Stasimon 3
[Episode]
for never will ye behold a purer soul, for all my father’s doubts. [Exit Hippolytus.
1100
[Choral 1]
In very deed the thoughts I have about the gods, whenso they come into my mind, do much to soothe its grief, but though I cherish secret hopes of some great guiding will, yet am I at fault when I survey the fate and doings of the sons of men;
Chorus
change succeeds to change, and man’s life veers and shifts in endless restlessness.
1105
Fortune grant me this, I pray, at heaven’s hand,—a happy lot in life and a soul from sorrow free;
opinions let me hold not too precise nor yet too hollow; but, lightly changing my habits to each morrow as it comes, may I thus attain a life of bliss!
1115
[Choral 2]
For now no more is my mind free from doubts, unlooked-for sights greet my vision; for lo! I see the morning star of Athens, eye of Hellas, driven by his father’s fury
1120
Chorus
to another land. Mourn, ye sands of my native shores, ye oak-groves on the hills, where with his fleet hounds he would hunt the quarry to the death,
1125
attending on Dictynna, awful queen.
1130
No more will he mount his car drawn by Venetian steeds, filling the course round Limna with the prancingReading with Reiske, whom Nauck follows, γυμνάδος ἵππου. If the accus. plural is retained it would seem to mean, checking with his foot (i.e. pressed against the chariot-front) his steeds. of his trained horses. Nevermore in his fathers house shall he wake the Muse
that never slept beneath his lute-strings; no hand will crown the spots where rests the maiden Latona ’mid the boskage deep; nor evermore shall our virgins vie to win thy love, now thou art banished;
1135
[Choral]
while I with tears at thy unhappy fate shall endure a lot all undeserved. Ah! hapless mother,
Chorus
in vain didst thou bring forth, it seems. I am angered with the gods; out upon them! O ye linked Graces, why are ye sending from his native land this poor youth, a guiltless sufferer,
1145
