Greek Texts & Translations

1670Ah, me, ah, me! Now, indeed, is it for us to bewail in full the curse on our blood—ill-fated sisters as we are—deriving from our father! In former time we bore the long toil without pause, 1675and now at the last we bring to tell a sight and experience that baffle reason.

What is it?

It is possible to conjecture, friends.

He is gone?

Precisely in the way you could most wish for: indeed, in a way in which neither Ares took him, nor the sea, 1680but instead he was snatched away to the fields which no one may see, by some swift, strange doom. Wretched me! For us a night like death has descended on our eyes; 1685how shall we find our hard livelihood, roaming to some far land, or on the waves of the sea?

I do not know. If only murderous Hades would join me in death to my aged father! 1690Wretched me! I cannot live the life that must be mine.

Best of daughters, you both must bear the will of the gods. Do not be inflamed with too much grief; 1695what you have encountered is not to be blamed.