1. POSEIDON: Let this strait, where the girl fell from the skies, be called Hellespont after her. You, Nereids, take the body to the Troad, so that it can be buried by people there. AMPHITRITE: Please not that, Poseidon, but let her be buried here in the sea named after her. We feel very sorry for the pitiable way she was treated by her step-mother.
1. ΠΟΣΕΙΔΩΝ: Τὸ μὲν στενὸν τοῦτο, ἔνθα ἡ παῖς κατηνέχθη, Ἑλλήσποντος ἀπ' αὐτῆς καλείσθω· τὸν δὲ νεκρὸν ὑμεῖς, ὦ Νηρεΐδες, παραλαβοῦσαι τῇ Τρῳάδι προσενέγκατε, ὡς ταφείη ὑπὸ τῶν ἐπιχωρίων. ΑΜΦΙΤΡΙΤΗ: Μηδαμῶς, ὦ Πόσειδον, ἀλλ’ ἐνταῦθα ἐν τῷ ἐπωνύμῳ πελάγει τεθάφθω· ἐλεοῦμεν γὰρ αὐτὴν οἴκτιστα ὑπὸ τῆς μητρυιᾶς πεπονθυῖαν.
POSEIDON: That would be wrong, Amphitrite, and it’s not quite the thing either to leave her lying here under the sand; no, she’ll be buried, as I said, in the Troad or the Chersonese. She’ll find it no small consolation that, before long, the same thing will happen to Ino; she’ll be pursued by Athamas, and plunge into the sea with her child in her arms from the heights of Cithaeron where a ridge runs down into the sea. But we must save Ino to please Dionysus; for she was his nurse and his nanny.
ΠΟΣΕΙΔΩΝ: Τοῦτο μέν, ὦ Ἀμφιτρίτη, οὐ θέμις· οὐδὲ ἄλλως καλὸν ἐνταῦθά που κεῖσθαι ὑπὸ τῇ ψάμμῳ αὐτήν, ἀλλ’ ὅπερ ἔφην ἐν τῇ Τρῳάδι ἢ ἐν Χερρονήσῳ τεθάψεται. ἐκεῖνο δὲ παραμύθιον οὐ μικρὸν ἔσται αὐτῇ, ὅτι μετ' ὀλίγον τὰ αὐτὰ καὶ ἡ Ἰνὼ πείσεται καὶ ἐμπεσεῖται ὑπὸ τοῦ Ἀθάμαντος διωκομένη ἐς τὸ πέλαγος ἀπ' ἄκρου τοῦ Κιθαιρῶνος, καθ' ὅπερ καθήκει ἐς τὴν θάλασσαν, ἔχουσα καὶ τὸν υἱὸν ἐπὶ τῆς ἀγκάλης. ἀλλὰ κἀκείνην σῶσαι δεήσει χαρισαμένους τῷ Διονύσῳ· τροφὸς γὰρ αὐτοῦ καὶ τίτθη ἡ Ἰνώ.
2. AMPHITRITE: You shouldn’t save a bad woman like that!POSEIDON: But, Amphitrite, we mustn’t offend Dionysus. NEREIDS: But what came over her that she fell from the ram, while Phrixus, her brother, is having a safe ride?
2. ΑΜΦΙΤΡΙΤΗ: Οὐκ ἐχρῆν οὕτω πονηρὰν οὖσαν.ΠΟΣΕΙΔΩΝ: Ἀλλὰ τῷ Διονύσῳ ἀχαριστεῖν, ὦ Ἀμφιτρίτη, οὐκ ἄξιον. ΝΗΡΕΙΔΕΣ: Αὕτη δὲ ἄρα τί παθοῦσα κατέπεσεν ἀπὸ τοῦ κριοῦ, ὁ ἀδελφὸς δὲ ὁ Φρίξος ἀσφαλῶς ὀχεῖται;
POSEIDON: That’s natural; he’s a young man and can withstand the speed; but she has no experience, and when she got on that strange mount, and looked down into the gaping depths beneath her, she was terrified, and, overcome at the same time by the heat, and growing dizzy at the speed of the flight, lost hold of the ram’s horns, to which she’d been clinging, and fell into the sea. NEREIDS: But shouldn’t Nephele, her mother, have helped her when she was falling?
ΠΟΣΕΙΔΩΝ: Εἰκότως· νεανίας γὰρ καὶ δύναται ἀντέχειν πρὸς τὴν φοράν, ἡ δὲ ὑπ' ἀηθείας ἐπιβᾶσα ὀχήματος παραδόξου καὶ ἀπιδοῦσα ἐς βάθος ἀχανές, ἐκπλαγεῖσα καὶ τῷ θάλπει ἅμα συσχεθεῖσα καὶ ἰλιγγιάσασα πρὸς τὸ σφοδρὸν τῆς πτήσεως ἀκρατὴς ἐγένετο τῶν κεράτων τοῦ κριοῦ, ὧν τέως ἐπείληπτο, καὶ κατέπεσεν ἐς τὸ πέλαγος. ΝΗΡΕΙΔΕΣ: Οὔκουν ἐχρῆν τὴν μητέρα τὴν Νεφέλην βοηθῆσαι πιπτούσῃ;
POSEIDON: Yes, indeed, but Fate is far stronger than Nephele.
ΠΟΣΕΙΔΩΝ: Ἐχρῆν· ἀλλ’ ἡ Μοῖρα τῆς Νεφέλης πολλῷ δυνατωτέρα.