Trachiniae
Choose a text
id="mobileReaderAuthor" class="mobile-reader-author" href="/authors/sophocles" aria-label="More works by Sophocles">
—
⋯
Original / primary: Perseus Eng3
207
207
Deianeira
207
My reason for confidence is this: there is the appearance of success in the plan. But the proof I have not yet essayed.
208
208
Chorus
208
Your knowledge must come after you act. For you can have no test which is not fanciful except by making the attempt.
209
209
Deianeira
209
Well, we shall know shortly, for there I see the man
210
already at the doors. He will soon depart. Only I ask that I may be well sheltered by you! When you accomplish even shameful deeds under the cover of darkness, you will never fall into disgrace.
211
211
Lichas
211
What are your instructions? Tell me, daughter of Oeneus, for already I am tardy because of my long stay.
212
212
Deianeira
212
In fact I have just been seeing to this very thing for you, Lichas, while you were addressing the foreign women in the house: take for me this long robe, prepared by my own hand, a gift to my absent husband. Give it to him and tell him to be sure that no man
213
puts it on his body before him and that it not be seen by the light of the sun, nor by the sacred precinct, nor by the blaze at the hearth, until he stands conspicuous before all eyes and shows it clearly to the gods on a day for the sacrifice of bulls.
214
For so had I vowed, that if I should ever see or hear that he had come safely home, I would dutifully adorn him with this robe and reveal him to the god as a new sacrificer in new garb. As proof of your commission you will carry a token which he will easily recognize
215
215
within the circle of this seal. Now go; and first, observe the rule that messengers should be unwilling to act out of line, and second, see to it that my thanks may be joined to his, doubling the gratitude you earn.
216
216
Lichas
216
If I practice Hermes’ art of heraldry with any skill, I certainly will never slip up while doing your errand. I will not fail to carry and present this chest in the same condition, nor to add to it the proper assurance of the reasons which you have for sending it.
217
217
Deianeira
217
You may go now, for you know well
218
how things are with us in the house.
219
219
Lichas
219
I know and will report that all is well.
220
220
Deianeira
220
And you know, further, from your own eyes my greeting to the foreign girl, how I welcomed her warmly.
221
221
Lichas
221
So much so that my heart was struck with joy.
222
222
Deianeira
222
What more, then, is there for you to tell him? I am afraid that it would be too soon to speak of the longing on my part, before I know if I am longed for there. Exit Lichas on one side and Deianeira into the house.
223
223
Chorus
223
O you who dwell by the warm springs near ships’ haven and rocky cliff, and you who live by
224
the crags of Oeta! And you dwellers by the land-locked waters of the Malian gulf, and the headland sacred to the virgin-goddess of the golden shuttle, where are the famed councils of the Greeks at the gates!
225
225
Chorus
225
Soon the glorious voice of the flute will go up for you again, sounding no bothersome, strident notes, but divine music worthy of the lyre! For the son whom Alcmena bore to Zeus
226
is hurrying homeward, with spoils won by supreme valor.
231
231
Deianeira
231
Friends, how I fear that I may have gone too far in all that I was doing just now!
232
232
Chorus
232
What has happened, Deianeira, daughter of Oeneus?
233
233
Deianeira
233
I do not know, but I despair that I will soon be found to have done a great wrong, when my hope was for good.
234
234
Chorus
234
Surely it is nothing that bears on your gift to Heracles?
235
235
Deianeira
235
Yes, it is! So much so that I would never recommend to anybody
236
that he be eager for action in obscurity.
237
237
Chorus
237
Tell us the cause of your fear, if it may be told.
238
238
Deianeira
238
A thing has happened, my friends, such that, if I declare it, it will be a strange marvel for you to hear. The implement with which I was just now anointing the festal robe,
239
239
a white tuft of fleecy sheep’s wool, has disappeared, eaten away by no animal in the courtyard, but self-devoured and self-destroyed it crumbled down over a stone slab. But I must tell the story at greater length, so that you may know exactly how this thing was accomplished.
240
I neglected no part of the precepts which the savage Centaur gave me when he was hurting from the bitter barb in his side; they were in my memory, like the graven words which no hand may wash from a tablet of bronze. Now this was his order to me, and I obeyed it:
241
to keep this potion hidden in inmost recesses always away from fire and untouched by the sun’s warm ray, until I should apply it, newly spread, where I wished. So I had done. And just now, when the moment for action had come, I performed the anointing secretly in the rooms of the house
242
with a tuft of soft wool which I had plucked from a sheep of our home-flock; then I folded up my gift, and laid it, unvisited by sunlight, within its hollow chest, as you saw. But as I am going back into the house, I see a thing inexplicable by words and beyond the knowledge of the human mind to understand.
