has power whatever is divine, and that
+what has been law for a long time has its origin in nature. What is wisdom,
+what is a more noble gift from the Gods among men, than to hold one's hand
+on the heads of one's enemies? what is honorable is always pleasant. Happy
+is he who has escaped from the wave of the sea, and arrived in harbor.[49]
+Happy, too, is he who has overcome his labors; and one surpasses another in
+different ways, in wealth and power. Still are there innumerable hopes to
+innumerable men, some result in wealth to mortals, and some fail, but I
+call him happy whose life is happy day by day.
+
+BAC. You, who are eager to see what you ought not, and hasty to do a deed
+not of haste, I mean Pentheus, come forth before the house, be seen by me,
+having the costume of a woman, of a frantic Bacchant, as a spy upon your
+mother and her company! In appearance, you are like one of the daughters of
+Cadmus.
+
+PEN. And indeed I think I see two suns,[50] and twin Thebes, and
+seven-gated city; and you seem to guide me, being like a bull, and horns
+seem to grow on your head. But were you ever a beast? for you look like a
+bull.
+
+BAC. The God accompanies us, not propitious formerly, but now at truce with
+us. You see what you should see.
+
+PEN. How do I look? Does not my standing seem like that of Ino, or of
+Agave, my mother?
+
+BAC. I seem to see them as I behold you; but this lock of hair of yours is
+out of its place, not as I dressed it beneath the turban.
+
+PEN. Moving it within doors backward and forward, and practicing Bacchic
+revelry, I disarranged it.
+
+BAC. But we who ought to wait upon you will again rearrange it. But hold up
+your head.
+
+PEN. Look, do you arrange it, for we depend on you.
+
+BAC. And your girdle is loosened, and the fringes of your garments do not
+extend regularly round your legs.
+
+PEN. They seem so to me, too, about the right foot at least; but on this
+side the robe sits well along the leg.
+
+BAC. Will you not think me the first of your friends when, contrary to your
+expectation, you see the Bacch� acting modestly?
+
+PEN. But shall I be more like a Bacchant holding the thyrsus in my right
+hand, or in this?
+
+BAC. You should [hold it in] your right hand, and raise it at the same time
+with your right foot; and I praise you for having changed your mind.
+
+PEN. Could I bear on my shoulders the glens of Cith�ron, Bacch� and all?
+
+BAC. You could if you were willing; but you had your mind unsound before;
+but now you have such as you ought.
+
+PEN. Shall we bring levers, or shall I tear them up with my hands, putting
+my shoulder or arm under the summits?
+
+BAC. No, lest you ruin the habitations of the Nymphs, and the seats of Pan
+where he plays his pipes.
+
+PEN. You speak well,--it is not with strength we should conquer women; but
+I will hide my body among the pines.
+
+BAC. Hide you the hiding in which you should be hidden, coming as a crafty
+spy on the M�nads.
+
+PEN. And, indeed, I think to catch them in the thickets, like birds in the
+sweet nets of beds.
+
+BAC. You go then as a watch for this very thing; and perhaps you will catch
+them, if you be not caught first.
+
+PEN. Conduct me through the middle of the Theban land, for I am the only
+man of them who would dare these things.
+
+BAC. You alone labor for this city, you alone; therefore the labors, which
+are meet,[51] await you. But follow me, I am your saving guide, some one
+else will guide you away from thence.
+
+PEN. Yes, my mother.
+
+BAC. Being remarkable among all.
+
+PEN. For this purpose do I come.
+
+BAC. You will depart being borne.[52]
+
+PEN. You allude to my delicacy.
+
+BAC. In the hands of your mother.
+
+PEN. And wilt thou compel me to be effeminate?
+
+BAC. Ay, with such effeminacy.
+
+PEN. I lay mine hands to worthy things.
+
+BAC. You are terrible, terrible: and you go to terrible sufferings; so that
+you shall find a renown reaching to heaven. Spread out, O Agave, your
+hands, and ye, her sister, daughters of Cadmus! I lead this young man to a
+mighty contest; and the conqueror shall be I and Bacchus! The rest the
+matter itself will show.
+
+CHOR. Go, ye fleet hounds of madness, go to the mountain where the
+daughters of Cadmus hold their company; drive them raving against the
+frantic spy on the M�nads,--him in woman's attire. First shall his mother
+from some smooth rock or paling, behold him in ambush; and she will cry out
+to the M�nads: Who is this of the Cadmeans who has come to the mountain,
+the mountain, as a spy on us, who are on the mountain? Io Bacch�! Who
+brought him forth? for he was not born of the blood of women: but, as to
+his race, he is either born of some lion, or of the Libyan Gorgons. Let
+manifest justice go forth, let it go with sword in hand, slaying the
+godless, lawless, unjust, earth-born offspring of Echion through the
+throat; who, with wicked mind and unjust rage about your orgies, O Bacchus,
+and those of thy mother,[53] with raving heart and mad disposition proceeds
+as about to overcome an invincible deity by force. To possess without
+pretext a wise understanding in respect to the Gods, and [a disposition]
+befitting mortals, is a life ever free from grief. I joyfully hunt after
+wisdom, if apart from envy, but the other conduct is evidently ever great
+throughout life, directing one rightly the livelong day, to reverence
+things honorable.[54] Appear as a bull, or a many-headed dragon, or a fiery
+lion, to be seen. Go, O Bacchus! cast a snare around the hunter of the
+Bacch�, with a smiling face falling upon the deadly crowd of the M�nads.
+
+MESS. O house, which wast formerly prosperous in Greece! house of the
+Sidonian old man, who sowed in the land the earth-born harvest of the
+dragon; how I lament for you, though a slave. But still the [calamities] of
+their masters are a grief to good servants.
+
+CHOR. But what is the matter? Tellest thou any news from the Bacch�?
+
+MESS. Pentheus is dead, the son of his father Echion.
+
+CHOR. O, king Bacchus! truly you appear a great God!
+
+MESS. How sayest thou? Why do you say this? Do you, O woman, delight at my
+master being unfortunate?
+
+CHOR. I, a foreigner, celebrate it in foreign strains; for no longer do I
+crouch in fear under my fetters.
+
+MESS. But do you think Thebes thus void of men?
+
+CHOR. Bacchus, Bacchus, not Thebes, has my allegiance.
+
+MESS. You, indeed may be pardoned; still, O woman, it is not right to
+rejoice at the misfortunes which have been brought to pass.
+
+CHOR. Tell me, say, by what fate is the wicked man doing wicked things
+dead, O man?
+
+MESS. When having left Therapn� of this Theban land, we crossed the streams
+of Asopus, we entered on the height of Cith�ron, Pentheus and I, for I was
+following my master, and the stranger who was our guide in this search, for
+the sight: first, then, we sat down in a grassy vale, keeping our steps and
+tongues in silence, that we might see, not being seen; and there was a
+valley surrounded by precipices, irrigated with streams, shaded around with
+pines, where the M�nads were sitting employing their hands in pleasant
+labors, for some of them were again crowning the worn-out thyrsus, so as to
+make it leafy with ivy; and some, like horses quitting the painted yoke,
+shouted in reply to another a Bacchic melody. And the miserable Pentheus,
+not seeing the crowd of women, spake thus: O stranger, where we are
+standing, I can not come at the place where is the dance of the M�nads; but
+climbing a mound, or pine with lofty neck, I could well discern the
+shameful deeds of the M�nads. And on this I now see a strange deed of the
+stranger; for seizing hold of the extreme lofty branch of a pine, he pulled
+it down, pulled it, pulled it to the dark earth, and it was bent like a
+bow, or as a curved wheel worked by a lathe describes a circle as it
+revolves, thus the stranger, pulling a mountain bough with his hands, bent
+it to the earth; doing no mortal's deed; and having placed Pentheus on the
+pine branches, he let it go upright through his hands steadily, taking care
+that it should not shake him off; and the pine stood firm upright to the
+sky, bearing on its back my master, sitting on it; and he was seen rather
+than saw the M�nads, for sitting on high he was apparent, as not
+before.[55] And one could no longer see the stranger, but there was a
+certain voice from the sky; Bacchus, as one might conjecture, shouted out:
+O youthful women, I bring you him who made you and me and my orgies a
+laughing-stock: but punish ye him. And at the same time he cried out, and
+sent forth to heaven and earth a light of holy fire;[56] and the air was
+silent, and the fair meadowed grove kept its leaves in silence, and you
+could not hear the voice of the beasts; but they not distinctly receiving
+the voice, stood upright, and cast their eyes around. And again he
+proclaimed his bidding. And when the daughters of Cadmus' recognized the
+distinct command of Bacchus, they rushed forth, having in the eager running
+of their feet a speed not less than that of a dove; his mother, Agave, and
+her kindred sisters, and all the Bacch�: and frantic with the inspiration
+of the God, they bounded through the torrent-streaming valley, and the
+clefts. But when they saw my master sitting on the pine, first they threw
+at him handfuls of stones, striking his head, mounting on an opposite piled
+rock; and with pine branches some aimed, and some hurled their thyrsi
+through the air at Pentheus, wretched mark;[57] but they failed of their
+purpose; for he having a height too great for their eagerness, sat,
+wretched, destitute through perplexity. But at last thundering together[58]
+some oaken branches, they tore up the roots with levers not of iron; and
+when they could not accomplish the end of their labors, Agave said, Come,
+standing round in a circle, seize each a branch, O M�nads, that we may take
+the beast[59] who has climbed aloft, that he may not tell abroad the secret
+dances of the God. And they applied their innumerable hands to the pine,
+and tore it up from the ground; and sitting on high, Pentheus falls to the
+ground from on high, with numberless lamentations; for he knew that he was
+near to ill. And first his mother, as the priestess, began his slaughter,
+and falls upon him; but he threw the turban from his hair, that the
+wretched Agave, recognizing him, might not slay him; and touching her
+cheek, he says, I, indeed, O mother, am thy child,[60] Pentheus, whom you
+bore in the house of Echion; but pity me, O mother! and do not slay me, thy
+child, for my sins. But she, foaming and rolling her eyes every way, not
+thinking as she ought to think, was possessed by Bacchus, and he did not
+persuade her; and seizing his left hand with her hand, treading on the side
+of the unhappy man, she tore off his shoulder, not by [her own] strength,
+but the God gave facility to her hands; and Ino completed the work on the
+other side, tearing his flesh. And Autonoe and the whole crowd of the
+Bacch� pressed on; and there was a noise of all together; he, indeed,
+groaning as much as he had life in him, and they shouted; and one bore his
+arm, another his foot, shoe and all; and his sides were bared by their
+tearings, and the whole band, with gory hands, tore to pieces the flesh of
+Pentheus: and his body lies in different places, part under the rugged
+rocks, part in the deep shade of the wood, not easy to be sought; and as to
+his miserable head, which his mother has taken in her hands, having fixed
+it on the top of a thyrsus, she is bearing it, like that of a savage lion,
+through the middle of Cith�ron, leaving her sisters in the dances of the
+M�nads; and she goes along rejoicing in her unhappy prey, within these
+walls, calling upon Bacchus, her fellow-huntsman, her fellow-workman in the
+chase, of glorious victory, by which she wins a victory of tears. I,
+therefore, will depart out of the way of this calamity before Agave comes
+to the palace; but to be wise, and to reverence the Gods, this, I think, is
+the most honorable and wisest thing for mortals who adopt it.
+
+CHOR. Let us dance in honor of Bacchus; let us raise a shout for what has
+befallen Pentheus, the descendant of the dragon, who assumed female attire
+and the wand with the beautiful thyrsus,--a certain death, having a
+bull[61] as his leader to calamity. Ye Cadmean Bacchants, ye have
+accomplished a glorious victory, illustrious, yet for woe and tears. It is
+a glorious contest to plunge one's dripping hand in the blood of one's son.
+But--for I see Agave, the mother of Pentheus, coining to the house with
+starting eyes; receive the revel of the Evian God.
+
+AGAVE. O Asiatic Bacch�!
+
+CHOR. To what dost thou excite me? O!
+
+AG. We bring from the mountains a fresh-culled wreathing[62] to the house,
+a blessed prey.
+
+CHOR. I see it, and hail you as a fellow-reveler, O!
+
+AG. I have caught him without a noose, a young lion, as you may see.
+
+CHOR. From what desert?
+
+AG. Cith�ron.
+
+CHOR. What did Cith�ron?
+
+AG. Slew him.
+
+CHOR. Who was it who first smote him?
+
+AG. The honor is mine. Happy Agave! We are renowned in our revels.
+
+CHOR. Who else?
+
+AG. Cadmus's.
+
+CHOR. What of Cadmus?
+
+AG. Descendants after me, after me laid hands on this beast.
+
+CHOR. You are fortunate in this capture.
+
+AG. Partake then of our feast.
+
+CHOR. What shall I, unhappy, partake of?
+
+AG. The whelp is young about the chin; he has just lost his soft-haired
+head-gear.[63]
+
+AG. For it is beautiful as the mane of a wild beast.
+
+CHOR. Bacchus, a wise huntsman, wisely hurried the M�nads against this
+beast.
+
+CHOR. For the king is a huntsman.
+
+AG. Do you praise?
+
+CHOR. What? I do praise.
+
+AG. But soon the Cadmeans.
+
+CHOR. And thy son Pentheus his mother--
+
+AG. --will praise, as having caught this lion-born prey.
+
+CHOR. An excellent prey.
+
+AG. Excellently.
+
+CHOR. You rejoice.
+
+AG. I rejoice greatly, having accomplished great and illustrious deeds for
+this land.
+
+CHOR. Show now, O wretched woman, thy victorious booty to the citizens,
+which you have come bringing with you.
+
+AG. O, ye who dwell in the fair-towered city of the Theban land, come ye,
+that ye may behold this prey, O daughters of Cadmus, of the wild beast
+which we have taken; not by the thonged javelins of the Thessalians, not by
+nets, but by the fingers, our white arms; then may we boast that we should
+in vain possess the instruments of the spear-makers; but we, with this
+hand, slew this beast, and tore its limbs asunder. Where is my aged father?
+let him come near; and where is my son Pentheus? let him take and raise the
+ascent of a wattled ladder against the house, that he may fasten to the
+triglyphs this head of the lion which I am present having caught.
+
+CAD. Follow me, bearing the miserable burden of Pentheus; follow me, O
+servants, before the house; whose body here, laboring with immeasurable
+search, I bear, having found it in the defiles of Cith�ron, torn to pieces,
+and finding nothing in the same place, lying in a thicket, difficult to be
+searched. For I heard from some one of the daring deeds of my daughters
+just as I came to the city within the walls, with the old Tiresias,
+concerning the Bacch�; and having returned again to the mountain, I bring
+back my child, slain by the M�nads. And I saw Autonoe, who formerly bore
+Act�on to Arist�us, and Ino together, still mad in the thicket, unhappy
+creatures; but some one told me that Agave was coming hither with frantic
+foot; nor did I hear a false tale, for I behold her, an unhappy sight.
+
+AG. O father! you may boast a great boast, that you of mortals have
+begotten by far the best daughters; I mean all, but particularly myself,
+who, leaving my shuttle at the loom, have come to greater things, to catch
+wild beasts with my hands. And having taken him, I bear in my arms, as you
+see, these spoils of my valor, that they may be suspended against your
+house. And do you, O father, receive them in your hands; and rejoicing over
+my successful capture, invite your friends to a feast; for you are blessed,
+blessed since I have done such deeds.
+
+CAD. O, woe! and not to be seen, of those who have accomplished a slaughter
+not to be measured by wretched hands; having stricken down a glorious
+victim for the Gods, you invite Thebes and me to a banquet. Alas me, first
+for thy ills, then for mine own; how justly, but how severely, has king
+Bromius destroyed us, being one of our own family!
+
+AG. How morose is old age in men! and sullen to the eye; would that my son
+may be fond of hunting, resembling the disposition of his mother, when with
+the Theban youths he would strive after the beasts--but he is only fit to
+contend with Gods. He is to be admonished, O father, by you and me, not to
+rejoice in clever evil. Where is he? Who will summon him hither to my
+sight, that he may see me, that happy woman?
+
+CAD. Alas, alas! knowing what ye have done, ye will grieve a sad grief; but
+if forever ye remain in the condition in which ye are, not fortunate, you
+will seem not to be unfortunate.
+
+AG. But what of these matters is not well, or what is grievous?
+
+CAD. First cast your eyes up to this sky.
+
+AG. Well; why do you bid me look at it?
+
+CAD. Is it still the same, or think you it is changed?
+
+AG. It is brighter than formerly, and more divine.
+
+CAD. Is then this fluttering still present to your soul?
+
+AG. I understand not your word; but I become somehow sobered, changing from
+my former mind.
+
+CAD. Can you then hear any thing, and answer clearly?
+
+AG. How I forget what we said before, O father!
+
+CAD. To what house did you come in marriage?
+
+AG. You gave me, as they say, to the sown Echion.
+
+CAD. What son then was born in your house to your husband?
+
+AG. Pentheus, by the association of myself and his father.
+
+CAD. Whose head then have you in your arms?
+
+AG. That of a lion, as those who hunted him said.
+
+CAD. Look now rightly; short is the toil to see.
+
+AG. Ah! what do I see? what is this I bear in my hands?
+
+CAD. Look at it, and learn more clearly.
+
+AG. I see the greatest grief, wretch that I am!
+
+CAD. Does it seem to you to be like a lion?
+
+AG. No: but I, wretched, hold the head of Pentheus.
+
+CAD. Ay, much lamented before you recognized him.
+
+AG. Who slew him, how came he into my hands?
+
+CAD. O wretched truth, how unseasonably art thou come!
+
+AG. Tell me, since delay causes a quivering at my heart.
+
+CAD. You and your sisters slew him.
+
+AG. And where did he die, in the house, or in what place?
+
+CAD. Where formerly the dogs tore Act�on to pieces.
+
+AG. But why did he, unhappy, go to Cith�ron?
+
+CAD. He went deriding the God and your Bacchic revels.
+
+AG. But on what account did we go thither?
+
+CAD. Ye were mad, and the whole city was frantic with Bacchus.[64]
+
+AG. Bacchus undid us--now I perceive.
+
+CAD. Being insulted with insolence--for ye thought him not a God.
+
+AG. But the dear body of my child, O father!
+
+CAD. I having with difficulty traced it, bring it all.
+
+AG. What! rightly united in its joints? * * * *
+
+AG. But what part had Pentheus in my folly?[65]
+
+CAD. He was like you, not reverencing the God, therefore he joined all in
+one ruin, both ye and this one, so as to ruin the house, and me, who being
+childless of male children, see this branch of thy womb, O unhappy woman!
+most miserably and shamefully slain--whom the house respected; you, O
+child, who supported my house, born of my daughter, and was an object of
+fear to the city; and no one wished to insult the old man, seeing you; for
+he would have received a worthy punishment. But now I shall be cast out of
+my house dishonored, I, the mighty Cadmus, who sowed the Theban race, and
+reaped a most glorious crop; O dearest of men, for although no longer in
+being, still thou shalt be counted by me as dearest of my children; no
+longer touching this, my chin, with thy hand, addressing me, your mother's
+father, wilt thou embrace me, my son, saying, Who injures, who insults you,
+O father, who harasses your heart, being troublesome I say, that I may
+punish him who does you wrong, O father. But now I am miserable, and thou
+art wretched, and thy mother is pitiable, and thy relations are wretched.
+But if there is any one who despises the Gods, looking on this man's death,
+let him acknowledge the Gods.
+
+CHOR. I grieve for thy state, O Cadmus; but your child has the punishment
+of your daughter, deserved indeed, but grievous to you.
+
+AG. O father, for you see how I am changed ...
+
+BAC ... changing, you shall become a dragon, and your wife becoming a
+beast, shall receive in exchange the form of a serpent, Harmonia, the
+daughter of Mars, whom you had, being a mortal. And as the oracle of Jove
+says, you shall drive with your wife a chariot of heifers, ruling over
+barbarians; and with an innumerable army you shall sack many cities; and
+when they plunder the temple of Apollo, they shall have a miserable return,
+but Mars shall defend you and Harmonia, and shall settle your life in the
+islands of the blessed. I say this, I, Bacchus, not born of a mortal
+father, but of Jove; and if ye had known how to be wise when ye would not,
+ye would have been happy, having the son of Jupiter for your ally.
+
+CAD. Bacchus, we beseech thee, we have erred.
+
+BAC. Ye have learned it too late; but when it behooved you, you knew it
+not.
+
+CAD. I knew it, but you press on us too severely.
+
+BAC. [Ay,] for I, being a God, was insulted by you.
+
+CAD. It is not right for Gods to resemble mortals in anger.[66]
+
+BAC. My father, Jove, long ago decreed this.
+
+AG. Alas! a miserable banishment is the decree[67] [for us,] old man.
+
+BAC. Why do ye then delay what must needs be?
+
+CAD. O child, into what terrible evil have we come; both you wretched and
+your * * * * sisters,[68] and I miserable, shall go, an aged sojourner, to
+foreigners. Still it is foretold that I shall bring into Greece a motley
+barbarian army, and leading their spears, I, a dragon, shall lead the
+daughter of Mars, Harmonia, my wife, having the fierce nature of a dragon,
+to the altars and tombs of the Greeks. Nor shall I, wretched, rest from
+ills, nor even sailing over the Acheron below shall I be at rest.
+
+AG. O, my father! and I being deprived of you shall be banished.
+
+CAD. Why do you embrace me with your hands, O unhappy child, as a white
+swan does its exhausted[69] parent?
+
+AG. For whither can I turn, cast out from my country?
+
+CAD. I know not, my child; your father is a poor ally.
+
+AG. Farewell, O house! farewell, O ancestral city! I leave you in
+misfortune a fugitive from my chamber.
+
+CAD. Go then, my child, to the land of Arist�us * * * *.
+
+AG. I bemoan thee, O father!
+
+CAD. And I thee, my child; and I lament your sisters.
+
+AG. Terribly indeed has king Bacchus brought this misery upon thy house.
+
+BAC. [Ay,] for I have suffered terrible things from ye, having a name
+unhonored in Thebes.
+
+AG. Farewell, my father.
+
+CAD. And you farewell, O miserable daughter; yet you can not easily arrive
+at this.
+
+AG. Lead me, O guides, where I may take my miserable sisters as the
+companions of my flight; and may I go where neither accursed Cith�ron may
+see me, nor I may see Cith�ron with my eyes, and where there is no memory
+of the thyrsus hallowed, but they may be a care to other Bacch�.
+
+CHOR. There are many forms of divine things; and the Gods bring to pass
+many in an unexpected manner: both what has been expected has not been
+accomplished, and God has found out a means for doing things unthought of.
+So, too, has this event turned out.[70]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+NOTES ON THE BACCH�
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+[1] For illustrations of the fable of this play, compare Hyginus, Fab.
+clxxxiv., who evidently has a view to Euripides. Ovid, Metam. iii. fab. v.
+Oppian, Cyneg. iv. 241 sqq. Nonnus, 45, p. 765 sq. and 46, p. 783 sqq.,
+some of whose imitations I shall mention in my notes. With the opening
+speech of this play compare the similar one of Venus in the Hippolytus.
+
+[2] Cf. vs. 176; and for the musical instruments employed in the
+Bacchanalian rites, vs. 125 sqq. Oppian, Cyn. iv. 243. [Greek: nebrisi d'
+amphebalonto, kai estepsanto korymbois, En spe�, kai peri paida to mystikon
+�rch�santo. Tympana d' ektypeon, kai kymbala chersi krotainon]. Compare
+Gorius, Monum. Libert. et Serv. ad Tab. vii. p. 15 sq.
+
+[3] Such is the sense of [Greek: synapsomai], [Greek: mach�n] being
+understood. See Matthi�.
+
+[4] Drums and cymbals were invented by the Goddess in order to drown the
+cries of the infant Jupiter. Minutius Felix, xxi. "Avido patri subtrahitur
+infans ne voretur, et Corybantum cymbalis, ne pater audiat, vagitus initus
+eliditur" (read _audiat vagitus, tinnitus illi editur_, from the _vestigia_
+of Cod. Reg.). Cf. Lactant. i. 13.
+
+[5] Cf. Homer, Hymn. in Cerer. 485. [Greek: olbios, hos tad' op�pen
+epichthoni�n anthr�p�n: Hos d' atel�s, hier�n host' ammoros, oupoth'
+homoi�n Aisan echei, phthimenos per, hypo zoph�i eur�enti]. See Ruhnken's
+note, and Valck. on Eur. Hippol.
+
+[6] This passage is extremely difficult. [Greek: Plokam�n] seems decidedly
+corrupt. Reiske would read [Greek: pokad�n], Musgrave [Greek: leukotrich�n
+plokamois mall�n]. Elmsley would substitute [Greek: probat�n], "si [Greek:
+probaton] apud Euripidem exstaret." This seems the most probable view as
+yet expressed. The [Greek: eriosteptoi kladoi] are learnedly explained by
+Lobeck on Ag. p. 375 sq., quoted by Dindorf. The [Greek: mall�sis] or
+insertion of spots of party-colored fur upon the plain skin of animals, was
+a favorite ornament of the wealthy. The spots of ermine similarly used now
+are the clearest illustration to which I can point. Lobeck also observes,
+"[Greek: kata bakchiousthai] non bacchari significat, sed coronari."
+
+[7] These ladies seem to have been rather undomestic in character, as Agave
+makes this very fact a boast, vs. 1236.
+
+[8] Cf. Apollodor. l. i., � 3, interpp. ad Virg. G. iv. 152. Compare
+Porphyr. de Nymph. Antr. p. 262, ad. Holst. [Greek: sp�laia toinyn kai
+antra t�n palaiotat�n prin kai naous epino�sai theois aphosiount�n. kai en
+Kr�t�i men kour�t�n, Di� en Arkadiai de, sel�n�i kai Pani Lykei�i: kai en
+Nax�i Dionys�i. pantachou d' hopou ton Mithran egn�san, dia sp�laiou ton
+theon hileoumen�n]. Cf. Moll. ad Longi Past. i. 2. p. 22 sq. ed. Boden.
+
+[9] Cf. Virg. �n. iv. 301, and Ritterh. on Oppian, Cyn. i, 24.
+
+[10] Compare the epithet of Bacchus [Greek: �madios], Orph. Hymn. xxx. 5;
+l. 7, which has been wrongly explained by Gesner and Hermann. The true
+interpretation is given by Porphyr. de Abst. ii. 55, who states that human
+sacrifices were offered [Greek: �madi�i Dionys�i] the man being torn to
+pieces ([Greek: diaap�ntes]).
+
+[11] Persius i. 92. "et lynceus M�nas flexura corymbis Evion ingeminat,
+reparabilis assonat Echo." Euseb. Pr. Ev. ii. 3, derives the cry from Eve!
+
+[12] I should read this line interrogatively, with Elmsley.
+
+[13] Quoted by Gellius, xiii. 18.
+
+[14] Elmsley would read [Greek: makron to mellon]. Perhaps the true reading
+is [Greek: mellein akairon] = _it is no season for delay_.
+
+[15] The construction is so completely akward, that I almost feel inclined
+to consider this verse as an interpolation, with Dindorf.
+
+[16] Compare Nonnus, 45. p. 765 4. [Greek: Teiresian kai Kadmon atasthalon
+iache Pentheus. Kadme, ti margaineis, tini daimoni k�mon egeireis; Kadme,
+miainomen�s apokattheo kisson etheir�s, Kattheo kai nartheka nooplaneos
+Dionysou.... N�pie Teiresia stephan�phore rhipson a�tais S�n plokam�n tade
+phylla nothon stephos, k.t.l.]
+
+[17] Compare the opinion of Perseus in Cicero de N.D. i. 15, with Minutius
+Felix, xxi.
+
+[18] Pseud-Orpheus Hymn. l. 6. [Greek: pausiponon thn�toisi phaneis akos.]
+
+[19] Dindorf truly says that this passage smacks rather of Proclus, than of
+Euripides, and I agree with him that its spuriousness is more than
+probable. Had Euripides designed an etymological quibble, he would probably
+have made some allusion to Merus, a mountain of India, where Bacchus is
+said to have been brought up. See Curtius, viii. 10. "Sita est sub
+radicibus montis, quem Meron incol� appellant. Inde Gr�ci mentiendi traxere
+licentiam, Jovis femine liberum patrem esse celatum." Cf. Eustath. on
+Dionys. Perieg. 1159. Lucian. Dial. Deor. ix. and Hermann on Orph. Hymn.
+lii. 3.
+
+[20] The gift of [Greek: mantik�] was supposed to follow initiation, and is
+often joined with the rites of this deity. Philostratus, Heroic. p. 22, ed.
+Boiss. [Greek: hote d� kai mantik�s sophias emphorountai, kai to chr�sm�des
+autais prosbakcheuei.]
+
+[21] Cf. Hippol. 443. [Greek: Kypris gar ou phor�ton �n poll� rhy�i].
+
+[22] I have followed Matthi�'s interpretation of this passage.
+
+[23] See Hermann's note.
+
+[24] The fate of Act�on is often joined with that of Pentheus.
+
+[25] i.e. over-cunning in regard to religious matters. Cf. 200. [Greek:
+ouden sophizomestha toisi daimosin].
+
+[26] Probably a mere hyperbole to denote great fruitfulness. See Elmsley.
+
+[27] Cf. Hor. Od. iii. 21, 20.
+
+[28] I follow Dindorf in reading [Greek: sopha d'], but am scarcely
+satisfied.
+
+[29] Hence his epithet of Bacchus [Greek: Nyktelios]. See Herm. on Orph.
+Hymn. xlix. 3.
+
+[30] See my note on �sch. Choeph. 7.
+
+[31] Cf Person Advers. p. 265. Hor. Ep. i. 16. 73 "Vir bonus et sapiens
+audebit dicere Pentheu, Rector Thebarum, quid me perferre patique Indignum
+coges? Adima bona, nempe pecus, rem, Lectos, argentum: tollas licet. In
+manicis et Compedibus s�vo te sub custode tenebo. Ipse deus, simul atque
+volam, me solvet. Opinor, Hoc sentit: moriar. Mors ultima linea rerum est."
+
+[32] Punning on [Greek: penthos], _grief_. Cf. Arist. Rhet. ii. 23, 29.
+
+[33] i.e. of Parnassus. Elmsley (after Stanl. on �sch. Eum. 22.) remarks
+that [Greek: K�rykis petra] means the Corycian cave in Parnassus, [Greek:
+K�rykiai koryphai], the heights of Parnassus.
+
+[34] Hermann and Dindorf correct [Greek: Loidian] from Herodot. vii. 127.
+
+[35] The earth and buildings were supposed to shake at the presence of a
+deity. Cf. Callimach. Hymn. Apol. sub init. Virg. �n. iii. 90; vi. 255. For
+the present instance Nonnus, 45. p. 751.
+
+  [Greek: �d� d' autoeliktos eseieto Pentheos aul�,]
+  [Greek: akline�n sphair�don ana�ssousa themethl�n,]
+  [Greek: kai pole�n dedon�to thor�n enosichthoni palm�i]
+  [Greek: p�matos essomenoio proangelos.]
+
+[36] The madness of Ajax led to a similar delusion. Cf. Soph. Aj. 56 sqq.
+
+[37] Compare a fragment of Didymus apud Macrob. Sat. v. 18, who states
+[Greek: Achel�on pan hyd�r Euripid�s ph�sin en Hypsipyl�i]. See also comm.
+on Virg. Georg. i. 9.
+
+[38] The reader of Scott will call to mind the fine description of Ireton
+lunging at the air, in a paroxysm of fanatic raving. See "Woodstock." So
+also Orestes in Iph. Taur. 296 sqq.
+
+[39] [Greek: aneisan], _solvuntur, liquescunt._ BRODEUS.
+
+[40] Cf. Soph Ant. 243 sqq.
+
+[41] These two cities were in ruins in the time of Pausanias. See ix. 3. p.
+714, ed. Kuhn.
+
+[42] Cf. Athen�us, p. 40. B. Terent. Eun. iv. 5. "Sine Cerere et Libero
+friget Venus." Apul Met. ii. p. 119, ed. Elm. "Ecce, inquam, Veneris
+hortator et armiger Liber advenit ultro," where see Pric�us.
+
+[43] More literally, perhaps, "keep it and be thankful."
+
+[44] Theocrit. i. 40. [Greek: mega diktyon es bolon helkei].
+
+[45] But [Greek: ek t�n apeil�n] conveys a notion of change = _instead of_.
+
+[46] Elmsley remarks that [Greek: anthr�poisi] belongs to both members of
+the sentence. I have therefore supplied. The sense may be illustrated from
+Hippol. 5 sq.
+
+[47] See Matthi�.
+
+[48] i.e. step. This is ridiculed by Aristoph. Ran. 100, where the
+Scholiast quotes a similar example from our author's Alexandra.
+
+[49] Compare Havercamp on Lucret. ii. sub init.
+
+[50] Compare Virgil, �n. iv. 469. "Et solem geminum, et duplices se
+ostendere Thebas." In the second passage of Clemens Alexandrinus quoted by
+Elmsley, [Greek: ger�n] is probably a mistaken reference to Tiresias.
+
+[51] An obscure hint at the impending fate of Pentheus. Nonnus has led the
+way to the catastrophe by a graphic description of Agave's dream. Dionys.
+45. p. 751.
+
+[52] [Greek: pheromenos] may mean either "carried in a litter," or "carried
+to burial." There is a somewhat similar play in the epigram of Ausonius,
+xxiii. "Mater Lac�na clypeo obarmans filium, cum hoc, inquit, aut in hoc,
+redi."
+
+[53] Burges more rightly reads [Greek: matros te Gas]. See Elmsley's note.
+
+[54] As one must make some translation, I have done my best with this
+passage, which is, however, utterly unintelligible in Dindorf's text. A
+reference to his selection of notes will furnish some new readings, but, as
+a whole, quite unsatisfactory.
+
+[55] Compare the parallel account in Nonnus, 46. p. 784.
+
+[56] Alluded to by Oppian, Cyn. iv. 300. [Greek: apte selas phlogeron
+patr�ion, an d' elel�xon Daian, atart�ron d' opason tisin �ka tyrannou]. He
+then relates that Pentheus was transformed into a bull, the M�nads into
+panthers, who tore him to pieces.
+
+[57] [Greek: stochos] is either the aim itself, or the mark aimed at, as in
+this passage, and Xenoph. Ages. 1. 25.
+
+[58] I have done my best with this extraordinary expression, of which
+Elmsley quotes another example from Archilochus Fragm. 36. Perhaps the
+notion of excessive rapidity is intended to be expressed.
+
+[59] [Greek: th�r] seems metaphorically said, as in �sch. Eum. 47. Nonnus,
+45. p. 784, 23. above, 922.
+
+[60] Compare Nonnus, 46. p. 784.
+
+  [Greek: Kai tote min lipe lyssa noosphaleos Dionysou,]
+  [Greek: kai proteras phrenas esche to deuteron: amphi de gai�i]
+  [Greek: geitona potmon ech�n kenyr�n ephthenxato ph�n�n.]
+  * * * * * *
+  [Greek: m�ter em� dysm�ter ap�neos iocheo lyss�s,]
+  [Greek: th�ra pothen kaleeis me ton hyiea.]
+
+The whole passage is very elegant, and even pathetic.
+
+[61] Alluding to the horns of Bacchus. Cf. Sidon. Apoll. Burg. Pontii
+Leontii, vs. 26, "Caput ardua rumpunt Cornua, et indigenam jaculantur
+fulminis ignem." See some whimsical reasons for this in Isidor. Origg viii.
+2. Albricus de Deor. Nu. xix. But compare above, vs. 920. [Greek: Kai
+tauros h�min prosthen h�geisthai dokeis, kai s�i kerate krati
+prospephykenai].
+
+[62] Elmsley has rightly shown that [Greek: helika] could not of itself
+mean "a bull" or "heifer," although Homer has [Greek: eilipodas helikas
+bous]. I have therefore followed Hermann, who remarks, "[Greek: helix]
+seems properly to be meant for the clusters of ivy with which the thyrsus
+was entwined. Hence Agave says that she adorns the thyrsus with a
+new-fashioned wreath, viz. the head of her son." Such language is, however,
+more like the proverbial boldness of �schylus, than the even style of our
+poet.
+
+[63] "[Greek: korytha], ornamentum capitis, vix potest dubitari quin pro
+ipso capite posuerit." HERMANN. There is considerable variation in the
+manner in which the following lines are disposed.
+
+[64] Or, "Bacchus-mad."
+
+[65] I have marked a lacuna with Dindorf.
+
+[66] See the commentators on Virg. �n. i. 11. "Tant�ne animis coelestibus
+ir�?"
+
+[67] After [Greek: tl�mones phygai] supply [Greek: menousin]. ELMSLEY.
+
+[68] A word is wanting to complete the verse.
+
+[69] See Musgrave. Cranes are chiefly celebrated for parental affection.
+
+[70] These verses are found at the ends of no less than four others of our
+author's plays, viz. Andromacha, Helen, Medea, and Alcestis.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE HERACLID�.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+PERSONS REPRESENTED.
+
+  IOLAUS.
+  COPREUS.*
+  CHORUS.
+  DEMOPHOON.
+  APOLLO.
+  MACARIA.*
+  SERVANT.
+  ALCMENA.
+  MESSENGER.
+  EURYSTHEUS.
+
+_Note_.--The names of Copreus and Macaria were wanting in the MSS., but
+have been supplied from the mythologists. See Elmsley on vss. 49 and 474.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE ARGUMENT.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+Iolaus, son of Iphiclus, and nephew of Hercules, whom he had joined in his
+expeditions during his youth, in his old age protected his sons. For the
+sons of Hercules having been driven out of every part of Greece by
+Eurystheus, he came with them to Athens; and, embracing the altars of the
+Gods, was safe, Demophoon being king of the city; and when Copreus, the
+herald of Eurystheus, wished to remove the suppliants, he prevented him.
+Upon this he departed, threatening war. Demophoon despised him; but hearing
+the oracles promise him victory if he sacrificed the most noble Athenian
+virgin to Ceres, he was grieved; not wishing to slay either his own
+daughter, or that of any citizen, for the sake of the suppliants. But
+Macaria, one of the daughters of Hercules, hearing of the prediction,
+willingly devoted herself. They honored her for her noble death, and,
+knowing that their enemies were at hand, went forth to battle. The play
+ends with their victory, and the capture of Eurystheus.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE HERACLID�.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+IOLAUS.
+
+This has long since been my established opinion, the just man is born for
+his neighbors; but he who has a mind bent upon gain is both useless to the
+city and disagreeable to deal with, but best for himself. And I know this,
+not having learned it by word of mouth; for I, through shame, and
+reverencing the ties of kindred, when it was in my power to dwell quietly
+in Argos, partook of more of Hercules' labors, while he was with us, than
+any one man besides:[1] and now that he dwells in heaven, keeping these his
+children under my wings, I preserve them, I myself being in want of safety.
+For since their father was removed from the earth, first Eurystheus wished
+to kill me, but I escaped; and my country indeed is no more, but my life is
+saved, and I wander in exile, migrating from one city to another. For, in
+addition to my other ills, Eurystheus has chosen to insult me with this
+insult; sending heralds whenever on earth he learns we are settled, he
+demands us, and drives us out of the land; alleging the city of Argos, one
+not paltry either to be friends with or to make an enemy, and himself too
+prospering as he is; but they seeing my weak state, and that these too are
+little, and bereaved of their sire, respecting the more powerful, drive us
+from the land. And I am banished, together with the banished children, and
+fare ill together with those who fare ill, loathing to desert them, lest
+some may say thus, Behold, now that the children have no father, Iolaus,
+their kinsman born, defends them not. But being bereft of all Greece,
+coming to Marathon and the country under the same rule, we sit suppliants
+at the altars of the Gods, that they may assist us; for it is said that the
+two sons of Theseus inhabit the territory of this land, of the race of
+Pandion, having received it by lot, being near akin to these children; on
+which account we have come this way to the frontiers of illustrious Athens.
+And by two aged people is this flight led, I, indeed, being alarmed about
+these children; and the female race of her son Alcmena preserves within
+this temple, clasping it in her arms; for we are ashamed that virgins
+should mingle with the mob, and stand at the altars. But Hyllus and his
+brothers, who are older, are seeking where there is a strong-hold that we
+may inhabit, if we be thrust forth from this land by force. O children,
+children! hither; take hold of my garments; I see the herald of Eurystheus
+coming hither toward us, by whom we are pursued as wanderers, deprived of
+every land.[2] O detested one, may you perish, and the man who sent you:
+how many evils indeed have you announced to the noble father of these
+children from that same mouth!
+
+COPREUS. I suppose you think that this is a fine seat you are sitting in,
+and have come to a city which is an ally, thinking foolishly; for there is
+no one who will choose your useless power in preference to Eurystheus.
+Depart; why toilest thou thus? You must rise up and go to Argos, where
+punishment by stoning awaits you.
+
+IOL. Not so, since the altar of the God will aid me, and the free land in
+which we tread.
+
+COP. Do you wish to cause me trouble with this band?
+
+IOL. Surely you will not drag me away, nor these children, seizing by
+force?
+
+COP. You shall know; but you are not a good prophet in this.
+
+IOL. This shall never happen, while I am alive.
+
+COP. Depart; but I will lead these away, even though you be unwilling,
+considering them, wherever they may be, to belong to Eurystheus.
+
+IOL. O ye who have dwelt in Athens a long time, defend us; for, being
+suppliants of Jove, the Presider over the Forum,[3] we are treated with
+violence, and our garlands are profaned, both a reproach to the city, and
+an insult to the Gods.
+
+CHORUS. Hollo! hollo! what is this noise near the altar? what calamity will
+it straightway portend?
+
+IOL. Behold me, a weak old man, thrown down on the plain; miserable that I
+am.
+
+CHOR. By whose hand do you fall this unhappy fall?
+
+ * * * *
+
+IOL. This man, O strangers, dishonoring your Gods, drags me violently from
+the altar of Jupiter.
+
+CHOR. From what land, O old man, have you come hither to this people
+dwelling together in four cities?[4] or, have you come hither from across
+[the sea] with marine oar, having quitted the Euboean shore?
+
+IOL. O strangers, I am not accustomed to an islander's life, but we are
+come to your land from Mycen�.
+
+CHOR. What name, O old man, did the Mycen�an people call you?
+
+IOL. Know that I am lolaus, once the companion of Hercules; for this body
+is not unrenowned.
+
+CHOR. I know, having heard of it before; but say whose youthful children
+you are leading in your hand.
+
+IOL. These, O strangers, are the sons of Hercules, who are come as
+suppliants of you and the city.
+
+CHOR. What do ye seek? or, tell me, is it wanting to have speech of the
+city?
+
+IOL. Not to be given up, and not to go to Argos, being dragged from your
+Gods by force.
+
+COP. But this will not be sufficient for your masters, who, having power
+over you, find you here.
+
+CHOR. It is right, O stranger, to reverence the suppliants of the Gods, and
+not for you to leave by violent hands the habitations of the deities, for
+venerable Justice will not suffer this.
+
+COP. Send now Eurystheus's subjects out of this land, and I will not use
+this hand violently.
+
+CHOR. It is impious for a state to reject the suppliant prayer of
+strangers.
+
+COP. But it is good to have one's foot out of trouble, being possessed of
+the better counsel.
+
+CHOR. You should then have dared this, having spoken to the king of this
+land, but you should not drag strangers away from the Gods by force, if you
+respect a free land.
+
+COP. But who is king of this country and city?
+
+CHOR. Demophoon, the son of Theseus, of a noble father.
+
+COP. With him, then, the contest of this argument had best be; all else is
+spoken in vain.
+
+CHOR. And indeed hither he comes in haste, and Acamas, his brother, to hear
+these words.
+
+DEMOPHOON. Since you, being an old man, have anticipated us, who are
+younger, in running to this hearth of Jove, say what hap collects this
+multitude here.
+
+CHOR. These sons of Hercules sit here as suppliants, having crowned the
+altar, as you see. O king, and Iolaus, the faithful companion of their
+father.
+
+DE. Why then did this chance occasion clamors?
+
+CHOR. This man caused the noise, seeking to lead him by force from this
+hearth; and he tripped up the legs of the old man, so that I shed the tear
+for pity.
+
+DE. And indeed he has a Grecian robe and style of dress; but these are the
+doings of a barbarian hand; it is for you then to tell me, and not to
+delay, leaving the confines of what land you are come hither.
+
+COP. I am an Argive; for this you wish to learn: and I am willing to say
+why, and from whom, I am come. Eurystheus, the king of Mycen�, sends me
+hither to lead away these men; and I have come, O stranger, having many
+just things at once to do and to say; for I being an Argive myself, lead
+away Argives, having them as fugitives from my country condemned to die by
+the laws there; and we have the right, managing our city ourselves by
+ourselves, to fix our own punishments: but they having come to the hearths
+of many others also, there also we have taken our stand on these same
+arguments, and no one has dared to bring evils upon himself. But either
+perceiving some folly in you, they have come hither, or in perplexity
+running the risk, whether it shall be or not. For surely they do not think
+that you alone are mad, in so great a portion of Greece as they have been
+over, so as to commiserate their foolish distresses. Come, compare the two;
+admitting them into your land, and suffering us to lead them away, what
+will you gain? Such things as these you may gain from us; you may add to
+this city the whole power of Argos, and all the might of Eurystheus; but if
+looking to the words and pitiable condition of these men, you are softened
+by them, the matter comes to the contest of the spear; for think not that
+we will give up this contest without steel. What then will you say?
+deprived of what lands, making war with the Tirynthians and Argives, and
+repelling them, with what allies, and on whose behalf will you bury the
+dead that fall? Surely you will obtain an evil report among the citizens,
+if, for the sake of an old man, a mere tomb,[5] one who is nothing, as one
+may say, and of these children, you will put your foot into a mess;[6] you
+will say, at best, that you shall find, at least, hope; and this too is at
+present much wanting; for these who are armed would fight but ill with
+Argives if they were grown up, if this encourages your mind, and there is
+much time in the mean while in which ye may be destroyed; but be persuaded
+by me, giving nothing, but permitting me to lead away my own, gain Mycen�.
+And do not (as you are wont to do) suffer this, when it is in your power to
+choose the better friends, choose the worse.
+
+CHOR. Who can decide what is right, or understand an argument, till he has
+clearly heard the statement of both?
+
+IOL. O king, this exists in thy city; I am permitted in turn to speak and
+to hear, and no one will reject me before that, as in other places; but
+with this man we have nothing to do; for since nothing of Argos is any
+longer ours, (it having been decreed by a vote,) but we are exiled our
+country, how can this man justly lead us away as Mycen�ans, whom they have
+driven from the land? for we are strangers; or else you decide that whoever
+is banished Argos is banished the boundaries of the Greeks. Surely not from
+Athens; they will not, for fear of the Argives, drive out the children of
+Hercules from their land; for it is not Trachis, nor the Ach�an city, from
+whence you, not by justice, but bragging about Argos; just as you now
+speak, drove these men, sitting at the altars as suppliants; for if this
+shall be, and they ratify your words, I no longer know this Athens as free.
+But I know their disposition and nature; they will rather die; for among
+virtuous men, disgrace is considered before life. Enough of the city; for
+indeed it is an invidious thing to praise it too much; and often I know
+myself I have been oppressed at being overpraised: but I wish to say to you
+that it is necessary for you to save these men, since you are ruler over
+this land. Pittheus was son of Pelops and �thra, daughter of Pittheus, and
+your father Theseus was born of her. And again I trace for you their
+descent: Hercules was son of Jupiter and Alcmena, and she was the child of
+the daughter of Pelops; so your father and theirs must be fellow-cousins.
+Thus you, O Demophoon, are related to them by birth; and, besides this
+connection, I will tell you for what you are bound to requite the children.
+For I say, I formerly, when shield-bearer to their father, sailed with
+Theseus after the belt,[7] the cause of much slaughter, and from the murky
+recesses of hell did he bring forth your father. All Greece bears witness
+to this; for which things they beseech you to return a kindness, and that
+they may not be yielded up, nor be driven from this land, torn from your
+Gods by violence; for this would be disgraceful to you by yourself, and an
+evil to the city,[8] that suppliant relations, wanderers--alas for the
+misery! look on them, look--should be dragged away by force. But I beseech
+you, and offer you suppliant garlands, by your hands and your chin, do not
+dishonor the children of Hercules, having received them in your power; but
+be thou a relation to them, be a friend, father, brother, master; for all
+these things are better than [for them] to fall into the power of the
+Argives.
+
+CHOR. Hearing of these men's misfortunes, I pitied them, O king! and now
+particularly I have witnessed nobleness overcome by fortune; for these men,
+being sons of a noble father, are undeservedly unhappy.
+
+DE. Three ways of misfortune urge me, O Iolaus, not to reject these
+suppliants. The greatest, Jupiter, at whose altars you sit, having this
+procession of youths with you; and my relationship to them, and because I
+am bound of old that they should fare well at my hands, in gratitude to
+their father; and the disgrace,[9] which one ought exceedingly to regard.
+For if I permitted this altar to be violated by force by a strange man, I
+shall not seem to inhabit a free country. But I fear to betray my
+suppliants to the Argives; and this is nearly as bad as the noose. But I
+wish you had come with better fortune; but still, even now, fear not that
+any one shall drag you and these children by force from this altar. And do
+thou, going to Argos, both tell this to Eurystheus; and besides that, if he
+has any charge against these strangers, he shall meet with justice; but you
+shall never drag away these men.
+
+COP. Not if it be just, and I prevail in argument?
+
+DE. And how can it be just to drag away a suppliant by force?
+
+COP. This, then, is not disgraceful to me, but an injury to you.
+
+DE. To me indeed, if I allow you to drag them away.
+
+COP. But do you depart, and then will I drag them thence.
+
+DE. You are stupid, thinking yourself wiser than a God.
+
+COP. Hither it seems the wicked should fly.
+
+DE. The seat of the Gods is a common defense to all.
+
+COP. Perhaps this will not seem good to the Mycen�ans.
+
+DE. Am not I then master over those here?
+
+COP. [Ay,] but not to injure them, if you are wise.
+
+DE. Are ye hurt, if I do not defile the Gods?
+
+COP. I do not wish you to have war with the Argives.
+
+DE. I, too, am the same; but I will not let go of these men.
+
+COP. At all events, taking possession of my own, I shall lead them away.
+
+DE. Then you will not easily depart back to Argos.
+
+COP. I shall soon see that by experience.
+
+DE. You will touch them to your own injury, and that without delay.
+
+CHOR. For God's sake, venture not to strike a herald!
+
+DE. I will not, if the herald at least will learn to be wise.
+
+CHOR. Depart thou; and do not you touch him, O king!
+
+COP. I go; for the struggle of a single hand is powerless. But I will come,
+bringing hither many a brazen spear of Argive war; and ten thousand
+shield-bearers await me, and Eurystheus, the king himself, as general. And
+he waits, expecting news from hence, on the extreme confines of Alcathus;
+and, having heard of your insolence, he will make himself too well known to
+you, and to the citizens, and to this land, and to the trees; for in vain
+should we have so much youth in Argos, if we did not chastise you.
+
+DE. Destruction on you! for I do not fear your Argos. But you are not
+likely, insulting me, to drag these men away from hence by force; for I
+possess this land, not being subject to that of Argos, but free.
+
+CHOR. It is time to provide, before the army of the Argives approaches the
+borders. And very impetuous is the Mars of the Mycen�ans, and on this
+account more than before; for it is the habit of all heralds to tower up
+what is twice as much. What do you not think he will say to his princes
+about what terrible things he has suffered, and how within a little he was
+losing his life.
+
+IOL. There is not, to this man's children, a more glorious honor than to be
+sprung from a good and valiant father, and to marry from a good family; but
+I will not praise him who, overcome by desire, has mingled with the vulgar,
+to leave his children a reproach instead of pleasure; for noble birth wards
+off misfortune better than low descent; for we, having fallen into the
+extremity of evils, find these men friends and relations, who alone, in so
+large a country as Greece, have stood forward [on our behalf.] Give, O
+children, give them your right hand; and do ye give yours to the children,
+and draw near to them. O children, we have come to experience of our
+friends; and if you ever have a return to your country, and [again] possess
+the homes and honors of your father, always consider them your saviors and
+friends, and never lift the hostile spear against the land, remembering
+these things; but consider it the dearest city of all. And they are worthy
+that you should revere them, who have chosen to have so great a country and
+the Pelasgic people as enemies instead of us, though seeing us to be
+beggared wanderers; but still they have not given us up, nor driven us from
+their land. But I, living and dying, when I do die, with much praise, my
+friend, will extol you when I am in company with Theseus; and telling this,
+I will delight him, saying how well you received and aided the children of
+Hercules; and, being noble, you preserve through Greece your ancestral
+glory; and being born of noble parents, you are nowise inferior to your
+father, with but few others; for among many you may find perhaps but one
+who is not inferior to his father.[10]
+
+CHOR. This land is ever willing to aid in a just cause those in difficulty;
+therefore it has borne numberless toils for its friends, and now I see this
+contest at hand.
+
+DE. Thou hast spoken well; and I boast, old man, that their disposition is
+such that the kindness will be remembered. And I will make an assembly of
+the citizens, and draw them up so as to receive the army of the Mycen�ans
+with a large force. First, I will send spies toward it, that it may not
+fall upon me by surprise: for in Argos every warrior is eager to run to
+assistance. And having collected the soothsayers, I will sacrifice. And do
+you go to my palace with the children, leaving the hearth of Jove, for
+there are those who, even if I be from home, will take care of you; go
+then, old man, to my palace.
+
+IOL. I will not leave the altar; but we will sit here, as suppliants,
+waiting till the city is successful; and when you are well freed from this
+contest, we will go to thy palace. But we have Gods as allies not inferior
+to those of the Argives, O king; for Juno, the wife of Jove, is their
+champion, but Minerva ours; and I say that this also tends to success, to
+have the best Gods, for Pallas will not endure to be conquered.
+
+CHOR. If thou boastest greatly, others do not therefore care for thee the
+more, O stranger, coming from Argos; but with thy big words thou wilt not
+terrify my mind: may it not be so to the mighty Athens, with the beauteous
+dances. But both thou art foolish, the son of Sthenelus, king in Argos,
+who, coming to another city not less than Argos, being a stranger, seek by
+violence to lead away wanderers, suppliants of the Gods, and claiming the
+protection of my land, not yielding to our kings, nor saying any thing else
+that is just. How can this be thought well among the wise? Peace indeed
+pleases me; but, O foolish king, I tell thee, if thou comest to this city,
+thou wilt not thus obtain what thou thinkest for. You are not the only one
+who has a spear and a brazen shield; but, O lover of war, mayest thou not
+with the spear disturb my city dear to the Graces; but restrain thyself.
+
+IOL. O my son, why comest thou, bringing solicitude to my eyes? Hast thou
+any news of the enemy? Do they delay, or are they at hand I or what do you
+hear? for I fear the word of the herald will in no wise be false, for their
+leader will come, having been fortunate in previous affairs, I clearly
+know, and with no moderate pride, against Athens; but Jove is the chastiser
+of over-arrogant thoughts.[11]
+
+DE. The army of the Argives is coming, and Eurystheus the king. I have seen
+it myself;[12] for it behooves a man who says he knows well the duty of a
+general not to reconnoitre the enemy by means of messengers. He has not
+then, as yet, let loose his army on these plains, but, sitting on a lofty
+crag, he reconnoitres (I should tell thee this as a conjecture) to see by
+which way he shall now lead his expedition, and place it in a safe station
+in this land; and my preparations are already well arranged, and the city
+is in arms, and the victims stand ready for those Gods to whom they ought
+to be slain offered; and the city, by means of soothsayers, is preparing by
+sacrifices flight for the enemy and safety for the city.[13] And having
+collected together all the bards who proclaim oracles, I have tested the
+ancient oracles, both public and concealed, which might save this land; and
+in their other counsels many things are different; but one opinion of all
+is conspicuously the same, they command me to sacrifice to the daughter of
+Ceres a damsel who is of a noble father.[14] And I have indeed, as you see,
+such great good-will toward you, but I will neither slay my own child[15]
+nor compel any other of my citizens to do so unwillingly; and who is so mad
+of his own accord, as to give out of his hands his dearest children? And
+now you may see bitter meetings; some saying that it is right to aid
+foreign suppliants, and some blaming my folly; and if I do this, a civil
+war is at once prepared. This, then, do you consider, and devise how both
+you yourselves may be saved and this land, and I be not brought into ill
+odor with the citizens; for I have not absolute sovereignty, as over
+barbarians; but if I do just things, I shall receive just things.
+
+CHOR. But does not the Goddess allow this city, although eager, to aid
+strangers?
+
+IOL. O children, we are like sailors, who, fleeing from the fierce rage of
+the storm, have come close to land, and then, again, by gales from the
+land, have been driven again out to sea; thus also shall we be driven from
+this land, being already on shore, as if saved. Alas! why, O wretched hope,
+did you then delight me, not being about to perfect my joy? For his
+thoughts, in truth, are to be pardoned if he is not willing to slay the
+children of his citizens; and I acquiesce in their conduct here, if the
+Gods decree that I shall fare thus. My gratitude to you shall never perish.
+O children, I know not what to do with you: whither shall we turn? for who
+of the Gods has been uncrowned by us? and what bulwark of land have we not
+approachedl? We shall perish, my children, we shall be given up; and for
+myself I care nothing if it behooves me to die, except that, dying, I shall
+gratify my enemies; but I weep for and pity you, O children, and Alcmena,
+the aged mother of your father; O! unhappy art thou, because of thy long
+life; and miserable am I, having labored much in vain. It was our fate
+then, our fate, falling into the hands of an enemy, to leave life
+disgracefully and miserably. But do you know in what you may aid me? for
+all hope of their safety has not deserted me. Give me up to the Argives
+instead of them, O king, and so neither run any risk yourself, and let the
+children be saved for me; I must not love my own life, let it go; and above
+all, Eurystheus would like taking me, the ally of Hercules, to insult me;
+for he is a froward man; and the wise should pray to have enmity with a
+wise man, not with an ignorant disposition, for in that case one, even if
+unfortunate, may meet with much respect.
+
+CHOR. O old man, do not now blame the city, perhaps it might be a gain to
+us; but still it would be an evil reproach that we betrayed strangers,
+
+DE. You have spoken things noble indeed, but impossible; the king does not
+lead his army hither wanting you; for what profit were it to Eurystheus for
+an old man to die? but he wishes to slay these children; for noble youths,
+who remember their fathers' injuries, springing up, are terrible to
+enemies; all which he must needs foresee; but if you know any other more
+seasonable counsel, prepare it, since I am perplexed and full of fear,
+having heard the oracle.
+
+MACARIA. O strangers, do not impute boldness to me because of my
+advances,[16] this I will beg first; for silence and modesty are best for a
+woman, and to remain quietly in-doors; but, having heard your lamentations,
+O Iolaus, I have come forth, not being commissioned to act as embassador
+for my race, but I am in some wise fit to do so; but chiefly do I care for
+these, my brothers: concerning myself I wish to ask whether, besides our
+former evils, any additional distress gnaws your mind?
+
+IOL. O daughter, it is not a new thing that I justly have to praise you
+most of the children of Hercules; but our house having appeared to us to
+progress well, has again changed to perplexity, for this man says, that the
+deliverers of oracles order us to sacrifice not a bull or a heifer, but a
+virgin, who is of a noble father, if we and this city would exist. About
+this then we are perplexed, for this man says he will neither slay his own
+children nor those of any one else; and to me he says, not plainly indeed,
+but somehow or other, unless I can devise any remedy for this, that we must
+find some other land, but he himself wishes to preserve this country.
+
+MAC. On this condition can we then be saved?
+
+IOL. On this, being fortunate in other respects.
+
+MAC. Fear not then any longer the hostile spear of the Argives; for I
+myself, old man, before I am commanded, am prepared to die, and to stand
+for slaughter; for what shall we say if the city thinks fit for our sakes
+to encounter a great danger, but we putting toils on others, avoid death
+when we can be saved? Not so, since this would be ridiculous for suppliants
+sitting at the shrines of the Gods to mourn, but being of such a sire as we
+are, to be seen to be cowards; how can this seem good! it were more noble,
+I think, (which may it never happen!) to fall into the hands of the enemy,
+this city being taken, and afterward, being born of a noble father, having
+suffered dreadful things, to see Hades none the less; but shall I wander
+about, driven from this land, and shall I not indeed be ashamed if any one
+says, "Why have ye come hither with your suppliant branches, yourselves
+being too fond of life! Depart from the land, for we will not aid cowards."
+But neither, indeed, if these die, and I myself am saved, have I any hope
+to fare well; for before now many have in this way betrayed their friends.
+For who would choose to have me, a solitary damsel, for his wife, or to
+raise children from me? therefore it is better to die than to have such an
+unworthy fate as this; and this may even be more seemly for some other, who
+is not illustrious as I. Lead me then where this body must needs die, and
+crown me and begin the rites, if you think fit, and conquer your enemies;
+for this life is ready for you, willing, and not unwilling; and I promise
+to die for these my brethren, and for myself; for not caring for life, I
+have found this most glorious thing to find, namely, to leave life
+gloriously.
+
+CHOR. Alas! alas! what shall I say, hearing this noble speech of the maiden
+who is willing to die on behalf of her brothers? Who can utter more noble
+words than these I who of men can do [a greater deed?][17]
+
+IOL. My child, your head comes from no other source, but thou, the seed of
+a divine mind, art sprung from Hercules.[18] I am not ashamed at your
+words, but I am grieved for your fortune; but how it may be more justly
+done, I will say: we must call hither all her sisters, and then let her who
+draws the lot die for her family; but it is not right for thee to die
+without casting lots.
+
+MAC. I will not die, obtaining the lot by chance, for then there are no
+thanks [to me;]--speak it not, old man; but if you accept me, and are
+willing to use me willing, I readily give up my life to them, but not,
+being compelled.
+
+IOL. Alas! this word of thine is again nobler than the former, and that
+other was most excellent; but you surpass daring by daring, and [good]
+words by good words. I do not bid you, nor do I forbid you, to die, my
+child; but you will benefit your brothers by dying.
+
+MAC. Thou biddest wisely; fear not to partake of my pollution, but I shall
+die freely. But follow me, O old man; for I wish to die by your hand; and
+do you, being present, wrap my body in my garments, since I am going to the
+terror of sacrifice, because I am born of the father of whom I boast to be.
+
+IOL. I could not be present at your death.
+
+MAC. At least, then, entreat of him that I may die, not by the hands of
+men, but of women.
+
+CHOR. It shall be so, O hapless virgin; since it were disgraceful to me too
+not to deck thee honorably on many accounts; both for your valiant spirit,
+and for justice' sake: but you are the most unhappy of all women that I
+have beheld with mine eyes; but, if thou wilt, depart, bespeaking a last
+address to these and to the old man.
+
+MAC. Farewell, old man, farewell; and train up for me these children to be
+such as thyself, wise in all respects, nothing more, for they will suffice;
+and endeavor to save them, not being over-willing to die. We are your
+children; by your hands we were brought up, and behold see me yielding up
+my nuptial hour, dying for them. And ye, my company of brothers now
+present, may ye be happy, and may every thing be yours, for the sake of
+which my soul is sacrificed; and honor the old man, and the old woman in
+the house, Alcmena, the mother of my father, and these strangers. And if a
+release from troubles, and a return should ever be found for you through
+the Gods, remember to bury her who saves you, as is fitting; most honorably
+were just, for I was not wanting to you, but died for my race. This is my
+heir-loom instead of children and virginity, if indeed there be aught under
+the earth. May there indeed be nothing; for if we, mortals who die, are to
+have cares even there, I know not where one can turn, for to die is
+considered the greatest remedy for evils.
+
+IOL. But, O you, who mightily surpass all women in courage, know that, both
+living and dying, you shall be most honored by us: and farewell; for I
+abhor to speak words of ill omen about the Goddess to whom your body is
+given as the first-fruits, the daughter of Ceres. O children, we are
+undone; my limbs are relaxed by grief; take me, and place me in my seat,
+veiling me there with these garments, O children; since neither am I
+pleased at these things which are done, and if the oracle were not
+fulfilled, life would be unbearable, for the ruin would be greater; but
+even this is a calamity.
+
+CHOR. I say that no man is either happy or miserable but through the Gods,
+and that the same family does not always walk in good fortune, but
+different fates pursue it different ways; it is wont to make one from a
+lofty station insignificant, and makes the wanderer wealthy: but it is
+impossible to avoid what is fated; no one can repel it by wisdom, but he
+who is hasty without purpose will always have trouble; but do not thus bear
+the fortune sent by the Gods, falling down [in prayer,] and do not
+over-pain your mind with grief, for she hapless possesses a glorious
+portion of death on behalf of her brethren and her country; nor will an
+inglorious reputation among men await her: but virtue proceeds through
+toils. These things are worthy of her father, and worthy of her noble
+descent; and if you respect the deaths of the good, I share your feelings.
+
+SERVANT. O children, hail! But at what distance from this place is the aged
+Iolaus and your father's mother?
+
+IOL. We are here, such a presence as mine is.
+
+SERV. On what account dost thou lie thus, and have an eye so downcast?
+
+IOL. A domestic care has come upon me, by which I am constrained.
+
+SERV. Raise now thyself, erect thy head.
+
+IOL. I am an old man, and by no means strong.
+
+SERV. But I am come, bearing to you a great joy.
+
+IOL. And who art thou, where having met you, do I forget you?
+
+SERV. I am a poor servant of Hyllus; do you not recognize me, seeing me?
+
+IOL. O dearest one, dost thou then come as a savior to us from injury?
+
+SERV. Surely; and moreover you are prosperous as to the present state of
+affairs.
+
+IOL. O mother of a doughty son, I mean Alcmena, come forth, hear these most
+welcome words; for you have been long wasting away as to your soul in
+anxiety concerning those who have come hither, where they would ever
+arrive.[19]
+
+ALCMENA. Wherefore has a mighty shout filled all this house? O Iolaus, does
+any herald, coming from Argos, again do you violence? my strength indeed is
+weak, but thus much you must know, O stranger, you shall never drag these
+away while I am living, else may I no longer be thought to be his mother;
+but if you touch them with your hand, you will have no honorable contest
+with two old people.
+
+IOL. Be of good cheer, old woman; fear not, the herald is not come from
+Argos bearing hostile words.
+
+ALC. Why then did you raise a shout, a messenger of fear?
+
+IOL. To you, that you should approach near before this temple.
+
+ALC. I do not understand this; for who is this man?
+
+IOL. He announces that your son's son is come.
+
+ALC. O! hail thou also for this news; but why and where[20] is he now
+absent putting his foot in this country? what calamity prevents him from
+appearing hither with you, and delighting my mind?
+
+SERV. He is stationing and marshaling the army which he has come bringing.
+
+ALC. I no longer understand this speech.
+
+IOL. I do; but it is my business to inquire about this.
+
+SERV. What then of what has been done do you wish to learn?
+
+IOL. With how great a multitude of allies is he come?
+
+SERV. With many; but I can say no other number.
+
+IOL. The chiefs of the Athenians know, I suppose.
+
+SERV. They do; and they occupy the left wing.[21]
+
+IOL. Is then the army already armed as for the work?
+
+SERV. Ay; and already the victims are led away from the ranks.
+
+IOL. And how far distant is the Argive army?
+
+SERV. So that the general can be distinctly seen.
+
+IOL. Doing what? arraying the ranks of the enemies?
+
+SERV. We conjectured this, for we did not hear him; but I will go; I should
+not like my masters to join battle with the enemy, deserted as far as my
+part is concerned.
+
+IOL. And I will go with you; for we think the same things, being present to
+aid our friends as much as we can.
+
+SERV. It is not your part to say a foolish word.
+
+IOL. And not to share the sturdy battle with my friends!
+
+SERV. One can not see a wound from an inactive hand.
+
+IOL. But what, can not I too strike through a shield?
+
+SERV. You might strike, but you yourself would fall first.
+
+IOL. No one of the enemy will dare to behold me.
+
+SERV. You have not, my good friend, the strength which once you had.
+
+IOL. But I will fight with them who will not be the fewer in numbers.
+
+SERV. You add but a slight weight to your friends.
+
+IOL. Do not detain me who am prepared to act.
+
+SERV. You are not able to do any thing, but you may perhaps be to advise.
+
+IOL. You may say the rest, as I not staying to hear.
+
+SERV. How then will you appear to the soldiers without arms?
+
+IOL. There are within this palace arms taken in war, which I will use and
+restore if alive; but the God will not demand them back of me, if I fall;
+but go in, and taking them down from the pegs, bring me as quickly as
+possible the panoply of a warrior; for this is a disgraceful house-keeping,
+for some to fight, and some to remain behind through fear.
+
+CHOR. Time does not depress your spirit, but it grows young again, but your
+body is weak: why dost thou toil in vain? which will harm you indeed, but
+profit our city but little; you should consider your age, and leave alone
+impossibilities, it can not be that you again should acquire youth.
+
+ALC. Why are you, not being in your senses, about to leave me alone with my
+children?
+
+IOL. For valor is the part of men; but it is your duty to take care of
+them.
+
+ALC. But what if you die? how shall I be saved?
+
+IOL. Your sons who are left will take care of your son.
+
+ALC. But if they, which Heaven forbid, should meet with fate!
+
+IOL. These strangers will not betray you, do not fear.
+
+ALC. Such confidence indeed I have, nothing else.
+
+IOL. And Jove, I well know, cares for your toils.
+
+ALC. Alas! Jupiter shall never be reproached by me, but he himself knows
+whether he is just toward me.
+
+SERV. You see now this panoply of arms; but you can not make too much
+haste[22] in arraying your body in them, as the contest is at hand, and,
+above all things, Mars hates those who delay; but if you fear the weight of
+arms, now then go forth unarmed,[23] and in the ranks be clad with this
+equipment, and I will carry it so far.
+
+IOL. Thou hast said well; but bring the arms, having them close at hand,
+and put a spear in my hand, and support my left arm guiding my foot.
+
+SERV. Is it right to lead a warrior like a child?
+
+IOL. One must go safely for the sake of the omen.
+
+SERV. Would you were able to do as much as you are willing.
+
+IOL. Make haste, I shall suffer sadly if too late for the battle.
+
+SERV. It is you who delay, and not I, seeming to do something.
+
+IOL. Do you not see how my foot presses on?
+
+SERV. I see you rather seeming to hasten than hastening.
+
+IOL. You will not say so, when you behold me there.
+
+SERV. Doing what? I wish I may see you successful.
+
+IOL. Striking some of the enemy through the shield.
+
+SERV. If indeed we get there; for that I have fears of.
+
+IOL. Alas! O arm, would thou wert such an ally to me as I recollect you in
+your youth, when you ravaged Sparta with Hercules, how would I put
+Eurystheus to flight; since he is but a coward in abiding a spear. But in
+prosperity then is this too which is not right, a reputation for courage;
+for we think that he who is prosperous knows all things well.
+
+CHOR. O earth, and moon that shinest through the night, and most brilliant
+rays of the God, that gave light to mortals, bring me news, and shout in
+heaven and at the queenly throne of the blue-eyed Minerva. I am about, on
+behalf of my country, on behalf of my house, having received suppliants I
+am about to cut through danger with the white steel. It is terrible that a
+city, prosperous as Mycen�, and much praised for valor in war, should
+nourish secret[24] anger against my land; but it is evil too, O city, if we
+are to give up strangers at the bidding of Argos.[25] Jupiter is my ally, I
+fear not; Jupiter rightly has favor toward me. Never shall the Gods seem
+inferior to men in my opinion.[26] But, O venerable Goddess, for the soil
+of this land is thine, and the city of which you are mother, mistress, and
+guardian, lead away by some other way him who unjustly leads on this
+spear-brandishing host from Argos; for as far as my virtue is concerned, I
+do not deserve to be banished from these halls. For honor, with much
+sacrifice, is ever offered to you; nor does the waning[27] day of the month
+forget you, nor the songs of youths, nor the measures of dances; but on the
+lofty hill shouts resound in accordance with the beatings of the feet of
+virgins the livelong night.
+
+SERV. O mistress, I bring news most concise for you to hear, and to myself
+most glorious; we have conquered our enemies, and trophies are set up
+bearing the panoply of your enemies.
+
+ALC. O best beloved, this day has caused thee to be made free for this thy
+news; but from one disaster you do not yet free me, for I fear whether they
+be living to me whom I wish to be.
+
+SERV. They live, the most glorious in the army.
+
+ALC. Does not the aged Iolaus survive?
+
+SERV. Surely, and having done most glorious deeds by help of the Gods.
+
+ALC. But what? has he done any doughty act in the fight?
+
+SERV. He has changed from an old into a young man again.
+
+ALC. Thou tellest marvelous things, but first I wish you to relate the
+prosperous contest of your friends in battle.
+
+SERV. One speech of mine shall tell you all this; for when stretching out
+[our ranks] face to face, we arrayed our armies against one another, Hyllus
+putting his foot out of his four-horse chariot, stood in the mid-space of
+the field;[28] and then said, O general, you are come from Argos, why leave
+we not this land alone? and you will do Mycen� no harm, depriving it of one
+man; but you fighting alone with me alone, either killing me, lead away the
+children of Hercules, or dying, allow me to possess my ancestral
+prerogative and palaces. And the army gave praise; that the speech was well
+spoken for a termination of their toils, and in respect of courage. But he
+neither regarding those who had heard the speech, nor, although he was
+general, his [own character for] cowardice, ventured not to come near the
+warlike spear, but was most cowardly; and being such, he came to enslave
+the descendants of Hercules. Hyllus then returned again back to his ranks;
+but the soothsayers, when they saw that the affair could not be arranged by
+single combat of one shield, sacrificed, and delayed not, but let fall
+forth immediately the propitious slaughter of mortal throats; and some
+mounted chariots, and some concealed their sides under the sides of their
+shields; but the king of the Athenians gave to his army such orders as
+become a high-born man. "O fellow-citizens, now it behooves one to defend
+the land that has produced and cherished us."[29] And the other also
+besought his allies not to disgrace Argos and Mycen�. But when the signal
+was sounded on a Tyrrhenian trumpet, and they joined battle with one
+another, what a clash of spears dost thou think sounded, how great a
+groaning and lamentation at the same time! And first the dashing on of the
+Argive spear broke us; then they again retreated; and next foot being
+interchanged with foot, and man standing against man, the battle waged
+fierce; and many fell; and there were two cries, O ye who [dwell in]
+Athens, O ye who sow the land of the Argives, will ye not avert disgrace
+from the city? And with difficulty doing every thing, not without toils did
+we put the Argive force to flight; and then the old man, seeing Hyllus
+rushing on, Iolaus, stretching forth his right hand, besought him to place
+him on the horse-chariot; and seizing the reins in his hands, he pressed
+hard upon the horses of Eurystheus. And what happened after this I must
+tell by having heard from others, I myself hitherto having seen all; for
+passing by the venerable hill of the divine Minerva of Pellene, seeing the
+chariot of Eurystheus, he prayed to Juno and Jupiter to be young for one
+day, and to work vengeance on his enemies. But you have a marvel to hear;
+for two stars standing on the horse-chariot, concealed the chariot in a dim
+cloud, the wiser men say it was thy son and Hebe; but he from the obscure
+darkness showed forth a youthful image of youthful arms. And the glorious
+Iolaus takes the four-horse chariot of Eurystheus at the Scironian
+rocks--and having bound his hands in fetters, he comes bringing as glorious
+first-fruits of victory, the general, him who before was prosperous; but by
+his present fortune he proclaims clearly to all mortals to learn not to
+envy him who seems prosperous, till one sees him dead, as fortune is but
+for the day.
+
+CHOR. O Jupiter, thou turner to flight, now is it mine to behold a day free
+from dreadful fear.
+
+ALC. O Jupiter, at length you have looked upon my miseries, but still I
+thank you for what has been done: and I, who formerly did not think that my
+son dwelt with the Gods, now clearly know it. O children, now indeed you
+shall be free from toils, and free from Eurystheus, who shall perish
+miserably; and ye shall see the city of your sire, and you shall tread on
+your inheritance of land; and ye shall sacrifice to your ancestral gods,
+debarred from whom ye have had, as strangers, a wandering miserable life.
+But devising what clever thing has Iolaus spared Eurystheus, so as not to
+slay him, tell me; for in my opinion this is not wise, having taken our
+enemies, not to exact punishment of them.
+
+SERV. Having respect for you, that with your own eyes you may see him[30]
+defeated and subjected to your hand; not, indeed, of his own will, but he
+has bound him by force in constraint, for he was not willing to come alive
+into your sight and to be punished. But, O old woman, farewell, and
+remember for me what you first said when I began my tale. Make me free; and
+in such noble people as you the mouth ought to be free from falsehood.
+
+CHOR. To me the dance is sweet, if there be the thrilling delight of the
+pipe at the feast; and may Venus be kind. And sweet it is to see the good
+fortune of friends who did not expect it before; for the fate which
+accomplishes gifts gives birth to many things; and Time, the son of Saturn.
+You have, O city, a just path, you should never be deprived of it, to honor
+the Gods; and he who bids you not do so, is near madness, such proofs as
+these being shown. God, in truth, evidently exhorts us, taking away the
+arrogance of the unjust forever. Your son, O old woman, is gone to heaven;
+he shuns the report of having descended to the realm of Pluto, being
+consumed as to his body in the terrible flame of fire; and he embraces the
+lovely bed of Hebe in the golden hall. O Hymen, you have honored two
+children of Jupiter. Many things agree with many; for in truth they say
+that Minerva was an ally of their father, and the city and people of that
+Goddess has saved them, and has restrained the insolence of a man to whom
+passion was before justice, through violence. May my mind and soul, never
+be insatiable.
+
+MESS. O mistress, you see, but still it shall be said, we are come,
+bringing to you Eurystheus here, an unhoped-for sight, and one no less so
+for him to meet with, for he never expected to come into your hands when he
+went forth from Mycen� with a much-toiling band of spearmen, proudly
+planning things much greater than his fortune, that he should destroy
+Athens; but the God changed his fortune, and made it contrary. Hyllus,
+therefore, and the good Iolaus, have set up a statue, in honor of their
+victory, of Jove, the putter to flight; and they send me to bring this man
+to you, wishing to delight your mind; for it is most delightful to see an
+enemy unfortunate, after having been fortunate.
+
+ALC. O hateful thing, art thou come? has justice taken you at last? first
+then indeed turn hither your head toward me, and dare to look your enemies
+in the face; for now you are ruled, and you rule no more. Art thou he, for
+I wish to know, who chose, O wretch, much to insult my son, though no
+longer existing? For in what respect didst thou not dare to insult him? who
+led him, while alive, down to hell, and sent him forth, bidding him destroy
+hydras and lions? And I am silent concerning the other evils you contrived,
+for it would be a long story; and it did not satisfy you that he alone
+should endure these things, but you drove me also, and my children, out of
+all Greece, sitting as suppliants of the Gods, some old, and some still
+infants; but you found men and a city free, who feared you not. Thou needs
+must die miserably, and you shall gain every thing, for you ought to die
+not once only, having wrought many evil deeds.
+
+MESS. It is not practicable for you to put him to death.[31]
+
+ALC. In vain then have we taken him prisoner. But what law hinders him from
+dying?
+
+MESS. It seems not so to the chiefs of this land.
+
+ALC. What is this? not good to them to slay one's enemies?
+
+MESS. Not any one whom they have taken alive in battle.
+
+ALC. And did Hyllus endure this decision?
+
+MESS. He could, I suppose, disobey this land![32]
+
+ALC. He ought no longer to live, nor behold the light.
+
+MESS. Then first he did wrong in not dying.
+
+ALC. Then it is no longer right for him to be punished?[33]
+
+MESS. There is no one who may put him to death.
+
+ALC. I will. And yet I say that I am some one.
+
+MESS. You will indeed have much blame if you do this.
+
+ALC. I love this city. It can not be denied. But as for this man, since he
+has come into my power, there is no mortal who shall take him from me. For
+this, whoever will may call me bold, and thinking things too much for a
+woman; but this deed shall be done by me.
+
+CHOR. It is a serious and excusable thing, O lady, for you to have hatred
+against this man, I well know it.
+
+EURYSTHEUS. O woman, know plainly that I will not flatter you, nor say any
+thing else for my life, whence I may incur any imputation of cowardice. But
+not of my own accord did I undertake this strife--I knew that I was your
+cousin by birth, and a relation to your son Hercules; but whether I wished
+it or not, Juno, for it was a Goddess, forced me to toil through this ill.
+But when I took up enmity against him, and determined to contest this
+contest, I became a contriver of many evils, and sitting continually in
+council with myself, I brought forth many plans by night, how dispersing
+and slaying my enemies, I might dwell for the future not with fear, knowing
+that your son was not one of the many, but truly a man; for though he be
+mine enemy, yet shall he be well spoken of, as he was a doughty man. And
+when he was released [from life], did it not behoove me, being hated by
+these children, and knowing their father's hatred to me, to move every
+stone, slaying and banishing them, and contriving, that, doing such things,
+my own affairs would have been safe? You, therefore, had you obtained my
+fortunes, would not have oppressed with evils the hostile offspring of a
+hated lion, but would wisely have permitted them to live in Argos; you will
+persuade no one of this. Now then, since they did not destroy me then, when
+I was willing, by the laws of the Greeks I shall, if slain, bear pollution
+to my slayer; and the city, being wise, has let me go, having greater honor
+for God than for its enmity toward me. And to what you said you have heard
+a reply: and now you may call me at once suppliant and brave.[34] Thus is
+the case with me, I do not wish to die, but I should not be grieved at
+leaving life.
+
+CHOR. I wish, O Alcmena, to advise you a little, to let go this man, since
+it seems so to the city.
+
+ALC. But how, if he both die, and still we obey the city?
+
+CHOR. That would be best; but how can that be?
+
+ALC. I will teach you, easily; for having slain him, then I will give his
+corpse to those of his friends who come after him; for I will not deny his
+body to the earth, but he dying, shall satisfy my revenge.
+
+EU. Slay me, I do not deprecate thy wrath. But this city indeed, since it
+has released me, and feared to slay me, I will present with an ancient
+oracle of Apollo, which, in time, will be of greater profit than you would
+expect; for ye will bury me when I am dead, where it is fated, before the
+temple of the divine virgin of Pallene; and being well disposed to you, and
+a protector to the city, I shall ever lie as a sojourner under the ground,
+but most hostile to their descendants when they come hither with much
+force, betraying this kindness: such strangers do ye now defend. How then
+did I, knowing this, come hither, and not respect the oracle of the God?
+Thinking Juno far more powerful than oracles, and that she would not betray
+me, [I did so.] But suffer neither libations nor blood to be poured on my
+tomb, for I will give them an evil return as a requital for these things;
+and ye shall have a double gain from me, I will both profit you and injure
+them by dying.
+
+ALC. Why then do ye delay, if you are fated to accomplish safety to the
+city and to your descendants, to slay this man, hearing these things? for
+they show us the safest path. The man is an enemy, but he will profit us
+dying. Take him away, O servants; then having slain him, ye must give him
+to the dogs; for hope not thou, that living, thou shalt again banish me
+from my native land.
+
+CHOR. These things seem good to me, proceed, O attendants, for every thing
+on our part shall be done completely for our sovereigns.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+NOTES ON THE HERACLYD�
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+[1] Such seems to be the force of [Greek: eis an�r].
+
+[2] But the construction is probably [Greek: al�tai g�s], (compare my note
+on �sch. Eum. 63,) and [Greek: apester�menoi] is _bereaved, destitute_.
+
+[3] Cf. �sch. Eum. 973.
+
+[4] i.e. Oenoe, Marathon, Probalinthus, and Tricorythus.
+
+[5] Elmsley compares Med. 1209. [Greek: tis ton geronta tymbon orthanon
+sethen tith�si]; so the Latins used "Silicernium." Cf. Fulgent. Expos.
+Serm. Ant. p. 171, ed. Munck.
+
+[6] [Greek: antlos], sentina, bilge-water. See Elmsley.
+
+[7] See Elmsley's note.
+
+[8] See Dindorf, who repents of the reading in the text, and restores
+[Greek: soi gar tod' aischron ch�ris en polei kakon]. He, however, condemns
+this and the two next lines as spurious.
+
+[9] i.e. if I neglect them.
+
+[10] Cf. Hor. Od. iii. 6, 48. "�tas parentum, pejor avis, tulit Nos
+nequiores, mox daturos Progeniem vitiosiorem."
+
+[11] Cf. Soph. Ant. 127. [Greek: Zeus gar megal�s gl�ss�s kompous
+Hyperechthairei].
+
+[12] Cf. �sch. Sept. c. Th. 40 sq., also Soph. Oed. T. 6 sqq.
+
+[13] i.e. [Greek: manteis kat' asty thy�pholousi]. ELMSLEY.
+
+[14] Pausanias, i. 32, states that the oracle expressly required that one
+of the descendants of Hercules should be devoted, and that upon this
+Macaria, his daughter by Deianira, voluntarily offered herself. Her name
+was afterward given to a fountain. Enripides probably omitted this fact, in
+order to place the noble-mindedness of Macaria in a stronger light. The
+curious reader may compare the similar sacrifices of Codrus, (Pausan. vii.
+25. Vell. Patere. i. 4,) Menoeceus, (Eur. Phoen. 1009, Statius Theb. x. 751
+sqq.,) Chaon (Serv. on Virg. �n. iii. 335). See also Lomeier de
+Lustrationibus, � xxii., where the whole subject is learnedly treated.
+
+[15] Cf. �sch. Ag. 206 sqq.
+
+[16] I prefer understanding [Greek: heneka exod�n em�n] with Elmsley, to
+Matthi�'s forced interpretation. Compare Med. 214 sqq.
+
+[17] The cognate accusative to [Greek: draseien] must be supplied from the
+context.
+
+[18] There is some awkwardness in the construction. Perhaps if we read
+[Greek: sperma, t�s theias phrenos! peph.] the sense will be improved.
+
+[19] The construction is thus laid down by Elmsley: [Greek: palai gar
+�dinousa [peri] t�n aphig. ps. et. ei. n. [aut�n] gen�setai]. He remarks
+that [Greek: nostos] often means "arrival," in the tragedians.
+
+[20] See Matthi�. I should, however, prefer [Greek: pais] for [Greek: pou],
+with Elmsley.
+
+[21] [Greek: kata] is understood, as in Thucyd. v. 67. ELMSLEY.
+
+[22] See Alcest. 662, Iph. Taur. 245, and Elmsley's note on this passage.
+
+[23] [Greek: gymnos], _expeditus_. As in agriculture it is applied to the
+husbandman who casts off his upper garment, so also in war it simply
+denotes being without armor.
+
+[24] [Greek: keuthein].
+
+[25] I have corrected [Greek: keleusmasin Argous], with Reiske and Dindorf.
+
+[26] I have adopted Dindorf's correction, [Greek: h�ssones par' emoi theoi
+phanountai].
+
+[27] i.e. the last, says Brod�us. But Elmsley prefers taking it for the
+[Greek: noum�nia] or Kalends, with Musgrave.
+
+[28] [Greek: doros], which is often used to signify _the fight_, is here
+somewhat boldly put for the arrangement of the battle.
+
+[29] Cf. �sch. Soph. c. Th. 14 sqq. Elmsley's notes on the whole of this
+spirited passage deserve to be consulted.
+
+[30] [Greek: kratounta] can not be used passively. [Greek: klaionta] is the
+conjecture of Orelli, approved by Dindorf. I have expressed the sense, not
+the text.
+
+[31] See Musgrave's note (apud Dindorf). Tyrwhitt considers all the
+dramatis person� wrongly assigned.
+
+[32] Ironically spoken.
+
+[33] There seems to be something wrong here.
+
+[34] See Matthi�, who explains it: "_me et supplicem_, qui mortem
+deprecetur, _et fortem_, qui mortem contemnat, _dicere licet_."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *       *
+
+IPHIGENIA IN AULIS.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+PERSONS REPRESENTED.
+
+  AGAMEMNON.
+  OLD MAN.
+  MENELAUS.
+  ACHILLES.
+  MESSENGER.
+  ANOTHER MESSENGER.
+  IPHIGENIA.
+  CLYT�MNESTRA.
+  CHORUS.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE ARGUMENT.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+When the Greeks were detained at Aulis by stress of weather, Calchas
+declared that they would never reach Troy unless the daughter of Agamemnon,
+Iphigenia, was sacrificed to Diana. Agamemnon sent for his daughter with
+this view, but repenting, he dispatched a messenger to prevent Clyt�mnestra
+sending her. The messenger being intercepted by Menelaus, an altercation
+between the brother chieftains arose, during which Iphigenia, who had been
+tempted with the expectation of being wedded to Achilles, arrived with her
+mother. The latter, meeting with Achilles, discovered the deception, and
+Achilles swore to protect her. But Iphigenia, having determined to die
+nobly on behalf of the Greeks, was snatched away by the Goddess, and a stag
+substituted in her place. The Greeks were then enabled to set sail.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+IPHIGENIA IN AULIS.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+AGAMEMNON. Come before this dwelling, O aged man.
+
+OLD MAN. I come. But what new thing dost thou meditate, king Agamemnon?
+
+AG. You shall learn.[1]
+
+OLD M. I hasten. My old age is very sleepless, and sits wakeful upon mine
+eyes.
+
+AG. What star can this be that traverses this way?
+
+OLD M. Sirius, flitting yet midway (between the heavens and the ocean,)[2]
+close to the seven Pleiads.
+
+AG. No longer therefore is there the sound either of birds or of the sea,
+but silence of the winds reigns about this Euripus.
+
+OLD M. But why art thou hastening without the tent, king Agamemnon? But
+still there is silence here by Aulis, and the guards of the fortifications
+are undisturbed. Let us go within.
+
+AG. I envy thee, old man, and I envy that man who has passed through a life
+without danger, unknown, unglorious; but I less envy those in honor.
+
+OLD M. And yet 'tis in this that the glory of life is.
+
+AG. But this very glory is uncertain, for the love of popularity is
+pleasant indeed, but hurts when present. Sometimes the worship of the Gods
+not rightly conducted upturns one's life, and sometimes the many and
+dissatisfied opinions of men harass.
+
+OLD M. I praise not these remarks in a chieftain. O Agamemnon, Atreus did
+not beget thee upon a condition of complete good fortune.[3] But thou needs
+must rejoice and grieve; [in turn,] for thou art a mortal born, and even
+though you wish it not, the will of the Gods will be thus. But thou,
+opening the light of a lamp, art both writing this letter, which thou still
+art carrying in thy hands, and again you blot out the same characters, and
+seal, and loose again, and cast the tablet to the ground, pouring abundant
+tears, and thou lackest naught of the unwonted things that tend to madness.
+Why art thou troubled, why art thou troubled? What new thing, what new
+thing [has happened] concerning thee, O king? Come, communicate discourse
+with me. But thou wilt speak to a good and faithful man, for to thy wife
+Tyndarus sent me once on a time, as a dower-gift, and disinterested
+companion.[4]
+
+AG. To Leda, daughter of Thestias, were born three virgins, Phoebe, and
+Clyt�mnestra my spouse, and Helen. Of this latter, the youths of Greece
+that were in the first state of prosperity came as suitors. But terrible
+threats of bloodshed[5] arose against one another, from whoever should not
+obtain the virgin. But the matter was difficult for her father Tyndarus,
+whether to give, or not to give [her in marriage,] and how he might best
+deal with the circumstances, when this occurred to him; that the suitors
+should join oaths and plight right hands with one another, and over
+burnt-offerings should enter into treaty, and bind themselves by this oath,
+"Of whomsoever the daughter of Tyndarus shall become wife, that they will
+join to assist him, if any one should depart from his house taking [her]
+with him, and excluding the possessor from his bed, and that they will make
+an expedition in arms, and sack the city [of the ravisher,] Greek or
+barbarian alike." But after they had pledged themselves, the old man
+Tyndarus somehow cleverly overreached them by a cunning plan. He permits
+his daughter to choose one of the suitors, toward whom the friendly gales
+of Venus might impel her. But she chose (whom would she had never taken!)
+Menelaus. And he who, according to the story told by men, once judged the
+Goddesses, coming from Phrygia to Laced�mon, flowered in the vesture of his
+garments, and glittering with gold, barbarian finery, loving Helen who
+loved him, he stole and bore her away to the bull-stalls of Ida, having
+found Menelaus abroad. But he, goaded hastily[6] through Greece, calls to
+witness the old oath given to Tyndarus, that it behooves to assist the
+aggrieved. Henceforth the Greeks hastening with the spear, having taken
+their arms, come to this Aulis with its narrow straits, with ships and
+shields together, and accoutred with many horses and chariots. And they
+chose me general of the host, out of regard for Menelaus, being his brother
+forsooth. And would that some other than I had obtained the dignity. But
+when the army was assembled and levied, we sat, having no power of sailing,
+at Aulis. But Calchas the seer proclaimed to us, being at a loss, that we
+should sacrifice Iphigenia, whom I begat, to Diana, who inhabits this
+place, and that if we sacrificed her, we should have both our voyage, and
+the sacking of Troy, but that this should not befall us if we did not
+sacrifice her. But I hearing this in rousing proclamation, bade Talthybius
+dismiss the whole army, as I should never have the heart to slay my
+daughter. Upon this, indeed, my brother, alleging every kind of reasoning,
+persuaded me to dare the dreadful deed, and having written in the folds of
+a letter, I sent word to my wife to send her daughter as if to be married
+to Achilles, both enlarging on the dignity of the man, and asserting that
+he would not sail with the Greeks, unless a wife for him from among us
+should come to Phthia. For I had this means of persuading my wife, having
+made up a pretended match for the virgin. But we alone of the Greeks know
+how these matters are, Calchas, Ulysses, and Nestor. But the things which I
+then determined not well, I am now differently writing so as to be well, in
+this letter, which by the shadow of night thou beheldest me opening and
+closing, old man. But come, go thou, taking these letters, to Argos. But as
+to what the letter conceals in its folds, I will tell thee in words all
+that is written therein; for thou art faithful to my wife and house.
+
+OLD M. Speak, and tell me, that with my tongue I may also say what agrees
+with your letter.
+
+AG. (reading) "I send to thee, O germ of Leda, besides[7] my former
+dispatches, not to send thy daughter to the bay-like wing of Euboea,[8]
+waveless Aulis. For we will delay the bridals of our daughter till another
+season."
+
+OLD M. And how will not Achilles raise up his temper against thee and thy
+wife, showing great wrath at failing of his spouse? This also is terrible.
+Show what thou meanest.
+
+AG. Achilles, furnishing the pretext, not the reality, knows not these
+nuptials, nor what we are doing; nor that I have professed to give my
+daughter into the nuptial chain of his arms by marriage.[9]
+
+OLD M. Thou venturest terrible things, king Agamemnon, who, having promised
+thy daughter as wife to the son of the Goddess, dost lead her as a
+sacrifice on behalf of the Greeks.
+
+AG. Ah me! I was out of my senses. Alas! And I am falling into calamity.
+But go, plying thy foot, yielding naught to old age.
+
+OLD M. I hasten, O king.
+
+AG. Do not thou either sit down by the woody fountains, nor repose in
+sleep.
+
+OLD M. Speak good words.
+
+AG. But every where as you pass the double track, look about, watching lest
+there escape thee a chariot passing with swift wheels, bearing my daughter
+hither to the ships of the Greeks.
+
+OLD M. This shall be.
+
+AG. And go out of the gates[10] quickly,+ for if you meet with the
+procession,+ again go forth, shake the reins, going to the temples reared
+by the Cyclops.
+
+OLD M. But tell me, how, saying this, I shall obtain belief from thy
+daughter and wife.
+
+AG. Preserve the seal, this which thou bearest on this letter. Go: morn,
+already dawning forth this light, grows white, and the fire of the sun's
+four steeds. Aid me in my toils. But no one of mortals is prosperous or
+blest to the last, for none hath yet been born free from pain.
+
+CHORUS. I came to the sands of the shore of marine Aulis, having sailed
+through the waves of Euripus, quitting Chalcis with its narrow strait, my
+city, the nurse of the sea-neighboring waters[11] of renowned Arethusa, in
+order that I might behold the army of the Greeks, and the ship-conveying
+oars of the Grecian youths, whom against Troy in a thousand ships of fir,
+our husbands say that yellow-haired Menelaus and Agamemnon of noble birth,
+are leading in quest of Helen,[12] whom the herdsman Paris bore from
+reed-nourishing Eurotas, a gift of Venus, when at the fountain dews Venus
+held contest, contest respecting beauty with Juno and Pallas. But I came
+swiftly through the wood of Diana with its many sacrifices, making my cheek
+red with youthful modesty, wishing to behold the defense of the shield, and
+the arm-bearing tents[13] of the Greeks, and the crowd of steeds. But I saw
+the two Ajaces companions, the son of Oileus, and the son of Telamon, the
+glory of Salamis, and Protesilaus and Palamedes, whom the daughter of
+Neptune bore, diverting themselves[14] with the complicated figures of
+draughts, and Diomede rejoicing in the pleasures of the disk, and by them
+Merione, the blossom of Mars, a marvel to mortals, and the son of Laertes
+from the mountains of the isle, and with them Nireus, fairest of the
+Greeks, and Achilles, tempest-like in the course, fleet as the winds, whom
+Thetis bore, and Chiron trained up, I beheld him on the shore, coursing in
+arms along the shingles. And he toiled through a contest of feet, running
+against a chariot of four steeds for victory. But the charioteer cried out,
+Eumelus, the grandson of Pheres,[15] whose most beauteous steeds I beheld,
+decked out with gold-tricked bits, hurried on by the lash, the middle ones
+in yoke dappled with white-spotted hair, but those outside, in loose
+harness, running contrariwise in the bendings of the course, bays, with
+dappled skins under their legs with solid hoofs. Close by which Pelides was
+running in arms, by the orb and wheels of the chariot.[16] And I came to
+the multitude of ships, a sight not to be described, that I might satiate
+the sight of my woman's eyes, a sweet delight. And at the right horn [of
+the fleet] was the Phthiotic army of the Myrmidons, with fifty valiant
+ships. And in golden effigies the Nereid Goddesses stood on the summit of
+the poops, the standard of the host of Achilles. And next to these there
+stood the Argive ships, with equal number of oars, of which [Euryalus] the
+grandson of Mecisteus was general, whom his father Talaus trains up, and
+Sthenelus son of Capaneus. But [Acamas] son of Theseus, leading sixty ships
+from Athens, kept station, having the Goddess Pallas placed[17] in her
+equestrian winged chariot, a prosperous sign to sailors. But I beheld the
+armament of the Boeotians, fifty sea-bound ships, with signs at the
+figure-heads, and their sign was Cadmus, holding a golden dragon, at the
+beaks of the ships, and Leitus the earth-born was leader of the naval
+armament, and [I beheld] those from the Phocian land. But the son of
+Oileus, leading an equal number of Locrian ships, came, having left the
+Thronian city. But from Cyclopian Mycen� the son of Atreus sent the
+assembled mariners of a hundred ships. And with him was Adrastus, as friend
+with friend, in order that Greece might wreak vengeance on those who fled
+their homes, for the sake of barbarian nuptials. But from Pylos we beheld
+on the poops of Gerenian Nestor, a sign bull-footed to view, his neighbor
+Alpheus. But there were twelve beaks of �nian ships, which king Gyneus led,
+and near these again the chieftains of Elis, whom all the people named
+Epeians, and o'er these Eurytus had power. But the white-oared Taphian host
+* * * * led,[18] which Meges ruled, the offspring of Phyleus, leaving the
+island Echinades, inaccessible to sailors. And Ajax, the foster-child of
+Salamis, joined the right horn to the left, to which he was stationed
+nearest, joining them with his furthermost ships, with twelve most swift
+vessels, as I heard, and beheld the naval people. To which if any one add
+the barbarian barks, * * * * it will not obtain a return. * * * * Where I
+beheld the naval expedition, but hearing other things at home I preserve
+remembrance of the assembled army.
+
+OLD M. Menelaus, thou art daring dreadful deeds thou shouldst not dare.
+
+MENELAUS. Away with thee! thou art too faithful to thy masters.
+
+OLD M. An honorable rebuke thou hast rebuked me with!
+
+MEN. To thy cost shall it be, if thou dost that thou shouldst not do.
+
+OLD M. You have no right to open the letter which I was carrying.
+
+MEN. Nor shouldst thou bear ills to all the Greeks.
+
+OLD M. Contest this point with others, but give up this [letter] to me.
+
+MEN. I will not let it go.
+
+OLD M. Nor will I let it go.
+
+MEN. Then quickly with my sceptre will I make thine head bloody.
+
+OLD M. But glorious it is to die for one's masters.
+
+MEN. Let go. Being a slave, thou speakest too many words.
+
+OLD M. O master, I am wronged, and this man, having snatched thy letter out
+of my hands, O Agamemnon, is unwilling to act rightly.
+
+MEN. Ah! what is this tumult and disorder of words?
+
+OLD M. My words, not his, are fittest to speak.[19]
+
+AG. But wherefore, Menelaus, dost thou come to strife with this man and art
+dragging him by force?
+
+MEN. Look at me, that I may take this commencement of my speech.
+
+AG. What, shall I through fear not open mine eyelids, being born of Atreus?
+
+MEN. Seest thou this letter, the minister of writings most vile?
+
+AG. I see it, and do thou first let it go from thy hands.
+
+MEN. Not, at least, before I show to the Greeks what is written therein.
+
+AG. What, knowest thou what 'tis unseasonable thou shouldst know, having
+broken the seal?
+
+MEN. Ay, so as to pain thee, having unfolded the ills thou hast wrought
+privily.
+
+AG. But where didst thou obtain it? O Gods, for thy shameless heart!
+
+MEN. Expecting thy daughter from Argos, whether she will come to the army.
+
+AG. What behooves thee to keep watch upon my affairs? Is not this the act
+of a shameless man?
+
+MEN. Because the will [to do so] teased me, and I am not born thy slave.
+
+AG. Is it not dreadful? Shall I not be suffered to be master of my own
+family?
+
+MEN. For thou thinkest inconsistently, now one thing, before another,
+another thing presently.
+
+AG. Well hast thou talked evil. Hateful is a too clever tongue.[20]
+
+MEN. But an unstable mind is an unjust thing to possess, and not clear[21]
+for friends. I wish to expostulate with thee, but do not thou in wrath turn
+away from the truth, nor will I speak overlong. Thou knowest when thou wast
+making interest to be leader of the Greeks against Troy--in seeming indeed
+not wishing it, but wishing it in will--how humble thou wast, taking hold
+of every right hand, and keeping open doors to any of the people that
+wished, and giving audience to all in turn even if one wished it not,
+seeking by manners to purchase popularity among the multitude. But when you
+obtained the power, changing to different manners, you were no longer the
+same friend as before to your old friends, difficult of access,[22] and
+rarely within doors. But it behooves not a man who has met with great
+fortune to change his manners, but then chiefly to be firm toward his
+friends, when he is best able to benefit them, being prosperous. I have
+first gone over these charges against thee, in which I first found thee
+base. But when thou afterward camest into Aulis and to the army of all the
+Greeks, thou wast naught, but wast in stupefaction at the fortune which
+then befell us from the Gods, lacking a favorable breeze for the journey.
+But the Greeks demanded that you should dismiss the ships, and not toil
+vainly at Aulis. But how cheerless and distressed a countenance you wore,
+because you were not able to land your army at Priam's land, having a
+thousand ships under command.[23] And thou besoughtest me, "What shall I
+do?" "But what resource shall I find from whence?" so that thou mightest
+not lose an ill renown, being deprived of the command. And then, when
+Calchas o'er the victims said that thou must sacrifice thy daughter to
+Diana, and that there would [then] be means of sailing for the Greeks,
+delighted in heart, you gladly promised to sacrifice your child, and of
+your own accord, not by compulsion--do not say so--you send to your wife to
+convoy your daughter hither, on a pretext of being wedded to Achilles. And
+then changing [your mind] you are caught altering to other writings, to the
+effect that you will not now be the slayer of your daughter. Very pretty,
+forsooth! This is the same air which heard these very protestations from
+thee. But innumerable men experience this in their affairs; they persevere
+in labor when in power,[24] and then make a bad result, sometimes through
+the foolish mind of the citizens, but sometimes with reason, themselves
+becoming incapable of preserving the state, I indeed chiefly groan for
+hapless Greece, who, wishing to work some doughty deed against these
+good-for-nothing barbarians, will let them, laughing at us, slip through
+her hands, on account of thee and thy daughter. I would not make any one
+ruler of the land for the sake of necessity,[25] nor chieftain of armed
+men. It behooves the general of the state to possess sense, for every man
+is a ruler who possesses sense.
+
+CHOR. 'Tis dreadful for words and strife to happen between brothers, when
+they fall into dispute.
+
+AG. I wish to address thee in evil terms, but mildly,[26] in brief, not
+uplifting mine eyelids too much aloft through insolence, but moderately, as
+being my brother. For a good man is wont to show respect [to others.] Tell
+me, why dost thou burst forth thus violently, having thy face suffused with
+rage? Who wrongs thee? What lackest thou? Wouldst fain gain a good wife! I
+can not supply thee, for thou didst ill rule over the one you possessed.
+Must I therefore pay the penalty of your mismanagement, who have made no
+mistake? Or does my ambition annoy thee? But wouldst thou fain hold in
+thine arms a fair woman, forgetting discretion and honor? Evil pleasures
+belong to an evil man. But if I, having before resolved ill, have changed
+to good counsel, am I mad? Rather art thou [mad,] who, having lost a bad
+wife, desirest to recover her, when God has well prospered thy fortune. The
+nuptial-craving suitors in their folly swore the oath to Tyndarus, but
+hope, I ween, was their God, and wrought this more than thyself and thy
+strength. Whom taking[27] make thou the expedition, but I think thou wilt
+know [that it is] through the folly of their hearts, for the divinity is
+not ignorant, but is capable of discerning oaths ill plighted and perforce.
+But I will not slay my children, so that thy state will in justice be well,
+revenge upon the worst of wives, but nights and days will waste me away in
+tears, having wrought lawless, unjust deeds against the children whom I
+begat. These words are briefly spoken to thee, both plain and easy, but if
+thou art unwilling to be wise, I will arrange my own affairs well.
+
+CHOR. These words are different from those before spoken, but they are to a
+good effect, that the children be spared.
+
+MEN. Alas! alas! have I then wretched no friends?
+
+AG. [Yes, you have,] at least, if you do not wish to ruin your friends.
+
+MEN. But how will you show that you are born of the same sire with me?
+
+AG. I am born to be wise with you, not foolish.[28]
+
+MEN. It behooves friends to grieve in common with friends.
+
+AG. Admonish me by well doing, not by paining me.
+
+MEN. Dost thou not then think fit to toil through this with Greece?
+
+AG. But Greece, with thee, is sickening through some deity.
+
+MEN. Vaunt then on thy sceptre, having betrayed thy brother. But I will
+seek some other schemes, and other friends.
+
+[_Enter a Messenger_.[29]]
+
+MESSENGER. O Agamemnon, king of all the Greeks, I am come, bringing thy
+daughter to thee, whom thou didst name Iphigenia in thy palace. But her
+mother follows, the person of thy [wife] Clyt�mnestra, and the boy Orestes,
+that thou mayest be pleased at the sight, being away from thine home a long
+season. But as they have come a long way, they and their mares are
+refreshing their female feet by the fair-flowing fountain, and we let loose
+the mares in a grassy meadow, that they might taste fodder. But I am come
+before them to prepare you [for their reception,] for a swift report passed
+through the army, that thy daughter had arrived. And all the multitude
+comes out hastily to the spectacle, that they may behold thy child. For
+prosperous men are renowned and conspicuous among all mortals. And they
+say, "Is there a marriage on foot? or what is going on?" Or, "Has king
+Agamemnon, having a yearning after his daughter, brought his child hither?"
+But from some you would have heard this: "They are initiating[30] the
+damsel in honor of Artemis, queen of Aulis, who will marry her." But come,
+get ready the baskets,[31] which come next, crown thine head. And do thou,
+king Menelaus, prepare a nuptial lay, and through the house let the pipe
+sound and let there be noise of feet, for this day comes blessed upon the
+virgin.
+
+AG. I commend [your words,] but go thou within the house, and it shall be
+well, as fortune takes its course. Alas! what shall I wretched say? Whence
+shall I begin? Into what fetters of necessity have I fallen! Fortune has
+upturned me, so as to become far too clever for my cleverness. But lowness
+of birth has some advantage thus. For such persons are at liberty to weep,
+and speak unhappy words, but to him that is of noble birth, all these
+things belong. We have our dignity as ruler of our life, and are slaves to
+the multitude. For I am ashamed indeed to let fall the tear, yet again
+wretched am I ashamed not to weep, having come into the greatest
+calamities. Well! what shall I say to my wife? How shall I receive her?
+What manner of countenance shall I present? And truly she hath undone me,
+coming uncalled amidst the ills which before possessed me. And with reason
+did she follow her daughter, being about to deck her as a bride,[32] and to
+perform the dearest offices, where she will find us base. But for this
+hapless virgin--why [call her] virgin? Hades, as it seems, will speedily
+attend on her nuptials,--how do I pity her! For I think that she will
+beseech me thus: O father, wilt thou slay me? Such a wedding mayest thou
+thyself wed, and whosoever is a friend to thee. But Orestes being present
+will cry out knowingly words not knowing, for he is yet an infant. Alas!
+how has Priam's son, Paris, undone me by wedding the nuptials of Paris, who
+has wrought this!
+
+CHOR. And I also pity her, as it becomes a stranger woman to moan for the
+misfortune of her lords.
+
+MEN. Brother, give me thy right hand to touch.
+
+AG. I give it, for thine is the power, but I am wretched.
+
+MEN. I swear by Pelops, who was called the sire of my father and thine, and
+my father Atreus, that I indeed will tell thee plainly from my heart, and
+not any thing out of contrivance, but only what I think. I, beholding thee
+letting fall the tear from thine eyes, pitied thee, and myself let fall [a
+tear] for thee in return. And I have changed[33] my old determinations, not
+being wrath against you, but I will place myself in your present situation,
+and I recommend you neither to slay your child, nor to take my part; for it
+is not just that thou shouldst groan, but my affairs be in a pleasant
+state, and that thine should die, but mine behold the light. For what do I
+wish? Might I not obtain another choice alliance, if I crave nuptials? But,
+having undone my brother, whom it least behooved me, shall I receive Helen,
+an evil in place of a good? I was foolish and young, before that, viewing
+the matter closely, I saw what it is to beget children. Besides, pity came
+over me, considering our connection, for the hapless girl, who is about to
+be sacrificed because of my marriage. But what has thy virgin [daughter] to
+do with Helen? Let the army go, being disbanded from Aulis. But cease thou
+bedewing thine eyes with tears, my brother, and exciting me to tears. But
+if I have any concern in the oracle respecting thy daughter, let me have
+none: to thee I yield my part. But I have come to a change[34] from
+terrible resolutions. I have experienced[35] what was meet. I have changed
+to regard him who is sprung from a common source. Such changes belong not
+to a bad man, [viz.] to follow the best always.
+
+CHOR. Thou hast spoken generous words, and becoming Tantalus the son of
+Jove. Thou disgracest not thine ancestors.
+
+AG. I commend thee, Menelaus, in that, contrary to my expectation, you have
+subjoined these words, rightly, and worthily of thee.
+
+MEN. A certain disturbance[36] between brothers arises on account of love,
+and avarice in their houses. I abhor such a relationship, mutually sore.
+
+AG. But [consider,] for we are come into circumstances that render it
+necessary to accomplish the bloody slaughter of my daughter.
+
+MEN. How? Who will compel thee to slay thy child?
+
+AG. The whole assembly of the armament of the Greeks.
+
+MEN. Not so, if at least thou dismiss it back to Argos.
+
+AG. In this matter I might escape discovery, but in that I can not.[37]
+
+MEN. What? One should not too much fear the multitude.
+
+AG. Calchas will proclaim his prophecy to the army of the Greeks.
+
+MEN. Not if he die first--and this is easy.
+
+AG. The whole race of seers is an ambitious ill.
+
+MEN. And in naught good or profitable, when at hand.[38]
+
+AG. But dost thou not fear that which occurs to me?
+
+MEN. How can I understand the word you say not?
+
+AG. The son of Sisyphus knows all these matters.
+
+MEN. It can not be that Orestes can pain thee and me.
+
+AG. He is ever changeable, and with the multitude.
+
+MEN. He is indeed possessed with the passion for popularity, a dreadful
+evil.
+
+AG. Do you not then think that he, standing in the midst of the Greeks,
+will tell the oracles which Calchas pronounced, and of me, that I promised
+to offer a sacrifice to Diana, and then break my word. With which [words]
+having carried away the army, he will bid the Greeks slay thee and me, and
+sacrifice the damsel. And if I flee to Argos, they will come and ravage and
+raze the land, Cyclopean walls and all. Such are my troubles. O unhappy me!
+How, by the Gods, am I at a loss in these present matters! Take care of one
+thing for me, Menelaus, going through the army, that Clyt�mnestra may not
+learn these matters, before I take and offer my daughter to Hades, that I
+may fare ill with as few tears as possible. But do ye, O stranger women,
+preserve silence.
+
+CHORUS. Blest are they who share the nuptial bed of the Goddess
+Aphrodite,[39] when she is moderate, and with modesty, obtaining a calm
+from the maddening stings, when Love with his golden locks stretches his
+twin bow of graces, the one for a prosperous fate, the other for the
+upturning of life. I deprecate this [bow,] O fairest Venus, from our beds,
+but may mine be a moderate grace, and holy endearments, and may I share
+Aphrodite, but reject her when excessive. But the natures of mortals are
+different, and their manners are different,[40] but that which is clearly
+good is ever plain. And the education which trains[41] [men] up, conduces
+greatly to virtue, for to have reverence is wisdom, and it possesses an
+equivalent advantage, viz. to perceive what is fitting by one's mind, where
+report bears unwasting glory to life.[42] 'Tis a great thing to hunt for
+[the praise of] virtue, among women indeed, by a secret affection,[43] but
+among men, on the other hand, honor being inherent,[44] [bears that praise,
+honor,] which increases a state to an incalculable extent.[45]
+
+Thou earnest, O Paris, +where thou wast trained up a shepherd with the
+white heifers of Ida, trilling a barbarian lay, breathing an imitation of
+the Phrygian pipes of Olympus on a reed. And the cows with their
+well-filled udders browsed, when the judgment of the Goddesses drove thee
+mad, which sends thee into Greece,+ before the ivory-decked palaces, thou
+who didst strike love into the eyes of Helen which were upon thee, and
+thyself wast fluttered with love. Whence strife, strife brings Greece
+against the bulwarks of Troy with spears and ships.+ Alas! alas! great are
+the fortunes of the great.[46] Behold the king's daughter, Iphigenia, my
+queen, and Clyt�mnestra, daughter of Tyndarus, how are they sprung from the
+great, and to what suitable fortune they are come. The powerful, in sooth,
+and the wealthy, are Gods to those of mortals who are unblest. [Let us
+stand still, ye children of Chalcis, let us receive the queen from her
+chariot to the earth, not unsteadily, but gently with the soft attention of
+our hands, lest the renowned daughter of Agamemnon, newly coming to me, be
+alarmed, nor let us, as strangers to strangers, cause disturbance or fear
+to the Argive ladies.[47]]
+
+[_Enter_ Clyt�mnestra, IPHIGENIA, _and probably_ ORESTES _in a chariot.
+They descend from it, while the Chorus make obeisance_.]
+
+CLY. I regard both your kindness and your favorable words as a good omen,
+and I have some hope that I am here as escort [of my daughter] to honorable
+nuptials. But take out of my chariot the dower-gifts which I bear for my
+girl, and send them carefully into the house. And do thou, my child, quit
+the horse-chariot, setting [carefully] thy foot delicate and at the same
+time tender. But you,[48] maidens, receive her in your arms, and lift her
+from the chariot. And let some one give me the firm support of his hand,
+that I may beseemingly leave the chariot-seat. But do some[49] of you stand
+in front of the horses' yoke, for the uncontrolled eye of horses is
+timorous, and take this boy, the son of Agamemnon, Orestes, for he is still
+an infant. Child! dost sleep, overcome by the ride? Wake up happily for thy
+sisters' nuptials. For thou thyself being noble shalt obtain relationship
+with a good man, the God-like son of the daughter of Nereus. [[50]Next come
+thou close to my foot, O daughter, to thy mother, Iphigenia, and standing
+near, show these strangers how happy I am, and come hither indeed, and
+address thy dear father.] O thou most great glory to me, king Agamemnon, we
+are come, not disobeying thy bidding.
+
+IPH. O mother, running indeed, (but be thou not angry,) I will apply my
+breast to my father's breast. [[51]But I wish, rushing to embrace thy
+breast, O father, after a long season. For I long for thy face. But do not
+be angry.]
+
+CLY. But, O my child, enjoy [thine embraces,] but thou wert ever most fond
+of thy father, of all the children I bore.
+
+IPH. O father, joyous do I behold thee after a long season.
+
+AG. And I, thy father, [joyously behold] thee. Thou speakest thus equally
+in respect to both.
+
+IPH. Hail! But well hast thou done in bringing me to thee, O father.
+
+AG. I know not how I shall say, yet not say so, my child.
+
+IPH. Ah! how uneasily dost thou regard me, joyfully beholding me [before.]
+
+AG. A king and general has many cares.
+
+IPH. Give thyself up to me now, and turn not thyself to cares.
+
+AG. But I am altogether concerned with thee, and on no other subject.
+
+IPH. Relax thy brow, and open thy eyes in joy.
+
+AG. See, I rejoice as I rejoice, at seeing thee, child.[52]
+
+IPH. And then dost let fall a tear from thine eyes?
+
+AG. For long to us is the coming absence.
+
+IPH. I know not what you mean, I know not, dearest father mine.
+
+AG. Speaking sensibly, thou movest me the more to pity.
+
+IPH. I will speak foolishly, if I so may rejoice you.
+
+AG. Alas! I can not keep silence, but I commend thee.
+
+IPH. Remain, O father, in the house with thy children,
+
+AG. I fain would, but not having what I would, I am pained.
+
+IPH. Perish war and the ills of Menelaus![53]
+
+AG. What has undone me will first undo others.
+
+IPH. How long a time wast thou absent in the recesses of Aulis!
+
+AG. And now also there is something hinders me from sending on the army.
+
+IPH. Where say they that the Phrygians dwell, father?
+
+AG. Where would that Paris, Priam's son, had never dwelt.
+
+IPH. And dost thou go a long distance, O father, when thou leavest me?
+
+AG. Thou art come, my daughter, to the same state with thy father.[54]
+
+IPH. Alas! would that it were fitting me and thee to take me with thee as
+thy fellow-sailor.
+
+AG. But there is yet a sailing for thee, where thou wilt remember thy
+father.
+
+IPH. Shall I go, sailing with my mother, or alone?
+
+AG. Alone, apart from thy father and mother.
+
+IPH. What, art thou going to make me dwell in other houses, father?
+
+AG. Cease. It is not proper for girls to know these matters.
+
+IPH. Hasten back from Phrygia, do, my father, having settled matters well
+there.
+
+AG. It first behooves me to offer a certain sacrifice here.
+
+IPH. But it is with the priests that thou shouldst consider sacred matters.
+
+AG. [Yet] shalt thou know it, for thou wilt stand round the altar.
+
+IPH. What, shall we stand in chorus round the altar, my father?[55]
+
+AG. I deem thee happier than myself, for that thou know-est nothing. But go
+within the house, that the girls may behold thee,[56] having given me a sad
+kiss and thy right hand, being about to dwell a long time away from thy
+sire. O bosom and cheeks, O yellow tresses, how has the city of the
+Phrygians proved a burden to us, and Helen! I cease my words, for swift
+does the drop trickle from mine eyes when I touch thee. Go into the house.
+But I, I crave thy pardon, (_to Clyt�mnestra_,) daughter of Leda, if I
+showed too much feeling, being about to bestow my daughter on Achilles. For
+the departure [of a girl] is a happy one, but nevertheless it pains the
+parents, when a father, who has toiled much, delivers up his children to
+another home.
+
+CLY. I am not so insensible--but think thou that I shall experience the
+same feelings, (so that I should not chide thee,) when I lead forth my girl
+with nuptial rejoicings, but custom wears away these thoughts in course of
+time. I know, however, the name of him to whom thou hast promised thy
+daughter, but I would fain know of what race, and whence [he is.]
+
+AG. �gina was the daughter of her father Asopus.
+
+CLY. And who of mortals or of Gods wedded her?
+
+AG. Jove, and she gave birth to �acus, prince of Oenone.
+
+CLY. But what son obtained the house of �acus?
+
+AG. Peleus, and Peleus obtained the daughter of Nereus.
+
+CLY. By the gift of the God, or taking her in spite of the Gods?
+
+AG. Jove acted as a sponsor, and bestowed her, having the power.[57]
+
+CLY. And where does he wed her? In the wave of the sea?
+
+AG. Where Chiron dwells at the sacred foot of Pelion.
+
+CLY. Where they say that the race of Centaurs dwells?
+
+AG. Here the Gods celebrated the nuptial feast of Peleus.
+
+CLY. But did Thetis, or his father, train up Achilles?
+
+AG. Chiron, that he might not learn the manners of evil mortals.
+
+CLY. Hah! wise was the instructor, and wiser he who intrusted him.
+
+AG. Such a man will be the husband of thy child.
+
+CLY. Not to be found fault with. But what city in Greece does he inhabit?
+
+AG. Near the river Apidanus in the confines of Phthia.
+
+CLY. Thither will he lead thy virgin [daughter] and mine.
+
+AG. This shall be the care of him, her possessor.
+
+CLY. And may the pair be happy; but on what day will he wed her?
+
+AG. When the prospering orb of the moon comes round.
+
+CLY. But hast thou already sacrificed the first offerings for thy daughter
+to the Goddess?
+
+AG. I am about to do so. In this matter we are now engaged.
+
+CLY. And wilt thou then celebrate a wedding-feast afterward?
+
+AG. [Ay,] having sacrificed such offerings as it behooves me to sacrifice
+to the Gods.
+
+CLY. But where shall we set out a banquet for the women?
+
+AG. Here, by the fair-pooped ships of the Greeks.
+
+CLY. Well, and poorly,[58] forsooth! but may it nevertheless turn out well.
+
+AG. Do then thou knowest what, O lady, and obey me.
+
+CLY. In what? for I am accustomed to obey thee.
+
+AG. We indeed in this place, where the bridegroom is--
+
+CLY. Will do what without the mother, [of those things] which it behooves
+me to do?
+
+AG. --will bestow your daughter among the Greeks.
+
+CLY. But where must I be in the mean time?
+
+AG. Go to Argos, and take care of your virgins.
+
+CLY. Leaving my child? And who will bear the [nuptial] torch?
+
+AG. I will furnish the light that becomes the nuptials.
+
+CLY. The custom is not thus, but you think these matters trifles.
+
+AG. It is not proper that thou shouldst mingle in the crowd of the army.
+
+CLY. It is proper that I, the mother, should bestow at least my own
+daughter.
+
+AG. And it [is proper] that the damsels at home should not be alone.
+
+CLY. They are well guarded in their close chambers.
+
+AG. Obey me.
+
+CLY. [No,] by the Argive Goddess queen. But go you, and attend to matters
+abroad, but I [will mind] the affairs at home, as to the things which
+should be present to virgins at their wedding.[59]
+
+AG. Alas! In vain have I toiled,[60] and have been frustrated in my hope,
+wishing to send my wife out of my sight. But I am using stratagems, and
+finding contrivances against those I best love, overcome at all points. But
+nevertheless with the prophet Calchas I will go and ask the pleasure of the
+Goddess, not fortunate for me, the trouble of Greece.[61] But it behooves a
+wise man either to support a useful and good wife in his house or not to
+marry at all.[62]
+
+CHORUS. The assembly of the Grecian army will come to Simois, and to the
+silver eddies, both with ships and with arms, to Ilium, and to the
+Phoebeian plain of Troy, where I hear that Cassandra, adorned with a
+green-blossoming crown of laurel, lets loose her yellow locks, when the
+prophetic influence of the Gods breathes upon her. And the Trojans will
+stand upon the towers of Troy and around its walls, when brazen-shielded
+Mars, borne over the sea in fair-prowed ships, approaches the beds of
+Simois by rowing, seeking to bear away Helen, [the sister] of the twain
+sons of Jove in heaven, into the land of Greece, by the war-toiling shields
+and spears of the Greeks. But having surrounded Pergamus,[63] the city of
+the Phrygians, around its towers of stone, with bloody Mars, having torn
+off the heads [of the citizens] cut from their necks, having completely
+ravaged the city of Troy, he will make the daughters and wife of Priam shed
+many tears. But Helen, the daughter of Jove, will sit+ in sad lamentation,
+having left her husband. Never upon me or upon my children's children may
+this expectation come, such as the wealthy Lydian and Phrygian wives
+possess while at their spinning, conversing thus with each other. Who,[64]
+dragging out my fair-haired tresses, will choose me as his spoil despite my
+tears, while my country is perishing? Through thee [forsooth,] the
+offspring of the long-necked swan, if indeed the report is true, that Leda
++ met with[65] a winged bird, when the body of Jove was transformed, and
+then in the tablets of the muses fables spread these reports among men,
+inopportunely, and in vain.
+
+[_Enter_ ACHILLES.]
+
+ACHILLES. Where about here is the general of the Greeks? Who of the
+servants will tell him that Achilles, the son of Peleus, is seeking him at
+the gates? For we do not remain by the Euripus in equal condition; for some
+of us being unyoked in nuptials, having left our solitary homes, sit here
+upon the shore, but others, having wives and children:[66] so violent a
+passion for this expedition has fallen upon Greece, not without the will of
+the Gods. It is therefore right that I should speak of what concerns me,
+and whoever else wishes will himself speak for himself. For leaving the
+Pharsalian land, and Peleus, I am waiting for these light gales of
+Euripus,[67] restraining the Myrmidons, who are continually pressing me,
+and saying, "Achilles, why tarry we? what manner of time must the armament
+against Troy yet measure out? At any rate act, if you are going to do any
+thing, or lead the army home, not abiding the delays of the Atrides."
+
+CLY. O son of the Goddess, daughter of Nereus, hearing from within thy
+words, I have come out before the house.
+
+ACH. O hallowed modesty, who can this woman be whom I behold here,
+possessing a fair-seeming form?
+
+CLY. It is no wonder that you know me not, whom you have never seen before,
+but I commend you because you respect modesty.
+
+ACH. But who art thou? And wherefore hast thou come to the assembly of the
+Greeks, a woman to men guarded with shields?
+
+CLY. I am the daughter of Leda, and Clyt�mnestra is my name, and my husband
+is king Agamemnon.
+
+ACH. Well hast thou in few words spoken what is seasonable. But it is
+unbecoming for me to converse with women. (_Is going_.)
+
+CLY. Remain, (why dost thou fly?) at least join thy right hand with mine,
+as a happy commencement of betrothal.
+
+ACH. What sayest thou? I [give] thee my right hand? I should be ashamed of
+Agamemnon, if I touched what is not lawful for me.
+
+CLY. It is particularly lawful, since you are going to wed my daughter, O
+son of the sea Goddess, daughter of Nereus.
+
+ACH. What marriage dost thou say? Surprise possesses me, lady, unless,
+being beside yourself, you speak this new thing.
+
+CLY. This is the nature of all people, to be ashamed when they behold new
+friends, and are put in mind of nuptials.
+
+ACH. I never wooed thy daughter, lady, nor has any thing been said to me on
+the subject of marriage by the Atrides.
+
+CLY. What can it be? Do you in turn marvel at my words, for thine are a
+marvel to me.
+
+ACH. Conjecture; these matters are a common subject for conjecture, for
+both of us perhaps are deceived in our words.[68]
+
+CLY. But surely I have suffered terrible things! I am acting as match-maker
+in regard to a marriage that has no existence. I am ashamed of this.
+
+ACH. Perhaps some one has trifled with both me and thee. But pay no
+attention to it, and bear it with indifference.
+
+CLY. Farewell, for I can no longer behold thee with uplifted eyes, having
+appeared as a liar, and suffered unworthy things.
+
+ACH. And this same [farewell] is thine from me. But I will go seek thy
+husband within this house.
+
+[_The_ OLD MAN _appears at the door of the house_.]
+
+OLD M. O stranger, grandson of �acus, remain. Ho! thee, I say, the son of
+the Goddess, and thee, the daughter of Leda.
+
+ACM. Who is it that calls, partially opening the doors? With what terror he
+calls!
+
+OLD M. A slave. I will not be nice about the title, for fortune allows it
+not.
+
+ACH. Of whom? for thou art not mine. My property and Agamemnon's are
+different.
+
+OLD M. Of this lady who is before the house, the gift of her father
+Tyndarus.
+
+ACH. We are still. Say if thou wantest any thing, for which thou hast
+stopped me.
+
+OLD M. Are ye sure that ye alone stand before these gates?
+
+CLY. Ay, so that you may speak to us only. But come out from the royal
+dwelling.
+
+OLD M. (Coming forward) O fortune, and foresight mine, preserve whom I
+wish.
+
+ACH. These words will do for[69] a future occasion, for they have some
+weight.
+
+CLY. By thy right hand [I beseech thee,] delay not, if thou hast aught to
+say to me.
+
+OLD M. Thou knowest then, being what manner of man, I have been by nature
+well disposed to thee and thy children.
+
+CLY. I know thee as being a faithful servant to my house.
+
+OLD M. And that king Agamemnon received me among thy dowry.
+
+CLY. Thou camest into Argos with us, and thou wast always mine.
+
+OLD M. So it is, and I am well disposed to thee, but less so to thy
+husband.
+
+CLY. Unfold now at least to me what words you are saying.
+
+OLD M. The father who begat her is about to slay thy daughter with his own
+hand.
+
+CLY. How? I deprecate thy words, old man, for thou thinkest not well.
+
+OLD M. Cutting the fair neck of the hapless girl with the sword.
+
+CLY. O wretched me! Is my husband mad?
+
+OLD M. He is in his right mind, save with respect to thee and thy daughter,
+but in this he is not wise.
+
+CLY. Upon what grounds? What maddening fiend impels him?
+
+OLD M. The oracles, as at least Calchas says, in order that the army may be
+able to proceed.
+
+CLY. Whither? Wretched me, and wretched she whom her father is about to
+slay?
+
+OLD M. To the house of Dardanus, that Menelaus may recover Helen.
+
+CLY. To the destruction, then, of Iphigenia, was the return of Helen
+foredoomed?
+
+OLD M. Thou hast the whole story. Her father is going to offer thy daughter
+to Diana.
+
+CLY. What! what pretext had the marriage, that brought me from home?
+
+OLD M. That thou rejoicing mightest bring thy child, as if about to wed her
+to Achilles.
+
+CLY. O daughter, both thou and thy mother are come to meet with
+destruction.
+
+OLD M. Ye twain are suffering sad things, and dreadful things hath
+Agamemnon dared.
+
+CLY. I wretched am undone, and my eyes no longer restrain the tear.
+
+OLD M. For bitter 'tis to mourn, deprived of one's children.
+
+CLY. But whence, old man, sayest thou that thou hast learned and knowest
+these things?
+
+OLD M. I went to bear a letter to thee, in reference to what was before
+written.
+
+CLY. Not allowing, or bidding me to bring my child, that she might die?
+
+OLD M. [It was] that you should not bring her, for your husband then
+thought well.
+
+CLY. And how was it then, that, bearing the letter, thou gavest it not to
+me?
+
+OLD M. Menelaus, who is the cause of these evils, took it from me.
+
+CLY. O child of Nereus' daughter, O son of Peleus, dost hear these things?
+
+ACH. I hear that thou art wretched, and I do not bear my part
+indifferently.
+
+CLY. They will slay my child, having deceived her with thy nuptials.
+
+ACH. I also blame thy husband, nor do I bear it lightly.
+
+CLY. I will not be ashamed to fall down at thy knee, mortal, to one born of
+a Goddess. For wherefore should I make a show of pride? Or what should I
+study more than my children? But, O son of the Goddess, aid me in my
+unhappiness, and her who is called thy wife, vainly indeed, but
+nevertheless, having decked her out, I led her as if to be married, but now
+I lead her to sacrifice, and reproach will come upon thee, who gavest no
+aid. For though thou wast not yoked in nuptials, at least thou wast called
+the beloved husband of the hapless virgin. By thy beard, by thy right hand,
+by thy mother [I beseech] thee, for thy name hath undone me, to whom thou
+shouldst needs give assistance. I have no other altar to fly to, but thy
+knee, nor is any friend near me,[70] but thou hearest the cruel and
+all-daring conduct of Agamemnon. But I a woman, as thou seest, have come to
+a naval host, uncontrolled, and bold for mischief, but useful, when they
+are willing. But if thou wilt venture to stretch thine hand in my behalf,
+we are saved, but if not, we are not saved.
+
+CHOR. A terrible thing it is to be a mother, and it bears a great
+endearment, and one common to all, so as to toil on behalf of their
+children.
+
+ACH. My mind is high-lifted in its thoughts,[71] and knows both how to
+grieve [moderately] in troubles, and to rejoice moderately in high
+prosperity. For the discreet among mortals are such as pass through life
+correctly with wisdom. Now there are certain cases where it is pleasant not
+to be too wise, and also where it is useful to possess wisdom. But I, being
+nurtured [in the dwelling] of a most pious man, Chiron, have learned to
+possess a candid disposition. And I will obey the Atrides, if indeed they
+order well, but when not well, I obey not. But here in Troy showing a free
+nature I will glorify Mars with the spear, as far as I can. But, O thou who
+hast suffered wretchedly at the hands of those dearest, in whatever can be
+done by a youth, I, showing so much pity, will set thee right, and thy
+daughter, having been called my bride, shall never be sacrificed by her
+father, for I will not furnish thy husband with my person to weave
+stratagems upon. For my name, even if he lift not up the sword, will slay
+thy daughter, but thy husband is the cause. But my body is no longer pure,
+if on my account, and because of my marriage, there perish a virgin who has
+gone through sad and unbearable troubles, and has been marvelously and
+undeservedly ill treated. I were the worst man among the Greeks, I were of
+naught (but Menelaus would be among men), not as born from Peleus, but from
+some fiend, if my name acts the murderer for thy husband.[72] By Nereus,
+nurtured in the damp waves, the father of Thetis, who begat me, king
+Agamemnon shall not lay hands on thy daughter, not so much as with a little
+finger, so as to touch her garments. I' faith, Sipylus, a fortress of
+barbarians, whence the [royal] generals trace their descent, shall be
+deemed a city, but the name of Phthia shall nowhere be named. And the seer
+Calchas will to his cost consecrate the sacrificial cakes and lustral
+waters. (But what man is a prophet?) who tells[73] a few things true, (but
+many falsely,) when he has made a hit, but when he fails, is undone. These
+words are not spoken for the sake of my wedding, (ten thousand girls are
+hunting after alliance with me,) but [because] king Agamemnon has been
+guilty of insult toward me. But it behooved him to ask [the use of] my name
+from me, as an enticement for his daughter, and Clyt�mnestra would have
+been most readily persuaded to give her daughter to me as a husband. And I
+would have given her up to the Greeks, if on this account their passage to
+Troy had been impeded: I would not have refused to augment the common
+interest of those with whom I set out on the expedition. But now I am held
+as of no account by the generals, and it is a matter of indifference
+whether I benefit them or not. Soon shall my sword witness, which, before
+death came against the Phrygians,[74] I stained with spots of blood,
+whether any one shall take thy daughter from me. But keep quiet, I have
+appeared to thee as a most mighty God, though not [a God,] but nevertheless
+I will be such.
+
+CHOR. O son of Peleus, thou hast spoken both worthily of thyself, and of
+the marine deity, hallowed Goddess.
+
+CLY. Alas! how can I praise thee neither too much in words, nor, being
+deficient in this respect, [not] lose thy favor? For in a certain wise the
+praised dislike their praisers, if they praise too much. But I am ashamed
+at alleging pitiable words, being troubled in myself, while thou art not
+diseased with my ills. But in fact the good man has some reason, even
+though he be unconnected with them, for assisting the unfortunate. But pity
+us, for we have suffered pitiably; I, who, in the first place, thinking to
+have thee for a kinsman, cherished a vain hope.--Moreover, my child, by
+dying, might perchance become an omen to thy future bridals,[75] which thou
+must needs avoid. But well didst thou speak both first and last, for, if
+thou art willing, my child will be saved. Dost wish that she embrace thy
+knee as a suppliant? Such conduct is not virgin-like, but if thou wilt, she
+shall come, with her noble face suffused with modesty. Or shall I obtain
+these things from thee, without her presence?
+
+ACH. Let her remain within doors, for with dignity she preserves her
+dignity.
+
+CLY. Yet one must needs have modesty [only] as far as circumstances allow.
+
+ACH. Do thou neither bring forth thy daughter into my sight, lady, not let
+us fall into reproach for inconsiderate conduct, for our assembled army,
+being idle from home occupations, loves evil and slanderous talk. But at
+all events you will accomplish the same, whether you come to me as a
+suppliant, or do not supplicate, for a mighty contest awaits me, to release
+you from these evils. Wherefore, having heard one thing, be persuaded that
+I will not speak falsely. But if I speak falsely, and vainly amuse you, may
+I perish; but may I not perish, if I preserve the virgin.
+
+CLY. Mayest thou be blest, ever assisting the unhappy.
+
+ACH. Hear me then, that the matter may be well.
+
+CLY. What is this thou sayest? for one must listen to thee.
+
+ACH. Let us again persuade her father to be wiser.
+
+CLY. He is a coward, and fears the army too much.
+
+ACH. But words can conquer words.
+
+CLY. Chilly is the hope, but tell me what I must do.
+
+ACH. Beseech him first not to slay his child, but if he oppose this, you
+must come to me. For if he will be persuaded what you wish, there is no
+occasion for my efforts, for this very [consent] contains her safety. And I
+also shall appear in a better light with my friend, and the army will not
+blame me, if I transact matters by discretion rather than force. And if
+this turn out well, these things, even without my help, may turn out
+satisfactorily to thy friends and thyself.[76]
+
+CLY. How wisely hast thou spoken! But what thou sayest must be done. But if
+I do not obtain what I seek, where shall I again see thee? Where must I
+wretched woman, coming, find thee an assistant in my troubles?
+
+ACH. We guards will watch thee when there is occasion, lest any one behold
+thee going in agitation through the host of the Greeks. But do not shame
+thy ancestral home, for Tyndarus is not worthy of an evil reputation,
+seeing he is great among the Greeks.
+
+CLY. These things shall be. Command; it is meet that I obey thee. But if
+there are Gods, you, being a just man, will receive a good reward; but if
+not, why should one toil?
+
+CHOR. What was that nuptial song that raised[77] its strains on the Libyan
+reed, and with the dance-loving lyre, and the reedy syrinx, when o'er
+Pelion at the feast of the Gods the fair-haired muses, striking their feet
+with golden sandals against the ground, came to the wedding of Peleus,
+celebrating with melodious sounds Thetis, and the son of �acus, on the
+mountains of the Centaurs, through the Palian wood.
+
+But the Dardan,[78] [Phrygian Ganymede,] dear delight of Jove's bed, poured
+out the nectar in the golden depths of the goblets, and along the white
+sands the fifty daughters of Nereus, entwining in circles, adorned the
+nuptials of Nereus with the dance. But with darts of fir, and crowns of
+grass, the horse-mounted troop of the Centaurs came to the banquet of the
+Gods and the cup of Bacchus. And the Thessalian girls shouted loud,[79] "O
+daughter of Nereus," and the prophet Phoebus, and Chiron, skilled in
+letters, declared, "Thou shalt bring forth a mighty light, who shall come
+to the [Trojan] land with Myrmidons armed with spear and shield, to burn
+the renowned city of Priam, around his body armed with a covering of golden
+arms wrought by Vulcan, having them as a gift from his Goddess Thetis, who
+begat him blessed." Then the deities celebrated the nuptials of the noble
+daughter of Nereus first,[80] and of Peleus. But thee, [O Iphigenia,] they
+will crown on the head with flowery garlands, like as a pure spotted heifer
+from a rocky cave, making bloody the mortal throat [of one] not trained up
+with the pipe, nor amidst the songs of herdsmen, but as a bride[81]
+prepared by thy mother for some one of the Argives. Where has the face of
+shame, or virtue any power to prevail? Since impiety indeed has influence,
+but virtue is left behind and disregarded by mortals, and lawlessness
+governs law, and it is a common struggle for mortals, lest any envy of the
+Gods befall.
+
+CLY. I have come out of the house to seek for my husband, who has been
+absent, and has quitted the house a long time. But my hapless daughter is
+in tears, casting forth many a change of complaint, having heard the death
+her father devises for her. But I was mindful of Agamemnon who is now
+coming hither,[82] who will quickly be detected doing evil deeds against
+his own children.
+
+AG. Daughter of Leda, opportunely have I found you without the house, that
+I may tell thee, apart from the virgin, words which it is not meet for
+those to hear who are about to marry.
+
+CLY. And what is it, on which your convenience lays hold?
+
+AG. Send forth thy daughter from the house with her father, since the
+lustral waters are ready prepared, and the salt-cakes to scatter with the
+hands upon the purifying flame, and heifers, which needs must be slain in
+honor of the Goddess Diana before the marriage solemnities, a shedding of
+black gore.
+
+CLY. In words, indeed, thou speakest well, but for thy deeds, I know not
+how I may say thou speakest well. But come without, O daughter, for thou
+knowest all that thy father meditates, and beneath thy robes bring the
+child Orestes, thy brother. See, she is here present to obey thee. But the
+rest I will speak on her behalf and mine.
+
+AG. Child, why weepest thou, and no longer beholdest me cheerfully, but
+fixing thy face upon the ground, keepest thy vest before it?
+
+CLY. Alas! What commencement of my sorrows shall I take? For I may use them
+all as first, [both last, and middle throughout.[83]]
+
+AG. But what is it? How all of you are come to one point with me, bearing
+disturbed and alarmed countenances.
+
+CLY. Wilt thou answer candidly, husband, if I ask thee?
+
+AG. There needs no admonition: I would fain be questioned.
+
+CLY. Art thou going to slay thy child and mine?
+
+AG. Ah! wretched things dost thou say, and thinkest what thou shouldst not.
+
+CLY. Keep quiet, and first in turn answer me that.
+
+AG. But if thou askest likely things, thou wilt hear likely.
+
+CLY. I ask no other things, nor do thou answer me others.
+
+AG. O revered destiny, and fate, and fortune mine!
+
+CLY. Ay, and mine too, and this child's, one of three unfortunates!
+
+AG. But in what art thou wronged?
+
+CLY. Dost thou ask me this? This thy wit hath no wit.[84]
+
+AG. I am undone. My secret plans are betrayed.
+
+CLY. I know and have learned all that you are about to do to me, and the
+very fact of thy silence, and of thy groaning much, is a proof that you
+confess it. Do not take the trouble to say any thing.
+
+AG. Behold, I am silent: for what need is there that, falsely speaking, I
+add shamelessness to misfortune?
+
+CLY. Listen, then, for I will unfold my story, and will no longer make use
+of riddles away from the purpose. In the first place, that I may first
+reproach thee with this--thou didst wed me unwilling, and obtain me by
+force, having slain Tantalus, my former husband, and having dashed[85] my
+infant living to the ground, having torn him by force from my breast. And
+the twin sons of Jove, my brothers, glorying in their steeds, made war
+[against thee] but my old father Tyndarus saved you, when you had become a
+suppliant, and thou again didst possess me as a wife. When I, being
+reconciled to thee in respect to thy person and home, thou wilt bear
+witness how blameless a wife I was, both modest in respect to affection,
+and enriching thy house, so that thou both going within and without thy
+doors wast blessed. And 'tis a rare prize for a man to obtain such a wife,
+but there is no lack of getting a bad spouse. And I bear thee this son,
+besides three virgins, of one of whom thou art cruelly going to deprive me.
+And if any one ask thee on what account thou wilt slay her, say, what will
+you answer? or must I needs make your plea, "that Menelaus may obtain
+Helen?" A pretty custom, forsooth, that children must pay the price of a
+bad woman. We gain the most hateful things at the hand of those dearest.
+Come, if thou wilt set out, leaving me at home, and then wilt be a long
+time absent, what sort of feelings dost think I shall experience, when I
+behold every seat empty of this child's presence, and every virgin chamber
+empty, but myself sit in tears alone, ever mourning her [in such strains as
+these:] "My child, thy father, who begat thee, hath destroyed thee,
+himself, no other, the slayer, by no other hand, leaving such a reward for
+[my care of] the house."[86] Since there wants but a little reason for me
+and my remaining daughters to give thee such a reception as you deserve to
+receive. Do not, by the Gods, either compel me to act evilly toward thee,
+nor do thou thyself be so. Ah well! thou wilt sacrifice thy daughter--what
+prayers wilt thou then utter? What good thing wilt thou crave for thyself,
+slaying thy child? An evil return, seeing, forsooth, thou hast
+disgracefully set out from home. But is it right that I should pray for
+thee any good thing? Verily we must believe the Gods are senseless, if we
+feel well disposed to murderers. But wilt thou, returning to Argos, embrace
+thy children? But 'tis not lawful for thee. Will any of your children look
+upon you, if thou offerest one of them for slaughter? Thus far have I
+proceeded in my argument. What! does it only behoove thee to carry about
+thy sceptre and marshal the army?--whose duty it were to speak a just
+speech among the Greeks: "Do ye desire, O Greeks, to sail against the land
+of the Phrygians? Cast lots, whose daughter needs must die"--for this would
+be on equal terms, but not that you should give thy daughter to the Greeks
+as a chosen victim. Or Menelaus, whose affair it was, ought to slay
+Hermione for her mother's sake. But now I, having cherished thy married
+life, shall be bereaved of my child, but she who has sinned, bearing her
+daughter under her care to Sparta, will be blest. As to these things,
+answer me if I say aught not rightly, but if I have spoken well, do not
+then slay thy child and mine, and thou wilt be wise.
+
+CHOR. Be persuaded, Agamemnon, for 'tis right to join in saving one's
+children. No one of mortals will gainsay this.
+
+IPH. If, O father, I possessed the eloquence of Orpheus, that I might charm
+by persuasion, so that rocks should follow me, and that I might soften whom
+I would by my words, to this would I have resorted. But now I will offer
+tears as all my skill, for these I can. And, as a suppliant bough, I press
+against thy knees my body, which this [my mother] bore thee, [beseeching]
+that thou slay me not before my time, for sweet it is to behold the light,
+nor do thou compel me to visit the places beneath the earth. And I
+first[87] hailed thee sire, and thou [didst first call] me daughter, and
+first drawing nigh to thy knees, I gave and in turn received sweet tokens
+of affection. And such, were thy words: "My daughter, shall I some time
+behold thee prospering in a husband's home, living and flourishing worthily
+of me?" And mine in turn ran thus, as I hung about thy beard, which now
+with my hand I embrace: "But how shall I [treat] thee? Shall I receive thee
+when an old man, O father, with the hearty reception of my house, repaying
+thee the careful nurture of my youth?" Of such words have remembrance, but
+thou hast forgotten them, and fain wouldst slay me. Do not, [I beseech you]
+by Pelops and by thy father Atreus, and this my mother, who having before
+brought me forth with throes, now suffers this second throe. What have I to
+do with the marriage of Paris and Helen? Whence came he, father, for my
+destruction? Look upon me; give me one look, one kiss, that this memorial
+of thee at least I, dying, may possess, if thou wilt not be persuaded by my
+words. Brother, thou art but a little helpmate to those dear, yet weep with
+me, beseech thy sire that thy sister die not. Even in babes there is wont
+to be some sense of evil. Behold, O father, he silently implores thee. But
+respect my prayer, and have pity on my years. Yea, by thy beard we, two
+dear ones, implore thee; the one is yet a nursling, but the other grown up.
+In one brief saying I will overcome all arguments. This light of heaven is
+sweetest of things for men to behold, but that below is naught; and mad is
+he who seeks to die. To live dishonorably is better than to die gloriously.
+
+CHOR. O wretched Helen, through thee and thy nuptials there is come a
+contest for the Atrides and their children.
+
+AG. I can understand what merits pity, and what not; and I love my
+children, for [otherwise] I were mad. And dreadful 'tis for me[88] to dare
+these things, O woman, and dreadful not to do so--for so I must needs act.
+Thou seest how great is this naval host, and how many are the chieftains of
+brazen arms among the Greeks, to whom there is not a power of arriving at
+the towers of Troy, unless I sacrifice you, as the seer Calchas says, nor
+can we take the renowned plain of Troy. But a certain passion has maddened
+the army of the Greeks, to sail as quickly as possible upon the land of the
+barbarians, and to put a stop to the rapes of Grecian wives. And they will
+slay my daughters at Argos, and you, and me, if I break through the
+commands of the Goddess. It is not Menelaus who has enslaved me, O
+daughter, nor have I followed his device, but Greece, for whom I, will or
+nill, must needs offer thee. And I am inferior on this head. For it
+behooves her, [Helen,] as far as thou, O daughter, art concerned, to be
+free, nor for us, being Greeks, to be plundered perforce of our wives by
+barbarians.
+
+CLY. O child! O ye stranger women! O wretched me for thy death! Thy father
+flees from thee, giving thee up to Hades.
+
+IPH. Alas for me! mother, mother. The same song suits both of us on account
+of our fortunes, and no more to me is the light, nor this bright beam of
+the sun. Alas! alas! thou snow-smitten wood of Troy, and mountains of Ida,
+where once on a time Priam exposed a tender infant, having separated him
+from his mother, that he might meet with deadly fate, Paris, who was styled
+Id�an, Id�an [Paris] in the city of the Phrygians. Would that the herdsman
+Paris, who was nurtured in care of steers, had ne'er dwelt near the white
+stream, where are the fountains of the Nymphs, and the meadow flourishing
+with blooming flowers, and roseate flowers and hyacinths for Goddesses to
+cull. Where once on a time came Pallas, and artful Venus, and Juno, and
+Hermes, the messenger of Jove; Venus indeed, vaunting herself in charms,
+and Pallas in the spear, and Juno in the royal nuptials of king Jove,
+[these came] to a hateful judgment and strife concerning beauty; but my
+death, my death, O virgins, bearing glory indeed to the Greeks, Diana hath
+received as first-fruits [of the expedition] against Troy.[89] But he that
+begot me wretched, O mother, O mother, has departed, leaving me deserted. O
+hapless me! having +beheld+ bitter, bitter, ill-omened Helen, I am slain, I
+perish, by the impious slaughter of an impious sire. Would[90] for me that
+Aulis had never received the poops of the brazen-beaked ships into these
+ports, the fleet destined for Troy, nor that Jove had breathed an adverse
+wind over Euripus, softening one breeze so that some mortals might rejoice
+in their [expanded] sails, but to others a pain, to others difficulty, to
+some to set sail, to others to furl their sails, but to others to tarry. In
+truth the race of mortals is full of troubles, is full of troubles, and it
+necessarily befalls men to find some misfortune. Alas! alas! thou daughter
+of Tyndarus, who hast brought many sufferings, and many griefs upon the
+Greeks.
+
+CHOR. I indeed pity you having met with an evil calamity, such as thou
+never shouldst have met with.
+
+IPH. O mother, to whom I owe my birth, I behold a crowd of men near.
+
+CLY. Ay, the son of the Goddess, my child, for whom thou camest hither.
+
+IPH. Open the house, ye servants, that I may hide myself.
+
+CLY. But why dost thou fly hence, my child?
+
+IPH. I am ashamed to behold this Achilles.
+
+CLY. On what account?
+
+IPH. The unfortunate turn-out of my nuptials shames me.
+
+CLY. Thou art not in a state to give way to delicacy in the present
+circumstances. But do thou remain, there is no use for punctilio, if we can
+[but save your life.]
+
+ACH. O hapless lady, daughter of Leda.
+
+CLY. Thou sayest not falsely.
+
+ACH. Terrible things are cried out among the Greeks.
+
+CLY. What cry? tell me.
+
+ACH. Concerning thy child.
+
+CLY. Thou speakest a word of ill omen.
+
+ACH. That it is necessary to slay her.
+
+CLY. Does no one speak the contrary to this?
+
+ACH. Ay, I myself have got into trouble.
+
+CLY. Into what [trouble,] O friend?
+
+ACH. Of having my body stoned with stones.
+
+CLY. What, in trying to save my daughter!
+
+ACH. This very thing.
+
+CLY. And who would have dared to touch thy person?
+
+ACH. All the Greeks.
+
+CLY. And was not the host of the Myrmidons at hand for thee?
+
+ACH. That was the first that showed enmity.
+
+CLY. Then are we utterly undone, my daughter.
+
+ACH. For they railed at me as overcome by a betrothed--
+
+CLY. And what didst thou reply?
+
+ACH. That they should not slay my intended bride.
+
+CLY. For so 'twas right.
+
+ACH. [She] whom her father had promised me.
+
+CLY. Ay, and had sent for from Argos.
+
+ACH. But I was worsted by the outcry.
+
+CLY. For the multitude is a terrible evil.
+
+ACH. But nevertheless I will aid thee.
+
+CLY. And wilt thou, being one, fight with many?
+
+ACH. Dost see these men bearing [my] arms?
+
+CLY. Mayest thou gain by thy good intentions.
+
+ACH. But I will gain.
+
+CLY. Then my child will not be slain?
+
+ACH. Not, at least, with my consent.
+
+CLY. And will any one come to lay hands on the girl?
+
+ACH. Ay, a host of them, but Ulysses will conduct her.
+
+CLY. Will it be the descendant of Sisyphus?
+
+ACH. The very man.
+
+CLY. Doing it of his own accord, or appointed by the army?
+
+ACH. Chosen willingly.
+
+CLY. A wicked choice forsooth, to commit slaughter!
+
+ACH. But I will restrain him.
+
+CLY. But will he lead her unwillingly, having seized her?
+
+ACH. Ay, by her auburn locks.
+
+CLY. But what must I then do?
+
+ACH. Keep hold of your daughter.
+
+CLY. As far as this goes she shall not be slain.
+
+ACH. But it will come to this at all events.[91]
+
+IPH. Mother, do thou hear my words, for I perceive that thou art vainly
+wrathful with thy husband, but it is not easy for us to struggle with
+things [almost] impossible. It is meet therefore to praise our friend for
+his willingness, but it behooves thee also to see that you be not an object
+of reproach to the army, and we profit nothing more, and he meet with
+calamity. But hear me, mother, thinking upon what has entered my mind. I
+have determined to die, and this I would fain do gloriously, I mean, by
+dismissing all ignoble thoughts. Come hither, mother, consider with me how
+well I speak. Greece, the greatest of cities, is now all looking upon me,
+and there rests in me both the passage of the ships and the destruction of
+Troy, and, for the women hereafter, if the barbarians do them aught of
+harm, to allow them no longer to carry them off from prosperous Greece,
+having avenged the destruction of Helen, whom Paris bore away.[92] All
+these things I dying shall redeem, and my renown, for that I have freed
+Greece, will be blessed. Moreover, it is not right that I should be too
+fond of life; for thou hast brought me forth for the common good of Greece,
+not for thyself only. But shall ten thousand men armed with bucklers, and
+ten thousand, oars in hand, their country being injured, dare to do some
+deed against the foes, and perish on behalf of Greece, while my life, being
+but one, shall hinder all these things? What manner of justice is this?
+Have we a word to answer? And let me come to this point: it is not meet
+that this man should come to strife with all the Greeks for the sake of a
+woman, nor lose his life. And one man, forsooth, is better than ten
+thousand women, that he should behold the light. But if Diana hath wished
+to receive my body, shall I, being mortal, become an opponent to the
+Goddess! But it can not be. I give my body for Greece. Sacrifice it, and
+sack Troy. For this for a long time will be my memorial, and this my
+children, my wedding, and my glory. But it is meet that Greeks should rule
+over barbarians, O mother, but not barbarians over Greeks, for the one is
+slavish, but the others are free.
+
+CHOR. Thy part, indeed, O virgin, is glorious; but the work of fortune and
+of the Gods sickens.
+
+ACH. Daughter of Agamemnon, some one of the Gods destined me to happiness,
+if I obtained thee as a wife, and I envy Greece on thy account, and thee on
+account of Greece. For well hast thou spoken this, and worthily of the
+country, for, ceasing to strive with the deity, who is more powerful than
+thou art, thou hast considered what is good and useful. But still more does
+a desire of thy union enter my mind, when I look to thy nature, for thou
+art noble. But consider, for I wish to benefit you, and to receive you to
+my home, and, Thetis be my witness, I am grieved if I shall not save you,
+coming to conflict with the Greeks. Consider: death is a terrible ill.
+
+IPH. I speak these words, no others, with due foresight. Enough is the
+daughter of Tyndarus to have caused contests and slaughter of men through
+her person: but do not thou, O stranger, die in my behalf, nor slay any
+one. But let me preserve Greece, if I am able.
+
+ACH. O best of spirits, I have naught further to answer thee, since it
+seems thus to thee, for thou hast noble thoughts; for wherefore should not
+one tell the truth? But nevertheless thou mayest perchance repent these
+things. In order, therefore, that thou mayest all that lies in my power, I
+will go and place these my arms near the altar, as I will not allow you to
+die, but hinder it. And thou too wilt perhaps be of my opinion, when thou
+seest the sword nigh to thy neck. I will not allow thee to die through thy
+wild determination, but going with these mine arms to the temple of the
+Goddess, I will await thy presence there.
+
+IPH. Mother, why dost thou silently bedew thine eyes with tears?
+
+CLY. I wretched have a reason, so as to be pained at heart.
+
+IPH. Cease; do not daunt me, but obey me in this.
+
+CLY. Speak, for thou shalt not be wronged at my hands, my child.
+
+IPH. Neither then do thou cut off the locks of thine hair, [nor put on
+black garments around thy body.]
+
+CLY. Wherefore sayest thou this, my child? Having lost thee--
+
+IPH. Not you indeed--I am saved, and thou wilt be glorious as far as I am
+concerned.
+
+CLY. How sayest thou? Must I not bemoan thy life?
+
+IPH. Not in the least, since no tomb will be upraised for me.
+
+CLY. Why, what then is death? Is not a tomb customary?[93]
+
+IPH. The altar of the Goddess, daughter of Jove, will be my memorial.
+
+CLY. But, O child, I will obey thee, for thou speakest well.
+
+IPH. Ay, as prospering like the benefactress of Greece.
+
+CLY. What then shall I tell thy sisters?
+
+IPH. Neither do thou clothe them in black garments.
+
+CLY. But shall I speak any kind message from thee to the virgins?
+
+IPH. Ay, [bid them] fare well, and do thou, for my sake, train up this
+[boy] Orestes to be a man.
+
+CLY. Embrace him, beholding him for the last time.
+
+IPH. O dearest one, thou hast assisted thy friends to the utmost in thy
+power.
+
+CLY. Can I, by doing any thing in Argos, do thee a pleasure?
+
+IPH. Hate not my father, yes, thy husband.
+
+CLY. He needs shall go through terrible trials on thy account.
+
+IPH. Unwillingly he hath undone me on behalf of the land of Greece.
+
+CLY. But ungenerously, by craft, and not in a manner worthy of Atreus.
+
+IPH. Who will come and lead me, before I am torn away by the hair?[94]
+
+CLY. I will go with thee.
+
+IPH. Not you indeed, thou sayest not well.
+
+CLY. Ay [but I will,] clinging to thy garments.
+
+IPH. Be persuaded by me, mother. Remain, for this is more fitting both for
+me and thee. But let some one of these my father's followers conduct me to
+the meadow of Diana, where I may be sacrificed.
+
+CLY. O child, thou art going.
+
+IPH. Ay, and I shall ne'er return.
+
+CLY. Leaving thy mother--
+
+IPH. As thou seest, though, not worthily.
+
+CLY. Hold! Do not leave me.
+
+IPH. I do not suffer thee to shed tears. But, ye maidens, raise aloft the
+p�an for my sad hap, [celebrate] Diana, the daughter of Jove,[95] and let
+the joyful strain go forth to the Greeks. And let some one make ready the
+baskets, and let flame burn with the purifying cakes, and let my father
+serve the altar with his right hand, seeing I am going to bestow upon the
+Greeks safety that produces victory.[96]
+
+Conduct me, the conqueror of the cities of Troy and of the Phrygians.
+Surround[97] me with crowns, bring them hither. Here is my hair to crown.
+And [bear hither] the lustral fountains.[98] Encircle [with dances] around
+the temple and the altar, Diana, queen Diana, the blessed, since by my
+blood and offering I will wash out her oracles, if it needs must be so. O
+revered, revered mother, thus + indeed + will we [now] afford thee our
+tears, for it is not fitting during the sacred rites. O damsels, join in
+singing Diana, who dwells opposite Chalcis, where the warlike ships have
+been eager [to set out,] being detained in the narrow harbors of Aulis here
+through my name.[99] Alas! O my mother-land of Pelasgia, and my Mycenian
+handmaids.
+
+CHOR. Dost thou call upon the city of Perseus, the work of the Cyclopean
+hands?
+
+IPH. Thou hast nurtured me for a glory to Greece, and I will not refuse to
+die.
+
+CHOR. For renown will not fail thee.
+
+IPH. Alas! alas! lamp-bearing day, and thou too, beam of Jove, another,
+another life and state shall we dwell in. Farewell for me, beloved light!
+
+CHOR. Alas! alas! Behold[100] the destroyer of the cities of Troy and of
+the Phrygians, wending her way, decked as to her head with garlands and
+with lustral streams, to the altar of the sanguinary Goddess, about to
+stream with drops of gore, being stricken on her fair neck. Fair dewy
+streams, and lustral waters from ancestral sources[101] await thee, and the
+host of the Greeks eager to reach Troy. But let us celebrate Diana, the
+daughter of Jove, queen of the Gods, as upon a prosperous occasion. O
+hallowed one, that rejoicest in human sacrifices, send the army of the
+Greeks into the land of the Phrygians, and the territory of deceitful Troy,
+and grant that by Grecian spears Agamemnon may place a most glorious crown
+upon his head, a glory ever to be remembered.
+
+[_Enter a_ MESSENGER.[102]]
+
+MESS. O daughter of Tyndarus, Clyt�mnestra, come without the house, that
+thou mayest hear my words.
+
+CLY. Hearing thy voice, I wretched came hither, terrified and astounded
+with fear, lest thou shouldst be come, bearing some new calamity to me in
+addition to the present one.
+
+MESS. Concerning thy daughter, then, I wish to tell thee marvelous and
+fearful things.
+
+CLY. Then delay not, but speak as quickly as possible.
+
+MESS. But, my dear mistress, thou shalt learn every thing clearly, and I
+will speak from the very commencement, unless my memory, in something
+failing, deceive my tongue. For when we came to the inclosure and flowery
+meads of Diana, the daughter of Jove, where there was an assembly of the
+army of the Greeks, leading thy daughter, the host of the Greeks was
+straightway convened. But when king Agamemnon beheld the girl wending her
+way to the grove for slaughter, he groaned aloud, and turning back his
+head, he shed tears, placing his garments[103] before his eyes. But she,
+standing near him that begot her, spake thus: "O father, I am here for
+thee, and I willing give my body on behalf of my country, and of the whole
+land of Greece, that, leading it to the altar of the Goddess, they may
+sacrifice it, since this is ordained. And, as far as I am concerned, may ye
+be fortunate, and obtain the gift of victory, and reach your native land.
+Furthermore, let no one of the Greeks lay hands on me, for with a stout
+heart I will present my neck in silence." Thus much she spoke, and every
+one marveled on hearing the courage and valor of the virgin. But
+Talthybius, whose office this was, standing in the midst, proclaimed
+good-omened silence to the people. And the seer Calchas placed in a golden
+canister a sharp knife,[104] which he had drawn out,+ within its case,+ and
+crowned the head of the girl. But the son of Peleus ran around the altar of
+the Goddess, taking the canister and lustral waters at the same time. And
+he said: "O Diana, beast-slaying daughter of Jove, that revolvest thy
+brilliant light by night, receive this offering which we bestow on thee,
+[we] the army of the Greeks, and king Agamemnon, the pure blood from a fair
+virgin's neck; and grant that the sail may be without injury to our ships,
+and that we may take the towers of Troy by the spear." But the Atrides and
+all the army stood looking on the ground, and the priest, taking the knife,
+prayed, and viewed her neck, that he might find a place to strike. And no
+little pity entered my mind, and I stood with eyes cast down, but suddenly
+there was a marvel to behold. For every one could clearly perceive the
+sound of the blow, but beheld not the virgin, where on earth she had
+vanished. But the priest exclaimed, and the whole army shouted, beholding
+an unexpected prodigy from some one of the Gods, of which, though seen,
+they had scarcely belief. For a stag lay panting on the ground, of mighty
+size to see and beautiful in appearance, with whose blood the altar of the
+Goddess was abundantly wetted. And upon this Calchas (think with what joy!)
+thus spake: "O leaders of this common host of the Greeks, behold this
+victim which the Goddess hath brought to her altar, a mountain-roaming
+stag. This she prefers greatly to the virgin, lest her altar should be
+denied with generous blood. And she hath willingly received this, and
+grants us a prosperous sail, and attack upon Troy. Upon this do every
+sailor take good courage, and go to his ships, since on this day it
+behooves us, quitting the hollow recesses of Aulis, to pass over the �gean
+wave." But when the whole victim was reduced to ashes, he prayed what was
+meet, that the army might obtain a passage. And Agamemnon sends me to tell
+thee this, and to say what a fortune he hath met with from the Gods, and
+hath obtained unwaning glory through Greece. But I speak, having been
+present, and witnessing the matter. Thy child has evidently flown to the
+Gods; away then with grief, and cease wrath against your husband. But the
+will of the Gods is unforeseen by mortals, and them they love, they save.
+For this day hath beheld thy daughter dying and living [in turn.]
+
+CHOR. How delighted am I at hearing this from the messenger; but he says
+that thy daughter living abides among the Gods.
+
+CLY. O daughter, of whom of the Gods art thou the theft? How shall I
+address thee? What shall I say that these words do not offer me a vain
+comfort, that I may cease from my mournful grief on thy account?
+
+CHOR. And truly king Agamemnon draws hither, having this same story to tell
+thee.
+
+[_Enter_ AGAMEMNON.]
+
+AG. Lady, as far as thy daughter is concerned, we may be happy, for she
+really possesses a companionship with the Gods. But it behooves thee,
+taking this young child [Orestes,] to go home, for the army is looking
+toward setting sail. And fare thee well, long hence will be my addresses to
+thee from Troy, and may it be well with thee.
+
+CHOR. Atrides, rejoicing go thou to the land of the Phrygians, and
+rejoicing return, having obtained for me most glorious spoils from Troy.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+NOTES ON IPHIGENIA IN AULIS
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+[1] From the answer of the old man, Porson's conjecture, [Greek: speude],
+seems very probable.
+
+[2] See Hermann's note. The passage has been thus rendered by Ennius:
+
+  AG. "Quid nocti" videtur in altisono
+          Coeli clupeo?
+  SEN. Temo superat stellas, cogens
+      Sublime etiam atque etiam noctis
+      Itiner.
+
+See Scaliger on Varr. de L.L. vi. p.143, and on Festus s.v. Septemtriones.
+All the editors have overlooked the following passage of Apuleius de Deo
+Socr. p. 42, ed. Elm. "Suspicientes in hoc perfectissimo mundi, ut ait
+Ennius, clypeo," whence, as I have already observed in my notes on the
+passage, there is little doubt that Ennius wrote "in altisono mundi
+clypeo," of which _coeli_ was a gloss, naturally introduced by those who
+were ignorant of the use of _mundus_ in the same sense. The same error has
+taken place in some of the MSS. of Virg. Georg. i. 5, 6. Compare the
+commentators on Pompon. Mela. i. 1, ed. Gronov.
+
+[3] Such seems the force of [Greek: epi pasin agathois]. The Cambridge
+editor aptly compares Hipp. 461. [Greek: chr�n s' epi rh�tois ara Patera
+phyteuein].
+
+[4] The [Greek: synnymphokomos] was probably a kind of gentleman usher, but
+we have no correlative either to the custom or the word.
+
+[5] Hermann rightly regards this as a hendiadys.
+
+[6] [Greek: drom�i] for [Greek: mor�i] is Markland's, and, doubtless, the
+correct, reading. [Greek: monos] is merely a correction of the Aldine
+edition.
+
+[7] But read [Greek: tas--deltous] with the Cambridge editor, = "in
+relation to my former dispatches."
+
+[8] [Greek: tan] should probably be erased before [Greek: kolp�d�], with
+the Cambridge editor. He remarks, "the sea-port, although separated from
+the island by the narrow strait of Euripus, is styled its _wing_." On the
+metrical difficulties and corruptions throughout this chorus, I must refer
+the reader to the same critic.
+
+[9] But [Greek: lektron], _uxorem_, is better, with ed. Camb.
+
+[10] It is impossible to get a satisfactory sense as these lines now stand.
+I have translated [Greek: exorma]. There seems to be a lacuna. The
+following are the readings of the Camb. ed. [Greek: en gar p. ant�s�is,
+palin ex. s. chalinous, epi kykl�p�n nin hieis thym.]
+
+[11] But [Greek: anchialon] is better, with ed. Camb. from the Homeric
+[Greek: chalkida t' anchialon]. He remarks that this word, in tragedy, is
+always the epithet of a place.
+
+[12] i.e. to exact satisfaction for her abduction.
+
+[13] i.e. the tents containing the armed soldiers.
+
+[14] [Greek: h�domenous] refers both to [Greek: Pr�tesilaon] and [Greek:
+Palam�dea], divided by the schema Alcmanicum. See Markland.
+
+[15] Cf. Homer, Il. [Greek: B]. 763 sqq.
+
+[16] Cf. Monk on Hippol. 1229. I have translated [Greek: syringas]
+according to the figure of a part for the whole. The whole of the remainder
+of this chorus has been condemned as spurious by the Cambridge editor. See
+his remarks, p. 219 sqq.
+
+[17] Can [Greek: theton] refer to [Greek: agalma] understood?
+
+[18] This part of the chorus is hopeless, as it is evidently imperfect. See
+Herm.
+
+[19] The Cambridge editor would assign this line to Menelaus.
+
+[20] I read [Greek: eu kekompseusai], with Ruhnken. The Cambridge editor
+also reads [Greek: pon�ra], which is better suited to the style of
+Euripides.
+
+[21] The same scholar has anticipated my conjecture, [Greek: saph�s] for
+[Greek: saphes].
+
+[22] Compare the similar conduct of Pausanias in Thucyd. i. 130, Dejoces in
+Herodot. i., with Livy, iii. 36, and Apul. de Deo Socr. p. 44, ed. Elm.
+
+[23] I read [Greek: to Priamou] with Elmsley. See the Camb. ed.
+
+[24] With the Cambridge editor I have restored the old reading [Greek:
+echontes].
+
+[25] But see ed. Camb.
+
+[26] [Greek: au] is a better reading. See Markland and ed. Camb.
+
+[27] There is little hope of this passage, unless we adopt the readings of
+the Cambridge editor, [Greek: hous lab�n strateum'. hetoimoi d' eisi]. The
+next line was lost, but has been restored from Theophilus ad Autol. p. 258,
+and Stob. xxviii. p. 128, Grot.
+
+[28] Cf. Soph. Antig. 523. [Greek: outoi synechthein, alla symphilein
+ephyn].
+
+[29] Dindorf condemns the whole of this speech of the messenger, as well as
+the two following lines. Few will perhaps be disposed to follow him,
+although the awkwardness of the passage may be admitted. Hermann considers
+that the hasty entrance of the messenger is signified by his commencing
+with half a line.
+
+[30] There seems an intended allusion to the double sense of [Greek:
+proteleia], both as a marriage and sacrificial rite. See the Cambridge
+editor, and my note on �sch. Agam. p. 102, n. 2, ed. Bohn.
+
+[31] "Auspicare canistra, id quod proximum est." MUSGR.
+
+[32] I think this is the meaning implied by [Greek: nympheusousa], as in
+vs. 885. [Greek: hin' agagois chairous' Achillei paida nympheusousa s�n].
+Alcest. 317. [Greek: ou gar se m�t�r oute nympheusei pote]. The word seems
+to refer to the whole business of a mamma on this important occasion.
+
+[33] The Cambridge editor on vs. 439, p. 109, well observes, "the actual
+arrival of Iphigenia having convinced Menelaus that her sacrifice could not
+any longer be avoided, he bethinks him of removing from his brother's mind
+the impression produced by their recent altercation; and knowing his open
+and unsuspicious temper, he feels that he may safely adopt a false
+position, and deprecate that of which he was at the same time most
+earnestly desirous."
+
+[34] So Markland, but Hermann and the Cambridge editor prefer the old
+reading [Greek: metesti soi].
+
+[35] This and the two following lines are condemned by Dindorf.
+
+[36] Boeckh, Dindorf, and the Cambridge editor rightly explode these three
+lines, which are not even correct Greek.
+
+[37] [Greek: l�somen], _latebo faciens_.
+
+[38] [Greek: para] for [Greek: paron], ed. Camb.
+
+[39] i.e. by the gift of Venus. For the sense, compare Hippol. 443.
+
+[40] Read [Greek: diaphoroi de tropoi] with Monk, and [Greek: orth�s] with
+Musgrave.
+
+[41] But [Greek: paideuomen�n] is better, with ed. Camb.
+
+[42] I have partly followed Markland, partly Matthi�, in rendering this
+awkward passage. But there is much awkwardness of expression, and the notes
+of the Cambridge editor well deserve the attention of the student. [Greek:
+exallassousan charin] seems to refer to [Greek: metria charis] in vs. 555,
+and probably signifies that the grace of a reasonable affection leads to
+the equal grace of a clear perception, the mind being unblinded by vehement
+impulses of passion.
+
+[43] i.e. quiet, domestic.
+
+[44] [Greek: en�n] is only Markland's conjecture. The whole passage is
+desperate.
+
+[45] I read [Greek: myriopl�th�] with ed. Camb. The pronoun [Greek: ho] I
+can not make out, but by supplying an impossible ellipse.
+
+[46] The Cambridge editor rightly reads [Greek: iou, iou], as an
+exclamation of pleasure, not of pain, is required.
+
+[47] Dindorf condemns this whole paragraph.
+
+[48] The Cambridge editor thinks these two lines a childish interpolation.
+They certainly are childish enough, but the same objection applies to the
+whole passage.
+
+[49] But read [Greek: hoi d'] with Dobree. The grooms are meant.
+
+[50] Porson condemns these four lines, which are utterly destitute of sense
+or connection.
+
+[51] These "precious" lines are even worse than the preceding, and rightly
+condemned by all.
+
+[52] See Elmsl. on Soph. Oed. C. 273. The student must carefully observe
+the hidden train of thought pervading Agamemnon's replies.
+
+[53] [Greek: ta Menele� kaka] must mean the ills resulting from Menelaus,
+the mischiefs and toils to which his wife led, as in Soph. Antig. 2.
+[Greek: t�n ap Oidipou kak�n], "the ills brought about by the misfortunes
+or the curse of Oedipus." But I should almost prefer reading [Greek: lech�]
+for [Greek: kaka], which would naturally refer to Helen.
+
+[54] This line is metrically corrupt, but its emendation is very uncertain.
+
+[55] I have endeavored to convey the play upon the words as closely as I
+could. Elmsley well suggests that the proper reading is [Greek: hest�xeis]
+in vs. 675.
+
+[56] [Greek: ophth�nai korais], "non, ut hic, a viris et exercitu."
+BROD�US.
+
+[57] Porson on Orest. 1090, remarks on that [Greek: ho kyrios] was the term
+applied to the father or guardian of the bride. We might therefore render,
+"Jove gave her away," etc.
+
+[58] If this be the correct reading, we must take [Greek: kal�s]
+ironically. But I think with Dindorf, that [Greek: kak�s, anankai�s de].
+
+[59] This verse is condemned by the Cambridge editor.
+
+[60] Barnes rightly remarked that [Greek: �ixa] is the aorist of [Greek:
+aiss�], _conor_, _aggredior_.
+
+[61] These three lines are expunged by the Cambridge editor.
+
+[62] I have expressed the sense of [Greek: � m� trephein] (= [Greek: m�
+echein gynaika]), rather than the literal meaning of the words.
+
+[63] I must inform the reader that the latter portion of this chorus is
+extremely unsatisfactory in its present state. The Cambridge editor, who
+has well discussed its difficulties, thinks that [Greek: Pergamon] is
+wrong, and that [Greek: eryma] should be introduced from vs. 792, where it
+appears to be quite useless.
+
+[64] I have ventured to read [Greek: dakryoen tanysas] with MSS. Pariss.,
+omitting [Greek: eryma] with the Cambridge editor, by which the difficulty
+is removed. The same scholar remarks that [Greek: dakryoen] is used
+adverbially.
+
+[65] There is obviously a defect in the structure, but I am scarcely
+pleased with the attempts made to supply it.
+
+[66] Read [Greek: kai paidas] with Musgrave.
+
+[67] But see ed. Camb.
+
+[68] But see ed. Camb.
+
+[69] But the Cambridge editor admirably amends, [Greek: eis mellonta s�sei
+chronon], i.e. "it will be a long time before it preserves them," a hit at
+the self-importance of the old gentleman.
+
+[70] I have little hesitation in reading [Greek: pelas moi] with Markland,
+in place of [Greek: gelai moi].
+
+[71] There is much difficulty in this passage, and Markland appears to give
+it up in despair. Matthi� simply takes the first part as equivalent to
+[Greek: hyps�lophron esti], referring [Greek: metri�s] to both verbs. The
+Cambridge editor takes [Greek: diaz�n] as an infinitive disjoined from the
+construction. Vss. 922 sq. are indebted to Mr. G. Burges for their present
+situation, having before been assigned to the chorus.
+
+[72] I have closely followed the Cambridge editor.
+
+[73] See the notes of the same scholar.
+
+[74] Dindorf has rightly received Porson's successful emendation. See
+Tracts, p. 224, and the Cambridge editor.
+
+[75] Read [Greek: sois te mellousin] with Markland.
+
+[76] The Cambridge editor would omit vs. 1022. There is certainly a strange
+redundancy of meaning.
+
+[77] Read [Greek: estasen] with Mark. Dind.
+
+[78] So called, either because he was carried off by Jove while hunting in
+the promontory of Dardanus, or from his Trojan descent.
+
+[79] I have adopted Tyrwhitt's view, considering the words inclosed in
+inverted commas as the actual words of the epithalamium. See Musgr. and ed.
+Camb. Hermann is strangely out of his reckoning.
+
+[80] Read, however, [Greek: N�r�id�n] with Heath, "first of the Nereids."
+
+[81] The Cambridge editor would read [Greek: nymphokomoi], Reiske [Greek:
+nymphokomon]. There is much difficulty in the whole of this last part of
+the chorus.
+
+[82] Such is Hermann's explanation, but [Greek: beb�kotos] can not bear the
+sense. The Cambridge editor suspects that these five lines are a forgery.
+
+[83] The Cambridge editor rightly, I think, condemns this line as the
+addition of some one "who thought that something more was wanting to
+comprise all the complaints of the speaker." I do not think the sense or
+construction is benefited by their existence.
+
+[84] "Verum astus hic astu vacat." ERASMUS.
+
+[85] Dindorf has apparently done wrong in admitting [Greek: prosoudisas],
+but I have some doubt about every other reading yet proposed.
+
+[86] See Camb. ed., who suspects interpolation.
+
+[87] Cf. Lucret. i. 94. "Nec miser� prodesse in tali tempore quibat, Quod
+patrio princeps donarat nomine regum." �sch. Ag. 242 sqq.
+
+[88] The Cambridge editor clearly shows that [Greek: moi] is the true
+reading, as in vs. 54, [Greek: to pragma d' apor�s eiche Tyndare�i patri],
+and 370.
+
+[89] There is much doubt about the reading of this part of the chorus. See
+Dind. and ed. Camb.
+
+[90] I have partly followed Abresch in translating these lines, but I do
+not advise the reader to rest satisfied with my translation. A reference to
+the notes of the elegant scholar, to whom we owe the Cambridge edition of
+this play, will, I trust, show that I have done as much as can well be done
+with such corrupted lines.
+
+[91] Achilles is supposed to lay his hand on his sword. See however ed.
+Camb.
+
+[92] Obviously a spurious line.
+
+[93] I have punctuated with ed. Camb.
+
+[94] See ed. Camb.
+
+[95] [Greek: euph�m�sate] here governs two distinct accusatives.
+
+[96] The Cambridge editor here takes notice of Aristotle's charge of
+inconsistency, [Greek: hoti ouden eoiken h� hiketeuousa] [Iphigenia]
+[Greek: t�i hysterai]. He well remarks, that Iphigenia at first naturally
+gives way before the suddenness of the announcement of her fate, but that
+when she collects her feelings, her natural nobleness prevails.
+
+[97] Cf. Lucret. i. 88. "Cui simul _infula_ virgineos _circumdata_ comtus,
+Ex utraque pari malarum parte profusa est."
+
+[98] Read [Greek: pagas] with Reiske, Dind. ed. Camb. There is much
+corruption and awkwardness in the following verses of this ode.
+
+[99] On the sense of [Greek: memone] see ed. Camb., who would exclude
+[Greek: di' emon onoma].
+
+[100] Cf. Soph. Ant. 806 sqq. The whole of this passage has been admirably
+illustrated by the Cambridge editor.
+
+[101] There is much awkwardness about this epithet [Greek: patr�iai]. One
+would expect a clearer reference to Agamemnon. I scarcely can suppose it
+correct, although I do not quite see my way in the Cambridge editor's
+readings.
+
+[102] Porson, Pr�f. ad Hec. p. xxi., and the Cambridge editor (p. 228 sqq.)
+have concurred in fully condemning the whole of this last scene. It is
+certain that in the time of �lian something different must have been in
+existence, and equally certain that the whole abounds in repetitions and
+inconsistencies, that seem to point either to spuriousness, or, at least,
+to the existence of interpolations of a serious character. In this latter
+opinion Matthi� and Dindorf agree.
+
+[103] An allusion to the celebrated picture of Timanthes. See Barnes.
+
+[104] I have done my best with this passage, following Matthi�'s
+explanation, which, however, I do not perfectly understand. If vs. 1567
+were away, we should be less at a loss, but the same may be said of the
+whole scene.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *       *
+
+IPHIGENIA IN TAURIS.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+PERSONS REPRESENTED.
+
+  IPHIGENIA.
+  ORESTES.
+  PYLADES.
+  HERDSMAN.
+  THOAS.
+  MESSENGER.
+  MINERVA.
+  CHORUS OF GRECIAN CAPTIVE WOMEN.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE ARGUMENT.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+Orestes, coming into Tauri in Scythia, in company with Pylades, had been
+commanded to bear away the image of Diana, after which he was to meet with
+a respite from the avenging Erinnyes of his mother. His sister Iphigenia,
+who had been carried away by Diana from Aulis, when on the point of being
+sacrificed by her father, chances to be expiating a dream that led her to
+suppose Orestes dead, when a herdsman announces to her the arrival and
+detection of two strangers, whom she is bound by her office to sacrifice to
+Diana. On meeting, a mutual discovery takes place, and they plot their
+escape. Iphigenia imposes on the superstitious fears of Thoas, and,
+removing them to the sea-coast, they are on the point of making their
+escape together, when they are surprised, and subsequently detained and
+driven back by stress of weather. Thoas is about to pursue them, when
+Minerva appears, and restrains him from doing so, at the same time
+procuring liberty of return for the Grecian captives who form the chorus.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+IPHIGENIA IN TAURIS.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+IPHIGENIA.
+
+Pelops,[1] the son of Tantalus, setting out to Pisa with his swift steeds,
+weds the daughter of Oenomaus, from whom sprang Atreus; and from Atreus his
+sons, Menelaus and Agamemnon, from which [latter] I was born, Iphigenia,
+child of [Clyt�mnestra,] daughter of Tyndarus, whom my father, as he
+imagined, sacrificed to Diana on account of Helen, near the eddies, which
+Euripus continually whirls to and fro, upturning the dark blue sea with
+frequent blasts, in the famed[2] recesses of Aulis. For here indeed king
+Agamemnon drew together a Grecian armament of a thousand ships, desiring
+that the Greeks might take the glorious prize of victory over Troy,[3] and
+avenge the outraged nuptials of Helen, for the gratification of Menelaus.
+But, there being great difficulty of sailing,[4] and meeting with no winds,
+he came to [the consideration of] the omens of burnt sacrifices, and
+Calchas speaks thus. O thou who rulest over this Grecian expedition,
+Agamemnon, thou wilt not lead forth thy ships from the ports of this land,
+before Diana shall receive thy daughter Iphigenia as a victim; for thou
+didst vow to sacrifice to the light-bearing Goddess whatsoever the year
+should bring forth most beautiful. Now your wife Clyt�mnestra has brought
+forth a daughter in your house, referring to me the title of the most
+beautiful, whom thou must needs sacrifice. And so, by the arts of
+Ulysses,[5] they drew me from my mother under pretense of being wedded to
+Achilles. But I wretched coming to Aulis, being seized and raised aloft
+above[6] the pyre, would have been slain by the sword; but Diana, giving to
+the Greeks a stag in my stead, stole me away, and, sending me through the
+clear ether,[7] she settled me in this land of the Tauri, where barbarian
+Thoas rules[8] the land, o'er barbarians, [Thoas,] who guiding his foot
+swift as the pinion, has arrived at this epithet [of Thoas, i.e. _the
+swift_] on account of his fleetness of foot. And she places me in this
+house as priestess, since which time the Goddess Diana is wont to be
+pleased with such rites as these,[9] the name of which alone is fair. But,
+for the rest, I am silent, fearing the Goddess. For I sacrifice even as
+before was the custom in the city, whatever Grecian man comes to this land.
+I crop the hair, indeed, but the slaying that may not be told is the care
+of others within these shrines.[10] But the new visions which the [past]
+night hath brought with it, I will tell to the sky,[11] if indeed this be
+any remedy. I seemed in my sleep, removed from this land, to be dwelling in
+Argos, and to slumber in my virgin chamber, but the surface of the earth
+[appeared] to be shaken with a movement, and I fled, and standing without
+beheld the coping[12] of the house giving way, and all the roof falling
+stricken to the ground from the high supports. And one pillar alone, as it
+seemed to me, was left of my ancestral house, and from its capital it
+seemed to stream down yellow locks, and to receive a human voice, and I,
+cherishing this man-slaying office which I hold, weeping [began] to
+besprinkle it, as though about to be slain. But I thus interpret my dream.
+Orestes is dead, whose rites I was beginning. For male children are the
+pillars of the house, and those whom my lustral waters[13] sprinkle die.
+Nor yet can I connect the dream with my friends, for Strophius had no son,
+when I was to have died. Now, therefore, I being present, will to my absent
+brother offer the rites of the dead--for this I can do--in company with the
+attendants whom the king gave to me, Grecian women. But from some cause
+they are not yet present. I will go[14] within the home wherein I dwell,
+these shrines of the Goddess.
+
+ORESTES. Look out! Watch, lest there be any mortal in the way.
+
+PYLADES. I am looking out, and keeping watch, turning my eyes every where.
+
+OR. Pylades, does it seem to you that this is the temple of the Goddess,
+whither we have directed our ship through the seas from Argos?[15]
+
+PYL. It does, Orestes, and must seem the same to thee.
+
+OR. And the altar where Grecian blood is shed?
+
+PYL. At least it has its pinnacles tawny with blood.
+
+OR. And under the pinnacles themselves do you behold the spoils?
+
+PYL. The spoils, forsooth, of slain strangers.
+
+OR. But it behooves one, turning one's eye around, to keep a careful watch.
+O Phoebus, wherefore hast thou again led me into this snare by your
+prophecies, when I had avenged the blood of my father by slaying my mother?
+But by successive[16] attacks of the Furies was I driven an exile, an
+outcast from the land, and fulfilled many diverse bending courses. But
+coming [to thy oracle] I required of thee how I might arrive at an end of
+the madness that drove me on, and of my toils [which I had labored through,
+wandering over Greece.[17]] But thou didst answer that I must come to the
+confines of the Tauric territory, where thy sister Diana possesses altars,
+and must take the image of the Goddess, which they here say fell from
+heaven[18] into these shrines; and that taking it either by stratagem or by
+some stroke of fortune, having gone through the risk, I should give it to
+the land of the Athenians--but no further directions were given--and that
+having done this, I should have a respite from my toils.[19] But I am come
+hither, persuaded by thy words, to an unknown and inhospitable land. I ask
+you, then, Pylades, for you are a sharer with me in this toil, what shall
+we do? For thou beholdest the lofty battlements of the walls. Shall we
+proceed to the scaling of the walls? How then should we escape notice[20]
+[if we did so?] Or shall we open the brass-wrought fastenings of the bolts?
+of which things we know nothing.[21] But if we are caught opening the gates
+and contriving an entrance, we shall die. But before we die, let us flee to
+the temple, whither we lately sailed.
+
+PYL. To fly is unendurable, nor are we accustomed [to do so,] and we must
+not make light of the oracle of the God. But quitting the temple, let us
+hide our bodies in the caves, which the dark sea splashes with its waters,
+far away from the city, lest any one beholding the bark, inform the rulers,
+and we be straightway seized by force. But when the eye of dim night shall
+come, we must venture, bring all devices to bear, to seize the sculptured
+image from the temple. But observe the eaves [of the roof,[22]] where there
+is an empty space between the triglyphs in which you may let yourself down.
+For good men dare encounter toils, but the cowardly are of no account any
+where. We have not indeed come a long distance with our oars, so as to
+return again from the goal.[23]
+
+OR. But one must follow your advice, for you speak well. We must go
+whithersoever in this land we can conceal our bodies, and lie hid. For the
+[will] of the God will not be the cause of his oracle falling useless. We
+must venture; for no toil has an excuse for young men.[24]
+
+[ORESTES _and_ PYLADES _retire aside_.]
+
+CHORUS. Keep silence,[25] O ye that inhabit the twain rocks of the Euxine
+that face each other. O Dictynna, mountain daughter of Latona, to thy
+court, the gold-decked pinnacles of temples with fine columns, I, servant
+to the hallowed guardian of the key, conduct my pious virgin foot, changing
+[for my present habitation] the towers and walls of Greece with its noble
+steeds, and Europe with its fields abounding in trees, the dwelling of my
+ancestral home. I am come. What new matter? What anxious care hast thou?
+Wherefore hast thou led me, led me to the shrines, O daughter of him who
+came to the walls of Troy with the glorious fleet, with thousand sail, ten
+thousand spears of the renowned Atrides?[26]
+
+IPHIGENIA. O attendants mine,[27] in what moans of bitter lamentation do I
+dwell, in the songs of a songless strain unfit for the lyre, alas! alas! in
+funereal griefs for the ills which befall me, bemoaning my brother, what a
+vision have I seen in the night whose darkness has passed away![28] I am
+undone, undone. No more is my father's house, ah me! no more is our race.
+Alas! alas! for the toils in Argos! Alas! thou deity, who hast now robbed
+me of my only brother, sending him to Hades, to whom I am about to pour
+forth on the earth's surface these libations and this bowl for the
+departed, and streams from the mountain heifer, and the wine draughts of
+Bacchus, and the work of the swarthy bees,[29] which are the wonted
+peace-offerings to the departed. O germ of Agamemnon beneath the earth, to
+thee as dead do I send these offerings. And do thou receive them, for not
+before [thine own] tomb do I offer my auburn locks,[30] my tears. For far
+away am I journeyed from thy country and mine, where, as opinion goes, I
+wretched lie slaughtered.
+
+CHOR. A respondent strain and an Asiatic hymn of barbarian wailing will I
+peal forth to thee, my mistress, the song of mourning which, delighting the
+dead, Hades hymns in measure apart from P�ans.[31] Alas! the light of the
+sceptre in the Atrides' house is faded away. Alas! alas for my ancestral
+home! And what government of prosperous kings will there be in Argos?[32]
+* * * * And labor upon labor comes on * * * * [33] with his winged mares
+driven around. But the sun, changing from its proper place, [laid aside]
+its eye of light.[34] And upon other houses woe has come, because of the
+golden lamb, murder upon murder, and pang upon pang, whence the avenging
+Fury[35] of those sons slain of old comes upon the houses of the sons of
+Tantalus, and some deity hastens unkindly things against thee.
+
+IPH. From the beginning the demon of my mother's zone[36] was hostile to
+me, and from that night in which the Fates hastened the pangs of
+childbirth[37] * * * * whom, the first-born germ the wretched daughter of
+Leda, (Clyt�mnestra,) wooed from among the Greeks brought forth, and
+trained up as a victim to a father's sin, a joyless sacrifice, a votive
+offering. But in a horse-chariot they brought[38] me to the sands of Aulis,
+a bride, alas! unhappy bride to the son of Nereus' daughter, alas! And now
+a stranger I dwell in an unpleasant home on the inhospitable sea, unwedded,
+childless, without city, without a friend, not chanting Juno in Argos, nor
+in the sweetly humming loom adorning with the shuttle the image of Athenian
+Pallas[39] and of the Titans, but imbruing altars with the shed blood of
+strangers, a pest unsuited to the harp, [of strangers] sighing forth[40] a
+piteous cry, and shedding a piteous tear. And now indeed forgetfulness of
+these matters [comes upon] me, but now I mourn my brother dead in Argos,
+whom I left yet an infant at the breast, yet young, yet a germ in his
+mother's arms and on her bosom, Orestes [the future] holder of the sceptre
+in Argos.
+
+CHOR. But hither comes a herdsman, leaving the sea-coast, about to tell
+thee some new thing.
+
+HERDSMAN. Daughter of Agamemnon and child of Clyt�mnestra, hear thou from
+me a new announcement.
+
+IPH. And what is there astonishing in the present report?
+
+HERDS. Two youths are come into this land, to the dark-blue Symplegades,
+fleeing into a ship, a grateful sacrifice and offering to Diana. But you
+can not use too much haste[41] in making ready the lustral waters and the
+consecrations.
+
+IPH. Of what country? of what land do the strangers bear the name?
+
+HERDS. Greeks, this one thing I know, and nothing further.
+
+IPH. Hast thou not heard the name of the strangers, so as to tell it?
+
+HERDS. One of them was styled Pylades by the other.
+
+IPH. But what was the name of the yoke-fellow of this stranger?
+
+HERDS. No one knows this. For we heard it not.
+
+IPH. But how saw ye them, and chanced to take them?
+
+HERDS. Upon the furthest breakers of the inhospitable sea.
+
+IPH. And what had herdsmen to do with the sea?
+
+HERDS. We came to lave our steers in the dew of the sea.
+
+IPH. Go back again to this point--how did ye catch them, and by what means,
+for I would fain know this? For they are come after a long season, nor has
+the altar of the Goddess yet been crimsoned with Grecian blood.[42]
+
+HERDS. After we woodland herdsmen had brought our cattle down to the sea
+that flows between the Symplegades, there is a certain hollow cave,[43]
+broken by the frequent lashing of the waves, a retreat for those who hunt
+for the purple fish. Here some herdsman among us beheld two youths, and he
+retired back, piloting his step on tiptoe, and said: See ye not? these who
+sit here are some divine powers. And one of us, being religiously given,
+uplifted his hand, and addressed them, as he beheld: O son of Leucothea,
+guardian of ships, Pal�mon our lord, be propitious to us, whether indeed ye
+be the twin sons of Jove (Castor and Pollux) who sit upon our shores, or
+the image of Nereus, who begot the noble chorus of the fifty Nereids. But
+another vain one, bold in his lawlessness, scoffed at these prayers, and
+said that they were shipwrecked[44] seamen who sat upon the cleft through
+fear of the law, hearing that we here sacrifice strangers. And to most of
+us he seemed to speak well, and [we resolved] to hunt for the accustomed
+victims for the Goddess. But meanwhile one of the strangers leaving the
+rock, stood still, and shook his head up and down, and groaned, with his
+very fingers quaking, wandering with ravings, and shouts with voice like
+that of hunter, "Pylades, dost thou behold this? Dost not behold this snake
+of Hades, how she would fain slay me, armed against me with horrid
+vipers?[45] And she breathing from beneath her garments[46] fire and
+slaughter, rows with her wings, bearing my mother in her arms, that she may
+cast upon me this rocky mass. Alas! she will slay me. Whither shall I fly?"
+And one beheld not the same form of countenance, but he uttered in turn the
+bellowings of calves and howls of dogs, which imitations [of wild beasts]
+they say the Furies utter. But we flinching, as though about to die, sat
+mute; and he drawing a sword with his hand, rushing among the calves,
+lion-like, strikes them on the flank with the steel, driving it into their
+sides, fancying that he was thus avenging himself on the Fury Goddesses,
+till that a gory foam was dashed up from the sea. Meanwhile, each one of
+us, as he beheld the herds being slain and ravaged, armed himself, and
+inflating the conch[47] shells and assembling the inhabitants--for we
+thought that herdsmen were weak to fight against well-trained and youthful
+strangers. And a large number of us was assembled in a short time. But the
+stranger, released from the attack of madness, drops down, with his beard
+befouled with foam. But when we saw him fallen opportunely [for us,] each
+man did his part, with stones, with blows. But the other of the strangers
+wiped away the foam, and tended his mouth, and spread over him the
+well-woven texture of his garments, guarding well the coming wounds, and
+aiding his friend with tender offices. But when the stranger returning to
+his senses leaped up, he perceived that a hostile tempest and present
+calamity was close upon them, and he groaned aloud. But we ceased not
+hurling rocks, each standing in a different place. But then indeed we heard
+a dread exhortation, "Pylades, we shall die, but that we die most
+gloriously! Follow me, drawing thy sword in hand." But when we saw the
+twain swords of the enemy[48] brandished, in flight we filled the woods
+about the crag. But if one fled, others pressing on pelted them; and if
+they drove these away, again the party who had just yielded aimed at them
+with rocks. But it was incredible, for out of innumerable hands no one
+succeeded in hitting these victims to the Goddess. And we with difficulty,
+I will not say overcome them by force, but taking them in a circle,
+beat[49] their swords out of their hands with stones, and they dropped
+their knees to earth [overcome] with toil. And we brought them to the king
+of this land, but he, when he beheld them, sent them as quickly as possible
+to thee for lustral waters and sacrifice. But do thou, O virgin, wish that
+such strangers may be here as victims, and if thou slayest these strangers,
+Hellas will atone for thy [intended] murder, paying the penalty of the
+sacrifice at Aulis.[50]
+
+CHOR. Thou hast told wondrous things concerning him who has appeared,
+whosoever he be that has come to the inhospitable sea from the Grecian
+earth.[51]
+
+IPH. Be it so. Do thou go and bring the strangers, but I will take care
+respecting the matters[52] here. O hapless heart, that once wast mild and
+full of pity toward strangers, awarding the tear to those of thine own
+land, when thou didst receive Grecian men into thine hands.[53] But now,
+because of the dreams by which I am driven wild, thinking that Orestes no
+longer beholds the sun, ye will find me ill disposed, whoever ye be that
+come. For this is true, I perceive it, my friends,[54] for the unhappy who
+themselves fare ill have no good feelings toward those more fortunate. But
+neither has any wind sent by Jove ever come [hither,] nor ship, which could
+have brought hither Helen, who destroyed me, and Menelaus, in order that I
+might be avenged on them, placing an Aulis here to the account[55] of the
+one there, where the sons of Danaus seized, and would have slain me like as
+a calf, and the father who begat me was the priest. Ah me! for I can not
+forget the ills of that time, how oft I stretched out my hands to his
+beard, and hanging on the knees of him who gave me life, spake words like
+these: "O father, basely am I, basely am I wedded at thine hands. But my
+mother, while thou art slaying me, and her Argive ladies are hymning my
+wedding[56] with their nuptial songs, and all the house resounds with the
+flute, while I perish by thy hands. Hades in truth was Achilles, not the
+son of Peleus, whom thou didst name as my husband, and in the chariot didst
+pilot me by craft unto a bloody wedding." But I, casting mine eye through
+my slender woven veil, neither took up with mine hands my brother who is
+now dead, nor joined my lips to my sister's,[57] through modesty, as
+departing to the home of Peleus; and many a salutation I deferred, as
+though about to come again to Argos. Oh wretched one, if thou hast died!
+from what glorious state, Orestes, and from how envied a sire's fortune art
+thou fallen! But I reproach the devices of the Goddess, who, if any one
+work the death of a man, or touch with hands a woman newly delivered, or a
+corpse, restrains him from her altars, as deeming him impure, but yet
+herself takes pleasure in man-slaying sacrifices. It can not be that the
+consort of Jove, Latona, hath brought forth so much ignorance. I even
+disbelieve the banquets of Tantalus set before the Gods, [as that they]
+should be pleased with feeding on a boy. But I deem that those in this
+land, being themselves man-slayers, charge the Goddess with their own
+baseness, for I think not that any one of the Gods is bad.
+
+CHOR. Ye dark blue, dark blue meetings of the sea, which Io, hurried along
+by the brize, once passed through to the Euxine wave, having changed the
+territory of Asia for Europe,--who were they who left fair-watered Eurotas,
+flourishing in reeds, or the sacred founts of Dirce, and came, and came to
+the inhospitable land, where the daughter of Jove bedews her altars and
+column-girt temples with human blood? Of a truth by the surge-dashing oars
+of fir, worked on both sides, they sailed in a nautical carriage o'er the
+ocean waves, striving in the emulation after loved wealth in their houses.
+For darling hope is in dangers insatiate among men, who bear off the weight
+of riches, wandering in vain speculation on the wave and o'er barbarian
+cities. But to some[58] there is a mind immoderate after riches, to others
+they come unsought. How did they pass through the rocks that run together,
+the ne'er resting beaches of Phineus, [and] the marine shore, running o'er
+the surge of Amphitrite,[59]--where the choruses of the fifty daughters of
+Nereus entwine in the dance,--[although] with breezes that fill the sails,
+the creaking rudders resting at the poop, with southern gales or the
+breezes of Zephyr, to the bird-haunted land, the white beach, the glorious
+race-course of Achilles, near the Euxine Sea. Would that, according to my
+mistress' prayers, Helen, the dear daughter of Leda, might sometime chance
+to come, quitting the city of Troy, that, having been drenched about the
+head with the blood-stained lustral dews, she might die by my mistress'
+hand, paying in turn an equal penalty [for her death.] Most joyfully then
+would we receive this news, if any one came sailing from the Grecian land,
+to make the toils of my hapless slavery to cease. And would that in my
+dreams I might tread[60] in mine home and ancestral city, enjoying the
+hymns of delight, a joy shared with the prosperous. But hither they come,
+bound as to their two[61] hands with chains, a new sacrifice for the
+Goddess. Be silent, my friends, for these first-fruits of the Greeks
+approach the temples, nor has the herdsman told a false tale. O reverend
+Goddess, if the city performs these things agreeably to thee, receive the
+sacrifice which, not hallowed among the Greeks, the custom of this place
+presents as a public offering.[62]
+
+IPH. Be it so. I must first take care that the rites of the Goddess are as
+they should be. Let go the hands of the strangers, that being consecrated
+they may no longer be in bonds. And, going within the temple, make ready
+the things which are necessary and usual on these occasions. Alas! Who is
+the mother who once bore you? And who your father, and your sister, if
+there be any born? Of what a pair of youths deprived will she be
+brotherless! For all the dispensations of the Gods creep into obscurity,
+and no one [absent] knows misfortune,[63] for fortune leads astray to what
+is hardly known. Whence come ye, O unhappy strangers? After how long a time
+have ye sailed to this land, and ye will be a long time from your home,
+ever among the shades![64]
+
+OR. Why mournest thou thus, and teasest us[65] concerning our future ills,
+whoever thou art, O lady? In naught do I deem him wise, who, when about to
+die, with bewailings seeks to overcome the fear of death, nor him who
+deplores death now near at hand,[66] when he has no hope of safety, in that
+he joins two ills instead of one, both incurs the charge of folly, and dies
+none the less. But one must needs let fortune take its course. But mourn us
+not, for we know and are acquainted with the sacrificial rites of this
+place.
+
+IPH. Which of ye twain here is named Pylades? This I would fain know first.
+
+OR. This man, if indeed 'tis any pleasure for thee to know this.
+
+IPH. Born citizen of what Grecian state?
+
+OR. And what wouldst thou gain by knowing this, lady?
+
+IPH. Are ye brothers from one mother?
+
+OR. In friendship we are, but we are not related, lady.
+
+IPH. But what name did the father who begot thee give to thee?
+
+OR. In truth we might be styled the unhappy.
+
+IPH. I ask not this. Leave this to fortune.
+
+OR. Dying nameless, I should not be mocked.
+
+IPH. Wherefore dost grudge this, and art thus proud?
+
+OR. My body thou shalt sacrifice, not my name.
+
+IPH. Nor wilt thou tell me which is thy city?
+
+OR. No. For thou seekest a thing of no profit, seeing I am to die.
+
+IPH. But what hinders thee from granting me this favor?
+
+OR. I boast renowned Argos for my country.
+
+IPH. In truth, by the Gods I ask thee, stranger, art thou thence born?
+
+OR. From Mycen�,[67] that was once prosperous.
+
+IPH. And hast thou set out a wanderer from thy country, or by what hap?
+
+OR. I flee in a certain wise unwilling, willingly.
+
+IPH. Wouldst thou tell me one thing that I wish?
+
+OR. That something, forsooth,[68] may be added to my misfortune.
+
+IPH. And truly thou hast come desired by me, in coming from Argos.
+
+OR. Not by myself, at all events; but if by thee, do thou enjoy it.[69]
+
+IPH. Perchance thou knowest Troy, the fame of which is every where.
+
+OR. Ay, would that I never had, not even seeing it in a dream!
+
+IPH. They say that it is now no more, and has fallen by the spear.
+
+OR. And so it is, nor have you heard what is not the case.
+
+IPH. And is Helen come back to the house of Menelaus?
+
+OR. She is, ay, coming unluckily to one of mine.
+
+IPH. And where is she? For she has incurred an old debt of evil with me
+also.
+
+OR. She dwells in Sparta with her former consort.
+
+IPH. O hateful pest among the Greeks, not to me only!
+
+OR. I also have received some fruits of her nuptials.
+
+IPH. And did the return of the Greeks take place, as is reported?
+
+OR. How dost thou question me, embracing all matters at once!
+
+IPH. For I wish to obtain this before that thou diest.
+
+OR. Examine me, since thou hast this longing, and I will speak.
+
+IPH. Has a certain seer named Calchas returned from Troy?
+
+OR. He perished, as the story ran, at Mycen�.
+
+IPH. O revered Goddess, how well it is! And how fares the son of Laertes?
+
+OR. He has not yet returned to his home, but he is alive, as report goes.
+
+IPH. May he perish, never obtaining a return to his country!
+
+OR. Invoke nothing--all his affairs are in a sickly state.
+
+IPH. But is the son of Thetis, the daughter of Nereus, yet alive?
+
+OR. He is not. In vain he held his wedding in Aulis.
+
+IPH. A crafty [wedding] it was, as those who have suffered say.
+
+OR. Who canst thou be? How well dost ken the affairs of Greece!
+
+IPH. I am from thence. While yet a child I was undone.
+
+OR. With reason thou desirest to know the affairs there, O lady.
+
+IPH. But how [fares] the general, who they say is prosperous.
+
+OR. Who? For he whom I know is not of the fortunate.
+
+IPH. A certain king Agamemnon was called the son of Atreus.
+
+OR. I know not--cease from these words, O lady.
+
+IPH. Nay, by the Gods, but speak, that I may be rejoiced, O stranger.
+
+OR. The wretched one is dead, and furthermore hath ruined one.[70]
+
+IPH. Is dead? By what mishap? O wretched me!
+
+OR. But why dost mourn this? Was he a relation of thine?
+
+IPH. I bemoan his former prosperity.
+
+OR. [Ay, well mayest thou,] for he has fallen, slain shamefully by a woman.
+
+IPH. O all grievous she that slew and he that fell!
+
+OR. Cease now at least, nor question further.
+
+IPH. Thus much at least, does the wife of the unhappy man live?
+
+OR. She is no more. The son she brought forth, he slew her.
+
+IPH. O house all troubled! with what intent, then?[71]
+
+OR. Taking satisfaction on her for the death of his father.
+
+IPH. Alas! how well he executed an evil act of justice.[72]
+
+OR. But, though just, he hath not good fortune from the Gods.
+
+IPH. But does Agamemnon leave any other child in his house?
+
+OR. He has left a single virgin [daughter,] Electra.
+
+IPH. What! Is there no report of his sacrificed daughter?[73]
+
+OR. None indeed, save that being dead she beholds not the light.
+
+IPH. Hapless she, and the father who slew her!
+
+OR. She perished, a thankless offering[74] because of a bad woman.
+
+IPH. But is the son of the deceased father at Argos?
+
+OR. He, wretched man, is nowhere and every where.
+
+IPH. Away, vain dreams, ye were then of naught!
+
+OR. Nor are the Gods who are called wise any less false than winged dreams.
+There is much inconsistency both among the Gods and among mortals. But one
+thing alone is left, when[75] a man not being foolish, persuaded by the
+words of seers, has perished, as he hath perished in man's knowledge.
+
+CHOR. Alas! alas! But what of us and our fathers? Are they, or are they not
+in being, who can tell?
+
+IPH. Hear me, for I am come to a certain discourse, meditating what is at
+once profitable for you and me. But that which is well is chiefly produced
+thus, when the same matter pleases all. Would ye be willing, if I were to
+save you, to go to Argos, and bear a message for me to my friends there,
+and carry a letter, which a certain captive wrote, pitying me, nor deeming
+my hand that of a murderess, but that he died through custom, as the
+Goddess sanctioned such things as just? For I had no one who would go and
+bear the news back to Argos, and who, being preserved, would send my
+letters to some one of my friends.[76] But do thou, for thou art, as thou
+seemest, of no ignoble birth, and knowest Mycen� and the persons I wish, do
+thou, I say,[77] be saved, receiving no dishonorable reward, your safety
+for the sake of trifling letters. But let this man, since the city compels
+it, be a sacrifice to the Goddess, apart from thee.
+
+OR. Well hast thou spoken the rest, save one thing, O stranger lady, for
+'tis a heavy weight upon me that this man should be slain. For I was
+steersman of the vessel to these ills,[78] but he is a fellow-sailor
+because of mine own troubles. In no wise then is it right that I should do
+thee a favor to his destruction, and myself escape from ills. But let it be
+thus. Give him the letter, for he will send it to Argos, so as to be well
+for thee, but let him that will slay me. Base is the man, who, casting his
+friends into calamity, himself is saved. But this man is a friend, who I
+fain should see the light no less that myself.
+
+IPH. O noblest spirit, how art thou sprung from some generous root, thou
+truly a friend to thy friends! Such might he be who is left of my brothers!
+For in good truth, strangers, I am not brotherless, save that I behold him
+not. But since thou willest thus, let us send this man bearing the letter,
+but thou wilt die, and some great desire of this chances to possess
+thee?[79]
+
+OR. But who will sacrifice me, and dare this dreadful deed?
+
+IPH. I; for I have this sacrificial duty[80] from the Goddess.
+
+OR. Unenviable indeed. O damsel, and unblest.
+
+IPH. But we lie under necessity, which one must beware.
+
+OR. Thyself, a female, sacrificing males with the sword?
+
+IPH. Not so; but I shall lave around thy head with the lustral stream.
+
+OR. But who is the slayer, if I may ask this?
+
+IPH. Within the house are they whose office is this.
+
+OR. And what manner of tomb will receive me, when I die?
+
+IPH. The holy flame within, and the dark chasm of the rock.[81]
+
+OR. Alas! Would that a sister's hand might lay me out.[82]
+
+IPH. A vain prayer hast thou uttered, whoever thou art, O stranger, for she
+dwells far from this barbarian land. Nevertheless, since thou art an
+Argive, I will not fail to do thee kindness in what is possible. For on thy
+tomb will I place much adornment, and with the tawny oil will I cause thy
+body to be soon consumed,[83] and on thy pyre will I pour the flower-sucked
+riches of the swarthy bee. But I will go and fetch the letter from the
+shrines of the Goddess. But do thou not bear ill will against me. Guard
+them, ye servants, [but] without fetters.[84] Perchance I shall send
+unexpected tidings to some one of my friends at Argos, whom I chiefly love,
+and the letter, telling to him that she lives whom he thinks dead, will
+announce a faithful pleasure.
+
+CHOR. I deplore thee now destined to the gory streams of the lustral
+waters.[85]
+
+OR. 'Tis piteous, truly;[86] but fare ye well, stranger ladies.
+
+CHOR. But thee, (_to Pylades_) O youth, we honor for thy happy fortune,
+that at some time thou wilt return to thy country.
+
+PYL. Not to be coveted[87] by friends, when friends are to die.
+
+CHOR. O mournful journeying! Alas! alas! thou art undone. Woe! woe! which
+is the [victim] to be? For still my mind resolves[88] twain doubtful
+[ills,] whether with groans I shall bemoan thee (_to Orestes_) or thee (_to
+Pylades_) first.
+
+OR. Pylades, hast thou, by the Gods, experienced the same feeling as
+myself?
+
+PYL. I know not. Thou askest me unable to say.
+
+OR. Who is this damsel? With what a Grecian spirit she asked us concerning
+the toils in Troy, and the return of the Greeks, and Calchas wise in
+augury, and about Achilles, and how she pitied wretched Agamemnon, and
+asked me of his wife and children. This stranger lady is[89] some Greek by
+race; for otherwise she never would have been sending a letter and making
+these inquiries, as sharing a common weal in the well-doing of Argos.
+
+PYL. Thou hast outstripped me a little, but thou outstrippest me in saying
+the same things, save in one respect--for all, with whom there is any
+communication, know the fate of the king. But I was[90] considering another
+subject.
+
+OR. What? laying it down in common, you will better understand.
+
+PYL. 'Tis base that I should behold the light, while you perish; and,
+having sailed with you, with you I must needs die also. For I shall incur
+the imputation of both cowardice and baseness in Argos and the Phocian land
+with its many dells, and I shall seem to the many, for the many are evil,
+to have arrived alone in safety to mine home, having deserted thee, or even
+to have murdered thee, taking advantage of the sickly state of thine house,
+and to have devised thy fate for the sake of reigning, in order that,
+forsooth, I might wed thy sister as an heiress[91]. These things, then, I
+dread, and hold in shame, and it shall not be but I will breathe my last
+with thee, be slain, and have my body burned with thee, being a friend, and
+dreading reproach.
+
+OR. Speak words of better omen. I must needs bear my troubles, but when I
+may [endure] one single trouble, I will not endure twain. For what thou
+callest bitter and reproachful, that is my portion, if I cause thee to be
+slain who hast shared my toils. For, as far as I am concerned, it stands
+not badly with me, faring as I fare at the hands of the Gods, to end my
+life. But thou art prosperous, and hast a home pure, not sickening, but I
+[have] one impious and unhappy. And living thou mayest raise children from
+my sister, whom I gave thee to have[92] as a wife, and my name might exist,
+nor would my ancestral house be ever blotted out. But go, live, and dwell
+in my father's house; and when thou comest to Greece and chivalrous Argos,
+by thy right hand, I commit to thee this charge. Heap up a tomb, and place
+upon it remembrances of me, and let my sister offer tears and her shorn
+locks upon my sepulchre. And tell how I died by an Argive woman's hand,
+sacrificed as an offering by the altar's side. And do thou never desert my
+sister, seeing my father's connections and home bereaved. And fare thee
+well! for I have found thee best among my friends. Oh thou who hast been my
+fellow-huntsman, my mate! Oh thou who hast borne the weight of many of my
+sorrows! But Phoebus, prophet though he be, has deceived me. For, artfully
+devising, he has driven me as far as possible from Greece, in shame of his
+former prophecies. To whom I, yielding up mine all, and obeying his words,
+having slain my mother, myself perish in turn.
+
+PYL. Thou shalt have a tomb, and never will I, hapless one, betray thy
+sister's bed, since I shall hold thee more a friend dead than living. But
+the oracle of the God has never yet wronged thee, although thou art indeed
+on the very verge of death. But excessive mischance is very wont, is very
+wont to present changes, when the matter so falls.
+
+OR. Be silent--the words of Phoebus avail me naught, for the lady is coming
+hither without the temple.
+
+IPH. Depart ye, and go and make ready the things within for those who
+superintend the sacrifice. These, O stranger, are the many-folded
+inclosures of the letter, but hear thou what I further wish. No man is the
+same in trouble, and when he changes from fear into confidence. But I fear,
+lest he having got away from this land, will deem my letter of no account,
+who is about to bear this letter to Argos.[93]
+
+OR. What wouldst thou? Concerning what art thou disturbed?
+
+IPH. Let him make me oath that he will ferry these writings to Argos, to
+those friends to whom I wish to send them.
+
+OR. Wilt thou in turn make the same assertion to him?
+
+IPH. That I will do, or will not do what thing? say.
+
+OR. That you will release him from this barbarian land, not dying.
+
+IPH. Thou sayest justly; for how could he bear the message?
+
+OR. But will the ruler also grant this?
+
+IPH. Yea. I will persuade him, and will myself embark him on the ship's
+hull.
+
+OR. Swear, but do thou commence such oath as is holy.
+
+IPH. Thou must say "I will give this [letter] to my friends."
+
+PYL. I will give this letter to thy friends.
+
+IPH. And I will send thee safe beyond the Cyanean rocks.
+
+PYL. Whom of the Gods dost thou call to witness of thine oath in these
+words?
+
+IPH. Diana, in whose temple I hold office.
+
+PYL. But I [call upon] the king of heaven, hallowed Jove.
+
+IPH. But if, deserting thine oath, thou shouldst wrong me--
+
+PYL. May I not return? But thou, if thou savest me not--
+
+IPH. May I never living set footprint in Argos.
+
+PYL. Hear now then a matter which we have passed by.
+
+IPH. There will be opportunity hereafter, if matters stand aright.
+
+PYL. Grant me this one exception. If the vessel suffer any harm, and the
+letter be lost[94] in the storm, together with the goods, and I save my
+person only, that this mine oath be no longer valid.[95]
+
+IPH. Knowest thou what I will do?[96] for the many things contained in the
+folds of the letter bear opportunity for many things.[97] I will tell you
+in words all that you are to convey to my friends, for this plan is safe.
+If indeed thou preservest the letter, it will itself silently tell the
+things written, but if these letters be lost at sea, saving thy body, thou
+wilt preserve my message.
+
+PYL. Thou hast spoken well on behalf of the Gods[98] and of myself. But
+tell me to whom at Argos I must needs bear these epistles, and what hearing
+from thee, I must tell.
+
+IPH. Bear word to Orestes, the son of Agamemnon, (_reading_) "she[99] that
+was sacrificed at Aulis gives this commission, Iphigenia alive, but no
+longer alive as far as those in Argos are concerned."
+
+OR. But where is she? Does she come back again having died?
+
+IPH. She, whom you see. Do not confuse me with speaking. (_Continues
+reading_) "Bear me to Argos, my brother, before I die, remove me from this
+barbarian land and the sacrifices of the Goddess, in which I have the
+office of slaying strangers."
+
+OR. Pylades, what shall I say? where shall we be found to be?[100]
+
+IPH. (_still reading_) "Or I will be a cause of curses upon thine house,
+Orestes," (_with great stress upon the name and turning to Pylades_,) "that
+thou, twice hearing the name, mayest know it."
+
+PYL. O Gods!
+
+IPH. Why callest thou upon the Gods in matters that are mine?
+
+PYL. 'Tis nothing. Go on. I was wandering to another subject. Perchance,
+inquiring of thee, I shall arrive at things incredible.[101]
+
+IPH. (_continues reading_) "Say that the Goddess Diana saved me, giving in
+exchange for me a hind, which my father sacrificed, thinking that it was
+upon me that he laid the sharp sword, and she placed me to dwell in this
+land." This is the burden of my message, these are the words written in my
+letter.
+
+PYL. O thou who hast secured me in easy oaths, and hast sworn things
+fairest, I will not delay much time, but I will firmly accomplish the oath
+I have sworn. Behold, I bear and deliver to thee a letter, O Orestes, from
+this thy sister.
+
+OR. I receive it. And letting go the opening of the letter, I will first
+seize a delight not in words (_attempts to embrace her_). O dearest sister
+mine, in amazement, yet nevertheless embracing thee with a doubting arm, I
+go to a source of delight, hearing things marvelous to me.[102]
+
+CHOR. Stranger,[103] thou dost not rightly pollute the servant of the
+Goddess, casting thine arm around her garments that should ne'er be
+touched.
+
+OR. O fellow-sister born of one sire, Agamemnon, turn not from me,
+possessing a brother whom you never thought to possess.
+
+IPH. I [possess] thee my brother? Wilt not cease speaking? Both Argos and
+Nauplia are frequented by him.[104]
+
+OR. Unhappy one! thy brother is not there.
+
+IPH. But did the Laced�monian daughter of Tyndarus beget thee?
+
+OR. Ay, to the grandson of Pelops, whence I am sprung.[105]
+
+IPH. What sayest thou? Hast thou any proof of this for me?
+
+OR. I have. Ask something relative to my ancestral home.
+
+IPH. Thou must needs then speak, and I learn.
+
+OR. I will first speak from hearsay from Electra, this.[106] Thou knowest
+the strife that took place between Atreus and Thyestes?
+
+IPH. I have heard of it, when it was waged concerning the golden lamb.
+
+OR. Dost thou then remember weaving [a representation of] this on the
+deftly-wrought web?
+
+IPH. O dearest one. Thou art turning thy course near to my own
+thoughts.[107]
+
+OR. And [dost thou remember] a picture on the loom, the turning away of the
+sun?
+
+IPH. I wove this image also in the fine-threaded web.
+
+OR. And didst thou receive[108] a bath from thy mother, sent to Aulis?
+
+IPH. I know it: for the wedding, though good, did not take away my
+recollection.[109]
+
+OR. But what? [Dost thou remember] to have given thine hair to be carried
+to thy mother?
+
+IPH. Ay, as a memorial for the tomb[110] in place of my body.
+
+OR. But the proofs which I have myself beheld, these will I tell, viz. the
+ancient spear of Pelops in my father's house, which brandishing in his
+hand, he [Pelops] won Hippodameia, having slain �nomaus, which is hidden in
+thy virgin chamber.
+
+IPH. O dearest one, no more, for thou art dearest. I hold thee, Orestes,
+one darling son[111] far away from his father-land, from Argos, O thou dear
+one!
+
+OR. And I [hold] thee that wast dead, as was supposed. But tears, yet
+tearless,[112] and groans together mingled with joy, bedew thine eyelids,
+and mine in like manner.
+
+IPH. This one, this, yet a babe I left, young in the arms of the nurse, ay,
+young in our house. O thou more fortunate than my words[113] can tell, what
+shall I say? This matter has turned out beyond marvel or calculation.
+
+OR. [Say this.] May we for the future be happy with each other!
+
+IPH. I have experienced an unaccountable delight, dear companions, but I
+fear lest it flit[114] from my hands, and escape toward the sky. O ye
+Cyclopean hearths, O Mycen�, dear country mine. I am grateful to thee for
+my life, and grateful for my nurture, in that thou hast trained for me this
+brother light in my home.
+
+OR. In our race we are fortunate, but as to calamities, O sister, our life
+is by nature unhappy.
+
+IPH. But I wretched remember when my father with foolish spirit laid the
+sword upon my neck.
+
+OR. Ah me! For I seem, not being present, to behold you there.[115]
+
+IPH. Without Hymen, O my brother, when I was being led to the fictitious
+nuptial bed of Achilles. But near the altar were tears and lamentations.
+Alas! alas, for the lustral waters there!
+
+OR. I mourn aloud for the deed my father dared.
+
+IPH. I obtained a fatherless, a fatherless lot. But one calamity follows
+upon another.[116]
+
+OR. [Ay,] if thou hadst lost thy brother, O hapless one, by the
+intervention of some demon.
+
+IPH. O miserable for my dreadful daring! I have dared horrid, I have dared
+horrid things. Alas! my brother. But by a little hast thou escaped an
+unholy destruction, stricken by my hands. But what will be the end after
+this? What fortune will befall me? What retreat can I find for thee away
+from this city? can I send you out of the reach of slaughter to your
+country Argos, before that my sword enter on the contest concerning thy
+blood?[117] This is thy business, O hapless soul, to discover, whether over
+the land, not in a ship, but by the gust[118] of your feet thou wilt
+approach death, passing through[119] barbarian hordes, and through ways not
+to be traversed? Or[120] [wilt thou pass] through the Cyanean creek, a long
+journey in the flight of ships. Wretched, wretched one! Who then or God, or
+mortal, or [unexpected event,[121]] having accomplished a way out of
+inextricable difficulties, will show forth to the sole twain Atrides a
+release from ills?
+
+CHOR. Among marvels and things passing even fable are these things which I
+shall tell as having myself beheld, and not from hearsay.
+
+PYL. It is meet indeed that friends coming into the presence of friends,
+Orestes, should embrace one another with their hands, but, having ceased
+from mournful matters, it behooves you also to betake you to those measures
+by which we, obtaining the glorious name of safety, may depart from this
+barbarian earth. For it is the part of wise men, not wandering from their
+present chance, when they have obtained an opportunity, to acquire further
+delights.[122]
+
+OR. Thou sayest well. But I think that fortune will take care of this with
+us. For if a man be zealous, it is likely that the divine power will have
+still greater power.
+
+IPH. Do not restrain or hinder me from your words, not first to know what
+fortune of life Electra has obtained, for this were pleasant to me [to
+hear.][123]
+
+OR. She is partner with this man, possessing a happy life.
+
+IPH. And of what country is he, and son of what man born?
+
+OR. Strophius the Phocian is styled his father.
+
+IPH. And he is of the daughter of Atreus, a relative of mine?
+
+OR. Ay, a cousin, my only certain friend.
+
+IPH. Was he not in being, when my father sought to slay me?
+
+OR. He was not, for Strophius was childless some time.
+
+IPH. Hail! O thou spouse of my sister.
+
+OR. Ay, and my preserver, not relation only.
+
+IPH. But how didst thou dare the terrible deeds in respect to your mother?
+
+OR. Let us be silent respecting my mother--'twas in avenging my father.
+
+IPH. And what was the reason for her slaying her husband?
+
+OR. Let go the subject of my mother. Nor is it pleasant for you to hear.
+
+IPH. I am silent. But Argos now looks up to thee.
+
+OR. Menelaus rules: I am an exile from my country.
+
+IPH. What, did our uncle abuse our house unprospering?
+
+OR. Not so, but the fear of the Erinnyes drives me from my land.
+
+IPH. For this then wert thou spoken of as being frantic even here on the
+shore.
+
+OR. We were beheld not now for the first time in a hapless state.
+
+IPH. I perceive. The Goddesses goaded thee on because of thy mother.
+
+OR. Ay, so as to cast a bloody bit[124] upon me.
+
+IPH. For wherefore didst thou pilot thy foot to this land?
+
+OR. I came, commanded by the oracles of Phoebus--
+
+IPH. To do what thing? Is it one to be spoken of or kept in silence?
+
+OR. I will tell you, but these are the beginning for me of many[125] woes.
+After these evil things concerning my mother, on which I keep silence, had
+been wrought, I was driven an exile by the pursuits of the Erinnyes, when
+Loxias sent my foot[126] to Athens, that I might render satisfaction to the
+deities that must not be named. For there is a holy council, that Jove once
+on a time instituted for Mars on account of some pollution of his
+hands.[127] And coming thither, at first indeed no one of the strangers
+received me willingly, as being abhorred by the Gods, but they who had
+respect to me, afforded me[128] a stranger's meal at a separate table,
+being under the same house roof, and silently devised in respect to me,
+unaddressed by them, how I might be separated from their banquet[129] and
+cup, and, having filled up a share of wine in a separate vessel, equal for
+all, they enjoyed themselves. And I did not think fit to rebuke my guests,
+but I grieved in silence, and did not seem to perceive [their conduct,]
+deeply groaning, because I was my mother's slayer.[130] But I hear that my
+misfortunes have been made a festival at Athens, and that this custom still
+remains, that the people of Pallas honor the Libation Vessel.[131] But when
+I came to the hill of Mars, and stood in judgment, I indeed occupying one
+seat, but the eldest of the Erinnyes the other, having spoken and heard
+respecting my mother's death, Phoebus saved me by bearing witness, but
+Pallas counted out for me[132] the equal votes with her hand, and I came
+off victor in the bloody trial.[133] As many then as sat [in judgment,]
+persuaded by the sentence, determined to hold their dwelling near the court
+itself.[134] But as many of the Erinnyes as did not yield obedience to the
+sentence passed, continually kept driving me with unsettled wanderings,
+until I again returned to the holy ground of Phoebus, and lying stretched
+before the adyts, hungering for food, I swore that I would break from life
+by dying on the spot, unless Phoebus, who had undone, should preserve me.
+Upon this Phoebus, uttering a voice from the golden tripod, sent me hither
+to seize the heaven-sent image, and place it in the land of Athens. But
+that safety which he marked out for me do thou aid in. For if we can lay
+hold on the image of the Goddess, I both shall cease from my madness, and
+embarking thee in the bark of many oars, I shall settle thee again in
+Mycen�. But, O beloved one, O sister mine, preserve my ancestral home, and
+preserve me, since all my state and that of the Pelopids is undone, unless
+we seize on the heavenly image of the Goddess.
+
+CHOR. Some dreadful wrath of the Gods hath burst forth, and leads the seed
+of Tantalus through troubles.[135]
+
+IPH. I entertained the desire to reach Argos, and behold thee, my brother,
+even before thou camest. But I wish, as you do, both to save thee, and to
+restore again our sickening ancestral home from troubles, in no wise wrath
+with him who would have slain me. For I should both release my hand from
+thy slaughter, and preserve mine house. But I fear how I shall be able to
+escape the notice of the Goddess and the king, when he shall find the stone
+pedestal bared of the image. And how shall I escape death? What account can
+I give? But if indeed these matters can be effected at once, and thou wilt
+bear away the image, and lead me in the fair-pooped ship, the risk will be
+a glorious one. But separated from this I perish, but you, arranging your
+own affairs, would obtain a prosperous return. Yet in no wise will I fly,
+not even if I needs must perish, having preserved thee. In no wise, I
+say;[136] for a man who dies from among his household is regretted, but a
+woman is of little account.
+
+OR. I would not be the murderer both of thee and of my mother. Her blood is
+enough, and being of the same mind with you, [with you] I should wish,
+living or dying, to obtain an equal lot. +But I will lead thee, even though
+I myself fall here, to my house, or, remaining with thee, will die.[137]+
+But hear my opinion. If this had been disagreeable to Diana, how would
+Loxias have answered, that I should remove the image of the Goddess to the
+city of Pallas, and behold thy face? For, putting all these matters
+together, I hope to obtain a return.
+
+IPH. How then can it happen that neither you die, and that we obtain what
+we wish? For it is in this respect that our journey homeward is at fault,
+but the will is not wanting.
+
+OR. Could we possibly destroy the tyrant?
+
+IPH, Thou tellest a fearful thing, for strangers to slay their receivers.
+
+OR. But if it will preserve thee and me, one must run the risk.
+
+IPH. I could not--yet I approve your zeal.
+
+OR. But what if you were secretly to hide me in this temple?
+
+IPH. In order, forsooth, that, taking advantage of darkness, we might be
+saved?
+
+OR. For night is the time for thieves, the light for truth.
+
+IPH. But within are the sacred keepers,[138] whom we can not escape.
+
+OR. Alas! we are undone. How can we then be saved?
+
+IPH. I seem to have a certain new device.
+
+OR. Of what kind? Make me a sharer in your opinion, that I also may learn.
+
+IPH. I will make use of thy ravings as a contrivance.
+
+OR. Ay, cunning are women to find out tricks.
+
+IPH. I will say that thou, being slayer of thy mother, art come from Argos.
+
+OR. Make use of my troubles, if you can turn them to account.
+
+IPH. I will say that it is not lawful to sacrifice thee to the Goddess.
+
+OR. Having what pretext? For I partly suspect.
+
+IPH. As not being pure, but I will [say that I will][139] give what is holy
+to sacrifice.
+
+OR. How then the more will the image of the Goddess be obtained?
+
+IPH. I [will say that I] will purify thee in the fountains of the sea.
+
+OR. The statue, in quest of which, we have sailed, is still in the temple.
+
+IPH. And I will say that I must wash that too, as if you had laid hands on
+it.
+
+OR. Where then is the damp breaker of the sea of which you speak?
+
+IPH. Where thy ship rides at anchor with rope-bound chains.
+
+OR. But wilt thou, or some one else, bear the image in their hands?
+
+IPH. I, for it is lawful for me alone to touch it.
+
+OR. But in what part of this contrivance will our friend Pylades[140] be
+placed?
+
+IPH. He will be said to bear the same pollution of hands as thyself.
+
+OR. And wilt thou do this unknown to, or with the knowledge of the king?
+
+IPH. Having persuaded him by words, for I could not escape notice.
+
+OR. And truly the well-rowed ship is ready for sailing.[141]
+
+IPH. You must take care of the rest, that it be well.
+
+OR. There lacks but one thing, namely, that these women who are present
+preserve our secret. But do thou beseech them, and find words that will
+persuade. A woman in truth has power to move pity. But all the rest will
+perchance fall out well.
+
+IPH. O dearest women, I look to you, and my affairs rest in you, as to
+whether they turn out well, or be of naught, and I be deprived of my
+country, my dear brother, and dearest sister. And let this first be the
+commencement of my words. We are women, a race well inclined to one
+another, and most safe in keeping secret matters of common interest. Do ye
+keep silence for us, and labor out our escape. Honorable is it for the man
+who possesses a faithful tongue. But behold how one fortune holds the three
+most dear, either a return to our father-land, or to die. But, being
+preserved, that thou also mayest share my fortune, I will restore thee safe
+to Greece. But, by thy right hand, thee, and thee [_addressing the women of
+the chorus in succession_] I beseech, and thee by thy beloved cheek, and
+thy knees, and those most dear at home, mother, and father, and children,
+to whom there are such.[142] What say ye? Who of you will, or will not
+[speak!] these things.[143] For if ye assent not to my words, I am undone,
+and my wretched sister.
+
+CHOR. Be of good cheer, dear mistress, and think only of being saved, since
+on my part all shall be kept secret, the mighty Jove be witness! in the
+things thou enjoinest.
+
+IPH. May your words profit ye, and may ye be blest. 'Tis thy part now, and
+thine [to the different women] to enter the house, as the ruler of this
+land will straightway come, inquiring concerning the sacrifice of the
+strangers, whether it is over. O revered Goddess, who in the recesses of
+Aulis didst save me from the dire hand of a slaying father, now also save
+me and these, or the voice of Loxias will through thee be no longer
+truthful among mortals. But do thou with good will quit the barbarian land
+for Athens, for it becomes thee not to dwell here, when you can possess a
+blest city.
+
+CHORUS. Thou bird, that by the rocky cliffs of the sea, halcyon,[144] dost
+chant thy mournful elegy, a sound well understood by the skilled, namely,
+that thou art ever bemoaning thine husband in song, I, a wingless bird,
+compare my dirge with thine, longing for the assemblies[145] of the Greeks,
+longing for Lucina, who dwells along the Cynthian height, and near the
+palm[146] with its luxuriant foliage, and the rich-springing laurel, and
+the holy shoot of the deep blue olive, the dear place of Latona's
+throes,[147] and the lake that rolls its waters in a circle,[148] where the
+melodious swan honors the muses. O ye many tricklings of tears which fell
+upon my cheeks, when, our towers being destroyed, I traveled in ships
+beneath the oars and the spears of the foes.[149] And through a bartering
+of great price I came a journey to a barbarian land,[150] where I serve the
+daughter of Agamemnon, the priestess of the Goddess, and the
+sheep-slaughtering[151] altars, envying her who has all her life been
+unfortunate;[152] for she bends not under necessity, who is familiar with
+it. Unhappiness is wont to change,[153] but to fare ill after prosperity is
+a heavy life for mortals. And thee indeed, O mistress, an Argive ship of
+fifty oars will conduct home, and the wax-bound reed of mountain Pan with
+Syrinx tune cheer on the oarsmen, and prophet Phoebus, plying the tones of
+his seven-stringed lyre, with song will lead thee prosperously to the rich
+land of Athens. But leaving me here thou wilt travel by the dashing oars.
+And the halyards by the prow,[154] will stretch forth the sails to the air,
+above the beak, the sheet lines of the swift-journeying ship. Would that I
+might pass through the glittering course, where the fair light of the sun
+wends its way, and over my own chamber might rest from rapidly moving the
+pinions on my shoulders.[155] And would that I might stand in the dance,
+where also [I was wont to stand,] a virgin sprung from honorable
+nuptials,[156] wreathing the dances of my companions at the foot of my dear
+mother,[157] bounding to the rivalry of the graces, to the wealthy strife
+respecting [beauteous] hair, pouring my variously-painted garb and tresses
+around, I shadowed my cheeks.[158]
+
+[_Enter_ THOAS.]
+
+THOAS. Where is the Grecian woman who keeps the gate of this temple? Has
+she yet begun the sacrifice of the strangers, and are the bodies burning in
+the flame within the pure recesses?
+
+CHOR. Here she is, O king, who will tell thee clearly all.
+
+TH. Ah! Why art thou removing in your arms this image of the Goddess from
+its seat that may not be disturbed, O daughter of Agamemnon?
+
+IPH. O king, rest there thy foot in the portico.
+
+TH. But what new matter is in the house, Iphigenia?
+
+IPH. I avert the ill--for holy[159] do I utter this word.
+
+TH. What new thing art thou prefacing? speak clearly.
+
+IPH. O king, no pure offerings hast thou hunted out for me.
+
+TH. What hath taught you this? or dost thou speak it as matter of opinion?
+
+IPH. The image of the Goddess hath again turned away from her seat.[160]
+
+TH. Of its own accord, or did an earthquake turn it?
+
+IPH. Of its own accord, and it closed its eyes.
+
+TH. But what is the cause? is it pollution from the strangers?
+
+IPH. That very thing, naught else, for they have done dreadful things.
+
+TH. What, did they slay any of the barbarians upon the shore?
+
+IPH. They came possessing the stain of domestic murder.
+
+TH. What? for I am fallen into a longing to learn this.
+
+IPH. They put an end to a mother's life by conspiring sword.
+
+TH. Apollo! not even among barbarians would any one have dared this.
+
+IPH. By persecutions they were driven out of all Greece.
+
+TH. Is it then on their account that thou bearest the image without?
+
+IPH. Ay, under the holy sky, that I may remove it from blood stains.
+
+TH. But how didst thou discover the pollution of the strangers?
+
+IPH. I examined them, when the image of the Goddess turned away.
+
+TH. Greece hath trained thee up wise, in that thou well didst perceive
+this.
+
+IPH. And now they have cast out a delightful bait for my mind.
+
+TH. By telling thee any charming news of those at Argos?
+
+IPH. That my only brother Orestes fares well.
+
+TH. So that, forsooth, thou mightest preserve them because of their
+pleasant news!
+
+IPH. And that my father lives and fares well.
+
+TH. But thou hast with reason attended to the interest of the Goddess.
+
+IPH. Ay, because hating all Greece that destroyed me.
+
+TH. What then shall we do, say, concerning the two strangers?
+
+IPH. We needs must respect the established law.
+
+TH. Are not the lustral waters and thy sword already engaged?[161]
+
+IPH. First I would fain lave them in pure cleansings.
+
+TH. In the fountains of waters, or in the dew of the sea?
+
+IPH. The sea washes out all the ills of men.
+
+TH. They would certainly fall in a more holy manner before the Goddess.
+
+IPH. And my matters would be in a more fitting state.[162]
+
+TH. Does not the wave dash against the very temple?
+
+IPH. There is need of solitude, for we have other things to do.
+
+TH. Lead them whither thou wilt, I crave not to see things that may not be
+told.
+
+IPH. The image of the Goddess also must be purified by me.
+
+TH. If indeed the stain of the matricide hath fallen on it.
+
+IPH. For otherwise I should not have removed it from its pedestal.
+
+TH. Just piety and foresight! How reasonably doth all the city marvel at
+thee!
+
+IPH. Knowest thou then what must be done for me?
+
+TH. 'Tis thine to explain this.
+
+IPH. Cast fetters upon the strangers.
+
+TH. Whither could they escape from thee?
+
+IPH. Greece knows nothing faithful.
+
+TH. Go for the fetters, attendants.
+
+IPH. Ay, and let them bring the strangers hither.
+
+TH. This shall be.
+
+IPH. Having enveloped their heads in robes.
+
+TH. Against the scorching of the sun?
+
+IPH. And send thou with me of thy followers--
+
+TH. These shall accompany thee.
+
+IPH. And send some one to signify to the city--
+
+TH. What hap?
+
+IPH. That all remain in their homes.
+
+TH. Lest they encounter homicide?
+
+IPH. For such things are unclean.
+
+TH. Go thou, and order this.
+
+IPH. That no one come into sight.
+
+TH. Thou carest well for the city.
+
+IPH. Ay, and more particularly friends must not be present.[163]
+
+TH. This you say in reference to me.
+
+IPH. But do thou, abiding here before the temple of the Goddess--
+
+TH. Do what?
+
+IPH. Purify the house with a torch.
+
+TH. That it may be pure when thou comest back to it?
+
+IPH. But when the strangers come out,
+
+TH. What must I do?
+
+IPH. Place your garment before your eyes.
+
+TH. Lest I contract contagion?
+
+IPH. But if I seem to tarry very long,
+
+TH. What limit of this shall I have?
+
+IPH. Wonder at nothing.
+
+TH. Do thou rightly the business of the Goddess at thy leisure.
+
+IPH. And may this purification turn out as I wish!
+
+TH. I join in your prayer.
+
+IPH. I now see these strangers coming out of the house, and the adornments
+of the Goddess, and the young lambs, in order that I may wash out foul
+slaughter by slaughter, and the shining light of lamps, and the other
+things, as many as I ordered as purifications for the strangers and the
+Goddess. But I proclaim to the strangers to get out of the way of this
+pollution, if any gate-keeper of the temples keeps pure hands for the Gods,
+or is about to join in nuptial alliance, or is pregnant, flee, get out of
+the way, lest this pollution fall on any. O thou queen, virgin daughter of
+Jove and Latona, if I wash away the blood-pollution from these men, and
+sacrifice where 'tis fitting, thou wilt occupy a pure house, and we shall
+be prosperous. But although I do not speak of the rest, I nevertheless
+signify my meaning to the Gods who know most things,[164] and to thee, O
+Goddess.
+
+CHORUS.[165] Of noble birth is the offspring of Latona, whom once on a time
+in the fruitful valleys of Delos, Phoebus with his golden locks, skilled on
+the lyre, (and she who rejoices in skill of the bow,) his mother bore while
+yet an infant[166] from the sea-side rock, leaving the renowned place of
+her delivery, destitute of waters,[167] the Parnassian height haunted by
+Bacchus, where the ruddy-visaged serpent, with spotted back, + brazen +
+beneath the shady laurel with its rich foliage, an enormous prodigy of the
+earth, guarded the subterranean oracle. Him thou, O Phoebus, while yet an
+infant, while yet leaping in thy dear mother's arms, didst slay, and
+entered upon thy divine oracles, and thou sittest on the golden tripod, on
+the throne that is ever true, distributing to mortals prophecies from the
+divine adyts beneath the Castalian streams, dwelling hard by, occupying a
+dwelling in the middle of the earth.[168] But when, having gone against
+Themis, daughter of earth, he expelled her from the divine oracles, earth
+begot dark phantoms of dreams, which to many mortals explain what first,
+what afterward, what in future will happen, during their sleep in the
+couches of the dusky earth.[169] But + the earth + deprived Phoebus of the
+honor of prophecies, through anger on her daughter's account, and the
+swift-footed king, hastening to Olympus, stretched forth his little hand to
+the throne of Jove.[170] [beseeching him] to take away the earth-born[171]
+wrath of the Goddess, + and the nightly responses. + But he laughed,
+because his son had come quickly to him, wishing to obtain the wealthy
+office, and he shook his hair, and put an end to the nightly dreams,[172]
+and took away nightly divination from mortals, and again conferred the
+honor on Loxias, and confidence to mortals from the songs of oracles
+[proclaimed] on this throne, thronged to by many strangers.[173]
+
+[_Enter_ A MESSENGER.]
+
+MESS. O ye guardians of the temple and presidents of the altars, where in
+this land has king Thoas gone? Do ye, opening the well-fastened gates, call
+the ruler of this land outside the house.
+
+CHOR. But what is it, if I may speak when I am not bidden?
+
+MESS. The two youths have escaped, and are gone by the contrivances of
+Agamemnon's daughter, endeavoring to fly from this land, and taking the
+sacred image in the bosom of a Grecian ship.
+
+CHOR. Thou tellest an incredible story, but the king of this country, whom
+you wish to see, is gone, having quitted the temple.
+
+MESS. Whither? For he needs must know what has been done.
+
+CHOR. We know not. But go thou and pursue him to wheresoever, having met
+with him, thou mayest recount this news.
+
+MESS. See, how faithless is the female race! and ye are partners in what
+has been done.
+
+CHOR. Art thou mad? What have we to do with the flight of the strangers?
+Will you not go as quickly as possible to the gates of the rulers?
+
+MESS. Not at least before some distinct informer[174] tell me this, whether
+the ruler of the land is within or not within. Ho there! Open the
+fastenings, I speak to those within, and tell the master that I am at the
+gates, bearing a weight of evil news.
+
+THOAS. (_coming out_) Who makes this noise near the temple of the Goddess,
+hammering at the door, and sending fear within?
+
+MESS. These women told me falsely, (and tried to drive me from the house,)
+that you were away, while you really were in the house.
+
+TH. Expecting or hunting after what gain?
+
+MESS. I will afterward tell of what concerns them, but hear the present,
+immediate matter. The virgin, she that presided over the altars here,
+Iphigenia, has gone out of the land with the strangers, having the sacred
+image of the Goddess; but the expiations were pretended.
+
+TH. How sayest thou? possessed by what breath of calamity?[175]
+
+MESS. In order to preserve Orestes, for at this thou wilt marvel.
+
+TH. What [Orestes]? Him, whom the daughter of Tyndarus bore?
+
+MESS. Him whom she consecrated to the Goddess at these altars.
+
+TH. Oh marvel! How can I rightly[176] call thee by a greater name?
+
+MESS. Do not turn thine attention to this, but listen to me; and having
+perceived and heard, clearly consider what pursuit will catch the
+strangers.
+
+TH. Speak, for thou sayest well, for they do not flee by the way of the
+neighboring sea, so as to be able to escape my fleet.
+
+MESS. When we came to the sea-shore, where the vessel of Orestes was
+anchored in secret, to us indeed, whom thou didst send with her, bearing
+fetters for the strangers, the daughter of Agamemnon made signs that we
+should get far out of the way, as she was about to offer the secret[177]
+flame and expiation, for which she had come. But she, holding the fetters
+of the strangers in her hands, followed behind them. And these matters were
+suspicious, but they satisfied your attendants, O king. But at length, in
+order forsooth that she might seem to us to be doing something, she
+screamed aloud, and chanted barbarian songs like a sorceress, as if washing
+out the stain of murder. But after we had remained sitting a long time, it
+occurred to us whether the strangers set at liberty might not slay her, and
+take to flight. And through fear lest we might behold what was not fitting,
+we sat in silence, but at length the same words were in every body's mouth,
+that we should go to where they were, although not permitted. And upon this
+we behold the hull of the Grecian ship, [the rowing winged with well-fitted
+oars,[178]] and fifty sailors holding their oars in the tholes, and the
+youths, freed from their fetters, standing [on the shore] astern of the
+ship.[179] But some held in the prow with their oars, and others from the
+epotides let down the anchor, and others hastily applying the ladders, drew
+the stern-cables through their hands, and giving them to the sea, let them
+down to the strangers.[180] But we unsparing [of the toil,] when we beheld
+the crafty stratagem, laid hold of the female stranger and of the cables,
+and tried to drag the rudders from the fair-prowed ship from the
+steerage-place. But words ensued: "On what plea do ye take to the sea,
+stealing from this land the images and priestess? Whose son art thou, who
+thyself, who art carrying this woman from the land?" But he replied,
+"Orestes, her brother, that you may know, the son of Agamemnon, I, having
+taken this my sister, whom I had lost from my house, am bearing her off."
+But naught the less we clung to the female stranger, and compelled them by
+force to follow us to thee, upon which arose sad smitings of the cheeks.
+For they had not arms in their hands, nor had we; but fists were sounding
+against fists, and the arms of both the youths at once were aimed against
+our sides and to the liver, so that we at once were exhausted[181] and worn
+out in our limbs. But stamped with horrid marks we fled to a precipice,
+some having bloody wounds on the head, others in the eyes, and standing on
+the heights, we waged a safer warfare, and pelted stones. But archers,
+standing on the poop, hindered us with their darts, so that we returned
+back. And meanwhile--for a tremendous wave drove the ship against the land,
+and there was alarm [on board] lest she might dip her
+sheet-line[182]--Orestes, taking his sister on his left shoulder, walked
+into the sea, and leaping upon the ladder, placed her within the
+well-banked ship, and also the image of the daughter of Jove, that fell
+from heaven. And from the middle of the ship a voice spake thus, "O
+mariners of the Grecian ship, seize[183] on your oars, and make white the
+surge, for we have obtained the things on account of which we sailed o'er
+the Euxine within the Symplegades." But they shouting forth a pleasant cry,
+smote the brine. The ship, as long indeed as it was within the port, went
+on; but, passing the outlet, meeting with a strong tide, it was driven
+back. For a terrible gale coming suddenly, drives [the bark winged with
+well-fitted oars] poop-wise,[184] but they persevered, kicking against the
+wave, but an ebbing tide brought them again aground. But the daughter of
+Agamemnon stood up and prayed, "O daughter of Latona, bring me, thy
+priestess, safe into Greece from a barbarian land, and pardon the stealing
+away of me. Thou also, O Goddess, lovest thy brother, and think thou that I
+also love my kindred." But the sailors shouted a p�an in assent to the
+prayers of the girl, applying on a given signal the point of the
+shoulders,[185] bared from their hands, to the oars. But more and more the
+vessel kept nearing the rocks, and one indeed leaped into the sea with his
+feet, and another fastened woven nooses.[186] And I was immediately sent
+hither to thee, to tell thee, O king, what had happened there. But go,
+taking fetters and halters in your hands, for, unless the wave shall become
+tranquil, there is no hope of safety for the strangers. For the ruler of
+the sea, the revered Neptune, both favorably regards Troy, and is at enmity
+with the Pelopid�. And he will now, as it seems, deliver up to thee and the
+citizens the son of Agamemnon, to take him into your hands, and his sister,
+who is detected ungratefully forgetting the Goddess in respect to the
+sacrifice at Aulis.[187]
+
+CHOR. O hapless Iphigenia, with thy brother wilt thou die, again coming
+into the hands of thy masters.
+
+TH. O all ye citizens of this barbarian land, will ye not, casting bridles
+on your horses, run to the shore, and receive the casting on of the Grecian
+ship? But hastening, by the favor of the Goddess, will ye not hunt down the
+impious men, and some of you haul the swift barks down to the sea, that by
+sea, and by horse-coursings on the land seizing them, we may either hurl
+them down the broken rock, or impale their bodies upon stakes. But you
+women, the accomplices in these plots, I will punish hereafter, when I have
+leisure, but now, having such a present duty, we will not remain idle.
+
+[MINERVA _appears_.]
+
+MIN. Whither, whither sendest thou this troop to follow [the fugitives,]
+king Thoas? List to the words of me, Minerva. Cease pursuing, and stirring
+on the onset of your host. For by the destined oracles of Loxias Orestes
+came hither, fleeing the wrath of the Erinnyes, and in order to conduct his
+sister's person to Argos, and to bear the sacred image into my land, by way
+of respite from his present troubles. Thus are our words for thee, but as
+to him, Orestes, whom you wish to slay, having caught him in a tempest at
+sea, Neptune has already, for my sake, rendered the surface of the sea
+waveless, piloting him along in the ship. But do thou, Orestes, learning my
+commands, (for thou hearest the voice of a Goddess, although not present,)
+go, taking the image and thy sister. And when thou art come to heaven-built
+Athens, there is a certain sacred district in the farthest bounds of
+Atthis, near the Carystian rock, which my people call Aloe--here, having
+built a temple, do thou enshrine the image named after the Tauric land and
+thy toils, which thou hast labored through, wandering over Greece, under
+the goad of the Erinnyes. But mortals hereafter shall celebrate her as the
+Tauric Goddess Diana. And do thou ordain this law, that, when the people
+celebrate a feast in grateful commemoration of thy release from
+slaughter,[188] let them apply the sword to the neck of a man, and let
+blood flow on account of the holy Goddess, that she may have honor. But, O
+Iphigenia, thou must needs be guardian of the temple of this Goddess at the
+hallowed ascent of Brauron;[189] where also thou shalt be buried at thy
+death, and they shall offer to you the honor of rich woven vestments, which
+women, dying in childbed, may leave in their houses. But I command thee to
+let these Grecian women depart from the land on account of their
+disinterested disposition,[190] I, having saved thee also on a former
+occasion, by determining the equal votes in the Field of Mars, Orestes, and
+that, according to the same law, he should conquer, whoever receive equal
+suffrages. But, O son of Agamemnon, do thou remove thy sister from this
+land, nor be thou angered, Thoas.
+
+TH. Queen Minerva, whosoever, on hearing the words of the Gods, is
+disobedient, thinks not wisely. But I will not be angry with Orestes, if he
+has carried away the image of the Goddess with him, nor with his sister.
+For what credit is there in contending with the potent Gods? Let them
+depart to thy land with the image of the Goddess, and let them prosperously
+enshrine the effigy. But I will also send these women to blest Greece, as
+thy mandate bids. And I will stop the spear which I raised against the
+strangers, and the oars of the ships, as this seems fit to thee, O Goddess.
+
+MIN. I commend your words, for fate commands both thee and the Gods
+[themselves.] Go, ye breezes, conduct the vessel of Agamemnon's son to
+Athens. And I will journey with you, to guard the hallowed image of my
+sister.
+
+CHOR. Go ye, happy because of your preserved fortune. But, O Athenian
+Pallas, hallowed among both immortals and mortals, we will do even as thou
+biddest. For I have received a very delightful and unhoped-for voice in my
+hearing. O thou all hallowed Victory, mayest thou possess my life, and
+cease not to crown it.[191]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+NOTES ON IPHIGENIA IN TAURIS
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+[1] This verse and part of the following are set down among the "oil cruet"
+verses by Aristophanes, Ran. 1232. Aristotle, Poet. � xvii. gives a sketch
+of the plot of the whole play, by way of illustrating the general form of
+tragedy. Hyginus, who constantly has Euripides in view, also gives a brief
+analysis of the plot, fab. cxx. For a description of the quadrig� of
+Pelops, see Philostratus Imagg. i. 19. It must be observed, that Antoninus
+Liberalis, � 27, makes Iphigenia only the supposititious daughter of
+Agamemnon, but really the daughter of Theseus and Helen. See Meurs. on
+Lycophron, p. 145.
+
+[2] I must confess that I can not find what should have so much displeased
+the critics in this word. Iphigenia, in using such an epithet, evidently
+refers to her own intended sacrifice, which had rendered the recesses of
+Aulis a place of no small fame.
+
+[3] But Lenting prefers [Greek: Achaious], with the approbation of the
+Cambridge editor.
+
+[4] See Reiske apud Dindorf. Compare my note on �sch. Ag. 188, p. 101, ed.
+Bohn. So also Callimachus, Hymn. iii. [Greek: meilion aplo��s, hote hoi
+kated�sas a�tas].
+
+[5] Sinon made the same complaint. Cf. Virg. �n. ii. 90.
+
+[6] Cf. �sch. Ag. 235.
+
+[7] This whole passage has been imitated by Ovid, de Ponto, iii. 2, 60.
+"Sceptra tenente illo, liquidas fecisse per auras, Nescio quam dicunt
+Iphigenian iter. Quam levibus ventis sub nube per aera vectam Creditur his
+Phoebe deposuisse locis." Cf. Lycophron, p. 16, vs. 3 sqq. Nonnus xiii. p.
+332, 14 sqq.
+
+[8] Observe the double construction of [Greek: anassei]. Orest. 1690.
+[Greek: nautais medeousa thalass�s].
+
+[9] The Cambridge editor would expunge this line, which certainly seems
+languid and awkward. Boissonade on Arist�net. Ep. xiii. p. 421, would
+simply read [Greek: ta d' alla s. t. th. phoboumen�: thy� gar]. He also
+retains [Greek: hiereian], referring to Gaisford on Heph�st. p. 216.
+
+[10] The Cambridge editor would throw out vs. 41.
+
+[11] The Cambridge editor refers to Med. 56, Androm. 91, Soph. El. 425. Add
+Plaut. Merc. i. 1, 3. "Non ego idem facio, ut alios in comoediis vidi
+facere amatores, qui aut nocti, aut die, Aut Soli, aut Lun� miserias
+narrant suas." Theognetus apud Athen. xv. p. 671. Casaub. [Greek:
+pephilosoph�kas g�i kai ouran�i lal�n]. Cf. Davis, on Cicero, Tusc. Q. iii.
+26, and Lomeier de Lustrat. � xxxvii.
+
+[12] [Greek: Thrinkon] is properly the uppermost part of the walls of any
+building (Pollux, vii. 27) surrounding the roof, [Greek: stegos] is the
+roof itself.
+
+[13] Cf. Meurs. ad Lycophron, p. 148.
+
+[14] I read [Greek: eim' eis�] with Hermann and the Cambridge editor.
+
+[15] This line is condemned by the Cambridge editor. Burges has transposed
+it.
+
+[16] But [Greek: diadromais], the correction of the Cambridge editor, seems
+preferable.
+
+[17] An interpolation universally condemned.
+
+[18] See Barnes, and Wetstein on Acts xix. 35.
+
+[19] On the wanderings of Orestes see my note on �sch. Eum. 238 sqq. p.
+187, ed. Bohn.
+
+[20] See the note of the Cambridge editor, with whom we must read [Greek:
+eisb�somestha].
+
+[21] [Greek: h�n ouden ismen] ad interiora templi spectat. HERM.
+
+[22] We must read [Greek: geisa triglyph�n hopoi], with Blomfield and the
+Cambridge editor. See Philander on Vitruv. ii. p. 35, and Pollux, vii. 27.
+
+[23] The sense is [Greek: outoi, makran elthontes, ek termat�n] (sc. a
+meta) [Greek: nost�somen]. ED. CAMB.
+
+[24] The Cambridge editor appositely compares a fragment of our author's
+Cresphontes, iii. 2, [Greek: aischron te mochthein m� thelein neanian].
+
+[25] On the whole of this chorus, which is corrupt in several places, the
+notes of the Cambridge editor should be consulted.
+
+[26] This last lumbering line must be corrupt.
+
+[27] Compare the similar scene in Soph. El. 86 sqq.
+
+[28] Cf. Elect. 90. [Greek: nyktos de t�sde pros taphon mol�n patros].
+Hecub. 76. �sch. Pers. 179. Aristoph. Ran. 1331.
+
+[29] Compare my note on �sch. Pers. 610 sqq.
+
+[30] See on �sch. Choeph. 6.
+
+[31] Markland's emendation has been unanimously adopted by the later
+editors.
+
+[32] Schema Colophonium. The Cambridge editor compares vs. 244. [Greek:
+Argei sk�ptouchon]. Phoen. 17. [Greek: Th�baisin anax]. Heracl. 361.
+[Greek: Argei tyrannos].
+
+[33] I have marked lacun�, as some mythological particulars have evidently
+been lost.
+
+[34] An imperfect allusion to the Thyestean banquet. Cf. Seneca Thyest.
+774. "O Phoebe patiens, fugeris retro licet, medioque ruptum merseris coelo
+diem, sero occidisti--" vs. 787 sqq.
+
+[35] Cf. �sch. Ag. 1501 sqq. Seneca, Ag. 57 sqq.
+
+[36] i.e. the demon allotted to me at my birth (cf. notes on �sch. 1341, p.
+135, ed. Bohn). Statius, Theb. i. 60, makes Oedipus invoke Tisiphone under
+the same character.--"Si me de matre cadentem Fovisti gremio."
+
+[37] See the note of the Cambridge editor.
+
+[38] [Greek: eb�san] is active.
+
+[39] The Cambridge editor aptly refers to Hecub. 464.
+
+[40] These participles refer to the preceding [Greek: aimorrant�n xein�n].
+
+[41] See on Heracl. 721.
+
+[42] The Cambridge editor would omit these two lines.
+
+[43] Cf. vs. 107. [Greek: kat' antr', ha pontios notidi diaklyzei melas].
+On [Greek: agmos] (Brod�us' happy correction for [Greek: harmos]) the
+Cambridge editor quotes Nicander Ther. 146. [Greek: koil� te pharanx, kai
+tr�chees agmoi], and other passages. The manner of hunting the purple fish
+is thus described by Pollux, i. 4, p. 24. They plat a long rope, to which
+they fasten, like bells, a number of hempen baskets, with an open entrance
+to admit the animal, but which does not allow of its egress. This they let
+down into the sea, the baskets being filled with such food as the murex
+delights in, and, having fastened the end of the rope to the rock, they
+leave it, and returning to the place, draw up the baskets full of the fish.
+Having broken the shells, they pound the flesh to form the dye.
+
+[44] [Greek: ephtharmenous]. Cf. Cycl. 300. Hel. 783. Ed. Camb.
+
+[45] Compare Orest. 255 sqq.
+
+[46] [Greek: chit�n�n] is probably corrupt.
+
+[47] Cf. Lobeck on Aj. 17. Hesych. [Greek: kochlos tois thalattiois] (i.e.
+[Greek: kochlois]) [Greek: echr�nto, pro t�s t�n salping�n eurese�s]. Virg.
+�n. vi. 171. "Sed tum forte cava dum personat �quora concha."
+
+[48] "Moriamur, et in media arma ruamus." Virg. �n. ii.
+
+[49] Such seems to be the sense, but [Greek: exeklepsamen] is ridiculous,
+and Hermann's emendation more so. Bothe reads [Greek: exekopsamen], which
+is better. The Cambridge editor thinks that the difficulty lies in [Greek:
+petroisi].
+
+[50] I would omit this line as an evident gloss.
+
+[51] See the Cambridge editor.
+
+[52] Reiske's emendation, [Greek: hosia] for [Greek: hoia], seems deserving
+of admission.
+
+[53] The Cambridge editor would omit these lines.
+
+[54] This line also the Cambridge editor trusts "will never hereafter be
+reckoned among the verses of Euripides."
+
+[55] Such is the proper sense of [Greek: antitheisa].
+
+[56] [Greek: nin] is [Greek: nympheumata].
+
+[57] Read [Greek: kasign�t�i].
+
+[58] I read [Greek: tois men] and [Greek: tois d'] with the Cambridge
+editor. Hermann's emendation is unheard of.
+
+[59] This clause interrupts the construction. [Greek: dramontes] must be
+understood with all the following sentence, as no finite verb is expressed
+except [Greek: eperasan].
+
+[60] I have partly followed Hermann, reading [Greek: epebai�n ...
+apolau�n], but, as to reading [Greek: hypn�n] for [Greek: hymn�n], the
+Cambridge editor well calls it "one of the wonders of his edition." I
+should prefer reading [Greek: olbou] with the same elegant scholar.
+
+[61] I follow the Cambridge editor in reading [Greek: didymas], from Ovid,
+Ep. Pont. iii. 2, 71. "Protinus immitem Trivi� ducuntur ad aram, Evincti
+geminas ad sua terga manus."
+
+[62] "_displays while she offers_" i.e. "_presents as a public offering_"
+ED. CAMB.
+
+[63] I am but half satisfied with this passage.
+
+[64] Read [Greek: esesthe d� kat�] with the Cambridge editor.
+
+[65] We must read [Greek: n�] with Porson.
+
+[66] Probably a spurious line.
+
+[67] Read [Greek: Myk�n�n g'], _ay, from Mycen�_, with the Cambridge
+editor.
+
+[68] Hermann seems rightly to read [Greek: hos g' en].
+
+[69] Dindorf rightly adopts Reiske's emendation [Greek: sy toud' era].
+
+[70] The Cambridge editor rightly reads [Greek: tin�] with an accent, as
+Orestes obviously means himself. Compare Soph. Ant. 751. [Greek: h�d' oun
+thaneitai, kai thanous' olei tin�].
+
+[71] Such is the force of [Greek: d�].
+
+[72] I would read [Greek: exepraxato] with Emsley, but I do not agree with
+him in substituting [Greek: kak�n]. The oxymoron seems intentional, and by
+no means unlike Euripides.
+
+[73] The Cambridge editor would read [Greek: est' outis logos].
+
+[74] But [Greek: charin], as Matthi� remarks, is taken in two senses; as a
+preposition with [Greek: gynaikos], _ob improbam mulierem_, and as a
+substantive, with [Greek: acharin] added. Cf. �sch. Choeph. 44. Lucretius
+uses a similar oxymoron respecting the same subject, i. 99. "Sed _casta
+inceste_ nubendi tempore in ipso Hostia concideret mactatu m�sta parentis."
+
+[75] This passage is very corrupt. The Cambridge editor supposes something
+lost respecting the fortunes of Orestes. Hermann reads [Greek: hen de
+lypeisthai monon, ho t' ouk aphr�n �n]. But I am very doubtful.
+
+[76] These three lines are justly condemned as an absurd interpolation by
+Dindorf and the Cambridge editor.
+
+[77] This seems the easiest way of expressing [Greek: kai sy] after [Greek:
+sy d'].
+
+[78] I am partly indebted to Potter's happy version. The Cambridge editor
+is as ingenious as usual, but he candidly allows that conjecture is
+scarcely requisite.
+
+[79] i.e. thou seemest reckless of life.
+
+[80] [Greek: prostrop�], this mode of offering supplication, i.e. this duty
+of sacrifice.
+
+[81] Diodorus, xx. 14. quotes this and the preceding line reading [Greek:
+chthonos] for [Greek: petras]. He supposes that Euripides derived the
+present account from the sacrifices offered to Saturn by the Carthaginians,
+who caused their children to fall from the hands of the statue [Greek: eis
+ti chasma pl�res pyros]. Compare Porphyr. de Abst. ii. 27. Justin, xviii.
+6. For similar human sacrifices among the Gauls, C�sar de B.G. vi. 16, with
+the note of Vossius. Compare also Saxo Grammaticus, Hist. Dan. iii. p. 42,
+and the passages of early historians quoted in Stephens' entertaining
+notes, p. 92.
