Trojanwomen
Choose a text
id="mobileReaderAuthor" class="mobile-reader-author" href="/authors/euripides" aria-label="More works by Euripides">
—
⋯
Original / primary: Perseus Eng2
216
216
Hecuba
216
Yes, beyond all count or measure are my sorrows; evil vies with evil in the struggle to be first.
217
217
Andromache
217
Your daughter Polyxena is dead, slain at Achilles’ tomb, an offering to his lifeless corpse.
218
218
Hecuba
218
O woe is me! This is that riddle Talthybius
219
long ago told me, a truth obscurely uttered.
220
220
Andromache
220
I saw her myself; so I alighted from the chariot, and covered her corpse with a mantle, and struck upon my breast.
221
221
Hecuba
221
Alas! my child, for your unhallowed sacrifice! and yet again, alas! for your shameful death!
222
222
Andromache
222
Her death was even as it was, and yet that death of hers was after all a happier fate than my life.
223
223
Hecuba
223
Death and life are not the same, my child; the one is annihilation, the other keeps a place for hope.
224
224
Andromache
224
Hear, O mother of children! give ear to what I urge so well,
225
that I may cheer my drooping spirit. It is all one, I say, never to have been born and to be dead, and better far is death than life with misery. For the dead feel no sorrow any more and know no grief; but he who has known prosperity and has fallen on evil days
226
feels his spirit straying from the scene of former joys. Now that child of yours is dead as though she never had seen the light, and little she knows of her calamity; whereas I, who aimed at a fair repute, though I won a higher lot than most, yet missed my luck in life.
227
For all that stamps the wife a woman chaste, I strove to do in Hector’s home. In the first place, whether there is a slur upon a woman, or whether there is not, the very fact of her not staying at home brings in its train an evil name;
228
therefore I gave up any longing to do so, and stayed within my house; nor would I admit indoors the clever gossip women love, but conscious of a heart that told an honest tale I was content. And ever would I keep a silent tongue and modest eye before my husband;
229
and well I knew where I might rule him, and where it was best to yield.
230
Report of this has reached the Achaean army, and proved my ruin; for when I was taken captive, Achilles’ son would have me
231
as his wife, and I must serve in the house of murderers. And if I set aside my love for Hector, and open my heart to this new lord, I shall appear a traitress to the dead, while, if I hate him, I shall incur my master’s displeasure.
232
And yet they say a single night removes a woman’s dislike for her husband; I despise the woman who, when she has lost her former husband, transfers her love by marrying another. Not even the horse, if parted from her stablemate,
233
will cheerfully draw the yoke; and animals have neither speech nor sense to help them, and are by nature man’s inferiors.
234
O my dear Hector, in you I found a husband amply dowered with wisdom, noble birth and fortune, a brave man and a mighty;
235
while you took from my father’s house a spotless bride, yourself the first to make this maiden wife. But now death has claimed you, and I am soon to sail to Hellas, a captive doomed to wear the yoke of slavery. Has not then the dead Polyxena,
236
for whom you wail, less evil to bear than I? I have not so much as hope, the last resource of every human heart, nor do I beguile myself with dreams of future bliss, the very thought of which is sweet.
237
237
Chorus Leader
237
You are in the same plight as I; your lamentations
238
for yourself remind me of my own sad case.
239
239
Hecuba
239
I never yet have set foot on a ship’s deck, though I have seen such things in pictures and know of them from hearsay. Now sailors, if there comes a storm of moderate force, are all eagerness to save themselves by toil;
240
one stands at the tiller, another sets himself to work the sheets, a third meanwhile is baling out the ship; but if tempestuous waves arise to overwhelm them, they yield to fortune and commit themselves to the driving billows. Even so I, by reason of my countless troubles,
241
am speechless and forbear to say a word; for this surge of misery from the gods is too strong for me. Cease, my darling child, to speak of Hector’s fate; no tears of yours can save him; honor your present master,
242
offering your sweet nature as the bait to win him. If you do this, you will cheer your friends as well as yourself and you shalt rear my Hector’s child to lend stout aid to Ilium, that so your children in the aftertime
243
may build her up again, and our city yet be established. But our talk must take a different turn; who is this Achaean servant I see coming here again, sent to tell us of some new design?
