212 EURIPIDES
Charon, hand hard upon the boatman's-pole, Calls me — even now calls — ' Why delayest thou ? Quick ! Thou obstructest all made ready here For prompt departure : quick, then I ' "
" Woe is me ! A bitter voyage this to undergo, sso
Even i' the telling! Adverse Powers above, How do ye plague us ! "
Then a shiver ran : " He has me — seest not ? — hales me, — who is it ? — To the hall o' the Dead — ah, who but Hades' self ,^ He, with the wings there, glares at me, one gaze 385 All that blue brilliance, under the eyebrow ! What wilt thou do ? Unhand me ! Such a way I have to traverse, all unhappy one I "
" Way — piteous to thy friends, but, most of all, Me and thy children : ours assuredly 39o
A common partnership in grief like this ! "
Whereat they closed aboi/t her ; hut " Let be ! LeaA'^e, let me lie now ! Strength forsakes my feet. Hades is here, and shadowy on my eyes Comes the night creeping. Children — children, now Indeed, a mother is no more for you ! sse
Farewell, Ο children, long enjoy the light ! "
" Ah me, the melancholy word I hear,
Oppressive beyond every kind of death !
No, by the Deities, take heart nor dare 4oo
To give me up — no, by our children too
Made orphans of ! But rise, be resolute,
1 Here, as in Homer, Hades is a person, not a place, — the lord of the lower world.
