Sophocles Trachiniae 103

ed. Francis Storr

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Trachiniae. Sophocles. ed. Francis Storr. London. 1913.

Sponsored by Perseus Project, Tufts University.

Funding provided by The Annenberg CPB/Project.

Current edition Experimental

Τραχίνιαι (Greek) (Sophocles, Volume 2. Storr, Francis, editor. London; New York: William Heinemann Ltd.; The Macmillan Company, 1913.)

Provisional text from uncorrected OCR; expect errors.

Editions (1)
Greek (Lewis Campbell, 1879) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (Lewis Campbell, 1879)) — 103 focus
ποθουμένᾳ γὰρ φρενὶ πυνθάνομαι
τὰν τᾶν τὰν ἀμφινεικῆ Δηιάνειραν ἀεί,
οἷά τιν᾿ ἄθλιον ὄρνιν,
οὔποτ᾽ εὐνάζειν ἀδακρύτων βλεφάρων πόθον, ἀλλ᾽
105
εὔμναστον ἀνδρὸς δεῖμα φέρουσαν ὁδοῦ
ἐνθυμίοις εὐναῖς ἀνανδρώτοισι τρύχεσθαι, κακὰν κακὰν
δύστανον ἐλπίζουσαν αἶσαν.
Translations (5)
English (Lewis Campbell, 1906) (OCR draft) Experimental (English (Lewis Campbell, 1906)) — 94 focus
Hush! For I see approaching one in haste,
German (J. J. C. Donner, 1875; OCR review) (OCR draft) Experimental (German (J. J. C. Donner, 1875; OCR review)) — 103 focus
Denn lange schon seh' ich in sehnendem Gram
100
Der Deianeira, die er im Kampf sich erstritt,
Gleich dem geängsteten Vogel,
Nimmer ruh'n des Auges Sehnsucht, welchem die Thräne versiegt.
Stets denkt sie angstvoll, ach! des entfernten Gemahls,
Und härmt sich, daß sie sonder ihn im öden Lager schmachten muß,
105
Ein jammervolles Loos erharrend.
Zweite Strophe.
English (Thomas Francklin, 1758–1759) (OCR draft) Experimental (English (Thomas Francklin, 1758–1759)) — 94 focus
Deianira, Attendant.
On thee we call, great god of day,
To whom the night, with all her staiTy train,
Yields her solitary reign,
To send us some propitious I'ay :
Say thou, whose all-beholding eye
Doth nature's every part descry.
What dangerous ocean, or what land unknown
From Deianira keeps Alcmena's valiant son.
For she nor joy nor comfort knows,
But weeps her absent lord, and vainly tries
To close her ever-streaming eyes.
Or soothe her sorrows to repose :
Like the sad bird of night, alone
She makes her solitary moan ;
Aiid still, as on her widowed bed reclined
She lies, unnumbered fears perplex her anxious mind.
E'en as the troubled billows roar,
When angry Boreas rules th' inclement skies.
And waves on waves tumultuous rise
To lash the Cretan shore :
Thus sorrows still on sorrows prest
Fill the great Alcides' breast ;
95
Unfading yet shall his fair virtues bloom,
95
And some protecting god preserve him from the tomb.
95
"Wherefore, to better thoughts inclined,
95
Let us with hope's fair prospect fill thy breast,
95
Calm thy anxious thoughts to rest,
95
And ease thy troubled mind :
95
No bliss on man, unmixed with woe.
95
Doth Jove, great lord of all, bestow ;
95
But good with ill, and pleasure still with pain,
95
Like heaven's revolving signs, alternate reign.
95
Epode.
95
Not always do the shades of night remain,
95
Nor ever with hard fate is man oppressed ;
95
The wealth that leaves us may return again,
95
Sorrow and joy successive fill the breast ;
95
Fearless then of every ill.
95
Let cheerful hope support thee still :
95
Remember, queen, there is a power above ;
95
And when did the great father, careful Jove,
95
Forget his children dear, and kind paternal love 1
95
TRACIIIMjE,
95
English (Robert Potter, 1788) (OCR draft) Experimental (English (Robert Potter, 1788)) — 94 focus
STRO. 1. O thou, whom saphir-spangled Night
(That vanquish'd flies before thy golden ray)
Calls forth thy orient lustre to display,
And curtains close thy setting light,
To thee, O Sun, I call; declare,
Bright blazing through the lucid air,
Where dwells the hero through this length of time?
Where does Alcmena's son reside?
Rolls he on ocean's billowy tide?
Lies he reposed in some soft eastern clime,
Or where decline thy west'ring rays?
Oh say, for all thy piercing eye surveys !
ANTIS. 1. Desire, and doubt, and anxious fear
Incessant harrow Deianira's breast;
Like the poor bird that wails her widow'd nest,
As from her eye still streams the tear,
Mindful she mourns her lord, each thought
With terrors at his wand'rings fraught,
And at imagined dangers melts away:
As on her lonely couch she lies,
The sleepless night she wastes in sighs,
And sinks to sorrow and despair a prey;
Whilst to her fancy ills unknown
In all their hideous threat'ning shapes are shown.
As when with terror we behold
From South or North the wild winds sweep,
Waves after waves with fury roll'd
Swell the vex'd bosom of the deep;
Such is the Theban Hero's state,
95
Tost in the ceaseless storms of fate.
95
Toils rise on toils, an endless train,
95
As billows on the troubled main;
95
Yet to his virtues just some god
95
Saves him from Pluto's drear abode.
95
Let me then blame thy anxious fear;
95
Far other views if I display,
95
My words bring comfort to thy ear:
95
Thou shou'dst not throw sweet Hope away.
95
The sovereign ruler of our fate
95
Gives mortals no untroubled state;
95
But joy and grief are ever found
95
Revolving their alternate round,
95
As circling in the Arctic skies...
95
The constellations set and rise.
95
Nor Night in sable stole array'd
95
O'er mortals always spreads her solemn shade;
95
Nor always griefs remain,
95
Nor riches; their light wings at once they spread,
95
Away at once are fled;
95
The heart now welcomes joy's bright train,
95
Now sickens at th' approach of pain.
95
Then sink not, Queen, with griefs opprest,
95
But let hope brighten in thy breast;
95
Jove o'er his sons his care extends,
95
And all his glorious race defends.
95
English (Sir Richard Jebb, 1904) (OCR draft) Experimental (English (Sir Richard Jebb, 1904)) — 103 focus

