Andromache
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Original / primary: Perseus Eng2
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to have a poor honest man either as married kin or friend than a wealthy knave; but as for thee, thou art a thing of naught.
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Chorus
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The tongue from trifling causes contrives to breed great strife ’mongst men; wherefore are the wise most careful not to bring about a quarrel with their friends.
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Menelaus
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Why,Porson reads τίς δῆτ᾽ ἂν εἴτοι. pray, should one call these old men wise, or those who once had a reputation in Hellas for being so? when thou, the great Peleus, son of a famous father, connected with me by marriage,Nauck regards this as an interpolation, not improbably. employest language disgraceful to thyself and abusive of me because of a barbarian woman,
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though thou shouldst have banished her farReading τῆλ᾽ (Reiske). beyond the streams of Nile or Phasis, and ever encouraged me; seeing that she comes from Asia’s continent where fell so many of the sons of Hellas, victims to the spear; and likewise because she shared in the spilling of thy son’s blood;
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forLines 655-656 are rejected by Nauck. Paris who slew thy son Achilles, was brother to Hector, whose wife she was. And dost thou enter the same abode with her, and deign to let her share thy board, and suffer her to rear her brood of vipers in thy house?
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But I, after all this foresight for thee, old man, and myself, am to have her torn from my clutches for wishing to slay her. Yet come now, for there is no disgrace in arguing the matter out; suppose my daughter has no child, while this woman’s sons grow up, wilt thou set them up to rule the land of Phthia,
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barbarians born and bred to lord it over Hellenes? Am I then so void of sense because I hate injustice, and thou so full of cleverness? ConsiderLines 668-677 are regarded by Hirzel as not being the work of Euripides. Nauck incloses them in brackets. yet another point; say thou hadst given a daughter of thine to some citizen, and hadst then seen her thus treated,
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wouldst thou have sat looking on in silence? I trow not. Dost thou then for a foreigner rail thus at thy nearest friends? Again, thou mayst say, husband and wife have an equally strong case if she is wronged by him, and similarly if he find her guilty of indiscretion in his house;
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yet while he has ample powers in his own hands, she depends on parents and friends for her case. Surely then I am right in helping my own kin! Thou art in thy dotage; for thou wilt do me more, good by speaking of my generalship than by concealing it.
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Helen’s trouble was not of her own choosing, but sent by heaven, and it proved a great benefit to Hellas; her sons, till then untried in war or arms, turned to deeds of prowess, and it is experience which teaches man all he knows.
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I showed my wisdom in refraining from slaying my wife, directly I caught sight of her. Would that thou too hadst ne’er slain Phocus!The half-brother of Peleus and Telamon, slain by them out of jealousy.
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All this I bring before thee in pure good-will, not from anger. But if thou resent it, thy tongue may wag till it ache,
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yet shall I gain by prudent forethought.
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Chorus
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Cease now from idle words, ’twere better far, for fear ye both alike go wrong.
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Peleus
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Alas! what evil customs now prevail in Hellas! Whene’er the host sets up a trophy o’er the foe,
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men no more consider this the work of those who really toiled, but the general gets the credit for it. Now he was but one among ten thousand others to brandish his spear; he only did the work of one; but yet he wins more praise than they. Again, as magistrates in all the grandeur of office
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they scorn the common folk, though they are naught themselves; whereas those others are ten thousand times more wise than they, if daring combine with judgment. Even so thou and thy brother, now take your seats in all the swollen pride of Trojan fame and Trojan generalship,
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exalted by the toilsome efforts of others.Sentence reads Even so thou and thy brother, exalted by the toilsome efforts of others, now take your seats in all the swollen pride of Trojan fame and Trojan generalship. but has been rearranged for line clarity. But I will teach thee henceforth to consider Idaean Paris a foe less terribleReading μὴ κρείσσω, as Paley proposed, instead of μείζω or ἥσσω. than Peleus, unless forthwith thou pack from this roof, thou and thy childless daughter too, whom my own true son
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will hale through his halls by the hair of her head; for her barrenness will not let her endure fruitfulness in others, because she has no children herself. Still if she is unlucky in the matter of offspring, is that a reason why we should be left childless?
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Begone! ye varlets, let her go! I will soon see if anyone will hinder me from loosing her hands.
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To Andromache. Arise; these trembling hands of mine will untie the twisted thongs that bind thee. Out on thee, coward! is this how thou hast galled her wrists?
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Didst think thou wert lashing up a lion or bull? or wert afraid she would snatch a sword and defend herself against thee? Come, child, nestle to thy mother’s arms; help me loose her bonds; I will yet rear thee in Phthia to be their bitter foe. If your reputation for prowess
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and the battles ye have fought were taken from you Spartans, in all else, be very sure, you have not your inferiors.
