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.

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