Euripides, Hippolytus

ToposText · Euripides · 292 sections

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§ 1 APHRODITE: Great among mortals and not nameless within heaven, I am called the goddess Aphrodite. As for all those who live within the bounds of the Black Sea And the Atlantic, and see the sun’s light,
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§ 5 I give special honour to those who revere my power, But I trip up all who are proud towards me. For even among the gods there is this fact: They take pleasure in being honoured by human beings. Soon I will demonstrate the truth of these words:
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§ 10 For the son of Theseus, the Amazon’s child, Hippolytus, the ward of holy Pittheus, Alone of the citizens of Troizen here Says that I am the worst of the divinities. He spurns the bed and does not touch marriage,
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§ 15 But instead honours Apollo’s sister Artemis, Zeus’ Daughter, because he thinks she is the best of the divinities; He spends all his time with the virgin goddess in the green forest, And stirs up the wild animals in the land with his swift hounds, Happening upon a greater-than-mortal association.
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§ 20 This I don’t object to: why should I? But as for the error he has committed against me I will punish Hippolytus today: I’ve cleared the way A lot for a long time now, and there’s not much left for me to do. One day when he came from the house of Pittheus
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§ 25 Into the sight and rites of the holy mysteries In the land of Pandion, his father’s noble wife Phaedra was seized in her heart With a dreadful passion by my plans. And before coming here to Troezen
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§ 30 At the same rock of Pallas, she established A temple to Aphrodite overlooking this land, Since she was in love with a foreign love; in after ages They will call this foundation ‘ Aphrodite next to Hippolytus’. Now when Theseus left the land of Cecrops
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§ 35 Fleeing the blood-pollution of the Pallantidae, And disembarked with his wife in this land, Honouring a year’s exile away from the people, Now groaning and distraught with the goads Of love the wretched woman is dying
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§ 40 In silence: none of her household knows her illness. No, that isn’t how this love will turn out: Instead I will reveal the matter to Theseus, and it will come to light. The young man who is hostile to me Will be killed by his father’s curses, which the sea
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§ 45 God Poseidon once granted to Theseus as a gift, Saying that he would not pray to the god for anything in vain up to three times. Phaedra may have a good reputation, but will still die. Her suffering I do not honour ahead of Not providing to those hostile to me
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§ 50 A punishment sufficient to my satisfaction. (SOUND OF HIPPOLYTUS AND HIS HUNTSMEN SINGING) Here he comes, Theseus’s Son --- he has left the toil of hunting: I will leave this place. Accompanying him is a great celebratory crowd
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§ 55 Of his attendants singing, honouring the goddess Artemis With hymns. He has no idea that the doors of Hades Are open, and that this is the last day that he will ever see! (SHE EXITS; ENTER HIPPOLYTUS AND CHORUS OF HUNTSMEN) HIPPOLYTUS: Follow singing, follow Zeus’ heavenly daughter
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§ 60 Artemis, to whom we chant. CHORUS: Lady revered lady, Offspring of Zeus, Welcome, welcome from me, daughter
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§ 65 Of Leto and Zeus, Artemis, By far the most beautiful of maidens, You who dwell in great Heaven, the precinct of your good Father, the much-golden house of Zeus.
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§ 70 Welcome from me, most beautiful Most beautiful of those in Olympus! HIPPOLYTUS: (TURNS TO STATUE OF ARTEMIS) I have arranged this garland and bring it to you, Mistress, woven from an unspoilt [or virgin] meadow Where neither the shepherd thinks it right to pasture his herd,
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§ 75 Nor has iron ever come there, but the bee Goes through the unspoilt [or virgin] meadow in spring. (LOOKS DOWN AT THE GARLAND) Shame tends it with river waters; And for all those for whom nothing is taught, but self-control
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§ 80 In everything alike has fallen naturally to them, For them it is lawful to pluck, but not for bad people.(TURNS TO STATUE AGAIN, AND OFFERS A LOCK OF HIS HAIR) My dear mistress, receive for your golden Hair this garland from a pious hand. To me alone of mortals this gift is given:
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§ 85 I associate with you and exchange words, Hearing your voice, though I cannot see your eyes. May I round the end of my life just as I began it. SERVANT: Lord --- for we must call our masters gods --- Would you receive something from me that I have planned well?
