ChorusO earth, O sun whose beam illumines all, look, look upon this lost woman, ere she stretch forth, her murderous hand upon her sons for blood; for lo! these are scions of thy own golden seed, and the blood of gods is in danger of being shed by man. O light, from Zeus proceeding, stay her, hold her hand, forth from the house chase this fell bloody fiend by demons led.
ChorusVainly wasted were the throes thy children cost thee; vainly hast thou born, it seems, sweet babes, O thou who hast left behind thee that passage through the blue Symplegades, that strangers justly hate. Ah! hapless one, why doth fierce anger thy soul assail? WhyThis use of ἀμείβεται is so unusual that the passage is open to grave suspicion. The three following lines are extremely confused and probably corrupt. Weil proposes ἐπέγειρεν for ἐπὶ γαῖαν; var. lect. for ξυνῳδὰ is ξύνοιδα. in its place is fell murder growing up? For grievous unto mortal men are pollutions that come of kindred blood poured on the earth, woes to suit each crime hurled from heaven on the murderer’s house.
SonswithinAh!This is bracketed in the Greek and not found in the Coleridge edition. It has been added here for clarity. ChorusDidst hear, didst hear the children’s cry? O lady, born to sorrow, victim of an evil fate! Lines 1271-1274 are reordered to correspond with the Greek edition. In Coleridge they appear sequentially.1st Son(within). Ah, me; what can I do? Whither fly to escape my mother’s blows?In the Greek, lines 1271-1272 are combined and attributed to both children.2nd Son(within). I know not, sweet brother mine; we are undone.See note on line 1271ChorusShall I enter the house? For the children’s sake I am resolved to ward off the murder.1st Son(within). Yea, by heaven I adjure you; help, your aid is needed.In the Greek, lines 1277-1278 are combined and attributed to both children.2nd Son(within). Even now the toils of the sword are closing round us.See note on line 1277ChorusO hapless mother, surely thou hast a heart of stone or steel to slay the offspring of thy womb by such a murderous doom. ChorusOf all the wives of yore I know but one who laid her hand upon her children dear, even Ino,This is Euripides’ version of the legend, not the usual one; which makes Athamas the father go mad and kill one son, while Ino leaps into the sea with the other. whom the gods did madden in the day that the wife of Zeus drove her wandering from her home. But she, poor sufferer, flung herself into the sea because of the foul murder of her children, leaping o’er the wave-beat cliff, and in her death was she united to her children twain. Can there be any deed of horror left to follow this? Woe for the wooing of women fraught with disaster! What sorrows hast thou caused for men ere now!