The Tragedies of Seneca / Translated into English Verse, to Which Have Been Appended Comparative Analyses of the Corresponding Greek and Roman Plays, and a Mythological Index

by Lucius Annaeus Seneca

From human sight? What Tanaïs or Nile,

What Tigris, with the waves of Persia mad,

What warlike Rhine, or Tagus, flowing full1325

And turgid with Iberia's golden sands,

Can ever cleanse this right hand of its stains?

Though chill Maeotis pour its icy floods

Upon me; though the boundless sea should pour

Its waters o'er my hands; still would they be

Deep dyed with crime. Where wilt thou take thyself,

Thou murderer? Wilt flee to east, or west?1330