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.
- daughter of Tyndareus, justly counted among the captives. And if you would see that queen of misery, Hecuba, you can; for there she lies before the gates, weeping many tears for many sorrows; at Achilles’ tomb,
- without her knowledge, her daughter Polyxena has died most piteously; Priam is gone, and her children too; Cassandra, whom the lord Apollo left to be a virgin, frenzied maid, has been forced by Agamemnon, in contempt of the god’s ordinance and of piety, to a dishonored wedlock.
- Farewell, O city once prosperous! farewell, you ramparts of polished stone! if Pallas, daughter of Zeus, had not decreed your ruin, you would be standing firmly still.
- May I address the mighty god whom the gods revere and who to my own father is very near in blood,
- laying aside our former enmity?
- You may; for over the soul the ties of kin exert no feeble spell, great queen Athena.
- For your forgiving mood my thanks! I have messages to impart affecting both yourself and me, lord.
- Do you bring fresh tidings from some god, from Zeus, or from some lesser power?
- From none of these; but on behalf of Troy, whose soil we tread, I have come to seek your mighty aid, to make it one with mine.
- What! have you laid your former hate aside
- to take compassion on the town now that it is burnt to ashes?
- First go back to the former point; will you make common cause with me in the scheme I purpose?
- Yes, surely; but I want to learn your wishes, whether you have come to help Achaeans or Phrygians.
- I wish to give my former foes, the Trojans, joy, and on the Achaean army impose a bitter return.
- Why do you leap thus from mood to mood? Your love and hate both go too far, on whomever centred.
- Do you not know the insult done to me and to the shrine I love?
- I do: when Aias dragged away Cassandra by force.
- Yes, and the Achaeans did nothing, said nothing to him.