If thou fear this, confess thyself afraid of all; but why thy terror?PhaedraLest thou shouldst breathe a word of this to Theseus’ son.NursePeace, my child! I will do all things well; only be thou, queen Cypris, ocean’s child, my partner in the work! And for the rest of my purpose, it will be enough for me to tell it to Our friends within the house. [Exit Nurse.

ChorusO Love, Love, that from the eyes diffusest soft desire, bringing on the souls of those, whom thou dost camp against, sweet grace, O never in evil mood appear to me, nor out of time and tune approach! Nor fire nor meteor hurls a mightier bolt than Aphrodite’s shaft shot by the hands of Love, the child of Zeus.

ChorusIdly, idly by the streams of Alpheus and in the Pythian shrines of Phoebus, Hellas heaps the slaughtered steers; while Love we worship not, Love, the king of men, who holds the key to Aphrodite’s sweetest bower,—worship not him who, when he comes, lays waste and marks his path to mortal hearts by wide-spread woe.

ChorusThere was that maidenIole, daughter of Eurytus, king of Oechalia. Her father refused, after promising, to give her to Heracles, who thereupon took her by force. in Oechalia, a girl unwed, that knew no wooer yet nor married joys; her did the queen of LoveThere is some corruption here. It is probable the doubtful εἰρεσίᾳ conceals an allusion to Euryptus, as Monk indeed suggest; but the passage is not yet satisfactorily emended. snatch from her home across the sea and gave unto Alcmena’s son, mid blood and smoke and murderous marriage-hymns, to be to him a frantic fiend of hell; woe! woe for his wooing!

ChorusAh! holy walls of Thebes, ah! fount of Dirce, ye could testify what course the love-queen follows. For with the blazing levin-bolt