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Nurse
within
Ho there! Ho! Help, neighbors of this house! My lady, Theseus' wife, has hanged herself! Chorus Leader
Alas! It is all over! The Queen is no more, caught in a suspended noose! Nurse
within
[780] Won't you hurry? Will no one fetch a double-edged sword by which to undo this fastening about her neck? Chorus Leader
Friends, what are we to do? Shall we go into the house and free our lady from the tight-drawn noose? Chorus member
[785] What, are there not young slaves nearby? To meddle is not the safe course in life. Nurse
Lay her straight and stretch out her wretched corpse, bitter house-tendance for our lord in his absence! Chorus Leader
The poor woman is dead, to judge from this report. For they are already laying her out as a corpse.Enter Theseus by Eisodos A wearing the garlands of a sacred ambassador. Theseus
[790] Women, do you know what was the shout that came with leaden sound through the door? For the house has not seen fit to open its gates and greet me in friendly fashion as befits a sacred ambassador. Has anything happened to old Pittheus? [795] He is far on in years, and yet his going from this house would be a grief to me. Chorus Leader
It is not the old who are affected by this stroke of fortune: the death of the young is your grief. Theseus
Oh no! Is it my sons my life is robbed of! Chorus Leader
[800] They live. Their mother—great grief to you—is dead. Theseus
What do you mean? My wife is dead? But how? Chorus Leader
She tied aloft a noose to hang herself. Theseus
Chilled in her heart by grief? Or what was the reason? Chorus Leader
That is as much as we know. For I too have but lately arrived at your house, [805] Theseus, to mourn your misfortune. Theseus
Oh! Oh! Why then is my head crowned with these plaited leaves since my sacred embassy has ended in disaster? He throws his garland to the ground. Unlock the doors that bar the portal, servants, loose their fastenings, so that I may see the bitter sight [810] of my wife, who by her death has destroyed me!The central doors open and the eccyclema is wheeled out revealing the body of Phaedra.
Euripides. Euripides, with an English translation by David Kovacs. Cambridge. Harvard University Press. forthcoming.
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