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§ 90 HIPPOLYTUS: Of course. Otherwise I would not be seen to be wise. SERVANT: Do you know then the custom established for mortals? HIPPOLYTUS: No. What is it you’re asking me about? SERVANT: Hating haughtiness and unfriendliness to everyone. HIPPOLYTUS: Well said indeed. What haughty person is not hateful?
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§ 95 SERVANT: Is there any grace in addressing people properly? HIPPOLYTUS: Yes of course, and profit, with little effort. SERVANT: And do you expect that the same thing applies to the gods? HIPPOLYTUS: Yes, if in fact we mortals make use of the gods’ customs. SERVANT: How then can you be haughty, by not addressing the divinity …
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§ 100 HIPPOLYTUS: Which one? Beware lest your mouth slip in any way. SERVANT: (POINTING OVER TO ANOTHER STATUE NEAR THE DOORS) Her, Aphrodite, standing at your doors. HIPPOLYTUS: I kiss her from a distance, as I am undefiled [or chaste]. SERVANT: But she is haughty too, and prominent among mortals. HIPPOLYTUS: Different people concern themselves with different gods.
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§ 105 SERVANT: I wish you good fortune, with as much sense as you should have. HIPPOLYTUS: I take no pleasure in a god that is admired at night! SERVANT: You should pay due honour, child, to the gods. HIPPOLYTUS: (IGNORING HIM) Away, my companions! Go to the house And concern yourselves with food! A full table
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§ 110 Is a delight after hunting. You should comb down The horses, so that after yoking them under the chariot And sating them with meat I may give them the proper exercise. (TURNING TO THE STATUE OF APHRODITE) But to your Aphrodite I give a long farewell. SERVANT: But we --- as we should not copy the young,
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§ 115 If they are so minded --- as is proper for slaves to speak, Will pray to your statue, Lady Aphrodite. You should be forgiving, If someone with a heart stiff because of his youth Says empty [or profane] words about you. Pretend not to hear him ---
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§ 120 Gods should be wiser than mortals. (EXIT SERVANT. ENTER CHORUS OF TROEZENIAN WOMEN) CHORUS: They say there is a certain rock dripping the water of Ocean, That sends forth a flowing spring Which people dip their urns into;
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§ 125 A friend of mine there Was dipping her dark Clothes in the river Water, as she threw them down on the back Of a warm rock in the full sun --- that is where I
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§ 130 First heard the story of my mistress. That her body is wasting away lying down and sick inside The house, and that her delicate clothes Are shadowing her golden head.
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§ 135 I hear that this is the third Day that she Has kept her mouth Without food, and pure of Demeter’s grain, And that because of a hidden suffering she wants to put into
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§ 140 The wretched harbour of death. A: Are you possessed, my daughter, Whether from Pan or Hecate, Or from the revered Corybantes are you Wandering, or from the mountain mother?
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§ 145 B: Are you consumed, around Dictynna Of the many beasts, with errors, without the sacred rites Of sacrificial cakes that have not been offered? For she wanders through the lakes [Limnai] And over the dry land of the sea
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§ 150 In the watery whirlpools of salt. A: Is your husband, the chief Of the Athenians, of good lineage, Being led astray in the house by some Liaison hidden from your marriage-bed?
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§ 155 B: Has some mariner sailed, Setting out from Crete to that harbour That is the most hospitable to sailors, With a message for the queen, And her spirit in grief
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§ 160 From her suffering is bound in her bed? A: Wretched evil helplessness Usually coincides with the ill-tempered harmony of women, Caused by birth-pains and thoughtlessness.
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§ 165 This breeze once also rushed through My womb. I cried out then to her in heaven Who is the guardian of the bow, Artemis, and much admired by me she always Wanders with the gods.
