Full text can be found at the Perseus
website
Translation by E.P. Coleridge
Helen Helen
and Menelaos
Helen
laments her fate
Helen
learns the fate of her family from Teucer
Iphigeneia at AulisAgamemnon
tells his plan
Clytemnestra's
rage, Achilles's rage, Iphigeneia's
sacrifice
The Trojan Women Cassandra's rantings The women watch Troy burn
Helen
Here I am, once again coming
back to the sanctuary of this tomb, after learning the welcome words of
Theonoe, who knows all things truly; she says my husband is alive and sees
the light of day; he is roaming here and there on countless voyages, not
without practice in wandering, and he shall come here when he finds an
end to his suffering.
But she left one thing
unsaid: if he will escape when he has come? And I refrained from asking
that question clearly; I was so glad when she told me he was safe. She
said that he was near this land somewhere, cast up, shipwrecked, with a
few friends. Oh, when will you come? How much I long for your arrival!
She catches sight of Menelaos
Ah! Who is this? I am not
being ambushed by the plots of Proteus' impious son, am I? Shall I not,
like a young racehorse or a worshipper of Bacchus, reach the tomb? There
is something wild about the looks of this man who is hunting me down.
Menelaos
You there! the one trying
with fearful effort to reach the base of the tomb and the pillars of burnt
sacrifice, stay where you are. Why do you flee? I am amazed and speechless
at the sight of your body.
Helen
Women, I am being ill-treated.
This man is keeping me from the tomb, and he wants to take me and give
me to theking, whose wooing I was seeking to avoid.
Menelaos
I am no thief, nor a servant
of evil men.
Helen
And yet the clothes you
are wearing are unsightly enough.
Menelaos
Put fear aside and stop
your rapid flight.
Helen
I do so, now that I have
reached this spot.
Menelaos
Who are you? Whom do I
see in you, lady?
Helen
But who are you? The same
reason prompts us both.
Menelaos
I never saw a closer resemblance.
Helen
O gods! For the recognizing
of friends is a god.
Menelaos
Are you a woman from Hellas,
or a native of this land?
Helen
From Hellas; but I want
to learn your story too.
Menelaos
You seem to me very much
like Helen, lady.
Helen
And you seem to me like
Menelaos; I don't know what to say.
Menelaos
Well, you have correctly
recognized a most unfortunate man.
Helen
Oh, at last you have come
to the arms of your wife!
Menelaos
What do you mean by wife?
Do not touch my robe.
Helen
The one whom Tyndareus,
my father, gave to you.
Menelaos
O torch-bearing Hekate,
send visions that are favorable!
Helen
You see in me no specter
of the night, attendant on the queen of phantoms.
Menelaos
As one man, I am certainly
not the husband of two women.
Helen
You are the master of what
other wife?
Menelaos
The one hidden in the cave,
whom I am bringing from Troy.
Helen
You have no other wife
but me.
Menelaos
Can it be that I am in
my right mind, but my sight is failing?
Helen
Don't you think that when
you look at me you see your wife?
Menelaos
Your body resembles hers,
but the real truth robs me of this belief.
Helen
Look; what more do you
need? Who knows better than you?
Menelaos
You are like her; I will
not deny that at least.
Helen
Who then shall teach you,
if not your own eyes?
Menelaos
It is there that I am ailing,
because I have another wife.
Helen
I did not go to Troy; that
was a phantom.
Menelaos
And who fashions living
bodies?
Helen
The air, out of which you
have a wife that the gods labored over.
Menelaos
What god's handiwork? You
are saying things beyond hope.
Helen
Hera's, as a substitute,
so that Paris would not have me.
Menelaos
How then could you be here
and in Troy at the same time?
Helen
The name may be in many
places, though not the body.
Menelaos
Let me go! I have come
here with enough pain.
Helen
Will you leave me, and
take that phantom bride away?
Menelaos
Yes, and fare well, for
your likeness to Helen.
Helen
I am ruined! I found you,
my husband, but I will not have you.
Menelaos
The greatness of my troubles
over there convinces me; you do not.
Helen
Ah me! Who was ever more
miserable than I am? Those whom I love best are leaving me, and I shall
never reach the Hellenes or my own country.
