Quotes from Women of Trachis

Quotations follow the Hugh Lloyd-Jones translation (Harvard University Press, 1994) — our recommended edition.

1. 2

   There is a saying among men, put forth of old, that thou canst not rightly judge whether a mortal's lot is good or evil, ere he die.

2. 3

   They are not wise, then, who stand forth to buffet against Love; for Love rules the gods as he will, and me; and why not another woman, such as I am?

3. 4

   Rash indeed, is he who reckons on the morrow, or haply on days beyond it; for to-morrow is not, until to-day is safely past.

4. 5

   and in all this there is nought but Zeus.

5. 6

   Great and mighty is the victory which the Cyprian queen ever bears away.

6. 7

   And then children were born to us; whom he has seen only as the husbandman sees his distant field, which he visits at seedtime, and once again at harvest.

7. 8

   For she to whom thou wilt speak is not ungenerous, nor hath she yet to learn that the human heart is inconstant to its joys.