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. say when seeking to betroth her to another? wilt say her virtue made her leave a worthless lord? Nay, that will be false. Who then will wed her? wilt thou keep her without a husband in thy halls, grown grey in widowhood? Unhappy wretch! dost not see the flood-gates of trouble opening wide for thee?
  2. How many a wrong against a wife wouldst thou prefer thy daughter to have found to suffering what I now describe? We ought not on trifling grounds to promote serious mischief; nor should men, if we women are so deadly a curse, bring their nature down to our level.
  3. No! if, as thy daughter asserts, I am practising sorcery against her and making her barren, right willingly will I, without any crouching at altars, submit in my own person to the penalty that lies in her husband’s hands,
  4. seeing that I am no less chargeable with injuring him if I make him childless. This is my case; but for thee, there is one thing[*](i.e. I am afraid, even if I prove the malice and falseness of her charges against me, you will not punish her, for your partiality and weakness in such cases is well known.) I fear in thy disposition; it was a quarrel for a woman that really induced thee to destroy poor Ilium’s town.
Chorus
  1. Thou hast said too much for a woman speaking to
    men. that discretion hath shot away its last shaft from thy soul’s quiver.[*](i.e. there is no more to be said on that subject. The suggestion by Paley of ἐξετόξευσας is very plausible.)