The Suppliant Maidens

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.

  1. seeking to turn the tide of death aside by philtres,[*](Reading βρωτοῖσι καὶ βοτοῖσι καῖ μαγεύμασι, as restored from Plutarch’s quotation of the passage.) drugs, and magic spells,—folk that death should take away to leave
    the young their place, when they no more can benefit the world.
Chorus
  1. Woe, woe! Behold your dead sons’
  2. bones are brought hither; take them, servants of your weak old mistress, for in me is no strength left by reason of my mourning for my sons; time’s comrade long have I been, and many a tear for many a sorrow have I shed.
  3. For what sharper pang wilt thou ever find for mortals than the sight of children dead?
Children
  1. Poor mother mine, behold I bring my father’s bones gathered from the fire,
  2. a burden grief has rendered heavy, though this tiny urn contains my all.
Chorus
  1. Ah me! ah me! Why bear thy tearful load to the fond mother of the dead,
  2. a handful of ashes in the stead of those who erst were men of mark in Mycenae?