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§ 170 B: Here is the old nurse in front of the doors Bringing her outside the house. A hateful cloud of brows is building. My spirit longs to know whatever it is, Why the queen’s
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§ 175 Body has been ruined and changed in colour! [ENTER NURSE ON STAGE WITH PHAEDRA SPRAWLED ON A BED] NURSE: Oh the evils of mortals and their hateful illnesses! What am I to do for you? What not do? Here is daylight for you, here is the bright sky: And outside the house now is the bed
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§ 180 In which you’ve lain sick. All your talk was of coming here: But soon enough you’ll be hurrying back to your room, Because you’re quick to falter and nothing delights you, What you have doesn’t please you, and what you don’t have
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§ 185 You think is dearer. It’s better to be sick than to look after the sick: The first is simple, but attached to the second Is grief of mind and hard work for the hands. All human life is painful,
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§ 190 And there is no stopping toils. Well, whatever else there is dearer than living, Encompassing darkness hides with its clouds. We are obviously sick in love With whatever it is here that glitters on earth,
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§ 195 Because we have no experience of another life And no revelation of the things under the earth: No, but we are carried along wrongly by myths. PHAEDRA: Lift up my body, straighten my head: I have freed the bonds of my limbs!
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§ 200 Take my beautiful hands, attendants! My hairband is heavy on my head! Take it off, let my hair spread out on my shoulders! NURSE: Cheer up, my child, and don’t be difficult By twisting your body like that!
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§ 205 You’ll put up with your illness more easily With calmness and a noble spirit: It’s necessary for mortals to toil. PHAEDRA: Ahhh! How I wish I could draw a drink of pure Water from a moist spring,
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§ 210 And take a rest lying under the poplars And in a tufted meadow! NURSE: My child, what are you complaining about? Will you not sing out like this in front of everyone, Letting fly words mounted on madness?
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§ 215 PHAEDRA: Send me off to the mountain! I’ll go to the forest And to the pines, where the quarry-killing Hounds tread In close pursuit of the dappled deer. By the gods, I yearn to shout to the hounds
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§ 220 And throw along my golden hair A Thessalian javelin, holding a sharp Spear in my hand! NURSE: Why ever are you sick at heart about this, my child? Why the interest in hunting?
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§ 225 Why do you long for water from a flowing spring? Near the gates there’s a continuous watery Slope, from where you could get a drink. PHAEDRA: Artemis, mistress of the salt Sea [Limnai], And of the horse-thundering exercises,
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§ 230 I wish I were among your household, Taming the Enetian colts! NURSE: What’s all this crazy talk you’re letting fly? First you’re launching a desire To go to the mountain after wild animals, Next you’re longing for colts
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§ 235 On waveless sands! This would be worth a lot of divining, As to which of the gods is tossing you about And deranging your mind, my child! PHAEDRA: Oh poor me, what did I do?
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§ 240 Where have I wandered aside from my good judgment? I was crazy, I fell because of delusion sent from a god. Mother, cover my head again, Because I’m ashamed at my words.
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§ 245 Keep it covered: a tear comes down from my eyes, And my eye is turned to shame. For to be right in my mind pains me, But being mad is evil; it’s best To die without knowing anything.
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§ 250 NURSE: I’ll cover you. But when will death Cover my body? A long life teaches me many things. For mortals should engage In measured love with each other,
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§ 255 And not to the deepest marrow of the soul; But the affections of the heart should be easily loosed, Both to thrust away and to brace tight. It is a difficult weight for one soul To feel pangs on behalf of two, as I too
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§ 260 Feel excessive pain for her. They say that the scrupulous refinements Of life trip us up rather than delight us, And war more against our health. Thus the phrase ‘too much’ I praise less
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§ 265 Than the phrase ‘nothing in excess’ --- And the wise will agree with me on this. CHORUS: Old woman, trusted nurse of the queen, We can see Phaedra’s wretched misfortunes, But it’s unclear to us just what her illness is.
