Euripides The Suppliant Maidens 87

Theseus

What is this lamentation that I hear, this beating of the breast, these dirges for the dead, with cries that echo from this shrine? How fluttering fear disquiets me,

lest haply my mother have gotten some mischance, in quest of whom I come, for she hath been long absent from home. Ha! what now? A strange sight challenges my speech; I see my aged mother sitting at the altar and stranger dames are with her, who in various note

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proclaim their woe; from aged eyes the piteous tear is starting to the ground, their hair is shorn, their robes are not the robes of joy.

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What means it, mother? ’Tis thine to make it plain to me, mine to listen; yea, for I expect some tidings strange.

Aethra

My son, these are the mothers of those chieftains seven, who fell around the gates of Cadmus’ town. With suppliant boughs they keep me prisoner, as thou seest, in their midst.

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Theseus

And who is yonder man, that moaneth piteously in the gateway?

Aethra

Adrastus, they inform me, king of Argos .

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Theseus

Are those his children, those boys who stand round him?

Aethra

Not his, but the sons of the fallen slain.

Theseus

Why are they come to us, with suppliant hand outstretched?

Aethra

I know; but ’tis for them to tell their story, my son.

Theseus

To thee, in thy mantle muffled, I address my inquiries; unveil thy head, let lamentation be, and speak; for naught can be achieved save through the utterance of thy tongue. ¹

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Adrastus

rising

Victorious prince of the Athenian realm, Theseus, to thee and to thy city I, a suppliant, come.

Theseus

What seekest thou? What need is thine?

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Adrastus

Dost know how I did lead an expedition to its ruin?

Theseus

Assuredly; thou didst not pass through Hellas , all in silence.

Adrastus

There I lost the pick of Argos ’ sons.

Theseus

These are the results of that unhappy war.

Adrastus

I went and craved their bodies from Thebes .

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Theseus

Didst thou rely on heralds, Hermes’ servants, in order to bury them?

Adrastus

I did; and even then their slayers said me nay.

Theseus

Why, what say they to thy just request?

Adrastus

Say! Success makes them forget how to bear their fortune.

Theseus

Art come to me then for counsel? or wherefore?

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Adrastus

With the wish that thou, O Theseus, shouldst recover the sons of the Argives.

Theseus

Where is your Argos now? were its vauntings all in vain?

Adrastus

Defeat and ruin are our lot. To thee for aid we come.

Theseus

this thy own private resolve, or the wish of all the city?

Adrastus

The sons of Danaus, one and all, implore thee to bury the dead.

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Theseus

Why didst lead thy seven armies against Thebes ?

Adrastus

To confer that favour on the husbands of my daughters twain.

Theseus

To which of the Argives didst thou give thy daughters in marriage?

Adrastus

I made no match for them with kinsmen of my family.

Theseus

What! didst give Argive maids to foreign lords?

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Adrastus

Yea, to Tydeus, and to Polynices, who was Theban-born.

Theseus

What induced thee to select this alliance?

Adrastus

Dark riddles of Phoebus stole away my judgment.

Theseus

What said Apollo to determine the maidens’ marriage?

Adrastus

That I should give my daughters twain to a wild boar and a lion.

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Theseus

How dost thou explain the message of the god?

Adrastus

One night came to my door two exiles.

Theseus

The name of each declare; thou art speaking of both together.

Adrastus

They fought together, Tydeus with Polynices.

Theseus

Didst thou give thy daughters to them as to wild beasts?

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Adrastus

Yea, for, as they fought, I likened them to those monsters twain.

Theseus

Why had they left the borders of their native land and come to thee?

Adrastus

Tydeus was exiled for the murder of a kinsman.

Theseus

Wherefore had the son of Oedipus left Thebes ?

Adrastus

By reason of his father’s curse, not to spill his brother’s blood.

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Theseus

Wise no doubt that voluntary exile.

Adrastus

But those who stayed at home were for injuring the absent.

Theseus

What! did brother rob brother of his inheritance?

Adrastus

To avenge this I set out; hence my ruin.

Theseus

Didst consult seers, and gaze into the flame of burnt-offerings?

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Adrastus

Ah me! thou pressest on the very point, wherein I most did fail.

Theseus

It seems thy going was not favoured by heaven.

Adrastus

Worse; I went in spite even of Amphiaraus.

Theseus

And so heaven lightly turned ² its face from thee.

Adrastus

I was carried away by the clamour of younger men.

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Theseus

Thou didst favour courage instead of discretion.

