Complete Works of Euripides

by Euripides

  LEADER OF THE CHORUS I would never have believed that Menelaus could have eluded us and thee, O king, in the way he did on his coming.

  THEOCLYMENUS

  Woe is me! cozened by a woman’s tricks! My bride hath escaped me. If the ship could have been pursued and overtaken, I would have used every means forthwith to catch the strangers; as it is, I will avenge myself upon my treacherous sister, in that she saw Menelaus in my palace and did not tell me. Wherefore shall she nevermore deceive another by her prophetic art.

  (A SERVANT comes out of the palace.)

  SERVANT

  Ho, there! whither away so fast, my lord? on what bloody thought intent?

  THEOCLYMENUS

  Whither justice calls me. Out of my path!

  SERVANT I will not loose thy robe, for on grievous mischief art thou bent.

  THEOCLYMENUS

  Shalt thou, a slave, control thy master?

  SERVANT

  Yea, for I am in my senses.

  THEOCLYMENUS I should not say so, if thou wilt not let me

  SERVANT

  Nay, but that I never will.

  THEOCLYMENUS

  Slay my sister most accursed.

  SERVANT

  Say rather, most righteous.

  THEOCLYMENUS “Righteous?” She who betrayed me?

  SERVANT

  There is an honourable treachery, which ’tis right to commit.

  THEOCLYMENUS

  By giving my bride to another?

  SERVANT

  Only to those who had a better right.

  THEOCLYMENUS

  Who hath any rights o’er mine?

  SERVANT

  He that received her from her father.

  THEOCLYMENUS

  Nay, but fortune gave her to me.

  SERVANT

  And destiny took her away.

  THEOCLYMENUS “Tis not for thee to decide my affairs.

  SERVANT

  Only supposing mine be the better counsel.

  THEOCLYMENUS

  So I am thy subject, not thy ruler.

  SERVANT

  Aye, a subject bound to do the right, and eschew the wrong.

  THEOCLYMENUS

  It seems thou art eager to be slain.

  SERVANT

  Slay me; thy sister shalt thou never slay with my consent, but me perchance; for to die for their masters is the fairest death that noble slaves can find.

  (THE DIOSCURI appear from above.)

  DIOSCURI

  Restrain those bursts of rage that hurry thee to undue lengths, Theoclymenus, king of this country. We are the twin sons of Zeus that call to thee by name, whom Leda bore one day, with Helen too who hath fled from thy palace. For thou art wroth for a marriage never destined for thee; nor is thy sister Theonoe, daughter of a Nereid goddess, wronging thee because she honours the word of God and her father’s just behests. For it was ordained that Helen should abide within thy halls up till the present time, but since Troy is razed to the ground and she hath lent her name to the goddesses, no longer need she stay, now must she be united in the self-same wedlock as before, and reach her home and share it with her husband. Withhold then thy malignant blade from thy sister, and believe that she herein is acting with discretion. Long, long ago had we our sister saved, seeing that Zeus has made us gods, but we were too weak for destiny as well as the deities, who willed these things to be. This is my bidding to thee; while to my sister I say, “Sail on with thy husband; and ye shall have a prosperous breeze; for we, thy brethren twain, will course along the deep and bring you safely to your fatherland. And when at last thy goal is reached and thy life ended, thou shalt be famous as a goddess, and with thy twin brethren share the drink-offering, and like us receive gifts from men, for such is the will of Zeus. Yea, and that spot where the son o Maia first appointed thee a home when from Sparta he removed thee, after stealing an image of thee from Heaven’s mansions to prevent thy marriage with Paris, even the isle that lies like a sentinel along the Attic coast, shall henceforth be called by thy name amongst men, for that it welcomed thee when stolen from thy home. Moreover, Heaven ordains that the wanderer Menelaus shall find a home within an island of the blest; for to noble souls hath the deity no dislike, albeit these oft suffer more than those of no account.”