Helen
laments her fate
Helen
Dear friends, to what a
fate am I yoked? Did my mother bear me as a wonder to mankind? [For no
other woman, Hellene or barbarian, gives birth to a white vessel of chicks,
in which they say Leda bore me to Zeus.] My life and all I do is a wonder,
partly because of Hera, and partly my beauty is to blame. If only I could
be rubbed out like a painting, and have again in turn a plainer form instead
of beauty, and the Hellenes would have forgotten the evil fate that I now
have, and would remember what part of my life is not evil, as they now
remember what is.
When someone looks to one event only, and is ill-treated by the gods, it is hard, but all the same it can be borne. But I am involved in countless troubles. First, although I never acted wrongly, my good name is gone. And this trouble is stronger than the reality, if someone incurs blame for wrongs that are not his own. Next, the gods have removed me from my native country to barbarian customs, and bereft of friends I have become a slave although I am free by birth; for among barbarians all are slaves except one. And the only anchor of my fortunes is gone, the hope that my husband would come one day and free me of my woes--he is dead, he no longer exists.
My mother is dead, and I am called her murderer--unjustly, but that injustice is mine to bear; while the one who was born the glory of the house, my daughter, is growing gray as a virgin, without a husband; and those two Dioskouroi, called the sons of Zeus, are no more. But with all my misfortunes, I am as good as dead in my circumstances, though not in fact. And this is the last evil of all: if ever I should come home, I would be shut out by barred doors, for people would think I was that Helen of Troy, coming back with Menelaos. If my husband were still alive, we could have recognized each other by recourse to tokens which are evident to us alone. But now this is not so, and he can never be saved.
Helen
learns the fate of her family from Teucer
Teucer
Who holds power over this
fortified house? The dwelling is worthy of comparison with Ploutos', its
royal enclosures and towering buildings. Ah! Oh gods, what sight is here?
I see the hateful deadly likeness of the woman who ruined me and all the
Achaeans. May the gods spurn you, so much do you look like Helen! If I
were not in a foreign land, you would have died by this well-aimed arrow
as a reward for your likeness to the daughter of Zeus.
Helen
What is it, poor man--who
are you, that you have turned away from me and loathe me for the misfortunes
of that one?
Teucer
I was wrong; I gave way
to my anger more than I should, for all Hellas hates that daughter of Zeus.
Forgive me for what I said, lady.
Helen
Who are you? Where have
you come from, to visit this land?
Teucer
I am one of those unfortunate
Achaeans, lady.
Helen
[85] Then it is no
wonder that you loathe Helen. But who are you and where do you come from?
Whose son should I call you?
Teucer
My name is Teucer, my father
is Telamon, and Salamis is the land that nurtured me.
Helen
Then why are you visiting
these lands of the Nile?
Teucer
I am an exile, driven out
of my native land.
Helen
You must be unhappy! Who
banished you from your fatherland?
Teucer
My father Telamon. Could
you find anyone closer to me?
Helen
But why? This matter is
surely an unfortunate one.
Teucer
The death of my brother
Aias (AJAX) at Troy was my ruin.
Helen
How so? You didn't take
his life with your sword, did you?
Teucer
He threw himself on his
own sword and died.
Helen
Was he mad? For what sensible
man would dare such a thing?
Teucer
Do you know a certain Achilleus,
the son of Peleus?
Helen
Yes; he came to woo Helen
once, so I hear.
Teucer
When he died, he left a
contest for his armor to his allies.
Helen
Well, if he did, what harm
is this to Aias?
Teucer
When someone else got the
arms, he took his own life.
Helen
Then are you ill through
his suffering?
Teucer
Yes, because I did not
die together with him.
Helen
So you went to the famous
city of Ilion, stranger?
Teucer
Yes, and by helping to
sack it, I destroyed myself as well.
Helen
Has it already been set
alight and completely consumed by fire?
Teucer
So that not even a trace
of the walls is evident.
Helen
O miserable Helen! Because
of you, the Phrygians have been destroyed.
Teucer
And also the Achaeans;
great evils have been committed.
Helen
How long is it since the
city was sacked?
Teucer
Almost seven years have
gone full circle, with their harvests.
Helen
And how much longer were
you waiting at Troy?
Teucer
For many months; the moon
held its course through ten years.
Helen
And did you capture the
Spartan woman?
Teucer
Menelaos caught her by
the hair to drag her away.
Helen
Did you yourself see the
wretched creature? Or do you speak from hearsay?
