§ 1  APHRODITE: Great among mortals and not nameless within heaven,
I am called the goddess Aphrodite.
As for all those who live within the bounds of the Black Sea
And the Atlantic, and see the sun’s light,

§ 5  I give special honour to those who revere my power,
But I trip up all who are proud towards me.
For even among the gods there is this fact:
They take pleasure in being honoured by human beings.
Soon I will demonstrate the truth of these words:

§ 10  For the son of Theseus, the Amazon’s child,
Hippolytus, the ward of holy Pittheus,
Alone of the citizens of Troizen here
Says that I am the worst of the divinities.
He spurns the bed and does not touch marriage,

§ 15  But instead honours Apollo’s sister Artemis, Zeus’
Daughter, because he thinks she is the best of the divinities;
He spends all his time with the virgin goddess in the green forest,
And stirs up the wild animals in the land with his swift hounds,
Happening upon a greater-than-mortal association.

§ 20  This I don’t object to: why should I?
But as for the error he has committed against me I will punish
Hippolytus today: I’ve cleared the way
A lot for a long time now, and there’s not much left for me to do.
One day when he came from the house of Pittheus

§ 25  Into the sight and rites of the holy mysteries
In the land of Pandion, his father’s noble wife
Phaedra was seized in her heart
With a dreadful passion by my plans.
And before coming here to Troezen

§ 30  At the same rock of Pallas, she established
A temple to Aphrodite overlooking this land,
Since she was in love with a foreign love; in after ages
They will call this foundation ‘Aphrodite next to Hippolytus’.
Now when Theseus left the land of Cecrops

§ 35  Fleeing the blood-pollution of the Pallantidae,
And disembarked with his wife in this land,
Honouring a year’s exile away from the people,
Now groaning and distraught with the goads
Of love the wretched woman is dying

§ 40  In silence: none of her household knows her illness.
No, that isn’t how this love will turn out:
Instead I will reveal the matter to Theseus, and it will come to light.
The young man who is hostile to me
Will be killed by his father’s curses, which the sea

§ 45  God Poseidon once granted to Theseus as a gift,
Saying that he would not pray to the god for anything in vain up to three times.
Phaedra may have a good reputation, but will still die.
Her suffering I do not honour ahead of
Not providing to those hostile to me

§ 50  A punishment sufficient to my satisfaction. (SOUND OF HIPPOLYTUS AND HIS HUNTSMEN SINGING)
Here he comes, Theseus’s
Son --- he has left the toil of hunting:
I will leave this place.
Accompanying him is a great celebratory crowd

§ 55  Of his attendants singing, honouring the goddess Artemis
With hymns. He has no idea that the doors of Hades
Are open, and that this is the last day that he will ever see! (SHE EXITS; ENTER HIPPOLYTUS AND CHORUS OF HUNTSMEN)
HIPPOLYTUS: Follow singing, follow
Zeus’ heavenly daughter

§ 60  Artemis, to whom we chant.
CHORUS: Lady revered lady,
Offspring of Zeus,
Welcome, welcome from me, daughter

§ 65  Of Leto and Zeus, Artemis,
By far the most beautiful of maidens,
You who dwell in great
Heaven, the precinct of your good
Father, the much-golden house of Zeus.

§ 70  Welcome from me, most beautiful
Most beautiful of those in Olympus!
HIPPOLYTUS: (TURNS TO STATUE OF ARTEMIS)
I have arranged this garland and bring it to you,
Mistress, woven from an unspoilt [or virgin] meadow
Where neither the shepherd thinks it right to pasture his herd,

§ 75  Nor has iron ever come there, but the bee
Goes through the unspoilt [or virgin] meadow in spring. (LOOKS DOWN AT THE GARLAND)
Shame tends it with river waters;
And for all those for whom nothing is taught, but self-control

§ 80  In everything alike has fallen naturally to them,
For them it is lawful to pluck, but not for bad people.(TURNS TO STATUE AGAIN, AND OFFERS A LOCK OF HIS HAIR)
My dear mistress, receive for your golden
Hair this garland from a pious hand.
To me alone of mortals this gift is given:

§ 85  I associate with you and exchange words,
Hearing your voice, though I cannot see your eyes.
May I round the end of my life just as I began it.
SERVANT: Lord --- for we must call our masters gods ---
Would you receive something from me that I have planned well?

§ 90  HIPPOLYTUS: Of course. Otherwise I would not be seen to be wise.
SERVANT: Do you know then the custom established for mortals?
HIPPOLYTUS: No. What is it you’re asking me about?
SERVANT: Hating haughtiness and unfriendliness to everyone.
HIPPOLYTUS: Well said indeed. What haughty person is not hateful?

§ 95  SERVANT: Is there any grace in addressing people properly?
HIPPOLYTUS: Yes of course, and profit, with little effort.
SERVANT: And do you expect that the same thing applies to the gods?
HIPPOLYTUS: Yes, if in fact we mortals make use of the gods’ customs.
SERVANT: How then can you be haughty, by not addressing the divinity …

§ 100  HIPPOLYTUS: Which one? Beware lest your mouth slip in any way.
SERVANT: (POINTING OVER TO ANOTHER STATUE NEAR THE DOORS)
Her, Aphrodite, standing at your doors.
HIPPOLYTUS: I kiss her from a distance, as I am undefiled [or chaste].
SERVANT: But she is haughty too, and prominent among mortals.
HIPPOLYTUS: Different people concern themselves with different gods.

§ 105  SERVANT: I wish you good fortune, with as much sense as you should have.
HIPPOLYTUS: I take no pleasure in a god that is admired at night!
SERVANT: You should pay due honour, child, to the gods.
HIPPOLYTUS: (IGNORING HIM)
Away, my companions! Go to the house
And concern yourselves with food! A full table

§ 110  Is a delight after hunting. You should comb down
The horses, so that after yoking them under the chariot
And sating them with meat I may give them the proper exercise. (TURNING TO THE STATUE OF APHRODITE)
But to your Aphrodite I give a long farewell.
SERVANT: But we --- as we should not copy the young,

§ 115  If they are so minded --- as is proper for slaves to speak,
Will pray to your statue,
Lady Aphrodite. You should be forgiving,
If someone with a heart stiff because of his youth
Says empty [or profane] words about you. Pretend not to hear him ---

§ 120  Gods should be wiser than mortals. (EXIT SERVANT. ENTER CHORUS OF TROEZENIAN WOMEN)
CHORUS: They say there is a certain rock dripping the water of Ocean,
That sends forth a flowing spring
Which people dip their urns into;

§ 125  A friend of mine there
Was dipping her dark
Clothes in the river
Water, as she threw them down on the back
Of a warm rock in the full sun --- that is where I

§ 130  First heard the story of my mistress.
That her body is wasting away lying down and sick inside
The house, and that her delicate clothes
Are shadowing her golden head.

§ 135  I hear that this is the third
Day that she
Has kept her mouth
Without food, and pure of Demeter’s grain,
And that because of a hidden suffering she wants to put into

§ 140  The wretched harbour of death.
A: Are you possessed, my daughter,
Whether from Pan or Hecate,
Or from the revered Corybantes are you
Wandering, or from the mountain mother?

§ 145  B: Are you consumed, around Dictynna
Of the many beasts, with errors, without the sacred rites
Of sacrificial cakes that have not been offered?
For she wanders through the lakes [Limnai]
And over the dry land of the sea

§ 150  In the watery whirlpools of salt.
A: Is your husband, the chief
Of the Athenians, of good lineage,
Being led astray in the house by some
Liaison hidden from your marriage-bed?

§ 155  B: Has some mariner sailed,
Setting out from Crete to that harbour
That is the most hospitable to sailors,
With a message for the queen,
And her spirit in grief

§ 160  From her suffering is bound in her bed?
A: Wretched evil helplessness
Usually coincides with the ill-tempered harmony of women,
Caused by birth-pains and thoughtlessness.

§ 165  This breeze once also rushed through
My womb. I cried out then to her in heaven
Who is the guardian of the bow,
Artemis, and much admired by me she always
Wanders with the gods.

§ 170  B: Here is the old nurse in front of the doors
Bringing her outside the house.
A hateful cloud of brows is building.
My spirit longs to know whatever it is,
Why the queen’s

§ 175  Body has been ruined and changed in colour! [ENTER NURSE ON STAGE WITH PHAEDRA SPRAWLED ON A BED]
NURSE: Oh the evils of mortals and their hateful illnesses!
What am I to do for you? What not do?
Here is daylight for you, here is the bright sky:
And outside the house now is the bed

§ 180  In which you’ve lain sick.
All your talk was of coming here:
But soon enough you’ll be hurrying back to your room,
Because you’re quick to falter and nothing delights you,
What you have doesn’t please you, and what you don’t have

§ 185  You think is dearer.
It’s better to be sick than to look after the sick:
The first is simple, but attached to the second
Is grief of mind and hard work for the hands.
All human life is painful,

§ 190  And there is no stopping toils.
Well, whatever else there is dearer than living,
Encompassing darkness hides with its clouds.
We are obviously sick in love
With whatever it is here that glitters on earth,

§ 195  Because we have no experience of another life
And no revelation of the things under the earth:
No, but we are carried along wrongly by myths.
PHAEDRA: Lift up my body, straighten my head:
I have freed the bonds of my limbs!

