Seneca

“ Nay, put away the sword from thy right hand,
And give me heart again. Reveal to me
The cause that forces thee to flee from life.
Phaedra: Alas, great Theseus, by thy kingly power,
And by thy children's souls, by thy return, 870
And by my ashes, suffer me to die.
Theseus: What cause compels thy death?
Phaedra: ⁠The fruit of death
Would perish if I let its cause be known.
Theseus: None else shall hear it save myself alone.
Phaedra: A chaste wife fears her husband most of all.
Theseus: Speak out; I'll hide thy secret in my heart. ”

“ And waves, to stormy waves opposed, the sea invade, 940
And to their lowest sands the briny waters boil;
With such a storm my heart is tossed. Hate conquers love,
And love puts impious hate to flight. Oh, yield thee, grief,
To love! Then come, my sons, sole comfort of my heart, 945
Come, cling within your mother's close embrace. Unharmed
Your sire may keep you, while your mother holds you too.
⁠ [Embraces her sons.]
But flight and exile drive me forth! And even now
My children must be torn away with tears and cries.
Then let them die to Jason since they're lost to me. ”

“ Thyestes: No realm on earth can stand divided power.
Tantalus: Should he, who can be happy, still be sad? 445
Thyestes: Believe me, son, 'tis by their lying names
That things seem great, while others harsh appear
Which are not truly so. When high in power
I stood, I never ceased to be in fear;
Yea, even did I fear the very sword
Upon my thigh. Oh, what a boon it is
To be at feud with none, to eat one's bread 450
Without a trace of care, upon the ground!
Crime enters not the poor man's humble cot ”

“ Thou shalt be satisfied; be not afraid. 980
E'en now thy children, mingled with my own,
Enjoy alone their youthful festival.
They shall be summoned hither. Now behold
This ancient cup, an heirloom of our house.
Take thou and drink the wine which it contains.
[He hands Thyestes the cup filled with mingled blood and wine.]
Thyestes: I take my brother's proffered gift. But first
Unto our father's gods we'll pour a share,
And then will drink the cup. 985
⁠But what is this?
My hands will not obey my will; the cup—
How heavy it has grown, how it resists
My grasp! ”

“ Nurse: ⁠But oft doth love put reins on stubborn souls,
And all their hatred to affection turns. 575
Behold thy mother's realm of warlike dames;
Yet even they the sway of passion know.
Of this thy birth itself is proof enough.
Hippolytus: My comfort for my mother's loss is this,
That now I'm free to hate all womankind.
Nurse: ⁠As some hard crag, on every side unmoved, 580
Resists the waves, and dashes backward far
The opposing floods, so he doth spurn my words.
But hither Phaedra comes with hasty step,
Impatient of delay. What fate is hers? ”

“ The thunderbolts, and her who brandished them.
I've braved the terrors of the god of war;
With my sole arm I fronted Hector, huge,
Nor did the darts of Phoebus frighten me.
Those gods, together with their Phrygians, 550
I set at naught; and shall I quake at thee?
Thou hurl'st with weakling's hand another's bolts:
But what if Jove himself—"
When madly thus he dared blaspheme the gods,
Great Neptune with his trident smote the rock,
And whelmed its tottering bulk beneath the sea. 555
So, falling with its fall, the madman lies
By earth and fire and billows overcome. ”

“ O daughter, dost thou see my father, too?
I surely see him.
⁠ [To himself:] Now, O coward soul,
Brave but to mar a helpless part of thee, 45
At length spew out that hateful life of thine.
Delay no more upon thy punishment,
And give thyself entirely unto death.
Why do I, sluggish, linger on in life?
There is no further crime that I can do.
Oh, my foreboding, wretched soul, there is!
⁠ [To Antigone.]
Flee from thy father, flee, while still a maid;
My mother's fate makes me of all afraid. 50
Antigone: No power, my father, shall unloose my hold
Of thee ”

“ And Priam seems to Agamemnon blest:
Yea all who perished on the plains of Troy,
Whose lot it was to die by human hand,
Are counted blest of heaven, secure in fame, 515
For they rest safely in the land they won.
"Shall winds and waves engulf in common fate
The faint of heart who nothing noble dare,
And those brave souls who quit themselves like men?
Must we for naught resign ourselves to death?
O thou of gods who art not even yet
With these our evil fortunes satisfied, 520
At last have pity on our woeful plight,
Which Ilium itself would weep to see. ”

“ But never a day was without its grief,
Never a night but renewed our woe.
Then on with the wailing and on with the blows;
And thou, poor fate-smitten queen, be our guide, 80
Our mistress in mourning; we'll obey thy commands,
Well trained in the wild liturgy of despair.
Hecuba: ⁠Then, trusty comrades of our fate,
Unbind your tresses and let them flow
Over your shoulders bent with grief,
The while with Troy's slow-cooling dust 85
Ye sprinkle them. Lay bare your arms,
Strip from your breasts their covering;
Why veil your beauty? Shame itself 90
Is held in captive bonds. ”

