Stasimon 3
[Episode]
a way to teach them wisdom whose souls are void of sense?
920
Hippolytus
A very master in his craft the man, who can force fools to be wise! But these ill-timed subtleties of thine, father, make me fear thy tongue is running riot through trouble.
Theseus
Fie upon thee! man needs should have some certain test set up to try his friends, some touchstone of their hearts, to know each friend whether he be true or false; all men should have two voices, one the voice of honesty, expediency’s the other,
925
so would honesty confute its knavish opposite, and then we could not be deceived.
930
Hippolytus
Say, hath some friend been slandering me and hath he still thine ear? am I, though guiltless, banned? I am amazed indeed;
thy random, frantic words fill me with wild alarm.
935
Theseus
O the mind of mortal man! to what lengths will it proceed? What limit will its bold assurance have? for if it goes on growing as man’s life advances, and each successor outdo the man before him
in villainy, the gods will have to add another sphere unto the world, which shall take in the knaves and villains.
940
Behold this man; he, my own son, hath outraged mine honour, his guilt most clearly proved
by my dead wife. Now, since thou hast dared this loathly crime, come, look thy father in the face. Art thou the man who dost with gods consort, as one above the vulgar herd? art thou the chaste and sinless saint?
945
Thy boasts will never persuade me to be guilty of attributing ignorance to gods. Go then, vaunt thyself, and drive1Hippolytus is here taunted with being an exponent of the Orphic mysteries. Apparently Orpheus, like Pythagoras, taught the necessity of total abstinence from animal food. thy petty trade in viands formed of lifeless food; take Orpheus for thy chief and go a-revelling, with all honour for the vapourings of many a written scroll,
950
seeing thou now art caught. Let all beware, I say, of such hypocrites! who hunt their prey with fine words, and all the while are scheming villainy. She is dead; dost think that this will save thee? Why this convicts thee more than all, abandoned wretch!
955
What oaths, what pleas can outweigh this letter, so that thou shouldst ’scape thy doom? Thou wilt assert she hated thee, that ’twixt the bastard and the true-born child nature has herself put war; it seems then by thy showing she made a sorry bargain with her life,
960
if to gratify her hate of thee she lost what most she prized. ’Tis said, no doubt, that frailty finds no place in man but is innate in woman; my experience is, young men are no more secure than women, whenso the Queen of Love excites a youthful breast;
965
although their sex comes in to help them.This apparently means that men, being addicted to the sin mentioned, are more disposed to deal lightly with offenders of their own sex. But the line has little point, and has been condemned by Hirzel, whose judgment Nauck approves, without however actually noting the fact in his own text. Yet why do I thus bandy words with thee, when before me lies the corpse, to be the clearest witness? Begone at once, an exile from this land, and ne’er set foot again in god-built Athens
970
nor in the confines of my dominion. For if I am tamely to submit to this treatment from such as thee, no more will Sinis,Sinis and Sciron were two notorious evil-doers, whom Theseus had slain. robber of the Isthmus, bear me witness how I slew him, but say my boasts are idle, nor will those rocks Scironian, that fringe the sea,
975
call me the miscreants’ scourge.
980
Chorus
I know not how to call happy any child of man; for that which was first has turned and now is last.
Hippolytus
Father, thy wrath and the tension of thy mind are terrible; yet this charge, specious though its arguments appear,
becomes a calumny, if one lay it bare. Small skill have I in speaking to a crowd, but have a readier wit for comrades of mine own age and small companies. Yea, and this is as it should be; for they, whom the wise despise, are better qualified to speak before a mob.
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