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The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.

ÆSCHYLOS
TRAGEDIES
AND
FRAGMENTS

Translated by the late

E. H. PLUMPTRE D.D.

Dean of Wells

WITH NOTES AND RHYMED CHORAL ODES

IN TWO PARTS

BOSTON U.S.A.

D. C. HEATH & CO. PUBLISHERS

1901

PUBLISHER'S NOTE

The reception accorded to the pocket edition of Dean Plumptre's “Dante” has encouraged the publishers to issue in the same format the Dean's masterly translation of the Tragedies of Æschylos.

In preparing the present issue they have followed the carefully revised text of the second edition, and have included the scholarly and suggestive annotations with which the Dean invariably delighted to enrich his work as a translator.

The seven Plays, which are all that remain of the seventy or eighty with which Æschylos is credited, are presented in their chronological order. Passages in which the reading or the rendering is more or less conjectural, and in which, accordingly, the aid of the commentator is advisable, are marked by an asterisk; and passages which are regarded as spurious by editors of authority have been placed in brackets.

In translating the Choral Odes the Dean used such unrhymed metres—observing the strophic and antistrophic arrangement—as seemed to him most analogous in their general rhythmical effect to those of the original. He added in an appendix, however, for the sake of those who preferred the rhymed form with which they were familiar, a rhymed version of the chief Odes of the Oresteian trilogy. Those in the other dramas did not appear to him to be of equal interest, or to lend themselves with equal facility to a like attempt. The Greek text on which the translation is based is, for the most part, that of Mr. Paley's edition of 1861.

A translation was also given of the Fragments which have survived the wreck of the lost plays, so that the work contains all that has been left to us associated with the name of Æschylos.

In the present edition a chronological outline has been substituted for the biographical sketch of the poet, who from his daring enlargement of the scope of the drama, the magnificence of his spectacular effects and the splendour of his genius, was rightly honoured as “the Father of Tragedy.”

PART I

PART II

CHRONOLOGICAL OUTLINE OF THE LIFE OF ÆSCHYLOS

[1]. Cf., the legend of Caedmon, “the Father of English Song.”

THE PERSIANS[^[2]]

DRAMATIS PERSONÆ

Atossa

Ghost of Dareios

Messenger

Xerxes

Chorus of Persian Elders

ARGUMENT.—When Xerxes came to the throne of Persia, remembering how his father Dareios had sought to subdue the land of the Hellenes, and seeking to avenge the defeat of Datis and Artaphernes on the field of Marathon, he gathered together a mighty host of all nations under his dominion, and led them against Hellas. And at first he prospered and prevailed, crossed the Hellespont, and defeated the Spartans at Thermopylæ, and took the city of Athens, from which the greater part of its citizens had fled. But at last he and his armament met with utter overthrow at Salamis. Meanwhile Atossa, the mother of Xerxes, with her handmaids and the elders of the Persians, waited anxiously at Susa, where was the palace of the great king, for tidings of her son.

[2]. Note.—Within two years after the battle of Salamis, the feeling of natural exultation was met by Phrynichos in a tragedy bearing the title of The Phœnikians, and having for its subject the defeat of Xerxes. As he had come under the displeasure of the Athenian demos for having brought on the stage the sufferings of their Ionian kinsmen in his Capture of Miletos, he was apparently anxious to regain his popularity by a “sensation” drama of another kind; and his success seems to have prompted Æschylos to a like attempt five years later, B.C. 473. The Tetralogy to which the play belonged, and which gained the first prize on its representation, included the two tragedies (unconnected in subject) of Phineus and Glaucos, and the satyric drama of Prometheus the Fire-stealer.

The play has, therefore, the interest of being strictly a contemporary narrative of the battle of Salamis and its immediate consequences, by one who may himself have been present at it, and whose brother Ameinias (Herod, viii. 93) distinguished himself in it by a special act of heroism. As such, making all allowance for the influence of dramatic exigencies, and the tendency to colour history so as to meet the tastes of patriotic Athenians, it may claim, where it differs from the story told by Herodotos, to be a more trustworthy record. And it has, we must remember, the interest of being the only extant drama of its class, the only tragedy the subject of which is not taken from the cycle of heroic myths, but from the national history of the time. Far below the Oresteian Trilogy as it may seem to us as a work of art, having more the character of a spectacle than a poem, it was, we may well believe, unusually successful at the time, and it is said to have been chosen by Hiero for reproduction in Syracuse after Æschylos had settled there under his patronage.

THE PERSIANS

Scene.—Susa, in front of the palace of Xerxes, the tomb

of Dareios occupying the position of the thymele

Enter Chorus of Persian Elders.

We the title bear of Faithful,[^[3]]

Friends of Persians gone to Hellas,

Watchers left of treasure city,[^[4]]

Gold-abounding, whom, as oldest,

Xerxes hath himself appointed,

He, the offspring of Dareios,

As the warders of his country.

And about our king's returning,

And our army's, gold-abounding,

Over-much, and boding evil,

10

Does my mind within me shudder

(For our whole force, Asia's offspring,

Now is gone), and for our young chief

Sorely frets: nor courier cometh,

Nor any horseman, bringing tidings

To the city of the Persians.

From Ecbatana departing,

Susa, or the Kissian fortress,[^[5]]

Forth they sped upon their journey,

Some in ships, and some on horses,

Some on foot, still onward marching,

In their close array presenting

Squadrons duly armed for battle:

20

Then Armistres, Artaphernes,

Megabazes, and Astaspes,

Mighty leaders of the Persians,

Kings, and of the great King servants,[^[6]]

March, the chiefs of mighty army.

Archers they and mounted horsemen.

Dread to look on, fierce in battle,

Artembares proud, on horseback,

And Masistres, and Imæos,

30

Archer famed, and Pharandakes,

And the charioteer Sosthanes.

Neilos mighty and prolific

Sent forth others, Susikanes,

Pegastagon, Egypt's offspring,

And the chief of sacred Memphis;

Great Arsames, Ariomardos,

Ruler of primeval Thebæ,

And the marsh-men,[^[7]] and the rowers,

Dread, and in their number countless.

40

And there follow crowds of Lydians,

Very delicate and stately,[^[8]]

Who the people of the mainland

Rule throughout—whom Mitragathes

And brave Arkteus, kingly chieftains,

Led, from Sardis, gold-abounding,

Riding on their many chariots,

Three or four a-breast their horses,

Sight to look upon all dreadful.

And the men of sacred Tmôlos[^[9]]

Rush to place the yoke of bondage

On the neck of conquered Hellas.

50

Mardon, Tharabis, spear-anvils,[^[10]]

And the Mysians, javelin-darting;[^[11]]

Babylôn too, gold-abounding,

Sends a mingled cloud, swept onward,

Both the troops who man the vessels,

And the skilled and trustful bowmen;

And the race the sword that beareth,

Follows from each clime of Asia,

At the great King's dread commandment.

These, the bloom of Persia's greatness,

Now are gone forth to the battle;

60

And for these, their mother country,

Asia, mourns with mighty yearning;

Wives and mothers faint with trembling

Through the hours that slowly linger,

Counting each day as it passes.

Strophe I

The king's great host, destroying cities mighty,

Hath to the land beyond the sea passed over,

Crossing the straits of Athamantid Helle,[^[12]]

70

On raft by ropes secured,

And thrown his path, compact of many a vessel,

As yoke upon the neck of mighty ocean.

Antistrophe I

Of populous Asia thus the mighty ruler

'Gainst all the land his God-sent host directeth

In two divisions, both by land and water,

Trusting the chieftains stern,

The men who drive the host to fight, relentless—

He, sprung from gold-born race, a hero godlike.[^[13]]

80

Strophe II

Glancing with darkling look, and eyes as of ravening dragon,

With many a hand, and many a ship, and Syrian chariot driving,[^[14]]

He upon spearmen renowned brings battle of conquering arrows.[^[15]]

Antistrophe II

Yea, there is none so tried as, withstanding the flood of the mighty,

90

To keep within steadfast bounds that wave of ocean resistless;

Hard to fight is the host of the Persians, the people stout-hearted.

Mesode

Yet ah! what mortal can ward the craft of the God all-deceiving?

[*]Who, with a nimble foot, of one leap is easily sovereign?

For Atè, fawning and kind, at first a mortal betraying,

100

Then in snares and meshes decoys him,

Whence one who is but man in vain doth struggle to 'scape from.

Strophe III

For Fate of old, by the high Gods' decree,

Prevailed, and on the Persians laid this task,

Wars with the crash of towers,

And set the surge of horsemen in array,

And the fierce sack that lays a city low.

110

Antistrophe III

But now they learnt to look on ocean plains,[^[16]]

The wide sea hoary with the violent blast,

Waxing o'er confident

In cables formed of many a slender strand,

And rare device of transport for the host.

Strophe IV

So now my soul is torn,

As clad in mourning, in its sore affright,

Ah me! ah me! for all the Persian host!

120

Lest soon our country learn

That Susa's mighty fort is void of men.

Antistrophe IV

And through the Kissians' town

Shall echo heavy thud of hands on breast.

Woe! woe! when all the crowd of women speak

This utterance of great grief,

And byssine robes are rent in agony.

Strophe V

For all the horses strong,

And host that march on foot,

Like swarm of bees, have gone with him who led

130

The vanguard of the host.

Crossing the sea-washed, bridge-built promontory

That joins the shores of either continent.[^[17]]

Antistrophe V

And beds with tears are wet

In grief for husbands gone,

And Persian wives are delicate in grief,

Each yearning for her lord;

And each who sent her warrior-spouse to battle

140

Now mourns at home in dreary solitude.

But come, ye Persians now,

And sitting in this ancient hall of ours,

Let us take thought deep-counselling and wise,

(Sore need is there of that,)

How fareth now the great king Xerxes, he

Who calls Dareios sire,

Bearing the name our father bore of old?

Is it the archers' bow that wins the day?

Or does the strength prevail

150

Of iron point that heads the spear's strong shaft?

But lo! in glory like the face of gods,

The mother of my king, my queen, appears:

Let us do reverent homage at her feet;

Yea, it is meet that all

Should speak to her with words of greeting kind.

Enter Atossa in a chariot of state

Chor. O sovereign queen of Persian wives deep-zoned,

Mother of Xerxes, reverend in thine age,

Wife of Dareios! hail!

'Twas thine to join in wedlock with a spouse

Whom Persians owned as God,[^[18]]

And of a God thou art the mother too,

Unless its ancient Fortune fails our host.

160

Atoss. Yes, thus I come, our gold-decked palace leaving,

The bridal bower Dareios with me slept in.

Care gnaws my heart, but now I tell you plainly

A tale, my friends, which may not leave me fearless,

Lest boastful wealth should stumble at the threshold,

And with his foot o'erturn the prosperous fortune

That great Dareios raised with Heaven's high blessing.

And twofold care untold my bosom haunteth:

We may not honour wealth that has no warriors,

Nor on the poor shines light to strength proportioned;

Wealth without stint we have, yet for our eye we tremble;

170

For as the eye of home I deem a master's presence.

Wherefore, ye Persians, aid me now in counsel;

Trusty and old, in you lies hope of wisdom.

Chor. Queen of our land! be sure thou need'st not utter

Or thing or word twice o'er, which power may point to;

Thou bid'st us counsel give who fain would serve thee.

Atoss. Ever with many visions of the night[^[19]]

Am I encompassed, since my son went forth,

Leading a mighty host, with aim to sack

The land of the Ionians. But ne'er yet

180

Have I beheld a dream so manifest

As in the night just past. And this I'll tell thee:

There stood by me two women in fair robes;

And this in Persian garments was arrayed,

And that in Dorian came before mine eyes;

In stature both of tallest, comeliest size;

And both of faultless beauty, sisters twain

Of the same stock.[^[20]] And they twain had their homes,

One in the Hellenic, one in alien land.

And these two, as I dreamt I saw, were set

190

At variance with each other. And my son

Learnt it, and checked and mollified their wrath,

And yokes them to his chariot, and his collar

He places on their necks. And one was proud

Of that equipment,[^[21]] and in harness gave

Her mouth obedient; but the other kicked,

And tears the chariot's trappings with her hands,

And rushes off uncurbed, and breaks its yoke

Asunder. And my son falls low, and then

His father comes, Dareios, pitying him.

And lo! when Xerxes sees him, he his clothes

200

Rends round his limbs. These things I say I saw

In visions of the night; and when I rose,

And dipped my hands in fountain flowing clear,[^[22]]

I at the altar stood with hand that bore

Sweet incense, wishing holy chrism to pour

To the averting Gods whom thus men worship.

And I beheld an eagle in full flight

To Phœbos' altar-hearth; and then, my friends,

210

I stood, struck dumb with fear; and next I saw

A kite pursuing, in her wingèd course,

And with his claws tearing the eagle's head,

Which did nought else but crouch and yield itself.

Such terrors it has been my lot to see,

And yours to hear: For be ye sure, my son,

If he succeed, will wonder-worthy prove;

But if he fail, still irresponsible

He to the people, and in either case,

He, should he but return, is sovereign still.[^[23]]

Chor. We neither wish, O Lady, thee to frighten

O'ermuch with what we say, nor yet encourage:

But thou, the Gods adoring with entreaties,

If thou hast seen aught ill, bid them avert it,

And that all good things may receive fulfilment

For thee, thy children, and thy friends and country.

220

And next 'tis meet libations due to offer

To Earth and to the dead. And ask thy husband,

Dareios, whom thou say'st by night thou sawest,

With kindly mood from 'neath the Earth to send thee

Good things to light for thee and for thine offspring,

While adverse things shall fade away in darkness.

Such things do I, a self-taught seer, advise thee

In kindly mood, and any way we reckon

That good will come to thee from out these omens.

Atoss. Well, with kind heart, hast thou, as first expounder,

Out of my dreams brought out a welcome meaning

For me, and for my sons; and thy good wishes,

May they receive fulfilment! And this also,

As thou dost bid, we to the Gods will offer

230

And to our friends below, when we go homeward.

But first, my friends, I wish to hear of Athens,

Where in the world do men report it standeth?[^[24]]

Chor. Far to the West, where sets our king the Sun-God.

Atoss. Was it this city my son wished to capture?

Chor. Aye, then would Hellas to our king be subject.

Atoss. And have they any multitude of soldiers?

Chor. A mighty host, that wrought the Medes much mischief.

Atoss. And what besides? Have they too wealth sufficing?

Chor. A fount of silver have they, their land's treasure.[^[25]]

240

Atoss. Have they a host in archers' skill excelling?

Chor. Not so, they wield the spear and shield and bucklers.[^[26]]

Atoss. What shepherd rules and lords it o'er their people?

Chor. Of no man are they called the slaves or subjects.

Atoss. How then can they sustain a foe invading?

Chor. So that they spoiled Dareios' goodly army.

Atoss. Dread news is thine for sires of those who're marching.

Chor. Nay, but I think thou soon wilt know the whole truth;

This running one may know is that of Persian:[^[27]]

For good or evil some clear news he bringeth.

250

Enter Messenger

Mess. O cities of the whole wide land of Asia!

O soil of Persia, haven of great wealth!

How at one stroke is brought to nothingness

Our great prosperity, and all the flower

Of Persia's strength is fallen! Woe is me!

'Tis ill to be the first to bring ill news;

Yet needs must I the whole woe tell, ye Persians:

All our barbaric mighty host is lost.[^[28]]

Strophe I

Chor. O piteous, piteous woe!

260

O strange and dread event!

Weep, O ye Persians, hearing this great grief!

Mess. Yea, all things there are ruined utterly;

And I myself beyond all hopes behold

The light of day at home.

Antistrophe I

Chor. O'er-long doth life appear

To me, bowed down with years,

On hearing this unlooked-for misery.

Mess. And I, indeed, being present and not hearing

The tales of others, can report, ye Persians,

What ills were brought to pass.

Strophe II

Chor. Alas, alas! in vain

The many-weaponed and commingled host

270

Went from the land of Asia to invade

The soil divine of Hellas.

Mess. Full of the dead, slain foully, are the coasts

Of Salamis, and all the neighbouring shore.

Antistrophe II

Chor. Alas, alas! sea-tossed

The bodies of our friends, and much disstained:

Thou say'st that they are drifted to and fro

[*]In far out-floating garments.[^[29]]

Mess. E'en so; our bows availed not, but the host

Has perished, conquered by the clash of ships.

Strophe III

Chor. Wail, raise a bitter cry

280

And full of woe, for those who died in fight.

How every way the Gods have wrought out ill,

Ah me! ah me, our army all destroyed.

Mess. O name of Salamis that most I loathe!

Ah, how I groan, remembering Athens too!

Antistrophe III

Chor. Yea, to her enemies

Athens may well be hateful, and our minds

Remember how full many a Persian wife

290

She, for no cause, made widows and bereaved.

Atoss. Long time I have been silent in my woe,

Crushed down with grief; for this calamity

Exceeds all power to tell the woe, or ask.

Yet still we mortals needs must bear the griefs

The Gods send on us. Clearly tell thy tale,

Unfolding the whole mischief, even though

Thou groan'st at evils, who there is not dead,

And which of our chief captains we must mourn,

And who, being set in office o'er the host,

Left by their death their office desolate.

300

Mess. Xerxes still lives and sees the light of day.

Atoss. To my house, then, great light thy words have brought,

Bright dawn of morning after murky night.

Mess. Artembares, the lord of myriad horse,

On the hard flinty coasts of the Sileni

Is now being dashed; and valiant Dadakes,

Captain of thousands, smitten with the spear,

Leapt wildly from his ship. And Tenagon,

Best of the true old Bactrians, haunts the soil

Of Aias' isle; Lilaios, Arsames,

310

And with them too Argestes, there defeated,

Hard by the island where the doves abound,[^[30]]

Beat here and there upon the rocky shore.

[And from the springs of Neilos, Ægypt's stream,

Arkteus, Adeues, Pheresseues too,

These with Pharnuchos in one ship were lost;]

Matallos, Chrysa-born, the captain bold

Of myriads, leader he of swarthy horse

Some thrice ten thousand strong, has fallen low,

His red beard, hanging all its shaggy length,

Deep dyed with blood, and purpled all his skin.

Arabian Magos, Bactrian Artames,

320

They perished, settlers in a land full rough.

[Amistris and Amphistreus, guiding well

The spear of many a conflict, and the noble

Ariomardos, leaving bitter grief

For Sardis; and the Mysian Seisames.]

With twelve score ships and ten came Tharybis;

Lyrnæan he in birth, once fair in form,

He lies, poor wretch, a death inglorious dying:

And, first in valour proved, Syennesis,

Kilikian satrap, who, for one man, gave

Most trouble to his foes, and nobly died.

330

Of leaders such as these I mention make,

And out of many evils tell but few.

Atoss. Woe, woe! I hear the very worst of ills,

Shame to the Persians, cause of bitter wail;

But tell me, going o'er the ground again,

How great the number of the Hellenes' navy,

That they presumed with Persia's armament

To wage their warfare in the clash of ships.

Mess. As far as numbers went, be sure the ships

Of Persia had the better, for the Hellenes

340

Had, as their total, ships but fifteen score,

And other ten selected as reserve.[^[31]]

And Xerxes (well I know it) had a thousand

Which he commanded—those that most excelled[^[32]]

In speed were twice five score and seven in number;

So stands the account. Deem'st thou our forces less

In that encounter? Nay, some Power above

Destroyed our host, and pressed the balance down

With most unequal fortune, and the Gods

Preserve the city of the Goddess Pallas.

Atoss. Is the Athenians' city then unsacked?

350

Mess. Their men are left, and that is bulwark strong.[^[33]]

Atoss. Next tell me how the fight of ships began.

Who led the attack? Were those Hellenes the first,

Or was't my son, exulting in his strength?

Mess. The author of the mischief, O my mistress,

Was some foul fiend or Power on evil bent;

For lo! a Hellene from the Athenian host[^[34]]

Came to thy son, to Xerxes, and spake thus,

That should the shadow of the dark night come,

The Hellenes would not wait him, but would leap

360

Into their rowers' benches, here and there,

And save their lives in secret, hasty flight.

And he forthwith, this hearing, knowing not

The Hellene's guile, nor yet the Gods' great wrath,

Gives this command to all his admirals,

Soon as the sun should cease to burn the earth

With his bright rays, and darkness thick invade

The firmament of heaven, to set their ships

In threefold lines, to hinder all escape,

And guard the billowy straits, and others place

370

In circuit round about the isle of Aias:

For if the Hellenes 'scaped an evil doom,

And found a way of secret, hasty flight,

It was ordained that all should lose their heads.[^[35]]

Such things he spake from soul o'erwrought with pride,

For he knew not what fate the Gods would send;

And they, not mutinous, but prompt to serve,

Then made their supper ready, and each sailor

Fastened his oar around true-fitting thole;

And when the sunlight vanished, and the night

Had come, then each man, master of an oar,

380

Went to his ship, and all men bearing arms,

And through the long ships rank cheered loud to rank;

And so they sail, as 'twas appointed each,

And all night long the captains of the fleet

Kept their men working, rowing to and fro;

Night then came on, and the Hellenic host

In no wise sought to take to secret flight.

And when day, bright to look on with white steeds,

O'erspread the earth, then rose from the Hellenes

390

Loud chant of cry of battle, and forthwith

Echo gave answer from each island rock;

And terror then on all the Persians fell,

Of fond hopes disappointed. Not in flight

The Hellenes then their solemn pæans sang:

But with brave spirit hasting on to battle.

With martial sound the trumpet fired those ranks;

And straight with sweep of oars that flew through foam,

They smote the loud waves at the boatswain's call;

And swiftly all were manifest to sight.

400

Then first their right wing moved in order meet;[^[36]]

Next the whole line its forward course began,

And all at once we heard a mighty shout,—

“O sons of Hellenes, forward, free your country;

Free too your wives, your children, and the shrines

Built to your fathers' Gods, and holy tombs

Your ancestors now rest in. Now the fight

Is for our all.” And on our side indeed

Arose in answer din of Persian speech,

And time to wait was over; ship on ship

410

Dashed its bronze-pointed beak, and first a barque

Of Hellas did the encounter fierce begin,[^[37]]

And from Phœnikian vessel crashes off

Her carved prow. And each against his neighbour

Steers his own ship: and first the mighty flood

Of Persian host held out. But when the ships

Were crowded in the straits,[^[38]] nor could they give

Help to each other, they with mutual shocks,

With beaks of bronze went crushing each the other,

Shivering their rowers' benches. And the ships

Of Hellas, with manœuvring not unskilful,

Charged circling round them. And the hulls of ships

420

Floated capsized, nor could the sea be seen,

Strown, as it was, with wrecks and carcases;

And all the shores and rocks were full of corpses.

And every ship was wildly rowed in fight,

All that composed the Persian armament.

And they, as men spear tunnies,[^[39]] or a haul

Of other fishes, with the shafts of oars,

Or spars of wrecks went smiting, cleaving down;

And bitter groans and wailings overspread

The wide sea-waves, till eye of swarthy night

430

Bade it all cease: and for the mass of ills,

Not, though my tale should run for ten full days,

Could I in full recount them. Be assured

That never yet so great a multitude

Died in a single day as died in this.

Atoss. Ah, me! Great then the sea of ills that breaks

On Persia and the whole barbaric host.

Mess. Be sure our evil fate is but half o'er:

On this has supervened such bulk of woe,

As more than twice to outweigh what I've told.

440

Atoss. And yet what fortune could be worse than this?

Say, what is this disaster which thou tell'st,

That turns the scale to greater evils still?

Mess. Those Persians that were in the bloom of life,

Bravest in heart and noblest in their blood,

And by the king himself deemed worthiest trust,

Basely and by most shameful death have died.

Atoss. Ah! woe is me, my friends, for our ill fate!

What was the death by which thou say'st they perished?

Mess. There is an isle that lies off Salamis,[^[40]]

Small, with bad anchorage for ships, where Pan,

450

Pan the dance-loving, haunts the sea-washed coast.

There Xerxes sends these men, that when their foes,

Being wrecked, should to the islands safely swim,

They might with ease destroy th' Hellenic host,

And save their friends from out the deep sea's paths;

But ill the future guessing: for when God

Gave the Hellenes the glory of the battle,

In that same hour, with arms well wrought in bronze

Shielding their bodies, from their ships they leapt,

And the whole isle encircled, so that we

460

Were sore distressed,[^[41]] and knew not where to turn;

For here men's hands hurled many a stone at them;

And there the arrows from the archer's bow

Smote and destroyed them; and with one great rush,

At last advancing, they upon them dash

And smite, and hew the limbs of these poor wretches,

Till they each foe had utterly destroyed.

[And Xerxes when he saw how deep the ill,[^[42]]

Groaned out aloud, for he had ta'en his seat,

With clear, wide view of all the army round,

On a high cliff hard by the open sea;

And tearing then his robes with bitter cry,

470

And giving orders to his troops on shore,

He sends them off in foul retreat. This grief

'Tis thine to mourn besides the former ills.]

Atoss. O hateful Power, how thou of all their hopes

Hast robbed the Persians! Bitter doom my son

Devised for glorious Athens, nor did they,

The invading host who fell at Marathon,

Suffice; but my son, counting it his task

To exact requital for it, brought on him

So great a crowd of sorrows. But I pray,

As to those ships that have this fate escaped,

480

Where did'st thou leave them? Can'st thou clearly tell?

Mess. The captains of the vessels that were left,

With a fair wind, but not in meet array,

Took flight: and all the remnant of the army

Fell in Bœotia—some for stress of thirst

About the fountain clear, and some of us,

Panting for breath, cross to the Phokians' land,

The soil of Doris, and the Melian gulf,

Where fair Spercheios waters all the plains

With kindly flood, and then the Achæan fields

490

And city of the Thessali received us,

Famished for lack of food;[^[43]] and many died

Of thirst and hunger, for both ills we bore;

And then to the Magnetian land we came,

And that of Macedonians, to the stream

Of Axios, and Bolbe's reed-grown marsh,

And Mount Pangaios and the Edonian land.

And on that night God sent a mighty frost,

Unwonted at that season, sealing up

The whole course of the Strymon's pure, clear flood;[^[44]]

And they who erst had deemed the Gods as nought,

500

Then prayed with hot entreaties, worshipping

Both earth and heaven. And after that the host

Ceased from its instant calling on the Gods,

It crosses o'er the glassy, frozen stream;

And whosoe'er set forth before the rays

Of the bright God were shed abroad, was saved;

For soon the glorious sun with burning blaze

Reached the mid-stream and warmed it with its flame,

And they, confused, each on the other fell.

Blest then was he whose soul most speedily

Breathed out its life. And those who yet survived

And gained deliverance, crossing with great toil

510

And many a pang through Thrakè, now are come,

Escaped from perils, no great number they,

To this our sacred land, and so it groans,

This city of the Persians, missing much

Our country's dear-loved youth. Too true my tale,

And many things I from my speech omit,

Ills which the Persians suffer at God's hand.

Chor. O Power resistless, with what weight of woe

On all the Persian race have thy feet leapt!

Atoss. Ah! woe is me for that our army lost!

O vision of the night that cam'st in dreams,

520

Too clearly did'st thou show me of these ills!

But ye (to Chorus) did judge them far too carelessly;

Yet since your counsel pointed to that course,

I to the Gods will first my prayer address.

And then with gifts to Earth and to the Dead,

Bringing the chrism from my store, I'll come.

For our past ills, I know, 'tis all too late,

But for the future, I may hope, will dawn

A better fortune! But 'tis now your part

In these our present ills, in counsel faithful

To commune with the Faithful; and my son,

530

Should he come here before me, comfort him,

And home escort him, lest he add fresh ill

To all these evils that we suffer now. [Exit

Chor. Zeus our king, who now to nothing

Bring'st the army of the Persians,

Multitudinous, much boasting;

And with gloomy woe hast shrouded

Both Ecbatana and Susa;

Many maidens now are tearing

With their tender hands their mantles,

540

And with tear-floods wet their bosoms,

In the common grief partaking;

And the brides of Persian warriors,

Dainty even in their wailing,

Longing for their new-wed husbands,

Reft of bridal couch luxurious,

With its coverlet so dainty,

Losing joy of wanton youth-time,

Mourn in never-sated wailings.

And I too in fullest measure

Raise again meet cry of sorrow,

Weeping for the loved and lost ones.

Strophe I

For now the land of Asia mourneth sore,

550

Left desolate of men,

'Twas Xerxes led them forth, woe! woe!

'Twas Xerxes lost them all, woe! woe!

'Twas Xerxes who with evil counsels sped

Their course in sea-borne barques.

Why was Dareios erst so free from harm,

First bowman of the state,

The leader whom the men of Susa loved,

Antistrophe I

While those who fought as soldiers or at sea,

560

These ships, dark-hulled, well-rowed,

Their own ships bore them on, woe! woe!

Their own ships lost them all, woe! woe!

Their own ships, in the crash of ruin urged,

And by Ionian hands?[^[45]]

The king himself, we hear, but hardly 'scapes,

Through Thrakè's widespread steppes,

And paths o'er which the tempests wildly sweep.

Strophe II

And they who perished first, ah me!

570

Perforce unburied left, alas!

Are scattered round Kychreia's shore,[^[46]] woe! woe!

Lament, mourn sore, and raise a bitter cry,

Grievous, the sky to pierce, woe! woe!

And let thy mourning voice uplift its strain

Of loud and full lament.

Antistrophe II

Torn by the whirling flood, ah me!

Their carcases are gnawed, alas!

By the dumb brood of stainless sea, woe! woe!

580

And each house mourneth for its vanished lord;

And childless sires, woe! woe!

Mourning in age o'er griefs the Gods have sent,

Now hear their utter loss.

Strophe III

And throughout all Asia's borders

None now own the sway of Persia,

Nor bring any more their tribute,

Owning sway of sovereign master.

