Tracking Satyrs

Sophocles

Translated by Anne Mahoney

2 chapters · about 12 min

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The opening

The scene is outdoors. There is a cave upstage center (represented by the skene door). Enter Apollo, right.

Apollo I, Apollo, proclaim to all gods and all mortal men: I shall give a golden basin to whoever can bring back my cattle from far away. It is quite unpleasant to me that they are gone, all of them: cows, calves, heifers. They are all gone, and I look in vain for their tracks, while they wander far from their own mangers. I never thought that any of the gods or of men, whose lives are like a single day, would dare do such a thing. Since I found out about this, shocked as I was, I have been seeking them, and I have proclaimed the deed so that no god or mortal men could be unaware of it. I am beside myself. I have gone to visit the whole nation of the Locrians, those who inhabit Opus, those in Ozolis, those in Knemis by the Cephisus. I have gone to Aetolia and to Acarnanian Argos. From there I came to the grove of Zeus at Dodona, shaded by leaves of prophecy. I then hastened to the fruitful plains of Thessaly and the wealthy cities of Boeotia. And then I came to Attica, to holy Athens, but I see my cows nowhere. Then I came to Dorian Argos and the nearby hill. From there I came, in one leap, to the Stymphalian Lake and Mount Cyllene, hard to climb. I speak to the forest: if any shepherd or any rustic or any charcoal-burner is here, or any saytr from the mountains, child of the river-nymphs, I announce these things to one and all. Whoever can capture the one who stole the cattle of Apollo Paean, his is the reward that stands here.

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About this edition

The words
Anne Mahoney's English translation, copied word for word.
Copied from

The Perseus Digital Library

Perseus Digital Library (Tufts University); CC BY-SA 4.0 — this edition may be reused under the same share-alike terms. creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0

Left out
  • A preface, foreword or afterword
  • The title page and opening pages before chapter 1
  • Notes and pages added by translators, editors or publishers
  • The source website's menus, layout and notices