Teucer
I saw her with my own eyes,
just as I see you, no less.
Helen
Consider whether you had
some fancy, sent by the gods.
Teucer
Think of some other topic,
not that woman still!
Helen
Are you so sure this fancy
was reliable?
Teucer
I saw it with my own eyes;
and the mind has sight.
Helen
Is Menelaos already at
home with his wife?
Teucer
No; he is neither in Argos
nor by the streams of the Eurotas.
Helen
Alas! This is evil news
for those to whom you bring it.
Teucer
He is said to have disappeared
with his wife.
Helen
Wasn't there the same passage
for all the Argives?
Teucer
Yes; but a tempest scattered
them in every direction.
Helen
On which surface of the
salty ocean?
Teucer
While they were crossing
the Aegean in mid-channel.
Helen
And from that time does
no one know of Menelaos' arrival?
Teucer
No one; but throughout
Hellas he is reported to be dead.
Helen
I am wholly lost. Is the
daughter of Thestius alive?
Teucer
You speak of Leda? She
is dead and gone, indeed.
Helen
It wasn't Helen's disgraceful
fame that killed her, surely?
Teucer
Yes, they say she tied
a noose around her noble neck.
Helen
Are the sons of Tyndareus
still alive or not?
Teucer
They are dead, and not
dead: it is a double story.
Helen
Which report is the stronger?
I am so unhappy at these evils!
Teucer
Men say that they are gods
in the likeness of stars.
Helen
That is good news; but
what is the other story?
Teucer
That they killed themselves
because of their sister. But enough of such talk! I do not need to grieve
twice. As to why I came to this royal palace, wanting to see the prophetess
Theonoe, you be my patron, so I might obtain an oracle: how I should steer
a favorable course to the island of Cyprus, where Apollo has declared I
am to live, giving it the island name of Salamis in honor of that fatherland
over there.
Helen
The voyage itself will
explain that, stranger; leave this land and escape, before the son of Proteus,
the ruler of this land, catches sight of you; now he is away with his trusty
hounds tracking his savage quarry to the death, for he kills every visitor
from Hellas that he catches. Do not seek to learn his reason, and I will
not say; for how could I help you?
Teucer
Lady, you have spoken well.
May the gods grant you a return for your kindness! Although you have a
body like Helen's, your heart is not like hers, but very different. May
she die miserably, and never reach the streams of Eurotas! But may you
always have good fortune, lady.
Helen
Oh, as I begin the great
lament of my great distress, what mourning shall I strive to utter? or
what Muse shall I approach with tears or songs of death or woe? Alas!
Iphigeneia at Aulis
Agamemnon
Leda, the daughter of Thestius, had three
children, maidens, Phoebe, Clytemnestra my wife, and Helen; the foremost
of the favored sons of Hellas came to woo Helen; but terrible threats of
spilling his rival's blood were uttered by each of them, if the should
fail to win the girl.
Now the matter filled Tyndareus, her father, with perplexity, whether to give her or not, how he might best succeed. This thought occurred to him: the suitors should swear to each other and join right hands and pour libations with burnt-sacrifice, binding themselves by this curse: whoever wins the child of Tyndareus for wife, they will assist that man, in case a rival takes her from his house and goes his way, robbing her husband of his rights; and march against that man in armed array and raze his city to the ground, Hellene no less than barbarian. Now when they had once pledged their word and old Tyndareus with no small cleverness had beguiled them by his shrewd device, he allowed his daughter to choose from among her suitors the one towards whom the sweet breezes of Aphrodite might carry her. Her choice fell on Menelaus; would she had never taken him! Then there came to Lacedaemon from the Phrygians the man who, Argive legend says, judged the goddesses' dispute; in robes of gorgeous hue, ablaze with gold, in true barbaric pomp; and he, finding Menelaus gone from home, carried Helen off, in mutual desire, to his steading on Ida. Goaded to frenzy, Menelaus flew through Hellas, invoking the ancient oath exacted by Tyndareus and declaring the duty of helping the injured husband.
And so the Hellenes, brandishing their spears and donning their harness, came here to the narrow straits of Aulis with armaments of ships and troops, with many horses and chariots, and they chose me to captain them all for the sake of Menelaus, since I was his brother. Would that some other had gained that distinction instead of me!
