And to the apple-bearing strand of those minstrels in the west then would come, where ocean's lord no more to sailors grants passage o'er the deep dark main, finding there the heaven's holy bound, upheld by Atlas, where water from ambrosial founts wells up beside the couch of Zeus inside his halls, and holy earth, the bounteous mother, causes joy to spring in heavenly breasts.
strophe 2
O white-winged bark, that o'er the booming ocean-wave didst bring my royal mistress from her happy home, to crown her queen 'mongst sorrow's brides! Surely evil omens from either port, at least from Crete, were with that ship, what time to glorious Athens it sped its way, and the crew made fast its twisted cable-ends upon the beach of Munychus, and on the land stept out.
antistrophe 2
Whence comes it that her heart is crushed, cruelly afflicted by Aphrodite with unholy love; so she by bitter grief o'erwhelmed will tie a noose within her bridal bower to fit it to her fair white neck, to modest for this hateful lot in life, prizing o'er all her name and fame, and striving thus to rid her soul of passion's sting.
(The NURSE rushes out of the palace.)
NURSE
Help! ho! To the rescue all who near the palace stand! She hath hung herself, our queen, the wife of Theseus.
LEADER OF THE CHORUS
Woe worth the day! the deed is done; our royal mistress is no more, dead she hangs in the dangling noose.
NURSE
Haste! some one bring a two-edged knife wherewith to cut the knot about her neck.
FIRST SEMI-CHORUS
Friends, what shall we do? think you we should enter the house, and loose the queen from the tight-drawn noose?
SECOND SEMI-CHORUS
Why should we? Are there not young servants here? To do too much is not a safe course in life.
NURSE
Lay out the hapless corpse, straighten the limbs. This was a bitter way to sit at home and keep my master's house!
(She goes in.)
LEADER OF THE CHORUS
She is dead, poor lady; 'tis this I hear. Already are they laying out the corpse.
(THESEUS and his retinue have entered, unnoticed.)THESEUSWomen, can ye tell me what the uproar in the palace means? There came the sound of servants weeping bitterly to mine ear. None of my household deign to open wide the gates and give me glad welcome as traveller from prophetic shrines. Hath aught befallen old Pittheus?
No, Though he be well advanced in years, yet should I mourn, were he to quit this house.
LEADER
'Tis not against the old, Theseus, that fate, to strike thee, aims this blow; prepare thy sorrow for a younger corpse.
THESEUS
Woe is me! is it a child's life death robs me of?
LEADER
They live; but, cruellest news of all for thee, their mother is no more.
THESEUS
What! my wife dead? By what cruel stroke of chance?
LEADER
About her neck she tied the hangman's knot.
THESEUS
Had grief so chilled her blood? or what had befallen her?
LEADER
I know but this, for I am myself but now arrived at the house to mourn thy sorrows, O Theseus.
THESEUS
Woe is me! why have I crowned my head with woven garlands, when misfortune greets my embassage? Unbolt the doors, servants, loose their fastenings, that I may see the piteous sight, my wife, whose death is death to me.
(The central doors of the palace open, disclosing the corpse.)Woe! woe is thee for thy piteous lot! thou hast done thyself a hurt deep enough to overthrow this family. Ah! ah! the daring of it done to death by violence and unnatural means, the desperate effort of thy own poor hand! Who cast the shadow o'er thy life, poor lady?
THESEUS (chanting)
Ah me, my cruel lot! sorrow hath done her worst on me. Ofortune, how heavily hast thou set thy foot on me and on my house, by fiendish hands inflicting an unexpected stain? Nay, 'tis complete effacement of my life, making it not to be lived; for I see, alas!
so wide an ocean of grief that I can never swim to shore again, nor breast the tide of this calamity. How shall I speak of thee, my poor wife, what tale of direst suffering tell? Thou art vanished like a bird from the covert of my hand, taking one headlong leap from me to Hades' halls. Alas, and woe! this is a bitter, bitter sight! This must be a judgment sent by God for the sins of an ancestor, which from some far source I am bringing on myself.
LEADER OF THE CHORUS
My prince, 'tis not to thee alone such sorrows come; thou hast lost a noble wife, but so have many others.
THESEUS (chanting)
Fain would I go hide me 'neath earth's blackest depth, to dwell in darkness with the dead in misery, now that I am reft of thy dear presence! for thou hast slain me than thyself e'en more. Who can tell me what caused the fatal stroke that reached thy heart, dear wife? Will no one tell me what befell? doth my palace all in vain give shelter to a herd of menials? Woe, woe for thee, my wife! sorrows past speech, past bearing, I behold within my house; myself ruined man, my home a solitude, my children orphans!
CHORUS (chanting)
Gone and left us hast thou, fondest wife and noblest of all women 'neath the sun's bright eye or night's star-lit radiance. Poor house, what sorrows are thy portion now! My eyes are wet with streams of tears to see thy fate; but the ill that is to follow has long with terror filled me.
THESEUS
Ha! what means this letter? clasped in her dear hand it hath some strange tale to tell. Hath she, poor lady, as a last request, written her bidding as to my marriage and her children? Take heart, poor ghost; no wife henceforth shall wed thy Theseus or invade his house. Ah! how yon en ring affects my sight! Come, I will unfold the sealed packet and read her letter's message to me.
CHORUS (chanting)
Woe unto us! Here is yet another evil in the train by heaven sent.
Looking to what has happened, I should count my lot in life no longer worth one's while to gain. My master's house, alas! is ruined, brought to naught, I say. Spare it, O Heaven, if it may be.
Hearken to my prayer, for I see, as with prophetic eye, an omen boding ill.
THESEUS
O horror! woe on woe! and still they come, too deep for words, to heavy to bear. Ah me!
LEADER OF THE CHORUS
What is it? speak, if I may share in it.
THESEUS (chanting)
