Leader: A wondrous mark, most clearly stamped, doth noble birth imprint
on men, and the name goeth still further where it is deserved.
Hecuba: A noble speech, my daughter! but there is sorrow linked with
its noble sentiments.
Odysseus, if ye must pleasure the son of Peleus, and avoid reproach,
slay not this maid, but lead me to Achilles' pyre and torture me unsparingly:
'twas I that bore Paris, whose fatal shaft laid low the son of Thetis.
Odysseus: 'Tis not thy death, old dame, Achilles' wraith hath demanded
of the Achaeans, but hers.
Hecuba: At least then slaughter me with my child; so shall there be
a double draught of blood for the earth and the dead that claims this
sacrifice.
Odysseus: The maiden's death suffices; no need to add a second to
the first; would we needed not e'en this!
Studies