But after the army was gathered and come together, we still remained at Aulis weatherbound. In our perplexity, we asked Calchas, the seer, and he answered that we should sacrifice my own child Iphigenia to Artemis, whose home is in this land, and we would sail and sack the Phrygians' capital [if we sacrificed her, but if we did not, these things would not happen]. When I heard this, I commanded Talthybius with loud proclamation to disband the whole army, as I could never bear to slay my daughter. Whereupon my brother, bringing every argument to bear, persuaded me at last to face the crime; so I wrote in a folded scroll and sent to my wife, bidding her despatch our daughter to me on the pretence of wedding Achilles, at the same time magnifying his exalted rank and saying that he refused to sail with the Achaeans, unless a bride of our lineage should go to Phthia. Yes, this was the inducement I offered my wife, [inventing, as I did, a sham marriage for the maiden.
Of all the Achaeans we alone know the real truth, Calchas, Odysseus, Menelaus and myself; but that which I then decided wrongly, I now rightly countermand again in this scroll, which you, old man, have found me opening and resealing beneath the shade of night. Up now and away with this missive to Argos, and I will tell you by word of mouth all that is written here, the contents of the folded scroll, for you are loyal to my wife and house.]
Clytemnestra's rage, Achilles' rage, Iphigeneia's sacrifice
Achilles
Daughter of Leda, lady of sorrows!
Clytemnestra
No misnomer that.
Achilles
A fearful cry is heard among the Argives.
Clytemnestra
What is it? tell me.
Achilles
It concerns your child.
Clytemnestra
An evil omen for your words.
Achilles
They say her sacrifice is necessary.
Clytemnestra
And is there no one to say a word against them?
Achilles
Indeed I was in some danger myself from the tumult.
Clytemnestra
In danger of what, stranger?.
Achilles
Of being stoned.
Clytemnestra
Surely not for trying to save my daughter?
Achilles
The very reason.
Clytemnestra
Who would have dared to lay a finger on you?
Achilles
All the men of Hellas.
Clytemnestra
Were not your Myrmidon warriors at your side?
Achilles
They were the first who turned against me.
Clytemnestra
My child! we are lost, it seems.
Achilles
They taunted me as the man whom marriage had enslaved.
Clytemnestra
And what did you answer them?
Achilles
Not to kill the one I meant to wed--
Clytemnestra
Justly so.
Achilles
The wife her father promised me.
Clytemnestra
Yes, and sent to fetch from Argos.
Achilles
But I was overcome by clamorous cries.
Clytemnestra
Truly the mob is a dire mischief.
Achilles
But I will help you for all that.
Clytemnestra
Will you really fight them single-handed?
Achilles
Do you see these warriors here, carrying my arms?
Clytemnestra
Bless you for your kind intent!
Achilles
Well, I shall be blessed.
Clytemnestra
Then my child will not be slaughtered now?
Achilles
No, not with my consent at any rate.
Clytemnestra
But will any of them come to lay hands on the maid?
Achilles
Thousands of them, with Odysseus at their head.
Clytemnestra
The son of Sisyphus?
Achilles
The very same.
Clytemnestra
Acting for himself or by the army's order?
Achilles
By their choice--and his own.
Clytemnestra
An evil choice indeed, to stain his hands in blood.
Achilles
But I will hold him back.
Clytemnestra
Will he seize and bear her off against her will?
Achilles
Yes, by her golden hair no doubt.
Clytemnestra
What must I do, when it comes to that?
Achilles
Keep hold of your daughter.
Clytemnestra
Be sure that she shall not be slain, as far as that that can help her.
Achilles
Believe me, it will come to this.
Iphigenia
Mother, hear me while I speak, for I see that you are angry with your husband to no purpose; it is hard for us to persist in impossibilities. Our thanks are due to this stranger for his ready help; but you must also see to it that he is not reproached by the army, leaving us no better off and himself involved in trouble.
