Stasimon 3
[Choral 2]
Let me embrace and hold my children to my bosom in my enfolding arms.
815
Adrastus
There, there! thou hast—
Chorus
Sorrows heavy enough to bear.
Chorus
Thy groans mingle with those of their parents.Reading with Hartung τοῖς τεκοῦσς’ ὁμοῦ λέγεις.
Chorus
O’er both of us thou dost lament.
820
Adrastus
Would God the Theban ranks had laid me dead in the dust!
Chorus
Oh that I had ne’er been wedded to a husband!
[Choral]
Behold this sea of troubles!The print edition reads: Ah! hapless mothers, behold this sea of troubles! The lines have been modified to more closely match the Greek.
Adrastus
Ah! hapless mothers.
825
Chorus
Our nails have ploughed our cheeks in furrows, and o’er our heads have we strewn ashes.
Adrastus
Ah me! ah me! Oh that earth’s floor would swallow me,
or the whirlwind snatch me away, or Zeus’s flaming bolt descend upon my head!
830
Chorus
Bitter the marriages thou didst witness, bitter the oracle of Phoebus!
The curse of Oedipus, fraught with sorrow, after desolatingFor the unintelligible ἔλημας of the MS. Hermann conjectured ἔρημα σ’ which is here followed. his house, is come on thee.
835
