Take it, Nephew, and keep it safe. Let no one move you, but kneel there and cling to the dead. And you there, do not stand idly by like women, not men. Help defend us until I return, when I have seen to a grave for him, though all the world forbids it.Exit Teucer.

ChorusWhich will be the last year? When will the sum of the years of our many wanderings stop bringing upon me the unending doom of toilful spear-battlesthroughout broad Troy, the cause of sorrow and of shame for Greece?

ChorusIf only that man had first passed into the depths of the sky or into Hades, the common home of all,before he taught the Greeks the shared plague of Ares’ detested arms! Ah, those toils of his invention, which produced so many more toils! Look how that man has ravaged humanity!

ChorusNo delight in garlandsor deep wine-cups did that man provide me, no sweet din of flutes, that miserable man, or pleasing rest in the night.And from love—god!—from love he has totally barred me. Here I lie uncared for, while heavy dews constantly wet my hair,