Hippolytus
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Original / primary: Perseus Eng2
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Theseus
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Ho! servants, drag him hence! You heard
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my proclamation long ago condemning him to exile.
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Hippolytus
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Whoso of them doth lay a hand on me shall rue it; thyself expel me, if thy spirit move thee, from the land.
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Theseus
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I will, unless my word thou straight obey; no pity for thy exile steals into my heart. [Exit Theseus.
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Hippolytus
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The sentence then, it seems, is passed. Ah, misery I How well I know the truth herein, but know no way to tell it! O daughter of Latona, dearest to me of all deities, partner, comrade in the chase, far from glorious Athens must I fly. Farewell, city
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and land of Erechtheus; farewell, Troezen, most joyous home wherein to pass the spring of life; ’tis my last sight of thee, farewell!
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Come, my comrades in this land, young like me, greet me kindly and escort me forth,
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for never will ye behold a purer soul, for all my father’s doubts. [Exit Hippolytus.
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Chorus
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In very deed the thoughts I have about the gods, whenso they come into my mind, do much to soothe its grief, but though I cherish secret hopes of some great guiding will, yet am I at fault when I survey the fate and doings of the sons of men;
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change succeeds to change, and man’s life veers and shifts in endless restlessness.
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Chorus
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Fortune grant me this, I pray, at heaven’s hand,—a happy lot in life and a soul from sorrow free;
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opinions let me hold not too precise nor yet too hollow; but, lightly changing my habits to each morrow as it comes, may I thus attain a life of bliss!
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Chorus
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while I with tears at thy unhappy fate shall endure a lot all undeserved. Ah! hapless mother,
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in vain didst thou bring forth, it seems. I am angered with the gods; out upon them! O ye linked Graces, why are ye sending from his native land this poor youth, a guiltless sufferer,
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far from his home?
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Chorus
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But lo! I see a servant of Hippolytus hasting with troubled looks towards the palace.
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Messenger
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Ladies, Following set of lines is designated as 2nd Messenger in print.where may I find Theseus, king of the country? pray, tell me if
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ye know; is he within the palace here?
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Chorus
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Lo! himself approaches from the palace.
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Messenger
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Theseus, I am the bearer of troublous tidings to thee and all citizens who dwell in Athens or the bounds of Troezen.
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Theseus
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How now? hath some strange calamity overtaken these two neighbouring cities?
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Messenger
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In one brief word, Hippolytus is dead. ’Tis true one slender thread still links him to the light of life.
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Theseus
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Who slew him? Did some husband come to blows with him,
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one whose wife, like mine, had suffered brutal violence?
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Messenger
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He perished through those steeds that drew his chariot, and through the curses thou didst utter, praying to thy sire, the ocean-king, to slay thy son.
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Theseus
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Ye gods and king Poseidon, thou hast proved my parentage
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by hearkening to my prayer! Say how he perished; how fell the uplifted hand of Justice to smite the villain who dishonoured me?
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Messenger
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Hard by the wave-beat shore were we combing out his horses’ manes,
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weeping the while, for one had come to say that Hippolytus was harshly exiled by thee and nevermore would return to set foot in this land. Then came he, telling the same doleful tale to us upon the beach, and with him was a countless throng
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of friends who followed after. At length he stayed his lamentation and spake: Why weakly rave on this wise? My father’s commands must be obeyed. Ho! servants, harness my horses to the chariot; this is no longer now city of mine.
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Thereupon each one of us bestirred himself, and, ere a man could say ’twas done, we had the horses standing ready at our master’s side. Then he caught up the reins from the chariot-rail, first fitting his feetIt is extremely doubtful what the αὐταῖσιν ἀρβυλαισιν here means. The same phrase occurs in Bacchae, l. 1,134, where it clearly refers to sandals or boots; but such a rendering seems meaningless here, where Eustathius understands it of the places in which a charioteer put his feet to secure his balance when driving. exactly in the hollows made for them.
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But first with outspread palms he called upon the gods, O Zeus, now strike me dead, if I have sinned, and let my father learn how he is wronging me, in death at least, if not in life.
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Therewith he seized the whip and lashed
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each horse in turn; while we, close by his chariot, near the reins, kept up with him along the road that leads direct to Argos and Epidaurus.
