Euripides' PHOENISSAE Complete

Translated by E. Coleridge.

Euripides Bilingual Anthology  Studies  Euripides in Print

81 pages - You are on Page 49

Menoeceus: How shall I find the means?

Creon: I will supply thee with money.

Menoeceus: A good plan of thine, father. So go; for I will to thy
sister, Jocasta, at whose breast I was suckled as a babe when reft
of my mother and left a lonely orphan, to give her kindly greeting
and then will I seek my safety. Come, come! be going, that there be
no hindrance on thy part. (Creon departs.) How cleverly, ladies,
I banished my father's fears by crafty words to gain my end; for he
is trying to convey me hence, depriving the city of its chance and
surrendering me to cowardice. Though an old man may be pardoned, yet
in my case there is no excuse for betraying the country that gave
me birth. So I will go and save the city, be assured thereof, and
give my life up for this land. For this were shame, that they whom
no oracles bind and who have not come under Fate's iron law, should
stand there, shoulder to shoulder, with never a fear of death, and
fight for their country before her towers, while I escape the kingdom
like a coward, a traitor to my father and brother and city; and wheresoe'er
I live, I shall appear a dastard. Nay, by Zeus and all his stars,
by Ares, god of blood, who 'stablished the warrior-crop that sprung
one day from earth as princes of this land, that shall not be! but
go I will, and standing on the topmost battlements, will deal my own
death-blow over the dragon's deep dark den, the spot the seer described,
and will set my country free. I have spoken. Now I go to make the
city a present of my life, no mean offering, to rid this kingdom of
its affliction. For if each were to take and expend all the good within
his power, contributing it to his country's weal, our states would
experience fewer troubles and would for the future prosper. (Menoeceus
goes out.)

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