Trojan Women by Euripides

Author:Euripides [Euripides]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Classics
ISBN: 9780195179101
Amazon: 0195179102
Goodreads: 3256
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2024-08-23T23:16:50+00:00

You can’t . . . this isn’t . . . it’s too cruel to be believed.

talthybius

Odysseus’s proposal won in the Greek assembly . . .

andromache

AIAI, no one could bear this, grief beyond grief.

talthybius

. . . not to let a hero’s son survive.

830

andromache

May his own son win treatment just as kind.

talthybius

He said your boy’s to be flung from the Trojan walls.

But don’t resist, it will be wiser not to.

Let your son go now, don’t cling to him, don’t fight this—

Grieve nobly, befitting your nobility,

And don’t pretend you’re strong. You have no power, And no one’s rushing to defend you. Look

Where you are, what you have come to—your city

Ruined, your husband dead. You’re beaten down.

We’re capable of doing whatever we want with you, 840

Just one woman. Don’t struggle anymore,

Don’t provoke us, or make things worse for you

By cursing us, for if you make us angry,

The army might decide to show this son

Of yours no mercy, leaving his corpse unburied.

Hush now, shoulder your troubles as you should;

You will not leave your dead child without his rite Of burial, and the Greeks will be less cruel.

56

T R O J A N W O M E N

[740–773]

andromache

O my sweet child, too loved, too doted on,

Now you will be killed by enemies, leaving

850

Your mother bereft. What ought to have been your haven,

Your father’s high birth, only brings you death, His courage your undoing. When I came

To Hector’s house, I never thought those vows,

That marriage bed, would lead to misery.

I thought I had given birth to a king over all

Of fertile Asia’s wealth. I never thought

I bore you to be slaughtered by the Greeks.

Is that why you cry, too, child? Do you see

What’s soon to happen, what they’re about to do?

860

Why hold tight to me, clinging to my dress

Like a young bird burrowing for safety

Under my wings? No one can save you; Hector

Can’t rise from his grave, his famous spear in hand, Nor any of his kin, nor any strong-armed

Soldier from the Trojan ranks. No one will come

To stop them or even pity you when they hurl you From that great height, and your thin neck shatters, Snuffing your life out. O my little one,

So precious to your mother, O the unbearable

870

Sweet scent of your skin! So it was all for nothing That I suckled you at this breast and swaddled you And fussed and worried, wearing myself out.

Now kiss your mother one last time, come hug her Who gave you life, one final time your arms

Around my neck, your lips on mine. O Greeks,

Not even a barbarian could invent

Atrocities like this—why kill this child,

What has he done to you? Whom has he ever harmed?

Helen, daughter of Tyndareus’s house,

880

Zeus was never your father—I’ll tell you who

Your many fathers were: Vengeance, Envy,

Murder, Death, and all the Pestilence

The earth can breed! Zeus never gave you birth,

You plague both to barbarians and Greeks.

Die! Die, you whose shining eyes

Brought such dark and ugly dying to

The famous plains of Troy.

But go on, take him,

57

T R O J A N W O M

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