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And just as we were coming to a desert spot, a strip of sand beyond the borders of this country,
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sloping right to the Saronic gulf, there issued thence a deep rumbling sound, as it were an earthquake, a fearsome noise, and the horses reared their heads and pricked their ears, while we were filled with wild alarm
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to know whence came the sound; when, as we gazed toward the wave-beat shore, a wave tremendous we beheld towering to the skies, so that from our view the cliffs of Scirori vanished, for it hid the isthmus and the rock of Asclepius;
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then swelling and frothing with a crest of foam, the sea discharged it toward the beach where stood the harnessed car, and in the moment that it broke, that mighty wall of waters, there issued from the wave a monstrous bull,
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whose bellowing filled the land with fearsome echoes, a sight too awful as it seemed to us who witnessed it. A panic seized the horses there and then, but our master, to horses’ ways quite used,
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gripped in both hands his reins, and tying them to his body pulled them backward as the sailor pulls his oar; but the horses gnashed the forged bits between their teeth and bore him wildly on, regardless of their master’s guiding hand
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or rein or jointed car. And oft as he would take the guiding rein and steer for softer ground, showed that bull in front to turn him back again, maddening his team with terror;
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but if in their frantic career they ran towards the rocks, he would draw nigh the chariot-rail, keeping up with them, until, suddenly dashing the wheel against a stone, he upset and wrecked the car; then was dire confusion,
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axle-boxes and linchpins springing into the air. While he, poor youth, entangled in the reins was dragged along, bound by a stubborn knot, his poor head dashed against the rocks, his flesh all torn, the while he cried out piteously,
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Stay, stay, my horses whom my own hand hath fed at the manger, destroy me not utterly. O luckless curse of a father! Will no one come and save me for all my virtue?
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Now we, though much we longed to help, were left far behind. At last, I know not how, he broke loose
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from the shapely reins that bound him, a faint breath of life still in him; but the horses disappeared, and that portentous bull, among the rocky ground, I know not where.
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I am but a slave in thy house, ’tis true, O king,
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yet will I never believe so monstrous a charge against thy son’s character, no! not though the whole race of womankind should hang itself, or one should fill with writing every pine-tree tablet grown on Ida, sure as I am of his uprightness.
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Chorus
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Alas! new troubles come to plague us, nor is there any escape from fate and necessity.
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Theseus
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My hatred for him who hath thus suffered made me glad at thy tidings, yet from regard for the gods and him, because he is my son,
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I feel neither joy nor sorrow at his sufferings.
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Messenger
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But say, are we to bring the victim hither, or how are we to fulfil thy wishes? Bethink thee; if by me thou wilt be schooled, thou wilt not harshly treat thy son in his sad plight.
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Theseus
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Bring him hither, that when I see him face to face, who hath denied having polluted my wife’s honour, I may by words and heaven’s visitation convict him.
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Chorus
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Ah! Cypris, thine the hand that guides the stubborn hearts of gods and men; thine,
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and that attendant boy’s, who, with painted plumage gay, flutters round his victims on lightning wing. O’er the land and booming deep on golden pinion borne flits the god of Love,
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maddening the heart and beguiling the senses of all whom he attacks, savage whelps on mountains bred, ocean’s monsters, creatures of this sun-warmed earth,
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and man; thine, O Cypris, thine alone the sovereign power to rule them all.
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Artemis
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Hearken, I bid thee, noble son of Aegeus:
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lo! ’tis I Latona’s child, that speak, I, Artemis. Why, Theseus, to thy sorrow dost thou rejoice at these tidings, seeing that thou hast slain thy son most impiously, listening to a charge not clearly proved, but falsely sworn to by thy wife? though clearly has the curse therefrom upon thee fallen.
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Why dost thou not for very shame hide beneath the dark places of the earth, or change thy human life and soar on wings to escape this tribulation? ’Mongst men of honour thou hast
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now no share in life.
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Hearken, Theseus; I will put thy wretched case. Yet will it naught avail thee, if I do, but vex thy heart; still with this intent I came, to show thy son’s pure heart,—that he may die with honour,—
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as well the frenzy, and, in a sense, the nobleness of thy wife; for she was cruelly stung with a passion for thy son by that goddess whom all we, that joy in virgin purity, detest. And though she strove to conquer love by resolution,
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yet by no fault of hers she fell, thanks to her nurse’s strategy, who did reveal her malady unto thy son under oath. But he would none of her counsels, as indeed was right, nor yet, when thou didst revile him, would he break the oath he swore, from piety.
