Sophokles

Women of Trakhis

Sophokles wrote Women of Trakhis, his sardonic revisionist take on that mythical jack-of-all-crises Herakles, for an Athenian audience obsessed with heroes—mortals divinely endowed with unique, uncanny, sometimes criminal attributes, and in whose powers the Greeks believed with worshipful fascination. When the play begins Herakles has already completed his twelve labors. Now free to return to his wife and family, whom he left in Trakhis when Zeus sentenced him to a year’s punishment for committing a treacherous murder, Herakles indulges his lifelong blood- and sex-lust one last time. The Women of Trakhis dramatizes the physical and psychic damage that Herakles, ultimately doomed by the will of Zeus, inflicts on himself, his family, and those who get in his way. But Sophokles adapts the legend to make Herakles’ wife Deianeira (meaning man- or husband-killer) a negligent (or unconsciously motivated) killer rather than a cold-blooded murderer, a victim herself of deceit. As the tragedy unfolds Sophokles explores the destructive powers of love, and the silent will of the god and goddess Eros and Aphrodite, in an avalanche of ironic words and events—some of it conveyed by an observant chorus of young Trakhinian women.
- Robert Bagg, translator

Deianeira    Your father’s been gone for so long. She thinks
        it’s shameful you haven’t tried to find him.           

Hyllus    But I do know where he is, if you
        can believe what people are saying.
Deianeira    Then why not tell me where he’s living, Son?

Hyllus     He slaved during last year’s plowing season
        —seed to harvest—for a Lydian woman.

Deianeira    If he has sunk that low, we can expect
        to hear much worse said about him.

Hyllus     He’s gotten clear of it now. So I hear.

Deianeira    Do people say where he is? Alive, dead, what?

Hyllus     They say he’s attacking Euboean                
        territory—the kingdom of Eurytus—
        or getting ready to attack.

Deianeira    Did you know, Son, that Herakles left me
        prophecies—ones I trust—about that very place?

Hyllus     What prophecies, Mother? I don’t know them.

Deianeira    They say: when he has carried out
        his final mission, either his life will end—
        or the rest of his days will be peaceful.           
        With his life balanced on that knife edge, Son,
        won’t you go help him? Our own survival           
        depends on his. If he dies, so do we.
             
Hyllus    Of course I’ll go, Mother. If I had known
        how dangerous these prophecies were,
        I’d be there right now. But since Fate
        usually treats father so well,
        we never had much reason to worry.
        But now I understand, and I will do               
        whatever it takes to find out the truth.

Deianeira    Then go, Son. No matter how late we learn it,       
        we always profit when the news is good.