Euripides' SUPPLIANTS Complete

Translated by E. Coleridge.

Euripides Bilingual Anthology  Studies  Euripides in Print

53 pages - You are on Page 14

Leader: He erred; but with the young men rests this error, while he
may well be pardoned.

Adrastus: I did not choose thee, king, to judge my affliction, but
came to thee to cure it; no! nor if in aught my fortunes prove me
wrong, came I to the to punish or correct them, but to seek thy help.
But if thou wilt not, must be content with thy decision; for how can
I help it? Come, aged dames, away! Yet leave behind you here the woven
leaves of pale green foliage, calling to witness heaven and earth,
Demeter, that fire-bearing goddess, and the sun-god's light, that
our prayers to heaven availed us naught.

Chorus: (singing) ...who was Pelops' son, and we are of the land
of Pelops and share with thee the blood of ancestors. What art thou
doing? wilt thou betray these suppliant symbols, and banish from thy
land these aged women without the boon they should obtain? Do not
so; e'en the wild beast finds a refuge in the rock, the slave in the
altars of the gods, and a state when tempest-tossed cowers to its
neighbour's shelter; for naught in this life of man is blest unto
its end.

Rise, hapless one, from the sacred floor of Persephone; rise, clasp
him by the knees and implore him, "O recover the bodies of our dead
sons, the children that I lost-ah, woe is me!-beneath the walls of
Cadmus' town." Ah me! ah me! Take me by the hand, poor aged sufferer
that I am, support and guide and raise me up. By thy beard, kind friend,
glory of Hellas, I do beseech thee, as I clasp thy knees and hands
in my misery; O pity me as I entreat for my sons with my tale of wretched
woe, like some beggar; nor let my sons lie there unburied in the land
of Cadmus, glad prey for beasts, whilst thou art in thy prime, I implore
thee. See the teardrop tremble in my eye, as thus I throw me at thy
knees to win my children burial.

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