243
For somehow I happened to have thrown the ball of wool, with which I had been anointing the robe, into the full blaze of the sun’s rays. As it grew warm, it ran all into confusion, and quickly crumbled to powder on the ground, like nothing in appearance so much as
244
the morsels left by a saw’s teeth when wood is cut. It lies just so, fallen. And from the earth, where it lay exposed, clotted foam seethes up, like the rich juice of the blue fruit from the vine of Bacchus when it is poured on the ground.
245
245
And so I am distraught, and I do not know to which side my thoughts should fall. I only see that I have brought a terrible deed to completion. For why or in thanks for what should the monster in his death-throes have shown good will to me, because of whom he was dying? Impossible! No, he was
246
enchanting me in order to destroy the man who had shot him. And now too late I gain the knowledge of this, when it can no longer help. Yes, I alone—unless my outlook prove mistaken—I, miserable one, shall completely destroy him! For I know that the arrow which made the wound harmed
247
even the god Cheiron, and that it kills all varieties of beasts that it touches. Since it is this same black venom in the blood that has passed out through the wound of Nessus, must it not kill Heracles also? To my mind, at least, it must. Nevertheless, I am resolved that, if he is to be brought down,
248
at the same time I too will die along with him in the selfsame fall. No woman could bear to live with a reputation for evil, if she cares above all that her nature is not evil.
249
249
Chorus
249
Fear is necessary when terrible deeds are done, but one should not judge one’s expectations before the outcome is known.
250
250
Deianeira
250
There is no room for expectation when one’s plans are bad, at least the kind of expectation which lends confidence.
251
251
Chorus
251
And yet in the case of those whose mistakes were unwitting, men’s anger is softened. So it should be for you.
252
252
Deianeira
252
No, such words are not for one who took part in the wrongdoing,
253
but only for him who has no trouble at his own door.
254
254
Chorus
254
It would suit you to refrain from saying anything more, unless you would reveal anything to your own son. For he is here, the one who earlier went to seek his father.
255
255
Hyllus
255
O Mother, how I wish I could choose one of three fates for you!
256
I wish that you no longer lived, or, if you remained, that someone else called you “Mother”, or that some new and kinder heart had been exchanged for your present one!
257
257
Deianeira
257
My son, what have I done to cause your hate?
258
258
Hyllus
258
Listen to me! You have killed
259
your husband, my father—my father!
260
260
Deianeira
260
oh, no! What is this you have blurted out, Hyllus?
261
261
Hyllus
261
Only what cannot but be fulfilled. For who could undo what has happened?
262
262
Deianeira
262
What do you mean, son? From whom did you hear this
263
that you charge me with a crime so awful?
264
264
Hyllus
264
I have seen my father’s overwhelming misfortune with my own eyes. I did not learn of it by hearsay.
265
265
Deianeira
265
Where did you find him? Where were you with him?
266
266
Hyllus
266
If you need to hear, then I must tell all.
267
After sacking the famous city of Eurytus, he went his way with the trophies and choice spoils of victory. There is a sea-washed headland of Euboea, Cape Cenaeum, where he marked out altars and a sacred grove to the Zeus of his fathers.
268
There I first saw him, to the gratification of my desire. He was about to make a sacrifice rich in offerings when his own herald, Lichas, came to him from home with your gift, the deadly robe, in his hands. This he put on as you prescribed
269
and then began his offering with twelve bulls, free from blemish, the prime of the spoil; but altogether he brought a hundred mixed victims to the altar. At first the miserable wretch prayed with serene soul and rejoiced in his ornate garb.
270
But when the blood-fed flame began to blaze from the holy offerings and from the resinous pine, a sweat broke out on his skin and the tunic clung to his sides close-glued at every joint, as if by a craftsman’s hand; there came
271
a convulsive, biting pain in his bones; and then the venom, like that of some deadly, cruel viper, began to devour him. At that he shouted for the ill-fated Lichas—who was in no way to blame for your crime—asking by what plots he had brought that robe.
