Chorus from Hippolytus
This is a video of a choral ode from my production of my translation of Euripides' Hippolytus at the University of Tampa in March 2013. The nine women of the chorus are Elisha Sayed, Hailey Hendrickson, Kelcy Owens, Anna Mayworm, Mikaela Bracken, Luisamaria Hernandez, Alexa Perez, Hana Cheplowitz, and Emily Thaler.
This is the text:
Eros, Desire, distilling liquid yearning on lovers’ eyes,
Bringing sweet pleasure to souls you conquer,
May you never come to me in violence, but only in harmony.
For neither lightning bolts nor the shooting stars
Surpass the power of Aphrodite’s arrows you throw.
All sacrifice is useless if we fail to honor Eros,
Who holds the keys to Aphrodite’s sweet chambers.
He ruins those he visits with every kind of calamity.
Iole, princess of Oechalia, virgin, unwed,
Free-roaming as a footloose Naiad or reveling Maenad –
Sea-born Kypris took her from her father’s home,
And bound her through blood and fire with marriage to Herakles,
Who sacked her city, killed her family, and took her by force.
Thebes, bear witness to the ways of Kypris:
How she enticed Semele, mother of Dionysus, to lust for Zeus,
Whose blazing lightning consumed her in his bed.
The goddess of Love is terrible,
Hovering everywhere, like a bee, always ready to sting.
(This English version is copyright 2013 by Robert Gonzalez. All rights reserved. For production arrangements, contact me at rmgonzalez@ut.edu)
