Olympians
AphroditeApolloAresArtemisAthenaHadesHephaestusHeraHermesHestiaPoseidonZeusAll Olympians
Titans
AsteriaAstraeusAtlasClymeneCriusCronusDioneEosEpimetheusEurybiaEurynomeHyperionAll Titans
Greek Gods
AeolusAetherAmphitriteAnemoiApateAsclepiusAuraBiaChaosCirceDeimosDemeterAll Greek Gods
Myths
CreaturesElementsFiguresGigantesGreek MythsHeroesMonstersMortalsMoviesNorsePlacesPlanetsAll Myths
Plays
AeschylusAristophanesEuripidesSophoclesAll Plays
Ancient Sources
ApollodorusHomerHesiodAeschylusSophoclesEuripidesAristophanesApolloniusOvidPausaniasPindarAll Ancient Sources
Olympians
Olympians
AphroditeApolloAresArtemisAthenaHadesHephaestusHeraHermesHestiaPoseidonZeusAll Olympians
Titans
Titans
AsteriaAstraeusAtlasClymeneCriusCronusDioneEosEpimetheusEurybiaEurynomeHyperionAll Titans
Greek Gods
Greek Gods
AeolusAetherAmphitriteAnemoiApateAsclepiusAuraBiaChaosCirceDeimosDemeterAll Greek Gods
Myths
Myths
CreaturesElementsFiguresGigantesGreek MythsHeroesMonstersMortalsMoviesNorsePlacesPlanetsAll Myths
Plays
Plays
AeschylusAristophanesEuripidesSophoclesAll Plays
Ancient Sources
Ancient Sources
ApollodorusHomerHesiodAeschylusSophoclesEuripidesAristophanesApolloniusOvidPausaniasPindarAll Ancient Sources

Euripides · Hippolytus Ἱππόλυτος

Euripides, Hippolytus 732–789: Second choral song; Phaedra hangs herself

Ancient Sources / Euripides / Hippolytus / 732–789

The Chorus wishes to be a bird in some pathless cavern, flying to the Adrian shore and the waters of the Eridanus, where Phaethon's sisters weep amber tears, and to the apple-bearing strand in the west. It sings of the ship that brought Phaedra from Crete to Athens, and says that Aphrodite has crushed her heart with unholy love so that she will tie a noose in her bridal chamber. A servant then cries that the queen has hanged herself, and the Chorus hears that she is dead.

Lines 732–789 · 397 words · click a number to copy its link

Chorus

732–741
732Ἠλιβάτοις ὑπὸ κευθμῶσι γενοίμαν, ἵνα με πτεροῦσσαν ὄρνιν ἀγέλῃσι ποταναῖς θεὸς ἐνθείη· 735ἀρθείην δ’ ἐπὶ πόντιον κῦμα τᾶς Ἀδριηνᾶς ἀκτᾶς Ἠριδανοῦ θ’ ὕδωρ· ἔνθα πορφύρεον σταλάσ- σουσιν ἐς οἶδμα πατρὸς τάλαι- ναι κόραι Φαέθοντος οἴ- 740κτῳ δακρύων τὰς ἠλεκτροφαεῖς αὐγάς.

O to be nestling ’neath some pathless cavern, there by god’s creating hand to grow into a bird amid the winged tribes! Away would I soar to Adrians wave-beat shore and to the waters of Eridanus; where a father’s hapless daughters in their grief for Phaethon distil into the glooming flood the amber brilliance of their tears.

Chorus

742–751
742Ἑσπερίδων δ’ ἐπὶ μηλόσπορον ἀκτὰν ἀνύσαιμι τᾶν ἀοιδῶν, ἵν’ ὁ ποντο- μέδων πορφυρέας λίμνας 745ναύταις οὐκέθ’ ὁδὸν νέμει, σεμνὸν τέρμονα κυρῶν οὐρανοῦ, τὸν Ἄτλας ἔχει· κρῆναί τ’ ἀμβρόσιαι χέον- ται Ζηνὸς μελάθρων παρὰ κοί- 750ταις, ἵν’ ἁ βιόδωρος αὔ- ξει ζαθέα χθὼν εὐδαιμονίαν θεοῖς.

And to the apple-bearing strand of those minstrels in the west I then would come, where ocean’s lord no more to sailors grants a passage o’er the deep dark main, finding there the heaven’s holy bound, upheld by Atlas, where water from ambrosial founts wells up beside the couch of Zeus inside his halls, and holy earth, the bounteous mother, causes joy to spring in heavenly breasts.

