Trachiniae
Choose a text
id="mobileReaderAuthor" class="mobile-reader-author" href="/authors/sophocles" aria-label="More works by Sophocles">
—
⋯
Original / primary: Perseus Eng3
317
317
Nurse
317
Yes, with fierce daring. You shall hear, and then you will bear me witness.
318
When she came alone into the house and saw her son preparing a deep litter in the court, with which to go back and meet his father, she hid herself where none would see. Falling before the altars, she moaned that
319
they were left desolate, and whenever she touched any household thing that she, poor lady, had habitually used in the past, her tears would flow. If, as she roamed hither and thither through the house, she beheld the form of any well-loved servant, she wept in misery at the sight,
320
320
crying aloud upon her own fate, and her childless existence thereafter. But when she finished this, I saw her suddenly rush into the bedchamber of Heracles. I hid in the shadows to keep my observation secret and was watching over her
321
when I saw her spread coverings on the bedstead of Heracles. When she had done this, she sprang up on them and sat in the middle of the bed. Then she broke out in warm streams of tears
322
and said: “Ah, my bridal bed and bridal chamber, farewell now and for ever, since you will never more receive me in these covers as his wife.” She says no more, but with a vehement hand she loosens her robe where the brooch of beaten gold
323
lies above her breasts and bares all her left side and arm. Then I run with all my strength, and warn her son of her intent. But even in the space between my going and our return,
324
we find that she has driven a two-edged sword up through her side to the heart. At that sight, her son gave a great cry. For he knew, poor boy, that in his anger he had driven her to that action. He had learned too late from the servants in the house
325
that she had acted without knowledge and at the will of the monster. Then and there the youth in his misery left no cry of grief unmade as he lamented over her, nor as he fell to kiss her lips; he threw himself at her side, loudly moaning
326
326
that he had rashly attacked her with a false accusation and weeping that he must now live orphaned of both alike, of his father and of her. Such are the fortunes of this house. Rash, indeed, is he who reckons on tomorrow, or perchance on days beyond it.
327
There is no tomorrow, until today is safely past. Exit the Nurse.
328
328
Chorus
328
Which disaster shall I bewail first? Which is more to be pitied? In my grief I cannot decide.
329
329
Chorus
329
One sorrow may be seen in the house; for one we wait with apprehension. To have and to await are one and the same.
335
335
Hyllus
335
O my father! O my misery! What is to become of me? What is my best plan? Ah!
336
336
Old Man
336
Hush, young man! Do not rouse
337
the cruel pain that infuriates your father! He lives, though on the very edge. Bite your tongue and hold it!
338
338
Old Man
338
You must not awake the slumberer! You must not rouse and revive
339
his fierce, recurrent infection, my son!
340
340
Heracles
340
O Zeus, in what land am I? Among what people
341
do I lie, tortured with unending agonies? O me, what pain! Oh, that accursed pest gnaws me once more!
342
342
Old Man
342
Did I not know how much better it was that you should keep silent, instead of scattering
343
sleep from his brain and eyes?
344
344
Heracles
344
O Cenaean rock, foundation of my altars, what cruel reward
345
you have earned me for those fair offerings, O Zeus! Ah, in what ruin you have deposited me, in what ruin! Would that I had never looked on you to my sorrow with my eyes, never come face to face with this blooming madness, which no spell can soothe!
346
Where is the enchanter, where the practiced healer, save Zeus alone, who will charm this catastrophe away? I would be amazed if I saw him from even a great distance!
347
347
Heracles
347
Ah!
348
348
Leave me! Leave me in my misfortune! Leave me to sleep my last. Where, where do you touch me? Where do you lay me? You will kill me, you will kill me! If there was any pain that slumbered, you have aroused it!
349
It has seized me,—oh, the pest comes again!—What is your homeland, you men most ungrateful of all the Greeks? I wore out my wretched days in ridding the Greeks of pests both on the deep and throughout every forest. And now, when I am afflicted, will no man turn merciful fire or sword on me?
350
Oh! Oh! Will no one come and strike the head from this accursed body with one fierce stroke? Ah, me!
351
351
Old Man
351
You are the man’s son, and this task exceeds my strength. Help him, for the strength to save him is at your command,
352
352
Heracles
352
O my son, where are you?
