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Euripides, 3: Alcestis, Daughters of Troy, The Phoenician Women, Iphigenia at Aulis, Rhesus

Euripides, 3: Alcestis, Daughters of Troy, The Phoenician Women, Iphigenia at Aulis, Rhesus

Euripides, 3: Alcestis, Daughters of Troy, The Phoenician Women, Iphigenia at Aulis, Rhesus

Euripides, 3: Alcestis, Daughters of Troy, The Phoenician Women, Iphigenia at Aulis, Rhesus

Overview

The Penn Greek Drama Series presents original literary translations of the entire corpus of classical Greek drama: tragedies, comedies, and satyr plays. It is the only contemporary series of all the surviving work of Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes, and Menander.

This volume includes translations by Fred Chappell (Alcestis), Mark Rudman and Katharine Washburn (Daughters of Troy), Richard Elman (The Phoenician Women), Elaine Terranova (Iphigenia at Aulis), and George Economou (Rhesus).

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780812216509
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press, Inc.
Publication date: 06/01/1998
Series: Penn Greek Drama Series , #3
Pages: 392
Product dimensions: 5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 1.05(d)

Read an Excerpt

Alcestis

Translated by
Fred Chappell

Cast

APOLLO, the god
DEATH
CHORUS OF ELDERS OF PHERAE, a mourning troupe
FIRST MOURNER
SECOND MOURNER
HANDMAID
ALCESTIS, wife of Admetus
ADMETUS, king of Pherae
EUMELUS, son of Admetus and Alcestis
HERACLES, son of Zeus and Alcmene
SERVANT
PHERES, father of Admetus
NONSPEAKING
Daughter of Admetus and Alcestis
Attendants
Funeral procession

APOLLO

This the palace of King Admetus:
Here I,
the god Apollo, consent to eat the food
of common men, and this because of Zeus
who thunderstruck my son Asclepius,
killing him. In fury then I slaughtered
the Cyclopes who fashioned Zeus' weapons.
He forced me to atone by hiring on
as menial labor for a mortal man.
To Thessaly then I came, to tend the oxen
of my host Admetus and to protect
his holdings until this hour. I am a just god
and recognize just men; Admetus, the son
of Pheres, I then encountered and him I saved
from Death, deceiving the Three Fates, who promised
Admetus should not die if some one person
would take his place instead and die for him.
He went to everyone he knew as friend--
his father, and aged mother who gave him birth;
and only his wife Alcestis would agree
to die for him, forsaking the light of day.
Right now, inside this house, she languishes
in his arms. She breathes her last; the hour
appointed has arrived and she must die
and live no longer. Of this loved house I take
my leave that Death may not pollute me ...
He comes,
the Leader who will guide her down to Hades.
He's kept close watch upon her fatal day.
(Enter Death.)

Duet (allegro ma non troppo)

DEATH

What are you doing here?
Apollo here before the palace?
Apollo in this selfsame city?
Would you break again the laws,
transgress the boundaries hell-gods
have set? Were you not satisfied
to cheat the Fates with a sneaky trick
and save Admetus from the death he owed?
Now you've drawn your bow to guard
Alcestis, the daughter of Pelias,
who pledged to die for her Admetus.

APOLLO

Don't worry--justice and straight talk I offer.

DEATH

If you were just you wouldn't need your bow.

APOLLO

I only keep it with me out of habit.

DEATH

But now your unjust habit aids this house.

APOLLO

I feel the sorrow that my friend must feel.

DEATH

And so you'd take from me this second victim?

APOLLO

It wasn't with my bow I took Admetus.

DEATH

He's in the Upper World--and not the Lower.

APOLLO

Because he gives his wife, the one you come for.

DEATH

The one I'll take down with me, down and down.

APOLLO

Go ahead and take her. Could I persuade you--

DEATH

to destroy the one I must? That is my duty.

APOLLO

Oh no: kill only when that death is due.

DEATH

I think I understand where this is leading.

