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AUTHOR: 
 
 EURIPIDES 
 
 TITLE: 
 
 BACCHAE AND 
 HERACLIDAE .. 
 
 PLACE: 
 
 OXFORD 
 
 DA TE : 
 
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 "w-^. • Bacohae^, 
 
 Euripidea £»^5^- 'G^ 
 
 The Baoohae and Heraclidfib of Euripides » tr# 
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 notas. Oxford^ H« Slatter, 1828. 
 
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 LIBRARY 
 
 / 
 
 GIVEN BY 
 
 V. 
 
THE 
 
 BACCHyE, and HERACLID^E, 
 
 OF 
 
 EURIPIDES: 
 
 TRANSLATED 
 
 INTO 
 
 ENGLISH PROSE. 
 
c^TT^i^tlZ 
 
 THE 
 
 BACCH^, AND HERACLID^, 
 
 or 
 
 EURIPIDES: 
 
 TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH PROSE, 
 
 FROM THE 
 
 T^XT OF feLMiSI EV. 
 
 WITH NOTES. 
 
 OXFORD: 
 
 H. SLATTER, HIGH STREET : 
 
 LONGMAN, REES, ORME, BROWN, AND GREEN ; AND 
 G.B.WHITTAKER; LONDON. 
 
 MDCCC XXVIII. 
 
 '*\ 
 
 i 
 
\^ 
 
 ^ i 
 
 
 > 
 
 PRINTED BY R. WATTS, CROWN 'JOURT, TEMPLE BAR, LONDON. 
 
 I < 
 I 
 
 
 ^ I • 
 
 THE BACCH^. 
 
 
 B 
 
 ZZ3 
 
 I 
 
} 
 
 *i 
 
 PERSONS OF THE DRAMA. 
 
 BM^CHUS. 
 
 TIRESIAS. 
 
 CADMUS. 
 
 PENTHEUS. 
 
 CHORUS OF BACCH^. 
 
 SERVANT. 
 
 MESSENGERS. 
 
 AGAVE. 
 
 ^^ ^^^^ M. ^g "jT Jm 
 
 THE BACCHiEJ 
 
 BACCHUS. 
 
 I HAVE come to this land of the Thebans, Bacchus the 
 son of Jove, to whom Semele, the daughter of Cadmus, 
 formerly gave birth, as she was freed from her pains by the 
 blaze of the winged hghtning. But having assumed a 
 mortal form in exchange for that of a God, I now resort to 
 the fountains of Dirce and the streams of Ismenus : and I 
 behold, beside her house, this tomb of my mother who pe- 
 rished by the thunder, and the smoking ruins of the abode, 
 and the flames of the fire of heaven, which still live and mark 
 for ever the wrongs inflicted by Juno on my mother. But 
 my praises are due to Cadmus, who hath set apart from 
 profaning feet this plain, where his daughter is entombed, 
 and which I have screened around with the verdant clusters 
 of the vine. Having left the Lydian* and Phrygian fields 
 that abound with gold, and passing to the scorched plains 
 of Persia, the walls of Bactria, the inclement country' of 
 
 (1) A wretched French Critic has ranked this beautiful Drama in the 
 same satirical class to which the Cyclops more obviously belongs. It 
 would be idle to waste words in refutation of such absurdity ; as it would 
 be equally needless to inform the reader of taste, that no play has sur- 
 vived the wreck of ancient literature which more abounds with all the 
 truest beauties of poetry. 
 
 (2) " Bacchus in Lydia et Phrygia educatus est : posted vir factus, 
 Persian!, Bactriam, Mediam, Arabiam, loniam bello subegit. Constructio 
 igitur est : \vk^v l\ t^ls voKvxpvffovs yvas AvSuv ^pvywp T€, tinXdcSv re ijAeto- 
 fiKi^rovs vXaucas UipauVy BoucTpui re Tfixn-, &C." — Musgrave. 
 
 (3) " Mediam recte poeta vocat Jiuax^ifxov, i. e. frigidam ; nam Ecbatana 
 erat metropolis Mediae, ubi Persarum reges et Parthorum postek sestira 
 habebant : frigida enim est Media, testante Strabone.'* Lib. XI.— Barnes. 
 
 B 2 
 
 .■1% 
 
 
 vvv*r 
 
 1 
 
 k 
 
 i 
 
 ti 
 
4 EURIPIDES. 
 
 the Medes, the blest Arabia, and all the tract of Asia that 
 lies by the salt sea, having its cities with their fair towers 
 full of mingled Greeks* and Barbarians ; and having there 
 led the dance, and established my rites, that I might be 
 manifest as a deity to mortals; I have come to this city, the 
 first in Greece. JLaJThebes, the first of all the Grecian 
 realms, I have raised the shout, having flung the fawn-skin 
 over my Hmbs, and having seized in my hand the thyrsus, 
 the spear with ivy bound: for the sisters^ of my mother, 
 whom it least became, have said that Bacchus was not sprung 
 from Jove ; but that Semele, embraced by some mortal, 
 ascribed, on the crafty advice of Cadmus, the errors of 
 her love to the God ; in return for which they arrogantly 
 proclaim that Jove slew her, because she had falsely boasted 
 of his alliance. I have therefore driven these dames from 
 their homes in phrensy, (for, distracted in their minds, they 
 are now dwelling in the mountains,) and I have compelled 
 them to assume the insignia^ of my rites ; and of all the 
 female race of the Cad means, as many as have attained to 
 womanhood, I have driven by madness from their houses ; 
 and, mingled together with the sons of Cadmus beneath the 
 shade of the green pines, they are seated on the lofty rocks. 
 For it is necessary that this city should fully learn, even 
 though unwilling, the mystery of my orgies, in which it is 
 untaught; and that I should justify the cause of my mother 
 Semele, by appearing to mortals as the deity whom she 
 bore to Jove. Cad^^s, in the mean while, has yielded his 
 honours and royal power to Pentheus. the son of his 
 daughter, who wages war against my religion, and rejects 
 mefr^ the libations, and makes no mention of me in the 
 
 (1) This, of course, is a very gross anachronism ; as it was not till long 
 after the time of Cadmus that the Grecian colonies were founded in Asia 
 Minor. Elmsley, in taking notice of the circumstance, has justly ob- 
 served, that mistakes of this kind are constantly committed by Euripides. 
 
 (2) Ino, Autonoe, and Agave. 
 
 (3) ^^ Hunc Baccharum apparatum fuisse apparet, nebridas, sindones, 
 mitras, ferulas, pampinos, hederam, thyrsos, tibias, fistulas, tintinnabula, 
 tympana." — Bj^knes. 
 
 \ 
 
 / 
 
 THE BACCHiE. 5 
 
 prayers. I will therefore manifest myself to him, and to 
 all the Thebans, as having been born a God ; and having 
 arranged all matters well here, I will remove, and again 
 reveal myself to another land. But if the Theban citizens 
 should desire, in their wrath, to drive my votaries from the 
 mountain with arms, I will encounter them, and lead the 
 bands of my Maenades. I have, for this cause, assumed a 
 mortal form, and changed my person to the likeness of a 
 man. But, O ye who left Xl»i4u?> ^^5, Jpfty barrier of 
 Lydia ! j ye maids of my inspired train\ whom I brought 
 from your Barbaric tribes to share my seats and attend my 
 paths ! upHft your timbrels, whose sound is native to the 
 city"* of the Phrygians, the invention of me^Aod of Mother 
 Rhea, and, going around this royal abode of Pentheus, 
 awake their notes, so that the city of Cadmus may witness 
 the scene. But I, going to the vales ^9£.CithjaBron, where 
 the Bacchae abide, with them will lead the dance. 
 
 CHORUS. 
 
 From the land of Asia, leaving the sacred Tmolus, I 
 wildly speed in honour of Bromius — a toil that is sweet, a 
 labour that is lightly felt, as I pour my blessings for the 
 Bacchic God. Who is in the way ? who is in the way ? 
 Let him depart from these courts, and let every one still 
 his voice in holy silence'; for I will ever, as is due, 
 awake the praises of Bacchus. O happy is he, who, fa- 
 voured of heaven, and skilled in the rites of the Gods, con- 
 secrates his life, and imbues his soul with our mysteries, 
 following the Bacchic worship among the mountains, in a 
 holy and purifying course ; who, religiously observing the 
 
 (1) " Thiasus multitudinem rei divinae causa collectam, pompam quo- 
 que, quae Dionysum comitabatur, significat." — Barn es. 
 
 (2) This expression is probably general ; and does not refer, as Barnes 
 would have it, to the particular city of Pessinus. 
 
 (3) If all were to depart, it seems rather unnecessary to tell them at 
 the same time to keep silence. Musgrave has attempted an unsatisfac- 
 tory explanation, by supposing that the words ^ktowos Itrrw apply to 
 those who are eV d5y, and the command which follows to those who are 
 
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 M'^ 
 
 f- - 
 
It 
 
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 6 EURIPIDES. 
 
 orgies of the mighty Mother Cybele, and waving aloft the 
 thyrsus, and crowned with ivy, gives honour to Bacchus. 
 Haste, then, ye Bacchae ! haste to conduct from the moun- 
 taingijf^gfaygia, to the scene of the spacious dance, the 
 streets of Greece, the God who was in thunder born, 
 Bacchus, the son of a God ! Him did his mother, when 
 possessed by the extreme throes of parturition, erst bring 
 forth amid the winged lightnings of Jove, with an untimely 
 birth, herself expiring by the stroke of the thunder. But 
 Jupiter, the son of Saturn, immediately received the babe 
 in the chambers of a womb : for having enclosed him in his 
 thigh, he there fixed him with golden clasps, to lie con- 
 cealed from Juno; and brought him forth when the Fates 
 had perfected the horned God, and wreathed his head 
 with a wreath of serpents; whence the Maenades, who bear 
 the thyrsus, entwine the wild prey* with their ringlets. 
 O Thebes, nurse of Semele, crown thyself with ivy! 
 bloom, O bloom all around with the lovely blossoms of 
 the verdant smilax, and wield in the Bacchic revelry the 
 branches of the oak or pine ! Wreath thy garments of the 
 dappled fawn-skin with the twisted locks of the snowy 
 fleece; and, with religious observance of the rites, seize the 
 sportive wands. The whole land shall soon celebrate the 
 dance. It is Bromius who leads his choirs to the moun- 
 tain — to the mountain where the female crowd await him, 
 V being driven from the loom and the shuttle by the madden- 
 * ing influence of Bacchus. O sanctuary of the Curetes, and 
 divine retreats of Crete, that saw the birth of Jove ! it was 
 amid your caves that the Corybantes of the triple crest in- 
 vented for me this orbed timbrel from the extended hide ; 
 and in the Bacchic rites they mingled its sound with the 
 harmonious breathings that sweetly flow from the Phrygian 
 flutes ; and placed it in the hands of Mother Rhea, to awake 
 
 (l) " Manifestum est &ypay intelligi debere de captis serpen tibus. 
 Horatius, Carm, II. 19. 
 
 Tu separatis uvidus in jugis 
 
 Nodo coerces viperino 
 Bistonidum sine fraude crines." Brunck. 
 
 } 
 
 I 
 
 ^ 
 
 THE BACCH^. 7 
 
 its strains amid the acclaims of the Bacchae. But the 
 maddening Satyrs obtained the gift from the Mother God- 
 dess', and united it to the dances of the Trieteric* festivals, 
 in which Bacchus rejoices. O sweet is the life of the God* 
 in the mountains, when, leaving his nimble choirs, he de- 
 scends to the plain, bearing the sacred garb of the fawn- 
 skin, and hunting for the blood of the slaughtered goat, the 
 rapture of the banquet without fire, ere he hurries in his 
 course to the mountains of Pbrvida and Lydia! It is 
 Bromius who is our leader, Evoe I But the plam flows 
 with milk; it flows with wine; it flows with the nectar of the 
 bee^; and around there breathes an odour, as of the Syrian 
 incense. And Bacchus, bearing the flame of the torch 
 streaming from the cane, rushes along, exciting, as he 
 speeds, his roaming bands, and rousing them with his 
 shouts, and giving his luxuriant ringlets to flow to the gale ; 
 while high above the acclaim of the votaries he thus in- 
 vokes them : *' O haste, ye Bacchae, dehght of Tmolus that 
 teems with gold ! O haste, ye Bacchae, to sing the praise of 
 Bacchus to the deep music of the timbrel, in Bacchic 
 measure hymning the Bacchic God with your Phrygian 
 strains and voices, when the sweetly-breathing and sacred 
 flute shall awake its sacred notes with harmony respon- 
 
 (1) " These two verses, hitherto little understood, ought, I think, to be 
 rendered, " hut the frantic Satyrs obtained it {i.e. the timbrel) from the 
 Mother Goddess ;" for the poet is giving a kind of history of the tim- 
 brel. Its invention was due to the Curetes and Corybantes, by whom it 
 was delivered into the hands of Mother Rhea ; and obtained from her by 
 the Satyrs, who united it to the triennial dances with which Bacchus is 
 delighted." — Heath. 
 
 (2) The Trieteric Festivals were held in honour of the expedition of 
 Bacchus into India, in which he was engaged for three years. They were 
 of very ancient institution ; and were first celebrated, according to Dio- 
 dorus Siculus, by the Thracians and Thebans. 
 
 (3) It is not quite clear, whether the God or the votary is meant in 
 the original; nor in either application is the sense of the passage good. 
 
 (•l) " Fas pervicaces est mihi Thyadas, 
 Vinique fontem, lactis et uberes 
 
 Can tare rivos, atque truncis 
 , Lapsa cavis iterare mella,"— Hor. Carm, 11,19. 
 
8 
 
 EURIPIDES. 
 
 sive to the Maenades !" To the mountain then, to the 
 mountain, the joyous Bacchanal (like a colt beside its mo- 
 ther in the pastures) directs with eager haste her bound- 
 ing steps. 
 
 TIRESIAS. 
 
 Who at the gates will call Cadmus from the house, the 
 son of Agenpr, who, having l eft the c i t j^, of Sidp n, reared 
 these towers of Thejijps ? Let some one go, and announce 
 that Tiresias seeks him : but he knows himself about what I 
 come, and how I, an old man^, agreed with him, an older, 
 to bind the thyrsus with leaves, and to wear the skins 
 of the fawn, and to crown the head with the boughs of 
 the ivy. 
 
 CADMUS. 
 
 O dearest friend, how quickly, though within the house, 
 I recognised when I heard thy voice, wise from a wise 
 speaker ! and I have come prepared, bearing these ensigns 
 of the God. For it behoves us, as far as is in our power, to 
 exalt the glories of him who sprung from my daughter — of 
 Bacchus, who hath been revealed as a God to men. Where 
 is it fitting to begin the dance ? or where to stay the foot, 
 and shake the hoary head ! Do thou, O aged Tiresias, ex- 
 plain to me, thy aged friend ; for thou art wise. I feel as if 
 I should neither weary by night nor by day in striking the 
 earth with the thyrsus. We forget, with delight, that we 
 are old men. 
 
 TIRES.— Your feelings, then, are the same as mine ; for I 
 both experience the vigour of youth, and will essay the 
 dance. 
 
 CADMUS. — Shall we not then pass in chariots to the 
 m^ntain ? 
 
 TIRES. — But the God would not thus receive equal 
 honour. 
 
 (1) Tiresias, though he talks of himself here as an old man, is yet re- 
 presented, by all the Tragedians, as flourishing in vigour in the time of 
 Eteocles and Polynices, who were in the fifth generation from Cadmus.' 
 Barnes had therefore good occasion to remark : " Valde omninb erat ne- 
 cesse ilium longaevum fuisse ; si quae hujusmodi historiis fides habenda." 
 
 i 
 
 1 
 
 ' 
 
 £ 
 
 THE BACCHiE. 
 
 9 
 
 CADMUS. — I, an aged man, will conduct thy aged steps. 
 
 TIRES. — The God shall, without any toil, now conduct us 
 to the spot. 
 
 CADMUS. — But shall we alone of the city dance in honour 
 of Bacchus ? 
 
 TIRES. — For we alone of the city think rightly ; but the 
 others think foolishly. 
 
 CADMUS. — It is tedious to delay : but take my hand. 
 
 TIRES. — Here, join and unite your hand with mine. 
 
 CADMUS. — Having been born a mortal, I will not slight 
 the Gods. 
 
 TIRES. — We would not indulge in vain speculations re- 
 specting the Gods*. The traditions of our fathers, and 
 those which coeval with time we have received, no argument 
 shall shake, not even though its wisdom should have been 
 sought from the highest minds. Some one may say, that I 
 do not pay respect to my years, in proceeding to dance, and 
 in crowning my head with ivy. Yet the God hath not de- 
 fined if it be proper for a young man to dance, or for one 
 of maturer years ; but wishes to have common honours 
 from all, and not to be the object of a partial worship. 
 
 CADMUS. — Since you, O Tiresias, do not behold this 
 light, I will act for you as an interpreter of events. Pen- 
 theus is passing this way with haste to the house, the son 
 of Echion, to whom I entrusted the power of this realm. 
 How fluttered he appears ! What new tidings in the world 
 will he tell? 
 
 PENTHEUS. 
 
 I chanced, indeed, to be absent from this land ; but I 
 have heard the new evils that have arisen in this city — that 
 our women have left their homes for the revels ^ialsejcites, 
 
 (l) " Nihil nos nimis argute de Diis exploramus. Hoc est, non convenit, 
 ut curios^ in illorum placita inquiramus ; obedientia nobis sufiicit : nee 
 est, ut illorum abscondita mysteria infideliter atque impie rimemur, aut 
 in disputationem trahamus ; nam ut Tacitus : Sanctius est ac reverentius^ 
 de actis Deorum credere^ quam scire. Et mihi quidem videtur vere Aurea 
 hsec esse sententia : Brevis est institutio viUs honesUs heataque^ si credos*' — 
 Barnes. 
 
10 
 
 EURIPIDES. 
 
 and that thejt run frantic amid the shady mountains, this 
 new God Bacchus^ whoever he may be, honouring with the 
 dance ; that goblets full of wine stand in the midst of their 
 choirs ; and that, in various quarters, the votaries, skulking 
 into lonely places, submit themselves to the embraces of the 
 males, pretending indeed that they are inspired Maenades, 
 but, in reality, preferring Venus to Bacchus. As many, 
 therefore, as I have taken, my attendants have secured, with 
 fetters on their hands, in the public prisons : but as many 
 as are absent I will hunt from the mountain ; Ino ; and 
 Agave, who bore me to Echion ; and the mother of Actaeon, 
 I mean Autonoe : and, having fastened them in bonds of 
 iron, will quickly make them cease from this evil wofship 
 of Bacchus. But they say that a certain stranger hath 
 .come from the Lydian land, an impostor and magician, 
 fairly adorned as to his hair with golden locks, of ruddy 
 countenance, and having in his eyes the graces of love, who 
 holds converse by night and by day with our youthful 
 maids, pretending to instruct them in the mystic rites of 
 Bacchus. If I catch him within this house, I shall make 
 him cease from beating the ground with the thyrsus, and 
 from waving his ringlets in the air, by lopping off his head 
 from his body. He says that he is the God Bacchus, and 
 that he was formerly sewed up in the thigh of Jove ; al- 
 though Bacchus was consumed in the blaze of the Ughtning, 
 along with his mother, because she had falsely claimed a 
 nuptial alliance with Jove. Is it not worthy of the pains of 
 strangling, that this stranger, whoever he is, should dare 
 this insolence ? But lo, another miracle ! I behold the 
 soothsayer Tiresias, habited in the dappled fawn-skins, and 
 the father of my mother, a most ridiculous sight ! waving 
 the Bacchic wand. I am shocked, father, at beholding 
 your age devoid of wisdom ! Will you not shake off the 
 ivy wreath? will you not free your hand from the thyrsus, 
 O father of my mother? It is you, Tiresias, who have 
 persuaded him to this. You would again wish, by intro- 
 ducing this new God among men, to observe the flights of 
 birds, and to draw profit from the omens of fire. If your 
 
 . i. 
 I 
 
 THE BACCH.E. 
 
 II 
 
 hoary age did not protect you, you should have sat in 
 chains in the midst of the Bacchae, as a punishment for 
 having introduced these pernicious rites : for where the 
 sparkling juice of the vine is quaffed by women at the 
 feast, you can no longer say that aught is chaste in their 
 orgies \ 
 
 CHORUS. — O impious words ! Dost thou not reverence, 
 O stranger, the Gods and Cadmus, who sowed the earth- 
 j born crop? Son of Echion as thou art, wilt thou dis- 
 honour thy race ? 
 
 TIRES. — When a wise man shall gain a fair occasion 
 for argument, there is no great difficulty in speaking 
 well. But you, indeed, have a voluble tongue like the 
 wise, and yet in your discourse no wisdom appears. A 
 bold and powerful man who is able to speak, proves a dan- 
 gerous citizen, if he be not giftedjsithdiscretion *. But as 
 to this new God, whom you deride, I am not able to express 
 how great his name shall become in Greece. For there 
 are two Powers, O youth, which claim the highest eminence 
 among men — the Goddess Ceres (but she is the^E^th, call 
 her b}^ which name you will) nourishes mortals with dry 
 aliments ; and the son of Sem.^, who came to rival her 
 benefits, invented the liquid juice of the gr^pe, and made 
 it knQjsrft-taihcLSfirfd : a gjij^ldlichj^ 
 ^QiEg§JLtll6irjcaCje§, when they have drank their fill from the 
 founts of the vine ; which imparts sleep,^ j^ij^. ^Qbliyioii of 
 life's daily ills; and which alone can afford a charm to I 
 soothe every sorrow ^ Bacchus, liaving been born aGod^ 
 
 sorrow 
 
 (1) The speech of Pentheus is full of very just reflections and good 
 morality, and one cannot help feeling that he has got much the best on 
 the question. The concluding sentiment will readily recall to the reader i 
 a noted line of Chaucer, which, in more powerful language, speaks the 
 same truth. 
 
