Æschylos Tragedies and Fragments

Name: Æschylos Tragedies and Fragments
Author: Aeschylus

Aeschylus

Aeschylus -- Translations into English; Mythology, Greek -- Drama

_Her._ It is not meet a day of tidings good
 To mar with evil news. Apart for each                               620
 Is special worship. But when courier brings
 With louring face the ills men pray against,
 And tells a city that its host has fallen,
 That for the State there is a general wound,
 That many a man from many a home is driven,
 As banned by double scourge that Ares loves,
 Woe doubly-barbed, Death's two-horsed chariot this....
 When with such griefs as freight a herald comes,
 'Tis meet to chant the Erinnyes' dolorous song;
 But for glad messenger of good deeds wrought
 That bring deliverance, coming to a town                            630
 Rejoicing in its triumph, ... how shall I
 Blend good with evil, telling of a storm
 That smote the Achæans, not without God's wrath?
 For they a compact swore who erst were foes,
 Ocean and Fire, and their pledges gave,
 Wrecking the ill-starred army of the Argives;
 And in the night rose ill of raging storm:
 For Thrakian tempests shattered all the ships,
 Each on the other. Some thus crashed and bruised,
 By the storm stricken and the surging foam
 Of wind-tost waves, soon vanished out of sight,                     640
 Whirled by an evil pilot. And when rose
 The sun's bright orb, behold, the Ægæan sea
 Blossomed with wrecks of ships and dead Achæans.
 And as for us and our uninjured ship,
 Surely 'twas some one stole or begged us off,
 Some God, not man, presiding at the helm;
 And on our ship with good will Fortune sat,
 Giver of safety, so that nor in haven
 Felt we the breakers, nor on rough rock-beach
 Ran we aground. But when we had escaped                             650
 The hell of waters, then in clear, bright day,
 Not trusting in our fortune, we in thought
 O'er new ills brooded of our host destroyed,
 And eke most roughly handled. And if still
 Breathe any of them they report of us
 As having perished. How else should they speak?
 And we in our turn deem that they are so.
 God send good ending! Look you, first and chief,
 For Menelaos' coming; and indeed,
 If any sunbeam know of him alive
 And well, by help of Zeus who has not willed                        660
 As yet to blot out all the regal race,
 Some hope there is that he'll come back again.
 Know, hearing this, that thou the truth hast heard.

                                                          [_Exit Herald_


                               STROPHE I

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Opening the text

Æschylos Tragedies and FragmentsAeschylus

General

Æschylos Tragedies and Fragments

Aeschylus

Aeschylus -- Translations into English; Mythology, Greek -- Drama

_Her._ It is not meet a day of tidings good
 To mar with evil news. Apart for each                               620
 Is special worship. But when courier brings
 With louring face the ills men pray against,
 And tells a city that its host has fallen,
 That for the State there is a general wound,
 That many a man from many a home is driven,
 As banned by double scourge that Ares loves,
 Woe doubly-barbed, Death's two-horsed chariot this....
 When with such griefs as freight a herald comes,
 'Tis meet to chant the Erinnyes' dolorous song;
 But for glad messenger of good deeds wrought
 That bring deliverance, coming to a town                            630
 Rejoicing in its triumph, ... how shall I
 Blend good with evil, telling of a storm
 That smote the Achæans, not without God's wrath?
 For they a compact swore who erst were foes,
 Ocean and Fire, and their pledges gave,
 Wrecking the ill-starred army of the Argives;
 And in the night rose ill of raging storm:
 For Thrakian tempests shattered all the ships,
 Each on the other. Some thus crashed and bruised,
 By the storm stricken and the surging foam
 Of wind-tost waves, soon vanished out of sight,                     640
 Whirled by an evil pilot. And when rose
 The sun's bright orb, behold, the Ægæan sea
 Blossomed with wrecks of ships and dead Achæans.
 And as for us and our uninjured ship,
 Surely 'twas some one stole or begged us off,
 Some God, not man, presiding at the helm;
 And on our ship with good will Fortune sat,
 Giver of safety, so that nor in haven
 Felt we the breakers, nor on rough rock-beach
 Ran we aground. But when we had escaped                             650
 The hell of waters, then in clear, bright day,
 Not trusting in our fortune, we in thought
 O'er new ills brooded of our host destroyed,
 And eke most roughly handled. And if still
 Breathe any of them they report of us
 As having perished. How else should they speak?
 And we in our turn deem that they are so.
 God send good ending! Look you, first and chief,
 For Menelaos' coming; and indeed,
 If any sunbeam know of him alive
 And well, by help of Zeus who has not willed                        660
 As yet to blot out all the regal race,
 Some hope there is that he'll come back again.
 Know, hearing this, that thou the truth hast heard.

                                                          [_Exit Herald_


                               STROPHE I

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Æschylos Tragedies and Fragments

Æschylos Tragedies and Fragments

No reviews yet