410 BC
THE TROJAN WOMEN
by Euripides
movementCharacters in the Play
Poidon
Athena
Hecuba
Chorus of Captive Trojan Women
Talthybius
Cassandra
Andromache
Menelaus
Helen
Before Agamemnon's Tent in the Camp near Troy. HECUBA asleep. Enter
POSEIDON.
POSEIDON
Lo! from the depths of salt Aegean floods I, Poidon, come, where
choirs of Nereids trip in the mazes of the graceful dance; for since
the day that Phoebus and mylf with measurement exact t towers of
stone about this land of Troy and ringed it round, never from my heart
hath pasd away a kindly feeling for my Phrygian town, which now is
smouldering and o'erthrown, a prey to Argive prowess. For, from his
home beneath Parnassus, Phocian Epeus, aided by the craft of Pallas,
framed a hor to bear within its womb an armed host, and nt it
within the battlements, fraught with death; whence in days to come men
shall tell of "the wooden hor," with its hidden load of warriors.
Groves forsaken stand and temples of the gods run down with blood, and
at the altar's very ba, before the god who watched his home, lies
Priam dead. While to Achaean ships great store of gold and Phrygian
spoils are being conveyed, and they who came against this town,
tho sons Of Hellas, only wait a favouring breeze to follow in
their wake, that after ten long years they may with joy behold their
wives and children. Vanquished by Hera, Argive goddess, and by Athena,
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who helped to ruin Phrygia, I am leaving Ilium, that famous town,
and the altars that I love; for when drear desolation izes on a
town, the worship of the gods decays and tends to lo respect.
Scamander's banks re-echo long and loud the screams of captive
maids, as they by lot receive their masters. Arcadia taketh some,
and some the folk of Thessaly; others are assigned to Theus' sons,
the Athenian chiefs. And such of the Trojan dames as are not portioned
out, are in the tents, t apart for the leaders of the host; and
with them Spartan Helen, daughter of Tyndarus, justly counted among
the captives. And wouldst thou e that queen of miry, Hecuba,
thou canst; for there she lies before the gates, weeping many a bitter
tear for many a tribulation; for at Achilles' tomb-though she knows
not this-her daughter Polyxena has died most piteously; likewi is
Priam dead, and her children too; Cassandra, whom the king Apollo left
to be a virgin, frenzied maid, hath Agamemnon, in contempt of the
god's ordinance and of piety, forced to a dishonoured wedlock.
Farewell, O city prosperous once! farewell, ye ramparts of hewn stone!
had not Pallas, daughter of Zeus, decreed thy ruin, thou wert standing
firmly still.
Enter ATHENA.
ATHENA
May I address the mighty god whom Heaven reveres and who to my own
sire is very nigh in blood, laying aside our former enmity?
POSEIDON
Thou mayst; for o'er the soul the ties of kin exert no feeblekeepalive
spell, great queen Athena.
ATHENA
For thy forgiving mood my thanks! Somewhat have I to impart
affecting both thylf and me, O king.
POSEIDON
Bringst thou fresh tidings from some god, from Zeus, or from
some lesr power?
ATHENA
From none of the; but on behalf of Troy, who soil we tread, am
I come to ek thy mighty aid, to make it one with mine.
POSEIDON
What! hast thou laid thy former hate aside to take compassion on
the town now that it is burnt to ashes?
ATHENA
First go back to the former point; wilt thou make common cau
with me in the scheme I purpo?
POSEIDON
Ay surely; but I would fain learn thy wishes, whether thou art
come to help Achaens or Phrygians.
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ATHENA
I wish to give my former foes, the Trojans, joy, and on the
Achaean host impo a return that they will rue.
POSEIDON
Why leap'st thou thus from mood to mood? Thy love and hate both go
too far, on whomsoever centred.
ATHENA
Dost not know the insult done to me and to the shrine I love?
POSEIDON
Surely, in the hour that Aias tore Cassandra thence.
ATHENA
Yea, and the Achaeans did naught, said naught to him.
POSEIDON
And yet 'twas by thy mighty aid they sacked Ilium.
ATHENA
horizontalaccuracyFor which cau I would join with thee to work their bane.
POSEIDON
My powers are ready at thy will. What is thy intent?
ATHENA
A returning fraught with woe will I impo on them.
POSEIDON
While yet they stay on shore, or as they cross the briny deep?
ATHENA
When they have t sail from Ilium for their homes. On them will
Zeus also nd his rain and fearful hail, and inky tempests from the
sky; yea, and he promis to grant me his levin-bolts to hurl on the
Achaeans and fire their ships. And do thou, for thy part, make the
Aegean strait to roar with mighty billows and whirlpools, and fill
Euboea's hollow bay with corps, that Achaeans may learn henceforth
to reverence my temples and regard all other deities.