 (2) Euripides is here supposed to glance at Cleophon, against whom he 
 entertained an enmity. 
 
 (3) It would be endless to accumulate, either from ancient or modem 
 authors, the many passages which have been devoted to the same praise ; 
 but no one can forget the beautiful language in which Xenophon repre- 
 sents Socrates to have extolled the gift of Bacchus : ohos dpdcoy rots <fa^(b, 
 
 ris 
 
 ■-r 
 
 \ ^' 
 
 / 
 
 
 
 / 
 
 
 f.1.'^^■ 
 
 y 
 
 X. 
 
12 
 
 EURIPIDES. 
 
 I is poured in libation to the Gods ; so that mortals, through 
 I him, derive their blessings. And yet you deride him, as 
 ^ having been sewed up* in the thigh of Jove. I will explain* 
 to you the right meaning of the words. When Jupiter 
 snatched him from the blaze of the lightning, and bore the 
 new-born babe to Olympus, Juno wished to cast him out 
 from the heavens ; but Jupiter thwarted her designs, with 
 the skill of a God. Having burst a part of the aether 
 which encompasses the earth, he there placed Bacchus, 
 giving him up as an hostage, to appease the wrath of Juno: 
 but in time men said that he was nursed in the thigh of 
 Jupiter, changing the name', because the God had once 
 given him as an hostage to the Goddess Juno, and falsifying 
 the tale. But this God is a prophet ; for the Bacchic in- 
 spiration and phrensy have much oracular power ; and when 
 the God hath taken strong possession of the body, he makes 
 his maddened votaries to predict the future. And he also 
 partakes of a share of the attributes of Mars : for fear hath 
 confounded a host in arms and in battle-array, before they 
 had lifted the spear ; and these frantic terrors are caused 
 by Bacchus. You shall yet behold him on the rocks of 
 Delphi, bounding with his torches over the summits of its 
 double crests, striking the earth with his thyrsus, and 
 waving its Bacchic boughs, and illustrious through Greece. 
 Be therefore, O Pentheus, persuaded by me. Do not 
 proudly deem that your sovereignty has power among men ; 
 nor, if you think so, (but your thoughts are distempered,) 
 think that in this you are wise : but admit the God into this 
 
 ras fikv \vTaSy cuffwfp 6 Maj/^payopas dvOpcitrovs, Koi/ut^et, tcU 8i <(>i\o<f>po<rvya5, 
 wawfp fXaiov (pXoya^ tydpfi. 
 
 (1) This, probably, was not the only time that Bacchus was sewed up. 
 
 (2) This promised explanation will be found to make the matter consi- 
 derably darker. 
 
 (3) By substituting .uf7f)or, which signifies "/Ai^A,** for Sfiripos, ^^ hostage.** 
 In explanation of the latter word, it may be mentioned that Juno is some- 
 times considered, by the ancient writers, as synonymous with t^ air ; and 
 that hence the expression of Bacchus having been given as an hostage to 
 the Goddess, denotes no more than his having obtained a lodging in the 
 element. 
 
 THE BAGCHiE. 
 
 13 
 
 4 
 
 country, and pour libations, and join the Bacchic revel, 
 and crown the head. Bacchus cannot compel women to\ 
 be chaste in the passions of love ; but chastity is always 
 inherent in the nature, as a shield against every trial J 
 You ought to regard this ; for, even in the Bacchic rites, 
 she who is chaste will not be corrupted. But consider 
 how you are rejoiced when many stand by your gates, and 
 the city magnifies the name of Pentheus. Now he too, I 
 doubt not, takes delight in being honoured. I, therefore, 
 and Cadmus, whom you mock, will both wreathe our brows 
 with ivy, and join the dance, a hoary pair: yet still the 
 dance must be observed, and I will not contend against 
 the God being persuaded by your words : for you are mad 
 in the worst degree, and cannot derive relief even from 
 magic charms, since it is not without their influence that 
 your distemper has arisen \ 
 
 CHORUS. — Old man, you do not disgrace Phoebus by 
 / your words ; and you shew your wisdom by honouring 
 Bacchus, the mighty God. 
 
 CADMUS. — Tiresias, my son, has advised you well. Abide 
 with us, and do not depart from sacred customs : for now 
 you are both flutteriBd with passion, and iii your thoughts 
 judge nought aright Even if Bacchus be not a God, as 
 you assert, let him be called one by you ; and maintain with 
 glorious falsehood that he is, in order that Semele may 
 both seem to have given birth to a God, and that honour 
 may accrue to all our race. Have you not seen the 
 wretched fate of Actaeon, whom the ravenous hounds which 
 he had reared tore to pieces in the woods, because he had 
 boasted that he excelled Diana in the chace ? Beware lest 
 you perish like him ! (come hither, and let me crown your 
 head with ivy,) but with us pay honour to the God. 
 
 (1) '^ Reisk. vertit: nsque propterea insanis, quieL his medicamentis cares. 
 Contra Heath, censet, ipapfuuca esse non medicamenta soliim, sed omne ge» 
 nus venejiciorum^ incantamentorum^ et fascinationum ; omnia denique, quae 
 praeter naturae ordinem usitatum in hominum nientes aut corpora in- 
 fluunt. Dixisse igitur Tiresiam, Fentheum jam tunc a Baccho irato 
 fascinatum et mente captum insanire coepbse." — Beck. 
 
 ¥ 
 
14 
 
 EURIPIDES. 
 
 y 
 
 PEN. — You shall not touch me with your hand; but shall 
 go and join the Bacchanals, and shall not wipe off your 
 folly on me. I demand the punishment from this prophet 
 who prompted your absurdities. Let some one quickly 
 hasten, and, going to his seats, where he observes the flight 
 of birds, unloosen them with levers and upset them, over- 
 turning and confounding all together ; and cast his sacred 
 chaplets to the winds and storms. For by doing this I 
 shall most keenly pain him. But let others, going through 
 the city, seek out this effeminate stranger, who introduces 
 this new disease among our women, and pollutes our beds : 
 and if ye shall take him, bring him hither in chains; that, 
 having met with the punishment of stoning, he may die, 
 and see a bitter end of his revelling in Thebes. 
 
 TIRES. — O wretched man! how little you know what words 
 ^ou are saying. You are now mad, and had before de- 
 parted from your senses. Let us go, Cadmus, and suppli- 
 cate in behalf of him, although he is without pity ; and in 
 behalf of thejcity, that the God inflict no punishmentTn 
 consequence. But follow me with your ivy rod, and try 
 to support my body, as I will to support yours ; for it were 
 disgraceful that two old men should fall. Still, let come 
 what may, we must obey Bacchus, the son of Jove. I fear, 
 Cadmus, lest Pentheus bring sorrow to your house: I 
 speak not from my prophetic skill, but from his conduct ; 
 for a fool says what is foolish. 
 
 CHORUS.--0 sacred Power^ revered among the Gods! O 
 sacred Power, who wieldest thy golden sceptre beneath the 
 earth ! hearest thou these threats of Pentheus? Hearest thou 
 his blasphemous taunts against the son of Semele, who was 
 born amid the thunder, the God who of all the blessed Powers 
 
 (1) The Commentators are all at variance as to the Goddess who is here 
 addressed ; and many of them think that the invocation extends to two se-« 
 parate Powers. Even the judicious Elmsley wastes a long note on this 
 trifling matter. It seems clear, that the Chorus not only make their ap- 
 peal to Proserpine, but tliat they had no idea of associating in the same 
 strain any less potent nMire with that of the Goddess, whom they dis- 
 tmctly mark by her golden sceptre and sovereignty beneath the earth. 
 
 THE BACCHiE. 
 
 15 
 
 • 
 
 is' the most revered, when the banquet brightens amid the 
 wreaths of lovely flowers? who owns these attributes to lead 
 the revel to his choirs, to smile with joy at the strains of the 
 flute, and to bid sorrow fly when, at the banquet of the Gods, 
 the sparkling juice of the vine shall appear; and when, 
 amid his festivals, where the ivy is worn, the goblet causes 
 sleep to enwrap the votary. Of unbridled tongues and of 
 lawless folly, the end is mishap : but a life of quiet, and 
 thoughts of wisdom, both remain unshaken, and are the 
 firm support of houses ; for the Gods, though dwellmg afar 
 in the heavens, regard the affairs of mortals. But human 
 wisdom is folly, and pride that rises above mortal thoughts 
 is vain. Life is short; arid whoever, in its course, pursues 
 too lofty objects, shall not gain those which were within his 
 reach. These are the ways of mad and, in my opinion, of 
 evil-minded men. Would that I might win my way to 
 Cyprus, the isle of Venus, where dwell the Loves that 
 soothe the souls of mortals ; or to Paphos', which is fertilized 
 by the streams of the barbaric river, that gush, though 
 unfed by showers, from a hundred mouths ! Where Pieria, 
 the seat of the Muses, blooms in beauty, and where the 
 sacred steeps of Olympus arise, thither, O Bromius, 
 Bromius, conduct my steps^ thou God whose leading 
 
 ILSi^y- ^^^"^^ ^^^^1 the GraceCanfltl^^^^^ 
 and fliere it is lawful for the Bacchae to celebrate their 
 rites. The God who sprung from Jove rejoices in the 
 feast; and loves Peace, the Goddess who bestows 
 wealth and fosters youth : and alike hath he permitted 
 the rich and the poor to share the delights of wine un- 
 mmgled with pain. But he hates him to whom it is not a 
 study to lead a happy life, both by day and friendly night 
 Banish, then, wise thoughts, and such sentiments as spring 
 from men of superfluous subtlety ; for that which the 
 
 (1) " na0oi/, forte *o/>oi/, insulam iEgypti apud Alexandriam ; sane in 
 sequentibus Nilum describit. Mire desultorius est Euripides, et vere 
 bacchatur cum Bacchis suis, e Cypro ad NUum, et statim in Macedoniam 
 transiliens."— Rei j>KE . 
 
 "^'^ 
 
 c *<- 
 
 fxf-J 
 
 \ 
 
16 
 
 EURIPIDES. 
 
 meaner crowd hatli approved and acted upon, I would 
 say to you was rights. 
 
 SERVANT. 
 
 We come, O Pentheus, having taken this prey, for 
 which you sent us ; nor did we set forth on an unsuccessful 
 pursuit. But this savage animal proved tame to us, nor 
 withdrew his steps in flight, but yielded, without reluctance, 
 his hands, neither pale with fear, nor changing the ruddy 
 glow of his cheek ; but, smiling, he permitted us to bind 
 and lead him away, and he remained with us, making my 
 task easy*. And I, through respect, said, " O stranger, 
 not willingly I lead you away, but by the commands of 
 Pentheus, who sent me." But as to the Bacchae, whom 
 you seized, and confined and bound with chains in the 
 public prison, they, escaping from their fetters, bound 
 away to the sacred groves, invoking Bromius their God : 
 their chains spontaneously fell from off their feet% and 
 the bolts unfastened the doors without the aid of mortal 
 hand. This man hath come, endowed with many marvel- 
 lous powers, to this city of Thebes ; but it is your part to 
 consult as to what remains. 
 
 PEN. — Hold fast his hands ; for, being entangled in the 
 toils, he is not so swift as to be able to escape me. But 
 in your person, O stranger, you are well formed to win the 
 love of women, for which purpose you have come to 
 Thebes : for your ringlets flow, not as taught by the toils 
 of the palaBstra, but descending loosely by the cheek, and 
 all expressive of desire; and you shew a skin whose 
 whiteness hath been preserved with studied care, not ex- 
 posed to the rays of the sun, but cherished in the shade, 
 
 (1) '* Sensus est : Rectius de his rebus seniire et agere mihi videntur vul- 
 jfus quam philosophic'* — Elmsley. 
 
 (2) We prefer in this passage the interpretation of Musgrave : " Meam 
 operam facilem reddens ;" to that of Elmsley : " Facilem sibi reddens, id est, 
 piacide et peUienter ferensJ** 
 
 (3) " Hunc et sequentem rersum transtulit Ovidius, Metam. III. 699. 
 
 Sponte sua patuisse fores, lapsasque lacertis 
 Sponte sua, fama est, nullo solvente, catenas." — Brunck. 
 
 T'HE BACCHiE. 
 
 17 
 
 > 
 
 t 
 
 that you might attract love by your beauty. Inform me, 
 then, in the first place, who you are by birth* 
 
 BACCHUS. — No vain boast shall be spoken by me, for it 
 is easy to answer your question. You, perchance, have 
 heard of the flowery Tmolus * ? 
 
 PEN. — I know it ; the mountain which encircles the city of 
 Sardis. 
 
 BACCHUS. — Thence I am, and Lydia is my country. 
 
 PEN. — But whence do you bring these rites to Greece ? 
 
 BACCHUS. — Bacchus, the son of Jove, instructed me in 
 their solemnities. 
 
 PEN. — But is there in that country a Jove, who begets 
 new Gods? 
 
 BACCHUS. — No ; for it was here he wedded Semele. 
 
 PEN. — Was it by night or by day that Bacchus con- 
 strained you to his worship ? 
 
 BACCHUS. — Seeing, and seen ; and he imparted to me his 
 mystic rites. 
 
 PEN. — In what form were these mystic rites disclosed to 
 you ? 
 
 BACCHUS. — This may not be revealed to the knowledge! 
 of uninitiated mortals. I 
 
 PEN. — Do his rites bring any advantage to the votaries? 
 
 BACCHUS. — It is not lawful for you to hear ; but the se- 
 cret is well worth knowing. 
 
 PEN. — You have ingeniously forged this, that I may 
 wish to hear it. 
 
 BACCHUS. — The mysteries of the God abhor him who 
 
 practises impiety. 
 
 PEN. — Since you say distinctly that you saw the God, 
 what was his appearance ? 
 
 BACCHUS. — Such as he chose to assume: I did not pre- 
 scribe it. 
 
 (1) " Tmolus, mons Lydiae, cujus ad radices Sardis urbs; nee frustrk 
 dvQifuahi TfuuKov vocat poeta : nam Solinus, Columella et Martianus tes- 
 tantur hunc montem esse florentissimum croco; et Theophrastus : T/u». 
 

 18 
 
 EURIPIDES. 
 
 PEN. — You have again skilfully diverted my question, 
 and answered nothing. 
 
 BACCHUS. — One who says what is wise, will appear to 
 the ignorant not to be wise. 
 
 PEN. — Have you come here first to introduce this God? 
 
 BACCHUS. — All the Barbarians celebrate with the dance 
 his rites. 
 
 PEN. — Because they are much inferior in wisdom to the 
 Greeks. 
 
 BACCHUS.— In this respect much superior; but their cus- 
 toms are different 
 
 PEN. — Do you celebrate these sacred rites by night or 
 by day ? 
 
 BACCHUS. — Chiefly by night; for darkness inspires awe. 
 
 PEN. — Its opportunities are treacherous, and corrupting 
 for women. 
 
 BACCHUS. — Even by day may any one find the means of 
 shame. 
 
 PEN. — It is fit that you should suffer punishment, for 
 your pernicious sophistries. 
 
 BACCHUS.— And you, for your folly and your impiety 
 towards the God. 
 
 PEN.— How bold is this Bacchanal^ ! and not unpra.ctised 
 
 in argument. 
 
 BACCHUS.— Tell me what I must suffer^ ? what dreadful 
 
 punishment will you inflict upon me ? 
 
 PEN.— In the first place, I will cut away your soft ringlets. 
 
 (1) " 'O BaKxos non est Aiowaos, sed masculinum afeminino BaKxn de- 
 rivatum. Ita per contemptum rdv er}\v(xop<pov ^4vov appellat Pentheus. 
 Nemo enim eum Bacchum esse suspicatur." — Elmsley. 
 
 (2) " Haec in usum suum transsumpsit Horatius, Epist.1. 16. in fine i 
 
 Vir bonus et sapiens audebit dicere: Pentheu, 
 
 Rector Thebarum, quid me perferre patique 
 
 Indignum coges ? Adimam bona ? Nempe pecus, rem, 
 
 Lectos, argentum : tollas licet. In manicis et 
 
 Compedibus ssevo te sub custode tenebo. 
 
 Ipse Deus, simulatque volam, me solvet. Opinor, 
 
 Hoc sentit: moriar; mors ultima linea rerum est." Brunck. 
 
 / 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 THE BACCHiE. 
 
 19 
 
 BACCHUS. — These locks are sacred : I cherish them for 
 the God*. 
 
 PEN. — Next, deliver up that thyrsus fi-om your hands. 
 
 BACCHUS. — Do you, yourself, take it from me : I bear it 
 the gift of Bacchus. 
 
 PEN. — And we shall securely keep your body in a dun- 
 geon. 
 
 BACCHUS. — The God himself will free me, when I wish it. 
 
 PEN. — Yes, when you call upon him, standing amid the 
 Bacchae. 
 
 BACCHUS. — Even now, being near and present, he beholds 
 what I suffer. 
 
 PEN. — Where is he ? for to my eyes, at least, he is invi- 
 sible. 
 
 ' BACCHUS. — With me : but you, being impious, cannot 
 behold him. 
 
 PEN. — Seize him : he throws contempt on both Thebes 
 and me. 
 
 BACCHUS. — I, in my senses, forbid you, who are mad, to 
 bind me. 
 
 PEN. — But I, having greater power than you, command 
 them to bind you. 
 
 BACCHUS. — You do not know that you live, nor see, nor 
 who you are. 
 
 PEN. — I am Pentheus, the son of Agave, and of my father 
 Echion. 
 
 BACCHUS. — You are rightly destined, by your name, to 
 misfortune '. 
 
 PEN. — Away : shut him up beside the stalls of the horses, 
 that he may look on the gloom of darkness. There lead 
 
 (1) 
 
 " molles tibi sumere thyrsos, 
 
 I 
 
 Te lustrare choro, sacrum tibi pascere crinem.'* 
 
 Fir^.^n. VII. 389. 
 
 (2) " In the Greek language, ircvdos signifies grief. At the conclu- 
 sion of the dialogue between Cadmus and Tiresias, a few pages before, the 
 latter has already made the same miserable pun ; and Theocritus has de- 
 based his 26th Idyllium by it : 
 
 *E^ opeos TrfpOrifia^ koI o^ UevOrja ^povffaty WoDHULL, 
 
 c2 
 
20 
 
 EURIPIDES. 
 
 the dance ; but as for these women, whom you have come 
 with in your train, the partners of your offences, we shall 
 either sell them as slaves, or, having stayed their hands from 
 this noise and beating of the timbrel, employ them as do- 
 mestics at the loom. 
 
 BACCHUS. — I will now depart : for it is not fitting to en- 
 dure that which ought not to be inflicted. But Bacchus, 
 whose existence you deny, will demand from you a retri- 
 bution for these indignities ; since, in injuring me, you lead 
 him into chains. 
 
 CHORUS. — Daughter of Achelous, O sacred Dirce, happy 
 virgin! thou didst erst receive in thy founts the child of 
 Jove, when the God who begot him snatched him in his 
 thigh from the immortal blaze of the lightning, exclaiming 
 these words : " Come, Dithyrambus, enter this thy father's 
 womb ! I proclaim thee by this name, O Bacchus, for 
 Thebes to hail." Yet thou, O blessed Dirce, refusest to let 
 me hold by thee the revels in which the chaplet is worn. 
 Why dost thou disown me? why dost thou avoid me? 
 / Thou shalt yet, I swear by the beauteous clusters of the 
 vine of Bacchus ! pay due regard to the worship of Bromius. 
 What wrath, what wrath does Pentheus display, the off- 
 spring of the dragon-brood that sprang from the ground, 
 whom the earth-born Echion engendered, a monster of 
 savage aspect, no mortal man, but, like a bloody giant, the 
 adversary of the Gods ! Me, the votary of Bromius, will he 
 quickly bind with chains ; and he already detains within his 
 house the leader of our re^els, concealed in gloomy dun- 
 geon. Dost thou behold these things, O Bacchus, son of 
 Jove ? dost thou behold thy prophets in the struggles of 
 necessity? Come, shaking thy thyrsus as thou descendest 
 the gleaming steeps of Olympus, and repress the insolence 
 of the bloody tyrant ! Wilt thou then lead, O Bacchus, 
 thy choirs with the thyrsus to Nysa, the nurse of wild 
 beasts, or to the Corycian cliffs? or, haply, to the leafy shades 
 and caverns of Olympus, where Orpheus, when of old he 
 struck the lyre, drew the trees around him by his strains, 
 and drew, around him the beasts that roam the wild, O 
 
 THE BACCH^. 
 
 21 
 
 / 
 
 / 
 
 blest Pieria! Bacchus honours thee; and soon will he come 
 with mystic revelry and dance, and bring his hurrying 
 Maenades, after he has passed the rapid flow of Axius, and 
 Lydia*,the rich dispenser and author of prosperity; which, 
 I have heard, fertilizes a country renowned for the steed, 
 with the fairest of waters. 
 
 BACCHUS. — O hear, ye Bacchae ! O hear, ye Bacchae, my 
 
 voice ! 
 
 CHORUS. — Who is this ? Whence came the sounds of 
 Evius, that called upon me ? 
 
 BACCHUS. — lo, lo, I again repeat, the son of Semele, the 
 son of Jove. 
 
 CHORUS. — O Bromius our lord50 Bromius our lord, come 
 now to our band ! O dreadful earthquake, that shakes the 
 ground ! Ah ! ah ! soon shall these palaces of Pentheus 
 be shattered in ruins. 
 
 BACCHUS. — Bacchus is within these courts. Pay homage 
 to him. 
 
 CHORUS. — The homage we accord. Behold these mar- 
 ble capitals parting from the pillars. The shout of Bro- 
 mius shall soon be raised within the abode. 
 
