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. Ye hapless dames!
Theseus
  1. Thou art not of their company.
Aethra
  1. May I a scheme declare, my son, that shall add to thy glory and the state’s?
Theseus
  1. Yea, for oft even from women’s lips issue wise counsels.
Aethra
  1. Yet the word, that lurks within my heart, makes me hesitate.
Theseus
  1. Shame! to hide from friends good counsel.
Aethra
  1. Nay then, I will not hold my peace to blame myself hereafter for having now kept silence to my shame, nor will I forego my honourable proposal, from the common fear
  2. that it is useless for women to give good advice. First, my son, I exhort thee give good heed to heaven’s will, lest from slighting it thou suffer shipwreck; [*](Probably spurious.) for in this one single point thou failest, though well-advised in all else. Further, I would have patiently endured, had it not been my duty
  3. to venture somewhat for injured folk; and this, my son, it is that brings thee now thy honour, and causes me no fear to urge that thou shouldst use[*](Line 310 is rejected by Nauck.) thy power to make men of violence, who prevent the dead from receiving their meed of burial and funeral rites,
  4. perform this bounden duty, and check those who would confound the customs of all Hellas; for this it is that holds men’s states together,—strict observance of the laws. And some, no doubt, will say, ’twas cowardice made thee stand aloof in terror,
  5. when thou mightest have won for thy city a crown of glory, and, though thou didst encounter a savage swine,[*](The monster Phaea, which infested the neighbourhood of Corinth.) labouring for a sorry
    task, yet when the time came for thee to face the helmet and pointed spear, and do thy best, thou wert found to be a coward.
  6. Nay! do not so if thou be son of mine. Dost see how fiercely thy country looks on its revilers when they mock her for want of counsel? Yea, for in her toils she groweth greater. But states, whose policy is dark and cautious,