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Euripides · Andromache Ἀνδρομάχη

Euripides, Andromache 1166–1221: Exodos: the body of Neoptolemus is brought home

Ancient Sources / Euripides / Andromache / 1166–1221

The Chorus sees the body of Neoptolemus being carried on a bier from Delphi. Peleus, in grief, says that his line is ended, and curses the marriage that has brought all this on his house, and the Chorus laments with him that he will live alone.

Lines 1166–1221 · 406 words · click a number to copy its link

Chorus

1166–1172
1166καὶ μὴν ὅδ’ ἄναξ ἤδη φοράδην Δελφίδος ἐκ γῆς δῶμα πελάζει. τλήμων ὁ παθών, τλήμων δέ, γέρον, καὶ σύ· δέχῃ γὰρ τὸν Ἀχίλλειον 1170σκύμνον ἐς οἴκους οὐχ ὡς σὺ θέλεις· αὐτός τε κακοῖς εἰς ἓν μοίρας συνέκυρσας.

Lo! E’en now our prince is being carried on a bier from Delphi’s land unto his home. Woe for him and his sad fate, and woe for thee, old sire! for this is not the welcome thou wouldst give Achilles’ son, the lion’s whelp; thyself too dost share his evil lot.

Peleus

1173–1183
1173ὤμοι ἐγώ, κακὸν οἷον ὁρῶ τόδε καὶ δέχομαι χερὶ δώμασί τ’ ἀμοῖς. 1175ἰώ μοί μοι, αἰαῖ, ὦ πόλι Θεσσαλία, διολώλαμεν, οἰχόμεθ’· οὐκέτι μοι γένος, οὐκέτι λείπεται οἴκοις· ὦ σχέτλιος παθέων ἐγώ· εἰς τίνα 1180δὴ φίλον αὐγὰς βάλλων τέρψομαι; ὦ φίλιον στόμα καὶ γένυ καὶ χέρες, εἴθε σ’ ὑπ’ Ἰλίῳ ἤναρε δαίμων Σιμοεντίδα παρ’ ἀκτάν.

Ah! woe is me! here is a sad sight for me to see and take unto my halls! Ah me! ah me! I am undone, thou city of Thessaly! My line now ends; I have no children left me in my home. Oh! the sorrows I seem born to endure! What friend can I look to for relief? Ah, dear lips, and cheeks, and hands! Would thy destiny had slain thee ’neath Ilium’s walls beside the banks of Simois!

Chorus

1184–1185
1184οὗτός τ’ ἂν ὡς ἐκ τῶνδ’ ἐτιμᾶτ’ ἄν, γέρον, 1185θανών, τὸ σὸν δ’ ἦν ὧδ’ ἂν εὐτυχέστερον.

Had he so died, my aged lord, he had won him honour thereby, and thine had been the happier lot.

Peleus

1186–1196
1186ὦ γάμος, ὦ γάμος, ὃς τάδε δώματα καὶ πόλιν ἀμὰν ὤλεσας· αἰαῖ, ἒ ἔ· ὦ παῖ, μήποτε σῶν λεχέων τὸ δυσώνυμον 1190ὤφελ’ ἐμὸν γένος εἰς τέκνα καὶ δόμον ἀμφιβαλέσθαι Ἑρμιόνας Ἀίδαν ἐπὶ σοί, τέκνον, ἀλλὰ κεραυνῷ πρόσθεν ὀλέσθαι· μηδ’ ἐπὶ τοξοσύνᾳ φονίῳ πατρὸς 1195αἷμα τὸ διογενές ποτε Φοίβου βροτὸς εἰς θεὸν ἀνάψαι.

O marriage, marriage, woe to thee! thou bane of my home, thou destroyer of my city! Ah my child, my boy! would that the honour of wedding thee, fraught with evil as it was to my children and house, had not thrown oer thee, my son, Hermiones deadly net! O that the thunderbolt had slain her sooner! and that thou, rash mortal, hadst never charged the great god Phoebus with aiming that murderous shaft that spilt thy hero-fathers blood!