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Chorus
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The race of old men practises no restraint; and their testiness makes it hard to check them.
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Menelaus
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Thou art only too ready to rush into abuse;
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while, as for me, I came to Phthia by constraint and have therefore no intention either of doing or suffering anything mean. Now must I return home, for I have no time to waste; for there is a city not so very far from Sparta, which aforetime was friendly
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but now is hostile; against her will I march with my army and bring her into subjection. And when I have arranged that matter as I wish, I will return; and face to face with my son-in-law I will give my version of the story and hear his.
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And if he punish her, and for the future she exercise self-control, she shall find me do the like; but if he storm, I’ll storm as well; andPaley’s suggestion to omit this line as possibly spurious owing to the repetition of ἀντιλήψεται, and to read θυμουμένη in the preceding line, would clear up the ambiguity as to whether Andromache or Neoptolemus is meant as the subject of ἠ σώφρων. every act of mine shall be a reflex of his own. As for thy babbling, I can bear it easily;
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for, like to a shadow as thou art,Reading with Hermann and Dindorf, σκιᾲ ἀντίστοιχος ὢν. Another reading is σκιὰ – ὢς, i.e. like the shadow on a dial exactly opposite the sun. (Paley.) thy voice is all thou hast, and thou art powerless to do aught but talk. Exit Menelaus.
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Peleus
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Lead on, my child, safe beneath my sheltering wing, and thou too, poor lady; for thou art come into a quiet haven after the rude storm.
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Andromache
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Heaven reward thee and all thy race, old sire, for having saved my child and me his hapless mother! Only beware lest they fall upon us twain in some lonely spot upon the road and force me from thee, when they see thy age, my weakness,
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and this child’s tender years; take heed to this, that we be not a second time made captive, after escaping now.
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Peleus
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Forbear such words, prompted by a woman’s cowardice. Go on thy way; who will lay a finger on you? Methinks he will do it to his cost. For by heaven’s grace I rule o’er many a knight and spearman
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bold in my kingdom of Phthia; yea, and myself can still stand straight, no bent old man as thou dost think; such a fellow as that a mere look from me will put to flight in spite of my years. For e’en an old man, be he brave, is worth a host of raw youths;
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for what avails a fine figure if a man is a coward? Exeunt Peleus, Andromache, and Molossus.
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Chorus
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Oh! to have never been born, or sprung from noble sires, the heir to mansions richly stored;
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for if aught untoward e’er befall, there is no lack of champions for sons of noble parents, and there is honour and glory for them when they are proclaimed scions of illustrious lines; time detracts not from the legacy these good
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men leave, but the light of their goodness still burns on when they are dead.
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Chorus
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Better is it not to win a discreditable victory,
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than to make justice miscarry by an invidious exercise of power; for such a victory, though men think it sweet for the moment, grows barren in time and comes very near being a family reproach.
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This is the life I commend, this the life. I set before me as my ideal, to exercise no authority beyond what is right either in the marriage-chamber or in the state.
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Chorus
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O aged son of Aeacus!
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now am I sure that thou wert with the Lapithae, wielding thy famous spear, when they fought the Centaurs; and on Argo’s deck didst pass the cheerless strait beyond the sea-beat Symplegades
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on her voyage of note; and when in days long gone the son of Zeus spread slaughter round Troy’s famous town,
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thou too didst share his triumphant return to Europe.
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Nurse
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Alas! good friends, what a succession of troubles is to-day provided us! My mistress Hermione within the house,
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deserted by her father and in remorse for her monstrous deed in plotting the death of Andromache and her child, is bent on dying; for she is afraid her husband will in requital for this expel her with dishonour from his house
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or put her to death, because she tried to slay the innocent. And the servants that watch her can scarce restrain her efforts to hang herself, scarce catch the sword and wrest it from her hand. So bitter is her anguish,
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and she hath recognized the villainy of her former deeds. As for me, friends, I am weary of keeping my mistress from the fatal noose; do ye go in and try to save her life; for if strangers come, they prove more persuasive than the friends of every day.
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Chorus
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Ah yes! I hear an outcry in the house amongst the servants, confirming the news thou hast brought. Poor sufferer! she seems about to show a lively grief for her grave crimes; for she has escaped her servants’ hands and is rushing from the house, eager to end her life.
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Hermione
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rushing wildly on to the stage. Woe, woe is me! I will tear my hair and scratch cruel furrows in my cheeks.
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Nurse
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My child, what wilt thou do? Wilt thou disfigure thyself?
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Hermione
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Ah me! ah me!
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Begone, thou fine-spun veil! float from my head away!
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Nurse
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Daughter, cover up thy bosom, fasten thy robe.
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Hermione
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Oh! why didst thou hunt me to snatch away my sword? Give, oh! give it back, dear nurse, that I may thrust it through my heart. Why dost thou prevent me hanging myself?
