The Tragedies of Euripides, Volume I | Page 6

the tent, hear thy mother's voice, that thou mayest know what a report I hear that concerns thy life.
HECUBA, POLYXENA, CHORUS.
POLYX. O mother, why dost thou call! proclaiming what new affliction hast thou frighted me from the tent, as some bird from its nest, with this alarm?
HEC. Alas! my child!
POLYX. Why address me in words of ill omen? This is an evil prelude.
HEC. Alas! for thy life.
POLYX. Speak, conceal it no longer from me. I fear, I fear, my mother; why I pray dost thou groan?
HEC. O child, child of an unhappy mother!
POLYX. Why sayest thou this?
HEC. My child, the common decree of the Greeks unites to slay thee at the tomb of the son of Peleus.
POLYX. Alas, my mother! how are you relating unenviable ills? Tell me, tell me, my mother.
HEC. I declare, my child, the ill-omened report, they bring word that a decree has passed by the vote of the Greeks regarding thy life.
POLYX. O thou that hast borne affliction! O thou wretched on every side! O mother unhappy in your life, what most hated and most unutterable calamity has some destiny again sent against thee! This child is no longer thine; no longer indeed shall I miserable share slavery with miserable age. For as a mountain whelp or heifer shalt thou wretched behold me wretched torn from thine arms, and sent down beneath the darkness of the earth a victim to Pluto, where I shall lie bound in misery with the dead. But it is for thee indeed, my afflicted mother, that I lament in these mournful strains, but for my life, my wrongs, my fate, I mourn not; but death, a better lot, has befallen me.
CHOR. But see Ulysses advances with hasty step, to declare to thee, Hecuba, some new determination.
ULYSSES, HECUBA, POLYXENA, CHORUS.
ULYSS. Lady, I imagine that you are acquainted with the decree of the army, and the vote which has prevailed; nevertheless, I will declare it. It has been decreed by the Greeks to offer on the lofty mound of Achilles's tomb thy daughter Polyxena. But they order me to conduct and convey the damsel; but the son of Achilles is appointed to be the priest, and to preside over the rites. Do you know then what to do? Be not dragged away by violence, nor enter into a contest of strength with me, but acknowledge superior force and the presence of thy ills; it is wise to have proper sentiments even in adversity.
HEC. Alas! alas! the great trial is at hand, as it seems, of lamentations full, nor without tears; for I have not died in the state in which I ought to have died, nor hath Jove destroyed me, but preserves me, that I wretched may behold other misfortunes greater than [past] misfortunes. But if it be allowed slaves to put questions to the free, not offensive nor grating to the feelings, it will be your part to be questioned, and ours who are asking to attend.
ULYSS. You have permission, ask freely, I grudge not the time.
HEC. Dost thou remember when thou camest a spy on Troy, disfigured by a vile dress, and from thine eyes drops caused by the fear of death bedewed thy beard?
ULYSS. I remember well; for it made no slight impression on my heart.
HEC. But Helen knew thee, and told me alone.
ULYSS. I remember the great danger I encountered.
HEC. And didst thou embrace my knees in thy humility?
ULYSS. So that my hand was numbered[7] through fear on thy garments.
HEC. What then didst thou say, being then my slave?
ULYSS. Many arguments that I invented to save me from death.
HEC. Did I preserve thee then, and conduct thee safe from the land?
ULYSS. Yes, so that I now behold the light of the sun.
HEC. Art thou not then convicted of baseness by this conduct, who hast received benefits from me such as thou acknowledgest thou hast, and doest us no good in return, but evil, as far as in thee lies? Thankless is your race, as many of you as court honor from oratory before the populace; be ye not known to me, who care not to injure your friends, provided you say what is gratifying to the people. But plotting what dark design have they determined upon a decree of death against my child? Did fate impel them to offer human sacrifices at the tomb, where it were rather right to sacrifice cattle? Or does Achilles, desirous of devoting in his turn to death those that wrought his death, with a color of justice meditate her destruction? But she has done him no ill: he should demand Helen as a sacrifice on his tomb; for she destroyed him, and brought him to Troy. But if some captive selected from the rest, and excelling in beauty, ought to die, this is