Euripides — Plays II

Part 1

1AMPHITRYON: What mortal has not heard of the one who shared a wife with Zeus, Amphitryon of Argos, whom once Alcaeus, son of Perseus, begot, Amphitryon the father of Heracles? Who lived here in Thebes, where from the sowing

5of the dragon’s teeth grew up a crop of earth-born giants; and of these Ares saved a scanty band, and their children’s children people the city of Cadmus. Hence sprung Creon, son of Menoeceus, king of this land;

10and Creon became the father of this lady Megara, whom once all Cadmus’ race escorted with the glad music of lutes at her wedding, when the famous Heracles led her to my halls. Now he, my son, left Thebes where I was settled, left his wife Megara and her kin,

15eager to make his home in Argolis, in that walled town which the Cyclopes built, from which I am exiled for the slaying of Electryon; so he, wishing to lighten my affliction and to find a home in his own land, offered Eurystheus a mighty price for my recall:

20to free the world of savage monsters, whether it was that Hera goaded him to submit to this, or that fate was leagued against him. Other toils he has accomplished, and last of all has he passed through the mouth of Taenarus into the halls of Hades to drag to the light

25that hound with three bodies, and from there he has never returned. Now there is an ancient legend among the race of Cadmus that a certain Lycus in days gone by was husband to Dirce, and he was king of this city with its seven towers, before Amphion and Zethus, sons of Zeus,

30lords of the milk-white steeds, became rulers in the land. His son, called by the same name as his father, although no Theban but a stranger from Euboea, slew Creon, and after that seized the government, having fallen on this city when weakened by dissension.

35So this family connection with Creon is likely to prove to us a serious evil; for now that my son is in the bowels of the earth, this new monarch Lycus is bent on extirpating the children of Heracles,

40to quench one bloody feud with another, likewise his wife and me, if useless age like mine is to rank among men, that the boys may never grow up to exact a blood-penalty of their uncle’s family. So I, left here by my son, while he is gone into the pitchy darkness of the earth,

45to tend and guard his children in his house, am taking my place with their mother, that the race of Heracles may not perish, here at the altar of Zeus the Savior, which my own gallant child set up

50to commemorate his glorious victory over the Minyae. And here we are careful to keep our station, though in need of everything, of food, drink and clothes, huddled together on the hard bare ground; for we are barred out from our house and sit here for want of any other safety.

55As for friends, some I see are unreliable; while others, who are staunch, have no power to help us further. This is what misfortune means to man; may it never fall to the lot of any who bears the least goodwill to me, to apply this never-failing test of friendship!

60MEGARA: Old warrior, who once razed the citadel of the Taphians leading on the troops of Thebes to glory, how uncertain are the gods’ dealings with man! I, for instance, as far as concerned my father, was never an outcast of fortune, for he was once accounted a man of might by reason of his wealth,

65possessed as he was of royal power, for which long spears are launched at the lives of the fortunate through love of it; children too he had; and he gave me to your son, matching me in glorious marriage with Heracles. And now all that is dead and gone from us;

70and I and you, old friend, are doomed to die, and these children of Heracles, whom I am guarding beneath my wing as a bird keeps her tender chicks under her. And they one after another keep asking me: Mother, tell us, where is our father gone from the land?

75what is he doing? when will he return? Thus they inquire for their father, in childish perplexity; while I put them off with excuses, inventing stories; but still I wonder if it is he whenever a door creaks on its hinges, and up they all start, thinking to embrace their father’s knees.

80What hope or way of salvation are you now devising, old friend? for I look to you. We can never steal beyond the boundaries of the land unseen, for there is too strict a watch set on us at every outlet, nor have we any longer hopes of safety

85in our friends. Whatever your scheme is, declare it, lest our death be made ready.

88AMPHITRYON: It is by no means easy, my daughter, to give one’s earnest advice on such matters off hand, without weary thought; but let us prolong the time, since we are powerless to escape.

90MEGARA: Do you need a further taste of grief, or do you cling so fast to life?

91AMPHITRYON: Yes, I love this life, and cling to its hopes.

92MEGARA: So do I; but you should not expect the unexpected, old friend.

93AMPHITRYON: In these delays the only cure for our evils is left.

94MEGARA: It is the biting pain of that interval I feel so.

95AMPHITRYON: Daughter, there may yet be a happy escape from present troubles for me and you; my son, your husband, may yet arrive. So calm yourself, and wipe those tears from your children’s eyes, and soothe them with soft words,

100inventing a tale to delude then, piteous though such fraud be. Yes, for even men’s misfortunes often flag, and the stormy wind does not always blow so strong, nor are the prosperous ever so; for all things change, making way for each other.

105The bravest man is he who relies ever on his hopes, but despair is the mark of a coward.

107CHORUS: To the sheltering roof, to the old man’s couch, leaning on my staff have I set forth,

110chanting a plaintive dirge like some bird grown grey, I that am only a voice and a fancy bred of the visions of sleep by night, palsied with age, yet meaning kindly. All hail! you orphaned children!

115all hail, old friend! you too, unhappy mother, wailing for your husband in the halls of Hades!

119CHORUS: Do not faint too soon upon your way,

120or let your limbs grow weary, as a colt beneath the yoke grows weary as he mounts some stony hill, dragging the weight of a wheeled chariot. Take hold of hand or robe, who ever feels his footsteps falter.

125Old friend, escort another like yourself, who once amid his toiling peers in the days of our youth would take his place beside you, no blot upon his country’s glorious record.

130CHORUS: See, how like their father’s sternly flash these children’s eyes! Misfortune has not failed his children, nor yet has his comeliness been denied them.

135O Hellas! if you lose these, of what allies will you rob yourself!

138CHORUS: But I see Lycus, the ruler of this land, drawing near the house.

140LYCUS: One question, if I may, to this father of Heracles and his wife; and certainly as your lord and master I have a right to put what questions I choose. How long do you seek to prolong your lives? What hope, what aid do you see to save you from death?

145Do you trust that these children’s father, who lies dead in the halls of Hades, will return? How unworthily you show your sorrow at having to die, you to Amphitryon after your idle boasts, scattered broadcast through Hellas, that Zeus was partner in your marriage-bed and was your partner in children;

150and you, to Megara after calling yourself the wife of so peerless a lord.

151After all, what was the fine exploit your husband achieved, if he did kill a water-snake in a marsh or that monster of Nemea? which he caught in a snare, for all he says he strangled it to death in his arms.

155Are these your weapons for the hard struggle? Is it for this then that Heracles’ children should be spared? A man who has won a reputation for valor in his contests with beasts, in all else a weakling;

160who never buckled shield to arm nor faced the spear, but with a bow, that coward’s weapon, was ever ready to run away. Archery is no test of manly bravery; no! he is a man who keeps his post in the ranks and steadily faces the swift wound the spear may plough.

165My policy, again, old man, shows no reckless cruelty, but caution; for I am well aware I slew Creon, the father of this woman, and am in possession of his throne. So I have no wish that these children should grow up and be left to take vengeance on me in requital for what I have done.

170AMPHITRYON: Let Zeus defend his his own share in his son; but as for me, Heracles, it is my concern on your behalf to prove by what I say this tyrant’s ignorance; for I cannot allow you to be ill spoken of. First then for that which should never have been said—for to speak

175of you, Heracles, as a coward is, I think, outside the pale of speech—of that must I clear you with heaven to witness. I appeal then to the thunder of Zeus, and the chariot in which he rode, when he pierced the Giants, earth’s brood, to the heart with his winged shafts,

180and with gods uplifted the glorious triumph song; or go to Pholoe and ask the insolent tribe of four-legged Centaurs, you craven king, ask them who they would judge the bravest of men; will they not say my son, who according to you is but a pretender?

185Were you to ask Euboean Dirphys, your native place, it would not sing your praise, for you have never done a single gallant deed to which your country can witness. Next you disparage that clever invention, an archer’s weapon;

190come, listen to me and learn wisdom. A man who fights in line is a slave to his weapons, and if his fellow-comrades want for courage he is slain himself through the cowardice of his neighbors, or, if he breaks his spear, he cannot defend his body from death, having only one means of defence;

195whereas all who are armed with the trusty bow, though they have but one weapon, yet is it the best; for a man, after discharging countless arrows, still has others with which to defend himself from death, and standing at a distance keeps off the enemy, wounding them for all their watchfulness with invisible shafts,

200and never exposing himself to the foe, but keeping under cover; and this is by far the wisest course in battle, to harm the enemy and keep safe oneself, independent of chance. These arguments completely contradict yours

205with regard to the matter at issue. Next, why are you desirous of slaying these children? What have they done to you? One piece of wisdom I credit you with, your coward terror of a brave man’s descendants. Still it is hard on us,

210if for your cowardice we must die; a fate that ought to have overtaken you at our braver hands, if Zeus had been fairly disposed towards us. But, if you are so anxious to make yourself supreme in the land, let us go into exile;

215abstain from all violence, else you will suffer by it whenever the god causes fortune’s breeze to veer round.

217Ah! you land of Cadmus—for to you too will I turn, distributing my words of reproach—is this your defense of Heracles and his children?

220the man who faced alone all the Minyans in battle and allowed Thebes to see the light with free eyes. I cannot praise Hellas, nor will I ever keep silence, finding her so craven as regards my son; she should have come with fire and sword and warrior’s arms

225to help these tender chicks, to requite him for all his labors in purging land and sea. Such help, my children, neither Hellas nor the city of Thebes affords you; to me a feeble friend you look, and I am empty sound and nothing more.

230For the vigor which once I had, has gone from me; my limbs are palsied with age, and my strength is decayed. If I were young and still powerful in body, I would have seized my spear and dabbled those flaxen locks of his with blood, so that the coward would now

235be flying from my spear beyond the bounds of Atlas.

236CHORUS LEADER: Have not the brave among mankind a fair occasion for speech, although slow to begin?

238LYCUS: Say what you will of me in your exalted phrase, but I by deeds will make you rue those words.

240Calling to his servants Go, some to Helicon, others to the glens of Parnassus, and bid woodmen to cut me logs of oak, and when they are brought to the town, pile up a stack of wood all round the altar on either side, and set fire to it and burn them

245all alive, that they may learn that the dead no longer rules this land, but that for the present I am king. Angrily to the Chorus As for you, old men, since you thwart my views, not for the children of Heracles alone shall you lament, but likewise for your own

250misfortunes, and you shall never forget you are slaves and I your prince.

252CHORUS: —You sons of Earth, whom Ares once sowed, when from the dragon’s ravening jaw he had torn the teeth, up with your staves, on which you lean your hands,

255and dash out this villain’s brains! a fellow who, without even being a Theban, but a foreigner, lords it shamefully over the younger men; but my master shall you never be to your joy.

259—Nor shall you reap the harvest of all my toil;

260Go back to where you came from, in your insolence. For never while I live, shall you slay these sons of Heracles; not so deep beneath the earth has their father disappeared from his children’s ken.

264—You are in possession of this land which you have ruined,

265while he, its benefactor, has missed his just reward.

266—And yet do I take too much upon myself because I help those I love after their death, when most they need a friend?

268—Ah! right hand, how you desire to wield the spear, but your weakness is a death-blow to your desire.

270For then I would have stopped you calling me slave, and I would have governed Thebes with credit. In which you now rejoice; for a city sick with dissension and evil counsels does not think aright; otherwise it would never have accepted you as its master.

275MEGARA: Old men, I thank you; it is right that friends should feel virtuous indignation on behalf of those they love; but do not on our account vent your anger on the tyrant to your own undoing. Hear my advice, Amphitryon, if there appears to you to be anything in what I say.

280I love my children; strange if I did not love those whom I bore, whom I labored for! Death I count a dreadful fate; but the man who strives against necessity I esteem a fool. Since we must die, let us do so

285without being burnt alive, a source of mockery to our enemies, which to my mind is an evil worse than death; for much good do we owe our family. You have always had a warrior’s fair fame, so it is not to be endured that you should die a coward’s death;

290and my husband’s reputation needs no one to witness that he would never consent to save these children’s lives by letting them incur the stain of cowardice; for the noble are afflicted by disgrace on account of their children, nor must I shrink from following my lord’s example.

295As to your hopes consider how I weigh them. Do you think your son will return from beneath the earth? And who ever has come back from the dead out of the halls of Hades? But would you soften this man by entreaty? Oh no! better to fly from one’s enemy when he is so brutish,

300but yield to men of breeding and culture; for you would more easily conclude a friendly truce by accepting regard. True, a thought has already occurred to me that we might by entreaty obtain a sentence of exile for the children; yet this too is misery, to compass their deliverance with dire penury as the result;

305for it is a saying that hosts look sweetly on banished friends for a day and no more. Endure to die with us, for that awaits you after all. By your brave soul I challenge you, old friend; for whoever struggles hard to escape destiny sent by the gods

310shows zeal no doubt, but it is zeal with a taint of folly; for what must be, no one will ever avail to alter.

312CHORUS LEADER: If a man had insulted you, while yet my arms were strong, there would have been an easy way to stop him; but now am I am nothing ; and so you henceforth, Amphitryon,

315must scheme how to avert misfortune.

Part 2

316AMPHITRYON: It is not cowardice or any longing for life that hinders my dying, but my wish to save my son’s children, though no doubt I am longing for the impossible. See! here is my neck ready for the sword

320to pierce, to hack, to hurl from the rock; only one favor I crave for both of us, king; slay me and this hapless mother before you slay the children, that we may not see the hideous sight, as they gasp out their lives, calling on their mother

325and their father’s father; for the rest work your will if so you are inclined; for we have no defense against death.

327MEGARA: I too implore you add a second favor, that by your single act you may put us both under a double obligation; allow me to deck my children in the robes of death,

330first opening the palace gates, for now we are shut out, so that this at least they may obtain from their father’s halls.

332LYCUS: I grant it, and bid my servants undo the bolts. Go in and deck yourselves; robes do not grudge. But as soon as you have clothed yourselves,

335I will return to you to consign you to the nether world. Exit Lycus.

336MEGARA: Children, follow the footsteps of your hapless mother to your father’s house, where others possess his substance, though his name is still ours. Exit Megara with her children.

339AMPHITRYON: O Zeus, in vain, it seems, did I get you to share my bride with me;

340in vain used we to call you partner in my son. After all you are less our friend than you pretended. Great god as you are, I, a mortal, surpass you in true worth. For I did not betray the children of Heracles; but you by stealth found your way to my bed,

345taking another’s wife without leave given, while to save your own friends you have no skill. Either you are a god of little sense, or else naturally unjust. Exit Amphitryon.

348CHORUS: Phoebus is singing a dirge, after his happier strains,

350for Linus dead in his beauty, striking his lyre with key of gold; but I wish to sing a song of praise, a crown to all his toil, on the one who has gone to the gloom beneath the nether world,

355whether I am to call him son of Zeus or of Amphitryon. For the virtue of noble toils is a glory to the dead.

