Euripides, The Phoenician Women, Johann Jakob Christian Donner (Translator), 657

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Ares' Drache, blutigroth,

Lag, ein grauser Hüter, dort;

Ueber Born' und grüne Strome

Schweifte weithin seiner Augen
650

Ewig wacher Blick umher:

Ihn erschlug des Kadmos Arm,

Als er Wasser schöpfen ging;

Nach dem blutigrothen Haupte schleudert er den Marmor-

Zeus' mutterloses Kind,
655

Pallas, hieß darauf

Ihn des Unthiers Zähne såen

Auf das tiefgefurchte Feld,

Nun entsproß bewehrtes Volk

stein:

Der Erd', und über des Landes Höhn ergoß es sich; doch eiserne
660

Mordwuth vermählt' es wieder mit der Erde Schooß:

Und mit Blute fårbt es rings die Erde, die es

Kaum des Aethers warmem Hauch gezeigt.

Schlußgesang.

The Phoenician Women. Euripides. Johann Jakob Christian Donner (Translator). . .

Current edition Experimental

German (J. J. C. Donner, 1841; OCR review) (OCR draft) (German) (Euripides. Deutsch in den Versmaßen der Urschrift. Volume 1, Heidelberg: C. F. Winter, 1841. Harvard OCR compared with an independent BSB copy. Native Donner verse citations, Murray reference cards, explicitly located notes and page facsimiles. Unresolved OCR, verse divisions, unlocated notes and printed errata are documented in the source review.)

Provisional text from uncorrected OCR; expect errors.

Editions (1)

Φοίνισσαι Perseus (Euripides. Euripidis Fabulae, Vol. III. Murray, Gilbert, editor. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1913. (Reprinted 1920-1978)) — 638-689 focus

Χορός

Κάδμος ἔμολε τάνδε γᾶν

Τύριος, ᾧ τετρασκελὴς

μόσχος ἀδάματον πέσημα
640

δίκε τελεσφόρον διδοῦσα

χρησμόν, οὗ κατοικίσαι

πεδία νιν τὸ θέσφατον

πυροφόρα δόμων ἔχρη,

καλλιπόταμος ὕδατος ἵνα τε
645

νοτὶς ἐπέρχεται γύας,

Δίρκας χλοηφόρους

καὶ βαθυσπόρους γύας·

Βρόμιον ἔνθα τέκετο μά-

τηρ Διὸς γάμοισι,
650

κισσὸς ὃν περιστεφὴς

ἕλικος εὐθὺς ἔτι βρέφος

χλοηφόροισιν ἔρνεσιν

κατασκίοισιν ὀλβίσας ἐνώτισεν,

Βάκχιον χόρευμα παρθένοισι Θηβαΐαισι
655

καὶ γυναιξὶν εὐίοις.

657

Χορός

ἔνθα φόνιος ἦν δράκων

Ἄρεος ὠμόφρων φύλαξ

νάματʼ ἔνυδρα καὶ ῥέεθρα

χλοερὰ δεργμάτων κόραισι
660

πολυπλάνοις ἐπισκοπῶν·

ὃν ἐπὶ χέρνιβας μολὼν

Κάδμος ὄλεσε μαρμάρῳ·

κρᾶτα φόνιον ὀλεσίθηρος

ὠλένας δικὼν βολαῖς,
665

δίας ἀμάτορος δʼ

ἐς βαθυσπόρους γύας

γαπετεῖς δικὼν ὀδόν-

τας Παλλάδος φραδαῖσιν·

ἔνθεν ἐξανῆκε γᾶ
670

πάνοπλον ὄψιν ὑπὲρ ἄκρων

ὅρων χθονός· σιδαρόφρων

δέ νιν φόνος πάλιν ξυνῆψε γᾷ φίλᾳ.

αἵματος δʼ ἔδευσε γαῖαν, ἅ νιν εὐηλίοισι

δεῖξεν αἰθέρος πνοαῖς.
675

676

Χορός

καὶ σέ, τὸν προμάτορος

Ἰοῦς ποτʼ ἔκγονον

Ἔπαφον, ὦ Διὸς γένεθλον,

ἐκάλεσʼ ἐκάλεσα βαρβάρῳ βοᾷ,

ἰώ, βαρβάροις λιταῖς·
680

βᾶθι βᾶθι τάνδε γᾶν·

— σοί νιν ἔκγονοι κτίσαν

καὶ διώνυμοι θεαί,

Περσέφασσα καὶ φίλα

Δαμάτηρ θεά,
685

πάντων ἄνασσα, πάντων δὲ Γᾶ τροφός,

κτήσαντο — πέμπε πυρφόρους

θεάς, ἄμυνε τᾷδε γᾷ·

πάντα δʼ εὐπετῆ θεοῖς.

Translations (2)

The Phoenician Maidens Perseus (Euripides. The Plays of Euripides, Vol. II. Coleridge, Edward P., translator. London: George Bell and Sons, 1891. (Modernized by Perseus.)) — 638-685 focus

Chorus

Cadmus of Tyre came to this land, and at his feet a four-footed,

untamed heifer threw itself down, fulfilling an oracle, where the god’s prophecy told him to make his home in the plains rich with wheat,
640

and where the lovely waters of Dirce pour over the fields, the green and deep-seeded fields; here Bromius’ mother gave birth
645

from her union with Zeus; Bromius, round whom the ivy twined its wreaths while he was still a baby, covering him and blessing him in the shades of its green foliage,
650

a Bacchic dance for the maids and wives inspired in Thebes .
655

657

Chorus

There was Ares’ murderous dragon, a savage guard,

watching with wandering eye the watery rivers and fresh streams. Cadmus destroyed it with a jagged stone, when he came there to draw lustral water; smiting the deadly head
660

with a blow of his beast-slaying arm; and by the counsel of PalIas, the motherless goddess, he cast the teeth upon the deep fields to fall to the earth,
665

from which the earth brought forth a sight fully-armed, above the surface of the soil; but grim slaughter once again united them to the earth they loved, bedewing with blood the ground that had
670

shown them to the sunlit breath of heaven.
675

676

Chorus

And you, Epaphus, born from Io, our first mother, and child of Zeus: you I summon in foreign cry,

oh! in foreign prayers: come, come to this land; your descendants settled here; and the goddesses of twofold name, Persephone and the kindly
680

goddess Demeter the queen of all, Earth the nurse of all, won it for themselves; send to the help of this land those torch-bearing goddesses; for to gods all things are easy.
685

The Phoenician Virgins (OCR draft) Experimental (The Phoenician Virgins. Robert Potter's English verse translation, first published in 1781–1783; text from the 1808 Oxford printing.)

No corresponding passage available

Euripides The Phoenician Women 657

Johann Jakob Christian Donner (Translator)

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