Hecuba
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Original / primary: Perseus Eng2
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is a matter apart, in which the army has no share. Reflect on this; for though you find me ready to share your toil and quick to lend my aid, yet the risk of being reproached by the Achaeans makes me hesitate.
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Hecuba
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Ah! there is not in the world a single man free;
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for he is a slave either to money or to fortune, or else the people in their thousands or the fear of public prosecution prevents him from following the dictates of his heart.
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But since you are afraid, deferring too much to the rabble, I will rid you of that fear.
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Thus: be aware of my plot if I devise mischief against this murderer, but refrain from any share in it. And if any uproar or attempt at rescue breaks out among the Achaeans, when the Thracian is suffering his doom, check it without seeming to do so on my account.
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For what remains—take heart—I will arrange everything well.
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Agamemnon
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How? what will you do? will you take a sword in your old hand and slay the barbarian, or do you have drugs or some means to aid you? Who will take your part? Where will you procure friends?
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Hecuba
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Sheltered beneath these tents is a crowd of Trojan women.
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Agamemnon
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Do you mean the captives, the booty of the Hellenes?
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Hecuba
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With their help I will punish my murderous foe.
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Agamemnon
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How are women to master men?
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Hecuba
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Numbers are a fearful thing, and joined to craft a desperate foe.
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Agamemnon
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True; still I have a mean opinion of the female race.
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Hecuba
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What? did not women slay the sons of Aegyptus, and utterly clear Lemnos of men? But let it be thus; put an end to our conference, and send this woman for me safely through the army.
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To a servant And you are to draw near my Thracian friend and say, Hecuba, once queen of Ilium, summons you, on your own business no less than hers, your children too, for they also must hear what she has to say. The servant goes out. Defer awhile, Agamemnon,
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the burial of Polyxena lately slain, so that brother and sister may be laid on the same pyre and buried side by side, a double cause of sorrow to their mother.
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Agamemnon
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So shall it be; yet if the army were able to sail, I could not have granted you this favor;
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but as it is, for the god sends forth no favoring breeze, the army must wait and look for a calm voyage. Good luck to you, for this is the interest alike of individual and state, that the wrong-doer be punished and the good man prosper. Agamemnon departs as Hecuba withdraws into the tent.
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Chorus
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No more, my native Ilium, shall you be counted among the towns never sacked; so thick a cloud of Hellene troops is settling all around, wasting you with the spear;
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you are shorn of your crown of towers, and fouled most piteously with filthy soot; no more, ah me! shall I tread your streets.
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Chorus
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It was in the middle of the night my ruin came,
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in the hour when sleep steals sweetly over the eyes after the feast is done. After the music and dancing, my husband had brought the sacrifice to an end and was lying in our bridal-chamber,
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his spear hung on a peg; with never a thought of the sailor-throng encamped upon the Trojan shores.
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Chorus
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Cursing Helen the sister of the Dioscuri, and Paris the baleful shepherd of Ida;
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for it was their marriage, which was no marriage but misery sent by some demon, that robbed me of my country and drove me from my home.
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Oh! may the sea’s salt flood never carry her home again; and may she never set foot in her father’s halls!
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Polymestor
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My dear friend Priam, and you no less, Hecuba, I weep to see you and your city thus, and your daughter lately slain.
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Ah! there is nothing to be relied on; fair fame is insecure, nor is there any guarantee that prosperity will not be turned to woe. For the gods confound our fortunes, tossing them to and fro, and introduce confusion, so that our perplexity
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may make us worship them. But what use is it to lament these things, and make no advance ahead of trouble? If you are blaming me at all for my absence, stop a moment; I happened to be away in the very heart of Thrace when you came here; but on my return,
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just as I was starting from my home for the same purpose, your maid fell in with me, and gave me your message, which brought me here at once.
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Hecuba
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Polymestor, I am held in such wretchedness that I blush to meet your eye;
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for my present evil case makes me ashamed to face you who saw me in happier days, and I could not look on you with unfaltering gaze. Do not then think it ill-will towards you, Polymestor; there is another cause as well,
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I mean the custom which forbids women to meet men’s gaze.
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Polymestor
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No wonder, surely. But what need do you have of me? Why did you send for me to come here from my house?
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Hecuba
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I wish to tell you and your children a private matter of my own; please bid
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your attendants withdraw from the tent.
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Polymestor
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Retire; this desert spot is safe enough. The guards go out; to Hecuba You are my friend, and this Achaean army is well-disposed to me. But you must tell me how prosperity
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is to help its unlucky friends; for I am ready to do so.
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Hecuba
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First tell me of the child Polydorus, whom you are keeping in your house, received from me and his father; is he alive? The rest I will ask you after that.
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Polymestor
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Yes, you still have a share in fortune there.
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Hecuba
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Well said, dear friend! how worthy of you!
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Polymestor
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What next would you learn of me?
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Hecuba
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has he any recollection of me his mother?
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Polymestor
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Yes, he was longing to steal away here to you.
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Hecuba
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Is the gold safe, which he brought with him from Troy?
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Polymestor
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Safe under lock and key in my halls.