359CHORUS: First he cleared the grove of Zeus

360of a lion, and put its skin upon his back, hiding his yellow auburn hair in its fearful gaping jaws.

364CHORUS: And then one day with murderous bow he wounded

365the race of wild Centaurs, that range the hills, slaying them with winged shafts. Peneus, the river of fair eddies, knows him well, and those far fields unharvested,

370and the steadings on Pelion and neighboring caves of Homole, from where the Centaurs rode forth to conquer Thessaly, arming themselves with pines.

375CHORUS: And he slew that dappled deer with horns of gold, that preyed upon the country-folk, glorifying Artemis, huntress queen of Oenoe.

380CHORUS: Next he mounted on a chariot and tamed with the bit the horses of Diomedes, that greedily champed their bloody food at gory mangers with unbridled jaws, devouring with hideous joy the flesh of men;

385then crossing the heights of Hebrus that flow with silver, he still toiled on for the tyrant of Mycenae.

389CHORUS: And at the strand of the Pelian gulf

390by the streams of Anaurus, he slew with his arrows Cycnus, murderer of his guests, the savage wretch who dwelt in Amphanae.

394CHORUS: And he came to those minstrel maids,

395to their orchard in the west, to pluck from the leafy apple-tree its golden fruit, when he had slain the tawny dragon, whose terrible coils were twined all round to guard it;

400and he made his way into ocean’s lairs, bringing calm to men that use the oar.

403CHORUS: And he stretched out his hands to uphold the firmament,

405seeking the home of Atlas, and on his manly shoulders took the starry mansions of the gods.

408CHORUS: Then he went through the waves of heaving Euxine against the mounted host of Amazons dwelling round Maeotis,

410the lake that is fed by many a stream, having gathered to his standard all his friends from Hellas, to fetch the gold-embroidered raiment of the warrior queen,

415a deadly quest for a girdle. Hellas won those glorious spoils of the barbarian maid, and they are safe in Mycenae.

419CHORUS: He burned to ashes Lerna’s murderous hound,

420the many-headed water-snake, and smeared its venom on his darts, with which he slew the shepherd of Erytheia, a monster with three bodies.

425CHORUS: And many another glorious achievement he brought to a happy issue; to Hades’ house of tears has he now sailed, the goal of his labors, where he is ending his career of toil, nor does he come back again.

430Now your house is left without a friend, and Charon’s boat awaits your children to bear them on that journey out of life, without return, contrary to the gods’ law and man’s justice; and it is to your prowess

435that your house is looking although you are not here.

436CHORUS: Had I been strong and lusty, able to brandish the spear in battle’s onset, and my Theban companions too, I would have stood by your children

440to champion them; but now my happy youth is gone and I am left.

442CHORUS LEADER: But look! I see the children of Heracles who was once so great, wearing the clothes of the dead,

445and his loving wife dragging her babes along at her side, and Heracles’ aged father. Ah! woe is me! no longer can I stem the flood of tears

450that spring to my old eyes.

451MEGARA: Come now, who is to sacrifice or butcher these poor children? These victims are ready to be led to Hades’ halls. O my children! an ill-matched company are we hurried off to die,

455old men and young ones and mothers, all together. Alas! for my sad fate and my children’s, whom these eyes now for the last time behold. So I gave you birth and reared you only for our foes to mock, to jeer at, and slay.

460Ah me! how bitterly my hopes have disappointed me in the expectation I once formed from the words of your father. Addressing each of her three sons in turn. To you your dead father was for giving Argos; and you were to dwell in the halls of Eurystheus, lording it over the fair fruitful land of Argolis;

465and over your head would he throw that lion’s skin with which he himself was armed. And you were to be king of Thebes, famed for its chariots, receiving as your heritage my broad lands, for so you coaxed your dear father;

470and to your hand he used to resign the carved club, his sure defence, pretending to give it to you. And to you he promised to give Oechalia, which once his archery had wasted. Thus with three principalities

475would your father exalt you, his three sons, proud of your manliness; while I was choosing the best brides for you, scheming to link you by marriage to Athens, Thebes, and Sparta, that you might live a happy life with a fast sheet-anchor to hold by.

480And now that is all vanished; fortune’s breeze has veered and given to you for brides the maidens of death in their stead, and my tears will be the marriage bath; woe is me for my foolish thoughts! and your grandfather here is celebrating your marriage-feast, the cares of a father, accepting Hades as the father of your brides.

485Ah me! which of you shall I first press to my bosom, which last? on which bestow my kiss, or clasp close to me? Oh! would that like the bee with russet wing, I could collect from every source my sighs in one, and, blending them together, shed them in one copious flood!

490O my dearest Heracles, to you I call, if perhaps mortal voice can make itself heard in Hades’ halls; your father and children are dying, and I am doomed, I who once because of you was counted blessed as men count bliss. Come to our rescue; appear, I pray, if only as a phantom,

495since your arrival, even as a dream, would be enough, for they are cowards who are slaying your children.

497AMPHITRYON: Lady, prepare the funeral rites; but I, O Zeus, stretching out my hand to heaven, call on you to help these children,

500if such is your intention; for soon any aid of yours will be unavailing; and yet you have been often invoked; my toil is in vain; death seems inevitable. You aged friends, the joys of life are few; so take heed that you pass through it as gladly as you may,

505without a thought of sorrow from morning until night; for time takes little heed of preserving our hopes; and, when he has busied himself on his own business, away he flies. Look at me, a man who had made a mark among his fellows by deeds of note; yet fortune in a single day

510has robbed me of it as of a feather that floats away toward the sky. I know not any whose plenteous wealth and high reputation is fixed and sure; fare you well, for now you have seen the last of your old friend, my comrades.

Part 3

514MEGARA: Ah! Old friend, is it my own, my dearest I see? or what am I to say?

515AMPHITRYON: I do not know, my daughter; I too am struck dumb.

516MEGARA: Is this he who they told us was beneath the earth?It is, unless some day-dream mocks our sight. What am I saying? What visions do these anxious eyes behold? Old man, this is no one other than your own son.

520Come here, my children, cling to your father’s robe, hurry, never loose your hold, for here is one to help you, not at all behind our savior Zeus.

523HERACLES: All hail! my house and gates of my home, how glad I am to emerge to the light and see you.

525Ah! what is this? I see my children before the house in the robes of death, with chaplets on their heads and my wife amid a throng of men, and my father weeping—what misfortune? Let me draw near to them and inquire;

530lady, what strange stroke of fate has fallen on the house?

531MEGARA: Dearest of all mankind to me!

531bAMPHITRYON: O ray of light appearing to your father!

532MEGARA: Are you safe and is your coming just in time to help your dear ones?

533HERACLES: What do you mean? What is this confusion I find on my arrival, father?

534MEGARA: We are being ruined; forgive me, old friend,

535if I have anticipated that to which you had a right to tell him; for women’s nature is perhaps more prone to grief than men’s and they are my children that were being led to death, which was my own lot too.

538HERACLES: Apollo! what a prelude to your story!

539MEGARA: My brothers are dead, and my old father.

540HERACLES: How so? what did he do? whose spear did he meet?

541MEGARA: Lycus, our new monarch, slew him.

542HERACLES: Did he meet him in fair fight, or was the land sick and weak?

543MEGARA: Yes, from faction; now he is master of the city of Cadmus with its seven gates.

544HERACLES: Why has panic fallen on you and my aged father?

545MEGARA: He meant to kill your father, me, and my children.

546HERACLES: What are you saying? What did he have to fear from my orphan babes?

547MEGARA: He was afraid they might some day avenge Creon’s death.

548HERACLES: What is this dress they wear, suited to the dead?

Part 4

549MEGARA: It is the garb of death we have already put on.

550HERACLES: And were you being forced to die? O woe is me!

551MEGARA: Yes, deserted by every friend, and informed that you were dead.

552HERACLES: What put such desperate thoughts into your heads?

553MEGARA: That was what the heralds of Eurystheus kept proclaiming.

554HERACLES: Why did you leave my hearth and home?

555MEGARA: He forced us; your father was dragged from his bed.

556HERACLES: Had he no shame, to ill-use the old man so?

557MEGARA: Shame indeed! that goddess and he dwell far enough apart.

558HERACLES: Was I so poor in friends in my absence?

559MEGARA: Who are the friends of a man in misfortune?

560HERACLES: Do they make so light of my hard warring with the Minyans?

561MEGARA: Misfortune, to repeat it to you, has no friends.

562HERACLES: Cast from your heads these chaplets of death, look up to the light, for instead of the darkness below your eyes behold the welcome sun.

565I, meanwhile, since here is work for my hand, will first go raze this upstart tyrant’s halls, and when I have beheaded the villain, I will throw him to dogs to tear; and every Theban who I find has played the traitor after my kindness,

570will I destroy with this victorious club; the rest will I tear apart with my feathered shafts and fill Ismenus full of bloody corpses, and Dirce’s clear stream shall run red with gore. For whom ought I to help rather than wife

575and children and aged father? Farewell my labors! for it was in vain I accomplished them rather than helping these. And yet I ought to die in their defence, since they for their father were doomed; or what shall we find so noble in having fought a hydra and a lion

580at the commands of Eurystheus, if I make no effort to save my own children from death? No longer then, as before, shall I be called Heracles the victor.

583CHORUS LEADER: It is only right that parents should help their children, their aged fathers, and the partners of their marriage.

585AMPHITRYON: My son, it is like you to show your love for your dear ones and your hate for your enemies; only curb excessive hastiness.

587HERACLES: How, father, am I now showing more than fitting haste?

588AMPHITRYON: The king has a host of allies, needy villains though pretending to be rich,

590who sowed dissension and overthrew the state with a view to plundering their neighbors; for the wealth they had in their houses was all spent, dissipated by their sloth. You were seen entering the city; and, that being so, beware that you do not bring your enemies together and be slain unawares.

595HERACLES: Little I care if the whole city saw me; but happening to see a bird perched in an unlucky position, from it I learned that some trouble had befallen my house; so on purpose I made my entry to the land by stealth.

599AMPHITRYON: Well done; now, on your arrival, go salute your household altar,

600and let your father’s halls behold your face. For soon the king will be here in person to drag away your wife and children and murder them, and to add me to the bloody list. But if you remain on the spot all will go well, and you will profit by this security; but do not rouse

605your city before you have these matters well in train, my son.

Part 5

606HERACLES: I will do so; your advice is good; I will enter my house. After my return at length from the sunless den of Hades and the maiden queen of hell, I will not neglect to greet first of all the gods beneath my roof.

610AMPHITRYON: Did you really go to the house of Hades, my son?

611HERACLES: Yes, and brought to the light that three-headed monster.

612AMPHITRYON: Did you conquer him in fight, or receive him from the goddess?

613HERACLES: In fight; for I had been lucky enough to witness the rites of the initiated.

614AMPHITRYON: Is the monster really lodged in the house of Eurystheus?

615HERACLES: The grove of Demeter and the city of Hermione have him now.

616AMPHITRYON: Eurystheus does not know that you have returned to the upper world?

617HERACLES: He does not; I came here first to learn your news.

618AMPHITRYON: How is it you were so long beneath the earth?

619HERACLES: I stayed awhile attempting to bring back Theseus from Hades, father.

620AMPHITRYON: Where is he? gone to his native land?

621HERACLES: He set out for Athens, glad to have escaped from the lower world. Come now, children, attend your father to the house. My entering in is fairer in your eyes, I think, than my going out. Oh, take heart,

625and no more let the tears stream from your eyes; you too, my wife, collect your courage, cease from fear; leave go my robe; for I cannot fly away, nor have I any wish to flee from those I love. Ah! they do not loose their hold, but cling to my garments

630all the more; were you on the razor’s edge of danger? Well, I must lead them, taking them by the hand to draw them after me, my little boats, like a ship when towing; for I too do not reject the care of my children; here all mankind are equal; all love their children, both those of high estate

635and those who are nothing; it is wealth that makes distinctions among them; some have, others want; but all the human race loves its offspring.

637CHORUS: Dear to me is youth always, but old age is hanging over my head, a burden heavier

640than Aetna’s crags, casting its pall of gloom upon my eyes. Oh! never may the wealth of Asia’s kings tempt me

645to barter for houses stored with gold my happy youth, which is in wealth and poverty alike most fair! But old age is gloomy and deadly;

650I hate it; let it sink beneath the waves! Would it had never found its way to the homes and towns of mortal men, but were still drifting on for ever down the wind.

655CHORUS: Had the gods shown discernment and wisdom, as mortals count these things, men would have won youth twice over, a visible mark of worth

660among whomever found, and after death these would have run a double course once more to the sun-light, while the low born would have had a single portion of life;

665and thus would it have been possible to distinguish the good and the bad, just as sailors know the number of the stars amid the clouds. But, as it is, the gods have set no certain boundary

670between good and bad, but time’s onward roll brings increase only to man’s wealth.

673CHORUS: Never will I cease to link in one the Graces and the Muses,

675sweetest union. Never may I live among uneducated boors, but ever may I find a place among the crowned!

680Yes, still the aged singer lifts up his voice of bygone memories: still is my song of the triumphs of Heracles, whether Bromius the giver of wine is near, or the strains of the seven-stringed lyre and the Libyan pipe are rising;

685not yet will I cease to sing the Muses’ praise, my patrons in the dance.

687CHORUS: The maids of Delos raise their song of joy, circling round the temple gates in honor of Leto’s fair son,

690the graceful dancer; so I with my old lips will cry aloud songs of joy at your palace-doors, like the swan, aged singer; for there is a good

695theme for minstrelsy; he is the son of Zeus; yet high above his noble birth tower his deeds of prowess, for his toil secured this life of calm for man,

700having destroyed all fearsome beasts.

701LYCUS: Amphitryon, it is high time you came forth from the palace; you have been too long arraying yourselves in the robes and trappings of the dead. Come, bid the wife and children of Heracles

705show themselves outside the house, to die on the conditions you yourselves offered.

707AMPHITRYON: Lord, you persecute me in my misery and heap insult upon me over and above the loss of my son; you should have been more moderate in your zeal, though you are my lord and master.

710But since you impose death’s necessity on me, I must acquiesce; what you wish must be done.

712LYCUS: Now, where is Megara? where are the children of Alcmena’s son?

Part 6

713AMPHITRYON: She, I believe, so far as I can guess from outside—

714LYCUS: What grounds do you have to base your fancy on?

715AMPHITRYON: Is sitting as a suppliant on the altar’s hallowed steps—

716LYCUS: Imploring them quite uselessly to save her life.

717AMPHITRYON: And calling on her dead husband, in vain.

718LYCUS: He is nowhere near, and he certainly will never come.

719AMPHITRYON: No, unless perhaps a god should raise him from the dead.

720LYCUS: Go to her and bring her from the palace.

721AMPHITRYON: By doing so I should become an accomplice in her murder.