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§ 270 It’s from you that I’d like to find out and hear. NURSE: I don’t know from questioning her; she won’t tell me. CHORUS: Not even what the beginning of her troubles was? NURSE: It comes to the same thing: she’s silent about all that. CHORUS: How weak and wasted her body is!
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§ 275 NURSE: No wonder! She’s been three days without food! CHORUS: Is it because of some delusion? Or is she trying to die? NURSE: Die? Without food she is going to depart from this life. CHORUS: That would be remarkable, if her husband were satisfied with this. NURSE: No --- she’s concealing her pain and denies she's ill.
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§ 280 CHORUS: Can’t he see it in her when he looks in her face? NURSE: No, because he happens to be outside the country. CHORUS: Aren’t you bringing coercion to bear, trying To find out her illness and wandering of mind? NURSE: I’ve done everything I can but haven’t made any progress.
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§ 285 I won’t slacken from my current zeal, In order that you too who are here may be a witness for me Just how I am for my unfortunate mistress. (TURNS TO PHAEDRA) Come, dear child, let’s both forget What we said earlier, and you be sweeter,
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§ 290 Loosening that hateful eyebrow and the path of your judgment, And I’ll give up where I followed you then not well, And go on another better path of speech. Even if you’re ill with one of the unmentionable evils, We women are here to support your illness.
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§ 295 But if your misfortune may be divulged to men, Tell us, so that this matter may be relayed to the doctors. (PAUSE -- PHAEDRA SAYS NOTHING) Hmm! Why the silence? You shouldn’t be silent, child, But either correct me, if anything I’m saying is wrong, Or agree with whatever I’ve said that’s right. (PHAEDRA STILL SAYS NOTHING AND TURNS HER FACE AWAY)
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§ 300 Say something! Look at me! Oh poor me, (TO THE CHORUS) Women, it’s no use, we’re wasting our time. We’re no closer than before. She wasn’t softened With words then, and she’s not listening to me now. (TO PHAEDRA) Be assured though --- go on, be more stubborn about this
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§ 305 Than the sea --- that if you die, you’ll be betraying your Children, who won’t have a share in your father’s house; I tell you this in the name of that horse-riding queen of the Amazons Who bore as master over your children That bastard who has thoughts of legitimacy, you know him well, Hippolytus --- PHAEDRA: Oh my god!
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§ 310 NURSE: Does this touch you? PHAEDRA: You have killed me, mother! By the gods I beg you To again be quiet about that man! NURSE: See? You’re in your right mind, but you’re unwilling to think about Benefiting your children and saving your own life.
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§ 315 PHAEDRA: I love my children! Another storm is affecting me. NURSE: Are your hands undefiled by blood, my child? PHAEDRA: My hands are undefiled --- it’s my mind that has pollution. NURSE: Surely not from a pain acquired from an enemy? PHAEDRA: One of my dearest has killed me --- neither he nor I was willing.
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§ 320 NURSE: Has Theseus committed some fault against you? PHAEDRA: May I never be seen to do him harm! NURSE: What is this terrible thing that urges you to die? PHAEDRA: Let me commit my fault: I’m not doing it against you. NURSE: It will not be my fault, but yours, if I am found wanting. (SHE FALLS AT PHAEDRA’S FEET IN THE SUPPLIANT POSITION)
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§ 325 PHAEDRA: What are you doing? Are you going to lay a violent hand on me? NURSE: And on your knees, and I won’t let go! PHAEDRA: This will be bad for you, poor woman, if you find out --- bad! NURSE: What bad thing is worse for me than not obtaining you? PHAEDRA: You’ll die! But for me the affair brings honour.
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§ 330 NURSE: So you’re not telling me, even though I’m beseeching you for your own good? PHAEDRA: Out of shamefulness I’m planning nobility. NURSE: Won’t you appear more honoured if you speak? PHAEDRA: Go away, by the gods, and let go of my hand! NURSE: No! You’re not giving me the gift you should!