 BACCHUS. — Kindle the blazing torch of the lightning, and 
 consume the house of Pentheus. 
 
 CHORUS. — -Ah ! ah ! dost thou not behold the fire ? and 
 does there not brighten around the sacred tomb of Semele 
 the flame which was left of old, when she perished amid 
 the lightning by the blazing bolt of Jove ? Cast, ye Mae- 
 nades, cast on the earth your trembling bodies : for our 
 king, Bacchus, the son of Jove, invades these palaces, and 
 lays their towers in the dust. 
 
 BACCHUS. — Ye barbaric maids, have ye fallen to the 
 ground thus confounded by fear ? Ye have perceived, it 
 would appear, how Bacchus shook the house of Pentheus. 
 
 (1) Barnes has taken this to mean the Asiatic Lydia ; but Musgrave 
 has more correctly suggested that there was a river of this name, which 
 separated Boeotia from Macedonia, to which the poet must of course have 
 referred. 
 
 /.' 
 
 r 
 
22 
 
 EURIPIDES. 
 
 But raise your bodies, and be of good cheer, and let the 
 trembhng depart from your limbs. 
 
 CHORUi. — O greatest glory of our inspired revels, how 
 gladly in my lonely desolation I behold thee ! 
 
 BACCHUS. — Did ye sink in despair, when I was led within 
 the house of Pentheus, as about to be cast into the gloomy 
 dungeon ? 
 
 CHORUS. — How should I not despair? Who was there to 
 protect me, if you had met with calamity ? But how have 
 you been freed, after falling into the power of an im- 
 pious man ? 
 
 BACCHUS. — I easily freed myself, without any toil. 
 
 CHORUS.— Did he not bind your hands with the links of 
 the chain ? 
 
 BACCHUS. — In this, too, I mocked him; so that, when he 
 thought to bind me, he neither touched nor reached me, 
 but was fed with delusions : for having found a bull by the 
 stalls, where he took and imprisoned me, he cast his fetters 
 around the knees and cloven feet of the animal, panting ^ 
 with fury, dropping sweat from every pore, and biting his 
 lips with his teeth. But I, being present and near, sat 
 quietly, and looked on ; and, in the mean time, Bacchus 
 coming, shook the house, and lighted up the flame on the 
 tomb of his mother ; and Pentheus, when he saw it, think- 
 ing the house was on fire, rushed hither and thither, com- 
 manding his domestics to bring water; and every slave 
 was at work, toiling in vain. But Pentheus relinquishing 
 this labour, on the idea that I had escaped, and having 
 snatched his dark sword, rushed within the house : and 
 then Bromius, as it appeared to me, (I speak what I thought,) 
 made a greater light in the hall ; and Pentheus hurried to 
 assail it, and smote at the lucid air as if he were slaying 
 me. But Bacchus, after this, both aflSicted him with other 
 ills, and levelled his house with the ground ; and the whole 
 structure' hath been demolished to its lord, who looked 
 
 (1) " Non omne palatium dirutum did Prcv. monet, sed earn tantiim 
 partem ubi Bacchae et Bacchus ipse captivi tenebantur ; nam in seqq. 
 
 comme- 
 
 THE BACCHiE. 
 
 23 
 
 'll 
 
 to his sorrow on my chains. At last, laying aside his 
 sword, he sinks exhausted beneath the toil ; for being a 
 man, he dared to engage in battle with a God : and! came 
 quietly from the royal abode to you, taking no heed of 
 Pentheus. But, as it appears to me, (for the step of a 
 sandal sounds within the house,) he will presently come to 
 the vestibule. What, after these mishaps, will he say ? 
 Yet I will bear with him mildly, even though he come 
 breathing violent fury ; for it is the part of a wise man to 
 exercise temperate forbearance. 
 
 PEN.— I have suffered dreadful things. The stranger, 
 who but now was bound in chains, has escaped me. Ha ! 
 there is the man. What may this mean? How, having 
 escaped without, do you appear at the vestibule of my house? 
 
 BACCHUS. — Stay your foot ; and substitute a calm manner* 
 for your wrath. 
 
 PEN. — By what means, having escaped your chains, have 
 you passed without ? 
 
 BACCHUS.— Have I not said ? have you not heard that 
 some one would free me ? 
 
 PEN.— Who? for you ar£^verJn|rodya(dn^ ne^^^^ 
 
 BACCHUs.-^3le who rears for men the thickly-clustering 
 vine. 
 
 PEN. — You have falsely ascribed this honour to Bacchus. 
 I command that the gates of all the towers around be 
 fastened. 
 
 BACCHUS. — Why ? cannot Gods pass the battlements of 
 walls ? 
 
 PEN. — You are wise, wise in all but what you ought to be 
 wise. 
 
 commemoratur palatii pars adhuc Integra." Beck. Such an explana- 
 
 tion is absurd, as the poet's word is of course as good in one passage as 
 another. It is needless to remind the reader that the plays of Euripides 
 are full of inconsistencies ; among which, this faU and restoration of the 
 palace are to be classed. 
 
 (1) Elmsley has correctly remarked, that ^ffvxov ir6Ba means the same 
 as ^vxov rp6xov^ in which sense we also find the phrase used in the 
 Medea, V. 217. 
 
24 
 
 EURIPIDES. 
 
 BACCHUS. — I have been born wise in those things where 
 wisdom is most required. But do you first listen, and at- 
 tend to the words of this man, who comes from the moun- 
 tain to announce some intelligence to you ; for I will stay 
 by you, and not attempt to fly. 
 
 MESSENGER. 
 
 O Pentheus, sovereign of this Theban soil ! I am come 
 from Cithaeron, where never thaw the shining flakes of 
 white snow. 
 
 PEN.— But bringing what important tidings have you 
 come ? 
 
 MESS.— Having seen the maddening' Bacchae, who in 
 phrensy darted with their white feet" from this land, I am 
 come, O king, wishing to tell to you and to the city what 
 dreadful deeds, and more than marvellous, they do. But I 
 wish to hear whether I may speak of these scenes with full 
 freedom, or whether I must contract my account; for I 
 fear, O king, your hasty^ pirit, your ra^tuanger, and more 
 than kingly pride. 
 
 PEN.— Speak, since you shall in nought be injured by 
 me; for it is not fitting to feel angry towards the just. But 
 the more dreadful the facts which you disclose concerning 
 the Bacchae, the more severely shall we visit with punish- 
 ment the wretch who suggested these arts to our women. 
 
 MESS.— The pasturing herds of oxen were just approach- 
 ing to the summits of the mountain, when the sun sent forth 
 his rays to gladden earth with their heat, and I behold 
 three companies of female bands, of whom Autonoe com- 
 manded one. Agave your mother the second, and Ino the 
 third. But they all slept with their bodies loosely laid, 
 some resting their backs on the boughs of pines, and some 
 among the leaves of the oak, having carelessly reposed their 
 heads on the ground ; but in chaste manner, and not, as you 
 
 (1) " norylaSasyfuriosas, Translatio sumpta est k rabiosis Glauci equa- 
 bus, de quibus Scholiastae ad Nostri Orest. v. 312. et Phoen. v. 1140."— 
 
 MUSORAVE. 
 
 (2) " Rado epitheti videtur esse, qubd Baccba nudis pcdibus ple- 
 ruinque, vel semper, incederent."— Musgrave. 
 
 THE BACCH^. 
 
 25 
 
 I 
 
 (I 
 
 assert, intoxicated with the wine-cup and the sound of the 
 flute, and courting the solitudes of the wood to pursue the 
 pleasures of Venus. But your mother, standing in the 
 midst of the Bacchae, called on them with shouts to raise 
 their bodies from sleep, when she heard the lowings of the 
 horned herd ; and they, banishing genial sleep from their 
 eyes, sprang to their feet, a marvel to behold for their 
 seemly array, the young and the old, and virgins yet un- 
 married. And first, indeed, they spread their descending 
 ringlets over their shoulders, and they resumed their fawn- 
 skins, whoever had the cinctures of their garments un- 
 loosed; and they bound up the dappled skins with serpents 
 that licked their cheeks. But some, bearing in their arms 
 the kid or wild whelps of the wolf, gave them the white 
 milk, to whomsoever (having left their new-born babes at 
 home) the breast was still swelling with that fount : and 
 they placed on their heads chaplets of ivy, of oak, and of 
 flowery smilax. Then one, taking a thyrsus, smote the 
 rock, whence a limpid stream of water gushed forth ; and 
 another plunged her wand in the ground, and there the 
 God bid a fount of wine arise ; while all that desired the 
 white liquid, by removing the soil with the tips of their 
 fingers, got abundance ^ of milk ; and from each thyrsus of 
 ivy the sweet streams of honey kept flowing ^ If, there- 
 fore, you had been present, and had seen these sights, you 
 would have approached with worship the God whom you 
 now revile./ But we herdsmen and shepherds assembled 
 together, expressing to each other, in the common debate 
 of words, how strange and worthy of wonder were their 
 deeds ; and one who had wandered at times to the city', and 
 
 (1) Literally, swarms. 
 
 (2) " Flumina jam lactis, jam flumina nectaris ibant ; 
 
 Flavaque de viridi stillabant ilice mella." Ovid. Met. 1. 1 1 1. 
 
 (3) " nxoi^s KUT iffrv est, qui non semper rure vlxit, sed aliquoties 
 urbem invisit, idebque ceteris pastoribus et bubulcis legem dare dignum 
 se putat. Tpi$<au \6ya>v est, qui oratores audiendo disertus factus esL" 
 Elmslet. The latter interpretation is rather gratuitous. If the man 
 had enjoyed the advantages described, why should he not have been able 
 to speak himself? 
 
 .1: 
 
26 
 
 EURIPIDES. 
 
 THE BACCH.E. 
 
 27 
 
 was versed in speaking, thus addressed us all : *^ O ye who 
 dwell in the/hallowed tracts of the mountains, are ye 
 willing that we should carry away Agave, the mother of 
 Pentheus, from these Bacchic revels, and do a favour to 
 the king?" His proposal appeared good to us; and we laid 
 down in ambush among the brushwood of the thicket, 
 concealing ourselves from observation. But, at the ap- 
 pointed hour, the Bacchae raised the thyrsus, to begin the 
 celebration of their rites, with one voice invoking lacchus 
 Bromius, the son of Jove ; and all the mountain and the 
 wild beasts joined the revel, there being no object that was 
 not urged to the same wild career. / Agave chanced to be 
 leaping near me ; and I sprang forth with the intention of 
 seizing her,yieaving the ambush where we had concealed 
 our persons : but she loudly shouted, " O my fleet hounds, 
 we are chased by these men ; but follow me, follow, armed 
 with the thyrsus in your hands." Upon this, we betook 
 ourselves to flight, and escaped from being torn to pieces 
 by the Bacchae : but they, though unarmed with weapon 
 of steel, rushed upon the herds as they browsed the 
 herbage; and you might have seen one overpowering by 
 the strength of her hands the lowing fatted heifer, while 
 others, as they violently tore, rent asunder the steers: and 
 you might have seen the ribs and cloven feet tossed here 
 and there, or suspended from the pines, and dropping the 
 blood with which they were bedabbled. Even the im- 
 petuous bulls, that were wont to menace fiercely with their 
 horns, were laid with prostrate bodies on the ground, 
 dragged down by the thousand hands of the youthful 
 maids ; and they rent the flesh from the limbs more quickly 
 than you could close the lids on your royal eyes. They 
 then rushed, like birds that rise through the air in flight, 
 to the wide plains below \ which, beside the stjeams o/ 
 Asopus, yield the fertile harvests of the Thebans ; and 
 descending like enemies upon Ifasiae and. Erythr^, which 
 
 (1) " Twortifffis, camporum porrecta. Ideb autem ^Tordffus appellantur, 
 qubd camporum aequora ita sub monte CithKrone extendebantur."— 
 Heath. 
 
 i> 
 
 \ 
 
 are situated beneath the steeps of Cithaerpn, they plun- 
 dered and scattered every thing, and snatched even the 
 children from the houses. But whatever they placed on 
 their shoulders remained firm, though without any fasten- 
 ing, and fell not to the dark earth, not even brass nor iron ; 
 and amid their hair they carried fire, and felt not its 
 flame. But the inhabitants who had been plundered by 
 the Bacchae rushed in anger to arms; when a strange 
 spectacle, O king, ensued ; for to the former, indeed, their 
 pointed spears never drew blood, while the latter, dis- 
 charging the thyrsus from their hands, wounded and, 
 though women, put to flight the men, not without the as- 
 sistance of some God. They then returned to the spot 
 whence they had taken their way, to the very fountains 
 which the God had bid arise for them ; and they washed 
 off the blood \ while serpents with their tongues kept 
 cleansing the clotted drops from their cheeks. Admit 
 therefore to the city, O king, this Deity, whosoever he 
 may be ; since both in other things he is mighty : and this 
 too they say of him, as I hear, that he bestowed on mor- , 
 tals the vine, which is the balm of every sorrow ; for if the ' 
 wine ceased to flow, Venus ^ would no longer smile, nor any 
 other joy remain to man. 
 
 CHORUS. — I fear to express my free sentiments to a ty- 
 rant ; yet still they shall be spoken : Bacchus hath been 
 born inferior to none of all the Gods. 
 
 PEN. — Already this iosQlence of the Bacchae kindles near 
 us, like a fire, to the great disgrace of the Greeks. There 
 is, therefore, no time for delay : haste to the Electran gates, 
 and bid all who bear the shield, that mount the rapid steed, 
 that wield the buckler, or twang with their hands the string 
 of the bow, come forth and meet me, that we may lead our 
 
 (0 "Non hie sanguinem Baccharum notat poeta, ut qui invulnerabiles 
 illas agnoscit, sed laceratorum vitulorum et Bceotiorum nuper vulnerato- 
 rum. Serpentes autem illarum genas trisulcis Unguis lambebant, ut 
 scires, niiiil illis noxium." — Barnes. 
 
 (2) '* Sine Cerere et Baccho friget Venus." 
 
 ^ 
 
28 
 
 EURIPIDES. 
 
 THE BACCHiE. 
 
 29 
 
 / 
 
 / 
 
 V 
 
 arms against the Bacclise ; for it exceeds endurance that 
 we should submit to such grievances from women. 
 
 BACCHUS. — You have not been persuaded, O Pentheus, 
 by any of the words which you heard from me : but yet, 
 though I have suffered harsh treatment at your hands, I 
 say that you ought not to take up arms against the God, 
 but to remain in quiet. Bromius will not suffer you to 
 drive his votaries from the mountains sacred to their rites. 
 
 PEN.— Will you not cease to admonish me, and, having 
 escaped from chains, keep that circumstance in mind ? or I 
 shall again recall your punishment. 
 
 BACCHUS.— I would rather sacrifice to him, than, display- 
 ing the rage of a mortal against a God, kick against the 
 pricks. 
 
 PEN. — I will sacrifice, working, without distinction, great 
 slaughter of these women, as they deserve, in the vales of 
 Cithaeron. 
 
 BACCHUS.— Ye shall all be put to flight ; and it were dis- 
 graceful that ye should turn your brazen shields before the 
 thyrsus of the Bacchse. 
 
 PEN.— We cannot get rid of this troublesome stranger, 
 who, neither when suffering nor acting, will hold his tongue. 
 
 BACCHUS.— It is yet in your power, my friend, to arrange 
 all these matters happily. 
 
 PEN,— By doing what ? by submitting as a slave to my 
 slaves ? 
 
 BA<:cHUs.— Without arms, I will bring these women 
 hither. 
 
 PEN.— Alas! he is now contriving some treachery against 
 me. 
 
 BACCHUS. — What treachery, if I wish to save you by 
 my arts ? 
 
 PEN.— Ye have formed this compact in common, in order 
 that ye might always continue your revels. 
 
 BACCHUS. — I have formed this compact, be assured, with 
 the God. 
 
 PEN.— Bring hither my arms : and do you cease to speak. 
 
 
 t 
 
 
 BACCHUS. — But say, would you wish to see them seated 
 together among the mountains ? 
 
 PEN. — I wish it earnestly, and would give for this object 
 vast sums of gold. 
 
 BACCHUS.— How have you fallen into such a strong desire 
 of attaining it ? 
 
 PEN. — I should have grief, if I saw them intoxicated with 
 wine. 
 
 BACCHUS. — And would you desire to see, as a pleasure, 
 that which would bring you pain ? 
 
 PEN. — Be assured I should desire it, sitting quietly be- 
 neath the pines. 
 
 BACCHUS. — But they will trace you out, even though 
 you should come secretly. 
 
 PEN. — Then let it be openly: for you have well sug- 
 gested this. 
 
 BACCHUS.— Shall I then conduct you? and will you essay 
 the journey? 
 
 PEN.— Conduct me as quickly as possible ; but I do not 
 grudge to let you command my time. 
 
 BACCHUS.— Now array your person in vestments of fine 
 linen. 
 
 PEN — But why is this ? Shall I change to the state of 
 women, and cease to be a man ? 
 
 BACCHUS.— Lest they kill you, if you should there be 
 perceived to be a man. 
 
 PEN.— You have well counselled this ; and you are one 
 who was always wise. 
 
 BACCHUS. — Bacchus instructed me in this wisdom. 
 
 PEN. — But how shall the device which you suggest be 
 rightly put in practice ? 
 
 BACCHUS. — 1 will equip you, going within the house. 
 
 PEN.— In what garb ? a woman's ? No ; shame forbids me. 
 
 BACCHUS. — You no longer desire, then,' to behold the 
 Maenades. 
 
 PEN. — But in what fashion do you say that you would 
 attire my person ? 
 
 I'' 
 
 \ 
 
30 
 
 EURIPIDES. 
 
 BACCHUS.— I should bid the flowing locks to stream 
 loosely from your head. 
 
 PEN. — And what next are the ornaments that you devise 
 for me ? 
 
 BACCHUS.— Robes reaching to the ground ; and a tiara 
 shall crown your head. 
 
 PEN.— Is there any thing else that you would add to my 
 apparel ? 
 
 BACCHUS. — The thyrsus for your hand, and the dappled 
 skin of the fawn. 
 
 PEN. — I could not bear to dress myself in this womanish 
 attire *. 
 
 BACCHUS.— But you will be the author of bloodshed, if 
 you engage in battle with the Bacchae. 
 
 PEN. — You are right: it were better first to go and 
 view them as a spy. 
 
 BACCHUS. — It were at least more wise, than to pursue 
 ills in addition to ills. 
 
 PEN. — And how shall I proceed through the city without 
 attracting the notice of the Cadmeans ? 
 
 BACCHUS. — We shall go by unfrequented paths ; and I 
 will shew you the way. 
 
 PEN. — Every thing is better than that the Bacchae should 
 mock me. Going within the house, we shall resolve on 
 what may seem good. 
 
 BACCHUS. — It is in your power to do as you please ; for 
 all readiness on my part shall be accorded. 
 
 PEN. — I would now go ; for I will either set forth arrayed 
 in arms, or will be obedient to your counsels \ 
 
 (1) " Cilm Plato apud Dionysium, Siciliae tyrannum, convivio excipe- 
 retur, et allata esset stola purpurea, ut earn indueret, repudiasse earn 
 fertur, allatis his versibus : 
 
 OvK &v dwcdiMtiv OrjXvv ivhvpou. oroXriv^ 
 
 quos Euripidi tribuit Suidas, v. 'AptWtinroy. Sed alterum forte ipse Plato 
 addidit, aut ex alia tragoedia deprompsit."— Heath. 
 
 (2) " Seusus est : Abeo: vel enim mllitibus ductus in montem proficiscar^ 
 vel tuts consiliis de muliebri vestitu induendo o6/^mpera6o."— Musgbave. 
 
 THE BACCHiE. 
 
 31 
 
 . 
 
 ft 
 
 ■1/ 
 
 1 
 
 BACCHUS. — The man, ye votaries, advances within the 
 range of our toils ; and shall come to the Bacchae ; where, 
 dying, he shall suffer just punishment. O Bacchus, the 
 work is now yours, for you are not far distant ! let us take 
 vengeance upon him. First deprive him of his senses, in- 
 spiring light delirium : for if his reason remained, he Vould 
 not be willing to assume this female attire ; but if he is 
 hurried to distraction, he will consent to wear it./ I am 
 desirous that he should incur the laughter of the Thebans, 
 being led in this likeness of a woman through the city, 
 humbled from the former threats with which he was so / 
 haughty. But I go to attire Pentheus in the dress with 
 which he shall descend to the Shades, slain by the hands 
 of his mother ; and he shall know Bacchus, the son of 
 Jove, who hath been born most terrible in his oflSce as a- 
 God, but yet most benignant to men \ 
 
 CHORUS. — Shall I, then, ever awaking the Bacchic revel, 
 advance my snowy foot in dances through the live-long 
 night ; and give my bosom to the dewy air, as the fawn, 
 sporting in the verdant pleasures of the mead (when in 
 freedom she hath escaped the fearful pursuit, bounding 
 over the well-woven nets, as the hunter with cheering cry 
 urges his rapid hounds to the toil and to a speed that out- 
 strips the storm), bounds along the plain by the river, and 
 through the branches of the shady forest, rejoicing in soli- 
 tudes remote from men ? What is a wiser or more glorious 
 gift from the Gods to mortals, than to raise the hand in 
 triumph above the head of an enemy ? That which is ho- 
 nourable is ever dear to the soul. The power of the Gods 
 is slow to exert its strength, but yet it never fails ; and it 
 calls to account those mortals that honour impiety, and re- 
 fuse, in the madness of their thoughts, to exalt the glories 
 of the Gods : who, through a long lapse of time, will lie 
 
 (1) The reading which Brunck suggests at this passage is unworthy 
 of consideration ; but there is some force in his ironical comment on the 
 sense of the existing text : " Eximium benigni et dementis, quo se erga 
 universum genus humanum animi esse jactat his verbis Bacchus, speci- 
 men in Cadmi filias et nepotem edit." 
 
