Scaife ATLAS

CTS Library / The Suppliants

The Suppliants (1090-1155)

urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0006.tlg008.perseus-eng2:1090-1155
Refs {'start': {'reference': '1090', 'human_reference': 'Line 1090'}, 'end': {'reference': '1155', 'human_reference': 'Line 1155'}}
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and by a fathers light[*] had learnt how cruel a thing it is to be bereft of children, never should I have fallen on such evil days as these,—I who did beget a brave young son, proud parent that I was, and after all am now bereft of him. Enough of this. What remains for such a hapless wretch as me?
Shall I to my home, there to see its utter desolation and the blank within my life? or shall I to the halls of that dead Capaneus?—halls I smiled to see in days gone by, when yet my daughter was alive. But she is lost and gone, she that would ever draw down my cheek
to her lips, and take my head between her hands; for naught is there more sweet unto an aged sire than a daughters love; our sons are made of sterner stuff, but less winning are their caresses. Oh! take me to my house at once,
in darkness hide me there, to waste and fret this aged frame with fasting! What shall it avail me to touch my daughters bones? Old age, resistless foe, how do I loathe thy presence! Them too I hate, whoso desire to lengthen out the span of life,
seeking to turn the tide of death aside by philtres,[*] drugs, and magic spells,—folk that death should take away to leave
the young their place, when they no more can benefit the world.
1114
Chorus
Woe, woe! Behold your dead sons
bones are brought hither; take them, servants of your weak old mistress, for in me is no strength left by reason of my mourning for my sons; times comrade long have I been, and many a tear for many a sorrow have I shed.
For what sharper pang wilt thou ever find for mortals than the sight of children dead?
1123
Children
Poor mother mine, behold I bring my fathers bones gathered from the fire,
a burden grief has rendered heavy, though this tiny urn contains my all.
Chorus
Ah me! ah me! Why bear thy tearful load to the fond mother of the dead,
a handful of ashes in the stead of those who erst were men of mark in Mycenae?
1132
Children
Woe worth the hour! woe worth the day! Reft of my hapless sire, a wretched orphan shall I inherit a desolate house, torn from my fathers arms.
Chorus
Woe is thee! Where is now the toil I spent upon my sons? what thank have I for nightly watch? Where the mothers nursing care? the sleepless vigils mine eyes have kept? the loving kiss upon my childrens brow?
1139
Children
Thy sons are dead and gone. Poor mother!
dead and gone; the boundless air now wraps them round.[*]
Chorus
Turned to ashes by the flame, they have winged their flight to Hades.[*]
Children
Father, thou hearest thy childrens lamentation; say, shall I eer, as warrior dight, avenge thy slaughter?
Chorus
God grant it, O my child!
1146
Children
Some day, if god so will, shall the avenging of my father be my task; not yet this sorrow sleeps.
Chorus
Alas! Fortunes sorrows are enough for me, I have troubles and to spare already.
Children
Shall Asopus laughing tide ever reflect my brazen arms as I lead on my Argive troops?
Chorus
To avenge thy fallen sire.
1153
Children
Methinks I see thee still before my eyes, my father
Chorus
Printing a loving kiss upon thy cheek.
Children
But thy words of exhortation are borne on the winds away.

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