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Nurse
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What! was I to let thy madness lead thee on to death?
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Hermione
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Ah me, my destiny! Where can I find some friendly fire? To what rocky height can I climb above the sea or ’mid some wooded mountain glen,
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there to die and trouble but the dead?
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Nurse
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Why vex thyself thus? on all of us sooner or later heaven’s visitation comes.
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Hermione
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Thou hast left me, O my father,
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left me like a stranded bark, all alone, without an oar. My lord will surely slay me; no home is mine henceforth beneath my husband’s roof. What god is there to whose statue I can as a suppliant haste?
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or shall I throw myself in slavish wise at slavish knees? Would I could speedReading ἀερθείην with Seidler. away from Phthia’s land on bird’s dark pinion, or like that pine-built ship,Argo, in quest of the Golden Fleece.
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the first that ever sailed betwixt the rocks Cyanean!
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Nurse
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My child, I can as little praise thy previous sinful excesses, committed against the Trojan captive, as thy present exaggerated terror. Thy husband will never listen to
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a barbarian’s weak pleading and reject his marriage with thee for this. For thou wast no captive from Troy whom he wedded, but the daughter of a gallant sire, with a rich dower, from a city too of no mean prosperity. Nor will thy father forsake thee, as thou dreadest,
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and allow thee to be cast out from this house. Nay, enter now, nor show thyself before the palace, lest the sightNauck regards line 878 as spurious. of thee there bring reproach upon thee, my daughter. Exit Nurse.
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Chorus
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Lo! a stranger of foreign appearance from some other land
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comes hurrying towards us.
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Orestes
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Ladies of this foreign land! is this the home, the palace of Achilles’ son?
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Chorus
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Thou hast it; but who art thou to ask such a question?
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Orestes
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The son of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra,
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by name Orestes, on my way to the oracle of Zeus at Dodona. But now that I am come to Phthia, I am resolved to inquire about my kinswoman, Hermione of Sparta; is she alive and well? for though
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she dwells in a land far from my own, I love her none the less.
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Hermione
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Son of Agamemnon, thy appearing is as a haven from the storm to sailors; by thy knees I pray, have pity on me in my distress, on me of whose fortunes thou art inquiring. About thy knees
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I twine my arms with all the force of sacred fillets.
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Orestes
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Ha! what is this? Am I mistaken or do I really see before me the queen of this palace, the daughter of Menelaus?
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Hermione
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The same, that only child whom Helen, daughter of Tyndareus, bore my father in his halls; never doubt that.
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Orestes
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O saviour Phoebus, grant us respite from our woe! But what is the matter? art thou afflicted by gods or men?
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Hermione
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Partly by myself, partly by the man who wedded me, and partly by some god. On every side I see ruin.
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Orestes
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Why, what misfortune could happen to a woman as yet childless,
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unless her honour is concerned?
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Hermione
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My very complaint! Thou hast hit my case exactly.
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Orestes
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On whom has thy husband set his affections in thy stead?
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Hermione
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On his captive, Hector’s wife.
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Orestes
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An evil case indeed, for a man to have two wives!
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Hermione
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’Tis even thus. So I resented it.
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Orestes
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Didst thou with woman’s craft devise a plot against thy rival?
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Hermione
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Yes, to slay her and her bastard child.
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Orestes
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And didst thou slay them, or did something happen to rescue them from thee?
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Hermione
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It was old Peleus, who showed regard to the weaker side.
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Orestes
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Hadst thou any accomplice in this attempted murder?
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Hermione
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My father came from Sparta for this very purpose.
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Orestes
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And was he after all defeated by that old man’s prowess ?
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Hermione
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Oh no! but by shame; and he hath gone and left me all alone.
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Orestes
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I understand; thou art afraid of thy husband for that thou hast done.
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Hermione
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Thou hast guessed it; for he will have a right to me. What can I say for myself? Yet I beseech thee by Zeus the god of our family, send me to a land as far as possible from this, or to my father’s house; for these veryReading οἵδε γε. walls seem to cry out Begone!
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and all the land of Phthia bates me. But if my lord return ere that from the oracle of Phoebus, he will put me to death on a shameful charge, or enslave me to his mistress, whom I ruled before. MaybeReading πῶς οὖν ἃν ἔιποι τις τάδ᾽ ἐξημάρτανες. some one will say, How was it thou didst go thus astray?
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I was ruined by mischievous women who came to me and puffed me up with words like these: What! wilt thou suffer that vile captive, a mere bondmaid, to dwell within thy house and share thy wedded rights? By Heaven’s queen! if it were my house
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she should not live to reap my marriage-harvest! And I listened to the words of these Sirens, the cunning, knavish, subtle praters, and was filled with silly thoughts. What need had I to care about my lord?