Chorus

752–762
752ὦ λευκόπτερε Κρησία πορθμίς, ἃ διὰ πόντιον κῦμ’ ἁλίκτυπον ἅλμας 755ἐπόρευσας ἐμὰν ἄνασσαν ὀλβίων ἀπ’ οἴκων, κακονυμφοτάταν ὄνασιν. ἦ γὰρ ἀπ’ ἀμφοτέρων ἁ Κρησίας ἐκ γᾶς δύσορ- νις ἔπτατο κλεινὰς Ἀθή- νας· Μουνίχου δ’ ἀκταῖσιν ἐκ- 760δήσαντο πλεκτὰς πεισμάτων ἀρχάς, ἐπ’ ἀ- πείρου τε γᾶς ἔβασαν.

O white-winged bark, that o’er the booming ocean-wave didst bring my royal mistress from her happy home, to crown her queen ’mongst sorrow’s brides! Surely evil omens from either port, at least from Crete, were with that ship, what time to glorious Athens it sped its way, and the crew made fast its twisted cable-ends upon the beach of Munychus, and on the land stept out.

Chorus

764–774
764ἀνθ’ ὧν, οὐχ ὁσίων ἐρώ- 765των δεινᾷ φρένας Ἀφροδί- τας νόσῳ κατεκλάσθη· χαλεπᾷ δ’ ὑπέραντλος οὖσα συμφορᾷ τεράμνων ἀπὸ νυμφιδίων κρεμαστὸν ἅψεται ἀμφὶ βρόχον λευκᾷ καθαρμόζουσα δεί- 770ρᾳ, δαίμονα στυγνὸν καται- δεσθεῖσα, τὰν δ’ εὔδοξον ἀνθ- αιρουμένα φήμαν, ἀπαλ- λάσσουσά τ’ ἀλ- γεινὸν φρενῶν ἔρωτα.

Whence comes it that her heart is crushed, cruelly afflicted by Aphrodite with unholy love; so she by bitter grief o’erwhelmed will tie a noose within her bridal bower to fit it to her fair white neck, too modest for this hateful lot in life, prizing o’er all her name and fame, and striving thus to rid her soul of passion’s sting.

776–789
Τροφός 776ἰοὺ ἰού· βοηδρομεῖτε πάντες οἱ πέλας δόμων· ἐν ἀγχόναις δέσποινα, Θησέως δάμαρ. Χορός — φεῦ φεῦ, πέπρακται· βασιλὶς οὐκέτ’ ἔστι δὴ γυνή, κρεμαστοῖς ἐν βρόχοις ἠρτημένη. Τροφός 780οὐ σπεύσετ’; οὐκ οἴσει τις ἀμφιδέξιον σίδηρον, ᾧ τόδ’ ἅμμα λύσομεν δέρης; Χορός — φίλαι, τί δρῶμεν; ἢ δοκεῖ περᾶν δόμους λῦσαί τ’ ἄνασσαν ἐξ ἐπισπαστῶν βρόχων; — τί δ’; οὐ πάρεισι πρόσπολοι νεανίαι; 785τὸ πολλὰ πράσσειν οὐκ ἐν ἀσφαλεῖ βίου. Τροφός ὀρθώσατ’ ἐκτείνοντες ἄθλιον νέκυν· πικρὸν τόδ’ οἰκούρημα δεσπόταις ἐμοῖς. Χορός — ὄλωλεν ἡ δύστηνος, ὡς κλύω, γυνή· ἤδη γὰρ ὡς νεκρόν νιν ἐκτείνουσι δή.

Messenger Help! ho! To the rescue all who near the palace stand! She hath hung herself, our queen, the wife of Theseus.

Chorus Woe worth the day! the deed is done; our royal mistress is no more, dead she hangs in the dangling noose.

Messenger Haste! some one bring a two-edged knife wherewith to cut the knot about her neck!

1st Half Chorus Friends, what shall we do? think you we should enter the house, and loose the queen from the tight-drawn noose?

2nd Half Chorus Why should we? Are there not young servants here? To do too much is not a safe course in life.

Messenger Lay out the hapless corpse, straighten the limbs. This was a bitter way to sit at home and keep my master’s house!

Chorus She is dead, poor lady, so I hear. Already are they laying out the corpse.

People and places in this passage

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

  1. Pausanias, Description of Greece 1.27.1–10Athens Acropolis: Athena Polias, the Arrephoroi, Tolmides and the bull of Marathon
  2. Diodorus Siculus, Library of History, Books 4 to 6 (the Greek myths) 4.59.1–4.63.5Theseus
  3. Nonnus of Panopolis, Dionysiaca 38.103–211Book 38: Hermes' tale: the birth and youth of Phaethon
  4. Nonnus of Panopolis, Dionysiaca 33.105–194Book 33: Aglaia's message; Eros wounds Morrheus with desire
  5. Pausanias, Description of Greece 10.2.1–7The Sacred War: Philomelus, Onomarchus, Phaylus and Phalaecus
  6. Ovid, Metamorphoses 7.453–613Cephalus at Aegina; the plague

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.