Euripides' HECUBA Complete

Translated by E. Coleridge.

Euripides Bilingual Anthology  Studies  Euripides in Print

54 pages - You are on Page 34

Leader: 'Tis strange how each extreme doth meet in human life! Custom
determines even our natural ties, making the most bitter foes friends,
and regarding as foes those who formerly were friends.

Agamemnon: Hecuba, I feel compassion for thee and thy son and thy
ill-fortune, as well as for thy suppliant gesture, and I would gladly
see yon impious host pay thee this forfeit for the sake of heaven
and justice, could I but find some way to help thee without appearing
to the army to have plotted the death of the Thracian king for Cassandra's
sake. For on one point I am assailed by perplexity; the army count
this man their friend, the dead their foe; that he is dear to thee
is a matter apart, wherein the army has no share. Reflect on this;
for though thou find'st me ready to share thy toil and quick to lend
my aid, yet the risk of being reproached by the Achaeans makes me
hesitate.

Hecuba: Ah! there is not in the world a single man free; for he is
either a slave to money or to fortune, or else the people in their
thousands or the fear of public prosecution prevents him from following
the dictates of his heart.

But since thou art afraid, deferring too much to the rabble, I will
rid thee of that fear. Thus; be privy to my plot if I devise mischief
against this murderer, but refrain from any share in it. And if there
break out among the Achaeans any uproar or attempt at rescue, when
the Thracian is suffering his doom, check it, though without seeming
to do so for my sake. For what remains, take heart; I will arrange
everything well.

Previous Page / First / Next Page of Hecuba

Euripides Home Page ||| Elpenor's Free Greek Lessons
Aeschylus ||| Sophocles

Reference address : https://ellopos.net/elpenor/greek-texts/ancient-greece/euripides/hecuba.asp?pg=34