THE. O Peleus, mindful of the ties which bound
Our plighted love, I hither from the house
Of Nereus come, and with these wholesome counsels
Begin; despair not, though thy present woes
Are grievous: for e’en I who should have borne
A race of children such as ne’er might cause
My tears to stream, have lost the son who crowned
Our hopes, Achilles, swift of foot, the first
Of Grecian heroes. But to thee, the motives
Which brought me hither, will I now relate;
O listen to my voice. Back to that altar
Devoted to the Pythian god, convey
This body of Achilles’ slaughtered son,
And bury it; so shall his tomb declare
The murderous violence Orestes’ band
Committed: but yon captive dame, I mean
Andromache, on Helenus bestowed
In marriage, in Molossia’s land must dwell,
And her young son, the only royal branch
Which of the stem of Æacus remains;
From him in long succession shall a race
Of happy kings Molossia’s sceptre wield:
Nor will our progeny, O aged man,
Be utterly extinct, when blended thus
With Ilion, still protected by the gods,
Though by Minerva’s stratagems it fell.
But, as for thee, that thou mayst know the blessing
Of having wedded me, who am by birth
A goddess and the daughter of a god,
From all the ills which wait on human life
Releasing, thee immortal will I make
And incorruptible; with me a goddess
In Nereus’ watery mansions thou a god
Hereafter shalt reside, and from the waves
Emerging with dry feet, behold our son
Achilles, to his parents justly dear,
Inhabiting that isle whose chalky coasts
Are laved by the surrounding Euxine deep.
But go to Delphi’s city by the gods
Erected, thither bear this weltering corse,
And when thou hast interred it, to this land
Return, and in that cave which through the rock
Of Sepia time hath worn, thy station keep
Till from the waves I with my sister choir
The fifty Nereids come, to bear thee hence.
Thou must endure the woe’s imposed by fate,
For thus hath Jove ordained. But cease to grieve
For the deceased: for by the righteous gods
The same impartial sentence is awarded
To the whole human race, and death’s a debt
Which all must pay.
PEL. Hail, venerable dame,
Daughter of Nereus, my illustrious wife:
For what thou dost is worthy of thyself,
And of thy progeny. I cease to grieve
At thy command, O goddess, and will go,
Soon as my grandson’s corse I have interred,
To Pelion’s cave, where first thy beauteous form
I in these arms received. The man whose choice
Is by discretion guided, should select
A consort nobly born, and give his daughters
To those of virtuous families, nor wish
To wed a damsel sprung from worthless sires,
Though to his house a plenteous dower she bring:
So shall he ne’er incur the wrath of Heaven.
CHOR. A thousand shapes our varying fates assume,
The gods perform what we could least expect,
And oft the things for which we fondly hoped
Come not to pass: but Heaven still finds a clue
To guide our steps through life’s perplexing maze.
And thus does this important business end.