Supplices

Aeschylus

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

  1. He does not sit upon his throne by mandate of another and hold his dominion beneath a mightier. No one sits above him whose power he holds in awe. He speaks, and it is done—he hastens to execute whatever his counselling mind conceives.[*](The full force of this majestic and awe-inspiring passage, recalling the solemnity of Isaiah, can be reproduced only by paraphrase. Nearer the original is: He does not, sitting upon his throne by the authority of any, bear a lesser sway delegated by superiors ... But with him the deed is as the word to do swiftly anything that his counselling mind conceives.)
Re-enter Danaus
Danaus
  1. Be of good cheer, my children, all goes well on the part of the citizens. Decrees, carrying full authority, have been passed.
Chorus
  1. Hail, our envoy, harbinger of tidings most welcome, But tell us—to what end has the decision been carried, and to what course does the majority of the people’s votes incline?
Danaus
  1. Action was taken by the Argives, not by any doubtful vote but in such a way as to make my aged heart renew its youth. For the air bristled with right hands held aloft as, in full vote, they ratified this resolution into law: That we are settlers in this land, and are free, subject to no seizure, and secure from robbery of man; that no one, native or alien, lead us captive; but, if they turn to violence, any landholder who refuses to rescue us, should both forfeit his rights and suffer public banishment.
  2. Such was the persuasive speech that the king of the Pelasgians delivered on our behalf, uttering the solemn warning that never in the future should the city feed the great wrath of Zeus, protector of the suppliant; and declaring that, should a twofold defilement—from strangers and from natives at once—arise before the city,
  3. it would become fodder for distress past all relief. Hearing these words, the Argive people, waiting for no proclamation of crier, voted by uplifted hand that this should be so. It was the Pelasgian people, won readily to assent, who heard the subtle windings of his speech; but it was Zeus who brought the end to pass.
Chorus
  1. Come, let us invoke blessings upon the Argives in return for blessings. And may Zeus, god of strangers, behold the offerings of gratitude voiced by a stranger’s lips, that they may in true fulfilment reach their perfect goal.
Chorus
  1. Divinely-born gods! Hear now as I pour forth libations for blessings upon our kindred. Never may the wanton lord of war,
  2. insatiate of battle-cry, Ares, who reaps a human harvest in alien fields, destroy this Pelasgian land by fire; for they had compassion for us,
  3. and cast a vote in our favor, respecting our pitiable flock, suppliants in the name of Zeus.
Chorus
  1. Nor did they cast their votes for the side of the males,
  2. disregarding the women’s cause, since they honored the avenging eye of Zeus, against which there is no battling, and what house would have it
  3. defiling its roof?[*](By a sudden shift of metaphor, the eye of Zeus is likened to a foul bird whose pollution of the roof is an evil omen to the inmates of the house.)For he sits heavily upon it. They take reverent heed of their kin, petitioners of holy Zeus; therefore with pure
  4. altars shall they please the gods.
Chorus
  1. Therefore let there fly forth from our overshadowed[*](Overshadowed by the suppliant branches, which, though now laid on the altar (l. 507), are still in imagination held before the faces of the maidens.)lips a prayer of gratitude. Never may pestilence
  2. empty this city of its men nor strife stain the soil of the land with the blood of slain inhabitants. But may the flower of its youth be unplucked, and may Ares,
  3. the partner of Aphrodite’s bed, he who makes havoc of men, not shear off their bloom.
Chorus
  1. And may the altars, where the elders gather, blaze in honor of venerable men.
  2. Thus may their state be regulated well, if they hold in awe mighty Zeus, and, most of all, Zeus the warden of the guest, who by venerable enactment guides destiny straight.
  3. We pray that other guardians be always renewed, and that Artemis-Hecate[*](Artemis and Hecate were identified in Attic cult as early as the fifth century B.C. Cp. Corp. Inscr. Att. 1.208. The epithet ἑκάτη far-darter, archer was, it seems, not applied as a common adjective to Artemis.)watch over the childbirth of their women.