Hippolytus
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Original / primary: Perseus Eng2
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Hippolytus
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Woe is thee, my father, in this sad mischance!
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Theseus
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My son, I am a ruined man; life has no joys for me.
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Hippolytus
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For this mistake I mourn thee rather than myself.
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Theseus
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O that I had died for thee, my son!
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Hippolytus
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Ah! those fatal gifts thy sire Poseidon gave.
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Theseus
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Would God these lips had never uttered that prayer!
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Hippolytus
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Why not? thou wouldst in any case have slain me in thy fury then.
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Theseus
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Yes; Heaven had perverted my power to think.
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Hippolytus
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O that the race of men could bring a curse upon the gods!
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Artemis
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Enough! for though thou pass to gloom beneath the earth, the wrath of Cypris shall not, at her will, fall on thee unrequited, because thou hadst a noble righteous soul.Nauck encloses this line in brackets.
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For I with mine own hand will with these unerring shafts avenge me on another,Adonis. who is her votary, dearest to her of all the sons of men. And to thee, poor sufferer, for thy anguish now will I grant high honours in the city of Troezen;
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for thee shall maids unwed before their marriage cut off their hair, thy harvest through the long roll of time of countless bitter tears. Yea, and for ever shall the virgin choir hymn thy sad memory,
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nor shall Phaedra’s love for thee fall into oblivion and pass away unnoticed.
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But thou, O son of old Aegeus, take thy son in thine arms, draw him close to thee, for unwittingly thou slewest him, and men may well commit an error when gods put it in their way.
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And thee Hippolytus, I admonish; hate not thy sire, for in this death thou dost but meet thy destined fate.
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And now farewell! ’tis not for me to gaze upon the dead, or pollute my sight with death-scenes, and e’en now I see thee nigh that evil moment.Cobet rejects this line. [Exit Artemis.
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Hippolytus
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Farewell, blest virgin queen! leave me now! How easilySurely this line is a gloss! The sentiment is singularly out of place in the mouth of an ardent votary, whom the goddess has just comforted. thou resignest our long friendship! I am reconciled with my father at thy desire, yea, for ever before I would obey thy bidding.
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Ah me! the darkness is settling even now upon my eyes.
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Take me, father, in thy arms, lift me up.
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Theseus
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Woe is me, my son! what art thou doing to me thy hapless sire!
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Hippolytus
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I am a broken man; yes, I see the gates that close upon the dead.
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Theseus
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Canst leave me thus with murder on my soul!
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Hippolytus
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No, no; I set thee free from this bloodguiltiness.
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Theseus
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What sayest thou? dost absolve me from bloodshed?
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Hippolytus
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Artemis, the archer-queen, is my witness that I do.
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Theseus
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My own dear child, how generous dost thou show thyself to thy father!
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Hippolytus
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Pray to have children such as me bom in lawful wedlock.
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Theseus
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O that holy, noble soul of thine!
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Hippolytus
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Farewell, dear father! a long farewell to thee!
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Theseus
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O leave me not, my son; endure awhile.
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Hippolytus
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’Tis finished, my endurance; I die, father; quickly cover my face with a mantle.
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Theseus
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O glorious Athens, realm of Pallas,
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what a splendid hero ye have lost! Ah me, ah me! How oft shall I remember thy evil work, O Cypris!
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Chorus
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On all our citizens hath come this universal sorrow, unforeseen. Now shall the copious tear gush forth,
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for sad news about great men takes more than usual hold upon the heart.
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Chorus
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Maiden, thou must be possessed, by Pan made frantic or by Hecate, or by the Corybantes dread, and Cybele the mountain mother.
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Or maybe thou hast sinned against Dictynna, huntress-queen, and art wasting for thy guilt in sacrifice unoffered. For she doth range o’er lakes’ expanse and past the bounds of earth
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upon the ocean’s tossing billows.
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Chorus
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Or doth some rival in thy house beguile thy lord, the captain of Erechtheus’ sons, that hero nobly bom, to secret amours hid from thee?
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Or hath some mariner sailing hither from Crete reached this port that sailors love, with evil tidings for our queen, and she with sorrow for her grievous fate
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is to her bed confined?
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Chorus
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There was that maidenIole, daughter of Eurytus, king of Oechalia. Her father refused, after promising, to give her to Heracles, who thereupon took her by force. in Oechalia, a girl unwed, that knew no wooer yet nor married joys; her did the queen of LoveThere is some corruption here. It is probable the doubtful εἰρεσίᾳ conceals an allusion to Euryptus, as Monk indeed suggest; but the passage is not yet satisfactorily emended. snatch from her home across the sea
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and gave unto Alcmena’s son, mid blood and smoke and murderous marriage-hymns, to be to him a frantic fiend of hell; woe! woe for his wooing!
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Chorus
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Ah! holy walls of Thebes, ah! fount of Dirce, ye could testify what course the love-queen follows. For with the blazing levin-bolt
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did she cut short the fatal marriage of Semele, mother of Zeus-bom Bacchus. All things she doth inspire, dread goddess, winging her flight hither and thither like a bee.
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Chorus
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O white-winged bark, that o’er the booming ocean-wave didst bring
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my royal mistress from her happy home, to crown her queen ’mongst sorrow’s brides! Surely evil omens from either port, at least from Crete, were with that ship, what time to glorious Athens it sped its way,
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and the crew made fast its twisted cable-ends upon the beach of Munychus, and on the land stept out.
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Chorus
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Whence comes it that her heart
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is crushed, cruelly afflicted by Aphrodite with unholy love; so she by bitter grief o’erwhelmed will tie a noose within her bridal bower to fit it to her fair white neck,
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too modest for this hateful lot in life, prizing o’er all her name and fame, and striving thus to rid her soul of passion’s sting.
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Chorus
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For now no more is my mind free from doubts, unlooked-for sights greet my vision; for lo! I see the morning star of Athens, eye of Hellas, driven by his father’s fury
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to another land. Mourn, ye sands of my native shores, ye oak-groves on the hills, where with his fleet hounds he would hunt the quarry to the death,
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attending on Dictynna, awful queen.
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Chorus
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No more will he mount his car drawn by Venetian steeds, filling the course round Limna with the prancingReading with Reiske, whom Nauck follows, γυμνάδος ἵππου. If the accus. plural is retained it would seem to mean, checking with his foot (i.e. pressed against the chariot-front) his steeds. of his trained horses. Nevermore in his fathers house shall he wake the Muse
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that never slept beneath his lute-strings; no hand will crown the spots where rests the maiden Latona ’mid the boskage deep; nor evermore shall our virgins vie to win thy love, now thou art banished;
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Phaedra
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Oh! oh!
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Nurse
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Ha! doth that touch the quick?
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Phaedra
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’Twas thou, not I, that spoke his name.
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Artemis
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Doth my story wound thee, Theseus? Be still awhile; hear what follows, so wilt thou have more cause to groan.
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Artemis
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An awful deed was thine, but still even for this thou mayest obtain pardon; for it was Cypris that would have it so, sating the fury of her soul. For this is law amongst us gods; none of us will thwart