Hippolytus
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.
- Lady goddess, awful queen, daughter of Zeus, all hail! hail! child of
- Latona and of Zeus, peerless mid the virgin choir, who hast thy dwelling in heaven’s wide mansions at thy noble father’s court, in the golden house of Zeus.
- All hail! most beauteous Artemis, lovelier far than all the daughters of Olympus
- For[*](See note above on lines 70-72) thee, O mistress mine, I bring this woven wreath, culled from a virgin meadow,
- where nor shepherd dares to herd his flock nor ever scythe hath mown, but o’er the mead unshorn the bee doth wing its way in spring; and with the dew from rivers drawn purity that garden tends. Such as know no cunning lore, yet in whose nature
- self-control, made perfect, hath a home, these may pluck the flowers, but not the wicked world. Accept, I pray, dear mistress, mine this chaplet from my holy hand to crown thy locks of gold; for I, and none other of mortals, have this high guerdon,
- to be with thee, with thee converse, hearing thy voice, though not thy face beholding. So be it mine to end my life as I began.
- My prince! we needs must call upon the gods, our lords, so wilt thou listen to a friendly word from me?
- Why, that will I! else were I proved a fool.
- Dost know, then, the way of the world?
- Not I; but wherefore such a question?
- It hates reserve which careth not for all men’s love.
- And rightly too; reserve in man is ever galling.
- But there’s a charm in courteous affability?
- The greatest surely; aye, and profit, too, at trifling cost.
- Dost think the same law holds in heaven as well?
- I trow it doth, since all our laws we men from heaven draw.
- Why, then, dost thou neglect to greet an august goddess?[*](Mahaffy rearranges these next nine lines and certainly obtains a clearer meaning. His note repays study, if not wholly convincing. I translate from Paleyk text as it stands.)
- Whom speak’st thou of? Keep watch upon thy tongue lest it some mischief cause.
- Cypris I mean, whose image is stationed o’er thy gate.