Sophocles Trachiniae 118

Chorus

Let the brides of tomorrow raise a joyous cry for the house with shouts of triumph at the hearth. Among them let the yell of the men go up in unison for Apollo of the bright quiver, our defender! And at the same time,

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maidens, lift up a paean, cry aloud to his sister, Ortygian Artemis, huntress of deer, goddess with torch in each hand,

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and to the nymphs her neighbors!
  I am uplifted, I will not spurn the flute—O you master of my heart! Behold, his ivy stirs me! Euoe!

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Quickly it wheels me round in Bacchus’s race! Oh, oh, Paean! Look, dear lady! All is taking shape, plain to see, before your gaze.

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Deianeira

I see it, dear maidens; the sight has not escaped my watchful eyes. I see that procession. I bid the herald joyous welcome after his long absence!—if indeed you bring anything that gives joy.

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Lichas

We are happy in our return, and happy in your greeting,

lady, in accordance with the deed achieved. For when a man has fair fortune, it is his right to win good welcome.

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Deianeira

Most welcome man, tell me first what first I would know—shall I receive Heracles alive?

Lichas

I certainly left him alive and well,

in vigorous health, unburdened by disease.

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Deianeira

Where, tell me—in his ancestral land, or on barbarian soil?

Lichas

There is a headland of Euboea , where to Cenaean Zeus he marks out altars and fruitful ground in tribute.

Deianeira

In payment of a vow, or at the command of an oracle?

Lichas

For a vow, made when he was seeking to conquer and plunder the country of these women whom you see before you.

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Deianeira

And these—who are they, by the gods, and whose daughters? They deserve pity, unless their misfortune deceives me.

Lichas

These are captives whom he

selected as choice spoils for himself and for the gods when he sacked the city of Eurytus.

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Deianeira

Was it in fact the war against that city which kept him away so long, beyond all forecast, past all count of days?

Lichas

No. The greater part of the time he was detained in Lydia , no free man, as he declares,

but sold into servitude. No offense should be taken at my tale, lady, when the deed is found to be Zeus’ work. He passed a whole year, as he himself says, a bought slave to the barbarian Omphale. And so stung was he by the shame of it,

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that he bound himself by a solemn oath, swearing one day to enslave with wife and child the man who had brought that suffering upon him. And not in vain did he speak the oath; but, when he had been purified, he gathered a mercenary army and went against the city

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of Eurytus. For, Heracles asserted, that man alone of mortals had a share in causing his suffering. For when Heracles, a guest-friend of long standing, came to his house and hearth, Eurytus roared against him with insults of ruinous intent,

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saying that, although Heracles had inevitable shafts in his hands, he fell short of his own sons in the contest of the bow. Next he shouted that Heracles was a freeman’s slave, a broken hulk, and then at a banquet, when his guest was full of wine, he tossed him from his home. 270 Furious at this treatment,

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when afterward Iphitus came to the hill of Tiryns on the track of horses that had strayed, Heracles seized a moment when the man’s eyes were one place and his thoughts another, and hurled him from a towering summit. But in anger at that deed, the king,

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the father of all, Olympian Zeus, sent him away to be sold, and did not tolerate that this once, he killed a man by guile. Had he achieved his vengeance openly, Zeus would surely have pardoned him the righteous triumph.

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For the gods do not love criminal behavior either.
  So those men, who gloried in bitter speech, are themselves residents of Hades, all of them, and their city is enslaved. And the women whom you see, fallen from happiness to misery,

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are sent here to you. For that was your husband’s command, which I, his faithful servant, perform. As for the man himself, know that he will come, once he has made pure sacrifice to Zeus of his fathers for the sacking of the city. After all the good news

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that has been told, this, indeed, is the sweetest word to hear.

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Chorus

Now, O Queen, your joy is plainly revealed; part is with you, and of the rest you have foreknowledge.

Deianeira

Yes, how would I not rejoice with dutiful spirit, when I hear of my husband’s successful venture?

My rejoicing is bound to keep pace with his success. And yet a prudent mind can see room for fear, lest he who prospers should one day stumble. For a strange pity came over me, friends, at the sight of these ill-fated exiles,

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homeless and fatherless in a foreign land. Though they were once the daughters perhaps of freeborn men, they now live the life of slaves. O Zeus, god who turns the tide of battle, may I never see you stalking against a child of my line on any occasion;

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no, if you do some such thing, let it not be while I am still alive! So great is my fear, as I look upon these girls.

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To Iole.

Unfortunate girl, who are you? Are you without a man, or are you a mother? To judge by your appearance, you are untried in those roles, but someone of noble birth.

