Stasimon 3
[Episode]
Alas! Would I could stand and face myself, so should I weep to see the sorrows I endure.
Theseus
Ay, ’tis thy character to honour thyself far more than reverence thy parents, as thou shouldst.
1080
Hippolytus
Unhappy mother! son of sorrow! Heaven keep all friends of mine from bastard birth!
Theseus
Ho! servants, drag him hence! You heard
my proclamation long ago condemning him to exile.
1085
Hippolytus
Whoso of them doth lay a hand on me shall rue it; thyself expel me, if thy spirit move thee, from the land.
Theseus
I will, unless my word thou straight obey; no pity for thy exile steals into my heart. [Exit Theseus.
Hippolytus
The sentence then, it seems, is passed. Ah, misery I How well I know the truth herein, but know no way to tell it! O daughter of Latona, dearest to me of all deities, partner, comrade in the chase, far from glorious Athens must I fly. Farewell, city
1090
and land of Erechtheus; farewell, Troezen, most joyous home wherein to pass the spring of life; ’tis my last sight of thee, farewell!
1095
Come, my comrades in this land, young like me, greet me kindly and escort me forth,
for never will ye behold a purer soul, for all my father’s doubts. [Exit Hippolytus.
1100
[Choral 1]
In very deed the thoughts I have about the gods, whenso they come into my mind, do much to soothe its grief, but though I cherish secret hopes of some great guiding will, yet am I at fault when I survey the fate and doings of the sons of men;
Chorus
change succeeds to change, and man’s life veers and shifts in endless restlessness.
1105
Fortune grant me this, I pray, at heaven’s hand,—a happy lot in life and a soul from sorrow free;
opinions let me hold not too precise nor yet too hollow; but, lightly changing my habits to each morrow as it comes, may I thus attain a life of bliss!
1115
[Choral 2]
For now no more is my mind free from doubts, unlooked-for sights greet my vision; for lo! I see the morning star of Athens, eye of Hellas, driven by his father’s fury
1120
Chorus
to another land. Mourn, ye sands of my native shores, ye oak-groves on the hills, where with his fleet hounds he would hunt the quarry to the death,
1125
attending on Dictynna, awful queen.
1130
No more will he mount his car drawn by Venetian steeds, filling the course round Limna with the prancingReading with Reiske, whom Nauck follows, γυμνάδος ἵππου. If the accus. plural is retained it would seem to mean, checking with his foot (i.e. pressed against the chariot-front) his steeds. of his trained horses. Nevermore in his fathers house shall he wake the Muse
that never slept beneath his lute-strings; no hand will crown the spots where rests the maiden Latona ’mid the boskage deep; nor evermore shall our virgins vie to win thy love, now thou art banished;
1135
[Choral]
while I with tears at thy unhappy fate shall endure a lot all undeserved. Ah! hapless mother,
Chorus
in vain didst thou bring forth, it seems. I am angered with the gods; out upon them! O ye linked Graces, why are ye sending from his native land this poor youth, a guiltless sufferer,
1145