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§ 335 PHAEDRA: I will give it: I respect the holiness of your hand. NURSE: I’ll be quiet now --- from now on it’s your turn to speak. PHAEDRA: My poor mother! What a love you fell for! NURSE: The one she had for a bull, my child? Is that what you mean? PHAEDRA: And you, my poor sister, as the wife of Dionysus!
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§ 340 NURSE: Child, what’s wrong with you? Are you abusing your relatives? PHAEDRA: And I, the third, poor me, how I am done for! NURSE: I’m astonished --- where is this leading to? PHAEDRA: It’s from back then, not recently, that my misfortune comes! NURSE (CONFUSED): I’m no wiser about what I want to hear.
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§ 345 PHAEDRA: Alas! How could you tell me what I should say? NURSE: I’m no prophet to clearly recognise the invisible. PHAEDRA: What is it they mean by people falling in love? NURSE: The sweetest thing, my child, but at the same time painful. PHAEDRA: I would be experiencing the latter.
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§ 350 NURSE: What do you mean? Are you in love, child? With whom? PHAEDRA: Whoever he is, that son of the Amazon --- NURSE: Hippolytus you mean? PHAEDRA: You said it, not me. NURSE: Oh no, what’ve you said, my child! How you’ve killed me! Women, this is unbearable, I won’t put up with
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§ 355 Living! It’s a hateful day, a hateful light, that I’m looking on! I’ll hurl I’ll throw my body, I’ll get rid of my Life and die! Farewell, I’m no more! The chaste, unwillingly, but despite that, Are falling in love with evils! Aphrodite cannot be a goddess,
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§ 360 But something else greater than a god, Since she has destroyed her, me and the house! CHORUS: Α: Did you learn of and hear The incurable Wretched sufferings of the queen in her groans? B: May I die, dear friend, before arriving at
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§ 365 Your purpose! Alas! Alas! C: Poor woman --- these pains of yours! D: Oh the pains that nourish mortals! E: You are ruined, you have revealed your evils to the light of day! F: What awaits you in the hours of this long day?
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§ 370 G: Something unusual will come to pass in the house. H: Now we know the direction Aphrodite’s fortune Is ending, wretched Cretan child! PHAEDRA: You women of Troezen, who live here at the northernmost Promontory of the Peloponnese,
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§ 375 Already in other circumstances in the long hours of the night I have pondered on how the life of mortals is ruined. And to me it seems that not according to the nature of their good judgment They act more evilly --- because good sense belongs To many people. This is how we should look at it:
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§ 380 We understand and recognise the good, But don’t work at it, some out of laziness, But others preferring some other pleasure To the good. There are many pleasures in life, Long talks and leisure, a delightful evil,
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§ 385 And shame. They are twofold, one not bad, The other a burden on houses. If the distinction were clear, The two would not be written with the same letters. Since this conclusion is what I came to recognise beforehand, There is no drug by which I was going
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§ 390 To destroy it, so as to fall back from my opinion. I will tell you the path of my judgment: Since love has wounded me, I kept examining how I might bear it most nobly. I began then From this, to keep silent and hide this illness.
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§ 395 Yes, for the tongue is not to be trusted, which knows how To advise the minds of men out of doors, But obtains the greatest harm from itself. Secondly, I thought in advance to bear My madness well by overcoming it with chastity.
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§ 400 Thirdly, since I did not succeed in overcoming Aphrodite with this, I decided to die, As it was the best plan --- no-one will deny that. May I not lose sight of honour, Nor have many witnesses to my committing dishonour.
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§ 405 I knew that the action and the illness were discreditable, And also I well recognised that I was a woman, An object of hatred to all men. May she die most painfully, The woman who first began to shame her marriage-bed With men outside the house. This evil with women
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§ 410 Began from noble houses. For whenever the nobility think that dishonour is good, Then indeed lesser people will think it good as well. I hate those women who are chaste in words, But secretly commit dishonourable acts of daring.