APOLLO

Cannot Alcestis live to riper years?

DEATH

No, she cannot. My honor is at stake.

APOLLO

You may take one life only, young or old.

DEATH

The younger the victim, the greater is my honor.

APOLLO

If she died later, the funeral would be grander.

DEATH

Now you argue in favor of the richest people.

APOLLO

And now you too are talking like a lawyer.

DEATH

Wouldn't the wealthy pay to put off death?

APOLLO

And so you won't confer this single favor?

DEATH

No, I will not. You know the way I am.

APOLLO

Abhorred by men, and by the gods despised.

DEATH

You cannot have the thing that is not yours.

APOLLO

Cruel though you are, you shall not triumph,
for there shall come to Pheres' palace here,
sent by Eurystheus, the king of Mycenae,
a hero ordered to bring him back from Thrace,
that land of icy winter, a chariot
drawn by Diomedes' man-eating mares.
In this house of Pheres' son, Admetus,
he shall be welcomed and by main strength
shall tear away from you Admetus' wife;
and so you earn no gratitude from me
for giving up the woman--only my hatred.

DEATH

All your talk will get you nothing from me.
Alcestis travels down to the house of Hades.
Now I go to ready her sacrifice:
she is consecrate to the Nether Gods
when once this sword of mine has cut her hair.
(brandishes sword)

Antiphonia (andante)

(Enter Chorus of professional mourners, old men.)

FIRST MOURNER

Why is this courtyard quiet now?
Why silent the palace of Admetus?

SECOND MOURNER

He has no friend here to announce
if I must mourn the departed queen
or if she still sees light of day,
this daughter of Pelias, Alcestis,
who all know as the finest woman
that ever had a man for husband.

CHORUS

Can you hear the sounds of sorrow,
moaning, sighing,
beating of hands,
the rooms echoing lamentation?
Not a single maidservant stands
at the gate.
O Paean, god of healing, come,
turn back this flood tide of misfortune!

SECOND MOURNER

No sound of crying ... She still lives.

FIRST MOURNER

She's but a corpse.

SECOND MOURNER

She's in her chamber.

FIRST MOURNER

What gives you hope when I have none?

SECOND MOURNER

Would Admetus inter, alone
and unattended, so dear a wife?

CHORUS

The spring-water jar for washing the dead
is not seen standing at the gateway;
nor is the ceremonial shorn
lock of hair laid at the portal;
nor is there sound of the servant girls
beating their foreheads with their hands.

SECOND MOURNER

And yet this day is the day appointed--

FIRST MOURNER

Don't say--

SECOND MOURNER

she must be laid in earth.

FIRST MOURNER

You have pierced my soul with hurt.

SECOND MOURNER

The longtime friend of a beloved person
must weep, must weep in sorrow
when that person is brought to ruin.

CHORUS

Useless to send the sacred ships
to Lycia or to dusty Ammon's
temple; nothing will return
to rescue pitiable Alcestis
or bring her back. The fateful day
has come. Useless to heap the altars
of any god with handsome gifts.
But once upon a time ... If only
he still gazed upon the light--
Asclepius, son of the god
Apollo, could draw Alcestis back
from the domain of shadow, from
the portals of the underworld.
For he was able to raise the dead
before the bolt that Zeus delivered
killed him ... But now what hope is there
to hold out for Alcestis' life?
Admetus has made all sacrifice,
every altar runs with blood,
but nothing remedies this evil.
(Enter handmaid.)

FIRST MOURNER

But here, from out the house, a handmaid comes,
all teary-eyed. What news will she bring me?
(addresses her)
You cannot help but weep when master and mistress
are sorrowing, but still we need to know
whether Alcestis lives or if she's dead.

Antiphonia (andante ma non troppo)

HANDMAID

The truth is that she's both alive and dead.

FIRST MOURNER

How can the same be dead yet see the light?

HANDMAID

She shudders on the farthest verge of life.

FIRST MOURNER

The noble king must lose the noblest queen.

