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. A noble speech, my daughter! but there is sorrow linked with its noble sentiments. Odysseus, if you must please the son of Peleus, and avoid reproach,
  2. do not slay this maid, but lead me to Achilles’ pyre and torture me unsparingly; it was I that bore Paris, whose fatal shaft laid low the son of Thetis.
Odysseus
  1. It is not your death, my lady, that Achilles’ ghost
  2. has demanded of the Achaeans, but hers.
Hecuba
  1. At least then slaughter me with my child; so shall there be a double drink of blood for the earth and the dead that claims this sacrifice.
Odysseus
  1. The maiden’s death suffices; no need to add
  2. a second to the first; would we did not need even this!
Hecuba
  1. Die with my daughter I must and will.
Odysseus
  1. How so? I did not know I had a master.
Hecuba
  1. I will cling to her like ivy to an oak.