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. but should have gotten prosperous friends for his family. For the deity, confusing their destinies, doth oft destroy by the sinner’s fate him who never sinned nor committed injustice. Thou didst lead all Argos forth to battle,
  2. though seers proclaimed the will of heaven, and then in scorn of them and in violent disregard of the gods hast ruined thy city, led away by younger men, such as court distinction, and add war to war unrighteously destroying their fellow-citizens; one aspires to lead an army;
  3. another fain would seize the reins of power and work his wanton will; a third is bent on gain, careless of any mischief the people thereby suffer. For there are three ranks of citizens; the rich, a useless set, that ever crave for more;
  4. the poor and destitute, fearful folk, that cherish envy more than is right, and shoot out grievous stings against the men who have aught, beguiled as they are by the eloquence of vicious leaders; while the class that is midmost of the three preserveth cities,
  5. observing such order as the state ordains. Shall I then become thy ally? What fair pretext should I urge before my countrymen? Depart in peace! For why[*](Reading with Hermann ἡμῶν τί δεῖ; for MS. ’ημᾶς λίαν.)[*](Paley’s text here follows Matthiae’s emendation ἴθ’ εἰ γάρ μὴ for MS. ἴθι δὴ· μὴ γὰρ.) shouldst thou, having been ill-advised thyself, seek to drag our fortune down?
Chorus
  1. He erred; but with the young men rests this error, while he may well be pardoned.
Adrastus
  1. I did not choose thee, king, to judge my affliction, but[*](Dobree rejects this line. Nauck, Matthiae, and Hartung omit it also.) came to thee to cure it; no! nor if in aught my
    fortunes prove me wrong,
  2. came I to thee to punish or correct them, but to seek thy help. But if thou wilt not, I must be content with thy decision; for how can I help it? Come, aged dames, away! Yet leave behind you here the woven leaves of pale green foliage,
  3. calling to witness heaven and earth, Demeter, that fire-bearing goddess, and the sun-god’s light, that our prayers to heaven availed us naught.
Chorus
  1. . . . . [*](Something is lost here, referring to the claims of relationship. The sense perhaps is, thou art thyself related to Pittheus, who was, etc.) who was Pelops’ son, and we are of the land of Pelops and share with thee the blood of ancestors.
  2. What art thou doing? wilt thou betray these suppliant symbols, and banish from thy land these aged women without the boon they should obtain? Do not so; e’en the wild beast finds a refuge in the rock, the slave in the altars of the gods, and a state when tempest-tossed cowers to its neighbour’s shelter;
  3. for naught in this life of man is blest unto its end.
Chorus
  1. Rise, hapless one, from the sacred floor of Persephone; rise, clasp him by the knees and implore him, O recover the bodies of our dead sons, the children that I lost—ah, woe is me!—beneath the walls of Cadmus’ town.
  2. Ah me! ah me![*](The words ἰω μοι to γεραιᾶς are probably interpolated. Nauck and Hartung reject them here.) Take me by the hand, poor aged sufferer that I am, support and guide and raise me up. By thy beard, kind friend, glory of Hellas, I do beseech thee, as I clasp thy knees and hands in my misery;
  3. O pity me as I entreat for my sons with my tale of wretched woe, like[*](Reading ὔ τιν’ ἀλάταν with Musgrave.) some beggar; nor let my sons lie there unburied in the land of Cadmus, glad prey for beasts, whilst thou art in thy prime, I implore thee. See the teardrop tremble in my eye,
  4. as thus I throw me at thy knees to win my children burial.
Theseus
  1. Mother mine, why weepest thou, drawing o’er thine eyes thy veil? Is it because thou didst hear their piteous
    lamentations? To my own heart it goes. Raise thy silvered head, weep not
  2. where thou sittest at the holy altar of Demeter.
Aethra
  1. Ah woe!
Theseus
  1. ’Tis not for thee their sorrows to lament.