Alcestis of Euripides: Literally Translated into English Prose from the Text of Monk with the Original Greek, the Metres, the Order, and English Accentuation (Cambridge Library Collection - Classics)

Cambridge Library CoLLeCtion Books of enduring scholarly value

Classics From the Renaissance to the nineteenth century, Latin and Greek were compulsory subjects in almost all European universities, and most early modern scholars published their research and conducted international correspondence in Latin. Latin had continued in use in Western Europe long after the fall of the Roman empire as the lingua franca of the educated classes and of law, diplomacy, religion and university teaching. The flight of Greek scholars to the West after the fall of Constantinople in 1453 gave impetus to the study of ancient Greek literature and the Greek New Testament. Eventually, just as nineteenth-century reforms of university curricula were beginning to erode this ascendancy, developments in textual criticism and linguistic analysis, and new ways of studying ancient societies, especially archaeology, led to renewed enthusiasm for the Classics. This collection offers works of criticism, interpretation and synthesis by the outstanding scholars of the nineteenth century.

Alcestis of Euripides T.W.C. Edwards’s edition of Monk’s 1816 translation of Euripides’s Alcestis was published in 1824. Edwards used the earlier work to form the basis of a parallel pedagogic text, adding copious notes for the use of students of ancient Greek. Alcestis is Euripides’s earliest surviving play; a ‘problem play’ that shares much with tragedy, but has a happy ending. Admetus marries Alcestis who offers to die in his place after he angers the goddess Artemis. She is rescued from death by Heracles who returns her in disguise to her husband. Admetus refuses to marry this unknown woman, having vowed celibacy after what he believed was his wife’s death, but she is revealed as Alcestis to much rejoicing. The play was originally performed at the Athenian Dionysia in 438 BC, where it formed the final part of an otherwise lost tetralogy of plays, replacing the traditional satyr play.

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Alcestis of Euripides Literally Translated into English Prose from the Text of Monk with the Original Greek, the Metres, the Order, and English Accentuation T.W.C. E dwards

C A M B R i D G E U N i v E R Si T y P R E S S Cambridge, New york, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paolo, Delhi, Dubai, Tokyo Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New york www.cambridge.org information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9781108015400 © in this compilation Cambridge University Press 2010 This edition first published 1824 This digitally printed version 2010 iSBN 978-1-108-01540-0 Paperback This book reproduces the text of the original edition. The content and language reflect the beliefs, practices and terminology of their time, and have not been updated. Cambridge University Press wishes to make clear that the book, unless originally published by Cambridge, is not being republished by, in association or collaboration with, or with the endorsement or approval of, the original publisher or its successors in title.

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ALCESTIS OF EURIPIDES, LITERALLY TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH PROSE;

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THE ORIGINAL GREEK, THE METRES, THE ORDER, AND ENGLISH ACCENTUATION. TO WHICH ARE SUBJOINED

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FOR THE USE OF STUDENTS. BY

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for pious it was, and belonged to a pious man, the son of Pheres, whom I rescued from dying by deluding the Fates:—for those Goddesses did grant unto me, that Admetus should escape the death that was before him, by giving-in-his-stead another dead to the powers beneath. But having tried and gone through all his friends, his father, and his aged mother, her who bare him, he found not one, save his wife, who was willing, by dying for him, to look on the light no more:—her who now within the palace, breathing out her soul, is borne in their arms: for it is destined for her on this day to die, and to depart from life! But I, lest the pollution come upon me in the house, leave the most dear abode of the palace. And I see already at hand that fellow Death, 1 0 . oerlov yap etv^o? offtoq <wv Irvy^ctvov, Vl- dictum est: lit in Hippolyt. 1050,1363. terally, for it (namely, lXxoq,the mansion) Iphig. Taur. 486. Soph. CEdip. Colon. happened being pious, a pious man's: that 1439. iEschyl. Agam. 676. MONK. is, being the property of a pious man it was 17-18. The vulgate reading here is npious. F o r l-rjy%avoViA\dus has sTvy)(ave, -ns 30EX£ S^AVETV, with which (AMIT hardly 1 1 . Lascar edited I^ucra^uv, with one ?. makes sense, and therefore in lieu of it, M o n k says, * iiMt&tior s t n i c t u r a esset,Sv Barnes and Musgrave conjectured (jutf ippucrd^tnv fxh SavsTv, tit in O r £ s t e , v. 5 9 1 , 'in. Heath retained f^hmr — imaginiog EI fxh xEXEuVctc p£?ETaL fxt [A.h 3"av£~v: - vel in«cTT£ to be understood, lleiske amendE l e c t r a , 510, awh l^Uxe^ (^ &«VE7V.' ed the text as it now stands. 12. Molgxs doX'Mrag—having tricked the 20. •^vxoppayQv

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priest of the dead,—who is about to waft her down to the mansions of Pluto:—and he is come exactly-to-the-time, observing this day, upon which it is destined for her to die. DEATH. [Entering, robed in Mack, with a sword in Ms hand, accosts A-

pollo.] Ha! ha! ha! ha! What doestthou at the palace? Why loungest thou here, Phoebus? Art thou again at thy deeds of injustice, abridging and obstructing the honors of the powers beneath ? Was it not enough for thee to stay the fate of Admetus, having by fraudful artifice deluded the Destinies ? But now again, armed as to thy hand with thy bow, dost thou keep guard over her, who at that time undertook, in order to redeem her husband, herself the daughter of Pelias, to die for him ? APOLLO. [With frankness and sincerity.] Be of courage: I adhere both to justice and to honorable terms. DEATH. What occasion then for thy bow, if thou adherest to justice ? 25. h$ dant 6mnes: restitui, (mon£n- middle voice, but unnecessarily; for, as te Elmsleio,) v£ram accusativi formam Monk observes, itohkoo, (when used as a U^sa, ctijus duo uitimae syllable in imam neuter \evh?)s\gmfte%,v6rsor1frequintor. coal£scunt. MONK.

30. atox£?s av; literally, Doest thou in-

26. ZvpfAErguqiCongruSnte intervallo.justice again'} Actest thou again unjustly? 28. It is to me, I must own, matter of Monk gives il attributes OY prerogatives' much surprize that'Potter or any other as the interpretation of npaq. 3 3 - 3 4 . Moigaq $o\l&