Stasimon 3
Chorus
before the house I see those two united souls, condemned to die. Alas! for thee, poor lady, and for thee, unhappy child, who art dying on account of thy mother’s marriage, though thou hast no share therein
495
and canst not be blamed by the royal house.
500
Andromache
Behold me journeying on the downward path, my hands so tightly bound with cords that they bleed.
Molossus
O mother, mother mine! I too share thy
downward path, nestling ’neath thy wing.
505
Andromache
A cruel sacrifice! ye rulers of Phthia!
Molossus
Come, father! succour those thou lovest.
Andromache
Restκεῖσο δὴ, Nauck. there, my babe, my darling! on thy mother’s bosom, e’en in death and in the grave.
510
Molossus
Ah, woe is me! what will become of me and thee too, mother mine?
Menelaus
Away, to the world below! from hostile towers ye came, the pair of you; two different causes necessitate your deaths; my sentence takes away thy life, and my daughter Hermione’s requires his; for it would be the
515
height of folly to leave our foemen’s sons, when we might kill them and remove the danger from our house.
520
Andromache
O husband mine! I would I had thy strong arm and spear
to aid me, son of Priam.
525
Molossus
Ah, woe is me! what spell can I now find to turn death’s stroke aside?
Andromache
Embrace thy master’s knees, my child, and pray to him.
Molossus
Spare, O spare my life, kind master!
530
Andromache
Mine eyes are wet with tears, which trickle down my cheeks, as doth a sunless spring from a smooth rock. Ah me!
Molossus
What remedy, alas! can I provide me ’gainst my ills?
535
Menelaus
Why fall at my knees in supplication? hard as the rock and deaf as the wave am I. My own friends have I helped,
but for thee have I no tie of affection; for verily it cost me a great part of my life to capture Troy and thy mother; so thou shalt reap the fruit thereof and into Hades’ halls descend.
540
Chorus
Behold! I see Peleus drawing nigh; with aged step he hasteth hither.
545
Peleus
calling out as he comes in sight. What means this? I ask you and your executioner; why is the palace in an uproar? give a reason; what mean your lawless machinations?
Menelaus, hold thy hand. Seek not to outrun justice. To his attendant. Forward! faster, faster! for this matter, methinks, admits of no delay; now if ever would I fainHerwerden conjectures μενοινῶ for μ᾽ ἐπαινῶ, which is certainly a strange expression. resume the vigour of my youth. First however
550
will I breathe new life into this captive, being to her as the breeze that blows a ship before the wind. Tell me, by what right have they pinioned thine arms and are dragging thee and thy child away? like a ewe with her lamb art thou led to the slaughter, while I and thy lord were far away.
555
Andromache
Behold them that are haling me and my child to death,
e’en as thou seest, aged prince. Why should I tell thee? For not by one urgent summons alone but by countless messengers have I sent for thee. No doubt thou knowest by hearsay of the strife in this house with this man’s daughter, and the reason of my ruin.
560
So now they have torn and are dragging me from the altar of Thetis, the goddess of thy chiefest adoration and the mother of thy gallant son, without any proper trial, yea, and without waiting for my absent master; because, forsooth, they knew my defencelessness
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and my child’s, whom they mean to slay with me his hapless mother, though he has done no harm. But to thee, O sire, I make my supplication, prostrate at thy knees, though my hand cannot touch thy friendly beard; save me, I adjure thee, reverend sir,
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or to thy shame and my sorrow shall we be slain.
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