Euripides, The Phoenician Women, Johann Jakob Christian Donner (Translator), 801

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Heiliger Wildnisse Nacht,

Schneevolles Gebirg, durchschwärmt von Gewild, o der Artemis Auge, Kitharon!
790

Daß du den Dedipus nimmer genährt, den Gebornen Jokaste's,

Welcher, dem Tode geweiht, mit der goldnen Spange gezeichnet,

Säugling, vom Hause des Vaters entrückt ward! :

War' auch nimmer das Graun des Gebirgs, die geflügelte

Jungfrau,

Sphinx, zur Trauer dem Lande genaht mit den Liedern des
795

Unheils,

Sie, die einst vierklauig die thebischen Mauern bestürmte,

Und der Kadmeier Geschlecht in der Luft unbewandelten Lichtraum

Trug! Aidoneus unter der Erde

Sandte sie Kadmos' Volk. Nun blüht unselige Zwietracht

In der Stadt und im Haus
800

Wiederum unter den Söhnen des Dedipus.

Niemals wird Unschönes zu Schönem ja,

Nimmer gedeiht das in Sünden Geborene,

Schande dem Vater und Schmach der Erzeugerinn

Welche des Sohns Lager bestiegen.
805
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)) — 784-832 focus

Χορός

ὦ πολύμοχθος Ἄρης, τί ποθʼ αἵματι

καὶ θανάτῳ κατέχῃ Βρομίου παράμουσος ἑορταῖς;
785

οὐκ ἐπὶ καλλιχόροις στεφάνοισι νεάνιδος ὥρας

βόστρυχον ἀμπετάσας λωτοῦ κατὰ πνεύματα μέλπῃ

μοῦσαν, ἐν ᾇ χάριτες χοροποιοί,

ἀλλὰ σὺν ὁπλοφόροις στρατὸν Ἀργείων ἐπιπνεύσας

αἵματι Θήβας
790

κῶμον ἀναυλότατον προχορεύεις.

οὐδʼ ὑπὸ θυρσομανεῖ νεβρίδων μέτα δίνᾳ,

ἅρμασι καὶ ψαλίων τετραβάμοσι μωνυχοπώλων

ἱππείαις ἐπὶ χεύμασι βαίνων

Ἰσμηνοῖο θοάζεις, Ἀργείοις ἐπιπνεύσας

Σπαρτῶν γένναν,
795

ἀσπιδοφέρμονα θίασον ἐνόπλιον,

ἀντίπαλον κατὰ λάινα τείχεα

χαλκῷ κοσμήσας.

ἦ δεινά τις Ἔρις θεός, ἃ τάδε

μήσατο πήματα γᾶς βασιλεῦσιν,

Λαβδακίδαις πολυμόχθοις.
800

801

Χορός

ὦ ζαθέων πετάλων πολυθηρότα-

τον νάπος, Ἀρτέμιδος χιονοτρόφον ὄμμα Κιθαιρών,

μήποτε τὸν θανάτῳ προτεθέντα, λόχευμʼ Ἰοκάστας,

ὤφελες Οἰδιπόδαν θρέψαι, βρέφος ἔκβολον οἴκων,

χρυσοδέτοις περόναις ἐπίσαμον·
805

μηδὲ τὸ παρθένιον πτερόν, οὔρειον τέρας, ἐλθεῖν

πένθεα γαίας

Σφιγγὸς ἀμουσοτάταισι σὺν ᾠδαῖς,

ἅ ποτε Καδμογενῆ τετραβάμοσι χαλαῖς

τείχεσι χριμπτομένα φέρεν αἰθέρος εἰς ἄβατον φῶς

γένναν, ἃν ὁ κατὰ χθονὸς Ἅιδας
810

Καδμείοις ἐπιπέμπει· δυσδαίμων δʼ ἔρις ἄλλα

θάλλει παίδων

Οἰδιπόδα κατὰ δώματα καὶ πόλιν.

