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970
Enter Hyllus and an Old Man, followed by Heracles, borne upon a litter.
Hyllus
Ah ah, I mourn,
father, I mourn for your misery!
How can I hope to assist you? Ah ah!
Old Man
Be silent, my son, and do not arouse
the savage pain of your frenzied father.
He lives though fallen; so bite your lip
in silence.
Hyllus
Old man, is he living still?
Old Man
You must not waken him out of his slumber
by stirring up and reviving
980the terrible, pulsing
disease, O my child.
Hyllus
But a burdensome weight
lies on me: my mind is in turmoil.
Heracles
O Zeus!
What land have I come to? What men are these
who stand around me while ceaseless pains
torment me? Ah ah! Oh, wretch that I am!
The putrid disease devours me. Oh!
Old Man
Did I not tell you it would be better
by far to remain in silence, and not
990to scatter abroad
the sleep from his brain and eyes?
Hyllus
I cannot
be still when I see him suffer.
Heracles
Heracles
O Cenaean rock where I built my altars,
how harshly you favor the sacrifice
I made in my wretchedness - O Zeus!
How great is the outrage you lay upon me!
I would that my eyes had never beheld you -
ah, woe is me! - for now I must glimpse
the inexorable flower of madness.
1000Oh where is the sorcerer, where is the healer -
save only Zeus - who has power enough
to soothe the destruction upon me?
If any should come, I would marvel
The Women of Trachis and Philoctetes. A new translation in verse by Robert Torrance. Houghton Mifflin. 1966.
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