But the Spartans (for their breed is bold and eager for the prey) hold in carefully with a tighter knot. But do you cast off the leashes from the dogs that hunt in silence still let thongs hold the keen Molossians fast, and let the savage Cretans tug on the stout bonds with well-worn necks. If any feels the lure of the forest, Phlye calls for him there is the haunt of the boar, terror of husbandmen, famed by now for many a wound. Let one tread sweet Hymettus’ cliff, another, small Aphidnae too long unharried is that spot where Sunium thrusts out the shores of the curving sea. Go ye by the left path where Marathon opens out her forest glades, where with their small following the suckling mothers seek nightly forage and ye, where rugged Acharneus tempers his frosts beneath the warm south-wind. Here, here let others hie, where the all alder-thickets fringe the grove, where meadows lie which Zephyr soothes with his dew-laden breath and calls forth the herbage of the spring, where scant Ilissos flows sluggishly along through meagre fields and with ungenerous stream creeps o’er unfruitful sands. Go, girdle the shadowy woods and the topmost ridges of the mount, ye sons of Cecrops! With nimble feet wide wandering, scour the coverts that lie ‘neath rocky Parnes and in the vale of Thria, whose swift-flowing stream lashes its banks climb the hills ever white with Rhipean snow.
Theseus had meanwhile slain Antiope, and married Phaedra, Cretan Minos’ child.Īnd now, for four years past, the king has not been seen upon the earth, for, following the mad adventure of his bosom friend, Pirithoüs, he has descended into Tartarus to help him steal away its queen, and thence, men think, he will never return.ĭeserted by her lord, the hapless Phaedra has conceived a hopeless passion for Hippolytus for Venus mindful of her old armour with Mars, which Phaedra’s ancestor, Apollo, had exposed, has sent this madness on her, even as Pasiphaë, her mother, had been cursed with a most mad and fatal malady. This youth grew up to love the chase, austere and beautiful, shunning the haunts of men and scorning the love of women.
Theseus had wed Antiope, the Amazons, and of their union had been born Hippolytus. THE SCENE is laid throughout the court in front of the royal palace at Athens, and the action is confined to the space of one day.
PHAEDRA, wife of Theseus and stepmother of Hippolytus. HIPPOLYTUS, son of Theseus and Antiope, an Amazon. TROADES PHAEDRA, TRANSLATED BY FRANK JUSTUS MILLER DRAMATIS PERSONAE
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