1. TRITON: Your monster of the deep, my dear Nereids, the one of you sent against Andromeda, the daughter of Cepheus, didn’t harm the girl, as you’ve been thinking it would, but is now dead itself. NEREIDS: Who killed it, Triton? Did Cepheus set the girl there like a bait, and then attack and kill it, after lying in wait for it with a large force?
1. ΤΡΙΤΩΝ: Τὸ κῆτος ὑμῶν, ὦ Νηρεΐδες, ὃ ἐπὶ τὴν τοῦ Κηφέως θυγατέρα τὴν Ἀνδρομέδαν ἐπέμψατε, οὔτε τὴν παῖδα ἠδίκησεν, ὡς οἴεσθε, καὶ αὐτὸ ἤδη τέθνηκεν. ΝΗΡΕΙΔΕΣ: Ὑπὸ τίνος, ὦ Τρίτων; ἢ ὁ Κηφεὺς καθάπερ δέλεαρ προθεὶς τὴν κόρην ἀπέκτεινεν ἐπιών, λοχήσας μετὰ πολλῆς δυνάμεως;
TRITON: No. But I imagine, Iphianassa, you all know what happened to Perseus, Danae’s child, whom his mother’s father threw into the sea in a chest with his mother, and you saved out out of pity. IPHIANASSA: I know whom you mean. He must be a young man by now, and a very fine handsome fellow.
ΤΡΙΤΩΝ: Οὔκ· ἀλλὰ ἴστε, οἶμαι, ὦ Ἰφιάνασσα, τὸν Περσέα, τὸ τῆς Δανάης παιδίον, ὃ μετὰ τῆς μητρὸς ἐν τῇ κιβωτῷ ἐμβληθὲν εἰς τὴν θάλασσαν ὑπὸ τοῦ μητροπάτορος ἐσώσατε οἰκτείρασαι αὐτούς. ΙΦΙΑΝΑΣΣΑ: Οἶδα ὃν λέγεις· εἰκὸς δὲ ἤδη νεανίαν εἶναι καὶ μάλα γενναῖόν τε καὶ καλὸν ἰδεῖν.
TRITON: It was he who killed the monster. IPHIANASSA: Why, Triton? He shouldn’t have paid us in this coin for saving him.
ΤΡΙΤΩΝ: Οὗτος ἀπέκτεινεν τὸ κῆτος. ΙΦΙΑΝΑΣΣΑ: Διὰ τί, ὦ Τρίτων; οὐ γὰρ δὴ σῶστρα ἡμῖν τοιαῦτα ἐκτίνειν αὐτὸν ἐχρῆν.
2. TRITON: I’ll tell you everything, just as it happened. He was sent against the Gorgons, to carry out a task for the king. But when he reached Libya— IPHIANASSA: How did he do it, Triton? By himself? Did he take others to help him? Otherwise it’s a difficult journey.
2. ΤΡΙΤΩΝ: Ἐγὼ ὑμῖν φράσω τὸ πᾶν ὡς ἐγένετο· ἐστάλη μὲν οὗτος ἐπὶ τὰς Γοργόνας ἆθλόν τινα τῷ βασιλεῖ ἐπιτελῶν, ἐπεὶ δὲ ἀφίκετο εἰς τὴν Λιβύην— ΙΦΙΑΝΑΣΣΑ: Πῶς, ὦ Τρίτων; μόνος; ἢ καὶ ἄλλους συμμάχους ἦγεν; ἄλλως γὰρ δύσπορος ἡ ὁδός.
TRITON: He went through the air. Athena had given him wings on his feet. Well, when he’d reached where they lived, they must all have been asleep, and Perseus cut off Medusa’s head and flew away. IPHIANASSA: How could he see? They are not for the eye to behold. Anyone who sees them won’t see anything afterwards.
ΤΡΙΤΩΝ: Διὰ τοῦ ἀέρος· ὑπόπτερον γὰρ αὐτὸν ἡ Ἀθηνᾶ ἔθηκεν. ἐπεὶ δ’ οὖν ἧκεν ὅπου διῃτῶντο, αἱ μὲν ἐκάθευδον, οἶμαι, ὁ δὲ ἀποτεμὼν τῆς Μεδούσης τὴν κεφαλὴν ᾤχετο ἀποπτάμενος. ΙΦΙΑΝΑΣΣΑ: Πῶς ἰδών; ἀθέατοι γάρ εἰσιν· ἢ ὃς ἂν ἴδῃ, οὐκ ἄν τι ἄλλο μετὰ ταύτας ἴδοι.
TRITON: Athena held up her shield—I heard him describe it to Andromeda and later to Cepheus—and let him see the reflection of Medusa on that bright shield as though on a mirror; then, looking at the reflection, he caught her hair in his left hand, and holding his scimitar in his right, cut off her head, and flew away before her sisters woke up.