HANDMAID

He cannot know his grief till it is on him.

FIRST MOURNER

Is there no hope her life may yet be saved?

HANDMAID

This is the day assigned to be her last.

SECOND MOURNER

Are all things being done that need be done?

HANDMAID

The robes that she'll be buried in are ready.

SECOND MOURNER

Make known to her that she departs in glory,
by far the greatest of women beneath the sun.

HANDMAID (andante con moto)

The greatest--yes! Could anyone say different?
How can she not be greater than all others?
How much more could she show her loyalty
than in giving up her own life for her husband's?
This situation all the city knows of,
but you'll be startled to hear what she has done.
For when she knew this last day had arrived
she bathed her glowing skin with river water
and took her gowns and gems from the cedar chests
and richly dressed herself, then took her place
before the household and offered up a prayer:
(changing the timbre of her voice)
"I go, O Hestia, to the underworld;
and so I pray to you this final time.
Protect my orphaned son and daughter:
let him find a comely wife and her
a noble husband. Let them live long lives,
not dying early, as their mother dies.
Let them live lucky, happy in their own country."
(resuming normal voice)
All the altars in the house she visited,
hung them about with garlands, and then prayed,
and clipped the boughs of myrtle without a tear,
without a moan. Nor did the fate upon her
dim the healthy color of her face.
She went then to the great bedchamber, flung
herself upon the bed, and wept, and said:
(changing timbre)
"O marriage bed, where I first lay unclothed
for him that I shall die for, farewell. Farewell.
I cannot hate you though I am doomed for you.
I would not fail Admetus nor his bed,
and yet another bride shall come to you,
though not more faithful--only luckier."
(resuming her own voice)
On her knees she kissed the bed and sprinkled
her tears upon it, and having wept her last,
she rose reluctantly and tried to leave,
and then came back, and many times went out
and many times returned to fling herself
upon the bed.
Her children clutched her dress
and cried; she hugged them tight and petted them
each one in turn, as a dying woman does.
And all the servants in the palace wept
in sympathy with their mistress. She touched the hands
of each of them, the lowest not excluded,
and spoke to them and listened to all reply.

All this, the misery of Admetus' house.
If he had died he only would have died;
but cowardice makes his life long agony.

SECOND MOURNER

And does Admetus not lament this sorrow,
since he must lose the noblest of all wives?

HANDMAID

He cries, and hugs his dear Alcestis close,
begging her never to abandon him,
though that's not possible. She fails, grows lighter
in his arms, can scarcely draw a breath--
yet tries and tries to look into the sunlight,
for she shall never see again the Sun
in its whole orbit and its shining splendor.
I will go now and report your presence.
Not all subjects support unfortunate kings
but you're a longtime friend of both of them.

Choral Interlude (allegretto con alcuna licenza)

FIRST MOURNER

O Zeus, is there no end to our masters' sorrow?
Is there no surcease from these dooms, these linked oppressions?

SECOND MOURNER

Will no one come out? Is it time
to cut my hair in mourning,
to wear the ritual's dark peplum?

FIRST MOURNER

O friends, it must be true--and yet
let us to the gods still give prayers.
The gods have strength unbounded.

CHORUS

O Paean, our god of healing, deliver
some respite to Admetus' suffering.
Our prayer grant us, oh grant us, we pray.
Formerly you found some aid;
oh, now again shield away Death,
keep back the blood-dripping Hades!

FIRST MOURNER

O O O O--the sorrow, the sorrow ...
Admetus, son of Pheres,
your long pain begins with Alcestis' loss.

SECOND MOURNER

For these dread woes should he
not fall upon his sword,
not hang himself between
the sky and the unsteady earth?
His dear, his dearest one,
this day he shall see dead,
Her soul trembling in shadow.

FIRST MOURNER

Oh see, oh see,
Alcestis comes from the house with Admetus:

CHORUS

Cry out, O land of Pheres:
She is dying: this greatest woman
Wanes away to Hades.

