The Phoenician Women

Euripides

Euripides. The Plays of Euripides, Translated into English Prose from the Text of Paley. Vol. II. Coleridge, Edward P., translator. London: George Bell and Sons, 1891.

  1. and ravening claws; you once caught up youths from the haunts of Dirce, with discordant song,
  2. and you brought, you brought a murderous grief, a deadly curse to our native land. A deadly god he was who brought all this to pass. Mourning of mothers, mourning of maidens,
  3. filled the houses with groans; a lamenting cry, a lamenting song, one after another wailed out, in turn throughout the city. The roar of the groaning
  4. was like thunder, whenever the winged maiden bore a man out of sight from the city.
Chorus
  1. At last came Oedipus, the man of sorrow, sent from Delphi
  2. to this land of Thebes, a joy to us then, but afterwards a cause of grief; for, when he guessed the riddle triumphantly, he formed with his mother an unhallowed union, woe to him!
  3. polluting the city; and striking down his sons by his curses, he handed them over to loathsome strife, through blood, the wretched man.
  4. We admire him, we admire him,
  5. who has gone to his death in his country’s cause, leaving tears to Creon, but bringing a crown of victory to our seven fenced towers.
  6. May we be mothers in this way, may we have such fair children, dear PalIas, you who with well-aimed stone spilled the serpent’s blood, rousing Cadmus to brood upon the task,
  7. from which a demon’s curse swooped upon this land and ravaged it.
Messenger
  1. Ho there! Who is at the palace-gates? Open the door, summon Jocasta forth. Ho there! once again I call; in spite of this long delay,
  2. come forth; listen, noble wife of Oedipus, cease your lamentation and your tears of woe.
Jocasta
  1. Surely you have not come, dear friend, with the sad news of Eteocles’ death, beside whose shield you have always marched, warding off from him the enemy’s darts?
  2. What tidings are you here to bring me? Is my son alive or dead? Tell me.
Messenger
  1. He is alive, do not fear that, so that I may rid you of your terror.
Jocasta
  1. Well? How is it with the seven towers that wall us in?
Messenger
  1. They stand unshattered; the city is not plundered.
Jocasta
  1. Have they been in jeopardy of the Argive spear?
Messenger
  1. Yes, on the very brink; but our Theban warriors proved stronger than Mycenae’s might.