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.
- What means it, mother? ’Tis thine to make it plain to me, mine to listen; yea, for I expect some tidings strange.
- My son, these are the mothers of those chieftains seven, who fell around the gates of Cadmus’ town. With suppliant boughs they keep me prisoner, as thou seest, in their midst.
- And who is yonder man, that moaneth piteously in the gateway?
- Adrastus, they inform me, king of Argos.
- Are those his children, those boys who stand round him?
- Not his, but the sons of the fallen slain.
- Why are they come to us, with suppliant hand outstretched?
- I know; but ’tis for them to tell their story, my son.
- To thee, in thy mantle muffled, I address my inquiries; unveil thy head, let lamentation be, and speak; for naught can be achieved save through the utterance of thy tongue.[*](Markland’s emendation περᾷς … ’ιών, is certainly tempting. Hartung adopts it; but Paley and Nauck, whom I have followed, retain the old reading πάρας … ’ιόν.)
- Victorious prince of the Athenian realm, Theseus, to thee and to thy city I, a suppliant, come.
- What seekest thou? What need is thine?
- Dost know how I did lead an expedition to its ruin?
- Assuredly; thou didst not pass through Hellas, all in silence.
- There I lost the pick of Argos’ sons.
- These are the results of that unhappy war.
- I went and craved their bodies from Thebes.