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§ 415 How do they ever, lady Aphrodite, Look into their husbands’ faces, And not fear that darkness their accomplice, And the chambers of their house, will ever utter their voice? This is what is killing me, ladies:
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§ 420 That I might never be caught shaming my husband, Nor the children I gave birth to. Free, Saying what they like, may they live and flourish in the famous City of Athens, and have a good reputation from their mother. Yes, for it enslaves a man, even if he is stout-hearted,
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§ 425 When he is conscious of the bad actions of his mother or father. Only one thing, they say, competes in value with life, A just and noble mind for whoever has it. But Time reveals bad people, By putting a mirror in front of them, as if to a young
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§ 430 Girl: may I never be counted among them! CHORUS: Ah, how noble is self-control everywhere, Bringing forth the fruit of a good reputation for people! NURSE: Mistress, for me your misfortune just now Provided a sudden pang of fear.
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§ 435 But now I consider that I am of no account. And among people Second thoughts are somehow wiser. This is nothing extraordinary at all, or outside of reason, That you’ve suffered. The passions of a goddess have fallen upon you. You’re in love. What’s surprising about that? So are a lot of people.
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§ 440 Are you going to lose your life for love? Then it doesn’t profit those in love with people near to them, All who are intending to, if they must die. No, for Aphrodite is not to be endured, when she flows in full. She goes quietly against the man who yields to her,
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§ 445 But whoever she finds to be excessive and thinking big of himself, That’s who she seizes and mistreats. Aphrodite wanders in the sky, is in the waves Of the sea, and everything comes from her. She it is who sows and gives love,
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§ 450 Whence are we all who are born on the earth. Certainly all who have writings of people In olden times, and are themselves always among the Muses, Know that Zeus once fell in love with the bed Of Semele, and they know that Dawn of the beautiful light
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§ 455 Once snatched up Cephalus into the gods Because of love. Nevertheless they live In heaven and are not exiled from the gods out of the way, But they acquiesce, I think, in their defeat by misfortune. And you will not put up with this? You father should have had you
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§ 460 On fixed terms, and with other gods As your masters, if you will not acquiesce in these customs. How many men, do you think, although they are quite sensible, See that their marriage-beds are ill, and yet pretend not to see? How many fathers do you think help to provide their wayward sons
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§ 465 With Aphrodite? No, for among the wise This is something people do: dishonourable actions are hidden. People should not work too hard at life; Nor could you well make exact the roof by which A house is covered. Although you have fallen
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§ 470 Into so great a misfortune, do you somehow think you could swim out of it? No --- if you have more good than bad, As a human being, then you have done very well. Dear child, cease your bad thoughts, And cease committing hubris: because this is nothing other
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§ 475 Than hubris, your wanting to be greater than the gods. Be brave while you’re in love --- god wanted it so. Though you are ill, somehow turn back the illness to good effect. There are spells and words to soothe it: A medicine for this illness will be revealed.
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§ 480 Indeed men would discover this late in the piece, If we women did not find it first. CHORUS: Phaedra, she is saying some quite useful things About your current disaster, but I praise you. This praise, though, is more difficult for you than
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§ 485 Her words, and more painful for you to hear. PHAEDRA: (TO NURSE) This is what destroys people’s well-inhabited Cities --- words that are too fine! You should be telling me what isn’t delightful to my ears,
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§ 490 Something from which a person will have a good reputation. NURSE: Why talk so haughtily? You don’t need decorous Words, but the man! We must get things clear at once, And declare the forthright truth about you. For if your life were not in the circumstances of such A disaster, and you did not now happen to be a chaste woman,
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§ 495 I would never for sex and your pleasure Be leading you here to this. But as it is there is a great contest To save your life, and this is not to be despised. PHAEDRA: What horrible things you’re saying! Won’t you shut your mouth And not let loose again words totally without honour?

Via ToposText (topostext.org), a project of the Aikaterini Laskaridis Foundation created by Brady Kiesling. Translated by Colin Young (2019). Composed ca. 428 BCE. Licence: public domain. Source.