by Euripides
CHOR. Be not at all insolent, nor, in thy calamities, thus comprehending the female sex, abuse them all. For of us there are many, some indeed are envied for their virtues, but some are by nature in the catalogue of bad things.
HEC. Agamemnon, it never were fitting among men that the tongue should have greater force than actions. But if a man has acted well, well should he speak; if on the other hand basely, his words likewise should be unsound, and never ought he to be capable of speaking unjust things well. Perhaps indeed they who have brought these things to a pitch of accuracy are accounted wise, but they can not endure wise unto the end, but perish vilely, nor has any one yet escaped this. And this in my prelude is what I have to say to thee. Now am I going to direct my discourse to this man, and I will answer his arguments. Thou, that assertest, that in order to rid the Greeks of their redoubled toil, and for Agamemnon’s sake that thou didst slay my son? But, in the first place, monstrous villain, never can the race of barbarians be friendly to the Grecians, never can this take place. But what favor wert thou so eagerly currying? wert thou about to contract an alliance, or was it that thou wert of kindred birth, or what pretext hadst thou? or were they about to ravage the crops of thy country, having sailed thither again? Whom, thinkest thou, wilt thou persuade of these things? The gold, if thou wert willing to speak truth, the gold destroyed my son, and thy base gains. For come, tell me this; how when Troy was prosperous, and a tower yet girt around the city, and Priam lived, and the spear of Hector was in its glory, why didst thou not then, if thou wert willing to lay him under this obligation, bringing up my child, and retaining him in thy palace, why didst thou not then slay him, or go and take him alive to the Greeks? But when we were no longer in the light of prosperity, and the city by its smoke showed that it was in the power of the enemy, thou slewest thy guest who had come to thy hearth. Now hear besides how thou wilt appear vile: thou oughtest, if thou wert the friend of the Greeks, to have given the gold, which thou confessedst thou hast, not thine, but his, distributing to those who were in need, and had long been strangers to their native land. But thou, even now, hast not courage to part with it from thy hand, but having it, thou still art keeping it close in thine house. And yet, in bringing up my child, as it was thy duty to bring him up, and in preserving him, thou hadst had fair honor. For in adversity friends are most clearly proved good. But good circumstances have in every case their friends. But if thou wert in want of money, and he in a flourishing condition, my son had been to thee a vast treasure; but now, thou neither hast him for thy friend, and the benefit from the gold is gone, and thy sons are gone, and thou art — as thou art. But to thee, Agamemnon, I say; if thou aidest this man, thou wilt appear to be doing wrong. For thou wilt be conferring a benefit on a host, who is neither pious, nor faithful to those to whom he ought, not holy, not just. But we shall say that thou delightest in the bad, if thus thou actest: but I speak no offense to my lords.
CHOR. Ah! Ah! How do good deeds ever supply to men the source of good words!
AGA. Thankless my office to decide on others’ grievances; but still I must, for it brings disgrace on a man, having taken a thing in hand, to give it up. But to me, be assured, thou neither appearest for my sake, nor for the sake of the Grecians, to have killed this man thy guest, but that thou mightest possess the gold in thy palace. But thou talkest of thy advantage, when thou art in calamities. Perhaps with you it is a slight thing to kill your guests; but with us Grecians this thing is abhorred. How then, in giving my decision that thou hast not injured, can I escape blame? I can not; but as thou hast dared to do things dishonorable, endure now things unpleasant.
POLY. Alas me! worsted, as it seems, by a woman who is a slave, I shall submit to the vengeance of my inferiors.
AGA. Will it not then be justly, seeing thou hast acted wrong?
POLY. Alas me! wretched on account of these children and on account of my eyes.
HEC. Thou sufferest? but what do I? Thinkest thou I suffer not for my child?
POLY. Thou rejoicest in insulting me, O thou malicious woman.
HEC. For ought not I to rejoice on having avenged myself on thee?
POLY. But thou wilt not soon, when the liquid wave —
HEC. Shall bear me, dost thou mean, to the confines of the Grecian land?
POLY. — shall cover thee, having fallen from the shrouds.
HEC. From whom meeting with this violent leap?
POLY. Thyself shalt climb with thy feet up the ship’s mast.
HEC. Having wings on my back, or in what way?
POLY. Thou shalt become a dog with a fiery aspect.
HEC. But how dost thou know of this my metamorphose?
POLY. Dionysius the Thracian prophet told it me.
HEC. But did he not declare to thee any of the evils which thou sufferest?
POLY. No: for, if he had, thou never wouldst thus treacherously have taken me.
HEC. Thence shall I conclude my life in death, or still live on?
POLY. Thou shalt die. But the name of thy tomb shall be —
HEC. Dost thou speak of it as in any way correspondent to my shape?
POLY. The tomb of the wretched dog, a mark to mariners.
HEC. I heed it not, since thou at least hast felt my vengeance.
POLY. And it is fated too for thy daughter Cassandra to die.
HEC. I renounce these prophecies; I give them for thyself to bear.
