Look thou; I see
Thy lips are blind, and whatso words they speak,
Praises of Troy or shamings of the Greek,
I cast to the four winds! Walk at my side
In peace!... And heaven content him of his bride!
[He moves as though to go, but turns to Hecuba, and speaks more gently.
And thou shalt follow to Odysseus' host
When the word comes. 'Tis a wise queen [24] thou go'st
To serve, and gentle: so the Ithacans say.
Cassandra (seeing for the first time the Herald and all the scene).
How fierce a slave!... O Heralds, Heralds!
Yea,
Voices of Death [25]; and mists are over them
Of dead men's anguish, like a diadem,
These weak abhorred things that serve the hate
Of kings and peoples!...
[24] A wise queen.] -- Penelope, the faithful wife of Odysseus.
[25] O Heralds, yea, Voices of Death.] -- There is a play on the word for "heralds" in the Greek here, which I have evaded by a paraphrase. ( [Greek: Kaer-ukes] as though from [Greek: Kaer] the death-spirit, "the one thing abhorred of all mortal men.")
Studies