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She meantime, fearful of being found out, wrote a lying letter, destroying by guile thy son, but yet persuading thee.
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Theseus
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Woe is me!
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Dost remember those three prayers thy father granted thee, fraught with certain issue? ’Tis one of these thou hast misused, unnatural wretch, against thy son, instead of aiming it at an enemy. Thy sea-god sire, ’tis true, for all his kind intent, hath granted that boon he was compelled, by reason of his promise, to grant.
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But thou alike in his eyes and in mine hast shewn thy evil heart, in that thou hast forestalled all proof or voice prophetic, hast made no inquiry, nor taken time for consideration, but with undue haste cursed thy son even to the death.
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Theseus
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Perdition seize me! Queen revered!
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his neighbour’s will, but ever we stand aloof. For be well assured, did I not fear Zeus, never would I have incurred the bitter shame of handing over to death a man of all his kind to me most dear. As for thy sin,
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first thy ignorance absolves thee from its villainy, next thy wife, who is dead, was lavish in her use of convincing arguments to influence thy mind.
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On thee in chief this storm of woe hath burst, yet is it some grief to me as well; for when the righteous die, there is no joy in heaven,
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albeit we try to destroy the wicked, house and home.
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Chorus
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Lo! where he comes, this hapless youth, his fair young flesh and auburn locks most shamefully handled. Unhappy house!
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what twofold sorrow doth o’ertake its halls, through heaven’s ordinance!
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Hippolytus
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Ah! ah! woe is me! foully undone by an impious father’s impious imprecation!
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Undone, undone! woe is me! Through my head shoot fearful pains; my brain throbs convulsively. Stop, let me rest my worn-out frame.Oh, oh!
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Accursed steeds, that mine own hand did feed, ye have been my ruin and my death. O by the gods, good sirs, I beseech ye, softly touch my wounded limbs.
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Who stands there at my right side? Lift me tenderly; with slow and even step conduct a poor wretch cursed by his mistaken sire. Great Zeus, dost thou see this? Me thy reverent worshipper,
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me who left all men behind in purity, plunged thus into yawning Hades ’neath the earth, reft of life; in vain the toils I have endured through my piety towards mankind.
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Hippolytus
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Ah me! ah me! O the thrill of anguish shooting through me! Set me down, poor wretch I am; come Death to set me free! Kill me, end my sufferings.Nauck’s comment on these closing lines of H.’s speech is, restitui vix poterunt. Any translation of them can only be tentative.
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O for a sword two-edged to hack my flesh, and close this mortal life! Ill-fated curse of my father! the crimes of bloody kinsmen.Such as Tantalus and Pelops, Atreus and Thyestes. ancestors of old,
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now pass their boundaries and tarry not, and upon me are they come all guiltless as I am; ah! why? Alas, alas!
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what can I say? How from my life get rid of this relentless agony? O that the stern Death-god, night’s black visitant, would give my sufferings rest!
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Artemis
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Poor sufferer! cruel the fate that links thee to it!
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Thy noble soul hath been thy ruin.
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Hippolytus
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Ah! the fragrance from my goddess wafted! Even in my agony I feel thee near and find relief; she is here in this very place, my goddess Artemis.
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Artemis
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She is, poor sufferer! the goddess thou hast loved the best.
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Hippolytus
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Dost see me, mistress mine? dost see my present suffering?
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Artemis
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I see thee, but mine eyes no tear may weep.
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Hippolytus
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Thou hast none now to lead the hunt or tend thy fane.
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Artemis
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None now; yet e’en in death I love thee still.
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Hippolytus
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None to groom thy steeds, or guard thy shrines.
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Artemis
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Twas Cypris, mistress of iniquity, devised this evil.
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Hippolytus
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Ah me! now know I the goddess who destroyed me.
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Artemis
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She was jealous of her slighted honour, vexed at thy chaste life.
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Hippolytus
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Ah! then I see her single hand hath struck down three of us.
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Artemis
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Thy sire and thee, and last thy father’s wife.
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Hippolytus
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My sire’s ill-luck as well as mine I mourn.
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Art
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He was deceived by a goddess’s design.