HEC. Lead onward, ye Trojan dames, the old woman before the tent; lead
onward, raising up one now your fellow-slave, but once your queen; take me,
bear me, conduct me, support my body, holding my aged hand; and I, leaning
on the bending staff of my hand,[4] will hasten to put forward the slow
motion of my joints. O lightning of Jove! O thou gloomy night! why, I pray,
am I thus disquieted in the night with terrors, with phantoms? O thou
venerable Earth, the mother of black-winged dreams, I renounce the nightly
vision, which regarding my son who is preserved in Thrace, and regarding
Polyxena my dear daughter, in my dreams have I beheld, a fearful sight, I
have learned, I have understood. Gods of this land, preserve my son, who,
my only son, and, [as it were,] the anchor of my house, inhabits the snowy
Thrace under the protection of his father's friend. Some strange event will
take place, some strain will come mournful to the mournful. Never did my
mind so incessantly shudder and tremble. Where, I pray, ye Trojan dames,
can I behold the divine spirit of Helenus, or Cassandra, that they may
interpret my dreams? For I beheld a dappled hind torn by the blood-stained
fang of the wolf, forcibly dragged from my bosom, a miserable sight. And
dreadful this vision also; the spectre of Achilles came above the summit of
his tomb, and demanded as a tribute of honor one of the wretched Trojan
women. From my daughter then, from my daughter avert this fate, ye Gods, I
implore you.
CHOR. Hecuba, with haste to thee I flew, leaving the tents of our lords,
where I was allotted and ordained a slave, driven from the city of Troy,
led captive of the Greeks by the point of the spear, not to alleviate aught
of your sufferings, but bringing a heavy weight of tidings, and to thee, O
lady, a herald of woe. For it is said that it has been decreed in the full
council of the Greeks to make thy daughter a sacrifice to Achilles: for you
know how that having ascended o'er his tomb, he appeared in his golden arms
and restrained the fleet ships, as they were setting their sails with their
halliards, exclaiming in these words; "Where speed ye, Grecians, leaving my
tomb unhonored!" Then the waves of great contention clashed together, and a
divided opinion went forth through the army of the Greeks; to some it
appeared advisable to give a victim to his tomb, and to others it appeared
not. But Agamemnon was studious to advance your good, cherishing the love
of the infuriated prophetess. But the two sons of Theseus, scions of
Athens, were the proposers of different arguments, but in this one opinion
they coincided, to crown the tomb of Achilles with fresh blood; and
declared they would never prefer the bed of Cassandra before the spear of
Achilles. And the strength of the arguments urged on either side was in a
manner equal, till that subtle adviser, that babbling knave,[5] honeyed in
speech, pleasing to the populace, that son of Laertes, persuades the army,
not to reject the suit of the noblest of all the Greeks on account of a
captive victim, and not to put it in the power of any of the dead standing
near Proserpine to say that the Grecians departed from the plains of Troy
ungrateful to the heroes who died for the state of Greece. And Ulysses will
come only not now, to tear your child from your bosom, and to take her from
your aged arms. But go to the temples, speed to the altars, sit a suppliant
at the knees of Agamemnon, invoke the Gods, both those of heaven, and those
under the earth; for either thy prayers will prevent thy being deprived of
thy wretched daughter, or thou must behold the virgin falling before the
tomb, dyed in blood gushing forth in a dark stream from her neck adorned
with gold.[6]
HEC. Alas! wretched me! what shall I exclaim? what shriek shall I utter?
what lamentation? miserable through miserable age, and slavery not to be
endured, insupportable. Alas! who is there to defend me? what offspring,
what city! The old man is gone. My children are gone. Whither shall I turn
me? and whither shall I go? Where is any god or deity to succor me? O
Trojan dames, bearers of evil tidings, bearers of woe, you have destroyed
me utterly, you have destroyed me. Life in the light is no more desirable!
O wretched foot, lead, lead an aged woman to this tent! O child, daughter
of the most afflicted mother, come forth, come forth from the tent, hear
thy mother's voice, that thou mayest know what a report I hear that
concerns thy life.