Andromache

Perseus Greek · Perseus Greek · 394 sections

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and the battles ye have fought were taken from you Spartans, in all else, be very sure, you have not your inferiors.
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The race of old men practises no restraint; and their testiness makes it hard to check them.
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Thou art only too ready to rush into abuse;
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while, as for me, I came to Phthia by constraint and have therefore no intention either of doing or suffering anything mean. Now must I return home, for I have no time to waste; for there is a city not so very far from Sparta, which aforetime was friendly
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but now is hostile; against her will I march with my army and bring her into subjection. And when I have arranged that matter as I wish, I will return; and face to face with my son-in-law I will give my version of the story and hear his.
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And if he punish her, and for the future she exercise self-control, she shall find me do the like; but if he storm, I’ll storm as well; and every act of mine shall be a reflex of his own. As for thy babbling, I can bear it easily;
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for, like to a shadow as thou art, thy voice is all thou hast, and thou art powerless to do aught but talk. Exit Menelaus.
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Lead on, my child, safe beneath my sheltering wing, and thou too, poor lady; for thou art come into a quiet haven after the rude storm.
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Heaven reward thee and all thy race, old sire, for having saved my child and me his hapless mother! Only beware lest they fall upon us twain in some lonely spot upon the road and force me from thee, when they see thy age, my weakness,
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and this child’s tender years; take heed to this, that we be not a second time made captive, after escaping now.
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Forbear such words, prompted by a woman’s cowardice. Go on thy way; who will lay a finger on you? Methinks he will do it to his cost. For by heaven’s grace I rule o’er many a knight and spearman
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bold in my kingdom of Phthia; yea, and myself can still stand straight, no bent old man as thou dost think; such a fellow as that a mere look from me will put to flight in spite of my years. For e’en an old man, be he brave, is worth a host of raw youths;
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for what avails a fine figure if a man is a coward? Exeunt Peleus, Andromache, and Molossus.
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Oh! to have never been born, or sprung from noble sires, the heir to mansions richly stored;
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for if aught untoward e’er befall, there is no lack of champions for sons of noble parents, and there is honour and glory for them when they are proclaimed scions of illustrious lines; time detracts not from the legacy these good
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men leave, but the light of their goodness still burns on when they are dead.
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Better is it not to win a discreditable victory,
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than to make justice miscarry by an invidious exercise of power; for such a victory, though men think it sweet for the moment, grows barren in time and comes very near being a family reproach.
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This is the life I commend, this the life. I set before me as my ideal, to exercise no authority beyond what is right either in the marriage-chamber or in the state.
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O aged son of Aeacus!
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now am I sure that thou wert with the Lapithae, wielding thy famous spear, when they fought the Centaurs; and on Argo’s deck didst pass the cheerless strait beyond the sea-beat Symplegades
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on her voyage of note; and when in days long gone the son of Zeus spread slaughter round Troy’s famous town,
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thou too didst share his triumphant return to Europe.
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rushing wildly on to the stage. Woe, woe is me! I will tear my hair and scratch cruel furrows in my cheeks.
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My child, what wilt thou do? Wilt thou disfigure thyself?
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Ah me! ah me!
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Begone, thou fine-spun veil! float from my head away!
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Daughter, cover up thy bosom, fasten thy robe.
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Why should I cover it?
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My crimes against my lord are manifest and clear, they cannot be hidden.
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Art so grieved at having devised thy rival’s death?
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Indeed I am; I deeply mourn my fatal deeds of daring; alas! I am now accursed in all men’s eyes!
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Thy husband will pardon thee this error.
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Oh! why didst thou hunt me to snatch away my sword? Give, oh! give it back, dear nurse, that I may thrust it through my heart. Why dost thou prevent me hanging myself?
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What! was I to let thy madness lead thee on to death?
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Ah me, my destiny! Where can I find some friendly fire? To what rocky height can I climb above the sea or ’mid some wooded mountain glen,
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there to die and trouble but the dead?
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Why vex thyself thus? on all of us sooner or later heaven’s visitation comes.
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Thou hast left me, O my father,
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left me like a stranded bark, all alone, without an oar. My lord will surely slay me; no home is mine henceforth beneath my husband’s roof. What god is there to whose statue I can as a suppliant haste?
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or shall I throw myself in slavish wise at slavish knees? Would I could speed away from Phthia’s land on bird’s dark pinion, or like that pine-built ship,
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the first that ever sailed betwixt the rocks Cyanean!
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My child, I can as little praise thy previous sinful excesses, committed against the Trojan captive, as thy present exaggerated terror. Thy husband will never listen to
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a barbarian’s weak pleading and reject his marriage with thee for this. For thou wast no captive from Troy whom he wedded, but the daughter of a gallant sire, with a rich dower, from a city too of no mean prosperity. Nor will thy father forsake thee, as thou dreadest,
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and allow thee to be cast out from this house. Nay, enter now, nor show thyself before the palace, lest the sight of thee there bring reproach upon thee, my daughter. Exit Nurse.
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Lo! a stranger of foreign appearance from some other land
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comes hurrying towards us.
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Ladies of this foreign land! is this the home, the palace of Achilles’ son?
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Thou hast it; but who art thou to ask such a question?
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The son of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra,
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by name Orestes, on my way to the oracle of Zeus at Dodona. But now that I am come to Phthia, I am resolved to inquire about my kinswoman, Hermione of Sparta; is she alive and well? for though
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she dwells in a land far from my own, I love her none the less.
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Son of Agamemnon, thy appearing is as a haven from the storm to sailors; by thy knees I pray, have pity on me in my distress, on me of whose fortunes thou art inquiring. About thy knees
