Ho! servants, drag him hence! You heard my proclamation long ago condemning him to exile.HippolytusWhoso of them doth lay a hand on me shall rue it; thyself expel me, if thy spirit move thee, from the land.TheseusI will, unless my word thou straight obey; no pity for thy exile steals into my heart. [Exit Theseus.HippolytusThe sentence then, it seems, is passed. Ah, misery I How well I know the truth herein, but know no way to tell it! O daughter of Latona, dearest to me of all deities, partner, comrade in the chase, far from glorious Athens must I fly. Farewell, city and land of Erechtheus; farewell, Troezen, most joyous home wherein to pass the spring of life; ’tis my last sight of thee, farewell! Come, my comrades in this land, young like me, greet me kindly and escort me forth, for never will ye behold a purer soul, for all my father’s doubts. [Exit Hippolytus.
ChorusIn very deed the thoughts I have about the gods, whenso they come into my mind, do much to soothe its grief, but though I cherish secret hopes of some great guiding will, yet am I at fault when I survey the fate and doings of the sons of men; change succeeds to change, and man’s life veers and shifts in endless restlessness.
ChorusFortune grant me this, I pray, at heaven’s hand,—a happy lot in life and a soul from sorrow free; opinions let me hold not too precise nor yet too hollow; but, lightly changing my habits to each morrow as it comes, may I thus attain a life of bliss!
ChorusFor now no more is my mind free from doubts, unlooked-for sights greet my vision; for lo! I see the morning star of Athens, eye of Hellas, driven by his father’s fury to another land. Mourn, ye sands of my native shores, ye oak-groves on the hills, where with his fleet hounds he would hunt the quarry to the death, attending on Dictynna, awful queen. ChorusNo more will he mount his car drawn by Venetian steeds, filling the course round Limna with the prancingReading with Reiske, whom Nauck follows, γυμνάδος ἵππου. If the accus. plural is retained it would seem to mean, checking with his foot (i.e. pressed against the chariot-front) his steeds.
of his trained horses. Nevermore in his fathers house shall he wake the Muse that never slept beneath his lute-strings; no hand will crown the spots where rests the maiden Latona ’mid the boskage deep; nor evermore shall our virgins vie to win thy love, now thou art banished;
Choruswhile I with tears at thy unhappy fate shall endure a lot all undeserved. Ah! hapless mother,
in vain didst thou bring forth, it seems. I am angered with the gods; out upon them! O ye linked Graces, why are ye sending from his native land this poor youth, a guiltless sufferer, far from his home?