Lichas, whose daughter is this stranger? Who is her mother, who the father who begot her? Speak; I pity her more than all the rest, when I look at her, inasmuch as she alone knows self-control.

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Lichas

Why would I know? Why would you ask me? Perhaps

she is the offspring of not the lowest family in that land.

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Deianeira

Can she be of the ruling family? Was she a child of Eurytus?

Lichas

I do not know; I did not in fact make a long investigation.

Deianeira

And you do not know her name from one of her fellow captives?

Lichas

No, indeed. In silence I completed my task.

Deianeira

Unhappy girl, tell it to me, anyway, from your own mouth. It is indeed distressing to me not to know who you are.

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Lichas

It will not, I assure you, be at all on a par with time past if she moves her lips. She has not said a word, large or small,

but has been constantly laboring with the heavy pains of her misfortune and weeping, poor girl, since she left her windswept fatherland. Her condition is indeed bad—for her, anyway—but claims our forbearance.

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Deianeira

Then let her be left in peace, and go beneath our roof

as it pleases her. Let her not in addition to her existing troubles take fresh grief from me; she has enough already. Now let us all go in, so that you may go speedily on your journey, while I make all things ready in the house. Exit Lichas, followed by the Captives, into the house.

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Messenger

Coming nearer to Deianeira.

Do go in, but first remain here a short while, so that you may learn, apart from these others, who they are whom you take into your home, and gain necessary knowledge of the facts which you have not heard. For of these I am in full possession.

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Deianeira

What do you mean? Why do you stay my departure?

Messenger

Stop and listen. My former report was not a waste of your time, and neither, I believe, will this one be.

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Deianeira

Shall I call those others back again? Or do you wish to speak before me and these women?

Messenger

To you and the women I can speak freely. Never mind the others.

Deianeira

Well, they are gone. Now let your speech signal your meaning.

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Messenger

That man Lichas spoke nothing of what he just told you in strict accordance with the truth. He was just now lying, or else he was dishonest in his earlier report.

Deianeira

What do you say? Explain to me clearly all that you mean,

for I cannot understand what you said.

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Messenger

I heard this man declare, before many witnesses, that it was for the sake of this girl that Heracles overthrew Eurytus and the high towers of Oechalia : Eros,

alone of the gods, enchanted him into doing those deeds of arms, not the toilsome servitude to Omphale in Lydia , nor the death to which Iphitus was hurled. But now the herald has thrust Eros aside and tells a different tale. Well, when Heracles could not persuade him whose seed produced the child

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to give him the girl for his secret concubine, he devised some petty complaint as a pretext, and made war upon her fatherland, in which, as the herald said, that Eurytus ruled. He killed the king, her father, and

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sacked her city. And now, as you see, he makes his return, sending her to this house not without consideration, lady, and not as if she were to be a slave. No, do not expect that; it is not likely, if his heart has been kindled with desire. On this account, my Queen, I resolved to reveal to you all

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that I had heard from that man. Many others were listening to it, as I was, in the public place where the Trachinians were assembled, so they can convict him. If my words are unwelcome, I am grieved; but nevertheless I have spoken the truth.

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Deianeira

Ah, misery! What is happening to me? What secret plague have I welcomed beneath my roof? Ah, me! So, she was born without a name, as her escort swore?

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Messenger

No, illustrious by name, as by birth;

she is the daughter of Eurytus, and was once called Iole. But he could say nothing of her birth, because, of course, he made no investigation.

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Chorus

May destruction seize not all wrongdoers—no, only the man who practices stealthy wrongdoing that is shameful to his rank!

Deianeira

Ah, friends, what should I do? I am dumbstruck by this latest news!

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Chorus

Go and question Lichas, since he might tell the truth, if you were willing to compel him by threat of force to answer.

Deianeira

I will go. Your advice does not lack good judgment.

Messenger

And I, shall I wait here? Or what do you require?

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Deianeira

Stay here—since he is coming out from the house without my summons, but of his own accord.

Lichas

My lady, what message shall I bear to Heracles? Instruct me, for, as you see, I am going.

Deianeira

How quickly you rush away, when your arrival had been so tardy—before we have even resumed our talk.

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Lichas

Well, if there is anything you must ask, I am at your service.

Deianeira

Will you indeed give me the honest truth?

Lichas

Yes, be great Zeus my witness—in anything that I know.

Deianeira

Who is the woman, then, whom you escorted here?

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Lichas

She is Euboean. But whose offspring, I cannot say.

