The Trachiniae

 The Trachiniae Characters in the Play

 [ Scene:- At Trachis, before the house of Heracles .

 Deianeira THERE is a saying among men, put forth of old, that thou canst not rightly judge whether a mortal's lot is good or evil, ere he die. But I,

 [ Hyllus comes in from the side. ]

 Deianeira My child, my son, wise words may fall, it seems, from humble lips this woman is a slave, but hath spoken in the spirit of the free.

 [ A Messenger enters. ]

 Messenger Queen Deianeira, I shall be the first of messengers to free thee from fear. Know that Alcmena's son lives and triumphs, and from battle brin

 [ Iole maintains her silence. ]

 Lichas It will be unlike her former behaviour, then, I can tell thee, if she opens her lips: for she hath not uttered one word, but hath ever been tra

 [ Enter Lichas ]

 Lichas Lady, what message shall I bear to Heracles? Give me thy commands, for, as thou seest, I am going.

 [ Exit Messenger , as Lichas Deianeira ]

 Chorus [ singing

 [ Lichas enters from the house. ]

 Lichas What are thy commands? Give me my charge, daughter of Oeneus for already I have tarried over long.

 [ Lichas departs with the casket and Deianeira ]

 Chorus [ Singing

 [ Deianeira comes out of the house in agitation. ]

 Deianeira Friends, how I fear that I may have gone too far in all that I have been doing just now!

 [ Enter Hyllus ]

 Hyllus O mother, would that one of three things had befallen thee! Would that thou wert dead, - or, if living, no mother of mine, - or that some new a

 [ Deianeira moves towards the house. ]

 Leader [ to Deianeira

 [ Deianeira goes in the house. ]

 Hyllus Let her depart. A fair wind speed her far from my sight! Why should the name of mother bring her a semblance of respect, when she is all unlike

 [ Exit Hyllus , into the house. ]

 Chorus [ singing

 [ Enter Nurse , from the house. ]

 Nurse Ah, my daughters, great, indeed, were the sorrows that we were to reap from the gift sent to Heracles!

 [ Enter Hyllus and an Old Man Heracles ]

 Hyllus Woe is me for thee, my father, woe is me for thee, wretched that I am! Whither shall I turn? What can I do? Ah me!

 [ The attendants raise Heracles on the litter and move slowly off, as Hyllus Chorus ]

 No man foresees the future but the present is fraught with mourning for us, and with shame for the powers above, and verily with anguish beyond compa

Chorus [Singing]

strophe 1

O ye who dwell by the warm springs between haven and crag, and by Oeta's heights; O dwellers by the land-locked waters of the Malian sea, on the shore sacred to the virgin-goddess of the golden shafts, where the Greeks meet in famous council at the Gates;

antistrophe 1

Soon shall the glorious voice of the flute go up for you again, resounding with no harsh strain of grief, but with such music as the lyre maketh to the gods! For the son whom Alcmena bore to Zeus is hastening homeward, with the trophies of all prowess.

strophe 2

He was lost utterly to our land, a wanderer over sea, while we waited through twelve long months, and knew nothing; and his loving wife, sad dweller with sad thoughts, was ever pining amid her tears. But now the War-god, roused to fury, hath delivered her from the days of her mourning.

antistrophe 2

May he come, may he come! Pause not the many-oared ship that carries him, till he shall have reached this town, leaving the island altar where, as rumour saith, he is sacrificing! Thence may he come, full of desire, steeped in love by the specious device of the robe, on which Persuasion hath spread her sovereign charm!