Euripides

“ POLTX. He lives, and shall close thy dying eye.
HEC. I am dead, before my death, beneath my ills.
POLYX. Lead me, Ulysses, having covered my face with a veil, since, before I am sacrificed indeed, I am melted in heart at my mother's plaints, her also I melt by my lamentations. O light, for yet it is allowed me to express thy name, but I have no share in thee, except during the time that I am going between the sword and the pyre of Achilles.
HEC. Ah me! I faint; and my limbs fail me.—O daughter, touch thy mother, stretch forth thy hand—give it me—leave me not childless—I am lost, my friends. ”

“ Thine are we all. Oh, ere thy bosom break . . . Hecuba.
Lo, I have seen the open hand of God; And in it nothing, nothing, save the rod Of mine affliction, and the eternal hate, Beyond all lands, chosen and lifted great For Troy! Vain, vain were prayer and incense-swell And bulls' blood on the altars! . . . All is well. Had He not turned us in His hand, and thrust Our high things low and shook our hills as dust, We had not been this splendour, and our wrong An everlasting music for the song Of earth and heaven! Go, women: lay our dead In his low sepulchre. He hath his meed Of robing. ”

“ My son, I come to share thy sorrow, for thou hast lost a noble, peerless wife; that no man will deny. Yet must thou needs bear this blow, hard though it be. Accept this garniture, and let it go beneath the earth, for rightly is her body honoured, since she died to save thy life, my son, and gave me back my child, suffering me not to lose thee and pine away in an old age of sorrow. Thus by the generous deed she dared, hath she made her life a noble example for all her sex. Farewell to thee, who hast saved this son of mine and raised me up when falling; be thine a happy lot even in Hades' halls! ”

“ In thine adversity, there is not one
Will call thee friend. Nay, that were treasure-trove,
A friend to share, not faltering from love,
Fair days and foul the same. Thy name is gone
Forth to all Argos, as a thing o'erthrown
And dead. Thou hast not left one spark to glow
With hope in one friend's heart! Hear all, and know:
Thou hast God's fortune and thine own right hand,
Naught else, to conquer back thy fatherland.
ORESTES. The deed, the deed! What must we do?
OLD MAN. Strike down
Aegisthus ... and thy mother.
ORESTES. 'Tis the crown
My race is run for. But how find him? ”

“ PHERES.
Man hath but one, not two lives, to his use.
ADMETUS.
Oh, live on; live, and grow more old than Zeus!
PHERES.
Because none wrongs thee, thou must curse thy sire?
ADMETUS.
I blest him. Is not life his one desire?
PHERES.
This dead, methinks, is lying in thy place.
ADMETUS.
A proof, old traitor, of thy cowardliness!
PHERES.
Died she through me?... That thou wilt hardly say.
ADMETUS (almost breaking down) .
O God!
Mayst thou but feel the need of me some day!
PHERES.
Go forward; woo more wives that more may die.
ADMETUS.
As thou wouldst not! Thine is the infamy. ”

“ Orestes.
Thy mother thou slew'st not, as I—woe's me?
Pylades.
I shared thy deed, thy sufferings must I share.
Orestes.
Restore thee to thy sire; die not with me.⁠1075
Thou hast a city,—none to me is left,—
A father's home, a haven wide of wealth.
Thou canst not wed this maiden evil-starred
Whom I for friendship's sake betrothed to thee.
Yet take thee another bride and rear thee sons:⁠1080
The looked-for tie 'twixt thee and me is not.
Now, O dear name of my companionship,
Farewell!—not this for us, perchance for thee:
For us, the dead, is no glad faring-well! ”

“ Alcestis:
My babes, I ought to live, and lo, I die.
Admetus:
And how can I, forlorn of thee, live on?
Alcestis:
Time healeth; and the dead are dead and gone.
Admetus:
Oh, take me with thee to the dark below,
Me also!
Alcestis:
'Tis enough that one should go.
Admetus:
O Fate, to have cheated me of one so true!
Alcestis, her strength failing.
There comes a darkness: a great burden, too.
Admetus:
I am lost if thou wilt leave me.... Wife! Mine own!
Alcestis:
I am not thy wife; I am nothing. All is gone.
Admetus:
Thy babes! Thou wilt not leave them.--Raise thine eye. ”

“ Jason.
Woman, indeed I praise thee now, nor say Ill of thine other hour. 'Tis nature's way, A woman needs must stir herself to wrath, When work of marriage by so strange a path Crosseth her lord. But thou, thine heart doth wend The happier road. Thou hast seen, ere quite the end, What choice must needs be stronger: which to do Shows a wise-minded woman. . . . And for you, Children; your father never has forgot Your needs. If God but help him, he hath wrought A strong deliverance for your weakness. Yea, I think you, with your brethren, yet one day Shall be the mightiest voices in this land. ”

