Stasimon 1
[Episode]
A friend is my destroyer, one unwilling as myself.
Nurse
Hath Theseus wronged thee in any wise?
320
Phaedra
Never may I prove untrue to himi.e. as he never has proved so to me.
Nurse
Then what strange mystery is there that drives thee on to die?
Phaedra
O, let my sin and me alone! ’tis not ’gainst thee I sin.
Nurse
Never willingly! and, if I fail, ’twill rest at thy door.
Phaedra
How now? thou usest force in clinging to my hand.
325
Nurse
Yea, and I will never loose my hold upon thy knees.
Phaedra
Alas for thee! my sorrows, shouldst thou learn them, would recoil on thee.
Nurse
What keener grief for me than failing to win thee?
Phaedra
’Twill be death to thee; though to me that brings renown.ὀλεῖ (1) 2nd sing. Fut. Mid. thou wilt die as a consequence of sharing my secret (Paley). (2) 3rd sing. Fut. Active it will kill me to keep silence, though that better ensures my honour.
Nurse
And dost thou then conceal this boon despite my prayers?
330
Phaedra
I do, for ’tis out of shame I am planning an honourable escape.
Nurse
Tell it, and thine honour shall the brighter shine.
Phaedra
Away, I do conjure thee; loose my hand.
Nurse
I will not, for the boon thou shouldst have granted me is denied.
Phaedra
I will grant it out of reverence for thy holy sup- pliant touch.
335
Nurse
Henceforth I hold my peace; ’tis thine to speak from now.
Phaedra
Ah! hapless mother,Pasiphae, wife of Minos, deceived by Aphrodite into a fatal passion for a bull. Cf. Verg. Aen. vi. ad init., also Ovid Metam., viii, 131 sqq. what a love was thine!
Nurse
Her love for the bull? daughter, or what meanest thou?
Phaedra
And woe to thee! my sister,Ariadne, deserted by Theseus in the isle of Naxos, where Dionysus found her. bride of Dionysus.
Nurse
What ails thee, child? speaking ill of kith and kin.
340
Phaedra
Myself the third to suffer! how am I undone!
Nurse
Thou strik’st me dumb! Where will this history end?
Phaedra
That love has been our curse from time long past.
Nurse
I know no more of what I fain would learn.
Phaedra
Ah! would thou couldst say for me what I have to tell.
345
Nurse
I am no prophetess to unriddle secrets.
Phaedra
What is it they mean when they talk of people being in love?
Nurse
At once the sweetest and the bitterest thing, my child.