§ 200  Take my beautiful hands, attendants!
My hairband is heavy on my head!
Take it off, let my hair spread out on my shoulders!
NURSE: Cheer up, my child, and don’t be difficult
By twisting your body like that!

§ 205  You’ll put up with your illness more easily
With calmness and a noble spirit:
It’s necessary for mortals to toil.
PHAEDRA: Ahhh!
How I wish I could draw a drink of pure
Water from a moist spring,

§ 210  And take a rest lying under the poplars
And in a tufted meadow!
NURSE: My child, what are you complaining about?
Will you not sing out like this in front of everyone,
Letting fly words mounted on madness?

§ 215  PHAEDRA: Send me off to the mountain! I’ll go to the forest
And to the pines, where the quarry-killing
Hounds tread
In close pursuit of the dappled deer.
By the gods, I yearn to shout to the hounds

§ 220  And throw along my golden hair
A Thessalian javelin, holding a sharp
Spear in my hand!
NURSE: Why ever are you sick at heart about this, my child?
Why the interest in hunting?

§ 225  Why do you long for water from a flowing spring?
Near the gates there’s a continuous watery
Slope, from where you could get a drink.
PHAEDRA: Artemis, mistress of the salt Sea [Limnai],
And of the horse-thundering exercises,

§ 230  I wish I were among your household,
Taming the Enetian colts!
NURSE: What’s all this crazy talk you’re letting fly?
First you’re launching a desire
To go to the mountain after wild animals,
Next you’re longing for colts

§ 235  On waveless sands!
This would be worth a lot of divining,
As to which of the gods is tossing you about
And deranging your mind, my child!
PHAEDRA: Oh poor me, what did I do?

§ 240  Where have I wandered aside from my good judgment?
I was crazy, I fell because of delusion sent from a god.
Mother, cover my head again,
Because I’m ashamed at my words.

§ 245  Keep it covered: a tear comes down from my eyes,
And my eye is turned to shame.
For to be right in my mind pains me,
But being mad is evil; it’s best
To die without knowing anything.

§ 250  NURSE: I’ll cover you. But when will death
Cover my body?
A long life teaches me many things.
For mortals should engage
In measured love with each other,

§ 255  And not to the deepest marrow of the soul;
But the affections of the heart should be easily loosed,
Both to thrust away and to brace tight.
It is a difficult weight for one soul
To feel pangs on behalf of two, as I too

§ 260  Feel excessive pain for her.
They say that the scrupulous refinements
Of life trip us up rather than delight us,
And war more against our health.
Thus the phrase ‘too much’ I praise less

§ 265  Than the phrase ‘nothing in excess’ ---
And the wise will agree with me on this.
CHORUS: Old woman, trusted nurse of the queen,
We can see Phaedra’s wretched misfortunes,
But it’s unclear to us just what her illness is.

§ 270  It’s from you that I’d like to find out and hear.
NURSE: I don’t know from questioning her; she won’t tell me.
CHORUS: Not even what the beginning of her troubles was?
NURSE: It comes to the same thing: she’s silent about all that.
CHORUS: How weak and wasted her body is!

§ 275  NURSE: No wonder! She’s been three days without food!
CHORUS: Is it because of some delusion? Or is she trying to die?
NURSE: Die? Without food she is going to depart from this life.
CHORUS: That would be remarkable, if her husband were satisfied with this.
NURSE: No --- she’s concealing her pain and denies she's ill.

§ 280  CHORUS: Can’t he see it in her when he looks in her face?
NURSE: No, because he happens to be outside the country.
CHORUS: Aren’t you bringing coercion to bear, trying
To find out her illness and wandering of mind?
NURSE: I’ve done everything I can but haven’t made any progress.

§ 285  I won’t slacken from my current zeal,
In order that you too who are here may be a witness for me
Just how I am for my unfortunate mistress. (TURNS TO PHAEDRA)
Come, dear child, let’s both forget
What we said earlier, and you be sweeter,

§ 290  Loosening that hateful eyebrow and the path of your judgment,
And I’ll give up where I followed you then not well,
And go on another better path of speech.
Even if you’re ill with one of the unmentionable evils,
We women are here to support your illness.

§ 295  But if your misfortune may be divulged to men,
Tell us, so that this matter may be relayed to the doctors. (PAUSE -- PHAEDRA SAYS NOTHING)
Hmm! Why the silence? You shouldn’t be silent, child,
But either correct me, if anything I’m saying is wrong,
Or agree with whatever I’ve said that’s right. (PHAEDRA STILL SAYS NOTHING AND TURNS HER FACE AWAY)

§ 300  Say something! Look at me! Oh poor me, (TO THE CHORUS)
Women, it’s no use, we’re wasting our time.
We’re no closer than before. She wasn’t softened
With words then, and she’s not listening to me now. (TO PHAEDRA)
Be assured though --- go on, be more stubborn about this

§ 305  Than the sea --- that if you die, you’ll be betraying your
Children, who won’t have a share in your father’s house;
I tell you this in the name of that horse-riding queen of the Amazons
Who bore as master over your children
That bastard who has thoughts of legitimacy, you know him well,
Hippolytus---
PHAEDRA: Oh my god!

§ 310  NURSE: Does this touch you?
PHAEDRA: You have killed me, mother! By the gods I beg you
To again be quiet about that man!
NURSE: See? You’re in your right mind, but you’re unwilling to think about
Benefiting your children and saving your own life.

§ 315  PHAEDRA: I love my children! Another storm is affecting me.
NURSE: Are your hands undefiled by blood, my child?
PHAEDRA: My hands are undefiled --- it’s my mind that has pollution.
NURSE: Surely not from a pain acquired from an enemy?
PHAEDRA: One of my dearest has killed me --- neither he nor I was willing.

§ 320  NURSE: Has Theseus committed some fault against you?
PHAEDRA: May I never be seen to do him harm!
NURSE: What is this terrible thing that urges you to die?
PHAEDRA: Let me commit my fault: I’m not doing it against you.
NURSE: It will not be my fault, but yours, if I am found wanting. (SHE FALLS AT PHAEDRA’S FEET IN THE SUPPLIANT POSITION)

§ 325  PHAEDRA: What are you doing? Are you going to lay a violent hand on me?
NURSE: And on your knees, and I won’t let go!
PHAEDRA: This will be bad for you, poor woman, if you find out --- bad!
NURSE: What bad thing is worse for me than not obtaining you?
PHAEDRA: You’ll die! But for me the affair brings honour.

§ 330  NURSE: So you’re not telling me, even though I’m beseeching you for your own good?
PHAEDRA: Out of shamefulness I’m planning nobility.
NURSE: Won’t you appear more honoured if you speak?
PHAEDRA: Go away, by the gods, and let go of my hand!
NURSE: No! You’re not giving me the gift you should!

§ 335  PHAEDRA: I will give it: I respect the holiness of your hand.
NURSE: I’ll be quiet now --- from now on it’s your turn to speak.
PHAEDRA: My poor mother! What a love you fell for!
NURSE: The one she had for a bull, my child? Is that what you mean?
PHAEDRA: And you, my poor sister, as the wife of Dionysus!

§ 340  NURSE: Child, what’s wrong with you? Are you abusing your relatives?
PHAEDRA: And I, the third, poor me, how I am done for!
NURSE: I’m astonished --- where is this leading to?
PHAEDRA: It’s from back then, not recently, that my misfortune comes!
NURSE (CONFUSED): I’m no wiser about what I want to hear.

§ 345  PHAEDRA: Alas! How could you tell me what I should say?
NURSE: I’m no prophet to clearly recognise the invisible.
PHAEDRA: What is it they mean by people falling in love?
NURSE: The sweetest thing, my child, but at the same time painful.
PHAEDRA: I would be experiencing the latter.

§ 350  NURSE: What do you mean? Are you in love, child? With whom?
PHAEDRA: Whoever he is, that son of the Amazon---
NURSE: Hippolytus you mean?
PHAEDRA: You said it, not me.
NURSE: Oh no, what’ve you said, my child! How you’ve killed me!
Women, this is unbearable, I won’t put up with

§ 355  Living! It’s a hateful day, a hateful light, that I’m looking on!
I’ll hurl I’ll throw my body, I’ll get rid of my
Life and die! Farewell, I’m no more!
The chaste, unwillingly, but despite that,
Are falling in love with evils! Aphrodite cannot be a goddess,

§ 360  But something else greater than a god,
Since she has destroyed her, me and the house!
CHORUS: Α: Did you learn of and hear
The incurable
Wretched sufferings of the queen in her groans?
B: May I die, dear friend, before arriving at

§ 365   Your purpose! Alas! Alas!
C: Poor woman --- these pains of yours!
D: Oh the pains that nourish mortals!
E: You are ruined, you have revealed your evils to the light of day!
F: What awaits you in the hours of this long day?