+
+[82] Cf. Tibull. i. 3, 5. "Abstineas, mors atra, precor, non hic mihi
+mater, Qu� legat in m�stos ossa perusta sinus; non soror, Assyrios cineri
+qu� dedat odores, et fleat effusis ante sepulchra comis."
+
+[83] This must be what the poet _intends_ by [Greek: katasbes�], however
+awkwardly expressed. See Hermann's note.
+
+[84] Compare vs. 468 sq.
+
+[85] This line is hopelessly corrupt.
+
+[86] I read [Greek: men oun] with the Cambridge editor.
+
+[87] [Greek: az�la] is in opposition to the whole preceding clause.
+
+[88] See the note of the Cambridge editor on Iph. Aul. 1372.
+
+[89] I should prefer [Greek: esti d�],"_she surely is._"
+
+[90] We must evidently read either [Greek: di�lthon] with Porson, or
+[Greek: dielthe] with Jan., Le Fevre, and Markland.
+
+[91] I almost agree with Dindorf in considering this line spurious.
+
+[92] For this construction compare Ritterhus. ad Oppian, Cyn. i. 11.
+
+[93] I can not help thinking this line is spurious, and the preceding
+[Greek: th�tai] corrupt. One would expect [Greek: th�s�i].
+
+[94] Cf. Kuinoel on Cydon. de Mort. Contem. � 1, p. 6, n. 18.
+
+[95] Literally, "no longer a hinderance," i.e. "that I be no longer
+responsible for its fulfillment."
+
+[96] The Cambridge editor, however, seems to have settled the question in
+favor of [Greek: oisth' houn ho drason].
+
+[97] I must candidly confess that none of the explanations of these words
+satisfy me. Perhaps it is best to regard them, with Seidler, as merely
+signifying the mutability of fortune.
+
+[98] i.e. as far as the fulfilling of my oath is concerned.
+
+[99] The letter evidently commences with the words [Greek: h� 'n Aulidi
+sphageisa]. I can not imagine how Markland and others should have made it
+commence with the previous line.
+
+[100] i.e. in what company.
+
+[101] This line is either spurious or out of place. See the Cambridge
+editor.
+
+[102] The Cambridge editor in a note exhibiting his usual chastened and
+elegant judgment, regards these three lines as an absurd and trifling
+interpolation. For the credit of Euripides, I would fain do the same.
+
+[103] The same elegant scholar justly assigns these lines to Iphigenia.
+
+[104] So Erfurdt.
+
+[105] See the Cambridge editor.
+
+[106] This line seems justly condemned by the Cambridge editor.
+
+[107] With [Greek: kampteis] understand [Greek: dromon] = thou art fast
+arriving at the goal of the truth.
+
+[108] Read [Greek: apedex�] with ed. Camb.
+
+[109] "I remember it: for the wedding did not, by its happy result, take
+away the recollection of that commencement of nuptial ceremonies." CAMB.
+ED.
+
+[110] i.e. Iphigenia sent it with a view to a cenotaph at Mycen�, as she
+was about to die at Aulis. See Seidler.
+
+[111] "This Homeric epithet of an only son is used, I believe, nowhere else
+in Attic poetry. Its adoption here seems owing to Hom. Il. [Greek: I]. 142
+and 284. [Greek: tis� de min hison Orest�i Hos moi t�lygetos trephetai
+thali�i eni poll�i]." ED. CAMB.
+
+[112] This is Musgrave's elegant emendation, which Hermann, unwilling to
+let well alone, has attempted to spoil. See, however, the Cambridge editor,
+who possesses taste and clear perception, unbiased by self-love.
+
+[113] Read [Greek: emois] with the Cambridge editor.
+
+[114] But [Greek: phyg�is], and [Greek: � philos], the emendation of
+Burges, seems far better, and is followed by the Cambridge editor.
+
+[115] i.e. I can imagine your sufferings at Aulis.
+
+[116] The Cambridge editor compares Hec. 684. [Greek: hetera d' aph'
+heter�n kaka kak�n kyrei].
+
+[117] This is Reiske's interpretation, taking the construction [Greek: prin
+xiphos pal. epi haimati]. But Seidler would recall the old reading [Greek:
+pelasai], comparing Hel. 361. [Greek: autosidaron es� pelas� dia sarkos
+hamillan]. This is better, but we must also read [Greek: eti] for [Greek:
+epi] with the Cambridge editor.
+
+[118] [Greek: rhipai pod�n] is a bold way of expressing rapid traveling.
+
+[119] Read [Greek: ana] with Markland, for [Greek: ara].
+
+[120] I read [Greek: � dia kyan]. with the Cambridge editor. The following
+words are rendered thus by Musgrave, "Per ... _est_ longum iter."
+
+[121] Unintelligible, and probably spurious.
+
+[122] The Cambridge editor finds fault with the obvious clumsiness of the
+expression, and proposes [Greek: echein] for [Greek: labein]. I have still
+greater doubts about [Greek: ekbantas tych�s]. The sense ought to be, "'tis
+the part of wise men, _when fortune favors_, not to lose the opportunity,
+but to gain other advantages."
+
+[123] See Dindorf's notes. But the Cambridge editor has shown so decided a
+superiority to the German critics, that I should unhesitatingly adopt his
+reading, as follows: [Greek: ou m� m' episch�is, oud' apost�seis logou, to
+m� ou pythesthai ... phila gar tauta], (with Markland,) although [Greek:
+pr�ton] may perhaps be defended.
+
+[124] See the Cambridge editor. The same elegant scholar has also improved
+the arrangement of the lines.
+
+[125] "Quanquam animus meminisse horret, luctuque refugit, Incipiam." Virg.
+�n. i.
+
+[126] I read [Greek: enth' emon poda] with Herm. and Dind.
+
+[127] Cf. Elect. 1258 sqq., and Meurs. Areop. � i. [Greek: ps�phos] seems
+here used to denote the place where the council was held. The pollution of
+Mars was the murder of Hallirothius. Cf. Pausan. i. 21.
+
+[128] An instance of the nominativus pendens.
+
+[129] So Valckenaer, Diatr. p. 246, who quotes some passages relative to
+the treatment of Orestes at Athens.
+
+[130] See the Cambridge editor.
+
+[131] See Barnes, who quotes the Schol. on Arist. Eq. 95. [Greek: Chous]
+was the name of the festival.
+
+[132] [Greek: emoi] is the dativus commodi.
+
+[133] I am indebted to Maltby for this translation.
+
+[134] Cf. Piers, on Moer. p. 351, and the Cambridge editor.
+
+[135] But see ed. Camb.
+
+[136] Such is the force, of [Greek: ou gar all'].
+
+[137] These lines are very corrupt, and perhaps, as Dindorf thinks,
+spurious.
+
+[138] Markland rightly reads [Greek: hierophylakes].
+
+[139] "dicam me daturam." MARKLAND.
+
+[140] [Greek: hod'] is the correction of Brod�us.
+
+[141] [Greek: ne�s pitylos] seems not merely a periphrase, but implies that
+the oars are in the row-locks, as if ready for starting.
+
+[142] But the Cambridge editor very elegantly reads [Greek: ei toi].
+
+[143] Put [Greek: phthenxasthe] in an inclosure, and join [Greek: tauta]
+with [Greek: thelei]. See ed. Camb.
+
+[144] Schol. Theocr. Id. vii. 57. [Greek: thr�n�tikon to z�ion, kai para
+tois aigialois neotteuon]. Cf. Aristoph. Ran. 1309, who perhaps had the
+passage in view.
+
+[145] [Greek: agoros] is a somewhat rare word for [Greek: agyris].
+
+[146] Cf. Hecub. 457 sqq.
+
+[147] So Matthi�, "locum ubi Latona partum edidit."
+
+[148] Read [Greek: kyklion] with Seidler. On the [Greek: limn� trochoeid�s]
+at Delos, see Barnes.
+
+[149] "I was conveyed by sailors and soldiers." ED. CAMB.
+
+[150] The same scholar quotes Soph. Ph. 43. [Greek: all' �' pi phorb�s
+noston exel�lythen], vhere [Greek: nostos] is used in the same manner as
+here, simply meaning "a journey."
+
+[151] But see Camb. ed.
+
+[152] I read [Greek: z�lousa tan] with the same.
+
+[153] The Cambridge critic again proposes [Greek: metabolai d' eudaimonia],
+which he felicitously supports. Musgrave has however partly anticipated
+this emendation.
+
+[154] Dindorf has shown so little care in editing this passage, that I have
+merely recalled the old reading, [Greek: aeri d' histia protonoi k. pr.
+hyper stolon ekp.], following the construction proposed by Heath, and
+approved, as it appears, by the Cambridge editor. Seidler's note is learned
+and instructive, but I have some doubts about his criticism.
+
+[155] i.e. I wish I might become a bird and fly homeward.
+
+[156] See ed. Camb.
+
+[157] But see ibid. Dindorf's text is a hopeless display of bad readings
+and worse punctuation.
+
+[158] Reading [Greek: gennas], I have done my best with this passage, but I
+can only refer to the Cambridge editor for a text and notes worthy of the
+play.
+
+[159] I have recalled the old reading, [Greek: hosia].
+
+[160] On these sort of prodigies, see Musgrave, and Dansq. on Quintus
+Calaber, xii. 497 sqq.
+
+[161] "in eo, ut" is the force of [Greek: en erg�i].
+
+[162] Perhaps a sly allusion to their escape.
+
+[163] See ed. Camb.
+
+[164] But we must read [Greek: tois te] with the Cambridge editor = "who
+know more than men."
+
+[165] I can not too early impress upon the reader the necessity of a
+careful attention to the criticisms of the Cambridge editor throughout this
+difficult chorus, especially to his masterly sketch of the whole, p. 146,
+147.
+
+[166] [Greek: pheren inin] is Burges' elegant emendation, the credit of
+which has been unduly claimed by Seidler.
+
+[167] i.e. the place afterward called Inopus. See Herm., whose construction
+I have followed.
+
+[168] On the [Greek: omphalos] see my note on �sch. Eum. p. 180, ed. Bohn.
+On the Delphic priesthood, compare ibid. p. 179.
+
+[169] See, however, the Cambridge editor.
+
+[170] Read [Greek: es thronon] with Barnes and Dind., or rather [Greek: epi
+Z�nos thronon] with Herm.
+
+[171] But see Dindorf.
+
+[172] See Dindorf's note, but still better the Cambridge editor.
+
+[173] I follow Seidler.
+
+[174] So ed. Camb.
+
+[175] i.e. what evil inspiration of the Gods impelled her to this act?
+Thoas, who is represented as superstitious to the most barbarian extent,
+naturally regards the infidelity of Iphigenia as proceeding from the
+intervention of heaven.
+
+[176] Cf. Monk. on Hippol. 828.
+
+[177] Cf. vs. 1197. [Greek: er�mias dei].
+
+[178] Dindorf and the Cambridge editor follow Hermann, who would place this
+line after vs. 1394.
+
+[179] So Musgrave.
+
+[180] Seidler has deserved well of this passage, both by his correction
+[Greek: toin xenoin] for [Greek: t�n xen�n], and by his learned and clear
+explanation of the nautical terms.
+
+[181] Dindorf has adopted Markland's emendation, but I prefer [Greek: h�st'
+exanapnein] with the Cambridge editor.
+
+[182] i.e. capsize.
+
+[183] But see ed. Camb.
+
+[184] I have introduced the line above mentioned, and have likewise adopted
+Hermann's introduction of [Greek: palimprymn�don] from Hesychius, in lieu
+of [Greek: palin prymn�si'].
+
+[185] See ed. Camb.
+
+[186] "The obvious intent of these measures was to fasten the vessel to
+some point of the rocks, and thus prevent her being wrecked." ED. CAMB.
+
+[187] "Our passage is thus to be understood, [Greek: h� halisketai prodousa
+to mn�moneuein theai phonon]." ED. CAMB.
+
+[188] So Hermann rightly explains the sense. I agree with the Cambridge
+editor, that if Euripides had intended to use [Greek: hosias]
+substantively, he would hardly have joined it with [Greek: theas], thereby
+causing an ambiguity.
+
+[189] There is another construction, taking [Greek: klim. theas] together.
+On the whole introduction of Minerva, see the clever note of the Cambridge
+editor, p. 158, 159.
+
+[190] There is evidently a lacuna, as the transition to Orestes is worse
+than abrupt. The mythological allusions in the following lines are well
+explained in the notes of Barnes and Seidler.
+
+[191] On these last verses see the end of the Orestes, with Dindorf's note.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Tragedies of Euripides, Volume I., by Euripides
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+      The Project Gutenberg eBook of the Tragedies of Euripides, Volume I.
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+<pre>
+
+Project Gutenberg's The Tragedies of Euripides, Volume I., by Euripides
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Tragedies of Euripides, Volume I.
+
+Author: Euripides
+
+Release Date: February 16, 2005 [EBook #15081]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TRAGEDIES OF EURIPIDES, ***
+
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+Produced by Charles Aldarondo, Keren Vergon, Keith Edkins and the
+PG Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
+
+
+
+
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+</pre>
+
+
+<p class="center">THE</p>
+<h2>TRAGEDIES</h2>
+<p class="center">OF</p>
+<h1>EURIPIDES.</h1>
+
+<p class="center">LITERALLY TRANSLATED OR REVISED,</p>
+<h3>WITH CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES,</h3>
+
+<p class="center">BY</p>
+<h3>THEODORE ALOIS BUCKLEY,</h3>
+<p class="center">OF CHRIST CHURCH.</p>
+
+<h3>VOL. I.</h3>
+
+<p class="center">HECUBA, ORESTES, PH&#338;NISS�, MEDEA, HIPPOLYTUS, ALCESTIS,<br />
+BACCH�, HERACLID�, IPHIGENIA IN AULIDE,<br />
+AND IPHIGENIA IN TAURIS.</p>
+
+<h3>NEW YORK:</h3>
+<p class="center">HARPER &amp; BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS,</p>
+<p class="center">FRANKLIN SQUARE.</p>
+
+<h3>1892.</h3>
+
+<hr class="full" />
+
+  <div class="personae">
+    <div class="stanza">
+	<p><a href="#PREFACE">PREFACE.</a></p>
+	<p><a href="#INTRODUCTION">INTRODUCTION.</a></p>
+	<p><a href="#HECUBA">HECUBA.</a></p>
+	<p><a href="#ORESTES">ORESTES.</a></p>
+	<p><a href="#PHOENISSAE">THE PH&#338;NICIAN VIRGINS.</a></p>
+	<p><a href="#MEDEA">MEDEA.</a></p>
+	<p><a href="#HIPPOLYTUS">HIPPOLYTUS.</a></p>
+	<p><a href="#ALCESTIS">ALCESTIS.</a></p>
+	<p><a href="#BACCHAE">THE BACCH�.</a></p>
+	<p><a href="#HERACLIDAE">THE HERACLID�.</a></p>
+	<p><a href="#AULIS">IPHIGENIA IN AULIS.</a></p>
+	<p><a href="#TAURIS">IPHIGENIA IN TAURIS.</a></p>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+
+<hr class="full" />
+<a name="PREFACE"></a>
+<h2>PREFACE.</h2>
+
+  <p>The translations of the first six plays in the present volume were
+  published at Oxford some years since, and have been frequently reprinted.
+  They are now carefully revised according to Dindorf's text, and are
+  accompanied by a few additional notes adapted to the requirements of the
+  student.</p>
+
+  <p>The translations of the Bacch�, Heraclid�, and the two Iphigenias, are
+  based upon the same text, with certain exceptions, which are pointed out
+  at the foot of the page. The annotations on the Iphigenias are almost
+  exclusively critical, as it is presumed that a student who proceeds to
+  the reading of these somewhat difficult plays<a name="NtA_1"></a><a
+  href="#Nt_1"><sup>[1]</sup></a>, will be sufficiently advanced in his
+  acquaintance with the Greek drama to dispense with more elementary
+  information.</p>
+
+  <div class="poem">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <p class="i8">T.A. BUCKLEY,</p>
+      <p class="i8">    CHRIST CHURCH, OXFORD.</p>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+<div class="note">
+  <p><a name="Nt_1"></a><a href="#NtA_1">[1]</a> The reader will obtain
+  some notion of the difficulties alluded to, and the best mode of
+  grappling with them, by consulting the recent Cambridge edition,
+  published with English notes (Iph. in Aulide, 1840, in Tauris, 1846),
+  performances of great critical acumen, attributed to the present Bishop
+  of Gloucester.</p>
+
+</div>
+<hr class="full" />
+
+<a name="INTRODUCTION"></a>
+<h2>INTRODUCTION.</h2>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+  <p>Euripides, son of Mnesarchus, was born in the island of Salamis, on
+  the day of the celebrated victory (B.C. 480). His mother, Clito, had been
+  sent thither in company with the other Athenian women, when Attica was
+  given up, and the ships became at once the refuge of the male population,
+  and the national defense. Mr. Donaldson<a name="Int_1"></a><a
+  href="#IntN_1"><sup>[1]</sup></a> well remarks, that the patronymic form
+  of his name, derived from the Euripus, which was the scene of the first
+  successful resistance offered to the Persian navy, shows that the
+  attention of his parents was fully excited by the stirring events of the
+  time.</p>
+
+  <p>Notwithstanding the fact that his mother had been an herb-seller, it
+  is probable that his father was a man of some family. That he was at
+  least possessed of ample means, is evident from the care and expense
+  bestowed upon our poet's education. Under the tutorship of Anaxagoras,
+  Prodicus, and Protagoras, he had studied both natural philosophy and
+  rhetoric in its sophistical form. In gymnastic exercises he exhibited a
+  successful prowess, being twice victorious in the Eleusinian and Thesean
+  games. Of his skill in painting, some specimens were preserved at
+  Megara.</p>
+
+  <p>His appearance as a dramatist was at an earlier age than that of his
+  predecessors, as he was only five and twenty years old when he produced
+  the "Peliades," his first tragedy. On this occasion, he gained the third
+  prize in the tragic contests, but the first, fourteen years after, and
+  subsequently, with the "Hippolytus," in 428 B.C. The peculiar tendency of
+  some of the ideas expressed in his plays, was the probable cause of the
+  retirement of Euripides to Macedonia, where he obtained the friendship of
+  King Archelaus. Perhaps, however, the unhappiness of his connubial state,
+  arising from the infidelity of his two wives, might have rendered Athens
+  a disagreeable place of abode for the woman-hating poet, especially when
+  his "domestic bliss" was continually seasoned by the sarcastic jokes and
+  allusions of his political enemy, Aristophanes. Moreover, his
+  acquaintance with the talking philosopher, Socrates, must have been
+  unfavorable to the continuance of his popularity.</p>
+
+  <p>The fate of Pentheus in our author's noble play, the "Bacch�," appears
+  to have given origin to the tradition that he himself was torn to pieces
+  by dogs. If we reflect that this play was probably the last of his works,
+  the mistake seems a plausible one. The death of Euripides, which probably
+  happened in the ordinary course of nature, has, like that of �schylus,
+  been associated with the marvelous.</p>
+
+  <p>The Athenians vainly craved the honor of giving a resting-place to the
+  ashes of their philosopher-poet. He was buried at Pella, but a cenotaph
+  at Athens showed that his countrymen had not forgotten Euripides. His
+  death took place B.C. 406.</p>
+
+  <p>The inferiority of our author to the greater tragedians, prevents our
+  feeling much desire to enter upon the respective merits and demerits of
+  his several plays, especially as we are completely anticipated by
+  Schlegel, with whose masterly analysis every reader ought to be
+  acquainted. Nevertheless, a few general remarks may, perhaps, be not
+  wholly unprofitable.</p>
+
+  <p>It has been truly remarked, that tragedy, in no small degree, owed its
+  downfall to Euripides. Poetry was gradually superseded by rhetoric,
+  sublimity by earnestness, pathos by reasoning. Thus, Iphigenia and
+  Macaria give so many good reasons for dying, that the sacrifice appears
+  very small, and a modern wag in the upper regions of the theatre would,
+  at the end of the speech of the latter heroine, almost have exclaimed,
+  "Then why don't you die?"</p>
+
+  <p>It has been said, that our poet drew the characters of life as he
+  found them, but bad as his characters are, they exhibit only a vulgar
+  wickedness. Unable to portray a Clyt�mnestra, he revels in the continual
+  paltriness of a Menelaus or Ulysses. As if he took a delight in the black
+  side of humanity, he loves to show the strength of false reasoning, of
+  sophistry antagonistic to truth, and of cold expediency in opposition to
+  the natural feelings of humanity. From a similar reason, his occasional
+  attempts at comedy degenerate into mere farce. We question whether the
+  scene between Death and Apollo in the "Alcestis," could be surpassed in
+  vulgarity, even by the modern school of English dramatists, while his
+  exaggerations in the minor characters are scarcely to be surpassed by the
+  lowest writer of any period.</p>
+
+  <p>Under Euripides, the stage began gradually to approximate more closely
+  to the ordinary and, at that time, debased character of Athenian society.
+  A contempt for the Laced�monians, a passionate taste for the babbling and
+  trickery of the forum, and an attempt to depreciate the social position
+  and influence of the weaker sex, form the most unamiable features of this
+  change. Yet we must allow, that if Euripides has reveled in the
+  amiabilities of a Melanippe or a Ph�dra, in the gentle revenge of a Medea
+  or Hecuba, he has at the same time given us an Alcestis, the only real
+  example of genuine conjugal affection on the Greek stage.</p>
+
+  <p>Nor must we forget that Euripides is a greater admirer of nature, a
+  more complete delineator of her workings, than the two greater
+  tragedians. He has more of illustrative philosophy, more of regard to the
+  objects of the animated creation, the system of the universe, than his
+  greater rivals exhibit. He is, as Vitruvius has justly styled him, a
+  "stage-philosopher." Did we possess a larger acquaintance with the works
+  of Parmenides, Empedocles, and other early cosmogonists, we should
+  perhaps think less of his merits on this head: as it is, the possession
+  of some such fragments of our poet makes us deeply regret the loss of the
+  plays themselves.</p>
+
+  <p>But his very love for the contemplation of nature has in no small
+  degree contributed to the mischievous skepticism promulgated by our poet.
+  In early times, when a rural theogony was the standard of belief, when
+  each star had its deity, each deity its undisputed, unquestioned
+  prerogative and worship, there was little inclination, less opportunity,
+  for skepticism. Throughout the poetry of Hesiod, we find this feeling
+  ever predominant, a feeling which Virgil and Tibullus well knew how to
+  appreciate. Even Euripides himself, perhaps taught by some dangerous
+  lessons at home, has expressed his belief that it is best "not to be too
+  clever in matters regarding the Gods."<a name="Int_2"></a><a
+  href="#IntN_2"><sup>[2]</sup></a> A calm retreat in the wild, picturesque
+  tracts of Macedonia, might have had some share in reforming this spoiled
+  pupil of the sophists. But as we find that the too careful contemplation
+  of nature degenerates into superstition or rationalism in their various
+  forms, so Euripides had imbibed the taste for saying startling things,<a
+  name="Int_3"></a><a href="#IntN_3"><sup>[3]</sup></a> rather than wise;
+  for reducing the principles of creation to materialism, the doctrines of
+  right and wrong to expediency, and immutable truths to a popular system
+  of question and answer. Like the generality of sophists, he took away a
+  received truth, and left nothing to supply its place; he reasoned
+  falsehood into probability, truth into nonentity.</p>
+
+  <p>At a period when the Prodico-Socratic style of disputing was in high
+  fashion, the popularity of Euripides must have been excessive. His
+  familiar appeals to the trifling matters of ordinary life, his characters
+  all philosophizing, from the prince to the dry-nurse, his excellent
+  reasons for doing right or wrong, as the case might be, must have been
+  inestimably delightful to the accommodating morals of the Athenians. The
+  Court of Charles the Second could hardly have derived more pleasure from
+  the writings of a Behn or a Hamilton, than these unworthy descendants of
+  Codrus must have experienced in hearing a bad cause so cleverly defended.
+  Whether the orators and dikasts followed the example of the stage in
+  those days, can scarcely be ascertained, but it is more than certain that
+  they practically illustrated its principles. At least, the Sicilians were
+  so fond of our author, that a few of the unfortunate survivors of the
+  Syracusan disaster, were enabled to pick up a living by quoting such
+  passages of our author as they had learned by heart. A compliment paid to
+  few living dramatists in our days!</p>
+
+  <p>In dramatic conduct, Euripides is at an even greater disadvantage with
+  �schylus and Sophocles. The best characters of the piece are often the
+  least employed, as in the instance of Macaria in the "Heraclid�," while
+  the play is dwindled away with dull, heavy dirges, and the complaints of
+  senile childishness. The chorus, as Aristotle<a name="Int_4"></a><a
+  href="#IntN_4"><sup>[4]</sup></a> has remarked, is most unfortunately
+  independent of the plot, although the finest poetry is generally to be
+  found in the lyric portions of our author's plays. In fact, Euripides
+  rather wanted management in employing his resources, than the resources
+  themselves. An ear well attuned to the harmony of verse, a delicate
+  perception of the graceful points of language, and a finished subtilty in
+  touching the more minute feelings and impulses of the mind, were all
+  thrown away either upon bad subjects or worse principles. There is no
+  true tragedy in Euripides, He is a melodramatist, but not according to
+  the modern acceptation. His plays might end either happily or the
+  reverse. A deity conveniently brought in, the arrival of a messenger,
+  however unexpectedly, together with a liberal allowance for a cowardly
+  revenge upon the vanquished&mdash;these are the Euripidean elements for
+  giving a tragic end to a play. Nay, so great is the prodigality of
+  slaughter throughout his dramas, that we can but imagine morbid cruelty
+  to have formed a considerable ingredient in the disposition of Euripides.
+  Even his pathos is somewhat tinctured with this taste for painful images.
+  As we have beheld in our own times a barbarian alternately glut his sight
+  with executions, and then shed floods of tears, and sink into idiot
+  despondency; so the poetry of Euripides in turn disgusts us with
+  outrageous cruelty, and depresses us with the most painful demands upon
+  our compassion.</p>
+
+  <p>In the lyric portions of his dramas, our poet has been far more
+  successful. The description of the capture of Troy by night,<a
+  name="Int_5"></a><a href="#IntN_5"><sup>[5]</sup></a> is a splendid
+  specimen of animation blended with true pathos. But taken as a whole.
+  Euripides is a most unequal author. We may commence a play with pleasure
+  (but O for the prologues!), we may proceed with satisfaction, but the
+  feeling rarely lasts to the end. If I may venture an opinion upon so
+  uncertain a subject, I should name the Hippolytus, Ion, Troades, Bacch�,
+  and Iphigenia in Aulis as his best plays, placing the Ph&#339;niss�,
+  Alcestis, Medea, Hecuba, and Orestes in a lower rank. The Helena is an
+  amusing heap of absurdities, and reads much better in the burlesque of
+  Aristophanes; the Electra is utterly beneath criticism; the Cyclops a
+  weak, but humorous imitation of Homer. The other plays appear to be
+  neither bad nor good.</p>
+
+  <p>The style of Euripides is, generally speaking, easy; and I can mention
+  no author from whom a taste for elegant Greek and a facility in
+  composition can more easily be derived. Some of his plays have suffered
+  severely from the ravages of time, the ignorance of copyists, and the
+  more dangerous officiousness of grammarians. Some passages of the Bacch�,
+  Rhesus, Troades, and the two Iphigenias, despite the ingenuity and
+  erudition of such scholars as Porson, Elmsley, Monk, Burges, and a host
+  of others, must still remain mere matter for guessing. Hermann's
+  Euripides is, as a whole, sadly unworthy the abilities of the Humboldt of
+  Greek literature.</p>
+
+  <p>The present volume contains the most popular of our author's works,
+  according to present usage. But the spirit which is gradually infusing
+  itself into the minds of those who are most actively engaged in the
+  educational system of England, fully warrants a hope that Porson's "four
+  plays" will shortly cease to be the boundaries of the student's
+  acquaintance with Euripides.</p>
+
+  <p>I need scarcely observe, that the study of Aristophanes is
+  indissolubly connected with that of our author. If the reader discover
+  the painful fact that the burlesque writer is greater than the tragedian,
+  he will perhaps also recollect that such a literary relation is,
+  unfortunately, by no means confined to the days of Aristophanes.</p>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+<h3>Notes on the Introduction</h3>
+
+<div class="note">
+  <p><a name="IntN_1"></a><a href="#Int_1">[1]</a> See Theatre of the
+  Greeks, p. 92. sqq.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IntN_2"></a><a href="#Int_2">[2]</a> Bacch. 200. This play
+  was written during his sojourn with Archelaus.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IntN_3"></a><a href="#Int_3">[3]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="toioutoni ti
+  parakekindeumenon">&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3BA;&#x3B5;&#x3BA;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;&#x3B4;&#x3B5;&#x3C5;&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span>.
+  Aristoph. Ran. 99.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IntN_4"></a><a href="#Int_4">[4]</a> Poet. � xviii.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IntN_5"></a><a href="#Int_5">[5]</a> Hec. 905 sqq.</p>
+
+</div>
+<hr class="full" />
+
+<a name="HECUBA"></a>
+<h2>HECUBA.</h2>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+<h3>PERSONS REPRESENTED.</h3>
+
+  <div class="personae">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <p>GHOST OF POLYDORE.</p>
+      <p>HECUBA.</p>
+      <p>CHORUS OF FEMALE CAPTIVES.</p>
+      <p>POLYXENA.</p>
+      <p>ULYSSES.</p>
+      <p>TALTHYBIUS.</p>
+      <p>FEMALE ATTENDANT.</p>
+      <p>AGAMEMNON.</p>
+      <p>POLYMESTOR AND HIS CHILDREN.</p>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+<p class="center"><i>The Scene lies before the Grecian tents, on the coast of the Thracian Chersonese.</i></p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h3>THE ARGUMENT.</h3>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+  <p>After the capture of Troy, the Greeks put into the Chersonese over
+  against Troas, But Achilles, having appeared by night, demanded one of
+  the daughters of Priam to be slain. The Greeks therefore, in honor to
+  their hero, tore Polyxena from Hecuba, and offered her up in sacrifice.
+  Polymestor moreover, the king of the Thracians, murdered Polydore, a son
+  of Priam's. Now Polymestor had received him from the hands of Priam as a
+  charge to take care of, together with some money. But when the city was
+  taken, wishing to seize upon his wealth, he determined to dispatch him,
+  and disregarded the ill-fated friendship that subsisted between them; but
+  his body being cast out into the sea, the wave threw him up on the shore
+  before the tents of the captive women. Hecuba, on seeing the corse,
+  recognized it; and having imparted her design to Agamemnon, sent for
+  Polymestor to come to her with his sons, concealing what had happened,
+  under pretense that she might discover to him some treasures hidden in
+  Ilium. But on his arrival she slew his sons, and put out his eyes; but
+  pleading her cause before the Greeks, she gained it over her accuser
+  (Polymestor). For it was decided that she did not begin the cruelty, but
+  only avenged herself on him who did begin it.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2>HECUBA.</h2>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+<p class="center">GHOST OF POLYDORE.</p>
+
+  <p>I am present, having left the secret dwellings of the dead and the
+  gates of darkness, where Pluto has his abode apart from the other Gods,
+  Polydore the son of Hecuba the daughter of Cisseus,<a name="Hec_1"></a><a
+  href="#HecN_1"><sup>[1]</sup></a> and Priam my sire, who when the danger
+  of falling by the spear of Greece was threatening the city of the
+  Phrygians, in fear, privately sent me from the Trojan land to the house
+  of Polymestor, his Thracian friend, who cultivates the most fruitful soil
+  of the Chersonese, ruling a warlike people with his spear.<a
+  name="Hec_2"></a><a href="#HecN_2"><sup>[2]</sup></a> But my father sends
+  privately with me a large quantity of gold, in order that, if at any time
+  the walls of Troy should fall, there might not be a lack of sustenance
+  for his surviving children. But I was the youngest of the sons of Priam;
+  on which account also he sent me privately from the land, for I was able
+  neither to bear arms nor the spear with my youthful arm. As long then
+  indeed as the landmarks of the country remained erect, and the towers of
+  Troy were unshaken, and Hector my brother prevailed with his spear, I
+  miserable increased vigorously as some young branch, by the nurture I
+  received at the hands of the Thracian, my father's friend. But after that
+  both Troy and the life of Hector were put an end to, and my father's
+  mansions razed to the ground, and himself falls at the altar built by the
+  God, slain by the blood-polluted son of Achilles, the friend of my father
+  slays me, wretched man, for the sake of my gold, and having slain me
+  threw me into the surf of the sea, that he might possess the gold himself
+  in his palace. But I am exposed on the shore, at another time on the
+  ocean's surge, borne about by many ebbings and flowings of the waves,
+  unwept, unburied; but at present I am hastening on my dear mother's
+  account, having left my body, borne aloft this day already the third,<a
+  name="Hec_3"></a><a href="#HecN_3"><sup>[3]</sup></a> for so long has my
+  wretched mother been present in this territory of the Chersonese from
+  Troy. But all the Grecians, holding their ships at anchor, are sitting
+  quiet on the shores of this land of Thrace. For Achilles the son of
+  Peleus, appearing above his tomb, stayed all the army of the Grecians as
+  they were directing homeward their sea dipped oars; and asks to receive
+  my sister Polyxena as a dear victim, and a tribute of honor to his tomb.
+  And this he will obtain, nor will he be without this gift from his
+  friends; and fate this day leads forth my sister to death. But my mother
+  will see the two corses of her two children, both mine and the unhappy
+  virgin's; for I shall appear on a breaker before the feet of a female
+  slave, that I wretched may obtain sepulture; for I have successfully
+  entreated those who have power beneath to find a tomb, and to fall into
+  my mother's hands. As much then as I wish to have shall be mine; but I
+  will withdraw myself out of the way of the aged Hecuba, for she is
+  advancing her step beyond the tent of Agamemnon, dreading my phantom.
+  Alas! O my mother, who, from kingly palaces, hast beheld the day of
+  slavery, how unfortunate art thou now, in the degree that thou wert once
+  fortunate! but some one of the Gods counterpoising your state, destroys
+  you on account of your ancient prosperity.</p>
+
+<p class="center">HECUBA. CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. Lead onward, ye Trojan dames, the old woman before the tent; lead
+  onward, raising up one now your fellow-slave, but once your queen; take
+  me, bear me, conduct me, support my body, holding my aged hand; and I,
+  leaning on the bending staff of my hand,<a name="Hec_4"></a><a
+  href="#HecN_4"><sup>[4]</sup></a> will hasten to put forward the slow
+  motion of my joints. O lightning of Jove! O thou gloomy night! why, I
+  pray, am I thus disquieted in the night with terrors, with phantoms? O
+  thou venerable Earth, the mother of black-winged dreams, I renounce the
+  nightly vision, which regarding my son who is preserved in Thrace, and
+  regarding Polyxena my dear daughter, in my dreams have I beheld, a
+  fearful sight, I have learned, I have understood. Gods of this land,
+  preserve my son, who, my only son, and, [as it were,] the anchor of my
+  house, inhabits the snowy Thrace under the protection of his father's
+  friend. Some strange event will take place, some strain will come
+  mournful to the mournful. Never did my mind so incessantly shudder and
+  tremble. Where, I pray, ye Trojan dames, can I behold the divine spirit
+  of Helenus, or Cassandra, that they may interpret my dreams? For I beheld
+  a dappled hind torn by the blood-stained fang of the wolf, forcibly
+  dragged from my bosom, a miserable sight. And dreadful this vision also;
+  the spectre of Achilles came above the summit of his tomb, and demanded
+  as a tribute of honor one of the wretched Trojan women. From my daughter
+  then, from my daughter avert this fate, ye Gods, I implore you.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Hecuba, with haste to thee I flew, leaving the tents of our
+  lords, where I was allotted and ordained a slave, driven from the city of
+  Troy, led captive of the Greeks by the point of the spear, not to
+  alleviate aught of your sufferings, but bringing a heavy weight of
+  tidings, and to thee, O lady, a herald of woe. For it is said that it has
+  been decreed in the full council of the Greeks to make thy daughter a
+  sacrifice to Achilles: for you know how that having ascended o'er his
+  tomb, he appeared in his golden arms and restrained the fleet ships, as
+  they were setting their sails with their halliards, exclaiming in these
+  words; "Where speed ye, Grecians, leaving my tomb unhonored!" Then the
+  waves of great contention clashed together, and a divided opinion went
+  forth through the army of the Greeks; to some it appeared advisable to
+  give a victim to his tomb, and to others it appeared not. But Agamemnon
+  was studious to advance your good, cherishing the love of the infuriated
+  prophetess. But the two sons of Theseus, scions of Athens, were the
+  proposers of different arguments, but in this one opinion they coincided,
+  to crown the tomb of Achilles with fresh blood; and declared they would
+  never prefer the bed of Cassandra before the spear of Achilles. And the
+  strength of the arguments urged on either side was in a manner equal,
+  till that subtle adviser, that babbling knave,<a name="Hec_5"></a><a
+  href="#HecN_5"><sup>[5]</sup></a> honeyed in speech, pleasing to the
+  populace, that son of Laertes, persuades the army, not to reject the suit
+  of the noblest of all the Greeks on account of a captive victim, and not
+  to put it in the power of any of the dead standing near Proserpine to say
+  that the Grecians departed from the plains of Troy ungrateful to the
+  heroes who died for the state of Greece. And Ulysses will come only not
+  now, to tear your child from your bosom, and to take her from your aged
+  arms. But go to the temples, speed to the altars, sit a suppliant at the
+  knees of Agamemnon, invoke the Gods, both those of heaven, and those
+  under the earth; for either thy prayers will prevent thy being deprived
+  of thy wretched daughter, or thou must behold the virgin falling before
+  the tomb, dyed in blood gushing forth in a dark stream from her neck
+  adorned with gold.<a name="Hec_6"></a><a
+  href="#HecN_6"><sup>[6]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>HEC. Alas! wretched me! what shall I exclaim? what shriek shall I
+  utter? what lamentation? miserable through miserable age, and slavery not
+  to be endured, insupportable. Alas! who is there to defend me? what
+  offspring, what city! The old man is gone. My children are gone. Whither
+  shall I turn me? and whither shall I go? Where is any god or deity to
+  succor me? O Trojan dames, bearers of evil tidings, bearers of woe, you
+  have destroyed me utterly, you have destroyed me. Life in the light is no
+  more desirable! O wretched foot, lead, lead an aged woman to this tent! O
+  child, daughter of the most afflicted mother, come forth, come forth from
+  the tent, hear thy mother's voice, that thou mayest know what a report I
+  hear that concerns thy life.</p>
+
+<p class="center">HECUBA, POLYXENA, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>POLYX. O mother, why dost thou call! proclaiming what new affliction
+  hast thou frighted me from the tent, as some bird from its nest, with
+  this alarm?</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. Alas! my child!</p>
+
+  <p>POLYX. Why address me in words of ill omen? This is an evil
+  prelude.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. Alas! for thy life.</p>
+
+  <p>POLYX. Speak, conceal it no longer from me. I fear, I fear, my mother;
+  why I pray dost thou groan?</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. O child, child of an unhappy mother!</p>
+
+  <p>POLYX. Why sayest thou this?</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. My child, the common decree of the Greeks unites to slay thee at
+  the tomb of the son of Peleus.</p>
+
+  <p>POLYX. Alas, my mother! how are you relating unenviable ills? Tell me,
+  tell me, my mother.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. I declare, my child, the ill-omened report, they bring word that
+  a decree has passed by the vote of the Greeks regarding thy life.</p>
+
+  <p>POLYX. O thou that hast borne affliction! O thou wretched on every
+  side! O mother unhappy in your life, what most hated and most unutterable
+  calamity has some destiny again sent against thee! This child is no
+  longer thine; no longer indeed shall I miserable share slavery with
+  miserable age. For as a mountain whelp or heifer shalt thou wretched
+  behold me wretched torn from thine arms, and sent down beneath the
+  darkness of the earth a victim to Pluto, where I shall lie bound in
+  misery with the dead. But it is for thee indeed, my afflicted mother,
+  that I lament in these mournful strains, but for my life, my wrongs, my
+  fate, I mourn not; but death, a better lot, has befallen me.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. But see Ulysses advances with hasty step, to declare to thee,
+  Hecuba, some new determination.</p>
+
+<p class="center">ULYSSES, HECUBA, POLYXENA, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>ULYSS. Lady, I imagine that you are acquainted with the decree of the
+  army, and the vote which has prevailed; nevertheless, I will declare it.
+  It has been decreed by the Greeks to offer on the lofty mound of
+  Achilles's tomb thy daughter Polyxena. But they order me to conduct and
+  convey the damsel; but the son of Achilles is appointed to be the priest,
+  and to preside over the rites. Do you know then what to do? Be not
+  dragged away by violence, nor enter into a contest of strength with me,
+  but acknowledge superior force and the presence of thy ills; it is wise
+  to have proper sentiments even in adversity.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. Alas! alas! the great trial is at hand, as it seems, of
+  lamentations full, nor without tears; for I have not died in the state in
+  which I ought to have died, nor hath Jove destroyed me, but preserves me,
+  that I wretched may behold other misfortunes greater than [past]
+  misfortunes. But if it be allowed slaves to put questions to the free,
+  not offensive nor grating to the feelings, it will be your part to be
+  questioned, and ours who are asking to attend.</p>
+
+  <p>ULYSS. You have permission, ask freely, I grudge not the time.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. Dost thou remember when thou camest a spy on Troy, disfigured by
+  a vile dress, and from thine eyes drops caused by the fear of death
+  bedewed thy beard?</p>
+
+  <p>ULYSS. I remember well; for it made no slight impression on my
+  heart.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. But Helen knew thee, and told me alone.</p>
+
+  <p>ULYSS. I remember the great danger I encountered.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. And didst thou embrace my knees in thy humility?</p>
+
+  <p>ULYSS. So that my hand was numbered<a name="Hec_7"></a><a
+  href="#HecN_7"><sup>[7]</sup></a> through fear on thy garments.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. What then didst thou say, being then my slave?</p>
+
+  <p>ULYSS. Many arguments that I invented to save me from death.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. Did I preserve thee then, and conduct thee safe from the
+  land?</p>
+
+  <p>ULYSS. Yes, so that I now behold the light of the sun.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. Art thou not then convicted of baseness by this conduct, who hast
+  received benefits from me such as thou acknowledgest thou hast, and doest
+  us no good in return, but evil, as far as in thee lies? Thankless is your
+  race, as many of you as court honor from oratory before the populace; be
+  ye not known to me, who care not to injure your friends, provided you say
+  what is gratifying to the people. But plotting what dark design have they
+  determined upon a decree of death against my child? Did fate impel them
+  to offer human sacrifices at the tomb, where it were rather right to
+  sacrifice cattle? Or does Achilles, desirous of devoting in his turn to
+  death those that wrought his death, with a color of justice meditate her
+  destruction? But she has done him no ill: he should demand Helen as a
+  sacrifice on his tomb; for she destroyed him, and brought him to Troy.
+  But if some captive selected from the rest, and excelling in beauty,
+  ought to die, this is not ours. For the daughter of Tyndarus is most
+  preeminent in beauty, and has been found to be no less injurious than us.
+  On the score of justice then I urge this argument; but with respect to
+  what you ought to repay at my demand, hear: thou hast touched my hand, as
+  thou ownest, and this aged cheek also, falling at my knees. Thy hand and
+  knees I in return grasp, and re-demand the favor I granted you then, and
+  beseech you, do not tear my child from my arms, nor kill her; enough have
+  died already. In her I rejoice, and forget my misfortunes; she serves as
+  my consolation in the stead of many things, she is my city, my nurse, my
+  staff, the guide of my way. It becomes not those who have power to
+  exercise their power in things wherein they ought not, nor should the
+  fortunate imagine their fortune will last forever. For I too have had my
+  time of prosperity, but now have I ceased to be: one day wrenched from me
+  all my happiness. But by thy beard which I supplicate, reverence me, pity
+  me; go to the Grecian army, and remind them that it is a shameful thing
+  to slay women whom ye have once spared, and that too dragging them from
+  the altar. But show mercy. But the laws of blood among you are laid down
+  alike for the free and the slave. But your worth will carry with it
+  persuasion, although your arguments be bad; for the same words from those
+  of little character, have not the same force as when they proceed from
+  those of high reputation.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. There is no nature of man so obdurate, which on hearing thy
+  groans, and thy long plaints of misery, would not let fall the tear.</p>
+
+  <p>ULYSS. Hecuba, be advised, nor through passion deem him thine enemy
+  who gives thee good advice. I indeed am ready to preserve thy person
+  through the means of which I was fortunate; and I say no other. But what
+  I declared before all I will not deny, that, Troy being captured, we
+  should give thy daughter as a victim to the noblest man of the army, who
+  demands her; for in this many cities fail, when any man who is brave and
+  zealous receives no more honor than those who are less valiant. But
+  Achilles, O lady, is worthy of honor from us, a man who died most
+  gloriously in behalf of the Grecian country. Were not then this
+  disgraceful, if when living we treat him as a friend, but after he is
+  gone we no longer treat him so? Well! what then will any one say, if
+  there again should be an assembling of the army, and a contest with the
+  enemy: "Shall we fight or preserve our lives, seeing that he who falls
+  lies unhonored?" But for me at least, living from day to day, although I
+  have but little, that little is sufficient; but I would wish that my
+  monument should be beheld crowned with honor, for the gratification is
+  for a long time. But if thou sayest thou sufferest affliction, hear this
+  in return from me. There are with us aged matrons, and hoary sires, not
+  less wretched than thou art, and brides bereft of the noblest husbands,
+  whose ashes this land of Troy conceals. Endure this. But we, if we
+  injudiciously determine to honor the brave man, shall incur the charge of
+  folly. But you barbarians neither consider your friends as friends, nor
+  do you hold up to admiration those who have died honorably; thus shall
+  Greece be prosperous, but you shall experience fortune corresponding to
+  your counsels.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Alas! alas! how wretched is the state of slavery, and to endure
+  indignities compelled by superior force! (Note <a name="Hec_B"></a><a
+  href="#HecN_B">[B]</a>.)</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. O daughter, my words respecting thy death are vanished in the
+  air, set forth in vain; but thou, if thou hast greater powers [of
+  persuasion] than thy mother, use all thy influence, uttering every note
+  as the throat of the nightingale, that thou mayest not be deprived of
+  life. But fall before the knees of Ulysses in all the eloquence of grief,
+  and persuade him; thou hast a pretext, for he also hath children; so that
+  he may be inclined to pity thy fortune.</p>
+
+  <p>POLYX. I see, Ulysses, that thou art hiding thy hand beneath thy robe,
+  and turnest thy face away, that I may not touch thy beard. Be not afraid;
+  thou hast avoided my suppliant Jove; for I will follow thee both on
+  account of fate, and even wishing to die; but if I were not willing, I
+  should appear base, and too fond of life. For wherefore should I live,
+  whose father was monarch of all the Trojans; this my dawn of life. Then
+  was I nurtured under fair hope, a bride for princes, having no small
+  competition for my hand, to whose palace and hearth I should come. But I,
+  wretched now, was mistress among the Trojan women, and conspicuous in the
+  train of virgins, equal to goddesses, death only excepted. But now I am a
+  slave; first of all the very name, not being familiar, persuades me to
+  love death. Then perhaps I might meet with masters cruel in disposition,
+  who will buy me for silver, the sister both of Hector and many other
+  [heroes.] And imposing the task of making bread in his palace, will
+  compel me, passing the day in misery, both to sweep the house, and stand
+  at the loom. And some slave somewhere purchased will defile my bed,
+  before wooed by princes. This never shall be. I will quit this light from
+  mine eyes free, offering my body to Pluto. Lead on then, Ulysses, conduct
+  me to death; for I see neither confidence of hope, nor of expectation,
+  present to me that I can ever enjoy good fortune. But do thou, my mother,
+  in no wise hinder me by your words or by your actions; but assent to my
+  death before I meet with indignities unsuited to my rank. For one who has
+  not been accustomed to taste misfortunes bears indeed, but grieves, to
+  put his neck under the yoke. But he would be far more blessed in death
+  than in life; for to live otherwise than honorably is a great burden.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. It is a great and distinguishing feature among men to be born of
+  generous parents, and the name of nobility of birth among the
+  illustrious, proceeds from great to greater still.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. You have spoken honorably, my daughter, but in that honorable
+  dwells grief. But if the son of Peleus must be gratified, and you must
+  escape blame, Ulysses, kill not her; but leading me to the pyre of
+  Achilles, strike me, spare me not; I brought forth Paris, who destroyed
+  the son of Thetis, having pierced him with his arrows.</p>
+
+  <p>ULYSS. The phantom of Achilles did not demand that thou, O aged lady,
+  but that thy daughter here should die.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. Do thou then at least slay me with my daughter, and there will be
+  twice the libation of blood for the earth, and the dead who makes this
+  request.</p>
+
+  <p>ULYSS. Thy daughter's death suffices; one must not be heaped on
+  another; would that we required not even this one.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. There is a strong necessity for me to die with my daughter.</p>
+
+  <p>ULYSS. How so? for I am not aware of any master that I have.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. As the ivy the oak, so will I clasp her.</p>
+
+  <p>ULYSS. Not so; if you will take the advice of your superiors in
+  knowledge.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. Never will I willingly quit my child here.</p>
+
+  <p>ULYSS. Nor will I leave this place without the virgin.</p>
+
+  <p>POLYX. Mother, be persuaded; and thou, son of Laertes, be gentle to a
+  parent with reason moved to anger. But thou, O wretched mother, contend
+  not with conquerors. Dost thou wish to fall on the earth and to wound thy
+  aged flesh dragged by violence, and to suffer the indignity of being torn
+  by a youthful arm? which things you will suffer. Do not, I pray thee, for
+  it is not seemly. But, my dear mother, give me thy beloved hand, and
+  grant me to join cheek to cheek; since never hereafter, but now for the
+  last time shall I behold the rays of the sun and his bright orb. Receive
+  my last address, O mother! O thou that bearedst me, I am going below.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. And I, O daughter, shall be a slave in the light of day.</p>
+
+  <p>POLYX. Without the bridegroom, without the bridal song, which I ought
+  to have obtained.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. Mournful thou, my child; but I am a wretched woman.</p>
+
+  <p>POLYX. There shall I lie in darkness far from thee.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. Alas me, what shall I do? where end my life?</p>
+
+  <p>POLYX. I shall die a slave, born of a free father.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. But I bereft indeed of fifty children.</p>
+
+  <p>POLYX. What message shall I bear to Hector, and to thy aged
+  husband?</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. Tell them that I am most miserable of all women.</p>
+
+  <p>POLYX. O ye breasts that tenderly nursed me.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. O daughter of an untimely and unhappy fate.</p>
+
+  <p>POLYX. Farewell, O mother, farewell Cassandra too.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. Others farewell, but this is not for thy mother.</p>
+
+  <p>POLYX. Farewell, my brother Polydore, among the warlike Thracians.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. If he lives at least: but I doubt, so unfortunate am I in every
+  thing.</p>
+
+  <p>POLTX. He lives, and shall close thy dying eye.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. I am dead, before my death, beneath my ills.</p>
+
+  <p>POLYX. Lead me, Ulysses, having covered my face with a veil, since,
+  before I am sacrificed indeed, I am melted in heart at my mother's
+  plaints, her also I melt by my lamentations. O light, for yet it is
+  allowed me to express thy name, but I have no share in thee, except
+  during the time that I am going between the sword and the pyre of
+  Achilles.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. Ah me! I faint; and my limbs fail me.&mdash;O daughter, touch thy
+  mother, stretch forth thy hand&mdash;give it me&mdash;leave me not
+  childless&mdash;I am lost, my friends. Would that I might see the Spartan
+  Helen, the sister of the twin sons of Jove, thus, for through her bright
+  eyes that most vile woman destroyed the happy Troy.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Gale, gale of the sea,<a name="Hec_8"></a><a
+  href="#HecN_8"><sup>[8]</sup></a> which waftest the swift barks bounding
+  through the waves through the surge of the ocean, whither wilt thou bear
+  me hapless? To whose mansion shall I come, a purchased slave? Or to the
+  port of the Doric or Phthian shore, where they report that Apidanus, the
+  most beautiful father of floods, enriches the plains? or wilt thou bear
+  me hapless urged by the maritime oar, passing a life of misery in my
+  prison-house, to that island<a name="Hec_9"></a><a
+  href="#HecN_9"><sup>[9]</sup></a> where both the first-born palm tree and
+  the laurel shot forth their hallowed branches to their beloved Latona,
+  emblem of the divine parturition? And with the Delian nymphs shall I
+  celebrate in song the golden chaplet and bow of Diana? Or, in the
+  Athenian city, shall I upon the saffron robe harness the steeds to the
+  car of Minerva splendid in her chariot, representing them in embroidery
+  upon the splendid looms of brilliant threads, or the race of Titans,
+  which Jove the son of Saturn sends to eternal rest with his flaming
+  lightning? Alas, my children! Alas, my ancestors, and my paternal land,
+  which is overthrown, buried in smoke, captured by the Argive sword! but I
+  indeed am<a name="Hec_10"></a><a href="#HecN_10"><sup>[10]</sup></a> a
+  slave in a foreign country, having left Asia the slave of Europe, having
+  changed my bridal chamber for the grave.</p>
+
+<p class="center">TALTHYBIUS, HECUBA, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>TAL. Tell me, ye Trojan dames, where can I find Hecuba, late the queen
+  of Troy?</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Not far from thee, O Talthybius, she is lying stretched on the
+  ground, muffled in her robes.</p>
+
+  <p>TAL. O Jupiter, what shall I say? Shall I say that thou beholdest
+  mortals? or that they have to no end or purpose entertained false
+  notions, who suppose the existence of a race of Deities, and that fortune
+  has the sovereign control over men? Was not this the queen of the opulent
+  Phrygians? was not this the wife of the all-blest Priam? And now all her
+  city is overthrown by the spear, but she a captive, aged, childless, lies
+  on the ground defiling her ill-fated head with the dust. Alas! alas! I
+  too am old, but rather may death be my portion before I am involved in
+  any such debasing fortune; stand up, oh unhappy, raise thy side, and lift
+  up thy hoary head.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. Let me alone: who art thou that sufferest not my body to rest?
+  why dost thou, whoever thou art, disturb me from my sadness?</p>
+
+  <p>TAL. I am here, Talthybius, the herald of the Greeks, Agamemnon having
+  sent me for thee, O lady.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. Hast thou come then, thou dearest of men, it having been decreed
+  by the Greeks to slay me too upon the tomb? Thou wouldest bring dear news
+  indeed. Then haste we, let us speed with all our might: lead on, old
+  man.</p>
+
+  <p>TAL. I am here and come to thee, O lady, that thou mayest entomb thy
+  dead daughter. Both the two sons of Atreus and the Grecian host send
+  me.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. Alas! what wilt thou say? Art thou not come for me as doomed to
+  death, but to bring this cruel message? Thou art dead, my child, torn
+  from thy mother; and I am childless as far as regards thee; oh! wretch
+  that I am. But how did ye slay her? was it with becoming reverence? Or
+  did ye proceed in your butchery as with an enemy, O old man? Tell me,
+  though you will relate no pleasing tale.</p>
+
+  <p>TAL. Twice, O lady, thou desirest me to indulge in tears through pity
+  for thy daughter; for both now while relating the mournful circumstance
+  shall I bedew this eye, as did I then at the tomb when she perished. The
+  whole host of the Grecian army was present before the tomb, at the
+  sacrifice of thy daughter. But the son of Achilles taking Polyxena by the
+  hand, placed her on the summit of the mound; but I stood near him: and
+  there followed a chosen band of illustrious youths in readiness to
+  restrain with their hands thy daughter's struggles; then the son of
+  Achilles took a full-crowned goblet of entire gold, and poured forth
+  libations to his deceased father; and makes signal to me to proclaim
+  silence through all the Grecian host. And I standing forth in the midst,
+  thus spoke: "Be silent, O ye Greeks, let all the people remain silent;
+  silence, be still:" and I made the people perfectly still. But he said,
+  "O son of Peleus, O my father, accept these libations which have the
+  power of soothing, and which speed the dead on their way; and come, that
+  thou mayest drink the pure purple blood of this virgin, which both the
+  army and myself offer unto thee; but be propitious to us, and grant us to
+  weigh anchor, and to loose the cables of our ships, and to return each to
+  his country, having met with a prosperous return from Troy." Thus much he
+  said, and all the army joined in the prayer. Then taking by the hilt his
+  sword decked with gold, he drew it from its scabbard, and made signs to
+  the chosen youths of the Greeks to hold the virgin. But she, when she
+  perceived it,<a name="Hec_11"></a><a href="#HecN_11"><sup>[11]</sup></a>
+  uttered this speech: "O Argives, ye that destroyed my city, I die
+  willingly; let none touch my body; for I will offer my neck to the sword
+  with a good heart. But, by the Gods, let me go free while ye kill me,
+  that I may die free, for to be classed as a slave among the dead, when a
+  queen, is what I am ashamed of." But the people murmured assent, and king
+  Agamemnon ordered the young men to quit the virgin; [but they, soon as
+  they heard the last words of him who had the seat of chief authority
+  among them, let go their hold,] and she, on hearing this speech of her
+  lords, took her robe, and rent it, beginning from the top of her shoulder
+  down to her waist: and showed her breasts and bosom beauteous, as a
+  statue's, and bending her knee on the ground, spoke words the most
+  piteous ever heard, "Lo! strike, if this bosom thou desirest, O youth; or
+  wouldest thou rather under the neck, here is this throat prepared." But
+  he at once resolved and unresolved through pity of the virgin, cuts with
+  the sword the passage of her breath; and fountains of blood burst forth.
+  But she, e'en in death, showed much care to fall decently, and to veil
+  from the eyes of men what ought to be concealed. But after that she
+  breathed forth her spirit under the fatal blow, not one of the Greeks
+  exercised the same offices; but some scattered leaves from their hands on
+  the dead; some heap the funeral pile, bringing whole trunks of pines: but
+  he that would not bring, heard rebukes of this sort from him that was
+  thus employed: "Standest thou idle, thou man of most mean spirit? Hast in
+  thy hand no robe, no ornament for the maiden? Hast thou naught to give to
+  her so exceeding brave in heart and most noble in soul?" These things I
+  tell thee of the death of thy daughter, but I behold thee at once the
+  most happy, at once the most unhappy of all women in thine offspring.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Dreadful calamities have risen fierce against the house of
+  Priam; such the hard fate of the Gods.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. O daughter! which of my ills I shall first attend to, amidst such
+  a multitude, I know not: for if I touch on any, another does not suffer
+  me; and thence again some fresh grief draws me aside, succeeding miseries
+  upon miseries. And now I can not obliterate from my mind thy sufferings,
+  so as not to bewail them: but excess of grief hast thou taken away,
+  having been reported to me as noble. Is it then no paradox, if land
+  indeed naturally bad, when blest with a favorable season from heaven,
+  bears well the ear; but good land, robbed of the advantages it ought to
+  have, brings forth bad fruit: but ever among men, the bad by nature is
+  nothing else but bad; the good always good, nor under misfortune does he
+  degenerate from his nature, but is the same good man? Is it, that the
+  parents cause this difference, or the education? The being brought up
+  nobly hath indeed in it the knowledge and principles of goodness; but if
+  one is acquainted well with this, he knows what is vicious, having
+  already learned it by the rule of virtue. And this indeed has my mind
+  been ejaculating in vain. But do thou go, and signify these things to the
+  Greeks, that no one be suffered to touch my daughter, but bid them keep
+  off the multitude. In so vast an army the rabble are riotous, and the
+  sailors' uncontrolled insolence is fiercer than fire; and he is evil, who
+  does not evil. But do thou, my old attendant, taking an urn, fill it with
+  sea water, and bring it hither, that I may wash my girl in her last bath,
+  the bride no bride now, and the virgin no longer a virgin, wash her, and
+  lay her out; according to her merits&mdash;whence can I? This I can not;
+  but as I can, I will, for what can I do! And collecting ornaments from
+  among the captured women, who dwell beside me in these tents, if any one,
+  unobserved by our new lords, has by her any stolen memorial of her home.
+  O state of my house, O mansions once happy! O Priam, of vast wealth
+  possessed, and supremely blest in thine offspring, and I too, this aged
+  woman, the mother of such children! How have we come to nothing, bereft
+  of our former grandeur! And yet still forsooth we are elated, one of us
+  in his gorgeous palaces; another, when honored among his citizens. These
+  are nothing. In vain the counsels of the mind, and the tongue's boast. He
+  is most blest, to whom from day to day no evil happens.</p>
+
+<p class="center">CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>Against me was it fated that calamity, against me was it fated that
+  woe should spring, when Paris first hewed the pine in Ida's forest,
+  preparing to cut his way over the ocean surge to the bed of Helen, the
+  fairest that the sun's golden beams shine upon. For toils, and fate more
+  stern than toils, close us round: and from the folly of one came a public
+  calamity fatal to the land of Simois, and woes springing from other woes:
+  and when the dispute was decided, which the shepherd decided between the
+  three daughters of the blessed Gods on Ida's top, for war, and slaughter,
+  and the desolation of my palaces. And many a Spartan virgin at her home
+  on the banks of the fair-flowing Eurotas sighs while bathed in tears: and
+  many an aged matron strikes her hand against her hoary head, for her
+  children who have perished, and tears her cheek making her nails all
+  blood-stained with her wounds.</p>
+
+<p class="center">FEMALE ATTENDANT, CHORUS, HECUBA.</p>
+
+  <p>ATT. O attendants, where, I pray, is the all-wretched Hecuba, who
+  surpasses the whole race of man and woman kind in calamities? no one
+  shall wrest from her the crown.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. But what dost thou want, O wretch, in thy words of ill omen? for
+  thy messages of woe never rest.</p>
+
+  <p>ATT. I bring this grief to Hecuba; but in calamity 'tis no easy thing
+  for men to speak words of good import.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. And see, she is coming out of the house, and appears in the
+  right time for thy words.</p>
+
+  <p>ATT. O all-wretched mistress, and yet still more wretched than I can
+  express in words, thou art undone, and no longer beholdest the light,
+  childless, husbandless, cityless, entirely destroyed.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. Thou has said nothing new, but hast reproached me who already
+  know it: but why dost thou bring this corse of my Polyxena, whose
+  sepulture was reported to me as in a state of active progress through the
+  labors of all the Grecians?</p>
+
+  <p>ATT. She nothing knows, but, woe's me! laments Polyxena, nor does she
+  apprehend her new misfortunes.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. O wretched me! dost bring hither the body of the frantic and
+  inspired Cassandra?</p>
+
+  <p>ATT. She whom thou mentionedst, lives; but thou dost not weep for him
+  who is dead; but behold this corse cast naked [on the shore,] and look if
+  it will appear to thee a wonder, and what thou little expectest.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. Alas me! I do indeed see my son Polydore a corse, whom (<i>I
+  fondly hoped</i>) the man of Thrace was preserving in his palace. Now am
+  I lost indeed, I no longer exist. Oh my child, my child! Alas! I begin
+  the Bacchic strain, having lately learned my woes from my evil
+  genius.</p>
+
+  <p>ATT. Thou knowest then the calamity of thy son, O most
+  unfortunate.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. I see incredible evils, still fresh, still fresh: and my
+  immeasurable woes follow one upon the other. No longer will a day without
+  a tear, without a groan, have part with me.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Dreadful, oh! dreadful are the miseries that we endure!</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. O child, child of a wretched mother, by what fate art thou dead,
+  by what hap liest thou here? by the hand of what man?</p>
+
+  <p>ATT. I know not: on the wave-washed shore I found him.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. Cast up from the sea, or fallen by the blood-stained spear? (Note
+  <a name="Hec_C"></a><a href="#HecN_C">[C]</a>.)</p>
+
+  <p>ATT. The ocean's billow cast him up from the deep on the smooth
+  sand.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. Woe is me! Now understand I the dream, the vision of mine eyes;
+  the black-winged phantom has not flitted by me in vain, which I saw
+  concerning thee, my child, as being no longer in the light of day.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. But who slew him? canst thou, O skilled in dreams, declare
+  him?</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. My friend, my friend, who curbs the steed in Thrace, where his
+  aged father placed him for concealment.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Ah me! what wilt thou say? Was it to possess his gold that he
+  slew him!</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. Unutterable deeds, unworthy of a name, surpassing miracles,
+  unhallowed, insufferable! Where are the laws of hospitality? O most
+  accurst of men, how didst thou mar that skin, how sever with the cruel
+  sword the poor limbs of this boy, nor didst feel pity?</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. O hapless woman, how has the deity made thee by far the most
+  wretched of mortals, whoever he be that presses heavy on thee! But, my
+  friends, let us henceforward be silent, for I see our lord Agamemnon
+  advancing.</p>
+
+<p class="center">AGAMEMNON, CHORUS, HECUBA.</p>
+
+  <p>AGA. Why, Hecuba, delayest thou to come, and bury thy girl in her
+  tomb, agreeably to what Talthybius told me, that no one of the Argives
+  should be suffered to touch thy daughter. For our part we leave her
+  alone, and touch her not; but thou art slow, whereat I am astonished. I
+  am come therefore to fetch thee, for every thing there has been well and
+  duly performed, if aught of well there be in this. Ah! what corse is this
+  I see before the tent? some Trojan's too? for that it is no Grecian's,
+  the robes that vest his limbs inform me.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. (<i>aside</i>) Thou ill-starr'd wretch! myself I mean, when I say
+  "thou." O Hecuba, what shall I do? Shall I fall at the knees of Agamemnon
+  here, or bear my ills in silence?</p>
+
+  <p>AGA. Why dost lament turning thy back upon me, and sayest not what has
+  happened? Who is this?</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. (<i>aside</i>) But should he, thinking me a slave, an enemy,
+  spurn me from his knees, I should be adding to my present sufferings.</p>
+
+  <p>AGA. No prophet I, so as to trace, unless by hearing, the path of thy
+  counsels.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. (<i>aside</i>) Am I not rather then putting an evil construction
+  on this man's thoughts, whereas he has no evil intention toward me?</p>
+
+  <p>AGA. If thou art willing that I should nothing of this affair, thou
+  art of a mind with me, for neither do I wish to hear.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. (<i>aside</i>) I can not without him take vengeance for my
+  children. Why do I thus hesitate? I must be bold, whether I succeed, or
+  fail. Agamemnon, by these knees, and by thy beard I implore thee, and by
+  thy blessed hand&mdash;</p>
+
+  <p>AGA. What thy request? Is it to pass thy life in freedom? for this is
+  easy for thee to obtain.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. Not this indeed; but so that I avenge myself on the bad, I am
+  willing to pass my whole life in slavery.</p>
+
+  <p>AGA. And for what assistance dost thou call on me?</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. In none of those things which thou imaginest, O king. Seest thou
+  this corse, o'er which I drop the tear?</p>
+
+  <p>AGA. I see it; thy meaning however I can not learn from this.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. Him did I once bring forth, him bore I in my bosom.</p>
+
+  <p>AGA. Is this indeed one of thy children, O unhappy woman?</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. It is, but not of the sons of Priam who fell under the walls of
+  Troy.</p>
+
+  <p>AGA. Didst thou then bear any other besides those, O lady?</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. In vain, as it appears, this whom you see.</p>
+
+  <p>AGA. But where did he chance to be, when the city fell?</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. His father sent him out of the country, dreading his death.</p>
+
+  <p>AGA. Whither, having removed him alone of his children then alive?</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. To this country, where he was found a corse.</p>
+
+  <p>AGA. To him who is king over this state, to Polymestor?</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. Hither was he sent, the guardian of gold, which proved most
+  destructive to him.</p>
+
+  <p>AGA. By whose hand then he is dead, and having met with what fate?</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. By whom else should he? The Thracian host slew him.</p>
+
+  <p>AGA. O wretch! was he so inflamed with the desire of obtaining the
+  gold?</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. Even so, after he had heard of Troy's disasters.</p>
+
+  <p>AGA. And where didst thou find him, or who brought the body?</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. She, meeting with it on the sea-shore.</p>
+
+  <p>AGA. In quest of it, or occupied in some other employment?</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. She was going to bring from the sea wherewith to bathe
+  Polyxena.</p>
+
+  <p>AGA. This friend then, as it seems, murdered him, and after that cast
+  him out.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. To toss upon the waves thus gashing his body.</p>
+
+  <p>AGA. O thou unhappy from thy unmeasured ills!</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. I perish, no woe is left, O Agamemnon.</p>
+
+  <p>AGA. Alas! alas! What woman was ever so unfortunate?</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. There is none, except you reckon Misfortune herself. But for what
+  cause I fall at thy knees, now hear: if I appear to you to suffer these
+  ills justly, I would be reconciled to them; but if otherwise, be thou my
+  avenger on this man, this most impious of false friends; who revering
+  neither the Gods beneath<a name="Hec_12"></a><a
+  href="#HecN_12"><sup>[12]</sup></a> the earth, nor the Gods above, hath
+  done this most unholy deed, having often partaken of the same table with
+  me, [and in the list of hospitality the first of my friends; and having
+  met with whatever was due,<a name="Hec_13"></a><a
+  href="#HecN_13"><sup>[13]</sup></a> and having received a full
+  consideration for his services,<a name="Hec_14"></a><a
+  href="#HecN_14"><sup>[14]</sup></a>] slew him, and deigned not to give
+  him a tomb, <i>which he might have given</i>, although he purposed to
+  slay him, but cast him forth at the mercy of the waves. We indeed are
+  slaves, and perhaps weak; but the Gods are strong, and strong the law,
+  which governs them; for by the law we judge that there are Gods, and we
+  live having justice and injustice strictly defined; which if when
+  referred to thee it be disregarded, and they shall suffer no punishment
+  who slay their guests, or dare to pollute the hallowed statutes of the
+  Gods, there is nothing equitable in the dealings of men. Beholding these
+  things then in a base and proper light, reverence me; pity me, and, as
+  the artist stands aside <i>to view a picture</i>, do thou view my living
+  portrait, and see what woes I am enduring. Once was I a queen, but now I
+  am thy slave; once was I blest in my children, but now aged, and at the
+  same time childless, cityless, destitute, the most miserable of mortals.
+  Alas me wretched! whither withdrawest from me thy foot? It seems<a
+  name="Hec_15"></a><a href="#HecN_15"><sup>[15]</sup></a> I shall make no
+  impression, wretch that I am. Why then do we mortals toil after all other
+  sciences, as a matter of duty, and dive into them, but least of all
+  strive to learn thoroughly Persuasion, the sole mistress o'er the minds
+  of men, giving a price for her knowledge, that at some time we may have
+  it in our power at once to persuade and obtain what we wish?&mdash;How
+  then can any one hereafter hope that he shall be fortunate? So many
+  children that I had, and now not one is left to me. But I am perishing a
+  captive in base servitude, and yet see the smoke there leaping aloft from
+  the city. And however this part of my argument may perchance be vain, the
+  bringing forward love; still nevertheless it shall be urged. My daughter
+  is wont to sleep by thy side, that prophetess, whom the Trojans call
+  Cassandra. Where wilt thou show that thy nights were nights of love, O
+  king, or will my daughter receive any recompense for her most fond
+  embraces, and I through her? [For from the secret shade, and from night's
+  joys, the greatest delight is wont to spring to mortals.] Now then
+  attend. Thou seest this corse? Him assisting, thou wilt assist one joined
+  to thee in affinity. One thing my speech wants yet. I would fain I had a
+  voice in my arms, and hands, and in my hair, and in my footsteps, or by
+  the skill of D�dalus, or some God, that each at once might hold thy
+  knees, weeping, and imploring in all the strains of eloquence. O my lord.
+  O greatest light of the Greeks, be persuaded; lend thy hand to avenge
+  this aged woman, although she is of no consequence, yet avenge her. For
+  it belongs to a good man to minister justice, and always and in every
+  case to punish the bad.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. It is strange, how every thing happens to mortals, and laws
+  determine even the fates, making the greatest enemies friends, and
+  enemies of those who before were on good terms.</p>
+
+  <p>AGA. I, O Hecuba, have pity both on thee and thy son, thy misfortunes,
+  and thy suppliant touch, and I am willing in regard both to the Gods and
+  to justice, that this impious host should give thee full revenge,
+  provided a way could be found, that both you might be gratified, and I
+  might in the eyes of the army not seem to meditate this destruction
+  against the king of Thrace for Cassandra's sake. For there is a point in
+  which apprehension hath reached me. This man the army deems a friend, the
+  dead an enemy; but if he is dear to thee, this is a private feeling and
+  does not affect the army. Wherefore consider, that thou hast me willing
+  to labor with thee, and ready to assist thee, but backward, should I be
+  murmured against among the Greeks.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. Alas! no mortal is there who is free. For either he is the slave
+  of money or of fortune; or the populace of the city or the dictates of
+  the law constrain him to adopt manners not accordant with his natural
+  inclinations. But since thou fearest, and payest too much regard to the
+  multitude, I will liberate thee from this fear. For consent with me, if I
+  meditate vengeance against the murderer of this youth, but do not act
+  with me. But should any tumult or offer of assistance arise from out of
+  the Greeks, when the Thracian feels the punishment he shall feel,
+  suppress it, not appearing to do it for my sake: but of the rest be
+  confident: I will dispose all things well.</p>
+
+  <p>AGA. How then? What wilt thou do? Wilt thou grasp the sword in thine
+  aged hand, and strike the barbarian? or with poison wilt thou work, or
+  with what assistance? What hand will conspire with thee? whence wilt thou
+  procure friends?</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. These tents inclose a host of Trojan dames.</p>
+
+  <p>AGA. Meanest thou the captives, the booty of the Greeks?</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. With these will I avenge me of my murderer.</p>
+
+  <p>AGA. And how shall the victory over men be to women?</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. Numbers are powerful, with stratagem invincible.</p>
+
+  <p>AGA. Powerful, I grant; I mistrust however the race of women.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. And why? Did not women slay the sons of �gyptus,<a
+  name="Hec_16"></a><a href="#HecN_16"><sup>[16]</sup></a> and utterly
+  extirpated the race of men from Lemnos?<a name="Hec_17"></a><a
+  href="#HecN_17"><sup>[17]</sup></a> But thus let it be. Give up this
+  discussion. But grant this woman to pass in safety through the army. And
+  do thou go to the Thracian host and tell him, "Hecuba, once queen of
+  Troy, sends for you on business of no less importance to yourself than to
+  her, and your sons likewise, since it is of consequence that your
+  children also should hear her words."&mdash;And do thou, O Agamemnon, as
+  yet forbear to raise the tomb over the newly-sacrificed Polyxena, that
+  these two, the brother and the sister, the divided care of their mother,
+  may, when reduced to ashes by one and the same flame, be interred side by
+  side.</p>
+
+  <p>AGA. Thus shall it be. And yet, if the army could sail, I should not
+  have it in my power to grant thy request: but now, for the deity breathes
+  not prosperous gales, we must wait, watching for a calm voyage. But may
+  things turn out well some way or other: for this is a general principle
+  among all, both individuals in private and states, That the wicked man
+  should feel vengeance, but the good man enjoy prosperity.</p>
+
+<p class="center">CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>O thou, my country of Troy, no longer shall thou be called the city of
+  the invincible, such a cloud of Grecians envelops thee, with the spear,
+  with the spear having destroyed thee. And thou hast been shorn of thy
+  crown of turrets, and thou hast been discolored by the dismal blackness
+  of smoke; hapless city, no longer shall I tread my steps in thee.</p>
+
+  <p>In the midnight hour I perished, when after the feast sweet sleep is
+  scattered over the eyes. And my husband, from the song and cheerful
+  sacrifice retired, was sleeping peacefully in my bed, his spear on its
+  peg, no more dreaming to behold the naval host of the Greeks treading the
+  streets of Troy. But I was binding my braided hair with fillets fastened
+  on the top of mine head, looking into the round polished surface of the
+  golden mirror, that I might get into my bed prepared for me. On a sudden
+  a tumultuous cry penetrated the city; and this shout of exhortation was
+  heard in the streets of Troy, "When indeed, ye sons of Grecians, when,
+  <i>if not now</i>, will ye return to your homes having overthrown the
+  proud citadel of Ilium!" And having left my dear bed, in a single robe,
+  like a Spartan virgin, flying for aid to the venerable shrine of Diana, I
+  hapless fled in vain. And I am dragged, after having seen my husband
+  slain, to the ocean waves; and casting a distant look back upon my city,
+  after the vessel had begun her way in her return to Greece, and divided
+  me from the land of Troy, I wretched fainted through anguish. And
+  consigning to curses Helen, the sister of the Twin Brothers, and the
+  Idean shepherd, the ruthless Paris, since his marriage, no marriage, but
+  some Fury's hate hath utterly destroyed me far from my native land, and
+  hath driven me from my home. Whom may the ocean refuse ever to bear back
+  again; and may she never reach again her paternal home.</p>
+
+<p class="center">POLYMESTOR, HECUBA, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>POLY. O Priam, thou dearest of men, and thou most dear Hecuba, at thy
+  sight I weep for thee, and thy city, and thy daughter who has lately
+  died. Alas! there is nothing secure, neither glory, nor when one is
+  faring well is there a certainty that he will not fare ill. But the Gods
+  mingle these things promiscuously to and fro, making all confusion, so
+  that we through ignorance may worship them. But wherefore should I utter
+  these plaints, which in no way tend to free thee from thy former
+  calamities. But thou, if thou hast aught to blame for my absence,
+  forbear; for I chanced to be afar off in the middle of my Thracian
+  territories, when thou camest hither; but soon as I returned, as I was
+  already setting out from my house, this maid of thine met me for the
+  self-same purpose, and delivered thy message, which when I had heard, I
+  came.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. O Polymestor, I am ashamed to look thee in the face, sunk as I am
+  in such miseries; for before one who has seen me in prosperity, shame
+  overwhelms me, being in the state in which I now am, nor can I look upon
+  thee with unmoved eyes. But impute not this to any enmity I bear thee;
+  but there are other causes, and in some degree this law; "that women
+  ought not to gaze at men."</p>
+
+  <p>POLY. And 'tis indeed no wonder; but what need hast thou of me? for
+  what purpose didst thou send for me to come from home?</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. I am desirous of communicating a private affair of my own to thee
+  and thy children; but order thy attendants to retire from these
+  tents.</p>
+
+  <p>POLY. Depart, for here to be alone is safe. Friendly thou art, this
+  Grecian army too is friendly toward me, but it is for thee to signify, in
+  what manner I, who am in good circumstances, ought to succor my friends
+  in distress; since, on my part, I am ready.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. First then tell me of my son Polydore, whom thou retainest,
+  receiving him from mine, and from his father's hand, if he live; but the
+  rest I shall inquire of thee afterward.</p>
+
+  <p>POLY. He lives, and in good health; as far as regards him indeed thou
+  art happy.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. O my best friend, how well thou speakest, and how worthily of
+  thyself!</p>
+
+  <p>POLY. What dost thou wish then to inquire of me in the next place?</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. Whether he remembers at all me, his mother?</p>
+
+  <p>POLY. Yes: and he even sought to come to thee by stealth.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. And is the gold safe, which he brought with him from Troy?</p>
+
+  <p>POLY. It is safe, at least it is guarded in my house.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. Preserve it therefore, nor covet the goods of others.</p>
+
+  <p>POLY. Certainly not. May I enjoy what is mine own, O lady.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. Knowest thou then, what I wish to say to thee and thy
+  children?</p>
+
+  <p>POLY. I do not: this shalt thou signify by thy speech.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. Be my son loved by thee, as thou art now loved of me.</p>
+
+  <p>POLY. What is it, that I and my sons must know?</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. The ancient buried treasures of the family of Priam.</p>
+
+  <p>POLY. Is it this thou wishest me to inform thy son of?</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. Yes, certainly; through thee at least, for thou art a pious
+  man.</p>
+
+  <p>POLY. What necessity then is there for the presence of these
+  children?</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. 'Tis better in case of thy death, that these should know.</p>
+
+  <p>POLY. Well hast thou thus said, and 'tis the wiser plan.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. Thou knowest then where the temple of Minerva in Troy
+  is&mdash;</p>
+
+  <p>POLY. Is the gold there! but what is the mark?</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. A black rock rising above the earth.</p>
+
+  <p>POLY. Hast any thing further to tell me of what is there?</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. No, but I wish thee to take care of some treasures, with which I
+  came out of the city.</p>
+
+  <p>POLY. Where are they then? Hast thou them hidden beneath thy
+  robes?</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. Amidst a heap of spoils they are preserved in this tent.</p>
+
+  <p>POLY. But where? These are the naval encampments of the Grecians.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. The habitations of the captive women are private.</p>
+
+  <p>POLY. And is all secure within, and untenanted by men?</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. Not one of the Greeks is within, but we women only. But come into
+  the tent, for the Greeks are desirous of loosing the sheets of their
+  vessels homeward from Troy; so that, having done every thing that thou
+  oughtest, thou mayest go with thy children to that place where thou hast
+  given my son to dwell.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Not yet hast thou suffered, but peradventure thou wilt suffer
+  vengeance; as a man falling headlong into the gulf where no harbor is,
+  shalt thou be hurled from thy dear heart, having lost thy life;<a
+  name="Hec_18"></a><a href="#HecN_18"><sup>[18]</sup></a> for where the
+  rites of hospitality coincide<a name="Hec_19"></a><a
+  href="#HecN_19"><sup>[19]</sup></a> with justice, and with the Gods,
+  <i>on the villain who dares to violate these</i> destructive, destructive
+  indeed impends the evil. But thy hopes will deceive thee, which thou
+  entertainedst from this journey, which has brought thee, thou wretched
+  man, to the deadly mansions of Pluto; but thou shalt quit thy life by no
+  warrior's hand.</p>
+
+<p class="center">POLYMESTOR, HECUBA, SEMICHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>POLY. Oh me! I wretch am deprived of the sight of mine eyes.</p>
+
+  <p>SEMI. Heard ye the shriek of the man of Thrace, my friends?</p>
+
+  <p>POLY. Oh me; there again&mdash;Oh my children, thy miserable
+  butchery!</p>
+
+  <p>SEMI. My friends, some strange ills have been perpetrated within the
+  tents.</p>
+
+  <p>POLY. But for all your nimble feet, ye never can escape me, for by my
+  blows will I burst open the recesses of these tents.</p>
+
+  <p>SEMI. Behold, he uses violently the weapon of his heavy hand. Will ye
+  that we fall on; since the instant calls on us to be present with
+  assistance to Hecuba and the Trojan dames?</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. Dash on, spare nothing, break down the gates, for thou never
+  shalt replace the clear sight in those pupils, nor shalt thou behold
+  alive those children which I have slain.</p>
+
+  <p>SEMI. What! hast thou vanquished the Thracian? and hast thou got the
+  mastery over this host, my mistress? and hast thou done such deeds, as
+  thou sayest?</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. Thou wilt see him quickly before the house, blind, with blind
+  wandering steps approaching, and the bodies of his two children, whom I
+  have slain with these most valiant Trojan women; but he has felt my
+  vengeance; but he is coming as thou seest from the tent. But I will
+  retire out of his way, and make good my retreat from the boiling rage of
+  this most desperate Thracian.</p>
+
+  <p>POLY. Alas me! whither can I go? where stand? whither shall I direct
+  my way, advancing my steps like the four-footed mountain beast on my
+  hands and on my feet in pursuit? What new path shall I take in this
+  direction or in that, desirous of seizing these murderous Trojan dames,
+  who have utterly destroyed me; O ye impious, impious Phrygian daughters!
+  Ah the accursed, in what corner do they shrink from me in flight? Would
+  that thou, O sun, could'st heal, could'st heal these bleeding lids of my
+  eyes, and remove this gloomy-darkness. Ah, hush, hush! I hear the
+  carefully-concealed step of these women. Whither shall I direct my course
+  in order that I may glut myself on the flesh and bones of these, making
+  the wild beasts' banquet, inflicting vengeance on them, in return for the
+  injuries done me. Wretch that I am! Whither, whither am I borne, having
+  left my children deserted, for these fiends of hell to tear piecemeal, a
+  mangled, bleeding, savage prey to dogs, and a thing to cast out on the
+  mountains? Where shall I stand? Whither turn? Whither go, as a ship
+  setting her yellow canvas sails with her sea-washed palsers, rushing to
+  this lair of death, the protector of my children?</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. O miserable man, what intolerable evils have been perpetrated by
+  thee! but on thee having done base deeds the God hath sent dreadful
+  punishment, whoever he be that presses heavy on thee.</p>
+
+  <p>POLY. Alas! alas! O Thracian nation, brandishing the spear, warlike,
+  bestriding the steed, nation ruled by Mars; O ye Greeks, sons of Atreus;
+  I raise the cry, the cry, the cry; Come, come, hasten, I entreat you by
+  the Gods. Does any hear, or will no one assist me? Why do ye delay? The
+  women have destroyed me, the captive women. Horrible, horrible treatment
+  have I suffered. Alas me for my ruin! Whither can I turn? Whither can I
+  go? Shall I soar through the ethereal skies to the lofty mansions where
+  Orion or Sirius dart from their eyes the flaming rays of fire: or shall I
+  hapless rush to the gloomy shore of Pluto?</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. It is pardonable, when any one suffers greater misfortunes than
+  he can bear, for him to be desirous to quit a miserable life.</p>
+
+<p class="center">AGAMEMNON, POLYMESTOR, HECUBA, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>AGA. I came having heard the clamor: for Echo, the mountain's
+  daughter, did not sound in gentle strains through the army, causing a
+  disturbance. But did we not know that the Phrygian towers are fallen
+  beneath the Grecian spear, this tumult might have caused no little
+  terror.</p>
+
+  <p>POLY. O my dearest friend (for I know thee, Agamemnon, having heard
+  thy voice), seest thou what I am suffering?</p>
+
+  <p>AGA. Ah! wretched Polymestor, who hath destroyed thee? who made thine
+  eyes sightless, having drowned their orbs in blood? And who hath slain
+  these thy children? Sure, whoe'er it was, felt the greatest rage against
+  thee and thy sons.</p>
+
+  <p>POLY. Hecuba with the female captives hath destroyed me&mdash;nay, not
+  destroyed me, but more than destroyed me.</p>
+
+  <p>AGA. What sayest thou? Hast thou done this deed, as he affirms? Hast
+  thou, Hecuba, dared this inconceivable act of boldness?</p>
+
+  <p>POLY. Ah me! what wilt thou say? Is she any where near me? Show me,
+  tell me where she is, that I may seize her in my hands, and tear
+  piecemeal and mangle her body.</p>
+
+  <p>AGA. What ho! what are you doing?</p>
+
+  <p>POLY. By the Gods I entreat thee, suffer me to lay my raging hand upon
+  her.</p>
+
+  <p>AGA. Forbear. And having banished this barbarous deed from thy
+  thoughts, speak; that having heard both thee and her in your respective
+  turns, I may decide justly, in return for what thou art suffering these
+  ills.</p>
+
+  <p>POLY. I will speak then. There was a certain youth, the youngest of
+  Priam's children, by name Polydore, the son of Hecuba; him his father
+  Priam sent to me from Troy to bring up in my palace, already presaging<a
+  name="Hec_20"></a><a href="#HecN_20"><sup>[20]</sup></a> the capture of
+  Troy. Him I put to death. But for what cause I put him to death, with
+  what policy and prudent forethought, now hear. I feared, lest the boy
+  being left an enemy to thee, should collect the scattered remnants of
+  Troy, and again people the city. And lest the Greeks, having discovered
+  that one of the sons of Priam was alive, should again direct an
+  expedition against the Phrygian land, and after that should harass and
+  lay waste the plains of Thrace; and it might fare ill with the neighbors
+  of the Trojans, under which misfortune, O king, we are now laboring. But
+  Hecuba, when she had discovered her son's death, by such treachery as
+  this lured me hither, as about to tell me of treasure belonging to
+  Priam's family concealed in Troy, and introduces me alone with my sons
+  into the tent, that no one else might know it. And I sat, having reclined
+  on the centre of the couch; but many Trojan damsels, some from the left
+  hand, and others from the right, sat round me, as by an intimate friend,
+  holding in their hands the Edonian looms, and praised these robes,
+  looking at them in the light; but others, beholding with admiration my
+  Thracian spear, deprived me of my double ornament. But as many as were
+  mothers caressed my children in their arms in seeming admiration, that
+  they might be farther removed from their father, successively handing
+  them from one to another: and then, amidst their kind blandishments, what
+  think you? in an instant, snatching from somewhere beneath their garments
+  their daggers, they stab my children. But they having seized me in an
+  hostile manner held my hands and feet; and if, wishing to succor my
+  children, I raised my head, they held me by the hair: but if I attempted
+  to move my hands, I wretched could effect nothing through the host of
+  women. But at last, cruelty and worse than cruelty, they perpetrated
+  dreadful things; for having taken their clasps they pierce and gore the
+  wretched pupils of my eyes, then vanish in flight through the tent. But
+  I, having leaped out, like some exasperated beast, pursue the
+  blood-stained wretches, searching every wall, as the hunter, casting
+  down, rending. This have I suffered, while studious to advance thy
+  interest, Agamemnon, and having killed thine enemy. But that I may not
+  extend my speech to a greater length, if any one of those of ancient
+  times hath reviled women, or if any one doth now, or shall hereafter
+  revile them, I will comprise the whole when I say, that such a race
+  neither doth the sea nor the earth produce, but he who is always with
+  them knows it best.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Be not at all insolent, nor, in thy calamities, thus
+  comprehending the female sex, abuse them all. For of us there are many,
+  some indeed are envied <i>for their virtues</i>, but some are by nature
+  in the catalogue of bad things.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. Agamemnon, it never were fitting among men that the tongue should
+  have greater force than actions. But if a man has acted well, well should
+  he speak; if on the other hand basely, his words likewise should be
+  unsound, and never ought he to be capable of speaking unjust things well.
+  Perhaps indeed they who have brought these things to a pitch of accuracy
+  are accounted wise, but they can not endure wise unto the end, but perish
+  vilely, nor has any one yet escaped this. And this in my prelude is what
+  I have to say to thee. Now am I going to direct my discourse to this man,
+  and I will answer his arguments. Thou, that assertest, that in order to
+  rid the Greeks of their redoubled toil, and for Agamemnon's sake that
+  thou didst slay my son? But, in the first place, monstrous villain, never
+  can the race of barbarians be friendly to the Grecians, never can this
+  take place. But what favor wert thou so eagerly currying? wert thou about
+  to contract an alliance, or was it that thou wert of kindred birth, or
+  what pretext hadst thou? or were they about to ravage the crops of thy
+  country, having sailed thither again? Whom, thinkest thou, wilt thou
+  persuade of these things? The gold, if thou wert willing to speak truth,
+  the gold destroyed my son, and thy base gains. For come, tell me this;
+  how when Troy was prosperous, and a tower yet girt around the city, and
+  Priam lived, and the spear of Hector was in its glory, why didst thou not
+  then, if thou wert willing to lay him under this obligation, bringing up
+  my child, and retaining him in thy palace, why didst thou not then slay
+  him, or go and take him alive to the Greeks? But when we were no longer
+  in the light of prosperity, and the city by its smoke showed that it was
+  in the power of the enemy, thou slewest thy guest who had come to thy
+  hearth. Now hear besides how thou wilt appear vile: thou oughtest, if
+  thou wert the friend of the Greeks, to have given the gold, which thou
+  confessedst thou hast, not thine, but his, distributing to those who were
+  in need, and had long been strangers to their native land. But thou, even
+  now, hast not courage to part with it from thy hand, but having it, thou
+  still art keeping it close in thine house. And yet, in bringing up my
+  child, as it was thy duty to bring him up, and in preserving him, thou
+  hadst had fair honor. For in adversity friends are most clearly proved
+  good. But good circumstances have in every case their friends. But if
+  thou wert in want of money, and he in a flourishing condition, my son had
+  been to thee a vast treasure; but now, thou neither hast him for thy
+  friend, and the benefit from the gold is gone, and thy sons are gone, and
+  thou art&mdash;as thou art. But to thee, Agamemnon, I say; if thou aidest
+  this man, thou wilt appear to be doing wrong. For thou wilt be conferring
+  a benefit on a host, who is neither pious, nor faithful to those to whom
+  he ought, not holy, not just. But we shall say that thou delightest in
+  the bad, if thus thou actest: but I speak no offense to my lords.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Ah! Ah! How do good deeds ever supply to men the source of good
+  words!</p>
+
+  <p>AGA. Thankless my office to decide on others' grievances; but still I
+  must, for it brings disgrace on a man, having taken a thing in hand, to
+  give it up. But to me, be assured, thou neither appearest for my sake,
+  nor for the sake of the Grecians, to have killed this man thy guest, but
+  that thou mightest possess the gold in thy palace. But thou talkest of
+  thy advantage, when thou art in calamities.<a name="Hec_21"></a><a
+  href="#HecN_21"><sup>[21]</sup></a> Perhaps with you it is a slight thing
+  to kill your guests; but with us Grecians this thing is abhorred. How
+  then, in giving my decision that thou hast not injured, can I escape
+  blame? I can not; but as thou hast dared to do things dishonorable,
+  endure now things unpleasant.</p>
+
+  <p>POLY. Alas me! worsted, as it seems, by a woman who is a slave, I
+  shall submit to the vengeance of my inferiors.</p>
+
+  <p>AGA. Will it not then be justly, seeing thou hast acted wrong?</p>
+
+  <p>POLY. Alas me! wretched on account of these children and on account of
+  my eyes.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. Thou sufferest? but what do I? Thinkest thou I suffer not for my
+  child?</p>
+
+  <p>POLY. Thou rejoicest in insulting me, O thou malicious woman.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. For ought not I to rejoice on having avenged myself on thee?</p>
+
+  <p>POLY. But thou wilt not soon, when the liquid wave&mdash;</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. Shall bear me, <i>dost thou mean</i>, to the confines of the
+  Grecian land?</p>
+
+  <p>POLY. &mdash;shall cover thee, having fallen from the shrouds.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. From whom meeting with this violent leap?</p>
+
+  <p>POLY. Thyself shalt climb with thy feet up the ship's mast.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. Having wings on my back, or in what way?</p>
+
+  <p>POLY. Thou shalt become a dog with a fiery aspect.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. But how dost thou know of this my metamorphose?</p>
+
+  <p>POLY. Dionysius the Thracian prophet told it me.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. But did he not declare to thee any of the evils which thou
+  sufferest?</p>
+
+  <p>POLY. No: for, <i>if he had</i>, thou never wouldst thus treacherously
+  have taken me.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. <a name="Hec_22"></a><a href="#HecN_22"><sup>[22]</sup></a>Thence
+  shall I conclude my life in death, or still live on?</p>
+
+  <p>POLY. Thou shalt die. But the name of thy tomb shall be&mdash;</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. Dost thou speak of it as in any way correspondent to my
+  shape?</p>
+
+  <p>POLY. <a name="Hec_23"></a><a href="#HecN_23"><sup>[23]</sup></a>The
+  tomb of the wretched dog, a mark to mariners.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. I heed it not, since thou at least hast felt my vengeance.</p>
+
+  <p>POLY. And it is fated too for thy daughter Cassandra to die.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. I renounce these prophecies; I give them for thyself to bear.</p>
+
+  <p>POLY. Him shall his wife slay, a cruel guardian of his house.</p>
+
+  <p>HEC. Never yet may the daughter of Tyndarus have arrived at such
+  madness.</p>
+
+  <p>POLY. Even this man himself, having lifted up the axe.</p>
+
+  <p>AGA. What ho! thou art mad, and art desirous of obtaining greater
+  ills.</p>
+
+  <p>POLY. Kill me, for the murderous bath at Argos awaits thee.</p>
+
+  <p>AGA. Will ye not, slaves, forcibly drag him from my presence?</p>
+
+  <p>POLY. Thou art galled at what thou hearest.</p>
+
+  <p>AGA. Will ye not stop his mouth?</p>
+
+  <p>POLY. Stop it: for the word is spoken.</p>
+
+  <p>AGA. Will ye not as quick as possible cast him out on some desert
+  island, since he is thus, and past endurance insolent? But do thou,
+  wretched Hecuba, go and bury thy two dead: and you, O Trojan dames, must
+  approach your masters' tents, for I perceive that the gales are favorable
+  for wafting us to our homes. And may we sail in safety to our native
+  country, and behold our household and families in prosperity, having
+  found rest from these toils.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Come, my friends, to the harbor, and the tents, to undergo the
+  tasks imposed by our masters. For necessity is relentless.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h3>NOTES ON HECUBA</h3>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+<div class="note">
+  <p><a name="HecN_1"></a><a href="#Hec_1">[1]</a> Homer makes Dymas, not
+  Cisseus, the father of Hecuba. Virgil however follows Euripides, the rest
+  of the Latin poets Virgil.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HecN_2"></a><a href="#Hec_2">[2]</a> In the martial time of
+  antiquity the spear was reverenced as something divine, and signified the
+  chief command in arms, it was also the insigne of the highest civil
+  authority: in this sense Euripides in other places uses the word <span
+  lang="el" title="dory">&#x3B4;&#x3BF;&#x3C1;&#x3C5;</span>. See Hippol.
+  988.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HecN_3"></a><a href="#Hec_3">[3]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="tritaios">&#x3C4;&#x3C1;&#x3B9;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span>
+  properly signifies <i>triduanus</i>; here it is used for <span lang="el"
+  title="tritos">&#x3C4;&#x3C1;&#x3B9;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span>, the
+  cardinal number for the ordinal. So also Hippol. 275.</p>
+
+  <div class="poem">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <p><span lang="el" title="P�s d' ou, tritaian g' ous' asitos h�meran:">&#x3A0;&#x3C9;&#x3C2; &#x3B4;' &#x3BF;&#x3C5;, &#x3C4;&#x3C1;&#x3B9;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;&#x3BD; &#x3B3;' &#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;' &#x3B1;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C2; &#x201B;&#x3B7;&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;:</span></p>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+  <p><a name="HecN_4"></a><a href="#Hec_4">[4]</a> Most interpreters render
+  this, <i>leaning on the crooked staff with my hand</i>. Nor has Beck
+  altered it in his Latin version, though he transcribed Musgrave's note.
+  "<span lang="el" title="skoli�,
+  skimp�ni">&#x3C3;&#x3BA;&#x3BF;&#x3BB;&#x3B9;&#x3C9;,
+  &#x3C3;&#x3BA;&#x3B9;&#x3BC;&#x3C0;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;&#x3B9;</span> (<i>for
+  which Porson directs</i> <span lang="el"
+  title="skip�ni">&#x3C3;&#x3BA;&#x3B9;&#x3C0;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;&#x3B9;</span>,)
+  Scipiones in universum recti sunt, non curvi. Loquitur igitur non de vero
+  scipione, sed metaphorice de brachio, quod ancillis innitens, scipionis
+  usum pr�stabat; quodque, ob cubiti flexuram, <span lang="el"
+  title="skolion
+  skimp�ma">&#x3C3;&#x3BA;&#x3BF;&#x3BB;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3C3;&#x3BA;&#x3B9;&#x3BC;&#x3C0;&#x3C9;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;</span>
+  vocat."</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HecN_5"></a><a href="#Hec_5">[5]</a> <i>that babbling
+  knave</i>.] Tzetzes on Lycophron, line 763. <span lang="el" title="kopis,
+  ho rh�t�r, kai empeiros, ho hypo poll�n pragmat�n
+  kekommenos">&#x3BA;&#x3BF;&#x3C0;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;, &#x201B;&#x3BF;
+  &#x201B;&#x3C1;&#x3B7;&#x3C4;&#x3C9;&#x3C1;, &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3B5;&#x3BC;&#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;, &#x201B;&#x3BF;
+  &#x201B;&#x3C5;&#x3C0;&#x3BF; &#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3BB;&#x3BB;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3B3;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3BA;&#x3B5;&#x3BA;&#x3BF;&#x3BC;&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span>.
+  In the Index to Lycophron <span lang="el"
+  title="kopis">&#x3BA;&#x3BF;&#x3C0;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;</span> is translated
+  <i>scurra</i>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HecN_6"></a><a href="#Hec_6">[6]</a> Among the ancients it
+  was the custom for virgins to have a great quantity of golden ornaments
+  about them, to which Homer alludes, Il. <span lang="el"
+  title="B">&#x392;</span>. 872.</p>
+
+  <div class="poem">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <p><span lang="el" title="Hos kai chryson ech�n polemon d' ien ��te kour�">&#x201B;&#x39F;&#x3C2; &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9; &#x3C7;&#x3C1;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3BF;&#x3BD; &#x3B5;&#x3C7;&#x3C9;&#x3BD; &#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3BB;&#x3B5;&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3BD; &#x3B4;' &#x3B9;&#x3B5;&#x3BD; &#x3B7;&#x3CB;&#x3C4;&#x3B5; &#x3BA;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C1;&#x3B7;</span>. PORSON.</p>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+  <p><a name="HecN_7"></a><a href="#Hec_7">[7]</a> This is the only sense
+  that can be made of <span lang="el"
+  title="enthanein">&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3B8;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;</span>,
+  and this sense seems strained: Brunck proposes <span lang="el"
+  title="entak�nai">&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3BA;&#x3B7;&#x3BD;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;</span>
+  for <span lang="el" title="enthanein
+  ge">&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3B8;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B3;&#x3B5;</span>. See Note <a name="Hec_A"></a><a
+  href="#HecN_A">[A]</a>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HecN_8"></a><a href="#Hec_8">[8]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="limn�">&#x3BB;&#x3B9;&#x3BC;&#x3BD;&#x3B7;</span> is used for the
+  <i>sea</i> in Troades 444; as also in Iliad <span lang="el"
+  title="N">&#x39D;</span>. 21, and Odyssey <span lang="el"
+  title="G">&#x393;</span>. 1. and in many other passages of Homer.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HecN_9"></a><a href="#Hec_9">[9]</a> The construction is
+  <span lang="el" title="� poreuseis me entha nas�n">&#x3B7;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3C1;&#x3B5;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3BC;&#x3B5; &#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3B8;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3BD;&#x3B1;&#x3C3;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;</span>; for <span lang="el"
+  title="eis ekein�n t�n nas�n, entha.">&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B5;&#x3BA;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;&#x3B7;&#x3BD; &#x3C4;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3BD;&#x3B1;&#x3C3;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;,
+  &#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3B8;&#x3B1;.</span></p>
+
+  <p><a name="HecN_10"></a><a href="#Hec_10">[10]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="kekl�mai">&#x3BA;&#x3B5;&#x3BA;&#x3BB;&#x3B7;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;</span>
+  for <span lang="el" title="eimi">&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3BC;&#x3B9;</span>, not
+  an unusual signification. Hippol. 2, <span lang="el" title="thea kekl�mai
+  Kypris.">&#x3B8;&#x3B5;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3BA;&#x3B5;&#x3BA;&#x3BB;&#x3B7;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x39A;&#x3C5;&#x3C0;&#x3C1;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;.</span></p>
+
+  <p><a name="HecN_11"></a><a href="#Hec_11">[11]</a> <i>When she perceived
+  it,</i> <span lang="el" title="ephrasth�, syn�ken, egn�,
+  eno�sen">&#x3B5;&#x3C6;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3C3;&#x3B8;&#x3B7;,
+  &#x3C3;&#x3C5;&#x3BD;&#x3B7;&#x3BA;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;,
+  &#x3B5;&#x3B3;&#x3BD;&#x3C9;,
+  &#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3B7;&#x3C3;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;</span>.
+  <i>Hesych</i>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HecN_12"></a><a href="#Hec_12">[12]</a> The Gods beneath he
+  despised, by casting him out without a tomb; the Gods above, as the
+  guardians of the rites of hospitality.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HecN_13"></a><a href="#Hec_13">[13]</a> <i>Whatever was
+  due</i>, either on the score of friendship, or as an equivalent for his
+  care and protection.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HecN_14"></a><a href="#Hec_14">[14]</a> Musgrave proposes to
+  read <span lang="el"
+  title="promisthian">&#x3C0;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3BC;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3B8;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;</span>
+  for <span lang="el"
+  title="prom�thian">&#x3C0;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3BC;&#x3B7;&#x3B8;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;</span>:
+  the version above is in accordance with the scholiast and the
+  paraphrast.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HecN_15"></a><a href="#Hec_15">[15]</a> See note on Medea
+  338.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HecN_16"></a><a href="#Hec_16">[16]</a> The story of the
+  daughters of Danaus is well known.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HecN_17"></a><a href="#Hec_17">[17]</a> Of this there are two
+  accounts given in the Scholia. The one is, that the women of Lemnos being
+  punished by Venus with an ill savor, and therefore neglected by their
+  husbands, conspired against them and slew them. The other is found in
+  Herodotus, Erato, chap. 138. see also �sch. Choephor�, line 627, ed.
+  Schutz.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HecN_18"></a><a href="#Hec_18">[18]</a> Polymestor was guilty
+  of two crimes, <span lang="el"
+  title="adikias">&#x3B1;&#x3B4;&#x3B9;&#x3BA;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;&#x3C2;</span>
+  and <span lang="el"
+  title="asebeias">&#x3B1;&#x3C3;&#x3B5;&#x3B2;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;&#x3C2;</span>,
+  for he had both violated the laws of men, and profaned the deity of
+  Jupiter Hospitalis. Whence Agamemnon, v. 840, hints that he is to suffer
+  on both accounts.</p>
+
+  <div class="poem">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <p><span lang="el" title="kai boulomai the�n th' hounek anosion xenon,">&#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9; &#x3B2;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3BB;&#x3BF;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3B9; &#x3B8;&#x3B5;&#x3C9;&#x3BD; &#x3B8;' &#x201B;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3BD;&#x3B5;&#x3BA; &#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3BD; &#x3BE;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;,</span>&nbsp;</p>
+      <p><span lang="el" title="kai tou dikaion, t�nde soi dounai dik�n.">&#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9; &#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C5; &#x3B4;&#x3B9;&#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;, &#x3C4;&#x3B7;&#x3BD;&#x3B4;&#x3B5; &#x3C3;&#x3BF;&#x3B9; &#x3B4;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3BD;&#x3B1;&#x3B9; &#x3B4;&#x3B9;&#x3BA;&#x3B7;&#x3BD;.</span>&nbsp;</p>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+  <p>The Chorus therefore says, <i>Ubi contingit eundem et Justiti� et Diis
+  esse addictum, exitiale semper malum esse</i>; or, as the learned
+  Hemsterheuyse has more fully and more elegantly expressed, it,
+  <i>Ubi</i>, id est, <i>in quo</i>, vel <i>in quem cadit et concurrit, ut
+  ob crimen commissum simul et human� justiti� et Deorum vindict� sit
+  obnoxius, ac velut oppignoratus; illi certissimum exitium imminet</i>.
+  This sense the words give, if for <span lang="el"
+  title="ou">&#x3BF;&#x3C5;</span>, we read <span lang="el"
+  title="hou">&#x201B;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;</span>, i.e. in the sense of <span
+  lang="el" title="hopou">&#x201B;&#x3BF;&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;</span>.
+  MUSGRAVE. Correct Dindorf's text to <span lang="el"
+  title="hou">&#x201B;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HecN_19"></a><a href="#Hec_19">[19]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="sympeseein">&#x3C3;&#x3C5;&#x3BC;&#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3C3;&#x3B5;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;</span>
+  <i>in unum coire, coincidere</i>. In this sense it is used also, Herod.
+  Euterpe, chap. 49.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HecN_20"></a><a href="#Hec_20">[20]</a> The verbal adjective
+  in <span lang="el" title="tos">&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span> is almost
+  universally used in a passive sense; <span lang="el"
+  title="hypoptos">&#x201B;&#x3C5;&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3C0;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span>,
+  however, in this place is an exception to the rule, as are also, <span
+  lang="el"
+  title="kalypt�s">&#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3C5;&#x3C0;&#x3C4;&#x3B7;&#x3C2;</span>,
+  Soph. Antig. 1011, <span lang="el"
+  title="memptos">&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3BC;&#x3C0;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span>,
+  Trachin. 446.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HecN_21"></a><a href="#Hec_21">[21]</a> Perhaps the
+  preferable way is to make <span lang="el"
+  title="kakoisin">&#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3BA;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;</span>
+  agree with <span lang="el"
+  title="anthr�pois">&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3B8;&#x3C1;&#x3C9;&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;</span>
+  understood; that the sense may be, <i>You are a bad man to talk of your
+  advantage as a plea for having acted thus</i>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HecN_22"></a><a href="#Hec_22">[22]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="Thanousa d' � z�s' enthad' ekpl�s�
+  bion">&#x398;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3B1; &#x3B4;' &#x3B7;
+  &#x3B6;&#x3C9;&#x3C3;' &#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3B8;&#x3B1;&#x3B4;'
+  &#x3B5;&#x3BA;&#x3C0;&#x3BB;&#x3B7;&#x3C3;&#x3C9;
+  &#x3B2;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span>; a similar expression occurs in the
+  Anthologia.</p>
+
+  <div class="poem">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <p><span lang="el" title="sig�n parerchou ton talaip�ron bion,">&#x3C3;&#x3B9;&#x3B3;&#x3C9;&#x3BD; &#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3C1;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3C7;&#x3BF;&#x3C5; &#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3BD; &#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3C0;&#x3C9;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3BD; &#x3B2;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;,</span>&nbsp;</p>
+      <p><span lang="el" title="autos si�p�i ton chronon mimoumenos,">&#x3B1;&#x3C5;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C2; &#x3C3;&#x3B9;&#x3C9;&#x3C0;&#x3B7;&#x3B9; &#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3BD; &#x3C7;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3BD; &#x3BC;&#x3B9;&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;,</span>&nbsp;</p>
+      <p><span lang="el" title="lath�n de kai bi�son. ei de m�, than�n.">&#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3B8;&#x3C9;&#x3BD; &#x3B4;&#x3B5; &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9; &#x3B2;&#x3B9;&#x3C9;&#x3C3;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;. &#x3B5;&#x3B9; &#x3B4;&#x3B5; &#x3BC;&#x3B7;, &#x3B8;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;.</span>&nbsp;</p>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+  <p><a name="HecN_23"></a><a href="#Hec_23">[23]</a> The place of her
+  burial was called Cynosema, a promontory of the Thracian Chersonese. It
+  was here that the Athenians gained a naval victory over the
+  Peloponnesians and Syracusans, in the twenty-first year of the
+  Peloponnesian war. Thucydides, book viii.</p>
+
+</div>
+<hr class="short" />
+
+<h3>ADDITIONAL NOTES.</h3>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+<div class="note">
+  <p><a name="HecN_A"></a><a href="#Hec_A">[A]</a> Vs. 246, <span lang="el"
+  title="enthanein
+  ge">&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3B8;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B3;&#x3B5;</span>. "Pravam esse scripturam dici Brunckius et Corayus
+  viderunt; quorum ille legere voluit <span lang="el" title="h�st'
+  entak�nai">&#x201B;&#x3C9;&#x3C3;&#x3C4;'
+  &#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3BA;&#x3B7;&#x3BD;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;</span>,
+  hic vero <span lang="el" title="h�st'
+  embalein">&#x201B;&#x3C9;&#x3C3;&#x3C4;'
+  &#x3B5;&#x3BC;&#x3B2;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;</span>. Sed
+  neuter rem acu tetigit. Euripides scripsit: <span lang="el" title="h�st'
+  en ge phynai">&#x201B;&#x3C9;&#x3C3;&#x3C4;' &#x3B5;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B3;&#x3B5; &#x3C6;&#x3C5;&#x3BD;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;</span>, uti patet ex
+  Hom. Il. <span lang="el" title="Z">&#x396;</span>. 253, <span lang="el"
+  title="en t' ara hoi phy cheiri">&#x3B5;&#x3BD; &#x3C4;'
+  &#x3B1;&#x3C1;&#x3B1; &#x201B;&#x3BF;&#x3B9; &#x3C6;&#x3C5;
+  &#x3C7;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C1;&#x3B9;</span>, Od. <span lang="el"
+  title="P">&#x3A0;</span>. 21, <span lang="el" title="panta kysen
+  periphys">&#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3BA;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3B9;&#x3C6;&#x3C5;&#x3C2;</span>, Theocrit. Id.
+  xiii. 47, <span lang="el" title="tai d' en cheri pasai
+  ephysan">&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3B9; &#x3B4;' &#x3B5;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3C7;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3B9; &#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3C3;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3B5;&#x3C6;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;</span>, et, quod rem conficit,
+  ex Euripidis ipsius Ion. 891, <span lang="el" title="leukois d' emphysas
+  karpois cheir�n">&#x3BB;&#x3B5;&#x3C5;&#x3BA;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B4;' &#x3B5;&#x3BC;&#x3C6;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3B1;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3C1;&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3C7;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C1;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;</span>." G. BURGES, apud
+  <i>Revue de Philologie</i>, vol. i. No. 5. p. 457.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HecN_B"></a><a href="#Hec_B">[B]</a> We must, I think, read
+  <span lang="el"
+  title="tolmain">&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3BB;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HecN_C"></a><a href="#Hec_C">[C]</a> Dindorf disposes these
+  lines differently, but I prefer Porson's arrangement, as follows:</p>
+
+  <div class="poem">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <p><span lang="el" title="EK. ekbl�ton, � pes. ph. doros;">&#x395;&#x39A;. &#x3B5;&#x3BA;&#x3B2;&#x3BB;&#x3B7;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;, &#x3B7; &#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3C2;. &#x3C6;. &#x3B4;&#x3BF;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;;</span>&nbsp;</p>
+      <p><span lang="el" title="THER. en psamath�i leurai">&#x398;&#x395;&#x3A1;. &#x3B5;&#x3BD; &#x3C8;&#x3B1;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3B8;&#x3C9;&#x3B9; &#x3BB;&#x3B5;&#x3C5;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;</span>&nbsp;</p>
+      <p><span lang="el" title="pontou nin, k.t.l.">&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C5; &#x3BD;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;, &#x3BA;.&#x3C4;.&#x3BB;.</span>&nbsp;</p>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+<hr class="full" />
+
+<a name="ORESTES"></a>
+<h2>ORESTES.</h2>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+<h3>PERSONS REPRESENTED.</h3>
+
+  <div class="personae">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <p>ELECTRA.</p>
+      <p>HELEN.</p>
+      <p>HERMIONE.</p>
+      <p>CHORUS.</p>
+      <p>ORESTES.</p>
+      <p>MENELAUS.</p>
+      <p>TYNDARUS.</p>
+      <p>PYLADES.</p>
+      <p>A PHRYGIAN.</p>
+      <p>APOLLO.</p>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+<hr />
+
+<h3>THE ARGUMENT.</h3>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+  <p>Orestes, in revenge for the murder of his father, took off �gisthus
+  and Cly�tmnestra; but having dared to slay his mother, he was instantly
+  punished for it by being afflicted with madness. But on Tyndarus, the
+  father of her who was slain, laying an accusation against him, the
+  Argives were about to give a public decision on this question, "What
+  ought he, who has dared this impious deed, to suffer?" By chance
+  Menelaus, having returned from his wanderings, sent in Helen indeed by
+  night, but himself came by day, and being entreated by Orestes to aid
+  him, he rather feared Tyndarus the accuser: but when the speeches came to
+  be spoken among the populace, the multitude were stirred up to kill
+  Orestes. *&nbsp;*&nbsp;*&nbsp;* But Pylades, his friend, accompanying him, counseled him
+  first to take revenge on Menelaus by killing Helen. As they were going on
+  this project, they were disappointed of their hope by the Gods snatching
+  away Helen from them. But Electra delivered up Hermione, when she made
+  her appearance, into their hands, and they were about to kill her. When
+  Menelaus came, and saw himself bereft by them at once of his wife and
+  child, he endeavored to storm the palace; but they, anticipating his
+  purpose, threatened to set it on fire. Apollo, however, having appeared,
+  said that he had conducted Helen to the Gods, and commanded Orestes to
+  take Hermione to wife, and Electra to dwell with Pylades, and, after that
+  he was purified of the murder, to reign over Argos.</p>
+
+  <p>The scene of the piece is laid at Argos; But the chorus consists of
+  Argive women, intimate associates of Electra, who also come on inquiring
+  about the calamity of Orestes. The play has a catastrophe rather suited
+  to comedy. The opening scene of the play is thus arranged. Orestes is
+  discovered before the palace of Agamemnon, fatigued, and, on account of
+  his madness, lying on a couch on which Electra is sitting by him at his
+  feet. A difficulty has been started, why does not she sit at his head?
+  for thus would she seem to watch more tenderly over her brother, if she
+  sat nearer him. The poet, it is answered, seems to have made this
+  arrangement on account of the Chorus; for Orestes, who had but just then
+  and with difficulty gotten to sleep, would have been awakened, if the
+  women that constituted the Chorus had stood nearer to him. But this we
+  may infer from what Electra says to the Chorus, "<span lang="el"
+  title="Siga, siga, lepton ichnos arbyl�is">&#x3A3;&#x3B9;&#x3B3;&#x3B1;,
+  &#x3C3;&#x3B9;&#x3B3;&#x3B1;, &#x3BB;&#x3B5;&#x3C0;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B9;&#x3C7;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B1;&#x3C1;&#x3B2;&#x3C5;&#x3BB;&#x3B7;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;</span>." It is
+  probable then that the above is the reason of this arrangement.</p>
+
+  <p>The play is among the most celebrated on the stage, but infamous in
+  its morals; for, with the exception of Pylades, all the characters are
+  bad persons.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2>ORESTES.</h2>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+<p class="center">ELECTRA.</p>
+
+  <p>There is no word so dreadful to relate, nor suffering, nor
+  heaven-inflicted calamity, the burden of which human nature may not be
+  compelled to bear. For Tantalus, the blest, (and I am not reproaching his
+  fortune, <i>when I say this</i>,) the son of Jupiter, as they report,
+  trembling at the rock which impends over his head, hangs in the air, and
+  suffers this punishment, as they say indeed, because, although being a
+  man, yet having the honor of a table in common with the Gods upon equal
+  terms, he possessed an ungovernable tongue, a most disgraceful malady. He
+  begat Pelops, and from him sprung Atreus, for whom the Goddess having
+  carded the wool<a name="Orest_1"></a><a
+  href="#OrestN_1"><sup>[1]</sup></a> spun the thread of contention, <i>and
+  doomed him</i> to make war on Thyestes his relation; (why must I
+  commemorate things unspeakable?) But Atreus then<a name="Orest_2"></a><a
+  href="#OrestN_2"><sup>[2]</sup></a> killed his children&mdash;and feasted
+  him. But from Atreus, for I pass over in silence the misfortunes which
+  intervened, sprung Agamemnon, the illustrious, (if he was indeed
+  illustrious,) and Menelaus; their mother A�rope of Crete. But Menelaus
+  indeed marries Helen, the hated of the Gods, but King Agamemnon
+  <i>obtained</i> Clyt�mnestra's bed, memorable throughout the Grecians:
+  from whom we virgins were born, three from one mother; Chrysothemis, and
+  Iphigenia, and myself Electra; and Orestes the male part of the family,
+  from a most unholy mother, who slew her husband, having covered him
+  around with an inextricable robe; the reason however it is not decorous
+  in a virgin to tell; I leave this undeclared for men to consider as they
+  will. But why indeed must I accuse the injustice of Ph&#339;bus? Yet
+  persuaded he Orestes to kill that mother that brought him forth, a deed
+  which gained not a good report from all men. But nevertheless he did slay
+  her, as he would not be disobedient to the God. I also took a share in
+  the murder, but such as a woman ought to take. As did Pylades also who
+  perpetrated this deed with us. From that time wasting away, the wretched
+  Orestes is afflicted with a grievous malady, but falling on his couch
+  there lies, but his mother's blood whirls him to frenzy (for I dread to
+  mention those Goddesses, the Eumenides, who persecute him with terror).
+  Moreover this is the sixth day since his slaughtered mother was purified
+  by fire as to her body. During which he has neither taken any food down
+  his throat, he has not bathed his limbs, but covered beneath his cloak,
+  when indeed his body is lightened of its disease, on coming to his right
+  mind he weeps, but at another time starts suddenly from his couch, as a
+  colt from his yoke. But it has been decreed by this city of Argos, that
+  no one shall receive us who have slain a mother under their roof, nor at
+  their fire, and that none shall speak to us; but this is the appointed
+  day, in the which the city of the Argives will pronounce their vote,
+  whether it is fitting that we should die being stoned with stones, or
+  having whet the sword, should plunge it into our necks. But I yet have
+  some hope that we may not die, for Menelaus has arrived at this country
+  from Troy, and filling the Nauplian harbor with his oars is mooring his
+  fleet off the shore, having been lost in wanderings from Troy a long
+  time: but the much-afflicted Helen has he sent before to our palace,
+  having taken advantage of the night, lest any of those, whose children
+  died under Ilium, when they saw her coming, by day, might go so far as to
+  stone her; but she is within bewailing her sister, and the calamity of
+  her family. She has however some consolation in her woes, for the virgin
+  Hermione, whom Menelaus bringing from Sparta, left at our palace, when he
+  sailed to Troy, and gave as a charge to my mother to bring up, in her she
+  rejoices, and forgets her miseries. But I am looking at each avenue when
+  I shall see Menelaus present, since, for the rest, we ride on slender
+  power,<a name="Orest_3"></a><a href="#OrestN_3"><sup>[3]</sup></a> if we
+  receive not some succor from him; the house of the unfortunate is an
+  embarrassed state of affairs.</p>
+
+<p class="center">ELECTRA. HELEN.</p>
+
+  <p>HEL. O daughter of Clyt�mnestra and Agamemnon, O Electra, thou that
+  hast remained a virgin a long time. How are ye, O wretched woman, both
+  you, and your brother, the wretched Orestes (he was the murderer of his
+  mother)? For by thy converse I am not polluted, transferring, as I do,
+  the blame to Ph&#339;bus. And yet I groan the death of Clyt�mnestra,
+  whom, after that I sailed to Troy, (how did I sail, urged by the
+  maddening fate of the Gods!) I saw not, but of her bereft I lament my
+  fortune.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. Helen, why should I inform thee of things thou seest thyself
+  here present, the race of Agamemnon in calamities. I indeed sleepless sit
+  companion to the wretched corse, (for he is a corse, in that he breathes
+  so little,) but at his fortune I murmur not. But thou a happy woman, and
+  thy husband a happy man, have come to us, who fare most wretchedly.</p>
+
+  <p>HEL. But what length of time has he been lying on his couch?</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. Ever since he shed his parent's blood.</p>
+
+  <p>HEL. Oh wretched, and his mother too, that thus she perished!</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. These things are thus, so that he is unable to speak for
+  misery.</p>
+
+  <p>HEL. By the Gods wilt thou oblige me in a thing, O virgin?</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. As far as I am permitted by the little leisure I have from
+  watching by my brother.</p>
+
+  <p>HEL. Wilt thou go to the tomb of my sister?</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. My mother's tomb dost thou desire? wherefore?</p>
+
+  <p>HEL. Bearing the first offerings of my hair, and my libations.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. But is it not lawful for thee to go to the tomb of thy
+  friends?</p>
+
+  <p>HEL. No, for I am ashamed to show myself among the Argives.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. Late art thou discreet, then formerly leaving thine home
+  disgracefully.</p>
+
+  <p>HEL. True hast thou spoken, but thou speakest not pleasantly to
+  me.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. But what shame possesses thee among the Myceneans?</p>
+
+  <p>HEL. I fear the fathers of those who are dead under Ilium.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. For this is a dreadful thing; and at Argos thou art declaimed
+  against by every one's mouth.</p>
+
+  <p>HEL. Do thou then grant me this favor, and free me from this fear.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. I can not look upon the tomb of my mother.</p>
+
+  <p>HEL. And yet it is disgraceful for servants to bear these.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. But why not send thy daughter Hermione?</p>
+
+  <p>HEL. It is not well for virgins to go among the crowd.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. And yet she might repay the dead the care of her education.</p>
+
+  <p>HEL. Right hast thou spoken, and I obey thee, O virgin, and I will
+  send my daughter, for thou sayest well. Come forth, my child Hermione,
+  before the house, and take these libations in thine hand, and my hair,
+  and, going to the tomb of Clyt�mnestra, leave there this mixture of milk
+  and honey, and the froth of wine, and standing on the summit of the
+  mound, say thus: "Helen, thy sister, presents thee with these libations,
+  in fear herself to approach thy tomb, and afraid of the populace of
+  Argos:" and bid her hold kind intentions toward me, and thyself, and my
+  husband, and toward these two miserable persons whom the God has
+  destroyed. But promise all the offerings to the manes, whatever it is
+  fitting that I should perform for a sister. Go, my child, hasten, and
+  when thou hast offered the libations at the tomb, remember to return back
+  as speedily as possible.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. [<i>alone</i>] O Nature, what a great evil art thou among men,
+  and the safeguard of those who possess thee, with virtue! For see, how
+  she has shorn off the extremities of her hair, in order to preserve her
+  beauty; but she is the same woman she always was. May the Gods detest
+  thee, for that thou hast destroyed me, and this man, and the whole state
+  of Greece: oh wretch that I am! But my dear friends that accompany me in
+  my lamentations are again present; perhaps they will disturb the sleeper
+  from his slumber, and will melt my eyes in tears when I behold my brother
+  raving.</p>
+
+<p class="center">ELECTRA, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. O most dear woman, proceed with a gentle foot, make no noise,
+  let there be heard no sound. For your friendliness is very kind, but to
+  awake him will be a calamity to me. Hush, hush&mdash;gently advance the
+  tread of thy sandal, make no noise, let there be heard no sound. Move
+  onward from that place&mdash;onward from before the couch.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Behold, I obey.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. St! st! Speak to me, my friend, as the breathing of the soft
+  reed pipe.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. See, I utter a voice low as an under note.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. Ay, thus come hither, come hither, approach quietly&mdash;go
+  quietly: tell me, for what purpose, I pray, are ye come? For he has
+  fallen on his couch, and been sleeping some time.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. How is he? Give us an account of him, my friend.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. What fortune can I say of him? and what his calamities? still
+  indeed he breathes, but sighs at short intervals.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. What sayest thou? Oh, the unhappy man!</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. You will kill him if you move his eyelids, now that he is taking
+  the sweetest enjoyment of sleep.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Unfortunate on account of these most angry deeds from heaven!
+  oh! wretched on account of thy sufferings!</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. Alas! alas! Apollo himself unjust, then spoke unjust things,
+  when at the tripod of Themis he commanded the unhallowed, inauspicious
+  murder of my mother.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Dost thou see? he moves his body in the robes that cover
+  him.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. You by your cries, O wretch, have disturbed him from his
+  sleep.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. I indeed think he is sleeping yet.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. Will you not depart from us? will you not bend your footsteps
+  back from the house, ceasing this noise?</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. He sleeps.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. Thou sayest well.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Venerable, venerable Night, thou that dispensest sleep to
+  languid mortals, come from Erebus; come, come, borne on thy wings to the
+  house of Agamemnon; for by our griefs and by our sufferings we are quite
+  undone, undone.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. Ye were making a noise.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. No. (Note <a name="Orest_A"></a><a
+  href="#OrestN_A">[A]</a>.)</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. Silently, silently repressing the high notes of your voice,
+  apart from his couch, you will enable him to have the tranquil enjoyment
+  of sleep.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Tell us; what end to his miseries awaits him?</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. Death, death; what else can? for he has no appetite for
+  food.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Death then is manifestly before him.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. Ph&#339;bus offered us as victims, when he commanded<a
+  name="Orest_4"></a><a href="#OrestN_4"><sup>[4]</sup></a> the dreadful,
+  abhorred murder of our mother, that slew our father.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. With justice indeed, but not well.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. Thou hast died, thou hast died, O mother, O thou that didst
+  bring me forth, but hast killed the father, and the children of thy
+  blood. We perish, we perish, even as two corses. For thou art among the
+  dead, and the greatest part of my life is passed in groans, and wailings,
+  and nightly tears; marriageless, childless, behold, how like a miserable
+  wretch do I drag out my existence forever!</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. O virgin Electra, approach near, and look that thy brother has
+  not died unobserved by thee; for by this excessive quiet he doth not
+  please me.</p>
+
+<p class="center">ORESTES, ELECTRA, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. O precious balm of sleep, thou that relievest my malady, how
+  pleasant didst thou come to me in the time of need! O divine oblivion of
+  my sufferings, how wise thou art, and the goddess to be supplicated by
+  all in distress!&mdash;whence, in heaven's name, came I hither? and how
+  brought? for I remember not things past, bereaved, as I am, of my
+  senses.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. My dearest brother, how didst thou delight me when thou didst
+  fall asleep! wilt thou I touch thee, and raise thy body up?</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Raise me then, raise me, and wipe the clotted foam from off my
+  wretched mouth, and from my eyes.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. Behold, the task is sweet, and I refuse not to administer to a
+  brother's limbs with a sister's hand.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Lay thy side by my side, and remove the squalid hair from my
+  face, for I see but imperfectly with my eyes.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. O wretched head, sordid with ringlets, how art thou disordered
+  from long want of the bath!</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Lay me on the couch again; when my fit of madness gives me a
+  respite, I am feeble and weak in my limbs.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. Behold, the couch is pleasant to the sick man, an irksome thing
+  to keep, but still a necessary one.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Again raise me upright&mdash;turn my body.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Sick persons are hard to be pleased from their feebleness.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. Wilt thou set thy feet on the ground, putting forward thy
+  long-discontinued<a name="Orest_5"></a><a
+  href="#OrestN_5"><sup>[5]</sup></a> step? In all things change is
+  sweet.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Yes, by all means; for this has a semblance of health, but the
+  semblance is good, though it be distant from the truth.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. Hear now therefore, O my brother, while yet the Furies suffer
+  thee to have thy right faculties.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Wilt thou tell any news? and if good indeed, thou art conferring
+  pleasure; but if it pertain at all to mischief&mdash;I have enough
+  distress.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. Menelaus has arrived, the brother of thy father, but his ships
+  are moored in the Nauplian bay.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. How sayest? Is he come, a light in mine and thy sufferings, a
+  man of kindred blood, and that hath received benefits from our
+  father?</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. He is come; take this a sure proof of my words, bringing with
+  him Helen from the walls of Troy.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Had he been saved alone, he had been more blest. But if he
+  brings his wife, he has arrived with a mighty evil.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. Tyndarus begat an offspring of daughters, a conspicuous mark for
+  blame, and infamous throughout Greece.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Do thou then be unlike the bad, for it is in thy power. And not
+  only say, but also hold these sentiments.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. Alas! my brother, thine eye rolls wildly; quick art thou changed
+  to madness, so late in thy senses.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. O mother, I implore thee, urge not on me those Furies gazing
+  blood, horrid with snakes, for these, these are leaping around me.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. Remain, O wretched man, calmly on thy couch, for thou seest none
+  of those things, which thou fanciest thou seest plainly.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. O Ph&#339;bus, these dire Goddesses in the shape of dogs will
+  kill me, these gorgon-visaged ministers of hell.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. I will not let thee go, but, putting my arm around thee, will
+  stop thy starting into those unfortunate convulsions.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Loose me. Thou art one of my Furies, and seizest me by the
+  middle, that thou mayest hurl me into Tartarus.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. Oh! wretched me! what assistance can I obtain, since we have on
+  us the vengeful wrath of heaven!</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Give me my bow of horn, the gift of Ph&#339;bus, with which
+  Apollo said I should repel the Fiends, if they appalled me by their
+  maddened raging.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. Shall any God be wounded by mortal hand? (Note <a
+  name="Orest_B"></a><a href="#OrestN_B">[B]</a>.)</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. <i>Yes. She shall,</i> if she will not depart from my sight...
+  Hear ye not&mdash;see ye not the winged shafts impelled from the
+  distant-wounding bow? Ha! ha! Why tarry ye yet? Skim the high air with
+  your wings, and impeach the oracles of Ph&#339;bus.&mdash;Ah! why am I
+  thus disquieted, heaving my panting breath from my lungs? Whither,
+  whither have I wandered from my couch? For from the waves again I see a
+  calm.&mdash;Sister, why weepest, hiding thine eyes beneath thy vests, I
+  am ashamed to have thee a partner in my sufferings, and to give a virgin
+  trouble through my malady. Pine not away on account of my miseries: for
+  thou indeed didst assent to this, but the shedding of my mother's blood
+  was accomplished by me: but I blame Apollo, who, after having instigated
+  me to a most unholy act, with words indeed consoled me, but not with
+  deeds. But I think that my father, had I, beholding him, asked him if it
+  were right for me to slay my mother, would have put forth many
+  supplications, beseeching me by this beard not to impel my sword to the
+  slaughter of her who bore me, if neither he thereby could be restored to
+  life, and I thus wretched must go through such miseries. And now then
+  unveil thyself, my sister, and cease from tears, even though we be very
+  miserable: but when thou seest me desponding, do thou restrain my
+  distraction, and that which preys upon my mind, and console me; but when
+  thou groanest, it becomes my duty to come to thee, and suggest words of
+  comfort. For these are the good offices friends ought to render each
+  other. But go thou into the house, O unfortunate sister, and, stretched
+  at full length, compose thy sleepless eyelids to sleep, and take
+  refreshment, and pour the bath upon thy fair skin. For if thou forsakest
+  me, or gettest any illness by continually sitting by me, we perish; for
+  thee I have my only succor, by the rest, as thou seest, abandoned.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. This can not be: with thee will I choose to die, with thee to
+  live; for it is the same: for if then shouldst die, what can I do, a
+  woman? how shall I be preserved, alone and destitute? without a brother,
+  without a father, without a friend: but if it seemeth good to thee, these
+  things it is my duty to do: but recline thy body on the bed, and do not
+  to such a degree conceive to be real whatever frightens and startles thee
+  from the couch, but keep quiet on the bed strewn for thee. For though
+  thou be not ill, but only seem to be ill, still this even is an evil and
+  a distress to mortals. (Note <a name="Orest_C"></a><a
+  href="#OrestN_C">[C]</a>.)</p>
+
+  <p>CHORUS. Alas! alas! O swift-winged, raving<a name="Orest_6"></a><a
+  href="#OrestN_6"><sup>[6]</sup></a> Goddesses, who keep up the dance, not
+  that of Bacchus, with tears and groans. You, dark Eumenides, you, that
+  fly through the wide extended air, executing vengeance, executing
+  slaughter, you do I supplicate, I supplicate: suffer the offspring of
+  Agamemnon to forget his furious madness; alas! for his sufferings. What
+  were they that eagerly grasping at, thou unhappy perishest, having
+  received from the tripod the oracle which Ph&#339;bus spake, on that
+  pavement, where are said to be the recesses in the midst of the globe! O
+  Jupiter, what pity is there? what is this contention of slaughter that
+  comes persecuting thee wretched, to whom some evil genius casts tear upon
+  tear, transporting to thy house the blood of thy mother which drives thee
+  frenzied! Thus I bewail, I bewail. Great prosperity is not lasting among
+  mortals; but, as the sail of the swift bark, some deity having shaken
+  him, hath sunk him in the voracious and destructive waves of tremendous
+  evils, as in the waves of the ocean. For what other<a
+  name="Orest_6a"></a><a href="#OrestN_6a"><sup>[6a]</sup></a> family ought
+  I to reverence yet before that sprung from divine nuptials, sprung from
+  Tantalus?&mdash;But lo! the king! the prince Menelaus, is coming! but he
+  is very easily discernible from the elegance of his person, as king of
+  the house of the Tantalid�.</p>
+
+  <p>O thou that didst direct the army of a thousand vessels to Asia's
+  land, hail! but thou comest hither with good fortune, having obtained the
+  object of thy wishes from the Gods.</p>
+
+<p class="center">MENELAUS, ORESTES, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. O palace, in some respect indeed I behold thee with pleasure,
+  coming from Troy, but in other respect I groan when I see thee. For never
+  yet saw I any other house more completely encircled round with lamentable
+  woes. For I was made acquainted with the misfortune that befell
+  Agamemnon, [and his death, by what death he perished at the hands of his
+  wife,]<a name="Orest_6b"></a><a href="#OrestN_6b"><sup>[6b]</sup></a>
+  when I was landing my ships at Malea; but from the waves the prophet of
+  the mariners declared unto me, the foreboding Glaucus the son of Nereus,
+  an unerring God, who told me thus in evident form standing by me.
+  "Menelaus, thy brother lieth dead, having fallen in his last bath, which
+  his wife prepared." But he filled both me and my sailors with many tears;
+  but when I come to the Nauplian shore, my wife having already landed
+  there, expecting to clasp in my friendly embraces Orestes the son of
+  Agamemnon, and his mother, as being in prosperity, I heard from some
+  fisherman<a name="Orest_7"></a><a href="#OrestN_7"><sup>[7]</sup></a> the
+  unhallowed murder of the daughter of Tyndarus. And now tell me, maidens,
+  where is the son of Agamemnon, who dared these terrible deeds of evil?
+  for he was an infant in Clyt�mnestra's arms at that time when I left the
+  palace on my way to Troy, so that I should not know him, were I to see
+  him.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. I, Menelaus, am Orestes, whom thou seekest, I of my own accord
+  will declare my evils. But first I touch thy knees in supplication,
+  putting up prayers from my mouth, not using the sacred branch:<a
+  name="Orest_8"></a><a href="#OrestN_8"><sup>[8]</sup></a> save me. But
+  thou art come in the very season of my sufferings.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. O ye Gods, what do I behold! whom of the dead do I see!</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Ay! well thou sayest the dead; for in my state of suffering I
+  live not; but see the light.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. Thou wretched man, how disordered thou art in thy squalid
+  hair!</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Not the appearance, but the deeds torment me.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. But thou glarest dreadfully with thy shriveled eyeballs.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. My body is vanished, but my name has not left me.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. Alas, thy uncomeliness of form which has appeared to me beyond
+  conception!</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. I am he, the murderer of my wretched mother.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. I have heard; but spare a little the recital of thy woes.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. I spare it; but in woes the deity is rich to me.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. What dost thou suffer? What malady destroys thee?</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. The conviction that I am conscious of having perpetrated
+  dreadful deeds.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. How sayest thou? Plainness, and not obscurity, is wisdom.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Sorrow is chiefly what destroys me,&mdash;</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. She is a dreadful goddess, but sorrow admits of cure.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. And fits of madness in revenge for my mother's blood.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. But when didst first have the raging? what day was it then?</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. That day in which I heaped the tomb on my mother.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. What? in the house, or sitting at the pyre?</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. As I was guarding by night lest any one should bear off her
+  bones.<a name="Orest_9"></a><a href="#OrestN_9"><sup>[9]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>MEN. Was any one else present, who supported thy body?</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Pylades, who perpetrated with me the vengeance and death of my
+  mother.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. But by what visions art thou thus afflicted?</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. I appear to behold three virgins like the night.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. I know whom thou meanest, but am unwilling to name them.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Yes: for they are awful; but forbear from speaking such high
+  polished words.<a name="Orest_10"></a><a
+  href="#OrestN_10"><sup>[10]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>MEN. Do these drive thee to distraction on account of this kindred
+  murder?</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Alas me for the persecutions, with which wretched I am
+  driven!</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. It is not strange that those who do strange deeds should suffer
+  them.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. But we have whereto we may transfer the criminality<a
+  name="Orest_11"></a><a href="#OrestN_11"><sup>[11]</sup></a> of the
+  mischance.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. Say not the death <i>of thy father;</i> for this is not wise.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Ph&#339;bus who commanded us to perpetrate the slaying of our
+  mother.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. Being more ignorant than to know equity, and justice.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. We are servants of the Gods, whatever those Gods be.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. And then does not Apollo assist thee in thy miseries?</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. He is always about to do it, but such are the Gods by
+  nature.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. But how long a time has thy mother's breath gone from her?</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. This is the sixth day since; the funeral pyre is yet warm.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. How quickly have the Goddesses come to demand of thee thy
+  mother's blood!</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. I am not wise, but a true friend to my friends.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. But what then doth the revenge of thy father profit thee?</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Nothing yet; but I consider what is in prospect in the same
+  light as a thing not done.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. But regarding the city how standest thou, having done these
+  things?</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. We are hated to that degree, that no one speaks to us.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. Nor hast thou washed thy blood from thy hands according to the
+  laws?</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. <i>How can I?</i> for I am shut out from the houses,
+  whithersoever I go.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. Who of the citizens thus contend to drive thee from the land?</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. &#338;ax,<a name="Orest_12"></a><a
+  href="#OrestN_12"><sup>[12]</sup></a> imputing to my father the hatred
+  which arose on account of Troy.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. I understand. The death of Palamede takes its vengeance on
+  thee.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. In which at least I had no share&mdash;but I perish by the
+  three.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. But who else? Is it perchance one of the friends of �gisthus?</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. They persecute me, whom now the city obeys.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. But does the city suffer thee to wield Agamemnon's sceptre?</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. How should they? who no longer suffer us to live.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. Doing what, which thou canst tell me as a clear fact?</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. This very day sentence will be passed upon us.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. To be exiled from this city? or to die? or not to die?</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. To die, by being stoned with stones by the citizens.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. And dost thou not fly then, escaping beyond the boundaries of the
+  country?</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. <i>How can we?</i> for we are surrounded on every side by brazen
+  arms.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. By private enemies, or by the hand of Argos?</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. By all the citizens, that I may die&mdash;the word is brief.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. O unhappy man! thou art come to the extreme of misfortune.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. On thee my hope builds her escape from evils, but, thyself
+  happy, coming among the distressed, impart thy good fortune to thy
+  friends, and be not the only man to retain a benefit thou hast received,
+  but undertake also services in thy turn, paying their father's kindness
+  to those to whom thou oughtest. For those friends have the name, not the
+  reality, who are not friends in adversity.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. And see the Spartan Tyndarus is toiling hither with his aged
+  foot, in a black vest, and shorn, his locks cut off in mourning for his
+  daughter.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. I am undone, O Menelaus! Lo! Tyndarus is coming toward us, to
+  come before whose presence, most of all men's, shame covereth me, on
+  account of what has been done. For he used to nurture me when I was
+  little, and satiated me with many kisses, dandling in his arms
+  Agamemnon's boy, and Leda with him, honoring me no less than the
+  twin-born of Jove. For which, O my wretched heart and soul, I have given
+  no good return: what dark veil can I take for my countenance? what cloud
+  can I place before me, that I may avoid the glances of the old man's
+  eyes?</p>
+
+<p class="center">TYNDARUS, MENELAUS, ORESTES, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>TYND. Where, where can I see my daughter's husband Menelaus? For as I
+  was pouring my libations on the tomb of Clyt�mnestra, I heard that he was
+  come to Nauplia with his wife, safe through a length of years. Conduct
+  me, for I long to stand by his hand and salute him, seeing my friend
+  after a long lapse of time.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. O hail! old man, who sharest thy bed with Jove.</p>
+
+  <p>TYND. O hail! thou also, Menelaus my dear relation,&mdash;ah! what an
+  evil is it not to know the future! This dragon here, the murderer of his
+  mother, glares before the house his pestilential gleams&mdash;the object
+  of my detestation&mdash;Menelaus, dost thou speak to this unholy
+  wretch?</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. Why not? he is the son of a father who was dear to me.</p>
+
+  <p>TYND. What! was he sprung from him, being such as he is?</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. He was; but, though he be unfortunate, he should be
+  respected.</p>
+
+  <p>TYND. Having been a long time with barbarians, thou art thyself turned
+  barbarian.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. Nay! it is the Grecian fashion always to honor one of kindred
+  blood.</p>
+
+  <p>TYND. <i>Yes</i>, and also not to wish to be above the laws.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. Every thing proceeding from necessity is considered as
+  subservient to her<a name="Orest_13"></a><a
+  href="#OrestN_13"><sup>[13]</sup></a> among the wise.</p>
+
+  <p>TYND. Do thou then keep to this, but I'll have none of it.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. <i>No</i>, for anger joined with thine age, is not wisdom.</p>
+
+  <p>TYND. With this man what controversy can there be regarding wisdom? If
+  what things are virtuous, and what are not virtuous, are plain to all,
+  what man was ever more unwise that this man? who did not indeed consider
+  justice, nor applied to the common existing law of the Grecians. For
+  after that Agamemnon breathed forth his last, struck by my daughter on
+  the head, a most foul deed (for never will I approve of this), it
+  behooved him indeed to lay against her a sacred charge of bloodshed,
+  following up the accusation, and to cast his mother from out of the
+  house; and he would have taken the wise side in the calamity, and would
+  have kept to law, and would have been pious. But now has he come to the
+  same fate with his mother. For with justice thinking her wicked, himself
+  has become more wicked in slaying his mother.</p>
+
+  <p>But thus much, Menelaus, will I ask thee; If the wife that shared his
+  bed were to kill him, and his son again kills his mother in return, and
+  he that is born of him shall expiate the murder with murder, whither then
+  will the extremes of these evils proceed? Well did our fathers of old lay
+  down these things; they suffered not him to come into the sight of their
+  eyes, not to their converse, who was under an attainder<a
+  name="Orest_14"></a><a href="#OrestN_14"><sup>[14]</sup></a> of blood;
+  but they made him atone by banishment; they suffered however none to kill
+  him in return. For always were one about to be attainted of murder,
+  taking the pollution last into his hands. But I hate indeed impious
+  women, but first among them my daughter, who slew her husband. But never
+  will I approve of Helen thy wife, nor would I speak to her, neither do I
+  commend<a name="Orest_15"></a><a href="#OrestN_15"><sup>[15]</sup></a>
+  thee for going to the plain of Troy on account of a perfidious woman. But
+  I will defend the law, as far at least as I am able, putting a stop to
+  this brutish and murderous practice, which is ever destructive both of
+  the country and the state.&mdash;For what feelings of humanity hadst
+  thou, thou wretched man, when she bared her breast in supplication, thy
+  mother? I indeed, though I witnessed not that scene of misery, melt in my
+  aged eyes with tears through wretchedness. One thing however goes to the
+  scale of my arguments; thou art both hated by the Gods, and sufferest
+  vengeance of thy mother, wandering about with madness and terrors; why
+  must I hear by the testimony of others, what it is in my power to see?
+  That thou mayest know then <i>once for all</i>, Menelaus, do not things
+  contrary to the Gods, through thy wishes to assist this man. But suffer
+  him to be slain by the citizens with stones, or set not thy foot on
+  Spartan ground. But my daughter in dying met with justice, but it was not
+  fitting that she should die by him.<a name="Orest_16"></a><a
+  href="#OrestN_16"><sup>[16]</sup></a> In other respects indeed have I
+  been a happy man, except in my daughters, but in this I am not happy.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. He is enviable, who is fortunate in his children, and has not on
+  him some notorious calamities.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. O old man, I tremble to speak to thee, wherein I am about to
+  grieve thee and thy mind. But I am unholy in that I slew my mother; but
+  holy at least in another point of view, having avenged my father. Let
+  then thine age, which hinders me through fear from speaking, be removed
+  out of the way of my words, and I will go on in a direct path; but now do
+  I fear thy gray hairs. What could I do? for oppose the facts, two against
+  two. My father indeed begat me, but thy daughter brought me forth, a
+  field receiving the seed from another; but without a father there never
+  could be a child. I reasoned therefore with myself, that I should assist
+  the prime author of my birth rather than the aliment which under him
+  produced me. But thy daughter (I am ashamed to call her mother), in
+  secret and unchaste nuptials, had approached the bed of another man; of
+  myself, if I speak ill of her, shall I be speaking, but yet will I tell
+  it. �gisthus was her secret husband in her palace. Him I slew, and after
+  him I sacrificed my mother, doing indeed unholy things, but avenging my
+  father. But as touching those things for which thou threatenest that I
+  must be stoned, hear, how I shall assist all Greece. For if the women
+  shall arrive at such a pitch of boldness as to murder the men, making
+  good their escape with regard to their children, seeking to captivate
+  their pity by their breasts, it would be as nothing with them to slay
+  their husbands, having any pretext that might chance; but I having done
+  dreadful things (as thou sayest), have put a stop to this law, but hating
+  my mother deservedly I slew her, who betrayed her husband absent from
+  home in arms, the generalissimo of the whole land of Greece, and kept not
+  her bed undefiled. But when she perceived that she had done amiss, she
+  inflicted not vengeance on herself, but, that she might not suffer
+  vengeance from her husband, punished and slew my father. By the Gods, (in
+  no good cause have I named the Gods, pleading against a charge of
+  murder,) had I by my silence praised my mother's actions, what then would
+  the deceased have done to me? To my mother indeed the Furies are present
+  as allies, but would they not be present to him, who has received the
+  greater injury? Would he not, detesting me, have haunted me with the
+  Furies? Thou then, O old man, by begetting a bad daughter, hast destroyed
+  me; for through her boldness deprived of my father, I became a matricide.
+  Dost see? Telemachus slew not the wife of Ulysses, for she married not a
+  husband on a husband, but her marriage-bed remains unpolluted in the
+  palace. Dost see? Apollo, who, dwelling in his habitation in the midst of
+  the earth, gives the most clear oracles to mortals, by whom we are
+  entirely guided, whatever he may say, on him relying slew I my mother.
+  'Twas he who erred, not I: what could I do? Is not the God sufficient for
+  me, who transfer <i>the deed</i> to him, to do away with the pollution?
+  Whither then can any fly for succor, unless he that commanded me shall
+  deliver me from death? But say not these things have been done "not
+  well;" but <i>say</i> "not fortunately" for us who did them. But to
+  whatsoever men their marriages are well established, there is a happy
+  life, but to those to whom they fall not out well, with regard to their
+  affairs both at home and abroad they are unfortunate.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Women were born always to be in the way of what may happen to
+  men, to the making of things unfortunate.</p>
+
+  <p>TYND. Since thou art bold, and yieldest not to my speech, but thus
+  answerest me so as to grieve my mind, thou wilt rather inflame me to urge
+  thy death. But this I shall consider a handsome addition to those labors
+  for which I came, <i>namely</i>, to deck my daughter's tomb. For going to
+  the multitude of the Argives assembled, I will rouse the state willing
+  and not unwilling, to pass the sentence<a name="Orest_16a"></a><a
+  href="#OrestN_16a"><sup>[16a]</sup></a> of being stoned on thee and on
+  thy sister; but she is worthy of death rather than thee, who irritated
+  thee against her mother, always pealing in thine ear words to increase
+  thy hatred, relating dreams she had of Agamemnon, and this also, that the
+  infernal Gods detested the bed of �gisthus; for even here <i>on earth</i>
+  it were hard <i>to be endured</i>; until she set the house in flames with
+  fire more strong than Vulcan's.&mdash;Menelaus, but to thee I speak this,
+  and will moreover perform it. If thou regard my hate, and my alliance,
+  ward not off death from this man in opposition to the Gods; but suffer
+  him to be slain by the citizens with stones, or set not thy foot on
+  Spartan ground. Thus much having heard, depart, nor choose the impious
+  for thy friends, passing over the pious.&mdash;But O attendants, conduct
+  us from this house.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Depart, that the remainder of my speech may reach this man
+  uninterrupted by the clamors of thy age: Menelaus, whither dost thou roam
+  in thought, entering on a double path of double care?</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. Suffer me; having some thoughts with myself, I am perplexed to
+  which side of fortune to turn me.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Do not make up thy opinion, but having first heard my words,
+  then deliberate.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. Say on; for thou hast spoken rightly; but there are seasons where
+  silence may be better than talking, and there are seasons where talking
+  may be better than silence.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. I will speak then forthwith: Long speeches have the preference
+  before short ones, and are more plain to hear. Give thou to me nothing of
+  what thou hast, O Menelaus, but what thou hast received from my father,
+  return; I mean not riches&mdash;yet riches, which are the most dear of
+  what I possess, if thou wilt preserve my life. Say I am unjust, I ought
+  to receive from thee, instead of this evil, something contrary to what
+  justice demands; for Agamemnon my father having collected Greece in arms,
+  in a way justice did not demand, went to Troy, not having erred himself,
+  but in order to set right the error, and injustice of thy wife. This one
+  thing indeed thou oughtest to give me for one thing, but he, as friends
+  should for friends, of a truth exposed his person for thee toiling at the
+  shield, that thou mightest receive back thy wife. Repay me then this
+  kindness for that which thou receivedst there, toiling for one day in
+  standing as my succor, not completing ten years. But the sacrifice of my
+  sister, which Aulis received, this I suffer thee to have; do not kill
+  Hermione, <i>I ask it not</i>. For, I being in the state in which I now
+  am, thou must of necessity have the advantage, and I must suffer it to be
+  so. But grant my life to my wretched father, and my sister's, who has
+  been a virgin a long time. For dying I shall leave my father's house
+  destitute. Thou wilt say "impossible:" this is the very thing <i>I have
+  been urging</i>, it behooves friends to help their friends in
+  misfortunes. But when the God gives prosperity, what need is there of
+  friends? For the God himself sufficeth, being willing to assist. Thou
+  appearest to all the Greeks to be fond of thy wife; (and this I say, not
+  stealing under thee imperceptibly with flattery;) by her I implore thee;
+  O wretched me for my woes, to what have I come? but why must I suffer
+  thus? For in behalf of the whole house I make this supplication. O divine
+  brother of my father, conceive that the dead man beneath the earth hears
+  these things, and that his spirit is hovering over thee, and speaks what
+  I speak. These things have I said, with tears, and groans, and
+  miseries,<a name="Orest_17"></a><a href="#OrestN_17"><sup>[17]</sup></a>
+  and have prayed earnestly, looking for preservation, which all, and not I
+  only, seek.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. I too implore thee, although a woman, yet still I implore thee
+  to succor those in need, but thou art able.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. Orestes, I indeed reverence thy person, and I am willing to labor
+  with thee in thy misfortunes. For thus it is right to endure together the
+  misfortunes of one's relations, if the God gives the ability, even so far
+  as to die, and to kill the adversary; but this ability again I want from
+  the Gods. For I am come having my single spear unaided by allies, having
+  wandered with infinite labors with small assistance of friends left me.
+  In battle therefore we can not come off superior to Pelasgian Argos; but
+  if we can by soft speeches, to that hope are we equal. For how can any
+  one achieve great actions with small means? For when the rabble is in
+  full force falling into a rage, it is equally difficult to extinguish as
+  a fierce fire. But if one quietly yields to it as it is spreading, and
+  gives in to it, watching well his opportunity, perhaps it may spend its
+  rage, but when it has remitted from its blast, you may without difficulty
+  have it your own way, as much as you please. For there is inherent in
+  them pity, but there is inherent also vehement passion, to one who
+  carefully watches his opportunity a most excellent advantage. But I will
+  go and endeavor to persuade Tyndarus, and the city, to use their great
+  power in a becoming manner. For a ship, the main sheet stretched out to a
+  violent degree, is wont to pitch, but stands upright again, if you
+  slacken the main sheet. For the God hates too great vehemence, and the
+  citizens hate it; but I must (I speak as I mean) save thee by wisdom, not
+  by opposing my superiors. But I can not by force, as perchance thou
+  thinkest, preserve thee; for it is no easy matter to erect from one
+  single spear trophies from the evils, which are about thee. For never
+  have we approached the land of Argos by way of supplication; but now
+  there is necessity for the wise to become the slaves of fortune.</p>
+
+<p class="center">ORESTES, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. O thou, a mere cipher in other things except in warring for the
+  sake of a woman; O thou most base in avenging thy friends, dost thou fly,
+  turning away from me? But all Agamemnon's services are gone: thou wert
+  then without friends, O my father, in thy affliction. Alas me! I am
+  betrayed, and there no longer are any hopes, whither turning I may escape
+  death from the Argives. For he was the refuge of my safety. But I see
+  this most dear of men, Pylades, coming with hasty step from the Phocians,
+  a pleasing sight, a man faithful in adversity, more grateful to behold
+  than the calm to the mariners.</p>
+
+<p class="center">PYLADES, ORESTES, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. I came through the city with a quicker step than I ought, having
+  heard of the council of state assembled, and seeing it plainly myself,
+  against thee and thy sister, as about to kill you instantly.&mdash;What
+  is this? how art thou? in what state, O most dear to me of my companions
+  and kindred? for all these things art thou to me.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. We are gone&mdash;briefly to show thee my calamities.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. Thou wilt have ruined me too; for the things of friends are
+  common.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Menelaus has behaved most basely toward me and my sister.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. It is to be expected that the husband of a bad wife be bad.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. He is come, and has done just as much for me as if he had not
+  come.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. What! is he in truth come to this land?</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. After a long season; but nevertheless he was very soon
+  discovered to be too base to his friends.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. And has he brought in his ship with him his most infamous
+  wife?</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Not he her, but she brought him hither.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. Where is she, who, beyond any woman,<a name="Orest_18"></a><a
+  href="#OrestN_18"><sup>[18]</sup></a> destroyed most of the Grecians?</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. In my palace, if I may indeed be allowed to call this mine.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. But what words didst thou say to thy father's brother?</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. <i>I requested him</i> not to suffer me and my sister to be
+  slain by the citizens.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. By the Gods, what said he to this request; this I wish to
+  know.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. He declined, from motives of prudence, as bad friends act toward
+  their friends.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. Going on what ground of excuse? This having learned, I am in
+  possession of every thing.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. The father himself came, he that begat such excellent
+  daughters.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. Tyndarus you mean; perhaps enraged with thee on account of his
+  daughter.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. You are right: be paid more attention to his ties with him, than
+  to his ties with my father.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. And dared he not, being present, to take arms against thy
+  troubles?</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. <i>No</i>: for he was not born a warrior, but brave among
+  women.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. Thou art then in the greatest miseries, and it is necessary for
+  thee to die.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. The citizens must pass their vote on us for the murder <i>we
+  have committed</i>.<a name="Orest_19"></a><a
+  href="#OrestN_19"><sup>[19]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>PYL. Which vote what will it decide? tell me, for I am in fear.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Either to die or live; not many words on matters of great
+  import.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. Come fly, and quit the palace with thy sister.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Seest thou not? we are watched by guards on every side,</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. I saw the streets of the city lined with arms.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. We are invested as to our persons, as a city by the enemy.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. Now ask me also, what I suffer; for I too am undone.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. By whom? This would be an evil added to my evils.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. Strophius, my father, being enraged, hath driven me an exile from
+  his house.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Bringing against thee some private charge, or one in common with
+  the citizens?</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. Because I perpetrated with thee the murder of thy mother, he
+  banished me, calling me unholy.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. O thou unfortunate! it seems that thou also sufferest for my
+  evils.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. We have not Menelaus's manners&mdash;this must be borne.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Dost thou not fear lest Argos should wish to kill thee, as it
+  does also me?</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. We do not belong to these to punish, but to the land of the
+  Phocians.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. The populace is a terrible thing, when they have evil
+  leaders.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. But when they have good ones, they always deliberate good
+  things.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Be it so: we must speak on our common business.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. On what affair of necessity?</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Supposing I should go to the citizens, and say&mdash;</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. &mdash;that thou hast acted justly?</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Ay, avenging my father:</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. I fear they might not receive thee gladly.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. But shall I die then shuddering in silence!</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. This were cowardly.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. How then can I do?</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. Hast thou any chance of safety, if thou remainest?</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. I have none.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. But going, is there any hope of thy being preserved from thy
+  miseries?</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Should it chance well, there might be.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. Is not this then better than remaining?</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Shall I go then?</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. Dying thus, at least thou wilt die more honorably.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. And I have a just cause.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. Only pray for its appearing so.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Thou sayest well: this way I avoid the imputation of
+  cowardice.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. More than by tarrying here.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. And some one perchance may pity me&mdash;</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. Yes; for thy nobleness of birth is a great thing.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. &mdash;indignant at my father's death.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. All this in prospect.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Go I must, for it is not manly to die ingloriously.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. These sentiments I praise.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Shall we then tell these things to my sister?</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. No, by the Gods.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Why, there might be tears.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. This then is a great omen.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Clearly it is better to be silent.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. Thou art a gainer by delay.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. This one thing only opposes me.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. What new thing again is this thou sayest?</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. I fear lest the goddesses should stop me with their
+  torments.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. But I will take care of thee.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. It is a difficult and dangerous task to touch a man thus
+  disordered.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. Not for me to touch thee.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Take care how thou art partner of my madness.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. Let not this be thought of.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Wilt thou not then be timid to assist me?</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. No, for timidity is a great evil to friends.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Go on now, the helm of my foot.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. Having a charge worthy of a friend.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. And guide me to my father's tomb.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. To what end is this?</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. That I may supplicate him to save me.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. This at least is just.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. But let me not see my mother's monument.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. For she was an enemy. But hasten, that the decree of the Argives
+  condemn thee not before thou goest; leaning thy side, weary with disease,
+  on mine: since I will conduct thee through the city, little caring for
+  the multitude, nothing ashamed; for where shall I show myself thy friend,
+  if I assist thee not when them art in perilous condition?</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. This it is to have companions, not relationship alone; so that a
+  man who is congenial in manners, though a stranger in blood, is a better
+  friend for a man to have, than ten thousand relatives.</p>
+
+<p class="center">CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>The great happiness, and the valor high sounding throughout Greece,
+  and by the channels of the Simois, has again withdrawn from the fortune
+  of the Atrid�, as of old, from the ancient calamity of the house, when
+  the strife of the golden lamb<a name="Orest_20"></a><a
+  href="#OrestN_20"><sup>[20]</sup></a> arose among the descendants of
+  Tantalus; most shocking feasts, and the slaughter of noble children; from
+  whence murder responsive to murder fails not to attend on the two sons of
+  Atreus. What seems good is not good, to gash the parents' skin with a
+  fierce hand, and brandish the sword black-stained with blood in the
+  sunbeams. But, on the other hand, to act wickedly<a
+  name="Orest_21"></a><a href="#OrestN_21"><sup>[21]</sup></a> is mad
+  impiety, and the folly of evil-minded men.</p>
+
+  <p>But the wretched daughter of Tyndarus in the fear of death shrieked
+  out, "My son, thou darest impious deeds, killing thy mother; do not,
+  attending to the gratification of thy father, kindle an everlasting
+  disgrace."</p>
+
+  <p>What malady, or what tears, or what pity on earth is greater, than to
+  imbrue one's hand in a mother's blood? What a deed, what a deed having
+  performed, does the son of Agamemnon rave with madness, a prey to the
+  Eumenides, marked for death, giddy with his rolling eyes! O wretched on
+  account of his mother, when though seeing the breast bared from the robe
+  of golden texture, he stabbed the mother in retaliation for the father's
+  sufferings.</p>
+
+<p class="center">ELECTRA, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. Ye virgins, has the wretched Orestes, overcome with
+  heaven-inflicted madness, rushed any where from this house?</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. By no means; but he is gone to the Argive people, to undergo the
+  trial proposed regarding life, by which you must either live or die.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. Alas me! what thing has he done? but who persuaded him?</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Pylades.&mdash;But this messenger seems soon about to inform us
+  of what has passed there concerning thy brother.</p>
+
+<p class="center">MESSENGER, ELECTRA, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. O wretched hapless daughter of the chief Agamemnon, revered
+  Electra, hear the unfortunate words which I am come to bring.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. Alas! alas! we are undone; this thou signifiest by thy speech.
+  For thou comest, as it seems, a messenger of woes.</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. It has been carried by the vote of the Pelasgians, that thy
+  brother and thou must die this day.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. Ah me! the expected event has come, which long since fearing, I
+  pined away with lamentations on account of what was in
+  prospect.&mdash;But what was the debate? What arguments among the Argives
+  condemned us, and confirmed our sentence of death? Tell me, old man,
+  whether by the hand raised to stone me, or by the sword must I breathe
+  out my soul, having this calamity in common with my brother?</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. I chanced indeed to be entering the gates from the country,
+  anxious to hear both what regarded thee, and what regarded Orestes; for
+  at all times I had a favorable inclination toward thy father: and thy
+  house fed me, poor indeed, but noble in my conduct toward friends. But I
+  see the crowd going and sitting down on an eminence; where they say
+  Danaus first collected the people to a common council, when he suffered
+  punishment at the hands of �gyptus. But seeing this concourse, I asked
+  one of the citizens, "What new thing is stirring in Argos? Has any
+  message from hostile powers roused the city of the Danaids?" But he said,
+  "Seest thou not this Orestes walking near us, who is about to run in the
+  contest of life and death?" But I see an unexpected sight, which oh that
+  I had never seen! Pylades and thy brother walking together, the one
+  indeed broken with sickness, but the other, like a brother, sympathizing
+  with his friend, tending his weakened state with fostering care. But when
+  the assembly of the Argives was full, a herald stood forth and said, "Who
+  wishes to speak <i>on the question</i>, whether it is right that Orestes,
+  who has killed his mother, should die, or not?" And on this Talthybius
+  rises, who, in conjunction with thy father, laid waste the Phrygians. But
+  he spoke words of divided import, being the constant slave of those in
+  power; struck with admiration indeed at thy father, but not commending
+  thy brother (speciously mixing up words of bad import), because he laid
+  down no good laws toward his parents: but he was continually casting a
+  smiling glance on �gisthus's friends. For such is this kind; heralds
+  always dance attendance on the prosperous; but that man is their friend,
+  whoever may chance to have power in the state, and to be in office. But
+  next to him prince Diomed harangued; he indeed was for suffering them to
+  kill neither thee nor thy brother, but <i>bid them</i> observe piety by
+  punishing you with banishment. But some indeed murmured their assent,
+  that he spoke well, but others praised him not.<a name="Orest_22"></a><a
+  href="#OrestN_22"><sup>[22]</sup></a> And after him rises up some man,
+  intemperate in speech, powerful in boldness, an Argive, yet not an
+  Argive,<a name="Orest_23"></a><a href="#OrestN_23"><sup>[23]</sup></a>
+  forced upon us, relying both on the tumult, and on ignorant boldness,
+  prompt by persuasion to involve them in some mischief. (For when a man,
+  sweet in words, holding bad sentiments, persuades the multitude, it is a
+  great evil to the city. But as many as always advise good things with
+  understanding, although not at the present moment, eventually are of
+  service to the state: but the intelligent leader ought to look to this,
+  for the case is the same with the man who speaks words, and the man who
+  approves them.) Who said, that they ought to kill Orestes and thee by
+  stoning. But Tyndarus was privily making up such sort of speeches for him
+  who wished your death to speak. But another man stood up, and spoke in
+  opposition to him, in form indeed not made to catch the eye; but a man
+  endued with the qualities of a man, rarely polluting the city, and the
+  circle of the forum; one who farmed his own land,<a
+  name="Orest_24"></a><a href="#OrestN_24"><sup>[24]</sup></a> which class
+  of persons<a name="Orest_25"></a><a href="#OrestN_25"><sup>[25]</sup></a>
+  alone preserve the country, but prudent, and wishing the tenor of his
+  conduct to be in unison with his words, uncorrupted, one that had
+  conformed to a blameless mode of living; he proposed to crown Orestes the
+  son of Agamemnon,<a name="Orest_25a"></a><a
+  href="#OrestN_25a"><sup>[25a]</sup></a> who was willing to avenge his
+  father by slaying a wicked and unholy woman, who took this out of the
+  power of men, and would no one have been the cause of arming the hand for
+  war, nor undertaking an expedition, leaving his home, if those who are
+  left destroy what is intrusted to their charge in the house, disgracing
+  their husbands' beds. And to right-minded men at least he appeared to
+  speak well: and none spoke besides, but thy brother advanced and said, "O
+  inhabitants of the land of Inachus, avenging you no less than my father,
+  I slew my mother, for if the murder of men shall become licensed to
+  women, ye no longer can escape dying, or ye must be slaves to your wives.
+  But ye do the contrary to what ye ought to do. For now she that was false
+  to the bed of my father is dead; but if ye do indeed slay me, the law has
+  lost its force, and no man can escape dying, forasmuch as there will be
+  no lack of this audacity."</p>
+
+  <p>But he persuaded not the people, though appearing to speak well. But
+  that villain, who spoke among the multitude, overcomes him, he that
+  harangued for the killing of thy brother and thee. But scarcely did the
+  wretched Orestes persuade them that he might not die by stoning; but he
+  promised that this day he would quit his life by self-slaughter together
+  with thee:&mdash;but Pylades is conducting him from the council, weeping:
+  but his friends accompany him bewailing him, pitying him; but he is
+  coming a sad spectacle to thee, and a wretched sight. But prepare the
+  sword, or the noose for thy neck, for thou must die, but thy nobleness of
+  birth hath profited thee nothing, nor the Pythian Ph&#339;bus who sits on
+  the tripod, but hath destroyed thee.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. O unhappy virgin! how art thou dumb, casting thy muffled
+  countenance toward the ground, as though about to run into a strain of
+  groans and lamentations!</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. I begin the lament, O land of Greece, digging my white nail into
+  my cheek, sad bleeding woe, and dashing my head, which<a
+  name="Orest_26"></a><a href="#OrestN_26"><sup>[26]</sup></a> the lovely<a
+  name="Orest_27"></a><a href="#OrestN_27"><sup>[27]</sup></a> goddess of
+  the manes beneath the earth has to her share. And let the Cyclopian
+  land<a name="Orest_28"></a><a href="#OrestN_28"><sup>[28]</sup></a> howl,
+  applying the steel to their head cropped of hair over the calamity of our
+  house. This pity, this pity, proceeds for those who are about to die, who
+  once were the princes of Greece. For it is gone, it is gone, the entire
+  race of the children of Pelops has perished, and the happiness which once
+  resided in these blest abodes. Envy from heaven has now seized it, and
+  the harsh decree of blood in the state. Alas! alas! O race of mortals
+  that endure for a day, full of tears, full of troubles, behold how
+  contrary to expectation fate comes. But in the long lapse of time each
+  different man receives by turns his different sufferings.<a
+  name="Orest_29"></a><a href="#OrestN_29"><sup>[29]</sup></a> But the
+  whole race of mortals is unstable and uncertain.</p>
+
+  <p>Oh! could I go to that rock stretched from Olympus in its loftiness
+  midst heaven and earth by golden chains, that mass of clay borne round
+  with rapid revolutions, that in my plaints I might cry out to my ancient
+  father Tantalus; who begat the progenitors of my family, who saw
+  calamities, what time in the pursuing of steeds, Pelops in his car drawn
+  by four horses perpetrated, as he drove, the murder of Myrtilus, <i>by
+  casting him</i> into the sea, hurling him down to the surge of the ocean,
+  as he guided his car on the shore of the briny sea by Ger�stus foaming
+  with its white billows. Whence the baleful curse came on my house since,
+  by the agency of Maia's son,<a name="Orest_30"></a><a
+  href="#OrestN_30"><sup>[30]</sup></a> there appeared the pernicious,
+  pernicious prodigy of the golden-fleeced lamb, a birth which took place
+  among the flocks of the warlike Atreus. On which both Discord drove back
+  the winged chariot of the sun, directing it from the path of heaven
+  leading to the west toward Aurora borne on her single horse.<a
+  name="Orest_31"></a><a href="#OrestN_31"><sup>[31]</sup></a> And Jupiter
+  drove back the course of the seven moving Pleiads another way: and from
+  that period<a name="Orest_32"></a><a
+  href="#OrestN_32"><sup>[32]</sup></a> he sends deaths in succession to
+  deaths, and "the feast of Thyestes," so named from Thyestes. And the bed
+  of the Cretan �rope deceitful in a deceitful marriage has come as a
+  finishing stroke on me and my father, to the miserable destruction of our
+  family.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. But see, thy brother is advancing, condemned by the vote of
+  death, and Pylades the most faithful of all, a man like a brother,
+  supporting the enfeebled limbs of Orestes, walking by his side<a
+  name="Orest_33"></a><a href="#OrestN_33"><sup>[33]</sup></a> with the
+  foot of tender solicitude.</p>
+
+<p class="center">ELECTRA, ORESTES, PYLADES, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. Alas me! for I bewail thee, my brother, seeing thee before the
+  tomb, and before the pyre of thy departed shade: alas me! again and
+  again, how am I bereft of my senses, seeing with my eyes the very last
+  sight of thee.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Wilt thou not in silence, ceasing from womanish groans, make up
+  thy mind to what is decreed? These things indeed are lamentable, but yet
+  we must bear our present fate.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. And how can I be silent? We wretched no longer are permitted to
+  view this light of the God.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Do not thou kill me; I, the unhappy, have died enough already
+  under the hands of the Argives; but pass over our present ills.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. O Orestes! oh wretched in thy youth, and thy fate, and thy
+  untimely death, then oughtest thou to live, when thou art no more.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Do not by the Gods throw cowardice around me, bringing the
+  remembrance of my woes so as to cause tears.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. We shall die; it is not possible not to groan our misfortunes;
+  for the dear life is a cause of pity to all mortals.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. This is the day appointed for us! but we must either fit the
+  suspended noose, or whet the sword with our hand.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. Do thou then kill me, my brother; let none of the Argives kill
+  me, putting a contumely on the offspring of Agamemnon.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. I have enough of thy mother's blood, but thee I will not slay;
+  but die by thine own hand in whatever manner thou wilt.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. These things shall be; I will not be deserted by thy sword;<a
+  name="Orest_34"></a><a href="#OrestN_34"><sup>[34]</sup></a> but I wish
+  to clasp my hands around thy neck.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Thou enjoyest a vain gratification, if this be an enjoyment, to
+  throw thy hands around those who are hard at death's door.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. Oh thou most dear! oh thou that hast the desirable and most
+  sweet name, and one soul with thy sister!</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Thou wilt melt me; and still I wish to answer thee in the
+  endearment of encircling arms, for why am I any longer ashamed? O bosom
+  of my sister, O dear object of my caresses, these embraces are allowed to
+  us miserable beings instead of children and the bridal bed.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. Alas! How can the same sword (if this request be lawful) kill
+  us, and one tomb wrought of cedar receive us?</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. This would be most sweet; but thou seest how destitute we are,
+  in respect to being able to share our sepulture.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. Did not Menelaus speak in behalf of thee, taking a decided part
+  against thy death, the base man, the deserter of my father? [Note <a
+  name="Orest_G"></a><a href="#OrestN_G">[G]</a>.]</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. He showed it not even in his countenance, but keeping his hopes
+  on the sceptre, he was cautious how he saved his friends. But let be, he
+  will die acting in a manner nobly, and most worthily of Agamemnon. And I
+  indeed will show my high descent to the city, striking home to my heart
+  with the sword; but thee, on the other hand, it behooveth to act in
+  concert with my bold attempts. But do thou, Pylades, be the umpire of our
+  death, and well compose the bodies of us when dead, and bury us together,
+  bearing us to our father's tomb. And farewell&mdash;but I am going to the
+  deed, as thou seest.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. Hold. This one thing indeed first I bring in charge against
+  thee&mdash;Dost thou think that I can wish to live when thou diest?<a
+  name="Orest_35"></a><a href="#OrestN_35"><sup>[35]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>ORES. For how does it concern thee to die with me?</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. Dost ask? But how does it to live without thy company?</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Thou didst not slay my mother, as I did, a wretch.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. With thee I did at least; I ought also to suffer these things in
+  common with thee.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Take thyself back to thy father, do not die with me. For thou
+  indeed hast a city (but I no longer have), and the mansion of thy father,
+  and a great harbor of wealth. But thou art frustrated in thy marriage
+  with this unhappy virgin, whom I betrothed to thee, revering thy
+  friendship. Nevertheless do thou, contracting other nuptials, be a blest
+  father, but the connection between me and thee no longer subsists, But
+  thou, O darling name of my converse, farewell, be happy, for this is not
+  allowed me, but it is to thee; for we, the dead, are deprived of
+  happiness.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. Surely thou art wide astray from my purposes. Nor may the
+  fruitful plain receive my blood, nor the bright air, if ever I betraying
+  thee, having freed myself, forsake thee; for I committed the slaughter
+  with thee (I will not deny it), and I planned all things, for which now
+  thou sufferest vengeance. Die then I must with thee and her together, for
+  her, whose marriage I have courted, I consider as my wife; for what good
+  excuse ever shall I give, going to the Delphian land to the citadel of
+  the Phocians, I, who was present with you, your friend, before indeed you
+  were unfortunate, but now, when you are unfortunate, am no longer thy
+  friend? It is not possible &mdash;but these things are my care also. But
+  since we are about to die, let us come to a common conference, how
+  Menelaus may be involved in our calamity.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. O thou dearest man: for would I see this and die.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. Be persuaded then, but defer the slaughtering sword.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. I will defer, if any how I can avenge myself on my enemy.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. Be silent then, for I have but small confidence in women.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Do not at all fear these, for they are friends that are
+  present.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. Let us kill Helen, which will cause great grief to Menelaus.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. How? for the will is here, if it can be done with glory.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. Stabbing her; but she is lurking in thy house.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Yes indeed, and is putting her seal on all my effects.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. But she shall seal no more, having Pluto for her bridegroom.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. And how can this be? for she has a train of barbarian
+  attendants.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. Whom? for I would be afraid of no Phrygian.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Such men as should preside over mirrors and scents.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. For has she brought hither her Trojan fineries?</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. <i>Oh yes!</i> so that Greece is but a cottage for her.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. A race of slaves is a mere nothing against a race that will not
+  be slaves.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. In good truth, this if I could achieve, I shrink not from two
+  deaths.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. But neither do I indeed, if I could revenge thee at least.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Disclose thy purpose, and go through it as thou sayest.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. We will enter then the house, as men about to die.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Thus far I comprehend, but the rest I do not comprehend.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. We will make our lamentation to her of the things we suffer.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. So that she shall weep, though joyed within her heart.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. And the same things will be for us to do afterward, which she
+  does then.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Then how shall we finish the contest?</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. We will wear our swords concealed beneath our robes.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. But what slaughter can there be before her attendants?</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. We will bolt them out, scattered in different parts of the
+  house.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. And him that is not silent we must kill.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. Then the circumstances of the moment will point out what steps to
+  take.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. To kill Helen, I understand the sign.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. Thou seest: but hear on what honorable principles I meditate it.
+  For, if we draw our sword on a more modest woman, the murder will blot
+  our names with infamy. But in the present instance, she shall suffer
+  vengeance for the whole of Greece, whose fathers she slew, and made the
+  brides bereaved of their spouses; there shall be a shout, and they will
+  kindle up fire to the Gods, praying for many blessings to fall to thee
+  and me, inasmuch as we shed the blood of a wicked woman. But thou shalt
+  not be called the matricide, when thou hast slain her, but dropping this
+  name thou shalt arrive at better things, being styled the slayer of the
+  havoc-dealing Helen. It never, never were right that Menelaus should be
+  prosperous, and that thy father, and thou, and thy sister should die, and
+  thy mother; (this I forbear, for it is not decorous to mention;) and that
+  he should seize thy house, having recovered his bride by the means of
+  Agamemnon's valor. For may I live no longer, if I draw not my black sword
+  upon her. But if then we do not compass the murder of Helen, having fired
+  the palace we will die, for we shall have glory, succeeding in one of
+  these two things, nobly dying, or nobly rescued.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. The daughter of Tyndarus is an object of detestation to all
+  women, being one that has given rise to scandal against the sex.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Alas! There is no better thing than a real friend, not riches,
+  not kingdoms; but the popular applause becomes a thing of no account to
+  receive in exchange for a generous friend. For thou contrivedst the
+  destruction that befell �gisthus, and wast close to me in my dangers. But
+  now again thou givest me to revenge me on mine enemies, and art not out
+  of the way&mdash;but I will leave off praising thee, since there is some
+  burden even in this "to be praised to excess." But I altogether in a
+  state of death, wish to do something to my foes and die, that I may in
+  turn destroy those who betrayed me, and those may groan who also made me
+  unhappy. I am the son of Agamemnon, who ruled over Greece by general
+  consent; no tyrant, but yet he had the power as it were of a God, whom I
+  will not disgrace, suffering a slavish death, but breathe out my soul in
+  freedom, but on Menelaus will I revenge me. For if we could gain this one
+  thing, we should be prosperous, if from any chance safety should come
+  unhoped for on the slayers <i>then</i>, not the slain: this I pray for.
+  For what I wish is sweet to delight the mind without fear of cost, though
+  with but fleeting words uttered through the mouth.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. I, O brother, think that this very thing brings safety to thee,
+  and thy friend, and in the third place to me.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Thou meanest the providence of the Gods: but where is this? for
+  I know that there is understanding in thy mind.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. Hear me then, and thou too give thy attention.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Speak, since the existing prospect of good affords some
+  pleasure.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. Art thou acquainted with the daughter of Helen? Thou knowest her
+  of whom I ask.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. I know her, Hermione, whom my mother brought up.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. She is gone to Clyt�mnestra's tomb.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. For what purpose? what hope dost thou suggest?</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. To pour libations on the tomb in behalf of her mother.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. And what is this, thou hast told me of, that regards our
+  safety?</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. Seize her as a pledge as she is coming back.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. What remedy for the three friends is this thou sayest?</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. When Helen is dead, if Menelaus does any harm to thee or
+  Pylades, or me (for this firm of friendship is all one), say that thou
+  wilt kill Hermione; but thou oughtest to draw thy sword, and hold it to
+  the neck of the virgin. And if indeed Menelaus save thee, anxious that
+  the virgin may not die; when he sees Helen's corse weltering in blood,
+  give back the virgin for her father to enjoy; but should he, not
+  governing his angry temper, slay thee, do thou also plunge the sword into
+  the virgin's neck, and I think that he, though at first he come to us
+  very big, will after a season soften his heart; for neither is he brave
+  nor valiant: this is the fortress of our safety that I have; my arguments
+  on the subject have been spoken.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. O thou that hast indeed the mind of a man, but a form among
+  women beautiful, to what a degree art thou more worthy of life than
+  death! Pylades, wilt thou miserably be disappointed of such a woman, or
+  dwelling with her obtain this happy marriage?</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. For would it could be so! and she could come to the city of the
+  Phocians meeting with her deserts in splendid nuptials!</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. But when will Hermione come to the house? Since for the rest
+  thou saidst most admirably, if we could succeed in taking the whelp of
+  the impious father.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. Even now I guess that she must be near the house, for <i>with
+  this supposition</i> the space itself of the time coincides.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. It is well; do thou therefore, my sister Electra, waiting before
+  the house, meet the arrival of the virgin. And watch, lest any one,
+  either some ally, or the brother of my father, should be beforehand with
+  us coming to the palace: and make some noise toward the house, either
+  knocking at the doors, or sending thy voice within. But let us, O Pylades
+  (for thou undertakest this labor with me), entering in, arm our hands
+  with the sword to one last attempt. O my father, that inhabitest the
+  realms of gloomy night, Orestes thy son invokes thee to come a succor to
+  thy suppliants; for on thy account I wretched suffer unjustly, and am
+  betrayed by thy brother, myself having acted justly: whose wife I wish to
+  take and destroy; but be thou our accomplice in this affair.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. O father, come then, if beneath the earth thou hearest thy
+  children calling, who die for thee.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. O thou relation<a name="Orest_36"></a><a
+  href="#OrestN_36"><sup>[36]</sup></a> of my father, give ear, O
+  Agamemnon, to my prayers also, preserve thy children.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. I slew my mother.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. But I directed the sword.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. But I at least incited you, and freed you from delay.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Succoring thee, my father.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. Neither did I forsake thee.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. Wilt thou not therefore, hearing these things that are brought
+  against thee,<a name="Orest_37"></a><a
+  href="#OrestN_37"><sup>[37]</sup></a> defend thy children?</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. I pour libations on thee with my tears.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. And I with lamentations.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. Cease, and let us haste forth to the work, for if prayers
+  penetrate under the earth, he hears; but, O Jove our ancestor, and thou
+  revered deity of justice, grant us to succeed, him, and myself, and this
+  virgin, for over us three friends one hazard, one cause impends, either
+  for all to live, or all to die!</p>
+
+<p class="center">ELECTRA, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. O dear Mycenian virgins, who have the first place at the
+  Pelasgian seat of the Argives;&mdash;</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. What voice art thou uttering, my respected mistress? for this
+  appellation awaits thee in the city of the Danaids.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. Arrange yourselves, some of you in this beaten way, and some
+  there, in that other path, to guard the house.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. But on what account dost thou command this, tell me, my
+  friend.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. Fear possesses me, lest any one being in the palace, on account
+  of this murderous deed, should contrive evils on evils.</p>
+
+  <p>SEMICHOR. Go, let us hasten, I indeed will guard this path, that tends
+  toward where the sun flings his first rays.</p>
+
+  <p>SEMICHOR. And I indeed this, which leads toward the west.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. Now turn the glances of your eyes around in every position, now
+  here, now there, then take some other view.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. We are, as thou commandest.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. Now roll your eyelids over your pupils, glance them every way
+  through your ringlets.</p>
+
+  <p>SEMICHOR. Is this any one here appearing in the path?&mdash;Who is
+  this rustic that is standing about thy palace?</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. We are undone then, my friends; he will immediately show to the
+  enemy the lurking beasts of prey armed with their swords.</p>
+
+  <p>SEMICHOR. Be not afraid, the path is clear, which thou thinkest
+  not.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. But what?&mdash;does all with you remain secure? Give me some
+  good report, whether the space before the hall be empty?</p>
+
+  <p>SEMICHOR. All here at least is well, but look to thy province, for no
+  one of the Danaids is approaching toward us.</p>
+
+  <p>SEMICHOR. Thy report agrees with mine, for neither is there a
+  disturbance here.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. Come now,&mdash;I will listen at the door: why do ye delay, ye
+  that are within, to sacrifice the victim, now that ye are in
+  quiet?&mdash;They hear not: Alas me! wretched in misery! Are the swords
+  then struck dumb at her beauty? Perhaps some Argive in arms rushing in
+  with the foot of succor will approach the palace.&mdash;Now watch more
+  carefully; it is no contest that admits delay; but turn <i>your eyes</i>
+  some this way, and some that.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. I turn each different way, looking about on all sides.</p>
+
+  <p>HELEN. (<i>within</i>) Oh! Pelasgian Argos! I am miserably slain!</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. Heard ye? The men are employing their head in the
+  murder.&mdash;It is the shriek of Helen, as I may conjecture.</p>
+
+  <p>SEMICHOR. O eternal might of Jove, come to assist my friends in every
+  way.</p>
+
+  <p>HEL. Menelaus, I die! But thou art at hand, and dost not help me!</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. Kill, strike, slay, plunging with your hands the two
+  double-edged swords into the deserter of her father, the deserter of her
+  husband, who destroyed numbers of the Grecians perishing by the spear at
+  the river, whence tears fell into conjunction with tears, fell on account
+  of the iron weapons around the whirlpools of Scamander.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Be still, be still: I heard the sound of some one coming along
+  the path around the palace.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. O most dear women, in the midst of the slaughter behold Hermione
+  is present; let us cease from our clamor, for she comes about to fall
+  into the meshes of our toils. A goodly prey will she be, if she be taken.
+  Again to your stations with a calm countenance, and with a color that
+  shall not give evidence of what has been done. I too will preserve a
+  pensive cast of countenance, as though perfectly unacquainted with what
+  has happened.</p>
+
+<p class="center">HERMIONE, ELECTRA, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. O virgin, art thou come from crowning Clyt�mnestra's tomb, and
+  pouring libations to her manes?</p>
+
+  <p>HERM. I am come, having obtained her good services; but some terror
+  has come upon me, on account of the noise in the palace, which I hear
+  being a far distance off the house.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. But why? There have happened to us things worthy of groans.</p>
+
+  <p>HERM. Speak good words; but what news dost thou tell me?</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. It has been decreed by this land, that Orestes and I die.</p>
+
+  <p>HERM. No, I hope not so; you, who are my relations.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. It is fixed; but we stand under the yoke of necessity.</p>
+
+  <p>HERM. Was the noise then in the house on this account?</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. For falling down a suppliant at the knees of Helen, he cries
+  out&mdash;</p>
+
+  <p>HERM. Who? for I know no more, except thou tellest me.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. The wretched Orestes, that he may not die, and in behalf of
+  me.</p>
+
+  <p>HERM. For a just reason then the house lamented.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. For on what other account should one rather cry out? But come,
+  and join in supplication with thy friends, falling down before thy
+  mother, the supremely blest, that Menelaus will not see us perish. But, O
+  thou, that receivedst thy education at the hands of my mother, pity us,
+  and alleviate our sufferings. Come hither to the trial; but I will lead
+  the way, for thou alone hast the ends of our preservation.</p>
+
+  <p>HERM. Behold I direct my footstep toward the house. Be preserved, as
+  far as lies in me.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. O ye in the house, my dear warriors, will ye not take your
+  prey?</p>
+
+  <p>HERM. Alas me! who are these I see?</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. (<i>advancing</i>) Thou must be silent; for thou art come to
+  preserve us, not thyself.</p>
+
+  <p>ELEC. Hold her, hold her; and pointing a sword to her neck be silent,
+  that Menelaus may know, that having found men, not Phrygian cowards, he
+  has treated them in a manner he should treat cowards. What ho! what ho!
+  my friends, make a noise, a noise, and shout before the palace, that the
+  murder that is perpetrated spread not a dread alarm among the Argives, so
+  that they run to assist to the king's palace, before I plainly see the
+  slaughtered Helen lying weltering in her blood within the house, or else
+  we hear the report from some of her attendants. For part of the havoc I
+  know, and part not accurately.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. With justice came the vengeance of the Gods on Helen. For she
+  filled the whole of Greece with tears on account of the ruthless,
+  ruthless Idean Paris, who brought the Grecian state to Ilium. But be
+  silent, for the bolts of the royal mansion resound, for some one of the
+  Phrygians comes forth, from whom we shall hear of the affairs within the
+  house, in what state they are.</p>
+
+<p class="center">PHRYGIAN, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>PHRY. I have escaped from death by the Argive sword in these barbaric
+  slippers, <i>climbing</i> over the cedar beams of the bed and the Doric
+  triglyphs, by the flight of a barbarian.<a name="Orest_38"></a><a
+  href="#OrestN_38"><sup>[38]</sup></a> Thou art gone, thou art gone, O my
+  country, my country! Alas me! whither can I escape, O strangers, flying
+  through the hoary air, or the sea, which the Ocean, with head in shape
+  like a bull's, rolling with his arms encircles the earth?</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. But what is the matter, O attendant of Helen, thou man of
+  Ida?</p>
+
+  <p>PHRY. O Ilion, Ilion! alas me! O thou fertile Phrygian city, thou
+  sacred mount of Ida, how do I lament for thee destroyed, a sad,<a
+  name="Orest_39"></a><a href="#OrestN_39"><sup>[39]</sup></a> sad strain
+  for my barbaric voice, on account of that form of the hapless, hapless
+  Helen, born from a bird, the offspring of the beauteous Leda in shape of
+  a swan, the fiend of the splendid Apollonian Pergamus! Alas! Oh!
+  lamentations! lamentations! O wretched Dardania, warlike school<a
+  name="Orest_40"></a><a href="#OrestN_40"><sup>[40]</sup></a> of Ganymede,
+  the companion of Jove!</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Relate to us clearly each circumstance that happened in the
+  house, for I do not understand your former account, but merely
+  conjecture.</p>
+
+  <p>PHRY. <span lang="el" title="Ailinon,
+  ailinon">&#x391;&#x3B9;&#x3BB;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;,
+  &#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3BB;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span>, the Barbarians
+  begin the song of death in the language of Asia, Alas! alas! when the
+  blood of kings has been poured on the earth by the ruthless swords of
+  death. There came to the palace (that I may relate each circumstance) two
+  Grecians, lions, of the one the leader of the Grecian host was said to be
+  the father, the other the son of Strophius, a man of dark design; such
+  was Ulysses, secretly treacherous, but faithful to his friends, bold in
+  battle, skilled in war, cruel as the dragon. May he perish for his deep
+  concealed design, the worker of evil! But they having advanced within her
+  chamber, whom the archer Paris had as his wife, their eyes bathed with
+  tears, they sat down in humble mien, one on each side of her, on the
+  right and on the left, armed with swords. And around her knees did they
+  both fling their suppliant hands, around the knees of Helen did they
+  fling them. But the Phrygian attendants sprung up, and fled in amazement:
+  and one called out to another in terror, <i>See</i>, lest there be
+  treachery. To some indeed there appeared no danger; but to others the
+  dragon stained with his mother's blood appeared bent to infold in his
+  closest toils the daughter of Tyndarus.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. But where wert thou then, or hadst thou long before fled through
+  fear?</p>
+
+  <p>PHRY. After the Phrygian fashion I chanced with the close circle of
+  feathers to be fanning the gale, <i>that sported</i> in the ringlets of
+  Helen, before her cheek, after the barbaric fashion. But she was winding
+  with her fingers the flax round the distaff, but what she had spun she
+  let fall on the ground, desirous of making from the Phrygian spoils a
+  robe of purple as an ornament for the tomb, a gift to Clyt�mnestra. But
+  Orestes entreated the Spartan girl; "O daughter of Jove, here, place thy
+  footstep on the ground, rising from thy seat, come to the place of our
+  ancestor Pelops, the ancient altar, that thou mayest hear my words." And
+  he leads her, but she followed, not dreaming of what was about to happen.
+  But his accomplice, the wicked Phocian, attended to other points. "Will
+  ye not depart from out of the way, but are the Phrygians always vile?"
+  and he bolted us out scattered in different parts of the house, some in
+  the stables of the horses, and some in the outhouses, and some here and
+  there, dispersing them some one way, some another, afar from their
+  mistress.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. What calamity took place after this?</p>
+
+  <p>PHRY. O powerful, powerful Idean mother, alas! alas! the murderous
+  sufferings, and the lawless evils, which I saw, I saw in the royal
+  palace! From beneath their purple robes concealed having their drawn
+  swords in their hands, they turned each his eye on either side, lest any
+  one might chance to be present. But like mountain boars standing over
+  against the lady, they say, "Thou shalt die, thou shalt die! thy vile
+  husband kills thee, having given up the offspring of his brother to die
+  at Argos." But she shrieked out, Ah me! ah me! and throwing her white arm
+  on her breast inflicted on her head miserable blows, and, her feet turned
+  to flight, she stepped, she stepped with her golden sandals; but Orestes
+  thrusting his fingers into her hair, outstripping her flight,<a
+  name="Orest_41"></a><a href="#OrestN_41"><sup>[41]</sup></a> bending back
+  her neck over his left shoulder, was about to plunge the black sword into
+  her throat.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Where then were the Phrygians, who dwell under the same roof, to
+  assist her?</p>
+
+  <p>PHRY. With a clamor having burst by means of bars the doors and cells
+  where we were waiting, we run to her assistance, each to different parts
+  of the house, one bringing stones, another spears, another having a
+  long-handled sword in his hand. But Pylades came against us, impetuous,
+  like as the Phrygian Hector or Ajax in his triple-crested helmet, whom I
+  saw, I saw at the gates of Priam: but we clashed together the points of
+  our swords: then indeed, then did the Phrygians give clear proof how
+  inferior we were in the force of Mars to the spear of Greece. One indeed
+  turning away, a fugitive, but another wounded, and another deprecating
+  the death that threatened him: but under favor of the darkness we fled:
+  and the corses fell, but some staggered, and some lay prostrate. But the
+  wretched Hermione came to the house at the time when her murdered mother
+  fell to the ground, that unhappy woman that gave her birth. And running
+  upon her as Bacchanals without their thyrsus, as a heifer in the
+  mountains they bore her away in their hands, and again eagerly rushed
+  upon the daughter of Jove to slay her. But she vanished altogether from
+  the chamber through the palace. O Jupiter and O earth, and light, and
+  darkness! or by her enchantments, or by the art of magic, or by the
+  stealth of the Gods. But of what followed I know no farther, for I sped
+  in stealth my foot from the palace. But Menelaus having endured many,
+  many severe toils, has received back from Troy the violated rites of
+  Helen to no purpose.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. And see something strange succeeds to these strange things, for
+  I see Orestes with his sword drawn walking before the palace with
+  agitated step,</p>
+
+<p class="center">ORESTES, PHRYGIAN, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Where is he that fled from my sword out of the palace?</p>
+
+  <p>PHRY. I supplicate thee, O king, falling prostrate before thee after
+  the barbaric fashion.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. The case before us is not in Ilium, but the Argive land.</p>
+
+  <p>PHRY. In every region to live is sweeter than to die, in the opinion
+  of the wise.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Didst thou not raise a cry for Menelaus to come with succor?</p>
+
+  <p>PHRY. I indeed am present on purpose to assist thee; for thou art the
+  more worthy.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Perished then the daughter of Tyndarus justly?</p>
+
+  <p>PHRY. Most justly, even had she three lives for vengeance.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. With thy tongue dost thou flatter, not having these sentiments
+  within?</p>
+
+  <p>PHRY. For ought she not? She who utterly destroyed Greece as well as
+  the Phrygians themselves?</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Swear, I will kill thee else, that thou art not speaking to
+  curry favor with me.</p>
+
+  <p>PHRY. By my life have I sworn, which I should wish to hold a sacred
+  oath.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Was the steel thus dreadful to all the Phrygians at Troy
+  also?</p>
+
+  <p>PHRY. Remove thy sword, for being so near me it gleams horrid
+  slaughter.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Art thou afraid, lest thou shouldest become a rock, as though
+  looking on the Gorgon?</p>
+
+  <p>PHRY. Lest I should become a corse, but I know not of the Gorgon's
+  head.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Slave as thou art, dost thou fear death, which will rid thee
+  from thy woes?</p>
+
+  <p>PHRY. Every one, although a man be a slave, rejoices to behold the
+  light.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Thou sayest well; thy understanding; saves thee, but go into the
+  house.</p>
+
+  <p>PHRY. Thou wilt not kill me then?</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Thou art pardoned.</p>
+
+  <p>PHRY. This is good word thou hast spoken.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Yet we may change our measures.</p>
+
+  <p>PHRY. But this thou sayest not well.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Thou art a fool, if thou thinkest I could endure to defile me by
+  smiting thy neck, for neither art thou a woman, nor oughtest thou to be
+  ranked among men. But that thou mightest not raise a clamor came I forth
+  out of the house: for Argos, when it has heard a noise, is soon roused,
+  but we have no dread in meeting Menelaus, as far as swords go; but let
+  him come exulting with his golden ringlets flowing over his shoulders,
+  for if he collects the Argives, and brings them against the palace
+  seeking revenge for the death of Helen, and is not willing to let me be
+  in safety, and my sister, and Pylades my accomplice in this affair, he
+  shall see two corses, both the virgin and his wife.</p>
+
+<p class="center">CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>Alas! alas! O fate, the house of the Atrid� again falls into another,
+  another fearful struggle.</p>
+
+  <p>SEMICHOR. What shall we do? shall we carry these tidings to the city,
+  or shall we keep in silence?</p>
+
+  <p>SEMICHOR. This is the safer plan, my friends.</p>
+
+  <p>SEMICHOR. Behold before the house, behold this smoke leaping aloft in
+  the air portends <i>something</i>.</p>
+
+  <p>SEMICHOR. They are lighting the torches, as about to burn down the
+  mansion of Tantalus, nor do they forbear from murder.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. The God rules the events that happen to mortals, whichsoever way
+  he wills. But some vast power by the instigation of the Furies has
+  struck, has struck these palaces to the shedding of blood on account of
+  the fall of Myrtilus from the chariot.</p>
+
+  <p>But lo! I see Menelaus also here approaching the house with a quick
+  step, having by some means or other perceived the calamity which now is
+  present. Will ye not anticipate him by closing the gates with bolts, O ye
+  children of Atreus, who are in the palace? A man in prosperity is a
+  terrible thing to those in adversity, as now them art in misery,
+  Orestes.</p>
+
+<p class="center">MENELAUS <i>below</i>, ORESTES, PYLADES, ELECTRA, HERMIONE
+<i>above</i>, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. I am present, having heard the horrid and atrocious deeds of the
+  two lions, for I call them not men. For I have now heard of my wife, that
+  she died not, but vanished away, this that I heard was empty report,
+  which one deceived by fright related; but these are the artifices of the
+  matricide, and much derision. Open some one the door, my attendants I
+  command to burst open these gates here, that my child at least we may
+  deliver from the hand of these blood-polluted men, and may receive my
+  unhappy, my miserable lady, with whom those murderers of my wife must die
+  by my hand.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. What ho there! Touch not these gates with thine hands: to
+  Menelaus I speak, that thou towerest in thy boldness, or with this
+  pinnacle will I crush thy head, having rent down the ancient battlement,
+  the labor of the builders. But the gates are made fast with bolts, which
+  will hinder thee from thy purpose of bringing aid, so that thou canst not
+  pass within the palace.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. Ha! what is this? I see the blaze of torches, and these stationed
+  on the battlements, on the height of the palace, and the sword placed
+  over the neck of my daughter to guard her.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Whether is it thy will to question, or to hear me?</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. I wish neither, but it is necessary, as it seems, to hear
+  thee.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. I am about to slay thy daughter if thou wish to know.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. Having slain Helen, dost thou perpetrate murder on murder?</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. For would I had gained my purpose not being deluded, as I was,
+  by the Gods.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. Thou hast slain her, and deniest it, and speakest these things to
+  insult me.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. It is a denial that gives me pain, for would that&mdash;</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. Thou had done what deed? for thou callest forth alarm.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. I had hurled to hell the fury of Greece.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. Give back the body of my wife, that I may bury her in a tomb.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Ask her of the Gods; but I will slay thy daughter.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. The matricide contrives murder on murder.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. The avenger of his father, whom thou gavest up to die.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. Was not the blood of thy mother formerly shed sufficient for
+  thee?</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. I should not be weary of slaying wicked women, were I to slay
+  them forever.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. Art thou also, Pylades, a partaker in this murder?</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. By his silence he assents, but if I speak, it will be
+  sufficient.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. But not with impunity, unless indeed thou fliest on wings.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. We will not fly, but will set fire to the palace?</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. What! wilt thou destroy thy father's mansion?</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Yes, that thou mayest not possess it, will I, having stabbed
+  this virgin here over the flames.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. Slay her; since having slain thou shalt at least give me
+  satisfaction for these deeds.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. It shall be so then.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. Alas! on no account do this!</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Be silent then; but bear to suffer evil justly.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. What! is it just for thee to live?</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Yes, and to rule over the land.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. What land!</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Here, in Pelasgian Argos.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. Well wouldst thou touch the sacred lavers!</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. And pray why not?</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. And wouldst slaughter the victim before the battle!</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. And thou wouldst most righteously.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. Yes, for I am pure as to my hands.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. But not thy heart.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. Who would speak to thee?</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Whoever loves his father.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. And whoever reveres his mother.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. &mdash;Is happy.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. Not thou at least.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. For wicked women please me not.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. Take away the sword from my daughter.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Thou art false in thy expectations.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. But wilt thou kill my daughter?</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Thou art no longer false.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. Alas me! what shall I do?</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Go to the Argives, and persuade them.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. With what persuasion?</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Beseech the city that we may not die.<a name="Orest_41a"></a><a
+  href="#OrestN_41a"><sup>[41a]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>MEN. Otherwise ye will slay my daughter?</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. The thing is so.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. O wretched Helen!&mdash;</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. And am I not wretched?</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. I brought thee hither from the Trojans to be a victim.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. For would this were so!</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. Having endured ten thousand toils.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Except on my account.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. I have met with dreadful treatment.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. For then, <i>when thou oughtest</i>, thou wert of no
+  assistance.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. Thou hast me.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. Thou at least hast caught thyself. But, ho there! set fire to
+  the palace, Electra, from beneath: and thou, Pylades, the most true of my
+  friends, light up these battlements of the walls.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. O land of the Danai, and inhabitants of warlike Argos, will ye
+  not, ho there! come in arms to my succor? For this man here, having
+  perpetrated the shocking murder of his mother, brings destruction on your
+  whole city, that he may live.</p>
+
+<p class="center">APOLLO.</p>
+
+  <p>Menelaus, cease from thy irritated state of mind; I Ph&#339;bus the
+  son of Latona, in thy presence, am addressing thee. Thou too, Orestes,
+  who standest over that damsel with thy sword drawn, that thou mayest know
+  what commands I bring with me. Helen indeed, whom thou minded to destroy,
+  working Menelaus to anger, didst fail of thy purpose, she is here, whom
+  ye see wrapt in the bosom of the sky, preserved, and not slain by thy
+  hands. Her I preserved, and snatched from thy sword, commanded by my
+  father Jove. For being the daughter of Jove, it is right that she should
+  live immortal. And she shall have her seat by Castor and Pollux in the
+  bosom of the sky, the guardian of mariners. But take to thyself another
+  bride, and lead her home, since for the beauty of this woman the Gods
+  brought together the Greeks and Trojans, and caused deaths, that they
+  might draw from off the earth the pride of mortals, who had become an
+  infinite multitude. Thus is it with regard to Helen; but thee, on the
+  other hand, Orestes, it behooveth, having passed beyond the boundaries of
+  this land, to inhabit the Parrhasian plain during the revolution of a
+  year, and it shall be called by a name after thy flight, so that the
+  Azanes and Arcadians shall call it Oresteum: and thence having departed
+  to the city of the Athenians, undergo the charge of shedding thy mother's
+  blood laid by the three Furies. But the Gods the arbiters of the cause
+  shall pass on thee most sacredly their decree on the hill of Mars, in
+  which it behooveth thee to be victorious. But Hermione, to whose neck
+  thou art holding the sword, it is destined for thee, Orestes, to wed, but
+  Neoptolemus, who thinks to marry her, shall never marry her. For it is
+  fated to him to die by the Delphic sword, as he is demanding of me
+  satisfaction for his father Achilles. But to Pylades give thy sister's
+  hand, as thou didst formerly agree, but a happy life now coming on awaits
+  him. But, O Menelaus, suffer Orestes to reign over Argos. But depart and
+  rule over the Spartan land, having it as thy wife's dowry, who exposing
+  thee to numberless evils always was bringing thee to this. But what
+  regards the city I will make all right for him, I, who compelled him to
+  slay his mother.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. O Loxian prophet, thou wert not then a false prophet in thine
+  oracles, but a true one. And yet a fear comes upon me, that having heard
+  one of the Furies, I might think that I have been hearing thy voice. But
+  it is well fulfilled, and I will obey thy words. Behold I let go Hermione
+  from slaughter, and approve her alliance, whenever her father shall give
+  her.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. O Helen, daughter of Jove, hail! but I bless thee inhabiting the
+  happy mansions of the Gods. But to thee, Orestes, do I betroth my
+  daughter at Ph&#339;bus's commands, but illustrious thyself marrying from
+  an illustrious family, be happy, both thou and I who give her.</p>
+
+  <p>APOL. Now depart each of you whither we have appointed, and dissolve
+  your quarrels.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. It is our duty to obey.</p>
+
+  <p>ORES. I too entertain the same sentiments, and I receive with
+  friendship thee in thy sufferings, O Menelaus, and thy oracles, O
+  Apollo.</p>
+
+  <p>APOL. Go now, each his own way, honoring the most excellent goddess
+  Peace; but I will convey Helen to the mansions of Jove, passing through
+  the pole of the shining stars, where sitting by Juno, and Hercules's
+  Hebe, a goddess, she shall ever be honored by mortals with libations, in
+  conjunction with the Tyndarid�, the sons of Jove, presiding over the sea
+  to the benefit of mariners.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. O greatly glorious Victory, mayest thou uphold my life, and
+  cease not from crowning me!</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h3>NOTES ON ORESTES</h3>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+<div class="note">
+  <p><a name="OrestN_1"></a><a href="#Orest_1">[1]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="stemmata,
+  eria">&#x3C3;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3BC;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;,
+  &#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;</span>, <i>Schol.</i> "eo quod colum cingant
+  seu coronant," Scapula explains it.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="OrestN_2"></a><a href="#Orest_2">[2]</a> "<i>Then</i>" is not
+  to be considered as signifying point of time, but it is meant to express
+  <span lang="el" title="oun">&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3BD;</span>,
+  <i>continuativam</i>. See Hoogeveen de Particula <span lang="el"
+  title="oun">&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3BD;</span>, Sect. ii. � 6.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="OrestN_3"></a><a href="#Orest_3">[3]</a> The original Greek
+  phrase was <span lang="el" title="elpidos
+  lept�s">&#x3B5;&#x3BB;&#x3C0;&#x3B9;&#x3B4;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3BB;&#x3B5;&#x3C0;&#x3C4;&#x3B7;&#x3C2;</span>, which Euripides has
+  changed to <span lang="el" title="asthenous
+  rh�m�s">&#x3B1;&#x3C3;&#x3B8;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C2;
+  &#x201B;&#x3C1;&#x3C9;&#x3BC;&#x3B7;&#x3C2;</span>, though the other had
+  equally suited the metre. But Euripides is fond of slight alterations in
+  proverbs. PORSON.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="OrestN_4"></a><a href="#Orest_4">[4]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="dous&mdash;dynatai de kai
+  apodous">&#x3B4;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C2;&mdash;&#x3B4;&#x3C5;&#x3BD;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3B4;&#x3B5; &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3B1;&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3B4;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C2;</span>. SCHOL.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="OrestN_5"></a><a href="#Orest_5">[5]</a> Perhaps this
+  interpretation of <span lang="el"
+  title="chronion">&#x3C7;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span>
+  is better than "slow," for the considerate Electra would hardly go to
+  remind her brother of his infirmities.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="OrestN_6"></a><a href="#Orest_6">[6]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="Potniades">&#x3A0;&#x3BF;&#x3C4;&#x3BD;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;&#x3B4;&#x3B5;&#x3C2;</span>.
+  The Furies have this epithet from Potnia, a town in B&#339;otia, where
+  Glaucus's horses, having eaten of a certain herb and becoming mad, tore
+  their own master in pieces. SCHOL.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="OrestN_6a"></a><a href="#Orest_6a">[6a]</a> Note <a
+  name="Orest_D"></a><a href="#OrestN_D">[D]</a>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="OrestN_6b"></a><a href="#Orest_6b">[6b]</a> Dindorf would
+  omit this verse. </p>
+
+  <p><a name="OrestN_7"></a><a href="#Orest_7">[7]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="halityp�n, halie�n, hoi tais k�pais typtousi t�n
+  thalassan">&#x201B;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3B9;&#x3C4;&#x3C5;&#x3C0;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;,
+  &#x201B;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3B9;&#x3B5;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;,
+  &#x201B;&#x3BF;&#x3B9; &#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3BA;&#x3C9;&#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3C5;&#x3C0;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3B7;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B8;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3C3;&#x3C3;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;</span>.
+  SCHOL.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="OrestN_8"></a><a href="#Orest_8">[8]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="aphyllou">&#x3B1;&#x3C6;&#x3C5;&#x3BB;&#x3BB;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;</span>.
+  Alluding to the branch, which the ancients used to hold in token of
+  supplication.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="OrestN_9"></a><a href="#Orest_9">[9]</a> "<span lang="el"
+  title="kata t�n nykta pepontha t�r�n t�n anairesin, kai t�n anal�psin t�n
+  oste�n, toutestin, hina m� tis aphel�tai
+  tauta">&#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3B1; &#x3C4;&#x3B7;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3BD;&#x3C5;&#x3BA;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3B8;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3B7;&#x3C1;&#x3C9;&#x3BD; &#x3C4;&#x3B7;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3C1;&#x3B5;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;,
+  &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9; &#x3C4;&#x3B7;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3B7;&#x3C8;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3C9;&#x3BD; &#x3BF;&#x3C3;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;,
+  &#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3C3;&#x3C4;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;,
+  &#x201B;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;&#x3B1; &#x3BC;&#x3B7; &#x3C4;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B1;&#x3C6;&#x3B5;&#x3BB;&#x3B7;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3C5;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;</span>." PARAPH. Heath translates it,
+  <i>watchfully observing, till her bones were collected.</i></p>
+
+  <p><a name="OrestN_10"></a><a href="#Orest_10">[10]</a> The old reading
+  was <span lang="el"
+  title="apaideuta">&#x3B1;&#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3B4;&#x3B5;&#x3C5;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;</span>.
+  The meaning of the present reading seems to be, "Yes, they are awful 'tis
+  true, but still however you need not be so very scrupulous about naming
+  them."</p>
+
+  <p><a name="OrestN_11"></a><a href="#Orest_11">[11]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="anaphora">&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3B1;&#x3C6;&#x3BF;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;</span>
+  was a legal term, and signified the line of defense adopted by the
+  accused, when he transferred the charge brought against himself to some
+  other person.&mdash;See Demosthenes in Timocr.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="OrestN_12"></a><a href="#Orest_12">[12]</a> &#338;ax was
+  Palamede's brother.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="OrestN_13"></a><a href="#Orest_13">[13]</a> And therefore we
+  are not to impeach the <i>man</i>. Some would have <span lang="el"
+  title="doulon">&#x3B4;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3BB;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span> to bear
+  the sense of <span lang="el"
+  title="doulopoion">&#x3B4;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3BB;&#x3BF;&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span>,
+  enslaves, and therefore can not be avoided.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="OrestN_14"></a><a href="#Orest_14">[14]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="ech�">&#x3B5;&#x3C7;&#x3C9;</span> for <span lang="el"
+  title="enochos eimi">&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3C7;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3BC;&#x3B9;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="OrestN_15"></a><a href="#Orest_15">[15]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="Z�l�, to makariz�. entautha de anti tou
+  epain�.">&#x396;&#x3B7;&#x3BB;&#x3C9;, &#x3C4;&#x3BF;
+  &#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3C1;&#x3B9;&#x3B6;&#x3C9;.
+  &#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3C5;&#x3B8;&#x3B1; &#x3B4;&#x3B5;
+  &#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3B9; &#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;
+  &#x3B5;&#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;&#x3C9;.</span> SCHOL.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="OrestN_16"></a><a href="#Orest_16">[16]</a> Conf. Ter. Eun.
+  Act. v. Sc. 2.</p>
+
+  <div class="poem">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <p class="i16">Non dedignum, Ch�rea,</p>
+      <p>Fecisti; nam si ego digna hac contumelia</p>
+      <p>Sum maxume, at tu indignus, qui faceres, tamen.</p>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+  <p><a name="OrestN_16a"></a><a href="#Orest_16a">[16a]</a> Note <a
+  name="Orest_E"></a><a href="#OrestN_E">[E]</a>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="OrestN_17"></a><a href="#Orest_17">[17]</a> Of this passage
+  the Scholiast gives two interpretations; either it may mean <span
+  lang="el" title="meta dakry�n kai go�n
+  eipon">&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3B4;&#x3B1;&#x3BA;&#x3C1;&#x3C5;&#x3C9;&#x3BD; &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3B3;&#x3BF;&#x3C9;&#x3BD; &#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span>:
+  or, <span lang="el" title="eipon tauta eis dakrya kai goous, kai
+  xymphoras, �goun hina m� tych�, tout�n: teuxomai de, ei petr�th�nai me
+  eas�is">&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3C5;&#x3C4;&#x3B1; &#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B4;&#x3B1;&#x3BA;&#x3C1;&#x3C5;&#x3B1; &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3B3;&#x3BF;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C2;, &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3BE;&#x3C5;&#x3BC;&#x3C6;&#x3BF;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3C2;,
+  &#x3B7;&#x3B3;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3BD; &#x201B;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3BC;&#x3B7; &#x3C4;&#x3C5;&#x3C7;&#x3C9;,
+  &#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C4;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;:
+  &#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3C5;&#x3BE;&#x3BF;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3B9; &#x3B4;&#x3B5;,
+  &#x3B5;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3C4;&#x3C1;&#x3C9;&#x3B8;&#x3B7;&#x3BD;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3BC;&#x3B5; &#x3B5;&#x3B1;&#x3C3;&#x3B7;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="OrestN_18"></a><a href="#Orest_18">[18]</a> <i>"Beyond any
+  woman,"</i> <span lang="el" title="gyn� mia">&#x3B3;&#x3C5;&#x3BD;&#x3B7;
+  &#x3BC;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;</span>, this is a mode of expression frequently met
+  with in the Attic writers, especially in Xenophon.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="OrestN_19"></a><a href="#Orest_19">[19]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="epi t�i phon�i, toutesti dia ton phonon, hon
+  eirgasametha.">&#x3B5;&#x3C0;&#x3B9; &#x3C4;&#x3C9;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3C6;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3C9;&#x3B9;,
+  &#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3C3;&#x3C4;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3B4;&#x3B9;&#x3B1; &#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3C6;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;, &#x201B;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C1;&#x3B3;&#x3B1;&#x3C3;&#x3B1;&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3B8;&#x3B1;.</span>
+  PARAPH.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="OrestN_20"></a><a href="#Orest_20">[20]</a> Thyestes and
+  Atreus, having a dispute about their father Pelops's kingdom, agreed,
+  that whichever should discover the first prodigy should have possession
+  of the throne. There appeared in Atreus's flock a golden lamb, which,
+  however, �rope his wife secretly had conveyed to Thyestes to show before
+  the judges. Atreus afterward invited Thyestes to a feast, and served up
+  before him Aglaiis, Orchomenus, and Caleus, three sons he had by his
+  intrigues with �rope.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="OrestN_21"></a><a href="#Orest_21">[21]</a> Alluding to the
+  murder of Agamemnon by Clyt�mnestra. This is the interpretation and
+  explanation of the Scholiast; but it is perhaps better translated,
+  "<i>but on the other hand to play the coward is great impiety, and the
+  error of cowardly-minded men</i>;" the chorus meaning, that this might
+  have been said of Orestes, had he not avenged his father.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="OrestN_22"></a><a href="#Orest_22">[22]</a> That is,
+  <i>blamed him</i>. So St. Paul, 1 Cor. xi. 21, <span lang="el"
+  title="epaines� hymas en toutoi; ouk
+  epain�">&#x3B5;&#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;&#x3B5;&#x3C3;&#x3C9;
+  &#x201B;&#x3C5;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3C2; &#x3B5;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;; &#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3BA;
+  &#x3B5;&#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;&#x3C9;</span>. Ter. And. Act. <span
+  class="vol">II.</span> Sc. 6. "Et, quod dicendum hic siet, Tu quoque
+  perparce nimium, non laudo."</p>
+
+  <p><a name="OrestN_23"></a><a href="#Orest_23">[23]</a> An Argive as far
+  as he was born there, and therefore <span lang="el"
+  title="�nankasmenos">&#x3B7;&#x3BD;&#x3B1;&#x3B3;&#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3C3;&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span>;
+  not an Argive, inasmuch as his parents were not of that state. This is
+  supposed to allude to Cleophon. SCHOL. See Dindorf.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="OrestN_24"></a><a href="#Orest_24">[24]</a> This is the
+  interpretation of one Scholiast; another explains it <span lang="el"
+  title="oikeiais chersin
+  ergazomenos">&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3BA;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3C7;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3B3;&#x3B1;&#x3B6;&#x3BF;&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span>.
+  Grotius translates it <i>agricola</i>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="OrestN_25"></a><a href="#Orest_25">[25]</a> The same
+  construction occurs in the Supplicants, 870. <span lang="el"
+  title="philois d' al�th�s �n philos, parousi te kai m� parousin:
+  h�n">&#x3C6;&#x3B9;&#x3BB;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3C2; &#x3B4;'
+  &#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3B7;&#x3B8;&#x3B7;&#x3C2; &#x3B7;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3C6;&#x3B9;&#x3BB;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;,
+  &#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3B9; &#x3C4;&#x3B5;
+  &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9; &#x3BC;&#x3B7;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;:
+  &#x201B;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;</span> (of which sort of men) <span lang="el"
+  title="arithmos ou
+  polys.">&#x3B1;&#x3C1;&#x3B9;&#x3B8;&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3C2; &#x3BF;&#x3C5;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3BB;&#x3C5;&#x3C2;.</span> PORSON.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="OrestN_25a"></a><a href="#Orest_25a">[25a]</a> See Note <a
+  name="Orest_F"></a><a href="#OrestN_F">[F]</a>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="OrestN_26"></a><a href="#Orest_26">[26]</a> Which, <span
+  lang="el"
+  title="ktypon">&#x3BA;&#x3C4;&#x3C5;&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span> namely:
+  <span lang="el" title="onycha">&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3C5;&#x3C7;&#x3B1;</span>
+  and <span lang="el"
+  title="ktypon">&#x3BA;&#x3C4;&#x3C5;&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span> are each
+  governed by <span lang="el"
+  title="titheisa">&#x3C4;&#x3B9;&#x3B8;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3B1;</span>;
+  but it is not easy to find a single verb in English that should be
+  transitive to both these substantives.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="OrestN_27"></a><a href="#Orest_27">[27]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="kallipais">&#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3BB;&#x3B9;&#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;</span>,
+  <i>lovely</i>, not lovely in her children: so in Ph&#339;n. 1634. <span
+  lang="el" title="euteknos
+  xyn�ris">&#x3B5;&#x3C5;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3BA;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3BE;&#x3C5;&#x3BD;&#x3C9;&#x3C1;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="OrestN_28"></a><a href="#Orest_28">[28]</a> Argos, so called
+  from the Cyclopes, a nation of Thrace, who, being called in as allies,
+  afterward settled here.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="OrestN_29"></a><a href="#Orest_29">[29]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="heterois">&#x201B;&#x3B5;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;</span>
+  may perhaps seem to make the construction plainer than <span lang="el"
+  title="heteros">&#x201B;&#x3B5;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span>;
+  but Porson has received the latter into his text on account of the
+  metre.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="OrestN_30"></a><a href="#Orest_30">[30]</a> Myrtilus was the
+  son of Mercury, who therefore sowed this dissension between the two
+  brothers in revenge for his death by Pelops. See note at line 802.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="OrestN_31"></a><a href="#Orest_31">[31]</a> Some would
+  understand by <span lang="el"
+  title="monop�lon">&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3C0;&#x3C9;&#x3BB;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span>
+  not that Aurora was borne on one horse, but that this alteration in the
+  course of nature took place for one day. SCHOL.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="OrestN_32"></a><a href="#Orest_32">[32]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="kai apo t�nde, �toi meta tauta.">&#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3B1;&#x3C0;&#x3BF; &#x3C4;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;&#x3B4;&#x3B5;,
+  &#x3B7;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3B9; &#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3C5;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;.</span> PARAPH.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="OrestN_33"></a><a href="#Orest_33">[33]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="paraseiros">&#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3C3;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span>
+  is used to signify a loose horse tied abreast of another in the shaft,
+  and is technically termed "the outrigger." The metaphorical application
+  of it to Pylades, who voluntarily attached himself to the misfortunes of
+  his friend, is extremely beautiful.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="OrestN_34"></a><a href="#Orest_34">[34]</a> Or, <i>"I will
+  not be at all behind thy slaughter."</i></p>
+
+  <p><a name="OrestN_35"></a><a href="#Orest_35">[35]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="eu">&#x3B5;&#x3C5;</span> in this passage <i>interrogat
+  oblique</i>, see Hoogeveen, xvi. � 1. 15.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="OrestN_36"></a><a href="#Orest_36">[36]</a> Strophius, the
+  father of Pylades, married Anaxibia, Agamemnon's sister.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="OrestN_37"></a><a href="#Orest_37">[37]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="oneid�, t�n euergesi�n tas
+  hypomn�seis">&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3B4;&#x3B7;,
+  &#x3C4;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B5;&#x3C5;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3B3;&#x3B5;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3C2;
+  &#x201B;&#x3C5;&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3BC;&#x3BD;&#x3B7;&#x3C3;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;</span>.
+  SCHOL. Ter. And. i. 1. "isth�c commemoratio quasi exprobratio est
+  immemoris benefici."</p>
+
+  <p><a name="OrestN_38"></a><a href="#Orest_38">[38]</a> i.e. being a
+  barbarian, and therefore not knowing whither to go.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="OrestN_39"></a><a href="#Orest_39">[39]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="harmateion">&#x201B;&#x3B1;&#x3C1;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span>,
+  such a strain as that raised over Hector, <span lang="el"
+  title="helkomen�, dia tou
+  harmatos">&#x201B;&#x3B5;&#x3BB;&#x3BA;&#x3BF;&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3C9;,
+  &#x3B4;&#x3B9;&#x3B1; &#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;
+  &#x201B;&#x3B1;&#x3C1;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span>. See two
+  other explanations in the Scholia.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="OrestN_40"></a><a href="#Orest_40">[40]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="hipposyna, h�tis hyp�rches hipp�lasia tou
+  G.">&#x201B;&#x3B9;&#x3C0;&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3C3;&#x3C5;&#x3BD;&#x3B1;,
+  &#x201B;&#x3B7;&#x3C4;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x201B;&#x3C5;&#x3C0;&#x3B7;&#x3C1;&#x3C7;&#x3B5;&#x3C2;
+  &#x201B;&#x3B9;&#x3C0;&#x3C0;&#x3B7;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C5; &#x393;.</span> BRUNCK.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="OrestN_41"></a><a href="#Orest_41">[41]</a> Literally, <i>her
+  Mycenian slipper</i>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="OrestN_41a"></a><a href="#Orest_41a">[41a]</a> Read <span
+  lang="el"
+  title="thanein">&#x3B8;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;</span> with
+  Pors. Dind.</p>
+
+</div>
+<hr class="short" />
+
+<h3>ADDITIONAL NOTES.</h3>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+<div class="note">
+  <p><a name="OrestN_A"></a><a href="#Orest_A">[A]</a> But Dindorf reads
+  <span lang="el" title="ktypou � �gaget'.
+  ouchi">&#x3BA;&#x3C4;&#x3C5;&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3C5; &#x3B7;
+  &#x3B7;&#x3B3;&#x3B1;&#x3B3;&#x3B5;&#x3C4;'.
+  &#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C7;&#x3B9;</span>; interrogatively, thus: "Ye were
+  making a noise. Will ye not ... enable him," etc.?</p>
+
+  <p><a name="OrestN_B"></a><a href="#Orest_B">[B]</a> Dindorf would
+  continue this verse to Orestes.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="OrestN_C"></a><a href="#Orest_C">[C]</a> Dindorf supposes
+  something to be wanting after vs. 314.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="OrestN_D"></a><a href="#Orest_D">[D]</a> The use of <span
+  lang="el" title="allos heteros">&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3BB;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;
+  &#x201B;&#x3B5;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span> is learnedly
+  illustrated by Dindorf.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="OrestN_E"></a><a href="#Orest_E">[E]</a> Elmsley, on Heracl.
+  852, more simply regards the datives <span lang="el" title="soi s�i t'
+  adelph�">&#x3C3;&#x3BF;&#x3B9; &#x3C3;&#x3B7;&#x3B9; &#x3C4;'
+  &#x3B1;&#x3B4;&#x3B5;&#x3BB;&#x3C6;&#x3B7;</span> as dependent upon <span
+  lang="el"
+  title="episeis�">&#x3B5;&#x3C0;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3C9;</span>,
+  understanding <span lang="el" title="h�ste dounai
+  dik�n">&#x201B;&#x3C9;&#x3C3;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;
+  &#x3B4;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3BD;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3B4;&#x3B9;&#x3BA;&#x3B7;&#x3BD;</span>. This is better than to
+  suppose (with Porson) that <span lang="el" title="dounai
+  dik�n">&#x3B4;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3BD;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3B4;&#x3B9;&#x3BA;&#x3B7;&#x3BD;</span> can mean to <i>inflict</i>
+  punishment.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="OrestN_F"></a><a href="#Orest_F">[F]</a> Dindorf (in his
+  notes) agrees with Porson in omitting the following verse.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="OrestN_G"></a><a href="#Orest_G">[G]</a> Dindorf's text and
+  punctuation must be altered.</p>
+
+</div>
+<hr class="full" />
+
+<a name="PHOENISSAE"></a>
+<h2>THE PH&#338;NICIAN VIRGINS.</h2>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+<h3>PERSONS REPRESENTED.</h3>
+
+  <div class="personae">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <p>JOCASTA.</p>
+      <p>TUTOR.</p>
+      <p>ANTIGONE.</p>
+      <p>CHORUS OF PH&#338;NICIAN VIRGINS.</p>
+      <p>POLYNICES.</p>
+      <p>ETEOCLES.</p>
+      <p>CREON.</p>
+      <p>MEN&#338;CEUS.</p>
+      <p>TIRECIAS.</p>
+      <p>MESSENGERS.</p>
+      <p>&#338;DIPUS.</p>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+<p class="center"><i>The Scene is in the Court before the royal palace at Thebes</i>.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h3>THE ARGUMENT.</h3>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+  <p>Eteocles having gotten possession of the throne of Thebes, deprived
+  his brother Polynices of his share; but he having come as an exile to
+  Argos, married the daughter of the king Adrastus; but ambitious of
+  returning to his country, and having persuaded his father-in-law, he
+  assembled a great army for Thebes against his brother. His mother Jocasta
+  made him come into the city, under sanction of a truce, and first confer
+  with his brother respecting the empire. But Eteocles being violent and
+  fierce from having possessed the empire, Jocasta could not reconcile her
+  children.&mdash;Polynices, prepared as against an enemy, rushed out of
+  the city. Now Tiresias prophesied that victory should be on the side of
+  the Thebans, if Men&#339;ceus the son of Creon would give himself up to
+  be sacrificed to Mars. Creon refused to give his son to the city, but the
+  youth was willing, and, his father pointing out to him the means of
+  flight and giving him money, he put himself to death.&mdash;The Thebans
+  slew the leaders of the Argives. Eteocles and Polynices in a single
+  combat slew each other, and their mother having found the corses of her
+  sons laid violent hands on herself; and Creon her brother received the
+  kingdom. The Argives defeated in battle retired. But Creon, being morose,
+  would not give up those of the enemy who had fallen at Thebes, for
+  sepulture, and exposed the body of Polynices without burial, and banished
+  &#338;dipus from his country; in the one instance disregarding the laws
+  of humanity, in the other giving way to passion, nor feeling pity for him
+  after his calamity.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2>THE PH&#338;NICIAN VIRGINS.</h2>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+<p class="center">JOCASTA.</p>
+
+  <p>O thou that cuttest thy path through the constellations<a
+  name="Phoen_1"></a><a href="#PhoenN_1"><sup>[1]</sup></a> of heaven, and
+  art mounted on thy golden-joined seats, thou sun, whirling thy flame
+  with<a name="Phoen_2"></a><a href="#PhoenN_2"><sup>[2]</sup></a> thy
+  swift steeds, how inauspicious didst thou dart thy ray on that day when
+  Cadmus came to this land having left the sea-washed coast of
+  Ph&#339;nicia; who in former time having married Harmonia, daughter of
+  Venus, begat Polydorus; from him they say sprung Labdacus, and from him
+  Laius. But I am<a name="Phoen_3"></a><a
+  href="#PhoenN_3"><sup>[3]</sup></a> the daughter of Men&#339;ceus, and
+  Creon my brother was born of the same mother; me they call Jocasta (for
+  this name<a name="Phoen_4"></a><a href="#PhoenN_4"><sup>[4]</sup></a> my
+  father gave me), and Laius takes me for his wife; but after that he was
+  childless, for a long time sharing my bed in the palace, he went and
+  inquired of Apollo, and at the same time demands the mutual offspring of
+  male children in his family; but the God said, "O king of Thebes renowned
+  for its chariots, sow not for such a harvest of children against the will
+  of the Gods, for if thou shalt beget a son, he that is born shall slay
+  thee, and the whole of thy house shall wade through blood." But having
+  yielded to pleasure, and having fallen into inebriety, he begot to us a
+  son, and having begot him, feeling conscious of his error and the command
+  of the God, gives the babe to some herdsmen to expose at the meads of
+  Juno and the rock of Cith�ron, having bored sharp-pointed iron through
+  the middle of his ankles, from which circumstance Greece gave him the
+  name of &#338;dipus. But him the grooms who attend the steeds of Polybus
+  find and carry home, and placed him in the arms of their mistress. But
+  she rested beneath her bosom him that gave me a mother's pangs, and
+  persuades her husband that she had brought forth. But now my son showing
+  signs of manhood in his darkening cheek, either having suspected it by
+  instinct, or having learned it from some one, went to the temple of
+  Apollo, desirous of discovering his parents; at the same time went Laius
+  my husband, seeking to gain intelligence of his son who had been exposed,
+  if he were no longer living; and both met at the same point of the road
+  at Phocis where it divides itself; and the charioteer of Laius commands
+  him, "Stranger, withdraw out of the way of princes;" but he moved slowly,
+  in silence, with haughty spirit; but the steeds with their hoof dyed with
+  blood the tendons of his feet. At this (but why need I relate each horrid
+  circumstance besides the deed itself?) the son kills his father, and
+  having taken the chariot, sends it as a present to his foster-father
+  Polybus. Now at this time the sphinx preyed vulture-like<a
+  name="Phoen_5"></a><a href="#PhoenN_5"><sup>[5]</sup></a> upon the city
+  with rapacity, my husband now no more, Creon my brother proclaims that he
+  will give my bed as a reward to him who would solve the enigma of the
+  crafty virgin. But by some chance or other &#338;dipus my son happens to
+  discover the riddle of the sphinx, [and he receives as a prize the
+  sceptre of this land,]<a name="Phoen_5a"></a><a
+  href="#PhoenN_5a"><sup>[5a]</sup></a> and marries me, his mother,
+  wretched he not knowing it, nor knew his mother that she was lying down
+  with her son. And I bear children to my child, two sons, Eteocles and the
+  illustrious Polynices, and two daughters, one her father named Ismene,
+  the elder I called Antigone. But &#338;dipus, after having gone through
+  all sufferings, having discovered in my bed the marriage with his mother,
+  he perpetrated a deed of horror on his own eyes, having drenched in blood
+  their pupils with his golden buckles. But after that the cheek of my
+  children grows dark with manly down, they hid their father confined with
+  bolts that his sad fortune might be forgotten, which indeed required the
+  greatest policy. He is still living in the palace, but sick in mind
+  through his misfortunes he imprecates the most unhallowed curses on his
+  children, that they may share this house with the sharpened sword. But
+  these two, dreading lest the Gods should bring to completion these
+  curses,<a name="Phoen_6"></a><a href="#PhoenN_6"><sup>[6]</sup></a>
+  should they dwell together, in friendly compact determined that Polynices
+  the younger son should first go a willing exile from this land, but that
+  Eteocles remaining here should hold the sceptre for a year, changing in
+  his turn; but after that he sat on the throne of power, he moves not from
+  his seat, but drives Polynices an exile from this land. But he having
+  fled to Argos, and having contracted an alliance with Adrastus, assembles
+  together and leads a vast army of Argives; and having marched to these
+  very walls with seven gates he demands his father's sceptre and his share
+  of the land. But I to quell this strife persuaded my son to come to his
+  brother, confiding in a truce before he grasped the spear. And the
+  messenger who was sent declares that he will come. But, O thou that
+  inhabitest the shining clouds of heaven, Jove, preserve us, give
+  reconciliation to my children; it becomes thee, if thou art wise, not to
+  suffer the same man always to be unfortunate.</p>
+
+<p class="center">TUTOR, ANTIGONE.</p>
+
+  <p>TUT. O thou fair bud in thy father's house, Antigone, since thy mother
+  has permitted thee to leave the virgin's apartments for the extreme
+  chamber<a name="Phoen_7"></a><a href="#PhoenN_7"><sup>[7]</sup></a> of
+  the mansion, in order to view the Argive army in compliance with thy
+  entreaties, yet stay, until I shall first investigate the path, lest any
+  citizen should appear in the pass, and to me taunts should come as a
+  slave, and to thee as a princess: and I who well know each circumstance
+  will tell you all that I saw or heard from the Argives, when I went
+  bearing the offer of a truce to thy brother, from this place thither, and
+  again to this place from him. But no citizen approaches this house; come,
+  ascend with thy steps these ancient stairs of cedar, and survey the
+  plains, and by the streams of Ismenus and Dirce's fount how great is the
+  host of the enemy.</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. Stretch forth now, stretch forth thine aged hand from the stairs
+  to my youth, raising up the steps of my feet.</p>
+
+  <p>TUT. Behold, join thy hand, virgin, thou hast come in lucky hour, for
+  the Pelasgian host is now in motion, and they are separating the bands
+  from one another.</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. O awful daughter of Latona, Hecate, the field all brass<a
+  name="Phoen_8"></a><a href="#PhoenN_8"><sup>[8]</sup></a> gleaming like
+  lightning.</p>
+
+  <p>TUT. For Polynices hath not come tamely to this land, raging with host
+  of horsemen, and ten thousand shields.</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. Are the gates fastened with bars, and is the brazen bolt fitted
+  to the stone-work of Amphion's wall?</p>
+
+  <p>TUT. Take courage; as to the interior the city is safe, But view the
+  first chief, if thou desirest to know.</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. Who is he with the white-plumed helmet, who commands in the van
+  of the army, moving lightly round on his arm his brazen shield?</p>
+
+  <p>TUT. He is a leader, lady.</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. Who is he? From whom sprung? Speak, aged man, what is he called
+  by name?</p>
+
+  <p>TUT. He indeed is called by birth a Mycen�an, and he dwells at the
+  streams of Lerna,<a name="Phoen_9"></a><a
+  href="#PhoenN_9"><sup>[9]</sup></a> the king Hippomedon.</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. Ah! how haughty, how terrible to behold! like to an earth-born
+  giant, starlike in countenance amidst his painted devices,<a
+  name="Phoen_10"></a><a href="#PhoenN_10"><sup>[10]</sup></a> he
+  corresponds not with the race of mortals.</p>
+
+  <p>TUT. Dost thou not see him now passing the stream of Dirce, a
+  general?</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. Here is another, another fashion of arms. But who is he?</p>
+
+  <p>TUT. He is the son of &#338;neus, Tydeus, and bears on his breast the
+  �tolian Mars.</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. Is this the prince, O aged man, who is husband to the sister of
+  my brother's wife?<a name="Phoen_11"></a><a
+  href="#PhoenN_11"><sup>[11]</sup></a> In his arms how different of color,
+  of barbaric mixture!</p>
+
+  <p>TUT. For all the �tolians, my child, bear the target, and hurl with
+  the lance, most certain in their aim.</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. But how, O aged man, dost thou know these things so
+  perfectly?</p>
+
+  <p>TUT. Having seen the devices of the shields, then I remarked them,
+  when I went to bear the offer of a truce to thy brother, beholding which,
+  I recognize the warriors.</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. But who is this, who is passing round the tomb of Zethus, with
+  clustering locks, in his eyes a Gorgon to behold, in appearance a
+  youth?</p>
+
+  <p>TUT. A general he is. [See Note <a name="Phoen_A"></a><a
+  href="#PhoenN_A">[A]</a>.]</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. How a crowd in complete armor attends him behind!<a
+  name="Phoen_12"></a><a href="#PhoenN_12"><sup>[12]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>TUT. This is Parthenop�us, son of Atalanta.</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. But, may Diana who rushes over the mountains with his mother
+  destroy him, having subdued him with her arrows, who has come against my
+  city to destroy it.</p>
+
+  <p>TUT. May it be so, my child, nevertheless they are come with justice
+  to this land; wherefore also I fear lest the Gods should judge
+  rightly.</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. Where, but where is he who was born of one mother with me in hard
+  fate, O dearest old man; tell me, where is Polynices?</p>
+
+  <p>TUT. He is standing near the tomb of the seven virgin daughters of
+  Niobe, close by Adrastus. Seest thou him?</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. I see indeed, but not distinctly; but somehow I see the
+  resemblance of his form, and his shape shadowed out. Would that with my
+  feet I could perform the journey of the winged cloud through the air to
+  my brother, then would I fling my arms round his dearest neck, after so
+  long a time a wretched exile. How splendid is he, O old man, in his
+  golden armor, glittering like the morning rays of the sun.</p>
+
+  <p>TUT. He will come to this house confiding in the truce, so as to fill
+  thee with joy.</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. But who, O aged man, is this, who guides his milk-white steeds
+  seated in his chariot?</p>
+
+  <p>TUT. The prophet Amphiaraus this, O my mistress, and with him the
+  victims, the libations of the earth delighting in blood.</p>
+
+  <p>AST. O thou daughter of the brightly girded sun, thou moon,
+  golden-circled light, applying what quiet and temperate blows to his
+  steeds does he direct his chariot! But where is he who utters such
+  dreadful insults against this city, Capaneus?</p>
+
+  <p>TUT. He is scanning the approach to the towers, measuring the walls
+  both from their foundation to the top.</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. O vengeance, and ye loud-roaring thunders of Jove, and thou
+  blasting fire of the lightning, do thou quell this more-than-mortal
+  arrogance. This is he who will with his spear give to Mycen�, and to the
+  streams of Lern�an Tri�na,<a name="Phoen_13"></a><a
+  href="#PhoenN_13"><sup>[13]</sup></a> and to the Amymonian<a
+  name="Phoen_14"></a><a href="#PhoenN_14"><sup>[14]</sup></a> waters of
+  Neptune, the Theban women, having invested them with slavery. Sever, O
+  awful Goddess, never, O daughter of Jove, with golden clusters of
+  ringlets, Diana, may I endure servitude.</p>
+
+  <p>TUT. My child, enter the palace, and at home remain in thy virgin
+  chambers, since thou hast arrived at the indulgement of thy desire, as to
+  what you were anxious to behold. For, since confusion has entered the
+  city, a crowd of women is advancing to the royal palace. The race of
+  women is prone to complaint, and if they find but small occasion for
+  words, they add more, and it is a sort of pleasure to women, to speak
+  nothing well-advised one of another.<a name="Phoen_15"></a><a
+  href="#PhoenN_15"><sup>[15]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p class="center">CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>I have come, having left the Tyrian wave, the first-fruits of Loxias,
+  from the sea-washed Ph&#339;nicia, a slave for the shrine of Apollo, that
+  I might dwell under the snowy brows of Parnassus, having sped my way over
+  the Ionian flood by the oar, the west wind with its blasts riding over
+  the barren plains of waters<a name="Phoen_16"></a><a
+  href="#PhoenN_16"><sup>[16]</sup></a> which flow round Sicily, the
+  sweetest murmur in the heavens. Chosen out from my city the fairest
+  present to Apollo, I came to the land of the Cadmeans, the illustrious
+  descendants of Agenor, sent hither to these kindred towers of Laius. And
+  I am made the slave of Apollo in like manner with the golden-framed
+  images. Moreover the water of Castalia awaits me, to lave the virgin
+  pride of my tresses, in the ministry of Apollo. O blazing rock, the flame
+  of fire that seems<a name="Phoen_17"></a><a
+  href="#PhoenN_17"><sup>[17]</sup></a> double above the Dionysian heights
+  of Bacchus, and thou vine, who distillest the daily nectar, producing the
+  fruitful cluster from the tender shoot; and ye divine caves of the
+  dragon,<a name="Phoen_18"></a><a href="#PhoenN_18"><sup>[18]</sup></a>
+  and ye mountain watch-towers of the Gods, and thou hallowed snowy
+  mountain, would that I were the chorus of the immortal God free from
+  alarms encompassing thee around, by the caves of Apollo in the centre of
+  the earth, having left Dirce. But now impetuous Mars having advanced
+  before the walls lights up against this city, which may the Gods avert,
+  hostile war; for common are the misfortunes of friends, and common is it,
+  if this land defended by its seven turrets should suffer any calamity, to
+  the Ph&#339;nician country, alas! alas! common is the affinity,<a
+  name="Phoen_19"></a><a href="#PhoenN_19"><sup>[19]</sup></a> common are
+  the descendants of Io bearing horns; of which woes I have a share. But a
+  thick cloud of shields glares around the city, the likeness of gory
+  battle, bearing which destruction from the Furies to the children of
+  &#338;dipus Mars shall quickly advance. O Pelasgian Argos, I dread thy
+  power, and vengeance from the Gods, for he rushes not his arms to this
+  war unjustly, who seeks to recover his home.</p>
+
+<p class="center">POLYNICES, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>POL. The bolts indeed of the gate-keepers have with ease admitted me,
+  that I might come within the walls; wherefore also I fear, lest, having
+  caught me within their nets, they let<a name="Phoen_19a"></a><a
+  href="#PhoenN_19a"><sup>[19a]</sup></a> not my body go without bloodshed.
+  On which account my eye must be turned about on every side, both that way
+  and this, lest there be treachery. But armed in my hand with this sword,
+  I will give myself confidence of daring. Ha! Who is this; or do we fear a
+  noise? Every thing appears terrible even to the bold, when his foot shall
+  pass across a hostile country. I trust however in my mother, at the same
+  time I scarce trust, who persuaded me to come hither confiding in a
+  truce. But protection is nigh; for the hearths of the altars are at hand,
+  and houses not deserted. Come. I will let go my sword into its dark
+  scabbard, and will question these who they are, that are standing at the
+  palace. Ye female strangers, tell me, from what country do ye approach
+  Grecian habitations?</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. The Ph&#339;nician is my paternal country, she that nurtured me:
+  and the descendants of Agenor sent me hither from the spoils, the
+  first-fruits to Apollo. And while the renowned son of &#338;dipus was
+  preparing to send me to the revered shrine, and to the altars of
+  Ph&#339;bus, in the mean time the Argives marched against the city. But
+  do thou in turn answer me, who thou art, who hast come to this bulwark of
+  the Theban land with its seven gates?</p>
+
+  <p>POL. My father is &#338;dipus the son of Laius; Jocasta daughter of
+  Men&#339;ceus brought me forth; the Theban people call me Polynices.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. O thou allied to the sons of Agenor, my lords, by whom I was
+  sent, I fall at thy knees in lowly posture, O king, preserving my
+  country's custom. Thou hast come, thou hast come, after a length of time,
+  to thy paternal land. O venerable matron, come forth quickly, open the
+  doors; dost thou hear, O mother, that producedst this hero? why dost thou
+  delay to leave thy lofty mansion, and to embrace thy child with thine
+  arms?</p>
+
+<p class="center">JOCASTA, POLYNICES, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>JOC. Hearing the Ph&#339;nician tongue, ye virgins, within this
+  mansion, I drag my steps trembling with age. Ah! my son, after length of
+  time, after numberless days, I behold thy countenance; clasp thy mother's
+  bosom in thine arms, throw around her<a name="Phoen_20"></a><a
+  href="#PhoenN_20"><sup>[20]</sup></a> thy kisses, and the dark ringlets
+  of thy clustering hair, shading my neck. Ah! scarce possible is it that
+  thou appearest in thy mother's arms so unhoped for, and so unexpected.
+  How shall I address thee? how shall I perform all? how shall I, walking
+  in rapture around thee on that side and this, both with my hands and
+  words, reap the varied pleasure, the delight of my former joys? O my son,
+  thou hast left thy father's house deserted, sent away an exile by
+  wrongful treatment from thy brother. How longed for by thy friends! how
+  longed for by Thebes! From which time I am both shorn of my hoary locks,
+  letting them fall with tears, with wailing;<a name="Phoen_21"></a><a
+  href="#PhoenN_21"><sup>[21]</sup></a> deprived, my child, of the white
+  robes, I receive in exchange around me these dark and dismal weeds. But
+  the old man in the palace deprived of sight, always preserving with tears
+  regret for the unanimity of the brothers which is separated from the
+  family, has madly rushed on self-destruction with the sword and with the
+  noose above the beams of the house, bewailing the curse imprecated on his
+  children; and with cries of woe he is always hidden in darkness. But
+  thou, my child, I hear, art both joined in marriage, and hast the joys of
+  love in a foreign family, and cherishest a foreign alliance; intolerable
+  to this thy mother and to the aged Laius, the woe of a foreign marriage
+  brought upon us. But neither did I light the torch of fire for you, as is
+  customary in the marriage rites, as befits the happy mother; nor was
+  Ismenus careful of the bridal rites in the luxury of the bath: and the
+  entrance of thy bride was made in silence through the Theban city. May
+  these ills perish, whether the sword, or discord, or thy father is the
+  cause, or whether fate has rushed with violence upon the house of
+  &#338;dipus; for the weight of these sorrows has fallen upon me.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Parturition with the attendant throes has a wonderful effect on
+  women;<a name="Phoen_22"></a><a href="#PhoenN_22"><sup>[22]</sup></a> and
+  somehow the whole race of women have strong affection toward their
+  children.</p>
+
+  <p>POL. My mother, determining wisely, and yet not determining wisely,
+  have I come to men my foes; but it is necessary that all must be enamored
+  of their country; but whoever says otherwise, pleases himself with vain
+  words, but has his heart there. But so far have I come to trouble and
+  terror, lest any treachery from my brother should slay me, so that having
+  my hand on my sword I proceeded through the city rolling round my eye;
+  but one thing is on my side, the truce and thy faith, which has brought
+  me within my paternal walls: but I have come with many tears, after a
+  length of time beholding the courts and the altars of the Gods, and the
+  schools wherein I was brought up, and the fount of Dirce, from which
+  banished by injustice, I inhabit a foreign city, having a stream of tears
+  flowing through my eyes. But, for from one woe springs a second, I behold
+  thee having thy head shorn of its locks, and these sable garments; alas
+  me! on account of my misfortunes. How dreadful a thing, mother, is the
+  enmity of relations, having means of reconciliation seldom to be brought
+  about! For how fares the old man my father in the palace, vainly looking
+  upon darkness; and how fare my two sisters? Are they indeed bewailing my
+  wretched banishment?</p>
+
+  <p>JOC. Some God miserably destroys the race of &#338;dipus; for thus
+  began it, when I brought forth children in that unhallowed manner, and
+  thy father married me in evil hour, and thou didst spring forth. But why
+  relate these things? What is sent by the Gods we must bear. But how I may
+  ask the questions I wish, I know not, for I fear lest I wound at all thy
+  feelings; but I have a great desire.</p>
+
+  <p>POL. But inquire freely, leave nothing out. For what you wish, my
+  mother, this is dear to me.</p>
+
+  <p>JOC. I ask thee therefore, first, for the information that I wish to
+  obtain. What is the being deprived of one's country, is it a great
+  ill?</p>
+
+  <p>POL. The greatest: and greater is it in deed than in word.</p>
+
+  <p>JOC. What is the reason of that? What is that so harsh to exiles?</p>
+
+  <p>POL. One thing, and that the greatest, not to have the liberty of
+  speaking.</p>
+
+  <p>JOC. This that you have mentioned belongs to a slave, not to give
+  utterance to what one thinks.</p>
+
+  <p>POL. It is necessary to bear with the follies of those in power.</p>
+
+  <p>JOC. And this is painful, to be unwise with the unwise.</p>
+
+  <p>POL. But for interest we must bend to slavery contrary to our
+  nature.</p>
+
+  <p>JOC. But hopes support exiles, as report goes.</p>
+
+  <p>POL. They look upon them with favorable eyes, at least, but are slow
+  of foot.</p>
+
+  <p>JOC. Hath not time shown them to be vain?</p>
+
+  <p>POL. They have a certain sweet delight to set against misfortunes.</p>
+
+  <p>JOC. But whence wert thou supported, before thou foundest means of
+  sustenance by thy marriage?</p>
+
+  <p>POL. At one time I had food for the day, at another I had not.</p>
+
+  <p>JOC. And did the friends and hosts of your father not assist you?</p>
+
+  <p>POL. Be prosperous, <i>and thou shalt have friends</i>:<a
+  name="Phoen_23"></a><a href="#PhoenN_23"><sup>[23]</sup></a> but friends
+  are none, should one be in adversity.</p>
+
+  <p>JOC. Did not thy noble birth raise thee to great distinction?</p>
+
+  <p>POL. To want is wretched; high birth fed me not.</p>
+
+  <p>JOC. Their own country, it appears, is the dearest thing to men.</p>
+
+  <p>POL. You can not express by words how dear it is.</p>
+
+  <p>JOC. But how camest thou to Argos? What intention hadst thou?</p>
+
+  <p>POL. Apollo gave a certain oracle to Adrastus.</p>
+
+  <p>JOC. What is this thou hast mentioned? I am unable to discover.</p>
+
+  <p>POL. To unite his daughters in marriage with a boar and lion.</p>
+
+  <p>JOC. And what part of the name of beasts belongs to you, my son.</p>
+
+  <p>POL. I know not. The God called me to this fortune.</p>
+
+  <p>JOC. For the God is wise. But in what manner didst thou obtain her
+  bed?</p>
+
+  <p>POL. It was night; but I came to the portals of Adrastus.</p>
+
+  <p>JOC. In search of a couch to rest on, as a wandering exile?</p>
+
+  <p>POL. This was the case, and then indeed there came a second exile.</p>
+
+  <p>JOC. Who was this? how unfortunate then was he also!</p>
+
+  <p>POL. Tydeus, who they say sprung from &#338;neus his sire.</p>
+
+  <p>JOC. In what then did Adrastus liken you to beasts?</p>
+
+  <p>POL. Because we came to blows for lodging.</p>
+
+  <p>JOC. In this the son of Talaus understood the oracle.</p>
+
+  <p>POL. And gave in marriage to us two his two virgin daughters.</p>
+
+  <p>JOC. Art thou fortunate then in thy marriage alliance, or
+  unfortunate?</p>
+
+  <p>POL. My marriage can not be found fault with up to this day.</p>
+
+  <p>JOC. But how didst thou persuade an army to follow you hither?</p>
+
+  <p>POL. Adrastus swore this oath to his two sons-in-law, that he would
+  replace both in their own country, but me first. And many princes of the
+  Argives and Mycen�ans are at hand, rendering to me a sad, but necessary
+  favor; for I am leading an army against this my own city; but I have
+  called the Gods to witness how unwillingly I have raised the spear
+  against my dearest parents. But the dissolution of these ills extends to
+  thee, my mother, that having reconciled the friendly brothers, you may
+  free from toil me and thyself, and the whole city. It is a proverb long
+  ago chanted, but nevertheless I will repeat it; wealth is honored most of
+  all things by men, and has the greatest influence of any thing among men.
+  In pursuit of which I am come, leading hither ten thousand spears: for a
+  nobly-born man in poverty is nothing.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. And see Eteocles here comes to this mediation; thy business it
+  is, O Jocasta, being their mother, to speak words, with which thou shalt
+  reconcile thy children.</p>
+
+<p class="center">ETEOCLES, POLYNICES, JOCASTA, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>ETEO. Mother, I am present; giving this grace to thee, I have come;
+  what must I do? Let some one begin the conference. Since arranging also
+  around the walls the chariots of the bands, I restrained the city, that I
+  may hear from thee the common terms<a name="Phoen_24"></a><a
+  href="#PhoenN_24"><sup>[24]</sup></a> of reconciliation, for which thou
+  hast permitted this man to come within the walls under sanction of a
+  truce, having persuaded me.</p>
+
+  <p>JOC. Stay; precipitate haste has not justice; but slow counsels
+  perform most deeds in wisdom. But repress that fierce eye and those
+  blasts of rage; for thou art not looking on the Gorgon's head cut off at
+  the neck, but thou art looking on thy brother who is come to thee. And do
+  thou again, Polynices, turn thy face toward thy brother; for looking at
+  the same point with thine eyes, thou wilt both speak better, and receive
+  his words better. But I wish to give you a wise piece of advice. When a
+  friend is enraged with a man his friend, having met him face to face, let
+  him fix his eyes on his friend's eyes, this only ought he to consider,
+  the end for which he is come, but to have no recollection of former
+  grievances. Thy words then first, my son, Polynices; for thou art come
+  leading an army of Argives, having suffered injustice, as thou sayest;
+  and may some God be umpire and the reconciler of your strife.</p>
+
+  <p>POL. The speech of truth is simple, and those things which are just
+  need not wily interpretations; for they have energy themselves; but the
+  unjust speech, unsound in itself, requires cunning preparations to gloze
+  it. But I have previously considered for my father's house, and my own
+  advantage and that of this man; desiring to escape the curses, which
+  &#338;dipus denounced formerly against us, I myself of my own accord
+  departed from this land, having given him to rule over his own country
+  for the space of a year, so that I myself should have the government
+  again, having received it in turn, and not having come into enmity and
+  bloodshed with this man to perform some evil deed, and to suffer what is
+  now taking place. But he having assented to this, and having brought the
+  Gods to witness his oaths, has performed nothing of what he promised, but
+  himself holds the regal power and my share of the palace. And now I am
+  ready, having received my own right, to send the army away from out of
+  this land, and to regulate my house, having received it in my turn, and
+  to give it up again to this man for the same space of time, and neither
+  to lay my country waste, nor to apply to its towers the means of ascent
+  by the firmly-fixed ladders. Which, should I not meet with justice, will
+  I endeavor to put in execution: and I call the Gods as witnesses of this,
+  that acting in every thing with justice, I am without justice deprived of
+  my country in the most unrighteous manner. These individual
+  circumstances, mother, not having collected together intricacies of
+  argument, have I declared, but both to the wise and to the illiterate
+  just, as appears to me.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. To me indeed, although we have not been brought up according to
+  the Grecian land, nevertheless to me thou appearest to speak with
+  judgment.</p>
+
+  <p>ETEO. If the same thing were judged honorable alike by all, and at the
+  same time wise, there would not be doubtful strife among men. But now
+  nothing is similar, nothing the same among mortals, except in names; but
+  the sense is not the same, for I, my mother, will speak having kept
+  nothing back; I would mount to the rising of the stars, and sink beneath
+  the earth, were I able to perform this, so that I might possess the
+  greatest of the Goddesses, kingly power.<a name="Phoen_25"></a><a
+  href="#PhoenN_25"><sup>[25]</sup></a> This prize then, my mother, I am
+  not willing rather to give up to another, than to preserve for myself.
+  For it implies cowardice in him, whoever having lost the greater share,
+  hath received the less; but in addition to this I feel ashamed, that this
+  man having come with arms, and laying the country waste, should obtain
+  what he wishes; for to Thebes this would be a reproach, if through fear
+  of the Mycen�an spear I should give up my sceptre for this man to hold.
+  But he ought, my mother, to effect a reconciliation, not by arms: for
+  speech does every thing which even the sword of the enemy could do. But
+  if he is desirous of inhabiting this land in any other way, it is in his
+  power; but the other point I will never give up willingly. When it is in
+  my power to rule, ever to be a slave to him? Wherefore come fire, come
+  sword, yoke thy steeds, fill the plains with chariots, since I will not
+  give up my kingly power to this man. For if one must be unjust, it is
+  most glorious to be unjust concerning empire, but in every thing else one
+  should be just.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. It is not right to speak well, where the deeds are not glorious;
+  for this is not honorable, but galling to justice.</p>
+
+  <p>JOC. My son, Eteocles, not every ill is added to age, but experience
+  has it in its power to evince more wisdom than youth.<a
+  name="Phoen_26"></a><a href="#PhoenN_26"><sup>[26]</sup></a> Why, my
+  child, dost thou so desirously court ambition, the most baneful of the
+  deities? do not thou; the Goddess is unjust. But she hath entered into
+  many families and happy states and hath come forth again, to the
+  destruction of those who have to do with her. Of whom thou art madly
+  enamored. This is more noble, my son, to honor equality, which ever links
+  friends with friends, and states with states, and allies with allies: for
+  equality is sanctioned by law among men. But the lesser share is ever at
+  enmity with the greater, and straight begins the day of hatred. For
+  equality arranged also among mortals measures, and the divisions of
+  weights, and defined numbers. And the dark eye of night, and the light of
+  the sun, equally walk their annual round, and neither of them being
+  overcome hath envy of the other. Thus the sun and the night are
+  subservient to men, but wilt not thou brook having an equal share of
+  government, and give his share to him? Then where is justice? Why dost
+  thou honor so unboundedly that prosperous injustice, royalty, and think
+  so highly of her? Is the being conspicuous honorable? At least, it is
+  empty honor. Or dost thou desire to labor much, possessing much in thy
+  house? but what is superfluity? It possesses but a name; since a
+  sufficiency indeed to the temperate is abundance. Neither do men enjoy
+  riches as their own, but having the property of the Gods do we cherish
+  them. And when they list, again do they take them away. Come, if I ask
+  thee, having proposed together two measures, whether it is thy wish to
+  reign, or save the city? Wilt thou say, to reign? But should he conquer
+  thee, and the Argive spears overcome the Cadm�anforces, thou wilt behold
+  this city of the Thebans vanquished, thou wilt behold many captive
+  maidens with violence ravished by men your foes. Bitter then to Thebes
+  will be the power which thou seekest to hold; but yet thou art ambitious
+  of it. To thee I say this: but to thee, Polynices, say I, that Adrastus
+  hath conferred an unwise favor on thee; and foolishly hast thou also come
+  to destroy this city. Come, if thou wilt subdue this land (may which
+  never happen), by the Gods, how wilt thou erect trophies of thy spear?
+  And how again wilt thou sacrifice the first-fruits, having conquered thy
+  country? and how wilt thou engrave upon the spoils by the waters of
+  Inachus, "Having laid Thebes in ashes, Polynices consecrated these
+  shields to the Gods?" Never, my son, may it come to thee to receive such
+  glory from the Greeks. But again, shouldest thou be conquered, and should
+  the arms of the other prevail, how wilt thou return to Argos having left
+  behind ten thousand dead? Surely some one will say, O! unfortunate
+  marriage alliance! O Adrastus, who placed them on us, through the
+  nuptials of one bride we are lost! Thou art hastening two ills, my son,
+  to be deprived of those, and to fail in this. Give up your too great
+  ardor, give it up; the follies of two when they clash together in the
+  same point, are the most hateful ill.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. O ye Gods, may ye be averters of these ills, and grant to the
+  children of &#338;dipus some means of agreement.</p>
+
+  <p>ETEO. My mother, this is not a contest of words, but intervening time
+  is fruitlessly wasted; and thy earnestness avails nothing; for we shall
+  not agree in any other way, than on the terms proposed, that I holding
+  the sceptre be monarch of this land. Forbearing then tedious admonitions,
+  let me have my way; and do thou begone from out these walls, or thou
+  shalt die.</p>
+
+  <p>POL. By whose hand? Who is there so invulnerable, who having pointed
+  the murderous sword against me, shall not bear the same fate?</p>
+
+  <p>ETEO. He is near, not far removed from thee: dost thou look on these
+  my hands?</p>
+
+  <p>POL. I see them. But wealth is cowardly, and feeble, loving life.</p>
+
+  <p>ETEO. And therefore hast thou come, with such a host against one who
+  is nothing in arms?</p>
+
+  <p>POL. For a cautious general is better than one daring.</p>
+
+  <p>ETEO. Thou art insolent, having trusted in the truce, which preserves
+  you from death.</p>
+
+  <p>POL. A second time again I demand of you the sceptre and my share of
+  the land.</p>
+
+  <p>ETEO. I will admit no demand, for I will regulate my own family.</p>
+
+  <p>POL. Holding more than your share?</p>
+
+  <p>ETEO. I own it; but quit this land.</p>
+
+  <p>POL. O ye altars of my paternal Gods.</p>
+
+  <p>ETEO. Which thou art come to destroy?</p>
+
+  <p>POL. Do ye hear me?</p>
+
+  <p>ETEO. Who will hear thee, who art marching against thy country?</p>
+
+  <p>POL. And ye shrines of the Gods<a name="Phoen_27"></a><a
+  href="#PhoenN_27"><sup>[27]</sup></a> delighting in the milk-white
+  steeds;</p>
+
+  <p>ETEO. Who hate thee.</p>
+
+  <p>POL. I am driven out of my own country.</p>
+
+  <p>ETEO. For thou hast come to destroy it.</p>
+
+  <p>POL. With injustice indeed, O ye Gods!</p>
+
+  <p>ETEO. At Mycen� call upon the Gods, not here.</p>
+
+  <p>POL. Thou art impious.</p>
+
+  <p>ETEO. But not my country's enemy, as thou art.</p>
+
+  <p>POL. Who drives me out without my share.</p>
+
+  <p>ETEO. And I will put thee to death in addition.</p>
+
+  <p>POL. My father, hearest thou what I suffer?</p>
+
+  <p>ETEO. For he hears what wrongs thou doest.</p>
+
+  <p>POL. And thou, my mother?</p>
+
+  <p>ETEO. It is not lawful for thee to mention thy mother.</p>
+
+  <p>POL. O my city!</p>
+
+  <p>ETEO. To Argos go, and call on Lerna's stream.</p>
+
+  <p>POL. I will go, do not distress thyself; but thee, my mother, I
+  mention with honor.</p>
+
+  <p>ETEO. Depart from out of the country.</p>
+
+  <p>POL. I will go out; but grant me to see my father.</p>
+
+  <p>ETEO. You will not obtain your request.</p>
+
+  <p>POL. But my virgin sisters then.</p>
+
+  <p>ETEO. Never shalt thou behold these.</p>
+
+  <p>POL. O my sisters!</p>
+
+  <p>ETEO. Why callest thou on these&mdash;being their greatest enemy?</p>
+
+  <p>POL. My mother, but thou farewell.</p>
+
+  <p>JOC. Do I experience any thing that is well, my son?</p>
+
+  <p>POL. I am no longer thy child.</p>
+
+  <p>JOC. To many troubles was I born.</p>
+
+  <p>POL. For he throws insults on us.</p>
+
+  <p>ETEO. For I am insulted in turn.</p>
+
+  <p>POL. Where wilt thou stand before the towers?</p>
+
+  <p>ETEO. Why dost thou ask me this question?</p>
+
+  <p>POL. I will oppose myself to thee, to slay thee.</p>
+
+  <p>ETEO. Desire of this seizes me also.</p>
+
+  <p>JOC. Wretched me! what will ye do, my children?</p>
+
+  <p>POL. The deed itself will show.</p>
+
+  <p>JOC. Will ye not escape your father's curses?</p>
+
+  <p>ETEO. Let the whole house perish!</p>
+
+  <p>POL. Since soon my blood-stained sword will not remain any longer in
+  inactivity. But I call to witness the land that nurtured me, and the
+  Gods, how dishonored I am driven from this land, suffering such foul
+  treatment, as a slave and not born of the same father &#338;dipus. And if
+  any thing befalls thee, my city, blame not me, but him; for against my
+  will have I come, and against my will am I driven from this land. And
+  thou, king Apollo, God of our streets, and ye shrines, farewell, and ye
+  my equals, and ye altars of the Gods receiving the victims; for I know
+  not if it is allowed me ever again to address you. But hope does not yet
+  slumber, in which I have trusted with the favor of the Gods, that having
+  slain this man, I shall be master of this Theban land.</p>
+
+  <p>ETEO. Depart from out of the country; with truth indeed did your
+  father give you the name of Polynices by some divine foreknowledge, a
+  name corresponding with strife.</p>
+
+<p class="center">CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>Cadmus came from Tyre to this land, before whom the quadrupede heifer
+  bent with willing fall,<a name="Phoen_28"></a><a
+  href="#PhoenN_28"><sup>[28]</sup></a> showing the accomplishment of the
+  oracle, where the divine word ordered him to colonize the plains of the
+  Aonians productive of wheat, where indeed the fair-flowing stream of the
+  water of Dirce passes over the verdant and deep-furrowed fields, where
+  the *&nbsp;*&nbsp;*&nbsp;* mother produced Bacchus, by her marriage with Jove, whom the
+  wreathed ivy twining around him instantly, while yet a babe, blest and
+  covered with its verdant shady branches, an event to be celebrated with
+  Bacchic revel by the Theban virgins and inspired women. There was the
+  bloodstained dragon of Mars, the savage guard, watching with far-rolling
+  eyeballs over the flowing fountains and grassy streams; whom Cadmus,
+  having come for water for purification, slew with a fragment of rock, the
+  destroyer of the monster having thrown his arms with blows on his
+  blood-stained head, by the counsel of the divine Pallas born without
+  mother, having thrown the teeth fallen to the earth upon the
+  deep-furrowed plains. Whence the earth sent forth a spectacle, an armed
+  [host] above the extreme limits of the ground; but iron-hearted slaughter
+  again united them with their beloved earth; and sprinkled with blood the
+  ground which showed them to the serene gales of the air. And thee, sprung
+  of old from our ancestor Io, Epaphus, O progeny of Jove, on thee have I
+  called, have I called in a foreign tongue, with prayers in foreign
+  accent, come, come to this land (thy descendants have founded it), where
+  the two Goddesses Proserpine and the dear Goddess Ceres, queen of all
+  (since earth nurtures all things), have held their possessions, send the
+  fire-bearing Goddesses to defend this land: since every thing is easy to
+  the Gods.</p>
+
+<p class="center">ETEOCLES, CHORUS, MESSENGER.</p>
+
+  <p>ETEO. Go thou, and bring hither Creon son of Men&#339;ceus, the
+  brother of my mother Jocasta, saying this, that I wish to communicate
+  with him counsels of a private nature and those which concern the common
+  welfare of the country, before we go into battle and the ranks of war.
