Fortune grant me this, I pray, at heaven’s hand,—a happy lot in life and a soul from sorrow free; opinions let me hold not too precise nor yet too hollow; but, lightly changing my habits to each morrow as it comes, may I thus attain a life of bliss!

ChorusFor now no more is my mind free from doubts, unlooked-for sights greet my vision; for lo! I see the morning star of Athens, eye of Hellas, driven by his father’s fury to another land. Mourn, ye sands of my native shores, ye oak-groves on the hills, where with his fleet hounds he would hunt the quarry to the death, attending on Dictynna, awful queen.

ChorusNo more will he mount his car drawn by Venetian steeds, filling the course round Limna with the prancingReading with Reiske, whom Nauck follows, γυμνάδος ἵππου. If the accus. plural is retained it would seem to mean, checking with his foot (i.e. pressed against the chariot-front) his steeds. of his trained horses. Nevermore in his fathers house shall he wake the Muse that never slept beneath his lute-strings; no hand will crown the spots where rests the maiden Latona ’mid the boskage deep; nor evermore shall our virgins vie to win thy love, now thou art banished;

Choruswhile I with tears at thy unhappy fate shall endure a lot all undeserved. Ah! hapless mother,
 in vain didst thou bring forth, it seems. I am angered with the gods; out upon them! O ye linked Graces, why are ye sending from his native land this poor youth, a guiltless sufferer, far from his home?

ChorusBut lo! I see a servant of Hippolytus hasting with troubled looks towards the palace.MessengerLadies, Following set of lines is designated as 2nd Messenger in print.where may I find Theseus, king of the country? pray, tell me if ye know; is he within the palace here?ChorusLo! himself approaches from the palace.MessengerTheseus, I am the bearer of troublous tidings to thee and all citizens who dwell in Athens or the bounds of Troezen.TheseusHow now? hath some strange calamity overtaken these two neighbouring cities?MessengerIn one brief word, Hippolytus is dead. ’Tis true one slender thread still links him to the light of life.TheseusWho slew him? Did some husband come to blows with him, one whose wife, like mine, had suffered brutal violence?MessengerHe perished through those steeds that drew his chariot, and through the curses thou didst utter, praying to thy sire, the ocean-king, to slay thy son.TheseusYe gods and king Poseidon, thou hast proved my parentage by hearkening to my prayer! Say how he perished; how fell the uplifted hand of Justice to smite the villain who dishonoured me?