Sophocles' TRACHINIAE Complete

Translated by R. Jebb.

Sophocles Bilingual Anthology  Studies  Sophocles in Print

57 Pages

Page 46

(antistrophe 3)

Sweet Hades, brother of Zeus, give me rest, give me rest,- end my
woe by a swiftly-sped doom!

Leader of the Chorus: I shudder, friends, to hear these sorrows of
our lord; what a man is here, and what torments afflict him!

Heracles: Ah, fierce full oft, and grievous not in name alone, have
been the labours of these hands, the burdens borne upon these shoulders!
But no toil ever laid on me by the wife of Zeus or by the hateful
Eurystheus was like unto this thing which the daughter of Oeneus,
fair and false, hath fastened upon my back,- this woven net of the
Furies, in which I perish! Glued to my sides, it hath eaten my flesh
to the inmost parts; it is ever with me, sucking the channels of my
breath; already it hath drained my fresh lifeblood, and my whole body
is wasted, a captive to these unutterable bonds.

Not the warrior on the battle-field, not the Giants' earth-born host,
nor the might of savage beasts, hath ever done unto me thus,- not
Hellas, nor the land of the alien, nor any land to which I have come
as a deliverer: no, a woman, a weak woman, born not to the strength
of man, all alone hath vanquished me, without stroke of sword

Previous Page / First / Next Page of Trachiniae

Sophocles Home Page ||| Elpenor's Free Greek Lessons
Aeschylus ||| Euripides

Reference address : https://ellopos.net/elpenor/greek-texts/ancient-greece/sophocles/trachiniae.asp?pg=46