and ignore you? You were too young, they say;
you should have voyaged as a stowaway.
No dawdling bypath would have saved our bull,
when your just vengeance thundered through its skull.
There, light of foot, and certain of your goal,
you would have struck my brother's monstrous soul,
and pierced our maze's slow meanders, led
by Ariadne and her faithful thread.
By Ariadne? Prince,
I
would have fought
for precedence; my every flaming thought,
love-quickened, would have shot you through the dark,
straight as an arrow to your quaking mark.
Could I have waited, panting, perishing,
entrusting your survival to a string,
like Ariadne, when she skulked behind,
there at the portal, to bemuse her mind
among the solemn cloisters of the porch?
No, Phaedra would have snatched your burning torch.
and lunged before you, reeling like a priest
of Dionysus to distract the beast.
I would have reached the final corridor
a lap before you, and killed the Minotaur!
Lost in the labyrinth, and at your side,
would it have mattered, if I lived or died?
HIPPOLYTUS:
What are you saying, Madam? You forget
my father is your husband!
PHAEDRA:
I have let
you see my grief for Theseus! How could I
forget my honor and my majesty,
Prince?
HIPPOLYTUS:
Madam, forgive me! My foolish youth
conjectured hideous untruths from your truth
I cannot face my insolence. Farewell ...
