Aeschylus
τοιάδ᾿ ἐπ᾿ ἐχθροὺς τοὺς ἐμοὺς ἔλθοι Κύπρις. 865μίαν δὲ παίδων ἵμερος θέλξει τὸ μὴ κτεῖναι ξύνευνον, ἀλλ᾿ ἀπαμβλυνθήσεται γνώμην· δυοῖν δὲ θάτερον βουλήσεται, κλύειν ἄναλκις μᾶλλον ἢ μιαιφόνος. αὕτη κατ᾿ Ἄργος βασιλικὸν τέξει γένος. 870μακροῦ λόγου δεῖ ταῦτ᾿ ἐπεξελθεῖν τορῶς· σπόρος γε μὴν ἐκ τῆσδε φύσεται θρασύς, τόξοισι κλεινός, ὃς πόνων ἐκ τῶνδ᾿ ἐμὲ λύσει. τοιόνδε χρησμὸν ἡ παλαιγενὴς μήτηρ ἐμοὶ διῆλθε, Τιτανὶς Θέμις· 875ὅπως δὲ χὤπῃ, ταῦτα δεῖ μακροῦ λόγου εἰπεῖν, σύ τ᾿ οὐδὲν ἐκμαθοῦσα κερδανεῖς.
ἐλελεῦ ἐλελεῦ· ὑπό μ᾿ αὖ σφάκελος καὶ φρενοπληγεῖς μανίαι θάλπουσ᾿, οἴστρου δ᾿ ἄρδις 880χρίει ζάπυρος· κραδία δὲ φόβῳ φρένα λακτίζει, τροχοδινεῖται δ᾿ ὄμμαθ᾿ ἑλίγδην, ἔξω δὲ δρόμου φέρομαι λύσσης πνεύματι μάργῳ γλώσσης ἀκρατής,
- 864ἐπ᾿ b: ἐς M I b k.
- 871σπόρος Sikes & Willson: σπορᾶς codd.
- 877ἐλελεῦ ἐλελεῦ Pauw (ἐλελεῦ t): ἐλελελελελεῦ ςel sim. M I b k: ἰὼ ἰὼ λελελελεῦ λελελελελεῦ b.
- 880ζάπυρος Askew: μ᾿ (om. b΄) ἄπυρος codd.
- 881κραδία k: καρδία M I b k.
Prometheus Bound
the bridal night be for my enemies! 111 But one of the girls 112 will be charmed by desire into refraining from killing her bedfellow; she will choose the alternative of being called a coward rather than a polluted murderer. She will become the mother of a royal house in Argos. It would take a long narrative to recount it all explicitly, but from her line, at any rate, will be born a brave scion, famous for archery, who will release me from these sufferings. Such is the prophecy that was narrated to me by my mother of ancient birth, Themis the Titaness; 113 but how and in what way it is to happen would take a lengthy narrative to explain, and you would profit nothing by learning it.
io begins to dance wildly again.Eleleu, eleleu! My mind is struck again by hot spasms of madness, and I am pricked by the gadfly’s fiery dart! In terror my heart is thumping my midriff, my eyes are rolling in circles, I am blown off course by the wild winds of insanity, I cannot control my tongue,
- 111lit. “May such a Cypris come upon my enemies”.
- 112Hypermestra.
- 113This description of Themis makes her a daughter of Uranus and Gaea (as in Eum. 2–3 and Hesiod, Theogony 135) and contradicts the statement in 209–210 that she is identical with Gaea; as perhaps once before (cf. note on 165), the poet has not kept consistently in mind the implications of his adjustments to the traditional genealogies.