§ 370  G: Something unusual will come to pass in the house.
H: Now we know the direction Aphrodite’s fortune
Is ending, wretched Cretan child!
PHAEDRA: You women of Troezen, who live here at the northernmost
Promontory of the Peloponnese,

§ 375  Already in other circumstances in the long hours of the night
I have pondered on how the life of mortals is ruined.
And to me it seems that not according to the nature of their good judgment
They act more evilly --- because good sense belongs
To many people. This is how we should look at it:

§ 380  We understand and recognise the good,
But don’t work at it, some out of laziness,
But others preferring some other pleasure
To the good. There are many pleasures in life,
Long talks and leisure, a delightful evil,

§ 385  And shame. They are twofold, one not bad,
The other a burden on houses. If the distinction were clear,
The two would not be written with the same letters.
Since this conclusion is what I came to recognise beforehand,
There is no drug by which I was going

§ 390  To destroy it, so as to fall back from my opinion.
I will tell you the path of my judgment:
Since love has wounded me, I kept examining how
I might bear it most nobly. I began then
From this, to keep silent and hide this illness.

§ 395  Yes, for the tongue is not to be trusted, which knows how
To advise the minds of men out of doors,
But obtains the greatest harm from itself.
Secondly, I thought in advance to bear
My madness well by overcoming it with chastity.

§ 400  Thirdly, since I did not succeed in overcoming
Aphrodite with this, I decided to die,
As it was the best plan --- no-one will deny that.
May I not lose sight of honour,
Nor have many witnesses to my committing dishonour.

§ 405  I knew that the action and the illness were discreditable,
And also I well recognised that I was a woman,
An object of hatred to all men. May she die most painfully,
The woman who first began to shame her marriage-bed
With men outside the house. This evil with women

§ 410  Began from noble houses.
For whenever the nobility think that dishonour is good,
Then indeed lesser people will think it good as well.
I hate those women who are chaste in words,
But secretly commit dishonourable acts of daring.

§ 415  How do they ever, lady Aphrodite,
Look into their husbands’ faces,
And not fear that darkness their accomplice,
And the chambers of their house, will ever utter their voice?
This is what is killing me, ladies:

§ 420  That I might never be caught shaming my husband,
Nor the children I gave birth to. Free,
Saying what they like, may they live and flourish in the famous
City of Athens, and have a good reputation from their mother.
Yes, for it enslaves a man, even if he is stout-hearted,

§ 425  When he is conscious of the bad actions of his mother or father.
Only one thing, they say, competes in value with life,
A just and noble mind for whoever has it.
But Time reveals bad people,
By putting a mirror in front of them, as if to a young

§ 430  Girl: may I never be counted among them!
CHORUS: Ah, how noble is self-control everywhere,
Bringing forth the fruit of a good reputation for people!
NURSE: Mistress, for me your misfortune just now
Provided a sudden pang of fear.

§ 435  But now I consider that I am of no account. And among people
Second thoughts are somehow wiser.
This is nothing extraordinary at all, or outside of reason,
That you’ve suffered. The passions of a goddess have fallen upon you.
You’re in love. What’s surprising about that? So are a lot of people.

§ 440  Are you going to lose your life for love?
Then it doesn’t profit those in love with people near to them,
All who are intending to, if they must die.
No, for Aphrodite is not to be endured, when she flows in full.
She goes quietly against the man who yields to her,

§ 445  But whoever she finds to be excessive and thinking big of himself,
That’s who she seizes and mistreats.
Aphrodite wanders in the sky, is in the waves
Of the sea, and everything comes from her.
She it is who sows and gives love,

§ 450  Whence are we all who are born on the earth.
Certainly all who have writings of people
In olden times, and are themselves always among the Muses,
Know that Zeus once fell in love with the bed
Of Semele, and they know that Dawn of the beautiful light

§ 455  Once snatched up Cephalus into the gods
Because of love. Nevertheless they live
In heaven and are not exiled from the gods out of the way,
But they acquiesce, I think, in their defeat by misfortune.
And you will not put up with this? You father should have had you

§ 460  On fixed terms, and with other gods
As your masters, if you will not acquiesce in these customs.
How many men, do you think, although they are quite sensible,
See that their marriage-beds are ill, and yet pretend not to see?
How many fathers do you think help to provide their wayward sons

§ 465  With Aphrodite? No, for among the wise
This is something people do: dishonourable actions are hidden.
People should not work too hard at life;
Nor could you well make exact the roof by which
A house is covered. Although you have fallen

§ 470  Into so great a misfortune, do you somehow think you could swim out of it?
No --- if you have more good than bad,
As a human being, then you have done very well.
Dear child, cease your bad thoughts,
And cease committing hubris: because this is nothing other

§ 475  Than hubris, your wanting to be greater than the gods.
Be brave while you’re in love --- god wanted it so.
Though you are ill, somehow turn back the illness to good effect.
There are spells and words to soothe it:
A medicine for this illness will be revealed.

§ 480  Indeed men would discover this late in the piece,
If we women did not find it first.
CHORUS: Phaedra, she is saying some quite useful things
About your current disaster, but I praise you.
This praise, though, is more difficult for you than

§ 485  Her words, and more painful for you to hear.
PHAEDRA: (TO NURSE)
This is what destroys people’s well-inhabited
Cities --- words that are too fine!
You should be telling me what isn’t delightful to my ears,

§ 490  Something from which a person will have a good reputation.
NURSE: Why talk so haughtily? You don’t need decorous
Words, but the man! We must get things clear at once,
And declare the forthright truth about you.
For if your life were not in the circumstances of such
A disaster, and you did not now happen to be a chaste woman,

§ 495  I would never for sex and your pleasure
Be leading you here to this. But as it is there is a great contest
To save your life, and this is not to be despised.
PHAEDRA: What horrible things you’re saying! Won’t you shut your mouth
And not let loose again words totally without honour?

§ 500  NURSE: Dishonourable they may be, but better for you than honour.
Actions are better, if they'll actually save your life,
Than words, in which you will die exulting.
PHAEDRA: Don’t, by the gods --- you speak well, but shamefully ---
Go any further than this! As I have been completely undermined

§ 505  In my soul by love, and if you speak well of dishonour,
I will be spent in the very thing I’m now running from!
NURSE: If that is your decision, then although you should not be going astray,
Yet if you are going astray, listen to me – for that is the favour that comes second.
In the house I have potions and things to soothe

§ 510  Passion --- just now I thought of them ---
And they'll stop you from this illness without any shame
Or harm to your mind, if you are not bad.
But I need to get some token belonging to
The man you long for, either a lock of hair or something

§ 515  From his clothes, and from the two make a single charm.
PHAEDRA: Is it an ointment or a potion?
NURSE: I don’t know --- be willing to benefit from it, not learn, my child.
PHAEDRA: I fear that you'll be seen to be too clever for me.
NURSE: You’re afraid of everything, you know --- What do you fear?

§ 520  PHAEDRA: That you'll say something about this to Theseus’ son.
NURSE: Let it be, child. I will fix all this well.
Only you, lady Aphrodite of the sea,
Be my helper. As for all the rest I have in mind,
It will be enough to speak to our dear ones inside. (NURSE GOES BEHIND THE DOORS OF THE STAGE)

§ 525  CHORUS: Love, Love, you who drip longing
From the eyes, bringing to the soul
A sweet delight for those whom you attack,
May you never appear to me with evil,
Or come in undue measure.

§ 530  For the shaft neither of fire nor of the stars
Exceeds that sent by Love, the son
Of the goddess Aphrodite.

§ 535  Uselessly, uselessly does the land of Greece,
Beside the river Alpheus and at Delphi
Increase the slaughter of cattle,
If we do not reverence Love,
The king of men,

§ 540  Aphrodite’s son who is the key-holder of the dearest bedrooms,
And who destroys people and sends them
Through every disaster when he comes.

§ 545  And she, the filly
In Oechalia unyoked to a bed,
Who was formerly without a husband and unwed,
Was yoked by Aphrodite from Eurytus' house

§ 550  and like a wild Naiad or
Maenad, along with blood
And smoke, in murderous
Marriage given to the son of Alcmene.
Wretched she was in her marriage!

