Euripides Andromache 854

Hermione

rushing wildly on to the stage. Woe, woe is me! I will tear my hair and scratch cruel furrows in my cheeks.

825

Nurse

My child, what wilt thou do? Wilt thou disfigure thyself?

Hermione

Ah me! ah me!

Begone, thou fine-spun veil! float from my head away!

830

Nurse

Daughter, cover up thy bosom, fasten thy robe.

Hermione

Why should I cover it?

My crimes against my lord are manifest and clear, they cannot be hidden.

835

Nurse

Art so grieved at having devised thy rival’s death?

Hermione

Indeed I am; I deeply mourn my fatal deeds of daring; alas! I am now accursed in all men’s eyes!

Nurse

Thy husband will pardon thee this error.

840

Hermione

Oh! why didst thou hunt me to snatch away my sword? Give, oh! give it back, dear nurse, that I may thrust it through my heart. Why dost thou prevent me hanging myself?

Nurse

What! was I to let thy madness lead thee on to death?

845

Hermione

Ah me, my destiny! Where can I find some friendly fire? To what rocky height can I climb above the sea or ’mid some wooded mountain glen,

there to die and trouble but the dead?

850

Nurse

Why vex thyself thus? on all of us sooner or later heaven’s visitation comes.

Hermione

Thou hast left me, O my father,

left me like a stranded bark, all alone, without an oar. My lord will surely slay me; no home is mine henceforth beneath my husband’s roof. What god is there to whose statue I can as a suppliant haste?

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or shall I throw myself in slavish wise at slavish knees? Would I could speed ¹ away from Phthia’s land on bird’s dark pinion, or like that pine-built ship, ²

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the first that ever sailed betwixt the rocks Cyanean!

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Nurse

My child, I can as little praise thy previous sinful excesses, committed against the Trojan captive, as thy present exaggerated terror. Thy husband will never listen to

a barbarian’s weak pleading and reject his marriage with thee for this. For thou wast no captive from Troy whom he wedded, but the daughter of a gallant sire, with a rich dower, from a city too of no mean prosperity. Nor will thy father forsake thee, as thou dreadest,

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and allow thee to be cast out from this house. Nay, enter now, nor show thyself before the palace, lest the sight ³ of thee there bring reproach upon thee, my daughter. Exit Nurse.

875

Chorus

Lo! a stranger of foreign appearance from some other land

comes hurrying towards us.

880

Orestes

Ladies of this foreign land! is this the home, the palace of Achilles’ son?

Chorus

Thou hast it; but who art thou to ask such a question?

Orestes

The son of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra,

by name Orestes, on my way to the oracle of Zeus at Dodona. But now that I am come to Phthia, I am resolved to inquire about my kinswoman, Hermione of Sparta; is she alive and well? for though

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she dwells in a land far from my own, I love her none the less.

890

Hermione

Son of Agamemnon, thy appearing is as a haven from the storm to sailors; by thy knees I pray, have pity on me in my distress, on me of whose fortunes thou art inquiring. About thy knees

I twine my arms with all the force of sacred fillets.

895

Orestes

Ha! what is this? Am I mistaken or do I really see before me the queen of this palace, the daughter of Menelaus?

Hermione

The same, that only child whom Helen, daughter of Tyndareus, bore my father in his halls; never doubt that.

Orestes

O saviour Phoebus, grant us respite from our woe! But what is the matter? art thou afflicted by gods or men?

900

Hermione

Partly by myself, partly by the man who wedded me, and partly by some god. On every side I see ruin.

Orestes

Why, what misfortune could happen to a woman as yet childless,

unless her honour is concerned?

905

Hermione

My very complaint! Thou hast hit my case exactly.

Orestes

On whom has thy husband set his affections in thy stead?

Hermione

On his captive, Hector’s wife.

Orestes

An evil case indeed, for a man to have two wives!

Hermione

’Tis even thus. So I resented it.

910

Orestes

Didst thou with woman’s craft devise a plot against thy rival?

Hermione

Yes, to slay her and her bastard child.

Orestes

And didst thou slay them, or did something happen to rescue them from thee?

Hermione

It was old Peleus, who showed regard to the weaker side.

Orestes

Hadst thou any accomplice in this attempted murder?

915

Hermione

My father came from Sparta for this very purpose.