“ With the ivy thy brows, and be
All bloom, embowered in the starry-flowered
Lush green of the briony,
While the oak and pine thy tresses entwine
In thy bacchanal-ecstasy. 110
And thy fawn-skin flecked, with a fringe be it decked
Of wool white-glistering
In silvery tassels;—O Bacchus' vassals,
High-tossed let the wild wands swing!
One dancing-band shall be all the land
When, led by the Clamour-king,
His revel-rout fills the hills—the hills
Where thy women abide till he come
Whom the Vine-god chasing, in frenzy racing,
Hunted from shuttle and loom. ”

“ And great Love's brethren are all we on earth! Nay, they who con grey books of ancient days Or dwell among the Muses, tell—and praise— How Zeus himself once yearned for Semelê; How maiden Eôs in her radiancy Swept Kephalos to heaven away, away, For sore love's sake. And there they dwell, men say, And fear not, fret not; for a thing too stern Hath met and crushed them! And must thou, then, turn And struggle? Sprang there from thy father's blood Thy little soul all lonely? Or the god That rules thee, is he other than our gods? Nay, yield thee to men's ways, and kiss their rods! ”

“ Dark and of the dark impassioned Is this Pentheus' blood; yea, fashioned Of the Dragon, and his birth From Echîon, child of Earth. He is no man, but a wonder; Did the Earth-Child not beget him, As a red Giant, to set him Against God, against the Thunder? He will bind me for his prize, Me, the Bride of Dionyse; And my priest, my friend, is taken Even now, and buried lies; In the dark he lies forsaken! All.
Lo, we race with death, we perish, Dionysus, here before thee! Dost thou mark us not, nor cherish, Who implore thee, and adore thee? ”

“ Odysseus, Ithaca's king, hath thee for thrall. Hecuba.
Beat, beat the crownless head: Rend the cheek till the tears run red! A lying man and a pitiless Shall be lord of me, a heart full-flown With scorn of righteousness: O heart of a beast where law is none, Where all things change so that lust be fed, The oath and the deed, the right and the wrong, Even the hate of the forkèd tongue: Even the hate turns and is cold, False as the love that was false of old! O Women of Troy, weep for me! Yea, I am gone: I am gone my ways. Mine is the crown of misery, The bitterest day of all our days. ”

“ CLYTEMNESTRA. So said I truly, child, and so say still.
ELECTRA. Wilt softly hear, and after work me ill?
CLYTEMNESTRA. Not so, not so. I will but pleasure thee.
ELECTRA. I answer then. And, mother, this shall be
My prayer of opening, where hangs the whole:
Would God that He had made thee clean of soul!
Helen and thou—O, face and form were fair,
Meet for men's praise; but sisters twain ye were,
Both things of naught, a stain on Castor's star,
And Helen slew her honour, borne afar
In wilful ravishment: but thou didst slay
The highest man of the world. ”

“ ORES. Do not by the Gods throw cowardice around me, bringing the remembrance of my woes so as to cause tears.
ELEC. We shall die; it is not possible not to groan our misfortunes; for the dear life is a cause of pity to all mortals.
ORES. This is the day appointed for us! but we must either fit the suspended noose, or whet the sword with our hand.
ELEC. Do thou then kill me, my brother; let none of the Argives kill me, putting a contumely on the offspring of Agamemnon.
ORES. I have enough of thy mother's blood, but thee I will not slay; but die by thine own hand in whatever manner thou wilt. ”

“ Wherefore to reward me for this thou hast made me doubly blest in the eyes of many a wife in Hellas; and in thee I own a peerless, trusty lord. O woe is me, if indeed I am to be cast forth an exile from the land, without one friend; one lone woman with her babes forlorn! Yea, a fine reproach to thee in thy bridal hour, that thy children and the wife who saved thy life are beggars and vagabonds! O Zeus! why hast thou granted unto man clear signs to know the sham in gold, while on man's brow no brand is stamped whereby to gauge the villain's heart? ”

“ Is some word of wrath Here hidden that I knew not of? And hath My hope to give thee joy so cheated me? Medea.
Thou givest what thou givest: I blame not thee. Attendant.
Thy brows are all o'ercast: thine eyes are filled. . . . Medea.
For bitter need, Old Man! The gods have willed, And my own evil mind, that this should come. Attendant.
Take heart! Thy sons one day will bring thee home. Medea.
Home? . . . I have others to send home. Woe's me! Attendant.
Be patient. Many a mother before thee Hath parted from her children. We poor things Of men must needs endure what fortune brings. ”