353
Raise me, take hold of me here, here! Oh, oh, my god! Again, again the cruel pest leaps, leaps up to rend me, the
354
wild, uncombatable plague! O Pallas, Pallas, it tortures me again! oh, please, my son, pity your sire! Draw a sword—you will not be blamed for it—strike me beneath my collarbone.
355
Heal this pain with which your godless mother has enraged me! So may I see her fall to ruin, exactly, just exactly, as she has destroyed me!
356
Sweet Hades, brother of Zeus, give me sleep, give me sleep. Kill me in my misery by a swift-flying doom!
357
357
Chorus
357
I shudder, friends, to hear these sorrows
358
which our King suffers. What a man is here, and what misfortunes lash at him!
359
359
Heracles
359
Ah, many and hot and cruel not in name alone have been the labors of these hands, the burdens hoisted upon these shoulders! And yet no toil ever laid on me by the bedfellow of Zeus or by the hateful Eurystheus was as harsh
360
as this thing which the daughter of Oeneus, fair and false, has fastened upon my back, this woven net of the Erinyes in which I perish! Plastered to my sides, it has eaten away my inmost flesh and sucks the channels of my lungs,
361
making my body its home. Already it has drunk away my fresh lifeblood, and my whole body is wasted, conquered by these indescribable bonds. Not spearmen on the battlefield, nor the Giants’ earth-born army, nor the might of savage beasts,
362
362
not Hellas, nor the land of the barbarian, nor any land which I came to purify has ever done this to me. No, a woman, a weak woman, born not to the strength of man, all alone has brought me down without a stroke of the sword! Son, show yourself my trueborn son,
363
and do not honor your mother’s name above your father’s. Bring out the woman that bore you, and give her with your own hands into my hand, that I may know for certain which sight grieves you more—my tortured frame, or hers, when she suffers her just punishment!
364
Go, my son, be bold! Show your pity for me, whom many might think deserving of pity—pity me moaning and weeping like a girl! No one could say that he had ever seen this man do that before. No, always without complaint I used to pursue my troubles.
365
But now in my misery I have been found a woman, instead of the man I used to be.
366
366
Come close, stand near your father and do examine the magnitude of the misfortune by which I suffer; for I will uncover my suffering. Look! See all of you this miserable body;
367
367
see how wretched, how pitiable I am! Ah, misery! The ruinous spasm flames again; it shoots through my sides—I must wrestle once more with that cruel, devouring plague!
368
King Hades, receive me! Strike me, O fire of Zeus! Hurl down your thunderbolt, ruler, dash it, Father, upon my head! Again the pest consumes me, it has blazed up, it has leapt to fury! O hands, my hands,
369
O shoulders and chest and trusty arms, you are indeed those noted arms which once subdued with your might the dweller in Nemea, the scourge of herdsmen, the lion, a creature that no man might approach or confront; you tamed the Lernaean Hydra,
370
and that monstrous army of beasts with double form, hostile, going on hoofed feet, violent, lawless, of surpassing violence; you tamed the beast in Erymanthia, and underground the three-headed whelp of Hades, a resistless terror, offspring of the fierce Echidna; you tamed the dragon
371
that guarded the golden fruit in the farthest places of the earth. These toils and thousands more have I tasted, and no man has ever erected a trophy of victory over my hands. But now, with joints unhinged and with flesh torn to shreds, I have become the miserable spoil of an unseen destroyer,
372
372
—I, who am called the son of noblest mother, I, who am reputed the seed of Zeus, lord of the starry sky. But you may be sure of one thing: though I am nothing, though I cannot move a step, yet she who has done this deed shall feel my heavy hand even so. Let her but come to me
373
so that she may learn to proclaim this message to all the world, that in my death, as in my life, I punished the guilty!
374
374
Chorus
374
Ah, unhappy Greece, what mourning do I foresee for her, if she is cheated of this man!
375
375
Hyllus
375
Father, since your pause permits an answer,
376
hear me, diseased though you are; I will ask you for no more than is my due. Give yourself to me in a mood not as harsh as that to which your heart is now stung. Otherwise you cannot learn in what circumstances you wrongly wish to triumph and wrongly show resentment.
377
377
Heracles
377
Stop when you have said what it is you desire. In this pain of mine I understand none of your many riddles.
378
378
Hyllus
378
I come to tell you of my mother—her present circumstances and how she erred unknowingly.