  THEOCLYMENUS

  Ye sons of Leda and of Zeus, I will forego my former quarrel about your sister, nor no longer seek to slay mine own. Let Helen to her home repair, if such is Heaven’s pleasure. Ye know that ye are sprung of the same stock as your sister, best of women, chastest too; hail then for the true nobility of Helen’s soul, a quality too seldom found amongst her sex!

  CHORUS (chanting) Many are the forms the heavenly will assumes; and many a thing God brings to pass contrary to expectation: that which was looked for is not accomplished, while Heaven finds out a way for what we never hoped; e’en such has been the issue here.

  PHOENICIAN WOMEN

  Translated by Theodore Alois Buckley

  Phoenician Women is based on the same story as Aeschylus’ famous drama Seven Against Thebes, with the title referring to the Greek chorus, composed of Phoenician women on their way to Delphi and who are then trapped in Thebes by the war. Euripides wrote the play around 408 BC, at a time when Athens suffered a huge defeat at the hands of Sparta and were facing military disaster.

  The play opens with a summary of the story of Oedipus and its aftermath told by Jocasta. She explains that after her husband blinded himself upon discovering that he was her son, his sons Eteocles and Polyneices locked him away in hopes that the people might forget what had happened. He cursed them, proclaiming that neither would rule without killing his brother. To avert this, they agreed to split the country and thus Polyneices allowed Eteocles to rule for one year. When that time expired, Eteocles was supposed to abdicate, allowing his brother to rule for a year. However, when the time came, he refused to do this, forcing his brother into exile. Once in exile, Polyneices went to Argos, where he married the daughter of Adrastus, king of the Argives. He then persuaded Adrastus to send a force to help him reclaim the city.

  The Greek text of the play is very poor and scholars have detected several interpolations. Over the centuries large and small interpolations have been inserted into the tragedy, causing some scholars even to doubt whether any of the present text was in fact composed by Euripides.

  ‘Farewell of Oedipus to the Corpses of His Wife and Sons’ by Edouard Toudouze

  CONTENTS

  PERSONS REPRESENTED.

  THE ARGUMENT.

  THE PHŒNICIAN VIRGINS.

  PERSONS REPRESENTED.

  JOCASTA.

  TUTOR.

  ANTIGONE.

  CHORUS OF PHŒNICIAN VIRGINS.

  POLYNICES.

  ETEOCLES.

  CREON.

  MENŒCEUS.

  TIRECIAS.

  MESSENGERS.

  ŒDIPUS.

  The Scene is in the Court before the royal palace at Thebes.

  THE ARGUMENT.

  Eteocles having gotten possession of the throne of Thebes, deprived his brother Polynices of his share; but he having come as an exile to Argos, married the daughter of the king Adrastus; but ambitious of returning to his country, and having persuaded his father-in-law, he assembled a great army for Thebes against his brother. His mother Jocasta made him come into the city, under sanction of a truce, and first confer with his brother respecting the empire. But Eteocles being violent and fierce from having possessed the empire, Jocasta could not reconcile her children. — Polynices, prepared as against an enemy, rushed out of the city. Now Tiresias prophesied that victory should be on the side of the Thebans, if Menœceus the son of Creon would give himself up to be sacrificed to Mars. Creon refused to give his son to the city, but the youth was willing, and, his father pointing out to him the means of flight and giving him money, he put himself to death. — The Thebans slew the leaders of the Argives. Eteocles and Polynices in a single combat slew each other, and t
heir mother having found the corses of her sons laid violent hands on herself; and Creon her brother received the kingdom. The Argives defeated in battle retired. But Creon, being morose, would not give up those of the enemy who had fallen at Thebes, for sepulture, and exposed the body of Polynices without burial, and banished Œdipus from his country; in the one instance disregarding the laws of humanity, in the other giving way to passion, nor feeling pity for him after his calamity.

  THE PHŒNICIAN VIRGINS.

  JOCASTA.