 ) 
 
 ; 
 
7 
 
 32 
 
 EURIPIDES. 
 
 stealthily in ambush, and make, in the end, the wicked their 
 prey. We ought, therefore, never to know or seek that 
 which would transcend their laws ; for it costs but little, to 
 deem that the divine power, whatever is its nature, is pos- 
 sessed of might, and that that which hath ever from distant 
 time been established by custom is the same with that 
 which was produced by nature. What is a wiser or more 
 glorious gift from the Gods to mortals, than to raise the 
 hand in triumph above the head of an enemy ? That which 
 is honourable is ever dear to the soul. Blest of heaven 
 is he who hath escaped the billows of the sea : and blest 
 in like manner is he who hath risen superior to his toils. 
 In different ways will different men surpass others in 
 wealth and power : for a thousand hopes arise in a thou- 
 sand breasts, of which some end in happiness to mortals, 
 and others fade in disappointment. But him I would 
 pronounce happy, whose life, from day to day, is blest with 
 prosperity. 
 
 BACCHUS. — You, who are so desirous to see what is for- 
 bidden, who are so zealous where zeal is a folly — I mean 
 Pentheus, come forth before your palace, and shew your- 
 self to me, dressed in the garb of the Maenad maid, the 
 votary of Bacchus, and prepared as a spy to observe your 
 mother and her companions ! But you resemble in figure 
 one of the daughters of Cadmus. 
 
 PEN. — I seem to myself, in truth, to behold two suns, 
 and a double vision of Thebes and the towers of her seven 
 gates' ; and you appear to lead the way to me in the shape 
 of a bull, and to have horns springing from your head. 
 Are you, indeed, a wild beast ? for you have certainly 
 changed into the likeness of a bull. 
 
 BACCHUS. — The God accompanies us, being before not 
 propitious, but now confederate with our designs. You 
 now see what you ought to see. 
 
 (1) 
 
 « 
 
 Eumenidum veluti demens videt agmina Pentheus, 
 £t geminum solem, et duplices se ostendere Thebas." 
 
 Virg.jEn.IVAOO. 
 
 6>V 
 
 •Vi 
 
 >r' 
 
 THE BACCHtE. 
 
 33 
 
 V 
 
 PEN.— What appearance do I shew ? Is not my bearing 
 like that of Ino, or of Agave my mother ? 
 
 BACCHUS.— I seem to behold them in their very persons, 
 when I look upon you. But this ringlet hath strayed from 
 its place, not as I arranged it beneath your tiara. 
 
 PEN.— Shaking it backwards and forwards, and imitating 
 the Bacchic motions in the house, I have discomposed it 
 from its place. 
 
 BACCHUS. — We, whose office it is to tend upon you, will 
 again adjust it: but hold up your head. 
 
 PEN. — There, do you adorn me; for I give myself up to 
 your care. 
 
 BACCHUS.— Your zone, too, is loose; and the folds of your 
 robes do not depend in graceful order to the feet. 
 
 PEN.— They seem so to me, by the right foot ; but, on 
 the other side, my garment hangs elegantly over the 
 ancle. 
 
 BACCHUS.— You will assuredly account me the first among 
 your friends, when, contrary to your expectation, you^see 
 the Bacchae virtuous. 
 
 PEN.— Whether taking the thyrsus in my right hand, or 
 in the left, shall I more resemble a votary ? 
 
 BACCHUS.— You ought to take it in your right hand, and, 
 at the same time, to raise it with your right foot : but I 
 commend you for having changed your sentiments. 
 
 PEN.— Shall I be able to bear on my shoulders the 
 valleys of Cithaeron along with the Bacchae themselves ? 
 
 BACCHUS.— You shall be able, if you will it. The thoughts 
 which you before entertained were not wise ; but now you 
 have such as become you. 
 
 PEN.— Shall we take levers; or shall I uproot the moun- 
 tain with my hands, placing my shoulders or arms beneath 
 its heights*? 
 
 (0 Pentheus, we are to suppose, is by this time mad ; but there is stiU 
 
 no propriety in making him talk such utter nonsense. The reply of Bac- 
 
 I chus, which is intended for wit, is scarcely less lamentable. In fact, this 
 
 I whole scene is a disgrace to the beautiful drama in which it has unwor- 
 
 1 thily found a place. 
 
 t' -i 
 
34 
 
 EURIPIDES. 
 
 BACCHUS. — Do not seek to destroy the seats of the 
 Nymphs, and the haunts of Pan, where he is wont to tune 
 
 the pipe. 
 
 YEV, — You say well. We must not overcome women by 
 strength ; but I will conceal my body among the pines. 
 
 BACCHUS. — You shall hide in such a concealment as it 
 is fitted you should find, when you go as the crafty spy oi 
 the Maenades. 
 
 PEN. — I think, in truth, that they in the thickets lie, like 
 birds, in the dear nests of their beds. 
 
 BACCHUS. — Do you not go out for the very purpose that 
 you may observe them? And you shall perhaps catch 
 them, if you be not yourself first caught. 
 
 PEN. — Conduct me through the middle of the city of the 
 Thebans ; since I am the only man of them who has had 
 courage for this enterprise. 
 
 BACCHUS. — You alone submit to toils in behalf of ^is 
 city. Such trials, therefore, as may be expected, await 
 you : but follow, for I am your safe guide. Another shall 
 conduct you thence. 
 
 PEN. — Yes, my mother. 
 
 BACCHUS. — Conspicuous to the eyes of all. 
 
 PEN. — I go for this object. 
 
 BACCHUS. — You shall come carried back. 
 
 PEN. — You represent me as effeminate. 
 
 BACCHUS. — In the arms of your mother. 
 
 PEN. — And you will compel me to be luxurious. 
 
 BACCHUS. — Yes ;. and with such luxuries ! 
 
 PEN. — I aim, indeed, at noble objects. 
 
 BACCHUS. — You are ruthless, ruthless; and you go to 
 ruthless sufferings, so that you shall gain a renown fifmly 
 estabhshed in the heaven. Agave, and ye sister daughters 
 of Cadmus, stretch forth your hands! I bring this youth 
 to a desperate conflict ; but I and Bromius shall prevail, 
 and the event itself will shew the rest. 
 
 CHORUS. — Haste, ye fleet hounds of madness, haste to the 
 
 x^ mountains where the daughters of Cadmus are holding 
 
 their revels ! inspire them with fury against the infatuated 
 
 THE BACCHiE. 
 
 35 
 
 mortal who, in the borrowed garb of woman, comes-a& the 
 spy of the Maenades. His mother, from some smooth 
 rock or from some tree, shall first perceive him lurking in 
 ambush ; and shall exclaim to the Maenades, " Who is 
 this of the Cadmeans, ye Bacchae, that hath come to the 
 mountain, that hath come to the mountain, as the spy of the 
 votaries that haunt its glades? Who could have given 
 him birth? For he hath not sprung from the race of 
 woman, but owns his lineage from some lioness, or from 
 the Lybian Gorgons." Let Vengeance come, with her 
 terrors undisguised ; let her come, armed with the sword, 
 to pierce, with fatal wound through the throat, the impious, 
 lawless, and unjust tyrant, the earth-born son of Echion ; 
 who, filled with thoughts of wrong, and stirred to lawless 
 anger respecting the rites of Bacchus and of his mother, 
 sets forth, in the madness of his mind and delirium of his 
 spirit, as if he should conquer by force the invincible God. 
 Inevitable death is the portion of those who violate the 
 rites of the Gods ; but for the mortal that hath a tem- 
 perate mind, there is decreed a life without pain. I sho^ 
 not wish to pursue that wisdom which draws envy 
 there are other great and distinguished virtues, which lead 
 life to honourable objects, and to the observance of piety 
 by night and day ; while those laws which exclude the 
 worship of the Gods are to be condemned as unjust*. 
 
 (l) The passage in the original, from which the two last sentences are 
 translated, is considered as hopelessly corrupt. The opinions of various 
 editors and commentators are quoted by Elmsley in elucidation of its 
 difficulties, but there is not one of them that is deserving of the slightest 
 notice. We only profess to aim at what may have been the meaning of 
 the author ; and we need not be ashamed of any avowal of ignorance, 
 when even the confident Brunck has been reduced to the following con- 
 fession : " Hunc et novem sequentes versus, quos uncinis includi curavi, 
 praetereat lector, nisi si quis in eorum emendatione ingenii vires experiri 
 velit ; sed id non ante adgrediatur, qukm Divae Criticse litaverit. In 
 variis et discrepantibus doctorum virorum conjecturis nihil quod proba- 
 bile, nedum certum sit, video: nee is ego sum qui Camarinam illam 
 movere audeam." Elmsley has wisely followed this example of caution, 
 and preserved his foot from the mud in which he exhibits the Heaths 
 and Musffraves. 
 
 tern- * 
 ■,hnH 
 
36 
 
 EURIPIDES. 
 
 y 
 
 Let Vengeance come, with her terrors undisguised ; let 
 her come, armed with the sword, to pierce, with fatal wound 
 through the throat, the impious, lawless, and unjust tyrant, 
 the earth-born son of Echion. Appear, to the sight, as a 
 bull, or as a serpent with many heads ; or come to our view 
 as a lion breathing flames. Come, O Bacchus, with smil- 
 ing aspect, and cast thy toils around this hunter of the 
 Bacchae, who hath now fallen as a prey amid the deadly 
 band of the Maenades ! 
 
 MESSENGER. 
 
 O house, which wast once distinguished for prosperity 
 through Greece — house of the aged Sidonian, who sowed 
 in the ground the earth-born crop from the teeth of the 
 dragon serpent — how I lament for your misfortunes, even 
 though a slave ! But the calamities of their masters are 
 felt by faithful slaves. 
 
 - CHORUS. — What has happened ? What new intelligence 
 do you bring from the Bacchae ? 
 
 MESS. — Pentheus is dead, the son of his father Echion. 
 
 CHORUS. — O Bromius our king, thou dost now appear a 
 mighty God ! 
 
 MESS. — What mean you ? what have you said ? Do you 
 rejoice, O woman, at the evil fortunes of my master? 
 
 CHORUS. — I, a stranger, raise the glad acclaim in Barbaric 
 strains ; for I no longer tremble through fear of the fetters. 
 
 MESS. — Do you account Thebes void of spirit to resent 
 the insult ? 
 
 CHORUS. — It is Bacchus, Bacchus^ and not Thebes, that 
 possesses power over me. 
 
 MESS. — It is pardonable in your circumstances ; but it is 
 not good, O woman, to rejoice in the evils that have been 
 perpetrated. 
 
 CHORUS. — Tell, and describe to me, by what fate the 
 unjust man, and the worker of injustice, perished. 
 
 MESS.— After we had left Therapnae in this Theban ter- 
 ritory ', we passed the streams of Asopus, and began to 
 
 (1) There were other towns of the name of Therapnae in different 
 parts of Greece; but the Messenger is a little more precise than is neces- 
 sary, 
 
 i( 
 
 THE BACCHiE. 
 
 37 
 
 
 ascend the steeps of Cithaeron — Pentheus and I (for I fol- 
 lowed my master), and the stranger who was the guide to 
 our journey of discovery. First, then, we took our station 
 in a grassy grove, making no sound with our steps or 
 with our voices, that, unseen, we might see. But there was 
 a deep valley surrounded with precipices, watered by ri- 
 vulets and overshadowed with pines, where the Maenades 
 sat, having their hands employed in pleasing labours : for 
 some of them wreathed the faded thyrsus till it bloomed 
 anew with ivy ; and others, breaking, like wild colts, from 
 their various tasks, raised, in response to each other, the 
 Bacchic melody. But the unhappy Pentheus, not being 
 able to see the female band, thus spoke : " O stranger, 
 where we now stand, I cannot discern all the lewd motions 
 of the Maenades ; but by ascending a mound or lofty 
 pine, I could better observe their shameful proceedings." 
 Hereupon I witnessed a marvellous exploit of the stranger ; 
 for seizing the topmost boughs of a pine which rose to 
 heaven, he bent, yes bent, and bent ^ them to the dark 
 earth: but the tree was curved as a bow, or as a crooked 
 wheel, (which, described by the circle, assumes an orbed 
 circumference,) when the stranger, grasping its mountain 
 branches with his hands, bent them to the earth, achieving 
 no mortal feat. Then, having seated Pentheus amid tlie 
 branches of the pine, he let the tree arise slowly through 
 his hands to its upright state, taking care lest it might 
 shake him off; and the tree rose firmly aloft in the air, 
 having my master seated on its summit. But he was 
 seen by the Maenades more than he saw them ; for he was 
 all but already detected in his lofty seat And now the 
 stranger was no longer to be seen ; but a voice from the air 
 (if one may conjecture, the voice of Bacchus) exclaimed, 
 
 sary, in mentioning that the Therapnae, of which he speaks, was in the 
 Theban territory ; as no one could have easily connected his narrative with 
 Sparta or Thessaly. 
 
 (0 The repetition of the word is employed to denote the gradual mo- 
 tion with which the pine is brought to the ground. 
 
 4 
 
38 
 
 EURIPIDES. 
 
 " O ye youthful maids, I have brought the man who held 
 in derision you and me and my rites : but be it yours to 
 punish him." At the same time that he spoke these words, 
 he displayed between earth and heaven a strong blaze of 
 sacred flame ; /and all the air was still ; through the grassy 
 grove not a l^f was stirred ; nor was the cry of wild beasts 
 heard. But the Bacchae, not having distinctly heard the 
 voice, started up, and rolled their eyes around : but the God 
 again repeated his commands; and the daughters of Cadmus, 
 when they clearly knew that it was the bidding of Bacchus, 
 rushed away, displaying in their rapid career a speed of 
 foot that rivalled the flight of the dove— Agave the mother 
 of Pentheus, and her sisters of the same lineage, and all the 
 Bacch« ; and they bounded over the torrents and ravines 
 of the grove, inspired with madness by the God. But 
 when they saw my master seated on the pine, they first 
 cast stones at him with violent force, ascending a rock that 
 rose over against him ; and he was ' darted at with branches 
 of pine. Others hurled the thyrsus through the air at the 
 unlucky seat of Pentheus : but their efforts did not avail ; 
 for the wretched man, though reduced to helpless state, sat 
 at a height which baffled their fury. Next, rending like 
 thunder the arms of oak, they tore them from their roots 
 with levers not formed of iron. But when they still could 
 not effect the end of their toils. Agave spoke : " Come, ye 
 Maenades, and, standing round in a circle, apply your 
 strength to the stem of the tree, that we may be able to 
 take the wild beast that hath ascended it, and that he may 
 be prevented from carrying away any tidings of the secret 
 choirs of the God !" Then did the Bacchae grasp, with a 
 thousand hands, the pine, and tore it up from the earth ; 
 and Pentheus, who was sitting aloft, falls from aloft, 
 prostrate on the ground, with many a shriek ; for he per- 
 ceived that he was near calamity. And first his mother, 
 as the Priestess, began the rites of slaughter, and rushed 
 
 (1) Some commentators would have it : "And he darted back at them 
 with the branches of the pine." The description is already sufficiently 
 absurd, without this addition. 
 
 THE BACCHiE. 
 
 39 
 
 on him : but he cast the tiara from his hair, in order that 
 the wretched Agave might recognise him and spare his 
 life ; and he said, touching her cheek, " O mother, I am thy 
 son, Pentheus, to whom thou gavest birth in the house of 
 Echion. Pity me, O my mother, and do not on account of 
 my errors slay thy son* !" But she, foaming at the mouth 
 and rolling her distorted eyes, and not conceiving such 
 thoughts as she ought, was possessed by Bacchus, and the 
 words of her son did not move her : for, grasping with her 
 hands his left arm, and planting her foot in the side of the 
 unhappy victim, she tore off the arm, not by her natural 
 strength, but because the God made the deed easy to her 
 hands. But Ino, on the other side, performed her share of 
 the work, rending the flesh ; and Autonoe, and all the 
 crowd of Bacchse, pressed upon him ; and all sorts of cries 
 arose at the same time ; he, indeed, groaning as long as he 
 breathed, while they awoke the shouts of triumph. Here 
 one bore away an arm, and there another a foot with the . 
 sandal on ; and the ribs were laid bare by their rendings ; 
 and each, with her hands stepped in blood, scattered the 
 mangled flesh of Pentheus ^/ But the body lies in various 
 quarters, part beneath the rugged rocks, and part in the 
 deep thickets of the wood, not easily to be discovered : 
 and his mother, having fixed on the top of her thyrsus his 
 wretched head, which she chanced to have seized in her 
 hands, bears it, as the spoils of some mountain lion, down 
 the slopes of Cithaeron, having left her sisters with the 
 choirs of the Maenades. And she comes within these walls, 
 exulting in her ill-fated booty, and invoking Bacchus as 
 her partner in the chace, as the ally who aided her to the 
 
 (1) " Hunc locum Christiano bomini non commendare nequeo, quia 
 Orationi Dominicae valde accommodus est, una tantiim vocula mutata : 
 Oiicrapi 5', « vdrep, fU' fiv^ rais t/tals 'Afxafnlam iroTSa ff6y KaToucrovps." 
 —Barnes. 
 
 (2) This description of the death of Pentheus is revolting in the ex- 
 treme. The story of his having been torn to pieces could not of course 
 have been changed ; but the good taste of the poet ought to have made 
 him spare the minute details of such a horrid transaction. 
 
 : ' 
 
40 
 
 EURIPIDES. 
 
 glorious triumph of this prey, for which she shall only gain 
 tears as a reward. I therefore depart from this scene of 
 calamity, before Agave comes to the house. But tempe- 
 rance of thought, and reverence for the rites of the Gods, 
 I conceive to be the wisest and most glorious blessings to 
 the mortals who adopt them in their Kves. 
 
 CHORUS.— Let us awake our choral hymn to Bacchus ; and 
 let us celebrate the calamity of Pentheus, the offspring of 
 the dragon, who assumed the female garb and the wand of 
 the beauteous thyrsus, the certain pledge of his destruction 
 having a bull as the guide to his fate. O, ye Cadmean 
 Bacchae, ye changed his proud notes of triumph to lamen- 
 tation and tears ! It was a glorious fortitude to dip the 
 reeking hand in the blood of a child. But cease the strain ; 
 for I see Agave, the mother of Pentheus, approaching the 
 house with wildly-rolHng eyes ; and welcome the associate 
 of the Bacchic God. 
 
 AGAVE. 
 
 Ye Bacchas of Asia ! 
 
 CHORUS.— Why do you loudly call on me ? 
 AGAVE.— We bring from the mountains to this palace a 
 new-slain whelp, a glorious prey. 
 
 CHORUS.— I see it; and I will admit you as an associate of 
 our band. 
 
 AGAVE.— I caught without toils this young lion, as you 
 may see. 
 
 CHORUS. — In what desert scene ? 
 
 AGAVE. — Cithaeron — 
 
 CHORUS.— What of Cithffiron? 
 
 AGAVE.— Slew him. 
 
 CHORUS.— Who was the first that struck him ? 
 
 AGAVE. — That honour was mine. 
 
 CHORUS. — Happy Agave ! 
 
 AGAVE.— We are celebrated amid the bands of the 
 votaries. 
 
 CHORUS. — Who assisted you? 
 
 AGAVE. — Of Cadmus — 
 
 CHORUS.— What of Cadmus ? 
 
 THE BACCH^. 
 
 41 
 
 : 
 
 AGAVE. — The children, the children of Cadmus, after me 
 assailed this monster. 
 
 CHORUS. — You are happy in this prey. 
 
 AGAVE. — Now partake of the banquet. 
 
 CHORUS. — What should I, wretched as I am, partake? 
 
 AGAVE. — This young whelp has just begun to disclose, 
 beneath the soft locks of the head, the bristling hairs of 
 the beard. 
 
 CHORUS. — His hair shews like that of a beast that roams 
 the wild. 
 
 AGAVE.— Bacchus, the skilful hunter, skilfully roused the 
 MaBnades against this animal. 
 
 CHORUS. — Our king is famed for the chace. 
 
 AGAVE. — Do you praise ? 
 
 CHORUS. — What should T praise? 
 
 AGAVE. — Soon shall the Cadmeans and my son Pentheus 
 praise his mother, who in a marvellous manner hath taken 
 this marvellous prey of the lion's young. 
 
 CHORUS. — Do you exult ? 
 
 AGAVE. — I rejoice in having achieved so great, so great 
 and illustrious a deed. 
 
 CHORUS.— ^Shew now to the citizens, O wretched wo- 
 man! the spoils of victory which you have brought with 
 you. 
 
 AGAVE. — O ye who dwell within the beauteous towers of 
 the city of the Theban land ! approach, that ye may be- 
 hold this prey of the wild beast, which we daughters of 
 Cadmus have taken, not with the barbed arrow of the 
 Thessalians, nor with nets, but with our hands and white 
 arms. May we not then boast ? and is there need that the 
 weapons of those who forge the spear should any longer 
 be idly carried by the hunter ? With this hand we took 
 "this prey, and scattered abroad the limbs of the monster. 
 Where is my aged father ? let him approach. Where is 
 my son Pentheus? let him take and raise against the house 
 the well-compacted scaling ladder, that he may affix to the 
 sculptured pillar this head of the lion, which I have 
 brought from the chace. 
 
42 
 
 EURIPIDES. 
 
