Suppliants
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Original / primary: Perseus Eng2
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for he was my guest-friend ere he left the town of Cadmus and crossed to Argos in voluntary exile. But dost thou know what I would have thee do in this matter?
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Adrastus
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I know naught save this,—to yield obedience to thy hests.
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Theseus
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As for yon Capaneus, stricken by the bolt of Zeus—
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Adrastus
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Wilt bury him apart as a consecrated corpse?
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Theseus
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Even so; but all the rest on one funeral pyre.
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Adrastus
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Where wilt thou set the tomb apart for him?
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Theseus
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Here near this temple have I builded him a sepulchre.
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Adrastus
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Thy thralls forthwith must undertake this toil.
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Theseus
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Myself will look to those others; let the biers advance.
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Adrastus
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Approach your sons, unhappy mothers.
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Theseus
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This thy proposal, Adrastus, is anything but good.
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Adrastus
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Must not the mothers touch their sons?
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Theseus
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It would kill them to see how they are altered.
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Adrastus
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’Tis bitter, truly, to see the dead evenThe MS. reading, χἄμα τῷ τέλει νεκρῶν has been conjecturally altered by Toup into αἶμα κώτειλαὶ νεκρῶν which bold emendation has been followed by several editors. Hartung has χρῶμα κὠτειλαὶ. at the moment of death.
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Theseus
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Why then wilt thou add fresh grief to them?
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Adrastus
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Thou art right. YeNauck brackets from μένειν—θησεύς as spurious. needs must patiently abide, for the words of Theseus are good. But when we have committed them unto the flames, ye shall collect their bones. O wretched sons of men!
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Why do ye get you weapons and bring slaughter on one another? Cease therefrom, give o’er your toiling, and in mutual peace keep safe your cities. Short is the span of life, so ’twere best to run its course as lightly as we may, from trouble free.
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Chorus
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No more a happy mother I, with children blest; no more I share, among Argive women, who have sons, their happy lot; nor any more will Artemis in the hour of travail kindly greet these childless mothers.
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Most dreary is my life, and like some wandering cloud I drift before the howling blast.
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Chorus
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The seven noblest sons in Argos once we had,
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we seven hapless mothers; but now my sons are dead, I have no child, and on me steals old age in piteous wise, nor ’mongst the dead nor ’mongst the living do I countDindorf, followed by Nauck, reads κρινομένα. myself,
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having as it were a lot apart from these.
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Chorus
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Tears alone are left me; in my house sad memories of my son are stored; mournful tresses shorn from his head, chaplets that he wore, libations for the dead departed,
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and songs, but not such as golden-haired Apollo welcometh; and when I wake to weep, my tears will ever drench the folds of my robe upon my bosom.
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Chorus
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Ah! there I see the sepulchre ready e’en now for Capaneus, his consecrated tomb, and the votive offerings Theseus gives unto the dead outside the shrine, and nigh yon lightning-smitten chief
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I see his noble bride, Evadne, daughter of King Iphis. Wherefore stands she on the towering rock, which o’ertops this temple, advancing along yon path?
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Evadne
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What light, what radiancy did the sun-god’s car dart forth, and the moon athwart the firmament, while round her in the gloom swift starsNone of the proposed emendations of this corrupt passage are convincing. Hermann’s λάμπαι δ’ ὠκύθοοί νιν ἀμφιππεύουσι is here followed. Nauck has λαμπαδ’ ἱν’ ὠκυθόαι νύμφαι ἱππεύουσι. careered,
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in the day that the city of Argos raised the stately chant of joy at my wedding, in honour of my marriage with mail-clad Capaneus?
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Now from my home in frantic haste with frenzied mind I rush to join thee, seeking to share with thee the fire’s bright flame and the self-same tomb, to rid me of my weary
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life in Hades’ halls, and of the pains of existence; yea, for ’tis the sweetest end to share the death of those we love, if only fate will sanction it.
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Chorus
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Behold yon pyre, which thou art overlooking, nigh thereto,
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set apart for Zeus! There is thy husband’s body, vanquished by the blazing bolt.
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Evadne
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Life’s goal I now behold from my station here; may fortune aid me in my headlong leap from this rock
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in honour’s cause, down into the fire below, to mix my ashes in the ruddy blaze
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with my husband’s, to lay me side by side with him, there in the couch of Persephone; for ne’er will I, to save my life, prove untrue to thee where thou liest in thy grave.