+  And see, he spares the trouble of your steps, by his presence; for I see
+  him coming toward my palace.</p>
+
+<p class="center">CREON, ETEOCLES, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. Surely have I visited many places, desiring to see you, O king
+  Eteocles! and I have gone round to the gates and the guards of the
+  Thebans, seeking you.</p>
+
+  <p>ETEO. And indeed I have wished to see you, Creon, for I found attempts
+  at reconciliation altogether fail when I came and entered into conference
+  with Polynices.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. I have heard that he aspires to higher thoughts than Thebes,
+  having trusted in his alliance with Adrastus and his army. But it becomes
+  us to hold these things in dependence on the Gods. But what is most
+  immediately before us, this am I come to acquaint you with.</p>
+
+  <p>ETEO. What is this? for I understand not your speech.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. A prisoner is arrived from the Argives.</p>
+
+  <p>ETEO. Does he bring us any news of those stationed there?</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. The Argive army is preparing quickly to surround the city of the
+  Thebans with thickly-ranged arms.(Note <a name="Phoen_B"></a><a
+  href="#PhoenN_B">[B]</a>.)</p>
+
+  <p>ETEO. Therefore must we draw our forces out of the Theban city.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. Whither? Dost thou not in the impetuosity of youth see what it
+  behooves thee to see?</p>
+
+  <p>ETEO. Without these trenches, as we are quickly about to fight.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. Small are the forces of this land; but theirs innumerable.</p>
+
+  <p>ETEO. I know that they are bold in words.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. Argos of the Greeks has some renown.</p>
+
+  <p>ETEO. Be confident; quickly will I fill the plain with their
+  slaughter.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. I would it were so: but this I see is a work of much labor.</p>
+
+  <p>ETEO. Know that I will not restrain my forces within the walls.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. And yet the whole of victory is prudence.</p>
+
+  <p>ETEO. Dost thou wish then that I have recourse to other measures?</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. To every measure indeed, rather than hazard all on one
+  battle.</p>
+
+  <p>ETEO. What if we were to attack them by night from ambush?</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. If, having failed, at least you can have a safe retreat
+  hither.</p>
+
+  <p>ETEO. Night brings the same advantage to all, but more to the
+  daring.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. Dreadful is it to fail in the darkness of night.</p>
+
+  <p>ETEO. But shall I lead my force against them while at their meal?</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. That would cause terror; but we must conquer.</p>
+
+  <p>ETEO. The ford of Dirce is indeed deep to pass.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. Every thing is inferior to a good guard.</p>
+
+  <p>ETEO. What then, shall I charge the Argive army with my cavalry?</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. And there the army is fenced round with chariots.</p>
+
+  <p>ETEO. What then shall I do? give up the city to the enemy?</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. By no means; but deliberate if thou art wise.</p>
+
+  <p>ETEO. What more prudent forethought is there?</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. They say that they have seven men, as I have heard.</p>
+
+  <p>ETEO. What have they been commanded to do? for their strength is
+  small.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. To head their bands, to besiege the seven gates.</p>
+
+  <p>ETEO. What then shall we do? I will not wait this indecision.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. Do thou thyself also choose seven men for the gates.</p>
+
+  <p>ETEO. To head divisions, or for single combat?</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. To head divisions, having selected the bravest.</p>
+
+  <p>ETEO. I understand you; to guard the approach to the walls.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. And with them other generals; one man sees not every thing?</p>
+
+  <p>ETEO. Having chosen them for boldness, or prudence in judgment?</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. For both; for one without the other availeth nothing.</p>
+
+  <p>ETEO. It shall be so: and having gone to the city of the seven towers,
+  I will appoint chiefs at the gates, as you advise, having opposed equal
+  champions against equal foes. But to mention the name of each would be a
+  great delay, the enemy encamped under our very walls. But I will go, that
+  I may not be idle with my hand. And may it befall me to find my brother
+  opposed to me, and being joined with me in battle, to take him with my
+  spear, [and to slay him, who came to desolate my country.] But it is thy
+  duty to attend to the marriage of my sister Antigone and thy son H�mon,
+  if I fail aught of success; but the firm vow made before I now confirm at
+  my going out. Thou art my mother's brother, why need I use more words?
+  Treat her worthily, both for thine own and my sake. But my father incurs
+  the punishment of the rashness he brought upon himself, having quenched
+  his sight; I praise him not; even us will he put to death with his
+  execrations, should he gain his point. But one thing is left undone by
+  us, if the soothsayer Tiresias have any oracle to deliver, to enquire
+  this of him; but I will send thy son, Creon, Men&#339;ceus, of the same
+  name with thy father, to bring Tiresias hither. With pleasure will he
+  enter into conversation with you; but I lately reviled him with his
+  divining art, so that he is offended with me. But this charge I give the
+  city with thee, Creon; if my arms should conquer, that the body of
+  Polynices be never buried in this Theban land; but that the man who
+  buries him shall die, although he be a friend. This I have told you: but
+  my attendants I tell, bring out my arms, and my panoply which covers me,
+  that we may go this appointed contest of the spear with victorious
+  justice. But to Caution, the most valued of the Goddesses, will we
+  address our prayers to preserve this city.</p>
+
+<p class="center">CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>O Mars, cause of infinite woe, why, I pray, art thou so possessed with
+  blood and death, so discordant with the revels of Bacchus? Thou dost not
+  in the circle of beautiful dancers in the bloom of youth, having let flow
+  thy hair,<a name="Phoen_29"></a><a href="#PhoenN_29"><sup>[29]</sup></a>
+  on the breath of the flute modulate strains, in which there is a lovely
+  power to renew the dance. But with thy armed men, having excited the army
+  of Argives against Thebes with blood, thou dancest before the city in a
+  most inharmonious revel, thou movest not thy foot maddened by the thyrsus
+  clad in fawn-skins, but thy solid-hoofed steed with thy chariot and
+  horses' bits; and bounding at the streams of Ismenus, thou art borne
+  rapidly in the chariot-course, having excited against the race of those
+  sown [by Cadmus,] a raging host that grasp the shield, well armed,
+  adverse to us at the walls of stone: surely Discord is some dreadful
+  Goddess, who devised all these calamities against the princes of this
+  land, the Labdacid� involved in woe. O thou forest of heavenly foliage,
+  most productive of beasts, thou snowy eye of Diana, Cith�ron, never
+  oughtest thou to have nourished him doomed to death, the son of Jocasta,
+  &#338;dipus, the babe who was cast out from his home, marked by the
+  golden clasps. Neither ought that winged virgin the Sphinx, thou mountain
+  monster, that grief to this land, to have come, with her most
+  inharmonious lays; who formerly approaching our walls, bore in her four
+  talons the descendants of Cadmus to the inaccessible light of heaven,
+  whom the infernal Pluto sends against the Thebans; but other ill-fated
+  discord among the children of &#338;dipus springs up in the palace and in
+  the city. For that which is not honorable, never can be honorable, as
+  neither can children the unhallowed offspring of the mother, the
+  pollution of the father. But she came to a kindred bed. Thou didst
+  produce, O [Theban] land! thou didst produce formerly (as I heard the
+  foreign report,<a name="Phoen_30"></a><a
+  href="#PhoenN_30"><sup>[30]</sup></a> I heard it formerly at home), the
+  race sprung from teeth from the fiery-crested dragon fed on beasts, the
+  proudest honor of Thebes. But to the nuptials of Harmonia the Gods came
+  of old, and by the harp and by the lyre of Amphion uprose the walls of
+  Thebes the tower of the double streams,<a name="Phoen_31"></a><a
+  href="#PhoenN_31"><sup>[31]</sup></a> at the midst of the pass of Dirce,
+  which waters the verdant plain before Ismenus. And Io, our ancient
+  mother, doomed to bear horns, brought forth a line of Theban kings. But
+  this city receiving ten thousand goods one in change for another, hath
+  stood in the highest chaplets of war.</p>
+
+<p class="center">TIRESIAS (<i>led by his daughter</i>), MEN&#338;CEUS, CREON, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>TIR. Lead onward, my daughter, since thou art an eye to my blind
+  steps, as the star to the mariners. Placing my steps hither on this level
+  plain, proceed lest we stumble; thy father is feeble; and preserve
+  carefully in thy virgin hand my calculations which I took, having learned
+  the auguries of the birds, sitting in the sacred seats where I fortell
+  the future. My child, Men&#339;ceus, son of Creon, tell me, how far is
+  the remainder of the journey through the city to thy father? Since my
+  knees are weary, and with difficulty I accomplish such a long
+  journey.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. Be of good cheer; for thou hast steered thy foot, Tiresias, near
+  to thy friends; but take hold of him, my son. Since every chariot,<a
+  name="Phoen_32"></a><a href="#PhoenN_32"><sup>[32]</sup></a> and the foot
+  of the aged man is used to expect the assistance of another's hand.</p>
+
+  <p>TIR. Well: I am present; but why didst thou call me with such haste,
+  Creon?</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. We have not as yet forgotten: but recover thy strength, and
+  collect thy breath, having thrown aside the fatigue occasioned by the
+  journey.</p>
+
+  <p>TIR. I am relaxed indeed<a name="Phoen_32a"></a><a
+  href="#PhoenN_32a"><sup>[32a]</sup></a> with toil, brought hither from
+  the Athenians the day before this. For there also was a contest of the
+  spear with Eumolpus, where I made the descendants of Cecrops splendid
+  conquerors. And I wear this golden chaplet, as thou seest, having
+  received the first-fruits of the spoil of the enemy.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. Thy victorious garlands I make a happy omen. For we, as thou well
+  knowest, are tossing in a storm of war with the Greeks, and great is the
+  hazard of Thebes. The king Eteocles has therefore gone forth adorned with
+  his armor already to battle with the Argives. But to me has he sent that
+  I might learn from you, by doing what we should be most likely to
+  preserve the city.</p>
+
+  <p>TRE. For Eteocles' sake indeed I would have stopped my mouth, and
+  repressed the oracles, but to thee, since thou desirest to know them,
+  will I declare them: for this land labors under the malady of old, O
+  Creon, from the time when La�us became the father of children in spite of
+  the Gods, and begat the wretched &#338;dipus, a husband for his mother.
+  But the cruel lacerations of his eyes were in the wisdom of the Gods, and
+  a warning to Greece. Which things the sons of &#338;dipus seeking to
+  conceal among themselves by the lapse of time, as about forsooth to
+  escape from the Gods, erred through their ignorance, for they neither
+  giving the honor due to their father, nor allowing him a free liberty,
+  infuriated the unfortunate man: and he breathed out against them dreadful
+  threats, being both in affliction, and moreover dishonored. And I, what
+  things omitting to do, and what words omitting to speak on the subject,
+  have nevertheless fallen into the hatred of the sons of &#338;dipus? But
+  death from their mutual hands is near them, O Creon. And many corses
+  fallen around corses, having mingled the weapons of Argos and Thebes,
+  shall cause bitter lamentations to the Theban land. And thou, O wretched
+  city, art sapped from thy foundations, unless men will obey my words. For
+  this were the first thing, that not any of the family of &#338;dipus
+  should be citizens, nor king of the territory, inasmuch as they are
+  possessed by demons, and are they that will overthrow the city. And since
+  the evil triumphs over the good, there is one other thing requisite to
+  insure preservation. But, as this is neither safe for me to say, and
+  distressing to those on whom the lot has fallen, to give to the city the
+  balm of preservation, I will depart: farewell; for being an individual
+  with many shall I suffer what is about to happen if it must be so; for
+  what can I do!<a name="Phoen_33"></a><a
+  href="#PhoenN_33"><sup>[33]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>CRE. Stay here, old man.</p>
+
+  <p>TIR. Lay not hold upon me.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. Remain; why dost thou fly me?</p>
+
+  <p>TIR. Thy fortune flies thee, but not I.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. Tell me the means of preserving the citizens and their city.</p>
+
+  <p>TRE. Thou wishest now indeed, and soon thou wilt not wish.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. And how am I not willing to preserve my country?</p>
+
+  <p>TIR. Art thou willing then to hear, and art thou eager?</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. For toward what ought I to have a greater eagerness?</p>
+
+  <p>TIR. Hear now then my prophecies.&mdash;But this first I wish to
+  ascertain clearly, where is Men&#339;ceus who brought me hither.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. He is not far off, but close to thee.</p>
+
+  <p>TIR. Let him depart then afar from my oracles.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. He that is my son will keep secret what ought to be kept
+  secret.</p>
+
+  <p>TIR. Art thou willing then that I speak in his presence?</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. <i>Yes</i>: for he would be delighted to hear of the means of
+  preservation.</p>
+
+  <p>TIR. Hear now then the tenor of my oracles; what things doing ye may
+  preserve the city of the Cadmeans. It is necessary for thee to sacrifice
+  this thy son Men&#339;ceus for the country, since thou thyself callest
+  for this fortune.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. What sayest thou, what word is this thou hast spoken, old
+  man?</p>
+
+  <p>TIR. As circumstances are, thus also oughtest thou to act.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. O thou, that hast said many evils in a short time!</p>
+
+  <p>TIR. To thee at least; but to thy country great and salutary.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. I heard not, I attended not; let the city go where it will.</p>
+
+  <p>TIR. This is no longer the same man; he retracts again what he
+  said.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. Farewell! depart; for I have no need of thy prophecies.</p>
+
+  <p>TIR. Has truth perished, because thou art unfortunate?</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. By thy knees I implore thee, and by thy reverend locks.</p>
+
+  <p>TIR. Why kneel to me? the evils thou askest are hard to be controlled.
+  (Note <a name="Phoen_E"></a><a href="#PhoenN_E">[E]</a>.)</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. Keep it secret; and speak not these words to the city.</p>
+
+  <p>TIR. Dost thou command me to be unjust? I can not be silent.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. What then wilt thou do to me? Wilt thou slay my son?</p>
+
+  <p>TIR. These things will be a care to others; but by me will it be
+  spoken.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. But from whence has this evil come to me, and to my child?</p>
+
+  <p>TIR. Well dost thou ask me, and comest to the drift of my discourse.
+  It is necessary that he, stabbed in that cave where the earth-born dragon
+  lay, the guardian of Dirce's fountain, give his gory blood a libation to
+  the earth on account of the ancient wrath of Mars against Cadmus, who
+  avenges the slaughter of the earth-born dragon; and these things done, ye
+  shall obtain Mars as your ally. But if the earth receive fruit in return
+  for fruit, and mortal blood in return for blood, ye shall have that land
+  propitious, which formerly sent forth a crop of men from seed armed with
+  golden helmets; but there must of this race die one, who is the son of
+  the dragon's jaw. But thou art left among us of the race of those sown
+  men, pure in thy descent, both by thy mother's side and in the male line;
+  and thy children too: H�mon's marriage however precludes his being slain,
+  for he is not a youth, [for, although he has not approached her bed, he
+  has yet contracted the marriage.] But this youth, devoted to this city,
+  by dying may preserve his native country. And he will cause a bitter
+  return to Adrastus and the Argives, casting back death over their eyes,
+  and Thebes will he make illustrious: of these two fates choose the one;
+  either preserve thy child or the state. Every information from me thou
+  hast:&mdash;lead me, my child, toward home;&mdash;but whoever exercises
+  the art of divination, is a fool; if indeed he chance to show
+  disagreeable things, he is rendered hateful to those to whom he may
+  prophesy; but speaking falsely to his employers from motives of pity, he
+  is unjust as touching the Gods.&mdash;Ph&#339;bus alone should speak in
+  oracles to men, who fears nobody.</p>
+
+<p class="center">CREON, MEN&#338;CEUS, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Creon, why art thou mute compressing thy voice in silence, for
+  to me also there is no less consternation.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. But what can one say?&mdash;It is clear however what my answer
+  will be. For never will I go to this degree of calamity, to expose my son
+  a victim for the state. For all men live with an affection toward their
+  children, nor would any give up his own child to die. Let no one praise
+  me for the deed, and slay my children. But I myself, for I am arrived at
+  a mature period of life, am ready to die to liberate my country. But
+  haste, my son, before the whole city hears it, disregarding the
+  intemperate oracles of prophets, fly as quickly as possible, having
+  quitted this land. For he will tell these things to the authorities and
+  chiefs, going to the seven gates, and to the officers: and if indeed we
+  get before him, there is safety for thee, but if thou art too late, we
+  are undone, thou diest.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. Whither then fly? To what city? what friends?</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. Wheresoever thou wilt be farthest removed from this country.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. Therefore it is fitting for thee to speak, and for me to do.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. Having passed through Delphi&mdash;</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. Whither is it right for me to go, my father?</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. To the land of �tolia.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. And from this whither shall I proceed?</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. To Thesprotia's soil.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. To the sacred seat of Dodona?</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. Thou understandest.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. What then will there be to protect me?</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. The conducting deity.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. But what means of procuring money?</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. I will supply gold.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. Thou sayest well, my father. Go then, for having proceeded to
+  salute<a name="Phoen_34"></a><a href="#PhoenN_34"><sup>[34]</sup></a> thy
+  sister, whose breast I first sucked, Jocasta I mean, deprived of my
+  mother, and reft from her, an orphan, I will depart and save my life. But
+  haste, go, let not thy purpose be hindered.</p>
+
+<p class="center">MEN&#338;CEUS, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. Ye females, how well removed I my father's fears, having deceived
+  him with words, in order to gain my wishes; who sends me out of the way,
+  depriving the city of its good fortune, and gives me up to cowardice. And
+  these things are pardonable indeed in an old man, but in my case it
+  deserves no pardon to become the deserter of that country which gave me
+  birth. That ye may know then, I will go, and preserve the city, and will
+  give up my life for this land. For it is a disgraceful thing, that those
+  indeed who are free from the oracle, and are not concerned with any
+  compulsion of the Gods, standing at their shields in battle, shall not be
+  slow to die fighting before the towers for their country; and I, having
+  betrayed my father, and my brother, and my own city, shall depart
+  coward-like from out of the land; but wherever I live, I shall appear
+  vile. No: by that Jove that dwelleth amidst the constellations, and
+  sanguinary Mars, who set up those sown men, who erst sprung from the
+  earth, to be kings of this country. But I will depart, and standing on
+  the summit of the battlements, stabbing myself over the dark deep lair of
+  the dragon, where the prophet appointed, will give liberty to the
+  country&mdash;the word has been spoken. But I go, by my death about to
+  give no mean gift to the state, and will rid this land of its affliction.
+  For if every one, seizing what opportunity he had in his power of doing
+  good, would persist in it, and bring it forward for his country's weal,
+  states, experiencing fewer calamities, henceforward might be
+  prosperous.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Thou camest forth, thou camest forth, O winged monster,
+  production of the earth, and the viper of hell, the ravager of the
+  Cadmeans, big with destruction, big with woes, in form half-virgin, a
+  hostile prodigy, with thy ravening wings, and thy talons that preyed on
+  raw flesh, who erst from Dirce's spot bearing aloft the youths,
+  accompanied by an inharmonious lay, thou broughtest, thou broughtest
+  cruel woes to our country; cruel was he of the Gods, whoever was the
+  author of these things. And the moans of the matrons, and the moans of
+  the virgins, resounded in the house, in a voice, in a strain of misery,
+  they lamented some one thing, some another, in succession through the
+  city. And the groaning and the noise was like to thunder, when the winged
+  virgin bore out of sight any man from the city. But at length came by the
+  mission of the Pythian oracle &#338;dipus the unhappy to this land of
+  Thebes, to us then indeed delighted, but again came woes. For he,
+  wretched man, having gained the glorious victory over the enigmas,
+  contracts a marriage, an unfortunate marriage with his mother, and
+  pollutes the city. And fresh woes does the unfortunate man cause to
+  succeed with slaughter, devoting by curses his sons to the unhallowed
+  contest.&mdash;With admiration, with admiration we look on him, who is
+  gone to kill himself for the sake of his country's land; to Creon indeed
+  having left lamentations, but about to make the seven-towered gates of
+  the land greatly victorious. Thus may we be mothers, thus may we be blest
+  in our children, O dear Pallas, who destroyedst the blood of the dragon
+  by the hurled stone, driving the attention of Cadmus to the action,
+  whence with rapine some fiend of the Gods rushed on this land.</p>
+
+<p class="center">MESSENGER, JOCASTA, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. Ho there! who is at the gate of the palace? Open, conduct
+  Jocasta from out of the house.&mdash;What ho! again&mdash;after a long
+  time indeed, but yet come forth, hear, O renowned wife of &#338;dipus,
+  ceasing from thy lamentations, and thy tears of grief.</p>
+
+  <p>JOC. O most dear man, surely thou comest bearing the news of some
+  calamity, of the death of Eteocles, by whose shield thou always didst go,
+  warding off the weapons of the enemy. What new message, I pray, dost thou
+  come to deliver? Is my son dead or alive? Tell me.</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. He lives, be not alarmed for this, for I will rid thee of this
+  fear.</p>
+
+  <p>JOC. But what? In what state are our seven-towered ramparts?</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. They stand unshaken, nor is the city destroyed.</p>
+
+  <p>JOC. Come they in danger from the spear of Argos?</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. To the very extreme of danger; but the arms of Thebes came off
+  superior to the Mycen�an spear.</p>
+
+  <p>JOC. Tell me one thing, by the Gods, whether thou knowest any thing of
+  Polynices (since this is a concern to me also) whether he sees the
+  light.</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. Thus far in the day thy pair of children lives.</p>
+
+  <p>JOC. Be thou blest. But how did ye stationed on the towers drive off
+  the spear of Argos from the gates? Tell me, that I may go and delight the
+  old blind man in the house with the news of his country's being
+  preserved.</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. After that the son of Creon, he that died for the land, standing
+  on the summit of the towers, plunged the black-handled sword into his
+  throat, the salvation of this land, thy son placed seven cohorts, and
+  their leaders with them, at the seven gates, guards against the Argive
+  spear; and he drew up the horse ready to support the horse, and the
+  heavy-armed men to reinforce the shield-bearers, so that to the part of
+  the wall which was in danger there might be succor at hand. But from the
+  lofty citadel we view the army of the Argives with their white shields,
+  having quitted Tumessus and now come near the trench, at full speed they
+  reached the city of the land of Cadmus. And the p�an and the trumpets at
+  the same time from them resounded, and off the walls from us. And first
+  indeed Parthenop�us the son of the huntress (<i>Atalanta</i>) led his
+  division horrent with their thick shields against the Ne�tan<a
+  name="Phoen_35"></a><a href="#PhoenN_35"><sup>[35]</sup></a> gate, having
+  a family device in the middle of his shield, Atalanta destroying the
+  �tolian boar with her distant-wounding bow. And against the Pr�tan gate
+  marched the prophet Amphiara�s, having victims in his car, not bearing an
+  insolent emblem, but modestly having his arms without a device. But
+  against the Ogygian gate stood Prince Hippomedon, bearing an emblem in
+  the middle of his shield, the Argus gazing with his spangled<a
+  name="Phoen_36"></a><a href="#PhoenN_36"><sup>[36]</sup></a> eyes, [some
+  eyes indeed with the rising of the stars awake,<a name="Phoen_37"></a><a
+  href="#PhoenN_37"><sup>[37]</sup></a> and some with the setting closed,
+  as we had the opportunity of seeing afterward when he was dead.] But
+  Tydeus was drawn up at the Homolo�an gate, having on his shield a lion's
+  skin rough with his mane, but in his right hand he bore a torch, as the
+  Titan Prometheus,<a name="Phoen_38"></a><a
+  href="#PhoenN_38"><sup>[38]</sup></a> intent on firing the city. But thy
+  son Polynices drew up his array at the Crenean gate; but the swift
+  Potnian mares, the emblem on his shield, were starting through fright,
+  well circularly<a name="Phoen_39"></a><a
+  href="#PhoenN_39"><sup>[39]</sup></a> grouped within <i>the orb</i> at
+  the handle of the shield, so that they seemed infuriated. But Capaneus,
+  not holding less notions than Mars on the approaching battle, drew up his
+  division against the Electran gate. Upon the iron embossments of his
+  shield was an earth-born giant bearing upon his shoulders a whole city,
+  which he had torn up from the foundations with bars, an intimation to us
+  what our city should suffer. But at the seventh gate was Adrastus, having
+  his shield filled with a hundred vipers, bearing on his left arm a
+  representation of the hydra, the boast of Argos, and from the midst of
+  the walls the dragons were bearing the children of the Thebans in their
+  jaws. But I had the opportunity of seeing each of these, as I took the
+  word of battle to the leaders of the divisions. And first indeed we
+  fought with bows, and javelins, and distant-wounding slings, and
+  fragments of rocks; but when we were conquering in the fight, Tydeus
+  shouted out, and thy son on a sudden, "O sons of the Dana�, why delay we,
+  ere we are galled with their missile weapons, to make a rush at the gates
+  all in a body, light-armed men, horsemen, and those who drive the
+  chariots?" And when they heard the cry, no one was backward; but many
+  fell, their heads besmeared with blood; of us also you might have seen
+  before the walls frequent divers toppling to the ground; and they
+  moistened the parched earth with streams of blood. But the Arcadian, no
+  Argive, the son of Atalanta, as some whirlwind falling on the gates,
+  calls out for fire and a spade, as though he would dig up the city. But
+  Periclymenus the son of the God of the Ocean stopped him in his raging,
+  hurling at his head a stone, a wagon-load, a pinnacle<a
+  name="Phoen_40"></a><a href="#PhoenN_40"><sup>[40]</sup></a> <i>rent</i>
+  from the battlement; and dashed in pieces his head with its auburn hair,
+  and crushed the suture of the bones, and besmeared with blood his lately
+  blooming cheeks; nor shall he carry back his living form to his mother,
+  glorious in her bow, the daughter of M�nalus. But when thy son saw this
+  gate was in a state of safety, he went to another, and I followed. But I
+  see Tydeus, and many armed with shields around him, darting with their
+  �tolian lances at the highest battlements of the towers, so that our men
+  put to flight quitted the heights of the ramparts; but thy son, as a
+  hunter, collects them together again; and posted them a second time on
+  the towers; and we hasten on to another gate, having relieved the
+  distress in this quarter. But Capaneus, how can I express the measure of
+  his rage! For he came bearing the ranges of a long-reaching ladder, and
+  made this high boast, "That not even the hallowed fire of Jove should
+  hinder him from taking the city from its highest turrets." And these
+  things soon as he had proclaimed, though assailed with stones, he
+  clambered up, having contracted his body under his shield, climbing the
+  slippery footing of the bars<a name="Phoen_41"></a><a
+  href="#PhoenN_41"><sup>[41]</sup></a> of the ladder: but when he was now
+  mounting the battlements of the walls Jupiter strikes him with his
+  thunder; and the earth resounded, insomuch that all trembled; and his
+  limbs were hurled, as it were by a sling, from the ladder separately from
+  one another, his hair to heaven, and his blood to the ground, and his
+  limbs, like the whirling of Ixion on his wheel, were carried round; and
+  his scorched body falls to the earth. But when Adrastus saw that Jove was
+  hostile to his army, he stationed the host of the Argives without the
+  trench. But ours on the contrary, when they saw the auspicious sign from
+  Jove, drove out their chariots, horsemen and heavy-armed, and rushing
+  into the midst of the Argive arms engaged in fight: and there were all
+  the sorts of misery together: they died, they fell from their chariots,
+  and the wheels leaped up and axles upon axles: and corses were heaped
+  together with corses.&mdash;We have preserved then our towers from being
+  overthrown to this present day; but whether for the future this land will
+  be prosperous, rests with the Gods.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. To conquer is glorious; but if the Gods have the better intent,
+  may I be fortunate!</p>
+
+  <p>JOC. Well are the ways of the Gods, and of fortune; for my children
+  live, and my country has escaped; but the unhappy Creon seems to feel the
+  effects of my marriage, and of &#338;dipus's misfortunes, being deprived
+  of his child; for the state indeed, happily, but individually, to his
+  misery: but recount to me again, what after this did my two sons purpose
+  to do?</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. Forbear the rest; for in every circumstance hitherto thou art
+  fortunate.</p>
+
+  <p>JOC. This hast thou said so as to raise suspicion; I must not
+  forbear.</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. Dost thou want any thing more than that thy sons are safe?</p>
+
+  <p>JOC. In what follows also I would hear if I am fortunate.</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. Let me go: thy son is deprived of his armor-bearer.</p>
+
+  <p>JOC. Thou concealest some ill and coverest it in obscurity.</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. I can not speak thy ills after thy happiness.</p>
+
+  <p>JOC. <i>But thou shalt</i>, unless fleeing from me thou fleest through
+  the air.</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. Alas! alas! Why dost thou not suffer me to depart after a
+  message of glad tidings, but forcest me to tell calamities?&mdash;Thy
+  sons are intent on most shameful deeds of boldness&mdash;to engage in
+  single combat apart from the whole army, having addressed to the Argives
+  and Thebans in common a speech, such as they never ought to have spoken.
+  But Eteocles began, standing on the lofty turret, having commanded to
+  proclaim silence to the army. And he said, "O generals of the Grecian
+  land, and chieftains of the Dana�, who have come hither, and O people of
+  Cadmus, neither for the sake of Polynices barter your lives, nor for my
+  cause. For I myself, taking this danger on myself, alone will enter the
+  lists with my brother; and if indeed I slay him, I will dwell in the
+  palace alone; but should I be subdued, I will give it up to him alone.
+  But you, ceasing from the combat, O Argives, shall return to your land,
+  not leaving your lives here; [of the Theban people also there is enough
+  that lieth dead,"] Thus much he spake; but thy son Polynices rushed from
+  the ranks, and approved his words. But all the Argives murmured their
+  applause, and the people of Cadmus, as thinking this plan just. And after
+  this the generals made a truce, and in the space between the two armies
+  pledged an oath to abide by it. And now the two sons of the aged
+  &#338;dipus clad their bodies in an entire suit of brazen armor. And
+  their friends adorned them, the champion of this land indeed the
+  chieftains of the Thebans; and him the principal men of the Dana�. And
+  they stood resplendent, and they changed not their color, raging to let
+  forth their spears at each other. But their friends on either side as
+  they passed by encouraging them with words, thus spoke. "Polynices, it
+  rests with thee to erect the statue of Jove, emblem of victory, and to
+  confer a glorious fame on Argos." But to Eteocles on the other hand; "Now
+  thou fightest for the state, now if thou come off victorious, thou art in
+  possession of the sceptre." These things they said exhorting them to the
+  combat. But the seers sacrificed the sheep, and scrutinized the shooting
+  of the flames, and the bursting <i>of the gall</i>, the moisture
+  adverse<a name="Phoen_42"></a><a href="#PhoenN_42"><sup>[42]</sup></a>
+  <i>to the fire</i>, and the extremity of the flame, which bears a
+  two-fold import, both the sign of victory,<a name="Phoen_43"></a><a
+  href="#PhoenN_43"><sup>[43]</sup></a> and the sign of being defeated.<a
+  name="Phoen_44"></a><a href="#PhoenN_44"><sup>[44]</sup></a> But if thou
+  hast any power, or words of wisdom, or the soothing charms of
+  incantation, go, stay thy children from the fearful combat, since great
+  the danger, [and dreadful will be the sequel of the contest,
+  <i>namely</i>, tears for thee, deprived this day of thy two
+  children.]</p>
+
+  <p>JOC. O my child, Antigone, come forth from before the palace; the
+  state of thy fortune suits not now the dance, nor the virgin's chamber,
+  but it is thy duty, in conjunction with thy mother, to hinder two
+  excellent men, and thy brothers verging toward death from falling by each
+  other's hands.</p>
+
+<p class="center">ANTIGONE, JOCASTA, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. With what new horrors, O mother of my being, dost thou call out
+  to thy friends before the house?</p>
+
+  <p>JOC. O my daughter, the life of thy brothers is gone from them.</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. How sayest thou?</p>
+
+  <p>JOC. They are drawn out in single combat.</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. Alas me! what wilt thou say, my mother?</p>
+
+  <p>JOC. Nothing of pleasant import; but follow.</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. Whither? leaving my virgin chamber.</p>
+
+  <p>JOC. To the army.</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. I am ashamed to go among the crowd.</p>
+
+  <p>JOC. Thy present state admits not bashfulness.</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. But what shall I do then?</p>
+
+  <p>JOC. Thou shalt quell the strife of the brothers.</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. Doing what, my mother.</p>
+
+  <p>JOC. Falling before them with me.</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. Lead to the space between the armies; we must not delay.</p>
+
+  <p>JOC. Haste, daughter, haste, since, if indeed I reach my sons before
+  they engage, I still exist in heaven's fair light, but if they die, I
+  shall lie dead with them.</p>
+
+<p class="center">CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>Alas! alas! shuddering with horror, shuddering is my breast; and
+  through my flesh came pity, pity for the unhappy mother, on account of
+  her two children, whether of them then will distain with blood the other
+  (alas me for my sufferings, O Jove, O earth), the own brother's neck, the
+  own brother's life, in arms, in slaughter? Wretched, wretched I, over
+  which corse then shall I raise the lamentation for the dead? O earth,
+  earth, the two beasts of prey, blood-thirsty souls, brandishing the
+  spear, will quickly distain with blood the fallen, fallen enemy.
+  Wretches, that they ever came to the thought of a single combat! In a
+  foreign strain will I mourn with tears my elegy of groans due to the
+  dead. Destiny is at hand&mdash;death is near; this day will decide the
+  event. Ill-fated, ill-fated murder because of the Furies! But I see Creon
+  here with clouded brow advancing toward the house, I will cease therefore
+  from the groans I am uttering.</p>
+
+<p class="center">CREON, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. Ah me! what shall I do? whether am I to groan in weeping myself,
+  or the city, which a cloud of such magnitude encircles as to cast us
+  amidst the gloom of Acheron? For my son has perished having died for the
+  city, having achieved a glorious name, but to me a name of sorrow. Him
+  having taken just now from the dragon's den, stabbed by his own hand, I
+  wretched bore in my arms; and the whole house resounds with shrieks; but
+  I, myself aged, am come after my aged sister Jocasta, that she may wash
+  and lay out my son now no more. For it behooves the living well to revere
+  the God below by paying honors to the dead.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Thy sister is gone out of the house, O Creon, and the girl
+  Antigone attending the steps of her mother.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. Whither? and for what hap? tell me.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. She heard that her sons were about to come to a contest in
+  single battle for the royal palace.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. How sayest thou? whilst I was fondly attending to my son's corse,
+  I arrived not so far <i>in knowledge</i>, as to be acquainted with this
+  also.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. But thy sister has indeed been gone some time; but I think, O
+  Creon, that the contest, in which their lives are at stake, has already
+  been concluded by the sons of &#338;dipus.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. Ah me! I see indeed this signal, the downcast eye and countenance
+  of the approaching messenger, who will relate every thing that has taken
+  place.</p>
+
+<p class="center">MESSENGER, CREON, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. O wretched me! what language or what words can I utter? we are
+  undone&mdash;</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. Thou beginnest thy speech with no promising prelude.</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. Oh wretched me! doubly do I lament, for I hear great
+  calamities.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. In addition to the calamities that have happened dost thou still
+  speak of others?</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. Thy sister's sons, O Creon, no longer behold the light.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. Ah! alas! thou utterest great ills to me and to the state.</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. O mansions of &#338;dipus, do ye hear these things of thy
+  children who have perished by similar fates?</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Ay, so that, had they but sense, they would weep.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. O most heavy misery! Oh me wretched with woes! alas! unhappy
+  me!</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. If that thou knewest the evils yet in addition to these.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. And how can there be more fatal ills than these?</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. Thy sister is dead with her two children.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Raise, raise the cry of woe, and smite your heads with the blows
+  of your white hands.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. Oh unhappy Jocasta, what an end of thy life and of thy marriage
+  hast thou endured in the riddles of the Sphinx!<a name="Phoen_45"></a><a
+  href="#PhoenN_45"><sup>[45]</sup></a> But how took place the slaughter of
+  her two sons, and the combat arising from the curse of &#338;dipus? tell
+  me.</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. The success of the country before the towers indeed thou
+  knowest; for the circuit of the wall is not of such vast extent, but that
+  thou must know all that has taken place. But after that the sons of the
+  aged &#338;dipus had clad their limbs in brazen armor, they came and
+  stood in the midst of the plain between the two armies, ready for the
+  contest, and the fierceness of the single battle. And having cast a look
+  toward Argos, Polynices uttered his prayer; "O venerable Juno (for I am
+  thine, since in marriage I joined myself with the daughter of Adrastus,
+  and dwell in that land), grant me to slay my brother, and to cover with
+  blood my hostile hand bearing the victory." And Eteocles looking at the
+  temple of Pallas, glorious in her golden shield, prayed; "O Daughter of
+  Jove, grant me with my hand to hurl my victorious spear from this arm
+  home to the breast of my brother, [and slay him who came to lay waste my
+  country."] And when the sound of the Tuscan trumpet was raised, as the
+  torch, the signal for the fierce battle, they sped with dreadful rush
+  toward each other; and like wild boars whetting their savage tusks, they
+  met, their cheeks all moist with foam; and they rushed forward with their
+  lances; but they couched beneath the orbs of their shields, in order that
+  the steel might fall harmless. But if either perceived the other's eye
+  raised above the verge, he drove the lance at his face, intent to be
+  beforehand with him: but dexterously they shifted their eyes to the open
+  ornaments of their shields, so that the spear was made of none effect.
+  And more sweat trickled down the spectators than the combatants, through
+  the fear of their friends. But Eteocles, stumbling with his foot against
+  a stone, which rolled under his tread,<a name="Phoen_46"></a><a
+  href="#PhoenN_46"><sup>[46]</sup></a> places his limb without the shield.
+  But Polynices ran up with his spear, when he saw a stroke open to his
+  steel, and the Argive spear passed through the shank. And all the host of
+  the Dana� shouted for joy. And the hero who first was wounded, when he
+  perceived his shoulder exposed in this effort, pierced the breast of
+  Polynices with his lance, and gave joy to the citizens of Cadmus, but he
+  broke the point of his spear. But being come to a strait for a spear, he
+  retreated backward on his leg, and taking a stone of marble, he hurled it
+  and crashed <i>his antagonist's</i> spear in the middle: and the battle
+  was on equal terms, both being deprived of the spear in their hands. Then
+  seizing the handles of their swords they met at close quarters, and, as
+  they clashed their shields together, raised a great tumult of battle
+  around them. And Eteocles having a sort of idea of its success, made use
+  of a Thessalian stratagem, <i>which he had learned</i> from his
+  connection with that country. For giving up his present mode of attack,
+  he brings his left foot behind, protecting well the pit of his own
+  stomach; and stepping forward his right leg, he plunged the sword through
+  the navel, and drove it to the vertebr�. But the unhappy Polynices
+  bending together his side and his bowels falls weltering in blood. But
+  the other, as he were now the victor, and had subdued him in the fight,
+  casting his sword on the ground, went to spoil him, not fixing his
+  attention on himself, but on that his purpose. Which thing also deceived
+  him; for Polynices, he that fell first, still breathing a little,
+  preserving his sword e'en in his deathly fall, with difficulty indeed,
+  but he did stretch his sword to the heart of Eteocles. And holding the
+  dust in their gripe they both fall near one another, and determined not
+  the victory.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Alas! alas! to what degree, O &#338;dipus, do I groan for thy
+  misfortunes! but the God seems to have fulfilled thy imprecations.</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. Hear now then woes even in addition to these&mdash;For when her
+  sons having fallen were breathing their last, at this moment the wretched
+  mother rushes before them, and when she perceived them stricken with
+  mortal wounds she shrieked out, "Oh my sons, I am come too late a
+  succor:" and throwing herself by the side of her children in turn, she
+  wept, she lamented with moans her long anxiety in suckling them <i>now
+  lost</i>: and their sister, who accompanied to stand by her in her
+  misery, at the same time <i>broke forth</i>; "O supporters of my mother's
+  age! Oh ye that have betrayed my hopes of marriage, my dearest
+  brothers!"&mdash;But king Eteocles heaving from his breast his gasping
+  breath, heard his mother, and putting out his cold clammy hand, sent not
+  forth indeed a voice; but from his eyes spoke her in tears to signify
+  affection. But Polynices, who yet breathed, looking at his sister and his
+  aged mother, thus spoke: "We perish, O my mother; but I grieve for thee,
+  and for this my sister, and my brother who lies dead, for being my
+  friend, he became my enemy, but still my friend.&mdash;But bury me, O
+  mother of my being, and thou my sister, in my native land, and pacify the
+  exasperated city, that I may obtain thus much at least of my country's
+  land, although I have lost the palace. And close my eyelids with thy
+  hand, my mother" (and he places it himself upon his eyes), "and fare ye
+  well! for now darkness surroundeth me." And both breathed out their lives
+  together. And the mother, when she saw what had taken place, beyond
+  endurance grieving, snatched the sword from the dead body, and
+  perpetrated a deed of horror; for she drove the steel through the middle
+  of her throat, and lies dead on those most dear to her, having each in
+  her arms embraced. But the people rose up hastily to a strife of
+  opinions; we indeed, as holding, that my master was victorious; but they,
+  that the other was; and there was also a contention between the generals,
+  those on the other side <i>contended</i>, that Polynices first struck
+  with the spear, but those on ours that there was no victory where the
+  combatants died. [And in the mean time Antigone withdrew from the army;]
+  but they rushed to arms; but fortunately by a sort of foresight the
+  people of Cadmus had sat upon their shields: and we gained the advantage
+  of falling on the Argives not yet accoutred in their arms. And no one
+  made a stand, but flying they covered the plain; and immense quantities
+  of blood were spilt of the corses that fell, but when we were victorious
+  in the fight, some indeed raised the image of Jove emblem of victory, but
+  some of us stripping the shields from the Argive corses sent the spoils
+  within the city. But others with Antigone are bearing hither the dead for
+  their friends to lament over. But these contests have in some respect
+  turned out most happy for this state, but in other respect most
+  unhappy.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. No longer the misfortunes of the house come to our ears, we may
+  also see before the palace these three fallen corses, who have shared the
+  dark realms by a united death.</p>
+
+<p class="center">[<i>The dead bodies borne</i>.]</p>
+
+<p class="center">ANTIGONE, CREON, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. Not veiling the softness of my cheek on which my ringlets fall,
+  nor caring for the purple glow of virginity under my lids, the blush of
+  my countenance, I am borne along the bacchanal of the dead, rending the
+  fillet from my hair, rejecting the saffron robe of delicateness, having
+  the mournful office of conducting the dead. Alas! alas! woe is me! Oh
+  Polynices, thou well answeredst to thy name! Alas me! Oh Thebes! but thy
+  strife, no strife, but murder consummated with murder,<a
+  name="Phoen_47"></a><a href="#PhoenN_47"><sup>[47]</sup></a> hath
+  destroyed the house of &#338;dipus with dreadful, with mournful blood.
+  But what groan responsive to my sufferings, or what lament of music shall
+  I invoke to my tears, to my tears, O house, O house, bearing these three
+  kindred bodies, my mother, and her children, the joy of the fury? who
+  destroyed the entire house of &#338;dipus, what time intelligently<a
+  name="Phoen_48"></a><a href="#PhoenN_48"><sup>[48]</sup></a> he unfolded
+  the difficult song of the fierce monster, having thereby slain the body
+  of the fierce musical Sphinx. Alas me! my father; what Grecian, or what
+  Barbarian, or what other of the noble in birth, of mortal blood, in time
+  of old ever bore such manifest sufferings of so many ills? Wretched I,
+  how do I lament! What bird, sitting on the highest boughs of the oak or
+  pine, will sing responsive to my lamentations, who have lost my mother?
+  who weep the strain of grief in addition to these moans <i>for my
+  brothers</i>, about to pass my long life in floods of tears.&mdash;Which
+  shall I bewail? On which first shall I scatter the first offerings rent
+  from my hair? On my mother's two breasts of milk, or upon the
+  death-wounds of my two brothers? Alas! alas! Leave thine house, bringing
+  thy sightless eye, O aged father, &#338;dipus, show thy wretched age, who
+  within thy palace having poured the gloomy darkness over thine eyes,
+  draggest on a long<a name="Phoen_49"></a><a
+  href="#PhoenN_49"><sup>[49]</sup></a> life. Dost thou hear wandering in
+  the hall,&mdash;resting thy aged foot upon the couch in a state of
+  misery?</p>
+
+<p class="center">&#338;DIPUS, CREON, ANTIGONE, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>&#338;D. Why, O virgin, hast thou with the most doleful tears called
+  me forth leaning on the support of a blind foot<a name="Phoen_50"></a><a
+  href="#PhoenN_50"><sup>[50]</sup></a> to the light, a bed-ridden man from
+  his darksome chamber, gray-headed, an obscure phantom of air&mdash;a dead
+  body beneath the earth&mdash;a flitting dream?</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. O father, thou shalt receive words of unhappy tidings; no longer
+  do thy children behold the light, nor thy wife, who ever was employed in
+  attending as a staff on thy blind foot, my father: alas me!</p>
+
+  <p>&#338;D. Alas me, for my sufferings! for well may I groan and
+  vociferate these things. The three souls, tell me, my child, by what
+  fate, how quitted they this light?</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. Not for the sake of reproaching thee, nor exulting over thee, but
+  for grief I speak: thy evil genius, heavy with swords, and fire, and
+  wretched combats, has rushed down upon thy children, O my father.</p>
+
+  <p>&#338;D. Alas me! ah! ah!</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. Why dost thou thus groan?</p>
+
+  <p>&#338;D. Alas me! my children!</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. Thou wouldest grieve indeed, if looking on the chariot of the sun
+  drawn by its four steeds, thou couldest direct the sight of thine eyes to
+  these bodies of the dead.</p>
+
+  <p>&#338;D. The evil of my sons indeed is manifest; but my wretched wife,
+  by what fate, O my child, did she perish?</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. Causing to all tears of grief they could not contain, to her
+  children she bared her breast, a suppliant she bared it, holding it up in
+  supplication. But the mother found her children at the Electran gate, in
+  the mead where the lotus abounds, contending with their lances in the
+  common war, as lions bred in the same cave, with the blood-wounds now a
+  cold, a gory libation, which Plato received, and Mars gave. And having
+  seized the brazen-wrought sword from the dead she plunged it into her
+  flesh, but with grief for her children she fell amidst her children. But
+  all these sufferings, O my father, has the God heaped this day upon our
+  house, whoever he be, that adds this consummation.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. This day hath been the beginning of many woes to the house of
+  &#338;dipus; but may life be more fortunate!</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. Now indeed cease from your grief, for it is time to think of the
+  sepulture. But hear these words, O &#338;dipus; Eteocles, thy son, hath
+  given to me the dominion of this land, giving them as a marriage portion
+  to H�mon, and <i>with them</i> the bed of thy daughter Antigone. I
+  therefore will not suffer thee any longer to dwell in this land. For
+  clearly did Tiresias say, that never, whilst thou dost inhabit this land,
+  will the state be prosperous. But depart; and this I say not from
+  insolence, nor being thine enemy, but on account of thy evil genius,
+  fearing lest the country suffer any harm.</p>
+
+  <p>&#338;D. O Fate, from the beginning how wretched [and unhappy] didst
+  thou form me, [if ever other man was formed!] whom, even before I came
+  into the light from my mother's womb, when yet unborn Apollo foretold
+  that I should be the murderer of my father La�us, alas! wretch that I am!
+  And when I was born, again my father who gave me life, seeks to take my
+  life, considering that I was born his enemy: for it was fated that he
+  should die by my hands, and he sends me, poor wretch, as I craved the
+  breast, a prey for the wild beasts: where I was preserved&mdash;for would
+  that Cith�ron, it ought, had sunk to the bottomless chasms of Tartarus,
+  for that it did not destroy me; but the God fixed it my lot to serve
+  under Polybus my master: but I unhappy man, having slain my own father,
+  ascended the bed of my wretched mother, and begat children, my brothers,
+  whom I destroyed, having received down the curse from La�us, and given it
+  to my sons. For I was not by nature so utterly devoid of understanding,
+  as to have devised such things against my eyes, and against the life of
+  my children, without the interference of some of the Gods.
+  Well!&mdash;what then shall I ill-fated do? who will accompany me the
+  guide of my dark steps? She that lies here dead! living, well know I, she
+  would. But my noble pair of sons? I have no sons.&mdash;But still in my
+  vigor can I myself procure my sustenance? Whence?&mdash;Why, O Creon,
+  dost thou thus utterly kill me? for kill me thou wilt, if thou shalt cast
+  me out of the land. Yet will I not appear base, stretching my hands
+  around thy knees, for I can not belie my former nobleness, not even
+  though my plight is miserable.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. Well has it been spoken by thee, that thou wilt not touch my
+  knees, but I can not permit thee to dwell in the land. But of these
+  corses, the one we must even now bear to the house; but the body of
+  Polynices cast out unburied beyond the borders of this land. And these
+  things shall be proclaimed to all the Thebans: "whoever shall be found
+  either crowning the corse, or covering it with earth, shall receive death
+  for his offense." But thou, ceasing from the groans for the three dead,
+  retire, Antigone, within the house, and behave as beseems a virgin,
+  expecting the approaching day in which the bed of H�mon awaits thee.</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. Oh father, in what a state of woes do we miserable beings lie!
+  How do I lament for thee! more than for the dead! For it is not that one
+  of thy ills is heavy, and the other not heavy, but thou art in all things
+  unhappy, my father.&mdash;But thee I ask, our new lord, [wherefore dost
+  thou insult my father here, banishing him from his country?] Why make thy
+  laws against an unhappy corse?</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. The determination of Eteocles this, not mine.</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. It is absurd, and thou a fool to enforce it.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. How so? Is it not just to execute injunctions?</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. No, if they are base, at least, and spoken with ill intent.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. What! will he not with justice be given to the dogs?</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. <i>No</i>, for thus do ye not demand of him lawful justice.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. <i>We do</i>; since he was the enemy of the state, who least
+  ought to be an enemy.</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. Hath he not paid then his life to fortune?</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. And in his burial too let him now satisfy vengeance.</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. What outrage having committed, if he came after his share of the
+  kingdom?</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. This man, that you may know once for all, shall be unburied.</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. I will bury him; even though the city forbid it.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. Thyself then wilt thou at the same time bury near the corse.</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. But that is a glorious thing, for two friends to lie near.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. Lay hold of her, and bear her to the house.</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. By no means&mdash;for I will not let go this body.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. The God has decreed it, O virgin, not as thou wilt.</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. And this too is decreed&mdash;that the dead be not insulted.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. Around him none shall place the moist dust.</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. Nay, by his mother here Jocasta, I entreat thee, Creon.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. Thou laborest in vain, for thou canst not obtain this.</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. But suffer thou me at any rate to bathe the body.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. This would be one of the things forbidden by the state.</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. But let me put bandages round his cruel wounds.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. In no way shalt thou show respect to this corse.</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. Oh most dear, but I will at least kiss thy lips.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. Thou shalt not prepare calamity against thy wedding by thy
+  lamentations.</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. What! while I live shall I ever marry thy son?</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. There is strong necessity for thee, for by what means wilt thou
+  escape the marriage?</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. That night then shall find me one of the Dana�d�.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. Dost mark with what audacity she hath insulted us?</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. The steel be witness, and the sword, by which I swear.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. But why art thou so eager to get rid of this marriage?</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. I will take my flight with my most wretched father here.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. There is nobleness in thee; but there is some degree of
+  folly.</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. And I will die with him too, that thou mayest farther know.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. Go&mdash;thou shalt not slay my son&mdash;quit the land.</p>
+
+<p class="center">&#338;DIPUS, ANTIGONE, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>&#338;D. O daughter, I praise thee indeed for thy zealous
+  intentions.</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. But if I were to marry, and thou suffer banishment alone, my
+  father?</p>
+
+  <p>&#338;D. Stay and be happy; I will bear with content mine own
+  ills.</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. And who will minister to thee, blind as thou art, my father?</p>
+
+  <p>&#338;D. Falling wherever it shall be my fate, I will lie on the
+  ground.</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. But &#338;dipus, where is he? and the renowned Enigmas?</p>
+
+  <p>&#338;D. Perished! one day blest me, and one day destroyed.</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. Ought not I then to have a share in thy woes?</p>
+
+  <p>&#338;D. To a daughter exile with a blind father is shameful.</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. Not to a right-minded one however, but honorable, my father.</p>
+
+  <p>&#338;D. Lead me now onward, that I may touch thy mother.</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. There: touch the aged woman with thy most dear hand.</p>
+
+  <p>&#338;D. O mother! Oh most hapless wife!</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. She doth lie miserable, having all ills at once on her.</p>
+
+  <p>&#338;D. But where is the fallen body of Eteocles, and of
+  Polynices?</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. They lie extended before thee near one another.</p>
+
+  <p>&#338;D. Place my blind hand upon their unhappy faces.</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. There: touch thy dead children with thy hand.</p>
+
+  <p>&#338;D. O ye dear wrecks, unhappy, of an unhappy father.</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. O name of Polynices, most dear indeed to me.</p>
+
+  <p>&#338;D. Now, my child, is the oracle of Apollo come to pass.</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. What? but dost thou mention evils in addition to these evils?</p>
+
+  <p>&#338;D. That I must die an exile at Athens.</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. Where? what citadel of Attica will receive thee?</p>
+
+  <p>&#338;D. The sacred Colonus, and the temple of the Equestrian God. But
+  stay&mdash;minister to thy blind father here, since thou art desirous of
+  sharing his exile.</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. Go to thy wretched banishment: stretch forth thy dear hand, O
+  aged father, having me as thy guide, as the gale that wafts the ship.</p>
+
+  <p>&#338;D. Behold, I go, my child, be thou my unhappy conductor.</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. We are, we are indeed unhappy above all Theban virgins.</p>
+
+  <p>&#338;D. Where shall I place my aged footstep? Bring my staff, my
+  child.</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. This way, this way come; here, here place thy foot, thou that
+  hast the strength of a dream.</p>
+
+  <p>&#338;D. Alas! alas! for my most wretched flight!&mdash;To drive me,
+  old as I am, from my country&mdash;Alas! alas! the dreadful, dreadful
+  things that I have suffered!</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. What suffered! what suffered!<a name="Phoen_51"></a><a
+  href="#PhoenN_51"><sup>[51]</sup></a> Vengeance sees not the wicked, nor
+  repays the foolishness of mortals.</p>
+
+  <p>&#338;D. That man am I, who mounted aloft to the victorious heavenly
+  song, having solved the dark enigma of the virgin Sphinx.</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. Dost thou bring up again the glory of the Sphinx? Forbear from
+  speaking of thy former successes. These wretched sufferings awaited thee,
+  O father, being an exile from thy country to die any where. Leaving with
+  my dear virgins tears for my loss, I depart far from my country,
+  wandering in state not like a virgin's.</p>
+
+  <p>&#338;D. Oh! the excellency of thy mind!</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. In the calamities of a father at least it will make me glorious.
+  Wretched am I, on account of the insults offered to thee and to my
+  brother, who has perished from the family, a corse denied sepulture,
+  unhappy, whom, even if I must die, my father, I will cover with secret
+  earth.</p>
+
+  <p>&#338;D. Go, show thyself to thy companions.</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. They have enough of my lamentations.</p>
+
+  <p>&#338;D. But make thy supplications at the altars.</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. They have a satiety of my woes.</p>
+
+  <p>&#338;D. Go then, where stands the fane of Bacchus unapproached, on
+  the mountains of the M�nades.</p>
+
+  <p>ANT. To whom I formerly, clad in the skin of the Theban fawn, danced
+  the sacred step of Semele on the mountains, conferring a thankless favor
+  on the Gods?</p>
+
+  <p>&#338;D. O ye inhabitants of my illustrious country, behold, I, this
+  &#338;dipus, who alone stayed the violence of the bloodthirsty Sphinx,
+  now, dishonored, forsaken, miserable, am banished from the land. Yet why
+  do I bewail these things, and lament in vain? For the necessity of fate
+  proceeding from the Gods a mortal must endure.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. [O greatly glorious Victory, mayest thou uphold my life, and
+  cease not from crowning me!] (See note <a name="Phoen_H"></a><a
+  href="#PhoenN_H">[H]</a>.)</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h3>NOTES ON THE PH&#338;NICIAN VIRGINS</h3>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+<div class="note">
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_1"></a><a href="#Phoen_1">[1]</a> That is, through the
+  signs of the zodiac: <span lang="el"
+  title="ast�r">&#x3B1;&#x3C3;&#x3C4;&#x3B7;&#x3C1;</span> differs from
+  <span lang="el"
+  title="astron">&#x3B1;&#x3C3;&#x3C4;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span>, the
+  former signifying a single star, the latter many.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_2"></a><a href="#Phoen_2">[2]</a> The preposition
+  <span lang="el" title="syn">&#x3C3;&#x3C5;&#x3BD;</span> is omitted, as
+  in Homer,</p>
+
+  <div class="poem">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <p><span lang="el" title="Aut�i ken gai�i erysaimi.">&#x391;&#x3C5;&#x3C4;&#x3B7;&#x3B9; &#x3BA;&#x3B5;&#x3BD; &#x3B3;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3B7;&#x3B9; &#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3BC;&#x3B9;.</span>&nbsp;</p>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+  <p>The same omission occurs in the Bacch�, <span lang="el"
+  title="aut�isin
+  elatais">&#x3B1;&#x3C5;&#x3C4;&#x3B7;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B5;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;</span>, and again in
+  the Hippolytus. It is an Atticism.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_3"></a><a href="#Phoen_3">[3]</a> See note on Hecuba,
+  478.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_4"></a><a href="#Phoen_4">[4]</a> The word <span
+  lang="el"
+  title="tounoma">&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;</span>
+  must be supplied after <span lang="el"
+  title="touto">&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;</span>, which is
+  implied in the verb <span lang="el"
+  title="kalousin">&#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_5"></a><a href="#Phoen_5">[5]</a> The <span lang="el"
+  title="zaros">&#x3B6;&#x3B1;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span> is a bird of
+  prey of the vulture species. The sphinx was represented as having the
+  face of a woman, the breast and feet of a lion, and the wings of a
+  bird.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_5a"></a><a href="#Phoen_5a">[5a]</a> Dindorf would
+  omit this verse.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_6"></a><a href="#Phoen_6">[6]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="arai">&#x3B1;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;</span> and <span lang="el"
+  title="arasthai">&#x3B1;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3C3;&#x3B8;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;</span>
+  are often used by the poets in a good sense for prayers, <span lang="el"
+  title="euchai">&#x3B5;&#x3C5;&#x3C7;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;</span> and <span
+  lang="el"
+  title="euchesthai">&#x3B5;&#x3C5;&#x3C7;&#x3B5;&#x3C3;&#x3B8;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;</span>
+  for curses and imprecations.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_7"></a><a href="#Phoen_7">[7]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="di�res hyper�on, �
+  klimax">&#x3B4;&#x3B9;&#x3B7;&#x3C1;&#x3B5;&#x3C2;
+  &#x201B;&#x3C5;&#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3C9;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;, &#x3B7;
+  &#x3BA;&#x3BB;&#x3B9;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3BE;</span>. HESYCHIUS.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_8"></a><a href="#Phoen_8">[8]</a> Milton, Par.
+  Regained, b. iii. l. 326.</p>
+
+  <div class="poem">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <p>The field, all iron, cast a gleaming brown.</p>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_9"></a><a href="#Phoen_9">[9]</a> Lerna, a country of
+  Argolis celebrated for a grove and a lake where the Danaides threw the
+  heads of their murdered husbands. It was there also that Hercules killed
+  the famous Hydra.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_10"></a><a href="#Phoen_10">[10]</a> This alludes to
+  the figure of Argus engraved on his shield. See verse 1130.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_11"></a><a href="#Phoen_11">[11]</a> Tydeus married
+  Deipyle, Polynices Argia, both daughters of Adrastus, king of Argos.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_12"></a><a href="#Phoen_12">[12]</a> Some suppose
+  <span lang="el" title="hyster�i
+  podi">&#x201B;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3C9;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3B4;&#x3B9;</span> to mean with their last steps, that
+  is, with steps which are doomed never to return again to their own
+  country.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_13"></a><a href="#Phoen_13">[13]</a> Tri�na was a
+  place in Argolis, where Neptune stuck his trident in the ground, and
+  immediately water sprung up. SCHOL.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_14"></a><a href="#Phoen_14">[14]</a> Amymone was
+  daughter of Danaus and Europa; she was employed, by order of her father,
+  in supplying the city of Argos with water, in a great drought. Neptune
+  saw her in this employment, and was enamored of her. He carried her away,
+  and in the place where she stood he raised a fountain, which has been
+  called Amymone. See Propert. ii. El. 20. v. 47.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_15"></a><a href="#Phoen_15">[15]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="all�las
+  legousin">&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3BB;&#x3B7;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3BB;&#x3B5;&#x3B3;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;</span> is,
+  <i>they say one of another</i>; <span lang="el" title="all�lais
+  legousin">&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3BB;&#x3B7;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3BB;&#x3B5;&#x3B3;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;</span>, <i>they
+  say among themselves</i>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_16"></a><a href="#Phoen_16">[16]</a> By <span
+  lang="el" title="pedi�n
+  akarpist�n">&#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3B4;&#x3B9;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B1;&#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3C1;&#x3C0;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3C4;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;</span>
+  is to be understood the sea. The construction <span lang="el"
+  title="pedi�n perirrhyton
+  Sikelias">&#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3B4;&#x3B9;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3B9;&#x3C1;&#x3C1;&#x3C5;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3A3;&#x3B9;&#x3BA;&#x3B5;&#x3BB;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;&#x3C2;</span>, that is,
+  <span lang="el" title="ha Sikelian perirrhei">&#x201B;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3A3;&#x3B9;&#x3BA;&#x3B5;&#x3BB;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3B9;&#x3C1;&#x3C1;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;</span>. The same
+  construction is found in Sophocles, &#338;d. Tyr. l. 885. <span lang="el"
+  title="dikas aphob�tos">&#x3B4;&#x3B9;&#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B1;&#x3C6;&#x3BF;&#x3B2;&#x3B7;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span>. L. 969.
+  <span lang="el" title="aphaustos
+  enchous">&#x3B1;&#x3C6;&#x3B1;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B5;&#x3B3;&#x3C7;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C2;</span>. See also Horace, Lib.
+  iv. Od. 4. 43.</p>
+
+  <div class="poem">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <p>Ceu flamma per t�das, vel Eurus</p>
+      <p>Per Siculas equitavit undas.</p>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_17"></a><a href="#Phoen_17">[17]</a> The fire was on
+  that head of Parnassus which was sacred to Apollo and Diana; to those
+  below it appeared double, being divided to the eye by a pointed rock
+  which rose before it. SCHOL.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_18"></a><a href="#Phoen_18">[18]</a> The Python which
+  Apollo slew.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_19"></a><a href="#Phoen_19">[19]</a> Libya the
+  daughter of Epaphus bore to Neptune Agenor and Belus. Cadmus was the son
+  of Agenor, and Antiope the daughter of Belus.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_19a"></a><a href="#Phoen_19a">[19a]</a> But Dind.
+  <span lang="el"
+  title="ekphr�s'">&#x3B5;&#x3BA;&#x3C6;&#x3C1;&#x3C9;&#x3C3;'</span>. See
+  his note.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_20"></a><a href="#Phoen_20">[20]</a> The construction
+  is, <span lang="el" title="amphiballe moi to t�n par��d�n sou
+  oregma">&#x3B1;&#x3BC;&#x3C6;&#x3B9;&#x3B2;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3BB;&#x3B5;
+  &#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3B9; &#x3C4;&#x3BF; &#x3C4;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3C1;&#x3B7;&#x3CA;&#x3B4;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3C3;&#x3BF;&#x3C5; &#x3BF;&#x3C1;&#x3B5;&#x3B3;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;</span>:
+  that is, <i>genarum ad oscula porrectionem</i>. It can not be translated
+  literally. The verb <span lang="el"
+  title="amphiballe">&#x3B1;&#x3BC;&#x3C6;&#x3B9;&#x3B2;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3BB;&#x3B5;</span>
+  is to be supplied before <span lang="el"
+  title="oregma">&#x3BF;&#x3C1;&#x3B5;&#x3B3;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;</span>, and
+  before <span lang="el"
+  title="plokamon">&#x3C0;&#x3BB;&#x3BF;&#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span>.
+  See Orestes, 950.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_21"></a><a href="#Phoen_21">[21]</a> Locus videtur
+  corruptus. PORSON. Valckenaer proposes to read <span lang="el"
+  title="dakryoess' anieisa
+  k.t.l.">&#x3B4;&#x3B1;&#x3BA;&#x3C1;&#x3C5;&#x3BF;&#x3B5;&#x3C3;&#x3C3;'
+  &#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3B9;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3BA;.&#x3C4;.&#x3BB;.</span> Markland would supply <span lang="el"
+  title="ph�n�n">&#x3C6;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;&#x3B7;&#x3BD;</span> after <span
+  lang="el"
+  title="hieisa">&#x201B;&#x3B9;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3B1;</span>.
+  Another reading proposed is, <span lang="el" title="dakryoess' enieisa
+  penth�r�
+  konin">&#x3B4;&#x3B1;&#x3BA;&#x3C1;&#x3C5;&#x3BF;&#x3B5;&#x3C3;&#x3C3;'
+  &#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3B9;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3B8;&#x3B7;&#x3C1;&#x3B7;
+  &#x3BA;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;</span>. <i>Lacrymabunda, lugubrem
+  cinerem injiciens</i>. Followed by Dindorf.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_22"></a><a href="#Phoen_22">[22]</a> Cf. �sch. Prom.
+  39. <span lang="el" title="to syngenes toi deinon h� th'
+  homilia">&#x3C4;&#x3BF;
+  &#x3C3;&#x3C5;&#x3B3;&#x3B3;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3B5;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3B9; &#x3B4;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;
+  &#x201B;&#x3B7; &#x3B8;'
+  &#x201B;&#x3BF;&#x3BC;&#x3B9;&#x3BB;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;</span>, where consult
+  Schutz.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_23"></a><a href="#Phoen_23">[23]</a> See Porson's
+  note. A similar ellipse is to be found in Luke xiii. 9. <span lang="el"
+  title="Kain men poi�s�i karpon: ei de m�ge, eis to mellon ekkopseis
+  aut�n:">&#x39A;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3BD; &#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3B7;&#x3C3;&#x3B7;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3C1;&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;: &#x3B5;&#x3B9; &#x3B4;&#x3B5;
+  &#x3BC;&#x3B7;&#x3B3;&#x3B5;, &#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C2; &#x3C4;&#x3BF;
+  &#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3BB;&#x3BB;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B5;&#x3BA;&#x3BA;&#x3BF;&#x3C8;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B1;&#x3C5;&#x3C4;&#x3B7;&#x3BD;:</span> which is thus translated in
+  our version; "And if it bear fruit, <i>well</i>: and if not, <i>then</i>
+  after that thou shalt cut it down." See also Iliad, A. 135. Aristoph.
+  Plut. 468. ed. Kuster.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_24"></a><a href="#Phoen_24">[24]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="Brabeus">&#x392;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3B2;&#x3B5;&#x3C5;&#x3C2;</span>,
+  properly, is the judge in a contest, who confers the prizes, and on whose
+  decision the awarding of the prizes depends: <span lang="el"
+  title="brabeut�s">&#x3B2;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3B2;&#x3B5;&#x3C5;&#x3C4;&#x3B7;&#x3C2;</span>
+  is the same. <span lang="el"
+  title="Brabeion">&#x392;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3B2;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span>
+  is the prize. <span lang="el"
+  title="Brabeia">&#x392;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3B2;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;</span>,
+  and in the plural <span lang="el"
+  title="brabeiai">&#x3B2;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3B2;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;</span>,
+  the very act of deciding the contest.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_25"></a><a href="#Phoen_25">[25]</a> So Hotspur, of
+  honor:</p>
+
+  <div class="poem">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <p>By heaven, methinks, it were an easy leap,</p>
+      <p>To pluck bright honor from the pale-faced moon:</p>
+      <p>Or dive into the bottom of the deep,</p>
+      <p>Where fathom-line could never touch the ground,</p>
+      <p>And pluck up drowned honor by the locks;</p>
+      <p>So he, that doth redeem her thence, might wear,</p>
+      <p>Without corrival, all her dignities.</p>
+      <p class="i16">Hen. IV. P. i. A. i. Sc. 3.</p>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_26"></a><a href="#Phoen_26">[26]</a> See Ovid. Met.
+  vi. 28. Non omnia grandior �tas, Qu� fugiamus, habet; seris venit usus ab
+  annis.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_27"></a><a href="#Phoen_27">[27]</a> The Scholiast
+  doubts whether these Gods were Castor and Pollux, or Zethus and Amphion,
+  but inclines to the latter. See Herc. Fur. v. 29, 30.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_28"></a><a href="#Phoen_28">[28]</a> Or, <i>fell with
+  limbs that had never known yoke</i>.&mdash;V. Ovid: Met. iii. 10.</p>
+
+  <div class="poem">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <p>Bos tibi, Ph&#339;bus ait, solis occurret in arvis,</p>
+      <p>Nullum passa jugum.</p>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_29"></a><a href="#Phoen_29">[29]</a> Valckenaer
+  proposes reading instead of <span lang="el"
+  title="horais">&#x201B;&#x3BF;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;</span> or
+  <span lang="el"
+  title="horas">&#x201B;&#x3BF;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3C2;</span>, <span
+  lang="el"
+  title="aurais">&#x3B1;&#x3C5;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;</span>, writing
+  the passage <span lang="el" title="aurais bostrychon
+  ampetasas">&#x3B1;&#x3C5;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B2;&#x3BF;&#x3C3;&#x3C4;&#x3C1;&#x3C5;&#x3C7;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B1;&#x3BC;&#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3C3;&#x3B1;&#x3C2;</span>,
+  "per auras leves crine jactato:" which seems peculiarly adapted to this
+  place, where the poet places the tumultuous rage of Mars in contrast with
+  the sweet enthusiasm of the Bacchanalians, who are represented as flying
+  over the plains with their hair streaming in the wind. But see Note <a
+  name="Phoen_C"></a><a href="#PhoenN_C">[C]</a>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_30"></a><a href="#Phoen_30">[30]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="ako�">&#x3B1;&#x3BA;&#x3BF;&#x3B7;</span> is here to be understood
+  in the sense of <span lang="el"
+  title="akouomenon">&#x3B1;&#x3BA;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3BF;&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span>
+  as we find <span lang="el"
+  title="aisth�sis">&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3B8;&#x3B7;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;</span>
+  for <span lang="el"
+  title="aisth�ton">&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3B8;&#x3B7;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span>,
+  <span lang="el" title="nous">&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C2;</span> for
+  <span lang="el" title="to nooumenon">&#x3C4;&#x3BF;
+  &#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_31"></a><a href="#Phoen_31">[31]</a> The words <span
+  lang="el" title="didym�n
+  potam�n">&#x3B4;&#x3B9;&#x3B4;&#x3C5;&#x3BC;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3BC;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;</span> do not refer to
+  Dirce, but to Thebes, Thebes being called <span lang="el" title="polis
+  dipotamos">&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3BB;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B4;&#x3B9;&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span>.
+  The construction is <span lang="el" title="pyrgos didym�n
+  potam�n">&#x3C0;&#x3C5;&#x3C1;&#x3B3;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B4;&#x3B9;&#x3B4;&#x3C5;&#x3BC;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3BC;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;</span>. Thus in Pindar
+  <span lang="el" title="oik�ma
+  potamou">&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3BA;&#x3B7;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;</span> means <span
+  lang="el" title="oik�ma para
+  potam�i">&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3BA;&#x3B7;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3BC;&#x3C9;&#x3B9;</span>. Olymp. 2.
+  Antistr. 1.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_32"></a><a href="#Phoen_32">[32]</a> See note <a
+  name="Phoen_D"></a><a href="#PhoenN_D">[D]</a>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_32a"></a><a href="#Phoen_32a">[32a]</a> <span
+  lang="el" title="goun">&#x3B3;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3BD;</span>. See Dind.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_33"></a><a href="#Phoen_33">[33]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="ti gar path�">&#x3C4;&#x3B9; &#x3B3;&#x3B1;&#x3C1;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3B8;&#x3C9;</span>; <i>Quid enim agam?</i> est formula
+  eorum, quos invitos natura vel fatum, vel qu�cumque alia cogit
+  necessitas. VALCKEN.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_34"></a><a href="#Phoen_34">[34]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="Pros�gor�s�n">&#x3A0;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3C3;&#x3B7;&#x3B3;&#x3BF;&#x3C1;&#x3B7;&#x3C3;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;</span>
+  is to be joined with <span lang="el"
+  title="mol�n">&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3BB;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;</span>, not with <span
+  lang="el" title="eimi">&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3BC;&#x3B9;</span>. In
+  confirmation of this see line 1011.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_35"></a><a href="#Phoen_35">[35]</a> So called after
+  Ne�s the son of Amphion and Niobe, or from <span lang="el"
+  title="neatai">&#x3BD;&#x3B5;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;</span>,
+  "<i>Newgate</i>." SCHOL.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_36"></a><a href="#Phoen_36">[36]</a> Argus himself
+  might be called <span lang="el"
+  title="stiktos">&#x3C3;&#x3C4;&#x3B9;&#x3BA;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span>,
+  but not his eyes, hence <span lang="el"
+  title="pyknois">&#x3C0;&#x3C5;&#x3BA;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;</span>
+  is proposed by Heinsius. Abreschius receives <span lang="el"
+  title="stiktois">&#x3C3;&#x3C4;&#x3B9;&#x3BA;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;</span>
+  in the sense of <span lang="el" title="hois stiktos
+  esti">&#x201B;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3C3;&#x3C4;&#x3B9;&#x3BA;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B5;&#x3C3;&#x3C4;&#x3B9;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_37"></a><a href="#Phoen_37">[37]</a> The Scholiast
+  makes <span lang="el"
+  title="bleponta">&#x3B2;&#x3BB;&#x3B5;&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;</span>
+  the accusative singular to agree with <span lang="el"
+  title="panopt�n">&#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3C0;&#x3C4;&#x3B7;&#x3BD;</span>.
+  Musgrave takes it as agreeing with <span lang="el"
+  title="ommata">&#x3BF;&#x3BC;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;</span>; in this
+  latter case <span lang="el"
+  title="kryptonta">&#x3BA;&#x3C1;&#x3C5;&#x3C0;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;</span>
+  is used in a neuter signification. Note <a name="Phoen_F"></a><a
+  href="#PhoenN_F">[F]</a>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_38"></a><a href="#Phoen_38">[38]</a> This is
+  Musgrave's interpretation, by putting the stop after <span lang="el"
+  title="h�s">&#x201B;&#x3C9;&#x3C2;</span>, which also Porson adopts;
+  others would join <span lang="el"
+  title="h�s">&#x201B;&#x3C9;&#x3C2;</span> with <span lang="el"
+  title="pr�s�n">&#x3C0;&#x3C1;&#x3B7;&#x3C3;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;</span>. It
+  seems however more natural that the torch should be referred to Tydeus's
+  emblem, than to himself.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_39"></a><a href="#Phoen_39">[39]</a> Commentators and
+  interpreters are much at variance concerning the word <span lang="el"
+  title="strophinxin">&#x3C3;&#x3C4;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3C6;&#x3B9;&#x3B3;&#x3BE;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;</span>.
+  For his better satisfaction on this passage the reader is referred to the
+  Scholia.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_40"></a><a href="#Phoen_40">[40]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="geissa">&#x3B3;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3C3;&#x3B1;</span> is in
+  apposition to <span lang="el"
+  title="laan">&#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;</span> in the preceding line.
+  Cf. Orestes, 1585.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_41"></a><a href="#Phoen_41">[41]</a> Commentators are
+  divided on the meaning of <span lang="el"
+  title="en�lata">&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3B7;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;</span>.
+  One Scholiast understands it to mean the uprights of the ladder in which
+  the bars are fixed. Eustathias considers <span lang="el" title="en�lat�n
+  bathra">&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3B7;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B2;&#x3B1;&#x3B8;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;</span> a periphrasis for <span
+  lang="el" title="bathra, en�lata">&#x3B2;&#x3B1;&#x3B8;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;,
+  &#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3B7;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;</span> being the <span
+  lang="el" title="bathra">&#x3B2;&#x3B1;&#x3B8;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;</span> or
+  <span lang="el"
+  title="bathmides">&#x3B2;&#x3B1;&#x3B8;&#x3BC;&#x3B9;&#x3B4;&#x3B5;&#x3C2;</span>,
+  which <span lang="el" title="enel�lantai tois ortho�s
+  xylois">&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3B5;&#x3BB;&#x3B7;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3C2; &#x3BF;&#x3C1;&#x3B8;&#x3BF;&#x3CA;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3BE;&#x3C5;&#x3BB;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_42"></a><a href="#Phoen_42">[42]</a> Musgrave would
+  render <span lang="el" title="hygrot�t'
+  enantian">&#x201B;&#x3C5;&#x3B3;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3C4;&#x3B7;&#x3C4;'
+  &#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;</span> by
+  "mobilitatem male coalescentem;" in this case it would indicate the bad
+  omen, and be opposed to <span lang="el" title="akran
+  lampada">&#x3B1;&#x3BA;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3BC;&#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3B4;&#x3B1;</span>, which then
+  should be translated "the pointed flame." Valckenaer considers the
+  passage as desperately corrupt. See Musgrave's note. Cf. Note <a
+  name="Phoen_G"></a><a href="#PhoenN_G">[G]</a>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_43"></a><a href="#Phoen_43">[43]</a> If the flame was
+  clear and vivid.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_44"></a><a href="#Phoen_44">[44]</a> If it terminated
+  in smoke and blackness.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_45"></a><a href="#Phoen_45">[45]</a> The construction
+  of this passage is the same as that of Il. <span lang="el"
+  title="D">&#x394;</span> 155. <span lang="el" title="thanaton ny toi
+  horki' etamnon">&#x3B8;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3BD;&#x3C5; &#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;
+  &#x201B;&#x3BF;&#x3C1;&#x3BA;&#x3B9;'
+  &#x3B5;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3BC;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span>. "F&#339;dus,
+  quod pepigi, tibi mortis causa est." PORSON.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_46"></a><a href="#Phoen_46">[46]</a> Beck, by putting
+  the stop after <span lang="el"
+  title="petron">&#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3C4;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span>, makes
+  <span lang="el"
+  title="hypodromon">&#x201B;&#x3C5;&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3B4;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span>
+  to agree with <span lang="el"
+  title="kolon">&#x3BA;&#x3BF;&#x3BB;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span>, "<i>his limb
+  diverted from its tread</i>."</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_47"></a><a href="#Phoen_47">[47]</a> The construction
+  is <span lang="el" title="phonos krantheis
+  phon�i">&#x3C6;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3BA;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3B8;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3C6;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3C9;&#x3B9;</span>: <span lang="el"
+  title="aimati">&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3B9;</span> depends
+  on <span lang="el" title="en">&#x3B5;&#x3BD;</span> understood.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_48"></a><a href="#Phoen_48">[48]</a> Most MSS. have
+  <span lang="el"
+  title="xynetos">&#x3BE;&#x3C5;&#x3BD;&#x3B5;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span>.
+  Here then is a remarkable instance of the same word having both an active
+  and a passive signification in the same sentence.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_49"></a><a href="#Phoen_49">[49]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="makropnoun">&#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3BA;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3C0;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3BD;</span>,
+  not <span lang="el"
+  title="makropoun">&#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3BA;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3BD;</span>,
+  is Porson's reading, <span lang="el" title="makropnous
+  z��">&#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3BA;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3C0;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B6;&#x3C9;&#x3B7;</span> is explained "vita in qua longo tempore
+  spiratur; ergo longa."</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_50"></a><a href="#Phoen_50">[50]</a> See note at
+  Hecuba 65.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_51"></a><a href="#Phoen_51">[51]</a> The old reading
+  was <span lang="el" title="ti tlas; ti tlas;">&#x3C4;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3C2;; &#x3C4;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3C2;;</span> making it the present tense. Brunck
+  first edited it as it stands in Porson. Antigone repeats the last word of
+  her father.</p>
+
+</div>
+<hr class="short" />
+
+<h3>ADDITIONAL NOTES.</h3>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+<div class="note">
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_A"></a><a href="#Phoen_A">[A]</a> "Signum interrogandi
+  non post <span lang="el"
+  title="neanias">&#x3BD;&#x3B5;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;&#x3C2;</span>,
+  sed post <span lang="el"
+  title="lochagos">&#x3BB;&#x3BF;&#x3C7;&#x3B1;&#x3B3;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span>
+  ponendum. <span lang="el"
+  title="lochagos">&#x3BB;&#x3BF;&#x3C7;&#x3B1;&#x3B3;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span>
+  in libris pedagogo tribuitur: quod correxit Hermannus." DINDORF.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_B"></a><a href="#Phoen_B">[B]</a> Porson and Dindorf
+  (in his notes) favor Reiske's conjecture, <span lang="el"
+  title="pyknoisi">&#x3C0;&#x3C5;&#x3BA;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;</span>
+  for <span lang="el"
+  title="pyrgoisi">&#x3C0;&#x3C5;&#x3C1;&#x3B3;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_C"></a><a href="#Phoen_C">[C]</a> Dindorf rightly
+  approves the explanation of Musgrave, who takes <span lang="el"
+  title="stephanoisi">&#x3C3;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3C6;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;</span>,
+  like the Latin <i>corona</i>, to mean the <i>assemblies</i>. He
+  translates: "<i>nec in pulchros choros ducentibus circulis
+  juventutis</i>."</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_D"></a><a href="#Phoen_D">[D]</a> The full sense, as
+  laid down by Sch&#339;fer and Dindorf, is, "for ever when an old man
+  travels, whether in a carriage, or on foot, he requires help from
+  others." <span lang="el" title="pasa ap�n� pous
+  te">&#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3C3;&#x3B1; &#x3B1;&#x3C0;&#x3B7;&#x3BD;&#x3B7;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C2; &#x3C4;&#x3B5;</span> is rather boldly used,
+  but is not without example.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_E"></a><a href="#Phoen_E">[E]</a> i.e. "<i>you ask a
+  thing</i> (i.e. your son's safety) <i>dangerous to the city, which you
+  can not preserve</i>." SCH&#338;FER.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_F"></a><a href="#Phoen_F">[F]</a> These three lines
+  are condemned by Valck. and Dind.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_G"></a><a href="#Phoen_G">[G]</a> Matthi� attempts to
+  explain these words as follows: "<span lang="el" title="empyroi
+  akmai">&#x3B5;&#x3BC;&#x3C0;&#x3C5;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3B1;&#x3BA;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;</span> may be put for <span lang="el"
+  title="ta empyra">&#x3C4;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3B5;&#x3BC;&#x3C0;&#x3C5;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;</span>, in which the seers
+  observed (<span lang="el"
+  title="en�m�n">&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3C9;&#x3BC;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;</span>) two
+  things, viz. the divisions (<span lang="el"
+  title="rh�xeis">&#x201B;&#x3C1;&#x3B7;&#x3BE;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;</span>)
+  of the flame, which, if it slid round the altars, was of ill omen (hence
+  <span lang="el"
+  title="hygrai">&#x201B;&#x3C5;&#x3B3;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;</span>, i.e.
+  gliding gently around the altars with many curves, for which is put <span
+  lang="el" title="hygrot�s
+  enantia">&#x201B;&#x3C5;&#x3B3;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3C4;&#x3B7;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;</span>); and 2dly,
+  <i>the upright shooting of the flame</i>, <span lang="el" title="akran
+  lampada">&#x3B1;&#x3BA;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3BC;&#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3B4;&#x3B1;</span>."</p>
+
+  <p><a name="PhoenN_H"></a><a href="#Phoen_H">[H]</a> See Dindorf on
+  Orest. 1691. He fully condemns these lines as the work of an
+  interpolator. They are, however, as old as the days of Lucian.</p>
+
+</div>
+<hr class="full" />
+
+<a name="MEDEA"></a>
+<h2>MEDEA.</h2>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+<h3>PERSONS REPRESENTED.</h3>
+
+  <div class="personae">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <p>NURSE.</p>
+      <p>TUTOR.</p>
+      <p>MEDEA.</p>
+      <p>CHORUS OF CORINTHIAN WOMEN.</p>
+      <p>CREON.</p>
+      <p>JASON.</p>
+      <p>�GEUS</p>
+      <p>MESSENGER.</p>
+      <p>SONS OF MEDEA.</p>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+<p class="center"><i>The Scene lies in the vestibule of the palace of Jason at Corinth</i>.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h3>THE ARGUMENT.</h3>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+  <p>JASON, having come to Corinth, and bringing with him Medea, espouses
+  Glauce, the daughter of Creon, king of Corinth. But Medea, on the point
+  of being banished from Corinth by Creon, having asked to remain one day,
+  and having obtained her wish, sends to Glauce, by the hands of her sons,
+  presents, as an acknowledgment for the favor, a robe and a golden
+  chaplet, which she puts on and perishes; Creon also having embraced his
+  daughter is destroyed. But Medea, when she had slain her children,
+  escapes to Athens, in a chariot drawn by winged dragons, which she
+  received from the Sun, and there marries �geus son of Pandion.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2>MEDEA.</h2>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+<p class="center">NURSE OF MEDEA.</p>
+
+  <p>Would that the hull of Argo had not winged her way to the Colchian
+  land through the Cyanean Symplegades,<a name="Med_1"></a><a
+  href="#MedN_1"><sup>[1]</sup></a> and that the pine felled in the forests
+  of Pelion had never fallen, nor had caused the hands of the chiefs to
+  row,<a name="Med_2"></a><a href="#MedN_2"><sup>[2]</sup></a> who went in
+  search of the golden fleece for Pelias; for neither then would my
+  mistress Medea have sailed to the towers of the Iolcian land, deeply
+  smitten in her mind with the love of Jason; nor having persuaded the
+  daughters of Pelias to slay their father would she have inhabited this
+  country of Corinth with her husband and her children, pleasing indeed by
+  her flight<a name="Med_3"></a><a href="#MedN_3"><sup>[3]</sup></a> the
+  citizens to whose land she came, and herself concurring in every respect
+  with Jason; which is the surest support of conjugal happiness, when the
+  wife is not estranged from the husband. But now every thing is at
+  variance, and the dearest ties are weakened. For having betrayed his own
+  children, and my mistress, Jason reposes in royal wedlock, having married
+  the daughter of Creon, who is prince of this land. But Medea the unhappy,
+  dishonored, calls on his oaths, and recalls the hands they plighted, the
+  greatest pledge of fidelity, and invokes the gods to witness what return
+  she meets with from Jason. And she lies without tasting food, having sunk
+  her body in grief, dissolving all her tedious time in tears, after she
+  had once known that she had been injured by her husband, neither raising
+  her eye, nor lifting her countenance from the ground; but as the rock, or
+  the wave of the sea, does she listen to her friends when advised. Save
+  that sometimes having turned her snow-white neck she to herself bewails
+  her dear father, and her country, and her house, having betrayed which
+  she hath come hither with a man who has now dishonored her. And she
+  wretched hath discovered from affliction what it is not to forsake one's
+  paternal country. But she hates her children, nor is she delighted at
+  beholding them: but I fear her, lest she form some new design: for
+  violent is her mind, nor will it endure to suffer ills. I know her, and I
+  fear her, lest she should force the sharpened sword through her heart, or
+  even should murder the princess and him who married her, and after that
+  receive some greater ill. For she is violent; he who engages with her in
+  enmity will not with ease at least sing the song of victory. But these
+  her children are coming hither having ceased from their exercises,
+  nothing mindful of their mother's ills, for the mind of youth is not wont
+  to grieve.</p>
+
+<p class="center">TUTOR, WITH THE SONS OF MEDEA, NURSE.</p>
+
+  <p>TUT. O thou ancient possession of my mistress's house, why dost thou
+  stand at the gates preserving thus thy solitude, bewailing to thyself our
+  misfortunes? How doth Medea wish to be left alone without thee?</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. O aged man, attendant on the children of Jason, to faithful
+  servants the affairs of their masters turning out ill are a calamity, and
+  lay hold upon their feelings. For I have arrived at such a height of
+  grief that desire hath stolen on me to come forth hence and tell the
+  misfortunes of Medea to the earth and heaven.</p>
+
+  <p>TUT. Does not she wretched yet receive any respite from her grief?</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. I envy thy ignorance; her woe is at its rise, and not even yet at
+  its height.</p>
+
+  <p>TUT. O unwise woman, if it is allowable to say this of one's lords,
+  since she knows nothing of later ills.</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. But what is this, O aged man? grudge not to tell me.</p>
+
+  <p>TUT. Nothing: I have repented even of what was said before.</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. Do not, I beseech you by your beard, conceal it from your
+  fellow-servant; for I will preserve silence, if it be necessary, on these
+  subjects.</p>
+
+  <p>TUT. I heard from some one who was saying, not appearing to listen,
+  having approached the places where dice is played, where the elders sit,
+  around the hallowed font of Pirene, that the king of this land, Creon,
+  intends to banish from the Corinthian country these children, together
+  with their mother; whether this report be true, however, I know not; but
+  I wish this may not be the case.</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. And will Jason endure to see his children suffer this, even
+  although he is at enmity with their mother?</p>
+
+  <p>TUT. Ancient alliances are deserted for new, and he is no friend to
+  this family.</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. We perish then, if to the old we shall add a new ill, before the
+  former be exhausted.<a name="Med_4"></a><a
+  href="#MedN_4"><sup>[4]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>TUT. But do thou, for it is not seasonable that my mistress should
+  know this, restrain your tongue, and be silent on this report.</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. O my children, do you hear what your father is toward you? Yet
+  may he not perish, for he is my master, yet he is found to be treacherous
+  toward his friends.</p>
+
+  <p>TUT. And what man is not? dost thou only now know this, that every one
+  loves himself dearer than his neighbor,<a name="Med_5"></a><a
+  href="#MedN_5"><sup>[5]</sup></a> some indeed with justice, but others
+  even for the sake of gain, unless it be that<a name="Med_6"></a><a
+  href="#MedN_6"><sup>[6]</sup></a> their father loves not these at least
+  on account of new nuptials.</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. Go within the house, my children, for all will be well. But do
+  thou keep these as much as possible out of the way, and let them not
+  approach their mother, deranged through grief. For but now I saw her
+  looking with wildness in her eyes on these, as about to execute some
+  design, nor will she cease from her fury, I well know, before she
+  overwhelm some one with it; upon her enemies however, and not her
+  friends, may she do some [ill.]</p>
+
+  <p>MEDEA. (<i>within</i>) Wretch that I am, and miserable on account of
+  my misfortunes, alas me! would I might perish!</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. Thus it is, my children; your mother excites her heart, excites
+  her fury. Hasten as quick as possible within the house, and come not near
+  her sight, nor approach her, but guard against the fierce temper and
+  violent nature of her self-willed mind. Go now, go as quick as possible
+  within. But it is evident that the cloud of grief raised up from the
+  beginning will quickly burst forth with greater fury; what I pray will
+  her soul, great in rage, implacable, irritated by ills, perform!</p>
+
+  <p>MED. Alas! alas! I wretched have suffered, have suffered treatment
+  worthy of great lamentation. O ye accursed children of a hated mother,
+  may ye perish with your father, and may the whole house fall.</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. Alas! alas! me miserable! but why should your children share
+  their father's error? Why dost thou hate these! Alas me, my children, how
+  beyond measure do I grieve lest ye suffer any evil! Dreadful are the
+  dispositions of tyrants, and somehow in few things controlled, in most
+  absolute, they with difficulty lay aside their passion. The being
+  accustomed then<a name="Med_7"></a><a href="#MedN_7"><sup>[7]</sup></a>
+  to live in mediocrity of life is the better: may it be my lot then to
+  grow old if not in splendor, at least in security. For, in the first
+  place, even to mention the name of moderation carries with it
+  superiority, but to use it is by far the best conduct for men; but excess
+  of fortune brings more power to men than is convenient;<a
+  name="Med_8"></a><a href="#MedN_8"><sup>[8]</sup></a> and has brought
+  greater woes upon families, when the Deity be enraged.</p>
+
+<p class="center">NURSE, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. I heard the voice, I heard the cry of the unhappy Colchian; is
+  not she yet appeased? but, O aged matron, tell me; for within the
+  apartment with double doors, I heard her cry; nor am I delighted, O
+  woman, with the griefs of the family, since it is friendly to me.</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. The family is not; these things are gone already: for he
+  possesses the bed of royalty; but she, my mistress, is melting away her
+  life in her chamber, in no way soothing her mind by the advice of any one
+  of her friends.</p>
+
+  <p>MED. Alas! alas! may the flame of heaven rush through my head, what
+  profit for me to live any longer. Alas! alas! may I rest myself in death,
+  having left a hated life.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Dost thou hear, O Jove, and earth, and light, the cry which the
+  wretched bride utters? why I pray should this insatiable love of the
+  marriage-bed hasten thee, O vain woman, to death? Pray not for this. But
+  if thy husband courts a new bed, be not thus<a name="Med_9"></a><a
+  href="#MedN_9"><sup>[9]</sup></a> enraged with him. Jove will avenge
+  these wrongs for thee: waste not thyself so, bewailing thy husband.</p>
+
+  <p>MED. O great Themis and revered Diana, do ye behold what I suffer,
+  having bound my accursed husband by powerful oaths? Whom may I at some
+  time see and his bride torn piecemeal with their very houses, who dare to
+  injure me first. O my father, O my city, whom I basely abandoned, having
+  slain my brother.</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. Do ye hear what she says, and how she invokes Themis hearing the
+  vow, and Jove who is considered the dispenser of oaths to mortals? It is
+  not possible that my mistress will lull her rage to rest on any trivial
+  circumstance.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. By what means could she come into our sight, and hear the voice
+  of our discourse, if she would by any means remit her fierce anger and
+  her fury of mind. Let not my zeal however be wanting ever to my friends.
+  But go and conduct her hither from without the house, my friend, and tell
+  her this, hasten, before she injure in any way those within, for this
+  grief of hers is increased to a great height.</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. I will do it, but I fear that I shall not persuade my mistress;
+  nevertheless I will give you this favor of my labor. And yet with the
+  aspect of a lioness that has just brought forth does she look sternly on
+  her attendants when any one approaches near attempting to address her.
+  But thou wouldest not err in calling men of old foolish and nothing wise,
+  who invented songs, for festivals, for banquets, and for suppers, the
+  delights of life that charm the ear; but no mortal has discovered how to
+  soothe with music and with varied strains those bitter pangs, from which
+  death and dreadful misfortunes overthrow families. And yet for men to
+  assuage these griefs with music were gain; but where the plenteous
+  banquet is furnished, why raise they the song in vain? for the present
+  bounty of the feast brings pleasure of itself to men.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. I heard the dismal sound of groans, and in a shrill voice she
+  vents her bitter<a name="Med_10"></a><a
+  href="#MedN_10"><sup>[10]</sup></a> anguish on the traitor to her bed,
+  her faithless husband&mdash;and suffering wrongs she calls upon the
+  Goddess Themis, arbitress of oaths, daughter of Jove, who conducted her
+  to the opposite coast of Greece, across the sea by night, over the salt
+  straits of the boundless ocean.</p>
+
+<p class="center">MEDEA, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>MED. Ye Corinthian dames, I have come from out my palace; do not in
+  any wise blame me; for I have known many men who have been<a
+  name="Med_11"></a><a href="#MedN_11"><sup>[11]</sup></a> renowned, some
+  who have lived far from public notice, and others in the world; but those
+  of a retired turn have gained for themselves a character of infamy and
+  indolence. For justice dwells not in the eyes of man,<a
+  name="Med_12"></a><a href="#MedN_12"><sup>[12]</sup></a> whoever, before
+  he can well discover the disposition of a man, hates him at sight, in no
+  way wronged by him. But it is necessary for a stranger exactly to conform
+  himself to the state, nor would I praise the native, whoever becoming
+  self-willed is insolent to his fellow-citizens through ignorance. But
+  this unexpected event that hath fallen upon me hath destroyed my spirit:
+  I am going, and having given up the pleasure of life I am desirous to
+  meet death, my friends. For he on whom my all rested, as you well know,
+  my husband, has turned out the basest of men. But of all things as many
+  as have life and intellect, we women are the most wretched race. Who
+  indeed first must purchase a husband with excess of money, and receive
+  him a lord of our persons; for this is a still greater ill than the
+  former. And in this is the greatest risk, whether we receive a bad one or
+  a good one; for divorces bring not good fame to women, nor is it possible
+  to repudiate one's husband. But on passing to new tempers and new laws,
+  one need be a prophetess, as one can not learn of one's self, what sort
+  of consort one shall most likely experience. And if with us carefully
+  performing these things a husband shall dwell not imposing on us a yoke
+  with severity, enviable is our life; if not, to die is better. But a man,
+  when he is displeased living with those at home, having gone abroad is
+  wont to relieve his heart of uneasiness, having recourse either to some
+  friend or compeer. But we must look but to one person. But they say of us
+  that we live a life of ease at home, but they are fighting with the
+  spear; judging ill, since I would rather thrice stand in arms, than once
+  suffer the pangs of child-birth. But, for the same argument comes not
+  home to you and me, this is thy city, and thy father's house, thine are
+  both the luxuries of life, and the society of friends; but I being
+  destitute, cityless, am wronged by my husband, brought as a prize from a
+  foreign land, having neither mother, nor brother, nor relation to afford
+  me shelter from this calamity. So much then I wish to obtain from you, if
+  any plan or contrivance be devised by me to repay with justice these
+  injuries on my husband, and on him who gave his daughter, and on her to
+  whom he was married,<a name="Med_13"></a><a
+  href="#MedN_13"><sup>[13]</sup></a> that you would be silent; for a woman
+  in other respects is full of fear, and timid to look upon deeds of
+  courage and the sword; but when she is injured in her bed, no other
+  disposition is more blood-thirsty.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. I will do this; for with justice, Medea, wilt thou avenge
+  thyself on thy husband, and I do not wonder that you lament your
+  misfortunes. But I see Creon monarch of this land advancing, the
+  messenger of new counsels.</p>
+
+<p class="center">CREON, MEDEA, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. Thee of gloomy countenance, and enraged with thy husband, Medea,
+  I command to depart in exile from out of this land, taking with thee thy
+  two children, and not to delay in any way, since I am the arbiter of this
+  edict, and I will not return back to my palace, until I shall drive thee
+  beyond the boundaries of this realm.</p>
+
+  <p>MED. Alas! alas! I wretched am utterly destroyed, for my enemies
+  stretch out every cable against me; nor is there any easy escape from
+  this evil, but I will speak, although suffering injurious treatment; for
+  what, Creon, dost thou drive me from this land?</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. I fear thee (there is no need for me to wrap my words in
+  obscurity,) lest thou do my child some irremediable mischief, And many
+  circumstances are in unison with this dread. Thou art wise, and skilled
+  in many evil sciences, and thou art exasperated, deprived of thy
+  husband's bed. And I hear that thou threatenest, as they tell me, to
+  wreak some deed of vengeance on the betrother, and the espouser and the
+  espoused; against this then, before I suffer, will I guard. Better is it
+  for me now to incur enmity from you, than softened by your words
+  afterward greatly to lament it.</p>
+
+  <p>MED. Alas! alas! not now for the first time, but often, Creon, hath
+  this opinion injured me, and worked me much woe. But whatever man is
+  prudent, let him never educate his children too deep in wisdom. For,
+  independent of the other charges of idleness which they meet with, they
+  find hostile envy from their fellow-citizens. For holding out to fools
+  some new-discovered wisdom, thou wilt seem to be useless and not wise.
+  And being judged superior to others who seem to have some varied
+  knowledge, thou wilt appear offensive in the city. But even I myself
+  share this fortune; for being wise, to some I am an object of envy, but
+  to others, unsuited; but I am not very wise. Thou then fearest me, lest
+  thou suffer some grievous mischief.<a name="Med_14"></a><a
+  href="#MedN_14"><sup>[14]</sup></a> My affairs are not in a state, fear
+  me not, Creon, so as to offend against princes. For in what hast thou
+  injured me? Thou hast given thy daughter to whom thy mind led thee; but I
+  hate my husband: but thou, I think, didst these things in prudence. And
+  now I envy not that thy affairs are prospering; make your alliances, be
+  successful; but suffer me to dwell in this land, for although injured
+  will I keep silence, overcome by my superiors.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. Thou speakest soft words to the ear, but within my mind I have my
+  fears, lest thou meditate some evil intent. And so much the less do I
+  trust thee than before. For a woman that is quick to anger, and a man
+  likewise, is easier to guard against, than one that is crafty and keeps
+  silence. But begone as quick as possible, make no more words; since this
+  is decreed, and thou hast no art, by which thou wilt stay with us, being
+  hostile to me.</p>
+
+  <p>MED. No I beseech you by your knees, and your newly-married
+  daughter.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. Thou wastest words; for thou wilt never persuade me.</p>
+
+  <p>MED. Wilt thou then banish me, nor reverence my prayers?</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. For I do not love thee better than my own family.</p>
+
+  <p>MED. O my country, how I remember thee now!</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. For next to my children it is much the dearest thing to me.</p>
+
+  <p>MED. Alas! alas! how great an ill is love to man!</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. That is, I think, as fortune also shall attend it.</p>
+
+  <p>MED. Jove, let it not escape thine eye, who is the cause of these
+  misfortunes.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. Begone, fond woman, and free me from these cares.</p>
+
+  <p>MED. Care indeed;<a name="Med_15"></a><a
+  href="#MedN_15"><sup>[15]</sup></a> and do not I experience cares?</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. Quickly shalt thou be driven hence by force by the hands of my
+  domestics.</p>
+
+  <p>MED. No, I pray not this at least; but I implore thee, Creon.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. Thou wilt give trouble, woman, it seems.<a name="Med_16"></a><a
+  href="#MedN_16"><sup>[16]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>MED. I will go; I dare not ask to obtain this of you.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. Why then dost thou resist, and wilt not depart from these
+  realms?</p>
+
+  <p>MED. Permit me to remain here this one day, and to bring my purpose to
+  a conclusion, in what way we shall fly, and to make provision for my
+  sons, since their father in no way regards providing for his children;
+  but pity them, for thou also art the father of children; and it is
+  probable that thou hast tenderness: for of myself I have no care whether
+  I may suffer banishment, but I weep for them experiencing this
+  calamity.</p>
+
+  <p>CRE. My disposition is least of all imperious, and through feeling
+  pity in many cases have I injured myself. And now I see that I am doing
+  wrong, O lady, but nevertheless thou shalt obtain thy request; but this I
+  warn thee, if to-morrow's light of the God of day shall behold thee and
+  thy children within the confines of these realms, thou shalt die: this
+  word is spoken in truth. But now if thou must stay, remain here yet one
+  day, for thou wilt not do any horrid deed of which I have dread.</p>
+
+<p class="center">MEDEA, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Unhappy woman! alas wretched on account of thy griefs! whither
+  wilt thou turn? what hospitality, or house, or country wilt thou find a
+  refuge for these ills? how the Deity hath led thee, Medea, into a
+  pathless tide of woes!</p>
+
+  <p>MED. Ill hath it been done on every side. Who will gainsay it? but
+  these things are not in this way, do not yet think it. Still is there a
+  contest for those lately married, and to those allied to them no small
+  affliction. For dost thou think I ever would have fawned upon this man,
+  if I were not to gain something, or form some plan? I would not even have
+  addressed him. I would not even have touched him with my hands. But he
+  hath arrived at such a height of folly, as that, when it was in his power
+  to have crushed my plans, by banishing me from this land, he hath granted
+  me to stay this day in which three of mine enemies will I put to death,
+  the father, the bride, and my husband. But having in my power many
+  resources of destruction against them, I know not, my friends, which I
+  shall first attempt. Whether shall I consume the bridal house with fire,
+  or force the sharpened sword through her heart having entered the chamber
+  by stealth where the couch is spread? But one thing is against me; if I
+  should be caught entering the house and prosecuting my plans, by my death
+  I shall afford laughter for my foes. Best then is it to pursue the
+  straight path, in which I am most skilled, to take them off by poison.
+  Let it be so. And suppose them dead: what city will receive me? What
+  hospitable stranger affording a land of safety and a faithful home will
+  protect my person? There is none. Waiting then yet a little time, if any
+  tower of safety shall appear to us, I will proceed to this murder in
+  treachery and silence. But if ill fortune that leaves me without resource
+  force me, I myself having grasped the sword, although I should die, will
+  kill them, and will rush to the extreme height of daring. For never, I
+  swear by my mistress whom I revere most of all, and have chosen for my
+  assistant, Hecate, who dwells in the inmost recesses of my house, shall
+  any one of them wring my heart with grief with impunity. Bitter and
+  mournful to them will I make these nuptials, and bitter this alliance,
+  and my flight from this land. But come, spare none of these sciences in
+  which thou art skilled, Medea, deliberating and plotting. Proceed to the
+  deed of terror: now is the time of resolution: seest thou what thou art
+  suffering? Ill doth it become thee to incur ridicule from the race of
+  Sisyphus, and from the nuptials of Jason, who art sprung from a noble
+  father, and from the sun. And thou art skilled. Besides also we women
+  are, by nature, to good actions of the least capacity, but the most
+  cunning inventors of every ill.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. The waters of the hallowed streams flow upward to their sources,
+  and justice and every thing is reversed. The counsels of men are
+  treacherous, and no longer is the faith of heaven firm. But fame changes,
+  so that my sex may have the glory.<a name="Med_17"></a><a
+  href="#MedN_17"><sup>[17]</sup></a> Honor cometh to the female race; no
+  longer shall opprobrious fame oppress the women. But the Muses shall
+  cease from their ancient strains, from celebrating our perfidy. For
+  Ph&#339;bus, leader of the choir, gave not to our minds the heavenly
+  music of the lyre, since they would in turn have raised a strain against
+  the race of men. But time of old hath much to say both of our life and
+  the life of men. But thou hast sailed from thy father's house with
+  maddened heart, having passed through the double rocks of the ocean, and
+  thou dwellest in a foreign land, having lost the shelter of thy widowed
+  bed, wretched woman, and art driven dishonored an exile from this land.
+  The reverence of oaths is gone, nor does shame any longer dwell in mighty
+  Greece, but hath fled away through the air. But thou helpless woman hast
+  neither father's house to afford you haven from your woes, and another
+  more powerful queen of the nuptial bed rules over the house.</p>
+
+<p class="center">JASON, MEDEA, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>JAS. Not now for the first time, but often have I perceived that
+  fierce anger is an irremediable ill. For though it was in your power to
+  inhabit this land and this house, bearing with gentleness the
+  determination of thy superiors, by thy rash words thou shalt be banished
+  from this land. And to me indeed it is of no importance; never cease from
+  saying that Jason is the worst of men. But for what has been said by thee
+  against the royal family, think it the greatest good fortune that thou
+  art punished by banishment only. I indeed was always employed in
+  diminishing the anger of the enraged princes, and was willing that thou
+  shouldest remain. But thou remittest not of thy folly, always reviling
+  the ruling powers; wherefore thou shalt be banished from the land. But
+  nevertheless even after this am I come, not wearied with my friends,
+  providing for thee, O woman, that thou mightest not be banished with thy
+  children, either without money, or in want of any thing. Banishment draws
+  many misfortunes with it. For although thou hatest me, I never could wish
+  thee evil.</p>
+
+  <p>MED. O thou vilest of men (for this is the greatest reproach I have in
+  my power with my tongue to tell thee, for thy unmanly cowardice), hast
+  thou come to us, hast thou come, who art most hateful? This is not
+  fortitude, or confidence, to look in the face of friends whom thou hast
+  injured, but the worst of all diseases among men, impudence. But thou
+  hast done well in coming. For both I shall be lightened in my heart while
+  reviling thee, and thou wilt be pained at hearing me. But I will first
+  begin to speak from the first circumstances. I preserved thee (as those
+  Greeks well know as many as embarked with thee on board the same ship
+  Argo) when sent to master the fire-breathing bulls with the yoke, and to
+  sow the fatal seed: and having slain the dragon who watching around the
+  golden fleece guarded it with spiry folds, a sleepless guard, I raised up
+  to thee a light of safety. But I myself having betrayed my father, and my
+  house, came to the Peliotic Iolcos<a name="Med_18"></a><a
+  href="#MedN_18"><sup>[18]</sup></a> with thee, with more readiness than
+  prudence. And I slew Pelias by a death which it is most miserable to die,
+  by the hands of his own children, and I freed thee from every fear. And
+  having experienced these services from me, thou vilest of men, thou hast
+  betrayed me and hast procured for thyself a new bed, children being born
+  to thee, for if thou wert still childless it would be pardonable in thee
+  to be enamored of this alliance. But the faith of oaths is vanished: nor
+  can I discover whether thou thinkest that the former Gods are not still
+  in power, or whether new laws are now laid down for men, since thou art
+  at least conscious of being perjured toward me. Alas! this right hand
+  which thou hast often touched, and these knees, since in vain have I been
+  polluted by a wicked husband, and have failed in my hopes. Come (for I
+  will converse with thee as with a friend, not expecting to receive any
+  benefit from thee at least, but nevertheless I will; for when questioned
+  thou wilt appear more base), now whither shall I turn? Whether to my
+  father's house, which I betrayed for thee, and my country, and came
+  hither? or to the miserable daughters of Pelias? friendly would they
+  indeed receive me in their house, whose father I slew. For thus it is: I
+  am in enmity with my friends at home; but those whom I ought not to
+  injure, by obliging thee, I make my enemies. On which account in return
+  for this thou hast made me to be called happy by many dames through
+  Greece, and in thee I, wretch that I am, have an admirable and faithful
+  husband, if cast out at least I shall fly this land, deserted by my
+  friends, lonely with thy lonely children. Fair renown indeed to the new
+  married bridegroom, that his children are wandering in poverty, and I
+  also who preserved thee. O Jove, why I pray hast thou given to men
+  certain proofs of the gold which is adulterate, but no mark is set by
+  nature on the person of men by which one may distinguish the bad man.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Dreadful is that anger and irremediable, when friends with
+  friends kindle strife.</p>
+
+  <p>JAS. It befits me, it seems, not to be weak in argument, but as the
+  prudent pilot of a vessel, with all the sail that can be hoisted, to run
+  from out of thy violent abuse, O woman. But I, since thou thus much
+  vauntest thy favors, think that Venus alone both of Gods and men was the
+  protectress of my voyage. But thou hast a fickle mind, but it is an
+  invidious account to go through, how love compelled thee with his
+  inevitable arrows to preserve my life. But I will not follow up arguments
+  with too great accuracy, for where thou hast assisted me it is well.
+  Moreover thou hast received more at least from my safety than thou
+  gavest, as I will explain to thee. First of all thou dwellest in Greece
+  instead of a foreign land, and thou learnest what justice is, and to
+  enjoy laws, not to be directed by mere force. And all the Grecians have
+  seen that thou art wise, and thou hast renown; but if thou wert dwelling
+  in the extreme confines of that land, there would not have been fame of
+  thee. But may neither gold in my house be be my lot, nor to attune the
+  strain more sweet than Orpheus, if my fortune be not conspicuous. So much
+  then have I said of my toils; for thou first broughtest forward this
+  contest of words. But with regard to those reproaches which thou heapest
+  on me for my royal marriage, in this will I show first that I have been
+  wise, in the next place moderate, thirdly a great friend to thee, and my
+  children: but be silent. After I had come hither from the Iolcian land
+  bringing with me many grievous calamities, what measure more fortunate
+  than this could I have invented, than, an exile as I was, to marry the
+  daughter of the monarch? not, by which thou art grated, loathing thy bed,
+  nor smitten with desire of a new bride, nor having emulation of a
+  numerous offspring, for those born to me are sufficient, nor do I find
+  fault with that; but that (which is of the greatest consequence) we might
+  live honorably, and might not be in want, knowing well that every friend
+  flies out of the way of a poor man; and that I might bring up my children
+  worthy of my house, and that having begotten brothers to those children
+  sprung from thee, I might place them on the same footing, and having
+  united the family, I might flourish; for both thou hast some need of
+  children, and to me it were advantageous to advance my present progeny by
+  means of the children which might arise; have I determined ill? not even
+  thou couldest say so, if thy bed did not gall thee. But thus far have you
+  come, that your bed being safe, you women think that you have every
+  thing. But if any misfortune befall that, the most excellent and fairest
+  objects you make the most hateful. It were well then that men should
+  generate children from some other source, and that the female race should
+  not exist, and thus there would not have been any evil among men.<a
+  name="Med_19"></a><a href="#MedN_19"><sup>[19]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Jason, thou hast well adorned these arguments of thine, but
+  nevertheless to me, although I speak reluctantly, thou appearest, in
+  betraying thy wife, to act unjustly.</p>
+
+  <p>MED. Surely I am in many things different from many mortals, for in my
+  judgment, whatever man being unjust, is deeply skilled in argument,
+  merits the severest punishment. For vaunting that with his tongue he can
+  well gloze over injustice, he dares to work deceit, but he is not
+  over-wise. Thus do not thou also be now plausible to me, nor skilled in
+  speaking, for one word will overthrow thee: it behooved thee, if thou
+  wert not a bad man, to have contracted this marriage having persuaded me,
+  and not without the knowledge of thy friends.</p>
+
+  <p>JAS. Well wouldest thou have lent assistance to this report, if I had
+  mentioned the marriage to thee, who not even now endurest to lay aside
+  this unabated rage of heart.</p>
+
+  <p>MED. This did not move thee, but a foreign bed would lead in its
+  result to an old age without honor.</p>
+
+  <p>JAS. Be well assured of this, that I did not form this alliance with
+  the princess, which I now hold, for the sake of the woman, but, as I said
+  before also, wishing to preserve thee, and to beget royal children
+  brothers to my sons, a support to our house.</p>
+
+  <p>MED. Let not a splendid life of bitterness be my lot, nor wealth,
+  which rends my heart.</p>
+
+  <p>JAS. Dost thou know how to alter thy prayers, and appear wiser? Let
+  not good things ever seem to you bitter, nor when in prosperity seem to
+  be in adversity.</p>
+
+  <p>MED. Insult me, since thou hast refuge, but I destitute shall fly this
+  land.</p>
+
+  <p>JAS. Thou chosest this thyself, blame no one else.</p>
+
+  <p>MED. By doing what? by marrying and betraying thee?</p>
+
+  <p>JAS. By imprecating unhallowed curses on the royal family.</p>
+
+  <p>MED. From thy house at least am I laden with curses.</p>
+
+  <p>JAS. I will not dispute more of this with thee. But if thou wishest to
+  receive either for thyself or children any part of my wealth as an
+  assistant on thy flight, speak, since I am ready to give with an
+  unsparing hand, and to send tokens of hospitality to my friends, who will
+  treat you well; and refusing these thou wilt be foolish, woman, but
+  ceasing from thine anger, thou wilt gain better treatment.</p>
+
+  <p>MED. I will neither use thy friends, nor will I receive aught; do not
+  give to me, for the gifts of a bad man bring no assistance.</p>
+
+  <p>JAS. Then I call the Gods to witness, that I wish to assist thee and
+  thy children in every thing; but good things please thee not, but thou
+  rejectest thy friends with audacity, wherefore shalt thou grieve the
+  more.</p>
+
+  <p>MED. Begone, for thou art captured by desire of thy new bride,
+  tarrying so long without the palace; wed her, for perhaps, but with the
+  assistance of the God shall it be said, thou wilt make such a marriage
+  alliance, as thou wilt hereafter wish to renounce.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. The loves, when they come too impetuously, have given neither
+  good report nor virtue among men, but if Venus come with moderation, no
+  other Goddess is so benign. Never, O my mistress, mayest thou send forth
+  against me from thy golden bow thy inevitable shaft, having steeped it in
+  desire. But may temperance preserve me, the noblest gift of heaven; never
+  may dreaded Venus, having smitten my mind for another's bed, heap upon me
+  jealous passions and unabated quarrels, but approving the peaceful union,
+  may she quick of perception sit in judgment on the bed of women. O my
+  country, and my house, never may I be an outcast of my city, having a
+  life scarce to be endured through poverty, the most lamentable of all
+  woes. By death, by death, may I before that be subdued, having lived to
+  accomplish that day; but no greater misfortune is there than to be
+  deprived of one's paternal country. We have seen it, nor have we to speak
+  from others' accounts; for thee, neither city nor friend hath pitied,
+  though suffering the most dreadful anguish. Thankless may he perish who
+  desires not to assist his friends, having unlocked the pure treasures of
+  his mind; never shall he be friend to me.</p>
+
+<p class="center">�GEUS, MEDEA, CHORUS.</p>
+
+�G. Medea, hail! for no one hath known a more honorable
+salutation to address to friends than this.
+
+  <p>MED. Hail thou also, son of the wise Pandion, �geus, coming from what
+  quarter dost thou tread the plain of this land?</p>
+
+�G. Having left the ancient oracle of Ph&#339;bus.
+
+  <p>MED. But wherefore wert thou sent to the prophetic centre of the
+  earth?</p>
+
+�G. Inquiring of the God how offspring may arise to me?
+
+  <p>MED. By the Gods, tell me, dost thou live this life hitherto
+  childless?</p>
+
+�G. Childless I am, by the disposal of some deity.
+
+  <p>MED. Hast thou a wife, or knowest thou not the marriage-bed!</p>
+
+�G. I am not destitute of the connubial bed.
+
+  <p>MED. What then did Apollo tell thee respecting thy offspring?</p>
+
+�G. Words deeper than a man can form opinion of.
+
+  <p>MED. Is it allowable for me to know the oracle of the God?</p>
+
+�G. Certainly, inasmuch as it needs also a deep-skilled mind.
+
+  <p>MED. What then did he say? Speak, if I may hear.</p>
+
+�G. That I was not to loose the projecting foot of the vessel&mdash;
+
+  <p>MED. Before thou didst what, or came to what land?</p>
+
+�G. Before I revisit my paternal hearth.
+
+  <p>MED. Then as desiring what dost thou direct thy voyage to this
+  land?</p>
+
+�G. There is one Pittheus, king of the country of Trazene.
+
+  <p>MED. The most pious son, as report says, of Pelops.</p>
+
+�G. To him I wish to communicate the oracle of the God.
+
+  <p>MED. For he is a wise man, and versed in such matters.</p>
+
+�G. And to me at least the dearest of all my friends in war.
+
+  <p>MED. Mayest thou prosper, and obtain what thou desirest.</p>
+
+�G. But why is thine eye and thy color thus faded?
+
+  <p>MED. �geus, my husband is the worst of all men.</p>
+
+�G. What sayest thou? tell me all thy troubles.
+
+  <p>MED. Jason wrongs me, having never suffered wrong from me.</p>
+
+�G. Having done what? tell me more clearly.
+
+  <p>MED. He hath here a wife besides me, mistress of the house.</p>
+
+�G. Hath he dared to commit this disgraceful action?
+
+  <p>MED. Be assured he has; but we his former friends are dishonored.</p>
+
+�G. Enamored of her, or hating thy bed?
+
+  <p>MED. [Smitten with] violent love indeed, he was faithless to his
+  friends.</p>
+
+�G. Let him perish then, since, as you say, he is a bad
+man.
+
+  <p>MED. He was charmed to receive an alliance with princes.</p>
+
+�G. And who gives the bride to him? finish the account,
+I beg.
+
+  <p>MED. Creon, who is monarch of this Corinthian land.</p>
+
+�G. Pardonable was it then that thou art grieved, O lady.
+
+  <p>MED. I perish, and in addition to this am I banished from this
+  land.</p>
+
+�G. By whom? thou art mentioning another fresh misfortune.
+
+  <p>MED. Creon drives me an exile out of this land of Corinth.</p>
+
+�G. And does Jason suffer it? I praise not this.
+
+  <p>MED. By his words he does not, but at heart he wishes [to endure my
+  banishment:] but by this thy beard I entreat thee, and by these thy
+  knees, and I become thy suppliant, pity me, pity this unfortunate woman,
+  nor behold me going forth in exile abandoned, but receive me at thy
+  hearth in thy country and thy house. Thus by the Gods shall thy desire of
+  children be accomplished to thee, and thou thyself shalt die in
+  happiness. But thou knowest not what this fortune is that thou hast
+  found; but I will free thee from being childless, and I will cause thee
+  to raise up offspring, such charms I know.</p>
+
+�G. On many accounts, O lady, am I willing to confer this
+favor on thee, first on account of the Gods, then of the
+children, whose birth thou holdest forth; for on this point else
+I am totally sunk in despair. But thus am I determined: if
+thou comest to my country, I will endeavor to receive thee
+with hospitality, being a just man; so much however I beforehand
+apprise thee of, O lady, I shall not be willing to lead
+thee with me from this land; but if thou comest thyself to my
+house, thou shalt stay there in safety, and to no one will I
+give thee up. But do thou of thyself withdraw thy foot from
+this country, for I wish to be without blame even among
+strangers.
+
+  <p>MED. It shall be so, but if there was a pledge of this given to me, I
+  should have all things from thee in a noble manner.</p>
+
+�G. Dost thou not trust me? what is thy difficulty?
+
+  <p>MED. I trust thee; but the house of Pelias is mine enemy, and Creon
+  too; to these then, wert thou bound by oaths, thou wouldest not give me
+  up from the country, should they attempt to drag me thence. But having
+  agreed by words alone, and without calling the Gods to witness, thou
+  mightest be their friend, and perhaps<a name="Med_20"></a><a
+  href="#MedN_20"><sup>[20]</sup></a> be persuaded by an embassy; for weak
+  is my state, but theirs are riches, and a royal house.</p>
+
+�G. Thou hast spoken much prudence, O lady. But if it
+seems fit to thee that I should do this, I refuse not. For to
+me also this seems the safest plan, that I should have some
+pretext to show to your enemies, and thy safety is better secured;
+propose the Gods that I am to invoke.
+
+  <p>MED. Swear by the earth, and by the sun the father of my father, and
+  join the whole race of Gods.</p>
+
+�G. That I will do what thing, or what not do? speak.
+
+  <p>MED. That thou wilt neither thyself ever cast me forth from out of thy
+  country, nor, if any one of my enemies desire to drag me thence, that
+  thou wilt, while living, give me up willingly.</p>
+
+�G. I swear by the earth, and the hallowed majesty of
+the sun, and by all the Gods, to abide by what I hear from
+thee.
+
+  <p>MED. It is sufficient: but what wilt thou endure shouldest thou not
+  abide by this oath?</p>
+
+�G. That which befalls impious men.
+
+  <p>MED. Go with blessings; for every thing is well. And I will come as
+  quick as possible to thy city, having performed what I intend, and having
+  obtained what I desire.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. But may the son of Maia the king, the guide, conduct thee safely
+  to thy house, and the plans of those things, which thou anxiously keepest
+  in thy mind, mayest thou bring to completion, since, �geus, thou hast
+  appeared to us to be a noble man.</p>
+
+<p class="center">MEDEA, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>MED. O Jove, and thou vengeance of Jove, and thou light of the sun,
+  now, my friends, shall I obtain a splendid victory over my enemies, and I
+  have struck into the path. Now is there hope that my enemies will suffer
+  punishment. For this man, where I was most at a loss, hath appeared a
+  harbor to my plans. From him will I make fast my cable from the stern,
+  having come to the town and citadel of Pallas. But now will I communicate
+  all my plans to thee; but receive my words not as attuned to pleasure.
+  Having sent one of my domestics, I will ask Jason to come into my
+  presence; and when he is come, I will address gentle words to him, as
+  that it appears to me that these his actions are both honorable, and are
+  advantageous and well determined on.<a name="Med_21"></a><a
+  href="#MedN_21"><sup>[21]</sup></a> And I will entreat him that my sons
+  may stay; not that I would leave my children in a hostile country for my
+  enemies to insult, but that by deceit I may slay the king's daughter. For
+  I will send them bearing presents in their hands, both a fine-wrought
+  robe, and a golden-twined wreath.<a name="Med_22"></a><a
+  href="#MedN_22"><sup>[22]</sup></a> And if she take the ornaments and
+  place them round her person, she shall perish miserably, and every one
+  who shall touch the damsel; with such charms will I anoint the presents.
+  Here however I finish this account; but I bewail the deed such as must
+  next be done by me; for I shall slay my children; there is no one who
+  shall rescue them from me; and having heaped in ruins the whole house of
+  Jason, I will go from out this land, flying the murder of my dearest
+  children, and having dared a deed most unhallowed. For it is not to be
+  borne, my friends, to be derided by one's enemies. Let things take their
+  course; what gain is it to me to live longer? I have neither country, nor
+  house, nor refuge from my ills. Then erred I, when I left my father's
+  house, persuaded by the words of a Grecian man, who with the will of the
+  Gods shall suffer punishment from me. For neither shall he ever hereafter
+  behold the children he had by me alive, nor shall he raise a child by his
+  new wedded wife, since it is fated that the wretch should wretchedly
+  perish by my spells. Let no one think me mean-spirited and weak, nor of a
+  gentle temper, but of a contrary disposition to my foes relentless, and
+  to my friends kind: for the lives of such sort are most glorious.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Since thou hast communicated this plan to me, desirous both of
+  doing good to thee, and assisting the laws of mortals, I dissuade thee
+  from doing this.</p>
+
+  <p>MED. It can not be otherwise, but it is pardonable in thee to say
+  this, not suffering the cruel treatment that I do.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. But wilt thou dare to slay thy two sons, O lady?</p>
+
+  <p>MED. For in this way will my husband be most afflicted.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. But thou at least wilt be the most wretched woman.</p>
+
+  <p>MED. Be that as it may: all intervening words are superfluous; but go,
+  hasten, and bring Jason hither; for I make use of thee in all matters of
+  trust. And thou wilt mention nothing of the plans determined on by me, if
+  at least thou meanest well to thy mistress, and art a woman.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. The Athenians happy of old, and the descendants of the blessed
+  Gods, feeding on the most exalted wisdom of a country sacred and
+  unconquered, always tripping elegantly through the purest atmosphere,
+  where they say that of old the golden-haired Harmonia gave birth to the
+  chaste nine Pierian Muses.<a name="Med_23"></a><a
+  href="#MedN_23"><sup>[23]</sup></a> And they report also that Venus
+  drawing in her breath from the stream of the fair-flowing Cephisus,
+  breathed over their country gentle sweetly-breathing gales of air; and
+  always entwining in her hair the fragrant wreath of roses, sends the
+  loves as assessors to wisdom; the assistants of every virtue. How then
+  will the city of hallowed rivers,<a name="Med_24"></a><a
+  href="#MedN_24"><sup>[24]</sup></a> or the country which conducts thee to
+  friends, receive the murderer of her children, the unholy one? Consider
+  in conjunction with others of the slaughter of thy children, consider
+  what a murder thou wilt undertake. Do not by thy knees, by every plea,<a
+  name="Med_25"></a><a href="#MedN_25"><sup>[25]</sup></a> by every prayer,
+  we entreat you, do not murder your children; but how wilt thou acquire
+  confidence either of mind or hand or in heart against thy children,
+  attempting a dreadful deed of boldness? But how, having darted thine eyes
+  upon thy children, wilt thou endure the perpetration of the murder
+  without tears? Thou wilt not<a name="Med_26"></a><a
+  href="#MedN_26"><sup>[26]</sup></a> be able, when thy children fall
+  suppliant at thy feet, to imbrue thy savage hand in their wretched
+  life-blood.</p>
+
+<p class="center">JASON, MEDEA, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>JAS. I am come, by thee requested; for although thou art enraged, thou
+  shalt not be deprived of this at least; but I will hear what new service
+  thou dost desire of me, lady.</p>
+
+  <p>MED. Jason, I entreat you to be forgiving of what has been said, but
+  right is it that you should bear with my anger, since many friendly acts
+  have been done by us two. But I reasoned with myself and rebuked myself;
+  wayward woman, why am I maddened and am enraged with those who consult
+  well for me? and why am I in enmity with the princes of the land and with
+  my husband, who is acting in the most advantageous manner for us, having
+  married a princess, and begetting brothers to my children? Shall I not
+  cease from my rage? What injury do I suffer, the Gods providing well for
+  me? Have I not children? And I know that I am flying the country, and am
+  in want of friends. Revolving this in my mind I perceive that I had much
+  imprudence, and was enraged without reason. Now then I approve of this,
+  and thou appearest to me to be prudent, having added this alliance to us;
+  but I was foolish, who ought to share in these plans, and to join in
+  adorning and to stand by the bed, and to delight with thee that thy bride
+  was enamored of thee; but we women are as we are, I will not speak evil
+  of the sex; wherefore it is not right that you should put yourself on an
+  equality with the evil, nor repay folly for folly. I give up, and say
+  that then I erred in judgment, but now I have determined on these things
+  better. O my children, my children, come forth, leave the house, come
+  forth, salute, and address your father with me, and be reconciled to your
+  friends from your former hatred together with your mother. For there is
+  amity between us, and my rage hath ceased. Take his right hand. Alas! my
+  misfortunes; how I feel some hidden ill in my mind! Will ye, my children,
+  in this manner, and for a long time enjoying life, stretch out your dear
+  hands? Wretch that I am! how near am I to weeping and full of
+  fear!&mdash;But at last canceling this dispute with your father, I have
+  filled thus my tender sight with tears.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. In my eyes also the moist tear is arisen; and may not the evil
+  advance to a greater height than it is at present.</p>
+
+  <p>JAS. I approve of this, lady, nor do I blame the past; for it is
+  reasonable that the female sex be enraged with a husband who barters them
+  for another union.&mdash;But thy heart has changed to the more proper
+  side, and thou hast discovered, but after some time, the better counsel:
+  these are the actions of a wise woman. But for you, my sons, your father
+  not without thought hath formed many provident plans, with the assistance
+  of the Gods. For I think that you will be yet the first in this
+  Corinthian country, together with your brothers. But advance and prosper:
+  and the rest your father, and whatever God is propitious, will effect.
+  And may I behold you blooming arrive at the prime of youth, superior to
+  my enemies. And thou, why dost thou bedew thine eyes with the moist tear,
+  having turned aside thy white cheek, and why dost thou not receive these
+  words from me with pleasure?</p>
+
+  <p>MED. It is nothing. I was thinking of my sons.</p>
+
+  <p>JAS. Be of good courage; for I will arange well for them.</p>
+
+  <p>MED. I will be so, I will not mistrust thy words; but a woman is of
+  soft mould, and was born to tears.</p>
+
+  <p>JAS. Why, I pray, dost thou so grieve for thy children?</p>
+
+  <p>MED. I brought them into the world, and when thou wert praying that
+  thy children might live, a feeling of pity came upon me if that would be.
+  But for what cause thou hast come to a conference with me, partly hath
+  been explained, but the other reasons I will mention. Since it appeareth
+  fit to the royal family to send me from this country, for me also this
+  appears best, I know it well, that I might not dwell here, a check either
+  to thee or to the princes of the land; for I seem to be an object of
+  enmity to the house; I indeed will set out from this land in flight; but
+  to the end that the children may be brought up by thy hand, entreat Creon
+  that they may not leave this land.</p>
+
+  <p>JAS. I know not whether I shall persuade him; but it is right to
+  try.</p>
+
+  <p>MED. But do thou then exhort thy bride to ask her father, that my
+  children may not leave this country.</p>
+
+  <p>JAS. Certainly I will, and I think at least that she will persuade
+  him, if indeed she be one of the female sex.</p>
+
+  <p>MED. I also will assist you in this task, for I will send to her
+  presents which (I well know) far surpass in beauty any now among men,
+  both a fine-wrought robe, and a golden-twined chaplet, my sons carrying
+  them. But as quick as possible let one of my attendants bring hither
+  these ornaments. Thy bride shall be blessed not in one instance, but in
+  many, having met with you at least the best of husbands, and possessing
+  ornaments which the sun my father's father once gave to his descendants.
+  Take these nuptial presents, my sons, in your hands, and bear and present
+  them to the blessed royal bride; she shall receive gifts not indeed to be
+  despised.</p>
+
+  <p>JAS. Why, O fond woman, dost thou rob thy hands of these; thinkest
+  thou that the royal palace is in want of vests? in want of gold? keep
+  these presents, give them not away; for if the lady esteems me of any
+  value, she will prefer pleasing me to riches, I know full well.</p>
+
+  <p>MED. But do not oppose me; gifts, they say, persuade even the Gods,<a
+  name="Med_27"></a><a href="#MedN_27"><sup>[27]</sup></a> and gold is more
+  powerful than a thousand arguments to men. Hers is fortune, her substance
+  the God now increases, she in youth governs all. But the sentence of
+  banishment on my children I would buy off with my life, not with gold
+  alone. But my children, enter you the wealthy palace, to the new bride of
+  your father, and my mistress, entreat her, beseech her, that you may not
+  leave the land, presenting these ornaments; but this is of the greatest
+  consequence, that, she receive these gifts in her own hand. Go as quick
+  as possible, and may you be bearers of good tidings to your mother in
+  what she desires to obtain, having succeeded favorably.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Now no longer have I any hope of life for the children, no
+  longer [is there hope]; for already are they going to death. The bride
+  shall receive the destructive present of the golden chaplet, she wretched
+  shall receive them, and around her golden tresses shall she place the
+  attire of death, having received the presents in her hands. The beauty
+  and the divine glitter of the robe will persuade her to place around her
+  head the golden-wrought chaplet. Already with the dead shall the bride be
+  adorned; into such a net will she fall, and such a destiny will she,
+  hapless woman, meet with; nor will she escape her fate. But thou, oh
+  unhappy man! oh wretched bridegroom! son-in-law of princes, unknowingly
+  thou bringest on thy children destruction, and on thy wife a bitter
+  death; hapless man, how much art thou fallen from thy state!<a
+  name="Med_28"></a><a href="#MedN_28"><sup>[28]</sup></a> But I lament for
+  thy grief, O wretch, mother of these children, who wilt murder thy sons
+  on account of a bridal-bed; deserting which, in defiance of thee, thy
+  husband dwells with another wife.</p>
+
+<p class="center">TUTOR, MEDEA, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>TUT. Thy sons, my mistress, are reprieved from banishment, and the
+  royal bride received thy presents in her hands with pleasure, and hence
+  is peace to thy children.</p>
+
+  <p>MED. Ah!</p>
+
+  <p>TUT. Why dost thou stand in confusion, when thou art fortunate?</p>
+
+  <p>MED. Alas! alas!</p>
+
+  <p>TUT. This behavior is not consonant with the message I have brought
+  thee.</p>
+
+  <p>MED. Alas! again.</p>
+
+  <p>TUT. Have I reported any ill fortune unknowingly, and have I failed in
+  my hope of being the messenger of good?</p>
+
+  <p>MED. Thou hast said what thou hast said, I blame not thee.</p>
+
+  <p>TUT. Why then dost thou bend down thine eye, and shed tears?</p>
+
+  <p>MED. Strong necessity compels me, O aged man, for this the Gods and I
+  deliberating ill have contrived.</p>
+
+  <p>TUT. Be of good courage; thou also wilt return home yet through thy
+  children.</p>
+
+  <p>MED. Others first will I send to their home,<a name="Med_29"></a><a
+  href="#MedN_29"><sup>[29]</sup></a> O wretched me!</p>
+
+  <p>TUT. Thou art not the only one who art separated from thy children; it
+  behooves a mortal to bear calamities with meekness.</p>
+
+  <p>MED. I will do so; but go within the house, and prepare for the
+  children what is needful for the day. O my sons, my sons, you have indeed
+  a city, and a house, in which having forsaken me miserable, you shall
+  dwell, ever deprived of a mother. But I am now going an exile into a
+  foreign land, before I could have delight in you, and see you
+  flourishing, before I could adorn your marriage, and wife, and
+  nuptial-bed, and hold up the torch.<a name="Med_30"></a><a
+  href="#MedN_30"><sup>[30]</sup></a> O unfortunate woman that I am, on
+  account of my wayward temper. In vain then, my children, have I brought
+  you up, in vain have I toiled, and been consumed with cares, suffering
+  the strong agonies of child-bearing. Surely once there was a time when I
+  hapless woman had many hopes in you, that you would both tend me in my
+  age, and when dead would with your hands decently compose my limbs, a
+  thing desired by men. But now this pleasing thought hath indeed perished;
+  for deprived of you I shall pass a life of misery, and bitter to myself.
+  But you will no longer behold your mother with your dear eyes, having
+  passed into another state of life. Alas! alas! why do you look upon me
+  with your eyes, my children? Why do ye smile that last smile? Alas! alas!
+  what shall I do? for my heart is sinking. Ye females, when I behold the
+  cheerful look of my children, I have no power. Farewell my counsels: I
+  will take my children with me from this land. What does it avail me
+  grieving their father with the ills of these, to acquire twice as much
+  pain for myself? never will I at least do this. Farewell my counsels. And
+  yet what do I suffer? do I wish to incur ridicule, having left my foes
+  unpunished? This must be dared. But the bringing forward words of
+  tenderness in my mind arises also from my cowardice. Go, my children,
+  into the house; and he for whom it is not lawful to be present at my
+  sacrifice, let him take care himself to keep away.<a name="Med_31"></a><a
+  href="#MedN_31"><sup>[31]</sup></a> But I will not stain my hand. Alas!
+  alas! do not thou then, my soul, do not thou at least perpetrate this.
+  Let them escape, thou wretch, spare thy sons. There shall they live with
+  us and delight thee. No, I swear by the infernal deities who dwell with
+  Pluto, never shall this be, that I will give up my children to be
+  insulted by my enemies. [At all events they must die, and since they
+  must, I who brought them into the world will perpetrate the deed.] This
+  is fully determined by fate, and shall not pass away. And now the chaplet
+  is on her head, and the bride is perishing in the robes; of this I am
+  well assured. But, since I am now going a most dismal path, and these
+  will I send by one still more dismal, I desire to address my children:
+  give, my sons, give thy right hand for thy mother to kiss. O most dear
+  hand, and those lips dearest to me, and that form and noble countenance
+  of my children, be ye blessed, but there;<a name="Med_32"></a><a
+  href="#MedN_32"><sup>[32]</sup></a> for every thing here your father hath
+  taken away. O the sweet embrace, and that soft skin, and that most
+  fragrant breath of my children. Go, go; no longer am I able to look upon
+  you, but am overcome by my ills. I know indeed the ills that I am about
+  to dare, but my rage is master of my counsels,<a name="Med_33"></a><a
+  href="#MedN_33"><sup>[33]</sup></a> which is indeed the cause of the
+  greatest calamities to men.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Already have I often gone through more refined reasonings, and
+  have come to greater arguments than suits the female mind to investigate;
+  for we also have a muse, which dwelleth with us, for the sake of teaching
+  wisdom; but not with all, for haply thou wilt find but a small number of
+  the race of women out of many not ungifted with the muse.<a
+  name="Med_34"></a><a href="#MedN_34"><sup>[34]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>And I say that those men who are entirely free from wedlock, and have
+  not begotten children, surpass in happiness those who have families;
+  those indeed who are childless, through inexperience whether children are
+  born a joy or anguish to men, not having them themselves, are exempt from
+  much misery. But those who have a sweet blooming offspring of children in
+  their house, I behold worn with care the whole time; first of all how
+  they shall bring them up honorably, and how they shall leave means of
+  sustenance for their children. And still after this, whether they are
+  toiling for bad or good sons, this is still in darkness. But one ill to
+  mortals, the last of all, I now will mention. For suppose they have both
+  found sufficient store, and the bodies of their children have arrived at
+  manhood, and that they are good; but if this fortune shall happen to
+  them, death, bearing away their sons, vanishes with them to the shades of
+  darkness. How then does it profit that the Gods heap on mortals yet this
+  grief in addition to others, the most bitter of all, for the sake of
+  children?</p>
+
+<p class="center">MEDEA, MESSENGER, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>MED. For a long time waiting for the event, my friends, I am anxiously
+  expecting what will be the result thence. And I see indeed one of the
+  domestics of Jason coming hither, and his quickened breath shows that he
+  will be the messenger of some new ill.</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. O thou, that hast impiously perpetrated a deed of terror, Medea,
+  fly, fly, leaving neither the ocean chariot,<a name="Med_35"></a><a
+  href="#MedN_35"><sup>[35]</sup></a> nor the car whirling o'er the
+  plain.</p>
+
+  <p>MED. But what is done that requires this flight?</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. The princess is just dead, and Creon her father destroyed by thy
+  charms.</p>
+
+  <p>MED. Thou hast spoken most glad tidings: and hereafter from this time
+  shalt thou be among my benefactors and friends.</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. What sayest thou? Art thou in thy senses, and not mad, lady? who
+  having destroyed the king and family, rejoicest at hearing it, and
+  fearest not such things?</p>
+
+  <p>MED. I also have something to say to these words of thine at least;
+  but be not hasty, my friend; but tell me how they perished, for twice as
+  much delight wilt thou give me if they died miserably.</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. As soon as thy two sons were come with their father, and had
+  entered the bridal house, we servants, who were grieved at thy
+  misfortunes, were delighted; and immediately there was much conversation
+  in our ears, that thy husband and thou had brought the former quarrel to
+  a friendly termination. One kissed the hand, another the auburn head of
+  thy sons, and I also myself followed with them to the women's apartments
+  through joy. But my mistress, whom we now reverence instead of thee,
+  before she saw thy two sons enter, held her cheerful eyes fixed on Jason;
+  afterward however she covered her eyes, and turned aside her white cheek,
+  disgusted at the entrance of thy sons; but thy husband quelled the anger
+  and rage of the young bride, saying this; Be not angry with thy friends,
+  but cease from thy rage, and turn again thy face, esteeming those as
+  friends, whom thy husband does. But receive the gifts, and ask thy father
+  to give up the sentence of banishment against these children for my sake.
+  But when she saw the ornaments, she refused not, but promised her husband
+  every thing; and before thy sons and their father were gone far from the
+  house, she took and put on the variegated robes, and having placed the
+  golden chaplet around her tresses she arranges her hair in the radiant
+  mirror, smiling at the lifeless image of her person. And after, having
+  risen from her seat, she goes across the chamber, elegantly tripping with
+  snow-white foot; rejoicing greatly in the presents, looking much and
+  oftentimes with her eyes on her outstretched neck.<a name="Med_36"></a><a
+  href="#MedN_36"><sup>[36]</sup></a> After that however there was a sight
+  of horror to behold. For having changed color, she goes staggering back
+  trembling in her limbs, and is scarce in time to prevent herself from
+  falling on the ground, by sinking into a chair. And some aged female
+  attendant, when she thought that the wrath either of Pan or some other
+  Deity<a name="Med_37"></a><a href="#MedN_37"><sup>[37]</sup></a> had
+  visited her, offered up the invocation, before at least she sees the
+  white foam bursting from her mouth, and her mistress rolling her eyeballs
+  from their sockets, and the blood no longer in the flesh; then she sent
+  forth a loud shriek of far different sound from the strain of
+  supplication; and straightway one rushed to the apartments of her father,
+  but another to her newly-married husband, to tell the calamity befallen
+  the bride, and all the house was filled with frequent hurryings to and
+  fro. And by this time a swift runner, exerting his limbs, might have
+  reached<a name="Med_38"></a><a href="#MedN_38"><sup>[38]</sup></a> the
+  goal of the course of six plethra;<a name="Med_39"></a><a
+  href="#MedN_39"><sup>[39]</sup></a> but she, wretched woman, from being
+  speechless, and from a closed eye having groaned deeply writhed in agony;
+  for a double pest was warring against her. The golden chaplet indeed
+  placed on her head was sending forth a stream of all-devouring fire
+  wonderful to behold, but the fine-wrought robes, the presents of thy
+  sons, were devouring the white flesh of the hapless woman. But she having
+  started from her seat flies, all on fire, tossing her hair and head on
+  this side and that side, desirous of shaking off the chaplet; but the
+  golden wreath firmly kept its hold; but the fire, when she shook her
+  hair, blazed out with double fury, and she sinks upon the ground overcome
+  by her sufferings, difficult for any one except her father to recognize.
+  For neither was the expression of her eyes clear, nor her noble
+  countenance; but the blood was dropping from the top of her head mixed
+  with fire. But her flesh was dropping off her bones, as the tear from the
+  pine-tree, by the hidden fangs of the poison; a sight of horror. But all
+  feared to touch the body, for we had her fate to warn us. But the hapless
+  father, through ignorance of her suffering, having come with haste into
+  the apartment, falls on the corpse, and groans immediately; and having
+  folded his arms round her, kisses her, saying these words; O miserable
+  child, what Deity hath thus cruelly destroyed thee? who makes an aged
+  father bowing to the tomb<a name="Med_40"></a><a
+  href="#MedN_40"><sup>[40]</sup></a> bereaved of thee? Alas me! let me die
+  with thee, my child. But after he had ceased from his lamentations and
+  cries, desiring to raise his aged body, he was held, as the ivy by the
+  boughs of the laurel, by the fine-wrought robes; and dreadful was the
+  struggle, for he wished to raise his knee, but she held him back; but if
+  he drew himself away by force he tore the aged flesh from his bones. But
+  at length the wretched man swooned away, and gave up his life; for no
+  longer was he able to endure the agony. But they lie corses, the daughter
+  and aged father near one another; a calamity that demands tears. And let
+  thy affairs indeed be not matter for my words; for thou thyself wilt know
+  a refuge from punishment. But the affairs of mortals not now for the
+  first time I deem a shadow, and I would venture to say that those persons
+  who seem to be wise and are researchers of arguments, these I say, run
+  into the greatest folly. For no mortal man is happy; but wealth pouring
+  in, one man may be more fortunate than another, but happy he can not
+  be.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. The Deity, it seems, will in this day justly heap on Jason a
+  variety of ills. O hapless lady, how we pity thy sufferings, daughter of
+  Creon, who art gone to the house of darkness, through thy marriage with
+  Jason.</p>
+
+  <p>MED. The deed is determined on by me, my friends, to slay my children
+  as soon as possible, and to hasten from this land; and not by delaying to
+  give my sons for another hand more hostile to murder. But come, be armed,
+  my heart; why do we delay to do dreadful but necessary deeds? Come, O
+  wretched hand of mine, grasp the sword, grasp it, advance to the bitter
+  goal of life, and be not cowardly, nor remember thy children how dear
+  they are, how thou broughtest them into the world; but for this short day
+  at least forget thy children; hereafter lament. For although thou slayest
+  them, nevertheless they at least were dear, but I a wretched woman.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. O thou earth, and thou all-illuming beam of the sun, look down
+  upon, behold this abandoned woman, before she move her blood-stained hand
+  itself about to inflict the blow against her children; for from thy
+  golden race they sprung; but fearful is it for the blood of Gods to fall
+  by the hand of man. But do thou, O heaven-born light, restrain her, stop
+  her, remove from this house this blood-stained and miserable Erinnys
+  agitated by the Furies. The care of thy children perishes in vain, and in
+  vain hast thou produced a dear race, O thou who didst leave the most
+  inhospitable entrance of the Cyanean rocks, the Symplegades. Hapless
+  woman, why does such grievous rage settle on thy mind; and hostile
+  slaughter ensue? For kindred pollutions are difficult of purification to
+  mortals; correspondent calamities falling from the Gods to the earth upon
+  the houses of the murderers.<a name="Med_41"></a><a
+  href="#MedN_41"><sup>[41]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>FIRST SON. (<i>within</i>) Alas! what shall I do? whither shall I fly
+  from my mother's hand?</p>
+
+  <p>SECOND SON. I know not, dearest brother, for we perish.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Hearest thou the cry? hearest thou the children? O wretch, O
+  ill-fated woman! Shall I enter the house? It seems right to me to ward
+  off the murderous blow from the children.</p>
+
+  <p>SONS. Nay, by the Gods assist us, for it is in needful time; since now
+  at least are we near the destruction of the sword.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Miserable woman, art thou then a rock, or iron, who cuttest down
+  with death by thine own hand the fair crop of children which thou
+  producedst thyself? one indeed I hear of, one woman of those of old, who
+  laid violent hands on her children, Ino, maddened by the Gods when the
+  wife of Jove sent her in banishment from her home; and she miserable
+  woman falls into the sea through the impious murder of her children,
+  directing her foot over the sea-shore, and dying with her two sons, there
+  she perished! what then I pray can be more dreadful than this? O thou bed
+  of woman, fruitful in ills, how many evils hast thou already brought to
+  men!</p>
+
+<p class="center">JASON, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>JAS. Ye females, who stand near this mansion, is she who hath done
+  these deeds of horror, Medea, in this house; or hath she withdrawn
+  herself in flight? For now it is necessary for her either to be hidden
+  beneath the earth, or to raise her winged body into the vast expanse of
+  air, if she would not suffer vengeance from the king's house. Does she
+  trust that after having slain the princes of this land, she shall herself
+  escape from this house with impunity?&mdash;But I have not such care for
+  her as for my children; for they whom she has injured will punish her.
+  But I came to preserve my children's life, lest [Creon's] relations by
+  birth do any injury,<a name="Med_42"></a><a
+  href="#MedN_42"><sup>[42]</sup></a> avenging the impious murder
+  perpetrated by their mother.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Unhappy man! thou knowest not at what misery thou hast arrived,
+  Jason, or else thou wouldest not have uttered these words.</p>
+
+  <p>JAS. What is this, did she wish to slay me also?</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Thy children are dead by their mother's hand.</p>
+
+  <p>JAS. Alas me! What wilt thou say? how hast thou killed me, woman!</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Think now of thy sons as no longer living.</p>
+
+  <p>JAS. Where did she slay them, within or without the house?</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Open those doors, and thou wilt see the slaughter of thy
+  sons.</p>
+
+  <p>JAS. Undo the bars, as quick as possible, attendants; unloose the
+  hinges, that I may see this double evil, my sons slain, and may punish
+  her.</p>
+
+  <p>MED. Why dost thou shake and unbolt these gates, seeking the dead and
+  me who did the deed. Cease from this labor; but if thou wantest aught
+  with me, speak if thou wishest any thing; but never shall thou touch me
+  with thy hands; such a chariot the sun my father's father gives me, a
+  defense from the hostile hand.<a name="Med_43"></a><a
+  href="#MedN_43"><sup>[43]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>JAS. O thou abomination! thou most detested woman, both by the Gods
+  and by me, and by all the race of man; who hast dared to plunge the sword
+  in thine own children, thou who bore them, and hast destroyed me
+  childless. And having done this thou beholdest both the sun and the
+  earth, having dared a most impious deed. Mayest thou perish! but I am now
+  wise, not being so then when I brought thee from thy house and from a
+  foreign land to a Grecian habitation, a great pest, traitress to thy
+  father and the land that nurtured thee. But the Gods have sent thy evil
+  genius on me. For having slain thy brother at the altar, thou embarkedst
+  on board the gallant vessel Argo. Thou begannest indeed with such deeds
+  as these; and being wedded to me, and bearing me children, thou hast
+  destroyed them on account of another bed and marriage. There is not one
+  Grecian woman who would have dared a deed like this, in preference to
+  whom at least, I thought worthy to wed thee, an alliance hateful and
+  destructive to me, a lioness, no woman, having a nature more savage than
+  the Tuscan Scylla. But I can not gall thy heart with ten thousand
+  reproaches, such shameless confidence is implanted in thee. Go, thou
+  worker of ill, and stained with the blood of thy children. But for me it
+  remains to bewail my fate, who shall neither enjoy my new nuptials, nor
+  shall I have it in my power to address while alive my sons whom I begot
+  and educated, but I have lost them.</p>
+
+  <p>MED. Surely I could make long reply to these words, if the Sire
+  Jupiter did not know what treatment thou receivedst from me, and what
+  thou didst in return; but you were mistaken, when you expected, having
+  dishonored my bed, to lead a life of pleasure, mocking me, and so was the
+  princess, and so was Creon, who proposed the match to thee, when he
+  expected to drive me from this land with impunity. Wherefore, if thou
+  wilt, call me lioness, and Scylla who dwelt in the Tuscan plain. For thy
+  heart, as is right, I have wounded.</p>
+
+  <p>JAS. And thou thyself grievest at least, and art a sharer in these
+  ills.</p>
+
+  <p>MED. Be assured of that; but this lessens<a name="Med_44"></a><a
+  href="#MedN_44"><sup>[44]</sup></a> the grief, that thou canst not mock
+  me.</p>
+
+  <p>JAS. My children, what a wicked mother have ye found!</p>
+
+  <p>MED. My sons, how did ye perish by your father's fault!</p>
+
+  <p>JAS. Nevertheless my hand slew them not.</p>
+
+  <p>MED. But injury, and thy new nuptials.</p>
+
+  <p>JAS. And on account of thy bed didst thou think fit to slay them?</p>
+
+  <p>MED. Dost thou deem this a slight evil to a woman?</p>
+
+  <p>JAS. Whoever at least is modest; but in thee is every ill.</p>
+
+  <p>MED. These are no longer living, for this will gall thee.</p>
+
+  <p>JAS. These are living, alas me! avenging furies on thy head.</p>
+
+  <p>MED. The Gods know who began the injury.</p>
+
+  <p>JAS. They know indeed thy execrable mind.</p>
+
+  <p>Meo. Thou art hateful to me, and I detest thy bitter speech.</p>
+
+  <p>JAS. And I in sooth thine; the separation at least is without
+  pain.</p>
+
+  <p>MED. How then? what shall I do? for I also am very desirous.</p>
+
+  <p>JAS. Suffer me, I beg, to bury and mourn over these dead bodies.</p>
+
+  <p>MED. Never indeed; since I will bury them with this hand bearing them
+  to the shrine of Juno, the Goddess guardian of the citadel, that no one
+  of my enemies may insult them, tearing up their graves. But in this land
+  of Sisyphus will I institute in addition to this a solemn festival and
+  sacrifices hereafter to expiate this unhallowed murder. But I myself will
+  go to the land of Erectheus, to dwell with �geus son of Pandion. But
+  thou, wretch, as is fit, shalt die wretchedly, struck on thy head with a
+  relic of thy ship Argo, having seen the bitter end of my marriage.</p>
+
+  <p>JAS. But may the Fury of the children, and Justice the avenger of
+  murder, destroy thee.</p>
+
+  <p>MED. But what God or Deity hears thee, thou perjured man, and traitor
+  to the rights of hospitality?</p>
+
+  <p>JAS. Ah! thou abominable woman, and murderer of thy children.</p>
+
+  <p>MED. Go to thy home, and bury thy wife.</p>
+
+  <p>JAS. I go, even deprived of both my children.</p>
+
+  <p>MED. Thou dost not yet mourn enough: stay and grow old.<a
+  name="Med_45"></a><a href="#MedN_45"><sup>[45]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>JAS. Oh my dearest sons!</p>
+
+  <p>MED. To their mother at least, but not to thee.</p>
+
+  <p>JAS. And yet thou slewest them.</p>
+
+  <p>MED. To grieve thee.</p>
+
+  <p>JAS. Alas, alas! I hapless man long to kiss the dear mouths of my
+  children.</p>
+
+  <p>MED. Now them addressest, now salutest them, formerly rejecting them
+  with scorn.</p>
+
+  <p>JAS. Grant me, by the Gods, to touch the soft skin of my sons.</p>
+
+  <p>MED. It is not possible. Thy words are thrown away in vain.</p>
+
+  <p>JAS. Dost thou hear this, O Jove, how I am rejected, and what I suffer
+  from this accursed and child-destroying lioness? But as much indeed as is
+  in my power and I am able, I lament and mourn over these; calling the
+  Gods to witness, that having slain my children, thou preventest me from
+  touching them with my hands, and from burying the bodies, whom, oh that I
+  had never begotten, and seen them thus destroyed by thee.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Jove is the dispenser of various fates in heaven, and the Gods
+  perform many things contrary to our expectations, and those things which
+  we looked for are not accomplished; but the God hath brought to pass
+  things unthought of. In such manner hath this affair ended.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h3>NOTES ON MEDEA</h3>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+<div class="note">
+  <p><a name="MedN_1"></a><a href="#Med_1">[1]</a> The Cyane� Petr�, or
+  Symplegades, were two rocks in the mouth of the Euxine Sea, said to meet
+  together with prodigious violence, and crush the passing ships. See
+  Pindar. Pyth. iv. 386.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="MedN_2"></a><a href="#Med_2">[2]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="eretm�sai">&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3B5;&#x3C4;&#x3BC;&#x3C9;&#x3C3;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;</span>
+  signifies to make to row; <span lang="el"
+  title="eretm�sai">&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3B5;&#x3C4;&#x3BC;&#x3B7;&#x3C3;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;</span>,
+  to row. In the same sense the two verbs derived from <span lang="el"
+  title="polemos">&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3BB;&#x3B5;&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span>
+  are used, <span lang="el"
+  title="polemo�">&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3BB;&#x3B5;&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3C9;</span>
+  signifying ad bellum excito; <span lang="el"
+  title="poleme�">&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3BB;&#x3B5;&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3C9;</span>,
+  bellum gero.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="MedN_3"></a><a href="#Med_3">[3]</a> Elmsley reads <span
+  lang="el" title="phyg�">&#x3C6;&#x3C5;&#x3B3;&#x3B7;</span> in the
+  nominative case, "<i>a flight indeed pleasing</i>," etc.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="MedN_4"></a><a href="#Med_4">[4]</a> Literally, <i>Before we
+  have drained this to the very dregs</i>. So Virgil, �n. iv. 14. <i>Qu�
+  bella exhausta canebat</i>!</p>
+
+  <p><a name="MedN_5"></a><a href="#Med_5">[5]</a> Ter. And. Act. ii. Sc.
+  5. <i>Omnes sibi malle melius esse quam alteri</i>. Ac. iv. Sc. 1.
+  <i>Proximus sum egomet mihi</i>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="MedN_6"></a><a href="#Med_6">[6]</a> Elmsley reads <span
+  lang="el" title="kai">&#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;</span> for <span lang="el"
+  title="ei">&#x3B5;&#x3B9;</span>, "<i>And their father</i>," etc.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="MedN_7"></a><a href="#Med_7">[7]</a> In Elms. Dind. <span
+  lang="el" title="to gar eithisthai">&#x3C4;&#x3BF; &#x3B3;&#x3B1;&#x3C1;
+  &#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3B8;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3B8;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;</span>, "<i>for
+  the being accustomed</i>," etc.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="MedN_8"></a><a href="#Med_8">[8]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="dynatai">&#x3B4;&#x3C5;&#x3BD;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;</span>
+  here signifies <span lang="el" title="ischyei,
+  sthenei">&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3C7;&#x3C5;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;,
+  &#x3C3;&#x3B8;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;</span>; and in this sense it
+  is repeatedly used: <span lang="el" title="oudena
+  kairon">&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3B4;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span>, in this place, is not
+  to be interpreted "intempestive", but "immoderate, supra modum." For this
+  signification consult Stephen's Thesaurus, word <span lang="el"
+  title="kairos">&#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span>.
+  EMSLEY.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="MedN_9"></a><a href="#Med_9">[9]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="hode">&#x201B;&#x3BF;&#x3B4;&#x3B5;</span> is used in this sense
+  v. 49, 687, 901, of this Play.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="MedN_10"></a><a href="#Med_10">[10]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="mogera">&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3B3;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;</span> is best
+  taken with Reiske as the accusative plural, though the Scholiast
+  considers it the nominative singular. ELMSLEY.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="MedN_11"></a><a href="#Med_11">[11]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="geg�tas">&#x3B3;&#x3B5;&#x3B3;&#x3C9;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3C2;</span>
+  need not be translated as <span lang="el"
+  title="nomizomenous">&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3BC;&#x3B9;&#x3B6;&#x3BF;&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C2;</span>,
+  the sense is [Greek; ontas]: so <span lang="el" title="authad�s
+  geg�s">&#x3B1;&#x3C5;&#x3B8;&#x3B1;&#x3B4;&#x3B7;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B3;&#x3B5;&#x3B3;&#x3C9;&#x3C2;</span>, line 225.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="MedN_12"></a><a href="#Med_12">[12]</a> That is, the
+  character of man can not be discovered by the countenance: so
+  Juvenal,</p>
+
+  <div class="poem">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <p>Fronti nulla fides.</p>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+  <p><span lang="el"
+  title="hostis">&#x201B;&#x3BF;&#x3C3;&#x3C4;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;</span>, though
+  in the singular number, refers to <span lang="el"
+  title="brot�n">&#x3B2;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3C4;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;</span> in the
+  plural: a similar construction is met with in Homer, Il. <span lang="el"
+  title="G">&#x393;</span>. 279.</p>
+
+  <div class="poem">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <p><span lang="el" title="anthr�pous tinnysthon, ho tis k' epiorkon homoss�i">&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3B8;&#x3C1;&#x3C9;&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C2; &#x3C4;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;&#x3BD;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3B8;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;, &#x201B;&#x3BF; &#x3C4;&#x3B9;&#x3C2; &#x3BA;' &#x3B5;&#x3C0;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3C1;&#x3BA;&#x3BF;&#x3BD; &#x201B;&#x3BF;&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3C3;&#x3C3;&#x3B7;&#x3B9;</span>.</p>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+  <p><a name="MedN_13"></a><a href="#Med_13">[13]</a> Grammarians teach us
+  that <span lang="el"
+  title="gamein">&#x3B3;&#x3B1;&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;</span> is
+  applied to the husband, <span lang="el"
+  title="gameisthai">&#x3B3;&#x3B1;&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3B8;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;</span>
+  to the wife; and this rule will generally be found to hold good. We must
+  either then read <span lang="el" title="h� t' eg�mato">&#x201B;&#x3B7;
+  &#x3C4;' &#x3B5;&#x3B3;&#x3B7;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;</span>, which
+  Porson does not object to, and Elmsley adopts; or understand <span
+  lang="el"
+  title="eg�mato">&#x3B5;&#x3B3;&#x3B7;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;</span>
+  in an ironical sense, in the spirit of Martial's <i>Uxori nubere nolo
+  me�</i>: in the latter case <span lang="el" title="h�i t'
+  eg�mato">&#x201B;&#x3B7;&#x3B9; &#x3C4;'
+  &#x3B5;&#x3B3;&#x3B7;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;</span> should be read
+  (not <span lang="el" title="h�n t'">&#x201B;&#x3B7;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3C4;'</span>), as being the proper syntax.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="MedN_14"></a><a href="#Med_14">[14]</a> The primary
+  signification of <span lang="el"
+  title="pl�mmel�s">&#x3C0;&#x3BB;&#x3B7;&#x3BC;&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3BB;&#x3B7;&#x3C2;</span>
+  is <i>absonus</i>, <i>out of tune</i>: hence is easily deduced the
+  signification in which it is often found in Euripides. The word <span
+  lang="el"
+  title="pl�mmel�sas">&#x3C0;&#x3BB;&#x3B7;&#x3BC;&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3BB;&#x3B7;&#x3C3;&#x3B1;&#x3C2;</span>
+  occurs in the Ph&#339;niss�, l. 1669.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="MedN_15"></a><a href="#Med_15">[15]</a> Elmsley approves of
+  the reading adopted by Porson, though he has given in his text</p>
+
+  <div class="poem">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <p><span lang="el" title="ponoumen h�meis, k' on pon�n kechr�metha">&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3BD; &#x201B;&#x3B7;&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;, &#x3BA;' &#x3BF;&#x3BD; &#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3C9;&#x3BD; &#x3BA;&#x3B5;&#x3C7;&#x3C1;&#x3B7;&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3B8;&#x3B1;</span>.</p>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+  <p>"<i>We are oppressed with cares, and want not other cares</i>," as
+  being more likely to have come from Euripides. So also Dindorf.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="MedN_16"></a><a href="#Med_16">[16]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="h�s eoikas">&#x201B;&#x3C9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B5;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3C2;</span>; is here used for the
+  more common expression <span lang="el" title="h�s
+  eoiken">&#x201B;&#x3C9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B5;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3BA;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;</span>. So Herodotus, Clio,
+  clv. <span lang="el" title="ou pausontai hoi Lydoi, h�s oikasi, pragmata
+  parechontes, kai autoi echontes">&#x3BF;&#x3C5;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x201B;&#x3BF;&#x3B9; &#x39B;&#x3C5;&#x3B4;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;,
+  &#x201B;&#x3C9;&#x3C2; &#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;,
+  &#x3C0;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3B3;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3C1;&#x3B5;&#x3C7;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3C2;,
+  &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9; &#x3B1;&#x3C5;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3B5;&#x3C7;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3C2;</span>. See also
+  Hecuba, 801.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="MedN_17"></a><a href="#Med_17">[17]</a> Beck interprets this
+  passage, "Mea quidem vita ut non habeat laudem, fama obstat." Heath
+  translates it, "Jam in contrariam partem tendens fama efficit, ut mea
+  quoque vita laudem habeat." We are told by the Scholiast, that by <span
+  lang="el"
+  title="biotan">&#x3B2;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;</span> is to be
+  understood <span lang="el"
+  title="physin">&#x3C6;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="MedN_18"></a><a href="#Med_18">[18]</a> Iolcos was a city of
+  Thessaly, distant about seven stadii from the sea, where the parents of
+  Jason lived: Pelion was both a mountain and city of Thessaly, close to
+  Iolcos; whence Iolcos is called Peliotic.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="MedN_19"></a><a href="#Med_19">[19]</a> For the same
+  sentiment more fully expressed, see Hippolytus, 616-625. See also
+  Paradise Lost, x. 890.</p>
+
+  <div class="poem">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <p class="i16">Oh, why did God,</p>
+      <p>Creator wise, that peopled highest heaven</p>
+      <p>With spirits masculine, create at last</p>
+      <p>This novelty on earth, this fair defect</p>
+      <p>Of nature, and not fill the world at once</p>
+      <p>With men, as angels, without feminine?</p>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+  <p><a name="MedN_20"></a><a href="#Med_20">[20]</a> Porson rightly reads
+  <span lang="el" title="tach' an pithoio">&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3C7;'
+  &#x3B1;&#x3BD; &#x3C0;&#x3B9;&#x3B8;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;</span> with
+  Wyttenbach.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="MedN_21"></a><a href="#Med_21">[21]</a> Elmsley has</p>
+
+  <div class="poem">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <p>"<span lang="el" title="h�s kai dokei moi tauta, kai kal�s echein">&#x201B;&#x3C9;&#x3C2; &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9; &#x3B4;&#x3BF;&#x3BA;&#x3B5;&#x3B9; &#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3B9; &#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3C5;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;, &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9; &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3C9;&#x3C2; &#x3B5;&#x3C7;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;</span>&nbsp;</p>
+      <p><span lang="el" title="gamous tyrann�n, hous prodous h�mas echei">&#x3B3;&#x3B1;&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C2; &#x3C4;&#x3C5;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3BD;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;, &#x201B;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C2; &#x3C0;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3B4;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C2; &#x201B;&#x3B7;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3C2; &#x3B5;&#x3C7;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;</span>,</p>
+      <p><span lang="el" title="kai xymphor' einai, kai kal�s egn�smena">&#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9; &#x3BE;&#x3C5;&#x3BC;&#x3C6;&#x3BF;&#x3C1;' &#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;, &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9; &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3C9;&#x3C2; &#x3B5;&#x3B3;&#x3BD;&#x3C9;&#x3C3;&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3B1;</span>."</p>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+  <p>"<i>that these things appear good to me, and that the alliance with
+  the princes, which he, having forsaken me, has contracted, are both
+  advantageous and well determined on</i>." So also Dind. but <span
+  lang="el" title="kal�s echei">&#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3C9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B5;&#x3C7;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;</span>. Porson omits the line.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="MedN_22"></a><a href="#Med_22">[22]</a> In Elmsley this line
+  is omitted, and instead of it is inserted</p>
+
+  <div class="poem">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <p>"<span lang="el" title="nymph�i pherontas, t�nde m� pheugein chthona">&#x3BD;&#x3C5;&#x3BC;&#x3C6;&#x3B7;&#x3B9; &#x3C6;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3C2;, &#x3C4;&#x3B7;&#x3BD;&#x3B4;&#x3B5; &#x3BC;&#x3B7; &#x3C6;&#x3B5;&#x3C5;&#x3B3;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3BD; &#x3C7;&#x3B8;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3B1;</span>."</p>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+  <p>"<i>offering them to the bride, that they may not be banished from
+  this country</i>," which Dindorf retains, and brackets the other.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="MedN_23"></a><a href="#Med_23">[23]</a> Although the
+  Scholiast reprobates this interpretation, it seems to be the best, nor is
+  it any objection, that <span lang="el"
+  title="Mn�mosyn�">&#x39C;&#x3BD;&#x3B7;&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3C3;&#x3C5;&#x3BD;&#x3B7;</span>
+  is elsewhere represented as the Mother of the Muses; so much at variance
+  is the poetry of Euripides with the received mythology of the ancients.
+  ELMSLEY.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="MedN_24"></a><a href="#Med_24">[24]</a> The construction is
+  <span lang="el" title="polis hier�n
+  potam�n">&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3BB;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x201B;&#x3B9;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3BC;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;</span>; thus Thebes,
+  Ph&#339;nis. l. 831, is called <span lang="el" title="pyrgos didym�n
+  potam�n">&#x3C0;&#x3C5;&#x3C1;&#x3B3;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B4;&#x3B9;&#x3B4;&#x3C5;&#x3BC;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3BC;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;</span>. A like
+  expression occurs in 2 Sam. xii. 27. I have fought against Rabbah, and
+  have taken <i>the city of waters</i>, <span lang="el" title="polin t�n
+  hydat�n">&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3BB;&#x3B9;&#x3BD; &#x3C4;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x201B;&#x3C5;&#x3B4;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;</span> in the
+  Septuagint version.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="MedN_25"></a><a href="#Med_25">[25]</a> Elmsley reads <span
+  lang="el"
+  title="pantes">&#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3C2;</span>, "<i>we
+  all entreat thee</i>." So Dindorf.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="MedN_26"></a><a href="#Med_26">[26]</a> Elmsley reads <span
+  lang="el" title="h� dynasei">&#x201B;&#x3B7;
+  &#x3B4;&#x3C5;&#x3BD;&#x3B1;&#x3C3;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;</span> with the note of
+  interrogation after <span lang="el"
+  title="thym�i">&#x3B8;&#x3C5;&#x3BC;&#x3C9;&#x3B9;</span>; "<i>or how
+  wilt thou be able,</i>" etc.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="MedN_27"></a><a href="#Med_27">[27]</a> An allusion to that
+  well-known saying in Plato, de Repub. 1. 3. <span lang="el" title="D�ra
+  theous peithei, d�r' aidoious basil�as">&#x394;&#x3C9;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3B8;&#x3B5;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3B8;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;, &#x3B4;&#x3C9;&#x3C1;'
+  &#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3B4;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B2;&#x3B1;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;&#x3BB;&#x3B7;&#x3B1;&#x3C2;</span>. Ovid. de
+  Arte Am. iii. 635.</p>
+
+  <div class="poem">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <p>Munera, crede mini, capiunt hominesque deosque.</p>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+  <p><a name="MedN_28"></a><a href="#Med_28">[28]</a> Vertit Portus, <i>O
+  infelix quantam calamitatem ignoras</i>. Mihi sensus videtur esse,
+  <i>quantum a pristina fortuna excidisti</i>. ELMSLEY.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="MedN_29"></a><a href="#Med_29">[29]</a> Medea here makes use
+  of the ambiguous word <span lang="el"
+  title="katax�">&#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3BE;&#x3C9;</span>, which
+  may be understood by the Tutor in the sense of "bringing back to their
+  country," but implies also the horrid purpose of destroying her children:
+  <span lang="el" title="tode 'katax�' anti tou pemps� eis ton
+  Aid�n">&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3B4;&#x3B5;
+  '&#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3BE;&#x3C9;' &#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C5; &#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3BC;&#x3C8;&#x3C9;
+  &#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C2; &#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;
+  &#x391;&#x3B9;&#x3B4;&#x3B7;&#x3BD;</span>, as the Scholiast explains
+  it.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="MedN_30"></a><a href="#Med_30">[30]</a> It was the custom for
+  mothers to bear lighted torches at their children's nuptials. See Iphig.
+  Aul. l. 372.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="MedN_31"></a><a href="#Med_31">[31]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="hot�i de ph�sin ouk eusebes phainetai pareinai t�i phon�i, kai
+  dechesthai toiautas thysias, houtos apot�.&mdash;t�i de aut�i mel�sei
+  synapteon to m� pareinai">&#x201B;&#x3BF;&#x3C4;&#x3C9;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3B4;&#x3B5; &#x3C6;&#x3B7;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;&#x3BD; &#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3BA;
+  &#x3B5;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3B5;&#x3B2;&#x3B5;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3C6;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;&#x3B5;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3C1;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3C9;&#x3B9; &#x3C6;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3C9;&#x3B9;,
+  &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3B4;&#x3B5;&#x3C7;&#x3B5;&#x3C3;&#x3B8;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;&#x3C5;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B8;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;&#x3C2;,
+  &#x201B;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B1;&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3C4;&#x3C9;.&mdash;&#x3C4;&#x3C9;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3B4;&#x3B5; &#x3B1;&#x3C5;&#x3C4;&#x3C9;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3BB;&#x3B7;&#x3C3;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3C3;&#x3C5;&#x3BD;&#x3B1;&#x3C0;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3BF; &#x3BC;&#x3B7;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3C1;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;</span>.
+  SCHOL.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="MedN_32"></a><a href="#Med_32">[32]</a> <i>But there</i>;
+  that is, in the regions below.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="MedN_33"></a><a href="#Med_33">[33]</a> Ovid. Metamorph. vii.
+  20.</p>
+
+  <div class="poem">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <p class="i4">Video meliora proboque,</p>
+      <p>Deteriora sequor.</p>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+  <p><a name="MedN_34"></a><a href="#Med_34">[34]</a> Elmsley reads</p>
+
+  <div class="poem">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <p><span lang="el" title="pauron de genos (mian en pollais">&#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3C5;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3BD; &#x3B4;&#x3B5; &#x3B3;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3C2; (&#x3BC;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;&#x3BD; &#x3B5;&#x3BD; &#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3BB;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;</span>&nbsp;</p>
+      <p><span lang="el" title="heurois an is�s)">&#x201B;&#x3B5;&#x3C5;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3C2; &#x3B1;&#x3BD; &#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3C9;&#x3C2;)</span>&nbsp;</p>
+      <p><span lang="el" title="ouk, k.t.l.">&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3BA;, &#x3BA;.&#x3C4;.&#x3BB;.</span>&nbsp;</p>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+  <p>"<i>But a small number of the race of women (you may perchance find
+  one among many) not ungifted with the muse</i>."</p>
+
+  <p><a name="MedN_35"></a><a href="#Med_35">[35]</a> A similar expression
+  is found in Iphig. Taur, v. 410. <span lang="el" title="na�on
+  och�ma">&#x3BD;&#x3B1;&#x3CA;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3BF;&#x3C7;&#x3B7;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;</span>. A ship is frequently called
+  <span lang="el" title="Herma
+  thalass�s">&#x201B;&#x395;&#x3C1;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3B8;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3C3;&#x3C3;&#x3B7;&#x3C2;</span>: so
+  Virgil, �n. vi. Classique immittit habenas.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="MedN_36"></a><a href="#Med_36">[36]</a> Elmsley is of opinion
+  that <i>the instep</i> and not <i>the neck</i> is meant by <span
+  lang="el" title="ten�n">&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="MedN_37"></a><a href="#Med_37">[37]</a> The ancients
+  attributed all sudden terrors, and sudden sicknesses, such as epilepsies,
+  for which no cause appeared, to Pan, or to some other Deity. The anger of
+  the God they endeavored to avert by a hymn, which had the nature of a
+  charm.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="MedN_38"></a><a href="#Med_38">[38]</a> Elmsley has <span
+  lang="el"
+  title="anth�pteto">&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3B8;&#x3B7;&#x3C0;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;</span>,
+  which is the old reading: this makes no difference in the construing or
+  the construction, as, in the line before, he reads <span lang="el"
+  title="an helk�n">&#x3B1;&#x3BD;
+  &#x201B;&#x3B5;&#x3BB;&#x3BA;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;</span>, where Porson has
+  <span lang="el"
+  title="anelk�n">&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3B5;&#x3BB;&#x3BA;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="MedN_39"></a><a href="#Med_39">[39]</a> The space of time
+  elapsed is meant to be marked by this circumstance. MUSGRAVE. PORSON.
+  Thus we find in <span lang="el" title="M">&#x39C;</span> of the Odyssey,
+  l. 439, the time of day expressed by the rising of the judges; in <span
+  lang="el" title="D">&#x394;</span> of the Iliad, l. 86, by the dining of
+  the woodman. When we recollect that the ancients had not the inventions
+  that we have whereby to measure their time, we shall cease to consider
+  the circumlocution as absurd or out of place.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="MedN_40"></a><a href="#Med_40">[40]</a> The same expression
+  occurs in the Heraclid�, l. 168. The Scholiast explains it thus; <span
+  lang="el" title="tymbogeronta, ton pl�sion thanatou honta: tymbous de
+  kalousi tous gerontas, paroson pl�sion eisi tou thanatou kai tou
+  taphou">&#x3C4;&#x3C5;&#x3BC;&#x3B2;&#x3BF;&#x3B3;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;,
+  &#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3BD; &#x3C0;&#x3BB;&#x3B7;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B8;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;
+  &#x201B;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;:
+  &#x3C4;&#x3C5;&#x3BC;&#x3B2;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C2; &#x3B4;&#x3B5;
+  &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B3;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3C2;,
+  &#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3C3;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3BB;&#x3B7;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3B9; &#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;
+  &#x3B8;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C5; &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C5; &#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3C6;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="MedN_41"></a><a href="#Med_41">[41]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="autophontais">&#x3B1;&#x3C5;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C6;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;</span>
+  may be taken as an adjective to agree with <span lang="el"
+  title="domois">&#x3B4;&#x3BF;&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;</span>, or the
+  construction may be <span lang="el" title="ach� pitnonta autophontais epi
+  domois">&#x3B1;&#x3C7;&#x3B7;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3B9;&#x3C4;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3B1;&#x3C5;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C6;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B5;&#x3C0;&#x3B9; &#x3B4;&#x3BF;&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;</span>,
+  in the same manner as <span lang="el" title="lithos epese moi epi
+  kephal�i">&#x3BB;&#x3B9;&#x3B8;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B5;&#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3C3;&#x3B5; &#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3B5;&#x3C0;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3BA;&#x3B5;&#x3C6;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3B7;&#x3B9;</span>. ELMSLEY.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="MedN_42"></a><a href="#Med_42">[42]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="m� me ti dras�si'">&#x3BC;&#x3B7; &#x3BC;&#x3B5; &#x3C4;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3B4;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3C3;&#x3C9;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;'</span> had been "lest
+  they do <i>me</i> any injury." Elmsley conceives that <span lang="el"
+  title="nin">&#x3BD;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;</span> is the true reading, which might
+  easily have been corrupted into <span lang="el"
+  title="moi">&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="MedN_43"></a><a href="#Med_43">[43]</a> Here Medea appears
+  above in a chariot drawn by dragons, bearing with her the bodies of her
+  slaughtered sons. SCHOL. See Horace, Epod. 3.</p>
+
+  <div class="poem">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <p>Hoc delibutis ulta donis pellicem,</p>
+      <p>Serpente fugit alite.</p>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+  <p><a name="MedN_44"></a><a href="#Med_44">[44]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="lyei">&#x3BB;&#x3C5;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;</span> may also be interpreted,
+  with the Scholiast, in the sense of <span lang="el"
+  title="lysitelei">&#x3BB;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3BB;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;</span>,
+  "the grief delights me." The translation given in the text is proposed by
+  Porson, and approved of by Elmsley.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="MedN_45"></a><a href="#Med_45">[45]</a> Elmsley has</p>
+
+  <div class="poem">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <p><span lang="el" title="mene kai g�ras">&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3B5; &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9; &#x3B3;&#x3B7;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3C2;</span>.</p>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+  <p>"<i>Stay yet for old age</i>." So also Dindorf. </p>
+
+</div>
+<hr class="full" />
+
+<a name="HIPPOLYTUS"></a>
+<h2>HIPPOLYTUS.</h2>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+<h3>PERSONS REPRESENTED.</h3>
+
+  <div class="personae">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <p>VENUS.</p>
+      <p>HIPPOLYTUS.</p>
+      <p>ATTENDANTS.</p>
+      <p>PH�DRA.</p>
+      <p>NURSE.</p>
+      <p>THESEUS.</p>
+      <p>MESSENGER.</p>
+      <p>DIANA.</p>
+      <p>CHORUS OF TR&#338;ZENIAN DAMES.</p>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+<hr />
+
+<h3>THE ARGUMENT.</h3>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+  <p>Theseus was the son of Othra and Neptune, and king of the Athenians;
+  and having married Hippolyta, one of the Amazons, he begat Hippolytus,
+  who excelled in beauty and chastity. When his wife died, he married, for
+  his second wife, Ph�dra, a Cretan, daughter of Minos, king of Crete, and
+  Pasipha�. Theseus, in consequence of having slain Pallas, one of his
+  kinsmen, goes into banishment, with his wife, to Tr&#339;zene, where it
+  happened that Hippolytus was being brought up by Pittheus: but Ph�dra
+  having seen the youth was desperately enamored, not that she was
+  incontinent, but in order to fulfill the anger of Venus, who, having
+  determined to destroy Hippolytus on account of his chastity, brought her
+  plans to a conclusion. She, concealing her disease, at length was
+  compelled to declare it to her nurse, who had promised to relieve her,
+  and who, though against her inclination, carried her words to the youth.
+  Ph�dra, having learned that he was exasperated, eluded the nurse, and
+  hung herself. At which time Theseus having arrived, and wishing to take
+  her down that was strangled, found a letter attached to her, throughout
+  which she accused Hippolytus of a design on her virtue. And he, believing
+  what was written, ordered Hippolytus to go into banishment, and put up a
+  prayer to Neptune, in compliance with which the god destroyed Hippolytus.
+  But Diana declared to Theseus every thing that had happened, and blamed
+  not Ph�dra, but comforted him, bereaved of his child and wife, and
+  promised to institute honors in the place to Hippolytus.</p>
+
+  <p>The scene of the play is laid in Tr&#339;zene. It was acted in the
+  archonship of Ameinon, in the fourth year of the 87th Olympiad. Euripides
+  first, Jophon second, Jon third. This Hippolytus is the second of that
+  name, and is called <span lang="el"
+  title="STEPHANIAS">&#x3A3;&#x3A4;&#x395;&#x3A6;&#x391;&#x39D;&#x399;&#x391;&#x3A3;</span>:
+  but it appears to have been written the latest, for what was unseemly and
+  deserved blame is corrected in this play. The play is ranked among the
+  first.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2>HIPPOLYTUS.</h2>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+<p class="center">VENUS.</p>
+
+  <p>Great in the sight of mortals, and not without a name am I the Goddess
+  Venus, and in heaven: and of as many as dwell within the ocean and the
+  boundaries of Atlas, beholding the light of the sun, those indeed, who
+  reverence my authority, I advance to honor; but overthrow as many as hold
+  themselves high toward me. For this is in sooth a property inherent even
+  in the race of the Gods, that "they rejoice when honored by men." But
+  quickly will I show the truth of these words: for the son of Theseus,
+  born of the Amazon, Hippolytus, pupil of the chaste Pittheus, alone of
+  the inhabitants of this land of Tr&#339;zene, says that I am of deities
+  the vilest, and rejects the bridal bed, and will have nothing to do with
+  marriage. But Dian, the sister of Ph&#339;bus, daughter of Jove, he
+  honors, esteeming her the greatest of deities. And through the green wood
+  ever accompanying the virgin, with his swift dogs he clears the beasts
+  from off the earth, having formed a fellowship greater than mortal ought.
+  This indeed I grudge him not; for wherefore should I? but wherein he has
+  erred toward me, I will avenge me on Hippolytus this very day: and having
+  cleared most of the difficulties beforehand,<a name="Hipp_1"></a><a
+  href="#HippN_1"><sup>[1]</sup></a> I need not much labor. For Ph�dra, his
+  father's noble wife, having seen him, (as he was going once from the
+  house of Pittheus to the land of Pandion, in order to see and afterward
+  be fully admitted to the hallowed mysteries,) was smitten in her heart
+  with fierce love by my design. And even before she came to this land of
+  Tr&#339;zene, at the very rock of Pallas that overlooks this land, she
+  raised a temple to Venus, loving an absent love; and gave out
+  afterward,<a name="Hipp_2"></a><a href="#HippN_2"><sup>[2]</sup></a> that
+  the Goddess was honored with her temple for Hippolytus's sake. But now
+  since Theseus has left the land of Cecrops, in order to avoid the
+  pollution of the murder of the sons of Pallas, and is sailing to this
+  land with his wife, having submitted to a year's banishment from his
+  people; there indeed groaning and stricken with the stings of love, the
+  wretched woman perishes in secret; and not one of her domestics is
+  conscious of her malady. But this love must by no means fall to the
+  ground in this way: but I will open the matter to Theseus, and it shall
+  become manifest. And him that is our enemy shall the father kill with
+  imprecations, which Neptune, king of the ocean, granted as a privilege to
+  Theseus, that he should make no prayer thrice to the God in vain. But
+  Ph�dra dies, an illustrious woman indeed, yet still [she must die]; for I
+  will not make her ills of that high consequence, that will hinder my
+  enemies from giving me such full vengeance as may content me. But, as I
+  see the son of Theseus coming, having left the toil of the chase, I will
+  depart from this spot. But with him a numerous train of attendants
+  following behind raise a clamor, praising the Goddess Dian with hymns,
+  for he knows not that the gates of hell are opened, and that this day is
+  the last he beholds.</p>
+
+<p class="center">HIPPOLYTUS, ATTENDANTS.</p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. Follow, follow, singing the heavenly Dian, daughter of Jove;
+  Dian, under whose protection we are.</p>
+
+  <p>ATT. Holy, holy, most hallowed offspring of Jove, hail! hail! O Dian,
+  daughter of Latona and of Jove, most beauteous by far of virgins, who,
+  born of an illustrious sire, in the vast heaven dwellest in the palace of
+  Jove, that mansion rich in gold.</p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. Hail, O most beauteous, most beauteous of virgins in Olympus,
+  Dian! For thee, my mistress, bear I this wreathed garland from the pure
+  mead, where neither does the shepherd think fit to feed his flocks, nor
+  yet came iron there, but the bee ranges over the pure and vernal mead,
+  and Reverence waters it with river dews. Whosoever has chastity, not that
+  which is taught in schools, but that which is by nature, for this
+  description of persons it is lawful thence to pluck, but for the evil it
+  is not lawful.<a name="Hipp_3"></a><a href="#HippN_3"><sup>[3]</sup></a>
+  But, O my dear mistress, receive this wreath to bind your golden tresses
+  from a pious hand. For to me alone of mortals is allowed this privilege.
+  With thee I am both present, and exchange words with thee, hearing thy
+  voice, but not seeing thy countenance. But may I finish the last turn of
+  my course of life, even as I began.</p>
+
+  <p>ATT. O king, (for the Gods alone ought we to call Lords,) will you
+  hear somewhat from me, who advise you well?</p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. Most certainly, or else I should not seem wise.</p>
+
+  <p>ATT. Knowest thou then the law, which is established among men?</p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. I know not; but what is the one, about which thou askest me?</p>
+
+  <p>ATT. To hate haughtiness, and that which is disagreeable to all.</p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. And rightly; for what haughty mortal is not odious?</p>
+
+  <p>ATT. And in the affable is there any charm?</p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. A very great one indeed, and gain with little toil.</p>
+
+  <p>ATT. Dost thou suppose that the same thing holds also among the
+  Gods?</p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. Certainly, forasmuch as we mortals use the laws of the Gods.</p>
+
+  <p>ATT. How is it then that thou addressest not a venerable Goddess?</p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. Whom? but take heed that thy mouth err not.<a
+  name="Hipp_4"></a><a href="#HippN_4"><sup>[4]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>ATT. Venus, who hath her station at thy gates.</p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. I, who am chaste, salute her at a distance.</p>
+
+  <p>ATT. Venerable is she, however, and of note among mortals.</p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. Different Gods and men are objects of regard to different
+  persons.</p>
+
+  <p>ATT. May you be blest, having as much sense as you require.<a
+  name="Hipp_5"></a><a href="#HippN_5"><sup>[5]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. No one of the Gods, that is worshiped by night, delights me.</p>
+
+  <p>ATT. My son, we must conform to the honors of the Gods.</p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. Depart, my companions, and having entered the house, prepare the
+  viands: delightful after the chase is the full table.&mdash;And I must
+  rub down my horses, that having yoked them to the car, when I am satiated
+  with the repast, I may give them their proper exercise. But to your Venus
+  I bid a long farewell.</p>
+
+  <p>ATT. But we, for one must not imitate the young, having our thoughts
+  such, as it becomes slaves to give utterance to, will adore thy image, O
+  Venus, our mistress; but thou shouldest pardon, if any one having intense
+  feelings of mind by reason of his youth, speak foolishly: seem not to
+  hear these things, for Gods must needs be wiser than men.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. There is a rock near the ocean,<a name="Hipp_6"></a><a
+  href="#HippN_6"><sup>[6]</sup></a> distilling water, which sends forth
+  from its precipices a flowing fountain, wherein they dip their urns;
+  where was a friend of mine wetting the purple vests in the dew of the
+  stream, and she laid them down on the back of the warm sunny cliff: from
+  hence first came to me the report concerning my mistress, that she, worn
+  with the bed of sickness, keeps her person within the house, and that
+  fine vests veil her auburn head. And I hear that she this day for the
+  third keeps her body untouched by the fruit of Ceres, [which she receives
+  not] into her ambrosial mouth, wishing in secret suffering to hasten to
+  the unhappy goal of death. For heaven-possessed, O lady, or whether by
+  Pan, or by Hecate, or by the venerable Corybantes, or by the mother who
+  haunts the mountains, thou art raving. But thou art thus tormented on
+  account of some fault committed against the Cretan huntress, profane
+  because of unoffered sacred cakes. For she goes through the sea and
+  beyond the land on the eddies of the watery brine. Or some one in the
+  palace misguides thy noble husband, the chief of the Athenians, by secret
+  concubinage in thy bed. Or some sailor who put from port at Crete, hath
+  sailed to the harbor most friendly to mariners, bringing some message to
+  the queen; and, confined to her couch, she is bound in soul by sorrow for
+  its sufferings. But wretched helplessness is wont to dwell with the
+  wayward constitution of women, both on account of their throes and their
+  loss of reason. Once through my womb shot this thrill, but I invoked the
+  heavenly Dian, who gives easy throes, who presides over the bow, and to
+  me she came ever much to be blessed, as well as the other Gods. But lo!
+  the old nurse is bringing her out of the palace before the gates; and the
+  sad cloud upon her brows is increased. What it can possibly be, my soul
+  desires to know, with what can be afflicted the person of the queen, of
+  color so changed.<a name="Hipp_7"></a><a
+  href="#HippN_7"><sup>[7]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p class="center">PH�DRA, NURSE, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>Alas! the evils of men, and their odious diseases! what shall I do for
+  thee? and what not do? lo! here is the clear light for thee, here the
+  air: and now is thy couch whereon thou liest sick removed from out of the
+  house: for every word you spoke was to come hither; but soon you will be
+  in a hurry to go to your chamber back again: for you are soon changed,
+  and are pleased with nothing. Nor does what is present delight you, but
+  what is not present you think more agreeable. It is a better thing to be
+  sick, than to tend the sick: the one is a simple ill, but with the other
+  is joined both pain of mind and toil of hands. But the whole life of men
+  is full of grief, nor is there rest from toils. But whatever else there
+  be more dear than life, darkness enveloping hides it in clouds. Hence we
+  appear to dote on this present state, because it gleams on earth, through
+  inexperience of another life, and the non-appearance of the things
+  beneath the earth. But we are blindly carried away by fables.</p>
+
+  <p>PH�. Raise my body, place my head upright&mdash;I am faint in the
+  joints of my limbs, my friends, lay hold of my fair-formed hands, O
+  attendants&mdash;The dressing on my head is heavy for me to
+  support&mdash;take it off, let flow my ringlets on my shoulders.</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. Be of good courage, my child, and do not thus painfully shift
+  [the posture of] your body. But you will bear your sickness more easily
+  both with quiet, and with a noble temper, for it is necessary for mortals
+  to suffer misery.</p>
+
+  <p>PH�. Alas! alas! would I could draw from the dewy fountain the drink
+  of pure waters, and that under the alders, and in the leafy mead
+  reclining I might rest!</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. O my child, what sayest thou? Wilt thou not desist from uttering
+  these things before the multitude, blurting forth a speech of madness?<a
+  name="Hipp_8"></a><a href="#HippN_8"><sup>[8]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>PH�. Bear me to the mountain&mdash;I will go to the wood, and by the
+  pine-trees, where tread the dogs the slayers of beasts, pursuing the
+  dappled hinds&mdash;By the Gods I long to cheer on the hounds, and by the
+  side of my auburn hair to hurl the Thessalian javelin bearing the lanced
+  weapon in my hand.</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. Wherefore in the name of heaven, my child, do you hanker after
+  these things? wherefore have you any anxiety for hunting? and wherefore
+  do you long for the fountain streams? for by the towers there is a
+  perpetual flow of water, whence may be your draught.</p>
+
+  <p>PH�. O Dian, mistress of Limna near the sea, and of the exercises of
+  the rattling steeds, would that I were on thy plains, breaking the
+  Henetian colts.</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. Wherefore again have you madly uttered this word? at one time
+  having ascended the mountain you set forth with the desire of hunting;
+  but now again you long for the colts on the wave-beaten sands. These
+  things demand much skill in prophecy [to find out], who it is of the Gods
+  that torments thee, O lady, and strikes mad thy senses.</p>
+
+  <p>PH�. Wretch that I am, what then have I committed? whither have I
+  wandered from my sound mind? I have gone mad; I have fallen by the evil
+  influence of some God. Alas! alas! unhappy that I am&mdash;Nurse, cover
+  my head again, for I am ashamed of the things I have spoken: cover me; a
+  tear trickles down my eyes, and my sight is turned to my disgrace. For to
+  be in one's right mind causes grief: but madness is an ill; yet it is
+  better to perish, nothing knowing of one's ills.</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. I cover thee&mdash;but when in sooth will death cover my body?
+  Length of life teaches me many things. For it behooves mortals to form
+  moderate friendships with each other, and not to the very marrow of the
+  soul: and the affections of the mind should be dissoluble, and so that we
+  can slacken them, or tighten.<a name="Hipp_9"></a><a
+  href="#HippN_9"><sup>[9]</sup></a> But that one soul should feel pangs
+  for two, as I now grieve for her, is a heavy burden. The concerns of life
+  carried to too great an extent, they say, bring rather destruction than
+  delight, and are rather at enmity with health. Thus I praise what is in
+  extreme less than <i>the sentiment of</i> "Nothing in excess;" and the
+  wise will agree with me.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. O aged woman, faithful nurse of the queen Ph�dra, we see indeed
+  the wretched state of this lady, but it is not clear what her disease is:
+  but we would wish to inquire and hear from you.</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. I know not by my inquiries; for she is not willing to speak.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Nor what is the origin of these pangs?</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. You come to the same result; for she is silent with regard to all
+  these things.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. How feeble she is, and wasted away as to her body!</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. How could it be otherwise, seeing that she has abstained from
+  food these three days?</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. From the violence of her calamity is it, or does she endeavor to
+  die?</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. To die; but she fasts to the dissolution of her life.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. An extraordinary thing you have been telling me, if this conduct
+  meets the approbation of her husband.</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. [He nothing knows,] for she conceals this calamity, and denies
+  that she is ill.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. But does he not guess it, looking into her face?</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. [How should he?] for he is out of this country.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. But do you not urge it as a matter of necessity, when you
+  endeavor to ascertain her disease and the wandering of her senses?</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. I have tried every thing, and have made no further advances. I
+  will not however abate even now from my zeal, so that you being present
+  may bear witness with me, how I behave to my mistress when in
+  calamity&mdash;Come, dear child, let us both forget our former
+  conversations; and be both thou more mild, having smoothed that
+  contracted brow, and altered the bent of your design; and I giving up
+  that wherein I did not do right to follow thee, will have recourse to
+  other better words. And if indeed you are ill with any of those maladies
+  that are not to be mentioned, these women here can allay the disease: but
+  if it may be related to men, tell it, that the thing may be mentioned to
+  physicians.&mdash;Well! why art thou silent? It doth not behoove thee to
+  be silent, my child, but either shouldst thou convict me, if aught I say
+  amiss, or yield to words well spoken.&mdash;Say something&mdash;look
+  hither&mdash;O wretch that I am! Ladies, in vain do we undergo these
+  toils, while we are as far off from our purpose as before: for neither
+  then was she softened by our words, nor now does she give heed to us.
+  Still however know (now then be more obstinate than the sea) that, if
+  thou shalt die, thou wilt betray thy children, who will have no share in
+  their paternal mansion. I swear by the warlike queen the Amazon, who
+  brought forth a lord over thy children, base-born yet of noble
+  sentiments, thou knowest him well, Hippolytus.</p>
+
+  <p>PH�. Ah me!</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. This touches thee.</p>
+
+  <p>PH�. You have destroyed me, nurse, and by the Gods I entreat thee
+  henceforth to be silent with respect to this man.</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. Do you see? you judge well indeed, but judging well you are not
+  willing both to assist your children and to save your own life.</p>
+
+  <p>PH�. I love my children; but I am wintering in the storm of another
+  misfortune.</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. You have your hands, my child, pure from blood.</p>
+
+  <p>PH�. My hands are pure, but my mind has some pollution.</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. What! from some calamity brought on you by any of your
+  enemies?</p>
+
+  <p>PH�. A friend destroys me against my will, himself unwilling.</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. Has Theseus sinned any sin against thee?</p>
+
+  <p>PH�. Would that I never be discovered to have injured him.</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. What then this dreadful thing that impels thee to die?</p>
+
+  <p>PH�. Suffer me to err, for against thee I err not.</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. Not willingly [dost thou do so,] but 'tis through thee that I
+  shall perish.<a name="Hipp_10"></a><a
+  href="#HippN_10"><sup>[10]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>PH�. What are you doing? you oppress me, hanging on me with your
+  hand.</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. And never will I let go these knees.</p>
+
+  <p>PH�. Ills to thyself wilt thou hear, O wretched woman, if thou shalt
+  hear these ills.</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. [Still will I cling:] for what greater evil can befall me than to
+  lose thee?</p>
+
+  <p>PH�. You will be undone.<a name="Hipp_11"></a><a
+  href="#HippN_11"><sup>[11]</sup></a> The thing however brings honor to
+  me.</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. And dost thou then hide what is useful, when I beseech thee?</p>
+
+  <p>PH�. <i>Yes</i>, for from base things we devise things noble.</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. Wilt not thou, then, appear more noble by telling it?</p>
+
+  <p>PH�. Depart, by the Gods, and let go my hand!</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. No in sooth, since thou givest me not the boon that were
+  right.</p>
+
+  <p>PH�. I will give it; for I have respect unto the reverence of thy
+  hand.</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. Now will I be silent: for hence is it yours to speak.</p>
+
+  <p>PH�. O wretched mother, what a love didst thou love!</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. That which she had for the bull, my child, or what is this thou
+  meanest?</p>
+
+  <p>PH�. Thou, too, O wretched sister, wife of Bacchus!</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. Child, what ails thee? thou speakest ill against thy
+  relations.</p>
+
+  <p>PH�. And I the third, how unhappily I perish!</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. I am struck dumb with amazement. Whither will thy speech
+  tend?</p>
+
+  <p>PH�. <i>To that point</i>, whence we have not now lately become
+  unfortunate.</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. I know not a whit further of the things I wish to hear.</p>
+
+  <p>PH�. Alas! would thou couldst speak the things which I must speak.</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. I am no prophetess so as to know clearly things hidden.</p>
+
+  <p>PH�. What is that thing, which they do call men's loving!<a
+  name="Hipp_12"></a><a href="#HippN_12"><sup>[12]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>NUR. The same, my child, a most delightful thing, and painful
+  withal.</p>
+
+  <p>PH�. One of the two feelings I must perceive.</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. What say'st? Thou lovest, my child? What man!</p>
+
+  <p>PH�. Him whoever he is,<a name="Hipp_13"></a><a
+  href="#HippN_13"><sup>[13]</sup></a> that is born of the Amazon.</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. Hippolytus dost thou say?</p>
+
+  <p>PH�. From thyself, not me, you hear&mdash;this name.</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. Ah me! what wilt thou go on to say? my child, how hast thou
+  destroyed me! Ladies, this is not to be borne; I will not endure to live,
+  hateful is the day, hateful the light I behold. I will hurl myself down,
+  I will rid me of this body: I will remove from life to
+  death&mdash;farewell&mdash;I no longer am. For the chaste are in love
+  with what is evil, not willingly indeed, yet still [they love.] Venus
+  then is no deity, but if there be aught mightier than deity, that is she,
+  who hath destroyed both this my mistress, and me, and the whole
+  house.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Thou didst hear, O thou didst hear the queen lamenting her
+  wretched sufferings that should not be heard. Dear lady, may I perish
+  before I come to thy state of mind! Alas me! alas! alas! O hapless for
+  these pangs! O the woes that attend on mortals! Thou art undone, thou
+  hast disclosed thy evils to the light. What time is this that has
+  eternally<a name="Hipp_14"></a><a href="#HippN_14"><sup>[14]</sup></a>
+  awaited thee? Some new misfortune will happen to the house. And no longer
+  is it obscure where the fortune of Venus sets, O wretched Cretan
+  daughter.</p>
+
+  <p>PH�. Women of Tr&#339;zene, who inhabit this extreme frontier of the
+  land of Pelops. Often at other times in the long season of night have I
+  thought in what manner the life of mortals is depraved.<a
+  name="Hipp_15"></a><a href="#HippN_15"><sup>[15]</sup></a> And to me they
+  seem to do ill, not from the nature of their minds, for many have good
+  thoughts, but thus must we view these things. What things are good we
+  understand and know, but practice not; some from idleness, and others
+  preferring some other pleasures to what is right: for there are many
+  pleasures in life-long prates, and indolence, a pleasing ill, and shame;
+  but there are two, the one indeed not base, but the other the weight that
+  overthrows houses, but if the occasion on which each is used, were clear,
+  the two things would not have the same letters. Knowing them as I did
+  these things beforehand, by no drug did I think I should so far destroy
+  these <i>sentiments</i>, as to fall into an opposite way of thinking. But
+  I will also tell you the course of my determinations. After that love had
+  wounded me, I considered how best I might endure it. I began therefore
+  from this time to be silent, and to conceal this disease. For no
+  confidence can be placed in the tongue, which knows to advise the
+  thoughts of other men, but itself from itself has very many evils. But in
+  the second place, I meditated to bear well my madness conquering it by my
+  chastity. But in the third place, since by these means I was not able to
+  subdue Venus, it appeared to me best to die: no one will gainsay this
+  resolution. For may it be my lot, neither to be concealed where I do
+  noble deeds, nor to have many witnesses, where I act basely. Besides this
+  I knew I was a woman&mdash;a thing hated by all. O may she most miserably
+  perish who first began to pollute the marriage-bed with other men! From
+  noble families first arose this evil among women: for when base things
+  appear right to those who are accounted good, surely they will appear so
+  to the bad. I hate moreover those women who are chaste in their language
+  indeed, but secretly have in them no good deeds of boldness: who, how, I
+  pray, O Venus my revered mistress, look they on the faces of their
+  husbands, nor dread the darkness that aided their deeds, and the ceilings
+  of the house, lest they should some time or other utter a voice? For this
+  bare idea kills me, friends, lest I should ever be discovered to have
+  disgraced my husband, or my children, whom I brought forth; but free,
+  happy in liberty of speech may they inhabit the city of illustrious
+  Athens, in their mother glorious! For it enslaves a man, though he be
+  valiant-hearted, when he is conscious of his mother's or his father's
+  misdeeds. But this alone they say in endurance compeers with life, an
+  honest and good mind, to whomsoever it belong. But Time, when it so
+  chance, holding up the mirror as to a young virgin, shows forth the bad,
+  among whom may I be never seen!</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Alas! alas! In every way how fair is chastity, and how goodly a
+  report has it among men!</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. My mistress, just now indeed thy calamity coming upon me
+  unawares, gave me a dreadful alarm. But now I perceive I was weak; and
+  somehow or other among mortals second thoughts are the wisest. For thou
+  hast not suffered any thing excessive nor extraordinary, but the anger of
+  the Goddess hath fallen upon thee. Thou lovest&mdash;what wonder this?
+  with many mortals.&mdash;And then will you lose your life for love? There
+  is then no advantage for those who love others, nor to those who may
+  hereafter, if they must needs die. For Venus is a thing not to be borne,
+  if she rush on vehement. Who comes quietly indeed on the person who
+  yields; but whom she finds haughty and of lofty notions, him taking (how
+  thinkest thou?) she chastises. But Venus goes through air, and is on the
+  ocean wave; and all things from her have their birth. She it is that sows
+  and gives forth love, from whence all we on earth are engendered. As many
+  indeed as ken the writings of the ancients, or are themselves ever among
+  the muses, they know indeed, how that Jove was formerly inflamed with the
+  love of Semele; they know too, how that formerly the lovely bright Aurora
+  bore away Cephalus up to the Gods, for love, but still they live in
+  heaven, and fly not from the presence of the Gods: but they acquiesce
+  yielding, I ween, to what has befallen them. And wilt thou not bear it?
+  Thy father then ought to have begotten thee on stipulated terms, or else
+  under the dominion of other Gods, unless thou wilt be content with these
+  laws. How many, thinkest thou, are in full and complete possession of
+  their senses, who, when they see their bridal bed diseased, seem not to
+  see it! And how many fathers, thinkest thou, have aided their erring sons
+  in matters of love, for this is a maxim among the wise part of mankind,
+  "that things that show not fair should be concealed." Nor should men
+  labor too exactly their conduct in life, for neither would they do well
+  to employ much accuracy in the roof wherewith their houses are covered;
+  but having fallen into fortune so deep as thou hast, how dost thou
+  imagine thou canst swim out? But if thou hast more things good than bad,
+  mortal as thou art, thou surely must be well off. But cease, my dear
+  child, from these evil thoughts, cease too from being haughty, for
+  nothing else save haughtiness is this, to wish to be superior to the
+  Gods. But, as thou art in love, endure it; a God hath willed it so: and,
+  being ill, by some good means or other try to get rid of thy illness. But
+  there are charms and soothing spells: there will appear some medicine for
+  this sickness. Else surely men would be slow indeed in discoveries, if we
+  women should not find contrivances.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Ph�dra, she speaks indeed most useful advice in thy present
+  state: but thee I praise. Yet is this praise less welcome than her words,
+  and to thee more painful to hear.</p>
+
+  <p>PH�. This is it that destroys cities of men and families well
+  governed&mdash;words too fair. For it is not at all requisite to speak
+  words pleasant to the ear, but that whereby one may become of fair
+  report.</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. Why dost thou talk in this grand strain? thou needest not gay
+  decorated words, but a man: as soon as possible must those be found, who
+  will speak out the plain straightforward word concerning thee. For if thy
+  life were not in calamities of such a cast, I never would have brought
+  thee thus far for the sake of lust, and for thy pleasure: but now the
+  great point is to save thy life; and this is not a thing deserving of
+  blame.</p>
+
+  <p>PH�. O thou that hast spoken dreadful things, wilt thou not shut thy
+  mouth? and wilt not cease from uttering again those words most vile?</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. Vile they are, but better these for thee than fair; but better
+  will the deed be (if at least it will save thee), than the name, in the
+  which while thou boastest, thou wilt die.</p>
+
+  <p>PH�. Nay do not, I entreat thee by the Gods (for thou speakest well,
+  but base are [the things thou speakest]) go beyond this, since rightly
+  have I surrendered my life to love; but if thou speak base things in fair
+  phrase, I shall be consumed, [being cast] into that [evil] which I am now
+  avoiding.</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. If in truth this be thy opinion, thou oughtest not to err, but if
+  thou hast erred, be persuaded by me, for this is the next best thing thou
+  canst do.<a name="Hipp_16"></a><a href="#HippN_16"><sup>[16]</sup></a> I
+  have in the house soothing philters of love (and they but lately came
+  into my thought); which, by no base deed, nor to the harm of thy senses,
+  will rid you of this disease, unless you are obstinate. But it is
+  requisite to receive from him that is the object of your love, some
+  token, either some word, or some relic of his vest, and to join from two
+  one love.</p>
+
+  <p>PH�. But is the charm an unguent or a potion?</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. I know not: wish to be relieved, not informed, my child.</p>
+
+  <p>PH�. I fear thee, lest thou should appear too wise to me.</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. Know that you would fear every thing, <i>if you fear this</i>,
+  but what is it you are afraid of?</p>
+
+  <p>PH�. Lest you should tell any of these things to the son of
+  Theseus.</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. Let be, my child, I will arrange these matters honorably, only be
+  thou my coadjutor, O Venus, my revered mistress; but the other things
+  which I purpose, it will suffice to tell to my friends within.</p>
+
+<p class="center">CHORUS, PH�DRA.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Love, love, O thou that instillest desire through the eyes,
+  inspiring sweet affection in the souls of those against whom thou makest
+  war, mayst thou never appear to me to my injury, nor come unmodulated:
+  for neither is the blast of fire nor the bolt of heaven more vehement,
+  than that of Venus, which Love, the boy of Jove, sends from his hands. In
+  vain, in vain, both by the Alpheus, and at the Pythian temples of
+  Ph&#339;bus does Greece then solemnize the slaughter of bulls: but Love,
+  the tyrant of men, porter of the dearest chambers of Venus, we worship
+  not, the destroyer and visitant of men in all shapes of calamity, when he
+  comes. That virgin in &#338;chalia, yoked to no bridal bed, till then
+  unwedded, and who knew no husband, having taken from her home a wanderer
+  impelled by the oar, her, like some Bacchanal of Pluto, with blood, with
+  smoke, and murderous hymeneals did Venus give to the son of Alcmena. O
+  unhappy woman, because of her nuptials! O sacred wall of Thebes, O mouth
+  of Dirce, you can assist me in telling, in what manner Venus comes: for
+  by the forked lightning, by a cruel fate, did she put to eternal sleep
+  the parent of the Jove-begotten Bacchus, when she was visited as a bride.
+  For dreadful doth she breathe on all things, and like some bee hovers
+  about.</p>
+
+  <p>PH�. Women, be silent: I am undone.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. What is there that affrights thee, Ph�dra, in thine house?</p>
+
+  <p>PH�. Be silent, that I may make out the voice of those within.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. I am silent: this however is an evil bodement.</p>
+
+  <p>PH�. Alas me! O! O! O! oh unhappy me, because of my sufferings!</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. What sound dost thou utter? what word speakest thou? tell me
+  what report frightens thee, lady, rushing upon thy senses!</p>
+
+  <p>PH�. We are undone. Do you, standing at these gates, hear what the
+  noise is that strikes on the house?</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Thou art by the gate, the noise that is sent forth from the
+  house is thy care. But tell me, tell me, what evil, I pray thee, came
+  <i>to thine ears</i>?</p>
+
+  <p>PH�. The son of the warlike Amazon, Hippolytus, cries out, abusing in
+  dreadful forms my attendant.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. I hear indeed a noise, but can not plainly tell how it is. The
+  voice came, it came through to the door.</p>
+
+  <p>PH�. But hark! he calls her plainly the pander of wickedness, the
+  betrayer of her master's bed.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Alas me for thy miseries! Thou art betrayed, dear mistress. What
+  shall I counsel thee? for hidden things are come to light, and thou art
+  utterly destroyed&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+  <p>PH�. O! O!</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Betrayed by thy friends.</p>
+
+  <p>PH�. She hath destroyed me by speaking of my unhappy state, kindly but
+  not honorably endeavoring to heal this disease.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. How then? what wilt thou do, O thou that hast suffered things
+  incurable?</p>
+
+  <p>PH�. I know not, save one thing; to die as soon as possible is the
+  only cure of my present sufferings.</p>
+
+<p class="center">HIPPOLYTUS, PH�DRA, NURSE, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. O mother earth, and ye disclosing rays of the sun, of what words
+  have I heard the dreadful sound!</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. Be silent, my son, before any one hears thy voice.</p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. It is not possible for me to be silent, when I have heard such
+  dreadful things.</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. Nay, I implore thee by thy beauteous hand.</p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. Wilt not desist from bringing thy hand near me, and from
+  touching my garments?</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. O! by thy knees, I implore thee, do not utterly destroy me.</p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. But wherefore this? since, thou sayest, thou hast spoken nothing
+  evil.</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. This word, my son, is by no means to be divulged.</p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. It is more fair to speak fair things to many.</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. O my child, by no means dishonor your oath.</p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. My tongue hath sworn&mdash;my mind is still unsworn.<a
+  name="Hipp_17"></a><a href="#HippN_17"><sup>[17]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>NUR. O my son, what wilt thou do? wilt thou destroy thy friends?</p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. <i>Friends!</i> I reject the word: no unjust person is my
+  friend.</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. Pardon, my child: that men should err is but to be expected.</p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. O Jove, wherefore in the name of heaven didst thou place in the
+  light of the sun that specious<a name="Hipp_18"></a><a
+  href="#HippN_18"><sup>[18]</sup></a> evil to men, women? for if thou
+  didst will to propagate the race of mortals, there was no necessity for
+  this to be done by women, but men might, having placed an equivalent in
+  thy temples, either in brass, or iron, or the weighty gold, buy a race of
+  children, each for the consideration of the value paid, and thus might
+  dwell in unmolested houses, without females. But now, first of all, when
+  we prepare to bring this evil to our homes, we squander away the wealth
+  of our houses. By this too it is evident, that woman is a great evil; for
+  the father, who begat her and brought her up, having given her a dowry
+  sends her away in order to be rid of the evil. But the husband, on the
+  other hand, when he has received the baneful evil<a name="Hipp_19"></a><a
+  href="#HippN_19"><sup>[19]</sup></a> into his house, rejoices, having
+  added a beautiful decoration to a most vile image, and tricks her out
+  with robes, unhappy man, while he has been insensibly minishing the
+  wealth of the family. But he is constrained; so that having made alliance
+  with noble kinsmen, he retains with [seeming] joy a marriage bitter to
+  him: or if he has received a good bride, but worthless parents in law, he
+  suppresses the evil that has befallen him by the consideration of the
+  good. But his state is the easiest, whose wife is settled in his house, a
+  cipher, but useless by reason of simplicity. But a wise woman I detest:
+  may there not be in my house at least a woman more highly gifted with
+  mind than woman ought to be. For Venus engenders mischief rather among
+  clever women, but a woman who is not endowed with capacity, by reason of
+  her small understanding, is removed from folly. But it is right that an
+  attendant should have no access to a woman, but with them ought to dwell
+  the speechless brute beasts, in which case they would be able neither to
+  address any one, nor from them to receive a voice in return. But now,
+  they that are evil follow after their evil devices within, and the
+  servants carry it forth abroad. As thou also hast, O evil woman, come to
+  the purpose of admitting me to share a bed which must not be
+  approached&mdash;a father's. Which impious things I will wash out with
+  flowing stream, pouring it into my ears: how then could I be the vile
+  one, who do not even deem myself pure, because I have heard such
+  things?&mdash;But be well assured, my piety protects thee, woman, for,
+  had I not been taken unawares by the oaths of the Gods, never would I
+  have refrained from telling these things to my father. But now will I
+  depart from the house, <i>and stay</i> during the time that Theseus is
+  absent from the land, and will keep my mouth silent; but I will see,
+  returning with my father's return, how you will look at him, both you and
+  your mistress. But your boldness I shall know, having before had proof of
+  it. May you perish: but never shall I take my fill of hating women, not
+  even if any one assert, that I am always saying this. For in some way or
+  other they surely are always bad. Either then let some one teach them to
+  be modest, or else let him suffer me ever to utter my invectives against
+  them.</p>
+
+<p class="center">CHORUS, PH�DRA, NURSE.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Oh unhappy ill-fated fortune of women! what art now or what
+  words have we, having failed as we have, to extricate the knot caused by
+  [these] words?</p>
+
+  <p>PH�. We have met a just reward; O earth, and light, in what manner, I
+  pray, can I escape from my fortunes? and how, my friends, can I conceal
+  my calamity? Who of the Gods will appear my succorer, or what mortal my
+  ally, or my fellow-worker in unjust works? for the suffering of my life
+  that is at present on me comes hardly to be escaped.<a
+  name="Hipp_20"></a><a href="#HippN_20"><sup>[20]</sup></a> I am the most
+  ill-fated of women.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Alas! alas! we are undone, lady, and the arts of thy attendant
+  have not succeeded, and it fares ill with us.</p>
+
+  <p>PH�. O thou most vile, and the destruction of thy friends, what hast
+  thou done to me! May Jove, my ancestor, tear thee up by the roots, having
+  stricken thee by his fire. Did not I tell thee (did not I foresee thy
+  intention?) to be silent with regard to those things with which I am now
+  tormented? but thou couldst not refrain; wherefore I can no longer die
+  with glory: but I must now in sooth employ new measures. For he, now that
+  his mind is made keen with rage, will tell, to my detriment, thy errors
+  to his father, and will fill the whole earth with the most vile reports.
+  Mayst thou perish, both thou and whoever else is forward to assist
+  friends against their will otherwise than by honorable means.</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. Lady, thou canst indeed blame the evil I have wrought; for that
+  which gnaws upon thee masters thy better judgment;&mdash;but I too have
+  somewhat to say in answer to these things, if thou wilt admit it: I
+  brought thee up, and have a kind affection toward thee; but, while
+  searching for medicine for thy disease, I found not that I wished for.
+  But if I had succeeded, I had been surely ranked among the wise; for we
+  have the reputation of sense according to our success.</p>
+
+  <p>PH�. What? is this conduct just, and satisfactory to me, to injure me
+  first, and then to meet me in argument?</p>
+
+  <p>NUR. We talk too long&mdash;I did not behave wisely. But even from
+  this state of things it is possible that thou mayest be saved, my
+  child.</p>
+
+  <p>PH�. Desist from speaking; for before also thou didst not well advise
+  for me, and didst attempt evil things. But depart from my sight, and take
+  care about thyself; for I will settle my own affairs in an honorable
+  manner. But you, noble daughters of Tr&#339;zene, grant thus much to me
+  requesting it, bury in silence what you here have heard.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. I swear by hallowed Dian, daughter of Jove, that I will never
+  reveal to the face of day one of thy evils.</p>
+
+  <p>PH�. Thou hast well spoken: but one kind of resource, while I search
+  around me,<a name="Hipp_21"></a><a href="#HippN_21"><sup>[21]</sup></a>
+  do I find for my present calamity, so that I may make the life of my
+  children glorious, and may myself be assisted as things have now fallen
+  out. For never will I disgrace the house of Crete at least, nor will I
+  come before the face of Theseus having acted basely, for one's life's
+  sake.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. But what irremediable evil art thou then about to
+  perpetrate?</p>
+
+  <p>PH�. To die: but how, this will I devise.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Speak words of better omen.</p>
+
+  <p>PH�. And do thou at least advise me well. But having quitted life this
+  day, I shall gratify Venus, who destroys me, and shall be conquered by
+  bitter love. But when I am dead, I shall be an evil to another at
+  least,<a name="Hipp_22"></a><a href="#HippN_22"><sup>[22]</sup></a> so
+  that he may know not to exult over my misfortunes; but, having shared
+  this malady in common with me, he shall learn to be modest.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Would that I were under the rocks' vast retreats,<a
+  name="Hipp_23"></a><a href="#HippN_23"><sup>[23]</sup></a> and that there
+  the God would make me a winged bird among the swift flocks, and that I
+  were lifted up above the ocean wave that dashes against the Adriatic
+  shore, and the water of Eridanus, where for grief of Phaethon the thrice
+  wretched virgins let fall into their father's billow the amber-beaming
+  brightness of their tears: and that I could make my way to the shore
+  where the apples grow of the harmonious daughters of Hesperus, where the
+  ruler of the ocean no longer permits the passage of the purple sea to
+  mariners, dwelling in that dread bourn of heaven which Atlas doth
+  sustain, and the ambrosial founts stream forth hard by the couches of
+  Jove's palaces, where the divine and life-bestowing earth increases the
+  bliss of the Gods. O white-winged bark of Crete, who didst bear my queen
+  through the perturbed<a name="Hipp_24"></a><a
+  href="#HippN_24"><sup>[24]</sup></a> ocean wave of brine from a happy
+  home, thereby aiding her in a most evil marriage. For surely in both
+  instances, or at any rate from Crete she came ill-omened to renowned
+  Athens, when on the Munychian shore they bound the platted ends of their
+  cables, and disembarked on the continent. Wherefore she was heartbroken
+  with the terrible disease of unhallowed love by the influence of Venus;
+  and now that she can no longer hold out against the heavy calamity,<a
+  name="Hipp_25"></a><a href="#HippN_25"><sup>[25]</sup></a> she will fit
+  around her the noose suspended<a name="Hipp_26"></a><a
+  href="#HippN_26"><sup>[26]</sup></a> from the ceiling of her bridal
+  chamber, adjusting it to her white neck, having revered the hateful
+  Goddess, and embracing an honorable name, and ridding from her breast the
+  painful love.</p>
+
+<p class="center">FEMALE SERVANT, CHORUS, THESEUS.</p>
+
+  <p>SERV. Alack! alack! run to my succor all that are near the
+  house&mdash;My mistress the wife of Theseus is hanging.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Alas! alas! the deed is done: the queen is indeed no
+  more&mdash;she is suspended in the noose that hangs there.</p>
+
+  <p>SERV. Will ye not haste? will not some one bring a two-edged sword,
+  with which we may undo this knot around her neck?</p>
+
+  <p>SEMICHOR. My friends, what do we? does it seem good to enter the house
+  and to free the queen from the tight-drawn noose?</p>
+
+  <p>SEMICHOR. Why we? Are not the young men-servants at hand? The being
+  over-busy is not a safe plan through life.</p>
+
+  <p>SERV. Lay right the wretched corpse, pull her limbs straight. A
+  grievous housekeeping this for my master!</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. The unhappy woman, as I hear, has perished, for already are they
+  laying her out as a corpse.</p>
+
+  <p>THES. Know ye, females, what noise this is in my house? a heavy sound
+  of my attendants reached me. For the family does not think fit to open
+  the gates to me and to hail me with joy as having returned from the
+  oracle. Has any ill befallen the aged Pittheus? His life is now indeed
+  far advanced; but still he would be much lamented by us, were he to leave
+  this house.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. This that has happened, Theseus, extends not to the old; the
+  young are they that by their death will grieve thee.</p>
+
+  <p>THES. Alas me! is the life of any of my children stolen from me?</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. They live, but their mother is dead in a way that will grieve
+  thee most.</p>
+
+  <p>THES. What sayest? My wife dead? By what fate?</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. She suspended the noose, wherewith she strangled herself.</p>
+
+  <p>THES. Wasted with sorrow, or from some sudden calamity?</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Thus much we know&mdash;<i>nothing further</i>; for I am but
+  just come to thy house, Theseus, to bewail thy evils.</p>
+
+  <p>THES. Alas! alas! why then have I my head crowned with entwined
+  leaves, who am the unhappy inquirer of the oracle? Servants, undo the
+  bars of the gates; unloose the bolts, that I may behold the mournful
+  spectacle of my wife, who by her death hath utterly undone me.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Alas! alas! unhappy for thy wretched ills: thou hast been a
+  sufferer; thou hast perpetrated a deed of such extent as to throw this
+  house into utter confusion. Alas! alas! thy boldness, O thou who hast
+  died a violent death, and, by an unhallowed chance, the act committed by
+  thy wretched hand. Who is it then, thou unhappy one, that destroys thy
+  life?</p>
+
+  <p>THES. Alas me for my sufferings!<a name="Hipp_27"></a><a
+  href="#HippN_27"><sup>[27]</sup></a> I have suffered, unhappy wretch, the
+  extreme of my troubles&mdash;O fortune, how heavy hast thou come upon me
+  and my house, an imperceptible spot from some evil demon! the wearing out
+  of a life not to be endured;<a name="Hipp_28"></a><a
+  href="#HippN_28"><sup>[28]</sup></a> and I, unhappy wretch, perceive a
+  sea of troubles so great, that never again can I emerge from it, nor
+  escape beyond the flood of this calamity. What mention making can I
+  unhappy, what heavy-fated fortune of thine, lady, saying that it was, can
+  I be right? For as some bird thou art vanished from my hand, having
+  leaped me a sudden leap to the realms of Pluto. Alas! alas! wretched,
+  wretched are these sufferings, but from some distant period or other
+  receive I this calamity from the Gods, for the errors of some of those of
+  old.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Not to thee alone, O king, have these evils happened; but with
+  many others thou hast lost an excellent wife.<a name="Hipp_29"></a><a
+  href="#HippN_29"><sup>[29]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>THES. In the shades beneath the earth, I unhappy wish, dying, to dwell
+  in darkness, reft as I am of thy most dear company, for thou hast
+  destroyed rather than perished&mdash;What then do I hear? whence came the
+  deadly chance, lady, to thine heart? Will any speak what has happened, or
+  does my royal palace contain to no purpose the crowd of my
+  attendants?&mdash;Alas me on thy account! unhappy that I am, what grief
+  in my house have I seen, intolerable, indescribable! but&mdash;we are
+  undone! my house left desolate, and my children orphans.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Thou hast left us, thou hast left us, O dear among women, and
+  most excellent of those as many as both the light of the sun, and the
+  star-visaged moon of night behold. O unhappy man! how great ill doth the
+  house contain! with tears gushing over, my eyelids are wet at thy
+  calamity. But the woe that will ensue on this I have long since been
+  dreading.</p>
+
+  <p>THES. Alas! alas! What I pray is this letter suspended from her dear
+  hand? does it mean to betoken some new calamity?&mdash;What, has the
+  unhappy woman written injunctions to me, making some request about<a
+  name="Hipp_30"></a><a href="#HippN_30"><sup>[30]</sup></a> my bridal bed
+  and my children? Be of good courage, hapless one; for no woman exists,
+  who shall enter the bed and the house of Theseus. But lo! the impressions
+  of the golden seal<a name="Hipp_31"></a><a
+  href="#HippN_31"><sup>[31]</sup></a> of her no more here court my
+  attention.<a name="Hipp_32"></a><a href="#HippN_32"><sup>[32]</sup></a>
+  Come, let me unfold the envelopments of the seal, and see what this
+  letter should say to me.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Alas! alas! this new evil in succession again doth the God bring
+  on. To me indeed the condition of life will be impossible to bear,<a
+  name="Hipp_33"></a><a href="#HippN_33"><sup>[33]</sup></a> from what has
+  happened; for I consider, alas! as ruined and no more the house of my
+  kings. O God, if it be in any way possible, do not overthrow the house;
+  but hear me as I pray, for from some quarter, as though a prophet, I
+  behold an evil omen.</p>
+
+  <p>THES. Ah me! what other evil is this in addition to evil, not to be
+  borne, nor spoken! alas wretched me!</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. What is the matter? Tell me if it may be told me.</p>
+
+  <p>THES. It cries out&mdash;the letter cries out things most dreadful:
+  which way can I fly the weight of my ills; for I perish utterly
+  destroyed. What, what a complaint have I seen speaking in her
+  writing!</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Alas! thou utterest words foreboding woes.</p>
+
+  <p>THES. No longer will I keep within the door of my lips this dreadful,
+  dreadful evil hardly to be uttered. O city, city, Hippolytus has dared by
+  force to approach my bed, having despised the awful eye of Jove. But O
+  father Neptune, by one of these three curses, which thou formerly didst
+  promise me, by one of those destroy my son, and let him not escape beyond
+  this day, if thou hast given me curses that shall be verified.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. O king, by the Gods recall back this prayer, for hereafter you
+  will know that you have erred; be persuaded by me.</p>
+
+  <p>THES. It can not be: and moreover I will drive him from this land. And
+  by one or other of the two fates shall he be assailed: for either Neptune
+  shall send him dead to the mansions of Pluto, having respect unto my
+  wish; or else banished from this country, wandering over a foreign land,
+  he shall drag out a miserable existence.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. And lo! thy son Hippolytus is present here opportunely, but if
+  thou let go thy evil displeasure, king Theseus, thou wilt advise the best
+  for thine house.</p>
+
+<p class="center">HIPPOLYTUS, THESEUS, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. I heard thy cry, my father, and came in haste; the thing
+  however, for which you are groaning, I know not; but would fain hear from
+  you. Ha! what is the matter? I behold thy wife, my father, a corpse: this
+  is a thing meet for the greatest wonder.&mdash;Her, whom I lately left,
+  her, who beheld the light no great time since. What ails her? In what
+  manner died she, my father, I would fain hear from you. Art silent? But
+  there is no use of silence in misfortunes; for the heart which desires to
+  hear all things, is found eager also in the case of ills. It is not
+  indeed right, my father, to conceal thy misfortunes from friends, and
+  even more than friends.</p>
+
+  <p>THES. O men, who vainly go astray in many things, why then do ye teach
+  ten thousand arts, and contrive and invent every thing; but one thing ye
+  do not know, nor yet have investigated, to teach those to be wise who
+  have no intellect!</p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. A clever sophist this you speak of, who is able to compel those
+  who have no wisdom to be rightly wise. But (for thou art arguing too
+  refinedly on no suitable occasion) I fear, O father, lest thy tongue be
+  talking at random through thy woes.</p>
+
+  <p>THES. Alas! there ought to be established for men some infallible
+  proof of their friends, and some means of knowing their dispositions,
+  both who is true, and who is not a friend, and men ought all to have two
+  voices, the one true, the other as it chanced, that the untrue one might
+  be convicted by the true, and then we should not be deceived.</p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. Has some one then falsely accused me in your ear, and am I
+  suffering who am not at all guilty? I am amazed, for your words,
+  wandering beyond the bounds of reason, do amaze me.</p>
+
+  <p>THES. Alas! the mind of man, to what lengths will it go? what will be
+  the limit to its boldness and temerity? For if it shall increase with
+  each generation of man, and the successor shall be wicked a degree beyond
+  his predecessor, it will be necessary for the Gods to add to the earth
+  another land, which<a name="Hipp_34"></a><a
+  href="#HippN_34"><sup>[34]</sup></a> will contain the unjust and the evil
+  ones.&mdash;But look: ye on this man, who being born of me hath defiled
+  my bed, and is manifestly convicted by the deceased of being most
+  base.&mdash;But, since thou hast come to this attaint, show thy face here
+  before thy father. Dost thou forsooth associate with the Gods, as being
+  an extraordinary person? art thou chaste and uncontaminated with evil? I
+  will not believe thy boasts, attributing (<i>as I must, if I do
+  believe</i>) to the Gods the folly of thinking evil. Now then vaunt, and
+  with thy feeding on inanimate food retail your doctrines upon men, and
+  having Orpheus<a name="Hipp_35"></a><a
+  href="#HippN_35"><sup>[35]</sup></a> for your master, revel it,
+  reverencing the emptiness of many letters; <i>which avail you not</i>;
+  since you are caught.</p>
+
+  <p>But such sort of men I warn all to shun; for they hunt with
+  fair-sounding words, while they devise base things. She is dead: dost
+  thou think this will save thee? By this thou art most detected, O thou
+  most vile one! For what sort of oaths, what arguments can be more strong
+  than what she says, so that thou canst escape the accusation? Wilt thou
+  say that she hated thee, and that the bastard race is hateful forsooth to
+  those of noble birth? A bad housewife then of life you account her, if
+  through hatred of thee she lost what was most dear to her. But wilt thou
+  say that there is not this folly in men, but that there is in women? I
+  myself have known young men who were not a whit more steady than women,
+  when Venus disturbed the youthful mind: but their pretense of manliness
+  protects them. Now however, why do I thus contend against thy words, when
+  the corse, the surest witness, is here? Depart an exile from this land as
+  soon as possible. And neither go to the divine-built Athens, nor to the
+  confines of that land over which my sceptre rules. For if I thus
+  suffering by thee be vanquished, never will the Isthmian Sinis bear
+  witness of me that I killed him, but will say that I vainly boast. Nor
+  will the Scironian rocks, that dwell by the sea, confess that I am
+  formidable to the bad.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. I know not how I can say that any of mortals is happy; for the
+  things that were most excellent are turned back again.</p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. Father, thy rage indeed, and the commotion of thy mind is
+  terrible; this thing, however, though it have fair arguments, if any one
+  unravel it, is not fair. But I am unadorned with phrase to speak to the
+  multitude, but to speak to my equals and to a few, more expert: but this
+  also has consistency in it; for those, who are of no account among the
+  wise, are more fitted to speak before the rabble. But yet it is necessary
+  for me, since this calamity has come, to unloose my tongue. But first
+  will I begin to speak from that point where first you attacked, as though
+  you would destroy, and as though I should not answer again. Dost thou
+  behold this light and this earth? In these there is not a man more chaste
+  than me, not even though thou deny it. For, first indeed, I know to
+  reverence the Gods, and to have such friends as attempt not to be unjust,
+  but those, to whom there is modesty, so that neither they give utterance
+  to evil thoughts, nor minister in return base services to those who use
+  their friendship: nor am I the derider of my associates, O father, but
+  the same man to my friends when they are not present, and when I am with
+  them. But of one thing by which thou thinkest to crush me, I am pure;<a
+  name="Hipp_36"></a><a href="#HippN_36"><sup>[36]</sup></a> for to this
+  day my body is undefiled by the couch of love; and I know not the deed
+  except hearing of it by report, and seeing it in a picture, nor even am I
+  forward to look at these things, having a virgin mind. And perhaps my
+  modesty persuades you not. Behooves it thee then to show in what manner I
+  lost it. Did this woman's person excel in beauty all women? Or did I hope
+  to rule over thine house, having thy bridal bed as carrying dowry with
+  it? I must in that case have been a fool, and not at all in my senses.
+  But did I do it as though to reign were pleasant to the modest? By no
+  means indeed is it, except monarchy have destroyed the minds of men who
+  are pleased with her. But I would wish indeed to be first victor in the
+  Grecian games, but second in the state ever to be happy with the most
+  excellent friends. For thus is it possible to be well circumstanced: but
+  the absence of the danger gives greater joy than dominion. One of my
+  arguments has not been spoken, but the rest you are in possession of:
+  for, if I had a witness such as myself am, and were she alive during my
+  contention, you would know the evil ones, searching them by their works.
+  But now I swear by Jove, the guardian of oaths,<a name="Hipp_37"></a><a
+  href="#HippN_37"><sup>[37]</sup></a> and by the plain of the earth, that
+  never touched I thy bridal bed, nor ever wished it, nor conceived the
+  thought. Else may I perish inglorious, without a name, and may neither
+  sea nor earth receive the flesh of me when dead, if I be a wicked man.
+  But whether or no she have destroyed her life through fear, I know not:
+  for it is not lawful for me to speak further. Cautious<a
+  name="Hipp_38"></a><a href="#HippN_38"><sup>[38]</sup></a> she was,
+  though she could not be chaste; but I, who could be, had the power to no
+  good purpose.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Thou hast said sufficient to rebut the charge, in offering the
+  oaths by the Gods, no slight proof.</p>
+
+  <p>THES. Is not this man then an enchanter and a juggler, who trusts that
+  he will overcome my mind by his goodness of disposition, after he has
+  dishonored his father?</p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. I too very much wonder at this conduct of yours, my father; for
+  if you were my son, and I your father, I should slay you, and not punish
+  you by banishment, if you had dared to defile my wife.</p>
+
+  <p>THES. How fitly hast thou said this! yet thou shalt not so die, as
+  thou hast laid down this law for thyself; for a quick grave is easiest to
+  the miserable man; but wandering an exile from thy country's land to
+  foreign realms, thou shalt drag out a life of bitterness; for this is the
+  reward for the impious man.</p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. Ah me! what wilt thou do? wilt thou not even await time as
+  evidence against me, but wilt thou banish me from the land?</p>
+
+  <p>THES. Ay, beyond the ocean, and the place of Atlas,<a
+  name="Hipp_39"></a><a href="#HippN_39"><sup>[39]</sup></a> if any way I
+  could, so much do I hate thee.</p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. Without having even examined oath, or proof, or the sayings of
+  the seers, wilt thou cast me uncondemned from out the land?</p>
+
+  <p>THES. This letter here, that waiteth no seer's observations,<a
+  name="Hipp_40"></a><a href="#HippN_40"><sup>[40]</sup></a> accuses thee
+  faithfully; but to the birds that flit above my head I bid a long
+  farewell.</p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. O Gods, wherefore then do I not ope my mouth, who am destroyed
+  by you whom I worship?&mdash;And yet not so&mdash;for thus I should not
+  altogether persuade those whom I ought, but should be violating to no
+  purpose the oaths which I have sworn.</p>
+
+  <p>THES. Alas me! how thy sanctity kills me! Wilt not thou go as quick as
+  possible from thy country's land?</p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. Whither then shall I unhappy turn me; what stranger's mansion
+  shall I enter, banished on this charge?</p>
+
+  <p>THES. His, who delights to entertain defilers of women, and those who
+  dwell with<a name="Hipp_41"></a><a href="#HippN_41"><sup>[41]</sup></a>
+  evil deeds.</p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. Alas! alas! this goes to my heart, and almost makes me weep: if
+  indeed I appear vile, and seem so to thee.</p>
+
+  <p>THES. Then oughtest thou to have groaned, and owned the guilt before,
+  when thou daredst to wrong thy father's wife.</p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. O mansions, would that ye could utter me a voice, and bear
+  witness whether I be a vile man!</p>
+
+  <p>THES. Dost fly to dumb witnesses? this deed, though it speak not,
+  clearly proves thee vile.</p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. Alas! would that I could look upon myself standing opposite, to
+  that degree do I weep for the evils which I suffer!</p>
+
+  <p>THES. Thou hast accustomed thyself much more to regard thyself, than
+  to be a just man, and to do what is righteous to thy parents.</p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. O unhappy mother! O wretched natal hour! may none of my friends
+  ever be illegitimate.</p>
+
+  <p>THES. Servants, will ye not drag him out? did you not hear me long ago
+  pronounce him banished!</p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. Any one of them shall touch me to his cost however; but thou
+  thyself, if it be thy desire, thrust me out from the land.</p>
+
+  <p>THES. I will do this, unless thou wilt obey my words, for no pity for
+  thy banishment comes over me.</p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. It is fixed, as it seems; alas, wretch that I am! since I know
+  these things indeed, but know not how to say them. O most dear to me of
+  deities, daughter of Latona, thou that assortest with me, huntest with
+  me, we shall then indeed be banished illustrious Athens: but farewell O
+  city, and land of Erectheus. O plain of Tr&#339;zene, how many things
+  hast thou to employ the happy youth! Farewell! for I address thee,
+  beholding thee for the last time&mdash;Come youths of this land my
+  companions, bid me farewell, and conduct me from the land, for never
+  shall you see a man more chaste, even though I seem not to my father.</p>
+
+<p class="center">CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>Surely the providence of the Gods, when it comes into my mind, greatly
+  takes away sorrow: but cherishing in my hope some knowledge, I am utterly
+  deficient, when I look on the fortunes and on the deeds of men, for they
+  are changed in different manners, and the life of man varies, ever
+  exceeding vague. Would that in answer to my petitions fate from the Gods
+  would give me this, prosperity with riches, and a mind unsullied by
+  griefs. And be my character neither too high, nor on the other hand
+  infamous. But changing my easy habits with the morrow ever may I lead a
+  happy life; for no longer have I an unperturbed mind, but I see things
+  contrary to my expectations: since we have seen the brightest star of
+  Grecian Minerva sent forth to another land on account of his father's
+  rage. O sands of the neighboring shore, and mountain wood, where with the
+  swift-footed dogs he wont to slay the wild beasts, accompanying the
+  chaste Dian! No more shalt thou mount the car drawn by the team of
+  Henetian steeds, restraining with thy foot the horses in their exercise
+  on the course round Limna.<a name="Hipp_42"></a><a
+  href="#HippN_42"><sup>[42]</sup></a> And the sleepless song that used to
+  dwell under the bridge of the chords shall cease in thy father's house.
+  And the haunts of the daughter of Latona in the deep wood shall be
+  without their garlands: and the contest among the damsels for thy bridal
+  bed has died away by reason of thy exile. But I, for thy misfortunes,
+  shall endure with tears a fortuneless fortune.<a name="Hipp_43"></a><a
+  href="#HippN_43"><sup>[43]</sup></a> O unhappy mother, thou hast brought
+  forth in vain! Alas! I am enraged with the Gods. Alas! alas! united
+  charms of marriage, wherefore send ye the unhappy one, guilty of no
+  crime, away from his country's land&mdash;away from these mansions?</p>
+
+  <p>But lo! I perceive a follower of Hippolytus with a sad countenance
+  coming toward the house in haste.</p>
+
+<p class="center">MESSENGER, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. Ye females, whither going can I find Theseus, king of this land?
+  If ye know, tell me: is he within this palace?</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. The [king] himself is coming out of the palace.</p>
+
+<p class="center">MESSENGER, THESEUS, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. I bring a tale that demands concern, of thee and of thy
+  subjects, both those who inhabit the city of the Athenians, and the
+  realms of the Tr&#339;zenian land.</p>
+
+  <p>THES. What is it? Has any sudden calamity come upon the two
+  neighboring states?</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. To speak the word&mdash;Hippolytus is no more. He views the
+  light however for a short moment.</p>
+
+  <p>THES. <i>Killed</i>? By whom? Has any come to enmity with him, whose
+  wife, as his father's, he has forcibly defiled?</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. His own chariot slew him, and the imprecations of thy mouth,
+  which thou didst put up to thy father, the ruler of the ocean, concerning
+  thy son.</p>
+
+  <p>THES. O ye Gods! and O Neptune! how truly then wert thou my father,
+  when thou didst duly hear my imprecations! Tell me too, how did he
+  perish? in what way did the staff of Justice strike him that disgraced
+  me?</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. We indeed near the wave-beaten shore were combing out with combs
+  the horses' hair, weeping, for there had come a messenger saying, that
+  Hippolytus no longer trod on this land, having from thee received the
+  sentence of wretched banishment. But he came bringing to us on the shore
+  the same strain of tears: and an innumerable throng of his friends and
+  companions came following with him. But at length after some time he
+  spake, having ceased from his groans. "Wherefore am I thus disquieted? My
+  father's words must be obeyed. My servants, yoke to my car the harnessed
+  steeds, for this city is for me no more." Then indeed every man hasted,
+  and sooner than one could speak we drew up the horses caparisoned before
+  our master; and he seizes with his hands the reins from off the bow of
+  the chariot, mounting with his foot sandaled as it was.<a
+  name="Hipp_44"></a><a href="#HippN_44"><sup>[44]</sup></a> And first
+  indeed he addressed the Gods with outstretched hands: "Jove, may I no
+  longer exist, if I am a base man; but may my father perceive how
+  unworthily he treats me, either when I am dead, or while I view the
+  light." And on this having taken the whip in his hands he struck the
+  horses both at once: and we the attendants followed our master by the
+  chariot close to the reins, along the road that leads straightway to
+  Argos and Epidauria, but when we came into the desert country, there is a
+  certain shore beyond this land which slopes even down to the Saronic Sea,
+  from thence a voice like the subterraneous thunder of Jove sent forth a
+  dreadful groan appalling to hear, and the horses pointed their heads
+  erect and their ears toward the sky, and on us there came a vehement
+  fear, whence possibly the voice could come: but looking toward the
+  sea-beaten shore we beheld a vast wave pillared in heaven, so that the
+  view of the heights of Sciron was taken from mine eye:<a
+  name="Hipp_45"></a><a href="#HippN_45"><sup>[45]</sup></a> and it
+  concealed the Isthmus and the rock of �sculapius. And then swelling up
+  and splashing forth<a name="Hipp_46"></a><a
+  href="#HippN_46"><sup>[46]</sup></a> much foam around in the ocean surf,
+  it moves toward the shore, where was the chariot drawn by its four
+  horses. But together with its breaker and its tripled surge,<a
+  name="Hipp_47"></a><a href="#HippN_47"><sup>[47]</sup></a> the wave sent
+  forth a bull, a fierce monster; with whose bellowing the whole land
+  filled resounded fearfully: and to the lookers-on a sight appeared more
+  dreadful than the eyes could bear. And straightway a dreadful fear comes
+  over the steeds. But their master, being much conversant with the ways of
+  horses, seized the reins in his hands, and pulls them as a sailor pulls
+  his oar, having fixed his body in an opposite direction to the reins.<a
+  name="Hipp_48"></a><a href="#HippN_48"><sup>[48]</sup></a> But they,
+  champing with their jaws the forged bits, bare him on forcibly, heeding
+  neither the hand that steered them, nor the traces, nor the compact
+  chariot: and, if indeed holding the reins he directed their course toward
+  the softer ground, the bull appeared in front, so as to turn them away
+  maddening with fright the four horses that drew the chariot. But if they
+  were borne to the rocks maddened in mettle, silently approaching the
+  chariot he followed so far, until he overthrew it and drove it backward,
+  dashing the felly of the wheel against the rock. And all was in
+  confusion, and the naves of the wheels flew up, and the linch-pins of the
+  axles. But the unhappy man himself entangled in the reins is dragged
+  along, bound in a difficult bond, his head dashed against the rocks, and
+  torn his flesh, and crying out in a voice dreadful to hear, "Stop, O ye
+  that have been trained up in my stalls, do not destroy me. Oh unhappy
+  imprecation of my father! Who will come near and save a most excellent
+  man?" But many of us wishing so to do failed through want of swiftness:
+  and he indeed freed, in what manner I know not, from the entanglements of
+  the reins, falls, having the breath of life in him, but for a very short
+  time. And the horses vanished, and the woeful monster of the bull I know
+  not where in the mountain country. I am indeed the slave of thy house, O
+  king, but thus much never shall I at least be able to be persuaded of thy
+  son, that he is evil, not even if the whole race of women were hung, and
+  though one should fill with writing all the fir of Ida,<a
+  name="Hipp_49"></a><a href="#HippN_49"><sup>[49]</sup></a> since I am
+  confident that he is virtuous.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Alas! alas! The calamity of new evils is consummated, nor is
+  there refuge from fate and from what must be.</p>
+
+  <p>THES. Through hate of the man, who has thus suffered, I was pleased
+  with this account; but now, having respect unto the Gods, and to him,
+  because he is of me, I am neither pleased, nor yet troubled at these
+  ills.</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. How then? Must we bring him hither, or what must we do to the
+  unhappy man to gratify thy wishes! Think; but if thou take my advice,
+  thou wilt not be harsh toward thy son in his misfortunes.</p>
+
+  <p>THES. Bear him hither, that seeing him before my eyes that denied he
+  had defiled my bed, I may confute him with words, and with what has
+  happened from the Gods.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Thou, Venus, bendest the stubborn mind of the Gods, and of
+  mortals, and with thee he of varied plume, that darts about on swiftest
+  wing; and flies over the earth and over the loud-resounding briny ocean;
+  and Love charms to subjection, on whose maddened heart the winged urchin
+  come gleaming with gold, the race of the mountain whelps, and of those
+  that inhabit the sea, and as many things as the earth nourisheth, which
+  the sun doth behold scorched [with its rays,] and men: but over all these
+  things thou, Venus, alone holdest sovereign rule.</p>
+
+<p class="center">DIANA, THESEUS, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>DI. Thee, the noble son of �geus, I command to listen; but it is I,
+  Diana, daughter of Latona, who am addressing thee: Theseus, wherefore
+  dost thou, wretched man, take delight in these things, seeing that thou
+  hast slain in no just way thy son, being persuaded by the lying words of
+  thy wife in things not seen? But the guilt that has seized on thee is
+  manifest. How canst thou, shamed as thou art, refrain from hiding thy
+  body beneath the dark recesses of the earth? or from withdrawing thy foot
+  from this suffering, by changing thy nature, and becoming a winged
+  creature above? Since among good men at least thou hast not a part in
+  life to possess. Hear, O Theseus, the state of thy ills. Even though I
+  gain no advantage from it, yet will I torment thee; but for this purpose
+  came I to show thee the upright mind of thy son, that he may die with a
+  good reputation, and thy wife's passion, or, in some sort, nobleness;
+  for, gnawed by the stings of that deity most hateful to us, as many as
+  delight in virginity, she became enamored of thy son. But while she
+  endeavored by right feeling to conquer Venus, she was destroyed not
+  willingly by the means employed by the nurse, who having first bound him
+  by oaths, told thy son her malady. But he, as was right, obeyed not her
+  words; nor, again, though evil-entreated by thee, did he violate the
+  sanctity of his oaths, being a pious man. But she, fearing lest her
+  conduct should be scrutinized, wrote a false letter, and by deceit
+  destroyed thy son, but nevertheless persuaded thee.</p>
+
+  <p>THES. Ah me!</p>
+
+  <p>DI. My tale torments thee, Theseus, but be still, that having heard
+  what follows thou mayest groan the more&mdash;Knowest thou then that thou
+  receivedst from thy father three wishes with a certainty of their being
+  granted? Whereof one thou hast expended, O most evil one, on thy son,
+  when thou mightest have done it on some of thine enemies. Thy father then
+  that dwelleth in the ocean, gave thee as much as he was bound to give,
+  because he promised. But thou both in his eyes and in mine appearest
+  evil, who neither didst await nor examine proof, nor the voice of the
+  prophets, didst not leave the consideration to length of time, but,
+  quicker than became thee, didst vent thy curses against thy son and slay
+  him.</p>
+
+  <p>THES. Mistress, let me die!</p>
+
+  <p>DI. Thou hast committed dreadful deeds, but nevertheless, it is still
+  possible even for thee to obtain pardon for these things. For Venus
+  willed that these things should be in order to satiate her rage. But
+  among the Gods the law is thus&mdash;None wishes to thwart the purpose of
+  him that wills anything, but we always give way. Since, be well assured,
+  were it not that I feared Jove, never should I have come to such
+  disgrace, as to suffer to die a man of all mortals the most dear to me.
+  But thine error, first of all thine ignorance frees from malice; and then
+  thy wife by her dying put an end to the proof of words, so as to persuade
+  thy mind. Chiefly then on thee these ills are burst, but sorrow is to me
+  too; for Gods rejoice not when the pious die; the wicked however we
+  destroy with their children and their houses.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. And lo! the unhappy man there is coming, all mangled his young
+  flesh and auburn head. Oh the misery of the house! such double anguish
+  coming down from heaven has been wrought in the palaces!</p>
+
+<p class="center">HIPPOLYTUS, DIANA, THESEUS, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. O! O! O! Unhappy I was thus foully mangled by the unjust prayers
+  of an unjust father&mdash;I am destroyed miserably. Ah me! ah me! Pains
+  rush through my head, and the spasm darts across my brain. Stop, I will
+  rest my fainting body. Oh! oh! O those hateful horses of my chariot,
+  things which I fed with my own hand, ye have destroyed me utterly and
+  slain me. Oh! oh! by the Gods, gently, my servants, touch with your hands
+  my torn flesh. Who stands by my side on the right? Lift me up properly,
+  and take hold all equally on me, the unblessed of heaven, and cursed by
+  my father's error&mdash;Jove, Jove, beholdest thou these things? Lo! I,
+  the chaste, and the reverencer of the Gods, I who in modesty exceed all,
+  have lost my life, and go to a manifest hell beneath the earth; but in
+  vain have I labored in the task of piety toward men. O! O! O! O! and now
+  the pain, the pain comes upon me, loose unhappy me, and let death come to
+  be my physician. Destroy me, destroy the unhappy one&mdash;I long for a
+  two-edged blade, wherewith to cut me in pieces, and to put my life to an
+  eternal rest. Oh unhappy curse of my father! the evil too of my
+  blood-polluted kinsmen, my old forefathers, bursts forth<a
+  name="Hipp_50"></a><a href="#HippN_50"><sup>[50]</sup></a> upon me; nor
+  is it at a distance; and it hath come on me, wherefore, I pray, who am
+  nothing guilty of these ills? Alas me! me! what can I say? how can I free
+  my life from this cruel calamity? Would that the black and nightly fate
+  of Pluto would put me wretched to eternal sleep!</p>
+
+  <p>DI. Oh unhappy mortal, with what a calamity art thou enthralled! but
+  the nobleness of thy mind hath destroyed thee.</p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. Let be. O divine breathing of perfume, for, even though being in
+  ills, I perceived thee, and felt my body lightened of its pain.<a
+  name="Hipp_51"></a><a href="#HippN_51"><sup>[51]</sup></a> The Goddess
+  Dian is in this place.</p>
+
+  <p>DI. Oh unhappy one! she is, to thee the most dear of deities.</p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. Mistress, thou seest wretched me, in what state I am.</p>
+
+  <p>DI. I see; but it is not lawful for me to shed a tear down mine
+  eyes.</p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. Thy hunter, and thy servant is no more.</p>
+
+  <p>DI. No in sooth; but beloved by me thou perishest.</p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. And he that managed they steeds, and guarded thy statutes.</p>
+
+  <p>DI. <i>Ay</i>, for the crafty Venus hath so wrought.</p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. Ah me! I perceive indeed the power that hath destroyed me.</p>
+
+  <p>DI. She thought her honor aggrieved, and hated thee for being
+  chaste.</p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. One Venus hath destroyed us three.</p>
+
+  <p>DI. Thy father, and thee, and his wife the third.</p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. I mourn therefore also my father's misery.</p>
+
+  <p>DI. He was deceived by the devices of the Goddess.</p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. Oh! unhappy thou, because of this calamity, my father!</p>
+
+  <p>THES. I perish, my son, nor have I delight in life.</p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. I lament thee rather than myself on account of thy error.</p>
+
+  <p>THES. My son, would that I could die in thy stead!</p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. Oh! the bitter gifts of thy father Neptune!</p>
+
+  <p>THES. Would that the prayer had never come into my mouth.</p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. Wherefore this wish? thou wouldst have slain me, so enraged wert
+  thou then.</p>
+
+  <p>THES. For I was deceived in my notions by the Gods.</p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. Alas! would that the race of mortals could curse the Gods!</p>
+
+  <p>DI. Let be; for not even when thou art under the darkness of the earth
+  shall the rage arising from the bent of the Goddess Venus descend upon
+  thy body unrevenged: by reason of thy piety and thy excellent mind. For
+  with these inevitable weapons from mine own hand will I revenge me on
+  another,<a name="Hipp_52"></a><a href="#HippN_52"><sup>[52]</sup></a>
+  whoever to her be the dearest of mortals. But to thee, O unhappy one, in
+  recompense for these evils, will I give the greatest honors in the land
+  of Tr&#339;zene; for the unwedded virgins before their nuptials shall
+  shear their locks to thee for many an age, owning the greatest sorrow
+  tears can give; but ever among the virgins shall there be a remembrance
+  of thee that shall awake the song, nor dying away without a name shall
+  Ph�dra's love toward thee pass unrecorded:&mdash;But thou, O son of the
+  aged �geus, take thy son in thine arms and clasp him to thee; for
+  unwillingly thou didst destroy him, but that men should err, when the
+  Gods dispose events, is but to be expected!&mdash;and thee, Hippolytus, I
+  exhort not to remain at enmity with thy father; for thou perceivest the
+  fate, whereby thou wert destroyed. And farewell! for it is not lawful for
+  me to behold the dead, nor to pollute mine eye with the gasps of the
+  dying; but I see that thou art now near this calamity.</p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. Go thou too, and farewell, blessed virgin! But thou easily
+  quittest a long companionship. But I give up all enmity against my father
+  at thy request, for before also I was wont to obey thy words. Ah! ah!
+  darkness now covers me over mine eyes. Take hold on me, my father, and
+  lift up my body.</p>
+
+  <p>THES. Ah me! my son, what dost thou, do to me unhappy?</p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. I perish, and do indeed see the gates of hell.</p>
+
+  <p>THES. What? leaving my mind uncleansed from thy blood?</p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. No in sooth, since I free thee from this murder.</p>
+
+  <p>THES. What sayest thou? dost thou remit me free from the guilt of
+  blood?</p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. I call to witness Dian that slays with the bow.</p>
+
+  <p>THES. O most dear, how noble thou appearest to thy father!</p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. O farewell thou too, take my best farewell, my father!</p>
+
+  <p>THES. Oh me! for thy pious and brave soul!</p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. Pray to have legitimate sons like me.</p>
+
+  <p>THES. Do not, I prithee, leave me, my son, but be strong.</p>
+
+  <p>HIPP. My time of strength is past; for I perish, my father: but cover
+  my face as quickly as possible with robes.</p>
+
+  <p>THES. O famous realms of Athens and of Pallas, of what a man will ye
+  have been bereaved! Oh unhappy I! What abundant reason, Venus, shall I
+  have to remember thy ills!</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. This common grief to all the citizens hath come unexpectedly.
+  There will be a fast falling of many tears; for the mournful stories of
+  great men rather obtain.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h3>NOTES ON HIPPOLYTUS</h3>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+<div class="note">
+  <p><a name="HippN_1"></a><a href="#Hipp_1">[1]</a> The construction in
+  the original furnishes a remarkable example of the "nominativus
+  pendens."</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HippN_2"></a><a href="#Hipp_2">[2]</a> Or, <i>that posterity
+  might know it</i>. TR. Dindorf would omit these words. B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HippN_3"></a><a href="#Hipp_3">[3]</a> Dindorf would omit
+  these lines. I think the difficulty in the structure may be removed by
+  reading <span lang="el"
+  title="hostis">&#x201B;&#x3BF;&#x3C3;&#x3C4;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;</span> instead
+  of <span lang="el"
+  title="hosois">&#x201B;&#x3BF;&#x3C3;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;</span>. The
+  enallage, <span lang="el" title="hostis ...
+  toutois">&#x201B;&#x3BF;&#x3C3;&#x3C4;&#x3B9;&#x3C2; ...
+  &#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;</span>, is by no means
+  unusual. B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HippN_4"></a><a href="#Hipp_4">[4]</a> Cf. Soph. &#338;d.
+  Col. 121, sqq. B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HippN_5"></a><a href="#Hipp_5">[5]</a> Which at present you
+  do not appear to have.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HippN_6"></a><a href="#Hipp_6">[6]</a> Monk would join <span
+  lang="el"
+  title="�keanou">&#x3C9;&#x3BA;&#x3B5;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;</span>
+  with <span lang="el"
+  title="petra">&#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3C4;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;</span>, as in the
+  translation, but other commentators prefer, which is certainly more
+  simple, to join it with <span lang="el"
+  title="hyd�r">&#x201B;&#x3C5;&#x3B4;&#x3C9;&#x3C1;</span>. Then the
+  difficulty occurs of sea-water being unfit for washing vests. This
+  difficulty Beck obviates, by saying that <span lang="el" title="hyd�r
+  �keanou">&#x201B;&#x3C5;&#x3B4;&#x3C9;&#x3C1;
+  &#x3C9;&#x3BA;&#x3B5;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;</span> may be applied
+  to fresh water, Ocean being the parent of all streams, the word <span
+  lang="el"
+  title="�keanou">&#x3C9;&#x3BA;&#x3B5;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;</span>
+  being here, in a manner, redundant. TR. Matthi� is very wrath with the
+  "all on a washing day" manner in which the Chorus learned Ph�dra's
+  indisposition. The "Bothie of Toper na Fuosich" will furnish some similar
+  simplicities, such as the meeting a lassie "digging potatoes." But we
+  might as well object to the whole story of Nausicaa. It must be
+  recollected that the duties of the laundry were considered more
+  aristocratic by the ancients, than in modern times. B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HippN_7"></a><a href="#Hipp_7">[7]</a> Cf. �sch. Pr. 23.
+  <span lang="el" title="Chroias ameipseis
+  anthos">&#x3A7;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B1;&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C8;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3B8;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span>. B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HippN_8"></a><a href="#Hipp_8">[8]</a> Literally <i>a speech
+  mounted on madness</i>. A similar expression occurs, Odyssey <span
+  lang="el" title="A">&#x391;</span>. 297. <span lang="el" title="N�piaas
+  ocheein">&#x39D;&#x3B7;&#x3C0;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;&#x3B1;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3BF;&#x3C7;&#x3B5;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HippN_9"></a><a href="#Hipp_9">[9]</a> Plutarch in
+  explanation of this line says, "<span lang="el" title="kathaper poda
+  ne�s, epididonta kai prosagonta tais chreiais t�n
+  philian">&#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B8;&#x3B1;&#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3B4;&#x3B1; &#x3BD;&#x3B5;&#x3C9;&#x3C2;,
+  &#x3B5;&#x3C0;&#x3B9;&#x3B4;&#x3B9;&#x3B4;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3C3;&#x3B1;&#x3B3;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3C7;&#x3C1;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3C2; &#x3C4;&#x3B7;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3C6;&#x3B9;&#x3BB;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;</span>."</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HippN_10"></a><a href="#Hipp_10">[10]</a> I have followed the
+  elegant interpretation of L. Dindorf, who observes that <span lang="el"
+  title="ou d�th hekousa">&#x3BF;&#x3C5; &#x3B4;&#x3B7;&#x3B8;
+  &#x201B;&#x3B5;&#x3BA;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3B1;</span> refers to
+  Ph�dra's assertion, <span lang="el" title="ou gar es s'
+  amartan�">&#x3BF;&#x3C5; &#x3B3;&#x3B1;&#x3C1; &#x3B5;&#x3C2; &#x3C3;'
+  &#x3B1;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3C1;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3C9;</span>, and that
+  the meaning is, "non quidem consilio in me peccas, sed si tu peribis, ego
+  quoque occidero." He compares Alcest. 389. B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HippN_11"></a><a href="#Hipp_11">[11]</a> See Matthi�'s note.
+  I prefer, however, <span lang="el"
+  title="oleis">&#x3BF;&#x3BB;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;</span>, with Musgrave.
+  B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HippN_12"></a><a href="#Hipp_12">[12]</a> Matthi� considers
+  this as briefly expressed for <span lang="el" title="ti touto, to eran,
+  ha legousi poiein anthr�pous">&#x3C4;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;, &#x3C4;&#x3BF;
+  &#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;, &#x201B;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3BB;&#x3B5;&#x3B3;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3B8;&#x3C1;&#x3C9;&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C2;</span>.
+  Still I can not help thinking <span lang="el"
+  title="anthr�p�n">&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3B8;&#x3C1;&#x3C9;&#x3C0;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;</span>
+  a better reading. B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HippN_13"></a><a href="#Hipp_13">[13]</a> Ph�dra struggles
+  between shame and uncertainty, before she can pronounce the name. It
+  should be read as if <span lang="el" title="hostis
+  poth'&mdash;houtos&mdash;ho t�s
+  Amazonos">&#x201B;&#x3BF;&#x3C3;&#x3C4;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3B8;'&mdash;&#x201B;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;&mdash;&#x201B;&#x3BF;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3B7;&#x3C2;
+  &#x391;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3B6;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span>. B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HippN_14"></a><a href="#Hipp_14">[14]</a> Matthi� takes <span
+  lang="el"
+  title="panamerios">&#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3B1;&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span>
+  as = <span lang="el" title="en t�ide t�i h�merai">&#x3B5;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3B7;&#x3B9;&#x3B4;&#x3B5; &#x3C4;&#x3B7;&#x3B9;
+  &#x201B;&#x3B7;&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;</span>, i.e. up to
+  this very time. I think the passage is corrupt. B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HippN_15"></a><a href="#Hipp_15">[15]</a> This passage, like
+  many others in the play, is admirably burlesqued by Aristoph., Ran. 962.
+  B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HippN_16"></a><a href="#Hipp_16">[16]</a> <i>Or, this is a
+  second favor thou mayst grant me</i>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HippN_17"></a><a href="#Hipp_17">[17]</a> On the numberless
+  references to this impious sophism, see the learned notes of Valckenaer
+  and Monk. Compare more particularly Aristoph. Ran. 102, 1471. Thesmoph.
+  275. Arist. Rhet. iii. 15. B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HippN_18"></a><a href="#Hipp_18">[18]</a> Literally,
+  "spurious coined race." B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HippN_19"></a><a href="#Hipp_19">[19]</a> The MSS. reading,
+  <span lang="el"
+  title="phyton">&#x3C6;&#x3C5;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span>, is preferable.
+  B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HippN_20"></a><a href="#Hipp_20">[20]</a> The syntax appears
+  to be <span lang="el" title="dysekperaton
+  biou">&#x3B4;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3B5;&#x3BA;&#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B2;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;</span>, <i>such as my like can scarcely get
+  over</i>. Musgrave has followed the other explanation of the Scholiast,
+  which makes <span lang="el"
+  title="biou">&#x3B2;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;</span> depend on <span
+  lang="el" title="pathos">&#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3B8;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span>. TR.
+  I have followed the Scholiast and Dindorf. B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HippN_21"></a><a href="#Hipp_21">[21]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="protrepousa, anti tou z�tousa kai
+  exereun�sa">&#x3C0;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3C4;&#x3C1;&#x3B5;&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3B1;,
+  &#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3B9; &#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;
+  &#x3B6;&#x3B7;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3B1; &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3B5;&#x3BE;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3B5;&#x3C5;&#x3BD;&#x3C9;&#x3C3;&#x3B1;</span>.
+  Schol. Dindorf acknowledges the strangeness of the usage, and seems to
+  prefer <span lang="el"
+  title="proskopous'">&#x3C0;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3C3;&#x3BA;&#x3BF;&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;'</span>,
+  with Monk. B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HippN_22"></a><a href="#Hipp_22">[22]</a> Cf. Soph. Ant. 751.