 CADMUS.— Follow me, ye attendants; and bring before the 
 house the wretched burden of Pentheus, whose body I 
 here bear, having discovered it, after long and toilsome 
 search in the valleys of Cithaeron, torn to pieces; and 
 finding no parts of it in the same place, but all scattered 
 through the entangled thicket. For I heard of the atro- 
 cities of my daughters, when I had come within the walls 
 of the city with the aged Tiresias, on our return from the 
 Bacchae ; and retracing my steps to the mountain, I carried 
 off my son, who had been slain by the Maenades. And I 
 saw, indeed, Autonoe, who formerly bore ActSBon to 
 AristBBus, and Ino along with her, still roaming through 
 the forest, under the impulse of wretched madness: but 
 some one told me that Agave was coming hither with Bac- 
 chanalian step ; nor have we heard what is groundless ; for 
 I behold her approach, an ill-omened vision. 
 
 AGAVE. — O father, you may proudly boast that you have 
 begotten by far the noblest daughters of all mortals. I 
 speak this praise of all; but chiefly of myself, who, leaving 
 the shuttle and the loom, have advanced to a higher aim, 
 to capture the wild beasts with my hands. And I bring in 
 my arms, as you see, these glorious spoils which I have 
 taken, that they may be suspended on the walls of your 
 palace. But do you, father, receive them in your hands ; 
 and, exulting in the trophies of my chace, invite your friends 
 to the banquet ; for you are happy, happy in these our 
 exploits. 
 
 CADMUS. — O immeasurable sorrow, and deed that may 
 not be looked upon, of those that have committed murder 
 with wretched hands ! Having slain a goodly victim to the 
 Gods, you invite Thebes and me to the banquet. Woe is 
 me ! in the first place for your evils, and then for my own ; 
 since the God who sprung from this race (the royal 
 Bacchus) hath, justly indeed, yet too severely, destroyed us. 
 
 AGAVE.— How morose is old age by nature to men ! and 
 how gloomy its look ! May my son be successful in the 
 chace, imitating his mother's manners, when among the 
 youths of Thebes he pursues with them the prey ! But he 
 
 THE BACCH^. 
 
 43 
 
 
 is only inclined to fight against the Gods. He must be ad- 
 monished, father, bj yPU ^^nd by me, not to take pleasure 
 in such pernicious sophistries. Where is he ? Who will 
 summon him hither to my sight, that he may behold my 
 happiness ? 
 
 CADMUS. — Alas, alas ! when you understand what you 
 have done, you will be pained with grievous sorrow : but 
 if you remain to the end in the same state in which you 
 now are, though not happy, you will not seem to yourselves 
 to be wretched. 
 
 AGAVE. — What, in these events, is not glorious ? or what 
 should be the cause of pain ? 
 CADMUS. — First cast your eyes on this expanse of air. 
 AGAVE. — I do. Why have you bid me observe it ? 
 CADMUS. — Is it still the same; or does it appear to you to 
 have undergone a change ? 
 
 AGAVE. — It seems brighter, and more transparent than 
 before. 
 CADMUS. — Does the same excitement still flutter your soul? 
 AGAVE. — I do not understand your words ; but I feel 
 myself, I know not how, returning to my senses, and chang- 
 ing from my former thoughts. 
 
 CADMUS. — Are you willing, then, to hear my words, and 
 to answer clearly ? 
 
 AGAVE. — I have forgot, O father, what we talked of be- 
 fore. 
 
 CADMUS. — Into what house did you wed with the rites of 
 Hymen? 
 
 AGAVE. — You gave me to Echion, who sprung, as they 
 say, from the teeth of the dragon. 
 
 CADMUS. — What son in that house was born to your 
 husband? 
 
 AGAVE. — Pentheus, the fruit of my intercourse with his 
 father. 
 
 CADMUS. — Whose is that head which you bear in your 
 arms? 
 
 AGAVE. — A lion's ; as they, who took it, said. 
 
 ii^JS" 
 
44 
 
 EURIPIDES. 
 
 CADMUs.-Examine it now strictly: it is a slight trouble 
 to bestow this attention. 
 
 AGAVE.-Ha! whatdolbehold? what is this that I bear 
 in my hands ? 
 
 AGAVE.— I see it, to my sorrow, the greatest of <n-iefs • 
 CADMUS.— Does it appear to you to resemble a lion " 
 
 of ptmhe7s^ ''"' '' '''' ""'"^^^^ "''*"■' ^''^^ *^^ ^^^ 
 
 CADMUS -Made the subject of lamentation before you 
 recognised him. ^ 
 
 hallds^r'"^''*' ''''' ^^- ^""^ ^'^ ^'^ ^o'^^ into my 
 
 artX^ut^e''."' '"*' '' '^'^^ ^^ "~"-"^ — ' 
 
 AOAVE._Speak; for my heart beats violently, with fear 
 ofwhatis next. 
 
 CADMUS.— You and your sisters slew him. 
 
 .C7i^r''' ''''''-''''' -''^''^^-^-■^^ 
 
 CADMus._Where. formerly, his hounds tore Action. 
 AGAVE.- Why did this ill-fated youth go to Cith^ron ? 
 CADMus.-He went to revile the Gods, and your Bacchic 
 
 to tbp r*"!" ''^' ""^^ ^'^ '' ''^I'P"" *^' ^« ^«'e urged 
 to the mountam ? v ^ 
 
 W r^'l''"^^'?^^ '"^''' ''"^ *" *^ *="y ^«s carried away 
 by the phrensy of Bacchus. ^ 
 
 AGAVE.-I at length comprehend that Bacchus hath un- 
 done us. 
 
 vnuT^T^^'''''^ u"""" P'^"^^"^ ^y y^"^ >"«olence : for 
 you did not account him a God. 
 
 ^ JGAVE.-But where, O father, is the dearest body of my 
 
 CADMus.--After having discovered it with difBcuItv I 
 have brought it hither. ^' 
 
 THE BACCH^. 
 
 45 
 
 AGAVE.— Are all the parts of the limbs well re-united Z 
 What a share of my folly hath fallen upon Pentheus I 
 
 CADMUS. — He was like you, and denied worship to the 
 God. He has, therefore, involved all in a common ruin, 
 both you and himself; so as to destroy the house, and me, 
 who, being childless of male offspring*, see, O unhappy 
 woman, this branch that sprung from your womb laid low 
 by a most shameful and ignominious death. To you, O 
 my son, offspring of my daughter, the house looked up ; 
 and you supported my palace, and were a dread to the 
 city. No one, when he looked on you, was inclined to in- 
 sult the old man ; for he would have met with deserved 
 punishment. But now shall I soon be driven forth with 
 dishonour from the house— I, Cadmus the mighty, who 
 sowed the race of the Thebans, and reaped that glorious 
 harvest. O dearest of men ! for though you no longer live, 
 you shall be numbered among the dearest of my children : 
 no more touching this beard with your hand, and addressing 
 the father of your mother, shall you embrace him, my son, 
 with these words : " Who, old man, injures you ? who does 
 you dishonour ? Who vexes your heart, or annoys you ? 
 Speak, O father, that I may punish him that wrongs you." 
 But now, indeed, I am unhappy, and you are wretched, 
 and your mother is in affliction, and her sisters share the 
 sorrow. If there be any one who despises the Gods, 
 let him, after having regarded the death of Pentheuy, own 
 their divine power. 
 
 (1) "Here Euripides, representing the aged Cadmus without male issue, 
 violates the received tradition of ancient history, and even contradicts his , 
 own express authority in the Phoenissae ; where he declares that Cadmus, 
 by his wife Harmonia, had a son, whose name was Polydorus. And we 
 learn from Diodorus Siculus, that Polydorus, son of Cadmus, retunied to 
 the kingdom of Thebes after the expulsion of his father, and that his de- 
 scendants there reigned in succession. Pausanias likewise mentions this 
 Polydorus as son of Cadmus ; and informs us, that he enjoyed the so- 
 vereignty of Thebes, after the migration of Cadmus to the lUyrians and 
 Encheleans. We have also the concurring testimony of Apollodorus in 
 support of this son of Cadmus, Polydorus, as king of Thebes."— Jodrell. 
 
 \ 
 
 I 
 
f 
 
 4S 
 
 EURIPIDES. 
 
 CHORus._I gr,eve, indeed. O Cadmus, for your sufferings; 
 bu the son of your daughter has met with the punishment 
 which he merited, although it may be the cause of pafn "o 
 
 AGAVE._0 father, you see how my state is changed. 
 BAccH„s._You shall be transformed into a dragon ; and 
 your wife Harmonia the daughter of Mars, whom you, 
 
 assume the form of a serpent; and you shall drite alongwith 
 your wife a chariot drawn by oxen, as the oracle of Jove 
 declares and lead the Barbarians. You shall destroy 
 many cUies with your countless legions : but when thev 
 shall plunder the shrine of Apollo, they shall meet, 1 their 
 return, with mishap. But Mars shall deliver you and Ha 
 moma, arid shall establish your life in the land of the bLsed 
 I. Bacchus, who sprung from no mortal father, but Km 
 Jove, announce to you these fortunes. If ye had learne, 
 to be wise when ye would not. ye might now have b" 
 happy, and have preserved the son of Jove as your ally 
 
 AGAV£._Bacchus. we supplicate thy mercy! we confesl 
 that we wronged thee. ^ coniess 
 
 BAC0Hus.-Ye have acknowledged my power too late • 
 for when it was fitting, ye would not know me 
 
 in TJ^''^"" ""'" **" '"°"''' ' ^"' *»" «'' too severe 
 m the punishment. ^^>^^^ 
 
 BACCHu,._For I, though born a God. was insulted by 
 
 r::Z^^^' ^" *^"- '— -^^^ -g'^* not to 
 de"eer""~'^''*" "^-^ '-g since ratified these 
 forT''~'^''''''"''*'"'''^'^^"''^'°''*'"«"'i«decreed 
 
 tai'dT"""^'" '''" '^'^^' "^^" - "'-f -" be ob- 
 ■ CADMus._0 my daughter, to what dreadful evils we 
 
 THE BACCH^. 
 
 47 
 
 have come ! both you being involved in the affliction and 
 your dear sisters; whilst I, an unhappy man, must depart to 
 the Barbarians, changing, in my old age, my country : and 
 it is yet fated for me to conduct against Greece a mingled 
 army of Barbarians. Leading their spears in the form of 
 a dragon, I shall bring against the altars and tombs of 
 Greece the daughter of Mars, my wife Harmonia, who 
 shall also bear the savage shape of the serpent: nor 
 shall I, a wretched mortal, be released from my suffer- 
 ings, nor, by sailing down the streams of Acheron, attain to 
 rest. 
 
 AGAVE. — And I, O father, bereft of you, must depart to 
 exile. 
 
 CADMUS. — Why do you clasp me in your arms, my un- 
 happy child, as the white bird, the swan, its aged parent? 
 
 AGAVE. — Where can I betake myself, when driven from 
 my country ? 
 
 CADMUS. — I know not, my child: your father is of feeble 
 aid. 
 
 AGAVE. — Farewell, O palace ; and farewell my native city : 
 I leave thee to my sorrow, an exile from thy chambers. 
 
 CABMUs.— -Go now, my child, to the abode of Aristaeus. 
 
 AGAVE. — I groan for you, my father. 
 
 CADMUS.— And I for you, my child; and I bewail the fate 
 of your sisters. 
 
 AGAVE.— The royal Bacchus hath terribly, terribly visited 
 with punishment your house. 
 
 BACCHus.-vJfor I suffered great wrongs from you, havino* 
 no honours paid to my name in Thebe^ 
 
 AGAVE. — Farewell, my father. 
 
 CADMUS.— Farewell, my wretched daughter: but you 
 will not easily attain to this wish. 
 
 AGAVE.— Conduct me, ye attendants, where I may be 
 able to take my wretched sisters as the partners of my 
 flight: and may I go to a country where the polluted 
 Cithaeron shall no longer behold me, nor I look on Cith«ron, 
 
 lU 
 
4s 
 
 EURIPIDES. 
 
 ■J 
 
 nor where any memorial of the thyrsus is preserved ! Let 
 such be a care to other Bacch*. 
 
 ciioRus.-There are various forms of the dispensations 
 of heaven; and the Gods consummate many things beyond 
 our hopes : and that which was expected hath not come to 
 pass, while the God hath found means to effect that which 
 was not expected. Such, in this case, hath been the issue. 
 
 
 THE HERACLIDiE. 
 
 I 
 
 il. 
 
PERSONS OF THE DRAMA. 
 
 h 
 
 lOLAUS. 
 
 COPREUS. 
 
 CHORUS. 
 
 DEMOPHON. 
 
 MACARIA. 
 
 SERVANT. 
 
 ALCMENA. 
 
 MESSENGER. 
 
 EURYSTHEUS. 
 
 THE HERACLIDiE. 
 
 lOLAUS. 
 
 It has long been a settled opinion in my mind, that the 
 just man is born for the good of his neighbours; but that 
 he that hath a spirit devoted to gain, is useless to the State, 
 disagreeable in the intercourse of life, and only of advan- 
 tage to himself. I have learned this doctrine not merely 
 by words ; for being moved by a sense of honour and 
 pious regard for kindred ^ when it was in my power to have 
 lived in quiet at Argos, I participated more than any one 
 man in the labours of Hercules, whilst he remained with 
 us : and now, when he dwells in heaven, having his children 
 beneath my wings, I protect them, though I myself require 
 protection. For when their father was removed from earth, 
 Eurystheus indeed, in the first instance, wished to put us 
 to death ; but we escaped, and, though our country was lost, 
 our lives were saved. But we wander in exile, passing 
 from the boundaries of one State to another : for Eurys- 
 theus, in addition to former ills, has thought fit to work 
 this insolent wrong to us : sending heralds to whatever coun- 
 try he may know we inhabit, he demands us back, and 
 drives us forth from the land ; holding out, to our friends, 
 Argos as no trifling city of which to make an enemy, and 
 reminding them at the same time of his own prosperous for- 
 tunes : and they, seeing that my resources are weak, and 
 that these children are young, and deprived of their father, 
 pay court to those of superior power, and exclude us from 
 their country. But I have joined the flight of these exiled 
 children, and I share the misfortunes of their evil lot,'dis- 
 
 (1) lolaus was the son of Iphicles, the brother of Hercules. 
 
 e2 
 
53 
 
 EURIPIDES. 
 
 THE HERACLID^. 
 
 53 
 
 .f 
 
 i 
 
 /i 
 
 ■ f 
 
 daining to betray them, lest some one of mortals should 
 thus say : " Behold, when to the children their father is no 
 more, lolaus, though by birth their kinsman, fails to pro- 
 tect them !" Having now been banished from every realm 
 in Greece, we have come to Marathon, and the country that 
 obeys the same rule, and have taken our seat at the altars 
 of the Gods, imploring their aid : for it is reported that the 
 two sons* of Theseus dwell in the plains of this land, having 
 obtained their possessions by lot*, the descendants of 
 Pandion, and the kinsmen' of these children. On this ac- 
 count we have undertaken the present journey to the 
 boundaries of illustrious Athens; and the flight of the 
 exiles is conducted by two aged guides \ I, indeed, am 
 anxiously occupied about these boys ; and Alcmena, clasp- 
 ing in her arms the female children, protects them within 
 the temple ; for we are ashamed to let youthful virgins ap- 
 proach the crowd, or stand by the altar. But Hyllus and 
 his brothers, who are of riper years, are inquiring in what 
 country we can occupy a place of refuge, if we be driven by 
 force from this land. My children, my children, come 
 hither, and cling to my garments ! for I see approaching to- 
 wards us that Herald of Eurystheus, by whom we are per- 
 secuted and forced to wander in exile from every land. O 
 hateful miscreant ! may you perish, and he that sent you ! 
 for from that same mouth you have announced many evils 
 to the noble father of these children. 
 
 (1) Demophon and Acamas» According to Pausanias, Theseus was still 
 king at the time when the Heraclidae came to Athens. 
 
 (2) " Videntur de integro Atticae regno sortes duxisse, non, partitione 
 facta, de partibus. Quaerenti enim Copreo, quis terrae rex esset, v. 115. 
 Chorus in responsione, Acaniante omisso, Demophontem unum nominat." 
 
 — MUSGBAVE. 
 
 (3) See line 208, where the connection is explained. 
 
 (4) lolaus and Alcmena. Elmsley remarks, that Alcmena was the 
 grandmother of lolaus ; and that it is therefore inconsistent, that, if the for- 
 mer were alive, the latter should appear on the stage as a very old man : 
 but the learned commentator seems to have forgotten that, according to 
 some authorities, Iphicles was the son of Automedusa, daughter of Alca- 
 thous, and that it is most probable that Euripides followed this account 
 of the genealogy of lolaus. 
 
 COPREUS. 
 
 i 
 
 I suppose that you consider that you have sat down here 
 in goodly security, and that you have come to a city that 
 will assist you, erring in your judgment : for there is no 
 one who will prefer your feeble power to Eurystheus. 
 Come, (why should you take this trouble ? you must needs 
 arise,) and depart to Argos, where the punishment of 
 stoning awaits you. 
 
 lOLAUS.— No, in truth : for this altar of the God, and the 
 free land to which we have come, will suffice to protect me. 
 
 coPR.— Do you wish to cause trouble to this hand of 
 mine? 
 
 lOLAUs.— Surely you will not take away me, or these 
 children, by force. 
 
 COPR.— -You shall soon know : but you were not a good 
 prophet in that conjecture. 
 
 lOLAUs. — The deed may never be done, while I am alive. 
 
 COPR. — Away : for I will carry these children off, even 
 though you should be unwilling; and conduct them to 
 Eurystheus, whose slaves they are. 
 
 lOLAUs. — O ye, who from early time* have dwelt in 
 Athens, lend your aid ! for we, though the suppliants of 
 Jove, the guardian of the Forum, are assailed with vio- 
 lence, and our chaplets are polluted ; a disgrace to the 
 city, and a dishonour to the Gods. 
 
 CHORUS. 
 
 Ho ! ho ! What clamour arises beside the altar? What 
 calamity will it quickly shew? 
 
 lOLAUS. — Behold an infirm old man prostrated' on the 
 ground, wretched man that I am ! 
 
 CH0Rus.-^By whom have you been dashed, with this 
 hapless fall, to earth ? 
 
 lOLAUs. — This man, O strangers, dishonouring your 
 Gods, drags me by force from before the altar of Jove. 
 
 CHORUS. — From what land, old man, have you come to 
 
 (1) " Athenienses AvroxOovas notat, eoque nomine iis gratissimo ad 
 auxilium suum magis illos excitandos putat."— Barnes. 
 (2) Literally, spilt. 
 
 I 
 
H 
 
 n 
 
 ! 
 
 54 
 
 EURIPIDES. 
 
 the confederate tribes of our four cities ' ? or from afar 
 hare you come in a ship over the sea, leaving the shores of 
 Euboea»? 
 
 lOLAUs. — I do not lead, O strangers, the life of an islander ; 
 but I have come to your land from Mycenae. 
 
 CHORUS.— By what name, old man, do the people of 
 Mycenae call you? 
 
 lOLAUs. — You have heard, perchance, of lolaus, the com- 
 panion in arms of Hercules : for my name is not unknown 
 to fame. 
 
 CHORUS. — I know it, having before heard of it : but tell 
 me, whose are the young children whom you conduct with 
 your hand ? 
 
 lOLAUS. — These, O strangers, are the children of Her- 
 cules, who have come as suppliants to you and to the city. 
 
 CHORUS.— On what account ? or, tell me, do they seek to 
 obtain an audience of the State'? 
 
 lOLAVS. — They pray, neither to be given up, nor dragged 
 by force from the altars of your Gods, to return to Argos. 
 
 coPR.— But this will not satisfy your masters, who, 
 having a right to you, find you here. 
 
 CHORUS. — It is proper, O stranger, that the suppliants 
 of the Gods should be respected, and that you should not 
 be forced by the hand of violence to abandon the seats of 
 the Divine Powers ; for sacred Justice will not suffer the 
 outrage. 
 
 coPR. — Dismiss now from this land the slaves of 
 Eurystheus, and I shall not use any violence of hand. 
 
 CHORUS. — It is impious for the city to slight the suppliant 
 appeal of strangers. 
 
 (t) The Tetrapolis of Attica consisted of the towns of CEnoe, Marathon, 
 Probalinthus, and Tricorylhus, which were founded by Xuthus, after his 
 marriage with a daughter of Erectheus. They were spared by the Lace- 
 daemonians in the invasions of Attica, on account of their ancient kindness 
 to the children of Hercules. 
 
 (2) " Euboeam reliquisse eos conjicit, utpote Marathoni vicinam.'* 
 
 (3) " Sensus est, N'isi caussam adventus tui poHiis civitaiis magxstraHbus 
 quam nobis aperiendatn censes,^* — Elmsley. 
 
 THE HERACLIDiE. 
 
 55 
 
 COPR.— But it is well to keep the foot out of trouble, 
 and to seek wise and better counsel. 
 
 CHORUS. — Ought you not, after having explained your 
 purpose to the king of this country, to have attempted your 
 design, (but not by force to have dragged strangers from 
 the altars of the Gods,) shewing reverence to a land of 
 freedom ? 
 
 COPR.— Who is the king of this land and city? 
 CHORUS.— Demophon, the son of Theseus, a renowned 
 father. 
 
 COPR. — The discussion of this question would most 
 properly be held with him ; for these previous words have 
 been spoken in vain. 
 
 cnaRUs.— And, in truth, here he comes himself, in haste, 
 with Acamas his brother, to hear this cause. 
 
 DEMOPHON. 
 
 Since you, though an old man, have outstripped our youth 
 in running on the alarm to this altar of Jove, tell me what 
 chance has collected this crowd ? 
 
 CHORUS.— These, O king, are the children of Hercules, 
 who sit as suppliants, having laid, as you see, their garlands 
 on the altar; and lolaus, the faithful companion in arms of 
 their father. 
 
 DEM. — How did this occasion require these shrieks ? 
 
