of the fallen youths. Woe is me! would I could join these children in their death and descend to Hades with them!

AdrastusMothers, raise the wail for the dead departed; cry in answer when ye hear my note of woe.ChorusMy sons, my sons! O bitter words for loving mothers to address to you! To thee, my lifeless child, I call.AdrastusWoe! woe!ChorusAh me, my sufferings!AdrastusAlas!ChorusA lacuna in the MS.AdrastusWe have endured, alas!—ChorusSorrows most grievous.AdrastusO citizens of Argos! do ye not behold my fate?ChorusThey see thee, and me the hapless mother, reft of her children.

AdrastusBring near the blood-boltered corpses of those hapless chiefs, foully slain by foes unworthy, with whom lay the decision of the contest.ChorusLet me embrace and hold my children to my bosom in my enfolding arms.AdrastusThere, there! thou hast—ChorusSorrows heavy enough to bear.AdrastusAh me!ChorusThy groans mingle with those of their parents.Reading with Hartung τοῖς τεκοῦσς’ ὁμοῦ λέγεις.AdrastusHear me.Chorus O’er both of us thou dost lament.AdrastusWould God the Theban ranks had laid me dead in the dust!ChorusOh that I had ne’er been wedded to a husband!

AdrastusBehold this sea of troubles!The print edition reads: Ah! hapless mothers, behold this sea of troubles! The lines have been modified to more closely match the Greek.Ah! hapless mothers.ChorusOur nails have ploughed our cheeks in furrows, and o’er our heads have we strewn ashes.AdrastusAh me! ah me! Oh that earth’s floor would swallow me, or the whirlwind snatch me away, or Zeus’s flaming bolt descend upon my head!ChorusBitter the marriages thou didst witness, bitter the oracle of Phoebus! The curse of Oedipus, fraught with sorrow, after desolatingFor the unintelligible ἔλημας of the MS. Hermann conjectured ἔρημα σ’ which is here followed. his house, is come on thee.