Adrastus

³ True; and many a general owes defeat to that. O king of Athens , bravest of the sons of Hellas , I blush

to throw myself upon the ground and clasp thy knees, I a grey-haired king, blest in days gone by; yet needs must I yield to my misfortunes. I pray thee save the dead; have pity on my sorrows and on these, the mothers of the slain,

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whom hoary eld finds reft of their sons; yet they endured to journey hither and tread a foreign soil with aged tottering steps, bearing no embassy to Demeter’s mysteries; only seeking burial for their dead, which lot should have been theirs,

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e’en burial by the hands of sons still in their prime. ⁴ And ’tis wise in the rich to see the poor man’s poverty, and in the poor man to turn ambitious eyes toward the rich, that so he may himself indulge a longing for property; and they, whom fortune frowns not on, should gaze on misery’s presentment;

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likewise, who maketh songs should take a pleasure in their making; for if it be not so with him, he will in no wise avail to gladden others, if himself have sorrow in his home; nay, ’tis not even right to expect it. Mayhap thou’lt say, Why pass the land of Pelops o’er,

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and lay this toil on Athens ? This am I bound to declare. Sparta is cruel, her customs variable; the other states are small and weak. Thy city alone would be able to undertake this labour;

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for it turns an eye on suffering, and hath in thee a young and gallant king, for want whereof to lead their hosts states ere now have often perished.

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Chorus

I too, Theseus, urge the same plea to thee; have pity on my hard fate.

Theseus

Full οft have I argued out this subject with others. For there are who say, there is more bad than good in human nature, to the which I hold a contrary view, that1 ⁵ good o’er bad predominates in man,

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for if it were not so, we should not exist. He hath my praise, whoe’er of gods brought us to live by rule from chaos and from brutishness, first by implanting reason, and next by giving us a tongue to declare our thoughts, so as to2 ⁶ know the meaning of what is said,

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bestowing fruitful crops, and drops of rain from heaven to make them grow, wherewith to nourish earth’s fruits and to water her lap; and more than this, protection from the wintry storm, and means to ward from us the sun-god’s scorching heat; the art of sailing o’er the sea, so that we might exchange

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with one another whatso our countries lack. And where sight fails us and our knowledge is not sure, the seer foretells by gazing on the flame, by reading signs in folds of entrails, or by divination from the flight of birds. Are we not then too proud, when heaven hath made such preparation for our life,

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not to be content therewith? But our presumption seeks to lord it over heaven, and in the pride of our hearts we think we are wiser than the gods.

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Methinks thou art even of this number, a son of folly,

seeing that thou, though obedient to Apollo’s oracle in giving thy daughters to strangers, as if gods really existed, yet hast hurt thy house by mingling the stream of its pure line with muddy waters; no! never should the wise man have joined the stock of just and unjust in one,

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but should have gotten prosperous friends for his family. For the deity, confusing their destinies, doth oft destroy by the sinner’s fate him who never sinned nor committed injustice. Thou didst lead all Argos forth to battle,

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though seers proclaimed the will of heaven, and then in scorn of them and in violent disregard of the gods hast ruined thy city, led away by younger men, such as court distinction, and add war to war unrighteously destroying their fellow-citizens; one aspires to lead an army;

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another fain would seize the reins of power and work his wanton will; a third is bent on gain, careless of any mischief the people thereby suffer. For there are three ranks of citizens; the rich, a useless set, that ever crave for more;

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the poor and destitute, fearful folk, that cherish envy more than is right, and shoot out grievous stings against the men who have aught, beguiled as they are by the eloquence of vicious leaders; while the class that is midmost of the three preserveth cities,

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observing such order as the state ordains. Shall I then become thy ally? What fair pretext should I urge before my countrymen? Depart in peace! For why ^{7 8} shouldst thou, having been ill-advised thyself, seek to drag our fortune down?

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Chorus

He erred; but with the young men rests this error, while he may well be pardoned.

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Adrastus

I did not choose thee, king, to judge my affliction, but ⁹ came to thee to cure it; no! nor if in aught my fortunes prove me wrong,

came I to thee to punish or correct them, but to seek thy help. But if thou wilt not, I must be content with thy decision; for how can I help it? Come, aged dames, away! Yet leave behind you here the woven leaves of pale green foliage,

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calling to witness heaven and earth, Demeter, that fire-bearing goddess, and the sun-god’s light, that our prayers to heaven availed us naught.

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Chorus

. . . . ¹⁰ who was Pelops’ son, and we are of the land of Pelops and share with thee the blood of ancestors.

What art thou doing? wilt thou betray these suppliant symbols, and banish from thy land these aged women without the boon they should obtain? Do not so; e’en the wild beast finds a refuge in the rock, the slave in the altars of the gods, and a state when tempest-tossed cowers to its neighbour’s shelter;

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for naught in this life of man is blest unto its end.

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