Hecuba

Perseus Greek · Perseus Greek · 426 sections

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were made my lot in life, when Alexander first cut his beams of pine in Ida’s woods, to sail across the heaving sea
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in quest of Helen’s bed, loveliest woman on whom the sun-god turns his golden eye.
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For here begins trouble’s cycle,
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and, worse than that, relentless fate; and from one man’s folly came a universal curse, bringing death to the land of Simois, with trouble from an alien shore. The strife the shepherd decided
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on Ida, between three daughters of the blessed gods,
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brought as its result war and bloodshed and the ruin of my home;
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and many a Spartan maiden too is weeping bitter tears in her halls on the banks of fair Eurotas, and many a mother whose sons are slain,
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is smiting her gray head and tearing her cheeks, making her nails bloody in the furrowed gash.
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O my son, child of a luckless mother,
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what was the manner of your death? by what fate do you lie here? by whose hands?
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I do not know. I found him on the sea-shore.
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Cast up on the smooth sand, or thrown there
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after the murderous blow?
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The waves had washed him ashore.
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Alas! alas! I now know the vision I saw in my sleep; the dusky-winged phantom
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did not escape me, the vision I saw of you, my son, now no more within the bright sunshine.
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Who slew him then? Can your dream-lore tell us that?
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It was my own familiar friend, the knight of Thrace, with whom his aged father had placed the boy in hiding.
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O horror! what will you say? did he slay him to get the gold?
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O dreadful crime! O deed without a name! beyond wonder!
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impious! intolerable! Where are the laws between guest and host? Accursed of men! how have you mangled his flesh, slashing the poor child’s limbs
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with ruthless sword, lost to all sense of pity!
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Alas for you! how some deity, whose hand is heavy on you, has sent you troubles beyond all other mortals! But I see our lord and master
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Agamemnon; so let us be still from now on, my friends.
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Hecuba, why are you delaying to come and bury your daughter? for it was for this that Talthybius brought me your message begging that no one of the Argives should touch your child. And so we granted this, and are not touching her,
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but this delay of yours fills me with wonder. And so I have come to send you from here; for our part there is well performed—if here there is any place for well.
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He sees the body. Oh! what man is this I see near the tents, some Trojan’s corpse? It is not an Argive’s body;
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that the garments it is clad in tell me.
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Unhappy one! in naming you I name myself; Hecuba, what shall I do? throw myself here at Agamemnon’s knees, or bear my sorrows in silence?
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Why do you turn your back towards me and
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weep, refusing to say what has happened? Who is this?
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But if he should count me as a slave and foe and spurn me from his knees, I would add to my anguish.
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I am no prophet born; therefore, if I am not told, I cannot learn the current of your thoughts.
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Can it be that in estimating this man’s feelings I make him out too ill-disposed, when he is not really so?
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If your wish really is that I should remain in ignorance, we are of one mind; for I have no wish myself to listen.
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Without his aid I shall not be able to avenge
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my children. Why do I still ponder the matter? I must do and dare whether I win or lose. Turning to Agamemnon Agamemnon, by your knees, by your beard and conquering hand I implore you—
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What is your desire? to be
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set free? that is easily done.
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Not that; give me vengeance on the wicked, and I am willing to lead a life of slavery forever.
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Well, but why do you call me to your aid?
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It is a matter you little know of, king.
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Do you see this corpse, for whom my tears now flow?
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I do; but what is to follow, I cannot guess.
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He was once my child; I bore him in my womb.
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Which of your sons is he, poor sufferer?
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Not one of Priam’s race who fell beneath Ilium’s walls.
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Did you indeed have another son besides those, lady?
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Yes, the one you see here, of whom it seems I have small gain.
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Where then was he, when his city was being destroyed?
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His father, fearful of his death, conveyed him out of Troy.
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Where did he place him apart from the sons he then had?
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In this very land, where his corpse was found.
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With Polymestor, the king of this country?
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He was sent here in charge of gold, most bitter trust!
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By whom was he slain? What death overtook him?
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By whom but this man? His Thracian host slew him.
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The wretch! could he have been so eager for the gold?
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Just so, when he heard of the Phrygians’ disaster.
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Where did you find him? or did some one bring his corpse?
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This woman, who happened upon it on the sea-shore.
