Stasimon 2
[Episode]
What a cry was there! what loud alarm! say what sudden terror, lady, doth thy soul dismay.
Phaedra
I am undone. Stand here at the door and hear the noise arising in the house.
575
Chorus
Thou art already by the bolted door; ’tis for thee to note the sounds that issue from within. And tell me, O tell me what mischief can be on foot.
Phaedra
’Tis the son of the horse-loving Amazon who calls, Hippolytus, uttering foul curses on my servant.
Chorus
I hear a noise, but cannot clearly tellReading ὅπᾳ. The old reading was ὔπα. which way it comes. Ah! ’tis through the door the sound reached thee.
585
Phaedra
Yes, yes, he is calling her plainly enough a go-between in vice,
traitress to her master’s honour.
590
Chorus
Woe, woe is me! thou art betrayed, dear mistress! What counsel shall I give thee? thy secret is out; thou art utterly undone.
Chorus
Betrayed by friends!
595
Phaedra
She hath ruined me by speaking of my misfortune; ’twas kindly meant, but an ill way to cure my malady.
Chorus
O what wilt thou do now in thy cruel dilemma?
Phaedra
I only know one way,
one cure for these my woes and that is instant death.
600
Hippolytus
O mother earth! O sun’s unclouded orb! What words, unfit for any lips, have reached my ears!
Nurse
Peace, my son, lest some one hear thy outcry.
Hippolytus
I cannot hear such awful words and hold my peace.
Nurse
I do implore thee by thy fair right hand.
605
Hippolytus
Let go my hand, touch not my robe.
Nurse
O by thy knees I pray, destroy me not utterly.
Hippolytus
Why say this, if, as thou pretendest, thy lips are free from blame?
Nurse
My son, this is no story to be noised abroad.
Hippolytus
A virtuous tale grows fairer told to many.
610
Nurse
Never dishonour thy oath, thy son.
Hippolytus
My tongue an oath did take, but not my heart.
Nurse
My son, what wilt thou do? destroy thy friends?
Hippolytus
Friends indeed! the wicked are no friends of mine.
Nurse
O pardon me; to err is only human, child.
615
Hippolytus
Great Zeus, why didst thou, to man’s sorrow, put woman, evil counterfeit, to dwell where shines the sun? If thou wert minded that the human race should multiply, it was not from women they should have drawn their stock,
but in thy temples they should have paid gold or iron or ponderous bronze and bought a family, each man proportioned to his offering, and so in independence dwelt, from women free.
620
