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Translated by E. Coleridge.
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Euripides in Print
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44 pages - You are on Page 43
Chorus: Vainly it seems the Thracian charioteer reviled us with plotting
this man's murder, Hector.
Hector: I knew it; it needed no seer to say that he had perished by
the arts of Odysseus. Now I, when I saw the Hellene host camped in
my land, of course would not hesitate to send heralds to my friends,
bidding them come and help my country; and so I sent, and he as in
duty bound came my toils to share. It grieves me sorely to see him
dead; and now am I ready to raise a tomb for him and burn at his pyre
great store of fine raiment; for he came as a friend and in sorrow
is he going hence.
The Muse: He shall not descend into earth's darksome soil; so earnest
a prayer will I address to the bride of the nether world, the daughter
of the goddess Demeter, giver of increase, to release his soul, and
debtor, as she is to me, show that she honours the friends of Orpheus.
Yet from henceforth will he be to me as one dead that seeth not the
light; for never again will he meet me or see his mother's face, but
will lurk hidden in a cavern of the land with veins of silver, restored
to life, no longer man but god, even as the prophet of Bacchus did
dwell in a grotto 'neath Pangaeus, a god whom his votaries honoured.
Lightly now shall I feel the grief of the sea-goddess, for her son
too must die. First then for thee we sisters must chaunt our dirge,
and then for Achilles when Thetis mourns some day. Him shall not Pallas,
thy slayer, save; so true the shaft Loxias keeps in his quiver for
him. Ah me! the sorrows that a mother feels! the troubles of mortals!
whoso fairly reckons you up will live and die a childless man and
will have no children to bury. (The Muse disappears.)
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