FIRST MOURNER

Never again shall I aver that joy
instead of sadness resides in marriage.
For I remember the old times past,
and now observe the condition of Admetus,
his losing the paragon of wives.
From this time forth he lives in pain.
(Enter Admetus and Alcestis, accompanied by attendants, their daughter,
and Eumelus their son.)

Duet (largo)

ALCESTIS

O Sun, O bright and dazzling light of day!
O clouds, white clouds wheeling across clear skies!

ADMETUS

The sun looks down upon us both, both scourged,
who have disserved no gods, deserve no death.

ALCESTIS

O my country, my tall palace-home,
My bridal bed--O Iolcas, my own country--

ADMETUS

Gather your strength, my sad one, do not go
from me. Pray the Powers to take pity.

ALCESTIS (con moto)

I see the boat with its two oars
upon the lake, and Charon, who
ferries the dead across, one hand
upon an oar, cries out to me,
"Don't dawdle! Come on! You're holding me up!"
He urges me with an angry tone.

ADMETUS

This ferrying you speak of is hateful to me.
O my unlucky one, how we must suffer.

ALCESTIS

He takes me--he is taking me
away--do you not see him now?--
to the Palace of the Darkworld that
winged Hades shadows, eyes
staring from beneath murk brows--
Stop, stop!--In this journey
I am a woman god-deserted.

ADMETUS

It is so painful to those who love you, most
of all to me and to our grieving children.

ALCESTIS

Let go of me, let go ... Let me
lie down. My feet are giving way.
Hades is very near.
(stretches out on couch)
The night closes over my eyesight.
O children, O my children, your mother
no longer is with you. Farewell,
my children. Live in the happy light.

ADMETUS

How dreadful! To hear your anguished speech,
more painful even than death itself.
I beg you, by the name of the gods,
not to desert me, and by our children
whom you orphan, to bear up.
In your death is my Nothingness,
in your love that we revere
we have our life and love for one another.

Solo (andante maestoso)

ALCESTIS (calmly, recovering her senses)

You understand, Admetus, how I suffer,
before I die I'll tell you my desire:
to give you honor, your place in the sunlight,
I am content to die. And yet I might
have married another countryman and dwelt
quite happily in the palace of a king.
But torn away from you I would not live
with my two orphans. I did not reserve
the treasure of my youth; the man who fathered you
and she who was your mother gave you over
when the time was fit for them to die,
fit for them to make a famous sacrifice
for their son. Their only son you were;
they had no hope for others once you were gone.
and then the both of us could live long lives,
and you would not lament your lonely state
and how you must bring up motherless children.
A god has caused these things. Let them then happen:
so be it.

Remember what is due to me--
somewhat, I mean, for nothing can repay
the loss of life ... As you too will agree,
a just man loving our children as I do.
They must have their full authority:
do not remarry; do not install another
with a jealous heart, a cruel stepmother
to abuse them. Please, I beg you. Please.
More venomous than snakes, a new stepmother
detests the first wife's children. The father
stands a wall of strength and to his son
will always listen and give sound reply.
But, O my daughter, where is your happy girlhood?
How would the new stepmother deal with you?
She would ruin your marriage early on
by spreading vicious rumors. You'd have no mother
to give your hand in marriage, to comfort you
in childbirth as only gentlest mothers can.

For I must die. And not tomorrow, not
the day after tomorrow, comes this fate;
but now will I be numbered among the absent.

Goodbye. Take care. O husband, you may proclaim
your wife was noblest, and you, my children, you
may tell how truly noble your mother was.

SECOND MOURNER

Be assured. I can promise for him
he'll do these things unless he runs stark mad.

