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Chorus
Oh! to have never been born, or sprung from noble sires, the heir to mansions richly stored;
for if aught untoward e’er befall, there is no lack of champions for sons of noble parents, and there is honour and glory for them when they are proclaimed scions of illustrious lines; time detracts not from the legacy these good
770
men leave, but the light of their goodness still burns on when they are dead.
775
Oh! to have never been born, or sprung from noble sires, the heir to mansions richly stored;
for if aught untoward e’er befall, there is no lack of champions for sons of noble parents, and there is honour and glory for them when they are proclaimed scions of illustrious lines; time detracts not from the legacy these good
770
men leave, but the light of their goodness still burns on when they are dead.
775
Chorus
Better is it not to win a discreditable victory,
than to make justice miscarry by an invidious exercise of power; for such a victory, though men think it sweet for the moment, grows barren in time and comes very near being a family reproach.
780
This is the life I commend, this the life. I set before me as my ideal, to exercise no authority beyond what is right either in the marriage-chamber or in the state.
785
Better is it not to win a discreditable victory,
than to make justice miscarry by an invidious exercise of power; for such a victory, though men think it sweet for the moment, grows barren in time and comes very near being a family reproach.
780
This is the life I commend, this the life. I set before me as my ideal, to exercise no authority beyond what is right either in the marriage-chamber or in the state.
785
Chorus
O aged son of Aeacus!
now am I sure that thou wert with the Lapithae, wielding thy famous spear, when they fought the Centaurs; and on Argo’s deck didst pass the cheerless strait beyond the sea-beat Symplegades
790
on her voyage of note; and when in days long gone the son of Zeus spread slaughter round Troy’s famous town,
795
thou too didst share his triumphant return to Europe.
800
O aged son of Aeacus!
now am I sure that thou wert with the Lapithae, wielding thy famous spear, when they fought the Centaurs; and on Argo’s deck didst pass the cheerless strait beyond the sea-beat Symplegades
790
on her voyage of note; and when in days long gone the son of Zeus spread slaughter round Troy’s famous town,
795
thou too didst share his triumphant return to Europe.
800
Andromache. Euripides. Edward P. Coleridge (Translator). London. 1891.
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