Hecuba

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. No, but will close over you when you fall from the masthead.
Hecuba
  1. Who will force me to take the leap?
Polymestor
  1. Of your own accord you will climb the ship’s mast.
Hecuba
  1. With wings upon my back, or by what means?
Polymestor
  1. You will become a dog with bloodshot gaze.
Hecuba
  1. How did you know of my transformation?
Polymestor
  1. Dionysus, our Thracian prophet, told me so.
Hecuba
  1. And did he prophesy to you nothing of your present trouble?
Polymestor
  1. No, for you would never have caught me thus by guile.
Hecuba
  1. Dead or alive shall I complete my life here?
Polymestor
  1. Dead; and to your tomb shall be given a name—;
Hecuba
  1. Recalling my form, or what will you tell me?
Polymestor
  1. The hapless hound’s grave, a mark for mariners.
Hecuba
  1. It is nothing to me, now that you have paid me the penalty.
Polymestor
  1. Further, your daughter Cassandra must die.
Hecuba
  1. I scorn the prophecy! I give it to you to keep for yourself.
Polymestor
  1. The wife of Agamemnon, grim keeper of his palace, shall slay her.
Hecuba
  1. Never may the daughter of Tyndareus do such a frantic deed!
Polymestor
  1. And she shall slay this man as well, lifting high the axe.
Agamemnon
  1. You creature, are you mad? are you so eager to find sorrow?