Page:Tragedies of Euripides (Way 1894) v1.djvu/162

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Upon Hippolytus this day: the path
Well-nigh is cleared; scant pains it needeth yet.
For, as from halls of Pittheus once he sought
Pandion's land, to see and to be sealed 25
In the Great Mysteries, Phædra, high-born wife
Of his own father, saw him; and her heart
Of fierce love was enthralled by my device.
And, ere she came to this Trœzenian land,
Hard by the Rock of Pallas, which looks down 30
On this land, built she unto me a shrine
For love of one afar; and his memorial
That fane divine she named for days to be.
But since from Kekrops' land forth Theseus passed
Fleeing the blood-guilt of the sons of Pallas, 35
And unto this shore with his wife hath sailed,
From his land brooking one year's banishment,
Thenceforward, sighing and by stings of love
Distraught, the hapless one wastes down to death
Silent: her malady no handmaid knows. 40
Ah, but not so shall this love's issue fall.
Theseus shall know this thing; all bared shall be:
And him that is my foe his sire shall slay
By curses, whose fulfilment the Sea-king
Poseidon in this boon to Theseus gave, 45
That, to three prayers, he should ask nought in vain.
She, how high-born soe'er, yet perisheth,
Phædra:—I will not so regard her pain
That I should not exact such penalty
Of them which hate me as shall do me right. 50
But,—forasmuch as Theseus' son I see
Yonder draw near, forsaking hunting's toil,
Hippolytus,—forth will I from this place.
And a great press of henchmen following shout,