calling to witness heaven and earth, Demeter, that fire-bearing goddess, and the sun-god’s light, that our prayers to heaven availed us naught.Chorus . . . . Something is lost here, referring to the claims of relationship. The sense perhaps is, thou art thyself related to Pittheus, who was, etc. who was Pelops’ son, and we are of the land of Pelops and share with thee the blood of ancestors. What art thou doing? wilt thou betray these suppliant symbols, and banish from thy land these aged women without the boon they should obtain? Do not so; e’en the wild beast finds a refuge in the rock, the slave in the altars of the gods, and a state when tempest-tossed cowers to its neighbour’s shelter; for naught in this life of man is blest unto its end.

ChorusRise, hapless one, from the sacred floor of Persephone; rise, clasp him by the knees and implore him, O recover the bodies of our dead sons, the children that I lost—ah, woe is me!—beneath the walls of Cadmus’ town. Ah me! ah me!The words ἰω μοι to γεραιᾶς are probably interpolated. Nauck and Hartung reject them here. Take me by the hand, poor aged sufferer that I am, support and guide and raise me up. By thy beard, kind friend, glory of Hellas, I do beseech thee, as I clasp thy knees and hands in my misery; O pity me as I entreat for my sons with my tale of wretched woe, likeReading ὔ τιν’ ἀλάταν with Musgrave. some beggar; nor let my sons lie there unburied in the land of Cadmus, glad prey for beasts, whilst thou art in thy prime, I implore thee. See the teardrop tremble in my eye, as thus I throw me at thy knees to win my children burial.

TheseusMother mine, why weepest thou, drawing o’er thine eyes thy veil? Is it because thou didst hear their piteous lamentations? To my own heart it goes. Raise thy silvered head, weep not where thou sittest at the holy altar of Demeter.AethraAh woe!Theseus’Tis not for thee their sorrows to lament.AethraYe hapless dames!TheseusThou art not of their company.AethraMay I a scheme declare, my son, that shall add to thy glory and the state’s?TheseusYea, for oft even from women’s lips issue wise counsels.