The Tragedies of Seneca Translated into English Verse, to Which Have Been Appended Comparative Analyses of the Corresponding Greek and Roman Plays, and a Mythological Index

_Nero_ [_seated in a room of his palace_]: Too slow my soldiers' hands, too mild my wrath, 820 When citizens have dared such crimes as these. Those torches that they kindled 'ga...

_Hercules:_ Turn back thy panting steeds, thou shining sun, And bid the night come forth. Blot out the day, And let the heavens, with pitchy darkness filled, Conceal my dying pa...

_Nurse:_ I have no hope that such a malady 360 Can be relieved; her maddened passion's flames Will endless burn. A hidden, silent fire Consumes her, and her raging love, though...

_Andromache:_ What do ye here, sad throng of Phrygian dames? Why tear your hair and beat your wretched breasts? 410 Why stream your cheeks with tears? Our ills are light If we e...

_Nurse of_ Deianira: Oh, bitter is the rage a woman feels, When in one house both wife and mistress dwell! No wrecking Scylla, no Charybdis dire, 235 The wild upheavers of Sicil...

_Deianira_ [_hurrying distractedly out of the palace_]: A nameless terror fills my stricken limbs, 705 My hair stands up in horror, and my soul, But now so passion tossed, is du...

_Philoctetes:_ One evil thing remained upon the earth Which he had not o'ercome--the power of fire. 1615 But this has now been added to the beasts, And fire is one of great Alci...

_Megara:_ O mighty ruler of Olympus' heights, 205 Thou judge of all the world, now set at length A limit to my cares, and make an end Of my disasters. No untroubled day Doth daw...

_Eurybates:_ Ye shrines and altars of the heavenly gods, Ye Lares of my fathers, after long And weary wanderings, scarce trusting yet My longing eyes, I give ye grateful thanks....

_Oedipus_ [_to_ Antigone, _who has followed him into exile_]: O thou, who guid'st thy blinded father's steps, Sole comfort of my weary heart, my child, Begotten at such heavy co...

_Octavia:_ Now doth the flushing dawn from heaven drive The wandering stars; the sun mounts into sight With radiant beams, and brings the world once more The light of day. Up, t...

_Hippolytus_ [_in hunting costume, assigning duties and places to his servants and companions of the hunt_]: Up comrades, and the shadowy groves With nets encircle; swiftly rang...

_Cassandra_ [_alone upon the stage, standing where she can see the interior of the palace, describes what is going on there; or else she sees it by clairvoyant power_]: Great de...

_Oedipus_: I quake with horror, and I fear to know The tendency of fate. My trembling soul Strives 'neath a double load; for joy and grief Lie mingled still in dark obscurity. I...

_Nurse:_ My foster-daughter, whither speedest thou abroad? 380 Oh, stay, I pray thee, and restrain thy passion's force. [Medea _hastens by without answering. The_ Nurse _soliloq...

_Hercules:_ O kindly lord of light, heaven's ornament, Who circlest all the spaces of the sky With thy flame-bearing car, and thy bright head Dost lift to glad a new-awakened ea...

_Jocasta_ [_kneeling between her two hostile sons_]: 'Gainst me your arms and blazing torches turn; 'Gainst me alone let every warrior rush, Who comes from Argos thirsting for t...

_Atreus_ [_entering exultingly_]: The peer of stars I move, high over all, 885 And with exalted head attain the heavens! Now are the reins of power within my hands, And I am mas...

_Talthybius:_ My soul doth quake, and all my limbs with fear Do tremble. Scarce is credence given to tales That do transcend the truth. And yet I swear, With my own eyes I saw w...

_Messenger:_ Oh, for some raging blast to carry me With headlong speed through distant realms of air, And wrap me in the darkness of the clouds; That so I might this monstrous h...

_Medea:_ We are undone! How harsh upon mine ears doth grate The song! and even now I cannot comprehend The vast extent of woe that hath befallen me. Could Jason prove so false?...

_Creon_: Afar from Thebes there is a frowning grove 530 Near the well-watered vale of Dirce's fount. And there a cypress lifts its giant head And holds within its evergreen embr...

_Hercules:_ By my avenging hand lies Lycus slain; 895 And all, who in his life the tyrant claimed As comrades, now by death are comrades still In punishment. Now will I offering...

_Clytemnestra:_ Why, sluggish soul, dost thou safe counsel seek? Why hesitate? Closed is the better way. Once thou couldst chastely guard thy widowed couch, 110 And keep thy hus...