“ Let the throne fall from the haughty brothers' grasp,
And call them back from exiled wanderings.
Let the tottering fortune of this bloody house,
Amid its changing kings in ruins fall.
Bring him of high estate to wretchedness, 35
The wretched raise; and let the kingdom toss
Upon the seething tide of circumstance.
By crime driven out, when God shall bring them home,
May they return but to still other crimes,
And by all men as by themselves be loathed.
Let nothing be which wrath deems unallowed:
Let brother brother fear, and parent child; 40
Let son fear father ”

“ Who comes from Argos thirsting for the fray,
And they who from the citadel of Thebes 445
Come down to battle. Friend and foe, alike,
Attack this womb of mine which brothers bore
Unto my husband. Rend me limb from limb,
And scatter me abroad upon the plain.
I bore you both—will you lay down your arms?
Or shall I say from whom I bore you, too?
Give me your hands while still they are unstained. 450
'Till now 'twas all unwittingly you sinned;
'Twas fortune's crime, who ever 'gainst our peace
Delights to plot. But this impiety
Is done with fullest knowledge of your sin. ”

“ If still thine anger holds, and 'tis decreed
That we of Greece must perish utterly,
Why doom these Trojans, for whose sake we die,
To share our fate? Allay the raging sea: 525
For this our fleet bears Greeks and Trojans too."
So prayed we, but in vain; our suppliant words
Were swallowed by the raging storm. And lo,
Another shape of death! For Pallas, armed
With those swift bolts her angry father wields,
Essays what ruin dire her threatening spear,
Her aegis set with stony Gorgon's head, 530
And these her father's thunderbolts, can work. ”

“ Our ills are light
If we endure a grief that tears can soothe.
You mourn a Troy whose walls but now have fall'n;
Troy fell for me long since, when that dread car
Of Peleus' son, urged on at cruel speed,
With doleful groanings 'neath his massive weight,
Dragged round the walls my Hector's mangled corse. 415
Since then, o'erwhelmed and utterly undone,
With stony resignation do I bear
Whatever ills may come. But for this child,
Long since would I have saved me from the Greeks
And followed my dear lord; but thought of him
Doth check my purpose and forbid my death. ”

“ That captive bride. Go, drag her hence at once,
That she may follow him she stole from me.
Cassandra: Nay, drag me not; for I with joy will go,
Outstripping your desire. How eagerly
I hasten to my Phrygians, to tell 1005
The news: the ocean covered with the wrecks
Of Argive ships; Mycenae overthrown;
The leader of a thousand leaders slain
(And thus atoning for the woes of Troy)
By woman's gift of wantonness and guile.
Make haste! I falter not, but thank the gods, 1010
That I have lived to see my land avenged.
Clytemnestra: O maddened wretch, thy death I wait to see. ”

“ And could I shed my helpless children's blood? Not so,
Oh, say not so, my maddened heart! Far from my hand 930
And thought be that unnameable and hideous deed!
What sin have they that shedding of their wretched blood
Would wash away?
⁠Their sin—that Jason is their sire,
And, deeper guilt, that I have borne them. Let them die;
They are not mine. Nay, nay! they are my own, my sons,
And with no spot of guilt. Full innocent they are, 935
'Tis true—my brother, too, was innocent. O soul,
Why dost thou hesitate? ”

“ Lycus: ⁠Did Phoebus fear
Wild beasts and monsters?
Amphitryon: ⁠Yes, in dragon's blood 455
His earliest shafts were stained.
Lycus: ⁠Thou knowest not
What heavy ills the young Alcides bore.
Amphitr.: But Bacchus by a thunderbolt was ripped
From out his mother's womb; and yet he stood
In after time beside the Thunderer,
His sire. Nay, Jove himself, who rules the stars
And drives the clouds, did he not lie concealed, 460
In helpless infancy in Ida's cave?
A heavy price must so high lineage pay,
And suffering is the birthright of a god. ”

“ Thou dost avoid the light. Or wouldst thou flee
This noble palace and thy native land?
Thy native land, although thou livest still,
Is dead to thee. Wouldst from thy sons escape, 210
And from thy mother? From the sight of all
Has fate removed thee; and whatever death
From any man can take, thy life has taken.
Art weary of the kingdom's press and stir?
At thy command thy former courtier throng
Has vanished.—Whom, O father, dost thou flee? 215
Oedipus: Myself I flee, I flee this heart of mine,
Full of all crimes; I flee this hand, this sky,
These gods ”

