Andromache

Euripides

Euripides. The Plays of Euripides, Translated into English Prose from the Text of Paley. Vol. II. Coleridge, Edward P., translator. London: George Bell and Sons, 1891.

  1. with slavery’s hateful pall upon me. And many a tear I shed as I left my city, my bridal bower, and my husband in the dust. Woe, woe is me! why should I prolong my life, to serve Hermione? Her cruelty it is that drives me hither
  2. to the image of the goddess to throw my suppliant arms about it, melting to tears as doth a spring that gushes from the rock.
Chorus
  1. Lady, thus keeping thy weary station without pause upon the floor of Thetis’ shrine, Phthian though I am, to thee a daughter of Asia I come,
  2. to see if I can devise some remedy for these perplexing troubles, which have involved thee and Hermione in fell discord, because to thy sorrow thou
  3. sharest with her the love of Achilles’ son.
Chorus
  1. Recognize thy position, weigh the present evil into the which thou art come. Thou art a Trojan captive; thy rival is thy mistress, a true-born daughter of Sparta. Leave
    then
  2. this home of sacrifice, the shrine of our sea-goddess. How can it avail thee to waste thy comeliness and disfigure it by weeping by reason of a mistress’s harsh usage? Might will prevail against thee; why vainly toil in thy feebleness?
Chorus
  1. Come, quit the bright sanctuary of the Nereid divine. Recognize that thou art in bondage on a foreign soil, in a strange city, where thou seest none of all thy friends, luckless lady,
  2. cast on evil days.
Chorus
  1. Yea, I did pity thee most truly, Trojan dame, when thou earnest to this house; but from fear of my mistress I hold my peace, albeit I sympathize with thee,
  2. lest she, whom Zeus’s daughter bore, discover[*](εὕρυ. So Hermann for ἴδυ.) my good will toward thee.
Hermione
  1. With a crown of golden workmanship upon my head and about my body this embroidered robe am I come hither; no presents these I wear from the palace of Achilles or Peleus,
  2. but gifts my father Menelaus gave me together with a sumptuous dower from Sparta in Laconia, to insure me freedom of speech. Such is my answer to you[*](i.e. the Chorus.);
  3. but as for thee, slave and captive, thou wouldst fain oust me and secure this palace for thyself, and thanks to thy enchantment I am hated by my husband; thou it is that hast made my womb barren and cheated my hopes; for Asia’s daughters have clever heads for such villainy;
  4. yet will I check thee therefrom, nor shall this temple of the Nereid avail thee aught, no! neither its altar or shrine, but thou shalt die. But if or god or man should haply wish to save thee, thou must atone for thy proud thoughts of happier days now past
  5. by humbling thyself and crouching prostrate at my knees, by sweeping out my halls, and by learning, as thou sprinklest water from a golden ewer, where thou now art. Here is no Hector, no Priam with his gold, but a city of Hellas.
  6. Yet thou, miserable woman, hast gone so far in wantonness that thou canst lay thee down with the son of the very man that slew thy husband, and bear children to
    the murderer. Such is all the race of barbarians; father and daughter, mother and son,
  7. sister and brother mate together; the nearest and dearest stain their path with each others blood, and no law restrains such horrors. Bring not these crimes amongst us, for here we count it shame that one man should have the control of two wives, and men are content to turn their attention to one lawful love,
  8. that is, all who care to live an honourable life.
Chorus
  1. Women are by nature[*](Nauck, on the authority of Stobaeus, reads θηλείας φρενός for θηλειῶν ἔφυ.) somewhat jealous, and do ever show the keenest hate to rivals in their love.