722LYCUS: Since you have this scruple, I, who have left fear behind, will myself bring out the mother and her children. Follow me, servants,

725that we may joyfully put an end to this delay of our work.

726AMPHITRYON: Then go your way along the path of fate; for what remains, maybe another will provide. Expect for your evil deeds to find some trouble yourself. Ah! my aged friends, he is marching fairly to his doom; soon will he lie entangled in the snare

730of the sword, thinking to slay his neighbors, the villain! I will go, to see him fall dead; for the sight of a foe being slain and paying the penalty of his misdeeds affords pleasurable feelings.

735CHORUS: Evil has changed sides; he who was once a mighty king is now turning his life backward into the road to Hades. Hail to you! Justice and heavenly retribution.

740At last have you reached the goal where your death will pay the penalty, for your insults against your betters.

742Joy makes my tears burst forth. He has come back—

745which I never once thought in my heart would happen—the prince of the land.

747Come, old friends, let us look within to see if someone has met the fate I hope.

750LYCUS: Ah me! ah me!

751CHORUS: Ha! how sweet to hear that opening note of his within the house; death is not far off him now. The prince cries out, wailing a prelude of death.

754LYCUS: O kingdom of Cadmus, I am perishing by treachery!

755CHORUS: You were yourself for making others perish; endure your retribution; it is only the penalty of your own deeds you are paying.

757Who was he, only a mortal, that aimed his silly saying at the blessed gods of heaven with impious blasphemy, maintaining that they are weaklings after all?

760Old friends, our godless foe is now no more.

761The house is still; let us turn to the dance.

762Yes, for fortune smiles upon my friends as I desire.

763CHORUS: Dances, dances and banquets now prevail throughout the holy town of Thebes.

765For change from tears, change from sorrow give birth to song. The new king is gone; our former monarch

770rules, having made his way even from the harbor of Acheron. Hope beyond all expectation is fulfilled.

772CHORUS: The gods, the gods take care to heed the right and wrong. It is their gold and their good luck

775that lead men’s hearts astray, bringing in their train unjust power. For no man ever had the courage to reflect what reverses Time might bring; but, disregarding law to gratify lawlessness, he shatters

780the black chariot of prosperity.

781CHORUS: O Ismenus, deck yourself with garlands! Break forth into dancing, you paved streets of our seven-gated city! come Dirce, fount of waters fair;

785and joined with her you nymphs of Asopus, come from your father’s waves to add your voices to our hymn, the victor’s prize that Heracles has won.

790O Pythian rock with forests crowned, and haunts of the Muses on Helicon! you will come to my city and her walls with cries of joy; where the earth-born crop sprang to view,

795a warrior-host with shields of brass, who are handing on their realm to children’s children, a divine light to Thebes.

798CHORUS: All hail the marriage! in which two bridegrooms shared; the one, a mortal;

800the other, Zeus, who came to wed the bride sprung from Perseus; for that marriage of yours, O Zeus, in days gone by has been proved to me a true story beyond all expectation;

805and time has shown the brightness of Heracles’ strength; for he emerged from caverns beneath the earth after leaving Pluto’s halls below. To me you are a worthier lord

810than that base-born king, who now lets it be plainly seen in this struggle between armed warriors, whether justice still finds favor in heaven.

Part 7

815CHORUS: —Ha! see there, my old comrades! is the same wild panic fallen on us all; what phantom is this I see hovering over the house?

818—Fly, fly, bestir your tardy steps! begone! away!

820—O savior prince, avert calamity from me!

822IRIS: Courage, old men! she, whom you see, is Madness, daughter of Night, and I am Iris, the handmaid of the gods. We have not come to do your city any hurt,

825but our warfare is against the house of one man only, against him whom they call the son of Zeus and Alcmena. For until he had finished all his grievous labors, Destiny was preserving him, nor would father Zeus ever suffer me or Hera to harm him.

830But now that he has accomplished the labors of Eurystheus, Hera wishes to brand him with the guilt of shedding kindred blood by slaying his own children, and I wish it also. Come then, unwed maid, child of black Night, harden your heart relentlessly,

835send forth frenzy upon this man, confound his mind even to the slaying of his children, drive him, goad him wildly on his mad career, shake out the sails of death, that when he has conveyed over Acheron’s ferry that fair group of children by his own murderous hand,

840he may learn to know how fiercely against him the wrath of Hera burns and may also experience mine; otherwise, if he should escape punishment, the gods will become as nothing, while man’s power will grow.

843MADNESS: Of noble parents was I born, the daughter of Night, sprung from the blood of Ouranos;

845and these prerogatives I hold, not to use them in anger against friends, nor do I have any joy in visiting the homes of men; and I wish to counsel Hera, before I see her make a mistake, and you too, if you will hearken to my words. This man, against whose house you are sending me, has made himself a name alike in heaven

850and earth; for, after taming pathless wilds and raging sea, he by his single might raised up again the honors of the gods when sinking before man’s impiety; . . . wherefore I counsel you, do not wish him dire mishaps.

855IRIS: Spare us your advice on Hera’s and my schemes.

856MADNESS: I seek to turn your steps into the best path instead of into this one of evil.

857IRIS: It was not to practice self-control that the wife of Zeus sent you here.

858MADNESS: I call the sun-god to witness that here I am acting against my will; but if indeed I must at once serve you and Hera

860and follow you in full cry as hounds follow the huntsman, then I will go; neither ocean with its fiercely groaning waves, nor the earthquake, nor the thunderbolt with blast of agony shall be like the headlong rush I will make into the breast of Heracles; through his roof will I burst my way and swoop upon his house,

865after first slaying his children; nor shall their murderer know that he is killing the children he begot, till he is released from my madness. Behold him! see how even now he is wildly tossing his head at the outset, and rolling his eyes fiercely from side to side without a word; nor can he control his panting breath, like a fearful bull in act to charge; he bellows,

870calling on the goddesses of nether hell. Soon will I rouse you to yet wilder dancing and pipe a note of terror in your ear. Soar away, O Iris, to Olympus on your honored course; while I unseen will steal into the halls of Heracles.

875CHORUS: Alas alas! lament; the son of Zeus, flower of your city, is being cut down. Woe to you, Hellas! that will cast from you your benefactor, and destroy him as he dances in the shrill frenzy of Madness.

880She is mounted on her chariot, the queen of sorrow and sighing, and is goading on her steeds, as if for outrage, the Gorgon child of Night, with a hundred hissing serpent-heads, Madness of the flashing eyes.

885Soon has the god changed his good fortune; soon will his children breathe their last, slain by a father’s hand.

887AMPHITRYON: Ah me! alas!

888CHORUS: O Zeus, unjust Vengeance, mad, relentless, will soon give your childless son

890up to misery.

890aAMPHITRYON: Alas, O house!

891CHORUS: The dance begins without the cymbals’ crash, with no glad waving of the wine-god’s staff—

893AMPHITRYON: Woe to these halls!

894CHORUS: Toward bloodshed,

895and not to pour libations of Dionysus’ grape.

896AMPHITRYON: O children, make haste to fly!

896bCHORUS: That is the chant of death, of death, to the music of pipes.

898Ah, yes! he is hunting the children down. Never will Madness lead her revel rout in vain.

900AMPHITRYON: Ah misery!

901CHORUS: Ah me! how I lament that aged father, that mother too that bore his children in vain.

904Look! look!

905A tempest rocks the house; the roof is falling with it.

906HERACLES: Oh, oh! what are you doing, Pallas, child of Zeus, to the house? You are sending hell’s confusion against the halls, as once you did on Enceladus.

910MESSENGER: O white-haired old men!

Part 8

910bCHORUS: Why this loud

911address to me?

911bMESSENGER: It is dreadful within!

911cCHORUS: No need for me to call another prophet for that.

913MESSENGER: The children are dead.

913bCHORUS: Alas!

914MESSENGER: Ah weep! for here is cause for weeping.

914bCHORUS: A cruel murder,

915cruel parents’ hands!

916MESSENGER: No words can utter more than we have suffered.

917CHORUS: How came the ruin you reveal, the ruin that must be lamented, from a father to his children? Tell me how these heaven-sent woes

920came rushing on the house; say how the children met their sad mischance.

922MESSENGER: Victims to purify the house were stationed before the altar of Zeus, for Heracles had slain and cast from his halls the king of the land.

925There stood his group of lovely children, with his father and Megara; and already the basket was being passed round the altar, and we were keeping holy silence. But just as Alcmena’s son was bringing the torch in his right hand to dip it in the holy water,

930he stopped without a word. And as their father lingered, his children looked at him; he was no longer himself; his eyes were rolling; he was quite distraught; his eyeballs were bloodshot, and foam was oozing down his bearded cheek.

935He spoke with a madman’s laugh: Father, why should I offer the purifying flame before I have slain Eurystheus, and have the toil twice over? It is the work of my unaided arm to settle these things well; as soon as I have brought the head of Eurystheus here,

940I will cleanse my hands for those already slain. Spill the water, cast the baskets from your hands. Ho! give me now my bow and club! To Mycenae will I go; I must take crow-bars and pick-axes, for I will shatter again

945with iron levers those city-walls which the Cyclopes squared with red plumb-line and mason’s tools.

947Then he set out, and though he had no chariot there, he thought he had, and was for mounting to its seat, and using a goad as though his fingers really held one.

950A twofold feeling filled his servants’ breasts, amusement and fear at once; and one looking to his neighbor said: Is our master making sport for us, or is he mad? But he was pacing to and fro in his house; and, rushing into the men’s chamber, he said he had reached the city of Nisus;

955and going into the house, he threw himself upon the floor, as he was, and made ready to feast. But after waiting a brief space he began saying he was on his way to the plains amid the valleys of the Isthmus; and then stripping himself of his mantle,

960he fell to competing with no one, and he proclaimed himself victor with his own voice, calling on no one to listen. Next, fancy carrying him to Mycenae, he was uttering fearful threats against Eurystheus. Meantime his father caught him by his stalwart arm, and thus addressed him:

965My son, what do you mean by this? What strange doings are these? Can it be that the blood of your late victims has driven you frantic? But he, supposing it was the father of Eurystheus striving in abject supplication to touch his hand: thrust him aside, and then against his own children aimed his bow

970and made ready his quiver, thinking to slay the sons of Eurystheus. And they in wild fright darted here and there, one to his hapless mother’s skirts, another to the shadow of a pillar, while a third cowered beneath the altar like a bird.

975Then cried their mother: O you who begot them, what are you doing? do you mean to slay your children? Likewise his aged father and all the gathered servants cried aloud. But he, hunting the child round and round the column, in dreadful circles, and coming face to face with him shot him to the heart; and he fell upon his back,

980sprinkling the stone pillars with blood as he gasped out his life. Then Heracles shouted in triumph and boasted loud: Here lies one of Eurystheus’ brood dead at my feet, atoning for his father’s hatred. Then he aimed his bow against a second, who had crouched

985at the altar’s foot thinking to escape unseen. But before he fired, the poor child threw himself at his father’s knees, and, flinging his hand to reach his beard or neck, cried: Oh! hear me, dearest father, do not kill me! I am your child, your own; it is no son of Eurystheus you will slay.

990But that other, with savage Gorgon-scowl, as the child now stood in range of his baleful archery, smote him on the head, as a smith strikes his molten iron, bringing down his club upon the fair-haired boy, and crushed the bones. The second caught,

995away he goes to add a third victim to the other two. But before he could, the poor mother caught up her child and carried him within the house and shut the doors. But he, as though he really were at the Cyclopean walls, prized open the doors with levers, and, hurling down their posts,

1000with one shaft laid low his wife and child. Then in wild gallop he starts to slay his aged father; but there came a phantom, as it seemed to us on-lookers, of Pallas, with plumed helm, brandishing a spear; and she hurled a rock against the breast of Heracles,

1005which held him from his frenzied thirst for blood and plunged him into sleep; to the ground he fell, striking his back against a column that had fallen on the floor shattered in two when the roof fell in.

1010Then we rallied from our flight, and with the old man’s aid bound him fast with knotted cords to the pillar, so that on his awakening he might do no further mischief. So there he sleeps, poor wretch! a sleep that is not blessed, having murdered wife and children; no, for my part

1015I do not know any mortal more miserable than he. Exit messenger.

1016CHORUS: That murder wrought by the daughters of Danaus, which the rock of Argos keeps, was once the most famous and notorious in Hellas; but this has surpassed,

1020has outrun those former horrors . . . for the unhappy son of Zeus.

1021I could tell of the murder done by Procne, mother of an only child, offered to the Muses; but you had three children, wretched parent, and all of them have you in your frenzy slain.

1025Alas! What groans or wails, what funeral dirge, or dance of death am I to raise?

1028Ah, ah! see, the bolted doors

1030of the lofty palace are being rolled apart.

1031Ah me! see the wretched children lying before their unhappy father, who is sunk in dreadful slumber after shedding their blood.

1035Round him are bonds and cords, made fast with many knots about the body of Heracles, and lashed to the stone columns of his house.

1039CHORUS LEADER: But he, the aged father, like mother-bird wailing

1040her unfledged brood, comes hastening here with halting steps on his bitter journey.

1042AMPHITRYON: Softly, softly! you aged sons of Thebes, let him sleep on and forget his sorrows.

1045CHORUS: For you, old friend, I weep and mourn, for the children too and that victorious chief.

1047AMPHITRYON: Stand further off, make no noise nor outcry, do not rouse him from his calm

1050deep slumber.

1050bCHORUS: O horrible! all this blood—

1051bAMPHITRYON: Hush, hush! you will be my ruin.

1052bCHORUS: That he has spilled is rising up against him.

1053AMPHITRYON: Gently raise your dirge of woe, old friends;

1055or he will wake, and, bursting his bonds, destroy the city, rend his father, and dash his house to pieces.

1057CHORUS: I cannot, cannot—

Part 9

1057bAMPHITRYON: Hush! let me note his breathing;

1060come, let me put my ear close.

1060bCHORUS: Is he sleeping?

1060cAMPHITRYON: Yes, he is sleeping, a deadly sleepless sleep, having slain wife and children with the arrows of his twanging bow.

1065CHORUS: Ah! mourn—

1065bAMPHITRYON: Indeed I do.

1066CHORUS: The children’s death—

1066bAMPHITRYON: Ah me!

1067CHORUS: And your own son’s doom.

1067bAMPHITRYON: Alas!

1068CHORUS: Old friend—

1068bAMPHITRYON: Hush! hush! he is turning over, he is waking! Oh!

1070let me hide myself, concealed beneath the roof.

1071CHORUS: Courage! darkness still holds your son’s eye.

1072AMPHITRYON: Oh beware! it is not that I shrink from leaving the light after my miseries, poor wretch! but if should he slay me, his father,

1075then he will be devising mischief on mischief, and to the avenging curse will add a parent’s blood.

1078CHORUS: Well for you if you had died in that day, when, for your wife, you went forth to exact vengeance for her slain brothers

1080by sacking the Taphians’ sea-beat town.

