Classic Greek Drama_ 10 Plays by Euripides in a Single File [NOOK Book] - Euripides [109]
CHOR. And lo! the unhappy man there is coming, all mangled his young flesh and auburn head. Oh the misery of the house! such double anguish coming down from heaven has been wrought in the palaces!
HIPPOLYTUS, DIANA, THESEUS, CHORUS.
HIPP. O! O! O! Unhappy I was thus foully mangled by the unjust prayers of an unjust father--I am destroyed miserably. Ah me! ah me! Pains rush through my head, and the spasm darts across my brain. Stop, I will rest my fainting body. Oh! oh! O those hateful horses of my chariot, things which I fed with my own hand, ye have destroyed me utterly and slain me. Oh! oh! by the Gods, gently, my servants, touch with your hands my torn flesh. Who stands by my side on the right? Lift me up properly, and take hold all equally on me, the unblessed of heaven, and cursed by my father's error--Jove, Jove, beholdest thou these things? Lo! I, the chaste, and the reverencer of the Gods, I who in modesty exceed all, have lost my life, and go to a manifest hell beneath the earth; but in vain have I labored in the task of piety toward men. O! O! O! O! and now the pain, the pain comes upon me, loose unhappy me, and let death come to be my physician. Destroy me, destroy the unhappy one--I long for a two-edged blade, wherewith to cut me in pieces, and to put my life to an eternal rest. Oh unhappy curse of my father! the evil too of my blood-polluted kinsmen, my old forefathers, bursts forth[50] upon me; nor is it at a distance; and it hath come on me, wherefore, I pray, who am nothing guilty of these ills? Alas me! me! what can I say? how can I free my life from this cruel calamity? Would that the black and nightly fate of Pluto would put me wretched to eternal sleep!
DI. Oh unhappy mortal, with what a calamity art thou enthralled! but the nobleness of thy mind hath destroyed thee.
HIPP. Let be. O divine breathing of perfume, for, even though being in ills, I perceived thee, and felt my body lightened of its pain.[51] The Goddess Dian is in this place.
DI. Oh unhappy one! she is, to thee the most dear of deities.
HIPP. Mistress, thou seest wretched me, in what state I am.
DI. I see; but it is not lawful for me to shed a tear down mine eyes.
HIPP. Thy hunter, and thy servant is no more.
DI. No in sooth; but beloved by me thou perishest.
HIPP. And he that managed they steeds, and guarded thy statutes.
DI. _Ay_, for the crafty Venus hath so wrought.
HIPP. Ah me! I perceive indeed the power that hath destroyed me.
DI. She thought her honor aggrieved, and hated thee for being chaste.
HIPP. One Venus hath destroyed us three.
DI. Thy father, and thee, and his wife the third.
HIPP. I mourn therefore also my father's misery.
DI. He was deceived by the devices of the Goddess.
HIPP. Oh! unhappy thou, because of this calamity, my father!
THES. I perish, my son, nor have I delight in life.
HIPP. I lament thee rather than myself on account of thy error.
THES. My son, would that I could die in thy stead!
HIPP. Oh! the bitter gifts of thy father Neptune!
THES. Would that the prayer had never come into my mouth.
HIPP. Wherefore this wish? thou wouldst have slain me, so enraged wert thou then.
THES. For I was deceived in my notions by the Gods.
HIPP. Alas! would that the race of mortals could curse the Gods!
DI. Let be; for not even when thou art under the darkness of the earth shall the rage arising from the bent of the Goddess Venus descend upon thy body unrevenged: by reason of thy piety and thy excellent mind. For with these inevitable weapons from mine own hand will I revenge me on another,[52] whoever to her be the dearest of mortals. But to thee, O unhappy one, in recompense for these evils, will I give the greatest honors in the land of Troezene; for the unwedded virgins before their nuptials shall shear their locks to thee for many an age, owning the greatest sorrow tears can give; but ever among the virgins shall there be a remembrance of thee that shall awake the song, nor