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Was she seeking it, or bent on other tasks?
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She had gone to fetch water from the sea to wash Polyxena.
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It seems then his host slew him and cast his body out to sea.
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Yes, for the waves to toss, after mangling him in this way.
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Woe to you for your measureless troubles!
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I am ruined; no evil now is left, Agamemnon.
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Ah! what woman was ever born to such mischance?
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There is no one, unless you would name Chance herself. But hear my reason for throwing myself at your knees. If my treatment seems to you deserved, I will be content; but, if otherwise, help me to punish
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this most godless host, fearless alike of gods in heaven or hell, who has done a most unholy deed; who, though often he had shared my board and been counted first of all my guest-friends
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meeting with every kindness he could claim—. And receiving my consideration, he slew my son, and bent though he was on murder, did not think it right to bury him, but cast his body forth to sea.
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I may be a slave and weak as well, but the gods are strong, and Custom too which prevails over them,
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for by custom it is that we believe in them and set up boundaries of right and wrong for our lives. Now if this principle, when referred to you, is to be set at nothing, and they are to escape punishment who murder guests or dare to plunder the temples of gods,
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then all fairness in human matters is at an end. Consider this then a disgrace and show regard for me, have pity on me, and, like an artist standing back from his picture, look on me and closely scan my piteous state. I was once a queen, but now I am your slave;
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a happy mother once, but now childless and old alike, bereft of city, utterly forlorn, the most wretched woman living.
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as Agamemnon is turning away. Ah! woe is me! where would you withdraw your steps from me? My efforts then will be in vain, ah me! Why, oh! why do we mortals toil, as we must, and seek out all other sciences,
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but Persuasion, the only real mistress of mankind, we take no further pains to master completely by offering to pay for the knowledge, so that any man could convince his fellows as he pleased and gain his point at once?
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How shall anyone hereafter hope for prosperity? All those my sons are gone from me, and she, my daughter, is a slave and suffers shame. I am lost; I see the smoke leaping over my city. Further—though this is perhaps idly urged,
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to plead your love, still I will put the case—at your side lies my daughter, Cassandra, the inspired maiden, as the Phrygians call her. How then, king, will you acknowledge those nights of rapture, or what return shall my daughter or I her mother have
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for the love she has lavished on her lord? For from darkness and the endearments of the night mortals have their keenest joys. Listen, then; do you see this corpse? By doing him a service, you will do it to a kinsman of your bride’s.
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I have only one thing yet to urge. Oh! would I had a voice in arms, in hands, in hair and feet, placed there by the arts of Daedalus or some god, that all together they might with tears embrace your knees,
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bringing a thousand pleas to bear on you! O my lord and master, most glorious light of Hellas, listen, stretch forth a helping hand to this aged woman, for all she is a thing of nothing; still do so. For it is always a good man’s duty to help the right,
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and to punish evil-doers wherever found.
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It is strange how each extreme meets in human life! Custom determines even our natural ties, making the most bitter foes friends, and regarding as foes those who formerly were friends.
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Hecuba, I feel compassion for you and your son and your ill-fortune, as well as for your suppliant gesture, and I would gladly see that impious host pay you this forfeit for the sake of heaven and justice, if I could only find some way to help you
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without appearing to the army to have plotted the death of the Thracian king for Cassandra’s sake. For on one point I am assailed by perplexity: the army count this man their friend, the dead their foe; that he is dear to you
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is a matter apart, in which the army has no share. Reflect on this; for though you find me ready to share your toil and quick to lend my aid, yet the risk of being reproached by the Achaeans makes me hesitate.
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Ah! there is not in the world a single man free;
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for he is a slave either to money or to fortune, or else the people in their thousands or the fear of public prosecution prevents him from following the dictates of his heart.
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But since you are afraid, deferring too much to the rabble, I will rid you of that fear.
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Thus: be aware of my plot if I devise mischief against this murderer, but refrain from any share in it. And if any uproar or attempt at rescue breaks out among the Achaeans, when the Thracian is suffering his doom, check it without seeming to do so on my account.
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For what remains—take heart—I will arrange everything well.
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How? what will you do? will you take a sword in your old hand and slay the barbarian, or do you have drugs or some means to aid you? Who will take your part? Where will you procure friends?
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Sheltered beneath these tents is a crowd of Trojan women.
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Do you mean the captives, the booty of the Hellenes?
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With their help I will punish my murderous foe.
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How are women to master men?
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Numbers are a fearful thing, and joined to craft a desperate foe.
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True; still I have a mean opinion of the female race.
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What? did not women slay the sons of Aegyptus, and utterly clear Lemnos of men? But let it be thus; put an end to our conference, and send this woman for me safely through the army.

Perseus Greek. CTS URN tlg0006.tlg007.perseus-eng2. Via the Perseus Digital Library / Open Greek and Latin TEI corpora. Licence: Available under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Source.