Supplices

Aeschylus

Aeschylus, Volume 1. Smyth, Herbert Weir, translator. London; New York: William Heinemann; G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1922.

  1. and those who dwell about Erasinus’ ancient stream. And you handmaidens take up the song. Let the theme of our praise be this city of the Pelasgians, and no longer
  2. let the homage of our hymns be paid to Nile’s floods where they seek the sea,
Chorus
  1. But to the rivers that pour their gentle draught through the land and increase the birth of children, soothing its soil with their fertilizing streams.
  2. May pure Artemis look upon this band in compassion, and may marriage never come through Cytherea’s compulsion. May that prize belong to my enemies!
  1. Yet there is no disdain of Cypris in this our friendly hymn;
  2. for she, together with Hera, holds power nearest to Zeus, and for her solemn rites the goddess of varied wiles is held in honor. And in the train of their mother are Desire and she to whom nothing is denied,
  3. winning Persuasion; and to Harmonia has been given a share of Aphrodite, and to the whispering touches of the Loves.
  1. But for the fugitives I have boding fears of blasts of harm and cruel distress and bloody wars.
  2. How did they make such a smooth voyage when pursuit followed fast upon their track? Whatever is fated, that will come to pass. The mighty, untrammelled will of Zeus cannot be transgressed.
  3. Marriage has been the destiny of many women before our time.
  1. May mighty Zeus defend me from marriage with Aegyptus’ race!
  1. That would indeed be best.
  1. But you would move the immovable.
  1. And you do not know what the future has in store.
  1. How should I scan the mind of Zeus, a sight unfathomable?
  1. Let the words of your prayer be moderate.
  1. What sense of proportion would you now teach me?
  1. Do not ask too much of the gods.
  1. May sovereign Zeus spare me cruel marriage with a man I hate, that very Zeus who
  2. mercifully freed Io from pain, restoring her with healing hand by kindly force.