Low upon the Earth, laid prostrate,

590

Is the strength of our great monarch

Antistrophe III

No more need men keep in silence

Tongues fast bound: for now the people

May with freedom speak at pleasure;

For the yoke of power is broken;

And blood-stained in all its meadows

Holds the sea-washed isle of Aias

What was once the host of Persia.

Re-enter Atossa

Atoss. Whoe'er, my friends, is vexed in troublous times,

600

Knows that when once a tide of woe sets in,

A man is wont to fear in everything;

But when Fate flows on smoothly, then to trust

That the same Fate will ever send fair gales.

So now all these disasters from the Gods

Seem in mine eyes filled full of fear and dread,

And in mine ears rings cry unpæanlike,

So great a dread of all has seized my soul:

And therefore now, without or chariot's state

Or wonted pomp, have I thus issued forth

610

From out my palace, to my son's sire bringing

Libations loving, gifts propitiatory,

Meet for the dead; milk pure and white from cow

Unblemished, and bright honey that distils

From the flower-working bee, and water drawn

From virgin fountain, and the draught unmarred

From mother wild, bright child of ancient vine;

And here too of the tree that evermore

Keeps its fresh life in foliage, the pale olive,

Is the sweet-smelling fruit, and twinèd wreaths

Of flowers, the children of all-bearing earth.[^[47]]

620

But ye, my friends, o'er these libations poured

In honour of the dead, chant forth your hymns,

And call upon Dareios as a God:

While I will send unto the Gods below

These votive offerings which the earth shall drink.

[Goes to the tomb of Dareios in the centre

of the stage

Chor. O royal lady, honoured of the Persians,

Do thou libations pour

To the dark chambers of the dead below;

And we with hymns will pray

The Powers that act as escorts of the dead

To give us kindly help beneath the earth.

But oh, ye holy Ones in darkness dwelling,

630

Hermes and Earth, and thou, the Lord of Hell,

Send from beneath a soul

Up to the light of earth;

For should he know a cure for these our ills,

He, he alone of men, their end may tell.

Strophe I

Doth he, the blest one hear,

The king, like Gods in power,

Hear me, as I send forth

My cries in barbarous speech,

Yet very clear to him,—

Sad, varied, broken cries

So as to tell aloud

Our troubles terrible?

640

Ah, doth he hear below?

Antistrophe I

But thou, O Earth, and ye,

The other Lords of those

Beneath the grave that dwell;

Grant that the godlike one

May come from out your home,

The Persians' mighty God,

In Susa's palace born;

Send him, I pray you, up,

The like of whom the soil

Of Persia never hid.

Strophe II

Dear was our chief, and dear to us his tomb,

For dear the life it hides;

650

Aidoneus, O Aidoneus, send him forth,

Thou who dost lead the dead to Earth again,

[*]Yea, send Dareios.... What a king was he!

Antistrophe II

For never did he in war's bloody woe

Lose all his warrior-host,

But Heaven-taught Counsellor the Persians called him,

And Heaven-taught Counsellor in truth he proved,

Since he still ruled his hosts of subjects well.

Strophe III

Monarch, O ancient monarch, come, oh, come,

Come to the summit of sepulchral mound,

660

Lifting thy foot encased

In slipper saffron-dyed,

And giving to our view

Thy royal tiara's crest:[^[48]]

Speak, O Dareios, faultless father, speak.

Antistrophe III

Yea, come, that thou, O Lord, may'st hear the woes,

Woes new and strange, our lord has now endured;

For on us now has fallen

A dark and Stygian mist,

Since all the armed youth

Has perished utterly;

Speak, O Dareios, faultless father, speak.

Epode

O thou, whose death thy friends

Bewail with many tears,

670

[*]Why thus, O Lord of lords,

[*]In double error of wild frenzy born,

Have all our triremes good

Been lost to this our land,

Ships that are ships no more, yea, ships no more?

The Ghost of Dareios appears on the summit of the

mound

Dar. O faithful of the Faithful, ye who were

Companions of my youth, ye Persian elders,

What troubles is't my country toils beneath?

The whole plain groans, cut up and furrowed o'er,[^[49]]

And I, beholding now my queen beloved

Standing hard by my sepulchre, feared much,

680

And her libations graciously received;

But ye wail loud near this my sepulchre,

And shouting shrill with cries that raise the dead,

Ye call me with your plaints. No easy task

Is it to come, for this cause above all,

That the great Gods who reign below are apter

To seize men than release: yet natheless I,

Being great in power among them, now am come.

Be quick then, that none blame me as too late;[^[50]]

What new dire evils on the Persians weigh?

Chor. I fear to look on thee,

690

Fear before thee to speak,

With all the awe of thee I felt of old.

Dar. But since I came by thy complaints persuaded,

From below rising, spin no lengthened tale;

But shortly, clearly speak, and tell thy story,

And leave awhile thine awe and fear of me.

Chor. I dread thy wish to grant,

[*]I dread to say thee nay,[^[51]]

Saying things that it is hard for friends to speak.

Dar. Nay, then, since that old dread of thine prevents thee,

Do thou [to Atossa], the ancient partner of my bed,

700

My noble queen, from these thy plaints and moanings

Cease, and say something clearly. Human sorrows

May well on mortals fall; for many evils,

Some on the sea, and some on dry land also,

Happen to men if life be far prolongèd.

Atoss. O thou, who in the fate of fair good fortune

Excelled'st all men, who, while yet thou sawest

The sun's bright rays, did'st lead a life all blessed,

Admired, yea, worshipped as a God by Persians,

Now, too, I count thee blest in that thou died'st

Before thou saw'st the depth of these our evils.

For now, Dareios, thou shalt hear a story

Full, yet in briefest moment. Utter ruin,

To sum up all, is come upon the Persians.

710

Dar. How so? Hath plague or discord seized my country?

Atoss. Not so, but all the host is lost near Athens.

Dar. What son of mine led that host hither, tell me?[^[52]]

Atoss. Xerxes o'er-hasty, emptying all the mainland.

Dar. Made he this mad attempt by land or water?

Atoss. By both; two lines there were of two great armies.

Dar. How did so great a host effect its passage?

Atoss. He bridged the straits of Helle, and found transit.

Dar. Did he prevail to close the mighty Bosporos?

Atoss. So was it; yet some God, it may be, helped him.

720

Dar. Alas! some great God came and stole his wisdom.

Atoss. Yea, the end shows what evil he accomplished.

Dar. And how have they fared, that ye thus bewail them?

Atoss. The naval host, o'ercome, wrecked all the land-force.

Dar. What! Is the whole host by the spear laid prostrate?

Atoss. For this doth Susa's city mourn her losses.

Dar. Alas, for that brave force and mighty army!

Atoss. The Bactrians all are lost, not old men merely.

Dar. Poor fool! how he hath lost his host's fresh vigour!

Atoss. Xerxes, they say, alone, with but few others....

730

Dar. What is his end, and where? Is there no safety?

Atoss. Was glad to gain the bridge that joins two mainlands.

Dar. And has he reached this mainland? Is that certain?

Atoss. Yea, the report holds good. Here is no discord.[^[53]]

Dar. Ah me! Full swift the oracles' fulfilment!

And on my son hath Zeus their end directed.

I hoped the Gods would work them out more slowly;

But when man hastens, God too with him worketh.

And now for all my friends a fount of evils

Seems to be found. And this my son, not knowing,

740

In youth's rash mood, hath wrought; for he did purpose

To curb the sacred Hellespont with fetters,

As though it were his slave, and sought to alter

The stream of God, the Bosporos, full-flowing,

And his well-hammered chains around it casting,

Prevailed to make his mighty host a highway;

And though a mortal, thought, with no good counsel,

To master all the Gods, yea, e'en Poseidon.

Nay, was not my poor son oppressed with madness?

And much I fear lest all my heaped-up treasure

Become the spoil and prey of the first comer.

Atoss. Such things the o'er-hasty Xerxes learns from others,

750

By intercourse with men of evil counsel;[^[54]]

Who say that thou great wealth for thy son gained'st

By thy spear's might, while he with coward spirit

Does his spear-work indoors, and nothing addeth

Unto his father's glory. Such reproaches

Hearing full oft from men of evil counsel,

He planned this expedition against Hellas.

Dar. Thus then a deed portentous hath been wrought,

Ever to be remembered, such as ne'er

Falling on Susa made it desolate,

Since Zeus our king ordained this dignity,

That one man should be lord of Asia's plains.

Where feed her thousand flocks, and hold the rod

760

Of sovran guidance: for the Median first[^[55]]

Ruled o'er the host, and then his son in turn

Finished the work, for reason steered his soul;

And Kyros came as third, full richly blest,

And ruled, and gained great peace for all his friends;

And he won o'er the Lydians and the Phrygians,

And conquered all the wide Ionian land;[^[56]]

For such his wisdom, he provoked not God.

And Kyros' son came fourth, and ruled the host;

And Mardos fifth held sway, his country's shame,[^[57]]

770

Shame to the ancient throne; and him with guile

Artaphrenes[^[58]] the brave smote down, close leagued

With men, his friends, to whom the work was given.

[Sixth, Maraphis and seventh Artaphrenes,]

And I obtained this post that I desired,

And with a mighty host great victories won.

Yet no such evil brought I on the state;

But my son Xerxes, young, thinks like a youth,

And all my solemn charge remembers not;

For know this well, my old companions true,

780

That none of us who swayed the realm of old,

Did e'er appear as working ills like these.

Chor. What then, O King Dareios? To what end

Lead'st thou thy speech? And how, in this our plight,

Could we, the Persian people, prosper best?

Dar. If ye no more attack the Hellenes' land,

E'en though the Median host outnumbers theirs.

To them the very land is true ally.

Chor. What meanest thou? How fights the land for them?

Dar. [*]It slays with famine those vast multitudes.

790

Chor. We then a host, select, compact, will raise.

Dar. Nay, e'en the host which now in Hellas stays[^[59]]

Will ne'er return in peace and safety home.

Chor. How say'st thou? Does not all the barbarous host

Cross from Europa o'er the straits of Hellè?

Dar. But few of many; if 'tis meet for one

Who looks upon the things already done

To trust the oracles of Gods; for they,

Not these or those, but all, are brought to pass:

If this be so, then, resting on vain hopes,[^[60]]

800

He leaves a chosen portion of his host:

And they abide where, watering all the plain,

Asôpos pours his fertilising stream

Dear to Bœotian land; and there of ills

The topmost crown awaits them, penalty

Of wanton outrage and of godless thoughts;

For they to Hellas coming, held not back

In awe from plundering sculptured forms of Gods[^[61]]

And burning down their temples; and laid low

Are altars, and the shrines of Gods o'erthrown,

E'en from their base. They therefore having wrought

Deeds evil, now are suffering, and will suffer

Evil not less, and not as yet is seen

810

[*]E'en the bare groundwork of the ills, but still

They grow up to completeness. Such a stream

Of blood and slaughter soon shall flow from them

By Dorian spear upon Platæan ground,[^[62]]

And heaps of corpses shall to children's children,

Though speechless, witness to the eyes of men

That mortal man should not wax overproud;

For wanton pride from blossom grows to fruit,

The full corn in the ear, of utter woe,

And reaps a tear-fraught harvest. Seeing then,

Such recompense of these things, cherish well

The memory of Athens and of Hellas;

820

Let no man in his scorn of present fortune,

And thirst for other, mar his good estate;

Zeus is the avenger of o'er-lofty thoughts,

A terrible controller. Therefore now,

Since voice of God bids him be wise of heart,

Admonish him with counsel true and good

To cease his daring sacrilegious pride;

And thou, O Xerxes' mother, old and dear,

Go to thy home, and taking what apparel

Is fitting, go to meet thy son; for all

830

The costly robes around his limbs are torn

To rags and shreds in grief's wild agony.

But do thou gently soothe his soul with words;

For he to thee alone will deign to hearken;

But I must leave the earth for darkness deep:

And ye, old men, farewell, although in woe,

And give your soul its daily bread of joy;

For to the dead no profit bringeth wealth.

[Exit, disappearing in the earth.

Chor. I shudder as I hear the many woes

Both past and present that on Persians fall.

840

Atoss. [O God, how many evils fall on me![^[63]]

And yet this one woe biteth more than all,

Hearing my son's shame in the rags of robes

That clothe his limbs. But I will go and take

A fit adornment from my house, and try

To meet my son. We will not in his troubles

Basely abandon him whom most we love.]

Strophe I

Chor. Ah me! a glorious and a blessed life

Had we as subjects once,

When our old king, Dareios, ruled the land,

850

Meeting all wants, dispassionate, supreme,

A monarch like a God.

Antistrophe I

For first we showed the world our noble hosts;

And laws of tower-like strength

Directed all things; and our backward march

After our wars unhurt, unsuffering led

Our prospering armies home.

Strophe II

How many towns he took,

Not crossing Halys' stream[^[64]]

860

Nor issuing from his home,

There where in Strymon's sea,

The Acheloian Isles[^[65]]

Lie near the coasts of Thrakian colonies.

Antistrophe II

And those that lie outside the Ægæan main,

The cities girt with towers,

They hearkened to our king;

And those who boast their site

By Hellè's full, wide stream,

Propontis with its bays, and mouth of Pontos broad.

870

Strophe III

And all the isles that lie

Facing the headland jutting in the sea,[^[66]]

Close bound to this our coast;

Lesbos, and Samos with its olive groves;

Chios and Paros too;

Naxos and Myconos, and Andros too

On Tenos bordering.

Antistrophe III

And so he ruled the isles

That lie midway between the continents,

Lemnos, and Icaros,

Rhodes and Cnidos and the Kyprian towns,

880

Paphos and Soli famed,

And with them Salamis,

Whose parent city now our groans doth cause;[^[67]]

Epode

And many a wealthy town and populous,

Of Hellenes in the Ionian region dwelling,

He by his counsel ruled;

His was the unconquered strength of warrior host,

Allies of mingled race.

And now, beyond all doubt,

In strife of war defeated utterly,

We find this high estate

Through wrath of God o'erturned,

890

And we are smitten low,

By bitter loss at sea.

Enter Xerxes in kingly apparel, but with his robes rent,

with Attendants.

Xer. Oh, miserable me!

Who this dark hateful doom

That I expected least

Have met with as my lot,

With what stern mood and fierce

Towards the Persian race

Is God's hand laid on us!

What woe will come on me?

Gone is my strength of limb,

As I these elders see.

Ah, would to Heaven, O Zeus,

That with the men who fell

Death's doom had covered me!

900

Chor. Ah, woe, O King, woe! woe!

For the army brave in fight,

And our goodly Persian name,

And the fair array of men,

Whom God hath now cut off!

And the land bewails its youth

Who for our Xerxes fell,

For him whose deeds have filled

[*]Hades with Persian souls;

For many heroes now

[*]Are Hades-travellers,

Our country's chosen flower,

Mighty with darts and bow;

[*]For lo! the myriad mass

910

Of men has perished quite.

Woe, woe for our fair fame!

And Asia's land, O King,

Is terribly, most terribly, o'erthrown.

Xer. I then, oh misery!

Have to my curse been proved

Sore evil to my country and my race.

Chor. Yea, and on thy return

I will lift up my voice in wailing loud,

Cry of sore-troubled thought,

As of a mourner born

In Mariandynian land,[^[68]]

920

Lament of many tears.

Antistrophe I

Xer. Yea, utter ye a wail

Dreary and full of grief;

For lo! the face of Fate

Against me now is turned.

Chor. Yea, I will raise a cry

Dreary and full of grief,

Giving this tribute due

To all the people's woes,

And all our loss at sea,

Troubles of this our State

That mourneth for her sons;

Yea, I will wail full sore,

With flood of bitter tears.

Strophe II

Xer. For Ares, he whose might

Was in our ships' array,

Giving victory to our foes,

Has in Ionians, yea,

Ionians, found his match,

And from the dark sea's plain,

And that ill-omened shore,

Has a fell harvest reaped.

Chor. Yea, wail, search out the whole;

Where are our other friends?

Where thy companions true,

Such as Pharandakes,

Susas, Pelagon, Psammis, Dotamas,

Agdabatas, Susiskanes,

From Ecbatana who started?

Antistrophe II

Xer. I left them low in death,

Falling from Tyrian ship,

On Salaminian shores,

Beating now here, now there,

On the hard rock-girt coast.

Chor. Ah, where Pharnuchos then,

And Ariomardos brave?

And where Sevalkes king,

Lilæos proud of race,

Memphis and Tharybis,

Masistras, and Artembares,

950

Hystæchmas? This I ask.

Strophe III

Xer. Woe! woe is me!

They have looked on at Athens' ancient towers,

Her hated towers, ah me!

All, as by one fell stroke,

Unhappy in their fate

Lie gasping on the shore.

Chor. And he, thy faithful Eye,[^[69]]

960

Who told the Persian host,

Myriads on myriads o'er,[^[70]]

Alpistos, son and heir

Of Batanôchos old

·       ·       ·       ·       ·

And the son of brave Sesames,

Son himself of Megabates?

Parthos, and the great Œbares,

Did'st thou leave them, did'st thou leave them?

Ah, woe! ah, woe is me,

For those unhappy ones!

Thou to the Persians brave

Tellest of ills on ills.

Antistrophe III

Xer. Ah, thou dost wake in me

The memory of the spell of yearning love

For comrades brave and true,

Telling of cursed ills,

Yea, cursed, hateful doom;

970

And lo, within my frame

My heart cries out, cries out.

Chor. Yea, another too we long for,

Xanthes, captain of ten thousand

Mardian warriors, and Anchares

Arian born, and great Arsakes

And Diæxis, lords of horsemen,

Kigdagatas and Lythimnas,

Tolmos, longing for the battle:

980

[*]Much I marvel, much I marvel,[^[71]]

For they come not, as the rear-guard

Of thy tent on chariot mounted.[^[72]]

Strophe IV

Xer. Gone those rulers of the army.

Chor. Gone are they in death inglorious.

Xer. Ah woe! ah woe! Alas! alas!

Chor. Ah! the Gods have sent upon us

Ill we never thought to look on,

Eminent above all others;

Ne'er hath Atè seen its equal.

Antistrophe IV

Smitten we by many sorrows,

990

Such as come on men but seldom.

Chor. Smitten we, 'tis all too certain....

Xer. Fresh woes! fresh woes! ah me!

Chor. Now with adverse turn of fortune,

With Ionian seamen meeting,

Fails in war the race of Persians.

Strophe V

Xer. Too true. Yea I and that vast host of mine

Are smitten down.

Chor. Too true—the Persians' majesty and might

Have perished utterly.

Xer. See'st thou this remnant of my armament?

Chor. I see it, yea, I see.

1000

Xer. (pointing to his quiver.) Dost see thou that

which arrows wont to hold?...

Chor. What speak'st thou of as saved?

Xer. This treasure-store for darts.

Chor. Few, few of many left!

Xer. Thus we all helpers lack.

Chor. Ionian soldiers flee not from the spear.

Antistrophe V

Xer. Yea, very brave are they, and I have seen

Unlooked-for woe.

Chor. Wilt tell of squadron of our sea-borne ships

Defeated utterly?

Xer. I tore my robes at this calamity.

Chor. Ah me, ah me, ah me.

1010

Xer. Ay, more than all 'ah me's'!

Chor. Twofold and threefold ills!

Xer. Grievous to us—but joy,

Great joy, to all our foes!

Chor. Lopped off is all our strength.

Xer. Stripped bare of escort I!

Chor. Yea, by sore loss at sea

Disastrous to thy friends.

Strophe VI

Xer. Weep for our sorrow, weep,

Yea, go ye to the house.

Chor. Woe for our griefs, woe, woe!

Xer. Cry out an echoing cry.

Chor. Ill gift of ills on ills.

1020

Xer. Weep on in wailing chant.

Chor. Oh! ah! Oh! ah!

Xer. Grievous our bitter woes.

Chor. Ah me, I mourn them sore.

Antistrophe VI

Xer. Ply, ply your hands and groan;

Yea, for my sake bewail.

Chor. I weep in bitter grief.

Xer. Cry out an echoing cry.

Chor. Yea, we may raise our voice,

O Lord and King, in wail.

Xer. Raise now shrill cry of woe.

Chor. Ah me! Ah! Woe is me!

1030

Xer. Yea, with it mingle dark....

Chor. And bitter, grievous blows.

Strophe VII

Xer. Yea, beat thy breast, and cry

After the Mysian type.

Chor. Oh, misery! oh, misery!

Xer. Yea, tear the white hair off thy flowing beard.

Chor. Yea; with clenched hands, with clenchèd hands, I say,

In very piteous guise.

Xer. Cry out, cry out aloud.

Chor. That also will I do.

Antistrophe VII

Xer. And with thy fingers tear

Thy bosom's folded robe.

Chor. Oh, misery! oh, misery!

1040

Xer. Yea, tear thy hair in wailing for our host.

Chor. Yea, with clenched hands, I say, with clenchèd hands,

In very piteous guise.

Xer. Be thine eyes wet with tears.

Chor. Behold the tears stream down.

Epode

Xer. Raise a re-echoing cry.

Chor. Ah woe! ah woe!

Xer. Go to thy home with wailing loud and long.

Chor. O land of Persia, full of lamentations!

Xer. Through the town raise your cries.

Chor. We raise them, yea, we raise.

1050

Xer. Wail, wail, ye men that walked so daintily.

Chor. O land of Persia, full of lamentations!

Woe; woe!

Xer. Alas for those who in the triremes perished!

Chor. With broken cries of woe will I escort thee.

[Exeunt in procession, wailing, and

rending their robes.

[3]. “The Faithful,” or “trusty,” seems to have been a special title of honour given to the veteran councillors of the king (Xenoph. Anab. i. 15), just as that of the “Immortals” was chosen for his body-guard (Herod, vii. 83).

[4]. Susa was pre-eminently the treasury of the Persian kings (Herod, v. 49; Strabo, xv. p. 731), their favourite residence in spring, as Ecbatana in Media was in summer and Babylon in winter.

[5]. Kissia was properly the name of the district in which Susa stood; but here, and in v. 123, it is treated as if it belonged to a separate city. Throughout the play there is, indeed, a lavish use of Persian barbaric names of persons and places, without a very minute regard to historical accuracy.

[6]. Here, as in Herodotos and Greek writers generally, the title, “the King,” or “the great King,” was enough. It could be understood only of the Persian. The latter name had been borne by the kings of Assyria (2 Kings xviii. 28). A little later it passed into the fuller, more boastful form of “The King of kings.”

[7]. The inhabitants of the Delta of the Nile, especially those of the marshy districts near the Heracleotic mouth, were famed as supplying the best and bravest soldiers of any part of Egypt.—Comp. Thucyd. i. 110.

[8]. The epithet was applied probably by Æschylos to the Lydians properly so called, the barbaric race with whom the Hellenes had little or nothing in common. They, in dress, diet, mode of life, their distaste for the contests of the arena, seemed to the Greeks the very type of effeminacy. The Ionian Greeks, however, were brought under the same influence, and gradually acquired the same character. The suppression of the name of the Ionians in the list of the Persian forces may be noticed as characteristic. The Athenian poet would not bring before an Athenian audience the shame of their Asiatic kinsmen.

[9]. Tmôlos, sacred as being the mythical birth-place of Dionysos.

[10]. “Spear-anvils,” sc., meeting the spear of their foes as the anvils would meet it, turning its point, themselves steadfast and immovable.

[11]. So Herodotos (vii. 74) in his account of the army of Xerxes describes the Mysians as using for their weapons those darts or “javelins” made by hardening the ends in the fire.

[12]. Helle the daughter of Athamas, from whom the Hellespont took its name. For the description of the pontoons formed by boats, which were moored together with cables and finally covered with faggots, comp. Herod, vii. 36.

[13]. “Gold-born,” sc., descended from Perseus, the child of Danaë.

[14]. Syrian, either in the vague sense in which it became almost synonymous with Assyrian, or else showing that Syria, properly so called, retained the fame for chariots which it had had at a period as early as the time of the Hebrew Judges (Judg. v. 3). Herodotos (vii. 140) gives an Oracle of Delphi in which the same epithet appears.

[15]. The description, though put into the mouth of Persians, is meant to flatter Hellenic pride. The Persians and their army were for the most part light-armed troops only, barbarians equipped with javelins or bows. In the sculptures of Persepolis, as in those of Nineveh and Khorsabad, this mode of warfare is throughout the most conspicuous. They, the Hellenes, were the hoplites, warriors of the spear and the shield, the cuirass and the greaves.

[16]. A touch of Athenian exultation in their life as seamen. To them the sea was almost a home. They were familiar with it from childhood. To the Persians it was new and untried. They had a new lesson to learn, late in the history of the nation, late in the lives of individual soldiers.

[17]. The bridge of boats, with the embankment raised upon it, is thought of as a new headland putting out from the one shore and reaching to the other.

[18]. Stress is laid by the Hellenic poet, as in the Agamemnon (v. 895), and in v. 707 of this play, on the tendency of the East to give to its kings the names and the signs of homage which were due only to the Gods. The Hellenes might deify a dead hero, but not a living sovereign. On different grounds the Jews shrank, as in the stories of Nebuchadnezzar and Dareios (Dan. iii. 6), from all such acts.

[19]. In the Greek, as in the translation, there is a change of metre, intended apparently to represent the transition from the tone of eager excitement to the ordinary level of discourse.

[20]. With reference either to the mythos that Asia and Europa were both daughters of Okeanos, or to the historical fact that the Asiatic Ionians and the Dorians of Europe were both of the same Hellenic stock. The contrast between the long flowing robes of the Asiatic women, and the short, scanty kilt-like dress of those of Sparta must be borne in mind if we would see the picture in its completeness.

[21]. Athenian pride is flattered with the thought that they had resisted while the Ionian Greeks had submitted all too willingly to the yoke of the Barbarian.

[22]. Lustrations of this kind, besides their general significance in cleansing from defilement, had a special force as charms to turn aside dangers threatened by foreboding dreams. Comp. Aristoph. Frogs, v. 1264; Persius, Sat. ii. 16.

[23]. The political bearing of the passage as contrasting this characteristic of the despotism of Persia with the strict account to which all Athenian generals were subject, is, of course, unmistakable.

[24]. The question, which seems to have rankled in the minds of the Athenians, is recorded as an historical fact, and put into the mouth of Dareios by Herodotos (v. 101). He had asked it on hearing that Sardis had been attacked and burnt by them.

[25]. The words point to the silver mines of Laureion, which had been worked under Peisistratos, and of which this is the first mention in Greek literature.

[26]. Once more the contrast between the Greek hoplite and the light-armed archers of the invaders is dwelt upon. The next answer of the Chorus dwells upon the deeper contrast, then prominent in the minds of all Athenians, between their democratic freedom and the despotism of Persia. Comp. Herod. v. 78.

[27]. The system of postal communications by means of couriers which Dareios had organised had made their speed in running proverbial (Herod. vii. 97).

[28]. With the characteristic contempt of a Greek for other races, Æschylos makes the Persians speak of themselves throughout as 'barbarians,' 'barbaric.'

[29].

Perhaps— “On planks that floated onward,”

or— “On land and sea far spreading.”

[30]. Possibly Salamis itself, as famed for the doves which were reared there as sacred to Aphrodite, but possibly also one of the smaller islands in the Saronic gulf, which the epithet would be enough to designate for an Athenian audience. The “coasts of the Sileni” in v. 305 are identified by scholiasts with Salamis.

[31]. Perhaps—“And ten of these selected as reserve.”

[32]. As regards the number of the Persian ships, 1000 of average, and 207 of special swiftness. Æschylos agrees with Herodotos, who gives the total of 1207. The latter, however, reckons the Greek ships not at 310, but 378 (vii. 89, viii. 48).

[33]. The fact that Athens had actually been taken, and its chief buildings plundered and laid waste, was, of course, not a pleasant one for the poet to dwell on. It could hardly, however, be entirely passed over, and this is the one allusion to it. In the truest sense it was still “unsacked:” it had not lost its most effective defence, its most precious treasure.

[34]. As the story is told by Herodotos (vii. 75), this was Sikinnos, the slave of Themistocles, and the stratagem was the device of that commander to save the Greeks from the disgrace and ruin of a sauve qui peut flight in all directions.

[35]. The Greeks never beheaded their criminals, and the punishment is mentioned as being specially characteristic of the barbaric Persians.

[36]. The Æginetans and Megarians, according to the account preserved by Diodoros (xi. 18), or the Lacedæmonians, according to Herodotos (viii. 65).

[37]. This may be meant to refer to the achievements of Ameinias of Pallene, who appears in the traditional life of Œschylos as his youngest brother.

[38]. Sc., in Herod. viii. 60, the strait between Salamis and the mainland.

[39]. Tunny-fishing has always been prominent in the occupations on the Mediterranean coasts, and the sailors who formed so large a part of every Athenian audience would be familiar with the process here described, of striking or harpooning them. Aristophanes (Wasps, 1087) coins (or uses) the word “to tunny” (θυννάζω) to express the act. Comp. Herod. i. 62.

[40]. Sc., Psyttaleia, lying between Salamis and the mainland. Pausanias (i. 36-82) describes it in his time as having no artistic shrine or statue, but full everywhere of roughly carved images of Pan, to whom the island was sacred. It lay just opposite the entrance to the Peiræos. The connexion of Pan with Salamis and its adjacent islands seems implied in Sophocles, Aias, 695.

[41]. The manœuvre was, we learn from Herodotos (viii. 95), the work of Aristeides, the personal friend of Æschylos, and the statesman with whose policy he had most sympathy.

[42]. The lines are noted as probably a spurious addition, by a weaker hand, to the text, as introducing surplusage, as inconsistent with Herodotos, and as faulty in their metrical structure.

[43]. So Herodotos (viii. 115) describes them as driven by hunger to eat even grass and leaves.

[44]. No trace of this passage over the frozen Strymon appears in Herodotos, who leaves the reader to imagine that it was crossed, as before, by a bridge. It is hardly, indeed, consistent with dramatic probability that the courier should have remained to watch the whole retreat of the defeated army; and on this and other grounds, the latter part of the speech has been rejected by some critics as a later addition.