§ 555  You sacred walls
Of Thebes, and mouth of [the fountain] Dirke , you would
Agree with me about how great Aphrodite is when she
Comes! With fire-encompassing thunder

§ 560  The mother of twice-born
Bacchus was married to a bloody
Fate and put to rest by her.
For she is terrible and breathes over everything, and like a bee
She hovers. (ARGUMENT BETWEEN HIPPOLYTUS AND NURSE CAN BE HEARD INSIDE. PHAEDRA HAS HER EAR PRESSED TO THE DOOR)

§ 565  PHAEDRA: Quiet, ladies! I am undone!
CHORUS: What terrible thing, Phaedra, is happening in your house?
PHAEDRA: Shhh! Let me hear what they're saying!
CHORUS: I’ll be quiet --- but this is an evil prelude.
PHAEDRA: Ah! Oh god no!

§ 570  I’m wretched from my sufferings!
CHORUS: What’s this sound you’re groaning? What are you shouting?
Tell me, lady, what words are frightening you,
Rushing upon your mind?

§ 575  PHAEDRA: I’m ruined! Stand at these doors
And listen to what a din is falling on the house!
CHORUS: You are at the door-bolts, and you are concerned with the voices
Conveyed from the house!

§ 580  Tell me, tell me, what awful thing has come to us!
PHAEDRA: The horse-loving Amazon's son, Hippolytus,
Is shouting, saying terrible bad things to the servant!

§ 585  CHORUS: I can hear a cry, but I can’t catch it clearly.
Tell me what
The shouting is that has come through your doors!
PHAEDRA: Well, he clearly declares that she is the pimp

§ 590  Of evils, and that she has betrayed the bed of her mistress!
CHORUS: Oh this is terrible! You've been betrayed, my dear!
What plan can we come up with for you?
The secret has been revealed, and you are ruined!

§ 595  Oh god, ah! Betrayed by your friend!
PHAEDRA: She has destroyed me by telling him about my disaster!
In a dear way, in a bad way, not curing this illness!
CHORUS: What then? What will you do, who have suffered inconceivably?
PHAEDRA: I know of only one way out --- to die as soon as I can,

§ 600  The only cure for these current pains! (HIPPOLYTUS AND THE NURSE COME OUTSIDE, STILL TALKING)
HIPPOLYTUS: Mother Earth and unveilings of the Sun!
What words I have heard! Unspeakable!
NURSE: Quiet, my child, before someone hears you!
HIPPOLYTUS: There’s no way, after hearing such terrible things, that I’m going to keep quiet.
NURSE: (FALLS PROSTRATE AT HIPPOLYTUS’ FEET AND TAKES HIS HAND AND THE HEM OF HIS ROBE)

§ 605  Please! I beg you, by your right hand!
HIPPOLYTUS: (PUSHES HER AWAY)
Don’t hold my hand or touch my clothes!
NURSE: (TAKES HIS KNEES)
I beg you, by your knees, don’t destroy me!
HIPPOLYTUS: Why? (SNEERING) If, as you say, you haven’t done anything wrong?
NURSE: This story is not one to be shared with anyone!

§ 610  HIPPOLYTUS: Noble things are nobler when spoken among the crowd!
NURSE: Don’t dishonour the oaths you took, my child!
HIPPOLYTUS: My tongue has sworn, but my mind is unsworn!
NURSE: My child, what are you going to do? Destroy your dear ones?
HIPPOLYTUS: I spit on them! No pervert is dear to me!

§ 615  NURSE: Forgive me --- it’s usual for people to make a mistake, my child!
HIPPOLYTUS: Zeus, why did you establish women into the light of day
As an evil counterfeit for men?
For if you now wanted to seed the human race,
This shouldn’t have been provided from women,

§ 620  But in your temples people should have put in their place
Gold, iron or the weight of bronze,
To buy the seed of children. Each would be at the cost
Of their worth, and in their houses
They should live free without females.

§ 625  But as it is, intending to bring the evil first
Into our house, we completely exhaust the house’s wealth.
That is why it is clear that a woman is a great evil:
For the father who has sown and brought her up
Establishes a dowry to get rid of the evil.

§ 630  But the man who takes the ruinous shoot into his house
Delights in adding jewellery to his statue,
Beautiful jewellery to a most evil thing, and toils for her dresses,
Poor man, undermining his house’s wealth.
He has a fatal choice: either a man makes a good connection by marriage,

§ 635  And rejoicing in his in-laws he preserves for himself a bitter marriage,
Or a good marriage, and taking useless
Sons-in-law his misfortune presses upon the good.
It’s easiest for the man who has nothing, but useless
In her simplicity a wife just sits in the house.

§ 640  Clever women I hate: I wish there were not
In my house a woman who thinks more than she should.
Aphrodite produces more criminality
In clever women, but a helpless woman
Is removed from committing stupidity by her slender judgment.

§ 645  A servant should not pass in to see a woman,
But rather they should make them live with wild animals
In silence, where they would be unable to speak to anyone,
And not be able to receive other people’s voices in turn.
But as it is bad women indoors plot

§ 650  Bad things, and their servants bring these outside. (SCOWLING AT THE NURSE)
That’s how you have come here, vile creature,
To traffic in my father’s inviolable marriage-bed!
I will wipe this away with streams from springs,
Washing them into my ears. How could I be so vile,

§ 655  When even hearing about such things I think I am impure?
Rest assured, lady, it’s my piety that saves you.
For if I were not caught unbroken of the oaths of the gods,
I would never have held back from telling all of this to my father.
Now I’m going away from the house, while Theseus

§ 660  Is out of the country. I will keep my mouth shut.
But I will watch, when I go along with my father on foot,
How you and your mistress look at him ---
By tasting your boldness I will know.
May you be ruined! I will never exhaust my hatred

§ 665  Of women, not even if someone says I say it always.
For somehow or other they are always bad.
Let someone teach them to be chaste now,
Or allow me to always attack them! (EXIT HIPPOLYTUS)
PHAEDRA: Wretched and of ill fortune
Are the fates of women!

§ 670  What skill do I now have, or what
Words to untie the knot, now that I have fallen?
I have met with justice --- Oh Earth and Sunlight!
Where can I escape my fortune?
How am I to hide my pain, dear ladies?

§ 675  What god could appear to my aid, what
Person sitting beside me or helping me in my vile
Deeds? A suffering alongside me
Has come, one hard to escape from, to the other side of life.
I am the most ill-fortuned of women!

§ 680  CHORUS: Alas! It has been done, mistress --- your servant’s skills
Have not turned out right, but are in a bad way!
PHAEDRA: (TO THE NURSE)
You horrible woman, destroyer of your dear ones,
What have you done to me? May Zeus our father
Obliterate you root and branch by wounding you with lightning!

§ 685  Did I not tell you --- Didn’t I think ahead of your mind? ---
To keep silent about what I am now damaged by?
But you could not help yourself! Now I will die
With my good reputation gone! But I need new words!
For he, his heart sharpened in anger,

§ 690  Will tell his father your disobedience against me,
Will tell old Pittheus my misfortune,
And will fill the whole world with disgusting words!
I wish you would die, and whoever else is eager
To assist their dear ones, when they are unwilling, in ignoble deeds!

§ 695  NURSE: Mistress, you have a right to blame my bad actions ---
The sting you feel is overruling your power to discern.
But I too have something to say about this.
I nursed you and have your interests at heart. It was for your illness
That I sought a medicine, and found what I did not want.

§ 700  If I had been successful, I would certainly be counted among the wise;
For it is according to our fortunes that we obtain wisdom.
PHAEDRA: Can this be proper and enough for me,
That you wound me and then agree with what I have said?
NURSE: I was talking too long --- I didn't show self-control.

§ 705  But there is a way to be saved even from this, my child.
PHAEDRA: Stop talking! Before this you did not
Advise me well, but attempted bad actions.
Out of here, leave, and look
To yourself --- I will settle my affairs well. (EXIT NURSE. TO THE CHORUS)

§ 710  Noble daughters of Troezen,
Grant me this large favour I'm asking you:
Hide in silence whatever you have heard from here!
CHORUS: I swear by holy Artemis, Zeus’ daughter,
Never to reveal to the light any of your evils!

§ 715  PHAEDRA: Nobly said. But weighing towards this I have found
One thing out of this disaster,
For me to give my children a reputable life,
And myself benefit with regard to the current events.
I will never bring shame on the Cretan house,

§ 720  Nor come to Theseus’s face
With shameful deeds for the sake of my one life.
CHORUS: Are you intending to do something incurable and horrible?
PHAEDRA: Die. But how? --- that’s what I’ll be planning.
CHORUS: You have spoken well, you know.
PHAEDRA: Advise me well on that.