Iphigenia
Listen, mother; hear what thoughts have passed across my mind. I am resolved to die; and this I want to do with honor, dismissing from me what is mean. Towards this now, mother turn your thoughts, and with me weigh how well I speak; to me the whole of mighty Hellas looks; on me the passage over the sea depends; on me the sack of Troy; and in my power it lies to check henceforth barbarian raids on happy Hellas, if ever in the days to come they seek to seize her women, when once they have atoned by death for the violation of Helen's marriage by Paris. All this deliverance will my death insure, and my fame for setting Hellas free will be a happy one. Besides, I have no right at all to cling too fondly to my life; for you did not bear me for myself alone, but as a public blessing to all Hellas. What! shall countless warriors, armed with shields, those myriads sitting at the oar, find courage to attack the foe and die for Hellas, because their fatherland is wronged, and my one life prevent all this? What kind of justice is that? could I find a word in answer? Now let us turn to that other point. It is not right that this man should enter into battle with all Argos or be slain for a woman's sake. Better a single man should see the light than ten thousand women. If Artemis has decided to take my body, am I, a mortal, to thwart the goddess? no, that is impossible. I give my body to Hellas; sacrifice it and make an utter end of Troy. This is my enduring monument; marriage, motherhood, and fame--all these is it to me. And it is right, mother, that Hellenes should rule barbarians, but not barbarians Hellenes, those being slaves, while these are free.
Chorus Leader
You play a noble part, maiden; but the whims of Fate and the goddess are diseased.
Achilles
Daughter of Agamemnon! some god was bent on blessing me, if I could have won you for my wife. In you I consider Hellas happy, and you in Hellas; for this that you have said is good and worthy of your fatherland; since you, abandonIng a strife with heavenly powers, which are too strong for you, have fairly weighed advantages and needs. But now that I have looked into your noble nature, I feel still more a fond desire to win you for my bride. Look to it; for I want to serve you and receive you in my halls; and, Thetis be my witness, how I grieve to think I shall not save your life by doing battle with the Danaids. Reflect, I say; a dreadful ill is death.
Iphigenia
This I say, without regard to anyone. Enough that the daughter of Tyndareus is causing wars and bloodshed by her beauty; then be not slain yourself, stranger, nor seek to slay another on my account; but let me, if I can, save Hellas.
Achilles
Heroic spirit! I can say no more to this, since you are so minded; for yours is a noble resolve; why should not one speak the truth? Yet I will speak, for you will perhaps change your mind; [that you may know then what my offer is,] I will go and place these arms of mine near the altar, resolved not to permit your death but to prevent; for brave as you are at sight of the knife held at your throat, you will soon avail yourself of what I said. So I will not let you perish through any thoughtlessness of yours, but will go to the goddess with these arms and await your arrival there. Exit Achilles.
Iphigenia
Mother, why so silent, your eyes wet with tears?
Clytemnestra
I have reason, woe is me! to be sad at heart.
Iphigenia
Stop; do not make me a coward; here in one thing obey me.
Clytemnestra
Tell me, my child, for at my hands you shall never suffer injury.
Iphigenia
Cut not off the tresses of your hair for me, nor clothe yourself in sable garb.
Clytemnestra
Why, my child, what is it you have said? When I have lost you?
Iphigenia
You wll not lose me; I am saved and you renowned, as far as I can make you.
Clytemnestra
How so? Must I not mourn your death?
Iphigenia
By no means, for I shall have no tomb heaped over me.
Clytemnestra
What then? It is death, not the tomb, that is rightly mourned.
Iphigenia
The altar of the goddess, Zeus's daughter, will be my tomb.
Clytemnestra
Well, my child, I will let you persuade me, for you speak well.
Iphigenia
Yes, as one who prospers and does Hellas service.
Clytemnestra
What message shall I carry to your sisters?
Iphigenia
Do not put mourning raiment on them either.
Clytemnestra
But is there no fond message I can give the maidens from you?
Iphigenia
Yes, my farewell words; and promise me to rear Orestes to manhood.
Clytemnestra
Press him to your bosom; it is your last look.
Iphigenia
O you that are most dear to me! you have helped your friends as you had means.
Clytemnestra
Is there anything I can do in Argos to please you?
Iphigenia
Yes, do not hate my father, your own husband.
Clytemnestra
Fearful are the trials through which he has to go because of you.
Iphigenia
It was against his will he ruined me for the sake of Hellas.
Clytemnestra
Ah! but he employed base treachery, unworthy of Atreus.
Iphigenia
Who will escort me from here, before my hair is torn?
Clytemnestra
I will go with you--
Iphigenia
No, not you; that is not well saidl.
Clytemnestra
Clinging to your robes.
Iphigenia
Be persuaded by me, mother, stay here; for this is the better way both for me and you; but let one of these attendants of my father conduct me to the meadow of Artemis, where I shall be sacrificed.
