Stasimon 3
[Choral]
Ah! hapless mothers.
825
Chorus
Our nails have ploughed our cheeks in furrows, and o’er our heads have we strewn ashes.
Adrastus
Ah me! ah me! Oh that earth’s floor would swallow me,
or the whirlwind snatch me away, or Zeus’s flaming bolt descend upon my head!
830
Chorus
Bitter the marriages thou didst witness, bitter the oracle of Phoebus!
The curse of Oedipus, fraught with sorrow, after desolatingFor the unintelligible ἔλημας of the MS. Hermann conjectured ἔρημα σ’ which is here followed. his house, is come on thee.
835