Solo (andante)

ADMETUS

As you say things must be, so shall they be.
Don't be fearful on that score. Living,
my one wife you were; my one wife dead.
No Thessalian bride will call me husband;
none has so great a sire, so fair a face.
Since we must lose our happiness in you,
now I look to find it in our children,
and pray the gods I shall--they are enough.
(accelerando)
Not for one year only will I mourn,
but for every final day I live.
My mother and my father I shall hate;
with words alone they loved me, not with deeds.
You saved my life by ransoming the dearest
things that you could have. Shall I not grieve,
having lost a wife like you?
(allegretto con moto)
No parties,
no grand dinners, no flowers and no music--
all that used to gladden the palace shall cease.
I will not place my hand upon the lyre,
I will not cheer myself, singing to flutes
of Libya--you take from me all happiness.
Formed by the knowing hands of artists, your likeness
shall be laid out upon our marriage bed;
I shall take it in my hands and hold it close
and call your name as if I held you, holding
you not, believing my dear one in my arms:
a chilly pleasure, as I recognize,
yet it may cheer me. Often to my dreams
perhaps you'll come to soothe me, for those we love
we love to see in dreams in the swift nighttime.
(tempo alla marcia; tempestoso)
Oh, if I had the tongue, the music of Orpheus,
so I could charm Persephone and Hades
the king, her husband, bringing you back from Hades,
I would journey down. Hades' hellhound
would not stop me, nor the Deliverer
of Spirits, Charon, till I restored your life
once more to light.

And you must wait for me
until I die, making ready our house there
where you will be with me. And I will order
myself laid away in the cedar coffin
side by side with you; for separate
from you who were the one faithful to me
I shall not ever be, even in death.

FIRST MOURNER

And as your friend, I'll mourn in sympathy
with you for her. Alcestis merits it.

Duet (largo)

ALCESTIS

O children, you have heard your father's vow
never to set another wife in power
over you, thus to dishonor me.

ADMETUS

So have I promised and so will I do.

ALCESTIS

And so receive the children from my hand.

ADMETUS

From a beloved hand I take loved gifts.

ALCESTIS

To them, for me, now you must be the mother.

ADMETUS

I shall, I must, since you are taken from them.

ALCESTIS

Dear ones, I die when most I need to live.

ADMETUS

Oh, what shall I do when you abandon me?

ALCESTIS

Time will lighten you. The dead mean nothing.

ADMETUS

Take me--O God!--take me now with you!

ALCESTIS

Let one die for one other. That will suffice.

ADMETUS

O Demon, what a wonderful wife you steal!

ALCESTIS

My eyes grow dim, my eyelids heavier.

ADMETUS

If you leave me, woman, I am lost.

ALCESTIS (ritardo)

Say of me now that I am nothingness.

ADMETUS

Raise your head! Do not desert your children!

ALCESTIS (morendo)

I do not want to ... But, children, this is goodbye.

ADMETUS

Oh look at them! Oh look!

ALCESTIS

I am nothing.

ADMETUS

Are you leaving us?

ALCESTIS

Farewell.

ADMETUS

Oh no ...

CHORUS

Now she is gone. Admetus' wife is gone.

EUMELUS (allegro)

I sorrow for myself. To earth
my mother has gone down. O father,
she lives amid sunlight no more.
You have left to us the life
of orphans. Look at her eyelids,
look at her strengthless hands!
Listen to me, O mother, listen--
Mother ... I ... I ... O mother ...
I am like your little pet bird
that you gave kisses to--

ADMETUS

She cannot hear. She cannot see. The worst
has happened that could happen to all of us.

EUMELUS (allegro)

Father, I'm too young to be
abandoned lonely and adrift
with no mother. Oh,
how hard things are for me, for you,
my sister, who must suffer this fate ...
O father ...
Ruined, ruined is your marriage now.
You were not able to walk together
to the end of your years. She died first.

SECOND MOURNER

You must endure, Admetus, this disaster.
You're not the first nor will you be the last
among mankind to lose a noble wife.
All of us know that all of us must die.