+  <span lang="el" title="h�d' oun thaneitai, kai thanous' olei
+  tina">&#x201B;&#x3B7;&#x3B4;' &#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B8;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;,
+  &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9; &#x3B8;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;'
+  &#x3BF;&#x3BB;&#x3B5;&#x3B9; &#x3C4;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;&#x3B1;</span>. B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HippN_23"></a><a href="#Hipp_23">[23]</a> For the meaning and
+  derivation of <span lang="el"
+  title="alibatois">&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3B9;&#x3B2;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;</span>,
+  see Monk's note.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HippN_24"></a><a href="#Hipp_24">[24]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="haliktypon">&#x201B;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3B9;&#x3BA;&#x3C4;&#x3C5;&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span>
+  seems to be an awkward epithet of <span lang="el"
+  title="kyma">&#x3BA;&#x3C5;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;</span>, unless it mean
+  "<i>dashed [against the shore] by the waves</i>." Perhaps <span lang="el"
+  title="aliktypon">&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3B9;&#x3BA;&#x3C4;&#x3C5;&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span>
+  would be less forced. B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HippN_25"></a><a href="#Hipp_25">[25]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="Hyperantlos ousa
+  symphorai">&#x201B;&#x3A5;&#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3BB;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3C3;&#x3C5;&#x3BC;&#x3C6;&#x3BF;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;</span>, a
+  metaphor taken from a ship which can no longer keep out water.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HippN_26"></a><a href="#Hipp_26">[26]</a> See the note on my
+  Translation of �sch. Agam., p. 121, note 1. ed. Bonn. B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HippN_27"></a><a href="#Hipp_27">[27]</a> Read <span
+  lang="el" title="�moi eg� pon�n: epathon �
+  talas">&#x3C9;&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3B9; &#x3B5;&#x3B3;&#x3C9;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;:
+  &#x3B5;&#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3B8;&#x3BF;&#x3BD; &#x3C9;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3C2;</span> with cod. Hav. See Dindorf.
+  B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HippN_28"></a><a href="#Hipp_28">[28]</a> Cf. Matth. apud
+  Dindorf. B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HippN_29"></a><a href="#Hipp_29">[29]</a> In the same manner
+  the chorus in the Alcestis comforts Admetus. v.</p>
+
+  <div class="poem">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <p><span lang="el" title="Ou gar ti pr�tos, oude loisthios brot�n">&#x39F;&#x3C5; &#x3B3;&#x3B1;&#x3C1; &#x3C4;&#x3B9; &#x3C0;&#x3C1;&#x3C9;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;, &#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3B4;&#x3B5; &#x3BB;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3B8;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3C2; &#x3B2;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3C4;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;</span>&nbsp;</p>
+      <p><span lang="el" title="gynaikos esthl�s �mplakes.">&#x3B3;&#x3C5;&#x3BD;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3BA;&#x3BF;&#x3C2; &#x3B5;&#x3C3;&#x3B8;&#x3BB;&#x3B7;&#x3C2; &#x3B7;&#x3BC;&#x3C0;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3BA;&#x3B5;&#x3C2;.</span>&nbsp;</p>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+  <p><a name="HippN_30"></a><a href="#Hipp_30">[30]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="Hyper">&#x201B;&#x3A5;&#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;</span> is here to be
+  understood. VALK.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HippN_31"></a><a href="#Hipp_31">[31]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="Sphendon�">&#x3A3;&#x3C6;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3B4;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3B7;</span>,
+  literally, the setting of the seal, which embraces the gem as a sling its
+  stone.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HippN_32"></a><a href="#Hipp_32">[32]</a> See a similar
+  expression in �sch. Eum. 254,</p>
+
+  <div class="poem">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <p><span lang="el" title="Osm� brotei�n haimat�n me prosgelai.">&#x39F;&#x3C3;&#x3BC;&#x3B7; &#x3B2;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C9;&#x3BD; &#x201B;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3C9;&#x3BD; &#x3BC;&#x3B5; &#x3C0;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3C3;&#x3B3;&#x3B5;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;.</span>&nbsp;</p>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+  <p><a name="HippN_33"></a><a href="#Hipp_33">[33]</a> The construction
+  is, <span lang="el" title="ei� an emoi abi�tos tycha biou, hoste tychein
+  aut�s.">&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3B7; &#x3B1;&#x3BD; &#x3B5;&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3B1;&#x3B2;&#x3B9;&#x3C9;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3C5;&#x3C7;&#x3B1; &#x3B2;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;,
+  &#x201B;&#x3BF;&#x3C3;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3C5;&#x3C7;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B1;&#x3C5;&#x3C4;&#x3B7;&#x3C2;.</span> MONK.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HippN_34"></a><a href="#Hipp_34">[34]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="�">&#x3B7;</span>, <i>which land, together with the present
+  earth</i>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HippN_35"></a><a href="#Hipp_35">[35]</a> On the Orphic
+  abstinence from animal food, see Matth. apud Dind. Compare Porphyr. de
+  Abst. ii. 3 sqq. B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HippN_36"></a><a href="#Hipp_36">[36]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="Athiktos">&#x391;&#x3B8;&#x3B9;&#x3BA;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span>
+  appears here to have an active sense. So in Soph. &#338;d. c. 1521. <span
+  lang="el" title="athiktos
+  h�g�t�ros">&#x3B1;&#x3B8;&#x3B9;&#x3BA;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;
+  &#x201B;&#x3B7;&#x3B3;&#x3B7;&#x3C4;&#x3B7;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span>.
+  It is used in its more frequent sense (a passive) in v. 648, of this
+  play. TR. Compare my note on �sch. Prom. 110, p. 6, n. I. B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HippN_37"></a><a href="#Hipp_37">[37]</a> Cf. Med. 169. <span
+  lang="el" title="Z�na th' hos ork�n thnatois tamias
+  nenomistai">&#x396;&#x3B7;&#x3BD;&#x3B1; &#x3B8;' &#x201B;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3BF;&#x3C1;&#x3BA;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B8;&#x3BD;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3BC;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3BD;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3BC;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;</span>.
+  B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HippN_38"></a><a href="#Hipp_38">[38]</a> There are various
+  interpretations of this passage. The Scholiast puts this sense upon it,
+  <i>Ph�dra was chaste (in your eyes), who had not the power of being
+  chaste, I had the power, and is it likely that I did not exert it to good
+  purpose?</i> Others translate the former part of the passage with the
+  Scholiast, but make <span lang="el" title="ou kal�s
+  echr�metha">&#x3BF;&#x3C5; &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3C9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B5;&#x3C7;&#x3C1;&#x3C9;&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3B8;&#x3B1;</span> refer to
+  the present time, <i>had it to no good purpose</i>, i.e. am not now able
+  to persuade you of my innocence. Some translate <span lang="el"
+  title="es�phro�sen">&#x3B5;&#x3C3;&#x3C9;&#x3C6;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3B7;&#x3C3;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;</span>,
+  <i>acted like a chaste woman</i>. TR. There is evidently a double
+  meaning, which is almost lost by translation. Theseus is not intended to
+  understand this. B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HippN_39"></a><a href="#Hipp_39">[39]</a> Cf. vs. 3. B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HippN_40"></a><a href="#Hipp_40">[40]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="Kl�roi">&#x39A;&#x3BB;&#x3B7;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;</span> were the
+  notes the augurs took of their observations, and wrote down on tablets.
+  See Ph&#339;n. 852.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HippN_41"></a><a href="#Hipp_41">[41]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="xynoikourous">&#x3BE;&#x3C5;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3BA;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C2;</span>
+  appears to be metaphorically used, but I think the sense would be greatly
+  improved by reading <span lang="el"
+  title="kakous">&#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3BA;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C2;</span>, and
+  taking <span lang="el"
+  title="xynoikourous">&#x3BE;&#x3C5;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3BA;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C2;</span>
+  to mean "to dwell with him," referring it to <span lang="el"
+  title="hostis">&#x201B;&#x3BF;&#x3C3;&#x3C4;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;</span>. B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HippN_42"></a><a href="#Hipp_42">[42]</a> But we must read
+  <span lang="el" title="gymnados
+  hippou">&#x3B3;&#x3C5;&#x3BC;&#x3BD;&#x3B1;&#x3B4;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;
+  &#x201B;&#x3B9;&#x3C0;&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;</span> with Reiske, Brunot,
+  and Dindorf. See his notes. <span lang="el"
+  title="podi">&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3B4;&#x3B9;</span> must be joined with
+  <span lang="el" title="gym. hippou">&#x3B3;&#x3C5;&#x3BC;.
+  &#x201B;&#x3B9;&#x3C0;&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;</span>. B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HippN_43"></a><a href="#Hipp_43">[43]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="potmon apotmon">&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3C4;&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B1;&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3C4;&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span>. B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HippN_44"></a><a href="#Hipp_44">[44]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="Autaisin
+  arbylaisin">&#x391;&#x3C5;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B1;&#x3C1;&#x3B2;&#x3C5;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;</span>.
+  Some have supposed <span lang="el"
+  title="arbyl�">&#x3B1;&#x3C1;&#x3B2;&#x3C5;&#x3BB;&#x3B7;</span> to mean
+  a part of the chariot, but this seems at variance with the best
+  authorities (see Monk's note); perhaps the expression may mean what is
+  implied in the translation; that Hippolytus did not wait to change any
+  part of his dress. TR. But I agree with Dindorf, that <span lang="el"
+  title="autaisin">&#x3B1;&#x3C5;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;</span>
+  is then utterly absurd and useless. The Scholiast seems correct in
+  saying, <span lang="el" title="tais ton harmatos peri t�n antyga, entha
+  t�n otasin echei ho h�niochos">&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;
+  &#x201B;&#x3B1;&#x3C1;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3B9; &#x3C4;&#x3B7;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3C5;&#x3B3;&#x3B1;, &#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3B8;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3B7;&#x3BD; &#x3BF;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B5;&#x3C7;&#x3B5;&#x3B9; &#x201B;&#x3BF;
+  &#x201B;&#x3B7;&#x3BD;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3C7;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span>. B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HippN_45"></a><a href="#Hipp_45">[45]</a> "Adeo ut deficerent
+  a visu, ne cernere possem, Scironis alta." B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HippN_46"></a><a href="#Hipp_46">[46]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="Kachlaz�">&#x39A;&#x3B1;&#x3C7;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3B6;&#x3C9;</span>,
+  a word formed from the noise of the sea&mdash;<span lang="el" title="ho
+  gar �chos tou kymatos en tois koil�masi t�n petr�n ginomenos, dokei
+  mimeisthai to kachla, kachla">&#x201B;&#x3BF; &#x3B3;&#x3B1;&#x3C1;
+  &#x3B7;&#x3C7;&#x3BF;&#x3C2; &#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;
+  &#x3BA;&#x3C5;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C2; &#x3B5;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3BA;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3BB;&#x3C9;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3C9;&#x3BD; &#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3C4;&#x3C1;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B3;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;,
+  &#x3B4;&#x3BF;&#x3BA;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3BC;&#x3B9;&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3B8;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3BF; &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3C7;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;,
+  &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3C7;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;</span>.&mdash;<i>Etym. Mag.</i></p>
+
+  <p><a name="HippN_47"></a><a href="#Hipp_47">[47]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="Trikymiai">&#x3A4;&#x3C1;&#x3B9;&#x3BA;&#x3C5;&#x3BC;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;</span>.
+  See Blomfield's <i>Glossary to the Prometheus</i>, 1051.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HippN_48"></a><a href="#Hipp_48">[48]</a> Musgrave supposes
+  that Hippolytus wound the reins round his body; but on this supposition,
+  not to mention other objections, the comparison with the sailor does not
+  hold so well. It is more natural to suppose that he leaned back in order
+  to get a purchase: in this attitude he is made to describe himself in Ov.
+  <i>Met.</i> xv. 519, <i>Et retro lentas tendo resupinus habenas.</i> If
+  there be any doubt of <span lang="el" title="eis toumisthen
+  himasin">&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3BC;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3B8;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;
+  &#x201B;&#x3B9;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;</span> being Greek,
+  this objection is obviated by putting a stop after <span lang="el"
+  title="himasin">&#x201B;&#x3B9;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;</span>,
+  and making it depend on <span lang="el"
+  title="helkei">&#x201B;&#x3B5;&#x3BB;&#x3BA;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HippN_49"></a><a href="#Hipp_49">[49]</a> i.e. in Crete. See
+  Dindorf's note. B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HippN_50"></a><a href="#Hipp_50">[50]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="Exorizetai">&#x395;&#x3BE;&#x3BF;&#x3C1;&#x3B9;&#x3B6;&#x3B5;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;</span>,
+  <i>valde prorumpit, liberat terminos, quibus hactenus septum fuit</i>.
+  REISKE.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HippN_51"></a><a href="#Hipp_51">[51]</a> Heath translates
+  <span lang="el"
+  title="anekouphisth�n">&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3B5;&#x3BA;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C6;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3B8;&#x3B7;&#x3BD;</span>
+  <i>adtollebam corpus</i>, honoris scilicet gratia. Compare Iliad, <span
+  lang="el" title="O">&#x39F;</span>. 241. <span lang="el" title="atar
+  asthma kai hidr�s pauet', epei min egeire Dios noos
+  aigiochoio">&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3C1;
+  &#x3B1;&#x3C3;&#x3B8;&#x3BC;&#x3B1; &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x201B;&#x3B9;&#x3B4;&#x3C1;&#x3C9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3C5;&#x3B5;&#x3C4;', &#x3B5;&#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3BC;&#x3B9;&#x3BD; &#x3B5;&#x3B3;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C1;&#x3B5;
+  &#x394;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3C2; &#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3B3;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3C7;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;</span>,
+  which Pope translates,</p>
+
+  <div class="poem">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <p>"Jove thinking of his pains, they pass'd away:"</p>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+  <p>in which the idea is much more sublime; for there the thought of a
+  Deity effects what the presence of one does here.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HippN_52"></a><a href="#Hipp_52">[52]</a> Probably meaning
+  Adonis. See Monk. B.</p>
+
+</div>
+<hr class="full" />
+
+<a name="ALCESTIS"></a>
+<h2>ALCESTIS.</h2>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+<h3>PERSONS REPRESENTED.</h3>
+
+  <div class="personae">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <p>APOLLO.</p>
+      <p>DEATH.</p>
+      <p>CHORUS OF PHER&#338;ANS.</p>
+      <p>ATTENDANTS.</p>
+      <p>ALCESTIS.</p>
+      <p>ADMETUS.</p>
+      <p>EUMELUS.</p>
+      <p>HERCULES.</p>
+      <p>PHERES.</p>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+<hr />
+
+<h3>THE ARGUMENT.</h3>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+  <p>Apollo desired of the Fates that Admetus, who was about to die, might
+  give a substitute to die for him, that so he might live for a term equal
+  to his former life; and Alcestis, his wife, gave herself up, while
+  neither of his parents were willing to die instead of their son. But not
+  long after the time when this calamity happened, Hercules having arrived,
+  and having learned from a servant what had befallen Alcestis, went to her
+  tomb, and having made Death retire, covers the lady with a robe; and
+  requested Admetus to receive her and keep her for him; and said he had
+  borne her off as a prize in wrestling; but when he would not, he unveiled
+  her, and discovered her whom he was lamenting.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2>ALCESTIS</h2>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+<p class="center">APOLLO.</p>
+
+  <p>O mansions of Admetus, wherein I endured to acquiesce in the slave's
+  table,<a name="Alc_1"></a><a href="#AlcN_1"><sup>[1]</sup></a> though a
+  God; for Jove was the cause, by slaying my son �sculapius, hurling the
+  lightning against his breast: whereat enraged, I slay the Cyclops,
+  forgers of Jove's fire; and me my father compelled to serve for hire with
+  a mortal, as a punishment for these things. But having come to this land,
+  I tended the herds of him who received me, and have preserved this house
+  until this day: for being pious I met with a pious man,<a
+  name="Alc_2"></a><a href="#AlcN_2"><sup>[2]</sup></a> the son of Pheres,
+  whom I delivered from dying by deluding the Fates: but those Goddesses
+  granted me that Admetus should escape the impending death, could he
+  furnish in his place another dead for the powers below. But having tried
+  and gone through all his friends, his father and his aged mother who bore
+  him, he found not, save his wife, one who was willing to die for him, and
+  view no more the light: who now within the house is borne in their hands,
+  breathing her last; for on this day is it destined for her to die, and to
+  depart from life. But I, lest the pollution<a name="Alc_3"></a><a
+  href="#AlcN_3"><sup>[3]</sup></a> come upon me in the house, leave this
+  palace's most dear abode. But already I behold Death near, priest of the
+  dead, who is about to bear her down to the mansions of Pluto; but he
+  comes at the right time, observing this day, in the which it was destined
+  for her to die.</p>
+
+<p class="center">DEATH,<a name="Alc_4"></a><a href="#AlcN_4"><sup>[4]</sup></a> APOLLO.</p>
+
+  <p>DEA. Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! What dost thou at the palace? why tamest here,
+  Ph&#339;bus? Art thou again at thy deeds of injustice, taking away and
+  putting an end to the honors of the powers beneath? Did it not suffice
+  thee to stay the death of Admetus, when thou didst delude the Fates by
+  fraudful artifice?<a name="Alc_5"></a><a
+  href="#AlcN_5"><sup>[5]</sup></a> But now too dost thou keep guard for
+  her, having armed thine hand with thy bow, who then promised, in order to
+  redeem her husband, herself, the daughter of Pelias, to die for him?</p>
+
+  <p>AP. Fear not, I cleave to justice and honest arguments.</p>
+
+  <p>DEA. What business then has your bow, if you cleave to justice?</p>
+
+  <p>AP. It is my habit ever to bear it.</p>
+
+  <p>DEA. Yes, and without regard to justice to aid this house.</p>
+
+  <p>AP. <i>Ay</i>, for I am afflicted at the misfortunes of a man that is
+  dear to me.</p>
+
+  <p>DEA. And wilt thou deprive me of this second dead?</p>
+
+  <p>AP. But neither took I him from thee by force.</p>
+
+  <p>DEA. How then is he upon earth, and not beneath the ground?</p>
+
+  <p>AP. Because he gave in his stead his wife, after whom thou art now
+  come.</p>
+
+  <p>DEA. Yes, and will bear her off to the land beneath.</p>
+
+  <p>AP. Take her away, for I know not whether I can persuade thee.</p>
+
+  <p>DEA. What? to slay him, whom I ought? for this was I commanded.</p>
+
+  <p>AP. No: but to cast death upon those about to die.</p>
+
+  <p>DEA. Yes, I perceive thy speech, and what thou aim'st at.</p>
+
+  <p>AP. Is it possible then for Alcestis to arrive at old age?</p>
+
+  <p>DEA. It is not: consider that I too am delighted with my due
+  honors.</p>
+
+  <p>AP. Thou canst not, however, take more than one life.</p>
+
+  <p>DEA. When the young die I earn the greater glory.</p>
+
+  <p>AP. And if she die old, she will be sumptuously entombed.<a
+  name="Alc_6"></a><a href="#AlcN_6"><sup>[6]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>DEA. Thou layest down the law, Ph&#339;bus, in favor of the rich.</p>
+
+  <p>AP. How sayest thou? what? hast thou been clever without my perceiving
+  it?</p>
+
+  <p>DEA. Those who have means would purchase to die old.</p>
+
+  <p>AP. Doth it not then seem good to thee to grant me this favor?</p>
+
+  <p>DEA. No in truth; and thou knowest my ways.</p>
+
+  <p>AP. Yes, hostile to mortals, and detested by the Gods.</p>
+
+  <p>DEA. Thou canst not have all things, which thou oughtest not.</p>
+
+  <p>AP. Nevertheless, thou wilt stop, though thou art over-fierce; such a
+  man will come to the house of Pheres, whom Eurystheus hath sent after the
+  chariot and its horses,<a name="Alc_7"></a><a
+  href="#AlcN_7"><sup>[7]</sup></a> <i>to bring them</i> from the wintry
+  regions of Thrace, who in sooth, being welcomed in the mansions of
+  Admetus, shall take away by force this woman from thee; and there will be
+  no obligation to thee at my hands, but still thou wilt do this, and wilt
+  be hated by me.</p>
+
+  <p>DEA. Much though thou talkest, thou wilt gain nothing. This woman then
+  shall descend to the house of Pluto; and I am advancing upon her, that I
+  may begin the rites on her with my sword; for sacred is he to the Gods
+  beneath the earth, the hair of whose head this sword hath consecrated.<a
+  name="Alc_8"></a><a href="#AlcN_8"><sup>[8]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p class="center">CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>SEMICH. Wherefore in heaven's name is this stillness before the
+  palace? why is the house of Admetus hushed in silence?</p>
+
+  <p>SEMICH. But there is not even one of our friends near, who can tell us
+  whether we have to deplore the departed queen, or whether Alcestis,
+  daughter of Pelias, yet living views this light, who has appeared to me
+  and to all to have been the best wife toward her husband.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Hears any one either a wailing, or the beating of hands within
+  the house, or a lamentation, as though the thing had taken place?<a
+  name="Alc_9"></a><a href="#AlcN_9"><sup>[9]</sup></a> There is not
+  however any one of the servants standing before the gates. Oh would that
+  thou wouldst appear, O Apollo, amidst the waves of this calamity!</p>
+
+  <p>SEMICH. They would not however be silent, were she dead.</p>
+
+  <p>SEMICH. For the corse is certainly not gone from the house.</p>
+
+  <p>SEMICH. Whence this conjecture? I do not presume this. What is it
+  gives you confidence?</p>
+
+  <p>SEMICH. How could Admetus have made a private funeral of his so
+  excellent wife?</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. But before the gates I see not the bath of water from the
+  fountain,<a name="Alc_10"></a><a href="#AlcN_10"><sup>[10]</sup></a> as
+  is the custom at the gates of the dead: and in the vestibule is no shorn
+  hair, which is wont to fall in grief for the dead; the youthful<a
+  name="Alc_11"></a><a href="#AlcN_11"><sup>[11]</sup></a> hand of women
+  for the youthful <i>wife</i> sound not.</p>
+
+  <p>SEMICH. And yet this is the appointed day,&mdash;</p>
+
+  <p>SEMICH. What is this thou sayest?</p>
+
+  <p>SEMICH. In the which she must go beneath the earth.</p>
+
+  <p>SEMICH. Thou hast touched my soul, hast touched my heart.</p>
+
+  <p>SEMICH. When the good are afflicted, he must mourn, who from the
+  beginning has been accounted good.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. But there is not whither in the earth any one having sent naval
+  equipment, or to Lycia, or to the thirsty site of Hammon's temple, can
+  redeem the unhappy woman's life, for abrupt fate approaches, and I know
+  not to whom of those that sacrifice at the hearths of the Gods I can go.
+  But only if the son of Ph&#339;bus were viewing with his eyes this light,
+  could she come, having left the darksome habitations and the gates of
+  Pluto: for he raised up the dead, before that the stroke of the
+  lightning's fire hurled by Jove destroyed him. But now what hope of life
+  can I any longer entertain? For all things have already been done by the
+  king, and at the altars of all the Gods abound the victims dropping with
+  blood, and no cure is there of these evils.</p>
+
+<p class="center">CHORUS, FEMALE ATTENDANT.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. But here comes one of the female attendants from the house, in
+  tears; what shall I hear has happened? To mourn indeed, if any thing
+  happens to our lords, is pardonable: but whether the lady be still alive,
+  or whether she be dead, we would wish to know.</p>
+
+  <p>ATT. You may call her both alive and dead.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. And how can the same woman be both alive and dead?</p>
+
+  <p>ATT. Already she is on the verge of death,<a name="Alc_12"></a><a
+  href="#AlcN_12"><sup>[12]</sup></a> and breathing her life away.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Oh wretched man, being what thyself of what a wife art thou
+  bereft!</p>
+
+  <p>ATT. My master knows not this yet, until he suffer.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Is there no longer hope that she may save her life?</p>
+
+  <p>ATT. No, for the destined day makes its attack upon her.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Are not then suitable preparations made for these events?</p>
+
+  <p>ATT. Yes, the adornments<a name="Alc_13"></a><a
+  href="#AlcN_13"><sup>[13]</sup></a> are ready, wherewith her husband will
+  bury her.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Let her know then that she will die glorious, and by far the
+  best of women under the sun.</p>
+
+  <p>ATT. And how not the best? who will contest it? What must the woman
+  be, who has surpassed her? and how can any give greater proof of
+  esteeming her husband, than by being willing to die for him? And these
+  things indeed the whole city knoweth. But what she did in the house you
+  will marvel when you hear. For, when she perceived that the destined day
+  was come, she washed her fair skin with water from the river; and having
+  taken from her closets of cedar vesture and ornaments, she attired
+  herself becomingly; and standing before the altar she prayed: "O
+  mistress, since I go beneath the earth, adoring thee for the last time, I
+  will beseech thee to protect my orphan children, and to the one join a
+  loving wife, and to the other a noble husband: nor, as their mother
+  perishes, let my children untimely die, but happy in their paternal
+  country let them complete a joyous life."&mdash;But all the altars, which
+  are in the house of Admetus, she went to, and crowned, and prayed,
+  tearing the leaves from off the myrtle boughs, tearless, without a groan,
+  nor did the approaching evil change the natural beauty of her skin. And
+  then rushing to her chamber, and her bed, there indeed she wept and spoke
+  thus: "O bridal bed, whereon I loosed my virgin zone with this man, for
+  whom I die, farewell! for I hate thee not; but me alone hast thou lost;
+  for dreading to betray thee, and my husband, I die; but thee some other
+  woman will possess, more chaste there can not, but perchance more
+  fortunate."<a name="Alc_14"></a><a
+  href="#AlcN_14"><sup>[14]</sup></a>&mdash;And falling on it she kissed
+  it; but all the bed was bathed with the flood that issued from her eyes.
+  But when she had satiety of much weeping, she goes hastily forward,<a
+  name="Alc_15"></a><a href="#AlcN_15"><sup>[15]</sup></a> rushing from the
+  bed. And ofttimes having left her chamber, she oft returned, and threw
+  herself upon the bed again. And her children, hanging to the garments of
+  their mother, wept; but she, taking them in her arms, embraced them,
+  first one and then the other, as about to die. But all the domestics wept
+  throughout the house, bewailing their mistress, but she stretched out her
+  right hand to each, and there was none so mean, whom she addressed not,
+  and was answered in return. Such are the woes in the house of Admetus.
+  And had he died indeed, he would have perished; but now that he has
+  escaped death, he has grief to that degree which he will never
+  forget.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Surely Admetus groans at these evils, if he must be deprived of
+  so excellent a wife.</p>
+
+  <p>ATT. Yes, he weeps, holding his dear wife in his hands, and prays her
+  not to leave him, asking impossibilities; for she wastes away, and is
+  consumed by sickness, but fainting a wretched burden in his arms, yet
+  still though but feebly breathing, she fain would glance toward the rays
+  of the sun; as though never again, but now for the last time she is to
+  view the sun's beam and his orb. But I will go and announce your
+  presence, for it is by no means all that are well-wishers to their lords,
+  so as to come kindly to them in their misfortunes; but you of old are
+  friendly to my master.</p>
+
+  <p>SEMICH. O Jove, what means of escape can there in any way be, and what
+  method to rid us of the fortune which attends my master?</p>
+
+  <p>SEMICH. Will any appear? or must I cut my locks, and clothe me even
+  now in black array of garments?</p>
+
+  <p>SEMICH. 'Tis plain, my friends, too plain; but still let us pray to
+  the Gods, for the power of the Gods is mightiest.</p>
+
+  <p>SEMICH. O Apollo, king of healing, find out some remedy for the evils
+  of Admetus, procure it, O! procure it. For before this also thou didst
+  find <i>remedy</i>, and now become our deliverer from death, and stop the
+  murderous Pluto.</p>
+
+  <p>SEMICH. Alas! alas! woe! woe! O son of Pheres, how didst thou fare
+  when thou wert deprived of thy wife?</p>
+
+  <p>SEMICH. Alas! alas! these things would even justify self-slaughter,
+  and there is more, than whereat one might thrust one's neck in the
+  suspending noose.<a name="Alc_16"></a><a
+  href="#AlcN_16"><sup>[16]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>SEMICH. For not a dear, but a most dear wife, wilt thou see dead this
+  day.</p>
+
+  <p>SEMICH. Behold, behold; lo! she doth come from the house, and her
+  husband with her. Cry out, O groan, O land of Pheres, for the most
+  excellent woman, wasting with sickness, <i>departing</i> beneath the
+  earth to the infernal Pluto. Never will I aver that marriage brings more
+  joy than grief, forming my conjectures both from former things, and
+  beholding this fortune of the king; who, when he has lost this most
+  excellent wife, will thenceforward pass a life not worthy to be called
+  life.<a name="Alc_17"></a><a href="#AlcN_17"><sup>[17]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p class="center">ALCESTIS, ADMETUS, EUMELUS, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>ALC. Thou Sun, and thou light of day, and ye heavenly eddies of the
+  fleeting clouds&mdash;</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. He beholds<a name="Alc_18"></a><a
+  href="#AlcN_18"><sup>[18]</sup></a> thee and me, two unhappy creatures,
+  having done nothing to the Gods, for which thou shouldst die.</p>
+
+  <p>ALC. O earth, and ye roofs of the palace, and thou bridal bed of my
+  native Iolcos.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. Lift up thyself, unhappy one, desert me not; but entreat the
+  powerful Gods to pity.</p>
+
+  <p>ALC. I see&mdash;I see the two-oared boat&mdash;and the ferryman of
+  the dead, holding his hand on the pole&mdash;Charon even now calls
+  me&mdash;"Why dost thou delay? haste, thou stoppest us here"&mdash;with
+  such words vehement he hastens me.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. Ah me! a bitter voyage this thou speakest of! Oh! unhappy one,
+  how do we suffer!</p>
+
+  <p>ALC. He pulls me, some one pulls me&mdash;do you not see?&mdash;to the
+  hall of the dead, the winged Pluto, staring from beneath his black
+  eyebrows&mdash;What wilt thou do?&mdash;let me go&mdash;what a journey am
+  I most wretched going!</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. Mournful to thy friends, and of these especially to me and to thy
+  children, who have this grief in common.</p>
+
+  <p>ALC. Leave off<a name="Alc_19"></a><a
+  href="#AlcN_19"><sup>[19]</sup></a> supporting me, leave off now, lay me
+  down, I have no strength in my feet. Death is near, and darkling night
+  creeps upon mine eyes&mdash;my children, my children, no more your mother
+  is&mdash;no more.&mdash;Farewell, my children, long may you view this
+  light!</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. Ah me! I hear this sad word, and more than any death to me. Do
+  not by the Gods have the heart to leave me: do not by those children,
+  whom thou wilt make orphans: but rise, be of good courage: for, thee
+  dead, I should no longer be: for on thee we depend both to live, and not
+  to live: for thy love we adore.</p>
+
+  <p>ALC. Admetus, thou seest both thy affairs and mine, in what state they
+  are, I wish to tell thee, ere I die, what I would have done. I, honoring
+  thee, and causing thee at the price of my life to view this light, die,
+  it being in my power not to die, for thee: but though I might have
+  married a husband from among the Thessalians whom I would, and have lived
+  in a palace blessed with regal sway, was not willing to live, bereft of
+  thee, with my children orphans; nor did I spare myself, though possessing
+  the gifts of bloomy youth, wherein I delighted. And yet thy father and
+  thy mother forsook thee, though they had well arrived at a point of life,
+  in which they might have died, and nobly delivered their son, and died
+  with glory: for thou wert their only one, and there was no hope, when
+  thou wert dead, that they could have other children.<a
+  name="Alc_20"></a><a href="#AlcN_20"><sup>[20]</sup></a> And I should
+  have lived, and thou, the rest of our time. And thou wouldst not be
+  groaning deprived of thy wife, and wouldst not have to bring up thy
+  children orphans. But these things indeed, some one of the Gods hath
+  brought to pass, that they should be thus. Be it so&mdash;but do thou
+  remember to give me a return for this; for never shall I ask thee for an
+  equal one, (for nothing is more precious than life,) but just, as thou
+  wilt say: for thou lovest not these children less than I do, if thou art
+  right-minded; them bring up lords over my house, and bring not in second
+  marriage a step-mother over these children, who, being a worse woman than
+  me, through envy will stretch out her hand against thine and my children.
+  Do not this then, I beseech thee; for a step-mother that is in second
+  marriage is enemy to the children of the former marriage, no milder than
+  a viper. And my boy indeed has his father, a great tower of defense; but
+  thou, O my child, how wilt thou be, brought up during thy virgin years?
+  Having what consort of thy father's? <i>I fear</i>, lest casting some
+  evil obloquy on thee, she destroys thy marriage in the bloom of youth.<a
+  name="Alc_21"></a><a href="#AlcN_21"><sup>[21]</sup></a> For neither will
+  thy mother ever preside over thy nuptials, nor strengthen thee being
+  present, my daughter, at thy travails, where nothing is more kind than a
+  mother. For I needs must die, and this evil comes upon me not to-morrow,
+  nor on the third day of the month, but immediately shall I be numbered
+  among those that are no more. Farewell, and may you be happy; and thou
+  indeed, my husband, mayst boast, that thou hadst a most excellent wife,
+  and you, my children, that you were born of a most excellent mother.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Be of good cheer; for I fear not to answer for him: he will do
+  this, if he be not bereft of his senses.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. These things shall be so, they shall be, fear not: since I, when
+  alive also, possessed thee <i>alone</i>, and when thou art dead, thou
+  shalt be my only wife, and no Thessalian bride shall address me in the
+  place of thee: there is not woman who shall, either of so noble a sire,
+  nor otherwise most exquisite in beauty. But my children are enough; of
+  these I pray the Gods that I may have the enjoyment; for thee we do not
+  enjoy. But I shall not have this grief for thee for a year, but as long
+  as my life endures, O lady, abhorring her indeed that brought me forth,
+  and hating my father; for they were in word, not in deed, my friends. But
+  thou, giving what was dearest to thee for my life, hast rescued me. Have
+  I not then reason to groan deprived of such a wife? But I will put an end
+  to the feasts, and the meetings of those that drink together, and garland
+  and song, which wont to dwell in my house. For neither can I any more
+  touch the lyre, nor lift up my heart to sing to the Libyan flute; for
+  thou hast taken away my joy of life. But by the cunning hand of artists
+  imaged thy figure shall be lain on my bridal bed, on which I will fall,
+  and clasping my hands around, calling on thy name, shall fancy that I
+  hold my dear wife in mine arms, though holding her not:<a
+  name="Alc_22"></a><a href="#AlcN_22"><sup>[22]</sup></a> a cold delight,
+  I ween; but still I may draw off the weight that sits upon my soul: and
+  in my dreams visiting me, thou mayst delight me, for a friend is sweet
+  even to behold at night, for whatever time he may come. But if the tongue
+  of Orpheus and his strain were mine, so that invoking with hymns the
+  daughter of Ceres or her husband, I could receive thee from the shades
+  below, I would descend, and neither the dog of Pluto, nor Charon at his
+  oar, the ferryman of departed spirits, should stay me before I brought
+  thy life to the light. But there expect me when I die and prepare a
+  mansion for me, as about to dwell with me. For I will enjoin these<a
+  name="Alc_23"></a><a href="#AlcN_23"><sup>[23]</sup></a> to place me in
+  the same cedar with thee, and to lay my side near thy side: for not even
+  when dead may I be separated from thee, the only faithful one to me!</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. And I indeed with thee, as a friend with a friend, will bear
+  this painful grief for her, for she is worthy.</p>
+
+  <p>ALC. My children, ye indeed hear your father saying that he will never
+  marry another wife to be over you, nor dishonor me.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. And now too, I say this, and will perform it</p>
+
+  <p>ALC. For this receive these children from my hand.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. Yes, I receive a dear gift from a dear hand.</p>
+
+  <p>ALC. Be thou then a mother to these children in my stead.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. There is much need that I should, when they are deprived of
+  thee.</p>
+
+  <p>ALC. O my children, at a time when I ought to live I depart
+  beneath.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. Ah me; what shall I do of thee bereaved!</p>
+
+  <p>ALC. Time will soften thy grief: he that is dead is nothing.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. Take me with thee, by the Gods take me beneath.</p>
+
+  <p>ALC. Enough are we <i>to go</i>, who die for thee.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. O fate, of what a wife thou deprivest me!</p>
+
+  <p>ALC. And lo! my darkening eye is weighed down.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. I am undone then, if thou wilt leave me, my wife.</p>
+
+  <p>ALC. As being no more, you may speak of me as nothing.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. Lift up thy face; do not leave thy children.</p>
+
+  <p>ALC. Not willingly in sooth, but&mdash;farewell, my children.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. Look on them, O! look.</p>
+
+  <p>ALC. I am no more.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. What dost thou? dost thou leave us?</p>
+
+  <p>ALC. Farewell!</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. I am an undone wretch!</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. She is gone, Admetus' wife is no more.</p>
+
+  <p>EUM. Alas me, for my state! my mother is gone indeed below; she is no
+  longer, my father, under the sun; but unhappy leaving me has made my life
+  an orphan's. For look, look at her eyelid, and her nerveless arms. Hear,
+  hear, O mother. I beseech thee; I, I now call thee, mother, thy young one
+  falling on thy mouth&mdash;</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. Who hears not, neither sees: so that I and you are struck with a
+  heavy calamity.</p>
+
+  <p>EUM. Young and deserted, my father, am I left by my dear mother: O! I
+  that have suffered indeed dreadful deeds!&mdash;and thou hast suffered
+  with me, my sister. O father, in vain, in vain didst thou marry, nor with
+  her didst thou arrive at the end of old age, for she perished before, but
+  thou being gone, mother, the house is undone.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Admetus, you must bear this calamity; for in no wise the first,
+  nor the last of mortals hast thou lost thy dear wife: but learn, that to
+  die is a debt we must all of us discharge.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. I know it, and this evil hath not come suddenly on me; but
+  knowing it long ago I was afflicted. But be present, for I will have the
+  corse borne forth, and while ye stay, chant a hymn to the God below that
+  accepteth not libations. And all the Thessalians, over whom I reign, I
+  enjoin to share in the grief for this lady, by shearing <i>their
+  locks</i> with steel, and by arraying themselves in sable garb. And
+  harness<a name="Alc_24"></a><a href="#AlcN_24"><sup>[24]</sup></a> your
+  teams of horses to your chariots, and cut from your single steeds the
+  manes that fall upon their necks. And let there be no noise of pipes, nor
+  of the lyre throughout the city for twelve completed moons. For none
+  other corse more dear shall I inter, nor one more kind toward me. But she
+  deserves to receive honor from me, seeing that she alone hath died for
+  me.</p>
+
+<p class="center">CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>O daughter of Pelias, farewell where thou dwellest in sunless dwelling
+  within the mansions of Pluto. And let Pluto know, the God with ebon
+  locks, and the old man, the ferryman of the dead, who sits intent upon
+  his oar and his rudder, that he is conducting by far the most excellent
+  of women in his two-oared boat over the lake of Acheron. Oft shall the
+  servants of the Muses sing of thee, celebrating thee both on the
+  seven-stringed lute on the mountains, and in hymns unaccompanied by the
+  lyre: in Sparta, when returns the annual circle in the season of the
+  Carnean month,<a name="Alc_25"></a><a href="#AlcN_25"><sup>[25]</sup></a>
+  when the moon is up the whole night long; and in splendid<a
+  name="Alc_26"></a><a href="#AlcN_26"><sup>[26]</sup></a> and happy
+  Athens. Such a song hast thou left by thy death to the minstrels of
+  melodies. Would that it rested with me, and that I could waft thee to the
+  light from the mansions of Pluto, and from Cocytus' streams, by the oar
+  of that infernal river. For thou, O unexampled, O dear among women, thou
+  didst dare to receive thy husband from the realms below in exchange for
+  thine own life. Light may the earth from above fall upon thee, lady! and
+  if thy husband chooses any other alliance, surely he will be much
+  detested by me and by thy children. When his mother was not willing for
+  him to hide her body in the ground, nor his aged father, but these two
+  wretches, having hoary locks, dared not to rescue him they brought forth,
+  yet thou in the vigor of youth didst depart, having died for thy husband.
+  May it be mine to meet with another<a name="Alc_27"></a><a
+  href="#AlcN_27"><sup>[27]</sup></a> such a dear wife; for rare in life is
+  such a portion, for surely she would live with me forever without once
+  causing pain.</p>
+
+<p class="center">HERCULES, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. Strangers, inhabitants of the land of Pheres, can I find Admetus
+  within the palace?</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. The son of Pheres is within the palace, O Hercules. But tell me,
+  what purpose sends thee to the land of the Thessalians, so that thou
+  comest to this city of Pheres?</p>
+
+  <p>HER. I am performing a certain labor for the Tirynthian
+  Eurystheus.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. And whither goest thou? on what wandering expedition art
+  bound?</p>
+
+  <p>HER. After the four chariot-steeds of Diomed the Thracian.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. How wilt thou be able? Art thou ignorant of this host?</p>
+
+  <p>HER. I am ignorant; I have not yet been to the land of the
+  Bistonians.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Thou canst not be lord of these steeds without battle.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. But neither is it possible for me to renounce the labors <i>set
+  me</i>.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Thou wilt come then having slain, or being slain wilt remain
+  there.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. Not the first contest this that I shall run.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. But what advance will you have made, when you have overcome
+  their master?</p>
+
+  <p>HER. I will drive away the horses to king Eurystheus.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. 'Tis no easy matter to put the bit in their jaws.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. <i>'Tis,</i> except they breathe fire from their nostrils.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. But they tear men piecemeal with their devouring jaws.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. The provender of mountain beasts, not horses, you are speaking
+  of.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Their stalls thou mayst behold with blood bestained.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. Son of what sire does their owner boast to be?</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Of Mars, prince<a name="Alc_28"></a><a
+  href="#AlcN_28"><sup>[28]</sup></a> of the Thracian target, rich with
+  gold.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. And this labor, thou talkest of, is one my fate compels me to
+  (for it is ever hard and tends to steeps); if I must join in battle with
+  the children whom Mars begat, first indeed with Lycaon, and again with
+  Cycnus, and I come to this third combat, about to engage with the horses
+  and their master. But none there is, who shall ever see the son of
+  Alcmena fearing the hand of his enemies.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. And lo! hither comes the very man Admetus, lord of this land,
+  from out of the palace.</p>
+
+<p class="center">ADMETUS, HERCULES, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. Hail! O son of Jove, and of the blood of Perseus.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. Admetus, hail thou too, king of the Thessalians!</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. I would I could <i>receive this salutation;</i> but I know that
+  thou art well disposed toward me.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. Wherefore art thou conspicuous with thy locks shorn for
+  grief?</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. I am about to bury a certain corse this day.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. May the God avert calamity from thy children!</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. My children whom I begat, live in the house.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. Thy father however is of full age, if he is gone.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. Both he lives, and she who bore me, Hercules.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. Surely your wife Alcestis is not dead?</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. There are two accounts which I may tell of her.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. Speakest thou of her as dead or as alive?</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. She both is, and is no more, and she grieves me.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. I know nothing more; for thou speakest things obscure.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. Knowest thou not the fate which it was doomed for her to meet
+  with?</p>
+
+  <p>HER. I know that she took upon herself to die for thee.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. How then is she any more, if that she promised this?</p>
+
+  <p>HER. Ah! do not weep for thy wife before the time; wait till this
+  happens.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. He that is about to die is dead, and he that is dead is no
+  more.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. The being and the not being is considered a different thing.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. You judge in this way, Hercules, but I in that.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. Why then dost weep? Who is he of thy friends that is dead?</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. A woman, a woman we were lately mentioning.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. A stranger by blood, or any by birth allied to thee?</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. A stranger; but on other account dear to this house.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. How then died she in thine house?</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. Her father dead, she lived an orphan here.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. Alas! Would that I had found thee, Admetus, not mourning!</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. As about to do what then, dost thou make use of these words?</p>
+
+  <p>HER. I will go to some other hearth of those who will receive a
+  guest.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. It must not be, O king: let not so great an evil happen!</p>
+
+  <p>HER. Troublesome is a guest if he come to mourners.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. The dead are dead&mdash;but go into the house.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. 'Tis base however to feast with weeping friends.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. The guest-chamber, whither we will lead thee, is apart.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. Let me go, and I will owe you ten thousand thanks.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. It must not be that thou go to the hearth of another man. Lead on
+  thou, having thrown open the guest-chamber that is separate from the
+  house: and tell them that have the management, that there be plenty of
+  meats; and shut the gates in the middle of the hall: it is not meet that
+  feasting guests should hear groans, nor should they be made sad.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. What are you doing? when so great a calamity is before you,
+  Admetus, hast thou the heart to receive guests? wherefore art thou
+  foolish?</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. But if I had driven him who came my guest from my house, and from
+  the city, would you have praised me rather? No in sooth, since my
+  calamity had been no whit the less, but I the more inhospitable: and in
+  addition to my evils, there had been this other evil, that mine should be
+  called the stranger-hating house. But I myself find this man a most
+  excellent host, whenever I go to the thirsty land of Argos.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. How then didst thou hide thy present fate, when a friend, as
+  thou thyself sayest, came?</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. He never would have been willing to enter the house if he had
+  known aught of my sufferings. And to him<a name="Alc_29"></a><a
+  href="#AlcN_29"><sup>[29]</sup></a> indeed, I ween, acting thus, I appear
+  not to be wise, nor will he praise me; but my house knows not to drive
+  away, nor to dishonor guests.</p>
+
+<p class="center">CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>O greatly hospitable and ever liberal house of this man,
+  thee even the Pythian Apollo, master of the lyre, deigned to
+  inhabit, and endured to become a shepherd in thine abodes,
+  through the sloping hills piping to thy flocks his pastoral nuptial
+  hymns. And there were wont to feed with them, through
+  delight of his lays, both the spotted lynxes, and the bloody
+  troop of lions<a name="Alc_30"></a><a href="#AlcN_30"><sup>[30]</sup></a>
+  came having left the forest of Othrys; disported
+  too around thy cithern, Ph&#339;bus, the dappled fawn,
+  advancing with light pastern beyond the lofty-feathered pines,
+  joying in the gladdening strain. Wherefore he dwelleth in a
+  home most rich in flocks by the fair-flowing lake of B&#339;be;
+  and to the tillage of his fields, and the extent of his plains,
+  toward that dusky <i>part of the heavens</i>, where the sun stays
+  his horses, makes the clime of the Molossians the limit, and
+  holds dominion as far as the portless shore of the �gean Sea
+  at Pelion. And now having thrown open his house he hath
+  received his guest with moistened eyelid, weeping over the
+  corse of his dear wife, who but now died in the palace: for a
+  noble disposition is prone to reverence [of the guest]. But
+  in the good there is all manner of wisdom. And confidence
+  is seated on my soul that the man who reveres the Gods will
+  fare prosperously.</p>
+
+<p class="center">ADMETUS, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. Ye men of Pher� that are kindly present, my servants indeed bear
+  aloft<a name="Alc_31"></a><a href="#AlcN_31"><sup>[31]</sup></a> the
+  corse, having every thing fit for the tomb, and for the pyre. But do you,
+  as is the custom, salute<a name="Alc_32"></a><a
+  href="#AlcN_32"><sup>[32]</sup></a> the dead going forth on her last
+  journey.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. And lo! I see thy father advancing with his aged foot, and
+  attendants bearing in their hands adornment for thy wife, due honors of
+  those beneath.</p>
+
+<p class="center">PHERES, ADMETUS, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>PHE. I am at present sympathizing in thy misfortunes, my son: for thou
+  hast lost (no one will deny) a good and a chaste wife; but these things
+  indeed thou must bear, though hard to be borne. But receive this
+  adornment, and let it go with her beneath the earth: Her body 'tis right
+  to honor, who in sooth died to save thy life, my son, and made me to be
+  not childless, nor suffered me to waste away deprived of thee in an old
+  age of misery. But she has made most illustrious the life of all women,
+  having dared this noble action. O thou that hast preserved my son here,
+  and hast raised us up who were falling, farewell,<a name="Alc_33"></a><a
+  href="#AlcN_33"><sup>[33]</sup></a> and may it be well with thee even in
+  the mansions of Pluto! I affirm that such marriages are profitable to
+  men, or that it is not meet to marry.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. Neither hast thou come bidden of me to this funeral, nor do I
+  count thy presence among things acceptable. But she here never shall put
+  on thy decorations; for in no wise shall she be buried indebted to what
+  thou hast. Then oughtest thou to have grieved with me, when I was in
+  danger of perishing.<a name="Alc_34"></a><a
+  href="#AlcN_34"><sup>[34]</sup></a> But dost thou, who stoodest aloof,
+  and permittedst another, a young person, thyself being old, to die, weep
+  over this dead body? Thou wert not then really the father of me, nor did
+  she, who says she bore me, and is called my mother, bear me; but born of
+  slavish blood I was secretly put under the breast of thy wife. Thou
+  showedst when thou camest to the test, who thou art; and I deem that I am
+  not thy son. Or else surely thou exceedest all in nothingness of soul,
+  who being of the age thou art, and having come to the goal of life,
+  neither hadst the will nor the courage to die for thy son; but sufferedst
+  this stranger lady, whom alone I might justly have considered both mother
+  and father. And yet thou mightst have run this race for glory, hadst thou
+  died for thy son. But at any rate the remainder of the time thou hadst to
+  live was short: and I should have lived and she the rest of our days, and
+  I should not, bereft of her, be groaning at my miseries. And in sooth
+  thou didst receive as many things as a happy man should receive; thou
+  passedst the vigor of thine age indeed in sovereign sway, but I was thy
+  son to succeed thee in this palace, so that thou wert not about to die
+  childless and leave a desolate house for others to plunder. Thou canst
+  not however say of me, that I gave thee up to die, dishonoring thine old
+  age, whereas I was particularly respectful toward thee; and for this
+  behavior both thou, and she that bare me, have made me such return.
+  Wherefore you have no more time to lose<a name="Alc_35"></a><a
+  href="#AlcN_35"><sup>[35]</sup></a> in getting children, who will succor
+  thee in thine old age, and deck thee when dead, and lay out thy corse;
+  for I will not bury thee with this mine hand; for I in sooth died, as far
+  as in thee lay; but if, having met with, another deliverer, I view the
+  light, I say that I am both his child, and the friendly comforter of his
+  old age. In vain then do old men pray to be dead, complaining of age, and
+  the long time of life: but if death come near, not one is willing to die,
+  and old age is no longer burdensome to them.<a name="Alc_36"></a><a
+  href="#AlcN_36"><sup>[36]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Desist, for the present calamity is sufficient; and do not, O
+  son, provoke thy father's mind.</p>
+
+  <p>PHE. O son, whom dost thou presume thou art gibing with thy
+  reproaches, a Lydian or a Phrygian bought with thy money?<a
+  name="Alc_37"></a><a href="#AlcN_37"><sup>[37]</sup></a> Knowest thou not
+  that I am a Thessalian, and born from a Thessalian father, truly free?
+  Thou art too insolent, and casting the impetuous words of youth against
+  us, shalt not having cast them thus depart. But I begat thee the lord of
+  my house, and brought thee up, but I am not thy debtor to die for thee;
+  for I received no paternal law like this, nor Grecian law, that fathers
+  should die for their children; for for thyself thou wert born, whether
+  unfortunate or fortunate, but what from us thou oughtest to have, thou
+  hast. Thou rulest indeed over many, and I will leave thee a large demesne
+  of lands, for these I received from my father. In what then have I
+  injured thee? Of what do I deprive thee? Thou joyest to see the light,
+  and dost think thy father does not joy?<a name="Alc_38"></a><a
+  href="#AlcN_38"><sup>[38]</sup></a> Surely I count the time we must spend
+  beneath long, and life is short, but still sweet. Thou too didst
+  shamelessly fight off from dying, and livest, having passed over thy
+  destined fate, by slaying her; then dost thou talk of my nothingness of
+  soul, O most vile one, when thou art surpassed by a woman who died for
+  thee, the handsome youth? But thou hast made a clever discovery, so that
+  thou mayst never die, if thou wilt persuade the wife that is thine from
+  time to time to die for thee: and then reproachest thou thy friends who
+  are not willing to do this, thyself being a coward? Hold thy peace, and
+  consider, if thou lovest thy life, that all love theirs; but if thou
+  shalt speak evil against us, thou shalt hear many reproaches and not
+  false ones.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Too many evil things have been spoken both now and before, but
+  cease, old man, from reviling thy son.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. Speak, for I have spoken; but if thou art grieved at hearing the
+  truth, thou shouldst not err against me.</p>
+
+  <p>PHE. But had I died for thee, I had erred more.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. What? is it the same thing for a man in his prime, and for an old
+  man to die?</p>
+
+  <p>PHE. We ought to live with one life, not with two.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. Mayst thou then live a longer time than Jove!</p>
+
+  <p>PHE. Dost curse thy parents, having met with no injustice?</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. <i>I said it</i>, for I perceived thou lovedst a long life.</p>
+
+  <p>PHE. But art not thou bearing forth this corse instead of thyself?</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. A proof this, O most vile one, of thy nothingness of soul.</p>
+
+  <p>PHE. She died not by us at least; thou wilt not say this.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. Alas! Oh that you may ever come to need my aid!</p>
+
+  <p>PHE. Wed many wives, that more may die.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. This is a reproach to thyself, for thou wert not willing to
+  die.</p>
+
+  <p>PHE. Sweet is this light of the God, sweet is it.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. Base is thy spirit and not that of men.</p>
+
+  <p>PHE. Thou dost not laugh as carrying an aged corse.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. Thou wilt surely however die inglorious, when thou diest.</p>
+
+  <p>PHE. To bear an evil report is no matter to me when dead.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. Alas! alas! how full of shamelessness is old age!</p>
+
+  <p>PHE. She was not shameless: her you found mad.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. Begone, and suffer me to bury this dead.</p>
+
+  <p>PHE. I will depart; but you will bury her, yourself being her
+  murderer. But you will render satisfaction to your wife's relatives yet:
+  or surely Acastus no longer ranks among men, if he shall not revenge the
+  blood of his sister.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. Get thee gone, then, thou and thy wife; childless, thy child yet
+  living, as ye deserve, grow old; for ye no more come into the same house
+  with me: and if it were necessary for me to renounce by heralds thy
+  paternal hearth, I would renounce it. But let us (for the evil before us
+  must be borne) proceed, that we may place the corse upon the funeral
+  pyre.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. O! O! unhappy because of thy bold deed, O noble, and by far most
+  excellent, farewell! may both Mercury<a name="Alc_39"></a><a
+  href="#AlcN_39"><sup>[39]</sup></a> that dwells beneath, and Pluto,
+  kindly receive thee; but if there too any distinction is shown to the
+  good, partaking of this mayst thou sit by the bride of Pluto.</p>
+
+<p class="center">SERVANT.</p>
+
+  <p>I have now known many guests, and from all parts of the earth that
+  have come to the house of Admetus, to whom I have spread the feast, but
+  never yet did I receive into this house a worse one than this stranger.
+  Who, in the first place, indeed, though he saw my master in affliction,
+  came in, and prevailed upon himself to pass the gates. And then not at
+  all in a modest manner received he the entertainment that there happened
+  to be, when he heard of the calamity: but if we did not bring any thing,
+  he hurried us to bring it. And having taken in his hands the cup wreathed
+  with ivy,<a name="Alc_40"></a><a href="#AlcN_40"><sup>[40]</sup></a> he
+  quaffs the neat wine of the purple mother, until the fumes of the liquor
+  coming upon him inflamed him; and he crowns his head with branches of
+  myrtles howling discordantly; and there were two strains to hear; for he
+  was singing, not caring at all for the afflictions of Admetus, but we the
+  domestics, were bewailing our mistress, and we showed not that we were
+  weeping to the guest, for thus Admetus commanded. And now indeed I am
+  performing the offices of hospitality to the stranger in the house, some
+  deceitful thief and robber. But she is gone from the house, nor did I
+  follow, nor stretched out my hand in lamentation for my mistress, who was
+  a mother to me, and to all the domestics, for she saved us from ten
+  thousand ills, softening the anger of her husband. Do I not then justly
+  hate this stranger, who is come in our miseries?</p>
+
+<p class="center">HERCULES, SERVANT.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. Ho there! why dost thou look so grave and thoughtful? The servant
+  ought not to be of woeful countenance before guests, but should receive
+  them with an affable mind. But thou, though thou seest a companion of thy
+  lord present, receivest him with a morose and clouded countenance, fixing
+  thy attention on a calamity that thou hast nothing to do with. Come
+  hither, that thou mayst become more wise. Knowest thou mortal affairs, of
+  what nature they are? I think not; from whence should you? but hear me.
+  Death is a debt that all mortals must pay: and there is not of them one,
+  who knows whether he shall live the coming morrow: for what depends on
+  fortune is uncertain how it will turn out, and is not to be learned,
+  neither is it detected by art. Having heard these things then, and
+  learned them from me, make thyself merry, drink, and think the life
+  allowed from day to day thine own, but the rest Fortune's. And honor also
+  Venus, the most sweet of deities to mortals, for she is a kind deity. But
+  let go these other things, and obey my words, if I appear to speak
+  rightly: I think so indeed. Wilt thou not then leave off thy excessive
+  grief, and drink with me, crowned with garlands, having thrown open these
+  gates? And well know I that the trickling of the cup falling down <i>thy
+  throat</i> will change thee from thy present cloudy and pent state of
+  mind. But we who are mortals should think as mortals. Since to all the
+  morose, indeed, and to those of sad countenance, if they take me as judge
+  at least, life is not truly life, but misery.</p>
+
+  <p>SERV. I know this; but now we are in circumstances not such as are fit
+  for revel and mirth.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. The lady that is dead is a stranger; grieve not too much, for the
+  lords of this house live.</p>
+
+  <p>SERV. What live! knowest thou not the misery within the house?</p>
+
+  <p>HER. Unless thy lord hath told me any thing falsely.</p>
+
+  <p>SERV. He is too, too hospitable.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. Is it unmeet that I should be well treated, because a stranger is
+  dead?</p>
+
+  <p>SERV. Surely however she was very near.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. Has he forborne to tell me any calamity that there is?</p>
+
+  <p>SERV. Depart and farewell; we have a care for the evils of our
+  lords.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. This speech is the beginning of no foreign loss.</p>
+
+  <p>SERV. For I should not, <i>had it been foreign</i>, have been grieved
+  at seeing thee reveling.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. What! have I received so great an injury from mine host?</p>
+
+  <p>SERV. Thou camest not in a fit time for the house to receive thee, for
+  there is grief to us, and thou seest that we are shorn, and our black
+  garments.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. But who is it that is dead? Has either any of his children died,
+  or his aged father?</p>
+
+  <p>SERV. The wife indeed of Admetus is dead, O stranger.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. What sayst thou? and yet did ye receive me?</p>
+
+  <p>SERV. <i>Yes</i>, for he had too much respect to turn thee from his
+  house.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. O unhappy man, what a wife hast thou lost!</p>
+
+  <p>SERV. We all are lost, not she alone.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. But I did perceive it indeed, when I saw his eye streaming with
+  tears, and his shorn hair, and his countenance; but he persuaded me,
+  saying, that he was conducting the funeral of a stranger to the tomb: but
+  spite of my inclination having passed over these gates, I drank in the
+  house of the hospitable man, while he was in this case, and reveled,
+  crowned as to my head with garlands. But 'twas thine to tell me not <i>to
+  do it</i>, when such an evil was upon the house. Where is he burying her?
+  whither going can I find her?</p>
+
+  <p>SERV. By the straight road that leads to Larissa, thou wilt see the
+  polished tomb beyond the suburbs.</p>
+
+<p class="center">HERCULES.</p>
+
+  <p>O my much-daring heart and my soul, now show what manner of son the
+  Tirynthian Alcmena, daughter of Electryon, bare thee to Jove. For I must
+  rescue the woman lately dead, Alcestis, and place her again in this
+  house, and perform this service for Admetus. And going I will lay wait
+  for the sable-vested king of the departed, Death, and I think that I
+  shall find him drinking of the libations near the tomb. And if having
+  taken him by lying in wait, rushing from my ambush, I shall seize hold of
+  him, and make a circle around him with mine arms, there is not who shall
+  take him away panting as to his sides, until he release me the woman. But
+  if however I fail of this capture, and he come not to the clottered mass
+  of blood, I will go a journey beneath to the sunless mansions of Cora and
+  her king, and will prefer my request; and I trust that I shall bring up
+  Alcestis, so as to place her in the hands of that host, who received me
+  into his house, nor drove me away, although struck with a heavy calamity,
+  but concealed it, noble as he was, having respect unto me. Who of the
+  Thessalians is more hospitable than he? Who that dwelleth in Greece?
+  Wherefore he shall not say, that he did a service to a worthless man,
+  himself being noble.</p>
+
+<p class="center">ADMETUS, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. Alas! alas! O hateful approach, and hateful prospect of this
+  widowed house. Oh me! Alas! alas! whither can I go! where rest! what can
+  I say! and what not! would that I could perish! Surely my mother brought
+  me forth to heavy fortune. I count the dead happy, them I long for! those
+  houses I desire to dwell in: for neither delight I in viewing the
+  sunbeams, nor treading with my foot upon the earth; of such a hostage has
+  death robbed me, and delivered up to Pluto.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Advance, advance; go into the recesses of the house.</p>
+
+  <p>(ADM. Oh! Oh!)</p>
+
+  <p>Thou hast suffered things that demand groans.</p>
+
+  <p>(ADM. Alas! alas!)</p>
+
+  <p>Thou hast gone through grief, I well know.</p>
+
+  <p>(ADM. Woe! Woe!)</p>
+
+  <p>Thou nothing aidest her that is beneath.</p>
+
+  <p>(ADM. Ah me! me!)</p>
+
+  <p>Never to see thy dear wife's face again before thee, is severe.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. Thou hast made mention of that which ulcerated my soul; for what
+  can be greater ill to man than to lose his faithful wife? Would that I
+  never had married and dwelt with her in the palace. But I judge happy
+  those, who are unmarried and childless; for theirs is one only life, for
+  this to grieve is a moderate burden: but to behold the diseases of
+  children, and the bridal bed wasted by death, is not supportable, when it
+  were in one's power to be without children and unmarried the whole of
+  life.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Fate, fate hard to be struggled with hath come.</p>
+
+  <p>(ADM. Oh! Oh!)</p>
+
+  <p>But puttest thou no bound to thy sorrows?</p>
+
+  <p>(ADM. Alas! alas!)</p>
+
+  <p>Heavy are they to bear, but still</p>
+
+  <p>(ADM. Woe! woe!)</p>
+
+  <p>endure, thou art not the first man that hast lost</p>
+
+  <p>(ADM. Ah me! me!)</p>
+
+  <p>thy wife; but calamity appearing afflicts different men in different
+  shapes.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. O lasting griefs, and sorrows for our friends beneath the
+  earth!&mdash;Why did you hinder me from throwing myself<a
+  name="Alc_41"></a><a href="#AlcN_41"><sup>[41]</sup></a> into her
+  hallowed grave, and from lying dead with her, by far the most excellent
+  woman? And Pluto would have retained instead of one, two most faithful
+  souls having together passed over the infernal lake.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. I had a certain kinsman, whose son worthy to be lamented, an
+  only child, died in his house; but nevertheless he bore his calamity with
+  moderation, being bereft of child, though now hastening to gray hairs,
+  and advanced in life.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. O house, how can I enter in? and how dwell in thee now my fortune
+  has undergone this change? Ah me! for there is great difference between:
+  then indeed with Pelian torches, and with bridal songs I entered in,
+  bearing the hand of my dear wife, and there followed a loud-shouting
+  revelry hailing happy both her that is dead and me, inasmuch as being
+  noble, and born of illustrious parents both, we were united together: but
+  now the groan instead of hymeneals, and black array instead of white
+  robes, usher me in to my deserted couch.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. This grief came quick on happy fortune to thee unschooled in
+  evil: but thou hast saved thy life. Thy wife is dead, she left her love
+  behind: what new thing this? Death has ere this destroyed many wives.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. My friends, I deem the fortune of my wife more happy than mine
+  own, even although these things appear not so. For her indeed no grief
+  shall ever touch, and she hath with glory ceased from many toils. But I,
+  who ought not to have lived, though I have scaped destiny, shall pass a
+  bitter life; I but now perceive. For how can I bear the entering into
+  this house? Whom speaking to, or by whom addressed,<a
+  name="Alc_42"></a><a href="#AlcN_42"><sup>[42]</sup></a> can I have joy
+  in entering? Whither shall I turn me? For the solitude within will drive
+  me forth, when I see the place where my wife used to lie, empty, and the
+  seat whereon she used to sit, and the floor throughout the house all
+  dirty, and when my children falling about my knees weep their mother, and
+  they lament their mistress, <i>thinking</i> what a lady they have lost
+  from out of the house. Such things within the house; but abroad the
+  nuptials of the Thessalians and the assemblies full of women will torture
+  me: for I shall not be able to look on the companions of my wife. But
+  whoever is mine enemy will say thus of me: "See that man, who basely
+  lives, who dared not to die, but giving in his stead her, whom he
+  married, escaped Hades, (and then does he seem to be a man?) and hates
+  his parents, himself not willing to die."&mdash;Such report shall I have
+  in addition to my woes; why then is it the more honorable course for me
+  to live, my friends, having an evil character and an evil fortune?</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. I too have both been borne aloft through song, and having very
+  much handled arguments have found nothing more powerful than Necessity:
+  nor is there any cure in the Thracian tablets which Orpheus<a
+  name="Alc_43"></a><a href="#AlcN_43"><sup>[43]</sup></a> wrote, nor among
+  those medicines, which Ph&#339;bus gave the sons of �sculapius,
+  dispensing<a name="Alc_44"></a><a href="#AlcN_44"><sup>[44]</sup></a>
+  them to wretched mortals. But neither to the altars nor to the image of
+  this Goddess alone, is it lawful to approach, she hears not victims. Do
+  not, O revered one, come on me more severe, than hitherto in my life. For
+  Jove, whatever he have assented to, with thee brings this to pass. Thou
+  too perforce subduest the iron among the Chalybi; nor has thy rugged
+  spirit any remorse.</p>
+
+  <p>And thee, <i>Admetus</i>, the Goddess hath seized in the inevitable
+  grasp of her hand; but bear it, for thou wilt never by weeping bring back
+  on earth the dead from beneath. Even the sons of the Gods by stealth
+  begotten perish in death. Dear she was while she was with us, and dear
+  even now when dead. But thou didst join to thy bed<a name="Alc_45"></a><a
+  href="#AlcN_45"><sup>[45]</sup></a> the noblest wife of all women. Nor
+  let the tomb of thy wife be accounted as the mound over the dead that
+  perish, but let it be honored equally with the Gods, a thing for
+  travelers to adore:<a name="Alc_46"></a><a
+  href="#AlcN_46"><sup>[46]</sup></a> and some one, going out of his direct
+  road, shall say thus: "She in olden time died for her husband, but now
+  she is a blest divinity: Hail, O adored one, and be propitious!" Such
+  words will be addressed to her.&mdash;And lo! here comes, as it seems,
+  the son of Alcmena to thy house, Admetus.</p>
+
+<p class="center">HERCULES, ADMETUS, CHORUS.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. One should speak freely to a friend, Admetus, and, not in silence
+  keep within our bosoms what we blame. Now I thought myself worthy as a
+  friend to stand near thy calamities, and to search them out;<a
+  name="Alc_47"></a><a href="#AlcN_47"><sup>[47]</sup></a> but thou didst
+  not tell me that it was thy wife's corse that demanded thy attention; but
+  didst receive me in thy house, as though occupied in grief for one not
+  thine. And I crowned my head and poured out to the Gods libations in thy
+  house which had suffered this calamity. And I <i>do</i> blame thee, I
+  blame thee, having met with this treatment! not that I wish to grieve
+  thee in thy miseries. But wherefore I am come, having turned back again,
+  I will tell thee. Receive and take care of this woman for me, until I
+  come hither driving the Thracian mares, having slain the king of the
+  Bistonians. But if I meet with what I pray I may not meet with, (for may
+  I return!) I give thee her as an attendant of thy palace. But with much
+  toil came she into my hands; for I find some who had proposed a public
+  contest for wrestlers, worthy of my labors, from whence I bear off her,
+  having received her as the prize of my victory; for those who conquered
+  in the lighter exercises had to receive horses, but those again who
+  conquered in the greater, the boxing and the wrestling, cattle, and a
+  woman was added to these; but in me, who happened to be there, it had
+  been base to neglect this glorious gain. But, as I said, the woman ought
+  to be a care to you, for I am come not having obtained her by stealth,
+  but with labor; but at some time or other thou too wilt perhaps commend
+  me for it.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. By no means slighting thee, nor considering thee among mine
+  enemies, did I conceal from thee the unhappy fate of my wife; but this
+  had been a grief added to grief, if thou hadst gone to the house of
+  another host: but it was sufficient for me to weep my own calamity. But
+  the woman, if it is in any way possible, I beseech thee, O king, bid some
+  one of the Thessalians, who has not suffered what I have, to take care of
+  (but thou hast many friends among the Pher�ans) lest thou remind me of my
+  misfortunes. I can not, beholding her in the house, refrain from weeping;
+  add not a sickness to me already sick; for I am enough weighed down with
+  misery. Where besides in the house can a youthful woman be maintained?
+  for she is youthful, as she evinces by her garb and her attire; shall she
+  then live in the men's apartment? And how will she be undefiled, living
+  among young men? A man in his vigor, Hercules, it is no easy thing to
+  restrain; but I have a care for thee. Or can I maintain her, having made
+  her enter the chamber of her that is dead? And how can I introduce her
+  into her bed? I fear a double accusation, both from the citizens, lest
+  any should convict me of having betrayed my benefactress, and lying in
+  the bed of another girl; and I ought to have much regard toward the dead
+  (and she deserves my respect). But thou, O lady, whoever thou art, know
+  that thou hast the same size of person with Alcestis, and art like her in
+  figure. Ah me! take by the Gods this woman from mine eyes, lest you
+  destroy me already destroyed. For I think, when I look upon her, that I
+  behold my wife; and it agitates my heart, and from mine eyes the streams
+  break forth; O unhappy I, how lately did I begin to taste this bitter
+  grief!</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. I can not indeed speak well of thy fortune; but it behooves
+  thee, whatever thou art, to bear with firmness the dispensation of the
+  Gods.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. Oh would that I had such power as to bring thy wife to the light
+  from the infernal mansions, and to do this service for thee!</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. Well know I that thou hast the will: but how can this be? It is
+  not possible for the dead to come into the light.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. Do not, I pray, go beyond all bound, but bear it decently,</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. Tis easier to exhort, than suffering to endure.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. But what advantage can you gain if you wish to groan forever?</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. I know that too myself; but a certain love impels me.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. For to love one that is dead draws the tear.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. She hath destroyed me, and yet more than my words express.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. Thou hast lost an excellent wife; who will deny it?</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. <i>Ay,</i> so that I am no longer delighted with life.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. Time will soften the evil, but now it is yet in its vigor<a
+  name="Alc_48"></a><a href="#AlcN_48"><sup>[48]</sup></a> on thee.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. Time thou mayst say, if to die be time.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. A wife will bid it cease, and the desire of a new marriage.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. Hold thy peace&mdash;What saidst thou? I could not have supposed
+  it.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. But why? what, wilt not marry, but pass a widowed life alone?</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. There is no woman that shall lie with me.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. Dost thou think that thou art in aught benefiting her that is
+  dead?</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. Her, wherever she is, I am bound to honor.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. I praise you indeed, I praise you; but you incur the charge of
+  folly.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. <i>Praise me, or praise me not;</i> for you shall never call me
+  bridegroom.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. I do praise thee, because thou art a faithful friend to thy
+  wife.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. May I die, when I forsake her, although she is not!</p>
+
+  <p>HER. Receive then this noble woman into thine house.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. Do not, I beseech thee by thy father Jove.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. And yet you will be acting wrong, if you do not this.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. Yes, and if I do it, I shall have my heart gnawed with
+  sorrow.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. Be prevailed upon: perhaps this favor may be proved a duty.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. Ah! would that you had never borne her off from the contest!</p>
+
+  <p>HER. Yet with me conquering thou'rt victorious too.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. Thou hast well spoken; but let the woman depart.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. She shall depart, if it is needful; but first see whether it be
+  needful.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. It is needful, if thou at least dost not mean to make me
+  angry.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. I too have this desire, for I know somewhat.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. Conquer then. Thou dost not however do things pleasing to me.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. But some time or other thou wilt praise me; only be
+  persuaded.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. Lead her in, if I must receive her in my house.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. I will not deliver up the woman into the charge of the
+  servants.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. But do thou thyself lead her into the house if it seems fit.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. I then will give her into thine hands.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. I will not touch her; but she is at liberty to enter the
+  house.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. I trust her to thy right hand alone.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. O king, thou compellest me to do this against my will.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. Dare to stretch out thy hand and touch the stranger.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. And in truth I stretch it out, as I would to the Gorgon with her
+  severed head.<a name="Alc_49"></a><a
+  href="#AlcN_49"><sup>[49]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>HER. Have you her?</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. I have.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. Then keep her fast; and some time or other thou wilt say that the
+  son of Jove is a generous guest. But look on her, whether she seems aught
+  to resemble thy wife; and being blest leave off from thy grief.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. O Gods, what shall I say? An unexpected wonder this! Do I truly
+  see here my wife, or does the mocking joy of the Deity strike me from my
+  senses?</p>
+
+  <p>HER. It is not so; but thou beholdest here thy wife.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. Yet see, whether this be not a phantom from the realms
+  beneath.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. Thou hast not made thine host an invoker of spirits.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. But do I behold my wife, whom I buried?</p>
+
+  <p>HER. Be well assured <i>thou dost;</i> but I wonder not at thy
+  disbelief of thy fortune.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. May I touch her, may I speak to her as my living wife?<a
+  name="Alc_50"></a><a href="#AlcN_50"><sup>[50]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>HER. Speak to her; for thou hast all that thou desirest.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. O face and person of my dearest wife, have I thee beyond my
+  hopes, when I thought never to see thee more?</p>
+
+  <p>HER. Thou hast: but <i>take care</i> there be no envy of the Gods.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. O noble son of the most powerful Jove, mayst thou be blest, and
+  may thy father, who begot thee, protect thee, for thou alone hast
+  restored me! How didst thou bring her from beneath into this light!</p>
+
+  <p>HER. Having fought a battle with the prince of those beneath.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. Where dost thou say thou didst have this conflict with Death!</p>
+
+  <p>HER. At the tomb itself, having seized him from ambush with my
+  hands.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. But why, I pray, does this woman stand here speechless?</p>
+
+  <p>HER. It is not yet allowed thee to hear her address thee, before she
+  is unbound from her consecrations<a name="Alc_51"></a><a
+  href="#AlcN_51"><sup>[51]</sup></a> to the Gods beneath, and the third
+  day come. But lead her in, and as thou oughtest, henceforward, Admetus,
+  continue in thy piety with respect to strangers. And farewell! But I will
+  go and perform the task that is before me for the imperial son of
+  Sthenelus.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. Stay with us, and be a companion of our hearth.</p>
+
+  <p>HER. This shall be some time hence, but now I must haste.</p>
+
+  <p>ADM. But mayst thou be prosperous, and return on thy journey back. But
+  to the citizens, and to all the tetrarchy I issue my commands, that they
+  institute dances in honor of these happy events, and make the altars
+  odorous with their sacrifices of oxen that accompany their vows. For now
+  are we placed in a better state of life than the former one: for I will
+  not deny that I am happy.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Many are the shapes of the things the deities direct, and many
+  things the Gods perform contrary to our expectations. And those things
+  which we looked for are not accomplished; but the God hath brought to
+  pass things not looked for. Such hath been the event of this affair.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h3>NOTES ON ALCESTIS</h3>
+
+<div class="note">
+  <p><a name="AlcN_1"></a><a href="#Alc_1">[1]</a> Lactant. i. 10. "Quid
+  Apollo? Nonne ... turpissime gregem pavit alienum?" B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="AlcN_2"></a><a href="#Alc_2">[2]</a> Hygin. Fab. li. "Apollo
+  ab eo in servitutem liberaliter acceptus." B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="AlcN_3"></a><a href="#Alc_3">[3]</a> Cf. Hippol. 1437. B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="AlcN_4"></a><a href="#Alc_4">[4]</a> No one will, I believe,
+  object to this translation of <span lang="el"
+  title="THANATOS">&#x398;&#x391;&#x39D;&#x391;&#x3A4;&#x39F;&#x3A3;</span>;
+  it seems rather a matter of surprise that Potter has kept the Latin
+  ORCUS, a name clearly substituted as the nearest to <span lang="el"
+  title="THANATOS">&#x398;&#x391;&#x39D;&#x391;&#x3A4;&#x39F;&#x3A3;</span>
+  of the masculine gender.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="AlcN_5"></a><a href="#Alc_5">[5]</a> Cf. �sch. Eum. 723 sqq.
+  B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="AlcN_6"></a><a href="#Alc_6">[6]</a> It was customary to bury
+  those, who died advanced in years, with greater magnificence than young
+  persons.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="AlcN_7"></a><a href="#Alc_7">[7]</a> The horses of Diomed,
+  king of Thrace. The construction is, <span lang="el" title="Eurysthe�s
+  pempsantos [auton\] meta hippeion och�ma [axonta\] ek top�n dyschei mer�n
+  Thr�ik�s">&#x395;&#x3C5;&#x3C1;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3B8;&#x3B5;&#x3C9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3BC;&#x3C8;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;
+  [&#x3B1;&#x3C5;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;] &#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;
+  &#x201B;&#x3B9;&#x3C0;&#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3BF;&#x3C7;&#x3B7;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;
+  [&#x3B1;&#x3BE;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;] &#x3B5;&#x3BA;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C0;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B4;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3C7;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x398;&#x3C1;&#x3B7;&#x3B9;&#x3BA;&#x3B7;&#x3C2;</span>. MONK.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="AlcN_8"></a><a href="#Alc_8">[8]</a> On this custom, see
+  Monk, and Lomeier de Lustrationibus � xxviii. B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="AlcN_9"></a><a href="#Alc_9">[9]</a> Perhaps, "as though all
+  were over," B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="AlcN_10"></a><a href="#Alc_10">[10]</a> Casaubon on Theophr.
+  � 16, observes that it was customary to place a large vessel filled with
+  lustral water before the doors of a house during the time the corpse was
+  lying out, with which every one who came out sprinkled himself. See also
+  Monk's note, Kirchmann de Funeribus, iii. 9. The same custom was observed
+  on returning from the funeral. See Pollux, viii. 7. p. 391, ed. Seber.
+  B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="AlcN_11"></a><a href="#Alc_11">[11]</a> See Dindorf. B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="AlcN_12"></a><a href="#Alc_12">[12]</a> Potterus, Arch. Gr.
+  <i>mortuos</i> a <i>Gr�cis</i> <span lang="el"
+  title="pron�peis">&#x3C0;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3C9;&#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;</span>
+  vocari tradit, quod solebant ex penitiore �dium parte produci, ac in
+  <i>vestibulo</i>, i.e. <span lang="el"
+  title="pron�pi�i">&#x3C0;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3C9;&#x3C0;&#x3B9;&#x3C9;&#x3B9;</span>
+  collocari: atque hunc locum adducit, sed frustra, ut opinor. Non enim
+  <i>mortua</i> jam erat, nec <i>producta</i>, sed, ut recte hanc vocem
+  interpretatur schol. <span lang="el" title="eis thanaton
+  proneneukyia">&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B8;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3B5;&#x3C5;&#x3BA;&#x3C5;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;</span>,
+  i.e. <i>morti propinqua</i>. Proprie <span lang="el"
+  title="pron�p�s">&#x3C0;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3C9;&#x3C0;&#x3B7;&#x3C2;</span>
+  is dicitur, qui <i>corpore prono ad terram fertur</i>, ut �schyl. Agam.
+  242. Inde, quia moribundi virium defectu terram petere solent, ad hos
+  designandos translatum est. KUINOEL.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="AlcN_13"></a><a href="#Alc_13">[13]</a> The old word
+  "dizening" is perhaps the most literal translation of <span lang="el"
+  title="kosmos">&#x3BA;&#x3BF;&#x3C3;&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span>, which,
+  however, here means the whole preparations for the funeral. Something
+  like it is implied in Hamlet, v. 1.</p>
+
+  <div class="poem">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <p class="i16">... her virgin rites,</p>
+      <p>Her maiden strewments, and the bringing home</p>
+      <p>Of bell and burial.&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; B.</p>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+  <p><a name="AlcN_14"></a><a href="#Alc_14">[14]</a> Aristophanes is
+  almost too bad in his burlesque, Equit. 1251. <span lang="el" title="se
+  d' allos tis lab�n kekt�setai, klept�s men ouk an mallon, eutych�s d'
+  his�s">&#x3C3;&#x3B5; &#x3B4;' &#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3BB;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3B9;&#x3C2; &#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3B2;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3BA;&#x3B5;&#x3BA;&#x3C4;&#x3B7;&#x3C3;&#x3B5;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;,
+  &#x3BA;&#x3BB;&#x3B5;&#x3C0;&#x3C4;&#x3B7;&#x3C2; &#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3BA; &#x3B1;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3BB;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;,
+  &#x3B5;&#x3C5;&#x3C4;&#x3C5;&#x3C7;&#x3B7;&#x3C2; &#x3B4;'
+  &#x201B;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3C9;&#x3C2;</span>. B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="AlcN_15"></a><a href="#Alc_15">[15]</a> Some would translate
+  <span lang="el"
+  title="pron�p�s">&#x3C0;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3C9;&#x3C0;&#x3B7;&#x3C2;</span>
+  in the same manner as in verse 144.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="AlcN_16"></a><a href="#Alc_16">[16]</a> Conf. Ter.: Phorm.
+  iv. 4, 5. Opera tua ad <i>restim</i> mihi quidem res rediit
+  planissume.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="AlcN_17"></a><a href="#Alc_17">[17]</a> Perhaps it is
+  unnecessary to remark, that <span lang="el"
+  title="abi�ton">&#x3B1;&#x3B2;&#x3B9;&#x3C9;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span>
+  agrees with <span lang="el"
+  title="bion">&#x3B2;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span> implied in <span
+  lang="el"
+  title="bioteusei">&#x3B2;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="AlcN_18"></a><a href="#Alc_18">[18]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="horai">&#x201B;&#x3BF;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;</span> scilicet <span
+  lang="el"
+  title="h�lios">&#x201B;&#x3B7;&#x3BB;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span>.
+  MONK.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="AlcN_19"></a><a href="#Alc_19">[19]</a> Cf. Hippol. 1372.
+  B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="AlcN_20"></a><a href="#Alc_20">[20]</a> It must be remembered
+  that to survive one's children was considered the greatest of
+  misfortunes. Cf. Plaut. Mil. Glor. l. 1. "Ita ut tuum vis unicum gnatum
+  tu� Superesse vit�, sospitem et superstitem." B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="AlcN_21"></a><a href="#Alc_21">[21]</a> Kuinoel carries on
+  the interrogation to <span lang="el"
+  title="gamous">&#x3B3;&#x3B1;&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C2;</span>, and
+  Buchanan has translated it according to this punctuation. Monk compares
+  Iliad, p. 95; <span lang="el" title="m�p�s me peristel�s' hena
+  polloi">&#x3BC;&#x3B7;&#x3C0;&#x3C9;&#x3C2; &#x3BC;&#x3B5;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3BB;&#x3C9;&#x3C3;'
+  &#x201B;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3BB;&#x3BB;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="AlcN_22"></a><a href="#Alc_22">[22]</a> Compare my note on
+  �sch. Ag. 414 sqq. B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="AlcN_23"></a><a href="#Alc_23">[23]</a> <i>These</i>, my
+  children.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="AlcN_24"></a><a href="#Alc_24">[24]</a> Reiske proposes to
+  read <span lang="el" title="tethrippa de zeug� te
+  kai">&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3B8;&#x3C1;&#x3B9;&#x3C0;&#x3C0;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3B4;&#x3B5; &#x3B6;&#x3B5;&#x3C5;&#x3B3;&#x3B7; &#x3C4;&#x3B5;
+  &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;</span>&mdash;<i>And both from your chariot teams,
+  and from your single horses cut the manes</i>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="AlcN_25"></a><a href="#Alc_25">[25]</a> This festival was
+  celebrated in honor of Apollo at Sparta, from the seventh to the
+  sixteenth day of the month Carneus. See Monk. B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="AlcN_26"></a><a href="#Alc_26">[26]</a> On <span lang="el"
+  title="liparais
+  Athanais">&#x3BB;&#x3B9;&#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x391;&#x3B8;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;</span>, see Monk.
+  B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="AlcN_27"></a><a href="#Alc_27">[27]</a> Literally, <i>the
+  duplicate</i> of such a wife.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="AlcN_28"></a><a href="#Alc_28">[28]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="anax pelt�s">&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3B1;&#x3BE;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3BB;&#x3C4;&#x3B7;&#x3C2;</span>, so <span lang="el"
+  title="anax k�p�s">&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3B1;&#x3BE;
+  &#x3BA;&#x3C9;&#x3C0;&#x3B7;&#x3C2;</span> in �sch. Pers. 384, <i>of a
+  rower</i>. Wakefield compares Ovid's <i>Clypei dominus septemplicis
+  Ajax</i>. MONK.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="AlcN_29"></a><a href="#Alc_29">[29]</a> Heath and Markland
+  take <span lang="el" title="t�i">&#x3C4;&#x3C9;&#x3B9;</span> for <span
+  lang="el" title="tini">&#x3C4;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;&#x3B9;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="AlcN_30"></a><a href="#Alc_30">[30]</a> Cf. Theocrit. Id. i.
+  71 sqq. of Daphnis, <span lang="el" title="t�non men th�es, t�non lykoi
+  �rysanto, T�non choi 'k drymoio le�n aneklause thanonta ... pollai men
+  par possi boes, polloi de te tauroi, pollai d' au damalai kai porties
+  �dyranto">&#x3C4;&#x3B7;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3BD; &#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B8;&#x3C9;&#x3B5;&#x3C2;, &#x3C4;&#x3B7;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3BB;&#x3C5;&#x3BA;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3C9;&#x3C1;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;,
+  &#x3A4;&#x3B7;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3BD; &#x3C7;&#x3BF;&#x3B9; '&#x3BA;
+  &#x3B4;&#x3C1;&#x3C5;&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;
+  &#x3BB;&#x3B5;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3B5;&#x3BA;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3B5;
+  &#x3B8;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3B1; ...
+  &#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3BB;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3B9; &#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3C1; &#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3C3;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3B2;&#x3BF;&#x3B5;&#x3C2;, &#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3BB;&#x3BB;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3B4;&#x3B5; &#x3C4;&#x3B5; &#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3C5;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;,
+  &#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3BB;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3B9; &#x3B4;' &#x3B1;&#x3C5;
+  &#x3B4;&#x3B1;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3B9; &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3C1;&#x3C4;&#x3B9;&#x3B5;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3C9;&#x3B4;&#x3C5;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;</span>. Virg.
+  Ecl. v. 27 sqq. Calpurnius, Ecl. ii. 18. Nemesianus, Ecl. i. 74 sqq.; ii.
+  32. B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="AlcN_31"></a><a href="#Alc_31">[31]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="ard�n ginetai apo tou airein. d�loi de to
+  phorad�n">&#x3B1;&#x3C1;&#x3B4;&#x3B7;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B3;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;&#x3B5;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3B9; &#x3B1;&#x3C0;&#x3BF;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C5; &#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3C1;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;.
+  &#x3B4;&#x3B7;&#x3BB;&#x3BF;&#x3B9; &#x3B4;&#x3B5; &#x3C4;&#x3BF;
+  &#x3C6;&#x3BF;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3B4;&#x3B7;&#x3BD;</span>. Schol.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="AlcN_32"></a><a href="#Alc_32">[32]</a> Cf. Suppl. 773.
+  "<span lang="el" title="Aidou te molpas ekche� dakryrroous, philous
+  prosaud�n, h�n leleimmenos talas er�ma
+  klai�">&#x391;&#x3B9;&#x3B4;&#x3BF;&#x3C5; &#x3C4;&#x3B5;
+  &#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3BB;&#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B5;&#x3BA;&#x3C7;&#x3B5;&#x3C9;
+  &#x3B4;&#x3B1;&#x3BA;&#x3C1;&#x3C5;&#x3C1;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C2;,
+  &#x3C6;&#x3B9;&#x3BB;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3C3;&#x3B1;&#x3C5;&#x3B4;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;,
+  &#x201B;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3BB;&#x3B5;&#x3BB;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3BC;&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3C2; &#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3B7;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3BA;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3C9;</span>. See Gorius Monum. sive
+  Columbar. Libert. Florent. mdccxxvii. p.186, who observes, "<span
+  lang="el" title="chaire">&#x3C7;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3C1;&#x3B5;</span> was
+  the accustomed salutation addressed to the dead. Catullus, Carm. xcvii.
+  <i>Accipe fraterno multum manantia fletu, atque in perpetuum frater HAVE,
+  atque VALE</i>." The same scholar compares a monument, apud Fabretti,
+  cap. v. p. 392, n. 265,</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+D. M<br />
+AVE SALVINIA<br />
+OMNIUM. AMAN<br />
+TISSIMA. ET.<br />
+VALE,
+</p>
+
+  <p>which is very apposite to the present occasion. B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="AlcN_33"></a><a href="#Alc_33">[33]</a> Wakefield reads <span
+  lang="el" title="chaire kain Aidou
+  domois">&#x3C7;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3C1;&#x3B5; &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x391;&#x3B9;&#x3B4;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;
+  &#x3B4;&#x3BF;&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;</span>; having in his mind
+  probably Hom. Il. <span lang="el" title="Ps">&#x3A8;</span>. 19. <span
+  lang="el" title="Chaire moi h� Patrokle, kai ein A�dao
+  domoisi">&#x3A7;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3C1;&#x3B5; &#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;
+  &#x201B;&#x3C9; &#x3A0;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3BA;&#x3BB;&#x3B5;,
+  &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9; &#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x391;&#x3CA;&#x3B4;&#x3B1;&#x3BF;
+  &#x3B4;&#x3BF;&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="AlcN_34"></a><a href="#Alc_34">[34]</a> I should scarcely
+  have observed that this is the proper sense of the imperfect, had not the
+  former translator mistaken it. B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="AlcN_35"></a><a href="#Alc_35">[35]</a> Cf. Iph. Taur. 244.
+  <span lang="el" title="chernibas de kai katargmata ouk an phthanois an
+  eutrep�
+  poioumen�">&#x3C7;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3BD;&#x3B9;&#x3B2;&#x3B1;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B4;&#x3B5; &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3C1;&#x3B3;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3BA; &#x3B1;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3C6;&#x3B8;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3C2; &#x3B1;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B5;&#x3C5;&#x3C4;&#x3C1;&#x3B5;&#x3C0;&#x3B7;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3B7;</span>.
+  B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="AlcN_36"></a><a href="#Alc_36">[36]</a> An apparent allusion
+  to the fable of Death and the Old Man. B</p>
+
+  <p><a name="AlcN_37"></a><a href="#Alc_37">[37]</a> Aristophanes' version
+  of this line is, <span lang="el" title="� pai, tin aucheis, potera Lydon
+  � Phryga Mormolyttesthai dokeis">&#x3C9; &#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;,
+  &#x3C4;&#x3B9;&#x3BD; &#x3B1;&#x3C5;&#x3C7;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;,
+  &#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;
+  &#x39B;&#x3C5;&#x3B4;&#x3BF;&#x3BD; &#x3B7;
+  &#x3A6;&#x3C1;&#x3C5;&#x3B3;&#x3B1;
+  &#x39C;&#x3BF;&#x3C1;&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3BB;&#x3C5;&#x3C4;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3C3;&#x3B8;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3B4;&#x3BF;&#x3BA;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;</span>. B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="AlcN_38"></a><a href="#Alc_38">[38]</a> Turned by
+  Aristophanes into an apology for beating one's father, Nub. 1415. <span
+  lang="el" title="klaousi paides, patera d' ou klaein
+  dokeis">&#x3BA;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3B4;&#x3B5;&#x3C2;,
+  &#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3B1; &#x3B4;' &#x3BF;&#x3C5;
+  &#x3BA;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B4;&#x3BF;&#x3BA;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;</span>. See Thesmoph. 194.
+  B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="AlcN_39"></a><a href="#Alc_39">[39]</a> Cf. �sch. Choeph. sub
+  init. and Gorius, Monum. Libert. p. 24. ad Tab. x. lit. A.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="AlcN_40"></a><a href="#Alc_40">[40]</a> Theocrit. i. 27.
+  <span lang="el" title="Kai bathy kissybion keklysmenon hadei kar�i, T�
+  peri men cheil� mareuetai hypsothi kissos.">&#x39A;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3B2;&#x3B1;&#x3B8;&#x3C5;
+  &#x3BA;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3C3;&#x3C5;&#x3B2;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3BA;&#x3B5;&#x3BA;&#x3BB;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;
+  &#x201B;&#x3B1;&#x3B4;&#x3B5;&#x3B9; &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3C1;&#x3C9;&#x3B9;,
+  &#x3A4;&#x3C9; &#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3B9; &#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3C7;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3BB;&#x3B7;
+  &#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3C1;&#x3B5;&#x3C5;&#x3B5;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x201B;&#x3C5;&#x3C8;&#x3BF;&#x3B8;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3BA;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3C3;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;.</span> B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="AlcN_41"></a><a href="#Alc_41">[41]</a> Hamlet, v. 1.</p>
+
+  <div class="poem">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <p>&mdash;Hold off the earth awhile,</p>
+      <p>Till I have caught her once more in mine arms:</p>
+      <p class="i16">[<i> leaps into the grave</i>.]</p>
+      <p>Now pile your dust upon the quick and dead.&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; B.</p>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+  <p><a name="AlcN_42"></a><a href="#Alc_42">[42]</a> Cf. vs. 195. <span
+  lang="el" title="hon ou proseipe kai proserr�th�
+  palin">&#x201B;&#x3BF;&#x3BD; &#x3BF;&#x3C5;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3C3;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C0;&#x3B5;
+  &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3C3;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3C1;&#x3B7;&#x3B8;&#x3B7;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;</span>. B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="AlcN_43"></a><a href="#Alc_43">[43]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="Orpheia garys">&#x39F;&#x3C1;&#x3C6;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3B3;&#x3B1;&#x3C1;&#x3C5;&#x3C2;</span>, a paraphrasis for <span
+  lang="el"
+  title="Orpheus">&#x39F;&#x3C1;&#x3C6;&#x3B5;&#x3C5;&#x3C2;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="AlcN_44"></a><a href="#Alc_44">[44]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="antitem�n, metaphorik�s apo t�n tas rhizas temnont�n kai
+  heuriskont�n.">&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3B9;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3BC;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;,
+  &#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3C6;&#x3BF;&#x3C1;&#x3B9;&#x3BA;&#x3C9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B1;&#x3C0;&#x3BF; &#x3C4;&#x3C9;&#x3BD; &#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3C2;
+  &#x201B;&#x3C1;&#x3B9;&#x3B6;&#x3B1;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3BC;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x201B;&#x3B5;&#x3C5;&#x3C1;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3BA;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;.</span>
+  SCHOL. TR. Cf. on �sch. Agam. 17. B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="AlcN_45"></a><a href="#Alc_45">[45]</a> In Phavorinus, among
+  the senses of <span lang="el"
+  title="klisia">&#x3BA;&#x3BB;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;</span> is <span
+  lang="el" title="klin� kai
+  klin�t�rion">&#x3BA;&#x3BB;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;&#x3B7; &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3BA;&#x3BB;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;&#x3B7;&#x3C4;&#x3B7;&#x3C1;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="AlcN_46"></a><a href="#Alc_46">[46]</a> It will be remembered
+  that the tombs were built near the highways, with great magnificence, and
+  sometimes very lofty, especially when near the sea-coast (cf. �sch.
+  Choeph. 351. D'Orville on Charit. lib. i. sub fin. Eurip. Hecub. 1273).
+  They are often used as landmarks or milestones, as in Theocr. vi. 10, and
+  as oratories or chapels, Apul. Florid, i. p.340, ed. Elm. B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="AlcN_47"></a><a href="#Alc_47">[47]</a> This appears the most
+  obvious sense, as connected with what follows. All the interpreters,
+  however, translate it, <i>I thought myself worthy, standing, as I did,
+  near thy calamities</i>,(i.e. near thee in thy calamities,) <i>to be
+  proved thy friend.</i></p>
+
+  <p><a name="AlcN_48"></a><a href="#Alc_48">[48]</a> In the same manner
+  <span lang="el" title="h�bai">&#x201B;&#x3B7;&#x3B2;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;</span>
+  is used in Orestes, 687, <span lang="el" title="hotan gar h�bai d�mos eis
+  org�n pes�n">&#x201B;&#x3BF;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3BD; &#x3B3;&#x3B1;&#x3C1;
+  &#x201B;&#x3B7;&#x3B2;&#x3B1;&#x3B9; &#x3B4;&#x3B7;&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C2; &#x3BF;&#x3C1;&#x3B3;&#x3B7;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3C3;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;</span>. </p>
+
+  <p><a name="AlcN_49"></a><a href="#Alc_49">[49]</a> i.e. <i>the severed
+  head of the Gorgon</i>. Valckenaer observes, that this is an expression
+  meaning <i>facie aversa</i>, and compares l. 465 of the
+  Ph&#339;niss�.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="AlcN_50"></a><a href="#Alc_50">[50]</a> Winter's Tale, v.
+  3.</p>
+
+  <div class="poem">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <p>Start not: her actions shall be holy, as,</p>
+      <p>You hear, my spell is lawful: do not shun her,</p>
+      <p>Until you see her die again; for then</p>
+      <p>You kill her double: Nay, present your hand:</p>
+      <p>When she was young you woo'd her; now, in age,</p>
+      <p>Is she become the suitor?</p>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+  <p>Compare also Much Ado about Nothing, v. 4. B.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="AlcN_51"></a><a href="#Alc_51">[51]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="haphagnizein">&#x201B;&#x3B1;&#x3C6;&#x3B1;&#x3B3;&#x3BD;&#x3B9;&#x3B6;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;</span>
+  h. l. non <i>purificare</i> sed <i>desecrare</i>. Orcus enim, quando
+  gladio totondisset Alcestidis capillos, eam diis manibus sacram
+  dicaverat, quod diserte <span lang="el"
+  title="h�gnisai">&#x201B;&#x3B7;&#x3B3;&#x3BD;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;</span>
+  appellat noster, vide 75&mdash;77. Contraria igitur aliqua ceremonia
+  desecranda erat, antequam Admeto ejus consuetudine et colloquio frui
+  liceret. HEATH.</p>
+
+</div>
+<hr class="full" />
+
+<a name="BACCHAE"></a>
+<h2>THE BACCH�.</h2>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+<h3>PERSONS REPRESENTED,</h3>
+
+  <div class="personae">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <p>BACCHUS.</p>
+      <p>CHORUS.</p>
+      <p>TIRESIAS.</p>
+      <p>CADMUS.</p>
+      <p>PENTHEUS.</p>
+      <p>SERVANT.</p>
+      <p>MESSENGER.</p>
+      <p>ANOTHER MESSENGER.</p>
+      <p>AGAVE.</p>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+<hr />
+
+<h3>THE ARGUMENT.</h3>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+  <p>Bacchus, the son of Jove by Semele, had made Thebes, his mother's
+  birth-place, his favorite place of abode and worship. Pentheus, the then
+  reigning king, who, as others say, preferred the worship of Minerva,
+  slighted the new God, and persecuted those who celebrated his revels.
+  Upon this, Bacchus excited his mother Agave, together with the sisters of
+  Semele, Autonoe and Ino, to madness, and visiting Pentheus in disguise of
+  a Bacchanal, was at first imprisoned, but, easily escaping from his
+  bonds, he persuaded Pentheus to intrude upon the rites of the Bacchants.
+  While surveying them from a lofty tree, the voice of Bacchus was heard
+  inciting the Bacchants to avenge themselves upon the intruder, and they
+  tore the miserable Pentheus piecemeal. The grief and banishment of Agave
+  for her unwitting offense conclude the play.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2>THE BACCH�.<a name="Ba_1"></a><a href="#BaN_1"><sup>[1]</sup></a></h2>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+<p class="center">BACCHUS.</p>
+
+  <p>I, Bacchus, the son of Jove, am come to this land of the Thebans, whom
+  formerly Semele, the daughter of Cadmus, brought forth, delivered by the
+  lightning-bearing flame. And having taken a mortal form instead of a
+  God's, I am present at the fountains of Dirce and the water of Ismenus.
+  And I see the tomb of my thunder-stricken mother here near the palace,
+  and the remnants of the house smoking, and the still living name of
+  Jove's fire, the everlasting insult of Juno against my mother. But I
+  praise Cadmus, who has made this place hallowed, the shrine of his
+  daughter; and I have covered it around with the cluster-bearing leaf of
+  the vine. And having left the wealthy lands of the Lydians and Phrygians,
+  and the sun-parched plains of the Persians, and the Bactrian walls; and
+  having come over the stormy land of the Medes, and the happy Arabia, and
+  all Asia which lies along the coast of the salt sea, having fair-towered
+  cities full of Greeks and barbarians mingled together; and there having
+  danced and established my mysteries, that I might be a God manifest among
+  men, I have come to this city first of the Grecian [cities,] and I have
+  raised my shout first in Thebes of this land of Greece, fitting a
+  deer-skin on my body, and taking a thyrsus in my hand, an ivy-clad<a
+  name="Ba_2"></a><a href="#BaN_2"><sup>[2]</sup></a> weapon, because the
+  sisters of my mother, whom, it least of all became, said that I, Bacchus,
+  was not born of Jove; but that Semele, having conceived by some mortal,
+  charged the sin of her bed upon Jove, a trick of Cadmus; on which account
+  they said that Jove had slain her, because she told a false tale about
+  her marriage. Therefore I have now driven them from the house with
+  frenzy, and they dwell on the mountain, insane of mind; and I have
+  compelled them to wear the dress of my mysteries. And all the female seed
+  of the Cadmeans, as many as are women, have I driven maddened from the
+  house. And they, mingled with the sons of Cadmus, sit on the roofless
+  rocks beneath the green pines. For this city must know, even though it be
+  unwilling, that it is not initiated into my Bacchanalian rites, and that
+  I plead the cause of my mother, Semele, in appearing manifest to mortals
+  as a God whom she bore to Jove. Cadmus then gave his honor and power to
+  Pentheus, born from his daughter, who fights against the Gods as far as I
+  am concerned, and drives me from sacrifices, and in his prayers makes no
+  mention of me; on which account I will show him and all the Thebans that
+  I am a God. And having set matters here aright, manifesting myself, I
+  will move to another land. But if the city of the Thebans should in anger
+  seek by arms to bring down the Bacch� from the mountain, I, general of
+  the M�nads, will join battle.<a name="Ba_3"></a><a
+  href="#BaN_3"><sup>[3]</sup></a> On which account I have changed my form
+  to a mortal one, and transformed my shape into the nature of a man. But,
+  O ye who have left Tmolus, the bulwark of Lydia; ye women, my assembly,
+  whom I have brought from among the barbarians as assistants and
+  companions to me; take your drums, your native instruments in the
+  Phrygian cities, the invention of the mother Rhea<a name="Ba_4"></a><a
+  href="#BaN_4"><sup>[4]</sup></a> and myself, and coming beat them around
+  this royal palace of Pentheus, that the city of Cadmus may see it. And I,
+  with the Bacch�, going to the dells of Cith�ron, where they are, will
+  share their dances.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Coming from the land of Asia, having left the sacred Tmolus, I
+  dance in honor of Bromius, a sweet labor and a toil easily borne,
+  celebrating the god Bacchus. Who is in the way? who is in the way? who is
+  in the halls? Let him depart. And let every one be pure as to his mouth
+  speaking propitious things; for now I will with hymns celebrate Bacchus
+  according to custom:&mdash;Blessed is he,<a name="Ba_5"></a><a
+  href="#BaN_5"><sup>[5]</sup></a> whoever being favored, knowing the
+  mysteries of the gods, keeps his life pure, and has his soul initiated
+  into the Bacchic revels, dancing o'er the mountains with holy
+  purifications, and reverencing the mysteries of the mighty mother Cybele,
+  and brandishing the thyrsus, and being crowned with ivy, serves Bacchus!
+  Go, ye Bacch�; go, ye Bacch�, escorting Bromius, a God, the son of a God,
+  from the Phrygian mountains to the broad streets of Greece! Bromius! whom
+  formerly, being in the pains of travail, the thunder of Jove flying upon
+  her, his mother cast from her womb, leaving life by the stroke of the
+  thunder-bolt. And immediately Jupiter, the son of Saturn, received him in
+  a chamber fitted for birth; and covering him in his thigh, shuts him with
+  golden clasps hidden from Juno. And he brought him forth, when the Fates
+  had perfected the horned God, and crowned him with crowns of snakes,
+  whence the thyrsus-bearing M�nads are wont to cover their prey with their
+  locks. O Thebes, thou nurse of Semele, crown thyself with ivy, flourish,
+  flourish with the verdant yew bearing sweet fruit, and be ye crowned in
+  honor of Bacchus with branches of oak or pine, and adorn your garments of
+  spotted deer-skin with fleeces of white-haired sheep,<a
+  name="Ba_6"></a><a href="#BaN_6"><sup>[6]</sup></a> and sport in holy
+  games with the insulting wands, straightway shall all the earth dance,
+  when Bromius leads the bands to the mountain, to the mountain, where the
+  female crowd abides, away from the distaff and the shuttle,<a
+  name="Ba_7"></a><a href="#BaN_7"><sup>[7]</sup></a> driven frantic by
+  Bacchus. O dwelling of the Curetes, and ye divine Cretan caves,<a
+  name="Ba_8"></a><a href="#BaN_8"><sup>[8]</sup></a> parents to Jupiter,
+  where the Corybantes with the triple helmet invented for me in their
+  caves this circle o'erstretched with hide; and with the constant
+  sweet-voiced breath of Phrygian pipes they mingled a sound of Bacchus,
+  and put the instrument in the hand of Rhea, resounding with the sweet
+  songs of the Bacch�. And hard by the raving satyrs went through the
+  sacred rites of the mother Goddess. And they added the dances of the
+  Trieterides;<a name="Ba_9"></a><a href="#BaN_9"><sup>[9]</sup></a> in
+  which Bacchus rejoices; pleased on the mountains, when after the running
+  dance he falls upon the plain, having a sacred garment of deer-skin,
+  seeking a sacrifice of goats, a raw-eaten delight,<a name="Ba_10"></a><a
+  href="#BaN_10"><sup>[10]</sup></a> on his way to the Phrygian, the Lydian
+  mountains; and the leader is Bromius, Evoe!<a name="Ba_11"></a><a
+  href="#BaN_11"><sup>[11]</sup></a> but the plain flows with milk, and
+  flows with wine, and flows with the nectar of bees; and the smoke is as
+  of Syrian frankincense. But Bacchus bearing a flaming torch of pine on
+  his thyrsus, rushes about arousing in his course the wandering Choruses,
+  and agitating them with shouts, casting his rich locks loose in the
+  air,&mdash;and with his songs he shouts out such words as this: O go
+  forth, ye Bacch�; O go forth, ye Bacch�, delight of gold-flowing Tmolus.
+  Sing Bacchus 'neath the loud drums, Evoe, celebrating the God Evius in
+  Phrygian cries and shouts. When the sweet-sounding sacred pipe sounds a
+  sacred playful sound suited to the frantic wanderers, to the mountain, to
+  the mountain&mdash;and the Bacchant rejoicing like a foal with its mother
+  at pasture, stirs its swift foot in the dance.</p>
+
+  <p>TIRESIAS. Who at the doors will call out Cadmus from the house, the
+  son of Agenor, who, leaving the city of Sidon, erected this city of the
+  Thebans? Let some one go, tell him that Tiresias seeks him; but he
+  himself knows on what account I come, and what agreement I, an old man,
+  have made with him, yet older; to twine the thyrsi, and to put on the
+  skins of deer, and to crown the head with ivy branches.</p>
+
+  <p>CADMUS. O dearest friend! how I, being in the house, was delighted,
+  hearing your voice, the wise voice of a wise man; and I am come prepared,
+  having this equipment of the God; for we needs must extol him, who is the
+  son sprung from my daughter, Bacchus, who has appeared as a God to men,
+  as much as is in our power. Whither shall I dance, whither direct the
+  foot, and wave the hoary head? Do you lead me, you, an old man! O
+  Tiresias, direct me, an old man; for you are wise. Since I shall never
+  tire, neither night nor day, striking the earth with the thyrsus. Gladly
+  we forget that we are old.</p>
+
+  <p>TI. You have the same feelings indeed as I; for I too feel young, and
+  will attempt the dance.</p>
+
+  <p>CA. Then we will go to the mountain in chariots.<a name="Ba_12"></a><a
+  href="#BaN_12"><sup>[12]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>TI. But thus the God would not have equal honor.</p>
+
+  <p>CA. I, an old man, will lead you, an old man.<a name="Ba_13"></a><a
+  href="#BaN_13"><sup>[13]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>TI. The God will without trouble guide us thither.</p>
+
+  <p>CA. But shall we alone of the city dance in honor of Bacchus?</p>
+
+  <p>TI. [Ay,] for we alone think rightly, but the rest ill.</p>
+
+  <p>CA. We are long in delaying;<a name="Ba_14"></a><a
+  href="#BaN_14"><sup>[14]</sup></a> but take hold of my hand.</p>
+
+  <p>TI. See, take hold, and join your hand to mine.</p>
+
+  <p>CA. I do not despise the Gods, being a mortal.</p>
+
+  <p>TI. We do not show too much wiseness about the Gods. Our ancestral
+  traditions, and those which we have kept throughout our life, no argument
+  will overturn them; not if any one were to find out wisdom with the
+  highest genius. Some one will say that I do not respect old age, being
+  about to dance, having crowned my head with ivy; for the God has made no
+  distinction as to whether it becomes the young man to dance, or the
+  elder; but wishes to have common honors from all; but does not at all
+  wish to be extolled by a few.</p>
+
+  <p>CA. Since you, O Tiresias, do not see this light, I will be to you an
+  interpreter of things. Hither is Pentheus coming to the house in haste,
+  the son of Echion, to whom I give power over the land. How fluttered he
+  is! what strange thing will he say?</p>
+
+  <p>PENTHEUS. I happened to be at a distance from this land, and I hear of
+  strange evils in this city, that the women have left our palace in
+  mad-wandering Bacchic rites; and that they are rushing about in the shady
+  mountains, honoring with dances this new God Bacchus, whoever he is; and
+  that full goblets stand in the middle of their assemblies, and that
+  flying each different ways into secrecy, they yield to the embraces of
+  men, on pretence, indeed, as [being] worshiping M�nads; but that they
+  consider Venus before Bacchus. As many then as I have taken, the servants
+  keep them bound as to their hands in the public strong-holds, and as many
+  as are absent I will hunt from the mountain, Ino, and Agave who bore me
+  to Echion, and the mother of Act�on, I mean Autonoe; and having bound
+  them in iron fetters, I will soon stop them from this ill-working
+  revelry. And they say that some stranger has come hither, a juggler, a
+  charmer, from the Lydian land, fragrant in hair with golden curls,
+  florid, having in his eyes the graces of Venus, who days and nights is
+  with them, alluring the young maidens with Bacchic mysteries&mdash;but if
+  I catch him under this roof, I will stop him from making a noise with the
+  thyrsus, and waving his hair, by cutting off his neck from his body. He
+  says he is the God Bacchus, [He was once on a time sown in the thigh of
+  Jove,<a name="Ba_15"></a><a href="#BaN_15"><sup>[15]</sup></a> ] who was
+  burned in the flame of lightning, together with his mother, because she
+  falsely claimed nuptials with Jove. Are not these things deserving of a
+  terrible halter, for a stranger to insult us with these insults, whoever
+  he be? But here is another marvel&mdash;I see Tiresias the soothsayer, in
+  dappled deer-skins, and the father of my mother, most great absurdity,
+  raging about with a thyrsus&mdash;I deprecate it, O father, seeing your
+  old age destitute of sense; will you not dash away the ivy?<a
+  name="Ba_16"></a><a href="#BaN_16"><sup>[16]</sup></a> will you not, O
+  father of my mother, put down your hand empty of the thyrsus? Have you
+  persuaded him to this, O Tiresias? do you wish, introducing this new God
+  among men, to examine birds and to receive rewards for fiery omens? If
+  your hoary old age did not defend you, you should sit as a prisoner in
+  the midst of the Bacch�, for introducing these wicked rites; for where
+  the joy of the grape-cluster is present at a feast of women, I no longer
+  say any thing good of their mysteries.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Alas for his impiety! O host, do you not reverence the Gods! and
+  being son of Echion, do you disgrace your race and Cadmus, who sowed the
+  earth-born crop?</p>
+
+  <p>TI. When any wise man takes a good occasion for his speech, it is not
+  a great task to speak well; but you have a rapid tongue, as if wise, but
+  in your words there is no wisdom; but a powerful man, when bold, and able
+  to speak, is a bad citizen if he has not sense. And this new God, whom
+  you ridicule, I am unable to express how great he will be in Greece. For,
+  O young man, two things are first among men; Ceres, the goddess, and she
+  is the earth, call her whichever name you will.<a name="Ba_17"></a><a
+  href="#BaN_17"><sup>[17]</sup></a> She nourishes mortals with dry food;
+  but he who is come as a match to her, the son of Semele, has invented the
+  liquid drink of the grape, and introduced it among mortals, which
+  delivers miserable mortals from grief,<a name="Ba_18"></a><a
+  href="#BaN_18"><sup>[18]</sup></a> when they are filled with the stream
+  of the vine; and gives sleep an oblivion of daily evils: nor is there
+  any other medicine for troubles. He who is a God is poured out in
+  libations to the Gods, that by his means men may have good
+  things&mdash;and you laugh at him, as to how he was sewn up in the thigh
+  of Jove; I will teach you that this is well&mdash;when Jove snatched him
+  out of the lightning flame, and bore him, a young infant, up to Olympus,
+  Juno wished to cast him down from heaven; but Jove had a counter
+  contrivance, as being a God. Having broken a part of the air which
+  surrounds the earth, he placed in it, giving him as a pledge, Bacchus,
+  safe from Juno's enmity; and in time, mortals say, that he was nourished
+  in the thigh of Jove; changing his name, because a God gave him formerly
+  as a pledge to a Goddess, they having made agreement.<a
+  name="Ba_19"></a><a href="#BaN_19"><sup>[19]</sup></a> But this God is a
+  prophet&mdash;for Bacchanal excitement and frenzy have much divination in
+  them.<a name="Ba_20"></a><a href="#BaN_20"><sup>[20]</sup></a> For when
+  the God comes violent<a name="Ba_21"></a><a
+  href="#BaN_21"><sup>[21]</sup></a> into the body, he makes the frantic to
+  foretell the future; and he also possesses some quality of Mars; for
+  terror flutters sometimes an army under arms and in its ranks, before
+  they touch the spear; and this also is a frenzy from Bacchus. Then you
+  shall see him also on the Delphic rocks, bounding with torches along the
+  double-pointed district, tossing about, and shaking the Bacchic branch,
+  mighty through Greece. But be persuaded by me, O Pentheus; do not boast
+  that sovereignty has power among men, nor, even if you think so, and your
+  mind is disordered, believe that you are at all wise. But receive the God
+  into the land, and sacrifice to him, and play the Bacchanal, and crown
+  your head. Bacchus will not compel women to be modest<a
+  name="Ba_22"></a><a href="#BaN_22"><sup>[22]</sup></a> with regard to
+  Venus, but in his nature modesty in all things is ever innate. This you
+  must needs consider, for she who is modest will not be corrupted by being
+  at Bacchanalian revels. Dost see? Thou rejoicest when many stand at thy
+  gates, and the city extols the name of Pentheus; and he, I ween, is
+  pleased, when honored. I, then, and Cadmus whom you laugh to scorn, will
+  crown ourselves with ivy, and dance, a hoary pair; but still we must
+  dance; and I will not contend against the Gods, persuaded by your
+  words&mdash;for you rave most grievously; nor can you procure any cure
+  from medicine, nor are you now afflicted beyond their power.<a
+  name="Ba_23"></a><a href="#BaN_23"><sup>[23]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. O old man, thou dost not shame Apollo by thy words, and honoring
+  Bromius, the mighty God, thou art wise.</p>
+
+  <p>CAD. My son, well has Tiresias advised you; dwell with us, not away
+  from the laws. For now you flit about, and though wise are wise in
+  naught; for although this may not be a God, as you say, let it be said by
+  you that he is; and tell a glorious falsehood, that Semele may seem to
+  have borne a God, and that honor may redound to all our race. You see the
+  hapless fate of Act�on,<a name="Ba_24"></a><a
+  href="#BaN_24"><sup>[24]</sup></a> whom his blood-thirsty hounds, whom he
+  had reared up, tore to pieces in the meadows, having boasted that he was
+  superior in the chase to Diana. This may you not suffer; come, that I may
+  crown thy head with ivy, with us give honor to the God&mdash;</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. Do not bring your hand toward me; but departing, play the
+  Bacchanal, and wipe not off your folly on me; but I will follow up with
+  punishment this teacher of your madness; let some one go as quickly as
+  possible, and going to his seat where he watches the birds, upset and
+  overthrow it with levers, turning every thing upside down; and commit his
+  crowns to the winds and storms; for doing this, I shall gnaw him most.
+  And some of you going along the city, track out this effeminate stranger,
+  who brings this new disease upon women, and pollutes our beds. And if you
+  catch him, convey him hither bound; that meeting with a judgment of
+  stoning he may die, having seen a bitter revelry of Bacchus in
+  Thebes.</p>
+
+  <p>TI. O wretched man! how little knowest thou what thou sayest! You are
+  mad now, and before you was out of your mind. Let us go, O Cadmus, and
+  entreat the God, on behalf of him, savage though he be, and on behalf of
+  the city, to do him no ill: but follow me with the ivy-clad staff, and
+  try to support my body, and I will yours; for it would be shameful for
+  two old men to fall down: but let that pass, for we must serve Bacchus,
+  the son of Jove; but beware lest Pentheus bring grief into thy house, O
+  Cadmus. I do not speak in prophecy, but judging from the state of things,
+  for a foolish man says foolish things.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. O holy venerable Goddess! holy, who bearest thy golden pinions
+  along the earth, hearest thou these words of Pentheus? Hearest thou his
+  unholy insolence against Bromius, the son of Semele, the first deity of
+  the Gods, at the banquets where the guests wear beautiful chaplets! who
+  has this office, to join in dances, and to laugh with the flute, and to
+  put an end to cares, when the juice of the grape comes at the feast of
+  the Gods, and in the ivy-bearing banquets the goblet sheds sleep over
+  man? Of unbridled mouths and lawless folly misery is the end, but the
+  life of quiet and wisdom remains unshaken, and supports a house; for the
+  heavenly powers are afar indeed, but still inhabiting the air, they
+  behold the deeds of mortals. But cleverness<a name="Ba_25"></a><a
+  href="#BaN_25"><sup>[25]</sup></a> is not wisdom, nor is the thinking on
+  things unfit for mortals. Life is short; and in it who, pursuing great
+  things, would not enjoy the present? These are the manners of maniacs;
+  and of ill-disposed men, in my opinion. Would that I could go to Cyprus,
+  the island of Venus, where the Loves dwell, soothing the minds of
+  mortals, and to Paphos, which the waters of a foreign river flowing with
+  an hundred<a name="Ba_26"></a><a href="#BaN_26"><sup>[26]</sup></a>
+  mouths, fertilize without rain&mdash;and to the land of Pieria, where is
+  the beautiful seat of the Muses, the holy hill of Olympus. Lead me
+  thither, O Bromius, Bromius, O master thou of Bacchanals! There are the
+  Graces, and there is Love, and there is it lawful for the Bacch� to
+  celebrate their orgies; the God, the son of Jove, delights in banquets,
+  and loves Peace, giver of riches, the Goddess the nourisher of youths.
+  And both to the rich and the poor<a name="Ba_27"></a><a
+  href="#BaN_27"><sup>[27]</sup></a> has she granted to enjoy an equal
+  delight from wine, banishing grief; and he who does not care for these
+  things, hates to lead a happy life by day and by friendly night&mdash;but
+  it is wise<a name="Ba_28"></a><a href="#BaN_28"><sup>[28]</sup></a> to
+  keep away the mind and intellect proceeding from over-curious men; what
+  the baser multitude thinks and adopts, that will I say.</p>
+
+  <p>SERVANT. Pentheus, we are here; having caught this prey, for which you
+  sent us: nor have we gone in vain; but the beast was docile in our hands,
+  nor did he withdraw his foot in flight, but yielded not unwillingly; nor
+  did he [turn] pale nor change his wine-complexioned cheek, but laughing,
+  allowed us to bind and lead him away; and remained still, making my work
+  easy; and I for shame said, O stranger, I do not take you of my own will,
+  but by order of Pentheus who sent me. And the Bacch� whom you shut up,
+  whom you carried off and bound in the chains of the public prison, they
+  being set loose are escaped, and are dancing in the meadows, invoking
+  Bromius as their God, and of their own accord the fetters were loosed
+  from their feet, and the keys opened the doors without mortal hand, and
+  full of many wonders is this man come to Thebes; but the rest must be thy
+  care.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. Take hold of him by the hands; for being in the toils, he is not
+  so swift as to escape me: but in your body you are not ill-formed, O
+  stranger, for women's purposes, on which account you have come to Thebes.
+  For your hair is long, not through wrestling, scattered over your cheeks,
+  full of desire, and you have a white skin from careful preparation;
+  hunting after Venus by your beauty not exposed to strokes of the sun, but
+  [kept] beneath the shade. First then tell me who thou art in family.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. There is no boast; but this is easy to say; thou knowest by
+  hearsay of the flowery Tmolus?</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. I know, [the hill] which surrounds the city of Sardis.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. Thence am I; and Lydia is my country.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. And whence do you bring these rites into Greece?</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. Bacchus persuaded us, the son of Jove.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. Is Jove then one who begets new Gods?</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. No, but having married Semele here,&mdash;</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. Did he compel you by night, or in your sight [by day]?</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. Seeing me who saw him; and he gave me orgies.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. And what appearance have these orgies?</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. It is unlawful for the uninitiated among mortals to know.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. And have they any profit to those who sacrifice?</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. It is not lawful for you to hear, but they are worth knowing.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. You have well coined this story, that I may wish to hear.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. The orgies of the God hate him who works impiety.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. For you say, forsooth, that you saw the God clearly what he was
+  like?</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. As he chose; I did not order this.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. This too you have well contrived, saying mere nonsense.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. One may seem, speaking wisely to one ignorant, not to be
+  wise.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. And did you come hither first, bringing the God?</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. Every one of the barbarians celebrates these orgies.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. [Ay,] for they are much less wise than Greeks.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. In these things they are wiser, but their laws are different.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. Do you practice these rites at night, or by day?</p>
+
+  <p>BAG. Most of them at night;<a name="Ba_29"></a><a
+  href="#BaN_29"><sup>[29]</sup></a> darkness conveys awe.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. This is treacherous toward women, and unsound.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. Even by day some may devise base things.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. You must pay the penalty of your evil devices.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. And you of your ignorance, being impious to the God.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. How bold is Bacchus, and not unpracticed in speech.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. Say what I must suffer, what ill wilt thou do me?</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. First I will cut off your delicate hair.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. The hair is sacred, I cherish it for the God.<a
+  name="Ba_30"></a><a href="#BaN_30"><sup>[30]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>PEN. Next yield up this thyrsus out of your hands.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. Take it from me yourself, I bear it as the ensign of Bacchus.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. And we will guard your body within in prison.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. The God himself will release me when I wish.<a
+  name="Ba_31"></a><a href="#BaN_31"><sup>[31]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>PEN. Ay, when you call him, standing among the Bacch�.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. Even now, being near, he sees what I suffer.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. And where is he? for at least he is not apparent to my eyes.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. Near me, but you being impious, see him not.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. Seize him, he insults me and Thebes!</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. I warn you not to bind me: I in my senses command you not in your
+  senses.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. And I bid them to bind you, as being mightier than you.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. You know not why you live, nor what you do, nor who you are.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. Pentheus, son of Agave, and of my father Echion.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. You are suited to be miserable according to your name.<a
+  name="Ba_32"></a><a href="#BaN_32"><sup>[32]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>PEN. Begone! confine him near the stable of horses that he may behold
+  dim darkness! There dance; and as for these women whom you bring with
+  you, the accomplices in your wickedness, we will either sell them away,
+  or stopping their hand from this noise and beating of skins, I will keep
+  them as slaves at the loom.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. I will go&mdash;for what is not right it is not right to suffer;
+  but as a punishment for these insults Bacchus shall pursue you, who you
+  say exists not; for, injuring us, you put him in bonds.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. O daughter of Achelous, venerable Dirce, happy virgin, for thou
+  didst receive the infant of Jove in thy fountains when Jove who begat him
+  saved him in his thigh from the immortal fire; uttering this shout: Go, O
+  Dithyrambus, enter this my male womb, I will make you illustrious, O
+  Bacchus, in Thebes, so that they shall call you by this name. But you, O
+  happy Dirce, reject me having a garland-bearing company about you. Why
+  dost thou reject me? Why dost thou avoid me? Yet, I swear by the
+  clustering delights of the vine of Bacchus, yet shall you have a care for
+  Bacchus. What rage, what rage does the earth-born race show, and Pentheus
+  once descended from the dragon, whom the earth-born Echion begat, a
+  fierce-faced monster, not a mortal man, but like a bloody giant, an enemy
+  to the Gods, who will soon bind me, the handmaid of Bacchus, in halters,
+  he already has within the house my fellow-reveler, hidden in a dark
+  prison. Dost thou behold this, O son of Jove, Bacchus, thy prophets in
+  the dangers of restraint? Come, O thou of golden face, brandishing your
+  thyrsus along Olympus, and restrain the insolence of the blood-thirsty
+  man. Where art thou assembling thy bands of thyrsus-bearers, O Bacchus,
+  is it near Nysa which nourishes wild beasts, or in the summits of
+  Corycus?<a name="Ba_33"></a><a href="#BaN_33"><sup>[33]</sup></a> or
+  perhaps in the deep-wooded lairs of Olympus, where formerly Orpheus
+  playing the lyre drew together the trees by his songs, collected the
+  beasts of the fields; O happy Pieria, Evius respects you, and will come
+  to lead the dance with revelings having crossed the swiftly-flowing
+  Axius, he will bring the dancing M�nads, and [leaving] Lydia<a
+  name="Ba_34"></a><a href="#BaN_34"><sup>[34]</sup></a> the giver of
+  wealth to mortals, and the father whom I have heard fertilizes the
+  country renowned for horses with the fairest streams.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. Io! hear ye, hear ye my song, Io Bacch�! O Bacch�!</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Who is here, who? from what quarter did the shout of Evius
+  summon me?</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. Io, Io, I say again! I, the son of Semele, the son of Jove!</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Io! Io! Master, master! come now to our company. O Bromius!
+  Bromius! Shake this place, O holy Earth!<a name="Ba_35"></a><a
+  href="#BaN_35"><sup>[35]</sup></a> O! O! quickly will the palace of
+  Pentheus be shaken in ruin&mdash;Bacchus is in the halls. Worship him. We
+  worship him. Behold these stone buttresses shaken with their pillars.
+  Bacchus will shout in the palace.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. Light the burning fiery lamp; burn, burn the house of
+  Pentheus.</p>
+
+  <p>SEM. Alas! Dost thou not behold the fire, nor perceive around the
+  sacred tomb of Semele the flame which formerly the bolt-bearing thunder
+  of Jupiter left?</p>
+
+  <p>SEM. Cast on the ground your trembling bodies, cast them down, O
+  M�nads, for the king turning things upside down is coming to this palace,
+  [Bacchus,] the son of Jupiter.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. O barbarian women! have ye fallen to the ground thus stricken
+  with fear? Ye have felt, it seems, Bacchus shaking the house of Pentheus;
+  but lift up your bodies, and take courage, casting off fear from your
+  flesh.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. O thou most mighty light to us of Evian Bacchic rites, how
+  gladly do I see thee, being before alone and desolate!</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. Ye came to despair, when I was sent in, as about to fall into the
+  dark prison of Pentheus.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. How not?&mdash;who was my guardian if you met with misfortune?
+  but how were you liberated, having met with an impious man?</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. I delivered myself easily without trouble.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. And did he not bind your hands in links of chains?</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. In this too I mocked him; for, thinking to bind me, he neither
+  touched nor handled me, but fed on hope; and finding a bull in the
+  stable, where having taken me, he confined me, he cast halters round the
+  knees of that, and the hoofs of its feet;<a name="Ba_36"></a><a
+  href="#BaN_36"><sup>[36]</sup></a> breathing out fury, stilling sweat
+  from his body, gnashing his teeth in his lips. But I, being near, sitting
+  quietly, looked on; and, in the mean time, Bacchus coming, shook the
+  house, and kindled flame on the tomb of his mother; and he, when he saw
+  it, thinking the house was burning, rushed to and fro, calling to the
+  servants to bring water,<a name="Ba_37"></a><a
+  href="#BaN_37"><sup>[37]</sup></a> and every servant was at work toiling
+  in vain; and letting go this labor, I having escaped, seizing a dark
+  sword he rushes into the house, and then Bromius, as it seems to me, I
+  speak my opinion, made an appearance in the palace, and he rushing toward
+  it, rushed on and stabbed at the bright air,<a name="Ba_38"></a><a
+  href="#BaN_38"><sup>[38]</sup></a> as if slaying me; and besides this,
+  Bacchus afflicts him with these other things; and threw down his house to
+  the ground, and every thing was shivered in pieces, while he beheld my
+  bitter chains; and from fatigue dropping his sword, he falls
+  exhausted&mdash;for he being a man, dared to join battle with a God: and
+  I quietly getting out of the house am come to you, not regarding
+  Pentheus. But, as it seems to me, a shoe sounds in the house; he will
+  soon come out in front of the house. What will he say after this? I shall
+  easily bear him, even if he comes vaunting greatly, for it is the part of
+  a wise man to practice prudent moderation.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. I have suffered terrible things, the stranger has escaped me, who
+  was lately coerced in bonds. Hollo! here is the man; what is this? how do
+  you appear near my house, having come out?</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. Stay your foot; and substitute calm steps for anger.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. How come you out, having escaped your chains?</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. Did I not say, or did you not hear, that some one would deliver
+  me?</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. Who? for you are always introducing strange things.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. He who produces the rich-clustering vine for mortals.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. This is a fine reproach you charge on Bacchus; I order ye to
+  close every tower all round.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. Why? do not Gods pass over walls too?</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. You are wise, wise at least in all save what you should be wise
+  in.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. In what I most ought, in that I was born wise; but first learn,
+  hearing his words who is come from the mountain to bring a message to
+  you; but we will await you, we will not fly.</p>
+
+  <p>MESSENGER. Pentheus, ruler o'er this Theban land, I come, having left
+  Cith�ron, where never have the brilliant flakes of white snow fallen.<a
+  name="Ba_39"></a><a href="#BaN_39"><sup>[39]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>PEN. But bringing what important news are you come?</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. Having seen the holy Bacch�, who driven by madness have darted
+  their fair feet from this land, have I come, wishing to tell you and the
+  city, O king, what awful things they do, things beyond marvel; and I wish
+  to hear whether in freedom of speech I shall tell you the matters there,
+  or whether I shall repress my report, for I fear, O king, the hastiness
+  of thy mind, and your keen temper, and too imperious disposition.<a
+  name="Ba_40"></a><a href="#BaN_40"><sup>[40]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>PEN. Speak, as you shall be in all things blameless as far as I am
+  concerned; for it is not meet to be wrath with the just; and in
+  proportion as you speak worse things of the Bacch�, so much the more will
+  we punish this man who has taught these tricks to the women.</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. I was just now driving up to the heights the herd of calves,
+  when the sun sends forth his rays warming the land, and I see three
+  companies of dances of women, of one of which Autonoe was chief; of a
+  second, thy mother, Agave; and Ino led the third dance; and they were all
+  sleeping, relaxed in their bodies, some resting their locks against the
+  leaves of pine, and some laying their heads at random on the leaves of
+  oak in the ground, modestly, not, as you say, that, drunk with the goblet
+  and the noise of the flute, they solitary hunt Venus through the wood.
+  But thy mother standing in the midst of the Bacch�, raised a shout, to
+  wake their bodies from sleep, when she heard the lowing of the horned
+  oxen; but they, casting off refreshing sleep from their eyes, started
+  upright, a marvel to behold for their elegance, young, old, and virgins
+  yet unyoked, And first they let loose their hair over their shoulders;
+  and arranged their deer-skins, as many as had had the fastenings of their
+  knots unloosed, and they girded the dappled hides with serpents licking
+  their jaws&mdash;and some having in their arms a kid, or the wild whelps
+  of wolves, gave them white milk, all those who, having lately had
+  children, had breasts still full, having left their infants, and they put
+  on their ivy chaplets, and garlands of oak and blossoming yew; and one
+  having taken a thyrsus, struck it against a rock, whence a dewy stream of
+  water springs out; another placed her wand on the ground, and then the
+  God sent up a spring of wine. And as many as had craving for the white
+  drink, scratching the earth with the tips of their fingers, obtained
+  abundance of milk; and from the ivy thyrsus sweet streams of honey
+  dropped, so that, had you been present, beholding these things, you would
+  have approached with prayers that God whom you now blame. And we came
+  together, herdsmen and shepherds, to reason with one another concerning
+  this strange matter, what terrible things and worthy of marvel they do;
+  and some one, a wanderer about the city, and practiced in speaking, said
+  to us all, O ye who inhabit the holy downs of the mountains, will ye that
+  we hunt out Agave, the mother of Pentheus, back from the revels, and do
+  the king a pleasure? And he seemed to us to speak well, and hiding
+  ourselves, we lay in ambush in the foliage of the thickets; and they, at
+  the appointed hour, waved the thyrsus in their solemnities, calling on
+  Bacchus with united voice, the son of Jove, Bromius; and the whole
+  mountain and the beasts were in a revel; and nothing was unmoved by their
+  running; and Agave was bounding near to me, and I sprang forth, as
+  wishing to seize her, leaving my ambush where I was hidden. But she cried
+  out, O my fleet hounds, we are hunted by these men; but follow me,
+  follow, armed with thyrsi in your hands. We then flying, avoided the
+  tearing of the Bacch�, but they sprang on the heifers browsing the grass
+  with unarmed hand, and you might see one rending asunder a fatted lowing
+  calf, and others rent open cows, and you might see either ribs, or a
+  cloven-footed hoof, tossed here and there, and hanging beneath the
+  pine-trees the fragments were dripping, dabbled in gore; and the fierce
+  bulls before showing their fury with their horns, were thrown to the
+  ground, overpowered by myriads of maiden hands; and quicker were the
+  coverings of flesh torn asunder by the royal maids than you could shut
+  your eyes; and like birds raised in their course, they proceed along the
+  level plain, which by the streams of the Asopus produce the fertile crop
+  of the Thebans, and falling on Hysi� and Erythr�,<a name="Ba_41"></a><a
+  href="#BaN_41"><sup>[41]</sup></a> which, are below Cith�ron, they turned
+  every thing upside down; they dragged children from the houses; and
+  whatever they put on their shoulders stuck there without chains, and fell
+  not on the dark plain, neither brass nor iron; and they bore fire on
+  their tresses, and it burned not; but some from rage betook themselves to
+  arms, being plundered by the Bacch�, the sight of which was fearful to
+  behold, O king! For their pointed spear was not made bloody, but the
+  women hurling the thyrsi from their hands, wounded them, and turned their
+  backs to flight, women [defeating] men; not without the aid of some God.
+  And they went back again to whence they had departed, to the same
+  fountains which the God had caused to spring up for them, and they washed
+  off the blood; and the snakes with their tongues cleaned off the drops
+  from their cheeks. Receive then, O master, this deity, whoever he be, in
+  this city, since he is mighty in other respects, and they say this too of
+  him, as I hear, that he has given mortals the vine which puts an end to
+  grief,&mdash;for where wine exists not there is no longer Venus, nor any
+  thing pleasant to men.<a name="Ba_42"></a><a
+  href="#BaN_42"><sup>[42]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. I fear to speak unshackled words to the king, but still they
+  shall be spoken; Bacchus is inferior to none of the Gods.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. Already like fire does this insolence of the Bacch� extend thus
+  near, a great reproach to the Greeks. But I must not hesitate; go to the
+  Electra gates, bid all the shield-bearers and riders of swift-footed
+  horses to assemble, and all who brandish the light shield, and twang with
+  their hand the string of the bow, as we will make an attack upon the
+  Bacch�; but it is too much, if we are to suffer what we are suffering at
+  the hands of women.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. O Pentheus, you obey not at all hearing my words; but although
+  suffering ill at your hands, still I say that you ought not to take up
+  arms against a God, but to rest quiet; Bromius will not endure your
+  moving the Bacch� from their Evian mountains.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. You shall not teach me; but be content,<a name="Ba_43"></a><a
+  href="#BaN_43"><sup>[43]</sup></a> having escaped from prison, or else I
+  will again bring punishment upon you.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. I would rather sacrifice to him than, being wrath, kick against
+  the pricks; a mortal against a God.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. I will sacrifice, making a great slaughter of the women, as they
+  deserve, in the glens of Cith�ron.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. You will all fly, (and that will be shameful,) so as to yield
+  your brazen shields to the thyrsi of the Bacch�.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. We are troubled with this impracticable stranger, who neither
+  suffering nor doing will be silent.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. My friend, there is still opportunity to arrange these things
+  well.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. By doing what? being a slave to my slaves?</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. I will bring the women here without arms.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. Alas! you are contriving some trick against me.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. Of what sort, if I wish to save you by my contrivances?</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. You have devised this together, that ye may have your revelings
+  forever.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. And indeed, know this, I agreed on it with the God.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. Bring hither the arms! and do you cease to speak.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. Hah! Do you wish to see them sitting on the mountains?</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. Very much, if I gave countless weight of gold for it.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. But why? have you fallen into a great wish for this?</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. I should like to see them drunk grievously [for them].</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. Would you then gladly see what is grievous to you?</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. To be sure, sitting quietly under the pines.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. But they will track you out, even though you come secretly.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. But [I will come] openly, for you have said this well.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. Shall I then guide you? and will you attempt the way?</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. Lead me as quickly as possible; for I do not grudge you the
+  time.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. Put on then linen garments on your body.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. What then, shall I be reckoned among women, being a man?</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. Lest they slay you if you be seen there, being a man.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. You say this well, and you have been long wise.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. Bacchus taught me this wisdom.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. How then can these things which you advise me be well done?</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. I will attire you, going into the house.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. With what dress&mdash;a woman's? but shame possesses me.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. Do you no longer wish to be a spectator of the M�nads?</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. But what attire do you bid me put on my body?</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. I will spread out your hair at length on your head.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. And what is the next point of my equipment?</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. A garment down to your feet; and you shall have a turban on your
+  head.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. Shall you put any thing else on me besides this?</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. A thyrsus in your hand, and the dappled hide of a deer.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. I can not wear a woman's dress.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. But you will shed blood if you join battle with the Bacch�.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. True; we must first go and see.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. That is wiser at least than to hunt evils with evils.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. And how shall I go through the city escaping the notice of the
+  Cadmeans?</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. We will go by deserted roads, and I will guide you.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. Every thing is better than for the Bacch� to mock me.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. We will go into the house and consider what seems best.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. We can do what we like; my part is completely prepared. Let us
+  go; for either I will go bearing arms, or I will be guided by your
+  counsels.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. O women! the man is in the toils,<a name="Ba_44"></a><a
+  href="#BaN_44"><sup>[44]</sup></a> and he will come to the Bacch�, where,
+  dying, he will pay the penalty. Now, Bacchus, 'tis thine office, for you
+  are not far off. Let us punish him; but first drive him out of his wits,
+  inspiring vain frenzy, since, being in his right mind, he will not be
+  willing to put on a female dress, but driving him out of his senses he
+  will put it on; and I wish him to furnish laughter to the Thebans, being
+  led in woman's guise through the city, after<a name="Ba_45"></a><a
+  href="#BaN_45"><sup>[45]</sup></a> his former threats, with which he was
+  terrible. But I will go to fit on Pentheus the dress, which, having
+  taken, he shall die, slain by his mother's hand. And he shall know
+  Bacchus, the son of Jupiter, who is in fact to men at once the most
+  terrible, and the mildest of deities.<a name="Ba_46"></a><a
+  href="#BaN_46"><sup>[46]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Shall I move my white foot in the night-long dance, honoring
+  Bacchus, exposing my neck to the dewy air, sporting like a fawn in the
+  verdant delights of the mead, when it has escaped a fearful chase beyond
+  the watch of the well-woven nets, (and the huntsman cheering hastens on
+  the course of his hounds,) and with toil like the swift storm<a
+  name="Ba_47"></a><a href="#BaN_47"><sup>[47]</sup></a> rushes along the
+  plain that skirts the river, exulting in the solitude apart from men, and
+  in the thickets of the shady-foliaged wood? What is wisdom, what is a
+  more glorious gift from the Gods among mortals than to hold one's hand on
+  the heads of one's enemies? What is good is always pleasant; divine
+  strength is roused with difficulty, but still is sure, and it chastises
+  those mortals who honor folly, and do not extol the Gods in their insane
+  mind. But the Gods cunningly conceal the long foot<a name="Ba_48"></a><a
+  href="#BaN_48"><sup>[48]</sup></a> of time, and hunt the impious man; for
+  it is not right to determine or plan any thing beyond the laws: for it is
+  a light expense to deem that that has power whatever is divine, and that
+  what has been law for a long time has its origin in nature. What is
+  wisdom, what is a more noble gift from the Gods among men, than to hold
+  one's hand on the heads of one's enemies? what is honorable is always
+  pleasant. Happy is he who has escaped from the wave of the sea, and
+  arrived in harbor.<a name="Ba_49"></a><a
+  href="#BaN_49"><sup>[49]</sup></a> Happy, too, is he who has overcome his
+  labors; and one surpasses another in different ways, in wealth and power.
+  Still are there innumerable hopes to innumerable men, some result in
+  wealth to mortals, and some fail, but I call him happy whose life is
+  happy day by day.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. You, who are eager to see what you ought not, and hasty to do a
+  deed not of haste, I mean Pentheus, come forth before the house, be seen
+  by me, having the costume of a woman, of a frantic Bacchant, as a spy
+  upon your mother and her company! In appearance, you are like one of the
+  daughters of Cadmus.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. And indeed I think I see two suns,<a name="Ba_50"></a><a
+  href="#BaN_50"><sup>[50]</sup></a> and twin Thebes, and seven-gated city;
+  and you seem to guide me, being like a bull, and horns seem to grow on
+  your head. But were you ever a beast? for you look like a bull.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. The God accompanies us, not propitious formerly, but now at truce
+  with us. You see what you should see.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. How do I look? Does not my standing seem like that of Ino, or of
+  Agave, my mother?</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. I seem to see them as I behold you; but this lock of hair of
+  yours is out of its place, not as I dressed it beneath the turban.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. Moving it within doors backward and forward, and practicing
+  Bacchic revelry, I disarranged it.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. But we who ought to wait upon you will again rearrange it. But
+  hold up your head.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. Look, do you arrange it, for we depend on you.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. And your girdle is loosened, and the fringes of your garments do
+  not extend regularly round your legs.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. They seem so to me, too, about the right foot at least; but on
+  this side the robe sits well along the leg.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. Will you not think me the first of your friends when, contrary to
+  your expectation, you see the Bacch� acting modestly?</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. But shall I be more like a Bacchant holding the thyrsus in my
+  right hand, or in this?</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. You should [hold it in] your right hand, and raise it at the same
+  time with your right foot; and I praise you for having changed your
+  mind.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. Could I bear on my shoulders the glens of Cith�ron, Bacch� and
+  all?</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. You could if you were willing; but you had your mind unsound
+  before; but now you have such as you ought.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. Shall we bring levers, or shall I tear them up with my hands,
+  putting my shoulder or arm under the summits?</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. No, lest you ruin the habitations of the Nymphs, and the seats of
+  Pan where he plays his pipes.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. You speak well,&mdash;it is not with strength we should conquer
+  women; but I will hide my body among the pines.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. Hide you the hiding in which you should be hidden, coming as a
+  crafty spy on the M�nads.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. And, indeed, I think to catch them in the thickets, like birds in
+  the sweet nets of beds.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. You go then as a watch for this very thing; and perhaps you will
+  catch them, if you be not caught first.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. Conduct me through the middle of the Theban land, for I am the
+  only man of them who would dare these things.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. You alone labor for this city, you alone; therefore the labors,
+  which are meet,<a name="Ba_51"></a><a href="#BaN_51"><sup>[51]</sup></a>
+  await you. But follow me, I am your saving guide, some one else will
+  guide you away from thence.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. Yes, my mother.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. Being remarkable among all.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. For this purpose do I come.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. You will depart being borne.<a name="Ba_52"></a><a
+  href="#BaN_52"><sup>[52]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>PEN. You allude to my delicacy.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. In the hands of your mother.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. And wilt thou compel me to be effeminate?</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. Ay, with such effeminacy.</p>
+
+  <p>PEN. I lay mine hands to worthy things.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. You are terrible, terrible: and you go to terrible sufferings; so
+  that you shall find a renown reaching to heaven. Spread out, O Agave,
+  your hands, and ye, her sister, daughters of Cadmus! I lead this young
+  man to a mighty contest; and the conqueror shall be I and Bacchus! The
+  rest the matter itself will show.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Go, ye fleet hounds of madness, go to the mountain where the
+  daughters of Cadmus hold their company; drive them raving against the
+  frantic spy on the M�nads,&mdash;him in woman's attire. First shall his
+  mother from some smooth rock or paling, behold him in ambush; and she
+  will cry out to the M�nads: Who is this of the Cadmeans who has come to
+  the mountain, the mountain, as a spy on us, who are on the mountain? Io
+  Bacch�! Who brought him forth? for he was not born of the blood of women:
+  but, as to his race, he is either born of some lion, or of the Libyan
+  Gorgons. Let manifest justice go forth, let it go with sword in hand,
+  slaying the godless, lawless, unjust, earth-born offspring of Echion
+  through the throat; who, with wicked mind and unjust rage about your
+  orgies, O Bacchus, and those of thy mother,<a name="Ba_53"></a><a
+  href="#BaN_53"><sup>[53]</sup></a> with raving heart and mad disposition
+  proceeds as about to overcome an invincible deity by force. To possess
+  without pretext a wise understanding in respect to the Gods, and [a
+  disposition] befitting mortals, is a life ever free from grief. I
+  joyfully hunt after wisdom, if apart from envy, but the other conduct is
+  evidently ever great throughout life, directing one rightly the livelong
+  day, to reverence things honorable.<a name="Ba_54"></a><a
+  href="#BaN_54"><sup>[54]</sup></a> Appear as a bull, or a many-headed
+  dragon, or a fiery lion, to be seen. Go, O Bacchus! cast a snare around
+  the hunter of the Bacch�, with a smiling face falling upon the deadly
+  crowd of the M�nads.</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. O house, which wast formerly prosperous in Greece! house of the
+  Sidonian old man, who sowed in the land the earth-born harvest of the
+  dragon; how I lament for you, though a slave. But still the [calamities]
+  of their masters are a grief to good servants.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. But what is the matter? Tellest thou any news from the
+  Bacch�?</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. Pentheus is dead, the son of his father Echion.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. O, king Bacchus! truly you appear a great God!</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. How sayest thou? Why do you say this? Do you, O woman, delight
+  at my master being unfortunate?</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. I, a foreigner, celebrate it in foreign strains; for no longer
+  do I crouch in fear under my fetters.</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. But do you think Thebes thus void of men?</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Bacchus, Bacchus, not Thebes, has my allegiance.</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. You, indeed may be pardoned; still, O woman, it is not right to
+  rejoice at the misfortunes which have been brought to pass.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Tell me, say, by what fate is the wicked man doing wicked things
+  dead, O man?</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. When having left Therapn� of this Theban land, we crossed the
+  streams of Asopus, we entered on the height of Cith�ron, Pentheus and I,
+  for I was following my master, and the stranger who was our guide in this
+  search, for the sight: first, then, we sat down in a grassy vale, keeping
+  our steps and tongues in silence, that we might see, not being seen; and
+  there was a valley surrounded by precipices, irrigated with streams,
+  shaded around with pines, where the M�nads were sitting employing their
+  hands in pleasant labors, for some of them were again crowning the
+  worn-out thyrsus, so as to make it leafy with ivy; and some, like horses
+  quitting the painted yoke, shouted in reply to another a Bacchic melody.
+  And the miserable Pentheus, not seeing the crowd of women, spake thus: O
+  stranger, where we are standing, I can not come at the place where is the
+  dance of the M�nads; but climbing a mound, or pine with lofty neck, I
+  could well discern the shameful deeds of the M�nads. And on this I now
+  see a strange deed of the stranger; for seizing hold of the extreme lofty
+  branch of a pine, he pulled it down, pulled it, pulled it to the dark
+  earth, and it was bent like a bow, or as a curved wheel worked by a lathe
+  describes a circle as it revolves, thus the stranger, pulling a mountain
+  bough with his hands, bent it to the earth; doing no mortal's deed; and
+  having placed Pentheus on the pine branches, he let it go upright through
+  his hands steadily, taking care that it should not shake him off; and the
+  pine stood firm upright to the sky, bearing on its back my master,
+  sitting on it; and he was seen rather than saw the M�nads, for sitting on
+  high he was apparent, as not before.<a name="Ba_55"></a><a
+  href="#BaN_55"><sup>[55]</sup></a> And one could no longer see the
+  stranger, but there was a certain voice from the sky; Bacchus, as one
+  might conjecture, shouted out: O youthful women, I bring you him who made
+  you and me and my orgies a laughing-stock: but punish ye him. And at the
+  same time he cried out, and sent forth to heaven and earth a light of
+  holy fire;<a name="Ba_56"></a><a href="#BaN_56"><sup>[56]</sup></a> and
+  the air was silent, and the fair meadowed grove kept its leaves in
+  silence, and you could not hear the voice of the beasts; but they not
+  distinctly receiving the voice, stood upright, and cast their eyes
+  around. And again he proclaimed his bidding. And when the daughters of
+  Cadmus' recognized the distinct command of Bacchus, they rushed forth,
+  having in the eager running of their feet a speed not less than that of a
+  dove; his mother, Agave, and her kindred sisters, and all the Bacch�: and
+  frantic with the inspiration of the God, they bounded through the
+  torrent-streaming valley, and the clefts. But when they saw my master
+  sitting on the pine, first they threw at him handfuls of stones, striking
+  his head, mounting on an opposite piled rock; and with pine branches some
+  aimed, and some hurled their thyrsi through the air at Pentheus, wretched
+  mark;<a name="Ba_57"></a><a href="#BaN_57"><sup>[57]</sup></a> but they
+  failed of their purpose; for he having a height too great for their
+  eagerness, sat, wretched, destitute through perplexity. But at last
+  thundering together<a name="Ba_58"></a><a
+  href="#BaN_58"><sup>[58]</sup></a> some oaken branches, they tore up the
+  roots with levers not of iron; and when they could not accomplish the end
+  of their labors, Agave said, Come, standing round in a circle, seize each
+  a branch, O M�nads, that we may take the beast<a name="Ba_59"></a><a
+  href="#BaN_59"><sup>[59]</sup></a> who has climbed aloft, that he may not
+  tell abroad the secret dances of the God. And they applied their
+  innumerable hands to the pine, and tore it up from the ground; and
+  sitting on high, Pentheus falls to the ground from on high, with
+  numberless lamentations; for he knew that he was near to ill. And first
+  his mother, as the priestess, began his slaughter, and falls upon him;
+  but he threw the turban from his hair, that the wretched Agave,
+  recognizing him, might not slay him; and touching her cheek, he says, I,
+  indeed, O mother, am thy child,<a name="Ba_60"></a><a
+  href="#BaN_60"><sup>[60]</sup></a> Pentheus, whom you bore in the house
+  of Echion; but pity me, O mother! and do not slay me, thy child, for my
+  sins. But she, foaming and rolling her eyes every way, not thinking as
+  she ought to think, was possessed by Bacchus, and he did not persuade
+  her; and seizing his left hand with her hand, treading on the side of the
+  unhappy man, she tore off his shoulder, not by [her own] strength, but
+  the God gave facility to her hands; and Ino completed the work on the
+  other side, tearing his flesh. And Autonoe and the whole crowd of the
+  Bacch� pressed on; and there was a noise of all together; he, indeed,
+  groaning as much as he had life in him, and they shouted; and one bore
+  his arm, another his foot, shoe and all; and his sides were bared by
+  their tearings, and the whole band, with gory hands, tore to pieces the
+  flesh of Pentheus: and his body lies in different places, part under the
+  rugged rocks, part in the deep shade of the wood, not easy to be sought;
+  and as to his miserable head, which his mother has taken in her hands,
+  having fixed it on the top of a thyrsus, she is bearing it, like that of
+  a savage lion, through the middle of Cith�ron, leaving her sisters in the
+  dances of the M�nads; and she goes along rejoicing in her unhappy prey,
+  within these walls, calling upon Bacchus, her fellow-huntsman, her
+  fellow-workman in the chase, of glorious victory, by which she wins a
+  victory of tears. I, therefore, will depart out of the way of this
+  calamity before Agave comes to the palace; but to be wise, and to
+  reverence the Gods, this, I think, is the most honorable and wisest thing
+  for mortals who adopt it.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Let us dance in honor of Bacchus; let us raise a shout for what
+  has befallen Pentheus, the descendant of the dragon, who assumed female
+  attire and the wand with the beautiful thyrsus,&mdash;a certain death,
+  having a bull<a name="Ba_61"></a><a href="#BaN_61"><sup>[61]</sup></a> as
+  his leader to calamity. Ye Cadmean Bacchants, ye have accomplished a
+  glorious victory, illustrious, yet for woe and tears. It is a glorious
+  contest to plunge one's dripping hand in the blood of one's son.
+  But&mdash;for I see Agave, the mother of Pentheus, coining to the house
+  with starting eyes; receive the revel of the Evian God.</p>
+
+  <p>AGAVE. O Asiatic Bacch�!</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. To what dost thou excite me? O!</p>
+
+  <p>AG. We bring from the mountains a fresh-culled wreathing<a
+  name="Ba_62"></a><a href="#BaN_62"><sup>[62]</sup></a> to the house, a
+  blessed prey.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. I see it, and hail you as a fellow-reveler, O!</p>
+
+  <p>AG. I have caught him without a noose, a young lion, as you may
+  see.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. From what desert?</p>
+
+  <p>AG. Cith�ron.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. What did Cith�ron?</p>
+
+  <p>AG. Slew him.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Who was it who first smote him?</p>
+
+  <p>AG. The honor is mine. Happy Agave! We are renowned in our revels.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Who else?</p>
+
+  <p>AG. Cadmus's.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. What of Cadmus?</p>
+
+  <p>AG. Descendants after me, after me laid hands on this beast.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. You are fortunate in this capture.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. Partake then of our feast.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. What shall I, unhappy, partake of?</p>
+
+  <p>AG. The whelp is young about the chin; he has just lost his
+  soft-haired head-gear.<a name="Ba_63"></a><a
+  href="#BaN_63"><sup>[63]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>AG. For it is beautiful as the mane of a wild beast.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Bacchus, a wise huntsman, wisely hurried the M�nads against this
+  beast.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. For the king is a huntsman.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. Do you praise?</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. What? I do praise.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. But soon the Cadmeans.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. And thy son Pentheus his mother&mdash;</p>
+
+  <p>AG. &mdash;will praise, as having caught this lion-born prey.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. An excellent prey.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. Excellently.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. You rejoice.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. I rejoice greatly, having accomplished great and illustrious deeds
+  for this land.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Show now, O wretched woman, thy victorious booty to the
+  citizens, which you have come bringing with you.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. O, ye who dwell in the fair-towered city of the Theban land, come
+  ye, that ye may behold this prey, O daughters of Cadmus, of the wild
+  beast which we have taken; not by the thonged javelins of the
+  Thessalians, not by nets, but by the fingers, our white arms; then may we
+  boast that we should in vain possess the instruments of the spear-makers;
+  but we, with this hand, slew this beast, and tore its limbs asunder.
+  Where is my aged father? let him come near; and where is my son Pentheus?
+  let him take and raise the ascent of a wattled ladder against the house,
+  that he may fasten to the triglyphs this head of the lion which I am
+  present having caught.</p>
+
+  <p>CAD. Follow me, bearing the miserable burden of Pentheus; follow me, O
+  servants, before the house; whose body here, laboring with immeasurable
+  search, I bear, having found it in the defiles of Cith�ron, torn to
+  pieces, and finding nothing in the same place, lying in a thicket,
+  difficult to be searched. For I heard from some one of the daring deeds
+  of my daughters just as I came to the city within the walls, with the old
+  Tiresias, concerning the Bacch�; and having returned again to the
+  mountain, I bring back my child, slain by the M�nads. And I saw Autonoe,
+  who formerly bore Act�on to Arist�us, and Ino together, still mad in the
+  thicket, unhappy creatures; but some one told me that Agave was coming
+  hither with frantic foot; nor did I hear a false tale, for I behold her,
+  an unhappy sight.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. O father! you may boast a great boast, that you of mortals have
+  begotten by far the best daughters; I mean all, but particularly myself,
+  who, leaving my shuttle at the loom, have come to greater things, to
+  catch wild beasts with my hands. And having taken him, I bear in my arms,
+  as you see, these spoils of my valor, that they may be suspended against
+  your house. And do you, O father, receive them in your hands; and
+  rejoicing over my successful capture, invite your friends to a feast; for
+  you are blessed, blessed since I have done such deeds.</p>
+
+  <p>CAD. O, woe! and not to be seen, of those who have accomplished a
+  slaughter not to be measured by wretched hands; having stricken down a
+  glorious victim for the Gods, you invite Thebes and me to a banquet. Alas
+  me, first for thy ills, then for mine own; how justly, but how severely,
+  has king Bromius destroyed us, being one of our own family!</p>
+
+  <p>AG. How morose is old age in men! and sullen to the eye; would that my
+  son may be fond of hunting, resembling the disposition of his mother,
+  when with the Theban youths he would strive after the beasts&mdash;but he
+  is only fit to contend with Gods. He is to be admonished, O father, by
+  you and me, not to rejoice in clever evil. Where is he? Who will summon
+  him hither to my sight, that he may see me, that happy woman?</p>
+
+  <p>CAD. Alas, alas! knowing what ye have done, ye will grieve a sad
+  grief; but if forever ye remain in the condition in which ye are, not
+  fortunate, you will seem not to be unfortunate.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. But what of these matters is not well, or what is grievous?</p>
+
+  <p>CAD. First cast your eyes up to this sky.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. Well; why do you bid me look at it?</p>
+
+  <p>CAD. Is it still the same, or think you it is changed?</p>
+
+  <p>AG. It is brighter than formerly, and more divine.</p>
+
+  <p>CAD. Is then this fluttering still present to your soul?</p>
+
+  <p>AG. I understand not your word; but I become somehow sobered, changing
+  from my former mind.</p>
+
+  <p>CAD. Can you then hear any thing, and answer clearly?</p>
+
+  <p>AG. How I forget what we said before, O father!</p>
+
+  <p>CAD. To what house did you come in marriage?</p>
+
+  <p>AG. You gave me, as they say, to the sown Echion.</p>
+
+  <p>CAD. What son then was born in your house to your husband?</p>
+
+  <p>AG. Pentheus, by the association of myself and his father.</p>
+
+  <p>CAD. Whose head then have you in your arms?</p>
+
+  <p>AG. That of a lion, as those who hunted him said.</p>
+
+  <p>CAD. Look now rightly; short is the toil to see.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. Ah! what do I see? what is this I bear in my hands?</p>
+
+  <p>CAD. Look at it, and learn more clearly.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. I see the greatest grief, wretch that I am!</p>
+
+  <p>CAD. Does it seem to you to be like a lion?</p>
+
+  <p>AG. No: but I, wretched, hold the head of Pentheus.</p>
+
+  <p>CAD. Ay, much lamented before you recognized him.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. Who slew him, how came he into my hands?</p>
+
+  <p>CAD. O wretched truth, how unseasonably art thou come!</p>
+
+  <p>AG. Tell me, since delay causes a quivering at my heart.</p>
+
+  <p>CAD. You and your sisters slew him.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. And where did he die, in the house, or in what place?</p>
+
+  <p>CAD. Where formerly the dogs tore Act�on to pieces.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. But why did he, unhappy, go to Cith�ron?</p>
+
+  <p>CAD. He went deriding the God and your Bacchic revels.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. But on what account did we go thither?</p>
+
+  <p>CAD. Ye were mad, and the whole city was frantic with Bacchus.<a
+  name="Ba_64"></a><a href="#BaN_64"><sup>[64]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>AG. Bacchus undid us&mdash;now I perceive.</p>
+
+  <p>CAD. Being insulted with insolence&mdash;for ye thought him not a
+  God.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. But the dear body of my child, O father!</p>
+
+  <p>CAD. I having with difficulty traced it, bring it all.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. What! rightly united in its joints? *&nbsp;*&nbsp;*&nbsp;*</p>
+
+  <p>AG. But what part had Pentheus in my folly?<a name="Ba_65"></a><a
+  href="#BaN_65"><sup>[65]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>CAD. He was like you, not reverencing the God, therefore he joined all
+  in one ruin, both ye and this one, so as to ruin the house, and me, who
+  being childless of male children, see this branch of thy womb, O unhappy
+  woman! most miserably and shamefully slain&mdash;whom the house
+  respected; you, O child, who supported my house, born of my daughter, and
+  was an object of fear to the city; and no one wished to insult the old
+  man, seeing you; for he would have received a worthy punishment. But now
+  I shall be cast out of my house dishonored, I, the mighty Cadmus, who
+  sowed the Theban race, and reaped a most glorious crop; O dearest of men,
+  for although no longer in being, still thou shalt be counted by me as
+  dearest of my children; no longer touching this, my chin, with thy hand,
+  addressing me, your mother's father, wilt thou embrace me, my son,
+  saying, Who injures, who insults you, O father, who harasses your heart,
+  being troublesome I say, that I may punish him who does you wrong, O
+  father. But now I am miserable, and thou art wretched, and thy mother is
+  pitiable, and thy relations are wretched. But if there is any one who
+  despises the Gods, looking on this man's death, let him acknowledge the
+  Gods.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. I grieve for thy state, O Cadmus; but your child has the
+  punishment of your daughter, deserved indeed, but grievous to you.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. O father, for you see how I am changed ...</p>
+
+  <p>BAC ... changing, you shall become a dragon, and your wife becoming a
+  beast, shall receive in exchange the form of a serpent, Harmonia, the
+  daughter of Mars, whom you had, being a mortal. And as the oracle of Jove
+  says, you shall drive with your wife a chariot of heifers, ruling over
+  barbarians; and with an innumerable army you shall sack many cities; and
+  when they plunder the temple of Apollo, they shall have a miserable
+  return, but Mars shall defend you and Harmonia, and shall settle your
+  life in the islands of the blessed. I say this, I, Bacchus, not born of a
+  mortal father, but of Jove; and if ye had known how to be wise when ye
+  would not, ye would have been happy, having the son of Jupiter for your
+  ally.</p>
+
+  <p>CAD. Bacchus, we beseech thee, we have erred.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. Ye have learned it too late; but when it behooved you, you knew
+  it not.</p>
+
+  <p>CAD. I knew it, but you press on us too severely.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. [Ay,] for I, being a God, was insulted by you.</p>
+
+  <p>CAD. It is not right for Gods to resemble mortals in anger.<a
+  name="Ba_66"></a><a href="#BaN_66"><sup>[66]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>BAC. My father, Jove, long ago decreed this.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. Alas! a miserable banishment is the decree<a name="Ba_67"></a><a
+  href="#BaN_67"><sup>[67]</sup></a> [for us,] old man.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. Why do ye then delay what must needs be?</p>
+
+  <p>CAD. O child, into what terrible evil have we come; both you wretched
+  and your *&nbsp;*&nbsp;*&nbsp;* sisters,<a name="Ba_68"></a><a
+  href="#BaN_68"><sup>[68]</sup></a> and I miserable, shall go, an aged
+  sojourner, to foreigners. Still it is foretold that I shall bring into
+  Greece a motley barbarian army, and leading their spears, I, a dragon,
+  shall lead the daughter of Mars, Harmonia, my wife, having the fierce
+  nature of a dragon, to the altars and tombs of the Greeks. Nor shall I,
+  wretched, rest from ills, nor even sailing over the Acheron below shall I
+  be at rest.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. O, my father! and I being deprived of you shall be banished.</p>
+
+  <p>CAD. Why do you embrace me with your hands, O unhappy child, as a
+  white swan does its exhausted<a name="Ba_69"></a><a
+  href="#BaN_69"><sup>[69]</sup></a> parent?</p>
+
+  <p>AG. For whither can I turn, cast out from my country?</p>
+
+  <p>CAD. I know not, my child; your father is a poor ally.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. Farewell, O house! farewell, O ancestral city! I leave you in
+  misfortune a fugitive from my chamber.</p>
+
+  <p>CAD. Go then, my child, to the land of Arist�us *&nbsp;*&nbsp;*&nbsp;*.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. I bemoan thee, O father!</p>
+
+  <p>CAD. And I thee, my child; and I lament your sisters.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. Terribly indeed has king Bacchus brought this misery upon thy
+  house.</p>
+
+  <p>BAC. [Ay,] for I have suffered terrible things from ye, having a name
+  unhonored in Thebes.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. Farewell, my father.</p>
+
+  <p>CAD. And you farewell, O miserable daughter; yet you can not easily
+  arrive at this.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. Lead me, O guides, where I may take my miserable sisters as the
+  companions of my flight; and may I go where neither accursed Cith�ron may
+  see me, nor I may see Cith�ron with my eyes, and where there is no memory
+  of the thyrsus hallowed, but they may be a care to other Bacch�.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. There are many forms of divine things; and the Gods bring to
+  pass many in an unexpected manner: both what has been expected has not
+  been accomplished, and God has found out a means for doing things
+  unthought of. So, too, has this event turned out.<a name="Ba_70"></a><a
+  href="#BaN_70"><sup>[70]</sup></a></p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h3>NOTES ON THE BACCH�</h3>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+<div class="note">
+  <p><a name="BaN_1"></a><a href="#Ba_1">[1]</a> For illustrations of the
+  fable of this play, compare Hyginus, Fab. clxxxiv., who evidently has a
+  view to Euripides. Ovid, Metam. iii. fab. v. Oppian, Cyneg. iv. 241 sqq.
+  Nonnus, 45, p. 765 sq. and 46, p. 783 sqq., some of whose imitations I
+  shall mention in my notes. With the opening speech of this play compare
+  the similar one of Venus in the Hippolytus.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_2"></a><a href="#Ba_2">[2]</a> Cf. vs. 176; and for the
+  musical instruments employed in the Bacchanalian rites, vs. 125 sqq.
+  Oppian, Cyn. iv. 243. <span lang="el" title="nebrisi d' amphebalonto, kai
+  estepsanto korymbois, En spe�, kai peri paida to mystikon �rch�santo.
+  Tympana d' ektypeon, kai kymbala chersi
+  krotainon">&#x3BD;&#x3B5;&#x3B2;&#x3C1;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3B9; &#x3B4;'
+  &#x3B1;&#x3BC;&#x3C6;&#x3B5;&#x3B2;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;,
+  &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3B5;&#x3C3;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3C8;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;
+  &#x3BA;&#x3BF;&#x3C1;&#x3C5;&#x3BC;&#x3B2;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;,
+  &#x395;&#x3BD; &#x3C3;&#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3CA;, &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3B9; &#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3B4;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3BF; &#x3BC;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3C4;&#x3B9;&#x3BA;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3C9;&#x3C1;&#x3C7;&#x3B7;&#x3C3;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;.
+  &#x3A4;&#x3C5;&#x3BC;&#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3B1; &#x3B4;'
+  &#x3B5;&#x3BA;&#x3C4;&#x3C5;&#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;,
+  &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9; &#x3BA;&#x3C5;&#x3BC;&#x3B2;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3C7;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3BA;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span>.
+  Compare Gorius, Monum. Libert. et Serv. ad Tab. vii. p. 15 sq.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_3"></a><a href="#Ba_3">[3]</a> Such is the sense of <span
+  lang="el"
+  title="synapsomai">&#x3C3;&#x3C5;&#x3BD;&#x3B1;&#x3C8;&#x3BF;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;</span>,
+  <span lang="el" title="mach�n">&#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3C7;&#x3B7;&#x3BD;</span>
+  being understood. See Matthi�.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_4"></a><a href="#Ba_4">[4]</a> Drums and cymbals were
+  invented by the Goddess in order to drown the cries of the infant
+  Jupiter. Minutius Felix, xxi. "Avido patri subtrahitur infans ne voretur,
+  et Corybantum cymbalis, ne pater audiat, vagitus initus eliditur" (read
+  <i>audiat vagitus, tinnitus illi editur</i>, from the <i>vestigia</i> of
+  Cod. Reg.). Cf. Lactant. i. 13.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_5"></a><a href="#Ba_5">[5]</a> Cf. Homer, Hymn. in Cerer.
+  485. <span lang="el" title="olbios, hos tad' op�pen epichthoni�n
+  anthr�p�n: Hos d' atel�s, hier�n host' ammoros, oupoth' homoi�n Aisan
+  echei, phthimenos per, hypo zoph�i
+  eur�enti">&#x3BF;&#x3BB;&#x3B2;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;,
+  &#x201B;&#x3BF;&#x3C2; &#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3B4;'
+  &#x3BF;&#x3C0;&#x3C9;&#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B5;&#x3C0;&#x3B9;&#x3C7;&#x3B8;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3B9;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3B8;&#x3C1;&#x3C9;&#x3C0;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;:
+  &#x201B;&#x39F;&#x3C2; &#x3B4;'
+  &#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3BB;&#x3B7;&#x3C2;,
+  &#x201B;&#x3B9;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x201B;&#x3BF;&#x3C3;&#x3C4;'
+  &#x3B1;&#x3BC;&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;,
+  &#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3B8;'
+  &#x201B;&#x3BF;&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x391;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3B1;&#x3BD; &#x3B5;&#x3C7;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;,
+  &#x3C6;&#x3B8;&#x3B9;&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;, &#x201B;&#x3C5;&#x3C0;&#x3BF;
+  &#x3B6;&#x3BF;&#x3C6;&#x3C9;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3B5;&#x3C5;&#x3C1;&#x3C9;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3B9;</span>. See
+  Ruhnken's note, and Valck. on Eur. Hippol.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_6"></a><a href="#Ba_6">[6]</a> This passage is extremely
+  difficult. <span lang="el"
+  title="Plokam�n">&#x3A0;&#x3BB;&#x3BF;&#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3BC;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;</span>
+  seems decidedly corrupt. Reiske would read <span lang="el"
+  title="pokad�n">&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B4;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;</span>,
+  Musgrave <span lang="el" title="leukotrich�n plokamois
+  mall�n">&#x3BB;&#x3B5;&#x3C5;&#x3BA;&#x3BF;&#x3C4;&#x3C1;&#x3B9;&#x3C7;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3BB;&#x3BF;&#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3BB;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;</span>. Elmsley would
+  substitute <span lang="el"
+  title="probat�n">&#x3C0;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3B2;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;</span>,
+  "si <span lang="el"
+  title="probaton">&#x3C0;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3B2;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span>
+  apud Euripidem exstaret." This seems the most probable view as yet
+  expressed. The <span lang="el" title="eriosteptoi
+  kladoi">&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3C3;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3C0;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3BA;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3B4;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;</span> are learnedly explained
+  by Lobeck on Ag. p. 375 sq., quoted by Dindorf. The <span lang="el"
+  title="mall�sis">&#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3BB;&#x3C9;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;</span>
+  or insertion of spots of party-colored fur upon the plain skin of
+  animals, was a favorite ornament of the wealthy. The spots of ermine
+  similarly used now are the clearest illustration to which I can point.
+  Lobeck also observes, "<span lang="el" title="kata
+  bakchiousthai">&#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3B2;&#x3B1;&#x3BA;&#x3C7;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3B8;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;</span>
+  non bacchari significat, sed coronari."</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_7"></a><a href="#Ba_7">[7]</a> These ladies seem to have
+  been rather undomestic in character, as Agave makes this very fact a
+  boast, vs. 1236.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_8"></a><a href="#Ba_8">[8]</a> Cf. Apollodor. l. i., � 3,
+  interpp. ad Virg. G. iv. 152. Compare Porphyr. de Nymph. Antr. p. 262,
+  ad. Holst. <span lang="el" title="sp�laia toinyn kai antra t�n
+  palaiotat�n prin kai naous epino�sai theois aphosiount�n. kai en Kr�t�i
+  men kour�t�n, Di� en Arkadiai de, sel�n�i kai Pani Lykei�i: kai en Nax�i
+  Dionys�i. pantachou d' hopou ton Mithran egn�san, dia sp�laiou ton theon
+  hileoumen�n">&#x3C3;&#x3C0;&#x3B7;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;&#x3C5;&#x3BD; &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3C1;&#x3B1; &#x3C4;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3C1;&#x3B9;&#x3BD; &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3BD;&#x3B1;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B5;&#x3C0;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3B7;&#x3C3;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3B8;&#x3B5;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B1;&#x3C6;&#x3BF;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;.
+  &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9; &#x3B5;&#x3BD;
+  &#x39A;&#x3C1;&#x3B7;&#x3C4;&#x3B7;&#x3B9; &#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3BA;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C1;&#x3B7;&#x3C4;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;,
+  &#x394;&#x3B9;&#x3CA; &#x3B5;&#x3BD;
+  &#x391;&#x3C1;&#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B4;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;&#x3B9; &#x3B4;&#x3B5;,
+  &#x3C3;&#x3B5;&#x3BB;&#x3B7;&#x3BD;&#x3B7;&#x3B9; &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3A0;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3B9;
+  &#x39B;&#x3C5;&#x3BA;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C9;&#x3B9;: &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3B5;&#x3BD; &#x39D;&#x3B1;&#x3BE;&#x3C9;&#x3B9;
+  &#x394;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3C9;&#x3B9;.
+  &#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3C7;&#x3BF;&#x3C5; &#x3B4;'
+  &#x201B;&#x3BF;&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3C5; &#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;
+  &#x39C;&#x3B9;&#x3B8;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B5;&#x3B3;&#x3BD;&#x3C9;&#x3C3;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;, &#x3B4;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3C3;&#x3C0;&#x3B7;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3BD; &#x3B8;&#x3B5;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;
+  &#x201B;&#x3B9;&#x3BB;&#x3B5;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;</span>.
+  Cf. Moll. ad Longi Past. i. 2. p. 22 sq. ed. Boden.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_9"></a><a href="#Ba_9">[9]</a> Cf. Virg. �n. iv. 301, and
+  Ritterh. on Oppian, Cyn. i, 24.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_10"></a><a href="#Ba_10">[10]</a> Compare the epithet of
+  Bacchus <span lang="el"
+  title="�madios">&#x3A9;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3B4;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span>,
+  Orph. Hymn. xxx. 5; l. 7, which has been wrongly explained by Gesner and
+  Hermann. The true interpretation is given by Porphyr. de Abst. ii. 55,
+  who states that human sacrifices were offered <span lang="el"
+  title="�madi�i
+  Dionys�i">&#x3C9;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3B4;&#x3B9;&#x3C9;&#x3B9;
+  &#x394;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3C9;&#x3B9;</span> the man
+  being torn to pieces (<span lang="el"
+  title="diaap�ntes">&#x3B4;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;&#x3B1;&#x3C0;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3C2;</span>).</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_11"></a><a href="#Ba_11">[11]</a> Persius i. 92. "et
+  lynceus M�nas flexura corymbis Evion ingeminat, reparabilis assonat
+  Echo." Euseb. Pr. Ev. ii. 3, derives the cry from Eve!</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_12"></a><a href="#Ba_12">[12]</a> I should read this line
+  interrogatively, with Elmsley.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_13"></a><a href="#Ba_13">[13]</a> Quoted by Gellius,
+  xiii. 18.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_14"></a><a href="#Ba_14">[14]</a> Elmsley would read
+  <span lang="el" title="makron to
+  mellon">&#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3BA;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3BD; &#x3C4;&#x3BF;
+  &#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3BB;&#x3BB;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span>. Perhaps the true
+  reading is <span lang="el" title="mellein
+  akairon">&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3BB;&#x3BB;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B1;&#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span> = <i>it is no
+  season for delay</i>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_15"></a><a href="#Ba_15">[15]</a> The construction is so
+  completely akward, that I almost feel inclined to consider this verse as
+  an interpolation, with Dindorf.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_16"></a><a href="#Ba_16">[16]</a> Compare Nonnus, 45. p.
+  765 4. <span lang="el" title="Teiresian kai Kadmon atasthalon iache
+  Pentheus. Kadme, ti margaineis, tini daimoni k�mon egeireis; Kadme,
+  miainomen�s apokattheo kisson etheir�s, Kattheo kai nartheka nooplaneos
+  Dionysou.... N�pie Teiresia stephan�phore rhipson a�tais S�n plokam�n
+  tade phylla nothon stephos,
+  k.t.l.">&#x3A4;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C1;&#x3B5;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9; &#x39A;&#x3B1;&#x3B4;&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3C3;&#x3B8;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B9;&#x3B1;&#x3C7;&#x3B5;
+  &#x3A0;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3B8;&#x3B5;&#x3C5;&#x3C2;.
+  &#x39A;&#x3B1;&#x3B4;&#x3BC;&#x3B5;, &#x3C4;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3C1;&#x3B3;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;,
+  &#x3C4;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3B4;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3BA;&#x3C9;&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B5;&#x3B3;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C1;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;;
+  &#x39A;&#x3B1;&#x3B4;&#x3BC;&#x3B5;,
+  &#x3BC;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3B7;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B1;&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3B8;&#x3B5;&#x3BF;
+  &#x3BA;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3C3;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B5;&#x3B8;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C1;&#x3B7;&#x3C2;,
+  &#x39A;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3B8;&#x3B5;&#x3BF; &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3BD;&#x3B1;&#x3C1;&#x3B8;&#x3B5;&#x3BA;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3BF;&#x3C0;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3B5;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;
+  &#x394;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;....
+  &#x39D;&#x3B7;&#x3C0;&#x3B9;&#x3B5;
+  &#x3A4;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C1;&#x3B5;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3C3;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3C6;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3B7;&#x3C6;&#x3BF;&#x3C1;&#x3B5;
+  &#x201B;&#x3C1;&#x3B9;&#x3C8;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B1;&#x3B7;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3C2; &#x3A3;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3BB;&#x3BF;&#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3BC;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3B4;&#x3B5; &#x3C6;&#x3C5;&#x3BB;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3B8;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3C3;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3C6;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;,
+  &#x3BA;.&#x3C4;.&#x3BB;.</span></p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_17"></a><a href="#Ba_17">[17]</a> Compare the opinion of
+  Perseus in Cicero de N.D. i. 15, with Minutius Felix, xxi.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_18"></a><a href="#Ba_18">[18]</a> Pseud-Orpheus Hymn. l.
+  6. <span lang="el" title="pausiponon thn�toisi phaneis
+  akos.">&#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B8;&#x3BD;&#x3B7;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3C6;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B1;&#x3BA;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;.</span></p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_19"></a><a href="#Ba_19">[19]</a> Dindorf truly says that
+  this passage smacks rather of Proclus, than of Euripides, and I agree
+  with him that its spuriousness is more than probable. Had Euripides
+  designed an etymological quibble, he would probably have made some
+  allusion to Merus, a mountain of India, where Bacchus is said to have
+  been brought up. See Curtius, viii. 10. "Sita est sub radicibus montis,
+  quem Meron incol� appellant. Inde Gr�ci mentiendi traxere licentiam,
+  Jovis femine liberum patrem esse celatum." Cf. Eustath. on Dionys.
+  Perieg. 1159. Lucian. Dial. Deor. ix. and Hermann on Orph. Hymn. lii.
+  3.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_20"></a><a href="#Ba_20">[20]</a> The gift of <span
+  lang="el"
+  title="mantik�">&#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3B9;&#x3BA;&#x3B7;</span>
+  was supposed to follow initiation, and is often joined with the rites of
+  this deity. Philostratus, Heroic. p. 22, ed. Boiss. <span lang="el"
+  title="hote d� kai mantik�s sophias emphorountai, kai to chr�sm�des
+  autais prosbakcheuei.">&#x201B;&#x3BF;&#x3C4;&#x3B5; &#x3B4;&#x3B7;
+  &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3B9;&#x3BA;&#x3B7;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3C3;&#x3BF;&#x3C6;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B5;&#x3BC;&#x3C6;&#x3BF;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;,
+  &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9; &#x3C4;&#x3BF;
+  &#x3C7;&#x3C1;&#x3B7;&#x3C3;&#x3BC;&#x3C9;&#x3B4;&#x3B5;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B1;&#x3C5;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3C3;&#x3B2;&#x3B1;&#x3BA;&#x3C7;&#x3B5;&#x3C5;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;.</span></p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_21"></a><a href="#Ba_21">[21]</a> Cf. Hippol. 443. <span
+  lang="el" title="Kypris gar ou phor�ton �n poll�
+  rhy�i">&#x39A;&#x3C5;&#x3C0;&#x3C1;&#x3B9;&#x3C2; &#x3B3;&#x3B1;&#x3C1;
+  &#x3BF;&#x3C5; &#x3C6;&#x3BF;&#x3C1;&#x3B7;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B7;&#x3BD; &#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3BB;&#x3BB;&#x3B7;
+  &#x201B;&#x3C1;&#x3C5;&#x3B7;&#x3B9;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_22"></a><a href="#Ba_22">[22]</a> I have followed
+  Matthi�'s interpretation of this passage.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_23"></a><a href="#Ba_23">[23]</a> See Hermann's note.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_24"></a><a href="#Ba_24">[24]</a> The fate of Act�on is
+  often joined with that of Pentheus.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_25"></a><a href="#Ba_25">[25]</a> i.e. over-cunning in
+  regard to religious matters. Cf. 200. <span lang="el" title="ouden
+  sophizomestha toisi daimosin">&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3B4;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3C3;&#x3BF;&#x3C6;&#x3B9;&#x3B6;&#x3BF;&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3C3;&#x3B8;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3B4;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_26"></a><a href="#Ba_26">[26]</a> Probably a mere
+  hyperbole to denote great fruitfulness. See Elmsley.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_27"></a><a href="#Ba_27">[27]</a> Cf. Hor. Od. iii. 21,
+  20.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_28"></a><a href="#Ba_28">[28]</a> I follow Dindorf in
+  reading <span lang="el" title="sopha d'">&#x3C3;&#x3BF;&#x3C6;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3B4;'</span>, but am scarcely satisfied.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_29"></a><a href="#Ba_29">[29]</a> Hence his epithet of
+  Bacchus <span lang="el"
+  title="Nyktelios">&#x39D;&#x3C5;&#x3BA;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3BB;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span>.
+  See Herm. on Orph. Hymn. xlix. 3.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_30"></a><a href="#Ba_30">[30]</a> See my note on �sch.
+  Choeph. 7.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_31"></a><a href="#Ba_31">[31]</a> Cf Person Advers. p.
+  265. Hor. Ep. i. 16. 73 "Vir bonus et sapiens audebit dicere Pentheu,
+  Rector Thebarum, quid me perferre patique Indignum coges? Adima bona,
+  nempe pecus, rem, Lectos, argentum: tollas licet. In manicis et
+  Compedibus s�vo te sub custode tenebo. Ipse deus, simul atque volam, me
+  solvet. Opinor, Hoc sentit: moriar. Mors ultima linea rerum est."</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_32"></a><a href="#Ba_32">[32]</a> Punning on <span
+  lang="el"
+  title="penthos">&#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3B8;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span>,
+  <i>grief</i>. Cf. Arist. Rhet. ii. 23, 29.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_33"></a><a href="#Ba_33">[33]</a> i.e. of Parnassus.
+  Elmsley (after Stanl. on �sch. Eum. 22.) remarks that <span lang="el"
+  title="K�rykis petra">&#x39A;&#x3C9;&#x3C1;&#x3C5;&#x3BA;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3C4;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;</span> means the Corycian cave in
+  Parnassus, <span lang="el" title="K�rykiai
+  koryphai">&#x39A;&#x3C9;&#x3C1;&#x3C5;&#x3BA;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3BA;&#x3BF;&#x3C1;&#x3C5;&#x3C6;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;</span>, the heights of
+  Parnassus.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_34"></a><a href="#Ba_34">[34]</a> Hermann and Dindorf
+  correct <span lang="el"
+  title="Loidian">&#x39B;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3B4;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;</span>
+  from Herodot. vii. 127.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_35"></a><a href="#Ba_35">[35]</a> The earth and buildings
+  were supposed to shake at the presence of a deity. Cf. Callimach. Hymn.
+  Apol. sub init. Virg. �n. iii. 90; vi. 255. For the present instance
+  Nonnus, 45. p. 751.</p>
+
+  <div class="poem">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <p><span lang="el" title="�d� d' autoeliktos eseieto Pentheos aul�,">&#x3B7;&#x3B4;&#x3B7; &#x3B4;' &#x3B1;&#x3C5;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3B5;&#x3BB;&#x3B9;&#x3BA;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C2; &#x3B5;&#x3C3;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3B5;&#x3C4;&#x3BF; &#x3A0;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3B8;&#x3B5;&#x3BF;&#x3C2; &#x3B1;&#x3C5;&#x3BB;&#x3B7;,</span>&nbsp;</p>
+      <p><span lang="el" title="akline�n sphair�don ana�ssousa themethl�n,">&#x3B1;&#x3BA;&#x3BB;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;&#x3B5;&#x3C9;&#x3BD; &#x3C3;&#x3C6;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3C1;&#x3B7;&#x3B4;&#x3BF;&#x3BD; &#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3B1;&#x3CA;&#x3C3;&#x3C3;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3B1; &#x3B8;&#x3B5;&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3B8;&#x3BB;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;,</span>&nbsp;</p>
+      <p><span lang="el" title="kai pole�n dedon�to thor�n enosichthoni palm�i">&#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9; &#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3BB;&#x3B5;&#x3C9;&#x3BD; &#x3B4;&#x3B5;&#x3B4;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3B7;&#x3C4;&#x3BF; &#x3B8;&#x3BF;&#x3C1;&#x3C9;&#x3BD; &#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;&#x3C7;&#x3B8;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3B9; &#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3BC;&#x3C9;&#x3B9;</span>&nbsp;</p>
+      <p><span lang="el" title="p�matos essomenoio proangelos.">&#x3C0;&#x3B7;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C2; &#x3B5;&#x3C3;&#x3C3;&#x3BF;&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3BF; &#x3C0;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3B1;&#x3B3;&#x3B3;&#x3B5;&#x3BB;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;.</span>&nbsp;</p>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+  <p><a name="BaN_36"></a><a href="#Ba_36">[36]</a> The madness of Ajax led
+  to a similar delusion. Cf. Soph. Aj. 56 sqq.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_37"></a><a href="#Ba_37">[37]</a> Compare a fragment of
+  Didymus apud Macrob. Sat. v. 18, who states <span lang="el"
+  title="Achel�on pan hyd�r Euripid�s ph�sin en
+  Hypsipyl�i">&#x391;&#x3C7;&#x3B5;&#x3BB;&#x3C9;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3BD; &#x201B;&#x3C5;&#x3B4;&#x3C9;&#x3C1;
+  &#x395;&#x3C5;&#x3C1;&#x3B9;&#x3C0;&#x3B9;&#x3B4;&#x3B7;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3C6;&#x3B7;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;&#x3BD; &#x3B5;&#x3BD;
+  &#x201B;&#x3A5;&#x3C8;&#x3B9;&#x3C0;&#x3C5;&#x3BB;&#x3B7;&#x3B9;</span>.
+  See also comm. on Virg. Georg. i. 9.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_38"></a><a href="#Ba_38">[38]</a> The reader of Scott
+  will call to mind the fine description of Ireton lunging at the air, in a
+  paroxysm of fanatic raving. See "Woodstock." So also Orestes in Iph.
+  Taur. 296 sqq.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_39"></a><a href="#Ba_39">[39]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="aneisan">&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;</span>,
+  <i>solvuntur, liquescunt.</i> BRODEUS.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_40"></a><a href="#Ba_40">[40]</a> Cf. Soph Ant. 243
+  sqq.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_41"></a><a href="#Ba_41">[41]</a> These two cities were
+  in ruins in the time of Pausanias. See ix. 3. p. 714, ed. Kuhn.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_42"></a><a href="#Ba_42">[42]</a> Cf. Athen�us, p. 40. B.
+  Terent. Eun. iv. 5. "Sine Cerere et Libero friget Venus." Apul Met. ii.
+  p. 119, ed. Elm. "Ecce, inquam, Veneris hortator et armiger Liber advenit
+  ultro," where see Pric�us.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_43"></a><a href="#Ba_43">[43]</a> More literally,
+  perhaps, "keep it and be thankful."</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_44"></a><a href="#Ba_44">[44]</a> Theocrit. i. 40. <span
+  lang="el" title="mega diktyon es bolon
+  helkei">&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3B3;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3B4;&#x3B9;&#x3BA;&#x3C4;&#x3C5;&#x3BF;&#x3BD; &#x3B5;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B2;&#x3BF;&#x3BB;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;
+  &#x201B;&#x3B5;&#x3BB;&#x3BA;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_45"></a><a href="#Ba_45">[45]</a> But <span lang="el"
+  title="ek t�n apeil�n">&#x3B5;&#x3BA; &#x3C4;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B1;&#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3BB;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;</span> conveys a notion
+  of change = <i>instead of</i>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_46"></a><a href="#Ba_46">[46]</a> Elmsley remarks that
+  <span lang="el"
+  title="anthr�poisi">&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3B8;&#x3C1;&#x3C9;&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;</span>
+  belongs to both members of the sentence. I have therefore supplied. The
+  sense may be illustrated from Hippol. 5 sq.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_47"></a><a href="#Ba_47">[47]</a> See Matthi�.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_48"></a><a href="#Ba_48">[48]</a> i.e. step. This is
+  ridiculed by Aristoph. Ran. 100, where the Scholiast quotes a similar
+  example from our author's Alexandra.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_49"></a><a href="#Ba_49">[49]</a> Compare Havercamp on
+  Lucret. ii. sub init.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_50"></a><a href="#Ba_50">[50]</a> Compare Virgil, �n. iv.
+  469. "Et solem geminum, et duplices se ostendere Thebas." In the second
+  passage of Clemens Alexandrinus quoted by Elmsley, <span lang="el"
+  title="ger�n">&#x3B3;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;</span> is probably a
+  mistaken reference to Tiresias.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_51"></a><a href="#Ba_51">[51]</a> An obscure hint at the
+  impending fate of Pentheus. Nonnus has led the way to the catastrophe by
+  a graphic description of Agave's dream. Dionys. 45. p. 751.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_52"></a><a href="#Ba_52">[52]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="pheromenos">&#x3C6;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span>
+  may mean either "carried in a litter," or "carried to burial." There is a
+  somewhat similar play in the epigram of Ausonius, xxiii. "Mater Lac�na
+  clypeo obarmans filium, cum hoc, inquit, aut in hoc, redi."</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_53"></a><a href="#Ba_53">[53]</a> Burges more rightly
+  reads <span lang="el" title="matros te
+  Gas">&#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3C2; &#x3C4;&#x3B5;
+  &#x393;&#x3B1;&#x3C2;</span>. See Elmsley's note.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_54"></a><a href="#Ba_54">[54]</a> As one must make some
+  translation, I have done my best with this passage, which is, however,
+  utterly unintelligible in Dindorf's text. A reference to his selection of
+  notes will furnish some new readings, but, as a whole, quite
+  unsatisfactory.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_55"></a><a href="#Ba_55">[55]</a> Compare the parallel
+  account in Nonnus, 46. p. 784.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_56"></a><a href="#Ba_56">[56]</a> Alluded to by Oppian,
+  Cyn. iv. 300. <span lang="el" title="apte selas phlogeron patr�ion, an d'
+  elel�xon Daian, atart�ron d' opason tisin �ka
+  tyrannou">&#x3B1;&#x3C0;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;
+  &#x3C3;&#x3B5;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3C6;&#x3BB;&#x3BF;&#x3B3;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3C1;&#x3C9;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;, &#x3B1;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B4;' &#x3B5;&#x3BB;&#x3B5;&#x3BB;&#x3B7;&#x3BE;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;
+  &#x394;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;,
+  &#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3C1;&#x3C4;&#x3B7;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3BD; &#x3B4;'
+  &#x3BF;&#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3C3;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;&#x3BD; &#x3C9;&#x3BA;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3C5;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;</span>. He then
+  relates that Pentheus was transformed into a bull, the M�nads into
+  panthers, who tore him to pieces.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_57"></a><a href="#Ba_57">[57]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="stochos">&#x3C3;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C7;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span> is
+  either the aim itself, or the mark aimed at, as in this passage, and
+  Xenoph. Ages. 1. 25.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_58"></a><a href="#Ba_58">[58]</a> I have done my best
+  with this extraordinary expression, of which Elmsley quotes another
+  example from Archilochus Fragm. 36. Perhaps the notion of excessive
+  rapidity is intended to be expressed.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_59"></a><a href="#Ba_59">[59]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="th�r">&#x3B8;&#x3B7;&#x3C1;</span> seems metaphorically said, as
+  in �sch. Eum. 47. Nonnus, 45. p. 784, 23. above, 922.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_60"></a><a href="#Ba_60">[60]</a> Compare Nonnus, 46. p.
+  784.</p>
+
+  <div class="poem">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <p><span lang="el" title="Kai tote min lipe lyssa noosphaleos Dionysou,">&#x39A;&#x3B1;&#x3B9; &#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C4;&#x3B5; &#x3BC;&#x3B9;&#x3BD; &#x3BB;&#x3B9;&#x3C0;&#x3B5; &#x3BB;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3C3;&#x3B1; &#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3BF;&#x3C3;&#x3C6;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3B5;&#x3BF;&#x3C2; &#x394;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;,</span>&nbsp;</p>
+      <p><span lang="el" title="kai proteras phrenas esche to deuteron: amphi de gai�i">&#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9; &#x3C0;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3C2; &#x3C6;&#x3C1;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3B1;&#x3C2; &#x3B5;&#x3C3;&#x3C7;&#x3B5; &#x3C4;&#x3BF; &#x3B4;&#x3B5;&#x3C5;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;: &#x3B1;&#x3BC;&#x3C6;&#x3B9; &#x3B4;&#x3B5; &#x3B3;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3B7;&#x3B9;</span>&nbsp;</p>
+      <p><span lang="el" title="geitona potmon ech�n kenyr�n ephthenxato ph�n�n.">&#x3B3;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3B1; &#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3C4;&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3BD; &#x3B5;&#x3C7;&#x3C9;&#x3BD; &#x3BA;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3C5;&#x3C1;&#x3B7;&#x3BD; &#x3B5;&#x3C6;&#x3B8;&#x3B5;&#x3B3;&#x3BE;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3BF; &#x3C6;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;&#x3B7;&#x3BD;.</span>&nbsp;</p>
+      <p>*&nbsp;*&nbsp;*&nbsp;*&nbsp;*&nbsp;*</p>
+      <p><span lang="el" title="m�ter em� dysm�ter ap�neos iocheo lyss�s,">&#x3BC;&#x3B7;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3C1; &#x3B5;&#x3BC;&#x3B7; &#x3B4;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3BC;&#x3B7;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3C1; &#x3B1;&#x3C0;&#x3B7;&#x3BD;&#x3B5;&#x3BF;&#x3C2; &#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3C7;&#x3B5;&#x3BF; &#x3BB;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3C3;&#x3B7;&#x3C2;,</span>&nbsp;</p>
+      <p><span lang="el" title="th�ra pothen kaleeis me ton hyiea.">&#x3B8;&#x3B7;&#x3C1;&#x3B1; &#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3B8;&#x3B5;&#x3BD; &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3B5;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C2; &#x3BC;&#x3B5; &#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3BD; &#x201B;&#x3C5;&#x3B9;&#x3B5;&#x3B1;.</span>&nbsp;</p>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+  <p>The whole passage is very elegant, and even pathetic.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_61"></a><a href="#Ba_61">[61]</a> Alluding to the horns
+  of Bacchus. Cf. Sidon. Apoll. Burg. Pontii Leontii, vs. 26, "Caput ardua
+  rumpunt Cornua, et indigenam jaculantur fulminis ignem." See some
+  whimsical reasons for this in Isidor. Origg viii. 2. Albricus de Deor.
+  Nu. xix. But compare above, vs. 920. <span lang="el" title="Kai tauros
+  h�min prosthen h�geisthai dokeis, kai s�i kerate krati
+  prospephykenai">&#x39A;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3C5;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;
+  &#x201B;&#x3B7;&#x3BC;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3C3;&#x3B8;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;
+  &#x201B;&#x3B7;&#x3B3;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3B8;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3B4;&#x3BF;&#x3BA;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;, &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3C3;&#x3C9;&#x3B9; &#x3BA;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;
+  &#x3BA;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3C3;&#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3C6;&#x3C5;&#x3BA;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_62"></a><a href="#Ba_62">[62]</a> Elmsley has rightly
+  shown that <span lang="el"
+  title="helika">&#x201B;&#x3B5;&#x3BB;&#x3B9;&#x3BA;&#x3B1;</span> could
+  not of itself mean "a bull" or "heifer," although Homer has <span
+  lang="el" title="eilipodas helikas
+  bous">&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3BB;&#x3B9;&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3B4;&#x3B1;&#x3C2;
+  &#x201B;&#x3B5;&#x3BB;&#x3B9;&#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B2;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C2;</span>. I have therefore followed Hermann,
+  who remarks, "<span lang="el"
+  title="helix">&#x201B;&#x3B5;&#x3BB;&#x3B9;&#x3BE;</span> seems properly
+  to be meant for the clusters of ivy with which the thyrsus was entwined.
+  Hence Agave says that she adorns the thyrsus with a new-fashioned wreath,
+  viz. the head of her son." Such language is, however, more like the
+  proverbial boldness of �schylus, than the even style of our poet.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_63"></a><a href="#Ba_63">[63]</a> "<span lang="el"
+  title="korytha">&#x3BA;&#x3BF;&#x3C1;&#x3C5;&#x3B8;&#x3B1;</span>,
+  ornamentum capitis, vix potest dubitari quin pro ipso capite posuerit."
+  HERMANN. There is considerable variation in the manner in which the
+  following lines are disposed.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_64"></a><a href="#Ba_64">[64]</a> Or, "Bacchus-mad."</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_65"></a><a href="#Ba_65">[65]</a> I have marked a lacuna
+  with Dindorf.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_66"></a><a href="#Ba_66">[66]</a> See the commentators on
+  Virg. �n. i. 11. "Tant�ne animis c&#339;lestibus ir�?"</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_67"></a><a href="#Ba_67">[67]</a> After <span lang="el"
+  title="tl�mones
+  phygai">&#x3C4;&#x3BB;&#x3B7;&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3B5;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3C6;&#x3C5;&#x3B3;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;</span> supply <span lang="el"
+  title="menousin">&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;</span>.
+  ELMSLEY.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_68"></a><a href="#Ba_68">[68]</a> A word is wanting to
+  complete the verse.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_69"></a><a href="#Ba_69">[69]</a> See Musgrave. Cranes
+  are chiefly celebrated for parental affection.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="BaN_70"></a><a href="#Ba_70">[70]</a> These verses are found
+  at the ends of no less than four others of our author's plays, viz.
+  Andromacha, Helen, Medea, and Alcestis.</p>
+
+</div>
+<hr class="full" />
+
+<a name="HERACLIDAE"></a>
+<h2>THE HERACLID�.</h2>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+<h3>PERSONS REPRESENTED.</h3>
+
+  <div class="personae">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <p>IOLAUS.</p>
+      <p>COPREUS.*</p>
+      <p>CHORUS.</p>
+      <p>DEMOPHOON.</p>
+      <p>APOLLO.</p>
+      <p>MACARIA.*</p>
+      <p>SERVANT.</p>
+      <p>ALCMENA.</p>
+      <p>MESSENGER.</p>
+      <p>EURYSTHEUS.</p>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+  <p><i>Note</i>.&mdash;The names of Copreus and Macaria were wanting in
+  the MSS., but have been supplied from the mythologists. See Elmsley on
+  vss. 49 and 474.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h3>THE ARGUMENT.</h3>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+  <p>Iolaus, son of Iphiclus, and nephew of Hercules, whom he had joined in
+  his expeditions during his youth, in his old age protected his sons. For
+  the sons of Hercules having been driven out of every part of Greece by
+  Eurystheus, he came with them to Athens; and, embracing the altars of the
+  Gods, was safe, Demophoon being king of the city; and when Copreus, the
+  herald of Eurystheus, wished to remove the suppliants, he prevented him.
+  Upon this he departed, threatening war. Demophoon despised him; but
+  hearing the oracles promise him victory if he sacrificed the most noble
+  Athenian virgin to Ceres, he was grieved; not wishing to slay either his
+  own daughter, or that of any citizen, for the sake of the suppliants. But
+  Macaria, one of the daughters of Hercules, hearing of the prediction,
+  willingly devoted herself. They honored her for her noble death, and,
+  knowing that their enemies were at hand, went forth to battle. The play
+  ends with their victory, and the capture of Eurystheus.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2>THE HERACLID�.</h2>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+<p class="center">IOLAUS.</p>
+
+  <p>This has long since been my established opinion, the just man is born
+  for his neighbors; but he who has a mind bent upon gain is both useless
+  to the city and disagreeable to deal with, but best for himself. And I
+  know this, not having learned it by word of mouth; for I, through shame,
+  and reverencing the ties of kindred, when it was in my power to dwell
+  quietly in Argos, partook of more of Hercules' labors, while he was with
+  us, than any one man besides:<a name="Heraclid_1"></a><a
+  href="#HeraclidN_1"><sup>[1]</sup></a> and now that he dwells in heaven,
+  keeping these his children under my wings, I preserve them, I myself
+  being in want of safety. For since their father was removed from the
+  earth, first Eurystheus wished to kill me, but I escaped; and my country
+  indeed is no more, but my life is saved, and I wander in exile, migrating
+  from one city to another. For, in addition to my other ills, Eurystheus
+  has chosen to insult me with this insult; sending heralds whenever on
+  earth he learns we are settled, he demands us, and drives us out of the
+  land; alleging the city of Argos, one not paltry either to be friends
+  with or to make an enemy, and himself too prospering as he is; but they
+  seeing my weak state, and that these too are little, and bereaved of
+  their sire, respecting the more powerful, drive us from the land. And I
+  am banished, together with the banished children, and fare ill together
+  with those who fare ill, loathing to desert them, lest some may say thus,
+  Behold, now that the children have no father, Iolaus, their kinsman born,
+  defends them not. But being bereft of all Greece, coming to Marathon and
+  the country under the same rule, we sit suppliants at the altars of the
+  Gods, that they may assist us; for it is said that the two sons of
+  Theseus inhabit the territory of this land, of the race of Pandion,
+  having received it by lot, being near akin to these children; on which
+  account we have come this way to the frontiers of illustrious Athens. And
+  by two aged people is this flight led, I, indeed, being alarmed about
+  these children; and the female race of her son Alcmena preserves within
+  this temple, clasping it in her arms; for we are ashamed that virgins
+  should mingle with the mob, and stand at the altars. But Hyllus and his
+  brothers, who are older, are seeking where there is a strong-hold that we
+  may inhabit, if we be thrust forth from this land by force. O children,
+  children! hither; take hold of my garments; I see the herald of
+  Eurystheus coming hither toward us, by whom we are pursued as wanderers,
+  deprived of every land.<a name="Heraclid_2"></a><a
+  href="#HeraclidN_2"><sup>[2]</sup></a> O detested one, may you perish,
+  and the man who sent you: how many evils indeed have you announced to the
+  noble father of these children from that same mouth!</p>
+
+  <p>COPREUS. I suppose you think that this is a fine seat you are sitting
+  in, and have come to a city which is an ally, thinking foolishly; for
+  there is no one who will choose your useless power in preference to
+  Eurystheus. Depart; why toilest thou thus? You must rise up and go to
+  Argos, where punishment by stoning awaits you.</p>
+
+  <p>IOL. Not so, since the altar of the God will aid me, and the free land
+  in which we tread.</p>
+
+  <p>COP. Do you wish to cause me trouble with this band?</p>
+
+  <p>IOL. Surely you will not drag me away, nor these children, seizing by
+  force?</p>
+
+  <p>COP. You shall know; but you are not a good prophet in this.</p>
+
+  <p>IOL. This shall never happen, while I am alive.</p>
+
+  <p>COP. Depart; but I will lead these away, even though you be unwilling,
+  considering them, wherever they may be, to belong to Eurystheus.</p>
+
+  <p>IOL. O ye who have dwelt in Athens a long time, defend us; for, being
+  suppliants of Jove, the Presider over the Forum,<a
+  name="Heraclid_3"></a><a href="#HeraclidN_3"><sup>[3]</sup></a> we are
+  treated with violence, and our garlands are profaned, both a reproach to
+  the city, and an insult to the Gods.</p>
+
+  <p>CHORUS. Hollo! hollo! what is this noise near the altar? what calamity
+  will it straightway portend?</p>
+
+  <p>IOL. Behold me, a weak old man, thrown down on the plain; miserable
+  that I am.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. By whose hand do you fall this unhappy fall?</p>
+
+ *&nbsp;*&nbsp;*&nbsp;*
+
+  <p>IOL. This man, O strangers, dishonoring your Gods, drags me violently
+  from the altar of Jupiter.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. From what land, O old man, have you come hither to this people
+  dwelling together in four cities?<a name="Heraclid_4"></a><a
+  href="#HeraclidN_4"><sup>[4]</sup></a> or, have you come hither from
+  across [the sea] with marine oar, having quitted the Eub&#339;an
+  shore?</p>
+
+  <p>IOL. O strangers, I am not accustomed to an islander's life, but we
+  are come to your land from Mycen�.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. What name, O old man, did the Mycen�an people call you?</p>
+
+  <p>IOL. Know that I am lolaus, once the companion of Hercules; for this
+  body is not unrenowned.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. I know, having heard of it before; but say whose youthful
+  children you are leading in your hand.</p>
+
+  <p>IOL. These, O strangers, are the sons of Hercules, who are come as
+  suppliants of you and the city.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. What do ye seek? or, tell me, is it wanting to have speech of
+  the city?</p>
+
+  <p>IOL. Not to be given up, and not to go to Argos, being dragged from
+  your Gods by force.</p>
+
+  <p>COP. But this will not be sufficient for your masters, who, having
+  power over you, find you here.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. It is right, O stranger, to reverence the suppliants of the
+  Gods, and not for you to leave by violent hands the habitations of the
+  deities, for venerable Justice will not suffer this.</p>
+
+  <p>COP. Send now Eurystheus's subjects out of this land, and I will not
+  use this hand violently.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. It is impious for a state to reject the suppliant prayer of
+  strangers.</p>
+
+  <p>COP. But it is good to have one's foot out of trouble, being possessed
+  of the better counsel.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. You should then have dared this, having spoken to the king of
+  this land, but you should not drag strangers away from the Gods by force,
+  if you respect a free land.</p>
+
+  <p>COP. But who is king of this country and city?</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Demophoon, the son of Theseus, of a noble father.</p>
+
+  <p>COP. With him, then, the contest of this argument had best be; all
+  else is spoken in vain.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. And indeed hither he comes in haste, and Acamas, his brother, to
+  hear these words.</p>
+
+  <p>DEMOPHOON. Since you, being an old man, have anticipated us, who are
+  younger, in running to this hearth of Jove, say what hap collects this
+  multitude here.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. These sons of Hercules sit here as suppliants, having crowned
+  the altar, as you see. O king, and Iolaus, the faithful companion of
+  their father.</p>
+
+  <p>DE. Why then did this chance occasion clamors?</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. This man caused the noise, seeking to lead him by force from
+  this hearth; and he tripped up the legs of the old man, so that I shed
+  the tear for pity.</p>
+
+  <p>DE. And indeed he has a Grecian robe and style of dress; but these are
+  the doings of a barbarian hand; it is for you then to tell me, and not to
+  delay, leaving the confines of what land you are come hither.</p>
+
+  <p>COP. I am an Argive; for this you wish to learn: and I am willing to
+  say why, and from whom, I am come. Eurystheus, the king of Mycen�, sends
+  me hither to lead away these men; and I have come, O stranger, having
+  many just things at once to do and to say; for I being an Argive myself,
+  lead away Argives, having them as fugitives from my country condemned to
+  die by the laws there; and we have the right, managing our city ourselves
+  by ourselves, to fix our own punishments: but they having come to the
+  hearths of many others also, there also we have taken our stand on these
+  same arguments, and no one has dared to bring evils upon himself. But
+  either perceiving some folly in you, they have come hither, or in
+  perplexity running the risk, whether it shall be or not. For surely they
+  do not think that you alone are mad, in so great a portion of Greece as
+  they have been over, so as to commiserate their foolish distresses. Come,
+  compare the two; admitting them into your land, and suffering us to lead
+  them away, what will you gain? Such things as these you may gain from us;
+  you may add to this city the whole power of Argos, and all the might of
+  Eurystheus; but if looking to the words and pitiable condition of these
+  men, you are softened by them, the matter comes to the contest of the
+  spear; for think not that we will give up this contest without steel.
+  What then will you say? deprived of what lands, making war with the
+  Tirynthians and Argives, and repelling them, with what allies, and on
+  whose behalf will you bury the dead that fall? Surely you will obtain an
+  evil report among the citizens, if, for the sake of an old man, a mere
+  tomb,<a name="Heraclid_5"></a><a href="#HeraclidN_5"><sup>[5]</sup></a>
+  one who is nothing, as one may say, and of these children, you will put
+  your foot into a mess;<a name="Heraclid_6"></a><a
+  href="#HeraclidN_6"><sup>[6]</sup></a> you will say, at best, that you
+  shall find, at least, hope; and this too is at present much wanting; for
+  these who are armed would fight but ill with Argives if they were grown
+  up, if this encourages your mind, and there is much time in the mean
+  while in which ye may be destroyed; but be persuaded by me, giving
+  nothing, but permitting me to lead away my own, gain Mycen�. And do not
+  (as you are wont to do) suffer this, when it is in your power to choose
+  the better friends, choose the worse.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Who can decide what is right, or understand an argument, till he
+  has clearly heard the statement of both?</p>
+
+  <p>IOL. O king, this exists in thy city; I am permitted in turn to speak
+  and to hear, and no one will reject me before that, as in other places;
+  but with this man we have nothing to do; for since nothing of Argos is
+  any longer ours, (it having been decreed by a vote,) but we are exiled
+  our country, how can this man justly lead us away as Mycen�ans, whom they
+  have driven from the land? for we are strangers; or else you decide that
+  whoever is banished Argos is banished the boundaries of the Greeks.
+  Surely not from Athens; they will not, for fear of the Argives, drive out
+  the children of Hercules from their land; for it is not Trachis, nor the
+  Ach�an city, from whence you, not by justice, but bragging about Argos;
+  just as you now speak, drove these men, sitting at the altars as
+  suppliants; for if this shall be, and they ratify your words, I no longer
+  know this Athens as free. But I know their disposition and nature; they
+  will rather die; for among virtuous men, disgrace is considered before
+  life. Enough of the city; for indeed it is an invidious thing to praise
+  it too much; and often I know myself I have been oppressed at being
+  overpraised: but I wish to say to you that it is necessary for you to
+  save these men, since you are ruler over this land. Pittheus was son of
+  Pelops and �thra, daughter of Pittheus, and your father Theseus was born
+  of her. And again I trace for you their descent: Hercules was son of
+  Jupiter and Alcmena, and she was the child of the daughter of Pelops; so
+  your father and theirs must be fellow-cousins. Thus you, O Demophoon, are
+  related to them by birth; and, besides this connection, I will tell you
+  for what you are bound to requite the children. For I say, I formerly,
+  when shield-bearer to their father, sailed with Theseus after the belt,<a
+  name="Heraclid_7"></a><a href="#HeraclidN_7"><sup>[7]</sup></a> the cause
+  of much slaughter, and from the murky recesses of hell did he bring forth
+  your father. All Greece bears witness to this; for which things they
+  beseech you to return a kindness, and that they may not be yielded up,
+  nor be driven from this land, torn from your Gods by violence; for this
+  would be disgraceful to you by yourself, and an evil to the city,<a
+  name="Heraclid_8"></a><a href="#HeraclidN_8"><sup>[8]</sup></a> that
+  suppliant relations, wanderers&mdash;alas for the misery! look on them,
+  look&mdash;should be dragged away by force. But I beseech you, and offer
+  you suppliant garlands, by your hands and your chin, do not dishonor the
+  children of Hercules, having received them in your power; but be thou a
+  relation to them, be a friend, father, brother, master; for all these
+  things are better than [for them] to fall into the power of the
+  Argives.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Hearing of these men's misfortunes, I pitied them, O king! and
+  now particularly I have witnessed nobleness overcome by fortune; for
+  these men, being sons of a noble father, are undeservedly unhappy.</p>
+
+  <p>DE. Three ways of misfortune urge me, O Iolaus, not to reject these
+  suppliants. The greatest, Jupiter, at whose altars you sit, having this
+  procession of youths with you; and my relationship to them, and because I
+  am bound of old that they should fare well at my hands, in gratitude to
+  their father; and the disgrace,<a name="Heraclid_9"></a><a
+  href="#HeraclidN_9"><sup>[9]</sup></a> which one ought exceedingly to
+  regard. For if I permitted this altar to be violated by force by a
+  strange man, I shall not seem to inhabit a free country. But I fear to
+  betray my suppliants to the Argives; and this is nearly as bad as the
+  noose. But I wish you had come with better fortune; but still, even now,
+  fear not that any one shall drag you and these children by force from
+  this altar. And do thou, going to Argos, both tell this to Eurystheus;
+  and besides that, if he has any charge against these strangers, he shall
+  meet with justice; but you shall never drag away these men.</p>
+
+  <p>COP. Not if it be just, and I prevail in argument?</p>
+
+  <p>DE. And how can it be just to drag away a suppliant by force?</p>
+
+  <p>COP. This, then, is not disgraceful to me, but an injury to you.</p>
+
+  <p>DE. To me indeed, if I allow you to drag them away.</p>
+
+  <p>COP. But do you depart, and then will I drag them thence.</p>
+
+  <p>DE. You are stupid, thinking yourself wiser than a God.</p>
+
+  <p>COP. Hither it seems the wicked should fly.</p>
+
+  <p>DE. The seat of the Gods is a common defense to all.</p>
+
+  <p>COP. Perhaps this will not seem good to the Mycen�ans.</p>
+
+  <p>DE. Am not I then master over those here?</p>
+
+  <p>COP. [Ay,] but not to injure them, if you are wise.</p>
+
+  <p>DE. Are ye hurt, if I do not defile the Gods?</p>
+
+  <p>COP. I do not wish you to have war with the Argives.</p>
+
+  <p>DE. I, too, am the same; but I will not let go of these men.</p>
+
+  <p>COP. At all events, taking possession of my own, I shall lead them
+  away.</p>
+
+  <p>DE. Then you will not easily depart back to Argos.</p>
+
+  <p>COP. I shall soon see that by experience.</p>
+
+  <p>DE. You will touch them to your own injury, and that without
+  delay.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. For God's sake, venture not to strike a herald!</p>
+
+  <p>DE. I will not, if the herald at least will learn to be wise.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Depart thou; and do not you touch him, O king!</p>
+
+  <p>COP. I go; for the struggle of a single hand is powerless. But I will
+  come, bringing hither many a brazen spear of Argive war; and ten thousand
+  shield-bearers await me, and Eurystheus, the king himself, as general.
+  And he waits, expecting news from hence, on the extreme confines of
+  Alcathus; and, having heard of your insolence, he will make himself too
+  well known to you, and to the citizens, and to this land, and to the
+  trees; for in vain should we have so much youth in Argos, if we did not
+  chastise you.</p>
+
+  <p>DE. Destruction on you! for I do not fear your Argos. But you are not
+  likely, insulting me, to drag these men away from hence by force; for I
+  possess this land, not being subject to that of Argos, but free.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. It is time to provide, before the army of the Argives approaches
+  the borders. And very impetuous is the Mars of the Mycen�ans, and on this
+  account more than before; for it is the habit of all heralds to tower up
+  what is twice as much. What do you not think he will say to his princes
+  about what terrible things he has suffered, and how within a little he
+  was losing his life.</p>
+
+  <p>IOL. There is not, to this man's children, a more glorious honor than
+  to be sprung from a good and valiant father, and to marry from a good
+  family; but I will not praise him who, overcome by desire, has mingled
+  with the vulgar, to leave his children a reproach instead of pleasure;
+  for noble birth wards off misfortune better than low descent; for we,
+  having fallen into the extremity of evils, find these men friends and
+  relations, who alone, in so large a country as Greece, have stood forward
+  [on our behalf.] Give, O children, give them your right hand; and do ye
+  give yours to the children, and draw near to them. O children, we have
+  come to experience of our friends; and if you ever have a return to your
+  country, and [again] possess the homes and honors of your father, always
+  consider them your saviors and friends, and never lift the hostile spear
+  against the land, remembering these things; but consider it the dearest
+  city of all. And they are worthy that you should revere them, who have
+  chosen to have so great a country and the Pelasgic people as enemies
+  instead of us, though seeing us to be beggared wanderers; but still they
+  have not given us up, nor driven us from their land. But I, living and
+  dying, when I do die, with much praise, my friend, will extol you when I
+  am in company with Theseus; and telling this, I will delight him, saying
+  how well you received and aided the children of Hercules; and, being
+  noble, you preserve through Greece your ancestral glory; and being born
+  of noble parents, you are nowise inferior to your father, with but few
+  others; for among many you may find perhaps but one who is not inferior
+  to his father.<a name="Heraclid_10"></a><a
+  href="#HeraclidN_10"><sup>[10]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. This land is ever willing to aid in a just cause those in
+  difficulty; therefore it has borne numberless toils for its friends, and
+  now I see this contest at hand.</p>
+
+  <p>DE. Thou hast spoken well; and I boast, old man, that their
+  disposition is such that the kindness will be remembered. And I will make
+  an assembly of the citizens, and draw them up so as to receive the army
+  of the Mycen�ans with a large force. First, I will send spies toward it,
+  that it may not fall upon me by surprise: for in Argos every warrior is
+  eager to run to assistance. And having collected the soothsayers, I will
+  sacrifice. And do you go to my palace with the children, leaving the
+  hearth of Jove, for there are those who, even if I be from home, will
+  take care of you; go then, old man, to my palace.</p>
+
+  <p>IOL. I will not leave the altar; but we will sit here, as suppliants,
+  waiting till the city is successful; and when you are well freed from
+  this contest, we will go to thy palace. But we have Gods as allies not
+  inferior to those of the Argives, O king; for Juno, the wife of Jove, is
+  their champion, but Minerva ours; and I say that this also tends to
+  success, to have the best Gods, for Pallas will not endure to be
+  conquered.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. If thou boastest greatly, others do not therefore care for thee
+  the more, O stranger, coming from Argos; but with thy big words thou wilt
+  not terrify my mind: may it not be so to the mighty Athens, with the
+  beauteous dances. But both thou art foolish, the son of Sthenelus, king
+  in Argos, who, coming to another city not less than Argos, being a
+  stranger, seek by violence to lead away wanderers, suppliants of the
+  Gods, and claiming the protection of my land, not yielding to our kings,
+  nor saying any thing else that is just. How can this be thought well
+  among the wise? Peace indeed pleases me; but, O foolish king, I tell
+  thee, if thou comest to this city, thou wilt not thus obtain what thou
+  thinkest for. You are not the only one who has a spear and a brazen
+  shield; but, O lover of war, mayest thou not with the spear disturb my
+  city dear to the Graces; but restrain thyself.</p>
+
+  <p>IOL. O my son, why comest thou, bringing solicitude to my eyes? Hast
+  thou any news of the enemy? Do they delay, or are they at hand I or what
+  do you hear? for I fear the word of the herald will in no wise be false,
+  for their leader will come, having been fortunate in previous affairs, I
+  clearly know, and with no moderate pride, against Athens; but Jove is the
+  chastiser of over-arrogant thoughts.<a name="Heraclid_11"></a><a
+  href="#HeraclidN_11"><sup>[11]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>DE. The army of the Argives is coming, and Eurystheus the king. I have
+  seen it myself;<a name="Heraclid_12"></a><a
+  href="#HeraclidN_12"><sup>[12]</sup></a> for it behooves a man who says
+  he knows well the duty of a general not to reconnoitre the enemy by means
+  of messengers. He has not then, as yet, let loose his army on these
+  plains, but, sitting on a lofty crag, he reconnoitres (I should tell thee
+  this as a conjecture) to see by which way he shall now lead his
+  expedition, and place it in a safe station in this land; and my
+  preparations are already well arranged, and the city is in arms, and the
+  victims stand ready for those Gods to whom they ought to be slain
+  offered; and the city, by means of soothsayers, is preparing by
+  sacrifices flight for the enemy and safety for the city.<a
+  name="Heraclid_13"></a><a href="#HeraclidN_13"><sup>[13]</sup></a> And
+  having collected together all the bards who proclaim oracles, I have
+  tested the ancient oracles, both public and concealed, which might save
+  this land; and in their other counsels many things are different; but one
+  opinion of all is conspicuously the same, they command me to sacrifice to
+  the daughter of Ceres a damsel who is of a noble father.<a
+  name="Heraclid_14"></a><a href="#HeraclidN_14"><sup>[14]</sup></a> And I
+  have indeed, as you see, such great good-will toward you, but I will
+  neither slay my own child<a name="Heraclid_15"></a><a
+  href="#HeraclidN_15"><sup>[15]</sup></a> nor compel any other of my
+  citizens to do so unwillingly; and who is so mad of his own accord, as to
+  give out of his hands his dearest children? And now you may see bitter
+  meetings; some saying that it is right to aid foreign suppliants, and
+  some blaming my folly; and if I do this, a civil war is at once prepared.
+  This, then, do you consider, and devise how both you yourselves may be
+  saved and this land, and I be not brought into ill odor with the
+  citizens; for I have not absolute sovereignty, as over barbarians; but if
+  I do just things, I shall receive just things.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. But does not the Goddess allow this city, although eager, to aid
+  strangers?</p>
+
+  <p>IOL. O children, we are like sailors, who, fleeing from the fierce
+  rage of the storm, have come close to land, and then, again, by gales
+  from the land, have been driven again out to sea; thus also shall we be
+  driven from this land, being already on shore, as if saved. Alas! why, O
+  wretched hope, did you then delight me, not being about to perfect my
+  joy? For his thoughts, in truth, are to be pardoned if he is not willing
+  to slay the children of his citizens; and I acquiesce in their conduct
+  here, if the Gods decree that I shall fare thus. My gratitude to you
+  shall never perish. O children, I know not what to do with you: whither
+  shall we turn? for who of the Gods has been uncrowned by us? and what
+  bulwark of land have we not approachedl? We shall perish, my children, we
+  shall be given up; and for myself I care nothing if it behooves me to
+  die, except that, dying, I shall gratify my enemies; but I weep for and
+  pity you, O children, and Alcmena, the aged mother of your father; O!
+  unhappy art thou, because of thy long life; and miserable am I, having
+  labored much in vain. It was our fate then, our fate, falling into the
+  hands of an enemy, to leave life disgracefully and miserably. But do you
+  know in what you may aid me? for all hope of their safety has not
+  deserted me. Give me up to the Argives instead of them, O king, and so
+  neither run any risk yourself, and let the children be saved for me; I
+  must not love my own life, let it go; and above all, Eurystheus would
+  like taking me, the ally of Hercules, to insult me; for he is a froward
+  man; and the wise should pray to have enmity with a wise man, not with an
+  ignorant disposition, for in that case one, even if unfortunate, may meet
+  with much respect.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. O old man, do not now blame the city, perhaps it might be a gain
+  to us; but still it would be an evil reproach that we betrayed
+  strangers,</p>
+
+  <p>DE. You have spoken things noble indeed, but impossible; the king does
+  not lead his army hither wanting you; for what profit were it to
+  Eurystheus for an old man to die? but he wishes to slay these children;
+  for noble youths, who remember their fathers' injuries, springing up, are
+  terrible to enemies; all which he must needs foresee; but if you know any
+  other more seasonable counsel, prepare it, since I am perplexed and full
+  of fear, having heard the oracle.</p>
+
+  <p>MACARIA. O strangers, do not impute boldness to me because of my
+  advances,<a name="Heraclid_16"></a><a
+  href="#HeraclidN_16"><sup>[16]</sup></a> this I will beg first; for
+  silence and modesty are best for a woman, and to remain quietly in-doors;
+  but, having heard your lamentations, O Iolaus, I have come forth, not
+  being commissioned to act as embassador for my race, but I am in some
+  wise fit to do so; but chiefly do I care for these, my brothers:
+  concerning myself I wish to ask whether, besides our former evils, any
+  additional distress gnaws your mind?</p>
+
+  <p>IOL. O daughter, it is not a new thing that I justly have to praise
+  you most of the children of Hercules; but our house having appeared to us
+  to progress well, has again changed to perplexity, for this man says,
+  that the deliverers of oracles order us to sacrifice not a bull or a
+  heifer, but a virgin, who is of a noble father, if we and this city would
+  exist. About this then we are perplexed, for this man says he will
+  neither slay his own children nor those of any one else; and to me he
+  says, not plainly indeed, but somehow or other, unless I can devise any
+  remedy for this, that we must find some other land, but he himself wishes
+  to preserve this country.</p>
+
+  <p>MAC. On this condition can we then be saved?</p>
+
+  <p>IOL. On this, being fortunate in other respects.</p>
+
+  <p>MAC. Fear not then any longer the hostile spear of the Argives; for I
+  myself, old man, before I am commanded, am prepared to die, and to stand
+  for slaughter; for what shall we say if the city thinks fit for our sakes
+  to encounter a great danger, but we putting toils on others, avoid death
+  when we can be saved? Not so, since this would be ridiculous for
+  suppliants sitting at the shrines of the Gods to mourn, but being of such
+  a sire as we are, to be seen to be cowards; how can this seem good! it
+  were more noble, I think, (which may it never happen!) to fall into the
+  hands of the enemy, this city being taken, and afterward, being born of a
+  noble father, having suffered dreadful things, to see Hades none the
+  less; but shall I wander about, driven from this land, and shall I not
+  indeed be ashamed if any one says, "Why have ye come hither with your
+  suppliant branches, yourselves being too fond of life! Depart from the
+  land, for we will not aid cowards." But neither, indeed, if these die,
+  and I myself am saved, have I any hope to fare well; for before now many
+  have in this way betrayed their friends. For who would choose to have me,
+  a solitary damsel, for his wife, or to raise children from me? therefore
+  it is better to die than to have such an unworthy fate as this; and this
+  may even be more seemly for some other, who is not illustrious as I. Lead
+  me then where this body must needs die, and crown me and begin the rites,
+  if you think fit, and conquer your enemies; for this life is ready for
+  you, willing, and not unwilling; and I promise to die for these my
+  brethren, and for myself; for not caring for life, I have found this most
+  glorious thing to find, namely, to leave life gloriously.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Alas! alas! what shall I say, hearing this noble speech of the
+  maiden who is willing to die on behalf of her brothers? Who can utter
+  more noble words than these I who of men can do [a greater deed?]<a
+  name="Heraclid_17"></a><a href="#HeraclidN_17"><sup>[17]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>IOL. My child, your head comes from no other source, but thou, the
+  seed of a divine mind, art sprung from Hercules.<a
+  name="Heraclid_18"></a><a href="#HeraclidN_18"><sup>[18]</sup></a> I am
+  not ashamed at your words, but I am grieved for your fortune; but how it
+  may be more justly done, I will say: we must call hither all her sisters,
+  and then let her who draws the lot die for her family; but it is not
+  right for thee to die without casting lots.</p>
+
+  <p>MAC. I will not die, obtaining the lot by chance, for then there are
+  no thanks [to me;]&mdash;speak it not, old man; but if you accept me, and
+  are willing to use me willing, I readily give up my life to them, but
+  not, being compelled.</p>
+
+  <p>IOL. Alas! this word of thine is again nobler than the former, and
+  that other was most excellent; but you surpass daring by daring, and
+  [good] words by good words. I do not bid you, nor do I forbid you, to
+  die, my child; but you will benefit your brothers by dying.</p>
+
+  <p>MAC. Thou biddest wisely; fear not to partake of my pollution, but I
+  shall die freely. But follow me, O old man; for I wish to die by your
+  hand; and do you, being present, wrap my body in my garments, since I am
+  going to the terror of sacrifice, because I am born of the father of whom
+  I boast to be.</p>
+
+  <p>IOL. I could not be present at your death.</p>
+
+  <p>MAC. At least, then, entreat of him that I may die, not by the hands
+  of men, but of women.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. It shall be so, O hapless virgin; since it were disgraceful to
+  me too not to deck thee honorably on many accounts; both for your valiant
+  spirit, and for justice' sake: but you are the most unhappy of all women
+  that I have beheld with mine eyes; but, if thou wilt, depart, bespeaking
+  a last address to these and to the old man.</p>
+
+  <p>MAC. Farewell, old man, farewell; and train up for me these children
+  to be such as thyself, wise in all respects, nothing more, for they will
+  suffice; and endeavor to save them, not being over-willing to die. We are
+  your children; by your hands we were brought up, and behold see me
+  yielding up my nuptial hour, dying for them. And ye, my company of
+  brothers now present, may ye be happy, and may every thing be yours, for
+  the sake of which my soul is sacrificed; and honor the old man, and the
+  old woman in the house, Alcmena, the mother of my father, and these
+  strangers. And if a release from troubles, and a return should ever be
+  found for you through the Gods, remember to bury her who saves you, as is
+  fitting; most honorably were just, for I was not wanting to you, but died
+  for my race. This is my heir-loom instead of children and virginity, if
+  indeed there be aught under the earth. May there indeed be nothing; for
+  if we, mortals who die, are to have cares even there, I know not where
+  one can turn, for to die is considered the greatest remedy for evils.</p>
+
+  <p>IOL. But, O you, who mightily surpass all women in courage, know that,
+  both living and dying, you shall be most honored by us: and farewell; for
+  I abhor to speak words of ill omen about the Goddess to whom your body is
+  given as the first-fruits, the daughter of Ceres. O children, we are
+  undone; my limbs are relaxed by grief; take me, and place me in my seat,
+  veiling me there with these garments, O children; since neither am I
+  pleased at these things which are done, and if the oracle were not
+  fulfilled, life would be unbearable, for the ruin would be greater; but
+  even this is a calamity.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. I say that no man is either happy or miserable but through the
+  Gods, and that the same family does not always walk in good fortune, but
+  different fates pursue it different ways; it is wont to make one from a
+  lofty station insignificant, and makes the wanderer wealthy: but it is
+  impossible to avoid what is fated; no one can repel it by wisdom, but he
+  who is hasty without purpose will always have trouble; but do not thus
+  bear the fortune sent by the Gods, falling down [in prayer,] and do not
+  over-pain your mind with grief, for she hapless possesses a glorious
+  portion of death on behalf of her brethren and her country; nor will an
+  inglorious reputation among men await her: but virtue proceeds through
+  toils. These things are worthy of her father, and worthy of her noble
+  descent; and if you respect the deaths of the good, I share your
+  feelings.</p>
+
+  <p>SERVANT. O children, hail! But at what distance from this place is the
+  aged Iolaus and your father's mother?</p>
+
+  <p>IOL. We are here, such a presence as mine is.</p>
+
+  <p>SERV. On what account dost thou lie thus, and have an eye so
+  downcast?</p>
+
+  <p>IOL. A domestic care has come upon me, by which I am constrained.</p>
+
+  <p>SERV. Raise now thyself, erect thy head.</p>
+
+  <p>IOL. I am an old man, and by no means strong.</p>
+
+  <p>SERV. But I am come, bearing to you a great joy.</p>
+
+  <p>IOL. And who art thou, where having met you, do I forget you?</p>
+
+  <p>SERV. I am a poor servant of Hyllus; do you not recognize me, seeing
+  me?</p>
+
+  <p>IOL. O dearest one, dost thou then come as a savior to us from
+  injury?</p>
+
+  <p>SERV. Surely; and moreover you are prosperous as to the present state
+  of affairs.</p>
+
+  <p>IOL. O mother of a doughty son, I mean Alcmena, come forth, hear these
+  most welcome words; for you have been long wasting away as to your soul
+  in anxiety concerning those who have come hither, where they would ever
+  arrive.<a name="Heraclid_19"></a><a
+  href="#HeraclidN_19"><sup>[19]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>ALCMENA. Wherefore has a mighty shout filled all this house? O Iolaus,
+  does any herald, coming from Argos, again do you violence? my strength
+  indeed is weak, but thus much you must know, O stranger, you shall never
+  drag these away while I am living, else may I no longer be thought to be
+  his mother; but if you touch them with your hand, you will have no
+  honorable contest with two old people.</p>
+
+  <p>IOL. Be of good cheer, old woman; fear not, the herald is not come
+  from Argos bearing hostile words.</p>
+
+  <p>ALC. Why then did you raise a shout, a messenger of fear?</p>
+
+  <p>IOL. To you, that you should approach near before this temple.</p>
+
+  <p>ALC. I do not understand this; for who is this man?</p>
+
+  <p>IOL. He announces that your son's son is come.</p>
+
+  <p>ALC. O! hail thou also for this news; but why and where<a
+  name="Heraclid_20"></a><a href="#HeraclidN_20"><sup>[20]</sup></a> is he
+  now absent putting his foot in this country? what calamity prevents him
+  from appearing hither with you, and delighting my mind?</p>
+
+  <p>SERV. He is stationing and marshaling the army which he has come
+  bringing.</p>
+
+  <p>ALC. I no longer understand this speech.</p>
+
+  <p>IOL. I do; but it is my business to inquire about this.</p>
+
+  <p>SERV. What then of what has been done do you wish to learn?</p>
+
+  <p>IOL. With how great a multitude of allies is he come?</p>
+
+  <p>SERV. With many; but I can say no other number.</p>
+
+  <p>IOL. The chiefs of the Athenians know, I suppose.</p>
+
+  <p>SERV. They do; and they occupy the left wing.<a
+  name="Heraclid_21"></a><a href="#HeraclidN_21"><sup>[21]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>IOL. Is then the army already armed as for the work?</p>
+
+  <p>SERV. Ay; and already the victims are led away from the ranks.</p>
+
+  <p>IOL. And how far distant is the Argive army?</p>
+
+  <p>SERV. So that the general can be distinctly seen.</p>
+
+  <p>IOL. Doing what? arraying the ranks of the enemies?</p>
+
+  <p>SERV. We conjectured this, for we did not hear him; but I will go; I
+  should not like my masters to join battle with the enemy, deserted as far
+  as my part is concerned.</p>
+
+  <p>IOL. And I will go with you; for we think the same things, being
+  present to aid our friends as much as we can.</p>
+
+  <p>SERV. It is not your part to say a foolish word.</p>
+
+  <p>IOL. And not to share the sturdy battle with my friends!</p>
+
+  <p>SERV. One can not see a wound from an inactive hand.</p>
+
+  <p>IOL. But what, can not I too strike through a shield?</p>
+
+  <p>SERV. You might strike, but you yourself would fall first.</p>
+
+  <p>IOL. No one of the enemy will dare to behold me.</p>
+
+  <p>SERV. You have not, my good friend, the strength which once you
+  had.</p>
+
+  <p>IOL. But I will fight with them who will not be the fewer in
+  numbers.</p>
+
+  <p>SERV. You add but a slight weight to your friends.</p>
+
+  <p>IOL. Do not detain me who am prepared to act.</p>
+
+  <p>SERV. You are not able to do any thing, but you may perhaps be to
+  advise.</p>
+
+  <p>IOL. You may say the rest, as I not staying to hear.</p>
+
+  <p>SERV. How then will you appear to the soldiers without arms?</p>
+
+  <p>IOL. There are within this palace arms taken in war, which I will use
+  and restore if alive; but the God will not demand them back of me, if I
+  fall; but go in, and taking them down from the pegs, bring me as quickly
+  as possible the panoply of a warrior; for this is a disgraceful
+  house-keeping, for some to fight, and some to remain behind through
+  fear.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Time does not depress your spirit, but it grows young again, but
+  your body is weak: why dost thou toil in vain? which will harm you
+  indeed, but profit our city but little; you should consider your age, and
+  leave alone impossibilities, it can not be that you again should acquire
+  youth.</p>
+
+  <p>ALC. Why are you, not being in your senses, about to leave me alone
+  with my children?</p>
+
+  <p>IOL. For valor is the part of men; but it is your duty to take care of
+  them.</p>
+
+  <p>ALC. But what if you die? how shall I be saved?</p>
+
+  <p>IOL. Your sons who are left will take care of your son.</p>
+
+  <p>ALC. But if they, which Heaven forbid, should meet with fate!</p>
+
+  <p>IOL. These strangers will not betray you, do not fear.</p>
+
+  <p>ALC. Such confidence indeed I have, nothing else.</p>
+
+  <p>IOL. And Jove, I well know, cares for your toils.</p>
+
+  <p>ALC. Alas! Jupiter shall never be reproached by me, but he himself
+  knows whether he is just toward me.</p>
+
+  <p>SERV. You see now this panoply of arms; but you can not make too much
+  haste<a name="Heraclid_22"></a><a
+  href="#HeraclidN_22"><sup>[22]</sup></a> in arraying your body in them,
+  as the contest is at hand, and, above all things, Mars hates those who
+  delay; but if you fear the weight of arms, now then go forth unarmed,<a
+  name="Heraclid_23"></a><a href="#HeraclidN_23"><sup>[23]</sup></a> and in
+  the ranks be clad with this equipment, and I will carry it so far.</p>
+
+  <p>IOL. Thou hast said well; but bring the arms, having them close at
+  hand, and put a spear in my hand, and support my left arm guiding my
+  foot.</p>
+
+  <p>SERV. Is it right to lead a warrior like a child?</p>
+
+  <p>IOL. One must go safely for the sake of the omen.</p>
+
+  <p>SERV. Would you were able to do as much as you are willing.</p>
+
+  <p>IOL. Make haste, I shall suffer sadly if too late for the battle.</p>
+
+  <p>SERV. It is you who delay, and not I, seeming to do something.</p>
+
+  <p>IOL. Do you not see how my foot presses on?</p>
+
+  <p>SERV. I see you rather seeming to hasten than hastening.</p>
+
+  <p>IOL. You will not say so, when you behold me there.</p>
+
+  <p>SERV. Doing what? I wish I may see you successful.</p>
+
+  <p>IOL. Striking some of the enemy through the shield.</p>
+
+  <p>SERV. If indeed we get there; for that I have fears of.</p>
+
+  <p>IOL. Alas! O arm, would thou wert such an ally to me as I recollect
+  you in your youth, when you ravaged Sparta with Hercules, how would I put
+  Eurystheus to flight; since he is but a coward in abiding a spear. But in
+  prosperity then is this too which is not right, a reputation for courage;
+  for we think that he who is prosperous knows all things well.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. O earth, and moon that shinest through the night, and most
+  brilliant rays of the God, that gave light to mortals, bring me news, and
+  shout in heaven and at the queenly throne of the blue-eyed Minerva. I am
+  about, on behalf of my country, on behalf of my house, having received
+  suppliants I am about to cut through danger with the white steel. It is
+  terrible that a city, prosperous as Mycen�, and much praised for valor in
+  war, should nourish secret<a name="Heraclid_24"></a><a
+  href="#HeraclidN_24"><sup>[24]</sup></a> anger against my land; but it is
+  evil too, O city, if we are to give up strangers at the bidding of
+  Argos.<a name="Heraclid_25"></a><a
+  href="#HeraclidN_25"><sup>[25]</sup></a> Jupiter is my ally, I fear not;
+  Jupiter rightly has favor toward me. Never shall the Gods seem inferior
+  to men in my opinion.<a name="Heraclid_26"></a><a
+  href="#HeraclidN_26"><sup>[26]</sup></a> But, O venerable Goddess, for
+  the soil of this land is thine, and the city of which you are mother,
+  mistress, and guardian, lead away by some other way him who unjustly
+  leads on this spear-brandishing host from Argos; for as far as my virtue
+  is concerned, I do not deserve to be banished from these halls. For
+  honor, with much sacrifice, is ever offered to you; nor does the waning<a
+  name="Heraclid_27"></a><a href="#HeraclidN_27"><sup>[27]</sup></a> day of
+  the month forget you, nor the songs of youths, nor the measures of
+  dances; but on the lofty hill shouts resound in accordance with the
+  beatings of the feet of virgins the livelong night.</p>
+
+  <p>SERV. O mistress, I bring news most concise for you to hear, and to
+  myself most glorious; we have conquered our enemies, and trophies are set
+  up bearing the panoply of your enemies.</p>
+
+  <p>ALC. O best beloved, this day has caused thee to be made free for this
+  thy news; but from one disaster you do not yet free me, for I fear
+  whether they be living to me whom I wish to be.</p>
+
+  <p>SERV. They live, the most glorious in the army.</p>
+
+  <p>ALC. Does not the aged Iolaus survive?</p>
+
+  <p>SERV. Surely, and having done most glorious deeds by help of the
+  Gods.</p>
+
+  <p>ALC. But what? has he done any doughty act in the fight?</p>
+
+  <p>SERV. He has changed from an old into a young man again.</p>
+
+  <p>ALC. Thou tellest marvelous things, but first I wish you to relate the
+  prosperous contest of your friends in battle.</p>
+
+  <p>SERV. One speech of mine shall tell you all this; for when stretching
+  out [our ranks] face to face, we arrayed our armies against one another,
+  Hyllus putting his foot out of his four-horse chariot, stood in the
+  mid-space of the field;<a name="Heraclid_28"></a><a
+  href="#HeraclidN_28"><sup>[28]</sup></a> and then said, O general, you
+  are come from Argos, why leave we not this land alone? and you will do
+  Mycen� no harm, depriving it of one man; but you fighting alone with me
+  alone, either killing me, lead away the children of Hercules, or dying,
+  allow me to possess my ancestral prerogative and palaces. And the army
+  gave praise; that the speech was well spoken for a termination of their
+  toils, and in respect of courage. But he neither regarding those who had
+  heard the speech, nor, although he was general, his [own character for]
+  cowardice, ventured not to come near the warlike spear, but was most
+  cowardly; and being such, he came to enslave the descendants of Hercules.
+  Hyllus then returned again back to his ranks; but the soothsayers, when
+  they saw that the affair could not be arranged by single combat of one
+  shield, sacrificed, and delayed not, but let fall forth immediately the
+  propitious slaughter of mortal throats; and some mounted chariots, and
+  some concealed their sides under the sides of their shields; but the king
+  of the Athenians gave to his army such orders as become a high-born man.
+  "O fellow-citizens, now it behooves one to defend the land that has
+  produced and cherished us."<a name="Heraclid_29"></a><a
+  href="#HeraclidN_29"><sup>[29]</sup></a> And the other also besought his
+  allies not to disgrace Argos and Mycen�. But when the signal was sounded
+  on a Tyrrhenian trumpet, and they joined battle with one another, what a
+  clash of spears dost thou think sounded, how great a groaning and
+  lamentation at the same time! And first the dashing on of the Argive
+  spear broke us; then they again retreated; and next foot being
+  interchanged with foot, and man standing against man, the battle waged
+  fierce; and many fell; and there were two cries, O ye who [dwell in]
+  Athens, O ye who sow the land of the Argives, will ye not avert disgrace
+  from the city? And with difficulty doing every thing, not without toils
+  did we put the Argive force to flight; and then the old man, seeing
+  Hyllus rushing on, Iolaus, stretching forth his right hand, besought him
+  to place him on the horse-chariot; and seizing the reins in his hands, he
+  pressed hard upon the horses of Eurystheus. And what happened after this
+  I must tell by having heard from others, I myself hitherto having seen
+  all; for passing by the venerable hill of the divine Minerva of Pellene,
+  seeing the chariot of Eurystheus, he prayed to Juno and Jupiter to be
+  young for one day, and to work vengeance on his enemies. But you have a
+  marvel to hear; for two stars standing on the horse-chariot, concealed
+  the chariot in a dim cloud, the wiser men say it was thy son and Hebe;
+  but he from the obscure darkness showed forth a youthful image of
+  youthful arms. And the glorious Iolaus takes the four-horse chariot of
+  Eurystheus at the Scironian rocks&mdash;and having bound his hands in
+  fetters, he comes bringing as glorious first-fruits of victory, the
+  general, him who before was prosperous; but by his present fortune he
+  proclaims clearly to all mortals to learn not to envy him who seems
+  prosperous, till one sees him dead, as fortune is but for the day.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. O Jupiter, thou turner to flight, now is it mine to behold a day
+  free from dreadful fear.</p>
+
+  <p>ALC. O Jupiter, at length you have looked upon my miseries, but still
+  I thank you for what has been done: and I, who formerly did not think
+  that my son dwelt with the Gods, now clearly know it. O children, now
+  indeed you shall be free from toils, and free from Eurystheus, who shall
+  perish miserably; and ye shall see the city of your sire, and you shall
+  tread on your inheritance of land; and ye shall sacrifice to your
+  ancestral gods, debarred from whom ye have had, as strangers, a wandering
+  miserable life. But devising what clever thing has Iolaus spared
+  Eurystheus, so as not to slay him, tell me; for in my opinion this is not
+  wise, having taken our enemies, not to exact punishment of them.</p>
+
+  <p>SERV. Having respect for you, that with your own eyes you may see
+  him<a name="Heraclid_30"></a><a href="#HeraclidN_30"><sup>[30]</sup></a>
+  defeated and subjected to your hand; not, indeed, of his own will, but he
+  has bound him by force in constraint, for he was not willing to come
+  alive into your sight and to be punished. But, O old woman, farewell, and
+  remember for me what you first said when I began my tale. Make me free;
+  and in such noble people as you the mouth ought to be free from
+  falsehood.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. To me the dance is sweet, if there be the thrilling delight of
+  the pipe at the feast; and may Venus be kind. And sweet it is to see the
+  good fortune of friends who did not expect it before; for the fate which
+  accomplishes gifts gives birth to many things; and Time, the son of
+  Saturn. You have, O city, a just path, you should never be deprived of
+  it, to honor the Gods; and he who bids you not do so, is near madness,
+  such proofs as these being shown. God, in truth, evidently exhorts us,
+  taking away the arrogance of the unjust forever. Your son, O old woman,
+  is gone to heaven; he shuns the report of having descended to the realm
+  of Pluto, being consumed as to his body in the terrible flame of fire;
+  and he embraces the lovely bed of Hebe in the golden hall. O Hymen, you
+  have honored two children of Jupiter. Many things agree with many; for in
+  truth they say that Minerva was an ally of their father, and the city and
+  people of that Goddess has saved them, and has restrained the insolence
+  of a man to whom passion was before justice, through violence. May my
+  mind and soul, never be insatiable.</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. O mistress, you see, but still it shall be said, we are come,
+  bringing to you Eurystheus here, an unhoped-for sight, and one no less so
+  for him to meet with, for he never expected to come into your hands when
+  he went forth from Mycen� with a much-toiling band of spearmen, proudly
+  planning things much greater than his fortune, that he should destroy
+  Athens; but the God changed his fortune, and made it contrary. Hyllus,
+  therefore, and the good Iolaus, have set up a statue, in honor of their
+  victory, of Jove, the putter to flight; and they send me to bring this
+  man to you, wishing to delight your mind; for it is most delightful to
+  see an enemy unfortunate, after having been fortunate.</p>
+
+  <p>ALC. O hateful thing, art thou come? has justice taken you at last?
+  first then indeed turn hither your head toward me, and dare to look your
+  enemies in the face; for now you are ruled, and you rule no more. Art
+  thou he, for I wish to know, who chose, O wretch, much to insult my son,
+  though no longer existing? For in what respect didst thou not dare to
+  insult him? who led him, while alive, down to hell, and sent him forth,
+  bidding him destroy hydras and lions? And I am silent concerning the
+  other evils you contrived, for it would be a long story; and it did not
+  satisfy you that he alone should endure these things, but you drove me
+  also, and my children, out of all Greece, sitting as suppliants of the
+  Gods, some old, and some still infants; but you found men and a city
+  free, who feared you not. Thou needs must die miserably, and you shall
+  gain every thing, for you ought to die not once only, having wrought many
+  evil deeds.</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. It is not practicable for you to put him to death.<a
+  name="Heraclid_31"></a><a href="#HeraclidN_31"><sup>[31]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>ALC. In vain then have we taken him prisoner. But what law hinders him
+  from dying?</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. It seems not so to the chiefs of this land.</p>
+
+  <p>ALC. What is this? not good to them to slay one's enemies?</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. Not any one whom they have taken alive in battle.</p>
+
+  <p>ALC. And did Hyllus endure this decision?</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. He could, I suppose, disobey this land!<a
+  name="Heraclid_32"></a><a href="#HeraclidN_32"><sup>[32]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>ALC. He ought no longer to live, nor behold the light.</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. Then first he did wrong in not dying.</p>
+
+  <p>ALC. Then it is no longer right for him to be punished?<a
+  name="Heraclid_33"></a><a href="#HeraclidN_33"><sup>[33]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>MESS. There is no one who may put him to death.</p>
+
+  <p>ALC. I will. And yet I say that I am some one.</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. You will indeed have much blame if you do this.</p>
+
+  <p>ALC. I love this city. It can not be denied. But as for this man,
+  since he has come into my power, there is no mortal who shall take him
+  from me. For this, whoever will may call me bold, and thinking things too
+  much for a woman; but this deed shall be done by me.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. It is a serious and excusable thing, O lady, for you to have
+  hatred against this man, I well know it.</p>
+
+  <p>EURYSTHEUS. O woman, know plainly that I will not flatter you, nor say
+  any thing else for my life, whence I may incur any imputation of
+  cowardice. But not of my own accord did I undertake this strife&mdash;I
+  knew that I was your cousin by birth, and a relation to your son
+  Hercules; but whether I wished it or not, Juno, for it was a Goddess,
+  forced me to toil through this ill. But when I took up enmity against
+  him, and determined to contest this contest, I became a contriver of many
+  evils, and sitting continually in council with myself, I brought forth
+  many plans by night, how dispersing and slaying my enemies, I might dwell
+  for the future not with fear, knowing that your son was not one of the
+  many, but truly a man; for though he be mine enemy, yet shall he be well
+  spoken of, as he was a doughty man. And when he was released [from life],
+  did it not behoove me, being hated by these children, and knowing their
+  father's hatred to me, to move every stone, slaying and banishing them,
+  and contriving, that, doing such things, my own affairs would have been
+  safe? You, therefore, had you obtained my fortunes, would not have
+  oppressed with evils the hostile offspring of a hated lion, but would
+  wisely have permitted them to live in Argos; you will persuade no one of
+  this. Now then, since they did not destroy me then, when I was willing,
+  by the laws of the Greeks I shall, if slain, bear pollution to my slayer;
+  and the city, being wise, has let me go, having greater honor for God
+  than for its enmity toward me. And to what you said you have heard a
+  reply: and now you may call me at once suppliant and brave.<a
+  name="Heraclid_34"></a><a href="#HeraclidN_34"><sup>[34]</sup></a> Thus
+  is the case with me, I do not wish to die, but I should not be grieved at
+  leaving life.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. I wish, O Alcmena, to advise you a little, to let go this man,
+  since it seems so to the city.</p>
+
+  <p>ALC. But how, if he both die, and still we obey the city?</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. That would be best; but how can that be?</p>
+
+  <p>ALC. I will teach you, easily; for having slain him, then I will give
+  his corpse to those of his friends who come after him; for I will not
+  deny his body to the earth, but he dying, shall satisfy my revenge.</p>
+
+  <p>EU. Slay me, I do not deprecate thy wrath. But this city indeed, since
+  it has released me, and feared to slay me, I will present with an ancient
+  oracle of Apollo, which, in time, will be of greater profit than you
+  would expect; for ye will bury me when I am dead, where it is fated,
+  before the temple of the divine virgin of Pallene; and being well
+  disposed to you, and a protector to the city, I shall ever lie as a
+  sojourner under the ground, but most hostile to their descendants when
+  they come hither with much force, betraying this kindness: such strangers
+  do ye now defend. How then did I, knowing this, come hither, and not
+  respect the oracle of the God? Thinking Juno far more powerful than
+  oracles, and that she would not betray me, [I did so.] But suffer neither
+  libations nor blood to be poured on my tomb, for I will give them an evil
+  return as a requital for these things; and ye shall have a double gain
+  from me, I will both profit you and injure them by dying.</p>
+
+  <p>ALC. Why then do ye delay, if you are fated to accomplish safety to
+  the city and to your descendants, to slay this man, hearing these things?
+  for they show us the safest path. The man is an enemy, but he will profit
+  us dying. Take him away, O servants; then having slain him, ye must give
+  him to the dogs; for hope not thou, that living, thou shalt again banish
+  me from my native land.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. These things seem good to me, proceed, O attendants, for every
+  thing on our part shall be done completely for our sovereigns.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h3>NOTES ON THE HERACLYD�</h3>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+<div class="note">
+  <p><a name="HeraclidN_1"></a><a href="#Heraclid_1">[1]</a> Such seems to
+  be the force of <span lang="el" title="eis an�r">&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3B7;&#x3C1;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HeraclidN_2"></a><a href="#Heraclid_2">[2]</a> But the
+  construction is probably <span lang="el" title="al�tai
+  g�s">&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3B7;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3B3;&#x3B7;&#x3C2;</span>, (compare my note on �sch. Eum. 63,) and
+  <span lang="el"
+  title="apester�menoi">&#x3B1;&#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3C3;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3B7;&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;</span>
+  is <i>bereaved, destitute</i>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HeraclidN_3"></a><a href="#Heraclid_3">[3]</a> Cf. �sch. Eum.
+  973.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HeraclidN_4"></a><a href="#Heraclid_4">[4]</a> i.e.
+  &#338;noe, Marathon, Probalinthus, and Tricorythus.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HeraclidN_5"></a><a href="#Heraclid_5">[5]</a> Elmsley
+  compares Med. 1209. <span lang="el" title="tis ton geronta tymbon
+  orthanon sethen tith�si">&#x3C4;&#x3B9;&#x3C2; &#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B3;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3C5;&#x3BC;&#x3B2;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3BF;&#x3C1;&#x3B8;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3C3;&#x3B5;&#x3B8;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3B9;&#x3B8;&#x3B7;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;</span>; so the Latins used
+  "Silicernium." Cf. Fulgent. Expos. Serm. Ant. p. 171, ed. Munck.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HeraclidN_6"></a><a href="#Heraclid_6">[6]</a> <span
+  lang="el"
+  title="antlos">&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3BB;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span>,
+  sentina, bilge-water. See Elmsley.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HeraclidN_7"></a><a href="#Heraclid_7">[7]</a> See Elmsley's
+  note.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HeraclidN_8"></a><a href="#Heraclid_8">[8]</a> See Dindorf,
+  who repents of the reading in the text, and restores <span lang="el"
+  title="soi gar tod' aischron ch�ris en polei kakon">&#x3C3;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3B3;&#x3B1;&#x3C1; &#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3B4;'
+  &#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3C7;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3C7;&#x3C9;&#x3C1;&#x3B9;&#x3C2; &#x3B5;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3BB;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3BA;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span>. He, however, condemns this
+  and the two next lines as spurious.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HeraclidN_9"></a><a href="#Heraclid_9">[9]</a> i.e. if I
+  neglect them.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HeraclidN_10"></a><a href="#Heraclid_10">[10]</a> Cf. Hor.
+  Od. iii. 6, 48. "�tas parentum, pejor avis, tulit Nos nequiores, mox
+  daturos Progeniem vitiosiorem."</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HeraclidN_11"></a><a href="#Heraclid_11">[11]</a> Cf. Soph.
+  Ant. 127. <span lang="el" title="Zeus gar megal�s gl�ss�s kompous
+  Hyperechthairei">&#x396;&#x3B5;&#x3C5;&#x3C2; &#x3B3;&#x3B1;&#x3C1;
+  &#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3B3;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3B7;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B3;&#x3BB;&#x3C9;&#x3C3;&#x3C3;&#x3B7;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3BA;&#x3BF;&#x3BC;&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C2;
+  &#x201B;&#x3A5;&#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3B5;&#x3C7;&#x3B8;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3C1;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HeraclidN_12"></a><a href="#Heraclid_12">[12]</a> Cf. �sch.
+  Sept. c. Th. 40 sq., also Soph. &#338;d. T. 6 sqq.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HeraclidN_13"></a><a href="#Heraclid_13">[13]</a> i.e. <span
+  lang="el" title="manteis kat' asty
+  thy�pholousi">&#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;' &#x3B1;&#x3C3;&#x3C4;&#x3C5;
+  &#x3B8;&#x3C5;&#x3B7;&#x3C6;&#x3BF;&#x3BB;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;</span>.
+  ELMSLEY.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HeraclidN_14"></a><a href="#Heraclid_14">[14]</a> Pausanias,
+  i. 32, states that the oracle expressly required that one of the
+  descendants of Hercules should be devoted, and that upon this Macaria,
+  his daughter by Deianira, voluntarily offered herself. Her name was
+  afterward given to a fountain. Enripides probably omitted this fact, in
+  order to place the noble-mindedness of Macaria in a stronger light. The
+  curious reader may compare the similar sacrifices of Codrus, (Pausan.
+  vii. 25. Vell. Patere. i. 4,) Men&#339;ceus, (Eur. Ph&#339;n. 1009,
+  Statius Theb. x. 751 sqq.,) Chaon (Serv. on Virg. �n. iii. 335). See also
+  Lomeier de Lustrationibus, � xxii., where the whole subject is learnedly
+  treated.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HeraclidN_15"></a><a href="#Heraclid_15">[15]</a> Cf. �sch.
+  Ag. 206 sqq.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HeraclidN_16"></a><a href="#Heraclid_16">[16]</a> I prefer
+  understanding <span lang="el" title="heneka exod�n
+  em�n">&#x201B;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3B5;&#x3BA;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3B5;&#x3BE;&#x3BF;&#x3B4;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B5;&#x3BC;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;</span> with Elmsley, to Matthi�'s forced
+  interpretation. Compare Med. 214 sqq.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HeraclidN_17"></a><a href="#Heraclid_17">[17]</a> The cognate
+  accusative to <span lang="el"
+  title="draseien">&#x3B4;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3C3;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;</span>
+  must be supplied from the context.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HeraclidN_18"></a><a href="#Heraclid_18">[18]</a> There is
+  some awkwardness in the construction. Perhaps if we read <span lang="el"
+  title="sperma, t�s theias phrenos!
+  peph.">&#x3C3;&#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;, &#x3C4;&#x3B7;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B8;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3C6;&#x3C1;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;! &#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3C6;.</span>
+  the sense will be improved.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HeraclidN_19"></a><a href="#Heraclid_19">[19]</a> The
+  construction is thus laid down by Elmsley: <span lang="el" title="palai
+  gar �dinousa [peri\] t�n aphig. ps. et. ei. n. [aut�n\]
+  gen�setai">&#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3B9; &#x3B3;&#x3B1;&#x3C1;
+  &#x3C9;&#x3B4;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3B1;
+  [&#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3B9;] &#x3C4;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B1;&#x3C6;&#x3B9;&#x3B3;. &#x3C8;. &#x3B5;&#x3C4;. &#x3B5;&#x3B9;.
+  &#x3BD;. [&#x3B1;&#x3C5;&#x3C4;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;]
+  &#x3B3;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3B7;&#x3C3;&#x3B5;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;</span>.
+  He remarks that <span lang="el"
+  title="nostos">&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3C3;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span> often
+  means "arrival," in the tragedians.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HeraclidN_20"></a><a href="#Heraclid_20">[20]</a> See
+  Matthi�. I should, however, prefer <span lang="el"
+  title="pais">&#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;</span> for <span lang="el"
+  title="pou">&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;</span>, with Elmsley.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HeraclidN_21"></a><a href="#Heraclid_21">[21]</a> <span
+  lang="el" title="kata">&#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;</span> is understood,
+  as in Thucyd. v. 67. ELMSLEY.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HeraclidN_22"></a><a href="#Heraclid_22">[22]</a> See Alcest.
+  662, Iph. Taur. 245, and Elmsley's note on this passage.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HeraclidN_23"></a><a href="#Heraclid_23">[23]</a> <span
+  lang="el"
+  title="gymnos">&#x3B3;&#x3C5;&#x3BC;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span>,
+  <i>expeditus</i>. As in agriculture it is applied to the husbandman who
+  casts off his upper garment, so also in war it simply denotes being
+  without armor.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HeraclidN_24"></a><a href="#Heraclid_24">[24]</a> <span
+  lang="el"
+  title="keuthein">&#x3BA;&#x3B5;&#x3C5;&#x3B8;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HeraclidN_25"></a><a href="#Heraclid_25">[25]</a> I have
+  corrected <span lang="el" title="keleusmasin
+  Argous">&#x3BA;&#x3B5;&#x3BB;&#x3B5;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x391;&#x3C1;&#x3B3;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C2;</span>, with Reiske and
+  Dindorf.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HeraclidN_26"></a><a href="#Heraclid_26">[26]</a> I have
+  adopted Dindorf's correction, <span lang="el" title="h�ssones par' emoi
+  theoi
+  phanountai">&#x201B;&#x3B7;&#x3C3;&#x3C3;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3B5;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3C1;' &#x3B5;&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3B8;&#x3B5;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3C6;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HeraclidN_27"></a><a href="#Heraclid_27">[27]</a> i.e. the
+  last, says Brod�us. But Elmsley prefers taking it for the <span lang="el"
+  title="noum�nia">&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3BC;&#x3B7;&#x3BD;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;</span>
+  or Kalends, with Musgrave.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HeraclidN_28"></a><a href="#Heraclid_28">[28]</a> <span
+  lang="el" title="doros">&#x3B4;&#x3BF;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span>, which
+  is often used to signify <i>the fight</i>, is here somewhat boldly put
+  for the arrangement of the battle.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HeraclidN_29"></a><a href="#Heraclid_29">[29]</a> Cf. �sch.
+  Soph. c. Th. 14 sqq. Elmsley's notes on the whole of this spirited
+  passage deserve to be consulted.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HeraclidN_30"></a><a href="#Heraclid_30">[30]</a> <span
+  lang="el"
+  title="kratounta">&#x3BA;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;</span>
+  can not be used passively. <span lang="el"
+  title="klaionta">&#x3BA;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;</span>
+  is the conjecture of Orelli, approved by Dindorf. I have expressed the
+  sense, not the text.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HeraclidN_31"></a><a href="#Heraclid_31">[31]</a> See
+  Musgrave's note (apud Dindorf). Tyrwhitt considers all the dramatis
+  person� wrongly assigned.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HeraclidN_32"></a><a href="#Heraclid_32">[32]</a> Ironically
+  spoken.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HeraclidN_33"></a><a href="#Heraclid_33">[33]</a> There seems
+  to be something wrong here.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="HeraclidN_34"></a><a href="#Heraclid_34">[34]</a> See
+  Matthi�, who explains it: "<i>me et supplicem</i>, qui mortem deprecetur,
+  <i>et fortem</i>, qui mortem contemnat, <i>dicere licet</i>."</p>
+
+</div>
+<hr class="full" />
+
+<a name="AULIS"></a>
+<h2>IPHIGENIA IN AULIS.</h2>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+<h3>PERSONS REPRESENTED.</h3>
+
+  <div class="personae">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <p>AGAMEMNON.</p>
+      <p>OLD MAN.</p>
+      <p>MENELAUS.</p>
+      <p>ACHILLES.</p>
+      <p>MESSENGER.</p>
+      <p>ANOTHER MESSENGER.</p>
+      <p>IPHIGENIA.</p>
+      <p>CLYT�MNESTRA.</p>
+      <p>CHORUS.</p>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+<hr />
+
+<h3>THE ARGUMENT.</h3>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+  <p>When the Greeks were detained at Aulis by stress of weather, Calchas
+  declared that they would never reach Troy unless the daughter of
+  Agamemnon, Iphigenia, was sacrificed to Diana. Agamemnon sent for his
+  daughter with this view, but repenting, he dispatched a messenger to
+  prevent Clyt�mnestra sending her. The messenger being intercepted by
+  Menelaus, an altercation between the brother chieftains arose, during
+  which Iphigenia, who had been tempted with the expectation of being
+  wedded to Achilles, arrived with her mother. The latter, meeting with
+  Achilles, discovered the deception, and Achilles swore to protect her.
+  But Iphigenia, having determined to die nobly on behalf of the Greeks,
+  was snatched away by the Goddess, and a stag substituted in her place.
+  The Greeks were then enabled to set sail.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2>IPHIGENIA IN AULIS.</h2>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+  <p>AGAMEMNON. Come before this dwelling, O aged man.</p>
+
+  <p>OLD MAN. I come. But what new thing dost thou meditate, king
+  Agamemnon?</p>
+
+  <p>AG. You shall learn.<a name="IA_1"></a><a
+  href="#IAN_1"><sup>[1]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>OLD M. I hasten. My old age is very sleepless, and sits wakeful upon
+  mine eyes.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. What star can this be that traverses this way?</p>
+
+  <p>OLD M. Sirius, flitting yet midway (between the heavens and the
+  ocean,)<a name="IA_2"></a><a href="#IAN_2"><sup>[2]</sup></a> close to
+  the seven Pleiads.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. No longer therefore is there the sound either of birds or of the
+  sea, but silence of the winds reigns about this Euripus.</p>
+
+  <p>OLD M. But why art thou hastening without the tent, king Agamemnon?
