Alcestis
Euripides
Euripides. The Plays of Euripides, Translated into English Prose from the Text of Paley. Vol. I. Coleridge, Edward P., translator. London: George Bell and Sons, 1906.
- Boldly stretch out thy hand and touch the stranger maid.
- There, then, I stretch it out as toward the Gorgon’s severed head.[*](Lobeck, whom Nauck follows, to avoid the elision of the final ι of the dative singular, conjectured Γοργόν’ ὡς καρατομῶν as if beheading a Gorgon, i.e. with averted gaze, thus gaining very considerable point. Paley notices the clever suggestion, without however adopting it.)
- Hast hold of her?
- I have.
- (removes the veil). So; keep her safely then, and
- in days to come thou wilt confess the son of Zeus proved himself a noble guest. Look well at her, if haply to thy gaze she have a semblance of thy wife; and now that thou art blest, cease from sorrowing.
- Great gods, what shall I say? a marvel past all hope is here! My wife, my own true wife I see,
- or is some mocking rapture sent by heaven to drive me mad?
- No, no; ’tis thy own wife thou seest here.
- Beware it be not a phantom from that nether world.
- No necromancer was this guest whom thou didst welcome.
- Do I behold my wife, her whom I buried?
- Be well assured thereof; still I marvel not thou dost distrust thy luck.
- May I touch her, may I speak to her as my living wife?
- Speak to her. For thou hast all thy heart’s desire.
- O form and features of my well-loved wife! past all hope I hold thee, never expecting to see thee again.
- So thou dost; may no jealous god rise against thee!
- O noble son of almighty Zeus, good luck to thee! may the father that begat thee hold thee in his keeping; for thou and none else hast raised my fallen fortunes. How didst thou bring her from the world below to this light of day?
- By encountering the god[*](Reading δαιμόνων τῷ κυρίῳ. Nauck has κοιράνῳ—apparently regarding the Death-god as supreme over all deities, but surely this is incorrect. Jacobs, seeing the difficulty, conjectured νερτέρων. But the translation in the text seems a possible one, and makes the emendation unnecessary.) who had her in his power.
- Where didst thou engage with Death? tell me this.