Hecuba
By Euripides
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Euripides
Euripides was a tragedian of classical Athens. He was born on Salamis Island around 480 BC to his mother, Cleito, and father, Mnesarchus, a retailer who lived in a village near Athens. He had two disastrous marriages, and both his wives—Melite and Choerine (the latter bearing him three sons)—were unfaithful. He became a recluse, making a home for himself in a cave on Salamis. Along with Aeschylus and Sophocles, he is one of the three ancient Greek tragedians for whom any plays have survived in full. He became, in the Hellenistic Age, a cornerstone of ancient literary education. The details of his death are uncertain.
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Hecuba - Euripides
HECUBA
..................
Euripides
KYPROS PRESS
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Copyright © 2016 by Euripides
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Hecuba
CHARACTERS IN THE PLAY
HECUBA
..................
Translated by Edward P. Coleridge
CHARACTERS IN THE PLAY
THE GHOST OF POLYDORUS, son of HECUBA and Priam, King of Troy
HECUBA, wife of Priam
CHORUS OF CAPTIVE TROJAN WOMEN
POLYXENA, daughter of HECUBA and Priam
ODYSSEUS
TALTHYBIUS, herald of AGAMEMNON
MAID OF HECUBA
AGAMEMNON
POLYMESTOR, King of the Thracian Chersonese
Children Of POLYMESTOR, Attendants, and guards
SCENE: Before AGAMEMNON’S tent in the Greek camp upon the shore of the Thracian Chersonese.
(The GHOST OF POLYDORUS appears.)
GHOST Lo! I AM come from out the charnel-house and gates of gloom, where Hades dwells apart from gods, I Polydorus, a son of Hecuba the daughter of Cisseus and of Priam. Now my father, when Phrygia’s capital was threatened with destruction by the spear of Hellas, took alarm and conveyed me secretly from the land of Troy unto Polymestor’s house, his friend in Thrace, who sows these fruitful plains of Chersonese, curbing by his might a nation delighting in horses. And with me my father sent great store of gold by stealth, that, if ever Ilium’s walls should fall, his children that survived might not want for means to live. I was the youngest of Priam’s sons; and this it was that caused my stealthy removal from the land; for my childish arm availed not to carry weapons or to wield the spear. So long then as the bulwarks of our land stood firm, and Troy’s battlements abode unshaken, and my brother Hector prospered in his warring, I, poor child, grew up and flourished, like some vigorous shoot, at the court of the Thracian, my father’s friend. But when Troy fell and Hector lost his life and my father’s hearth was rooted up, and himself fell butchered at the god-built altar by the hands of Achilles’ murderous son; then did my father’s friend slay me his helpless guest for the sake of the gold, and thereafter cast me into the swell of the sea, to keep the gold for himself in his house. And there I lie one time upon the strand, another in the salt sea’s surge, drifting ever up and down upon the billows, unwept, unburied; but now am I hovering o’er the head of my dear mother Hecuba, a disembodied spirit, keeping my airy station these three days, ever since my poor mother came from Troy to linger here in Chersonese. Meantime all the Achaeans sit idly here in their ships at the shores of Thrace; for the son of Peleus, even Achilles, appeared above his tomb and stayed the whole host of Hellas, as they were making straight for home across the sea, demanding to have my sister Polyxena offered at his tomb, and to receive his guerdon. And he will obtain this prize, nor will they that are his friends refuse the gift; and on this very day is fate leading my sister to her doom. So will my mother