POSEIDON
So shall it be, for the boon thou cravest needs but few words. I
will vex the broad Aegean a; and the beach of Myconus and the
reefs round Delos, Scyros and Lemnos too, and the cliffs of
Caphareus shall be strown with many a corp. Mount thou to Olympus,
and taking from thy father's hand his lightning bolts, keep careful
watch against the hour when Argos' host lets slip its cables. A fool
is he who sacks the towns of men, with shrines and tombs, the dead
man's hallowed home, for at the last he makes a dert round
himlf, and dies. Exeunt.
HECU
BA (Awakening)
Lift thy head, unhappy lady, from the ground; thy neck uprai;
this is Troy no more, no longer am I queen in Ilium. Though fortune
change, endure thy lot; sail with the stream, and follow fortune's
tack, steer not thy barque of life against the tide, since chance must
guide thy cour. Ah me! ah me! What el but tears is now my
hapless lot, who country, children, husband, all are lost? Ah! the
high-blown pride of ancestors! how cabined now how brought to
nothing after all What woe must I suppress, or what declare? What
plaintive dirge shall I awake? Ah, woe is me! the anguish I suffer
lying here stretched upon this pallet hard! O my head, my temples,
my side! Ah! could I but turn over, and he now on this, now on that,
to rest my back and spine, while cealessly my tearful wail
ascends. Fore 'en this is music to the wretched, to chant their
cheerless dirge of sorrow.
Ye swift-prowed ships, rowed to sacred Ilium o'er the deep dark
a, past the fair havens of Hellas, to the flute's ill-omened music
and the dulcet voice of pipes, even to the bays of Troyland (alack the
day!), wherein ye tied your hawrs, twisted handiwork from Egypt,
becau we can
in quest of that hateful wife of Menelaus, who brought disgrace on
Castor, and on Eurotas foul reproach; murderess she of Priam, sire
of fifty children, the cau why I, the hapless Hecuba, have wrecked
my life upon this troublous strand. Oh that I should sit here o'er
against the tent of Agamemnon Forth from my home to slavery they
hale my aged frame, while from my head in piteous wi the hair is
shorn for grief. Ah! hapless wives of tho mail-clad sons of Troy!
Ah! poor maidens, luckless brides, come weep, for Ilium is now but a
ruin; and I, like some mother-bird that o're her fledglings screams,
will begin the strain; how different from that song I sang to the gods
in days long past, as I leaned on Priam's staff, and beat with my foot
in Phrygian time to lead the dance!
Enter CHORUS OF CAPTIVE TROJAN WOMEN.
SEMI-CHORUS I
O Hecuba why the cries, the piercing shrieks? What mean thy
words? For I heard thy piteous wail echo through the building, and a
pang terror shoots through each captive Trojan's breast, as pent
within the walls they mourn their slavish lot.
HECUBA
My child, e'en now the hands of Argive rowers are busy at their
ships.judd
SEMI-CHORUS I
Ah, woe is me! what is their intent? Will they really bear me
hence in sorrow from my country in their fleet?
HECUBA
I know not, though I guess our doom.
SEMI-CHORUS I
O miry! woe to us Trojan dames, soon to hear the order given,
"Come forth from the hou; the Argives are preparing to return."
HECUBA
Oh! do not bid the wild Cassandra leave her chamber, the frantic
prophetess, for Argives to insult, nor to my griefs add yet another
.
Woe to thee, ill-fated Troy, thy sun is t; and woe to thy unhappy
children, quick and dead alike, who are leaving thee behind!
SEMI-CHORUS II
oltremare
With trembling step, alas! I leave this tent of Agamemnon to learn
of thee, my royal mistress, whether the Argives have resolved to
take my wretched life, whether the sailors at the prow are making
ready to ply their oars.
HECUBA
My child, a fearful dread ized on my wakeful heart and nt me
hither.
SEMI-CHORUS II
Hath a herald from the Danai already come? To whom am I, poor
captive, given as a slave?
HECUBA
Thou art not far from being allotted now.
SEMI-CHORUS II
Woe worth the day! What Argive or Phthiotian chief will bear me
far from Troy, alas! unto his home, or haply to some island fastness?
HECUBA
Ah me! ah me! Who slave shall I become in my old age? in what
far clime? a poor old drone, the wretched copy of a corp, t to
keep the gate or tend their children, I who once held royal rank in
Troy.