[45]. The Ionians, not of the Asiatic Ionia, but of Attica.

[46]. Kychreia, the archaic name of Salamis.

[47]. The ritual described is Hellenic rather than Persian, and takes its place (Soph. Electr. 836; Eurip. Iphig. Taur. 583; Homer, Il. xxiii. 219) as showing what offerings were employed to soothe or call up the spirits of the dead. Comp. Pliny, Hist. Nat. xxx.

[48]. The description obviously gives the state dress of the Persian kings. They alone wore the tiara erect. Xen. Kyrop. viii. 3, 13.

[49]. Either that he has felt the measured tread of the mourners round his tomb, as they went wailing round and round, or that he has heard the rush of armies, and seen the plain tracked by chariot-wheels, and comes, not knowing all these things, to learn what it means.

[50]. The words point to the widespread belief that when the souls of the dead were permitted to return to the earth, it was with strict limitations as to the time of their leave of absence.

[51]. Perhaps—“I dread to speak the truth.”

[52]. According to Herodotos (vii. 225) two brothers of Xerxes fell at Thermopylæ.

[53]. As Herodotos (viii. 117) tells the story, the bridge had been broken by the tempest before Xerxes reached it.

[54]. Probably Mardonios and Onomacritos the Athenian soothsayer are referred to, who, according to Herodotos (vii. 6, viii. 99) were the chief instigators of the expedition.

[55]. Astyages, the father-in-law of Kyaxares and grandfather of Kyros. In this case Æschylos must be supposed to accept Xenophon's statement that Kyaxares succeeded to Astyages. Possibly, however, the Median may be Kyaxares I., the father of Astyages, and so the succession here would harmonise with that of Herodotos. The whole succession must be looked on as embodying the loose, floating notions of the Athenians as to the history of their great enemy, rather than as the result of inquiry.

[56]. Stress is laid on the violence to which the Asiatic Ionians had succumbed, and their resistance to which distinguished them from the Lydians or Phrygians, whose submission had been voluntary.

[57]. Mardos. Under this name we recognise the Pseudo-Smerdis of Herodotos (iii. 67), who, by restoring the dominion of the Median Magi, the caste to which he himself belonged, brought shame upon the Persians.

[58]. Possibly another form of Intaphernes, who appears in Herodotos (iii. 70) as one of the seven conspirators against the Magian Pseudo-Smerdis.

[59]. The force of 300,000 men left in Greece under Mardonios (Herod. viii. 113), afterwards defeated at Platæa.

[60]. Comp. the speech of Mardonios urging his plan on Xerxes (Herod. viii. 100).

[61]. This was of course a popular topic with the Athenians, whose own temples had been outraged. But other sanctuaries also, the temples at Delphi and Abæ, had shared the same fate, and these sins against the Gods of Hellas were naturally connected in the thoughts of the Greeks with the subsequent disasters of the Persians. In Egypt these outrages had an iconoclastic character. In Athens they were a retaliation for the destruction of the temple at Sardis (Herod. v. 102).

[62]. The reference to the prominent part taken by the Peloponnesian forces in the battle of Platæa is probably due to the political sympathies of the dramatist.

[63]. The speech of Atossa is rejected by Paley, on internal grounds, as spurious.

[64]. Apparently an allusion to the oracle given to Crœsos, that he, if he crossed the Halys, should destroy a great kingdom.

[65]. The name originally given to the Echinades, a group of islands at the mouth of the Acheloös, was applied generically to all islands lying near the mouth of all great rivers, and here, probably, includes Imbros, Thasos, and Samothrakè.

[66]. The geography is somewhat obscure, but the words seem to refer to the portion of the islands that are named as opposite (in a southerly direction) to the promontory of the Troad.

[67]. Salamis in Kypros had been colonised by Teukros, the son of Aias, and had received its name in remembrance of the island in the Saronic Gulf.

[68]. The Mariandynoi, a Paphlagonian tribe, conspicuous for their orgiastic worship of Adonis, had become proverbial for the wildness of their plaintive dirges.

[69]. The name seems to have been an official title for some Inspector-General of the Army. Comp. Aristoph. Acharn. v. 92.

[70]. As in the account which Herodotos gives (vii. 60) of the way in which the army of Xerxes was numbered, sc., by enclosing 10,000 men in a given space, and then filling it again and again till the whole army had passed through.

[71]. Another reading gives—

“They are buried, they are buried.”

[72]. Perhaps referring to the waggon-chariots in which the rider reclines at ease, either protected by a canopy, or, as in the Assyrian sculptures and perhaps in the East generally, overshadowed by a large umbrella which an eunuch holds over him.

THE SEVEN WHO FOUGHT AGAINST THEBES

DRAMATIS PERSONÆ

Eteocles

Scout

Herald

Ismene

Antigone

Chorus of Theban Maidens

ARGUMENT.—When Œdipus king of Thebes discovered that he had unknowingly been the murderer of his father, and had lived in incest with his mother, he blinded himself. And his two sons, Eteocles and Polyneikes, wishing to banish the remembrance of these horrors from the eyes of men, at first kept him in confinement. And he, being wroth with them, prayed that they might divide their inheritance with the sword. And they, in fear lest the prayer should be accomplished, agreed to reign in turn, each for a year, and Eteocles, as the elder of the two, took the first turn. But when at the end of the year Polyneikes came to ask for the kingdom, Eteocles refused to give way, and sent him away empty. So Polyneikes went to Argos and married the daughter of Adrastos the king of that country, and gathered together a great army under six great captains, himself going as the seventh, and led it against Thebes. And so they compassed it about, and at each of the seven gates of the city was stationed one of the divisions of the army.

Note.—The Seven against Thebes appears to have been produced B.C. 472, the year after The Persians.

THE SEVEN AGAINST THEBES

Scene.—Thebes in front of the Acropolis

Enter Eteocles, and crowd of Theban Citizens.

Eteoc. Ye citizens of Cadmos, it behoves

That one who standeth at the stern of State

Guiding the helm, with eyes unclosed in sleep,

Should speak the things that meet occasion's need.

For should we prosper, God gets all the praise:

But if (which God forbid!) disaster falls,

Eteocles, much blame on one head falling,

Would find his name the by-word of the State,[^[73]]

Sung in the slanderous ballads of the town;

Yes, and with groanings, which may Zeus the Averter,

True to his name, from us Cadmeians turn!

But now 'tis meet for all, both him who fails

10

Of full-grown age, and him advanced in years,

Yet boasting still a stalwart strength of frame,

And each in life's full prime, as it is fit,

The State to succour and the altars here

Of these our country's Gods, that never more

Their votive honours cease,—to help our sons,

And Earth, our dearest mother and kind nurse;

For she, when young ye crept her kindly plain,

Bearing the whole charge of your nourishment,

Reared you as denizens that bear the shield,

That ye should trusty prove in this her need.

20

And now thus far God turns the scale for us;

For unto us, beleaguered these long days,

War doth in most things with God's help speed well,

But now, as saith the seer, the augur skilled,[^[74]]

Watching with ear and mind, apart from fire,

The birds oracular with mind unerring,

He, lord and master of these prophet-arts,

Says that the great attack of the Achæans

This very night is talked of, and their plots

Devised against the town. But ye, haste all

Unto the walls and gateways of the forts;

30

Rush ye full-armed, and fill the outer space,

And stand upon the platforms of the towers,

And at the entrance of the gates abiding

Be of good cheer, nor fear ye overmuch

The host of aliens. Well will God work all.

And I have sent my scouts and watchers forth,

And trust their errand is no fruitless one.

I shall not, hearing them, be caught with guile.

[Exeunt Citizens.

Enter one of the Scouts.

Mess. King of Cadmeians, great Eteocles,

I from the army come with tidings clear,

40

And am myself eye-witness of its acts;

For seven brave warriors, leading armèd bands,

Cutting a bull's throat o'er a black-rimmed shield,

And dipping in the bull's blood with their hands,

Swore before Ares, Enyo,[^[75]] murderous Fear,

That they would bring destruction on our town,

And trample under foot the tower of Cadmos,

Or dying, with their own blood stain our soil;

And they memorials for their sires at home

Placed with their hands upon Adrastos' car,[^[76]]

50

Weeping, but no wail uttering with their lips,

For courage iron-hearted breathed out fire

In manliness unconquered, as when lions

Flash battle from their eyeballs. And report

Of these things does not linger on the way.

I left them casting lots, that each might take,

As the lot fell, his station at the gate.

Wherefore do thou our city's chosen ones

Array with speed at entrance of the gates;

For near already is the Argive host,

Marching through clouds of dust, and whitening foam

60

Spots all the plain with drops from horses' mouths.

And thou, as prudent helmsman of the ship,

Guard thou our fortress ere the blasts of Ares

Swoop on it wildly; for there comes the roar

Of the land-wave of armies. And do thou

Seize for these things the swiftest tide and time;

And I, in all that comes, will keep my eye

As faithful sentry; so through speech full clear,

Thou, knowing all things yonder, shalt be safe.

[Exit.

Eteoc. O Zeus and Earth, and all ye guardian Gods!

Thou Curse and strong Erinnys of my sire!

70

Destroy ye not my city root and branch,

With sore destruction smitten, one whose voice

Is that of Hellas, nor our hearths and homes;[^[77]]

Grant that they never hold in yoke of bondage

Our country free, and town of Cadmos named;

But be ye our defence. I deem I speak

Of what concerns us both; for still 'tis true,

A prosperous city honours well the Gods. [Exit.

Enter Chorus of Theban Maidens in solemn procession

as suppliants

Chor. I in wild terror utter cries of woe;

An army leaves its camp and is let loose:

Hither the vanguard of the horsemen flows,

80

And the thick cloud of dust,

That suddenly is seen,

Dumb herald, yet full clear,

Constrains me to believe;

And smitten with the horses' hoofs, the plain

Of this my country rings with noise of war;

It floats and echoes round,

Like voice of mountain torrent dashing down

Resistless in its might.

Ah Gods! Ah Goddesses!

Ward off the coming woe.

With battle-shout that rises o'er the walls,

The host whose shields are white[^[78]]

90

Marches in full array against our city.

Who then, of all the Gods

Or Goddesses, will come to help and save?

Say, shall I fall before the shrines of Gods?

O blessed Ones firm fixed!

'Tis time to clasp your sacred images.

Why linger we in wailing overmuch?

Hear ye, or hear ye not, the din of shields?

When, if not now, shall we

Engage in prayer with peplos and with boughs?[^[79]]

I hear a mighty sound; it is the din

100

Not of a single spear.

O Ares! ancient guardian of our land!

What wilt thou do? Wilt thou betray thy land?

O God of golden casque,

Look on our city, yea, with favour look,

The city thou did'st love.

And ye, ye Gods who o'er the city rule,

Come all of you, come all.

Behold the band of maidens suppliant,

In fear of bondage foul;

For now around the town

The wave of warriors bearing slopèd crests,

With blasts of Ares rushing, hoarsely sounds:

110

But thou, O Zeus! true father of us all,

Ward off, ward off our capture by the foe.

Strophe I

For Argives now surround the town of Cadmos,

And dread of Ares' weapons falls on us;

And, bound to horses' mouths,

The bits and curbs ring music as of death;

And seven chief rulers of the mighty host,

With warriors' arms, at each of seven tall gates,

Spear-armed and harnessed all,

Stand, having cast their lots.

·       ·       ·       ·       ·

Mesode

And thou, O Zeus-born power in war delighting,

120

O Pallas! be our city's saviour now;

And Thou who curb'st the steed,

Great King of Ocean's waves,

Poseidon, with thy trident fish-spear armed,[^[80]]

Give respite from our troubles, respite give!

And Thou, O Ares, guard the town that takes

Its name from Cadmos old,[^[81]]

Watch o'er it visibly.

Antistrophe I

And thou, O Kypris, of our race the mother,

Ward off these ills, for we are thine by blood:

To thee in many a prayer,

130

With voice that calls upon the Gods we cry,

And unto thee draw near as suppliants:

And Thou, Lykeian king, Lykeian be,[^[82]]

Foe of our hated foes,

For this our wailing cry;

And Thou, O child of Leto, Artemis,

Make ready now thy bow.

Strophe II

Ah! ah! I hear a din of chariot wheels

Around the city walls;

O Hera great and dread!

The heavy axles of the chariots groan,

140

O Artemis beloved!

And the air maddens with the clash of spears;

What must our city bear?

What now shall come on us?

When will God give the end?

Antistrophe II

Ah! ah! a voice of stones is falling fast

On battlements attacked;[^[83]]

O Lord, Apollo loved,

A din of bronze-bound shields is in the gates;

And oh! that Zeus may give

150

A faultless issue of this war we wage!

And Thou, O blessed queen,

As Guardian Onca known,[^[84]]

Save thy seven-gated seat.

Strophe III

And ye, all-working Gods,

Of either sex divine,

Protectors of our towers,

Give not our city, captured by the spear,

To host of alien speech.[^[85]]

Hear ye our maidens; hear,

160

As is most meet, our prayers with outstretched hands.

Antistrophe III

O all ye loving Powers,

Compass our State to save;

Show how that State ye love;

Think on our public votive offerings,

And as ye think, oh, help:

Be mindful ye, I pray,

Of all our city's rites of sacrifice.

Re-enter Eteocles

Eteoc. (to the Chorus) I ask you, O ye brood intolerable,

Is this course best and safest for our city?

170

Will it give heart to our beleaguered host,

That ye before the forms of guardian Gods

Should wail and howl, ye loathèd of the wise;[^[86]]

Ne'er be it mine, in ill estate or good,

To dwell together with the race of women;

For when they rule, their daring bars approach,

And when they fear, alike to house and State

Comes greater ill; and now with these your rushings

Hither and thither, ye have troubled sore

Our subjects with a coward want of heart;

And do your best for those our foes without;

180

And we are harassed by ourselves within.

This comes to one who dwells with womankind.

And if there be that will not own my sway,

Or man or woman in their prime, or those

Who can be classed with neither, they shall take

Their trial for their life, nor shall they 'scape

The fate of stoning. Things outdoors are still

The man's to look to: let not woman counsel.

Stay thou within, and do no mischief more.

Hear'st thou, or no? or speak I to the deaf?

Strophe I

Chor. Dear son of Œdipus,

190

I shuddered as I heard the din, the din

Of many a chariot's noise,

When on the axles creaked the whirling wheels,

[*]And when I heard the sound

[*]Of fire-wrought curbs within the horses' mouths.

Eteoc. What then? Did ever yet the sailor flee

From stern to stem, and find deliverance so,

While his ship laboured in the ocean's wave?[^[87]]

Antistrophe I

Chor. Nay, to the ancient forms

Of mighty Powers I rushed, as trusting Gods;

And when behind the gates

Was heard the crash of fierce and pelting storm,

200

Then was it, in my fear,

I prayed the Blessed Ones to guard our city.

Eteoc. Pray that our towns hold out 'gainst spear of foes.[^[88]]

Chor. Do not the Gods grant these things?

Eteoc. Nay the Gods,

So say they, leave the captured city's walls.[^[89]]

Strophe II

Chor. Ah! never in my life

May all this goodly company of Gods

Depart; nor may I see

This city scene of rushings to and fro,

210

[*]And hostile army burning it with fire!

Eteoc. Nay, call not on the Gods with counsel base;

Obedience is the mother of success,

Child strong to save. 'Tis thus the saying runs.

Antistrophe II

Chor. True is it; but the Gods

Have yet a mightier power, and oftentimes,

In pressure of sore ill,

It raises one perplexed from direst woe,

When dark clouds gather thickly o'er his eyes.

Eteoc. 'Tis work of men to offer sacrifice

And victims to the Gods, when foes press hard;

220

Thine to be dumb and keep within the house.

Strophe III

Chor. 'Tis through the Gods we live

In city unsubdued, and that our towers

Ward off the multitude of jealous foes.

What Power will grudge us this?

Eteoc. I grudge not your devotion to the Gods;

But lest you make my citizens faint-hearted

Be tranquil, nor to fear's excess give way.

Antistrophe III

Chor. Hearing but now a din

Strange, wildly mingled, I with shrinking fear

Here to our city's high Acropolis,

Time-hallowed spot, have come.

230

Eteoc. Nay, if ye hear of wounded men or dying,

Bear them not swiftly off with wailing loud;

[*]For blood of men is Ares' chosen food.[^[90]]

Chor. Hark! now I hear the panting of the steeds.

Eteoc. Clear though thou hear, yet hear not overmuch.

Chor. Lo! from its depths the fortress groans, beleaguered.

Eteoc. It is enough that I provide for this.

Chor. I fear: the din increases at the gates.

Eteoc. Be still, say nought of these things in the city.

Chor. O holy Band![^[91]] desert ye not our towers.

240

Eteoc. A curse fall on thee! wilt thou not be still?

Chor. Gods of my city, from the slave's lot save me!

Eteoc. 'Tis thou enslav'st thyself and all thy city.

Chor. Oh, turn thy darts, great Zeus, against our foes!

Eteoc. Oh, Zeus, what race of women thou hast given us!

Chor. A sorry race, like men whose city falls.

Eteoc. What? Cling to these statues, yet speak words of ill?

Chor. Fear hurries on my tongue in want of courage.

Eteoc. Could'st thou but grant one small boon at my prayer!

250

Chor. Speak it out quickly, and I soon shall know.

Eteoc. Be still, poor fool, and frighten not thy friends.

Chor. Still am I, and with others bear our fate.

Eteoc. These words of thine I much prefer to those:

And further, though no longer at the shrines,

Pray thou for victory, that the Gods fight with us.

And when my prayers thou hearest, then do thou

Raise a loud, welcome, holy pæan-shout,

The Hellenes' wonted cry at sacrifice;

So cheer thy friends, and check their fear of foes;

And I unto our country's guardian Gods,

260

Who hold the plain or watch the agora,

The springs of Dirkè, and Ismenos' stream;—

If things go well, and this our city's saved,—

I vow that staining with the blood of sheep

The altar-hearths of Gods, or slaying bulls,

We'll fix our trophies, and our foemen's robes

On the spear's point on consecrated walls,

Before the shrines I'll hang.[^[92]] Pray thou this prayer,

Not weakly wailing, nor with vain wild sobs,

For no whit more thou'lt 'scape thy destined lot:

270

And I six warriors, with myself as seventh,

Against our foes in full state like their own,

Will station at the seven gates' entrances,

Ere hurrying heralds and swift-rushing words

Come and inflame them in the stress of need. [Exit

Strophe I

Chor. My heart is full of care and knows not sleep,

By panic fear o'ercome;

And troubles throng my soul,

And set a-glow my dread

Of the great host encamped around our walls,

As when a trembling dove

Fears, for her callow brood,

280

The snakes that come, ill mates for her soft nest;

For some upon our towers

March in full strength of mingled multitude;

And what will me befall?

And others on our men on either hand

Hurl rugged blocks of stone.

In every way, ye Zeus-born Gods, defend

290

The city and the host

That Cadmos claim as sire.

Antistrophe I

What better land will ye receive for this,

If ye to foes resign

This rich and fertile clime,

And that Dirkæan stream,

Goodliest of founts by great Poseidon sent,

Who circleth earth, or those

Who Tethys parent call?[^[93]]

300

And therefore, O ye Gods that guard our city,

Sending on those without

Our towers a woe that robs men of their life,

And makes them lose their shield,

Gain glory for these countrymen of mine;

And take your standing-ground,

As saviours of the city, firm and true,

In answer to our cry

Of wailing and of prayer.

Strophe II

For sad it were to hurl to Hades dark

A city of old fame,

310

The spoil and prey of war,

With foulest shame in dust and ashes laid,

By an Achæan foe at God's decree;

And that our women, old and young alike,

Be dragged away, ah me!

Like horses, by their hair

Their robes torn off from them.

And lo, the city wails, made desolate,

While with confusèd cry

320

The wretched prisoners meet doom worse than death.

Ah, at this grievous fate

I shudder ere it comes.

Antistrophe II

And piteous 'tis for those whose youth is fresh

Before the rites that cull

Their fair and first-ripe fruit,

To take a hateful journey from their homes.

Nay, but I say the dead far better fare

Than these, for when a city is subdued

It bears full many an ill.

This man takes prisoner that,

330

Or slays, or burns with fire;

And all the city is defiled with smoke,

And Ares fans the flame

In wildest rage, and laying many low,

Tramples with foot unclean

On all men sacred hold.

Strophe III

And hollow din is heard throughout the town,

Hemmed in by net of towers;

And man by man is slaughtered with the spear,

And cries of bleeding babes,

Of children at the breast,

340

Are heard in piteous wail,

And rapine, sister of the plunderer's rush,

Spoiler with spoiler meets,

And empty-handed empty-handed calls,

Wishing for share of gain,

Both eager for a portion no whit less,

For more than equal lot

With what they deem the others' hands have found.

Antistrophe III

And all earth's fruits cast wildly on the ground,

350

Meeting the cheerless eye

Of frugal housewives, give them pain of heart;

And many a gift of earth

In formless heaps is whirled

In waves of nothingness;

And the young maidens know a sorrow new;

For now the foe prevails,

And gains rich prize of wretched captive's bed;

360

And now their only hope

Is that the night of death will come at last,

Their truest, best ally,

To rescue them from sorrow fraught with tears.

Enter Eteocles, followed by his Chief Captains,

and by the Scout

Semi-Chor. A. The army scout, so deem I, brings to us,

Dear friends, some tidings new, with quickest speed

Plying the nimble axles of his feet.

Semi-Chor. B. Yea, the king's self, the son of Œdipus,

Is nigh to hear the scout's exact report;

And haste denies him too an even step.

Mess. I knowing well, will our foes' state report,

370

How each his lot hath stationed at the gates.

At those of Prœtos, Tydeus thunders loud,

And him the prophet suffers not to cross

Ismenos' fords, the victims boding ill.[^[94]]

And Tydeus, raging eager for the fight,

Shouts like a serpent in its noontide scream,

And on the prophet, Œcleus' son, heaps shame,

That he, in coward fear, doth crouch and fawn

Before the doom and peril of the fight.

And with such speech he shakes his triple crest,

O'ershadowing all his helm, and 'neath his shield

380

Bells wrought in bronze ring out their chimes of fear;

And on his shield he bears this proud device,—

A firmament enchased, all bright with stars;[^[95]]

And in the midst the full moon's glittering orb,

Sovran of stars and eye of Night, shines forth.

And thus exulting in o'er boastful arms,

By the stream's bank he shouts in lust of war,

[E'en as a war-horse panting in his strength

Against the curb that galls him, who at sound

Of trumpet's clang chafes hotly.] Whom wilt thou

Set against him? Who is there strong enough

When the bolts yield, to guard the Prœtan gates?

390

Eteoc. No fear have I of any man's array;

Devices have no power to pierce or wound,

And crest and bells bite not without a spear;

And for this picture of the heavens at night,

Of which thou tellest, glittering on his shield,

[*]Perchance his madness may a prophet prove;

For if night fall upon his dying eyes,

Then for the man who bears that boastful sign

It may right well be all too truly named,

400

And his own pride shall prophet be of ill.

And against Tydeus, to defend the gates,

I'll set this valiant son of Astacos;

Noble is he, and honouring well the throne

Of Reverence, and hating vaunting speech,

Slow to all baseness, unattuned to ill:

And of the dragon-race that Ares spared[^[96]]

He as a scion grows, a native true,

E'en Melanippos; Ares soon will test

His valour in the hazard of the die:

And kindred Justice sends him forth to war,

For her that bore him foeman's spear to check.

410

Strophe I

Chor. May the Gods grant my champion good success!

For justly he goes forth

For this our State to fight;

But yet I quake with fear

To see the deaths of those who die for friends.

Mess. Yea, may the Gods give good success to him!

The Electran gates have fallen to Capaneus,

A second giant, taller far than he

Just named, with boast above a mortal's bounds;

And dread his threats against our towers (O Fortune,

420

Turn them aside!)—for whether God doth will,

Or willeth not, he says that he will sack[^[97]]

The city, nor shall e'en the wrath of Zeus,

On the plain swooping, turn him from his will;

And the dread lightnings and hot thunderbolts

He likens to the heat of noon-day sun.

And his device, the naked form of one

Who bears a torch; and bright the blaze shines forth

And in gold characters he speaks the words,

“The city I will burn.” Against this man

Send forth ... but who will meet him in the fight?

430

Who, without fear, await this warrior proud?

Eteoc. Herein, too, profit upon profit comes;

And 'gainst the vain and boastful thoughts of men,

Their tongue itself is found accuser true.

Threatening, equipped for work is Capaneus,

Scorning the Gods: and giving speech full play,

And in wild joy, though mortal, vents at Zeus,

High in the heavens, loud-spoken foaming words.

And well I trust on him shall rightly come

Fire-bearing thunder, nothing likened then

To heat of noon-day sun. And so 'gainst him,

440

Though very bold of speech, a man is set

Of fiery temper, Polyphontes strong,

A trusty bulwark, by the loving grace

Of guardian Artemis[^[98]] and other Gods.

Describe another, placed at other gates.

Antistrophe I

Chor. A curse on him who 'gainst our city boasts!

May thunder smite him down

450

Before he force his way

Into my home, and drive

Me from my maiden bower with haughty spear?

Mess. And now I'll tell of him who by the gates

Stands next; for to Eteocles, as third,

To march his cohort to Neïstian gates,

Leaped the third lot from upturned brazen helm:

And he his mares, in head-gear snorting, whirls,

Full eager at the gates to fall and die;

Their whistling nozzles of barbaric mode,

Are filled with loud blast of the panting nostrils.[^[99]]

In no poor fashion is his shield devised;

460

A full-armed warrior climbs a ladder's rungs,

And mounts his foeman's towers as bent to sack;

And he too cries, in words of written speech,

That “Not e'en Ares from the towers shall drive him.”

Send thou against him some defender true,

To ward the yoke of bondage from our State.

Eteoc. Such would I send now; by good luck indeed

He has been sent, his vaunting in his deeds,

Megareus, Creon's son, who claims descent

From those as Sparti known, and not by noise

Of neighings loud of warlike steeds dismayed,

470

Will he the gates abandon, but in death

Will pay our land his nurture's debt in full,[^[100]]

Or taking two men, and a town to boot,

(That on the shield,) will deck his father's house

With those his trophies. Of another tell

The bragging tale, nor grudge thy words to me.

Strophe II

Chor. Him I wish good success,

O guardian of my home, and for his foes

All ill success I pray;

And since against our land their haughty words

With maddened soul they speak,

May Zeus, the sovran judge,

With fiery, hot displeasure look on them!

480

Mess. Another stands as fourth at gates hard by,

Onca-Athenà's, with a shout of war,

Hippomedon's great form and massive limbs;

And as he whirled his orb, his vast shield's disk,

I shuddered; yea, no idle words I speak.

No cheap and common draughtsman sure was he

Who wrought this cunning ensign on his shield:

Typhon emitting from his lips hot blast

Of darkling smoke, the flickering twin of fire:

And round the belly of the hollow shield

A rim was made with wreaths of twisted snakes.

490

And he too shouts his war-cry, and in frenzy,

As man possessed by Ares, hastes to battle,

Like Thyiad, darting terror from his eyes.[^[101]]

'Gainst such a hero's might we well may guard;

Already at the gates men brag of rout.

Eteoc. First, the great Onca-Pallas, dwelling nigh

Our city's gates, and hating man's bold pride,

Shall ward him from her nestlings like a snake

Of venom dread; and next Hyperbios,

The stalwart son of Œnops, has been chosen,

500

A hero 'gainst this hero, willing found

To try his destiny at Fortune's hest.

No fault has he in form, or heart, or arms;

And Hermes with good reason pairs them off;

For man with man will fight as enemy,

And on their shields they'll bring opposing Gods;

For this man beareth Typhon, breathing fire,

And on Hyperbios' shield sits father Zeus,

Full firm, with burning thunderbolt in hand;

And never yet has man seen Zeus, I trow,

O'ercome. Such then the favour of the Gods,

510

We with the winners, they with losers are:[^[102]]

Good reason then the rivals so should fare,

If Zeus than Typhon stronger be in fight,

And to Hyperbios Zeus will saviour prove,

As that device upon his shield presents him.

Antistrophe II

Chor. Now do I trust that he

Who bears upon his shield the hated form

Of Power whom Earth doth shroud,

Antagonist to Zeus, unloved by men

And by the ageless Gods,

Before those gates of ours

To his own hurt may dash his haughty head.

520

Mess. So may it be! And now the fifth I tell,

Who the fifth gates, the Northern, occupies,

Hard by Amphion's tomb, the son of Zeus;

And by his spear he swears, (which he is bold

To honour more than God or his own eyes,)

That he will sack the fort of the Cadmeians

With that spear's might. So speaks the offspring fair

Of mother mountain-bred, a stripling hero;

And the soft down is creeping o'er his cheeks,

530

Youth's growth, and hair that floweth full and thick;

And he with soul, not maiden's like his name,[^[103]]

But stern, with flashing eye, is standing there.

Nor stands he at the gate without a vaunt;

For on his brass-wrought buckler, strong defence,

Full-orbed, his body guarding, he the shame

Of this our city bears, the ravenous Sphinx,

With rivets fixed, all burnished and embossed;[^[104]]

And under her she holdeth a Cadmeian,

That so on him most arrows might be shot.

No chance that he will fight a peddling fight,

540

Nor shame the long, long journey he hath come,

Parthenopæos, in Arcadia born:

This man did Argos welcome as a guest,

And now he pays her for her goodly rearing,

And threatens these our towers with ... God avert it!

Eteoc. Should the Gods give them what they plan 'gainst us,

Then they, with those their godless boastings high,

Would perish shamefully and utterly.

