The Trachinian Maidens: With linked Table of Contents
By Sophocles
()
About this ebook
Sophocles
Sophocles is one of three ancient Greek tragedians whose plays have survived. His first plays were written later than or contemporary with those of Aeschylus, and earlier than or contemporary with those of Euripides.
Read more from Sophocles
Plays of Sophocles: Oedipus the King; Oedipus at Colonus; Antigone: Bestsellers and famous Books Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Burial at Thebes: A Version of Sophocles' Antigone Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Yale Required Reading - Collected Works (Vol. 1) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Elektra: A New Translation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Oedipus Rex Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAjax Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAias Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ajax Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHarvard Classics: All 71 Volumes Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAntigone (Translated by E. H. Plumptre with an Introduction by J. Churton Collins) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsYale Classics (Vol. 1) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Three Theban Plays Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsElectra and Other Plays Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWomen of Trakhis: A New Translation Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Aias: A New Translation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ajax Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Oedipus Trilogy: Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonus, Antigone Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Theban Plays: "Oedipus the Tyrant"; "Oedipus at Colonus"; "Antigone" Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPhiloctetes Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Five Great Greek Tragedies Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5
Related to The Trachinian Maidens
Related ebooks
The Trachinian Maidens Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Trachinian Maidens (The Trachiniae) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Trachiniae Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Trachinian Maidens: aka The Women of Trachis "Children are the anchors that hold a mother to life" Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsElectra Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsElectra: With linked Table of Contents Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHippolytus; The Bacchae Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOedipus Trilogy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5King Oedipus: With linked Table of Contents Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5King Oedipus Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hippolytus Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Divine Comedy (Centaur Classics) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Divine Comedy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Divine Comedy: The Vision of Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMedea and Other Plays Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Alcestis Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Divine Comedy: Dante Alighieri Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDivine Comedy, Longfellow's Translation, Hell Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Divine Comedy (Dream Classics) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHecuba Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Inferno Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe divine comedy: Hell - Purgatory - Paradise Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe vision of hell Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPhiloctetes Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5On the Nature of Things Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDivine Comedy (Longfellow): Bestsellers and famous Books Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Divine Comedy. Longfellow's Translation. Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Complete Euripides Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Complete Plays of Euripides Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEuripides: The Complete Works Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Literary Fiction For You
Flowers for Algernon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Man Called Ove: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Confederacy of Dunces Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Covenant of Water (Oprah's Book Club) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Catch-22: 50th Anniversary Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Prophet Song: A Novel (Booker Prize Winner) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Silmarillion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pride and Prejudice: Bestsellers and famous Books Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Master & Margarita Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Piranesi Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Annihilation: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Queen's Gambit Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Leave the World Behind: A Read with Jenna Pick Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Poisonwood Bible: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5All the Ugly and Wonderful Things: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tender Is the Flesh Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Demon Copperhead: A Pulitzer Prize Winner Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cloud Cuckoo Land: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Life of Pi: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Handmaid's Tale Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Anna Karenina: Bestsellers and famous Books Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Old Man and the Sea: The Hemingway Library Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Farewell to Arms Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Salvage the Bones: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Little Birds: Erotica Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Sympathizer: A Novel (Pulitzer Prize for Fiction) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5East of Eden Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Reviews for The Trachinian Maidens
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
The Trachinian Maidens - Sophocles
The Trachinian Maidens
by Sophocles
Translated by Lewis Campbell, M.A., LL.D.
EMERITUS PROFESSOR OF GREEK IN THE UNIVERSITY OF ST. ANDREWS
HONORARY FELLOW OF BALLIOL COLLEGE, OXFORD
©2015 SMK Books
All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner without written permission except for brief quotations for review purposes only.
SMK Books
PO Box 632
Floyd, VA 24091-0632
ISBN 13: 978-1-5154-0006-6
Table of Contents
The Persons
Scene
Play
THE PERSONS
Dêanira, wife of Heracles.
An Attendant.
Hyllus, son of Heracles and Dêanira.
Chorus of Trachinian Maidens.
A Messenger.
Lichas, the Herald.
A Nurse.
An Old Man.
Heracles.
Iole, who does not speak.
Scene. Before the temporary abode of Heracles in Trachis.
This tragedy is named from the Chorus. From the subject it might have been called ‘Deanira or the Death of Heracles’.
The Centaur Nessus, in dying by the arrow of Heracles, which had been dipped in the venom of the Hydra, persuaded the bride Deanira, whose beauty was the cause of his death, to keep some of the blood from the wound as a love-charm for her husband. Many years afterwards, when Heracles was returning from his last exploit of sacking Oechalia, in Euboea, he sent before him, by his herald Lichas, Iole, the king’s daughter, whom he had espoused. Deanira, when she had discovered this, commissioned Lichas when he returned to present his master with a robe, which she had anointed with the charm,—hoping by this means to regain her lord’s affection. But the poison of the Hydra did its work, and Heracles died in agony, Deanira having already killed herself on ascertaining what she had done. The action takes place in Trachis, near the Mahae Gulf, where Heracles and Deanira, by permission of Ceyx, the king of the country, have been living in exile. At the close of the drama, Heracles, while yet alive, is carried towards his pyre on Mount Oeta.
The Trachinian Maidens
Dêanira. Men say,—‘twas old experience gave the word,
—‘No lot of mortal, ere he die, can once
Be known for good or evil.’ But I know,
Before I come to the dark dwelling-place,
Mine is a lot, adverse and hard and sore.
Who yet at Pleuron, in my father’s home,
Of all Aetolian women had most cause
To fear my bridal. For a river-god,
Swift Achelôüs, was my suitor there
And sought me from my father in three forms;
Now in his own bull-likeness, now a serpent
Of coiling sheen, and now with manlike build
But bovine front, while from the shadowy beard
Sprang fountain-waters in perpetual spray.
Looking for such a husband, I, poor girl!
Still prayed that Death might find me, ere I knew
That nuptial.—Later, to my glad relief,
Zeus’ and Alcmena’s glorious offspring came,
And closed with him in conflict, and released
My heart from torment. How the fight was won
I could not tell. If any were who saw
Unshaken of dread foreboding, such may speak.
But I sate quailing with an anguished fear,
Lest beauty might procure me nought but pain,
Till He that rules the issue of all strife,
Gave fortunate end—if fortunate! For since,
Assigned by that day’s conquest, I have known
The couch of Heracles,