Thou hast undone me, nurse; I do adjure by the gods, mention that man no more. Nurse There now! thou art thyself again, but e’en yet refusest to aid thy children and preserve thy life. Phaedra My babes I love, but there is another storm that buffets me. Nurse Daughter, are thy hands from bloodshed pure? Phaedra My hands are pure, but on my soul there rests a stain. Nurse The issue of some enemy’s secret witchery? Phaedra A friend is my destroyer, one unwilling as myself. Nurse Hath Theseus wronged thee in any wise? Phaedra Never may I prove untrue to him i.e. as he never has proved so to me. Nurse Then what strange mystery is there that drives thee on to die? Phaedra O, let my sin and me alone! ’tis not ’gainst thee I sin. Nurse Never willingly! and, if I fail, ’twill rest at thy door. Phaedra How now? thou usest force in clinging to my hand. Nurse Yea, and I will never loose my hold upon thy knees. Phaedra Alas for thee! my sorrows, shouldst thou learn them, would recoil on thee. Nurse What keener grief for me than failing to win thee? Phaedra ’Twill be death to thee; though to me that brings renown. ὀλεῖ (1) 2nd sing. Fut. Mid. thou wilt die as a consequence of sharing my secret (Paley). (2) 3rd sing. Fut. Active it will kill me to keep silence, though that better ensures my honour. Nurse And dost thou then conceal this boon despite my prayers? Phaedra I do, for ’tis out of shame I am planning an honourable escape. Nurse Tell it, and thine honour shall the brighter shine. Phaedra Away, I do conjure thee; loose my hand. Nurse I will not, for the boon thou shouldst have granted me is denied. Phaedra I will grant it out of reverence for thy holy sup- pliant touch. Nurse Henceforth I hold my peace; ’tis thine to speak from now. Phaedra Ah! hapless mother, Pasiphae, wife of Minos, deceived by Aphrodite into a fatal passion for a bull. Cf. Verg. Aen. vi. ad init., also Ovid Metam., viii, 131 sqq. what a love was thine! Nurse Her love for the bull? daughter, or what meanest thou? Phaedra And woe to thee! my sister, Ariadne, deserted by Theseus in the isle of Naxos, where Dionysus found her. bride of Dionysus. Nurse What ails thee, child? speaking ill of kith and kin. Phaedra Myself the third to suffer! how am I undone! Nurse Thou strik’st me dumb! Where will this history end?