ΤΡΙΤΩΝ: Ἡ Ἀθηνᾶ τὴν ἀσπίδα προφαίνουσα—τοιαῦτα γὰρ ἤκουσα διηγουμένου αὐτοῦ πρὸς τὴν Ἀνδρομέδαν καὶ πρὸς τὸν Κηφέα ὕστερον—ἡ Ἀθηνᾶ δὴ ἐπὶ τῆς ἀσπίδος ἀποστιλβούσης ὥσπερ ἐπὶ κατόπτρου παρέσχεν αὐτῷ ἰδεῖν τὴν εἰκόνα τὴς Μεδούσης· εἶτα λαβόμενος τῇ λαιᾷ τῆς κόμης, ἐνορῶν δ’ ἐς τὴν εἰκόνα, τῇ δεξιᾷ τὴν ἅρπην ἔχων, ἀπέτεμεν τὴν κεφαλὴν αὐτῆς, καὶ πρὶν ἀνεγρέσθαι τὰς ἀδελφὰς ἀνέπτατο.
3. TRITON: When he was at the Ethiopian shore here, and now flying low, he saw Andromeda lying fastened to a projecting rock—ye gods, what a beautiful sight she was!—with her hair let down, but largely uncovered from the breasts downwards. At first he pitied her fate and asked the reason for her punishment, but little by little he succumbed to love, and decided to help, since she had to be saved. So when the monster came—a fearsome sight it was too!—to gulp her down, the young man hovered above it with his scimitar unsheathed, and, striking with one hand, showed it the Gorgon with the other, and turned it into stone. At one and the same time was the monster killed, and most of it, all of it that faced Medusa, petrified. Then Perseus undid the maiden’s chains, and supported her with his hand as she tip-toed down from the slippery rock. Now he’s marrying her in Cepheus’ palace and will take her away to Argos, so that, instead of dying, she’s come by an uncommonly good marriage.
3. ΤΡΙΤΩΝ: ἐπεὶ δὲ κατὰ τὴν παράλιον ταύτην Αἰθιοπίαν ἐγένετο, ἤδη πρόσγειος πετόμενος, ὁρᾷ τὴν Ἀνδρομέδαν προκειμένην ἐπί τινος πέτρας προβλῆτος προσπεπατταλευμένην, καλλίστην, ὦ θεοί, καθειμένην τὰς κόμας, ἡμίγυμνον πολὺ ἔνερθε τῶν μαστῶν· καὶ τὸ μὲν πρῶτον οἰκτείρας τὴν τύχην αὐτῆς ἀνηρώτα τὴν αἰτίαν τῆς καταδίκης, κατὰ μικρὸν δὲ ἁλοὺς ἔρωτι—ἐχρῆν γὰρ σεσῶσθαι τὴν παῖδα—βοηθεῖν διέγνω· καὶ ἐπειδὴ τὸ κῆτος ἐπῄει μάλα φοβερὸν ὡς καταπιόμενον τὴν Ἀνδρομέδαν, ὑπεραιωρηθεὶς ὁ νεανίσκος πρόκωπον ἔχων τὴν ἅρπην τῇ μὲν καθικνεῖται, τῇ δὲ προδεικνὺς τὴν Γοργόνα λίθον ἐποίει αὐτό, τὸ δὲ τέθνηκεν ὁμοῦ καὶ πέπηγεν αὐτοῦ τὰ πολλά, ὅσα εἶδε τὴν Μέδουσαν· ὁ δὲ λύσας τὰ δεσμὰ τῆς παρθένου, ὑποσχὼν τὴν χεῖρα ὑπεδέξατο ἀκροποδητὶ κατιοῦσαν ἐκ τῆς πέτρας ὀλισθηρᾶς οὔσης, καὶ νῦν γαμεῖ ἐν τοῦ Κηφέως καὶ ἀπάξει αὐτὴν εἰς Ἄργος, ὥστε ἀντὶ θανάτου γάμον οὐ τὸν τυχόντα εὕρετο.
4. IPHIANASSA: I, for one, am not sorry to hear it. What harm did the girl do to us, if her mother was always boasting and claiming to be more beautiful than we are? DORIS: Well that way as a mother she would have suffered through her daughter. IPHIANASSA: Let’s forget all that, Doris, if a barbarian woman’s talk has been too big. She’s paid us penalty enough by being frightened for her daughter. So let’s accept the marriage with a good grace.
4. ΙΦΙΑΝΑΣΣΑ: Ἐγὼ μὲν οὐ πάνυ τῷ γεγονότι ἄχθομαι· τί γὰρ ἡ παῖς ἠδίκει ἡμᾶς, εἰ ἡ μήτηρ αὐτῆς, ἐμεγαλαυχεῖτο καὶ ἠξίου εἶναι καλλίων; ΔΩΡΙΣ: Ὅτι οὕτως ἂν ἤλγησεν ἐπὶ τῇ θυγατρὶ μήτηρ γε οὖσα. ΙΦΙΑΝΑΣΣΑ: Μηκέτι μεμνώμεθα, ὦ Δωρί, ἐκείνων, εἴ τι βάρβαρος γυνὴ ὑπὲρ τὴν ἀξίαν ἐλάλησεν· ἱκανὴν γὰρ ἡμῖν τιμωρίαν ἔδωκεν φοβηθεῖσα ἐπὶ τῇ παιδί. χαίρωμεν οὖν τῷ γάμῳ.