Æschylos Tragedies and Fragments. Aeschylus

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Название Æschylos Tragedies and Fragments
Автор произведения Aeschylus
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prosperous city honours well the Gods. [Exit.

Enter Chorus of Theban Maidens in solemn processionas suppliants

      Chor. I in wild terror utter cries of woe;

      An army leaves its camp and is let loose:

      Hither the vanguard of the horsemen flows,

      And the thick cloud of dust,

      That suddenly is seen,

      Dumb herald, yet full clear,

      Constrains me to believe;

      And smitten with the horses' hoofs, the plain

      Of this my country rings with noise of war;

      It floats and echoes round,

      Like voice of mountain torrent dashing down

      Resistless in its might.

      Ah Gods! Ah Goddesses!

      Ward off the coming woe.

      With battle-shout that rises o'er the walls,

      The host whose shields are white78

      Marches in full array against our city.

      Who then, of all the Gods

      Or Goddesses, will come to help and save?

      Say, shall I fall before the shrines of Gods?

      O blessed Ones firm fixed!

      'Tis time to clasp your sacred images.

      Why linger we in wailing overmuch?

      Hear ye, or hear ye not, the din of shields?

      When, if not now, shall we

      Engage in prayer with peplos and with boughs?79

      I hear a mighty sound; it is the din

      Not of a single spear.

      O Ares! ancient guardian of our land!

      What wilt thou do? Wilt thou betray thy land?

      O God of golden casque,

      Look on our city, yea, with favour look,

      The city thou did'st love.

      And ye, ye Gods who o'er the city rule,

      Come all of you, come all.

      Behold the band of maidens suppliant,

      In fear of bondage foul;

      For now around the town

      The wave of warriors bearing slopèd crests,

      With blasts of Ares rushing, hoarsely sounds:

      But thou, O Zeus! true father of us all,

      Ward off, ward off our capture by the foe.

Strophe I

      For Argives now surround the town of Cadmos,

      And dread of Ares' weapons falls on us;

      And, bound to horses' mouths,

      The bits and curbs ring music as of death;

      And seven chief rulers of the mighty host,

      With warriors' arms, at each of seven tall gates,

      Spear-armed and harnessed all,

      Stand, having cast their lots.

· · · · ·Mesode

      And thou, O Zeus-born power in war delighting,

      O Pallas! be our city's saviour now;

      And Thou who curb'st the steed,

      Great King of Ocean's waves,

      Poseidon, with thy trident fish-spear armed,80

      Give respite from our troubles, respite give!

      And Thou, O Ares, guard the town that takes

      Its name from Cadmos old,81

      Watch o'er it visibly.

Antistrophe I

      And thou, O Kypris, of our race the mother,

      Ward off these ills, for we are thine by blood:

      To thee in many a prayer,

      With voice that calls upon the Gods we cry,

      And unto thee draw near as suppliants:

      And Thou, Lykeian king, Lykeian be,82

      Foe of our hated foes,

      For this our wailing cry;

      And Thou, O child of Leto, Artemis,

      Make ready now thy bow.

Strophe II

      Ah! ah! I hear a din of chariot wheels

      Around the city walls;

      O Hera great and dread!

      The heavy axles of the chariots groan,

      O Artemis beloved!

      And the air maddens with the clash of spears;

      What must our city bear?

      What now shall come on us?

      When will God give the end?

Antistrophe II

      Ah! ah! a voice of stones is falling fast

      On battlements attacked;83

      O Lord, Apollo loved,

      A din of bronze-bound shields is in the gates;

      And oh! that Zeus may give

      A faultless issue of this war we wage!

      And Thou, O blessed queen,

      As Guardian Onca known,84

      Save thy seven-gated seat.

Strophe III

      And ye, all-working Gods,

      Of either sex divine,

      Protectors of our towers,

      Give not our city, captured by the spear,

      To host of alien speech.85

      Hear ye our maidens; hear,

      As is most meet, our prayers with outstretched hands.

Antistrophe III

      O all ye loving Powers,

      Compass our State to save;

      Show how that State ye love;

      Think on our public votive offerings,

      And as ye think, oh, help:

      Be mindful ye, I pray,

      Of all our city's rites of sacrifice.

Re-enter Eteocles

      Eteoc. (to the Chorus) I ask you, O ye brood intolerable,

      Is this course best and safest for our city?

      Will it give heart to our beleaguered host,

      That ye before the forms of guardian Gods

      Should wail and howl, ye loathèd of the wise;86

      Ne'er be it mine, in ill estate or good,

      To dwell together with the race of women;

      For when they rule, their daring bars approach,

      And when they fear, alike to house and State

      Comes greater ill; and now with these your rushings

      Hither



<p>78</p>

The characteristic feature of the Argive soldiers was, that they bore a shield painted white (comp. Sophocles, Antig. v. 114). The leaders alone appear to have embellished this with devices and mottoes.

<p>79</p>

In solemn supplications, the litanies of the ancient world, especially in those to Pallas, the suppliants carried with them in procession the shawl or peplos of the Goddess, and with it enwrapt her statue. To carry boughs of trees in the hands was one of the uniform, probably indispensable, accompaniments of such processions.

<p>80</p>

The words recall our thoughts to the original use of the trident, which became afterwards a symbol of Poseidon, as employed by the sailors of Hellas to spear or harpoon the larger fish of the Archipelago. Comp. Pers. v. 426, where the slaughter of a defeated army is compared to tunny-fishing.

<p>81</p>

Cadmos, probably “the man from the East,” the Phœnikian who had founded Thebes, and sown the dragon's seed, and taught men a Semitic alphabet for the non-Semitic speech of Hellas.

<p>82</p>

Worthy of his name as the Wolf-destroyer, mighty to destroy his foes.

<p>83</p>

Possibly “from battlements attacked.” In the primitive sieges of Greek warfare stones were used as missiles alike by besieged and besiegers.

<p>84</p>

The name of Onca belonged especially to the Theban worship of Pallas, and was said to have been of Phœnikian origin, introduced by Cadmos. There seems, however, to have been a town Onkæ in Bœotia, with which the name was doubtless connected.

<p>85</p>

“Alien,” on account of the difference of dialect between the speech of Argos and that of Bœotia, though both were Hellenic.

<p>86</p>

The vehemence with which Eteocles reproves the wild frenzied wailing of the Chorus may be taken as an element of the higher culture showing itself in Athenian life, which led Solon to restrain such lamentations by special laws (Plutarch, Solon, c. 20). Here, too, we note in Æschylos an echo of the teaching of Epimenides.