Clytemnestra
Are you gone from me, my child?
Iphigenia
Yes, and with no chance of ever returning.
Clytemnestra
Leaving your mother?
Iphigenia
Yes, as you see, undeservedly.
Clytemnestra
Hold! do not leave me!
The Trojan Women
Cassandra
Bring the light, uplift and show its flame! I am doing the god's service, see! see! making his shrine to glow with tapers bright. O Hymen, lord of marriage! blessed is the bridegroom; blessed am I also, soon to wed a princely lord in Argos. Hail Hymen, lord of marriage! Since you, my mother, are busied with tears and lamentations in your mourning for my father's death and for our country dear, I at my own nuptials am making this torch to blaze and show its light, giving to you, O Hymen, giving, O Hecate, a light, at the maiden's wedding, as the custom is.
Nimbly lift the foot; lead the dance on high, with cries of joy, as if to greet my father's happy fate. The dance is sacred. Come, Phoebus, now, for it is in your temple among your bay-trees that I minister. Hail Hymen, god of marriage! Hymen, hail! Dance, mother, and laugh! link your steps with me, and circle in the delightful measure, now here, now there. Salute the bride on her wedding-day with hymns and cries of joy. Come, you maids of Phrygia in fair raiment, sing my marriage with the husband fate ordains that I should wed.
Hecuba
You god of fire, it is yours to light the bridal torch for men, but piteous is the flame you kindle here, beyond my blackest expectation. Ah, my child! how little did I ever dream that such would be your marriage, a captive, and of Argos too! Give up the torch to me; you do not bear its blaze aright in your wild frantic course, nor have your afflictions left you in your sober senses, but still you are as frantic as before. Take in those torches, Trojan friends, and for her wedding madrigals weep your tears instead.
Cassandra
O mother, crown my head with victor's wreaths; rejoice in my royal match; lead me and if you find me unwilling at all, thrust me there by force; for if Loxias is indeed a prophet, Agamemnon, that famous king of the Achaeans, will find in me a bride more vexatious than Helen. For I will slay him and lay waste his home to avenge my father's and my brothers' death. But let that go; I will not tell of that axe which shall sever my neck and the necks of others, or of the conflict ending in a mother's death, which my marriage shall cause, nor of the overthrow of Atreus' house. But I, for all my frenzy, will so far rise above my frantic fit, that I will prove this city happier far than those Achaeans, who for the sake of one woman and one passion have lost a countless army in hunting Helen. Their captain too, whom men call wise, has lost for what he hated most what most he prized, yielding to his brother for a woman's sake--and she was willing and not taken by force--the joy he had of his own children in his home. For from the day that they landed upon Scamander's strand, their doom began, not for loss of stolen frontier nor yet for fatherland with high towers; whomever Ares took, those never saw their children again, nor were they shrouded for the tomb by hand of wife, but in a foreign land they lie. At home the case was still the same; wives were dying widows, parents were left childless in their homes, having reared their sons for others, and none is left to make libations of blood upon the ground before their tombs. Truly to such praise as this their army can make an ample claim. It is better to pass by their shame in silence, nor may mine be the Muse to tell that evil tale.
But the Trojans were dying, first for their fatherland, fairest fame to win; whomever the sword took, all these found friends to bear their bodies home and were laid to rest in the embrace of their native land, their funeral rites all duly paid by duteous hands. And all such Phrygians as escaped the warrior's death lived always day by day with wife and children by them, joys the Achaeans had left behind. As for Hector and his griefs, hear how the case stands; he is dead and gone, but still his fame remains as bravest of the brave, and this was a result of the Achaeans' coming; for had they remained at home, his worth would have gone unnoticed. And Paris married the daughter of Zeus, whereas, had he never done so, the alliance he made in his family would have been forgotten. Whoever is wise should fly from making war; but if he come to this, a noble death will crown his city with glory, a coward's end with shame. Therefore, mother, you should not pity your country or my bed, for this my marriage will destroy those whom you and I most hate.
Chorus Leader
How sweetly at your own sad lot you smile, chanting a strain, which, in spite of you, may prove you wrong!
