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Hippolytus
O mother earth! O sun’s unclouded orb! What words, unfit for any lips, have reached my ears!
O mother earth! O sun’s unclouded orb! What words, unfit for any lips, have reached my ears!
Nurse
Peace, my son, lest some one hear thy outcry.
Peace, my son, lest some one hear thy outcry.
Hippolytus
I cannot hear such awful words and hold my peace.
I cannot hear such awful words and hold my peace.
Nurse
I do implore thee by thy fair right hand.
605
I do implore thee by thy fair right hand.
605
Hippolytus
Let go my hand, touch not my robe.
Let go my hand, touch not my robe.
Nurse
O by thy knees I pray, destroy me not utterly.
O by thy knees I pray, destroy me not utterly.
Hippolytus
Why say this, if, as thou pretendest, thy lips are free from blame?
Why say this, if, as thou pretendest, thy lips are free from blame?
Nurse
My son, this is no story to be noised abroad.
My son, this is no story to be noised abroad.
Hippolytus
A virtuous tale grows fairer told to many.
610
A virtuous tale grows fairer told to many.
610
Nurse
Never dishonour thy oath, thy son.
Never dishonour thy oath, thy son.
Hippolytus
My tongue an oath did take, but not my heart.
My tongue an oath did take, but not my heart.
Nurse
My son, what wilt thou do? destroy thy friends?
My son, what wilt thou do? destroy thy friends?
Hippolytus
Friends indeed! the wicked are no friends of mine.
Friends indeed! the wicked are no friends of mine.
Nurse
O pardon me; to err is only human, child.
615
O pardon me; to err is only human, child.
615
Hippolytus
Great Zeus, why didst thou, to man’s sorrow, put woman, evil counterfeit, to dwell where shines the sun? If thou wert minded that the human race should multiply, it was not from women they should have drawn their stock,
but in thy temples they should have paid gold or iron or ponderous bronze and bought a family, each man proportioned to his offering, and so in independence dwelt, from women free.
620
But now as soon as ever we would bring this plague into our home we bring its fortune to the ground.1
1
’Tis clear from this how great a curse a woman is; the very father, that begot and nurtured her, to rid him of the mischief gives her a dower and packs her off;
625
while the husband, who takes the noxious weed into his home, fondly decks his sorry idol in fine raiment and tricks her out in robes, squandering by degrees, unhappy wight! his house’s wealth. For he is in this dilemma;
630
say his marriage has brought him good connections, he is glad then to keep the wife he loathes; or, if he gets a good wife but useless relations, he tries to stifle the bad luck with the good. But it is easiest for him who has settled in his house as wife a mere nobody,
2
incapable from simplicity.
635
Great Zeus, why didst thou, to man’s sorrow, put woman, evil counterfeit, to dwell where shines the sun? If thou wert minded that the human race should multiply, it was not from women they should have drawn their stock,
but in thy temples they should have paid gold or iron or ponderous bronze and bought a family, each man proportioned to his offering, and so in independence dwelt, from women free.
620
But now as soon as ever we would bring this plague into our home we bring its fortune to the ground.1
1
’Tis clear from this how great a curse a woman is; the very father, that begot and nurtured her, to rid him of the mischief gives her a dower and packs her off;
625
while the husband, who takes the noxious weed into his home, fondly decks his sorry idol in fine raiment and tricks her out in robes, squandering by degrees, unhappy wight! his house’s wealth. For he is in this dilemma;
630
say his marriage has brought him good connections, he is glad then to keep the wife he loathes; or, if he gets a good wife but useless relations, he tries to stifle the bad luck with the good. But it is easiest for him who has settled in his house as wife a mere nobody,
2
incapable from simplicity.
635
Hippolytus. Euripides. Edward P. Coleridge (Translator). London. 1906.
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