Racine: Phaedra

PROMETHEUS BOUND 3I
In stormy evolution:—and, know well.
In coming time that hollow of the sea
Shall bear the name Ionian and present
A monument of lo's passage through
Unto all mortals. Be these words the signs
Of my soul's power to look beyond the veil
Of visible things. The rest, to you and her
I will declare in common audience, nymphs,
Returning thither where my speech brake off.
There is a town Canopus, built upon
The earth's fair margin at the mouth of Nile
And on the mound washed up by it ; lo, there
Shall Zeus give back to thee thy perfect mind,
And only by the pressure and the touch
Of a hand not terrible ; and thou to Zeus
Shalt bear a dusky son who shall be called
Thence, Epaphus, Touched. That son shall pluck the
fruit
Of all that land wide-watered by the flow
Of Nile ; but after him, when counting out
As far as the fifth full generation, then
Full fifty maidens, a fair woman-race,
Shall back to Argos turn reluctantly,
To fly the proffered nuptials of their kin,
Their father's brothers. These being passion-struck.
Like falcons bearing hard on flying doves,
Shall follow, hunting at a quarry of love
They should not hunt ; till envious Heaven maintairt
A curse betwixt that beauty and their desire,
And Greece receive them, to be overcome
In murtherous woman-war, by fierce red hands
Kept savage by the night. For every wife
Shall slay a husband, dyeing deep in blood
The sword of a double edge— (I wish indeed
As fair a marriage-joy to all my foes!)
One bride alone shall fail to smite to death
The head upon her pillow, touched with love,
Made impotent of purpose and impelled
To choose the lesser evil—shame on her cheeks,
Than blood-guilt on her hands : which bride shall bear