sacrifice to those goddesses three and to that son of Priam,[1] who in days gone by would wake the music of his pipe around his steading.
CHO. Oh may sorrow be averted otherwhither, and thou be blest !
HEL. Woe is thee, unhappy Troy! Thou through deeds not done by thee art ruined, and hast suffered direst woe ; for the gift that Cypris gave to me, hath caused a sea of blood to flow, and many an eye to weep, with grief on grief and tear on tear. All[2] this hath Ilium suffered .... and mothers [have lost] their children; and virgin sisters of the slain have cut off their tresses by the swollen tide of Phrygian Scamander. And the land of Hellas hath lifted her voice of woe and broken forth in wailing, smiting on her head, and making tender cheeks to stream with gore beneath the rending nail. Ah blest maid Callisto, who long ago in Arcady didst find favour with Zeus, in the semblance of a beast four-footed, how much happier was thy lot than my mother's, for[3] thou hast changed the burden of thy grief and now with savage eye art weeping o'er thy shaggy monster-shape ; aye, and hers was a happier lot, whom on a day Artemis drove from her choir, changed to a hind with horns of gold, the fair Titanian maid, daughter of Merops, because of her beauty; but my fair form hath proved the curse of Dardan Troy and doomed Achaea's sons.
[Exit HELEN.
MEN. Ah ! Pelops, easy victor long ago o'er thy rival
- ↑ Reading τῷ τε συρίγγων ἀοιδὰν σεβίζοντι Πριαμίδᾳ, as reconstructed by Musgrave and Hermann from the corrupt MS.
- ↑ The text here is corrupt and something has probably been lost, though the sense is tolerably clear.
- ↑ Reading ἃ μορφᾶς θηρῶν λαχνογυίων ὄμματι λάβρῳ σχῆμα διαίνεις, έξαλλάξας᾽ ἄχθεα λύπης. Hermann suggested διαίνεις for λεαίνης and μορφᾶς for μορφᾷ. The mention of a lioness is scarcely appropriate, for Callisto was changed into a bear, which transformation she is now said to be lamenting instead of a former and greater misfortune.
