The Trachiniae [4]
Deianeira lives! Such dread do I feel, beholding these.
(To IOLE) Ah, hapless girl, say, who art thou? A maiden, or a
mother? To judge by thine aspect, an innocent maiden, and of a noble
race. Lichas, whose daughter is this stranger? Who is her mother,
who her sire? Speak, I pity her more than all the rest, when I
behold her; as she alone shows due feeling for her plight.
LICHAS
How should I know? Why should'st thou ask me? Perchance the off,
spring of not the meanest in yonder land.
DEIANEIRA
Can she be of royal race? Had Eurytus a daughter?
LICHAS
I know not; indeed, I asked not many questions.
DEIANEIRA
And thou hast not heard her name from any of her companions?
LICHAS
No, indeed, I went through my task in silence.
DEIANEIRA
Unhappy girl, let me, at least, hear it from thine own mouth. It
is indeed distressing not to know thy name.
(IOLE maintains her silence.)
LICHAS
It will be unlike her former behaviour, then, I can tell thee,
if she opens her lips: for she hath not uttered one word, but hath
ever been travailing with the burden of her sorrow, and weeping
bitterly, poor girl, since she left her wind-swept home. Such a
state is grievous for herself, but claims our forbearance.
DEIANEIRA
Then let her be left in peace, and pass under our roof as she
wishes; her present woes must not be crowned with fresh pains at my
hands; she hath enough already.-Now let us all go in, that thou mayest
start speedily on thy journey, while I make all things ready in the
house.
(LICHAS leads the captives into the house. DEIANEIRA starts to
follow them, but the MESSENGER, who has been present during the entire
scene, detains her. He speaks as he moves nearer to her.)
MESSENGER
Ay, but first tarry here a brief space, that thou mayest learn,
apart from yonder folk, whom thou art taking to thy hearth, and mayest
gain the needful knowledge of things which have not been told to thee.
Of these I am in full possession.
DEIANEIRA
What means this? Why wouldest thou stay my departure?
MESSENGER
Pause and listen. My former story was worth thy hearing, and so
will this one be, methinks.
DEIANEIRA
Shall I call those others back? Or wilt thou speak before me and
these maidens?
MESSENGER
To thee and these I can speak freely; never mind the others.
DEIANEIRA
Well, they are gone;- so thy story can proceed.
MESSENGER
Yonder man was not speaking the straight-forward truth in aught
that he has just told. He has given false tidings now, or else his
former report was dishonest.
DEIANEIRA
How sayest thou? Explain thy whole drift clearly; thus far, thy
words are riddles to me.
MESSENGER
I heard this man declare, before many witnesses, that for this
maiden's sake Heracles overthrew Eurytus and the proud towers of
Oechalia; Love, alone of the gods, wrought on him to do those deeds of
arms,- not the toilsome servitude to Omphale in Lydia, nor the death
to which Iphitus was hurled. But now the herald has thrust Love out of
sight, and tells different tale.
Well, when he could not persuade her sire to give him the maiden
for his paramour, he devised some petty complaint as a pretext, and
made war upon her land,- that in which, as he said, this Eurytus
bore sway,- and slew the prince her father, and sacked her city. And
now, as thou seest, he comes sending her to this house not in careless
fashion, lady, nor like slave:-no, dream not of that,- it is not
likely, if his heart is kindled with desire.
I resolved, therefore, O Queen, to tell thee all that I had
heard from yonder man. Many others were listening to it, as I was,
in the public place where the Trachinians were assembled; and they can
convict him. If my words are unwelcome, I am grieved; but nevertheless
I have spoken out the truth.
DEIANEIRA
Ah me unhappy! In what plight do I stand? What secret bane have
received beneath my roof? Hapless that I am! Is she nameless,