The Tragedies of Euripides, Volume I | Page 4

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HECUBA.

* * * *
PERSONS REPRESENTED.
GHOST OF POLYDORE. HECUBA. CHORUS OF FEMALE
CAPTIVES. POLYXENA. ULYSSES. TALTHYBIUS. FEMALE
ATTENDANT. AGAMEMNON. POLYMESTOR AND HIS
CHILDREN.
The Scene lies before the Grecian tents, on the coast of the Thracian
Chersonese.
* * * * *
THE ARGUMENT.
* * * *
After the capture of Troy, the Greeks put into the Chersonese over
against Troas, But Achilles, having appeared by night, demanded one
of the daughters of Priam to be slain. The Greeks therefore, in honor to
their hero, tore Polyxena from Hecuba, and offered her up in sacrifice.
Polymestor moreover, the king of the Thracians, murdered Polydore, a
son of Priam's. Now Polymestor had received him from the hands of
Priam as a charge to take care of, together with some money. But when
the city was taken, wishing to seize upon his wealth, he determined to
dispatch him, and disregarded the ill-fated friendship that subsisted
between them; but his body being cast out into the sea, the wave threw
him up on the shore before the tents of the captive women. Hecuba, on
seeing the corse, recognized it; and having imparted her design to
Agamemnon, sent for Polymestor to come to her with his sons,
concealing what had happened, under pretense that she might discover
to him some treasures hidden in Ilium. But on his arrival she slew his
sons, and put out his eyes; but pleading her cause before the Greeks,
she gained it over her accuser (Polymestor). For it was decided that she
did not begin the cruelty, but only avenged herself on him who did
begin it.

* * * * *
HECUBA.
* * * *
GHOST OF POLYDORE.
I am present, having left the secret dwellings of the dead and the gates
of darkness, where Pluto has his abode apart from the other Gods,
Polydore the son of Hecuba the daughter of Cisseus,[1] and Priam my
sire, who when the danger of falling by the spear of Greece was
threatening the city of the Phrygians, in fear, privately sent me from the
Trojan land to the house of Polymestor, his Thracian friend, who
cultivates the most fruitful soil of the Chersonese, ruling a warlike
people with his spear.[2] But my father sends privately with me a large
quantity of gold, in order that, if at any time the walls of Troy should
fall, there might not be a lack of sustenance for his surviving children.
But I was the youngest of the sons of Priam; on which account also he
sent me privately from the land, for I was able neither to bear arms nor
the spear with my youthful arm. As long then indeed as the landmarks
of the country remained erect, and the towers of Troy were unshaken,
and Hector my brother prevailed with his spear, I miserable increased
vigorously as some young branch, by the nurture I received at the hands
of the Thracian, my father's friend. But after that both Troy and the life
of Hector were put an end to, and my father's mansions razed to the
ground, and himself falls at the altar built by the God, slain by the
blood-polluted son of Achilles, the friend of my father slays me,
wretched man, for the sake of my gold, and having slain me threw me
into the surf of the sea, that he might possess the gold himself in his
palace. But I am exposed on the shore, at another time on the ocean's
surge, borne about by many ebbings and flowings of the waves, unwept,
unburied; but at present I am hastening on my dear mother's account,
having left my body, borne aloft this day already the third,[3] for so
long has my wretched mother been present in this territory of the
Chersonese from Troy. But all the Grecians, holding their ships at
anchor, are sitting quiet on the shores of this land of Thrace. For
Achilles the son of Peleus, appearing above his tomb, stayed all the

army of the Grecians as they were directing homeward their sea dipped
oars; and asks to receive my sister Polyxena as a dear victim, and a
tribute of honor to his tomb. And this he will obtain, nor will he be
without this gift from his friends; and fate this day leads forth my sister
to death. But my mother will see the two corses of her two children,
both mine and the unhappy virgin's; for I shall appear on a breaker
before the feet of a female slave, that I wretched may obtain sepulture;
for I have successfully entreated those who have power beneath to find
a tomb, and to fall into my mother's hands. As much then as I wish to
have shall be mine; but I will