1081AMPHITRYON: Fly, fly, my aged friends, from before the palace, escape his waking fury. Or soon he will heap up fresh slaughter on the old,

1085ranging wildly once more through the streets of Thebes.

1086CHORUS LEADER: O Zeus, why have you shown such savage hate against your own son and plunged him in this sea of troubles?

1088HERACLES: Aha! I am alive and breathing; and my eyes resume their function, opening on

1090the sky and earth and the sun’s darting beam; but how my senses reel! in what strange turmoil am I plunged! my fevered breath in quick spasmodic gasps escapes my lungs. How now? why am I lying here, my brawny chest and arms made fast with cables like a ship,

1095beside a half-shattered piece of masonry, with corpses for my neighbors; while over the floor my bow and arrows are scattered, that once like trusty squires to my arm

1100both kept me safe and were kept safe by me? Surely I have not come a second time to Hades’ halls, having just returned from there for Eurystheus? To Hades? From where? No, I do not see Sisyphus with his stone, or Pluto, or his queen, Demeter’s child.

1105Surely I am distraught; where am I, so helpless? Ho, there! which of my friends is near or far to cure me in my perplexity? For I have no clear knowledge of things once familiar.

1109AMPHITRYON: My aged friends, shall I approach the scene of my sorrow?

1110CHORUS LEADER: Yes, and let me go with you, not desert you in your trouble.

1111HERACLES: Father, why do you weep and veil your eyes, standing far from your beloved son?

Part 10

1113AMPHITRYON: My child! mine still, for all your misery.

1114HERACLES: Why, what is there so sad in my case that you weep?

1115AMPHITRYON: That which might make any of the gods weep, if he were to learn it.

1116HERACLES: A bold assertion that, but you are not yet explaining what has happened.

1117AMPHITRYON: Your own eyes see that, if by this time you are restored to your senses.

1118HERACLES: Fill in your sketch if any change awaits my life.

1119AMPHITRYON: I will explain, if you are no longer mad as a fiend of hell.

1120HERACLES: Oh! what suspicions these dark hints of yours again excite!

1121AMPHITRYON: I am still doubtful whether you are in your sober senses.

1122HERACLES: I have no recollection of being mad.

1123AMPHITRYON: Am I to loose my son, old friends, or what shall I do?

1124HERACLES: Loose me, yes, and say who bound me; for I feel shame at this.

1125AMPHITRYON: Rest content with what you know of your woes; the rest forego.

1126HERACLES: No. for is silence sufficient to learn what I wish?

1127AMPHITRYON: O Zeus, do you behold these deeds proceeding from the throne of Hera?

1128HERACLES: What! have I suffered something from her enmity?

1129AMPHITRYON: A truce to the goddess! attend to your own troubles.

1130HERACLES: I am undone; you will tell me some mischance.

1131AMPHITRYON: See here the corpses of your children.

1132HERACLES: O horror! what sight is here? ah me!

Part 11

1133AMPHITRYON: My son, against your children you have waged unnatural war.

1134HERACLES: War! what do you mean? who killed these?

1135AMPHITRYON: You and your bow and some god, whoever is to blame.

1136HERACLES: What are you saying? what have I done? Speak, father, you messenger of evil!

1137AMPHITRYON: You were insane; it is a sad explanation you are asking.

1138HERACLES: Was it I that slew my wife also?

1139AMPHITRYON: Your own unaided arm has done all this.

1140HERACLES: Alas! a cloud of mourning wraps me round.

1141AMPHITRYON: For this reason I lament your fate.

1142HERACLES: Did I dash my house to pieces in my frenzy?

1143AMPHITRYON: I know nothing but this, that you are utterly undone.

1144HERACLES: Where did the madness seize me? where did it destroy me?

1145AMPHITRYON: When you were purifying yourself with fire at the altar.

1146HERACLES: Ah me! why do I spare my own life when I have become the murderer of my dear children? Shall I not hasten to leap from some sheer rock, or aim the sword against my heart

1150and avenge my children’s blood, or burn my body, which she drove mad, in the fire and so avert from my life the infamy which now awaits me?

1153But here I see Theseus coming to check my deadly counsels, my kinsman and friend.

1155Now shall I stand revealed, and the dearest of my friends will see the pollution I have incurred by my children’s murder. Ah, woe is me! what am I to do? Where can I find freedom from my sorrows? shall I take wings or plunge beneath the earth? Come, let me veil my head in darkness;

1160for I am ashamed of the evil I have done, and, since for these I have incurred fresh blood-guiltiness, I do not want to harm the innocent.

1163THESEUS: I have come, and others with me, young warriors from the land of Athens, encamped at present by the streams of Asopus,

1165to bring an allied army to your son, old friend. For a rumour reached the city of the Erechtheidae, that Lycus had usurped the scepter of this land and had become your enemy even to battle. Wherefore I came making recompense for the former kindness of Heracles

1170in saving me from the world below, if you have any need of such aid as I or my allies can give, old man.

1172Ha! why this heap of dead upon the floor? Surely I have not delayed too long and come too late to check a revolution? Who slew these children?

1175whose wife is this I see? Boys do not go to battle; no, it must be some other strange mischance I here discover.

1178AMPHITRYON: O king, whose home is that olive-clad hill!

1179THESEUS: Why this piteous prelude in addressing me?

1180AMPHITRYON: The gods have afflicted us with grievous suffering.

1181THESEUS: Whose are these children, over whom you weep?

1182AMPHITRYON: My own son’s children, woe is him! he was their father and butcher both, hardening his heart to the bloody deed.

Part 12

1184THESEUS: Hush! good words only!

1185AMPHITRYON: I would I could obey!

1186THESEUS: What dreadful words!

1187AMPHITRYON: Fortune has spread her wings, and we are ruined, ruined.

1188THESEUS: What do you mean? what has he done?

1189AMPHITRYON: Slain them in a wild fit of frenzy

1190with arrows dipped in the venom of the hundred-headed hydra.

1191THESEUS: This is Hera’s work; but who lies there among the dead, old man?

1192AMPHITRYON: My son, my own enduring son, that marched with gods to Phlegra’s plain, there to battle with giants and slay them, warrior that he was.

1195THESEUS: Ah, ah! whose fortune was ever so cursed as his?

1196AMPHITRYON: Never will you find another mortal that has suffered more or been driven harder.

1198THESEUS: Why does he veil his head, poor wretch, in his robe?

1199AMPHITRYON: He is ashamed to meet your eye;

1200his kinsman’s kind intent and his children’s blood make him abashed.

1202THESEUS: But I come to sympathize; uncover him.

1204AMPHITRYON: My son, remove that mantle

1205from your eyes, throw it from you, show your face to the sun. As a counterweight, fighting along with my tears, I entreat you as a suppliant, as I grasp your beard, your knees, your hands, and let fall

1210the tear from my old eyes. O my child! restrain your savage lion-like temper, for you are rushing forth on an unholy course of bloodshed, eager to join mischief to mischief, child.

1214THESEUS: What! Enough! To you I call who are huddled there in your misery,

1215show to your friends your face; for no darkness is black enough to hide your sad mischance. Why do you wave your hand at me, signifying murder? is it that I may not be polluted by speaking with you?

1220If I share your misfortune, what is that to me? For once I had good fortune with you. I must refer to the time when you brought me safe from the dead to the light of life. I hate a friend whose gratitude grows old; one who is ready to enjoy his friends’ prosperity

1225but unwilling to sail in the same ship with them when they are unfortunate. Arise, unveil your head, poor wretch! and look on me. The gallant soul endures such blows as heaven deals and does not refuse them.

1229HERACLES: O Theseus, did you see this struggle with my children?

1230THESEUS: I heard of it, and now I see the horrors you mean.

1231HERACLES: Why then have you unveiled my head to the sun?

1232THESEUS: Why have I? you, a mortal, can not pollute what is of the gods.

1233HERACLES: Try to escape, luckless wretch, from my unholy taint.

Part 13

1234THESEUS: The avenging fiend does not go forth from friend to friend.

1235HERACLES: For this I thank you; I do not regret the service I did you.

1236THESEUS: While I, for kindness then received, now show my pity for you.

1237HERACLES: Ah yes! I am piteous object, a murderer of my sons.

1238THESEUS: I weep for you in your changed fortunes.

1239HERACLES: Did you ever find another more afflicted?

1240THESEUS: Your misfortunes reach from earth to heaven.

1241HERACLES: Therefore I am resolved on death.

1242THESEUS: Do you suppose the gods attend to your threats?

1243HERACLES: The god has been remorseless to me; so I will be the same to the gods.

1244THESEUS: Hush! lest your presumption add to your sufferings.

1245HERACLES: My ship is freighted full with sorrow; there is no room to stow anything further.

1246THESEUS: What will you do? Where is your fury drifting you?

1247HERACLES: I will die and return to that world below from which I have just come.

1248THESEUS: Such language is fit for any common fellow.

1249HERACLES: Ah! yours is the advice of one outside sorrow.

1250THESEUS: Are these indeed the words of Heracles, the much-enduring?

1251HERACLES: Though never so much as this. Endurance must have a limit.

1252THESEUS: Is this the benefactor and great friend to mortals?

1253HERACLES: Mortals bring no help to me; no! Hera has her way.

Part 14

1254THESEUS: Never would Hellas allow you to die through sheer perversity.

1255HERACLES: Hear me a moment, that I may enter the contest with arguments in answer to your admonitions; and I will unfold to you why life now as well as formerly has been unbearable to me. First I am the son of a man who incurred the guilt of blood, before he married my mother Alcmena,

1260by slaying her aged father. Now when the foundation is badly laid at birth, it is necessary for the race to be cursed with woe; and Zeus, whoever this Zeus may be, begot me as an enemy to Hera; yet do not be vexed, old man;

1265for you rather than Zeus I regard as my father. Then while I was being suckled, that bedfellow of Zeus foisted into my cradle fearsome snakes to cause my death. After I took on a cloak of youthful flesh,

1270of all the toils I then endured what need to tell? what did I not destroy, whether lions, or triple-bodied Typhons, or giants or the battle against the hosts of four-legged Centaurs? or how when I had killed the hydra,

1275that monster with a ring of heads with power to grow again, I passed through a herd of countless other toils besides and came to the dead to fetch to the light at the bidding of Eurystheus the three-headed hound, hell’s porter. Last, ah, woe is me! I have dared this labor,

1280to crown the sorrows of my house with my children’s murder. I have come to this point of necessity; no longer may I dwell in Thebes, the city that I love; for suppose I stay, to what temple or gathering of friends shall I go? For mine is no curse that invites greetings.

1285Shall I go to Argos? how can I, when I am an exile from my country? Well, is there a single other city I can rush to? Am I then to be looked at askance as a marked man, held by cruel stabbing tongues: Is not this the son of Zeus that once murdered children

1290and wife? Plague take him from the land!

1291Now to one who was once called happy, such changes are a grievous thing; though he who is always unfortunate feels no such pain, for sorrow is his birthright. This, I think, is the piteous pass I shall one day come to;

1295for earth will cry out forbidding me to touch her, the sea and the river-springs will refuse me a crossing, and I shall become like Ixion who revolves in chains upon that wheel. And so this is best, that I should be seen by no one of the Hellenes,

1300among whom in happier days I lived in bliss. What right have I to live? what profit can I have in the possession of a useless, impious life? So let that noble wife of Zeus dance, beating her foot in its shoe;

1305for now has she worked her heart’s desire in utterly confounding the first of Hellas’ sons. Who would pray to such a goddess? Her jealousy of Zeus for his love of a woman has destroyed

1310the benefactors of Hellas, guiltless though they were.

1311CHORUS LEADER: This is the work of none other of the gods than the wife of Zeus; you are right in that surmise.

1313THESEUS: I cannot counsel you . . . rather than to go on suffering. There is not a man alive that has wholly escaped misfortune’s taint,

1315nor any god either, if what poets sing is true. Have they not intermarried in ways that law forbids? Have they not thrown fathers into ignominious chains to gain the sovereign power? Still they inhabit Olympus and brave the issue of their crimes.

1320And yet what shall you say in your defence, if you, a child of man, take your fate excessively hard, while they, as gods, do not? No, then, leave Thebes in compliance with the law, and come with me to the city of Pallas. There, when I have purified you of your pollution,

1325I will give you homes and the half of all I have. Yes, I will give you all those presents I received from the citizens for saving their fourteen children, when I slew the bull of Crete; for I have plots of land assigned me throughout the country; these shall henceforth

1330be called after you by men, while you live; and at your death, when you have gone to Hades’ halls, the whole city of Athens shall exalt your honor with sacrifices and a monument of stone. For it is a noble crown of a good reputation

1335for citizens to win from Hellas, by helping a man of worth. This is the return that I will make you for saving me, for now you are in need of friends. But when the gods honor a man, he has no need of friends; for the god’s aid, when he chooses to give it, is enough.

1340HERACLES: No! this is quite beside the question of my troubles. For my part, I do not believe that the gods indulge in unholy unions; and as for putting bonds on hands, I have never thought that worthy of credit nor will I now be so persuaded, nor again that one god is naturally lord and master of another.

1345For the deity, if he be really such, has no wants; these are miserable tales of the poets. But I, for all my piteous plight, reflected whether I should let myself be branded as a coward for giving up my life. For whoever does not withstand disasters

1350will never be able to withstand even a man’s weapon. I will be steadfast in living; I will go to your city, with grateful thanks for all you offer me.

1353But I have tasted of countless troubles, as is well known; never yet did I faint at any or shed a single tear; no, nor did I ever think

1355that I should come to this, to let the tear-drop fall. But now, it seems, I must be fortune’s slave. Well, let it pass; my old father, you see me go forth to exile, and in me you see my own children’s murderer.

1360Give them burial, and lay them out in death with the tribute of a tear, for the law forbids my doing so. Rest their heads upon their mother’s bosom and fold them in her arms, sad fellowship, which I, alas! unwittingly did slay. And when you have buried these dead,

1365live on here still, in bitterness maybe, but still constrain your soul to share my sorrows. O children! he who begot you, your own father, has been your destroyer, and you have had no profit of my triumphs, all my restless toil to win for you by force

1370a fair name, a glorious advantage from a father. You too, unhappy wife, this hand has slain, a poor return to make you for preserving the honor of my bed so safely, for all the weary watch you long have kept within my house. Alas for you, my wife, my sons! alas for me,

1375how sad my lot, cut off from wife and child! Ah! these kisses, bitter-sweet! these weapons which it is pain to own! I am not sure whether to keep or let them go; dangling at my side they thus will say,

1380With us you destroyed children and wife; we are your children’s slayers, and you keep us. Shall I carry them after that? what answer can I make? Yet, am I to strip myself of these weapons, the comrades of my glorious career in Hellas, and put myself in the power of my foes, to die a death of shame?