§ 725  But I’m going to delight Aphrodite, who is destroying me,
By departing from life today.
I will be defeated by bitter love.
However, I will become an evil thing to that other man
By my death, so that he may know not to be so high and mighty

§ 730  Over my suffering. By sharing in common
This illness of mine, he will learn to show self-control. (EXIT PHAEDRA)
CHORUS: I wish I were under a steep rock cavern
Where god would place
Me as a winged bird
Among the fluttering herds;

§ 735  I would be lifted up over the ocean
Wave of the Adriatic
Shore, and the waters of the river Eridanus,
Where into the purple swell
The wretched sisters of Phaethon

§ 740  In pity for him drip the amber-shining
Beams of their tears.
I wish I could reach the apple-seeded shore
Of the singing Hesperides,
Where the sea-ruler
Of the purple wave

§ 745  No longer grants passage to sailors,
Ordaining the sacred boundary
Of the sky, which Atlas upholds;
There ambrosial fountains flow,
Beside the beds in Zeus's chambers,

§ 750  Where the bliss-giving hallowed earth
Increases happiness for the gods.
White-winged Cretan
Vessel, you that over the ocean
Wave salt-struck of brine

§ 755  Conveyed my queen from her prosperous home,
To her ill-married benefit.
For from both sides with an evil omen she flew from the Cretan land

§ 760  To famous Athens, and on the shores of Mounichos they tied
The cables’ woven
Ends, and stepped onto the mainland.
Instead of which, with Aphrodite’s dread

§ 765  Illness of impure
Passion she was struck;
And being waterlogged with difficult misfortune, from her bridal
Roof hanging

§ 770  She will attach a noose and fit it around her white neck,
Feeling ashamed of the hateful goddess, choosing
Instead a story with a good reputation,

§ 775  And removing that painful passion from her mind.
NURSE: (FROM BEHIND THE STAGE)
Help! Help!
Everyone run here now!
Phaedra has hung herself!
CHORUS: A: Oh god, it is done then: the queen is no more,
Hanging in a noose.

§ 780  NURSE: Hurry! Someone bring a knife
So we can cut this knot from her neck!
CHORUS: B: Dear ladies, what should we do? Go into the house
And free the queen from the noose?
C: Why should we? Aren’t there young man-servants there?

§ 785  Meddling is not safe in life.
NURSE: Lift up and stretch out her wretched corpse ---
This is bitter house-keeping for my masters.
CHORUS: D: The lady is dead then, from what I hear:
They are already stretching her out as a corpse. (ENTER THESEUS)

§ 790  THESEUS: Ladies, do you know what this shouting is in the house?
A deep roar of servants reached my ears.
For the house has not seen fit to open its doors
And welcome me with good intention as one who is a sacred ambassador.
Has anything untoward happened to old Pittheus?

§ 795  Although he's already advanced in age, he would still
Cause us grief it he were to depart our house.
CHORUS: This event is not about old people,
Theseus: it’s the death of the young that pains us.
THESEUS: Alas! Is it my children’s life that has been stolen?

§ 800  CHORUS: They're still alive --- it’s their mother’s death that is most painful to you.
THESEUS: What do you mean? Is my wife dead? How?
CHORUS: She hung herself.
THESEUS: Because she was hardened with grief? Or was it from some circumstance?
CHORUS: That's all we know --- we too just now

§ 805  Arrived at the house to be a mourner of your calamity.
THESEUS: Oh god! Why is my head garlanded
With these woven leaves, an ill-fated sacred ambassador? (THROWS HIS GARLAND ON THE FLOOR)
Servants, loosen the bolts of the doors,
Untie the fastenings, so that I may see the bitter sight

§ 810  Of my wife, whose death has killed me!
CHORUS: A: Ah ah! Poor woman, your wretched evils!
You suffered, you committed
Such an act as to confound this house!
B: Oh oh! For your bravery! [or boldness]
Dying violently and because of an unholy

§ 815   Disaster, a wrestling-bout of your own wretched hand!
C: Who then, poor woman, has extinguished your life?
THESEUS: Alas for my pains! I have suffered, city,
The worst of all my evils! Misfortune,
How heavy you stand over me and my house,

§ 820  An unbreakable stain from some avenging spirit! [Alastor]
It has knocked me down, and made life unbearable.
Poor me, I can see an ocean of evils,
So great that I will never swim back again,

§ 825  Nor pass beyond the wave of this disaster.
What words, poor me, what fortune
Heavy-fated, lady, can I happen to address you with?
Like a bird you have disappeared from my hands,
Setting out in a sudden leap into Hades.

§ 830  Oh oh, terrible terrible are these sufferings!
From somewhere afar I am bringing back on myself
The fate of divinities because of the misdeeds
Of someone from long ago.
CHORUS: These horrible events, my lord, have not come to you alone,

§ 835  But along with many other men you have lost your shared bed.
THESEUS: I want to live below the earth, the earth,
In gloom, sharing in the darkness of death, poor me,
Since I have been robbed of your dearest companionship:
For you have killed me more than killed yourself!

§ 840  What deadly misfortune was it, and from where,
That came to your heart, wretched lady?
Can’t anyone tell me what happened? Or does the royal house
Roof over a useless crowd of my servants?
Alas for me, because of you,

§ 845  In my wretchedness, what pain in the house have I seen,
Unendurable and unspeakable! I am ruined,
My house is deserted, my children orphaned!
You have left behind, those whom you bore, left them, dear
Woman, best of all women whom the light

§ 850  Of the sun sees, and the star-faced
Brilliance of night!
CHORUS: Woe is me! Woe! The house has such a great evil!
My eyelids have tears
Poured over them, and are moistened by your misfortune.

§ 855  But I've long been shivering in fear for the pain that's to follow!
THESEUS: (SEES THE NOTE ON PHAEDRA’S HAND)
Aha!
What is this note attached
To her dear hand? Is she trying to tell me something new?
Did the poor woman write a letter,
Entreating me about our marriage and the children?

§ 860  Take heart, poor woman: there is no way that another woman
Will enter the marriage-bed and house of Theseus.
The impressions of the golden seal-stone
Of her who is dead are coaxing me!
Come, unwind the wrappings of the seal,
So that I can see what this note is trying to tell me!

§ 865  CHORUS: A: Ah no! God in turn is bringing this
Unexpected thing in succession! For me, certainly,
May the fate of a life not worth living come to me.
B: Ah no! I say that the house of my masters

§ 870   Is lost, and is no more!
CHORUS: God, if at all possible, do not make our house fall,
But listen to my prayer. For like a seer
I can see a bird of omen from some evil quarter.
THESEUS: (LOOKING AT THE NOTE)
Alas! This is some other horrible thing piled upon me!

§ 875  It's unbearable, unreadable! Woe is me!
CHORUS: What is it? Tell me, if it's something that can be put in words.
THESEUS: The note is shouting to me, shouting unforgettably! Where am I to escape
The weight of my misfortune? I'm going away to die,
Such a dirge have I seen uttered

§ 880  In writing, poor me!
CHORUS: Ah no, it's the beginning of evils, this tale you are revealing!
THESEUS: This thing I can no longer hold back in the gate
Of my mouth, difficult to pass through, a ruinous
Evil. Oh City!

§ 885  Hippolytus has dared to touch my marriage-bed
With violence, dishonouring the revered eye of Zeus!
Father Poseidon, with one of those
Three curses which you once promised me, undermine
My son! May he not escape this

§ 890  Day, if in fact you granted me those curses clearly!
CHORUS: Lord, take back your oath, by the gods!
You will find out at some stage that you are mistaken! Listen to me!
THESEUS: Impossible! On top of this I will drive him out of this country,
And he will be struck by either of two fates!

§ 895  For either Poseidon will send him dead
To the house of Hades, respecting my curses,
Or he will be exiled from this country, wandering
To a foreign land, and will bail out to the bottom a grievous life!
CHORUS: (SEEING HIPPOLYTUS APPROACHING)
Here is your son come at the right time,

§ 900  Hippolytus --- Give up your evil anger, lord
Theseus, and plant the best for your house! (ENTER HIPPOLYTUS)
HIPPOLYTUS: I heard your shouting and came here, father,
In a hurry. I don’t know what you are groaning
About, but I would like to hear about it from you.

§ 905  Well, what is it? I can see your wife, father,
Dead. This is worthy of the greatest shock.
Only just now I left her --- she was not long
Alive. (THESEUS REFUSES TO SPEAK)
What happened to her? How did she die?

§ 910  Father, I want to find this out from you!
You are silent --- this is no time for silence, in bad circumstances!
The heart that longs to hear everything
Is caught being acquisitive even in bad circumstances.
It is not right to hide from those dear to you,

§ 915  And even more than dear, your misfortune, father!
THESEUS: You people who have committed many errors in vain,
Why do you teach countless skills
And scheme at everything, and discover things,
But you do not understand or ever pursue one thing,

§ 920  Teaching thinking to those who have no sense?
HIPPOLYTUS: That’s a clever sophist you’re describing, who is capable
Of forcing people who do not think to think well!
But you're speaking too finely when you don’t need to, father ---
I fear that your tongue is going too far because of your suffering.