_Hercules_ [_waking up in his right mind_]: What place is this? What quarter of the world? Where am I? 'Neath the rising sun, or where The frozen Bear wheels slowly overhead? Or...

_Hercules_ [_about to sacrifice to Cenaean Jove_]: O sire of gods, from whose almighty hand Both homes of Phoebus feel thy darting bolt: Rule now serene, for I have 'stablished...

_Thyestes:_ At last do I behold the welcome roofs Of this my fatherland, the teeming wealth Of Argos, and, the greatest and the best Of sights to weary exiles, here I see 405 My...

_Atreus_ [_in soliloquy_]: O soul, so sluggish, spiritless, and weak, And (what in kings I deem the last reproach) Still unavenged, after so many crimes, Thy brother's treacheri...

_Seneca_ [_alone_]: Why hast thou, potent Fate, with flattering looks, Exalted me, contented with my lot, That so from this great height I might descend With heavier fall, and w...

_Helen_ [_aside_]: Whatever wedlock, bred of evil fate, Is full of joyless omens, blood and tears, Is worthy Helen's baleful auspices. And now must I still further harm inflict...

_Juno_ [_in soliloquy_]: Lo I, the sister of the Thunderer (For, save this name alone, I've nothing more), Have left my lord, so often false to me, Have left, in widowhood, the...

_Oedipus_: Now night has fled; and with a wavering gleam Returns the sun; all wrapped in murky clouds His beams arise, and with their baleful light Shall soon look forth upon ou...

_Messenger:_ Nay here is added wonder: The copious streams of water feed the deadly flames; And opposition only fans their fiery rage To whiter heat. The very bulwarks feel thei...

_Nurse_ [_alone_]: My spirit trembles, for I feel the near approach 670 Of some unseen disaster. Swiftly grows her grief, Its own fires kindling; and again her passion's force H...

_The Ghost of Tantalus:_ Who from th' accurséd regions of the dead, Hath haled me forth, where greedily I strive To snatch the food that ever doth escape My hungry lips? Who now...

_Messenger:_ When Oedipus his impious race perceived, 915 And saw the warning fates had been fulfilled; When on a hideous charge he stood condemned; Then, with a deadly purpose...

_Messenger:_ When, fleeing forth, he left the city's walls, 1000 With maddened speed he hurried on his way, And quickly yoked his chargers to his car, And curbed them to his wil...

_Hecuba:_ Whoe'er in royal power has put his trust, And proudly lords it in his princely halls; Who fears no shifting of the winds of fate, But fondly gives his soul to present...

_Phaedra:_ Me, me, O savage ruler of the deep, Attack; against me send the monstrous shapes 1160 That breed within the caverns of the sea, Whatever Tethys in her heart conceals,...

_Theseus:_ At last have I escaped from endless night, 835 That shadowy realm which close confines the dead. And now my eyes can scarce endure the light Which I have long desired...

_Messenger_ [_entering_]: Oh, cruel fate, Oh, piteous, horrible! What sight so fell and bloody have we seen In ten long years of war? Between thy woes, Andromache, and thine, O...

_Oedipus:_ My soul is filled with dark, foreboding fear; For the gods in heaven and hades join the charge 765 That by my guilty hand King Laius fell. And yet my soul, in conscio...

_Nurse_ [_to_ Poppaea, _who appears, distraught, coming out of her chamber_]: Why dost thou from thy husband's chamber come, 690 Dear child, with hurried step and troubled face?...

_Medea:_ Ye gods of wedlock, thou the nuptial couch's guard, Lucina, thou from whom that tamer of the deep, The Argo's pilot, learned to guide his pristine bark, And Neptune, th...

_Jocasta:_ Oh, fortunate Agave! for she bore, Within the hand which did the deed, the spoil, The horrid spoil of her dismembered son, 365 A raging Maenad. Yea, she did the deed;...

_Ghost of Thyestes:_ Escaped from gloomy Pluto's murky realm And leaving Tartara's deep pit I come, All doubting which abode I hate the more; That world I flee, but this I put t...

_Ghost of Agrippina_ [_bearing a flaming torch_]: Through cloven earth from Tartarus I come, To bring in bloody hands this torch of hell To light these curséd rites; with such d...

_Agamemnon:_ At last in safety am I home returned. Oh, hail, belovéd land! I bring thee spoil From many barbarous tribes; and Troy at length, So long the mistress of the haughty...

[_The following passage fittingly opens the second act or episode. Although some editors would assign it to_ Antigone, _it seems more fittingly to belong to a messenger who has...