Euripides Hippolytus 565-731

Chorus

What a cry was there! what loud alarm! say what sudden terror, lady, doth thy soul dismay.

Phaedra

I am undone. Stand here at the door and hear the noise arising in the house.

575

Chorus

Thou art already by the bolted door; ’tis for thee to note the sounds that issue from within. And tell me, O tell me what mischief can be on foot.

Phaedra

’Tis the son of the horse-loving Amazon who calls, Hippolytus, uttering foul curses on my servant.

Chorus

I hear a noise, but cannot clearly tell ¹ which way it comes. Ah! ’tis through the door the sound reached thee.

585

Phaedra

Yes, yes, he is calling her plainly enough a go-between in vice,

traitress to her master’s honour.

590

Chorus

Woe, woe is me! thou art betrayed, dear mistress! What counsel shall I give thee? thy secret is out; thou art utterly undone.

Phaedra

Ah me! ah me!

Chorus

Betrayed by friends!

595

Phaedra

She hath ruined me by speaking of my misfortune; ’twas kindly meant, but an ill way to cure my malady.

Chorus

O what wilt thou do now in thy cruel dilemma?

Phaedra

I only know one way,

one cure for these my woes and that is instant death.

600

Hippolytus

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.

Hippolytus

I cannot hear such awful words and hold my peace.

Nurse

I do implore thee by thy fair right hand.

605

Hippolytus

Let go my hand, touch not my robe.

Nurse

O by thy knees I pray, destroy me not utterly.

Hippolytus

Why say this, if, as thou pretendest, thy lips are free from blame?

Nurse

My son, this is no story to be noised abroad.

Hippolytus

A virtuous tale grows fairer told to many.

610

Nurse

Never dishonour thy oath, thy son.

Hippolytus

My tongue an oath did take, but not my heart.

Nurse

My son, what wilt thou do? destroy thy friends?

Hippolytus

Friends indeed! the wicked are no friends of mine.

Nurse

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 ² ’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, ³ incapable from simplicity.

635

640

I hate a clever woman; never may she set foot in my house who aims at knowing more than women need; for in these clever women Cypris implants a larger store of villainy, while the artless woman is by her shallow wit from levity debarred.

640

No servant should ever have had access to a wife, but men should put to live with them beasts, which bite, not talk, in which case they could not speak to any one nor be answered back by them. But, as it is, the wicked in their chambers plot wickedness,

645

and their servants carry it abroad.

650

Even thus, vile wretch, thou cam’st to make me partner in an outrage on my father’s honour; wherefore I must wash that stain away in running streams, dashing the water into my ears. How could I commit so foul a crime

when by the very mention of it I feel myself polluted? Be well assured, woman, ’tis only my religious scruple saves thee. For had not I unawares been caught by an oath, ’fore heaven! I would not have refrained from telling all unto my father. But now I will from the house away, so long as

655

Theseus is abroad, and will maintain strict silence. But, when my father comes, I will return and see how thou and thy mistress face him, and so shall I learn by experience the extent of thy audacity.

660

Perdition seize you both! (To the audience). I can never satisfy my hate for

women, no! not even though some say this is ever my theme, for of a truth they always are evil. So either let some one prove them chaste, or let me still trample on them for ever.

665

Phaedra

O the cruel, unhappy fate of women!

⁴

What arts, what arguments have we, once we have made a slip, to loose by craft ⁵ the tight-drawn knot? I have met my deserts. O earth, O light of day! How can I escape the stroke of fate? How my pangs conceal, kind friends?

670

What god will appear to help me, what mortal to take my part or help me in unrighteousness? The present calamity of my life admits of no escape. Most hapless I of all my sex!

675

Chorus

Alas, alas! the deed is done, thy servant’s schemes have gone awry, my queen, and all is lost.

680

Phaedra

Accursed woman! traitress to thy friends! How hast thou ruined me! May Zeus, my ancestor, smite thee with his fiery bolt and uproot thee from thy place.

Did I not foresee thy purpose, did I not bid thee keep silence on the very matter which is now my shame? But thou wouldst not be still; wherefore my fair name will not go with me to the tomb. But now I must another scheme devise. Yon youth, in the keenness of his fury,

685

will tell his father of my sin, and the aged Pittheus of my state, and fill the world with stories to my shame. Perdition seize thee and every meddling fool who by dishonest means would serve unwilling friends!

690

Nurse

Mistress, thou may’st condemn the mischief I have done, for sorrow’s sting o’ermasters thy judgment; yet can I answer thee in face of this, if thou wilt hear. ’Twas I who nurtured thee; I love thee still; but in my search for medicine to cure thy sickness I found what least I sought.

695

Had I but succeeded, I had been counted wise, for the credit we get for wisdom is measured by our success.

700

Phaedra

Is it just, is it any satisfaction to me, that thou shouldst wound me first, then bandy ⁶ words with me?

Nurse

We dwell on this too long; I was not wise, I own;

but there are yet ways of escape from the trouble, my child.

705

Phaedra

Be dumb henceforth; evil was thy first advice to me, evil too thy attempted scheme. Begone and leave me, look to thyself; I will my own fortunes for the best arrange. (Exit Nurse).

Ye noble daughters of Troezen, grant me the only boon I crave; in silence bury what ye here have heard.

710

Chorus

By majestic Artemis, child of Zeus, I swear I will never divulge aught of thy sorrows.

Phaedra

’Tis well. But I, with all my thought, ⁷ can but one way discover out of this calamity, that so I may secure my children’s honour, and find myself some help as matters stand. For never, never will I bring shame upon my Cretan home,

715

nor will I, to save one poor life, face Theseus after my disgrace.

720

Chorus

Art thou bent then on some cureless woe?

Phaedra

On death; the means thereto must I devise myself.

Chorus

Hush!

Phaedra

Do thou at least advise me well.

For this very day shall I gladden Cypris, my destroyer, by yielding up my life, and shall own myself vanquished by cruel love. Yet shall my dying be another’s curse, that he may learn not to exult at my misfortunes;

725

but when he comes to share the self-same plague with me, he will take a lesson in wisdom.

730