Thyestes: Allow me to bury them; restore what you may see immediately burned.
nihil te genitor habiturus rogo. §1030sed perditurus.
I, a father, ask for nothing to keep, Atreus: But to lose.
Thyestes: Whatever of your children survives, you have; whatever does not survive, you have.
Thyestes: Do they lie as food for savage birds, or are they kept for beasts, or do they feed wild animals?
§1034Epulatus ipse es impia natos dape.
Atreus: You yourself have feasted on your children in an impious banquet.
§1035Hoc est deos quod puduit, hoc egit diem §1036aversum in ortus, quas miser voces dabo §1037qnestusque quos? quae verba sufficient mihi?
Thyestes: This is what shamed the gods, this drove the day backward to its rise. What cries shall I, wretched, utter, and what complaints? What words will suffice for me?
§1038abscisa cerno capita et avulsas manus §1039et rupta fractis cruribus vestigia— §1040hoc est quod avidus capere non potuit pater.
I see severed heads and torn-off hands and feet ripped from broken legs— this is what the greedy father could not take in.
My entrails roll within, and the enclosed crime struggles without exit and seeks flight.
Give me a sword, brother (that one has much of my blood); let a way be given to my children by the iron.
§1045negatur ensis? pectora inliso sonent §1046contusa planctu— sustine, infelix, manum, §1047pareamus umbris, tale quis vidit nefas?
Is the sword denied? Let my breasts resound, bruised by struck beating—hold your hand, unhappy man, let us obey the shades. Who has seen such a crime?
§1048quis inhospitalis Caucasi rupem asperam §1049Heniochus habitans quisve Cecropiis metus §1050terris Procrustes? genitor en natos premo §1051premorque natis— sceleris est aliquis modus.
What Heniochian, dwelling on the rough rock of inhospitable Caucasus, or what Procrustes, a terror to Cecropian lands? Behold, I, a father, press my children and am pressed by my children—there is some limit to crime.
Atreus: A limit to crime is due when you commit a crime, not when you repay it.
hoc quoque exiguum est mihi.
Even this is too little for me.
§1054ex vulnere ipso sanguinem calidum in tua §1055defundere ora debui, ut viventium §1056biberes cruorem— verba sunt irae data §1057dum propero, ferro vulnera impresso dedi, §1058cecidi ad aras, caede votiva focos §1059placavi et artus, corpora exanima amputans, §1060in parva carpsi frusta et haec ferventibus §1061demersi aenis, illa lentis ignibus §1062stillare iussi; membra nervosque abscidi §1063viventibus, gracilique traiectas veru §1064mugire fibras vidi et aggessi manu §1065mea ipse flammas— omnia haec melius pater
From the wound itself, warm blood into your mouth I ought to have poured, so that of the living you might drink the gore—words were given to my anger while I hurried; I gave wounds with pressed iron, I slaughtered at the altars, with votive slaughter the hearths I appeased, and cutting the limbs, the lifeless bodies, I tore them into small pieces, and these in boiling cauldrons I submerged, those by slow fires I ordered to drip; limbs and nerves I cut off while they were living, and pierced by a slender spit I saw the entrails groan, and with my own hand I myself heaped up the flames—all these things the father could have done better.
§1066fecisse potuit, cecidit in cassum dolor: §1067scidit ore natos impio, sed nesciens, §1068sed nescientes,
My grief fell in vain: he tore his children with his impious mouth, but unwitting, and they unwitting.
§1068bClausa litoribus vagis §1069audite maria, vos quoque audite hoc scelus, §1070quocumque, di, fugistis, audite inferi, §1071audite terrae, Noxque Tartarea gravis §1072et atra nube, vocibus nostris vaca §1073(tibi sum relictus, sola tu miserum vides,
Thyestes: Closed by wandering shores, hear, O seas, you too hear this crime, wherever you have fled, gods, hear, O spirits of the underworld, hear, O lands, and Tartarean Night, heavy and dark with cloud, attend to our voices (to you I am left, you alone see the wretched man, you too without stars).
