The Trojan Women
Euripides
Euripides. The Plays of Euripides, Translated into English Prose from the Text of Paley. Vol. I. Coleridge, Edward P., translator. London: George Bell and Sons, 1906.
- Ah, kind friends, it has come! what I so long have dreaded.
- The lot has decided your fates already, if that was what you feared.
- Ah me! What city did you say, Thessalian, Phthian, or Cadmean?
- Each warrior took his prize in turn; you were not all at once assigned.
- To whom has the lot assigned us severally? Which of us Trojan women
- does a happy fortune await?
- I know, but ask your questions separately, not all at once.
- Then tell me, whose prize is my daughter, hapless Cassandra?
- King Agamemnon has chosen her out for himself.
- To be the slave-girl of his Spartan wife? Ah me!
- No, to share with him his stealthy love.
- What! Phoebus’ virgin-priestess, to whom the god with golden locks granted the gift of maidenhood?
- The dart of love has pierced his heart, love for the frenzied maid.
- Daughter, cast from you the sacred keys, and from your body tear the holy wreaths that drape you in their folds.
- Why! is it not an honor that she should win our monarch’s love?
- What have you done to her whom recently you took from me, my child?
- Do you mean Polyxena, or whom do you inquire about?
- Yes, that one; to whom has the lot assigned her?
- To minister at Achilles’ tomb has been appointed her.
- Woe is me! I the mother of a dead man’s slave! What custom, what ordinance is this among Hellenes, friend?