  O thou that cuttest thy path through the constellations of heaven, and art mounted on thy golden-joined seats, thou sun, whirling thy flame with thy swift steeds, how inauspicious didst thou dart thy ray on that day when Cadmus came to this land having left the sea-washed coast of Phœnicia; who in former time having married Harmonia, daughter of Venus, begat Polydorus; from him they say sprung Labdacus, and from him Laius. But I am the daughter of Menœceus, and Creon my brother was born of the same mother; me they call Jocasta (for this name my father gave me), and Laius takes me for his wife; but after that he was childless, for a long time sharing my bed in the palace, he went and inquired of Apollo, and at the same time demands the mutual offspring of male children in his family; but the God said, “O king of Thebes renowned for its chariots, sow not for such a harvest of children against the will of the Gods, for if thou shalt beget a son, he that is born shall slay thee, and the whole of thy house shall wade through blood.” But having yielded to pleasure, and having fallen into inebriety, he begot to us a son, and having begot him, feeling conscious of his error and the command of the God, gives the babe to some herdsmen to expose at the meads of Juno and the rock of Cithæron, having bored sharp-pointed iron through the middle of his ankles, from which circumstance Greece gave him the name of Œdipus. But him the grooms who attend the steeds of Polybus find and carry home, and placed him in the arms of their mistress. But she rested beneath her bosom him that gave me a mother’s pangs, and persuades her husband that she had brought forth. But now my son showing signs of manhood in his darkening cheek, either having suspected it by instinct, or having learned it from some one, went to the temple of Apollo, desirous of discovering his parents; at the same time went Laius my husband, seeking to gain intelligence of his son who had been exposed, if he were no longer living; and both met at the same point of the road at Phocis where it divides itself; and the charioteer of Laius commands him, “Stranger, withdraw out of the way of princes;” but he moved slowly, in silence, with haughty spirit; but the steeds with their hoof dyed with blood the tendons of his feet. At this (but why need I relate each horrid circumstance besides the deed itself?) the son kills his father, and having taken the chariot, sends it as a present to his foster-father Polybus. Now at this time the sphinx preyed vulture-like upon the city with rapacity, my husband now no more, Creon my brother proclaims that he will give my bed as a reward to him who would solve the enigma of the crafty virgin. But by some chance or other Œdipus my son happens to discover the riddle of the sphinx, [and he receives as a prize the sceptre of this land,] and marries me, his mother, wretched he not knowing it, nor knew his mother that she was lying down with her son. And I bear children to my child, two sons, Eteocles and the illustrious Polynices, and two daughters, one her father named Ismene, the elder I called Antigone. But Œdipus, after having gone through all sufferings, having discovered in my bed the marriage with his mother, he perpetrated a deed of horror on his own eyes, having drenched in blood their pupils with his golden buckles. But after that the cheek of my children grows dark with manly down, they hid their father confined with bolts that his sad fortune might be forgotten, which indeed required the greatest policy. He is still living in the palace, but sick in mind through his misfortunes he imprecates the most unhallowed curses on his children, that they may share this house with the sharpened sword. But these two, dreading lest the Gods should bring to completion these curses, should they dwell together, in friendly compact determined that Polynices the younger son should first go a willing exile from this land, but that Eteocles remaining here should hold the sceptre for a year, changing in his turn; but after that he sat on the throne of power, he moves not from his seat, but drives Polynices an exile from this land. But he having fled to Argos, and having contracted an alliance with Adrastus, assembles together and leads a vast army of Argives; and having marched to these very walls with seven gates he demands his father’s sceptre and his share of the land. But I to quell this strife persuaded my son to come to his brother, confiding in a truce before he grasped the spear. And the messenger who was sent declares that he will come. But, O thou that inhabitest the shining clouds of heaven, Jove, preserve us, give reconciliation to my children; it becomes thee, if thou art wise, not to suffer the same man always to be unfortunate.

  TUTOR, ANTIGONE.