+  But still there is silence here by Aulis, and the guards of the
+  fortifications are undisturbed. Let us go within.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. I envy thee, old man, and I envy that man who has passed through a
+  life without danger, unknown, unglorious; but I less envy those in
+  honor.</p>
+
+  <p>OLD M. And yet 'tis in this that the glory of life is.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. But this very glory is uncertain, for the love of popularity is
+  pleasant indeed, but hurts when present. Sometimes the worship of the
+  Gods not rightly conducted upturns one's life, and sometimes the many and
+  dissatisfied opinions of men harass.</p>
+
+  <p>OLD M. I praise not these remarks in a chieftain. O Agamemnon, Atreus
+  did not beget thee upon a condition of complete good fortune.<a
+  name="IA_3"></a><a href="#IAN_3"><sup>[3]</sup></a> But thou needs must
+  rejoice and grieve; [in turn,] for thou art a mortal born, and even
+  though you wish it not, the will of the Gods will be thus. But thou,
+  opening the light of a lamp, art both writing this letter, which thou
+  still art carrying in thy hands, and again you blot out the same
+  characters, and seal, and loose again, and cast the tablet to the ground,
+  pouring abundant tears, and thou lackest naught of the unwonted things
+  that tend to madness. Why art thou troubled, why art thou troubled? What
+  new thing, what new thing [has happened] concerning thee, O king? Come,
+  communicate discourse with me. But thou wilt speak to a good and faithful
+  man, for to thy wife Tyndarus sent me once on a time, as a dower-gift,
+  and disinterested companion.<a name="IA_4"></a><a
+  href="#IAN_4"><sup>[4]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>AG. To Leda, daughter of Thestias, were born three virgins,
+  Ph&#339;be, and Clyt�mnestra my spouse, and Helen. Of this latter, the
+  youths of Greece that were in the first state of prosperity came as
+  suitors. But terrible threats of bloodshed<a name="IA_5"></a><a
+  href="#IAN_5"><sup>[5]</sup></a> arose against one another, from whoever
+  should not obtain the virgin. But the matter was difficult for her father
+  Tyndarus, whether to give, or not to give [her in marriage,] and how he
+  might best deal with the circumstances, when this occurred to him; that
+  the suitors should join oaths and plight right hands with one another,
+  and over burnt-offerings should enter into treaty, and bind themselves by
+  this oath, "Of whomsoever the daughter of Tyndarus shall become wife,
+  that they will join to assist him, if any one should depart from his
+  house taking [her] with him, and excluding the possessor from his bed,
+  and that they will make an expedition in arms, and sack the city [of the
+  ravisher,] Greek or barbarian alike." But after they had pledged
+  themselves, the old man Tyndarus somehow cleverly overreached them by a
+  cunning plan. He permits his daughter to choose one of the suitors,
+  toward whom the friendly gales of Venus might impel her. But she chose
+  (whom would she had never taken!) Menelaus. And he who, according to the
+  story told by men, once judged the Goddesses, coming from Phrygia to
+  Laced�mon, flowered in the vesture of his garments, and glittering with
+  gold, barbarian finery, loving Helen who loved him, he stole and bore her
+  away to the bull-stalls of Ida, having found Menelaus abroad. But he,
+  goaded hastily<a name="IA_6"></a><a href="#IAN_6"><sup>[6]</sup></a>
+  through Greece, calls to witness the old oath given to Tyndarus, that it
+  behooves to assist the aggrieved. Henceforth the Greeks hastening with
+  the spear, having taken their arms, come to this Aulis with its narrow
+  straits, with ships and shields together, and accoutred with many horses
+  and chariots. And they chose me general of the host, out of regard for
+  Menelaus, being his brother forsooth. And would that some other than I
+  had obtained the dignity. But when the army was assembled and levied, we
+  sat, having no power of sailing, at Aulis. But Calchas the seer
+  proclaimed to us, being at a loss, that we should sacrifice Iphigenia,
+  whom I begat, to Diana, who inhabits this place, and that if we
+  sacrificed her, we should have both our voyage, and the sacking of Troy,
+  but that this should not befall us if we did not sacrifice her. But I
+  hearing this in rousing proclamation, bade Talthybius dismiss the whole
+  army, as I should never have the heart to slay my daughter. Upon this,
+  indeed, my brother, alleging every kind of reasoning, persuaded me to
+  dare the dreadful deed, and having written in the folds of a letter, I
+  sent word to my wife to send her daughter as if to be married to
+  Achilles, both enlarging on the dignity of the man, and asserting that he
+  would not sail with the Greeks, unless a wife for him from among us
+  should come to Phthia. For I had this means of persuading my wife, having
+  made up a pretended match for the virgin. But we alone of the Greeks know
+  how these matters are, Calchas, Ulysses, and Nestor. But the things which
+  I then determined not well, I am now differently writing so as to be
+  well, in this letter, which by the shadow of night thou beheldest me
+  opening and closing, old man. But come, go thou, taking these letters, to
+  Argos. But as to what the letter conceals in its folds, I will tell thee
+  in words all that is written therein; for thou art faithful to my wife
+  and house.</p>
+
+  <p>OLD M. Speak, and tell me, that with my tongue I may also say what
+  agrees with your letter.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. (reading) "I send to thee, O germ of Leda, besides<a
+  name="IA_7"></a><a href="#IAN_7"><sup>[7]</sup></a> my former dispatches,
+  not to send thy daughter to the bay-like wing of Eub&#339;a,<a
+  name="IA_8"></a><a href="#IAN_8"><sup>[8]</sup></a> waveless Aulis. For
+  we will delay the bridals of our daughter till another season."</p>
+
+  <p>OLD M. And how will not Achilles raise up his temper against thee and
+  thy wife, showing great wrath at failing of his spouse? This also is
+  terrible. Show what thou meanest.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. Achilles, furnishing the pretext, not the reality, knows not these
+  nuptials, nor what we are doing; nor that I have professed to give my
+  daughter into the nuptial chain of his arms by marriage.<a
+  name="IA_9"></a><a href="#IAN_9"><sup>[9]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>OLD M. Thou venturest terrible things, king Agamemnon, who, having
+  promised thy daughter as wife to the son of the Goddess, dost lead her as
+  a sacrifice on behalf of the Greeks.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. Ah me! I was out of my senses. Alas! And I am falling into
+  calamity. But go, plying thy foot, yielding naught to old age.</p>
+
+  <p>OLD M. I hasten, O king.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. Do not thou either sit down by the woody fountains, nor repose in
+  sleep.</p>
+
+  <p>OLD M. Speak good words.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. But every where as you pass the double track, look about, watching
+  lest there escape thee a chariot passing with swift wheels, bearing my
+  daughter hither to the ships of the Greeks.</p>
+
+  <p>OLD M. This shall be.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. And go out of the gates<a name="IA_10"></a><a
+  href="#IAN_10"><sup>[10]</sup></a> quickly,&#x2020; for if you meet with
+  the procession,&#x2020; again go forth, shake the reins, going to the
+  temples reared by the Cyclops.</p>
+
+  <p>OLD M. But tell me, how, saying this, I shall obtain belief from thy
+  daughter and wife.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. Preserve the seal, this which thou bearest on this letter. Go:
+  morn, already dawning forth this light, grows white, and the fire of the
+  sun's four steeds. Aid me in my toils. But no one of mortals is
+  prosperous or blest to the last, for none hath yet been born free from
+  pain.</p>
+
+  <p>CHORUS. I came to the sands of the shore of marine Aulis, having
+  sailed through the waves of Euripus, quitting Chalcis with its narrow
+  strait, my city, the nurse of the sea-neighboring waters<a
+  name="IA_11"></a><a href="#IAN_11"><sup>[11]</sup></a> of renowned
+  Arethusa, in order that I might behold the army of the Greeks, and the
+  ship-conveying oars of the Grecian youths, whom against Troy in a
+  thousand ships of fir, our husbands say that yellow-haired Menelaus and
+  Agamemnon of noble birth, are leading in quest of Helen,<a
+  name="IA_12"></a><a href="#IAN_12"><sup>[12]</sup></a> whom the herdsman
+  Paris bore from reed-nourishing Eurotas, a gift of Venus, when at the
+  fountain dews Venus held contest, contest respecting beauty with Juno and
+  Pallas. But I came swiftly through the wood of Diana with its many
+  sacrifices, making my cheek red with youthful modesty, wishing to behold
+  the defense of the shield, and the arm-bearing tents<a
+  name="IA_13"></a><a href="#IAN_13"><sup>[13]</sup></a> of the Greeks, and
+  the crowd of steeds. But I saw the two Ajaces companions, the son of
+  Oileus, and the son of Telamon, the glory of Salamis, and Protesilaus and
+  Palamedes, whom the daughter of Neptune bore, diverting themselves<a
+  name="IA_14"></a><a href="#IAN_14"><sup>[14]</sup></a> with the
+  complicated figures of draughts, and Diomede rejoicing in the pleasures
+  of the disk, and by them Merione, the blossom of Mars, a marvel to
+  mortals, and the son of Laertes from the mountains of the isle, and with
+  them Nireus, fairest of the Greeks, and Achilles, tempest-like in the
+  course, fleet as the winds, whom Thetis bore, and Chiron trained up, I
+  beheld him on the shore, coursing in arms along the shingles. And he
+  toiled through a contest of feet, running against a chariot of four
+  steeds for victory. But the charioteer cried out, Eumelus, the grandson
+  of Pheres,<a name="IA_15"></a><a href="#IAN_15"><sup>[15]</sup></a> whose
+  most beauteous steeds I beheld, decked out with gold-tricked bits,
+  hurried on by the lash, the middle ones in yoke dappled with
+  white-spotted hair, but those outside, in loose harness, running
+  contrariwise in the bendings of the course, bays, with dappled skins
+  under their legs with solid hoofs. Close by which Pelides was running in
+  arms, by the orb and wheels of the chariot.<a name="IA_16"></a><a
+  href="#IAN_16"><sup>[16]</sup></a> And I came to the multitude of ships,
+  a sight not to be described, that I might satiate the sight of my woman's
+  eyes, a sweet delight. And at the right horn [of the fleet] was the
+  Phthiotic army of the Myrmidons, with fifty valiant ships. And in golden
+  effigies the Nereid Goddesses stood on the summit of the poops, the
+  standard of the host of Achilles. And next to these there stood the
+  Argive ships, with equal number of oars, of which [Euryalus] the grandson
+  of Mecisteus was general, whom his father Talaus trains up, and Sthenelus
+  son of Capaneus. But [Acamas] son of Theseus, leading sixty ships from
+  Athens, kept station, having the Goddess Pallas placed<a
+  name="IA_17"></a><a href="#IAN_17"><sup>[17]</sup></a> in her equestrian
+  winged chariot, a prosperous sign to sailors. But I beheld the armament
+  of the B&#339;otians, fifty sea-bound ships, with signs at the
+  figure-heads, and their sign was Cadmus, holding a golden dragon, at the
+  beaks of the ships, and Leitus the earth-born was leader of the naval
+  armament, and [I beheld] those from the Phocian land. But the son of
+  Oileus, leading an equal number of Locrian ships, came, having left the
+  Thronian city. But from Cyclopian Mycen� the son of Atreus sent the
+  assembled mariners of a hundred ships. And with him was Adrastus, as
+  friend with friend, in order that Greece might wreak vengeance on those
+  who fled their homes, for the sake of barbarian nuptials. But from Pylos
+  we beheld on the poops of Gerenian Nestor, a sign bull-footed to view,
+  his neighbor Alpheus. But there were twelve beaks of �nian ships, which
+  king Gyneus led, and near these again the chieftains of Elis, whom all
+  the people named Epeians, and o'er these Eurytus had power. But the
+  white-oared Taphian host *&nbsp;*&nbsp;*&nbsp;* led,<a name="IA_18"></a><a
+  href="#IAN_18"><sup>[18]</sup></a> which Meges ruled, the offspring of
+  Phyleus, leaving the island Echinades, inaccessible to sailors. And Ajax,
+  the foster-child of Salamis, joined the right horn to the left, to which
+  he was stationed nearest, joining them with his furthermost ships, with
+  twelve most swift vessels, as I heard, and beheld the naval people. To
+  which if any one add the barbarian barks, *&nbsp;*&nbsp;*&nbsp;* it will not obtain a
+  return. *&nbsp;*&nbsp;*&nbsp;* Where I beheld the naval expedition, but hearing other
+  things at home I preserve remembrance of the assembled army.</p>
+
+  <p>OLD M. Menelaus, thou art daring dreadful deeds thou shouldst not
+  dare.</p>
+
+  <p>MENELAUS. Away with thee! thou art too faithful to thy masters.</p>
+
+  <p>OLD M. An honorable rebuke thou hast rebuked me with!</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. To thy cost shall it be, if thou dost that thou shouldst not
+  do.</p>
+
+  <p>OLD M. You have no right to open the letter which I was carrying.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. Nor shouldst thou bear ills to all the Greeks.</p>
+
+  <p>OLD M. Contest this point with others, but give up this [letter] to
+  me.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. I will not let it go.</p>
+
+  <p>OLD M. Nor will I let it go.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. Then quickly with my sceptre will I make thine head bloody.</p>
+
+  <p>OLD M. But glorious it is to die for one's masters.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. Let go. Being a slave, thou speakest too many words.</p>
+
+  <p>OLD M. O master, I am wronged, and this man, having snatched thy
+  letter out of my hands, O Agamemnon, is unwilling to act rightly.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. Ah! what is this tumult and disorder of words?</p>
+
+  <p>OLD M. My words, not his, are fittest to speak.<a name="IA_19"></a><a
+  href="#IAN_19"><sup>[19]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>AG. But wherefore, Menelaus, dost thou come to strife with this man
+  and art dragging him by force?</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. Look at me, that I may take this commencement of my speech.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. What, shall I through fear not open mine eyelids, being born of
+  Atreus?</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. Seest thou this letter, the minister of writings most vile?</p>
+
+  <p>AG. I see it, and do thou first let it go from thy hands.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. Not, at least, before I show to the Greeks what is written
+  therein.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. What, knowest thou what 'tis unseasonable thou shouldst know,
+  having broken the seal?</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. Ay, so as to pain thee, having unfolded the ills thou hast
+  wrought privily.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. But where didst thou obtain it? O Gods, for thy shameless
+  heart!</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. Expecting thy daughter from Argos, whether she will come to the
+  army.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. What behooves thee to keep watch upon my affairs? Is not this the
+  act of a shameless man?</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. Because the will [to do so] teased me, and I am not born thy
+  slave.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. Is it not dreadful? Shall I not be suffered to be master of my own
+  family?</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. For thou thinkest inconsistently, now one thing, before another,
+  another thing presently.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. Well hast thou talked evil. Hateful is a too clever tongue.<a
+  name="IA_20"></a><a href="#IAN_20"><sup>[20]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>MEN. But an unstable mind is an unjust thing to possess, and not
+  clear<a name="IA_21"></a><a href="#IAN_21"><sup>[21]</sup></a> for
+  friends. I wish to expostulate with thee, but do not thou in wrath turn
+  away from the truth, nor will I speak overlong. Thou knowest when thou
+  wast making interest to be leader of the Greeks against Troy&mdash;in
+  seeming indeed not wishing it, but wishing it in will&mdash;how humble
+  thou wast, taking hold of every right hand, and keeping open doors to any
+  of the people that wished, and giving audience to all in turn even if one
+  wished it not, seeking by manners to purchase popularity among the
+  multitude. But when you obtained the power, changing to different
+  manners, you were no longer the same friend as before to your old
+  friends, difficult of access,<a name="IA_22"></a><a
+  href="#IAN_22"><sup>[22]</sup></a> and rarely within doors. But it
+  behooves not a man who has met with great fortune to change his manners,
+  but then chiefly to be firm toward his friends, when he is best able to
+  benefit them, being prosperous. I have first gone over these charges
+  against thee, in which I first found thee base. But when thou afterward
+  camest into Aulis and to the army of all the Greeks, thou wast naught,
+  but wast in stupefaction at the fortune which then befell us from the
+  Gods, lacking a favorable breeze for the journey. But the Greeks demanded
+  that you should dismiss the ships, and not toil vainly at Aulis. But how
+  cheerless and distressed a countenance you wore, because you were not
+  able to land your army at Priam's land, having a thousand ships under
+  command.<a name="IA_23"></a><a href="#IAN_23"><sup>[23]</sup></a> And
+  thou besoughtest me, "What shall I do?" "But what resource shall I find
+  from whence?" so that thou mightest not lose an ill renown, being
+  deprived of the command. And then, when Calchas o'er the victims said
+  that thou must sacrifice thy daughter to Diana, and that there would
+  [then] be means of sailing for the Greeks, delighted in heart, you gladly
+  promised to sacrifice your child, and of your own accord, not by
+  compulsion&mdash;do not say so&mdash;you send to your wife to convoy your
+  daughter hither, on a pretext of being wedded to Achilles. And then
+  changing [your mind] you are caught altering to other writings, to the
+  effect that you will not now be the slayer of your daughter. Very pretty,
+  forsooth! This is the same air which heard these very protestations from
+  thee. But innumerable men experience this in their affairs; they
+  persevere in labor when in power,<a name="IA_24"></a><a
+  href="#IAN_24"><sup>[24]</sup></a> and then make a bad result, sometimes
+  through the foolish mind of the citizens, but sometimes with reason,
+  themselves becoming incapable of preserving the state, I indeed chiefly
+  groan for hapless Greece, who, wishing to work some doughty deed against
+  these good-for-nothing barbarians, will let them, laughing at us, slip
+  through her hands, on account of thee and thy daughter. I would not make
+  any one ruler of the land for the sake of necessity,<a
+  name="IA_25"></a><a href="#IAN_25"><sup>[25]</sup></a> nor chieftain of
+  armed men. It behooves the general of the state to possess sense, for
+  every man is a ruler who possesses sense.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. 'Tis dreadful for words and strife to happen between brothers,
+  when they fall into dispute.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. I wish to address thee in evil terms, but mildly,<a
+  name="IA_26"></a><a href="#IAN_26"><sup>[26]</sup></a> in brief, not
+  uplifting mine eyelids too much aloft through insolence, but moderately,
+  as being my brother. For a good man is wont to show respect [to others.]
+  Tell me, why dost thou burst forth thus violently, having thy face
+  suffused with rage? Who wrongs thee? What lackest thou? Wouldst fain gain
+  a good wife! I can not supply thee, for thou didst ill rule over the one
+  you possessed. Must I therefore pay the penalty of your mismanagement,
+  who have made no mistake? Or does my ambition annoy thee? But wouldst
+  thou fain hold in thine arms a fair woman, forgetting discretion and
+  honor? Evil pleasures belong to an evil man. But if I, having before
+  resolved ill, have changed to good counsel, am I mad? Rather art thou
+  [mad,] who, having lost a bad wife, desirest to recover her, when God has
+  well prospered thy fortune. The nuptial-craving suitors in their folly
+  swore the oath to Tyndarus, but hope, I ween, was their God, and wrought
+  this more than thyself and thy strength. Whom taking<a
+  name="IA_27"></a><a href="#IAN_27"><sup>[27]</sup></a> make thou the
+  expedition, but I think thou wilt know [that it is] through the folly of
+  their hearts, for the divinity is not ignorant, but is capable of
+  discerning oaths ill plighted and perforce. But I will not slay my
+  children, so that thy state will in justice be well, revenge upon the
+  worst of wives, but nights and days will waste me away in tears, having
+  wrought lawless, unjust deeds against the children whom I begat. These
+  words are briefly spoken to thee, both plain and easy, but if thou art
+  unwilling to be wise, I will arrange my own affairs well.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. These words are different from those before spoken, but they are
+  to a good effect, that the children be spared.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. Alas! alas! have I then wretched no friends?</p>
+
+  <p>AG. [Yes, you have,] at least, if you do not wish to ruin your
+  friends.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. But how will you show that you are born of the same sire with
+  me?</p>
+
+  <p>AG. I am born to be wise with you, not foolish.<a name="IA_28"></a><a
+  href="#IAN_28"><sup>[28]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>MEN. It behooves friends to grieve in common with friends.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. Admonish me by well doing, not by paining me.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. Dost thou not then think fit to toil through this with
+  Greece?</p>
+
+  <p>AG. But Greece, with thee, is sickening through some deity.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. Vaunt then on thy sceptre, having betrayed thy brother. But I
+  will seek some other schemes, and other friends.</p>
+
+<p class="center">[<i>Enter a Messenger</i>.<a name="IA_29"></a><a href="#IAN_29"><sup>[29]</sup></a>]</p>
+
+  <p>MESSENGER. O Agamemnon, king of all the Greeks, I am come, bringing
+  thy daughter to thee, whom thou didst name Iphigenia in thy palace. But
+  her mother follows, the person of thy [wife] Clyt�mnestra, and the boy
+  Orestes, that thou mayest be pleased at the sight, being away from thine
+  home a long season. But as they have come a long way, they and their
+  mares are refreshing their female feet by the fair-flowing fountain, and
+  we let loose the mares in a grassy meadow, that they might taste fodder.
+  But I am come before them to prepare you [for their reception,] for a
+  swift report passed through the army, that thy daughter had arrived. And
+  all the multitude comes out hastily to the spectacle, that they may
+  behold thy child. For prosperous men are renowned and conspicuous among
+  all mortals. And they say, "Is there a marriage on foot? or what is going
+  on?" Or, "Has king Agamemnon, having a yearning after his daughter,
+  brought his child hither?" But from some you would have heard this: "They
+  are initiating<a name="IA_30"></a><a href="#IAN_30"><sup>[30]</sup></a>
+  the damsel in honor of Artemis, queen of Aulis, who will marry her." But
+  come, get ready the baskets,<a name="IA_31"></a><a
+  href="#IAN_31"><sup>[31]</sup></a> which come next, crown thine head. And
+  do thou, king Menelaus, prepare a nuptial lay, and through the house let
+  the pipe sound and let there be noise of feet, for this day comes blessed
+  upon the virgin.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. I commend [your words,] but go thou within the house, and it shall
+  be well, as fortune takes its course. Alas! what shall I wretched say?
+  Whence shall I begin? Into what fetters of necessity have I fallen!
+  Fortune has upturned me, so as to become far too clever for my
+  cleverness. But lowness of birth has some advantage thus. For such
+  persons are at liberty to weep, and speak unhappy words, but to him that
+  is of noble birth, all these things belong. We have our dignity as ruler
+  of our life, and are slaves to the multitude. For I am ashamed indeed to
+  let fall the tear, yet again wretched am I ashamed not to weep, having
+  come into the greatest calamities. Well! what shall I say to my wife? How
+  shall I receive her? What manner of countenance shall I present? And
+  truly she hath undone me, coming uncalled amidst the ills which before
+  possessed me. And with reason did she follow her daughter, being about to
+  deck her as a bride,<a name="IA_32"></a><a
+  href="#IAN_32"><sup>[32]</sup></a> and to perform the dearest offices,
+  where she will find us base. But for this hapless virgin&mdash;why [call
+  her] virgin? Hades, as it seems, will speedily attend on her
+  nuptials,&mdash;how do I pity her! For I think that she will beseech me
+  thus: O father, wilt thou slay me? Such a wedding mayest thou thyself
+  wed, and whosoever is a friend to thee. But Orestes being present will
+  cry out knowingly words not knowing, for he is yet an infant. Alas! how
+  has Priam's son, Paris, undone me by wedding the nuptials of Paris, who
+  has wrought this!</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. And I also pity her, as it becomes a stranger woman to moan for
+  the misfortune of her lords.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. Brother, give me thy right hand to touch.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. I give it, for thine is the power, but I am wretched.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. I swear by Pelops, who was called the sire of my father and
+  thine, and my father Atreus, that I indeed will tell thee plainly from my
+  heart, and not any thing out of contrivance, but only what I think. I,
+  beholding thee letting fall the tear from thine eyes, pitied thee, and
+  myself let fall [a tear] for thee in return. And I have changed<a
+  name="IA_33"></a><a href="#IAN_33"><sup>[33]</sup></a> my old
+  determinations, not being wrath against you, but I will place myself in
+  your present situation, and I recommend you neither to slay your child,
+  nor to take my part; for it is not just that thou shouldst groan, but my
+  affairs be in a pleasant state, and that thine should die, but mine
+  behold the light. For what do I wish? Might I not obtain another choice
+  alliance, if I crave nuptials? But, having undone my brother, whom it
+  least behooved me, shall I receive Helen, an evil in place of a good? I
+  was foolish and young, before that, viewing the matter closely, I saw
+  what it is to beget children. Besides, pity came over me, considering our
+  connection, for the hapless girl, who is about to be sacrificed because
+  of my marriage. But what has thy virgin [daughter] to do with Helen? Let
+  the army go, being disbanded from Aulis. But cease thou bedewing thine
+  eyes with tears, my brother, and exciting me to tears. But if I have any
+  concern in the oracle respecting thy daughter, let me have none: to thee
+  I yield my part. But I have come to a change<a name="IA_34"></a><a
+  href="#IAN_34"><sup>[34]</sup></a> from terrible resolutions. I
+  have experienced<a name="IA_35"></a><a href="#IAN_35"><sup>[35]</sup></a>
+  what was meet. I have changed to regard him who is sprung from a common
+  source. Such changes belong not to a bad man, [viz.] to follow the best
+  always.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Thou hast spoken generous words, and becoming Tantalus the son
+  of Jove. Thou disgracest not thine ancestors.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. I commend thee, Menelaus, in that, contrary to my expectation, you
+  have subjoined these words, rightly, and worthily of thee.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. A certain disturbance<a name="IA_36"></a><a
+  href="#IAN_36"><sup>[36]</sup></a> between brothers arises on account of
+  love, and avarice in their houses. I abhor such a relationship, mutually
+  sore.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. But [consider,] for we are come into circumstances that render it
+  necessary to accomplish the bloody slaughter of my daughter.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. How? Who will compel thee to slay thy child?</p>
+
+  <p>AG. The whole assembly of the armament of the Greeks.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. Not so, if at least thou dismiss it back to Argos.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. In this matter I might escape discovery, but in that I can not.<a
+  name="IA_37"></a><a href="#IAN_37"><sup>[37]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>MEN. What? One should not too much fear the multitude.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. Calchas will proclaim his prophecy to the army of the Greeks.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. Not if he die first&mdash;and this is easy.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. The whole race of seers is an ambitious ill.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. And in naught good or profitable, when at hand.<a
+  name="IA_38"></a><a href="#IAN_38"><sup>[38]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>AG. But dost thou not fear that which occurs to me?</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. How can I understand the word you say not?</p>
+
+  <p>AG. The son of Sisyphus knows all these matters.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. It can not be that Orestes can pain thee and me.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. He is ever changeable, and with the multitude.</p>
+
+  <p>MEN. He is indeed possessed with the passion for popularity, a
+  dreadful evil.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. Do you not then think that he, standing in the midst of the
+  Greeks, will tell the oracles which Calchas pronounced, and of me, that I
+  promised to offer a sacrifice to Diana, and then break my word. With
+  which [words] having carried away the army, he will bid the Greeks slay
+  thee and me, and sacrifice the damsel. And if I flee to Argos, they will
+  come and ravage and raze the land, Cyclopean walls and all. Such are my
+  troubles. O unhappy me! How, by the Gods, am I at a loss in these present
+  matters! Take care of one thing for me, Menelaus, going through the army,
+  that Clyt�mnestra may not learn these matters, before I take and offer my
+  daughter to Hades, that I may fare ill with as few tears as possible. But
+  do ye, O stranger women, preserve silence.</p>
+
+  <p>CHORUS. Blest are they who share the nuptial bed of the Goddess
+  Aphrodite,<a name="IA_39"></a><a href="#IAN_39"><sup>[39]</sup></a> when
+  she is moderate, and with modesty, obtaining a calm from the maddening
+  stings, when Love with his golden locks stretches his twin bow of graces,
+  the one for a prosperous fate, the other for the upturning of life. I
+  deprecate this [bow,] O fairest Venus, from our beds, but may mine be a
+  moderate grace, and holy endearments, and may I share Aphrodite, but
+  reject her when excessive. But the natures of mortals are different, and
+  their manners are different,<a name="IA_40"></a><a
+  href="#IAN_40"><sup>[40]</sup></a> but that which is clearly good is ever
+  plain. And the education which trains<a name="IA_41"></a><a
+  href="#IAN_41"><sup>[41]</sup></a> [men] up, conduces greatly to virtue,
+  for to have reverence is wisdom, and it possesses an equivalent
+  advantage, viz. to perceive what is fitting by one's mind, where report
+  bears unwasting glory to life.<a name="IA_42"></a><a
+  href="#IAN_42"><sup>[42]</sup></a> 'Tis a great thing to hunt for [the
+  praise of] virtue, among women indeed, by a secret affection,<a
+  name="IA_43"></a><a href="#IAN_43"><sup>[43]</sup></a> but among men, on
+  the other hand, honor being inherent,<a name="IA_44"></a><a
+  href="#IAN_44"><sup>[44]</sup></a> [bears that praise, honor,] which
+  increases a state to an incalculable extent.<a name="IA_45"></a><a
+  href="#IAN_45"><sup>[45]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>Thou earnest, O Paris, &#x2020;where thou wast trained up a shepherd
+  with the white heifers of Ida, trilling a barbarian lay, breathing an
+  imitation of the Phrygian pipes of Olympus on a reed. And the cows with
+  their well-filled udders browsed, when the judgment of the Goddesses
+  drove thee mad, which sends thee into Greece,&#x2020; before the
+  ivory-decked palaces, thou who didst strike love into the eyes of Helen
+  which were upon thee, and thyself wast fluttered with love. Whence
+  strife, strife brings Greece against the bulwarks of Troy with spears and
+  ships.&#x2020; Alas! alas! great are the fortunes of the great.<a
+  name="IA_46"></a><a href="#IAN_46"><sup>[46]</sup></a> Behold the king's
+  daughter, Iphigenia, my queen, and Clyt�mnestra, daughter of Tyndarus,
+  how are they sprung from the great, and to what suitable fortune they are
+  come. The powerful, in sooth, and the wealthy, are Gods to those of
+  mortals who are unblest. [Let us stand still, ye children of Chalcis, let
+  us receive the queen from her chariot to the earth, not unsteadily, but
+  gently with the soft attention of our hands, lest the renowned daughter
+  of Agamemnon, newly coming to me, be alarmed, nor let us, as strangers to
+  strangers, cause disturbance or fear to the Argive ladies.<a
+  name="IA_47"></a><a href="#IAN_47"><sup>[47]</sup></a>]</p>
+
+  <p>[<i>Enter</i> Clyt�mnestra, IPHIGENIA, <i>and probably</i> ORESTES
+  <i>in a chariot. They descend from it, while the Chorus make
+  obeisance</i>.]</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. I regard both your kindness and your favorable words as a good
+  omen, and I have some hope that I am here as escort [of my daughter] to
+  honorable nuptials. But take out of my chariot the dower-gifts which I
+  bear for my girl, and send them carefully into the house. And do thou, my
+  child, quit the horse-chariot, setting [carefully] thy foot delicate and
+  at the same time tender. But you,<a name="IA_48"></a><a
+  href="#IAN_48"><sup>[48]</sup></a> maidens, receive her in your arms, and
+  lift her from the chariot. And let some one give me the firm support of
+  his hand, that I may beseemingly leave the chariot-seat. But do some<a
+  name="IA_49"></a><a href="#IAN_49"><sup>[49]</sup></a> of you stand in
+  front of the horses' yoke, for the uncontrolled eye of horses is
+  timorous, and take this boy, the son of Agamemnon, Orestes, for he is
+  still an infant. Child! dost sleep, overcome by the ride? Wake up happily
+  for thy sisters' nuptials. For thou thyself being noble shalt obtain
+  relationship with a good man, the God-like son of the daughter of Nereus.
+  [<a name="IA_50"></a><a href="#IAN_50"><sup>[50]</sup></a>Next come thou
+  close to my foot, O daughter, to thy mother, Iphigenia, and standing
+  near, show these strangers how happy I am, and come hither indeed, and
+  address thy dear father.] O thou most great glory to me, king Agamemnon,
+  we are come, not disobeying thy bidding.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. O mother, running indeed, (but be thou not angry,) I will apply
+  my breast to my father's breast. [<a name="IA_51"></a><a
+  href="#IAN_51"><sup>[51]</sup></a>But I wish, rushing to embrace thy
+  breast, O father, after a long season. For I long for thy face. But do
+  not be angry.]</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. But, O my child, enjoy [thine embraces,] but thou wert ever most
+  fond of thy father, of all the children I bore.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. O father, joyous do I behold thee after a long season.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. And I, thy father, [joyously behold] thee. Thou speakest thus
+  equally in respect to both.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Hail! But well hast thou done in bringing me to thee, O
+  father.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. I know not how I shall say, yet not say so, my child.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Ah! how uneasily dost thou regard me, joyfully beholding me
+  [before.]</p>
+
+  <p>AG. A king and general has many cares.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Give thyself up to me now, and turn not thyself to cares.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. But I am altogether concerned with thee, and on no other
+  subject.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Relax thy brow, and open thy eyes in joy.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. See, I rejoice as I rejoice, at seeing thee, child.<a
+  name="IA_52"></a><a href="#IAN_52"><sup>[52]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>IPH. And then dost let fall a tear from thine eyes?</p>
+
+  <p>AG. For long to us is the coming absence.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. I know not what you mean, I know not, dearest father mine.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. Speaking sensibly, thou movest me the more to pity.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. I will speak foolishly, if I so may rejoice you.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. Alas! I can not keep silence, but I commend thee.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Remain, O father, in the house with thy children,</p>
+
+  <p>AG. I fain would, but not having what I would, I am pained.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Perish war and the ills of Menelaus!<a name="IA_53"></a><a
+  href="#IAN_53"><sup>[53]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>AG. What has undone me will first undo others.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. How long a time wast thou absent in the recesses of Aulis!</p>
+
+  <p>AG. And now also there is something hinders me from sending on the
+  army.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Where say they that the Phrygians dwell, father?</p>
+
+  <p>AG. Where would that Paris, Priam's son, had never dwelt.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. And dost thou go a long distance, O father, when thou leavest
+  me?</p>
+
+  <p>AG. Thou art come, my daughter, to the same state with thy father.<a
+  name="IA_54"></a><a href="#IAN_54"><sup>[54]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Alas! would that it were fitting me and thee to take me with thee
+  as thy fellow-sailor.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. But there is yet a sailing for thee, where thou wilt remember thy
+  father.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Shall I go, sailing with my mother, or alone?</p>
+
+  <p>AG. Alone, apart from thy father and mother.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. What, art thou going to make me dwell in other houses,
+  father?</p>
+
+  <p>AG. Cease. It is not proper for girls to know these matters.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Hasten back from Phrygia, do, my father, having settled matters
+  well there.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. It first behooves me to offer a certain sacrifice here.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. But it is with the priests that thou shouldst consider sacred
+  matters.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. [Yet] shalt thou know it, for thou wilt stand round the altar.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. What, shall we stand in chorus round the altar, my father?<a
+  name="IA_55"></a><a href="#IAN_55"><sup>[55]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>AG. I deem thee happier than myself, for that thou know-est nothing.
+  But go within the house, that the girls may behold thee,<a
+  name="IA_56"></a><a href="#IAN_56"><sup>[56]</sup></a> having given me a
+  sad kiss and thy right hand, being about to dwell a long time away from
+  thy sire. O bosom and cheeks, O yellow tresses, how has the city of the
+  Phrygians proved a burden to us, and Helen! I cease my words, for swift
+  does the drop trickle from mine eyes when I touch thee. Go into the
+  house. But I, I crave thy pardon, (<i>to Clyt�mnestra</i>,) daughter of
+  Leda, if I showed too much feeling, being about to bestow my daughter on
+  Achilles. For the departure [of a girl] is a happy one, but nevertheless
+  it pains the parents, when a father, who has toiled much, delivers up his
+  children to another home.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. I am not so insensible&mdash;but think thou that I shall
+  experience the same feelings, (so that I should not chide thee,) when I
+  lead forth my girl with nuptial rejoicings, but custom wears away these
+  thoughts in course of time. I know, however, the name of him to whom thou
+  hast promised thy daughter, but I would fain know of what race, and
+  whence [he is.]</p>
+
+  <p>AG. �gina was the daughter of her father Asopus.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. And who of mortals or of Gods wedded her?</p>
+
+  <p>AG. Jove, and she gave birth to �acus, prince of &#338;none.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. But what son obtained the house of �acus?</p>
+
+  <p>AG. Peleus, and Peleus obtained the daughter of Nereus.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. By the gift of the God, or taking her in spite of the Gods?</p>
+
+  <p>AG. Jove acted as a sponsor, and bestowed her, having the power.<a
+  name="IA_57"></a><a href="#IAN_57"><sup>[57]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>CLY. And where does he wed her? In the wave of the sea?</p>
+
+  <p>AG. Where Chiron dwells at the sacred foot of Pelion.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. Where they say that the race of Centaurs dwells?</p>
+
+  <p>AG. Here the Gods celebrated the nuptial feast of Peleus.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. But did Thetis, or his father, train up Achilles?</p>
+
+  <p>AG. Chiron, that he might not learn the manners of evil mortals.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. Hah! wise was the instructor, and wiser he who intrusted him.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. Such a man will be the husband of thy child.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. Not to be found fault with. But what city in Greece does he
+  inhabit?</p>
+
+  <p>AG. Near the river Apidanus in the confines of Phthia.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. Thither will he lead thy virgin [daughter] and mine.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. This shall be the care of him, her possessor.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. And may the pair be happy; but on what day will he wed her?</p>
+
+  <p>AG. When the prospering orb of the moon comes round.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. But hast thou already sacrificed the first offerings for thy
+  daughter to the Goddess?</p>
+
+  <p>AG. I am about to do so. In this matter we are now engaged.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. And wilt thou then celebrate a wedding-feast afterward?</p>
+
+  <p>AG. [Ay,] having sacrificed such offerings as it behooves me to
+  sacrifice to the Gods.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. But where shall we set out a banquet for the women?</p>
+
+  <p>AG. Here, by the fair-pooped ships of the Greeks.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. Well, and poorly,<a name="IA_58"></a><a
+  href="#IAN_58"><sup>[58]</sup></a> forsooth! but may it nevertheless turn
+  out well.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. Do then thou knowest what, O lady, and obey me.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. In what? for I am accustomed to obey thee.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. We indeed in this place, where the bridegroom is&mdash;</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. Will do what without the mother, [of those things] which it
+  behooves me to do?</p>
+
+  <p>AG. &mdash;will bestow your daughter among the Greeks.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. But where must I be in the mean time?</p>
+
+  <p>AG. Go to Argos, and take care of your virgins.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. Leaving my child? And who will bear the [nuptial] torch?</p>
+
+  <p>AG. I will furnish the light that becomes the nuptials.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. The custom is not thus, but you think these matters trifles.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. It is not proper that thou shouldst mingle in the crowd of the
+  army.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. It is proper that I, the mother, should bestow at least my own
+  daughter.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. And it [is proper] that the damsels at home should not be
+  alone.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. They are well guarded in their close chambers.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. Obey me.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. [No,] by the Argive Goddess queen. But go you, and attend to
+  matters abroad, but I [will mind] the affairs at home, as to the things
+  which should be present to virgins at their wedding.<a
+  name="IA_59"></a><a href="#IAN_59"><sup>[59]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>AG. Alas! In vain have I toiled,<a name="IA_60"></a><a
+  href="#IAN_60"><sup>[60]</sup></a> and have been frustrated in my hope,
+  wishing to send my wife out of my sight. But I am using stratagems, and
+  finding contrivances against those I best love, overcome at all points.
+  But nevertheless with the prophet Calchas I will go and ask the pleasure
+  of the Goddess, not fortunate for me, the trouble of Greece.<a
+  name="IA_61"></a><a href="#IAN_61"><sup>[61]</sup></a> But it behooves a
+  wise man either to support a useful and good wife in his house or not to
+  marry at all.<a name="IA_62"></a><a
+  href="#IAN_62"><sup>[62]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>CHORUS. The assembly of the Grecian army will come to Simois, and to
+  the silver eddies, both with ships and with arms, to Ilium, and to the
+  Ph&#339;beian plain of Troy, where I hear that Cassandra, adorned with a
+  green-blossoming crown of laurel, lets loose her yellow locks, when the
+  prophetic influence of the Gods breathes upon her. And the Trojans will
+  stand upon the towers of Troy and around its walls, when brazen-shielded
+  Mars, borne over the sea in fair-prowed ships, approaches the beds of
+  Simois by rowing, seeking to bear away Helen, [the sister] of the twain
+  sons of Jove in heaven, into the land of Greece, by the war-toiling
+  shields and spears of the Greeks. But having surrounded Pergamus,<a
+  name="IA_63"></a><a href="#IAN_63"><sup>[63]</sup></a> the city of the
+  Phrygians, around its towers of stone, with bloody Mars, having torn off
+  the heads [of the citizens] cut from their necks, having completely
+  ravaged the city of Troy, he will make the daughters and wife of Priam
+  shed many tears. But Helen, the daughter of Jove, will sit&#x2020; in sad
+  lamentation, having left her husband. Never upon me or upon my children's
+  children may this expectation come, such as the wealthy Lydian and
+  Phrygian wives possess while at their spinning, conversing thus with each
+  other. Who,<a name="IA_64"></a><a href="#IAN_64"><sup>[64]</sup></a>
+  dragging out my fair-haired tresses, will choose me as his spoil despite
+  my tears, while my country is perishing? Through thee [forsooth,] the
+  offspring of the long-necked swan, if indeed the report is true, that
+  Leda &#x2020; met with<a name="IA_65"></a><a
+  href="#IAN_65"><sup>[65]</sup></a> a winged bird, when the body of Jove
+  was transformed, and then in the tablets of the muses fables spread these
+  reports among men, inopportunely, and in vain.</p>
+
+<p class="center">[<i>Enter</i> ACHILLES.]</p>
+
+  <p>ACHILLES. Where about here is the general of the Greeks? Who of the
+  servants will tell him that Achilles, the son of Peleus, is seeking him
+  at the gates? For we do not remain by the Euripus in equal condition; for
+  some of us being unyoked in nuptials, having left our solitary homes, sit
+  here upon the shore, but others, having wives and children:<a
+  name="IA_66"></a><a href="#IAN_66"><sup>[66]</sup></a> so violent a
+  passion for this expedition has fallen upon Greece, not without the will
+  of the Gods. It is therefore right that I should speak of what concerns
+  me, and whoever else wishes will himself speak for himself. For leaving
+  the Pharsalian land, and Peleus, I am waiting for these light gales of
+  Euripus,<a name="IA_67"></a><a href="#IAN_67"><sup>[67]</sup></a>
+  restraining the Myrmidons, who are continually pressing me, and saying,
+  "Achilles, why tarry we? what manner of time must the armament against
+  Troy yet measure out? At any rate act, if you are going to do any thing,
+  or lead the army home, not abiding the delays of the Atrides."</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. O son of the Goddess, daughter of Nereus, hearing from within thy
+  words, I have come out before the house.</p>
+
+  <p>ACH. O hallowed modesty, who can this woman be whom I behold here,
+  possessing a fair-seeming form?</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. It is no wonder that you know me not, whom you have never seen
+  before, but I commend you because you respect modesty.</p>
+
+  <p>ACH. But who art thou? And wherefore hast thou come to the assembly of
+  the Greeks, a woman to men guarded with shields?</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. I am the daughter of Leda, and Clyt�mnestra is my name, and my
+  husband is king Agamemnon.</p>
+
+  <p>ACH. Well hast thou in few words spoken what is seasonable. But it is
+  unbecoming for me to converse with women. (<i>Is going</i>.)</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. Remain, (why dost thou fly?) at least join thy right hand with
+  mine, as a happy commencement of betrothal.</p>
+
+  <p>ACH. What sayest thou? I [give] thee my right hand? I should be
+  ashamed of Agamemnon, if I touched what is not lawful for me.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. It is particularly lawful, since you are going to wed my
+  daughter, O son of the sea Goddess, daughter of Nereus.</p>
+
+  <p>ACH. What marriage dost thou say? Surprise possesses me, lady, unless,
+  being beside yourself, you speak this new thing.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. This is the nature of all people, to be ashamed when they behold
+  new friends, and are put in mind of nuptials.</p>
+
+  <p>ACH. I never wooed thy daughter, lady, nor has any thing been said to
+  me on the subject of marriage by the Atrides.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. What can it be? Do you in turn marvel at my words, for thine are
+  a marvel to me.</p>
+
+  <p>ACH. Conjecture; these matters are a common subject for conjecture,
+  for both of us perhaps are deceived in our words.<a name="IA_68"></a><a
+  href="#IAN_68"><sup>[68]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>CLY. But surely I have suffered terrible things! I am acting as
+  match-maker in regard to a marriage that has no existence. I am ashamed
+  of this.</p>
+
+  <p>ACH. Perhaps some one has trifled with both me and thee. But pay no
+  attention to it, and bear it with indifference.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. Farewell, for I can no longer behold thee with uplifted eyes,
+  having appeared as a liar, and suffered unworthy things.</p>
+
+  <p>ACH. And this same [farewell] is thine from me. But I will go seek thy
+  husband within this house.</p>
+
+<p class="center">[<i>The</i> OLD MAN <i>appears at the door of the house</i>.]</p>
+
+  <p>OLD M. O stranger, grandson of �acus, remain. Ho! thee, I say, the son
+  of the Goddess, and thee, the daughter of Leda.</p>
+
+  <p>ACM. Who is it that calls, partially opening the doors? With what
+  terror he calls!</p>
+
+  <p>OLD M. A slave. I will not be nice about the title, for fortune allows
+  it not.</p>
+
+  <p>ACH. Of whom? for thou art not mine. My property and Agamemnon's are
+  different.</p>
+
+  <p>OLD M. Of this lady who is before the house, the gift of her father
+  Tyndarus.</p>
+
+  <p>ACH. We are still. Say if thou wantest any thing, for which thou hast
+  stopped me.</p>
+
+  <p>OLD M. Are ye sure that ye alone stand before these gates?</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. Ay, so that you may speak to us only. But come out from the royal
+  dwelling.</p>
+
+  <p>OLD M. (Coming forward) O fortune, and foresight mine, preserve whom I
+  wish.</p>
+
+  <p>ACH. These words will do for<a name="IA_69"></a><a
+  href="#IAN_69"><sup>[69]</sup></a> a future occasion, for they have some
+  weight.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. By thy right hand [I beseech thee,] delay not, if thou hast aught
+  to say to me.</p>
+
+  <p>OLD M. Thou knowest then, being what manner of man, I have been by
+  nature well disposed to thee and thy children.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. I know thee as being a faithful servant to my house.</p>
+
+  <p>OLD M. And that king Agamemnon received me among thy dowry.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. Thou camest into Argos with us, and thou wast always mine.</p>
+
+  <p>OLD M. So it is, and I am well disposed to thee, but less so to thy
+  husband.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. Unfold now at least to me what words you are saying.</p>
+
+  <p>OLD M. The father who begat her is about to slay thy daughter with his
+  own hand.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. How? I deprecate thy words, old man, for thou thinkest not
+  well.</p>
+
+  <p>OLD M. Cutting the fair neck of the hapless girl with the sword.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. O wretched me! Is my husband mad?</p>
+
+  <p>OLD M. He is in his right mind, save with respect to thee and thy
+  daughter, but in this he is not wise.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. Upon what grounds? What maddening fiend impels him?</p>
+
+  <p>OLD M. The oracles, as at least Calchas says, in order that the army
+  may be able to proceed.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. Whither? Wretched me, and wretched she whom her father is about
+  to slay?</p>
+
+  <p>OLD M. To the house of Dardanus, that Menelaus may recover Helen.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. To the destruction, then, of Iphigenia, was the return of Helen
+  foredoomed?</p>
+
+  <p>OLD M. Thou hast the whole story. Her father is going to offer thy
+  daughter to Diana.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. What! what pretext had the marriage, that brought me from
+  home?</p>
+
+  <p>OLD M. That thou rejoicing mightest bring thy child, as if about to
+  wed her to Achilles.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. O daughter, both thou and thy mother are come to meet with
+  destruction.</p>
+
+  <p>OLD M. Ye twain are suffering sad things, and dreadful things hath
+  Agamemnon dared.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. I wretched am undone, and my eyes no longer restrain the
+  tear.</p>
+
+  <p>OLD M. For bitter 'tis to mourn, deprived of one's children.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. But whence, old man, sayest thou that thou hast learned and
+  knowest these things?</p>
+
+  <p>OLD M. I went to bear a letter to thee, in reference to what was
+  before written.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. Not allowing, or bidding me to bring my child, that she might
+  die?</p>
+
+  <p>OLD M. [It was] that you should not bring her, for your husband then
+  thought well.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. And how was it then, that, bearing the letter, thou gavest it not
+  to me?</p>
+
+  <p>OLD M. Menelaus, who is the cause of these evils, took it from me.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. O child of Nereus' daughter, O son of Peleus, dost hear these
+  things?</p>
+
+  <p>ACH. I hear that thou art wretched, and I do not bear my part
+  indifferently.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. They will slay my child, having deceived her with thy
+  nuptials.</p>
+
+  <p>ACH. I also blame thy husband, nor do I bear it lightly.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. I will not be ashamed to fall down at thy knee, mortal, to one
+  born of a Goddess. For wherefore should I make a show of pride? Or what
+  should I study more than my children? But, O son of the Goddess, aid me
+  in my unhappiness, and her who is called thy wife, vainly indeed, but
+  nevertheless, having decked her out, I led her as if to be married, but
+  now I lead her to sacrifice, and reproach will come upon thee, who gavest
+  no aid. For though thou wast not yoked in nuptials, at least thou wast
+  called the beloved husband of the hapless virgin. By thy beard, by thy
+  right hand, by thy mother [I beseech] thee, for thy name hath undone me,
+  to whom thou shouldst needs give assistance. I have no other altar to fly
+  to, but thy knee, nor is any friend near me,<a name="IA_70"></a><a
+  href="#IAN_70"><sup>[70]</sup></a> but thou hearest the cruel and
+  all-daring conduct of Agamemnon. But I a woman, as thou seest, have come
+  to a naval host, uncontrolled, and bold for mischief, but useful, when
+  they are willing. But if thou wilt venture to stretch thine hand in my
+  behalf, we are saved, but if not, we are not saved.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. A terrible thing it is to be a mother, and it bears a great
+  endearment, and one common to all, so as to toil on behalf of their
+  children.</p>
+
+  <p>ACH. My mind is high-lifted in its thoughts,<a name="IA_71"></a><a
+  href="#IAN_71"><sup>[71]</sup></a> and knows both how to grieve
+  [moderately] in troubles, and to rejoice moderately in high prosperity.
+  For the discreet among mortals are such as pass through life correctly
+  with wisdom. Now there are certain cases where it is pleasant not to be
+  too wise, and also where it is useful to possess wisdom. But I, being
+  nurtured [in the dwelling] of a most pious man, Chiron, have learned to
+  possess a candid disposition. And I will obey the Atrides, if indeed they
+  order well, but when not well, I obey not. But here in Troy showing a
+  free nature I will glorify Mars with the spear, as far as I can. But, O
+  thou who hast suffered wretchedly at the hands of those dearest, in
+  whatever can be done by a youth, I, showing so much pity, will set thee
+  right, and thy daughter, having been called my bride, shall never be
+  sacrificed by her father, for I will not furnish thy husband with my
+  person to weave stratagems upon. For my name, even if he lift not up the
+  sword, will slay thy daughter, but thy husband is the cause. But my body
+  is no longer pure, if on my account, and because of my marriage, there
+  perish a virgin who has gone through sad and unbearable troubles, and has
+  been marvelously and undeservedly ill treated. I were the worst man among
+  the Greeks, I were of naught (but Menelaus would be among men), not as
+  born from Peleus, but from some fiend, if my name acts the murderer for
+  thy husband.<a name="IA_72"></a><a href="#IAN_72"><sup>[72]</sup></a> By
+  Nereus, nurtured in the damp waves, the father of Thetis, who begat me,
+  king Agamemnon shall not lay hands on thy daughter, not so much as with a
+  little finger, so as to touch her garments. I' faith, Sipylus, a fortress
+  of barbarians, whence the [royal] generals trace their descent, shall be
+  deemed a city, but the name of Phthia shall nowhere be named. And the
+  seer Calchas will to his cost consecrate the sacrificial cakes and
+  lustral waters. (But what man is a prophet?) who tells<a
+  name="IA_73"></a><a href="#IAN_73"><sup>[73]</sup></a> a few things true,
+  (but many falsely,) when he has made a hit, but when he fails, is undone.
+  These words are not spoken for the sake of my wedding, (ten thousand
+  girls are hunting after alliance with me,) but [because] king Agamemnon
+  has been guilty of insult toward me. But it behooved him to ask [the use
+  of] my name from me, as an enticement for his daughter, and Clyt�mnestra
+  would have been most readily persuaded to give her daughter to me as a
+  husband. And I would have given her up to the Greeks, if on this account
+  their passage to Troy had been impeded: I would not have refused to
+  augment the common interest of those with whom I set out on the
+  expedition. But now I am held as of no account by the generals, and it is
+  a matter of indifference whether I benefit them or not. Soon shall my
+  sword witness, which, before death came against the Phrygians,<a
+  name="IA_74"></a><a href="#IAN_74"><sup>[74]</sup></a> I stained with
+  spots of blood, whether any one shall take thy daughter from me. But keep
+  quiet, I have appeared to thee as a most mighty God, though not [a God,]
+  but nevertheless I will be such.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. O son of Peleus, thou hast spoken both worthily of thyself, and
+  of the marine deity, hallowed Goddess.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. Alas! how can I praise thee neither too much in words, nor, being
+  deficient in this respect, [not] lose thy favor? For in a certain wise
+  the praised dislike their praisers, if they praise too much. But I am
+  ashamed at alleging pitiable words, being troubled in myself, while thou
+  art not diseased with my ills. But in fact the good man has some reason,
+  even though he be unconnected with them, for assisting the unfortunate.
+  But pity us, for we have suffered pitiably; I, who, in the first place,
+  thinking to have thee for a kinsman, cherished a vain
+  hope.&mdash;Moreover, my child, by dying, might perchance become an omen
+  to thy future bridals,<a name="IA_75"></a><a
+  href="#IAN_75"><sup>[75]</sup></a> which thou must needs avoid. But well
+  didst thou speak both first and last, for, if thou art willing, my child
+  will be saved. Dost wish that she embrace thy knee as a suppliant? Such
+  conduct is not virgin-like, but if thou wilt, she shall come, with her
+  noble face suffused with modesty. Or shall I obtain these things from
+  thee, without her presence?</p>
+
+  <p>ACH. Let her remain within doors, for with dignity she preserves her
+  dignity.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. Yet one must needs have modesty [only] as far as circumstances
+  allow.</p>
+
+  <p>ACH. Do thou neither bring forth thy daughter into my sight, lady, not
+  let us fall into reproach for inconsiderate conduct, for our assembled
+  army, being idle from home occupations, loves evil and slanderous talk.
+  But at all events you will accomplish the same, whether you come to me as
+  a suppliant, or do not supplicate, for a mighty contest awaits me, to
+  release you from these evils. Wherefore, having heard one thing, be
+  persuaded that I will not speak falsely. But if I speak falsely, and
+  vainly amuse you, may I perish; but may I not perish, if I preserve the
+  virgin.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. Mayest thou be blest, ever assisting the unhappy.</p>
+
+  <p>ACH. Hear me then, that the matter may be well.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. What is this thou sayest? for one must listen to thee.</p>
+
+  <p>ACH. Let us again persuade her father to be wiser.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. He is a coward, and fears the army too much.</p>
+
+  <p>ACH. But words can conquer words.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. Chilly is the hope, but tell me what I must do.</p>
+
+  <p>ACH. Beseech him first not to slay his child, but if he oppose this,
+  you must come to me. For if he will be persuaded what you wish, there is
+  no occasion for my efforts, for this very [consent] contains her safety.
+  And I also shall appear in a better light with my friend, and the army
+  will not blame me, if I transact matters by discretion rather than force.
+  And if this turn out well, these things, even without my help, may turn
+  out satisfactorily to thy friends and thyself.<a name="IA_76"></a><a
+  href="#IAN_76"><sup>[76]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>CLY. How wisely hast thou spoken! But what thou sayest must be done.
+  But if I do not obtain what I seek, where shall I again see thee? Where
+  must I wretched woman, coming, find thee an assistant in my troubles?</p>
+
+  <p>ACH. We guards will watch thee when there is occasion, lest any one
+  behold thee going in agitation through the host of the Greeks. But do not
+  shame thy ancestral home, for Tyndarus is not worthy of an evil
+  reputation, seeing he is great among the Greeks.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. These things shall be. Command; it is meet that I obey thee. But
+  if there are Gods, you, being a just man, will receive a good reward; but
+  if not, why should one toil?</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. What was that nuptial song that raised<a name="IA_77"></a><a
+  href="#IAN_77"><sup>[77]</sup></a> its strains on the Libyan reed, and
+  with the dance-loving lyre, and the reedy syrinx, when o'er Pelion at the
+  feast of the Gods the fair-haired muses, striking their feet with golden
+  sandals against the ground, came to the wedding of Peleus, celebrating
+  with melodious sounds Thetis, and the son of �acus, on the mountains of
+  the Centaurs, through the Palian wood.</p>
+
+  <p>But the Dardan,<a name="IA_78"></a><a
+  href="#IAN_78"><sup>[78]</sup></a> [Phrygian Ganymede,] dear delight of
+  Jove's bed, poured out the nectar in the golden depths of the goblets,
+  and along the white sands the fifty daughters of Nereus, entwining in
+  circles, adorned the nuptials of Nereus with the dance. But with darts of
+  fir, and crowns of grass, the horse-mounted troop of the Centaurs came to
+  the banquet of the Gods and the cup of Bacchus. And the Thessalian girls
+  shouted loud,<a name="IA_79"></a><a href="#IAN_79"><sup>[79]</sup></a> "O
+  daughter of Nereus," and the prophet Ph&#339;bus, and Chiron, skilled in
+  letters, declared, "Thou shalt bring forth a mighty light, who shall come
+  to the [Trojan] land with Myrmidons armed with spear and shield, to burn
+  the renowned city of Priam, around his body armed with a covering of
+  golden arms wrought by Vulcan, having them as a gift from his Goddess
+  Thetis, who begat him blessed." Then the deities celebrated the nuptials
+  of the noble daughter of Nereus first,<a name="IA_80"></a><a
+  href="#IAN_80"><sup>[80]</sup></a> and of Peleus. But thee, [O
+  Iphigenia,] they will crown on the head with flowery garlands, like as a
+  pure spotted heifer from a rocky cave, making bloody the mortal throat
+  [of one] not trained up with the pipe, nor amidst the songs of herdsmen,
+  but as a bride<a name="IA_81"></a><a href="#IAN_81"><sup>[81]</sup></a>
+  prepared by thy mother for some one of the Argives. Where has the face of
+  shame, or virtue any power to prevail? Since impiety indeed has
+  influence, but virtue is left behind and disregarded by mortals, and
+  lawlessness governs law, and it is a common struggle for mortals, lest
+  any envy of the Gods befall.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. I have come out of the house to seek for my husband, who has been
+  absent, and has quitted the house a long time. But my hapless daughter is
+  in tears, casting forth many a change of complaint, having heard the
+  death her father devises for her. But I was mindful of Agamemnon who is
+  now coming hither,<a name="IA_82"></a><a
+  href="#IAN_82"><sup>[82]</sup></a> who will quickly be detected doing
+  evil deeds against his own children.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. Daughter of Leda, opportunely have I found you without the house,
+  that I may tell thee, apart from the virgin, words which it is not meet
+  for those to hear who are about to marry.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. And what is it, on which your convenience lays hold?</p>
+
+  <p>AG. Send forth thy daughter from the house with her father, since the
+  lustral waters are ready prepared, and the salt-cakes to scatter with the
+  hands upon the purifying flame, and heifers, which needs must be slain in
+  honor of the Goddess Diana before the marriage solemnities, a shedding of
+  black gore.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. In words, indeed, thou speakest well, but for thy deeds, I know
+  not how I may say thou speakest well. But come without, O daughter, for
+  thou knowest all that thy father meditates, and beneath thy robes bring
+  the child Orestes, thy brother. See, she is here present to obey thee.
+  But the rest I will speak on her behalf and mine.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. Child, why weepest thou, and no longer beholdest me cheerfully,
+  but fixing thy face upon the ground, keepest thy vest before it?</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. Alas! What commencement of my sorrows shall I take? For I may use
+  them all as first, [both last, and middle throughout.<a
+  name="IA_83"></a><a href="#IAN_83"><sup>[83]</sup></a>]</p>
+
+  <p>AG. But what is it? How all of you are come to one point with me,
+  bearing disturbed and alarmed countenances.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. Wilt thou answer candidly, husband, if I ask thee?</p>
+
+  <p>AG. There needs no admonition: I would fain be questioned.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. Art thou going to slay thy child and mine?</p>
+
+  <p>AG. Ah! wretched things dost thou say, and thinkest what thou shouldst
+  not.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. Keep quiet, and first in turn answer me that.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. But if thou askest likely things, thou wilt hear likely.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. I ask no other things, nor do thou answer me others.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. O revered destiny, and fate, and fortune mine!</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. Ay, and mine too, and this child's, one of three
+  unfortunates!</p>
+
+  <p>AG. But in what art thou wronged?</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. Dost thou ask me this? This thy wit hath no wit.<a
+  name="IA_84"></a><a href="#IAN_84"><sup>[84]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>AG. I am undone. My secret plans are betrayed.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. I know and have learned all that you are about to do to me, and
+  the very fact of thy silence, and of thy groaning much, is a proof that
+  you confess it. Do not take the trouble to say any thing.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. Behold, I am silent: for what need is there that, falsely
+  speaking, I add shamelessness to misfortune?</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. Listen, then, for I will unfold my story, and will no longer make
+  use of riddles away from the purpose. In the first place, that I may
+  first reproach thee with this&mdash;thou didst wed me unwilling, and
+  obtain me by force, having slain Tantalus, my former husband, and having
+  dashed<a name="IA_85"></a><a href="#IAN_85"><sup>[85]</sup></a> my infant
+  living to the ground, having torn him by force from my breast. And the
+  twin sons of Jove, my brothers, glorying in their steeds, made war
+  [against thee] but my old father Tyndarus saved you, when you had become
+  a suppliant, and thou again didst possess me as a wife. When I, being
+  reconciled to thee in respect to thy person and home, thou wilt bear
+  witness how blameless a wife I was, both modest in respect to affection,
+  and enriching thy house, so that thou both going within and without thy
+  doors wast blessed. And 'tis a rare prize for a man to obtain such a
+  wife, but there is no lack of getting a bad spouse. And I bear thee this
+  son, besides three virgins, of one of whom thou art cruelly going to
+  deprive me. And if any one ask thee on what account thou wilt slay her,
+  say, what will you answer? or must I needs make your plea, "that Menelaus
+  may obtain Helen?" A pretty custom, forsooth, that children must pay the
+  price of a bad woman. We gain the most hateful things at the hand of
+  those dearest. Come, if thou wilt set out, leaving me at home, and then
+  wilt be a long time absent, what sort of feelings dost think I shall
+  experience, when I behold every seat empty of this child's presence, and
+  every virgin chamber empty, but myself sit in tears alone, ever mourning
+  her [in such strains as these:] "My child, thy father, who begat thee,
+  hath destroyed thee, himself, no other, the slayer, by no other hand,
+  leaving such a reward for [my care of] the house."<a name="IA_86"></a><a
+  href="#IAN_86"><sup>[86]</sup></a> Since there wants but a little reason
+  for me and my remaining daughters to give thee such a reception as you
+  deserve to receive. Do not, by the Gods, either compel me to act evilly
+  toward thee, nor do thou thyself be so. Ah well! thou wilt sacrifice thy
+  daughter&mdash;what prayers wilt thou then utter? What good thing wilt
+  thou crave for thyself, slaying thy child? An evil return, seeing,
+  forsooth, thou hast disgracefully set out from home. But is it right that
+  I should pray for thee any good thing? Verily we must believe the Gods
+  are senseless, if we feel well disposed to murderers. But wilt thou,
+  returning to Argos, embrace thy children? But 'tis not lawful for thee.
+  Will any of your children look upon you, if thou offerest one of them for
+  slaughter? Thus far have I proceeded in my argument. What! does it only
+  behoove thee to carry about thy sceptre and marshal the army?&mdash;whose
+  duty it were to speak a just speech among the Greeks: "Do ye desire, O
+  Greeks, to sail against the land of the Phrygians? Cast lots, whose
+  daughter needs must die"&mdash;for this would be on equal terms, but not
+  that you should give thy daughter to the Greeks as a chosen victim. Or
+  Menelaus, whose affair it was, ought to slay Hermione for her mother's
+  sake. But now I, having cherished thy married life, shall be bereaved of
+  my child, but she who has sinned, bearing her daughter under her care to
+  Sparta, will be blest. As to these things, answer me if I say aught not
+  rightly, but if I have spoken well, do not then slay thy child and mine,
+  and thou wilt be wise.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Be persuaded, Agamemnon, for 'tis right to join in saving one's
+  children. No one of mortals will gainsay this.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. If, O father, I possessed the eloquence of Orpheus, that I might
+  charm by persuasion, so that rocks should follow me, and that I might
+  soften whom I would by my words, to this would I have resorted. But now I
+  will offer tears as all my skill, for these I can. And, as a suppliant
+  bough, I press against thy knees my body, which this [my mother] bore
+  thee, [beseeching] that thou slay me not before my time, for sweet it is
+  to behold the light, nor do thou compel me to visit the places beneath
+  the earth. And I first<a name="IA_87"></a><a
+  href="#IAN_87"><sup>[87]</sup></a> hailed thee sire, and thou [didst
+  first call] me daughter, and first drawing nigh to thy knees, I gave and
+  in turn received sweet tokens of affection. And such, were thy words: "My
+  daughter, shall I some time behold thee prospering in a husband's home,
+  living and flourishing worthily of me?" And mine in turn ran thus, as I
+  hung about thy beard, which now with my hand I embrace: "But how shall I
+  [treat] thee? Shall I receive thee when an old man, O father, with the
+  hearty reception of my house, repaying thee the careful nurture of my
+  youth?" Of such words have remembrance, but thou hast forgotten them, and
+  fain wouldst slay me. Do not, [I beseech you] by Pelops and by thy father
+  Atreus, and this my mother, who having before brought me forth with
+  throes, now suffers this second throe. What have I to do with the
+  marriage of Paris and Helen? Whence came he, father, for my destruction?
+  Look upon me; give me one look, one kiss, that this memorial of thee at
+  least I, dying, may possess, if thou wilt not be persuaded by my words.
+  Brother, thou art but a little helpmate to those dear, yet weep with me,
+  beseech thy sire that thy sister die not. Even in babes there is wont to
+  be some sense of evil. Behold, O father, he silently implores thee. But
+  respect my prayer, and have pity on my years. Yea, by thy beard we, two
+  dear ones, implore thee; the one is yet a nursling, but the other grown
+  up. In one brief saying I will overcome all arguments. This light of
+  heaven is sweetest of things for men to behold, but that below is naught;
+  and mad is he who seeks to die. To live dishonorably is better than to
+  die gloriously.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. O wretched Helen, through thee and thy nuptials there is come a
+  contest for the Atrides and their children.</p>
+
+  <p>AG. I can understand what merits pity, and what not; and I love my
+  children, for [otherwise] I were mad. And dreadful 'tis for me<a
+  name="IA_88"></a><a href="#IAN_88"><sup>[88]</sup></a> to dare these
+  things, O woman, and dreadful not to do so&mdash;for so I must needs act.
+  Thou seest how great is this naval host, and how many are the chieftains
+  of brazen arms among the Greeks, to whom there is not a power of arriving
+  at the towers of Troy, unless I sacrifice you, as the seer Calchas says,
+  nor can we take the renowned plain of Troy. But a certain passion has
+  maddened the army of the Greeks, to sail as quickly as possible upon the
+  land of the barbarians, and to put a stop to the rapes of Grecian wives.
+  And they will slay my daughters at Argos, and you, and me, if I break
+  through the commands of the Goddess. It is not Menelaus who has enslaved
+  me, O daughter, nor have I followed his device, but Greece, for whom I,
+  will or nill, must needs offer thee. And I am inferior on this head. For
+  it behooves her, [Helen,] as far as thou, O daughter, art concerned, to
+  be free, nor for us, being Greeks, to be plundered perforce of our wives
+  by barbarians.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. O child! O ye stranger women! O wretched me for thy death! Thy
+  father flees from thee, giving thee up to Hades.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Alas for me! mother, mother. The same song suits both of us on
+  account of our fortunes, and no more to me is the light, nor this bright
+  beam of the sun. Alas! alas! thou snow-smitten wood of Troy, and
+  mountains of Ida, where once on a time Priam exposed a tender infant,
+  having separated him from his mother, that he might meet with deadly
+  fate, Paris, who was styled Id�an, Id�an [Paris] in the city of the
+  Phrygians. Would that the herdsman Paris, who was nurtured in care of
+  steers, had ne'er dwelt near the white stream, where are the fountains of
+  the Nymphs, and the meadow flourishing with blooming flowers, and roseate
+  flowers and hyacinths for Goddesses to cull. Where once on a time came
+  Pallas, and artful Venus, and Juno, and Hermes, the messenger of Jove;
+  Venus indeed, vaunting herself in charms, and Pallas in the spear, and
+  Juno in the royal nuptials of king Jove, [these came] to a hateful
+  judgment and strife concerning beauty; but my death, my death, O virgins,
+  bearing glory indeed to the Greeks, Diana hath received as first-fruits
+  [of the expedition] against Troy.<a name="IA_89"></a><a
+  href="#IAN_89"><sup>[89]</sup></a> But he that begot me wretched, O
+  mother, O mother, has departed, leaving me deserted. O hapless me! having
+  &#x2020;beheld&#x2020; bitter, bitter, ill-omened Helen, I am slain, I
+  perish, by the impious slaughter of an impious sire. Would<a
+  name="IA_90"></a><a href="#IAN_90"><sup>[90]</sup></a> for me that Aulis
+  had never received the poops of the brazen-beaked ships into these ports,
+  the fleet destined for Troy, nor that Jove had breathed an adverse wind
+  over Euripus, softening one breeze so that some mortals might rejoice in
+  their [expanded] sails, but to others a pain, to others difficulty, to
+  some to set sail, to others to furl their sails, but to others to tarry.
+  In truth the race of mortals is full of troubles, is full of troubles,
+  and it necessarily befalls men to find some misfortune. Alas! alas! thou
+  daughter of Tyndarus, who hast brought many sufferings, and many griefs
+  upon the Greeks.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. I indeed pity you having met with an evil calamity, such as thou
+  never shouldst have met with.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. O mother, to whom I owe my birth, I behold a crowd of men
+  near.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. Ay, the son of the Goddess, my child, for whom thou camest
+  hither.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Open the house, ye servants, that I may hide myself.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. But why dost thou fly hence, my child?</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. I am ashamed to behold this Achilles.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. On what account?</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. The unfortunate turn-out of my nuptials shames me.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. Thou art not in a state to give way to delicacy in the present
+  circumstances. But do thou remain, there is no use for punctilio, if we
+  can [but save your life.]</p>
+
+  <p>ACH. O hapless lady, daughter of Leda.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. Thou sayest not falsely.</p>
+
+  <p>ACH. Terrible things are cried out among the Greeks.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. What cry? tell me.</p>
+
+  <p>ACH. Concerning thy child.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. Thou speakest a word of ill omen.</p>
+
+  <p>ACH. That it is necessary to slay her.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. Does no one speak the contrary to this?</p>
+
+  <p>ACH. Ay, I myself have got into trouble.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. Into what [trouble,] O friend?</p>
+
+  <p>ACH. Of having my body stoned with stones.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. What, in trying to save my daughter!</p>
+
+  <p>ACH. This very thing.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. And who would have dared to touch thy person?</p>
+
+  <p>ACH. All the Greeks.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. And was not the host of the Myrmidons at hand for thee?</p>
+
+  <p>ACH. That was the first that showed enmity.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. Then are we utterly undone, my daughter.</p>
+
+  <p>ACH. For they railed at me as overcome by a betrothed&mdash;</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. And what didst thou reply?</p>
+
+  <p>ACH. That they should not slay my intended bride.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. For so 'twas right.</p>
+
+  <p>ACH. [She] whom her father had promised me.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. Ay, and had sent for from Argos.</p>
+
+  <p>ACH. But I was worsted by the outcry.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. For the multitude is a terrible evil.</p>
+
+  <p>ACH. But nevertheless I will aid thee.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. And wilt thou, being one, fight with many?</p>
+
+  <p>ACH. Dost see these men bearing [my] arms?</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. Mayest thou gain by thy good intentions.</p>
+
+  <p>ACH. But I will gain.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. Then my child will not be slain?</p>
+
+  <p>ACH. Not, at least, with my consent.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. And will any one come to lay hands on the girl?</p>
+
+  <p>ACH. Ay, a host of them, but Ulysses will conduct her.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. Will it be the descendant of Sisyphus?</p>
+
+  <p>ACH. The very man.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. Doing it of his own accord, or appointed by the army?</p>
+
+  <p>ACH. Chosen willingly.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. A wicked choice forsooth, to commit slaughter!</p>
+
+  <p>ACH. But I will restrain him.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. But will he lead her unwillingly, having seized her?</p>
+
+  <p>ACH. Ay, by her auburn locks.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. But what must I then do?</p>
+
+  <p>ACH. Keep hold of your daughter.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. As far as this goes she shall not be slain.</p>
+
+  <p>ACH. But it will come to this at all events.<a name="IA_91"></a><a
+  href="#IAN_91"><sup>[91]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Mother, do thou hear my words, for I perceive that thou art
+  vainly wrathful with thy husband, but it is not easy for us to struggle
+  with things [almost] impossible. It is meet therefore to praise our
+  friend for his willingness, but it behooves thee also to see that you be
+  not an object of reproach to the army, and we profit nothing more, and he
+  meet with calamity. But hear me, mother, thinking upon what has entered
+  my mind. I have determined to die, and this I would fain do gloriously, I
+  mean, by dismissing all ignoble thoughts. Come hither, mother, consider
+  with me how well I speak. Greece, the greatest of cities, is now all
+  looking upon me, and there rests in me both the passage of the ships and
+  the destruction of Troy, and, for the women hereafter, if the barbarians
+  do them aught of harm, to allow them no longer to carry them off from
+  prosperous Greece, having avenged the destruction of Helen, whom Paris
+  bore away.<a name="IA_92"></a><a href="#IAN_92"><sup>[92]</sup></a> All
+  these things I dying shall redeem, and my renown, for that I have freed
+  Greece, will be blessed. Moreover, it is not right that I should be too
+  fond of life; for thou hast brought me forth for the common good of
+  Greece, not for thyself only. But shall ten thousand men armed with
+  bucklers, and ten thousand, oars in hand, their country being injured,
+  dare to do some deed against the foes, and perish on behalf of Greece,
+  while my life, being but one, shall hinder all these things? What manner
+  of justice is this? Have we a word to answer? And let me come to this
+  point: it is not meet that this man should come to strife with all the
+  Greeks for the sake of a woman, nor lose his life. And one man, forsooth,
+  is better than ten thousand women, that he should behold the light. But
+  if Diana hath wished to receive my body, shall I, being mortal, become an
+  opponent to the Goddess! But it can not be. I give my body for Greece.
+  Sacrifice it, and sack Troy. For this for a long time will be my
+  memorial, and this my children, my wedding, and my glory. But it is meet
+  that Greeks should rule over barbarians, O mother, but not barbarians
+  over Greeks, for the one is slavish, but the others are free.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Thy part, indeed, O virgin, is glorious; but the work of fortune
+  and of the Gods sickens.</p>
+
+  <p>ACH. Daughter of Agamemnon, some one of the Gods destined me to
+  happiness, if I obtained thee as a wife, and I envy Greece on thy
+  account, and thee on account of Greece. For well hast thou spoken this,
+  and worthily of the country, for, ceasing to strive with the deity, who
+  is more powerful than thou art, thou hast considered what is good and
+  useful. But still more does a desire of thy union enter my mind, when I
+  look to thy nature, for thou art noble. But consider, for I wish to
+  benefit you, and to receive you to my home, and, Thetis be my witness, I
+  am grieved if I shall not save you, coming to conflict with the Greeks.
+  Consider: death is a terrible ill.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. I speak these words, no others, with due foresight. Enough is the
+  daughter of Tyndarus to have caused contests and slaughter of men through
+  her person: but do not thou, O stranger, die in my behalf, nor slay any
+  one. But let me preserve Greece, if I am able.</p>
+
+  <p>ACH. O best of spirits, I have naught further to answer thee, since it
+  seems thus to thee, for thou hast noble thoughts; for wherefore should
+  not one tell the truth? But nevertheless thou mayest perchance repent
+  these things. In order, therefore, that thou mayest all that lies in my
+  power, I will go and place these my arms near the altar, as I will not
+  allow you to die, but hinder it. And thou too wilt perhaps be of my
+  opinion, when thou seest the sword nigh to thy neck. I will not allow
+  thee to die through thy wild determination, but going with these mine
+  arms to the temple of the Goddess, I will await thy presence there.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Mother, why dost thou silently bedew thine eyes with tears?</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. I wretched have a reason, so as to be pained at heart.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Cease; do not daunt me, but obey me in this.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. Speak, for thou shalt not be wronged at my hands, my child.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Neither then do thou cut off the locks of thine hair, [nor put on
+  black garments around thy body.]</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. Wherefore sayest thou this, my child? Having lost thee&mdash;</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Not you indeed&mdash;I am saved, and thou wilt be glorious as far
+  as I am concerned.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. How sayest thou? Must I not bemoan thy life?</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Not in the least, since no tomb will be upraised for me.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. Why, what then is death? Is not a tomb customary?<a
+  name="IA_93"></a><a href="#IAN_93"><sup>[93]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>IPH. The altar of the Goddess, daughter of Jove, will be my
+  memorial.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. But, O child, I will obey thee, for thou speakest well.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Ay, as prospering like the benefactress of Greece.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. What then shall I tell thy sisters?</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Neither do thou clothe them in black garments.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. But shall I speak any kind message from thee to the virgins?</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Ay, [bid them] fare well, and do thou, for my sake, train up this
+  [boy] Orestes to be a man.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. Embrace him, beholding him for the last time.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. O dearest one, thou hast assisted thy friends to the utmost in
+  thy power.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. Can I, by doing any thing in Argos, do thee a pleasure?</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Hate not my father, yes, thy husband.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. He needs shall go through terrible trials on thy account.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Unwillingly he hath undone me on behalf of the land of
+  Greece.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. But ungenerously, by craft, and not in a manner worthy of
+  Atreus.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Who will come and lead me, before I am torn away by the hair?<a
+  name="IA_94"></a><a href="#IAN_94"><sup>[94]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>CLY. I will go with thee.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Not you indeed, thou sayest not well.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. Ay [but I will,] clinging to thy garments.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Be persuaded by me, mother. Remain, for this is more fitting both
+  for me and thee. But let some one of these my father's followers conduct
+  me to the meadow of Diana, where I may be sacrificed.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. O child, thou art going.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Ay, and I shall ne'er return.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. Leaving thy mother&mdash;</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. As thou seest, though, not worthily.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. Hold! Do not leave me.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. I do not suffer thee to shed tears. But, ye maidens, raise aloft
+  the p�an for my sad hap, [celebrate] Diana, the daughter of Jove,<a
+  name="IA_95"></a><a href="#IAN_95"><sup>[95]</sup></a> and let the joyful
+  strain go forth to the Greeks. And let some one make ready the baskets,
+  and let flame burn with the purifying cakes, and let my father serve the
+  altar with his right hand, seeing I am going to bestow upon the Greeks
+  safety that produces victory.<a name="IA_96"></a><a
+  href="#IAN_96"><sup>[96]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>Conduct me, the conqueror of the cities of Troy and of the Phrygians.
+  Surround<a name="IA_97"></a><a href="#IAN_97"><sup>[97]</sup></a> me with
+  crowns, bring them hither. Here is my hair to crown. And [bear hither]
+  the lustral fountains.<a name="IA_98"></a><a
+  href="#IAN_98"><sup>[98]</sup></a> Encircle [with dances] around the
+  temple and the altar, Diana, queen Diana, the blessed, since by my blood
+  and offering I will wash out her oracles, if it needs must be so. O
+  revered, revered mother, thus &#x2020; indeed &#x2020; will we [now]
+  afford thee our tears, for it is not fitting during the sacred rites. O
+  damsels, join in singing Diana, who dwells opposite Chalcis, where the
+  warlike ships have been eager [to set out,] being detained in the narrow
+  harbors of Aulis here through my name.<a name="IA_99"></a><a
+  href="#IAN_99"><sup>[99]</sup></a> Alas! O my mother-land of Pelasgia,
+  and my Mycenian handmaids.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Dost thou call upon the city of Perseus, the work of the
+  Cyclopean hands?</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Thou hast nurtured me for a glory to Greece, and I will not
+  refuse to die.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. For renown will not fail thee.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Alas! alas! lamp-bearing day, and thou too, beam of Jove,
+  another, another life and state shall we dwell in. Farewell for me,
+  beloved light!</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Alas! alas! Behold<a name="IA_100"></a><a
+  href="#IAN_100"><sup>[100]</sup></a> the destroyer of the cities of Troy
+  and of the Phrygians, wending her way, decked as to her head with
+  garlands and with lustral streams, to the altar of the sanguinary
+  Goddess, about to stream with drops of gore, being stricken on her fair
+  neck. Fair dewy streams, and lustral waters from ancestral sources<a
+  name="IA_101"></a><a href="#IAN_101"><sup>[101]</sup></a> await thee, and
+  the host of the Greeks eager to reach Troy. But let us celebrate Diana,
+  the daughter of Jove, queen of the Gods, as upon a prosperous occasion. O
+  hallowed one, that rejoicest in human sacrifices, send the army of the
+  Greeks into the land of the Phrygians, and the territory of deceitful
+  Troy, and grant that by Grecian spears Agamemnon may place a most
+  glorious crown upon his head, a glory ever to be remembered.</p>
+
+<p class="center">[<i>Enter a</i> MESSENGER.<a name="IA_102"></a><a href="#IAN_102"><sup>[102]</sup></a>]</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. O daughter of Tyndarus, Clyt�mnestra, come without the house,
+  that thou mayest hear my words.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. Hearing thy voice, I wretched came hither, terrified and
+  astounded with fear, lest thou shouldst be come, bearing some new
+  calamity to me in addition to the present one.</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. Concerning thy daughter, then, I wish to tell thee marvelous and
+  fearful things.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. Then delay not, but speak as quickly as possible.</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. But, my dear mistress, thou shalt learn every thing clearly, and
+  I will speak from the very commencement, unless my memory, in something
+  failing, deceive my tongue. For when we came to the inclosure and flowery
+  meads of Diana, the daughter of Jove, where there was an assembly of the
+  army of the Greeks, leading thy daughter, the host of the Greeks was
+  straightway convened. But when king Agamemnon beheld the girl wending her
+  way to the grove for slaughter, he groaned aloud, and turning back his
+  head, he shed tears, placing his garments<a name="IA_103"></a><a
+  href="#IAN_103"><sup>[103]</sup></a> before his eyes. But she, standing
+  near him that begot her, spake thus: "O father, I am here for thee, and I
+  willing give my body on behalf of my country, and of the whole land of
+  Greece, that, leading it to the altar of the Goddess, they may sacrifice
+  it, since this is ordained. And, as far as I am concerned, may ye be
+  fortunate, and obtain the gift of victory, and reach your native land.
+  Furthermore, let no one of the Greeks lay hands on me, for with a stout
+  heart I will present my neck in silence." Thus much she spoke, and every
+  one marveled on hearing the courage and valor of the virgin. But
+  Talthybius, whose office this was, standing in the midst, proclaimed
+  good-omened silence to the people. And the seer Calchas placed in a
+  golden canister a sharp knife,<a name="IA_104"></a><a
+  href="#IAN_104"><sup>[104]</sup></a> which he had drawn out,&#x2020;
+  within its case,&#x2020; and crowned the head of the girl. But the son of
+  Peleus ran around the altar of the Goddess, taking the canister and
+  lustral waters at the same time. And he said: "O Diana, beast-slaying
+  daughter of Jove, that revolvest thy brilliant light by night, receive
+  this offering which we bestow on thee, [we] the army of the Greeks, and
+  king Agamemnon, the pure blood from a fair virgin's neck; and grant that
+  the sail may be without injury to our ships, and that we may take the
+  towers of Troy by the spear." But the Atrides and all the army stood
+  looking on the ground, and the priest, taking the knife, prayed, and
+  viewed her neck, that he might find a place to strike. And no little pity
+  entered my mind, and I stood with eyes cast down, but suddenly there was
+  a marvel to behold. For every one could clearly perceive the sound of the
+  blow, but beheld not the virgin, where on earth she had vanished. But the
+  priest exclaimed, and the whole army shouted, beholding an unexpected
+  prodigy from some one of the Gods, of which, though seen, they had
+  scarcely belief. For a stag lay panting on the ground, of mighty size to
+  see and beautiful in appearance, with whose blood the altar of the
+  Goddess was abundantly wetted. And upon this Calchas (think with what
+  joy!) thus spake: "O leaders of this common host of the Greeks, behold
+  this victim which the Goddess hath brought to her altar, a
+  mountain-roaming stag. This she prefers greatly to the virgin, lest her
+  altar should be denied with generous blood. And she hath willingly
+  received this, and grants us a prosperous sail, and attack upon Troy.
+  Upon this do every sailor take good courage, and go to his ships, since
+  on this day it behooves us, quitting the hollow recesses of Aulis, to
+  pass over the �gean wave." But when the whole victim was reduced to
+  ashes, he prayed what was meet, that the army might obtain a passage. And
+  Agamemnon sends me to tell thee this, and to say what a fortune he hath
+  met with from the Gods, and hath obtained unwaning glory through Greece.
+  But I speak, having been present, and witnessing the matter. Thy child
+  has evidently flown to the Gods; away then with grief, and cease wrath
+  against your husband. But the will of the Gods is unforeseen by mortals,
+  and them they love, they save. For this day hath beheld thy daughter
+  dying and living [in turn.]</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. How delighted am I at hearing this from the messenger; but he
+  says that thy daughter living abides among the Gods.</p>
+
+  <p>CLY. O daughter, of whom of the Gods art thou the theft? How shall I
+  address thee? What shall I say that these words do not offer me a vain
+  comfort, that I may cease from my mournful grief on thy account?</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. And truly king Agamemnon draws hither, having this same story to
+  tell thee.</p>
+
+<p class="center">[<i>Enter</i> AGAMEMNON.]</p>
+
+  <p>AG. Lady, as far as thy daughter is concerned, we may be happy, for
+  she really possesses a companionship with the Gods. But it behooves thee,
+  taking this young child [Orestes,] to go home, for the army is looking
+  toward setting sail. And fare thee well, long hence will be my addresses
+  to thee from Troy, and may it be well with thee.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Atrides, rejoicing go thou to the land of the Phrygians, and
+  rejoicing return, having obtained for me most glorious spoils from
+  Troy.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h3>NOTES ON IPHIGENIA IN AULIS</h3>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+<div class="note">
+  <p><a name="IAN_1"></a><a href="#IA_1">[1]</a> From the answer of the old
+  man, Porson's conjecture, <span lang="el"
+  title="speude">&#x3C3;&#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3C5;&#x3B4;&#x3B5;</span>, seems
+  very probable.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_2"></a><a href="#IA_2">[2]</a> See Hermann's note. The
+  passage has been thus rendered by Ennius:</p>
+
+  <div class="poem">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <p>AG. "Quid nocti" videtur in altisono</p>
+      <p class="i8">C&#339;li clupeo?</p>
+      <p>SEN. Temo superat stellas, cogens</p>
+      <p class="i4">Sublime etiam atque etiam noctis</p>
+      <p class="i4">Itiner.</p>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+  <p>See Scaliger on Varr. de L.L. vi. p.143, and on Festus s.v.
+  Septemtriones. All the editors have overlooked the following passage of
+  Apuleius de Deo Socr. p. 42, ed. Elm. "Suspicientes in hoc perfectissimo
+  mundi, ut ait Ennius, clypeo," whence, as I have already observed in my
+  notes on the passage, there is little doubt that Ennius wrote "in
+  altisono mundi clypeo," of which <i>c&#339;li</i> was a gloss, naturally
+  introduced by those who were ignorant of the use of <i>mundus</i> in the
+  same sense. The same error has taken place in some of the MSS. of Virg.
+  Georg. i. 5, 6. Compare the commentators on Pompon. Mela. i. 1, ed.
+  Gronov.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_3"></a><a href="#IA_3">[3]</a> Such seems the force of
+  <span lang="el" title="epi pasin agathois">&#x3B5;&#x3C0;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B1;&#x3B3;&#x3B1;&#x3B8;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;</span>. The Cambridge
+  editor aptly compares Hipp. 461. <span lang="el" title="chr�n s' epi
+  rh�tois ara Patera phyteuein">&#x3C7;&#x3C1;&#x3B7;&#x3BD; &#x3C3;'
+  &#x3B5;&#x3C0;&#x3B9; &#x201B;&#x3C1;&#x3B7;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B1;&#x3C1;&#x3B1; &#x3A0;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3C6;&#x3C5;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3C5;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_4"></a><a href="#IA_4">[4]</a> The <span lang="el"
+  title="synnymphokomos">&#x3C3;&#x3C5;&#x3BD;&#x3BD;&#x3C5;&#x3BC;&#x3C6;&#x3BF;&#x3BA;&#x3BF;&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span>
+  was probably a kind of gentleman usher, but we have no correlative either
+  to the custom or the word.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_5"></a><a href="#IA_5">[5]</a> Hermann rightly regards
+  this as a hendiadys.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_6"></a><a href="#IA_6">[6]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="drom�i">&#x3B4;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3BC;&#x3C9;&#x3B9;</span> for
+  <span lang="el" title="mor�i">&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3C1;&#x3C9;&#x3B9;</span>
+  is Markland's, and, doubtless, the correct, reading. <span lang="el"
+  title="monos">&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span> is merely a
+  correction of the Aldine edition.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_7"></a><a href="#IA_7">[7]</a> But read <span lang="el"
+  title="tas&mdash;deltous">&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3C2;&mdash;&#x3B4;&#x3B5;&#x3BB;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C2;</span>
+  with the Cambridge editor, = "in relation to my former dispatches."</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_8"></a><a href="#IA_8">[8]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="tan">&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;</span> should probably be erased before
+  <span lang="el"
+  title="kolp�d�">&#x3BA;&#x3BF;&#x3BB;&#x3C0;&#x3C9;&#x3B4;&#x3B7;</span>,
+  with the Cambridge editor. He remarks, "the sea-port, although separated
+  from the island by the narrow strait of Euripus, is styled its
+  <i>wing</i>." On the metrical difficulties and corruptions throughout
+  this chorus, I must refer the reader to the same critic.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_9"></a><a href="#IA_9">[9]</a> But <span lang="el"
+  title="lektron">&#x3BB;&#x3B5;&#x3BA;&#x3C4;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span>,
+  <i>uxorem</i>, is better, with ed. Camb.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_10"></a><a href="#IA_10">[10]</a> It is impossible to get
+  a satisfactory sense as these lines now stand. I have translated <span
+  lang="el"
+  title="exorma">&#x3B5;&#x3BE;&#x3BF;&#x3C1;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;</span>. There
+  seems to be a lacuna. The following are the readings of the Camb. ed.
+  <span lang="el" title="en gar p. ant�s�is, palin ex. s. chalinous, epi
+  kykl�p�n nin hieis thym.">&#x3B5;&#x3BD; &#x3B3;&#x3B1;&#x3C1; &#x3C0;.
+  &#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3B7;&#x3C3;&#x3B7;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;,
+  &#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3B9;&#x3BD; &#x3B5;&#x3BE;. &#x3C2;.
+  &#x3C7;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C2;,
+  &#x3B5;&#x3C0;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3BA;&#x3C5;&#x3BA;&#x3BB;&#x3C9;&#x3C0;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3BD;&#x3B9;&#x3BD; &#x201B;&#x3B9;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B8;&#x3C5;&#x3BC;.</span></p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_11"></a><a href="#IA_11">[11]</a> But <span lang="el"
+  title="anchialon">&#x3B1;&#x3B3;&#x3C7;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span>
+  is better, with ed. Camb. from the Homeric <span lang="el"
+  title="chalkida t'
+  anchialon">&#x3C7;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3BA;&#x3B9;&#x3B4;&#x3B1; &#x3C4;'
+  &#x3B1;&#x3B3;&#x3C7;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span>. He
+  remarks that this word, in tragedy, is always the epithet of a place.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_12"></a><a href="#IA_12">[12]</a> i.e. to exact
+  satisfaction for her abduction.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_13"></a><a href="#IA_13">[13]</a> i.e. the tents
+  containing the armed soldiers.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_14"></a><a href="#IA_14">[14]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="h�domenous">&#x201B;&#x3B7;&#x3B4;&#x3BF;&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C2;</span>
+  refers both to <span lang="el"
+  title="Pr�tesilaon">&#x3A0;&#x3C1;&#x3C9;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span>
+  and <span lang="el"
+  title="Palam�dea">&#x3A0;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3BC;&#x3B7;&#x3B4;&#x3B5;&#x3B1;</span>,
+  divided by the schema Alcmanicum. See Markland.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_15"></a><a href="#IA_15">[15]</a> Cf. Homer, Il. <span
+  lang="el" title="B">&#x392;</span>. 763 sqq.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_16"></a><a href="#IA_16">[16]</a> Cf. Monk on Hippol.
+  1229. I have translated <span lang="el"
+  title="syringas">&#x3C3;&#x3C5;&#x3C1;&#x3B9;&#x3B3;&#x3B3;&#x3B1;&#x3C2;</span>
+  according to the figure of a part for the whole. The whole of the
+  remainder of this chorus has been condemned as spurious by the Cambridge
+  editor. See his remarks, p. 219 sqq.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_17"></a><a href="#IA_17">[17]</a> Can <span lang="el"
+  title="theton">&#x3B8;&#x3B5;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span> refer to <span
+  lang="el"
+  title="agalma">&#x3B1;&#x3B3;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;</span>
+  understood?</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_18"></a><a href="#IA_18">[18]</a> This part of the chorus
+  is hopeless, as it is evidently imperfect. See Herm.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_19"></a><a href="#IA_19">[19]</a> The Cambridge editor
+  would assign this line to Menelaus.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_20"></a><a href="#IA_20">[20]</a> I read <span lang="el"
+  title="eu kekompseusai">&#x3B5;&#x3C5;
+  &#x3BA;&#x3B5;&#x3BA;&#x3BF;&#x3BC;&#x3C8;&#x3B5;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;</span>,
+  with Ruhnken. The Cambridge editor also reads <span lang="el"
+  title="pon�ra">&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3B7;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;</span>, which
+  is better suited to the style of Euripides.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_21"></a><a href="#IA_21">[21]</a> The same scholar has
+  anticipated my conjecture, <span lang="el"
+  title="saph�s">&#x3C3;&#x3B1;&#x3C6;&#x3B7;&#x3C2;</span> for <span
+  lang="el" title="saphes">&#x3C3;&#x3B1;&#x3C6;&#x3B5;&#x3C2;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_22"></a><a href="#IA_22">[22]</a> Compare the similar
+  conduct of Pausanias in Thucyd. i. 130, Dejoces in Herodot. i., with
+  Livy, iii. 36, and Apul. de Deo Socr. p. 44, ed. Elm.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_23"></a><a href="#IA_23">[23]</a> I read <span lang="el"
+  title="to Priamou">&#x3C4;&#x3BF;
+  &#x3A0;&#x3C1;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;</span> with Elmsley.
+  See the Camb. ed.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_24"></a><a href="#IA_24">[24]</a> With the Cambridge
+  editor I have restored the old reading <span lang="el"
+  title="echontes">&#x3B5;&#x3C7;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3C2;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_25"></a><a href="#IA_25">[25]</a> But see ed. Camb.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_26"></a><a href="#IA_26">[26]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="au">&#x3B1;&#x3C5;</span> is a better reading. See Markland and
+  ed. Camb.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_27"></a><a href="#IA_27">[27]</a> There is little hope of
+  this passage, unless we adopt the readings of the Cambridge editor, <span
+  lang="el" title="hous lab�n strateum'. hetoimoi d'
+  eisi">&#x201B;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C2; &#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3B2;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3C3;&#x3C4;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3C5;&#x3BC;'.
+  &#x201B;&#x3B5;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3B9; &#x3B4;'
+  &#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;</span>. The next line was lost, but has been
+  restored from Theophilus ad Autol. p. 258, and Stob. xxviii. p. 128,
+  Grot.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_28"></a><a href="#IA_28">[28]</a> Cf. Soph. Antig. 523.
+  <span lang="el" title="outoi synechthein, alla symphilein
+  ephyn">&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3C3;&#x3C5;&#x3BD;&#x3B5;&#x3C7;&#x3B8;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;,
+  &#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3C3;&#x3C5;&#x3BC;&#x3C6;&#x3B9;&#x3BB;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B5;&#x3C6;&#x3C5;&#x3BD;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_29"></a><a href="#IA_29">[29]</a> Dindorf condemns the
+  whole of this speech of the messenger, as well as the two following
+  lines. Few will perhaps be disposed to follow him, although the
+  awkwardness of the passage may be admitted. Hermann considers that the
+  hasty entrance of the messenger is signified by his commencing with half
+  a line.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_30"></a><a href="#IA_30">[30]</a> There seems an intended
+  allusion to the double sense of <span lang="el"
+  title="proteleia">&#x3C0;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3BB;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;</span>,
+  both as a marriage and sacrificial rite. See the Cambridge editor, and my
+  note on �sch. Agam. p. 102, n. 2, ed. Bohn.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_31"></a><a href="#IA_31">[31]</a> "Auspicare canistra, id
+  quod proximum est." MUSGR.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_32"></a><a href="#IA_32">[32]</a> I think this is the
+  meaning implied by <span lang="el"
+  title="nympheusousa">&#x3BD;&#x3C5;&#x3BC;&#x3C6;&#x3B5;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3B1;</span>,
+  as in vs. 885. <span lang="el" title="hin' agagois chairous' Achillei
+  paida nympheusousa s�n">&#x201B;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;'
+  &#x3B1;&#x3B3;&#x3B1;&#x3B3;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3C7;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;'
+  &#x391;&#x3C7;&#x3B9;&#x3BB;&#x3BB;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3B4;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3BD;&#x3C5;&#x3BC;&#x3C6;&#x3B5;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3C3;&#x3B7;&#x3BD;</span>. Alcest. 317. <span lang="el" title="ou gar
+  se m�t�r oute nympheusei pote">&#x3BF;&#x3C5; &#x3B3;&#x3B1;&#x3C1;
+  &#x3C3;&#x3B5; &#x3BC;&#x3B7;&#x3C4;&#x3B7;&#x3C1;
+  &#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;
+  &#x3BD;&#x3C5;&#x3BC;&#x3C6;&#x3B5;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;</span>. The word seems to refer to the whole
+  business of a mamma on this important occasion.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_33"></a><a href="#IA_33">[33]</a> The Cambridge editor on
+  vs. 439, p. 109, well observes, "the actual arrival of Iphigenia having
+  convinced Menelaus that her sacrifice could not any longer be avoided, he
+  bethinks him of removing from his brother's mind the impression produced
+  by their recent altercation; and knowing his open and unsuspicious
+  temper, he feels that he may safely adopt a false position, and deprecate
+  that of which he was at the same time most earnestly desirous."</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_34"></a><a href="#IA_34">[34]</a> So Markland, but
+  Hermann and the Cambridge editor prefer the old reading <span lang="el"
+  title="metesti soi">&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3C3;&#x3C4;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3C3;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_35"></a><a href="#IA_35">[35]</a> This and the two
+  following lines are condemned by Dindorf.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_36"></a><a href="#IA_36">[36]</a> B&#339;ckh, Dindorf,
+  and the Cambridge editor rightly explode these three lines, which are not
+  even correct Greek.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_37"></a><a href="#IA_37">[37]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="l�somen">&#x3BB;&#x3B7;&#x3C3;&#x3BF;&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;</span>,
+  <i>latebo faciens</i>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_38"></a><a href="#IA_38">[38]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="para">&#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;</span> for <span lang="el"
+  title="paron">&#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span>, ed. Camb.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_39"></a><a href="#IA_39">[39]</a> i.e. by the gift of
+  Venus. For the sense, compare Hippol. 443.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_40"></a><a href="#IA_40">[40]</a> Read <span lang="el"
+  title="diaphoroi de
+  tropoi">&#x3B4;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;&#x3C6;&#x3BF;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3B4;&#x3B5; &#x3C4;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;</span> with
+  Monk, and <span lang="el"
+  title="orth�s">&#x3BF;&#x3C1;&#x3B8;&#x3C9;&#x3C2;</span> with
+  Musgrave.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_41"></a><a href="#IA_41">[41]</a> But <span lang="el"
+  title="paideuomen�n">&#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3B4;&#x3B5;&#x3C5;&#x3BF;&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;</span>
+  is better, with ed. Camb.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_42"></a><a href="#IA_42">[42]</a> I have partly followed
+  Markland, partly Matthi�, in rendering this awkward passage. But there is
+  much awkwardness of expression, and the notes of the Cambridge editor
+  well deserve the attention of the student. <span lang="el"
+  title="exallassousan
+  charin">&#x3B5;&#x3BE;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3C3;&#x3C3;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3C7;&#x3B1;&#x3C1;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;</span> seems to refer to <span
+  lang="el" title="metria
+  charis">&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3C4;&#x3C1;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3C7;&#x3B1;&#x3C1;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;</span> in vs. 555, and probably
+  signifies that the grace of a reasonable affection leads to the equal
+  grace of a clear perception, the mind being unblinded by vehement
+  impulses of passion.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_43"></a><a href="#IA_43">[43]</a> i.e. quiet,
+  domestic.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_44"></a><a href="#IA_44">[44]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="en�n">&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;</span> is only Markland's
+  conjecture. The whole passage is desperate.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_45"></a><a href="#IA_45">[45]</a> I read <span lang="el"
+  title="myriopl�th�">&#x3BC;&#x3C5;&#x3C1;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3C0;&#x3BB;&#x3B7;&#x3B8;&#x3B7;</span>
+  with ed. Camb. The pronoun <span lang="el"
+  title="ho">&#x201B;&#x3BF;</span> I can not make out, but by supplying an
+  impossible ellipse.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_46"></a><a href="#IA_46">[46]</a> The Cambridge editor
+  rightly reads <span lang="el" title="iou, iou">&#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;,
+  &#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;</span>, as an exclamation of pleasure, not of pain,
+  is required.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_47"></a><a href="#IA_47">[47]</a> Dindorf condemns this
+  whole paragraph.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_48"></a><a href="#IA_48">[48]</a> The Cambridge editor
+  thinks these two lines a childish interpolation. They certainly are
+  childish enough, but the same objection applies to the whole passage.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_49"></a><a href="#IA_49">[49]</a> But read <span
+  lang="el" title="hoi d'">&#x201B;&#x3BF;&#x3B9; &#x3B4;'</span> with
+  Dobree. The grooms are meant.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_50"></a><a href="#IA_50">[50]</a> Porson condemns these
+  four lines, which are utterly destitute of sense or connection.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_51"></a><a href="#IA_51">[51]</a> These "precious" lines
+  are even worse than the preceding, and rightly condemned by all.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_52"></a><a href="#IA_52">[52]</a> See Elmsl. on Soph.
+  &#338;d. C. 273. The student must carefully observe the hidden train of
+  thought pervading Agamemnon's replies.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_53"></a><a href="#IA_53">[53]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="ta Menele� kaka">&#x3C4;&#x3B1;
+  &#x39C;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3B5;&#x3BB;&#x3B5;&#x3C9;
+  &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3BA;&#x3B1;</span> must mean the ills resulting from
+  Menelaus, the mischiefs and toils to which his wife led, as in Soph.
+  Antig. 2. <span lang="el" title="t�n ap Oidipou
+  kak�n">&#x3C4;&#x3C9;&#x3BD; &#x3B1;&#x3C0;
+  &#x39F;&#x3B9;&#x3B4;&#x3B9;&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;
+  &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3BA;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;</span>, "the ills brought about by
+  the misfortunes or the curse of &#338;dipus." But I should almost prefer
+  reading <span lang="el" title="lech�">&#x3BB;&#x3B5;&#x3C7;&#x3B7;</span>
+  for <span lang="el" title="kaka">&#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3BA;&#x3B1;</span>,
+  which would naturally refer to Helen.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_54"></a><a href="#IA_54">[54]</a> This line is metrically
+  corrupt, but its emendation is very uncertain.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_55"></a><a href="#IA_55">[55]</a> I have endeavored to
+  convey the play upon the words as closely as I could. Elmsley well
+  suggests that the proper reading is <span lang="el"
+  title="hest�xeis">&#x201B;&#x3B5;&#x3C3;&#x3C4;&#x3B7;&#x3BE;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;</span>
+  in vs. 675.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_56"></a><a href="#IA_56">[56]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="ophth�nai
+  korais">&#x3BF;&#x3C6;&#x3B8;&#x3B7;&#x3BD;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3BA;&#x3BF;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;</span>, "non, ut hic, a viris
+  et exercitu." BROD�US.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_57"></a><a href="#IA_57">[57]</a> Porson on Orest. 1090,
+  remarks on that <span lang="el" title="ho kyrios">&#x201B;&#x3BF;
+  &#x3BA;&#x3C5;&#x3C1;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span> was the term applied to
+  the father or guardian of the bride. We might therefore render, "Jove
+  gave her away," etc.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_58"></a><a href="#IA_58">[58]</a> If this be the correct
+  reading, we must take <span lang="el"
+  title="kal�s">&#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3C9;&#x3C2;</span> ironically. But
+  I think with Dindorf, that <span lang="el" title="kak�s, anankai�s
+  de">&#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3BA;&#x3C9;&#x3C2;,
+  &#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3B1;&#x3B3;&#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3C9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B4;&#x3B5;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_59"></a><a href="#IA_59">[59]</a> This verse is condemned
+  by the Cambridge editor.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_60"></a><a href="#IA_60">[60]</a> Barnes rightly remarked
+  that <span lang="el" title="�ixa">&#x3B7;&#x3B9;&#x3BE;&#x3B1;</span> is
+  the aorist of <span lang="el"
+  title="aiss�">&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3C3;&#x3C9;</span>, <i>conor</i>,
+  <i>aggredior</i>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_61"></a><a href="#IA_61">[61]</a> These three lines are
+  expunged by the Cambridge editor.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_62"></a><a href="#IA_62">[62]</a> I have expressed the
+  sense of <span lang="el" title="� m� trephein">&#x3B7; &#x3BC;&#x3B7;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3C1;&#x3B5;&#x3C6;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;</span> (= <span
+  lang="el" title="m� echein gynaika">&#x3BC;&#x3B7;
+  &#x3B5;&#x3C7;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B3;&#x3C5;&#x3BD;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3BA;&#x3B1;</span>), rather than
+  the literal meaning of the words.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_63"></a><a href="#IA_63">[63]</a> I must inform the
+  reader that the latter portion of this chorus is extremely unsatisfactory
+  in its present state. The Cambridge editor, who has well discussed its
+  difficulties, thinks that <span lang="el"
+  title="Pergamon">&#x3A0;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3B3;&#x3B1;&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span>
+  is wrong, and that <span lang="el"
+  title="eryma">&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3C5;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;</span> should be
+  introduced from vs. 792, where it appears to be quite useless.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_64"></a><a href="#IA_64">[64]</a> I have ventured to read
+  <span lang="el" title="dakryoen
+  tanysas">&#x3B4;&#x3B1;&#x3BA;&#x3C1;&#x3C5;&#x3BF;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3B1;&#x3C2;</span> with MSS.
+  Pariss., omitting <span lang="el"
+  title="eryma">&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3C5;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;</span> with the
+  Cambridge editor, by which the difficulty is removed. The same scholar
+  remarks that <span lang="el"
+  title="dakryoen">&#x3B4;&#x3B1;&#x3BA;&#x3C1;&#x3C5;&#x3BF;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;</span>
+  is used adverbially.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_65"></a><a href="#IA_65">[65]</a> There is obviously a
+  defect in the structure, but I am scarcely pleased with the attempts made
+  to supply it.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_66"></a><a href="#IA_66">[66]</a> Read <span lang="el"
+  title="kai paidas">&#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3B4;&#x3B1;&#x3C2;</span> with Musgrave.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_67"></a><a href="#IA_67">[67]</a> But see ed. Camb.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_68"></a><a href="#IA_68">[68]</a> But see ed. Camb.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_69"></a><a href="#IA_69">[69]</a> But the Cambridge
+  editor admirably amends, <span lang="el" title="eis mellonta s�sei
+  chronon">&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3BB;&#x3BB;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3C3;&#x3C9;&#x3C3;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3C7;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span>, i.e. "it will be a
+  long time before it preserves them," a hit at the self-importance of the
+  old gentleman.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_70"></a><a href="#IA_70">[70]</a> I have little
+  hesitation in reading <span lang="el" title="pelas
+  moi">&#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3C2; &#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;</span>
+  with Markland, in place of <span lang="el" title="gelai
+  moi">&#x3B3;&#x3B5;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_71"></a><a href="#IA_71">[71]</a> There is much
+  difficulty in this passage, and Markland appears to give it up in
+  despair. Matthi� simply takes the first part as equivalent to <span
+  lang="el" title="hyps�lophron
+  esti">&#x201B;&#x3C5;&#x3C8;&#x3B7;&#x3BB;&#x3BF;&#x3C6;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B5;&#x3C3;&#x3C4;&#x3B9;</span>, referring <span lang="el"
+  title="metri�s">&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3C4;&#x3C1;&#x3B9;&#x3C9;&#x3C2;</span>
+  to both verbs. The Cambridge editor takes <span lang="el"
+  title="diaz�n">&#x3B4;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;&#x3B6;&#x3B7;&#x3BD;</span> as an
+  infinitive disjoined from the construction. Vss. 922 sq. are indebted to
+  Mr. G. Burges for their present situation, having before been assigned to
+  the chorus.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_72"></a><a href="#IA_72">[72]</a> I have closely followed
+  the Cambridge editor.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_73"></a><a href="#IA_73">[73]</a> See the notes of the
+  same scholar.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_74"></a><a href="#IA_74">[74]</a> Dindorf has rightly
+  received Porson's successful emendation. See Tracts, p. 224, and the
+  Cambridge editor.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_75"></a><a href="#IA_75">[75]</a> Read <span lang="el"
+  title="sois te mellousin">&#x3C3;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3C2; &#x3C4;&#x3B5;
+  &#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3BB;&#x3BB;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;</span>
+  with Markland. </p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_76"></a><a href="#IA_76">[76]</a> The Cambridge editor
+  would omit vs. 1022. There is certainly a strange redundancy of
+  meaning.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_77"></a><a href="#IA_77">[77]</a> Read <span lang="el"
+  title="estasen">&#x3B5;&#x3C3;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3C3;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;</span>
+  with Mark. Dind.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_78"></a><a href="#IA_78">[78]</a> So called, either
+  because he was carried off by Jove while hunting in the promontory of
+  Dardanus, or from his Trojan descent.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_79"></a><a href="#IA_79">[79]</a> I have adopted
+  Tyrwhitt's view, considering the words inclosed in inverted commas as the
+  actual words of the epithalamium. See Musgr. and ed. Camb. Hermann is
+  strangely out of his reckoning.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_80"></a><a href="#IA_80">[80]</a> Read, however, <span
+  lang="el"
+  title="N�r�id�n">&#x39D;&#x3B7;&#x3C1;&#x3B7;&#x3B9;&#x3B4;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;</span>
+  with Heath, "first of the Nereids."</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_81"></a><a href="#IA_81">[81]</a> The Cambridge editor
+  would read <span lang="el"
+  title="nymphokomoi">&#x3BD;&#x3C5;&#x3BC;&#x3C6;&#x3BF;&#x3BA;&#x3BF;&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;</span>,
+  Reiske <span lang="el"
+  title="nymphokomon">&#x3BD;&#x3C5;&#x3BC;&#x3C6;&#x3BF;&#x3BA;&#x3BF;&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span>.
+  There is much difficulty in the whole of this last part of the
+  chorus.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_82"></a><a href="#IA_82">[82]</a> Such is Hermann's
+  explanation, but <span lang="el"
+  title="beb�kotos">&#x3B2;&#x3B5;&#x3B2;&#x3B7;&#x3BA;&#x3BF;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span>
+  can not bear the sense. The Cambridge editor suspects that these five
+  lines are a forgery.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_83"></a><a href="#IA_83">[83]</a> The Cambridge editor
+  rightly, I think, condemns this line as the addition of some one "who
+  thought that something more was wanting to comprise all the complaints of
+  the speaker." I do not think the sense or construction is benefited by
+  their existence.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_84"></a><a href="#IA_84">[84]</a> "Verum astus hic astu
+  vacat." ERASMUS.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_85"></a><a href="#IA_85">[85]</a> Dindorf has apparently
+  done wrong in admitting <span lang="el"
+  title="prosoudisas">&#x3C0;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3C3;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3B4;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3B1;&#x3C2;</span>,
+  but I have some doubt about every other reading yet proposed.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_86"></a><a href="#IA_86">[86]</a> See Camb. ed., who
+  suspects interpolation.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_87"></a><a href="#IA_87">[87]</a> Cf. Lucret. i. 94. "Nec
+  miser� prodesse in tali tempore quibat, Quod patrio princeps donarat
+  nomine regum." �sch. Ag. 242 sqq.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_88"></a><a href="#IA_88">[88]</a> The Cambridge editor
+  clearly shows that <span lang="el"
+  title="moi">&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;</span> is the true reading, as in vs.
+  54, <span lang="el" title="to pragma d' apor�s eiche Tyndare�i
+  patri">&#x3C4;&#x3BF; &#x3C0;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3B3;&#x3BC;&#x3B1; &#x3B4;'
+  &#x3B1;&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3C1;&#x3C9;&#x3C2; &#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C7;&#x3B5;
+  &#x3A4;&#x3C5;&#x3BD;&#x3B4;&#x3B1;&#x3C1;&#x3B5;&#x3C9;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3C1;&#x3B9;</span>, and 370.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_89"></a><a href="#IA_89">[89]</a> There is much doubt
+  about the reading of this part of the chorus. See Dind. and ed. Camb.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_90"></a><a href="#IA_90">[90]</a> I have partly followed
+  Abresch in translating these lines, but I do not advise the reader to
+  rest satisfied with my translation. A reference to the notes of the
+  elegant scholar, to whom we owe the Cambridge edition of this play, will,
+  I trust, show that I have done as much as can well be done with such
+  corrupted lines.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_91"></a><a href="#IA_91">[91]</a> Achilles is supposed to
+  lay his hand on his sword. See however ed. Camb.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_92"></a><a href="#IA_92">[92]</a> Obviously a spurious
+  line.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_93"></a><a href="#IA_93">[93]</a> I have punctuated with
+  ed. Camb.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_94"></a><a href="#IA_94">[94]</a> See ed. Camb.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_95"></a><a href="#IA_95">[95]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="euph�m�sate">&#x3B5;&#x3C5;&#x3C6;&#x3B7;&#x3BC;&#x3B7;&#x3C3;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;</span>
+  here governs two distinct accusatives.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_96"></a><a href="#IA_96">[96]</a> The Cambridge editor
+  here takes notice of Aristotle's charge of inconsistency, <span lang="el"
+  title="hoti ouden eoiken h� hiketeuousa">&#x201B;&#x3BF;&#x3C4;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3B4;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B5;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3BA;&#x3B5;&#x3BD; &#x201B;&#x3B7;
+  &#x201B;&#x3B9;&#x3BA;&#x3B5;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3C5;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3B1;</span>
+  [Iphigenia] <span lang="el" title="t�i hysterai">&#x3C4;&#x3B7;&#x3B9;
+  &#x201B;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;</span>. He well
+  remarks, that Iphigenia at first naturally gives way before the
+  suddenness of the announcement of her fate, but that when she collects
+  her feelings, her natural nobleness prevails.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_97"></a><a href="#IA_97">[97]</a> Cf. Lucret. i. 88. "Cui
+  simul <i>infula</i> virgineos <i>circumdata</i> comtus, Ex utraque pari
+  malarum parte profusa est."</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_98"></a><a href="#IA_98">[98]</a> Read <span lang="el"
+  title="pagas">&#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3B3;&#x3B1;&#x3C2;</span> with Reiske,
+  Dind. ed. Camb. There is much corruption and awkwardness in the following
+  verses of this ode.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_99"></a><a href="#IA_99">[99]</a> On the sense of <span
+  lang="el"
+  title="memone">&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3B5;</span> see ed.
+  Camb., who would exclude <span lang="el" title="di' emon
+  onoma">&#x3B4;&#x3B9;' &#x3B5;&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_100"></a><a href="#IA_100">[100]</a> Cf. Soph. Ant. 806
+  sqq. The whole of this passage has been admirably illustrated by the
+  Cambridge editor.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_101"></a><a href="#IA_101">[101]</a> There is much
+  awkwardness about this epithet <span lang="el"
+  title="patr�iai">&#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3C1;&#x3C9;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;</span>.
+  One would expect a clearer reference to Agamemnon. I scarcely can suppose
+  it correct, although I do not quite see my way in the Cambridge editor's
+  readings.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_102"></a><a href="#IA_102">[102]</a> Porson, Pr�f. ad
+  Hec. p. xxi., and the Cambridge editor (p. 228 sqq.) have concurred in
+  fully condemning the whole of this last scene. It is certain that in the
+  time of �lian something different must have been in existence, and
+  equally certain that the whole abounds in repetitions and
+  inconsistencies, that seem to point either to spuriousness, or, at least,
+  to the existence of interpolations of a serious character. In this latter
+  opinion Matthi� and Dindorf agree.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_103"></a><a href="#IA_103">[103]</a> An allusion to the
+  celebrated picture of Timanthes. See Barnes.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="IAN_104"></a><a href="#IA_104">[104]</a> I have done my best
+  with this passage, following Matthi�'s explanation, which, however, I do
+  not perfectly understand. If vs. 1567 were away, we should be less at a
+  loss, but the same may be said of the whole scene.</p>
+
+</div>
+<hr class="full" />
+
+<a name="TAURIS"></a>
+<h2>IPHIGENIA IN TAURIS.</h2>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+<h3>PERSONS REPRESENTED.</h3>
+
+  <div class="personae">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <p>IPHIGENIA.</p>
+      <p>ORESTES.</p>
+      <p>PYLADES.</p>
+      <p>HERDSMAN.</p>
+      <p>THOAS.</p>
+      <p>MESSENGER.</p>
+      <p>MINERVA.</p>
+      <p>CHORUS OF GRECIAN CAPTIVE WOMEN.</p>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+<hr />
+
+<h3>THE ARGUMENT.</h3>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+  <p>Orestes, coming into Tauri in Scythia, in company with Pylades, had
+  been commanded to bear away the image of Diana, after which he was to
+  meet with a respite from the avenging Erinnyes of his mother. His sister
+  Iphigenia, who had been carried away by Diana from Aulis, when on the
+  point of being sacrificed by her father, chances to be expiating a dream
+  that led her to suppose Orestes dead, when a herdsman announces to her
+  the arrival and detection of two strangers, whom she is bound by her
+  office to sacrifice to Diana. On meeting, a mutual discovery takes place,
+  and they plot their escape. Iphigenia imposes on the superstitious fears
+  of Thoas, and, removing them to the sea-coast, they are on the point of
+  making their escape together, when they are surprised, and subsequently
+  detained and driven back by stress of weather. Thoas is about to pursue
+  them, when Minerva appears, and restrains him from doing so, at the same
+  time procuring liberty of return for the Grecian captives who form the
+  chorus.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2>IPHIGENIA IN TAURIS.</h2>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+<p class="center">IPHIGENIA.</p>
+
+  <p>Pelops,<a name="IT_1"></a><a href="#ITN_1"><sup>[1]</sup></a> the son
+  of Tantalus, setting out to Pisa with his swift steeds, weds the daughter
+  of &#338;nomaus, from whom sprang Atreus; and from Atreus his sons,
+  Menelaus and Agamemnon, from which [latter] I was born, Iphigenia, child
+  of [Clyt�mnestra,] daughter of Tyndarus, whom my father, as he imagined,
+  sacrificed to Diana on account of Helen, near the eddies, which Euripus
+  continually whirls to and fro, upturning the dark blue sea with frequent
+  blasts, in the famed<a name="IT_2"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_2"><sup>[2]</sup></a> recesses of Aulis. For here indeed king
+  Agamemnon drew together a Grecian armament of a thousand ships, desiring
+  that the Greeks might take the glorious prize of victory over Troy,<a
+  name="IT_3"></a><a href="#ITN_3"><sup>[3]</sup></a> and avenge the
+  outraged nuptials of Helen, for the gratification of Menelaus. But, there
+  being great difficulty of sailing,<a name="IT_4"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_4"><sup>[4]</sup></a> and meeting with no winds, he came to
+  [the consideration of] the omens of burnt sacrifices, and Calchas speaks
+  thus. O thou who rulest over this Grecian expedition, Agamemnon, thou
+  wilt not lead forth thy ships from the ports of this land, before Diana
+  shall receive thy daughter Iphigenia as a victim; for thou didst vow to
+  sacrifice to the light-bearing Goddess whatsoever the year should bring
+  forth most beautiful. Now your wife Clyt�mnestra has brought forth a
+  daughter in your house, referring to me the title of the most beautiful,
+  whom thou must needs sacrifice. And so, by the arts of Ulysses,<a
+  name="IT_5"></a><a href="#ITN_5"><sup>[5]</sup></a> they drew me from my
+  mother under pretense of being wedded to Achilles. But I wretched coming
+  to Aulis, being seized and raised aloft above<a name="IT_6"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_6"><sup>[6]</sup></a> the pyre, would have been slain by the
+  sword; but Diana, giving to the Greeks a stag in my stead, stole me away,
+  and, sending me through the clear ether,<a name="IT_7"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_7"><sup>[7]</sup></a> she settled me in this land of the
+  Tauri, where barbarian Thoas rules<a name="IT_8"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_8"><sup>[8]</sup></a> the land, o'er barbarians, [Thoas,] who
+  guiding his foot swift as the pinion, has arrived at this epithet [of
+  Thoas, i.e. <i>the swift</i>] on account of his fleetness of foot. And
+  she places me in this house as priestess, since which time the Goddess
+  Diana is wont to be pleased with such rites as these,<a
+  name="IT_9"></a><a href="#ITN_9"><sup>[9]</sup></a> the name of which
+  alone is fair. But, for the rest, I am silent, fearing the Goddess. For I
+  sacrifice even as before was the custom in the city, whatever Grecian man
+  comes to this land. I crop the hair, indeed, but the slaying that may not
+  be told is the care of others within these shrines.<a name="IT_10"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_10"><sup>[10]</sup></a> But the new visions which the [past]
+  night hath brought with it, I will tell to the sky,<a name="IT_11"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_11"><sup>[11]</sup></a> if indeed this be any remedy. I seemed
+  in my sleep, removed from this land, to be dwelling in Argos, and to
+  slumber in my virgin chamber, but the surface of the earth [appeared] to
+  be shaken with a movement, and I fled, and standing without beheld the
+  coping<a name="IT_12"></a><a href="#ITN_12"><sup>[12]</sup></a> of the
+  house giving way, and all the roof falling stricken to the ground from
+  the high supports. And one pillar alone, as it seemed to me, was left of
+  my ancestral house, and from its capital it seemed to stream down yellow
+  locks, and to receive a human voice, and I, cherishing this man-slaying
+  office which I hold, weeping [began] to besprinkle it, as though about to
+  be slain. But I thus interpret my dream. Orestes is dead, whose rites I
+  was beginning. For male children are the pillars of the house, and those
+  whom my lustral waters<a name="IT_13"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_13"><sup>[13]</sup></a> sprinkle die. Nor yet can I connect
+  the dream with my friends, for Strophius had no son, when I was to have
+  died. Now, therefore, I being present, will to my absent brother offer
+  the rites of the dead&mdash;for this I can do&mdash;in company with the
+  attendants whom the king gave to me, Grecian women. But from some cause
+  they are not yet present. I will go<a name="IT_14"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_14"><sup>[14]</sup></a> within the home wherein I dwell, these
+  shrines of the Goddess.</p>
+
+  <p>ORESTES. Look out! Watch, lest there be any mortal in the way.</p>
+
+  <p>PYLADES. I am looking out, and keeping watch, turning my eyes every
+  where.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. Pylades, does it seem to you that this is the temple of the
+  Goddess, whither we have directed our ship through the seas from Argos?<a
+  name="IT_15"></a><a href="#ITN_15"><sup>[15]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>PYL. It does, Orestes, and must seem the same to thee.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. And the altar where Grecian blood is shed?</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. At least it has its pinnacles tawny with blood.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. And under the pinnacles themselves do you behold the spoils?</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. The spoils, forsooth, of slain strangers.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. But it behooves one, turning one's eye around, to keep a careful
+  watch. O Ph&#339;bus, wherefore hast thou again led me into this snare by
+  your prophecies, when I had avenged the blood of my father by slaying my
+  mother? But by successive<a name="IT_16"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_16"><sup>[16]</sup></a> attacks of the Furies was I driven an
+  exile, an outcast from the land, and fulfilled many diverse bending
+  courses. But coming [to thy oracle] I required of thee how I might arrive
+  at an end of the madness that drove me on, and of my toils [which I had
+  labored through, wandering over Greece.<a name="IT_17"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_17"><sup>[17]</sup></a>] But thou didst answer that I must
+  come to the confines of the Tauric territory, where thy sister Diana
+  possesses altars, and must take the image of the Goddess, which they here
+  say fell from heaven<a name="IT_18"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_18"><sup>[18]</sup></a> into these shrines; and that taking it
+  either by stratagem or by some stroke of fortune, having gone through the
+  risk, I should give it to the land of the Athenians&mdash;but no further
+  directions were given&mdash;and that having done this, I should have a
+  respite from my toils.<a name="IT_19"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_19"><sup>[19]</sup></a> But I am come hither, persuaded by thy
+  words, to an unknown and inhospitable land. I ask you, then, Pylades, for
+  you are a sharer with me in this toil, what shall we do? For thou
+  beholdest the lofty battlements of the walls. Shall we proceed to the
+  scaling of the walls? How then should we escape notice<a
+  name="IT_20"></a><a href="#ITN_20"><sup>[20]</sup></a> [if we did so?] Or
+  shall we open the brass-wrought fastenings of the bolts? of which things
+  we know nothing.<a name="IT_21"></a><a href="#ITN_21"><sup>[21]</sup></a>
+  But if we are caught opening the gates and contriving an entrance, we
+  shall die. But before we die, let us flee to the temple, whither we
+  lately sailed.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. To fly is unendurable, nor are we accustomed [to do so,] and we
+  must not make light of the oracle of the God. But quitting the temple,
+  let us hide our bodies in the caves, which the dark sea splashes with its
+  waters, far away from the city, lest any one beholding the bark, inform
+  the rulers, and we be straightway seized by force. But when the eye of
+  dim night shall come, we must venture, bring all devices to bear, to
+  seize the sculptured image from the temple. But observe the eaves [of the
+  roof,<a name="IT_22"></a><a href="#ITN_22"><sup>[22]</sup></a>] where
+  there is an empty space between the triglyphs in which you may let
+  yourself down. For good men dare encounter toils, but the cowardly are of
+  no account any where. We have not indeed come a long distance with our
+  oars, so as to return again from the goal.<a name="IT_23"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_23"><sup>[23]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>OR. But one must follow your advice, for you speak well. We must go
+  whithersoever in this land we can conceal our bodies, and lie hid. For
+  the [will] of the God will not be the cause of his oracle falling
+  useless. We must venture; for no toil has an excuse for young men.<a
+  name="IT_24"></a><a href="#ITN_24"><sup>[24]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p class="center">[ORESTES <i>and</i> PYLADES <i>retire aside</i>.]</p>
+
+  <p>CHORUS. Keep silence,<a name="IT_25"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_25"><sup>[25]</sup></a> O ye that inhabit the twain rocks of
+  the Euxine that face each other. O Dictynna, mountain daughter of Latona,
+  to thy court, the gold-decked pinnacles of temples with fine columns, I,
+  servant to the hallowed guardian of the key, conduct my pious virgin
+  foot, changing [for my present habitation] the towers and walls of Greece
+  with its noble steeds, and Europe with its fields abounding in trees, the
+  dwelling of my ancestral home. I am come. What new matter? What anxious
+  care hast thou? Wherefore hast thou led me, led me to the shrines, O
+  daughter of him who came to the walls of Troy with the glorious fleet,
+  with thousand sail, ten thousand spears of the renowned Atrides?<a
+  name="IT_26"></a><a href="#ITN_26"><sup>[26]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>IPHIGENIA. O attendants mine,<a name="IT_27"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_27"><sup>[27]</sup></a> in what moans of bitter lamentation do
+  I dwell, in the songs of a songless strain unfit for the lyre, alas!
+  alas! in funereal griefs for the ills which befall me, bemoaning my
+  brother, what a vision have I seen in the night whose darkness has passed
+  away!<a name="IT_28"></a><a href="#ITN_28"><sup>[28]</sup></a> I am
+  undone, undone. No more is my father's house, ah me! no more is our race.
+  Alas! alas! for the toils in Argos! Alas! thou deity, who hast now robbed
+  me of my only brother, sending him to Hades, to whom I am about to pour
+  forth on the earth's surface these libations and this bowl for the
+  departed, and streams from the mountain heifer, and the wine draughts of
+  Bacchus, and the work of the swarthy bees,<a name="IT_29"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_29"><sup>[29]</sup></a> which are the wonted peace-offerings
+  to the departed. O germ of Agamemnon beneath the earth, to thee as dead
+  do I send these offerings. And do thou receive them, for not before
+  [thine own] tomb do I offer my auburn locks,<a name="IT_30"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_30"><sup>[30]</sup></a> my tears. For far away am I journeyed
+  from thy country and mine, where, as opinion goes, I wretched lie
+  slaughtered.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. A respondent strain and an Asiatic hymn of barbarian wailing
+  will I peal forth to thee, my mistress, the song of mourning which,
+  delighting the dead, Hades hymns in measure apart from P�ans.<a
+  name="IT_31"></a><a href="#ITN_31"><sup>[31]</sup></a> Alas! the light of
+  the sceptre in the Atrides' house is faded away. Alas! alas for my
+  ancestral home! And what government of prosperous kings will there be in
+  Argos?<a name="IT_32"></a><a href="#ITN_32"><sup>[32]</sup></a> *&nbsp;*&nbsp;*&nbsp;*
+  And labor upon labor comes on *&nbsp;*&nbsp;*&nbsp;* <a name="IT_33"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_33"><sup>[33]</sup></a> with his winged mares driven around.
+  But the sun, changing from its proper place, [laid aside] its eye of
+  light.<a name="IT_34"></a><a href="#ITN_34"><sup>[34]</sup></a> And upon
+  other houses woe has come, because of the golden lamb, murder upon
+  murder, and pang upon pang, whence the avenging Fury<a
+  name="IT_35"></a><a href="#ITN_35"><sup>[35]</sup></a> of those sons
+  slain of old comes upon the houses of the sons of Tantalus, and some
+  deity hastens unkindly things against thee.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. From the beginning the demon of my mother's zone<a
+  name="IT_36"></a><a href="#ITN_36"><sup>[36]</sup></a> was hostile to me,
+  and from that night in which the Fates hastened the pangs of childbirth<a
+  name="IT_37"></a><a href="#ITN_37"><sup>[37]</sup></a> *&nbsp;*&nbsp;*&nbsp;* whom, the
+  first-born germ the wretched daughter of Leda, (Clyt�mnestra,) wooed from
+  among the Greeks brought forth, and trained up as a victim to a father's
+  sin, a joyless sacrifice, a votive offering. But in a horse-chariot they
+  brought<a name="IT_38"></a><a href="#ITN_38"><sup>[38]</sup></a> me to
+  the sands of Aulis, a bride, alas! unhappy bride to the son of Nereus'
+  daughter, alas! And now a stranger I dwell in an unpleasant home on the
+  inhospitable sea, unwedded, childless, without city, without a friend,
+  not chanting Juno in Argos, nor in the sweetly humming loom adorning with
+  the shuttle the image of Athenian Pallas<a name="IT_39"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_39"><sup>[39]</sup></a> and of the Titans, but imbruing altars
+  with the shed blood of strangers, a pest unsuited to the harp, [of
+  strangers] sighing forth<a name="IT_40"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_40"><sup>[40]</sup></a> a piteous cry, and shedding a piteous
+  tear. And now indeed forgetfulness of these matters [comes upon] me, but
+  now I mourn my brother dead in Argos, whom I left yet an infant at the
+  breast, yet young, yet a germ in his mother's arms and on her bosom,
+  Orestes [the future] holder of the sceptre in Argos.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. But hither comes a herdsman, leaving the sea-coast, about to
+  tell thee some new thing.</p>
+
+  <p>HERDSMAN. Daughter of Agamemnon and child of Clyt�mnestra, hear thou
+  from me a new announcement.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. And what is there astonishing in the present report?</p>
+
+  <p>HERDS. Two youths are come into this land, to the dark-blue
+  Symplegades, fleeing into a ship, a grateful sacrifice and offering to
+  Diana. But you can not use too much haste<a name="IT_41"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_41"><sup>[41]</sup></a> in making ready the lustral waters and
+  the consecrations.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Of what country? of what land do the strangers bear the name?</p>
+
+  <p>HERDS. Greeks, this one thing I know, and nothing further.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Hast thou not heard the name of the strangers, so as to tell
+  it?</p>
+
+  <p>HERDS. One of them was styled Pylades by the other.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. But what was the name of the yoke-fellow of this stranger?</p>
+
+  <p>HERDS. No one knows this. For we heard it not.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. But how saw ye them, and chanced to take them?</p>
+
+  <p>HERDS. Upon the furthest breakers of the inhospitable sea.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. And what had herdsmen to do with the sea?</p>
+
+  <p>HERDS. We came to lave our steers in the dew of the sea.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Go back again to this point&mdash;how did ye catch them, and by
+  what means, for I would fain know this? For they are come after a long
+  season, nor has the altar of the Goddess yet been crimsoned with Grecian
+  blood.<a name="IT_42"></a><a href="#ITN_42"><sup>[42]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>HERDS. After we woodland herdsmen had brought our cattle down to the
+  sea that flows between the Symplegades, there is a certain hollow cave,<a
+  name="IT_43"></a><a href="#ITN_43"><sup>[43]</sup></a> broken by the
+  frequent lashing of the waves, a retreat for those who hunt for the
+  purple fish. Here some herdsman among us beheld two youths, and he
+  retired back, piloting his step on tiptoe, and said: See ye not? these
+  who sit here are some divine powers. And one of us, being religiously
+  given, uplifted his hand, and addressed them, as he beheld: O son of
+  Leucothea, guardian of ships, Pal�mon our lord, be propitious to us,
+  whether indeed ye be the twin sons of Jove (Castor and Pollux) who sit
+  upon our shores, or the image of Nereus, who begot the noble chorus of
+  the fifty Nereids. But another vain one, bold in his lawlessness, scoffed
+  at these prayers, and said that they were shipwrecked<a
+  name="IT_44"></a><a href="#ITN_44"><sup>[44]</sup></a> seamen who sat
+  upon the cleft through fear of the law, hearing that we here sacrifice
+  strangers. And to most of us he seemed to speak well, and [we resolved]
+  to hunt for the accustomed victims for the Goddess. But meanwhile one of
+  the strangers leaving the rock, stood still, and shook his head up and
+  down, and groaned, with his very fingers quaking, wandering with ravings,
+  and shouts with voice like that of hunter, "Pylades, dost thou behold
+  this? Dost not behold this snake of Hades, how she would fain slay me,
+  armed against me with horrid vipers?<a name="IT_45"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_45"><sup>[45]</sup></a> And she breathing from beneath her
+  garments<a name="IT_46"></a><a href="#ITN_46"><sup>[46]</sup></a> fire
+  and slaughter, rows with her wings, bearing my mother in her arms, that
+  she may cast upon me this rocky mass. Alas! she will slay me. Whither
+  shall I fly?" And one beheld not the same form of countenance, but he
+  uttered in turn the bellowings of calves and howls of dogs, which
+  imitations [of wild beasts] they say the Furies utter. But we flinching,
+  as though about to die, sat mute; and he drawing a sword with his hand,
+  rushing among the calves, lion-like, strikes them on the flank with the
+  steel, driving it into their sides, fancying that he was thus avenging
+  himself on the Fury Goddesses, till that a gory foam was dashed up from
+  the sea. Meanwhile, each one of us, as he beheld the herds being slain
+  and ravaged, armed himself, and inflating the conch<a name="IT_47"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_47"><sup>[47]</sup></a> shells and assembling the
+  inhabitants&mdash;for we thought that herdsmen were weak to fight against
+  well-trained and youthful strangers. And a large number of us was
+  assembled in a short time. But the stranger, released from the attack of
+  madness, drops down, with his beard befouled with foam. But when we saw
+  him fallen opportunely [for us,] each man did his part, with stones, with
+  blows. But the other of the strangers wiped away the foam, and tended his
+  mouth, and spread over him the well-woven texture of his garments,
+  guarding well the coming wounds, and aiding his friend with tender
+  offices. But when the stranger returning to his senses leaped up, he
+  perceived that a hostile tempest and present calamity was close upon
+  them, and he groaned aloud. But we ceased not hurling rocks, each
+  standing in a different place. But then indeed we heard a dread
+  exhortation, "Pylades, we shall die, but that we die most gloriously!
+  Follow me, drawing thy sword in hand." But when we saw the twain swords
+  of the enemy<a name="IT_48"></a><a href="#ITN_48"><sup>[48]</sup></a>
+  brandished, in flight we filled the woods about the crag. But if one
+  fled, others pressing on pelted them; and if they drove these away, again
+  the party who had just yielded aimed at them with rocks. But it was
+  incredible, for out of innumerable hands no one succeeded in hitting
+  these victims to the Goddess. And we with difficulty, I will not say
+  overcome them by force, but taking them in a circle, beat<a
+  name="IT_49"></a><a href="#ITN_49"><sup>[49]</sup></a> their swords out
+  of their hands with stones, and they dropped their knees to earth
+  [overcome] with toil. And we brought them to the king of this land, but
+  he, when he beheld them, sent them as quickly as possible to thee for
+  lustral waters and sacrifice. But do thou, O virgin, wish that such
+  strangers may be here as victims, and if thou slayest these strangers,
+  Hellas will atone for thy [intended] murder, paying the penalty of the
+  sacrifice at Aulis.<a name="IT_50"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_50"><sup>[50]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Thou hast told wondrous things concerning him who has appeared,
+  whosoever he be that has come to the inhospitable sea from the Grecian
+  earth.<a name="IT_51"></a><a href="#ITN_51"><sup>[51]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Be it so. Do thou go and bring the strangers, but I will take
+  care respecting the matters<a name="IT_52"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_52"><sup>[52]</sup></a> here. O hapless heart, that once wast
+  mild and full of pity toward strangers, awarding the tear to those of
+  thine own land, when thou didst receive Grecian men into thine hands.<a
+  name="IT_53"></a><a href="#ITN_53"><sup>[53]</sup></a> But now, because
+  of the dreams by which I am driven wild, thinking that Orestes no longer
+  beholds the sun, ye will find me ill disposed, whoever ye be that come.
+  For this is true, I perceive it, my friends,<a name="IT_54"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_54"><sup>[54]</sup></a> for the unhappy who themselves fare
+  ill have no good feelings toward those more fortunate. But neither has
+  any wind sent by Jove ever come [hither,] nor ship, which could have
+  brought hither Helen, who destroyed me, and Menelaus, in order that I
+  might be avenged on them, placing an Aulis here to the account<a
+  name="IT_55"></a><a href="#ITN_55"><sup>[55]</sup></a> of the one there,
+  where the sons of Danaus seized, and would have slain me like as a calf,
+  and the father who begat me was the priest. Ah me! for I can not forget
+  the ills of that time, how oft I stretched out my hands to his beard, and
+  hanging on the knees of him who gave me life, spake words like these: "O
+  father, basely am I, basely am I wedded at thine hands. But my mother,
+  while thou art slaying me, and her Argive ladies are hymning my wedding<a
+  name="IT_56"></a><a href="#ITN_56"><sup>[56]</sup></a> with their nuptial
+  songs, and all the house resounds with the flute, while I perish by thy
+  hands. Hades in truth was Achilles, not the son of Peleus, whom thou
+  didst name as my husband, and in the chariot didst pilot me by craft unto
+  a bloody wedding." But I, casting mine eye through my slender woven veil,
+  neither took up with mine hands my brother who is now dead, nor joined my
+  lips to my sister's,<a name="IT_57"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_57"><sup>[57]</sup></a> through modesty, as departing to the
+  home of Peleus; and many a salutation I deferred, as though about to come
+  again to Argos. Oh wretched one, if thou hast died! from what glorious
+  state, Orestes, and from how envied a sire's fortune art thou fallen! But
+  I reproach the devices of the Goddess, who, if any one work the death of
+  a man, or touch with hands a woman newly delivered, or a corpse,
+  restrains him from her altars, as deeming him impure, but yet herself
+  takes pleasure in man-slaying sacrifices. It can not be that the consort
+  of Jove, Latona, hath brought forth so much ignorance. I even disbelieve
+  the banquets of Tantalus set before the Gods, [as that they] should be
+  pleased with feeding on a boy. But I deem that those in this land, being
+  themselves man-slayers, charge the Goddess with their own baseness, for I
+  think not that any one of the Gods is bad.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Ye dark blue, dark blue meetings of the sea, which Io, hurried
+  along by the brize, once passed through to the Euxine wave, having
+  changed the territory of Asia for Europe,&mdash;who were they who left
+  fair-watered Eurotas, flourishing in reeds, or the sacred founts of
+  Dirce, and came, and came to the inhospitable land, where the daughter of
+  Jove bedews her altars and column-girt temples with human blood? Of a
+  truth by the surge-dashing oars of fir, worked on both sides, they sailed
+  in a nautical carriage o'er the ocean waves, striving in the emulation
+  after loved wealth in their houses. For darling hope is in dangers
+  insatiate among men, who bear off the weight of riches, wandering in vain
+  speculation on the wave and o'er barbarian cities. But to some<a
+  name="IT_58"></a><a href="#ITN_58"><sup>[58]</sup></a> there is a mind
+  immoderate after riches, to others they come unsought. How did they pass
+  through the rocks that run together, the ne'er resting beaches of
+  Phineus, [and] the marine shore, running o'er the surge of Amphitrite,<a
+  name="IT_59"></a><a href="#ITN_59"><sup>[59]</sup></a>&mdash;where the
+  choruses of the fifty daughters of Nereus entwine in the
+  dance,&mdash;[although] with breezes that fill the sails, the creaking
+  rudders resting at the poop, with southern gales or the breezes of
+  Zephyr, to the bird-haunted land, the white beach, the glorious
+  race-course of Achilles, near the Euxine Sea. Would that, according to my
+  mistress' prayers, Helen, the dear daughter of Leda, might sometime
+  chance to come, quitting the city of Troy, that, having been drenched
+  about the head with the blood-stained lustral dews, she might die by my
+  mistress' hand, paying in turn an equal penalty [for her death.] Most
+  joyfully then would we receive this news, if any one came sailing from
+  the Grecian land, to make the toils of my hapless slavery to cease. And
+  would that in my dreams I might tread<a name="IT_60"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_60"><sup>[60]</sup></a> in mine home and ancestral city,
+  enjoying the hymns of delight, a joy shared with the prosperous. But
+  hither they come, bound as to their two<a name="IT_61"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_61"><sup>[61]</sup></a> hands with chains, a new sacrifice for
+  the Goddess. Be silent, my friends, for these first-fruits of the Greeks
+  approach the temples, nor has the herdsman told a false tale. O reverend
+  Goddess, if the city performs these things agreeably to thee, receive the
+  sacrifice which, not hallowed among the Greeks, the custom of this place
+  presents as a public offering.<a name="IT_62"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_62"><sup>[62]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Be it so. I must first take care that the rites of the Goddess
+  are as they should be. Let go the hands of the strangers, that being
+  consecrated they may no longer be in bonds. And, going within the temple,
+  make ready the things which are necessary and usual on these occasions.
+  Alas! Who is the mother who once bore you? And who your father, and your
+  sister, if there be any born? Of what a pair of youths deprived will she
+  be brotherless! For all the dispensations of the Gods creep into
+  obscurity, and no one [absent] knows misfortune,<a name="IT_63"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_63"><sup>[63]</sup></a> for fortune leads astray to what is
+  hardly known. Whence come ye, O unhappy strangers? After how long a time
+  have ye sailed to this land, and ye will be a long time from your home,
+  ever among the shades!<a name="IT_64"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_64"><sup>[64]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>OR. Why mournest thou thus, and teasest us<a name="IT_65"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_65"><sup>[65]</sup></a> concerning our future ills, whoever
+  thou art, O lady? In naught do I deem him wise, who, when about to die,
+  with bewailings seeks to overcome the fear of death, nor him who deplores
+  death now near at hand,<a name="IT_66"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_66"><sup>[66]</sup></a> when he has no hope of safety, in that
+  he joins two ills instead of one, both incurs the charge of folly, and
+  dies none the less. But one must needs let fortune take its course. But
+  mourn us not, for we know and are acquainted with the sacrificial rites
+  of this place.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Which of ye twain here is named Pylades? This I would fain know
+  first.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. This man, if indeed 'tis any pleasure for thee to know this.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Born citizen of what Grecian state?</p>
+
+  <p>OR. And what wouldst thou gain by knowing this, lady?</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Are ye brothers from one mother?</p>
+
+  <p>OR. In friendship we are, but we are not related, lady.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. But what name did the father who begot thee give to thee?</p>
+
+  <p>OR. In truth we might be styled the unhappy.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. I ask not this. Leave this to fortune.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. Dying nameless, I should not be mocked.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Wherefore dost grudge this, and art thus proud?</p>
+
+  <p>OR. My body thou shalt sacrifice, not my name.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Nor wilt thou tell me which is thy city?</p>
+
+  <p>OR. No. For thou seekest a thing of no profit, seeing I am to die.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. But what hinders thee from granting me this favor?</p>
+
+  <p>OR. I boast renowned Argos for my country.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. In truth, by the Gods I ask thee, stranger, art thou thence
+  born?</p>
+
+  <p>OR. From Mycen�,<a name="IT_67"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_67"><sup>[67]</sup></a> that was once prosperous.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. And hast thou set out a wanderer from thy country, or by what
+  hap?</p>
+
+  <p>OR. I flee in a certain wise unwilling, willingly.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Wouldst thou tell me one thing that I wish?</p>
+
+  <p>OR. That something, forsooth,<a name="IT_68"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_68"><sup>[68]</sup></a> may be added to my misfortune.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. And truly thou hast come desired by me, in coming from Argos.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. Not by myself, at all events; but if by thee, do thou enjoy it.<a
+  name="IT_69"></a><a href="#ITN_69"><sup>[69]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Perchance thou knowest Troy, the fame of which is every
+  where.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. Ay, would that I never had, not even seeing it in a dream!</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. They say that it is now no more, and has fallen by the spear.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. And so it is, nor have you heard what is not the case.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. And is Helen come back to the house of Menelaus?</p>
+
+  <p>OR. She is, ay, coming unluckily to one of mine.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. And where is she? For she has incurred an old debt of evil with
+  me also.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. She dwells in Sparta with her former consort.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. O hateful pest among the Greeks, not to me only!</p>
+
+  <p>OR. I also have received some fruits of her nuptials.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. And did the return of the Greeks take place, as is reported?</p>
+
+  <p>OR. How dost thou question me, embracing all matters at once!</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. For I wish to obtain this before that thou diest.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. Examine me, since thou hast this longing, and I will speak.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Has a certain seer named Calchas returned from Troy?</p>
+
+  <p>OR. He perished, as the story ran, at Mycen�.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. O revered Goddess, how well it is! And how fares the son of
+  Laertes?</p>
+
+  <p>OR. He has not yet returned to his home, but he is alive, as report
+  goes.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. May he perish, never obtaining a return to his country!</p>
+
+  <p>OR. Invoke nothing&mdash;all his affairs are in a sickly state.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. But is the son of Thetis, the daughter of Nereus, yet alive?</p>
+
+  <p>OR. He is not. In vain he held his wedding in Aulis.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. A crafty [wedding] it was, as those who have suffered say.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. Who canst thou be? How well dost ken the affairs of Greece!</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. I am from thence. While yet a child I was undone.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. With reason thou desirest to know the affairs there, O lady.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. But how [fares] the general, who they say is prosperous.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. Who? For he whom I know is not of the fortunate.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. A certain king Agamemnon was called the son of Atreus.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. I know not&mdash;cease from these words, O lady.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Nay, by the Gods, but speak, that I may be rejoiced, O
+  stranger.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. The wretched one is dead, and furthermore hath ruined one.<a
+  name="IT_70"></a><a href="#ITN_70"><sup>[70]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Is dead? By what mishap? O wretched me!</p>
+
+  <p>OR. But why dost mourn this? Was he a relation of thine?</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. I bemoan his former prosperity.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. [Ay, well mayest thou,] for he has fallen, slain shamefully by a
+  woman.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. O all grievous she that slew and he that fell!</p>
+
+  <p>OR. Cease now at least, nor question further.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Thus much at least, does the wife of the unhappy man live?</p>
+
+  <p>OR. She is no more. The son she brought forth, he slew her.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. O house all troubled! with what intent, then?<a
+  name="IT_71"></a><a href="#ITN_71"><sup>[71]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>OR. Taking satisfaction on her for the death of his father.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Alas! how well he executed an evil act of justice.<a
+  name="IT_72"></a><a href="#ITN_72"><sup>[72]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>OR. But, though just, he hath not good fortune from the Gods.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. But does Agamemnon leave any other child in his house?</p>
+
+  <p>OR. He has left a single virgin [daughter,] Electra.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. What! Is there no report of his sacrificed daughter?<a
+  name="IT_73"></a><a href="#ITN_73"><sup>[73]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>OR. None indeed, save that being dead she beholds not the light.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Hapless she, and the father who slew her!</p>
+
+  <p>OR. She perished, a thankless offering<a name="IT_74"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_74"><sup>[74]</sup></a> because of a bad woman.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. But is the son of the deceased father at Argos?</p>
+
+  <p>OR. He, wretched man, is nowhere and every where.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Away, vain dreams, ye were then of naught!</p>
+
+  <p>OR. Nor are the Gods who are called wise any less false than winged
+  dreams. There is much inconsistency both among the Gods and among
+  mortals. But one thing alone is left, when<a name="IT_75"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_75"><sup>[75]</sup></a> a man not being foolish, persuaded by
+  the words of seers, has perished, as he hath perished in man's
+  knowledge.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Alas! alas! But what of us and our fathers? Are they, or are
+  they not in being, who can tell?</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Hear me, for I am come to a certain discourse, meditating what is
+  at once profitable for you and me. But that which is well is chiefly
+  produced thus, when the same matter pleases all. Would ye be willing, if
+  I were to save you, to go to Argos, and bear a message for me to my
+  friends there, and carry a letter, which a certain captive wrote, pitying
+  me, nor deeming my hand that of a murderess, but that he died through
+  custom, as the Goddess sanctioned such things as just? For I had no one
+  who would go and bear the news back to Argos, and who, being preserved,
+  would send my letters to some one of my friends.<a name="IT_76"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_76"><sup>[76]</sup></a> But do thou, for thou art, as thou
+  seemest, of no ignoble birth, and knowest Mycen� and the persons I wish,
+  do thou, I say,<a name="IT_77"></a><a href="#ITN_77"><sup>[77]</sup></a>
+  be saved, receiving no dishonorable reward, your safety for the sake of
+  trifling letters. But let this man, since the city compels it, be a
+  sacrifice to the Goddess, apart from thee.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. Well hast thou spoken the rest, save one thing, O stranger lady,
+  for 'tis a heavy weight upon me that this man should be slain. For I was
+  steersman of the vessel to these ills,<a name="IT_78"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_78"><sup>[78]</sup></a> but he is a fellow-sailor because of
+  mine own troubles. In no wise then is it right that I should do thee a
+  favor to his destruction, and myself escape from ills. But let it be
+  thus. Give him the letter, for he will send it to Argos, so as to be well
+  for thee, but let him that will slay me. Base is the man, who, casting
+  his friends into calamity, himself is saved. But this man is a friend,
+  who I fain should see the light no less that myself.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. O noblest spirit, how art thou sprung from some generous root,
+  thou truly a friend to thy friends! Such might he be who is left of my
+  brothers! For in good truth, strangers, I am not brotherless, save that I
+  behold him not. But since thou willest thus, let us send this man bearing
+  the letter, but thou wilt die, and some great desire of this chances to
+  possess thee?<a name="IT_79"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_79"><sup>[79]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>OR. But who will sacrifice me, and dare this dreadful deed?</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. I; for I have this sacrificial duty<a name="IT_80"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_80"><sup>[80]</sup></a> from the Goddess.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. Unenviable indeed. O damsel, and unblest.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. But we lie under necessity, which one must beware.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. Thyself, a female, sacrificing males with the sword?</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Not so; but I shall lave around thy head with the lustral
+  stream.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. But who is the slayer, if I may ask this?</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Within the house are they whose office is this.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. And what manner of tomb will receive me, when I die?</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. The holy flame within, and the dark chasm of the rock.<a
+  name="IT_81"></a><a href="#ITN_81"><sup>[81]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>OR. Alas! Would that a sister's hand might lay me out.<a
+  name="IT_82"></a><a href="#ITN_82"><sup>[82]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>IPH. A vain prayer hast thou uttered, whoever thou art, O stranger,
+  for she dwells far from this barbarian land. Nevertheless, since thou art
+  an Argive, I will not fail to do thee kindness in what is possible. For
+  on thy tomb will I place much adornment, and with the tawny oil will I
+  cause thy body to be soon consumed,<a name="IT_83"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_83"><sup>[83]</sup></a> and on thy pyre will I pour the
+  flower-sucked riches of the swarthy bee. But I will go and fetch the
+  letter from the shrines of the Goddess. But do thou not bear ill will
+  against me. Guard them, ye servants, [but] without fetters.<a
+  name="IT_84"></a><a href="#ITN_84"><sup>[84]</sup></a> Perchance I shall
+  send unexpected tidings to some one of my friends at Argos, whom I
+  chiefly love, and the letter, telling to him that she lives whom he
+  thinks dead, will announce a faithful pleasure.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. I deplore thee now destined to the gory streams of the lustral
+  waters.<a name="IT_85"></a><a href="#ITN_85"><sup>[85]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>OR. 'Tis piteous, truly;<a name="IT_86"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_86"><sup>[86]</sup></a> but fare ye well, stranger ladies.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. But thee, (<i>to Pylades</i>) O youth, we honor for thy happy
+  fortune, that at some time thou wilt return to thy country.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. Not to be coveted<a name="IT_87"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_87"><sup>[87]</sup></a> by friends, when friends are to
+  die.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. O mournful journeying! Alas! alas! thou art undone. Woe! woe!
+  which is the [victim] to be? For still my mind resolves<a
+  name="IT_88"></a><a href="#ITN_88"><sup>[88]</sup></a> twain doubtful
+  [ills,] whether with groans I shall bemoan thee (<i>to Orestes</i>) or
+  thee (<i>to Pylades</i>) first.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. Pylades, hast thou, by the Gods, experienced the same feeling as
+  myself?</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. I know not. Thou askest me unable to say.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. Who is this damsel? With what a Grecian spirit she asked us
+  concerning the toils in Troy, and the return of the Greeks, and Calchas
+  wise in augury, and about Achilles, and how she pitied wretched
+  Agamemnon, and asked me of his wife and children. This stranger lady is<a
+  name="IT_89"></a><a href="#ITN_89"><sup>[89]</sup></a> some Greek by
+  race; for otherwise she never would have been sending a letter and making
+  these inquiries, as sharing a common weal in the well-doing of Argos.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. Thou hast outstripped me a little, but thou outstrippest me in
+  saying the same things, save in one respect&mdash;for all, with whom
+  there is any communication, know the fate of the king. But I was<a
+  name="IT_90"></a><a href="#ITN_90"><sup>[90]</sup></a> considering
+  another subject.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. What? laying it down in common, you will better understand.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. 'Tis base that I should behold the light, while you perish; and,
+  having sailed with you, with you I must needs die also. For I shall incur
+  the imputation of both cowardice and baseness in Argos and the Phocian
+  land with its many dells, and I shall seem to the many, for the many are
+  evil, to have arrived alone in safety to mine home, having deserted thee,
+  or even to have murdered thee, taking advantage of the sickly state of
+  thine house, and to have devised thy fate for the sake of reigning, in
+  order that, forsooth, I might wed thy sister as an heiress<a
+  name="IT_91"></a><a href="#ITN_91"><sup>[91]</sup></a>. These things,
+  then, I dread, and hold in shame, and it shall not be but I will breathe
+  my last with thee, be slain, and have my body burned with thee, being a
+  friend, and dreading reproach.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. Speak words of better omen. I must needs bear my troubles, but
+  when I may [endure] one single trouble, I will not endure twain. For what
+  thou callest bitter and reproachful, that is my portion, if I cause thee
+  to be slain who hast shared my toils. For, as far as I am concerned, it
+  stands not badly with me, faring as I fare at the hands of the Gods, to
+  end my life. But thou art prosperous, and hast a home pure, not
+  sickening, but I [have] one impious and unhappy. And living thou mayest
+  raise children from my sister, whom I gave thee to have<a
+  name="IT_92"></a><a href="#ITN_92"><sup>[92]</sup></a> as a wife, and my
+  name might exist, nor would my ancestral house be ever blotted out. But
+  go, live, and dwell in my father's house; and when thou comest to Greece
+  and chivalrous Argos, by thy right hand, I commit to thee this charge.
+  Heap up a tomb, and place upon it remembrances of me, and let my sister
+  offer tears and her shorn locks upon my sepulchre. And tell how I died by
+  an Argive woman's hand, sacrificed as an offering by the altar's side.
+  And do thou never desert my sister, seeing my father's connections and
+  home bereaved. And fare thee well! for I have found thee best among my
+  friends. Oh thou who hast been my fellow-huntsman, my mate! Oh thou who
+  hast borne the weight of many of my sorrows! But Ph&#339;bus, prophet
+  though he be, has deceived me. For, artfully devising, he has driven me
+  as far as possible from Greece, in shame of his former prophecies. To
+  whom I, yielding up mine all, and obeying his words, having slain my
+  mother, myself perish in turn.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. Thou shalt have a tomb, and never will I, hapless one, betray thy
+  sister's bed, since I shall hold thee more a friend dead than living. But
+  the oracle of the God has never yet wronged thee, although thou art
+  indeed on the very verge of death. But excessive mischance is very wont,
+  is very wont to present changes, when the matter so falls.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. Be silent&mdash;the words of Ph&#339;bus avail me naught, for the
+  lady is coming hither without the temple.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Depart ye, and go and make ready the things within for those who
+  superintend the sacrifice. These, O stranger, are the many-folded
+  inclosures of the letter, but hear thou what I further wish. No man is
+  the same in trouble, and when he changes from fear into confidence. But I
+  fear, lest he having got away from this land, will deem my letter of no
+  account, who is about to bear this letter to Argos.<a name="IT_93"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_93"><sup>[93]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>OR. What wouldst thou? Concerning what art thou disturbed?</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Let him make me oath that he will ferry these writings to Argos,
+  to those friends to whom I wish to send them.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. Wilt thou in turn make the same assertion to him?</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. That I will do, or will not do what thing? say.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. That you will release him from this barbarian land, not dying.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Thou sayest justly; for how could he bear the message?</p>
+
+  <p>OR. But will the ruler also grant this?</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Yea. I will persuade him, and will myself embark him on the
+  ship's hull.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. Swear, but do thou commence such oath as is holy.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Thou must say "I will give this [letter] to my friends."</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. I will give this letter to thy friends.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. And I will send thee safe beyond the Cyanean rocks.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. Whom of the Gods dost thou call to witness of thine oath in these
+  words?</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Diana, in whose temple I hold office.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. But I [call upon] the king of heaven, hallowed Jove.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. But if, deserting thine oath, thou shouldst wrong me&mdash;</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. May I not return? But thou, if thou savest me not&mdash;</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. May I never living set footprint in Argos.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. Hear now then a matter which we have passed by.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. There will be opportunity hereafter, if matters stand aright.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. Grant me this one exception. If the vessel suffer any harm, and
+  the letter be lost<a name="IT_94"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_94"><sup>[94]</sup></a> in the storm, together with the goods,
+  and I save my person only, that this mine oath be no longer valid.<a
+  name="IT_95"></a><a href="#ITN_95"><sup>[95]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Knowest thou what I will do?<a name="IT_96"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_96"><sup>[96]</sup></a> for the many things contained in the
+  folds of the letter bear opportunity for many things.<a
+  name="IT_97"></a><a href="#ITN_97"><sup>[97]</sup></a> I will tell you in
+  words all that you are to convey to my friends, for this plan is safe. If
+  indeed thou preservest the letter, it will itself silently tell the
+  things written, but if these letters be lost at sea, saving thy body,
+  thou wilt preserve my message.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. Thou hast spoken well on behalf of the Gods<a name="IT_98"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_98"><sup>[98]</sup></a> and of myself. But tell me to whom at
+  Argos I must needs bear these epistles, and what hearing from thee, I
+  must tell.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Bear word to Orestes, the son of Agamemnon, (<i>reading</i>)
+  "she<a name="IT_99"></a><a href="#ITN_99"><sup>[99]</sup></a> that was
+  sacrificed at Aulis gives this commission, Iphigenia alive, but no longer
+  alive as far as those in Argos are concerned."</p>
+
+  <p>OR. But where is she? Does she come back again having died?</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. She, whom you see. Do not confuse me with speaking. (<i>Continues
+  reading</i>) "Bear me to Argos, my brother, before I die, remove me from
+  this barbarian land and the sacrifices of the Goddess, in which I have
+  the office of slaying strangers."</p>
+
+  <p>OR. Pylades, what shall I say? where shall we be found to be?<a
+  name="IT_100"></a><a href="#ITN_100"><sup>[100]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>IPH. (<i>still reading</i>) "Or I will be a cause of curses upon thine
+  house, Orestes," (<i>with great stress upon the name and turning to
+  Pylades</i>,) "that thou, twice hearing the name, mayest know it."</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. O Gods!</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Why callest thou upon the Gods in matters that are mine?</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. 'Tis nothing. Go on. I was wandering to another subject.
+  Perchance, inquiring of thee, I shall arrive at things incredible.<a
+  name="IT_101"></a><a href="#ITN_101"><sup>[101]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>IPH. (<i>continues reading</i>) "Say that the Goddess Diana saved me,
+  giving in exchange for me a hind, which my father sacrificed, thinking
+  that it was upon me that he laid the sharp sword, and she placed me to
+  dwell in this land." This is the burden of my message, these are the
+  words written in my letter.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. O thou who hast secured me in easy oaths, and hast sworn things
+  fairest, I will not delay much time, but I will firmly accomplish the
+  oath I have sworn. Behold, I bear and deliver to thee a letter, O
+  Orestes, from this thy sister.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. I receive it. And letting go the opening of the letter, I will
+  first seize a delight not in words (<i>attempts to embrace her</i>). O
+  dearest sister mine, in amazement, yet nevertheless embracing thee with a
+  doubting arm, I go to a source of delight, hearing things marvelous to
+  me.<a name="IT_102"></a><a href="#ITN_102"><sup>[102]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Stranger,<a name="IT_103"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_103"><sup>[103]</sup></a> thou dost not rightly pollute the
+  servant of the Goddess, casting thine arm around her garments that should
+  ne'er be touched.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. O fellow-sister born of one sire, Agamemnon, turn not from me,
+  possessing a brother whom you never thought to possess.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. I [possess] thee my brother? Wilt not cease speaking? Both Argos
+  and Nauplia are frequented by him.<a name="IT_104"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_104"><sup>[104]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>OR. Unhappy one! thy brother is not there.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. But did the Laced�monian daughter of Tyndarus beget thee?</p>
+
+  <p>OR. Ay, to the grandson of Pelops, whence I am sprung.<a
+  name="IT_105"></a><a href="#ITN_105"><sup>[105]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>IPH. What sayest thou? Hast thou any proof of this for me?</p>
+
+  <p>OR. I have. Ask something relative to my ancestral home.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Thou must needs then speak, and I learn.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. I will first speak from hearsay from Electra, this.<a
+  name="IT_106"></a><a href="#ITN_106"><sup>[106]</sup></a> Thou knowest
+  the strife that took place between Atreus and Thyestes?</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. I have heard of it, when it was waged concerning the golden
+  lamb.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. Dost thou then remember weaving [a representation of] this on the
+  deftly-wrought web?</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. O dearest one. Thou art turning thy course near to my own
+  thoughts.<a name="IT_107"></a><a href="#ITN_107"><sup>[107]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>OR. And [dost thou remember] a picture on the loom, the turning away
+  of the sun?</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. I wove this image also in the fine-threaded web.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. And didst thou receive<a name="IT_108"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_108"><sup>[108]</sup></a> a bath from thy mother, sent to
+  Aulis?</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. I know it: for the wedding, though good, did not take away my
+  recollection.<a name="IT_109"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_109"><sup>[109]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>OR. But what? [Dost thou remember] to have given thine hair to be
+  carried to thy mother?</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Ay, as a memorial for the tomb<a name="IT_110"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_110"><sup>[110]</sup></a> in place of my body.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. But the proofs which I have myself beheld, these will I tell, viz.
+  the ancient spear of Pelops in my father's house, which brandishing in
+  his hand, he [Pelops] won Hippodameia, having slain �nomaus, which is
+  hidden in thy virgin chamber.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. O dearest one, no more, for thou art dearest. I hold thee,
+  Orestes, one darling son<a name="IT_111"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_111"><sup>[111]</sup></a> far away from his father-land, from
+  Argos, O thou dear one!</p>
+
+  <p>OR. And I [hold] thee that wast dead, as was supposed. But tears, yet
+  tearless,<a name="IT_112"></a><a href="#ITN_112"><sup>[112]</sup></a> and
+  groans together mingled with joy, bedew thine eyelids, and mine in like
+  manner.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. This one, this, yet a babe I left, young in the arms of the
+  nurse, ay, young in our house. O thou more fortunate than my words<a
+  name="IT_113"></a><a href="#ITN_113"><sup>[113]</sup></a> can tell, what
+  shall I say? This matter has turned out beyond marvel or calculation.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. [Say this.] May we for the future be happy with each other!</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. I have experienced an unaccountable delight, dear companions, but
+  I fear lest it flit<a name="IT_114"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_114"><sup>[114]</sup></a> from my hands, and escape toward the
+  sky. O ye Cyclopean hearths, O Mycen�, dear country mine. I am grateful
+  to thee for my life, and grateful for my nurture, in that thou hast
+  trained for me this brother light in my home.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. In our race we are fortunate, but as to calamities, O sister, our
+  life is by nature unhappy.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. But I wretched remember when my father with foolish spirit laid
+  the sword upon my neck.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. Ah me! For I seem, not being present, to behold you there.<a
+  name="IT_115"></a><a href="#ITN_115"><sup>[115]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Without Hymen, O my brother, when I was being led to the
+  fictitious nuptial bed of Achilles. But near the altar were tears and
+  lamentations. Alas! alas, for the lustral waters there!</p>
+
+  <p>OR. I mourn aloud for the deed my father dared.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. I obtained a fatherless, a fatherless lot. But one calamity
+  follows upon another.<a name="IT_116"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_116"><sup>[116]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>OR. [Ay,] if thou hadst lost thy brother, O hapless one, by the
+  intervention of some demon.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. O miserable for my dreadful daring! I have dared horrid, I have
+  dared horrid things. Alas! my brother. But by a little hast thou escaped
+  an unholy destruction, stricken by my hands. But what will be the end
+  after this? What fortune will befall me? What retreat can I find for thee
+  away from this city? can I send you out of the reach of slaughter to your
+  country Argos, before that my sword enter on the contest concerning thy
+  blood?<a name="IT_117"></a><a href="#ITN_117"><sup>[117]</sup></a> This
+  is thy business, O hapless soul, to discover, whether over the land, not
+  in a ship, but by the gust<a name="IT_118"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_118"><sup>[118]</sup></a> of your feet thou wilt approach
+  death, passing through<a name="IT_119"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_119"><sup>[119]</sup></a> barbarian hordes, and through ways
+  not to be traversed? Or<a name="IT_120"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_120"><sup>[120]</sup></a> [wilt thou pass] through the Cyanean
+  creek, a long journey in the flight of ships. Wretched, wretched one! Who
+  then or God, or mortal, or [unexpected event,<a name="IT_121"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_121"><sup>[121]</sup></a>] having accomplished a way out of
+  inextricable difficulties, will show forth to the sole twain Atrides a
+  release from ills?</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Among marvels and things passing even fable are these things
+  which I shall tell as having myself beheld, and not from hearsay.</p>
+
+  <p>PYL. It is meet indeed that friends coming into the presence of
+  friends, Orestes, should embrace one another with their hands, but,
+  having ceased from mournful matters, it behooves you also to betake you
+  to those measures by which we, obtaining the glorious name of safety, may
+  depart from this barbarian earth. For it is the part of wise men, not
+  wandering from their present chance, when they have obtained an
+  opportunity, to acquire further delights.<a name="IT_122"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_122"><sup>[122]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>OR. Thou sayest well. But I think that fortune will take care of this
+  with us. For if a man be zealous, it is likely that the divine power will
+  have still greater power.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Do not restrain or hinder me from your words, not first to know
+  what fortune of life Electra has obtained, for this were pleasant to me
+  [to hear.]<a name="IT_123"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_123"><sup>[123]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>OR. She is partner with this man, possessing a happy life.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. And of what country is he, and son of what man born?</p>
+
+  <p>OR. Strophius the Phocian is styled his father.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. And he is of the daughter of Atreus, a relative of mine?</p>
+
+  <p>OR. Ay, a cousin, my only certain friend.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Was he not in being, when my father sought to slay me?</p>
+
+  <p>OR. He was not, for Strophius was childless some time.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Hail! O thou spouse of my sister.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. Ay, and my preserver, not relation only.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. But how didst thou dare the terrible deeds in respect to your
+  mother?</p>
+
+  <p>OR. Let us be silent respecting my mother&mdash;'twas in avenging my
+  father.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. And what was the reason for her slaying her husband?</p>
+
+  <p>OR. Let go the subject of my mother. Nor is it pleasant for you to
+  hear.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. I am silent. But Argos now looks up to thee.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. Menelaus rules: I am an exile from my country.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. What, did our uncle abuse our house unprospering?</p>
+
+  <p>OR. Not so, but the fear of the Erinnyes drives me from my land.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. For this then wert thou spoken of as being frantic even here on
+  the shore.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. We were beheld not now for the first time in a hapless state.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. I perceive. The Goddesses goaded thee on because of thy
+  mother.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. Ay, so as to cast a bloody bit<a name="IT_124"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_124"><sup>[124]</sup></a> upon me.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. For wherefore didst thou pilot thy foot to this land?</p>
+
+  <p>OR. I came, commanded by the oracles of Ph&#339;bus&mdash;</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. To do what thing? Is it one to be spoken of or kept in
+  silence?</p>
+
+  <p>OR. I will tell you, but these are the beginning for me of many<a
+  name="IT_125"></a><a href="#ITN_125"><sup>[125]</sup></a> woes. After
+  these evil things concerning my mother, on which I keep silence, had been
+  wrought, I was driven an exile by the pursuits of the Erinnyes, when
+  Loxias sent my foot<a name="IT_126"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_126"><sup>[126]</sup></a> to Athens, that I might render
+  satisfaction to the deities that must not be named. For there is a holy
+  council, that Jove once on a time instituted for Mars on account of some
+  pollution of his hands.<a name="IT_127"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_127"><sup>[127]</sup></a> And coming thither, at first indeed
+  no one of the strangers received me willingly, as being abhorred by the
+  Gods, but they who had respect to me, afforded me<a name="IT_128"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_128"><sup>[128]</sup></a> a stranger's meal at a separate
+  table, being under the same house roof, and silently devised in respect
+  to me, unaddressed by them, how I might be separated from their banquet<a
+  name="IT_129"></a><a href="#ITN_129"><sup>[129]</sup></a> and cup, and,
+  having filled up a share of wine in a separate vessel, equal for all,
+  they enjoyed themselves. And I did not think fit to rebuke my guests, but
+  I grieved in silence, and did not seem to perceive [their conduct,]
+  deeply groaning, because I was my mother's slayer.<a name="IT_130"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_130"><sup>[130]</sup></a> But I hear that my misfortunes have
+  been made a festival at Athens, and that this custom still remains, that
+  the people of Pallas honor the Libation Vessel.<a name="IT_131"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_131"><sup>[131]</sup></a> But when I came to the hill of Mars,
+  and stood in judgment, I indeed occupying one seat, but the eldest of the
+  Erinnyes the other, having spoken and heard respecting my mother's death,
+  Ph&#339;bus saved me by bearing witness, but Pallas counted out for me<a
+  name="IT_132"></a><a href="#ITN_132"><sup>[132]</sup></a> the equal votes
+  with her hand, and I came off victor in the bloody trial.<a
+  name="IT_133"></a><a href="#ITN_133"><sup>[133]</sup></a> As many then as
+  sat [in judgment,] persuaded by the sentence, determined to hold their
+  dwelling near the court itself.<a name="IT_134"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_134"><sup>[134]</sup></a> But as many of the Erinnyes as did
+  not yield obedience to the sentence passed, continually kept driving me
+  with unsettled wanderings, until I again returned to the holy ground of
+  Ph&#339;bus, and lying stretched before the adyts, hungering for food, I
+  swore that I would break from life by dying on the spot, unless
+  Ph&#339;bus, who had undone, should preserve me. Upon this Ph&#339;bus,
+  uttering a voice from the golden tripod, sent me hither to seize the
+  heaven-sent image, and place it in the land of Athens. But that safety
+  which he marked out for me do thou aid in. For if we can lay hold on the
+  image of the Goddess, I both shall cease from my madness, and embarking
+  thee in the bark of many oars, I shall settle thee again in Mycen�. But,
+  O beloved one, O sister mine, preserve my ancestral home, and preserve
+  me, since all my state and that of the Pelopids is undone, unless we
+  seize on the heavenly image of the Goddess.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Some dreadful wrath of the Gods hath burst forth, and leads the
+  seed of Tantalus through troubles.<a name="IT_135"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_135"><sup>[135]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>IPH. I entertained the desire to reach Argos, and behold thee, my
+  brother, even before thou camest. But I wish, as you do, both to save
+  thee, and to restore again our sickening ancestral home from troubles, in
+  no wise wrath with him who would have slain me. For I should both release
+  my hand from thy slaughter, and preserve mine house. But I fear how I
+  shall be able to escape the notice of the Goddess and the king, when he
+  shall find the stone pedestal bared of the image. And how shall I escape
+  death? What account can I give? But if indeed these matters can be
+  effected at once, and thou wilt bear away the image, and lead me in the
+  fair-pooped ship, the risk will be a glorious one. But separated from
+  this I perish, but you, arranging your own affairs, would obtain a
+  prosperous return. Yet in no wise will I fly, not even if I needs must
+  perish, having preserved thee. In no wise, I say;<a name="IT_136"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_136"><sup>[136]</sup></a> for a man who dies from among his
+  household is regretted, but a woman is of little account.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. I would not be the murderer both of thee and of my mother. Her
+  blood is enough, and being of the same mind with you, [with you] I should
+  wish, living or dying, to obtain an equal lot. &#x2020;But I will lead
+  thee, even though I myself fall here, to my house, or, remaining with
+  thee, will die.<a name="IT_137"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_137"><sup>[137]</sup></a>&#x2020; But hear my opinion. If this
+  had been disagreeable to Diana, how would Loxias have answered, that I
+  should remove the image of the Goddess to the city of Pallas, and behold
+  thy face? For, putting all these matters together, I hope to obtain a
+  return.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. How then can it happen that neither you die, and that we obtain
+  what we wish? For it is in this respect that our journey homeward is at
+  fault, but the will is not wanting.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. Could we possibly destroy the tyrant?</p>
+
+  <p>IPH, Thou tellest a fearful thing, for strangers to slay their
+  receivers.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. But if it will preserve thee and me, one must run the risk.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. I could not&mdash;yet I approve your zeal.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. But what if you were secretly to hide me in this temple?</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. In order, forsooth, that, taking advantage of darkness, we might
+  be saved?</p>
+
+  <p>OR. For night is the time for thieves, the light for truth.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. But within are the sacred keepers,<a name="IT_138"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_138"><sup>[138]</sup></a> whom we can not escape.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. Alas! we are undone. How can we then be saved?</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. I seem to have a certain new device.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. Of what kind? Make me a sharer in your opinion, that I also may
+  learn.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. I will make use of thy ravings as a contrivance.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. Ay, cunning are women to find out tricks.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. I will say that thou, being slayer of thy mother, art come from
+  Argos.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. Make use of my troubles, if you can turn them to account.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. I will say that it is not lawful to sacrifice thee to the
+  Goddess.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. Having what pretext? For I partly suspect.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. As not being pure, but I will [say that I will]<a
+  name="IT_139"></a><a href="#ITN_139"><sup>[139]</sup></a> give what is
+  holy to sacrifice.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. How then the more will the image of the Goddess be obtained?</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. I [will say that I] will purify thee in the fountains of the
+  sea.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. The statue, in quest of which, we have sailed, is still in the
+  temple.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. And I will say that I must wash that too, as if you had laid
+  hands on it.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. Where then is the damp breaker of the sea of which you speak?</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Where thy ship rides at anchor with rope-bound chains.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. But wilt thou, or some one else, bear the image in their
+  hands?</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. I, for it is lawful for me alone to touch it.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. But in what part of this contrivance will our friend Pylades<a
+  name="IT_140"></a><a href="#ITN_140"><sup>[140]</sup></a> be placed?</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. He will be said to bear the same pollution of hands as
+  thyself.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. And wilt thou do this unknown to, or with the knowledge of the
+  king?</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Having persuaded him by words, for I could not escape notice.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. And truly the well-rowed ship is ready for sailing.<a
+  name="IT_141"></a><a href="#ITN_141"><sup>[141]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>IPH. You must take care of the rest, that it be well.</p>
+
+  <p>OR. There lacks but one thing, namely, that these women who are
+  present preserve our secret. But do thou beseech them, and find words
+  that will persuade. A woman in truth has power to move pity. But all the
+  rest will perchance fall out well.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. O dearest women, I look to you, and my affairs rest in you, as to
+  whether they turn out well, or be of naught, and I be deprived of my
+  country, my dear brother, and dearest sister. And let this first be the
+  commencement of my words. We are women, a race well inclined to one
+  another, and most safe in keeping secret matters of common interest. Do
+  ye keep silence for us, and labor out our escape. Honorable is it for the
+  man who possesses a faithful tongue. But behold how one fortune holds the
+  three most dear, either a return to our father-land, or to die. But,
+  being preserved, that thou also mayest share my fortune, I will restore
+  thee safe to Greece. But, by thy right hand, thee, and thee
+  [<i>addressing the women of the chorus in succession</i>] I beseech, and
+  thee by thy beloved cheek, and thy knees, and those most dear at home,
+  mother, and father, and children, to whom there are such.<a
+  name="IT_142"></a><a href="#ITN_142"><sup>[142]</sup></a> What say ye?
+  Who of you will, or will not [speak!] these things.<a
+  name="IT_143"></a><a href="#ITN_143"><sup>[143]</sup></a> For if ye
+  assent not to my words, I am undone, and my wretched sister.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Be of good cheer, dear mistress, and think only of being saved,
+  since on my part all shall be kept secret, the mighty Jove be witness! in
+  the things thou enjoinest.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. May your words profit ye, and may ye be blest. 'Tis thy part now,
+  and thine [to the different women] to enter the house, as the ruler of
+  this land will straightway come, inquiring concerning the sacrifice of
+  the strangers, whether it is over. O revered Goddess, who in the recesses
+  of Aulis didst save me from the dire hand of a slaying father, now also
+  save me and these, or the voice of Loxias will through thee be no longer
+  truthful among mortals. But do thou with good will quit the barbarian
+  land for Athens, for it becomes thee not to dwell here, when you can
+  possess a blest city.</p>
+
+  <p>CHORUS. Thou bird, that by the rocky cliffs of the sea, halcyon,<a
+  name="IT_144"></a><a href="#ITN_144"><sup>[144]</sup></a> dost chant thy
+  mournful elegy, a sound well understood by the skilled, namely, that thou
+  art ever bemoaning thine husband in song, I, a wingless bird, compare my
+  dirge with thine, longing for the assemblies<a name="IT_145"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_145"><sup>[145]</sup></a> of the Greeks, longing for Lucina,
+  who dwells along the Cynthian height, and near the palm<a
+  name="IT_146"></a><a href="#ITN_146"><sup>[146]</sup></a> with its
+  luxuriant foliage, and the rich-springing laurel, and the holy shoot of
+  the deep blue olive, the dear place of Latona's throes,<a
+  name="IT_147"></a><a href="#ITN_147"><sup>[147]</sup></a> and the lake
+  that rolls its waters in a circle,<a name="IT_148"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_148"><sup>[148]</sup></a> where the melodious swan honors the
+  muses. O ye many tricklings of tears which fell upon my cheeks, when, our
+  towers being destroyed, I traveled in ships beneath the oars and the
+  spears of the foes.<a name="IT_149"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_149"><sup>[149]</sup></a> And through a bartering of great
+  price I came a journey to a barbarian land,<a name="IT_150"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_150"><sup>[150]</sup></a> where I serve the daughter of
+  Agamemnon, the priestess of the Goddess, and the sheep-slaughtering<a
+  name="IT_151"></a><a href="#ITN_151"><sup>[151]</sup></a> altars, envying
+  her who has all her life been unfortunate;<a name="IT_152"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_152"><sup>[152]</sup></a> for she bends not under necessity,
+  who is familiar with it. Unhappiness is wont to change,<a
+  name="IT_153"></a><a href="#ITN_153"><sup>[153]</sup></a> but to fare ill
+  after prosperity is a heavy life for mortals. And thee indeed, O
+  mistress, an Argive ship of fifty oars will conduct home, and the
+  wax-bound reed of mountain Pan with Syrinx tune cheer on the oarsmen, and
+  prophet Ph&#339;bus, plying the tones of his seven-stringed lyre, with
+  song will lead thee prosperously to the rich land of Athens. But leaving
+  me here thou wilt travel by the dashing oars. And the halyards by the
+  prow,<a name="IT_154"></a><a href="#ITN_154"><sup>[154]</sup></a> will
+  stretch forth the sails to the air, above the beak, the sheet lines of
+  the swift-journeying ship. Would that I might pass through the glittering
+  course, where the fair light of the sun wends its way, and over my own
+  chamber might rest from rapidly moving the pinions on my shoulders.<a
+  name="IT_155"></a><a href="#ITN_155"><sup>[155]</sup></a> And would that
+  I might stand in the dance, where also [I was wont to stand,] a virgin
+  sprung from honorable nuptials,<a name="IT_156"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_156"><sup>[156]</sup></a> wreathing the dances of my
+  companions at the foot of my dear mother,<a name="IT_157"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_157"><sup>[157]</sup></a> bounding to the rivalry of the
+  graces, to the wealthy strife respecting [beauteous] hair, pouring my
+  variously-painted garb and tresses around, I shadowed my cheeks.<a
+  name="IT_158"></a><a href="#ITN_158"><sup>[158]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p class="center">[<i>Enter</i> THOAS.]</p>
+
+  <p>THOAS. Where is the Grecian woman who keeps the gate of this temple?
+  Has she yet begun the sacrifice of the strangers, and are the bodies
+  burning in the flame within the pure recesses?</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Here she is, O king, who will tell thee clearly all.</p>
+
+  <p>TH. Ah! Why art thou removing in your arms this image of the Goddess
+  from its seat that may not be disturbed, O daughter of Agamemnon?</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. O king, rest there thy foot in the portico.</p>
+
+  <p>TH. But what new matter is in the house, Iphigenia?</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. I avert the ill&mdash;for holy<a name="IT_159"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_159"><sup>[159]</sup></a> do I utter this word.</p>
+
+  <p>TH. What new thing art thou prefacing? speak clearly.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. O king, no pure offerings hast thou hunted out for me.</p>
+
+  <p>TH. What hath taught you this? or dost thou speak it as matter of
+  opinion?</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. The image of the Goddess hath again turned away from her seat.<a
+  name="IT_160"></a><a href="#ITN_160"><sup>[160]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>TH. Of its own accord, or did an earthquake turn it?</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Of its own accord, and it closed its eyes.</p>
+
+  <p>TH. But what is the cause? is it pollution from the strangers?</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. That very thing, naught else, for they have done dreadful
+  things.</p>
+
+  <p>TH. What, did they slay any of the barbarians upon the shore?</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. They came possessing the stain of domestic murder.</p>
+
+  <p>TH. What? for I am fallen into a longing to learn this.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. They put an end to a mother's life by conspiring sword.</p>
+
+  <p>TH. Apollo! not even among barbarians would any one have dared
+  this.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. By persecutions they were driven out of all Greece.</p>
+
+  <p>TH. Is it then on their account that thou bearest the image
+  without?</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Ay, under the holy sky, that I may remove it from blood
+  stains.</p>
+
+  <p>TH. But how didst thou discover the pollution of the strangers?</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. I examined them, when the image of the Goddess turned away.</p>
+
+  <p>TH. Greece hath trained thee up wise, in that thou well didst perceive
+  this.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. And now they have cast out a delightful bait for my mind.</p>
+
+  <p>TH. By telling thee any charming news of those at Argos?</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. That my only brother Orestes fares well.</p>
+
+  <p>TH. So that, forsooth, thou mightest preserve them because of their
+  pleasant news!</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. And that my father lives and fares well.</p>
+
+  <p>TH. But thou hast with reason attended to the interest of the
+  Goddess.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Ay, because hating all Greece that destroyed me.</p>
+
+  <p>TH. What then shall we do, say, concerning the two strangers?</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. We needs must respect the established law.</p>
+
+  <p>TH. Are not the lustral waters and thy sword already engaged?<a
+  name="IT_161"></a><a href="#ITN_161"><sup>[161]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>IPH. First I would fain lave them in pure cleansings.</p>
+
+  <p>TH. In the fountains of waters, or in the dew of the sea?</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. The sea washes out all the ills of men.</p>
+
+  <p>TH. They would certainly fall in a more holy manner before the
+  Goddess.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. And my matters would be in a more fitting state.<a
+  name="IT_162"></a><a href="#ITN_162"><sup>[162]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>TH. Does not the wave dash against the very temple?</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. There is need of solitude, for we have other things to do.</p>
+
+  <p>TH. Lead them whither thou wilt, I crave not to see things that may
+  not be told.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. The image of the Goddess also must be purified by me.</p>
+
+  <p>TH. If indeed the stain of the matricide hath fallen on it.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. For otherwise I should not have removed it from its pedestal.</p>
+
+  <p>TH. Just piety and foresight! How reasonably doth all the city marvel
+  at thee!</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Knowest thou then what must be done for me?</p>
+
+  <p>TH. 'Tis thine to explain this.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Cast fetters upon the strangers.</p>
+
+  <p>TH. Whither could they escape from thee?</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Greece knows nothing faithful.</p>
+
+  <p>TH. Go for the fetters, attendants.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Ay, and let them bring the strangers hither.</p>
+
+  <p>TH. This shall be.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Having enveloped their heads in robes.</p>
+
+  <p>TH. Against the scorching of the sun?</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. And send thou with me of thy followers&mdash;</p>
+
+  <p>TH. These shall accompany thee.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. And send some one to signify to the city&mdash;</p>
+
+  <p>TH. What hap?</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. That all remain in their homes.</p>
+
+  <p>TH. Lest they encounter homicide?</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. For such things are unclean.</p>
+
+  <p>TH. Go thou, and order this.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. That no one come into sight.</p>
+
+  <p>TH. Thou carest well for the city.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Ay, and more particularly friends must not be present.<a
+  name="IT_163"></a><a href="#ITN_163"><sup>[163]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>TH. This you say in reference to me.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. But do thou, abiding here before the temple of the
+  Goddess&mdash;</p>
+
+  <p>TH. Do what?</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Purify the house with a torch.</p>
+
+  <p>TH. That it may be pure when thou comest back to it?</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. But when the strangers come out,</p>
+
+  <p>TH. What must I do?</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Place your garment before your eyes.</p>
+
+  <p>TH. Lest I contract contagion?</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. But if I seem to tarry very long,</p>
+
+  <p>TH. What limit of this shall I have?</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. Wonder at nothing.</p>
+
+  <p>TH. Do thou rightly the business of the Goddess at thy leisure.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. And may this purification turn out as I wish!</p>
+
+  <p>TH. I join in your prayer.</p>
+
+  <p>IPH. I now see these strangers coming out of the house, and the
+  adornments of the Goddess, and the young lambs, in order that I may wash
+  out foul slaughter by slaughter, and the shining light of lamps, and the
+  other things, as many as I ordered as purifications for the strangers and
+  the Goddess. But I proclaim to the strangers to get out of the way of
+  this pollution, if any gate-keeper of the temples keeps pure hands for
+  the Gods, or is about to join in nuptial alliance, or is pregnant, flee,
+  get out of the way, lest this pollution fall on any. O thou queen, virgin
+  daughter of Jove and Latona, if I wash away the blood-pollution from
+  these men, and sacrifice where 'tis fitting, thou wilt occupy a pure
+  house, and we shall be prosperous. But although I do not speak of the
+  rest, I nevertheless signify my meaning to the Gods who know most
+  things,<a name="IT_164"></a><a href="#ITN_164"><sup>[164]</sup></a> and
+  to thee, O Goddess.</p>
+
+  <p>CHORUS.<a name="IT_165"></a><a href="#ITN_165"><sup>[165]</sup></a> Of
+  noble birth is the offspring of Latona, whom once on a time in the
+  fruitful valleys of Delos, Ph&#339;bus with his golden locks, skilled on
+  the lyre, (and she who rejoices in skill of the bow,) his mother bore
+  while yet an infant<a name="IT_166"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_166"><sup>[166]</sup></a> from the sea-side rock, leaving the
+  renowned place of her delivery, destitute of waters,<a
+  name="IT_167"></a><a href="#ITN_167"><sup>[167]</sup></a> the Parnassian
+  height haunted by Bacchus, where the ruddy-visaged serpent, with spotted
+  back, &#x2020; brazen &#x2020; beneath the shady laurel with its rich
+  foliage, an enormous prodigy of the earth, guarded the subterranean
+  oracle. Him thou, O Ph&#339;bus, while yet an infant, while yet leaping
+  in thy dear mother's arms, didst slay, and entered upon thy divine
+  oracles, and thou sittest on the golden tripod, on the throne that is
+  ever true, distributing to mortals prophecies from the divine adyts
+  beneath the Castalian streams, dwelling hard by, occupying a dwelling in
+  the middle of the earth.<a name="IT_168"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_168"><sup>[168]</sup></a> But when, having gone against
+  Themis, daughter of earth, he expelled her from the divine oracles, earth
+  begot dark phantoms of dreams, which to many mortals explain what first,
+  what afterward, what in future will happen, during their sleep in the
+  couches of the dusky earth.<a name="IT_169"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_169"><sup>[169]</sup></a> But &#x2020; the earth &#x2020;
+  deprived Ph&#339;bus of the honor of prophecies, through anger on her
+  daughter's account, and the swift-footed king, hastening to Olympus,
+  stretched forth his little hand to the throne of Jove.<a
+  name="IT_170"></a><a href="#ITN_170"><sup>[170]</sup></a> [beseeching
+  him] to take away the earth-born<a name="IT_171"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_171"><sup>[171]</sup></a> wrath of the Goddess, &#x2020; and
+  the nightly responses. &#x2020; But he laughed, because his son had come
+  quickly to him, wishing to obtain the wealthy office, and he shook his
+  hair, and put an end to the nightly dreams,<a name="IT_172"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_172"><sup>[172]</sup></a> and took away nightly divination
+  from mortals, and again conferred the honor on Loxias, and confidence to
+  mortals from the songs of oracles [proclaimed] on this throne, thronged
+  to by many strangers.<a name="IT_173"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_173"><sup>[173]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p class="center">[<i>Enter</i> A MESSENGER.]</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. O ye guardians of the temple and presidents of the altars, where
+  in this land has king Thoas gone? Do ye, opening the well-fastened gates,
+  call the ruler of this land outside the house.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. But what is it, if I may speak when I am not bidden?</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. The two youths have escaped, and are gone by the contrivances of
+  Agamemnon's daughter, endeavoring to fly from this land, and taking the
+  sacred image in the bosom of a Grecian ship.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Thou tellest an incredible story, but the king of this country,
+  whom you wish to see, is gone, having quitted the temple.</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. Whither? For he needs must know what has been done.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. We know not. But go thou and pursue him to wheresoever, having
+  met with him, thou mayest recount this news.</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. See, how faithless is the female race! and ye are partners in
+  what has been done.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Art thou mad? What have we to do with the flight of the
+  strangers? Will you not go as quickly as possible to the gates of the
+  rulers?</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. Not at least before some distinct informer<a
+  name="IT_174"></a><a href="#ITN_174"><sup>[174]</sup></a> tell me this,
+  whether the ruler of the land is within or not within. Ho there! Open the
+  fastenings, I speak to those within, and tell the master that I am at the
+  gates, bearing a weight of evil news.</p>
+
+  <p>THOAS. (<i>coming out</i>) Who makes this noise near the temple of the
+  Goddess, hammering at the door, and sending fear within?</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. These women told me falsely, (and tried to drive me from the
+  house,) that you were away, while you really were in the house.</p>
+
+  <p>TH. Expecting or hunting after what gain?</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. I will afterward tell of what concerns them, but hear the
+  present, immediate matter. The virgin, she that presided over the altars
+  here, Iphigenia, has gone out of the land with the strangers, having the
+  sacred image of the Goddess; but the expiations were pretended.</p>
+
+  <p>TH. How sayest thou? possessed by what breath of calamity?<a
+  name="IT_175"></a><a href="#ITN_175"><sup>[175]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>MESS. In order to preserve Orestes, for at this thou wilt marvel.</p>
+
+  <p>TH. What [Orestes]? Him, whom the daughter of Tyndarus bore?</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. Him whom she consecrated to the Goddess at these altars.</p>
+
+  <p>TH. Oh marvel! How can I rightly<a name="IT_176"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_176"><sup>[176]</sup></a> call thee by a greater name?</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. Do not turn thine attention to this, but listen to me; and
+  having perceived and heard, clearly consider what pursuit will catch the
+  strangers.</p>
+
+  <p>TH. Speak, for thou sayest well, for they do not flee by the way of
+  the neighboring sea, so as to be able to escape my fleet.</p>
+
+  <p>MESS. When we came to the sea-shore, where the vessel of Orestes was
+  anchored in secret, to us indeed, whom thou didst send with her, bearing
+  fetters for the strangers, the daughter of Agamemnon made signs that we
+  should get far out of the way, as she was about to offer the secret<a
+  name="IT_177"></a><a href="#ITN_177"><sup>[177]</sup></a> flame and
+  expiation, for which she had come. But she, holding the fetters of the
+  strangers in her hands, followed behind them. And these matters were
+  suspicious, but they satisfied your attendants, O king. But at length, in
+  order forsooth that she might seem to us to be doing something, she
+  screamed aloud, and chanted barbarian songs like a sorceress, as if
+  washing out the stain of murder. But after we had remained sitting a long
+  time, it occurred to us whether the strangers set at liberty might not
+  slay her, and take to flight. And through fear lest we might behold what
+  was not fitting, we sat in silence, but at length the same words were in
+  every body's mouth, that we should go to where they were, although not
+  permitted. And upon this we behold the hull of the Grecian ship, [the
+  rowing winged with well-fitted oars,<a name="IT_178"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_178"><sup>[178]</sup></a>] and fifty sailors holding their
+  oars in the tholes, and the youths, freed from their fetters, standing
+  [on the shore] astern of the ship.<a name="IT_179"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_179"><sup>[179]</sup></a> But some held in the prow with their
+  oars, and others from the epotides let down the anchor, and others
+  hastily applying the ladders, drew the stern-cables through their hands,
+  and giving them to the sea, let them down to the strangers.<a
+  name="IT_180"></a><a href="#ITN_180"><sup>[180]</sup></a> But we
+  unsparing [of the toil,] when we beheld the crafty stratagem, laid hold
+  of the female stranger and of the cables, and tried to drag the rudders
+  from the fair-prowed ship from the steerage-place. But words ensued: "On
+  what plea do ye take to the sea, stealing from this land the images and
+  priestess? Whose son art thou, who thyself, who art carrying this woman
+  from the land?" But he replied, "Orestes, her brother, that you may know,
+  the son of Agamemnon, I, having taken this my sister, whom I had lost
+  from my house, am bearing her off." But naught the less we clung to the
+  female stranger, and compelled them by force to follow us to thee, upon
+  which arose sad smitings of the cheeks. For they had not arms in their
+  hands, nor had we; but fists were sounding against fists, and the arms of
+  both the youths at once were aimed against our sides and to the liver, so
+  that we at once were exhausted<a name="IT_181"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_181"><sup>[181]</sup></a> and worn out in our limbs. But
+  stamped with horrid marks we fled to a precipice, some having bloody
+  wounds on the head, others in the eyes, and standing on the heights, we
+  waged a safer warfare, and pelted stones. But archers, standing on the
+  poop, hindered us with their darts, so that we returned back. And
+  meanwhile&mdash;for a tremendous wave drove the ship against the land,
+  and there was alarm [on board] lest she might dip her sheet-line<a
+  name="IT_182"></a><a href="#ITN_182"><sup>[182]</sup></a>&mdash;Orestes,
+  taking his sister on his left shoulder, walked into the sea, and leaping
+  upon the ladder, placed her within the well-banked ship, and also the
+  image of the daughter of Jove, that fell from heaven. And from the middle
+  of the ship a voice spake thus, "O mariners of the Grecian ship, seize<a
+  name="IT_183"></a><a href="#ITN_183"><sup>[183]</sup></a> on your oars,
+  and make white the surge, for we have obtained the things on account of
+  which we sailed o'er the Euxine within the Symplegades." But they
+  shouting forth a pleasant cry, smote the brine. The ship, as long indeed
+  as it was within the port, went on; but, passing the outlet, meeting with
+  a strong tide, it was driven back. For a terrible gale coming suddenly,
+  drives [the bark winged with well-fitted oars] poop-wise,<a
+  name="IT_184"></a><a href="#ITN_184"><sup>[184]</sup></a> but they
+  persevered, kicking against the wave, but an ebbing tide brought them
+  again aground. But the daughter of Agamemnon stood up and prayed, "O
+  daughter of Latona, bring me, thy priestess, safe into Greece from a
+  barbarian land, and pardon the stealing away of me. Thou also, O Goddess,
+  lovest thy brother, and think thou that I also love my kindred." But the
+  sailors shouted a p�an in assent to the prayers of the girl, applying on
+  a given signal the point of the shoulders,<a name="IT_185"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_185"><sup>[185]</sup></a> bared from their hands, to the oars.
+  But more and more the vessel kept nearing the rocks, and one indeed
+  leaped into the sea with his feet, and another fastened woven nooses.<a
+  name="IT_186"></a><a href="#ITN_186"><sup>[186]</sup></a> And I was
+  immediately sent hither to thee, to tell thee, O king, what had happened
+  there. But go, taking fetters and halters in your hands, for, unless the
+  wave shall become tranquil, there is no hope of safety for the strangers.
+  For the ruler of the sea, the revered Neptune, both favorably regards
+  Troy, and is at enmity with the Pelopid�. And he will now, as it seems,
+  deliver up to thee and the citizens the son of Agamemnon, to take him
+  into your hands, and his sister, who is detected ungratefully forgetting
+  the Goddess in respect to the sacrifice at Aulis.<a name="IT_187"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_187"><sup>[187]</sup></a></p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. O hapless Iphigenia, with thy brother wilt thou die, again
+  coming into the hands of thy masters.</p>
+
+  <p>TH. O all ye citizens of this barbarian land, will ye not, casting
+  bridles on your horses, run to the shore, and receive the casting on of
+  the Grecian ship? But hastening, by the favor of the Goddess, will ye not
+  hunt down the impious men, and some of you haul the swift barks down to
+  the sea, that by sea, and by horse-coursings on the land seizing them, we
+  may either hurl them down the broken rock, or impale their bodies upon
+  stakes. But you women, the accomplices in these plots, I will punish
+  hereafter, when I have leisure, but now, having such a present duty, we
+  will not remain idle.</p>
+
+<p class="center">[MINERVA <i>appears</i>.]</p>
+
+  <p>MIN. Whither, whither sendest thou this troop to follow [the
+  fugitives,] king Thoas? List to the words of me, Minerva. Cease pursuing,
+  and stirring on the onset of your host. For by the destined oracles of
+  Loxias Orestes came hither, fleeing the wrath of the Erinnyes, and in
+  order to conduct his sister's person to Argos, and to bear the sacred
+  image into my land, by way of respite from his present troubles. Thus are
+  our words for thee, but as to him, Orestes, whom you wish to slay, having
+  caught him in a tempest at sea, Neptune has already, for my sake,
+  rendered the surface of the sea waveless, piloting him along in the ship.
+  But do thou, Orestes, learning my commands, (for thou hearest the voice
+  of a Goddess, although not present,) go, taking the image and thy sister.
+  And when thou art come to heaven-built Athens, there is a certain sacred
+  district in the farthest bounds of Atthis, near the Carystian rock, which
+  my people call Al&#339;&mdash;here, having built a temple, do thou
+  enshrine the image named after the Tauric land and thy toils, which thou
+  hast labored through, wandering over Greece, under the goad of the
+  Erinnyes. But mortals hereafter shall celebrate her as the Tauric Goddess
+  Diana. And do thou ordain this law, that, when the people celebrate a
+  feast in grateful commemoration of thy release from slaughter,<a
+  name="IT_188"></a><a href="#ITN_188"><sup>[188]</sup></a> let them apply
+  the sword to the neck of a man, and let blood flow on account of the holy
+  Goddess, that she may have honor. But, O Iphigenia, thou must needs be
+  guardian of the temple of this Goddess at the hallowed ascent of
+  Brauron;<a name="IT_189"></a><a href="#ITN_189"><sup>[189]</sup></a>
+  where also thou shalt be buried at thy death, and they shall offer to you
+  the honor of rich woven vestments, which women, dying in childbed, may
+  leave in their houses. But I command thee to let these Grecian women
+  depart from the land on account of their disinterested disposition,<a
+  name="IT_190"></a><a href="#ITN_190"><sup>[190]</sup></a> I, having saved
+  thee also on a former occasion, by determining the equal votes in the
+  Field of Mars, Orestes, and that, according to the same law, he should
+  conquer, whoever receive equal suffrages. But, O son of Agamemnon, do
+  thou remove thy sister from this land, nor be thou angered, Thoas.</p>
+
+  <p>TH. Queen Minerva, whosoever, on hearing the words of the Gods, is
+  disobedient, thinks not wisely. But I will not be angry with Orestes, if
+  he has carried away the image of the Goddess with him, nor with his
+  sister. For what credit is there in contending with the potent Gods? Let
+  them depart to thy land with the image of the Goddess, and let them
+  prosperously enshrine the effigy. But I will also send these women to
+  blest Greece, as thy mandate bids. And I will stop the spear which I
+  raised against the strangers, and the oars of the ships, as this seems
+  fit to thee, O Goddess.</p>
+
+  <p>MIN. I commend your words, for fate commands both thee and the Gods
+  [themselves.] Go, ye breezes, conduct the vessel of Agamemnon's son to
+  Athens. And I will journey with you, to guard the hallowed image of my
+  sister.</p>
+
+  <p>CHOR. Go ye, happy because of your preserved fortune. But, O Athenian
+  Pallas, hallowed among both immortals and mortals, we will do even as
+  thou biddest. For I have received a very delightful and unhoped-for voice
+  in my hearing. O thou all hallowed Victory, mayest thou possess my life,
+  and cease not to crown it.<a name="IT_191"></a><a
+  href="#ITN_191"><sup>[191]</sup></a></p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h3>NOTES ON IPHIGENIA IN TAURIS</h3>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+<div class="note">
+  <p><a name="ITN_1"></a><a href="#IT_1">[1]</a> This verse and part of the
+  following are set down among the "oil cruet" verses by Aristophanes, Ran.
+  1232. Aristotle, Poet. � xvii. gives a sketch of the plot of the whole
+  play, by way of illustrating the general form of tragedy. Hyginus, who
+  constantly has Euripides in view, also gives a brief analysis of the
+  plot, fab. cxx. For a description of the quadrig� of Pelops, see
+  Philostratus Imagg. i. 19. It must be observed, that Antoninus Liberalis,
+  � 27, makes Iphigenia only the supposititious daughter of Agamemnon, but
+  really the daughter of Theseus and Helen. See Meurs. on Lycophron, p.
+  145.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_2"></a><a href="#IT_2">[2]</a> I must confess that I can
+  not find what should have so much displeased the critics in this word.
+  Iphigenia, in using such an epithet, evidently refers to her own intended
+  sacrifice, which had rendered the recesses of Aulis a place of no small
+  fame.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_3"></a><a href="#IT_3">[3]</a> But Lenting prefers <span
+  lang="el"
+  title="Achaious">&#x391;&#x3C7;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C2;</span>,
+  with the approbation of the Cambridge editor.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_4"></a><a href="#IT_4">[4]</a> See Reiske apud Dindorf.
+  Compare my note on �sch. Ag. 188, p. 101, ed. Bohn. So also Callimachus,
+  Hymn. iii. <span lang="el" title="meilion aplo��s, hote hoi kated�sas
+  a�tas">&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3BB;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B1;&#x3C0;&#x3BB;&#x3BF;&#x3CA;&#x3B7;&#x3C2;,
+  &#x201B;&#x3BF;&#x3C4;&#x3B5; &#x201B;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3B4;&#x3B7;&#x3C3;&#x3B1;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B1;&#x3B7;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3C2;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_5"></a><a href="#IT_5">[5]</a> Sinon made the same
+  complaint. Cf. Virg. �n. ii. 90.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_6"></a><a href="#IT_6">[6]</a> Cf. �sch. Ag. 235.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_7"></a><a href="#IT_7">[7]</a> This whole passage has
+  been imitated by Ovid, de Ponto, iii. 2, 60. "Sceptra tenente illo,
+  liquidas fecisse per auras, Nescio quam dicunt Iphigenian iter. Quam
+  levibus ventis sub nube per aera vectam Creditur his Ph&#339;be
+  deposuisse locis." Cf. Lycophron, p. 16, vs. 3 sqq. Nonnus xiii. p. 332,
+  14 sqq.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_8"></a><a href="#IT_8">[8]</a> Observe the double
+  construction of <span lang="el"
+  title="anassei">&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3B1;&#x3C3;&#x3C3;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;</span>.
+  Orest. 1690. <span lang="el" title="nautais medeousa
+  thalass�s">&#x3BD;&#x3B1;&#x3C5;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3B4;&#x3B5;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3B8;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3C3;&#x3C3;&#x3B7;&#x3C2;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_9"></a><a href="#IT_9">[9]</a> The Cambridge editor would
+  expunge this line, which certainly seems languid and awkward. Boissonade
+  on Arist�net. Ep. xiii. p. 421, would simply read <span lang="el"
+  title="ta d' alla s. t. th. phoboumen�: thy� gar">&#x3C4;&#x3B1; &#x3B4;'
+  &#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3BB;&#x3B1; &#x3C2;. &#x3C4;. &#x3B8;.
+  &#x3C6;&#x3BF;&#x3B2;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3B7;:
+  &#x3B8;&#x3C5;&#x3C9; &#x3B3;&#x3B1;&#x3C1;</span>. He also retains <span
+  lang="el"
+  title="hiereian">&#x201B;&#x3B9;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;</span>,
+  referring to Gaisford on Heph�st. p. 216.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_10"></a><a href="#IT_10">[10]</a> The Cambridge editor
+  would throw out vs. 41.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_11"></a><a href="#IT_11">[11]</a> The Cambridge editor
+  refers to Med. 56, Androm. 91, Soph. El. 425. Add Plaut. Merc. i. 1, 3.
+  "Non ego idem facio, ut alios in com&#339;diis vidi facere amatores, qui
+  aut nocti, aut die, Aut Soli, aut Lun� miserias narrant suas." Theognetus
+  apud Athen. xv. p. 671. Casaub. <span lang="el" title="pephilosoph�kas
+  g�i kai ouran�i
+  lal�n">&#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3C6;&#x3B9;&#x3BB;&#x3BF;&#x3C3;&#x3BF;&#x3C6;&#x3B7;&#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B3;&#x3B7;&#x3B9; &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3C9;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;</span>. Cf. Davis, on Cicero, Tusc.
+  Q. iii. 26, and Lomeier de Lustrat. � xxxvii.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_12"></a><a href="#IT_12">[12]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="Thrinkon">&#x398;&#x3C1;&#x3B9;&#x3B3;&#x3BA;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span>
+  is properly the uppermost part of the walls of any building (Pollux, vii.
+  27) surrounding the roof, <span lang="el"
+  title="stegos">&#x3C3;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3B3;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span> is the
+  roof itself.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_13"></a><a href="#IT_13">[13]</a> Cf. Meurs. ad
+  Lycophron, p. 148.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_14"></a><a href="#IT_14">[14]</a> I read <span lang="el"
+  title="eim' eis�">&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3BC;'
+  &#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3C9;</span> with Hermann and the Cambridge
+  editor.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_15"></a><a href="#IT_15">[15]</a> This line is condemned
+  by the Cambridge editor. Burges has transposed it.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_16"></a><a href="#IT_16">[16]</a> But <span lang="el"
+  title="diadromais">&#x3B4;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;&#x3B4;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;</span>,
+  the correction of the Cambridge editor, seems preferable.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_17"></a><a href="#IT_17">[17]</a> An interpolation
+  universally condemned.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_18"></a><a href="#IT_18">[18]</a> See Barnes, and
+  Wetstein on Acts xix. 35.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_19"></a><a href="#IT_19">[19]</a> On the wanderings of
+  Orestes see my note on �sch. Eum. 238 sqq. p. 187, ed. Bohn.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_20"></a><a href="#IT_20">[20]</a> See the note of the
+  Cambridge editor, with whom we must read <span lang="el"
+  title="eisb�somestha">&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3B2;&#x3B7;&#x3C3;&#x3BF;&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3C3;&#x3B8;&#x3B1;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_21"></a><a href="#IT_21">[21]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="h�n ouden ismen">&#x201B;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3B4;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;</span> ad interiora templi spectat.
+  HERM.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_22"></a><a href="#IT_22">[22]</a> We must read <span
+  lang="el" title="geisa triglyph�n
+  hopoi">&#x3B3;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3C1;&#x3B9;&#x3B3;&#x3BB;&#x3C5;&#x3C6;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x201B;&#x3BF;&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;</span>, with Blomfield and the
+  Cambridge editor. See Philander on Vitruv. ii. p. 35, and Pollux, vii.
+  27.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_23"></a><a href="#IT_23">[23]</a> The sense is <span
+  lang="el" title="outoi, makran elthontes, ek
+  termat�n">&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;,
+  &#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3BA;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B5;&#x3BB;&#x3B8;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3C2;, &#x3B5;&#x3BA;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;</span> (sc. a
+  meta) <span lang="el"
+  title="nost�somen">&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3C3;&#x3C4;&#x3B7;&#x3C3;&#x3BF;&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;</span>.
+  ED. CAMB.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_24"></a><a href="#IT_24">[24]</a> The Cambridge editor
+  appositely compares a fragment of our author's Cresphontes, iii. 2, <span
+  lang="el" title="aischron te mochthein m� thelein
+  neanian">&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3C7;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3BD; &#x3C4;&#x3B5;
+  &#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3C7;&#x3B8;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3BD; &#x3BC;&#x3B7;
+  &#x3B8;&#x3B5;&#x3BB;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3BD;&#x3B5;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_25"></a><a href="#IT_25">[25]</a> On the whole of this
+  chorus, which is corrupt in several places, the notes of the Cambridge
+  editor should be consulted.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_26"></a><a href="#IT_26">[26]</a> This last lumbering
+  line must be corrupt.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_27"></a><a href="#IT_27">[27]</a> Compare the similar
+  scene in Soph. El. 86 sqq.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_28"></a><a href="#IT_28">[28]</a> Cf. Elect. 90. <span
+  lang="el" title="nyktos de t�sde pros taphon mol�n
+  patros">&#x3BD;&#x3C5;&#x3BA;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C2; &#x3B4;&#x3B5;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3B7;&#x3C3;&#x3B4;&#x3B5; &#x3C0;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3C6;&#x3BF;&#x3BD; &#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3BB;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span>. Hecub. 76. �sch. Pers.
+  179. Aristoph. Ran. 1331.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_29"></a><a href="#IT_29">[29]</a> Compare my note on
+  �sch. Pers. 610 sqq.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_30"></a><a href="#IT_30">[30]</a> See on �sch. Choeph.
+  6.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_31"></a><a href="#IT_31">[31]</a> Markland's emendation
+  has been unanimously adopted by the later editors.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_32"></a><a href="#IT_32">[32]</a> Schema Colophonium. The
+  Cambridge editor compares vs. 244. <span lang="el" title="Argei
+  sk�ptouchon">&#x391;&#x3C1;&#x3B3;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3C3;&#x3BA;&#x3B7;&#x3C0;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C7;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span>.
+  Ph&#339;n. 17. <span lang="el" title="Th�baisin
+  anax">&#x398;&#x3B7;&#x3B2;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3B1;&#x3BE;</span>. Heracl. 361. <span lang="el"
+  title="Argei tyrannos">&#x391;&#x3C1;&#x3B3;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3C5;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_33"></a><a href="#IT_33">[33]</a> I have marked lacun�,
+  as some mythological particulars have evidently been lost.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_34"></a><a href="#IT_34">[34]</a> An imperfect allusion
+  to the Thyestean banquet. Cf. Seneca Thyest. 774. "O Ph&#339;be patiens,
+  fugeris retro licet, medioque ruptum merseris c&#339;lo diem, sero
+  occidisti&mdash;" vs. 787 sqq.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_35"></a><a href="#IT_35">[35]</a> Cf. �sch. Ag. 1501 sqq.
+  Seneca, Ag. 57 sqq.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_36"></a><a href="#IT_36">[36]</a> i.e. the demon allotted
+  to me at my birth (cf. notes on �sch. 1341, p. 135, ed. Bohn). Statius,
+  Theb. i. 60, makes &#338;dipus invoke Tisiphone under the same
+  character.&mdash;"Si me de matre cadentem Fovisti gremio."</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_37"></a><a href="#IT_37">[37]</a> See the note of the
+  Cambridge editor.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_38"></a><a href="#IT_38">[38]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="eb�san">&#x3B5;&#x3B2;&#x3B7;&#x3C3;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;</span> is
+  active.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_39"></a><a href="#IT_39">[39]</a> The Cambridge editor
+  aptly refers to Hecub. 464.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_40"></a><a href="#IT_40">[40]</a> These participles refer
+  to the preceding <span lang="el" title="aimorrant�n
+  xein�n">&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3C1;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3BE;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_41"></a><a href="#IT_41">[41]</a> See on Heracl. 721.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_42"></a><a href="#IT_42">[42]</a> The Cambridge editor
+  would omit these two lines.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_43"></a><a href="#IT_43">[43]</a> Cf. vs. 107. <span
+  lang="el" title="kat' antr', ha pontios notidi diaklyzei
+  melas">&#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;' &#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3C1;',
+  &#x201B;&#x3B1; &#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3C4;&#x3B9;&#x3B4;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3B4;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;&#x3BA;&#x3BB;&#x3C5;&#x3B6;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3C2;</span>. On <span lang="el"
+  title="agmos">&#x3B1;&#x3B3;&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span> (Brod�us' happy
+  correction for <span lang="el"
+  title="harmos">&#x201B;&#x3B1;&#x3C1;&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span>) the
+  Cambridge editor quotes Nicander Ther. 146. <span lang="el" title="koil�
+  te pharanx, kai tr�chees agmoi">&#x3BA;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3BB;&#x3B7;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3B5; &#x3C6;&#x3B1;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3B3;&#x3BE;,
+  &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9; &#x3C4;&#x3C1;&#x3B7;&#x3C7;&#x3B5;&#x3B5;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B1;&#x3B3;&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;</span>, and other passages. The
+  manner of hunting the purple fish is thus described by Pollux, i. 4, p.
+  24. They plat a long rope, to which they fasten, like bells, a number of
+  hempen baskets, with an open entrance to admit the animal, but which does
+  not allow of its egress. This they let down into the sea, the baskets
+  being filled with such food as the murex delights in, and, having
+  fastened the end of the rope to the rock, they leave it, and returning to
+  the place, draw up the baskets full of the fish. Having broken the
+  shells, they pound the flesh to form the dye.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_44"></a><a href="#IT_44">[44]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="ephtharmenous">&#x3B5;&#x3C6;&#x3B8;&#x3B1;&#x3C1;&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C2;</span>.
+  Cf. Cycl. 300. Hel. 783. Ed. Camb.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_45"></a><a href="#IT_45">[45]</a> Compare Orest. 255
+  sqq.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_46"></a><a href="#IT_46">[46]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="chit�n�n">&#x3C7;&#x3B9;&#x3C4;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;</span>
+  is probably corrupt.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_47"></a><a href="#IT_47">[47]</a> Cf. Lobeck on Aj. 17.
+  Hesych. <span lang="el" title="kochlos tois
+  thalattiois">&#x3BA;&#x3BF;&#x3C7;&#x3BB;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B8;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3C4;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;</span>
+  (i.e. <span lang="el"
+  title="kochlois">&#x3BA;&#x3BF;&#x3C7;&#x3BB;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;</span>)
+  <span lang="el" title="echr�nto, pro t�s t�n salping�n
+  eurese�s">&#x3B5;&#x3C7;&#x3C1;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;,
+  &#x3C0;&#x3C1;&#x3BF; &#x3C4;&#x3B7;&#x3C2; &#x3C4;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3C3;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3C0;&#x3B9;&#x3B3;&#x3B3;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B5;&#x3C5;&#x3C1;&#x3B5;&#x3C3;&#x3B5;&#x3C9;&#x3C2;</span>. Virg.
+  �n. vi. 171. "Sed tum forte cava dum personat �quora concha."</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_48"></a><a href="#IT_48">[48]</a> "Moriamur, et in media
+  arma ruamus." Virg. �n. ii.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_49"></a><a href="#IT_49">[49]</a> Such seems to be the
+  sense, but <span lang="el"
+  title="exeklepsamen">&#x3B5;&#x3BE;&#x3B5;&#x3BA;&#x3BB;&#x3B5;&#x3C8;&#x3B1;&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;</span>
+  is ridiculous, and Hermann's emendation more so. Bothe reads <span
+  lang="el"
+  title="exekopsamen">&#x3B5;&#x3BE;&#x3B5;&#x3BA;&#x3BF;&#x3C8;&#x3B1;&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;</span>,
+  which is better. The Cambridge editor thinks that the difficulty lies in
+  <span lang="el"
+  title="petroisi">&#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3C4;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_50"></a><a href="#IT_50">[50]</a> I would omit this line
+  as an evident gloss.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_51"></a><a href="#IT_51">[51]</a> See the Cambridge
+  editor.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_52"></a><a href="#IT_52">[52]</a> Reiske's emendation,
+  <span lang="el" title="hosia">&#x201B;&#x3BF;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;</span>
+  for <span lang="el" title="hoia">&#x201B;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;</span>,
+  seems deserving of admission.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_53"></a><a href="#IT_53">[53]</a> The Cambridge editor
+  would omit these lines.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_54"></a><a href="#IT_54">[54]</a> This line also the
+  Cambridge editor trusts "will never hereafter be reckoned among the
+  verses of Euripides."</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_55"></a><a href="#IT_55">[55]</a> Such is the proper
+  sense of <span lang="el"
+  title="antitheisa">&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3B9;&#x3B8;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3B1;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_56"></a><a href="#IT_56">[56]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="nin">&#x3BD;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;</span> is <span lang="el"
+  title="nympheumata">&#x3BD;&#x3C5;&#x3BC;&#x3C6;&#x3B5;&#x3C5;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_57"></a><a href="#IT_57">[57]</a> Read <span lang="el"
+  title="kasign�t�i">&#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;&#x3B3;&#x3BD;&#x3B7;&#x3C4;&#x3B7;&#x3B9;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_58"></a><a href="#IT_58">[58]</a> I read <span lang="el"
+  title="tois men">&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;</span> and <span lang="el" title="tois
+  d'">&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3C2; &#x3B4;'</span> with the Cambridge
+  editor. Hermann's emendation is unheard of.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_59"></a><a href="#IT_59">[59]</a> This clause interrupts
+  the construction. <span lang="el"
+  title="dramontes">&#x3B4;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3C2;</span>
+  must be understood with all the following sentence, as no finite verb is
+  expressed except <span lang="el"
+  title="eperasan">&#x3B5;&#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3C3;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_60"></a><a href="#IT_60">[60]</a> I have partly followed
+  Hermann, reading <span lang="el" title="epebai�n ...
+  apolau�n">&#x3B5;&#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3B2;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3B7;&#x3BD; ...
+  &#x3B1;&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3C5;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;</span>, but, as
+  to reading <span lang="el"
+  title="hypn�n">&#x201B;&#x3C5;&#x3C0;&#x3BD;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;</span> for
+  <span lang="el"
+  title="hymn�n">&#x201B;&#x3C5;&#x3BC;&#x3BD;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;</span>, the
+  Cambridge editor well calls it "one of the wonders of his edition." I
+  should prefer reading <span lang="el"
+  title="olbou">&#x3BF;&#x3BB;&#x3B2;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;</span> with the same
+  elegant scholar.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_61"></a><a href="#IT_61">[61]</a> I follow the Cambridge
+  editor in reading <span lang="el"
+  title="didymas">&#x3B4;&#x3B9;&#x3B4;&#x3C5;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3C2;</span>,
+  from Ovid, Ep. Pont. iii. 2, 71. "Protinus immitem Trivi� ducuntur ad
+  aram, Evincti geminas ad sua terga manus."</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_62"></a><a href="#IT_62">[62]</a> "<i>displays while she
+  offers</i>" i.e. "<i>presents as a public offering</i>" ED. CAMB.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_63"></a><a href="#IT_63">[63]</a> I am but half satisfied
+  with this passage.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_64"></a><a href="#IT_64">[64]</a> Read <span lang="el"
+  title="esesthe d� kat�">&#x3B5;&#x3C3;&#x3B5;&#x3C3;&#x3B8;&#x3B5;
+  &#x3B4;&#x3B7; &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3C9;</span> with the Cambridge
+  editor.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_65"></a><a href="#IT_65">[65]</a> We must read <span
+  lang="el" title="n�">&#x3BD;&#x3C9;</span> with Porson.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_66"></a><a href="#IT_66">[66]</a> Probably a spurious
+  line.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_67"></a><a href="#IT_67">[67]</a> Read <span lang="el"
+  title="Myk�n�n g'">&#x39C;&#x3C5;&#x3BA;&#x3B7;&#x3BD;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B3;'</span>, <i>ay, from Mycen�</i>, with the Cambridge editor.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_68"></a><a href="#IT_68">[68]</a> Hermann seems rightly
+  to read <span lang="el" title="hos g' en">&#x201B;&#x3BF;&#x3C2; &#x3B3;'
+  &#x3B5;&#x3BD;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_69"></a><a href="#IT_69">[69]</a> Dindorf rightly adopts
+  Reiske's emendation <span lang="el" title="sy toud' era">&#x3C3;&#x3C5;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3B4;' &#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_70"></a><a href="#IT_70">[70]</a> The Cambridge editor
+  rightly reads <span lang="el"
+  title="tin�">&#x3C4;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;&#x3AC;</span> with an accent, as
+  Orestes obviously means himself. Compare Soph. Ant. 751. <span lang="el"
+  title="h�d' oun thaneitai, kai thanous' olei
+  tin�">&#x201B;&#x3B7;&#x3B4;' &#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B8;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;,
+  &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9; &#x3B8;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;'
+  &#x3BF;&#x3BB;&#x3B5;&#x3B9; &#x3C4;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;&#x3AC;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_71"></a><a href="#IT_71">[71]</a> Such is the force of
+  <span lang="el" title="d�">&#x3B4;&#x3B7;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_72"></a><a href="#IT_72">[72]</a> I would read <span
+  lang="el"
+  title="exepraxato">&#x3B5;&#x3BE;&#x3B5;&#x3C0;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3BE;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;</span>
+  with Emsley, but I do not agree with him in substituting <span lang="el"
+  title="kak�n">&#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3BA;&#x3B7;&#x3BD;</span>. The oxymoron
+  seems intentional, and by no means unlike Euripides.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_73"></a><a href="#IT_73">[73]</a> The Cambridge editor
+  would read <span lang="el" title="est' outis
+  logos">&#x3B5;&#x3C3;&#x3C4;' &#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C4;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3BB;&#x3BF;&#x3B3;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_74"></a><a href="#IT_74">[74]</a> But <span lang="el"
+  title="charin">&#x3C7;&#x3B1;&#x3C1;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;</span>, as Matthi�
+  remarks, is taken in two senses; as a preposition with <span lang="el"
+  title="gynaikos">&#x3B3;&#x3C5;&#x3BD;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3BA;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span>,
+  <i>ob improbam mulierem</i>, and as a substantive, with <span lang="el"
+  title="acharin">&#x3B1;&#x3C7;&#x3B1;&#x3C1;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;</span> added.
+  Cf. �sch. Choeph. 44. Lucretius uses a similar oxymoron respecting the
+  same subject, i. 99. "Sed <i>casta inceste</i> nubendi tempore in ipso
+  Hostia concideret mactatu m�sta parentis."</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_75"></a><a href="#IT_75">[75]</a> This passage is very
+  corrupt. The Cambridge editor supposes something lost respecting the
+  fortunes of Orestes. Hermann reads <span lang="el" title="hen de
+  lypeisthai monon, ho t' ouk aphr�n �n">&#x201B;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B4;&#x3B5;
+  &#x3BB;&#x3C5;&#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3B8;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;, &#x201B;&#x3BF; &#x3C4;'
+  &#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3BA; &#x3B1;&#x3C6;&#x3C1;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3C9;&#x3BD;</span>. But I am very doubtful.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_76"></a><a href="#IT_76">[76]</a> These three lines are
+  justly condemned as an absurd interpolation by Dindorf and the Cambridge
+  editor.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_77"></a><a href="#IT_77">[77]</a> This seems the easiest
+  way of expressing <span lang="el" title="kai sy">&#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3C3;&#x3C5;</span> after <span lang="el" title="sy d'">&#x3C3;&#x3C5;
+  &#x3B4;'</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_78"></a><a href="#IT_78">[78]</a> I am partly indebted to
+  Potter's happy version. The Cambridge editor is as ingenious as usual,
+  but he candidly allows that conjecture is scarcely requisite.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_79"></a><a href="#IT_79">[79]</a> i.e. thou seemest
+  reckless of life.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_80"></a><a href="#IT_80">[80]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="prostrop�">&#x3C0;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3C3;&#x3C4;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3C0;&#x3B7;</span>,
+  this mode of offering supplication, i.e. this duty of sacrifice.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_81"></a><a href="#IT_81">[81]</a> Diodorus, xx. 14.
+  quotes this and the preceding line reading <span lang="el"
+  title="chthonos">&#x3C7;&#x3B8;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span> for
+  <span lang="el"
+  title="petras">&#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3C4;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3C2;</span>. He
+  supposes that Euripides derived the present account from the sacrifices
+  offered to Saturn by the Carthaginians, who caused their children to fall
+  from the hands of the statue <span lang="el" title="eis ti chasma pl�res
+  pyros">&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C2; &#x3C4;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3C7;&#x3B1;&#x3C3;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3BB;&#x3B7;&#x3C1;&#x3B5;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3C5;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span>. Compare Porphyr. de Abst. ii.
+  27. Justin, xviii. 6. For similar human sacrifices among the Gauls, C�sar
+  de B.G. vi. 16, with the note of Vossius. Compare also Saxo Grammaticus,
+  Hist. Dan. iii. p. 42, and the passages of early historians quoted in
+  Stephens' entertaining notes, p. 92.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_82"></a><a href="#IT_82">[82]</a> Cf. Tibull. i. 3, 5.
+  "Abstineas, mors atra, precor, non hic mihi mater, Qu� legat in m�stos
+  ossa perusta sinus; non soror, Assyrios cineri qu� dedat odores, et fleat
+  effusis ante sepulchra comis."</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_83"></a><a href="#IT_83">[83]</a> This must be what the
+  poet <i>intends</i> by <span lang="el"
+  title="katasbes�">&#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3C3;&#x3B2;&#x3B5;&#x3C3;&#x3C9;</span>,
+  however awkwardly expressed. See Hermann's note.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_84"></a><a href="#IT_84">[84]</a> Compare vs. 468 sq.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_85"></a><a href="#IT_85">[85]</a> This line is hopelessly
+  corrupt.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_86"></a><a href="#IT_86">[86]</a> I read <span lang="el"
+  title="men oun">&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3BD; &#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3BD;</span> with
+  the Cambridge editor.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_87"></a><a href="#IT_87">[87]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="az�la">&#x3B1;&#x3B6;&#x3B7;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;</span> is in opposition
+  to the whole preceding clause.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_88"></a><a href="#IT_88">[88]</a> See the note of the
+  Cambridge editor on Iph. Aul. 1372.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_89"></a><a href="#IT_89">[89]</a> I should prefer <span
+  lang="el" title="esti d�">&#x3B5;&#x3C3;&#x3C4;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3B4;&#x3B7;</span>,"<i>she surely is.</i>"</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_90"></a><a href="#IT_90">[90]</a> We must evidently read
+  either <span lang="el"
+  title="di�lthon">&#x3B4;&#x3B9;&#x3B7;&#x3BB;&#x3B8;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span>
+  with Porson, or <span lang="el"
+  title="dielthe">&#x3B4;&#x3B9;&#x3B5;&#x3BB;&#x3B8;&#x3B5;</span> with
+  Jan., Le Fevre, and Markland.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_91"></a><a href="#IT_91">[91]</a> I almost agree with
+  Dindorf in considering this line spurious.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_92"></a><a href="#IT_92">[92]</a> For this construction
+  compare Ritterhus. ad Oppian, Cyn. i. 11.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_93"></a><a href="#IT_93">[93]</a> I can not help thinking
+  this line is spurious, and the preceding <span lang="el"
+  title="th�tai">&#x3B8;&#x3B7;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;</span> corrupt. One
+  would expect <span lang="el"
+  title="th�s�i">&#x3B8;&#x3B7;&#x3C3;&#x3B7;&#x3B9;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_94"></a><a href="#IT_94">[94]</a> Cf. Kuinoel on Cydon.
+  de Mort. Contem. � 1, p. 6, n. 18.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_95"></a><a href="#IT_95">[95]</a> Literally, "no longer a
+  hinderance," i.e. "that I be no longer responsible for its
+  fulfillment."</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_96"></a><a href="#IT_96">[96]</a> The Cambridge editor,
+  however, seems to have settled the question in favor of <span lang="el"
+  title="oisth' houn ho drason">&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3B8;'
+  &#x201B;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3BD; &#x201B;&#x3BF;
+  &#x3B4;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;&#x3C3;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_97"></a><a href="#IT_97">[97]</a> I must candidly confess
+  that none of the explanations of these words satisfy me. Perhaps it is
+  best to regard them, with Seidler, as merely signifying the mutability of
+  fortune.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_98"></a><a href="#IT_98">[98]</a> i.e. as far as the
+  fulfilling of my oath is concerned.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_99"></a><a href="#IT_99">[99]</a> The letter evidently
+  commences with the words <span lang="el" title="h� 'n Aulidi
+  sphageisa">&#x201B;&#x3B7; '&#x3BD;
+  &#x391;&#x3C5;&#x3BB;&#x3B9;&#x3B4;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3C3;&#x3C6;&#x3B1;&#x3B3;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3B1;</span>. I can
+  not imagine how Markland and others should have made it commence with the
+  previous line.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_100"></a><a href="#IT_100">[100]</a> i.e. in what
+  company.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_101"></a><a href="#IT_101">[101]</a> This line is either
+  spurious or out of place. See the Cambridge editor.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_102"></a><a href="#IT_102">[102]</a> The Cambridge editor
+  in a note exhibiting his usual chastened and elegant judgment, regards
+  these three lines as an absurd and trifling interpolation. For the credit
+  of Euripides, I would fain do the same.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_103"></a><a href="#IT_103">[103]</a> The same elegant
+  scholar justly assigns these lines to Iphigenia.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_104"></a><a href="#IT_104">[104]</a> So Erfurdt.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_105"></a><a href="#IT_105">[105]</a> See the Cambridge
+  editor.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_106"></a><a href="#IT_106">[106]</a> This line seems
+  justly condemned by the Cambridge editor.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_107"></a><a href="#IT_107">[107]</a> With <span lang="el"
+  title="kampteis">&#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3BC;&#x3C0;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;</span>
+  understand <span lang="el"
+  title="dromon">&#x3B4;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span> = thou
+  art fast arriving at the goal of the truth.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_108"></a><a href="#IT_108">[108]</a> Read <span lang="el"
+  title="apedex�">&#x3B1;&#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3B4;&#x3B5;&#x3BE;&#x3C9;</span>
+  with ed. Camb.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_109"></a><a href="#IT_109">[109]</a> "I remember it: for
+  the wedding did not, by its happy result, take away the recollection of
+  that commencement of nuptial ceremonies." CAMB. ED.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_110"></a><a href="#IT_110">[110]</a> i.e. Iphigenia sent
+  it with a view to a cenotaph at Mycen�, as she was about to die at Aulis.
+  See Seidler.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_111"></a><a href="#IT_111">[111]</a> "This Homeric
+  epithet of an only son is used, I believe, nowhere else in Attic poetry.
+  Its adoption here seems owing to Hom. Il. <span lang="el"
+  title="I">&#x399;</span>. 142 and 284. <span lang="el" title="tis� de min
+  hison Orest�i Hos moi t�lygetos trephetai thali�i eni
+  poll�i">&#x3C4;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3C9; &#x3B4;&#x3B5; &#x3BC;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x201B;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;
+  &#x39F;&#x3C1;&#x3B5;&#x3C3;&#x3C4;&#x3B7;&#x3B9; &#x201B;&#x39F;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3B7;&#x3BB;&#x3C5;&#x3B3;&#x3B5;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3C1;&#x3B5;&#x3C6;&#x3B5;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3B8;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3B9;&#x3B7;&#x3B9; &#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3BB;&#x3BB;&#x3B7;&#x3B9;</span>." ED. CAMB.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_112"></a><a href="#IT_112">[112]</a> This is Musgrave's
+  elegant emendation, which Hermann, unwilling to let well alone, has
+  attempted to spoil. See, however, the Cambridge editor, who possesses
+  taste and clear perception, unbiased by self-love.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_113"></a><a href="#IT_113">[113]</a> Read <span lang="el"
+  title="emois">&#x3B5;&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;</span> with the
+  Cambridge editor.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_114"></a><a href="#IT_114">[114]</a> But <span lang="el"
+  title="phyg�is">&#x3C6;&#x3C5;&#x3B3;&#x3B7;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;</span>, and
+  <span lang="el" title="� philos">&#x3C9;
+  &#x3C6;&#x3B9;&#x3BB;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span>, the emendation of Burges,
+  seems far better, and is followed by the Cambridge editor.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_115"></a><a href="#IT_115">[115]</a> i.e. I can imagine
+  your sufferings at Aulis.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_116"></a><a href="#IT_116">[116]</a> The Cambridge editor
+  compares Hec. 684. <span lang="el" title="hetera d' aph' heter�n kaka
+  kak�n kyrei">&#x201B;&#x3B5;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3B1; &#x3B4;'
+  &#x3B1;&#x3C6;' &#x201B;&#x3B5;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3BA;&#x3B1; &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3BA;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3BA;&#x3C5;&#x3C1;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_117"></a><a href="#IT_117">[117]</a> This is Reiske's
+  interpretation, taking the construction <span lang="el" title="prin
+  xiphos pal. epi haimati">&#x3C0;&#x3C1;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3BE;&#x3B9;&#x3C6;&#x3BF;&#x3C2; &#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;.
+  &#x3B5;&#x3C0;&#x3B9;
+  &#x201B;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3BC;&#x3B1;&#x3C4;&#x3B9;</span>. But Seidler
+  would recall the old reading <span lang="el"
+  title="pelasai">&#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3C3;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;</span>,
+  comparing Hel. 361. <span lang="el" title="autosidaron es� pelas� dia
+  sarkos
+  hamillan">&#x3B1;&#x3C5;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;&#x3B4;&#x3B1;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B5;&#x3C3;&#x3C9; &#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3C3;&#x3C9;
+  &#x3B4;&#x3B9;&#x3B1; &#x3C3;&#x3B1;&#x3C1;&#x3BA;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;
+  &#x201B;&#x3B1;&#x3BC;&#x3B9;&#x3BB;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;</span>. This is
+  better, but we must also read <span lang="el"
+  title="eti">&#x3B5;&#x3C4;&#x3B9;</span> for <span lang="el"
+  title="epi">&#x3B5;&#x3C0;&#x3B9;</span> with the Cambridge editor.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_118"></a><a href="#IT_118">[118]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="rhipai pod�n">&#x201B;&#x3C1;&#x3B9;&#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3B4;&#x3C9;&#x3BD;</span> is a bold way of expressing
+  rapid traveling.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_119"></a><a href="#IT_119">[119]</a> Read <span lang="el"
+  title="ana">&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3B1;</span> with Markland, for <span
+  lang="el" title="ara">&#x3B1;&#x3C1;&#x3B1;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_120"></a><a href="#IT_120">[120]</a> I read <span
+  lang="el" title="� dia kyan">&#x3B7; &#x3B4;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3BA;&#x3C5;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;</span>. with the Cambridge editor. The
+  following words are rendered thus by Musgrave, "Per ... <i>est</i> longum
+  iter."</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_121"></a><a href="#IT_121">[121]</a> Unintelligible, and
+  probably spurious.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_122"></a><a href="#IT_122">[122]</a> The Cambridge editor
+  finds fault with the obvious clumsiness of the expression, and proposes
+  <span lang="el" title="echein">&#x3B5;&#x3C7;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;</span>
+  for <span lang="el"
+  title="labein">&#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3B2;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;</span>. I have
+  still greater doubts about <span lang="el" title="ekbantas
+  tych�s">&#x3B5;&#x3BA;&#x3B2;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3C5;&#x3C7;&#x3B7;&#x3C2;</span>. The sense ought to be, "'tis
+  the part of wise men, <i>when fortune favors</i>, not to lose the
+  opportunity, but to gain other advantages."</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_123"></a><a href="#IT_123">[123]</a> See Dindorf's notes.
+  But the Cambridge editor has shown so decided a superiority to the German
+  critics, that I should unhesitatingly adopt his reading, as follows:
+  <span lang="el" title="ou m� m' episch�is, oud' apost�seis logou, to m�
+  ou pythesthai ... phila gar tauta">&#x3BF;&#x3C5; &#x3BC;&#x3B7; &#x3BC;'
+  &#x3B5;&#x3C0;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3C7;&#x3B7;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;,
+  &#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3B4;'
+  &#x3B1;&#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3C3;&#x3C4;&#x3B7;&#x3C3;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3BB;&#x3BF;&#x3B3;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;, &#x3C4;&#x3BF; &#x3BC;&#x3B7;
+  &#x3BF;&#x3C5; &#x3C0;&#x3C5;&#x3B8;&#x3B5;&#x3C3;&#x3B8;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  ... &#x3C6;&#x3B9;&#x3BB;&#x3B1; &#x3B3;&#x3B1;&#x3C1;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3C5;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;</span>, (with Markland,) although
+  <span lang="el"
+  title="pr�ton">&#x3C0;&#x3C1;&#x3C9;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span> may
+  perhaps be defended.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_124"></a><a href="#IT_124">[124]</a> See the Cambridge
+  editor. The same elegant scholar has also improved the arrangement of the
+  lines.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_125"></a><a href="#IT_125">[125]</a> "Quanquam animus
+  meminisse horret, luctuque refugit, Incipiam." Virg. �n. i.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_126"></a><a href="#IT_126">[126]</a> I read <span
+  lang="el" title="enth' emon poda">&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3B8;'
+  &#x3B5;&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3BD; &#x3C0;&#x3BF;&#x3B4;&#x3B1;</span> with
+  Herm. and Dind.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_127"></a><a href="#IT_127">[127]</a> Cf. Elect. 1258
+  sqq., and Meurs. Areop. � i. <span lang="el"
+  title="ps�phos">&#x3C8;&#x3B7;&#x3C6;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span> seems here
+  used to denote the place where the council was held. The pollution of
+  Mars was the murder of Hallirothius. Cf. Pausan. i. 21.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_128"></a><a href="#IT_128">[128]</a> An instance of the
+  nominativus pendens.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_129"></a><a href="#IT_129">[129]</a> So Valckenaer,
+  Diatr. p. 246, who quotes some passages relative to the treatment of
+  Orestes at Athens.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_130"></a><a href="#IT_130">[130]</a> See the Cambridge
+  editor.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_131"></a><a href="#IT_131">[131]</a> See Barnes, who
+  quotes the Schol. on Arist. Eq. 95. <span lang="el"
+  title="Chous">&#x3A7;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C2;</span> was the name of the
+  festival.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_132"></a><a href="#IT_132">[132]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="emoi">&#x3B5;&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;</span> is the dativus
+  commodi.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_133"></a><a href="#IT_133">[133]</a> I am indebted to
+  Maltby for this translation.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_134"></a><a href="#IT_134">[134]</a> Cf. Piers, on
+  M&#339;r. p. 351, and the Cambridge editor.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_135"></a><a href="#IT_135">[135]</a> But see ed.
+  Camb.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_136"></a><a href="#IT_136">[136]</a> Such is the force,
+  of <span lang="el" title="ou gar all'">&#x3BF;&#x3C5;
+  &#x3B3;&#x3B1;&#x3C1; &#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3BB;'</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_137"></a><a href="#IT_137">[137]</a> These lines are very
+  corrupt, and perhaps, as Dindorf thinks, spurious.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_138"></a><a href="#IT_138">[138]</a> Markland rightly
+  reads <span lang="el"
+  title="hierophylakes">&#x201B;&#x3B9;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3C6;&#x3C5;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3BA;&#x3B5;&#x3C2;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_139"></a><a href="#IT_139">[139]</a> "dicam me daturam."
+  MARKLAND.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_140"></a><a href="#IT_140">[140]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="hod'">&#x201B;&#x3BF;&#x3B4;'</span> is the correction of
+  Brod�us.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_141"></a><a href="#IT_141">[141]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="ne�s pitylos">&#x3BD;&#x3B5;&#x3C9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3B9;&#x3C4;&#x3C5;&#x3BB;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span> seems not merely
+  a periphrase, but implies that the oars are in the row-locks, as if ready
+  for starting.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_142"></a><a href="#IT_142">[142]</a> But the Cambridge
+  editor very elegantly reads <span lang="el" title="ei toi">&#x3B5;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_143"></a><a href="#IT_143">[143]</a> Put <span lang="el"
+  title="phthenxasthe">&#x3C6;&#x3B8;&#x3B5;&#x3B3;&#x3BE;&#x3B1;&#x3C3;&#x3B8;&#x3B5;</span>
+  in an inclosure, and join <span lang="el"
+  title="tauta">&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3C5;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;</span> with <span
+  lang="el" title="thelei">&#x3B8;&#x3B5;&#x3BB;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;</span>. See
+  ed. Camb.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_144"></a><a href="#IT_144">[144]</a> Schol. Theocr. Id.
+  vii. 57. <span lang="el" title="thr�n�tikon to z�ion, kai para tois
+  aigialois
+  neotteuon">&#x3B8;&#x3C1;&#x3B7;&#x3BD;&#x3B7;&#x3C4;&#x3B9;&#x3BA;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3BF; &#x3B6;&#x3C9;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;, &#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3C1;&#x3B1; &#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3B3;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3BD;&#x3B5;&#x3BF;&#x3C4;&#x3C4;&#x3B5;&#x3C5;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span>.
+  Cf. Aristoph. Ran. 1309, who perhaps had the passage in view.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_145"></a><a href="#IT_145">[145]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="agoros">&#x3B1;&#x3B3;&#x3BF;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span> is a
+  somewhat rare word for <span lang="el"
+  title="agyris">&#x3B1;&#x3B3;&#x3C5;&#x3C1;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_146"></a><a href="#IT_146">[146]</a> Cf. Hecub. 457
+  sqq.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_147"></a><a href="#IT_147">[147]</a> So Matthi�, "locum
+  ubi Latona partum edidit."</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_148"></a><a href="#IT_148">[148]</a> Read <span lang="el"
+  title="kyklion">&#x3BA;&#x3C5;&#x3BA;&#x3BB;&#x3B9;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span>
+  with Seidler. On the <span lang="el" title="limn�
+  trochoeid�s">&#x3BB;&#x3B9;&#x3BC;&#x3BD;&#x3B7;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3C7;&#x3BF;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3B4;&#x3B7;&#x3C2;</span>
+  at Delos, see Barnes.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_149"></a><a href="#IT_149">[149]</a> "I was conveyed by
+  sailors and soldiers." ED. CAMB.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_150"></a><a href="#IT_150">[150]</a> The same scholar
+  quotes Soph. Ph. 43. <span lang="el" title="all' �' pi phorb�s noston
+  exel�lythen">&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3BB;' &#x3B7;' &#x3C0;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3C6;&#x3BF;&#x3C1;&#x3B2;&#x3B7;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3C3;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B5;&#x3BE;&#x3B5;&#x3BB;&#x3B7;&#x3BB;&#x3C5;&#x3B8;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;</span>,
+  vhere <span lang="el"
+  title="nostos">&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3C3;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span> is used
+  in the same manner as here, simply meaning "a journey."</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_151"></a><a href="#IT_151">[151]</a> But see Camb.
+  ed.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_152"></a><a href="#IT_152">[152]</a> I read <span
+  lang="el" title="z�lousa
+  tan">&#x3B6;&#x3B7;&#x3BB;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;</span> with the same.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_153"></a><a href="#IT_153">[153]</a> The Cambridge critic
+  again proposes <span lang="el" title="metabolai d'
+  eudaimonia">&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3B2;&#x3BF;&#x3BB;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3B4;'
+  &#x3B5;&#x3C5;&#x3B4;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;</span>,
+  which he felicitously supports. Musgrave has however partly anticipated
+  this emendation.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_154"></a><a href="#IT_154">[154]</a> Dindorf has shown so
+  little care in editing this passage, that I have merely recalled the old
+  reading, <span lang="el" title="aeri d' histia protonoi k. pr. hyper
+  stolon ekp.">&#x3B1;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3B9; &#x3B4;'
+  &#x201B;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3C4;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3B9; &#x3BA;.
+  &#x3C0;&#x3C1;. &#x201B;&#x3C5;&#x3C0;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;
+  &#x3C3;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3BB;&#x3BF;&#x3BD; &#x3B5;&#x3BA;&#x3C0;.</span>,
+  following the construction proposed by Heath, and approved, as it
+  appears, by the Cambridge editor. Seidler's note is learned and
+  instructive, but I have some doubts about his criticism.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_155"></a><a href="#IT_155">[155]</a> i.e. I wish I might
+  become a bird and fly homeward.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_156"></a><a href="#IT_156">[156]</a> See ed. Camb.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_157"></a><a href="#IT_157">[157]</a> But see ibid.
+  Dindorf's text is a hopeless display of bad readings and worse
+  punctuation.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_158"></a><a href="#IT_158">[158]</a> Reading <span
+  lang="el"
+  title="gennas">&#x3B3;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3BD;&#x3B1;&#x3C2;</span>, I have
+  done my best with this passage, but I can only refer to the Cambridge
+  editor for a text and notes worthy of the play.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_159"></a><a href="#IT_159">[159]</a> I have recalled the
+  old reading, <span lang="el"
+  title="hosia">&#x201B;&#x3BF;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_160"></a><a href="#IT_160">[160]</a> On these sort of
+  prodigies, see Musgrave, and Dansq. on Quintus Calaber, xii. 497 sqq.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_161"></a><a href="#IT_161">[161]</a> "in eo, ut" is the
+  force of <span lang="el" title="en erg�i">&#x3B5;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3B3;&#x3C9;&#x3B9;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_162"></a><a href="#IT_162">[162]</a> Perhaps a sly
+  allusion to their escape.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_163"></a><a href="#IT_163">[163]</a> See ed. Camb.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_164"></a><a href="#IT_164">[164]</a> But we must read
+  <span lang="el" title="tois te">&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3C4;&#x3B5;</span> with the Cambridge editor = "who know more than
+  men."</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_165"></a><a href="#IT_165">[165]</a> I can not too early
+  impress upon the reader the necessity of a careful attention to the
+  criticisms of the Cambridge editor throughout this difficult chorus,
+  especially to his masterly sketch of the whole, p. 146, 147.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_166"></a><a href="#IT_166">[166]</a> <span lang="el"
+  title="pheren inin">&#x3C6;&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B9;&#x3BD;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;</span> is Burges' elegant emendation, the
+  credit of which has been unduly claimed by Seidler.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_167"></a><a href="#IT_167">[167]</a> i.e. the place
+  afterward called Inopus. See Herm., whose construction I have
+  followed.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_168"></a><a href="#IT_168">[168]</a> On the <span
+  lang="el"
+  title="omphalos">&#x3BF;&#x3BC;&#x3C6;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;</span>
+  see my note on �sch. Eum. p. 180, ed. Bohn. On the Delphic priesthood,
+  compare ibid. p. 179.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_169"></a><a href="#IT_169">[169]</a> See, however, the
+  Cambridge editor.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_170"></a><a href="#IT_170">[170]</a> Read <span lang="el"
+  title="es thronon">&#x3B5;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B8;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span> with Barnes and Dind.,
+  or rather <span lang="el" title="epi Z�nos thronon">&#x3B5;&#x3C0;&#x3B9;
+  &#x396;&#x3B7;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B8;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span> with Herm.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_171"></a><a href="#IT_171">[171]</a> But see Dindorf.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_172"></a><a href="#IT_172">[172]</a> See Dindorf's note,
+  but still better the Cambridge editor.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_173"></a><a href="#IT_173">[173]</a> I follow
+  Seidler.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_174"></a><a href="#IT_174">[174]</a> So ed. Camb.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_175"></a><a href="#IT_175">[175]</a> i.e. what evil
+  inspiration of the Gods impelled her to this act? Thoas, who is
+  represented as superstitious to the most barbarian extent, naturally
+  regards the infidelity of Iphigenia as proceeding from the intervention
+  of heaven.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_176"></a><a href="#IT_176">[176]</a> Cf. Monk. on Hippol.
+  828.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_177"></a><a href="#IT_177">[177]</a> Cf. vs. 1197. <span
+  lang="el" title="er�mias
+  dei">&#x3B5;&#x3C1;&#x3B7;&#x3BC;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;&#x3C2;
+  &#x3B4;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_178"></a><a href="#IT_178">[178]</a> Dindorf and the
+  Cambridge editor follow Hermann, who would place this line after vs.
+  1394.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_179"></a><a href="#IT_179">[179]</a> So Musgrave.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_180"></a><a href="#IT_180">[180]</a> Seidler has deserved
+  well of this passage, both by his correction <span lang="el" title="toin
+  xenoin">&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3BE;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;</span> for <span lang="el"
+  title="t�n xen�n">&#x3C4;&#x3B7;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3BE;&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3B7;&#x3BD;</span>, and by his learned and clear
+  explanation of the nautical terms.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_181"></a><a href="#IT_181">[181]</a> Dindorf has adopted
+  Markland's emendation, but I prefer <span lang="el" title="h�st'
+  exanapnein">&#x201B;&#x3C9;&#x3C3;&#x3C4;'
+  &#x3B5;&#x3BE;&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3B1;&#x3C0;&#x3BD;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;</span>
+  with the Cambridge editor.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_182"></a><a href="#IT_182">[182]</a> i.e. capsize.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_183"></a><a href="#IT_183">[183]</a> But see ed.
+  Camb.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_184"></a><a href="#IT_184">[184]</a> I have introduced
+  the line above mentioned, and have likewise adopted Hermann's
+  introduction of <span lang="el"
+  title="palimprymn�don">&#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3B9;&#x3BC;&#x3C0;&#x3C1;&#x3C5;&#x3BC;&#x3BD;&#x3B7;&#x3B4;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span>
+  from Hesychius, in lieu of <span lang="el" title="palin
+  prymn�si'">&#x3C0;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3C1;&#x3C5;&#x3BC;&#x3BD;&#x3B7;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;'</span>.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_185"></a><a href="#IT_185">[185]</a> See ed. Camb.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_186"></a><a href="#IT_186">[186]</a> "The obvious intent
+  of these measures was to fasten the vessel to some point of the rocks,
+  and thus prevent her being wrecked." ED. CAMB.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_187"></a><a href="#IT_187">[187]</a> "Our passage is thus
+  to be understood, <span lang="el" title="h� halisketai prodousa to
+  mn�moneuein theai phonon">&#x201B;&#x3B7;
+  &#x201B;&#x3B1;&#x3BB;&#x3B9;&#x3C3;&#x3BA;&#x3B5;&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3B9;
+  &#x3C0;&#x3C1;&#x3BF;&#x3B4;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3C3;&#x3B1; &#x3C4;&#x3BF;
+  &#x3BC;&#x3BD;&#x3B7;&#x3BC;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3B5;&#x3C5;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3BD;
+  &#x3B8;&#x3B5;&#x3B1;&#x3B9; &#x3C6;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3BD;</span>."
+  ED. CAMB.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_188"></a><a href="#IT_188">[188]</a> So Hermann rightly
+  explains the sense. I agree with the Cambridge editor, that if Euripides
+  had intended to use <span lang="el"
+  title="hosias">&#x201B;&#x3BF;&#x3C3;&#x3B9;&#x3B1;&#x3C2;</span>
+  substantively, he would hardly have joined it with <span lang="el"
+  title="theas">&#x3B8;&#x3B5;&#x3B1;&#x3C2;</span>, thereby causing an
+  ambiguity.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_189"></a><a href="#IT_189">[189]</a> There is another
+  construction, taking <span lang="el" title="klim.
+  theas">&#x3BA;&#x3BB;&#x3B9;&#x3BC;. &#x3B8;&#x3B5;&#x3B1;&#x3C2;</span>
+  together. On the whole introduction of Minerva, see the clever note of
+  the Cambridge editor, p. 158, 159.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_190"></a><a href="#IT_190">[190]</a> There is evidently a
+  lacuna, as the transition to Orestes is worse than abrupt. The
+  mythological allusions in the following lines are well explained in the
+  notes of Barnes and Seidler.</p>
+
+  <p><a name="ITN_191"></a><a href="#IT_191">[191]</a> On these last verses
+  see the end of the Orestes, with Dindorf's note.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
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+Project Gutenberg's The Tragedies of Euripides, Volume I., by Euripides
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Tragedies of Euripides, Volume I.
+
+Author: Euripides
+
+Release Date: February 16, 2005 [EBook #15081]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TRAGEDIES OF EURIPIDES, ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Charles Aldarondo, Keren Vergon, Keith Edkins and the
+PG Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
+
+
+
+
+
+THE
+TRAGEDIES
+OF
+EURIPIDES.
+
+LITERALLY TRANSLATED OR REVISED,
+WITH CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES,
+
+BY
+THEODORE ALOIS BUCKLEY,
+OF CHRIST CHURCH.
+
+VOL. I.
+
+HECUBA, ORESTES, PHOENISSAE, MEDEA, HIPPOLYTUS, ALCESTIS,
+BACCHAE, HERACLIDAE, IPHIGENIA IN AULIDE,
+AND IPHIGENIA IN TAURIS.
+
+NEW YORK:
+HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS,
+FRANKLIN SQUARE.
+
+1892.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *       *
+
+PREFACE.
+
+The translations of the first six plays in the present volume were
+published at Oxford some years since, and have been frequently reprinted.
+They are now carefully revised according to Dindorf's text, and are
+accompanied by a few additional notes adapted to the requirements of the
+student.
+
+The translations of the Bacchae, Heraclidae, and the two Iphigenias, are
+based upon the same text, with certain exceptions, which are pointed out at
+the foot of the page. The annotations on the Iphigenias are almost
+exclusively critical, as it is presumed that a student who proceeds to the
+reading of these somewhat difficult plays[1], will be sufficiently advanced
+in his acquaintance with the Greek drama to dispense with more elementary
+information.
+
+          T.A. BUCKLEY,
+              CHRIST CHURCH, OXFORD.
+
+[1] The reader will obtain some notion of the difficulties alluded to, and
+the best mode of grappling with them, by consulting the recent Cambridge
+edition, published with English notes (Iph. in Aulide, 1840, in Tauris,
+1846), performances of great critical acumen, attributed to the present
+Bishop of Gloucester.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *       *
+
+INTRODUCTION.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+Euripides, son of Mnesarchus, was born in the island of Salamis, on the day
+of the celebrated victory (B.C. 480). His mother, Clito, had been sent
+thither in company with the other Athenian women, when Attica was given up,
+and the ships became at once the refuge of the male population, and the
+national defense. Mr. Donaldson[1] well remarks, that the patronymic form
+of his name, derived from the Euripus, which was the scene of the first
+successful resistance offered to the Persian navy, shows that the attention
+of his parents was fully excited by the stirring events of the time.
+
+Notwithstanding the fact that his mother had been an herb-seller, it is
+probable that his father was a man of some family. That he was at least
+possessed of ample means, is evident from the care and expense bestowed
+upon our poet's education. Under the tutorship of Anaxagoras, Prodicus, and
+Protagoras, he had studied both natural philosophy and rhetoric in its
+sophistical form. In gymnastic exercises he exhibited a successful prowess,
+being twice victorious in the Eleusinian and Thesean games. Of his skill in
+painting, some specimens were preserved at Megara.
+
+His appearance as a dramatist was at an earlier age than that of his
+predecessors, as he was only five and twenty years old when he produced the
+"Peliades," his first tragedy. On this occasion, he gained the third prize
+in the tragic contests, but the first, fourteen years after, and
+subsequently, with the "Hippolytus," in 428 B.C. The peculiar tendency of
+some of the ideas expressed in his plays, was the probable cause of the
+retirement of Euripides to Macedonia, where he obtained the friendship of
+King Archelaus. Perhaps, however, the unhappiness of his connubial state,
+arising from the infidelity of his two wives, might have rendered Athens a
+disagreeable place of abode for the woman-hating poet, especially when his
+"domestic bliss" was continually seasoned by the sarcastic jokes and
+allusions of his political enemy, Aristophanes. Moreover, his acquaintance
+with the talking philosopher, Socrates, must have been unfavorable to the
+continuance of his popularity.
+
+The fate of Pentheus in our author's noble play, the "Bacchae," appears to
+have given origin to the tradition that he himself was torn to pieces by
+dogs. If we reflect that this play was probably the last of his works, the
+mistake seems a plausible one. The death of Euripides, which probably
+happened in the ordinary course of nature, has, like that of AEschylus, been
+associated with the marvelous.
+
+The Athenians vainly craved the honor of giving a resting-place to the
+ashes of their philosopher-poet. He was buried at Pella, but a cenotaph at
+Athens showed that his countrymen had not forgotten Euripides. His death
+took place B.C. 406.
+
+The inferiority of our author to the greater tragedians, prevents our
+feeling much desire to enter upon the respective merits and demerits of his
+several plays, especially as we are completely anticipated by Schlegel,
+with whose masterly analysis every reader ought to be acquainted.
+Nevertheless, a few general remarks may, perhaps, be not wholly
+unprofitable.
+
+It has been truly remarked, that tragedy, in no small degree, owed its
+downfall to Euripides. Poetry was gradually superseded by rhetoric,
+sublimity by earnestness, pathos by reasoning. Thus, Iphigenia and Macaria
+give so many good reasons for dying, that the sacrifice appears very small,
+and a modern wag in the upper regions of the theatre would, at the end of
+the speech of the latter heroine, almost have exclaimed, "Then why don't
+you die?"
+
+It has been said, that our poet drew the characters of life as he found
+them, but bad as his characters are, they exhibit only a vulgar wickedness.
+Unable to portray a Clytaemnestra, he revels in the continual paltriness of
+a Menelaus or Ulysses. As if he took a delight in the black side of
+humanity, he loves to show the strength of false reasoning, of sophistry
+antagonistic to truth, and of cold expediency in opposition to the natural
+feelings of humanity. From a similar reason, his occasional attempts at
+comedy degenerate into mere farce. We question whether the scene between
+Death and Apollo in the "Alcestis," could be surpassed in vulgarity, even
+by the modern school of English dramatists, while his exaggerations in the
+minor characters are scarcely to be surpassed by the lowest writer of any
+period.
+
+Under Euripides, the stage began gradually to approximate more closely to
+the ordinary and, at that time, debased character of Athenian society. A
+contempt for the Lacedaemonians, a passionate taste for the babbling and
+trickery of the forum, and an attempt to depreciate the social position and
+influence of the weaker sex, form the most unamiable features of this
+change. Yet we must allow, that if Euripides has reveled in the
+amiabilities of a Melanippe or a Phaedra, in the gentle revenge of a Medea
+or Hecuba, he has at the same time given us an Alcestis, the only real
+example of genuine conjugal affection on the Greek stage.
+
+Nor must we forget that Euripides is a greater admirer of nature, a more
+complete delineator of her workings, than the two greater tragedians. He
+has more of illustrative philosophy, more of regard to the objects of the
+animated creation, the system of the universe, than his greater rivals
+exhibit. He is, as Vitruvius has justly styled him, a "stage-philosopher."
+Did we possess a larger acquaintance with the works of Parmenides,
+Empedocles, and other early cosmogonists, we should perhaps think less of
+his merits on this head: as it is, the possession of some such fragments of
+our poet makes us deeply regret the loss of the plays themselves.
+
+But his very love for the contemplation of nature has in no small degree
+contributed to the mischievous skepticism promulgated by our poet. In early
+times, when a rural theogony was the standard of belief, when each star had
+its deity, each deity its undisputed, unquestioned prerogative and worship,
+there was little inclination, less opportunity, for skepticism. Throughout
+the poetry of Hesiod, we find this feeling ever predominant, a feeling
+which Virgil and Tibullus well knew how to appreciate. Even Euripides
+himself, perhaps taught by some dangerous lessons at home, has expressed
+his belief that it is best "not to be too clever in matters regarding the
+Gods."[2] A calm retreat in the wild, picturesque tracts of Macedonia,
+might have had some share in reforming this spoiled pupil of the sophists.
+But as we find that the too careful contemplation of nature degenerates
+into superstition or rationalism in their various forms, so Euripides had
+imbibed the taste for saying startling things,[3] rather than wise; for
+reducing the principles of creation to materialism, the doctrines of right
+and wrong to expediency, and immutable truths to a popular system of
+question and answer. Like the generality of sophists, he took away a
+received truth, and left nothing to supply its place; he reasoned falsehood
+into probability, truth into nonentity.
+
+At a period when the Prodico-Socratic style of disputing was in high
+fashion, the popularity of Euripides must have been excessive. His familiar
+appeals to the trifling matters of ordinary life, his characters all
+philosophizing, from the prince to the dry-nurse, his excellent reasons for
+doing right or wrong, as the case might be, must have been inestimably
+delightful to the accommodating morals of the Athenians. The Court of
+Charles the Second could hardly have derived more pleasure from the
+writings of a Behn or a Hamilton, than these unworthy descendants of Codrus
+must have experienced in hearing a bad cause so cleverly defended. Whether
+the orators and dikasts followed the example of the stage in those days,
+can scarcely be ascertained, but it is more than certain that they
+practically illustrated its principles. At least, the Sicilians were so
+fond of our author, that a few of the unfortunate survivors of the
+Syracusan disaster, were enabled to pick up a living by quoting such
+passages of our author as they had learned by heart. A compliment paid to
+few living dramatists in our days!
+
+In dramatic conduct, Euripides is at an even greater disadvantage with
+AEschylus and Sophocles. The best characters of the piece are often the
+least employed, as in the instance of Macaria in the "Heraclidae," while the
+play is dwindled away with dull, heavy dirges, and the complaints of senile
+childishness. The chorus, as Aristotle[4] has remarked, is most
+unfortunately independent of the plot, although the finest poetry is
+generally to be found in the lyric portions of our author's plays. In fact,
+Euripides rather wanted management in employing his resources, than the
+resources themselves. An ear well attuned to the harmony of verse, a
+delicate perception of the graceful points of language, and a finished
+subtilty in touching the more minute feelings and impulses of the mind,
+were all thrown away either upon bad subjects or worse principles. There is
+no true tragedy in Euripides, He is a melodramatist, but not according to
+the modern acceptation. His plays might end either happily or the reverse.
+A deity conveniently brought in, the arrival of a messenger, however
+unexpectedly, together with a liberal allowance for a cowardly revenge upon
+the vanquished--these are the Euripidean elements for giving a tragic end
+to a play. Nay, so great is the prodigality of slaughter throughout his
+dramas, that we can but imagine morbid cruelty to have formed a
+considerable ingredient in the disposition of Euripides. Even his pathos is
+somewhat tinctured with this taste for painful images. As we have beheld in
+our own times a barbarian alternately glut his sight with executions, and
+then shed floods of tears, and sink into idiot despondency; so the poetry
+of Euripides in turn disgusts us with outrageous cruelty, and depresses us
+with the most painful demands upon our compassion.
+
+In the lyric portions of his dramas, our poet has been far more successful.
+The description of the capture of Troy by night,[5] is a splendid specimen
+of animation blended with true pathos. But taken as a whole. Euripides is a
+most unequal author. We may commence a play with pleasure (but O for the
+prologues!), we may proceed with satisfaction, but the feeling rarely lasts
+to the end. If I may venture an opinion upon so uncertain a subject, I
+should name the Hippolytus, Ion, Troades, Bacchae, and Iphigenia in Aulis as
+his best plays, placing the Phoenissae, Alcestis, Medea, Hecuba, and Orestes
+in a lower rank. The Helena is an amusing heap of absurdities, and reads
+much better in the burlesque of Aristophanes; the Electra is utterly
+beneath criticism; the Cyclops a weak, but humorous imitation of Homer. The
+other plays appear to be neither bad nor good.
