Euripides, Alcestis 962-72 = Orph. 812 + 919

How to quote this translation

M = reading of the whole MS tradition
m = reading of part of the MS tradition
P = reading on a papyrus
 
Χο. ἐγὼ καὶ διὰ Mούσας
καὶ μετάρσιος ἦιξα, καὶ
πλείστων ἁψάμενος λόγων
κρεῖσσον οὐδὲν Ἀνάγκας
ηὗρον οὐδέ τι φάρμακον
Θρήισσαις ἐν σανίσιν, τὰς
Ὀρφεία κατέγραψεν
γῆρυς, οὐδ’ ὅσα Φοῖβος Ἀ-
   σκληπιάδαις ἔδωκε ἔδωκε Musgrave: παρέδωκε M
φάρμακα πολυπόνοις
ἀντιτεμὼν βροτοῖσιν.

I have flown aloft thanks to the Muse and although I have grappled with many doctrines, I have found nothing stronger than Necessity; no remedy in the Thracian writing tablets which the voice of Orpheus wrote down, nor in the drugs which Phoebus gave to the sons of Asclepius, cutting herbal antidotes for mortals who suffer much.


Relevant guides Orpheus