Orestes

And was he after all defeated by that old man’s prowess ?

Hermione

Oh no! but by shame; and he hath gone and left me all alone.

Orestes

I understand; thou art afraid of thy husband for that thou hast done.

Hermione

Thou hast guessed it; for he will have a right to me. What can I say for myself? Yet I beseech thee by Zeus the god of our family, send me to a land as far as possible from this, or to my father’s house; for these very ⁴ walls seem to cry out Begone!

920

and all the land of Phthia bates me. But if my lord return ere that from the oracle of Phoebus, he will put me to death on a shameful charge, or enslave me to his mistress, whom I ruled before. Maybe ⁵ some one will say, How was it thou didst go thus astray?

925

I was ruined by mischievous women who came to me and puffed me up with words like these: What! wilt thou suffer that vile captive, a mere bondmaid, to dwell within thy house and share thy wedded rights? By Heaven’s queen! if it were my house

930

she should not live to reap my marriage-harvest! And I listened to the words of these Sirens, the cunning, knavish, subtle praters, and was filled with silly thoughts. What need had I to care about my lord?

935

I had all I wanted, wealth in plenty, a house in which I was mistress, and as for children, mine would be born in wedlock, while hers would be bastards, half-slaves to mine. Oh! never, never,–this truth will I repeat,–should men of sense, who have wives,

940

allow women-folk to visit them in their homes, for they teach them mischief; one, to gain some private end, helps to corrupt their honour; another, having made a slip herself, wants a companion in misfortune, while many are wantons; and hence it is

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men’s houses are tainted. Wherefore keep strict guard upon the portals of your houses with bolts and bars; for these visits of strange women lead to no good result, but a world of mischief. ⁶

950

Chorus

Thou hast given thy tongue too free a rein regarding thy own sex.

I can pardon thee in this case, but still women ought to smooth over their sisters’ weaknesses.

955

Orestes

’Twas sage counsel he gave who taught men to hear the arguments on both sides. I, for instance, though aware of the confusion in this house,

the quarrel between thee and Hector’s wife, waited awhile and watched to see whether thou wouldst stay here or from fear of that captive art minded to quit these halls. Now it was not so much regard for thy message that brought me hither,

960

as the intention of carrying thee away from this house, if, as now, thou shouldst grant me a chance of saying so. For thou wert mine formerly, but art now living with thy present husband through thy father’s baseness; since he, before invading Troy’s domains, betrothed thee to me, and then ⁷ afterwards promised thee

965

to thy present lord, provided he captured the city of Troy.

970

So, as soon as Achilles’ son returned hither, I forgave thy father, but entreated the bridegroom to forego his marriage with thee, telling him all I had gone through and my present misfortune; I might get

a wife, I said, from amongst friends, but outside their circle ’twas no easy task for one exiled like myself from home. Thereat he grew abusive, taunting me with my mother’s murder and those blood-boltered fiends. ⁸ And I was humbled by the fortunes of my house,

975

and though ’tis true, I grieved, yet did I endure my sorrow, and reluctantly departed, robbed of thy promised hand. Now therefore, since thou findest thy fortune so abruptly changed and art fallen thus on evil days and hast no help, I will take thee hence and place thee in thy father’s hands.

980

For kinship ⁹ hath strong claims, and in adversity there is naught better than a kinsman’s kindly aid.

985

Hermione

As for my marriage, my father must look to it; ’tis not for me to decide that. Yes, take me hence as soon as may be,

lest my husband come back to his house before I am gone, or Peleus hear that I am deserting his son’s abode and pursue me on horse-back.

990

Orestes

Rest easy about the old man’s power; and, as for Achilles’ son with all his insolence to me, never fear him;

such a crafty net this hand hath woven and set for his death with knots that none can loose; whereof I will not speak before the time, but, when my plot begins to work, Delphi’s rock will witness it. If but my allies

995

in the Pythian land abide by their oaths, this same murderer of his mother will show that no one else shall marry thee my rightful bride. ¹⁰ To his cost will he demand satisfaction of King Phoebus for his father’s blood; nor shall his repentance avail him, though he is now submitting to the god.

1000

No! he shall perish miserably by Apollo’s hand and my fake accusations; so shall he end out my enmity. For the deity upsets the fortune of them that hate him. and suffers them not to be high-minded. Exeunt Orestes and Hermione.

1005