Euripides' PHOENISSAE Complete

Translated by E. Coleridge.

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Chorus: (singing, strophe)

Thou cam'st, O winged fiend, spawn of earth and hellish viper-brood,
to prey upon the sons of Cadmus, rife with death and fraught with
sorrow, half a monster, half a maid, a murderous prodigy, with roving
wings and ravening claws, that in days gone by didst catch up youthful
victims from the haunts of Dirce, with discordant note, bringing a
deadly curse, a woe of bloodshed to our native land. A murderous god
he was who brought all this to pass. In every house was heard a cry
of mothers wailing and of wailing maids, lamentation and the voice
of weeping, as each took up the chant of death from street to street
in turn. Loud rang the mourners' wail, and one great cry went up,
whene'er that winged maiden bore some victim out of sight from the
city.

(antistrophe)

At last came Oedipus, the man of sorrow, on his mission from Delphi
to this land of Thebes, a joy to them then but afterwards cause of
grief; for, when he had read the riddle triumphantly, he formed with
his mother an unhallowed union, woe to him! polluting the city; and
by his curses, luckless wight, he plunged his sons into a guilty strife,
causing them to wade through seas of blood. All reverence do we feel
for him, who is gone to his death in his country's cause, bequeathing
to Creon a legacy of tears, but destined to crown with victory our
seven fenced towers. May our motherhood be blessed with such noble
sons, O Pallas, kindly queen, who with well-aimed stone didst spill
the serpent's blood, rousing Cadmus as thou didst to brood upon the
task, whereof the issue was a demon's curse that swooped upon this
land and harried it. (The First Messenger enters.)

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