And for this man of Arcady thou tell'st of,

We have a man who boasts not, but his hand

Sees the right thing to do;—Actôr, of him

550

I named but now the brother,—who no tongue

Divorced from deeds will ever let within

Our gates, to spread and multiply our ills,

Nor him who bears upon his foeman's shield

The image of the hateful venomed beast;

But she without shall blame him as he tries

To take her in, when she beneath our walls

Gets sorely bruised and battered.[^[105]] And herein,

If the Gods will, I prophet true shall prove.

Strophe III

Chor. Thy words thrill through my breast;

My hair stands all on end,

To hear the boastings great

Of those who speak great things

560

Unholy. May the Gods

Destroy them in our land!

Mess. A sixth I tell of, one of noblest mood,

Amphiaraos, seer and warrior famed;

He, stationed at the Homolôian gates,

Reproves the mighty Tydeus with sharp words

As 'murderer,' and 'troubler of the State,'[^[106]]

'To Argos teacher of all direst ills,

Erinnys' sumpnour,'[^[107]] 'murder's minister,'

570

Whose counsels led Adrastos to these ills.

[*]And at thy brother Polyneikes glancing

With eyes uplifted for his father's fate,

And ending, twice he syllabled his name,[^[108]]

And called him, and thus speaketh with his lips:—

“A goodly deed, and pleasant to the Gods,

Noble for after age to hear and tell,

Thy father's city and thy country's Gods

To waste through might of mercenary host!

And how shall Justice stay thy mother's tears?[^[109]]

580

And how, when conquered, shall thy fatherland,

Laid waste, become a true ally to thee?

As for myself, I shall that land make rich,[^[110]]

A prophet buried in a foeman's soil:

To arms! I look for no inglorious death.”

So spake the prophet, bearing full-orbed shield

Wrought all of bronze, no ensign on that orb.

He wishes to be just, and not to seem,[^[111]]

Reaping full harvest from his soul's deep furrows,

Whence ever new and noble counsels spring.

590

I bid thee send defenders wise and brave

Against him. Dread is he who fears the Gods.

Eteoc. Fie on the chance that brings the righteous man

Close-mated with the ungodly! In all deeds

Nought is there worse than evil fellowship,

A crop men should not reap. Death still is found

The harvest of the field of frenzied pride;

For either hath the godly man embarked

With sailors hot in insolence and guile,[^[112]]

And perished with the race the Gods did loathe;

600

Or just himself, with citizens who wrong

The stranger and are heedless of the Gods,

Falling most justly in the self-same snare,

By God's scourge smitten, shares the common doom.

And thus this seer I speak of, Œcleus' son,

Righteous, and wise, and good, and reverent,

A mighty prophet, mingling with the godless

[*]And men full bold of speech in reason's spite,

Who take long march to reach a far-off city,[^[113]]

If Zeus so will, shall be hurled down with them.

610

And he, I trow, shall not draw nigh the gates,

Not through faint-heart or any vice of mood,

But well he knows this war shall bring his death,

If any fruit is found in Loxias' words;

And He or holds his speech or speaks in season.

Yet against him the hero Lasthenes,

A foe of strangers, at the gates we'll set;

Old in his mind, his body in its prime,

His eye swift-footed, and his hand not slow

To grasp the spear from 'neath the shield laid bare:[^[114]]

620

Yet 'tis by God's gift men must win success.

Antistrophe III

Chor. Hear, O ye Gods! our prayers,

Our just entreaties grant,

That so our State be blest.

Turn ye the toils of war

Upon the invading host.

Outside the walls may Zeus

With thunder smite them low!

Mess. The seventh chief then who at the seventh gate stands,

Thine own, own brother, I will speak of now,

What curses on our State he pours, and prays

630

That he the towers ascending, and proclaimed

By herald's voice to all the territory,

And shouting out the captor's pæan-cry,

May so fight with thee, slay, and with thee die;

Or driving thee alive, who did'st him wrong,

May on thee a vengeance wreak like in kind.

So clamours he, and bids his father's Gods,

His country's guardians, look upon his prayers,

[And grant them all. So Polyneikes prays.]

And he a new and well-wrought shield doth bear,

And twofold sign upon it riveted;

640

For there a woman with a stately tread

Leads one who seems a warrior wrought in gold:

Justice she calls herself, and thus she speaks:

“I will bring back this man, and he shall have

The city and his father's dwelling-place.”

Such are the signs and mottoes of those men;

And thou, know well whom thou dost mean to send:

So thou shalt never blame my heraldings;

And thou thyself know how to steer the State.

Eteoc. O frenzy-stricken, hated sore of Gods!

650

O woe-fraught race (my race!) of Œdipus!

Ah me! my father's curse is now fulfilled;

But neither is it meet to weep or wail,

Lest cry more grievous on the issue come.

Of Polyneikes, name and omen true,

We soon shall know what way his badge shall end,

Whether his gold-wrought letters shall restore him,

His shield's great swelling words with frenzied soul.

An if great Justice, Zeus's virgin child,

Ruled o'er his words and acts, this might have been;

660

But neither when he left his mother's womb,

Nor in his youth, nor yet in ripening age,

Nor when his beard was gathered on his chin,

Did Justice count him meet for fellowship;

Nor do I think that she befriends him now

In this great outrage on his father's land.

Yea, justly Justice would as falsely named

Be known, if she with one all-daring joined.

In this I trust, and I myself will face him:

Who else could claim a greater right than I?

670

Brother with brother fighting, king with king,

And foe with foe, I'll stand. Come, quickly fetch

My greaves that guard against the spear and stones.

Chor. Nay, dearest friend, thou son of Œdipus,

Be ye not like to him with that ill name.

It is enough Cadmeian men should fight

Against the Argives. That blood may be cleansed;

But death so murderous of two brothers born,

This is pollution that will ne'er wax old.

Eteoc. If a man must bear evil, let him still

680

Be without shame—sole profit that in death.

[No glory comes of base and evil deeds].

Chor. What dost thou crave, my son? Let no ill fate,

Frenzied and hot for war,

Carry thee headlong on;

Check the first onset of an evil lust.

Eteoc. Since God so hotly urges on the matter,

Let all of Laios' race whom Phœbos hates,

Drift with the breeze upon Cokytos' wave.

Chor. An over-fierce and passionate desire

Stirs thee and pricks thee on

To work an evil deed

Of guilt of blood thy hand should never shed.

690

Eteoc. Nay, my dear father's curse, in full-grown hate,

Dwells on dry eyes that cannot shed a tear,

And speaks of gain before the after-doom.

Chor. But be not thou urged on. The coward's name

Shall not be thine, for thou

Hast ordered well thy life.

Dark-robed Erinnys enters not the house,

When at men's hands the Gods

Accept their sacrifice.

Eteoc. As for the Gods, they scorned us long ago,

And smile but on the offering of our deaths;

700

What boots it then on death's doom still to fawn?

Chor. Nay do it now, while yet 'tis in thy power;[^[115]]

Perchance may fortune shift

With tardy change of mood,

And come with spirit less implacable:

At present fierce and hot

She waxeth in her rage.

Eteoc. Yea, fierce and hot the Curse of Œdipus;

And all too true the visions of the night,

My father's treasured store distributing.

Chor. Yield to us women, though thou lov'st us not.

Eteoc. Speak then what may be done, and be not long.

710

Chor. Tread not the path that to the seventh gate leads.

Eteoc. Thou shall not blunt my sharpened edge with words.

Chor. And yet God loves the victory that submits.[^[116]]

Eteoc. That word a warrior must not tolerate.

Chor. Dost thou then haste thy brother's blood to shed?

Eteoc. If the Gods grant it, he shall not 'scape harm.

[Exeunt Eteocles, Scout, and Captains

Strophe I

Chor. I fear her might who doth this whole house wreck,

The Goddess unlike Gods,

The prophetess of evil all too true,

The Erinnys of thy father's imprecations,

720

Lest she fulfil the curse,

O'er-wrathful, frenzy-fraught,

The curse of Œdipus,

Laying his children low.

This Strife doth urge them on.

Antistrophe I

And now a stranger doth divide the lots,

The Chalyb,[^[117]] from the Skythians emigrant,

The stern distributor of heaped-up wealth,

The iron that hath assigned them just so much

Of land as theirs, no more,

As may suffice for them

As grave when they shall fall,

Without or part or lot

In the broad-spreading plains.

730

Strophe II

And when the hands of each

The other's blood have shed,

And the earth's dust shall drink

The black and clotted gore,

Who then can purify?

Who cleanse thee from the guilt?

Ah me! O sorrows new,

That mingle with the old woes of our house!

Antistrophe II

I tell the ancient tale

Of sin that brought swift doom;

740

Till the third age it waits,

Since Laios, heeding not

Apollo's oracle,

(Though spoken thrice to him

In Pythia's central shrine,)

That dying childless, he should save the State.

Strophe III

But he by those he loved full rashly swayed,

Doom for himself begat,

His murderer Œdipus,

750

Who dared to sow in field

Unholy, whence he sprang,

A root of blood-flecked woe.

Madness together brought

Bridegroom and bride accursed.

Antistrophe III

And now the sea of evil pours its flood:

This falling, others rise,

As with a triple crest,

Which round the State's stern roars:

And but a bulwark slight,

A tower's poor breadth, defends:

760

And lest the city fall

With its two kings I fear.

Strophe IV

[*]And that atonement of the ancient curse

Receives fulfilment now;[^[118]]

[*]And when they come, the evils pass not by.

E'en so the wealth of sea-adventurers,

When heaped up in excess,

Leads but to cargo from the stern thrown out.[^[119]]

Antistrophe IV

For whom of mortals did the Gods so praise,

And fellow-worshippers,

770

[*]And race of those who feed their flocks and herds[^[120]]

As much as then they honoured Œdipus,

Who from our country's bounds

Had driven the monster, murderess of men?

Strophe V

And when too late he knew,

Ah, miserable man! his wedlock dire,

Vexed sore with that dread shame,

With heart to madness driven,

He wrought a twofold ill,

And with the hand that smote his father's life

780

[*]Blinded the eyes that might his sons have seen.

Antistrophe V

And with a mind provoked

By nurture scant, he at his sons did hurl[^[121]]

His curses dire and dark,

(Ah, bitter curses those!)

That they with spear in hand

Should one day share their father's wealth; and I

Fear now lest swift Erinnys should fulfil them.

Enter Messenger

Mess. Be of good cheer, ye maidens, mother-reared;

Our city has escaped the yoke of bondage,

790

The boasts of mighty men are fallen low,

And this our city in calm waters floats,

And, though by waves lashed, springs not any leak.

Our fortress still holds out, and we did guard

The gates with champions who redeemed their pledge.

In the six gateways almost all goes well;

But the seventh gate did King Apollo choose,[^[122]]

Seventh mighty chief, avenging Laios' want

Of counsel on the sons of Œdipus.

Chor. What new disaster happens to our city?[^[123]]

800

Mess. The city's saved, but both the royal brothers,...

Chor. Who? and what of them? I'm distraught with fear.

Mess. Be calm, and hear: the sons of Œdipus,...

Chor. Oh wretched me! a prophet I of ill!

Mess. Slain by each other, earth has drunk their blood.

Chor. Came they to that? 'Tis dire; yet tell it me.

Mess. Too true, by brother's hand our chiefs are slain.

Chor. What, did the brother's hands the brother lay?

Mess. No doubt is there that they are laid in dust.

Chor. Thus was there then a common fate for both?

Mess. [*]Yea, it lays low the whole ill-fated race.

Chor. These things give cause for gladness and for tears,

810

Seeing that our city prospers, and our lords,

The generals twain, with well-wrought Skythian steel,

Have shared between them all their store of goods,

And now shall have their portion in a grave,

Borne on, as spake their father's grievous curse.[^[124]]

Mess. [The city's saved, but of the brother-kings

The earth has drunk the blood, each slain by each.]

Chor. Great Zeus! and ye, O Gods!

Guardians of this our town,

Who save in very deed

The towers of Cadmos old,

820

Shall I rejoice and shout

Over the happy chance

That frees our State from harm;

Or weep that ill-starred pair,

The war-chiefs, childless and most miserable,

Who, true to that ill name

Of Polyneikes, died in impious mood,

Contending overmuch?

Strophe

Oh dark, and all too true

That curse of Œdipus and all his race,[^[125]]

An evil chill is falling on my heart,

830

And, like a Thyiad wild,

Over his grave I sing a dirge of grief,

Hearing the dead have died by evil fate,

Each in foul bloodshed steeped;

Ah me! Ill-omened is the spear's accord.[^[126]]

Antistrophe

It hath wrought out its end,

And hath not failed, that prayer the father poured;

And Laios' reckless counsels work till now:

I fear me for the State;

The oracles have not yet lost their edge;

840

O men of many sorrows, ye have wrought

This deed incredible;

Not now in word come woes most lamentable.

[As the Chorus are speaking, the bodies of Eteocles

and Polyneikes are brought in solemn procession

by Theban Citizens

Epode

Yea, it is all too clear,

The herald's tale of woe comes full in sight;

Twofold our cares, twin evils born of pride,

Murderous, with double doom,

Wrought unto full completeness all these ills.

What shall I say? What else

Are they than woes that make this house their home?

But oh! my friends, ply, ply with swift, strong gale,

That even stroke of hands upon your head,[^[127]]

850

In funeral order, such as evermore

O'er Acheron sends on

[*]That bark of State, dark-rigged, accursed its voyage,

Which nor Apollo visits nor the sun,[^[128]]

On to the shore unseen,

The resting-place of all.

[Ismene and Antigone are seen approaching in

mourning garments, followed by a procession of

women wailing and lamenting

For see, they come to bitter deed called forth,

Ismene and the maid Antigone,

To wail their brothers' fall;

With little doubt I deem,

That they will pour from fond, deep-bosomed breasts

A worthy strain of grief:

But it is meet that we,

Before we hear their cry,

860

Should utter the harsh hymn Erinnys loves,

And sing to Hades dark

The Pæan of distress.

O ye, most evil-fated in your kin,

Of all who guard their robes with maiden's band,

I weep and wail, and feigning know I none,

That I should fail to speak

My sorrow from my heart.

Strophe I

Semi-Chor. A. Alas! alas!

Men of stern mood, who would not list to friends,

Unwearied in all ills,

870

Seizing your father's house, O wretched ones

With the spear's murderous point.

Semi-Chor. B. Yea, wretched they who found a wretched doom,

With havoc of the house.

Antistrophe I

Semi-Chor. A. Alas! alas!

Ye who laid low the ancient walls of home,

On sovereignty, ill won,

Your eyes have looked, and ye at last are brought

To concord by the sword.

Semi-Chor. B. Yea, of a truth, the curse of Œdipus

880

Erinnys dread fulfils.

Strophe II

Semi-Chor. A. Yea, smitten through the heart,

Smitten through sides where flowed the blood of brothers.

Ah me! ye doomed of God!

Ah me! the curses dire

Of deaths ye met with each at other's hands!

Semi-Chor. B. Thou tell'st of men death-smitten through and through,

Both in their homes and lives,

With wrath beyond all speech,

890

And doom of discord fell,

That sprang from out the curse their father spake.

Antistrophe II

Semi-Chor. A. Yea, through the city runs

A wailing cry. The high towers wail aloud;

Wails all the plain that loves her heroes well;

And to their children's sons

The wealth will go for which

The strife of those ill-starred ones brought forth death.

Semi-Chor. B. Quick to resent, they shared their fortune so,

That each like portion won;

[*]Nor can their friends regard

Their umpire without blame;

900

Nor is our voice in thanks to Ares raised.

Strophe III

Semi-Chor. A. By the sword smitten low,

Thus are they now;

By the sword smitten low,

There wait them ... Nay,

Doth one perchance ask what?

Shares in their old ancestral sepulchres.

Semi-Chor. B. [*]The sorrow of the house is borne to them

By my heart-rending wail.

Mine own the cries I pour;

Mine own the woes I weep,

Bitter and joyless, shedding truest tears

910

From heart that faileth, even as they fall,

For these two kingly chiefs.

Antistrophe III

Semi-Chor. A. Yes; one may say of them,

That wretched pair,

That they much ill have wrought

To their own host;

Yea, and to alien ranks

Of many nations fallen in the fray.

Semi-Chor. B. Ah! miserable she who bare those twain,

'Bove all of women born

Who boast a mother's name!

920

Taking her son, her own,

As spouse, she bare these children, and they both,

By mutual slaughter and by brothers' hands,

Have found their end in death.

Strophe IV

Semi-Chor. A. Yes; of the same womb born, and doomèd both,

[*]Not as friends part, they fell,

In strife to madness pushed

In this their quarrel's end.

Semi-Chor. B. The quarrel now is hushed,

And in the ensanguined earth their lives are blent;

930

Full near in blood are they.

Stern umpire of their strifes

Has been the stranger from beyond the sea,[^[129]]

Fresh from the furnace, keen and sharpened steel.

Stern, too, is Ares found,

Distributing their goods,

Making their father's curses all too true.

Antistrophe IV

Semi-Chor. A. At last they have their share, ah, wretched ones!

Of burdens sent from God.

940

And now beneath them lies

A boundless wealth of——earth.

Semi-Chor. B. O ye who your own race

Have made to burgeon out with many woes!

Over the end at last

The brood of Curses raise

Their shrill, sharp cry of lamentation loud,

The race being put to flight of utmost rout,

And Atè's trophy stands,

Where in the gates they fell;

And Fate, now both are conquered, rests at last.

950

Enter Antigone and Ismene, followed by mourning

maidens[^[130]]

Ant. Thou wast smitten, and thou smotest.

Ism. Thou did'st slaughter, and wast slaughtered.

Ant. Thou with spear to death did'st smite him.

Ism. Thou with spear to death wast smitten.

Ant. Oh, the woe of all your labours!

Ism. Oh, the woe of all ye suffered!

Ant. Pour the cry of lamentation.

Ism. Pour the tears of bitter weeping.

Ant. There in death thou liest prostrate.

Ism. Having wrought a great destruction.

Strophe

Ant. Ah! my mind is crazed with wailing.

960

Ism. Yea, my heart within me groaneth.

Ant. Thou for whom the city weepeth!

Ism. Thou too, doomed to all ill-fortune!

Ant. By a loved hand thou hast perished.

Ism. And a loved form thou hast slaughtered.

Ant. Double woes are ours to tell of.

Ism. Double woes too ours to look on.

Ant. [*]Twofold sorrows from near kindred.

Ism. [*]Sisters we by brothers standing.

Ant. Terrible are they to tell of.

970

Ism. Terrible are they to look on.

Chor. Ah me, thou Destiny,

Giver of evil gifts, and working woe,

And thou dread spectral form of Œdipus,

And swarth Erinnys too,

A mighty one art thou.

Antistrophe

Ant. Ah me! ah me! woes dread to look on....

Ism. Ye showed to me, returned from exile.

Ant. Not, when he had slain, returned he.

Ism. Nay, he, saved from exile, perished.

980

Ant. Yea, I trow too well, he perished.

Ism. And his brother, too, he murdered.

Ant. Woeful, piteous, are those brothers!

Ism. Woeful, piteous, all they suffered!

Ant. Woes of kindred wrath enkindling!

Ism. Saturate with threefold horrors!

Ant. Terrible are they to tell of.

Ism. Terrible are they to look on.

Chor. Ah me, thou Destiny,

Giver of evil gifts, and stern of soul,

And thou dread spectral form of Œdipus,

990

And swarth Erinnys too,

A mighty one art thou.

Epode

Ant. Thou, then, by full trial knowest....

Ism. Thou, too, no whit later learning....

Ant. When thou cam'st back to this city[^[131]]....

Ism. Rival to our chief in warfare.

Ant. Woe, alas! for all our troubles!

Ism. Woe, alas! for all our evils!

Ant. Evils fallen on our houses!

Ism. Evils fallen on our country!

Ant. And on me before all others....

Ism. And to me the future waiting....

1000

Ant. Woe for those two brothers luckless!

Ism. King Eteocles, our leader!

Ant. Oh, before all others wretched!

Ism. . . . . .

Ant. Ah, by Atè frenzy-stricken!

Ism. Ah, where now shall they be buried?

Ant. There where grave is highest honour.

Ism. Ah, the woe my father wedded!

Enter a Herald

Her. 'Tis mine the judgment and decrees to publish

Of this Cadmeian city's counsellors:

It is decreed Eteocles to honour,

For his good-will towards this land of ours,

1010

With seemly burial, such as friend may claim;

For warding off our foes he courted death;

Pure as regards his country's holy things,

Blameless he died where death the young beseems;

This then I'm ordered to proclaim of him.

But for his brother's, Polyneikes' corpse,

To cast it out unburied, prey for dogs,

As working havoc on Cadmeian land,

Unless some God had hindered by the spear

Of this our prince;[^[132]] and he, though, dead, shall gain

1020

The curse of all his father's Gods, whom he

[Pointing to Polyneikes

With alien host dishonouring, sought to take

Our city. Him by ravenous birds interred

Ingloriously, they sentence to receive

His full deserts; and none may take in hand

To heap up there a tomb, nor honour him

With shrill-voiced wailings; but he still must lie,

Without the meed of burial by his friends.

So do the high Cadmeian powers decree.

Ant. And I those rulers of Cadmeians tell,[^[133]]

1030

That if no other care to bury him,

I will inter him, facing all the risk,

Burying my brother: nor am I ashamed

To thwart the State in rank disloyalty;

Strange power there is in ties of blood, that we,

Born of woe-laden mother, sire ill-starred,

Are bound by: therefore of thy full free-will,

Share thou, my soul, in woes he did not will,

Thou living, he being dead, with sister's heart.

And this I say, no wolves with ravening maw,

Shall tear his flesh—No! no! let none think that!

For tomb and burial I will scheme for him,

1040

Though I be but weak woman, bringing earth

Within my byssine raiment's fold, and so

Myself will bury him; let no man think

(I say't again) aught else. Take heart, my soul!

There shall not fail the means effectual.

Her. I bid thee not defy the State in this.

Ant. I bid thee not proclaim vain words to me.

Her. Stern is the people now, with victory flushed.

Ant. Stern let them be, he shall not tombless lie.

Her. And wilt thou honour whom the State doth loathe?

Ant. [*]Yea, from the Gods he gets an honour due.[^[134]]

1050

Her. It was not so till he this land attacked.

Ant. He, suffering evil, evil would repay.

Her. Not against one his arms were turned, but all.

Ant. Strife is the last of Gods to end disputes:

Him I will bury; talk no more of it.

Her. Choose for thyself then, I forbid the deed.

Chor. Alas! alas! alas!

Ye haughty boasters, race-destroying,

Now Fates and now Erinnyes, smiting

The sons of Œdipus, ye slew them,

With a root-and-branch destruction.

1060

What shall I then do, what suffer?

What shall I devise in counsel?

How should I dare nor to weep thee,

Nor escort thee to the burial?

But I tremble and I shrink from

All the terrors which they threatened,

They who are my fellow-townsmen.

Many mourners thou (looking to the bier of Eteocles) shalt meet with;

But he, lost one, unlamented,

With his sister's wailing only

Passeth. Who with this complieth?

Semi-Chor. A. Let the city doom or not doom

Those who weep for Polyneikes;

We will go, and we will bury,

1070

Maidens we in sad procession;

For the woe to all is common,

And our State with voice uncertain,

Of the claims of Right and Justice;

Hither, thither, shifts its praises.

Semi-Chor. B. We will thus, our chief attending,

Speak, as speaks the State, our praises:

Of the claims of Right and Justice;[^[135]]

For next those the Blessed Rulers,

And the strength of Zeus, he chiefly

Saved the city of Cadmeians

From the doom of fell destruction,

From the doom of whelming utter,

In the flood of alien warriors.

[Exeunt Antigone and Semi-Chorus A., following

the corpse of Polyneikes; Ismene

and Semi-Chorus B. that of Eteocles.

[73]. Probably directed against the tendency of the Athenians, as shown in their treatment of Miltiades, and later in that of Thukydides, to punish their unsuccessful generals, “pour encourager les autres.”

[74]. Teiresias, as in Sophocles (Antig. v. 1005), sitting, though blind, and listening, as the birds flit by him, and the flames burn steadily or fitfully; a various reading gives “apart from sight.”

[75]. Enyo, the goddess of war, and companion of Ares.

[76]. Amphiaraos the seer had prophesied that Adrastos alone should return home in safety. On his car, therefore, the other chieftains hung the clasps, or locks of hair, or other memorials which in the event of their death were to be taken to their parents.

[77]. The Hellenic feeling, such as the Platæans appealed to in the Peloponnesian war (Thuc. iii. 58, 59), that it was noble and right for Hellenes to destroy a city of the barbarians, but that they should spare one belonging to a people of their own stock.

[78]. The characteristic feature of the Argive soldiers was, that they bore a shield painted white (comp. Sophocles, Antig. v. 114). The leaders alone appear to have embellished this with devices and mottoes.

[79]. In solemn supplications, the litanies of the ancient world, especially in those to Pallas, the suppliants carried with them in procession the shawl or peplos of the Goddess, and with it enwrapt her statue. To carry boughs of trees in the hands was one of the uniform, probably indispensable, accompaniments of such processions.

[80]. The words recall our thoughts to the original use of the trident, which became afterwards a symbol of Poseidon, as employed by the sailors of Hellas to spear or harpoon the larger fish of the Archipelago. Comp. Pers. v. 426, where the slaughter of a defeated army is compared to tunny-fishing.

[81]. Cadmos, probably “the man from the East,” the Phœnikian who had founded Thebes, and sown the dragon's seed, and taught men a Semitic alphabet for the non-Semitic speech of Hellas.

[82]. Worthy of his name as the Wolf-destroyer, mighty to destroy his foes.

[83]. Possibly “from battlements attacked.” In the primitive sieges of Greek warfare stones were used as missiles alike by besieged and besiegers.

[84]. The name of Onca belonged especially to the Theban worship of Pallas, and was said to have been of Phœnikian origin, introduced by Cadmos. There seems, however, to have been a town Onkæ in Bœotia, with which the name was doubtless connected.

[85]. “Alien,” on account of the difference of dialect between the speech of Argos and that of Bœotia, though both were Hellenic.

[86]. The vehemence with which Eteocles reproves the wild frenzied wailing of the Chorus may be taken as an element of the higher culture showing itself in Athenian life, which led Solon to restrain such lamentations by special laws (Plutarch, Solon, c. 20). Here, too, we note in Æschylos an echo of the teaching of Epimenides.

[87]. As now the sailor of the Mediterranean turns to the image of his patron saint, so of old he ran in his distress to the figure of his God upon the prow of his ship (often, as in Acts xxviii. II, that of the Dioscuri), and called to it for deliverance (comp. Jonah i. 8).

[88]. Eteocles seems to wish for a short, plain prayer for deliverance, instead of the cries and supplications and vain repetitions of the Chorus.

[89]. The thought thus expressed was, that the Gods, yielding to the mightier law of destiny, or in their wrath at the guilt of men, left the city before its capture. The feeling was all but universal. Its two representative instances are found in Virgil, Æn. 351—

“Excessere omnes adytis arisque relictis

Di quibus imperium hoc steterat;”

and the narrative given alike by Tacitus (Hist. v. 13), and Josephus (Bell. Jud. vi. 5, 3), that the cry “Let us depart hence,” was heard at midnight through the courts of the Temple, before the destruction of Jerusalem.

[90]. Sc. Blood must be shed in war. Ares would not be Ares without it. It is better to take it as it comes.

[91]. Sc., the company of Gods, Pallas, Hera and the others whom the Chorus had invoked.

[92]. Reference to this custom, which has passed from Pagan temples into Christian churches, is found in the Agamemnon, v. 562. It was connected, of course, with the general practice of offering as ex votos any personal ornaments or clothing as a token of thanksgiving for special mercies.

[93]. Rivers and streams as the children of Tethys and Okeanos.

[94]. Here, as in v. 571, Tydeus appears as the real leader of the expedition, who had persuaded Adrastos and the other chiefs to join in it, and Amphiaraos, the prophet, the son of Œcleus, as having all along foreseen its disastrous issue. The account of the expedition in the Œdipus at Colonos (1300-1330) may be compared with this.

[95]. The legend of the Medusa's head on the shield of Athena shows the practice of thus decorating shields to have been of remote date. In Homer it does not appear as common, and the account given of the shield of Achilles lays stress upon the work of the artist (Hephæstos) who wrought the shield in relief, not, as here, upon painted insignia. They were obviously common in the time of Æschylos.

[96]. The older families of Thebes boasted that they sprang from the survivors of the Sparti, who, sprung from the Dragon's teeth, waged deadly war against each other, till all but five were slain. The later settlers, who were said to have come with Cadmos, stood to these as the “greater” to the “lesser gentes” at Rome.

[97]. So in the Antigone of Sophocles (v. 134), Capaneus appears as the special representative of boastful, reckless impiety.

[98]. Artemis, as one of the special Deities to whom Thebes was consecrated.

[99]. Apparently an Asiatic invention, to increase the terror of an attack of war-chariots.

[100]. The phrase and thought were almost proverbial in Athens. Men, as citizens, were thought of as fed at a common table, bound to contribute their gifts to the common stock. When they offered up their lives in battle, they were giving, as Pericles says (Thucyd. ii. 43), their noblest “contribution,” paying in full their subscription to the society of which they were members.

[101]. Thyiad, another name for the Mænads, the frenzied attendants on Dionysos.

[102]. Sc., in the legends of Typhon, not he, but Zeus, had proved the conqueror. The warrior, therefore, who chose Typhon for his badge was identifying himself with the losing, not the winning side.

[103]. The name, as we are told in v. 542, is Parthenopæos, the maiden-faced.

[104]. The Sphinx, besides its general character as an emblem of terror, had, of course, a special meaning as directed to the Thebans. The warrior who bore it threatened to renew the old days when the monster whom Œdipus had overcome had laid waste their city.

[105]. Sc., the Sphinx on his shield will not be allowed to enter the city. It will only serve as a mark, attracting men to attack both it and the warrior who bears it.

