Hippolytus
Choose a text
id="mobileReaderAuthor" class="mobile-reader-author" href="/authors/euripides" aria-label="More works by Euripides">
—
⋯
Original / primary: Perseus Eng2
107
107
Chorus
107
But dost not thou insist in thy endeavour to find out her complaint, her crazy mind?
108
108
Nurse
108
I have tried every plan, and all in vain;
109
yet not even now will I relax my zeal, that thou too, if thou stayest, mayst witness my devotion to my unhappy mistress.
110
Come, come, my darling child, let us forget, the twain of us, our former words; be thou more mild,
111
smoothing that sullen brow and changing the current of thy thought, and I, if in aught before I failed in humouring thee, will let that be and find some better course. If thou art sick with ills thou canst not name, there be women here to help to set thee right;
112
but if thy trouble can to men’s ears be divulged, speak, that physicians may pronounce on it.
113
Come, then, why so dumb? Thou shouldst not so remain, my child, but scold me if I speak amiss, or, if I give good counsel, yield assent.
114
One word, one look this way! Ah me! Friends, we waste our toil to no purpose; we are as far away as ever; she would not relent to my arguments then, nor is she yielding now.
115
Well, grow more stubborn than the sea, yet be assured of this,
116
that if thou diest thou art a traitress to thy children, for they will ne’er inherit their father’s halls, nay, by that knightly queen the AmazonHippolytus was the son of Theseus by a former union with the queen of the Amazons. who bore a son to lord it over thine, a bastard born but not a bastard bred, whom well thou knowest,
117
e’en Hippolytus.
118
118
Phaedra
118
Thou hast undone me, nurse; I do adjure by the gods, mention that man no more.
119
119
Nurse
119
There now! thou art thyself again, but e’en yet refusest to aid thy children and preserve thy life.
120
120
Phaedra
120
My babes I love, but there is another storm that buffets me.
121
121
Nurse
121
Daughter, are thy hands from bloodshed pure?
122
122
Phaedra
122
My hands are pure, but on my soul there rests a stain.
123
123
Nurse
123
The issue of some enemy’s secret witchery?
124
124
Phaedra
124
A friend is my destroyer, one unwilling as myself.
125
125
Nurse
125
Hath Theseus wronged thee in any wise?
126
126
Phaedra
126
Never may I prove untrue to himi.e. as he never has proved so to me.
127
127
Nurse
127
Then what strange mystery is there that drives thee on to die?
128
128
Phaedra
128
O, let my sin and me alone! ’tis not ’gainst thee I sin.
129
129
Nurse
129
Never willingly! and, if I fail, ’twill rest at thy door.
130
130
Phaedra
130
How now? thou usest force in clinging to my hand.
131
131
Nurse
131
Yea, and I will never loose my hold upon thy knees.
132
132
Phaedra
132
Alas for thee! my sorrows, shouldst thou learn them, would recoil on thee.
133
133
Nurse
133
What keener grief for me than failing to win thee?
134
134
Phaedra
134
’Twill be death to thee; though to me that brings renown.ὀλεῖ (1) 2nd sing. Fut. Mid. thou wilt die as a consequence of sharing my secret (Paley). (2) 3rd sing. Fut. Active it will kill me to keep silence, though that better ensures my honour.
135
135
Nurse
135
And dost thou then conceal this boon despite my prayers?
136
136
Phaedra
136
I do, for ’tis out of shame I am planning an honourable escape.
137
137
Nurse
137
Tell it, and thine honour shall the brighter shine.
138
138
Phaedra
138
Away, I do conjure thee; loose my hand.
139
139
Nurse
139
I will not, for the boon thou shouldst have granted me is denied.
140
140
Phaedra
140
I will grant it out of reverence for thy holy sup- pliant touch.
141
141
Nurse
141
Henceforth I hold my peace; ’tis thine to speak from now.
142
142
Phaedra
142
Ah! hapless mother,Pasiphae, wife of Minos, deceived by Aphrodite into a fatal passion for a bull. Cf. Verg. Aen. vi. ad init., also Ovid Metam., viii, 131 sqq. what a love was thine!
143
143
Nurse
143
Her love for the bull? daughter, or what meanest thou?
144
144
Phaedra
144
And woe to thee! my sister,Ariadne, deserted by Theseus in the isle of Naxos, where Dionysus found her. bride of Dionysus.
145
145
Nurse
145
What ails thee, child? speaking ill of kith and kin.
146
146
Phaedra
146
Myself the third to suffer! how am I undone!
