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[83-112] The Suppliants 921
for 'tis woman's way to fall a-weeping o'er the cruel calamity of children
dead. Ah me! would I could die and forget my anguish I
(THESEUS and his retinue enter.)
THESEUS
What is this lamentation that I hear, this beating of the breast, these
dirges for the dead, with cries that echo from this shrine? How fluttering
fear disquiets me, lest haply my mother have gotten some mischance, in
quest of whom I come, for she hath been long absent from home. Hal
what now? A strange sight challenges my speech; I see my aged mother
sitting at the altar and stranger dames are with her, who in various note
proclaim their woe; from aged eyes the piteous tear is starting to the
ground, their hair is shorn, their robes are not the robes of joy. What
means it, mother? 'Tis thine to make it plain to me, mine to listen; yea,
for I expect some tidings strange.
AETHRA
My son, these are the mothers of those chieftains seven, who fell around
the gates of Cadmus' town. With suppliant boughs they keep me prisoner,
as thou seest, in their midst.
THESEUS
And who is yonder man, that moaneth piteously in the gateway?
AETHRA
Adrastus, they inform me, king of Argos.
THESEUS
Are those his children, those boys who stand round him?
AETHRA
Not his, but the sons of the fallen slain.
THESEUS
Why are they come to us, with suppliant hand outstretched?
AETHRA
I know; but 'tis for them to tell their story, my son.
THESEUS
To thee, in thy mantle muffled, I address my inquiries; unveil thy head,
let lamentation be, and speak; for naught can be achieved save through
the utterance of thy tongue.