Messenger

You there, look at me. To whom do you think you speak?

Lichas

And you, to what end have you asked me such a question?

Messenger

Dare to answer my question, if you are sensible.

Lichas

I speak to the royal Deianeira, daughter of Oeneus, wife of Heracles and, unless my eyes deceive me, my mistress.

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Messenger

The very word that I wished to hear from you—you admit that she is your mistress?

Lichas

Yes, it is only right to do so.

Messenger

Well, then, what penalty would you think it right to pay, if you should be found to be behaving wrongly towards her?

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Lichas

Wrongly? What fiction have you created?

Messenger

None. Rather it is you, to be sure, who do this.

Lichas

I am leaving—I was foolish to listen to you so long.

Messenger

No, not until you have answered a small question.

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Lichas

Speak, if you require something. You are not the silent type.

Messenger

That captive, whom you escorted into the house, you know whom I mean?

Lichas

Yes. But why do you ask?

Messenger

Did you not avow that she, on whom you look as if in ignorance,

was Iole, the seed of Eurytus, your captive?

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Lichas

To whom on earth did I say it? Who and where is the man who heard me say it and will be your witness?

Messenger

To many of our own citizens you said it. In the public gathering of Trachinians a great crowd heard this much, at least, from you.

Lichas

Sure,

they said they heard. But it does not amount to the same thing to tell one’s fancy and to give an accurate report.

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Messenger

What do you mean, fancy! Did you not speak on your oath when you said that you were bringing her as a bride for Heracles?

Lichas

I? Bringing a bride? In the name of the gods, dear

mistress, tell me who on earth this stranger is?

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Messenger

I am a man who heard from your own lips that the conquest of the whole city was due to desire for this girl and that the Lydian woman did not destroy it, but the passion which arose for the girl.

Lichas

Lady, send this creature away.

To babble with the insane is not the mark of a sensible man.

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Deianeira

No, I implore you by Zeus whose strikes lightning down along the high glens of Oeta, do not rob me of a true report! Your words will not fall on the ears of a cruel woman, nor has she yet to learn the fate of humanity,

how by our nature we are often inconstant in our pleasures. He does not use good sense, then, who like a boxer opposes the blows of Eros. For Eros rules the gods as he pleases, and he rules me as well—that is certain. Why not another woman, just like me?

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And so I am crazed indeed, if I blame my husband because that disease has seized him or because he was seized by this woman, his partner in a thing which is no shame to them, and no wrong to me. Impossible! If it was from him that you learned

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to lie, it was not a noble lesson. But if you are your own teacher in this, you will be seen as cruel when it is your wish to prove kind. No, tell me the whole truth, since to a free-born man the name of liar attaches like an ugly stain.

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If your hope is to escape detection, that cannot come to pass: many are those whom you told and who will inform me. And if you are afraid, your fear is mistaken, since it is not learning the truth that would pain me. But to know it, what is terrible in that? Has

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Heracles not all by himself already mated with a multitude of other women? And never yet has one of them come away with a harsh word or reproach from me, nor shall this girl, even if she should melt in her passion. Indeed, I felt a profound pity when I saw her because

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her beauty has destroyed her life, and she, unfortunate one, has against her will devastated her fatherland and enslaved it.
  Well, those things must go with the wind. But as for you, I tell you, be dishonest to others, but always speak the truth to me.

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Chorus

Obey her good and kind advice, and hereafter you will neither have cause to complain of this lady, nor lack my thanks.

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Lichas

Indeed, then, dear mistress. Since I see that you think as mortals should think and not without good judgment, I will tell you the whole truth, and not hide it.

Yes, it is just as this one says. That terrible longing for the girl long ago shot through Heracles, and for her sake the desolate Oechalia , her father’s land, was leveled by his spear. But he—I must say what is in his favor—

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he never ordered me to conceal the fact and never denied it. Instead I, lady, fearing to wound your heart by such news, erred—if you regard this in any way an error.
  Since, however, you now know the whole story,

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for his sake and for yours equally bear with the woman, and be willing that the gentle words which you spoke about her have been spoken unalterably. For though by the strength of his hands he is victorious in all else, Heracles has been utterly subdued by his passion for this girl.

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Deianeira

My own thoughts move me to act as you advise. Rest assured that I will not earn another affliction for myself by waging a fruitless fight against the gods. But let us go into the house, so that you may carry him my messages and since gifts should be given in due recompense for gifts received,

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so that you may take these also. It would not be right that you should go back with empty hands, after coming with such a rich cargo. Exit Lichas, the Messenger and Deianeira into the house.

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