The Tragedies of Euripides Part 68

ALC. I love this city. It can not be denied. But as for this man, since he has come into my power, there is no mortal who shall take him from me. For this, whoever will may call me bold, and thinking things too much for a woman; but this deed shall be done by me.

CHOR. It is a serious and excusable thing, O lady, for you to have hatred against this man, I well know it.

EURYSTHEUS. O woman, know plainly that I will not flatter you, nor say any thing else for my life, whence I may incur any imputation of cowardice. But not of my own accord did I undertake this strife--I knew that I was your cousin by birth, and a relation to your son Hercules; but whether I wished it or not, Juno, for it was a G.o.ddess, forced me to toil through this ill.

But when I took up enmity against him, and determined to contest this contest, I became a contriver of many evils, and sitting continually in council with myself, I brought forth many plans by night, how dispersing and slaying my enemies, I might dwell for the future not with fear, knowing that your son was not one of the many, but truly a man; for though he be mine enemy, yet shall he be well spoken of, as he was a doughty man. And when he was released [from life], did it not behoove me, being hated by these children, and knowing their father's hatred to me, to move every stone, slaying and banis.h.i.+ng them, and contriving, that, doing such things, my own affairs would have been safe? You, therefore, had you obtained my fortunes, would not have oppressed with evils the hostile offspring of a hated lion, but would wisely have permitted them to live in Argos; you will persuade no one of this. Now then, since they did not destroy me then, when I was willing, by the laws of the Greeks I shall, if slain, bear pollution to my slayer; and the city, being wise, has let me go, having greater honor for G.o.d than for its enmity toward me. And to what you said you have heard a reply: and now you may call me at once suppliant and brave.[34] Thus is the case with me, I do not wish to die, but I should not be grieved at leaving life.

CHOR. I wish, O Alcmena, to advise you a little, to let go this man, since it seems so to the city.

ALC. But how, if he both die, and still we obey the city?

CHOR. That would be best; but how can that be?

ALC. I will teach you, easily; for having slain him, then I will give his corpse to those of his friends who come after him; for I will not deny his body to the earth, but he dying, shall satisfy my revenge.

EU. Slay me, I do not deprecate thy wrath. But this city indeed, since it has released me, and feared to slay me, I will present with an ancient oracle of Apollo, which, in time, will be of greater profit than you would expect; for ye will bury me when I am dead, where it is fated, before the temple of the divine virgin of Pallene; and being well disposed to you, and a protector to the city, I shall ever lie as a sojourner under the ground, but most hostile to their descendants when they come hither with much force, betraying this kindness: such strangers do ye now defend. How then did I, knowing this, come hither, and not respect the oracle of the G.o.d?

Thinking Juno far more powerful than oracles, and that she would not betray me, [I did so.] But suffer neither libations nor blood to be poured on my tomb, for I will give them an evil return as a requital for these things; and ye shall have a double gain from me, I will both profit you and injure them by dying.

ALC. Why then do ye delay, if you are fated to accomplish safety to the city and to your descendants, to slay this man, hearing these things? for they show us the safest path. The man is an enemy, but he will profit us dying. Take him away, O servants; then having slain him, ye must give him to the dogs; for hope not thou, that living, thou shalt again banish me from my native land.

CHOR. These things seem good to me, proceed, O attendants, for every thing on our part shall be done completely for our sovereigns.

NOTES ON THE HERACLYDae

[1] Such seems to be the force of e?? a???.

[2] But the construction is probably a??ta? ???, (compare my note on aesch.

Eum. 63,) and apeste??e??? is _bereaved, dest.i.tute_.

[3] Cf. aesch. Eum. 973.

[4] i.e. noe, Marathon, Probalinthus, and Tricorythus.

[5] Elmsley compares Med. 1209. t?? t?? ?e???ta t??? ???a??? se?e?

t???s?; so the Latins used "Silicernium." Cf. Fulgent. Expos. Serm. Ant. p.

171, ed. Munck.

[6] a?t???, sentina, bilge-water. See Elmsley.

[7] See Elmsley's note.

[8] See Dindorf, who repents of the reading in the text, and restores s??

?a? t?d' a?s???? ????? e? p??e? ?a???. He, however, condemns this and the two next lines as spurious.

[9] i.e. if I neglect them.

[10] Cf. Hor. Od. iii. 6, 48. "aetas parentum, pejor avis, tulit Nos nequiores, mox daturos Progeniem vitiosiorem."

[11] Cf. Soph. Ant. 127. ?e?? ?a? e?a??? ???ss?? ??p??? ??pe?e??a??e?.

[12] Cf. aesch. Sept. c. Th. 40 sq., also Soph. d. T. 6 sqq.

[13] i.e. a?te?? ?at' ast? ???f????s?. ELMSLEY.

[14] Pausanias, i. 32, states that the oracle expressly required that one of the descendants of Hercules should be devoted, and that upon this Macaria, his daughter by Deianira, voluntarily offered herself. Her name was afterward given to a fountain. Enripides probably omitted this fact, in order to place the n.o.ble-mindedness of Macaria in a stronger light. The curious reader may compare the similar sacrifices of Codrus, (Pausan. vii.

25. Vell. Patere. i. 4,) Menceus, (Eur. Phn. 1009, Statius Theb. x. 751 sqq.,) Chaon (Serv. on Virg. aen. iii. 335). See also Lomeier de l.u.s.trationibus, -- xxii., where the whole subject is learnedly treated.

[15] Cf. aesch. Ag. 206 sqq.

[16] I prefer understanding ?e?e?a e??d?? e?? with Elmsley, to Matthiae's forced interpretation. Compare Med. 214 sqq.

[17] The cognate accusative to d?ase?e? must be supplied from the context.

[18] There is some awkwardness in the construction. Perhaps if we read spe?a, t?? ?e?a? f?e???! pef. the sense will be improved.

[19] The construction is thus laid down by Elmsley: pa?a? ?a? ?d????sa [pe?? ton aphig. ps. et. ei. n. [auton] genesetai]. He remarks that ??st??

often means "arrival," in the tragedians.

[20] See Matthiae. I should, however, prefer pa?? for p??, with Elmsley.

[21] ?ata is understood, as in Thucyd. v. 67. ELMSLEY.

[22] See Alcest. 662, Iph. Taur. 245, and Elmsley's note on this pa.s.sage.

[23] ?????, _expeditus_. As in agriculture it is applied to the husbandman who casts off his upper garment, so also in war it simply denotes being without armor.

[24] ?e??e??.

[25] I have corrected ?e?e?sas?? ??????, with Reiske and Dindorf.

[26] I have adopted Dindorf's correction, ??ss??e? pa?' e?? ?e??

fa????ta?.

[27] i.e. the last, says Brodaeus. But Elmsley prefers taking it for the ??????a or Kalends, with Musgrave.

[28] d????, which is often used to signify _the fight_, is here somewhat boldly put for the arrangement of the battle.

[29] Cf. aesch. Soph. c. Th. 14 sqq. Elmsley's notes on the whole of this spirited pa.s.sage deserve to be consulted.

[30] ??at???ta can not be used pa.s.sively. ??a???ta is the conjecture of Orelli, approved by Dindorf. I have expressed the sense, not the text.

[31] See Musgrave's note (apud Dindorf). Tyrwhitt considers all the dramatis personae wrongly a.s.signed.

[32] Ironically spoken.

[33] There seems to be something wrong here.