Sophocles' TRACHINIAE Complete

Translated by R. Jebb.

Sophocles Bilingual Anthology  Studies  Sophocles in Print

57 Pages

Page 57

Heracles: Thou endest well; and to these words, my son, quickly add
the gracious deed, that thou mayest lay me on the pyre before any
pain returns to rend or sting me.

Come, make haste and lift me! This, in truth, is rest from troubles;
this is the end, the last end, of Heracles!

Hyllus: Nothing, indeed, hinders the fulfilment of thy wish, since
thy command constrains us, my father.

Heracles: (chanting) Come, then, ere thou arouse this plague, O my
stubborn soul, give me a curb as of steel on lips set like stone to
stone, and let no cry escape them; seeing that the deed which thou
art to do, though done perforce, is yet worthy of thy joy!

Hyllus: (chanting) Lift him, followers! And grant me full forgiveness
for this; but mark the great cruelty of the gods in the deeds that
are being done. They beget children, they are hailed as fathers, and
yet they can look upon such sufferings. (The attendants raise Heracles
on the litter and move slowly off, as Hyllus chants to the Chorus
in the closing lines.) No man foresees the future; but the present
is fraught with mourning for us, and with shame for the powers above,
and verily with anguish beyond compare for him who endures this doom.

Maidens, come ye also, nor linger at the house; ye who have lately
seen a dread death, with sorrows manifold and strange: and in all
this there is nought but Zeus.


The End

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