Page:Masterpieces of Greek Literature (1902).djvu/47

17 THE DEATH OF HECTOR 17

Dropped from her brow, — the wreath, the woven

band, The net, the veil which golden Venus gave That day when crested Hector wedded her, Dowered with large gifts, and led her from her home, Eetion's palace. Round her in a throng seo

Her sisters of the house of Priam pressed. And gently raised her in that deathlike swoon. But when she breathed again, and to its seat The conscious mind returned, as in their arms She lay, with sobs and broken speech she said : sss " Hector, — Ο wretched me I — we both were born To sorrow : thou at Troy, in Priam's house, And I at Thebe in Eetion's halls, By woody Placos. From a little child He reared me there, — unhappy he, and I 590

Unhappy ! Ο that I had ne'er been born ! Thou goest down to Hades and the depths Of earth, and leavest me in thine abode, AVidowed, and never to be comforted. Thy son, a speechless babe, to whom we two 595

Gave being, — hapless parents ! — cannot have Thy loving guardianship now thou art dead, Nor be a joy to thee. Though he survive The cruel warfare which the sons of Greece Are waging, hard and evil yet will be 6OO

His lot hereafter ; others will remove His landmarks and will make his fields their own. The day in which a boy is fatherless Makes him companionless ; with downcast eyes He wanders, and his cheeks are stained with tears, eos Unfed he goes where sit his father's friends. And plucks one by the cloak, and by the robe Another. One who pities him shall give