Euripides' HIPPOLYTUS Complete

Translated by E. Coleridge.

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61 pages - You are on Page 55

Chorus: (chanting) Lo! where he comes, this hapless youth, his fair
young flesh and auburn locks most shamefully handled. Unhappy house!
what two-fold sorrow doth o'ertake its halls, through heaven's ordinance!
(Hippolytus enters, assisted by his attendants.)

Hippolytus: (chanting) Ah! ah! woe is me! foully undone by an impious
father's impious imprecation! Undone, undone! woe is me! Through my
head dart fearful pains; my brain throbs convulsively. Stop, let me
rest my worn-out frame. Oh, oh! Accursed steeds, that mine own hand
did feed, ye have been my ruin and my death. O by the gods, good sirs,
beseech ye, softly touch my wounded limbs. Who stands there at my
right side? Lift me tenderly; with slow and even step conduct a poor
wretch cursed by his mistaken sire. Great Zeus, dost thou see this?
Me thy reverent worshipper, me who left all men behind in purity,
plunged thus into yawning Hades 'neath the earth, reft of life; in
vain the toils I have endured through my piety towards mankind. Ah
me! ah me! O the thrill of anguish shooting through me! Set me down,
poor wretch I am; come Death to set me free! Kill me, end my sufferings.
O for a sword two-edged to hack my flesh, and close this mortal life!
Ill-fated curse of my father! the crimes of bloody kinsmen, ancestors
of old, now pass their boundaries and tarry not, and upon me are they
come all guiltless as I am; ah! why? Alas, alas! what can I say? How
from my life get rid of this relentless agony? O that the stern Death-god,
night's black visitant, would give my sufferings rest!

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