POLY. Him shall his wife slay, a cruel guardian of his house.
HEC. Never yet may the daughter of Tyndarus have arrived at such madness.
POLY. Even this man himself, having lifted up the axe.
AGA. What ho! thou art mad, and art desirous of obtaining greater ills.
POLY. Kill me, for the murderous bath at Argos awaits thee.
AGA. Will ye not, slaves, forcibly drag him from my presence?
POLY. Thou art galled at what thou hearest.
AGA. Will ye not stop his mouth?
POLY. Stop it: for the word is spoken.
AGA. Will ye not as quick as possible cast him out on some desert island, since he is thus, and past endurance insolent? But do thou, wretched Hecuba, go and bury thy two dead: and you, O Trojan dames, must approach your masters’ tents, for I perceive that the gales are favorable for wafting us to our homes. And may we sail in safety to our native country, and behold our household and families in prosperity, having found rest from these toils.
CHOR. Come, my friends, to the harbor, and the tents, to undergo the tasks imposed by our masters. For necessity is relentless.
THE SUPPLIANTS
Translated by Edward P. Coleridge
First performed in 423 BC, The Suppliants concerns the disputes over the burial rites of the dead invaders, following the unsuccessful Seven Against Thebes campaign, when Creon had taken power in Thebes and decreed that they should not be buried. As the play opens, Aethra, the mother of the Athenian king Theseus, prays before the altar of Demeter and Persephone in Eleusis. She is surrounded by women from Argos whose sons also died in battle outside the gates of Thebes. Due to Creon’s decree, their corpses remain unburied. Adrastus, the king of Argos who authorised the failed expedition, lies weeping on the floor surrounded by the sons of the slain warriors. Aethra has sent a messenger to Theseus asking him to come to Eleusis. The old women beg Aethra for help, evoking images of their sons’ unburied bodies and appealing to her sympathy as a mother. Theseus arrives and as he asks his mother what is going on, she directs him to Adrastus, who begs him to reclaim the bodies. Adrastus explains that he supported the attack on Thebes, against the advice of the seer Amphiaraus, in deference to his sons-in-law, Tydeus and Polyneices. Theseus observes that he favoured courage over discretion. Admitting his mistakes, Adrastus appeals to Theseus as the ruler of the only city with the integrity and the power to stand up to Thebes.
Although to modern readers the theme of the play may not seem as important as it would have to Euripides’ contemporaries, the adherence to strict funera
l rites was very important to people in the ancient world. Relatives were anxious to ensure their loved ones had a ‘safe crossing’ to the underworld. The Iliad contains scenes of people fighting over corpses, such as that of Patroclus. People are willing to fight and risk dying to obtain the bodies of the dead. The Suppliants takes this concept even farther, depicting a whole city willing to wage war to retrieve the bodies of these strangers. The theme of not allowing the bodies of the dead to be buried occurs many times throughout ancient Greek literature. Examples include the body of Hector as portrayed in The Iliad, the body of Ajax as portrayed in the play Ajax by Sophocles, and the myth of the children of Niobe.
CONTENTS
CHARACTERS IN THE PLAY
THE SUPPLIANTS
CHARACTERS IN THE PLAY
AETHRA, mother of THESEUS
CHORUS OF ARGIVE MOTHERS
THESEUS, King of Athens
ADRASTUS, King of Argos
HERALD, of Creon, King of Thebes
MESSENGER
EVADNE, wife of Capaneus
IPHIS, father of EVADNE
CHILDREN of the slain chieftains
ATHENA
Guards, attendants, soldiers
THE SUPPLIANTS
(SCENE:-Before the temple of Demeter at Eleusis. On the steps of the great altar is seated AETHRA. Around her, in the garb of suppliants, is the CHORUS OF ARGIVE MOTHERS. ADRASTUS lies on the ground before the altar, crushed in abject grief. The CHILDREN of the slain chieftains stand nearby. Around the altar are the attendants of the goddess.)
AETHRA O DEMETER, guardian of this Eleusinian land, and ye servants of the goddess who attend her fane, grant happiness to me and my son Theseus, to the city of Athens and the country of Pittheus, wherein my father reared me, Aethra, in a happy home, and gave me in marriage to Aegeus, Pandion’s son, according to the oracle of Loxias. This prayer I make, when I behold these aged dames, who, leaving their homes in Argos, now throw themselves with suppliant branches at my knees in their awful trouble; for around the gates of Cadmus have they lost their seven noble sons, whom on a day Adrastus, king of Argos, led thither, eager to secure for exiled Polyneices, his son-in-law, a share in the heritage of Oedipus; so now their mothers would bury in the grave the dead, whom the spear hath slain, but the victors prevent them and will not allow them to take up the corpses, spurning Heaven’s laws. Here lies Adrastus on the ground with streaming eye, sharing with them the burden of their prayer to me, and bemoaning the havoc of the sword and the sorry fate of the warriors whom he led from their homes. And he doth urge me use entreaty, to persuade my son to take up the dead and help to bury them, either by winning words or force of arms, laying on my son and on Athens this task alone. Now it chanced, that I had left my house and come to offer sacrifice on behalf of the earth’s crop at this shrine, where first the fruitful corn showed its bristling shocks above the soil. And here at the holy altars of the twain goddesses, Demeter and her daughter, I wait, holding these sprays of foliage, a bond that bindeth not, in compassion for these childless mothers, hoary with age, and from reverence for the sacred fillets. To call Theseus hither is my herald to the city gone, that he may rid the land of that which grieveth them, or loose these my suppliant bonds, with pious observance of the gods’ will; for such as are discreet amongst women should in all cases invoke the aid of men.