[106]. The quarrel between Tydeus and the seer Amphiaraos had been already touched upon.

[107]. I have used the old English word to express a term of like technical use in Athenian law processes. As the “sumpnour” called witnesses or parties to a suit into court, so Tydeus had summoned the Erinnys to do her work of destruction.

[108]. Sc., so pronounced his name as to emphasise the significance of its two component parts, as indicating that he who bore it was a man of much contention.

[109]. The words are obscure, but seem to refer to the badge of Polyneikes, the figure of Justice described in v. 643 as on his shield. How shall that Justice, the seer asks, console Jocasta for her son's death? Another rendering gives,

“And how shall Justice quench a mother's life?”

the “mother” being the country against which Polyneikes wars.

[110]. The words had a twofold fulfilment (1) in the burial of Amphiaraos, in the Theban soil; and (2) in the honour which accrued to Thebes after his death, through the fame of the oracle at his shrine.

[111]. The passage cannot be passed over without noticing the old tradition (Plutarch, Aristeid. c. 3), that when the actor uttered these words, he and the whole audience looked to Aristeides, surnamed the Just, as recognising that the words were true of him as they were of no one else. “Best,” instead of “just,” is, however, a very old various reading.

[112]. If the former reference to Aristeides be admitted, we can scarcely avoid seeing in this passage an allusion to Themistocles, as one with whose reckless and democratic policy it was dangerous for the more conservative leader to associate himself.

[113]. The far-off city, not of Thebes, but of Hades. In the legend of Thebes, the earth opened and swallowed up Amphiaraos, as in 583.

[114]. The short spear was usually carried under the shelter of the shield; when brought into action it was, of course, laid bare.

[115]. Perhaps “since death is at nigh hand.”

[116]. The Chorus means that if Eteocles would allow himself to be overcome in this contest of his wishes with their prayers the Gods would honour that defeat as if it were indeed a victory. He makes answer that the very thought of being overcome implied in the word “defeat” in anything is one which the true warrior cannot bear.

[117]. The “Chalyb stranger” is the sword, thought of as taking its name from the Skythian tribe of the Chalybes, between Colchis and Armenia, and passing through the Thrakians into Greece.

[118]. The two brothers, i.e., are set at one again, but it is not in the bonds of friendship, but in those of death.

[119]. The image meets us again in Agam. 980. Here the thought is, that a man too prosperous is like a ship too heavily freighted. He must part with a portion of his possession in order to save the rest. Not to part with them leads, when the storm rages, to an enforced abandonment and utter loss.

[120]. Another reading gives—

“And race of those who crowd the Agora.”

[121]. This seems to have been one form of the legends as to the cause of the curse which Œdipus had launched upon his sons, An alternative rendering is—

And with a mind enraged

At thought of what they were whom he had reared,

He at his sons did hurl

His curses dire and dark.

[122]. Sc., when Eteocles fell, Apollo took his place at the seventh gate, and turned the tide of war in favour of the Thebans.

[123]. I follow in this dialogue the arrangement which Paley adopts from Hermann.

[124]. There seems an intentional ambiguity. They are “borne on,” but it is as the corpses of the dead are borne to the sepulchre.

[125]. Not here the curse uttered by Œdipus, but that which rested on him and all his kin. There is possibly an allusion to the curse which Pelops is said to have uttered against Laios when he stole his son Chrysippos. Comp. v. 837.

[126]. As in v. 763 we read of the brothers as made one in death, so now of the concord which is wrought out by conflict, the concord, i.e., of the grave.

[127]. The Chorus are called on to change their character, and to pass from the attitude of suppliants, with outstretched arms, to that of mourners at a funeral, beating on their breasts. But, perhaps, the call is addressed to the mourners who are seen approaching with Ismene and Antigone.

[128]. The thought is drawn from the theoris or pilgrim-ship, which went with snow-white sails, and accompanied by joyful pæans, on a solemn mission from Athens to Delos. In contrast with this type of joy, Æschylos draws the picture of the boat of Charon, which passes over the gloomy pool accompanied by the sighs and gestures of bitter lamentation. So, in the old Attic legend, the ship that annually carried seven youths and maidens to the Minotaur of Crete was conspicuous for its black sails.

[129]. The “Chalyb,” or iron sword, which the Hellenes had imported from the Skythians. Comp. vv. 70. 86.

[130]. The lyrical, operative character of Greek tragedies has to be borne in mind as we read passages like that which follows. They were not meant to be read. Uttered in a passionate recitative, accompanied by expressive action, they probably formed a very effective element in the actual representation of the tragedy. We may look on it as the only extant specimen of the kind of wailing which was characteristic of Eastern burials, and which was slowly passing away in Greece under the influence of a higher culture. The early fondness of Æschylos for a finale of this nature is seen also in The Persians, and in a more solemn and subdued form, in the Eumenides. The feeling that there was something barbaric in these untoward displays of grief, showed itself alike in the legislation of Solon, and the eloquence of Pericles.

[131]. Here, and perhaps throughout, we must think of Antigone as addressing and looking on the corpse of Polyneikes, Ismene on that of Eteocles.

[132]. Perhaps

“Unless some God had stood against the spear

This chief did wield.”

[133]. The speech of the Antigone becomes the starting-point, in the hands of Sophocles, of the noblest of his tragedies. The denial of burial, it will be remembered, was looked on as not merely an indignity and outrage against the feelings of the living, but as depriving the souls of the dead of all rest and peace. As such it was the punishment of parricides and traitors.

[134]. The words are obscure enough, the point lying, it may be, in their ambiguity. Antigone here, as in the tragedy of Sophocles, pleads that the Gods have pardoned; they still command and love the reverence for the dead, which she is about to show. The herald catches up her words and takes them in another sense, as though all the honour he had met with from the Gods had been defeat, and death, and shame, as the reward of his sacrilege. Another rendering, however, gives—

“Yes, so the Gods have done with honouring him.”

[135]. The words are probably a protest against the changeableness of the Athenian demos, as seen especially in their treatment of Aristeides.

PROMETHEUS BOUND

DRAMATIS PERSONÆ

Prometheus

Hermes

Okeanos

Strength

Hephæstos

Force

Chorus of Ocean Nymphs

ARGUMENT.—In the old time, when Cronos was sovereign of the Gods, Zeus, whom he had begotten, rose up against him, and the Gods were divided in their counsels, some, the Titans chiefly, siding with the father, and some with the son. And Prometheus, the son of Earth or Themis, though one of the Titans, supported Zeus, as did also Okeanos, and by his counsels Zeus obtained the victory, and Cronos was chained in Tartaros, and the Titans buried under mountains, or kept in bonds in Hades. And then Prometheus, seeing the miseries of the race of men, of whom Zeus took little heed, stole the fire which till then had belonged to none but Hephæstos and was used only for the Gods, and gave it to mankind, and taught them many arts whereby their wretchedness was lessened. But Zeus being wroth with Prometheus for this deed, sent Hephæstos, with his two helpers, Strength and Force, to fetter him to a rock on Caucasos.

And in yet another story was the cruelty of the Gods made known. For Zeus loved Io, the daughter of Inachos, king of Argos, and she was haunted by visions of the night, telling her of his passion, and she told her father thereof. And Inachos, sending to the God at Delphi, was told to drive Io forth from her home. And Zeus gave her the horns of a cow, and Hera, who hated her because she was dear to Zeus, sent with her a gadfly that stung her, and gave her no rest, and drove her over many lands.

Note.—The play is believed to have been the second of a Trilogy, of which the first was Prometheus the Fire-giver, and the third Prometheus Unbound.

PROMETHEUS BOUND

Scene.—Skythia, on the heights of Caucasos. The Euxine

seen in the distance

Enter Hephæstos, Strength, and Force, leading

Prometheus in chains[^[136]]

Strength. Lo! to a plain, earth's boundary remote,

We now are come,—the tract as Skythian known,

A desert inaccessible: and now,

Hephæstos, it is thine to do the hests

The Father gave thee, to these lofty crags

To bind this crafty trickster fast in chains

Of adamantine bonds that none can break;

For he thy choice flower stealing, the bright glory

Of fire that all arts spring from, hath bestowed it

On mortal men. And so for fault like this

He now must pay the Gods due penalty,

That he may learn to bear the sovereign rule

10

Of Zeus, and cease from his philanthropy.

Heph. O Strength, and thou, O Force, the hest of Zeus,

As far as touches you, attains its end,

And nothing hinders. Yet my courage fails

To bind a God of mine own kin by force

To this bare rock where tempests wildly sweep;

And yet I needs must muster courage for it:

'Tis no slight thing the Father's words to scorn.

O thou of Themis [to Prometheus] wise in counsel son,

Full deep of purpose, lo! against my will,[^[137]]

I fetter thee against thy will with bonds

Of bronze that none can loose, to this lone height,

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Where thou shalt know nor voice nor face of man,

But scorching in the hot blaze of the sun,

Shalt lose thy skin's fair beauty. Thou shalt long

For starry-mantled night to hide day's sheen,

For sun to melt the rime of early dawn;

And evermore the weight of present ill

Shall wear thee down. Unborn as yet is he

Who shall release thee: this the fate thou gain'st

As due reward for thy philanthropy.

For thou, a God not fearing wrath of Gods,

In thy transgression gav'st their power to men;

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And therefore on this rock of little ease

Thou still shalt keep thy watch, nor lying down,

Nor knowing sleep, nor ever bending knee;

And many groans and wailings profitless

Thy lips shall utter; for the mind of Zeus

Remains inexorable. Who holds a power

But newly gained[^[138]] is ever stern of mood.

Strength. Let be! Why linger in this idle pity?

Why dost not hate a God to Gods a foe,

Who gave thy choicest prize to mortal men?

Heph. Strange is the power of kin and intercourse.[^[139]]

Strength. I own it; yet to slight the Father's words,

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How may that be? Is not that fear the worse?

Heph. Still art thou ruthless, full of savagery.

Strength. There is no help in weeping over him:

Spend not thy toil on things that profit not.

Heph. O handicraft to me intolerable!

Strength. Why loath'st thou it? Of these thy present griefs

That craft of thine is not one whit the cause.

Heph. And yet I would some other had that skill.

Strength. [*]All things bring toil except for Gods to reign;[^[140]]

For none but Zeus can boast of freedom true.

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Heph. Too well I see the proof, and gainsay not.

Strength. Wilt thou not speed to fix the chains on him,

Lest He, the Father, see thee loitering here?

Heph. Well, here the handcuffs thou may'st see prepared.

Strength. In thine hands take him. Then with all thy might

Strike with thine hammer; nail him to the rocks.

Heph. The work goes on, I ween, and not in vain.

Strength. Strike harder, rivet, give no whit of ease:

A wondrous knack has he to find resource,

Even where all might seem to baffle him.

Heph. Lo! this his arm is fixed inextricably.

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Strength. Now rivet thou this other fast, that he

May learn, though sharp, that he than Zeus is duller.

Heph. No one but he could justly blame my work.

Strength. Now drive the stern jaw of the adamant wedge

Right through his chest with all the strength thou hast.

Heph. Ah me! Prometheus, for thy woes I groan.

Strength. Again, thou'rt loth, and for the foes of Zeus

Thou groanest: take good heed to it lest thou

Ere long with cause thyself commiserate.

Heph. Thou see'st a sight unsightly to our eyes.

Strength. I see this man obtaining his deserts:

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Nay, cast thy breast-chains round about his ribs.

Heph. I must needs do it. Spare thine o'er much bidding;

Go thou below and rivet both his legs.[^[141]]

Strength. Nay, I will bid thee, urge thee to thy work.

Heph. There, it is done, and that with no long toil.

Strength. Now with thy full power fix the galling fetters:

Thou hast a stern o'erlooker of thy work.

Heph. Thy tongue but utters words that match thy form.[^[142]]

Strength. Choose thou the melting mood; but chide not me

For my self-will and wrath and ruthlessness.

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Heph. Now let us go, his limbs are bound in chains.

Strength. Here then wax proud, and stealing what belongs

To the Gods, to mortals give it. What can they

Avail to rescue thee from these thy woes?

Falsely the Gods have given thee thy name,

Prometheus, Forethought; forethought thou dost need

To free thyself from this rare handiwork.

[Exeunt Hephæstos, Strength, and Force,

leaving Prometheus on the rock

Prom.[^[143]] Thou firmament of God, and swift-winged winds,

Ye springs of rivers, and of ocean waves

That smile innumerous! Mother of us all,

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O Earth, and Sun's all-seeing eye, behold,

I pray, what I a God from Gods endure.

Behold in what foul case

I for ten thousand years

Shall struggle in my woe,

In these unseemly chains.

Such doom the new-made Monarch of the Blest

Hath now devised for me.

Woe, woe! The present and the oncoming pang

I wail, as I search out

The place and hour when end of all these ills

Shall dawn on me at last.

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What say I? All too clearly I foresee

The things that come, and nought of pain shall be

By me unlooked-for; but I needs must bear

My destiny as best I may, knowing well

The might resistless of Necessity.

And neither may I speak of this my fate,

Nor hold my peace. For I, poor I, through giving

Great gifts to mortal men, am prisoner made

In these fast fetters; yea, in fennel stalk[^[144]]

I snatched the hidden spring of stolen fire,

Which is to men a teacher of all arts,

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Their chief resource. And now this penalty

Of that offence I pay, fast riveted

In chains beneath the open firmament.

Ha! ha! What now?

What sound, what odour floats invisibly?[^[145]]

Is it of God or man, or blending both?

And has one come to the remotest rock

To look upon my woes? Or what wills he?

Behold me bound, a God to evil doomed,

The foe of Zeus, and held

In hatred by all Gods

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Who tread the courts of Zeus:

And this for my great love,

Too great, for mortal men.

Ah me! what rustling sounds

Hear I of birds not far?

With the light whirr of wings

The air re-echoeth:

All that draws nigh to me is cause of fear.[^[146]]

Enter Chorus of Ocean Nymphs, with wings,

floating in the air[^[147]]

Chor. Nay, fear thou nought: in love

All our array of wings

In eager race hath come

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To this high peak, full hardly gaining o'er

Our Father's mind and will;

And the swift-rushing breezes bore me on:

For lo! the echoing sound of blows on iron

Pierced to our cave's recess, and put to flight

My shamefast modesty,

And I in unshod haste, on winged car,

To thee rushed hitherward.

Prom. Ah me! ah me!

Offspring of Tethys blest with many a child,

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Daughters of Old Okeanos that rolls

Round all the earth with never-sleeping stream,

Behold ye me, and see

With what chains fettered fast,

I on the topmost crags of this ravine

Shall keep my sentry-post unenviable.

Chor. I see it, O Prometheus, and a mist

Of fear and full of tears comes o'er mine eyes,

Thy frame beholding thus,

Writhing on these high rocks

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In adamantine ills.

New pilots now o'er high Olympos rule,

And with new-fashioned laws

Zeus reigns, down-trampling right,

And all the ancient powers He sweeps away.

Prom. Ah! would that 'neath the Earth, 'neath Hades too,

Home of the dead, far down to Tartaros

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Unfathomable He in fetters fast

In wrath had hurled me down:

So neither had a God

Nor any other mocked at these my woes;

But now, the wretched plaything of the winds,

I suffer ills at which my foes rejoice.

Chor. Nay, which of all the Gods

Is so hard-hearted as to joy in this?

Who, Zeus excepted, doth not pity thee

In these thine ills? But He,

Ruthless, with soul unbent,

Subdues the heavenly host, nor will He cease[^[148]]

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Until his heart be satiate with power,

Or some one seize with subtle stratagem

The sovran might that so resistless seemed.

Prom. Nay, of a truth, though put to evil shame,

In massive fetters bound,

The Ruler of the Gods

Shall yet have need of me, yes, e'en of me,

To tell the counsel new

That seeks to strip from him

His sceptre and his might of sovereignty.

In vain will He with words

Or suasion's honeyed charms

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Soothe me, nor will I tell

Through fear of his stern threats,

Ere He shall set me free

From these my bonds, and make,

Of his own choice, amends

For all these outrages.

Chor. Full rash art thou, and yield'st

In not a jot to bitterest form of woe;

Thou art o'er-free and reckless in thy speech:

But piercing fear hath stirred

My inmost soul to strife;

For I fear greatly touching thy distress,

As to what haven of these woes of thine

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Thou now must steer: the son of Cronos hath

A stubborn mood and heart inexorable.

Prom. I know that Zeus is hard,

And keeps the Right supremely to himself;

But then, I trow, He'll be

Full pliant in his will,

When He is thus crushed down.

Then, calming down his mood

Of hard and bitter wrath,

He'll hasten unto me,

As I to him shall haste,

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For friendship and for peace.

Chor. Hide it not from us, tell us all the tale:

For what offence Zeus, having seized thee thus,

So wantonly and bitterly insults thee:

If the tale hurt thee not, inform thou us.

Prom. Painful are these things to me e'en to speak:

Painful is silence; everywhere is woe.

For when the high Gods fell on mood of wrath,

And hot debate of mutual strife was stirred,

Some wishing to hurl Cronos from his throne,

That Zeus, forsooth, might reign; while others strove,

Eager that Zeus might never rule the Gods:

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Then I, full strongly seeking to persuade

The Titans, yea, the sons of Heaven and Earth,

Failed of my purpose. Scorning subtle arts,

With counsels violent, they thought that they

By force would gain full easy mastery.

But then not once or twice my mother Themis

And Earth, one form though bearing many names,[^[149]]

Had prophesied the future, how 'twould run,

That not by strength nor yet by violence,

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But guile, should those who prospered gain the day.

And when in my words I this counsel gave,

They deigned not e'en to glance at it at all.

And then of all that offered, it seemed best

To join my mother, and of mine own will,

Not against his will, take my side with Zeus,

And by my counsels, mine, the dark deep pit

Of Tartaros the ancient Cronos holds,

Himself and his allies. Thus profiting

By me, the mighty ruler of the Gods

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Repays me with these evil penalties:

For somehow this disease in sovereignty

Inheres, of never trusting to one's friends.[^[150]]

And since ye ask me under what pretence

He thus maltreats me, I will show it you:

For soon as He upon his father's throne

Had sat secure, forthwith to divers Gods

He divers gifts distributed, and his realm

Began to order. But of mortal men

He took no heed, but purposed utterly

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To crush their race and plant another new;

And, I excepted, none dared cross his will;

But I did dare, and mortal men I freed

From passing on to Hades thunder-stricken;

And therefore am I bound beneath these woes,

Dreadful to suffer, pitiable to see:

And I, who in my pity thought of men

More than myself, have not been worthy deemed

To gain like favour, but all ruthlessly

I thus am chained, foul shame this sight to Zeus.

Chor. Iron-hearted must he be and made of rock

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Who is not moved, Prometheus, by thy woes:

Fain could I wish I ne'er had seen such things,

And, seeing them, am wounded to the heart.

Prom. Yea, I am piteous for my friends to see.

Chor. Did'st thou not go to farther lengths than this?

Prom. I made men cease from contemplating death.[^[151]]

Chor. What medicine did'st thou find for that disease?

Prom. Blind hopes I gave to live and dwell with them.

Chor. Great service that thou did'st for mortal men!

Prom. And more than that, I gave them fire, yes I.

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Chor. Do short-lived men the flaming fire possess?

Prom. Yea, and full many an art they'll learn from it.

Chor. And is it then on charges such as these

That Zeus maltreats thee, and no respite gives

Of many woes? And has thy pain no end?

Prom. End there is none, except as pleases Him.

Chor. How shall it please? What hope hast thou? See'st not

That thou hast sinned? Yet to say how thou sinned'st

Gives me no pleasure, and is pain to thee.

Well! let us leave these things, and, if we may,

Seek out some means to 'scape from this thy woe.

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Prom. 'Tis a light thing for one who has his foot

Beyond the reach of evil to exhort

And counsel him who suffers. This to me

Was all well known. Yea, willing, willingly

I sinned, nor will deny it. Helping men,

I for myself found trouble: yet I thought not

That I with such dread penalties as these

Should wither here on these high-towering crags,

Lighting on this lone hill and neighbourless.

Wherefore wail not for these my present woes,

But, drawing nigh, my coming fortunes hear,

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That ye may learn the whole tale to the end.

Nay, hearken, hearken; show your sympathy

With him who suffers now. 'Tis thus that woe,

Wandering, now falls on this one, now on that.

Chor. Not to unwilling hearers hast thou uttered,

Prometheus, thy request,

And now with nimble foot abounding

My swiftly rushing car,

And the pure æther, path of birds of heaven,

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I will draw near this rough and rocky land,

For much do I desire

To hear this tale, full measure, of thy woes.

Enter Okeanos, on a car drawn by a winged gryphon

Okean. Lo, I come to thee, Prometheus,

Reaching goal of distant journey,[^[152]]

Guiding this my winged courser

By my will, without a bridle;

And thy sorrows move my pity.

Force, in part, I deem, of kindred

Leads me on, nor know I any,

Whom, apart from kin, I honour

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More than thee, in fuller measure.

This thou shall own true and earnest:

I deal not in glozing speeches.

Come then, tell me how to help thee;

Ne'er shalt thou say that one more friendly

Is found than unto thee is Okean.

Prom. Let be. What boots it? Thou then too art come

To gaze upon my sufferings. How did'st dare

Leaving the stream that bears thy name, and caves

Hewn in the living rock, this land to visit,

Mother of iron? What then, art thou come

To gaze upon my fall and offer pity?

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Behold this sight: see here the friend of Zeus,

Who helped to seat him in his sovereignty,

With what foul outrage I am crushed by him!

Okean. I see, Prometheus, and I wish to give thee

My best advice, all subtle though thou be.

Know thou thyself,[^[153]] and fit thy soul to moods

To thee full new. New king the Gods have now;

But if thou utter words thus rough and sharp,

Perchance, though sitting far away on high,

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Zeus yet may hear thee, and his present wrath

Seem to thee but as child's play of distress.

Nay, thou poor sufferer, quit the rage thou hast,

And seek a remedy for these thine ills.

A tale thrice-told, perchance I seem to speak:

Lo! this, Prometheus, is the punishment

Of thine o'er lofty speech, nor art thou yet

Humbled, nor yieldest to thy miseries,

And fain would'st add fresh evils unto these.

But thou, if thou wilt take me as thy teacher,

330

Wilt not kick out against the pricks;[^[154]] seeing well

A monarch reigns who gives account to none.

And now I go, and will an effort make,

If I, perchance, may free thee from thy woes;

Be still then, hush thy petulance of speech,

Or knowest thou not, o'er-clever as thou art,

That idle tongues must still their forfeit pay?

Prom. I envy thee, seeing thou art free from blame

Though thou shared'st all, and in my cause wast bold;[^[155]]

Nay, let me be, nor trouble thou thyself;

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Thou wilt not, canst not soothe Him; very hard

Is He of soothing. Look to it thyself,

Lest thou some mischief meet with in the way.

Okean. It is thy wont thy neighbours' minds to school

Far better than thine own. From deeds, not words,

I draw my proof. But do not draw me back

When I am hasting on, for lo, I deem,

I deem that Zeus will grant this boon to me,

That I should free thee from these woes of thine.

Prom. I thank thee much, yea, ne'er will cease to thank;

For thou no whit of zeal dost lack; yet take,

I pray, no trouble for me; all in vain

Thy trouble, nothing helping, e'en if thou

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Should'st care to take the trouble. Nay, be still;

Keep out of harm's way; sufferer though I be,

I would not therefore wish to give my woes

A wider range o'er others. No, not so:

For lo! my mind is wearied with the grief

Of that my kinsman Atlas,[^[156]] who doth stand

In the far West, supporting on his shoulders

The pillars of the earth and heaven, a burden

His arms can ill but hold: I pity too

The giant dweller of Kilikian caves,

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Dread portent, with his hundred hands, subdued

By force, the mighty Typhon,[^[157]] who arose

'Gainst all the Gods, with sharp and dreadful jaws

Hissing out slaughter, and from out his eyes

There flashed the terrible brightness as of one

Who would lay low the sovereignty of Zeus.

But the unsleeping dart of Zeus came on him,

Down-swooping thunderbolt that breathes out flame,

Which from his lofty boastings startled him,

For he i' the heart was struck, to ashes burnt,

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His strength all thunder-shattered; and he lies

A helpless, powerless carcase, near the strait

Of the great sea, fast pressed beneath the roots

Of ancient Ætna, where on highest peak

Hephæstos sits and smites his iron red-hot,

From whence hereafter streams of fire shall burst,[^[158]]

Devouring with fierce jaws the golden plains

Of fruitful, fair Sikelia. Such the wrath

That Typhon shall belch forth with bursts of storm,

Hot, breathing fire, and unapproachable,

Though burnt and charred by thunderbolts of Zeus.

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Not inexperienced art thou, nor dost need

My teaching: save thyself, as thou know'st how;

And I will drink my fortune to the dregs,

Till from his wrath the mind of Zeus shall rest.[^[159]]

Okean. Know'st thou not this, Prometheus, even this,

Of wrath's disease wise words the healers are?

Prom. Yea, could one soothe the troubled heart in time,

Nor seek by force to tame the soul's proud flesh.

Okean. But in due forethought with bold daring blent,

What mischief see'st thou lurking? Tell me this.

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Prom. Toil bootless, and simplicity full fond.

Okean. Let me, I pray, that sickness suffer, since

'Tis best being wise to have not wisdom's show.

Prom. Nay, but this error shall be deemed as mine.

Okean. Thy word then clearly sends me home at once.

Prom. Yea, lest thy pity for me make a foe....

Okean. What! of that new king on his mighty throne?

Prom. Look to it, lest his heart be vexed with thee.

Okean. Thy fate, Prometheus, teaches me that lesson.

Prom. Away, withdraw! keep thou the mind thou hast.

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Okean. Thou urgest me who am in act to haste;

For this my bird four-footed flaps with wings

The clear path of the æther; and full fain

Would he bend knee in his own stall at home. [Exit.

Strophe I

Chor. I grieve, Prometheus, for thy dreary fate,

Shedding from tender eyes

The dew of plenteous tears;

With streams, as when the watery south wind blows,

My cheek is wet;

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For lo! these things are all unenviable,

And Zeus, by his own laws his sway maintaining,

Shows to the elder Gods

A mood of haughtiness.

Antistrophe I

And all the country echoeth with the moan,

And poureth many a tear

For that magnific power

Of ancient days far-seen that thou did'st share

With those of one blood sprung;

And all the mortal men who hold the plain

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Of holy Asia as their land of sojourn,

They grieve in sympathy

For thy woes lamentable.

Strophe II

And they, the maiden band who find their home

On distant Colchian coasts,

Fearless of fight,[^[160]]

Or Skythian horde in earth's remotest clime,

By far Mæotic lake;[^[161]]

Antistrophe II

[*]And warlike glory of Arabia's tribes,[^[162]]

Who nigh to Caucasos

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In rock-fort dwell,

An army fearful, with sharp-pointed spear

Raging in war's array.

Strophe III

One other Titan only have I seen,

One other of the Gods,

Thus bound in woes of adamantine strength—

Atlas, who ever groans

Beneath the burden of a crushing might,

The out-spread vault of heaven.

Antistrophe III

And lo! the ocean billows murmur loud

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In one accord with him;[^[163]]

The sea-depths groan, and Hades' swarthy pit

Re-echoeth the sound,

And fountains of clear rivers, as they flow,

Bewail his bitter griefs.

Prom. Think not it is through pride or stiff self-will

That I am silent. But my heart is worn,

Self-contemplating, as I see myself

Thus outraged. Yet what other hand than mine

Gave these young Gods in fulness all their gifts?

But these I speak not of; for I should tell

To you that know them. But those woes of men,[^[164]]

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List ye to them,—how they, before as babes,

By me were roused to reason, taught to think;

And this I say, not finding fault with men,

But showing my good-will in all I gave.

For first, though seeing, all in vain they saw,

And hearing, heard not rightly. But, like forms

Of phantom-dreams, throughout their life's whole length

They muddled all at random; did not know

Houses of brick that catch the sunlight's warmth,

Nor yet the work of carpentry. They dwelt

In hollowed holes, like swarms of tiny ants,

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In sunless depths of caverns; and they had

No certain signs of winter, nor of spring

Flower-laden, nor of summer with her fruits;

But without counsel fared their whole life long,

Until I showed the risings of the stars,

And settings hard to recognise.[^[165]] And I

Found Number for them, chief device of all,

[*]Groupings of letters, Memory's handmaid that,

And mother of the Muses.[^[166]] And I first

Bound in the yoke wild steeds, submissive made

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Or to the collar or men's limbs, that so

They might in man's place bear his greatest toils;

And horses trained to love the rein I yoked

To chariots, glory of wealth's pride of state;[^[167]]

Nor was it any one but I that found

Sea-crossing, canvas-wingèd cars of ships:

Such rare designs inventing (wretched me!)

For mortal men, I yet have no device

By which to free myself from this my woe.[^[168]]

Chor. Foul shame thou sufferest: of thy sense bereaved,

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Thou errest greatly: and, like leech unskilled,

Thou losest heart when smitten with disease,

And know'st not how to find the remedies

Wherewith to heal thine own soul's sicknesses.

Prom. Hearing what yet remains thou'lt wonder more,

What arts and what resources I devised:

And this the chief: if any one fell ill,

There was no help for him, nor healing food,

Nor unguent, nor yet potion; but for want

Of drugs they wasted, till I showed to them

The blendings of all mild medicaments,[^[169]]

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Wherewith they ward the attacks of sickness sore.

I gave them many modes of prophecy;[^[170]]

And I first taught them what dreams needs must prove

True visions, and made known the ominous sounds

Full hard to know; and tokens by the way,

And flights of taloned birds I clearly marked,—

Those on the right propitious to mankind,

And those sinister,—and what form of life

They each maintain, and what their enmities

Each with the other, and their loves and friendships;

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And of the inward parts the plumpness smooth.