  TUT. O thou fair bud in thy father’s house, Antigone, since thy mother has permitted thee to leave the virgin’s apartments for the extreme chamber of the mansion, in order to view the Argive army in compliance with thy entreaties, yet stay, until I shall first investigate the path, lest any citizen should appear in the pass, and to me taunts should come as a slave, and to thee as a princess: and I who well know each circumstance will tell you all that I saw or heard from the Argives, when I went bearing the offer of a truce to thy brother, from this place thither, and again to this place from him. But no citizen approaches this house; come, ascend with thy steps these ancient stairs of cedar, and survey the plains, and by the streams of Ismenus and Dirce’s fount how great is the host of the enemy.

  ANT. Stretch forth now, stretch forth thine aged hand from the stairs to my youth, raising up the steps of my feet.

  TUT. Behold, join thy hand, virgin, thou hast come in lucky hour, for the Pelasgian host is now in motion, and they are separating the bands from one another.

  ANT. O awful daughter of Latona, Hecate, the field all brass gleaming like lightning.

  TUT. For Polynices hath not come tamely to this land, raging with host of horsemen, and ten thousand shields.

  ANT. Are the gates fastened with bars, and is the brazen bolt fitted to the stone-work of Amphion’s wall?

  TUT. Take courage; as to the interior the city is safe, But view the first chief, if thou desirest to know.

  ANT. Who is he with the white-plumed helmet, who commands in the van of the army, moving lightly round on his arm his brazen shield?

  TUT. He is a leader, lady.

  ANT. Who is he? From whom sprung? Speak, aged man, what is he called by name?

  TUT. He indeed is called by birth a Mycenæan, and he dwells at the streams of Lerna, the king Hippomedon.

  ANT. Ah! how haughty, how terrible to behold! like to an earth-born giant, starlike in countenance amidst his painted devices, he corresponds not with the race of mortals.

  TUT. Dost thou not see him now passing the stream of Dirce, a general?

  ANT. Here is another, another fashion of arms. But who is he?

  TUT. He is the son of Œneus, Tydeus, and bears on his breast the Ætolian Mars.

  ANT. Is this the prince, O aged man, who is husband to the sister of my brother’s wife? In his arms how different of color, of barbaric mixture!

  TUT. For all the Ætolians, my child, bear the target, and hurl with the lance, most certain in their aim.

  ANT. But how, O aged man, dost thou know these things so perfectly?

  TUT. Having seen the devices of the shields, then I remarked them, when I went to bear the offer of a truce to thy brother, beholding which, I recognize the warriors.

  ANT. But who is this, who is passing round the tomb of Zethus, with clustering locks, in his eyes a Gorgon to behold, in appearance a youth?

  TUT. A general he is. [See Note [A].]

  ANT. How a crowd in complete armor attends him behind!

  TUT. This is Parthenopæus, son of Atalanta.

  ANT. But, may Diana who rushes over the mountains with his mother destroy him, having subdued him with her arrows, who
has come against my city to destroy it.

  TUT. May it be so, my child, nevertheless they are come with justice to this land; wherefore also I fear lest the Gods should judge rightly.

  ANT. Where, but where is he who was born of one mother with me in hard fate, O dearest old man; tell me, where is Polynices?

  TUT. He is standing near the tomb of the seven virgin daughters of Niobe, close by Adrastus. Seest thou him?

  ANT. I see indeed, but not distinctly; but somehow I see the resemblance of his form, and his shape shadowed out. Would that with my feet I could perform the journey of the winged cloud through the air to my brother, then would I fling my arms round his dearest neck, after so long a time a wretched exile. How splendid is he, O old man, in his golden armor, glittering like the morning rays of the sun.

  TUT. He will come to this house confiding in the truce, so as to fill thee with joy.

  ANT. But who, O aged man, is this, who guides his milk-white steeds seated in his chariot?

  TUT. The prophet Amphiaraus this, O my mistress, and with him the victims, the libations of the earth delighting in blood.