(3.772-801) "Poor wretch, must I toss hither and thither in woe? On every side my heart is in despair; nor is there any help for my pain; but it burneth ever thus. Would that I had been slain by the swift shafts of Artemis before I had set eyes on him, before Chalciope's sons reached the Achaean land. Some god or some Fury brought them hither for our grief, a cause of many tears. Let him perish in the contest if it be his lot to die in the field. For how could I prepare the charms without my parents' knowledge? What story call I tell them? What trick, what cunning device for aid can I find? If I see him alone, apart from his comrades, shall I greet him? Ill-starred that I am! I cannot hope that I should rest from my sorrows even though he perished; then will evil come to me when he is bereft of life. Perish all shame, perish all glow; may he, saved by my effort, go scatheless wherever his heart desires. But as for me, on the day when he bides the contest in triumph, may I die either straining my neck in the noose from the roof-tree or tasting drugs destructive of life. But even so, when I am dead, they will fling out taunts against me; and every city far away will ring with my doom, and the Colchian women, tossing my name on their lips hither and thither, will revile me with unseemly mocking -- the maid who cared so much for a stranger that she died, the maid who disgraced her home and her parents, yielding to a mad passion. And what disgrace will not be mine? Alas for my infatuation! Far better would it be for me to forsake life this very night in my chamber by some mysterious fate, escaping all slanderous reproach, before I complete such nameless dishonour."
|
|
772 πάντῃ μοι φρένες εἰσὶν ἀμήχανοι: οὐδέ τις ἀλκὴ
773 πήματος: ἀλλ' αὔτως φλέγει ἔμπεδον. ὡς ὄφελόν γε
774 Ἀρτέμιδος κραιπνοῖσι πάρος βελέεσσι δαμῆναι,
775 πρὶν τόνγ' εἰσιδέειν, πρὶν Ἀχαιίδα γαῖαν ἱκέσθαι
776 Χαλκιόπης υἷας. τοὺς μὲν θεὸς ἤ τις Ἐρινὺς
777 ἄμμι πολυκλαὕτους δεῦρ' ἤγαγε κεῖθεν ἀνίας.
778 φθίσθω ἀεθλεύων, εἴ οἱ κατὰ νειὸν ὀλέσθαι
779 μοῖρα πέλει. πῶς γάρ κεν ἐμοὺς λελάθοιμι τοκῆας
780 φάρμακα μησαμένη; ποῖον δ' ἐπὶ μῦθον ἐνίψω;
781 τίς δὲ δόλος, τίς μῆτις ἐπίκλοπος ἔσσετ' ἀρωγῆς;
782 ἦ μιν ἄνευθ' ἑτάρων προσπτύξομαι οἶον ἰδοῦσα;
783 δύσμορος: οὐ μὲν ἔολπα καταφθιμένοιό περ ἔμπης
784 λωφήσειν ἀχέων: τότε δ' ἂν κακὸν ἄμμι πέλοιτο,
785 κεῖνος ὅτε ζωῆς ἀπαμείρεται. ἐρρέτω αἰδώς,
786 ἐρρέτω ἀγλαΐη: ὁ δ' ἐμῇ ἰότητι σαωθεὶς
787 ἀσκηθής, ἵνα οἱ θυμῷ φίλον, ἔνθα νέοιτο.
788 αὐτὰρ ἐγὼν αὐτῆμαρ, ὅτ' ἐξανύσειεν ἄεθλον,
789 τεθναίην, ἢ λαιμὸν ἀναρτήσασα μελάθρῳ,
790 ἢ καὶ πασσαμένη ῥαιστήρια φάρμακα θυμοῦ.
791 ἀλλὰ καὶ ὧς φθιμένῃ μοι ἐπιλλίξουσιν ὀπίσσω
792 κερτομίας: τηλοῦ δὲ πόλις περὶ πᾶσα βοήσει
793 πότμον ἐμόν: καί κέν με διὰ στόματος φορέουσαι
794 Κολχίδες ἄλλυδις ἄλλαι ἀεικέα μωμήσονται:
795 ἥτις κηδομένη τόσον ἀνέρος ἀλλοδαποῖο
796 κάτθανεν, ἥτις δῶμα καὶ οὓς ᾔσχυνε τοκῆας,
797 μαργοσύνῃ εἴξασα. τί δ' οὐκ ἐμὸν ἔσσεται αἶσχος;
798 ᾤ μοι ἐμῆς ἄτης. ἦ τ' ἂν πολὺ κέρδιον εἴη
799 τῇδ' αὐτῇ ἐν νυκτὶ λιπεῖν βίον ἐν θαλάμοισιν
800 πότμῳ ἀνωίστῳ, κάκ' ἐλέγχεα πάντα φυγοῦσαν,
801 πρὶν τάδε λωβήεντα καὶ οὐκ ὀνομαστὰ τελέσσαι."
|