And with what colour they the Gods would please,

And the streaked comeliness of gall and liver:

And with burnt limbs enwrapt in fat, and chine,

I led men on to art full difficult:

And I gave eyes to omens drawn from fire,

Till then dim-visioned. So far then for this.

And 'neath the earth the hidden boons for men,

Bronze, iron, silver, gold, who else could say

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That he, ere I did, found them? None, I know,

Unless he fain would babble idle words.

In one short word, then, learn the truth condensed,—

Allarts of mortals from Prometheus spring.

Chor. Nay, be not thou to men so over-kind,

While thou thyself art in sore evil case;

For I am sanguine that thou too, released

From bonds, shall be as strong as Zeus himself.

Prom. It is not thus that Fate's decree is fixed;

But I, long crushed with twice ten thousand woes

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And bitter pains, shall then escape my bonds;

Art is far weaker than Necessity.

Chor. Who guides the helm, then, of Necessity?

Prom. Fates triple-formed, Errinyes unforgetting.

Chor. Is Zeus, then, weaker in his might than these?

Prom. Not even He can 'scape the thing decreed.

Chor. What is decreed for Zeus but still to reign?

Prom. Thou may'st no further learn, ask thou no more.

Chor. 'Tis doubtless some dread secret which thou hidest.

Prom. Of other theme make mention, for the time

530

Is not yet come to utter this, but still

It must be hidden to the uttermost;

For by thus keeping it it is that I

Escape my bondage foul, and these my pains.

Strophe I

Chor. Ah! ne'er may Zeus the Lord,

Whose sovran sway rules all,

His strength in conflict set

Against my feeble will!

Nor may I fail to serve

The Gods with holy feast

Of whole burnt-offerings,

Where the stream ever flows

That bears my father's name,

The great Okeanos!

Nor may I sin in speech!

540

May this grace more and more

Sink deep into my soul

And never fade away!

Antistrophe I

Sweet is it in strong hope

To spend long years of life,

With bright and cheering joy

Our heart's thoughts nourishing.

I shudder, seeing thee

Thus vexed and harassed sore.

By twice ten thousand woes;

For thou in pride of heart,

Having no fear of Zeus,

550

In thine own obstinacy,

Dost show for mortal men,

Prometheus, love o'ermuch.

Strophe II

See how that boon, dear friends,

For thee is bootless found.

Say, where is any help?

What aid from mortals comes?

Hast thou not seen this brief and powerless life,

Fleeting as dreams, with which man's purblind race

Is fast in fetters bound?

560

Never shall counsels vain

Of mortal men break through

The harmony of Zeus.

Antistrophe II

This lesson have I learnt

Beholding thy sad fate,

Prometheus! Other strains

Come back upon my mind,

When I sang wedding hymns around thy bath,

And at thy bridal bed, when thou did'st take

In wedlock's holy bands

One of the same sire born,

Our own Hesione,

570

Persuading her with gifts

As wife to share thy couch.

Enter Io in form like a fair woman with a heifer's

horns,[^[171]] followed by the Spectre of Argos

Io. What land is this? What people? Whom shall I

Say that I see thus vexed

With bit and curb of rock?

For what offence dost thou

Bear fatal punishment?

Tell me to what far land

I've wandered here in woe.

Ah me! ah me!

Again the gadfly stings me miserable.

Spectre of Argos, thou, the earth-born one—

Ah, keep him off, O Earth!

I fear to look upon that herdsman dread,

580

Him with ten thousand eyes:

Ah lo! he cometh with his crafty look,

Whom Earth refuses even dead to hold;[^[172]]

But coming from beneath

He hunts me miserable,

And drives me famished o'er the sea-beach sand.

Strophe

And still his waxened reed-pipe soundeth clear

A soft and slumberous strain;

O heavens! O ye Gods!

590

Whither do these long wanderings lead me on?

For what offence, O son of Cronos, what,

Hast thou thus bound me fast

In these great miseries?

Ah me! ah me!

And why with terror of the gadfly's sting

Dost thou thus vex me, frenzied in my soul?

Burn me with fire, or bury me in earth,

Or to wild sea-beasts give me as a prey:

Nay, grudge me not, O King,

An answer to my prayers:

600

Enough my many-wandered wanderings

Have exercised my soul,

Nor have I power to learn

How to avert the woe.

(To Prometheus.) Hear'st thou the voice of maiden crowned with horns?

Prom. Surely I heard the maid by gadfly driven,

Daughter of Inachos, who warmed the heart

Of Zeus with love, and now through Hera's hate

Is tried, perforce, with wanderings over-long?

Antistrophe

Io. How is it that thou speak'st my father's name?

Tell me, the suffering one,

610

Who art thou, who, poor wretch,

Who thus so truly nam'st me miserable,

And tell'st the plague from Heaven,

Which with its haunting stings

Wears me to death? Ah woe!

And I with famished and unseemly bounds

Rush madly, driven by Hera's jealous craft.

Ah, who of all that suffer, born to woe,

620

Have trouble like the pain that I endure?

But thou, make clear to me,

What yet for me remains,

What remedy, what healing for my pangs.

Show me, if thou dost know:

Speak out and tell to me,

The maid by wanderings vexed.

Prom. I will say plainly all thou seek'st to know;

Not in dark tangled riddles, but plain speech,

As it is meet that friends to friends should speak;

Thou see'st Prometheus who gave fire to men.

630

Io. O thou to men as benefactor known,

Why, poor Prometheus, sufferest thou this pain?

Prom. I have but now mine own woes ceased to wail.

Io. Wilt thou not then bestow this boon on me?

Prom. Say what thou seek'st, for I will tell thee all.

Io. Tell me, who fettered thee in this ravine?

Prom. The counsel was of Zeus, the hand Hephæstos'.

Io. Of what offence dost thou the forfeit pay?

Prom. Thus much alone am I content to tell.

Io. Tell me, at least, besides, what end shall come

640

To my drear wanderings; when the time shall be.

Prom. Not to know this is better than to know.

Io. Nay, hide not from me what I have to bear.

Prom. It is not that I grudge the boon to thee.

Io. Why then delayest thou to tell the whole?

Prom. Not from ill will, but loth to vex thy soul.

Io. Nay, care thou not beyond what pleases me.

Prom. If thou desire it I must speak. Hear then.

Chor. Not yet though; grant me share of pleasure too.

Let us first ask the tale of her great woe,

650

While she unfolds her life's consuming chances;

Her future sufferings let her learn from thee.

Prom. 'Tis thy work, Io, to grant these their wish,

On other grounds and as thy father's kin:[^[173]]

For to bewail and moan one's evil chance,

Here where one trusts to gain a pitying tear

From those who hear,—this is not labour lost.

Io. I know not how to disobey your wish;

So ye shall learn the whole that ye desire

In speech full clear. And yet I blush to tell

660

The storm that came from God, and brought the loss

Of maiden face, what way it seized on me.

For nightly visions coming evermore

Into my virgin bower, sought to woo me

With glozing words. “O virgin greatly blest,

Why art thou still a virgin when thou might'st

Attain to highest wedlock? For with dart

Of passion for thee Zeus doth glow, and fain

Would make thee his. And thou, O child, spurn not

The bed of Zeus, but go to Lerna's field,

670

Where feed thy father's flocks and herds,

That so the eye of Zeus may find repose

From this his craving.” With such visions I

Was haunted every evening, till I dared

To tell my father all these dreams of night,

And he to Pytho and Dodona sent

Full many to consult the Gods, that he,

Might learn what deeds and words would please Heaven's lords.

And they came bringing speech of oracles

Shot with dark sayings, dim and hard to know.

680

At last a clear word came to Inachos

Charging him plainly, and commanding him

To thrust me from my country and my home,

To stray at large[^[174]] to utmost bounds of earth;

And, should he gainsay, that the fiery bolt

Of Zeus should come and sweep away his race.

And he, by Loxias' oracles induced,

Thrust me, against his will, against mine too,

And drove me from my home; but spite of all,

The curb of Zeus constrained him this to do.

690

And then forthwith my face and mind were changed;

And hornèd, as ye see me, stung to the quick

By biting gadfly, I with maddened leap

Rushed to Kerchneia's fair and limpid stream,

And fount of Lerna.[^[175]] And a giant herdsman,

Argos, full rough of temper, followed me,

With many an eye beholding, on my track:

And him a sudden and unlooked-for doom

Deprived of life. And I, by gadfly stung,

By scourge from Heaven am driven from land to land.

700

What has been done thou hearest. And if thou

Can'st tell what yet remains of woe, declare it;

Nor in thy pity soothe me with false words;

For hollow words, I deem, are worst of ills.

Chor. Away, away, let be:

Ne'er thought I that such tales

Would ever, ever come unto mine ears;

Nor that such terrors, woes and outrages,

Hard to look on, hard to bear,

710

Would chill my soul with sharp goad, double-edged.

Ah fate! Ah fate!

I shudder, seeing Io's fortune strange.

Prom. Thou art too quick in groaning, full of fear:

Wait thou a while until thou hear the rest.

Chor. Speak thou and tell. Unto the sick 'tis sweet

Clearly to know what yet remains of pain.

Prom. Your former wish ye gained full easily.

Your first desire was to learn of her

720

The tale she tells of her own sufferings;

Now therefore hear the woes that yet remain

For this poor maid to bear at Hera's hands.

And thou, O child of Inachos! take heed

To these my words, that thou may'st hear the goal

Of all thy wanderings. First then, turning hence

Towards the sunrise, tread the untilled plains,

And thou shalt reach the Skythian nomads, those[^[176]]

Who on smooth-rolling waggons dwell aloft

In wicker houses, with far-darting bows

730

Duly equipped. Approach thou not to these,

But trending round the coasts on which the surf

Beats with loud murmurs,[^[177]] traverse thou that clime.

On the left hand there dwell the Chalybes,[^[178]]

Who work in iron. Of these do thou beware,

For fierce are they and most inhospitable;

And thou wilt reach the river fierce and strong,

True to its name.[^[179]] This seek not thou to cross,

For it is hard to ford, until thou come

To Caucasos itself, of all high hills

The highest, where a river pours its strength

From the high peaks themselves. And thou must cross

740

Those summits near the stars, must onward go

Towards the south, where thou shalt find the host

Of the Amâzons, hating men, whose home

Shall one day be around Thermôdon's bank,

By Themiskyra,[^[180]] where the ravenous jaws

Of Salmydessos ope upon the sea,

Treacherous to sailors, stepdame stern to ships.[^[181]]

And they with right good-will shall be thy guides;

And thou, hard by a broad pool's narrow gates,

Wilt pass to the Kimmerian isthmus. Leaving

This boldly, thou must cross Mæotic channel;[^[182]]

750

And there shall be great fame 'mong mortal men

Of this thy journey, and the Bosporos[^[183]]

Shall take its name from thee. And Europe's plain

Then quitting, thou shalt gain the Asian coast.

Doth not the all-ruling monarch of the Gods

Seem all ways cruel? For, although a God,

He, seeking to embrace this mortal maid,

Imposed these wanderings on her. Thou hast found,

O maiden! bitter suitor for thy hand;

For great as are the ills thou now hast heard,

Know that as yet not e'en the prelude's known.

760

Io. Ah woe! woe! woe!

Prom. Again thou groan'st and criest. What wilt do

When thou shall learn the evils yet to come?

Chor. What! are there troubles still to come for her?

Prom. Yea, stormy sea of woe most lamentable.

Io. What gain is it to live? Why cast I not

Myself at once from this high precipice,

And, dashed to earth, be free from all my woes?

Far better were it once for all to die

Than all one's days to suffer pain and grief.

770

Prom. My struggles then full hardly thou would'st bear,

For whom there is no destiny of death;

For that might bring a respite from my woes:

But now there is no limit to my pangs

Till Zeus be hurled out from his sovereignty.

Io. What! shall Zeus e'er be hurled from his high state?

Prom. Thou would'st rejoice, I trow, to see that fall.

Io. How should I not, when Zeus so foully wrongs me?

Prom. That this is so thou now may'st hear from me.

Io. Who then shall rob him of his sceptred sway?

780

Prom. Himself shall do it by his own rash plans.

Io. But how? Tell this, unless it bringeth harm.

Prom. He shall wed one for whom one day he'll grieve.

Io. Heaven-born or mortal? Tell, if tell thou may'st.

Prom. Why ask'st thou who? I may not tell thee that.

Io. Shall his bride hurl him from his throne of might?

Prom. Yea; she shall bear child mightier than his sire.

Io. Has he no way to turn aside that doom?

Prom. No, none; unless I from my bonds be loosed.[^[184]]

Io. Who then shall loose thee 'gainst the will of Zeus?

790

Prom. It must be one of thy posterity.

Io. What, shall a child of mine free thee from ills?

Prom. Yea, the third generation after ten.[^[185]]

Io. No more thine oracles are clear to me.

[*]Prom. Nay, seek not thou thine own drear fate to know.

Io. Do not, a boon presenting, then withdraw it.

Prom. Of two alternatives, I'll give thee choice.

Io. Tell me of what, then give me leave to choose.

Prom. I give it then. Choose, or that I should tell

Thy woes to come, or who shall set me free.

800

Chor. Of these be willing one request to grant

To her, and one to me; nor scorn my words:

Tell her what yet of wanderings she must bear,

And me who shall release thee. This I crave.

Prom. Since ye are eager, I will not refuse

To utter fully all that ye desire.

Thee, Io, first I'll tell thy wanderings wild,

Thou, write it in the tablets of thy mind.

When thou shalt cross the straits, of continents

The boundary,[^[186]] take thou the onward path

On to the fiery-hued and sun-tracked East.

810

[And first of all, to frozen Northern blasts

Thou'lt come, and there beware the rushing whirl,

Lest it should come upon thee suddenly,

And sweep thee onward with the cloud-rack wild;][^[187]]

Crossing the sea-surf till thou come at last

Unto Kisthene's Gorgoneian plains,

Where dwell the grey-haired virgin Phorkides,[^[188]]

Three, swan-shaped, with one eye between them all

And but one tooth; whom nor the sun beholds

With radiant beams, nor yet the moon by night:

And near them are their wingèd sisters three,

The Gorgons, serpent-tressed, and hating men,

Whom mortal wight may not behold and live.

820

[*]Such is one ill I bid thee guard against;

Now hear another monstrous sight: Beware

The sharp-beaked hounds of Zeus that never bark,[^[189]]

The Gryphons, and the one-eyed, mounted host

Of Arimaspians, who around the stream

That flows o'er gold, the ford of Pluto, dwell:[^[190]]

Draw not thou nigh to them. But distant land

Thou shalt approach, the swarthy tribes who dwell

By the sun's fountain,[^[191]] Æthiopia's stream:

By its banks wend thy way until thou come

To that great fall where from the Bybline hills

830

The Neilos pours its pure and holy flood;

And it shall guide thee to Neilotic land,

Three-angled, where, O Io, 'tis decreed

For thee and for thy progeny to found

A far-off colony. And if of this

Aught seem to thee as stammering speech obscure,

Ask yet again and learn it thoroughly:

Far more of leisure have I than I like.

Chor. If thou hast aught to add, aught left untold

Of her sore-wasting wanderings, speak it out;

840

But if thou hast said all, then grant to us

The boon we asked. Thou dost not, sure, forget it.

Prom. The whole course of her journeying she hath heard,

And that she know she hath not heard in vain

I will tell out what troubles she hath borne

Before she came here, giving her sure proof

Of these my words. The greater bulk of things

I will pass o'er, and to the very goal

Of all thy wanderings go. For when thou cam'st

To the Molossian plains, and by the grove[^[192]]

Of lofty-ridged Dodona, and the shrine

Oracular of Zeus Thesprotian,

850

And the strange portent of the talking oaks,

By which full clearly, not in riddle dark,

Thou wast addressed as noble spouse of Zeus,—

If aught of pleasure such things give to thee,—

Thence strung to frenzy, thou did'st rush along

The sea-coast's path to Rhea's mighty gulf,[^[193]]

In backward way from whence thou now art vexed,

And for all time to come that reach of sea,

Know well, from thee Ionian shall be called,

To all men record of thy journeyings.

860

These then are tokens to thee that my mind

Sees somewhat more than that is manifest.

What follows (to the Chorus) I will speak to you and her

In common, on the track of former words

Returning once again. A city stands,

Canôbos, at its country's furthest bound,

Hard by the mouth and silt-bank of the Nile;

There Zeus shall give thee back thy mind again,[^[194]]

With hand that works no terror touching thee,—

Touch only—and thou then shalt bear a child

Of Zeus begotten, Epaphos, “Touch-born,”

870

Swarthy of hue, whose lot shall be to reap

The whole plain watered by the broad-streamed Neilos:

And in the generation fifth from him

A household numbering fifty shall return

Against their will to Argos, in their flight

From wedlock with their cousins.[^[195]] And they too,

(Kites but a little space behind the doves)

With eager hopes pursuing marriage rites

Beyond pursuit shall come; and God shall grudge

To give up their sweet bodies. And the land

Pelasgian[^[196]] shall receive them, when by stroke

Of woman's murderous hand these men shall lie

Smitten to death by daring deed of night:

880

For every bride shall take her husband's life,

And dip in blood the sharp two-edgèd sword

(So to my foes may Kypris show herself!)[^[197]]

Yet one of that fair band shall love persuade

Her husband not to slaughter, and her will

Shall lose its edge; and she shall make her choice

Rather as weak than murderous to be known.

And she at Argos shall a royal seed

Bring forth (long speech 'twould take to tell this clear)

890

Famed for his arrows, who shall set me free[^[198]]

From these my woes. Such was the oracle

Mine ancient mother Themis, Titan-born,

Gave to me; but the manner and the means,—

That needs a lengthy tale to tell the whole,

And thou can'st nothing gain by learning it.

Io. Eleleu! Oh, Eleleu![^[199]]

The throbbing pain inflames me, and the mood

Of frenzy-smitten rage;

The gadfly's pointed sting,

Not forged with fire, attacks,

And my heart beats against my breast with fear.

900

Mine eyes whirl round and round:

Out of my course I'm borne

By the wild spirit of fierce agony,

And cannot curb my lips,

And turbid speech at random dashes on

Upon the waves of dread calamity.

Strophe I

Chor. Wise, very wise was he

Who first in thought conceived this maxim sage,

And spread it with his speech,[^[200]]—

That the best wedlock is with equals found,

And that a craftsman, born to work with hands,

Should not desire to wed

Or with the soft luxurious heirs of wealth,

910

Or with the race that boast their lineage high.

Antistrophe I

Oh ne'er, oh ne'er, dread Fates,

May ye behold me as the bride of Zeus,

The partner of his couch,

Nor may I wed with any heaven-born spouse!

For I shrink back, beholding Io's lot

Of loveless maidenhood,

Consumed and smitten low exceedingly

By the wild wanderings from great Hera sent!

Strophe II

To me, when wedlock is on equal terms,

920

It gives no cause to fear:

Ne'er may the love of any of the Gods,

The strong Gods, look on me

With glance I cannot 'scape!

Antistrophe II

That fate is war that none can war against,

Source of resourceless ill;

Nor know I what might then become of me:

I see not how to 'scape

The counsel deep of Zeus.

Prom. Yea, of a truth shall Zeus, though stiff of will,

Be brought full low. Such bed of wedlock now

Is he preparing, one to cast him forth

930

In darkness from his sovereignty and throne.

And then the curse his father Cronos spake

Shall have its dread completion, even that

He uttered when he left his ancient throne;

And from these troubles no one of the Gods

But me can clearly show the way to 'scape.

I know the time and manner: therefore now

Let him sit fearless, in his peals on high

Putting his trust, and shaking in his hands

His darts fire-breathing. Nought shall they avail

To hinder him from falling shamefully

940

A fall intolerable. Such a combatant

He arms against himself, a marvel dread,

Who shall a fire discover mightier far

Than the red levin, and a sound more dread

Than roaring of the thunder, and shall shiver

That plague sea-born that causeth earth to quake,

The trident, weapon of Poseidon's strength:

And stumbling on this evil, he shall learn

How far apart a king's lot from a slave's.

Chor. What thou dost wish thou mutterest against Zeus.

Prom. Things that shall be, and things I wish, I speak.

950

Chor. And must we look for one to master Zeus?

Prom. Yea, troubles harder far than these are his.

Chor. Art not afraid to vent such words as these?

Prom. What can I fear whose fate is not to die?

Chor. But He may send on thee worse pain than this.

Prom. So let Him do: nought finds me unprepared.

Chor. Wisdom is theirs who Adrasteia worship.[^[201]]

Prom. Worship then, praise and flatter him that rules;

My care for Zeus is nought, and less than nought:

Let Him act, let Him rule this little while,

960

E'en as He will; for long He shall not rule

Over the Gods. But lo! I see at hand

The courier of the Gods, the minister

Of our new sovereign. Doubtless he has come

To bring me tidings of some new device.

Enter Hermes

Herm. Thee do I speak to,—thee, the teacher wise,

The bitterly o'er-bitter, who 'gainst Gods

Hast sinned in giving gifts to short-lived men—

I speak to thee, the filcher of bright fire.

The Father bids thee say what marriage thou

Dost vaunt, and who shall hurl Him from his might;

And this too not in dark mysterious speech,

970

But tell each point out clearly. Give me not,

Prometheus, task of double journey. Zeus

Thou see'st, is not with such words appeased.

Prom. Stately of utterance, full of haughtiness

Thy speech, as fits a messenger of Gods.

Ye yet are young in your new rule, and think

To dwell in painless towers. Have I not

Seen two great rulers driven forth from thence?[^[202]]

And now the third, who reigneth, I shall see

In basest, quickest fall. Seem I to thee

980

To shrink and quail before these new-made Gods?

Far, very far from that am I. But thou,

Track once again the path by which thou camest;

Thou shalt learn nought of what thou askest me.

Herm. It was by such self-will as this before

That thou did'st bring these sufferings on thyself.

Prom. I for my part, be sure, would never change

My evil state for that thy bondslave's lot.

Herm. To be the bondslave of this rock, I trow,

Is better than to be Zeus' trusty herald!

990

Prom. So it is meet the insulter to insult.

Herm. Thou waxest proud, 'twould seem, of this thy doom.

Prom. Wax proud! God grant that I may see my foes

Thus waxing proud, and thee among the rest!

Herm. Dost blame me then for thy calamities?

Prom. In one short sentence—all the Gods I hate,

Who my good turns with evil turns repay.

Herm. Thy words prove thee with no slight madness plagued.

Prom. If to hate foes be madness, mad I am.

Herm. Not one could bear thee wert thou prosperous.

1000

Prom. Ah me!

Herm. That word is all unknown to Zeus.

Prom. Time waxing old can many a lesson teach.

Herm. Yet thou at least hast not true wisdom learnt.

Prom. I had not else addressed a slave like thee.

Herm. Thou wilt say nought the Father asks, 'twould seem.

Prom. Fine debt I owe him, favour to repay.

Herm. Me as a boy thou scornest then, forsooth.

Prom. And art thou not a boy, and sillier far,

If that thou thinkest to learn aught from me?

There is no torture nor device by which

1010

Zeus can impel me to disclose these things

Before these bonds that outrage me be loosed.

Let then the blazing levin-flash be hurled;

With white-winged snow-storm and with earth-born thunders

Let Him disturb and trouble all that is;

Nought of these things shall force me to declare

Whose hand shall drive him from his sovereignty.

Herm. See if thou findest any help in this.

Prom. Long since all this I've seen, and formed my plans.

1020

Herm. O fool, take heart, take heart at last in time,

To form right thoughts for these thy present woes.

Prom. Like one who soothes a wave, thy speech in vain

Vexes my soul. But deem not thou that I,

Fearing the will of Zeus, shall e'er become

As womanised in mind, or shall entreat

Him whom I greatly loathe, with upturned hand,

In woman's fashion, from these bonds of mine

To set me free. Far, far am I from that.

Herm. It seems that I, saying much, shall speak in vain;

For thou in nought by prayers art pacified,

Or softened in thy heart, but like a colt

1030

Fresh harnessed, thou dost champ thy bit, and strive,

And fight against the reins. Yet thou art stiff

In weak device; for self-will, by itself,

In one who is not wise, is less than nought.

Look to it, if thou disobey my words,

How great a storm and triple wave of ills,[^[203]]

Not to be 'scaped, shall come on thee; for first,

With thunder and the levin's blazing flash

The Father this ravine of rock shall crush,

And shall thy carcase hide, and stern embrace

Of stony arms shall keep thee in thy place.

1040

And having traversed space of time full long,

Thou shalt come back to light, and then his hound,

The wingèd hound of Zeus, the ravening eagle,

Shall greedily make banquet of thy flesh,

Coming all day an uninvited guest,

And glut himself upon thy liver dark.

And of that anguish look not for the end,

Before some God shall come to bear thy woes,

And will to pass to Hades' sunless realm,

And the dark cloudy depths of Tartaros.[^[204]]

1050

Wherefore take heed. No feigned boast is this,

But spoken all too truly; for the lips

Of Zeus know not to speak a lying speech,

But will perform each single word. And thou,

Search well, be wise, nor think that self-willed pride

Shall ever better prove than counsel good.

Chor. To us doth Hermes seem to utter words

Not out of season; for he bids thee quit

Thy self-willed pride and seek for counsel good.

Hearken thou to him. To the wise of soul

It is foul shame to sin persistently.

1060

Prom. To me who knew it all

He hath this message borne;

And that a foe from foes

Should suffer is not strange.

Therefore on me be hurled

The sharp-edged wreath of fire;

And let heaven's vault be stirred

With thunder and the blasts

Of fiercest winds; and Earth

From its foundations strong,

E'en to its deepest roots,

Let storm-wind make to rock;

And let the Ocean wave,

With wild and foaming surge,

Be heaped up to the paths

1070

Where move the stars of heaven;

And to dark Tartaros

Let Him my carcase hurl,

With mighty blasts of force:

Yet me He shall not slay.

Herm. Such words and thoughts from one

Brain-stricken one may hear.

What space divides his state

From frenzy? What repose

Hath he from maddened rage?

But ye who pitying stand

And share his bitter griefs,

1080

Quickly from hence depart,

Lest the relentless roar

Of thunder stun your soul.

Chor. With other words attempt

To counsel and persuade,

And I will hear: for now

Thou hast this word thrust in

That we may never bear.

How dost thou bid me train

My soul to baseness vile?

With him I will endure

Whatever is decreed.

Traitors I've learnt to hate,

Nor is there any plague

1090

That more than this I loathe.

Herm. Nay then, remember ye

What now I say, nor blame

Your fortune: never say

That Zeus hath cast you down

To evil not foreseen.

Not so; ye cast yourselves:

For now with open eyes,

Not taken unawares,

In Atè's endless net

Ye shall entangled be

By folly of your own.

[A pause, and then flashes of lightning and

peals of thunder[^[205]]

Prom. Yea, now in very deed,

No more in word alone,

The earth shakes to and fro,

And the loud thunder's voice

Bellows hard by, and blaze

The flashing levin-fires;

And tempests whirl the dust,

And gusts of all wild winds

On one another leap,

In wild conflicting blasts,

And sky with sea is blent:

Such is the storm from Zeus

1110

That comes as working fear,

In terrors manifest.

O Mother venerable!

O Æther! rolling round

The common light of all,

See'st thou what wrongs I bear?

[136]. The scene seems at first an exception to the early conventional rule, which forbade the introduction of a third actor on the Greek stage. But it has been noticed that (1) Force does not speak, and (2) Prometheus does not speak till Strength and Force have retired, and that it is therefore probable that the whole work of nailing is done on a lay figure or effigy of some kind, and that one of the two who had before taken part in the dialogue then speaks behind it in the character of Prometheus. So the same actor must have appeared in succession as Okeanos, Io, and Hermes.

[137]. Prometheus (Forethought) is the son of Themis (Right) the second occupant of the Pythian Oracle (Eumen. v. 2). His sympathy with man leads him to impart the gift which raised them out of savage animal life, and for this Zeus, who appears throughout the play as a hard taskmaster, sentences him to fetters. Hephæstos, from whom this fire had been stolen, has a touch of pity for him. Strength, who comes as the servant, not of Hephæstos, but of Zeus himself, acts, as such, with merciless cruelty.

[138]. The generalised statement refers to Zeus, as having but recently expelled Cronos from his throne in Heaven.

[139]. Hephæstos, as the great fire-worker, had taught Prometheus to use the fire which he afterwards bestowed on men.

[140]. Perhaps, “All might is ours except o'er Gods to rule.”

[141]. The words indicate that the effigy of Prometheus, now nailed to the rock, was, as being that of a Titan, of colossal size.

[142]. The touch is characteristic as showing that here, as in the Eumenides, Æschylos relied on the horribleness of the masks, as part of the machinery of his plays.

[143]. The silence of Prometheus up to this point was partly, as has been said, consequent on the conventional laws of the Greek drama, but it is also a touch of supreme insight into the heroic temper. In the presence of his torturers, the Titan will not utter even a groan. When they are gone, he appeals to the sympathy of Nature.

[144]. The legend is from Hesiod (Theogon., v. 567). The fennel, or narthex, seems to have been a large umbelliferous plant, with a large stem filled with a sort of pith, which was used when dry as tinder. Stalks were carried as wands (the thyrsi) by the men and women who joined in Bacchanalian processions. In modern botany, the name is given to the plant which produces Asafœtida, and the stem of which, from its resinous character, would burn freely, and so connect itself with the Promethean myth. On the other hand, the Narthex Asafœtida is found at present only in Persia, Afghanistan, and the Punjaub.

[145]. The ocean nymphs, like other divine ones, would be anointed with ambrosial unguents, and the odour would be wafted before them by the rustling of their wings. This too we may think of as part of the “stage effects” of the play.

[146]. The words are not those of a vague terror only. The sufferer knows that his tormentor is to come to him before long on wings, and therefore the sound as of the flight of birds is full of terrors.