“ Lycus: ⁠Then die, thou fool.
Megara: ⁠'Tis thus I'll meet my lord.
Lycus: ⁠Is that slave more to thee, than I, a king? 430
Megara: ⁠How many kings has that slave given to death!
Lycus: ⁠Why does he serve a king, and bear the yoke?
Megara: ⁠Remove hard tasks, and where would valor be?
Lycus: ⁠To conquer monsters call'st thou valor then?
Megara: ⁠'Tis valor to subdue what all men fear. 435
Lycus: ⁠The shades of hades hold that boaster fast.
Megara: ⁠No easy way leads from the earth to heaven.
Lycus: ⁠Who is his father, that he hopes for heaven? ”

“ Though all unguarded, is from danger free;
For poverty alone may be at peace.
And this I hold: the mightiest king is he,
Who from the lust of sovereignty is free. 470
Tantalus: But if some god a kingdom should bestow,
It is not meet for mortal to refuse:
Behold, thy brother bids thee to the throne.
Thyestes: He bids? 'Tis but a cloak for treachery.
Tantalus: But brotherly regard oft times returns
Onto the heart from which it has been driven;
And righteous love regains its former strength. 475
Thyestes: And dost thou speak of brother's love to me? ”

“ If anything is worse than other beasts, 260
Enormous, unrelenting, horrible,
From which the eye of even Hercules
Would turn in fear, let such an one come out
From its huge den. But if no beasts avail,
This heart of mine into some monster change;
For of my hate can any shape be made
That thou desir'st. Oh, mould my woman's form 265
To match my grief. My breast cannot contain
Its rage. Why dost thou search the farthest bounds
Of earth, and overturn the world? Or why
Dost thou demand of hell its evil shapes? ”

“ Medea: ⁠Now by the fair hopes born upon this wedding day, 285
And by thy hopes of lasting sovereignty secure
From changeful fate's assault, I pray thee grant from flight
A respite brief, while I upon my children's lips
A mother's kiss imprint, perchance the last.
Creon: ⁠A time
Thou seek'st for treachery. 290
Medea: ⁠What fraud can be devised
In one short hour?
Creon: ⁠To those on mischief bent, be sure.
The briefest time is fraught with mischief's fatal power.
Medea: ⁠Dost thou refuse me, then, one little space for tears? ”

“ He does not shrink from Lethe's stream?
Not grief for death, but shame he feels
At this his cause of death; he longs
Beneath some giant's vasty bulk 1210
To draw his final breath, to feel
Some mountain-heaving Titan's weight
Oppressing him, to owe his death
To some wild, raging beast. But no,
Poor soul, because of thine own hand
There is no deadly monster more. 1215
What worthy author of thy death,
Save that right hand of thine, is left?
Hercules: Alas, what Scorpion, what Cancer, torn
From Summer's burning zone, inflames my breast? ”

“ It is no woman's task to guard this realm
Of many towns. Do thou, who in the flower 620
Of youth rejoicest, rule the citizens
With strong paternal sway. But me receive
Into thy arms, and there protect thy slave
And suppliant. My widowhood relieve.
Hippolytus: May God on high this omen dark avert!
My father will in safety soon return.
Phaedra: Not so: the king of that fast-holding realm 625
And silent Styx has never opened back
The doors of earth to those who once have left
The realms above. Think'st thou that he will loose
The ravisher of his couch? ”

“ Of all gods ruler, O thou lustrous Sun,
'Tis only in his perils, then, it seems,
Have I been wife to Hercules. The gods
Have granted to the captive all my prayers;
For her behoof have I been fortunate.
Ye heard, indeed, my prayers, O gods of heaven,
And Hercules is safe returned—for her! 295
O grief, that no revenge can satisfy,
Seek out some dreadful means of punishment,
By man unthought of and unspeakable.
Teach Juno's self how slight her hatred is.
She knows not how to rage. O Hercules,
For me didst thou thy mighty battles wage ”

“ O Phlegethon, hemmed round with waves of fire,
Let me be left to suffer.
⁠Ye, whoe'er
By fate's decrees are doomed to punishment,
Whoe'er thou art who 'neath the hollowed cave 75
Dost lie, in constant fear lest even now
The cavern's mass shall fall upon thy head;
Whoever fears the gaping, greedy jaws
Of lions, and in helpless horror looks
Upon the advancing furies' cruel lines;
Whoe'er, half burned, their threat'ning lurches shuns:
Oh, listen to the voice of Tantalus 80
Fast speeding to your realm; believe the words
Of one who knows, and love your punishment. ”

“ O wife of thundering Jove? Why dost thou not,
In imitation of thy brother, snatch
from his own hand the fiery thunderbolt,
And slay me here thyself? For thou hast lost
Great praise and mighty triumph by my act:
I have forestalled thee, Juno, in the death
Of this thy rival.
Hyllus: Wouldst to ruin doom
Thy house already tottering? This crime,
Whate'er it is, is all from error sprung. 885
He is not guilty who unwilling sins.
Deianira: Whoe'er ignores his fate and spares himself,
Deservedly has erred, deserves to die.
Hyllus: He must be guilty who desires to die. ”