οὐ γὰρ ὃ μὴ καλὸν οὔποτʼ ἔφυ καλόν,

οὐδʼ οἱ μὴ νόμιμοι
815

παῖδες ματρὶ λόχευμα, μίασμα πατρός·

ἣ δὲ συναίμονος ἐς λέχος ἦλθεν.

818

Χορός

ἔτεκες, ὦ Γαῖʼ, ἔτεκές ποτε,

βάρβαρον ὡς ἀκοὰν ἐδάην ἐδάην ποτʼ ἐν οἴκοις,

τὰν ἀπὸ θηροτρόφου φοινικολόφοιο δράκοντος
820

γένναν ὀδοντοφυῆ, Θήβαις κάλλιστον ὄνειδος·

Ἁρμονίας δέ ποτʼ εἰς ὑμεναίους

ἤλυθον οὐρανίδαι, φόρμιγγί τε τείχεα Θήβας

τᾶς Ἀμφιονίας τε λύρας ὕπο πύργος ἀνέστα

διδύμων ποταμῶν πόρον ἀμφὶ μέσον,
825

Δίρκα χλοεροτρόφον ᾇ πεδίον

πρόπαρ Ἰσμηνοῦ καταδεύει·

Ἰώ θʼ, ἁ κερόεσσα προμάτωρ,

Καδμείων βασιλῆας ἐγείνατο,

μυριάδας δʼ ἀγαθῶν ἑτέροις ἑτέ-
830

ρας μεταμειβομένα πόλις ἅδʼ ἐπʼ ἄκροις ἕστακʼ

Ἀρηΐοις στεφάνοισιν.

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.)) — 784-830 focus

Chorus

O Ares, god of much suffering! Why, why are you possessed by a love of blood and

death, out of harmony with the festivals of Bromius? Not for young girls crowned in the lovely dance do you toss your curls, singing to the flute’s breath a song to charm the dancers’ feet; no, with warriors clad in armor you inspire the Argive army with a lust
785

for Theban blood, leading your revels that are held without music. Nor do you rush with wild waving of the thyrsus, clad in fawnskin, but with chariots and horses you go to the waters of Ismenus, inspiring the Argives
790

with hatred for the Spartans, arraying in bronze armor against these stone-built walls a band of warriors and their shields.
795

Truly Strife is a goddess to fear, who devised these troubles for the princes of this land,

for the much-suffering sons of Labdacus.
800

801

Chorus

O snow-capped Cithaeron, dear to Artemis, holy vale of leaves, crowded with wild animals, would that you had never reared the one exposed to die, Oedipus, Jocasta’s child, when as a baby he was cast forth from his home,

marked with a golden brooch; and would that the Sphinx, that winged maid, monster from the hills, had never come as a grief to our land with her inharmonious songs, she that once drew near our walls and snatched the sons of Cadmus away in her taloned feet to the untrodden light of heaven,
805

sent by Hades from hell to plague the men of Thebes ; once more unhappy strife is coming into bloom between the sons of Oedipus in home and city. For never can wrong be right,
810

nor can there be good in unlawful children, their mother’s birth pangs, their father’s pollution; she came to the bed of her son. . . .
815

818

Chorus

O Earth, you once bore—as I heard, I heard the story told by foreigners once in my own home—you bore

a race which sprang of the teeth of a snake with blood-red crest, that fed on beasts, to be the glory and reproach of Thebes .
820

In days gone by the sons of heaven came to the wedding of Harmonia, and the walls and towers of Thebes rose to the sound of Amphion’s lyre,

in the midst between the double streams where Dirce waters the grass-green field before Ismenus; and Io, our horned ancestress, was mother of the kings of Thebes ;
825

thus our city, through an endless succession of various blessings, has set herself upon the heights, crowned with the glory of war.
830

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.)

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Euripides The Phoenician Women 801

Johann Jakob Christian Donner (Translator)

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