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792 Euripides [1111-1156]
antistrophe 1
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!
strophe 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 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, attending
on Dictynna, awful queen.
antistrophe 2
No more will he mount his car drawn by Venetian steeds, filling
the course round Limna with the prancing of his trained horses.
Nevermore in his father's 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.
epode
While I with tears at thy unhappy fate shall endure a lot all undeserved.
Ah! hapless mother, in vain didst thou bring forth, it
seems. I am angered with the gods; out upon them! 0 ye linked
Graces, why are ye sending from his native land this poor youth, a
guiltless sufferer, far from his home?
LEADER OF THE CHORUS
But lo! I see a servant of Hippolytus hasting with troubled looks
towards the palace.
(A MESSENGER enters.)
MESSENGER
Ladies, where may I find Theseus, king of the country? pray, tell me
if ye know; is he within the palace here?
LEADER
Lo! himself approaches from the palace.
(THESEUS enters.)