272
But he, unfortunate one, all-unknowing, said that he had brought your gift from you alone, just as it had been sent. When Heracles heard it, just as a piercing spasm clutched his lungs, he caught him by the foot where the ankle bends in the socket
273
and threw him at a surf-beaten rock in the sea, causing the white brain to ooze from his hair, when the crown of his head had been scattered and his blood with it.
274
274
But all the people lifted up a cry of astounded grief when they saw that the one was frenzied, and the other destroyed;
275
and no one dared to approach the man. For he convulsed down to the ground and up into the air as he shouted and cried out. All around the cliffs resounded, both the steep headlands of Locris and the Euboean capes. But when he was exhausted with repeatedly
276
throwing himself on the ground in his anguish and repeatedly shouting with howls of grief, as he dwelled on his ill-mated marriage with miserable you and his alliance with Oeneus, which, he said, he got for himself as the ruin of his life, then from out of the shrouding altar-smoke
277
he raised his wildly-rolling eyes and saw me weeping among his many troops. He stared at me and called me: “O my son, come to me. Do not fly from my trouble, not even if you have to share my death. Come, lift me up and away and above all put me
278
in a place where no one can see me. But if you have pity, at least carry me in all speed away from this country so that I may not die here.” When he had laid this command on me, we put him onboard ship and brought him just barely to this land,
279
279
while he moaned in his convulsions. And you shall soon see him, either alive or freshly dead. Such, Mother, are the designs and deeds against my father of which you have been found guilty. May Punishing Justice and the Erinys punish you for them! Yes, if it be right, that is my prayer.
280
Right it is, for to my eyes you have rejected the right by killing the best and bravest of men in all the world, whose equal you will never see again. Deianeira moves towards the house.
281
281
Chorus
281
Why do you leave without a word? Do you not know that your silence pleads your accuser’s case?
282
282
Hyllus
282
Let her leave. May a fair wind speed her far from my sight! Why should she falsely keep the dignity of the name “Mother,” when she is all unlike a mother in her deeds? No, let her go—farewell to her. May such delight as
283
she gives my father become her own! Exit Deianeira into the house, followed at a distance by Hyllus.
284
284
Chorus
284
See, maidens, how suddenly the divine word of the old prophecy has closed upon us, which allotted this destiny: that when the twelfth year
285
with its full complement of months should have come to an end, it would complete the undertaking of toils for the true-born son of Zeus! And that promise rides before a steady wind to sure fulfillment. For how shall he who does not see the light of day
286
ever have toilsome servitude any more in death?
287
287
Chorus
287
For if the Centaur’s deceitful torture smears his sides with a murderous net, where clings the venom which Death birthed and the gleaming serpent nourished,
288
how can he look upon tomorrow’s sun, when that appalling Hydra-shape grasps him? Those murderous goads, prepared
289
by the deceptive words of black-haired Nessus, torment him with confused thrashing and seethe on his skin.
296
296
First Semi-Chorus
296
Is it fancy, or did I just now hear some cry of grief rushing through the house?
297
What is this?
298
298
Second Semi-Chorus
298
It is no uncertain sound, but a wail of anguish from inside. The house has some new trouble.
299
299
Chorus
299
And note how strangely, with what consternation on her brow
300
that old woman approaches to give us some news.
301
301
Nurse
301
Ah, my daughters, great, indeed, are the sorrows for us that began with the gift sent to Heracles!
302
302
Chorus
302
Old woman, what new trouble have you to tell?
303
303
Nurse
303
Deianeira has departed on the last
304
of all her journeys, departed without stirring a foot.
305
305
Chorus
305
Poor, lost one! Tell me, what was the manner of her death?
306
woman, with what end did she meet?
307
this death upon death, accomplishing it all on her own?
308
308
Nurse
308
By a stroke of the sword which gives cause for mourning.
309
309
Chorus
309
Did you witness that violent deed, poor helpless one?
310
310
Nurse
310
I did, yes, since I was standing close by.
311
311
Chorus
311
What was it? How was it done? Oh, speak!
312
312
Nurse
312
Of her own accord she set her hand to the deed.
313
313
Chorus
313
The firstborn, the firstborn of that newly arisen bride is
314
a great Erinys on this house!
315
315
Nurse
315
Too true. And had you been close at hand and seen her do it, you would have pitied her even more.
316
316
Chorus
316
And could a woman’s hand dare to carry out such deeds?