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. in the day that the city of Argos raised the stately chant of joy at my wedding, in honour of my marriage with mail-clad Capaneus?
  2. Now from my home in frantic haste with frenzied mind I rush to join thee, seeking to share with thee the fire’s bright flame and the self-same tomb, to rid me of my weary
  3. life in Hades’ halls, and of the pains of existence; yea, for ’tis the sweetest end to share the death of those we love, if only fate will sanction it.
Chorus
  1. Behold yon pyre, which thou art overlooking, nigh thereto,
  2. set apart for Zeus! There is thy husband’s body, vanquished by the blazing bolt.
Evadne
  1. Life’s goal I now behold from my station here; may fortune aid me in my headlong leap from this rock
  2. in honour’s cause, down into the fire below, to mix my ashes
    in the ruddy blaze
  3. with my husband’s, to lay me side by side with him, there in the couch of Persephone; for ne’er will I, to save my life, prove untrue to thee where thou liest in thy grave.
  4. Away with life and marriage too! Oh![*](The following verses are corrupt almost beyond hope of emendation, nor is it quite clear what the poet intended. By reading φανεῖεν, as Paley suggests, with τέκνοισιν ἐμοῖς and supplying the hiatus by εἴη δ’, it is possible to extract an intelligible sense, somewhat different, however, from that proposed by Hermann or Hartung, and only offered here for want of a better.) may my children live to see the dawn of a fairer, happier wedding-day in Argos! May loyalty inspire the husband’s heart,
  5. his nature fusing with his wife’s!
Chorus
  1. Lo! the aged Iphis, thy father, draweth nigh to hear thy startling scheme, which yet he knows not and will grieve to learn.
Iphis
  1. Unhappy child! lo! I am come, a poor old man,
  2. with twofold sorrow in my house to mourn, that I may carry to his native land the corpse of my son Eteocles, slain by the Theban spear, and further in quest of my daughter who rushed headlong from the house, for she was the wife of Capaneus
  3. and longed with him to die. Ere this she was well guarded in my house, but, when I took the watch away in the present troubles, she escaped. But I feel sure that she is here; tell me if ye have seen her.
Evadne
  1. Why question them? Lo, here upon the rock, father, o’er the pyre of Capaneus, like some bird I hover lightly, in my wretchedness.
Iphis
  1. What wind hath blown thee hither, child? Whither away? Why didst thou pass the threshold of my house and seek this land?