once so fair, was marred with savage wounds. At last they cast the lifeless clay, lying near the altar, forth from the fragrant fane. And we gathered up his remains forthwith and are bringing them to thee, old prince, to mourn and weep and honour with a deep-dug tomb.This is how that prince who vouchsafeth oracles to others, that judge of what is right for all the world, hath revenged himself on Achilles’ son, remembering his ancient quarrel as a wicked man would. How then can he be wise? Exit Messenger. The body of Neoptolemus is carried in on a bier.

ChorusLo! E’en now our prince is being carried on a bier from Delphi’s land unto his home. Woe for him and his sad fate, and woe for thee, old sire! for this is not the welcome thou wouldst give Achilles’ son, the lion’s whelp; thyself too by this sad mischanceκύρσας is probably corrupt. Nauck omits it, and marks a lacuna. dost share his evil lot.

PeleusAh! woe is me! here is a sad sight for me to see and take unto my halls! Ah me! ah me! I am undone, thou city of Thessaly! My line now ends; I have no children left me in my home. Oh! the sorrows I seem born to endure! What friend can I look to for relief? Ah, dear lips, and cheeks, and hands! Would thy destiny had slain thee ’neath Ilium’s walls beside the banks of Simois!ChorusHad he so died, my aged lord, he had won him honour thereby, and thine had been the happier lot.

PeleusO marriage, marriage, woe to thee! thou bane of my home, thou destroyerὤλεσας ὤλεσας ἀμὰν (Hermann). of my city! Ah my child, my boy! wouldPaley has a long note on this passage, the sum of which seems to be that it is corrupt and unintelligible. Various emendation, all unsatisfactory, have been proposed. I have followed Hermann’s correction, the sense of which is thus given by Paley, would that your union with the captive Andromache had not involved you in the death intended for her;reading ὤφελ᾽ ἐμοὶ γέρας κ.τ.λ. that the honour of wedding thee, fraught with evil as it was to my children and house, had not thrown oer thee, my son, Hermiones deadly net! O that the thunderbolt had slain her sooner! and that thou, rash mortal, hadst never charged the great god Phoebus with aiming that murderous shaft that spilt thy hero-fathers blood!Phoebus was said to have aimed the arrow of Paris, that slew Achilles.

ChorusWoe! woe! alas! With due observance of funeral rites will I begin the mourning for my dead master.PeleusAlack and well-a-day! I take up the tearful dirge, ah me! old and wretched as I am.Chorus’Tis Heaven’s decree; God willed this heavy stroke.PeleusO darling child, thou hast left me all alone in my halls,Nauck reads δόμον ἔλιπες ἔρημον. old and childless by thy loss.ChorusThou shouldst have died, old sire, before thy children.PeleusShall I not tear my hair, and smite upon my head with grievous blows? O city! of both my childrenAchilles his son, and Neoptolemus his grandson. hath Phoebus robbed me.

ChorusWhat evils thou hast suffered, what sorrows thou hast seen, thou poor old man! what shall be thy life hereafter?PeleusChildless, desolate, with no limit to my grief, I must drain the cup of woe, until I die.Chorus’Twas all in vain the gods wished thee joy on thy wedding day.The gods had attended the marriage of Peleus and Thetis. PeleusAll my hopes have flown away, fallen short of my high boasts.ChorusA lonely dweller in a lonely home art thou.PeleusI have no city any longer;οὐκέτ᾽ ἐστί μοι πόλις (Hermann). there! on the ground my sceptre do I cast; and thou, daughter of Nereus, neath thy dim grotto,