1385No! I must not let them go, but keep them, though it grieves me. In one thing, Theseus, help my misery; come to Argos and help me to manage the conveyance of the wretched dog; lest, if I go all alone, my sorrow for my sons may do me some hurt.

1389O land of Cadmus, and all you people of Thebes!

1390cut off your hair, and mourn with me; go to my children’s burial, and with one dirge lament us all, the dead and me; for on all of us has Hera inflicted the same cruel blow of destruction.

1394THESEUS: Rise, unhappy man! you have had your fill of tears.

1395HERACLES: I cannot rise; my limbs are rooted here.

1396THESEUS: Yes, even the strong are overthrown by misfortunes.

1397HERACLES: Ah! Would I could become a stone upon this spot, oblivious of trouble.

1398THESEUS: Peace! give your hand to a friend and helper.

1399HERACLES: No, let me not wipe off the blood upon your robe.

1400THESEUS: Wipe it off and spare not; I will not refuse you.

1401HERACLES: Bereft of my own sons, I find you as a son to me.

1402THESEUS: Throw your arm about my neck; I will be your guide.

1403HERACLES: A pair of friends indeed, but one a man of sorrows. Ah! aged father, this is the kind of man to make a friend.

1405AMPHITRYON: Blessed in her sons, the country that gave him birth!

1406HERACLES: Theseus, turn me back again to see my children.

1407THESEUS: What for? Do you think to find a drug in this to soothe your soul?

1408HERACLES: I long to do so, and would embrace my father.

1409AMPHITRYON: Here am I, my son; your wish is no less dear to me.

Part 15

1410THESEUS: Have you so short a memory for your troubles?

1411HERACLES: All that I endured before was easier to bear than this.

1412THESEUS: If anyone sees you play the woman, they will scoff.

1413HERACLES: Have I by living grown so abject in your sight? It was not so once, I think.

1414THESEUS: Yes, too much so; in your sickness you are not the glorious Heracles.

1415HERACLES: What about you? What kind of hero were you when in trouble in the world below?

1416THESEUS: I was worse than anyone as far as courage went.

1417HERACLES: How then can you say of me, that I am abased by my troubles?

1418THESEUS: Forward!

1418bHERACLES: Farewell, my aged father!

1418cAMPHITRYON: Farewell to you, my son!

1419HERACLES: Bury my children as I said.

1419bAMPHITRYON: But who will bury me, my son?

1420HERACLES: I will.

1420bAMPHITRYON: When wil you come?

1420cHERACLES: After you have buried my children.

1421AMPHITRYON: How?

1421bHERACLES: I will fetch you from Thebes to Athens. But carry my children within, a grievous burden to the earth. And I, after ruining my house by deeds of shame, will follow as a little boat in the wake of Theseus, a total wreck.

1425Whoever prefers wealth or might to the possession of good friends, thinks wrongly.

1427CHORUS: With grief and many a bitter tear we go our way, robbed of all we prized most dearly.

Part 1

1AETHRA: O Demeter, guardian of this Eleusinian land, and ye servants of the goddess who attend her fane, grant happiness to me and my son Theseus, to the city of Athens and the country of Pittheus,

5wherein my father reared me, Aethra, in a happy home, and gave me in marriage to Aegeus, Pandion’s son, according to the oracle of Loxias. This prayer I make, when I behold these aged dames, who, leaving their homes in Argos,

10now throw themselves with suppliant branches at my knees in their awful trouble; for around the gates of Cadmus have they lost their seven noble sons, whom on a day Adrastus, king of Argos, led thither,

15eager to secure for exiled Polynices, his son-in-law, a share in the heritage of Oedipus; so now their mothers would bury in the grave the dead, whom the spear hath slain, but the victors prevent them and will not allow them to take up the corpses, spurning Heaven’s laws.

20Here lies Adrastus on the ground with streaming eye, sharing with them the burden of their prayer to me, and bemoaning the havoc of the sword and the sorry fate of the warriors whom he led from their homes. And he doth urge me use entreaty, to persuade my son

25to take up the dead and help to bury them, either by winning words or force of arms, laying on my son and on Athens this task alone. Now it chanced, that I had left my house and come to offer sacrifice on behalf of the earth’s crop

30at this shrine, where first the fruitful corn showed its bristling shocks above the soil. And here at the holy altars of the twain goddesses, Demeter and her daughter, I wait, holding these sprays of foliage, a bond that bindeth not, in compassion for

35these childless mothers, hoary with age, and from reverence for the sacred fillets. To call Theseus hither is my herald to the city gone, that he may rid the land of that which grieveth them, or loose these my suppliant bonds,

40with pious observance of the gods’ will; for such as are discreet amongst women should in all cases invoke the aid of men.

42CHORUS: At thy knees I fall, aged dame, and my old lips beseech thee;

45arise, rescue from the slain my children’s bodies, whose limbs, by death relaxed, are left a prey to savage mountain beasts,

48CHORUS: beholding the bitter tears which spring to my eyes

50and my old wrinkled skin torn by my hands; for what can I do else? who never laid out my children dead within my halls, nor now behold their tombs heaped up with earth.

54CHORUS: Thou too, honoured lady, once a son didst bear,

55crowning thy lord’s marriage with fond joy; then share, O share with me thy mother’s feelings, in such measure as my sad heart grieves for my own dead sons;

60and persuade thy son, whose aid we implore, to go unto the river Ismenus, there to place within my hapless arms the bodies of my children, slain in their prime and left without a tomb.

63CHORUS: Though not as piety enjoins, yet from sheer necessity I have come to the fire-crowned altars of the gods, falling on my knees with instant supplication,

65for my cause is just, and ’tis in thy power, blest as thou art in thy children, to remove from me my woe; so in my sore distress I do beseech thee of my misery place in my hands my son’s

70dead body, that I may throw my arms about his hapless limbs.

71CHORUS: Behold a rivalry in sorrow! woe takes up the tale of woe; hark! thy servants beat their breasts. Come ye who join the mourners’ wail, come, O sympathetic band, to join the dance,

75which Hades honours; let the pearly nail be stained red, as it rends your cheeks, let your skin be streaked with gore; for honours rendered to the dead are a credit to the living.

79CHORUS: Sorrow’s charm doth drive me wild, insatiate, painful,

80endless, even as the trickling stream that gushes from some steep rock’s face; for ’tis woman’s way to fall a-weeping o’er

85the cruel calamity of children dead. Ah me! would I could die and forget my anguish!

87THESEUS: What is this lamentation that I hear, this beating of the breast, these dirges for the dead, with cries that echo from this shrine? How fluttering fear disquiets me,

90lest haply my mother have gotten some mischance, in quest of whom I come, for she hath been long absent from home. Ha! what now? A strange sight challenges my speech; I see my aged mother sitting at the altar and stranger dames are with her, who in various note

95proclaim their woe; from aged eyes the piteous tear is starting to the ground, their hair is shorn, their robes are not the robes of joy.

98What means it, mother? ’Tis thine to make it plain to me, mine to listen; yea, for I expect some tidings strange.

100AETHRA: My son, these are the mothers of those chieftains seven, who fell around the gates of Cadmus’ town. With suppliant boughs they keep me prisoner, as thou seest, in their midst.

104THESEUS: And who is yonder man, that moaneth piteously in the gateway?

105AETHRA: Adrastus, they inform me, king of Argos.

106THESEUS: Are those his children, those boys who stand round him?

107AETHRA: Not his, but the sons of the fallen slain.

108THESEUS: Why are they come to us, with suppliant hand outstretched?

109AETHRA: I know; but ’tis for them to tell their story, my son.

110THESEUS: To thee, in thy mantle muffled, I address my inquiries; unveil thy head, let lamentation be, and speak; for naught can be achieved save through the utterance of thy tongue.

113ADRASTUS: Victorious prince of the Athenian realm, Theseus, to thee and to thy city I, a suppliant, come.

115THESEUS: What seekest thou? What need is thine?

116ADRASTUS: Dost know how I did lead an expedition to its ruin?

117THESEUS: Assuredly; thou didst not pass through Hellas, all in silence.

Part 2

118ADRASTUS: There I lost the pick of Argos’ sons.

119THESEUS: These are the results of that unhappy war.

120ADRASTUS: I went and craved their bodies from Thebes.

121THESEUS: Didst thou rely on heralds, Hermes’ servants, in order to bury them?

122ADRASTUS: I did; and even then their slayers said me nay.

123THESEUS: Why, what say they to thy just request?

124ADRASTUS: Say! Success makes them forget how to bear their fortune.

125THESEUS: Art come to me then for counsel? or wherefore?

126ADRASTUS: With the wish that thou, O Theseus, shouldst recover the sons of the Argives.

127THESEUS: Where is your Argos now? were its vauntings all in vain?

128ADRASTUS: Defeat and ruin are our lot. To thee for aid we come.

129THESEUS: this thy own private resolve, or the wish of all the city?

130ADRASTUS: The sons of Danaus, one and all, implore thee to bury the dead.

131THESEUS: Why didst lead thy seven armies against Thebes?

132ADRASTUS: To confer that favour on the husbands of my daughters twain.

133THESEUS: To which of the Argives didst thou give thy daughters in marriage?

134ADRASTUS: I made no match for them with kinsmen of my family.

135THESEUS: What! didst give Argive maids to foreign lords?

136ADRASTUS: Yea, to Tydeus, and to Polynices, who was Theban-born.

137THESEUS: What induced thee to select this alliance?

Part 3

138ADRASTUS: Dark riddles of Phoebus stole away my judgment.

139THESEUS: What said Apollo to determine the maidens’ marriage?

140ADRASTUS: That I should give my daughters twain to a wild boar and a lion.

141THESEUS: How dost thou explain the message of the god?

142ADRASTUS: One night came to my door two exiles.

143THESEUS: The name of each declare; thou art speaking of both together.

144ADRASTUS: They fought together, Tydeus with Polynices.

145THESEUS: Didst thou give thy daughters to them as to wild beasts?

146ADRASTUS: Yea, for, as they fought, I likened them to those monsters twain.

147THESEUS: Why had they left the borders of their native land and come to thee?

148ADRASTUS: Tydeus was exiled for the murder of a kinsman.

149THESEUS: Wherefore had the son of Oedipus left Thebes?

150ADRASTUS: By reason of his father’s curse, not to spill his brother’s blood.

151THESEUS: Wise no doubt that voluntary exile.

152ADRASTUS: But those who stayed at home were for injuring the absent.

153THESEUS: What! did brother rob brother of his inheritance?

154ADRASTUS: To avenge this I set out; hence my ruin.

155THESEUS: Didst consult seers, and gaze into the flame of burnt-offerings?

156ADRASTUS: Ah me! thou pressest on the very point, wherein I most did fail.

157THESEUS: It seems thy going was not favoured by heaven.

Part 4

158ADRASTUS: Worse; I went in spite even of Amphiaraus.

159THESEUS: And so heaven lightly turned its face from thee.

160ADRASTUS: I was carried away by the clamour of younger men.

161THESEUS: Thou didst favour courage instead of discretion.

162ADRASTUS: O king of Athens, bravest of the sons of Hellas, I blush

165to throw myself upon the ground and clasp thy knees, I a grey-haired king, blest in days gone by; yet needs must I yield to my misfortunes. I pray thee save the dead; have pity on my sorrows and on these, the mothers of the slain,

170whom hoary eld finds reft of their sons; yet they endured to journey hither and tread a foreign soil with aged tottering steps, bearing no embassy to Demeter’s mysteries; only seeking burial for their dead, which lot should have been theirs,

175e’en burial by the hands of sons still in their prime. And ’tis wise in the rich to see the poor man’s poverty, and in the poor man to turn ambitious eyes toward the rich, that so he may himself indulge a longing for property; and they, whom fortune frowns not on, should gaze on misery’s presentment;

180Mayhap thou’lt say, Why pass the land of Pelops o’er,

185and lay this toil on Athens? This am I bound to declare. Sparta is cruel, her customs variable; the other states are small and weak. Thy city alone would be able to undertake this labour;

190for it turns an eye on suffering, and hath in thee a young and gallant king, for want whereof to lead their hosts states ere now have often perished.

193CHORUS: I too, Theseus, urge the same plea to thee; have pity on my hard fate.

195THESEUS: Full οft have I argued out this subject with others. For there are who say, there is more bad than good in human nature, to the which I hold a contrary view, that1 good o’er bad predominates in man,

200for if it were not so, we should not exist. He hath my praise, whoe’er of gods brought us to live by rule from chaos and from brutishness, first by implanting reason, and next by giving us a tongue to declare our thoughts, so as to2 know the meaning of what is said,

205bestowing fruitful crops, and drops of rain from heaven to make them grow, wherewith to nourish earth’s fruits and to water her lap; and more than this, protection from the wintry storm, and means to ward from us the sun-god’s scorching heat; the art of sailing o’er the sea, so that we might exchange

210with one another whatso our countries lack. And where sight fails us and our knowledge is not sure, the seer foretells by gazing on the flame, by reading signs in folds of entrails, or by divination from the flight of birds. Are we not then too proud, when heaven hath made such preparation for our life,

215not to be content therewith? But our presumption seeks to lord it over heaven, and in the pride of our hearts we think we are wiser than the gods.

219Methinks thou art even of this number, a son of folly,

220seeing that thou, though obedient to Apollo’s oracle in giving thy daughters to strangers, as if gods really existed, yet hast hurt thy house by mingling the stream of its pure line with muddy waters; no! never should the wise man have joined the stock of just and unjust in one,

225but should have gotten prosperous friends for his family. For the deity, confusing their destinies, doth oft destroy by the sinner’s fate him who never sinned nor committed injustice. Thou didst lead all Argos forth to battle,

230though seers proclaimed the will of heaven, and then in scorn of them and in violent disregard of the gods hast ruined thy city, led away by younger men, such as court distinction, and add war to war unrighteously destroying their fellow-citizens; one aspires to lead an army;

235another fain would seize the reins of power and work his wanton will; a third is bent on gain, careless of any mischief the people thereby suffer. For there are three ranks of citizens; the rich, a useless set, that ever crave for more;

240the poor and destitute, fearful folk, that cherish envy more than is right, and shoot out grievous stings against the men who have aught, beguiled as they are by the eloquence of vicious leaders; while the class that is midmost of the three preserveth cities,

245observing such order as the state ordains. Shall I then become thy ally? What fair pretext should I urge before my countrymen? Depart in peace! For why shouldst thou, having been ill-advised thyself, seek to drag our fortune down?

250CHORUS: He erred; but with the young men rests this error, while he may well be pardoned.

253ADRASTUS: I did not choose thee, king, to judge my affliction, but came to thee to cure it; no! nor if in aught my fortunes prove me wrong,

255came I to thee to punish or correct them, but to seek thy help. But if thou wilt not, I must be content with thy decision; for how can I help it? Come, aged dames, away! Yet leave behind you here the woven leaves of pale green foliage,

260calling to witness heaven and earth, Demeter, that fire-bearing goddess, and the sun-god’s light, that our prayers to heaven availed us naught.