CHORUS (chanting) At thy knees I fall, aged dame, and my old lips beseech thee; arise, rescue from the slain my children’s bodies, whose limbs, by death relaxed, are left a prey to savage mountain beasts,
Beholding the bitter tears which spring to my eyes and my old wrinkled skin torn by my hands; for what can I do else? who never laid out my children dead within my halls, nor now behold their tombs heaped up with earth.
Thou too, honoured lady, once a son didst bear, crowning thy lord’s marriage with fond joy; then share, O share with me thy mother’s feelings, in such measure as my sad heart grieves for my own dead sons; and persuade thy son, whose aid we implore, to go unto the river Ismenus, there to place within my hapless arms the bodies of my children, slain in their prime and left without a tomb.
Though not as piety enjoins, yet from sheer necessity I have come to the fire-crowned altars of the gods, falling on my knees with instant supplication, for my cause is just, and ’tis in thy power, blest as thou art in thy children, to remove from me my woe; so in my sore distress I do beseech thee of my misery place in my hands my son’s dead body, that I may throw my arms about his hapless limbs.
(The attendants of the goddess take up the lament.)
Behold a rivalry in sorrow! woe takes up the tale of woe; hark! thy servants beat their breasts. Come ye who join the mourners’ wail, come, O sympathetic band, to join the dance, which Hades honours; let the pearly nail be stained red, as it rends your cheeks, let your skin be streaked with gore; for honours rendered to the dead are credit to the living.
Sorrow’s charm doth drive me wild, insatiate, painful, endless, even as the trickling stream that gushes from some steep rock’s face; 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
(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 gotted some mischance, in quest of whom I come, for she hath been long absent from home. Ha! 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; thy head, let lamentation be, and speak; for naught can be achieved save through the utterance of thy tongue.
ADRASTUS (rising) Victorious prince of the Athenian realm, Theseus, to thee and to thy city I, a suppliant, come.
THESEUS What seekest thou? What need is thine?
ADRASTUS Dost know how I did lead an expedition to its ruin?
THESEUS Assuredly; thou didst not pass through Hellas, all in silence.
ADRASTUS There I lost the pick of Argos’ sons.
THESEUS These are the results of that unhappy war.
ADRASTUS I went and craved their bodies from Thebes.
THESEUS Didst thou rely on heralds, Hermes’ servants, in order to bury them?
ADRASTUS I did; and even then their slayers said me nay.
THESEUS Why, what say they to thy just request?
ADRASTUS Say! Success makes them forget how to bear their fortune.
THESEUS Art come to me then for counsel? or wherefore?
ADRASTUS With the wish that thou, O Theseus, shouldst recover the sons of the Argives.
THESEUS Where is your Argos now? were its vauntings all in vain?
ADRASTUS Defeat and ruin are our lot. To thee for aid we come.
THESEUS Is this thy own private resolve, or the wish of all the city?
ADRASTUS The sons of Danaus, one and all, implore thee to bury the dead.
THESEUS Why didst lead thy seven armies against Thebes?
ADRASTUS To confer that favour
on the husbands of my daughters twain.
THESEUS To which of the Argives didst thou give thy daughters in marriage?
ADRASTUS I made no match for them with kinsmen of my family.
THESEUS What! didst give Argive maids to foreign lords?
ADRASTUS Yea, to Tydeus, and to Polyneices, who was Theban-born
THESEUS What induced thee to select this alliance?
ADRASTUS Dark riddles of Phoebus stole away my judgment.
THESEUS What said Apollo to determine the maidens’ marriage?
ADRASTUS That I should give my daughters twain to a wild boar and a lion.
THESEUS How dost thou explain the message of the god?
ADRASTUS One night came to my door two exiles.
THESEUS The name of each declare: thou art speaking of both together.
ADRASTUS They fought together, Tydeus with Polyneices.
THESEUS Didst thou give thy daughters to them as to wild beasts?
ADRASTUS Yea, for, as they fought, I likened them to those monsters twain.
THESEUS Why had they left the borders of their native land and come to thee?
ADRASTUS Tydeus was exiled for the murder of a kinsman.
THESEUS Wherefore had the son of Oedipus left Thebes?
ADRASTUS By reason of his father’s curse, not to spill his brother’s blood.
THESEUS Wise no doubt that voluntary exile.
ADRASTUS But those who stayed at home were for injuring the absent.