Euripides' HECUBA Complete

Translated by E. Coleridge.

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54 pages - You are on Page 9

Hecuba: Was it I that saved and sent thee forth again?

Odysseus: Thou didst, and so I still behold the light of day.

Hecuba: Art not thou then playing a sorry part to plot against me
thus, after the kind treatment thou didst by thy own confession receive
from me, showing me no gratitude but all the ill thou canst? A thankless
race! all ye who covet honour from the mob for your oratory. Oh that
ye were unknown to me ye who harm your friends and think no more of
it, if ye can but say a word to win the mob. But tell me, what kind
of cleverness did they think it, when against this child they passed
their bloody vote? Was it duty led them to slay a human victim at
the tomb, where sacrifice of oxen more befits? or does Achilles, if
claiming the lives of those who slew him as his recompense, show his
justice by marking her out for death? No! she at least ne'er injured
him. He should have demanded Helen as a victim at his tomb, for she
it was that proved his ruin, bringing him to Troy; or if some captive
of surpassing beauty was to be singled out for doom, this pointed
not to us; for the daughter of Tyndareus was fairer than all womankind,
and her injury to him was proved no les than ours. Against the justice
of his plea I pit this argument. Now hear the recompense due from
thee to me at my request. On thy own confession, thou didst fall at
my feet and embrace my hand and aged cheek; I in my turn now do the
same to thee, and claim the favour then bestowed; and I implore thee,
tear not my child from my arms, nor slay her. There be dead enough;
she is my only joy, in her I forget my sorrows; My one comfort she
in place of many a loss, my city and my nurse, my staff and journey's
guide. 'Tis never right that those in power should use it out of season,
or when prosperous suppose they will be always so. For I like them
was prosperous once, but now my life is lived, and one day robbed
me of all my bliss. Friend, by thy beard, have some regard and pity
for me; go to Achaea's host, and talk them over, saying how hateful
a thing it is to slay women whom at first ye spared out of pity, after
dragging them from the altars. For amongst you the self-same law holds
good for bond and free alike respecting bloodshed; such influence
as thine will persuade them even though thy words are weak; for the
same argument, when proceeding from those of no account, has not the
same force as when it is uttered by men of mark.

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