Page:Masterpieces of Greek Literature (1902).djvu/34

4 My mother, princess on the woody slopes

Of Placos, with his spoils he bare away,

And only for large ransom gave her back.

But her Diana, archer-queen, struck down

Within her father's palace. Hector, thou

Art father and dear mother now to me.

And brother and my youthful spouse besides.

In pity keep within the fortress here,

Nor make thy child an orphan—nor thy wife

A widow. Post thine army near the place

Of the wild fig-tree, where the city walls

Are low and may be scaled. Thrice in the war

The boldest of the foe have tried the spot—

The Ajaces and the famed Idomeneus,

The two chiefs born to Atreus, and the brave

Tydides, whether counselled by some seer,

Or prompted to the attempt by their own minds."

Then answered Hector, great in war: "All this

I bear in mind, dear wife; but I should stand

Ashamed before the men and long-robed dames

Of Troy, were I to keep aloof and shun

The conflict, coward-like. Not thus my heart

Prompts me, for greatly have I learned to dare

And strike among the foremost sons of Troy,

Upholding my great father's fame and mine;

Yet well in my undoubting mind I know

The day shall come in which our sacred Troy,

And Priam, and the people over whom

Spear-bearing Priam rules, shall perish all.