PHE. I am at present sympathizing in thy misfortunes, my son: for thou hast
lost (no one will deny) a good and a chaste wife; but these things indeed
thou must bear, though hard to be borne. But receive this adornment, and
let it go with her beneath the earth: Her body 'tis right to honor, who in
sooth died to save thy life, my son, and made me to be not childless, nor
suffered me to waste away deprived of thee in an old age of misery. But she
has made most illustrious the life of all women, having dared this noble
action. O thou that hast preserved my son here, and hast raised us up who
were falling, farewell,[33] and may it be well with thee even in the
mansions of Pluto! I affirm that such marriages are profitable to men, or
that it is not meet to marry.
ADM. Neither hast thou come bidden of me to this funeral, nor do I count
thy presence among things acceptable. But she here never shall put on thy
decorations; for in no wise shall she be buried indebted to what thou hast.
Then oughtest thou to have grieved with me, when I was in danger of
perishing.[34] But dost thou, who stoodest aloof, and permittedst another,
a young person, thyself being old, to die, weep over this dead body? Thou
wert not then really the father of me, nor did she, who says she bore me,
and is called my mother, bear me; but born of slavish blood I was secretly
put under the breast of thy wife. Thou showedst when thou camest to the
test, who thou art; and I deem that I am not thy son. Or else surely thou
exceedest all in nothingness of soul, who being of the age thou art, and
having come to the goal of life, neither hadst the will nor the courage to
die for thy son; but sufferedst this stranger lady, whom alone I might
justly have considered both mother and father. And yet thou mightst have
run this race for glory, hadst thou died for thy son. But at any rate the
remainder of the time thou hadst to live was short: and I should have lived
and she the rest of our days, and I should not, bereft of her, be groaning
at my miseries. And in sooth thou didst receive as many things as a happy
man should receive; thou passedst the vigor of thine age indeed in
sovereign sway, but I was thy son to succeed thee in this palace, so that
thou wert not about to die childless and leave a desolate house for others
to plunder. Thou canst not however say of me, that I gave thee up to die,
dishonoring thine old age, whereas I was particularly respectful toward
thee; and for this behavior both thou, and she that bare me, have made me
such return. Wherefore you have no more time to lose[35] in getting
children, who will succor thee in thine old age, and deck thee when dead,
and lay out thy corse; for I will not bury thee with this mine hand; for I
in sooth died, as far as in thee lay; but if, having met with, another
deliverer, I view the light, I say that I am both his child, and the
friendly comforter of his old age. In vain then do old men pray to be dead,
complaining of age, and the long time of life: but if death come near, not
one is willing to die, and old age is no longer burdensome to them.[36]
CHOR. Desist, for the present calamity is sufficient; and do not, O son,
provoke thy father's mind.
PHE. O son, whom dost thou presume thou art gibing with thy reproaches, a
Lydian or a Phrygian bought with thy money?[37] Knowest thou not that I am
a Thessalian, and born from a Thessalian father, truly free? Thou art too
insolent, and casting the impetuous words of youth against us, shalt not
having cast them thus depart. But I begat thee the lord of my house, and
brought thee up, but I am not thy debtor to die for thee; for I received no
paternal law like this, nor Grecian law, that fathers should die for their
children; for for thyself thou wert born, whether unfortunate or fortunate,
but what from us thou oughtest to have, thou hast. Thou rulest indeed over
many, and I will leave thee a large demesne of lands, for these I received
from my father. In what then have I injured thee? Of what do I deprive
thee? Thou joyest to see the light, and dost think thy father does not
joy?[38] Surely I count the time we must spend beneath long, and life is
short, but still sweet. Thou too didst shamelessly fight off from dying,
and livest, having passed over thy destined fate, by slaying her; then dost
thou talk of my nothingness of soul, O most vile one, when thou art
surpassed by a woman who died for thee, the handsome youth? But thou hast
made a clever discovery, so that thou mayst never die, if thou wilt
persuade the wife that is thine from time to time to die for thee: and then
reproachest thou thy friends who are not willing to do this, thyself being
a coward? Hold thy peace, and consider, if thou lovest thy life, that all
love theirs; but if thou shalt speak evil against us, thou shalt hear many
reproaches and not false ones.
CHOR. Too many evil things have been spoken both now and before, but cease,
old man, from reviling thy son.
ADM. Speak, for I have spoken; but if thou art grieved at hearing the
truth, thou shouldst not err against me.
PHE. But had I died for thee, I had erred more.
ADM. What? is it the same thing for a man in his prime, and for an old man
to die?
PHE. We ought to live with one life, not with two.
ADM. Mayst thou then live a longer time than Jove!
PHE. Dost curse thy parents, having met with no injustice?
ADM. _I said it_, for I perceived thou lovedst a long life.
PHE. But art not thou bearing forth this corse instead of thyself?
ADM. A proof this, O most vile one, of thy nothingness of soul.
PHE. She died not by us at least; thou wilt not say this.
ADM. Alas! Oh that you may ever come to need my aid!
PHE. Wed many wives, that more may die.
ADM. This is a reproach to thyself, for thou wert not willing to die.
PHE. Sweet is this light of the God, sweet is it.
ADM. Base is thy spirit and not that of men.
PHE. Thou dost not laugh as carrying an aged corse.
ADM. Thou wilt surely however die inglorious, when thou diest.
PHE. To bear an evil report is no matter to me when dead.
ADM. Alas! alas! how full of shamelessness is old age!
PHE. She was not shameless: her you found mad.
ADM. Begone, and suffer me to bury this dead.
PHE. I will depart; but you will bury her, yourself being her murderer. But
you will render satisfaction to your wife's relatives yet: or surely
Acastus no longer ranks among men, if he shall not revenge the blood of his
sister.
ADM. Get thee gone, then, thou and thy wife; childless, thy child yet
living, as ye deserve, grow old; for ye no more come into the same house
with me: and if it were necessary for me to renounce by heralds thy
paternal hearth, I would renounce it. But let us (for the evil before us
must be borne) proceed, that we may place the corse upon the funeral pyre.
CHOR. O! O! unhappy because of thy bold deed, O noble, and by far most
excellent, farewell! may both Mercury[39] that dwells beneath, and Pluto,
kindly receive thee; but if there too any distinction is shown to the good,
partaking of this mayst thou sit by the bride of Pluto.