262aCHORUS: . . . . who was Pelops’ son, and we are of the land of Pelops and share with thee the blood of ancestors.

265What art thou doing? wilt thou betray these suppliant symbols, and banish from thy land these aged women without the boon they should obtain? Do not so; e’en the wild beast finds a refuge in the rock, the slave in the altars of the gods, and a state when tempest-tossed cowers to its neighbour’s shelter;

270for naught in this life of man is blest unto its end.

271CHORUS: Rise, hapless one, from the sacred floor of Persephone; rise, clasp him by the knees and implore him, O recover the bodies of our dead sons, the children that I lost—ah, woe is me!—beneath the walls of Cadmus’ town.

275Ah me! ah me! Take me by the hand, poor aged sufferer that I am, support and guide and raise me up. By thy beard, kind friend, glory of Hellas, I do beseech thee, as I clasp thy knees and hands in my misery;

280O pity me as I entreat for my sons with my tale of wretched woe, like some beggar; nor let my sons lie there unburied in the land of Cadmus, glad prey for beasts, whilst thou art in thy prime, I implore thee. See the teardrop tremble in my eye,

285as thus I throw me at thy knees to win my children burial.

286THESEUS: Mother mine, why weepest thou, drawing o’er thine eyes thy veil? Is it because thou didst hear their piteous lamentations? To my own heart it goes. Raise thy silvered head, weep not

290where thou sittest at the holy altar of Demeter.

291AETHRA: Ah woe!

291bTHESEUS: ’Tis not for thee their sorrows to lament.

292AETHRA: Ye hapless dames!

292bTHESEUS: Thou art not of their company.

293AETHRA: May I a scheme declare, my son, that shall add to thy glory and the state’s?

294THESEUS: Yea, for oft even from women’s lips issue wise counsels.

295AETHRA: Yet the word, that lurks within my heart, makes me hesitate.

296THESEUS: Shame! to hide from friends good counsel.

Part 5

297AETHRA: Nay then, I will not hold my peace to blame myself hereafter for having now kept silence to my shame, nor will I forego my honourable proposal, from the common fear

300that it is useless for women to give good advice. First, my son, I exhort thee give good heed to heaven’s will, lest from slighting it thou suffer shipwreck; Further, I would have patiently endured, had it not been my duty

305to venture somewhat for injured folk; and this, my son, it is that brings thee now thy honour, and causes me no fear to urge that thou shouldst use thy power to make men of violence, who prevent the dead from receiving their meed of burial and funeral rites,

310perform this bounden duty, and check those who would confound the customs of all Hellas; for this it is that holds men’s states together,—strict observance of the laws. And some, no doubt, will say, ’twas cowardice made thee stand aloof in terror,

315when thou mightest have won for thy city a crown of glory, and, though thou didst encounter a savage swine, labouring for a sorry task, yet when the time came for thee to face the helmet and pointed spear, and do thy best, thou wert found to be a coward.

320Nay! do not so if thou be son of mine. Dost see how fiercely thy country looks on its revilers when they mock her for want of counsel? Yea, for in her toils she groweth greater. But states, whose policy is dark and cautious,

325have their sight darkened by their carefulness. My son, wilt thou not go succour the dead and these poor women in their need? I have no fears for thee, starting as thou dost with right upon thy side; and although I see the prosperity of Cadmus’ folk,

330still am I confident they will throw a different die; for the deity reverses all things again.

332CHORUS: Ah! best of friends, right well hast thou pleaded for me and for Adrastus, and hence my joy is doubled.

334THESEUS: Mother, the words that I have spoken

335are his fair deserts, and I have declared my opinion of the counsels that ruined him; yet do I perceive the truth of thy warning to me, that it ill suits my character to shun dangers. For by a long and glorious career have

340I displayed this my habit among Hellenes, of ever punishing the wicked. Wherefore I cannot refuse toil. For what will spiteful tongues say of me, when thou, my mother, who more than all others fearest for my safety,

345bidst me undertake this enterprise? Yea, I will go about this business and rescue the dead by words persuasive; or, failing that, the spear forthwith shall decide this issue, nor will heaven grudge me this. But I require the whole city’s sanction also,

350which my mere wish will ensure; still by communicating the proposal to them I shall find the people better disposed. For them I made supreme, when I set this city free, by giving all an equal vote. So I will take Adrastus as a text for what I have to say

355and go to their assembly, and when I have won them to these views, I will return hither, after collecting a picked band of young Athenians; and then remaining under arms I will send a message to Creon, begging the bodies of the dead. But do ye, aged ladies, remove from my mother your holy wreaths,

360that I may take her by the hand and conduct her to the house of Aegeus; for a wretched son is he who rewards not his parents by service; for, when he hath conferred on them the best he hath, he in his turn from his own sons receives all such service as he gave to them.

365CHORUS: O Argos, home of steeds, my native land! ye have heard with your ears these words, the king’s pious will toward the gods in the sight of great Pelasgia and throughout Argos.

369CHORUS: May he reach the goal! yea, and triumph o’er my sorrows,

370rescuing the gory corpse, the mother’s idol, and making the land of Inachus his friend by helping her.

373CHORUS: For pious toil is a fair ornament to cities, and carries with it a grace that never wastes away.

375What will the city decide, I wonder? Will it conclude a friendly truce with me, and shall we obtain burial for our sons?

377CHORUS: Help, O help, city of Pallas, the mother’s cause, that so they may not pollute the laws of all mankind. Thou, I know, dost reverence right, and to injustice dealest out

380defeat, a protection at all times to the afflicted.

381THESEUS: (to a herald.) Forasmuch as with this thy art thou hast ever served the stat£ and me by carrying my proclamations far and wide, so now cross Asopus and the waters of Ismenus, and declare this message to the haughty king of the Cadmeans:

385Theseus, thy neighbour, one who well may win the boon he craves, begs as a favour thy permission to bury the dead, winning to thyself thereby the love of all the Erechthidae. And if they will acquiesce, come back again, but if they hearken not, thy second message runneth thus,

390they may expect my warrior host; for at the sacred fount of Callichorus my army camps in readiness and is being reviewed. Moreover, the city gladly of its own accord undertook this enterprise, when it perceived my wish.

395Ha! who comes hither to interrupt my speech? A Theban herald, so it seems, though I am not sure thereof. Stay; haply he may save thee thy trouble. For by his coming he meets my purpose half-way.

399HERALD: Who is the despot of this land? To whom must I announce

400the message of Creon, who rules o’er the land of Cadmus, since Eteocles was slain by the hand of his brother Polynices, at the sevenfold gates of Thebes?

403THESEUS: Sir stranger, thou hast made a false beginning to thy speech, in seeking here a despot. For this city is not ruled

405by one man, but is free. The people rule in succession year by year, allowing no preference to wealth, but the poor man shares equally with the rich.

409HERALD: Thou givest me here an advantage, as it might be in a game of draughts;

410for the city, whence I come, is ruled by one man only, not by the mob; none there puffs up the citizens with specious words, and for his own advantage twists them this way or that,—one moment dear to them and lavish of his favours,

415the next a bane to all; and yet by fresh calumnies of others he hides his former failures and escapes punishment. Besides, how shall the people, if it cannot form true judgments, be able rightly to direct the state? Nay, ’tis time, not haste, that affords a better

420understanding. A poor hind, granted he be not all unschooled, would still be unable from his toil to give his mind to politics. Verily the better sort count it no healthy sign when the worthless man obtains a reputation

425by beguiling with words the populace, though aforetime he was naught.

426THESEUS: This herald is a clever fellow, a dabbler in the art of talk. But since thou hast thus entered the lists with me, listen awhile, for ’twas thou didst challenge a discussion. Naught is more hostile to a city than a despot;

430where he is, there are in the first place no laws common to all, but one man is tyrant, in whose keeping and in his alone the law resides, and in that case equality is at an end. But when the laws are written down, rich and poor alike have equal justice,

435and it is open to the weaker to use the same language to the prosperous when he is reviled by him, and the weaker prevails over the stronger if he have justice on his side. Freedom’s mark is also seen in this: Who hath wholesome counsel to declare unto the state?

440And he who chooses to do so gains renown, while he, who hath no wish, remains silent. What greater equality can there be in a city?

442Again, where the people are absolute rulers of the land, they rejoice in having a reserve of youthful citizens, while a king counts this a hostile element,

445and strives to slay the leading men, all such as he deems discreet, for he feareth for his power. How then can a city remain stable, where one cuts short all enterprise and mows down the young like meadow-flowers in spring-time?

450What boots it to acquire wealth and livelihood for children, merely to add to the tyrant’s substance by one’s toil? Why train up virgin daughters virtuously in our homes to gratify a tyrant’s whim, whenso he will, and cause tears to those who rear them? May my life end

455if ever my children are to be wedded by violence! This bolt I launch in answer to thy words. Now say, why art thou come? what needest thou of this land? Had not thy city sent thee, to thy cost hadst thou come with thy outrageous utterances; for it is the herald’s duty

460to tell the message he is bidden and hie him back in haste. Henceforth forth let Creon send to my city some other messenger less talkative than thee.

463CHORUS: Look you! how insolent the villains are, when Fortune is kind to them, just as if it would be well with them for ever.

465HERALD: Now will I speak. On these disputed points hold thou this view, but I the contrary.

467So I and all the people of Cadmus forbid thee to admit Adrastus to this land, but if he is here,

470drive him forth in disregard of the holy suppliant bough he bears, ere sinks yon blazing sun, and attempt not violently to take up the dead, seeing thou hast naught to do with the city of Argos. And if thou wilt hearken to me, thou shalt bring thy barque of state into port unharmed by the billows; but if not, fierce shall the surge of battle be,

475that we and our allies shall raise. Take good thought, nor, angered at my words, because forsooth thou rulest thy city with freedom, return a vaunting answer from thy feebler means. Hope is man’s curse; many a state hath it involved

480in strife, by leading them into excessive rage. For whenso the city has to vote on the question of war, no man ever takes his own death into account, but shifts this misfortune on to his neighbour; but if death had been before their eyes when they were giving their votes,

485Hellas would ne’er have rushed to her doom in mad desire for battle. And yet each man amongst us knows which of the two to prefer, the good or ill, and how much better peace is for mankind than war,—peace, the Muses’ chiefest friend,

490the foe of sorrow, whose joy is in glad throngs of children, and its delight in prosperity. These are the blessings we cast away and wickedly embark on war, man enslaving his weaker brother, and cities following suit.

494Now thou art helping our foes even after death,

495trying to rescue and bury those whom their own acts of insolence haye ruined. Verily then it would seem Capaneus was unjustly blasted by the thunderbolt and charred upon the ladder he had raised against our gates, swearing he would sack our town, whether the god would or no;

500nor should the yawning earth have snatched away the seer, opening wide her mouth to take his chariot and its horses in, nor should the other chieftains be stretched at our gates, their skeletons to atoms crushed ’neath boulders. Either boast thy wit transcendeth that of Zeus,

505or else allow that gods are right to slay the ungodly. The wise should love their children first, next their parents and country, whose fortunes it behoves them to increase rather than break down. Rashness in a leader, as in a pilot, causeth shipwreck; who knoweth when to be quiet is a wise man.

510Yea and this too is bravery, even forethought.

513CHORUS: The punishment Zeus hath inflicted was surely enough; there was no need to heap this wanton insult on us.

513bADRASTUS: Abandoned wretch!

514THESEUS: Peace, Adrastus! say no more; set not thy words before mine,

515for ’tis not to thee this fellow is come with his message, but to me, and I must answer him. Thy first assertion will I answer first: I am not aware that Creon is my lord and master, or that his power outweigheth mine, that so he should compel

520Athens to act on this wise; nay! for then would the tide of time have to flow backward, if we are to be ordered about, as he thinks. ’Tis not I who choose this war, seeing that I did not even join these warriors to go unto the land of Cadmus; but still I claim to bury the fallen dead, not injuring any state

525nor yet introducing murderous strife, but preserving the law of all Hellas. What is not well in this? If ye suffered aught from the Argives—lo! they are dead; ye took a splendid vengeance on your foes

530and covered them with shame, and now your right is at an end. Let the dead now be buried in the earth, and each element return to the place from whence it came to the body, the breath to the air, the body to the ground; for in no wise did we get it

535for our own, but to live our life in, and after that its mother earth must take it back again. Dost think ’tis Argos thou art injuring in refusing burial to the dead? Nay! all Hellas shares herein, if a man rob the dead of their due

540and keep them from the tomb; for, if this law be enacted, it will strike dismay into the stoutest hearts. And art thou come to cast dire threats at me, while thy own folk are afraid of giving burial to the dead? What is your fear? Think you they will undermine your land

545in their graves, or that they will beget children in the womb of earth, from whom shall rise an avenger? A silly waste of words, in truth it was, to show your fear of paltry groundless terrors.

549Go, triflers, learn the lesson of human misery;

550our life is made up of struggles; some men there be that find their fortune soon, others have to wait, while some at once are blest. Fortune lives a dainty life; to her the wretched pays his court and homage to win her smile; her likewise doth the prosperous man extol, for fear the favouring gale

555may leave him. These lessons should we take to heart, to bear with moderation, free from wrath, our wrongs, and do naught to hurt a whole city. What then? Let us, who will the pious deed perform, bury the corpses of the slain.

560Else is the issue clear; I will go and bury them by force. For never shall it be proclaimed through Hellas that heaven’s ancient law was set at naught, when it devolved on me and the city of Pandion.

564CHORUS: Be of good cheer; for if thou preserve the light of justice,

565thou shalt escape many a charge that men might urge.

566HERALD: Wilt thou that I sum up in brief all thou wouldst say?

567THESEUS: Say what thou wilt; for thou art not silent as it is.

Part 6

568HERALD: Thou shalt never take the sons of Argos from our land.

569THESEUS: Hear, then, my answer too to that, if so thou wilt.

570HERALD: I will hear thee; not that I wish it, but I must give thee thy turn.

571THESEUS: I will bury the dead, when from Asopus’ land I have removed them.

572HERALD: First must thou adventure somewhat in the front of war.

573THESEUS: Many an enterprise and of a different kind have I ere this endured.

574HERALD: Wert thou then begotten of thy sire to cope with every foe?

575THESEUS: Ay, with all wanton villains; virtue I punish not.

576HERALD: To meddle is aye thy wont and thy city’s too.

577THESEUS: Hence her enterprise on many a held hath won her frequent success.

578HERALD: Come then, that the warriors of the dragon-crop may catch thee in our city.

579THESEUS: What furious warrior-host could spring from dragon’s seed?

580HERALD: Thou shalt learn that to thy cost. As yet thou art young and rash.

581THESEUS: Thy boastful speech stirs not my heart at all to rage. Yet get thee gone from my land, taking with thee the idle words thou broughtest; for we are making no advance. [Exit Herald.]