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Away with life and marriage too! Oh!The following verses are corrupt almost beyond hope of emendation, nor is it quite clear what the poet intended. By reading φανεῖεν, as Paley suggests, with τέκνοισιν ἐμοῖς and supplying the hiatus by εἴη δ’, it is possible to extract an intelligible sense, somewhat different, however, from that proposed by Hermann or Hartung, and only offered here for want of a better. may my children live to see the dawn of a fairer, happier wedding-day in Argos! May loyalty inspire the husband’s heart,
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his nature fusing with his wife’s!
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Chorus
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Lo! the aged Iphis, thy father, draweth nigh to hear thy startling scheme, which yet he knows not and will grieve to learn.
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Iphis
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Unhappy child! lo! I am come, a poor old man,
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with twofold sorrow in my house to mourn, that I may carry to his native land the corpse of my son Eteocles, slain by the Theban spear, and further in quest of my daughter who rushed headlong from the house, for she was the wife of Capaneus
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and longed with him to die. Ere this she was well guarded in my house, but, when I took the watch away in the present troubles, she escaped. But I feel sure that she is here; tell me if ye have seen her.
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Evadne
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Why question them? Lo, here upon the rock, father, o’er the pyre of Capaneus, like some bird I hover lightly, in my wretchedness.
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Iphis
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What wind hath blown thee hither, child? Whither away? Why didst thou pass the threshold of my house and seek this land?
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Evadne
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It would but anger thee to hear what I intend, and so I fain would keep thee ignorant, my father.
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Iphis
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What! hath not thy own father a right to know?
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Evadne
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Thou wouldst not wisely judge my intention.
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Iphis
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Why dost thou deck thyself in that apparel?
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Evadne
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A purport strange this robe conveys, father.
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Iphis
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Thou hast no look of mourning for thy lord.
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Evadne
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No, the reason why I thus am decked is strange, maybe.
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Iphis
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Dost thou in such garb appear before a funeral-pyre?
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Evadne
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Yea, for hither it is I come to take the meed of victory.
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Iphis
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Victory! what victory? This would I learn of thee.
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Evadne
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A victory o’er all women on whom the sun looks down.
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Iphis
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In Athena’s handiwork or in prudent counsel?
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Evadne
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In bravery; for I will lay me down and die with my lord.
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Iphis
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What dost thou say? What is this silly riddle thou propoundest?
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Evadne
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To yonder pyre where lies dead Capaneus, I will leap down.
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Iphis
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My daughter, speak not thus before the multitude!
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Evadne
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The very thing I wish, that every Argive should learn it.
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Iphis
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Nay, I will ne’er consent to let thee do this deed.
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Evadne
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(as she is throwing herself). ’Tis all one; thou shalt never catch me in thy grasp.
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Lo! I cast me down, no joy to thee, but to myself and to my husband blazing on the pyre with me.
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Chorus
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O lady, what a fearful deed!
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Iphis
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Ah me! I am undone, ye dames of Argos!
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Chorus
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Alack, alack! a cruel blow is this to thee,
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but thou must yet witness, poor wretch, the full horror of this deed.
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Iphis
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A more unhappy wretch than me ye could not find.
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Chorus
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Woe for thee, unhappy man! Thou, old sir, hast been made partaker in the fortune of Oedipus, thou and my poor city too.
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Iphis
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Ah, why are mortal men denied this boon, to live their youth twice o’er, and twice in turn to reach old age? If aught goes wrong within our homes, we set it right by judgment more maturely formed, but our life we may not so correct. Now if we had a second spell of youth
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and age, this double term of life would let us then correct each previous slip. I, for instance, seeing others blest with children, longed to have them too, and found my ruin in that wish. Whereas if I had had my present experience,
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and by a father’s lightFollowing Paley’s τεκών for the MSS. τέκνων. had learnt how cruel a thing it is to be bereft of children, never should I have fallen on such evil days as these,—I who did beget a brave young son, proud parent that I was, and after all am now bereft of him. Enough of this. What remains for such a hapless wretch as me?