+
+The style of Euripides is, generally speaking, easy; and I can mention no
+author from whom a taste for elegant Greek and a facility in composition
+can more easily be derived. Some of his plays have suffered severely from
+the ravages of time, the ignorance of copyists, and the more dangerous
+officiousness of grammarians. Some passages of the Bacchae, Rhesus, Troades,
+and the two Iphigenias, despite the ingenuity and erudition of such
+scholars as Porson, Elmsley, Monk, Burges, and a host of others, must still
+remain mere matter for guessing. Hermann's Euripides is, as a whole, sadly
+unworthy the abilities of the Humboldt of Greek literature.
+
+The present volume contains the most popular of our author's works,
+according to present usage. But the spirit which is gradually infusing
+itself into the minds of those who are most actively engaged in the
+educational system of England, fully warrants a hope that Porson's "four
+plays" will shortly cease to be the boundaries of the student's
+acquaintance with Euripides.
+
+I need scarcely observe, that the study of Aristophanes is indissolubly
+connected with that of our author. If the reader discover the painful fact
+that the burlesque writer is greater than the tragedian, he will perhaps
+also recollect that such a literary relation is, unfortunately, by no means
+confined to the days of Aristophanes.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+Notes on the Introduction
+
+[1] See Theatre of the Greeks, p. 92. sqq.
+
+[2] Bacch. 200. This play was written during his sojourn with Archelaus.
+
+[3] [Greek: toioutoni ti parakekindeumenon]. Aristoph. Ran. 99.
+
+[4] Poet. Sec. xviii.
+
+[5] Hec. 905 sqq.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *       *
+
+HECUBA.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+PERSONS REPRESENTED.
+
+  GHOST OF POLYDORE.
+  HECUBA.
+  CHORUS OF FEMALE CAPTIVES.
+  POLYXENA.
+  ULYSSES.
+  TALTHYBIUS.
+  FEMALE ATTENDANT.
+  AGAMEMNON.
+  POLYMESTOR AND HIS CHILDREN.
+
+_The Scene lies before the Grecian tents, on the coast of the Thracian
+Chersonese._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE ARGUMENT.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+After the capture of Troy, the Greeks put into the Chersonese over against
+Troas, But Achilles, having appeared by night, demanded one of the
+daughters of Priam to be slain. The Greeks therefore, in honor to their
+hero, tore Polyxena from Hecuba, and offered her up in sacrifice.
+Polymestor moreover, the king of the Thracians, murdered Polydore, a son of
+Priam's. Now Polymestor had received him from the hands of Priam as a
+charge to take care of, together with some money. But when the city was
+taken, wishing to seize upon his wealth, he determined to dispatch him, and
+disregarded the ill-fated friendship that subsisted between them; but his
+body being cast out into the sea, the wave threw him up on the shore before
+the tents of the captive women. Hecuba, on seeing the corse, recognized it;
+and having imparted her design to Agamemnon, sent for Polymestor to come to
+her with his sons, concealing what had happened, under pretense that she
+might discover to him some treasures hidden in Ilium. But on his arrival
+she slew his sons, and put out his eyes; but pleading her cause before the
+Greeks, she gained it over her accuser (Polymestor). For it was decided
+that she did not begin the cruelty, but only avenged herself on him who did
+begin it.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+HECUBA.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+GHOST OF POLYDORE.
+
+I am present, having left the secret dwellings of the dead and the gates of
+darkness, where Pluto has his abode apart from the other Gods, Polydore the
+son of Hecuba the daughter of Cisseus,[1] and Priam my sire, who when the
+danger of falling by the spear of Greece was threatening the city of the
+Phrygians, in fear, privately sent me from the Trojan land to the house of
+Polymestor, his Thracian friend, who cultivates the most fruitful soil of
+the Chersonese, ruling a warlike people with his spear.[2] But my father
+sends privately with me a large quantity of gold, in order that, if at any
+time the walls of Troy should fall, there might not be a lack of sustenance
+for his surviving children. But I was the youngest of the sons of Priam; on
+which account also he sent me privately from the land, for I was able
+neither to bear arms nor the spear with my youthful arm. As long then
+indeed as the landmarks of the country remained erect, and the towers of
+Troy were unshaken, and Hector my brother prevailed with his spear, I
+miserable increased vigorously as some young branch, by the nurture I
+received at the hands of the Thracian, my father's friend. But after that
+both Troy and the life of Hector were put an end to, and my father's
+mansions razed to the ground, and himself falls at the altar built by the
+God, slain by the blood-polluted son of Achilles, the friend of my father
+slays me, wretched man, for the sake of my gold, and having slain me threw
+me into the surf of the sea, that he might possess the gold himself in his
+palace. But I am exposed on the shore, at another time on the ocean's
+surge, borne about by many ebbings and flowings of the waves, unwept,
+unburied; but at present I am hastening on my dear mother's account, having
+left my body, borne aloft this day already the third,[3] for so long has my
+wretched mother been present in this territory of the Chersonese from Troy.
+But all the Grecians, holding their ships at anchor, are sitting quiet on
+the shores of this land of Thrace. For Achilles the son of Peleus,
+appearing above his tomb, stayed all the army of the Grecians as they were
+directing homeward their sea dipped oars; and asks to receive my sister
+Polyxena as a dear victim, and a tribute of honor to his tomb. And this he
+will obtain, nor will he be without this gift from his friends; and fate
+this day leads forth my sister to death. But my mother will see the two
+corses of her two children, both mine and the unhappy virgin's; for I shall
+appear on a breaker before the feet of a female slave, that I wretched may
+obtain sepulture; for I have successfully entreated those who have power
+beneath to find a tomb, and to fall into my mother's hands. As much then as
+I wish to have shall be mine; but I will withdraw myself out of the way of
+the aged Hecuba, for she is advancing her step beyond the tent of
+Agamemnon, dreading my phantom. Alas! O my mother, who, from kingly
+palaces, hast beheld the day of slavery, how unfortunate art thou now, in
+the degree that thou wert once fortunate! but some one of the Gods
+counterpoising your state, destroys you on account of your ancient
+prosperity.
+
+HECUBA. CHORUS.
+
+HEC. Lead onward, ye Trojan dames, the old woman before the tent; lead
+onward, raising up one now your fellow-slave, but once your queen; take me,
+bear me, conduct me, support my body, holding my aged hand; and I, leaning
+on the bending staff of my hand,[4] will hasten to put forward the slow
+motion of my joints. O lightning of Jove! O thou gloomy night! why, I pray,
+am I thus disquieted in the night with terrors, with phantoms? O thou
+venerable Earth, the mother of black-winged dreams, I renounce the nightly
+vision, which regarding my son who is preserved in Thrace, and regarding
+Polyxena my dear daughter, in my dreams have I beheld, a fearful sight, I
+have learned, I have understood. Gods of this land, preserve my son, who,
+my only son, and, [as it were,] the anchor of my house, inhabits the snowy
+Thrace under the protection of his father's friend. Some strange event will
+take place, some strain will come mournful to the mournful. Never did my
+mind so incessantly shudder and tremble. Where, I pray, ye Trojan dames,
+can I behold the divine spirit of Helenus, or Cassandra, that they may
+interpret my dreams? For I beheld a dappled hind torn by the blood-stained
+fang of the wolf, forcibly dragged from my bosom, a miserable sight. And
+dreadful this vision also; the spectre of Achilles came above the summit of
+his tomb, and demanded as a tribute of honor one of the wretched Trojan
+women. From my daughter then, from my daughter avert this fate, ye Gods, I
+implore you.
+
+CHOR. Hecuba, with haste to thee I flew, leaving the tents of our lords,
+where I was allotted and ordained a slave, driven from the city of Troy,
+led captive of the Greeks by the point of the spear, not to alleviate aught
+of your sufferings, but bringing a heavy weight of tidings, and to thee, O
+lady, a herald of woe. For it is said that it has been decreed in the full
+council of the Greeks to make thy daughter a sacrifice to Achilles: for you
+know how that having ascended o'er his tomb, he appeared in his golden arms
+and restrained the fleet ships, as they were setting their sails with their
+halliards, exclaiming in these words; "Where speed ye, Grecians, leaving my
+tomb unhonored!" Then the waves of great contention clashed together, and a
+divided opinion went forth through the army of the Greeks; to some it
+appeared advisable to give a victim to his tomb, and to others it appeared
+not. But Agamemnon was studious to advance your good, cherishing the love
+of the infuriated prophetess. But the two sons of Theseus, scions of
+Athens, were the proposers of different arguments, but in this one opinion
+they coincided, to crown the tomb of Achilles with fresh blood; and
+declared they would never prefer the bed of Cassandra before the spear of
+Achilles. And the strength of the arguments urged on either side was in a
+manner equal, till that subtle adviser, that babbling knave,[5] honeyed in
+speech, pleasing to the populace, that son of Laertes, persuades the army,
+not to reject the suit of the noblest of all the Greeks on account of a
+captive victim, and not to put it in the power of any of the dead standing
+near Proserpine to say that the Grecians departed from the plains of Troy
+ungrateful to the heroes who died for the state of Greece. And Ulysses will
+come only not now, to tear your child from your bosom, and to take her from
+your aged arms. But go to the temples, speed to the altars, sit a suppliant
+at the knees of Agamemnon, invoke the Gods, both those of heaven, and those
+under the earth; for either thy prayers will prevent thy being deprived of
+thy wretched daughter, or thou must behold the virgin falling before the
+tomb, dyed in blood gushing forth in a dark stream from her neck adorned
+with gold.[6]
+
+HEC. Alas! wretched me! what shall I exclaim? what shriek shall I utter?
+what lamentation? miserable through miserable age, and slavery not to be
+endured, insupportable. Alas! who is there to defend me? what offspring,
+what city! The old man is gone. My children are gone. Whither shall I turn
+me? and whither shall I go? Where is any god or deity to succor me? O
+Trojan dames, bearers of evil tidings, bearers of woe, you have destroyed
+me utterly, you have destroyed me. Life in the light is no more desirable!
+O wretched foot, lead, lead an aged woman to this tent! O child, daughter
+of the most afflicted mother, come forth, come forth from the tent, hear
+thy mother's voice, that thou mayest know what a report I hear that
+concerns thy life.
+
+HECUBA, POLYXENA, CHORUS.
+
+POLYX. O mother, why dost thou call! proclaiming what new affliction hast
+thou frighted me from the tent, as some bird from its nest, with this
+alarm?
+
+HEC. Alas! my child!
+
+POLYX. Why address me in words of ill omen? This is an evil prelude.
+
+HEC. Alas! for thy life.
+
+POLYX. Speak, conceal it no longer from me. I fear, I fear, my mother; why
+I pray dost thou groan?
+
+HEC. O child, child of an unhappy mother!
+
+POLYX. Why sayest thou this?
+
+HEC. My child, the common decree of the Greeks unites to slay thee at the
+tomb of the son of Peleus.
+
+POLYX. Alas, my mother! how are you relating unenviable ills? Tell me, tell
+me, my mother.
+
+HEC. I declare, my child, the ill-omened report, they bring word that a
+decree has passed by the vote of the Greeks regarding thy life.
+
+POLYX. O thou that hast borne affliction! O thou wretched on every side! O
+mother unhappy in your life, what most hated and most unutterable calamity
+has some destiny again sent against thee! This child is no longer thine; no
+longer indeed shall I miserable share slavery with miserable age. For as a
+mountain whelp or heifer shalt thou wretched behold me wretched torn from
+thine arms, and sent down beneath the darkness of the earth a victim to
+Pluto, where I shall lie bound in misery with the dead. But it is for thee
+indeed, my afflicted mother, that I lament in these mournful strains, but
+for my life, my wrongs, my fate, I mourn not; but death, a better lot, has
+befallen me.
+
+CHOR. But see Ulysses advances with hasty step, to declare to thee, Hecuba,
+some new determination.
+
+ULYSSES, HECUBA, POLYXENA, CHORUS.
+
+ULYSS. Lady, I imagine that you are acquainted with the decree of the army,
+and the vote which has prevailed; nevertheless, I will declare it. It has
+been decreed by the Greeks to offer on the lofty mound of Achilles's tomb
+thy daughter Polyxena. But they order me to conduct and convey the damsel;
+but the son of Achilles is appointed to be the priest, and to preside over
+the rites. Do you know then what to do? Be not dragged away by violence,
+nor enter into a contest of strength with me, but acknowledge superior
+force and the presence of thy ills; it is wise to have proper sentiments
+even in adversity.
+
+HEC. Alas! alas! the great trial is at hand, as it seems, of lamentations
+full, nor without tears; for I have not died in the state in which I ought
+to have died, nor hath Jove destroyed me, but preserves me, that I wretched
+may behold other misfortunes greater than [past] misfortunes. But if it be
+allowed slaves to put questions to the free, not offensive nor grating to
+the feelings, it will be your part to be questioned, and ours who are
+asking to attend.
+
+ULYSS. You have permission, ask freely, I grudge not the time.
+
+HEC. Dost thou remember when thou camest a spy on Troy, disfigured by a
+vile dress, and from thine eyes drops caused by the fear of death bedewed
+thy beard?
+
+ULYSS. I remember well; for it made no slight impression on my heart.
+
+HEC. But Helen knew thee, and told me alone.
+
+ULYSS. I remember the great danger I encountered.
+
+HEC. And didst thou embrace my knees in thy humility?
+
+ULYSS. So that my hand was numbered[7] through fear on thy garments.
+
+HEC. What then didst thou say, being then my slave?
+
+ULYSS. Many arguments that I invented to save me from death.
+
+HEC. Did I preserve thee then, and conduct thee safe from the land?
+
+ULYSS. Yes, so that I now behold the light of the sun.
+
+HEC. Art thou not then convicted of baseness by this conduct, who hast
+received benefits from me such as thou acknowledgest thou hast, and doest
+us no good in return, but evil, as far as in thee lies? Thankless is your
+race, as many of you as court honor from oratory before the populace; be ye
+not known to me, who care not to injure your friends, provided you say what
+is gratifying to the people. But plotting what dark design have they
+determined upon a decree of death against my child? Did fate impel them to
+offer human sacrifices at the tomb, where it were rather right to sacrifice
+cattle? Or does Achilles, desirous of devoting in his turn to death those
+that wrought his death, with a color of justice meditate her destruction?
+But she has done him no ill: he should demand Helen as a sacrifice on his
+tomb; for she destroyed him, and brought him to Troy. But if some captive
+selected from the rest, and excelling in beauty, ought to die, this is not
+ours. For the daughter of Tyndarus is most preeminent in beauty, and has
+been found to be no less injurious than us. On the score of justice then I
+urge this argument; but with respect to what you ought to repay at my
+demand, hear: thou hast touched my hand, as thou ownest, and this aged
+cheek also, falling at my knees. Thy hand and knees I in return grasp, and
+re-demand the favor I granted you then, and beseech you, do not tear my
+child from my arms, nor kill her; enough have died already. In her I
+rejoice, and forget my misfortunes; she serves as my consolation in the
+stead of many things, she is my city, my nurse, my staff, the guide of my
+way. It becomes not those who have power to exercise their power in things
+wherein they ought not, nor should the fortunate imagine their fortune will
+last forever. For I too have had my time of prosperity, but now have I
+ceased to be: one day wrenched from me all my happiness. But by thy beard
+which I supplicate, reverence me, pity me; go to the Grecian army, and
+remind them that it is a shameful thing to slay women whom ye have once
+spared, and that too dragging them from the altar. But show mercy. But the
+laws of blood among you are laid down alike for the free and the slave. But
+your worth will carry with it persuasion, although your arguments be bad;
+for the same words from those of little character, have not the same force
+as when they proceed from those of high reputation.
+
+CHOR. There is no nature of man so obdurate, which on hearing thy groans,
+and thy long plaints of misery, would not let fall the tear.
+
+ULYSS. Hecuba, be advised, nor through passion deem him thine enemy who
+gives thee good advice. I indeed am ready to preserve thy person through
+the means of which I was fortunate; and I say no other. But what I declared
+before all I will not deny, that, Troy being captured, we should give thy
+daughter as a victim to the noblest man of the army, who demands her; for
+in this many cities fail, when any man who is brave and zealous receives no
+more honor than those who are less valiant. But Achilles, O lady, is worthy
+of honor from us, a man who died most gloriously in behalf of the Grecian
+country. Were not then this disgraceful, if when living we treat him as a
+friend, but after he is gone we no longer treat him so? Well! what then
+will any one say, if there again should be an assembling of the army, and a
+contest with the enemy: "Shall we fight or preserve our lives, seeing that
+he who falls lies unhonored?" But for me at least, living from day to day,
+although I have but little, that little is sufficient; but I would wish
+that my monument should be beheld crowned with honor, for the gratification
+is for a long time. But if thou sayest thou sufferest affliction, hear this
+in return from me. There are with us aged matrons, and hoary sires, not
+less wretched than thou art, and brides bereft of the noblest husbands,
+whose ashes this land of Troy conceals. Endure this. But we, if we
+injudiciously determine to honor the brave man, shall incur the charge of
+folly. But you barbarians neither consider your friends as friends, nor do
+you hold up to admiration those who have died honorably; thus shall Greece
+be prosperous, but you shall experience fortune corresponding to your
+counsels.
+
+CHOR. Alas! alas! how wretched is the state of slavery, and to endure
+indignities compelled by superior force! (Note [B].)
+
+HEC. O daughter, my words respecting thy death are vanished in the air, set
+forth in vain; but thou, if thou hast greater powers [of persuasion] than
+thy mother, use all thy influence, uttering every note as the throat of the
+nightingale, that thou mayest not be deprived of life. But fall before the
+knees of Ulysses in all the eloquence of grief, and persuade him; thou hast
+a pretext, for he also hath children; so that he may be inclined to pity
+thy fortune.
+
+POLYX. I see, Ulysses, that thou art hiding thy hand beneath thy robe, and
+turnest thy face away, that I may not touch thy beard. Be not afraid; thou
+hast avoided my suppliant Jove; for I will follow thee both on account of
+fate, and even wishing to die; but if I were not willing, I should appear
+base, and too fond of life. For wherefore should I live, whose father was
+monarch of all the Trojans; this my dawn of life. Then was I nurtured under
+fair hope, a bride for princes, having no small competition for my hand, to
+whose palace and hearth I should come. But I, wretched now, was mistress
+among the Trojan women, and conspicuous in the train of virgins, equal to
+goddesses, death only excepted. But now I am a slave; first of all the very
+name, not being familiar, persuades me to love death. Then perhaps I might
+meet with masters cruel in disposition, who will buy me for silver, the
+sister both of Hector and many other [heroes.] And imposing the task of
+making bread in his palace, will compel me, passing the day in misery, both
+to sweep the house, and stand at the loom. And some slave somewhere
+purchased will defile my bed, before wooed by princes. This never shall be.
+I will quit this light from mine eyes free, offering my body to Pluto. Lead
+on then, Ulysses, conduct me to death; for I see neither confidence of
+hope, nor of expectation, present to me that I can ever enjoy good fortune.
+But do thou, my mother, in no wise hinder me by your words or by your
+actions; but assent to my death before I meet with indignities unsuited to
+my rank. For one who has not been accustomed to taste misfortunes bears
+indeed, but grieves, to put his neck under the yoke. But he would be far
+more blessed in death than in life; for to live otherwise than honorably is
+a great burden.
+
+CHOR. It is a great and distinguishing feature among men to be born of
+generous parents, and the name of nobility of birth among the illustrious,
+proceeds from great to greater still.
+
+HEC. You have spoken honorably, my daughter, but in that honorable dwells
+grief. But if the son of Peleus must be gratified, and you must escape
+blame, Ulysses, kill not her; but leading me to the pyre of Achilles,
+strike me, spare me not; I brought forth Paris, who destroyed the son of
+Thetis, having pierced him with his arrows.
+
+ULYSS. The phantom of Achilles did not demand that thou, O aged lady, but
+that thy daughter here should die.
+
+HEC. Do thou then at least slay me with my daughter, and there will be
+twice the libation of blood for the earth, and the dead who makes this
+request.
+
+ULYSS. Thy daughter's death suffices; one must not be heaped on another;
+would that we required not even this one.
+
+HEC. There is a strong necessity for me to die with my daughter.
+
+ULYSS. How so? for I am not aware of any master that I have.
+
+HEC. As the ivy the oak, so will I clasp her.
+
+ULYSS. Not so; if you will take the advice of your superiors in knowledge.
+
+HEC. Never will I willingly quit my child here.
+
+ULYSS. Nor will I leave this place without the virgin.
+
+POLYX. Mother, be persuaded; and thou, son of Laertes, be gentle to a
+parent with reason moved to anger. But thou, O wretched mother, contend not
+with conquerors. Dost thou wish to fall on the earth and to wound thy aged
+flesh dragged by violence, and to suffer the indignity of being torn by a
+youthful arm? which things you will suffer. Do not, I pray thee, for it is
+not seemly. But, my dear mother, give me thy beloved hand, and grant me to
+join cheek to cheek; since never hereafter, but now for the last time shall
+I behold the rays of the sun and his bright orb. Receive my last address, O
+mother! O thou that bearedst me, I am going below.
+
+HEC. And I, O daughter, shall be a slave in the light of day.
+
+POLYX. Without the bridegroom, without the bridal song, which I ought to
+have obtained.
+
+HEC. Mournful thou, my child; but I am a wretched woman.
+
+POLYX. There shall I lie in darkness far from thee.
+
+HEC. Alas me, what shall I do? where end my life?
+
+POLYX. I shall die a slave, born of a free father.
+
+HEC. But I bereft indeed of fifty children.
+
+POLYX. What message shall I bear to Hector, and to thy aged husband?
+
+HEC. Tell them that I am most miserable of all women.
+
+POLYX. O ye breasts that tenderly nursed me.
+
+HEC. O daughter of an untimely and unhappy fate.
+
+POLYX. Farewell, O mother, farewell Cassandra too.
+
+HEC. Others farewell, but this is not for thy mother.
+
+POLYX. Farewell, my brother Polydore, among the warlike Thracians.
+
+HEC. If he lives at least: but I doubt, so unfortunate am I in every thing.
+
+POLTX. He lives, and shall close thy dying eye.
+
+HEC. I am dead, before my death, beneath my ills.
+
+POLYX. Lead me, Ulysses, having covered my face with a veil, since, before
+I am sacrificed indeed, I am melted in heart at my mother's plaints, her
+also I melt by my lamentations. O light, for yet it is allowed me to
+express thy name, but I have no share in thee, except during the time that
+I am going between the sword and the pyre of Achilles.
+
+HEC. Ah me! I faint; and my limbs fail me.--O daughter, touch thy mother,
+stretch forth thy hand--give it me--leave me not childless--I am lost, my
+friends. Would that I might see the Spartan Helen, the sister of the twin
+sons of Jove, thus, for through her bright eyes that most vile woman
+destroyed the happy Troy.
+
+CHOR. Gale, gale of the sea,[8] which waftest the swift barks bounding
+through the waves through the surge of the ocean, whither wilt thou bear me
+hapless? To whose mansion shall I come, a purchased slave? Or to the port
+of the Doric or Phthian shore, where they report that Apidanus, the most
+beautiful father of floods, enriches the plains? or wilt thou bear me
+hapless urged by the maritime oar, passing a life of misery in my
+prison-house, to that island[9] where both the first-born palm tree and the
+laurel shot forth their hallowed branches to their beloved Latona, emblem
+of the divine parturition? And with the Delian nymphs shall I celebrate in
+song the golden chaplet and bow of Diana? Or, in the Athenian city, shall I
+upon the saffron robe harness the steeds to the car of Minerva splendid in
+her chariot, representing them in embroidery upon the splendid looms of
+brilliant threads, or the race of Titans, which Jove the son of Saturn
+sends to eternal rest with his flaming lightning? Alas, my children! Alas,
+my ancestors, and my paternal land, which is overthrown, buried in smoke,
+captured by the Argive sword! but I indeed am[10] a slave in a foreign
+country, having left Asia the slave of Europe, having changed my bridal
+chamber for the grave.
+
+TALTHYBIUS, HECUBA, CHORUS.
+
+TAL. Tell me, ye Trojan dames, where can I find Hecuba, late the queen of
+Troy?
+
+CHOR. Not far from thee, O Talthybius, she is lying stretched on the
+ground, muffled in her robes.
+
+TAL. O Jupiter, what shall I say? Shall I say that thou beholdest mortals?
+or that they have to no end or purpose entertained false notions, who
+suppose the existence of a race of Deities, and that fortune has the
+sovereign control over men? Was not this the queen of the opulent
+Phrygians? was not this the wife of the all-blest Priam? And now all her
+city is overthrown by the spear, but she a captive, aged, childless, lies
+on the ground defiling her ill-fated head with the dust. Alas! alas! I too
+am old, but rather may death be my portion before I am involved in any such
+debasing fortune; stand up, oh unhappy, raise thy side, and lift up thy
+hoary head.
+
+HEC. Let me alone: who art thou that sufferest not my body to rest? why
+dost thou, whoever thou art, disturb me from my sadness?
+
+TAL. I am here, Talthybius, the herald of the Greeks, Agamemnon having sent
+me for thee, O lady.
+
+HEC. Hast thou come then, thou dearest of men, it having been decreed by
+the Greeks to slay me too upon the tomb? Thou wouldest bring dear news
+indeed. Then haste we, let us speed with all our might: lead on, old man.
+
+TAL. I am here and come to thee, O lady, that thou mayest entomb thy dead
+daughter. Both the two sons of Atreus and the Grecian host send me.
+
+HEC. Alas! what wilt thou say? Art thou not come for me as doomed to death,
+but to bring this cruel message? Thou art dead, my child, torn from thy
+mother; and I am childless as far as regards thee; oh! wretch that I am.
+But how did ye slay her? was it with becoming reverence? Or did ye proceed
+in your butchery as with an enemy, O old man? Tell me, though you will
+relate no pleasing tale.
+
+TAL. Twice, O lady, thou desirest me to indulge in tears through pity for
+thy daughter; for both now while relating the mournful circumstance shall I
+bedew this eye, as did I then at the tomb when she perished. The whole host
+of the Grecian army was present before the tomb, at the sacrifice of thy
+daughter. But the son of Achilles taking Polyxena by the hand, placed her
+on the summit of the mound; but I stood near him: and there followed a
+chosen band of illustrious youths in readiness to restrain with their hands
+thy daughter's struggles; then the son of Achilles took a full-crowned
+goblet of entire gold, and poured forth libations to his deceased father;
+and makes signal to me to proclaim silence through all the Grecian host.
+And I standing forth in the midst, thus spoke: "Be silent, O ye Greeks, let
+all the people remain silent; silence, be still:" and I made the people
+perfectly still. But he said, "O son of Peleus, O my father, accept these
+libations which have the power of soothing, and which speed the dead on
+their way; and come, that thou mayest drink the pure purple blood of this
+virgin, which both the army and myself offer unto thee; but be propitious
+to us, and grant us to weigh anchor, and to loose the cables of our ships,
+and to return each to his country, having met with a prosperous return from
+Troy." Thus much he said, and all the army joined in the prayer. Then
+taking by the hilt his sword decked with gold, he drew it from its
+scabbard, and made signs to the chosen youths of the Greeks to hold the
+virgin. But she, when she perceived it,[11] uttered this speech: "O
+Argives, ye that destroyed my city, I die willingly; let none touch my
+body; for I will offer my neck to the sword with a good heart. But, by the
+Gods, let me go free while ye kill me, that I may die free, for to be
+classed as a slave among the dead, when a queen, is what I am ashamed of."
+But the people murmured assent, and king Agamemnon ordered the young men to
+quit the virgin; [but they, soon as they heard the last words of him who
+had the seat of chief authority among them, let go their hold,] and she, on
+hearing this speech of her lords, took her robe, and rent it, beginning
+from the top of her shoulder down to her waist: and showed her breasts and
+bosom beauteous, as a statue's, and bending her knee on the ground, spoke
+words the most piteous ever heard, "Lo! strike, if this bosom thou
+desirest, O youth; or wouldest thou rather under the neck, here is this
+throat prepared." But he at once resolved and unresolved through pity of
+the virgin, cuts with the sword the passage of her breath; and fountains of
+blood burst forth. But she, e'en in death, showed much care to fall
+decently, and to veil from the eyes of men what ought to be concealed. But
+after that she breathed forth her spirit under the fatal blow, not one of
+the Greeks exercised the same offices; but some scattered leaves from their
+hands on the dead; some heap the funeral pile, bringing whole trunks of
+pines: but he that would not bring, heard rebukes of this sort from him
+that was thus employed: "Standest thou idle, thou man of most mean spirit?
+Hast in thy hand no robe, no ornament for the maiden? Hast thou naught to
+give to her so exceeding brave in heart and most noble in soul?" These
+things I tell thee of the death of thy daughter, but I behold thee at once
+the most happy, at once the most unhappy of all women in thine offspring.
+
+CHOR. Dreadful calamities have risen fierce against the house of Priam;
+such the hard fate of the Gods.
+
+HEC. O daughter! which of my ills I shall first attend to, amidst such a
+multitude, I know not: for if I touch on any, another does not suffer me;
+and thence again some fresh grief draws me aside, succeeding miseries upon
+miseries. And now I can not obliterate from my mind thy sufferings, so as
+not to bewail them: but excess of grief hast thou taken away, having been
+reported to me as noble. Is it then no paradox, if land indeed naturally
+bad, when blest with a favorable season from heaven, bears well the ear;
+but good land, robbed of the advantages it ought to have, brings forth bad
+fruit: but ever among men, the bad by nature is nothing else but bad; the
+good always good, nor under misfortune does he degenerate from his nature,
+but is the same good man? Is it, that the parents cause this difference, or
+the education? The being brought up nobly hath indeed in it the knowledge
+and principles of goodness; but if one is acquainted well with this, he
+knows what is vicious, having already learned it by the rule of virtue. And
+this indeed has my mind been ejaculating in vain. But do thou go, and
+signify these things to the Greeks, that no one be suffered to touch my
+daughter, but bid them keep off the multitude. In so vast an army the
+rabble are riotous, and the sailors' uncontrolled insolence is fiercer than
+fire; and he is evil, who does not evil. But do thou, my old attendant,
+taking an urn, fill it with sea water, and bring it hither, that I may wash
+my girl in her last bath, the bride no bride now, and the virgin no longer
+a virgin, wash her, and lay her out; according to her merits--whence can I?
+This I can not; but as I can, I will, for what can I do! And collecting
+ornaments from among the captured women, who dwell beside me in these
+tents, if any one, unobserved by our new lords, has by her any stolen
+memorial of her home. O state of my house, O mansions once happy! O Priam,
+of vast wealth possessed, and supremely blest in thine offspring, and I
+too, this aged woman, the mother of such children! How have we come to
+nothing, bereft of our former grandeur! And yet still forsooth we are
+elated, one of us in his gorgeous palaces; another, when honored among his
+citizens. These are nothing. In vain the counsels of the mind, and the
+tongue's boast. He is most blest, to whom from day to day no evil happens.
+
+CHORUS.
+
+Against me was it fated that calamity, against me was it fated that woe
+should spring, when Paris first hewed the pine in Ida's forest, preparing
+to cut his way over the ocean surge to the bed of Helen, the fairest that
+the sun's golden beams shine upon. For toils, and fate more stern than
+toils, close us round: and from the folly of one came a public calamity
+fatal to the land of Simois, and woes springing from other woes: and when
+the dispute was decided, which the shepherd decided between the three
+daughters of the blessed Gods on Ida's top, for war, and slaughter, and the
+desolation of my palaces. And many a Spartan virgin at her home on the
+banks of the fair-flowing Eurotas sighs while bathed in tears: and many an
+aged matron strikes her hand against her hoary head, for her children who
+have perished, and tears her cheek making her nails all blood-stained with
+her wounds.
+
+FEMALE ATTENDANT, CHORUS, HECUBA.
+
+ATT. O attendants, where, I pray, is the all-wretched Hecuba, who surpasses
+the whole race of man and woman kind in calamities? no one shall wrest from
+her the crown.
+
+CHOR. But what dost thou want, O wretch, in thy words of ill omen? for thy
+messages of woe never rest.
+
+ATT. I bring this grief to Hecuba; but in calamity 'tis no easy thing for
+men to speak words of good import.
+
+CHOR. And see, she is coming out of the house, and appears in the right
+time for thy words.
+
+ATT. O all-wretched mistress, and yet still more wretched than I can
+express in words, thou art undone, and no longer beholdest the light,
+childless, husbandless, cityless, entirely destroyed.
+
+HEC. Thou has said nothing new, but hast reproached me who already know it:
+but why dost thou bring this corse of my Polyxena, whose sepulture was
+reported to me as in a state of active progress through the labors of all
+the Grecians?
+
+ATT. She nothing knows, but, woe's me! laments Polyxena, nor does she
+apprehend her new misfortunes.
+
+HEC. O wretched me! dost bring hither the body of the frantic and inspired
+Cassandra?
+
+ATT. She whom thou mentionedst, lives; but thou dost not weep for him who
+is dead; but behold this corse cast naked [on the shore,] and look if it
+will appear to thee a wonder, and what thou little expectest.
+
+HEC. Alas me! I do indeed see my son Polydore a corse, whom (_I fondly
+hoped_) the man of Thrace was preserving in his palace. Now am I lost
+indeed, I no longer exist. Oh my child, my child! Alas! I begin the Bacchic
+strain, having lately learned my woes from my evil genius.
+
+ATT. Thou knowest then the calamity of thy son, O most unfortunate.
+
+HEC. I see incredible evils, still fresh, still fresh: and my immeasurable
+woes follow one upon the other. No longer will a day without a tear,
+without a groan, have part with me.
+
+CHOR. Dreadful, oh! dreadful are the miseries that we endure!
+
+HEC. O child, child of a wretched mother, by what fate art thou dead, by
+what hap liest thou here? by the hand of what man?
+
+ATT. I know not: on the wave-washed shore I found him.
+
+HEC. Cast up from the sea, or fallen by the blood-stained spear? (Note
+[C].)
+
+ATT. The ocean's billow cast him up from the deep on the smooth sand.
+
+HEC. Woe is me! Now understand I the dream, the vision of mine eyes; the
+black-winged phantom has not flitted by me in vain, which I saw concerning
+thee, my child, as being no longer in the light of day.
+
+CHOR. But who slew him? canst thou, O skilled in dreams, declare him?
+
+HEC. My friend, my friend, who curbs the steed in Thrace, where his aged
+father placed him for concealment.
+
+CHOR. Ah me! what wilt thou say? Was it to possess his gold that he slew
+him!
+
+HEC. Unutterable deeds, unworthy of a name, surpassing miracles,
+unhallowed, insufferable! Where are the laws of hospitality? O most accurst
+of men, how didst thou mar that skin, how sever with the cruel sword the
+poor limbs of this boy, nor didst feel pity?
+
+CHOR. O hapless woman, how has the deity made thee by far the most wretched
+of mortals, whoever he be that presses heavy on thee! But, my friends, let
+us henceforward be silent, for I see our lord Agamemnon advancing.
+
+AGAMEMNON, CHORUS, HECUBA.
+
+AGA. Why, Hecuba, delayest thou to come, and bury thy girl in her tomb,
+agreeably to what Talthybius told me, that no one of the Argives should be
+suffered to touch thy daughter. For our part we leave her alone, and touch
+her not; but thou art slow, whereat I am astonished. I am come therefore to
+fetch thee, for every thing there has been well and duly performed, if
+aught of well there be in this. Ah! what corse is this I see before the
+tent? some Trojan's too? for that it is no Grecian's, the robes that vest
+his limbs inform me.
+
+HEC. (_aside_) Thou ill-starr'd wretch! myself I mean, when I say "thou." O
+Hecuba, what shall I do? Shall I fall at the knees of Agamemnon here, or
+bear my ills in silence?
+
+AGA. Why dost lament turning thy back upon me, and sayest not what has
+happened? Who is this?
+
+HEC. (_aside_) But should he, thinking me a slave, an enemy, spurn me from
+his knees, I should be adding to my present sufferings.
+
+AGA. No prophet I, so as to trace, unless by hearing, the path of thy
+counsels.
+
+HEC. (_aside_) Am I not rather then putting an evil construction on this
+man's thoughts, whereas he has no evil intention toward me?
+
+AGA. If thou art willing that I should nothing of this affair, thou art of
+a mind with me, for neither do I wish to hear.
+
+HEC. (_aside_) I can not without him take vengeance for my children. Why do
+I thus hesitate? I must be bold, whether I succeed, or fail. Agamemnon, by
+these knees, and by thy beard I implore thee, and by thy blessed hand--
+
+AGA. What thy request? Is it to pass thy life in freedom? for this is easy
+for thee to obtain.
+
+HEC. Not this indeed; but so that I avenge myself on the bad, I am willing
+to pass my whole life in slavery.
+
+AGA. And for what assistance dost thou call on me?
+
+HEC. In none of those things which thou imaginest, O king. Seest thou this
+corse, o'er which I drop the tear?
+
+AGA. I see it; thy meaning however I can not learn from this.
+
+HEC. Him did I once bring forth, him bore I in my bosom.
+
+AGA. Is this indeed one of thy children, O unhappy woman?
+
+HEC. It is, but not of the sons of Priam who fell under the walls of Troy.
+
+AGA. Didst thou then bear any other besides those, O lady?
+
+HEC. In vain, as it appears, this whom you see.
+
+AGA. But where did he chance to be, when the city fell?
+
+HEC. His father sent him out of the country, dreading his death.
+
+AGA. Whither, having removed him alone of his children then alive?
+
+HEC. To this country, where he was found a corse.
+
+AGA. To him who is king over this state, to Polymestor?
+
+HEC. Hither was he sent, the guardian of gold, which proved most
+destructive to him.
+
+AGA. By whose hand then he is dead, and having met with what fate?
+
+HEC. By whom else should he? The Thracian host slew him.
+
+AGA. O wretch! was he so inflamed with the desire of obtaining the gold?
+
+HEC. Even so, after he had heard of Troy's disasters.
+
+AGA. And where didst thou find him, or who brought the body?
+
+HEC. She, meeting with it on the sea-shore.
+
+AGA. In quest of it, or occupied in some other employment?
+
+HEC. She was going to bring from the sea wherewith to bathe Polyxena.
+
+AGA. This friend then, as it seems, murdered him, and after that cast him
+out.
+
+HEC. To toss upon the waves thus gashing his body.
+
+AGA. O thou unhappy from thy unmeasured ills!
+
+HEC. I perish, no woe is left, O Agamemnon.
+
+AGA. Alas! alas! What woman was ever so unfortunate?
+
+HEC. There is none, except you reckon Misfortune herself. But for what
+cause I fall at thy knees, now hear: if I appear to you to suffer these
+ills justly, I would be reconciled to them; but if otherwise, be thou my
+avenger on this man, this most impious of false friends; who revering
+neither the Gods beneath[12] the earth, nor the Gods above, hath done this
+most unholy deed, having often partaken of the same table with me, [and in
+the list of hospitality the first of my friends; and having met with
+whatever was due,[13] and having received a full consideration for his
+services,[14]] slew him, and deigned not to give him a tomb, _which he
+might have given_, although he purposed to slay him, but cast him forth at
+the mercy of the waves. We indeed are slaves, and perhaps weak; but the
+Gods are strong, and strong the law, which governs them; for by the law we
+judge that there are Gods, and we live having justice and injustice
+strictly defined; which if when referred to thee it be disregarded, and
+they shall suffer no punishment who slay their guests, or dare to pollute
+the hallowed statutes of the Gods, there is nothing equitable in the
+dealings of men. Beholding these things then in a base and proper light,
+reverence me; pity me, and, as the artist stands aside _to view a picture_,
+do thou view my living portrait, and see what woes I am enduring. Once was
+I a queen, but now I am thy slave; once was I blest in my children, but now
+aged, and at the same time childless, cityless, destitute, the most
+miserable of mortals. Alas me wretched! whither withdrawest from me thy
+foot? It seems[15] I shall make no impression, wretch that I am. Why then
+do we mortals toil after all other sciences, as a matter of duty, and dive
+into them, but least of all strive to learn thoroughly Persuasion, the sole
+mistress o'er the minds of men, giving a price for her knowledge, that at
+some time we may have it in our power at once to persuade and obtain what
+we wish?--How then can any one hereafter hope that he shall be fortunate?
+So many children that I had, and now not one is left to me. But I am
+perishing a captive in base servitude, and yet see the smoke there leaping
+aloft from the city. And however this part of my argument may perchance be
+vain, the bringing forward love; still nevertheless it shall be urged. My
+daughter is wont to sleep by thy side, that prophetess, whom the Trojans
+call Cassandra. Where wilt thou show that thy nights were nights of love, O
+king, or will my daughter receive any recompense for her most fond
+embraces, and I through her? [For from the secret shade, and from night's
+joys, the greatest delight is wont to spring to mortals.] Now then attend.
+Thou seest this corse? Him assisting, thou wilt assist one joined to thee
+in affinity. One thing my speech wants yet. I would fain I had a voice in
+my arms, and hands, and in my hair, and in my footsteps, or by the skill of
+Daedalus, or some God, that each at once might hold thy knees, weeping, and
+imploring in all the strains of eloquence. O my lord. O greatest light of
+the Greeks, be persuaded; lend thy hand to avenge this aged woman, although
+she is of no consequence, yet avenge her. For it belongs to a good man to
+minister justice, and always and in every case to punish the bad.
+
+CHOR. It is strange, how every thing happens to mortals, and laws determine
+even the fates, making the greatest enemies friends, and enemies of those
+who before were on good terms.
+
+AGA. I, O Hecuba, have pity both on thee and thy son, thy misfortunes, and
+thy suppliant touch, and I am willing in regard both to the Gods and to
+justice, that this impious host should give thee full revenge, provided a
+way could be found, that both you might be gratified, and I might in the
+eyes of the army not seem to meditate this destruction against the king of
+Thrace for Cassandra's sake. For there is a point in which apprehension
+hath reached me. This man the army deems a friend, the dead an enemy; but
+if he is dear to thee, this is a private feeling and does not affect the
+army. Wherefore consider, that thou hast me willing to labor with thee, and
+ready to assist thee, but backward, should I be murmured against among the
+Greeks.
+
+HEC. Alas! no mortal is there who is free. For either he is the slave of
+money or of fortune; or the populace of the city or the dictates of the law
+constrain him to adopt manners not accordant with his natural inclinations.
+But since thou fearest, and payest too much regard to the multitude, I will
+liberate thee from this fear. For consent with me, if I meditate vengeance
+against the murderer of this youth, but do not act with me. But should any
+tumult or offer of assistance arise from out of the Greeks, when the
+Thracian feels the punishment he shall feel, suppress it, not appearing to
+do it for my sake: but of the rest be confident: I will dispose all things
+well.
+
+AGA. How then? What wilt thou do? Wilt thou grasp the sword in thine aged
+hand, and strike the barbarian? or with poison wilt thou work, or with what
+assistance? What hand will conspire with thee? whence wilt thou procure
+friends?
+
+HEC. These tents inclose a host of Trojan dames.
+
+AGA. Meanest thou the captives, the booty of the Greeks?
+
+HEC. With these will I avenge me of my murderer.
+
+AGA. And how shall the victory over men be to women?
+
+HEC. Numbers are powerful, with stratagem invincible.
+
+AGA. Powerful, I grant; I mistrust however the race of women.
+
+HEC. And why? Did not women slay the sons of AEgyptus,[16] and utterly
+extirpated the race of men from Lemnos?[17] But thus let it be. Give up
+this discussion. But grant this woman to pass in safety through the army.
+And do thou go to the Thracian host and tell him, "Hecuba, once queen of
+Troy, sends for you on business of no less importance to yourself than to
+her, and your sons likewise, since it is of consequence that your children
+also should hear her words."--And do thou, O Agamemnon, as yet forbear to
+raise the tomb over the newly-sacrificed Polyxena, that these two, the
+brother and the sister, the divided care of their mother, may, when reduced
+to ashes by one and the same flame, be interred side by side.
+
+AGA. Thus shall it be. And yet, if the army could sail, I should not have
+it in my power to grant thy request: but now, for the deity breathes not
+prosperous gales, we must wait, watching for a calm voyage. But may things
+turn out well some way or other: for this is a general principle among all,
+both individuals in private and states, That the wicked man should feel
+vengeance, but the good man enjoy prosperity.
+
+CHORUS.
+
+O thou, my country of Troy, no longer shall thou be called the city of the
+invincible, such a cloud of Grecians envelops thee, with the spear, with
+the spear having destroyed thee. And thou hast been shorn of thy crown of
+turrets, and thou hast been discolored by the dismal blackness of smoke;
+hapless city, no longer shall I tread my steps in thee.
+
+In the midnight hour I perished, when after the feast sweet sleep is
+scattered over the eyes. And my husband, from the song and cheerful
+sacrifice retired, was sleeping peacefully in my bed, his spear on its peg,
+no more dreaming to behold the naval host of the Greeks treading the
+streets of Troy. But I was binding my braided hair with fillets fastened on
+the top of mine head, looking into the round polished surface of the golden
+mirror, that I might get into my bed prepared for me. On a sudden a
+tumultuous cry penetrated the city; and this shout of exhortation was heard
+in the streets of Troy, "When indeed, ye sons of Grecians, when, _if not
+now_, will ye return to your homes having overthrown the proud citadel of
+Ilium!" And having left my dear bed, in a single robe, like a Spartan
+virgin, flying for aid to the venerable shrine of Diana, I hapless fled in
+vain. And I am dragged, after having seen my husband slain, to the ocean
+waves; and casting a distant look back upon my city, after the vessel had
+begun her way in her return to Greece, and divided me from the land of
+Troy, I wretched fainted through anguish. And consigning to curses Helen,
+the sister of the Twin Brothers, and the Idean shepherd, the ruthless
+Paris, since his marriage, no marriage, but some Fury's hate hath utterly
+destroyed me far from my native land, and hath driven me from my home. Whom
+may the ocean refuse ever to bear back again; and may she never reach again
+her paternal home.
+
+POLYMESTOR, HECUBA, CHORUS.
+
+POLY. O Priam, thou dearest of men, and thou most dear Hecuba, at thy sight
+I weep for thee, and thy city, and thy daughter who has lately died. Alas!
+there is nothing secure, neither glory, nor when one is faring well is
+there a certainty that he will not fare ill. But the Gods mingle these
+things promiscuously to and fro, making all confusion, so that we through
+ignorance may worship them. But wherefore should I utter these plaints,
+which in no way tend to free thee from thy former calamities. But thou, if
+thou hast aught to blame for my absence, forbear; for I chanced to be afar
+off in the middle of my Thracian territories, when thou camest hither; but
+soon as I returned, as I was already setting out from my house, this maid
+of thine met me for the self-same purpose, and delivered thy message, which
+when I had heard, I came.
+
+HEC. O Polymestor, I am ashamed to look thee in the face, sunk as I am in
+such miseries; for before one who has seen me in prosperity, shame
+overwhelms me, being in the state in which I now am, nor can I look upon
+thee with unmoved eyes. But impute not this to any enmity I bear thee; but
+there are other causes, and in some degree this law; "that women ought not
+to gaze at men."
+
+POLY. And 'tis indeed no wonder; but what need hast thou of me? for what
+purpose didst thou send for me to come from home?
+
+HEC. I am desirous of communicating a private affair of my own to thee and
+thy children; but order thy attendants to retire from these tents.
+
+POLY. Depart, for here to be alone is safe. Friendly thou art, this Grecian
+army too is friendly toward me, but it is for thee to signify, in what
+manner I, who am in good circumstances, ought to succor my friends in
+distress; since, on my part, I am ready.
+
+HEC. First then tell me of my son Polydore, whom thou retainest, receiving
+him from mine, and from his father's hand, if he live; but the rest I shall
+inquire of thee afterward.
+
+POLY. He lives, and in good health; as far as regards him indeed thou art
+happy.
+
+HEC. O my best friend, how well thou speakest, and how worthily of thyself!
+
+POLY. What dost thou wish then to inquire of me in the next place?
+
+HEC. Whether he remembers at all me, his mother?
+
+POLY. Yes: and he even sought to come to thee by stealth.
+
+HEC. And is the gold safe, which he brought with him from Troy?
+
+POLY. It is safe, at least it is guarded in my house.
+
+HEC. Preserve it therefore, nor covet the goods of others.
+
+POLY. Certainly not. May I enjoy what is mine own, O lady.
+
+HEC. Knowest thou then, what I wish to say to thee and thy children?
+
+POLY. I do not: this shalt thou signify by thy speech.
+
+HEC. Be my son loved by thee, as thou art now loved of me.
+
+POLY. What is it, that I and my sons must know?
+
+HEC. The ancient buried treasures of the family of Priam.
+
+POLY. Is it this thou wishest me to inform thy son of?
+
+HEC. Yes, certainly; through thee at least, for thou art a pious man.
+
+POLY. What necessity then is there for the presence of these children?
+
+HEC. 'Tis better in case of thy death, that these should know.
+
+POLY. Well hast thou thus said, and 'tis the wiser plan.
+
+HEC. Thou knowest then where the temple of Minerva in Troy is--
+
+POLY. Is the gold there! but what is the mark?
+
+HEC. A black rock rising above the earth.
+
+POLY. Hast any thing further to tell me of what is there?
+
+HEC. No, but I wish thee to take care of some treasures, with which I came
+out of the city.
+
+POLY. Where are they then? Hast thou them hidden beneath thy robes?
+
+HEC. Amidst a heap of spoils they are preserved in this tent.
+
+POLY. But where? These are the naval encampments of the Grecians.
+
+HEC. The habitations of the captive women are private.
+
+POLY. And is all secure within, and untenanted by men?
+
+HEC. Not one of the Greeks is within, but we women only. But come into the
+tent, for the Greeks are desirous of loosing the sheets of their vessels
+homeward from Troy; so that, having done every thing that thou oughtest,
+thou mayest go with thy children to that place where thou hast given my son
+to dwell.
+
+CHOR. Not yet hast thou suffered, but peradventure thou wilt suffer
+vengeance; as a man falling headlong into the gulf where no harbor is,
+shalt thou be hurled from thy dear heart, having lost thy life;[18] for
+where the rites of hospitality coincide[19] with justice, and with the
+Gods, _on the villain who dares to violate these_ destructive, destructive
+indeed impends the evil. But thy hopes will deceive thee, which thou
+entertainedst from this journey, which has brought thee, thou wretched man,
+to the deadly mansions of Pluto; but thou shalt quit thy life by no
+warrior's hand.
+
+POLYMESTOR, HECUBA, SEMICHORUS.
+
+POLY. Oh me! I wretch am deprived of the sight of mine eyes.
+
+SEMI. Heard ye the shriek of the man of Thrace, my friends?
+
+POLY. Oh me; there again--Oh my children, thy miserable butchery!
+
+SEMI. My friends, some strange ills have been perpetrated within the tents.
+
+POLY. But for all your nimble feet, ye never can escape me, for by my blows
+will I burst open the recesses of these tents.
+
+SEMI. Behold, he uses violently the weapon of his heavy hand. Will ye that
+we fall on; since the instant calls on us to be present with assistance to
+Hecuba and the Trojan dames?
+
+HEC. Dash on, spare nothing, break down the gates, for thou never shalt
+replace the clear sight in those pupils, nor shalt thou behold alive those
+children which I have slain.
+
+SEMI. What! hast thou vanquished the Thracian? and hast thou got the
+mastery over this host, my mistress? and hast thou done such deeds, as thou
+sayest?
+
+HEC. Thou wilt see him quickly before the house, blind, with blind
+wandering steps approaching, and the bodies of his two children, whom I
+have slain with these most valiant Trojan women; but he has felt my
+vengeance; but he is coming as thou seest from the tent. But I will retire
+out of his way, and make good my retreat from the boiling rage of this most
+desperate Thracian.
+
+POLY. Alas me! whither can I go? where stand? whither shall I direct my
+way, advancing my steps like the four-footed mountain beast on my hands and
+on my feet in pursuit? What new path shall I take in this direction or in
+that, desirous of seizing these murderous Trojan dames, who have utterly
+destroyed me; O ye impious, impious Phrygian daughters! Ah the accursed, in
+what corner do they shrink from me in flight? Would that thou, O sun,
+could'st heal, could'st heal these bleeding lids of my eyes, and remove
+this gloomy-darkness. Ah, hush, hush! I hear the carefully-concealed step
+of these women. Whither shall I direct my course in order that I may glut
+myself on the flesh and bones of these, making the wild beasts' banquet,
+inflicting vengeance on them, in return for the injuries done me. Wretch
+that I am! Whither, whither am I borne, having left my children deserted,
+for these fiends of hell to tear piecemeal, a mangled, bleeding, savage
+prey to dogs, and a thing to cast out on the mountains? Where shall I
+stand? Whither turn? Whither go, as a ship setting her yellow canvas sails
+with her sea-washed palsers, rushing to this lair of death, the protector
+of my children?
+
+CHOR. O miserable man, what intolerable evils have been perpetrated by
+thee! but on thee having done base deeds the God hath sent dreadful
+punishment, whoever he be that presses heavy on thee.
+
+POLY. Alas! alas! O Thracian nation, brandishing the spear, warlike,
+bestriding the steed, nation ruled by Mars; O ye Greeks, sons of Atreus; I
+raise the cry, the cry, the cry; Come, come, hasten, I entreat you by the
+Gods. Does any hear, or will no one assist me? Why do ye delay? The women
+have destroyed me, the captive women. Horrible, horrible treatment have I
+suffered. Alas me for my ruin! Whither can I turn? Whither can I go? Shall
+I soar through the ethereal skies to the lofty mansions where Orion or
+Sirius dart from their eyes the flaming rays of fire: or shall I hapless
+rush to the gloomy shore of Pluto?
+
+CHOR. It is pardonable, when any one suffers greater misfortunes than he
+can bear, for him to be desirous to quit a miserable life.
+
+AGAMEMNON, POLYMESTOR, HECUBA, CHORUS.
+
+AGA. I came having heard the clamor: for Echo, the mountain's daughter, did
+not sound in gentle strains through the army, causing a disturbance. But
+did we not know that the Phrygian towers are fallen beneath the Grecian
+spear, this tumult might have caused no little terror.
+
+POLY. O my dearest friend (for I know thee, Agamemnon, having heard thy
+voice), seest thou what I am suffering?
+
+AGA. Ah! wretched Polymestor, who hath destroyed thee? who made thine eyes
+sightless, having drowned their orbs in blood? And who hath slain these thy
+children? Sure, whoe'er it was, felt the greatest rage against thee and thy
+sons.
+
+POLY. Hecuba with the female captives hath destroyed me--nay, not destroyed
+me, but more than destroyed me.
+
+AGA. What sayest thou? Hast thou done this deed, as he affirms? Hast thou,
+Hecuba, dared this inconceivable act of boldness?
+
+POLY. Ah me! what wilt thou say? Is she any where near me? Show me, tell me
+where she is, that I may seize her in my hands, and tear piecemeal and
+mangle her body.
+
+AGA. What ho! what are you doing?
+
+POLY. By the Gods I entreat thee, suffer me to lay my raging hand upon her.
+
+AGA. Forbear. And having banished this barbarous deed from thy thoughts,
+speak; that having heard both thee and her in your respective turns, I may
+decide justly, in return for what thou art suffering these ills.
+
+POLY. I will speak then. There was a certain youth, the youngest of Priam's
+children, by name Polydore, the son of Hecuba; him his father Priam sent to
+me from Troy to bring up in my palace, already presaging[20] the capture of
+Troy. Him I put to death. But for what cause I put him to death, with what
+policy and prudent forethought, now hear. I feared, lest the boy being left
+an enemy to thee, should collect the scattered remnants of Troy, and again
+people the city. And lest the Greeks, having discovered that one of the
+sons of Priam was alive, should again direct an expedition against the
+Phrygian land, and after that should harass and lay waste the plains of
+Thrace; and it might fare ill with the neighbors of the Trojans, under
+which misfortune, O king, we are now laboring. But Hecuba, when she had
+discovered her son's death, by such treachery as this lured me hither, as
+about to tell me of treasure belonging to Priam's family concealed in Troy,
+and introduces me alone with my sons into the tent, that no one else might
+know it. And I sat, having reclined on the centre of the couch; but many
+Trojan damsels, some from the left hand, and others from the right, sat
+round me, as by an intimate friend, holding in their hands the Edonian
+looms, and praised these robes, looking at them in the light; but others,
+beholding with admiration my Thracian spear, deprived me of my double
+ornament. But as many as were mothers caressed my children in their arms in
+seeming admiration, that they might be farther removed from their father,
+successively handing them from one to another: and then, amidst their kind
+blandishments, what think you? in an instant, snatching from somewhere
+beneath their garments their daggers, they stab my children. But they
+having seized me in an hostile manner held my hands and feet; and if,
+wishing to succor my children, I raised my head, they held me by the hair:
+but if I attempted to move my hands, I wretched could effect nothing
+through the host of women. But at last, cruelty and worse than cruelty,
+they perpetrated dreadful things; for having taken their clasps they pierce
+and gore the wretched pupils of my eyes, then vanish in flight through the
+tent. But I, having leaped out, like some exasperated beast, pursue the
+blood-stained wretches, searching every wall, as the hunter, casting down,
+rending. This have I suffered, while studious to advance thy interest,
+Agamemnon, and having killed thine enemy. But that I may not extend my
+speech to a greater length, if any one of those of ancient times hath
+reviled women, or if any one doth now, or shall hereafter revile them, I
+will comprise the whole when I say, that such a race neither doth the sea
+nor the earth produce, but he who is always with them knows it best.
+
+CHOR. Be not at all insolent, nor, in thy calamities, thus comprehending
+the female sex, abuse them all. For of us there are many, some indeed are
+envied _for their virtues_, but some are by nature in the catalogue of bad
+things.
+
+HEC. Agamemnon, it never were fitting among men that the tongue should have
+greater force than actions. But if a man has acted well, well should he
+speak; if on the other hand basely, his words likewise should be unsound,
+and never ought he to be capable of speaking unjust things well. Perhaps
+indeed they who have brought these things to a pitch of accuracy are
+accounted wise, but they can not endure wise unto the end, but perish
+vilely, nor has any one yet escaped this. And this in my prelude is what I
+have to say to thee. Now am I going to direct my discourse to this man, and
+I will answer his arguments. Thou, that assertest, that in order to rid the
+Greeks of their redoubled toil, and for Agamemnon's sake that thou didst
+slay my son? But, in the first place, monstrous villain, never can the race
+of barbarians be friendly to the Grecians, never can this take place. But
+what favor wert thou so eagerly currying? wert thou about to contract an
+alliance, or was it that thou wert of kindred birth, or what pretext hadst
+thou? or were they about to ravage the crops of thy country, having sailed
+thither again? Whom, thinkest thou, wilt thou persuade of these things? The
+gold, if thou wert willing to speak truth, the gold destroyed my son, and
+thy base gains. For come, tell me this; how when Troy was prosperous, and a
+tower yet girt around the city, and Priam lived, and the spear of Hector
+was in its glory, why didst thou not then, if thou wert willing to lay him
+under this obligation, bringing up my child, and retaining him in thy
+palace, why didst thou not then slay him, or go and take him alive to the
+Greeks? But when we were no longer in the light of prosperity, and the city
+by its smoke showed that it was in the power of the enemy, thou slewest thy
+guest who had come to thy hearth. Now hear besides how thou wilt appear
+vile: thou oughtest, if thou wert the friend of the Greeks, to have given
+the gold, which thou confessedst thou hast, not thine, but his,
+distributing to those who were in need, and had long been strangers to
+their native land. But thou, even now, hast not courage to part with it
+from thy hand, but having it, thou still art keeping it close in thine
+house. And yet, in bringing up my child, as it was thy duty to bring him
+up, and in preserving him, thou hadst had fair honor. For in adversity
+friends are most clearly proved good. But good circumstances have in every
+case their friends. But if thou wert in want of money, and he in a
+flourishing condition, my son had been to thee a vast treasure; but now,
+thou neither hast him for thy friend, and the benefit from the gold is
+gone, and thy sons are gone, and thou art--as thou art. But to thee,
+Agamemnon, I say; if thou aidest this man, thou wilt appear to be doing
+wrong. For thou wilt be conferring a benefit on a host, who is neither
+pious, nor faithful to those to whom he ought, not holy, not just. But we
+shall say that thou delightest in the bad, if thus thou actest: but I speak
+no offense to my lords.
+
+CHOR. Ah! Ah! How do good deeds ever supply to men the source of good
+words!
+
+AGA. Thankless my office to decide on others' grievances; but still I must,
+for it brings disgrace on a man, having taken a thing in hand, to give it
+up. But to me, be assured, thou neither appearest for my sake, nor for the
+sake of the Grecians, to have killed this man thy guest, but that thou
+mightest possess the gold in thy palace. But thou talkest of thy advantage,
+when thou art in calamities.[21] Perhaps with you it is a slight thing to
+kill your guests; but with us Grecians this thing is abhorred. How then, in
+giving my decision that thou hast not injured, can I escape blame? I can
+not; but as thou hast dared to do things dishonorable, endure now things
+unpleasant.
+
+POLY. Alas me! worsted, as it seems, by a woman who is a slave, I shall
+submit to the vengeance of my inferiors.
+
+AGA. Will it not then be justly, seeing thou hast acted wrong?
+
+POLY. Alas me! wretched on account of these children and on account of my
+eyes.
+
+HEC. Thou sufferest? but what do I? Thinkest thou I suffer not for my
+child?
+
+POLY. Thou rejoicest in insulting me, O thou malicious woman.
+
+HEC. For ought not I to rejoice on having avenged myself on thee?
+
+POLY. But thou wilt not soon, when the liquid wave--
+
+HEC. Shall bear me, _dost thou mean_, to the confines of the Grecian land?
+
+POLY. --shall cover thee, having fallen from the shrouds.
+
+HEC. From whom meeting with this violent leap?
+
+POLY. Thyself shalt climb with thy feet up the ship's mast.
+
+HEC. Having wings on my back, or in what way?
+
+POLY. Thou shalt become a dog with a fiery aspect.
+
+HEC. But how dost thou know of this my metamorphose?
+
+POLY. Dionysius the Thracian prophet told it me.
+
+HEC. But did he not declare to thee any of the evils which thou sufferest?
+
+POLY. No: for, _if he had_, thou never wouldst thus treacherously have
+taken me.
+
+HEC. [22]Thence shall I conclude my life in death, or still live on?
+
+POLY. Thou shalt die. But the name of thy tomb shall be--
+
+HEC. Dost thou speak of it as in any way correspondent to my shape?
+
+POLY. [23]The tomb of the wretched dog, a mark to mariners.
+
+HEC. I heed it not, since thou at least hast felt my vengeance.
+
+POLY. And it is fated too for thy daughter Cassandra to die.
+
+HEC. I renounce these prophecies; I give them for thyself to bear.
+
+POLY. Him shall his wife slay, a cruel guardian of his house.
+
+HEC. Never yet may the daughter of Tyndarus have arrived at such madness.
+
+POLY. Even this man himself, having lifted up the axe.
+
+AGA. What ho! thou art mad, and art desirous of obtaining greater ills.
+
+POLY. Kill me, for the murderous bath at Argos awaits thee.
+
+AGA. Will ye not, slaves, forcibly drag him from my presence?
+
+POLY. Thou art galled at what thou hearest.
+
+AGA. Will ye not stop his mouth?
+
+POLY. Stop it: for the word is spoken.
+
+AGA. Will ye not as quick as possible cast him out on some desert island,
+since he is thus, and past endurance insolent? But do thou, wretched
+Hecuba, go and bury thy two dead: and you, O Trojan dames, must approach
+your masters' tents, for I perceive that the gales are favorable for
+wafting us to our homes. And may we sail in safety to our native country,
+and behold our household and families in prosperity, having found rest from
+these toils.
+
+CHOR. Come, my friends, to the harbor, and the tents, to undergo the tasks
+imposed by our masters. For necessity is relentless.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+NOTES ON HECUBA
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+[1] Homer makes Dymas, not Cisseus, the father of Hecuba. Virgil however
+follows Euripides, the rest of the Latin poets Virgil.
+
+[2] In the martial time of antiquity the spear was reverenced as something
+divine, and signified the chief command in arms, it was also the insigne of
+the highest civil authority: in this sense Euripides in other places uses
+the word [Greek: dory]. See Hippol. 988.
+
+[3] [Greek: tritaios] properly signifies _triduanus_; here it is used for
+[Greek: tritos], the cardinal number for the ordinal. So also Hippol. 275.
+
+  [Greek: Pos d' ou, tritaian g' ous' asitos hemeran:]
+
+[4] Most interpreters render this, _leaning on the crooked staff with my
+hand_. Nor has Beck altered it in his Latin version, though he transcribed
+Musgrave's note. "[Greek: skolio, skimponi] (_for which Porson directs_
+[Greek: skiponi],) Scipiones in universum recti sunt, non curvi. Loquitur
+igitur non de vero scipione, sed metaphorice de brachio, quod ancillis
+innitens, scipionis usum praestabat; quodque, ob cubiti flexuram, [Greek:
+skolion skimpoma] vocat."
+
+[5] _that babbling knave_.] Tzetzes on Lycophron, line 763. [Greek: kopis,
+ho rhetor, kai empeiros, ho hypo pollon pragmaton kekommenos]. In the Index
+to Lycophron [Greek: kopis] is translated _scurra_.
+
+[6] Among the ancients it was the custom for virgins to have a great
+quantity of golden ornaments about them, to which Homer alludes, Il.
+[Greek: B]. 872.
+
+  [Greek: Hos kai chryson echon polemon d' ien euete koure]. PORSON.
+
+[7] This is the only sense that can be made of [Greek: enthanein], and this
+sense seems strained: Brunck proposes [Greek: entakenai] for [Greek:
+enthanein ge]. See Note [A].
+
+[8] [Greek: limne] is used for the _sea_ in Troades 444; as also in Iliad
+[Greek: N]. 21, and Odyssey [Greek: G]. 1. and in many other passages of
+Homer.
+
+[9] The construction is [Greek: e poreuseis me entha nason]; for [Greek:
+eis ekeinen ton nason, entha.]
+
+[10] [Greek: keklemai] for [Greek: eimi], not an unusual signification.
+Hippol. 2, [Greek: thea keklemai Kypris.]
+
+[11] _When she perceived it,_ [Greek: ephrasthe, syneken, egno, enoesen].
+_Hesych_.
+
+[12] The Gods beneath he despised, by casting him out without a tomb; the
+Gods above, as the guardians of the rites of hospitality.
+
+[13] _Whatever was due_, either on the score of friendship, or as an
+equivalent for his care and protection.
+
+[14] Musgrave proposes to read [Greek: promisthian] for [Greek:
+promethian]: the version above is in accordance with the scholiast and the
+paraphrast.
+
+[15] See note on Medea 338.
+
+[16] The story of the daughters of Danaus is well known.
+
+[17] Of this there are two accounts given in the Scholia. The one is, that
+the women of Lemnos being punished by Venus with an ill savor, and
+therefore neglected by their husbands, conspired against them and slew
+them. The other is found in Herodotus, Erato, chap. 138. see also AEsch.
+Choephorae, line 627, ed. Schutz.
+
+[18] Polymestor was guilty of two crimes, [Greek: adikias] and [Greek:
+asebeias], for he had both violated the laws of men, and profaned the deity
+of Jupiter Hospitalis. Whence Agamemnon, v. 840, hints that he is to suffer
+on both accounts.
+
+  [Greek: kai boulomai theon th' hounek anosion xenon,]
+  [Greek: kai tou dikaion, tende soi dounai diken.]
+
+The Chorus therefore says, _Ubi contingit eundem et Justitiae et Diis esse
+addictum, exitiale semper malum esse_; or, as the learned Hemsterheuyse has
+more fully and more elegantly expressed, it, _Ubi_, id est, _in quo_, vel
+_in quem cadit et concurrit, ut ob crimen commissum simul et humanae
+justitiae et Deorum vindictae sit obnoxius, ac velut oppignoratus; illi
+certissimum exitium imminet_. This sense the words give, if for [Greek:
+ou], we read [Greek: hou], i.e. in the sense of [Greek: hopou]. MUSGRAVE.
+Correct Dindorf's text to [Greek: hou].
+
+[19] [Greek: sympeseein] _in unum coire, coincidere_. In this sense it is
+used also, Herod. Euterpe, chap. 49.
+
+[20] The verbal adjective in [Greek: tos] is almost universally used in a
+passive sense; [Greek: hypoptos], however, in this place is an exception to
+the rule, as are also, [Greek: kalyptes], Soph. Antig. 1011, [Greek:
+memptos], Trachin. 446.
+
+[21] Perhaps the preferable way is to make [Greek: kakoisin] agree with
+[Greek: anthropois] understood; that the sense may be, _You are a bad man
+to talk of your advantage as a plea for having acted thus_.
+
+[22] [Greek: Thanousa d' e zos' enthad' ekpleso bion]; a similar expression
+occurs in the Anthologia.
+
+  [Greek: sigon parerchou ton talaiporon bion,]
+  [Greek: autos siopei ton chronon mimoumenos,]
+  [Greek: lathon de kai bioson. ei de me, thanon.]
+
+[23] The place of her burial was called Cynosema, a promontory of the
+Thracian Chersonese. It was here that the Athenians gained a naval victory
+over the Peloponnesians and Syracusans, in the twenty-first year of the
+Peloponnesian war. Thucydides, book viii.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+ADDITIONAL NOTES.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+[A] Vs. 246, [Greek: enthanein ge]. "Pravam esse scripturam dici Brunckius
+et Corayus viderunt; quorum ille legere voluit [Greek: host' entakenai],
+hic vero [Greek: host' embalein]. Sed neuter rem acu tetigit. Euripides
+scripsit: [Greek: host' en ge phynai], uti patet ex Hom. Il. [Greek: Z].
+253, [Greek: en t' ara hoi phy cheiri], Od. [Greek: P]. 21, [Greek: panta
+kysen periphys], Theocrit. Id. xiii. 47, [Greek: tai d' en cheri pasai
+ephysan], et, quod rem conficit, ex Euripidis ipsius Ion. 891, [Greek:
+leukois d' emphysas karpois cheiron]." G. BURGES, apud _Revue de
+Philologie_, vol. i. No. 5. p. 457.
+
+[B] We must, I think, read [Greek: tolmain].
+
+[C] Dindorf disposes these lines differently, but I prefer Porson's
+arrangement, as follows:
+
+  [Greek: EK. ekbleton, e pes. ph. doros;]
+  [Greek: THER. en psamathoi leurai]
+  [Greek: pontou nin, k.t.l.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *       *
+
+ORESTES.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+PERSONS REPRESENTED.
+
+  ELECTRA.
+  HELEN.
+  HERMIONE.
+  CHORUS.
+  ORESTES.
+  MENELAUS.
+  TYNDARUS.
+  PYLADES.
+  A PHRYGIAN.
+  APOLLO.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE ARGUMENT.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+Orestes, in revenge for the murder of his father, took off AEgisthus and
+Clyaetmnestra; but having dared to slay his mother, he was instantly
+punished for it by being afflicted with madness. But on Tyndarus, the
+father of her who was slain, laying an accusation against him, the Argives
+were about to give a public decision on this question, "What ought he, who
+has dared this impious deed, to suffer?" By chance Menelaus, having
+returned from his wanderings, sent in Helen indeed by night, but himself
+came by day, and being entreated by Orestes to aid him, he rather feared
+Tyndarus the accuser: but when the speeches came to be spoken among the
+populace, the multitude were stirred up to kill Orestes. * * * * But
+Pylades, his friend, accompanying him, counseled him first to take revenge
+on Menelaus by killing Helen. As they were going on this project, they were
+disappointed of their hope by the Gods snatching away Helen from them. But
+Electra delivered up Hermione, when she made her appearance, into their
+hands, and they were about to kill her. When Menelaus came, and saw himself
+bereft by them at once of his wife and child, he endeavored to storm the
+palace; but they, anticipating his purpose, threatened to set it on fire.
+Apollo, however, having appeared, said that he had conducted Helen to the
+Gods, and commanded Orestes to take Hermione to wife, and Electra to dwell
+with Pylades, and, after that he was purified of the murder, to reign over
+Argos.
+
+The scene of the piece is laid at Argos; But the chorus consists of Argive
+women, intimate associates of Electra, who also come on inquiring about the
+calamity of Orestes. The play has a catastrophe rather suited to comedy.
+The opening scene of the play is thus arranged. Orestes is discovered
+before the palace of Agamemnon, fatigued, and, on account of his madness,
+lying on a couch on which Electra is sitting by him at his feet. A
+difficulty has been started, why does not she sit at his head? for thus
+would she seem to watch more tenderly over her brother, if she sat nearer
+him. The poet, it is answered, seems to have made this arrangement on
+account of the Chorus; for Orestes, who had but just then and with
+difficulty gotten to sleep, would have been awakened, if the women that
+constituted the Chorus had stood nearer to him. But this we may infer from
+what Electra says to the Chorus, "[Greek: Siga, siga, lepton ichnos
+arbyleis]." It is probable then that the above is the reason of this
+arrangement.
+
+The play is among the most celebrated on the stage, but infamous in its
+morals; for, with the exception of Pylades, all the characters are bad
+persons.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+ORESTES.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+ELECTRA.
+
+There is no word so dreadful to relate, nor suffering, nor heaven-inflicted
+calamity, the burden of which human nature may not be compelled to bear.
+For Tantalus, the blest, (and I am not reproaching his fortune, _when I say
+this_,) the son of Jupiter, as they report, trembling at the rock which
+impends over his head, hangs in the air, and suffers this punishment, as
+they say indeed, because, although being a man, yet having the honor of a
+table in common with the Gods upon equal terms, he possessed an
+ungovernable tongue, a most disgraceful malady. He begat Pelops, and from
+him sprung Atreus, for whom the Goddess having carded the wool[1] spun the
+thread of contention, _and doomed him_ to make war on Thyestes his
+relation; (why must I commemorate things unspeakable?) But Atreus then[2]
+killed his children--and feasted him. But from Atreus, for I pass over in
+silence the misfortunes which intervened, sprung Agamemnon, the
+illustrious, (if he was indeed illustrious,) and Menelaus; their mother
+Aerope of Crete. But Menelaus indeed marries Helen, the hated of the Gods,
+but King Agamemnon _obtained_ Clytaemnestra's bed, memorable throughout the
+Grecians: from whom we virgins were born, three from one mother;
+Chrysothemis, and Iphigenia, and myself Electra; and Orestes the male part
+of the family, from a most unholy mother, who slew her husband, having
+covered him around with an inextricable robe; the reason however it is not
+decorous in a virgin to tell; I leave this undeclared for men to consider
+as they will. But why indeed must I accuse the injustice of Phoebus? Yet
+persuaded he Orestes to kill that mother that brought him forth, a deed
+which gained not a good report from all men. But nevertheless he did slay
+her, as he would not be disobedient to the God. I also took a share in the
+murder, but such as a woman ought to take. As did Pylades also who
+perpetrated this deed with us. From that time wasting away, the wretched
+Orestes is afflicted with a grievous malady, but falling on his couch there
+lies, but his mother's blood whirls him to frenzy (for I dread to mention
+those Goddesses, the Eumenides, who persecute him with terror). Moreover
+this is the sixth day since his slaughtered mother was purified by fire as
+to her body. During which he has neither taken any food down his throat, he
+has not bathed his limbs, but covered beneath his cloak, when indeed his
+body is lightened of its disease, on coming to his right mind he weeps, but
+at another time starts suddenly from his couch, as a colt from his yoke.
+But it has been decreed by this city of Argos, that no one shall receive us
+who have slain a mother under their roof, nor at their fire, and that none
+shall speak to us; but this is the appointed day, in the which the city of
+the Argives will pronounce their vote, whether it is fitting that we should
+die being stoned with stones, or having whet the sword, should plunge it
+into our necks. But I yet have some hope that we may not die, for Menelaus
+has arrived at this country from Troy, and filling the Nauplian harbor with
+his oars is mooring his fleet off the shore, having been lost in wanderings
+from Troy a long time: but the much-afflicted Helen has he sent before to
+our palace, having taken advantage of the night, lest any of those, whose
+children died under Ilium, when they saw her coming, by day, might go so
+far as to stone her; but she is within bewailing her sister, and the
+calamity of her family. She has however some consolation in her woes, for
+the virgin Hermione, whom Menelaus bringing from Sparta, left at our
+palace, when he sailed to Troy, and gave as a charge to my mother to bring
+up, in her she rejoices, and forgets her miseries. But I am looking at each
+avenue when I shall see Menelaus present, since, for the rest, we ride on
+slender power,[3] if we receive not some succor from him; the house of the
+unfortunate is an embarrassed state of affairs.
+
+ELECTRA. HELEN.
+
+HEL. O daughter of Clytaemnestra and Agamemnon, O Electra, thou that hast
+remained a virgin a long time. How are ye, O wretched woman, both you, and
+your brother, the wretched Orestes (he was the murderer of his mother)? For
+by thy converse I am not polluted, transferring, as I do, the blame to
+Phoebus. And yet I groan the death of Clytaemnestra, whom, after that I
+sailed to Troy, (how did I sail, urged by the maddening fate of the Gods!)
+I saw not, but of her bereft I lament my fortune.
+
+ELEC. Helen, why should I inform thee of things thou seest thyself here
+present, the race of Agamemnon in calamities. I indeed sleepless sit
+companion to the wretched corse, (for he is a corse, in that he breathes so
+little,) but at his fortune I murmur not. But thou a happy woman, and thy
+husband a happy man, have come to us, who fare most wretchedly.
+
+HEL. But what length of time has he been lying on his couch?
+
+ELEC. Ever since he shed his parent's blood.
+
+HEL. Oh wretched, and his mother too, that thus she perished!
+
+ELEC. These things are thus, so that he is unable to speak for misery.
+
+HEL. By the Gods wilt thou oblige me in a thing, O virgin?
+
+ELEC. As far as I am permitted by the little leisure I have from watching
+by my brother.
+
+HEL. Wilt thou go to the tomb of my sister?
+
+ELEC. My mother's tomb dost thou desire? wherefore?
+
+HEL. Bearing the first offerings of my hair, and my libations.
+
+ELEC. But is it not lawful for thee to go to the tomb of thy friends?
+
+HEL. No, for I am ashamed to show myself among the Argives.
+
+ELEC. Late art thou discreet, then formerly leaving thine home
+disgracefully.
+
+HEL. True hast thou spoken, but thou speakest not pleasantly to me.
+
+ELEC. But what shame possesses thee among the Myceneans?
+
+HEL. I fear the fathers of those who are dead under Ilium.
+
+ELEC. For this is a dreadful thing; and at Argos thou art declaimed against
+by every one's mouth.
+
+HEL. Do thou then grant me this favor, and free me from this fear.
+
+ELEC. I can not look upon the tomb of my mother.
+
+HEL. And yet it is disgraceful for servants to bear these.
+
+ELEC. But why not send thy daughter Hermione?
+
+HEL. It is not well for virgins to go among the crowd.
+
+ELEC. And yet she might repay the dead the care of her education.
+
+HEL. Right hast thou spoken, and I obey thee, O virgin, and I will send my
+daughter, for thou sayest well. Come forth, my child Hermione, before the
+house, and take these libations in thine hand, and my hair, and, going to
+the tomb of Clytaemnestra, leave there this mixture of milk and honey, and
+the froth of wine, and standing on the summit of the mound, say thus:
+"Helen, thy sister, presents thee with these libations, in fear herself to
+approach thy tomb, and afraid of the populace of Argos:" and bid her hold
+kind intentions toward me, and thyself, and my husband, and toward these
+two miserable persons whom the God has destroyed. But promise all the
+offerings to the manes, whatever it is fitting that I should perform for a
+sister. Go, my child, hasten, and when thou hast offered the libations at
+the tomb, remember to return back as speedily as possible.
+
+ELEC. [_alone_] O Nature, what a great evil art thou among men, and the
+safeguard of those who possess thee, with virtue! For see, how she has
+shorn off the extremities of her hair, in order to preserve her beauty; but
+she is the same woman she always was. May the Gods detest thee, for that
+thou hast destroyed me, and this man, and the whole state of Greece: oh
+wretch that I am! But my dear friends that accompany me in my lamentations
+are again present; perhaps they will disturb the sleeper from his slumber,
+and will melt my eyes in tears when I behold my brother raving.
+
+ELECTRA, CHORUS.
+
+ELEC. O most dear woman, proceed with a gentle foot, make no noise, let
+there be heard no sound. For your friendliness is very kind, but to awake
+him will be a calamity to me. Hush, hush--gently advance the tread of thy
+sandal, make no noise, let there be heard no sound. Move onward from that
+place--onward from before the couch.
+
+CHOR. Behold, I obey.
+
+ELEC. St! st! Speak to me, my friend, as the breathing of the soft reed
+pipe.
+
+CHOR. See, I utter a voice low as an under note.
+
+ELEC. Ay, thus come hither, come hither, approach quietly--go quietly: tell
+me, for what purpose, I pray, are ye come? For he has fallen on his couch,
+and been sleeping some time.
+
+CHOR. How is he? Give us an account of him, my friend.
+
+ELEC. What fortune can I say of him? and what his calamities? still indeed
+he breathes, but sighs at short intervals.
+
+CHOR. What sayest thou? Oh, the unhappy man!
+
+ELEC. You will kill him if you move his eyelids, now that he is taking the
+sweetest enjoyment of sleep.
+
+CHOR. Unfortunate on account of these most angry deeds from heaven! oh!
+wretched on account of thy sufferings!
+
+ELEC. Alas! alas! Apollo himself unjust, then spoke unjust things, when at
+the tripod of Themis he commanded the unhallowed, inauspicious murder of my
+mother.
+
+CHOR. Dost thou see? he moves his body in the robes that cover him.
+
+ELEC. You by your cries, O wretch, have disturbed him from his sleep.
+
+CHOR. I indeed think he is sleeping yet.
+
+ELEC. Will you not depart from us? will you not bend your footsteps back
+from the house, ceasing this noise?
+
+CHOR. He sleeps.
+
+ELEC. Thou sayest well.
+
+CHOR. Venerable, venerable Night, thou that dispensest sleep to languid
+mortals, come from Erebus; come, come, borne on thy wings to the house of
+Agamemnon; for by our griefs and by our sufferings we are quite undone,
+undone.
+
+ELEC. Ye were making a noise.
+
+CHOR. No. (Note [A].)
+
+ELEC. Silently, silently repressing the high notes of your voice, apart
+from his couch, you will enable him to have the tranquil enjoyment of
+sleep.
+
+CHOR. Tell us; what end to his miseries awaits him?
+
+ELEC. Death, death; what else can? for he has no appetite for food.
+
+CHOR. Death then is manifestly before him.
+
+ELEC. Phoebus offered us as victims, when he commanded[4] the dreadful,
+abhorred murder of our mother, that slew our father.
+
+CHOR. With justice indeed, but not well.
+
+ELEC. Thou hast died, thou hast died, O mother, O thou that didst bring me
+forth, but hast killed the father, and the children of thy blood. We
+perish, we perish, even as two corses. For thou art among the dead, and the
+greatest part of my life is passed in groans, and wailings, and nightly
+tears; marriageless, childless, behold, how like a miserable wretch do I
+drag out my existence forever!
+
+CHOR. O virgin Electra, approach near, and look that thy brother has not
+died unobserved by thee; for by this excessive quiet he doth not please me.
+
+ORESTES, ELECTRA, CHORUS.
+
+ORES. O precious balm of sleep, thou that relievest my malady, how pleasant
+didst thou come to me in the time of need! O divine oblivion of my
+sufferings, how wise thou art, and the goddess to be supplicated by all in
+distress!--whence, in heaven's name, came I hither? and how brought? for I
+remember not things past, bereaved, as I am, of my senses.
+
+ELEC. My dearest brother, how didst thou delight me when thou didst fall
+asleep! wilt thou I touch thee, and raise thy body up?
+
+ORES. Raise me then, raise me, and wipe the clotted foam from off my
+wretched mouth, and from my eyes.
+
+ELEC. Behold, the task is sweet, and I refuse not to administer to a
+brother's limbs with a sister's hand.
+
+ORES. Lay thy side by my side, and remove the squalid hair from my face,
+for I see but imperfectly with my eyes.
+
+ELEC. O wretched head, sordid with ringlets, how art thou disordered from
+long want of the bath!
+
+ORES. Lay me on the couch again; when my fit of madness gives me a respite,
+I am feeble and weak in my limbs.
+
+ELEC. Behold, the couch is pleasant to the sick man, an irksome thing to
+keep, but still a necessary one.
+
+ORES. Again raise me upright--turn my body.
+
+CHOR. Sick persons are hard to be pleased from their feebleness.
+
+ELEC. Wilt thou set thy feet on the ground, putting forward thy
+long-discontinued[5] step? In all things change is sweet.
+
+ORES. Yes, by all means; for this has a semblance of health, but the
+semblance is good, though it be distant from the truth.
+
+ELEC. Hear now therefore, O my brother, while yet the Furies suffer thee to
+have thy right faculties.
+
+ORES. Wilt thou tell any news? and if good indeed, thou art conferring
+pleasure; but if it pertain at all to mischief--I have enough distress.
+
+ELEC. Menelaus has arrived, the brother of thy father, but his ships are
+moored in the Nauplian bay.
+
+ORES. How sayest? Is he come, a light in mine and thy sufferings, a man of
+kindred blood, and that hath received benefits from our father?
+
+ELEC. He is come; take this a sure proof of my words, bringing with him
+Helen from the walls of Troy.
+
+ORES. Had he been saved alone, he had been more blest. But if he brings his
+wife, he has arrived with a mighty evil.
+
+ELEC. Tyndarus begat an offspring of daughters, a conspicuous mark for
+blame, and infamous throughout Greece.
+
+ORES. Do thou then be unlike the bad, for it is in thy power. And not only
+say, but also hold these sentiments.
+
+ELEC. Alas! my brother, thine eye rolls wildly; quick art thou changed to
+madness, so late in thy senses.
+
+ORES. O mother, I implore thee, urge not on me those Furies gazing blood,
+horrid with snakes, for these, these are leaping around me.
+
+ELEC. Remain, O wretched man, calmly on thy couch, for thou seest none of
+those things, which thou fanciest thou seest plainly.
+
+ORES. O Phoebus, these dire Goddesses in the shape of dogs will kill me,
+these gorgon-visaged ministers of hell.
+
+ELEC. I will not let thee go, but, putting my arm around thee, will stop
+thy starting into those unfortunate convulsions.
+
+ORES. Loose me. Thou art one of my Furies, and seizest me by the middle,
+that thou mayest hurl me into Tartarus.
+
+ELEC. Oh! wretched me! what assistance can I obtain, since we have on us
+the vengeful wrath of heaven!
+
+ORES. Give me my bow of horn, the gift of Phoebus, with which Apollo said I
+should repel the Fiends, if they appalled me by their maddened raging.
+
+ELEC. Shall any God be wounded by mortal hand? (Note [B].)
+
+ORES. _Yes. She shall,_ if she will not depart from my sight... Hear ye
+not--see ye not the winged shafts impelled from the distant-wounding bow?
+Ha! ha! Why tarry ye yet? Skim the high air with your wings, and impeach
+the oracles of Phoebus.--Ah! why am I thus disquieted, heaving my panting
+breath from my lungs? Whither, whither have I wandered from my couch? For
+from the waves again I see a calm.--Sister, why weepest, hiding thine eyes
+beneath thy vests, I am ashamed to have thee a partner in my sufferings,
+and to give a virgin trouble through my malady. Pine not away on account of
+my miseries: for thou indeed didst assent to this, but the shedding of my
+mother's blood was accomplished by me: but I blame Apollo, who, after
+having instigated me to a most unholy act, with words indeed consoled me,
+but not with deeds. But I think that my father, had I, beholding him, asked
+him if it were right for me to slay my mother, would have put forth many
+supplications, beseeching me by this beard not to impel my sword to the
+slaughter of her who bore me, if neither he thereby could be restored to
+life, and I thus wretched must go through such miseries. And now then
+unveil thyself, my sister, and cease from tears, even though we be very
+miserable: but when thou seest me desponding, do thou restrain my
+distraction, and that which preys upon my mind, and console me; but when
+thou groanest, it becomes my duty to come to thee, and suggest words of
+comfort. For these are the good offices friends ought to render each other.
+But go thou into the house, O unfortunate sister, and, stretched at full
+length, compose thy sleepless eyelids to sleep, and take refreshment, and
+pour the bath upon thy fair skin. For if thou forsakest me, or gettest any
+illness by continually sitting by me, we perish; for thee I have my only
+succor, by the rest, as thou seest, abandoned.
+
+ELEC. This can not be: with thee will I choose to die, with thee to live;
+for it is the same: for if then shouldst die, what can I do, a woman? how
+shall I be preserved, alone and destitute? without a brother, without a
+father, without a friend: but if it seemeth good to thee, these things it
+is my duty to do: but recline thy body on the bed, and do not to such a
+degree conceive to be real whatever frightens and startles thee from the
+couch, but keep quiet on the bed strewn for thee. For though thou be not
+ill, but only seem to be ill, still this even is an evil and a distress to
+mortals. (Note [C].)
+
+CHORUS. Alas! alas! O swift-winged, raving[6] Goddesses, who keep up the
+dance, not that of Bacchus, with tears and groans. You, dark Eumenides,
+you, that fly through the wide extended air, executing vengeance, executing
+slaughter, you do I supplicate, I supplicate: suffer the offspring of
+Agamemnon to forget his furious madness; alas! for his sufferings. What
+were they that eagerly grasping at, thou unhappy perishest, having received
+from the tripod the oracle which Phoebus spake, on that pavement, where are
+said to be the recesses in the midst of the globe! O Jupiter, what pity is
+there? what is this contention of slaughter that comes persecuting thee
+wretched, to whom some evil genius casts tear upon tear, transporting to
+thy house the blood of thy mother which drives thee frenzied! Thus I
+bewail, I bewail. Great prosperity is not lasting among mortals; but, as
+the sail of the swift bark, some deity having shaken him, hath sunk him in
+the voracious and destructive waves of tremendous evils, as in the waves of
+the ocean. For what other[6a] family ought I to reverence yet before that
+sprung from divine nuptials, sprung from Tantalus?--But lo! the king! the
+prince Menelaus, is coming! but he is very easily discernible from the
+elegance of his person, as king of the house of the Tantalidae.
+
+O thou that didst direct the army of a thousand vessels to Asia's land,
+hail! but thou comest hither with good fortune, having obtained the object
+of thy wishes from the Gods.
+
+MENELAUS, ORESTES, CHORUS.
+
+MEN. O palace, in some respect indeed I behold thee with pleasure, coming
+from Troy, but in other respect I groan when I see thee. For never yet saw
+I any other house more completely encircled round with lamentable woes. For
+I was made acquainted with the misfortune that befell Agamemnon, [and his
+death, by what death he perished at the hands of his wife,][6b] when I was
+landing my ships at Malea; but from the waves the prophet of the mariners
+declared unto me, the foreboding Glaucus the son of Nereus, an unerring
+God, who told me thus in evident form standing by me. "Menelaus, thy
+brother lieth dead, having fallen in his last bath, which his wife
+prepared." But he filled both me and my sailors with many tears; but when I
+come to the Nauplian shore, my wife having already landed there, expecting
+to clasp in my friendly embraces Orestes the son of Agamemnon, and his
+mother, as being in prosperity, I heard from some fisherman[7] the
+unhallowed murder of the daughter of Tyndarus. And now tell me, maidens,
+where is the son of Agamemnon, who dared these terrible deeds of evil? for
+he was an infant in Clytaemnestra's arms at that time when I left the palace
+on my way to Troy, so that I should not know him, were I to see him.
+
+ORES. I, Menelaus, am Orestes, whom thou seekest, I of my own accord will
+declare my evils. But first I touch thy knees in supplication, putting up
+prayers from my mouth, not using the sacred branch:[8] save me. But thou
+art come in the very season of my sufferings.
+
+MEN. O ye Gods, what do I behold! whom of the dead do I see!
+
+ORES. Ay! well thou sayest the dead; for in my state of suffering I live
+not; but see the light.
+
+MEN. Thou wretched man, how disordered thou art in thy squalid hair!
+
+ORES. Not the appearance, but the deeds torment me.
+
+MEN. But thou glarest dreadfully with thy shriveled eyeballs.
+
+ORES. My body is vanished, but my name has not left me.
+
+MEN. Alas, thy uncomeliness of form which has appeared to me beyond
+conception!
+
+ORES. I am he, the murderer of my wretched mother.
+
+MEN. I have heard; but spare a little the recital of thy woes.
+
+ORES. I spare it; but in woes the deity is rich to me.
+
+MEN. What dost thou suffer? What malady destroys thee?
+
+ORES. The conviction that I am conscious of having perpetrated dreadful
+deeds.
+
+MEN. How sayest thou? Plainness, and not obscurity, is wisdom.
+
+ORES. Sorrow is chiefly what destroys me,--
+
+MEN. She is a dreadful goddess, but sorrow admits of cure.
+
+ORES. And fits of madness in revenge for my mother's blood.
+
+MEN. But when didst first have the raging? what day was it then?
+
+ORES. That day in which I heaped the tomb on my mother.
+
+MEN. What? in the house, or sitting at the pyre?
+
+ORES. As I was guarding by night lest any one should bear off her bones.[9]
+
+MEN. Was any one else present, who supported thy body?
+
+ORES. Pylades, who perpetrated with me the vengeance and death of my
+mother.
+
+MEN. But by what visions art thou thus afflicted?
+
+ORES. I appear to behold three virgins like the night.
+
+MEN. I know whom thou meanest, but am unwilling to name them.
+
+ORES. Yes: for they are awful; but forbear from speaking such high polished
+words.[10]
+
+MEN. Do these drive thee to distraction on account of this kindred murder?
+
+ORES. Alas me for the persecutions, with which wretched I am driven!
+
+MEN. It is not strange that those who do strange deeds should suffer them.
+
+ORES. But we have whereto we may transfer the criminality[11] of the
+mischance.
+
+MEN. Say not the death _of thy father;_ for this is not wise.
+
+ORES. Phoebus who commanded us to perpetrate the slaying of our mother.
+
+MEN. Being more ignorant than to know equity, and justice.
+
+ORES. We are servants of the Gods, whatever those Gods be.
+
+MEN. And then does not Apollo assist thee in thy miseries?
+
+ORES. He is always about to do it, but such are the Gods by nature.
+
+MEN. But how long a time has thy mother's breath gone from her?
+
+ORES. This is the sixth day since; the funeral pyre is yet warm.
+
+MEN. How quickly have the Goddesses come to demand of thee thy mother's
+blood!
+
+ORES. I am not wise, but a true friend to my friends.
+
+MEN. But what then doth the revenge of thy father profit thee?
+
+ORES. Nothing yet; but I consider what is in prospect in the same light as
+a thing not done.
+
+MEN. But regarding the city how standest thou, having done these things?
+
+ORES. We are hated to that degree, that no one speaks to us.
+
+MEN. Nor hast thou washed thy blood from thy hands according to the laws?
+
+ORES. _How can I?_ for I am shut out from the houses, whithersoever I go.
+
+MEN. Who of the citizens thus contend to drive thee from the land?
+
+ORES. Oeax,[12] imputing to my father the hatred which arose on account of
+Troy.
+
+MEN. I understand. The death of Palamede takes its vengeance on thee.
+
+ORES. In which at least I had no share--but I perish by the three.
+
+MEN. But who else? Is it perchance one of the friends of AEgisthus?
+
+ORES. They persecute me, whom now the city obeys.
+
+MEN. But does the city suffer thee to wield Agamemnon's sceptre?
+
+ORES. How should they? who no longer suffer us to live.
+
+MEN. Doing what, which thou canst tell me as a clear fact?
+
+ORES. This very day sentence will be passed upon us.
+
+MEN. To be exiled from this city? or to die? or not to die?
+
+ORES. To die, by being stoned with stones by the citizens.
+
+MEN. And dost thou not fly then, escaping beyond the boundaries of the
+country?
+
+ORES. _How can we?_ for we are surrounded on every side by brazen arms.
+
+MEN. By private enemies, or by the hand of Argos?
+
+ORES. By all the citizens, that I may die--the word is brief.
+
+MEN. O unhappy man! thou art come to the extreme of misfortune.
+
+ORES. On thee my hope builds her escape from evils, but, thyself happy,
+coming among the distressed, impart thy good fortune to thy friends, and be
+not the only man to retain a benefit thou hast received, but undertake also
+services in thy turn, paying their father's kindness to those to whom thou
+oughtest. For those friends have the name, not the reality, who are not
+friends in adversity.
+
+CHOR. And see the Spartan Tyndarus is toiling hither with his aged foot, in
+a black vest, and shorn, his locks cut off in mourning for his daughter.
+
+ORES. I am undone, O Menelaus! Lo! Tyndarus is coming toward us, to come
+before whose presence, most of all men's, shame covereth me, on account of
+what has been done. For he used to nurture me when I was little, and
+satiated me with many kisses, dandling in his arms Agamemnon's boy, and
+Leda with him, honoring me no less than the twin-born of Jove. For which, O
+my wretched heart and soul, I have given no good return: what dark veil can
+I take for my countenance? what cloud can I place before me, that I may
+avoid the glances of the old man's eyes?
+
+TYNDARUS, MENELAUS, ORESTES, CHORUS.
+
+TYND. Where, where can I see my daughter's husband Menelaus? For as I was
+pouring my libations on the tomb of Clytaemnestra, I heard that he was come
+to Nauplia with his wife, safe through a length of years. Conduct me, for I
+long to stand by his hand and salute him, seeing my friend after a long
+lapse of time.
+
+MEN. O hail! old man, who sharest thy bed with Jove.
+
+TYND. O hail! thou also, Menelaus my dear relation,--ah! what an evil is it
+not to know the future! This dragon here, the murderer of his mother,
+glares before the house his pestilential gleams--the object of my
+detestation--Menelaus, dost thou speak to this unholy wretch?
+
+MEN. Why not? he is the son of a father who was dear to me.
+
+TYND. What! was he sprung from him, being such as he is?
+
+MEN. He was; but, though he be unfortunate, he should be respected.
+
+TYND. Having been a long time with barbarians, thou art thyself turned
+barbarian.
+
+MEN. Nay! it is the Grecian fashion always to honor one of kindred blood.
+
+TYND. _Yes_, and also not to wish to be above the laws.
+
+MEN. Every thing proceeding from necessity is considered as subservient to
+her[13] among the wise.
+
+TYND. Do thou then keep to this, but I'll have none of it.
+
+MEN. _No_, for anger joined with thine age, is not wisdom.
+
+TYND. With this man what controversy can there be regarding wisdom? If what
+things are virtuous, and what are not virtuous, are plain to all, what man
+was ever more unwise that this man? who did not indeed consider justice,
+nor applied to the common existing law of the Grecians. For after that
+Agamemnon breathed forth his last, struck by my daughter on the head, a
+most foul deed (for never will I approve of this), it behooved him indeed
+to lay against her a sacred charge of bloodshed, following up the
+accusation, and to cast his mother from out of the house; and he would have
+taken the wise side in the calamity, and would have kept to law, and would
+have been pious. But now has he come to the same fate with his mother. For
+with justice thinking her wicked, himself has become more wicked in slaying
+his mother.
+
+But thus much, Menelaus, will I ask thee; If the wife that shared his bed
+were to kill him, and his son again kills his mother in return, and he that
+is born of him shall expiate the murder with murder, whither then will the
+extremes of these evils proceed? Well did our fathers of old lay down these
+things; they suffered not him to come into the sight of their eyes, not to
+their converse, who was under an attainder[14] of blood; but they made him
+atone by banishment; they suffered however none to kill him in return. For
+always were one about to be attainted of murder, taking the pollution last
+into his hands. But I hate indeed impious women, but first among them my
+daughter, who slew her husband. But never will I approve of Helen thy wife,
+nor would I speak to her, neither do I commend[15] thee for going to the
+plain of Troy on account of a perfidious woman. But I will defend the law,
+as far at least as I am able, putting a stop to this brutish and murderous
+practice, which is ever destructive both of the country and the state.--For
+what feelings of humanity hadst thou, thou wretched man, when she bared her
+breast in supplication, thy mother? I indeed, though I witnessed not that
+scene of misery, melt in my aged eyes with tears through wretchedness. One
+thing however goes to the scale of my arguments; thou art both hated by the
+Gods, and sufferest vengeance of thy mother, wandering about with madness
+and terrors; why must I hear by the testimony of others, what it is in my
+power to see? That thou mayest know then _once for all_, Menelaus, do not
+things contrary to the Gods, through thy wishes to assist this man. But
+suffer him to be slain by the citizens with stones, or set not thy foot on
+Spartan ground. But my daughter in dying met with justice, but it was not
+fitting that she should die by him.[16] In other respects indeed have I
+been a happy man, except in my daughters, but in this I am not happy.
+
+CHOR. He is enviable, who is fortunate in his children, and has not on him
+some notorious calamities.
+
+ORES. O old man, I tremble to speak to thee, wherein I am about to grieve
+thee and thy mind. But I am unholy in that I slew my mother; but holy at
+least in another point of view, having avenged my father. Let then thine
+age, which hinders me through fear from speaking, be removed out of the way
+of my words, and I will go on in a direct path; but now do I fear thy gray
+hairs. What could I do? for oppose the facts, two against two. My father
+indeed begat me, but thy daughter brought me forth, a field receiving the
+seed from another; but without a father there never could be a child. I
+reasoned therefore with myself, that I should assist the prime author of my
+birth rather than the aliment which under him produced me. But thy daughter
+(I am ashamed to call her mother), in secret and unchaste nuptials, had
+approached the bed of another man; of myself, if I speak ill of her, shall
+I be speaking, but yet will I tell it. AEgisthus was her secret husband in
+her palace. Him I slew, and after him I sacrificed my mother, doing indeed
+unholy things, but avenging my father. But as touching those things for
+which thou threatenest that I must be stoned, hear, how I shall assist all
+Greece. For if the women shall arrive at such a pitch of boldness as to
+murder the men, making good their escape with regard to their children,
+seeking to captivate their pity by their breasts, it would be as nothing
+with them to slay their husbands, having any pretext that might chance; but
+I having done dreadful things (as thou sayest), have put a stop to this
+law, but hating my mother deservedly I slew her, who betrayed her husband
+absent from home in arms, the generalissimo of the whole land of Greece,
+and kept not her bed undefiled. But when she perceived that she had done
+amiss, she inflicted not vengeance on herself, but, that she might not
+suffer vengeance from her husband, punished and slew my father. By the
+Gods, (in no good cause have I named the Gods, pleading against a charge of
+murder,) had I by my silence praised my mother's actions, what then would
+the deceased have done to me? To my mother indeed the Furies are present as
+allies, but would they not be present to him, who has received the greater
+injury? Would he not, detesting me, have haunted me with the Furies? Thou
+then, O old man, by begetting a bad daughter, hast destroyed me; for
+through her boldness deprived of my father, I became a matricide. Dost see?
+Telemachus slew not the wife of Ulysses, for she married not a husband on a
+husband, but her marriage-bed remains unpolluted in the palace. Dost see?
+Apollo, who, dwelling in his habitation in the midst of the earth, gives
+the most clear oracles to mortals, by whom we are entirely guided, whatever
+he may say, on him relying slew I my mother. 'Twas he who erred, not I:
+what could I do? Is not the God sufficient for me, who transfer _the deed_
+to him, to do away with the pollution? Whither then can any fly for succor,
+unless he that commanded me shall deliver me from death? But say not these
+things have been done "not well;" but _say_ "not fortunately" for us who
+did them. But to whatsoever men their marriages are well established, there
+is a happy life, but to those to whom they fall not out well, with regard
+to their affairs both at home and abroad they are unfortunate.
+
+CHOR. Women were born always to be in the way of what may happen to men, to
+the making of things unfortunate.
+
+TYND. Since thou art bold, and yieldest not to my speech, but thus
+answerest me so as to grieve my mind, thou wilt rather inflame me to urge
+thy death. But this I shall consider a handsome addition to those labors
+for which I came, _namely_, to deck my daughter's tomb. For going to the
+multitude of the Argives assembled, I will rouse the state willing and not
+unwilling, to pass the sentence[16a] of being stoned on thee and on thy
+sister; but she is worthy of death rather than thee, who irritated thee
+against her mother, always pealing in thine ear words to increase thy
+hatred, relating dreams she had of Agamemnon, and this also, that the
+infernal Gods detested the bed of AEgisthus; for even here _on earth_ it
+were hard _to be endured_; until she set the house in flames with fire more
+strong than Vulcan's.--Menelaus, but to thee I speak this, and will
+moreover perform it. If thou regard my hate, and my alliance, ward not off
+death from this man in opposition to the Gods; but suffer him to be slain
+by the citizens with stones, or set not thy foot on Spartan ground. Thus
+much having heard, depart, nor choose the impious for thy friends, passing
+over the pious.--But O attendants, conduct us from this house.
+
+ORES. Depart, that the remainder of my speech may reach this man
+uninterrupted by the clamors of thy age: Menelaus, whither dost thou roam
+in thought, entering on a double path of double care?
+
+MEN. Suffer me; having some thoughts with myself, I am perplexed to which
+side of fortune to turn me.
+
+ORES. Do not make up thy opinion, but having first heard my words, then
+deliberate.
+
+MEN. Say on; for thou hast spoken rightly; but there are seasons where
+silence may be better than talking, and there are seasons where talking may
+be better than silence.
+
+ORES. I will speak then forthwith: Long speeches have the preference before
+short ones, and are more plain to hear. Give thou to me nothing of what
+thou hast, O Menelaus, but what thou hast received from my father, return;
+I mean not riches--yet riches, which are the most dear of what I possess,
+if thou wilt preserve my life. Say I am unjust, I ought to receive from
+thee, instead of this evil, something contrary to what justice demands; for
+Agamemnon my father having collected Greece in arms, in a way justice did
+not demand, went to Troy, not having erred himself, but in order to set
+right the error, and injustice of thy wife. This one thing indeed thou
+oughtest to give me for one thing, but he, as friends should for friends,
+of a truth exposed his person for thee toiling at the shield, that thou
+mightest receive back thy wife. Repay me then this kindness for that which
+thou receivedst there, toiling for one day in standing as my succor, not
+completing ten years. But the sacrifice of my sister, which Aulis received,
+this I suffer thee to have; do not kill Hermione, _I ask it not_. For, I
+being in the state in which I now am, thou must of necessity have the
+advantage, and I must suffer it to be so. But grant my life to my wretched
+father, and my sister's, who has been a virgin a long time. For dying I
+shall leave my father's house destitute. Thou wilt say "impossible:" this
+is the very thing _I have been urging_, it behooves friends to help their
+friends in misfortunes. But when the God gives prosperity, what need is
+there of friends? For the God himself sufficeth, being willing to assist.
+Thou appearest to all the Greeks to be fond of thy wife; (and this I say,
+not stealing under thee imperceptibly with flattery;) by her I implore
+thee; O wretched me for my woes, to what have I come? but why must I suffer
+thus? For in behalf of the whole house I make this supplication. O divine
+brother of my father, conceive that the dead man beneath the earth hears
+these things, and that his spirit is hovering over thee, and speaks what I
+speak. These things have I said, with tears, and groans, and miseries,[17]
+and have prayed earnestly, looking for preservation, which all, and not I
+only, seek.
+
+CHOR. I too implore thee, although a woman, yet still I implore thee to
+succor those in need, but thou art able.
+
+MEN. Orestes, I indeed reverence thy person, and I am willing to labor with
+thee in thy misfortunes. For thus it is right to endure together the
+misfortunes of one's relations, if the God gives the ability, even so far
+as to die, and to kill the adversary; but this ability again I want from
+the Gods. For I am come having my single spear unaided by allies, having
+wandered with infinite labors with small assistance of friends left me. In
+battle therefore we can not come off superior to Pelasgian Argos; but if we
+can by soft speeches, to that hope are we equal. For how can any one
+achieve great actions with small means? For when the rabble is in full
+force falling into a rage, it is equally difficult to extinguish as a
+fierce fire. But if one quietly yields to it as it is spreading, and gives
+in to it, watching well his opportunity, perhaps it may spend its rage, but
+when it has remitted from its blast, you may without difficulty have it
+your own way, as much as you please. For there is inherent in them pity,
+but there is inherent also vehement passion, to one who carefully watches
+his opportunity a most excellent advantage. But I will go and endeavor to
+persuade Tyndarus, and the city, to use their great power in a becoming
+manner. For a ship, the main sheet stretched out to a violent degree, is
+wont to pitch, but stands upright again, if you slacken the main sheet. For
+the God hates too great vehemence, and the citizens hate it; but I must (I
+speak as I mean) save thee by wisdom, not by opposing my superiors. But I
+can not by force, as perchance thou thinkest, preserve thee; for it is no
+easy matter to erect from one single spear trophies from the evils, which
+are about thee. For never have we approached the land of Argos by way of
+supplication; but now there is necessity for the wise to become the slaves
+of fortune.
+
+ORESTES, CHORUS.
+
+ORES. O thou, a mere cipher in other things except in warring for the sake
+of a woman; O thou most base in avenging thy friends, dost thou fly,
+turning away from me? But all Agamemnon's services are gone: thou wert then
+without friends, O my father, in thy affliction. Alas me! I am betrayed,
+and there no longer are any hopes, whither turning I may escape death from
+the Argives. For he was the refuge of my safety. But I see this most dear
+of men, Pylades, coming with hasty step from the Phocians, a pleasing
+sight, a man faithful in adversity, more grateful to behold than the calm
+to the mariners.
+
+PYLADES, ORESTES, CHORUS.
+
+PYL. I came through the city with a quicker step than I ought, having heard
+of the council of state assembled, and seeing it plainly myself, against
+thee and thy sister, as about to kill you instantly.--What is this? how art
+thou? in what state, O most dear to me of my companions and kindred? for
+all these things art thou to me.
+
+ORES. We are gone--briefly to show thee my calamities.
+
+PYL. Thou wilt have ruined me too; for the things of friends are common.
+
+ORES. Menelaus has behaved most basely toward me and my sister.
+
+PYL. It is to be expected that the husband of a bad wife be bad.
+
+ORES. He is come, and has done just as much for me as if he had not come.
+
+PYL. What! is he in truth come to this land?
+
+ORES. After a long season; but nevertheless he was very soon discovered to
+be too base to his friends.
+
+PYL. And has he brought in his ship with him his most infamous wife?
+
+ORES. Not he her, but she brought him hither.
+
+PYL. Where is she, who, beyond any woman,[18] destroyed most of the
+Grecians?
+
+ORES. In my palace, if I may indeed be allowed to call this mine.
+
+PYL. But what words didst thou say to thy father's brother?
+
+ORES. _I requested him_ not to suffer me and my sister to be slain by the
+citizens.
+
+PYL. By the Gods, what said he to this request; this I wish to know.
+
+ORES. He declined, from motives of prudence, as bad friends act toward
+their friends.
+
+PYL. Going on what ground of excuse? This having learned, I am in
+possession of every thing.
+
+ORES. The father himself came, he that begat such excellent daughters.
+
+PYL. Tyndarus you mean; perhaps enraged with thee on account of his
+daughter.
+
+ORES. You are right: be paid more attention to his ties with him, than to
+his ties with my father.
+
+PYL. And dared he not, being present, to take arms against thy troubles?
+
+ORES. _No_: for he was not born a warrior, but brave among women.
+
+PYL. Thou art then in the greatest miseries, and it is necessary for thee
+to die.
+
+ORES. The citizens must pass their vote on us for the murder _we have
+committed_.[19]
+
+PYL. Which vote what will it decide? tell me, for I am in fear.
+
+ORES. Either to die or live; not many words on matters of great import.
+
+PYL. Come fly, and quit the palace with thy sister.
+
+ORES. Seest thou not? we are watched by guards on every side,
+
+PYL. I saw the streets of the city lined with arms.
+
+ORES. We are invested as to our persons, as a city by the enemy.
+
+PYL. Now ask me also, what I suffer; for I too am undone.
+
+ORES. By whom? This would be an evil added to my evils.
+
+PYL. Strophius, my father, being enraged, hath driven me an exile from his
+house.
+
+ORES. Bringing against thee some private charge, or one in common with the
+citizens?
+
+PYL. Because I perpetrated with thee the murder of thy mother, he banished
+me, calling me unholy.
+
+ORES. O thou unfortunate! it seems that thou also sufferest for my evils.
+
+PYL. We have not Menelaus's manners--this must be borne.
+
+ORES. Dost thou not fear lest Argos should wish to kill thee, as it does
+also me?
+
+PYL. We do not belong to these to punish, but to the land of the Phocians.
+
+ORES. The populace is a terrible thing, when they have evil leaders.
+
+PYL. But when they have good ones, they always deliberate good things.
+
+ORES. Be it so: we must speak on our common business.
+
+PYL. On what affair of necessity?
+
+ORES. Supposing I should go to the citizens, and say--
+
+PYL. --that thou hast acted justly?
+
+ORES. Ay, avenging my father:
+
+PYL. I fear they might not receive thee gladly.
+
+ORES. But shall I die then shuddering in silence!
+
+PYL. This were cowardly.
+
+ORES. How then can I do?
+
+PYL. Hast thou any chance of safety, if thou remainest?
+
+ORES. I have none.
+
+PYL. But going, is there any hope of thy being preserved from thy miseries?
+
+ORES. Should it chance well, there might be.
+
+PYL. Is not this then better than remaining?
+
+ORES. Shall I go then?
+
+PYL. Dying thus, at least thou wilt die more honorably.
+
+ORES. And I have a just cause.
+
+PYL. Only pray for its appearing so.
+
+ORES. Thou sayest well: this way I avoid the imputation of cowardice.
+
+PYL. More than by tarrying here.
+
+ORES. And some one perchance may pity me--
+
+PYL. Yes; for thy nobleness of birth is a great thing.
+
+ORES. --indignant at my father's death.
+
+PYL. All this in prospect.
+
+ORES. Go I must, for it is not manly to die ingloriously.
+
+PYL. These sentiments I praise.
+
+ORES. Shall we then tell these things to my sister?
+
+PYL. No, by the Gods.
+
+ORES. Why, there might be tears.
+
+PYL. This then is a great omen.
+
+ORES. Clearly it is better to be silent.
+
+PYL. Thou art a gainer by delay.
+
+ORES. This one thing only opposes me.
+
+PYL. What new thing again is this thou sayest?
+
+ORES. I fear lest the goddesses should stop me with their torments.
+
+PYL. But I will take care of thee.
+
+ORES. It is a difficult and dangerous task to touch a man thus disordered.
+
+PYL. Not for me to touch thee.
+
+ORES. Take care how thou art partner of my madness.
+
+PYL. Let not this be thought of.
+
+ORES. Wilt thou not then be timid to assist me?
+
+PYL. No, for timidity is a great evil to friends.
+
+ORES. Go on now, the helm of my foot.
+
+PYL. Having a charge worthy of a friend.
+
+ORES. And guide me to my father's tomb.
+
+PYL. To what end is this?
+
+ORES. That I may supplicate him to save me.
+
+PYL. This at least is just.
+
+ORES. But let me not see my mother's monument.
+
+PYL. For she was an enemy. But hasten, that the decree of the Argives
+condemn thee not before thou goest; leaning thy side, weary with disease,
+on mine: since I will conduct thee through the city, little caring for the
+multitude, nothing ashamed; for where shall I show myself thy friend, if I
+assist thee not when them art in perilous condition?
+
+ORES. This it is to have companions, not relationship alone; so that a man
+who is congenial in manners, though a stranger in blood, is a better friend
+for a man to have, than ten thousand relatives.
+
+CHORUS.
+
+The great happiness, and the valor high sounding throughout Greece, and by
+the channels of the Simois, has again withdrawn from the fortune of the
+Atridae, as of old, from the ancient calamity of the house, when the strife
+of the golden lamb[20] arose among the descendants of Tantalus; most
+shocking feasts, and the slaughter of noble children; from whence murder
+responsive to murder fails not to attend on the two sons of Atreus. What
+seems good is not good, to gash the parents' skin with a fierce hand, and
+brandish the sword black-stained with blood in the sunbeams. But, on the
+other hand, to act wickedly[21] is mad impiety, and the folly of
+evil-minded men.
+
+But the wretched daughter of Tyndarus in the fear of death shrieked out,
+"My son, thou darest impious deeds, killing thy mother; do not, attending
+to the gratification of thy father, kindle an everlasting disgrace."
+
+What malady, or what tears, or what pity on earth is greater, than to
+imbrue one's hand in a mother's blood? What a deed, what a deed having
+performed, does the son of Agamemnon rave with madness, a prey to the
+Eumenides, marked for death, giddy with his rolling eyes! O wretched on
+account of his mother, when though seeing the breast bared from the robe of
+golden texture, he stabbed the mother in retaliation for the father's
+sufferings.
+
+ELECTRA, CHORUS.
+
+ELEC. Ye virgins, has the wretched Orestes, overcome with heaven-inflicted
+madness, rushed any where from this house?
+
+CHOR. By no means; but he is gone to the Argive people, to undergo the
+trial proposed regarding life, by which you must either live or die.
+
+ELEC. Alas me! what thing has he done? but who persuaded him?
+
+CHOR. Pylades.--But this messenger seems soon about to inform us of what
+has passed there concerning thy brother.
+
+MESSENGER, ELECTRA, CHORUS.
+
+MESS. O wretched hapless daughter of the chief Agamemnon, revered Electra,
+hear the unfortunate words which I am come to bring.
+
+ELEC. Alas! alas! we are undone; this thou signifiest by thy speech. For
+thou comest, as it seems, a messenger of woes.
+
+MESS. It has been carried by the vote of the Pelasgians, that thy brother
+and thou must die this day.
+
+ELEC. Ah me! the expected event has come, which long since fearing, I pined
+away with lamentations on account of what was in prospect.--But what was
+the debate? What arguments among the Argives condemned us, and confirmed
+our sentence of death? Tell me, old man, whether by the hand raised to
+stone me, or by the sword must I breathe out my soul, having this calamity
+in common with my brother?
+
+MESS. I chanced indeed to be entering the gates from the country, anxious
+to hear both what regarded thee, and what regarded Orestes; for at all
+times I had a favorable inclination toward thy father: and thy house fed
+me, poor indeed, but noble in my conduct toward friends. But I see the
+crowd going and sitting down on an eminence; where they say Danaus first
+collected the people to a common council, when he suffered punishment at
+the hands of AEgyptus. But seeing this concourse, I asked one of the
+citizens, "What new thing is stirring in Argos? Has any message from
+hostile powers roused the city of the Danaids?" But he said, "Seest thou
+not this Orestes walking near us, who is about to run in the contest of
+life and death?" But I see an unexpected sight, which oh that I had never
+seen! Pylades and thy brother walking together, the one indeed broken with
+sickness, but the other, like a brother, sympathizing with his friend,
+tending his weakened state with fostering care. But when the assembly of
+the Argives was full, a herald stood forth and said, "Who wishes to speak
+_on the question_, whether it is right that Orestes, who has killed his
+mother, should die, or not?" And on this Talthybius rises, who, in
+conjunction with thy father, laid waste the Phrygians. But he spoke words
+of divided import, being the constant slave of those in power; struck with
+admiration indeed at thy father, but not commending thy brother (speciously
+mixing up words of bad import), because he laid down no good laws toward
+his parents: but he was continually casting a smiling glance on AEgisthus's
+friends. For such is this kind; heralds always dance attendance on the
+prosperous; but that man is their friend, whoever may chance to have power
+in the state, and to be in office. But next to him prince Diomed harangued;
+he indeed was for suffering them to kill neither thee nor thy brother, but
+_bid them_ observe piety by punishing you with banishment. But some indeed
+murmured their assent, that he spoke well, but others praised him not.[22]
+And after him rises up some man, intemperate in speech, powerful in
+boldness, an Argive, yet not an Argive,[23] forced upon us, relying both on
+the tumult, and on ignorant boldness, prompt by persuasion to involve them
+in some mischief. (For when a man, sweet in words, holding bad sentiments,
+persuades the multitude, it is a great evil to the city. But as many as
+always advise good things with understanding, although not at the present
+moment, eventually are of service to the state: but the intelligent leader
+ought to look to this, for the case is the same with the man who speaks
+words, and the man who approves them.) Who said, that they ought to kill
+Orestes and thee by stoning. But Tyndarus was privily making up such sort
+of speeches for him who wished your death to speak. But another man stood
+up, and spoke in opposition to him, in form indeed not made to catch the
+eye; but a man endued with the qualities of a man, rarely polluting the
+city, and the circle of the forum; one who farmed his own land,[24] which
+class of persons[25] alone preserve the country, but prudent, and wishing
+the tenor of his conduct to be in unison with his words, uncorrupted, one
+that had conformed to a blameless mode of living; he proposed to crown
+Orestes the son of Agamemnon,[25a] who was willing to avenge his father by
+slaying a wicked and unholy woman, who took this out of the power of men,
+and would no one have been the cause of arming the hand for war, nor
+undertaking an expedition, leaving his home, if those who are left destroy
+what is intrusted to their charge in the house, disgracing their husbands'
+beds. And to right-minded men at least he appeared to speak well: and none
+spoke besides, but thy brother advanced and said, "O inhabitants of the
+land of Inachus, avenging you no less than my father, I slew my mother, for
+if the murder of men shall become licensed to women, ye no longer can
+escape dying, or ye must be slaves to your wives. But ye do the contrary to
+what ye ought to do. For now she that was false to the bed of my father is
+dead; but if ye do indeed slay me, the law has lost its force, and no man
+can escape dying, forasmuch as there will be no lack of this audacity."
+
+But he persuaded not the people, though appearing to speak well. But that
+villain, who spoke among the multitude, overcomes him, he that harangued
+for the killing of thy brother and thee. But scarcely did the wretched
+Orestes persuade them that he might not die by stoning; but he promised
+that this day he would quit his life by self-slaughter together with
+thee:--but Pylades is conducting him from the council, weeping: but his
+friends accompany him bewailing him, pitying him; but he is coming a sad
+spectacle to thee, and a wretched sight. But prepare the sword, or the
+noose for thy neck, for thou must die, but thy nobleness of birth hath
+profited thee nothing, nor the Pythian Phoebus who sits on the tripod, but
+hath destroyed thee.
+
+CHOR. O unhappy virgin! how art thou dumb, casting thy muffled countenance
+toward the ground, as though about to run into a strain of groans and
+lamentations!
+
+ELEC. I begin the lament, O land of Greece, digging my white nail into my
+cheek, sad bleeding woe, and dashing my head, which[26] the lovely[27]
+goddess of the manes beneath the earth has to her share. And let the
+Cyclopian land[28] howl, applying the steel to their head cropped of hair
+over the calamity of our house. This pity, this pity, proceeds for those
+who are about to die, who once were the princes of Greece. For it is gone,
+it is gone, the entire race of the children of Pelops has perished, and the
+happiness which once resided in these blest abodes. Envy from heaven has
+now seized it, and the harsh decree of blood in the state. Alas! alas! O
+race of mortals that endure for a day, full of tears, full of troubles,
+behold how contrary to expectation fate comes. But in the long lapse of
+time each different man receives by turns his different sufferings.[29] But
+the whole race of mortals is unstable and uncertain.
+
+Oh! could I go to that rock stretched from Olympus in its loftiness midst
+heaven and earth by golden chains, that mass of clay borne round with rapid
+revolutions, that in my plaints I might cry out to my ancient father
+Tantalus; who begat the progenitors of my family, who saw calamities, what
+time in the pursuing of steeds, Pelops in his car drawn by four horses
+perpetrated, as he drove, the murder of Myrtilus, _by casting him_ into the
+sea, hurling him down to the surge of the ocean, as he guided his car on
+the shore of the briny sea by Geraestus foaming with its white billows.
+Whence the baleful curse came on my house since, by the agency of Maia's
+son,[30] there appeared the pernicious, pernicious prodigy of the
+golden-fleeced lamb, a birth which took place among the flocks of the
+warlike Atreus. On which both Discord drove back the winged chariot of the
+sun, directing it from the path of heaven leading to the west toward Aurora
+borne on her single horse.[31] And Jupiter drove back the course of the
+seven moving Pleiads another way: and from that period[32] he sends deaths
+in succession to deaths, and "the feast of Thyestes," so named from
+Thyestes. And the bed of the Cretan AErope deceitful in a deceitful marriage
+has come as a finishing stroke on me and my father, to the miserable
+destruction of our family.
+
+CHOR. But see, thy brother is advancing, condemned by the vote of death,
+and Pylades the most faithful of all, a man like a brother, supporting the
+enfeebled limbs of Orestes, walking by his side[33] with the foot of tender
+solicitude.
+
+ELECTRA, ORESTES, PYLADES, CHORUS.
+
+ELEC. Alas me! for I bewail thee, my brother, seeing thee before the tomb,
+and before the pyre of thy departed shade: alas me! again and again, how am
+I bereft of my senses, seeing with my eyes the very last sight of thee.
+
+ORES. Wilt thou not in silence, ceasing from womanish groans, make up thy
+mind to what is decreed? These things indeed are lamentable, but yet we
+must bear our present fate.
+
+ELEC. And how can I be silent? We wretched no longer are permitted to view
+this light of the God.
+
+ORES. Do not thou kill me; I, the unhappy, have died enough already under
+the hands of the Argives; but pass over our present ills.
+
+ELEC. O Orestes! oh wretched in thy youth, and thy fate, and thy untimely
+death, then oughtest thou to live, when thou art no more.
+
+ORES. Do not by the Gods throw cowardice around me, bringing the
+remembrance of my woes so as to cause tears.
+
+ELEC. We shall die; it is not possible not to groan our misfortunes; for
+the dear life is a cause of pity to all mortals.
+
+ORES. This is the day appointed for us! but we must either fit the
+suspended noose, or whet the sword with our hand.
+
+ELEC. Do thou then kill me, my brother; let none of the Argives kill me,
+putting a contumely on the offspring of Agamemnon.
+
+ORES. I have enough of thy mother's blood, but thee I will not slay; but
+die by thine own hand in whatever manner thou wilt.
+
+ELEC. These things shall be; I will not be deserted by thy sword;[34] but I
+wish to clasp my hands around thy neck.
+
+ORES. Thou enjoyest a vain gratification, if this be an enjoyment, to throw
+thy hands around those who are hard at death's door.
+
+ELEC. Oh thou most dear! oh thou that hast the desirable and most sweet
+name, and one soul with thy sister!
+
+ORES. Thou wilt melt me; and still I wish to answer thee in the endearment
+of encircling arms, for why am I any longer ashamed? O bosom of my sister,
+O dear object of my caresses, these embraces are allowed to us miserable
+beings instead of children and the bridal bed.
+
+ELEC. Alas! How can the same sword (if this request be lawful) kill us, and
+one tomb wrought of cedar receive us?
+
+ORES. This would be most sweet; but thou seest how destitute we are, in
+respect to being able to share our sepulture.
+
+ELEC. Did not Menelaus speak in behalf of thee, taking a decided part
+against thy death, the base man, the deserter of my father? [Note [G].]
+
+ORES. He showed it not even in his countenance, but keeping his hopes on
+the sceptre, he was cautious how he saved his friends. But let be, he will
+die acting in a manner nobly, and most worthily of Agamemnon. And I indeed
+will show my high descent to the city, striking home to my heart with the
+sword; but thee, on the other hand, it behooveth to act in concert with my
+bold attempts. But do thou, Pylades, be the umpire of our death, and well
+compose the bodies of us when dead, and bury us together, bearing us to our
+father's tomb. And farewell--but I am going to the deed, as thou seest.
+
+PYL. Hold. This one thing indeed first I bring in charge against thee--Dost
+thou think that I can wish to live when thou diest?[35]
+
+ORES. For how does it concern thee to die with me?
+
+PYL. Dost ask? But how does it to live without thy company?
+
+ORES. Thou didst not slay my mother, as I did, a wretch.
+
+PYL. With thee I did at least; I ought also to suffer these things in
+common with thee.
+
+ORES. Take thyself back to thy father, do not die with me. For thou indeed
+hast a city (but I no longer have), and the mansion of thy father, and a
+great harbor of wealth. But thou art frustrated in thy marriage with this
+unhappy virgin, whom I betrothed to thee, revering thy friendship.
+Nevertheless do thou, contracting other nuptials, be a blest father, but
+the connection between me and thee no longer subsists, But thou, O darling
+name of my converse, farewell, be happy, for this is not allowed me, but it
+is to thee; for we, the dead, are deprived of happiness.
+
+PYL. Surely thou art wide astray from my purposes. Nor may the fruitful
+plain receive my blood, nor the bright air, if ever I betraying thee,
+having freed myself, forsake thee; for I committed the slaughter with thee
+(I will not deny it), and I planned all things, for which now thou
+sufferest vengeance. Die then I must with thee and her together, for her,
+whose marriage I have courted, I consider as my wife; for what good excuse
+ever shall I give, going to the Delphian land to the citadel of the
+Phocians, I, who was present with you, your friend, before indeed you were
+unfortunate, but now, when you are unfortunate, am no longer thy friend? It
+is not possible--but these things are my care also. But since we are about
+to die, let us come to a common conference, how Menelaus may be involved in
+our calamity.
+
+ORES. O thou dearest man: for would I see this and die.
+
+PYL. Be persuaded then, but defer the slaughtering sword.
+
+ORES. I will defer, if any how I can avenge myself on my enemy.
+
+PYL. Be silent then, for I have but small confidence in women.
+
+ORES. Do not at all fear these, for they are friends that are present.
+
+PYL. Let us kill Helen, which will cause great grief to Menelaus.
+
+ORES. How? for the will is here, if it can be done with glory.
+
+PYL. Stabbing her; but she is lurking in thy house.
+
+ORES. Yes indeed, and is putting her seal on all my effects.
+
+PYL. But she shall seal no more, having Pluto for her bridegroom.
+
+ORES. And how can this be? for she has a train of barbarian attendants.
+
+PYL. Whom? for I would be afraid of no Phrygian.
+
+ORES. Such men as should preside over mirrors and scents.
+
+PYL. For has she brought hither her Trojan fineries?
+
+ORES. _Oh yes!_ so that Greece is but a cottage for her.
+
+PYL. A race of slaves is a mere nothing against a race that will not be
+slaves.
+
+ORES. In good truth, this if I could achieve, I shrink not from two deaths.
+
+PYL. But neither do I indeed, if I could revenge thee at least.
+
+ORES. Disclose thy purpose, and go through it as thou sayest.
+
+PYL. We will enter then the house, as men about to die.
+
+ORES. Thus far I comprehend, but the rest I do not comprehend.
+
+PYL. We will make our lamentation to her of the things we suffer.
+
+ORES. So that she shall weep, though joyed within her heart.
+
+PYL. And the same things will be for us to do afterward, which she does
+then.
+
+ORES. Then how shall we finish the contest?
+
+PYL. We will wear our swords concealed beneath our robes.
+
+ORES. But what slaughter can there be before her attendants?
+
+PYL. We will bolt them out, scattered in different parts of the house.
+
+ORES. And him that is not silent we must kill.
+
+PYL. Then the circumstances of the moment will point out what steps to
+take.
+
+ORES. To kill Helen, I understand the sign.
+
+PYL. Thou seest: but hear on what honorable principles I meditate it. For,
+if we draw our sword on a more modest woman, the murder will blot our names
+with infamy. But in the present instance, she shall suffer vengeance for
+the whole of Greece, whose fathers she slew, and made the brides bereaved
+of their spouses; there shall be a shout, and they will kindle up fire to
+the Gods, praying for many blessings to fall to thee and me, inasmuch as we
+shed the blood of a wicked woman. But thou shalt not be called the
+matricide, when thou hast slain her, but dropping this name thou shalt
+arrive at better things, being styled the slayer of the havoc-dealing
+Helen. It never, never were right that Menelaus should be prosperous, and
+that thy father, and thou, and thy sister should die, and thy mother; (this
+I forbear, for it is not decorous to mention;) and that he should seize thy
+house, having recovered his bride by the means of Agamemnon's valor. For
+may I live no longer, if I draw not my black sword upon her. But if then we
+do not compass the murder of Helen, having fired the palace we will die,
+for we shall have glory, succeeding in one of these two things, nobly
+dying, or nobly rescued.
+
+CHOR. The daughter of Tyndarus is an object of detestation to all women,
+being one that has given rise to scandal against the sex.
+
+ORES. Alas! There is no better thing than a real friend, not riches, not
+kingdoms; but the popular applause becomes a thing of no account to receive
+in exchange for a generous friend. For thou contrivedst the destruction
+that befell AEgisthus, and wast close to me in my dangers. But now again
+thou givest me to revenge me on mine enemies, and art not out of the
+way--but I will leave off praising thee, since there is some burden even in
+this "to be praised to excess." But I altogether in a state of death, wish
+to do something to my foes and die, that I may in turn destroy those who
+betrayed me, and those may groan who also made me unhappy. I am the son of
+Agamemnon, who ruled over Greece by general consent; no tyrant, but yet he
+had the power as it were of a God, whom I will not disgrace, suffering a
+slavish death, but breathe out my soul in freedom, but on Menelaus will I
+revenge me. For if we could gain this one thing, we should be prosperous,
+if from any chance safety should come unhoped for on the slayers _then_,
+not the slain: this I pray for. For what I wish is sweet to delight the
+mind without fear of cost, though with but fleeting words uttered through
+the mouth.
+
+ELEC. I, O brother, think that this very thing brings safety to thee, and
+thy friend, and in the third place to me.
+
+ORES. Thou meanest the providence of the Gods: but where is this? for I
+know that there is understanding in thy mind.
+
+ELEC. Hear me then, and thou too give thy attention.
+
+ORES. Speak, since the existing prospect of good affords some pleasure.
+
+ELEC. Art thou acquainted with the daughter of Helen? Thou knowest her of
+whom I ask.
+
+ORES. I know her, Hermione, whom my mother brought up.
+
+ELEC. She is gone to Clytaemnestra's tomb.
+
+ORES. For what purpose? what hope dost thou suggest?
+
+ELEC. To pour libations on the tomb in behalf of her mother.
+
+ORES. And what is this, thou hast told me of, that regards our safety?
+
+ELEC. Seize her as a pledge as she is coming back.
+
+ORES. What remedy for the three friends is this thou sayest?
+
+ELEC. When Helen is dead, if Menelaus does any harm to thee or Pylades, or
+me (for this firm of friendship is all one), say that thou wilt kill
+Hermione; but thou oughtest to draw thy sword, and hold it to the neck of
+the virgin. And if indeed Menelaus save thee, anxious that the virgin may
+not die; when he sees Helen's corse weltering in blood, give back the
+virgin for her father to enjoy; but should he, not governing his angry
+temper, slay thee, do thou also plunge the sword into the virgin's neck,
+and I think that he, though at first he come to us very big, will after a
+season soften his heart; for neither is he brave nor valiant: this is the
+fortress of our safety that I have; my arguments on the subject have been
+spoken.
+
+ORES. O thou that hast indeed the mind of a man, but a form among women
+beautiful, to what a degree art thou more worthy of life than death!
+Pylades, wilt thou miserably be disappointed of such a woman, or dwelling
+with her obtain this happy marriage?
+
+PYL. For would it could be so! and she could come to the city of the
+Phocians meeting with her deserts in splendid nuptials!
+
+ORES. But when will Hermione come to the house? Since for the rest thou
+saidst most admirably, if we could succeed in taking the whelp of the
+impious father.
+
+ELEC. Even now I guess that she must be near the house, for _with this
+supposition_ the space itself of the time coincides.
+
+ORES. It is well; do thou therefore, my sister Electra, waiting before the
+house, meet the arrival of the virgin. And watch, lest any one, either some
+ally, or the brother of my father, should be beforehand with us coming to
+the palace: and make some noise toward the house, either knocking at the
+doors, or sending thy voice within. But let us, O Pylades (for thou
+undertakest this labor with me), entering in, arm our hands with the sword
+to one last attempt. O my father, that inhabitest the realms of gloomy
+night, Orestes thy son invokes thee to come a succor to thy suppliants; for
+on thy account I wretched suffer unjustly, and am betrayed by thy brother,
+myself having acted justly: whose wife I wish to take and destroy; but be
+thou our accomplice in this affair.
+
+ELEC. O father, come then, if beneath the earth thou hearest thy children
+calling, who die for thee.
+
+PYL. O thou relation[36] of my father, give ear, O Agamemnon, to my prayers
+also, preserve thy children.
+
+ORES. I slew my mother.
+
+PYL. But I directed the sword.
+
+ELEC. But I at least incited you, and freed you from delay.
+
+ORES. Succoring thee, my father.
+
+ELEC. Neither did I forsake thee.
+
+PYL. Wilt thou not therefore, hearing these things that are brought against
+thee,[37] defend thy children?
+
+ORES. I pour libations on thee with my tears.
+
+ELEC. And I with lamentations.
+
+PYL. Cease, and let us haste forth to the work, for if prayers penetrate
+under the earth, he hears; but, O Jove our ancestor, and thou revered deity
+of justice, grant us to succeed, him, and myself, and this virgin, for over
+us three friends one hazard, one cause impends, either for all to live, or
+all to die!
+
+ELECTRA, CHORUS.
+
+ELEC. O dear Mycenian virgins, who have the first place at the Pelasgian
+seat of the Argives;--
+
+CHOR. What voice art thou uttering, my respected mistress? for this
+appellation awaits thee in the city of the Danaids.
+
+ELEC. Arrange yourselves, some of you in this beaten way, and some there,
+in that other path, to guard the house.
+
+CHOR. But on what account dost thou command this, tell me, my friend.
+
+ELEC. Fear possesses me, lest any one being in the palace, on account of
+this murderous deed, should contrive evils on evils.
+
+SEMICHOR. Go, let us hasten, I indeed will guard this path, that tends
+toward where the sun flings his first rays.
+
+SEMICHOR. And I indeed this, which leads toward the west.
+
+ELEC. Now turn the glances of your eyes around in every position, now here,
+now there, then take some other view.
+
+CHOR. We are, as thou commandest.
+
+ELEC. Now roll your eyelids over your pupils, glance them every way through
+your ringlets.
+
+SEMICHOR. Is this any one here appearing in the path?--Who is this rustic
+that is standing about thy palace?
+
+ELEC. We are undone then, my friends; he will immediately show to the enemy
+the lurking beasts of prey armed with their swords.
+
+SEMICHOR. Be not afraid, the path is clear, which thou thinkest not.
+
+ELEC. But what?--does all with you remain secure? Give me some good report,
+whether the space before the hall be empty?
+
+SEMICHOR. All here at least is well, but look to thy province, for no one
+of the Danaids is approaching toward us.
+
+SEMICHOR. Thy report agrees with mine, for neither is there a disturbance
+here.
+
+ELEC. Come now,--I will listen at the door: why do ye delay, ye that are
+within, to sacrifice the victim, now that ye are in quiet?--They hear not:
+Alas me! wretched in misery! Are the swords then struck dumb at her beauty?
+Perhaps some Argive in arms rushing in with the foot of succor will
+approach the palace.--Now watch more carefully; it is no contest that
+admits delay; but turn _your eyes_ some this way, and some that.
+
+CHOR. I turn each different way, looking about on all sides.
+
+HELEN. (_within_) Oh! Pelasgian Argos! I am miserably slain!
+
+ELEC. Heard ye? The men are employing their head in the murder.--It is the
+shriek of Helen, as I may conjecture.
+
+SEMICHOR. O eternal might of Jove, come to assist my friends in every way.
+
+HEL. Menelaus, I die! But thou art at hand, and dost not help me!
+
+ELEC. Kill, strike, slay, plunging with your hands the two double-edged
+swords into the deserter of her father, the deserter of her husband, who
+destroyed numbers of the Grecians perishing by the spear at the river,
+whence tears fell into conjunction with tears, fell on account of the iron
+weapons around the whirlpools of Scamander.
+
+CHOR. Be still, be still: I heard the sound of some one coming along the
+path around the palace.
+
+ELEC. O most dear women, in the midst of the slaughter behold Hermione is
+present; let us cease from our clamor, for she comes about to fall into the
+meshes of our toils. A goodly prey will she be, if she be taken. Again to
+your stations with a calm countenance, and with a color that shall not give
+evidence of what has been done. I too will preserve a pensive cast of
+countenance, as though perfectly unacquainted with what has happened.
+
+HERMIONE, ELECTRA, CHORUS.
+
+ELEC. O virgin, art thou come from crowning Clytaemnestra's tomb, and
+pouring libations to her manes?
+
+HERM. I am come, having obtained her good services; but some terror has
+come upon me, on account of the noise in the palace, which I hear being a
+far distance off the house.
+
+ELEC. But why? There have happened to us things worthy of groans.
+
+HERM. Speak good words; but what news dost thou tell me?
+
+ELEC. It has been decreed by this land, that Orestes and I die.
+
+HERM. No, I hope not so; you, who are my relations.
+
+ELEC. It is fixed; but we stand under the yoke of necessity.
+
+HERM. Was the noise then in the house on this account?
+
+ELEC. For falling down a suppliant at the knees of Helen, he cries out--
+
+HERM. Who? for I know no more, except thou tellest me.
+
+ELEC. The wretched Orestes, that he may not die, and in behalf of me.
+
+HERM. For a just reason then the house lamented.
+
+ELEC. For on what other account should one rather cry out? But come, and
+join in supplication with thy friends, falling down before thy mother, the
+supremely blest, that Menelaus will not see us perish. But, O thou, that
+receivedst thy education at the hands of my mother, pity us, and alleviate
+our sufferings. Come hither to the trial; but I will lead the way, for thou
+alone hast the ends of our preservation.
+
+HERM. Behold I direct my footstep toward the house. Be preserved, as far as
+lies in me.
+
+ELEC. O ye in the house, my dear warriors, will ye not take your prey?
+
+HERM. Alas me! who are these I see?
+
+ORES. (_advancing_) Thou must be silent; for thou art come to preserve us,
+not thyself.
+
+ELEC. Hold her, hold her; and pointing a sword to her neck be silent, that
+Menelaus may know, that having found men, not Phrygian cowards, he has
+treated them in a manner he should treat cowards. What ho! what ho! my
+friends, make a noise, a noise, and shout before the palace, that the
+murder that is perpetrated spread not a dread alarm among the Argives, so
+that they run to assist to the king's palace, before I plainly see the
+slaughtered Helen lying weltering in her blood within the house, or else we
+hear the report from some of her attendants. For part of the havoc I know,
+and part not accurately.
+
+CHOR. With justice came the vengeance of the Gods on Helen. For she filled
+the whole of Greece with tears on account of the ruthless, ruthless Idean
+Paris, who brought the Grecian state to Ilium. But be silent, for the bolts
+of the royal mansion resound, for some one of the Phrygians comes forth,
+from whom we shall hear of the affairs within the house, in what state they
+are.
+
+PHRYGIAN, CHORUS.
+
+PHRY. I have escaped from death by the Argive sword in these barbaric
+slippers, _climbing_ over the cedar beams of the bed and the Doric
+triglyphs, by the flight of a barbarian.[38] Thou art gone, thou art gone,
+O my country, my country! Alas me! whither can I escape, O strangers,
+flying through the hoary air, or the sea, which the Ocean, with head in
+shape like a bull's, rolling with his arms encircles the earth?
+
+CHOR. But what is the matter, O attendant of Helen, thou man of Ida?
+
+PHRY. O Ilion, Ilion! alas me! O thou fertile Phrygian city, thou sacred
+mount of Ida, how do I lament for thee destroyed, a sad,[39] sad strain for
+my barbaric voice, on account of that form of the hapless, hapless Helen,
+born from a bird, the offspring of the beauteous Leda in shape of a swan,
+the fiend of the splendid Apollonian Pergamus! Alas! Oh! lamentations!
+lamentations! O wretched Dardania, warlike school[40] of Ganymede, the
+companion of Jove!
+
+CHOR. Relate to us clearly each circumstance that happened in the house,
+for I do not understand your former account, but merely conjecture.
+
+PHRY. [Greek: Ailinon, ailinon], the Barbarians begin the song of death in
+the language of Asia, Alas! alas! when the blood of kings has been poured
+on the earth by the ruthless swords of death. There came to the palace
+(that I may relate each circumstance) two Grecians, lions, of the one the
+leader of the Grecian host was said to be the father, the other the son of
+Strophius, a man of dark design; such was Ulysses, secretly treacherous,
+but faithful to his friends, bold in battle, skilled in war, cruel as the
+dragon. May he perish for his deep concealed design, the worker of evil!
+But they having advanced within her chamber, whom the archer Paris had as
+his wife, their eyes bathed with tears, they sat down in humble mien, one
+on each side of her, on the right and on the left, armed with swords. And
+around her knees did they both fling their suppliant hands, around the
+knees of Helen did they fling them. But the Phrygian attendants sprung up,
+and fled in amazement: and one called out to another in terror, _See_, lest
+there be treachery. To some indeed there appeared no danger; but to others
+the dragon stained with his mother's blood appeared bent to infold in his
+closest toils the daughter of Tyndarus.
+
+CHOR. But where wert thou then, or hadst thou long before fled through
+fear?
+
+PHRY. After the Phrygian fashion I chanced with the close circle of
+feathers to be fanning the gale, _that sported_ in the ringlets of Helen,
+before her cheek, after the barbaric fashion. But she was winding with her
+fingers the flax round the distaff, but what she had spun she let fall on
+the ground, desirous of making from the Phrygian spoils a robe of purple as
+an ornament for the tomb, a gift to Clytaemnestra. But Orestes entreated the
+Spartan girl; "O daughter of Jove, here, place thy footstep on the ground,
+rising from thy seat, come to the place of our ancestor Pelops, the ancient
+altar, that thou mayest hear my words." And he leads her, but she followed,
+not dreaming of what was about to happen. But his accomplice, the wicked
+Phocian, attended to other points. "Will ye not depart from out of the way,
+but are the Phrygians always vile?" and he bolted us out scattered in
+different parts of the house, some in the stables of the horses, and some
+in the outhouses, and some here and there, dispersing them some one way,
+some another, afar from their mistress.
+
+CHOR. What calamity took place after this?
+
+PHRY. O powerful, powerful Idean mother, alas! alas! the murderous
+sufferings, and the lawless evils, which I saw, I saw in the royal palace!
+From beneath their purple robes concealed having their drawn swords in
+their hands, they turned each his eye on either side, lest any one might
+chance to be present. But like mountain boars standing over against the
+lady, they say, "Thou shalt die, thou shalt die! thy vile husband kills
+thee, having given up the offspring of his brother to die at Argos." But
+she shrieked out, Ah me! ah me! and throwing her white arm on her breast
+inflicted on her head miserable blows, and, her feet turned to flight, she
+stepped, she stepped with her golden sandals; but Orestes thrusting his
+fingers into her hair, outstripping her flight,[41] bending back her neck
+over his left shoulder, was about to plunge the black sword into her
+throat.
+
+CHOR. Where then were the Phrygians, who dwell under the same roof, to
+assist her?
+
+PHRY. With a clamor having burst by means of bars the doors and cells where
+we were waiting, we run to her assistance, each to different parts of the
+house, one bringing stones, another spears, another having a long-handled
+sword in his hand. But Pylades came against us, impetuous, like as the
+Phrygian Hector or Ajax in his triple-crested helmet, whom I saw, I saw at
+the gates of Priam: but we clashed together the points of our swords: then
+indeed, then did the Phrygians give clear proof how inferior we were in the
+force of Mars to the spear of Greece. One indeed turning away, a fugitive,
+but another wounded, and another deprecating the death that threatened him:
+but under favor of the darkness we fled: and the corses fell, but some
+staggered, and some lay prostrate. But the wretched Hermione came to the
+house at the time when her murdered mother fell to the ground, that unhappy
+woman that gave her birth. And running upon her as Bacchanals without their
+thyrsus, as a heifer in the mountains they bore her away in their hands,
+and again eagerly rushed upon the daughter of Jove to slay her. But she
+vanished altogether from the chamber through the palace. O Jupiter and O
+earth, and light, and darkness! or by her enchantments, or by the art of
+magic, or by the stealth of the Gods. But of what followed I know no
+farther, for I sped in stealth my foot from the palace. But Menelaus having
+endured many, many severe toils, has received back from Troy the violated
+rites of Helen to no purpose.
+
+CHOR. And see something strange succeeds to these strange things, for I see
+Orestes with his sword drawn walking before the palace with agitated step,
+
+ORESTES, PHRYGIAN, CHORUS.
+
+ORES. Where is he that fled from my sword out of the palace?
+
+PHRY. I supplicate thee, O king, falling prostrate before thee after the
+barbaric fashion.
+
+ORES. The case before us is not in Ilium, but the Argive land.
+
+PHRY. In every region to live is sweeter than to die, in the opinion of the
+wise.
+
+ORES. Didst thou not raise a cry for Menelaus to come with succor?
+
+PHRY. I indeed am present on purpose to assist thee; for thou art the more
+worthy.
+
+ORES. Perished then the daughter of Tyndarus justly?
+
+PHRY. Most justly, even had she three lives for vengeance.
+
+ORES. With thy tongue dost thou flatter, not having these sentiments
+within?
+
+PHRY. For ought she not? She who utterly destroyed Greece as well as the
+Phrygians themselves?
+
+ORES. Swear, I will kill thee else, that thou art not speaking to curry
+favor with me.
+
+PHRY. By my life have I sworn, which I should wish to hold a sacred oath.
+
+ORES. Was the steel thus dreadful to all the Phrygians at Troy also?
+
+PHRY. Remove thy sword, for being so near me it gleams horrid slaughter.
+
+ORES. Art thou afraid, lest thou shouldest become a rock, as though looking
+on the Gorgon?
+
+PHRY. Lest I should become a corse, but I know not of the Gorgon's head.
+
+ORES. Slave as thou art, dost thou fear death, which will rid thee from thy
+woes?
+
+PHRY. Every one, although a man be a slave, rejoices to behold the light.
+
+ORES. Thou sayest well; thy understanding; saves thee, but go into the
+house.
+
+PHRY. Thou wilt not kill me then?
+
+ORES. Thou art pardoned.
+
+PHRY. This is good word thou hast spoken.
+
+ORES. Yet we may change our measures.
+
+PHRY. But this thou sayest not well.
+
+ORES. Thou art a fool, if thou thinkest I could endure to defile me by
+smiting thy neck, for neither art thou a woman, nor oughtest thou to be
+ranked among men. But that thou mightest not raise a clamor came I forth
+out of the house: for Argos, when it has heard a noise, is soon roused, but
+we have no dread in meeting Menelaus, as far as swords go; but let him come
+exulting with his golden ringlets flowing over his shoulders, for if he
+collects the Argives, and brings them against the palace seeking revenge
+for the death of Helen, and is not willing to let me be in safety, and my
+sister, and Pylades my accomplice in this affair, he shall see two corses,
+both the virgin and his wife.
+
+CHORUS.
+
+Alas! alas! O fate, the house of the Atridae again falls into another,
+another fearful struggle.
+
+SEMICHOR. What shall we do? shall we carry these tidings to the city, or
+shall we keep in silence?
+
+SEMICHOR. This is the safer plan, my friends.
+
+SEMICHOR. Behold before the house, behold this smoke leaping aloft in the
+air portends _something_.
+
+SEMICHOR. They are lighting the torches, as about to burn down the mansion
+of Tantalus, nor do they forbear from murder.
+
+CHOR. The God rules the events that happen to mortals, whichsoever way he
+wills. But some vast power by the instigation of the Furies has struck, has
+struck these palaces to the shedding of blood on account of the fall of
+Myrtilus from the chariot.
+
+But lo! I see Menelaus also here approaching the house with a quick step,
+having by some means or other perceived the calamity which now is present.
+Will ye not anticipate him by closing the gates with bolts, O ye children
+of Atreus, who are in the palace? A man in prosperity is a terrible thing
+to those in adversity, as now them art in misery, Orestes.
+
+MENELAUS _below_, ORESTES, PYLADES, ELECTRA, HERMIONE
+_above_, CHORUS.
+
+MEN. I am present, having heard the horrid and atrocious deeds of the two
+lions, for I call them not men. For I have now heard of my wife, that she
+died not, but vanished away, this that I heard was empty report, which one
+deceived by fright related; but these are the artifices of the matricide,
+and much derision. Open some one the door, my attendants I command to burst
+open these gates here, that my child at least we may deliver from the hand
+of these blood-polluted men, and may receive my unhappy, my miserable lady,
+with whom those murderers of my wife must die by my hand.
+
+ORES. What ho there! Touch not these gates with thine hands: to Menelaus I
+speak, that thou towerest in thy boldness, or with this pinnacle will I
+crush thy head, having rent down the ancient battlement, the labor of the
+builders. But the gates are made fast with bolts, which will hinder thee
+from thy purpose of bringing aid, so that thou canst not pass within the
+palace.
+
+MEN. Ha! what is this? I see the blaze of torches, and these stationed on
+the battlements, on the height of the palace, and the sword placed over the
+neck of my daughter to guard her.
+
+ORES. Whether is it thy will to question, or to hear me?
+
+MEN. I wish neither, but it is necessary, as it seems, to hear thee.
+
+ORES. I am about to slay thy daughter if thou wish to know.
+
+MEN. Having slain Helen, dost thou perpetrate murder on murder?
+
+ORES. For would I had gained my purpose not being deluded, as I was, by the
+Gods.
+
+MEN. Thou hast slain her, and deniest it, and speakest these things to
+insult me.
+
+ORES. It is a denial that gives me pain, for would that--
+
+MEN. Thou had done what deed? for thou callest forth alarm.
+
+ORES. I had hurled to hell the fury of Greece.
+
+MEN. Give back the body of my wife, that I may bury her in a tomb.
+
+ORES. Ask her of the Gods; but I will slay thy daughter.
+
+MEN. The matricide contrives murder on murder.
+
+ORES. The avenger of his father, whom thou gavest up to die.
+
+MEN. Was not the blood of thy mother formerly shed sufficient for thee?
+
+ORES. I should not be weary of slaying wicked women, were I to slay them
+forever.
+
+MEN. Art thou also, Pylades, a partaker in this murder?
+
+ORES. By his silence he assents, but if I speak, it will be sufficient.
+
+MEN. But not with impunity, unless indeed thou fliest on wings.
+
+ORES. We will not fly, but will set fire to the palace?
+
+MEN. What! wilt thou destroy thy father's mansion?
+
+ORES. Yes, that thou mayest not possess it, will I, having stabbed this
+virgin here over the flames.
+
+MEN. Slay her; since having slain thou shalt at least give me satisfaction
+for these deeds.
+
+ORES. It shall be so then.
+
+MEN. Alas! on no account do this!
+
+ORES. Be silent then; but bear to suffer evil justly.
+
+MEN. What! is it just for thee to live?
+
+ORES. Yes, and to rule over the land.
+
+MEN. What land!
+
+ORES. Here, in Pelasgian Argos.
+
+MEN. Well wouldst thou touch the sacred lavers!
+
+ORES. And pray why not?
+
+MEN. And wouldst slaughter the victim before the battle!
+
+ORES. And thou wouldst most righteously.
+
+MEN. Yes, for I am pure as to my hands.
+
+ORES. But not thy heart.
+
+MEN. Who would speak to thee?
+
+ORES. Whoever loves his father.
+
+MEN. And whoever reveres his mother.
+
+ORES. --Is happy.
+
+MEN. Not thou at least.
+
+ORES. For wicked women please me not.
+
+MEN. Take away the sword from my daughter.
+
+ORES. Thou art false in thy expectations.
+
+MEN. But wilt thou kill my daughter?
+
+ORES. Thou art no longer false.
+
+MEN. Alas me! what shall I do?
+
+ORES. Go to the Argives, and persuade them.
+
+MEN. With what persuasion?
+
+ORES. Beseech the city that we may not die.[41a]
+
+MEN. Otherwise ye will slay my daughter?
+
+ORES. The thing is so.
+
+MEN. O wretched Helen!--
+
+ORES. And am I not wretched?
+
+MEN. I brought thee hither from the Trojans to be a victim.
+
+ORES. For would this were so!
+
+MEN. Having endured ten thousand toils.
+
+ORES. Except on my account.
+
+MEN. I have met with dreadful treatment.
+
+ORES. For then, _when thou oughtest_, thou wert of no assistance.
+
+MEN. Thou hast me.
+
+ORES. Thou at least hast caught thyself. But, ho there! set fire to the
+palace, Electra, from beneath: and thou, Pylades, the most true of my
+friends, light up these battlements of the walls.
+
+MEN. O land of the Danai, and inhabitants of warlike Argos, will ye not, ho
+there! come in arms to my succor? For this man here, having perpetrated the
+shocking murder of his mother, brings destruction on your whole city, that
+he may live.
+
+APOLLO.
+
+Menelaus, cease from thy irritated state of mind; I Phoebus the son of
+Latona, in thy presence, am addressing thee. Thou too, Orestes, who
+standest over that damsel with thy sword drawn, that thou mayest know what
+commands I bring with me. Helen indeed, whom thou minded to destroy,
+working Menelaus to anger, didst fail of thy purpose, she is here, whom ye
+see wrapt in the bosom of the sky, preserved, and not slain by thy hands.
+Her I preserved, and snatched from thy sword, commanded by my father Jove.
+For being the daughter of Jove, it is right that she should live immortal.
+And she shall have her seat by Castor and Pollux in the bosom of the sky,
+the guardian of mariners. But take to thyself another bride, and lead her
+home, since for the beauty of this woman the Gods brought together the
+Greeks and Trojans, and caused deaths, that they might draw from off the
+earth the pride of mortals, who had become an infinite multitude. Thus is
+it with regard to Helen; but thee, on the other hand, Orestes, it
+behooveth, having passed beyond the boundaries of this land, to inhabit the
+Parrhasian plain during the revolution of a year, and it shall be called by
+a name after thy flight, so that the Azanes and Arcadians shall call it
+Oresteum: and thence having departed to the city of the Athenians, undergo
+the charge of shedding thy mother's blood laid by the three Furies. But the
+Gods the arbiters of the cause shall pass on thee most sacredly their
+decree on the hill of Mars, in which it behooveth thee to be victorious.
+But Hermione, to whose neck thou art holding the sword, it is destined for
+thee, Orestes, to wed, but Neoptolemus, who thinks to marry her, shall
+never marry her. For it is fated to him to die by the Delphic sword, as he
+is demanding of me satisfaction for his father Achilles. But to Pylades
+give thy sister's hand, as thou didst formerly agree, but a happy life now
+coming on awaits him. But, O Menelaus, suffer Orestes to reign over Argos.
+But depart and rule over the Spartan land, having it as thy wife's dowry,
+who exposing thee to numberless evils always was bringing thee to this. But
+what regards the city I will make all right for him, I, who compelled him
+to slay his mother.
+
+ORES. O Loxian prophet, thou wert not then a false prophet in thine
+oracles, but a true one. And yet a fear comes upon me, that having heard
+one of the Furies, I might think that I have been hearing thy voice. But it
+is well fulfilled, and I will obey thy words. Behold I let go Hermione from
+slaughter, and approve her alliance, whenever her father shall give her.
+
+MEN. O Helen, daughter of Jove, hail! but I bless thee inhabiting the happy
+mansions of the Gods. But to thee, Orestes, do I betroth my daughter at
+Phoebus's commands, but illustrious thyself marrying from an illustrious
+family, be happy, both thou and I who give her.
+
+APOL. Now depart each of you whither we have appointed, and dissolve your
+quarrels.
+
+MEN. It is our duty to obey.
+
+ORES. I too entertain the same sentiments, and I receive with friendship
+thee in thy sufferings, O Menelaus, and thy oracles, O Apollo.
+
+APOL. Go now, each his own way, honoring the most excellent goddess Peace;
+but I will convey Helen to the mansions of Jove, passing through the pole
+of the shining stars, where sitting by Juno, and Hercules's Hebe, a
+goddess, she shall ever be honored by mortals with libations, in
+conjunction with the Tyndaridae, the sons of Jove, presiding over the sea to
+the benefit of mariners.
+
+CHOR. O greatly glorious Victory, mayest thou uphold my life, and cease not
+from crowning me!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+NOTES ON ORESTES
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+[1] [Greek: stemmata, eria], _Schol._ "eo quod colum cingant seu coronant,"
+Scapula explains it.
+
+[2] "_Then_" is not to be considered as signifying point of time, but it is
+meant to express [Greek: oun], _continuativam_. See Hoogeveen de Particula
+[Greek: oun], Sect. ii. Sec. 6.
+
+[3] The original Greek phrase was [Greek: elpidos leptes], which Euripides
+has changed to [Greek: asthenous rhomes], though the other had equally
+suited the metre. But Euripides is fond of slight alterations in proverbs.
+PORSON.
+
+[4] [Greek: dous--dynatai de kai apodous]. SCHOL.
+
+[5] Perhaps this interpretation of [Greek: chronion] is better than "slow,"
+for the considerate Electra would hardly go to remind her brother of his
+infirmities.
+
+[6] [Greek: Potniades]. The Furies have this epithet from Potnia, a town in
+Boeotia, where Glaucus's horses, having eaten of a certain herb and
+becoming mad, tore their own master in pieces. SCHOL.
+
+[6a] Note [D].
+
+[6b] Dindorf would omit this verse.
+
+[7] [Greek: halitypon, halieon, hoi tais kopais typtousi ten thalassan].
+SCHOL.
+
+[8] [Greek: aphyllou]. Alluding to the branch, which the ancients used to
+hold in token of supplication.
+
+[9] "[Greek: kata ten nykta pepontha teron ten anairesin, kai ten analepsin
+ton osteon, toutestin, hina me tis apheletai tauta]." PARAPH. Heath
+translates it, _watchfully observing, till her bones were collected._
+
+[10] The old reading was [Greek: apaideuta]. The meaning of the present
+reading seems to be, "Yes, they are awful 'tis true, but still however you
+need not be so very scrupulous about naming them."
+
+[11] [Greek: anaphora] was a legal term, and signified the line of defense
+adopted by the accused, when he transferred the charge brought against
+himself to some other person.--See Demosthenes in Timocr.
+
+[12] Oeax was Palamede's brother.
+
+[13] And therefore we are not to impeach the _man_. Some would have [Greek:
+doulon] to bear the sense of [Greek: doulopoion], enslaves, and therefore
+can not be avoided.
+
+[14] [Greek: echo] for [Greek: enochos eimi].
+
+[15] [Greek: Zelo, to makarizo. entautha de anti tou epaino.] SCHOL.
+
+[16] Conf. Ter. Eun. Act. v. Sc. 2.
+
+                  Non dedignum, Chaerea,
+  Fecisti; nam si ego digna hac contumelia
+  Sum maxume, at tu indignus, qui faceres, tamen.
+
+[16a] Note [E].
+
+[17] Of this passage the Scholiast gives two interpretations; either it may
+mean [Greek: meta dakryon kai goon eipon]: or, [Greek: eipon tauta eis
+dakrya kai goous, kai xymphoras, egoun hina me tycho, touton: teuxomai de,
+ei petrothenai me easeis].
+
+[18] _"Beyond any woman,"_ [Greek: gyne mia], this is a mode of expression
+frequently met with in the Attic writers, especially in Xenophon.
+
+[19] [Greek: epi toi phonoi, toutesti dia ton phonon, hon eirgasametha.]
+PARAPH.
+
+[20] Thyestes and Atreus, having a dispute about their father Pelops's
+kingdom, agreed, that whichever should discover the first prodigy should
+have possession of the throne. There appeared in Atreus's flock a golden
+lamb, which, however, AErope his wife secretly had conveyed to Thyestes to
+show before the judges. Atreus afterward invited Thyestes to a feast, and
+served up before him Aglaiis, Orchomenus, and Caleus, three sons he had by
+his intrigues with AErope.
+
+[21] Alluding to the murder of Agamemnon by Clytaemnestra. This is the
+interpretation and explanation of the Scholiast; but it is perhaps better
+translated, "_but on the other hand to play the coward is great impiety,
+and the error of cowardly-minded men_;" the chorus meaning, that this might
+have been said of Orestes, had he not avenged his father.
+
+[22] That is, _blamed him_. So St. Paul, 1 Cor. xi. 21, [Greek: epaineso
+hymas en toutoi; ouk epaino]. Ter. And. Act. II. Sc. 6. "Et, quod dicendum
+hic siet, Tu quoque perparce nimium, non laudo."
+
+[23] An Argive as far as he was born there, and therefore [Greek:
+enankasmenos]; not an Argive, inasmuch as his parents were not of that
+state. This is supposed to allude to Cleophon. SCHOL. See Dindorf.
+
+[24] This is the interpretation of one Scholiast; another explains it
+[Greek: oikeiais chersin ergazomenos]. Grotius translates it _agricola_.
+
+[25] The same construction occurs in the Supplicants, 870. [Greek: philois
+d' alethes en philos, parousi te kai me parousin: hon] (of which sort of
+men) [Greek: arithmos ou polys.] PORSON.
+
+[25a] See Note [F].
+
+[26] Which, [Greek: ktypon] namely: [Greek: onycha] and [Greek: ktypon] are
+each governed by [Greek: titheisa]; but it is not easy to find a single
+verb in English that should be transitive to both these substantives.
+
+[27] [Greek: kallipais], _lovely_, not lovely in her children: so in Phoen.
+1634. [Greek: euteknos xynoris].
+
+[28] Argos, so called from the Cyclopes, a nation of Thrace, who, being
+called in as allies, afterward settled here.
+
+[29] [Greek: heterois] may perhaps seem to make the construction plainer
+than [Greek: heteros]; but Porson has received the latter into his text on
+account of the metre.
+
+[30] Myrtilus was the son of Mercury, who therefore sowed this dissension
+between the two brothers in revenge for his death by Pelops. See note at
+line 802.
+
+[31] Some would understand by [Greek: monopolon] not that Aurora was borne
+on one horse, but that this alteration in the course of nature took place
+for one day. SCHOL.
+
+[32] [Greek: kai apo tonde, etoi meta tauta.] PARAPH.
+
+[33] [Greek: paraseiros] is used to signify a loose horse tied abreast of
+another in the shaft, and is technically termed "the outrigger." The
+metaphorical application of it to Pylades, who voluntarily attached himself
+to the misfortunes of his friend, is extremely beautiful.
+
+[34] Or, _"I will not be at all behind thy slaughter."_
+
+[35] [Greek: eu] in this passage _interrogat oblique_, see Hoogeveen, xvi.
+Sec. 1. 15.
+
+[36] Strophius, the father of Pylades, married Anaxibia, Agamemnon's
+sister.
+
+[37] [Greek: oneide, ton euergesion tas hypomneseis]. SCHOL. Ter. And. i.
+1. "isthaec commemoratio quasi exprobratio est immemoris benefici."
+
+[38] i.e. being a barbarian, and therefore not knowing whither to go.
+
+[39] [Greek: harmateion], such a strain as that raised over Hector, [Greek:
+helkomeno, dia tou harmatos]. See two other explanations in the Scholia.
+
+[40] [Greek: hipposyna, hetis hyperches hippelasia tou G.] BRUNCK.
+
+[41] Literally, _her Mycenian slipper_.
+
+[41a] Read [Greek: thanein] with Pors. Dind.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+ADDITIONAL NOTES.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+[A] But Dindorf reads [Greek: ktypou e egaget'. ouchi]; interrogatively,
+thus: "Ye were making a noise. Will ye not ... enable him," etc.?
+
+[B] Dindorf would continue this verse to Orestes.
+
+[C] Dindorf supposes something to be wanting after vs. 314.
+
+[D] The use of [Greek: allos heteros] is learnedly illustrated by Dindorf.
+
+[E] Elmsley, on Heracl. 852, more simply regards the datives [Greek: soi
+sei t' adelphe] as dependent upon [Greek: episeiso], understanding [Greek:
+hoste dounai diken]. This is better than to suppose (with Porson) that
+[Greek: dounai diken] can mean to _inflict_ punishment.
+
+[F] Dindorf (in his notes) agrees with Porson in omitting the following
+verse.
+
+[G] Dindorf's text and punctuation must be altered.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE PHOENICIAN VIRGINS.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+PERSONS REPRESENTED.
+
+  JOCASTA.
+  TUTOR.
+  ANTIGONE.
+  CHORUS OF PHOENICIAN VIRGINS.
+  POLYNICES.
+  ETEOCLES.
+  CREON.
+  MENOECEUS.
+  TIRECIAS.
+  MESSENGERS.
+  OEDIPUS.
+
+_The Scene is in the Court before the royal palace at Thebes_.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE ARGUMENT.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+Eteocles having gotten possession of the throne of Thebes, deprived his
+brother Polynices of his share; but he having come as an exile to Argos,
+married the daughter of the king Adrastus; but ambitious of returning to
+his country, and having persuaded his father-in-law, he assembled a great
+army for Thebes against his brother. His mother Jocasta made him come into
+the city, under sanction of a truce, and first confer with his brother
+respecting the empire. But Eteocles being violent and fierce from having
+possessed the empire, Jocasta could not reconcile her children.--Polynices,
+prepared as against an enemy, rushed out of the city. Now Tiresias
+prophesied that victory should be on the side of the Thebans, if Menoeceus
+the son of Creon would give himself up to be sacrificed to Mars. Creon
+refused to give his son to the city, but the youth was willing, and, his
+father pointing out to him the means of flight and giving him money, he put
+himself to death.--The Thebans slew the leaders of the Argives. Eteocles
+and Polynices in a single combat slew each other, and their mother having
+found the corses of her sons laid violent hands on herself; and Creon her
+brother received the kingdom. The Argives defeated in battle retired. But
+Creon, being morose, would not give up those of the enemy who had fallen at
+Thebes, for sepulture, and exposed the body of Polynices without burial,
+and banished Oedipus from his country; in the one instance disregarding the
+laws of humanity, in the other giving way to passion, nor feeling pity for
+him after his calamity.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE PHOENICIAN VIRGINS.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+JOCASTA.
+
+O thou that cuttest thy path through the constellations[1] of heaven, and
+art mounted on thy golden-joined seats, thou sun, whirling thy flame
+with[2] thy swift steeds, how inauspicious didst thou dart thy ray on that
+day when Cadmus came to this land having left the sea-washed coast of
+Phoenicia; who in former time having married Harmonia, daughter of Venus,
+begat Polydorus; from him they say sprung Labdacus, and from him Laius. But
+I am[3] the daughter of Menoeceus, and Creon my brother was born of the
+same mother; me they call Jocasta (for this name[4] my father gave me), and
+Laius takes me for his wife; but after that he was childless, for a long
+time sharing my bed in the palace, he went and inquired of Apollo, and at
+the same time demands the mutual offspring of male children in his family;
+but the God said, "O king of Thebes renowned for its chariots, sow not for
+such a harvest of children against the will of the Gods, for if thou shalt
+beget a son, he that is born shall slay thee, and the whole of thy house
+shall wade through blood." But having yielded to pleasure, and having
+fallen into inebriety, he begot to us a son, and having begot him, feeling
+conscious of his error and the command of the God, gives the babe to some
+herdsmen to expose at the meads of Juno and the rock of Cithaeron, having
+bored sharp-pointed iron through the middle of his ankles, from which
+circumstance Greece gave him the name of Oedipus. But him the grooms who
+attend the steeds of Polybus find and carry home, and placed him in the
+arms of their mistress. But she rested beneath her bosom him that gave me a
+mother's pangs, and persuades her husband that she had brought forth. But
+now my son showing signs of manhood in his darkening cheek, either having
+suspected it by instinct, or having learned it from some one, went to the
+temple of Apollo, desirous of discovering his parents; at the same time
+went Laius my husband, seeking to gain intelligence of his son who had been
+exposed, if he were no longer living; and both met at the same point of the
+road at Phocis where it divides itself; and the charioteer of Laius
+commands him, "Stranger, withdraw out of the way of princes;" but he moved
+slowly, in silence, with haughty spirit; but the steeds with their hoof
+dyed with blood the tendons of his feet. At this (but why need I relate
+each horrid circumstance besides the deed itself?) the son kills his
+father, and having taken the chariot, sends it as a present to his
+foster-father Polybus. Now at this time the sphinx preyed vulture-like[5]
+upon the city with rapacity, my husband now no more, Creon my brother
+proclaims that he will give my bed as a reward to him who would solve the
+enigma of the crafty virgin. But by some chance or other Oedipus my son
+happens to discover the riddle of the sphinx, [and he receives as a prize
+the sceptre of this land,][5a] and marries me, his mother, wretched he not
+knowing it, nor knew his mother that she was lying down with her son. And I
+bear children to my child, two sons, Eteocles and the illustrious
+Polynices, and two daughters, one her father named Ismene, the elder I
+called Antigone. But Oedipus, after having gone through all sufferings,
+having discovered in my bed the marriage with his mother, he perpetrated a
+deed of horror on his own eyes, having drenched in blood their pupils with
+his golden buckles. But after that the cheek of my children grows dark with
+manly down, they hid their father confined with bolts that his sad fortune
+might be forgotten, which indeed required the greatest policy. He is still
+living in the palace, but sick in mind through his misfortunes he
+imprecates the most unhallowed curses on his children, that they may share
+this house with the sharpened sword. But these two, dreading lest the Gods
+should bring to completion these curses,[6] should they dwell together, in
+friendly compact determined that Polynices the younger son should first go
+a willing exile from this land, but that Eteocles remaining here should
+hold the sceptre for a year, changing in his turn; but after that he sat on
+the throne of power, he moves not from his seat, but drives Polynices an
+exile from this land. But he having fled to Argos, and having contracted an
+alliance with Adrastus, assembles together and leads a vast army of
+Argives; and having marched to these very walls with seven gates he demands
+his father's sceptre and his share of the land. But I to quell this strife
+persuaded my son to come to his brother, confiding in a truce before he
+grasped the spear. And the messenger who was sent declares that he will
+come. But, O thou that inhabitest the shining clouds of heaven, Jove,
+preserve us, give reconciliation to my children; it becomes thee, if thou
+art wise, not to suffer the same man always to be unfortunate.
+
+TUTOR, ANTIGONE.
+
+TUT. O thou fair bud in thy father's house, Antigone, since thy mother has
+permitted thee to leave the virgin's apartments for the extreme chamber[7]
+of the mansion, in order to view the Argive army in compliance with thy
+entreaties, yet stay, until I shall first investigate the path, lest any
+citizen should appear in the pass, and to me taunts should come as a slave,
+and to thee as a princess: and I who well know each circumstance will tell
+you all that I saw or heard from the Argives, when I went bearing the offer
+of a truce to thy brother, from this place thither, and again to this place
+from him. But no citizen approaches this house; come, ascend with thy steps
+these ancient stairs of cedar, and survey the plains, and by the streams of
+Ismenus and Dirce's fount how great is the host of the enemy.
+
+ANT. Stretch forth now, stretch forth thine aged hand from the stairs to my
+youth, raising up the steps of my feet.
+
+TUT. Behold, join thy hand, virgin, thou hast come in lucky hour, for the
+Pelasgian host is now in motion, and they are separating the bands from one
+another.
+
+ANT. O awful daughter of Latona, Hecate, the field all brass[8] gleaming
+like lightning.
+
+TUT. For Polynices hath not come tamely to this land, raging with host of
+horsemen, and ten thousand shields.
+
+ANT. Are the gates fastened with bars, and is the brazen bolt fitted to the
+stone-work of Amphion's wall?
+
+TUT. Take courage; as to the interior the city is safe, But view the first
+chief, if thou desirest to know.
+
+ANT. Who is he with the white-plumed helmet, who commands in the van of the
+army, moving lightly round on his arm his brazen shield?
+
+TUT. He is a leader, lady.
+
+ANT. Who is he? From whom sprung? Speak, aged man, what is he called by
+name?
+
+TUT. He indeed is called by birth a Mycenaean, and he dwells at the streams
+of Lerna,[9] the king Hippomedon.
+
+ANT. Ah! how haughty, how terrible to behold! like to an earth-born giant,
+starlike in countenance amidst his painted devices,[10] he corresponds not
+with the race of mortals.
+
+TUT. Dost thou not see him now passing the stream of Dirce, a general?
+
+ANT. Here is another, another fashion of arms. But who is he?
+
+TUT. He is the son of Oeneus, Tydeus, and bears on his breast the AEtolian
+Mars.
+
+ANT. Is this the prince, O aged man, who is husband to the sister of my
+brother's wife?[11] In his arms how different of color, of barbaric
+mixture!
+
+TUT. For all the AEtolians, my child, bear the target, and hurl with the
+lance, most certain in their aim.
+
+ANT. But how, O aged man, dost thou know these things so perfectly?
+
+TUT. Having seen the devices of the shields, then I remarked them, when I
+went to bear the offer of a truce to thy brother, beholding which, I
+recognize the warriors.
+
+ANT. But who is this, who is passing round the tomb of Zethus, with
+clustering locks, in his eyes a Gorgon to behold, in appearance a youth?
+
+TUT. A general he is. [See Note [A].]
+
+ANT. How a crowd in complete armor attends him behind![12]
+
+TUT. This is Parthenopaeus, son of Atalanta.
+
+ANT. But, may Diana who rushes over the mountains with his mother destroy
+him, having subdued him with her arrows, who has come against my city to
+destroy it.
+
+TUT. May it be so, my child, nevertheless they are come with justice to
+this land; wherefore also I fear lest the Gods should judge rightly.
+
+ANT. Where, but where is he who was born of one mother with me in hard
+fate, O dearest old man; tell me, where is Polynices?
+
+TUT. He is standing near the tomb of the seven virgin daughters of Niobe,
+close by Adrastus. Seest thou him?
+
+ANT. I see indeed, but not distinctly; but somehow I see the resemblance of
+his form, and his shape shadowed out. Would that with my feet I could
+perform the journey of the winged cloud through the air to my brother, then
+would I fling my arms round his dearest neck, after so long a time a
+wretched exile. How splendid is he, O old man, in his golden armor,
+glittering like the morning rays of the sun.
+
+TUT. He will come to this house confiding in the truce, so as to fill thee
+with joy.
+
+ANT. But who, O aged man, is this, who guides his milk-white steeds seated
+in his chariot?
+
+TUT. The prophet Amphiaraus this, O my mistress, and with him the victims,
+the libations of the earth delighting in blood.
+
+AST. O thou daughter of the brightly girded sun, thou moon, golden-circled
+light, applying what quiet and temperate blows to his steeds does he direct
+his chariot! But where is he who utters such dreadful insults against this
+city, Capaneus?
+
+TUT. He is scanning the approach to the towers, measuring the walls both
+from their foundation to the top.
+
+ANT. O vengeance, and ye loud-roaring thunders of Jove, and thou blasting
+fire of the lightning, do thou quell this more-than-mortal arrogance. This
+is he who will with his spear give to Mycenae, and to the streams of Lernaean
+Triaena,[13] and to the Amymonian[14] waters of Neptune, the Theban women,
+having invested them with slavery. Sever, O awful Goddess, never, O
+daughter of Jove, with golden clusters of ringlets, Diana, may I endure
+servitude.
+
+TUT. My child, enter the palace, and at home remain in thy virgin chambers,
+since thou hast arrived at the indulgement of thy desire, as to what you
+were anxious to behold. For, since confusion has entered the city, a crowd
+of women is advancing to the royal palace. The race of women is prone to
+complaint, and if they find but small occasion for words, they add more,
+and it is a sort of pleasure to women, to speak nothing well-advised one of
+another.[15]
+
+CHORUS.
+
+I have come, having left the Tyrian wave, the first-fruits of Loxias, from
+the sea-washed Phoenicia, a slave for the shrine of Apollo, that I might
+dwell under the snowy brows of Parnassus, having sped my way over the
+Ionian flood by the oar, the west wind with its blasts riding over the
+barren plains of waters[16] which flow round Sicily, the sweetest murmur in
+the heavens. Chosen out from my city the fairest present to Apollo, I came
+to the land of the Cadmeans, the illustrious descendants of Agenor, sent
+hither to these kindred towers of Laius. And I am made the slave of Apollo
+in like manner with the golden-framed images. Moreover the water of
+Castalia awaits me, to lave the virgin pride of my tresses, in the ministry
+of Apollo. O blazing rock, the flame of fire that seems[17] double above
+the Dionysian heights of Bacchus, and thou vine, who distillest the daily
+nectar, producing the fruitful cluster from the tender shoot; and ye divine
+caves of the dragon,[18] and ye mountain watch-towers of the Gods, and thou
+hallowed snowy mountain, would that I were the chorus of the immortal God
+free from alarms encompassing thee around, by the caves of Apollo in the
+centre of the earth, having left Dirce. But now impetuous Mars having
+advanced before the walls lights up against this city, which may the Gods
+avert, hostile war; for common are the misfortunes of friends, and common
+is it, if this land defended by its seven turrets should suffer any
+calamity, to the Phoenician country, alas! alas! common is the
+affinity,[19] common are the descendants of Io bearing horns; of which woes
+I have a share. But a thick cloud of shields glares around the city, the
+likeness of gory battle, bearing which destruction from the Furies to the
+children of Oedipus Mars shall quickly advance. O Pelasgian Argos, I dread
+thy power, and vengeance from the Gods, for he rushes not his arms to this
+war unjustly, who seeks to recover his home.
+
+POLYNICES, CHORUS.
+
+POL. The bolts indeed of the gate-keepers have with ease admitted me, that
+I might come within the walls; wherefore also I fear, lest, having caught
+me within their nets, they let[19a] not my body go without bloodshed. On
+which account my eye must be turned about on every side, both that way and
+this, lest there be treachery. But armed in my hand with this sword, I will
+give myself confidence of daring. Ha! Who is this; or do we fear a noise?
+Every thing appears terrible even to the bold, when his foot shall pass
+across a hostile country. I trust however in my mother, at the same time I
+scarce trust, who persuaded me to come hither confiding in a truce. But
+protection is nigh; for the hearths of the altars are at hand, and houses
+not deserted. Come. I will let go my sword into its dark scabbard, and will
+question these who they are, that are standing at the palace. Ye female
+strangers, tell me, from what country do ye approach Grecian habitations?
+
+CHOR. The Phoenician is my paternal country, she that nurtured me: and the
+descendants of Agenor sent me hither from the spoils, the first-fruits to
+Apollo. And while the renowned son of Oedipus was preparing to send me to
+the revered shrine, and to the altars of Phoebus, in the mean time the
+Argives marched against the city. But do thou in turn answer me, who thou
+art, who hast come to this bulwark of the Theban land with its seven gates?
+
+POL. My father is Oedipus the son of Laius; Jocasta daughter of Menoeceus
+brought me forth; the Theban people call me Polynices.
+
+CHOR. O thou allied to the sons of Agenor, my lords, by whom I was sent, I
+fall at thy knees in lowly posture, O king, preserving my country's custom.
+Thou hast come, thou hast come, after a length of time, to thy paternal
+land. O venerable matron, come forth quickly, open the doors; dost thou
+hear, O mother, that producedst this hero? why dost thou delay to leave thy
+lofty mansion, and to embrace thy child with thine arms?
+
+JOCASTA, POLYNICES, CHORUS.
+
+JOC. Hearing the Phoenician tongue, ye virgins, within this mansion, I drag
+my steps trembling with age. Ah! my son, after length of time, after
+numberless days, I behold thy countenance; clasp thy mother's bosom in
+thine arms, throw around her[20] thy kisses, and the dark ringlets of thy
+clustering hair, shading my neck. Ah! scarce possible is it that thou
+appearest in thy mother's arms so unhoped for, and so unexpected. How shall
+I address thee? how shall I perform all? how shall I, walking in rapture
+around thee on that side and this, both with my hands and words, reap the
+varied pleasure, the delight of my former joys? O my son, thou hast left
+thy father's house deserted, sent away an exile by wrongful treatment from
+thy brother. How longed for by thy friends! how longed for by Thebes! From
+which time I am both shorn of my hoary locks, letting them fall with tears,
+with wailing;[21] deprived, my child, of the white robes, I receive in
+exchange around me these dark and dismal weeds. But the old man in the
+palace deprived of sight, always preserving with tears regret for the
+unanimity of the brothers which is separated from the family, has madly
+rushed on self-destruction with the sword and with the noose above the
+beams of the house, bewailing the curse imprecated on his children; and
+with cries of woe he is always hidden in darkness. But thou, my child, I
+hear, art both joined in marriage, and hast the joys of love in a foreign
+family, and cherishest a foreign alliance; intolerable to this thy mother
+and to the aged Laius, the woe of a foreign marriage brought upon us. But
+neither did I light the torch of fire for you, as is customary in the
+marriage rites, as befits the happy mother; nor was Ismenus careful of the
+bridal rites in the luxury of the bath: and the entrance of thy bride was
+made in silence through the Theban city. May these ills perish, whether the
+sword, or discord, or thy father is the cause, or whether fate has rushed
+with violence upon the house of Oedipus; for the weight of these sorrows
+has fallen upon me.
+
+CHOR. Parturition with the attendant throes has a wonderful effect on
+women;[22] and somehow the whole race of women have strong affection toward
+their children.
+
+POL. My mother, determining wisely, and yet not determining wisely, have I
+come to men my foes; but it is necessary that all must be enamored of their
+country; but whoever says otherwise, pleases himself with vain words, but
+has his heart there. But so far have I come to trouble and terror, lest any
+treachery from my brother should slay me, so that having my hand on my
+sword I proceeded through the city rolling round my eye; but one thing is
+on my side, the truce and thy faith, which has brought me within my
+paternal walls: but I have come with many tears, after a length of time
+beholding the courts and the altars of the Gods, and the schools wherein I
+was brought up, and the fount of Dirce, from which banished by injustice, I
+inhabit a foreign city, having a stream of tears flowing through my eyes.
+But, for from one woe springs a second, I behold thee having thy head shorn
+of its locks, and these sable garments; alas me! on account of my
+misfortunes. How dreadful a thing, mother, is the enmity of relations,
+having means of reconciliation seldom to be brought about! For how fares
+the old man my father in the palace, vainly looking upon darkness; and how
+fare my two sisters? Are they indeed bewailing my wretched banishment?
+
+JOC. Some God miserably destroys the race of Oedipus; for thus began it,
+when I brought forth children in that unhallowed manner, and thy father
+married me in evil hour, and thou didst spring forth. But why relate these
+things? What is sent by the Gods we must bear. But how I may ask the
+questions I wish, I know not, for I fear lest I wound at all thy feelings;
+but I have a great desire.
+
+POL. But inquire freely, leave nothing out. For what you wish, my mother,
+this is dear to me.
+
+JOC. I ask thee therefore, first, for the information that I wish to
+obtain. What is the being deprived of one's country, is it a great ill?
+
+POL. The greatest: and greater is it in deed than in word.
+
+JOC. What is the reason of that? What is that so harsh to exiles?
+
+POL. One thing, and that the greatest, not to have the liberty of speaking.
+
+JOC. This that you have mentioned belongs to a slave, not to give utterance
+to what one thinks.
+
+POL. It is necessary to bear with the follies of those in power.
+
+JOC. And this is painful, to be unwise with the unwise.
+
+POL. But for interest we must bend to slavery contrary to our nature.
+
+JOC. But hopes support exiles, as report goes.
+
+POL. They look upon them with favorable eyes, at least, but are slow of
+foot.
+
+JOC. Hath not time shown them to be vain?
+
+POL. They have a certain sweet delight to set against misfortunes.
+
+JOC. But whence wert thou supported, before thou foundest means of
+sustenance by thy marriage?
+
+POL. At one time I had food for the day, at another I had not.
+
+JOC. And did the friends and hosts of your father not assist you?
+
+POL. Be prosperous, _and thou shalt have friends_:[23] but friends are
+none, should one be in adversity.
+
+JOC. Did not thy noble birth raise thee to great distinction?
+
+POL. To want is wretched; high birth fed me not.
+
+JOC. Their own country, it appears, is the dearest thing to men.
+
+POL. You can not express by words how dear it is.
+
+JOC. But how camest thou to Argos? What intention hadst thou?
+
+POL. Apollo gave a certain oracle to Adrastus.
+
+JOC. What is this thou hast mentioned? I am unable to discover.
+
+POL. To unite his daughters in marriage with a boar and lion.
+
+JOC. And what part of the name of beasts belongs to you, my son.
+
+POL. I know not. The God called me to this fortune.
+
+JOC. For the God is wise. But in what manner didst thou obtain her bed?
+
+POL. It was night; but I came to the portals of Adrastus.
+
+JOC. In search of a couch to rest on, as a wandering exile?
+
+POL. This was the case, and then indeed there came a second exile.
+
+JOC. Who was this? how unfortunate then was he also!
+
+POL. Tydeus, who they say sprung from Oeneus his sire.
+
+JOC. In what then did Adrastus liken you to beasts?
+
+POL. Because we came to blows for lodging.
+
+JOC. In this the son of Talaus understood the oracle.
+
+POL. And gave in marriage to us two his two virgin daughters.
+
+JOC. Art thou fortunate then in thy marriage alliance, or unfortunate?
+
+POL. My marriage can not be found fault with up to this day.
+
+JOC. But how didst thou persuade an army to follow you hither?
+
+POL. Adrastus swore this oath to his two sons-in-law, that he would replace
+both in their own country, but me first. And many princes of the Argives
+and Mycenaeans are at hand, rendering to me a sad, but necessary favor; for
+I am leading an army against this my own city; but I have called the Gods
+to witness how unwillingly I have raised the spear against my dearest
+parents. But the dissolution of these ills extends to thee, my mother, that
+having reconciled the friendly brothers, you may free from toil me and
+thyself, and the whole city. It is a proverb long ago chanted, but
+nevertheless I will repeat it; wealth is honored most of all things by men,
+and has the greatest influence of any thing among men. In pursuit of which
+I am come, leading hither ten thousand spears: for a nobly-born man in
+poverty is nothing.
+
+CHOR. And see Eteocles here comes to this mediation; thy business it is, O
+Jocasta, being their mother, to speak words, with which thou shalt
+reconcile thy children.
+
+ETEOCLES, POLYNICES, JOCASTA, CHORUS.
+
+ETEO. Mother, I am present; giving this grace to thee, I have come; what
+must I do? Let some one begin the conference. Since arranging also around
+the walls the chariots of the bands, I restrained the city, that I may hear
+from thee the common terms[24] of reconciliation, for which thou hast
+permitted this man to come within the walls under sanction of a truce,
+having persuaded me.
+
+JOC. Stay; precipitate haste has not justice; but slow counsels perform
+most deeds in wisdom. But repress that fierce eye and those blasts of rage;
+for thou art not looking on the Gorgon's head cut off at the neck, but thou
+art looking on thy brother who is come to thee. And do thou again,
+Polynices, turn thy face toward thy brother; for looking at the same point
+with thine eyes, thou wilt both speak better, and receive his words better.
+But I wish to give you a wise piece of advice. When a friend is enraged
+with a man his friend, having met him face to face, let him fix his eyes on
+his friend's eyes, this only ought he to consider, the end for which he is
+come, but to have no recollection of former grievances. Thy words then
+first, my son, Polynices; for thou art come leading an army of Argives,
+having suffered injustice, as thou sayest; and may some God be umpire and
+the reconciler of your strife.
+
+POL. The speech of truth is simple, and those things which are just need
+not wily interpretations; for they have energy themselves; but the unjust
+speech, unsound in itself, requires cunning preparations to gloze it. But I
+have previously considered for my father's house, and my own advantage and
+that of this man; desiring to escape the curses, which Oedipus denounced
+formerly against us, I myself of my own accord departed from this land,
+having given him to rule over his own country for the space of a year, so
+that I myself should have the government again, having received it in turn,
+and not having come into enmity and bloodshed with this man to perform some
+evil deed, and to suffer what is now taking place. But he having assented
+to this, and having brought the Gods to witness his oaths, has performed
+nothing of what he promised, but himself holds the regal power and my share
+of the palace. And now I am ready, having received my own right, to send
+the army away from out of this land, and to regulate my house, having
+received it in my turn, and to give it up again to this man for the same
+space of time, and neither to lay my country waste, nor to apply to its
+towers the means of ascent by the firmly-fixed ladders. Which, should I not
+meet with justice, will I endeavor to put in execution: and I call the Gods
+as witnesses of this, that acting in every thing with justice, I am without
+justice deprived of my country in the most unrighteous manner. These
+individual circumstances, mother, not having collected together intricacies
+of argument, have I declared, but both to the wise and to the illiterate
+just, as appears to me.
+
+CHOR. To me indeed, although we have not been brought up according to the
+Grecian land, nevertheless to me thou appearest to speak with judgment.
+
+ETEO. If the same thing were judged honorable alike by all, and at the same
+time wise, there would not be doubtful strife among men. But now nothing is
+similar, nothing the same among mortals, except in names; but the sense is
+not the same, for I, my mother, will speak having kept nothing back; I
+would mount to the rising of the stars, and sink beneath the earth, were I
+able to perform this, so that I might possess the greatest of the
+Goddesses, kingly power.[25] This prize then, my mother, I am not willing
+rather to give up to another, than to preserve for myself. For it implies
+cowardice in him, whoever having lost the greater share, hath received the
+less; but in addition to this I feel ashamed, that this man having come
+with arms, and laying the country waste, should obtain what he wishes; for
+to Thebes this would be a reproach, if through fear of the Mycenaean spear I
+should give up my sceptre for this man to hold. But he ought, my mother, to
+effect a reconciliation, not by arms: for speech does every thing which
+even the sword of the enemy could do. But if he is desirous of inhabiting
+this land in any other way, it is in his power; but the other point I will
+never give up willingly. When it is in my power to rule, ever to be a slave
+to him? Wherefore come fire, come sword, yoke thy steeds, fill the plains
+with chariots, since I will not give up my kingly power to this man. For if
+one must be unjust, it is most glorious to be unjust concerning empire, but
+in every thing else one should be just.
+
+CHOR. It is not right to speak well, where the deeds are not glorious; for
+this is not honorable, but galling to justice.
+
+JOC. My son, Eteocles, not every ill is added to age, but experience has it
+in its power to evince more wisdom than youth.[26] Why, my child, dost thou
+so desirously court ambition, the most baneful of the deities? do not thou;
+the Goddess is unjust. But she hath entered into many families and happy
+states and hath come forth again, to the destruction of those who have to
+do with her. Of whom thou art madly enamored. This is more noble, my son,
+to honor equality, which ever links friends with friends, and states with
+states, and allies with allies: for equality is sanctioned by law among
+men. But the lesser share is ever at enmity with the greater, and straight
+begins the day of hatred. For equality arranged also among mortals
+measures, and the divisions of weights, and defined numbers. And the dark
+eye of night, and the light of the sun, equally walk their annual round,
+and neither of them being overcome hath envy of the other. Thus the sun and
+the night are subservient to men, but wilt not thou brook having an equal
+share of government, and give his share to him? Then where is justice? Why
+dost thou honor so unboundedly that prosperous injustice, royalty, and
+think so highly of her? Is the being conspicuous honorable? At least, it is
+empty honor. Or dost thou desire to labor much, possessing much in thy
+house? but what is superfluity? It possesses but a name; since a
+sufficiency indeed to the temperate is abundance. Neither do men enjoy
+riches as their own, but having the property of the Gods do we cherish
+them. And when they list, again do they take them away. Come, if I ask
+thee, having proposed together two measures, whether it is thy wish to
+reign, or save the city? Wilt thou say, to reign? But should he conquer
+thee, and the Argive spears overcome the Cadmaeanforces, thou wilt behold
+this city of the Thebans vanquished, thou wilt behold many captive maidens
+with violence ravished by men your foes. Bitter then to Thebes will be the
+power which thou seekest to hold; but yet thou art ambitious of it. To thee
+I say this: but to thee, Polynices, say I, that Adrastus hath conferred an
+unwise favor on thee; and foolishly hast thou also come to destroy this
+city. Come, if thou wilt subdue this land (may which never happen), by the
+Gods, how wilt thou erect trophies of thy spear? And how again wilt thou
+sacrifice the first-fruits, having conquered thy country? and how wilt thou
+engrave upon the spoils by the waters of Inachus, "Having laid Thebes in
+ashes, Polynices consecrated these shields to the Gods?" Never, my son, may
+it come to thee to receive such glory from the Greeks. But again, shouldest
+thou be conquered, and should the arms of the other prevail, how wilt thou
+return to Argos having left behind ten thousand dead? Surely some one will
+say, O! unfortunate marriage alliance! O Adrastus, who placed them on us,
+through the nuptials of one bride we are lost! Thou art hastening two ills,
+my son, to be deprived of those, and to fail in this. Give up your too
+great ardor, give it up; the follies of two when they clash together in the
+same point, are the most hateful ill.
+
+CHOR. O ye Gods, may ye be averters of these ills, and grant to the
+children of Oedipus some means of agreement.
+
+ETEO. My mother, this is not a contest of words, but intervening time is
+fruitlessly wasted; and thy earnestness avails nothing; for we shall not
+agree in any other way, than on the terms proposed, that I holding the
+sceptre be monarch of this land. Forbearing then tedious admonitions, let
+me have my way; and do thou begone from out these walls, or thou shalt die.
+
+POL. By whose hand? Who is there so invulnerable, who having pointed the
+murderous sword against me, shall not bear the same fate?
+
+ETEO. He is near, not far removed from thee: dost thou look on these my
+hands?
+
+POL. I see them. But wealth is cowardly, and feeble, loving life.
+
+ETEO. And therefore hast thou come, with such a host against one who is
+nothing in arms?
+
+POL. For a cautious general is better than one daring.
+
+ETEO. Thou art insolent, having trusted in the truce, which preserves you
+from death.
+
+POL. A second time again I demand of you the sceptre and my share of the
+land.
+
+ETEO. I will admit no demand, for I will regulate my own family.
+
+POL. Holding more than your share?
+
+ETEO. I own it; but quit this land.
+
+POL. O ye altars of my paternal Gods.
+
+ETEO. Which thou art come to destroy?
+
+POL. Do ye hear me?
+
+ETEO. Who will hear thee, who art marching against thy country?
+
+POL. And ye shrines of the Gods[27] delighting in the milk-white steeds;
+
+ETEO. Who hate thee.
+
+POL. I am driven out of my own country.
+
+ETEO. For thou hast come to destroy it.
+
+POL. With injustice indeed, O ye Gods!
+
+ETEO. At Mycenae call upon the Gods, not here.
+
+POL. Thou art impious.
+
+ETEO. But not my country's enemy, as thou art.
+
+POL. Who drives me out without my share.
+
+ETEO. And I will put thee to death in addition.
+
+POL. My father, hearest thou what I suffer?
+
+ETEO. For he hears what wrongs thou doest.
+
+POL. And thou, my mother?
+
+ETEO. It is not lawful for thee to mention thy mother.
+
+POL. O my city!
+
+ETEO. To Argos go, and call on Lerna's stream.
+
+POL. I will go, do not distress thyself; but thee, my mother, I mention
+with honor.
+
+ETEO. Depart from out of the country.
+
+POL. I will go out; but grant me to see my father.
+
+ETEO. You will not obtain your request.
+
+POL. But my virgin sisters then.
+
+ETEO. Never shalt thou behold these.
+
+POL. O my sisters!
+
+ETEO. Why callest thou on these--being their greatest enemy?
+
+POL. My mother, but thou farewell.
+
+JOC. Do I experience any thing that is well, my son?
+
+POL. I am no longer thy child.
+
+JOC. To many troubles was I born.
+
+POL. For he throws insults on us.
+
+ETEO. For I am insulted in turn.
+
+POL. Where wilt thou stand before the towers?
+
+ETEO. Why dost thou ask me this question?
+
+POL. I will oppose myself to thee, to slay thee.
+
+ETEO. Desire of this seizes me also.
+
+JOC. Wretched me! what will ye do, my children?
+
+POL. The deed itself will show.
+
+JOC. Will ye not escape your father's curses?
+
+ETEO. Let the whole house perish!
+
+POL. Since soon my blood-stained sword will not remain any longer in
+inactivity. But I call to witness the land that nurtured me, and the Gods,
+how dishonored I am driven from this land, suffering such foul treatment,
+as a slave and not born of the same father Oedipus. And if any thing
+befalls thee, my city, blame not me, but him; for against my will have I
+come, and against my will am I driven from this land. And thou, king
+Apollo, God of our streets, and ye shrines, farewell, and ye my equals, and
+ye altars of the Gods receiving the victims; for I know not if it is
+allowed me ever again to address you. But hope does not yet slumber, in
+which I have trusted with the favor of the Gods, that having slain this
+man, I shall be master of this Theban land.
+
+ETEO. Depart from out of the country; with truth indeed did your father
+give you the name of Polynices by some divine foreknowledge, a name
+corresponding with strife.
+
+CHORUS.
+
+Cadmus came from Tyre to this land, before whom the quadrupede heifer bent
+with willing fall,[28] showing the accomplishment of the oracle, where the
+divine word ordered him to colonize the plains of the Aonians productive of
+wheat, where indeed the fair-flowing stream of the water of Dirce passes
+over the verdant and deep-furrowed fields, where the * * * * mother
+produced Bacchus, by her marriage with Jove, whom the wreathed ivy twining
+around him instantly, while yet a babe, blest and covered with its verdant
+shady branches, an event to be celebrated with Bacchic revel by the Theban
+virgins and inspired women. There was the bloodstained dragon of Mars, the
+savage guard, watching with far-rolling eyeballs over the flowing fountains
+and grassy streams; whom Cadmus, having come for water for purification,
+slew with a fragment of rock, the destroyer of the monster having thrown
+his arms with blows on his blood-stained head, by the counsel of the divine
+Pallas born without mother, having thrown the teeth fallen to the earth
+upon the deep-furrowed plains. Whence the earth sent forth a spectacle, an
+armed [host] above the extreme limits of the ground; but iron-hearted
+slaughter again united them with their beloved earth; and sprinkled with
+blood the ground which showed them to the serene gales of the air. And
+thee, sprung of old from our ancestor Io, Epaphus, O progeny of Jove, on
+thee have I called, have I called in a foreign tongue, with prayers in
+foreign accent, come, come to this land (thy descendants have founded it),
+where the two Goddesses Proserpine and the dear Goddess Ceres, queen of all
+(since earth nurtures all things), have held their possessions, send the
+fire-bearing Goddesses to defend this land: since every thing is easy to
+the Gods.
+
+ETEOCLES, CHORUS, MESSENGER.
+
+ETEO. Go thou, and bring hither Creon son of Menoeceus, the brother of my
+mother Jocasta, saying this, that I wish to communicate with him counsels
+of a private nature and those which concern the common welfare of the
+country, before we go into battle and the ranks of war. And see, he spares
+the trouble of your steps, by his presence; for I see him coming toward my
+palace.
+
+CREON, ETEOCLES, CHORUS.
+
+CRE. Surely have I visited many places, desiring to see you, O king
+Eteocles! and I have gone round to the gates and the guards of the Thebans,
+seeking you.
+
+ETEO. And indeed I have wished to see you, Creon, for I found attempts at
+reconciliation altogether fail when I came and entered into conference with
+Polynices.
+
+CRE. I have heard that he aspires to higher thoughts than Thebes, having
+trusted in his alliance with Adrastus and his army. But it becomes us to
+hold these things in dependence on the Gods. But what is most immediately
+before us, this am I come to acquaint you with.
+
+ETEO. What is this? for I understand not your speech.
+
+CRE. A prisoner is arrived from the Argives.
+
+ETEO. Does he bring us any news of those stationed there?
+
+CRE. The Argive army is preparing quickly to surround the city of the
+Thebans with thickly-ranged arms.(Note [B].)
+
+ETEO. Therefore must we draw our forces out of the Theban city.
+
+CRE. Whither? Dost thou not in the impetuosity of youth see what it
+behooves thee to see?
+
+ETEO. Without these trenches, as we are quickly about to fight.
+
+CRE. Small are the forces of this land; but theirs innumerable.
+
+ETEO. I know that they are bold in words.
+
+CRE. Argos of the Greeks has some renown.
+
+ETEO. Be confident; quickly will I fill the plain with their slaughter.
+
+CRE. I would it were so: but this I see is a work of much labor.
+
+ETEO. Know that I will not restrain my forces within the walls.
+
+CRE. And yet the whole of victory is prudence.
+
+ETEO. Dost thou wish then that I have recourse to other measures?
+
+CRE. To every measure indeed, rather than hazard all on one battle.
+
+ETEO. What if we were to attack them by night from ambush?
+
+CRE. If, having failed, at least you can have a safe retreat hither.
+
+ETEO. Night brings the same advantage to all, but more to the daring.
+
+CRE. Dreadful is it to fail in the darkness of night.
+
+ETEO. But shall I lead my force against them while at their meal?
+
+CRE. That would cause terror; but we must conquer.
+
+ETEO. The ford of Dirce is indeed deep to pass.
+
+CRE. Every thing is inferior to a good guard.
+
+ETEO. What then, shall I charge the Argive army with my cavalry?
+
+CRE. And there the army is fenced round with chariots.
+
+ETEO. What then shall I do? give up the city to the enemy?
+
+CRE. By no means; but deliberate if thou art wise.
+
+ETEO. What more prudent forethought is there?
+
+CRE. They say that they have seven men, as I have heard.
+
+ETEO. What have they been commanded to do? for their strength is small.
+
+CRE. To head their bands, to besiege the seven gates.
+
+ETEO. What then shall we do? I will not wait this indecision.
+
+CRE. Do thou thyself also choose seven men for the gates.
+
+ETEO. To head divisions, or for single combat?
+
+CRE. To head divisions, having selected the bravest.
+
+ETEO. I understand you; to guard the approach to the walls.
+
+CRE. And with them other generals; one man sees not every thing?
+
+ETEO. Having chosen them for boldness, or prudence in judgment?
+
+CRE. For both; for one without the other availeth nothing.
+
+ETEO. It shall be so: and having gone to the city of the seven towers, I
+will appoint chiefs at the gates, as you advise, having opposed equal
+champions against equal foes. But to mention the name of each would be a
+great delay, the enemy encamped under our very walls. But I will go, that I
+may not be idle with my hand. And may it befall me to find my brother
+opposed to me, and being joined with me in battle, to take him with my
+spear, [and to slay him, who came to desolate my country.] But it is thy
+duty to attend to the marriage of my sister Antigone and thy son Haemon, if
+I fail aught of success; but the firm vow made before I now confirm at my
+going out. Thou art my mother's brother, why need I use more words? Treat
+her worthily, both for thine own and my sake. But my father incurs the
+punishment of the rashness he brought upon himself, having quenched his
+sight; I praise him not; even us will he put to death with his execrations,
+should he gain his point. But one thing is left undone by us, if the
+soothsayer Tiresias have any oracle to deliver, to enquire this of him; but
+I will send thy son, Creon, Menoeceus, of the same name with thy father, to
+bring Tiresias hither. With pleasure will he enter into conversation with
+you; but I lately reviled him with his divining art, so that he is offended
+with me. But this charge I give the city with thee, Creon; if my arms
+should conquer, that the body of Polynices be never buried in this Theban
+land; but that the man who buries him shall die, although he be a friend.
+This I have told you: but my attendants I tell, bring out my arms, and my
+panoply which covers me, that we may go this appointed contest of the spear
+with victorious justice. But to Caution, the most valued of the Goddesses,
+will we address our prayers to preserve this city.
+
+CHORUS.
+
+O Mars, cause of infinite woe, why, I pray, art thou so possessed with
+blood and death, so discordant with the revels of Bacchus? Thou dost not in
+the circle of beautiful dancers in the bloom of youth, having let flow thy
+hair,[29] on the breath of the flute modulate strains, in which there is a
+lovely power to renew the dance. But with thy armed men, having excited the
+army of Argives against Thebes with blood, thou dancest before the city in
+a most inharmonious revel, thou movest not thy foot maddened by the thyrsus
+clad in fawn-skins, but thy solid-hoofed steed with thy chariot and horses'
+bits; and bounding at the streams of Ismenus, thou art borne rapidly in the
+chariot-course, having excited against the race of those sown [by Cadmus,]
+a raging host that grasp the shield, well armed, adverse to us at the walls
+of stone: surely Discord is some dreadful Goddess, who devised all these
+calamities against the princes of this land, the Labdacidae involved in woe.
+O thou forest of heavenly foliage, most productive of beasts, thou snowy
+eye of Diana, Cithaeron, never oughtest thou to have nourished him doomed to
+death, the son of Jocasta, Oedipus, the babe who was cast out from his
+home, marked by the golden clasps. Neither ought that winged virgin the
+Sphinx, thou mountain monster, that grief to this land, to have come, with
+her most inharmonious lays; who formerly approaching our walls, bore in her
+four talons the descendants of Cadmus to the inaccessible light of heaven,
+whom the infernal Pluto sends against the Thebans; but other ill-fated
+discord among the children of Oedipus springs up in the palace and in the
+city. For that which is not honorable, never can be honorable, as neither
+can children the unhallowed offspring of the mother, the pollution of the
+father. But she came to a kindred bed. Thou didst produce, O [Theban] land!
+thou didst produce formerly (as I heard the foreign report,[30] I heard it
+formerly at home), the race sprung from teeth from the fiery-crested dragon
+fed on beasts, the proudest honor of Thebes. But to the nuptials of
+Harmonia the Gods came of old, and by the harp and by the lyre of Amphion
+uprose the walls of Thebes the tower of the double streams,[31] at the
+midst of the pass of Dirce, which waters the verdant plain before Ismenus.
+And Io, our ancient mother, doomed to bear horns, brought forth a line of
+Theban kings. But this city receiving ten thousand goods one in change for
+another, hath stood in the highest chaplets of war.
+
+TIRESIAS (_led by his daughter_), MENOECEUS, CREON, CHORUS.
+
+TIR. Lead onward, my daughter, since thou art an eye to my blind steps, as
+the star to the mariners. Placing my steps hither on this level plain,
+proceed lest we stumble; thy father is feeble; and preserve carefully in
+thy virgin hand my calculations which I took, having learned the auguries
+of the birds, sitting in the sacred seats where I fortell the future. My
+child, Menoeceus, son of Creon, tell me, how far is the remainder of the
+journey through the city to thy father? Since my knees are weary, and with
+difficulty I accomplish such a long journey.
+
+CRE. Be of good cheer; for thou hast steered thy foot, Tiresias, near to
+thy friends; but take hold of him, my son. Since every chariot,[32] and the
+foot of the aged man is used to expect the assistance of another's hand.
+
+TIR. Well: I am present; but why didst thou call me with such haste, Creon?
+
+CRE. We have not as yet forgotten: but recover thy strength, and collect
+thy breath, having thrown aside the fatigue occasioned by the journey.
+
+TIR. I am relaxed indeed[32a] with toil, brought hither from the Athenians
+the day before this. For there also was a contest of the spear with
+Eumolpus, where I made the descendants of Cecrops splendid conquerors. And
+I wear this golden chaplet, as thou seest, having received the first-fruits
+of the spoil of the enemy.
+
+CRE. Thy victorious garlands I make a happy omen. For we, as thou well
+knowest, are tossing in a storm of war with the Greeks, and great is the
+hazard of Thebes. The king Eteocles has therefore gone forth adorned with
+his armor already to battle with the Argives. But to me has he sent that I
+might learn from you, by doing what we should be most likely to preserve
+the city.
+
+TRE. For Eteocles' sake indeed I would have stopped my mouth, and repressed
+the oracles, but to thee, since thou desirest to know them, will I declare
+them: for this land labors under the malady of old, O Creon, from the time
+when Laius became the father of children in spite of the Gods, and begat
+the wretched Oedipus, a husband for his mother. But the cruel lacerations
+of his eyes were in the wisdom of the Gods, and a warning to Greece. Which
+things the sons of Oedipus seeking to conceal among themselves by the lapse
+of time, as about forsooth to escape from the Gods, erred through their
+ignorance, for they neither giving the honor due to their father, nor
+allowing him a free liberty, infuriated the unfortunate man: and he
+breathed out against them dreadful threats, being both in affliction, and
+moreover dishonored. And I, what things omitting to do, and what words
+omitting to speak on the subject, have nevertheless fallen into the hatred
+of the sons of Oedipus? But death from their mutual hands is near them, O
+Creon. And many corses fallen around corses, having mingled the weapons of
+Argos and Thebes, shall cause bitter lamentations to the Theban land. And
+thou, O wretched city, art sapped from thy foundations, unless men will
+obey my words. For this were the first thing, that not any of the family of
+Oedipus should be citizens, nor king of the territory, inasmuch as they are
+possessed by demons, and are they that will overthrow the city. And since
+the evil triumphs over the good, there is one other thing requisite to
+insure preservation. But, as this is neither safe for me to say, and
+distressing to those on whom the lot has fallen, to give to the city the
+balm of preservation, I will depart: farewell; for being an individual with
+many shall I suffer what is about to happen if it must be so; for what can
+I do![33]
+
+CRE. Stay here, old man.
+
+TIR. Lay not hold upon me.
+
+CRE. Remain; why dost thou fly me?
+
+TIR. Thy fortune flies thee, but not I.
+
+CRE. Tell me the means of preserving the citizens and their city.
+
+TRE. Thou wishest now indeed, and soon thou wilt not wish.
+
+CRE. And how am I not willing to preserve my country?
+
+TIR. Art thou willing then to hear, and art thou eager?
+
+CRE. For toward what ought I to have a greater eagerness?
+
+TIR. Hear now then my prophecies.--But this first I wish to ascertain
+clearly, where is Menoeceus who brought me hither.
+
+CRE. He is not far off, but close to thee.
+
+TIR. Let him depart then afar from my oracles.
+
+CRE. He that is my son will keep secret what ought to be kept secret.
+
+TIR. Art thou willing then that I speak in his presence?
+
+CRE. _Yes_: for he would be delighted to hear of the means of preservation.
+
+TIR. Hear now then the tenor of my oracles; what things doing ye may
+preserve the city of the Cadmeans. It is necessary for thee to sacrifice
+this thy son Menoeceus for the country, since thou thyself callest for this
+fortune.
+
+CRE. What sayest thou, what word is this thou hast spoken, old man?
+
+TIR. As circumstances are, thus also oughtest thou to act.
+
+CRE. O thou, that hast said many evils in a short time!
+
+TIR. To thee at least; but to thy country great and salutary.
+
+CRE. I heard not, I attended not; let the city go where it will.
+
+TIR. This is no longer the same man; he retracts again what he said.
+
+CRE. Farewell! depart; for I have no need of thy prophecies.
+
+TIR. Has truth perished, because thou art unfortunate?
+
+CRE. By thy knees I implore thee, and by thy reverend locks.
+
+TIR. Why kneel to me? the evils thou askest are hard to be controlled.
+(Note [E].)
+
+CRE. Keep it secret; and speak not these words to the city.
+
+TIR. Dost thou command me to be unjust? I can not be silent.
+
+CRE. What then wilt thou do to me? Wilt thou slay my son?
+
+TIR. These things will be a care to others; but by me will it be spoken.
+
+CRE. But from whence has this evil come to me, and to my child?
+
+TIR. Well dost thou ask me, and comest to the drift of my discourse. It is
+necessary that he, stabbed in that cave where the earth-born dragon lay,
+the guardian of Dirce's fountain, give his gory blood a libation to the
+earth on account of the ancient wrath of Mars against Cadmus, who avenges
+the slaughter of the earth-born dragon; and these things done, ye shall
+obtain Mars as your ally. But if the earth receive fruit in return for
+fruit, and mortal blood in return for blood, ye shall have that land
+propitious, which formerly sent forth a crop of men from seed armed with
+golden helmets; but there must of this race die one, who is the son of the
+dragon's jaw. But thou art left among us of the race of those sown men,
+pure in thy descent, both by thy mother's side and in the male line; and
+thy children too: Haemon's marriage however precludes his being slain, for
+he is not a youth, [for, although he has not approached her bed, he has yet
+contracted the marriage.] But this youth, devoted to this city, by dying
+may preserve his native country. And he will cause a bitter return to
+Adrastus and the Argives, casting back death over their eyes, and Thebes
+will he make illustrious: of these two fates choose the one; either
+preserve thy child or the state. Every information from me thou hast:--lead
+me, my child, toward home;--but whoever exercises the art of divination, is
+a fool; if indeed he chance to show disagreeable things, he is rendered
+hateful to those to whom he may prophesy; but speaking falsely to his
+employers from motives of pity, he is unjust as touching the Gods.--Phoebus
+alone should speak in oracles to men, who fears nobody.
+
+CREON, MENOECEUS, CHORUS.
+
+CHOR. Creon, why art thou mute compressing thy voice in silence, for to me
+also there is no less consternation.
+
+CRE. But what can one say?--It is clear however what my answer will be. For
+never will I go to this degree of calamity, to expose my son a victim for
+the state. For all men live with an affection toward their children, nor
+would any give up his own child to die. Let no one praise me for the deed,
+and slay my children. But I myself, for I am arrived at a mature period of
+life, am ready to die to liberate my country. But haste, my son, before the
+whole city hears it, disregarding the intemperate oracles of prophets, fly
+as quickly as possible, having quitted this land. For he will tell these
+things to the authorities and chiefs, going to the seven gates, and to the
+officers: and if indeed we get before him, there is safety for thee, but if
+thou art too late, we are undone, thou diest.
+
+MEN. Whither then fly? To what city? what friends?
+
+CRE. Wheresoever thou wilt be farthest removed from this country.
+
+MEN. Therefore it is fitting for thee to speak, and for me to do.
+
+CRE. Having passed through Delphi--
+
+MEN. Whither is it right for me to go, my father?
+
+CRE. To the land of AEtolia.
+
+MEN. And from this whither shall I proceed?
+
+CRE. To Thesprotia's soil.
+
+MEN. To the sacred seat of Dodona?
+
+CRE. Thou understandest.
+
+MEN. What then will there be to protect me?
+
+CRE. The conducting deity.
+
+MEN. But what means of procuring money?
+
+CRE. I will supply gold.
+
+MEN. Thou sayest well, my father. Go then, for having proceeded to
+salute[34] thy sister, whose breast I first sucked, Jocasta I mean,
+deprived of my mother, and reft from her, an orphan, I will depart and save
+my life. But haste, go, let not thy purpose be hindered.
+
+MENOECEUS, CHORUS.
+
+MEN. Ye females, how well removed I my father's fears, having deceived him
+with words, in order to gain my wishes; who sends me out of the way,
+depriving the city of its good fortune, and gives me up to cowardice. And
+these things are pardonable indeed in an old man, but in my case it
+deserves no pardon to become the deserter of that country which gave me
+birth. That ye may know then, I will go, and preserve the city, and will
+give up my life for this land. For it is a disgraceful thing, that those
+indeed who are free from the oracle, and are not concerned with any
+compulsion of the Gods, standing at their shields in battle, shall not be
+slow to die fighting before the towers for their country; and I, having
+betrayed my father, and my brother, and my own city, shall depart
+coward-like from out of the land; but wherever I live, I shall appear vile.
+No: by that Jove that dwelleth amidst the constellations, and sanguinary
+Mars, who set up those sown men, who erst sprung from the earth, to be
+kings of this country. But I will depart, and standing on the summit of the
+battlements, stabbing myself over the dark deep lair of the dragon, where
+the prophet appointed, will give liberty to the country--the word has been
+spoken. But I go, by my death about to give no mean gift to the state, and
+will rid this land of its affliction. For if every one, seizing what
+opportunity he had in his power of doing good, would persist in it, and
+bring it forward for his country's weal, states, experiencing fewer
+calamities, henceforward might be prosperous.
+
+CHOR. Thou camest forth, thou camest forth, O winged monster, production of
+the earth, and the viper of hell, the ravager of the Cadmeans, big with
+destruction, big with woes, in form half-virgin, a hostile prodigy, with
+thy ravening wings, and thy talons that preyed on raw flesh, who erst from
+Dirce's spot bearing aloft the youths, accompanied by an inharmonious lay,
+thou broughtest, thou broughtest cruel woes to our country; cruel was he of
+the Gods, whoever was the author of these things. And the moans of the
+matrons, and the moans of the virgins, resounded in the house, in a voice,
+in a strain of misery, they lamented some one thing, some another, in
+succession through the city. And the groaning and the noise was like to
+thunder, when the winged virgin bore out of sight any man from the city.
+But at length came by the mission of the Pythian oracle Oedipus the unhappy
+to this land of Thebes, to us then indeed delighted, but again came woes.
+For he, wretched man, having gained the glorious victory over the enigmas,
+contracts a marriage, an unfortunate marriage with his mother, and pollutes
+the city. And fresh woes does the unfortunate man cause to succeed with
+slaughter, devoting by curses his sons to the unhallowed contest.--With
+admiration, with admiration we look on him, who is gone to kill himself for
+the sake of his country's land; to Creon indeed having left lamentations,
+but about to make the seven-towered gates of the land greatly victorious.
+Thus may we be mothers, thus may we be blest in our children, O dear
+Pallas, who destroyedst the blood of the dragon by the hurled stone,
+driving the attention of Cadmus to the action, whence with rapine some
+fiend of the Gods rushed on this land.
+
+MESSENGER, JOCASTA, CHORUS.
+
+MESS. Ho there! who is at the gate of the palace? Open, conduct Jocasta
+from out of the house.--What ho! again--after a long time indeed, but yet
+come forth, hear, O renowned wife of Oedipus, ceasing from thy
+lamentations, and thy tears of grief.
+
+JOC. O most dear man, surely thou comest bearing the news of some calamity,
+of the death of Eteocles, by whose shield thou always didst go, warding off
+the weapons of the enemy. What new message, I pray, dost thou come to
+deliver? Is my son dead or alive? Tell me.
+
+MESS. He lives, be not alarmed for this, for I will rid thee of this fear.
+
+JOC. But what? In what state are our seven-towered ramparts?
+
+MESS. They stand unshaken, nor is the city destroyed.
+
+JOC. Come they in danger from the spear of Argos?
+
+MESS. To the very extreme of danger; but the arms of Thebes came off
+superior to the Mycenaean spear.
+
+JOC. Tell me one thing, by the Gods, whether thou knowest any thing of
+Polynices (since this is a concern to me also) whether he sees the light.
+
+MESS. Thus far in the day thy pair of children lives.
+
+JOC. Be thou blest. But how did ye stationed on the towers drive off the
+spear of Argos from the gates? Tell me, that I may go and delight the old
+blind man in the house with the news of his country's being preserved.
+
+MESS. After that the son of Creon, he that died for the land, standing on
+the summit of the towers, plunged the black-handled sword into his throat,
+the salvation of this land, thy son placed seven cohorts, and their leaders
+with them, at the seven gates, guards against the Argive spear; and he drew
+up the horse ready to support the horse, and the heavy-armed men to
+reinforce the shield-bearers, so that to the part of the wall which was in
+danger there might be succor at hand. But from the lofty citadel we view
+the army of the Argives with their white shields, having quitted Tumessus
+and now come near the trench, at full speed they reached the city of the
+land of Cadmus. And the paean and the trumpets at the same time from them
+resounded, and off the walls from us. And first indeed Parthenopaeus the son
+of the huntress (_Atalanta_) led his division horrent with their thick
+shields against the Neitan[35] gate, having a family device in the middle
+of his shield, Atalanta destroying the AEtolian boar with her
+distant-wounding bow. And against the Praetan gate marched the prophet
+Amphiaraues, having victims in his car, not bearing an insolent emblem, but
+modestly having his arms without a device. But against the Ogygian gate
+stood Prince Hippomedon, bearing an emblem in the middle of his shield, the
+Argus gazing with his spangled[36] eyes, [some eyes indeed with the rising
+of the stars awake,[37] and some with the setting closed, as we had the
+opportunity of seeing afterward when he was dead.] But Tydeus was drawn up
+at the Homoloian gate, having on his shield a lion's skin rough with his
+mane, but in his right hand he bore a torch, as the Titan Prometheus,[38]
+intent on firing the city. But thy son Polynices drew up his array at the
+Crenean gate; but the swift Potnian mares, the emblem on his shield, were
+starting through fright, well circularly[39] grouped within _the orb_ at
+the handle of the shield, so that they seemed infuriated. But Capaneus, not
+holding less notions than Mars on the approaching battle, drew up his
+division against the Electran gate. Upon the iron embossments of his shield
+was an earth-born giant bearing upon his shoulders a whole city, which he
+had torn up from the foundations with bars, an intimation to us what our
+city should suffer. But at the seventh gate was Adrastus, having his shield
+filled with a hundred vipers, bearing on his left arm a representation of
+the hydra, the boast of Argos, and from the midst of the walls the dragons
+were bearing the children of the Thebans in their jaws. But I had the
+opportunity of seeing each of these, as I took the word of battle to the
+leaders of the divisions. And first indeed we fought with bows, and
+javelins, and distant-wounding slings, and fragments of rocks; but when we
+were conquering in the fight, Tydeus shouted out, and thy son on a sudden,
+"O sons of the Danai, why delay we, ere we are galled with their missile
+weapons, to make a rush at the gates all in a body, light-armed men,
+horsemen, and those who drive the chariots?" And when they heard the cry,
+no one was backward; but many fell, their heads besmeared with blood; of us
+also you might have seen before the walls frequent divers toppling to the
+ground; and they moistened the parched earth with streams of blood. But the
+Arcadian, no Argive, the son of Atalanta, as some whirlwind falling on the
+gates, calls out for fire and a spade, as though he would dig up the city.
+But Periclymenus the son of the God of the Ocean stopped him in his raging,
+hurling at his head a stone, a wagon-load, a pinnacle[40] _rent_ from the
+battlement; and dashed in pieces his head with its auburn hair, and crushed
+the suture of the bones, and besmeared with blood his lately blooming
+cheeks; nor shall he carry back his living form to his mother, glorious in
+her bow, the daughter of Maenalus. But when thy son saw this gate was in a
+state of safety, he went to another, and I followed. But I see Tydeus, and
+many armed with shields around him, darting with their AEtolian lances at
+the highest battlements of the towers, so that our men put to flight
+quitted the heights of the ramparts; but thy son, as a hunter, collects
+them together again; and posted them a second time on the towers; and we
+hasten on to another gate, having relieved the distress in this quarter.
+But Capaneus, how can I express the measure of his rage! For he came
+bearing the ranges of a long-reaching ladder, and made this high boast,
+"That not even the hallowed fire of Jove should hinder him from taking the
+city from its highest turrets." And these things soon as he had proclaimed,
+though assailed with stones, he clambered up, having contracted his body
+under his shield, climbing the slippery footing of the bars[41] of the
+ladder: but when he was now mounting the battlements of the walls Jupiter
+strikes him with his thunder; and the earth resounded, insomuch that all
+trembled; and his limbs were hurled, as it were by a sling, from the ladder
+separately from one another, his hair to heaven, and his blood to the
+ground, and his limbs, like the whirling of Ixion on his wheel, were
+carried round; and his scorched body falls to the earth. But when Adrastus
+saw that Jove was hostile to his army, he stationed the host of the Argives
+without the trench. But ours on the contrary, when they saw the auspicious
+sign from Jove, drove out their chariots, horsemen and heavy-armed, and
+rushing into the midst of the Argive arms engaged in fight: and there were
+all the sorts of misery together: they died, they fell from their chariots,
+and the wheels leaped up and axles upon axles: and corses were heaped
+together with corses.--We have preserved then our towers from being
+overthrown to this present day; but whether for the future this land will
+be prosperous, rests with the Gods.
+
+CHOR. To conquer is glorious; but if the Gods have the better intent, may I
+be fortunate!
+
+JOC. Well are the ways of the Gods, and of fortune; for my children live,
+and my country has escaped; but the unhappy Creon seems to feel the effects
+of my marriage, and of Oedipus's misfortunes, being deprived of his child;
+for the state indeed, happily, but individually, to his misery: but recount
+to me again, what after this did my two sons purpose to do?
+
+MESS. Forbear the rest; for in every circumstance hitherto thou art
+fortunate.
+
+JOC. This hast thou said so as to raise suspicion; I must not forbear.
+
+MESS. Dost thou want any thing more than that thy sons are safe?
+
+JOC. In what follows also I would hear if I am fortunate.
+
+MESS. Let me go: thy son is deprived of his armor-bearer.
+
+JOC. Thou concealest some ill and coverest it in obscurity.
+
+MESS. I can not speak thy ills after thy happiness.
+
+JOC. _But thou shalt_, unless fleeing from me thou fleest through the air.
+
+MESS. Alas! alas! Why dost thou not suffer me to depart after a message of
+glad tidings, but forcest me to tell calamities?--Thy sons are intent on
+most shameful deeds of boldness--to engage in single combat apart from the
+whole army, having addressed to the Argives and Thebans in common a speech,
+such as they never ought to have spoken. But Eteocles began, standing on
+the lofty turret, having commanded to proclaim silence to the army. And he
+said, "O generals of the Grecian land, and chieftains of the Danai, who
+have come hither, and O people of Cadmus, neither for the sake of Polynices
+barter your lives, nor for my cause. For I myself, taking this danger on
+myself, alone will enter the lists with my brother; and if indeed I slay
+him, I will dwell in the palace alone; but should I be subdued, I will give
+it up to him alone. But you, ceasing from the combat, O Argives, shall
+return to your land, not leaving your lives here; [of the Theban people
+also there is enough that lieth dead,"] Thus much he spake; but thy son
+Polynices rushed from the ranks, and approved his words. But all the
+Argives murmured their applause, and the people of Cadmus, as thinking this
+plan just. And after this the generals made a truce, and in the space
+between the two armies pledged an oath to abide by it. And now the two sons
+of the aged Oedipus clad their bodies in an entire suit of brazen armor.
+And their friends adorned them, the champion of this land indeed the
+chieftains of the Thebans; and him the principal men of the Danai. And they
+stood resplendent, and they changed not their color, raging to let forth
+their spears at each other. But their friends on either side as they passed
+by encouraging them with words, thus spoke. "Polynices, it rests with thee
+to erect the statue of Jove, emblem of victory, and to confer a glorious
+fame on Argos." But to Eteocles on the other hand; "Now thou fightest for
+the state, now if thou come off victorious, thou art in possession of the
+sceptre." These things they said exhorting them to the combat. But the
+seers sacrificed the sheep, and scrutinized the shooting of the flames, and
+the bursting _of the gall_, the moisture adverse[42] _to the fire_, and the
+extremity of the flame, which bears a two-fold import, both the sign of
+victory,[43] and the sign of being defeated.[44] But if thou hast any
+power, or words of wisdom, or the soothing charms of incantation, go, stay
+thy children from the fearful combat, since great the danger, [and dreadful
+will be the sequel of the contest, _namely_, tears for thee, deprived this
+day of thy two children.]
+
+JOC. O my child, Antigone, come forth from before the palace; the state of
+thy fortune suits not now the dance, nor the virgin's chamber, but it is
+thy duty, in conjunction with thy mother, to hinder two excellent men, and
+thy brothers verging toward death from falling by each other's hands.
+
+ANTIGONE, JOCASTA, CHORUS.
+
+ANT. With what new horrors, O mother of my being, dost thou call out to thy
+friends before the house?
+
+JOC. O my daughter, the life of thy brothers is gone from them.
+
+ANT. How sayest thou?
+
+JOC. They are drawn out in single combat.
+
+ANT. Alas me! what wilt thou say, my mother?
+
+JOC. Nothing of pleasant import; but follow.
+
+ANT. Whither? leaving my virgin chamber.
+
+JOC. To the army.
+
+ANT. I am ashamed to go among the crowd.
+
+JOC. Thy present state admits not bashfulness.
+
+ANT. But what shall I do then?
+
+JOC. Thou shalt quell the strife of the brothers.
+
+ANT. Doing what, my mother.
+
+JOC. Falling before them with me.
+
+ANT. Lead to the space between the armies; we must not delay.
+
+JOC. Haste, daughter, haste, since, if indeed I reach my sons before they
+engage, I still exist in heaven's fair light, but if they die, I shall lie
+dead with them.
+
+CHORUS.
+
+Alas! alas! shuddering with horror, shuddering is my breast; and through my
+flesh came pity, pity for the unhappy mother, on account of her two
+children, whether of them then will distain with blood the other (alas me
+for my sufferings, O Jove, O earth), the own brother's neck, the own
+brother's life, in arms, in slaughter? Wretched, wretched I, over which
+corse then shall I raise the lamentation for the dead? O earth, earth, the
+two beasts of prey, blood-thirsty souls, brandishing the spear, will
+quickly distain with blood the fallen, fallen enemy. Wretches, that they
+ever came to the thought of a single combat! In a foreign strain will I
+mourn with tears my elegy of groans due to the dead. Destiny is at
+hand--death is near; this day will decide the event. Ill-fated, ill-fated
+murder because of the Furies! But I see Creon here with clouded brow
+advancing toward the house, I will cease therefore from the groans I am
+uttering.
+
+CREON, CHORUS.
+
+CRE. Ah me! what shall I do? whether am I to groan in weeping myself, or
+the city, which a cloud of such magnitude encircles as to cast us amidst
+the gloom of Acheron? For my son has perished having died for the city,
+having achieved a glorious name, but to me a name of sorrow. Him having
+taken just now from the dragon's den, stabbed by his own hand, I wretched
+bore in my arms; and the whole house resounds with shrieks; but I, myself
+aged, am come after my aged sister Jocasta, that she may wash and lay out
+my son now no more. For it behooves the living well to revere the God below
+by paying honors to the dead.
+
+CHOR. Thy sister is gone out of the house, O Creon, and the girl Antigone
+attending the steps of her mother.
+
+CRE. Whither? and for what hap? tell me.
+
+CHOR. She heard that her sons were about to come to a contest in single
+battle for the royal palace.
+
+CRE. How sayest thou? whilst I was fondly attending to my son's corse, I
+arrived not so far _in knowledge_, as to be acquainted with this also.
+
+CHOR. But thy sister has indeed been gone some time; but I think, O Creon,
+that the contest, in which their lives are at stake, has already been
+concluded by the sons of Oedipus.
+
+CRE. Ah me! I see indeed this signal, the downcast eye and countenance of
+the approaching messenger, who will relate every thing that has taken
+place.
+
+MESSENGER, CREON, CHORUS.
+
+MESS. O wretched me! what language or what words can I utter? we are
+undone--
+
+CRE. Thou beginnest thy speech with no promising prelude.
+
+MESS. Oh wretched me! doubly do I lament, for I hear great calamities.
+
+CRE. In addition to the calamities that have happened dost thou still speak
+of others?
+
+MESS. Thy sister's sons, O Creon, no longer behold the light.
+
+CRE. Ah! alas! thou utterest great ills to me and to the state.
+
+MESS. O mansions of Oedipus, do ye hear these things of thy children who
+have perished by similar fates?
+
+CHOR. Ay, so that, had they but sense, they would weep.
+
+CRE. O most heavy misery! Oh me wretched with woes! alas! unhappy me!
+
+MESS. If that thou knewest the evils yet in addition to these.
+
+CRE. And how can there be more fatal ills than these?
+
+MESS. Thy sister is dead with her two children.
+
+CHOR. Raise, raise the cry of woe, and smite your heads with the blows of
+your white hands.
+
+CRE. Oh unhappy Jocasta, what an end of thy life and of thy marriage hast
+thou endured in the riddles of the Sphinx![45] But how took place the
+slaughter of her two sons, and the combat arising from the curse of
+Oedipus? tell me.
+
+MESS. The success of the country before the towers indeed thou knowest; for
+the circuit of the wall is not of such vast extent, but that thou must know
+all that has taken place. But after that the sons of the aged Oedipus had
+clad their limbs in brazen armor, they came and stood in the midst of the
+plain between the two armies, ready for the contest, and the fierceness of
+the single battle. And having cast a look toward Argos, Polynices uttered
+his prayer; "O venerable Juno (for I am thine, since in marriage I joined
+myself with the daughter of Adrastus, and dwell in that land), grant me to
+slay my brother, and to cover with blood my hostile hand bearing the
+victory." And Eteocles looking at the temple of Pallas, glorious in her
+golden shield, prayed; "O Daughter of Jove, grant me with my hand to hurl
+my victorious spear from this arm home to the breast of my brother, [and
+slay him who came to lay waste my country."] And when the sound of the
+Tuscan trumpet was raised, as the torch, the signal for the fierce battle,
+they sped with dreadful rush toward each other; and like wild boars
+whetting their savage tusks, they met, their cheeks all moist with foam;
+and they rushed forward with their lances; but they couched beneath the
+orbs of their shields, in order that the steel might fall harmless. But if
+either perceived the other's eye raised above the verge, he drove the lance
+at his face, intent to be beforehand with him: but dexterously they shifted
+their eyes to the open ornaments of their shields, so that the spear was
+made of none effect. And more sweat trickled down the spectators than the
+combatants, through the fear of their friends. But Eteocles, stumbling with
+his foot against a stone, which rolled under his tread,[46] places his limb
+without the shield. But Polynices ran up with his spear, when he saw a
+stroke open to his steel, and the Argive spear passed through the shank.
+And all the host of the Danai shouted for joy. And the hero who first was
+wounded, when he perceived his shoulder exposed in this effort, pierced the
+breast of Polynices with his lance, and gave joy to the citizens of Cadmus,
+but he broke the point of his spear. But being come to a strait for a
+spear, he retreated backward on his leg, and taking a stone of marble, he
+hurled it and crashed _his antagonist's_ spear in the middle: and the
+battle was on equal terms, both being deprived of the spear in their hands.
+Then seizing the handles of their swords they met at close quarters, and,
+as they clashed their shields together, raised a great tumult of battle
+around them. And Eteocles having a sort of idea of its success, made use of
+a Thessalian stratagem, _which he had learned_ from his connection with
+that country. For giving up his present mode of attack, he brings his left
+foot behind, protecting well the pit of his own stomach; and stepping
+forward his right leg, he plunged the sword through the navel, and drove it
+to the vertebrae. But the unhappy Polynices bending together his side and
+his bowels falls weltering in blood. But the other, as he were now the
+victor, and had subdued him in the fight, casting his sword on the ground,
+went to spoil him, not fixing his attention on himself, but on that his
+purpose. Which thing also deceived him; for Polynices, he that fell first,
+still breathing a little, preserving his sword e'en in his deathly fall,
+with difficulty indeed, but he did stretch his sword to the heart of
+Eteocles. And holding the dust in their gripe they both fall near one
+another, and determined not the victory.
+
+CHOR. Alas! alas! to what degree, O Oedipus, do I groan for thy
+misfortunes! but the God seems to have fulfilled thy imprecations.
+
+MESS. Hear now then woes even in addition to these--For when her sons
+having fallen were breathing their last, at this moment the wretched mother
+rushes before them, and when she perceived them stricken with mortal wounds
+she shrieked out, "Oh my sons, I am come too late a succor:" and throwing
+herself by the side of her children in turn, she wept, she lamented with
+moans her long anxiety in suckling them _now lost_: and their sister, who
+accompanied to stand by her in her misery, at the same time _broke forth_;
+"O supporters of my mother's age! Oh ye that have betrayed my hopes of
+marriage, my dearest brothers!"--But king Eteocles heaving from his breast
+his gasping breath, heard his mother, and putting out his cold clammy hand,
+sent not forth indeed a voice; but from his eyes spoke her in tears to
+signify affection. But Polynices, who yet breathed, looking at his sister
+and his aged mother, thus spoke: "We perish, O my mother; but I grieve for
+thee, and for this my sister, and my brother who lies dead, for being my
+friend, he became my enemy, but still my friend.--But bury me, O mother of
+my being, and thou my sister, in my native land, and pacify the exasperated
+city, that I may obtain thus much at least of my country's land, although I
+have lost the palace. And close my eyelids with thy hand, my mother" (and
+he places it himself upon his eyes), "and fare ye well! for now darkness
+surroundeth me." And both breathed out their lives together. And the
+mother, when she saw what had taken place, beyond endurance grieving,
+snatched the sword from the dead body, and perpetrated a deed of horror;
+for she drove the steel through the middle of her throat, and lies dead on
+those most dear to her, having each in her arms embraced. But the people
+rose up hastily to a strife of opinions; we indeed, as holding, that my
+master was victorious; but they, that the other was; and there was also a
+contention between the generals, those on the other side _contended_, that
+Polynices first struck with the spear, but those on ours that there was no
+victory where the combatants died. [And in the mean time Antigone withdrew
+from the army;] but they rushed to arms; but fortunately by a sort of
+foresight the people of Cadmus had sat upon their shields: and we gained
+the advantage of falling on the Argives not yet accoutred in their arms.
+And no one made a stand, but flying they covered the plain; and immense
+quantities of blood were spilt of the corses that fell, but when we were
+victorious in the fight, some indeed raised the image of Jove emblem of
+victory, but some of us stripping the shields from the Argive corses sent
+the spoils within the city. But others with Antigone are bearing hither the
+dead for their friends to lament over. But these contests have in some
+respect turned out most happy for this state, but in other respect most
+unhappy.
+
+CHOR. No longer the misfortunes of the house come to our ears, we may also
+see before the palace these three fallen corses, who have shared the dark
+realms by a united death.
+
+[_The dead bodies borne_.]
+
+ANTIGONE, CREON, CHORUS.
+
+ANT. Not veiling the softness of my cheek on which my ringlets fall, nor
+caring for the purple glow of virginity under my lids, the blush of my
+countenance, I am borne along the bacchanal of the dead, rending the fillet
+from my hair, rejecting the saffron robe of delicateness, having the
+mournful office of conducting the dead. Alas! alas! woe is me! Oh
+Polynices, thou well answeredst to thy name! Alas me! Oh Thebes! but thy
+strife, no strife, but murder consummated with murder,[47] hath destroyed
+the house of Oedipus with dreadful, with mournful blood. But what groan
+responsive to my sufferings, or what lament of music shall I invoke to my
+tears, to my tears, O house, O house, bearing these three kindred bodies,
+my mother, and her children, the joy of the fury? who destroyed the entire
+house of Oedipus, what time intelligently[48] he unfolded the difficult
+song of the fierce monster, having thereby slain the body of the fierce
+musical Sphinx. Alas me! my father; what Grecian, or what Barbarian, or
+what other of the noble in birth, of mortal blood, in time of old ever bore
+such manifest sufferings of so many ills? Wretched I, how do I lament! What
+bird, sitting on the highest boughs of the oak or pine, will sing
+responsive to my lamentations, who have lost my mother? who weep the strain
+of grief in addition to these moans _for my brothers_, about to pass my
+long life in floods of tears.--Which shall I bewail? On which first shall I
+scatter the first offerings rent from my hair? On my mother's two breasts
+of milk, or upon the death-wounds of my two brothers? Alas! alas! Leave
+thine house, bringing thy sightless eye, O aged father, Oedipus, show thy
+wretched age, who within thy palace having poured the gloomy darkness over
+thine eyes, draggest on a long[49] life. Dost thou hear wandering in the
+hall,--resting thy aged foot upon the couch in a state of misery?
+
+OEDIPUS, CREON, ANTIGONE, CHORUS.
+
+OED. Why, O virgin, hast thou with the most doleful tears called me forth
+leaning on the support of a blind foot[50] to the light, a bed-ridden man
+from his darksome chamber, gray-headed, an obscure phantom of air--a dead
+body beneath the earth--a flitting dream?
+
+ANT. O father, thou shalt receive words of unhappy tidings; no longer do
+thy children behold the light, nor thy wife, who ever was employed in
+attending as a staff on thy blind foot, my father: alas me!
+
+OED. Alas me, for my sufferings! for well may I groan and vociferate these
+things. The three souls, tell me, my child, by what fate, how quitted they
+this light?
+
+ANT. Not for the sake of reproaching thee, nor exulting over thee, but for
+grief I speak: thy evil genius, heavy with swords, and fire, and wretched
+combats, has rushed down upon thy children, O my father.
+
+OED. Alas me! ah! ah!
+
+ANT. Why dost thou thus groan?
+
+OED. Alas me! my children!
+
+ANT. Thou wouldest grieve indeed, if looking on the chariot of the sun
+drawn by its four steeds, thou couldest direct the sight of thine eyes to
+these bodies of the dead.
+
+OED. The evil of my sons indeed is manifest; but my wretched wife, by what
+fate, O my child, did she perish?
+
+ANT. Causing to all tears of grief they could not contain, to her children
+she bared her breast, a suppliant she bared it, holding it up in
+supplication. But the mother found her children at the Electran gate, in
+the mead where the lotus abounds, contending with their lances in the
+common war, as lions bred in the same cave, with the blood-wounds now a
+cold, a gory libation, which Plato received, and Mars gave. And having
+seized the brazen-wrought sword from the dead she plunged it into her
+flesh, but with grief for her children she fell amidst her children. But
+all these sufferings, O my father, has the God heaped this day upon our
+house, whoever he be, that adds this consummation.
+
+CHOR. This day hath been the beginning of many woes to the house of
+Oedipus; but may life be more fortunate!
+
+CRE. Now indeed cease from your grief, for it is time to think of the
+sepulture. But hear these words, O Oedipus; Eteocles, thy son, hath given
+to me the dominion of this land, giving them as a marriage portion to
+Haemon, and _with them_ the bed of thy daughter Antigone. I therefore will
+not suffer thee any longer to dwell in this land. For clearly did Tiresias
+say, that never, whilst thou dost inhabit this land, will the state be
+prosperous. But depart; and this I say not from insolence, nor being thine
+enemy, but on account of thy evil genius, fearing lest the country suffer
+any harm.
+
+OED. O Fate, from the beginning how wretched [and unhappy] didst thou form
+me, [if ever other man was formed!] whom, even before I came into the light
+from my mother's womb, when yet unborn Apollo foretold that I should be the
+murderer of my father Laius, alas! wretch that I am! And when I was born,
+again my father who gave me life, seeks to take my life, considering that I
+was born his enemy: for it was fated that he should die by my hands, and he
+sends me, poor wretch, as I craved the breast, a prey for the wild beasts:
+where I was preserved--for would that Cithaeron, it ought, had sunk to the
+bottomless chasms of Tartarus, for that it did not destroy me; but the God
+fixed it my lot to serve under Polybus my master: but I unhappy man, having
+slain my own father, ascended the bed of my wretched mother, and begat
+children, my brothers, whom I destroyed, having received down the curse
+from Laius, and given it to my sons. For I was not by nature so utterly
+devoid of understanding, as to have devised such things against my eyes,
+and against the life of my children, without the interference of some of
+the Gods. Well!--what then shall I ill-fated do? who will accompany me the
+guide of my dark steps? She that lies here dead! living, well know I, she
+would. But my noble pair of sons? I have no sons.--But still in my vigor
+can I myself procure my sustenance? Whence?--Why, O Creon, dost thou thus
+utterly kill me? for kill me thou wilt, if thou shalt cast me out of the
+land. Yet will I not appear base, stretching my hands around thy knees, for
+I can not belie my former nobleness, not even though my plight is
+miserable.
+
+CRE. Well has it been spoken by thee, that thou wilt not touch my knees,
+but I can not permit thee to dwell in the land. But of these corses, the
+one we must even now bear to the house; but the body of Polynices cast out
+unburied beyond the borders of this land. And these things shall be
+proclaimed to all the Thebans: "whoever shall be found either crowning the
+corse, or covering it with earth, shall receive death for his offense." But
+thou, ceasing from the groans for the three dead, retire, Antigone, within
+the house, and behave as beseems a virgin, expecting the approaching day in
+which the bed of Haemon awaits thee.
+
+ANT. Oh father, in what a state of woes do we miserable beings lie! How do
+I lament for thee! more than for the dead! For it is not that one of thy
+ills is heavy, and the other not heavy, but thou art in all things unhappy,
+my father.--But thee I ask, our new lord, [wherefore dost thou insult my
+father here, banishing him from his country?] Why make thy laws against an
+unhappy corse?
+
+CRE. The determination of Eteocles this, not mine.
+
+ANT. It is absurd, and thou a fool to enforce it.
+
+CRE. How so? Is it not just to execute injunctions?
+
+ANT. No, if they are base, at least, and spoken with ill intent.
+
+CRE. What! will he not with justice be given to the dogs?
+
+ANT. _No_, for thus do ye not demand of him lawful justice.
+
+CRE. _We do_; since he was the enemy of the state, who least ought to be an
+enemy.
+
+ANT. Hath he not paid then his life to fortune?
+
+CRE. And in his burial too let him now satisfy vengeance.
+
+ANT. What outrage having committed, if he came after his share of the
+kingdom?
+
+CRE. This man, that you may know once for all, shall be unburied.
+
+ANT. I will bury him; even though the city forbid it.
+
+CRE. Thyself then wilt thou at the same time bury near the corse.
+
+ANT. But that is a glorious thing, for two friends to lie near.
+
+CRE. Lay hold of her, and bear her to the house.
+
+ANT. By no means--for I will not let go this body.
+
+CRE. The God has decreed it, O virgin, not as thou wilt.
+
+ANT. And this too is decreed--that the dead be not insulted.
+
+CRE. Around him none shall place the moist dust.
+
+ANT. Nay, by his mother here Jocasta, I entreat thee, Creon.
+
+CRE. Thou laborest in vain, for thou canst not obtain this.
+
+ANT. But suffer thou me at any rate to bathe the body.
+
+CRE. This would be one of the things forbidden by the state.
+
+ANT. But let me put bandages round his cruel wounds.
+
+CRE. In no way shalt thou show respect to this corse.
+
+ANT. Oh most dear, but I will at least kiss thy lips.
+
+CRE. Thou shalt not prepare calamity against thy wedding by thy
+lamentations.
+
+ANT. What! while I live shall I ever marry thy son?
+
+CRE. There is strong necessity for thee, for by what means wilt thou escape
+the marriage?
+
+ANT. That night then shall find me one of the Danaidae.
+
+CRE. Dost mark with what audacity she hath insulted us?
+
+ANT. The steel be witness, and the sword, by which I swear.
+
+CRE. But why art thou so eager to get rid of this marriage?
+
+ANT. I will take my flight with my most wretched father here.
+
+CRE. There is nobleness in thee; but there is some degree of folly.
+
+ANT. And I will die with him too, that thou mayest farther know.
+
+CRE. Go--thou shalt not slay my son--quit the land.
+
+OEDIPUS, ANTIGONE, CHORUS.
+
+OED. O daughter, I praise thee indeed for thy zealous intentions.
+
+ANT. But if I were to marry, and thou suffer banishment alone, my father?
+
+OED. Stay and be happy; I will bear with content mine own ills.
+
+ANT. And who will minister to thee, blind as thou art, my father?
+
+OED. Falling wherever it shall be my fate, I will lie on the ground.
+
+ANT. But Oedipus, where is he? and the renowned Enigmas?
+
+OED. Perished! one day blest me, and one day destroyed.
+
+ANT. Ought not I then to have a share in thy woes?
+
+OED. To a daughter exile with a blind father is shameful.
+
+ANT. Not to a right-minded one however, but honorable, my father.
+
+OED. Lead me now onward, that I may touch thy mother.
+
+ANT. There: touch the aged woman with thy most dear hand.
+
+OED. O mother! Oh most hapless wife!
+
+ANT. She doth lie miserable, having all ills at once on her.
+
+OED. But where is the fallen body of Eteocles, and of Polynices?
+
+ANT. They lie extended before thee near one another.
+
+OED. Place my blind hand upon their unhappy faces.
+
+ANT. There: touch thy dead children with thy hand.
+
+OED. O ye dear wrecks, unhappy, of an unhappy father.
+
+ANT. O name of Polynices, most dear indeed to me.
+
+OED. Now, my child, is the oracle of Apollo come to pass.
+
+ANT. What? but dost thou mention evils in addition to these evils?
+
+OED. That I must die an exile at Athens.
+
+ANT. Where? what citadel of Attica will receive thee?
+
+OED. The sacred Colonus, and the temple of the Equestrian God. But
+stay--minister to thy blind father here, since thou art desirous of sharing
+his exile.
+
+ANT. Go to thy wretched banishment: stretch forth thy dear hand, O aged
+father, having me as thy guide, as the gale that wafts the ship.
+
+OED. Behold, I go, my child, be thou my unhappy conductor.
+
+ANT. We are, we are indeed unhappy above all Theban virgins.
+
+OED. Where shall I place my aged footstep? Bring my staff, my child.
+
+ANT. This way, this way come; here, here place thy foot, thou that hast the
+strength of a dream.
+
+OED. Alas! alas! for my most wretched flight!--To drive me, old as I am,
+from my country--Alas! alas! the dreadful, dreadful things that I have
+suffered!
+
+ANT. What suffered! what suffered![51] Vengeance sees not the wicked, nor
+repays the foolishness of mortals.
+
+OED. That man am I, who mounted aloft to the victorious heavenly song,
+having solved the dark enigma of the virgin Sphinx.
+
+ANT. Dost thou bring up again the glory of the Sphinx? Forbear from
+speaking of thy former successes. These wretched sufferings awaited thee, O
+father, being an exile from thy country to die any where. Leaving with my
+dear virgins tears for my loss, I depart far from my country, wandering in
+state not like a virgin's.
+
+OED. Oh! the excellency of thy mind!
+
+ANT. In the calamities of a father at least it will make me glorious.
+Wretched am I, on account of the insults offered to thee and to my brother,
+who has perished from the family, a corse denied sepulture, unhappy, whom,
+even if I must die, my father, I will cover with secret earth.
+
+OED. Go, show thyself to thy companions.
+
+ANT. They have enough of my lamentations.
+
+OED. But make thy supplications at the altars.
+
+ANT. They have a satiety of my woes.
+
+OED. Go then, where stands the fane of Bacchus unapproached, on the
+mountains of the Maenades.
+
+ANT. To whom I formerly, clad in the skin of the Theban fawn, danced the
+sacred step of Semele on the mountains, conferring a thankless favor on the
+Gods?
+
+OED. O ye inhabitants of my illustrious country, behold, I, this Oedipus,
+who alone stayed the violence of the bloodthirsty Sphinx, now, dishonored,
+forsaken, miserable, am banished from the land. Yet why do I bewail these
+things, and lament in vain? For the necessity of fate proceeding from the
+Gods a mortal must endure.
+
+CRE. [O greatly glorious Victory, mayest thou uphold my life, and cease not
+from crowning me!] (See note [H].)
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+NOTES ON THE PHOENICIAN VIRGINS
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+[1] That is, through the signs of the zodiac: [Greek: aster] differs from
+[Greek: astron], the former signifying a single star, the latter many.
+
+[2] The preposition [Greek: syn] is omitted, as in Homer,
+
+  [Greek: Autei ken gaiei erysaimi.]
+
+The same omission occurs in the Bacchae, [Greek: auteisin elatais], and
+again in the Hippolytus. It is an Atticism.
+
+[3] See note on Hecuba, 478.
+
+[4] The word [Greek: tounoma] must be supplied after [Greek: touto], which
+is implied in the verb [Greek: kalousin].
+
+[5] The [Greek: zaros] is a bird of prey of the vulture species. The sphinx
+was represented as having the face of a woman, the breast and feet of a
+lion, and the wings of a bird.
+
+[5a] Dindorf would omit this verse.
+
+[6] [Greek: arai] and [Greek: arasthai] are often used by the poets in a
+good sense for prayers, [Greek: euchai] and [Greek: euchesthai] for curses
+and imprecations.
+
+[7] [Greek: dieres hyperoon, e klimax]. HESYCHIUS.
+
+[8] Milton, Par. Regained, b. iii. l. 326.
+
+  The field, all iron, cast a gleaming brown.
+
+[9] Lerna, a country of Argolis celebrated for a grove and a lake where the
+Danaides threw the heads of their murdered husbands. It was there also that
+Hercules killed the famous Hydra.
+
+[10] This alludes to the figure of Argus engraved on his shield. See verse
+1130.
+
+[11] Tydeus married Deipyle, Polynices Argia, both daughters of Adrastus,
+king of Argos.
+
+[12] Some suppose [Greek: hysteroi podi] to mean with their last steps,
+that is, with steps which are doomed never to return again to their own
+country.
+
+[13] Triaena was a place in Argolis, where Neptune stuck his trident in the
+ground, and immediately water sprung up. SCHOL.
+
+[14] Amymone was daughter of Danaus and Europa; she was employed, by order
+of her father, in supplying the city of Argos with water, in a great
+drought. Neptune saw her in this employment, and was enamored of her. He
+carried her away, and in the place where she stood he raised a fountain,
+which has been called Amymone. See Propert. ii. El. 20. v. 47.
+
+[15] [Greek: allelas legousin] is, _they say one of another_; [Greek:
+allelais legousin], _they say among themselves_.
+
+[16] By [Greek: pedion akarpiston] is to be understood the sea. The
+construction [Greek: pedion perirrhyton Sikelias], that is, [Greek: ha
+Sikelian perirrhei]. The same construction is found in Sophocles, Oed. Tyr.
+l. 885. [Greek: dikas aphobetos]. L. 969. [Greek: aphaustos enchous]. See
+also Horace, Lib. iv. Od. 4. 43.
+
+  Ceu flamma per taedas, vel Eurus
+  Per Siculas equitavit undas.
+
+[17] The fire was on that head of Parnassus which was sacred to Apollo and
+Diana; to those below it appeared double, being divided to the eye by a
+pointed rock which rose before it. SCHOL.
+
+[18] The Python which Apollo slew.
+
+[19] Libya the daughter of Epaphus bore to Neptune Agenor and Belus. Cadmus
+was the son of Agenor, and Antiope the daughter of Belus.
+
+[19a] But Dind. [Greek: ekphros']. See his note.
+
+[20] The construction is, [Greek: amphiballe moi to ton pareidon sou
+oregma]: that is, _genarum ad oscula porrectionem_. It can not be
+translated literally. The verb [Greek: amphiballe] is to be supplied before
+[Greek: oregma], and before [Greek: plokamon]. See Orestes, 950.
+
+[21] Locus videtur corruptus. PORSON. Valckenaer proposes to read [Greek:
+dakryoess' anieisa k.t.l.] Markland would supply [Greek: phonen] after
+[Greek: hieisa]. Another reading proposed is, [Greek: dakryoess' enieisa
+penthere konin]. _Lacrymabunda, lugubrem cinerem injiciens_. Followed by
+Dindorf.
+
+[22] Cf. AEsch. Prom. 39. [Greek: to syngenes toi deinon he th' homilia],
+where consult Schutz.
+
+[23] See Porson's note. A similar ellipse is to be found in Luke xiii. 9.
+[Greek: Kain men poiesei karpon: ei de mege, eis to mellon ekkopseis
+auten:] which is thus translated in our version; "And if it bear fruit,
+_well_: and if not, _then_ after that thou shalt cut it down." See also
+Iliad, A. 135. Aristoph. Plut. 468. ed. Kuster.
+
+[24] [Greek: Brabeus], properly, is the judge in a contest, who confers the
+prizes, and on whose decision the awarding of the prizes depends: [Greek:
+brabeutes] is the same. [Greek: Brabeion] is the prize. [Greek: Brabeia],
+and in the plural [Greek: brabeiai], the very act of deciding the contest.
+
+[25] So Hotspur, of honor:
+
+  By heaven, methinks, it were an easy leap,
+  To pluck bright honor from the pale-faced moon:
+  Or dive into the bottom of the deep,
+  Where fathom-line could never touch the ground,
+  And pluck up drowned honor by the locks;
+  So he, that doth redeem her thence, might wear,
+  Without corrival, all her dignities.
+                  Hen. IV. P. i. A. i. Sc. 3.
+
+[26] See Ovid. Met. vi. 28. Non omnia grandior aetas, Quae fugiamus, habet;
+seris venit usus ab annis.
+
+[27] The Scholiast doubts whether these Gods were Castor and Pollux, or
+Zethus and Amphion, but inclines to the latter. See Herc. Fur. v. 29, 30.
+
+[28] Or, _fell with limbs that had never known yoke_.--V. Ovid: Met. iii.
+10.
+
+  Bos tibi, Phoebus ait, solis occurret in arvis,
+  Nullum passa jugum.
+
+[29] Valckenaer proposes reading instead of [Greek: horais] or [Greek:
+horas], [Greek: aurais], writing the passage [Greek: aurais bostrychon
+ampetasas], "per auras leves crine jactato:" which seems peculiarly adapted
+to this place, where the poet places the tumultuous rage of Mars in
+contrast with the sweet enthusiasm of the Bacchanalians, who are
+represented as flying over the plains with their hair streaming in the
+wind. But see Note [C].
+
+[30] [Greek: akoe] is here to be understood in the sense of [Greek:
+akouomenon] as we find [Greek: aisthesis] for [Greek: aistheton], [Greek:
+nous] for [Greek: to nooumenon].
+
+[31] The words [Greek: didymon potamon] do not refer to Dirce, but to
+Thebes, Thebes being called [Greek: polis dipotamos]. The construction is
+[Greek: pyrgos didymon potamon]. Thus in Pindar [Greek: oikema potamou]
+means [Greek: oikema para potamoi]. Olymp. 2. Antistr. 1.
+
+[32] See note [D].
+
+[32a] [Greek: goun]. See Dind.
+
+[33] [Greek: ti gar patho]; _Quid enim agam?_ est formula eorum, quos
+invitos natura vel fatum, vel quaecumque alia cogit necessitas. VALCKEN.
+
+[34] [Greek: Prosegoreson] is to be joined with [Greek: molon], not with
+[Greek: eimi]. In confirmation of this see line 1011.
+
+[35] So called after Neis the son of Amphion and Niobe, or from [Greek:
+neatai], "_Newgate_." SCHOL.
+
+[36] Argus himself might be called [Greek: stiktos], but not his eyes,
+hence [Greek: pyknois] is proposed by Heinsius. Abreschius receives [Greek:
+stiktois] in the sense of [Greek: hois stiktos esti].
+
+[37] The Scholiast makes [Greek: bleponta] the accusative singular to agree
+with [Greek: panopten]. Musgrave takes it as agreeing with [Greek: ommata];
+in this latter case [Greek: kryptonta] is used in a neuter signification.
+Note [F].
+
+[38] This is Musgrave's interpretation, by putting the stop after [Greek:
+hos], which also Porson adopts; others would join [Greek: hos] with [Greek:
+preson]. It seems however more natural that the torch should be referred to
+Tydeus's emblem, than to himself.
+
+[39] Commentators and interpreters are much at variance concerning the word
+[Greek: strophinxin]. For his better satisfaction on this passage the
+reader is referred to the Scholia.
+
+[40] [Greek: geissa] is in apposition to [Greek: laan] in the preceding
+line. Cf. Orestes, 1585.
+
+[41] Commentators are divided on the meaning of [Greek: enelata]. One
+Scholiast understands it to mean the uprights of the ladder in which the
+bars are fixed. Eustathias considers [Greek: enelaton bathra] a periphrasis
+for [Greek: bathra, enelata] being the [Greek: bathra] or [Greek:
+bathmides], which [Greek: enelelantai tois orthois xylois].
+
+[42] Musgrave would render [Greek: hygrotet' enantian] by "mobilitatem male
+coalescentem;" in this case it would indicate the bad omen, and be opposed
+to [Greek: akran lampada], which then should be translated "the pointed
+flame." Valckenaer considers the passage as desperately corrupt. See
+Musgrave's note. Cf. Note [G].
+
+[43] If the flame was clear and vivid.
+
+[44] If it terminated in smoke and blackness.
+
+[45] The construction of this passage is the same as that of Il. [Greek: D]
+155. [Greek: thanaton ny toi horki' etamnon]. "Foedus, quod pepigi, tibi
+mortis causa est." PORSON.
+
+[46] Beck, by putting the stop after [Greek: petron], makes [Greek:
+hypodromon] to agree with [Greek: kolon], "_his limb diverted from its
+tread_."
+
+[47] The construction is [Greek: phonos krantheis phonoi]: [Greek: aimati]
+depends on [Greek: en] understood.
+
+[48] Most MSS. have [Greek: xynetos]. Here then is a remarkable instance of
+the same word having both an active and a passive signification in the same
+sentence.
+
+[49] [Greek: makropnoun], not [Greek: makropoun], is Porson's reading,
+[Greek: makropnous zoe] is explained "vita in qua longo tempore spiratur;
+ergo longa."
+
+[50] See note at Hecuba 65.
+
+[51] The old reading was [Greek: ti tlas; ti tlas;] making it the present
+tense. Brunck first edited it as it stands in Porson. Antigone repeats the
+last word of her father.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+ADDITIONAL NOTES.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+[A] "Signum interrogandi non post [Greek: neanias], sed post [Greek:
+lochagos] ponendum. [Greek: lochagos] in libris pedagogo tribuitur: quod
+correxit Hermannus." DINDORF.
+
+[B] Porson and Dindorf (in his notes) favor Reiske's conjecture, [Greek:
+pyknoisi] for [Greek: pyrgoisi].
+
+[C] Dindorf rightly approves the explanation of Musgrave, who takes [Greek:
+stephanoisi], like the Latin _corona_, to mean the _assemblies_. He
+translates: "_nec in pulchros choros ducentibus circulis juventutis_."
+
+[D] The full sense, as laid down by Schoefer and Dindorf, is, "for ever
+when an old man travels, whether in a carriage, or on foot, he requires
+help from others." [Greek: pasa apene pous te] is rather boldly used, but
+is not without example.
+
+[E] i.e. "_you ask a thing_ (i.e. your son's safety) _dangerous to the
+city, which you can not preserve_." SCHOEFER.
+
+[F] These three lines are condemned by Valck. and Dind.
+
+[G] Matthiae attempts to explain these words as follows: "[Greek: empyroi
+akmai] may be put for [Greek: ta empyra], in which the seers observed
+([Greek: enomon]) two things, viz. the divisions ([Greek: rhexeis]) of the
+flame, which, if it slid round the altars, was of ill omen (hence [Greek:
+hygrai], i.e. gliding gently around the altars with many curves, for which
+is put [Greek: hygrotes enantia]); and 2dly, _the upright shooting of the
+flame_, [Greek: akran lampada]."
+
+[H] See Dindorf on Orest. 1691. He fully condemns these lines as the work
+of an interpolator. They are, however, as old as the days of Lucian.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *       *
+
+MEDEA.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+PERSONS REPRESENTED.
+
+  NURSE.
+  TUTOR.
+  MEDEA.
+  CHORUS OF CORINTHIAN WOMEN.
+  CREON.
+  JASON.
+  AEGEUS
+  MESSENGER.
+  SONS OF MEDEA.
+
+_The Scene lies in the vestibule of the palace of Jason at Corinth_.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE ARGUMENT.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+JASON, having come to Corinth, and bringing with him Medea, espouses
+Glauce, the daughter of Creon, king of Corinth. But Medea, on the point of
+being banished from Corinth by Creon, having asked to remain one day, and
+having obtained her wish, sends to Glauce, by the hands of her sons,
+presents, as an acknowledgment for the favor, a robe and a golden chaplet,
+which she puts on and perishes; Creon also having embraced his daughter is
+destroyed. But Medea, when she had slain her children, escapes to Athens,
+in a chariot drawn by winged dragons, which she received from the Sun, and
+there marries AEgeus son of Pandion.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+MEDEA.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+NURSE OF MEDEA.