147
147
Nurse
147
Thou strik’st me dumb! Where will this history end?
148
148
Phaedra
148
That love has been our curse from time long past.
149
149
Nurse
149
I know no more of what I fain would learn.
150
150
Phaedra
150
Ah! would thou couldst say for me what I have to tell.
151
151
Nurse
151
I am no prophetess to unriddle secrets.
152
152
Phaedra
152
What is it they mean when they talk of people being in love?
153
153
Nurse
153
At once the sweetest and the bitterest thing, my child.
154
154
Phaedra
154
I shall only find the latter half.
155
155
Nurse
155
Ha! my child, art thou in love?
156
156
Phaedra
156
The Amazon’s son, whoever he may be,—
157
157
Nurse
157
Mean’st thou Hippolytus?
158
158
Nurse
158
O heavens! what is this, my child? Thou hast ruined me. Outrageous! friends; I will not live and bear it;
159
hateful is life, hateful to mine eyes the light. This body I resign, will cast it off, and rid me of existence by my death. Farewell, my life is o’er. Yea, for the chaste have wicked passions, ’gainst their will maybe, but still they have. Cypris, it seems, is not a goddess after all,
160
but something greater far, for she hath been the ruin of my lady and of me and our whole family.
161
161
Chorus
161
O, too clearly didst thou hear our queen uplift her voice to tell her startling tale of piteous suffering. Come death ere I reach thy state of feeling,Or before thou accomplish thy purpose. loved mistress.
162
O horrible! woe, for these miseries! woe, for the sorrows on which mortals feed! Thou art undone! thou hast disclosed thy sin to heaven’s light. What hath each passing day and every hour in store for thee?
163
Some strange event will come to pass in this house. For it is no longer uncertain where the star of thy love is setting, thou hapless daughterShe was daughter of Minos, king of Crete. of Crete.
164
164
Phaedra
164
Ladies of Troezen, who dwell here upon the frontier edge of Pelops’ land,
165
oft ere now in heedless mood through the long hours of night have I wondered why man’s life is spoiled; and it seems to me their evil case is not due to any natural fault of judgment, for there be many dowered with sense, but we must view the matter in this light;
166
by teaching and experience we learn the right but neglect it in practice, some from sloth, others from preferring pleasure of some kind or other to duty. Now life has many pleasures, protracted talk, and leisure, that seductive evil;
167
likewise there is shame which is of two kinds, one a noble quality, the other a curse to families; but if for each its proper time were clearly known, these twain could not have had the selfsame letters to denote them.
168
So then since I had made up my mind on these points, ’twas not likely any drug would alter it
169
and make me think the contrary. And I will tell thee too the way my judgment went. When love wounded me, I bethought me how I best might bear the smart. So from that day forth I began to hide in silence what I suffered.
170
For I put no faith in counsellors, who know well to lecture others for presumption, yet themselves have countless troubles of their own. Next I did devise noble endurance of these wanton thoughts, striving by continence for victory.
171
And last when I could not succeed in mastering love hereby, methought it best to die; and none can gainsay my purpose. For fain I would my virtue should to all appear, my shame have few to witness it.
172
I knew my sickly passion now; to yield to it I saw how infamous; and more, I learnt to know so well that I was but a woman, a thing the world detests. Curses, hideous curses on that wife, who first did shame her marriage-vow for lovers other than her lord! ’Twas from noble families
173
this curse began to spread among our sex. For when the noble countenance disgrace, poor folk of course will think that it is right. Those too I hate who make profession of purity, though in secret reckless sinners.
174
How can these, queen Cypris, ocean’s child, e’er look their husbands in the face? do they never feel one guilty thrill that their accomplice, night, or the chambers of their house will find a voice and speak?
175
This it is that calls on me to die, kind friends,
176
that so I may ne’er be found to have disgraced my lord, or the children I have born; no! may they grow up and dwell in glorious Athens, free to speak and act, heirs to such fair fame as a mother can bequeath. For to know that father or mother have sinned doth turn
177
the stoutest heart to slavishness. This alone, men say, can stand the buffets of life’s battle, a just and virtuous soul in whomsoever found. For time unmasks the villain sooner or later, holding up to them a mirror as to some blooming maid.
178
’Mongst such may I be never seen!
179
179
Chorus
179
Now look! how fair is chastity however viewed, whose fruit is good repute amongst men.
180
180
Nurse
180
My queen, ’tis true thy tale of woe, but lately told, did for the moment strike me with wild alarm,
181
but now I do reflect upon my foolishness; second thoughts are often best even with men. Thy fate is no uncommon one nor past one’s calculations; thou art stricken by the passion Cypris sends. Thou art in love; what wonder? so are many more.
