Stasimon 1
[Episode]
to soothe thy love,—’twas but now I thought of them;—these shall cure thee of thy sickness on no disgraceful terms, thy mind unhurt, if thou wilt be but brave.
510
Nurse
But from him thou lovest we must get some token, a word or fragment of his robe,
and thereby unite in one love’s twofold stream.These lines are perhaps spurious. Nauck and Weil both bracket them.
515
Phaedra
Is thy drug a salve or potion?
Nurse
I cannot tell; be content, my child, to profit by it and ask no questions.
Phaedra
I fear me thou wilt prove too wise for me.
Nurse
If thou fear this, confess thyself afraid of all; but why thy terror?
Phaedra
Lest thou shouldst breathe a word of this to Theseus’ son.
520
Nurse
Peace, my child! I will do all things well; only be thou, queen Cypris, ocean’s child, my partner in the work! And for the rest of my purpose, it will be enough for me to tell it to Our friends within the house. [Exit Nurse.
[Choral 1]
O Love, Love, that from the eyes diffusest soft desire, bringing on the souls of those, whom thou dost camp against, sweet grace, O never in evil mood appear to me, nor out of time and tune approach!
525
Chorus
Nor fire nor meteor hurls a mightier bolt than Aphrodite’s shaft shot by the hands of Love, the child of Zeus.
530
Idly, idly by the streams of Alpheus and in the Pythian shrines of Phoebus, Hellas heaps the slaughtered steers; while Love we worship not, Love, the king of men, who holds the key to Aphrodite’s
535
sweetest bower,—worship not him who, when he comes, lays waste and marks his path to mortal hearts by wide-spread woe.
540
[Choral 2]
There was that maidenIole, daughter of Eurytus, king of Oechalia. Her father refused, after promising, to give her to Heracles, who thereupon took her by force. in Oechalia, a girl unwed, that knew no wooer yet nor married joys; her did the queen of LoveThere is some corruption here. It is probable the doubtful εἰρεσίᾳ conceals an allusion to Euryptus, as Monk indeed suggest; but the passage is not yet satisfactorily emended. snatch from her home across the sea
545
Chorus
and gave unto Alcmena’s son, mid blood and smoke and murderous marriage-hymns, to be to him a frantic fiend of hell; woe! woe for his wooing!
550
Ah! holy walls of Thebes, ah! fount of Dirce, ye could testify what course the love-queen follows. For with the blazing levin-bolt
555
did she cut short the fatal marriage of Semele, mother of Zeus-bom Bacchus. All things she doth inspire, dread goddess, winging her flight hither and thither like a bee.
560