+
+Would that the hull of Argo had not winged her way to the Colchian land
+through the Cyanean Symplegades,[1] and that the pine felled in the forests
+of Pelion had never fallen, nor had caused the hands of the chiefs to
+row,[2] who went in search of the golden fleece for Pelias; for neither
+then would my mistress Medea have sailed to the towers of the Iolcian land,
+deeply smitten in her mind with the love of Jason; nor having persuaded the
+daughters of Pelias to slay their father would she have inhabited this
+country of Corinth with her husband and her children, pleasing indeed by
+her flight[3] the citizens to whose land she came, and herself concurring
+in every respect with Jason; which is the surest support of conjugal
+happiness, when the wife is not estranged from the husband. But now every
+thing is at variance, and the dearest ties are weakened. For having
+betrayed his own children, and my mistress, Jason reposes in royal wedlock,
+having married the daughter of Creon, who is prince of this land. But Medea
+the unhappy, dishonored, calls on his oaths, and recalls the hands they
+plighted, the greatest pledge of fidelity, and invokes the gods to witness
+what return she meets with from Jason. And she lies without tasting food,
+having sunk her body in grief, dissolving all her tedious time in tears,
+after she had once known that she had been injured by her husband, neither
+raising her eye, nor lifting her countenance from the ground; but as the
+rock, or the wave of the sea, does she listen to her friends when advised.
+Save that sometimes having turned her snow-white neck she to herself
+bewails her dear father, and her country, and her house, having betrayed
+which she hath come hither with a man who has now dishonored her. And she
+wretched hath discovered from affliction what it is not to forsake one's
+paternal country. But she hates her children, nor is she delighted at
+beholding them: but I fear her, lest she form some new design: for violent
+is her mind, nor will it endure to suffer ills. I know her, and I fear her,
+lest she should force the sharpened sword through her heart, or even should
+murder the princess and him who married her, and after that receive some
+greater ill. For she is violent; he who engages with her in enmity will not
+with ease at least sing the song of victory. But these her children are
+coming hither having ceased from their exercises, nothing mindful of their
+mother's ills, for the mind of youth is not wont to grieve.
+
+TUTOR, WITH THE SONS OF MEDEA, NURSE.
+
+TUT. O thou ancient possession of my mistress's house, why dost thou stand
+at the gates preserving thus thy solitude, bewailing to thyself our
+misfortunes? How doth Medea wish to be left alone without thee?
+
+NUR. O aged man, attendant on the children of Jason, to faithful servants
+the affairs of their masters turning out ill are a calamity, and lay hold
+upon their feelings. For I have arrived at such a height of grief that
+desire hath stolen on me to come forth hence and tell the misfortunes of
+Medea to the earth and heaven.
+
+TUT. Does not she wretched yet receive any respite from her grief?
+
+NUR. I envy thy ignorance; her woe is at its rise, and not even yet at its
+height.
+
+TUT. O unwise woman, if it is allowable to say this of one's lords, since
+she knows nothing of later ills.
+
+NUR. But what is this, O aged man? grudge not to tell me.
+
+TUT. Nothing: I have repented even of what was said before.
+
+NUR. Do not, I beseech you by your beard, conceal it from your
+fellow-servant; for I will preserve silence, if it be necessary, on these
+subjects.
+
+TUT. I heard from some one who was saying, not appearing to listen, having
+approached the places where dice is played, where the elders sit, around
+the hallowed font of Pirene, that the king of this land, Creon, intends to
+banish from the Corinthian country these children, together with their
+mother; whether this report be true, however, I know not; but I wish this
+may not be the case.
+
+NUR. And will Jason endure to see his children suffer this, even although
+he is at enmity with their mother?
+
+TUT. Ancient alliances are deserted for new, and he is no friend to this
+family.
+
+NUR. We perish then, if to the old we shall add a new ill, before the
+former be exhausted.[4]
+
+TUT. But do thou, for it is not seasonable that my mistress should know
+this, restrain your tongue, and be silent on this report.
+
+NUR. O my children, do you hear what your father is toward you? Yet may he
+not perish, for he is my master, yet he is found to be treacherous toward
+his friends.
+
+TUT. And what man is not? dost thou only now know this, that every one
+loves himself dearer than his neighbor,[5] some indeed with justice, but
+others even for the sake of gain, unless it be that[6] their father loves
+not these at least on account of new nuptials.
+
+NUR. Go within the house, my children, for all will be well. But do thou
+keep these as much as possible out of the way, and let them not approach
+their mother, deranged through grief. For but now I saw her looking with
+wildness in her eyes on these, as about to execute some design, nor will
+she cease from her fury, I well know, before she overwhelm some one with
+it; upon her enemies however, and not her friends, may she do some [ill.]
+
+MEDEA. (_within_) Wretch that I am, and miserable on account of my
+misfortunes, alas me! would I might perish!
+
+NUR. Thus it is, my children; your mother excites her heart, excites her
+fury. Hasten as quick as possible within the house, and come not near her
+sight, nor approach her, but guard against the fierce temper and violent
+nature of her self-willed mind. Go now, go as quick as possible within. But
+it is evident that the cloud of grief raised up from the beginning will
+quickly burst forth with greater fury; what I pray will her soul, great in
+rage, implacable, irritated by ills, perform!
+
+MED. Alas! alas! I wretched have suffered, have suffered treatment worthy
+of great lamentation. O ye accursed children of a hated mother, may ye
+perish with your father, and may the whole house fall.
+
+NUR. Alas! alas! me miserable! but why should your children share their
+father's error? Why dost thou hate these! Alas me, my children, how beyond
+measure do I grieve lest ye suffer any evil! Dreadful are the dispositions
+of tyrants, and somehow in few things controlled, in most absolute, they
+with difficulty lay aside their passion. The being accustomed then[7] to
+live in mediocrity of life is the better: may it be my lot then to grow old
+if not in splendor, at least in security. For, in the first place, even to
+mention the name of moderation carries with it superiority, but to use it
+is by far the best conduct for men; but excess of fortune brings more power
+to men than is convenient;[8] and has brought greater woes upon families,
+when the Deity be enraged.
+
+NURSE, CHORUS.
+
+CHOR. I heard the voice, I heard the cry of the unhappy Colchian; is not
+she yet appeased? but, O aged matron, tell me; for within the apartment
+with double doors, I heard her cry; nor am I delighted, O woman, with the
+griefs of the family, since it is friendly to me.
+
+NUR. The family is not; these things are gone already: for he possesses the
+bed of royalty; but she, my mistress, is melting away her life in her
+chamber, in no way soothing her mind by the advice of any one of her
+friends.
+
+MED. Alas! alas! may the flame of heaven rush through my head, what profit
+for me to live any longer. Alas! alas! may I rest myself in death, having
+left a hated life.
+
+CHOR. Dost thou hear, O Jove, and earth, and light, the cry which the
+wretched bride utters? why I pray should this insatiable love of the
+marriage-bed hasten thee, O vain woman, to death? Pray not for this. But if
+thy husband courts a new bed, be not thus[9] enraged with him. Jove will
+avenge these wrongs for thee: waste not thyself so, bewailing thy husband.
+
+MED. O great Themis and revered Diana, do ye behold what I suffer, having
+bound my accursed husband by powerful oaths? Whom may I at some time see
+and his bride torn piecemeal with their very houses, who dare to injure me
+first. O my father, O my city, whom I basely abandoned, having slain my
+brother.
+
+NUR. Do ye hear what she says, and how she invokes Themis hearing the vow,
+and Jove who is considered the dispenser of oaths to mortals? It is not
+possible that my mistress will lull her rage to rest on any trivial
+circumstance.
+
+CHOR. By what means could she come into our sight, and hear the voice of
+our discourse, if she would by any means remit her fierce anger and her
+fury of mind. Let not my zeal however be wanting ever to my friends. But go
+and conduct her hither from without the house, my friend, and tell her
+this, hasten, before she injure in any way those within, for this grief of
+hers is increased to a great height.
+
+NUR. I will do it, but I fear that I shall not persuade my mistress;
+nevertheless I will give you this favor of my labor. And yet with the
+aspect of a lioness that has just brought forth does she look sternly on
+her attendants when any one approaches near attempting to address her. But
+thou wouldest not err in calling men of old foolish and nothing wise, who
+invented songs, for festivals, for banquets, and for suppers, the delights
+of life that charm the ear; but no mortal has discovered how to soothe with
+music and with varied strains those bitter pangs, from which death and
+dreadful misfortunes overthrow families. And yet for men to assuage these
+griefs with music were gain; but where the plenteous banquet is furnished,
+why raise they the song in vain? for the present bounty of the feast brings
+pleasure of itself to men.
+
+CHOR. I heard the dismal sound of groans, and in a shrill voice she vents
+her bitter[10] anguish on the traitor to her bed, her faithless
+husband--and suffering wrongs she calls upon the Goddess Themis, arbitress
+of oaths, daughter of Jove, who conducted her to the opposite coast of
+Greece, across the sea by night, over the salt straits of the boundless
+ocean.
+
+MEDEA, CHORUS.
+
+MED. Ye Corinthian dames, I have come from out my palace; do not in any
+wise blame me; for I have known many men who have been[11] renowned, some
+who have lived far from public notice, and others in the world; but those
+of a retired turn have gained for themselves a character of infamy and
+indolence. For justice dwells not in the eyes of man,[12] whoever, before
+he can well discover the disposition of a man, hates him at sight, in no
+way wronged by him. But it is necessary for a stranger exactly to conform
+himself to the state, nor would I praise the native, whoever becoming
+self-willed is insolent to his fellow-citizens through ignorance. But this
+unexpected event that hath fallen upon me hath destroyed my spirit: I am
+going, and having given up the pleasure of life I am desirous to meet
+death, my friends. For he on whom my all rested, as you well know, my
+husband, has turned out the basest of men. But of all things as many as
+have life and intellect, we women are the most wretched race. Who indeed
+first must purchase a husband with excess of money, and receive him a lord
+of our persons; for this is a still greater ill than the former. And in
+this is the greatest risk, whether we receive a bad one or a good one; for
+divorces bring not good fame to women, nor is it possible to repudiate
+one's husband. But on passing to new tempers and new laws, one need be a
+prophetess, as one can not learn of one's self, what sort of consort one
+shall most likely experience. And if with us carefully performing these
+things a husband shall dwell not imposing on us a yoke with severity,
+enviable is our life; if not, to die is better. But a man, when he is
+displeased living with those at home, having gone abroad is wont to relieve
+his heart of uneasiness, having recourse either to some friend or compeer.
+But we must look but to one person. But they say of us that we live a life
+of ease at home, but they are fighting with the spear; judging ill, since I
+would rather thrice stand in arms, than once suffer the pangs of
+child-birth. But, for the same argument comes not home to you and me, this
+is thy city, and thy father's house, thine are both the luxuries of life,
+and the society of friends; but I being destitute, cityless, am wronged by
+my husband, brought as a prize from a foreign land, having neither mother,
+nor brother, nor relation to afford me shelter from this calamity. So much
+then I wish to obtain from you, if any plan or contrivance be devised by me
+to repay with justice these injuries on my husband, and on him who gave his
+daughter, and on her to whom he was married,[13] that you would be silent;
+for a woman in other respects is full of fear, and timid to look upon deeds
+of courage and the sword; but when she is injured in her bed, no other
+disposition is more blood-thirsty.
+
+CHOR. I will do this; for with justice, Medea, wilt thou avenge thyself on
+thy husband, and I do not wonder that you lament your misfortunes. But I
+see Creon monarch of this land advancing, the messenger of new counsels.
+
+CREON, MEDEA, CHORUS.
+
+CRE. Thee of gloomy countenance, and enraged with thy husband, Medea, I
+command to depart in exile from out of this land, taking with thee thy two
+children, and not to delay in any way, since I am the arbiter of this
+edict, and I will not return back to my palace, until I shall drive thee
+beyond the boundaries of this realm.
+
+MED. Alas! alas! I wretched am utterly destroyed, for my enemies stretch
+out every cable against me; nor is there any easy escape from this evil,
+but I will speak, although suffering injurious treatment; for what, Creon,
+dost thou drive me from this land?
+
+CRE. I fear thee (there is no need for me to wrap my words in obscurity,)
+lest thou do my child some irremediable mischief, And many circumstances
+are in unison with this dread. Thou art wise, and skilled in many evil
+sciences, and thou art exasperated, deprived of thy husband's bed. And I
+hear that thou threatenest, as they tell me, to wreak some deed of
+vengeance on the betrother, and the espouser and the espoused; against this
+then, before I suffer, will I guard. Better is it for me now to incur
+enmity from you, than softened by your words afterward greatly to lament
+it.
+
+MED. Alas! alas! not now for the first time, but often, Creon, hath this
+opinion injured me, and worked me much woe. But whatever man is prudent,
+let him never educate his children too deep in wisdom. For, independent of
+the other charges of idleness which they meet with, they find hostile envy
+from their fellow-citizens. For holding out to fools some new-discovered
+wisdom, thou wilt seem to be useless and not wise. And being judged
+superior to others who seem to have some varied knowledge, thou wilt appear
+offensive in the city. But even I myself share this fortune; for being
+wise, to some I am an object of envy, but to others, unsuited; but I am not
+very wise. Thou then fearest me, lest thou suffer some grievous
+mischief.[14] My affairs are not in a state, fear me not, Creon, so as to
+offend against princes. For in what hast thou injured me? Thou hast given
+thy daughter to whom thy mind led thee; but I hate my husband: but thou, I
+think, didst these things in prudence. And now I envy not that thy affairs
+are prospering; make your alliances, be successful; but suffer me to dwell
+in this land, for although injured will I keep silence, overcome by my
+superiors.
+
+CRE. Thou speakest soft words to the ear, but within my mind I have my
+fears, lest thou meditate some evil intent. And so much the less do I trust
+thee than before. For a woman that is quick to anger, and a man likewise,
+is easier to guard against, than one that is crafty and keeps silence. But
+begone as quick as possible, make no more words; since this is decreed, and
+thou hast no art, by which thou wilt stay with us, being hostile to me.
+
+MED. No I beseech you by your knees, and your newly-married daughter.
+
+CRE. Thou wastest words; for thou wilt never persuade me.
+
+MED. Wilt thou then banish me, nor reverence my prayers?
+
+CRE. For I do not love thee better than my own family.
+
+MED. O my country, how I remember thee now!
+
+CRE. For next to my children it is much the dearest thing to me.
+
+MED. Alas! alas! how great an ill is love to man!
+
+CRE. That is, I think, as fortune also shall attend it.
+
+MED. Jove, let it not escape thine eye, who is the cause of these
+misfortunes.
+
+CRE. Begone, fond woman, and free me from these cares.
+
+MED. Care indeed;[15] and do not I experience cares?
+
+CRE. Quickly shalt thou be driven hence by force by the hands of my
+domestics.
+
+MED. No, I pray not this at least; but I implore thee, Creon.
+
+CRE. Thou wilt give trouble, woman, it seems.[16]
+
+MED. I will go; I dare not ask to obtain this of you.
+
+CRE. Why then dost thou resist, and wilt not depart from these realms?
+
+MED. Permit me to remain here this one day, and to bring my purpose to a
+conclusion, in what way we shall fly, and to make provision for my sons,
+since their father in no way regards providing for his children; but pity
+them, for thou also art the father of children; and it is probable that
+thou hast tenderness: for of myself I have no care whether I may suffer
+banishment, but I weep for them experiencing this calamity.
+
+CRE. My disposition is least of all imperious, and through feeling pity in
+many cases have I injured myself. And now I see that I am doing wrong, O
+lady, but nevertheless thou shalt obtain thy request; but this I warn thee,
+if to-morrow's light of the God of day shall behold thee and thy children
+within the confines of these realms, thou shalt die: this word is spoken in
+truth. But now if thou must stay, remain here yet one day, for thou wilt
+not do any horrid deed of which I have dread.
+
+MEDEA, CHORUS.
+
+CHOR. Unhappy woman! alas wretched on account of thy griefs! whither wilt
+thou turn? what hospitality, or house, or country wilt thou find a refuge
+for these ills? how the Deity hath led thee, Medea, into a pathless tide of
+woes!
+
+MED. Ill hath it been done on every side. Who will gainsay it? but these
+things are not in this way, do not yet think it. Still is there a contest
+for those lately married, and to those allied to them no small affliction.
+For dost thou think I ever would have fawned upon this man, if I were not
+to gain something, or form some plan? I would not even have addressed him.
+I would not even have touched him with my hands. But he hath arrived at
+such a height of folly, as that, when it was in his power to have crushed
+my plans, by banishing me from this land, he hath granted me to stay this
+day in which three of mine enemies will I put to death, the father, the
+bride, and my husband. But having in my power many resources of destruction
+against them, I know not, my friends, which I shall first attempt. Whether
+shall I consume the bridal house with fire, or force the sharpened sword
+through her heart having entered the chamber by stealth where the couch is
+spread? But one thing is against me; if I should be caught entering the
+house and prosecuting my plans, by my death I shall afford laughter for my
+foes. Best then is it to pursue the straight path, in which I am most
+skilled, to take them off by poison. Let it be so. And suppose them dead:
+what city will receive me? What hospitable stranger affording a land of
+safety and a faithful home will protect my person? There is none. Waiting
+then yet a little time, if any tower of safety shall appear to us, I will
+proceed to this murder in treachery and silence. But if ill fortune that
+leaves me without resource force me, I myself having grasped the sword,
+although I should die, will kill them, and will rush to the extreme height
+of daring. For never, I swear by my mistress whom I revere most of all, and
+have chosen for my assistant, Hecate, who dwells in the inmost recesses of
+my house, shall any one of them wring my heart with grief with impunity.
+Bitter and mournful to them will I make these nuptials, and bitter this
+alliance, and my flight from this land. But come, spare none of these
+sciences in which thou art skilled, Medea, deliberating and plotting.
+Proceed to the deed of terror: now is the time of resolution: seest thou
+what thou art suffering? Ill doth it become thee to incur ridicule from the
+race of Sisyphus, and from the nuptials of Jason, who art sprung from a
+noble father, and from the sun. And thou art skilled. Besides also we women
+are, by nature, to good actions of the least capacity, but the most cunning
+inventors of every ill.
+
+CHOR. The waters of the hallowed streams flow upward to their sources, and
+justice and every thing is reversed. The counsels of men are treacherous,
+and no longer is the faith of heaven firm. But fame changes, so that my sex
+may have the glory.[17] Honor cometh to the female race; no longer shall
+opprobrious fame oppress the women. But the Muses shall cease from their
+ancient strains, from celebrating our perfidy. For Phoebus, leader of the
+choir, gave not to our minds the heavenly music of the lyre, since they
+would in turn have raised a strain against the race of men. But time of old
+hath much to say both of our life and the life of men. But thou hast sailed
+from thy father's house with maddened heart, having passed through the
+double rocks of the ocean, and thou dwellest in a foreign land, having lost
+the shelter of thy widowed bed, wretched woman, and art driven dishonored
+an exile from this land. The reverence of oaths is gone, nor does shame any
+longer dwell in mighty Greece, but hath fled away through the air. But thou
+helpless woman hast neither father's house to afford you haven from your
+woes, and another more powerful queen of the nuptial bed rules over the
+house.
+
+JASON, MEDEA, CHORUS.
+
+JAS. Not now for the first time, but often have I perceived that fierce
+anger is an irremediable ill. For though it was in your power to inhabit
+this land and this house, bearing with gentleness the determination of thy
+superiors, by thy rash words thou shalt be banished from this land. And to
+me indeed it is of no importance; never cease from saying that Jason is the
+worst of men. But for what has been said by thee against the royal family,
+think it the greatest good fortune that thou art punished by banishment
+only. I indeed was always employed in diminishing the anger of the enraged
+princes, and was willing that thou shouldest remain. But thou remittest not
+of thy folly, always reviling the ruling powers; wherefore thou shalt be
+banished from the land. But nevertheless even after this am I come, not
+wearied with my friends, providing for thee, O woman, that thou mightest
+not be banished with thy children, either without money, or in want of any
+thing. Banishment draws many misfortunes with it. For although thou hatest
+me, I never could wish thee evil.
+
+MED. O thou vilest of men (for this is the greatest reproach I have in my
+power with my tongue to tell thee, for thy unmanly cowardice), hast thou
+come to us, hast thou come, who art most hateful? This is not fortitude, or
+confidence, to look in the face of friends whom thou hast injured, but the
+worst of all diseases among men, impudence. But thou hast done well in
+coming. For both I shall be lightened in my heart while reviling thee, and
+thou wilt be pained at hearing me. But I will first begin to speak from the
+first circumstances. I preserved thee (as those Greeks well know as many as
+embarked with thee on board the same ship Argo) when sent to master the
+fire-breathing bulls with the yoke, and to sow the fatal seed: and having
+slain the dragon who watching around the golden fleece guarded it with
+spiry folds, a sleepless guard, I raised up to thee a light of safety. But
+I myself having betrayed my father, and my house, came to the Peliotic
+Iolcos[18] with thee, with more readiness than prudence. And I slew Pelias
+by a death which it is most miserable to die, by the hands of his own
+children, and I freed thee from every fear. And having experienced these
+services from me, thou vilest of men, thou hast betrayed me and hast
+procured for thyself a new bed, children being born to thee, for if thou
+wert still childless it would be pardonable in thee to be enamored of this
+alliance. But the faith of oaths is vanished: nor can I discover whether
+thou thinkest that the former Gods are not still in power, or whether new
+laws are now laid down for men, since thou art at least conscious of being
+perjured toward me. Alas! this right hand which thou hast often touched,
+and these knees, since in vain have I been polluted by a wicked husband,
+and have failed in my hopes. Come (for I will converse with thee as with a
+friend, not expecting to receive any benefit from thee at least, but
+nevertheless I will; for when questioned thou wilt appear more base), now
+whither shall I turn? Whether to my father's house, which I betrayed for
+thee, and my country, and came hither? or to the miserable daughters of
+Pelias? friendly would they indeed receive me in their house, whose father
+I slew. For thus it is: I am in enmity with my friends at home; but those
+whom I ought not to injure, by obliging thee, I make my enemies. On which
+account in return for this thou hast made me to be called happy by many
+dames through Greece, and in thee I, wretch that I am, have an admirable
+and faithful husband, if cast out at least I shall fly this land, deserted
+by my friends, lonely with thy lonely children. Fair renown indeed to the
+new married bridegroom, that his children are wandering in poverty, and I
+also who preserved thee. O Jove, why I pray hast thou given to men certain
+proofs of the gold which is adulterate, but no mark is set by nature on the
+person of men by which one may distinguish the bad man.
+
+CHOR. Dreadful is that anger and irremediable, when friends with friends
+kindle strife.
+
+JAS. It befits me, it seems, not to be weak in argument, but as the prudent
+pilot of a vessel, with all the sail that can be hoisted, to run from out
+of thy violent abuse, O woman. But I, since thou thus much vauntest thy
+favors, think that Venus alone both of Gods and men was the protectress of
+my voyage. But thou hast a fickle mind, but it is an invidious account to
+go through, how love compelled thee with his inevitable arrows to preserve
+my life. But I will not follow up arguments with too great accuracy, for
+where thou hast assisted me it is well. Moreover thou hast received more at
+least from my safety than thou gavest, as I will explain to thee. First of
+all thou dwellest in Greece instead of a foreign land, and thou learnest
+what justice is, and to enjoy laws, not to be directed by mere force. And
+all the Grecians have seen that thou art wise, and thou hast renown; but if
+thou wert dwelling in the extreme confines of that land, there would not
+have been fame of thee. But may neither gold in my house be be my lot, nor
+to attune the strain more sweet than Orpheus, if my fortune be not
+conspicuous. So much then have I said of my toils; for thou first
+broughtest forward this contest of words. But with regard to those
+reproaches which thou heapest on me for my royal marriage, in this will I
+show first that I have been wise, in the next place moderate, thirdly a
+great friend to thee, and my children: but be silent. After I had come
+hither from the Iolcian land bringing with me many grievous calamities,
+what measure more fortunate than this could I have invented, than, an exile
+as I was, to marry the daughter of the monarch? not, by which thou art
+grated, loathing thy bed, nor smitten with desire of a new bride, nor
+having emulation of a numerous offspring, for those born to me are
+sufficient, nor do I find fault with that; but that (which is of the
+greatest consequence) we might live honorably, and might not be in want,
+knowing well that every friend flies out of the way of a poor man; and that
+I might bring up my children worthy of my house, and that having begotten
+brothers to those children sprung from thee, I might place them on the same
+footing, and having united the family, I might flourish; for both thou hast
+some need of children, and to me it were advantageous to advance my present
+progeny by means of the children which might arise; have I determined ill?
+not even thou couldest say so, if thy bed did not gall thee. But thus far
+have you come, that your bed being safe, you women think that you have
+every thing. But if any misfortune befall that, the most excellent and
+fairest objects you make the most hateful. It were well then that men
+should generate children from some other source, and that the female race
+should not exist, and thus there would not have been any evil among
+men.[19]
+
+CHOR. Jason, thou hast well adorned these arguments of thine, but
+nevertheless to me, although I speak reluctantly, thou appearest, in
+betraying thy wife, to act unjustly.
+
+MED. Surely I am in many things different from many mortals, for in my
+judgment, whatever man being unjust, is deeply skilled in argument, merits
+the severest punishment. For vaunting that with his tongue he can well
+gloze over injustice, he dares to work deceit, but he is not over-wise.
+Thus do not thou also be now plausible to me, nor skilled in speaking, for
+one word will overthrow thee: it behooved thee, if thou wert not a bad man,
+to have contracted this marriage having persuaded me, and not without the
+knowledge of thy friends.
+
+JAS. Well wouldest thou have lent assistance to this report, if I had
+mentioned the marriage to thee, who not even now endurest to lay aside this
+unabated rage of heart.
+
+MED. This did not move thee, but a foreign bed would lead in its result to
+an old age without honor.
+
+JAS. Be well assured of this, that I did not form this alliance with the
+princess, which I now hold, for the sake of the woman, but, as I said
+before also, wishing to preserve thee, and to beget royal children brothers
+to my sons, a support to our house.
+
+MED. Let not a splendid life of bitterness be my lot, nor wealth, which
+rends my heart.
+
+JAS. Dost thou know how to alter thy prayers, and appear wiser? Let not
+good things ever seem to you bitter, nor when in prosperity seem to be in
+adversity.
+
+MED. Insult me, since thou hast refuge, but I destitute shall fly this
+land.
+
+JAS. Thou chosest this thyself, blame no one else.
+
+MED. By doing what? by marrying and betraying thee?
+
+JAS. By imprecating unhallowed curses on the royal family.
+
+MED. From thy house at least am I laden with curses.
+
+JAS. I will not dispute more of this with thee. But if thou wishest to
+receive either for thyself or children any part of my wealth as an
+assistant on thy flight, speak, since I am ready to give with an unsparing
+hand, and to send tokens of hospitality to my friends, who will treat you
+well; and refusing these thou wilt be foolish, woman, but ceasing from
+thine anger, thou wilt gain better treatment.
+
+MED. I will neither use thy friends, nor will I receive aught; do not give
+to me, for the gifts of a bad man bring no assistance.
+
+JAS. Then I call the Gods to witness, that I wish to assist thee and thy
+children in every thing; but good things please thee not, but thou
+rejectest thy friends with audacity, wherefore shalt thou grieve the more.
+
+MED. Begone, for thou art captured by desire of thy new bride, tarrying so
+long without the palace; wed her, for perhaps, but with the assistance of
+the God shall it be said, thou wilt make such a marriage alliance, as thou
+wilt hereafter wish to renounce.
+
+CHOR. The loves, when they come too impetuously, have given neither good
+report nor virtue among men, but if Venus come with moderation, no other
+Goddess is so benign. Never, O my mistress, mayest thou send forth against
+me from thy golden bow thy inevitable shaft, having steeped it in desire.
+But may temperance preserve me, the noblest gift of heaven; never may
+dreaded Venus, having smitten my mind for another's bed, heap upon me
+jealous passions and unabated quarrels, but approving the peaceful union,
+may she quick of perception sit in judgment on the bed of women. O my
+country, and my house, never may I be an outcast of my city, having a life
+scarce to be endured through poverty, the most lamentable of all woes. By
+death, by death, may I before that be subdued, having lived to accomplish
+that day; but no greater misfortune is there than to be deprived of one's
+paternal country. We have seen it, nor have we to speak from others'
+accounts; for thee, neither city nor friend hath pitied, though suffering
+the most dreadful anguish. Thankless may he perish who desires not to
+assist his friends, having unlocked the pure treasures of his mind; never
+shall he be friend to me.
+
+AEGEUS, MEDEA, CHORUS.
+
+AEG. Medea, hail! for no one hath known a more honorable salutation to
+address to friends than this.
+
+MED. Hail thou also, son of the wise Pandion, AEgeus, coming from what
+quarter dost thou tread the plain of this land?
+
+AEG. Having left the ancient oracle of Phoebus.
+
+MED. But wherefore wert thou sent to the prophetic centre of the earth?
+
+AEG. Inquiring of the God how offspring may arise to me?
+
+MED. By the Gods, tell me, dost thou live this life hitherto childless?
+
+AEG. Childless I am, by the disposal of some deity.
+
+MED. Hast thou a wife, or knowest thou not the marriage-bed!
+
+AEG. I am not destitute of the connubial bed.
+
+MED. What then did Apollo tell thee respecting thy offspring?
+
+AEG. Words deeper than a man can form opinion of.
+
+MED. Is it allowable for me to know the oracle of the God?
+
+AEG. Certainly, inasmuch as it needs also a deep-skilled mind.
+
+MED. What then did he say? Speak, if I may hear.
+
+AEG. That I was not to loose the projecting foot of the vessel--
+
+MED. Before thou didst what, or came to what land?
+
+AEG. Before I revisit my paternal hearth.
+
+MED. Then as desiring what dost thou direct thy voyage to this land?
+
+AEG. There is one Pittheus, king of the country of Trazene.
+
+MED. The most pious son, as report says, of Pelops.
+
+AEG. To him I wish to communicate the oracle of the God.
+
+MED. For he is a wise man, and versed in such matters.
+
+AEG. And to me at least the dearest of all my friends in war.
+
+MED. Mayest thou prosper, and obtain what thou desirest.
+
+AEG. But why is thine eye and thy color thus faded?
+
+MED. AEgeus, my husband is the worst of all men.
+
+AEG. What sayest thou? tell me all thy troubles.
+
+MED. Jason wrongs me, having never suffered wrong from me.
+
+AEG. Having done what? tell me more clearly.
+
+MED. He hath here a wife besides me, mistress of the house.
+
+AEG. Hath he dared to commit this disgraceful action?
+
+MED. Be assured he has; but we his former friends are dishonored.
+
+AEG. Enamored of her, or hating thy bed?
+
+MED. [Smitten with] violent love indeed, he was faithless to his friends.
+
+AEG. Let him perish then, since, as you say, he is a bad man.
+
+MED. He was charmed to receive an alliance with princes.
+
+AEG. And who gives the bride to him? finish the account, I beg.
+
+MED. Creon, who is monarch of this Corinthian land.
+
+AEG. Pardonable was it then that thou art grieved, O lady.
+
+MED. I perish, and in addition to this am I banished from this land.
+
+AEG. By whom? thou art mentioning another fresh misfortune.
+
+MED. Creon drives me an exile out of this land of Corinth.
+
+AEG. And does Jason suffer it? I praise not this.
+
+MED. By his words he does not, but at heart he wishes [to endure my
+banishment:] but by this thy beard I entreat thee, and by these thy knees,
+and I become thy suppliant, pity me, pity this unfortunate woman, nor
+behold me going forth in exile abandoned, but receive me at thy hearth in
+thy country and thy house. Thus by the Gods shall thy desire of children be
+accomplished to thee, and thou thyself shalt die in happiness. But thou
+knowest not what this fortune is that thou hast found; but I will free thee
+from being childless, and I will cause thee to raise up offspring, such
+charms I know.
+
+AEG. On many accounts, O lady, am I willing to confer this favor on thee,
+first on account of the Gods, then of the children, whose birth thou
+holdest forth; for on this point else I am totally sunk in despair. But
+thus am I determined: if thou comest to my country, I will endeavor to
+receive thee with hospitality, being a just man; so much however I
+beforehand apprise thee of, O lady, I shall not be willing to lead thee
+with me from this land; but if thou comest thyself to my house, thou shalt
+stay there in safety, and to no one will I give thee up. But do thou of
+thyself withdraw thy foot from this country, for I wish to be without blame
+even among strangers.
+
+MED. It shall be so, but if there was a pledge of this given to me, I
+should have all things from thee in a noble manner.
+
+AEG. Dost thou not trust me? what is thy difficulty?
+
+MED. I trust thee; but the house of Pelias is mine enemy, and Creon too; to
+these then, wert thou bound by oaths, thou wouldest not give me up from the
+country, should they attempt to drag me thence. But having agreed by words
+alone, and without calling the Gods to witness, thou mightest be their
+friend, and perhaps[20] be persuaded by an embassy; for weak is my state,
+but theirs are riches, and a royal house.
+
+AEG. Thou hast spoken much prudence, O lady. But if it seems fit to thee
+that I should do this, I refuse not. For to me also this seems the safest
+plan, that I should have some pretext to show to your enemies, and thy
+safety is better secured; propose the Gods that I am to invoke.
+
+MED. Swear by the earth, and by the sun the father of my father, and join
+the whole race of Gods.
+
+AEG. That I will do what thing, or what not do? speak.
+
+MED. That thou wilt neither thyself ever cast me forth from out of thy
+country, nor, if any one of my enemies desire to drag me thence, that thou
+wilt, while living, give me up willingly.
+
+AEG. I swear by the earth, and the hallowed majesty of the sun, and by all
+the Gods, to abide by what I hear from thee.
+
+MED. It is sufficient: but what wilt thou endure shouldest thou not abide
+by this oath?
+
+AEG. That which befalls impious men.
+
+MED. Go with blessings; for every thing is well. And I will come as quick
+as possible to thy city, having performed what I intend, and having
+obtained what I desire.
+
+CHOR. But may the son of Maia the king, the guide, conduct thee safely to
+thy house, and the plans of those things, which thou anxiously keepest in
+thy mind, mayest thou bring to completion, since, AEgeus, thou hast appeared
+to us to be a noble man.
+
+MEDEA, CHORUS.
+
+MED. O Jove, and thou vengeance of Jove, and thou light of the sun, now, my
+friends, shall I obtain a splendid victory over my enemies, and I have
+struck into the path. Now is there hope that my enemies will suffer
+punishment. For this man, where I was most at a loss, hath appeared a
+harbor to my plans. From him will I make fast my cable from the stern,
+having come to the town and citadel of Pallas. But now will I communicate
+all my plans to thee; but receive my words not as attuned to pleasure.
+Having sent one of my domestics, I will ask Jason to come into my presence;
+and when he is come, I will address gentle words to him, as that it appears
+to me that these his actions are both honorable, and are advantageous and
+well determined on.[21] And I will entreat him that my sons may stay; not
+that I would leave my children in a hostile country for my enemies to
+insult, but that by deceit I may slay the king's daughter. For I will send
+them bearing presents in their hands, both a fine-wrought robe, and a
+golden-twined wreath.[22] And if she take the ornaments and place them
+round her person, she shall perish miserably, and every one who shall touch
+the damsel; with such charms will I anoint the presents. Here however I
+finish this account; but I bewail the deed such as must next be done by me;
+for I shall slay my children; there is no one who shall rescue them from
+me; and having heaped in ruins the whole house of Jason, I will go from out
+this land, flying the murder of my dearest children, and having dared a
+deed most unhallowed. For it is not to be borne, my friends, to be derided
+by one's enemies. Let things take their course; what gain is it to me to
+live longer? I have neither country, nor house, nor refuge from my ills.
+Then erred I, when I left my father's house, persuaded by the words of a
+Grecian man, who with the will of the Gods shall suffer punishment from me.
+For neither shall he ever hereafter behold the children he had by me alive,
+nor shall he raise a child by his new wedded wife, since it is fated that
+the wretch should wretchedly perish by my spells. Let no one think me
+mean-spirited and weak, nor of a gentle temper, but of a contrary
+disposition to my foes relentless, and to my friends kind: for the lives of
+such sort are most glorious.
+
+CHOR. Since thou hast communicated this plan to me, desirous both of doing
+good to thee, and assisting the laws of mortals, I dissuade thee from doing
+this.
+
+MED. It can not be otherwise, but it is pardonable in thee to say this, not
+suffering the cruel treatment that I do.
+
+CHOR. But wilt thou dare to slay thy two sons, O lady?
+
+MED. For in this way will my husband be most afflicted.
+
+CHOR. But thou at least wilt be the most wretched woman.
+
+MED. Be that as it may: all intervening words are superfluous; but go,
+hasten, and bring Jason hither; for I make use of thee in all matters of
+trust. And thou wilt mention nothing of the plans determined on by me, if
+at least thou meanest well to thy mistress, and art a woman.
+
+CHOR. The Athenians happy of old, and the descendants of the blessed Gods,
+feeding on the most exalted wisdom of a country sacred and unconquered,
+always tripping elegantly through the purest atmosphere, where they say
+that of old the golden-haired Harmonia gave birth to the chaste nine
+Pierian Muses.[23] And they report also that Venus drawing in her breath
+from the stream of the fair-flowing Cephisus, breathed over their country
+gentle sweetly-breathing gales of air; and always entwining in her hair the
+fragrant wreath of roses, sends the loves as assessors to wisdom; the
+assistants of every virtue. How then will the city of hallowed rivers,[24]
+or the country which conducts thee to friends, receive the murderer of her
+children, the unholy one? Consider in conjunction with others of the
+slaughter of thy children, consider what a murder thou wilt undertake. Do
+not by thy knees, by every plea,[25] by every prayer, we entreat you, do
+not murder your children; but how wilt thou acquire confidence either of
+mind or hand or in heart against thy children, attempting a dreadful deed
+of boldness? But how, having darted thine eyes upon thy children, wilt thou
+endure the perpetration of the murder without tears? Thou wilt not[26] be
+able, when thy children fall suppliant at thy feet, to imbrue thy savage
+hand in their wretched life-blood.
+
+JASON, MEDEA, CHORUS.
+
+JAS. I am come, by thee requested; for although thou art enraged, thou
+shalt not be deprived of this at least; but I will hear what new service
+thou dost desire of me, lady.
+
+MED. Jason, I entreat you to be forgiving of what has been said, but right
+is it that you should bear with my anger, since many friendly acts have
+been done by us two. But I reasoned with myself and rebuked myself; wayward
+woman, why am I maddened and am enraged with those who consult well for me?
+and why am I in enmity with the princes of the land and with my husband,
+who is acting in the most advantageous manner for us, having married a
+princess, and begetting brothers to my children? Shall I not cease from my
+rage? What injury do I suffer, the Gods providing well for me? Have I not
+children? And I know that I am flying the country, and am in want of
+friends. Revolving this in my mind I perceive that I had much imprudence,
+and was enraged without reason. Now then I approve of this, and thou
+appearest to me to be prudent, having added this alliance to us; but I was
+foolish, who ought to share in these plans, and to join in adorning and to
+stand by the bed, and to delight with thee that thy bride was enamored of
+thee; but we women are as we are, I will not speak evil of the sex;
+wherefore it is not right that you should put yourself on an equality with
+the evil, nor repay folly for folly. I give up, and say that then I erred
+in judgment, but now I have determined on these things better. O my
+children, my children, come forth, leave the house, come forth, salute, and
+address your father with me, and be reconciled to your friends from your
+former hatred together with your mother. For there is amity between us, and
+my rage hath ceased. Take his right hand. Alas! my misfortunes; how I feel
+some hidden ill in my mind! Will ye, my children, in this manner, and for a
+long time enjoying life, stretch out your dear hands? Wretch that I am! how
+near am I to weeping and full of fear!--But at last canceling this dispute
+with your father, I have filled thus my tender sight with tears.
+
+CHOR. In my eyes also the moist tear is arisen; and may not the evil
+advance to a greater height than it is at present.
+
+JAS. I approve of this, lady, nor do I blame the past; for it is reasonable
+that the female sex be enraged with a husband who barters them for another
+union.--But thy heart has changed to the more proper side, and thou hast
+discovered, but after some time, the better counsel: these are the actions
+of a wise woman. But for you, my sons, your father not without thought hath
+formed many provident plans, with the assistance of the Gods. For I think
+that you will be yet the first in this Corinthian country, together with
+your brothers. But advance and prosper: and the rest your father, and
+whatever God is propitious, will effect. And may I behold you blooming
+arrive at the prime of youth, superior to my enemies. And thou, why dost
+thou bedew thine eyes with the moist tear, having turned aside thy white
+cheek, and why dost thou not receive these words from me with pleasure?
+
+MED. It is nothing. I was thinking of my sons.
+
+JAS. Be of good courage; for I will arange well for them.
+
+MED. I will be so, I will not mistrust thy words; but a woman is of soft
+mould, and was born to tears.
+
+JAS. Why, I pray, dost thou so grieve for thy children?
+
+MED. I brought them into the world, and when thou wert praying that thy
+children might live, a feeling of pity came upon me if that would be. But
+for what cause thou hast come to a conference with me, partly hath been
+explained, but the other reasons I will mention. Since it appeareth fit to
+the royal family to send me from this country, for me also this appears
+best, I know it well, that I might not dwell here, a check either to thee
+or to the princes of the land; for I seem to be an object of enmity to the
+house; I indeed will set out from this land in flight; but to the end that
+the children may be brought up by thy hand, entreat Creon that they may not
+leave this land.
+
+JAS. I know not whether I shall persuade him; but it is right to try.
+
+MED. But do thou then exhort thy bride to ask her father, that my children
+may not leave this country.
+
+JAS. Certainly I will, and I think at least that she will persuade him, if
+indeed she be one of the female sex.
+
+MED. I also will assist you in this task, for I will send to her presents
+which (I well know) far surpass in beauty any now among men, both a
+fine-wrought robe, and a golden-twined chaplet, my sons carrying them. But
+as quick as possible let one of my attendants bring hither these ornaments.
+Thy bride shall be blessed not in one instance, but in many, having met
+with you at least the best of husbands, and possessing ornaments which the
+sun my father's father once gave to his descendants. Take these nuptial
+presents, my sons, in your hands, and bear and present them to the blessed
+royal bride; she shall receive gifts not indeed to be despised.
+
+JAS. Why, O fond woman, dost thou rob thy hands of these; thinkest thou
+that the royal palace is in want of vests? in want of gold? keep these
+presents, give them not away; for if the lady esteems me of any value, she
+will prefer pleasing me to riches, I know full well.
+
+MED. But do not oppose me; gifts, they say, persuade even the Gods,[27] and
+gold is more powerful than a thousand arguments to men. Hers is fortune,
+her substance the God now increases, she in youth governs all. But the
+sentence of banishment on my children I would buy off with my life, not
+with gold alone. But my children, enter you the wealthy palace, to the new
+bride of your father, and my mistress, entreat her, beseech her, that you
+may not leave the land, presenting these ornaments; but this is of the
+greatest consequence, that, she receive these gifts in her own hand. Go as
+quick as possible, and may you be bearers of good tidings to your mother in
+what she desires to obtain, having succeeded favorably.
+
+CHOR. Now no longer have I any hope of life for the children, no longer [is
+there hope]; for already are they going to death. The bride shall receive
+the destructive present of the golden chaplet, she wretched shall receive
+them, and around her golden tresses shall she place the attire of death,
+having received the presents in her hands. The beauty and the divine
+glitter of the robe will persuade her to place around her head the
+golden-wrought chaplet. Already with the dead shall the bride be adorned;
+into such a net will she fall, and such a destiny will she, hapless woman,
+meet with; nor will she escape her fate. But thou, oh unhappy man! oh
+wretched bridegroom! son-in-law of princes, unknowingly thou bringest on
+thy children destruction, and on thy wife a bitter death; hapless man, how
+much art thou fallen from thy state![28] But I lament for thy grief, O
+wretch, mother of these children, who wilt murder thy sons on account of a
+bridal-bed; deserting which, in defiance of thee, thy husband dwells with
+another wife.
+
+TUTOR, MEDEA, CHORUS.
+
+TUT. Thy sons, my mistress, are reprieved from banishment, and the royal
+bride received thy presents in her hands with pleasure, and hence is peace
+to thy children.
+
+MED. Ah!
+
+TUT. Why dost thou stand in confusion, when thou art fortunate?
+
+MED. Alas! alas!
+
+TUT. This behavior is not consonant with the message I have brought thee.
+
+MED. Alas! again.
+
+TUT. Have I reported any ill fortune unknowingly, and have I failed in my
+hope of being the messenger of good?
+
+MED. Thou hast said what thou hast said, I blame not thee.
+
+TUT. Why then dost thou bend down thine eye, and shed tears?
+
+MED. Strong necessity compels me, O aged man, for this the Gods and I
+deliberating ill have contrived.
+
+TUT. Be of good courage; thou also wilt return home yet through thy
+children.
+
+MED. Others first will I send to their home,[29] O wretched me!
+
+TUT. Thou art not the only one who art separated from thy children; it
+behooves a mortal to bear calamities with meekness.
+
+MED. I will do so; but go within the house, and prepare for the children
+what is needful for the day. O my sons, my sons, you have indeed a city,
+and a house, in which having forsaken me miserable, you shall dwell, ever
+deprived of a mother. But I am now going an exile into a foreign land,
+before I could have delight in you, and see you flourishing, before I could
+adorn your marriage, and wife, and nuptial-bed, and hold up the torch.[30]
+O unfortunate woman that I am, on account of my wayward temper. In vain
+then, my children, have I brought you up, in vain have I toiled, and been
+consumed with cares, suffering the strong agonies of child-bearing. Surely
+once there was a time when I hapless woman had many hopes in you, that you
+would both tend me in my age, and when dead would with your hands decently
+compose my limbs, a thing desired by men. But now this pleasing thought
+hath indeed perished; for deprived of you I shall pass a life of misery,
+and bitter to myself. But you will no longer behold your mother with your
+dear eyes, having passed into another state of life. Alas! alas! why do you
+look upon me with your eyes, my children? Why do ye smile that last smile?
+Alas! alas! what shall I do? for my heart is sinking. Ye females, when I
+behold the cheerful look of my children, I have no power. Farewell my
+counsels: I will take my children with me from this land. What does it
+avail me grieving their father with the ills of these, to acquire twice as
+much pain for myself? never will I at least do this. Farewell my counsels.
+And yet what do I suffer? do I wish to incur ridicule, having left my foes
+unpunished? This must be dared. But the bringing forward words of
+tenderness in my mind arises also from my cowardice. Go, my children, into
+the house; and he for whom it is not lawful to be present at my sacrifice,
+let him take care himself to keep away.[31] But I will not stain my hand.
+Alas! alas! do not thou then, my soul, do not thou at least perpetrate
+this. Let them escape, thou wretch, spare thy sons. There shall they live
+with us and delight thee. No, I swear by the infernal deities who dwell
+with Pluto, never shall this be, that I will give up my children to be
+insulted by my enemies. [At all events they must die, and since they must,
+I who brought them into the world will perpetrate the deed.] This is fully
+determined by fate, and shall not pass away. And now the chaplet is on her
+head, and the bride is perishing in the robes; of this I am well assured.
+But, since I am now going a most dismal path, and these will I send by one
+still more dismal, I desire to address my children: give, my sons, give thy
+right hand for thy mother to kiss. O most dear hand, and those lips dearest
+to me, and that form and noble countenance of my children, be ye blessed,
+but there;[32] for every thing here your father hath taken away. O the
+sweet embrace, and that soft skin, and that most fragrant breath of my
+children. Go, go; no longer am I able to look upon you, but am overcome by
+my ills. I know indeed the ills that I am about to dare, but my rage is
+master of my counsels,[33] which is indeed the cause of the greatest
+calamities to men.
+
+CHOR. Already have I often gone through more refined reasonings, and have
+come to greater arguments than suits the female mind to investigate; for we
+also have a muse, which dwelleth with us, for the sake of teaching wisdom;
+but not with all, for haply thou wilt find but a small number of the race
+of women out of many not ungifted with the muse.[34]
+
+And I say that those men who are entirely free from wedlock, and have not
+begotten children, surpass in happiness those who have families; those
+indeed who are childless, through inexperience whether children are born a
+joy or anguish to men, not having them themselves, are exempt from much
+misery. But those who have a sweet blooming offspring of children in their
+house, I behold worn with care the whole time; first of all how they shall
+bring them up honorably, and how they shall leave means of sustenance for
+their children. And still after this, whether they are toiling for bad or
+good sons, this is still in darkness. But one ill to mortals, the last of
+all, I now will mention. For suppose they have both found sufficient store,
+and the bodies of their children have arrived at manhood, and that they are
+good; but if this fortune shall happen to them, death, bearing away their
+sons, vanishes with them to the shades of darkness. How then does it profit
+that the Gods heap on mortals yet this grief in addition to others, the
+most bitter of all, for the sake of children?
+
+MEDEA, MESSENGER, CHORUS.
+
+MED. For a long time waiting for the event, my friends, I am anxiously
+expecting what will be the result thence. And I see indeed one of the
+domestics of Jason coming hither, and his quickened breath shows that he
+will be the messenger of some new ill.
+
+MESS. O thou, that hast impiously perpetrated a deed of terror, Medea, fly,
+fly, leaving neither the ocean chariot,[35] nor the car whirling o'er the
+plain.
+
+MED. But what is done that requires this flight?
+
+MESS. The princess is just dead, and Creon her father destroyed by thy
+charms.
+
+MED. Thou hast spoken most glad tidings: and hereafter from this time shalt
+thou be among my benefactors and friends.
+
+MESS. What sayest thou? Art thou in thy senses, and not mad, lady? who
+having destroyed the king and family, rejoicest at hearing it, and fearest
+not such things?
+
+MED. I also have something to say to these words of thine at least; but be
+not hasty, my friend; but tell me how they perished, for twice as much
+delight wilt thou give me if they died miserably.
+
+MESS. As soon as thy two sons were come with their father, and had entered
+the bridal house, we servants, who were grieved at thy misfortunes, were
+delighted; and immediately there was much conversation in our ears, that
+thy husband and thou had brought the former quarrel to a friendly
+termination. One kissed the hand, another the auburn head of thy sons, and
+I also myself followed with them to the women's apartments through joy. But
+my mistress, whom we now reverence instead of thee, before she saw thy two
+sons enter, held her cheerful eyes fixed on Jason; afterward however she
+covered her eyes, and turned aside her white cheek, disgusted at the
+entrance of thy sons; but thy husband quelled the anger and rage of the
+young bride, saying this; Be not angry with thy friends, but cease from thy
+rage, and turn again thy face, esteeming those as friends, whom thy husband
+does. But receive the gifts, and ask thy father to give up the sentence of
+banishment against these children for my sake. But when she saw the
+ornaments, she refused not, but promised her husband every thing; and
+before thy sons and their father were gone far from the house, she took and
+put on the variegated robes, and having placed the golden chaplet around
+her tresses she arranges her hair in the radiant mirror, smiling at the
+lifeless image of her person. And after, having risen from her seat, she
+goes across the chamber, elegantly tripping with snow-white foot; rejoicing
+greatly in the presents, looking much and oftentimes with her eyes on her
+outstretched neck.[36] After that however there was a sight of horror to
+behold. For having changed color, she goes staggering back trembling in her
+limbs, and is scarce in time to prevent herself from falling on the ground,
+by sinking into a chair. And some aged female attendant, when she thought
+that the wrath either of Pan or some other Deity[37] had visited her,
+offered up the invocation, before at least she sees the white foam bursting
+from her mouth, and her mistress rolling her eyeballs from their sockets,
+and the blood no longer in the flesh; then she sent forth a loud shriek of
+far different sound from the strain of supplication; and straightway one
+rushed to the apartments of her father, but another to her newly-married
+husband, to tell the calamity befallen the bride, and all the house was
+filled with frequent hurryings to and fro. And by this time a swift runner,
+exerting his limbs, might have reached[38] the goal of the course of six
+plethra;[39] but she, wretched woman, from being speechless, and from a
+closed eye having groaned deeply writhed in agony; for a double pest was
+warring against her. The golden chaplet indeed placed on her head was
+sending forth a stream of all-devouring fire wonderful to behold, but the
+fine-wrought robes, the presents of thy sons, were devouring the white
+flesh of the hapless woman. But she having started from her seat flies, all
+on fire, tossing her hair and head on this side and that side, desirous of
+shaking off the chaplet; but the golden wreath firmly kept its hold; but
+the fire, when she shook her hair, blazed out with double fury, and she
+sinks upon the ground overcome by her sufferings, difficult for any one
+except her father to recognize. For neither was the expression of her eyes
+clear, nor her noble countenance; but the blood was dropping from the top
+of her head mixed with fire. But her flesh was dropping off her bones, as
+the tear from the pine-tree, by the hidden fangs of the poison; a sight of
+horror. But all feared to touch the body, for we had her fate to warn us.
+But the hapless father, through ignorance of her suffering, having come
+with haste into the apartment, falls on the corpse, and groans immediately;
+and having folded his arms round her, kisses her, saying these words; O
+miserable child, what Deity hath thus cruelly destroyed thee? who makes an
+aged father bowing to the tomb[40] bereaved of thee? Alas me! let me die
+with thee, my child. But after he had ceased from his lamentations and
+cries, desiring to raise his aged body, he was held, as the ivy by the
+boughs of the laurel, by the fine-wrought robes; and dreadful was the
+struggle, for he wished to raise his knee, but she held him back; but if he
+drew himself away by force he tore the aged flesh from his bones. But at
+length the wretched man swooned away, and gave up his life; for no longer
+was he able to endure the agony. But they lie corses, the daughter and aged
+father near one another; a calamity that demands tears. And let thy affairs
+indeed be not matter for my words; for thou thyself wilt know a refuge from
+punishment. But the affairs of mortals not now for the first time I deem a
+shadow, and I would venture to say that those persons who seem to be wise
+and are researchers of arguments, these I say, run into the greatest folly.
+For no mortal man is happy; but wealth pouring in, one man may be more
+fortunate than another, but happy he can not be.
+
+CHOR. The Deity, it seems, will in this day justly heap on Jason a variety
+of ills. O hapless lady, how we pity thy sufferings, daughter of Creon, who
+art gone to the house of darkness, through thy marriage with Jason.
+
+MED. The deed is determined on by me, my friends, to slay my children as
+soon as possible, and to hasten from this land; and not by delaying to give
+my sons for another hand more hostile to murder. But come, be armed, my
+heart; why do we delay to do dreadful but necessary deeds? Come, O wretched
+hand of mine, grasp the sword, grasp it, advance to the bitter goal of
+life, and be not cowardly, nor remember thy children how dear they are, how
+thou broughtest them into the world; but for this short day at least forget
+thy children; hereafter lament. For although thou slayest them,
+nevertheless they at least were dear, but I a wretched woman.
+
+CHOR. O thou earth, and thou all-illuming beam of the sun, look down upon,
+behold this abandoned woman, before she move her blood-stained hand itself
+about to inflict the blow against her children; for from thy golden race
+they sprung; but fearful is it for the blood of Gods to fall by the hand of
+man. But do thou, O heaven-born light, restrain her, stop her, remove from
+this house this blood-stained and miserable Erinnys agitated by the Furies.
+The care of thy children perishes in vain, and in vain hast thou produced a
+dear race, O thou who didst leave the most inhospitable entrance of the
+Cyanean rocks, the Symplegades. Hapless woman, why does such grievous rage
+settle on thy mind; and hostile slaughter ensue? For kindred pollutions are
+difficult of purification to mortals; correspondent calamities falling from
+the Gods to the earth upon the houses of the murderers.[41]
+
+FIRST SON. (_within_) Alas! what shall I do? whither shall I fly from my
+mother's hand?
+
+SECOND SON. I know not, dearest brother, for we perish.
+
+CHOR. Hearest thou the cry? hearest thou the children? O wretch, O
+ill-fated woman! Shall I enter the house? It seems right to me to ward off
+the murderous blow from the children.
+
+SONS. Nay, by the Gods assist us, for it is in needful time; since now at
+least are we near the destruction of the sword.
+
+CHOR. Miserable woman, art thou then a rock, or iron, who cuttest down with
+death by thine own hand the fair crop of children which thou producedst
+thyself? one indeed I hear of, one woman of those of old, who laid violent
+hands on her children, Ino, maddened by the Gods when the wife of Jove sent
+her in banishment from her home; and she miserable woman falls into the sea
+through the impious murder of her children, directing her foot over the
+sea-shore, and dying with her two sons, there she perished! what then I
+pray can be more dreadful than this? O thou bed of woman, fruitful in ills,
+how many evils hast thou already brought to men!
+
+JASON, CHORUS.
+
+JAS. Ye females, who stand near this mansion, is she who hath done these
+deeds of horror, Medea, in this house; or hath she withdrawn herself in
+flight? For now it is necessary for her either to be hidden beneath the
+earth, or to raise her winged body into the vast expanse of air, if she
+would not suffer vengeance from the king's house. Does she trust that after
+having slain the princes of this land, she shall herself escape from this
+house with impunity?--But I have not such care for her as for my children;
+for they whom she has injured will punish her. But I came to preserve my
+children's life, lest [Creon's] relations by birth do any injury,[42]
+avenging the impious murder perpetrated by their mother.
+
+CHOR. Unhappy man! thou knowest not at what misery thou hast arrived,
+Jason, or else thou wouldest not have uttered these words.
+
+JAS. What is this, did she wish to slay me also?
+
+CHOR. Thy children are dead by their mother's hand.
+
+JAS. Alas me! What wilt thou say? how hast thou killed me, woman!
+
+CHOR. Think now of thy sons as no longer living.
+
+JAS. Where did she slay them, within or without the house?
+
+CHOR. Open those doors, and thou wilt see the slaughter of thy sons.
+
+JAS. Undo the bars, as quick as possible, attendants; unloose the hinges,
+that I may see this double evil, my sons slain, and may punish her.
+
+MED. Why dost thou shake and unbolt these gates, seeking the dead and me
+who did the deed. Cease from this labor; but if thou wantest aught with me,
+speak if thou wishest any thing; but never shall thou touch me with thy
+hands; such a chariot the sun my father's father gives me, a defense from
+the hostile hand.[43]
+
+JAS. O thou abomination! thou most detested woman, both by the Gods and by
+me, and by all the race of man; who hast dared to plunge the sword in thine
+own children, thou who bore them, and hast destroyed me childless. And
+having done this thou beholdest both the sun and the earth, having dared a
+most impious deed. Mayest thou perish! but I am now wise, not being so then
+when I brought thee from thy house and from a foreign land to a Grecian
+habitation, a great pest, traitress to thy father and the land that
+nurtured thee. But the Gods have sent thy evil genius on me. For having
+slain thy brother at the altar, thou embarkedst on board the gallant vessel
+Argo. Thou begannest indeed with such deeds as these; and being wedded to
+me, and bearing me children, thou hast destroyed them on account of another
+bed and marriage. There is not one Grecian woman who would have dared a
+deed like this, in preference to whom at least, I thought worthy to wed
+thee, an alliance hateful and destructive to me, a lioness, no woman,
+having a nature more savage than the Tuscan Scylla. But I can not gall thy
+heart with ten thousand reproaches, such shameless confidence is implanted
+in thee. Go, thou worker of ill, and stained with the blood of thy
+children. But for me it remains to bewail my fate, who shall neither enjoy
+my new nuptials, nor shall I have it in my power to address while alive my
+sons whom I begot and educated, but I have lost them.
+
+MED. Surely I could make long reply to these words, if the Sire Jupiter did
+not know what treatment thou receivedst from me, and what thou didst in
+return; but you were mistaken, when you expected, having dishonored my bed,
+to lead a life of pleasure, mocking me, and so was the princess, and so was
+Creon, who proposed the match to thee, when he expected to drive me from
+this land with impunity. Wherefore, if thou wilt, call me lioness, and
+Scylla who dwelt in the Tuscan plain. For thy heart, as is right, I have
+wounded.
+
+JAS. And thou thyself grievest at least, and art a sharer in these ills.
+
+MED. Be assured of that; but this lessens[44] the grief, that thou canst
+not mock me.
+
+JAS. My children, what a wicked mother have ye found!
+
+MED. My sons, how did ye perish by your father's fault!
+
+JAS. Nevertheless my hand slew them not.
+
+MED. But injury, and thy new nuptials.
+
+JAS. And on account of thy bed didst thou think fit to slay them?
+
+MED. Dost thou deem this a slight evil to a woman?
+
+JAS. Whoever at least is modest; but in thee is every ill.
+
+MED. These are no longer living, for this will gall thee.
+
+JAS. These are living, alas me! avenging furies on thy head.
+
+MED. The Gods know who began the injury.
+
+JAS. They know indeed thy execrable mind.
+
+Meo. Thou art hateful to me, and I detest thy bitter speech.
+
+JAS. And I in sooth thine; the separation at least is without pain.
+
+MED. How then? what shall I do? for I also am very desirous.
+
+JAS. Suffer me, I beg, to bury and mourn over these dead bodies.
+
+MED. Never indeed; since I will bury them with this hand bearing them to
+the shrine of Juno, the Goddess guardian of the citadel, that no one of my
+enemies may insult them, tearing up their graves. But in this land of
+Sisyphus will I institute in addition to this a solemn festival and
+sacrifices hereafter to expiate this unhallowed murder. But I myself will
+go to the land of Erectheus, to dwell with AEgeus son of Pandion. But thou,
+wretch, as is fit, shalt die wretchedly, struck on thy head with a relic of
+thy ship Argo, having seen the bitter end of my marriage.
+
+JAS. But may the Fury of the children, and Justice the avenger of murder,
+destroy thee.
+
+MED. But what God or Deity hears thee, thou perjured man, and traitor to
+the rights of hospitality?
+
+JAS. Ah! thou abominable woman, and murderer of thy children.
+
+MED. Go to thy home, and bury thy wife.
+
+JAS. I go, even deprived of both my children.
+
+MED. Thou dost not yet mourn enough: stay and grow old.[45]
+
+JAS. Oh my dearest sons!
+
+MED. To their mother at least, but not to thee.
+
+JAS. And yet thou slewest them.
+
+MED. To grieve thee.
+
+JAS. Alas, alas! I hapless man long to kiss the dear mouths of my children.
+
+MED. Now them addressest, now salutest them, formerly rejecting them with
+scorn.
+
+JAS. Grant me, by the Gods, to touch the soft skin of my sons.
+
+MED. It is not possible. Thy words are thrown away in vain.
+
+JAS. Dost thou hear this, O Jove, how I am rejected, and what I suffer from
+this accursed and child-destroying lioness? But as much indeed as is in my
+power and I am able, I lament and mourn over these; calling the Gods to
+witness, that having slain my children, thou preventest me from touching
+them with my hands, and from burying the bodies, whom, oh that I had never
+begotten, and seen them thus destroyed by thee.
+
+CHOR. Jove is the dispenser of various fates in heaven, and the Gods
+perform many things contrary to our expectations, and those things which we
+looked for are not accomplished; but the God hath brought to pass things
+unthought of. In such manner hath this affair ended.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+NOTES ON MEDEA
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+[1] The Cyaneae Petrae, or Symplegades, were two rocks in the mouth of the
+Euxine Sea, said to meet together with prodigious violence, and crush the
+passing ships. See Pindar. Pyth. iv. 386.
+
+[2] [Greek: eretmosai] signifies to make to row; [Greek: eretmesai], to
+row. In the same sense the two verbs derived from [Greek: polemos] are
+used, [Greek: polemoo] signifying ad bellum excito; [Greek: polemeo],
+bellum gero.
+
+[3] Elmsley reads [Greek: phyge] in the nominative case, "_a flight indeed
+pleasing_," etc.
+
+[4] Literally, _Before we have drained this to the very dregs_. So Virgil,
+AEn. iv. 14. _Quae bella exhausta canebat_!
+
+[5] Ter. And. Act. ii. Sc. 5. _Omnes sibi malle melius esse quam alteri_.
+Ac. iv. Sc. 1. _Proximus sum egomet mihi_.
+
+[6] Elmsley reads [Greek: kai] for [Greek: ei], "_And their father_," etc.
+
+[7] In Elms. Dind. [Greek: to gar eithisthai], "_for the being
+accustomed_," etc.
+
+[8] [Greek: dynatai] here signifies [Greek: ischyei, sthenei]; and in this
+sense it is repeatedly used: [Greek: oudena kairon], in this place, is not
+to be interpreted "intempestive", but "immoderate, supra modum." For this
+signification consult Stephen's Thesaurus, word [Greek: kairos]. EMSLEY.
+
+[9] [Greek: hode] is used in this sense v. 49, 687, 901, of this Play.
+
+[10] [Greek: mogera] is best taken with Reiske as the accusative plural,
+though the Scholiast considers it the nominative singular. ELMSLEY.
+
+[11] [Greek: gegotas] need not be translated as [Greek: nomizomenous], the
+sense is [Greek; ontas]: so [Greek: authades gegos], line 225.
+
+[12] That is, the character of man can not be discovered by the
+countenance: so Juvenal,
+
+  Fronti nulla fides.
+
+[Greek: hostis], though in the singular number, refers to [Greek: broton]
+in the plural: a similar construction is met with in Homer, Il. [Greek: G].
+279.
+
+  [Greek: anthropous tinnysthon, ho tis k' epiorkon homossei].
+
+[13] Grammarians teach us that [Greek: gamein] is applied to the husband,
+[Greek: gameisthai] to the wife; and this rule will generally be found to
+hold good. We must either then read [Greek: he t' egemato], which Porson
+does not object to, and Elmsley adopts; or understand [Greek: egemato] in
+an ironical sense, in the spirit of Martial's _Uxori nubere nolo meae_: in
+the latter case [Greek: hei t' egemato] should be read (not [Greek: hen
+t']), as being the proper syntax.
+
+[14] The primary signification of [Greek: plemmeles] is _absonus_, _out of
+tune_: hence is easily deduced the signification in which it is often found
+in Euripides. The word [Greek: plemmelesas] occurs in the Phoenissae, l.
+1669.
+
+[15] Elmsley approves of the reading adopted by Porson, though he has given
+in his text
+
+  [Greek: ponoumen hemeis, k' on ponon kechremetha].
+
+"_We are oppressed with cares, and want not other cares_," as being more
+likely to have come from Euripides. So also Dindorf.
+
+[16] [Greek: hos eoikas]; is here used for the more common expression
+[Greek: hos eoiken]. So Herodotus, Clio, clv. [Greek: ou pausontai hoi
+Lydoi, hos oikasi, pragmata parechontes, kai autoi echontes]. See also
+Hecuba, 801.
+
+[17] Beck interprets this passage, "Mea quidem vita ut non habeat laudem,
+fama obstat." Heath translates it, "Jam in contrariam partem tendens fama
+efficit, ut mea quoque vita laudem habeat." We are told by the Scholiast,
+that by [Greek: biotan] is to be understood [Greek: physin].
+
+[18] Iolcos was a city of Thessaly, distant about seven stadii from the
+sea, where the parents of Jason lived: Pelion was both a mountain and city
+of Thessaly, close to Iolcos; whence Iolcos is called Peliotic.
+
+[19] For the same sentiment more fully expressed, see Hippolytus, 616-625.
+See also Paradise Lost, x. 890.
+
+                  Oh, why did God,
+  Creator wise, that peopled highest heaven
+  With spirits masculine, create at last
+  This novelty on earth, this fair defect
+  Of nature, and not fill the world at once
+  With men, as angels, without feminine?
+
+[20] Porson rightly reads [Greek: tach' an pithoio] with Wyttenbach.
+
+[21] Elmsley has
+
+  [Greek: "hos kai dokei moi tauta, kai kalos echein]
+  [Greek: gamous tyrannon, hous prodous hemas echei],
+  [Greek: kai xymphor' einai, kai kalos egnosmena]."
+
+"_that these things appear good to me, and that the alliance with the
+princes, which he, having forsaken me, has contracted, are both
+advantageous and well determined on_." So also Dind. but [Greek: kalos
+echei]. Porson omits the line.
+
+[22] In Elmsley this line is omitted, and instead of it is inserted
+
+  "[Greek: nymphei pherontas, tende me pheugein chthona]."
+
+"_offering them to the bride, that they may not be banished from this
+country_," which Dindorf retains, and brackets the other.
+
+[23] Although the Scholiast reprobates this interpretation, it seems to be
+the best, nor is it any objection, that [Greek: Mnemosyne] is elsewhere
+represented as the Mother of the Muses; so much at variance is the poetry
+of Euripides with the received mythology of the ancients. ELMSLEY.
+
+[24] The construction is [Greek: polis hieron potamon]; thus Thebes,
+Phoenis. l. 831, is called [Greek: pyrgos didymon potamon]. A like
+expression occurs in 2 Sam. xii. 27. I have fought against Rabbah, and have
+taken _the city of waters_, [Greek: polin ton hydaton] in the Septuagint
+version.
+
+[25] Elmsley reads [Greek: pantes], "_we all entreat thee_." So Dindorf.
+
+[26] Elmsley reads [Greek: he dynasei] with the note of interrogation after
+[Greek: thymoi]; "_or how wilt thou be able,_" etc.
+
+[27] An allusion to that well-known saying in Plato, de Repub. 1. 3.
+[Greek: Dora theous peithei, dor' aidoious basileas]. Ovid. de Arte Am.
+iii. 635.
+
+  Munera, crede mini, capiunt hominesque deosque.
+
+[28] Vertit Portus, _O infelix quantam calamitatem ignoras_. Mihi sensus
+videtur esse, _quantum a pristina fortuna excidisti_. ELMSLEY.
+
+[29] Medea here makes use of the ambiguous word [Greek: kataxo], which may
+be understood by the Tutor in the sense of "bringing back to their
+country," but implies also the horrid purpose of destroying her children:
+[Greek: tode 'kataxo' anti tou pempso eis ton Aiden], as the Scholiast
+explains it.
+
+[30] It was the custom for mothers to bear lighted torches at their
+children's nuptials. See Iphig. Aul. l. 372.
+
+[31] [Greek: hotoi de phesin ouk eusebes phainetai pareinai toi phonoi, kai
+dechesthai toiautas thysias, houtos apoto.--toi de autoi melesei synapteon
+to me pareinai]. SCHOL.
+
+[32] _But there_; that is, in the regions below.
+
+[33] Ovid. Metamorph. vii. 20.
+
+      Video meliora proboque,
+  Deteriora sequor.
+
+[34] Elmsley reads
+
+  [Greek: pauron de genos (mian en pollais]
+  [Greek: heurois an isos)]
+  [Greek: ouk, k.t.l.]
+
+"_But a small number of the race of women (you may perchance find one among
+many) not ungifted with the muse_."
+
+[35] A similar expression is found in Iphig. Taur, v. 410. [Greek: naion
+ochema]. A ship is frequently called [Greek: Herma thalasses]: so Virgil,
+AEn. vi. Classique immittit habenas.
+
+[36] Elmsley is of opinion that _the instep_ and not _the neck_ is meant by
+[Greek: tenon].
+
+[37] The ancients attributed all sudden terrors, and sudden sicknesses,
+such as epilepsies, for which no cause appeared, to Pan, or to some other
+Deity. The anger of the God they endeavored to avert by a hymn, which had
+the nature of a charm.
+
+[38] Elmsley has [Greek: anthepteto], which is the old reading: this makes
+no difference in the construing or the construction, as, in the line
+before, he reads [Greek: an helkon], where Porson has [Greek: anelkon].
+
+[39] The space of time elapsed is meant to be marked by this circumstance.
+MUSGRAVE. PORSON. Thus we find in [Greek: M] of the Odyssey, l. 439, the
+time of day expressed by the rising of the judges; in [Greek: D] of the
+Iliad, l. 86, by the dining of the woodman. When we recollect that the
+ancients had not the inventions that we have whereby to measure their time,
+we shall cease to consider the circumlocution as absurd or out of place.
+
+[40] The same expression occurs in the Heraclidae, l. 168. The Scholiast
+explains it thus; [Greek: tymbogeronta, ton plesion thanatou honta: tymbous
+de kalousi tous gerontas, paroson plesion eisi tou thanatou kai tou
+taphou].
+
+[41] [Greek: autophontais] may be taken as an adjective to agree with
+[Greek: domois], or the construction may be [Greek: ache pitnonta
+autophontais epi domois], in the same manner as [Greek: lithos epese moi
+epi kephalei]. ELMSLEY.
+
+[42] [Greek: me me ti drasosi'] had been "lest they do _me_ any injury."
+Elmsley conceives that [Greek: nin] is the true reading, which might easily
+have been corrupted into [Greek: moi].
+
+[43] Here Medea appears above in a chariot drawn by dragons, bearing with
+her the bodies of her slaughtered sons. SCHOL. See Horace, Epod. 3.
+
+  Hoc delibutis ulta donis pellicem,
+  Serpente fugit alite.
+
+[44] [Greek: lyei] may also be interpreted, with the Scholiast, in the
+sense of [Greek: lysitelei], "the grief delights me." The translation given
+in the text is proposed by Porson, and approved of by Elmsley.
+
+[45] Elmsley has
+
+  [Greek: mene kai geras].
+
+"_Stay yet for old age_." So also Dindorf.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *       *
+
+HIPPOLYTUS.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+PERSONS REPRESENTED.
+
+  VENUS.
+  HIPPOLYTUS.
+  ATTENDANTS.
+  PHAEDRA.
+  NURSE.
+  THESEUS.
+  MESSENGER.
+  DIANA.
+  CHORUS OF TROEZENIAN DAMES.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE ARGUMENT.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+Theseus was the son of Othra and Neptune, and king of the Athenians; and
+having married Hippolyta, one of the Amazons, he begat Hippolytus, who
+excelled in beauty and chastity. When his wife died, he married, for his
+second wife, Phaedra, a Cretan, daughter of Minos, king of Crete, and
+Pasiphae. Theseus, in consequence of having slain Pallas, one of his
+kinsmen, goes into banishment, with his wife, to Troezene, where it
+happened that Hippolytus was being brought up by Pittheus: but Phaedra
+having seen the youth was desperately enamored, not that she was
+incontinent, but in order to fulfill the anger of Venus, who, having
+determined to destroy Hippolytus on account of his chastity, brought her
+plans to a conclusion. She, concealing her disease, at length was compelled
+to declare it to her nurse, who had promised to relieve her, and who,
+though against her inclination, carried her words to the youth. Phaedra,
+having learned that he was exasperated, eluded the nurse, and hung herself.
+At which time Theseus having arrived, and wishing to take her down that was
+strangled, found a letter attached to her, throughout which she accused
+Hippolytus of a design on her virtue. And he, believing what was written,
+ordered Hippolytus to go into banishment, and put up a prayer to Neptune,
+in compliance with which the god destroyed Hippolytus. But Diana declared
+to Theseus every thing that had happened, and blamed not Phaedra, but
+comforted him, bereaved of his child and wife, and promised to institute
+honors in the place to Hippolytus.
+
+The scene of the play is laid in Troezene. It was acted in the archonship
+of Ameinon, in the fourth year of the 87th Olympiad. Euripides first,
+Jophon second, Jon third. This Hippolytus is the second of that name, and
+is called [Greek: STEPHANIAS]: but it appears to have been written the
+latest, for what was unseemly and deserved blame is corrected in this play.
+The play is ranked among the first.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+HIPPOLYTUS.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+VENUS.
+
+Great in the sight of mortals, and not without a name am I the Goddess
+Venus, and in heaven: and of as many as dwell within the ocean and the
+boundaries of Atlas, beholding the light of the sun, those indeed, who
+reverence my authority, I advance to honor; but overthrow as many as hold
+themselves high toward me. For this is in sooth a property inherent even in
+the race of the Gods, that "they rejoice when honored by men." But quickly
+will I show the truth of these words: for the son of Theseus, born of the
+Amazon, Hippolytus, pupil of the chaste Pittheus, alone of the inhabitants
+of this land of Troezene, says that I am of deities the vilest, and rejects
+the bridal bed, and will have nothing to do with marriage. But Dian, the
+sister of Phoebus, daughter of Jove, he honors, esteeming her the greatest
+of deities. And through the green wood ever accompanying the virgin, with
+his swift dogs he clears the beasts from off the earth, having formed a
+fellowship greater than mortal ought. This indeed I grudge him not; for
+wherefore should I? but wherein he has erred toward me, I will avenge me on
+Hippolytus this very day: and having cleared most of the difficulties
+beforehand,[1] I need not much labor. For Phaedra, his father's noble wife,
+having seen him, (as he was going once from the house of Pittheus to the
+land of Pandion, in order to see and afterward be fully admitted to the
+hallowed mysteries,) was smitten in her heart with fierce love by my
+design. And even before she came to this land of Troezene, at the very rock
+of Pallas that overlooks this land, she raised a temple to Venus, loving an
+absent love; and gave out afterward,[2] that the Goddess was honored with
+her temple for Hippolytus's sake. But now since Theseus has left the land
+of Cecrops, in order to avoid the pollution of the murder of the sons of
+Pallas, and is sailing to this land with his wife, having submitted to a
+year's banishment from his people; there indeed groaning and stricken with
+the stings of love, the wretched woman perishes in secret; and not one of
+her domestics is conscious of her malady. But this love must by no means
+fall to the ground in this way: but I will open the matter to Theseus, and
+it shall become manifest. And him that is our enemy shall the father kill
+with imprecations, which Neptune, king of the ocean, granted as a privilege
+to Theseus, that he should make no prayer thrice to the God in vain. But
+Phaedra dies, an illustrious woman indeed, yet still [she must die]; for I
+will not make her ills of that high consequence, that will hinder my
+enemies from giving me such full vengeance as may content me. But, as I see
+the son of Theseus coming, having left the toil of the chase, I will depart
+from this spot. But with him a numerous train of attendants following
+behind raise a clamor, praising the Goddess Dian with hymns, for he knows
+not that the gates of hell are opened, and that this day is the last he
+beholds.
+
+HIPPOLYTUS, ATTENDANTS.
+
+HIPP. Follow, follow, singing the heavenly Dian, daughter of Jove; Dian,
+under whose protection we are.
+
+ATT. Holy, holy, most hallowed offspring of Jove, hail! hail! O Dian,
+daughter of Latona and of Jove, most beauteous by far of virgins, who, born
+of an illustrious sire, in the vast heaven dwellest in the palace of Jove,
+that mansion rich in gold.
+
+HIPP. Hail, O most beauteous, most beauteous of virgins in Olympus, Dian!
+For thee, my mistress, bear I this wreathed garland from the pure mead,
+where neither does the shepherd think fit to feed his flocks, nor yet came
+iron there, but the bee ranges over the pure and vernal mead, and Reverence
+waters it with river dews. Whosoever has chastity, not that which is taught
+in schools, but that which is by nature, for this description of persons it
+is lawful thence to pluck, but for the evil it is not lawful.[3] But, O my
+dear mistress, receive this wreath to bind your golden tresses from a pious
+hand. For to me alone of mortals is allowed this privilege. With thee I am
+both present, and exchange words with thee, hearing thy voice, but not
+seeing thy countenance. But may I finish the last turn of my course of
+life, even as I began.
+
+ATT. O king, (for the Gods alone ought we to call Lords,) will you hear
+somewhat from me, who advise you well?
+
+HIPP. Most certainly, or else I should not seem wise.
+
+ATT. Knowest thou then the law, which is established among men?
+
+HIPP. I know not; but what is the one, about which thou askest me?
+
+ATT. To hate haughtiness, and that which is disagreeable to all.
+
+HIPP. And rightly; for what haughty mortal is not odious?
+
+ATT. And in the affable is there any charm?
+
+HIPP. A very great one indeed, and gain with little toil.
+
+ATT. Dost thou suppose that the same thing holds also among the Gods?
+
+HIPP. Certainly, forasmuch as we mortals use the laws of the Gods.
+
+ATT. How is it then that thou addressest not a venerable Goddess?
+
+HIPP. Whom? but take heed that thy mouth err not.[4]
+
+ATT. Venus, who hath her station at thy gates.
+
+HIPP. I, who am chaste, salute her at a distance.
+
+ATT. Venerable is she, however, and of note among mortals.
+
+HIPP. Different Gods and men are objects of regard to different persons.
+
+ATT. May you be blest, having as much sense as you require.[5]
+
+HIPP. No one of the Gods, that is worshiped by night, delights me.
+
+ATT. My son, we must conform to the honors of the Gods.
+
+HIPP. Depart, my companions, and having entered the house, prepare the
+viands: delightful after the chase is the full table.--And I must rub down
+my horses, that having yoked them to the car, when I am satiated with the
+repast, I may give them their proper exercise. But to your Venus I bid a
+long farewell.
+
+ATT. But we, for one must not imitate the young, having our thoughts such,
+as it becomes slaves to give utterance to, will adore thy image, O Venus,
+our mistress; but thou shouldest pardon, if any one having intense feelings
+of mind by reason of his youth, speak foolishly: seem not to hear these
+things, for Gods must needs be wiser than men.
+
+CHOR. There is a rock near the ocean,[6] distilling water, which sends
+forth from its precipices a flowing fountain, wherein they dip their urns;
+where was a friend of mine wetting the purple vests in the dew of the
+stream, and she laid them down on the back of the warm sunny cliff: from
+hence first came to me the report concerning my mistress, that she, worn
+with the bed of sickness, keeps her person within the house, and that fine
+vests veil her auburn head. And I hear that she this day for the third
+keeps her body untouched by the fruit of Ceres, [which she receives not]
+into her ambrosial mouth, wishing in secret suffering to hasten to the
+unhappy goal of death. For heaven-possessed, O lady, or whether by Pan, or
+by Hecate, or by the venerable Corybantes, or by the mother who haunts the
+mountains, thou art raving. But thou art thus tormented on account of some
+fault committed against the Cretan huntress, profane because of unoffered
+sacred cakes. For she goes through the sea and beyond the land on the
+eddies of the watery brine. Or some one in the palace misguides thy noble
+husband, the chief of the Athenians, by secret concubinage in thy bed. Or
+some sailor who put from port at Crete, hath sailed to the harbor most
+friendly to mariners, bringing some message to the queen; and, confined to
+her couch, she is bound in soul by sorrow for its sufferings. But wretched
+helplessness is wont to dwell with the wayward constitution of women, both
+on account of their throes and their loss of reason. Once through my womb
+shot this thrill, but I invoked the heavenly Dian, who gives easy throes,
+who presides over the bow, and to me she came ever much to be blessed, as
+well as the other Gods. But lo! the old nurse is bringing her out of the
+palace before the gates; and the sad cloud upon her brows is increased.
+What it can possibly be, my soul desires to know, with what can be
+afflicted the person of the queen, of color so changed.[7]
+
+PHAEDRA, NURSE, CHORUS.
+
+Alas! the evils of men, and their odious diseases! what shall I do for
+thee? and what not do? lo! here is the clear light for thee, here the air:
+and now is thy couch whereon thou liest sick removed from out of the house:
+for every word you spoke was to come hither; but soon you will be in a
+hurry to go to your chamber back again: for you are soon changed, and are
+pleased with nothing. Nor does what is present delight you, but what is not
+present you think more agreeable. It is a better thing to be sick, than to
+tend the sick: the one is a simple ill, but with the other is joined both
+pain of mind and toil of hands. But the whole life of men is full of grief,
+nor is there rest from toils. But whatever else there be more dear than
+life, darkness enveloping hides it in clouds. Hence we appear to dote on
+this present state, because it gleams on earth, through inexperience of
+another life, and the non-appearance of the things beneath the earth. But
+we are blindly carried away by fables.
+
+PHAE. Raise my body, place my head upright--I am faint in the joints of my
+limbs, my friends, lay hold of my fair-formed hands, O attendants--The
+dressing on my head is heavy for me to support--take it off, let flow my
+ringlets on my shoulders.
+
+NUR. Be of good courage, my child, and do not thus painfully shift [the
+posture of] your body. But you will bear your sickness more easily both
+with quiet, and with a noble temper, for it is necessary for mortals to
+suffer misery.
+
+PHAE. Alas! alas! would I could draw from the dewy fountain the drink of
+pure waters, and that under the alders, and in the leafy mead reclining I
+might rest!
+
+NUR. O my child, what sayest thou? Wilt thou not desist from uttering these
+things before the multitude, blurting forth a speech of madness?[8]
+
+PHAE. Bear me to the mountain--I will go to the wood, and by the pine-trees,
+where tread the dogs the slayers of beasts, pursuing the dappled hinds--By
+the Gods I long to cheer on the hounds, and by the side of my auburn hair
+to hurl the Thessalian javelin bearing the lanced weapon in my hand.
+
+NUR. Wherefore in the name of heaven, my child, do you hanker after these
+things? wherefore have you any anxiety for hunting? and wherefore do you
+long for the fountain streams? for by the towers there is a perpetual flow
+of water, whence may be your draught.
+
+PHAE. O Dian, mistress of Limna near the sea, and of the exercises of the
+rattling steeds, would that I were on thy plains, breaking the Henetian
+colts.
+
+NUR. Wherefore again have you madly uttered this word? at one time having
+ascended the mountain you set forth with the desire of hunting; but now
+again you long for the colts on the wave-beaten sands. These things demand
+much skill in prophecy [to find out], who it is of the Gods that torments
+thee, O lady, and strikes mad thy senses.
+
+PHAE. Wretch that I am, what then have I committed? whither have I wandered
+from my sound mind? I have gone mad; I have fallen by the evil influence of
+some God. Alas! alas! unhappy that I am--Nurse, cover my head again, for I
+am ashamed of the things I have spoken: cover me; a tear trickles down my
+eyes, and my sight is turned to my disgrace. For to be in one's right mind
+causes grief: but madness is an ill; yet it is better to perish, nothing
+knowing of one's ills.
+
+NUR. I cover thee--but when in sooth will death cover my body? Length of
+life teaches me many things. For it behooves mortals to form moderate
+friendships with each other, and not to the very marrow of the soul: and
+the affections of the mind should be dissoluble, and so that we can slacken
+them, or tighten.[9] But that one soul should feel pangs for two, as I now
+grieve for her, is a heavy burden. The concerns of life carried to too
+great an extent, they say, bring rather destruction than delight, and are
+rather at enmity with health. Thus I praise what is in extreme less than
+_the sentiment of_ "Nothing in excess;" and the wise will agree with me.
+
+CHOR. O aged woman, faithful nurse of the queen Phaedra, we see indeed the
+wretched state of this lady, but it is not clear what her disease is: but
+we would wish to inquire and hear from you.
+
+NUR. I know not by my inquiries; for she is not willing to speak.
+
+CHOR. Nor what is the origin of these pangs?
+
+NUR. You come to the same result; for she is silent with regard to all
+these things.
+
+CHOR. How feeble she is, and wasted away as to her body!
+
+NUR. How could it be otherwise, seeing that she has abstained from food
+these three days?
+
+CHOR. From the violence of her calamity is it, or does she endeavor to die?
+
+NUR. To die; but she fasts to the dissolution of her life.
+
+CHOR. An extraordinary thing you have been telling me, if this conduct
+meets the approbation of her husband.
+
+NUR. [He nothing knows,] for she conceals this calamity, and denies that
+she is ill.
+
+CHOR. But does he not guess it, looking into her face?
+
+NUR. [How should he?] for he is out of this country.
+
+CHOR. But do you not urge it as a matter of necessity, when you endeavor to
+ascertain her disease and the wandering of her senses?
+
+NUR. I have tried every thing, and have made no further advances. I will
+not however abate even now from my zeal, so that you being present may bear
+witness with me, how I behave to my mistress when in calamity--Come, dear
+child, let us both forget our former conversations; and be both thou more
+mild, having smoothed that contracted brow, and altered the bent of your
+design; and I giving up that wherein I did not do right to follow thee,
+will have recourse to other better words. And if indeed you are ill with
+any of those maladies that are not to be mentioned, these women here can
+allay the disease: but if it may be related to men, tell it, that the thing
+may be mentioned to physicians.--Well! why art thou silent? It doth not
+behoove thee to be silent, my child, but either shouldst thou convict me,
+if aught I say amiss, or yield to words well spoken.--Say something--look
+hither--O wretch that I am! Ladies, in vain do we undergo these toils,
+while we are as far off from our purpose as before: for neither then was
+she softened by our words, nor now does she give heed to us. Still however
+know (now then be more obstinate than the sea) that, if thou shalt die,
+thou wilt betray thy children, who will have no share in their paternal
+mansion. I swear by the warlike queen the Amazon, who brought forth a lord
+over thy children, base-born yet of noble sentiments, thou knowest him
+well, Hippolytus.
+
+PHAE. Ah me!
+
+NUR. This touches thee.
+
+PHAE. You have destroyed me, nurse, and by the Gods I entreat thee
+henceforth to be silent with respect to this man.
+
+NUR. Do you see? you judge well indeed, but judging well you are not
+willing both to assist your children and to save your own life.
+
+PHAE. I love my children; but I am wintering in the storm of another
+misfortune.
+
+NUR. You have your hands, my child, pure from blood.
+
+PHAE. My hands are pure, but my mind has some pollution.
+
+NUR. What! from some calamity brought on you by any of your enemies?
+
+PHAE. A friend destroys me against my will, himself unwilling.
+
+NUR. Has Theseus sinned any sin against thee?
+
+PHAE. Would that I never be discovered to have injured him.
+
+NUR. What then this dreadful thing that impels thee to die?
+
+PHAE. Suffer me to err, for against thee I err not.
+
+NUR. Not willingly [dost thou do so,] but 'tis through thee that I shall
+perish.[10]
+
+PHAE. What are you doing? you oppress me, hanging on me with your hand.
+
+NUR. And never will I let go these knees.
+
+PHAE. Ills to thyself wilt thou hear, O wretched woman, if thou shalt hear
+these ills.
+
+NUR. [Still will I cling:] for what greater evil can befall me than to lose
+thee?
+
+PHAE. You will be undone.[11] The thing however brings honor to me.
+
+NUR. And dost thou then hide what is useful, when I beseech thee?
+
+PHAE. _Yes_, for from base things we devise things noble.
+
+NUR. Wilt not thou, then, appear more noble by telling it?
+
+PHAE. Depart, by the Gods, and let go my hand!
+
+NUR. No in sooth, since thou givest me not the boon that were right.
+
+PHAE. I will give it; for I have respect unto the reverence of thy hand.
+
+NUR. Now will I be silent: for hence is it yours to speak.
+
+PHAE. O wretched mother, what a love didst thou love!
+
+NUR. That which she had for the bull, my child, or what is this thou
+meanest?
+
+PHAE. Thou, too, O wretched sister, wife of Bacchus!
+
+NUR. Child, what ails thee? thou speakest ill against thy relations.
+
+PHAE. And I the third, how unhappily I perish!
+
+NUR. I am struck dumb with amazement. Whither will thy speech tend?
+
+PHAE. _To that point_, whence we have not now lately become unfortunate.
+
+NUR. I know not a whit further of the things I wish to hear.
+
+PHAE. Alas! would thou couldst speak the things which I must speak.
+
+NUR. I am no prophetess so as to know clearly things hidden.
+
+PHAE. What is that thing, which they do call men's loving![12]
+
+NUR. The same, my child, a most delightful thing, and painful withal.
+
+PHAE. One of the two feelings I must perceive.
+
+NUR. What say'st? Thou lovest, my child? What man!
+
+PHAE. Him whoever he is,[13] that is born of the Amazon.
+
+NUR. Hippolytus dost thou say?
+
+PHAE. From thyself, not me, you hear--this name.
+
+NUR. Ah me! what wilt thou go on to say? my child, how hast thou destroyed
+me! Ladies, this is not to be borne; I will not endure to live, hateful is
+the day, hateful the light I behold. I will hurl myself down, I will rid me
+of this body: I will remove from life to death--farewell--I no longer am.
+For the chaste are in love with what is evil, not willingly indeed, yet
+still [they love.] Venus then is no deity, but if there be aught mightier
+than deity, that is she, who hath destroyed both this my mistress, and me,
+and the whole house.
+
+CHOR. Thou didst hear, O thou didst hear the queen lamenting her wretched
+sufferings that should not be heard. Dear lady, may I perish before I come
+to thy state of mind! Alas me! alas! alas! O hapless for these pangs! O the
+woes that attend on mortals! Thou art undone, thou hast disclosed thy evils
+to the light. What time is this that has eternally[14] awaited thee? Some
+new misfortune will happen to the house. And no longer is it obscure where
+the fortune of Venus sets, O wretched Cretan daughter.
+
+PHAE. Women of Troezene, who inhabit this extreme frontier of the land of
+Pelops. Often at other times in the long season of night have I thought in
+what manner the life of mortals is depraved.[15] And to me they seem to do
+ill, not from the nature of their minds, for many have good thoughts, but
+thus must we view these things. What things are good we understand and
+know, but practice not; some from idleness, and others preferring some
+other pleasures to what is right: for there are many pleasures in life-long
+prates, and indolence, a pleasing ill, and shame; but there are two, the
+one indeed not base, but the other the weight that overthrows houses, but
+if the occasion on which each is used, were clear, the two things would not
+have the same letters. Knowing them as I did these things beforehand, by no
+drug did I think I should so far destroy these _sentiments_, as to fall
+into an opposite way of thinking. But I will also tell you the course of my
+determinations. After that love had wounded me, I considered how best I
+might endure it. I began therefore from this time to be silent, and to
+conceal this disease. For no confidence can be placed in the tongue, which
+knows to advise the thoughts of other men, but itself from itself has very
+many evils. But in the second place, I meditated to bear well my madness
+conquering it by my chastity. But in the third place, since by these means
+I was not able to subdue Venus, it appeared to me best to die: no one will
+gainsay this resolution. For may it be my lot, neither to be concealed
+where I do noble deeds, nor to have many witnesses, where I act basely.
+Besides this I knew I was a woman--a thing hated by all. O may she most
+miserably perish who first began to pollute the marriage-bed with other
+men! From noble families first arose this evil among women: for when base
+things appear right to those who are accounted good, surely they will
+appear so to the bad. I hate moreover those women who are chaste in their
+language indeed, but secretly have in them no good deeds of boldness: who,
+how, I pray, O Venus my revered mistress, look they on the faces of their
+husbands, nor dread the darkness that aided their deeds, and the ceilings
+of the house, lest they should some time or other utter a voice? For this
+bare idea kills me, friends, lest I should ever be discovered to have
+disgraced my husband, or my children, whom I brought forth; but free, happy
+in liberty of speech may they inhabit the city of illustrious Athens, in
+their mother glorious! For it enslaves a man, though he be valiant-hearted,
+when he is conscious of his mother's or his father's misdeeds. But this
+alone they say in endurance compeers with life, an honest and good mind, to
+whomsoever it belong. But Time, when it so chance, holding up the mirror as
+to a young virgin, shows forth the bad, among whom may I be never seen!
+
+CHOR. Alas! alas! In every way how fair is chastity, and how goodly a
+report has it among men!
+
+NUR. My mistress, just now indeed thy calamity coming upon me unawares,
+gave me a dreadful alarm. But now I perceive I was weak; and somehow or
+other among mortals second thoughts are the wisest. For thou hast not
+suffered any thing excessive nor extraordinary, but the anger of the
+Goddess hath fallen upon thee. Thou lovest--what wonder this? with many
+mortals.--And then will you lose your life for love? There is then no
+advantage for those who love others, nor to those who may hereafter, if
+they must needs die. For Venus is a thing not to be borne, if she rush on
+vehement. Who comes quietly indeed on the person who yields; but whom she
+finds haughty and of lofty notions, him taking (how thinkest thou?) she
+chastises. But Venus goes through air, and is on the ocean wave; and all
+things from her have their birth. She it is that sows and gives forth love,
+from whence all we on earth are engendered. As many indeed as ken the
+writings of the ancients, or are themselves ever among the muses, they know
+indeed, how that Jove was formerly inflamed with the love of Semele; they
+know too, how that formerly the lovely bright Aurora bore away Cephalus up
+to the Gods, for love, but still they live in heaven, and fly not from the
+presence of the Gods: but they acquiesce yielding, I ween, to what has
+befallen them. And wilt thou not bear it? Thy father then ought to have
+begotten thee on stipulated terms, or else under the dominion of other
+Gods, unless thou wilt be content with these laws. How many, thinkest thou,
+are in full and complete possession of their senses, who, when they see
+their bridal bed diseased, seem not to see it! And how many fathers,
+thinkest thou, have aided their erring sons in matters of love, for this is
+a maxim among the wise part of mankind, "that things that show not fair
+should be concealed." Nor should men labor too exactly their conduct in
+life, for neither would they do well to employ much accuracy in the roof
+wherewith their houses are covered; but having fallen into fortune so deep
+as thou hast, how dost thou imagine thou canst swim out? But if thou hast
+more things good than bad, mortal as thou art, thou surely must be well
+off. But cease, my dear child, from these evil thoughts, cease too from
+being haughty, for nothing else save haughtiness is this, to wish to be
+superior to the Gods. But, as thou art in love, endure it; a God hath
+willed it so: and, being ill, by some good means or other try to get rid of
+thy illness. But there are charms and soothing spells: there will appear
+some medicine for this sickness. Else surely men would be slow indeed in
+discoveries, if we women should not find contrivances.
+
+CHOR. Phaedra, she speaks indeed most useful advice in thy present state:
+but thee I praise. Yet is this praise less welcome than her words, and to
+thee more painful to hear.
+
+PHAE. This is it that destroys cities of men and families well
+governed--words too fair. For it is not at all requisite to speak words
+pleasant to the ear, but that whereby one may become of fair report.
+
+NUR. Why dost thou talk in this grand strain? thou needest not gay
+decorated words, but a man: as soon as possible must those be found, who
+will speak out the plain straightforward word concerning thee. For if thy
+life were not in calamities of such a cast, I never would have brought thee
+thus far for the sake of lust, and for thy pleasure: but now the great
+point is to save thy life; and this is not a thing deserving of blame.
+
+PHAE. O thou that hast spoken dreadful things, wilt thou not shut thy mouth?
+and wilt not cease from uttering again those words most vile?
+
+NUR. Vile they are, but better these for thee than fair; but better will
+the deed be (if at least it will save thee), than the name, in the which
+while thou boastest, thou wilt die.
+
+PHAE. Nay do not, I entreat thee by the Gods (for thou speakest well, but
+base are [the things thou speakest]) go beyond this, since rightly have I
+surrendered my life to love; but if thou speak base things in fair phrase,
+I shall be consumed, [being cast] into that [evil] which I am now avoiding.
+
+NUR. If in truth this be thy opinion, thou oughtest not to err, but if thou
+hast erred, be persuaded by me, for this is the next best thing thou canst
+do.[16] I have in the house soothing philters of love (and they but lately
+came into my thought); which, by no base deed, nor to the harm of thy
+senses, will rid you of this disease, unless you are obstinate. But it is
+requisite to receive from him that is the object of your love, some token,
+either some word, or some relic of his vest, and to join from two one love.
+
+PHAE. But is the charm an unguent or a potion?
+
+NUR. I know not: wish to be relieved, not informed, my child.
+
+PHAE. I fear thee, lest thou should appear too wise to me.
+
+NUR. Know that you would fear every thing, _if you fear this_, but what is
+it you are afraid of?
+
+PHAE. Lest you should tell any of these things to the son of Theseus.
+
+NUR. Let be, my child, I will arrange these matters honorably, only be thou
+my coadjutor, O Venus, my revered mistress; but the other things which I
+purpose, it will suffice to tell to my friends within.
+
+CHORUS, PHAEDRA.
+
+CHOR. Love, love, O thou that instillest desire through the eyes, inspiring
+sweet affection in the souls of those against whom thou makest war, mayst
+thou never appear to me to my injury, nor come unmodulated: for neither is
+the blast of fire nor the bolt of heaven more vehement, than that of Venus,
+which Love, the boy of Jove, sends from his hands. In vain, in vain, both
+by the Alpheus, and at the Pythian temples of Phoebus does Greece then
+solemnize the slaughter of bulls: but Love, the tyrant of men, porter of
+the dearest chambers of Venus, we worship not, the destroyer and visitant
+of men in all shapes of calamity, when he comes. That virgin in Oechalia,
+yoked to no bridal bed, till then unwedded, and who knew no husband, having
+taken from her home a wanderer impelled by the oar, her, like some
+Bacchanal of Pluto, with blood, with smoke, and murderous hymeneals did
+Venus give to the son of Alcmena. O unhappy woman, because of her nuptials!
+O sacred wall of Thebes, O mouth of Dirce, you can assist me in telling, in
+what manner Venus comes: for by the forked lightning, by a cruel fate, did
+she put to eternal sleep the parent of the Jove-begotten Bacchus, when she
+was visited as a bride. For dreadful doth she breathe on all things, and
+like some bee hovers about.
+
+PHAE. Women, be silent: I am undone.
+
+CHOR. What is there that affrights thee, Phaedra, in thine house?
+
+PHAE. Be silent, that I may make out the voice of those within.
+
+CHOR. I am silent: this however is an evil bodement.
+
+PHAE. Alas me! O! O! O! oh unhappy me, because of my sufferings!
+
+CHOR. What sound dost thou utter? what word speakest thou? tell me what
+report frightens thee, lady, rushing upon thy senses!
+
+PHAE. We are undone. Do you, standing at these gates, hear what the noise is
+that strikes on the house?
+
+CHOR. Thou art by the gate, the noise that is sent forth from the house is
+thy care. But tell me, tell me, what evil, I pray thee, came _to thine
+ears_?
+
+PHAE. The son of the warlike Amazon, Hippolytus, cries out, abusing in
+dreadful forms my attendant.
+
+CHOR. I hear indeed a noise, but can not plainly tell how it is. The voice
+came, it came through to the door.
+
+PHAE. But hark! he calls her plainly the pander of wickedness, the betrayer
+of her master's bed.
+
+CHOR. Alas me for thy miseries! Thou art betrayed, dear mistress. What
+shall I counsel thee? for hidden things are come to light, and thou art
+utterly destroyed----
+
+PHAE. O! O!
+
+CHOR. Betrayed by thy friends.
+
+PHAE. She hath destroyed me by speaking of my unhappy state, kindly but not
+honorably endeavoring to heal this disease.
+
+CHOR. How then? what wilt thou do, O thou that hast suffered things
+incurable?
+
+PHAE. I know not, save one thing; to die as soon as possible is the only
+cure of my present sufferings.
+
+HIPPOLYTUS, PHAEDRA, NURSE, CHORUS.
+
+HIPP. O mother earth, and ye disclosing rays of the sun, of what words have
+I heard the dreadful sound!
+
+NUR. Be silent, my son, before any one hears thy voice.
+
+HIPP. It is not possible for me to be silent, when I have heard such
+dreadful things.
+
+NUR. Nay, I implore thee by thy beauteous hand.
+
+HIPP. Wilt not desist from bringing thy hand near me, and from touching my
+garments?
+
+NUR. O! by thy knees, I implore thee, do not utterly destroy me.
+
+HIPP. But wherefore this? since, thou sayest, thou hast spoken nothing
+evil.
+
+NUR. This word, my son, is by no means to be divulged.
+
+HIPP. It is more fair to speak fair things to many.
+
+NUR. O my child, by no means dishonor your oath.
+
+HIPP. My tongue hath sworn--my mind is still unsworn.[17]
+
+NUR. O my son, what wilt thou do? wilt thou destroy thy friends?
+
+HIPP. _Friends!_ I reject the word: no unjust person is my friend.
+
+NUR. Pardon, my child: that men should err is but to be expected.
+
+HIPP. O Jove, wherefore in the name of heaven didst thou place in the light
+of the sun that specious[18] evil to men, women? for if thou didst will to
+propagate the race of mortals, there was no necessity for this to be done
+by women, but men might, having placed an equivalent in thy temples, either
+in brass, or iron, or the weighty gold, buy a race of children, each for
+the consideration of the value paid, and thus might dwell in unmolested
+houses, without females. But now, first of all, when we prepare to bring
+this evil to our homes, we squander away the wealth of our houses. By this
+too it is evident, that woman is a great evil; for the father, who begat
+her and brought her up, having given her a dowry sends her away in order to
+be rid of the evil. But the husband, on the other hand, when he has
+received the baneful evil[19] into his house, rejoices, having added a
+beautiful decoration to a most vile image, and tricks her out with robes,
+unhappy man, while he has been insensibly minishing the wealth of the
+family. But he is constrained; so that having made alliance with noble
+kinsmen, he retains with [seeming] joy a marriage bitter to him: or if he
+has received a good bride, but worthless parents in law, he suppresses the
+evil that has befallen him by the consideration of the good. But his state
+is the easiest, whose wife is settled in his house, a cipher, but useless
+by reason of simplicity. But a wise woman I detest: may there not be in my
+house at least a woman more highly gifted with mind than woman ought to be.
+For Venus engenders mischief rather among clever women, but a woman who is
+not endowed with capacity, by reason of her small understanding, is removed
+from folly. But it is right that an attendant should have no access to a
+woman, but with them ought to dwell the speechless brute beasts, in which
+case they would be able neither to address any one, nor from them to
+receive a voice in return. But now, they that are evil follow after their
+evil devices within, and the servants carry it forth abroad. As thou also
+hast, O evil woman, come to the purpose of admitting me to share a bed
+which must not be approached--a father's. Which impious things I will wash
+out with flowing stream, pouring it into my ears: how then could I be the
+vile one, who do not even deem myself pure, because I have heard such
+things?--But be well assured, my piety protects thee, woman, for, had I not
+been taken unawares by the oaths of the Gods, never would I have refrained
+from telling these things to my father. But now will I depart from the
+house, _and stay_ during the time that Theseus is absent from the land, and
+will keep my mouth silent; but I will see, returning with my father's
+return, how you will look at him, both you and your mistress. But your
+boldness I shall know, having before had proof of it. May you perish: but
+never shall I take my fill of hating women, not even if any one assert,
+that I am always saying this. For in some way or other they surely are
+always bad. Either then let some one teach them to be modest, or else let
+him suffer me ever to utter my invectives against them.
+
+CHORUS, PHAEDRA, NURSE.
+
+CHOR. Oh unhappy ill-fated fortune of women! what art now or what words
+have we, having failed as we have, to extricate the knot caused by [these]
+words?
+
+PHAE. We have met a just reward; O earth, and light, in what manner, I pray,
+can I escape from my fortunes? and how, my friends, can I conceal my
+calamity? Who of the Gods will appear my succorer, or what mortal my ally,
+or my fellow-worker in unjust works? for the suffering of my life that is
+at present on me comes hardly to be escaped.[20] I am the most ill-fated of
+women.
+
+CHOR. Alas! alas! we are undone, lady, and the arts of thy attendant have
+not succeeded, and it fares ill with us.
+
+PHAE. O thou most vile, and the destruction of thy friends, what hast thou
+done to me! May Jove, my ancestor, tear thee up by the roots, having
+stricken thee by his fire. Did not I tell thee (did not I foresee thy
+intention?) to be silent with regard to those things with which I am now
+tormented? but thou couldst not refrain; wherefore I can no longer die with
+glory: but I must now in sooth employ new measures. For he, now that his
+mind is made keen with rage, will tell, to my detriment, thy errors to his
+father, and will fill the whole earth with the most vile reports. Mayst
+thou perish, both thou and whoever else is forward to assist friends
+against their will otherwise than by honorable means.
+
+NUR. Lady, thou canst indeed blame the evil I have wrought; for that which
+gnaws upon thee masters thy better judgment;--but I too have somewhat to
+say in answer to these things, if thou wilt admit it: I brought thee up,
+and have a kind affection toward thee; but, while searching for medicine
+for thy disease, I found not that I wished for. But if I had succeeded, I
+had been surely ranked among the wise; for we have the reputation of sense
+according to our success.
+
+PHAE. What? is this conduct just, and satisfactory to me, to injure me
+first, and then to meet me in argument?
+
+NUR. We talk too long--I did not behave wisely. But even from this state of
+things it is possible that thou mayest be saved, my child.
+
+PHAE. Desist from speaking; for before also thou didst not well advise for
+me, and didst attempt evil things. But depart from my sight, and take care
+about thyself; for I will settle my own affairs in an honorable manner. But
+you, noble daughters of Troezene, grant thus much to me requesting it, bury
+in silence what you here have heard.
+
+CHOR. I swear by hallowed Dian, daughter of Jove, that I will never reveal
+to the face of day one of thy evils.
+
+PHAE. Thou hast well spoken: but one kind of resource, while I search around
+me,[21] do I find for my present calamity, so that I may make the life of
+my children glorious, and may myself be assisted as things have now fallen
+out. For never will I disgrace the house of Crete at least, nor will I come
+before the face of Theseus having acted basely, for one's life's sake.
+
+CHOR. But what irremediable evil art thou then about to perpetrate?
+
+PHAE. To die: but how, this will I devise.
+
+CHOR. Speak words of better omen.
+
+PHAE. And do thou at least advise me well. But having quitted life this day,
+I shall gratify Venus, who destroys me, and shall be conquered by bitter
+love. But when I am dead, I shall be an evil to another at least,[22] so
+that he may know not to exult over my misfortunes; but, having shared this
+malady in common with me, he shall learn to be modest.
+
+CHOR. Would that I were under the rocks' vast retreats,[23] and that there
+the God would make me a winged bird among the swift flocks, and that I were
+lifted up above the ocean wave that dashes against the Adriatic shore, and
+the water of Eridanus, where for grief of Phaethon the thrice wretched
+virgins let fall into their father's billow the amber-beaming brightness of
+their tears: and that I could make my way to the shore where the apples
+grow of the harmonious daughters of Hesperus, where the ruler of the ocean
+no longer permits the passage of the purple sea to mariners, dwelling in
+that dread bourn of heaven which Atlas doth sustain, and the ambrosial
+founts stream forth hard by the couches of Jove's palaces, where the divine
+and life-bestowing earth increases the bliss of the Gods. O white-winged
+bark of Crete, who didst bear my queen through the perturbed[24] ocean wave
+of brine from a happy home, thereby aiding her in a most evil marriage. For
+surely in both instances, or at any rate from Crete she came ill-omened to
+renowned Athens, when on the Munychian shore they bound the platted ends of
+their cables, and disembarked on the continent. Wherefore she was
+heartbroken with the terrible disease of unhallowed love by the influence
+of Venus; and now that she can no longer hold out against the heavy
+calamity,[25] she will fit around her the noose suspended[26] from the
+ceiling of her bridal chamber, adjusting it to her white neck, having
+revered the hateful Goddess, and embracing an honorable name, and ridding
+from her breast the painful love.
+
+FEMALE SERVANT, CHORUS, THESEUS.
+
+SERV. Alack! alack! run to my succor all that are near the house--My
+mistress the wife of Theseus is hanging.
+
+CHOR. Alas! alas! the deed is done: the queen is indeed no more--she is
+suspended in the noose that hangs there.
+
+SERV. Will ye not haste? will not some one bring a two-edged sword, with
+which we may undo this knot around her neck?
+
+SEMICHOR. My friends, what do we? does it seem good to enter the house and
+to free the queen from the tight-drawn noose?
+
+SEMICHOR. Why we? Are not the young men-servants at hand? The being
+over-busy is not a safe plan through life.
+
+SERV. Lay right the wretched corpse, pull her limbs straight. A grievous
+housekeeping this for my master!
+
+CHOR. The unhappy woman, as I hear, has perished, for already are they
+laying her out as a corpse.
+
+THES. Know ye, females, what noise this is in my house? a heavy sound of my
+attendants reached me. For the family does not think fit to open the gates
+to me and to hail me with joy as having returned from the oracle. Has any
+ill befallen the aged Pittheus? His life is now indeed far advanced; but
+still he would be much lamented by us, were he to leave this house.
+
+CHOR. This that has happened, Theseus, extends not to the old; the young
+are they that by their death will grieve thee.
+
+THES. Alas me! is the life of any of my children stolen from me?
+
+CHOR. They live, but their mother is dead in a way that will grieve thee
+most.
+
+THES. What sayest? My wife dead? By what fate?
+
+CHOR. She suspended the noose, wherewith she strangled herself.
+
+THES. Wasted with sorrow, or from some sudden calamity?
+
+CHOR. Thus much we know--_nothing further_; for I am but just come to thy
+house, Theseus, to bewail thy evils.
+
+THES. Alas! alas! why then have I my head crowned with entwined leaves, who
+am the unhappy inquirer of the oracle? Servants, undo the bars of the
+gates; unloose the bolts, that I may behold the mournful spectacle of my
+wife, who by her death hath utterly undone me.
+
+CHOR. Alas! alas! unhappy for thy wretched ills: thou hast been a sufferer;
+thou hast perpetrated a deed of such extent as to throw this house into
+utter confusion. Alas! alas! thy boldness, O thou who hast died a violent
+death, and, by an unhallowed chance, the act committed by thy wretched
+hand. Who is it then, thou unhappy one, that destroys thy life?
+
+THES. Alas me for my sufferings![27] I have suffered, unhappy wretch, the
+extreme of my troubles--O fortune, how heavy hast thou come upon me and my
+house, an imperceptible spot from some evil demon! the wearing out of a
+life not to be endured;[28] and I, unhappy wretch, perceive a sea of
+troubles so great, that never again can I emerge from it, nor escape beyond
+the flood of this calamity. What mention making can I unhappy, what
+heavy-fated fortune of thine, lady, saying that it was, can I be right? For
+as some bird thou art vanished from my hand, having leaped me a sudden leap
+to the realms of Pluto. Alas! alas! wretched, wretched are these
+sufferings, but from some distant period or other receive I this calamity
+from the Gods, for the errors of some of those of old.
+
+CHOR. Not to thee alone, O king, have these evils happened; but with many
+others thou hast lost an excellent wife.[29]
+
+THES. In the shades beneath the earth, I unhappy wish, dying, to dwell in
+darkness, reft as I am of thy most dear company, for thou hast destroyed
+rather than perished--What then do I hear? whence came the deadly chance,
+lady, to thine heart? Will any speak what has happened, or does my royal
+palace contain to no purpose the crowd of my attendants?--Alas me on thy
+account! unhappy that I am, what grief in my house have I seen,
+intolerable, indescribable! but--we are undone! my house left desolate, and
+my children orphans.
+
+CHOR. Thou hast left us, thou hast left us, O dear among women, and most
+excellent of those as many as both the light of the sun, and the
+star-visaged moon of night behold. O unhappy man! how great ill doth the
+house contain! with tears gushing over, my eyelids are wet at thy calamity.
+But the woe that will ensue on this I have long since been dreading.
+
+THES. Alas! alas! What I pray is this letter suspended from her dear hand?
+does it mean to betoken some new calamity?--What, has the unhappy woman
+written injunctions to me, making some request about[30] my bridal bed and
+my children? Be of good courage, hapless one; for no woman exists, who
+shall enter the bed and the house of Theseus. But lo! the impressions of
+the golden seal[31] of her no more here court my attention.[32] Come, let
+me unfold the envelopments of the seal, and see what this letter should say
+to me.
+
+CHOR. Alas! alas! this new evil in succession again doth the God bring on.
+To me indeed the condition of life will be impossible to bear,[33] from
+what has happened; for I consider, alas! as ruined and no more the house of
+my kings. O God, if it be in any way possible, do not overthrow the house;
+but hear me as I pray, for from some quarter, as though a prophet, I behold
+an evil omen.
+
+THES. Ah me! what other evil is this in addition to evil, not to be borne,
+nor spoken! alas wretched me!
+
+CHOR. What is the matter? Tell me if it may be told me.
+
+THES. It cries out--the letter cries out things most dreadful: which way
+can I fly the weight of my ills; for I perish utterly destroyed. What, what
+a complaint have I seen speaking in her writing!
+
+CHOR. Alas! thou utterest words foreboding woes.
+
+THES. No longer will I keep within the door of my lips this dreadful,
+dreadful evil hardly to be uttered. O city, city, Hippolytus has dared by
+force to approach my bed, having despised the awful eye of Jove. But O
+father Neptune, by one of these three curses, which thou formerly didst
+promise me, by one of those destroy my son, and let him not escape beyond
+this day, if thou hast given me curses that shall be verified.
+
+CHOR. O king, by the Gods recall back this prayer, for hereafter you will
+know that you have erred; be persuaded by me.
+
+THES. It can not be: and moreover I will drive him from this land. And by
+one or other of the two fates shall he be assailed: for either Neptune
+shall send him dead to the mansions of Pluto, having respect unto my wish;
+or else banished from this country, wandering over a foreign land, he shall
+drag out a miserable existence.
+
+CHOR. And lo! thy son Hippolytus is present here opportunely, but if thou
+let go thy evil displeasure, king Theseus, thou wilt advise the best for
+thine house.
+
+HIPPOLYTUS, THESEUS, CHORUS.
+
+HIPP. I heard thy cry, my father, and came in haste; the thing however, for
+which you are groaning, I know not; but would fain hear from you. Ha! what
+is the matter? I behold thy wife, my father, a corpse: this is a thing meet
+for the greatest wonder.--Her, whom I lately left, her, who beheld the
+light no great time since. What ails her? In what manner died she, my
+father, I would fain hear from you. Art silent? But there is no use of
+silence in misfortunes; for the heart which desires to hear all things, is
+found eager also in the case of ills. It is not indeed right, my father, to
+conceal thy misfortunes from friends, and even more than friends.
+
+THES. O men, who vainly go astray in many things, why then do ye teach ten
+thousand arts, and contrive and invent every thing; but one thing ye do not
+know, nor yet have investigated, to teach those to be wise who have no
+intellect!
+
+HIPP. A clever sophist this you speak of, who is able to compel those who
+have no wisdom to be rightly wise. But (for thou art arguing too refinedly
+on no suitable occasion) I fear, O father, lest thy tongue be talking at
+random through thy woes.
+
+THES. Alas! there ought to be established for men some infallible proof of
+their friends, and some means of knowing their dispositions, both who is
+true, and who is not a friend, and men ought all to have two voices, the
+one true, the other as it chanced, that the untrue one might be convicted
+by the true, and then we should not be deceived.
+
+HIPP. Has some one then falsely accused me in your ear, and am I suffering
+who am not at all guilty? I am amazed, for your words, wandering beyond the
+bounds of reason, do amaze me.
+
+THES. Alas! the mind of man, to what lengths will it go? what will be the
+limit to its boldness and temerity? For if it shall increase with each
+generation of man, and the successor shall be wicked a degree beyond his
+predecessor, it will be necessary for the Gods to add to the earth another
+land, which[34] will contain the unjust and the evil ones.--But look: ye on
+this man, who being born of me hath defiled my bed, and is manifestly
+convicted by the deceased of being most base.--But, since thou hast come to
+this attaint, show thy face here before thy father. Dost thou forsooth
+associate with the Gods, as being an extraordinary person? art thou chaste
+and uncontaminated with evil? I will not believe thy boasts, attributing
+(_as I must, if I do believe_) to the Gods the folly of thinking evil. Now
+then vaunt, and with thy feeding on inanimate food retail your doctrines
+upon men, and having Orpheus[35] for your master, revel it, reverencing the
+emptiness of many letters; _which avail you not_; since you are caught.
+
+But such sort of men I warn all to shun; for they hunt with fair-sounding
+words, while they devise base things. She is dead: dost thou think this
+will save thee? By this thou art most detected, O thou most vile one! For
+what sort of oaths, what arguments can be more strong than what she says,
+so that thou canst escape the accusation? Wilt thou say that she hated
+thee, and that the bastard race is hateful forsooth to those of noble
+birth? A bad housewife then of life you account her, if through hatred of
+thee she lost what was most dear to her. But wilt thou say that there is
+not this folly in men, but that there is in women? I myself have known
+young men who were not a whit more steady than women, when Venus disturbed
+the youthful mind: but their pretense of manliness protects them. Now
+however, why do I thus contend against thy words, when the corse, the
+surest witness, is here? Depart an exile from this land as soon as
+possible. And neither go to the divine-built Athens, nor to the confines of
+that land over which my sceptre rules. For if I thus suffering by thee be
+vanquished, never will the Isthmian Sinis bear witness of me that I killed
+him, but will say that I vainly boast. Nor will the Scironian rocks, that
+dwell by the sea, confess that I am formidable to the bad.
+
+CHOR. I know not how I can say that any of mortals is happy; for the things
+that were most excellent are turned back again.
+
+HIPP. Father, thy rage indeed, and the commotion of thy mind is terrible;
+this thing, however, though it have fair arguments, if any one unravel it,
+is not fair. But I am unadorned with phrase to speak to the multitude, but
+to speak to my equals and to a few, more expert: but this also has
+consistency in it; for those, who are of no account among the wise, are
+more fitted to speak before the rabble. But yet it is necessary for me,
+since this calamity has come, to unloose my tongue. But first will I begin
+to speak from that point where first you attacked, as though you would
+destroy, and as though I should not answer again. Dost thou behold this
+light and this earth? In these there is not a man more chaste than me, not
+even though thou deny it. For, first indeed, I know to reverence the Gods,
+and to have such friends as attempt not to be unjust, but those, to whom
+there is modesty, so that neither they give utterance to evil thoughts, nor
+minister in return base services to those who use their friendship: nor am
+I the derider of my associates, O father, but the same man to my friends
+when they are not present, and when I am with them. But of one thing by
+which thou thinkest to crush me, I am pure;[36] for to this day my body is
+undefiled by the couch of love; and I know not the deed except hearing of
+it by report, and seeing it in a picture, nor even am I forward to look at
+these things, having a virgin mind. And perhaps my modesty persuades you
+not. Behooves it thee then to show in what manner I lost it. Did this
+woman's person excel in beauty all women? Or did I hope to rule over thine
+house, having thy bridal bed as carrying dowry with it? I must in that case
+have been a fool, and not at all in my senses. But did I do it as though to
+reign were pleasant to the modest? By no means indeed is it, except
+monarchy have destroyed the minds of men who are pleased with her. But I
+would wish indeed to be first victor in the Grecian games, but second in
+the state ever to be happy with the most excellent friends. For thus is it
+possible to be well circumstanced: but the absence of the danger gives
+greater joy than dominion. One of my arguments has not been spoken, but the
+rest you are in possession of: for, if I had a witness such as myself am,
+and were she alive during my contention, you would know the evil ones,
+searching them by their works. But now I swear by Jove, the guardian of
+oaths,[37] and by the plain of the earth, that never touched I thy bridal
+bed, nor ever wished it, nor conceived the thought. Else may I perish
+inglorious, without a name, and may neither sea nor earth receive the flesh
+of me when dead, if I be a wicked man. But whether or no she have destroyed
+her life through fear, I know not: for it is not lawful for me to speak
+further. Cautious[38] she was, though she could not be chaste; but I, who
+could be, had the power to no good purpose.
+
+CHOR. Thou hast said sufficient to rebut the charge, in offering the oaths
+by the Gods, no slight proof.
+
+THES. Is not this man then an enchanter and a juggler, who trusts that he
+will overcome my mind by his goodness of disposition, after he has
+dishonored his father?
+
+HIPP. I too very much wonder at this conduct of yours, my father; for if
+you were my son, and I your father, I should slay you, and not punish you
+by banishment, if you had dared to defile my wife.
+
+THES. How fitly hast thou said this! yet thou shalt not so die, as thou
+hast laid down this law for thyself; for a quick grave is easiest to the
+miserable man; but wandering an exile from thy country's land to foreign
+realms, thou shalt drag out a life of bitterness; for this is the reward
+for the impious man.
+
+HIPP. Ah me! what wilt thou do? wilt thou not even await time as evidence
+against me, but wilt thou banish me from the land?
+
+THES. Ay, beyond the ocean, and the place of Atlas,[39] if any way I could,
+so much do I hate thee.
+
+HIPP. Without having even examined oath, or proof, or the sayings of the
+seers, wilt thou cast me uncondemned from out the land?
+
+THES. This letter here, that waiteth no seer's observations,[40] accuses
+thee faithfully; but to the birds that flit above my head I bid a long
+farewell.
+
+HIPP. O Gods, wherefore then do I not ope my mouth, who am destroyed by you
+whom I worship?--And yet not so--for thus I should not altogether persuade
+those whom I ought, but should be violating to no purpose the oaths which I
+have sworn.
+
+THES. Alas me! how thy sanctity kills me! Wilt not thou go as quick as
+possible from thy country's land?
+
+HIPP. Whither then shall I unhappy turn me; what stranger's mansion shall I
+enter, banished on this charge?
+
+THES. His, who delights to entertain defilers of women, and those who dwell
+with[41] evil deeds.
+
+HIPP. Alas! alas! this goes to my heart, and almost makes me weep: if
+indeed I appear vile, and seem so to thee.
+
+THES. Then oughtest thou to have groaned, and owned the guilt before, when
+thou daredst to wrong thy father's wife.
+
+HIPP. O mansions, would that ye could utter me a voice, and bear witness
+whether I be a vile man!
+
+THES. Dost fly to dumb witnesses? this deed, though it speak not, clearly
+proves thee vile.
+
+HIPP. Alas! would that I could look upon myself standing opposite, to that
+degree do I weep for the evils which I suffer!
+
+THES. Thou hast accustomed thyself much more to regard thyself, than to be
+a just man, and to do what is righteous to thy parents.
+
+HIPP. O unhappy mother! O wretched natal hour! may none of my friends ever
+be illegitimate.
+
+THES. Servants, will ye not drag him out? did you not hear me long ago
+pronounce him banished!
+
+HIPP. Any one of them shall touch me to his cost however; but thou thyself,
+if it be thy desire, thrust me out from the land.
+
+THES. I will do this, unless thou wilt obey my words, for no pity for thy
+banishment comes over me.
+
+HIPP. It is fixed, as it seems; alas, wretch that I am! since I know these
+things indeed, but know not how to say them. O most dear to me of deities,
+daughter of Latona, thou that assortest with me, huntest with me, we shall
+then indeed be banished illustrious Athens: but farewell O city, and land
+of Erectheus. O plain of Troezene, how many things hast thou to employ the
+happy youth! Farewell! for I address thee, beholding thee for the last
+time--Come youths of this land my companions, bid me farewell, and conduct
+me from the land, for never shall you see a man more chaste, even though I
+seem not to my father.
+
+CHORUS.
+
+Surely the providence of the Gods, when it comes into my mind, greatly
+takes away sorrow: but cherishing in my hope some knowledge, I am utterly
+deficient, when I look on the fortunes and on the deeds of men, for they
+are changed in different manners, and the life of man varies, ever
+exceeding vague. Would that in answer to my petitions fate from the Gods
+would give me this, prosperity with riches, and a mind unsullied by griefs.
+And be my character neither too high, nor on the other hand infamous. But
+changing my easy habits with the morrow ever may I lead a happy life; for
+no longer have I an unperturbed mind, but I see things contrary to my
+expectations: since we have seen the brightest star of Grecian Minerva sent
+forth to another land on account of his father's rage. O sands of the
+neighboring shore, and mountain wood, where with the swift-footed dogs he
+wont to slay the wild beasts, accompanying the chaste Dian! No more shalt
+thou mount the car drawn by the team of Henetian steeds, restraining with
+thy foot the horses in their exercise on the course round Limna.[42] And
+the sleepless song that used to dwell under the bridge of the chords shall
+cease in thy father's house. And the haunts of the daughter of Latona in
+the deep wood shall be without their garlands: and the contest among the
+damsels for thy bridal bed has died away by reason of thy exile. But I, for
+thy misfortunes, shall endure with tears a fortuneless fortune.[43] O
+unhappy mother, thou hast brought forth in vain! Alas! I am enraged with
+the Gods. Alas! alas! united charms of marriage, wherefore send ye the
+unhappy one, guilty of no crime, away from his country's land--away from
+these mansions?
+
+But lo! I perceive a follower of Hippolytus with a sad countenance coming
+toward the house in haste.
+
+MESSENGER, CHORUS.
+
+MESS. Ye females, whither going can I find Theseus, king of this land? If
+ye know, tell me: is he within this palace?
+
+CHOR. The [king] himself is coming out of the palace.
+
+MESSENGER, THESEUS, CHORUS.
+
+MESS. I bring a tale that demands concern, of thee and of thy subjects,
+both those who inhabit the city of the Athenians, and the realms of the
+Troezenian land.
+
+THES. What is it? Has any sudden calamity come upon the two neighboring
+states?
+
+MESS. To speak the word--Hippolytus is no more. He views the light however
+for a short moment.
+
+THES. _Killed_? By whom? Has any come to enmity with him, whose wife, as
+his father's, he has forcibly defiled?
+
+MESS. His own chariot slew him, and the imprecations of thy mouth, which
+thou didst put up to thy father, the ruler of the ocean, concerning thy
+son.
+
+THES. O ye Gods! and O Neptune! how truly then wert thou my father, when
+thou didst duly hear my imprecations! Tell me too, how did he perish? in
+what way did the staff of Justice strike him that disgraced me?
+
+MESS. We indeed near the wave-beaten shore were combing out with combs the
+horses' hair, weeping, for there had come a messenger saying, that
+Hippolytus no longer trod on this land, having from thee received the
+sentence of wretched banishment. But he came bringing to us on the shore
+the same strain of tears: and an innumerable throng of his friends and
+companions came following with him. But at length after some time he spake,
+having ceased from his groans. "Wherefore am I thus disquieted? My father's
+words must be obeyed. My servants, yoke to my car the harnessed steeds, for
+this city is for me no more." Then indeed every man hasted, and sooner than
+one could speak we drew up the horses caparisoned before our master; and he
+seizes with his hands the reins from off the bow of the chariot, mounting
+with his foot sandaled as it was.[44] And first indeed he addressed the
+Gods with outstretched hands: "Jove, may I no longer exist, if I am a base
+man; but may my father perceive how unworthily he treats me, either when I
+am dead, or while I view the light." And on this having taken the whip in
+his hands he struck the horses both at once: and we the attendants followed
+our master by the chariot close to the reins, along the road that leads
+straightway to Argos and Epidauria, but when we came into the desert
+country, there is a certain shore beyond this land which slopes even down
+to the Saronic Sea, from thence a voice like the subterraneous thunder of
+Jove sent forth a dreadful groan appalling to hear, and the horses pointed
+their heads erect and their ears toward the sky, and on us there came a
+vehement fear, whence possibly the voice could come: but looking toward the
+sea-beaten shore we beheld a vast wave pillared in heaven, so that the view
+of the heights of Sciron was taken from mine eye:[45] and it concealed the
+Isthmus and the rock of AEsculapius. And then swelling up and splashing
+forth[46] much foam around in the ocean surf, it moves toward the shore,
+where was the chariot drawn by its four horses. But together with its
+breaker and its tripled surge,[47] the wave sent forth a bull, a fierce
+monster; with whose bellowing the whole land filled resounded fearfully:
+and to the lookers-on a sight appeared more dreadful than the eyes could
+bear. And straightway a dreadful fear comes over the steeds. But their
+master, being much conversant with the ways of horses, seized the reins in
+his hands, and pulls them as a sailor pulls his oar, having fixed his body
+in an opposite direction to the reins.[48] But they, champing with their
+jaws the forged bits, bare him on forcibly, heeding neither the hand that
+steered them, nor the traces, nor the compact chariot: and, if indeed
+holding the reins he directed their course toward the softer ground, the
+bull appeared in front, so as to turn them away maddening with fright the
+four horses that drew the chariot. But if they were borne to the rocks
+maddened in mettle, silently approaching the chariot he followed so far,
+until he overthrew it and drove it backward, dashing the felly of the wheel
+against the rock. And all was in confusion, and the naves of the wheels
+flew up, and the linch-pins of the axles. But the unhappy man himself
+entangled in the reins is dragged along, bound in a difficult bond, his
+head dashed against the rocks, and torn his flesh, and crying out in a
+voice dreadful to hear, "Stop, O ye that have been trained up in my stalls,
+do not destroy me. Oh unhappy imprecation of my father! Who will come near
+and save a most excellent man?" But many of us wishing so to do failed
+through want of swiftness: and he indeed freed, in what manner I know not,
+from the entanglements of the reins, falls, having the breath of life in
+him, but for a very short time. And the horses vanished, and the woeful
+monster of the bull I know not where in the mountain country. I am indeed
+the slave of thy house, O king, but thus much never shall I at least be
+able to be persuaded of thy son, that he is evil, not even if the whole
+race of women were hung, and though one should fill with writing all the
+fir of Ida,[49] since I am confident that he is virtuous.
+
+CHOR. Alas! alas! The calamity of new evils is consummated, nor is there
+refuge from fate and from what must be.
+
+THES. Through hate of the man, who has thus suffered, I was pleased with
+this account; but now, having respect unto the Gods, and to him, because he
+is of me, I am neither pleased, nor yet troubled at these ills.
+
+MESS. How then? Must we bring him hither, or what must we do to the unhappy
+man to gratify thy wishes! Think; but if thou take my advice, thou wilt not
+be harsh toward thy son in his misfortunes.
+
+THES. Bear him hither, that seeing him before my eyes that denied he had
+defiled my bed, I may confute him with words, and with what has happened
+from the Gods.
+
+CHOR. Thou, Venus, bendest the stubborn mind of the Gods, and of mortals,
+and with thee he of varied plume, that darts about on swiftest wing; and
+flies over the earth and over the loud-resounding briny ocean; and Love
+charms to subjection, on whose maddened heart the winged urchin come
+gleaming with gold, the race of the mountain whelps, and of those that
+inhabit the sea, and as many things as the earth nourisheth, which the sun
+doth behold scorched [with its rays,] and men: but over all these things
+thou, Venus, alone holdest sovereign rule.
+
+DIANA, THESEUS, CHORUS.
+
+DI. Thee, the noble son of AEgeus, I command to listen; but it is I, Diana,
+daughter of Latona, who am addressing thee: Theseus, wherefore dost thou,
+wretched man, take delight in these things, seeing that thou hast slain in
+no just way thy son, being persuaded by the lying words of thy wife in
+things not seen? But the guilt that has seized on thee is manifest. How
+canst thou, shamed as thou art, refrain from hiding thy body beneath the
+dark recesses of the earth? or from withdrawing thy foot from this
+suffering, by changing thy nature, and becoming a winged creature above?
+Since among good men at least thou hast not a part in life to possess.
+Hear, O Theseus, the state of thy ills. Even though I gain no advantage
+from it, yet will I torment thee; but for this purpose came I to show thee
+the upright mind of thy son, that he may die with a good reputation, and
+thy wife's passion, or, in some sort, nobleness; for, gnawed by the stings
+of that deity most hateful to us, as many as delight in virginity, she
+became enamored of thy son. But while she endeavored by right feeling to
+conquer Venus, she was destroyed not willingly by the means employed by the
+nurse, who having first bound him by oaths, told thy son her malady. But
+he, as was right, obeyed not her words; nor, again, though evil-entreated
+by thee, did he violate the sanctity of his oaths, being a pious man. But
+she, fearing lest her conduct should be scrutinized, wrote a false letter,
+and by deceit destroyed thy son, but nevertheless persuaded thee.
+
+THES. Ah me!
+
+DI. My tale torments thee, Theseus, but be still, that having heard what
+follows thou mayest groan the more--Knowest thou then that thou receivedst
+from thy father three wishes with a certainty of their being granted?
+Whereof one thou hast expended, O most evil one, on thy son, when thou
+mightest have done it on some of thine enemies. Thy father then that
+dwelleth in the ocean, gave thee as much as he was bound to give, because
+he promised. But thou both in his eyes and in mine appearest evil, who
+neither didst await nor examine proof, nor the voice of the prophets, didst
+not leave the consideration to length of time, but, quicker than became
+thee, didst vent thy curses against thy son and slay him.
+
+THES. Mistress, let me die!
+
+DI. Thou hast committed dreadful deeds, but nevertheless, it is still
+possible even for thee to obtain pardon for these things. For Venus willed
+that these things should be in order to satiate her rage. But among the
+Gods the law is thus--None wishes to thwart the purpose of him that wills
+anything, but we always give way. Since, be well assured, were it not that
+I feared Jove, never should I have come to such disgrace, as to suffer to
+die a man of all mortals the most dear to me. But thine error, first of all
+thine ignorance frees from malice; and then thy wife by her dying put an
+end to the proof of words, so as to persuade thy mind. Chiefly then on thee
+these ills are burst, but sorrow is to me too; for Gods rejoice not when
+the pious die; the wicked however we destroy with their children and their
+houses.
+
+CHOR. And lo! the unhappy man there is coming, all mangled his young flesh
+and auburn head. Oh the misery of the house! such double anguish coming
+down from heaven has been wrought in the palaces!
+
+HIPPOLYTUS, DIANA, THESEUS, CHORUS.
+
+HIPP. O! O! O! Unhappy I was thus foully mangled by the unjust prayers of
+an unjust father--I am destroyed miserably. Ah me! ah me! Pains rush
+through my head, and the spasm darts across my brain. Stop, I will rest my
+fainting body. Oh! oh! O those hateful horses of my chariot, things which I
+fed with my own hand, ye have destroyed me utterly and slain me. Oh! oh! by
+the Gods, gently, my servants, touch with your hands my torn flesh. Who
+stands by my side on the right? Lift me up properly, and take hold all
+equally on me, the unblessed of heaven, and cursed by my father's
+error--Jove, Jove, beholdest thou these things? Lo! I, the chaste, and the
+reverencer of the Gods, I who in modesty exceed all, have lost my life, and
+go to a manifest hell beneath the earth; but in vain have I labored in the
+task of piety toward men. O! O! O! O! and now the pain, the pain comes upon
+me, loose unhappy me, and let death come to be my physician. Destroy me,
+destroy the unhappy one--I long for a two-edged blade, wherewith to cut me
+in pieces, and to put my life to an eternal rest. Oh unhappy curse of my
+father! the evil too of my blood-polluted kinsmen, my old forefathers,
+bursts forth[50] upon me; nor is it at a distance; and it hath come on me,
+wherefore, I pray, who am nothing guilty of these ills? Alas me! me! what
+can I say? how can I free my life from this cruel calamity? Would that the
+black and nightly fate of Pluto would put me wretched to eternal sleep!
+
+DI. Oh unhappy mortal, with what a calamity art thou enthralled! but the
+nobleness of thy mind hath destroyed thee.
+
+HIPP. Let be. O divine breathing of perfume, for, even though being in
+ills, I perceived thee, and felt my body lightened of its pain.[51] The
+Goddess Dian is in this place.
+
+DI. Oh unhappy one! she is, to thee the most dear of deities.
+
+HIPP. Mistress, thou seest wretched me, in what state I am.
+
+DI. I see; but it is not lawful for me to shed a tear down mine eyes.
+
+HIPP. Thy hunter, and thy servant is no more.
+
+DI. No in sooth; but beloved by me thou perishest.
+
+HIPP. And he that managed they steeds, and guarded thy statutes.
+
+DI. _Ay_, for the crafty Venus hath so wrought.
+
+HIPP. Ah me! I perceive indeed the power that hath destroyed me.
+
+DI. She thought her honor aggrieved, and hated thee for being chaste.
+
+HIPP. One Venus hath destroyed us three.
+
+DI. Thy father, and thee, and his wife the third.
+
+HIPP. I mourn therefore also my father's misery.
+
+DI. He was deceived by the devices of the Goddess.
+
+HIPP. Oh! unhappy thou, because of this calamity, my father!
+
+THES. I perish, my son, nor have I delight in life.
+
+HIPP. I lament thee rather than myself on account of thy error.
+
+THES. My son, would that I could die in thy stead!
+
+HIPP. Oh! the bitter gifts of thy father Neptune!
+
+THES. Would that the prayer had never come into my mouth.
+
+HIPP. Wherefore this wish? thou wouldst have slain me, so enraged wert thou
+then.
+
+THES. For I was deceived in my notions by the Gods.
+
+HIPP. Alas! would that the race of mortals could curse the Gods!
+
+DI. Let be; for not even when thou art under the darkness of the earth
+shall the rage arising from the bent of the Goddess Venus descend upon thy
+body unrevenged: by reason of thy piety and thy excellent mind. For with
+these inevitable weapons from mine own hand will I revenge me on
+another,[52] whoever to her be the dearest of mortals. But to thee, O
+unhappy one, in recompense for these evils, will I give the greatest honors
+in the land of Troezene; for the unwedded virgins before their nuptials
+shall shear their locks to thee for many an age, owning the greatest sorrow
+tears can give; but ever among the virgins shall there be a remembrance of
+thee that shall awake the song, nor dying away without a name shall
+Phaedra's love toward thee pass unrecorded:--But thou, O son of the aged
+AEgeus, take thy son in thine arms and clasp him to thee; for unwillingly
+thou didst destroy him, but that men should err, when the Gods dispose
+events, is but to be expected!--and thee, Hippolytus, I exhort not to
+remain at enmity with thy father; for thou perceivest the fate, whereby
+thou wert destroyed. And farewell! for it is not lawful for me to behold
+the dead, nor to pollute mine eye with the gasps of the dying; but I see
+that thou art now near this calamity.
+
+HIPP. Go thou too, and farewell, blessed virgin! But thou easily quittest a
+long companionship. But I give up all enmity against my father at thy
+request, for before also I was wont to obey thy words. Ah! ah! darkness now
+covers me over mine eyes. Take hold on me, my father, and lift up my body.
+
+THES. Ah me! my son, what dost thou, do to me unhappy?
+
+HIPP. I perish, and do indeed see the gates of hell.
+
+THES. What? leaving my mind uncleansed from thy blood?
+
+HIPP. No in sooth, since I free thee from this murder.
+
+THES. What sayest thou? dost thou remit me free from the guilt of blood?
+
+HIPP. I call to witness Dian that slays with the bow.
+
+THES. O most dear, how noble thou appearest to thy father!
+
+HIPP. O farewell thou too, take my best farewell, my father!
+
+THES. Oh me! for thy pious and brave soul!
+
+HIPP. Pray to have legitimate sons like me.
+
+THES. Do not, I prithee, leave me, my son, but be strong.
+
+HIPP. My time of strength is past; for I perish, my father: but cover my
+face as quickly as possible with robes.
+
+THES. O famous realms of Athens and of Pallas, of what a man will ye have
+been bereaved! Oh unhappy I! What abundant reason, Venus, shall I have to
+remember thy ills!
+
+CHOR. This common grief to all the citizens hath come unexpectedly. There
+will be a fast falling of many tears; for the mournful stories of great men
+rather obtain.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+NOTES ON HIPPOLYTUS
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+[1] The construction in the original furnishes a remarkable example of the
+"nominativus pendens."
+
+[2] Or, _that posterity might know it_. TR. Dindorf would omit these words.
+B.
+
+[3] Dindorf would omit these lines. I think the difficulty in the structure
+may be removed by reading [Greek: hostis] instead of [Greek: hosois]. The
+enallage, [Greek: hostis ... toutois], is by no means unusual. B.
+
+[4] Cf. Soph. Oed. Col. 121, sqq. B.
+
+[5] Which at present you do not appear to have.
+
+[6] Monk would join [Greek: okeanou] with [Greek: petra], as in the
+translation, but other commentators prefer, which is certainly more simple,
+to join it with [Greek: hydor]. Then the difficulty occurs of sea-water
+being unfit for washing vests. This difficulty Beck obviates, by saying
+that [Greek: hydor okeanou] may be applied to fresh water, Ocean being the
+parent of all streams, the word [Greek: okeanou] being here, in a manner,
+redundant. TR. Matthiae is very wrath with the "all on a washing day" manner
+in which the Chorus learned Phaedra's indisposition. The "Bothie of Toper na
+Fuosich" will furnish some similar simplicities, such as the meeting a
+lassie "digging potatoes." But we might as well object to the whole story
+of Nausicaa. It must be recollected that the duties of the laundry were
+considered more aristocratic by the ancients, than in modern times. B.
+
+[7] Cf. AEsch. Pr. 23. [Greek: Chroias ameipseis anthos]. B.
+
+[8] Literally _a speech mounted on madness_. A similar expression occurs,
+Odyssey [Greek: A]. 297. [Greek: Nepiaas ocheein].
+
+[9] Plutarch in explanation of this line says, "[Greek: kathaper poda neos,
+epididonta kai prosagonta tais chreiais ten philian]."
+
+[10] I have followed the elegant interpretation of L. Dindorf, who observes
+that [Greek: ou deth hekousa] refers to Phaedra's assertion, [Greek: ou gar
+es s' amartano], and that the meaning is, "non quidem consilio in me
+peccas, sed si tu peribis, ego quoque occidero." He compares Alcest. 389.
+B.
+
+[11] See Matthiae's note. I prefer, however, [Greek: oleis], with Musgrave.
+B.
+
+[12] Matthiae considers this as briefly expressed for [Greek: ti touto, to
+eran, ha legousi poiein anthropous]. Still I can not help thinking [Greek:
+anthropon] a better reading. B.
+
+[13] Phaedra struggles between shame and uncertainty, before she can
+pronounce the name. It should be read as if [Greek: hostis
+poth'--houtos--ho tes Amazonos]. B.
+
+[14] Matthiae takes [Greek: panamerios] as = [Greek: en teide tei hemerai],
+i.e. up to this very time. I think the passage is corrupt. B.
+
+[15] This passage, like many others in the play, is admirably burlesqued by
+Aristoph., Ran. 962. B.
+
+[16] _Or, this is a second favor thou mayst grant me_.
+
+[17] On the numberless references to this impious sophism, see the learned
+notes of Valckenaer and Monk. Compare more particularly Aristoph. Ran. 102,
+1471. Thesmoph. 275. Arist. Rhet. iii. 15. B.
+
+[18] Literally, "spurious coined race." B.
+
+[19] The MSS. reading, [Greek: phyton], is preferable. B.
+
+[20] The syntax appears to be [Greek: dysekperaton biou], _such as my like
+can scarcely get over_. Musgrave has followed the other explanation of the
+Scholiast, which makes [Greek: biou] depend on [Greek: pathos]. TR. I have
+followed the Scholiast and Dindorf. B.
+
+[21] [Greek: protrepousa, anti tou zetousa kai exereunosa]. Schol. Dindorf
+acknowledges the strangeness of the usage, and seems to prefer [Greek:
+proskopous'], with Monk. B.
+
+[22] Cf. Soph. Ant. 751. [Greek: hed' oun thaneitai, kai thanous' olei
+tina]. B.
+
+[23] For the meaning and derivation of [Greek: alibatois], see Monk's note.
+
+[24] [Greek: haliktypon] seems to be an awkward epithet of [Greek: kyma],
+unless it mean "_dashed [against the shore] by the waves_." Perhaps [Greek:
+aliktypon] would be less forced. B.
+
+[25] [Greek: Hyperantlos ousa symphorai], a metaphor taken from a ship
+which can no longer keep out water.
+
+[26] See the note on my Translation of AEsch. Agam., p. 121, note 1. ed.
+Bonn. B.
+
+[27] Read [Greek: omoi ego ponon: epathon o talas] with cod. Hav. See
+Dindorf. B.
+
+[28] Cf. Matth. apud Dindorf. B.
+
+[29] In the same manner the chorus in the Alcestis comforts Admetus. v.
+
+  [Greek: Ou gar ti protos, oude loisthios broton]
+  [Greek: gynaikos esthles emplakes.]
+
+[30] [Greek: Hyper] is here to be understood. VALK.
+
+[31] [Greek: Sphendone], literally, the setting of the seal, which embraces
+the gem as a sling its stone.
+
+[32] See a similar expression in AEsch. Eum. 254,
+
+  [Greek: Osme broteion haimaton me prosgelai.]
+
+[33] The construction is, [Greek: eie an emoi abiotos tycha biou, hoste
+tychein autes.] MONK.
+
+[34] [Greek: e], _which land, together with the present earth_.
+
+[35] On the Orphic abstinence from animal food, see Matth. apud Dind.
+Compare Porphyr. de Abst. ii. 3 sqq. B.
+
+[36] [Greek: Athiktos] appears here to have an active sense. So in Soph.
+Oed. c. 1521. [Greek: athiktos hegeteros]. It is used in its more frequent
+sense (a passive) in v. 648, of this play. TR. Compare my note on AEsch.
+Prom. 110, p. 6, n. I. B.
+
+[37] Cf. Med. 169. [Greek: Zena th' hos orkon thnatois tamias nenomistai].
+B.
+
+[38] There are various interpretations of this passage. The Scholiast puts
+this sense upon it, _Phaedra was chaste (in your eyes), who had not the
+power of being chaste, I had the power, and is it likely that I did not
+exert it to good purpose?_ Others translate the former part of the passage
+with the Scholiast, but make [Greek: ou kalos echrometha] refer to the
+present time, _had it to no good purpose_, i.e. am not now able to persuade
+you of my innocence. Some translate [Greek: esophroesen], _acted like a
+chaste woman_. TR. There is evidently a double meaning, which is almost
+lost by translation. Theseus is not intended to understand this. B.
+
+[39] Cf. vs. 3. B.
+
+[40] [Greek: Kleroi] were the notes the augurs took of their observations,
+and wrote down on tablets. See Phoen. 852.
+
+[41] [Greek: xynoikourous] appears to be metaphorically used, but I think
+the sense would be greatly improved by reading [Greek: kakous], and taking
+[Greek: xynoikourous] to mean "to dwell with him," referring it to [Greek:
+hostis]. B.
+
+[42] But we must read [Greek: gymnados hippou] with Reiske, Brunot, and
+Dindorf. See his notes. [Greek: podi] must be joined with [Greek: gym.
+hippou]. B.
+
+[43] [Greek: potmon apotmon]. B.
+
+[44] [Greek: Autaisin arbylaisin]. Some have supposed [Greek: arbyle] to
+mean a part of the chariot, but this seems at variance with the best
+authorities (see Monk's note); perhaps the expression may mean what is
+implied in the translation; that Hippolytus did not wait to change any part
+of his dress. TR. But I agree with Dindorf, that [Greek: autaisin] is then
+utterly absurd and useless. The Scholiast seems correct in saying, [Greek:
+tais ton harmatos peri ten antyga, entha ten otasin echei ho heniochos]. B.
+
+[45] "Adeo ut deficerent a visu, ne cernere possem, Scironis alta." B.
+
+[46] [Greek: Kachlazo], a word formed from the noise of the sea--[Greek: ho
+gar echos tou kymatos en tois koilomasi ton petron ginomenos, dokei
+mimeisthai to kachla, kachla].--_Etym. Mag._
+
+[47] [Greek: Trikymiai]. See Blomfield's _Glossary to the Prometheus_,
+1051.
+
+[48] Musgrave supposes that Hippolytus wound the reins round his body; but
+on this supposition, not to mention other objections, the comparison with
+the sailor does not hold so well. It is more natural to suppose that he
+leaned back in order to get a purchase: in this attitude he is made to
+describe himself in Ov. _Met._ xv. 519, _Et retro lentas tendo resupinus
+habenas._ If there be any doubt of [Greek: eis toumisthen himasin] being
+Greek, this objection is obviated by putting a stop after [Greek: himasin],
+and making it depend on [Greek: helkei].
+
+[49] i.e. in Crete. See Dindorf's note. B.
+
+[50] [Greek: Exorizetai], _valde prorumpit, liberat terminos, quibus
+hactenus septum fuit_. REISKE.
+
+[51] Heath translates [Greek: anekouphisthen] _adtollebam corpus_, honoris
+scilicet gratia. Compare Iliad, [Greek: O]. 241. [Greek: atar asthma kai
+hidros pauet', epei min egeire Dios noos aigiochoio], which Pope
+translates,
+
+  "Jove thinking of his pains, they pass'd away:"
+
+in which the idea is much more sublime; for there the thought of a Deity
+effects what the presence of one does here.
+
+[52] Probably meaning Adonis. See Monk. B.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *       *
+
+ALCESTIS.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+PERSONS REPRESENTED.
+
+  APOLLO.
+  DEATH.
+  CHORUS OF PHEROEANS.
+  ATTENDANTS.
+  ALCESTIS.
+  ADMETUS.
+  EUMELUS.
+  HERCULES.
+  PHERES.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE ARGUMENT.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+Apollo desired of the Fates that Admetus, who was about to die, might give
+a substitute to die for him, that so he might live for a term equal to his
+former life; and Alcestis, his wife, gave herself up, while neither of his
+parents were willing to die instead of their son. But not long after the
+time when this calamity happened, Hercules having arrived, and having
+learned from a servant what had befallen Alcestis, went to her tomb, and
+having made Death retire, covers the lady with a robe; and requested
+Admetus to receive her and keep her for him; and said he had borne her off
+as a prize in wrestling; but when he would not, he unveiled her, and
+discovered her whom he was lamenting.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+ALCESTIS
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+APOLLO.
+
+O mansions of Admetus, wherein I endured to acquiesce in the slave's
+table,[1] though a God; for Jove was the cause, by slaying my son
+AEsculapius, hurling the lightning against his breast: whereat enraged, I
+slay the Cyclops, forgers of Jove's fire; and me my father compelled to
+serve for hire with a mortal, as a punishment for these things. But having
+come to this land, I tended the herds of him who received me, and have
+preserved this house until this day: for being pious I met with a pious
+man,[2] the son of Pheres, whom I delivered from dying by deluding the
+Fates: but those Goddesses granted me that Admetus should escape the
+impending death, could he furnish in his place another dead for the powers
+below. But having tried and gone through all his friends, his father and
+his aged mother who bore him, he found not, save his wife, one who was
+willing to die for him, and view no more the light: who now within the
+house is borne in their hands, breathing her last; for on this day is it
+destined for her to die, and to depart from life. But I, lest the
+pollution[3] come upon me in the house, leave this palace's most dear
+abode. But already I behold Death near, priest of the dead, who is about to
+bear her down to the mansions of Pluto; but he comes at the right time,
+observing this day, in the which it was destined for her to die.
+
+DEATH,[4] APOLLO.
+
+DEA. Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! What dost thou at the palace? why tamest here,
+Phoebus? Art thou again at thy deeds of injustice, taking away and putting
+an end to the honors of the powers beneath? Did it not suffice thee to stay
+the death of Admetus, when thou didst delude the Fates by fraudful
+artifice?[5] But now too dost thou keep guard for her, having armed thine
+hand with thy bow, who then promised, in order to redeem her husband,
+herself, the daughter of Pelias, to die for him?
+
+AP. Fear not, I cleave to justice and honest arguments.
+
+DEA. What business then has your bow, if you cleave to justice?
+
+AP. It is my habit ever to bear it.
+
+DEA. Yes, and without regard to justice to aid this house.
+
+AP. _Ay_, for I am afflicted at the misfortunes of a man that is dear to
+me.
+
+DEA. And wilt thou deprive me of this second dead?
+
+AP. But neither took I him from thee by force.
+
+DEA. How then is he upon earth, and not beneath the ground?
+
+AP. Because he gave in his stead his wife, after whom thou art now come.
+
+DEA. Yes, and will bear her off to the land beneath.
+
+AP. Take her away, for I know not whether I can persuade thee.
+
+DEA. What? to slay him, whom I ought? for this was I commanded.
+
+AP. No: but to cast death upon those about to die.
+
+DEA. Yes, I perceive thy speech, and what thou aim'st at.
+
+AP. Is it possible then for Alcestis to arrive at old age?
+
+DEA. It is not: consider that I too am delighted with my due honors.
+
+AP. Thou canst not, however, take more than one life.
+
+DEA. When the young die I earn the greater glory.
+
+AP. And if she die old, she will be sumptuously entombed.[6]
+
+DEA. Thou layest down the law, Phoebus, in favor of the rich.
+
+AP. How sayest thou? what? hast thou been clever without my perceiving it?
+
+DEA. Those who have means would purchase to die old.
+
+AP. Doth it not then seem good to thee to grant me this favor?
+
+DEA. No in truth; and thou knowest my ways.
+
+AP. Yes, hostile to mortals, and detested by the Gods.
+
+DEA. Thou canst not have all things, which thou oughtest not.
+
+AP. Nevertheless, thou wilt stop, though thou art over-fierce; such a man
+will come to the house of Pheres, whom Eurystheus hath sent after the
+chariot and its horses,[7] _to bring them_ from the wintry regions of
+Thrace, who in sooth, being welcomed in the mansions of Admetus, shall take
+away by force this woman from thee; and there will be no obligation to thee
+at my hands, but still thou wilt do this, and wilt be hated by me.
+
+DEA. Much though thou talkest, thou wilt gain nothing. This woman then
+shall descend to the house of Pluto; and I am advancing upon her, that I
+may begin the rites on her with my sword; for sacred is he to the Gods
+beneath the earth, the hair of whose head this sword hath consecrated.[8]
+
+CHORUS.
+
+SEMICH. Wherefore in heaven's name is this stillness before the palace? why
+is the house of Admetus hushed in silence?
+
+SEMICH. But there is not even one of our friends near, who can tell us
+whether we have to deplore the departed queen, or whether Alcestis,
+daughter of Pelias, yet living views this light, who has appeared to me and
+to all to have been the best wife toward her husband.
+
+CHOR. Hears any one either a wailing, or the beating of hands within the
+house, or a lamentation, as though the thing had taken place?[9] There is
+not however any one of the servants standing before the gates. Oh would
+that thou wouldst appear, O Apollo, amidst the waves of this calamity!
+
+SEMICH. They would not however be silent, were she dead.
+
+SEMICH. For the corse is certainly not gone from the house.
+
+SEMICH. Whence this conjecture? I do not presume this. What is it gives you
+confidence?
+
+SEMICH. How could Admetus have made a private funeral of his so excellent
+wife?
+
+CHOR. But before the gates I see not the bath of water from the
+fountain,[10] as is the custom at the gates of the dead: and in the
+vestibule is no shorn hair, which is wont to fall in grief for the dead;
+the youthful[11] hand of women for the youthful _wife_ sound not.
+
+SEMICH. And yet this is the appointed day,--
+
+SEMICH. What is this thou sayest?
+
+SEMICH. In the which she must go beneath the earth.
+
+SEMICH. Thou hast touched my soul, hast touched my heart.
+
+SEMICH. When the good are afflicted, he must mourn, who from the beginning
+has been accounted good.
+
+CHOR. But there is not whither in the earth any one having sent naval
+equipment, or to Lycia, or to the thirsty site of Hammon's temple, can
+redeem the unhappy woman's life, for abrupt fate approaches, and I know not
+to whom of those that sacrifice at the hearths of the Gods I can go. But
+only if the son of Phoebus were viewing with his eyes this light, could she
+come, having left the darksome habitations and the gates of Pluto: for he
+raised up the dead, before that the stroke of the lightning's fire hurled
+by Jove destroyed him. But now what hope of life can I any longer
+entertain? For all things have already been done by the king, and at the
+altars of all the Gods abound the victims dropping with blood, and no cure
+is there of these evils.
+
+CHORUS, FEMALE ATTENDANT.
+
+CHOR. But here comes one of the female attendants from the house, in tears;
+what shall I hear has happened? To mourn indeed, if any thing happens to
+our lords, is pardonable: but whether the lady be still alive, or whether
+she be dead, we would wish to know.
+
+ATT. You may call her both alive and dead.
+
+CHOR. And how can the same woman be both alive and dead?
+
+ATT. Already she is on the verge of death,[12] and breathing her life away.
+
+CHOR. Oh wretched man, being what thyself of what a wife art thou bereft!
+
+ATT. My master knows not this yet, until he suffer.
+
+CHOR. Is there no longer hope that she may save her life?
+
+ATT. No, for the destined day makes its attack upon her.
+
+CHOR. Are not then suitable preparations made for these events?
+
+ATT. Yes, the adornments[13] are ready, wherewith her husband will bury
+her.
+
+CHOR. Let her know then that she will die glorious, and by far the best of
+women under the sun.
+
+ATT. And how not the best? who will contest it? What must the woman be, who
+has surpassed her? and how can any give greater proof of esteeming her
+husband, than by being willing to die for him? And these things indeed the
+whole city knoweth. But what she did in the house you will marvel when you
+hear. For, when she perceived that the destined day was come, she washed
+her fair skin with water from the river; and having taken from her closets
+of cedar vesture and ornaments, she attired herself becomingly; and
+standing before the altar she prayed: "O mistress, since I go beneath the
+earth, adoring thee for the last time, I will beseech thee to protect my
+orphan children, and to the one join a loving wife, and to the other a
+noble husband: nor, as their mother perishes, let my children untimely die,
+but happy in their paternal country let them complete a joyous life."--But
+all the altars, which are in the house of Admetus, she went to, and
+crowned, and prayed, tearing the leaves from off the myrtle boughs,
+tearless, without a groan, nor did the approaching evil change the natural
+beauty of her skin. And then rushing to her chamber, and her bed, there
+indeed she wept and spoke thus: "O bridal bed, whereon I loosed my virgin
+zone with this man, for whom I die, farewell! for I hate thee not; but me
+alone hast thou lost; for dreading to betray thee, and my husband, I die;
+but thee some other woman will possess, more chaste there can not, but
+perchance more fortunate."[14]--And falling on it she kissed it; but all
+the bed was bathed with the flood that issued from her eyes. But when she
+had satiety of much weeping, she goes hastily forward,[15] rushing from the
+bed. And ofttimes having left her chamber, she oft returned, and threw
+herself upon the bed again. And her children, hanging to the garments of
+their mother, wept; but she, taking them in her arms, embraced them, first
+one and then the other, as about to die. But all the domestics wept
+throughout the house, bewailing their mistress, but she stretched out her
+right hand to each, and there was none so mean, whom she addressed not, and
+was answered in return. Such are the woes in the house of Admetus. And had
+he died indeed, he would have perished; but now that he has escaped death,
+he has grief to that degree which he will never forget.
+
+CHOR. Surely Admetus groans at these evils, if he must be deprived of so
+excellent a wife.
+
+ATT. Yes, he weeps, holding his dear wife in his hands, and prays her not
+to leave him, asking impossibilities; for she wastes away, and is consumed
+by sickness, but fainting a wretched burden in his arms, yet still though
+but feebly breathing, she fain would glance toward the rays of the sun; as
+though never again, but now for the last time she is to view the sun's beam
+and his orb. But I will go and announce your presence, for it is by no
+means all that are well-wishers to their lords, so as to come kindly to
+them in their misfortunes; but you of old are friendly to my master.
+
+SEMICH. O Jove, what means of escape can there in any way be, and what
+method to rid us of the fortune which attends my master?
+
+SEMICH. Will any appear? or must I cut my locks, and clothe me even now in
+black array of garments?
+
+SEMICH. 'Tis plain, my friends, too plain; but still let us pray to the
+Gods, for the power of the Gods is mightiest.
+
+SEMICH. O Apollo, king of healing, find out some remedy for the evils of
+Admetus, procure it, O! procure it. For before this also thou didst find
+_remedy_, and now become our deliverer from death, and stop the murderous
+Pluto.
+
+SEMICH. Alas! alas! woe! woe! O son of Pheres, how didst thou fare when
+thou wert deprived of thy wife?
+
+SEMICH. Alas! alas! these things would even justify self-slaughter, and
+there is more, than whereat one might thrust one's neck in the suspending
+noose.[16]
+
+SEMICH. For not a dear, but a most dear wife, wilt thou see dead this day.
+
+SEMICH. Behold, behold; lo! she doth come from the house, and her husband
+with her. Cry out, O groan, O land of Pheres, for the most excellent woman,
+wasting with sickness, _departing_ beneath the earth to the infernal Pluto.
+Never will I aver that marriage brings more joy than grief, forming my
+conjectures both from former things, and beholding this fortune of the
+king; who, when he has lost this most excellent wife, will thenceforward
+pass a life not worthy to be called life.[17]
+
+ALCESTIS, ADMETUS, EUMELUS, CHORUS.
+
+ALC. Thou Sun, and thou light of day, and ye heavenly eddies of the
+fleeting clouds--
+
+ADM. He beholds[18] thee and me, two unhappy creatures, having done nothing
+to the Gods, for which thou shouldst die.
+
+ALC. O earth, and ye roofs of the palace, and thou bridal bed of my native
+Iolcos.
+
+ADM. Lift up thyself, unhappy one, desert me not; but entreat the powerful
+Gods to pity.
+
+ALC. I see--I see the two-oared boat--and the ferryman of the dead, holding
+his hand on the pole--Charon even now calls me--"Why dost thou delay?
+haste, thou stoppest us here"--with such words vehement he hastens me.
+
+ADM. Ah me! a bitter voyage this thou speakest of! Oh! unhappy one, how do
+we suffer!
+
+ALC. He pulls me, some one pulls me--do you not see?--to the hall of the
+dead, the winged Pluto, staring from beneath his black eyebrows--What wilt
+thou do?--let me go--what a journey am I most wretched going!
+
+ADM. Mournful to thy friends, and of these especially to me and to thy
+children, who have this grief in common.
+
+ALC. Leave off[19] supporting me, leave off now, lay me down, I have no
+strength in my feet. Death is near, and darkling night creeps upon mine
+eyes--my children, my children, no more your mother is--no more.--Farewell,
+my children, long may you view this light!
+
+ADM. Ah me! I hear this sad word, and more than any death to me. Do not by
+the Gods have the heart to leave me: do not by those children, whom thou
+wilt make orphans: but rise, be of good courage: for, thee dead, I should
+no longer be: for on thee we depend both to live, and not to live: for thy
+love we adore.
+
+ALC. Admetus, thou seest both thy affairs and mine, in what state they are,
+I wish to tell thee, ere I die, what I would have done. I, honoring thee,
+and causing thee at the price of my life to view this light, die, it being
+in my power not to die, for thee: but though I might have married a husband
+from among the Thessalians whom I would, and have lived in a palace blessed
+with regal sway, was not willing to live, bereft of thee, with my children
+orphans; nor did I spare myself, though possessing the gifts of bloomy
+youth, wherein I delighted. And yet thy father and thy mother forsook thee,
+though they had well arrived at a point of life, in which they might have
+died, and nobly delivered their son, and died with glory: for thou wert
+their only one, and there was no hope, when thou wert dead, that they could
+have other children.[20] And I should have lived, and thou, the rest of our
+time. And thou wouldst not be groaning deprived of thy wife, and wouldst
+not have to bring up thy children orphans. But these things indeed, some
+one of the Gods hath brought to pass, that they should be thus. Be it
+so--but do thou remember to give me a return for this; for never shall I
+ask thee for an equal one, (for nothing is more precious than life,) but
+just, as thou wilt say: for thou lovest not these children less than I do,
+if thou art right-minded; them bring up lords over my house, and bring not
+in second marriage a step-mother over these children, who, being a worse
+woman than me, through envy will stretch out her hand against thine and my
+children. Do not this then, I beseech thee; for a step-mother that is in
+second marriage is enemy to the children of the former marriage, no milder
+than a viper. And my boy indeed has his father, a great tower of defense;
+but thou, O my child, how wilt thou be, brought up during thy virgin years?
+Having what consort of thy father's? _I fear_, lest casting some evil
+obloquy on thee, she destroys thy marriage in the bloom of youth.[21] For
+neither will thy mother ever preside over thy nuptials, nor strengthen thee
+being present, my daughter, at thy travails, where nothing is more kind
+than a mother. For I needs must die, and this evil comes upon me not
+to-morrow, nor on the third day of the month, but immediately shall I be
+numbered among those that are no more. Farewell, and may you be happy; and
+thou indeed, my husband, mayst boast, that thou hadst a most excellent
+wife, and you, my children, that you were born of a most excellent mother.
+
+CHOR. Be of good cheer; for I fear not to answer for him: he will do this,
+if he be not bereft of his senses.
+
+ADM. These things shall be so, they shall be, fear not: since I, when alive
+also, possessed thee _alone_, and when thou art dead, thou shalt be my only
+wife, and no Thessalian bride shall address me in the place of thee: there
+is not woman who shall, either of so noble a sire, nor otherwise most
+exquisite in beauty. But my children are enough; of these I pray the Gods
+that I may have the enjoyment; for thee we do not enjoy. But I shall not
+have this grief for thee for a year, but as long as my life endures, O
+lady, abhorring her indeed that brought me forth, and hating my father; for
+they were in word, not in deed, my friends. But thou, giving what was
+dearest to thee for my life, hast rescued me. Have I not then reason to
+groan deprived of such a wife? But I will put an end to the feasts, and the
+meetings of those that drink together, and garland and song, which wont to
+dwell in my house. For neither can I any more touch the lyre, nor lift up
+my heart to sing to the Libyan flute; for thou hast taken away my joy of
+life. But by the cunning hand of artists imaged thy figure shall be lain on
+my bridal bed, on which I will fall, and clasping my hands around, calling
+on thy name, shall fancy that I hold my dear wife in mine arms, though
+holding her not:[22] a cold delight, I ween; but still I may draw off the
+weight that sits upon my soul: and in my dreams visiting me, thou mayst
+delight me, for a friend is sweet even to behold at night, for whatever
+time he may come. But if the tongue of Orpheus and his strain were mine, so
+that invoking with hymns the daughter of Ceres or her husband, I could
+receive thee from the shades below, I would descend, and neither the dog of
+Pluto, nor Charon at his oar, the ferryman of departed spirits, should stay
+me before I brought thy life to the light. But there expect me when I die
+and prepare a mansion for me, as about to dwell with me. For I will enjoin
+these[23] to place me in the same cedar with thee, and to lay my side near
+thy side: for not even when dead may I be separated from thee, the only
+faithful one to me!
+
+CHOR. And I indeed with thee, as a friend with a friend, will bear this
+painful grief for her, for she is worthy.
+
+ALC. My children, ye indeed hear your father saying that he will never
+marry another wife to be over you, nor dishonor me.
+
+ADM. And now too, I say this, and will perform it
+
+ALC. For this receive these children from my hand.
+
+ADM. Yes, I receive a dear gift from a dear hand.
+
+ALC. Be thou then a mother to these children in my stead.
+
+ADM. There is much need that I should, when they are deprived of thee.
+
+ALC. O my children, at a time when I ought to live I depart beneath.
+
+ADM. Ah me; what shall I do of thee bereaved!
+
+ALC. Time will soften thy grief: he that is dead is nothing.
+
+ADM. Take me with thee, by the Gods take me beneath.
+
+ALC. Enough are we _to go_, who die for thee.
+
+ADM. O fate, of what a wife thou deprivest me!
+
+ALC. And lo! my darkening eye is weighed down.
+
+ADM. I am undone then, if thou wilt leave me, my wife.
+
+ALC. As being no more, you may speak of me as nothing.
+
+ADM. Lift up thy face; do not leave thy children.
+
+ALC. Not willingly in sooth, but--farewell, my children.
+
+ADM. Look on them, O! look.
+
+ALC. I am no more.
+
+ADM. What dost thou? dost thou leave us?
+
+ALC. Farewell!
+
+ADM. I am an undone wretch!
+
+CHOR. She is gone, Admetus' wife is no more.
+
+EUM. Alas me, for my state! my mother is gone indeed below; she is no
+longer, my father, under the sun; but unhappy leaving me has made my life
+an orphan's. For look, look at her eyelid, and her nerveless arms. Hear,
+hear, O mother. I beseech thee; I, I now call thee, mother, thy young one
+falling on thy mouth--
+
+ADM. Who hears not, neither sees: so that I and you are struck with a heavy
+calamity.
+
+EUM. Young and deserted, my father, am I left by my dear mother: O! I that
+have suffered indeed dreadful deeds!--and thou hast suffered with me, my
+sister. O father, in vain, in vain didst thou marry, nor with her didst
+thou arrive at the end of old age, for she perished before, but thou being
+gone, mother, the house is undone.
+
+CHOR. Admetus, you must bear this calamity; for in no wise the first, nor
+the last of mortals hast thou lost thy dear wife: but learn, that to die is
+a debt we must all of us discharge.
+
+ADM. I know it, and this evil hath not come suddenly on me; but knowing it
+long ago I was afflicted. But be present, for I will have the corse borne
+forth, and while ye stay, chant a hymn to the God below that accepteth not
+libations. And all the Thessalians, over whom I reign, I enjoin to share in
+the grief for this lady, by shearing _their locks_ with steel, and by
+arraying themselves in sable garb. And harness[24] your teams of horses to
+your chariots, and cut from your single steeds the manes that fall upon
+their necks. And let there be no noise of pipes, nor of the lyre throughout
+the city for twelve completed moons. For none other corse more dear shall I
+inter, nor one more kind toward me. But she deserves to receive honor from
+me, seeing that she alone hath died for me.
+
+CHORUS.
+
+O daughter of Pelias, farewell where thou dwellest in sunless dwelling
+within the mansions of Pluto. And let Pluto know, the God with ebon locks,
+and the old man, the ferryman of the dead, who sits intent upon his oar and
+his rudder, that he is conducting by far the most excellent of women in his
+two-oared boat over the lake of Acheron. Oft shall the servants of the
+Muses sing of thee, celebrating thee both on the seven-stringed lute on the
+mountains, and in hymns unaccompanied by the lyre: in Sparta, when returns
+the annual circle in the season of the Carnean month,[25] when the moon is
+up the whole night long; and in splendid[26] and happy Athens. Such a song
+hast thou left by thy death to the minstrels of melodies. Would that it
+rested with me, and that I could waft thee to the light from the mansions
+of Pluto, and from Cocytus' streams, by the oar of that infernal river. For
+thou, O unexampled, O dear among women, thou didst dare to receive thy
+husband from the realms below in exchange for thine own life. Light may the
+earth from above fall upon thee, lady! and if thy husband chooses any other
+alliance, surely he will be much detested by me and by thy children. When
+his mother was not willing for him to hide her body in the ground, nor his
+aged father, but these two wretches, having hoary locks, dared not to
+rescue him they brought forth, yet thou in the vigor of youth didst depart,
+having died for thy husband. May it be mine to meet with another[27] such a
+dear wife; for rare in life is such a portion, for surely she would live
+with me forever without once causing pain.
+
+HERCULES, CHORUS.
+
+HER. Strangers, inhabitants of the land of Pheres, can I find Admetus
+within the palace?
+
+CHOR. The son of Pheres is within the palace, O Hercules. But tell me, what
+purpose sends thee to the land of the Thessalians, so that thou comest to
+this city of Pheres?
+
+HER. I am performing a certain labor for the Tirynthian Eurystheus.
+
+CHOR. And whither goest thou? on what wandering expedition art bound?
+
+HER. After the four chariot-steeds of Diomed the Thracian.
+
+CHOR. How wilt thou be able? Art thou ignorant of this host?
+
+HER. I am ignorant; I have not yet been to the land of the Bistonians.
+
+CHOR. Thou canst not be lord of these steeds without battle.
+
+HER. But neither is it possible for me to renounce the labors _set me_.
+
+CHOR. Thou wilt come then having slain, or being slain wilt remain there.
+
+HER. Not the first contest this that I shall run.
+
+CHOR. But what advance will you have made, when you have overcome their
+master?
+
+HER. I will drive away the horses to king Eurystheus.
+
+CHOR. 'Tis no easy matter to put the bit in their jaws.
+
+HER. _'Tis,_ except they breathe fire from their nostrils.
+
+CHOR. But they tear men piecemeal with their devouring jaws.
+
+HER. The provender of mountain beasts, not horses, you are speaking of.
+
+CHOR. Their stalls thou mayst behold with blood bestained.
+
+HER. Son of what sire does their owner boast to be?
+
+CHOR. Of Mars, prince[28] of the Thracian target, rich with gold.
+
+HER. And this labor, thou talkest of, is one my fate compels me to (for it
+is ever hard and tends to steeps); if I must join in battle with the
+children whom Mars begat, first indeed with Lycaon, and again with Cycnus,
+and I come to this third combat, about to engage with the horses and their
+master. But none there is, who shall ever see the son of Alcmena fearing
+the hand of his enemies.
+
+CHOR. And lo! hither comes the very man Admetus, lord of this land, from
+out of the palace.
+
+ADMETUS, HERCULES, CHORUS.
+
+ADM. Hail! O son of Jove, and of the blood of Perseus.
+
+HER. Admetus, hail thou too, king of the Thessalians!
+
+ADM. I would I could _receive this salutation;_ but I know that thou art
+well disposed toward me.
+
+HER. Wherefore art thou conspicuous with thy locks shorn for grief?
+
+ADM. I am about to bury a certain corse this day.
+
+HER. May the God avert calamity from thy children!
+
+ADM. My children whom I begat, live in the house.
+
+HER. Thy father however is of full age, if he is gone.
+
+ADM. Both he lives, and she who bore me, Hercules.
+
+HER. Surely your wife Alcestis is not dead?
+
+ADM. There are two accounts which I may tell of her.
+
+HER. Speakest thou of her as dead or as alive?
+
+ADM. She both is, and is no more, and she grieves me.
+
+HER. I know nothing more; for thou speakest things obscure.
+
+ADM. Knowest thou not the fate which it was doomed for her to meet with?
+
+HER. I know that she took upon herself to die for thee.
+
+ADM. How then is she any more, if that she promised this?
+
+HER. Ah! do not weep for thy wife before the time; wait till this happens.
+
+ADM. He that is about to die is dead, and he that is dead is no more.
+
+HER. The being and the not being is considered a different thing.
+
+ADM. You judge in this way, Hercules, but I in that.
+
+HER. Why then dost weep? Who is he of thy friends that is dead?
+
+ADM. A woman, a woman we were lately mentioning.
+
+HER. A stranger by blood, or any by birth allied to thee?
+
+ADM. A stranger; but on other account dear to this house.
+
+HER. How then died she in thine house?
+
+ADM. Her father dead, she lived an orphan here.
+
+HER. Alas! Would that I had found thee, Admetus, not mourning!
+
+ADM. As about to do what then, dost thou make use of these words?
+
+HER. I will go to some other hearth of those who will receive a guest.
+
+ADM. It must not be, O king: let not so great an evil happen!
+
+HER. Troublesome is a guest if he come to mourners.
+
+ADM. The dead are dead--but go into the house.
+
+HER. 'Tis base however to feast with weeping friends.
+
+ADM. The guest-chamber, whither we will lead thee, is apart.
+
+HER. Let me go, and I will owe you ten thousand thanks.
+
+ADM. It must not be that thou go to the hearth of another man. Lead on
+thou, having thrown open the guest-chamber that is separate from the house:
+and tell them that have the management, that there be plenty of meats; and
+shut the gates in the middle of the hall: it is not meet that feasting
+guests should hear groans, nor should they be made sad.
+
+CHOR. What are you doing? when so great a calamity is before you, Admetus,
+hast thou the heart to receive guests? wherefore art thou foolish?
+
+ADM. But if I had driven him who came my guest from my house, and from the
+city, would you have praised me rather? No in sooth, since my calamity had
+been no whit the less, but I the more inhospitable: and in addition to my
+evils, there had been this other evil, that mine should be called the
+stranger-hating house. But I myself find this man a most excellent host,
+whenever I go to the thirsty land of Argos.
+
+CHOR. How then didst thou hide thy present fate, when a friend, as thou
+thyself sayest, came?
+
+ADM. He never would have been willing to enter the house if he had known
+aught of my sufferings. And to him[29] indeed, I ween, acting thus, I
+appear not to be wise, nor will he praise me; but my house knows not to
+drive away, nor to dishonor guests.
+
+CHORUS.
+
+O greatly hospitable and ever liberal house of this man, thee even the
+Pythian Apollo, master of the lyre, deigned to inhabit, and endured to
+become a shepherd in thine abodes, through the sloping hills piping to thy
+flocks his pastoral nuptial hymns. And there were wont to feed with them,
+through delight of his lays, both the spotted lynxes, and the bloody troop
+of lions[30] came having left the forest of Othrys; disported too around
+thy cithern, Phoebus, the dappled fawn, advancing with light pastern beyond
+the lofty-feathered pines, joying in the gladdening strain. Wherefore he
+dwelleth in a home most rich in flocks by the fair-flowing lake of Boebe;
+and to the tillage of his fields, and the extent of his plains, toward that
+dusky _part of the heavens_, where the sun stays his horses, makes the
+clime of the Molossians the limit, and holds dominion as far as the
+portless shore of the AEgean Sea at Pelion. And now having thrown open his
+house he hath received his guest with moistened eyelid, weeping over the
+corse of his dear wife, who but now died in the palace: for a noble
+disposition is prone to reverence [of the guest]. But in the good there is
+all manner of wisdom. And confidence is seated on my soul that the man who
+reveres the Gods will fare prosperously.
+
+ADMETUS, CHORUS.
+
+ADM. Ye men of Pherae that are kindly present, my servants indeed bear
+aloft[31] the corse, having every thing fit for the tomb, and for the pyre.
+But do you, as is the custom, salute[32] the dead going forth on her last
+journey.
+
+CHOR. And lo! I see thy father advancing with his aged foot, and attendants
+bearing in their hands adornment for thy wife, due honors of those beneath.
+
+PHERES, ADMETUS, CHORUS.
+
+PHE. I am at present sympathizing in thy misfortunes, my son: for thou hast
+lost (no one will deny) a good and a chaste wife; but these things indeed
+thou must bear, though hard to be borne. But receive this adornment, and
+let it go with her beneath the earth: Her body 'tis right to honor, who in
+sooth died to save thy life, my son, and made me to be not childless, nor
+suffered me to waste away deprived of thee in an old age of misery. But she
+has made most illustrious the life of all women, having dared this noble
+action. O thou that hast preserved my son here, and hast raised us up who
+were falling, farewell,[33] and may it be well with thee even in the
+mansions of Pluto! I affirm that such marriages are profitable to men, or
+that it is not meet to marry.
+
+ADM. Neither hast thou come bidden of me to this funeral, nor do I count
+thy presence among things acceptable. But she here never shall put on thy
+decorations; for in no wise shall she be buried indebted to what thou hast.
+Then oughtest thou to have grieved with me, when I was in danger of
+perishing.[34] But dost thou, who stoodest aloof, and permittedst another,
+a young person, thyself being old, to die, weep over this dead body? Thou
+wert not then really the father of me, nor did she, who says she bore me,
+and is called my mother, bear me; but born of slavish blood I was secretly
+put under the breast of thy wife. Thou showedst when thou camest to the
+test, who thou art; and I deem that I am not thy son. Or else surely thou
+exceedest all in nothingness of soul, who being of the age thou art, and
+having come to the goal of life, neither hadst the will nor the courage to
+die for thy son; but sufferedst this stranger lady, whom alone I might
+justly have considered both mother and father. And yet thou mightst have
+run this race for glory, hadst thou died for thy son. But at any rate the
+remainder of the time thou hadst to live was short: and I should have lived
+and she the rest of our days, and I should not, bereft of her, be groaning
+at my miseries. And in sooth thou didst receive as many things as a happy
+man should receive; thou passedst the vigor of thine age indeed in
+sovereign sway, but I was thy son to succeed thee in this palace, so that
+thou wert not about to die childless and leave a desolate house for others
+to plunder. Thou canst not however say of me, that I gave thee up to die,
+dishonoring thine old age, whereas I was particularly respectful toward
+thee; and for this behavior both thou, and she that bare me, have made me
+such return. Wherefore you have no more time to lose[35] in getting
+children, who will succor thee in thine old age, and deck thee when dead,
+and lay out thy corse; for I will not bury thee with this mine hand; for I
+in sooth died, as far as in thee lay; but if, having met with, another
+deliverer, I view the light, I say that I am both his child, and the
+friendly comforter of his old age. In vain then do old men pray to be dead,
+complaining of age, and the long time of life: but if death come near, not
+one is willing to die, and old age is no longer burdensome to them.[36]
+
+CHOR. Desist, for the present calamity is sufficient; and do not, O son,
+provoke thy father's mind.
+
+PHE. O son, whom dost thou presume thou art gibing with thy reproaches, a
+Lydian or a Phrygian bought with thy money?[37] Knowest thou not that I am
+a Thessalian, and born from a Thessalian father, truly free? Thou art too
+insolent, and casting the impetuous words of youth against us, shalt not
+having cast them thus depart. But I begat thee the lord of my house, and
+brought thee up, but I am not thy debtor to die for thee; for I received no
+paternal law like this, nor Grecian law, that fathers should die for their
+children; for for thyself thou wert born, whether unfortunate or fortunate,
+but what from us thou oughtest to have, thou hast. Thou rulest indeed over
+many, and I will leave thee a large demesne of lands, for these I received
+from my father. In what then have I injured thee? Of what do I deprive
+thee? Thou joyest to see the light, and dost think thy father does not
+joy?[38] Surely I count the time we must spend beneath long, and life is
+short, but still sweet. Thou too didst shamelessly fight off from dying,
+and livest, having passed over thy destined fate, by slaying her; then dost
+thou talk of my nothingness of soul, O most vile one, when thou art
+surpassed by a woman who died for thee, the handsome youth? But thou hast
+made a clever discovery, so that thou mayst never die, if thou wilt
+persuade the wife that is thine from time to time to die for thee: and then
+reproachest thou thy friends who are not willing to do this, thyself being
+a coward? Hold thy peace, and consider, if thou lovest thy life, that all
+love theirs; but if thou shalt speak evil against us, thou shalt hear many
+reproaches and not false ones.
+
+CHOR. Too many evil things have been spoken both now and before, but cease,
+old man, from reviling thy son.
+
+ADM. Speak, for I have spoken; but if thou art grieved at hearing the
+truth, thou shouldst not err against me.
+
+PHE. But had I died for thee, I had erred more.
+
+ADM. What? is it the same thing for a man in his prime, and for an old man
+to die?
+
+PHE. We ought to live with one life, not with two.
+
+ADM. Mayst thou then live a longer time than Jove!
+
+PHE. Dost curse thy parents, having met with no injustice?
+
+ADM. _I said it_, for I perceived thou lovedst a long life.
+
+PHE. But art not thou bearing forth this corse instead of thyself?
+
+ADM. A proof this, O most vile one, of thy nothingness of soul.
+
+PHE. She died not by us at least; thou wilt not say this.
+
+ADM. Alas! Oh that you may ever come to need my aid!
+
+PHE. Wed many wives, that more may die.
+
+ADM. This is a reproach to thyself, for thou wert not willing to die.
+
+PHE. Sweet is this light of the God, sweet is it.
+
+ADM. Base is thy spirit and not that of men.
+
+PHE. Thou dost not laugh as carrying an aged corse.
+
+ADM. Thou wilt surely however die inglorious, when thou diest.
+
+PHE. To bear an evil report is no matter to me when dead.
+
+ADM. Alas! alas! how full of shamelessness is old age!
+
+PHE. She was not shameless: her you found mad.
+
+ADM. Begone, and suffer me to bury this dead.
+
+PHE. I will depart; but you will bury her, yourself being her murderer. But
+you will render satisfaction to your wife's relatives yet: or surely
+Acastus no longer ranks among men, if he shall not revenge the blood of his
+sister.
+
+ADM. Get thee gone, then, thou and thy wife; childless, thy child yet
+living, as ye deserve, grow old; for ye no more come into the same house
+with me: and if it were necessary for me to renounce by heralds thy
+paternal hearth, I would renounce it. But let us (for the evil before us
+must be borne) proceed, that we may place the corse upon the funeral pyre.
+
+CHOR. O! O! unhappy because of thy bold deed, O noble, and by far most
+excellent, farewell! may both Mercury[39] that dwells beneath, and Pluto,
+kindly receive thee; but if there too any distinction is shown to the good,
+partaking of this mayst thou sit by the bride of Pluto.
+
+SERVANT.
+
+I have now known many guests, and from all parts of the earth that have
+come to the house of Admetus, to whom I have spread the feast, but never
+yet did I receive into this house a worse one than this stranger. Who, in
+the first place, indeed, though he saw my master in affliction, came in,
+and prevailed upon himself to pass the gates. And then not at all in a
+modest manner received he the entertainment that there happened to be, when
+he heard of the calamity: but if we did not bring any thing, he hurried us
+to bring it. And having taken in his hands the cup wreathed with ivy,[40]
+he quaffs the neat wine of the purple mother, until the fumes of the liquor
+coming upon him inflamed him; and he crowns his head with branches of
+myrtles howling discordantly; and there were two strains to hear; for he
+was singing, not caring at all for the afflictions of Admetus, but we the
+domestics, were bewailing our mistress, and we showed not that we were
+weeping to the guest, for thus Admetus commanded. And now indeed I am
+performing the offices of hospitality to the stranger in the house, some
+deceitful thief and robber. But she is gone from the house, nor did I
+follow, nor stretched out my hand in lamentation for my mistress, who was a
+mother to me, and to all the domestics, for she saved us from ten thousand
+ills, softening the anger of her husband. Do I not then justly hate this
+stranger, who is come in our miseries?
+
+HERCULES, SERVANT.
+
+HER. Ho there! why dost thou look so grave and thoughtful? The servant
+ought not to be of woeful countenance before guests, but should receive
+them with an affable mind. But thou, though thou seest a companion of thy
+lord present, receivest him with a morose and clouded countenance, fixing
+thy attention on a calamity that thou hast nothing to do with. Come hither,
+that thou mayst become more wise. Knowest thou mortal affairs, of what
+nature they are? I think not; from whence should you? but hear me. Death is
+a debt that all mortals must pay: and there is not of them one, who knows
+whether he shall live the coming morrow: for what depends on fortune is
+uncertain how it will turn out, and is not to be learned, neither is it
+detected by art. Having heard these things then, and learned them from me,
+make thyself merry, drink, and think the life allowed from day to day thine
+own, but the rest Fortune's. And honor also Venus, the most sweet of
+deities to mortals, for she is a kind deity. But let go these other things,
+and obey my words, if I appear to speak rightly: I think so indeed. Wilt
+thou not then leave off thy excessive grief, and drink with me, crowned
+with garlands, having thrown open these gates? And well know I that the
+trickling of the cup falling down _thy throat_ will change thee from thy
+present cloudy and pent state of mind. But we who are mortals should think
+as mortals. Since to all the morose, indeed, and to those of sad
+countenance, if they take me as judge at least, life is not truly life, but
+misery.
+
+SERV. I know this; but now we are in circumstances not such as are fit for
+revel and mirth.
+
+HER. The lady that is dead is a stranger; grieve not too much, for the
+lords of this house live.
+
+SERV. What live! knowest thou not the misery within the house?
+
+HER. Unless thy lord hath told me any thing falsely.
+
+SERV. He is too, too hospitable.
+
+HER. Is it unmeet that I should be well treated, because a stranger is
+dead?
+
+SERV. Surely however she was very near.
+
+HER. Has he forborne to tell me any calamity that there is?
+
+SERV. Depart and farewell; we have a care for the evils of our lords.
+
+HER. This speech is the beginning of no foreign loss.
+
+SERV. For I should not, _had it been foreign_, have been grieved at seeing
+thee reveling.
+
+HER. What! have I received so great an injury from mine host?
+
+SERV. Thou camest not in a fit time for the house to receive thee, for
+there is grief to us, and thou seest that we are shorn, and our black
+garments.
+
+HER. But who is it that is dead? Has either any of his children died, or
+his aged father?
+
+SERV. The wife indeed of Admetus is dead, O stranger.
+
+HER. What sayst thou? and yet did ye receive me?
+
+SERV. _Yes_, for he had too much respect to turn thee from his house.
+
+HER. O unhappy man, what a wife hast thou lost!
+
+SERV. We all are lost, not she alone.
+
+HER. But I did perceive it indeed, when I saw his eye streaming with tears,
+and his shorn hair, and his countenance; but he persuaded me, saying, that
+he was conducting the funeral of a stranger to the tomb: but spite of my
+inclination having passed over these gates, I drank in the house of the
+hospitable man, while he was in this case, and reveled, crowned as to my
+head with garlands. But 'twas thine to tell me not _to do it_, when such an
+evil was upon the house. Where is he burying her? whither going can I find
+her?
+
+SERV. By the straight road that leads to Larissa, thou wilt see the
+polished tomb beyond the suburbs.
+
+HERCULES.
+
+O my much-daring heart and my soul, now show what manner of son the
+Tirynthian Alcmena, daughter of Electryon, bare thee to Jove. For I must
+rescue the woman lately dead, Alcestis, and place her again in this house,
+and perform this service for Admetus. And going I will lay wait for the
+sable-vested king of the departed, Death, and I think that I shall find him
+drinking of the libations near the tomb. And if having taken him by lying
+in wait, rushing from my ambush, I shall seize hold of him, and make a
+circle around him with mine arms, there is not who shall take him away
+panting as to his sides, until he release me the woman. But if however I
+fail of this capture, and he come not to the clottered mass of blood, I
+will go a journey beneath to the sunless mansions of Cora and her king, and
+will prefer my request; and I trust that I shall bring up Alcestis, so as
+to place her in the hands of that host, who received me into his house, nor
+drove me away, although struck with a heavy calamity, but concealed it,
+noble as he was, having respect unto me. Who of the Thessalians is more
+hospitable than he? Who that dwelleth in Greece? Wherefore he shall not
+say, that he did a service to a worthless man, himself being noble.
+
+ADMETUS, CHORUS.
+
+ADM. Alas! alas! O hateful approach, and hateful prospect of this widowed
+house. Oh me! Alas! alas! whither can I go! where rest! what can I say! and
+what not! would that I could perish! Surely my mother brought me forth to
+heavy fortune. I count the dead happy, them I long for! those houses I
+desire to dwell in: for neither delight I in viewing the sunbeams, nor
+treading with my foot upon the earth; of such a hostage has death robbed
+me, and delivered up to Pluto.
+
+CHOR. Advance, advance; go into the recesses of the house.
+
+(ADM. Oh! Oh!)
+
+Thou hast suffered things that demand groans.
+
+(ADM. Alas! alas!)
+
+Thou hast gone through grief, I well know.
+
+(ADM. Woe! Woe!)
+
+Thou nothing aidest her that is beneath.
+
+(ADM. Ah me! me!)
+
+Never to see thy dear wife's face again before thee, is severe.
+
+ADM. Thou hast made mention of that which ulcerated my soul; for what can
+be greater ill to man than to lose his faithful wife? Would that I never
+had married and dwelt with her in the palace. But I judge happy those, who
+are unmarried and childless; for theirs is one only life, for this to
+grieve is a moderate burden: but to behold the diseases of children, and
+the bridal bed wasted by death, is not supportable, when it were in one's
+power to be without children and unmarried the whole of life.
+
+CHOR. Fate, fate hard to be struggled with hath come.
+
+(ADM. Oh! Oh!)
+
+But puttest thou no bound to thy sorrows?
+
+(ADM. Alas! alas!)
+
+Heavy are they to bear, but still
+
+(ADM. Woe! woe!)
+
+endure, thou art not the first man that hast lost
+
+(ADM. Ah me! me!)
+
+thy wife; but calamity appearing afflicts different men in different
+shapes.
+
+ADM. O lasting griefs, and sorrows for our friends beneath the earth!--Why
+did you hinder me from throwing myself[41] into her hallowed grave, and
+from lying dead with her, by far the most excellent woman? And Pluto would
+have retained instead of one, two most faithful souls having together
+passed over the infernal lake.
+
+CHOR. I had a certain kinsman, whose son worthy to be lamented, an only
+child, died in his house; but nevertheless he bore his calamity with
+moderation, being bereft of child, though now hastening to gray hairs, and
+advanced in life.
+
+ADM. O house, how can I enter in? and how dwell in thee now my fortune has
+undergone this change? Ah me! for there is great difference between: then
+indeed with Pelian torches, and with bridal songs I entered in, bearing the
+hand of my dear wife, and there followed a loud-shouting revelry hailing
+happy both her that is dead and me, inasmuch as being noble, and born of
+illustrious parents both, we were united together: but now the groan
+instead of hymeneals, and black array instead of white robes, usher me in
+to my deserted couch.
+
+CHOR. This grief came quick on happy fortune to thee unschooled in evil:
+but thou hast saved thy life. Thy wife is dead, she left her love behind:
+what new thing this? Death has ere this destroyed many wives.
+
+ADM. My friends, I deem the fortune of my wife more happy than mine own,
+even although these things appear not so. For her indeed no grief shall
+ever touch, and she hath with glory ceased from many toils. But I, who
+ought not to have lived, though I have scaped destiny, shall pass a bitter
+life; I but now perceive. For how can I bear the entering into this house?
+Whom speaking to, or by whom addressed,[42] can I have joy in entering?
+Whither shall I turn me? For the solitude within will drive me forth, when
+I see the place where my wife used to lie, empty, and the seat whereon she
+used to sit, and the floor throughout the house all dirty, and when my
+children falling about my knees weep their mother, and they lament their
+mistress, _thinking_ what a lady they have lost from out of the house. Such
+things within the house; but abroad the nuptials of the Thessalians and the
+assemblies full of women will torture me: for I shall not be able to look
+on the companions of my wife. But whoever is mine enemy will say thus of
+me: "See that man, who basely lives, who dared not to die, but giving in
+his stead her, whom he married, escaped Hades, (and then does he seem to be
+a man?) and hates his parents, himself not willing to die."--Such report
+shall I have in addition to my woes; why then is it the more honorable
+course for me to live, my friends, having an evil character and an evil
+fortune?
+
+CHOR. I too have both been borne aloft through song, and having very much
+handled arguments have found nothing more powerful than Necessity: nor is
+there any cure in the Thracian tablets which Orpheus[43] wrote, nor among
+those medicines, which Phoebus gave the sons of AEsculapius, dispensing[44]
+them to wretched mortals. But neither to the altars nor to the image of
+this Goddess alone, is it lawful to approach, she hears not victims. Do
+not, O revered one, come on me more severe, than hitherto in my life. For
+Jove, whatever he have assented to, with thee brings this to pass. Thou too
+perforce subduest the iron among the Chalybi; nor has thy rugged spirit any
+remorse.
+
+And thee, _Admetus_, the Goddess hath seized in the inevitable grasp of her
+hand; but bear it, for thou wilt never by weeping bring back on earth the
+dead from beneath. Even the sons of the Gods by stealth begotten perish in
+death. Dear she was while she was with us, and dear even now when dead. But
+thou didst join to thy bed[45] the noblest wife of all women. Nor let the
+tomb of thy wife be accounted as the mound over the dead that perish, but
+let it be honored equally with the Gods, a thing for travelers to
+adore:[46] and some one, going out of his direct road, shall say thus: "She
+in olden time died for her husband, but now she is a blest divinity: Hail,
+O adored one, and be propitious!" Such words will be addressed to her.--And
+lo! here comes, as it seems, the son of Alcmena to thy house, Admetus.
+
+HERCULES, ADMETUS, CHORUS.
+
+HER. One should speak freely to a friend, Admetus, and, not in silence keep
+within our bosoms what we blame. Now I thought myself worthy as a friend to
+stand near thy calamities, and to search them out;[47] but thou didst not
+tell me that it was thy wife's corse that demanded thy attention; but didst
+receive me in thy house, as though occupied in grief for one not thine. And
+I crowned my head and poured out to the Gods libations in thy house which
+had suffered this calamity. And I _do_ blame thee, I blame thee, having met
+with this treatment! not that I wish to grieve thee in thy miseries. But
+wherefore I am come, having turned back again, I will tell thee. Receive
+and take care of this woman for me, until I come hither driving the
+Thracian mares, having slain the king of the Bistonians. But if I meet with
+what I pray I may not meet with, (for may I return!) I give thee her as an
+attendant of thy palace. But with much toil came she into my hands; for I
+find some who had proposed a public contest for wrestlers, worthy of my
+labors, from whence I bear off her, having received her as the prize of my
+victory; for those who conquered in the lighter exercises had to receive
+horses, but those again who conquered in the greater, the boxing and the
+wrestling, cattle, and a woman was added to these; but in me, who happened
+to be there, it had been base to neglect this glorious gain. But, as I
+said, the woman ought to be a care to you, for I am come not having
+obtained her by stealth, but with labor; but at some time or other thou too
+wilt perhaps commend me for it.
+
+ADM. By no means slighting thee, nor considering thee among mine enemies,
+did I conceal from thee the unhappy fate of my wife; but this had been a
+grief added to grief, if thou hadst gone to the house of another host: but
+it was sufficient for me to weep my own calamity. But the woman, if it is
+in any way possible, I beseech thee, O king, bid some one of the
+Thessalians, who has not suffered what I have, to take care of (but thou
+hast many friends among the Pheraeans) lest thou remind me of my
+misfortunes. I can not, beholding her in the house, refrain from weeping;
+add not a sickness to me already sick; for I am enough weighed down with
+misery. Where besides in the house can a youthful woman be maintained? for
+she is youthful, as she evinces by her garb and her attire; shall she then
+live in the men's apartment? And how will she be undefiled, living among
+young men? A man in his vigor, Hercules, it is no easy thing to restrain;
+but I have a care for thee. Or can I maintain her, having made her enter
+the chamber of her that is dead? And how can I introduce her into her bed?
+I fear a double accusation, both from the citizens, lest any should convict
+me of having betrayed my benefactress, and lying in the bed of another
+girl; and I ought to have much regard toward the dead (and she deserves my
+respect). But thou, O lady, whoever thou art, know that thou hast the same
+size of person with Alcestis, and art like her in figure. Ah me! take by
+the Gods this woman from mine eyes, lest you destroy me already destroyed.
+For I think, when I look upon her, that I behold my wife; and it agitates
+my heart, and from mine eyes the streams break forth; O unhappy I, how
+lately did I begin to taste this bitter grief!
+
+CHOR. I can not indeed speak well of thy fortune; but it behooves thee,
+whatever thou art, to bear with firmness the dispensation of the Gods.
+
+HER. Oh would that I had such power as to bring thy wife to the light from
+the infernal mansions, and to do this service for thee!
+
+ADM. Well know I that thou hast the will: but how can this be? It is not
+possible for the dead to come into the light.
+
+HER. Do not, I pray, go beyond all bound, but bear it decently,
+
+ADM. Tis easier to exhort, than suffering to endure.
+
+HER. But what advantage can you gain if you wish to groan forever?
+
+ADM. I know that too myself; but a certain love impels me.
+
+HER. For to love one that is dead draws the tear.
+
+ADM. She hath destroyed me, and yet more than my words express.
+
+HER. Thou hast lost an excellent wife; who will deny it?
+
+ADM. _Ay,_ so that I am no longer delighted with life.
+
+HER. Time will soften the evil, but now it is yet in its vigor[48] on thee.
+
+ADM. Time thou mayst say, if to die be time.
+
+HER. A wife will bid it cease, and the desire of a new marriage.
+
+ADM. Hold thy peace--What saidst thou? I could not have supposed it.
+
+HER. But why? what, wilt not marry, but pass a widowed life alone?
+
+ADM. There is no woman that shall lie with me.
+
+HER. Dost thou think that thou art in aught benefiting her that is dead?
+
+ADM. Her, wherever she is, I am bound to honor.
+
+HER. I praise you indeed, I praise you; but you incur the charge of folly.
+
+ADM. _Praise me, or praise me not;_ for you shall never call me bridegroom.
+
+HER. I do praise thee, because thou art a faithful friend to thy wife.
+
+ADM. May I die, when I forsake her, although she is not!
+
+HER. Receive then this noble woman into thine house.
+
+ADM. Do not, I beseech thee by thy father Jove.
+
+HER. And yet you will be acting wrong, if you do not this.
+
+ADM. Yes, and if I do it, I shall have my heart gnawed with sorrow.
+
+HER. Be prevailed upon: perhaps this favor may be proved a duty.
+
+ADM. Ah! would that you had never borne her off from the contest!
+
+HER. Yet with me conquering thou'rt victorious too.
+
+ADM. Thou hast well spoken; but let the woman depart.
+
+HER. She shall depart, if it is needful; but first see whether it be
+needful.
+
+ADM. It is needful, if thou at least dost not mean to make me angry.
+
+HER. I too have this desire, for I know somewhat.
+
+ADM. Conquer then. Thou dost not however do things pleasing to me.
+
+HER. But some time or other thou wilt praise me; only be persuaded.
+
+ADM. Lead her in, if I must receive her in my house.
+
+HER. I will not deliver up the woman into the charge of the servants.
+
+ADM. But do thou thyself lead her into the house if it seems fit.
+
+HER. I then will give her into thine hands.
+
+ADM. I will not touch her; but she is at liberty to enter the house.
+
+HER. I trust her to thy right hand alone.
+
+ADM. O king, thou compellest me to do this against my will.
+
+HER. Dare to stretch out thy hand and touch the stranger.
+
+ADM. And in truth I stretch it out, as I would to the Gorgon with her
+severed head.[49]
+
+HER. Have you her?
+
+ADM. I have.
+
+HER. Then keep her fast; and some time or other thou wilt say that the son
+of Jove is a generous guest. But look on her, whether she seems aught to
+resemble thy wife; and being blest leave off from thy grief.
+
+ADM. O Gods, what shall I say? An unexpected wonder this! Do I truly see
+here my wife, or does the mocking joy of the Deity strike me from my
+senses?
+
+HER. It is not so; but thou beholdest here thy wife.
+
+ADM. Yet see, whether this be not a phantom from the realms beneath.
+
+HER. Thou hast not made thine host an invoker of spirits.
+
+ADM. But do I behold my wife, whom I buried?
+
+HER. Be well assured _thou dost;_ but I wonder not at thy disbelief of thy
+fortune.
+
+ADM. May I touch her, may I speak to her as my living wife?[50]
+
+HER. Speak to her; for thou hast all that thou desirest.
+
+ADM. O face and person of my dearest wife, have I thee beyond my hopes,
+when I thought never to see thee more?
+
+HER. Thou hast: but _take care_ there be no envy of the Gods.
+
+ADM. O noble son of the most powerful Jove, mayst thou be blest, and may
+thy father, who begot thee, protect thee, for thou alone hast restored me!
+How didst thou bring her from beneath into this light!
+
+HER. Having fought a battle with the prince of those beneath.
+
+ADM. Where dost thou say thou didst have this conflict with Death!
+
+HER. At the tomb itself, having seized him from ambush with my hands.
+
+ADM. But why, I pray, does this woman stand here speechless?
+
+HER. It is not yet allowed thee to hear her address thee, before she is
+unbound from her consecrations[51] to the Gods beneath, and the third day
+come. But lead her in, and as thou oughtest, henceforward, Admetus,
+continue in thy piety with respect to strangers. And farewell! But I will
+go and perform the task that is before me for the imperial son of
+Sthenelus.
+
+ADM. Stay with us, and be a companion of our hearth.
+
+HER. This shall be some time hence, but now I must haste.
+
+ADM. But mayst thou be prosperous, and return on thy journey back. But to
+the citizens, and to all the tetrarchy I issue my commands, that they
+institute dances in honor of these happy events, and make the altars
+odorous with their sacrifices of oxen that accompany their vows. For now
+are we placed in a better state of life than the former one: for I will not
+deny that I am happy.
+
+CHOR. Many are the shapes of the things the deities direct, and many things
+the Gods perform contrary to our expectations. And those things which we
+looked for are not accomplished; but the God hath brought to pass things
+not looked for. Such hath been the event of this affair.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+NOTES ON ALCESTIS
+
+[1] Lactant. i. 10. "Quid Apollo? Nonne ... turpissime gregem pavit
+alienum?" B.
+
+[2] Hygin. Fab. li. "Apollo ab eo in servitutem liberaliter acceptus." B.
+
+[3] Cf. Hippol. 1437. B.
+
+[4] No one will, I believe, object to this translation of [Greek:
+THANATOS]; it seems rather a matter of surprise that Potter has kept the
+Latin ORCUS, a name clearly substituted as the nearest to [Greek: THANATOS]
+of the masculine gender.
+
+[5] Cf. AEsch. Eum. 723 sqq. B.
+
+[6] It was customary to bury those, who died advanced in years, with
+greater magnificence than young persons.
+
+[7] The horses of Diomed, king of Thrace. The construction is, [Greek:
+Eurystheos pempsantos [auton] meta hippeion ochema [axonta] ek topon
+dyschei meron Threikes]. MONK.
+
+[8] On this custom, see Monk, and Lomeier de Lustrationibus Sec. xxviii. B.
+
+[9] Perhaps, "as though all were over," B.
+
+[10] Casaubon on Theophr. Sec. 16, observes that it was customary to place a
+large vessel filled with lustral water before the doors of a house during
+the time the corpse was lying out, with which every one who came out
+sprinkled himself. See also Monk's note, Kirchmann de Funeribus, iii. 9.
+The same custom was observed on returning from the funeral. See Pollux,
+viii. 7. p. 391, ed. Seber. B.
+
+[11] See Dindorf. B.
+
+[12] Potterus, Arch. Gr. _mortuos_ a _Graecis_ [Greek: pronopeis] vocari
+tradit, quod solebant ex penitiore aedium parte produci, ac in _vestibulo_,
+i.e. [Greek: pronopioi] collocari: atque hunc locum adducit, sed frustra,
+ut opinor. Non enim _mortua_ jam erat, nec _producta_, sed, ut recte hanc
+vocem interpretatur schol. [Greek: eis thanaton proneneukyia], i.e. _morti
+propinqua_. Proprie [Greek: pronopes] is dicitur, qui _corpore prono ad
+terram fertur_, ut AEschyl. Agam. 242. Inde, quia moribundi virium defectu
+terram petere solent, ad hos designandos translatum est. KUINOEL.
+
+[13] The old word "dizening" is perhaps the most literal translation of
+[Greek: kosmos], which, however, here means the whole preparations for the
+funeral. Something like it is implied in Hamlet, v. 1.
+
+                  ... her virgin rites,
+  Her maiden strewments, and the bringing home
+  Of bell and burial.     B.
+
+[14] Aristophanes is almost too bad in his burlesque, Equit. 1251. [Greek:
+se d' allos tis labon kektesetai, kleptes men ouk an mallon, eutyches d'
+hisos]. B.
+
+[15] Some would translate [Greek: pronopes] in the same manner as in verse
+144.
+
+[16] Conf. Ter.: Phorm. iv. 4, 5. Opera tua ad _restim_ mihi quidem res
+rediit planissume.
+
+[17] Perhaps it is unnecessary to remark, that [Greek: abioton] agrees with
+[Greek: bion] implied in [Greek: bioteusei].
+
+[18] [Greek: horai] scilicet [Greek: helios]. MONK.
+
+[19] Cf. Hippol. 1372. B.
+
+[20] It must be remembered that to survive one's children was considered
+the greatest of misfortunes. Cf. Plaut. Mil. Glor. l. 1. "Ita ut tuum vis
+unicum gnatum tuae Superesse vitae, sospitem et superstitem." B.
+
+[21] Kuinoel carries on the interrogation to [Greek: gamous], and Buchanan
+has translated it according to this punctuation. Monk compares Iliad, p.
+95; [Greek: mepos me peristelos' hena polloi].
+
+[22] Compare my note on AEsch. Ag. 414 sqq. B.
+
+[23] _These_, my children.
+
+[24] Reiske proposes to read [Greek: tethrippa de zeuge te kai]--_And both
+from your chariot teams, and from your single horses cut the manes_.
+
+[25] This festival was celebrated in honor of Apollo at Sparta, from the
+seventh to the sixteenth day of the month Carneus. See Monk. B.
+
+[26] On [Greek: liparais Athanais], see Monk. B.
+
+[27] Literally, _the duplicate_ of such a wife.
+
+[28] [Greek: anax peltes], so [Greek: anax kopes] in AEsch. Pers. 384, _of a
+rower_. Wakefield compares Ovid's _Clypei dominus septemplicis Ajax_. MONK.
+
+[29] Heath and Markland take [Greek: toi] for [Greek: tini].
+
+[30] Cf. Theocrit. Id. i. 71 sqq. of Daphnis, [Greek: tenon men thoes,
+tenon lykoi orysanto, Tenon choi 'k drymoio leon aneklause thanonta ...
+pollai men par possi boes, polloi de te tauroi, pollai d' au damalai kai
+porties odyranto]. Virg. Ecl. v. 27 sqq. Calpurnius, Ecl. ii. 18.
+Nemesianus, Ecl. i. 74 sqq.; ii. 32. B.
+
+[31] [Greek: arden ginetai apo tou airein. deloi de to phoraden]. Schol.
+
+[32] Cf. Suppl. 773. [Greek: Aidou te molpas ekcheo dakryrroous, philous
+prosaudon, hon leleimmenos talas erema klaio]. See Gorius Monum. sive
+Columbar. Libert. Florent. mdccxxvii. p.186, who observes, "[Greek: chaire]
+was the accustomed salutation addressed to the dead. Catullus, Carm. xcvii.
+_Accipe fraterno multum manantia fletu, atque in perpetuum frater HAVE,
+atque VALE_." The same scholar compares a monument, apud Fabretti, cap. v.
+p. 392, n. 265,
+
+
+D. M
+AVE SALVINIA
+OMNIUM. AMAN
+TISSIMA. ET.
+VALE,
+
+which is very apposite to the present occasion. B.
+
+[33] Wakefield reads [Greek: chaire kain Aidou domois]; having in his mind
+probably Hom. Il. [Greek: Ps]. 19. [Greek: Chaire moi ho Patrokle, kai ein
+Aidao domoisi].
+
+[34] I should scarcely have observed that this is the proper sense of the
+imperfect, had not the former translator mistaken it. B.
+
+[35] Cf. Iph. Taur. 244. [Greek: chernibas de kai katargmata ouk an
+phthanois an eutrepe poioumene]. B.
+
+[36] An apparent allusion to the fable of Death and the Old Man. B
+
+[37] Aristophanes' version of this line is, [Greek: o pai, tin aucheis,
+potera Lydon e Phryga Mormolyttesthai dokeis]. B.
+
+[38] Turned by Aristophanes into an apology for beating one's father, Nub.
+1415. [Greek: klaousi paides, patera d' ou klaein dokeis]. See Thesmoph.
+194. B.
+
+[39] Cf. AEsch. Choeph. sub init. and Gorius, Monum. Libert. p. 24. ad Tab.
+x. lit. A.
+
+[40] Theocrit. i. 27. [Greek: Kai bathy kissybion keklysmenon hadei karoi,
+To peri men cheile mareuetai hypsothi kissos.] B.
+
+[41] Hamlet, v. 1.
+
+  --Hold off the earth awhile,
+  Till I have caught her once more in mine arms:
+                  [_ leaps into the grave_.]
+  Now pile your dust upon the quick and dead.     B.
+
+[42] Cf. vs. 195. [Greek: hon ou proseipe kai proserrethe palin]. B.
+
+[43] [Greek: Orpheia garys], a paraphrasis for [Greek: Orpheus].
+
+[44] [Greek: antitemon, metaphorikos apo ton tas rhizas temnonton kai
+heuriskonton.] SCHOL. TR. Cf. on AEsch. Agam. 17. B.
+
+[45] In Phavorinus, among the senses of [Greek: klisia] is [Greek: kline
+kai klineterion].
+
+[46] It will be remembered that the tombs were built near the highways,
+with great magnificence, and sometimes very lofty, especially when near the
+sea-coast (cf. AEsch. Choeph. 351. D'Orville on Charit. lib. i. sub fin.
+Eurip. Hecub. 1273). They are often used as landmarks or milestones, as in
+Theocr. vi. 10, and as oratories or chapels, Apul. Florid, i. p.340, ed.
+Elm. B.
+
+[47] This appears the most obvious sense, as connected with what follows.
+All the interpreters, however, translate it, _I thought myself worthy,
+standing, as I did, near thy calamities_,(i.e. near thee in thy
+calamities,) _to be proved thy friend._
+
+[48] In the same manner [Greek: hebai] is used in Orestes, 687, [Greek:
+hotan gar hebai demos eis orgen peson].
+
+[49] i.e. _the severed head of the Gorgon_. Valckenaer observes, that this
+is an expression meaning _facie aversa_, and compares l. 465 of the
+Phoenissae.
+
+[50] Winter's Tale, v. 3.
+
+  Start not: her actions shall be holy, as,
+  You hear, my spell is lawful: do not shun her,
+  Until you see her die again; for then
+  You kill her double: Nay, present your hand:
+  When she was young you woo'd her; now, in age,
+  Is she become the suitor?
+
+Compare also Much Ado about Nothing, v. 4. B.
+
+[51] [Greek: haphagnizein] h. l. non _purificare_ sed _desecrare_. Orcus
+enim, quando gladio totondisset Alcestidis capillos, eam diis manibus
+sacram dicaverat, quod diserte [Greek: hegnisai] appellat noster, vide
+75--77. Contraria igitur aliqua ceremonia desecranda erat, antequam Admeto
+ejus consuetudine et colloquio frui liceret. HEATH.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE BACCHAE.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+PERSONS REPRESENTED,
+
+  BACCHUS.
+  CHORUS.
+  TIRESIAS.
+  CADMUS.
+  PENTHEUS.
+  SERVANT.
+  MESSENGER.
+  ANOTHER MESSENGER.
+  AGAVE.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE ARGUMENT.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+Bacchus, the son of Jove by Semele, had made Thebes, his mother's
+birth-place, his favorite place of abode and worship. Pentheus, the then
+reigning king, who, as others say, preferred the worship of Minerva,
+slighted the new God, and persecuted those who celebrated his revels. Upon
+this, Bacchus excited his mother Agave, together with the sisters of
+Semele, Autonoe and Ino, to madness, and visiting Pentheus in disguise of a
+Bacchanal, was at first imprisoned, but, easily escaping from his bonds, he
+persuaded Pentheus to intrude upon the rites of the Bacchants. While
+surveying them from a lofty tree, the voice of Bacchus was heard inciting
+the Bacchants to avenge themselves upon the intruder, and they tore the
+miserable Pentheus piecemeal. The grief and banishment of Agave for her
+unwitting offense conclude the play.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE BACCHAE.[1]
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+BACCHUS.
+
+I, Bacchus, the son of Jove, am come to this land of the Thebans, whom
+formerly Semele, the daughter of Cadmus, brought forth, delivered by the
+lightning-bearing flame. And having taken a mortal form instead of a God's,
+I am present at the fountains of Dirce and the water of Ismenus. And I see
+the tomb of my thunder-stricken mother here near the palace, and the
+remnants of the house smoking, and the still living name of Jove's fire,
+the everlasting insult of Juno against my mother. But I praise Cadmus, who
+has made this place hallowed, the shrine of his daughter; and I have
+covered it around with the cluster-bearing leaf of the vine. And having
+left the wealthy lands of the Lydians and Phrygians, and the sun-parched
+plains of the Persians, and the Bactrian walls; and having come over the
+stormy land of the Medes, and the happy Arabia, and all Asia which lies
+along the coast of the salt sea, having fair-towered cities full of Greeks
+and barbarians mingled together; and there having danced and established my
+mysteries, that I might be a God manifest among men, I have come to this
+city first of the Grecian [cities,] and I have raised my shout first in
+Thebes of this land of Greece, fitting a deer-skin on my body, and taking a
+thyrsus in my hand, an ivy-clad[2] weapon, because the sisters of my
+mother, whom, it least of all became, said that I, Bacchus, was not born of
+Jove; but that Semele, having conceived by some mortal, charged the sin of
+her bed upon Jove, a trick of Cadmus; on which account they said that Jove
+had slain her, because she told a false tale about her marriage. Therefore
+I have now driven them from the house with frenzy, and they dwell on the
+mountain, insane of mind; and I have compelled them to wear the dress of my
+mysteries. And all the female seed of the Cadmeans, as many as are women,
+have I driven maddened from the house. And they, mingled with the sons of
+Cadmus, sit on the roofless rocks beneath the green pines. For this city
+must know, even though it be unwilling, that it is not initiated into my
+Bacchanalian rites, and that I plead the cause of my mother, Semele, in
+appearing manifest to mortals as a God whom she bore to Jove. Cadmus then
+gave his honor and power to Pentheus, born from his daughter, who fights
+against the Gods as far as I am concerned, and drives me from sacrifices,
+and in his prayers makes no mention of me; on which account I will show him
+and all the Thebans that I am a God. And having set matters here aright,
+manifesting myself, I will move to another land. But if the city of the
+Thebans should in anger seek by arms to bring down the Bacchae from the
+mountain, I, general of the Maenads, will join battle.[3] On which account I
+have changed my form to a mortal one, and transformed my shape into the
+nature of a man. But, O ye who have left Tmolus, the bulwark of Lydia; ye
+women, my assembly, whom I have brought from among the barbarians as
+assistants and companions to me; take your drums, your native instruments
+in the Phrygian cities, the invention of the mother Rhea[4] and myself, and
+coming beat them around this royal palace of Pentheus, that the city of
+Cadmus may see it. And I, with the Bacchae, going to the dells of Cithaeron,
+where they are, will share their dances.
+
+CHOR. Coming from the land of Asia, having left the sacred Tmolus, I dance
+in honor of Bromius, a sweet labor and a toil easily borne, celebrating the
+god Bacchus. Who is in the way? who is in the way? who is in the halls? Let
+him depart. And let every one be pure as to his mouth speaking propitious
+things; for now I will with hymns celebrate Bacchus according to
+custom:--Blessed is he,[5] whoever being favored, knowing the mysteries of
+the gods, keeps his life pure, and has his soul initiated into the Bacchic
+revels, dancing o'er the mountains with holy purifications, and reverencing
+the mysteries of the mighty mother Cybele, and brandishing the thyrsus, and
+being crowned with ivy, serves Bacchus! Go, ye Bacchae; go, ye Bacchae,
+escorting Bromius, a God, the son of a God, from the Phrygian mountains to
+the broad streets of Greece! Bromius! whom formerly, being in the pains of
+travail, the thunder of Jove flying upon her, his mother cast from her
+womb, leaving life by the stroke of the thunder-bolt. And immediately
+Jupiter, the son of Saturn, received him in a chamber fitted for birth; and
+covering him in his thigh, shuts him with golden clasps hidden from Juno.
+And he brought him forth, when the Fates had perfected the horned God, and
+crowned him with crowns of snakes, whence the thyrsus-bearing Maenads are
+wont to cover their prey with their locks. O Thebes, thou nurse of Semele,
+crown thyself with ivy, flourish, flourish with the verdant yew bearing
+sweet fruit, and be ye crowned in honor of Bacchus with branches of oak or
+pine, and adorn your garments of spotted deer-skin with fleeces of
+white-haired sheep,[6] and sport in holy games with the insulting wands,
+straightway shall all the earth dance, when Bromius leads the bands to the
+mountain, to the mountain, where the female crowd abides, away from the
+distaff and the shuttle,[7] driven frantic by Bacchus. O dwelling of the
+Curetes, and ye divine Cretan caves,[8] parents to Jupiter, where the
+Corybantes with the triple helmet invented for me in their caves this
+circle o'erstretched with hide; and with the constant sweet-voiced breath
+of Phrygian pipes they mingled a sound of Bacchus, and put the instrument
+in the hand of Rhea, resounding with the sweet songs of the Bacchae. And
+hard by the raving satyrs went through the sacred rites of the mother
+Goddess. And they added the dances of the Trieterides;[9] in which Bacchus
+rejoices; pleased on the mountains, when after the running dance he falls
+upon the plain, having a sacred garment of deer-skin, seeking a sacrifice
+of goats, a raw-eaten delight,[10] on his way to the Phrygian, the Lydian
+mountains; and the leader is Bromius, Evoe![11] but the plain flows with
+milk, and flows with wine, and flows with the nectar of bees; and the smoke
+is as of Syrian frankincense. But Bacchus bearing a flaming torch of pine
+on his thyrsus, rushes about arousing in his course the wandering Choruses,
+and agitating them with shouts, casting his rich locks loose in the
+air,--and with his songs he shouts out such words as this: O go forth, ye
+Bacchae; O go forth, ye Bacchae, delight of gold-flowing Tmolus. Sing Bacchus
+'neath the loud drums, Evoe, celebrating the God Evius in Phrygian cries
+and shouts. When the sweet-sounding sacred pipe sounds a sacred playful
+sound suited to the frantic wanderers, to the mountain, to the
+mountain--and the Bacchant rejoicing like a foal with its mother at
+pasture, stirs its swift foot in the dance.
+
+TIRESIAS. Who at the doors will call out Cadmus from the house, the son of
+Agenor, who, leaving the city of Sidon, erected this city of the Thebans?
+Let some one go, tell him that Tiresias seeks him; but he himself knows on
+what account I come, and what agreement I, an old man, have made with him,
+yet older; to twine the thyrsi, and to put on the skins of deer, and to
+crown the head with ivy branches.
+
+CADMUS. O dearest friend! how I, being in the house, was delighted, hearing
+your voice, the wise voice of a wise man; and I am come prepared, having
+this equipment of the God; for we needs must extol him, who is the son
+sprung from my daughter, Bacchus, who has appeared as a God to men, as much
+as is in our power. Whither shall I dance, whither direct the foot, and
+wave the hoary head? Do you lead me, you, an old man! O Tiresias, direct
+me, an old man; for you are wise. Since I shall never tire, neither night
+nor day, striking the earth with the thyrsus. Gladly we forget that we are
+old.
+
+TI. You have the same feelings indeed as I; for I too feel young, and will
+attempt the dance.
+
+CA. Then we will go to the mountain in chariots.[12]
+
+TI. But thus the God would not have equal honor.
+
+CA. I, an old man, will lead you, an old man.[13]
+
+TI. The God will without trouble guide us thither.
+
+CA. But shall we alone of the city dance in honor of Bacchus?
+
+TI. [Ay,] for we alone think rightly, but the rest ill.
+
+CA. We are long in delaying;[14] but take hold of my hand.
+
+TI. See, take hold, and join your hand to mine.
+
+CA. I do not despise the Gods, being a mortal.
+
+TI. We do not show too much wiseness about the Gods. Our ancestral
+traditions, and those which we have kept throughout our life, no argument
+will overturn them; not if any one were to find out wisdom with the highest
+genius. Some one will say that I do not respect old age, being about to
+dance, having crowned my head with ivy; for the God has made no distinction
+as to whether it becomes the young man to dance, or the elder; but wishes
+to have common honors from all; but does not at all wish to be extolled by
+a few.
+
+CA. Since you, O Tiresias, do not see this light, I will be to you an
+interpreter of things. Hither is Pentheus coming to the house in haste, the
+son of Echion, to whom I give power over the land. How fluttered he is!
+what strange thing will he say?
+
+PENTHEUS. I happened to be at a distance from this land, and I hear of
+strange evils in this city, that the women have left our palace in
+mad-wandering Bacchic rites; and that they are rushing about in the shady
+mountains, honoring with dances this new God Bacchus, whoever he is; and
+that full goblets stand in the middle of their assemblies, and that flying
+each different ways into secrecy, they yield to the embraces of men, on
+pretence, indeed, as [being] worshiping Maenads; but that they consider
+Venus before Bacchus. As many then as I have taken, the servants keep them
+bound as to their hands in the public strong-holds, and as many as are
+absent I will hunt from the mountain, Ino, and Agave who bore me to Echion,
+and the mother of Actaeon, I mean Autonoe; and having bound them in iron
+fetters, I will soon stop them from this ill-working revelry. And they say
+that some stranger has come hither, a juggler, a charmer, from the Lydian
+land, fragrant in hair with golden curls, florid, having in his eyes the
+graces of Venus, who days and nights is with them, alluring the young
+maidens with Bacchic mysteries--but if I catch him under this roof, I will
+stop him from making a noise with the thyrsus, and waving his hair, by
+cutting off his neck from his body. He says he is the God Bacchus, [He was
+once on a time sown in the thigh of Jove,[15] ] who was burned in the flame
+of lightning, together with his mother, because she falsely claimed
+nuptials with Jove. Are not these things deserving of a terrible halter,
+for a stranger to insult us with these insults, whoever he be? But here is
+another marvel--I see Tiresias the soothsayer, in dappled deer-skins, and
+the father of my mother, most great absurdity, raging about with a
+thyrsus--I deprecate it, O father, seeing your old age destitute of sense;
+will you not dash away the ivy?[16] will you not, O father of my mother,
+put down your hand empty of the thyrsus? Have you persuaded him to this, O
+Tiresias? do you wish, introducing this new God among men, to examine birds
+and to receive rewards for fiery omens? If your hoary old age did not
+defend you, you should sit as a prisoner in the midst of the Bacchae, for
+introducing these wicked rites; for where the joy of the grape-cluster is
+present at a feast of women, I no longer say any thing good of their
+mysteries.
+
+CHOR. Alas for his impiety! O host, do you not reverence the Gods! and
+being son of Echion, do you disgrace your race and Cadmus, who sowed the
+earth-born crop?
+
+TI. When any wise man takes a good occasion for his speech, it is not a
+great task to speak well; but you have a rapid tongue, as if wise, but in
+your words there is no wisdom; but a powerful man, when bold, and able to
+speak, is a bad citizen if he has not sense. And this new God, whom you
+ridicule, I am unable to express how great he will be in Greece. For, O
+young man, two things are first among men; Ceres, the goddess, and she is
+the earth, call her whichever name you will.[17] She nourishes mortals with
+dry food; but he who is come as a match to her, the son of Semele, has
+invented the liquid drink of the grape, and introduced it among mortals,
+which delivers miserable mortals from grief,[18] when they are filled with
+the stream of the vine; and gives sleep an oblivion of daily evils: nor is
+there any other medicine for troubles. He who is a God is poured out in
+libations to the Gods, that by his means men may have good things--and you
+laugh at him, as to how he was sewn up in the thigh of Jove; I will teach
+you that this is well--when Jove snatched him out of the lightning flame,
+and bore him, a young infant, up to Olympus, Juno wished to cast him down
+from heaven; but Jove had a counter contrivance, as being a God. Having
+broken a part of the air which surrounds the earth, he placed in it, giving
+him as a pledge, Bacchus, safe from Juno's enmity; and in time, mortals
+say, that he was nourished in the thigh of Jove; changing his name, because
+a God gave him formerly as a pledge to a Goddess, they having made
+agreement.[19] But this God is a prophet--for Bacchanal excitement and
+frenzy have much divination in them.[20] For when the God comes violent[21]
+into the body, he makes the frantic to foretell the future; and he also
+possesses some quality of Mars; for terror flutters sometimes an army under
+arms and in its ranks, before they touch the spear; and this also is a
+frenzy from Bacchus. Then you shall see him also on the Delphic rocks,
+bounding with torches along the double-pointed district, tossing about, and
+shaking the Bacchic branch, mighty through Greece. But be persuaded by me,
+O Pentheus; do not boast that sovereignty has power among men, nor, even if
+you think so, and your mind is disordered, believe that you are at all
+wise. But receive the God into the land, and sacrifice to him, and play the
+Bacchanal, and crown your head. Bacchus will not compel women to be
+modest[22] with regard to Venus, but in his nature modesty in all things is
+ever innate. This you must needs consider, for she who is modest will not
+be corrupted by being at Bacchanalian revels. Dost see? Thou rejoicest when
+many stand at thy gates, and the city extols the name of Pentheus; and he,
+I ween, is pleased, when honored. I, then, and Cadmus whom you laugh to
+scorn, will crown ourselves with ivy, and dance, a hoary pair; but still we
+must dance; and I will not contend against the Gods, persuaded by your
+words--for you rave most grievously; nor can you procure any cure from
+medicine, nor are you now afflicted beyond their power.[23]
+
+CHOR. O old man, thou dost not shame Apollo by thy words, and honoring
+Bromius, the mighty God, thou art wise.
+
+CAD. My son, well has Tiresias advised you; dwell with us, not away from
+the laws. For now you flit about, and though wise are wise in naught; for
+although this may not be a God, as you say, let it be said by you that he
+is; and tell a glorious falsehood, that Semele may seem to have borne a
+God, and that honor may redound to all our race. You see the hapless fate
+of Actaeon,[24] whom his blood-thirsty hounds, whom he had reared up, tore
+to pieces in the meadows, having boasted that he was superior in the chase
+to Diana. This may you not suffer; come, that I may crown thy head with
+ivy, with us give honor to the God--
+
+PEN. Do not bring your hand toward me; but departing, play the Bacchanal,
+and wipe not off your folly on me; but I will follow up with punishment
+this teacher of your madness; let some one go as quickly as possible, and
+going to his seat where he watches the birds, upset and overthrow it with
+levers, turning every thing upside down; and commit his crowns to the winds
+and storms; for doing this, I shall gnaw him most. And some of you going
+along the city, track out this effeminate stranger, who brings this new
+disease upon women, and pollutes our beds. And if you catch him, convey him
+hither bound; that meeting with a judgment of stoning he may die, having
+seen a bitter revelry of Bacchus in Thebes.
+
+TI. O wretched man! how little knowest thou what thou sayest! You are mad
+now, and before you was out of your mind. Let us go, O Cadmus, and entreat
+the God, on behalf of him, savage though he be, and on behalf of the city,
+to do him no ill: but follow me with the ivy-clad staff, and try to support
+my body, and I will yours; for it would be shameful for two old men to fall
+down: but let that pass, for we must serve Bacchus, the son of Jove; but
+beware lest Pentheus bring grief into thy house, O Cadmus. I do not speak
+in prophecy, but judging from the state of things, for a foolish man says
+foolish things.
+
+CHOR. O holy venerable Goddess! holy, who bearest thy golden pinions along
+the earth, hearest thou these words of Pentheus? Hearest thou his unholy
+insolence against Bromius, the son of Semele, the first deity of the Gods,
+at the banquets where the guests wear beautiful chaplets! who has this
+office, to join in dances, and to laugh with the flute, and to put an end
+to cares, when the juice of the grape comes at the feast of the Gods, and
+in the ivy-bearing banquets the goblet sheds sleep over man? Of unbridled
+mouths and lawless folly misery is the end, but the life of quiet and
+wisdom remains unshaken, and supports a house; for the heavenly powers are
+afar indeed, but still inhabiting the air, they behold the deeds of
+mortals. But cleverness[25] is not wisdom, nor is the thinking on things
+unfit for mortals. Life is short; and in it who, pursuing great things,
+would not enjoy the present? These are the manners of maniacs; and of
+ill-disposed men, in my opinion. Would that I could go to Cyprus, the
+island of Venus, where the Loves dwell, soothing the minds of mortals, and
+to Paphos, which the waters of a foreign river flowing with an hundred[26]
+mouths, fertilize without rain--and to the land of Pieria, where is the
+beautiful seat of the Muses, the holy hill of Olympus. Lead me thither, O
+Bromius, Bromius, O master thou of Bacchanals! There are the Graces, and
+there is Love, and there is it lawful for the Bacchae to celebrate their
+orgies; the God, the son of Jove, delights in banquets, and loves Peace,
+giver of riches, the Goddess the nourisher of youths. And both to the rich
+and the poor[27] has she granted to enjoy an equal delight from wine,
+banishing grief; and he who does not care for these things, hates to lead a
+happy life by day and by friendly night--but it is wise[28] to keep away
+the mind and intellect proceeding from over-curious men; what the baser
+multitude thinks and adopts, that will I say.
+
+SERVANT. Pentheus, we are here; having caught this prey, for which you sent
+us: nor have we gone in vain; but the beast was docile in our hands, nor
+did he withdraw his foot in flight, but yielded not unwillingly; nor did he
+[turn] pale nor change his wine-complexioned cheek, but laughing, allowed
+us to bind and lead him away; and remained still, making my work easy; and
+I for shame said, O stranger, I do not take you of my own will, but by
+order of Pentheus who sent me. And the Bacchae whom you shut up, whom you
+carried off and bound in the chains of the public prison, they being set
+loose are escaped, and are dancing in the meadows, invoking Bromius as
+their God, and of their own accord the fetters were loosed from their feet,
+and the keys opened the doors without mortal hand, and full of many wonders
+is this man come to Thebes; but the rest must be thy care.
+
+PEN. Take hold of him by the hands; for being in the toils, he is not so
+swift as to escape me: but in your body you are not ill-formed, O stranger,
+for women's purposes, on which account you have come to Thebes. For your
+hair is long, not through wrestling, scattered over your cheeks, full of
+desire, and you have a white skin from careful preparation; hunting after
+Venus by your beauty not exposed to strokes of the sun, but [kept] beneath
+the shade. First then tell me who thou art in family.
+
+BAC. There is no boast; but this is easy to say; thou knowest by hearsay of
+the flowery Tmolus?
+
+PEN. I know, [the hill] which surrounds the city of Sardis.
+
+BAC. Thence am I; and Lydia is my country.
+
+PEN. And whence do you bring these rites into Greece?
+
+BAC. Bacchus persuaded us, the son of Jove.
+
+PEN. Is Jove then one who begets new Gods?
+
+BAC. No, but having married Semele here,--
+
+PEN. Did he compel you by night, or in your sight [by day]?
+
+BAC. Seeing me who saw him; and he gave me orgies.
+
+PEN. And what appearance have these orgies?
+
+BAC. It is unlawful for the uninitiated among mortals to know.
+
+PEN. And have they any profit to those who sacrifice?
+
+BAC. It is not lawful for you to hear, but they are worth knowing.
+
+PEN. You have well coined this story, that I may wish to hear.
+
+BAC. The orgies of the God hate him who works impiety.
+
+PEN. For you say, forsooth, that you saw the God clearly what he was like?
+
+BAC. As he chose; I did not order this.
+
+PEN. This too you have well contrived, saying mere nonsense.
+
+BAC. One may seem, speaking wisely to one ignorant, not to be wise.
+
+PEN. And did you come hither first, bringing the God?
+
+BAC. Every one of the barbarians celebrates these orgies.
+
+PEN. [Ay,] for they are much less wise than Greeks.
+
+BAC. In these things they are wiser, but their laws are different.
+
+PEN. Do you practice these rites at night, or by day?
+
+BAG. Most of them at night;[29] darkness conveys awe.
+
+PEN. This is treacherous toward women, and unsound.
+
+BAC. Even by day some may devise base things.
+
+PEN. You must pay the penalty of your evil devices.
+
+BAC. And you of your ignorance, being impious to the God.
+
+PEN. How bold is Bacchus, and not unpracticed in speech.
+
+BAC. Say what I must suffer, what ill wilt thou do me?
+
+PEN. First I will cut off your delicate hair.
+
+BAC. The hair is sacred, I cherish it for the God.[30]
+
+PEN. Next yield up this thyrsus out of your hands.
+
+BAC. Take it from me yourself, I bear it as the ensign of Bacchus.
+
+PEN. And we will guard your body within in prison.
+
+BAC. The God himself will release me when I wish.[31]
+
+PEN. Ay, when you call him, standing among the Bacchae.
+
+BAC. Even now, being near, he sees what I suffer.
+
+PEN. And where is he? for at least he is not apparent to my eyes.
+
+BAC. Near me, but you being impious, see him not.
+
+PEN. Seize him, he insults me and Thebes!
+
+BAC. I warn you not to bind me: I in my senses command you not in your
+senses.
+
+PEN. And I bid them to bind you, as being mightier than you.
+
+BAC. You know not why you live, nor what you do, nor who you are.
+
+PEN. Pentheus, son of Agave, and of my father Echion.
+
+BAC. You are suited to be miserable according to your name.[32]
+
+PEN. Begone! confine him near the stable of horses that he may behold dim
+darkness! There dance; and as for these women whom you bring with you, the
+accomplices in your wickedness, we will either sell them away, or stopping
+their hand from this noise and beating of skins, I will keep them as slaves
+at the loom.
+
+BAC. I will go--for what is not right it is not right to suffer; but as a
+punishment for these insults Bacchus shall pursue you, who you say exists
+not; for, injuring us, you put him in bonds.
+
+CHOR. O daughter of Achelous, venerable Dirce, happy virgin, for thou didst
+receive the infant of Jove in thy fountains when Jove who begat him saved
+him in his thigh from the immortal fire; uttering this shout: Go, O
+Dithyrambus, enter this my male womb, I will make you illustrious, O
+Bacchus, in Thebes, so that they shall call you by this name. But you, O
+happy Dirce, reject me having a garland-bearing company about you. Why dost
+thou reject me? Why dost thou avoid me? Yet, I swear by the clustering
+delights of the vine of Bacchus, yet shall you have a care for Bacchus.
+What rage, what rage does the earth-born race show, and Pentheus once
+descended from the dragon, whom the earth-born Echion begat, a fierce-faced
+monster, not a mortal man, but like a bloody giant, an enemy to the Gods,
+who will soon bind me, the handmaid of Bacchus, in halters, he already has
+within the house my fellow-reveler, hidden in a dark prison. Dost thou
+behold this, O son of Jove, Bacchus, thy prophets in the dangers of
+restraint? Come, O thou of golden face, brandishing your thyrsus along
+Olympus, and restrain the insolence of the blood-thirsty man. Where art
+thou assembling thy bands of thyrsus-bearers, O Bacchus, is it near Nysa
+which nourishes wild beasts, or in the summits of Corycus?[33] or perhaps
+in the deep-wooded lairs of Olympus, where formerly Orpheus playing the
+lyre drew together the trees by his songs, collected the beasts of the
+fields; O happy Pieria, Evius respects you, and will come to lead the dance
+with revelings having crossed the swiftly-flowing Axius, he will bring the
+dancing Maenads, and [leaving] Lydia[34] the giver of wealth to mortals, and
+the father whom I have heard fertilizes the country renowned for horses
+with the fairest streams.
+
+BAC. Io! hear ye, hear ye my song, Io Bacchae! O Bacchae!
+
+CHOR. Who is here, who? from what quarter did the shout of Evius summon me?
+
+BAC. Io, Io, I say again! I, the son of Semele, the son of Jove!
+
+CHOR. Io! Io! Master, master! come now to our company. O Bromius! Bromius!
+Shake this place, O holy Earth![35] O! O! quickly will the palace of
+Pentheus be shaken in ruin--Bacchus is in the halls. Worship him. We
+worship him. Behold these stone buttresses shaken with their pillars.
+Bacchus will shout in the palace.
+
+BAC. Light the burning fiery lamp; burn, burn the house of Pentheus.
+
+SEM. Alas! Dost thou not behold the fire, nor perceive around the sacred
+tomb of Semele the flame which formerly the bolt-bearing thunder of Jupiter
+left?
+
+SEM. Cast on the ground your trembling bodies, cast them down, O Maenads,
+for the king turning things upside down is coming to this palace,
+[Bacchus,] the son of Jupiter.
+
+BAC. O barbarian women! have ye fallen to the ground thus stricken with
+fear? Ye have felt, it seems, Bacchus shaking the house of Pentheus; but
+lift up your bodies, and take courage, casting off fear from your flesh.
+
+CHOR. O thou most mighty light to us of Evian Bacchic rites, how gladly do
+I see thee, being before alone and desolate!
+
+BAC. Ye came to despair, when I was sent in, as about to fall into the dark
+prison of Pentheus.
+
+CHOR. How not?--who was my guardian if you met with misfortune? but how
+were you liberated, having met with an impious man?
+
+BAC. I delivered myself easily without trouble.
+
+CHOR. And did he not bind your hands in links of chains?
+
+BAC. In this too I mocked him; for, thinking to bind me, he neither touched
+nor handled me, but fed on hope; and finding a bull in the stable, where
+having taken me, he confined me, he cast halters round the knees of that,
+and the hoofs of its feet;[36] breathing out fury, stilling sweat from his
+body, gnashing his teeth in his lips. But I, being near, sitting quietly,
+looked on; and, in the mean time, Bacchus coming, shook the house, and
+kindled flame on the tomb of his mother; and he, when he saw it, thinking
+the house was burning, rushed to and fro, calling to the servants to bring
+water,[37] and every servant was at work toiling in vain; and letting go
+this labor, I having escaped, seizing a dark sword he rushes into the
+house, and then Bromius, as it seems to me, I speak my opinion, made an
+appearance in the palace, and he rushing toward it, rushed on and stabbed
+at the bright air,[38] as if slaying me; and besides this, Bacchus afflicts
+him with these other things; and threw down his house to the ground, and
+every thing was shivered in pieces, while he beheld my bitter chains; and
+from fatigue dropping his sword, he falls exhausted--for he being a man,
+dared to join battle with a God: and I quietly getting out of the house am
+come to you, not regarding Pentheus. But, as it seems to me, a shoe sounds
+in the house; he will soon come out in front of the house. What will he say
+after this? I shall easily bear him, even if he comes vaunting greatly, for
+it is the part of a wise man to practice prudent moderation.
+
+PEN. I have suffered terrible things, the stranger has escaped me, who was
+lately coerced in bonds. Hollo! here is the man; what is this? how do you
+appear near my house, having come out?
+
+BAC. Stay your foot; and substitute calm steps for anger.
+
+PEN. How come you out, having escaped your chains?
+
+BAC. Did I not say, or did you not hear, that some one would deliver me?
+
+PEN. Who? for you are always introducing strange things.
+
+BAC. He who produces the rich-clustering vine for mortals.
+
+PEN. This is a fine reproach you charge on Bacchus; I order ye to close
+every tower all round.
+
+BAC. Why? do not Gods pass over walls too?
+
+PEN. You are wise, wise at least in all save what you should be wise in.
+
+BAC. In what I most ought, in that I was born wise; but first learn,
+hearing his words who is come from the mountain to bring a message to you;
+but we will await you, we will not fly.
+
+MESSENGER. Pentheus, ruler o'er this Theban land, I come, having left
+Cithaeron, where never have the brilliant flakes of white snow fallen.[39]
+
+PEN. But bringing what important news are you come?
+
+MESS. Having seen the holy Bacchae, who driven by madness have darted their
+fair feet from this land, have I come, wishing to tell you and the city, O
+king, what awful things they do, things beyond marvel; and I wish to hear
+whether in freedom of speech I shall tell you the matters there, or whether
+I shall repress my report, for I fear, O king, the hastiness of thy mind,
+and your keen temper, and too imperious disposition.[40]
+
+PEN. Speak, as you shall be in all things blameless as far as I am
+concerned; for it is not meet to be wrath with the just; and in proportion
+as you speak worse things of the Bacchae, so much the more will we punish
+this man who has taught these tricks to the women.
+
+MESS. I was just now driving up to the heights the herd of calves, when the
+sun sends forth his rays warming the land, and I see three companies of
+dances of women, of one of which Autonoe was chief; of a second, thy
+mother, Agave; and Ino led the third dance; and they were all sleeping,
+relaxed in their bodies, some resting their locks against the leaves of
+pine, and some laying their heads at random on the leaves of oak in the
+ground, modestly, not, as you say, that, drunk with the goblet and the
+noise of the flute, they solitary hunt Venus through the wood. But thy
+mother standing in the midst of the Bacchae, raised a shout, to wake their
+bodies from sleep, when she heard the lowing of the horned oxen; but they,
+casting off refreshing sleep from their eyes, started upright, a marvel to
+behold for their elegance, young, old, and virgins yet unyoked, And first
+they let loose their hair over their shoulders; and arranged their
+deer-skins, as many as had had the fastenings of their knots unloosed, and
+they girded the dappled hides with serpents licking their jaws--and some
+having in their arms a kid, or the wild whelps of wolves, gave them white
+milk, all those who, having lately had children, had breasts still full,
+having left their infants, and they put on their ivy chaplets, and garlands
+of oak and blossoming yew; and one having taken a thyrsus, struck it
+against a rock, whence a dewy stream of water springs out; another placed
+her wand on the ground, and then the God sent up a spring of wine. And as
+many as had craving for the white drink, scratching the earth with the tips
+of their fingers, obtained abundance of milk; and from the ivy thyrsus
+sweet streams of honey dropped, so that, had you been present, beholding
+these things, you would have approached with prayers that God whom you now
+blame. And we came together, herdsmen and shepherds, to reason with one
+another concerning this strange matter, what terrible things and worthy of
+marvel they do; and some one, a wanderer about the city, and practiced in
+speaking, said to us all, O ye who inhabit the holy downs of the mountains,
+will ye that we hunt out Agave, the mother of Pentheus, back from the
+revels, and do the king a pleasure? And he seemed to us to speak well, and
+hiding ourselves, we lay in ambush in the foliage of the thickets; and
+they, at the appointed hour, waved the thyrsus in their solemnities,
+calling on Bacchus with united voice, the son of Jove, Bromius; and the
+whole mountain and the beasts were in a revel; and nothing was unmoved by
+their running; and Agave was bounding near to me, and I sprang forth, as
+wishing to seize her, leaving my ambush where I was hidden. But she cried
+out, O my fleet hounds, we are hunted by these men; but follow me, follow,
+armed with thyrsi in your hands. We then flying, avoided the tearing of the
+Bacchae, but they sprang on the heifers browsing the grass with unarmed
+hand, and you might see one rending asunder a fatted lowing calf, and
+others rent open cows, and you might see either ribs, or a cloven-footed
+hoof, tossed here and there, and hanging beneath the pine-trees the
+fragments were dripping, dabbled in gore; and the fierce bulls before
+showing their fury with their horns, were thrown to the ground, overpowered
+by myriads of maiden hands; and quicker were the coverings of flesh torn
+asunder by the royal maids than you could shut your eyes; and like birds
+raised in their course, they proceed along the level plain, which by the
+streams of the Asopus produce the fertile crop of the Thebans, and falling
+on Hysiae and Erythrae,[41] which, are below Cithaeron, they turned every
+thing upside down; they dragged children from the houses; and whatever they
+put on their shoulders stuck there without chains, and fell not on the dark
+plain, neither brass nor iron; and they bore fire on their tresses, and it
+burned not; but some from rage betook themselves to arms, being plundered
+by the Bacchae, the sight of which was fearful to behold, O king! For their
+pointed spear was not made bloody, but the women hurling the thyrsi from
+their hands, wounded them, and turned their backs to flight, women
+[defeating] men; not without the aid of some God. And they went back again
+to whence they had departed, to the same fountains which the God had caused
+to spring up for them, and they washed off the blood; and the snakes with
+their tongues cleaned off the drops from their cheeks. Receive then, O
+master, this deity, whoever he be, in this city, since he is mighty in
+other respects, and they say this too of him, as I hear, that he has given
+mortals the vine which puts an end to grief,--for where wine exists not
+there is no longer Venus, nor any thing pleasant to men.[42]
+
+CHOR. I fear to speak unshackled words to the king, but still they shall be
+spoken; Bacchus is inferior to none of the Gods.
+
+PEN. Already like fire does this insolence of the Bacchae extend thus near,
+a great reproach to the Greeks. But I must not hesitate; go to the Electra
+gates, bid all the shield-bearers and riders of swift-footed horses to
+assemble, and all who brandish the light shield, and twang with their hand
+the string of the bow, as we will make an attack upon the Bacchae; but it is
+too much, if we are to suffer what we are suffering at the hands of women.
+
+BAC. O Pentheus, you obey not at all hearing my words; but although
+suffering ill at your hands, still I say that you ought not to take up arms
+against a God, but to rest quiet; Bromius will not endure your moving the
+Bacchae from their Evian mountains.
+
+PEN. You shall not teach me; but be content,[43] having escaped from
+prison, or else I will again bring punishment upon you.
+
+BAC. I would rather sacrifice to him than, being wrath, kick against the
+pricks; a mortal against a God.
+
+PEN. I will sacrifice, making a great slaughter of the women, as they
+deserve, in the glens of Cithaeron.
+
+BAC. You will all fly, (and that will be shameful,) so as to yield your
+brazen shields to the thyrsi of the Bacchae.
+
+PEN. We are troubled with this impracticable stranger, who neither
+suffering nor doing will be silent.
+
+BAC. My friend, there is still opportunity to arrange these things well.
+
+PEN. By doing what? being a slave to my slaves?
+
+BAC. I will bring the women here without arms.
+
+PEN. Alas! you are contriving some trick against me.
+
+BAC. Of what sort, if I wish to save you by my contrivances?
+
+PEN. You have devised this together, that ye may have your revelings
+forever.
+
+BAC. And indeed, know this, I agreed on it with the God.
+
+PEN. Bring hither the arms! and do you cease to speak.
+
+BAC. Hah! Do you wish to see them sitting on the mountains?
+
+PEN. Very much, if I gave countless weight of gold for it.
+
+BAC. But why? have you fallen into a great wish for this?
+
+PEN. I should like to see them drunk grievously [for them].
+
+BAC. Would you then gladly see what is grievous to you?
+
+PEN. To be sure, sitting quietly under the pines.
+
+BAC. But they will track you out, even though you come secretly.
+
+PEN. But [I will come] openly, for you have said this well.
+
+BAC. Shall I then guide you? and will you attempt the way?
+
+PEN. Lead me as quickly as possible; for I do not grudge you the time.
+
+BAC. Put on then linen garments on your body.
+
+PEN. What then, shall I be reckoned among women, being a man?
+
+BAC. Lest they slay you if you be seen there, being a man.
+
+PEN. You say this well, and you have been long wise.
+
+BAC. Bacchus taught me this wisdom.
+
+PEN. How then can these things which you advise me be well done?
+
+BAC. I will attire you, going into the house.
+
+PEN. With what dress--a woman's? but shame possesses me.
+
+BAC. Do you no longer wish to be a spectator of the Maenads?
+
+PEN. But what attire do you bid me put on my body?
+
+BAC. I will spread out your hair at length on your head.
+
+PEN. And what is the next point of my equipment?
+
+BAC. A garment down to your feet; and you shall have a turban on your head.
+
+PEN. Shall you put any thing else on me besides this?
+
+BAC. A thyrsus in your hand, and the dappled hide of a deer.
+
+PEN. I can not wear a woman's dress.
+
+BAC. But you will shed blood if you join battle with the Bacchae.
+
+PEN. True; we must first go and see.
+
+BAC. That is wiser at least than to hunt evils with evils.
+
+PEN. And how shall I go through the city escaping the notice of the
+Cadmeans?
+
+BAC. We will go by deserted roads, and I will guide you.
+
+PEN. Every thing is better than for the Bacchae to mock me.
+
+BAC. We will go into the house and consider what seems best.
+
+PEN. We can do what we like; my part is completely prepared. Let us go; for
+either I will go bearing arms, or I will be guided by your counsels.
+
+BAC. O women! the man is in the toils,[44] and he will come to the Bacchae,
+where, dying, he will pay the penalty. Now, Bacchus, 'tis thine office, for
+you are not far off. Let us punish him; but first drive him out of his
+wits, inspiring vain frenzy, since, being in his right mind, he will not be
+willing to put on a female dress, but driving him out of his senses he will
+put it on; and I wish him to furnish laughter to the Thebans, being led in
+woman's guise through the city, after[45] his former threats, with which he
+was terrible. But I will go to fit on Pentheus the dress, which, having
+taken, he shall die, slain by his mother's hand. And he shall know Bacchus,
+the son of Jupiter, who is in fact to men at once the most terrible, and
+the mildest of deities.[46]
+
+CHOR. Shall I move my white foot in the night-long dance, honoring Bacchus,
+exposing my neck to the dewy air, sporting like a fawn in the verdant
+delights of the mead, when it has escaped a fearful chase beyond the watch
+of the well-woven nets, (and the huntsman cheering hastens on the course of
+his hounds,) and with toil like the swift storm[47] rushes along the plain
+that skirts the river, exulting in the solitude apart from men, and in the
+thickets of the shady-foliaged wood? What is wisdom, what is a more
+glorious gift from the Gods among mortals than to hold one's hand on the
+heads of one's enemies? What is good is always pleasant; divine strength is
+roused with difficulty, but still is sure, and it chastises those mortals
+who honor folly, and do not extol the Gods in their insane mind. But the
+Gods cunningly conceal the long foot[48] of time, and hunt the impious man;
+for it is not right to determine or plan any thing beyond the laws: for it
+is a light expense to deem that that has power whatever is divine, and that
+what has been law for a long time has its origin in nature. What is wisdom,
+what is a more noble gift from the Gods among men, than to hold one's hand
+on the heads of one's enemies? what is honorable is always pleasant. Happy
+is he who has escaped from the wave of the sea, and arrived in harbor.[49]
+Happy, too, is he who has overcome his labors; and one surpasses another in
+different ways, in wealth and power. Still are there innumerable hopes to
+innumerable men, some result in wealth to mortals, and some fail, but I
+call him happy whose life is happy day by day.
+
+BAC. You, who are eager to see what you ought not, and hasty to do a deed
+not of haste, I mean Pentheus, come forth before the house, be seen by me,
+having the costume of a woman, of a frantic Bacchant, as a spy upon your
+mother and her company! In appearance, you are like one of the daughters of
+Cadmus.
+
+PEN. And indeed I think I see two suns,[50] and twin Thebes, and
+seven-gated city; and you seem to guide me, being like a bull, and horns
+seem to grow on your head. But were you ever a beast? for you look like a
+bull.
+
+BAC. The God accompanies us, not propitious formerly, but now at truce with
+us. You see what you should see.
+
+PEN. How do I look? Does not my standing seem like that of Ino, or of
+Agave, my mother?
+
+BAC. I seem to see them as I behold you; but this lock of hair of yours is
+out of its place, not as I dressed it beneath the turban.
+
+PEN. Moving it within doors backward and forward, and practicing Bacchic
+revelry, I disarranged it.
+
+BAC. But we who ought to wait upon you will again rearrange it. But hold up
+your head.
+
+PEN. Look, do you arrange it, for we depend on you.
+
+BAC. And your girdle is loosened, and the fringes of your garments do not
+extend regularly round your legs.
+
+PEN. They seem so to me, too, about the right foot at least; but on this
+side the robe sits well along the leg.
+
+BAC. Will you not think me the first of your friends when, contrary to your
+expectation, you see the Bacchae acting modestly?
+
+PEN. But shall I be more like a Bacchant holding the thyrsus in my right
+hand, or in this?
+
+BAC. You should [hold it in] your right hand, and raise it at the same time
+with your right foot; and I praise you for having changed your mind.
+
+PEN. Could I bear on my shoulders the glens of Cithaeron, Bacchae and all?
+
+BAC. You could if you were willing; but you had your mind unsound before;
+but now you have such as you ought.
+
+PEN. Shall we bring levers, or shall I tear them up with my hands, putting
+my shoulder or arm under the summits?
+
+BAC. No, lest you ruin the habitations of the Nymphs, and the seats of Pan
+where he plays his pipes.
+
+PEN. You speak well,--it is not with strength we should conquer women; but
+I will hide my body among the pines.
+
+BAC. Hide you the hiding in which you should be hidden, coming as a crafty
+spy on the Maenads.
+
+PEN. And, indeed, I think to catch them in the thickets, like birds in the
+sweet nets of beds.
+
+BAC. You go then as a watch for this very thing; and perhaps you will catch
+them, if you be not caught first.
+
+PEN. Conduct me through the middle of the Theban land, for I am the only
+man of them who would dare these things.
+
+BAC. You alone labor for this city, you alone; therefore the labors, which
+are meet,[51] await you. But follow me, I am your saving guide, some one
+else will guide you away from thence.
+
+PEN. Yes, my mother.
+
+BAC. Being remarkable among all.
+
+PEN. For this purpose do I come.
+
+BAC. You will depart being borne.[52]
+
+PEN. You allude to my delicacy.
+
+BAC. In the hands of your mother.
+
+PEN. And wilt thou compel me to be effeminate?
+
+BAC. Ay, with such effeminacy.
+
+PEN. I lay mine hands to worthy things.
+
+BAC. You are terrible, terrible: and you go to terrible sufferings; so that
+you shall find a renown reaching to heaven. Spread out, O Agave, your
+hands, and ye, her sister, daughters of Cadmus! I lead this young man to a
+mighty contest; and the conqueror shall be I and Bacchus! The rest the
+matter itself will show.
+
+CHOR. Go, ye fleet hounds of madness, go to the mountain where the
+daughters of Cadmus hold their company; drive them raving against the
+frantic spy on the Maenads,--him in woman's attire. First shall his mother
+from some smooth rock or paling, behold him in ambush; and she will cry out
+to the Maenads: Who is this of the Cadmeans who has come to the mountain,
+the mountain, as a spy on us, who are on the mountain? Io Bacchae! Who
+brought him forth? for he was not born of the blood of women: but, as to
+his race, he is either born of some lion, or of the Libyan Gorgons. Let
+manifest justice go forth, let it go with sword in hand, slaying the
+godless, lawless, unjust, earth-born offspring of Echion through the
+throat; who, with wicked mind and unjust rage about your orgies, O Bacchus,
+and those of thy mother,[53] with raving heart and mad disposition proceeds
+as about to overcome an invincible deity by force. To possess without
+pretext a wise understanding in respect to the Gods, and [a disposition]
+befitting mortals, is a life ever free from grief. I joyfully hunt after
+wisdom, if apart from envy, but the other conduct is evidently ever great
+throughout life, directing one rightly the livelong day, to reverence
+things honorable.[54] Appear as a bull, or a many-headed dragon, or a fiery
+lion, to be seen. Go, O Bacchus! cast a snare around the hunter of the
+Bacchae, with a smiling face falling upon the deadly crowd of the Maenads.
+
+MESS. O house, which wast formerly prosperous in Greece! house of the
+Sidonian old man, who sowed in the land the earth-born harvest of the
+dragon; how I lament for you, though a slave. But still the [calamities] of
+their masters are a grief to good servants.
+
+CHOR. But what is the matter? Tellest thou any news from the Bacchae?
+
+MESS. Pentheus is dead, the son of his father Echion.
+
+CHOR. O, king Bacchus! truly you appear a great God!
+
+MESS. How sayest thou? Why do you say this? Do you, O woman, delight at my
+master being unfortunate?
+
+CHOR. I, a foreigner, celebrate it in foreign strains; for no longer do I
+crouch in fear under my fetters.
+
+MESS. But do you think Thebes thus void of men?
+
+CHOR. Bacchus, Bacchus, not Thebes, has my allegiance.
+
+MESS. You, indeed may be pardoned; still, O woman, it is not right to
+rejoice at the misfortunes which have been brought to pass.
+
+CHOR. Tell me, say, by what fate is the wicked man doing wicked things
+dead, O man?
+
+MESS. When having left Therapnae of this Theban land, we crossed the streams
+of Asopus, we entered on the height of Cithaeron, Pentheus and I, for I was
+following my master, and the stranger who was our guide in this search, for
+the sight: first, then, we sat down in a grassy vale, keeping our steps and
+tongues in silence, that we might see, not being seen; and there was a
+valley surrounded by precipices, irrigated with streams, shaded around with
+pines, where the Maenads were sitting employing their hands in pleasant
+labors, for some of them were again crowning the worn-out thyrsus, so as to
+make it leafy with ivy; and some, like horses quitting the painted yoke,
+shouted in reply to another a Bacchic melody. And the miserable Pentheus,
+not seeing the crowd of women, spake thus: O stranger, where we are
+standing, I can not come at the place where is the dance of the Maenads; but
+climbing a mound, or pine with lofty neck, I could well discern the
+shameful deeds of the Maenads. And on this I now see a strange deed of the
+stranger; for seizing hold of the extreme lofty branch of a pine, he pulled
+it down, pulled it, pulled it to the dark earth, and it was bent like a
+bow, or as a curved wheel worked by a lathe describes a circle as it
+revolves, thus the stranger, pulling a mountain bough with his hands, bent
+it to the earth; doing no mortal's deed; and having placed Pentheus on the
+pine branches, he let it go upright through his hands steadily, taking care
+that it should not shake him off; and the pine stood firm upright to the
+sky, bearing on its back my master, sitting on it; and he was seen rather
+than saw the Maenads, for sitting on high he was apparent, as not
+before.[55] And one could no longer see the stranger, but there was a
+certain voice from the sky; Bacchus, as one might conjecture, shouted out:
+O youthful women, I bring you him who made you and me and my orgies a
+laughing-stock: but punish ye him. And at the same time he cried out, and
+sent forth to heaven and earth a light of holy fire;[56] and the air was
+silent, and the fair meadowed grove kept its leaves in silence, and you
+could not hear the voice of the beasts; but they not distinctly receiving
+the voice, stood upright, and cast their eyes around. And again he
+proclaimed his bidding. And when the daughters of Cadmus' recognized the
+distinct command of Bacchus, they rushed forth, having in the eager running
+of their feet a speed not less than that of a dove; his mother, Agave, and
+her kindred sisters, and all the Bacchae: and frantic with the inspiration
+of the God, they bounded through the torrent-streaming valley, and the
+clefts. But when they saw my master sitting on the pine, first they threw
+at him handfuls of stones, striking his head, mounting on an opposite piled
+rock; and with pine branches some aimed, and some hurled their thyrsi
+through the air at Pentheus, wretched mark;[57] but they failed of their
+purpose; for he having a height too great for their eagerness, sat,
+wretched, destitute through perplexity. But at last thundering together[58]
+some oaken branches, they tore up the roots with levers not of iron; and
+when they could not accomplish the end of their labors, Agave said, Come,
+standing round in a circle, seize each a branch, O Maenads, that we may take
+the beast[59] who has climbed aloft, that he may not tell abroad the secret
+dances of the God. And they applied their innumerable hands to the pine,
+and tore it up from the ground; and sitting on high, Pentheus falls to the
+ground from on high, with numberless lamentations; for he knew that he was
+near to ill. And first his mother, as the priestess, began his slaughter,
+and falls upon him; but he threw the turban from his hair, that the
+wretched Agave, recognizing him, might not slay him; and touching her
+cheek, he says, I, indeed, O mother, am thy child,[60] Pentheus, whom you
+bore in the house of Echion; but pity me, O mother! and do not slay me, thy
+child, for my sins. But she, foaming and rolling her eyes every way, not
+thinking as she ought to think, was possessed by Bacchus, and he did not
+persuade her; and seizing his left hand with her hand, treading on the side
+of the unhappy man, she tore off his shoulder, not by [her own] strength,
+but the God gave facility to her hands; and Ino completed the work on the
+other side, tearing his flesh. And Autonoe and the whole crowd of the
+Bacchae pressed on; and there was a noise of all together; he, indeed,
+groaning as much as he had life in him, and they shouted; and one bore his
+arm, another his foot, shoe and all; and his sides were bared by their
+tearings, and the whole band, with gory hands, tore to pieces the flesh of
+Pentheus: and his body lies in different places, part under the rugged
+rocks, part in the deep shade of the wood, not easy to be sought; and as to
+his miserable head, which his mother has taken in her hands, having fixed
+it on the top of a thyrsus, she is bearing it, like that of a savage lion,
+through the middle of Cithaeron, leaving her sisters in the dances of the
+Maenads; and she goes along rejoicing in her unhappy prey, within these
+walls, calling upon Bacchus, her fellow-huntsman, her fellow-workman in the
+chase, of glorious victory, by which she wins a victory of tears. I,
+therefore, will depart out of the way of this calamity before Agave comes
+to the palace; but to be wise, and to reverence the Gods, this, I think, is
+the most honorable and wisest thing for mortals who adopt it.
+
+CHOR. Let us dance in honor of Bacchus; let us raise a shout for what has
+befallen Pentheus, the descendant of the dragon, who assumed female attire
+and the wand with the beautiful thyrsus,--a certain death, having a
+bull[61] as his leader to calamity. Ye Cadmean Bacchants, ye have
+accomplished a glorious victory, illustrious, yet for woe and tears. It is
+a glorious contest to plunge one's dripping hand in the blood of one's son.
+But--for I see Agave, the mother of Pentheus, coining to the house with
+starting eyes; receive the revel of the Evian God.
+
+AGAVE. O Asiatic Bacchae!
+
+CHOR. To what dost thou excite me? O!
+
+AG. We bring from the mountains a fresh-culled wreathing[62] to the house,
+a blessed prey.