“ And seek the tablet from the Goddess' room
Within.—Oh, do not hate me for my doom!
Watch them, ye servitors, but leave them free.
It may be, past all hoping, it may be,
My word shall sail to Argos, to his hand
Whom most I love. How joyous will he stand
To know, past hope, that here on the world's rim
His dead are living, and cry out for him!
[She goes into the Temple.]
CHORUS.
Alas, we pity thee; surely we pity thee: [Strophe.]
Who art given over to the holy water,
The drops that fall deadly as drops of blood.
ORESTES.
I weep not, ye Greek maidens: but farewell. ”

“ HERACLES.
Chafe not the curb, then: suffer and be wise.
ADMETUS.
Easier to give such counsel than to keep.
HERACLES.
Who will be happier, shouldst thou always weep?
ADMETUS.
Why, none. Yet some blind longing draws me on...
HERACLES.
'Tis natural. Thou didst love her that is gone.
ADMETUS.
'Tis that hath wrecked, oh more than wrecked, my life.
HERACLES.
'Tis certain: thou hast lost a faithful wife.
ADMETUS.
Till life itself is dead and wearies me.
HERACLES.
Thy pain is yet young. Time will soften thee,
[The veiled Woman begins dimly, as though in a dream, to hear the words spoken.] ”

“ Spake Menelaus not for thee, to plead
Against thy death—base traitor to my sire?
Orestes.
His face he showed not—fixed upon the throne
His hope, with good heed not to save his friends!⁠1060
Come, prove we by our deeds our high-born strain,
And worthily of Agamemnon die.
And I will show all men my royal blood,
Plunging the sword into mine heart: but thou
Must match with thine the unflinching deed I do.
Sit thou as umpire, Pylades, to our death.⁠1065
Meetly lay out the bodies of the dead:
Bear to our sire's grave, and with him entomb.
Farewell: I go, thou seest, to do the deed. ”

“ Pride breeds hatred everywhere. HUNTSMAN And good words love, and grace in all men's sight? HIPPOLYTUS Aye, and much gain withal, for trouble slight. HUNTSMAN How deem'st thou of the Gods? Are they the same? HIPPOLYTUS Surely: we are but fashioned on their frame. HUNTSMAN Why then wilt thou be proud, and worship not.. HIPPOLYTUS Whom? If the name be speakable, speak out! HUNTSMAN She stands here at thy gate: the Cyprian Queen! HIPPOLYTUS I greet her from afar: my life is clean. HUNTSMAN Clean? Nay, proud, proud; a mark for all to scan! HIPPOLYTUS Each mind hath its own bent, for God or man. ”

“ Enter Pentheus, clad like a Bacchanal, and strangely excited, a spirit of Bacchic madness overshadowing him.
Thy shape, methinks, is like to one Of Cadmus' royal maids! Pentheus.
Yea; and mine eye Is bright! Yon sun shines twofold in the sky, Thebes twofold and the Wall of Seven Gates. . . . And is it a Wild Bull this, that walks and waits Before me? There are horns upon thy brow! What art thou, man or beast? For surely now The Bull is on thee! Dionysus.
He who erst was wrath, Goes with us now in gentleness. He hath Unsealed thine eyes to see what thou shouldst see. Pentheus. ”

“ ORESTES. Girt with thine own dead armies, wake, O wake!
ELECTRA. With all that died at Ilion for thy sake ...
OLD MAN. And hate earth's dark defilers; help us now!
ELECTRA. Dost hear us yet, O thou in deadly wrong,
Wronged by my mother?
OLD MAN. Child, we stay too long.
He hears; be sure he hears!
ELECTRA. And while he hears,
I speak this word for omen in his ears:
"Aegisthus dies, Aegisthus dies."... Ah me,
My brother, should it strike not him, but thee,
This wrestling with dark death, behold, I too
Am dead that hour. Think of me as one true,
Not one that lives. ”

“ TYNDARUS, MENELAUS, ORESTES, CHORUS.
TYND. Where, where can I see my daughter's husband Menelaus? For as I was pouring my libations on the tomb of Clytæmnestra, I heard that he was come to Nauplia with his wife, safe through a length of years. Conduct me, for I long to stand by his hand and salute him, seeing my friend after a long lapse of time.
MEN. O hail! old man, who sharest thy bed with Jove.
TYND. O hail! thou also, Menelaus my dear relation,—ah! what an evil is it not to know the future! ”