584b’Tis time for all to start,

585each stout footman, and whoso mounts the car; ’tis time the bit, dripping with foam, should urge the charger on toward the land of Cadmus. For I will march in person to the seven gates thereof

590with the sharp sword in my hand, and be myself my herald. But thee, Adrastus, I bid stay, nor blend with mine thy fortunes, for I will take my own good star to lead my host, a chieftain famed in famous deeds of arms. One thing alone I need, the favour of all gods that reverence right, for the presence of these things

595insures victory. For their valour availeth men naught, unless they have the god’s goodwill. [Exit Theseus.

5981ST HALF-CHORUS: Unhappy mothers of those hapless chiefs! How wildly in my heart pale fear stirs up alarm!

6002ND HALF-CHORUS: What is this new cry thou utterest?

6011ST HALF-CHORUS: I fear the issue of the strife, whereto the hosts of Pallas march.

6022ND HALF-CHORUS: Dost speak of issues of the sword, or interchange of words?

6031ST HALF-CHORUS: That last were gain indeed; but if the carnage of battle, fighting, and

605the noise of beaten breasts again be heard in the land, what, alas! will be said of me, who am the cause thereof?

6082ND HALF-CHORUS: Yet may fate again bring low the brilliant victor; ’tis this brave thought that twines about my heart.

Part 7

6101ST HALF-CHORUS: Thou speak’st of the gods as if they were just.

6112ND HALF-CHORUS: For who but they allot whate’er betides?

6121ST HALF-CHORUS: I see many a contradiction in their dealings with men.

6132ND HALF-CHORUS: The former fear hath warped thy judgment. Vengeance calls vengeance forth; slaughter calls for slaughter,

615but the gods give respite from affliction, holding in their own hands each thing’s allotted end.

6181ST HALF-CHORUS: Would I could reach yon plains with turrets crowned, leaving Callichorus, fountain of the goddess!

6202ND HALF-CHORUS: O that some god would give me wings to fly to the city of rivers twain!

6221ST HALF-CHORUS: So might’st thou see and know the fortunes of thy friends.

6232ND HALF-CHORUS: What fate, what issue there awaits the valiant

625monarch of this land?

6261ST HALF-CHORUS: Once more do we invoke the gods we called upon before; yea, in our fear this is our first and chiefest trust.

6282ND HALF-CHORUS: O Zeus, father to the child the heifer-mother bore in days long past, that daughter of Inachus!

6301ST HALF-CHORUS: O be gracious, I pray, and champion this city!

6312ND HALF-CHORUS: ’Tis thy own darling, thy own settler in the city of Argos that I am striving to rescue for the funeral pyre from outrageous insult.

634MESSENGER: Ladies, I bring you tidings of great joy, myself escaped—for I was taken prisoner in the battle

635which cost those chieftains seven their lives near Dirce’s fount—to bear the news of Theseus’ victory. But I will save thee tedious questioning; I was the servant of Capaneus,

640whom Zeus with scorching bolt to ashes burnt.

641CHORUS: Friend of friends, fair thy news of thy own return, nor less the news about Theseus; and if the host of Athens, too, is safe, welcome will all thy message be.

644MESSENGER: ’Tis safe, and all hath happened as I would it had befallen Adrastus

645and his Argives, whom from Inachus he led, to march against the city of the Cadmeans.

647CHORUS: How did the son of Aegeus and his fellow-warriors raise their trophy to Zeus? Tell us, for thou wert there and canst gladden us who were not.

650MESSENGER: Bright shone the sun, one levelled line of light, upon the world, as by Electra’s gate I stood to watch, from a turret with a far outlook. And lo! I saw the host in three divisions, deploying its mail-clad warriors

655on the high ground by the banks of Ismenus; this last I heard; and with them was the king himself, famous son of Aegeus; his own men, natives of old Cecropia, were ranged upon the right; while on the left,

660hard by the fountain of Ares, were the dwellers by the sea, harnessed spearmen they; on either wing were posted cavalry, in equal numbers, and chariots were stationed in the shelter of Amphion’s holy tomb. Meantime, the folk of Cadmus set themselves before the walls,

665placing in the rear the bodies for which they fought. Horse to horse, and car to car stood ranged. Then did the herald of Theseus cry aloud to all: Be still, ye folk! hush, ye ranks of Cadmus,

670hearken! we are come to fetch the bodies of the slain, wishing to bury them in observance of the universal law of Hellas; no wish have we to lengthen out the slaughter.

673Not a word would Creon let his herald answer back, but there he stood in silence under arms. Then did the drivers of the four-horse cars

675begin the fray; on, past each other they drave their chariots, bringing the warriors at their sides up into line. Some fought with swords, some wheeled the horses back to the fray again for those they drove.

680Now when Phorbas, who captained the cavalry of the Erechthidae, saw the thronging chariots, he and they who had the charge of the Theban horse met hand to hand, and by turns were victors and vanquished. The many horrors happening there I saw, not merely heard about, for I was at the spot

685where the chariots and their riders met and fought, but which to tell of first I know not,—the clouds of dust that mounted to the sky, the warriors tangled in the reins and dragged this way and that,

690the streams of crimson gore, when men fell dead, or when, from shattered chariot-seats, they tumble headlong to the ground, and, mid the splinters of their cars, gave up the ghost. But Creon, when he marked our cavalry’s success on one wing,

695caught up a shield and rushed into the fray, ere that despondency should seize his men; but not for that did Theseus recoil in fear; no! snatching up at once his glittering harness he hied him on. And the twain, clashing their shields together as they met in the midst of the assembled host,

700were dealing death and courting it, shouting loudly each to his fellow the battle-cry: Slay, and with thy spear strike home against the sons of Erechtheus. Fierce foes to cope with were the warriors whom the dragon’s teeth to manhood reared; so fierce, they broke

705our left wing, albeit theirs was routed by our right and put to flight, so that the struggle was evenly balanced. Here again our chief deserved all praise, for this success was not the only advantage he gained; no! next he sought that part of his army which was wavering;

710and loud he called to them, that the earth rang again, My sons, if ye cannot restrain the earth-born warriors’ stubborn spear, the cause of Pallas is lost. His word inspired new courage in all the Danaid host. Therewith himself did seize a fearsome mace, weapon of Epidaurian warfare,

715and swung it to and fro, and with that club, as with a sickle, he shore off necks and heads and helmets thereupon. Scarce even then they turned them- selves to fly. For joy cried I, and danced

720and clapped my hands; while to the gates they ran. Throughout the town echoed the shrieks of young and old, as they crowded the temples in terror. But Theseus, when he might have come inside the walls, held back his men, for he had not come, said he,

725to sack the town, but to ask for the bodies of the dead.

726Such the general men should choose, one who shows his bravery in danger, yet hates the pride of those that in their hour of fortune lose the bliss they might have enjoyed,

730through seeking to scale the ladder’s topmost step.

731CHORUS: Now do I believe in the gods after seeing this unexpected day, and I feel my woes are lighter now that these have paid their penalty.

734ADRASTUS: O Zeus, why do men assert the wisdom of the wretched

735human race? On thee we all depend, and all we do is only what thou listest. We thought our Argos irresistible, ourselves a young and lusty host, and so when Eteocles was for making terms,

740in spite of his fair offer we would not accept them, and so we perished. Then in their turn those foolish folk of Cadmus, to fortune raised, like some beggar with his newly-gotten wealth, waxed wanton, and, waxing so, were ruined in their turn. Ye foolish sons of men! who strain your bow like men who shoot

745beyond their mark, and only by suffering many evils as ye deserve, though deaf to friends, yet yield to circumstances; ye cities likewise, though ye might by parley end your mischief, yet ye choose the sword instead of reason to settle all disputes.

750But wherefore these reflections? This I fain would learn, the way thou didst escape; and after that I will ask thee of the rest.

752MESSENGER: During the uproar which prevailed in the city owing to the battle, I passed the gates, just as the host had entered them.

Part 8

754ADRASTUS: Are ye bringing the bodies, for the which the strife arose?

755MESSENGER: Ay, each of the seven chiefs who led their famous hosts.

756ADRASTUS: What sayest thou? the rest who fell—say, where are they?

757MESSENGER: They have found burial in the dells of Cithseron.

758ADRASTUS: On this or that side of the mount? And who did bury them?

759MESSENGER: Theseus buried them ’neath the shadow of Eleutherae’s cliff.

760ADRASTUS: Where didst thou leave the dead he hath not buried?

761MESSENGER: Not far away; earnest haste makes every goal look close.

762ADRASTUS: No doubt in sorrow slaves would gather them from the carnage.

763MESSENGER: Slaves! not one of them was set to do this toil.

763aADRASTUS: [...]

764MESSENGER: Thou wouldst say so, hadst thou been there to see his loving tendance of the dead.

765ADRASTUS: Did he himself wash the bloody wounds of the hapless youths?

766MESSENGER: Ay, and strewed their biers and wrapped them in their shrouds.

767ADRASTUS: An awful burden this, involving some disgrace.

768MESSENGER: Why, what disgrace to men are their fellows’ sorrows?

769ADRASTUS: Ah me! how much rather had I died with them!

770MESSENGER: ’Tis vain to weep and move to tears these women.

771ADRASTUS: Methinks ’tis they who give the lesson. Enough of that! My hands I lift at meeting of the dead, and pour forth a tearful dirge to Hades, calling on my friends,

775whose loss I mourn in wretched solitude; for this one thing, when once ’tis spent, man cannot recover, the breath of life, though he knoweth ways to get his wealth again.

778CHORUS: Joy is here and sorrow too,—

780for the state fair fame, and for our captains double meed of honour. Bitter for me it is to see the limbs of my dead sons, and yet a welcome sight withal, because I shall behold the unexpected day

785after sorrow’s cup was full.

Part 9

786CHORUS: Would that Father Time had kept me unwed from my youth up e’en till now when I am old! What need had I of children?

790Methinks I should not have suffered excessively, had I never borne the marriage-yoke; but now I have my sorrow full in view, the loss of children dear.

794CHORUS: Lo! I see the bodies

795of the fallen youths. Woe is me! would I could join these children in their death and descend to Hades with them!

798ADRASTUS: Mothers, raise the wail for the dead departed;

800cry in answer when ye hear my note of woe.

802CHORUS: My sons, my sons! O bitter words for loving mothers to address to you! To thee, my lifeless child, I call.

805ADRASTUS: Woe! woe!

805bCHORUS: Ah me, my sufferings!

806ADRASTUS: Alas!

806bCHORUS: [...]

807ADRASTUS: We have endured, alas!—

807bCHORUS: Sorrows most grievous.

808ADRASTUS: O citizens of Argos! do ye not behold my fate?

809CHORUS: They see thee, and me the hapless mother,

810reft of her children.

811ADRASTUS: Bring near the blood-boltered corpses of those hapless chiefs, foully slain by foes unworthy, with whom lay the decision of the contest.

815CHORUS: Let me embrace and hold my children to my bosom in my enfolding arms.

818ADRASTUS: There, there! thou hast—

818bCHORUS: Sorrows heavy enough to bear.

819ADRASTUS: Ah me!

819bCHORUS: Thy groans mingle with those of their parents.

820ADRASTUS: Hear me.

820bCHORUS: O’er both of us thou dost lament.

Part 10

821ADRASTUS: Would God the Theban ranks had laid me dead in the dust!

822CHORUS: Oh that I had ne’er been wedded to a husband!

824ADRASTUS: Behold this sea of troubles!

825Ah! hapless mothers.

826CHORUS: Our nails have ploughed our cheeks in furrows, and o’er our heads have we strewn ashes.

828ADRASTUS: Ah me! ah me! Oh that earth’s floor would swallow me,

830or the whirlwind snatch me away, or Zeus’s flaming bolt descend upon my head!

832CHORUS: Bitter the marriages thou didst witness, bitter the oracle of Phoebus!

835The curse of Oedipus, fraught with sorrow, after desolating his house, is come on thee.

837THESEUS: I meant to question thee when thou wert venting thy lamentations to the host, but I will let it pass; yet, though I dropped the matter then

840and left it alone, I now do ask Adrastus, Of what lineage sprang those youths, to shine so bright in chivalry? Tell it to our younger citizens of thy fuller wisdom, for thou art skilled to know. Myself beheld their daring deeds, too high for words to tell,

845whereby they thought to capture Thebes. One question will I spare thee, lest I provoke thy laughter; the foe that each of them encountered in the fray, the spear from which each received his death-wound. These be idle tales alike for those who hear

850or him who speaks, that any man amid the fray, when clouds of darts are hurtling before his eyes, should declare for certain who each champion is. I could not ask such questions, nor yet believe those who dare assert the like;

855for when a man is face to face with the foe, he scarce can see even that which ’tis his bounden duty to observe.

857ADRASTUS: Hearken then. For in giving this task to me thou findest a willing eulogist of friends, whose praise I would declare in all truth and sincerity.

860Dost see yon corpse by Zeus’s bolt transfixed? That is Capaneus; though he had ample wealth, yet was he the last to boast of his prosperity; nor would he ever vaunt himself above a poorer neighbour, but shunned the man whose sumptuous board had puffed him up too high

865and made him scorn mere competence, for he held that virtue lies not in greedy gluttony, but that moderate means suffice. True friend was he, alike to present or to absent friends the same; of such the number is not great. His was a guileless character,

870a courteous address, that left no promise unperformed either towards his own household or his fellow-citizens. The next I name is Eteocles; a master he of other kinds of excellence; young, nor richly dowered with store, yet high in honour in the Argive land.

875And though his friends oft offered gifts of gold, he would not have it in his house, to make his character its slave by taking wealth’s yoke upon him. Not his city, but those that sinned against her did he hate, for a city is no wise to be blamed

880if it get an evil name by reason of an evil governor.

881Such another was Hippomedon, third of all this band; from his very boyhood he refrained from turning towards the allurements of the Muses, to lead a life of ease; his home was in the fields, and gladly would he school his nature to hardships

885with a view to manliness, aye hasting to the chase, rejoicing in his steeds or straining of his bow, because he would make himself of use unto his state. Next behold the huntress Atalanta’s son, Parthenopaeus, a youth of peerless beauty;

890from Arcady he came even to the streams of Inachus, and in Argos spent his boyhood. There, when he grew to man’s estate, first, as is the duty of strangers settled in another land, he showed no pique or jealousy against the state, became no quibbler, chiefest source of annoyance

895citizen or stranger can give, but took his stand amid the host, and fought for Argos as he were her own son, glad at heart whenso the city prospered, deeply grieved if e’er reverses came; many a lover though he had midst men and maids,

900yet was he careful to avoid offence.

