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. Athens to act on this wise; nay! for then would the tide of time have to flow backward, if we are to be ordered about, as he thinks. ’Tis not I who choose this war, seeing that I did not even join these warriors to go unto the land of Cadmus; but still I claim to bury the fallen dead, not injuring any state
  2. nor yet introducing murderous strife, but preserving the law of all Hellas. What is not well in this? If ye suffered aught from the Argives—lo! they are dead; ye took a splendid vengeance on your foes
  3. and covered them with shame, and now your
    right is at an end. Let[*](Nauck regards these lines 531 to 536 as an interpolation.) the dead now be buried in the earth, and each element return[*](Restoring ἀπελθεῖν from Stobseus (Hartung).) to the place from whence it came to the body, the breath to the air, the body to the ground; for in no wise did we get it
  4. for our own, but to live our life in, and after that its mother earth must take it back again. Dost think ’tis Argos thou art injuring in refusing burial to the dead? Nay! all Hellas shares herein, if a man rob the dead of their due
  5. and keep them from the tomb; for, if this law be enacted, it will strike dismay into the stoutest hearts. And art thou come to cast dire threats at me, while thy own folk are afraid of giving burial to the dead? What is your fear? Think you they will undermine your land
  6. in their graves, or that they will beget children in the womb of earth, from whom shall rise an avenger? A silly waste of words, in truth it was, to show your fear of paltry groundless terrors.
  7. Go, triflers, learn the lesson of human misery;
  8. our life is made up of struggles; some men there be that find their fortune soon, others have to wait, while some at once are blest. Fortune lives a dainty life; to her the wretched pays his court and homage to win her smile; her likewise doth the prosperous man extol, for fear the favouring gale
  9. may leave him. These lessons should we take to heart, to bear with moderation, free from wrath, our wrongs, and do naught to hurt a whole city. What then? Let us, who will the pious deed perform, bury the corpses of the slain.
  10. Else is the issue clear; I will go and bury them by force. For never shall it be proclaimed through Hellas that heaven’s ancient law was set at naught, when it devolved on me and the city of Pandion.
Chorus
  1. Be of good cheer; for if thou preserve the light of justice,
  2. thou shalt escape many a charge that men might urge.
Herald
  1. Wilt thou that I sum up in brief all thou wouldst say?
Theseus
  1. Say what thou wilt; for thou art not silent as it is.
Herald
  1. Thou shalt never take the sons of Argos from our land.
Theseus
  1. Hear, then, my answer too to that, if so thou wilt.