§ 925  THESEUS: Ah! There should be for mortals some clear token
Of their dear ones, and discrimination of their minds,
As to who is true and who is not a friend;
And all people should have two voices,
One impartial [or just], the other as it happened,

§ 930  So that the one that thinks of wrongdoing is found out
By the just one, and we wouldn't be deceived.
HIPPOLYTUS: Has someone been slandering me in your ear,
One of those close to me? Am I afflicted, though I'm not guilty of anything?
I'm astonished. Your words astound me,

§ 935  Veering and unseated from your mind!
THESEUS: Ah, the mortal mind! How far will it go?
What will be the limit of its boldness and audacity?
For if a man’s life will be boasted of,
And this later man will be a criminal of the former

§ 940  With regard to exaggeration, the gods will have to add
To this world another one, which will contain
Those who are by nature wrongdoers and bad! (POINTS AT HIPPOLYTUS WHILE LOOKING AT EVERYONE ELSE)
Now look at him! Although he’s from me,
He brought shame on my marriage-bed and is found out

§ 945  Manifestly by this dead woman to be utterly bad! (LOOKS AT HIPPOLYTUS, WHO IS HIDING HIS FACE IN HORROR)
Go on then, since you have come to this defilement,
Show your face here opposite your father!
You because you’re an exceptional man associate
With the gods? You chaste and virgin of evil?

§ 950  I for one would not be persuaded by your vaunts,
Imputing folly to the gods, by saying they think badly!
Keep boasting on now and go on peddling your diet
Of vegetarian food, and with Orpheus as your lord
Go wild and honour the vapours rising from many books!
Since you’ve been caught out! (LOOKS AT EVERYONE ELSE, POINTING TO HIPPOLYTUS)

§ 955  It’s people like these
That I say everyone should avoid! They go hunting
With high-sounding words, while scheming shameful acts! (LOOKS BACK AT HIPPOLYTUS, POINTING TO PHAEDRA)
She's dead --- Do you think that will save you?
That is exactly what you're most caught in, you monster!

§ 960  What oaths, what words could be stronger
Than this woman, for you to escape blame?
Now you will say that you hate her and that your bastardry, no doubt,
Is by nature hostile to those who are legitimate.
You say then that it is an evil passage [way] of life,

§ 965  If out of ill-will to you it destroys its dearest.
Are you saying that stupidity doesn’t exist in men,
But is [only] in women? (POINTS AT HIM TO THE AUDIENCE) I know these young men,
Who are no less unstable than women,
Whenever Aphrodite confuses their mind at its peak.

§ 970  Their masculinity benefits them, as an accomplice [lit. ‘lying with them’]!
But wait! Why are we contending in words about all this,
When this dead body (POINTING AT IT) is the clearest witness?
Get out of this country as fast as you can, an exile,
And don’t go to god-built Athens,

§ 975  Or to the borders of the country ruled by my spear.
For if after suffering I am to be defeated in this by you,
Isthmian Sinis will never be my witness
That I killed him, but will say that I am boasting in vain;
Nor will the rocks of Skiron near the sea

§ 980  Say that I come down heavy on those who are bad.
CHORUS: I don’t know how I could say that anyone
Is fortunate --- because what came first has all been turned back!
HIPPOLYTUS: Father, your anger and the disarray of your mind
Is terrible. But although the matter has fine words,

§ 985  If anyone were to unfold it, this is not fine.
I am unboasting to give an account to the crowd,
And with regard to my peers and to the few I am wiser.
This, too, has its portion [or fate]: for those among the wise
Who are paltry with the crowd, are more decorative at speaking.

§ 990  Nevertheless it is necessary, since this disaster has happened,
For me to unleash my tongue. I will begin with speaking about the first point,
Whence you first undermined me to slander me,
And I was not going to respond. You can see this light (LOOKS UP AT THE SUN)
And earth (LOOKS DOWN AT THE GROUND). Among these there is no man,

§ 995  Not even if you deny it, who is by nature more chaste [or pure] than I.
First of all I know how to revere the gods,
And to associate with people dear to me, who do not try to do me wrong,
But for whom there is reverence neither to announce evil things,
Nor to work shameful things under in return against those they associate with.

§ 1000  I am not a laughing stock of my companions, father,
But am close to my friends even when they are absent.
And I have had no contact with that one thing, by which you think I have been seized:
My body to this point of time is undefiled by sex.
I have no knowledge of this matter except for hearing about it,

§ 1005  And seeing it in pictures. I have no desire
To look into it, as I have a virginal mind. (THESEUS THROWS HIM A LOOK OF SCORN AND DISBELIEF)
So my virginity doesn’t persuade you --- let’s forget that.
I must show you how I was destroyed [or slandered]. (POINTING AT PHAEDRA’S CORPSE)
Was her body the most beautiful

§ 1010  Of all women? Did you expect that I was going to take
Her apportioned marriage-bed and live in your house?
No, that would have been useless, utterly senseless.
Are you saying that it’s a wonderful thing to be a ruler? To chaste people
It certainly isn’t, unless all who like monarchy

§ 1015  Have lost their minds [lit. ‘destroyed their minds’].
I would want to rule the Greek Games [lit. prevail in Hellenic contests]
First, and secondly in the city
Always be happy with my best [or aristocratic] friends.
For it is possible to act, and absent danger

§ 1020  Gives a greater benefit than kingship.
One thing to do with me has been spoken of, but the rest you have.
For if there were a witness as to the sort of person I am,
And I were competing with you while she was alive,
You would have seen in your examination who the bad people were.

§ 1025  But as it is, I swear on oath by Zeus and the foundations
Of the earth, that I never touched your marriage-bed,
Nor wanted to, nor seized upon the idea.
May I die, without an inheritance, a name,
A city or a home, a fugitive wandering the earth,

§ 1030  And may neither the sea nor the earth receive
My flesh when I am dead, if I am by nature a bad man. (LOOKING AT PHAEDRA’S CORPSE)
Whether it was out of fear that she destroyed my life,
I don’t know --- it’s not right for me to speak further.
She was chaste without having chastity:

§ 1035  But I who had it did not use it well.
CHORUS: You have deflected blame sufficiently,
By providing oaths of the gods, which is not a small measure of trust.
THESEUS: Isn’t this man a chanting conjurer,
Who is confident in his gentleness of temper

§ 1040  That he will conquer my mind, although he has dishonoured his parent?
HIPPOLYTUS: That’s exactly what surprises me about you, father ---
For if you were my son, and I your father,
I would have killed you and not punished you with exile,
If in fact I now thought that you had touched my wife.

§ 1045  THESEUS: How fittingly have you spoken! You will not die
The way you have laid down the law for yourself.
No, for swift Hades is easiest for a man in his misfortune:
Wandering as an exile from your father’s country
You will bail out your painful life in another land!

§ 1050  These are the wages of an impious man!
HIPPOLYTUS: Ah god! What will you do? Will you not even receive
The witness of Time from me, but drive me out of the country?
THESEUS: Yes, and beyond the Black Sea and the straits of Gibraltar [lit., the Atlantic places],
If somehow I were able --- because I hate the sight of you!

§ 1055  HIPPOLYTUS: Are you going to exile me without a judgment? Without examining
My oath or reliability, or the report of the seers?
THESEUS [POINTING AT THE LETTER]: This letter has no divinatory chanciness,
But condemns you reliably; as for those birds hovering
Over our heads, I bid them a long farewell!

§ 1060  HIPPOLYTUS: You gods, why do I not unleash my mouth,
I who am being ruined by you, whom I revered?
No indeed: I absolutely cannot persuade those whom I must,
And in vain would I pour forth the oaths that I swore.
THESEUS: Ah me! How your haughtiness is killing me!

§ 1065  Won’t you get out of your father’s country as quickly as you can?
HIPPOLYTUS: Where should I turn to in my wretchedness? What stranger’s
House will I enter, seeing as I'm an exile with this blame upon me?
THESEUS: To someone who delights in taking in strangers who are the destroyers
Of women, and who are the partners of evil!

§ 1070  HIPPOLYTUS: Oh no! This strikes me to the core! It brings me close to tears
If I seem to be bad, and am thought so by you!
THESEUS: You should have groaned and recognised that before,
When you dared to commit outrage on your father’s wife!
HIPPOLYTUS: [gestures at the walls around him]
You house, I wish your voice might speak for me,

§ 1075  And witness whether I am by nature a bad man!
THESEUS: You are wisely taking refuge in voiceless witnesses --- [POINTING AT THE CORPSE]
But this act, although mute, declares you to be bad!
HIPPOLYTUS: Ah!
I wish I could see myself standing
Opposite, so that I might weep at the terrible things I am suffering!

§ 1080  THESEUS: You practised worshipping yourself much more
Than being proper and acting piously to your parents!
HIPPOLYTUS: Wretched mother! Bitter generations!
I wish that none of my own family would ever be illegitimate!
THESEUS: [TO SERVANTS ON STAGE]
Servants --- won’t you drag him out of here? Can’t you hear

§ 1085  That he, who is publicly addressing me, is going abroad for a long time?
HIPPOLYTUS: [AS A SERVANT MOVES TOWARD HIM, HIPPOLYTUS THREATENS HIM]
One of them will pay for it if he touches me!
You throw me out of the country, if you’re angry!
THESEUS: I will, if you won’t obey me!
No pity of your exile steals under me!