 CHORUS. — This man, in attempting to drag them away 
 by violence from the altar, gave rise to the clamour, and 
 dashed the old man to the ground; so that I shed the tear 
 through pity. 
 
 DEM.— He bears, in truth, the shape and fashion of the 
 Grecian garb ; but the deeds of his hand are B arbar ian. It 
 is now your part to tell me, and without delay, of what 
 country, having left the boundaries, you have come hither. 
 
 COPR.— I am an Argive, for this you wish to know; 
 and for what purpose I come, and from whom, I am willing 
 to teir. Eurystheus, the king of Mycense, hath sent me 
 hither, to conduct back these fugitives; and I have come, 
 
 (t) *' Hoc enim unum erat, quod interrog&sti. At ipse cur veniam, et h quo, 
 etiam non interrogatus, dicam.'' — Musorave. 
 
56 
 
 EURIPIDES. 
 
 THE HERACLID.E. 
 
 57 
 
 IS 
 
 O stranger, having at the same time many pleas of justice 
 either for action or argument. For I, being myself an Argive, 
 bear away Argives, seizing these as runaways from my own 
 country and condemned by the laws there to die : and we, 
 in the administration of an independent State, are surely 
 entitled of ourselves and against ourselves to decree judg- 
 ments without appeal. But though they have come to the 
 altars of many others, we have rested our claim on the 
 same arguments ; and none have dared, in their defence, to 
 bring ruin on themselves. But they have come hither, 
 either having perceived some folly in you, or wiUing in 
 their desperate circumstances to set their hazard on a die, 
 whether your aid should be granted or not. They could 
 not expect that you, if in your senses, would alone, of the 
 many States of Greece to which they have gone, have com- 
 passion upon their irremediable calamities : for consider 
 and weigh, if you admit them to your country, or suffer us 
 to lead them away, what will be the balance of gain. As to 
 the advantages from us, you may derive such as to attach 
 the great forces of the Argives, and all the strength of 
 Eurystheus, to this city. But if, regarding their words and 
 piteous complaints, you be softened in their favour, the 
 matter comes to the decision of the spear; for do not think 
 that we shall resign this contest without an appeal to the 
 weapons of Chaly bia \ What then will you say ? Of what 
 plains deprived will you wage war against the Argives of 
 the Tirynthian land^'? in aid of what allies, and in defence 
 of what cause, will you bury the dead that fall ? You will 
 assuredly be the subject of evil reproach to the citizens, if, 
 on account of an old man (who is a mere sepulchre, who is 
 even, so to say, a nothing), and in defence of these children, 
 you should plunge your foot in the mire. You will confess, 
 at best, that you can only find hope : and this is far from 
 
 (1) " Cum Xa\v$ucou, quod adjectivum est, subaudiendum aiSrjpov, in 
 qui ellipsi videtur mihi aliquid comicae dicacitatis esse,ut cum in comoediis 
 vernaculis Toleianus de ense usurpatur."— Musgrave. 
 
 (2) "Ad agri Tirynthii mentionem illustrandam satis erit monere, 
 Herculem et Eurystheum promiscue Tirynthios et Argivos k Tragicis ap- 
 pellari."— Elmsley. 
 
 being sufficient, in the present emergency. For these, 
 though they attained the vigour of youth, would fight but 
 hopelessly in arms against the Argives (if this thought 
 gives confidence to your soul) ; and there must first elapse 
 a long period, in which ye might be destroyed. Be per- 
 suaded, then, by me: grant nothing; but, permitting me to 
 bear away what is my own, secure the aUiance of My cense: 
 and do not, as ye are wont, be subject to this error, that 
 when it is in your power to choose better friends, ye should 
 prefer the worse. 
 
 DEM. — Who can decide a cause, or appreciate a ques- 
 tion, before he shall fully learn its clear statement from 
 both sides ? 
 
 lOLAUs. — O king, there exists to me this privilege in 
 your country, that I may speak and hear in my turn ; and 
 no one shall drive me away before I enjoy it, as they did 
 from other cities. To us and this man there is nothing in 
 common : for since we have no longer any portion in Argos 
 after the vote that was decreed, but are exiles from our 
 country, how can he with justice reclaim us, whom they 
 banished from the land, as subjects of My cense*? We 
 now are strangers. Or do ye think it right that he who 
 is exiled from Argos must be exiled from the limits of 
 Greece? Surely not from Athens: for she will never, 
 through fear of the Argives, bid the children of Hercules 
 depart from her soil. For this is not Trachis"*, nor a petty 
 city of Achaia, whence you, not with justice, but by boast- 
 ing of Argos in the terms which you have now used, drove 
 forth these suppliants who were seated at their altars. If 
 this should here be the case, and the people should ap- 
 prove your words, I could no longer deem that this city of 
 Athens was free. But I know the spirit and nature of its 
 people : they would rather die ; for honour is considered 
 
 (1) Mycenae and Argos are confounded even by iEschylus, in whose 
 time Mycenae was still a city. 
 
 (2) When the Heraclidae sought refuge at Trachis, Ceyx, who had been 
 a friend of their father, was king ; but the threats of Eurystheus had 
 more power than the claims of the persecuted race, and Ceyx, refusing to 
 protect them, sent them on to Athens. 
 
 I 
 
1 
 
 58 
 
 EURIPIDES. 
 
 THE HERACLIDiE. 
 
 59 
 
 I 
 
 14 
 
 it 
 
 ii 
 
 by good men as better than life. With respect to the city, 
 I have spoken enough ; for it is invidious to commend too 
 highly ; and I have often, in my own case, felt oppressed 
 when praised beyond desert. But I wish to explain how 
 there is a strong claim on you, as king of this land, to pro- 
 tect these suppliants. Pittheus was the son of Pelops ; and 
 from Pittheus sprung JEthra, from whom your father 
 Theseus derived his birth. I will next trace upwards to 
 you the lineage of these children. Hercules was the son 
 of Jove and Alcmena, and she was the offspring of a 
 daughter' of Pelops; so that your father and their father 
 were cousins ; and you are thus, O Demophon, connected 
 with them by blood. But I will now tell you how you are 
 bound, exclusive of the ties of kindred, to assist the child- 
 ren ; for I say, that when I bore the shield of their father, I 
 formerly sailed along with Theseus in quest of the belt' 
 which was the cause of so much slaughter : and Hercules 
 also brought back your father to light from the gloomy 
 depths of Hades, a deed to which all Greece bears wit- 
 ness. In return for these services, they claim from you, 
 as a favour, that they be neither given up, nor, torn by 
 force from the altars of your Gods, be removed from 
 the land. For it were both disgraceful to you in itself, 
 and an evil to the city, that suppliants, exiles, kindred 
 (alas for their wretched state I behold, behold them !) 
 should be dragged away with violence. But I entreat 
 you, and place my suppliant wreaths in your hands, and 
 implore you by your beard, that you will not disdain to 
 receive under your care the children of Hercules! O 
 prove to them a kinsman ; and prove a friend, a father, a 
 
 (1) Lisydice. 
 
 (2) Admeta, the daughter of Eurystheua, took a fancy for a famous belt 
 of gold which belonged to Hippolyta, queen of the Amazons; and 
 Hercules, having been sent in quest of it, obtained it by the ungallant 
 process of killing its owner. Theseus accompanied him in the expedition ; 
 and received, in reward of his services, Antiope, the daughter of Hippolyto. 
 Even thus the balance of obligation seems to have been on the opposite 
 side : but the next favour to which loUus refers, was, without question, 
 beyond the common pitch of friendship. 
 
 
 brother, a master ! for all these relations were better, than 
 to fall into the power of the Argives. ^ 
 
 CHORUS. — I felt pity, O king, as I listened to their mis- 
 fortunes : and now have I truly seen how nobility is con- 
 quered by fortune ; for they, though the children of an 
 illustrious father, have met with unmerited calamities. 
 
 DEM. — Three views of their circumstances* constrain me, 
 
 lolaus, not to reject these strangers. The highest 
 cause is Jove, at whose altar you are seated, having 
 around you this youthful group I There is next the 
 claim of kindred, and the obligation which rests on me 
 that they should receive benefits at my hands for the sake 
 of their father : and, lastly, there is the sense of honour, 
 which we ought ever chiefly to regard. For if I shall 
 suffer this altar to be despoiled with violence by a stranger, 
 
 1 shall not appear to dwell in a free land ; and I shrink 
 from the idea of delivering up suppliants to the Argives. 
 Such a necessity were little better than hanging. I sin- 
 cerely wish that you had come in more prosperous circum- 
 stances; but yet do not now be afraid that any one shall 
 drag you and the children by force from this altar. But 
 do you, going to Argos, both relate what I have said to 
 Eurystheus ; and add, that if he has any charge against 
 these strangers, he shall meet with justice ; but you shall 
 never force them away. 
 
 COPR.— Not if it be both just, and I shall prevail in the 
 argument ? 
 
 DEM.— How can it be just to drag away a suppliant by 
 
 force ? 
 
 COPR.— Is not this, then, disgraceful to me, and not inju- 
 rious to you? 
 
 (1) ^^ ffvfupopas oBolf via, sive fnodif quibus casits hie spectari potest* — 
 
 MUSORAVE. 
 
 (2) " De pueris, pfocrawv^ nomine insignitis vid.quae nos ad Troad. v. 753. 
 Tlairnyvpiv autem vocat ob numerum Heraclidarum ; erant enim ex Thestii 
 filiabus tantum ultra sexaginta; praeter Hyllum ex Deianir^, Agelaum 
 ex Omphale, aliosque fer^ tredecim, quorum nomina habes in ApoUodori 
 Bibliotheca, lib. ii. c. 7. sec. 8."— Barnes. 
 
60 
 
 EURIPIDES. 
 
 V 
 
 DEM.— It would be injurious to me, if I should give them 
 up for you to carry away. 
 
 copft.— But do you banish them from your territories, and 
 we shall bear them ofFfrom the country to which they go. 
 
 DEM.— You are by nature a fool, who deem yourself 
 wiser than the God. 
 
 coPR.— This is to be a place of refuge, it would appear, 
 to the bad. 
 
 ^ DEM.— The altar of the Gods affords a common protec- 
 tion to all. 
 
 coPR.— It will not appear in the same light, perhaps, to 
 the people of Mycenae. 
 DEM.— Am not I the sovereign of this realm ? 
 
 coPR.— You will do no injury to your neighbours, if you 
 are wise. 
 
 DEM.— Be injured, provided I be not guilty of pollution 
 towards the Gods. 
 
 COPR.— I would not have you engage in war with the 
 Argives. 
 
 DEM.— I have the same wish; but I will not give up these 
 suppliants. 
 
 COPR— I shall drag away, however, those whom I have 
 seized as belonging to me. 
 
 DEM — You shall not, then, with ease again return to 
 Argos*. 
 
 COPR.— I shall soon know, by making trial, if this be the 
 case. 
 
 (1) " The Athenians are said, by Philostratus, to have instituted a 
 pubUc and solemn mourning in commemoration of the crime they had 
 committed m kilUng the Herald Copreus, as he was forcibly dragging a^vay 
 the children of Hercules from their altars : but Euripides was too well 
 acquainted both with the laws of the drama and poetic justice to throw 
 out any thing beyond a distant hint relative to this flagrant breach of the 
 laws of nations. To have exhibited on the stage the murder of an Em- 
 bassador (whose person was held sacred even among nations the most 
 uncivilized), committed by the people, whom he on all occasions describes 
 as models of honour and justice, would have been in him the most glaring 
 mconsistency, and must have rendered him odious to his countrymen." - 
 
 WODHULL. 
 
 THE HERACLIDiE. 
 
 61 
 
 DEM.— If you touch them, you shall have cause to rue it, 
 and that on the instant. 
 
 CHORUS.— Do not, by the Gods, dare to strike a Herald. 
 
 DEM. — I will, if the Herald do not learn to behave with 
 discretion. 
 
 CHORUS. — Depart : and do you, O king, forbear to touch 
 him. 
 
 COPR. — I go: for the combat of a single arm is weak. 
 But I will return, and bring with me the many brazen 
 spears of martial Argos: for ten thousand warriors who 
 bear the shield await my return, with Eurystheus the king 
 their leader, At the extreme boundaries of the land of 
 Alcathoiis^ he pauses, in expectation of an answer from this 
 city : and with fury, when he hears your insolence, will he 
 appear to you and to your people, to this land and to all 
 it produces : for we should in vain possess such a flower of 
 youth in Argos, if we did not visit you with our vengeance. 
 
 DEM. — Get you gone with a mischief! for I do not fear 
 your boasted Argos. You shall never carry away from 
 this altar, to my dishonour, these suppliants by force ; for 
 I do not rule this city as subject to Argos, but as free. 
 
 CHORUS. — It is time to provide for the danger, before the 
 army of Argives approach our borders : for the war of the 
 people of Mycenas is ever impetuous, and it will now be 
 more impetuous than before. It is the custom of all heralds 
 to magnify events twice beyond the fact. How many lies* 
 then, do you think he will tell to his masters ? He will 
 relate, that he suffered grievous wrongs, and all but lost his 
 Ufe. 
 
 lOLAUs. — There is no more honourable gift to children, 
 than to have been born from a brave and virtuous father, 
 and to intermarry with the good : for I will not praise him, 
 who, overcome by desire, has allied himself with the bad, 
 
 (1) Alcathous, the son of Pelops, reigned at Megara, whither he had 
 fled after he became suspected of the murder of his brother Chrysippus. 
 Eurystheus is of course represented as so far in advance, that the battle 
 and other subsequent events might not appear to violate too grossly the 
 unity of time. 
 
til 
 
 62 
 
 EURIPIDES. 
 
 THE HERACLID.E. 
 
 I 
 
 I! 
 
 I 
 1 
 
 SO as to leave shame, instead of pleasure, to his children. 
 Noble birth is a better shield against misfortune than a 
 dishonourable origin; for we who had sunk to the lowest 
 pitch of misery find these friends and kinsmen, who alone 
 of all the countries of Greece have stood forward in our 
 defence. Give them, O children, give them your right 
 hands, (and you to the children ;) and approach near. Ye 
 youths, we have made proof of friends : and if ever a 
 return to your country shall open to you, and ye shall 
 regain your home and the honours of your father, always 
 deem them your preservers and friends ; and never, whilst 
 you remember these benefits, lift against this land a hostile 
 spear, but consider this as the dearest of all cities : for 
 they are well worthy of regard, who have chosen in our 
 behalf to make so powerful a country and the Pelasgic 
 people their enemies, seeing us in poverty and exile, and 
 yet refusing to give us up or to drive us from the land. 
 But I, both in fife, and in death, when its hour shall have 
 come, shall extol you, my friend, with many praises to 
 Theseus ; and shall rejoice him, by telling how you kmdly 
 received and succoured the children of Hercules, and that, 
 distinguished through Greece, you support the renown of 
 your father. Sprung from an illustrious race, you prove 
 that you have m no respect degenerated from your an- 
 cestry, unlike the generality of men; for you will find only 
 one among many who is not inferior to his father \ 
 
 CHORUS.— This land ever seeks in a just cause to aid 
 those who are in a helpless state. It has therefore already 
 sustained innumerable toils in defence of its friends : and 
 now I see a struggle approaching. 
 
 DEM. -You have spoken well, old man ; and I will confi- 
 dently assert, that the feelings of these will be such : the 
 favour shall not be forgotten. I will now hold a levy of 
 the citizens ; and will arrange, that I may meet the army of 
 the Mycenaeans with a powerful force, (first mdeed sending 
 
 (1) TlaSpot yap rot traiZis o/iotot irorpi Xk\9VT(u' 
 Oi w\(oi/fs Koudovs' iravpoi 5t tc irarpos dptlovs. 
 
 Horn. Ot/ys. II. 176. 
 
 63 
 
 ji 
 
 spies to watch them, lest they fall upon us unawares, for 
 every Argive rushes with haste to the war ;) and having col- 
 lected the prophets, I will offer sacrifice. But do you, 
 leaving the altar of Jove, enter the palace with the child- 
 ren ; for there are those there, who, even if I be abroad, 
 will take care of you. Go then, old man, into the house. 
 
 lOLAus. — I will not leave the altar : let us remain here, 
 and use our supplications that the city may prosper. As 
 soon as you have retired successfully from this contest, we 
 will enter the house. But we do not, O king, rely upon 
 the aid of Deities inferior to those of the Argives ; for 
 though Juno, the wife of Jove, presides over their cause, 
 Minerva favours ours : and I assert, that it conduces to suc- 
 cess to obtain the aid of mightier Powers ; for Pallas will 
 not submit to be overcome. 
 
 CHORUS. — Though your boasts are haughty, others do 
 not the more regard your power, O stranger, who hast 
 come from Argos. You shall not by the words of arro- 
 gance dismay my mind. Forbid that such feeling should 
 ever arise in the mighty Athens, the scene of the beauteous 
 dance ! But you are devoid of sense, as well as the son of 
 Sthenelus^, who rules in Argos; who coming a stranger to 
 another city not inferior to Argos, forcibly drags away exiles 
 who are suppliants of the Gods and claim the protection of 
 our country, without yielding to its rulers, or resting on any 
 plea of justice. Where would such conduct be approved* 
 by those who possessed their right judgment? Peace, 
 indeed, is grateful to my thoughts : but I tell you, O in- 
 fatuated prince, that if you come to this city you shall not 
 so easily obtain what you expect. The spear does not 
 
 (I) " Eurystheus, StheneU fiUus, qui fuit Persei ex Andromeda. Hinc 
 Ovidio dicitur Stheneleius, Epist. 9, Quern nm mille ferie^ quern non 
 Stheneleius hostis, Non potuit Juno vincere, vicit Amor, Cum jam Hercules 
 nasciturus erat, Jupiter in concilio Deorum juravit, ut illo ipso die ex suo 
 genere nasceretur, qui finitimis imperaret. Juno itaque in terram de- 
 scendit, Argos petiit, Alcmenae partum distulit, Archippen, Stheneli ux- 
 orem, septem tanti^m mensium foetum parere coegit, Eurystheum postek 
 dictum. Qui ea ratione Argivorum regnum obtinuit, atque in Herculem 
 imperium."— Barnes. 
 
64 
 
 EURIPIDES. 
 
 THE HERACLIDiE. 
 
 65 
 
 shine for you alone, nor the brazen boss of the shield. But 
 I am no lover of war, and do not disturb with the spear a 
 city which is favoured by all the Graces, but refrain from 
 the battle*. 
 
 lOLAUs. — My son, why have you come with this expres- 
 sion of care in your countenance? Have you any new 
 tidings to announce from the enemy ? Are they on the point 
 of advancing; or are they present; or what have you learned 
 by your inquiries? The threats of the Herald are not likely 
 to prove false ; for a leader approaches, who is encouraged 
 by prosperity from the Gods, and who entertains, I well 
 know it, no humble designs against Athens. But Jupiter 
 is wont to punish thoughts of too daring pride. 
 
 DEM. — The army of the Argives is come, and Eurystheus 
 the king. I myself have seen him ; for it becomes a chief, 
 . who boasts that he is well skilled to lead an army, not to 
 view the enemy only by spies. He has not indeed, as yet, 
 poured in his forces on these plains of the land; but, 
 encamped on the brow of a hill, he surveys (I speak to you 
 my conjecture) in what way he may lead forward his forces 
 without an engagement, and take up a station with security 
 in this country. All my preparations, however, have been 
 satisfactorily completed : the citizens are in arms, and the 
 victims stand prepared for the Gods to whom * they ought 
 to be sacrificed; and incense is offered through the city by 
 the priests, with influence to turn the enemy and preserve 
 our country. But, having collected together all the ex- 
 
 (1) It is singular, considering tiie high excellence of Euripides in lyric 
 composition, that we have not in this play a single Chorus which exhibits 
 the least animation of poetry . The subject was one which afforded every 
 scope for genius ; and the strong national feeling with which it was so in- 
 timately blended, was alone sufficient to have inspired a higher strain. 
 Euripides, however, was well acquainted with the spirit of his country- ' 
 men ; and he perhaps judged rightly, that paltry compliments to Athenian 
 vanity would draw more of popular applause than the noblest effusions of 
 the moral Muse. 
 
 (2) Certain animals were set apart as victims to peculiar Gods ; as, the 
 goat to Bacchus, and the bull to Neptune : and it is to this distinction of 
 sacrifice that Demophon alludes. 
 
 pounders of oracles, I have searched into the prophecies 
 of ancient date, both public and secret, which are con- 
 nected with the safety of this land. In other oracles, there 
 were many points on which they differed ; but in one the 
 opinion of all was distinctly the same. They command me 
 to sacrifice to the daughter of Ceres a virgin who has 
 sprung from a noble father. Now, I entertain, as you have 
 witnessed, great zeal in your cause ; but yet I will neither 
 sacrifice my own daughter, nor compel any of my citizens 
 against his will: and who is there with such perverted 
 feelings as willingly to give up from his hands his dearest 
 children to death ? You will now see contending factions 
 of the people, some saying that it is just to aid suppliant 
 strangers, and others condemning my folly ; and if I shall 
 not do this ', a domestic war is already kindled. Do you, 
 therefore, see to this ; and discover some means by which 
 both ye and this country may be preserved, and I not 
 become the object of odium to the citizens : for I do not 
 hold this sovereignty like that of a Barbarous State, but 
 shall only, if I do what is just, meet with the like in 
 return'. 
 
 CHORUS. — Will the God, then, not permit the wishes of 
 this city, which is eager to assist the strangers ? 
 
 lOLAUs. — My children, we are like mariners, who, having 
 escaped the wild fury of the tempest, have all but touched^ 
 
 (1) The reading which has been followed by Elmsley renders the sense 
 of this passage obscure. -The emendation of Musgrave, ^r 5^ jx-n trxwrta 
 rJSe, nisi hoc inhibnero, would be a decided improvement, but it unfortu- 
 nately is supported by no authority. Heath has with some plausibility 
 suggested the following: "to56 ad nihil aliud referri potest, qukm ad 
 ^tvois uciTcus dfnfyeiv, Sed tum £ilsus plane oritur sensus. Itaque le- 
 gendum : i}v S^ fnjv SpoVw to8€." 
 
