THE CYCLOPS: A SATYRIC DRAMA.1 TRANSLATED FROM THE GREEK OF EURIPIDES. SILENUS. CHORUS OF SATYRS. THE CYCLOPS. SILENUS. O, BACCHUS, what a world of toil, both now And ere these limbs were overworn with age, Have I endured for thee! First, when thou fled'st The mountain-nymphs who nursed thee, driven afar By the strange madness Juno sent upon thee; And driving through his shield my winged spear, The translation of The Cyclops, though made from a defective text and never finally revised, is a masterpiece in its way. Mr. Swinburne did some admirable work in connexion with it, supplying omissions and substituting correct translations from a good text for readings of an inferior text. A full account of the matter is given in the foot-notes in my library edition.—ED. Slew vast Enceladus. Consider now, sea, 20 And so we sought you, king. We were sailing To be his slaves; and so, for all delight 31 Young things themselves, tend on the youngling sheep, But I remain to fill the water-casks, Or sweeping the hard floor, or ministering see 40 My children tending the flocks hitherward. Even now the same, as when with dance and song You brought young Bacchus to Althea's halls ? CHORUS OF SATYRS. STROPHE. Where has he of race divine Of the lawny uplands feeding? Will I throw to mend your breeding;Get along, you horned thing, Wild, seditious, rambling! EPODE. An Iacchic melody To the golden Aphrodite Will I lift, as erst did I Seeking her and her delight With the Mænads, whose white feet To the music glance and fleet. In these wretched goat-skins clad, 50 60 70 SILENUS. Be silent, sons; command the slaves to drive The gathered flocks into the rock-roofed cave. CHORUS. Go! But what needs this serious haste, O father? SILENUS. I see a Grecian vessel on the coast, And thence the rowers with some general Approaching to this cave.-About their necks Hang empty vessels, as they wanted food, And water-flasks.-O, miserable strangers! 80 Whence come they, that they know not what and who My master is, approaching in ill hour ULYSSES. Friends, can you show me some clear waterspring, The remedy of our thirst? Will any one SILENUS. Hail thou, O, Stranger! tell thy country and thy race. ULYSSES. The Ithacan Ulysses and the king Of Cephalonia. SILENUS. Oh! I know the man, Wordy and shrewd, the son of Sisyphus. ULYSSES. I am the same; but do not rail upon me. The strength of tempests bore me here by force. SILENUS. The self-same accident occurred to me. ULYSSES. Were you then driven here by stress of weather? SILENUS. Following the Pirates who had kidnapped Bacchus. ULYSSES. What land is this, and who inhabit it? SILENUS. Ætna, the loftiest peak in Sicily. ULYSSES. And are there walls, and tower-surrounded towns? |