Epistles |
Translator: J. Nunn, R. Priestly, R. Lea, J. Rodwell
|
|
| 8 |
Hermione Orestae Pyrrhus Achillides , animosus imagine patris , Inclusam contra iusque piumque tenet . Quod potui , renui , ne non invita tenerer ; Cetera femineae non valuere manus . ' Quid facis , Aeacide ? non sum sine vindice ,' dixi : ' Haec tibi sub domino est , Pyrrhe , puella suo !' Surdior ille freto clamantem nomen Orestae Traxit inornatis in sua tecta comis . Quid gravius capta Lacedaemone serva tulissem , Si raperet Graias barbara turba nurus ? Parcius Andromachen vexavit Achaia victrix , Cum Danaus Phrygias ureret ignis opes . At tu , cura mei si te pia tangit , Oreste , Inice non timidas in tua iura manus ! An siquis rapiat stabulis armenta reclusis , Arma feras , rapta coniuge lentus eris ? Sit socer exemplo nuptae repetitor ademptae , Cui pia militiae causa puella fuit ! Si socer ignavus vidua stertisset in aula , Nupta foret Paridi mater , ut ante fuit . Nec tu mille rates sinuosaque vela pararis Nec numeros Danai militis — ipse veni ! Sic quoque eram repetenda tamen , nec turpe marito Aspera pro caro bella tulisse toro . Quid , quod avus nobis idem Pelopeius Atreus , Et , si non esses vir mihi , frater eras . Vir , precor , uxori , frater succurre sorori ! Instant officio nomina bina tuo . Me tibi Tyndareus , vita gravis auctor et annis , Tradidit ; arbitrium neptis habebat avus . At pater Aeacidae promiserat inscius acti ; Plus patre , quo prior est ordine , pollet avus . Cum tibi nubebam , nulli mea taeda nocebat ; Si iungar Pyrrho , tu mihi laesus eris . Et pater ignoscet nostro Menelaus amori — Succubuit telis praepetis ipse dei . Quem sibi permisit , genero concedet amorem ; Proderit exemplo mater amata suo . Tu mihi , quod matri pater est ; quas egerat olim Dardanius partis advena , Pyrrhus agit . Ille licet patriis sine fine superbiat actis ; Et tu , quae referas facta parentis , habes . Tantalides omnis ipsumque regebat Achillem . Hic pars militiae ; dux erat ille ducum . Tu quoque per proavum Pelopem Pelopisque parentem , Si medios numeres , a Iove quintus eris . Nec virtute cares . arma invidiosa tulisti , Sed tibi — quid faceres ? — induit illa pater . Materia vellem fortis meliore fuisses ; Non lecta est operi , sed data causa tuo . Hanc tamen inplesti ; iuguloque Aegisthus aperto Tecta cruentavit , quae pater ante tuus . Increpat Aeacides laudemque in crimina vertit — Et tamen adspectus sustinet ille meos . Rumpor , et ora mihi pariter cum mente tumescunt , Pectoraque inclusis ignibus usta dolent . Hermione coram quisquamne obiecit Orestae , Nec mihi sunt vires , nec ferus ensis adest ? Flere licet certe ; flendo defundimus iram , Perque sinum lacrimae fluminis instar eunt . Has solas habeo semper semperque profundo ; Ument incultae fonte perenne genae . Num generis fato , quod nostros errat in annos , Tantalides matres apta rapina sumus ? Non ego fluminei referam mendacia cygni Nec querar in plumis delituisse Iovem . Qua duo porrectus longe freta distinet Isthmos , Vecta peregrinis Hippodamia rotis ; Taenaris Idaeo trans aequor ab hospite rapta Argolicas pro se vertit in arma manus . Vix equidem memini , memini tamen . omnia luctus , Omnia solliciti plena timoris erant ; Flebat avus Phoebeque soror fratresque gemelli , Orabat superos Leda suumque Iovem . Ipsa ego , non longos etiamtunc scissa capillos , Clamabam : 'sine me , me sine , mater , abis ?' Nam coniunx aberat ! ne non Pelopeia credar , Ecce , Neoptolemo praeda parata fui ! Pelides utinam vitasset Apollinis arcus ! Damnaret nati facta proterva pater ; Nec quondam placuit nec nunc placuisset Achilli Abducta viduum coniuge flere virum . Quae mea caelestis iniuria fecit iniquos , Quod mihi — vae miserae ! — sidus obesse querar ? Parva mea sine matre fui , pater arma ferebat , Et duo cum vivant , orba duobus eram . Non tibi blanditias primis , mea mater , in annis Incerto dictas ore puella tuli ; Non ego captavi brevibus tua colla lacertis Nec gremio sedi sarcina grata tuo . Non cultus tibi cura mei , nec pacta marito Intravi thalamos matre parante novos . Obvia prodieram reduci tibi — vera fatebor — Nec facies nobis nota parentis erat ! Te tamen esse Helenen , quod eras pulcherrima , sensi ; Ipsa requirebas , quae tua nata foret ! Pars haec una mihi , coniunx bene cessit Orestes ; Is quoque , ni pro se pugnat , ademptus erit . Pyrrhus habet captam reduce et victore parente — Hoc munus nobis diruta Troia dedit ! Cum tamen altus equis Titan radiantibus instant , Perfruor infelix liberiore malo ; Nox ubi me thalamis ululantem et acerba gementem Condidit in maesto procubuique toro , Pro somno lacrimis oculi funguntur obortis , Quaque licet , fugio sicut ab hoste virum . Saepe malis stupeo rerumque oblita locique Ignara tetigi Scyria membra manu , Utque nefas sensi , male corpora tacta relinquo Et mihi pollutas credor habere manus . Saepe Neoptolemi pro nomine nomen Orestae Exit , et errorem vocis ut omen amo . Per genus infelix iuro generisque parentem , Qui freta , qui terras et sua regna quatit ; Per patris ossa tui , patrui mihi , quae tibi debent , Quod se sub tumulo fortiter ulta iacent — Aut ego praemoriar primoque exstinguar in aevo , Aut ego Tantalidae Tantalis uxor ero !
|
Hermione to Orestes I, UNHAPPY Hermione, address the man, lately my kinsman and spouse; now my kinsman only; for another possesses the name of husband. Pyrrhus, the son of Achilles, impetuous as his sire, forcibly confines me here, contrary to honour and justice. I resisted with all the force which I could exert, that I might not be detained; nor was it in the power of female hands to do more. "What are you doing, grandson of Æacus?" exclaimed I: "think not that I am without an avenger: the maid whom you injure has a master of her own." But he, more deaf than the raging waves, dragged me by the hair into his hated palace, calling for aid upon the name of Orestes. What could I have suffered more in the ruin of Lacedæmon, had a troop of barbarians led captive the Grecian dames? Triumphant Greece did not so harass unfortunate Andromache, when the wealth of Phrygia became the prey of devouring flames. But, Oh! Orestes, if you have any care or thought of me, assert with courage and resolution your undoubted right. Will you take up arms if any one should break in upon your sheepfolds, and yet be slow to free your wife from violence? Imitate the example of your father-in-law, who boldly reclaimed his ravished spouse, and thought the injury offered him in a woman a sufficient cause of war. Had Menelaus remained indolent in his deserted palace, my mother would have still continued the wife of Paris, as once she was. There is no necessity for a fleet, or powerful army; come only yourself. Not but that I deserve to be demanded back in this manner; nor is it any reproach to a husband, to have waged a furious war for the honor of his nuptial bed. Have we not the same grandfather, Atreus the son of Pelops? And, were you not my spouse, you are still my kinsman. Both as your wife and kinswoman, I beg your aid; remember that you are under a double tie to this good office. I was given to you by our ancestor Tyndareus, considerable for his experience and years; and one who, as my grandfather, had the undoubted disposal of me. But my father, not knowing this, had given his promise to Æacides. Surely that of Tyndareus, as first in authority and time, ought to have the preference. When espoused to you, my flame was just and unexceptionable; but if I should be married to Pyrrhus, you will be injured in me. My father Menelaus will easily be brought to approve our love; he himself hath yielded to the winged arrows of the God. He will make such allowance for your love, as he took to himself in his. His attachment to my mother affords an example to excuse ourselves. You are to me, what my father was to Helen; and Pyrrhus acts the part of the Trojan guest of old. Let him boast, without ceasing, of the mighty acts of his father; you also can relate the glorious deeds of yours. The descendant of Tantalus commanded all the Grecian host, even Achilles himself. That Hero headed only a single troop; Agamemnon was general in chief. You also glory in being of the race of Pelops and Tantalus; and, if you reckon farther, are the fifth in a direct line from the Father of the Gods. Nor are you destitute of courage; but you have borne arms in an