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. For who but they allot whate’er betides?
1st Half-Chorus
  1. I see many a contradiction in their dealings with men.
2nd Half-Chorus
  1. The former fear hath warped thy judgment. Vengeance calls vengeance forth; slaughter calls for slaughter,
  2. but the gods give respite from affliction, holding in their own hands each thing’s allotted end.
1st Half-Chorus
  1. Would I could reach yon plains with turrets crowned, leaving Callichorus, fountain of the goddess!
2nd Half-Chorus
  1. O that some god would give me wings to fly to the city of rivers twain!
1st Half-Chorus
  1. So might’st thou see and know the fortunes of thy friends.
2nd Half-Chorus
  1. What fate, what issue there awaits the valiant
  2. monarch of this land?
1st Half-Chorus
  1. Once more do we invoke the gods we called upon before; yea, in our fear this is our first and chiefest trust.
2nd Half-Chorus
  1. O Zeus, father to the child the heifer-mother bore in days long past, that daughter of Inachus!
1st Half-Chorus
  1. O be gracious, I pray, and champion this city!