"And unless one fate ordained of the gods restrains another fate from winning the advantage, my heart would outstrip my tongue and pour forth its fears; but, as it is, it mutters only in the dark, distressed and hopeless ever to unravel anything in time when my soul's aflame."
— Aeschylus (c. 525/524 BC-c. 456/455)
Work Title
Date
c. 458 BC
Metaphor
"And unless one fate ordained of the gods restrains another fate from winning the advantage, my heart would outstrip my tongue and pour forth its fears; but, as it is, it mutters only in the dark, distressed and hopeless ever to unravel anything in time when my soul's aflame."
Metaphor in Context
But a man's blood, once it has first fallen by murder to earth [1020] in a dark tide—who by magic spell shall call it back? Even he1who possessed the skill to raise from the dead—did not Zeus make an end of him as warning? [1025] And unless one fate ordained of the gods restrains another fate from winning the advantage, my heart would outstrip my tongue and pour forth its fears; [1030] but, as it is, it mutters only in the dark, distressed and hopeless ever to unravel anything in time when my soul's aflame.
[Headlam translates:
Else to the light, outstripping tongue,
Heart of her own self all had flung,
That now frets passioning in the dark,
Frenzied, without all hope to find
In mazes of the fevered mind
One thread to help, one clue to reach her mark]
[τὸ δ᾽ ἐπὶ γᾶν πεσὸν ἅπαξ θανάσιμον
πρόπαρ ἀνδρὸς μέλαν αἷμα τίς ἂν [1020]
πάλιν ἀγκαλέσαιτ᾽ ἐπαείδων;
οὐδὲ τὸν ὀρθοδαῆ
τῶν φθιμένων ἀνάγειν
Ζεὺς ἀπέπαυσεν ἐπ᾽ εὐλαβείᾳ;
εἰ δὲ μὴ τεταγμένα [1025]
μοῖρα μοῖραν ἐκ θεῶν
εἶργε μὴ πλέον φέρειν,
προφθάσασα καρδία
γλῶσσαν ἂν τάδ᾽ ἐξέχει.
νῦν δ᾽ ὑπὸ σκότῳ βρέμει [1030]
θυμαλγής τε καὶ οὐδὲν ἐπελπομέν-
α ποτὲ καίριον ἐκτολυπεύσειν
ζωπυρουμένας φρενός.]
[Headlam translates:
Else to the light, outstripping tongue,
Heart of her own self all had flung,
That now frets passioning in the dark,
Frenzied, without all hope to find
In mazes of the fevered mind
One thread to help, one clue to reach her mark]
[τὸ δ᾽ ἐπὶ γᾶν πεσὸν ἅπαξ θανάσιμον
πρόπαρ ἀνδρὸς μέλαν αἷμα τίς ἂν [1020]
πάλιν ἀγκαλέσαιτ᾽ ἐπαείδων;
οὐδὲ τὸν ὀρθοδαῆ
τῶν φθιμένων ἀνάγειν
Ζεὺς ἀπέπαυσεν ἐπ᾽ εὐλαβείᾳ;
εἰ δὲ μὴ τεταγμένα [1025]
μοῖρα μοῖραν ἐκ θεῶν
εἶργε μὴ πλέον φέρειν,
προφθάσασα καρδία
γλῶσσαν ἂν τάδ᾽ ἐξέχει.
νῦν δ᾽ ὑπὸ σκότῳ βρέμει [1030]
θυμαλγής τε καὶ οὐδὲν ἐπελπομέν-
α ποτὲ καίριον ἐκτολυπεύσειν
ζωπυρουμένας φρενός.]
Categories
Provenance
Reading
Citation
Text from Herbert Weir Smyth's edition at Perseus.
Reading Richmond Lattimore's translation, Aeschylus I: Oresteia (University of Chicago Press, 1953).
Reading Richmond Lattimore's translation, Aeschylus I: Oresteia (University of Chicago Press, 1953).
Date of Entry
06/22/2014