+
+CHOR. I see it, and hail you as a fellow-reveler, O!
+
+AG. I have caught him without a noose, a young lion, as you may see.
+
+CHOR. From what desert?
+
+AG. Cithaeron.
+
+CHOR. What did Cithaeron?
+
+AG. Slew him.
+
+CHOR. Who was it who first smote him?
+
+AG. The honor is mine. Happy Agave! We are renowned in our revels.
+
+CHOR. Who else?
+
+AG. Cadmus's.
+
+CHOR. What of Cadmus?
+
+AG. Descendants after me, after me laid hands on this beast.
+
+CHOR. You are fortunate in this capture.
+
+AG. Partake then of our feast.
+
+CHOR. What shall I, unhappy, partake of?
+
+AG. The whelp is young about the chin; he has just lost his soft-haired
+head-gear.[63]
+
+AG. For it is beautiful as the mane of a wild beast.
+
+CHOR. Bacchus, a wise huntsman, wisely hurried the Maenads against this
+beast.
+
+CHOR. For the king is a huntsman.
+
+AG. Do you praise?
+
+CHOR. What? I do praise.
+
+AG. But soon the Cadmeans.
+
+CHOR. And thy son Pentheus his mother--
+
+AG. --will praise, as having caught this lion-born prey.
+
+CHOR. An excellent prey.
+
+AG. Excellently.
+
+CHOR. You rejoice.
+
+AG. I rejoice greatly, having accomplished great and illustrious deeds for
+this land.
+
+CHOR. Show now, O wretched woman, thy victorious booty to the citizens,
+which you have come bringing with you.
+
+AG. O, ye who dwell in the fair-towered city of the Theban land, come ye,
+that ye may behold this prey, O daughters of Cadmus, of the wild beast
+which we have taken; not by the thonged javelins of the Thessalians, not by
+nets, but by the fingers, our white arms; then may we boast that we should
+in vain possess the instruments of the spear-makers; but we, with this
+hand, slew this beast, and tore its limbs asunder. Where is my aged father?
+let him come near; and where is my son Pentheus? let him take and raise the
+ascent of a wattled ladder against the house, that he may fasten to the
+triglyphs this head of the lion which I am present having caught.
+
+CAD. Follow me, bearing the miserable burden of Pentheus; follow me, O
+servants, before the house; whose body here, laboring with immeasurable
+search, I bear, having found it in the defiles of Cithaeron, torn to pieces,
+and finding nothing in the same place, lying in a thicket, difficult to be
+searched. For I heard from some one of the daring deeds of my daughters
+just as I came to the city within the walls, with the old Tiresias,
+concerning the Bacchae; and having returned again to the mountain, I bring
+back my child, slain by the Maenads. And I saw Autonoe, who formerly bore
+Actaeon to Aristaeus, and Ino together, still mad in the thicket, unhappy
+creatures; but some one told me that Agave was coming hither with frantic
+foot; nor did I hear a false tale, for I behold her, an unhappy sight.
+
+AG. O father! you may boast a great boast, that you of mortals have
+begotten by far the best daughters; I mean all, but particularly myself,
+who, leaving my shuttle at the loom, have come to greater things, to catch
+wild beasts with my hands. And having taken him, I bear in my arms, as you
+see, these spoils of my valor, that they may be suspended against your
+house. And do you, O father, receive them in your hands; and rejoicing over
+my successful capture, invite your friends to a feast; for you are blessed,
+blessed since I have done such deeds.
+
+CAD. O, woe! and not to be seen, of those who have accomplished a slaughter
+not to be measured by wretched hands; having stricken down a glorious
+victim for the Gods, you invite Thebes and me to a banquet. Alas me, first
+for thy ills, then for mine own; how justly, but how severely, has king
+Bromius destroyed us, being one of our own family!
+
+AG. How morose is old age in men! and sullen to the eye; would that my son
+may be fond of hunting, resembling the disposition of his mother, when with
+the Theban youths he would strive after the beasts--but he is only fit to
+contend with Gods. He is to be admonished, O father, by you and me, not to
+rejoice in clever evil. Where is he? Who will summon him hither to my
+sight, that he may see me, that happy woman?
+
+CAD. Alas, alas! knowing what ye have done, ye will grieve a sad grief; but
+if forever ye remain in the condition in which ye are, not fortunate, you
+will seem not to be unfortunate.
+
+AG. But what of these matters is not well, or what is grievous?
+
+CAD. First cast your eyes up to this sky.
+
+AG. Well; why do you bid me look at it?
+
+CAD. Is it still the same, or think you it is changed?
+
+AG. It is brighter than formerly, and more divine.
+
+CAD. Is then this fluttering still present to your soul?
+
+AG. I understand not your word; but I become somehow sobered, changing from
+my former mind.
+
+CAD. Can you then hear any thing, and answer clearly?
+
+AG. How I forget what we said before, O father!
+
+CAD. To what house did you come in marriage?
+
+AG. You gave me, as they say, to the sown Echion.
+
+CAD. What son then was born in your house to your husband?
+
+AG. Pentheus, by the association of myself and his father.
+
+CAD. Whose head then have you in your arms?
+
+AG. That of a lion, as those who hunted him said.
+
+CAD. Look now rightly; short is the toil to see.
+
+AG. Ah! what do I see? what is this I bear in my hands?
+
+CAD. Look at it, and learn more clearly.
+
+AG. I see the greatest grief, wretch that I am!
+
+CAD. Does it seem to you to be like a lion?
+
+AG. No: but I, wretched, hold the head of Pentheus.
+
+CAD. Ay, much lamented before you recognized him.
+
+AG. Who slew him, how came he into my hands?
+
+CAD. O wretched truth, how unseasonably art thou come!
+
+AG. Tell me, since delay causes a quivering at my heart.
+
+CAD. You and your sisters slew him.
+
+AG. And where did he die, in the house, or in what place?
+
+CAD. Where formerly the dogs tore Actaeon to pieces.
+
+AG. But why did he, unhappy, go to Cithaeron?
+
+CAD. He went deriding the God and your Bacchic revels.
+
+AG. But on what account did we go thither?
+
+CAD. Ye were mad, and the whole city was frantic with Bacchus.[64]
+
+AG. Bacchus undid us--now I perceive.
+
+CAD. Being insulted with insolence--for ye thought him not a God.
+
+AG. But the dear body of my child, O father!
+
+CAD. I having with difficulty traced it, bring it all.
+
+AG. What! rightly united in its joints? * * * *
+
+AG. But what part had Pentheus in my folly?[65]
+
+CAD. He was like you, not reverencing the God, therefore he joined all in
+one ruin, both ye and this one, so as to ruin the house, and me, who being
+childless of male children, see this branch of thy womb, O unhappy woman!
+most miserably and shamefully slain--whom the house respected; you, O
+child, who supported my house, born of my daughter, and was an object of
+fear to the city; and no one wished to insult the old man, seeing you; for
+he would have received a worthy punishment. But now I shall be cast out of
+my house dishonored, I, the mighty Cadmus, who sowed the Theban race, and
+reaped a most glorious crop; O dearest of men, for although no longer in
+being, still thou shalt be counted by me as dearest of my children; no
+longer touching this, my chin, with thy hand, addressing me, your mother's
+father, wilt thou embrace me, my son, saying, Who injures, who insults you,
+O father, who harasses your heart, being troublesome I say, that I may
+punish him who does you wrong, O father. But now I am miserable, and thou
+art wretched, and thy mother is pitiable, and thy relations are wretched.
+But if there is any one who despises the Gods, looking on this man's death,
+let him acknowledge the Gods.
+
+CHOR. I grieve for thy state, O Cadmus; but your child has the punishment
+of your daughter, deserved indeed, but grievous to you.
+
+AG. O father, for you see how I am changed ...
+
+BAC ... changing, you shall become a dragon, and your wife becoming a
+beast, shall receive in exchange the form of a serpent, Harmonia, the
+daughter of Mars, whom you had, being a mortal. And as the oracle of Jove
+says, you shall drive with your wife a chariot of heifers, ruling over
+barbarians; and with an innumerable army you shall sack many cities; and
+when they plunder the temple of Apollo, they shall have a miserable return,
+but Mars shall defend you and Harmonia, and shall settle your life in the
+islands of the blessed. I say this, I, Bacchus, not born of a mortal
+father, but of Jove; and if ye had known how to be wise when ye would not,
+ye would have been happy, having the son of Jupiter for your ally.
+
+CAD. Bacchus, we beseech thee, we have erred.
+
+BAC. Ye have learned it too late; but when it behooved you, you knew it
+not.
+
+CAD. I knew it, but you press on us too severely.
+
+BAC. [Ay,] for I, being a God, was insulted by you.
+
+CAD. It is not right for Gods to resemble mortals in anger.[66]
+
+BAC. My father, Jove, long ago decreed this.
+
+AG. Alas! a miserable banishment is the decree[67] [for us,] old man.
+
+BAC. Why do ye then delay what must needs be?
+
+CAD. O child, into what terrible evil have we come; both you wretched and
+your * * * * sisters,[68] and I miserable, shall go, an aged sojourner, to
+foreigners. Still it is foretold that I shall bring into Greece a motley
+barbarian army, and leading their spears, I, a dragon, shall lead the
+daughter of Mars, Harmonia, my wife, having the fierce nature of a dragon,
+to the altars and tombs of the Greeks. Nor shall I, wretched, rest from
+ills, nor even sailing over the Acheron below shall I be at rest.
+
+AG. O, my father! and I being deprived of you shall be banished.
+
+CAD. Why do you embrace me with your hands, O unhappy child, as a white
+swan does its exhausted[69] parent?
+
+AG. For whither can I turn, cast out from my country?
+
+CAD. I know not, my child; your father is a poor ally.
+
+AG. Farewell, O house! farewell, O ancestral city! I leave you in
+misfortune a fugitive from my chamber.
+
+CAD. Go then, my child, to the land of Aristaeus * * * *.
+
+AG. I bemoan thee, O father!
+
+CAD. And I thee, my child; and I lament your sisters.
+
+AG. Terribly indeed has king Bacchus brought this misery upon thy house.
+
+BAC. [Ay,] for I have suffered terrible things from ye, having a name
+unhonored in Thebes.
+
+AG. Farewell, my father.
+
+CAD. And you farewell, O miserable daughter; yet you can not easily arrive
+at this.
+
+AG. Lead me, O guides, where I may take my miserable sisters as the
+companions of my flight; and may I go where neither accursed Cithaeron may
+see me, nor I may see Cithaeron with my eyes, and where there is no memory
+of the thyrsus hallowed, but they may be a care to other Bacchae.
+
+CHOR. There are many forms of divine things; and the Gods bring to pass
+many in an unexpected manner: both what has been expected has not been
+accomplished, and God has found out a means for doing things unthought of.
+So, too, has this event turned out.[70]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+NOTES ON THE BACCHAE
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+[1] For illustrations of the fable of this play, compare Hyginus, Fab.
+clxxxiv., who evidently has a view to Euripides. Ovid, Metam. iii. fab. v.
+Oppian, Cyneg. iv. 241 sqq. Nonnus, 45, p. 765 sq. and 46, p. 783 sqq.,
+some of whose imitations I shall mention in my notes. With the opening
+speech of this play compare the similar one of Venus in the Hippolytus.
+
+[2] Cf. vs. 176; and for the musical instruments employed in the
+Bacchanalian rites, vs. 125 sqq. Oppian, Cyn. iv. 243. [Greek: nebrisi d'
+amphebalonto, kai estepsanto korymbois, En spei, kai peri paida to mystikon
+orchesanto. Tympana d' ektypeon, kai kymbala chersi krotainon]. Compare
+Gorius, Monum. Libert. et Serv. ad Tab. vii. p. 15 sq.
+
+[3] Such is the sense of [Greek: synapsomai], [Greek: machen] being
+understood. See Matthiae.
+
+[4] Drums and cymbals were invented by the Goddess in order to drown the
+cries of the infant Jupiter. Minutius Felix, xxi. "Avido patri subtrahitur
+infans ne voretur, et Corybantum cymbalis, ne pater audiat, vagitus initus
+eliditur" (read _audiat vagitus, tinnitus illi editur_, from the _vestigia_
+of Cod. Reg.). Cf. Lactant. i. 13.
+
+[5] Cf. Homer, Hymn. in Cerer. 485. [Greek: olbios, hos tad' opopen
+epichthonion anthropon: Hos d' ateles, hieron host' ammoros, oupoth'
+homoion Aisan echei, phthimenos per, hypo zophoi euroenti]. See Ruhnken's
+note, and Valck. on Eur. Hippol.
+
+[6] This passage is extremely difficult. [Greek: Plokamon] seems decidedly
+corrupt. Reiske would read [Greek: pokadon], Musgrave [Greek: leukotrichon
+plokamois mallon]. Elmsley would substitute [Greek: probaton], "si [Greek:
+probaton] apud Euripidem exstaret." This seems the most probable view as
+yet expressed. The [Greek: eriosteptoi kladoi] are learnedly explained by
+Lobeck on Ag. p. 375 sq., quoted by Dindorf. The [Greek: mallosis] or
+insertion of spots of party-colored fur upon the plain skin of animals, was
+a favorite ornament of the wealthy. The spots of ermine similarly used now
+are the clearest illustration to which I can point. Lobeck also observes,
+"[Greek: kata bakchiousthai] non bacchari significat, sed coronari."
+
+[7] These ladies seem to have been rather undomestic in character, as Agave
+makes this very fact a boast, vs. 1236.
+
+[8] Cf. Apollodor. l. i., Sec. 3, interpp. ad Virg. G. iv. 152. Compare
+Porphyr. de Nymph. Antr. p. 262, ad. Holst. [Greek: spelaia toinyn kai
+antra ton palaiotaton prin kai naous epinoesai theois aphosiounton. kai en
+Kretei men koureton, Dii en Arkadiai de, selenei kai Pani Lykeioi: kai en
+Naxoi Dionysoi. pantachou d' hopou ton Mithran egnosan, dia spelaiou ton
+theon hileoumenon]. Cf. Moll. ad Longi Past. i. 2. p. 22 sq. ed. Boden.
+
+[9] Cf. Virg. AEn. iv. 301, and Ritterh. on Oppian, Cyn. i, 24.
+
+[10] Compare the epithet of Bacchus [Greek: Omadios], Orph. Hymn. xxx. 5;
+l. 7, which has been wrongly explained by Gesner and Hermann. The true
+interpretation is given by Porphyr. de Abst. ii. 55, who states that human
+sacrifices were offered [Greek: omadioi Dionysoi] the man being torn to
+pieces ([Greek: diaapontes]).
+
+[11] Persius i. 92. "et lynceus Maenas flexura corymbis Evion ingeminat,
+reparabilis assonat Echo." Euseb. Pr. Ev. ii. 3, derives the cry from Eve!
+
+[12] I should read this line interrogatively, with Elmsley.
+
+[13] Quoted by Gellius, xiii. 18.
+
+[14] Elmsley would read [Greek: makron to mellon]. Perhaps the true reading
+is [Greek: mellein akairon] = _it is no season for delay_.
+
+[15] The construction is so completely akward, that I almost feel inclined
+to consider this verse as an interpolation, with Dindorf.
+
+[16] Compare Nonnus, 45. p. 765 4. [Greek: Teiresian kai Kadmon atasthalon
+iache Pentheus. Kadme, ti margaineis, tini daimoni komon egeireis; Kadme,
+miainomenes apokattheo kisson etheires, Kattheo kai nartheka nooplaneos
+Dionysou.... Nepie Teiresia stephanephore rhipson aetais Son plokamon tade
+phylla nothon stephos, k.t.l.]
+
+[17] Compare the opinion of Perseus in Cicero de N.D. i. 15, with Minutius
+Felix, xxi.
+
+[18] Pseud-Orpheus Hymn. l. 6. [Greek: pausiponon thnetoisi phaneis akos.]
+
+[19] Dindorf truly says that this passage smacks rather of Proclus, than of
+Euripides, and I agree with him that its spuriousness is more than
+probable. Had Euripides designed an etymological quibble, he would probably
+have made some allusion to Merus, a mountain of India, where Bacchus is
+said to have been brought up. See Curtius, viii. 10. "Sita est sub
+radicibus montis, quem Meron incolae appellant. Inde Graeci mentiendi traxere
+licentiam, Jovis femine liberum patrem esse celatum." Cf. Eustath. on
+Dionys. Perieg. 1159. Lucian. Dial. Deor. ix. and Hermann on Orph. Hymn.
+lii. 3.
+
+[20] The gift of [Greek: mantike] was supposed to follow initiation, and is
+often joined with the rites of this deity. Philostratus, Heroic. p. 22, ed.
+Boiss. [Greek: hote de kai mantikes sophias emphorountai, kai to chresmodes
+autais prosbakcheuei.]
+
+[21] Cf. Hippol. 443. [Greek: Kypris gar ou phoreton en polle rhyei].
+
+[22] I have followed Matthiae's interpretation of this passage.
+
+[23] See Hermann's note.
+
+[24] The fate of Actaeon is often joined with that of Pentheus.
+
+[25] i.e. over-cunning in regard to religious matters. Cf. 200. [Greek:
+ouden sophizomestha toisi daimosin].
+
+[26] Probably a mere hyperbole to denote great fruitfulness. See Elmsley.
+
+[27] Cf. Hor. Od. iii. 21, 20.
+
+[28] I follow Dindorf in reading [Greek: sopha d'], but am scarcely
+satisfied.
+
+[29] Hence his epithet of Bacchus [Greek: Nyktelios]. See Herm. on Orph.
+Hymn. xlix. 3.
+
+[30] See my note on AEsch. Choeph. 7.
+
+[31] Cf Person Advers. p. 265. Hor. Ep. i. 16. 73 "Vir bonus et sapiens
+audebit dicere Pentheu, Rector Thebarum, quid me perferre patique Indignum
+coges? Adima bona, nempe pecus, rem, Lectos, argentum: tollas licet. In
+manicis et Compedibus saevo te sub custode tenebo. Ipse deus, simul atque
+volam, me solvet. Opinor, Hoc sentit: moriar. Mors ultima linea rerum est."
+
+[32] Punning on [Greek: penthos], _grief_. Cf. Arist. Rhet. ii. 23, 29.
+
+[33] i.e. of Parnassus. Elmsley (after Stanl. on AEsch. Eum. 22.) remarks
+that [Greek: Korykis petra] means the Corycian cave in Parnassus, [Greek:
+Korykiai koryphai], the heights of Parnassus.
+
+[34] Hermann and Dindorf correct [Greek: Loidian] from Herodot. vii. 127.
+
+[35] The earth and buildings were supposed to shake at the presence of a
+deity. Cf. Callimach. Hymn. Apol. sub init. Virg. AEn. iii. 90; vi. 255. For
+the present instance Nonnus, 45. p. 751.
+
+  [Greek: ede d' autoeliktos eseieto Pentheos aule,]
+  [Greek: aklineon sphairedon anaissousa themethlon,]
+  [Greek: kai poleon dedoneto thoron enosichthoni palmoi]
+  [Greek: pematos essomenoio proangelos.]
+
+[36] The madness of Ajax led to a similar delusion. Cf. Soph. Aj. 56 sqq.
+
+[37] Compare a fragment of Didymus apud Macrob. Sat. v. 18, who states
+[Greek: Acheloon pan hydor Euripides phesin en Hypsipylei]. See also comm.
+on Virg. Georg. i. 9.
+
+[38] The reader of Scott will call to mind the fine description of Ireton
+lunging at the air, in a paroxysm of fanatic raving. See "Woodstock." So
+also Orestes in Iph. Taur. 296 sqq.
+
+[39] [Greek: aneisan], _solvuntur, liquescunt._ BRODEUS.
+
+[40] Cf. Soph Ant. 243 sqq.
+
+[41] These two cities were in ruins in the time of Pausanias. See ix. 3. p.
+714, ed. Kuhn.
+
+[42] Cf. Athenaeus, p. 40. B. Terent. Eun. iv. 5. "Sine Cerere et Libero
+friget Venus." Apul Met. ii. p. 119, ed. Elm. "Ecce, inquam, Veneris
+hortator et armiger Liber advenit ultro," where see Pricaeus.
+
+[43] More literally, perhaps, "keep it and be thankful."
+
+[44] Theocrit. i. 40. [Greek: mega diktyon es bolon helkei].
+
+[45] But [Greek: ek ton apeilon] conveys a notion of change = _instead of_.
+
+[46] Elmsley remarks that [Greek: anthropoisi] belongs to both members of
+the sentence. I have therefore supplied. The sense may be illustrated from
+Hippol. 5 sq.
+
+[47] See Matthiae.
+
+[48] i.e. step. This is ridiculed by Aristoph. Ran. 100, where the
+Scholiast quotes a similar example from our author's Alexandra.
+
+[49] Compare Havercamp on Lucret. ii. sub init.
+
+[50] Compare Virgil, AEn. iv. 469. "Et solem geminum, et duplices se
+ostendere Thebas." In the second passage of Clemens Alexandrinus quoted by
+Elmsley, [Greek: geron] is probably a mistaken reference to Tiresias.
+
+[51] An obscure hint at the impending fate of Pentheus. Nonnus has led the
+way to the catastrophe by a graphic description of Agave's dream. Dionys.
+45. p. 751.
+
+[52] [Greek: pheromenos] may mean either "carried in a litter," or "carried
+to burial." There is a somewhat similar play in the epigram of Ausonius,
+xxiii. "Mater Lacaena clypeo obarmans filium, cum hoc, inquit, aut in hoc,
+redi."
+
+[53] Burges more rightly reads [Greek: matros te Gas]. See Elmsley's note.
+
+[54] As one must make some translation, I have done my best with this
+passage, which is, however, utterly unintelligible in Dindorf's text. A
+reference to his selection of notes will furnish some new readings, but, as
+a whole, quite unsatisfactory.
+
+[55] Compare the parallel account in Nonnus, 46. p. 784.
+
+[56] Alluded to by Oppian, Cyn. iv. 300. [Greek: apte selas phlogeron
+patroion, an d' elelexon Daian, atarteron d' opason tisin oka tyrannou]. He
+then relates that Pentheus was transformed into a bull, the Maenads into
+panthers, who tore him to pieces.
+
+[57] [Greek: stochos] is either the aim itself, or the mark aimed at, as in
+this passage, and Xenoph. Ages. 1. 25.
+
+[58] I have done my best with this extraordinary expression, of which
+Elmsley quotes another example from Archilochus Fragm. 36. Perhaps the
+notion of excessive rapidity is intended to be expressed.
+
+[59] [Greek: ther] seems metaphorically said, as in AEsch. Eum. 47. Nonnus,
+45. p. 784, 23. above, 922.
+
+[60] Compare Nonnus, 46. p. 784.
+
+  [Greek: Kai tote min lipe lyssa noosphaleos Dionysou,]
+  [Greek: kai proteras phrenas esche to deuteron: amphi de gaiei]
+  [Greek: geitona potmon echon kenyren ephthenxato phonen.]
+  * * * * * *
+  [Greek: meter eme dysmeter apeneos iocheo lysses,]
+  [Greek: thera pothen kaleeis me ton hyiea.]
+
+The whole passage is very elegant, and even pathetic.
+
+[61] Alluding to the horns of Bacchus. Cf. Sidon. Apoll. Burg. Pontii
+Leontii, vs. 26, "Caput ardua rumpunt Cornua, et indigenam jaculantur
+fulminis ignem." See some whimsical reasons for this in Isidor. Origg viii.
+2. Albricus de Deor. Nu. xix. But compare above, vs. 920. [Greek: Kai
+tauros hemin prosthen hegeisthai dokeis, kai soi kerate krati
+prospephykenai].
+
+[62] Elmsley has rightly shown that [Greek: helika] could not of itself
+mean "a bull" or "heifer," although Homer has [Greek: eilipodas helikas
+bous]. I have therefore followed Hermann, who remarks, "[Greek: helix]
+seems properly to be meant for the clusters of ivy with which the thyrsus
+was entwined. Hence Agave says that she adorns the thyrsus with a
+new-fashioned wreath, viz. the head of her son." Such language is, however,
+more like the proverbial boldness of AEschylus, than the even style of our
+poet.
+
+[63] "[Greek: korytha], ornamentum capitis, vix potest dubitari quin pro
+ipso capite posuerit." HERMANN. There is considerable variation in the
+manner in which the following lines are disposed.
+
+[64] Or, "Bacchus-mad."
+
+[65] I have marked a lacuna with Dindorf.
+
+[66] See the commentators on Virg. AEn. i. 11. "Tantaene animis coelestibus
+irae?"
+
+[67] After [Greek: tlemones phygai] supply [Greek: menousin]. ELMSLEY.
+
+[68] A word is wanting to complete the verse.
+
+[69] See Musgrave. Cranes are chiefly celebrated for parental affection.
+
+[70] These verses are found at the ends of no less than four others of our
+author's plays, viz. Andromacha, Helen, Medea, and Alcestis.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE HERACLIDAE.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+PERSONS REPRESENTED.
+
+  IOLAUS.
+  COPREUS.*
+  CHORUS.
+  DEMOPHOON.
+  APOLLO.
+  MACARIA.*
+  SERVANT.
+  ALCMENA.
+  MESSENGER.
+  EURYSTHEUS.
+
+_Note_.--The names of Copreus and Macaria were wanting in the MSS., but
+have been supplied from the mythologists. See Elmsley on vss. 49 and 474.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE ARGUMENT.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+Iolaus, son of Iphiclus, and nephew of Hercules, whom he had joined in his
+expeditions during his youth, in his old age protected his sons. For the
+sons of Hercules having been driven out of every part of Greece by
+Eurystheus, he came with them to Athens; and, embracing the altars of the
+Gods, was safe, Demophoon being king of the city; and when Copreus, the
+herald of Eurystheus, wished to remove the suppliants, he prevented him.
+Upon this he departed, threatening war. Demophoon despised him; but hearing
+the oracles promise him victory if he sacrificed the most noble Athenian
+virgin to Ceres, he was grieved; not wishing to slay either his own
+daughter, or that of any citizen, for the sake of the suppliants. But
+Macaria, one of the daughters of Hercules, hearing of the prediction,
+willingly devoted herself. They honored her for her noble death, and,
+knowing that their enemies were at hand, went forth to battle. The play
+ends with their victory, and the capture of Eurystheus.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE HERACLIDAE.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+IOLAUS.
+
+This has long since been my established opinion, the just man is born for
+his neighbors; but he who has a mind bent upon gain is both useless to the
+city and disagreeable to deal with, but best for himself. And I know this,
+not having learned it by word of mouth; for I, through shame, and
+reverencing the ties of kindred, when it was in my power to dwell quietly
+in Argos, partook of more of Hercules' labors, while he was with us, than
+any one man besides:[1] and now that he dwells in heaven, keeping these his
+children under my wings, I preserve them, I myself being in want of safety.
+For since their father was removed from the earth, first Eurystheus wished
+to kill me, but I escaped; and my country indeed is no more, but my life is
+saved, and I wander in exile, migrating from one city to another. For, in
+addition to my other ills, Eurystheus has chosen to insult me with this
+insult; sending heralds whenever on earth he learns we are settled, he
+demands us, and drives us out of the land; alleging the city of Argos, one
+not paltry either to be friends with or to make an enemy, and himself too
+prospering as he is; but they seeing my weak state, and that these too are
+little, and bereaved of their sire, respecting the more powerful, drive us
+from the land. And I am banished, together with the banished children, and
+fare ill together with those who fare ill, loathing to desert them, lest
+some may say thus, Behold, now that the children have no father, Iolaus,
+their kinsman born, defends them not. But being bereft of all Greece,
+coming to Marathon and the country under the same rule, we sit suppliants
+at the altars of the Gods, that they may assist us; for it is said that the
+two sons of Theseus inhabit the territory of this land, of the race of
+Pandion, having received it by lot, being near akin to these children; on
+which account we have come this way to the frontiers of illustrious Athens.
+And by two aged people is this flight led, I, indeed, being alarmed about
+these children; and the female race of her son Alcmena preserves within
+this temple, clasping it in her arms; for we are ashamed that virgins
+should mingle with the mob, and stand at the altars. But Hyllus and his
+brothers, who are older, are seeking where there is a strong-hold that we
+may inhabit, if we be thrust forth from this land by force. O children,
+children! hither; take hold of my garments; I see the herald of Eurystheus
+coming hither toward us, by whom we are pursued as wanderers, deprived of
+every land.[2] O detested one, may you perish, and the man who sent you:
+how many evils indeed have you announced to the noble father of these
+children from that same mouth!
+
+COPREUS. I suppose you think that this is a fine seat you are sitting in,
+and have come to a city which is an ally, thinking foolishly; for there is
+no one who will choose your useless power in preference to Eurystheus.
+Depart; why toilest thou thus? You must rise up and go to Argos, where
+punishment by stoning awaits you.
+
+IOL. Not so, since the altar of the God will aid me, and the free land in
+which we tread.
+
+COP. Do you wish to cause me trouble with this band?
+
+IOL. Surely you will not drag me away, nor these children, seizing by
+force?
+
+COP. You shall know; but you are not a good prophet in this.
+
+IOL. This shall never happen, while I am alive.
+
+COP. Depart; but I will lead these away, even though you be unwilling,
+considering them, wherever they may be, to belong to Eurystheus.
+
+IOL. O ye who have dwelt in Athens a long time, defend us; for, being
+suppliants of Jove, the Presider over the Forum,[3] we are treated with
+violence, and our garlands are profaned, both a reproach to the city, and
+an insult to the Gods.
+
+CHORUS. Hollo! hollo! what is this noise near the altar? what calamity will
+it straightway portend?
+
+IOL. Behold me, a weak old man, thrown down on the plain; miserable that I
+am.
+
+CHOR. By whose hand do you fall this unhappy fall?
+
+ * * * *
+
+IOL. This man, O strangers, dishonoring your Gods, drags me violently from
+the altar of Jupiter.
+
+CHOR. From what land, O old man, have you come hither to this people
+dwelling together in four cities?[4] or, have you come hither from across
+[the sea] with marine oar, having quitted the Euboean shore?
+
+IOL. O strangers, I am not accustomed to an islander's life, but we are
+come to your land from Mycenae.
+
+CHOR. What name, O old man, did the Mycenaean people call you?
+
+IOL. Know that I am lolaus, once the companion of Hercules; for this body
+is not unrenowned.
+
+CHOR. I know, having heard of it before; but say whose youthful children
+you are leading in your hand.
+
+IOL. These, O strangers, are the sons of Hercules, who are come as
+suppliants of you and the city.
+
+CHOR. What do ye seek? or, tell me, is it wanting to have speech of the
+city?
+
+IOL. Not to be given up, and not to go to Argos, being dragged from your
+Gods by force.
+
+COP. But this will not be sufficient for your masters, who, having power
+over you, find you here.
+
+CHOR. It is right, O stranger, to reverence the suppliants of the Gods, and
+not for you to leave by violent hands the habitations of the deities, for
+venerable Justice will not suffer this.
+
+COP. Send now Eurystheus's subjects out of this land, and I will not use
+this hand violently.
+
+CHOR. It is impious for a state to reject the suppliant prayer of
+strangers.
+
+COP. But it is good to have one's foot out of trouble, being possessed of
+the better counsel.
+
+CHOR. You should then have dared this, having spoken to the king of this
+land, but you should not drag strangers away from the Gods by force, if you
+respect a free land.
+
+COP. But who is king of this country and city?
+
+CHOR. Demophoon, the son of Theseus, of a noble father.
+
+COP. With him, then, the contest of this argument had best be; all else is
+spoken in vain.
+
+CHOR. And indeed hither he comes in haste, and Acamas, his brother, to hear
+these words.
+
+DEMOPHOON. Since you, being an old man, have anticipated us, who are
+younger, in running to this hearth of Jove, say what hap collects this
+multitude here.
+
+CHOR. These sons of Hercules sit here as suppliants, having crowned the
+altar, as you see. O king, and Iolaus, the faithful companion of their
+father.
+
+DE. Why then did this chance occasion clamors?
+
+CHOR. This man caused the noise, seeking to lead him by force from this
+hearth; and he tripped up the legs of the old man, so that I shed the tear
+for pity.
+
+DE. And indeed he has a Grecian robe and style of dress; but these are the
+doings of a barbarian hand; it is for you then to tell me, and not to
+delay, leaving the confines of what land you are come hither.
+
+COP. I am an Argive; for this you wish to learn: and I am willing to say
+why, and from whom, I am come. Eurystheus, the king of Mycenae, sends me
+hither to lead away these men; and I have come, O stranger, having many
+just things at once to do and to say; for I being an Argive myself, lead
+away Argives, having them as fugitives from my country condemned to die by
+the laws there; and we have the right, managing our city ourselves by
+ourselves, to fix our own punishments: but they having come to the hearths
+of many others also, there also we have taken our stand on these same
+arguments, and no one has dared to bring evils upon himself. But either
+perceiving some folly in you, they have come hither, or in perplexity
+running the risk, whether it shall be or not. For surely they do not think
+that you alone are mad, in so great a portion of Greece as they have been
+over, so as to commiserate their foolish distresses. Come, compare the two;
+admitting them into your land, and suffering us to lead them away, what
+will you gain? Such things as these you may gain from us; you may add to
+this city the whole power of Argos, and all the might of Eurystheus; but if
+looking to the words and pitiable condition of these men, you are softened
+by them, the matter comes to the contest of the spear; for think not that
+we will give up this contest without steel. What then will you say?
+deprived of what lands, making war with the Tirynthians and Argives, and
+repelling them, with what allies, and on whose behalf will you bury the
+dead that fall? Surely you will obtain an evil report among the citizens,
+if, for the sake of an old man, a mere tomb,[5] one who is nothing, as one
+may say, and of these children, you will put your foot into a mess;[6] you
+will say, at best, that you shall find, at least, hope; and this too is at
+present much wanting; for these who are armed would fight but ill with
+Argives if they were grown up, if this encourages your mind, and there is
+much time in the mean while in which ye may be destroyed; but be persuaded
+by me, giving nothing, but permitting me to lead away my own, gain Mycenae.
+And do not (as you are wont to do) suffer this, when it is in your power to
+choose the better friends, choose the worse.
+
+CHOR. Who can decide what is right, or understand an argument, till he has
+clearly heard the statement of both?
+
+IOL. O king, this exists in thy city; I am permitted in turn to speak and
+to hear, and no one will reject me before that, as in other places; but
+with this man we have nothing to do; for since nothing of Argos is any
+longer ours, (it having been decreed by a vote,) but we are exiled our
+country, how can this man justly lead us away as Mycenaeans, whom they have
+driven from the land? for we are strangers; or else you decide that whoever
+is banished Argos is banished the boundaries of the Greeks. Surely not from
+Athens; they will not, for fear of the Argives, drive out the children of
+Hercules from their land; for it is not Trachis, nor the Achaean city, from
+whence you, not by justice, but bragging about Argos; just as you now
+speak, drove these men, sitting at the altars as suppliants; for if this
+shall be, and they ratify your words, I no longer know this Athens as free.
+But I know their disposition and nature; they will rather die; for among
+virtuous men, disgrace is considered before life. Enough of the city; for
+indeed it is an invidious thing to praise it too much; and often I know
+myself I have been oppressed at being overpraised: but I wish to say to you
+that it is necessary for you to save these men, since you are ruler over
+this land. Pittheus was son of Pelops and AEthra, daughter of Pittheus, and
+your father Theseus was born of her. And again I trace for you their
+descent: Hercules was son of Jupiter and Alcmena, and she was the child of
+the daughter of Pelops; so your father and theirs must be fellow-cousins.
+Thus you, O Demophoon, are related to them by birth; and, besides this
+connection, I will tell you for what you are bound to requite the children.
+For I say, I formerly, when shield-bearer to their father, sailed with
+Theseus after the belt,[7] the cause of much slaughter, and from the murky
+recesses of hell did he bring forth your father. All Greece bears witness
+to this; for which things they beseech you to return a kindness, and that
+they may not be yielded up, nor be driven from this land, torn from your
+Gods by violence; for this would be disgraceful to you by yourself, and an
+evil to the city,[8] that suppliant relations, wanderers--alas for the
+misery! look on them, look--should be dragged away by force. But I beseech
+you, and offer you suppliant garlands, by your hands and your chin, do not
+dishonor the children of Hercules, having received them in your power; but
+be thou a relation to them, be a friend, father, brother, master; for all
+these things are better than [for them] to fall into the power of the
+Argives.
+
+CHOR. Hearing of these men's misfortunes, I pitied them, O king! and now
+particularly I have witnessed nobleness overcome by fortune; for these men,
+being sons of a noble father, are undeservedly unhappy.
+
+DE. Three ways of misfortune urge me, O Iolaus, not to reject these
+suppliants. The greatest, Jupiter, at whose altars you sit, having this
+procession of youths with you; and my relationship to them, and because I
+am bound of old that they should fare well at my hands, in gratitude to
+their father; and the disgrace,[9] which one ought exceedingly to regard.
+For if I permitted this altar to be violated by force by a strange man, I
+shall not seem to inhabit a free country. But I fear to betray my
+suppliants to the Argives; and this is nearly as bad as the noose. But I
+wish you had come with better fortune; but still, even now, fear not that
+any one shall drag you and these children by force from this altar. And do
+thou, going to Argos, both tell this to Eurystheus; and besides that, if he
+has any charge against these strangers, he shall meet with justice; but you
+shall never drag away these men.
+
+COP. Not if it be just, and I prevail in argument?
+
+DE. And how can it be just to drag away a suppliant by force?
+
+COP. This, then, is not disgraceful to me, but an injury to you.
+
+DE. To me indeed, if I allow you to drag them away.
+
+COP. But do you depart, and then will I drag them thence.
+
+DE. You are stupid, thinking yourself wiser than a God.
+
+COP. Hither it seems the wicked should fly.
+
+DE. The seat of the Gods is a common defense to all.
+
+COP. Perhaps this will not seem good to the Mycenaeans.
+
+DE. Am not I then master over those here?
+
+COP. [Ay,] but not to injure them, if you are wise.
+
+DE. Are ye hurt, if I do not defile the Gods?
+
+COP. I do not wish you to have war with the Argives.
+
+DE. I, too, am the same; but I will not let go of these men.
+
+COP. At all events, taking possession of my own, I shall lead them away.
+
+DE. Then you will not easily depart back to Argos.
+
+COP. I shall soon see that by experience.
+
+DE. You will touch them to your own injury, and that without delay.
+
+CHOR. For God's sake, venture not to strike a herald!
+
+DE. I will not, if the herald at least will learn to be wise.
+
+CHOR. Depart thou; and do not you touch him, O king!
+
+COP. I go; for the struggle of a single hand is powerless. But I will come,
+bringing hither many a brazen spear of Argive war; and ten thousand
+shield-bearers await me, and Eurystheus, the king himself, as general. And
+he waits, expecting news from hence, on the extreme confines of Alcathus;
+and, having heard of your insolence, he will make himself too well known to
+you, and to the citizens, and to this land, and to the trees; for in vain
+should we have so much youth in Argos, if we did not chastise you.
+
+DE. Destruction on you! for I do not fear your Argos. But you are not
+likely, insulting me, to drag these men away from hence by force; for I
+possess this land, not being subject to that of Argos, but free.
+
+CHOR. It is time to provide, before the army of the Argives approaches the
+borders. And very impetuous is the Mars of the Mycenaeans, and on this
+account more than before; for it is the habit of all heralds to tower up
+what is twice as much. What do you not think he will say to his princes
+about what terrible things he has suffered, and how within a little he was
+losing his life.
+
+IOL. There is not, to this man's children, a more glorious honor than to be
+sprung from a good and valiant father, and to marry from a good family; but
+I will not praise him who, overcome by desire, has mingled with the vulgar,
+to leave his children a reproach instead of pleasure; for noble birth wards
+off misfortune better than low descent; for we, having fallen into the
+extremity of evils, find these men friends and relations, who alone, in so
+large a country as Greece, have stood forward [on our behalf.] Give, O
+children, give them your right hand; and do ye give yours to the children,
+and draw near to them. O children, we have come to experience of our
+friends; and if you ever have a return to your country, and [again] possess
+the homes and honors of your father, always consider them your saviors and
+friends, and never lift the hostile spear against the land, remembering
+these things; but consider it the dearest city of all. And they are worthy
+that you should revere them, who have chosen to have so great a country and
+the Pelasgic people as enemies instead of us, though seeing us to be
+beggared wanderers; but still they have not given us up, nor driven us from
+their land. But I, living and dying, when I do die, with much praise, my
+friend, will extol you when I am in company with Theseus; and telling this,
+I will delight him, saying how well you received and aided the children of
+Hercules; and, being noble, you preserve through Greece your ancestral
+glory; and being born of noble parents, you are nowise inferior to your
+father, with but few others; for among many you may find perhaps but one
+who is not inferior to his father.[10]
+
+CHOR. This land is ever willing to aid in a just cause those in difficulty;
+therefore it has borne numberless toils for its friends, and now I see this
+contest at hand.
+
+DE. Thou hast spoken well; and I boast, old man, that their disposition is
+such that the kindness will be remembered. And I will make an assembly of
+the citizens, and draw them up so as to receive the army of the Mycenaeans
+with a large force. First, I will send spies toward it, that it may not
+fall upon me by surprise: for in Argos every warrior is eager to run to
+assistance. And having collected the soothsayers, I will sacrifice. And do
+you go to my palace with the children, leaving the hearth of Jove, for
+there are those who, even if I be from home, will take care of you; go
+then, old man, to my palace.
+
+IOL. I will not leave the altar; but we will sit here, as suppliants,
+waiting till the city is successful; and when you are well freed from this
+contest, we will go to thy palace. But we have Gods as allies not inferior
+to those of the Argives, O king; for Juno, the wife of Jove, is their
+champion, but Minerva ours; and I say that this also tends to success, to
+have the best Gods, for Pallas will not endure to be conquered.
+
+CHOR. If thou boastest greatly, others do not therefore care for thee the
+more, O stranger, coming from Argos; but with thy big words thou wilt not
+terrify my mind: may it not be so to the mighty Athens, with the beauteous
+dances. But both thou art foolish, the son of Sthenelus, king in Argos,
+who, coming to another city not less than Argos, being a stranger, seek by
+violence to lead away wanderers, suppliants of the Gods, and claiming the
+protection of my land, not yielding to our kings, nor saying any thing else
+that is just. How can this be thought well among the wise? Peace indeed
+pleases me; but, O foolish king, I tell thee, if thou comest to this city,
+thou wilt not thus obtain what thou thinkest for. You are not the only one
+who has a spear and a brazen shield; but, O lover of war, mayest thou not
+with the spear disturb my city dear to the Graces; but restrain thyself.
+
+IOL. O my son, why comest thou, bringing solicitude to my eyes? Hast thou
+any news of the enemy? Do they delay, or are they at hand I or what do you
+hear? for I fear the word of the herald will in no wise be false, for their
+leader will come, having been fortunate in previous affairs, I clearly
+know, and with no moderate pride, against Athens; but Jove is the chastiser
+of over-arrogant thoughts.[11]
+
+DE. The army of the Argives is coming, and Eurystheus the king. I have seen
+it myself;[12] for it behooves a man who says he knows well the duty of a
+general not to reconnoitre the enemy by means of messengers. He has not
+then, as yet, let loose his army on these plains, but, sitting on a lofty
+crag, he reconnoitres (I should tell thee this as a conjecture) to see by
+which way he shall now lead his expedition, and place it in a safe station
+in this land; and my preparations are already well arranged, and the city
+is in arms, and the victims stand ready for those Gods to whom they ought
+to be slain offered; and the city, by means of soothsayers, is preparing by
+sacrifices flight for the enemy and safety for the city.[13] And having
+collected together all the bards who proclaim oracles, I have tested the
+ancient oracles, both public and concealed, which might save this land; and
+in their other counsels many things are different; but one opinion of all
+is conspicuously the same, they command me to sacrifice to the daughter of
+Ceres a damsel who is of a noble father.[14] And I have indeed, as you see,
+such great good-will toward you, but I will neither slay my own child[15]
+nor compel any other of my citizens to do so unwillingly; and who is so mad
+of his own accord, as to give out of his hands his dearest children? And
+now you may see bitter meetings; some saying that it is right to aid
+foreign suppliants, and some blaming my folly; and if I do this, a civil
+war is at once prepared. This, then, do you consider, and devise how both
+you yourselves may be saved and this land, and I be not brought into ill
+odor with the citizens; for I have not absolute sovereignty, as over
+barbarians; but if I do just things, I shall receive just things.
+
+CHOR. But does not the Goddess allow this city, although eager, to aid
+strangers?
+
+IOL. O children, we are like sailors, who, fleeing from the fierce rage of
+the storm, have come close to land, and then, again, by gales from the
+land, have been driven again out to sea; thus also shall we be driven from
+this land, being already on shore, as if saved. Alas! why, O wretched hope,
+did you then delight me, not being about to perfect my joy? For his
+thoughts, in truth, are to be pardoned if he is not willing to slay the
+children of his citizens; and I acquiesce in their conduct here, if the
+Gods decree that I shall fare thus. My gratitude to you shall never perish.
+O children, I know not what to do with you: whither shall we turn? for who
+of the Gods has been uncrowned by us? and what bulwark of land have we not
+approachedl? We shall perish, my children, we shall be given up; and for
+myself I care nothing if it behooves me to die, except that, dying, I shall
+gratify my enemies; but I weep for and pity you, O children, and Alcmena,
+the aged mother of your father; O! unhappy art thou, because of thy long
+life; and miserable am I, having labored much in vain. It was our fate
+then, our fate, falling into the hands of an enemy, to leave life
+disgracefully and miserably. But do you know in what you may aid me? for
+all hope of their safety has not deserted me. Give me up to the Argives
+instead of them, O king, and so neither run any risk yourself, and let the
+children be saved for me; I must not love my own life, let it go; and above
+all, Eurystheus would like taking me, the ally of Hercules, to insult me;
+for he is a froward man; and the wise should pray to have enmity with a
+wise man, not with an ignorant disposition, for in that case one, even if
+unfortunate, may meet with much respect.
+
+CHOR. O old man, do not now blame the city, perhaps it might be a gain to
+us; but still it would be an evil reproach that we betrayed strangers,
+
+DE. You have spoken things noble indeed, but impossible; the king does not
+lead his army hither wanting you; for what profit were it to Eurystheus for
+an old man to die? but he wishes to slay these children; for noble youths,
+who remember their fathers' injuries, springing up, are terrible to
+enemies; all which he must needs foresee; but if you know any other more
+seasonable counsel, prepare it, since I am perplexed and full of fear,
+having heard the oracle.
+
+MACARIA. O strangers, do not impute boldness to me because of my
+advances,[16] this I will beg first; for silence and modesty are best for a
+woman, and to remain quietly in-doors; but, having heard your lamentations,
+O Iolaus, I have come forth, not being commissioned to act as embassador
+for my race, but I am in some wise fit to do so; but chiefly do I care for
+these, my brothers: concerning myself I wish to ask whether, besides our
+former evils, any additional distress gnaws your mind?
+
+IOL. O daughter, it is not a new thing that I justly have to praise you
+most of the children of Hercules; but our house having appeared to us to
+progress well, has again changed to perplexity, for this man says, that the
+deliverers of oracles order us to sacrifice not a bull or a heifer, but a
+virgin, who is of a noble father, if we and this city would exist. About
+this then we are perplexed, for this man says he will neither slay his own
+children nor those of any one else; and to me he says, not plainly indeed,
+but somehow or other, unless I can devise any remedy for this, that we must
+find some other land, but he himself wishes to preserve this country.
+
+MAC. On this condition can we then be saved?
+
+IOL. On this, being fortunate in other respects.
+
+MAC. Fear not then any longer the hostile spear of the Argives; for I
+myself, old man, before I am commanded, am prepared to die, and to stand
+for slaughter; for what shall we say if the city thinks fit for our sakes
+to encounter a great danger, but we putting toils on others, avoid death
+when we can be saved? Not so, since this would be ridiculous for suppliants
+sitting at the shrines of the Gods to mourn, but being of such a sire as we
+are, to be seen to be cowards; how can this seem good! it were more noble,
+I think, (which may it never happen!) to fall into the hands of the enemy,
+this city being taken, and afterward, being born of a noble father, having
+suffered dreadful things, to see Hades none the less; but shall I wander
+about, driven from this land, and shall I not indeed be ashamed if any one
+says, "Why have ye come hither with your suppliant branches, yourselves
+being too fond of life! Depart from the land, for we will not aid cowards."
+But neither, indeed, if these die, and I myself am saved, have I any hope
+to fare well; for before now many have in this way betrayed their friends.
+For who would choose to have me, a solitary damsel, for his wife, or to
+raise children from me? therefore it is better to die than to have such an
+unworthy fate as this; and this may even be more seemly for some other, who
+is not illustrious as I. Lead me then where this body must needs die, and
+crown me and begin the rites, if you think fit, and conquer your enemies;
+for this life is ready for you, willing, and not unwilling; and I promise
+to die for these my brethren, and for myself; for not caring for life, I
+have found this most glorious thing to find, namely, to leave life
+gloriously.
+
+CHOR. Alas! alas! what shall I say, hearing this noble speech of the maiden
+who is willing to die on behalf of her brothers? Who can utter more noble
+words than these I who of men can do [a greater deed?][17]
+
+IOL. My child, your head comes from no other source, but thou, the seed of
+a divine mind, art sprung from Hercules.[18] I am not ashamed at your
+words, but I am grieved for your fortune; but how it may be more justly
+done, I will say: we must call hither all her sisters, and then let her who
+draws the lot die for her family; but it is not right for thee to die
+without casting lots.
+
+MAC. I will not die, obtaining the lot by chance, for then there are no
+thanks [to me;]--speak it not, old man; but if you accept me, and are
+willing to use me willing, I readily give up my life to them, but not,
+being compelled.
+
+IOL. Alas! this word of thine is again nobler than the former, and that
+other was most excellent; but you surpass daring by daring, and [good]
+words by good words. I do not bid you, nor do I forbid you, to die, my
+child; but you will benefit your brothers by dying.
+
+MAC. Thou biddest wisely; fear not to partake of my pollution, but I shall
+die freely. But follow me, O old man; for I wish to die by your hand; and
+do you, being present, wrap my body in my garments, since I am going to the
+terror of sacrifice, because I am born of the father of whom I boast to be.
+
+IOL. I could not be present at your death.
+
+MAC. At least, then, entreat of him that I may die, not by the hands of
+men, but of women.
+
+CHOR. It shall be so, O hapless virgin; since it were disgraceful to me too
+not to deck thee honorably on many accounts; both for your valiant spirit,
+and for justice' sake: but you are the most unhappy of all women that I
+have beheld with mine eyes; but, if thou wilt, depart, bespeaking a last
+address to these and to the old man.
+
+MAC. Farewell, old man, farewell; and train up for me these children to be
+such as thyself, wise in all respects, nothing more, for they will suffice;
+and endeavor to save them, not being over-willing to die. We are your
+children; by your hands we were brought up, and behold see me yielding up
+my nuptial hour, dying for them. And ye, my company of brothers now
+present, may ye be happy, and may every thing be yours, for the sake of
+which my soul is sacrificed; and honor the old man, and the old woman in
+the house, Alcmena, the mother of my father, and these strangers. And if a
+release from troubles, and a return should ever be found for you through
+the Gods, remember to bury her who saves you, as is fitting; most honorably
+were just, for I was not wanting to you, but died for my race. This is my
+heir-loom instead of children and virginity, if indeed there be aught under
+the earth. May there indeed be nothing; for if we, mortals who die, are to
+have cares even there, I know not where one can turn, for to die is
+considered the greatest remedy for evils.
+
+IOL. But, O you, who mightily surpass all women in courage, know that, both
+living and dying, you shall be most honored by us: and farewell; for I
+abhor to speak words of ill omen about the Goddess to whom your body is
+given as the first-fruits, the daughter of Ceres. O children, we are
+undone; my limbs are relaxed by grief; take me, and place me in my seat,
+veiling me there with these garments, O children; since neither am I
+pleased at these things which are done, and if the oracle were not
+fulfilled, life would be unbearable, for the ruin would be greater; but
+even this is a calamity.
+
+CHOR. I say that no man is either happy or miserable but through the Gods,
+and that the same family does not always walk in good fortune, but
+different fates pursue it different ways; it is wont to make one from a
+lofty station insignificant, and makes the wanderer wealthy: but it is
+impossible to avoid what is fated; no one can repel it by wisdom, but he
+who is hasty without purpose will always have trouble; but do not thus bear
+the fortune sent by the Gods, falling down [in prayer,] and do not
+over-pain your mind with grief, for she hapless possesses a glorious
+portion of death on behalf of her brethren and her country; nor will an
+inglorious reputation among men await her: but virtue proceeds through
+toils. These things are worthy of her father, and worthy of her noble
+descent; and if you respect the deaths of the good, I share your feelings.
+
+SERVANT. O children, hail! But at what distance from this place is the aged
+Iolaus and your father's mother?
+
+IOL. We are here, such a presence as mine is.
+
+SERV. On what account dost thou lie thus, and have an eye so downcast?
+
+IOL. A domestic care has come upon me, by which I am constrained.
+
+SERV. Raise now thyself, erect thy head.
+
+IOL. I am an old man, and by no means strong.
+
+SERV. But I am come, bearing to you a great joy.
+
+IOL. And who art thou, where having met you, do I forget you?
+
+SERV. I am a poor servant of Hyllus; do you not recognize me, seeing me?
+
+IOL. O dearest one, dost thou then come as a savior to us from injury?
+
+SERV. Surely; and moreover you are prosperous as to the present state of
+affairs.
+
+IOL. O mother of a doughty son, I mean Alcmena, come forth, hear these most
+welcome words; for you have been long wasting away as to your soul in
+anxiety concerning those who have come hither, where they would ever
+arrive.[19]
+
+ALCMENA. Wherefore has a mighty shout filled all this house? O Iolaus, does
+any herald, coming from Argos, again do you violence? my strength indeed is
+weak, but thus much you must know, O stranger, you shall never drag these
+away while I am living, else may I no longer be thought to be his mother;
+but if you touch them with your hand, you will have no honorable contest
+with two old people.
+
+IOL. Be of good cheer, old woman; fear not, the herald is not come from
+Argos bearing hostile words.
+
+ALC. Why then did you raise a shout, a messenger of fear?
+
+IOL. To you, that you should approach near before this temple.
+
+ALC. I do not understand this; for who is this man?
+
+IOL. He announces that your son's son is come.
+
+ALC. O! hail thou also for this news; but why and where[20] is he now
+absent putting his foot in this country? what calamity prevents him from
+appearing hither with you, and delighting my mind?
+
+SERV. He is stationing and marshaling the army which he has come bringing.
+
+ALC. I no longer understand this speech.
+
+IOL. I do; but it is my business to inquire about this.
+
+SERV. What then of what has been done do you wish to learn?
+
+IOL. With how great a multitude of allies is he come?
+
+SERV. With many; but I can say no other number.
+
+IOL. The chiefs of the Athenians know, I suppose.
+
+SERV. They do; and they occupy the left wing.[21]
+
+IOL. Is then the army already armed as for the work?
+
+SERV. Ay; and already the victims are led away from the ranks.
+
+IOL. And how far distant is the Argive army?
+
+SERV. So that the general can be distinctly seen.
+
+IOL. Doing what? arraying the ranks of the enemies?
+
+SERV. We conjectured this, for we did not hear him; but I will go; I should
+not like my masters to join battle with the enemy, deserted as far as my
+part is concerned.
+
+IOL. And I will go with you; for we think the same things, being present to
+aid our friends as much as we can.
+
+SERV. It is not your part to say a foolish word.
+
+IOL. And not to share the sturdy battle with my friends!
+
+SERV. One can not see a wound from an inactive hand.
+
+IOL. But what, can not I too strike through a shield?
+
+SERV. You might strike, but you yourself would fall first.
+
+IOL. No one of the enemy will dare to behold me.
+
+SERV. You have not, my good friend, the strength which once you had.
+
+IOL. But I will fight with them who will not be the fewer in numbers.
+
+SERV. You add but a slight weight to your friends.
+
+IOL. Do not detain me who am prepared to act.
+
+SERV. You are not able to do any thing, but you may perhaps be to advise.
+
+IOL. You may say the rest, as I not staying to hear.
+
+SERV. How then will you appear to the soldiers without arms?
+
+IOL. There are within this palace arms taken in war, which I will use and
+restore if alive; but the God will not demand them back of me, if I fall;
+but go in, and taking them down from the pegs, bring me as quickly as
+possible the panoply of a warrior; for this is a disgraceful house-keeping,
+for some to fight, and some to remain behind through fear.
+
+CHOR. Time does not depress your spirit, but it grows young again, but your
+body is weak: why dost thou toil in vain? which will harm you indeed, but
+profit our city but little; you should consider your age, and leave alone
+impossibilities, it can not be that you again should acquire youth.
+
+ALC. Why are you, not being in your senses, about to leave me alone with my
+children?
+
+IOL. For valor is the part of men; but it is your duty to take care of
+them.
+
+ALC. But what if you die? how shall I be saved?
+
+IOL. Your sons who are left will take care of your son.
+
+ALC. But if they, which Heaven forbid, should meet with fate!
+
+IOL. These strangers will not betray you, do not fear.
+
+ALC. Such confidence indeed I have, nothing else.
+
+IOL. And Jove, I well know, cares for your toils.
+
+ALC. Alas! Jupiter shall never be reproached by me, but he himself knows
+whether he is just toward me.
+
+SERV. You see now this panoply of arms; but you can not make too much
+haste[22] in arraying your body in them, as the contest is at hand, and,
+above all things, Mars hates those who delay; but if you fear the weight of
+arms, now then go forth unarmed,[23] and in the ranks be clad with this
+equipment, and I will carry it so far.
+
+IOL. Thou hast said well; but bring the arms, having them close at hand,
+and put a spear in my hand, and support my left arm guiding my foot.
+
+SERV. Is it right to lead a warrior like a child?
+
+IOL. One must go safely for the sake of the omen.
+
+SERV. Would you were able to do as much as you are willing.
+
+IOL. Make haste, I shall suffer sadly if too late for the battle.
+
+SERV. It is you who delay, and not I, seeming to do something.
+
+IOL. Do you not see how my foot presses on?
+
+SERV. I see you rather seeming to hasten than hastening.
+
+IOL. You will not say so, when you behold me there.
+
+SERV. Doing what? I wish I may see you successful.
+
+IOL. Striking some of the enemy through the shield.
+
+SERV. If indeed we get there; for that I have fears of.
+
+IOL. Alas! O arm, would thou wert such an ally to me as I recollect you in
+your youth, when you ravaged Sparta with Hercules, how would I put
+Eurystheus to flight; since he is but a coward in abiding a spear. But in
+prosperity then is this too which is not right, a reputation for courage;
+for we think that he who is prosperous knows all things well.
+
+CHOR. O earth, and moon that shinest through the night, and most brilliant
+rays of the God, that gave light to mortals, bring me news, and shout in
+heaven and at the queenly throne of the blue-eyed Minerva. I am about, on
+behalf of my country, on behalf of my house, having received suppliants I
+am about to cut through danger with the white steel. It is terrible that a
+city, prosperous as Mycenae, and much praised for valor in war, should
+nourish secret[24] anger against my land; but it is evil too, O city, if we
+are to give up strangers at the bidding of Argos.[25] Jupiter is my ally, I
+fear not; Jupiter rightly has favor toward me. Never shall the Gods seem
+inferior to men in my opinion.[26] But, O venerable Goddess, for the soil
+of this land is thine, and the city of which you are mother, mistress, and
+guardian, lead away by some other way him who unjustly leads on this
+spear-brandishing host from Argos; for as far as my virtue is concerned, I
+do not deserve to be banished from these halls. For honor, with much
+sacrifice, is ever offered to you; nor does the waning[27] day of the month
+forget you, nor the songs of youths, nor the measures of dances; but on the
+lofty hill shouts resound in accordance with the beatings of the feet of
+virgins the livelong night.
+
+SERV. O mistress, I bring news most concise for you to hear, and to myself
+most glorious; we have conquered our enemies, and trophies are set up
+bearing the panoply of your enemies.
+
+ALC. O best beloved, this day has caused thee to be made free for this thy
+news; but from one disaster you do not yet free me, for I fear whether they
+be living to me whom I wish to be.
+
+SERV. They live, the most glorious in the army.
+
+ALC. Does not the aged Iolaus survive?
+
+SERV. Surely, and having done most glorious deeds by help of the Gods.
+
+ALC. But what? has he done any doughty act in the fight?
+
+SERV. He has changed from an old into a young man again.
+
+ALC. Thou tellest marvelous things, but first I wish you to relate the
+prosperous contest of your friends in battle.
+
+SERV. One speech of mine shall tell you all this; for when stretching out
+[our ranks] face to face, we arrayed our armies against one another, Hyllus
+putting his foot out of his four-horse chariot, stood in the mid-space of
+the field;[28] and then said, O general, you are come from Argos, why leave
+we not this land alone? and you will do Mycenae no harm, depriving it of one
+man; but you fighting alone with me alone, either killing me, lead away the
+children of Hercules, or dying, allow me to possess my ancestral
+prerogative and palaces. And the army gave praise; that the speech was well
+spoken for a termination of their toils, and in respect of courage. But he
+neither regarding those who had heard the speech, nor, although he was
+general, his [own character for] cowardice, ventured not to come near the
+warlike spear, but was most cowardly; and being such, he came to enslave
+the descendants of Hercules. Hyllus then returned again back to his ranks;
+but the soothsayers, when they saw that the affair could not be arranged by
+single combat of one shield, sacrificed, and delayed not, but let fall
+forth immediately the propitious slaughter of mortal throats; and some
+mounted chariots, and some concealed their sides under the sides of their
+shields; but the king of the Athenians gave to his army such orders as
+become a high-born man. "O fellow-citizens, now it behooves one to defend
+the land that has produced and cherished us."[29] And the other also
+besought his allies not to disgrace Argos and Mycenae. But when the signal
+was sounded on a Tyrrhenian trumpet, and they joined battle with one
+another, what a clash of spears dost thou think sounded, how great a
+groaning and lamentation at the same time! And first the dashing on of the
+Argive spear broke us; then they again retreated; and next foot being
+interchanged with foot, and man standing against man, the battle waged
+fierce; and many fell; and there were two cries, O ye who [dwell in]
+Athens, O ye who sow the land of the Argives, will ye not avert disgrace
+from the city? And with difficulty doing every thing, not without toils did
+we put the Argive force to flight; and then the old man, seeing Hyllus
+rushing on, Iolaus, stretching forth his right hand, besought him to place
+him on the horse-chariot; and seizing the reins in his hands, he pressed
+hard upon the horses of Eurystheus. And what happened after this I must
+tell by having heard from others, I myself hitherto having seen all; for
+passing by the venerable hill of the divine Minerva of Pellene, seeing the
+chariot of Eurystheus, he prayed to Juno and Jupiter to be young for one
+day, and to work vengeance on his enemies. But you have a marvel to hear;
+for two stars standing on the horse-chariot, concealed the chariot in a dim
+cloud, the wiser men say it was thy son and Hebe; but he from the obscure
+darkness showed forth a youthful image of youthful arms. And the glorious
+Iolaus takes the four-horse chariot of Eurystheus at the Scironian
+rocks--and having bound his hands in fetters, he comes bringing as glorious
+first-fruits of victory, the general, him who before was prosperous; but by
+his present fortune he proclaims clearly to all mortals to learn not to
+envy him who seems prosperous, till one sees him dead, as fortune is but
+for the day.
+
+CHOR. O Jupiter, thou turner to flight, now is it mine to behold a day free
+from dreadful fear.
+
+ALC. O Jupiter, at length you have looked upon my miseries, but still I
+thank you for what has been done: and I, who formerly did not think that my
+son dwelt with the Gods, now clearly know it. O children, now indeed you
+shall be free from toils, and free from Eurystheus, who shall perish
+miserably; and ye shall see the city of your sire, and you shall tread on
+your inheritance of land; and ye shall sacrifice to your ancestral gods,
+debarred from whom ye have had, as strangers, a wandering miserable life.
+But devising what clever thing has Iolaus spared Eurystheus, so as not to
+slay him, tell me; for in my opinion this is not wise, having taken our
+enemies, not to exact punishment of them.
+
+SERV. Having respect for you, that with your own eyes you may see him[30]
+defeated and subjected to your hand; not, indeed, of his own will, but he
+has bound him by force in constraint, for he was not willing to come alive
+into your sight and to be punished. But, O old woman, farewell, and
+remember for me what you first said when I began my tale. Make me free; and
+in such noble people as you the mouth ought to be free from falsehood.
+
+CHOR. To me the dance is sweet, if there be the thrilling delight of the
+pipe at the feast; and may Venus be kind. And sweet it is to see the good
+fortune of friends who did not expect it before; for the fate which
+accomplishes gifts gives birth to many things; and Time, the son of Saturn.
+You have, O city, a just path, you should never be deprived of it, to honor
+the Gods; and he who bids you not do so, is near madness, such proofs as
+these being shown. God, in truth, evidently exhorts us, taking away the
+arrogance of the unjust forever. Your son, O old woman, is gone to heaven;
+he shuns the report of having descended to the realm of Pluto, being
+consumed as to his body in the terrible flame of fire; and he embraces the
+lovely bed of Hebe in the golden hall. O Hymen, you have honored two
+children of Jupiter. Many things agree with many; for in truth they say
+that Minerva was an ally of their father, and the city and people of that
+Goddess has saved them, and has restrained the insolence of a man to whom
+passion was before justice, through violence. May my mind and soul, never
+be insatiable.
+
+MESS. O mistress, you see, but still it shall be said, we are come,
+bringing to you Eurystheus here, an unhoped-for sight, and one no less so
+for him to meet with, for he never expected to come into your hands when he
+went forth from Mycenae with a much-toiling band of spearmen, proudly
+planning things much greater than his fortune, that he should destroy
+Athens; but the God changed his fortune, and made it contrary. Hyllus,
+therefore, and the good Iolaus, have set up a statue, in honor of their
+victory, of Jove, the putter to flight; and they send me to bring this man
+to you, wishing to delight your mind; for it is most delightful to see an
+enemy unfortunate, after having been fortunate.
+
+ALC. O hateful thing, art thou come? has justice taken you at last? first
+then indeed turn hither your head toward me, and dare to look your enemies
+in the face; for now you are ruled, and you rule no more. Art thou he, for
+I wish to know, who chose, O wretch, much to insult my son, though no
+longer existing? For in what respect didst thou not dare to insult him? who
+led him, while alive, down to hell, and sent him forth, bidding him destroy
+hydras and lions? And I am silent concerning the other evils you contrived,
+for it would be a long story; and it did not satisfy you that he alone
+should endure these things, but you drove me also, and my children, out of
+all Greece, sitting as suppliants of the Gods, some old, and some still
+infants; but you found men and a city free, who feared you not. Thou needs
+must die miserably, and you shall gain every thing, for you ought to die
+not once only, having wrought many evil deeds.
+
+MESS. It is not practicable for you to put him to death.[31]
+
+ALC. In vain then have we taken him prisoner. But what law hinders him from
+dying?
+
+MESS. It seems not so to the chiefs of this land.
+
+ALC. What is this? not good to them to slay one's enemies?
+
+MESS. Not any one whom they have taken alive in battle.
+
+ALC. And did Hyllus endure this decision?
+
+MESS. He could, I suppose, disobey this land![32]
+
+ALC. He ought no longer to live, nor behold the light.
+
+MESS. Then first he did wrong in not dying.
+
+ALC. Then it is no longer right for him to be punished?[33]
+
+MESS. There is no one who may put him to death.
+
+ALC. I will. And yet I say that I am some one.
+
+MESS. You will indeed have much blame if you do this.
+
+ALC. I love this city. It can not be denied. But as for this man, since he
+has come into my power, there is no mortal who shall take him from me. For
+this, whoever will may call me bold, and thinking things too much for a
+woman; but this deed shall be done by me.
+
+CHOR. It is a serious and excusable thing, O lady, for you to have hatred
+against this man, I well know it.
+
+EURYSTHEUS. O woman, know plainly that I will not flatter you, nor say any
+thing else for my life, whence I may incur any imputation of cowardice. But
+not of my own accord did I undertake this strife--I knew that I was your
+cousin by birth, and a relation to your son Hercules; but whether I wished
+it or not, Juno, for it was a Goddess, forced me to toil through this ill.
+But when I took up enmity against him, and determined to contest this
+contest, I became a contriver of many evils, and sitting continually in
+council with myself, I brought forth many plans by night, how dispersing
+and slaying my enemies, I might dwell for the future not with fear, knowing
+that your son was not one of the many, but truly a man; for though he be
+mine enemy, yet shall he be well spoken of, as he was a doughty man. And
+when he was released [from life], did it not behoove me, being hated by
+these children, and knowing their father's hatred to me, to move every
+stone, slaying and banishing them, and contriving, that, doing such things,
+my own affairs would have been safe? You, therefore, had you obtained my
+fortunes, would not have oppressed with evils the hostile offspring of a
+hated lion, but would wisely have permitted them to live in Argos; you will
+persuade no one of this. Now then, since they did not destroy me then, when
+I was willing, by the laws of the Greeks I shall, if slain, bear pollution
+to my slayer; and the city, being wise, has let me go, having greater honor
+for God than for its enmity toward me. And to what you said you have heard
+a reply: and now you may call me at once suppliant and brave.[34] Thus is
+the case with me, I do not wish to die, but I should not be grieved at
+leaving life.
+
+CHOR. I wish, O Alcmena, to advise you a little, to let go this man, since
+it seems so to the city.
+
+ALC. But how, if he both die, and still we obey the city?
+
+CHOR. That would be best; but how can that be?
+
+ALC. I will teach you, easily; for having slain him, then I will give his
+corpse to those of his friends who come after him; for I will not deny his
+body to the earth, but he dying, shall satisfy my revenge.
+
+EU. Slay me, I do not deprecate thy wrath. But this city indeed, since it
+has released me, and feared to slay me, I will present with an ancient
+oracle of Apollo, which, in time, will be of greater profit than you would
+expect; for ye will bury me when I am dead, where it is fated, before the
+temple of the divine virgin of Pallene; and being well disposed to you, and
+a protector to the city, I shall ever lie as a sojourner under the ground,
+but most hostile to their descendants when they come hither with much
+force, betraying this kindness: such strangers do ye now defend. How then
+did I, knowing this, come hither, and not respect the oracle of the God?
+Thinking Juno far more powerful than oracles, and that she would not betray
+me, [I did so.] But suffer neither libations nor blood to be poured on my
+tomb, for I will give them an evil return as a requital for these things;
+and ye shall have a double gain from me, I will both profit you and injure
+them by dying.
+
+ALC. Why then do ye delay, if you are fated to accomplish safety to the
+city and to your descendants, to slay this man, hearing these things? for
+they show us the safest path. The man is an enemy, but he will profit us
+dying. Take him away, O servants; then having slain him, ye must give him
+to the dogs; for hope not thou, that living, thou shalt again banish me
+from my native land.
+
+CHOR. These things seem good to me, proceed, O attendants, for every thing
+on our part shall be done completely for our sovereigns.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+NOTES ON THE HERACLYDAE
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+[1] Such seems to be the force of [Greek: eis aner].
+
+[2] But the construction is probably [Greek: aletai ges], (compare my note
+on AEsch. Eum. 63,) and [Greek: apesteremenoi] is _bereaved, destitute_.
+
+[3] Cf. AEsch. Eum. 973.
+
+[4] i.e. Oenoe, Marathon, Probalinthus, and Tricorythus.
+
+[5] Elmsley compares Med. 1209. [Greek: tis ton geronta tymbon orthanon
+sethen tithesi]; so the Latins used "Silicernium." Cf. Fulgent. Expos.
+Serm. Ant. p. 171, ed. Munck.
+
+[6] [Greek: antlos], sentina, bilge-water. See Elmsley.
+
+[7] See Elmsley's note.
+
+[8] See Dindorf, who repents of the reading in the text, and restores
+[Greek: soi gar tod' aischron choris en polei kakon]. He, however, condemns
+this and the two next lines as spurious.
+
+[9] i.e. if I neglect them.
+
+[10] Cf. Hor. Od. iii. 6, 48. "AEtas parentum, pejor avis, tulit Nos
+nequiores, mox daturos Progeniem vitiosiorem."
+
+[11] Cf. Soph. Ant. 127. [Greek: Zeus gar megales glosses kompous
+Hyperechthairei].
+
+[12] Cf. AEsch. Sept. c. Th. 40 sq., also Soph. Oed. T. 6 sqq.
+
+[13] i.e. [Greek: manteis kat' asty thyepholousi]. ELMSLEY.
+
+[14] Pausanias, i. 32, states that the oracle expressly required that one
+of the descendants of Hercules should be devoted, and that upon this
+Macaria, his daughter by Deianira, voluntarily offered herself. Her name
+was afterward given to a fountain. Enripides probably omitted this fact, in
+order to place the noble-mindedness of Macaria in a stronger light. The
+curious reader may compare the similar sacrifices of Codrus, (Pausan. vii.
+25. Vell. Patere. i. 4,) Menoeceus, (Eur. Phoen. 1009, Statius Theb. x. 751
+sqq.,) Chaon (Serv. on Virg. AEn. iii. 335). See also Lomeier de
+Lustrationibus, Sec. xxii., where the whole subject is learnedly treated.
+
+[15] Cf. AEsch. Ag. 206 sqq.
+
+[16] I prefer understanding [Greek: heneka exodon emon] with Elmsley, to
+Matthiae's forced interpretation. Compare Med. 214 sqq.
+
+[17] The cognate accusative to [Greek: draseien] must be supplied from the
+context.
+
+[18] There is some awkwardness in the construction. Perhaps if we read
+[Greek: sperma, tes theias phrenos! peph.] the sense will be improved.
+
+[19] The construction is thus laid down by Elmsley: [Greek: palai gar
+odinousa [peri] ton aphig. ps. et. ei. n. [auton] genesetai]. He remarks
+that [Greek: nostos] often means "arrival," in the tragedians.
+
+[20] See Matthiae. I should, however, prefer [Greek: pais] for [Greek: pou],
+with Elmsley.
+
+[21] [Greek: kata] is understood, as in Thucyd. v. 67. ELMSLEY.
+
+[22] See Alcest. 662, Iph. Taur. 245, and Elmsley's note on this passage.
+
+[23] [Greek: gymnos], _expeditus_. As in agriculture it is applied to the
+husbandman who casts off his upper garment, so also in war it simply
+denotes being without armor.
+
+[24] [Greek: keuthein].
+
+[25] I have corrected [Greek: keleusmasin Argous], with Reiske and Dindorf.
+
+[26] I have adopted Dindorf's correction, [Greek: hessones par' emoi theoi
+phanountai].
+
+[27] i.e. the last, says Brodaeus. But Elmsley prefers taking it for the
+[Greek: noumenia] or Kalends, with Musgrave.
+
+[28] [Greek: doros], which is often used to signify _the fight_, is here
+somewhat boldly put for the arrangement of the battle.
+
+[29] Cf. AEsch. Soph. c. Th. 14 sqq. Elmsley's notes on the whole of this
+spirited passage deserve to be consulted.
+
+[30] [Greek: kratounta] can not be used passively. [Greek: klaionta] is the
+conjecture of Orelli, approved by Dindorf. I have expressed the sense, not
+the text.
+
+[31] See Musgrave's note (apud Dindorf). Tyrwhitt considers all the
+dramatis personae wrongly assigned.
+
+[32] Ironically spoken.
+
+[33] There seems to be something wrong here.
+
+[34] See Matthiae, who explains it: "_me et supplicem_, qui mortem
+deprecetur, _et fortem_, qui mortem contemnat, _dicere licet_."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *       *
+
+IPHIGENIA IN AULIS.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+PERSONS REPRESENTED.
+
+  AGAMEMNON.
+  OLD MAN.
+  MENELAUS.
+  ACHILLES.
+  MESSENGER.
+  ANOTHER MESSENGER.
+  IPHIGENIA.
+  CLYTAEMNESTRA.
+  CHORUS.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE ARGUMENT.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+When the Greeks were detained at Aulis by stress of weather, Calchas
+declared that they would never reach Troy unless the daughter of Agamemnon,
+Iphigenia, was sacrificed to Diana. Agamemnon sent for his daughter with
+this view, but repenting, he dispatched a messenger to prevent Clytaemnestra
+sending her. The messenger being intercepted by Menelaus, an altercation
+between the brother chieftains arose, during which Iphigenia, who had been
+tempted with the expectation of being wedded to Achilles, arrived with her
+mother. The latter, meeting with Achilles, discovered the deception, and
+Achilles swore to protect her. But Iphigenia, having determined to die
+nobly on behalf of the Greeks, was snatched away by the Goddess, and a stag
+substituted in her place. The Greeks were then enabled to set sail.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+IPHIGENIA IN AULIS.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+AGAMEMNON. Come before this dwelling, O aged man.
+
+OLD MAN. I come. But what new thing dost thou meditate, king Agamemnon?
+
+AG. You shall learn.[1]
+
+OLD M. I hasten. My old age is very sleepless, and sits wakeful upon mine
+eyes.
+
+AG. What star can this be that traverses this way?
+
+OLD M. Sirius, flitting yet midway (between the heavens and the ocean,)[2]
+close to the seven Pleiads.
+
+AG. No longer therefore is there the sound either of birds or of the sea,
+but silence of the winds reigns about this Euripus.
+
+OLD M. But why art thou hastening without the tent, king Agamemnon? But
+still there is silence here by Aulis, and the guards of the fortifications
+are undisturbed. Let us go within.
+
+AG. I envy thee, old man, and I envy that man who has passed through a life
+without danger, unknown, unglorious; but I less envy those in honor.
+
+OLD M. And yet 'tis in this that the glory of life is.
+
+AG. But this very glory is uncertain, for the love of popularity is
+pleasant indeed, but hurts when present. Sometimes the worship of the Gods
+not rightly conducted upturns one's life, and sometimes the many and
+dissatisfied opinions of men harass.
+
+OLD M. I praise not these remarks in a chieftain. O Agamemnon, Atreus did
+not beget thee upon a condition of complete good fortune.[3] But thou needs
+must rejoice and grieve; [in turn,] for thou art a mortal born, and even
+though you wish it not, the will of the Gods will be thus. But thou,
+opening the light of a lamp, art both writing this letter, which thou still
+art carrying in thy hands, and again you blot out the same characters, and
+seal, and loose again, and cast the tablet to the ground, pouring abundant
+tears, and thou lackest naught of the unwonted things that tend to madness.
+Why art thou troubled, why art thou troubled? What new thing, what new
+thing [has happened] concerning thee, O king? Come, communicate discourse
+with me. But thou wilt speak to a good and faithful man, for to thy wife
+Tyndarus sent me once on a time, as a dower-gift, and disinterested
+companion.[4]
+
+AG. To Leda, daughter of Thestias, were born three virgins, Phoebe, and
+Clytaemnestra my spouse, and Helen. Of this latter, the youths of Greece
+that were in the first state of prosperity came as suitors. But terrible
+threats of bloodshed[5] arose against one another, from whoever should not
+obtain the virgin. But the matter was difficult for her father Tyndarus,
+whether to give, or not to give [her in marriage,] and how he might best
+deal with the circumstances, when this occurred to him; that the suitors
+should join oaths and plight right hands with one another, and over
+burnt-offerings should enter into treaty, and bind themselves by this oath,
+"Of whomsoever the daughter of Tyndarus shall become wife, that they will
+join to assist him, if any one should depart from his house taking [her]
+with him, and excluding the possessor from his bed, and that they will make
+an expedition in arms, and sack the city [of the ravisher,] Greek or
+barbarian alike." But after they had pledged themselves, the old man
+Tyndarus somehow cleverly overreached them by a cunning plan. He permits
+his daughter to choose one of the suitors, toward whom the friendly gales
+of Venus might impel her. But she chose (whom would she had never taken!)
+Menelaus. And he who, according to the story told by men, once judged the
+Goddesses, coming from Phrygia to Lacedaemon, flowered in the vesture of his
+garments, and glittering with gold, barbarian finery, loving Helen who
+loved him, he stole and bore her away to the bull-stalls of Ida, having
+found Menelaus abroad. But he, goaded hastily[6] through Greece, calls to
+witness the old oath given to Tyndarus, that it behooves to assist the
+aggrieved. Henceforth the Greeks hastening with the spear, having taken
+their arms, come to this Aulis with its narrow straits, with ships and
+shields together, and accoutred with many horses and chariots. And they
+chose me general of the host, out of regard for Menelaus, being his brother
+forsooth. And would that some other than I had obtained the dignity. But
+when the army was assembled and levied, we sat, having no power of sailing,
+at Aulis. But Calchas the seer proclaimed to us, being at a loss, that we
+should sacrifice Iphigenia, whom I begat, to Diana, who inhabits this
+place, and that if we sacrificed her, we should have both our voyage, and
+the sacking of Troy, but that this should not befall us if we did not
+sacrifice her. But I hearing this in rousing proclamation, bade Talthybius
+dismiss the whole army, as I should never have the heart to slay my
+daughter. Upon this, indeed, my brother, alleging every kind of reasoning,
+persuaded me to dare the dreadful deed, and having written in the folds of
+a letter, I sent word to my wife to send her daughter as if to be married
+to Achilles, both enlarging on the dignity of the man, and asserting that
+he would not sail with the Greeks, unless a wife for him from among us
+should come to Phthia. For I had this means of persuading my wife, having
+made up a pretended match for the virgin. But we alone of the Greeks know
+how these matters are, Calchas, Ulysses, and Nestor. But the things which I
+then determined not well, I am now differently writing so as to be well, in
+this letter, which by the shadow of night thou beheldest me opening and
+closing, old man. But come, go thou, taking these letters, to Argos. But as
+to what the letter conceals in its folds, I will tell thee in words all
+that is written therein; for thou art faithful to my wife and house.
+
+OLD M. Speak, and tell me, that with my tongue I may also say what agrees
+with your letter.
+
+AG. (reading) "I send to thee, O germ of Leda, besides[7] my former
+dispatches, not to send thy daughter to the bay-like wing of Euboea,[8]
+waveless Aulis. For we will delay the bridals of our daughter till another
+season."
+
+OLD M. And how will not Achilles raise up his temper against thee and thy
+wife, showing great wrath at failing of his spouse? This also is terrible.
+Show what thou meanest.
+
+AG. Achilles, furnishing the pretext, not the reality, knows not these
+nuptials, nor what we are doing; nor that I have professed to give my
+daughter into the nuptial chain of his arms by marriage.[9]
+
+OLD M. Thou venturest terrible things, king Agamemnon, who, having promised
+thy daughter as wife to the son of the Goddess, dost lead her as a
+sacrifice on behalf of the Greeks.
+
+AG. Ah me! I was out of my senses. Alas! And I am falling into calamity.
+But go, plying thy foot, yielding naught to old age.
+
+OLD M. I hasten, O king.
+
+AG. Do not thou either sit down by the woody fountains, nor repose in
+sleep.
+
+OLD M. Speak good words.
+
+AG. But every where as you pass the double track, look about, watching lest
+there escape thee a chariot passing with swift wheels, bearing my daughter
+hither to the ships of the Greeks.
+
+OLD M. This shall be.
+
+AG. And go out of the gates[10] quickly,+ for if you meet with the
+procession,+ again go forth, shake the reins, going to the temples reared
+by the Cyclops.
+
+OLD M. But tell me, how, saying this, I shall obtain belief from thy
+daughter and wife.
+
+AG. Preserve the seal, this which thou bearest on this letter. Go: morn,
+already dawning forth this light, grows white, and the fire of the sun's
+four steeds. Aid me in my toils. But no one of mortals is prosperous or
+blest to the last, for none hath yet been born free from pain.
+
+CHORUS. I came to the sands of the shore of marine Aulis, having sailed
+through the waves of Euripus, quitting Chalcis with its narrow strait, my
+city, the nurse of the sea-neighboring waters[11] of renowned Arethusa, in
+order that I might behold the army of the Greeks, and the ship-conveying
+oars of the Grecian youths, whom against Troy in a thousand ships of fir,
+our husbands say that yellow-haired Menelaus and Agamemnon of noble birth,
+are leading in quest of Helen,[12] whom the herdsman Paris bore from
+reed-nourishing Eurotas, a gift of Venus, when at the fountain dews Venus
+held contest, contest respecting beauty with Juno and Pallas. But I came
+swiftly through the wood of Diana with its many sacrifices, making my cheek
+red with youthful modesty, wishing to behold the defense of the shield, and
+the arm-bearing tents[13] of the Greeks, and the crowd of steeds. But I saw
+the two Ajaces companions, the son of Oileus, and the son of Telamon, the
+glory of Salamis, and Protesilaus and Palamedes, whom the daughter of
+Neptune bore, diverting themselves[14] with the complicated figures of
+draughts, and Diomede rejoicing in the pleasures of the disk, and by them
+Merione, the blossom of Mars, a marvel to mortals, and the son of Laertes
+from the mountains of the isle, and with them Nireus, fairest of the
+Greeks, and Achilles, tempest-like in the course, fleet as the winds, whom
+Thetis bore, and Chiron trained up, I beheld him on the shore, coursing in
+arms along the shingles. And he toiled through a contest of feet, running
+against a chariot of four steeds for victory. But the charioteer cried out,
+Eumelus, the grandson of Pheres,[15] whose most beauteous steeds I beheld,
+decked out with gold-tricked bits, hurried on by the lash, the middle ones
+in yoke dappled with white-spotted hair, but those outside, in loose
+harness, running contrariwise in the bendings of the course, bays, with
+dappled skins under their legs with solid hoofs. Close by which Pelides was
+running in arms, by the orb and wheels of the chariot.[16] And I came to
+the multitude of ships, a sight not to be described, that I might satiate
+the sight of my woman's eyes, a sweet delight. And at the right horn [of
+the fleet] was the Phthiotic army of the Myrmidons, with fifty valiant
+ships. And in golden effigies the Nereid Goddesses stood on the summit of
+the poops, the standard of the host of Achilles. And next to these there
+stood the Argive ships, with equal number of oars, of which [Euryalus] the
+grandson of Mecisteus was general, whom his father Talaus trains up, and
+Sthenelus son of Capaneus. But [Acamas] son of Theseus, leading sixty ships
+from Athens, kept station, having the Goddess Pallas placed[17] in her
+equestrian winged chariot, a prosperous sign to sailors. But I beheld the
+armament of the Boeotians, fifty sea-bound ships, with signs at the
+figure-heads, and their sign was Cadmus, holding a golden dragon, at the
+beaks of the ships, and Leitus the earth-born was leader of the naval
+armament, and [I beheld] those from the Phocian land. But the son of
+Oileus, leading an equal number of Locrian ships, came, having left the
+Thronian city. But from Cyclopian Mycenae the son of Atreus sent the
+assembled mariners of a hundred ships. And with him was Adrastus, as friend
+with friend, in order that Greece might wreak vengeance on those who fled
+their homes, for the sake of barbarian nuptials. But from Pylos we beheld
+on the poops of Gerenian Nestor, a sign bull-footed to view, his neighbor
+Alpheus. But there were twelve beaks of AEnian ships, which king Gyneus led,
+and near these again the chieftains of Elis, whom all the people named
+Epeians, and o'er these Eurytus had power. But the white-oared Taphian host
+* * * * led,[18] which Meges ruled, the offspring of Phyleus, leaving the
+island Echinades, inaccessible to sailors. And Ajax, the foster-child of
+Salamis, joined the right horn to the left, to which he was stationed
+nearest, joining them with his furthermost ships, with twelve most swift
+vessels, as I heard, and beheld the naval people. To which if any one add
+the barbarian barks, * * * * it will not obtain a return. * * * * Where I
+beheld the naval expedition, but hearing other things at home I preserve
+remembrance of the assembled army.
+
+OLD M. Menelaus, thou art daring dreadful deeds thou shouldst not dare.
+
+MENELAUS. Away with thee! thou art too faithful to thy masters.
+
+OLD M. An honorable rebuke thou hast rebuked me with!
+
+MEN. To thy cost shall it be, if thou dost that thou shouldst not do.
+
+OLD M. You have no right to open the letter which I was carrying.
+
+MEN. Nor shouldst thou bear ills to all the Greeks.
+
+OLD M. Contest this point with others, but give up this [letter] to me.
+
+MEN. I will not let it go.
+
+OLD M. Nor will I let it go.
+
+MEN. Then quickly with my sceptre will I make thine head bloody.
+
+OLD M. But glorious it is to die for one's masters.
+
+MEN. Let go. Being a slave, thou speakest too many words.
+
+OLD M. O master, I am wronged, and this man, having snatched thy letter out
+of my hands, O Agamemnon, is unwilling to act rightly.
+
+MEN. Ah! what is this tumult and disorder of words?
+
+OLD M. My words, not his, are fittest to speak.[19]
+
+AG. But wherefore, Menelaus, dost thou come to strife with this man and art
+dragging him by force?
+
+MEN. Look at me, that I may take this commencement of my speech.
+
+AG. What, shall I through fear not open mine eyelids, being born of Atreus?
+
+MEN. Seest thou this letter, the minister of writings most vile?
+
+AG. I see it, and do thou first let it go from thy hands.
+
+MEN. Not, at least, before I show to the Greeks what is written therein.
+
+AG. What, knowest thou what 'tis unseasonable thou shouldst know, having
+broken the seal?
+
+MEN. Ay, so as to pain thee, having unfolded the ills thou hast wrought
+privily.
+
+AG. But where didst thou obtain it? O Gods, for thy shameless heart!
+
+MEN. Expecting thy daughter from Argos, whether she will come to the army.
+
+AG. What behooves thee to keep watch upon my affairs? Is not this the act
+of a shameless man?
+
+MEN. Because the will [to do so] teased me, and I am not born thy slave.
+
+AG. Is it not dreadful? Shall I not be suffered to be master of my own
+family?
+
+MEN. For thou thinkest inconsistently, now one thing, before another,
+another thing presently.
+
+AG. Well hast thou talked evil. Hateful is a too clever tongue.[20]
+
+MEN. But an unstable mind is an unjust thing to possess, and not clear[21]
+for friends. I wish to expostulate with thee, but do not thou in wrath turn
+away from the truth, nor will I speak overlong. Thou knowest when thou wast
+making interest to be leader of the Greeks against Troy--in seeming indeed
+not wishing it, but wishing it in will--how humble thou wast, taking hold
+of every right hand, and keeping open doors to any of the people that
+wished, and giving audience to all in turn even if one wished it not,
+seeking by manners to purchase popularity among the multitude. But when you
+obtained the power, changing to different manners, you were no longer the
+same friend as before to your old friends, difficult of access,[22] and
+rarely within doors. But it behooves not a man who has met with great
+fortune to change his manners, but then chiefly to be firm toward his
+friends, when he is best able to benefit them, being prosperous. I have
+first gone over these charges against thee, in which I first found thee
+base. But when thou afterward camest into Aulis and to the army of all the
+Greeks, thou wast naught, but wast in stupefaction at the fortune which
+then befell us from the Gods, lacking a favorable breeze for the journey.
+But the Greeks demanded that you should dismiss the ships, and not toil
+vainly at Aulis. But how cheerless and distressed a countenance you wore,
+because you were not able to land your army at Priam's land, having a
+thousand ships under command.[23] And thou besoughtest me, "What shall I
+do?" "But what resource shall I find from whence?" so that thou mightest
+not lose an ill renown, being deprived of the command. And then, when
+Calchas o'er the victims said that thou must sacrifice thy daughter to
+Diana, and that there would [then] be means of sailing for the Greeks,
+delighted in heart, you gladly promised to sacrifice your child, and of
+your own accord, not by compulsion--do not say so--you send to your wife to
+convoy your daughter hither, on a pretext of being wedded to Achilles. And
+then changing [your mind] you are caught altering to other writings, to the
+effect that you will not now be the slayer of your daughter. Very pretty,
+forsooth! This is the same air which heard these very protestations from
+thee. But innumerable men experience this in their affairs; they persevere
+in labor when in power,[24] and then make a bad result, sometimes through
+the foolish mind of the citizens, but sometimes with reason, themselves
+becoming incapable of preserving the state, I indeed chiefly groan for
+hapless Greece, who, wishing to work some doughty deed against these
+good-for-nothing barbarians, will let them, laughing at us, slip through
+her hands, on account of thee and thy daughter. I would not make any one
+ruler of the land for the sake of necessity,[25] nor chieftain of armed
+men. It behooves the general of the state to possess sense, for every man
+is a ruler who possesses sense.
+
+CHOR. 'Tis dreadful for words and strife to happen between brothers, when
+they fall into dispute.
+
+AG. I wish to address thee in evil terms, but mildly,[26] in brief, not
+uplifting mine eyelids too much aloft through insolence, but moderately, as
+being my brother. For a good man is wont to show respect [to others.] Tell
+me, why dost thou burst forth thus violently, having thy face suffused with
+rage? Who wrongs thee? What lackest thou? Wouldst fain gain a good wife! I
+can not supply thee, for thou didst ill rule over the one you possessed.
+Must I therefore pay the penalty of your mismanagement, who have made no
+mistake? Or does my ambition annoy thee? But wouldst thou fain hold in
+thine arms a fair woman, forgetting discretion and honor? Evil pleasures
+belong to an evil man. But if I, having before resolved ill, have changed
+to good counsel, am I mad? Rather art thou [mad,] who, having lost a bad
+wife, desirest to recover her, when God has well prospered thy fortune. The
+nuptial-craving suitors in their folly swore the oath to Tyndarus, but
+hope, I ween, was their God, and wrought this more than thyself and thy
+strength. Whom taking[27] make thou the expedition, but I think thou wilt
+know [that it is] through the folly of their hearts, for the divinity is
+not ignorant, but is capable of discerning oaths ill plighted and perforce.
+But I will not slay my children, so that thy state will in justice be well,
+revenge upon the worst of wives, but nights and days will waste me away in
+tears, having wrought lawless, unjust deeds against the children whom I
+begat. These words are briefly spoken to thee, both plain and easy, but if
+thou art unwilling to be wise, I will arrange my own affairs well.
+
+CHOR. These words are different from those before spoken, but they are to a
+good effect, that the children be spared.
+
+MEN. Alas! alas! have I then wretched no friends?
+
+AG. [Yes, you have,] at least, if you do not wish to ruin your friends.
+
+MEN. But how will you show that you are born of the same sire with me?
+
+AG. I am born to be wise with you, not foolish.[28]
+
+MEN. It behooves friends to grieve in common with friends.
+
+AG. Admonish me by well doing, not by paining me.
+
+MEN. Dost thou not then think fit to toil through this with Greece?
+
+AG. But Greece, with thee, is sickening through some deity.
+
+MEN. Vaunt then on thy sceptre, having betrayed thy brother. But I will
+seek some other schemes, and other friends.
+
+[_Enter a Messenger_.[29]]
+
+MESSENGER. O Agamemnon, king of all the Greeks, I am come, bringing thy
+daughter to thee, whom thou didst name Iphigenia in thy palace. But her
+mother follows, the person of thy [wife] Clytaemnestra, and the boy Orestes,
+that thou mayest be pleased at the sight, being away from thine home a long
+season. But as they have come a long way, they and their mares are
+refreshing their female feet by the fair-flowing fountain, and we let loose
+the mares in a grassy meadow, that they might taste fodder. But I am come
+before them to prepare you [for their reception,] for a swift report passed
+through the army, that thy daughter had arrived. And all the multitude
+comes out hastily to the spectacle, that they may behold thy child. For
+prosperous men are renowned and conspicuous among all mortals. And they
+say, "Is there a marriage on foot? or what is going on?" Or, "Has king
+Agamemnon, having a yearning after his daughter, brought his child hither?"
+But from some you would have heard this: "They are initiating[30] the
+damsel in honor of Artemis, queen of Aulis, who will marry her." But come,
+get ready the baskets,[31] which come next, crown thine head. And do thou,
+king Menelaus, prepare a nuptial lay, and through the house let the pipe
+sound and let there be noise of feet, for this day comes blessed upon the
+virgin.
+
+AG. I commend [your words,] but go thou within the house, and it shall be
+well, as fortune takes its course. Alas! what shall I wretched say? Whence
+shall I begin? Into what fetters of necessity have I fallen! Fortune has
+upturned me, so as to become far too clever for my cleverness. But lowness
+of birth has some advantage thus. For such persons are at liberty to weep,
+and speak unhappy words, but to him that is of noble birth, all these
+things belong. We have our dignity as ruler of our life, and are slaves to
+the multitude. For I am ashamed indeed to let fall the tear, yet again
+wretched am I ashamed not to weep, having come into the greatest
+calamities. Well! what shall I say to my wife? How shall I receive her?
+What manner of countenance shall I present? And truly she hath undone me,
+coming uncalled amidst the ills which before possessed me. And with reason
+did she follow her daughter, being about to deck her as a bride,[32] and to
+perform the dearest offices, where she will find us base. But for this
+hapless virgin--why [call her] virgin? Hades, as it seems, will speedily
+attend on her nuptials,--how do I pity her! For I think that she will
+beseech me thus: O father, wilt thou slay me? Such a wedding mayest thou
+thyself wed, and whosoever is a friend to thee. But Orestes being present
+will cry out knowingly words not knowing, for he is yet an infant. Alas!
+how has Priam's son, Paris, undone me by wedding the nuptials of Paris, who
+has wrought this!
+
+CHOR. And I also pity her, as it becomes a stranger woman to moan for the
+misfortune of her lords.
+
+MEN. Brother, give me thy right hand to touch.
+
+AG. I give it, for thine is the power, but I am wretched.
+
+MEN. I swear by Pelops, who was called the sire of my father and thine, and
+my father Atreus, that I indeed will tell thee plainly from my heart, and
+not any thing out of contrivance, but only what I think. I, beholding thee
+letting fall the tear from thine eyes, pitied thee, and myself let fall [a
+tear] for thee in return. And I have changed[33] my old determinations, not
+being wrath against you, but I will place myself in your present situation,
+and I recommend you neither to slay your child, nor to take my part; for it
+is not just that thou shouldst groan, but my affairs be in a pleasant
+state, and that thine should die, but mine behold the light. For what do I
+wish? Might I not obtain another choice alliance, if I crave nuptials? But,
+having undone my brother, whom it least behooved me, shall I receive Helen,
+an evil in place of a good? I was foolish and young, before that, viewing
+the matter closely, I saw what it is to beget children. Besides, pity came
+over me, considering our connection, for the hapless girl, who is about to
+be sacrificed because of my marriage. But what has thy virgin [daughter] to
+do with Helen? Let the army go, being disbanded from Aulis. But cease thou
+bedewing thine eyes with tears, my brother, and exciting me to tears. But
+if I have any concern in the oracle respecting thy daughter, let me have
+none: to thee I yield my part. But I have come to a change[34] from
+terrible resolutions. I have experienced[35] what was meet. I have changed
+to regard him who is sprung from a common source. Such changes belong not
+to a bad man, [viz.] to follow the best always.
+
+CHOR. Thou hast spoken generous words, and becoming Tantalus the son of
+Jove. Thou disgracest not thine ancestors.
+
+AG. I commend thee, Menelaus, in that, contrary to my expectation, you have
+subjoined these words, rightly, and worthily of thee.
+
+MEN. A certain disturbance[36] between brothers arises on account of love,
+and avarice in their houses. I abhor such a relationship, mutually sore.
+
+AG. But [consider,] for we are come into circumstances that render it
+necessary to accomplish the bloody slaughter of my daughter.
+
+MEN. How? Who will compel thee to slay thy child?
+
+AG. The whole assembly of the armament of the Greeks.
+
+MEN. Not so, if at least thou dismiss it back to Argos.
+
+AG. In this matter I might escape discovery, but in that I can not.[37]
+
+MEN. What? One should not too much fear the multitude.
+
+AG. Calchas will proclaim his prophecy to the army of the Greeks.
+
+MEN. Not if he die first--and this is easy.
+
+AG. The whole race of seers is an ambitious ill.
+
+MEN. And in naught good or profitable, when at hand.[38]
+
+AG. But dost thou not fear that which occurs to me?
+
+MEN. How can I understand the word you say not?
+
+AG. The son of Sisyphus knows all these matters.
+
+MEN. It can not be that Orestes can pain thee and me.
+
+AG. He is ever changeable, and with the multitude.
+
+MEN. He is indeed possessed with the passion for popularity, a dreadful
+evil.
+
+AG. Do you not then think that he, standing in the midst of the Greeks,
+will tell the oracles which Calchas pronounced, and of me, that I promised
+to offer a sacrifice to Diana, and then break my word. With which [words]
+having carried away the army, he will bid the Greeks slay thee and me, and
+sacrifice the damsel. And if I flee to Argos, they will come and ravage and
+raze the land, Cyclopean walls and all. Such are my troubles. O unhappy me!
+How, by the Gods, am I at a loss in these present matters! Take care of one
+thing for me, Menelaus, going through the army, that Clytaemnestra may not
+learn these matters, before I take and offer my daughter to Hades, that I
+may fare ill with as few tears as possible. But do ye, O stranger women,
+preserve silence.
+
+CHORUS. Blest are they who share the nuptial bed of the Goddess
+Aphrodite,[39] when she is moderate, and with modesty, obtaining a calm
+from the maddening stings, when Love with his golden locks stretches his
+twin bow of graces, the one for a prosperous fate, the other for the
+upturning of life. I deprecate this [bow,] O fairest Venus, from our beds,
+but may mine be a moderate grace, and holy endearments, and may I share
+Aphrodite, but reject her when excessive. But the natures of mortals are
+different, and their manners are different,[40] but that which is clearly
+good is ever plain. And the education which trains[41] [men] up, conduces
+greatly to virtue, for to have reverence is wisdom, and it possesses an
+equivalent advantage, viz. to perceive what is fitting by one's mind, where
+report bears unwasting glory to life.[42] 'Tis a great thing to hunt for
+[the praise of] virtue, among women indeed, by a secret affection,[43] but
+among men, on the other hand, honor being inherent,[44] [bears that praise,
+honor,] which increases a state to an incalculable extent.[45]
+
+Thou earnest, O Paris, +where thou wast trained up a shepherd with the
+white heifers of Ida, trilling a barbarian lay, breathing an imitation of
+the Phrygian pipes of Olympus on a reed. And the cows with their
+well-filled udders browsed, when the judgment of the Goddesses drove thee
+mad, which sends thee into Greece,+ before the ivory-decked palaces, thou
+who didst strike love into the eyes of Helen which were upon thee, and
+thyself wast fluttered with love. Whence strife, strife brings Greece
+against the bulwarks of Troy with spears and ships.+ Alas! alas! great are
+the fortunes of the great.[46] Behold the king's daughter, Iphigenia, my
+queen, and Clytaemnestra, daughter of Tyndarus, how are they sprung from the
+great, and to what suitable fortune they are come. The powerful, in sooth,
+and the wealthy, are Gods to those of mortals who are unblest. [Let us
+stand still, ye children of Chalcis, let us receive the queen from her
+chariot to the earth, not unsteadily, but gently with the soft attention of
+our hands, lest the renowned daughter of Agamemnon, newly coming to me, be
+alarmed, nor let us, as strangers to strangers, cause disturbance or fear
+to the Argive ladies.[47]]
+
+[_Enter_ Clytaemnestra, IPHIGENIA, _and probably_ ORESTES _in a chariot.
+They descend from it, while the Chorus make obeisance_.]
+
+CLY. I regard both your kindness and your favorable words as a good omen,
+and I have some hope that I am here as escort [of my daughter] to honorable
+nuptials. But take out of my chariot the dower-gifts which I bear for my
+girl, and send them carefully into the house. And do thou, my child, quit
+the horse-chariot, setting [carefully] thy foot delicate and at the same
+time tender. But you,[48] maidens, receive her in your arms, and lift her
+from the chariot. And let some one give me the firm support of his hand,
+that I may beseemingly leave the chariot-seat. But do some[49] of you stand
+in front of the horses' yoke, for the uncontrolled eye of horses is
+timorous, and take this boy, the son of Agamemnon, Orestes, for he is still
+an infant. Child! dost sleep, overcome by the ride? Wake up happily for thy
+sisters' nuptials. For thou thyself being noble shalt obtain relationship
+with a good man, the God-like son of the daughter of Nereus. [[50]Next come
+thou close to my foot, O daughter, to thy mother, Iphigenia, and standing
+near, show these strangers how happy I am, and come hither indeed, and
+address thy dear father.] O thou most great glory to me, king Agamemnon, we
+are come, not disobeying thy bidding.
+
+IPH. O mother, running indeed, (but be thou not angry,) I will apply my
+breast to my father's breast. [[51]But I wish, rushing to embrace thy
+breast, O father, after a long season. For I long for thy face. But do not
+be angry.]
+
+CLY. But, O my child, enjoy [thine embraces,] but thou wert ever most fond
+of thy father, of all the children I bore.
+
+IPH. O father, joyous do I behold thee after a long season.
+
+AG. And I, thy father, [joyously behold] thee. Thou speakest thus equally
+in respect to both.
+
+IPH. Hail! But well hast thou done in bringing me to thee, O father.
+
+AG. I know not how I shall say, yet not say so, my child.
+
+IPH. Ah! how uneasily dost thou regard me, joyfully beholding me [before.]
+
+AG. A king and general has many cares.
+
+IPH. Give thyself up to me now, and turn not thyself to cares.
+
+AG. But I am altogether concerned with thee, and on no other subject.
+
+IPH. Relax thy brow, and open thy eyes in joy.
+
+AG. See, I rejoice as I rejoice, at seeing thee, child.[52]
+
+IPH. And then dost let fall a tear from thine eyes?
+
+AG. For long to us is the coming absence.
+
+IPH. I know not what you mean, I know not, dearest father mine.
+
+AG. Speaking sensibly, thou movest me the more to pity.
+
+IPH. I will speak foolishly, if I so may rejoice you.
+
+AG. Alas! I can not keep silence, but I commend thee.
+
+IPH. Remain, O father, in the house with thy children,
+
+AG. I fain would, but not having what I would, I am pained.
+
+IPH. Perish war and the ills of Menelaus![53]
+
+AG. What has undone me will first undo others.
+
+IPH. How long a time wast thou absent in the recesses of Aulis!
+
+AG. And now also there is something hinders me from sending on the army.
+
+IPH. Where say they that the Phrygians dwell, father?
+
+AG. Where would that Paris, Priam's son, had never dwelt.
+
+IPH. And dost thou go a long distance, O father, when thou leavest me?
+
+AG. Thou art come, my daughter, to the same state with thy father.[54]
+
+IPH. Alas! would that it were fitting me and thee to take me with thee as
+thy fellow-sailor.
+
+AG. But there is yet a sailing for thee, where thou wilt remember thy
+father.
+
+IPH. Shall I go, sailing with my mother, or alone?
+
+AG. Alone, apart from thy father and mother.
+
+IPH. What, art thou going to make me dwell in other houses, father?
+
+AG. Cease. It is not proper for girls to know these matters.
+
+IPH. Hasten back from Phrygia, do, my father, having settled matters well
+there.
+
+AG. It first behooves me to offer a certain sacrifice here.
+
+IPH. But it is with the priests that thou shouldst consider sacred matters.
+
+AG. [Yet] shalt thou know it, for thou wilt stand round the altar.
+
+IPH. What, shall we stand in chorus round the altar, my father?[55]
+
+AG. I deem thee happier than myself, for that thou know-est nothing. But go
+within the house, that the girls may behold thee,[56] having given me a sad
+kiss and thy right hand, being about to dwell a long time away from thy
+sire. O bosom and cheeks, O yellow tresses, how has the city of the
+Phrygians proved a burden to us, and Helen! I cease my words, for swift
+does the drop trickle from mine eyes when I touch thee. Go into the house.
+But I, I crave thy pardon, (_to Clytaemnestra_,) daughter of Leda, if I
+showed too much feeling, being about to bestow my daughter on Achilles. For
+the departure [of a girl] is a happy one, but nevertheless it pains the
+parents, when a father, who has toiled much, delivers up his children to
+another home.
+
+CLY. I am not so insensible--but think thou that I shall experience the
+same feelings, (so that I should not chide thee,) when I lead forth my girl
+with nuptial rejoicings, but custom wears away these thoughts in course of
+time. I know, however, the name of him to whom thou hast promised thy
+daughter, but I would fain know of what race, and whence [he is.]
+
+AG. AEgina was the daughter of her father Asopus.
+
+CLY. And who of mortals or of Gods wedded her?
+
+AG. Jove, and she gave birth to AEacus, prince of Oenone.
+
+CLY. But what son obtained the house of AEacus?
+
+AG. Peleus, and Peleus obtained the daughter of Nereus.
+
+CLY. By the gift of the God, or taking her in spite of the Gods?
+
+AG. Jove acted as a sponsor, and bestowed her, having the power.[57]
+
+CLY. And where does he wed her? In the wave of the sea?
+
+AG. Where Chiron dwells at the sacred foot of Pelion.
+
+CLY. Where they say that the race of Centaurs dwells?
+
+AG. Here the Gods celebrated the nuptial feast of Peleus.
+
+CLY. But did Thetis, or his father, train up Achilles?
+
+AG. Chiron, that he might not learn the manners of evil mortals.
+
+CLY. Hah! wise was the instructor, and wiser he who intrusted him.
+
+AG. Such a man will be the husband of thy child.
+
+CLY. Not to be found fault with. But what city in Greece does he inhabit?
+
+AG. Near the river Apidanus in the confines of Phthia.
+
+CLY. Thither will he lead thy virgin [daughter] and mine.
+
+AG. This shall be the care of him, her possessor.
+
+CLY. And may the pair be happy; but on what day will he wed her?
+
+AG. When the prospering orb of the moon comes round.
+
+CLY. But hast thou already sacrificed the first offerings for thy daughter
+to the Goddess?
+
+AG. I am about to do so. In this matter we are now engaged.
+
+CLY. And wilt thou then celebrate a wedding-feast afterward?
+
+AG. [Ay,] having sacrificed such offerings as it behooves me to sacrifice
+to the Gods.
+
+CLY. But where shall we set out a banquet for the women?
+
+AG. Here, by the fair-pooped ships of the Greeks.
+
+CLY. Well, and poorly,[58] forsooth! but may it nevertheless turn out well.
+
+AG. Do then thou knowest what, O lady, and obey me.
+
+CLY. In what? for I am accustomed to obey thee.
+
+AG. We indeed in this place, where the bridegroom is--
+
+CLY. Will do what without the mother, [of those things] which it behooves
+me to do?
+
+AG. --will bestow your daughter among the Greeks.
+
+CLY. But where must I be in the mean time?
+
+AG. Go to Argos, and take care of your virgins.
+
+CLY. Leaving my child? And who will bear the [nuptial] torch?
+
+AG. I will furnish the light that becomes the nuptials.
+
+CLY. The custom is not thus, but you think these matters trifles.
+
+AG. It is not proper that thou shouldst mingle in the crowd of the army.
+
+CLY. It is proper that I, the mother, should bestow at least my own
+daughter.
+
+AG. And it [is proper] that the damsels at home should not be alone.
+
+CLY. They are well guarded in their close chambers.
+
+AG. Obey me.
+
+CLY. [No,] by the Argive Goddess queen. But go you, and attend to matters
+abroad, but I [will mind] the affairs at home, as to the things which
+should be present to virgins at their wedding.[59]
+
+AG. Alas! In vain have I toiled,[60] and have been frustrated in my hope,
+wishing to send my wife out of my sight. But I am using stratagems, and
+finding contrivances against those I best love, overcome at all points. But
+nevertheless with the prophet Calchas I will go and ask the pleasure of the
+Goddess, not fortunate for me, the trouble of Greece.[61] But it behooves a
+wise man either to support a useful and good wife in his house or not to
+marry at all.[62]
+
+CHORUS. The assembly of the Grecian army will come to Simois, and to the
+silver eddies, both with ships and with arms, to Ilium, and to the
+Phoebeian plain of Troy, where I hear that Cassandra, adorned with a
+green-blossoming crown of laurel, lets loose her yellow locks, when the
+prophetic influence of the Gods breathes upon her. And the Trojans will
+stand upon the towers of Troy and around its walls, when brazen-shielded
+Mars, borne over the sea in fair-prowed ships, approaches the beds of
+Simois by rowing, seeking to bear away Helen, [the sister] of the twain
+sons of Jove in heaven, into the land of Greece, by the war-toiling shields
+and spears of the Greeks. But having surrounded Pergamus,[63] the city of
+the Phrygians, around its towers of stone, with bloody Mars, having torn
+off the heads [of the citizens] cut from their necks, having completely
+ravaged the city of Troy, he will make the daughters and wife of Priam shed
+many tears. But Helen, the daughter of Jove, will sit+ in sad lamentation,
+having left her husband. Never upon me or upon my children's children may
+this expectation come, such as the wealthy Lydian and Phrygian wives
+possess while at their spinning, conversing thus with each other. Who,[64]
+dragging out my fair-haired tresses, will choose me as his spoil despite my
+tears, while my country is perishing? Through thee [forsooth,] the
+offspring of the long-necked swan, if indeed the report is true, that Leda
++ met with[65] a winged bird, when the body of Jove was transformed, and
+then in the tablets of the muses fables spread these reports among men,
+inopportunely, and in vain.
+
+[_Enter_ ACHILLES.]
+
+ACHILLES. Where about here is the general of the Greeks? Who of the
+servants will tell him that Achilles, the son of Peleus, is seeking him at
+the gates? For we do not remain by the Euripus in equal condition; for some
+of us being unyoked in nuptials, having left our solitary homes, sit here
+upon the shore, but others, having wives and children:[66] so violent a
+passion for this expedition has fallen upon Greece, not without the will of
+the Gods. It is therefore right that I should speak of what concerns me,
+and whoever else wishes will himself speak for himself. For leaving the
+Pharsalian land, and Peleus, I am waiting for these light gales of
+Euripus,[67] restraining the Myrmidons, who are continually pressing me,
+and saying, "Achilles, why tarry we? what manner of time must the armament
+against Troy yet measure out? At any rate act, if you are going to do any
+thing, or lead the army home, not abiding the delays of the Atrides."
+
+CLY. O son of the Goddess, daughter of Nereus, hearing from within thy
+words, I have come out before the house.
+
+ACH. O hallowed modesty, who can this woman be whom I behold here,
+possessing a fair-seeming form?
+
+CLY. It is no wonder that you know me not, whom you have never seen before,
+but I commend you because you respect modesty.
+
+ACH. But who art thou? And wherefore hast thou come to the assembly of the
+Greeks, a woman to men guarded with shields?
+
+CLY. I am the daughter of Leda, and Clytaemnestra is my name, and my husband
+is king Agamemnon.
+
+ACH. Well hast thou in few words spoken what is seasonable. But it is
+unbecoming for me to converse with women. (_Is going_.)
+
+CLY. Remain, (why dost thou fly?) at least join thy right hand with mine,
+as a happy commencement of betrothal.
+
+ACH. What sayest thou? I [give] thee my right hand? I should be ashamed of
+Agamemnon, if I touched what is not lawful for me.
+
+CLY. It is particularly lawful, since you are going to wed my daughter, O
+son of the sea Goddess, daughter of Nereus.
+
+ACH. What marriage dost thou say? Surprise possesses me, lady, unless,
+being beside yourself, you speak this new thing.
+
+CLY. This is the nature of all people, to be ashamed when they behold new
+friends, and are put in mind of nuptials.
+
+ACH. I never wooed thy daughter, lady, nor has any thing been said to me on
+the subject of marriage by the Atrides.
+
+CLY. What can it be? Do you in turn marvel at my words, for thine are a
+marvel to me.
+
+ACH. Conjecture; these matters are a common subject for conjecture, for
+both of us perhaps are deceived in our words.[68]
+
+CLY. But surely I have suffered terrible things! I am acting as match-maker
+in regard to a marriage that has no existence. I am ashamed of this.
+
+ACH. Perhaps some one has trifled with both me and thee. But pay no
+attention to it, and bear it with indifference.
+
+CLY. Farewell, for I can no longer behold thee with uplifted eyes, having
+appeared as a liar, and suffered unworthy things.
+
+ACH. And this same [farewell] is thine from me. But I will go seek thy
+husband within this house.
+
+[_The_ OLD MAN _appears at the door of the house_.]
+
+OLD M. O stranger, grandson of AEacus, remain. Ho! thee, I say, the son of
+the Goddess, and thee, the daughter of Leda.
+
+ACM. Who is it that calls, partially opening the doors? With what terror he
+calls!
+
+OLD M. A slave. I will not be nice about the title, for fortune allows it
+not.
+
+ACH. Of whom? for thou art not mine. My property and Agamemnon's are
+different.
+
+OLD M. Of this lady who is before the house, the gift of her father
+Tyndarus.
+
+ACH. We are still. Say if thou wantest any thing, for which thou hast
+stopped me.
+
+OLD M. Are ye sure that ye alone stand before these gates?
+
+CLY. Ay, so that you may speak to us only. But come out from the royal
+dwelling.
+
+OLD M. (Coming forward) O fortune, and foresight mine, preserve whom I
+wish.
+
+ACH. These words will do for[69] a future occasion, for they have some
+weight.
+
+CLY. By thy right hand [I beseech thee,] delay not, if thou hast aught to
+say to me.
+
+OLD M. Thou knowest then, being what manner of man, I have been by nature
+well disposed to thee and thy children.
+
+CLY. I know thee as being a faithful servant to my house.
+
+OLD M. And that king Agamemnon received me among thy dowry.
+
+CLY. Thou camest into Argos with us, and thou wast always mine.
+
+OLD M. So it is, and I am well disposed to thee, but less so to thy
+husband.
+
+CLY. Unfold now at least to me what words you are saying.
+
+OLD M. The father who begat her is about to slay thy daughter with his own
+hand.
+
+CLY. How? I deprecate thy words, old man, for thou thinkest not well.
+
+OLD M. Cutting the fair neck of the hapless girl with the sword.
+
+CLY. O wretched me! Is my husband mad?
+
+OLD M. He is in his right mind, save with respect to thee and thy daughter,
+but in this he is not wise.
+
+CLY. Upon what grounds? What maddening fiend impels him?
+
+OLD M. The oracles, as at least Calchas says, in order that the army may be
+able to proceed.
+
+CLY. Whither? Wretched me, and wretched she whom her father is about to
+slay?
+
+OLD M. To the house of Dardanus, that Menelaus may recover Helen.
+
+CLY. To the destruction, then, of Iphigenia, was the return of Helen
+foredoomed?
+
+OLD M. Thou hast the whole story. Her father is going to offer thy daughter
+to Diana.
+
+CLY. What! what pretext had the marriage, that brought me from home?
+
+OLD M. That thou rejoicing mightest bring thy child, as if about to wed her
+to Achilles.
+
+CLY. O daughter, both thou and thy mother are come to meet with
+destruction.
+
+OLD M. Ye twain are suffering sad things, and dreadful things hath
+Agamemnon dared.
+
+CLY. I wretched am undone, and my eyes no longer restrain the tear.
+
+OLD M. For bitter 'tis to mourn, deprived of one's children.
+
+CLY. But whence, old man, sayest thou that thou hast learned and knowest
+these things?
+
+OLD M. I went to bear a letter to thee, in reference to what was before
+written.
+
+CLY. Not allowing, or bidding me to bring my child, that she might die?
+
+OLD M. [It was] that you should not bring her, for your husband then
+thought well.
+
+CLY. And how was it then, that, bearing the letter, thou gavest it not to
+me?
+
+OLD M. Menelaus, who is the cause of these evils, took it from me.
+
+CLY. O child of Nereus' daughter, O son of Peleus, dost hear these things?
+
+ACH. I hear that thou art wretched, and I do not bear my part
+indifferently.
+
+CLY. They will slay my child, having deceived her with thy nuptials.
+
+ACH. I also blame thy husband, nor do I bear it lightly.
+
+CLY. I will not be ashamed to fall down at thy knee, mortal, to one born of
+a Goddess. For wherefore should I make a show of pride? Or what should I
+study more than my children? But, O son of the Goddess, aid me in my
+unhappiness, and her who is called thy wife, vainly indeed, but
+nevertheless, having decked her out, I led her as if to be married, but now
+I lead her to sacrifice, and reproach will come upon thee, who gavest no
+aid. For though thou wast not yoked in nuptials, at least thou wast called
+the beloved husband of the hapless virgin. By thy beard, by thy right hand,
+by thy mother [I beseech] thee, for thy name hath undone me, to whom thou
+shouldst needs give assistance. I have no other altar to fly to, but thy
+knee, nor is any friend near me,[70] but thou hearest the cruel and
+all-daring conduct of Agamemnon. But I a woman, as thou seest, have come to
+a naval host, uncontrolled, and bold for mischief, but useful, when they
+are willing. But if thou wilt venture to stretch thine hand in my behalf,
+we are saved, but if not, we are not saved.
+
+CHOR. A terrible thing it is to be a mother, and it bears a great
+endearment, and one common to all, so as to toil on behalf of their
+children.
+
+ACH. My mind is high-lifted in its thoughts,[71] and knows both how to
+grieve [moderately] in troubles, and to rejoice moderately in high
+prosperity. For the discreet among mortals are such as pass through life
+correctly with wisdom. Now there are certain cases where it is pleasant not
+to be too wise, and also where it is useful to possess wisdom. But I, being
+nurtured [in the dwelling] of a most pious man, Chiron, have learned to
+possess a candid disposition. And I will obey the Atrides, if indeed they
+order well, but when not well, I obey not. But here in Troy showing a free
+nature I will glorify Mars with the spear, as far as I can. But, O thou who
+hast suffered wretchedly at the hands of those dearest, in whatever can be
+done by a youth, I, showing so much pity, will set thee right, and thy
+daughter, having been called my bride, shall never be sacrificed by her
+father, for I will not furnish thy husband with my person to weave
+stratagems upon. For my name, even if he lift not up the sword, will slay
+thy daughter, but thy husband is the cause. But my body is no longer pure,
+if on my account, and because of my marriage, there perish a virgin who has
+gone through sad and unbearable troubles, and has been marvelously and
+undeservedly ill treated. I were the worst man among the Greeks, I were of
+naught (but Menelaus would be among men), not as born from Peleus, but from
+some fiend, if my name acts the murderer for thy husband.[72] By Nereus,
+nurtured in the damp waves, the father of Thetis, who begat me, king
+Agamemnon shall not lay hands on thy daughter, not so much as with a little
+finger, so as to touch her garments. I' faith, Sipylus, a fortress of
+barbarians, whence the [royal] generals trace their descent, shall be
+deemed a city, but the name of Phthia shall nowhere be named. And the seer
+Calchas will to his cost consecrate the sacrificial cakes and lustral
+waters. (But what man is a prophet?) who tells[73] a few things true, (but
+many falsely,) when he has made a hit, but when he fails, is undone. These
+words are not spoken for the sake of my wedding, (ten thousand girls are
+hunting after alliance with me,) but [because] king Agamemnon has been
+guilty of insult toward me. But it behooved him to ask [the use of] my name
+from me, as an enticement for his daughter, and Clytaemnestra would have
+been most readily persuaded to give her daughter to me as a husband. And I
+would have given her up to the Greeks, if on this account their passage to
+Troy had been impeded: I would not have refused to augment the common
+interest of those with whom I set out on the expedition. But now I am held
+as of no account by the generals, and it is a matter of indifference
+whether I benefit them or not. Soon shall my sword witness, which, before
+death came against the Phrygians,[74] I stained with spots of blood,
+whether any one shall take thy daughter from me. But keep quiet, I have
+appeared to thee as a most mighty God, though not [a God,] but nevertheless
+I will be such.
+
+CHOR. O son of Peleus, thou hast spoken both worthily of thyself, and of
+the marine deity, hallowed Goddess.
+
+CLY. Alas! how can I praise thee neither too much in words, nor, being
+deficient in this respect, [not] lose thy favor? For in a certain wise the
+praised dislike their praisers, if they praise too much. But I am ashamed
+at alleging pitiable words, being troubled in myself, while thou art not
+diseased with my ills. But in fact the good man has some reason, even
+though he be unconnected with them, for assisting the unfortunate. But pity
+us, for we have suffered pitiably; I, who, in the first place, thinking to
+have thee for a kinsman, cherished a vain hope.--Moreover, my child, by
+dying, might perchance become an omen to thy future bridals,[75] which thou
+must needs avoid. But well didst thou speak both first and last, for, if
+thou art willing, my child will be saved. Dost wish that she embrace thy
+knee as a suppliant? Such conduct is not virgin-like, but if thou wilt, she
+shall come, with her noble face suffused with modesty. Or shall I obtain
+these things from thee, without her presence?
+
+ACH. Let her remain within doors, for with dignity she preserves her
+dignity.
+
+CLY. Yet one must needs have modesty [only] as far as circumstances allow.
+
+ACH. Do thou neither bring forth thy daughter into my sight, lady, not let
+us fall into reproach for inconsiderate conduct, for our assembled army,
+being idle from home occupations, loves evil and slanderous talk. But at
+all events you will accomplish the same, whether you come to me as a
+suppliant, or do not supplicate, for a mighty contest awaits me, to release
+you from these evils. Wherefore, having heard one thing, be persuaded that
+I will not speak falsely. But if I speak falsely, and vainly amuse you, may
+I perish; but may I not perish, if I preserve the virgin.
+
+CLY. Mayest thou be blest, ever assisting the unhappy.
+
+ACH. Hear me then, that the matter may be well.
+
+CLY. What is this thou sayest? for one must listen to thee.
+
+ACH. Let us again persuade her father to be wiser.
+
+CLY. He is a coward, and fears the army too much.
+
+ACH. But words can conquer words.
+
+CLY. Chilly is the hope, but tell me what I must do.
+
+ACH. Beseech him first not to slay his child, but if he oppose this, you
+must come to me. For if he will be persuaded what you wish, there is no
+occasion for my efforts, for this very [consent] contains her safety. And I
+also shall appear in a better light with my friend, and the army will not
+blame me, if I transact matters by discretion rather than force. And if
+this turn out well, these things, even without my help, may turn out
+satisfactorily to thy friends and thyself.[76]
+
+CLY. How wisely hast thou spoken! But what thou sayest must be done. But if
+I do not obtain what I seek, where shall I again see thee? Where must I
+wretched woman, coming, find thee an assistant in my troubles?
+
+ACH. We guards will watch thee when there is occasion, lest any one behold
+thee going in agitation through the host of the Greeks. But do not shame
+thy ancestral home, for Tyndarus is not worthy of an evil reputation,
+seeing he is great among the Greeks.
+
+CLY. These things shall be. Command; it is meet that I obey thee. But if
+there are Gods, you, being a just man, will receive a good reward; but if
+not, why should one toil?
+
+CHOR. What was that nuptial song that raised[77] its strains on the Libyan
+reed, and with the dance-loving lyre, and the reedy syrinx, when o'er
+Pelion at the feast of the Gods the fair-haired muses, striking their feet
+with golden sandals against the ground, came to the wedding of Peleus,
+celebrating with melodious sounds Thetis, and the son of AEacus, on the
+mountains of the Centaurs, through the Palian wood.
+
+But the Dardan,[78] [Phrygian Ganymede,] dear delight of Jove's bed, poured
+out the nectar in the golden depths of the goblets, and along the white
+sands the fifty daughters of Nereus, entwining in circles, adorned the
+nuptials of Nereus with the dance. But with darts of fir, and crowns of
+grass, the horse-mounted troop of the Centaurs came to the banquet of the
+Gods and the cup of Bacchus. And the Thessalian girls shouted loud,[79] "O
+daughter of Nereus," and the prophet Phoebus, and Chiron, skilled in
+letters, declared, "Thou shalt bring forth a mighty light, who shall come
+to the [Trojan] land with Myrmidons armed with spear and shield, to burn
+the renowned city of Priam, around his body armed with a covering of golden
+arms wrought by Vulcan, having them as a gift from his Goddess Thetis, who
+begat him blessed." Then the deities celebrated the nuptials of the noble
+daughter of Nereus first,[80] and of Peleus. But thee, [O Iphigenia,] they
+will crown on the head with flowery garlands, like as a pure spotted heifer
+from a rocky cave, making bloody the mortal throat [of one] not trained up
+with the pipe, nor amidst the songs of herdsmen, but as a bride[81]
+prepared by thy mother for some one of the Argives. Where has the face of
+shame, or virtue any power to prevail? Since impiety indeed has influence,
+but virtue is left behind and disregarded by mortals, and lawlessness
+governs law, and it is a common struggle for mortals, lest any envy of the
+Gods befall.
+
+CLY. I have come out of the house to seek for my husband, who has been
+absent, and has quitted the house a long time. But my hapless daughter is
+in tears, casting forth many a change of complaint, having heard the death
+her father devises for her. But I was mindful of Agamemnon who is now
+coming hither,[82] who will quickly be detected doing evil deeds against
+his own children.
+
+AG. Daughter of Leda, opportunely have I found you without the house, that
+I may tell thee, apart from the virgin, words which it is not meet for
+those to hear who are about to marry.
+
+CLY. And what is it, on which your convenience lays hold?
+
+AG. Send forth thy daughter from the house with her father, since the
+lustral waters are ready prepared, and the salt-cakes to scatter with the
+hands upon the purifying flame, and heifers, which needs must be slain in
+honor of the Goddess Diana before the marriage solemnities, a shedding of
+black gore.
+
+CLY. In words, indeed, thou speakest well, but for thy deeds, I know not
+how I may say thou speakest well. But come without, O daughter, for thou
+knowest all that thy father meditates, and beneath thy robes bring the
+child Orestes, thy brother. See, she is here present to obey thee. But the
+rest I will speak on her behalf and mine.
+
+AG. Child, why weepest thou, and no longer beholdest me cheerfully, but
+fixing thy face upon the ground, keepest thy vest before it?
+
+CLY. Alas! What commencement of my sorrows shall I take? For I may use them
+all as first, [both last, and middle throughout.[83]]
+
+AG. But what is it? How all of you are come to one point with me, bearing
+disturbed and alarmed countenances.
+
+CLY. Wilt thou answer candidly, husband, if I ask thee?
+
+AG. There needs no admonition: I would fain be questioned.
+
+CLY. Art thou going to slay thy child and mine?
+
+AG. Ah! wretched things dost thou say, and thinkest what thou shouldst not.
+
+CLY. Keep quiet, and first in turn answer me that.
+
+AG. But if thou askest likely things, thou wilt hear likely.
+
+CLY. I ask no other things, nor do thou answer me others.
+
+AG. O revered destiny, and fate, and fortune mine!
+
+CLY. Ay, and mine too, and this child's, one of three unfortunates!
+
+AG. But in what art thou wronged?
+
+CLY. Dost thou ask me this? This thy wit hath no wit.[84]
+
+AG. I am undone. My secret plans are betrayed.
+
+CLY. I know and have learned all that you are about to do to me, and the
+very fact of thy silence, and of thy groaning much, is a proof that you
+confess it. Do not take the trouble to say any thing.
+
+AG. Behold, I am silent: for what need is there that, falsely speaking, I
+add shamelessness to misfortune?
+
+CLY. Listen, then, for I will unfold my story, and will no longer make use
+of riddles away from the purpose. In the first place, that I may first
+reproach thee with this--thou didst wed me unwilling, and obtain me by
+force, having slain Tantalus, my former husband, and having dashed[85] my
+infant living to the ground, having torn him by force from my breast. And
+the twin sons of Jove, my brothers, glorying in their steeds, made war
+[against thee] but my old father Tyndarus saved you, when you had become a
+suppliant, and thou again didst possess me as a wife. When I, being
+reconciled to thee in respect to thy person and home, thou wilt bear
+witness how blameless a wife I was, both modest in respect to affection,
+and enriching thy house, so that thou both going within and without thy
+doors wast blessed. And 'tis a rare prize for a man to obtain such a wife,
+but there is no lack of getting a bad spouse. And I bear thee this son,
+besides three virgins, of one of whom thou art cruelly going to deprive me.
+And if any one ask thee on what account thou wilt slay her, say, what will
+you answer? or must I needs make your plea, "that Menelaus may obtain
+Helen?" A pretty custom, forsooth, that children must pay the price of a
+bad woman. We gain the most hateful things at the hand of those dearest.
+Come, if thou wilt set out, leaving me at home, and then wilt be a long
+time absent, what sort of feelings dost think I shall experience, when I
+behold every seat empty of this child's presence, and every virgin chamber
+empty, but myself sit in tears alone, ever mourning her [in such strains as
+these:] "My child, thy father, who begat thee, hath destroyed thee,
+himself, no other, the slayer, by no other hand, leaving such a reward for
+[my care of] the house."[86] Since there wants but a little reason for me
+and my remaining daughters to give thee such a reception as you deserve to
+receive. Do not, by the Gods, either compel me to act evilly toward thee,
+nor do thou thyself be so. Ah well! thou wilt sacrifice thy daughter--what
+prayers wilt thou then utter? What good thing wilt thou crave for thyself,
+slaying thy child? An evil return, seeing, forsooth, thou hast
+disgracefully set out from home. But is it right that I should pray for
+thee any good thing? Verily we must believe the Gods are senseless, if we
+feel well disposed to murderers. But wilt thou, returning to Argos, embrace
+thy children? But 'tis not lawful for thee. Will any of your children look
+upon you, if thou offerest one of them for slaughter? Thus far have I
+proceeded in my argument. What! does it only behoove thee to carry about
+thy sceptre and marshal the army?--whose duty it were to speak a just
+speech among the Greeks: "Do ye desire, O Greeks, to sail against the land
+of the Phrygians? Cast lots, whose daughter needs must die"--for this would
+be on equal terms, but not that you should give thy daughter to the Greeks
+as a chosen victim. Or Menelaus, whose affair it was, ought to slay
+Hermione for her mother's sake. But now I, having cherished thy married
+life, shall be bereaved of my child, but she who has sinned, bearing her
+daughter under her care to Sparta, will be blest. As to these things,
+answer me if I say aught not rightly, but if I have spoken well, do not
+then slay thy child and mine, and thou wilt be wise.
+
+CHOR. Be persuaded, Agamemnon, for 'tis right to join in saving one's
+children. No one of mortals will gainsay this.
+
+IPH. If, O father, I possessed the eloquence of Orpheus, that I might charm
+by persuasion, so that rocks should follow me, and that I might soften whom
+I would by my words, to this would I have resorted. But now I will offer
+tears as all my skill, for these I can. And, as a suppliant bough, I press
+against thy knees my body, which this [my mother] bore thee, [beseeching]
+that thou slay me not before my time, for sweet it is to behold the light,
+nor do thou compel me to visit the places beneath the earth. And I
+first[87] hailed thee sire, and thou [didst first call] me daughter, and
+first drawing nigh to thy knees, I gave and in turn received sweet tokens
+of affection. And such, were thy words: "My daughter, shall I some time
+behold thee prospering in a husband's home, living and flourishing worthily
+of me?" And mine in turn ran thus, as I hung about thy beard, which now
+with my hand I embrace: "But how shall I [treat] thee? Shall I receive thee
+when an old man, O father, with the hearty reception of my house, repaying
+thee the careful nurture of my youth?" Of such words have remembrance, but
+thou hast forgotten them, and fain wouldst slay me. Do not, [I beseech you]
+by Pelops and by thy father Atreus, and this my mother, who having before
+brought me forth with throes, now suffers this second throe. What have I to
+do with the marriage of Paris and Helen? Whence came he, father, for my
+destruction? Look upon me; give me one look, one kiss, that this memorial
+of thee at least I, dying, may possess, if thou wilt not be persuaded by my
+words. Brother, thou art but a little helpmate to those dear, yet weep with
+me, beseech thy sire that thy sister die not. Even in babes there is wont
+to be some sense of evil. Behold, O father, he silently implores thee. But
+respect my prayer, and have pity on my years. Yea, by thy beard we, two
+dear ones, implore thee; the one is yet a nursling, but the other grown up.
+In one brief saying I will overcome all arguments. This light of heaven is
+sweetest of things for men to behold, but that below is naught; and mad is
+he who seeks to die. To live dishonorably is better than to die gloriously.
+
+CHOR. O wretched Helen, through thee and thy nuptials there is come a
+contest for the Atrides and their children.
+
+AG. I can understand what merits pity, and what not; and I love my
+children, for [otherwise] I were mad. And dreadful 'tis for me[88] to dare
+these things, O woman, and dreadful not to do so--for so I must needs act.
+Thou seest how great is this naval host, and how many are the chieftains of
+brazen arms among the Greeks, to whom there is not a power of arriving at
+the towers of Troy, unless I sacrifice you, as the seer Calchas says, nor
+can we take the renowned plain of Troy. But a certain passion has maddened
+the army of the Greeks, to sail as quickly as possible upon the land of the
+barbarians, and to put a stop to the rapes of Grecian wives. And they will
+slay my daughters at Argos, and you, and me, if I break through the
+commands of the Goddess. It is not Menelaus who has enslaved me, O
+daughter, nor have I followed his device, but Greece, for whom I, will or
+nill, must needs offer thee. And I am inferior on this head. For it
+behooves her, [Helen,] as far as thou, O daughter, art concerned, to be
+free, nor for us, being Greeks, to be plundered perforce of our wives by
+barbarians.
+
+CLY. O child! O ye stranger women! O wretched me for thy death! Thy father
+flees from thee, giving thee up to Hades.
+
+IPH. Alas for me! mother, mother. The same song suits both of us on account
+of our fortunes, and no more to me is the light, nor this bright beam of
+the sun. Alas! alas! thou snow-smitten wood of Troy, and mountains of Ida,
+where once on a time Priam exposed a tender infant, having separated him
+from his mother, that he might meet with deadly fate, Paris, who was styled
+Idaean, Idaean [Paris] in the city of the Phrygians. Would that the herdsman
+Paris, who was nurtured in care of steers, had ne'er dwelt near the white
+stream, where are the fountains of the Nymphs, and the meadow flourishing
+with blooming flowers, and roseate flowers and hyacinths for Goddesses to
+cull. Where once on a time came Pallas, and artful Venus, and Juno, and
+Hermes, the messenger of Jove; Venus indeed, vaunting herself in charms,
+and Pallas in the spear, and Juno in the royal nuptials of king Jove,
+[these came] to a hateful judgment and strife concerning beauty; but my
+death, my death, O virgins, bearing glory indeed to the Greeks, Diana hath
+received as first-fruits [of the expedition] against Troy.[89] But he that
+begot me wretched, O mother, O mother, has departed, leaving me deserted. O
+hapless me! having +beheld+ bitter, bitter, ill-omened Helen, I am slain, I
+perish, by the impious slaughter of an impious sire. Would[90] for me that
+Aulis had never received the poops of the brazen-beaked ships into these
+ports, the fleet destined for Troy, nor that Jove had breathed an adverse
+wind over Euripus, softening one breeze so that some mortals might rejoice
+in their [expanded] sails, but to others a pain, to others difficulty, to
+some to set sail, to others to furl their sails, but to others to tarry. In
+truth the race of mortals is full of troubles, is full of troubles, and it
+necessarily befalls men to find some misfortune. Alas! alas! thou daughter
+of Tyndarus, who hast brought many sufferings, and many griefs upon the
+Greeks.
+
+CHOR. I indeed pity you having met with an evil calamity, such as thou
+never shouldst have met with.
+
+IPH. O mother, to whom I owe my birth, I behold a crowd of men near.
+
+CLY. Ay, the son of the Goddess, my child, for whom thou camest hither.
+
+IPH. Open the house, ye servants, that I may hide myself.
+
+CLY. But why dost thou fly hence, my child?
+
+IPH. I am ashamed to behold this Achilles.
+
+CLY. On what account?
+
+IPH. The unfortunate turn-out of my nuptials shames me.
+
+CLY. Thou art not in a state to give way to delicacy in the present
+circumstances. But do thou remain, there is no use for punctilio, if we can
+[but save your life.]
+
+ACH. O hapless lady, daughter of Leda.
+
+CLY. Thou sayest not falsely.
+
+ACH. Terrible things are cried out among the Greeks.
+
+CLY. What cry? tell me.
+
+ACH. Concerning thy child.
+
+CLY. Thou speakest a word of ill omen.
+
+ACH. That it is necessary to slay her.
+
+CLY. Does no one speak the contrary to this?
+
+ACH. Ay, I myself have got into trouble.
+
+CLY. Into what [trouble,] O friend?
+
+ACH. Of having my body stoned with stones.
+
+CLY. What, in trying to save my daughter!
+
+ACH. This very thing.
+
+CLY. And who would have dared to touch thy person?
+
+ACH. All the Greeks.
+
+CLY. And was not the host of the Myrmidons at hand for thee?
+
+ACH. That was the first that showed enmity.
+
+CLY. Then are we utterly undone, my daughter.
+
+ACH. For they railed at me as overcome by a betrothed--
+
+CLY. And what didst thou reply?
+
+ACH. That they should not slay my intended bride.
+
+CLY. For so 'twas right.
+
+ACH. [She] whom her father had promised me.
+
+CLY. Ay, and had sent for from Argos.
+
+ACH. But I was worsted by the outcry.
+
+CLY. For the multitude is a terrible evil.
+
+ACH. But nevertheless I will aid thee.
+
+CLY. And wilt thou, being one, fight with many?
+
+ACH. Dost see these men bearing [my] arms?
+
+CLY. Mayest thou gain by thy good intentions.
+
+ACH. But I will gain.
+
+CLY. Then my child will not be slain?
+
+ACH. Not, at least, with my consent.
+
+CLY. And will any one come to lay hands on the girl?
+
+ACH. Ay, a host of them, but Ulysses will conduct her.
+
+CLY. Will it be the descendant of Sisyphus?
+
+ACH. The very man.
+
+CLY. Doing it of his own accord, or appointed by the army?
+
+ACH. Chosen willingly.
+
+CLY. A wicked choice forsooth, to commit slaughter!
+
+ACH. But I will restrain him.
+
+CLY. But will he lead her unwillingly, having seized her?
+
+ACH. Ay, by her auburn locks.
+
+CLY. But what must I then do?
+
+ACH. Keep hold of your daughter.
+
+CLY. As far as this goes she shall not be slain.
+
+ACH. But it will come to this at all events.[91]
+
+IPH. Mother, do thou hear my words, for I perceive that thou art vainly
+wrathful with thy husband, but it is not easy for us to struggle with
+things [almost] impossible. It is meet therefore to praise our friend for
+his willingness, but it behooves thee also to see that you be not an object
+of reproach to the army, and we profit nothing more, and he meet with
+calamity. But hear me, mother, thinking upon what has entered my mind. I
+have determined to die, and this I would fain do gloriously, I mean, by
+dismissing all ignoble thoughts. Come hither, mother, consider with me how
+well I speak. Greece, the greatest of cities, is now all looking upon me,
+and there rests in me both the passage of the ships and the destruction of
+Troy, and, for the women hereafter, if the barbarians do them aught of
+harm, to allow them no longer to carry them off from prosperous Greece,
+having avenged the destruction of Helen, whom Paris bore away.[92] All
+these things I dying shall redeem, and my renown, for that I have freed
+Greece, will be blessed. Moreover, it is not right that I should be too
+fond of life; for thou hast brought me forth for the common good of Greece,
+not for thyself only. But shall ten thousand men armed with bucklers, and
+ten thousand, oars in hand, their country being injured, dare to do some
+deed against the foes, and perish on behalf of Greece, while my life, being
+but one, shall hinder all these things? What manner of justice is this?
+Have we a word to answer? And let me come to this point: it is not meet
+that this man should come to strife with all the Greeks for the sake of a
+woman, nor lose his life. And one man, forsooth, is better than ten
+thousand women, that he should behold the light. But if Diana hath wished
+to receive my body, shall I, being mortal, become an opponent to the
+Goddess! But it can not be. I give my body for Greece. Sacrifice it, and
+sack Troy. For this for a long time will be my memorial, and this my
+children, my wedding, and my glory. But it is meet that Greeks should rule
+over barbarians, O mother, but not barbarians over Greeks, for the one is
+slavish, but the others are free.
+
+CHOR. Thy part, indeed, O virgin, is glorious; but the work of fortune and
+of the Gods sickens.
+
+ACH. Daughter of Agamemnon, some one of the Gods destined me to happiness,
+if I obtained thee as a wife, and I envy Greece on thy account, and thee on
+account of Greece. For well hast thou spoken this, and worthily of the
+country, for, ceasing to strive with the deity, who is more powerful than
+thou art, thou hast considered what is good and useful. But still more does
+a desire of thy union enter my mind, when I look to thy nature, for thou
+art noble. But consider, for I wish to benefit you, and to receive you to
+my home, and, Thetis be my witness, I am grieved if I shall not save you,
+coming to conflict with the Greeks. Consider: death is a terrible ill.
+
+IPH. I speak these words, no others, with due foresight. Enough is the
+daughter of Tyndarus to have caused contests and slaughter of men through
+her person: but do not thou, O stranger, die in my behalf, nor slay any
+one. But let me preserve Greece, if I am able.
+
+ACH. O best of spirits, I have naught further to answer thee, since it
+seems thus to thee, for thou hast noble thoughts; for wherefore should not
+one tell the truth? But nevertheless thou mayest perchance repent these
+things. In order, therefore, that thou mayest all that lies in my power, I
+will go and place these my arms near the altar, as I will not allow you to
+die, but hinder it. And thou too wilt perhaps be of my opinion, when thou
+seest the sword nigh to thy neck. I will not allow thee to die through thy
+wild determination, but going with these mine arms to the temple of the
+Goddess, I will await thy presence there.
+
+IPH. Mother, why dost thou silently bedew thine eyes with tears?
+
+CLY. I wretched have a reason, so as to be pained at heart.
+
+IPH. Cease; do not daunt me, but obey me in this.
+
+CLY. Speak, for thou shalt not be wronged at my hands, my child.
+
+IPH. Neither then do thou cut off the locks of thine hair, [nor put on
+black garments around thy body.]
+
+CLY. Wherefore sayest thou this, my child? Having lost thee--
+
+IPH. Not you indeed--I am saved, and thou wilt be glorious as far as I am
+concerned.
+
+CLY. How sayest thou? Must I not bemoan thy life?
+
+IPH. Not in the least, since no tomb will be upraised for me.
+
+CLY. Why, what then is death? Is not a tomb customary?[93]
+
+IPH. The altar of the Goddess, daughter of Jove, will be my memorial.
+
+CLY. But, O child, I will obey thee, for thou speakest well.
+
+IPH. Ay, as prospering like the benefactress of Greece.
+
+CLY. What then shall I tell thy sisters?
+
+IPH. Neither do thou clothe them in black garments.
+
+CLY. But shall I speak any kind message from thee to the virgins?
+
+IPH. Ay, [bid them] fare well, and do thou, for my sake, train up this
+[boy] Orestes to be a man.
+
+CLY. Embrace him, beholding him for the last time.
+
+IPH. O dearest one, thou hast assisted thy friends to the utmost in thy
+power.
+
+CLY. Can I, by doing any thing in Argos, do thee a pleasure?
+
+IPH. Hate not my father, yes, thy husband.
+
+CLY. He needs shall go through terrible trials on thy account.
+
+IPH. Unwillingly he hath undone me on behalf of the land of Greece.
+
+CLY. But ungenerously, by craft, and not in a manner worthy of Atreus.
+
+IPH. Who will come and lead me, before I am torn away by the hair?[94]
+
+CLY. I will go with thee.
+
+IPH. Not you indeed, thou sayest not well.
+
+CLY. Ay [but I will,] clinging to thy garments.
+
+IPH. Be persuaded by me, mother. Remain, for this is more fitting both for
+me and thee. But let some one of these my father's followers conduct me to
+the meadow of Diana, where I may be sacrificed.
+
+CLY. O child, thou art going.
+
+IPH. Ay, and I shall ne'er return.
+
+CLY. Leaving thy mother--
+
+IPH. As thou seest, though, not worthily.
+
+CLY. Hold! Do not leave me.
+
+IPH. I do not suffer thee to shed tears. But, ye maidens, raise aloft the
+paean for my sad hap, [celebrate] Diana, the daughter of Jove,[95] and let
+the joyful strain go forth to the Greeks. And let some one make ready the
+baskets, and let flame burn with the purifying cakes, and let my father
+serve the altar with his right hand, seeing I am going to bestow upon the
+Greeks safety that produces victory.[96]
+
+Conduct me, the conqueror of the cities of Troy and of the Phrygians.
+Surround[97] me with crowns, bring them hither. Here is my hair to crown.
+And [bear hither] the lustral fountains.[98] Encircle [with dances] around
+the temple and the altar, Diana, queen Diana, the blessed, since by my
+blood and offering I will wash out her oracles, if it needs must be so. O
+revered, revered mother, thus + indeed + will we [now] afford thee our
+tears, for it is not fitting during the sacred rites. O damsels, join in
+singing Diana, who dwells opposite Chalcis, where the warlike ships have
+been eager [to set out,] being detained in the narrow harbors of Aulis here
+through my name.[99] Alas! O my mother-land of Pelasgia, and my Mycenian
+handmaids.
+
+CHOR. Dost thou call upon the city of Perseus, the work of the Cyclopean
+hands?
+
+IPH. Thou hast nurtured me for a glory to Greece, and I will not refuse to
+die.
+
+CHOR. For renown will not fail thee.
+
+IPH. Alas! alas! lamp-bearing day, and thou too, beam of Jove, another,
+another life and state shall we dwell in. Farewell for me, beloved light!
+
+CHOR. Alas! alas! Behold[100] the destroyer of the cities of Troy and of
+the Phrygians, wending her way, decked as to her head with garlands and
+with lustral streams, to the altar of the sanguinary Goddess, about to
+stream with drops of gore, being stricken on her fair neck. Fair dewy
+streams, and lustral waters from ancestral sources[101] await thee, and the
+host of the Greeks eager to reach Troy. But let us celebrate Diana, the
+daughter of Jove, queen of the Gods, as upon a prosperous occasion. O
+hallowed one, that rejoicest in human sacrifices, send the army of the
+Greeks into the land of the Phrygians, and the territory of deceitful Troy,
+and grant that by Grecian spears Agamemnon may place a most glorious crown
+upon his head, a glory ever to be remembered.
+
+[_Enter a_ MESSENGER.[102]]
+
+MESS. O daughter of Tyndarus, Clytaemnestra, come without the house, that
+thou mayest hear my words.
+
+CLY. Hearing thy voice, I wretched came hither, terrified and astounded
+with fear, lest thou shouldst be come, bearing some new calamity to me in
+addition to the present one.
+
+MESS. Concerning thy daughter, then, I wish to tell thee marvelous and
+fearful things.
+
+CLY. Then delay not, but speak as quickly as possible.
+
+MESS. But, my dear mistress, thou shalt learn every thing clearly, and I
+will speak from the very commencement, unless my memory, in something
+failing, deceive my tongue. For when we came to the inclosure and flowery
+meads of Diana, the daughter of Jove, where there was an assembly of the
+army of the Greeks, leading thy daughter, the host of the Greeks was
+straightway convened. But when king Agamemnon beheld the girl wending her
+way to the grove for slaughter, he groaned aloud, and turning back his
+head, he shed tears, placing his garments[103] before his eyes. But she,
+standing near him that begot her, spake thus: "O father, I am here for
+thee, and I willing give my body on behalf of my country, and of the whole
+land of Greece, that, leading it to the altar of the Goddess, they may
+sacrifice it, since this is ordained. And, as far as I am concerned, may ye
+be fortunate, and obtain the gift of victory, and reach your native land.
+Furthermore, let no one of the Greeks lay hands on me, for with a stout
+heart I will present my neck in silence." Thus much she spoke, and every
+one marveled on hearing the courage and valor of the virgin. But
+Talthybius, whose office this was, standing in the midst, proclaimed
+good-omened silence to the people. And the seer Calchas placed in a golden
+canister a sharp knife,[104] which he had drawn out,+ within its case,+ and
+crowned the head of the girl. But the son of Peleus ran around the altar of
+the Goddess, taking the canister and lustral waters at the same time. And
+he said: "O Diana, beast-slaying daughter of Jove, that revolvest thy
+brilliant light by night, receive this offering which we bestow on thee,
+[we] the army of the Greeks, and king Agamemnon, the pure blood from a fair
+virgin's neck; and grant that the sail may be without injury to our ships,
+and that we may take the towers of Troy by the spear." But the Atrides and
+all the army stood looking on the ground, and the priest, taking the knife,
+prayed, and viewed her neck, that he might find a place to strike. And no
+little pity entered my mind, and I stood with eyes cast down, but suddenly
+there was a marvel to behold. For every one could clearly perceive the
+sound of the blow, but beheld not the virgin, where on earth she had
+vanished. But the priest exclaimed, and the whole army shouted, beholding
+an unexpected prodigy from some one of the Gods, of which, though seen,
+they had scarcely belief. For a stag lay panting on the ground, of mighty
+size to see and beautiful in appearance, with whose blood the altar of the
+Goddess was abundantly wetted. And upon this Calchas (think with what joy!)
+thus spake: "O leaders of this common host of the Greeks, behold this
+victim which the Goddess hath brought to her altar, a mountain-roaming
+stag. This she prefers greatly to the virgin, lest her altar should be
+denied with generous blood. And she hath willingly received this, and
+grants us a prosperous sail, and attack upon Troy. Upon this do every
+sailor take good courage, and go to his ships, since on this day it
+behooves us, quitting the hollow recesses of Aulis, to pass over the AEgean
+wave." But when the whole victim was reduced to ashes, he prayed what was
+meet, that the army might obtain a passage. And Agamemnon sends me to tell
+thee this, and to say what a fortune he hath met with from the Gods, and
+hath obtained unwaning glory through Greece. But I speak, having been
+present, and witnessing the matter. Thy child has evidently flown to the
+Gods; away then with grief, and cease wrath against your husband. But the
+will of the Gods is unforeseen by mortals, and them they love, they save.
+For this day hath beheld thy daughter dying and living [in turn.]
+
+CHOR. How delighted am I at hearing this from the messenger; but he says
+that thy daughter living abides among the Gods.
+
+CLY. O daughter, of whom of the Gods art thou the theft? How shall I
+address thee? What shall I say that these words do not offer me a vain
+comfort, that I may cease from my mournful grief on thy account?
+
+CHOR. And truly king Agamemnon draws hither, having this same story to tell
+thee.
+
+[_Enter_ AGAMEMNON.]
+
+AG. Lady, as far as thy daughter is concerned, we may be happy, for she
+really possesses a companionship with the Gods. But it behooves thee,
+taking this young child [Orestes,] to go home, for the army is looking
+toward setting sail. And fare thee well, long hence will be my addresses to
+thee from Troy, and may it be well with thee.
+
+CHOR. Atrides, rejoicing go thou to the land of the Phrygians, and
+rejoicing return, having obtained for me most glorious spoils from Troy.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+NOTES ON IPHIGENIA IN AULIS
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+[1] From the answer of the old man, Porson's conjecture, [Greek: speude],
+seems very probable.
+
+[2] See Hermann's note. The passage has been thus rendered by Ennius:
+
+  AG. "Quid nocti" videtur in altisono
+          Coeli clupeo?
+  SEN. Temo superat stellas, cogens
+      Sublime etiam atque etiam noctis
+      Itiner.
+
+See Scaliger on Varr. de L.L. vi. p.143, and on Festus s.v. Septemtriones.
+All the editors have overlooked the following passage of Apuleius de Deo
+Socr. p. 42, ed. Elm. "Suspicientes in hoc perfectissimo mundi, ut ait
+Ennius, clypeo," whence, as I have already observed in my notes on the
+passage, there is little doubt that Ennius wrote "in altisono mundi
+clypeo," of which _coeli_ was a gloss, naturally introduced by those who
+were ignorant of the use of _mundus_ in the same sense. The same error has
+taken place in some of the MSS. of Virg. Georg. i. 5, 6. Compare the
+commentators on Pompon. Mela. i. 1, ed. Gronov.
+
+[3] Such seems the force of [Greek: epi pasin agathois]. The Cambridge
+editor aptly compares Hipp. 461. [Greek: chren s' epi rhetois ara Patera
+phyteuein].
+
+[4] The [Greek: synnymphokomos] was probably a kind of gentleman usher, but
+we have no correlative either to the custom or the word.
+
+[5] Hermann rightly regards this as a hendiadys.
+
+[6] [Greek: dromoi] for [Greek: moroi] is Markland's, and, doubtless, the
+correct, reading. [Greek: monos] is merely a correction of the Aldine
+edition.
+
+[7] But read [Greek: tas--deltous] with the Cambridge editor, = "in
+relation to my former dispatches."
+
+[8] [Greek: tan] should probably be erased before [Greek: kolpode], with
+the Cambridge editor. He remarks, "the sea-port, although separated from
+the island by the narrow strait of Euripus, is styled its _wing_." On the
+metrical difficulties and corruptions throughout this chorus, I must refer
+the reader to the same critic.
+
+[9] But [Greek: lektron], _uxorem_, is better, with ed. Camb.
+
+[10] It is impossible to get a satisfactory sense as these lines now stand.
+I have translated [Greek: exorma]. There seems to be a lacuna. The
+following are the readings of the Camb. ed. [Greek: en gar p. anteseis,
+palin ex. s. chalinous, epi kyklopon nin hieis thym.]
+
+[11] But [Greek: anchialon] is better, with ed. Camb. from the Homeric
+[Greek: chalkida t' anchialon]. He remarks that this word, in tragedy, is
+always the epithet of a place.
+
+[12] i.e. to exact satisfaction for her abduction.
+
+[13] i.e. the tents containing the armed soldiers.
+
+[14] [Greek: hedomenous] refers both to [Greek: Protesilaon] and [Greek:
+Palamedea], divided by the schema Alcmanicum. See Markland.
+
+[15] Cf. Homer, Il. [Greek: B]. 763 sqq.
+
+[16] Cf. Monk on Hippol. 1229. I have translated [Greek: syringas]
+according to the figure of a part for the whole. The whole of the remainder
+of this chorus has been condemned as spurious by the Cambridge editor. See
+his remarks, p. 219 sqq.
+
+[17] Can [Greek: theton] refer to [Greek: agalma] understood?
+
+[18] This part of the chorus is hopeless, as it is evidently imperfect. See
+Herm.
+
+[19] The Cambridge editor would assign this line to Menelaus.
+
+[20] I read [Greek: eu kekompseusai], with Ruhnken. The Cambridge editor
+also reads [Greek: ponera], which is better suited to the style of
+Euripides.
+
+[21] The same scholar has anticipated my conjecture, [Greek: saphes] for
+[Greek: saphes].
+
+[22] Compare the similar conduct of Pausanias in Thucyd. i. 130, Dejoces in
+Herodot. i., with Livy, iii. 36, and Apul. de Deo Socr. p. 44, ed. Elm.
+
+[23] I read [Greek: to Priamou] with Elmsley. See the Camb. ed.
+
+[24] With the Cambridge editor I have restored the old reading [Greek:
+echontes].
+
+[25] But see ed. Camb.
+
+[26] [Greek: au] is a better reading. See Markland and ed. Camb.
+
+[27] There is little hope of this passage, unless we adopt the readings of
+the Cambridge editor, [Greek: hous labon strateum'. hetoimoi d' eisi]. The
+next line was lost, but has been restored from Theophilus ad Autol. p. 258,
+and Stob. xxviii. p. 128, Grot.
+
+[28] Cf. Soph. Antig. 523. [Greek: outoi synechthein, alla symphilein
+ephyn].
+
+[29] Dindorf condemns the whole of this speech of the messenger, as well as
+the two following lines. Few will perhaps be disposed to follow him,
+although the awkwardness of the passage may be admitted. Hermann considers
+that the hasty entrance of the messenger is signified by his commencing
+with half a line.
+
+[30] There seems an intended allusion to the double sense of [Greek:
+proteleia], both as a marriage and sacrificial rite. See the Cambridge
+editor, and my note on AEsch. Agam. p. 102, n. 2, ed. Bohn.
+
+[31] "Auspicare canistra, id quod proximum est." MUSGR.
+
+[32] I think this is the meaning implied by [Greek: nympheusousa], as in
+vs. 885. [Greek: hin' agagois chairous' Achillei paida nympheusousa sen].
+Alcest. 317. [Greek: ou gar se meter oute nympheusei pote]. The word seems
+to refer to the whole business of a mamma on this important occasion.
+
+[33] The Cambridge editor on vs. 439, p. 109, well observes, "the actual
+arrival of Iphigenia having convinced Menelaus that her sacrifice could not
+any longer be avoided, he bethinks him of removing from his brother's mind
+the impression produced by their recent altercation; and knowing his open
+and unsuspicious temper, he feels that he may safely adopt a false
+position, and deprecate that of which he was at the same time most
+earnestly desirous."
+
+[34] So Markland, but Hermann and the Cambridge editor prefer the old
+reading [Greek: metesti soi].
+
+[35] This and the two following lines are condemned by Dindorf.
+
+[36] Boeckh, Dindorf, and the Cambridge editor rightly explode these three
+lines, which are not even correct Greek.
+
+[37] [Greek: lesomen], _latebo faciens_.
+
+[38] [Greek: para] for [Greek: paron], ed. Camb.
+
+[39] i.e. by the gift of Venus. For the sense, compare Hippol. 443.
+
+[40] Read [Greek: diaphoroi de tropoi] with Monk, and [Greek: orthos] with
+Musgrave.
+
+[41] But [Greek: paideuomenon] is better, with ed. Camb.
+
+[42] I have partly followed Markland, partly Matthiae, in rendering this
+awkward passage. But there is much awkwardness of expression, and the notes
+of the Cambridge editor well deserve the attention of the student. [Greek:
+exallassousan charin] seems to refer to [Greek: metria charis] in vs. 555,
+and probably signifies that the grace of a reasonable affection leads to
+the equal grace of a clear perception, the mind being unblinded by vehement
+impulses of passion.
+
+[43] i.e. quiet, domestic.
+
+[44] [Greek: enon] is only Markland's conjecture. The whole passage is
+desperate.
+
+[45] I read [Greek: myrioplethe] with ed. Camb. The pronoun [Greek: ho] I
+can not make out, but by supplying an impossible ellipse.
+
+[46] The Cambridge editor rightly reads [Greek: iou, iou], as an
+exclamation of pleasure, not of pain, is required.
+
+[47] Dindorf condemns this whole paragraph.
+
+[48] The Cambridge editor thinks these two lines a childish interpolation.
+They certainly are childish enough, but the same objection applies to the
+whole passage.
+
+[49] But read [Greek: hoi d'] with Dobree. The grooms are meant.
+
+[50] Porson condemns these four lines, which are utterly destitute of sense
+or connection.
+
+[51] These "precious" lines are even worse than the preceding, and rightly
+condemned by all.
+
+[52] See Elmsl. on Soph. Oed. C. 273. The student must carefully observe
+the hidden train of thought pervading Agamemnon's replies.
+
+[53] [Greek: ta Meneleo kaka] must mean the ills resulting from Menelaus,
+the mischiefs and toils to which his wife led, as in Soph. Antig. 2.
+[Greek: ton ap Oidipou kakon], "the ills brought about by the misfortunes
+or the curse of Oedipus." But I should almost prefer reading [Greek: leche]
+for [Greek: kaka], which would naturally refer to Helen.
+
+[54] This line is metrically corrupt, but its emendation is very uncertain.
+
+[55] I have endeavored to convey the play upon the words as closely as I
+could. Elmsley well suggests that the proper reading is [Greek: hestexeis]
+in vs. 675.
+
+[56] [Greek: ophthenai korais], "non, ut hic, a viris et exercitu."
+BRODAEUS.
+
+[57] Porson on Orest. 1090, remarks on that [Greek: ho kyrios] was the term
+applied to the father or guardian of the bride. We might therefore render,
+"Jove gave her away," etc.
+
+[58] If this be the correct reading, we must take [Greek: kalos]
+ironically. But I think with Dindorf, that [Greek: kakos, anankaios de].
+
+[59] This verse is condemned by the Cambridge editor.
+
+[60] Barnes rightly remarked that [Greek: eixa] is the aorist of [Greek:
+aisso], _conor_, _aggredior_.
+
+[61] These three lines are expunged by the Cambridge editor.
+
+[62] I have expressed the sense of [Greek: e me trephein] (= [Greek: me
+echein gynaika]), rather than the literal meaning of the words.
+
+[63] I must inform the reader that the latter portion of this chorus is
+extremely unsatisfactory in its present state. The Cambridge editor, who
+has well discussed its difficulties, thinks that [Greek: Pergamon] is
+wrong, and that [Greek: eryma] should be introduced from vs. 792, where it
+appears to be quite useless.
+
+[64] I have ventured to read [Greek: dakryoen tanysas] with MSS. Pariss.,
+omitting [Greek: eryma] with the Cambridge editor, by which the difficulty
+is removed. The same scholar remarks that [Greek: dakryoen] is used
+adverbially.
+
+[65] There is obviously a defect in the structure, but I am scarcely
+pleased with the attempts made to supply it.
+
+[66] Read [Greek: kai paidas] with Musgrave.
+
+[67] But see ed. Camb.
+
+[68] But see ed. Camb.
+
+[69] But the Cambridge editor admirably amends, [Greek: eis mellonta sosei
+chronon], i.e. "it will be a long time before it preserves them," a hit at
+the self-importance of the old gentleman.
+
+[70] I have little hesitation in reading [Greek: pelas moi] with Markland,
+in place of [Greek: gelai moi].
+
+[71] There is much difficulty in this passage, and Markland appears to give
+it up in despair. Matthiae simply takes the first part as equivalent to
+[Greek: hypselophron esti], referring [Greek: metrios] to both verbs. The
+Cambridge editor takes [Greek: diazen] as an infinitive disjoined from the
+construction. Vss. 922 sq. are indebted to Mr. G. Burges for their present
+situation, having before been assigned to the chorus.
+
+[72] I have closely followed the Cambridge editor.
+
+[73] See the notes of the same scholar.
+
+[74] Dindorf has rightly received Porson's successful emendation. See
+Tracts, p. 224, and the Cambridge editor.
+
+[75] Read [Greek: sois te mellousin] with Markland.
+
+[76] The Cambridge editor would omit vs. 1022. There is certainly a strange
+redundancy of meaning.
+
+[77] Read [Greek: estasen] with Mark. Dind.
+
+[78] So called, either because he was carried off by Jove while hunting in
+the promontory of Dardanus, or from his Trojan descent.
+
+[79] I have adopted Tyrwhitt's view, considering the words inclosed in
+inverted commas as the actual words of the epithalamium. See Musgr. and ed.
+Camb. Hermann is strangely out of his reckoning.
+
+[80] Read, however, [Greek: Nereidon] with Heath, "first of the Nereids."
+
+[81] The Cambridge editor would read [Greek: nymphokomoi], Reiske [Greek:
+nymphokomon]. There is much difficulty in the whole of this last part of
+the chorus.
+
+[82] Such is Hermann's explanation, but [Greek: bebekotos] can not bear the
+sense. The Cambridge editor suspects that these five lines are a forgery.
+
+[83] The Cambridge editor rightly, I think, condemns this line as the
+addition of some one "who thought that something more was wanting to
+comprise all the complaints of the speaker." I do not think the sense or
+construction is benefited by their existence.
+
+[84] "Verum astus hic astu vacat." ERASMUS.
+
+[85] Dindorf has apparently done wrong in admitting [Greek: prosoudisas],
+but I have some doubt about every other reading yet proposed.
+
+[86] See Camb. ed., who suspects interpolation.
+
+[87] Cf. Lucret. i. 94. "Nec miserae prodesse in tali tempore quibat, Quod
+patrio princeps donarat nomine regum." AEsch. Ag. 242 sqq.
+
+[88] The Cambridge editor clearly shows that [Greek: moi] is the true
+reading, as in vs. 54, [Greek: to pragma d' aporos eiche Tyndareoi patri],
+and 370.
+
+[89] There is much doubt about the reading of this part of the chorus. See
+Dind. and ed. Camb.
+
+[90] I have partly followed Abresch in translating these lines, but I do
+not advise the reader to rest satisfied with my translation. A reference to
+the notes of the elegant scholar, to whom we owe the Cambridge edition of
+this play, will, I trust, show that I have done as much as can well be done
+with such corrupted lines.
+
+[91] Achilles is supposed to lay his hand on his sword. See however ed.
+Camb.
+
+[92] Obviously a spurious line.
+
+[93] I have punctuated with ed. Camb.
+
+[94] See ed. Camb.
+
+[95] [Greek: euphemesate] here governs two distinct accusatives.
+
+[96] The Cambridge editor here takes notice of Aristotle's charge of
+inconsistency, [Greek: hoti ouden eoiken he hiketeuousa] [Iphigenia]
+[Greek: tei hysterai]. He well remarks, that Iphigenia at first naturally
+gives way before the suddenness of the announcement of her fate, but that
+when she collects her feelings, her natural nobleness prevails.
+
+[97] Cf. Lucret. i. 88. "Cui simul _infula_ virgineos _circumdata_ comtus,
+Ex utraque pari malarum parte profusa est."
+
+[98] Read [Greek: pagas] with Reiske, Dind. ed. Camb. There is much
+corruption and awkwardness in the following verses of this ode.
+
+[99] On the sense of [Greek: memone] see ed. Camb., who would exclude
+[Greek: di' emon onoma].
+
+[100] Cf. Soph. Ant. 806 sqq. The whole of this passage has been admirably
+illustrated by the Cambridge editor.
+
+[101] There is much awkwardness about this epithet [Greek: patroiai]. One
+would expect a clearer reference to Agamemnon. I scarcely can suppose it
+correct, although I do not quite see my way in the Cambridge editor's
+readings.
+
+[102] Porson, Praef. ad Hec. p. xxi., and the Cambridge editor (p. 228 sqq.)
+have concurred in fully condemning the whole of this last scene. It is
+certain that in the time of AElian something different must have been in
+existence, and equally certain that the whole abounds in repetitions and
+inconsistencies, that seem to point either to spuriousness, or, at least,
+to the existence of interpolations of a serious character. In this latter
+opinion Matthiae and Dindorf agree.
+
+[103] An allusion to the celebrated picture of Timanthes. See Barnes.
+
+[104] I have done my best with this passage, following Matthiae's
+explanation, which, however, I do not perfectly understand. If vs. 1567
+were away, we should be less at a loss, but the same may be said of the
+whole scene.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *       *
+
+IPHIGENIA IN TAURIS.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+PERSONS REPRESENTED.
+
+  IPHIGENIA.
+  ORESTES.
+  PYLADES.
+  HERDSMAN.
+  THOAS.
+  MESSENGER.
+  MINERVA.
+  CHORUS OF GRECIAN CAPTIVE WOMEN.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE ARGUMENT.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+Orestes, coming into Tauri in Scythia, in company with Pylades, had been
+commanded to bear away the image of Diana, after which he was to meet with
+a respite from the avenging Erinnyes of his mother. His sister Iphigenia,
+who had been carried away by Diana from Aulis, when on the point of being
+sacrificed by her father, chances to be expiating a dream that led her to
+suppose Orestes dead, when a herdsman announces to her the arrival and
+detection of two strangers, whom she is bound by her office to sacrifice to
+Diana. On meeting, a mutual discovery takes place, and they plot their
+escape. Iphigenia imposes on the superstitious fears of Thoas, and,
+removing them to the sea-coast, they are on the point of making their
+escape together, when they are surprised, and subsequently detained and
+driven back by stress of weather. Thoas is about to pursue them, when
+Minerva appears, and restrains him from doing so, at the same time
+procuring liberty of return for the Grecian captives who form the chorus.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+IPHIGENIA IN TAURIS.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+IPHIGENIA.
+
+Pelops,[1] the son of Tantalus, setting out to Pisa with his swift steeds,
+weds the daughter of Oenomaus, from whom sprang Atreus; and from Atreus his
+sons, Menelaus and Agamemnon, from which [latter] I was born, Iphigenia,
+child of [Clytaemnestra,] daughter of Tyndarus, whom my father, as he
+imagined, sacrificed to Diana on account of Helen, near the eddies, which
+Euripus continually whirls to and fro, upturning the dark blue sea with
+frequent blasts, in the famed[2] recesses of Aulis. For here indeed king
+Agamemnon drew together a Grecian armament of a thousand ships, desiring
+that the Greeks might take the glorious prize of victory over Troy,[3] and
+avenge the outraged nuptials of Helen, for the gratification of Menelaus.
+But, there being great difficulty of sailing,[4] and meeting with no winds,
+he came to [the consideration of] the omens of burnt sacrifices, and
+Calchas speaks thus. O thou who rulest over this Grecian expedition,
+Agamemnon, thou wilt not lead forth thy ships from the ports of this land,
+before Diana shall receive thy daughter Iphigenia as a victim; for thou
+didst vow to sacrifice to the light-bearing Goddess whatsoever the year
+should bring forth most beautiful. Now your wife Clytaemnestra has brought
+forth a daughter in your house, referring to me the title of the most
+beautiful, whom thou must needs sacrifice. And so, by the arts of
+Ulysses,[5] they drew me from my mother under pretense of being wedded to
+Achilles. But I wretched coming to Aulis, being seized and raised aloft
+above[6] the pyre, would have been slain by the sword; but Diana, giving to
+the Greeks a stag in my stead, stole me away, and, sending me through the
+clear ether,[7] she settled me in this land of the Tauri, where barbarian
+Thoas rules[8] the land, o'er barbarians, [Thoas,] who guiding his foot
+swift as the pinion, has arrived at this epithet [of Thoas, i.e. _the
+swift_] on account of his fleetness of foot. And she places me in this
+house as priestess, since which time the Goddess Diana is wont to be
+pleased with such rites as these,[9] the name of which alone is fair. But,
+for the rest, I am silent, fearing the Goddess. For I sacrifice even as
+before was the custom in the city, whatever Grecian man comes to this land.
+I crop the hair, indeed, but the slaying that may not be told is the care
+of others within these shrines.[10] But the new visions which the [past]
+night hath brought with it, I will tell to the sky,[11] if indeed this be
+any remedy. I seemed in my sleep, removed from this land, to be dwelling in
+Argos, and to slumber in my virgin chamber, but the surface of the earth
+[appeared] to be shaken with a movement, and I fled, and standing without
+beheld the coping[12] of the house giving way, and all the roof falling
+stricken to the ground from the high supports. And one pillar alone, as it
+seemed to me, was left of my ancestral house, and from its capital it
+seemed to stream down yellow locks, and to receive a human voice, and I,
+cherishing this man-slaying office which I hold, weeping [began] to
+besprinkle it, as though about to be slain. But I thus interpret my dream.
+Orestes is dead, whose rites I was beginning. For male children are the
+pillars of the house, and those whom my lustral waters[13] sprinkle die.
+Nor yet can I connect the dream with my friends, for Strophius had no son,
+when I was to have died. Now, therefore, I being present, will to my absent
+brother offer the rites of the dead--for this I can do--in company with the
+attendants whom the king gave to me, Grecian women. But from some cause
+they are not yet present. I will go[14] within the home wherein I dwell,
+these shrines of the Goddess.
+
+ORESTES. Look out! Watch, lest there be any mortal in the way.
+
+PYLADES. I am looking out, and keeping watch, turning my eyes every where.
+
+OR. Pylades, does it seem to you that this is the temple of the Goddess,
+whither we have directed our ship through the seas from Argos?[15]
+
+PYL. It does, Orestes, and must seem the same to thee.
+
+OR. And the altar where Grecian blood is shed?
+
+PYL. At least it has its pinnacles tawny with blood.
+
+OR. And under the pinnacles themselves do you behold the spoils?
+
+PYL. The spoils, forsooth, of slain strangers.
+
+OR. But it behooves one, turning one's eye around, to keep a careful watch.
+O Phoebus, wherefore hast thou again led me into this snare by your
+prophecies, when I had avenged the blood of my father by slaying my mother?
+But by successive[16] attacks of the Furies was I driven an exile, an
+outcast from the land, and fulfilled many diverse bending courses. But
+coming [to thy oracle] I required of thee how I might arrive at an end of
+the madness that drove me on, and of my toils [which I had labored through,
+wandering over Greece.[17]] But thou didst answer that I must come to the
+confines of the Tauric territory, where thy sister Diana possesses altars,
+and must take the image of the Goddess, which they here say fell from
+heaven[18] into these shrines; and that taking it either by stratagem or by
+some stroke of fortune, having gone through the risk, I should give it to
+the land of the Athenians--but no further directions were given--and that
+having done this, I should have a respite from my toils.[19] But I am come
+hither, persuaded by thy words, to an unknown and inhospitable land. I ask
+you, then, Pylades, for you are a sharer with me in this toil, what shall
+we do? For thou beholdest the lofty battlements of the walls. Shall we
+proceed to the scaling of the walls? How then should we escape notice[20]
+[if we did so?] Or shall we open the brass-wrought fastenings of the bolts?
+of which things we know nothing.[21] But if we are caught opening the gates
+and contriving an entrance, we shall die. But before we die, let us flee to
+the temple, whither we lately sailed.
+
+PYL. To fly is unendurable, nor are we accustomed [to do so,] and we must
+not make light of the oracle of the God. But quitting the temple, let us
+hide our bodies in the caves, which the dark sea splashes with its waters,
+far away from the city, lest any one beholding the bark, inform the rulers,
+and we be straightway seized by force. But when the eye of dim night shall
+come, we must venture, bring all devices to bear, to seize the sculptured
+image from the temple. But observe the eaves [of the roof,[22]] where there
+is an empty space between the triglyphs in which you may let yourself down.
+For good men dare encounter toils, but the cowardly are of no account any
+where. We have not indeed come a long distance with our oars, so as to
+return again from the goal.[23]
+
+OR. But one must follow your advice, for you speak well. We must go
+whithersoever in this land we can conceal our bodies, and lie hid. For the
+[will] of the God will not be the cause of his oracle falling useless. We
+must venture; for no toil has an excuse for young men.[24]
+
+[ORESTES _and_ PYLADES _retire aside_.]
+
+CHORUS. Keep silence,[25] O ye that inhabit the twain rocks of the Euxine
+that face each other. O Dictynna, mountain daughter of Latona, to thy
+court, the gold-decked pinnacles of temples with fine columns, I, servant
+to the hallowed guardian of the key, conduct my pious virgin foot, changing
+[for my present habitation] the towers and walls of Greece with its noble
+steeds, and Europe with its fields abounding in trees, the dwelling of my
+ancestral home. I am come. What new matter? What anxious care hast thou?
+Wherefore hast thou led me, led me to the shrines, O daughter of him who
+came to the walls of Troy with the glorious fleet, with thousand sail, ten
+thousand spears of the renowned Atrides?[26]
+
+IPHIGENIA. O attendants mine,[27] in what moans of bitter lamentation do I
+dwell, in the songs of a songless strain unfit for the lyre, alas! alas! in
+funereal griefs for the ills which befall me, bemoaning my brother, what a
+vision have I seen in the night whose darkness has passed away![28] I am
+undone, undone. No more is my father's house, ah me! no more is our race.
+Alas! alas! for the toils in Argos! Alas! thou deity, who hast now robbed
+me of my only brother, sending him to Hades, to whom I am about to pour
+forth on the earth's surface these libations and this bowl for the
+departed, and streams from the mountain heifer, and the wine draughts of
+Bacchus, and the work of the swarthy bees,[29] which are the wonted
+peace-offerings to the departed. O germ of Agamemnon beneath the earth, to
+thee as dead do I send these offerings. And do thou receive them, for not
+before [thine own] tomb do I offer my auburn locks,[30] my tears. For far
+away am I journeyed from thy country and mine, where, as opinion goes, I
+wretched lie slaughtered.
+
+CHOR. A respondent strain and an Asiatic hymn of barbarian wailing will I
+peal forth to thee, my mistress, the song of mourning which, delighting the
+dead, Hades hymns in measure apart from Paeans.[31] Alas! the light of the
+sceptre in the Atrides' house is faded away. Alas! alas for my ancestral
+home! And what government of prosperous kings will there be in Argos?[32]
+* * * * And labor upon labor comes on * * * * [33] with his winged mares
+driven around. But the sun, changing from its proper place, [laid aside]
+its eye of light.[34] And upon other houses woe has come, because of the
+golden lamb, murder upon murder, and pang upon pang, whence the avenging
+Fury[35] of those sons slain of old comes upon the houses of the sons of
+Tantalus, and some deity hastens unkindly things against thee.
+
+IPH. From the beginning the demon of my mother's zone[36] was hostile to
+me, and from that night in which the Fates hastened the pangs of
+childbirth[37] * * * * whom, the first-born germ the wretched daughter of
+Leda, (Clytaemnestra,) wooed from among the Greeks brought forth, and
+trained up as a victim to a father's sin, a joyless sacrifice, a votive
+offering. But in a horse-chariot they brought[38] me to the sands of Aulis,
+a bride, alas! unhappy bride to the son of Nereus' daughter, alas! And now
+a stranger I dwell in an unpleasant home on the inhospitable sea, unwedded,
+childless, without city, without a friend, not chanting Juno in Argos, nor
+in the sweetly humming loom adorning with the shuttle the image of Athenian
+Pallas[39] and of the Titans, but imbruing altars with the shed blood of
+strangers, a pest unsuited to the harp, [of strangers] sighing forth[40] a
+piteous cry, and shedding a piteous tear. And now indeed forgetfulness of
+these matters [comes upon] me, but now I mourn my brother dead in Argos,
+whom I left yet an infant at the breast, yet young, yet a germ in his
+mother's arms and on her bosom, Orestes [the future] holder of the sceptre
+in Argos.
+
+CHOR. But hither comes a herdsman, leaving the sea-coast, about to tell
+thee some new thing.
+
+HERDSMAN. Daughter of Agamemnon and child of Clytaemnestra, hear thou from
+me a new announcement.
+
+IPH. And what is there astonishing in the present report?
+
+HERDS. Two youths are come into this land, to the dark-blue Symplegades,
+fleeing into a ship, a grateful sacrifice and offering to Diana. But you
+can not use too much haste[41] in making ready the lustral waters and the
+consecrations.
+
+IPH. Of what country? of what land do the strangers bear the name?
+
+HERDS. Greeks, this one thing I know, and nothing further.
+
+IPH. Hast thou not heard the name of the strangers, so as to tell it?
+
+HERDS. One of them was styled Pylades by the other.
+
+IPH. But what was the name of the yoke-fellow of this stranger?
+
+HERDS. No one knows this. For we heard it not.
+
+IPH. But how saw ye them, and chanced to take them?
+
+HERDS. Upon the furthest breakers of the inhospitable sea.
+
+IPH. And what had herdsmen to do with the sea?
+
+HERDS. We came to lave our steers in the dew of the sea.
+
+IPH. Go back again to this point--how did ye catch them, and by what means,
+for I would fain know this? For they are come after a long season, nor has
+the altar of the Goddess yet been crimsoned with Grecian blood.[42]
+
+HERDS. After we woodland herdsmen had brought our cattle down to the sea
+that flows between the Symplegades, there is a certain hollow cave,[43]
+broken by the frequent lashing of the waves, a retreat for those who hunt
+for the purple fish. Here some herdsman among us beheld two youths, and he
+retired back, piloting his step on tiptoe, and said: See ye not? these who
+sit here are some divine powers. And one of us, being religiously given,
+uplifted his hand, and addressed them, as he beheld: O son of Leucothea,
+guardian of ships, Palaemon our lord, be propitious to us, whether indeed ye
+be the twin sons of Jove (Castor and Pollux) who sit upon our shores, or
+the image of Nereus, who begot the noble chorus of the fifty Nereids. But
+another vain one, bold in his lawlessness, scoffed at these prayers, and
+said that they were shipwrecked[44] seamen who sat upon the cleft through
+fear of the law, hearing that we here sacrifice strangers. And to most of
+us he seemed to speak well, and [we resolved] to hunt for the accustomed
+victims for the Goddess. But meanwhile one of the strangers leaving the
+rock, stood still, and shook his head up and down, and groaned, with his
+very fingers quaking, wandering with ravings, and shouts with voice like
+that of hunter, "Pylades, dost thou behold this? Dost not behold this snake
+of Hades, how she would fain slay me, armed against me with horrid
+vipers?[45] And she breathing from beneath her garments[46] fire and
+slaughter, rows with her wings, bearing my mother in her arms, that she may
+cast upon me this rocky mass. Alas! she will slay me. Whither shall I fly?"
+And one beheld not the same form of countenance, but he uttered in turn the
+bellowings of calves and howls of dogs, which imitations [of wild beasts]
+they say the Furies utter. But we flinching, as though about to die, sat
+mute; and he drawing a sword with his hand, rushing among the calves,
+lion-like, strikes them on the flank with the steel, driving it into their
+sides, fancying that he was thus avenging himself on the Fury Goddesses,
+till that a gory foam was dashed up from the sea. Meanwhile, each one of
+us, as he beheld the herds being slain and ravaged, armed himself, and
+inflating the conch[47] shells and assembling the inhabitants--for we
+thought that herdsmen were weak to fight against well-trained and youthful
+strangers. And a large number of us was assembled in a short time. But the
+stranger, released from the attack of madness, drops down, with his beard
+befouled with foam. But when we saw him fallen opportunely [for us,] each
+man did his part, with stones, with blows. But the other of the strangers
+wiped away the foam, and tended his mouth, and spread over him the
+well-woven texture of his garments, guarding well the coming wounds, and
+aiding his friend with tender offices. But when the stranger returning to
+his senses leaped up, he perceived that a hostile tempest and present
+calamity was close upon them, and he groaned aloud. But we ceased not
+hurling rocks, each standing in a different place. But then indeed we heard
+a dread exhortation, "Pylades, we shall die, but that we die most
+gloriously! Follow me, drawing thy sword in hand." But when we saw the
+twain swords of the enemy[48] brandished, in flight we filled the woods
+about the crag. But if one fled, others pressing on pelted them; and if
+they drove these away, again the party who had just yielded aimed at them
+with rocks. But it was incredible, for out of innumerable hands no one
+succeeded in hitting these victims to the Goddess. And we with difficulty,
+I will not say overcome them by force, but taking them in a circle,
+beat[49] their swords out of their hands with stones, and they dropped
+their knees to earth [overcome] with toil. And we brought them to the king
+of this land, but he, when he beheld them, sent them as quickly as possible
+to thee for lustral waters and sacrifice. But do thou, O virgin, wish that
+such strangers may be here as victims, and if thou slayest these strangers,
+Hellas will atone for thy [intended] murder, paying the penalty of the
+sacrifice at Aulis.[50]
+
+CHOR. Thou hast told wondrous things concerning him who has appeared,
+whosoever he be that has come to the inhospitable sea from the Grecian
+earth.[51]
+
+IPH. Be it so. Do thou go and bring the strangers, but I will take care
+respecting the matters[52] here. O hapless heart, that once wast mild and
+full of pity toward strangers, awarding the tear to those of thine own
+land, when thou didst receive Grecian men into thine hands.[53] But now,
+because of the dreams by which I am driven wild, thinking that Orestes no
+longer beholds the sun, ye will find me ill disposed, whoever ye be that
+come. For this is true, I perceive it, my friends,[54] for the unhappy who
+themselves fare ill have no good feelings toward those more fortunate. But
+neither has any wind sent by Jove ever come [hither,] nor ship, which could
+have brought hither Helen, who destroyed me, and Menelaus, in order that I
+might be avenged on them, placing an Aulis here to the account[55] of the
+one there, where the sons of Danaus seized, and would have slain me like as
+a calf, and the father who begat me was the priest. Ah me! for I can not
+forget the ills of that time, how oft I stretched out my hands to his
+beard, and hanging on the knees of him who gave me life, spake words like
+these: "O father, basely am I, basely am I wedded at thine hands. But my
+mother, while thou art slaying me, and her Argive ladies are hymning my
+wedding[56] with their nuptial songs, and all the house resounds with the
+flute, while I perish by thy hands. Hades in truth was Achilles, not the
+son of Peleus, whom thou didst name as my husband, and in the chariot didst
+pilot me by craft unto a bloody wedding." But I, casting mine eye through
+my slender woven veil, neither took up with mine hands my brother who is
+now dead, nor joined my lips to my sister's,[57] through modesty, as
+departing to the home of Peleus; and many a salutation I deferred, as
+though about to come again to Argos. Oh wretched one, if thou hast died!
+from what glorious state, Orestes, and from how envied a sire's fortune art
+thou fallen! But I reproach the devices of the Goddess, who, if any one
+work the death of a man, or touch with hands a woman newly delivered, or a
+corpse, restrains him from her altars, as deeming him impure, but yet
+herself takes pleasure in man-slaying sacrifices. It can not be that the
+consort of Jove, Latona, hath brought forth so much ignorance. I even
+disbelieve the banquets of Tantalus set before the Gods, [as that they]
+should be pleased with feeding on a boy. But I deem that those in this
+land, being themselves man-slayers, charge the Goddess with their own
+baseness, for I think not that any one of the Gods is bad.
+
+CHOR. Ye dark blue, dark blue meetings of the sea, which Io, hurried along
+by the brize, once passed through to the Euxine wave, having changed the
+territory of Asia for Europe,--who were they who left fair-watered Eurotas,
+flourishing in reeds, or the sacred founts of Dirce, and came, and came to
+the inhospitable land, where the daughter of Jove bedews her altars and
+column-girt temples with human blood? Of a truth by the surge-dashing oars
+of fir, worked on both sides, they sailed in a nautical carriage o'er the
+ocean waves, striving in the emulation after loved wealth in their houses.
+For darling hope is in dangers insatiate among men, who bear off the weight
+of riches, wandering in vain speculation on the wave and o'er barbarian
+cities. But to some[58] there is a mind immoderate after riches, to others
+they come unsought. How did they pass through the rocks that run together,
+the ne'er resting beaches of Phineus, [and] the marine shore, running o'er
+the surge of Amphitrite,[59]--where the choruses of the fifty daughters of
+Nereus entwine in the dance,--[although] with breezes that fill the sails,
+the creaking rudders resting at the poop, with southern gales or the
+breezes of Zephyr, to the bird-haunted land, the white beach, the glorious
+race-course of Achilles, near the Euxine Sea. Would that, according to my
+mistress' prayers, Helen, the dear daughter of Leda, might sometime chance
+to come, quitting the city of Troy, that, having been drenched about the
+head with the blood-stained lustral dews, she might die by my mistress'
+hand, paying in turn an equal penalty [for her death.] Most joyfully then
+would we receive this news, if any one came sailing from the Grecian land,
+to make the toils of my hapless slavery to cease. And would that in my
+dreams I might tread[60] in mine home and ancestral city, enjoying the
+hymns of delight, a joy shared with the prosperous. But hither they come,
+bound as to their two[61] hands with chains, a new sacrifice for the
+Goddess. Be silent, my friends, for these first-fruits of the Greeks
+approach the temples, nor has the herdsman told a false tale. O reverend
+Goddess, if the city performs these things agreeably to thee, receive the
+sacrifice which, not hallowed among the Greeks, the custom of this place
+presents as a public offering.[62]
+
+IPH. Be it so. I must first take care that the rites of the Goddess are as
+they should be. Let go the hands of the strangers, that being consecrated
+they may no longer be in bonds. And, going within the temple, make ready
+the things which are necessary and usual on these occasions. Alas! Who is
+the mother who once bore you? And who your father, and your sister, if
+there be any born? Of what a pair of youths deprived will she be
+brotherless! For all the dispensations of the Gods creep into obscurity,
+and no one [absent] knows misfortune,[63] for fortune leads astray to what
+is hardly known. Whence come ye, O unhappy strangers? After how long a time
+have ye sailed to this land, and ye will be a long time from your home,
+ever among the shades![64]
+
+OR. Why mournest thou thus, and teasest us[65] concerning our future ills,
+whoever thou art, O lady? In naught do I deem him wise, who, when about to
+die, with bewailings seeks to overcome the fear of death, nor him who
+deplores death now near at hand,[66] when he has no hope of safety, in that
+he joins two ills instead of one, both incurs the charge of folly, and dies
+none the less. But one must needs let fortune take its course. But mourn us
+not, for we know and are acquainted with the sacrificial rites of this
+place.
+
+IPH. Which of ye twain here is named Pylades? This I would fain know first.
+
+OR. This man, if indeed 'tis any pleasure for thee to know this.
+
+IPH. Born citizen of what Grecian state?
+
+OR. And what wouldst thou gain by knowing this, lady?
+
+IPH. Are ye brothers from one mother?
+
+OR. In friendship we are, but we are not related, lady.
+
+IPH. But what name did the father who begot thee give to thee?
+
+OR. In truth we might be styled the unhappy.
+
+IPH. I ask not this. Leave this to fortune.
+
+OR. Dying nameless, I should not be mocked.
+
+IPH. Wherefore dost grudge this, and art thus proud?
+
+OR. My body thou shalt sacrifice, not my name.
+
+IPH. Nor wilt thou tell me which is thy city?
+
+OR. No. For thou seekest a thing of no profit, seeing I am to die.
+
+IPH. But what hinders thee from granting me this favor?
+
+OR. I boast renowned Argos for my country.
+
+IPH. In truth, by the Gods I ask thee, stranger, art thou thence born?
+
+OR. From Mycenae,[67] that was once prosperous.
+
+IPH. And hast thou set out a wanderer from thy country, or by what hap?
+
+OR. I flee in a certain wise unwilling, willingly.
+
+IPH. Wouldst thou tell me one thing that I wish?
+
+OR. That something, forsooth,[68] may be added to my misfortune.
+
+IPH. And truly thou hast come desired by me, in coming from Argos.
+
+OR. Not by myself, at all events; but if by thee, do thou enjoy it.[69]
+
+IPH. Perchance thou knowest Troy, the fame of which is every where.
+
+OR. Ay, would that I never had, not even seeing it in a dream!
+
+IPH. They say that it is now no more, and has fallen by the spear.
+
+OR. And so it is, nor have you heard what is not the case.
+
+IPH. And is Helen come back to the house of Menelaus?
+
+OR. She is, ay, coming unluckily to one of mine.
+
+IPH. And where is she? For she has incurred an old debt of evil with me
+also.
+
+OR. She dwells in Sparta with her former consort.
+
+IPH. O hateful pest among the Greeks, not to me only!
+
+OR. I also have received some fruits of her nuptials.
+
+IPH. And did the return of the Greeks take place, as is reported?
+
+OR. How dost thou question me, embracing all matters at once!
+
+IPH. For I wish to obtain this before that thou diest.
+
+OR. Examine me, since thou hast this longing, and I will speak.
+
+IPH. Has a certain seer named Calchas returned from Troy?
+
+OR. He perished, as the story ran, at Mycenae.
+
+IPH. O revered Goddess, how well it is! And how fares the son of Laertes?
+
+OR. He has not yet returned to his home, but he is alive, as report goes.
+
+IPH. May he perish, never obtaining a return to his country!
+
+OR. Invoke nothing--all his affairs are in a sickly state.
+
+IPH. But is the son of Thetis, the daughter of Nereus, yet alive?
+
+OR. He is not. In vain he held his wedding in Aulis.
+
+IPH. A crafty [wedding] it was, as those who have suffered say.
+
+OR. Who canst thou be? How well dost ken the affairs of Greece!
+
+IPH. I am from thence. While yet a child I was undone.
+
+OR. With reason thou desirest to know the affairs there, O lady.
+
+IPH. But how [fares] the general, who they say is prosperous.
+
+OR. Who? For he whom I know is not of the fortunate.
+
+IPH. A certain king Agamemnon was called the son of Atreus.
+
+OR. I know not--cease from these words, O lady.
+
+IPH. Nay, by the Gods, but speak, that I may be rejoiced, O stranger.
+
+OR. The wretched one is dead, and furthermore hath ruined one.[70]
+
+IPH. Is dead? By what mishap? O wretched me!
+
+OR. But why dost mourn this? Was he a relation of thine?
+
+IPH. I bemoan his former prosperity.
+
+OR. [Ay, well mayest thou,] for he has fallen, slain shamefully by a woman.
+
+IPH. O all grievous she that slew and he that fell!
+
+OR. Cease now at least, nor question further.
+
+IPH. Thus much at least, does the wife of the unhappy man live?
+
+OR. She is no more. The son she brought forth, he slew her.
+
+IPH. O house all troubled! with what intent, then?[71]
+
+OR. Taking satisfaction on her for the death of his father.
+
+IPH. Alas! how well he executed an evil act of justice.[72]
+
+OR. But, though just, he hath not good fortune from the Gods.
+
+IPH. But does Agamemnon leave any other child in his house?
+
+OR. He has left a single virgin [daughter,] Electra.
+
+IPH. What! Is there no report of his sacrificed daughter?[73]
+
+OR. None indeed, save that being dead she beholds not the light.
+
+IPH. Hapless she, and the father who slew her!
+
+OR. She perished, a thankless offering[74] because of a bad woman.
+
+IPH. But is the son of the deceased father at Argos?
+
+OR. He, wretched man, is nowhere and every where.
+
+IPH. Away, vain dreams, ye were then of naught!
+
+OR. Nor are the Gods who are called wise any less false than winged dreams.
+There is much inconsistency both among the Gods and among mortals. But one
+thing alone is left, when[75] a man not being foolish, persuaded by the
+words of seers, has perished, as he hath perished in man's knowledge.
+
+CHOR. Alas! alas! But what of us and our fathers? Are they, or are they not
+in being, who can tell?
+
+IPH. Hear me, for I am come to a certain discourse, meditating what is at
+once profitable for you and me. But that which is well is chiefly produced
+thus, when the same matter pleases all. Would ye be willing, if I were to
+save you, to go to Argos, and bear a message for me to my friends there,
+and carry a letter, which a certain captive wrote, pitying me, nor deeming
+my hand that of a murderess, but that he died through custom, as the
+Goddess sanctioned such things as just? For I had no one who would go and
+bear the news back to Argos, and who, being preserved, would send my
+letters to some one of my friends.[76] But do thou, for thou art, as thou
+seemest, of no ignoble birth, and knowest Mycenae and the persons I wish, do
+thou, I say,[77] be saved, receiving no dishonorable reward, your safety
+for the sake of trifling letters. But let this man, since the city compels
+it, be a sacrifice to the Goddess, apart from thee.
+
+OR. Well hast thou spoken the rest, save one thing, O stranger lady, for
+'tis a heavy weight upon me that this man should be slain. For I was
+steersman of the vessel to these ills,[78] but he is a fellow-sailor
+because of mine own troubles. In no wise then is it right that I should do
+thee a favor to his destruction, and myself escape from ills. But let it be
+thus. Give him the letter, for he will send it to Argos, so as to be well
+for thee, but let him that will slay me. Base is the man, who, casting his
+friends into calamity, himself is saved. But this man is a friend, who I
+fain should see the light no less that myself.
+
+IPH. O noblest spirit, how art thou sprung from some generous root, thou
+truly a friend to thy friends! Such might he be who is left of my brothers!
+For in good truth, strangers, I am not brotherless, save that I behold him
+not. But since thou willest thus, let us send this man bearing the letter,
+but thou wilt die, and some great desire of this chances to possess
+thee?[79]
+
+OR. But who will sacrifice me, and dare this dreadful deed?
+
+IPH. I; for I have this sacrificial duty[80] from the Goddess.
+
+OR. Unenviable indeed. O damsel, and unblest.
+
+IPH. But we lie under necessity, which one must beware.
+
+OR. Thyself, a female, sacrificing males with the sword?
+
+IPH. Not so; but I shall lave around thy head with the lustral stream.
+
+OR. But who is the slayer, if I may ask this?
+
+IPH. Within the house are they whose office is this.
+
+OR. And what manner of tomb will receive me, when I die?
+
+IPH. The holy flame within, and the dark chasm of the rock.[81]
+
+OR. Alas! Would that a sister's hand might lay me out.[82]
+
+IPH. A vain prayer hast thou uttered, whoever thou art, O stranger, for she
+dwells far from this barbarian land. Nevertheless, since thou art an
+Argive, I will not fail to do thee kindness in what is possible. For on thy
+tomb will I place much adornment, and with the tawny oil will I cause thy
+body to be soon consumed,[83] and on thy pyre will I pour the flower-sucked
+riches of the swarthy bee. But I will go and fetch the letter from the
+shrines of the Goddess. But do thou not bear ill will against me. Guard
+them, ye servants, [but] without fetters.[84] Perchance I shall send
+unexpected tidings to some one of my friends at Argos, whom I chiefly love,
+and the letter, telling to him that she lives whom he thinks dead, will
+announce a faithful pleasure.
+
+CHOR. I deplore thee now destined to the gory streams of the lustral
+waters.[85]
+
+OR. 'Tis piteous, truly;[86] but fare ye well, stranger ladies.
+
+CHOR. But thee, (_to Pylades_) O youth, we honor for thy happy fortune,
+that at some time thou wilt return to thy country.
+
+PYL. Not to be coveted[87] by friends, when friends are to die.
+
+CHOR. O mournful journeying! Alas! alas! thou art undone. Woe! woe! which
+is the [victim] to be? For still my mind resolves[88] twain doubtful
+[ills,] whether with groans I shall bemoan thee (_to Orestes_) or thee (_to
+Pylades_) first.
+
+OR. Pylades, hast thou, by the Gods, experienced the same feeling as
+myself?
+
+PYL. I know not. Thou askest me unable to say.
+
+OR. Who is this damsel? With what a Grecian spirit she asked us concerning
+the toils in Troy, and the return of the Greeks, and Calchas wise in
+augury, and about Achilles, and how she pitied wretched Agamemnon, and
+asked me of his wife and children. This stranger lady is[89] some Greek by
+race; for otherwise she never would have been sending a letter and making
+these inquiries, as sharing a common weal in the well-doing of Argos.
+
+PYL. Thou hast outstripped me a little, but thou outstrippest me in saying
+the same things, save in one respect--for all, with whom there is any
+communication, know the fate of the king. But I was[90] considering another
+subject.
+
+OR. What? laying it down in common, you will better understand.
+
+PYL. 'Tis base that I should behold the light, while you perish; and,
+having sailed with you, with you I must needs die also. For I shall incur
+the imputation of both cowardice and baseness in Argos and the Phocian land
+with its many dells, and I shall seem to the many, for the many are evil,
+to have arrived alone in safety to mine home, having deserted thee, or even
+to have murdered thee, taking advantage of the sickly state of thine house,
+and to have devised thy fate for the sake of reigning, in order that,
+forsooth, I might wed thy sister as an heiress[91]. These things, then, I
+dread, and hold in shame, and it shall not be but I will breathe my last
+with thee, be slain, and have my body burned with thee, being a friend, and
+dreading reproach.
+
+OR. Speak words of better omen. I must needs bear my troubles, but when I
+may [endure] one single trouble, I will not endure twain. For what thou
+callest bitter and reproachful, that is my portion, if I cause thee to be
+slain who hast shared my toils. For, as far as I am concerned, it stands
+not badly with me, faring as I fare at the hands of the Gods, to end my
+life. But thou art prosperous, and hast a home pure, not sickening, but I
+[have] one impious and unhappy. And living thou mayest raise children from
+my sister, whom I gave thee to have[92] as a wife, and my name might exist,
+nor would my ancestral house be ever blotted out. But go, live, and dwell
+in my father's house; and when thou comest to Greece and chivalrous Argos,
+by thy right hand, I commit to thee this charge. Heap up a tomb, and place
+upon it remembrances of me, and let my sister offer tears and her shorn
+locks upon my sepulchre. And tell how I died by an Argive woman's hand,
+sacrificed as an offering by the altar's side. And do thou never desert my
+sister, seeing my father's connections and home bereaved. And fare thee
+well! for I have found thee best among my friends. Oh thou who hast been my
+fellow-huntsman, my mate! Oh thou who hast borne the weight of many of my
+sorrows! But Phoebus, prophet though he be, has deceived me. For, artfully
+devising, he has driven me as far as possible from Greece, in shame of his
+former prophecies. To whom I, yielding up mine all, and obeying his words,
+having slain my mother, myself perish in turn.
+
+PYL. Thou shalt have a tomb, and never will I, hapless one, betray thy
+sister's bed, since I shall hold thee more a friend dead than living. But
+the oracle of the God has never yet wronged thee, although thou art indeed
+on the very verge of death. But excessive mischance is very wont, is very
+wont to present changes, when the matter so falls.
+
+OR. Be silent--the words of Phoebus avail me naught, for the lady is coming
+hither without the temple.
+
+IPH. Depart ye, and go and make ready the things within for those who
+superintend the sacrifice. These, O stranger, are the many-folded
+inclosures of the letter, but hear thou what I further wish. No man is the
+same in trouble, and when he changes from fear into confidence. But I fear,
+lest he having got away from this land, will deem my letter of no account,
+who is about to bear this letter to Argos.[93]
+
+OR. What wouldst thou? Concerning what art thou disturbed?
+
+IPH. Let him make me oath that he will ferry these writings to Argos, to
+those friends to whom I wish to send them.
+
+OR. Wilt thou in turn make the same assertion to him?
+
+IPH. That I will do, or will not do what thing? say.
+
+OR. That you will release him from this barbarian land, not dying.
+
+IPH. Thou sayest justly; for how could he bear the message?
+
+OR. But will the ruler also grant this?
+
+IPH. Yea. I will persuade him, and will myself embark him on the ship's
+hull.
+
+OR. Swear, but do thou commence such oath as is holy.
+
+IPH. Thou must say "I will give this [letter] to my friends."
+
+PYL. I will give this letter to thy friends.
+
+IPH. And I will send thee safe beyond the Cyanean rocks.
+
+PYL. Whom of the Gods dost thou call to witness of thine oath in these
+words?
+
+IPH. Diana, in whose temple I hold office.
+
+PYL. But I [call upon] the king of heaven, hallowed Jove.
+
+IPH. But if, deserting thine oath, thou shouldst wrong me--
+
+PYL. May I not return? But thou, if thou savest me not--
+
+IPH. May I never living set footprint in Argos.
+
+PYL. Hear now then a matter which we have passed by.
+
+IPH. There will be opportunity hereafter, if matters stand aright.
+
+PYL. Grant me this one exception. If the vessel suffer any harm, and the
+letter be lost[94] in the storm, together with the goods, and I save my
+person only, that this mine oath be no longer valid.[95]
+
+IPH. Knowest thou what I will do?[96] for the many things contained in the
+folds of the letter bear opportunity for many things.[97] I will tell you
+in words all that you are to convey to my friends, for this plan is safe.
+If indeed thou preservest the letter, it will itself silently tell the
+things written, but if these letters be lost at sea, saving thy body, thou
+wilt preserve my message.
+
+PYL. Thou hast spoken well on behalf of the Gods[98] and of myself. But
+tell me to whom at Argos I must needs bear these epistles, and what hearing
+from thee, I must tell.
+
+IPH. Bear word to Orestes, the son of Agamemnon, (_reading_) "she[99] that
+was sacrificed at Aulis gives this commission, Iphigenia alive, but no
+longer alive as far as those in Argos are concerned."
+
+OR. But where is she? Does she come back again having died?
+
+IPH. She, whom you see. Do not confuse me with speaking. (_Continues
+reading_) "Bear me to Argos, my brother, before I die, remove me from this
+barbarian land and the sacrifices of the Goddess, in which I have the
+office of slaying strangers."
+
+OR. Pylades, what shall I say? where shall we be found to be?[100]
+
+IPH. (_still reading_) "Or I will be a cause of curses upon thine house,
+Orestes," (_with great stress upon the name and turning to Pylades_,) "that
+thou, twice hearing the name, mayest know it."
+
+PYL. O Gods!
+
+IPH. Why callest thou upon the Gods in matters that are mine?
+
+PYL. 'Tis nothing. Go on. I was wandering to another subject. Perchance,
+inquiring of thee, I shall arrive at things incredible.[101]
+
+IPH. (_continues reading_) "Say that the Goddess Diana saved me, giving in
+exchange for me a hind, which my father sacrificed, thinking that it was
+upon me that he laid the sharp sword, and she placed me to dwell in this
+land." This is the burden of my message, these are the words written in my
+letter.
+
+PYL. O thou who hast secured me in easy oaths, and hast sworn things
+fairest, I will not delay much time, but I will firmly accomplish the oath
+I have sworn. Behold, I bear and deliver to thee a letter, O Orestes, from
+this thy sister.
+
+OR. I receive it. And letting go the opening of the letter, I will first
+seize a delight not in words (_attempts to embrace her_). O dearest sister
+mine, in amazement, yet nevertheless embracing thee with a doubting arm, I
+go to a source of delight, hearing things marvelous to me.[102]
+
+CHOR. Stranger,[103] thou dost not rightly pollute the servant of the
+Goddess, casting thine arm around her garments that should ne'er be
+touched.
+
+OR. O fellow-sister born of one sire, Agamemnon, turn not from me,
+possessing a brother whom you never thought to possess.
+
+IPH. I [possess] thee my brother? Wilt not cease speaking? Both Argos and
+Nauplia are frequented by him.[104]
+
+OR. Unhappy one! thy brother is not there.
+
+IPH. But did the Lacedaemonian daughter of Tyndarus beget thee?
+
+OR. Ay, to the grandson of Pelops, whence I am sprung.[105]
+
+IPH. What sayest thou? Hast thou any proof of this for me?
+
+OR. I have. Ask something relative to my ancestral home.
+
+IPH. Thou must needs then speak, and I learn.
+
+OR. I will first speak from hearsay from Electra, this.[106] Thou knowest
+the strife that took place between Atreus and Thyestes?
+
+IPH. I have heard of it, when it was waged concerning the golden lamb.
+
+OR. Dost thou then remember weaving [a representation of] this on the
+deftly-wrought web?
+
+IPH. O dearest one. Thou art turning thy course near to my own
+thoughts.[107]
+
+OR. And [dost thou remember] a picture on the loom, the turning away of the
+sun?
+
+IPH. I wove this image also in the fine-threaded web.
+
+OR. And didst thou receive[108] a bath from thy mother, sent to Aulis?
+
+IPH. I know it: for the wedding, though good, did not take away my
+recollection.[109]
+
+OR. But what? [Dost thou remember] to have given thine hair to be carried
+to thy mother?
+
+IPH. Ay, as a memorial for the tomb[110] in place of my body.
+
+OR. But the proofs which I have myself beheld, these will I tell, viz. the
+ancient spear of Pelops in my father's house, which brandishing in his
+hand, he [Pelops] won Hippodameia, having slain AEnomaus, which is hidden in
+thy virgin chamber.
+
+IPH. O dearest one, no more, for thou art dearest. I hold thee, Orestes,
+one darling son[111] far away from his father-land, from Argos, O thou dear
+one!
+
+OR. And I [hold] thee that wast dead, as was supposed. But tears, yet
+tearless,[112] and groans together mingled with joy, bedew thine eyelids,
+and mine in like manner.
+
+IPH. This one, this, yet a babe I left, young in the arms of the nurse, ay,
+young in our house. O thou more fortunate than my words[113] can tell, what
+shall I say? This matter has turned out beyond marvel or calculation.
+
+OR. [Say this.] May we for the future be happy with each other!
+
+IPH. I have experienced an unaccountable delight, dear companions, but I
+fear lest it flit[114] from my hands, and escape toward the sky. O ye
+Cyclopean hearths, O Mycenae, dear country mine. I am grateful to thee for
+my life, and grateful for my nurture, in that thou hast trained for me this
+brother light in my home.
+
+OR. In our race we are fortunate, but as to calamities, O sister, our life
+is by nature unhappy.
+
+IPH. But I wretched remember when my father with foolish spirit laid the
+sword upon my neck.
+
+OR. Ah me! For I seem, not being present, to behold you there.[115]
+
+IPH. Without Hymen, O my brother, when I was being led to the fictitious
+nuptial bed of Achilles. But near the altar were tears and lamentations.
+Alas! alas, for the lustral waters there!
+
+OR. I mourn aloud for the deed my father dared.
+
+IPH. I obtained a fatherless, a fatherless lot. But one calamity follows
+upon another.[116]
+
+OR. [Ay,] if thou hadst lost thy brother, O hapless one, by the
+intervention of some demon.
+
+IPH. O miserable for my dreadful daring! I have dared horrid, I have dared
+horrid things. Alas! my brother. But by a little hast thou escaped an
+unholy destruction, stricken by my hands. But what will be the end after
+this? What fortune will befall me? What retreat can I find for thee away
+from this city? can I send you out of the reach of slaughter to your
+country Argos, before that my sword enter on the contest concerning thy
+blood?[117] This is thy business, O hapless soul, to discover, whether over
+the land, not in a ship, but by the gust[118] of your feet thou wilt
+approach death, passing through[119] barbarian hordes, and through ways not
+to be traversed? Or[120] [wilt thou pass] through the Cyanean creek, a long
+journey in the flight of ships. Wretched, wretched one! Who then or God, or
+mortal, or [unexpected event,[121]] having accomplished a way out of
+inextricable difficulties, will show forth to the sole twain Atrides a
+release from ills?
+
+CHOR. Among marvels and things passing even fable are these things which I
+shall tell as having myself beheld, and not from hearsay.
+
+PYL. It is meet indeed that friends coming into the presence of friends,
+Orestes, should embrace one another with their hands, but, having ceased
+from mournful matters, it behooves you also to betake you to those measures
+by which we, obtaining the glorious name of safety, may depart from this
+barbarian earth. For it is the part of wise men, not wandering from their
+present chance, when they have obtained an opportunity, to acquire further
+delights.[122]
+
+OR. Thou sayest well. But I think that fortune will take care of this with
+us. For if a man be zealous, it is likely that the divine power will have
+still greater power.
+
+IPH. Do not restrain or hinder me from your words, not first to know what
+fortune of life Electra has obtained, for this were pleasant to me [to
+hear.][123]
+
+OR. She is partner with this man, possessing a happy life.
+
+IPH. And of what country is he, and son of what man born?
+
+OR. Strophius the Phocian is styled his father.
+
+IPH. And he is of the daughter of Atreus, a relative of mine?
+
+OR. Ay, a cousin, my only certain friend.
+
+IPH. Was he not in being, when my father sought to slay me?
+
+OR. He was not, for Strophius was childless some time.
+
+IPH. Hail! O thou spouse of my sister.
+
+OR. Ay, and my preserver, not relation only.
+
+IPH. But how didst thou dare the terrible deeds in respect to your mother?
+
+OR. Let us be silent respecting my mother--'twas in avenging my father.
+
+IPH. And what was the reason for her slaying her husband?
+
+OR. Let go the subject of my mother. Nor is it pleasant for you to hear.
+
+IPH. I am silent. But Argos now looks up to thee.
+
+OR. Menelaus rules: I am an exile from my country.
+
+IPH. What, did our uncle abuse our house unprospering?
+
+OR. Not so, but the fear of the Erinnyes drives me from my land.
+
+IPH. For this then wert thou spoken of as being frantic even here on the
+shore.
+
+OR. We were beheld not now for the first time in a hapless state.
+
+IPH. I perceive. The Goddesses goaded thee on because of thy mother.
+
+OR. Ay, so as to cast a bloody bit[124] upon me.
+
+IPH. For wherefore didst thou pilot thy foot to this land?
+
+OR. I came, commanded by the oracles of Phoebus--
+
+IPH. To do what thing? Is it one to be spoken of or kept in silence?
+
+OR. I will tell you, but these are the beginning for me of many[125] woes.
+After these evil things concerning my mother, on which I keep silence, had
+been wrought, I was driven an exile by the pursuits of the Erinnyes, when
+Loxias sent my foot[126] to Athens, that I might render satisfaction to the
+deities that must not be named. For there is a holy council, that Jove once
+on a time instituted for Mars on account of some pollution of his
+hands.[127] And coming thither, at first indeed no one of the strangers
+received me willingly, as being abhorred by the Gods, but they who had
+respect to me, afforded me[128] a stranger's meal at a separate table,
+being under the same house roof, and silently devised in respect to me,
+unaddressed by them, how I might be separated from their banquet[129] and
+cup, and, having filled up a share of wine in a separate vessel, equal for
+all, they enjoyed themselves. And I did not think fit to rebuke my guests,
+but I grieved in silence, and did not seem to perceive [their conduct,]
+deeply groaning, because I was my mother's slayer.[130] But I hear that my
+misfortunes have been made a festival at Athens, and that this custom still
+remains, that the people of Pallas honor the Libation Vessel.[131] But when
+I came to the hill of Mars, and stood in judgment, I indeed occupying one
+seat, but the eldest of the Erinnyes the other, having spoken and heard
+respecting my mother's death, Phoebus saved me by bearing witness, but
+Pallas counted out for me[132] the equal votes with her hand, and I came
+off victor in the bloody trial.[133] As many then as sat [in judgment,]
+persuaded by the sentence, determined to hold their dwelling near the court
+itself.[134] But as many of the Erinnyes as did not yield obedience to the
+sentence passed, continually kept driving me with unsettled wanderings,
+until I again returned to the holy ground of Phoebus, and lying stretched
+before the adyts, hungering for food, I swore that I would break from life
+by dying on the spot, unless Phoebus, who had undone, should preserve me.
+Upon this Phoebus, uttering a voice from the golden tripod, sent me hither
+to seize the heaven-sent image, and place it in the land of Athens. But
+that safety which he marked out for me do thou aid in. For if we can lay
+hold on the image of the Goddess, I both shall cease from my madness, and
+embarking thee in the bark of many oars, I shall settle thee again in
+Mycenae. But, O beloved one, O sister mine, preserve my ancestral home, and
+preserve me, since all my state and that of the Pelopids is undone, unless
+we seize on the heavenly image of the Goddess.
+
+CHOR. Some dreadful wrath of the Gods hath burst forth, and leads the seed
+of Tantalus through troubles.[135]
+
+IPH. I entertained the desire to reach Argos, and behold thee, my brother,
+even before thou camest. But I wish, as you do, both to save thee, and to
+restore again our sickening ancestral home from troubles, in no wise wrath
+with him who would have slain me. For I should both release my hand from
+thy slaughter, and preserve mine house. But I fear how I shall be able to
+escape the notice of the Goddess and the king, when he shall find the stone
+pedestal bared of the image. And how shall I escape death? What account can
+I give? But if indeed these matters can be effected at once, and thou wilt
+bear away the image, and lead me in the fair-pooped ship, the risk will be
+a glorious one. But separated from this I perish, but you, arranging your
+own affairs, would obtain a prosperous return. Yet in no wise will I fly,
+not even if I needs must perish, having preserved thee. In no wise, I
+say;[136] for a man who dies from among his household is regretted, but a
+woman is of little account.
+
+OR. I would not be the murderer both of thee and of my mother. Her blood is
+enough, and being of the same mind with you, [with you] I should wish,
+living or dying, to obtain an equal lot. +But I will lead thee, even though
+I myself fall here, to my house, or, remaining with thee, will die.[137]+
+But hear my opinion. If this had been disagreeable to Diana, how would
+Loxias have answered, that I should remove the image of the Goddess to the
+city of Pallas, and behold thy face? For, putting all these matters
+together, I hope to obtain a return.
+
+IPH. How then can it happen that neither you die, and that we obtain what
+we wish? For it is in this respect that our journey homeward is at fault,
+but the will is not wanting.
+
+OR. Could we possibly destroy the tyrant?
+
+IPH, Thou tellest a fearful thing, for strangers to slay their receivers.
+
+OR. But if it will preserve thee and me, one must run the risk.
+
+IPH. I could not--yet I approve your zeal.
+
+OR. But what if you were secretly to hide me in this temple?
+
+IPH. In order, forsooth, that, taking advantage of darkness, we might be
+saved?
+
+OR. For night is the time for thieves, the light for truth.
+
+IPH. But within are the sacred keepers,[138] whom we can not escape.
+
+OR. Alas! we are undone. How can we then be saved?
+
+IPH. I seem to have a certain new device.
+
+OR. Of what kind? Make me a sharer in your opinion, that I also may learn.
+
+IPH. I will make use of thy ravings as a contrivance.
+
+OR. Ay, cunning are women to find out tricks.
+
+IPH. I will say that thou, being slayer of thy mother, art come from Argos.
+
+OR. Make use of my troubles, if you can turn them to account.
+
+IPH. I will say that it is not lawful to sacrifice thee to the Goddess.
+
+OR. Having what pretext? For I partly suspect.
+
+IPH. As not being pure, but I will [say that I will][139] give what is holy
+to sacrifice.
+
+OR. How then the more will the image of the Goddess be obtained?
+
+IPH. I [will say that I] will purify thee in the fountains of the sea.
+
+OR. The statue, in quest of which, we have sailed, is still in the temple.
+
+IPH. And I will say that I must wash that too, as if you had laid hands on
+it.
+
+OR. Where then is the damp breaker of the sea of which you speak?
+
+IPH. Where thy ship rides at anchor with rope-bound chains.
+
+OR. But wilt thou, or some one else, bear the image in their hands?
+
+IPH. I, for it is lawful for me alone to touch it.
+
+OR. But in what part of this contrivance will our friend Pylades[140] be
+placed?
+
+IPH. He will be said to bear the same pollution of hands as thyself.
+
+OR. And wilt thou do this unknown to, or with the knowledge of the king?
+
+IPH. Having persuaded him by words, for I could not escape notice.
+
+OR. And truly the well-rowed ship is ready for sailing.[141]
+
+IPH. You must take care of the rest, that it be well.
+
+OR. There lacks but one thing, namely, that these women who are present
+preserve our secret. But do thou beseech them, and find words that will
+persuade. A woman in truth has power to move pity. But all the rest will
+perchance fall out well.
+
+IPH. O dearest women, I look to you, and my affairs rest in you, as to
+whether they turn out well, or be of naught, and I be deprived of my
+country, my dear brother, and dearest sister. And let this first be the
+commencement of my words. We are women, a race well inclined to one
+another, and most safe in keeping secret matters of common interest. Do ye
+keep silence for us, and labor out our escape. Honorable is it for the man
+who possesses a faithful tongue. But behold how one fortune holds the three
+most dear, either a return to our father-land, or to die. But, being
+preserved, that thou also mayest share my fortune, I will restore thee safe
+to Greece. But, by thy right hand, thee, and thee [_addressing the women of
+the chorus in succession_] I beseech, and thee by thy beloved cheek, and
+thy knees, and those most dear at home, mother, and father, and children,
+to whom there are such.[142] What say ye? Who of you will, or will not
+[speak!] these things.[143] For if ye assent not to my words, I am undone,
+and my wretched sister.
+
+CHOR. Be of good cheer, dear mistress, and think only of being saved, since
+on my part all shall be kept secret, the mighty Jove be witness! in the
+things thou enjoinest.
+
+IPH. May your words profit ye, and may ye be blest. 'Tis thy part now, and
+thine [to the different women] to enter the house, as the ruler of this
+land will straightway come, inquiring concerning the sacrifice of the
+strangers, whether it is over. O revered Goddess, who in the recesses of
+Aulis didst save me from the dire hand of a slaying father, now also save
+me and these, or the voice of Loxias will through thee be no longer
+truthful among mortals. But do thou with good will quit the barbarian land
+for Athens, for it becomes thee not to dwell here, when you can possess a
+blest city.
+
+CHORUS. Thou bird, that by the rocky cliffs of the sea, halcyon,[144] dost
+chant thy mournful elegy, a sound well understood by the skilled, namely,
+that thou art ever bemoaning thine husband in song, I, a wingless bird,
+compare my dirge with thine, longing for the assemblies[145] of the Greeks,
+longing for Lucina, who dwells along the Cynthian height, and near the
+palm[146] with its luxuriant foliage, and the rich-springing laurel, and
+the holy shoot of the deep blue olive, the dear place of Latona's
+throes,[147] and the lake that rolls its waters in a circle,[148] where the
+melodious swan honors the muses. O ye many tricklings of tears which fell
+upon my cheeks, when, our towers being destroyed, I traveled in ships
+beneath the oars and the spears of the foes.[149] And through a bartering
+of great price I came a journey to a barbarian land,[150] where I serve the
+daughter of Agamemnon, the priestess of the Goddess, and the
+sheep-slaughtering[151] altars, envying her who has all her life been
+unfortunate;[152] for she bends not under necessity, who is familiar with
+it. Unhappiness is wont to change,[153] but to fare ill after prosperity is
+a heavy life for mortals. And thee indeed, O mistress, an Argive ship of
+fifty oars will conduct home, and the wax-bound reed of mountain Pan with
+Syrinx tune cheer on the oarsmen, and prophet Phoebus, plying the tones of
+his seven-stringed lyre, with song will lead thee prosperously to the rich
+land of Athens. But leaving me here thou wilt travel by the dashing oars.
+And the halyards by the prow,[154] will stretch forth the sails to the air,
+above the beak, the sheet lines of the swift-journeying ship. Would that I
+might pass through the glittering course, where the fair light of the sun
+wends its way, and over my own chamber might rest from rapidly moving the
+pinions on my shoulders.[155] And would that I might stand in the dance,
+where also [I was wont to stand,] a virgin sprung from honorable
+nuptials,[156] wreathing the dances of my companions at the foot of my dear
+mother,[157] bounding to the rivalry of the graces, to the wealthy strife
+respecting [beauteous] hair, pouring my variously-painted garb and tresses
+around, I shadowed my cheeks.[158]
+
+[_Enter_ THOAS.]
+
+THOAS. Where is the Grecian woman who keeps the gate of this temple? Has
+she yet begun the sacrifice of the strangers, and are the bodies burning in
+the flame within the pure recesses?
+
+CHOR. Here she is, O king, who will tell thee clearly all.
+
+TH. Ah! Why art thou removing in your arms this image of the Goddess from
+its seat that may not be disturbed, O daughter of Agamemnon?
+
+IPH. O king, rest there thy foot in the portico.
+
+TH. But what new matter is in the house, Iphigenia?
+
+IPH. I avert the ill--for holy[159] do I utter this word.
+
+TH. What new thing art thou prefacing? speak clearly.
+
+IPH. O king, no pure offerings hast thou hunted out for me.
+
+TH. What hath taught you this? or dost thou speak it as matter of opinion?
+
+IPH. The image of the Goddess hath again turned away from her seat.[160]
+
+TH. Of its own accord, or did an earthquake turn it?
+
+IPH. Of its own accord, and it closed its eyes.
+
+TH. But what is the cause? is it pollution from the strangers?
+
+IPH. That very thing, naught else, for they have done dreadful things.
+
+TH. What, did they slay any of the barbarians upon the shore?
+
+IPH. They came possessing the stain of domestic murder.
+
+TH. What? for I am fallen into a longing to learn this.
+
+IPH. They put an end to a mother's life by conspiring sword.
+
+TH. Apollo! not even among barbarians would any one have dared this.
+
+IPH. By persecutions they were driven out of all Greece.
+
+TH. Is it then on their account that thou bearest the image without?
+
+IPH. Ay, under the holy sky, that I may remove it from blood stains.
+
+TH. But how didst thou discover the pollution of the strangers?
+
+IPH. I examined them, when the image of the Goddess turned away.
+
+TH. Greece hath trained thee up wise, in that thou well didst perceive
+this.
+
+IPH. And now they have cast out a delightful bait for my mind.
+
+TH. By telling thee any charming news of those at Argos?
+
+IPH. That my only brother Orestes fares well.
+
+TH. So that, forsooth, thou mightest preserve them because of their
+pleasant news!
+
+IPH. And that my father lives and fares well.
+
+TH. But thou hast with reason attended to the interest of the Goddess.
+
+IPH. Ay, because hating all Greece that destroyed me.
+
+TH. What then shall we do, say, concerning the two strangers?
+
+IPH. We needs must respect the established law.
+
+TH. Are not the lustral waters and thy sword already engaged?[161]
+
+IPH. First I would fain lave them in pure cleansings.
+
+TH. In the fountains of waters, or in the dew of the sea?
+
+IPH. The sea washes out all the ills of men.
+
+TH. They would certainly fall in a more holy manner before the Goddess.
+
+IPH. And my matters would be in a more fitting state.[162]
+
+TH. Does not the wave dash against the very temple?
+
+IPH. There is need of solitude, for we have other things to do.
+
+TH. Lead them whither thou wilt, I crave not to see things that may not be
+told.
+
+IPH. The image of the Goddess also must be purified by me.
+
+TH. If indeed the stain of the matricide hath fallen on it.
+
+IPH. For otherwise I should not have removed it from its pedestal.
+
+TH. Just piety and foresight! How reasonably doth all the city marvel at
+thee!
+
+IPH. Knowest thou then what must be done for me?
+
+TH. 'Tis thine to explain this.
+
+IPH. Cast fetters upon the strangers.
+
+TH. Whither could they escape from thee?
+
+IPH. Greece knows nothing faithful.
+
+TH. Go for the fetters, attendants.
+
+IPH. Ay, and let them bring the strangers hither.
+
+TH. This shall be.
+
+IPH. Having enveloped their heads in robes.
+
+TH. Against the scorching of the sun?
+
+IPH. And send thou with me of thy followers--
+
+TH. These shall accompany thee.
+
+IPH. And send some one to signify to the city--
+
+TH. What hap?
+
+IPH. That all remain in their homes.
+
+TH. Lest they encounter homicide?
+
+IPH. For such things are unclean.
+
+TH. Go thou, and order this.
+
+IPH. That no one come into sight.
+
+TH. Thou carest well for the city.
+
+IPH. Ay, and more particularly friends must not be present.[163]
+
+TH. This you say in reference to me.
+
+IPH. But do thou, abiding here before the temple of the Goddess--
+
+TH. Do what?
+
+IPH. Purify the house with a torch.
+
+TH. That it may be pure when thou comest back to it?
+
+IPH. But when the strangers come out,
+
+TH. What must I do?
+
+IPH. Place your garment before your eyes.
+
+TH. Lest I contract contagion?
+
+IPH. But if I seem to tarry very long,
+
+TH. What limit of this shall I have?
+
+IPH. Wonder at nothing.
+
+TH. Do thou rightly the business of the Goddess at thy leisure.
+
+IPH. And may this purification turn out as I wish!
+
+TH. I join in your prayer.
+
+IPH. I now see these strangers coming out of the house, and the adornments
+of the Goddess, and the young lambs, in order that I may wash out foul
+slaughter by slaughter, and the shining light of lamps, and the other
+things, as many as I ordered as purifications for the strangers and the
+Goddess. But I proclaim to the strangers to get out of the way of this
+pollution, if any gate-keeper of the temples keeps pure hands for the Gods,
+or is about to join in nuptial alliance, or is pregnant, flee, get out of
+the way, lest this pollution fall on any. O thou queen, virgin daughter of
+Jove and Latona, if I wash away the blood-pollution from these men, and
+sacrifice where 'tis fitting, thou wilt occupy a pure house, and we shall
+be prosperous. But although I do not speak of the rest, I nevertheless
+signify my meaning to the Gods who know most things,[164] and to thee, O
+Goddess.
+
+CHORUS.[165] Of noble birth is the offspring of Latona, whom once on a time
+in the fruitful valleys of Delos, Phoebus with his golden locks, skilled on
+the lyre, (and she who rejoices in skill of the bow,) his mother bore while
+yet an infant[166] from the sea-side rock, leaving the renowned place of
+her delivery, destitute of waters,[167] the Parnassian height haunted by
+Bacchus, where the ruddy-visaged serpent, with spotted back, + brazen +
+beneath the shady laurel with its rich foliage, an enormous prodigy of the
+earth, guarded the subterranean oracle. Him thou, O Phoebus, while yet an
+infant, while yet leaping in thy dear mother's arms, didst slay, and
+entered upon thy divine oracles, and thou sittest on the golden tripod, on
+the throne that is ever true, distributing to mortals prophecies from the
+divine adyts beneath the Castalian streams, dwelling hard by, occupying a
+dwelling in the middle of the earth.[168] But when, having gone against
+Themis, daughter of earth, he expelled her from the divine oracles, earth
+begot dark phantoms of dreams, which to many mortals explain what first,
+what afterward, what in future will happen, during their sleep in the
+couches of the dusky earth.[169] But + the earth + deprived Phoebus of the
+honor of prophecies, through anger on her daughter's account, and the
+swift-footed king, hastening to Olympus, stretched forth his little hand to
+the throne of Jove.[170] [beseeching him] to take away the earth-born[171]
+wrath of the Goddess, + and the nightly responses. + But he laughed,
+because his son had come quickly to him, wishing to obtain the wealthy
+office, and he shook his hair, and put an end to the nightly dreams,[172]
+and took away nightly divination from mortals, and again conferred the
+honor on Loxias, and confidence to mortals from the songs of oracles
+[proclaimed] on this throne, thronged to by many strangers.[173]
+
+[_Enter_ A MESSENGER.]
+
+MESS. O ye guardians of the temple and presidents of the altars, where in
+this land has king Thoas gone? Do ye, opening the well-fastened gates, call
+the ruler of this land outside the house.
+
+CHOR. But what is it, if I may speak when I am not bidden?
+
+MESS. The two youths have escaped, and are gone by the contrivances of
+Agamemnon's daughter, endeavoring to fly from this land, and taking the
+sacred image in the bosom of a Grecian ship.
+
+CHOR. Thou tellest an incredible story, but the king of this country, whom
+you wish to see, is gone, having quitted the temple.
+
+MESS. Whither? For he needs must know what has been done.
+
+CHOR. We know not. But go thou and pursue him to wheresoever, having met
+with him, thou mayest recount this news.
+
+MESS. See, how faithless is the female race! and ye are partners in what
+has been done.
+
+CHOR. Art thou mad? What have we to do with the flight of the strangers?
+Will you not go as quickly as possible to the gates of the rulers?
+
+MESS. Not at least before some distinct informer[174] tell me this, whether
+the ruler of the land is within or not within. Ho there! Open the
+fastenings, I speak to those within, and tell the master that I am at the
+gates, bearing a weight of evil news.
+
+THOAS. (_coming out_) Who makes this noise near the temple of the Goddess,
+hammering at the door, and sending fear within?
+
+MESS. These women told me falsely, (and tried to drive me from the house,)
+that you were away, while you really were in the house.
+
+TH. Expecting or hunting after what gain?
+
+MESS. I will afterward tell of what concerns them, but hear the present,
+immediate matter. The virgin, she that presided over the altars here,
+Iphigenia, has gone out of the land with the strangers, having the sacred
+image of the Goddess; but the expiations were pretended.
+
+TH. How sayest thou? possessed by what breath of calamity?[175]
+
+MESS. In order to preserve Orestes, for at this thou wilt marvel.
+
+TH. What [Orestes]? Him, whom the daughter of Tyndarus bore?
+
+MESS. Him whom she consecrated to the Goddess at these altars.
+
+TH. Oh marvel! How can I rightly[176] call thee by a greater name?
+
+MESS. Do not turn thine attention to this, but listen to me; and having
+perceived and heard, clearly consider what pursuit will catch the
+strangers.
+
+TH. Speak, for thou sayest well, for they do not flee by the way of the
+neighboring sea, so as to be able to escape my fleet.
+
+MESS. When we came to the sea-shore, where the vessel of Orestes was
+anchored in secret, to us indeed, whom thou didst send with her, bearing
+fetters for the strangers, the daughter of Agamemnon made signs that we
+should get far out of the way, as she was about to offer the secret[177]
+flame and expiation, for which she had come. But she, holding the fetters
+of the strangers in her hands, followed behind them. And these matters were
+suspicious, but they satisfied your attendants, O king. But at length, in
+order forsooth that she might seem to us to be doing something, she
+screamed aloud, and chanted barbarian songs like a sorceress, as if washing
+out the stain of murder. But after we had remained sitting a long time, it
+occurred to us whether the strangers set at liberty might not slay her, and
+take to flight. And through fear lest we might behold what was not fitting,
+we sat in silence, but at length the same words were in every body's mouth,
+that we should go to where they were, although not permitted. And upon this
+we behold the hull of the Grecian ship, [the rowing winged with well-fitted
+oars,[178]] and fifty sailors holding their oars in the tholes, and the
+youths, freed from their fetters, standing [on the shore] astern of the
+ship.[179] But some held in the prow with their oars, and others from the
+epotides let down the anchor, and others hastily applying the ladders, drew
+the stern-cables through their hands, and giving them to the sea, let them
+down to the strangers.[180] But we unsparing [of the toil,] when we beheld
+the crafty stratagem, laid hold of the female stranger and of the cables,
+and tried to drag the rudders from the fair-prowed ship from the
+steerage-place. But words ensued: "On what plea do ye take to the sea,
+stealing from this land the images and priestess? Whose son art thou, who
+thyself, who art carrying this woman from the land?" But he replied,
+"Orestes, her brother, that you may know, the son of Agamemnon, I, having
+taken this my sister, whom I had lost from my house, am bearing her off."
+But naught the less we clung to the female stranger, and compelled them by
+force to follow us to thee, upon which arose sad smitings of the cheeks.
+For they had not arms in their hands, nor had we; but fists were sounding
+against fists, and the arms of both the youths at once were aimed against
+our sides and to the liver, so that we at once were exhausted[181] and worn
+out in our limbs. But stamped with horrid marks we fled to a precipice,
+some having bloody wounds on the head, others in the eyes, and standing on
+the heights, we waged a safer warfare, and pelted stones. But archers,
+standing on the poop, hindered us with their darts, so that we returned
+back. And meanwhile--for a tremendous wave drove the ship against the land,
+and there was alarm [on board] lest she might dip her
+sheet-line[182]--Orestes, taking his sister on his left shoulder, walked
+into the sea, and leaping upon the ladder, placed her within the
+well-banked ship, and also the image of the daughter of Jove, that fell
+from heaven. And from the middle of the ship a voice spake thus, "O
+mariners of the Grecian ship, seize[183] on your oars, and make white the
+surge, for we have obtained the things on account of which we sailed o'er
+the Euxine within the Symplegades." But they shouting forth a pleasant cry,
+smote the brine. The ship, as long indeed as it was within the port, went
+on; but, passing the outlet, meeting with a strong tide, it was driven
+back. For a terrible gale coming suddenly, drives [the bark winged with
+well-fitted oars] poop-wise,[184] but they persevered, kicking against the
+wave, but an ebbing tide brought them again aground. But the daughter of
+Agamemnon stood up and prayed, "O daughter of Latona, bring me, thy
+priestess, safe into Greece from a barbarian land, and pardon the stealing
+away of me. Thou also, O Goddess, lovest thy brother, and think thou that I
+also love my kindred." But the sailors shouted a paean in assent to the
+prayers of the girl, applying on a given signal the point of the
+shoulders,[185] bared from their hands, to the oars. But more and more the
+vessel kept nearing the rocks, and one indeed leaped into the sea with his
+feet, and another fastened woven nooses.[186] And I was immediately sent
+hither to thee, to tell thee, O king, what had happened there. But go,
+taking fetters and halters in your hands, for, unless the wave shall become
+tranquil, there is no hope of safety for the strangers. For the ruler of
+the sea, the revered Neptune, both favorably regards Troy, and is at enmity
+with the Pelopidae. And he will now, as it seems, deliver up to thee and the
+citizens the son of Agamemnon, to take him into your hands, and his sister,
+who is detected ungratefully forgetting the Goddess in respect to the
+sacrifice at Aulis.[187]
+
+CHOR. O hapless Iphigenia, with thy brother wilt thou die, again coming
+into the hands of thy masters.
+
+TH. O all ye citizens of this barbarian land, will ye not, casting bridles
+on your horses, run to the shore, and receive the casting on of the Grecian
+ship? But hastening, by the favor of the Goddess, will ye not hunt down the
+impious men, and some of you haul the swift barks down to the sea, that by
+sea, and by horse-coursings on the land seizing them, we may either hurl
+them down the broken rock, or impale their bodies upon stakes. But you
+women, the accomplices in these plots, I will punish hereafter, when I have
+leisure, but now, having such a present duty, we will not remain idle.
+
+[MINERVA _appears_.]
+
+MIN. Whither, whither sendest thou this troop to follow [the fugitives,]
+king Thoas? List to the words of me, Minerva. Cease pursuing, and stirring
+on the onset of your host. For by the destined oracles of Loxias Orestes
+came hither, fleeing the wrath of the Erinnyes, and in order to conduct his
+sister's person to Argos, and to bear the sacred image into my land, by way
+of respite from his present troubles. Thus are our words for thee, but as
+to him, Orestes, whom you wish to slay, having caught him in a tempest at
+sea, Neptune has already, for my sake, rendered the surface of the sea
+waveless, piloting him along in the ship. But do thou, Orestes, learning my
+commands, (for thou hearest the voice of a Goddess, although not present,)
+go, taking the image and thy sister. And when thou art come to heaven-built
+Athens, there is a certain sacred district in the farthest bounds of
+Atthis, near the Carystian rock, which my people call Aloe--here, having
+built a temple, do thou enshrine the image named after the Tauric land and
+thy toils, which thou hast labored through, wandering over Greece, under
+the goad of the Erinnyes. But mortals hereafter shall celebrate her as the
+Tauric Goddess Diana. And do thou ordain this law, that, when the people
+celebrate a feast in grateful commemoration of thy release from
+slaughter,[188] let them apply the sword to the neck of a man, and let
+blood flow on account of the holy Goddess, that she may have honor. But, O
+Iphigenia, thou must needs be guardian of the temple of this Goddess at the
+hallowed ascent of Brauron;[189] where also thou shalt be buried at thy
+death, and they shall offer to you the honor of rich woven vestments, which
+women, dying in childbed, may leave in their houses. But I command thee to
+let these Grecian women depart from the land on account of their
+disinterested disposition,[190] I, having saved thee also on a former
+occasion, by determining the equal votes in the Field of Mars, Orestes, and
+that, according to the same law, he should conquer, whoever receive equal
+suffrages. But, O son of Agamemnon, do thou remove thy sister from this
+land, nor be thou angered, Thoas.
+
+TH. Queen Minerva, whosoever, on hearing the words of the Gods, is
+disobedient, thinks not wisely. But I will not be angry with Orestes, if he
+has carried away the image of the Goddess with him, nor with his sister.
+For what credit is there in contending with the potent Gods? Let them
+depart to thy land with the image of the Goddess, and let them prosperously
+enshrine the effigy. But I will also send these women to blest Greece, as
+thy mandate bids. And I will stop the spear which I raised against the
+strangers, and the oars of the ships, as this seems fit to thee, O Goddess.
+
+MIN. I commend your words, for fate commands both thee and the Gods
+[themselves.] Go, ye breezes, conduct the vessel of Agamemnon's son to
+Athens. And I will journey with you, to guard the hallowed image of my
+sister.
+
+CHOR. Go ye, happy because of your preserved fortune. But, O Athenian
+Pallas, hallowed among both immortals and mortals, we will do even as thou
+biddest. For I have received a very delightful and unhoped-for voice in my
+hearing. O thou all hallowed Victory, mayest thou possess my life, and
+cease not to crown it.[191]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+NOTES ON IPHIGENIA IN TAURIS
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+[1] This verse and part of the following are set down among the "oil cruet"
+verses by Aristophanes, Ran. 1232. Aristotle, Poet. Sec. xvii. gives a sketch
+of the plot of the whole play, by way of illustrating the general form of
+tragedy. Hyginus, who constantly has Euripides in view, also gives a brief
+analysis of the plot, fab. cxx. For a description of the quadrigae of
+Pelops, see Philostratus Imagg. i. 19. It must be observed, that Antoninus
+Liberalis, Sec. 27, makes Iphigenia only the supposititious daughter of
+Agamemnon, but really the daughter of Theseus and Helen. See Meurs. on
+Lycophron, p. 145.
+
+[2] I must confess that I can not find what should have so much displeased
+the critics in this word. Iphigenia, in using such an epithet, evidently
+refers to her own intended sacrifice, which had rendered the recesses of
+Aulis a place of no small fame.
+
+[3] But Lenting prefers [Greek: Achaious], with the approbation of the
+Cambridge editor.
+
+[4] See Reiske apud Dindorf. Compare my note on AEsch. Ag. 188, p. 101, ed.
+Bohn. So also Callimachus, Hymn. iii. [Greek: meilion aploies, hote hoi
+katedesas aetas].
+
+[5] Sinon made the same complaint. Cf. Virg. AEn. ii. 90.
+
+[6] Cf. AEsch. Ag. 235.
+
+[7] This whole passage has been imitated by Ovid, de Ponto, iii. 2, 60.
+"Sceptra tenente illo, liquidas fecisse per auras, Nescio quam dicunt
+Iphigenian iter. Quam levibus ventis sub nube per aera vectam Creditur his
+Phoebe deposuisse locis." Cf. Lycophron, p. 16, vs. 3 sqq. Nonnus xiii. p.
+332, 14 sqq.
+
+[8] Observe the double construction of [Greek: anassei]. Orest. 1690.
+[Greek: nautais medeousa thalasses].
+
+[9] The Cambridge editor would expunge this line, which certainly seems
+languid and awkward. Boissonade on Aristaenet. Ep. xiii. p. 421, would
+simply read [Greek: ta d' alla s. t. th. phoboumene: thyo gar]. He also
+retains [Greek: hiereian], referring to Gaisford on Hephaest. p. 216.
+
+[10] The Cambridge editor would throw out vs. 41.
+
+[11] The Cambridge editor refers to Med. 56, Androm. 91, Soph. El. 425. Add
+Plaut. Merc. i. 1, 3. "Non ego idem facio, ut alios in comoediis vidi
+facere amatores, qui aut nocti, aut die, Aut Soli, aut Lunae miserias
+narrant suas." Theognetus apud Athen. xv. p. 671. Casaub. [Greek:
+pephilosophekas gei kai ouranoi lalon]. Cf. Davis, on Cicero, Tusc. Q. iii.
+26, and Lomeier de Lustrat. Sec. xxxvii.
+
+[12] [Greek: Thrinkon] is properly the uppermost part of the walls of any
+building (Pollux, vii. 27) surrounding the roof, [Greek: stegos] is the
+roof itself.
+
+[13] Cf. Meurs. ad Lycophron, p. 148.
+
+[14] I read [Greek: eim' eiso] with Hermann and the Cambridge editor.
+
+[15] This line is condemned by the Cambridge editor. Burges has transposed
+it.
+
+[16] But [Greek: diadromais], the correction of the Cambridge editor, seems
+preferable.
+
+[17] An interpolation universally condemned.
+
+[18] See Barnes, and Wetstein on Acts xix. 35.
+
+[19] On the wanderings of Orestes see my note on AEsch. Eum. 238 sqq. p.
+187, ed. Bohn.
+
+[20] See the note of the Cambridge editor, with whom we must read [Greek:
+eisbesomestha].
+
+[21] [Greek: hon ouden ismen] ad interiora templi spectat. HERM.
+
+[22] We must read [Greek: geisa triglyphon hopoi], with Blomfield and the
+Cambridge editor. See Philander on Vitruv. ii. p. 35, and Pollux, vii. 27.
+
+[23] The sense is [Greek: outoi, makran elthontes, ek termaton] (sc. a
+meta) [Greek: nostesomen]. ED. CAMB.
+
+[24] The Cambridge editor appositely compares a fragment of our author's
+Cresphontes, iii. 2, [Greek: aischron te mochthein me thelein neanian].
+
+[25] On the whole of this chorus, which is corrupt in several places, the
+notes of the Cambridge editor should be consulted.
+
+[26] This last lumbering line must be corrupt.
+
+[27] Compare the similar scene in Soph. El. 86 sqq.
+
+[28] Cf. Elect. 90. [Greek: nyktos de tesde pros taphon molon patros].
+Hecub. 76. AEsch. Pers. 179. Aristoph. Ran. 1331.
+
+[29] Compare my note on AEsch. Pers. 610 sqq.
+
+[30] See on AEsch. Choeph. 6.
+
+[31] Markland's emendation has been unanimously adopted by the later
+editors.
+
+[32] Schema Colophonium. The Cambridge editor compares vs. 244. [Greek:
+Argei skeptouchon]. Phoen. 17. [Greek: Thebaisin anax]. Heracl. 361.
+[Greek: Argei tyrannos].
+
+[33] I have marked lacunae, as some mythological particulars have evidently
+been lost.
+
+[34] An imperfect allusion to the Thyestean banquet. Cf. Seneca Thyest.
+774. "O Phoebe patiens, fugeris retro licet, medioque ruptum merseris coelo
+diem, sero occidisti--" vs. 787 sqq.
+
+[35] Cf. AEsch. Ag. 1501 sqq. Seneca, Ag. 57 sqq.
+
+[36] i.e. the demon allotted to me at my birth (cf. notes on AEsch. 1341, p.
+135, ed. Bohn). Statius, Theb. i. 60, makes Oedipus invoke Tisiphone under
+the same character.--"Si me de matre cadentem Fovisti gremio."
+
+[37] See the note of the Cambridge editor.
+
+[38] [Greek: ebesan] is active.
+
+[39] The Cambridge editor aptly refers to Hecub. 464.
+
+[40] These participles refer to the preceding [Greek: aimorranton xeinon].
+
+[41] See on Heracl. 721.
+
+[42] The Cambridge editor would omit these two lines.
+
+[43] Cf. vs. 107. [Greek: kat' antr', ha pontios notidi diaklyzei melas].
+On [Greek: agmos] (Brodaeus' happy correction for [Greek: harmos]) the
+Cambridge editor quotes Nicander Ther. 146. [Greek: koile te pharanx, kai
+trechees agmoi], and other passages. The manner of hunting the purple fish
+is thus described by Pollux, i. 4, p. 24. They plat a long rope, to which
+they fasten, like bells, a number of hempen baskets, with an open entrance
+to admit the animal, but which does not allow of its egress. This they let
+down into the sea, the baskets being filled with such food as the murex
+delights in, and, having fastened the end of the rope to the rock, they
+leave it, and returning to the place, draw up the baskets full of the fish.
+Having broken the shells, they pound the flesh to form the dye.
+
+[44] [Greek: ephtharmenous]. Cf. Cycl. 300. Hel. 783. Ed. Camb.
+
+[45] Compare Orest. 255 sqq.
+
+[46] [Greek: chitonon] is probably corrupt.
+
+[47] Cf. Lobeck on Aj. 17. Hesych. [Greek: kochlos tois thalattiois] (i.e.
+[Greek: kochlois]) [Greek: echronto, pro tes ton salpingon eureseos]. Virg.
+AEn. vi. 171. "Sed tum forte cava dum personat aequora concha."
+
+[48] "Moriamur, et in media arma ruamus." Virg. AEn. ii.
+
+[49] Such seems to be the sense, but [Greek: exeklepsamen] is ridiculous,
+and Hermann's emendation more so. Bothe reads [Greek: exekopsamen], which
+is better. The Cambridge editor thinks that the difficulty lies in [Greek:
+petroisi].
+
+[50] I would omit this line as an evident gloss.
+
+[51] See the Cambridge editor.
+
+[52] Reiske's emendation, [Greek: hosia] for [Greek: hoia], seems deserving
+of admission.
+
+[53] The Cambridge editor would omit these lines.
+
+[54] This line also the Cambridge editor trusts "will never hereafter be
+reckoned among the verses of Euripides."
+
+[55] Such is the proper sense of [Greek: antitheisa].
+
+[56] [Greek: nin] is [Greek: nympheumata].
+
+[57] Read [Greek: kasignetei].
+
+[58] I read [Greek: tois men] and [Greek: tois d'] with the Cambridge
+editor. Hermann's emendation is unheard of.
+
+[59] This clause interrupts the construction. [Greek: dramontes] must be
+understood with all the following sentence, as no finite verb is expressed
+except [Greek: eperasan].
+
+[60] I have partly followed Hermann, reading [Greek: epebaien ...
+apolauon], but, as to reading [Greek: hypnon] for [Greek: hymnon], the
+Cambridge editor well calls it "one of the wonders of his edition." I
+should prefer reading [Greek: olbou] with the same elegant scholar.
+
+[61] I follow the Cambridge editor in reading [Greek: didymas], from Ovid,
+Ep. Pont. iii. 2, 71. "Protinus immitem Triviae ducuntur ad aram, Evincti
+geminas ad sua terga manus."
+
+[62] "_displays while she offers_" i.e. "_presents as a public offering_"
+ED. CAMB.
+
+[63] I am but half satisfied with this passage.
+
+[64] Read [Greek: esesthe de kato] with the Cambridge editor.
+
+[65] We must read [Greek: no] with Porson.
+
+[66] Probably a spurious line.
+
+[67] Read [Greek: Mykenon g'], _ay, from Mycenae_, with the Cambridge
+editor.
+
+[68] Hermann seems rightly to read [Greek: hos g' en].
+
+[69] Dindorf rightly adopts Reiske's emendation [Greek: sy toud' era].
+
+[70] The Cambridge editor rightly reads [Greek: tina] with an accent, as
+Orestes obviously means himself. Compare Soph. Ant. 751. [Greek: hed' oun
+thaneitai, kai thanous' olei tina].
+
+[71] Such is the force of [Greek: de].
+
+[72] I would read [Greek: exepraxato] with Emsley, but I do not agree with
+him in substituting [Greek: kaken]. The oxymoron seems intentional, and by
+no means unlike Euripides.
+
+[73] The Cambridge editor would read [Greek: est' outis logos].
+
+[74] But [Greek: charin], as Matthiae remarks, is taken in two senses; as a
+preposition with [Greek: gynaikos], _ob improbam mulierem_, and as a
+substantive, with [Greek: acharin] added. Cf. AEsch. Choeph. 44. Lucretius
+uses a similar oxymoron respecting the same subject, i. 99. "Sed _casta
+inceste_ nubendi tempore in ipso Hostia concideret mactatu maesta parentis."
+
+[75] This passage is very corrupt. The Cambridge editor supposes something
+lost respecting the fortunes of Orestes. Hermann reads [Greek: hen de
+lypeisthai monon, ho t' ouk aphron on]. But I am very doubtful.
+
+[76] These three lines are justly condemned as an absurd interpolation by
+Dindorf and the Cambridge editor.
+
+[77] This seems the easiest way of expressing [Greek: kai sy] after [Greek:
+sy d'].
+
+[78] I am partly indebted to Potter's happy version. The Cambridge editor
+is as ingenious as usual, but he candidly allows that conjecture is
+scarcely requisite.
+
+[79] i.e. thou seemest reckless of life.
+
+[80] [Greek: prostrope], this mode of offering supplication, i.e. this duty
+of sacrifice.
+
+[81] Diodorus, xx. 14. quotes this and the preceding line reading [Greek:
+chthonos] for [Greek: petras]. He supposes that Euripides derived the
+present account from the sacrifices offered to Saturn by the Carthaginians,
+who caused their children to fall from the hands of the statue [Greek: eis
+ti chasma pleres pyros]. Compare Porphyr. de Abst. ii. 27. Justin, xviii.
+6. For similar human sacrifices among the Gauls, Caesar de B.G. vi. 16, with
+the note of Vossius. Compare also Saxo Grammaticus, Hist. Dan. iii. p. 42,
+and the passages of early historians quoted in Stephens' entertaining
+notes, p. 92.
+
+[82] Cf. Tibull. i. 3, 5. "Abstineas, mors atra, precor, non hic mihi
+mater, Quae legat in maestos ossa perusta sinus; non soror, Assyrios cineri
+quae dedat odores, et fleat effusis ante sepulchra comis."
+
+[83] This must be what the poet _intends_ by [Greek: katasbeso], however
+awkwardly expressed. See Hermann's note.
+
+[84] Compare vs. 468 sq.
+
+[85] This line is hopelessly corrupt.
+
+[86] I read [Greek: men oun] with the Cambridge editor.
+
+[87] [Greek: azela] is in opposition to the whole preceding clause.
+
+[88] See the note of the Cambridge editor on Iph. Aul. 1372.
+
+[89] I should prefer [Greek: esti de],"_she surely is._"
+
+[90] We must evidently read either [Greek: dielthon] with Porson, or
+[Greek: dielthe] with Jan., Le Fevre, and Markland.
+
+[91] I almost agree with Dindorf in considering this line spurious.
+
+[92] For this construction compare Ritterhus. ad Oppian, Cyn. i. 11.
+
+[93] I can not help thinking this line is spurious, and the preceding
+[Greek: thetai] corrupt. One would expect [Greek: thesei].
+
+[94] Cf. Kuinoel on Cydon. de Mort. Contem. Sec. 1, p. 6, n. 18.
+
+[95] Literally, "no longer a hinderance," i.e. "that I be no longer
+responsible for its fulfillment."
+
+[96] The Cambridge editor, however, seems to have settled the question in
+favor of [Greek: oisth' houn ho drason].
+
+[97] I must candidly confess that none of the explanations of these words
+satisfy me. Perhaps it is best to regard them, with Seidler, as merely
+signifying the mutability of fortune.
+
+[98] i.e. as far as the fulfilling of my oath is concerned.
+
+[99] The letter evidently commences with the words [Greek: he 'n Aulidi
+sphageisa]. I can not imagine how Markland and others should have made it
+commence with the previous line.
+
+[100] i.e. in what company.
+
+[101] This line is either spurious or out of place. See the Cambridge
+editor.
+
+[102] The Cambridge editor in a note exhibiting his usual chastened and
+elegant judgment, regards these three lines as an absurd and trifling
+interpolation. For the credit of Euripides, I would fain do the same.
+
+[103] The same elegant scholar justly assigns these lines to Iphigenia.
+
+[104] So Erfurdt.
+
+[105] See the Cambridge editor.
+
+[106] This line seems justly condemned by the Cambridge editor.
+
+[107] With [Greek: kampteis] understand [Greek: dromon] = thou art fast
+arriving at the goal of the truth.
+
+[108] Read [Greek: apedexo] with ed. Camb.
+
+[109] "I remember it: for the wedding did not, by its happy result, take
+away the recollection of that commencement of nuptial ceremonies." CAMB.
+ED.
+
+[110] i.e. Iphigenia sent it with a view to a cenotaph at Mycenae, as she
+was about to die at Aulis. See Seidler.
+
+[111] "This Homeric epithet of an only son is used, I believe, nowhere else
+in Attic poetry. Its adoption here seems owing to Hom. Il. [Greek: I]. 142
+and 284. [Greek: tiso de min hison Orestei Hos moi telygetos trephetai
+thaliei eni pollei]." ED. CAMB.
+
+[112] This is Musgrave's elegant emendation, which Hermann, unwilling to
+let well alone, has attempted to spoil. See, however, the Cambridge editor,
+who possesses taste and clear perception, unbiased by self-love.
+
+[113] Read [Greek: emois] with the Cambridge editor.
+
+[114] But [Greek: phygeis], and [Greek: o philos], the emendation of
+Burges, seems far better, and is followed by the Cambridge editor.
+
+[115] i.e. I can imagine your sufferings at Aulis.
+
+[116] The Cambridge editor compares Hec. 684. [Greek: hetera d' aph'
+heteron kaka kakon kyrei].
+
+[117] This is Reiske's interpretation, taking the construction [Greek: prin
+xiphos pal. epi haimati]. But Seidler would recall the old reading [Greek:
+pelasai], comparing Hel. 361. [Greek: autosidaron eso pelaso dia sarkos
+hamillan]. This is better, but we must also read [Greek: eti] for [Greek:
+epi] with the Cambridge editor.
+
+[118] [Greek: rhipai podon] is a bold way of expressing rapid traveling.
+
+[119] Read [Greek: ana] with Markland, for [Greek: ara].
+
+[120] I read [Greek: e dia kyan]. with the Cambridge editor. The following
+words are rendered thus by Musgrave, "Per ... _est_ longum iter."
+
+[121] Unintelligible, and probably spurious.
+
+[122] The Cambridge editor finds fault with the obvious clumsiness of the
+expression, and proposes [Greek: echein] for [Greek: labein]. I have still
+greater doubts about [Greek: ekbantas tyches]. The sense ought to be, "'tis
+the part of wise men, _when fortune favors_, not to lose the opportunity,
+but to gain other advantages."
+
+[123] See Dindorf's notes. But the Cambridge editor has shown so decided a
+superiority to the German critics, that I should unhesitatingly adopt his
+reading, as follows: [Greek: ou me m' epischeis, oud' aposteseis logou, to
+me ou pythesthai ... phila gar tauta], (with Markland,) although [Greek:
+proton] may perhaps be defended.
+
+[124] See the Cambridge editor. The same elegant scholar has also improved
+the arrangement of the lines.
+
+[125] "Quanquam animus meminisse horret, luctuque refugit, Incipiam." Virg.
+AEn. i.
+
+[126] I read [Greek: enth' emon poda] with Herm. and Dind.
+
+[127] Cf. Elect. 1258 sqq., and Meurs. Areop. Sec. i. [Greek: psephos] seems
+here used to denote the place where the council was held. The pollution of
+Mars was the murder of Hallirothius. Cf. Pausan. i. 21.
+
+[128] An instance of the nominativus pendens.
+
+[129] So Valckenaer, Diatr. p. 246, who quotes some passages relative to
+the treatment of Orestes at Athens.
+
+[130] See the Cambridge editor.
+
+[131] See Barnes, who quotes the Schol. on Arist. Eq. 95. [Greek: Chous]
+was the name of the festival.
+
+[132] [Greek: emoi] is the dativus commodi.
+
+[133] I am indebted to Maltby for this translation.
+
+[134] Cf. Piers, on Moer. p. 351, and the Cambridge editor.
+
+[135] But see ed. Camb.
+
+[136] Such is the force, of [Greek: ou gar all'].
+
+[137] These lines are very corrupt, and perhaps, as Dindorf thinks,
+spurious.
+
+[138] Markland rightly reads [Greek: hierophylakes].
+
+[139] "dicam me daturam." MARKLAND.
+
+[140] [Greek: hod'] is the correction of Brodaeus.
+
+[141] [Greek: neos pitylos] seems not merely a periphrase, but implies that
+the oars are in the row-locks, as if ready for starting.
+
+[142] But the Cambridge editor very elegantly reads [Greek: ei toi].
+
+[143] Put [Greek: phthenxasthe] in an inclosure, and join [Greek: tauta]
+with [Greek: thelei]. See ed. Camb.
+
+[144] Schol. Theocr. Id. vii. 57. [Greek: threnetikon to zoion, kai para
+tois aigialois neotteuon]. Cf. Aristoph. Ran. 1309, who perhaps had the
+passage in view.
+
+[145] [Greek: agoros] is a somewhat rare word for [Greek: agyris].
+
+[146] Cf. Hecub. 457 sqq.
+
+[147] So Matthiae, "locum ubi Latona partum edidit."
+
+[148] Read [Greek: kyklion] with Seidler. On the [Greek: limne trochoeides]
+at Delos, see Barnes.
+
+[149] "I was conveyed by sailors and soldiers." ED. CAMB.
+
+[150] The same scholar quotes Soph. Ph. 43. [Greek: all' e' pi phorbes
+noston exelelythen], vhere [Greek: nostos] is used in the same manner as
+here, simply meaning "a journey."
+
+[151] But see Camb. ed.
+
+[152] I read [Greek: zelousa tan] with the same.
+
+[153] The Cambridge critic again proposes [Greek: metabolai d' eudaimonia],
+which he felicitously supports. Musgrave has however partly anticipated
+this emendation.
+
+[154] Dindorf has shown so little care in editing this passage, that I have
+merely recalled the old reading, [Greek: aeri d' histia protonoi k. pr.
+hyper stolon ekp.], following the construction proposed by Heath, and
+approved, as it appears, by the Cambridge editor. Seidler's note is learned
+and instructive, but I have some doubts about his criticism.
+
+[155] i.e. I wish I might become a bird and fly homeward.
+
+[156] See ed. Camb.
+
+[157] But see ibid. Dindorf's text is a hopeless display of bad readings
+and worse punctuation.
+
+[158] Reading [Greek: gennas], I have done my best with this passage, but I
+can only refer to the Cambridge editor for a text and notes worthy of the
+play.
+
+[159] I have recalled the old reading, [Greek: hosia].
+
+[160] On these sort of prodigies, see Musgrave, and Dansq. on Quintus
+Calaber, xii. 497 sqq.
+
+[161] "in eo, ut" is the force of [Greek: en ergoi].
+
+[162] Perhaps a sly allusion to their escape.
+
+[163] See ed. Camb.
+
+[164] But we must read [Greek: tois te] with the Cambridge editor = "who
+know more than men."
+
+[165] I can not too early impress upon the reader the necessity of a
+careful attention to the criticisms of the Cambridge editor throughout this
+difficult chorus, especially to his masterly sketch of the whole, p. 146,
+147.
+
+[166] [Greek: pheren inin] is Burges' elegant emendation, the credit of
+which has been unduly claimed by Seidler.
+
+[167] i.e. the place afterward called Inopus. See Herm., whose construction
+I have followed.
+
+[168] On the [Greek: omphalos] see my note on AEsch. Eum. p. 180, ed. Bohn.
+On the Delphic priesthood, compare ibid. p. 179.
+
+[169] See, however, the Cambridge editor.
+
+[170] Read [Greek: es thronon] with Barnes and Dind., or rather [Greek: epi
+Zenos thronon] with Herm.
+
+[171] But see Dindorf.
+
+[172] See Dindorf's note, but still better the Cambridge editor.
+
+[173] I follow Seidler.
+
+[174] So ed. Camb.
+
+[175] i.e. what evil inspiration of the Gods impelled her to this act?
+Thoas, who is represented as superstitious to the most barbarian extent,
+naturally regards the infidelity of Iphigenia as proceeding from the
+intervention of heaven.
+
+[176] Cf. Monk. on Hippol. 828.
+
+[177] Cf. vs. 1197. [Greek: eremias dei].
+
+[178] Dindorf and the Cambridge editor follow Hermann, who would place this
+line after vs. 1394.
+
+[179] So Musgrave.
+
+[180] Seidler has deserved well of this passage, both by his correction
+[Greek: toin xenoin] for [Greek: ten xenen], and by his learned and clear
+explanation of the nautical terms.
+
+[181] Dindorf has adopted Markland's emendation, but I prefer [Greek: host'
+exanapnein] with the Cambridge editor.
+
+[182] i.e. capsize.
+
+[183] But see ed. Camb.
+
+[184] I have introduced the line above mentioned, and have likewise adopted
+Hermann's introduction of [Greek: palimprymnedon] from Hesychius, in lieu
+of [Greek: palin prymnesi'].
+
+[185] See ed. Camb.
+
+[186] "The obvious intent of these measures was to fasten the vessel to
+some point of the rocks, and thus prevent her being wrecked." ED. CAMB.
+
+[187] "Our passage is thus to be understood, [Greek: he halisketai prodousa
+to mnemoneuein theai phonon]." ED. CAMB.
+
+[188] So Hermann rightly explains the sense. I agree with the Cambridge
+editor, that if Euripides had intended to use [Greek: hosias]
+substantively, he would hardly have joined it with [Greek: theas], thereby
+causing an ambiguity.
+
+[189] There is another construction, taking [Greek: klim. theas] together.
+On the whole introduction of Minerva, see the clever note of the Cambridge
+editor, p. 158, 159.
+
+[190] There is evidently a lacuna, as the transition to Orestes is worse
+than abrupt. The mythological allusions in the following lines are well
+explained in the notes of Barnes and Seidler.
+
+[191] On these last verses see the end of the Orestes, with Dindorf's note.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Tragedies of Euripides, Volume I., by Euripides
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