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Pheres
Child, whom think’st thou art reviling? some Lydian or Phrygian bought with thy money? Art not aware I am a freebom Thessalian, son of a Thessalian sire? Thou art too insolent; yet from hence thou shalt not go as thou earnest,
675
after shooting out thy braggart tongue at me. To rule my house I begat and bred thee up; I own no debt of dying in thy stead; this is not the law that I received from my ancestors that fathers should die for children, nor is it a custom in Hellas.
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For weal or woe, thy life must be thine own; whate’er was due from me to thee, thou hast. Dominion wide is thine, and acres broad I will leave to thee, for from my father did I inherit them. How, pray, have I wronged thee? of what am I robbing thee?
685
Die not thou for me, nor I for thee. Thy joy is in the light; think’st thou thy sire’s is not? By Heaven! ’tis a weary while, I trow, that time beneath the earth, and life, though short, is sweet. Thou at least didst struggle hard to ’scape thy death,
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lost to shame, and by her death dost live beyond thy destined term. Dost thou then speak of cowardice in me, thou craven heart! no match for thy wife, who hath died for thee, her fine young lord? A clever scheme hast thou devised to stave off death for ever,
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if thou canst persuade each new wife to die instead of thee; and dost thou then taunt thy friends, who will not do the like, coward as thou art thyself? Hold thy peace; reflect, if thou dost love thy life so well, this love by all is shared; yet if thou wilt speak ill of me,
700
thyself shalt hear a full and truthful list of thy own crimes.
705
Child, whom think’st thou art reviling? some Lydian or Phrygian bought with thy money? Art not aware I am a freebom Thessalian, son of a Thessalian sire? Thou art too insolent; yet from hence thou shalt not go as thou earnest,
675
after shooting out thy braggart tongue at me. To rule my house I begat and bred thee up; I own no debt of dying in thy stead; this is not the law that I received from my ancestors that fathers should die for children, nor is it a custom in Hellas.
680
For weal or woe, thy life must be thine own; whate’er was due from me to thee, thou hast. Dominion wide is thine, and acres broad I will leave to thee, for from my father did I inherit them. How, pray, have I wronged thee? of what am I robbing thee?
685
Die not thou for me, nor I for thee. Thy joy is in the light; think’st thou thy sire’s is not? By Heaven! ’tis a weary while, I trow, that time beneath the earth, and life, though short, is sweet. Thou at least didst struggle hard to ’scape thy death,
690
lost to shame, and by her death dost live beyond thy destined term. Dost thou then speak of cowardice in me, thou craven heart! no match for thy wife, who hath died for thee, her fine young lord? A clever scheme hast thou devised to stave off death for ever,
695
if thou canst persuade each new wife to die instead of thee; and dost thou then taunt thy friends, who will not do the like, coward as thou art thyself? Hold thy peace; reflect, if thou dost love thy life so well, this love by all is shared; yet if thou wilt speak ill of me,
700
thyself shalt hear a full and truthful list of thy own crimes.
705
Chorus
Too long that list both now and heretofore; cease, father, to revile thy son.
Too long that list both now and heretofore; cease, father, to revile thy son.
Alcestis. Euripides. Edward P. Coleridge (Translator). London. 1906.
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