Thyestes: Lines 58-67

Has Thyestes yet wept for his children?

I’ll be rolling out an additional paywall passage over the weekends of other stuff I’ve been translating which I generally find cool but doesn’t fit into the weekly rotation. This passage is from the opening lines of Seneca’s Thyestes. I’ll be rolling out a reader for the play, but you can already find a translation of it which I published a few years ago. It is an excellent play and perhaps my favorite of Seneca’s plays.

FVRIA (continenter): nondum Thyestes liberos deflet suos?
et quando tollet? ignibus iam subditis
spument aena, membra per partes eant 60
discerpta, patrios polluat sanguis focos,
epulae instruantur - non noui sceleris tibi
conuiua uenies. Liberum dedimus diem
tuamque ad istas soluimus mensas famem;
ieiunia exple, mixtus in Bacchum cruor
spectante te potetur; inueni dapes
quas ipse fugeres - siste, quo praeceps ruis?

Vocabulary

Aēnum, ī, n.- bronze pot, cauldron

Bacchus, ī, m.- Bacchus; wine

Convīva, ae, m.- guest

Cruor, cruōris, m.- blood, gore

Daps, dapis, f.- feast, banquet

Dēfleo, ēre, dēflēvī, dēflētus- to weep for, lament

Diēs, diēī, m./f.- day

Discernō, ere, discrēvī, discrētus- to separate, tear apart

Eō, īre, iī/īvī, itum- to go

Epulae, ārum, f. pl.- banquet, feast

Explēo, ēre, explēvī, explētus- to fill up, satisfy

Famēs, famis, f.- hunger

Focus, ī, m.- hearth, fireplace

Fugio, ere, fūgī, fugitus- to flee, avoid

Iēiūnium, ī, n.- hunger, fasting

Ignis, is, m.- fire

Instruō, ere, instrūxī, instrūctus- to prepare, set up

Inveniō, īre, invēnī, inventus- to find, discover

Ipse, ipsa, ipsum- self, very

Iste, ista, istud- that (of yours)

Liber, libera, liberum- free

Līberī, ōrum, m. pl.- children

Membrum, ī, n.- limb, part of the body

Mensa, ae, f.- table

Misceō, ēre, miscuī, mixtus- to mix

Nondum (adv.)- not yet

Novus, a, um- new, strange

Pars, partis, f.- part, piece

Pater, patris, m.- father

Patrius, a, um- ancestral, of a father

Polluō, ere, polluī, pollūtus- to defile, pollute

Pōtō, āre, āvī, ātus- to drink

Praeceps, praecipitis- headlong, rushing

Quō (adv.)- to where

Ruō, ere, ruī, rutus- to rush, fall

Sanguis, sanguinis, m.- blood

Scelus, sceleris, n.- crime, wickedness

Sistō, ere, stetī, status- to stop, stand still

Solvō, ere, solvī, solūtus- to loosen, pay, release

Spectō, āre, āvī, ātus- to look at, watch

Spūmō, āre, āvī, ātus- to foam, froth

Subdō, ere, subdidī, subditus- to put under, subject to

Suus, a, um- his/her/their own

Thyestēs, ae, m.- Thyestes

Tollō, ere, sustulī, sublātus- to lift, raise; end

Venio, īre, vēnī, ventum- to come