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. exalted by the toilsome efforts of others.[*](Sentence reads Even so thou and thy brother, exalted by the toilsome efforts of others, now take your seats in all the swollen pride of Trojan fame and Trojan generalship. but has been rearranged for line clarity.) But I will teach thee henceforth to consider Idaean Paris a foe less terrible[*](Reading μὴ κρείσσω, as Paley proposed, instead of μείζω or ἥσσω.) than Peleus, unless forthwith thou pack from this roof, thou and thy childless daughter too, whom my own true son
  2. will hale through his halls by the hair of her head; for her barrenness will not let her endure fruitfulness in others, because she has no children herself. Still if she is unlucky in the matter of offspring, is that a reason why we should be left childless?
  3. Begone! ye varlets, let her go! I will soon see if anyone will hinder me from loosing her hands.
  4. To Andromache. Arise;
    these trembling hands of mine will untie the twisted thongs that bind thee. Out on thee, coward! is this how thou hast galled her wrists?
  5. Didst think thou wert lashing up a lion or bull? or wert afraid she would snatch a sword and defend herself against thee? Come, child, nestle to thy mother’s arms; help me loose her bonds; I will yet rear thee in Phthia to be their bitter foe. If your reputation for prowess
  6. and the battles ye have fought were taken from you Spartans, in all else, be very sure, you have not your inferiors.
Chorus
  1. The race of old men practises no restraint; and their testiness makes it hard to check them.
Menelaus
  1. Thou art only too ready to rush into abuse;
  2. while, as for me, I came to Phthia by constraint and have therefore no intention either of doing or suffering anything mean. Now must I return home, for I have no time to waste; for there is a city not so very far from Sparta, which aforetime was friendly
  3. but now is hostile; against her will I march with my army and bring her into subjection. And when I have arranged that matter as I wish, I will return; and face to face with my son-in-law I will give my version of the story and hear his.
  4. And if he punish her, and for the future she exercise self-control, she shall find me do the like; but if he storm, I’ll storm as well; and[*](Paley’s suggestion to omit this line as possibly spurious owing to the repetition of ἀντιλήψεται, and to read θυμουμένη in the preceding line, would clear up the ambiguity as to whether Andromache or Neoptolemus is meant as the subject of ἠ σώφρων.) every act of mine shall be a reflex of his own. As for thy babbling, I can bear it easily;
  5. for, like to a shadow as thou art,[*](Reading with Hermann and Dindorf, σκιᾲ ἀντίστοιχος ὢν. Another reading is σκιὰ – ὢς, i.e. like the shadow on a dial exactly opposite the sun. (Paley.)) thy voice is all thou hast, and thou art powerless to do aught but talk. Exit Menelaus.
Peleus
  1. Lead on, my child, safe beneath my sheltering
    wing, and thou too, poor lady; for thou art come into a quiet haven after the rude storm.
Andromache
  1. Heaven reward thee and all thy race, old sire, for having saved my child and me his hapless mother! Only beware lest they fall upon us twain in some lonely spot upon the road and force me from thee, when they see thy age, my weakness,
  2. and this child’s tender years; take heed to this, that we be not a second time made captive, after escaping now.
Peleus
  1. Forbear such words, prompted by a woman’s cowardice. Go on thy way; who will lay a finger on you? Methinks he will do it to his cost. For by heaven’s grace I rule o’er many a knight and spearman
  2. bold in my kingdom of Phthia; yea, and myself can still stand straight, no bent old man as thou dost think; such a fellow as that a mere look from me will put to flight in spite of my years. For e’en an old man, be he brave, is worth a host of raw youths;