Hippolyte, vers 856 et suivants[1]:
- THESEE: Mais voyez cette tablette attachée / à sa main chérie.
- Θησεύς: ἔα ἔα: / τί δή ποθ' ἥδε δέλτος ἐκ φίλης χερὸς / ἠρτημένη;
- Qu'est-ce? Veut-elle m'annoncer quelque nouveau malheur? / c'est plutôt son message d'épouse et de mère / où elle inscrivit son dernier souhait.
- θέλει τι σημῆναι νέον; / ἀλλ' ἦ λέχους μοι καὶ τέκνων ἐπιστολὰς / ἔγραψεν ἡ δύστηνος, ἐξαιτουμένη;
- [...]
- Mais je vois un cachet, / celui de l'anneau d'or que portait celle qui n'est plus, caresse pour mes yeux. / Il me faut dérouler le cordon du cachet, savoir ce que veut ce message.
- ἴδω τί λέξαι δέλτος ἥδε μοι θέλει.
- [...]
- LE CORYPHEE: Qu'arrive-t-il? Dis-le moi, si tu veux bien m'en faire part.
- Χορός: τί χρῆμα; λέξον, εἴ τί μοι λόγου μέτα.
- THESEE: Elle crie, cette lettre, elle crie des forfaits.
- Θησεύς: βοᾷ βοᾷ δέλτος ἄλαστα. πᾷ φύγω
- Où fuit / le malheur qui m'écrase? Je suis perdu, anéanti, / tel est le chant de perdition que fait entendre ce message.
- βάρος κακῶν; ἀπὸ γὰρ ὀλόμενος οἴχομαι, / οἷον οἷον εἶδον γραφαῖς μέλος / φθεγγόμενον τλάμων.
- LE C.: Hélas, tu as dit là un funeste prélude.
- Χορός: αἰαῖ, κακῶν ἀρχηγὸν ἐκφαίνεις λόγον.
- T.: Je ne puis plus fermer la porte de ma bouche / sur ce crime mortel que j'ai peine à nommer. / Ecoute, ô mon pays.
- Θησεύς: τόδε μὲν οὐκέτι στόματος ἐν πύλαις / καθέξω δυσεκπέρατον ὀλοὸν / κακόν: ἰὼ πόλις.
cf. aussi, plus loin (trad. Loeb) :
- [925] Ah, but there ought to be for mortals some reliable test for friends, some way to know their minds, which of them is a true friend and which is not, and each man ought to have two voices, the one a voice of justice, the other whatever he chanced to have, [930] so that the voice that thinks unjust thoughts would be convicted of falsehood by the just voice. And in this way we should never be deceived.
- [...]
- Oh, the heart of mortals, how far will it go? What limit can be set to hardihood and brazenness? If it grows great in the course of a man's life, and the man who comes after shall overtop his predecessor [940] in knavery, the gods will have to add another earth to our world to hold the criminal and the vile!
- Look at this man! He was born from my loins, and yet he disgraced my bed and is clearly convicted [945] of utter baseness by the dead woman here.
- Come, show your face to your father, eye to eye, since in any case I have already involved myself in pollution. Are you, then, the companion of the gods, as a man beyond the common? Are you the chaste one, untouched by evil? [950] I will never be persuaded by your vauntings, never be so unintelligent as to impute folly to the gods. Continue then your confident boasting, take up a diet of greens and play the showman with your food, make Orpheus your lord and engage in mystic rites, holding the vaporings of many books in honor. [955] For you have been found out. To all I give the warning: avoid men like this. For they make you their prey with their high-holy-sounding words while they contrive deeds of shame.
- She is dead. Do you think this will save you? This is the fact that most serves to convict you, villainous man. [960] For what oaths, what arguments, could be more powerful than she is, to win you acquittal on the charge?
- [...]
- And so now–but why do I wage this contest against your speech when this corpse, witness most reliable, lies near?
- Hippolytus:
- I have said all else, one more point remains. If I had a witness to what manner of man I am and if I were pleading my case while she was still alive, your careful investigation would have discovered in very truth who the guilty party is. [1025] As things stand, I swear by Zeus, god of oaths, and by the earth beneath me that I never put my hand to your wife, never wished to, never had the thought. May I perish with no name or reputation [citiless, homeless, wandering the earth an exile] [1030] and may neither sea nor earth receive my body when I am dead if I am guilty! What the fear was that made her take her life I do not know, for I am not at liberty to speak further. Virtue she showed, though she did not possess it,]while I who had it did not use it well.
- Chorus Leader:
- You have made a sufficient rebuttal of the charge against you by giving your oath in the name of the gods, which is no slight assurance.
- Theseus:
- Is this man not a chanter of spells and a charlatan? He is confident that by his calm temper [1040] he will overmaster my soul though he has dishonored the father who begat him.
- [...]
- Hippolytus:
- [1055] Will you not examine my oath and sworn testimony or the words of seers? Will you banish me without a trial?
- Theseus:
- There's no divinatory chanciness about this tablet, and its accusation against you deserves my trust.
- [...]
- The messenger:
- I am, I know, a slave of your house, my lord,[1250] but I shall never have the strength to believe that your son was guilty, not even if the whole female sex should hang themselves and fill with writing (grammatôn) all the pine-wood that grows upon Mount Ida. For I know that he was good..
980518