§1074tu quoque sine astris), vota non faciam improba, §1075pro me nihil precabor— et quid iam potest
I will not make wicked vows, for myself I will pray for nothing—and what can now be for me?
§1076pro me esse? vobis vota prospicient mea.
My vows will look out for you.
§1077tu, summe caeli rector, aetheriae potens §1078dominator aulae, nubibus totum horridis §1079convolve mundum, bella ventorum undique §1080committe et omni parte violentum intona, §1081manuque non qua tecta et immeritas domos §1082telo petis minore, sed qua montium §1083tergemina moles cecidit et qui montibus §1084stabant pares Gigantes, hac arma expedi §1085ignesque torque, vindica amissum diem, §1086iaculare flammas, lumen ereptum polo §1087fulminibus exple.
You, highest ruler of heaven, powerful dominator of the ethereal hall, with horrid clouds enfold the whole world, commit the battles of the winds on every side and thunder violently in every part, and with your hand—not that with which you seek roofs and undeserving houses with a lesser weapon, but that with which the triple mass of mountains fell and the Giants who stood equal to mountains were laid low—with this prepare your weapons and hurl your fires, avenge the lost day, shoot your flames, and the light snatched from the sky fill with lightnings.
causa, ne dubites diu, §1088utriusque mala sit; si minus, mala sit mea: §1089me pete, trisulco flammeam telo facem §1090per pectus hoc transmitte— si gnatos pater §1091humare et igni tradere extremo volo, §1092ego sum cremandus.
Let the cause, do not doubt long, be bad for both; if not, let it be bad for me: seek me, send the flaming torch with triple-forked weapon through this breast—if the father wishes to bury his children and commit them to the final fire, I am the one to be burned.
si nihil superos movet §1093nullumque telis impios numen petit, §1094aeterna nox permaneat et tenebris tegat §1095inmensa longis scelera, nil, Titan, queror, §1096si perseveras.
If nothing moves the gods above and no deity seeks the impious with weapons, let eternal night remain and cover with long darkness immense crimes; I complain of nothing, Titan, if you persevere.
§1096bNunc meas laudo manus, §1097nunc parta vera est palma, perdideram scelus, §1098nisi sic doleres.
Atreus: Now I praise my hands, now the true palm is won. I would have lost my crime unless you grieved thus.
liberos nasci mihi §1099nunc credo, castis nunc fidem reddi toris.
That my children were born to me now I believe, now faith is restored to chaste marriage beds.
§1100Quid liberi meruere?
Thyestes: What did the children deserve?
§1100bQuod fuerant tui.
Atreus: That they had been yours.
Thyestes: Sons to their parent— Atreus: I confess, and, what pleases me, certainly yours.
§1102bPiorum praesides testor deos.
Thyestes: I call to witness the gods who protect the pious.
§1103Quin coniugales?
Atreus: Why not the gods of marriage?
§1103bScelere quis pensat scelus?
Thyestes: Who compensates crime with crime?
§1104Scio quid queraris: scelere praerepto doles, §1105nec quod nefandas hauseris angit dapes — §1106quod non parans! fuerat hic animus tibi §1107instruere similes inscio fratri cibos §1108et adiuvante liberos matre aggredi §1109similique leto sternere — hoc unum obstitit: §1110tuos putasti.
Atreus: I know what you complain of: you grieve because the crime was snatched from you, nor does it vex you that you drained the unspeakable feast— but that you did not prepare it! It had been your intention to prepare similar food for your unwitting brother, and with the mother's help to attack the children and lay them low with a similar death—this alone prevented you: you thought they were yours.
Thyestes: Vengeful gods will be present; my vows deliver you to them for punishment.
§1112Te puniendum liberis trado tuis.
Atreus: I deliver you to your children for punishment.