§ 1090  HIPPOLYTUS: Your mind is made up, it seems. Woe is me!
I know this, but not what I will do. [TURNS TO STATUE OF ARTEMIS]
Dearest of the gods to me, Leto’s daughter!
You who sit and hunt with me! I am to be exiled from
Famous Athens. Farewell city

§ 1095  And land of Erechtheus! Troezenian earth, `
How much happiness you have, for me to spend my youth in!
Goodbye! This is the last time I will look at and address you! [TO HIS HUNTING ATTENDANTS]
Come, my young companions of this land,
Accompany me and send me forth from this country!

§ 1100  As you will never see any other man
More chaste, even if my father does not think so! [EXIT HIPPOLYTUS]

§ 1102  CHORUS: Concerns about the gods, when they come into my mind,
Are greatly removed by pain and understanding. What hope is there left,
Which is hidden, to see them in the changing circumstances and actions of mortals?
For some things change from one thing, others from another --- and a lifetime that always

§ 1110  Wanders a lot, takes a different position [ie, is unstable] for men.
I wish in answer to my prayer that fate would provide me from god
With circumstances accompanied by wealth and a heart that is virgin to pain!

§ 1115  May I have no opinion either inflexible, or counterfeit,
But changing my easy ways of life in future time, may I always
Share the fortune of my life.

§ 1120  I no longer have a pure [or clear] mind, but what I see is beyond expectation:
I saw, I saw, the most visible star of Hellanian Aphaia,
Because of his father’s anger,

§ 1125  Sent to another country.
You sands of our city’s shore,
You mountain thicket, where with
The swift-footed dogs he used to slay the wild beasts

§ 1130  Around holy Diktynna!
No longer will you mount upon a yoking of Enetian foals,
Holding down the wheel around the Sea [Limnai] with the hoof of his naked horse.

§ 1135  The music that never slept under the frame of the strings
Will cease about your father’s house.
Ungarlanded will be the resting-places of the daughter
Of Leto in the deep green wood.

§ 1140  The nymphs’ contest to be your bride has died
With your exile from their bed!
For your misfortune
I will endure with tears your fate
That is no fate! Poor mother,

§ 1145  Did you bear him to no avail? Alas!
I am grief-maddened by the gods.
Ah!
You company of Graces, why are you sending that poor man
Who is in no way guilty of destruction from his father’s land,

§ 1150  From this house?
Look! Here comes Hippolytus’s attendant,
Hurrying to the house with gloom on his face! (ENTER MESSENGER)
MESSENGER: Ladies --- Where in this country might I find king
Theseus? Please tell me if

§ 1155  You know. [points to the back of the stage] Is he inside the house?
CHORUS: Here he is coming out now. [ENTER THESEUS]
MESSENGER: Theseus, the story I bring is worth your concern,
To you and to the citizens who live in Athens
And within the borders of Troezen.

§ 1160  THESEUS: What is it? Has some unexpected disaster
Seized our two neighbouring cities?
MESSENGER: Hippolytus is nearly dead ---
His life is still hanging in the balance.
THESEUS: How? Was it caused by hostility with someone

§ 1165  Whose wife he had brought shame on, as he had his father’s, against her will?
MESSENGER: The household vehicle of his chariot has killed him,
Along with the curses from your mouth, which you brought
Upon your son from your father.
THESEUS: Oh gods, Poseidon! How proper a father you have been to me,

§ 1170  Because you listened to my prayers!
How did he die? Tell me, how did the trapdoor
Of Justice strike him, for having brought shame on me?
MESSENGER: We who were near the wave-receiving shore
Combing the hair of the horses with brushes,

§ 1175  Kept crying --- Some messenger had come to us saying
That Hippolytus would no longer turn back his foot
In this country, because he had obtained wretched exile at your hands.
Then he came with the same song of tears
To us on the shore; so many of his friends went

§ 1180  Following along with him, and a gathering of his peers.
Eventually at one point he spoke, after he had ceased from his groans:
“Why should I be distraught about this? I must obey my father’s words.
Servants, equip yoke-bearing horses
To a chariot --- this city is mine no more.”

§ 1185  Then every man hurried,
And faster than you could speak we set up
The harnessed horses next to him, our master.
With his hands he grabbed the reins from the chariot-rim,
After he had fastened his feet with shoes and all.

§ 1190  First of all he unfolded his hands to the gods:
“Zeus, if I have been a bad man, may I be one no longer.
I wish my father may see that he is dishonouring me,
Both when I am alive and dead.”
At this he brought the goad, after taking it in his hands,

§ 1195  Together to his foals --- and we servants under his chariot
And near the bit began following our master
Along the road directly from Argos and Epidaurus.
When we began entering a deserted place,
There is a certain beach lying beyond this land

§ 1200  Towards the Saronic Sea.
Then suddenly a roaring of the earth like Zeus’ thunder
Released a deep boom, something terrifying to hear ---
The horses lifted their heads and ears upright
To the sky --- for us there was a new fear

§ 1205  As to where this sound was coming from. Then looking straight
Toward the salt-roaring shore we saw the holy
Wave lifted up to the sky, so that my eye was removed
From the shore of Skiron,
And it hid the Isthmus and the rock of Asclepius.

§ 1210  Then they swelled up and round about moved
A great foam that plashed with a blustering of the sea
To the shore where the four-horsed chariot was.
With its very surge and swell
The wave put forth a bull, a wild monster.

§ 1215  The whole earth was filled with its bellowing,
And bellowed back our fear --- but then while we looked at it
A greater spectacle than that sight appeared.
Straight away a terror fell upon the horses.
Our master, well-acquainted

§ 1220  With horse-handling, snatched the reins into his hands.
And dragged them as a sailor does an oar,
Fastening his body back from the straps.
But they champed on their fiery bits with their jaws
And carried him against his will, paying no attention

§ 1225  To the sailor’s hand, or to the horse-bound or
Tight-glued chariot. But if he were going to correct his course,
Holding the tiller to the soft parts of the ground,
The bull appeared ahead of him, to his front, so as to turn him back,
Maddening the four-horse chariot with fear.

§ 1230  But if enraged in their mind they were to carry him towards the rocks,
He would follow approaching the chariot-rim in silence,
Until such time as he slipped and threw his head back,
Casting the chariot wheel against a stone.
Everything was thrown into confusion --- up leapt the holes

§ 1235  in the wheels, and the axle-pins,
But the poor man entangled in his own reins
Was dragged bound in indissoluble bonds ---
While pounding his body against the rocks
And shattering his flesh, he spoke these words that were terrible to hear:

§ 1240  “Stay, you who have been reared in my stables,
And do not ruin me. Oh wretched curse from father!
What person here wants to save the best man?”
There were many of us who wanted to, but we were lagging behind
With slow feet. He was freed from his bonds

§ 1245  By cutting the straps, and somehow fell,
Still breathing with only a little life left in him.
The horses vanished, as did the wretched portent
Of the bull to some place in that rocky land.
I know I’m only a slave of your house, my lord,

§ 1250  But I’ll never be able to believe so great a thing,
That your son is a bad person,
Not even if the whole race of women were to hang themselves,
And someone were to fill all the pine-trees on Ida
With writing --- since I understand that he is good.

§ 1255  CHORUS: Ah! A disaster of new evils has been fulfilled,
Nor is there an escape from fate and necessity.
THESEUS: Out of hatred for the man who has suffered this,
I did delight in your story, but now respecting
The gods and that man, who is my son,

§ 1260  I neither delight in these evils, nor am I annoyed at them.
MESSENGER: What are we to do then? Bring the poor man here?
What must we do to please your heart?
Think carefully: if you take my advice
You will not be cruel toward your son in his misfortune.

§ 1265  THESEUS: Bring him here, so that I may look him in the eyes,
That man who utterly denies he stained my bed,
And test him [or put him to shame] with my words and with the disasters from the gods.
CHORUS: Aphrodite, you carry along the unyielding hearts of gods
And mortals, and with you is

§ 1270  He of the many-coloured wings, who surrounds us
With his swift pinions.
He, Eros, hovers over the earth
And the loud-roaring salt sea,
And gold-appearing and winged bewitches

§ 1275  Whomever he goes against with their heart maddened ---
The whelps of mountain and ocean,
And all that the earth nourishes,
And that the blazing sun looks upon,

§ 1280  And men: you alone, Aphrodite,
Rule the queenly honour of all these. [ENTER ARTEMIS, CONSPICUOUS AS A GODDESS]
ARTEMIS: I call upon the noble son
Of Aigeus to hear me.

§ 1285  I say that I am Artemis, Leto’s daughter.
Theseus! Why are you, wretch, rejoicing
At having killed your son in an unholy way,
Having been persuaded by your wife’s false words
Of the invisible? You hold a visible destruction.