1197–1213
Χορός 1197ὀττοτοτοτοῖ, θανόντα δεσπόταν γόοις νόμῳ τῷ νερτέρων κατάρξω. Πηλεύς 1200ὀττοτοτοτοῖ, διάδοχα δ’ ὦ τάλας ἐγὼ γέρων καὶ δυστυχὴς δακρύω. Χορός θεοῦ γὰρ αἶσα, θεὸς ἔκρανε συμφοράν. Πηλεύς ὦ φίλος, 1205δόμον ἔλιπες ἔρημον, ὤμοι μοι, ταλαίπωρον ἐμὲ γέροντ’ ἄπαιδα νοσφίσας. Χορός θανεῖν θανεῖν σε, πρέσβυ, χρῆν πάρος τέκνων. Πηλεύς οὐ σπαράξομαι κόμαν, 1210οὐκ ἐμῷ ’πιθήσομαι κάρᾳ κτύπημα χειρὸς ὀλοόν; ὦ πόλις, διπλῶν τέκνων μ’ ἐστέρησ’ ὁ Φοῖβος.

Chorus Woe! woe! alas! With due observance of funeral rites will I begin the mourning for my dead master.

Peleus Alack and well-a-day! I take up the tearful dirge, ah me! old and wretched as I am.

Chorus ’Tis Heaven’s decree; God willed this heavy stroke.

Peleus O darling child, thou hast left me all alone in my halls, old and childless by thy loss.

Chorus Thou shouldst have died, old sire, before thy children.

Peleus Shall I not tear my hair, and smite upon my head with grievous blows? O city! of both my children hath Phoebus robbed me.

1214–1221
Χορός 1214ὦ κακὰ παθὼν ἰδών τε δυστυχὴς γέρον, τίν’ αἰῶν’ 1215εἰς τὸ λοιπὸν ἕξεις; Πηλεύς ἄτεκνος ἔρημος, οὐκ ἔχων πέρας κακῶν διαντλή- σω πόνους ἐς Ἅιδαν. Χορός μάτην δέ σ’ ἐν γάμοισιν ὤλβισαν θεοί. Πηλεύς ἀμπτάμενα φροῦδα πάντα, κεῖται […] 1220κόμπων μεταρσίων πρόσω. Χορός μόνος μόνοισιν ἐν δόμοις ἀναστρέφῃ.

Chorus What evils thou hast suffered, what sorrows thou hast seen, thou poor old man! what shall be thy life hereafter?

Peleus Childless, desolate, with no limit to my grief, I must drain the cup of woe, until I die.

Chorus ’Twas all in vain the gods wished thee joy on thy wedding day.

Peleus All my hopes have flown away, fallen short of my high boasts.

Chorus A lonely dweller in a lonely home art thou.

People and places in this passage

Passages in other works that tell of the same people and places, oldest and closest first.

  1. Quintus Smyrnaeus, The Fall of Troy (Posthomerica) 3.96–211Hera rebukes Apollo; Achilles falls
  2. Ovid, Metamorphoses 11.266–409Peleus, Ceyx and the wolf
  3. Homer, Odyssey 11.465–567Achilles and Ajax
  4. Apollodorus, The Library (Bibliotheca), with the Epitome 3.13.1–8Peleus, Thetis and the youth of Achilles
  5. Ovid, Metamorphoses 11.194–265Laomedon and Hesione; Peleus and Thetis
  6. Homer, Iliad 20.75–155Apollo rouses Aeneas; the gods sit apart

English translation by Edward P. Coleridge (1891). Original text: Greek text: Gilbert Murray (ed.), Euripidis Fabulae, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1902, as digitised by Perseus. English: Edward P. Coleridge, The Plays of Euripides, London: George Bell and Sons, first published 1891 (Bohn's Classical Library; the Perseus header records a later printing).

Greek text and translation from the Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University, CC BY-SA 4.0 (Perseus Digital Library); translation public domain. Introductions, summaries and notes © GreekMythology.com.