Commentary

Commentary (R. C. Jebb) (OCR draft) (Commentary (R. C. Jebb))

mvp-comment-58-1 ποθουμένᾳ 1 πυνθάνομαι 2

mvp-comment-59-1 τὰν ἀμφινεικῆ 3 ἀεί 4 τρύχεσθαι 5

mvp-comment-60-1 ὄρνιν 6

mvp-comment-61-1 ἀδακρύτων 7

mvp-comment-61-2 βλεφάρων πόθον 8

mvp-comment-61-3 108 It is simplest to construe εὔμναστον δεῖμα ὁδοῦ ἀνδρὸς 9 τρέφουσαν 10 φέρουσαν 11 τρέφουσαν 12

mvp-comment-62-1 ἐνθυμίοις εὐναῖς ἀνανδρώτοισι τρύχεσθαι 13

mvp-comment-62-2 δύστανον 14

Commentary (Lewis Campbell, 1879) (OCR draft) (Commentary (Lewis Campbell, 1879)) focus

94-140. mvp-comment-81-1 Parodos. Where in the wide world is Heracles, reposing in what continent, or by what narrow sea? Tell us, bright, all-beholding Sun! For our Deianira, for whose hand he fought, wears out her soul in thinking of him on her lonely couch; so ceaseless are the toils that crowd upon him like stormy billows. But God hath hitherto protected him; wherefore let not hope weary, O my queen. No life is without pain, but, by Divine ordinance, grief succeeds to joy and joy to grief. Remember this and hope the best. Zeus cannot leave his offspring to destruction.' The metre beginning with an iambic rhythm passes quickly into dactylo-trochaic, changing again in the epode to iambo-trochaic (with occasional syncope), then to pure iambics, ending with a bacchius followed by three trochees.

103. mvp-comment-88-1 ποθουμένᾳ . . φρενί] ποθουμένᾳ is either (1) middle, 'With longing soul: '-of such a use of ποθεῖσθαι in the middle voice we have no example, but see Essay on L. § 31. p. 52 , and cp. Ο. Τ. 1487, νοούμενος, -or (2) passive, With heart oppressed by longings.' This gives a better meaning, but implies a causative sense of ποθεῖν not found elsewhere. Similarly in the Electra, 1065, ἀπόνητοι may be said to imply a causative sense of πονεῖν, 'Το afflict with toil.' (Musgr. conjectures πόνουμένᾳ here.) See Essay on L. § 53. p. 98 , and cp. Pind. Ol. 10 (11). 93, ἀείδετο δὲ πᾶν τέμενος τερπναῖσι θαλίαις | τὸν ἐγκώμιον ἀμφὶ τρόπον, where ἀείδετο means, Was occupied with song.' In either sense the phrase is applied to Deianira.

104. mvp-comment-89-1 ἀμφινεική] 'The bride of strife.' She whose hand was once the object of fierce contention is now forlorn. Cp. Aesch. Agam. 669, τὰν δορίγαμβρον ἀμφινεικὴ θ' Ἑλέναν: infr. 527, ἀμφινείκητον ὄμμα νύμφας. The word may also allude to the etymological meaning of Δηιάνειρα ('Object of contention among men'). ἀεί looks forward to τρύχεσθαι.

105. mvp-comment-90-1 ὄρνιν] The nightingale, poetically imagined as being wakeful for sorrow. Cp. Od. 19. 518 foll., ὡς δ' ὅτε Πανδαρέου κούρη, χλωρηὶς ᾿Αηδών, κ.τ.λ. ἀδακρύτων] Α familiar instance of prolepsis. Never allows to rest the longing in her eyes, nor dries her tears.'

106-107. mvp-comment-91-1 ἀλλ᾽.. ὁδοῦ] 'Bearing a trembling recollection of her husband and of his far journey.' ἀνδρός is to be taken as genitive of the object with εὔμναστον, 'Keenly mindful of,' as well as with δεῖμα. ὁδοῦ is added epexegetically, as a genitive of respect. ὁδός = ' A journey or expedition,' often includes the enterprise which is the object of the expedition, with its attendant circumstances. φέρουσαν] Cp. Ο. Τ. 93, τῶνδε γὰρ πλέον φέρω | τὸ πένθος, κτ.λ.: 863, εἴ μοι ξυνείη φέροντι, κ.τ.λ.; Casaubon (Anim. in Athen. 549) ingeniously but unnecessarily conjectured τρέφουσαν.