invidious cause, constrained to engage in the just revenge of a father's death. Oh! how I wish that you had given proof of your valor in a less direful cause! yet was it not choice, but necessity. You yielded to the urgent call, and shed the blood of that villain Ægisthus, who had so cruelly murdered your father. But Pyrrhus censures it, and calls that praise-worthy revenge a crime; and even presumes to do it in my presence. I am distracted; my cheeks, as well as my heart, glow with rage, and my breast is scorched with flames pent up. Shall any one dare to blame Orestes in Hermione's presence? I have indeed neither strength nor arms: but I may shed tears: tears assuage grief; tears flow from my eyes in floods. These alone I always can command, and these I always shed profusely: my neglected cheeks are watered by a continual stream. By this fate of our race, which reaches down even to the present age, we matrons of the house of Tantalus fall a sure prey to every ravisher. I need not mention the deceit of the swan, or how Jupiter lurked under the disguise of feathers. Hippodamia was conveyed by foreign wheels, to where the isthmus stretching to a great length divides two seas. Helen was restored to the Amyclæan brothers, Castor and Pollux, from an Attic city. Helen, conveyed beyond sea by an Idæan stranger, raised in arms the whole power of Greece to recover her. Scarcely do I remember the time; yet, young as I was, I remember it: all appeared full of grief; all discovered manifest tokens of anxiety and concern. My grandfather wept, as did also her sister and twin brothers: Leda called on the heavenly powers and her own Jove. I myself with tresses torn, which even yet are not long, complained in a mournful voice; Alas, mother, are you gone without me? have you left me behind? for Menelaus was absent. Lo I too, that I might not belie the race of Pelops, am made the prey of hated Neoptolemus. Oh that Achilles had escaped the arrows of Apollo! he would doubtless have condemned the insolence of his son. He neither approved formerly, nor now would have approved, that a forsaken husband should lament the rape of his spouse. What crime of mine has raised the indignation of the Gods? Unhappy that I am! What ominous star obstructs my felicity? I was deprived of my mother in my earliest youth; my father was engaged in a foreign war; thus, though both were alive, I was destitute of both. I did not, O my mother, in my younger days fondle and flatter you with my prattling tongue; I caught you not round the neck with my infant arms, nor sat, a pleasing load, upon your knee. You had no care of my education, nor was I led by you to the nuptial bed. I came out to meet you at your return, and, to own the truth, I could not distinguish my mother's face. I only fancied you to be Helen, because you were the most beautiful; nor did you know, before a friend informed you, which was your daughter. My only good fortune was the having Orestes for my husband; and he too will be lost, unless he should maintain his right by arms. Pyrrhus hath obtained me from my victorious father; it is all I have gained by the fall of Troy. When the sun in his resplendent chariot mounts the mid heaven, my misfortunes then suffer some remission; but, when night conceals me in my chambers, howling and heaving bitter groans, and I have thrown myself upon my mournful couch; instead of being closed by sleep, my eyes overflow with tears, and I shun my husband when I can, as I would an enemy. Oft rendered insensible by my misfortunes, and unmindful of the place and persons, I am apt to stretch over Pyrrhus my unwary hand. But as soon as I recollect my error, I start from the hated touch, and think my hands polluted. Oft, instead of Pyrrhus, the name of my Orestes escapes me, and I am glad to interpret the mistake as a good omen. I swear by our unhappy race and its almighty sire, who shakes the earth and seas and heaven by his nod; by the bones of your father, my uncle, which, bravely revenged by your hand, now rest in a peaceful urn: I will either prematurely die, and be extinguished in my early youth, or, as I am a descendant of Tantalus, be married to one of my own race. |