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Lichas
How should I know? Why do you question me?
It seems she was not born of humble parents.
Deianeira
Perhaps from kings. Did Eurytus have children?
Lichas
I do not know. My inquiries were brief.
Deianeira
Did you not learn her name from her companions?
Lichas
No. I have carried out my task in silence.
Deianeira
320Tell me yourself, unhappy girl. Not knowing
who you are is a great misfortune for me.
Lichas
If she behaves the way she has till now
she will not move her tongue; for she has spoken
not once in all this time of anything.
She labors with the weight of her misfortune;
and ever since she left her wind-swept country
she has wept bitter streams of tears. Her fate,
surely, is hard for her, and claims our pardon.
Deianeira
Then let her be, and let her go inside
330if she so wishes, for I would not add
more suffering to what she now possesses:
that is enough already. Let us enter
the palace. You may hasten where you will,
and I will try to put my house in order. Lichas and the captive women start toward the palace. Deianeira turns to follow.
The Women of Trachis and Philoctetes. A new translation in verse by Robert Torrance. Houghton Mifflin. 1966.
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