Sophocles' TRACHINIAE Complete

Translated by R. Jebb.

Sophocles Bilingual Anthology  Studies  Sophocles in Print

57 Pages

Page 12

Lichas: Not so: the greater part of the time he was detained in Lydia,-
no free man, as he declares, but sold into bondage. No offence should
attend on the word, lady, when the deed is found to be of Zeus. So
he passed a whole year, as he himself avows, in thraldom to Omphale
the barbarian. And so stung was he by that reproach, he bound himself
by a solemn oath that he would one day enslave, with wife and child,
the man who had brought that calamity upon him. Nor did he speak the
word in vain; but, when he bad been purged, gathered an alien host,
and went against the city of Eurytus. That man, he said, alone of
mortals, had a share in causing his misfortune. For when Heracles,
an old friend, came to his house and hearth, Eurytus heaped on him
the taunts of a bitter tongue and spiteful soul,- saying, 'Thou hast
unerring arrows in thy hands, and yet my sons surpass thee in the
trial of archery'; 'Thou art a slave,' he cried, 'a free man's broken
thrall': and at a banquet, when his guest was full of wine, he thrust
him from his doors.

Wroth thereat, when afterward Iphitus came to the hill of Tiryns,
in search for horses that had strayed, Heracles seized a moment when
the man's wandering thoughts went not with his wandering gaze, and
hurled him from a tower-like summit. But in anger at that deed, Zeus
our lord, Olympian sire of all, sent him forth into bondage, and spared
not, because, this once, he had taken a life by guile. Had he wreaked
his vengeance openly, Zeus would surely have pardoned him the righteous
triumph; for the gods, too, love not insolence.

So those men, who waxed so proud with bitter speech, are themselves
in the mansions of the dead, all of them, and their city is enslaved;
while the women whom thou beholdest, fallen from happiness to misery,
come here to thee; for such was thy lord's command, which I, his faithful
servant, perform. He himself, thou mayest be sure,- so soon as he
shall have offered holy sacrifice for his victory to Zeus from whom
he sprang,- will be with thee. After all the fair tidings that have
been told, this, indeed, is the sweetest word to hear.

Previous Page / First / Next Page of Trachiniae

Sophocles Home Page ||| Elpenor's Free Greek Lessons
Aeschylus ||| Euripides

Reference address : https://www.ellopos.net/elpenor/greek-texts/ancient-greece/sophocles/trachiniae.asp?pg=12