ADMETUS

I know. This sorrow did not fall on me
unlooked for; I have lived in lengthy anguish.
(andante marcato)
But now I must prepare for burial rites:
you shall be there to echo my paean
to the unappeasable god of death.
Let all Thessalian men under my rule
take part in mourning this woman, cutting short
their hair and putting on their robes of black.
And you who rein four horses to the car
or bridle the one racer, take your blade
and shear their manes. And let there be
no sound of flute or lyre inside the city
until twelve months have passed, for I shall not
bury another who meant so much to me,
Another person who has loved me so.
she deserves all honor I can give
since she alone would ever die for me.
(Exeunt, with Alcestis' corpse borne off.)

Antiphonia (allegretto)

FIRST MOURNER

O daughter of Pelias,
I bid you farewell in the palace of Hades,
in that place of darkness where you are.
Lord Hades, you must know
that Charon with his boat of double oars
never has and never will ferry to the shore
of Acheron a finer woman.

CHORUS

The muses' devotees
shall sing with the tortoise-shell lyre
and its seven strings a mourning song,
and Sparta shall sing hymns of you
all night beneath the high-sailing moon
when the seasons bring again the month
of Carneius. In Athens, too, the city
wealthy and fortunate, shall the singers
take you as subject for their songs.

SECOND MOURNER

If only I could have the strength
to deliver you back to the light,
bringing you out of the mazes of Hades,
through the currents of Cocytus, river
of lamentation, with Charon's oar!
For only you among all women,
You alone,
had courage to exchange your life
for your husband bound to the Darkworld.
May the earth lie light upon you, Alcestis.
And if Admetus brings another
to the bridal bed I shall despise him,
and his children shall despise him.
When for Admetus' sake
his mother would not die for him
nor his old father who gave him being,
when neither would ransom his life
though both were gray with years--
then you, in the quick of life,
gave up for him, and have abandoned daylight.
How happy my time would be if I
could be married to a wife so true:
But in this life they do not often appear.
(Enter Heracles accompanied by a servant.)

Trio (allegro spiritoso)

HERACLES

Strangers living here in the land of Pheres,
tell me if I find Admetus in.

SECOND MOURNER

Yes, Pheres' son is present, Heracles.
But tell us why you came to Thessaly,
stopping here at Pherae on your way.

HERACLES

A labor for Eurystheus, king of Tiryns.

FIRST MOURNER

Where are you headed? What task must you do?

HERACLES

A quest for Diomedes' four-horsed chariot.

FIRST MOURNER

But can you do it? Do you know this man?

HERACLES

I don't. I've never traveled the Bistonian country.

FIRST MOURNER

I think you'll have to fight to get those horses.

HERACLES

I've put myself in jeopardy before.

SECOND MOURNER

What good would it do you to kill that king?

HERACLES

Then I can bring the horses to Eurystheus.

SECOND MOURNER

It won't be easy for you to bridle them.

HERACLES

Still I can do it--if they don't breathe flames.

FIRST MOURNER

But they chew men with their quick-biting jaws.

HERACLES

Wild mountain animals eat so, not horses.

SECOND MOURNER

You can see their mangers stained with blood.

HERACLES

Who does the breeder of them name his father?

FIRST MOURNER

Ares, lord of the golden shields of Thrace.

HERACLES (chagrined, but then determined)

You tell me I must always climb sharp slopes,
battling with Ares' sons, Lycaoon first,
and then with Cycnus. Now in this third contest
I must pit myself against the horses there,
and against their master too. Even so,
no man alive shall ever see the son
of Alcmene back down from an enemy.

SECOND MOURNER

But here now is the ruler of this country
Admetus coming out of the palace.
(Enter Admetus.)

Table of Contents

Introduction by Palmer Bovie
Alcestis
—Translated by Fred Chappell
Daughters of Troy
—Translated by Mark Rudman and Katharine Washburn
The Phoenician Women
—Translated by Richard Elman
Iphigenia at Aulis
—Translated by Elaine Terranova
Rhesus
—Translated by George Economou
Pronouncing Glossary of Names
About the Translators

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