Stasimon 2
[Episode]
But now as soon as ever we would bring this plague into our home we bring its fortune to the ground.1Nauck brackets these two lines as spurious. ’Tis clear from this how great a curse a woman is; the very father, that begot and nurtured her, to rid him of the mischief gives her a dower and packs her off;
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Hippolytus
while the husband, who takes the noxious weed into his home, fondly decks his sorry idol in fine raiment and tricks her out in robes, squandering by degrees, unhappy wight! his house’s wealth. For he is in this dilemma;
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say his marriage has brought him good connections, he is glad then to keep the wife he loathes; or, if he gets a good wife but useless relations, he tries to stifle the bad luck with the good. But it is easiest for him who has settled in his house as wife a mere nobody,For ἀλλὰ Weil proposes οὖσ’. Another conjecture is ἀλλὰ νωχελὴς. incapable from simplicity.
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I hate a clever woman; never may she set foot in my house who aims at knowing more than women need; for in these clever women Cypris implants a larger store of villainy, while the artless woman is by her shallow wit from levity debarred.
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No servant should ever have had access to a wife, but men should put to live with them beasts, which bite, not talk, in which case they could not speak to any one nor be answered back by them. But, as it is, the wicked in their chambers plot wickedness,
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and their servants carry it abroad.
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Even thus, vile wretch, thou cam’st to make me partner in an outrage on my father’s honour; wherefore I must wash that stain away in running streams, dashing the water into my ears. How could I commit so foul a crime
when by the very mention of it I feel myself polluted? Be well assured, woman, ’tis only my religious scruple saves thee. For had not I unawares been caught by an oath, ’fore heaven! I would not have refrained from telling all unto my father. But now I will from the house away, so long as
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Theseus is abroad, and will maintain strict silence. But, when my father comes, I will return and see how thou and thy mistress face him, and so shall I learn by experience the extent of thy audacity.
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Perdition seize you both! (To the audience). I can never satisfy my hate for
women, no! not even though some say this is ever my theme, for of a truth they always are evil. So either let some one prove them chaste, or let me still trample on them for ever.
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[Episode 1]
O the cruel, unhappy fate of women!
Phaedra
What arts, what arguments have we, once we have made a slip, to loose by craftFollowing Nauck’s reading δόλοις. If λόγου be retained, it would seem to mean loose the tight hold a word can keep on us i.e. the threat of Hippolytus; but it is doubtful if the Greek will bear this. the tight-drawn knot? I have met my deserts. O earth, O light of day! How can I escape the stroke of fate? How my pangs conceal, kind friends?
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What god will appear to help me, what mortal to take my part or help me in unrighteousness? The present calamity of my life admits of no escape. Most hapless I of all my sex!
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Chorus
Alas, alas! the deed is done, thy servant’s schemes have gone awry, my queen, and all is lost.
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Phaedra
Accursed woman! traitress to thy friends! How hast thou ruined me! May Zeus, my ancestor, smite thee with his fiery bolt and uproot thee from thy place.
Did I not foresee thy purpose, did I not bid thee keep silence on the very matter which is now my shame? But thou wouldst not be still; wherefore my fair name will not go with me to the tomb. But now I must another scheme devise. Yon youth, in the keenness of his fury,
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will tell his father of my sin, and the aged Pittheus of my state, and fill the world with stories to my shame. Perdition seize thee and every meddling fool who by dishonest means would serve unwilling friends!
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Nurse
Mistress, thou may’st condemn the mischief I have done, for sorrow’s sting o’ermasters thy judgment; yet can I answer thee in face of this, if thou wilt hear. ’Twas I who nurtured thee; I love thee still; but in my search for medicine to cure thy sickness I found what least I sought.
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Had I but succeeded, I had been counted wise, for the credit we get for wisdom is measured by our success.
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Phaedra
Is it just, is it any satisfaction to me, that thou shouldst wound me first, then bandyσυγχωρεῖν, so Liddell and Scott, but it seems a doubtful usage, and Nauck suspects the word. words with me?
Nurse
We dwell on this too long; I was not wise, I own;
but there are yet ways of escape from the trouble, my child.
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Phaedra
Be dumb henceforth; evil was thy first advice to me, evil too thy attempted scheme. Begone and leave me, look to thyself; I will my own fortunes for the best arrange. (Exit Nurse).
Ye noble daughters of Troezen, grant me the only boon I crave; in silence bury what ye here have heard.
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Chorus
By majestic Artemis, child of Zeus, I swear I will never divulge aught of thy sorrows.
Phaedra
’Tis well. But I, with all my thought,The reading προστρέπουσ’ offers no clear meaning; of the various suggestions Monk’s προσκοποῦσ’ is the simplest. can but one way discover out of this calamity, that so I may secure my children’s honour, and find myself some help as matters stand. For never, never will I bring shame upon my Cretan home,
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nor will I, to save one poor life, face Theseus after my disgrace.
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Chorus
Art thou bent then on some cureless woe?
Phaedra
On death; the means thereto must I devise myself.