[147]. By the same stage mechanism the Chorus remains in the air till verse 280, when, at the request of Prometheus, they alight.

[148]. Here, as throughout the play, the poet puts into the mouth of his dramatis personæ words which must have seemed to the devouter Athenians sacrilegious enough to call for an indictment before the Areiopagos. But the final play of the Trilogy came, we may believe, as the Eumenides did in its turn, as a reconciliation of the conflicting thoughts that rise in men's minds out of the seeming anomalies of the world.

[149]. The words leave it uncertain whether Themis is identified with Earth, or, as in the Eumenides (v. 2) distinguished from her. The Titans as a class, then, children of Okeanos and Chthôn (another name for Land or Earth), are the kindred rather than the brothers of Prometheus.

[150]. The generalising words here, as in v. 35, appeal to the Athenian hatred of all that was represented by the words tyrant and tyranny.

[151]. The state described is that of men who “through fear of death are all their lifetime subject to bondage.” That state, the parent of all superstition, fostered the slavish awe in which Zeus delighted. Prometheus, representing the active intellect of man, bestows new powers, new interests, new hopes, which at last divert them from that fear.

[152]. The home of Okeanos was in the far west, at the boundary of the great stream surrounding the whole world, from which he took his name.

[153]. One of the sayings of the Seven Sages, already recognised and quoted as a familiar proverb.

[154]. See note on Agam. 1602.

[155]. In the mythos, Okeanos had given his daughter Hesione in marriage to Prometheus after the theft of fire, and thus had identified himself with his transgression.

[156]. In the Theogony of Hesiod (v. 509), Prometheus and Atlas appear as the sons of two sisters. As other Titans were thought of as buried under volcanoes, so this one was identified with the mountain which had been seen by travellers to Western Africa, or in the seas beyond it, rising like a column to support the vault of heaven. In Herodotos (iv. 174) and all later writers, the name is given to the chain of mountains in Lybia, as being the “pillar of the firmament;” but Humboldt and others identify it with the lonely peak of Teneriffe, as seen by Phœnikian or Hellenic voyagers. Teneriffe, too, like most of the other Titan mountains, was at one time volcanic. Homer (Odyss. i. 53) represents him as holding the pillars which separate heaven from earth; Hesiod (Theogon. v. 517) as himself standing near the Hesperides (this too points to Teneriffe), sustaining the heavens with his head and shoulders.

[157]. The volcanic character of the whole of Asia Minor, and the liability to earthquakes which has marked nearly every period of its history, led men to connect it also with the traditions of the Titans, some accordingly placing the home of Typhon in Phrygia, some near Sardis, some, as here, in Kilikia. Hesiod (Theogon. v. 820) describes Typhon (or Typhoeus) as a serpent-monster hissing out fire; Pindar (Pyth. i. 30, viii. 21) as lying with his head and breast crushed beneath the weight of Ætna, and his feet extending to Cumæ.

[158]. The words point probably to an eruption, then fresh in men's memories, which had happened B.C. 476.

[159]. By some editors this speech from “No, not so,” to “thou know'st how,” is assigned to Okeanos.

[160]. These are, of course, the Amazons, who were believed to have come through Thrakè from the Tauric Chersonesos, and had left traces of their name and habits in the Attic traditions of Theseus.

[161]. Beyond the plains of Skythia, and the lake Mæotis (the sea of Azov) there would be the great river Okeanos, which was believed to flow round the earth.

[162]. Sarmatia has been conjectured instead of Arabia. No Greek author sanctions the extension of the latter name to so remote a region as that north of the Caspian.

[163]. The Greek leaves the object of the sympathy undefined, but it seems better to refer it to that which Atlas receives from the waste of waters around, and the dark world beneath, than to the pity shown to Prometheus. This has already been dwelt on in line 421.

[164]. The passage that follows has for modern palæontologists the interest of coinciding with their views as to the progress of human society, and the condition of mankind during what has been called the “Stone” period. Comp. Lucretius, v. 955-984.

[165]. Comp. Mr. Blakesley's note on Herod. ii. 4, as showing that here there was the greater risk of faulty observation.

[166]. Another reading gives perhaps a better sense—

“Memory, handmaid true

And mother of the Muses.”

[167]. In Greece, as throughout the East, the ox was used for all agricultural labours, the horse by the noble and the rich, either in war chariots, or stately processions, or in chariot races in the great games.

[168]. Compare with this the account of the inventions of Palamedes in Sophocles, Fragm. 379.

[169]. Here we can recognise the knowledge of one who had studied in the schools of Pythagoras, or had at any rate picked up their terminology. A more immediate connexion may perhaps be traced with the influence of Epimenides, who was said to have spent many years in searching out the healing virtues of plants, and to have written books about them.

[170]. The lines that follow form almost a manual of the art of divination as then practised. The “ominous sounds” include chance words, strange cries, any unexpected utterance that connected itself with men's fears for the future. The flights of birds were watched by the diviner as he faced the north, and so the region on the right hand was that of the sunrise, light, blessedness; on the left there were darkness and gloom and death.

[171]. So Io was represented, we are told, by Greek sculptors (Herod. ii. 41), as Isis was by those of Egypt. The points of contact between the myth of Io and that of Prometheus, as adopted, or perhaps developed, by Æschylos are—(1) that from her the destined deliverer of the chained Titan is to come; (2) that both were suffering from the cruelty of Zeus; (3) that the wanderings of Io gave scope for the wild tales of far countries on which the imagination of the Athenians fed greedily. But, as the Suppliants may serve to show, the story itself had a strange fascination for him. In the birth of Epaphos, and Io's release from her frenzy, he saw, it may be, a reconciliation of what had seemed hard to reconcile, a solution of the problems of the world, like in kind to that which was shadowed forth in the lost Prometheus Unbound.

[172]. Argos had been slain by Hermes, and his eyes transferred by Hera to the tail of the peacock, and that bird was henceforth sacred to her.

[173]. Inachos the father of Io (identified with the Argive river of the same name), was, like all rivers, a son of Okeanos, and therefore brother to the nymphs who had come to see Prometheus.

[174]. The words used have an almost technical meaning as applied to animals that were consecrated to the service of a God, and set free to wander where they liked. The fate of Io, as at once devoted to Zeus and animalised in form, was thus shadowed forth in the very language of the Oracle.

[175]. Lerna was the lake near the mouth of the Inachos, close to the sea. Kerchneia may perhaps be identified with the Kenchreæ, the haven of Korinth in later geographies.

[176]. The wicker huts used by Skythian or Thrakian nomads (the Calmucks of modern geographers) are described by Herodotos (iv. 46) and are still in use.

[177]. Sc., the N.E. boundary of the Euxine, where spurs of the Caucasos ridge approach the sea.

[178]. The Chalybes are placed by geographers to the south of Colchis. The description of the text indicates a locality farther to the north.

[179]. Probably the Araxes, which the Greeks would connect with a word conveying the idea of a torrent dashing on the rocks. The description seems to imply a river flowing into the Euxine from the Caucasos, and the condition is fulfilled by the Hypanis or Kouban.

[180]. When the Amazons appear in contact with Greek history, they are found in Thrace. But they had come from the coast of Pontos, and near the mouth of the Thermodon (Thermeh). The words of Prometheus point to yet earlier migrations from the East.

[181]. Here, as in Soph. Antig. (970) the name Salmydessos represents the rockbound, havenless coast from the promontory of Thynias to the entrance of the Bosporos, which had given to the Black Sea its earlier name of Axenos, the “inhospitable.”

[182]. The track is here in some confusion. From the Amazons south of the Caucasos, Io is to find her way to the Tauric Chersonese (the Crimea) and the Kimmerian Bosporos, which flows into the Sea of Azov, and so to return to Asia.

[183]. Here, as in a hundred other instances, a false etymology has become the parent of a myth. The name Bosporos is probably Asiatic not Greek, and has an entirely different signification.

[184]. The lines refer to the story that Zeus loved Thetis the daughter of Nereus, and followed her to Caucasos, but abstained from marriage with her because Prometheus warned him that the child born of that union should overthrow his father. Here the future is used of what was still contingent only. In the lost play of the Trilogy the myth was possibly brought to its conclusion and connected with the release of Prometheus.

[185]. Heracles, whose genealogy was traced through Alcmena, Perseus, Danae, Danaos and seven other names, to Epaphos and Io.

[186]. Probably the Kimmerian Bosporos. The Tanais or Phasis has, however, been conjectured.

[187]. The history of the passage in brackets is curious enough to call for a note. They are not in any extant MS., but they are found in a passage quoted by Galen (v. p. 454), as from the Prometheus Bound, and are inserted here by Mr. Paley.

[188]. Kisthene belongs to the geography of legend, lying somewhere on the shore of the great ocean-river in Lybia or Æthiopia, at the end of the world, a great mountain in the far West, beyond the Hesperides, the dwelling-place, as here, of the Gorgons, the daughters of Phorkys. Those first-named are the Graiæ.

[189]. Here, like the “wingèd hound” of v. 1043, for the eagles that are the messengers of Zeus.

[190]. We are carried back again from the fabled West to the fabled East. The Arimaspians, with one eye, and the Grypes or Gryphons (the griffins of mediæval heraldry), quadrupeds with the wings and beaks of eagles, were placed by most writers (Herod. iv. 13, 27) in the north of Europe, in or beyond the terra incognita of Skythia. The mention of the “ford of Pluto” and Æthiopia, however, may possibly imply (if we identify it, as Mr. Paley does, with the Tartessos of Spain, or Bœtis—Guadalquivir) that Æschylos followed another legend which placed them in the West. There is possibly a paronomasia between Pluto, the God of Hades, and Plutos, the ideal God of riches.

[191]. The name was applied by later writers (Quintus Curtius, iv. 7, 22; Lucretius, vi. 848) to the fountain in the temple of Jupiter Ammon in the great Oasis. The “river Æthiops” may be purely imaginary, but it may also suggest the possibility of some vague knowledge of the Niger, or more probably of the Nile itself in the upper regions of its course. The “Bybline hills” carry the name Byblos, which we only read of as belonging to a town in the Delta, to the Second Cataract.

[192]. Comp. Sophocles, Trachin., v. 1168.

[193]. The Adriatic or Ionian Gulf.

[194]. In the Suppliants, Zeus is said to have soothed her, and restored her to her human consciousness by his “divine breathings.” The thought underlying the legend may be taken either as a distortion of some primitive tradition, or as one of the “unconscious prophecies” of heathenism. The deliverer is not to be born after the common manner of men, and is to have a divine as well as a human parentage.

[195]. See the argument of the Suppliants, who, as the daughters of Danaos, descended from Epaphos, are here referred to. The passage is noticeable as showing that the theme of that tragedy was already present to the poet's thoughts.

[196]. Argos. So in the Suppliants, Pelasgos is the mythical king of the Apian land who receives them.

[197]. Hypermnæstra, who spared Lynceus, and by him became the mother of Abas and a line of Argive kings.

[198]. Heracles, who came to Caucasos, and with his arrows slew the eagle that devoured Prometheus.

[199]. The word is simply an interjection of pain, but one so characteristic that I have thought it better to reproduce it than to give any English equivalent.

[200]. The maxim, “Marry with a woman thine equal,” was ascribed to Pittacos.

[201]. The Euhemerism of later scholiasts derived the name from a king Adrastos, who was said to have been the first to build a temple to Nemesis, and so the power thus worshipped was called after his name. A better etymology leads us to see in it the idea of the “inevitable” law of retribution working unseen by men, and independently even of the arbitrary will of the Gods, and bringing destruction upon the proud and haughty.

[202]. Comp. Agam. 162-6.

[203]. Either a mere epithet of intensity, as in our “thrice blest,” or rising from the supposed fact that every third wave was larger and more impetuous than the others, like fluctus decumanus of the Latins, or from the sequence of three great waves which some have noted as a common phenomenon in storms.

[204]. Here again we have a strange shadowing forth of the mystery of Atonement, and what we have learnt to call “vicarious” satisfaction. In the later legend, Cheiron, suffering from the agony of his wounds, resigns his immortality, and submits to die in place of the ever-living death to which Prometheus was doomed.

[205]. It is noticeable that both Æschylos and Sophocles have left us tragedies which end in a thunderstorm as an element of effect. But the contrast between the Prometheus and the Œdipus at Colonos as to the impression left in the one case of serene reconciliation, and in the other of violent antagonism, is hardly less striking than the resemblance in the outward phenomena which are common to the two.

THE SUPPLIANTS

DRAMATIS PERSONÆ

Danaos

Herald

Pelasgos, king of Argos

Chorus of the daughters of Danaos

ARGUMENT.—When Io, after many wanderings, had found refuge in Egypt, and having been touched by Zeus, had given birth to Epaphos, it came to pass that he and his descendants ruled over the region of Canôpos, near one of the seven mouths of Neilos. And in the fifth generation there were two brothers, Danaos and Ægyptos, the sons of Belos, and the former had fifty daughters and the latter fifty sons, and Ægyptos sought the daughters of Danaos in marriage for his sons. And they, looking on the marriage as unholy, and hating those who wooed them, took flight and came to Argos, where Pelasgos then ruled as king, as to the land whence Io, from whom they sprang, had come. And thither the sons of Ægyptos followed them in hot pursuit.

Scene.—Argos, the entrance of the gates. Statues of Zeus,

Artemis, and other Gods, placed against the walls

Enter Chorus of the Daughters of Danaos,[^[206]] in the dress of Egyptian women, with the boughs of suppliants in their hands, and fillets of white wool twisted round them, chanting as they move in procession to take up their position round the thymele

Zeus, the God of Suppliants, kindly

Look on this our band of wanderers,

That from banks at mouths of Neilos,

Banks of finest sand, departed![^[207]]

Yea, we left the region sacred,

Grassy plain on Syria's borders,[^[208]]

Not for guilt of blood to exile

By our country's edict sentenced,

But with free choice, loathing wedlock,

Fleeing marriage-rites unholy

With the children of Ægyptos.

10

And our father Danaos, ruler,

Chief of council, chief of squadrons,

Playing moves on fortune's draught-board,[^[209]]

Chose what seemed the best of evils,

Through the salt sea-waves to hasten,

Steering to the land of Argos,

Whence our race has risen to greatness;

Sprung, so boasts it, from the heifer

Whom the stinging gadfly harassed,

By the touch of Zeus love-breathing:[^[210]]

And to what land more propitious

Could we come than this before us,

20

Holding in our hand the branches

Suppliant, wreathed with white wool fillets?

O State! O land! O water gleaming!

Ye the high Gods, ye the awful,

In the dark the graves still guarding;

Thou too with them, Zeus Preserver,[^[211]]

Guardian of the just man's dwelling,

Welcome with the breath of pity,

Pity as from these shores wafted,

Us poor women who are suppliants.

And that swarm of men that follow,

Haughty offspring of Ægyptos,

30

Ere they set their foot among you

On this silt-strown shore,[^[212]]—oh, send them

Seaward in their ship swift-rowing;

There, with whirlwind tempest-driven,

There, with lightning and with thunder,

There, with blasts that bring the storm-rain,

May they in the fierce sea perish,

Ere they, cousin-brides possessing,

Rest on marriage-beds reluctant,

Which the voice of right denies them!

Strophe I

And now I call on him, the Zeus-sprung steer,[^[213]]

40

Our true protector, far beyond the sea,

Child of the heifer-foundress of our line,

Who cropped the flowery mead,

Born of the breath, and named from touch of Zeus.

[*]And lo! the destined time

[*]Wrought fully with the name,

And she brought forth the “Touch-born,” Epaphos.

Antistrophe I

And now invoking him in grassy fields,

50

Where erst his mother strayed, to dwellers here

Telling the tale of all her woes of old,

I surest pledge shall give;

And others, strange beyond all fancy's dream,

Shall yet perchance be found;

And in due course of time

Shall men know clearly all our history.

Strophe II

And if some augur of the land be near,

Hearing our piteous cry,

Sure he will deem he hears

The voice of Tereus' bride,[^[214]]

Piteous and sad of soul,

The nightingale sore harassed by the kite.

60

Antistrophe II

[*]For she, driven back from wonted haunts and streams,[^[215]]

Mourns with a strange new plaint

The home that she has lost,

And wails her son's sad doom,

How he at her hand died,

Meeting with evil wrath unmotherly;

Strophe III

E'en so do I, to wailing all o'er-given,

In plaintive music of Ionian mood,[^[216]]

[*]Vex the soft cheek on Neilos' banks that bloomed,

And heart that bursts in tears,

And pluck the flowers of lamentations loud,

Not without fear of friends,

70

[*]Lest none should care to help

This flight of mine from that mist-shrouded shore.

Antistrophe III

But, O ye Gods ancestral! hear my prayer,

Look well upon the justice of our cause,

Nor grant to youth to gain its full desire

Against the laws of right,

But with prompt hate of lust, our marriage bless.

[*]Even for those who come

As fugitives in war

The altar serves as shield that Gods regard.

Strophe IV

May God good issue give![^[217]]

80

And yet the will of Zeus is hard to scan:

Through all it brightly gleams,

E'en though in darkness and the gloom of chance

For us poor mortals wrapt.

Antistrophe IV

Safe, by no fall tripped up,

The full-wrought deed decreed by brow of Zeus;

For dark with shadows stretch

The pathways of the counsels of his heart,

And difficult to see.

Strophe V

And from high-towering hopes He hurleth down

90

To utter doom the heir of mortal birth;

Yet sets He in array

No forces violent;

All that Gods work is effortless and calm:

Seated on holiest throne,

Thence, though we know not how,

He works His perfect will.

Antistrophe V

Ah, let him look on frail man's wanton pride,

With which the old stock burgeons out anew,

By love for me constrained,

In counsels ill and rash,

100

And in its frenzied, passionate resolve

Finds goad it cannot shun;

But in deceivèd hopes,

Shall know, too late, its woe.

Strophe VI

Such bitter griefs, lamenting, I recount,

With cries shrill, tearful, deep,

(Ah woe! ah woe!)

That strike the ear with mourner's woe-fraught cry.

Though yet alive, I wail mine obsequies;

Thee, Apian sea-girt bluff,[^[218]]

I greet (our alien speech

Thou knowest well, O land,)

110

And ofttimes fall, with rendings passionate,

On robe of linen and Sidonian veil.

Antistrophe VI

But to the Gods, for all things prospering well,

When death is kept aloof,

Gifts votive come of right.

Ah woe! Ah woe!

Oh, troubles dark, and hard to understand!

Ah, whither will these waters carry me?

Thee, Apian sea-girt bluff,

120

I greet (our alien speech

Thou knowest well, O land,)

And ofttimes fall, with rendings passionate,

On robe of linen and Sidonian veil.

Strophe VII

The oar indeed and dwelling, timber-wrought,

With sails of canvas, 'gainst the salt sea proof

Brought me with favouring gales,

By stormy wind unvexed;

Nor have I cause for murmur. Issues good

May He, the all-seeing Father, grant, that I,

130

Great seed of Mother dread,

In time may 'scape, still maiden undefiled,

My suitor's marriage-bed.

Antistrophe VII

And with a will that meets my will may She,

The unstained child of Zeus, on me look down,

[*]Our Artemis, who guards

The consecrated walls;

And with all strength, though hunted down, uncaught,

May She, the Virgin, me a virgin free,

140

Great seed of Mother dread,

That I may 'scape, still maiden undefiled,

My suitor's marriage-bed.

Strophe VIII

But if this may not be,

We, of swarth sun-burnt race,

Will with our suppliant branches go to him,

Zeus, sovereign of the dead,[^[219]]

The Lord that welcomes all that come to him,

Dying by twisted noose

150

If we the grace of Gods Olympian miss.

By thine ire, Zeus, 'gainst Io virulent,

The Gods' wrath seeks us out,

And I know well the woe

Comes from thy queen who reigns in heaven victorious;

For after stormy wind

The tempest needs must rage.

Antistrophe VIII

And then shall Zeus to words

Unseemly be exposed,

Having the heifer's offspring put to shame,

160

Whom he himself begat,

And now his face averting from our prayers:

Ah, may he hear on high,

Yea, pitying look and hear propitiously!

By thine ire, Zeus, 'gainst Io virulent,

The Gods' wrath seeks us out,

And I know well the woe

Comes from thy queen, who reigns in heaven victorious;

For after stormy wind

170

The tempest needs must rage.

Danaos. My children, we need wisdom; lo! ye came

With me, your father wise and old and true,

As guardian of your voyage. Now ashore,

With forethought true I bid you keep my words,

As in a tablet-book recording them:

I see a dust, an army's voiceless herald,

Nor are the axles silent as they turn;

And I descry a host that bear the shield,

And those that hurl the javelin, marching on

With horses and with curvèd battle-cars.

Perchance they are the princes of this land,

180

Come on the watch, as having news of us;

But whether one in kindly mood, or hot

With anger fierce, leads on this great array,

It is, my children, best on all accounts

To take your stand hard by this hill of Gods

Who rule o'er conflicts.[^[220]] Better far than towers

Are altars, yea, a shield impenetrable.

But with all speed approach the shrine of Zeus,

The God of mercy, in your left hand holding

The suppliants' boughs wool-wreathed, in solemn guise,[^[221]]

And greet our hosts as it is meet for us,

190

Coming as strangers, with all duteous words

Kindly and holy, telling them your tale

Of this your flight, unstained by guilt of blood;

And with your speech, let mood not overbold,

Nor vain nor wanton, shine from modest brow

And calm, clear eye. And be not prompt to speak,

Nor full of words; the race that dwelleth here

Of this is very jealous:[^[222]] and be mindful

Much to concede; a fugitive thou art,

A stranger and in want, and 'tis not meet

That those in low estate high words should speak.

Chor. My father, to the prudent prudently

200

Thou speakest, and my task shall be to keep

Thy goodly precepts. Zeus, our sire, look on us!

Dan. Yea, may He look with favourable eye!

Chor. I fain would take my seat not far from thee.

[Chorus moves to the altar not far from

Danaos

Dan. Delay not then; success go with your plan.

Chor. Zeus, pity us with sorrow all but crushed!

Dan. If He be willing, all shall turn out well.

Chor. . . . . .

Dan. Invoke ye now the mighty bird of Zeus.[^[223]]

Chor. We call the sun's bright rays to succour us.

Dan. Apollo too, the holy, in that He,

210

A God, has tasted exile from high heaven.[^[224]]

Chor. Knowing that fate, He well may feel for men.

Dan. So may He feel, and look on us benignly!

Chor. Whom of the Gods shall I besides invoke?

Dan. I see this trident here, a God's great symbol.[^[225]]

Chor. Well hath He brought us, well may He receive!

Dan. Here too is Hermes,[^[226]] as the Hellenes know him.

Chor. To us, as free, let Him good herald prove.

Dan. Yea, and the common shrine of all these Gods

Adore ye, and in holy precincts sit,

Like swarms of doves in fear of kites your kinsmen,

220

Foes of our blood, polluters of our race.

How can bird prey on bird and yet be pure?

And how can he be pure who seeks in marriage

Unwilling bride from father too unwilling?

Nay, not in Hades' self, shall he, vain fool,

Though dead, 'scape sentence, doing deeds like this;

For there, as men relate, a second Zeus[^[227]]

Judges men's evil deeds, and to the dead

Assigns their last great penalties. Look up,

And take your station here, that this your cause

May win its way to a victorious end.

Enter the King on his chariot, followed by Attendants

King. Whence comes this crowd, this non-Hellenic band,

230

In robes and raiment of barbaric fashion

So gorgeously attired, whom now we speak to?

This woman's dress is not of Argive mode,

Nor from the climes of Hellas. How ye dared,

Without a herald even or protector,

Yea, and devoid of guides too, to come hither

Thus boldly, is to me most wonderful.

And yet these boughs, as is the suppliant's wont,

Are set by you before the Gods of conflicts:

By this alone will Hellas guess aright.

Much more indeed we might have else conjectured,

240

Were there no voice to tell me on the spot.

Chor. Not false this speech of thine about our garb;

But shall I greet thee as a citizen,

Or bearing Hermes' rod, or city ruling?[^[228]]

King. Nay, for that matter, answer thou and speak

Without alarm. Palæchthon's son am I,

Earth-born, the king of this Pelasgic land;

And named from me, their king,[^[229]] as well might be,

The race Pelasgic reaps our country's fruits;

[*]And all the land through which the Strymon pours

250

Its pure, clear waters to the West I rule;

And as the limits of my realm I mark

The land of the Perrhæbi, and the climes

Near the Pæonians, on the farther side

Of Pindos, and the Dodonæan heights;[^[230]]

And the sea's waters form its bounds. O'er all

Within these coasts I govern; and this plain,

The Apian land, itself has gained its name

Long since from one who as a healer lived;[^[231]]

For Apis, coming from Naupactian land

That lies beyond the straits, Apollo's son,

Prophet and healer, frees this land of ours

260

From man-destroying monsters, which the soil,

Polluted with the guilt of blood of old,

By anger of the Gods, brought forth,—fierce plagues,

The dragon-brood's dread, unblest company;

And Apis, having for this Argive land

Duly wrought out his saving surgery,

Gained his reward, remembered in our prayers;

And thou, this witness having at my hands,

May'st tell thy race at once, and further speak;

Yet lengthened speech our city loveth not.

Chor. Full short and clear our tale. We boast that we

Are Argives in descent, the children true

270

Of the fair, fruitful heifer. And all this

Will I by what I speak show firm and true.

King. Nay, strangers, what ye tell is past belief

For me to hear, that ye from Argos spring;

For ye to Libyan women are most like,[^[232]]

And nowise to our native maidens here.

Such race might Neilos breed, and Kyprian mould,

Like yours, is stamped by skilled artificers

On women's features; and I hear that those

Of India travel upon camels borne,

280

Swift as the horse, yet trained as sumpter-mules,

E'en those who as the Æthiops' neighbours dwell.

And had ye borne the bow, I should have guessed,

Undoubting, ye were of th' Amâzon's tribe,

Man-hating, flesh-devouring. Taught by you,

I might the better know how this can be,

That your descent and birth from Argos come.

Chor. They tell of one who bore the temple-keys

Of Hera, Io, in this Argive land.

King. So was't indeed, and wide the fame prevails:

And was it said that Zeus a mortal loved?

290

Chor. And that embrace was not from Hera hid.

King. What end had then these strifes of sovereign Ones?

Chor. The Argive goddess made the maid a heifer.

King. Did Zeus that fair-horned heifer still approach?

Chor. So say they, fashioned like a wooing steer.

King. How acted then the mighty spouse of Zeus?

Chor. She o'er the heifer set a guard all-seeing.

King. What herdsman strange, all-seeing, speak'st thou of?

Chor. Argos, the earth-born, him whom Hermes slew.

300

King. What else then wrought she on the ill-starred heifer?

Chor. She sent a stinging gadfly to torment her.

[Those who near Neilos dwell an æstros call it.]

King. Did she then drive her from her country far?

Chor. All that thou say'st agrees well with our tale.

King. And did she to Canôbos go, and Memphis?

Chor. Zeus with his touch, an offspring then begets.

King. What Zeus-born calf that heifer claims as mother?

Chor. [*]He from that touch which freed named Epaphos.

310

King. [What offspring then did Epaphos beget?][^[233]]

Chor. Libya, that gains her fame from greatest land.

King. What other offspring, born of her, dost tell of?

Chor. Sire of my sire here, Belos, with two sons.

King. Tell me then now the name of yonder sage.

Chor. Danaos, whose brother boasts of fifty sons.

King. Tell me his name, too, with ungrudging speech.

Chor. Ægyptos: knowing now our ancient stock,

Take heed thou bid thine Argive suppliants rise.

King. Ye seem, indeed, to make your ancient claim

To this our country good: but how came ye

320

To leave your father's house? What chance constrained you?

Chor. O king of the Pelasgi, manifold

Are ills of mortals, and thou could'st not find

The self-same form of evil anywhere.

Who would have said that this unlooked-for flight

Would bring to Argos race once native here,

Driving them forth in hate of wedlock's couch?

King. What seek'st thou then of these the Gods of conflicts,

Holding your wool-wreathed branches newly-plucked?

Chor. That I serve not Ægyptos' sons as slave.

King. Speak'st thou of some old feud, or breach of right?

330

Chor. Nay, who'd find fault with master that one loved?

King. Yet thus it is that mortals grow in strength.[^[234]]

Chor. True; when men fail, 'tis easy to desert them.

King. How then to you may I act reverently?

Chor. Yield us not up unto Ægyptos' sons.

King. Hard boon thou ask'st, to wage so strange a war.

Chor. Nay, Justice champions those who fight with her.

King. Yes, if her hand was in it from the first.

Chor. Yet reverence thou the state-ship's stern thus wreathed.[^[235]]

King. I tremble as I see these seats thus shadowed.

340

Strophe I

Chor. Dread is the wrath of Zeus, the God of suppliants:

Son of Palæchthon, hear;

Hear, O Pelasgic king, with kindly heart.

Behold me suppliant, exile, wanderer,

[*]Like heifer chased by wolves

Upon the lofty crags,

Where, trusting in her strength,

She lifteth up her voice

And to the shepherd tells her tale of grief.

King. I see, o'ershadowed with the new-plucked boughs,

[*]Bent low, a band these Gods of conflict own;

And may our dealings with these home-sprung strangers

350

Be without peril, nor let strife arise

To this our country for unlooked-for chance

And unprovided! This our State wants not.

Antistrophe I

Chor. Yea, may that Law that guards the suppliant's right

Free this our flight from harm,

Law, sprung from Zeus, supreme Apportioner,

But thou, [to the King,] though old, from me, though younger, learn:

If thou a suppliant pity

Thou ne'er shall penury know,

So long as Gods receive

Within their sacred shrines

Gifts at the hands of worshipper unstained.

King. It is not at my hearth ye suppliant sit;

But if the State be as a whole defiled,

360

Be it the people's task to work the cure.