CHORUS
Woe, woe is thee! What piteous dirge wilt thou devi to mourn the
outrage done thee? No more through Ida's looms shall I-ply the shuttle
to and fro. I look my last and latest on my children's bodies;
henceforth shall I endure surpassing miry; it may be as the
unwilling bride of some Hellene (perish the night and fortune that
brings me to this!); it may be as a wretched slave I from Peirene's
sacred fount shall draw their store of water.
Oh be it ours to come to Theus' famous realm, a land of joy!
Never, never let me e Eurotas' swirling tide, hateful home of Helen,
there to meet and be the slave of Menelaus, who hand laid Troyland
waste! Yon holy land by Peneus fed, nestling in all its beauty at
Olympus' foot, is said, so have I heard, to be a very granary of
wealth and teeming fruitage; next to the sacred soil of Theus, I
could wish to reach that land. They tell me too Hephaestus' home,
beneath the shadow of Aetna, fronting Phoenicia, the mother of
Sicilian hills, is famous for the crowns it gives to worth. Or may I
find a home on that shore which lieth very nigh Ionia's a, a land by
Crathis watered, lovely stream, that dyes the hair an auburn tint,
feeding with its holy waves and making glad therewith the home of
heroes good and true.
But mark! a herald from the host of Danai, with store of fresh
proclamations, comes hasting hither. What is his errand? what saith
he? List, for we are slaves to Dorian lords henceforth.
Enter TALTHYBIUS.
TALTHYBIUS
Hecuba, thou knowest me from my many journeys to and fro as herald
'twixt the Achaean host and Troy; no stranger I to thee, lady, even
aforetime, I Talthybius, now nt with a fresh message.
美容培训中心
HECUBA
Ah, kind friends, 'tis come! what I so long have dreaded.
TALTHYBIUS
The lot h
as decided your fates already, if that was what you
feared.
HECUBA
Ah me! What city didst thou say, Thessalian, Phthian, or Cadmean?
TALTHYBIUS
Each warrior took his prize in turn; ye were not all at once
assigned.
HECUBA
To whom hath the lot assigned us verally? Which of us Trojan
dames doth a happy fortune await?
TALTHYBIUS
I know, but ask thy questions parately, not all at once.
HECUBA
Then tell me, who prize is my daughter, hapless Cassandra?
TALTHYBIUS
King Agamemnon hath chon her out for himlf.
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HECUBA
To be the slave-girl of his Spartan wife? Ah me!
TALTHYBIUS
Nay, to share with him his stealthy love.
HECUBA
What! Phoebus' virgin-priestess, to whom the god with golden locks
granted the boon of maidenhood?
TALTHYBIUS
The dart of love hath pierced his heart, love for the frenzied
maid.
HECUBA
Daughter, cast from thee the sacred keys, and from thy body tear
the holy wreaths that drape thee in their folds.
TALTHYBIUS
Why! is it not an honour high that she should win our monarch's
love?
HECUBA
What have ye done to her whom late ye took from me-my child?
TALTHYBIUS
Dost mean Polyxena, or whom dost thou inquire about?
HECUBA
To whom hath the lot assigned her?
TALTHYBIUS
To minister at Achilles' tomb hath been appointed her.
HECUBA
Woe is me! I the mother of a dead man's slave! What custom, what
ordinance is this amongst Hellenes, good sir?
TALTHYBIUS
Count thy daughter happy: 'tis well with her.
HECUBA
What wild words are the? say, is she still alive?
TALTHYBIUS
Her fate is one that ts her free from trouble.
HECUBA
And what of mail-clad Hector's wife, sad Andromache? declare her
fate.
TALTHYBIUS
She too was a chon prize; Achilles' son did take her.
HECUBA
As for me who hair is white with age, who need to hold a staff
to be to me a third foot, who rvant am I to be?
TALTHYBIUS
Odysus, king of Ithaca, hath taken thee to be his slave.
HECUBA
O God! Now smite the clo-shorn head! tear your cheeks with
your nails. God help me! I have fallen as a slave to a treacherous foe
I hate, a monster of lawlessness, one that by his double tongue hath
turned against us all that once was friendly in his camp, changing
this for that and that for this again. Oh weep for me, ye Trojan
dames! Undone! undone and lost! ah woel a victim to a most unhappy
lot!
CHORUS
Thy fate, royal mistress, now thou knowest; but for me, what
Hellene or Achaean is master of my destiny?
TALTHYBIUS
Ho, rvants! haste and bring Cassandra forth to me here, that I
may place her our captain's hands, and then conduct to the rest of the
chiefs the captives each hath had assigned. Ha what is the bla