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Shall I to my home, there to see its utter desolation and the blank within my life? or shall I to the halls of that dead Capaneus?—halls I smiled to see in days gone by, when yet my daughter was alive. But she is lost and gone, she that would ever draw down my cheek
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to her lips, and take my head between her hands; for naught is there more sweet unto an aged sire than a daughter’s love; our sons are made of sterner stuff, but less winning are their caresses. Oh! take me to my house at once,
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in darkness hide me there, to waste and fret this aged frame with fasting! What shall it avail me to touch my daughter’s bones? Old age, resistless foe, how do I loathe thy presence! Them too I hate, whoso desire to lengthen out the span of life,
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seeking to turn the tide of death aside by philtres,Reading βρωτοῖσι καὶ βοτοῖσι καῖ μαγεύμασι, as restored from Plutarch’s quotation of the passage. drugs, and magic spells,—folk that death should take away to leave the young their place, when they no more can benefit the world.
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Chorus
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Woe, woe! Behold your dead sons’
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bones are brought hither; take them, servants of your weak old mistress, for in me is no strength left by reason of my mourning for my sons; time’s comrade long have I been, and many a tear for many a sorrow have I shed.
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For what sharper pang wilt thou ever find for mortals than the sight of children dead?
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Children
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Poor mother mine, behold I bring my father’s bones gathered from the fire,
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a burden grief has rendered heavy, though this tiny urn contains my all.
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Chorus
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Ah me! ah me! Why bear thy tearful load to the fond mother of the dead,
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a handful of ashes in the stead of those who erst were men of mark in Mycenae?
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Children
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Woe worth the hour! woe worth the day! Reft of my hapless sire, a wretched orphan shall I inherit a desolate house, torn from my father’s arms.
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Chorus
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Woe is thee! Where is now the toil I spent upon my sons? what thank have I for nightly watch? Where the mother’s nursing care? the sleepless vigils mine eyes have kept? the loving kiss upon my children’s brow?
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Theseus
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Adrastus, and ye dames from Argos sprung, ye see these children bearing in their hands the bodies of their valiant sires whom I redeemed; to thee I give these gifts, I and Athens. And ye must bear in mind the memory of this favour,
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marking well the treatment ye have had of me. And to these children I repeat the self-same words, that they may honour this city, to children’s children ever handing on the kindness ye received from us. Be Zeus the witness, with the gods in heaven,
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of the treatment we vouchsafed you ere you left us.
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Adrastus
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Theseus, well we know all the kindness thou hast conferred upon the land of Argos in her need, and ours shall be a gratitude that never waxeth old, for your generous treatment makes us debtors for a like return.
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Theseus
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What yet remains, wherein I can serve you?
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Adrastus
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Fare thee well, for such is thy desert and such thy city’s too.
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Theseus
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Fare thee well, for such is thy desert and such thy city’s too.
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Athena
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Hearken, Theseus, to the words that I Athena utter, telling thee thy duty, which, if thou perform it, will serve thy city.
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Give not these bones to the children to carry to the land of Argos, letting them go so lightly; nay, take first an oath of them that they will requite thee and thy city for your efforts. This oath must Adrastus swear, for as their king it is his right
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to take the oath for the whole realm of Argos. And this shall be the form thereof: We Argives swear we never will against this land lead on our mail-clad troops to war, and, if others come, we will repel them. But if they violate their oath and come against the city, pray
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that the land of Argos may be miserably destroyed.
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Now hearken while I tell thee where thou must slay the victims. Thou hast within thy halls a tripod with brazen feet, which Heracles, in days gone by, after he had o’erthrown the foundations of Ilium and was starting on another enterprise,
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enjoined thee to set up at the Pythian shrine. O’er it cut the throats of three sheep; then grave within the tripod’s hollow belly the oath; this done, deliver it to the god who watches over Delphi to keep, a witness and memorial unto Hellas of the oath.
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And bury the sharp-edged knife, wherewith thou shalt have laid the victims open and shed their blood, deep in the bowels of the earth, hard by the pyres where the seven chieftains burn; for its appearance shall strike them with dismay, if e’er against thy town they come, and shall cause them to return with sorrow.
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When thou hast done all this, dismiss the dead from thy land. And to the god resign as sacred land the spot where their bodies were purified by fire, there by the meeting of the triple roads that lead unto the Isthmus. Thus much to thee, Theseus, I address; next to the sons of Argos I speak; when ye are grown to men’s estate, the town beside Ismenus shall ye sack,