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.
- Your sister, Creon, has gone out, and her daughter Antigone went with her.
- Where did she go? What happened? Tell me.
- She heard that her sons were about to engage in single combat for the royal house.
- What do you mean? In my tenderness to my dead son, I was not able to learn this.
- It is some time, Creon, since your sister’s departure,
- and I expect the struggle for life and death is already decided by the sons of Oedipus.
- Alas! I see a sign there, the gloomy look and face of the messenger coming to tell us the whole matter.
- Ah, woe is me! What story can I tell, what lament can I make?
- We are lost; your opening words have no fair appearance.
- Ah, woe is me! I say again; for I am bringing great horrors.
- In addition to the other sorrowful deeds. What is your tale?
- Your sister’s sons are now no more, Creon.
- Alas! you have a great tale of woe for me and the city.
- O house of Oedipus, have you heard these tidings of sons slain by the same fate?
- A tale to make it weep, if it were endowed with sense.
- Oh! most grievous stroke of fate! :Alas for my sorrows! Oh, alas!
- If you only know the sorrows other than those!