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Hecuba
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Do save it, but do not desire your neighbor’s goods.
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Polymestor
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Not I; may I benefit by what I have, lady!
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Hecuba
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Do you know what I wish to say to you and your children?
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Polymestor
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No; your words will declare it.
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Hecuba
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O you who are as dear to me as you now are, there are—
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Polymestor
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What is it that I and my children must learn?
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Hecuba
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Ancient vaults filled full of gold by Priam’s ancestors.
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Polymestor
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Is it this you would tell your son?
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Hecuba
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Certainly, through you; for you are a righteous man.
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Polymestor
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What need then of these children’s presence?
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Hecuba
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It is better they should know it, in case of your death.
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Polymestor
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Well said; it is also the wiser way.
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Hecuba
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Then do you know where the shrine of Trojan Athena is?
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Polymestor
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Is the gold there? what is there to mark it?
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Hecuba
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A black rock rising above the ground.
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Polymestor
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Is there anything else you want to tell me about the place?
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Hecuba
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I wish to keep safe the treasure I brought from Troy.
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Polymestor
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Where can it be? inside your dress, or have you hidden it?
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Hecuba
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It is safe among a heap of spoils within these tents.
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Polymestor
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Where? This is the station built by the Achaeans to surround their fleet.
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Hecuba
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The captive women have huts of their own.
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Polymestor
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It is safe to enter? are there no men about?
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Hecuba
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There are no Achaeans within; we women are alone. Enter then the tent, for the Argives
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are eager to set sail from Troy for home; and, when you have accomplished all that you must do, you shall return with your children to the place where you have lodged my son. Hecuba leads Polymestor and his children into the tent.
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Chorus
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Not yet have you paid the penalty, but perhaps you will.
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Chorus
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Like one who slips and falls into the surge with no haven near, so shall you lose your own life for the life you have taken. For where liability to justice coincides with heaven’s law;
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there is ruin full of death and doom. Your hopes of this journey shall cheat you, for it has led you, unhappy wretch! to the halls of death; and to no warrior’s hand shall you resign your life.
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Polymestor
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O horror! I am blinded of the light of my eyes, ah me!
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Chorus Leader
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Did you hear, friends, that Thracian’s cry of woe?
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Polymestor
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O horror! horror! my children! 0 the cruel blow.
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Chorus Leader
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Friends, there is strange mischief afoot in yo.
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Polymestor
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No, you shall never escape for all your hurried flight;
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for with a blow I will burst open the inmost recesses of this building.
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Chorus Leader
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Hark! how he launches a bolt with weighty hand! Shall we force an entry? The crisis calls on us to aid Hecuba and the Trojan women.
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Hecuba
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Strike on, spare not, burst the doors!
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you shall never replace bright vision in your eyes or see your children, whom I have slain, alive again.
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Chorus Leader
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What! have you foiled the Thracian stranger and is he in your power, mistress? Is all your threat now brought to pass?
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Hecuba
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A moment, and you shall see him before the tent,
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blind, advancing with blind random step; and the bodies of his two children whom I with my brave women of Troy killed; he has paid me the penalty; here he comes from the tent, as you see. I will withdraw out of his path and stand aside
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from the hot fury of the Thracian, my deadly foe.
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Polymestor
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Woe is me! where can I go, where halt, or turn? shall I crawl like a wild four-footed beast on their track, as my reward? Which path shall I take first,
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this or that, eager as I am to clutch those Trojan murderesses that have destroyed me? You wretched, cursed daughters
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of Phrygia! to what corner have you fled cowering before me? O sun-god, would you could heal, could heal my bleeding eyes, ridding me of my blindness!
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Ha! hush! I catch the stealthy footsteps of the women here. Where can I dart on them and gorge on their flesh and bones, making for myself a wild beasts’ meal, inflicting mutilation
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in requital of their outrage on me? Ah, woe is me! where am I rushing, leaving my children unguarded for maenads of hell to mangle, to be murdered and ruthlessly cast forth upon the hills, a feast of blood for dogs?
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Where shall I stay or turn my steps, like a ship that lies anchored at sea, gathering close my linen robe and rushing to that chamber of death, to guard my children?
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Chorus Leader
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Woe to you! what grievous outrage has been done to you! a fearful penalty for your foul deed has the deity imposed, whoever he is whose hand is heavy upon you.
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Polymestor
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Woe is me! Ho! my Thracian spearmen, armed,
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a race of knights whom Ares inspires! Ho! Achaeans! sons of Atreus! To you I loudly call; come here, by the gods! Does any one hearken, or will no one help me? Why do you delay? Women, captive women have destroyed me.
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A fearful fate is mine; ah me! my hideous outrage! Where can I turn or go?
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Shall I take wings and soar aloft to the mansions of the sky, where Orion and Sirius dart from their eyes
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a flash as of fire, or shall I, in my misery, plunge to Hades’ murky flood?
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Chorus Leader
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It is pardonable, for a man suffering from evils too heavy to bear, to rid himself of a wretched existence.
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Agamemnon
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Hearing a cry I have come here; for Echo,