Than dismal, dark Avernus' self.
O Pallas, by the Athenian race
In reverence held, that once again
Thy Theseus sees the light of day, 1150
And has escaped the pools of Styx,
Thou owest naught to greedy Dis;
For still the number of the shades
Within the infernal tyrant's power
Remains the same.
But why the sounds of wailing that we hear?
And what would Phaedra with her naked sword? 1155
ACT V
[Enter Phaedra with a drawn sword in her hand.]
Theseus [to Phaedra]: What madness pricks thee on, all wild with grief?
What means that sword? or why these loud laments?
Why weepest thou above the hated corpse?
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,
And ocean hides within his wandering waves.
O Theseus, always ill of omen thou!
Oh, never to thy loved ones safe returned,
Since son and father by their death have paid 1165
For thy home-coming. Thou of thine own house
Art the destroyer; ever baneful thou,
Whether in love or hatred of thy wives.
[Turning to the mangled corpse]
Hippolytus, is this thy face I see?
Have I brought thee to this? What Sinis wild,
What pitiless Procrustes mangled thee? 1170
What Cretan bull-man, filling all the cave
Of Daedalus with his vast bellowings,
Has rent thee thus upon his savage horns?
Ah me! where now is fled thy beauty bright,
Thy eyes, my stars? Dost thou all lifeless lie?
Come back a little while and hear my words. 1175
'Tis nothing base I speak. With my own hand