244
244
Talthybius
244
You that once were the wife of Hector, bravest of the Phrygians,
245
do not hate me, for I am not a willing messenger. The Danaids and sons of Pelops both command—
246
246
Andromache
246
What is it? your prelude bodes evil news.
247
247
Talthybius
247
It is decreed your son is—how can I tell my news?
248
248
Andromache
248
Surely not to have a different master from me?
249
249
Talthybius
249
None of all Achaea’s chiefs shall ever lord it over him.
250
250
Andromache
250
Is it their will to leave him here, a remnant of Phrygia’s race?
251
251
Talthybius
251
I know no words to break the sorrow lightly to you.
252
252
Andromache
252
I thank you for your consideration, unless indeed you have good news to tell.
253
253
Talthybius
253
They mean to slay your son; there is my hateful message to you.
254
254
Andromache
254
Oh me! this is worse tidings than my forced marriage.
255
255
Talthybius
255
So spoke Odysseus to the assembled Hellenes, and his word prevails.
256
256
Andromache
256
Oh, once again alas! there is no measure in the woes I bear.
257
257
Talthybius
257
He said they should not rear so brave a father’s son.
258
258
Andromache
258
May such counsels prevail about children of his!
259
259
Talthybius
259
He must be thrown from Troy’s battlements. Let it be so, and you will show more wisdom; do not cling to him, but bear your sorrows with heroic heart, nor in your weakness think that you are strong. For nowhere do you have any help; consider this you must;
260
your husband and your city are no more, so you are in our power, and I alone am match enough for one woman; therefore I would not see you bent on strife, or any course to bring you shame or hate, nor would I hear you rashly curse the Achaeans.
261
For if you say anything to anger the army, this child will find no burial nor pity either. But if you hold your peace and with composure take your fate, you will not leave his corpse unburied, and you yourself will find more favor with the Achaeans.
262
262
Andromache
262
My dearest! my own sweet child and priceless treasure! your death the foe demands, and you must leave your wretched mother. That which saves the lives of others, proves your destruction—your father’s nobility; to you your father’s valiancy has proved no gift.
263
O my unlucky bed and marriage, that brought me once to Hector’s home, hoping to be the mother of a son that should rule over Asia’s fruitful fields instead of serving as a victim to the Danaids! Do you weep, my child? do you know your hapless fate?
264
Why clutch me with your hands and to my garment cling, nestling like a tender chick beneath my wing? Hector will not rise from the earth and come gripping his famous spear to bring you salvation; no kinsman of your father appears, nor might of Phrygian hosts;
265
one dreadful headlong leap from the dizzy height and you will dash out your life with none to pity you! Oh to clasp your tender limbs, a mother’s fondest joy! Oh to breathe your fragrant breath! In vain it seems these breasts did suckle you, wrapped in your swaddling-clothes;
266
all for nothing I used to toil and wear myself away! Kiss your mother now for the last time, nestle to her that bore you, twine your arms about my neck and join your lips to mine! O you Hellenes, cunning to devise new forms of cruelty,
267
why slay this child who never wronged any? You daughter of Tyndareus, you are no child of Zeus, but I say you were born of many a father, first of some evil demon, next of Envy, then of Murder and of Death, and every horror that the earth breeds.
268
That Zeus was never father of yours I boldly do assert, bane as you have been to many a Hellene and barbarian too. Destruction catch you! Those fair eyes of yours have brought a shameful ruin on the fields of glorious Troy. Take the child and bear him hence, hurl him down if you wish,
269
then feast upon his flesh! It is the gods’ will we perish, and I cannot ward the deadly stroke from my child. Hide me and my misery; cast me into the ship’s hold; for it is to a fair wedding I am going, now that I have lost my child!
270
270
Chorus Leader
270
Unhappy Troy! you have lost countless men for the sake of one woman and her hateful bed.
1229b
1229b
Hecuba
1229b
Alas!
1230b
1230b
Hecuba
1230b
Woe is me!