I cannot pledge my promise to you first

Ere I have counselled with my citizens.[^[236]]

Strophe II

Chor. Thou art the State—yea, thou the commonwealth,

Chief lord whom none may judge;

'Tis thine to rule the country's altar-hearth,

With the sole vote of thy prevailing nod;

And thou on throne of state,

Sole-sceptred in thy sway,

Bringest each matter to its destined end;

Shun thou the curse of guilt.

King. Upon my foes rest that dread curse of guilt!

370

Yet without harm I cannot succour you,

Nor gives it pleasure to reject your prayers.

In a sore strait am I; fear fills my soul

To take the chance, to do or not to do.

Antistrophe II

Chor. Look thou on Him who looks on all from heaven,

Guardian of suffering men

Who, worn with toil, unto their neighbours come

As suppliants, and receive not justice due:

For these the wrath of Zeus,

Zeus, the true suppliant's God,

Abides, by wail of sufferer unappeased.

380

King. Yet if Ægyptos' sons have claim on thee

By their State's law, asserting that they come

As next of kin, who dare oppose their right?

Thou must needs plead that by thy laws at home

They over thee have no authority.[^[237]]

Strophe III

Chor. Ah! may I ne'er be captive to the might

Of males! Where'er the stars

Are seen in heaven, I track my way in flight,

As refuge from a marriage that I hate.

But thou, make Right thy friend,

And honour what the Gods count pure and true.

390

King. Hard is the judgment: choose not me as judge.

But, as I said before, I may not act

Without the people, sovereign though I be,

Lest the crowd say, should aught fall out amiss,

“In honouring strangers, thou the State did'st ruin.”

Antistrophe III

Chor. Zeus, the great God of kindred, in these things

Watches o'er both of us,

Holding an equal scale, and fitly giving

To the base evil, to the righteous blessing.

Why, when these things are set

In even balance, fear'st thou to do right?

400

King. Deep thought we need that brings deliverance,

That, like a diver, mine eye too may plunge

Clear-seeing to the depths, not wine-bedrenched,

That these things may be harmless to the State,

And to ourselves may issue favourably:

That neither may the strife make you its prey,

Nor that we give you up, who thus are set

Near holy seat of Gods, and so bring in

To dwell with us the Avenger terrible,

God that destroyeth, who not e'en in Hades

410

Gives freedom to the dead. Say, think ye not

That there is need of counsel strong to save?

Strophe I

Chor. Take heed to it, and be

Friend to the stranger wholly faithful found;

Desert not thou the poor,

Driven from afar by godless violence.

Antistrophe I

See me not dragged away,

O thou that rul'st the land! from seat of Gods:

Know thou men's wanton pride,

420

And guard thyself against the wrath of Zeus.

Strophe II

Endure not thou to see thy suppliant,

Despite of law, torn off,

As horses by their frontlets, from the forms

Of sculptured deities,

Nor yet the outrage of their wanton hands,

Seizing these broidered robes.

Antistrophe II

For know thou well, whichever course thou take,

Thy sons and all thy house

[*]Must pay in war the debt that Justice claims,

Proportionate in kind.

430

Lay well to heart these edicts, wise and true,

Given by great Zeus himself.

King. Well then have I thought o'er it. To this point

Our ship's course drives. Fierce war we needs must risk

Either with these (pointing to the Gods) or those. Set fast and firm

Is this as is the ship tight wedged in stocks;

And without trouble there's no issue out.

For wealth indeed, were our homes spoiled of that,

There might come other, thanks to Zeus the Giver,

More than the loss, and filling up the freight;

440

And if the tongue should aim its adverse darts,

Baleful and over-stimulant of wrath,

There might be words those words to heal and soothe.

But how to blot the guilt of kindred blood,

This needs a great atonement—many victims

Falling to many Gods—to heal the woe.

[*]I take my part, and turn aside from strife;

And I far rather would be ignorant

Than wise, forecasting evil. May the end,

Against my judgment, show itself as good!

Chor. Hear, then, the last of all our pleas for pity.

King. I hear; speak on. It shall not 'scape my heed.

450

Chor. Girdles I have, and zones that bind my robes.

King. Such things are fitting for a woman's state.

Chor. With these then, know, as good and rare device....

King. Nay, speak. What word is this thou'lt utter now?

Chor. Unless thou giv'st our band thy plighted word....

King. What wilt thou do with this device of girdles?

Chor. With tablets new these sculptures we'll adorn.

King. Thou speak'st a riddle. Make thy meaning plain.

Chor. Upon these Gods we'll hang ourselves at once.

King. I hear a word which pierces to the heart.

460

Chor. Thou see'st our meaning. Eyes full clear I've given.

King. Lo then! in many ways sore troubles come.

A host of evils rushes like a flood;

A sea of woe none traverse, fathomless,

This have I entered; haven there is none.

For if I fail to do this work for you,

Thou tellest of defilement unsurpassed;[^[238]]

And if for thee against Ægyptos' sons,

Thy kindred, I before my city's walls

In conflict stand, how can there fail to be

A bitter loss, to stain the earth with blood

470

Of man for woman's sake? And yet I needs

Must fear the wrath of Zeus, the suppliant's God;

That dread is mightiest with the sons of men.

Thou, then, O aged father of these maidens!

Taking forthwith these branches in thine arms,

Lay them on other altars of the Gods

Our country worships, that the citizens

May all behold this token of thy coming,

And about me let no rash speech be dropped;

For 'tis a people prompt to blame their rulers.

And then perchance some one beholding them,

480

And pitying, may wax wrathful 'gainst the outrage

Of that male troop, and with more kindly will

The people look on you; for evermore

Men all wish well unto the weaker side.

Dan. This boon is counted by us of great price,

To find a patron proved so merciful.

And thou, send with us guides to lead us on,

And tell us how before their shrines to find

The altars of the Gods that guard the State,

[*]And holy places columned round about;

And safety for us, as the town we traverse.

Not of like fashion is our features' stamp;

490

For Neilos rears not race like Inachos.[^[239]]

Take heed lest rashness lead to bloodshed here;

Ere now, unknowing, men have slain their friends.

King (to Attendants). Go then, my men; full well the stranger speaks;

And lead him where the city's altars stand,

The seats of Gods; and see ye talk not much

To passers-by as ye this traveller lead,

A suppliant at the altar-hearth of Gods.

[Exeunt Danaos and Attendants

Chor. Thou speak'st to him; and may he go as bidden!

But what shall I do? What hope giv'st thou me?

King. Leave here those boughs, the token of your grief.

500

Chor. Lo! here I leave them at thy beck and word.

King. Now turn thy steps towards this open lawn.

Chor. What shelter gives a lawn unconsecrate?[^[240]]

King. We will not yield thee up to birds of prey.

Chor. Nay, but to foes far worse than fiercest dragons.

King. Good words should come from those who good have heard.

Chor. No wonder they wax hot whom fear enthrals.

King. But dread is still for rulers all unmeet.

Chor. Do thou then cheer our soul by words and deeds.

King. Nay, no long time thy sire will leave thee lorn;

510

And I, all people of the land convening,

Will the great mass persuade to kindly words;

And I will teach thy father what to say.

Wherefore remain and ask our country's Gods,

With suppliant prayers, to grant thy soul's desire,

And I will go in furtherance of thy wish:

Sweet Suasion follow us, and Fortune good! [Exit

Strophe I

Chor. O King of kings! and blest

Above all blessed ones,

And Power most mighty of the mightiest!

O Zeus, of high estate!

520

Hear thou and grant our prayer!

Drive thou far off the wantonness of men,

The pride thou hatest sore,

And in the pool of darkling purple hue

Plunge thou the woe that comes in swarthy barque.

Antistrophe I

Look on the women's cause;

Recall the ancient tale,

Of one whom Thou did'st love in time of old,

The mother of our race:

Remember it, O Thou

Who did'st on Io lay thy mystic touch.

We boast that we are come

Of consecrated land the habitants,

530

And from this land by lineage high descended.

Strophe II

Now to the ancient track,

Our mother's, I have passed,

The flowery meadow-land where she was watched,—

The pastures of the herd,

Whence Io, by the stinging gadfly driven,

Flees, of her sense bereft,

Passing through many tribes of mortal men;

And then by Fate's decree

Crossing the billowy straits,

On either side she leaves a continent.[^[241]]

540

Antistrophe II

Now through the Asian land

She hastens o'er and o'er,

Right through the Phrygian fields where feed the flocks;

And passes Teuthras' fort,

Owned by the Mysians,[^[242]] and the Lydian plains;

And o'er Kilikian hills,

And those of far Pamphylia rushing on,

By ever-flowing streams,

On to the deep, rich lands,

And Aphrodite's home in wheat o'erflowing.[^[243]]

Strophe III

And so she cometh, as that herdsman winged

550

Pierces with sharpest sting,

To holy plain all forms of life sustaining,

Fields that are fed from snows,[^[244]]

Which Typhon's monstrous strength has traversed,[^[245]]

And unto Neilos' streams,

By sickly taint untouched,[^[246]]

Still maddened with her toil of ignominy,

By torturing stings driven on, great Hera's frenzied slave.

Antistrophe III

And those who then the lands inhabited,

Quivered with pallid fear,

560

That filled their soul at that unwonted marvel,

Seeing that monstrous shape,

The human joined with brute,

Half heifer, and half form of woman fair:[^[247]]

And sore amazed were they.

Who was it then that soothed

Poor Io, wandering in her sore affright,

Driven on, and ever on, by gadfly's maddening sting?

Strophe IV

Zeus, Lord of endless time

[Was seen All-working then;]

He, even He, for by his sovereign might

That works no ill, was she from evil freed;

570

And by his breath divine

She findeth rest, and weeps in floods of tears

Her sorrowing shame away;

And with new burden big,

Not falsely 'Zeus-born' named,

She bare a son that grew in faultless growth,

Antistrophe IV

Prosperous through long, long years;

And so the whole land shouts with one accord,

“Lo, a race sprung from him, the Lord of life,

In very deed, Zeus-born!

580

Who else had checked the plagues that Hera sent?”

This is the work of Zeus:

And speaking of our race

That sprang from Epaphos

As such, thou would'st not fail to hit the mark.

Strophe V

Which of the Gods could I with right invoke

As doing juster deeds?

He is our Father, author of our life,

The King whose right hand worketh all his will,

Our line's great author, in his counsels deep

Recording things of old,

Directing all his plans, the great work-master, Zeus.

Antistrophe V

For not as subject hastening at the beck

Of strength above his own,[^[248]]

Reigns He subordinate to mightier powers;

590

Nor does He pay his homage from below,

While One sits throned in majesty above;[^[249]]

Act is for him as speech,

To hasten what his teeming mind resolves.

Re-enter Danaos

Dan. Be of good cheer, my children. All goes well

With those who dwell here, and the people's voice

Hath passed decrees full, firm, irrevocable.

Chor. Hail, aged sire, that tell'st me right good news!

But say with what intent the vote hath passed,

And on which side the people's hands prevail.

Dan. The Argives have decreed without division,

So that my aged mind grew young again;

600

For in full congress, with their right hands raised

Rustled the air as they decreed their vote

That we should sojourn in their land as free,

Free from arrest, and with asylum rights;

And that no native here nor foreigner

Should lead us off; and, should he venture force,

That every citizen who gave not help

Dishonoured should be driven to exile forth.

Such counsel giving, the Pelasgian King

610

Gained their consent, proclaiming that great wrath

Of Zeus the God of suppliants ne'er would let

The city wax in fatness,—warning them

That double guilt[^[250]] upon the State would come,

Touching at once both guests and citizens,

The food and sustenance of sore disease

That none could heal. And then the Argive host,

Hearing these things, decreed by show of hands,

Not waiting for the herald's proclamation,

So it should be. They heard, indeed, the crowd

Of those Pelasgi, all the winning speech,

The well-turned phrases cunning to persuade;

But it was Zeus that brought the end to pass.

Chor. Come then, come, let us speak for Argives

Prayers that are good for good deeds done;

620

Zeus, who o'er all strangers watches,

May He regard with his praise and favour

The praise that comes from the lips of strangers,

[*]And guide in all to a faultless issue.

Strophe I

Half-Chor. A. Now, now, at last, ye Gods of Zeus begotten,[^[251]]

Hear, as I pour my prayers upon their race,

That ne'er may this Pelasgic city raise

From out its flames the joyless cry of War,

War, that in other fields

Reapeth his human crop:

For they have mercy shown,

And passed their kind decree,

630

Pitying this piteous flock, the suppliants of great Zeus.

Antistrophe I

They did not take their stand with men 'gainst women

Casting dishonour on their plea for help,

[*]But looked to Him who sees and works from heaven,

[*]Full hard to war with. Yea, what house could bear

To see Him on its roof

Casting pollution there?[^[252]]

Sore vexing there he sits.

Yes, they their kin revere,

Suppliants of holiest Zeus;

640

Therefore with altars pure shall they the Gods delight.

Strophe II

Therefore from faces by our boughs o'ershadowed[^[253]]

Let prayers ascend in emulous eagerness:

Ne'er may dark pestilence

This State of men bereave;

May no fierce party strife

Pollute these plains with native carcases;

And may the bloom of youth

Be with them still uncropt;

And ne'er may Aphrodite's paramour,

650

Ares the scourge of men,

Mow down their blossoms fair!

Antistrophe II

And let the altars tended by the old

[*]Blaze with the gifts of men with hoary hairs;

So may the State live on

In full prosperity!

Let them great Zeus adore,

The strangers' God, the one Supreme on high,

By venerable law

Ordering the course of fate.

And next we pray that ever more and more

Earth may her tribute bear,

And Artemis as Hecate preside[^[254]]

O'er woman's travail-pangs.

660

Strophe III

Let no destroying strife come on, invading

This city to lay waste,

Setting in fierce array

War, with its fruit of tears,

Lyreless and danceless all,

And cry of people's wrath;

And may the swarm of plagues,

Loathly and foul to see,

Abide far off from these our citizens,

And that Lykeian king, may He be found

Benignant to our youth![^[255]]

Antistrophe III

And Zeus, may He, by his supreme decree,

670

Make the earth yield her fruits

Through all the seasons round,

And grant a plenteous brood

Of herds that roam the fields!

May Heaven all good gifts pour,

And may the voice of song

Ascend o'er altar shrines,

Unmarred by sounds of ill!

And let the voice that loves with lyre to blend

Go forth from lips of blameless holiness,

In accents of great joy!

Strophe IV

[*]And may the rule in which the people share

Keep the State's functions as in perfect peace,

E'en that which sways the crowd,

[*]Which sways the commonwealth,

680

By counsels wise and good;

And to the strangers and the sojourners

May they grant rights that rest on compacts sure,

Ere War is roused to arms,

So that no trouble come!

Antistrophe IV

And the great Gods who o'er this country watch,

May they adore them in the land They guard,

With rites of sacrifice,

And troops with laurel boughs,

As did our sires of old!

For thus to honour those who gave us life,

This stands as one of three great laws on high,[^[256]]

Written as fixed and firm,

The laws of Right revered.

Dan. I praise these seemly prayers, dear children mine.

690

But fear ye not, if I your father speak

Words that are new, and all unlooked-for by you;

For from this station to the suppliant given

I see the ship; too clear to be mistaken

The swelling sails, the bulwark's coverings,

And prow with eyes that scan the onward way,[^[257]]

But too obedient to the steerman's helm,

Being, as it is, unfriendly. And the men

Who sail in her with swarthy limbs are seen,

In raiment white conspicuous. And I see

700

Full clear the other ships that come to help;

And this as leader, putting in to shore,

Furling its sails, is rowed with equal stroke.

'Tis yours, with mood of calm and steadfast soul,

To face the fact, and not to slight the Gods.

And I will come with friends and advocates;

For herald, it may be, or embassy,

May come, and wish to seize and bear you off,

Grasping their prey. But nought of this shall be;

Fear ye not them. It were well done, however,

If we should linger in our help, this succour

710

In no wise to forget. Take courage then;

In their own time and at the appointed day,

Whoever slights the Gods shall pay for it.

Strophe I

Chor. I fear, my father, since the swift-winged ships

Are come, and very short the time that's left.

A shuddering anguish makes me sore afraid,

Lest small the profit of my wandering flight.

I faint, my sire, for fear.

Dan. My children, since the Argives' vote is passed,

Take courage: they will fight for thee, I know.

720

Antistrophe I

Chor. Hateful and wanton are Ægyptos' sons,

Insatiable of conflict, and I speak

To one who knows them. They in timbered ships,

Dark-eyed, have sailed in wrath that hits its mark,

With great and swarthy host.

Dan. Yet many they shall find whose arms are tanned

In the full scorching of the noontide heat.[^[258]]

Strophe II

Chor. Leave me not here alone, I pray thee, father!

Alone, a woman is as nought, and war

Is not for her. Of over-subtle mind,

And subtle counsel in their souls impure,

730

Like ravens, e'en for altars caring not,—

Such, such in soul are they.

Dan. That would work well indeed for us, my children,

Should they be foes to Gods as unto thee.

Antistrophe II

Chor. No reverence for these tridents or the shrines

Of Gods, my father, will restrain their hands:

Full stout of heart, of godless mood unblest,

Fed to the full, and petulant as dogs,

And for the voice of high Gods caring not,—

Such, such in soul are they.

Dan. Nay, the tale runs that wolves prevail o'er dogs;

740

And byblos fruit excels not ear of corn.[^[259]]

Chor. But since their minds are as the minds of brutes,

Restless and vain, we must beware of force.

Dan. Not rapid is the getting under weigh

Of naval squadron, nor their anchoring,

Nor the safe putting into shore with cables.

Nor have the shepherds of swift ships quick trust

In anchor-fastenings, most of all, as now,

When coming to a country havenless;

And when the sun has yielded to the night,

That night brings travail to a pilot wise,

750

[Though it be calm and all the waves sleep still;]

So neither can this army disembark

Before the ship is safe in anchorage.

And thou beware lest in thy panic fear

Thou slight the Gods whom thou hast called to help.

The city will not blame your messenger,

Old though he be, being young in clear-voiced thought. Exit

Strophe I

Chor. Ah, me! thou land of jutting promontory

Which justly all revere,

What lies before us? Where in Apian land

Shall we a refuge find,

If still there be dark hiding anywhere?

Ah! that I were as smoke

That riseth full and black

Nigh to the clouds of Zeus,

760

Or soaring up on high invisible,

Like dust that vanishes,

Pass out of being with no help from wings!

Antistrophe I

[*]E'en so the ill admits not now of flight;

My heart in dark gloom throbs;

My father's work as watcher brings me low;

I faint for very fear,

And I would fain find noose that bringeth death,

In twisted cordage hung,

Before the man I loathe

Draws near this flesh of mine:

770

Sooner than that may Hades rule o'er me

Sleeping the sleep of death!

Strophe II

Ah, might I find a place in yon high vault,

Where the rain-clouds are passing into snow,

Or lonely precipice

Whose summit none can see,

Rock where the vulture haunts,

Witness for me of my abysmal fall,

Before the marriage that will pierce my heart

Becomes my dreaded doom!

Antistrophe II

I shrink not from the thought of being the prey

780

Of dogs and birds that haunt the country round;

For death shall make me free

From ills all lamentable:

Yea, let death rather come

Than the worse doom of hated marriage-bed!

What other refuge now remains for me

That marriage to avert?

Strophe III

Yea, to the Gods raise thou

Cloud-piercing, wailing cry

Of songs and litanies,

Prevailing, working freedom out for me:

790

And thou, O Father, look,

Look down upon the strife,

With glance of wrath against our enemies

From eyes that see the right;

With pity look on us thy suppliants,

O Lord of Earth, O Zeus omnipotent!

Antistrophe III

For lo! Ægyptos' house,

In pride intolerable,

O'er-masculine in mood,

Pursuing me in many a winding course,

Poor wandering fugitive,

With loud and wild desires,

Seek in their frenzied violence to seize:

800

But thine is evermore

The force that turns the balance of the scale:

What comes to mortal men apart from Thee?

Ah! ah! ah! ah!

[*]Here on the land behold the ravisher

Who comes on us by sea!

[*]Ah, may'st thou perish, ravisher, ere thou

Hast stopped or landed here!

[*]I utter cry of wailing loud and long,

[*]I see them work the prelude of their crimes,

Their crimes of violence.

Ah! ah! Ah me!

810

Haste in your flight for help!

The mighty ones are waxing fat and proud,

By sea and land alike intolerable.

Be thou, O King, our bulwark and defence!

Enter Herald of the sons of Ægyptos, advancing to

the daughters of Danaos

Her. Haste, haste with all your speed unto the barque.

Chor. Tearing of hair, yea, tearing now will come,

And print of nails in flesh,

And smiting off of heads,

With murderous stream of blood.

Her. Haste, haste ye, to that barque that yonder lies,

820

Ye wretches, curse on you.

Strophe I

Chor. Would thou had'st met thy death

Where the salt waves wildly surge,

Thou with thy lordly pride,

In nail-compacted ship:

[*]Lo! they will smite thee, weltering in thy blood,

[*]And drive thee to thy barque.

Her. I bid you cease perforce, the cravings wild

Of mind to madness given.

Ho there! what ho! I say;

830

Give up those seats, and hasten to the ship:

I reverence not what this State honoureth.

Antistrophe I

Chor. Ah, I may ne'er again

Behold the stream where graze the goodly kine,

Nourished and fed by which[^[260]]

The blood of cattle waxes strong and full!

[*]As with a native's right,

[*]And one of old descent,

I keep, old man, my seat, my seat, I say.

Her. Nay, in a ship, a ship them shalt soon go,

840

With or without thy will,

By force, I say, by force:

Come, come, provoke not evils terrible,

Falling by these my hands.

Strophe II

Chor. Ah me! ah me!

Would thou may'st perish with no hand to help,

Crossing the sea's wide plain,

In wanderings far and wide,

Where Sarpedonian sand-bank[^[261]] spreads its length,

Driven by the sweeping blasts!

Her. Sob thou, and howl, and call upon the Gods:

850

Thou shalt not 'scape that barque from Ægypt come,

Though thou should'st pour a bitterer strain of grief.

Antistrophe II

Chor. Woe! woe! Ah woe! ah woe,

For this foul wrong! Thou utterest fearful things;

[*]Thou art too bold and insolent of speech.

[*]May mighty Nile that reared thee turn away

Thy wanton pride and lust

That we behold it not!

Her. I bid you go to yon ship double-prowed,[^[262]]

With all your speed. Let no one lag behind;

But little shall my grasp your ringlets spare.

860

[Seizes on the leader of the Suppliants

Strophe III

Chor. Ah me! my father, ah!

The help of holiest statues turns to woe;

He leads me to the sea,

With motion spider-like,

Or like a dream, a dark and dismal dream,

Ah woe! ah woe! ah woe!

O mother Earth! O Earth! O mother mine!

Avert that cry of fear,

O Zeus, thou king! O son of mother Earth!

Her. Nay, I fear not the Gods they worship here;

They did not rear nor lead me up to age.

870

Antistrophe III

Chor. Near me he rages now,

·       ·       ·       ·       ·

That biped snake,

And like a viper bites me by the foot.

Oh, woe is me! woe! woe!

O mother Earth! O Earth! O mother mine!

Avert that cry of fear,

O Zeus, thou king! O son of mother Earth!

Her. If some one yield not, and to yon ship go,

The hand that tears her tunic will not pity.

Strophe IV

Chor. Ho! rulers of the State!

880

Ye princes! I am seized.

Her. It seems, since ye are slow to hear my words,

That I shall have to drag you by the hair.

Antistrophe IV

Chor. We are undone, undone!

We suffer, prince, unlooked-for outrages,

Her. Full many princes, heirs of great Ægyptos,

Ye soon shall see. Take courage; ye shall have

No cause to speak of anarchy as there.

Enter King followed by his Bodyguard

King. Ho there! What dost thou? and with what intent

Dost thou so outrage this Pelasgic land?

Dost think thou comest to a town of women?

890

Too haughty thou, a stranger 'gainst Hellenes,

And, sinning much, hast nothing done aright.

Her. What sin against the right have I then done?

King. First, thou know'st not how stranger-guest should act.

Her. How so? When I, but finding what I lost....

King. Whom among us dost thou then patrons call?

Her. Hermes the Searcher, chiefest patron mine.[^[263]]

King. Thou, Gods invoking, honourest not the Gods.

Her. The Gods of Neilos are the Gods I worship.

King. Ours then are nought, if I thy meaning catch.

900

Her. These girls I'll lead, if no one rescues them.

King. Lay hand on them, and soon thou'lt pay the cost.

Her. I hear a word in no wise hospitable.

King. Who rob the Gods I welcome not as guests.

Her. I then will tell Ægyptos' children this.

King. This threat is all unheeded in my mind.

Her. But that I, knowing all, may speak it plain,

(For it is meet a herald should declare

Each matter clearly,) what am I to say?

By whom have I been robbed of that fair band

Of women whom I claim as kindred? Nay,

910

But it is Ares that shall try this cause,

And not with witnesses, nor money down,

Settling the matter, but there first must fall

Full many a soldier, and of many a life

The rending in convulsive agony.

King. Why should I tell my name? In time thou'lt know it,

Thou and thy fellow-travellers. But these maidens,

With their consent and free choice of their wills,

Thou may'st lead off, if godly speech persuade them:

But this decree our city's men have made

With one consent, that we to force yield not

This company of women. Here the nail

920

Is driven tight home to keep its place full firm;[^[264]]

These things are written not on tablets only,

[Nor signed and sealed in folds of byblos-rolls;]

Thou hear'st them clearly from a tongue that speaks

With full, free speech. Away, away, I say:

And with all speed from out my presence haste.

Her. It is thy will then a rash war to wage:

May strength and victory on our males attend!

[Exit

King. Nay, thou shall find the dwellers of this land

Are also males, and drink not draughts of ale

930

From barley brewed.[^[265]] [To the Suppliants.] But ye, and your attendants,

Take courage, go within the fencèd city,

Shut in behind its bulwark deep of towers;

Yea, many houses to the State belong,

And I a palace own not meanly built,

If ye prefer to live with many others

In ease and plenty: or if that suits better,

Ye may inhabit separate abodes.

Of these two offers that which pleases best

Choose for yourselves, and I as your protector,

940

And all our townsmen, will defend the pledge

Which our decree has given you. Why wait'st thou

For any better authorised than these?

Chor. For these thy good deeds done may'st thou in good,

All good, abound, great chief of the Pelasgi!

But kindly send to us

Our father Danaos, brave and true of heart,

To counsel and direct.

His must the first decision be where we

Should dwell, and where to find

A kindly home; for ready is each one

To speak his word of blame 'gainst foreigners.

950

But may all good be ours!

And so with fair repute and speech of men,

Free from all taint of wrath,

So place yourselves, dear handmaids, in the land,

As Danaos hath for each of us assigned

Dowry of handmaid slaves.

Enter Danaos followed by Soldiers

Dan. My children, to the Argives ye should pray,

And sacrifice, and full libations pour,

As to Olympian Gods, for they have proved,

With one consent, deliverers: and they heard

[*]All that I did towards those cousins there,

960

[*]Those lovers hot and bitter. And they gave

To me as followers these that bear the spear,

That I might have my meed of honour due,

And might not die by an assassin's hand

A death unlooked-for, and thus leave the land

A weight of guilt perpetual: and 'tis fit

That one who meets such kindness should return,

[*]From his heart's depths, a nobler gratitude;

And add ye this to all already written,

Your father's many maxims of true wisdom,

That we, though strangers, may in time be known;

970

For as to aliens each man's tongue is apt

For evil, and spreads slander thoughtlessly;

But ye, I charge you, see ye shame me not,

With this your life's bloom drawing all men's eyes.

The goodly vintage is full hard to watch,

All men and beasts make fearful havoc of it,

Nay, birds that fly, and creeping things of earth;

And Kypris offers fruitage, dropping ripe,

[*]As prey to wandering lust, nor lets it stay;[^[266]]

And on the goodly comeliness of maidens

980

Each passer-by, o'ercome with hot desire,

Darts forth the amorous arrows of the eye.

And therefore let us suffer nought of this,

Through which our ship has ploughed such width of sea,

Such width of trouble; neither let us work

Shame to ourselves, and pleasure to our foes.

This twofold choice of home is open to you:

[Pelasgos offers his, the city theirs,]

To dwell rent-free. Full easy terms are these:

Only, I charge you, keep your father's precepts,

Prizing as more than life your chastity.

990

Chor. May the high Gods that on Olympos dwell

Bless us in all things; but for this our vintage

Be of good cheer, my father; for unless

The counsels of the Gods work strange device,

I will not leave my spirit's former path.

Strophe I

Semi-Chor. A. Go then and make ye glad the high Gods, blessed for ever,

Those who rule our towns, and those who watch over our city,

And they who dwell by the stream of Erasinos ancient.[^[267]]

Semi-Chor. B. And ye, companions true,

Take up your strain of song.

1000

Let praise attend this city of Pelasgos;

Let us no more, no more adore the mouths of Neilos

With these our hymns of praise;

Antistrophe I

Semi-Chor. A. Nay, but the rivers here that pour calm streams through our country,[^[268]]

Parents of many a son, making glad the soil of our meadows,

With wide flood rolling on, in full and abounding richness.

Semi-Chor. B. And Artemis the chaste,

May she behold our band

1010

With pity; ne'er be marriage rites enforcèd

On us by Kythereia: those who hate us,

Let that ill prize be theirs.

Strophe II

Semi-Chor. A. Not that our kindly strain does slight to Kypris immortal;

For she, together with Hera, as nearest to Zeus is mighty,

A goddess of subtle thoughts, she is honoured in mysteries solemn.

Semi-Chor. B. Yea, as associates too with that their mother belovèd,

1020

Are fair Desire and Suasion,[^[269]] whose pleading no man can gainsay,

Yea, to sweet Concord too Aphrodite's power is entrusted,

[*]And the whispering paths of the Loves.