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I twine my arms with all the force of sacred fillets.
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Ha! what is this? Am I mistaken or do I really see before me the queen of this palace, the daughter of Menelaus?
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The same, that only child whom Helen, daughter of Tyndareus, bore my father in his halls; never doubt that.
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O saviour Phoebus, grant us respite from our woe! But what is the matter? art thou afflicted by gods or men?
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Partly by myself, partly by the man who wedded me, and partly by some god. On every side I see ruin.
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Why, what misfortune could happen to a woman as yet childless,
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unless her honour is concerned?
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My very complaint! Thou hast hit my case exactly.
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On whom has thy husband set his affections in thy stead?
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On his captive, Hector’s wife.
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An evil case indeed, for a man to have two wives!
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’Tis even thus. So I resented it.
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Didst thou with woman’s craft devise a plot against thy rival?
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Yes, to slay her and her bastard child.
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And didst thou slay them, or did something happen to rescue them from thee?
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It was old Peleus, who showed regard to the weaker side.
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Hadst thou any accomplice in this attempted murder?
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My father came from Sparta for this very purpose.
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And was he after all defeated by that old man’s prowess ?
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Oh no! but by shame; and he hath gone and left me all alone.
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I understand; thou art afraid of thy husband for that thou hast done.
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Thou hast guessed it; for he will have a right to me. What can I say for myself? Yet I beseech thee by Zeus the god of our family, send me to a land as far as possible from this, or to my father’s house; for these very walls seem to cry out Begone!
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and all the land of Phthia bates me. But if my lord return ere that from the oracle of Phoebus, he will put me to death on a shameful charge, or enslave me to his mistress, whom I ruled before. Maybe some one will say, How was it thou didst go thus astray?
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I was ruined by mischievous women who came to me and puffed me up with words like these: What! wilt thou suffer that vile captive, a mere bondmaid, to dwell within thy house and share thy wedded rights? By Heaven’s queen! if it were my house
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she should not live to reap my marriage-harvest! And I listened to the words of these Sirens, the cunning, knavish, subtle praters, and was filled with silly thoughts. What need had I to care about my lord?
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I had all I wanted, wealth in plenty, a house in which I was mistress, and as for children, mine would be born in wedlock, while hers would be bastards, half-slaves to mine. Oh! never, never,–this truth will I repeat,–should men of sense, who have wives,
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allow women-folk to visit them in their homes, for they teach them mischief; one, to gain some private end, helps to corrupt their honour; another, having made a slip herself, wants a companion in misfortune, while many are wantons; and hence it is
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men’s houses are tainted. Wherefore keep strict guard upon the portals of your houses with bolts and bars; for these visits of strange women lead to no good result, but a world of mischief.
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Thou hast given thy tongue too free a rein regarding thy own sex.
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I can pardon thee in this case, but still women ought to smooth over their sisters’ weaknesses.
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’Twas sage counsel he gave who taught men to hear the arguments on both sides. I, for instance, though aware of the confusion in this house,
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the quarrel between thee and Hector’s wife, waited awhile and watched to see whether thou wouldst stay here or from fear of that captive art minded to quit these halls. Now it was not so much regard for thy message that brought me hither,
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as the intention of carrying thee away from this house, if, as now, thou shouldst grant me a chance of saying so. For thou wert mine formerly, but art now living with thy present husband through thy father’s baseness; since he, before invading Troy’s domains, betrothed thee to me, and then afterwards promised thee
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to thy present lord, provided he captured the city of Troy.
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So, as soon as Achilles’ son returned hither, I forgave thy father, but entreated the bridegroom to forego his marriage with thee, telling him all I had gone through and my present misfortune; I might get
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a wife, I said, from amongst friends, but outside their circle ’twas no easy task for one exiled like myself from home. Thereat he grew abusive, taunting me with my mother’s murder and those blood-boltered fiends. And I was humbled by the fortunes of my house,
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and though ’tis true, I grieved, yet did I endure my sorrow, and reluctantly departed, robbed of thy promised hand. Now therefore, since thou findest thy fortune so abruptly changed and art fallen thus on evil days and hast no help, I will take thee hence and place thee in thy father’s hands.
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For kinship hath strong claims, and in adversity there is naught better than a kinsman’s kindly aid.
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As for my marriage, my father must look to it; ’tis not for me to decide that. Yes, take me hence as soon as may be,
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lest my husband come back to his house before I am gone, or Peleus hear that I am deserting his son’s abode and pursue me on horse-back.
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Rest easy about the old man’s power; and, as for Achilles’ son with all his insolence to me, never fear him;
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such a crafty net this hand hath woven and set for his death with knots that none can loose; whereof I will not speak before the time, but, when my plot begins to work, Delphi’s rock will witness it. If but my allies
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in the Pythian land abide by their oaths, this same murderer of his mother will show that no one else shall marry thee my rightful bride. To his cost will he demand satisfaction of King Phoebus for his father’s blood; nor shall his repentance avail him, though he is now submitting to the god.
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No! he shall perish miserably by Apollo’s hand and my fake accusations; so shall he end out my enmity. For the deity upsets the fortune of them that hate him. and suffers them not to be high-minded. Exeunt Orestes and Hermione.
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O Phoebus! who didst fence the hill of Ilium with a fair coronal of towers,
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and thou, ocean-god! coursing o’er the main with thy dark steeds, wherefore did ye hand over in dishonour
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your own handiwork to the war-god, master of the spear, abandoning Troy to wretchedness?

Perseus Greek. CTS URN tlg0006.tlg006.perseus-eng2. Via the Perseus Digital Library / Open Greek and Latin TEI corpora. Licence: Available under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Source.