Parodos
[Choral 1]
You, to whom Night gives birth when she is vanquished and despoiled of her starry crown,
Chorus
and whom, as you blaze, she lays to rest, I pray you, O Sun, Sun, tell me, where is Alcmena’s son, where dwells her child? O Shining god with your bright flash,
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is he on the straits of the sea, or does he lean upon the twin continents? Speak, you who surpass all in sight!
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For with longing heart, as I hear, Deianeira, the battle-prize, now,
like some mournful bird, never rests her eyes’ longing that they might be without tears, but nourishing a well-remembered fear for her husband’s travels she is constantly afflicted
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by her anxious, widowed marriage-bed and in her misery anticipates misfortune.
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[Choral 2]
For just as one may see billow after billow
Chorus
advancing and passing over the wide deep before the tireless south-wind, or the north, so the great toil of his life, stormy as the Cretan sea, now whirls back the heir of Cadmus, now exalts him. But some god always
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keeps him unerring from the house of Hades.
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With respect I reproach you for your weeping, but still I will speak in dissent.
You must not, I say, wear away fair hope. Remember that the all-accomplishing king, the son of Cronus, does not appoint a painless lot for mortals. Sorrow and joy revolve to all, as the stars of the Bear
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move in their circling paths.
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[Choral]
Starry night does not remain constant with men, nor does tribulation, nor wealth; in a moment it is gone from us, and to another in his turn come both
Chorus
gladness and bereavement. So I urge even you, our Queen, to keep these matters firmly in your outlook. You must, for who has
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known Zeus to be so without care for his children?
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