Stasimon 5
[Episode]
Ah! ah! woe is me! foully undone by an impious father’s impious imprecation!
Hippolytus
Undone, undone! woe is me! Through my head shoot fearful pains; my brain throbs convulsively. Stop, let me rest my worn-out frame.Oh, oh!
1350
Accursed steeds, that mine own hand did feed, ye have been my ruin and my death. O by the gods, good sirs, I beseech ye, softly touch my wounded limbs.
1355
Who stands there at my right side? Lift me tenderly; with slow and even step conduct a poor wretch cursed by his mistaken sire. Great Zeus, dost thou see this? Me thy reverent worshipper,
1360
me who left all men behind in purity, plunged thus into yawning Hades ’neath the earth, reft of life; in vain the toils I have endured through my piety towards mankind.
1365
Ah me! ah me! O the thrill of anguish shooting through me! Set me down, poor wretch I am; come Death to set me free! Kill me, end my sufferings.Nauck’s comment on these closing lines of H.’s speech is, restitui vix poterunt. Any translation of them can only be tentative.
1370
O for a sword two-edged to hack my flesh, and close this mortal life! Ill-fated curse of my father! the crimes of bloody kinsmen.Such as Tantalus and Pelops, Atreus and Thyestes. ancestors of old,
1375
now pass their boundaries and tarry not, and upon me are they come all guiltless as I am; ah! why? Alas, alas!
1380
what can I say? How from my life get rid of this relentless agony? O that the stern Death-god, night’s black visitant, would give my sufferings rest!
1385
Artemis
Poor sufferer! cruel the fate that links thee to it!
Thy noble soul hath been thy ruin.
1390
Hippolytus
Ah! the fragrance from my goddess wafted! Even in my agony I feel thee near and find relief; she is here in this very place, my goddess Artemis.
Artemis
She is, poor sufferer! the goddess thou hast loved the best.
Hippolytus
Dost see me, mistress mine? dost see my present suffering?
1395
Artemis
I see thee, but mine eyes no tear may weep.
Hippolytus
Thou hast none now to lead the hunt or tend thy fane.
Artemis
None now; yet e’en in death I love thee still.
Hippolytus
None to groom thy steeds, or guard thy shrines.
Artemis
Twas Cypris, mistress of iniquity, devised this evil.
1400
Hippolytus
Ah me! now know I the goddess who destroyed me.