 (2) " Certum est, quod ait Johannes Brodaeus, priscos illos reges legibus 
 non fuisse solutos. Et aeque certum est, bonos reges et prudentes nee 
 esse sme legibus, nee esse velle. Divina igitur M. Antonini vox : Licet 
 legibus soluti simus^ attamen legibus vimmusJ''' Barnes. "With respect to 
 the power of the Barbarian kings, Elmsley has very appropriately quoted 
 the speech of Atossa, Pers. yEsch. 211. to which we refer the reader. 
 
 (3) " Proverbialis, saltem familiaris apud Graecos locutio erat us x€</>a 
 pro in conspecium, prope.^^ — MusonAVE. 
 

 EURIPIDES. 
 
 the shore, and then are driven back by the blasts from the 
 land to the deep. Thus are we driven from this land, after 
 we had gained the shore and thought ourselves safe. Ah 
 why, wretched Hope, did you then cheer me, if you did 
 not intend to consummate the favour ? The feelings of the 
 prince are not to be blamed, if he be not willing to slay the 
 daughters of his citizens ; and I must even praise my re- 
 ception here: and if it should seem good to the Gods that 
 I should effect my wishes ', your favours shall not be for- 
 gotten. But, O my children ! I know not what counsel to 
 take for you. Whither can we turn? for what God have 
 we not supplicated with the wreath ? to the sanctuary of 
 what land have we not come ? We are undone, my child- 
 ren ! we shall we delivered up. For myself, I care not if 
 I am doomed to die, except in as far as I shall give pleasure 
 to my enemies by my death ; but I weep and lament for 
 you, O children, and for Alcmena the aged mother of 
 your father. O woman, unhappy in thy length of life, (but 
 not more unhappy than I, who have endured many toils m 
 vain,) it was fated, it was fated then, that we should fall mto 
 the hands of our enemy, and basely and ingloriously perish. 
 But do you know what you may do in my behalf? (for all 
 hope of preserving these children hath not left me.) Give 
 me up instead of them, O king, to the Argives, and do not 
 expose yoiurself to danger ; and let my children be pre- 
 served. It does not become me to love my own life : let 
 it go : Eurystheus would chiefly wish to seize me, that he 
 might triumph over the companion of Hercules ; for he is 
 a foolish man. The wise ought to pray that they may 
 engage in enmity with the wise', and not with the ignorant 
 in spirit ; for even if unsuccessful, one might then meet with 
 much compassion. 
 
 (1) Or, that I should have the same fortune. 
 
 2) Barnes has written a sermon, rather than a note, on this text. In 
 his practical conclusion he agrees with the proposition of lolaus: but 
 there are few men, we should think, who would not pray, on the contraiy, 
 that if they were to have a bitter enemy, it might be one to whom his 
 wits were feeble weapons. 
 
 THE HERACLIDiE. 
 
 67 
 
 CHORUS.— Do not now, old man, accuse this city : for 
 though gain might perhaps result to us, it would be a foul 
 reproach that we betrayed strangers. 
 , DEM. — The proposal which you have made is generous, 
 but impracticable. The king does not lead his forces 
 hither in search of you ; (for what benefit would there be to 
 Eurystheus from the death of an old man ?) but wishes to 
 kill these children. For there is a terror to enemies in the 
 growth of the noble born, who are in the vigour of youth 
 and remember the wrongs of a father : and it may be 
 expected that he will look to all these considerations. But 
 if you know any other counsel that will better suit the 
 emergency, quickly produce it; since I have been at a loss 
 since I heard the oracles, and am full of fear. 
 
 MACARIA.* 
 
 Do not, O strangers, impute boldness to me, because I 
 have come forth to your presence, (I will make this my 
 first request;) for it is most honourable for a woman to be 
 silent and modest, and to remain quietly within the house. 
 But having heard, O lolaus, your groans, I came forth, not 
 appointed to represent my kindred, but because I chanced 
 to be near, and feel the greatest anxiety for my brothers ; 
 and wish also to inquire, for my own sake, whether any evil, 
 added to our former misfortunes, pains your mind. 
 
 lOf-Aus.— My daughter, I have not now for the first time 
 to praise you with justice above all the children of Her- 
 cules : but our house, when it seemed to emerge into pro- 
 sperity, has again sunk back into inextricable ruin ; for this 
 prince declares that the interpreters of oracles have not 
 marked out^ for a victim a bull or a heifer, but have bid 
 him sacrifice a virgin who is sprung from a noble father, 
 if we would have ourselves or this city preserved. In this 
 difficulty, therefore, we are hopelessly involved ; for he says 
 
 (1) Macaria was the daughter of Hercules by Deianira. Her charac- 
 ter is beautifully developed in the scene which follows. 
 
 (2) We prefer the latter of the two interpretations which Elmsley gives 
 of this disputed passage : " Oraculorutn enim interpretes ait hicce nan tau- 
 rum aui vitulum significare^ sed pueliam nolAlem mactare jubere." 
 
 f2. 
 
 
m 
 
 EURIPIDES. 
 
 that he will neither slay his own children, nor those of any 
 other parent : and to me he intimates indeed, not distinctly, 
 but hints, that except we can extricate ourselves from this 
 difficulty, we must seek another country, as he wishes to 
 preserve this land. 
 
 MAC. — Can we hope to be saved on this condition ? 
 
 lOLAUs. — On this only ; our fortunes in other respects 
 being prosperous. 
 
 MAC— Do not now any longer dread the hostile spear of 
 the Argives ; for I, of my own accord, before I am com- 
 manded, am willing, old man, to die, and to be led to the 
 sacrifice. For what could we say, if a State should deign to 
 incur great danger on our account ; and we who are the 
 cause of trouble to others, when it is in our power to 
 be saved, should shrink from death ? May it not be 
 so ; since it were worthy even of ridicule, that we should sit 
 and groan as suppliants of Gods, and yet, though sprung 
 from that father to whom we owe our birth, should be dis- 
 covered to be devoid of courage. How should such con- 
 duct become the good? It were more honourable, I deem^ 
 that, this city having been taken, (which may Heaven forbid !) 
 we should fall into the hands of our enemies ; and that a 
 virgin, sprung from a noble father, should, after having suf- 
 fered the worst of wrongs, not the less descend to the 
 grave'. But shall I become a vagrant, when banished from 
 this land ? and shall I not blush, when some one shall say, 
 *' Why have ye come hither with your suppliant boughs, 
 yourselves so fond of life ? Depart from the land ; for we 
 will not aid the base." But neither though these were 
 dead, and I were preserved, can I hope to prosper; (though 
 many have on this expectation betrayed their friends ;) for 
 who could wish to wed a forlorn maid, or to beget child- 
 ren from my embrace? Is it not then better to die, than to 
 meet undeservedly with such indignities? They would 
 more befit the lot of one whose origin was less distinguished 
 than mine. Lead me to the place where it is fated that 
 this body should die ; and crown me with garlands, and 
 (1) This sentence, it will be observed, is spoken ironically. 
 
 THE HERACLID^. 
 
 69 
 
 begin, if ye think it good, the rites of sacrifice; and conquer 
 the enemy : for this life is offered willingly, and without re- 
 luctance, and I proclaim that I die for the safety of my 
 brothers and for my own honour. By this contempt of life 
 I gain the highest reward — the fame of a glorious death \ 
 
 CHORUS. — Alas ! alas ! what shall I say, having heard 
 the magnanimous speech of the virgin, who is willing to 
 die for her brothers ? Who of mortals could utter more 
 generous words, or aspire to a nobler deed? 
 
 lOLAUs. — My child, your life hath not been derived from 
 a spurious source, but from the genuine seed and divine 
 spirit of Hercules ; nor do I aught but glory in your words, 
 though I sorrow for your fate. But I will explain how this 
 award may be rendered more just. It is fitting that we 
 should summon hither the sisters of this virgin ; and let her, 
 to whom the lot falls, die in behalf of the race : but it were 
 not just that you should be the victim, without the decision 
 of the lot. 
 
 MAC. — I will not submit to die according as Fortune shall 
 dispense ; for no merit would attach to the sacrifice. Do 
 not name it, old man. But if ye will accept me, and are 
 willing to avail yourselves of my free zeal, I voluntarily re- 
 tsign my life for these, but not upon compulsion. 
 
 lOLAUs. — Alas ! the speech you have now made is even 
 more generous than the former, and that was most noble ; 
 but you surpass in courage your former courage, and the 
 merit of your former words, by the present. I do not, my 
 child, command, nor forbid your death ; but by the sacri- 
 fice of your life you will benefit your brothers. 
 
 MAC. — You enjoin me wisely: be not afraid lest you 
 share in the pollution of my death, for I die of my free 
 accord. But follow me, old man, for I wish to die in your 
 
 (l) " Cum hac Macarise oratione comparanda Polyxenae oratio in 
 Hec. 342. Iphigeniae in Iph. A. 1368. Praxitheae in Erectheo. Omnes 
 locis communibus refertae sunt, quarum multb patientiores fuerunt Athe> 
 nienses qukm nostri homines." Elmsley. We are reluctant to express 
 any dissent from the opinions of such an accomplished critic, but we 
 cannot help thinking that the speeches of which he talks so slightingly 
 are imbued with a pathos and simplicity which have been rarely equalled. 
 
70 
 
 EURIPIDES. 
 
 \l 
 
 arms; and do you, being present, veil my body beneath its 
 robes *. I shall meet without fear the horrors of slaughter, 
 if I have sprung from the father from whom I boast my 
 birth. 
 
 lOLAUs. — I cannot bear to be present at your death. 
 
 MAC. — But do you then request of the king, that I may 
 breathe my last, not in the hands of men, but of women. 
 
 DEM. — O unhappy virgin, your request shall be granted 
 (for it were disgraceful to me if I did not duly deck 
 your obsequies) on account of many reasons, both for your 
 courage of soul and your principles of virtue. Of all 
 women that my eyes have beheld, you are the firmest in 
 spirit. But if you would address any thing to these youths, 
 or to the old man, go, after having uttered to them your 
 last words. 
 
 MAC. — Farewell, old man, farewell ; and teach, I pray 
 you, these boys to be wise in every thing in the same de- 
 gree as you are, but not farther ; for they shall thus have 
 enough. But strive to preserve them, and be not anxious 
 to die. We are your children ; by your hands we have 
 been reared : and you see even me sacrificing my bridal 
 prime to die in their behalf. But may ye, my band of 
 brothers who are present, be favoured of Heaven! and may 
 there result to you all those blessings for which my heart 
 shall bleed! Forget not to honour this aged man, and the 
 aged woman within the house, Alcmena, the mother of my 
 father, and these strangers ; and if ever a release from 
 your toils, if ever a return to your country be granted to 
 
 (1) " Euripides, poetarum castissimus et decori amantissimus, semper 
 virgiimm pudori consulit egregie: sic de Polyxena loquens Hecub. 
 V. 568. *H 5t, Kcd QvriffKova^^ Sfuas noWrjv itpovoiav tlx^v fvax^fias Twuvy 
 KpvTrrup ff, i K^niitrtiv gfifjutr' dpatvuv xp^uv. Idem narratur de Julio 
 Caesare, quando in Senatu moribundus cecidjt, de qua re vid. Suetonium. 
 Hinc Ovid. Fastorum, Lib. II. ad finem de Lucretia : Tu7u; quoque jam 
 moriens, ne nan procumbat hanesie, Respicit : hac etiam cura cadenti* erat, 
 Eodem modo et htc loci Macaria pudoris sui curam seni lolao moritura 
 commendat, quem sanctum et amicissimum familiae su« sciebat." Barnes. 
 —Nothing can be more highly ludicrous than the mention of Julius Csesar, 
 in the middle of the note, among the examples of modesty in virgins. 
 
 THE HERACLID.E. 
 
 71 
 
 you by the Gods, remember to bury, as she deserves, her who 
 died to save you. It were just that my tomb should be 
 most honourable ; for I have not been deficient in love for 
 you, but die in behalf of the race. Such treasures must 
 suffice to me for children and for my unenjoyed virginity », 
 if there be any feeling beneath the earth. But haply there 
 is none : and in truth, if departed mortals are still subject 
 to cares in the Shades, I know not of any solace to which 
 man can turn ; for death has been accounted the sovereign 
 cure for the evils of his condition. 
 
 loLAUs. — O virgin, who highly excellest in loftiness of 
 soul, know that you are the most honourable of all women, 
 and that you shall be so esteemed by us both in life and 
 death. And now, farewell : for I fear to utter words of 
 evil omen against the Goddess, the daughter of Ceres, to 
 whom your body is already consecrated I My sons, I pe- 
 rish : my limbs fail beneath me through grief: support me, 
 O children, and place me on that seat, and there cover me 
 up with these garments. I am neither pleased with the 
 issue of this event, nor, if the oracle had not been fulfilled, 
 could we have preserved our lives : for that would have 
 been the greater calamity ; but even the present is grievous. 
 
 CHORUS. — I say, that no mortal is blessed with happiness, 
 or condemned to misery, without the sanction of the Gods; 
 and that the same house does not always continue in pro- 
 sperity; but that, now to one, and now to another, a diflferent 
 fate arrives. One man, indeed, it will reduce from gran« 
 deur to humble state ; and the destitute wanderer it will 
 make the favoured of Fortune. It is riot permitted us to 
 shun our destiny, and by no device shall any one repel its 
 decrees ; but he who strives for such an object shall ever 
 endure vain toil. But do you submit to the dispensations 
 
 \ 
 
 (1) In like manner we find Antigone represented by Sophocles as la- 
 menting for the same reasons her untimely death. The more noted in- 
 stance of Jephtha's daughter shews how generally, in the ancient world, 
 the idea of disgrace was supposed to attach to such a fete. 
 
 (2) Macaria at this moment leaves the stage, and proceeds to the scene 
 of sacrifice. 
 
7^ 
 
 EURIPIDES. 
 
 THE HERACLIDiE. 
 
 73 
 
 of Heaven, without falling prostrate to earth '; and do not 
 distress your spirit with excess of grief; for the unhappy 
 maid, who falls for her brothers and for this land, obtains 
 the lot of death with glory ; and no obscure renown awaits 
 her among men. Virtue advances on its path through 
 sufferings. These deeds are worthy of her father, and 
 worthy of her noble strain ; and if you feel reverence for 
 the deaths of the good, I participate in your sentiments. 
 
 SERVANT. 
 
 Hail, ye children ! But where is the aged lolaus ? and 
 how is the mother of your father absent from this seat ? 
 
 lOLAUS.— I am present; such, indeed, as my presence is. 
 
 SERV.— Why do you lie on the earth, and wear that 
 downcast look ? 
 
 lOLAUs.— Private griefs have reached me, by which I am 
 oppressed. 
 
 SERv.— Now raise yourself from that posture, and lift 
 your head. 
 
 IOLAUS.--I am an old man, and my strength is gone. 
 
 sERV.— I come, however, with tidings of great joy to you. 
 
 loLAUs.— But who are you ? Where, having met with you, 
 have I lost the remembrance ? 
 
 SERV — I am the attendant" of Hyllus. Do you not 
 recognise me by sight ? 
 
 loLAUs. — O dearest of men! have you come, then, to be 
 our preserver from misfortune ? 
 
 SERV. — Without doubt: nay more, you are prosperous 
 in your present circumstances, 
 
 lOLAUs. — O mother of a gallant son, I mean Alcmena, 
 come forth and hear the dearest tidings of this messenger! 
 for you long since pmed in soul through anguished doubt 
 if the arrival of those who have now come would occur. 
 
 (1) The Chorus here address lolaus, who, according to Beck, "ad ter- 
 rain prostratus in remota quadam theatri parte remanet." 
 
 (2) "Thessali, secundum Athenaeum, p. 264. irei^eWos vocabant, roCs f4 
 fovtp ^\ovs, did irSKf/wv 5^ p^uKoras, Aliter Archemachus ibidem citatus. 
 Secundum eum trtvitrrns is fuerit, qui, pact© cum victore inito, pro agri 
 sui usufructu certum vectigal pendit. Confer Theocrit. IdylJ. XVI. v. 35. 
 et interpretes Hesychii m voce.* — Musgrave. 
 
 ALCMENA. 
 
 Why is all this edifice filled with clamour? O lolaus! 
 does some herald being present from Argos again assail 
 you with violence ? My strength indeed is feeble ; but you 
 ought, O stranger, to know this much, that you shall never, 
 while I am alive, carry oiF these children. If you might, 
 I should assuredly be no longer deemed the mother of 
 their father: and if- you touch them with your hands, you 
 shall have to contend without honour against two aged 
 opponents. 
 
 loLAUs. — Be of good cheer, O aged matron, and do not 
 fear. He hath not come a herald from Argos, bearing a 
 hostile message. 
 
 ALC. — Why, then, did you raise that cry, the harbinger 
 of fear ? 
 
 lOLAUS. — That you might approach near, in front of this 
 temple. 
 
 ALC. — I know not what you mean : for who is this man ? 
 
 lOLAUs. — He announces that the son of your son is 
 coming hither. 
 
 ALC. — O welcome are you on account of your tidings ! 
 But why, if he has approached his steps to this land, and 
 where, is he now absent ? What circumstance has prevented 
 him from appearing here, along with you, to delight my soul? 
 
 SERV. — He is placing in position, and marshalling, the 
 army which he brought with him. 
 
 ALC. — There is no longer, then, any share to me in this 
 conference. 
 
 lOLAUS. — There is ; but it is my part to inquire into the 
 particulars. 
 
 sERV. — What do you wish to learn with respect to his 
 proceedings ? 
 
 lOLAUs. — How great a number of allies has he present 
 with him ? - 
 
 SERV. — Many : but I cannot give any other account of 
 their numbers. 
 
 lOLAUs. — The chiefs of the Athenians, I presume, are 
 acquainted with these circumstances. 
 
 I 
 
 i) 
 
74 
 
 EURIPIDES. 
 
 sERV. — They are : and the left wing, indeed, is already 
 formed. < 
 
 lOLAUs. — Is the army, then, already arrayed in arms, as 
 if for action ? 
 
 SERV. — Yes ; and the victims have been led apart from 
 the ranks. 
 
 loLAUS. — How far distant are still the Argive spears ? 
 
 SERV. — So that their leader can be clearly seen. 
 
 lOLAUs. — How occupied ? in forming the ranks of the 
 enemy ? 
 
 SERV. — We suppose so ; for we have not heard. But I 
 go ; for I would not wish, as for as I am concerned, that 
 my masters should engage, without my aid, with the enemy. 
 
 lOLAUs. — And I will join you: for I feel the same desire, 
 being present, to assist, as it behoves us, our friends. 
 
 SERV. — It little becomes you to speak a foolish word. 
 
 lOLAUs. — And less would it become me not to share in 
 the valiant combat with my friends. 
 
 SERV. — ^No wound is inflicted by appearing on the field, 
 if the hand is inactive. 
 
 lOL Aus. — How ? Can I not strike, too, through the shield ? 
 
 SERV. — You might strike; but you are first more likely 
 to fall yourself. 
 
 lOLAUs. — ^No one of the enemy will endure to look on me. 
 
 SERV. — The strength, my friend^ which was once yours 
 is departed. 
 
 loLAUS. — I am prepared, however, to fight with no 
 smaller number of foes. 
 
 SERV. — You will add but little weight to your friends. 
 
 lOLAUs. — Do not withhold me, prepared for action. 
 
 SERV. — You are not fit for action, diough perhaps you 
 are willing. 
 
 loLAus — You may say what more you please, but I re- 
 main no longer. 
 
 SBRv. — How then shall you appear as a warrior without 
 arms ? 
 
 lOLAUs. — There are beneath this roof, arms which have 
 been taken in war ; of which I will make use, and return 
 
 THE HERACLIDiE. 
 
 7h 
 
 them again if I live : but from the dead the God will not 
 demand them back. Go within, and, taking down a suit 
 of armour from the nails in the wall, bring it quickly to me; 
 for it were disgraceful to stay in safety at home, that some 
 indeed should fight, and others keep back through 
 cowardice. 
 
 CHORUS. — Time has not yet quelled your spirit, which 
 retains the vigour of youth ; but the strength of the body 
 is gone. Why should you attempt these vain toils, which 
 will hurt you, and be of little avail to our city ? It were 
 fitting that you should know the weakness of your age, and 
 relinquish what is beyond its power. It is impossible that 
 you should ever regain your youth. 
 
 ALC. — For what purpose do you design, being deprived 
 of your senses, to leave me deserted along with my children? 
 
 lOLAUs. — The battle belongs to men ; but it is your part 
 to take care of these young ones. 
 
 ALC. — But how if you die ; in what way shall I be saved ? 
 
 lOLAUs. — This will be a care to the sons of your son who 
 survive. 
 
 ALC. — But if, (what Heaven forbid !) they should meet 
 a different fortune? 
 
 lOLAUs. — These strangers, you may depend, will never 
 betray you. 
 
 ALC— Such ground of hope alone, and nought else, I 
 possess. 
 
 lOLAUS. — And Jove, I know, will regard your toils. 
 
 ALC. — Alas ! Jove indeed shall not be reviled by my lips : 
 but he knows himself if he has been a benign Power to me. 
 
 SERV. — You now see this full suit of armour ; and you 
 cannot make too much haste in clothing your body with it ; 
 for the conflict is nigh, and Mars most of all detests the 
 tardy. But if you fear the weight of the mail now indeed, 
 advance imarmed, and in the ranks array yourself in these 
 equipments ; for I will bear them to the field. 
 
 lOLAUs. — You have spoken well : carry my arms as you 
 hold them ready, place the spear in my hand, and support 
 my left arm, directing my steps. 
 
