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. I Andromache, envied name in days of yore, but now of all women that have been or yet shall be the most unfortunate[*](Reading εἴ τις . . . δυστυχεστάτη. Line 7 is probably corrupt in some way, or spurious; possibly the result of two ancient readings. Lascaris gave οὔτις . . . δυστυχεστέρα.); for I have lived to see my husband Hector slain by Achilles, and the babe Astyanax, whom I bore my lord,
  2. hurled from the towering battlements, when the Hellenes sacked our Trojan home; and I myself am come to Hellas as a slave, though I was esteemed a daughter of a race most free, given to Neoptolemus that island-prince,
  3. and set apart for him as his special prize from the spoils of Troy. And here I dwell upon the boundaries of Phthia and Pharsalia’s town, where Thetis erst, the goddess of the sea, abode with Peleus apart from the world, avoiding the throng of men; wherefore the folk of Thessaly
  4. call it the sacred place of Thetis, in honour of the goddess’s marriage. Here dwells the son of Achilles and suffers Peleus still to rule Pharsalia, not wishing to assume the sceptre while the old man lives. Within these halls have I born a boy
  5. to the son of Achilles, my master.