901Of Tydeus next the lofty praise I will express in brief; no brilliant spokesman he, but a clever craftsman in the art of war, with many a shrewd device; inferior in judgment to his brother Meleager,

905yet through his warrior skill lending his name to equal praise, for he had found in arms a perfect science; his was an ambitious nature, a spirit rich in store of deeds, with words less fully dowered. From this account then wonder not,

910Theseus, that they dared to die before the towers; for noble nurture carries honour with it, and every man, when once he hath practised virtue, scorns the name of villain. Courage may be learnt, for even a babe doth learn

915to speak and hear things it cannot comprehend; and whatso’er a child hath learnt, this it is his wont to treasure up till he is old. So train up your children in a virtuous way.

918CHORUS: Alas! my son, to sorrow I bare thee and carried thee within my womb,

920enduring the pangs of travail; but now Hades takes the fruit of all my hapless toil, and I that; had a son am left, ah me! with none to nurse my age.

925THESEUS: As for the noble son of Oecleus, him, while yet he lived, the gods snatched hence to the bowels of the earth, and. his chariot too, manifestly blessing him; while I myself may truthfully tell the praises of the son of Oedipus, that is, Polynices,

930for he was my guest-friend ere he left the town of Cadmus and crossed to Argos in voluntary exile. But dost thou know what I would have thee do in this matter?

933ADRASTUS: I know naught save this,—to yield obedience to thy hests.

934THESEUS: As for yon Capaneus, stricken by the bolt of Zeus—

935ADRASTUS: Wilt bury him apart as a consecrated corpse?

936THESEUS: Even so; but all the rest on one funeral pyre.

937ADRASTUS: Where wilt thou set the tomb apart for him?

938THESEUS: Here near this temple have I builded him a sepulchre.

939ADRASTUS: Thy thralls forthwith must undertake this toil.

940THESEUS: Myself will look to those others; let the biers advance.

941ADRASTUS: Approach your sons, unhappy mothers.

942THESEUS: This thy proposal, Adrastus, is anything but good.

Part 11

943ADRASTUS: Must not the mothers touch their sons?

944THESEUS: It would kill them to see how they are altered.

945ADRASTUS: ’Tis bitter, truly, to see the dead even at the moment of death.

946THESEUS: Why then wilt thou add fresh grief to them?

947ADRASTUS: Thou art right. Ye needs must patiently abide, for the words of Theseus are good. But when we have committed them unto the flames, ye shall collect their bones. O wretched sons of men!

950Why do ye get you weapons and bring slaughter on one another? Cease therefrom, give o’er your toiling, and in mutual peace keep safe your cities. Short is the span of life, so ’twere best to run its course as lightly as we may, from trouble free.

955CHORUS: No more a happy mother I, with children blest; no more I share, among Argive women, who have sons, their happy lot; nor any more will Artemis in the hour of travail kindly greet these childless mothers.

960Most dreary is my life, and like some wandering cloud I drift before the howling blast.

963CHORUS: The seven noblest sons in Argos once we had,

965we seven hapless mothers; but now my sons are dead, I have no child, and on me steals old age in piteous wise, nor ’mongst the dead nor ’mongst the living do I count myself,

970having as it were a lot apart from these.

971CHORUS: Tears alone are left me; in my house sad memories of my son are stored; mournful tresses shorn from his head, chaplets that he wore, libations for the dead departed,

975and songs, but not such as golden-haired Apollo welcometh; and when I wake to weep, my tears will ever drench the folds of my robe upon my bosom.

980CHORUS: Ah! there I see the sepulchre ready e’en now for Capaneus, his consecrated tomb, and the votive offerings Theseus gives unto the dead outside the shrine, and nigh yon lightning-smitten chief

985I see his noble bride, Evadne, daughter of King Iphis. Wherefore stands she on the towering rock, which o’ertops this temple, advancing along yon path?

990EVADNE: What light, what radiancy did the sun-god’s car dart forth, and the moon athwart the firmament, while round her in the gloom swift stars careered,

995in the day that the city of Argos raised the stately chant of joy at my wedding, in honour of my marriage with mail-clad Capaneus?

1000Now from my home in frantic haste with frenzied mind I rush to join thee, seeking to share with thee the fire’s bright flame and the self-same tomb, to rid me of my weary

1005life in Hades’ halls, and of the pains of existence; yea, for ’tis the sweetest end to share the death of those we love, if only fate will sanction it.

1009CHORUS: Behold yon pyre, which thou art overlooking, nigh thereto,

1010set apart for Zeus! There is thy husband’s body, vanquished by the blazing bolt.

1012EVADNE: Life’s goal I now behold from my station here; may fortune aid me in my headlong leap from this rock

1015in honour’s cause, down into the fire below, to mix my ashes in the ruddy blaze

1020with my husband’s, to lay me side by side with him, there in the couch of Persephone; for ne’er will I, to save my life, prove untrue to thee where thou liest in thy grave.

1025Away with life and marriage too! Oh! may my children live to see the dawn of a fairer, happier wedding-day in Argos! May loyalty inspire the husband’s heart,

1030his nature fusing with his wife’s!

1031CHORUS: Lo! the aged Iphis, thy father, draweth nigh to hear thy startling scheme, which yet he knows not and will grieve to learn.

1034IPHIS: Unhappy child! lo! I am come, a poor old man,

1035with twofold sorrow in my house to mourn, that I may carry to his native land the corpse of my son Eteocles, slain by the Theban spear, and further in quest of my daughter who rushed headlong from the house, for she was the wife of Capaneus

1040and longed with him to die. Ere this she was well guarded in my house, but, when I took the watch away in the present troubles, she escaped. But I feel sure that she is here; tell me if ye have seen her.

1045EVADNE: Why question them? Lo, here upon the rock, father, o’er the pyre of Capaneus, like some bird I hover lightly, in my wretchedness.

1048IPHIS: What wind hath blown thee hither, child? Whither away? Why didst thou pass the threshold of my house and seek this land?

1050EVADNE: It would but anger thee to hear what I intend, and so I fain would keep thee ignorant, my father.

1052IPHIS: What! hath not thy own father a right to know?

1053EVADNE: Thou wouldst not wisely judge my intention.

1054IPHIS: Why dost thou deck thyself in that apparel?

Part 12

1055EVADNE: A purport strange this robe conveys, father.

1056IPHIS: Thou hast no look of mourning for thy lord.

1057EVADNE: No, the reason why I thus am decked is strange, maybe.

1058IPHIS: Dost thou in such garb appear before a funeral-pyre?

1059EVADNE: Yea, for hither it is I come to take the meed of victory.

1060IPHIS: Victory! what victory? This would I learn of thee.

1061EVADNE: A victory o’er all women on whom the sun looks down.

1062IPHIS: In Athena’s handiwork or in prudent counsel?

1063EVADNE: In bravery; for I will lay me down and die with my lord.

1064IPHIS: What dost thou say? What is this silly riddle thou propoundest?

1065EVADNE: To yonder pyre where lies dead Capaneus, I will leap down.

1066IPHIS: My daughter, speak not thus before the multitude!

1067EVADNE: The very thing I wish, that every Argive should learn it.

1068IPHIS: Nay, I will ne’er consent to let thee do this deed.

1069EVADNE: (as she is throwing herself). ’Tis all one; thou shalt never catch me in thy grasp.

1070Lo! I cast me down, no joy to thee, but to myself and to my husband blazing on the pyre with me.

1072CHORUS: O lady, what a fearful deed!

1073IPHIS: Ah me! I am undone, ye dames of Argos!

1074CHORUS: Alack, alack! a cruel blow is this to thee,

1075but thou must yet witness, poor wretch, the full horror of this deed.

1076IPHIS: A more unhappy wretch than me ye could not find.

1077CHORUS: Woe for thee, unhappy man! Thou, old sir, hast been made partaker in the fortune of Oedipus, thou and my poor city too.

Part 13

1080IPHIS: Ah, why are mortal men denied this boon, to live their youth twice o’er, and twice in turn to reach old age? If aught goes wrong within our homes, we set it right by judgment more maturely formed, but our life we may not so correct. Now if we had a second spell of youth

1085and age, this double term of life would let us then correct each previous slip. I, for instance, seeing others blest with children, longed to have them too, and found my ruin in that wish. Whereas if I had had my present experience,

1090and by a father’s light had learnt how cruel a thing it is to be bereft of children, never should I have fallen on such evil days as these,—I who did beget a brave young son, proud parent that I was, and after all am now bereft of him. Enough of this. What remains for such a hapless wretch as me?

1095Shall I to my home, there to see its utter desolation and the blank within my life? or shall I to the halls of that dead Capaneus?—halls I smiled to see in days gone by, when yet my daughter was alive. But she is lost and gone, she that would ever draw down my cheek

1100to her lips, and take my head between her hands; for naught is there more sweet unto an aged sire than a daughter’s love; our sons are made of sterner stuff, but less winning are their caresses. Oh! take me to my house at once,

1105in darkness hide me there, to waste and fret this aged frame with fasting! What shall it avail me to touch my daughter’s bones? Old age, resistless foe, how do I loathe thy presence! Them too I hate, whoso desire to lengthen out the span of life,

1110seeking to turn the tide of death aside by philtres, drugs, and magic spells,—folk that death should take away to leave the young their place, when they no more can benefit the world.

1114CHORUS: Woe, woe! Behold your dead sons’

1115bones are brought hither; take them, servants of your weak old mistress, for in me is no strength left by reason of my mourning for my sons; time’s comrade long have I been, and many a tear for many a sorrow have I shed.

1120For what sharper pang wilt thou ever find for mortals than the sight of children dead?

1123CHILDREN: Poor mother mine, behold I bring my father’s bones gathered from the fire,

1125a burden grief has rendered heavy, though this tiny urn contains my all.

1127CHORUS: Ah me! ah me! Why bear thy tearful load to the fond mother of the dead,

1130a handful of ashes in the stead of those who erst were men of mark in Mycenae?

1132CHILDREN: Woe worth the hour! woe worth the day! Reft of my hapless sire, a wretched orphan shall I inherit a desolate house, torn from my father’s arms.

1135CHORUS: Woe is thee! Where is now the toil I spent upon my sons? what thank have I for nightly watch? Where the mother’s nursing care? the sleepless vigils mine eyes have kept? the loving kiss upon my children’s brow?

1139CHILDREN: Thy sons are dead and gone. Poor mother!

1140dead and gone; the boundless air now wraps them round.

1141CHORUS: Turned to ashes by the flame, they have winged their flight to Hades.

1143CHILDREN: Father, thou hearest thy children’s lamentation; say, shall I e’er, as warrior dight, avenge thy slaughter?

1145CHORUS: God grant it, O my child!

1146CHILDREN: Some day, if god so will, shall the avenging of my father be my task; not yet this sorrow sleeps.

1148CHORUS: Alas! Fortune’s sorrows are enough for me, I have troubles and to spare already.

1150CHILDREN: Shall Asopus’ laughing tide ever reflect my brazen arms as I lead on my Argive troops?

1152CHORUS: To avenge thy fallen sire.

1153CHILDREN: Methinks I see thee still before my eyes, my father—

1154CHORUS: Printing a loving kiss upon thy cheek.

1155CHILDREN: But thy words of exhortation are borne on the winds away.

1157CHORUS: Two mourners hath he left behind, thy mother and thee, bequeathing to thee an endless legacy of grief for thy father.

1159CHILDREN: The weight of grief I have to bear hath crushed me utterly.

1160CHORUS: Come, let me clasp the ashes of my son to my bosom.

Part 14

1161CHILDREN: I weep to hear that piteous word; it stabs me to the heart.

1163CHORUS: My child, thou art undone; no more shall I behold thee, thy own fond mother’s treasure.

1165THESEUS: Adrastus, and ye dames from Argos sprung, ye see these children bearing in their hands the bodies of their valiant sires whom I redeemed; to thee I give these gifts, I and Athens. And ye must bear in mind the memory of this favour,

1170marking well the treatment ye have had of me. And to these children I repeat the self-same words, that they may honour this city, to children’s children ever handing on the kindness ye received from us. Be Zeus the witness, with the gods in heaven,

1175of the treatment we vouchsafed you ere you left us.

1176ADRASTUS: Theseus, well we know all the kindness thou hast conferred upon the land of Argos in her need, and ours shall be a gratitude that never waxeth old, for your generous treatment makes us debtors for a like return.

1180THESEUS: What yet remains, wherein I can serve you?

1181ADRASTUS: Fare thee well, for such is thy desert and such thy city’s too.

1182THESEUS: Fare thee well, for such is thy desert and such thy city’s too.

1183ATHENA: Hearken, Theseus, to the words that I Athena utter, telling thee thy duty, which, if thou perform it, will serve thy city.

1185Give not these bones to the children to carry to the land of Argos, letting them go so lightly; nay, take first an oath of them that they will requite thee and thy city for your efforts. This oath must Adrastus swear, for as their king it is his right

1190to take the oath for the whole realm of Argos. And this shall be the form thereof: We Argives swear we never will against this land lead on our mail-clad troops to war, and, if others come, we will repel them. But if they violate their oath and come against the city, pray

1195that the land of Argos may be miserably destroyed.

1196Now hearken while I tell thee where thou must slay the victims. Thou hast within thy halls a tripod with brazen feet, which Heracles, in days gone by, after he had o’erthrown the foundations of Ilium and was starting on another enterprise,

1200enjoined thee to set up at the Pythian shrine. O’er it cut the throats of three sheep; then grave within the tripod’s hollow belly the oath; this done, deliver it to the god who watches over Delphi to keep, a witness and memorial unto Hellas of the oath.

1205And bury the sharp-edged knife, wherewith thou shalt have laid the victims open and shed their blood, deep in the bowels of the earth, hard by the pyres where the seven chieftains burn; for its appearance shall strike them with dismay, if e’er against thy town they come, and shall cause them to return with sorrow.

1210When thou hast done all this, dismiss the dead from thy land. And to the god resign as sacred land the spot where their bodies were purified by fire, there by the meeting of the triple roads that lead unto the Isthmus. Thus much to thee, Theseus, I address; next to the sons of Argos I speak; when ye are grown to men’s estate, the town beside Ismenus shall ye sack,

1215avenging the slaughter of your dead sires; thou too, Aegialeus, shalt take thy father’s place and in thy youth command the host, and with thee Tydeus’ son marching from Aetolia,—him whom his father named Diomedes. Soon as the beards your cheeks o’ershadow

1220must ye lead an armed Danaid host against the battlements of Thebes with sevenfold gates. For to their sorrow shall ye come like lion’s whelps in full-grown might to sack their city. No otherwise is it to be;

1225and ye shall be a theme for minstrels’ songs in days to come, known through Hellas as the After-born so famous shall your expedition be, thanks to Heaven.

1227THESEUS: Queen Athena, I will hearken to thy bidding; for thou it is dost set me up, so that I go not astray. And I will bind this monarch by an oath; do thou but guide my

1230steps aright. For if thou art friendly to our state, we shall henceforth live secure.

1232CHORUS: Let us go, Adrastus, and take the oath to this monarch and his state; for the service they have already done us claims our warm regard.