Andromache

Euripides

Euripides. The Plays of Euripides, Translated into English Prose from the Text of Paley. Vol. II. Coleridge, Edward P., translator. London: George Bell and Sons, 1891.

  1. How cruel my fate! Why had I to be a mother too and take upon me a double load of suffering? Yet why do I mourn the past, and o’er the present never shed[*](The word ἐξικμάζω which strictly means to extract the moisture is here explained by the Schol. as = δακρύω. There is no parallel to this usage, and the word, though left in the text by most editors is, as Dindorf remarks, almost certainly corrupt, due perhaps to a gloss, such as ἐξετάζω for ἐξιχνεύω. (Cf. Paley’s note ad loc.)) a tear or compute its griefs? I
    that saw Hector butchered and dragged behind the chariot,
  2. and Ilium, piteous sight! one sheet of flame, while I was haled away by the hair of my head to the Argive ships in I slavery, and on my arrival in Phthia was assigned to Hector’s murderer as his mistress. What pleasure then has life for me? Whither am I to turn my gaze?