Talthybius
Had not Apollo turned your wits to maenad revelry, you would not for nothing have sent my chiefs with such ominous predictions forth on their way. But, after all, these lofty minds, reputed wise, are nothing better than those that are held as nothing. For that mighty king of all Hellas, dear son of Atreus, has yielded to a passion for this mad maiden of all others; though I am poor enough, yet would I never have chosen such a wife as this. As for you, since your senses are not whole, I give your taunts against Argos and your praise of Troy to the winds to carry away. Follow me now to the ships to grace the wedding of our chief. And you too follow, whenever the son of Laertes demands your presence, for you will serve a mistress most discreet, as all declare who came to Ilium.
Cassandra
A clever fellow, this servant! Why is it heralds hold the name they do? All men unite in hating with one common hate the attendants of kings or governments. You say my mother shall come to the halls of Odysseus? Where then are Apollo's words, so clear to me in their interpretation, which declare that she shall die here? What else remains, I will not taunt her with. Unhappy Odysseus, he does not know the sufferings that await him; or how these ills I and my Phrygians endure shall one day seem to him precious as gold. For beyond the ten long years spent at Troy he shall drag out other ten and then come to his country all alone . . . where dreadful Charybdis lurks in a narrow channel between the rocks; past Cyclops the savage shepherd, and Ligurian Circe who turns men to swine; shipwrecked often upon the salt sea-wave; longing to eat the lotus, and the sacred cattle of the sun, whose flesh shall utter in the days to come a human voice, bitter to Odysseus. In brief, he shall descend alive to Hades, and, though he shall escape the waters' flood, yet shall he find a thousand troubles in his country when he arrives.
Enough! why do I recount the troubles of Odysseus? Lead on at once, that I may wed my husband for his home in Hades' halls. Base you are, and basely shall you be buried, in the dead of night when day is done, you captain of that army of Danaids, who think so proudly of your fortune! Yes, and the rocky chasm with its flood of wintry waters shall give my corpse cast forth in nakedness to wild beasts to make their meal upon, near my husband's tomb, I, Apollo's servant. O garlands of that god most dear to me! farewell, you mystic symbols! I here resign your feasts, my joy in days gone by. Go, I tear you from my body, that, while yet mine honor is intact, I may give them to the rushing winds to waft to you, my prince of prophecy! Where is that general's ship? Where must I go to take my place there? Lose no further time in watching for a favoring breeze to fill your sails, doomed as you are to carry from this land one of the three avenging spirits. Fare you well, mother! dry your tears. O dear country! my brothers below the earth and my own father, it will not be long before you shall welcome me; victory shall crown my advent among the dead, when I have overthrown the home of our destroyers, the house of the sons of Atreus.
Hecuba
Woe! oh woe! Ilium is ablaze; the homes of Pergamos and its towering walls are now one sheet of flame.
Chorus
As the smoke soars on wings to heaven, so sinks our city to the ground before the spear. With furious haste both fire and enemy spear devour each house.
Hecuba
Oh, earth, nourisher of my children!
Chorus
Ah, ah!
Hecuba
Hearken, my children, hear your mother's voice.
Chorus
You are calling on the dead with voice of lamentation.
Hecuba
Yes, as I stretch my aged limbs upon the ground, and beat upon the earth with both my hands.
Chorus
I follow you and kneel, invoking from the nether world my hapless husband.
Hecuba
I am being dragged and hurried away--
Chorus
The sorrow, the sorrow of that cry!
Hecuba
To dwell beneath a master's roof!
Chorus
From my own country!
Hecuba
Woe is me! O Priam, Priam, slain, unburied, left without a friend, nothing do you know of my cruel fate.
Chorus
No, for over his eyes black death has drawn his pall, a pure man slain by the impure.
Hecuba
Woe for the temples of the gods and for our dear city!
Chorus
Ah, ah!
Hecuba
Murderous flame and enemy spear are now your lot.
Chorus
Soon will you tumble to your own loved soil, and be forgotten.
Hecuba
And the dust, mounting to heaven on wings like smoke, will rob me of the sight of my home.
Chorus
The name of my country wiII pass into obscurity; all is scattered far and wide, and hapless Troy has ceased to be.
Hecuba
Did you know, did you hear?
Chorus
Yes, it was the crash of the citadel.
Hecuba
The shock, the shock--
Chorus
Will overwhelm our city utterly.
Hecuba
O woe is me! trembling, quaking limbs, support my footsteps! away! to face the day that begins your slavery.
Chorus
Woe for our unhappy town! And yet let us advance to the Achaean fleet.