Stasimon 5
[Episode 1]
In Athena’s handiwork or in prudent counsel?
Evadne
In bravery; for I will lay me down and die with my lord.
Iphis
What dost thou say? What is this silly riddle thou propoundest?
Evadne
To yonder pyre where lies dead Capaneus, I will leap down.
1065
Iphis
My daughter, speak not thus before the multitude!
Evadne
The very thing I wish, that every Argive should learn it.
Iphis
Nay, I will ne’er consent to let thee do this deed.
Evadne
(as she is throwing herself). ’Tis all one; thou shalt never catch me in thy grasp.
Lo! I cast me down, no joy to thee, but to myself and to my husband blazing on the pyre with me.
1070
[Episode]
O lady, what a fearful deed!
Iphis
Ah me! I am undone, ye dames of Argos!
Chorus
Alack, alack! a cruel blow is this to thee,
but thou must yet witness, poor wretch, the full horror of this deed.
1075
Iphis
A more unhappy wretch than me ye could not find.
Chorus
Woe for thee, unhappy man! Thou, old sir, hast been made partaker in the fortune of Oedipus, thou and my poor city too.
Iphis
Ah, why are mortal men denied this boon, to live their youth twice o’er, and twice in turn to reach old age? If aught goes wrong within our homes, we set it right by judgment more maturely formed, but our life we may not so correct. Now if we had a second spell of youth
1080
and age, this double term of life would let us then correct each previous slip. I, for instance, seeing others blest with children, longed to have them too, and found my ruin in that wish. Whereas if I had had my present experience,
1085
and by a father’s lightFollowing Paley’s τεκών for the MSS. τέκνων. had learnt how cruel a thing it is to be bereft of children, never should I have fallen on such evil days as these,—I who did beget a brave young son, proud parent that I was, and after all am now bereft of him. Enough of this. What remains for such a hapless wretch as me?
1090
Shall I to my home, there to see its utter desolation and the blank within my life? or shall I to the halls of that dead Capaneus?—halls I smiled to see in days gone by, when yet my daughter was alive. But she is lost and gone, she that would ever draw down my cheek
1095
to her lips, and take my head between her hands; for naught is there more sweet unto an aged sire than a daughter’s love; our sons are made of sterner stuff, but less winning are their caresses. Oh! take me to my house at once,
1100
in darkness hide me there, to waste and fret this aged frame with fasting! What shall it avail me to touch my daughter’s bones? Old age, resistless foe, how do I loathe thy presence! Them too I hate, whoso desire to lengthen out the span of life,
1105
seeking to turn the tide of death aside by philtres,Reading βρωτοῖσι καὶ βοτοῖσι καῖ μαγεύμασι, as restored from Plutarch’s quotation of the passage. drugs, and magic spells,—folk that death should take away to leave the young their place, when they no more can benefit the world.
1110
[Choral]
Woe, woe! Behold your dead sons’
Chorus
bones are brought hither; take them, servants of your weak old mistress, for in me is no strength left by reason of my mourning for my sons; time’s comrade long have I been, and many a tear for many a sorrow have I shed.
1115
For what sharper pang wilt thou ever find for mortals than the sight of children dead?
1120
[Choral 1]
Poor mother mine, behold I bring my father’s bones gathered from the fire,
Children
a burden grief has rendered heavy, though this tiny urn contains my all.
1125
Chorus
Ah me! ah me! Why bear thy tearful load to the fond mother of the dead,
a handful of ashes in the stead of those who erst were men of mark in Mycenae?
1130
Children
Woe worth the hour! woe worth the day! Reft of my hapless sire, a wretched orphan shall I inherit a desolate house, torn from my father’s arms.