182
Wilt thou, because thou lov’st, destroy thyself? ’Tis little gain, I trow, for those who love or yet may love their fellows, if death must be their end; for though the Love-Queen’s onset in her might is more than man can bear, yet doth she gently visit yielding hearts,
183
and only when she finds a proud unnatural spirit, doth she take and mock it past belief. Her path is in the sky, and mid the ocean’s surge she rides; from her all nature springs; she sows the seeds of love, inspires the warm desire
184
to which we sons of earth all owe our being. They who have aught to do with books of ancient scribes, or themselves engage in studious pursuits, know how Zeus of Semele was enamoured,
185
how the bright-eyed goddess of the Dawn once stole Cephalus to dwell in heaven for the love she bore him; yet these in heaven abide nor shun the gods’ approach, content, I trow, to yield to their misfortune.
186
Wilt thou refuse to yield? thy sire, it seems, should have begotten thee on special terms
187
or with different gods for masters, if in these laws thou wilt not acquiesce. How many, prithee, men of sterling sense, when they see their wives unfaithful, make as though they saw it not? How many fathers, when their sons have gone astray,
188
assist them in their amours? ’tis part of human wisdom to conceal the deed of shame. Nor should man aim at excessive refinement in his life; forThese lines are probably corrupt, but no satisfactory emendation has been supplied to make the sense more perfect A conjectural reading is κανὼν ἀκριβώσει ’ἄν, but this involves an elision foreign to tragic usage. they cannot with exactness finish
189
e’en the roof that covers in a house; and how dost thou, after falling into so deep a pit, think to escape? Nay, if thou hast more of good than bad, thou wilt fare exceeding well, thy human nature considered.
190
O cease, my darling child, from evil thoughts, let wanton pride be gone, for this is naught else,
191
this wish to rival gods in perfectness. Face thy love; ’tis heaven’s will thou shouldst. Sick thou art, yet turn thy sickness to some happy issue. For there are charms and spells to soothe the soul; surely some cure for thy disease will be found.
192
Men, no doubt, might seek it long and late if our women’s minds no scheme devise.
193
193
Chorus
193
Although she gives thee at thy present need the wiser counsel, Phaedra, yet do I praise thee. Still my praise may sound more harsh
194
and jar more cruelly on thy ear than her advice.
195
195
Phaedra
195
’Tis even this, too plausible a tongue, that overthrows good governments and homes of men. We should not speak to please the ear but point the path that leads to noble fame.
196
196
Nurse
196
What means this solemn speech? No need of rounded phrases;The punctuation here adopted from Nauck is a vast improvement on the old reading, which put the stop after τάνδρός, and gave a most coarse sentiment even for so lax a maralist as Phædra’s nurse to utter. but at once must we sound the prince, telling him frankly how it is with thee. Had not thy life to such a crisis come,Nauck brackets these two lines, and for προῆγον reads πῶς ἥγον; or wert thou with self-control endowed,
197
ne’er would I to gratify thy passions have urged thee to this course; but now ’tis a struggle fierce to save thy life, and therefore less to blame.
198
198
Phaedra
198
Accursed proposal! peace, woman! never utter those shameful words again!
199
199
Nurse
199
Shameful, maybe, yet for thee better than honour’s code. Better this deed, if it shall save thy life, than that name thy pride will kill thee to retain.
200
200
Phaedra
200
I conjure thee, go no further! for thy words are plausible but infamous; for though as yet
201
love has notI follow Nauck in reading οὐ for εὖ. ὑπειργασμαι = have been subdued—according to Paley and Liddell and Scott (passive). Mahaffy extracts a middle sense prepared my soul for love’s entry, and adopts the conjectural οὐ which would certainly seem to add clearness. undermined my soul, yet, if in specious words thou dress thy foul suggestion, I shall be beguiled into the snare from which I am now escaping.
202
202
Nurse
202
If thou art of this mind, ’twere well thou ne’er hadst sinned; but as it is, hear me; for that is the next best course; I in my house have charms
203
to soothe thy love,—’twas but now I thought of them;—these shall cure thee of thy sickness on no disgraceful terms, thy mind unhurt, if thou wilt be but brave.
204
But from him thou lovest we must get some token, a word or fragment of his robe,
205
and thereby unite in one love’s twofold stream.These lines are perhaps spurious. Nauck and Weil both bracket them.
206
206
Phaedra
206
Is thy drug a salve or potion?