76 
 
 EURIPIDES. 
 
 SERV,— Is it becoming to lead a warrior like a child? 
 
 lOLAUs. — I must walk securely, for the sake of the omen*. 
 
 SERv. — I wish you were as powerful in action as you are 
 zealous in spirit ! 
 
 lOLAUs. — Hasten on : I shall suffer much grief if too late 
 for the battle. 
 
 sERv. — You delay, and not I ; though you think that you 
 are active. 
 
 loLAUs. — Do you not see how quickly my foot is hurried 
 along ? 
 
 SERV. — I see you seeming to hasten, more than hastening. 
 lOLAUs. — You will not say this, when you see me on the 
 field. 
 
 SERV.— Performing what exploit ? I pray that I may see 
 you prospering. 
 
 lOLAUs. — Piercing, through his shield, some enemy 
 
 SERV.— If we ever get to the scene of action : for this is 
 to be feared. 
 
 loLAUs.— Alas! Would, O my arm, that, as I remember 
 your youthful vigour when with Hercules you laid waste 
 Sparta', you would now prove to me such an ally, that I 
 may be able to put Eurystheus to flight ! for he, in truth, 
 lacks courage to await the spear. But there is in prosperity 
 this erroneous consequence, the opinion of valour ; for we 
 think that the man who is fortunate knows every thing well. 
 
 CHORUS.— O Earth, and Moon resplendent through 
 night, and ye refulgent rays of the God who gives light to 
 mortals, bear to me the tidings, and make them resound 
 through the sky and beside the royal throne and in the 
 temple of the blue-eyed Minerva. Having received the 
 suppliants, I am now, in defence of my native land and of 
 
 (1) " lolaus veretur, ne ipsius pes ofFendat, quia id malum habebatur 
 omen. Eandem nunc quoque recentiorum Graecorum opinionem e Gujsio 
 docet Prevost." — Beck. 
 
 (2) " Haec ad historiam spectant, quae ait, Herculem ob caesum CEonum, 
 filium Licymnii, Hippocoontidaa et Lacedaemoniam bello petiisse, victis- 
 que iis et urbe Sparta evers4 sub Tyndaro redegisse. Hoc verb prsecipue 
 
 hie ab Euripide memoratur, quia Lacedaemonios caros non habuit." 
 
 Barnes. 
 
 > 
 
 THE HERACLID^. 
 
 77 
 
 my home, about to encounter danger with the gleaming 
 steel. It is terrible, indeed, that a city so prosperous as 
 Mycenae, and so renowned for prowess in war, should 
 cherish wrath against my country : but it were base, O 
 city, if we should deliver up suppliant strangers ; and it 
 might prove the cause of deadly grief. Jove is my ally: I 
 will not fear. Jove, with justice, favours my cause : and 
 never have the Gods been seen inferior to mortals. But, 
 
 hallowed Power, (for the soil of this land is thine, and 
 the city, of which thou art the founder, queen and guar- 
 dian.) drive to some other region the chief who unjustly 
 leads against this land the spears of his host from Argos ! 
 for it were not right that I should be forced, on account of 
 my virtuous feelings, to quit these courts. To thee the 
 honour of the plenteous sacrifice is ever paid* (nor is the 
 waning day of the months forgotten); to thee swell the songs 
 of the youths, and the strains of our choirs ; and on thy 
 wind-swept hilP the shouts of joy resound, through the 
 live-long night, to the echoing steps of virgins in the dance. 
 
 SERV. — O Queen, I bear tidings which are very brief for 
 you to hear, and most glorious for me to tell : we have con- 
 quered the enemy, and trophies have been erected which 
 bear the armour of your foes. 
 
 ALC. — O dearest messenger, this day hath advanced you 
 to freedom on account of your tidings. But you have not 
 yet freed me from the apprehension of one calamity ; for 
 
 1 fear if they live, for whose safety I pray. 
 
 SERV. — They live, and are celebrated in the army for 
 their glory. 
 
 ALC.— Is the old man, lolaus, no more? 
 
 SERV. — He not only lives, but has, by the favour of the 
 Gods, performed illustrious exploits. 
 
 ALC. — What were they ? Did he display any valour in 
 the strife ? 
 
 (1) The Chorus allude to the greater Panathenaea, which were cele- 
 brated by the Athenians, with the utmost splendour, in honour of their 
 tutelary Goddess. 
 
 (2) The Acropolis. 
 
/ 
 
 7$ 
 
 EURIPIDES. < 
 
 THE HERACLID^. 
 
 79 
 
 SERV. — FrQii^ an old man he changed again to yoiith. 
 
 ALC. — You tell wonders. But I wish you first to describe 
 the prosperous contest of my friends in fight. 
 
 SERV. — One speech of mine shall explain to you all that 
 you wish to know^| When we had set in array the armed 
 forces against each other, extending their lines in front, 
 Hyllus, dismounting from his four-horsed chariot, stood in 
 the space that intervened between the points of the op- 
 posing spears, and then spoke : " O leader, who hast come 
 from Argosj why should we not permit this land' * * 
 «««*«««««« and you will do no harm 
 to Mycenae by depriving her of one man. Do you, there- 
 fore, singly encounter in battle with my suigle spear ; and, 
 either slaying me, take and carry away the children of 
 Hercules; or, dying, permit me to regain the honours and 
 the house of my father." The troops assented to the 
 words, as having been well spoken for putting an end to 
 their toils, and as a proof of courage : but Eurystheus, 
 neither feehng shame on account of those who heard the 
 challenge, nor, though the leader of an army, for his own 
 cowardice, had not courage to approach the warlike spear, 
 but proved the basest dastard: and yet, though he was 
 such in spirit, he came to enslave the children of Hercules. 
 Hyllus, therefore, again retreated to his station ; and the 
 priests, when they perceived that no peace was likely to be 
 effected by the single combat, proceeded with the sacrifice ; 
 and, no longer delaying, shed the blood of propitious omen 
 from the throat of the hiiman victim '. Then some mounted 
 
 (1) Some verses have here been lost ; but the purport of them is suf- 
 ficiently obvious from the context. 
 
 (2) This slight allusion contains all the mention that is made of the 
 sacrifice of Macaria, from the time that she leaves the stage to the end of 
 the play. Barnes has supposed that the Messenger studiously avoided 
 the subject, in order that he might spare the feelings of Alcmena ; but 
 even though such had been the design of the poet in this particular pas- 
 sage, it would not excuse the defects of the drama in the unfinished 
 management of its most important event, nor in the ungrateful silence in 
 which the parties most interested and obliged pass over the generous 
 sacrifice by which their lives and freedom were preserved. 
 
 the chariot, and some protected their sides with the sides 
 of their shields ; and the king of the Athenians exhorted 
 his army in such words as became a gallant leader : " Now 
 is the time, my countrymen, for each of you to aid the land 
 of his nurture and his birth." In like manner Eurystheus 
 implored^ those who fought by his side not to be willing 
 to disgrace Argos and Mycense. But when the signal 
 blast arose on high from the Tuscan trumpet, and they 
 rushed together to the fight, what din of shields do you 
 think there resounded, what uproar, and what mingled 
 shrieks! At first, indeed, the onset* of the Argive spear 
 broke our ranks ; and then they retreated : but afterwards, 
 foot being planted against foot, and man standing against 
 man, the battle thickened, and many fell. Then might 
 these exhortations he heard : " O ye who dwell in Athens, 
 O ye who cultivate the fields of the Argives, will ye not 
 repel dishonour from your country ?" At length, with diffi- 
 culty, using every exertion, and not without severe toil, we 
 turned the Argive spear to flight : and at this period the 
 aged lolaus, seeing Hyllus rushing to the pursuit, stretched 
 forth his' right hand, and entreated him to place him in the 
 equestrian chariot But when he had got the reins in his 
 hands, he pressed after the horses of Eurystheus. What 
 afterwards happened, I must relate from the report of 
 others ; but to this point I was an eye-witness of what I 
 have described. Having descried the chariot of Eurys-^ 
 theus, as he passed the sacred hill of the divine Minerva 
 at Pallene^ he prayed to Hebe and Jove that he might 
 
 (1) Elmsley supposes the word ixifftrero to be used for the purpose of 
 denoting the cowardice of Eurystheus by the servility of his entreaties. 
 This remark is the offspring of hypercritical ingenuity : and it might 
 even be more correctly ui^ed, on the opposite side, that the earnest Ian* 
 guage of Eurystheus was a proof of his zeal and courage as a generaL 
 
 (S) ^' iriTvXos. Impressio simul ab omnibus fiu:ta." — Barnes. 
 
 (3) '' The Pallene here spoken of, by the slight accounts of it which 
 Brodseus has collected from Stephanas Byzantinus and Herodotus, ap- 
 pears to have been a small town in Attica, atuated between Athens and 
 Marathon, the scene of this tragedy. From Minerva being called the 
 Fallenian Goddess, we must infer that the temple there erected to her 
 
 was 
 
 1 
 
\ 
 
 toy 
 
 n 
 
 80 
 
 EURIPIDES. 
 
 again become young for that one day, and take vengeance 
 on his enemies. You shall now hear of the miracle that 
 ensued ; for two stars, appearing above the yoke of the 
 horses, concealed the chariot in a thick cloud \ The wiser 
 said that these were your son and Hebe : but the aged 
 warrior, when the gloomy darkness had passed^ displayed 
 the vigorous shape of youthful arms. Near the rocks of 
 Sciron the illustrious lolaus took the four-horsed chariot 
 of Eurystheus ; and having bound bis hands with fetters,, 
 he comes bringing, as his glorious spoils, the leader who 
 was wont to be crowned with success, but who, by his 
 present fortune, declares clearly, for the instruction of all 
 mortals, that they ought not to envy him who appears to be 
 prosperous, till they have seen his last day ; since human 
 prosperity is as fleeting as the hour. 
 
 CHORUS. — O Jupiter, God of trophies, now is it given to 
 me to behold a day free from dreadful fear I 
 
 ALC. — O Jupiter! it was late indeed when thou didst 
 regard my misfortunes, but I still feel grateful to thee for 
 the events which thou hast awarded ; and I now know, 
 clearly, that my son is ranked among the Gods, with whom 
 I formerly did not deem that he had a place. My children^ 
 ye shall now be free from your toils ; and free from Eurys- 
 theus, who shall perish with shame : and ye shall behold 
 the city of your father, and enter into the possession of. 
 your inheritance, and sacrifice to the Gods of your country, 
 from whom excluded ye have led among strangers a 
 wretched wandering life. But what scheme can lolaus 
 cherish, that he spared Eurystheus so as not to slay him? 
 Tell me : for in my thoughts it is not wise to refrain from 
 
 was one of the most celebrated in the Athenian territories, which it is 
 well known were crowded with her altars, she being considered as the 
 tutelary Deity of the land, and having given her name to its capital 
 
 city." — WODHULL. 
 
 (1) " Fingunt poetae Deorum per aera trajectum lucido limite, qualis 
 est stellae cadentis notari. Phsenomenon i^tur quod ob oculos ponere vo- 
 luit Euripides, hujusmodi est : cecidisse de ccelo in currum lolai duas sive 
 faces, sive (ut cum vulgo loquamur) stellas; earum lumine extincto^ 
 currum tenebris involutum fuisse."^MusGRAvE. 
 
 i 
 
 THE HERACLIDiE. 
 
 8t 
 
 taking vengeance on enemies when you have them in your 
 power. 
 
 SERV. — He spared him through respect to you, that you 
 might behold him vanquished and at the mercy of your 
 hand. Not with his own consent, but by force, he con- 
 strained him to this necessity; for he did not wish to 
 appear aUve in your presence and to suffer punishment. 
 But farewell, O aged dame ; and remember, at the same 
 time, what you first said when I began my tale, that you 
 would set me free ; for in such promises it becomes the 
 noble to be true to their words. 
 
 CHORUS.— To me, indeed, the dance is sweet, if the 
 beauteous melody of the flute, and Venus the Goddess of 
 delight, be present at the feast. But there is a pleasure, 
 too, in witnessing the prosperity of friends who before were 
 in humble state : for Fate consummating her decrees, and 
 Time the offspring of Saturn, give birth to many changes. 
 You follow, Omy country, the path of justice (from which 
 you ought never to deviate), in honouring the Gods ; for 
 he who denies them worship, after these signs that have 
 been revealed, is little removed from madness. The God 
 gives no dubious warning to the world, by thus ever hum- 
 bling the pride of the unjust. Your son, O aged Alcmena, 
 hath passed to heaven — (I spurn the tale that he descended 
 to the mansions of Pluto, having his body consumed by the 
 dreadful blaze of fire') ; and in its courts of gold he enjoys 
 the enamoured embrace of Hebe. O Hymen, thou hast 
 graced with thine honours two of the children of Jove'^ 
 Many events coincide to many individuals: for they say 
 that Minerva succoured the father^ of these children ; and 
 now have the city and people of that Goddess preserved 
 
 (1) Hercules, when tortured by the poisoned vest of the Centaur, was 
 said to 'have flung himself on a pyre on Mount (Eta, and to have been 
 burnt to death. 
 
 (2) Hercules and Hebe. 
 
 (3) ^' Palladem Herculis in omnibus fere laboribus adjutricem fuisse, 
 satis docebit vel unus Homerus, II. 6^. v. 362." — Musorave. 
 
 ■f- 
 
82 
 
 EURIPIDES. 
 
 \ 
 
 1 
 
 his offspring. The insolence of the tyrant has been re- 
 pressed, by whom the fury of his will was more regarded 
 than justice. May never a spirit of pride be mine, nor a 
 soul insatiate in its desires ! 
 
 MESSENGER. 
 
 O Queen, (you see indeed, but still it shall be ex- 
 pressed,) we come bringing to you Eurystheus*, a sight 
 unexpected by you, as no less was the fate by him : for he 
 little thought that he should fall into your hands, when he 
 marched from Mycenae with his ponderous shields, pos- 
 sessed with a hope, beyond his fortune, that he should 
 give Athens to destruction. But the God thwarted his 
 designs, and reversed his fortunes. Hyllus and the brave 
 lolaus have therefore erected to Jove, the God of trophies, 
 the image of glorious victory : and they have commanded 
 me to conduct this man to your presence, wishing to delight 
 your mind : for it is the highest gratification to behold an 
 enemy reduced from prosperity to misfortune. 
 
 ALC. — O detested wretch! have you come? and has 
 Justice at length made you her prey ? First then, I pray 
 you, turn your head in this direction, and dare to look your 
 enemies in the face ; for now you are the slave, and no 
 longer the master. Are you he (for I wish to know it) 
 who thought fit, O villain, to work a thousand wrongs 
 against my son, who no longer lives ? For what insults did 
 you not dare to heap on him ? You even made him de- 
 scend alive to Hades ; and sent him, at your command, to 
 slay Hydras and Hons ; and wrought him many other evils, 
 of which I am silent ; for it would take me long to recount 
 them. Nor have you been satisfied with having only dared 
 these deeds ; but you have driven me and his children 
 from all Greece, forcing away both the old and young from 
 their suppliant posture at the altar of the Gods. But now 
 you have met with brave men, and a free city, who feared 
 
 (1) Thd ancient traditions vary concerning the fate of Eurystheus ; 
 but it seems to have been most generally thought that he perished in the 
 battle. 
 
 THE HERACLIDiE. 
 
 8^ 
 
 you not It is fated that you should perish miserably, 
 though you shall thus have great gain ; for it were just, 
 after the many crimes that you have committed, that you 
 should not only once die. 
 
 MESS. — It is not lawful for you to put this man to 
 death. 
 
 ALC. — We have, then, made him captive in vain. Is there 
 any law which forbids his death? 
 
 MESS. — It does not seem good to the rulers of this land* 
 
 ALC. — What means this? Do they not account it 
 honourable to slay enemies? 
 
 MESS. — Not such as they take aUve in the battle. 
 
 ALC. — And did Hyllus submit to these decrees? 
 
 MESS. — It would have well become him, I ween, to disobey 
 this State. • 
 
 ALC. — It is not fit that he should live; and that he should 
 see this light. 
 
 MESS. — The mistake was made in not putting him to 
 death at first. 
 
 ALC — Is it, then, no longer honourable that he should 
 suffer punishment ? 
 
 MESS. — There is no one who may now slay him. 
 
 ALC. — I will ; and yet I consider that I am some one. 
 
 MESS. — You will incur much blame, if you do this 
 deed. 
 
 ALC. — I love this city, it is not to be denied: but now that 
 this man has fallen into my hands, there lives no mortal 
 that shall rescue him. Let any one, therefore, that pleases, 
 call me bold, and prompt to more daring counsels than be- 
 come a woman ; but still shall this deed be accomplished 
 by my hands. 
 
 CHORUS.— I am well aware, O woman,that you have a strong 
 and a pardonable motive for bearing hatred to this man. 
 
 EURYSTHEUS. — Be Well assured, O woman, that I shall 
 not flatter you ; nor say any thing else in supplication for 
 my life, from which I might incur any imputation of cowar- 
 dice. It was not willingly that I began this contention ; no 
 
 g2 
 
H 
 
 EURIPIDES. 
 
 indeed, being by birth your cousin, and the kinsman of Her- 
 cules you son^ But whether I wished or not (for it was 
 the will of a Deity), Juno afflicted me with this disease. 
 And when I had entered into enmity with Hercules, and 
 had determined to sustain this contest, I became the con- 
 triver of many toils ; and often holding conference with the 
 Night*, I gave birth to various schemes, that, having ha- 
 rassed and slain my enemies, I might dwell for the future 
 apart from fear, knowing that your son was not one of the 
 common crowd, but in truth a man: for though he was my 
 enemy, he shall yet, as a brave man, receive his just fame 
 from me. But when he was no more, was it not fitting 
 that I, who was hated by his children, and was conscious of 
 the enmity they inherited from their father, should leave 
 no stone unturned, in my attempts to slay them and to 
 banish them, and in all my dei^igns against them? By 
 acting thus, my own safety was secured' : and would you, 
 if you had been placed in the same situation, not have per- 
 secuted with evils the hateful offspring of the hostile lion, 
 but have tamely suffered them to dwell in Argos ? You 
 cannot persuade any one that you would. Since, then, they 
 have not now destroyed me when I was ready to die, I 
 cannot, by the laws of the Greeks, be put to death without 
 pollution to the slayer : and the city, observing discretion, 
 hath declared me free, more respecting the God than its 
 enmity to me. You have spoken, and heard in reply ; and 
 you may now call the same person both a suppliant and yet 
 brave : for such at present is my case. I am not indeed 
 anxious to die, but I shall not feel pain if I must relinquish 
 my life. 
 
 (1) Sthenelus, the son of Perseus, was the father of Eurystheus, and 
 Electryon the grandson : or, according to others, the son of Perseus was 
 the father of Alcmena. 
 
 (1) " De Nocte, tanquam persona, loquitur. Sic NvktI Koivdaoanes oSoV. 
 Pindar. Pyth. IV." — Musgrave. 
 
 (2) On the same base principle, Ulysses advised the Greeks to kill 
 Astyanax, the son of Hercules, lest at some future time they might ex- 
 perience his vengeance. 
 
 THE HERACLID^. 
 
 35 
 
 CHORUS.— I wish, O Alcmena, humbly to advise you to 
 spare this man, since it seems good to the State. 
 
 ALc— But what, if he should both die, and we should not 
 disobey the State ? 
 
 CHORUS.— This would be best : but how can it be done ? 
 
 ALC. — I shall easily explain it to you : slaying this man, 
 I will then give up his dead body to those of his friends 
 that seek it : for with respect to his body, I shall not be 
 disobedient to your country, and he by death shall suffer 
 just vengeance from me. 
 
 EUR. — Slay me ! I do not implore your mercy. But since 
 this city has spared me, and been restrained by a pious 
 feeling from taking my life, I will bestow on it an ancient 
 oracle of Apollo, which in after-time shall benefit it more 
 than you will suppose. For you shall bury my body, where 
 it is fated to lie, before the temple of the divine Virgin of 
 Pallene : and there, though in a foreign country, I shall 
 ever lie beneath its soil, with friendship for you, and with 
 power to protect your city ; but most hostile to the de- 
 scendants of this race, when they shall come hither with 
 numerous forces \ betraying your kindness : such are the 
 guests you have defended. How, then, if I knew these 
 things, should I have come hither, and not have paid respect 
 to the oracle of the God? Because I deemed that Juno 
 was more powerful than the oracles, and that she would 
 not betray me. But neither pour libations to me, nor suffer 
 blood to be shed on my tomb : for in return for these 
 things, I shall be the cause to them of an evil return : and 
 ye shall obtain from me a double benefit ; for I shall both 
 assist you and work mischief by my death to them. 
 
 ALC. — Why, then, do ye delay (if it is your duty to gain 
 the means of safety to your country and to your posterity) 
 to put this man to death, when ye hear these words ? For 
 he points out the safest way. The man,' Indeed, is an 
 
 (1) "Quod fecerunt Lacedaemonii, Heraclidarum'porieri, plus semel 
 belli Peloponnesiaci tempore." — Musgrave. * . : 1 .' .*..' •, v,»; I 
 
 m 
 
86 
 
 EURIPIDES. 
 
 enemy ; but he will confer benefits by his death. Conduct 
 him apart, ye attendants : and it were fitting, that, when 
 you had slam him, you should cast his body to the dogs : 
 for do not expect that you shall ever again m Ufe expel me 
 from my native land. 
 
 CHORUS.— The same sentiments are mine. Go, ye at- 
 tendants: for, as far as regards my part, there shall no 
 blame attach to our rulers. 
 
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