Sophocles' TRACHINIAE Complete

Translated by R. Jebb.

Sophocles Bilingual Anthology  Studies  Sophocles in Print

57 Pages

Page 31

But as I was going back into the house, I beheld a thing too wondrous
for words, and passing the wit of man to understand. I happened to
have thrown the shred of wool, with which I bad been preparing the
robe, into the full blaze of the sunshine. As it grew warm, it shrivelled
all away, and quickly crumbled to powder on the ground, like nothing
so much as the dust shed from a saw's teeth where men work timber.
In such a state it lies as it fell. And from the earth, where it was
strewn, clots of foam seethed up, as when the rich juice of the blue
fruit from the vine of Bacchus is poured upon the ground.

So I know not, hapless one, whither to turn my thoughts; I only see
that I have done a fearful deed. Why or wherefore should the monster,
in his death-throes, have shown good will to me, on whose account
he was dying? Impossible! No, he was cajoling me, in order to slay
the man who had smitten him: and I gain the knowledge of this too
late, when it avails no more. Yes, I alone- unless my foreboding prove
false- I, wretched one, must destroy him! For I know that the arrow
which made the wound did scathe even to the god Cheiron; and it kills
all beasts that it touches. And since 'tis this same black venom in
the blood that hath passed out through the wound of Nessus, must it
not kill my lord also? I ween it must.

Howbeit, I am resolved that, if he is to fall, at the same time I
also shall be swept from life; for no woman could bear to live with
an evil name, if she rejoices that her nature is not evil.

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