§ 1290  Why are you not hiding your body in shame
Under the earth in Tartarus?
Or winged above, exchanging your life,
Holding your foot above this pain?
As you do not deserve to obtain

§ 1295  A portion of life among good men!
Listen, Theseus, to the state of your evils.
I’m not going to clear away anything --- it will cause you pain.
But it has come to this, for me to reveal the just mind
Of your son, so that he may die with a good reputation,

§ 1300  And your wife’s wild passion, or in a way her
Nobility. For it was from Aphrodite, of all the gods the most hateful
To us all for whom pleasure is virginal,
That she was stung with goads and fell in love with your son.
Attempting in her judgement to overcome Aphrodite

§ 1305  She died unwillingly because of the stratagems of her nurse,
Who told your son, under oath, of the illness.
But he, as in fact was proper, did not follow through
With his words, nor in turn when he was being abused by you
Did he remove the pledge of his oath, as he is by nature pious.

§ 1310  But she, fearing that she would fall to being cross-examined,
Wrote a false message and killed
Your son with deception --- and yet persuaded you.
THESEUS: Oh no!
ARTEMIS: Does this story sting you, Theseus? Keep quiet,
When you hear what follows, so that you may groan even more.

§ 1315  Do you know that you have three clear curses from your father?
One of them you have used, you monster,
Against your son, rather than one of your enemies.
Your marine father, because he was well disposed to you,
Granted you as much as was necessary, if in fact he approved of it.

§ 1320  But you are revealed to be bad both in his eyes and mine ---
You didn’t wait either for the pledge or the voice
Of the seers, didn’t question anyone, did not over a long time
Provide an examination, but more quickly than you should have
Let loose your curses against your son and killed him.
THESEUS: My lady, I wish I were dead!

§ 1325  ARTEMIS: You have acted terribly, and yet
It is still possible for you to obtain forgiveness for all this.
Aphrodite wanted this to happen,
Fulfilling her anger. This is the custom among the gods:
No-one is willing to confront the zeal

§ 1330  Of another that wants something, but we always stand aside.
Since, be assured, it is not because I feared Zeus
That I would ever have come to this height of shame,
As to let the man that was dearest to me of all mortals
Die. But not knowing first

§ 1335  Your mistake absolves you of this evil.
And then, your wife by dying did away with
Verbal questioning, so as to persuade your mind.
These evils have erupted over you very greatly,
But are a grief to me as well --- when the pious

§ 1340  Die the gods do not rejoice; but those who are bad
To their children and homes we destroy.
CHORUS: Here he comes, the poor wretch,
His young skin and golden hair
Besmirched. What pain the house has!

§ 1345  What double grief has been ordained for it,
Seized upon by god! [ENTER HIPPOLYTUS, ON A STRETCHER]
HIPPOLYTUS: Ah! Poor me, by my unjust father
With unjust oracles I have been besmirched.

§ 1350  I am done for, wretched, alas!
The death-pangs are rushing through my head,
The spasms are leaping onto my brain!
Stop, so that I may rest my exhausted body! [LOOKS AT THE CHARIOT]

§ 1355  You hateful chariot of horses that were fed
From my hand,
You have destroyed and killed me!
Oh! By the gods, lay your hands, servants,
Gently on my wounded skin!
Lift me up properly, drag me with your muscles tensed,
I the ill-fortuned and cursed
By my father’s mistakes! Zeus, Zeus, do you see this?
Here I am, the haughty [or reverend] and devout,

§ 1360  Here I am, who surpassed everyone in chastity.
Going headlong to Hades from the highest point
After losing my life. I have toiled to no avail
At the toils of piety
With regard to mankind.

§ 1365  Ah!
The pain is coming to me now!
Let me go, my poor friends!
May Death the Healer come to me!
Kill me, kill the wretch that I am! ---

§ 1370  I long for a two-edged blade
To cut my life apart
And lay it to rest.
Wretched curse of my father!
Some bloody evil from ancient
Relatives born before me bursts its bounds, nor remains there,
But why did it ever come against me,
Who am in no way guilty of evil?
Ah me!

§ 1375  What am I to say? How am I to remove my life
So that it is without the pain of this suffering? May black
And gloomy necessity convey me,
Poor wretch, to Hades!
CHORUS: Poor man, what a disaster has entangled you!

§ 1380  The nobility of your mind has killed you.
HIPPOLYTUS: [looks up and lifts his face]
The breath of a divine perfume! Even in pain
I can perceive you, and my body is lifted up [or lightened]!
The goddess Artemis is here.
ARTEMIS: Poor man, she is, and for you the dearest of the gods!

§ 1390  HIPPOLYTUS: Can you see me, my lady, what I am like --- a wretch?
ARTEMIS: I can --- but it is not right [or lawful] for me to cast a tear from my eye.
HIPPOLYTUS: You no longer have a hunter or a servant ---
ARTEMIS: No --- but dear to me you die.
HIPPOLYTUS: Nor a horse-keeper or a guardian of your statues.

§ 1400  ARTEMIS: No, because that criminal Aphrodite schemed all this.
HIPPOLYTUS: Ah me! I now understand the divinity who destroyed me.
ARTEMIS: She found fault with your honour and hated your chastity.
HIPPOLYTUS: Aphrodite, I now see, destroyed the three of us!
ARTEMIS: Yes --- you, your father and his wife.

§ 1405  HIPPOLYTUS: I groan, then, for my father’s misfortune!
ARTEMIS: He was deceived by the plans of a divinity. [HIPPOLYTUS TURNS TO THESEUS, WHO HAS BEEN LISTENING THE WHOLE TIME]
HIPPOLYTUS: My poor father, what a disaster for you!
THESEUS: I am dead, my child --- there is no joy in life for me!
HIPPOLYTUS: I mourn for you, rather than for myself because of my mistake!

§ 1410  THESEUS: My child, if only I were dead instead of you!
HIPPOLYTUS: How bitter were the gifts of your father Poseidon!
THESEUS: They ought never have come into my mouth.
HIPPOLYTUS: Why not? You would still have killed me, you were that enraged.
THESEUS: I have slipped from my judgement, because of the gods.
HIPPOLYTUS: Ah!

§ 1415  I wish that the human race would curse the gods!
ARTEMIS: Enough! Not even under the darkness of the earth
Will the fury of the goddess Aphrodite from her zeal
Swoop down upon your body unavenged,
For the sake of your piety and good mind.

§ 1420  For I will take vengeance on another, one of hers, with my own
Hand, whoever happens to be the dearest to her of mortals, [POINTS TO HER BOW AND ARROW] With these inescapable arrows.
But to you, poor wretch, for this suffering
I will grant enormous honours in the city

§ 1425  Of Troezen: young women unyoked before marriage
Will cut their hair for you, who for a long age
Will harvest a huge grief of tears.
For all time there will be a music-making care

§ 1430  Of unmarried women [or virgins] towards you, and Phaedra’s love for you
Will not fall nameless and be silent. [TURNING TO THESEUS]
Now you, child of old Aigeus, take
Your son in your arms and embrace him:
You killed him involuntarily [or innocently], and when the gods
Are willing, it is usual for people to go astray. [TO HIPPOLYTUS]

§ 1435  Hippolytus, I advise you not to hate
Your father --- you possess the fate by which you were killed.
Farewell --- for it is not lawful for me to see the dead,
Nor to taint my eyes with the last breaths of people.
Already I see that you are near this evil. [EXIT ARTEMIS]

§ 1440  HIPPOLYTUS: Farewell and go, glorious virgin --- [BITTERLY]
You leave our long association so easily.
I am leaving off my quarrel with my father, because you wish it:
Before, as well, I heeded your words.
Ah! Darkness is already coming down over my eyes!

§ 1445  Father, take hold of me! Straighten my body!
THESEUS: Oh my son, why are you doing this to me in my wretchedness!
HIPPOLYTUS: I am dying --- I can see the gates of the dead!
THESEUS: Are you going to leave my hands defiled [ie. with blood]?
HIPPOLYTUS: No --- I free you of this murder.

§ 1450  THESEUS: What do you mean? Are you releasing me free of this blood?
HIPPOLYTUS: I call Artemis the archer as my witness.
THESEUS: My darling son, how noble you are to your father!

§ 1455  HIPPOLYTUS: Boast to obtain legitimate children like this!
THESEUS: Alas for your pious and good mind!
HIPPOLYTUS: Farewell to you also, a long farewell from me, father! [also: Be very happy for me, father]
THESEUS: Don’t leave me, son --- be strong!
HIPPOLYTUS: My affairs are strong --- I am dying, father.
Hide my face as quickly as you can in my robe.
THESEUS: Famous borders of Aphaia and Pallas,

§ 1460  What a man you have lost! Poor me!
How often, Aphrodite, will I remember your evils!
CHORUS: This pain was shared by all the citizens
And came unexpectedly.
There will be a shower of tears:

§ 1465  For worthy of pain, the tales
Of the great spread abroad more.