379
379
Heracles
379
You corrupt thing! Have you indeed mentioned her name again,
380
the name, “Mother, Murderess of Father,” in my hearing?
381
381
Hyllus
381
Yes, for her condition is such that my silence shames me.
382
382
Heracles
382
No, it does not shame you, when you consider her past crimes.
383
383
Hyllus
383
You will not say so, at least in view of her deeds today.
384
384
Heracles
384
Speak—but take care that you not be found corrupt.
385
385
Hyllus
385
I will speak. She is just now dead, a new murder.
386
386
Heracles
386
By whose hand? Your sinister words give a prophecy of wonder!
387
387
Hyllus
387
She did it by her own hand, and no other’s.
388
388
Heracles
388
Ah, no! Before she died by mine as she deserved!
389
389
Hyllus
389
Even your rage would be deflected, if you would learn the whole of it.
390
390
Heracles
390
Your tale begins strangely, but tell me what you mean.
391
391
Hyllus
391
The sum is this: she did wrong, but with a good intent.
392
392
Heracles
392
Did she do a good deed, corrupt traitor, when she killed your father?
393
393
Hyllus
393
No, her plan was to apply a love-charm for your heart, when she saw your new marriage inside the house, but she missed her aim.
394
394
Heracles
394
And what Trachinian is so potent a charmer?
395
395
Hyllus
395
Nessus the Centaur persuaded her long ago to inflame your desire with such a potion.
396
396
Heracles
396
Ah! Ah, misery! I am lost, ruined, ruined! The light of day exists for me no more!
397
Ah, now I understand the depth of my misfortune! Go, my son! Your father is no more. Summon for me all the crop of your brothers. Summon, too, poor Alcmena, in vain the bedfellow of Zeus, so that
398
you may hear my final words tell what oracles I know.
399
399
Hyllus
399
I cannot. Your mother is not here. It happens that she keeps her home at Tiryns by the sea. Some of your children she has taken to raise with her there, and others, you will find, are dwelling in Thebes.
400
But we who are with you, Father, will render at your command all service that is needed.
401
401
Heracles
401
401
Hear, then, your task. You have come to where you will reveal what sort of man you are, who are called my son. It was foreshown to me by my father far in the past that I would
402
perish by no creature that had the breath of life, but by one already dead, a dweller with Hades. So this savage Centaur in death has killed me alive, just as the divine will had been foretold. And I will show you how
403
later oracles tally with the first and testify to the old prophecy. I wrote them down for myself from the mouth of my father’s oak of many tongues in the grove of the Selli, who dwell on the hills and sleep on the ground. The tree said that, at the time which lives and now is,
404
my release from the toils laid upon me would be accomplished. And I expected prosperous days, but the meaning, it seems, was only that I would die. For toil comes no more to the dead. Since, then, my son, those words are clearly finding their fulfillment,
405
you, on your part, must fight on my behalf. You must not delay, and so sharpen my tongue, but give your consent to work with me, like one who has discovered that best of laws, the law of obedience to your father.
406
406
Hyllus
406
Yes, Father—though in coming to this point in our talk
407
I begin to have some fear—I will obey you in all your decrees.
408
408
Heracles
408
First of all, put your right hand in mine.
409
409
Hyllus
409
With what purpose in mind do you so strongly urge this pledge on me?
410
410
Heracles
410
Give your hand at once—do not disobey me!
411
411
Hyllus
411
Here, I hold it out to you. Nothing will be denied you.
412
412
Heracles
412
Now, swear by the head of Zeus my begetter!
413
413
Hyllus
413
To do what deed? May this also be revealed?
414
414
Heracles
414
To perform for me the task that I shall impose.
415
415
Hyllus
415
I swear it with Zeus for witness of the oath.
416
416
Heracles
416
And pray that, if you break this oath, you may suffer.
417
417
Hyllus
417
I shall not suffer, since I will keep it. Yet so I pray.
418
418
Heracles
418
Good, then do you know the summit of Oeta, Zeus’s sacred mountain?
419
419
Hyllus
419
I know it. I have often stood on that height to sacrifice.
420
420
Heracles
420
Then, you must carry my body there after raising it up in your own hands, aided by as many of our friends as you require;
421
421
and when you have cut many a branch from the deep-rooted oak and chopped down many a sturdy wild-olive, you must lay my body on them and with a flaming pine-torch burn it. And let no tear of mourning show itself there.