Euripides' ANDROMACHE Complete

Translated by E. Coleridge.

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51 pages - You are on Page 38

Hermione: It was old Peleus, who showed regard to the weaker side.

Orestes: Hadst thou any accomplice in this attempted murder?

Hermione: My father came from Sparta for this very purpose.

Orestes: And was he after all defeated by that old man's prowess?

Hermione: Oh no! but by shame; and he hath gone and left me all alone.

Orestes: I understand; thou art afraid of thy husband for what thou
hast done.

Hermione: Thou hast guessed it; for he will have a right to slay me.
What can say for myself? Yet I beseech thee by Zeus the god of our
family, send me to a land as far as possible from this, or to my father's
house; for these very walls seem to cry out "Begone!" and all the
land of Phthia hates me. But if my lord return ere that from the oracle
of Phoebus, he will put me to death on a shameful charge, or enslave
me to his mistress, whom ruled before. Maybe some one will say, "How
was it thou didst go thus astray?" I was ruined by evil women who
came to me and puffed me up with words like these: "Wait! wilt thou
suffer that vile captive, a mere bondmaid, to dwell within thy house
and share thy wedded rights? By Heaven's queen! if it were my house
she should not live to reap my marriage-harvest!" And I listened to
the words of these Sirens, the cunning, knavish, subtle praters, and
was filled with silly thoughts. What need had I to care about my lord?
I had all I wanted, wealth in plenty, a house in which I was mistress,
and as for children, mine would be born in wedlock, while hers would
be bastards, half-slaves to mine. Oh! never, never,-this truth will
I repeat,-should men of sense, who have wives, allow women-folk to
visit them in their homes, for they teach them evil; one, to gain
some private end, helps to corrupt their honour; another, having made
a slip herself, wants a companion in misfortune, while many are wantons;
and hence it is men's houses are tainted. Wherefore keep strict guard
upon the portals of your houses with bolts and bars; for these visits
of strange women lead to no good result, but a world of ill.

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